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Single European Sky: Towards greener air travel?
With 27 separate airspaces, Europe's skies are getting increasingly crowded and polluted, leading the EU to push for the realisation of a "Single European Sky". But member states' reluctance to hand over sovereignty in this area could be slowing down the process.
Airspace is one of the areas in which European integration has been slow to keep up the pace. Indeed, the European sky is still divided into 27 different pieces of airspace that remain under the control of national governments.
This fragmentation has negative repercussions in terms of the efficiency of Europe's air travel because airlines have to cut across numerous air-traffic control systems in order to get to their destination. It also causes safety concerns by creating additional traffic jams in the air and adds to air pollution by forcing planes to fly extra kilometres and assume holding patterns when airborne before being able to land in Europe's busy airports.
Airlines' activities are currently responsible for just 3% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions but this is expected to rise as air traffic doubles by 2020.
To address these issues, the Commission launched an initiative, in 1999, aimed at creating a 'Single European Sky' (SES) by reforming the current Air Traffic Management system. A series of regulations was adopted in March 2004 with a view to implementation by 2025. But, conceding that these regulations had "not delivered the expected results in some important areas," the Commission, in June 2008, put forward a second package of legislation.
The Single Sky initiative is part of a three-pillar strategy aimed at greening aviation, which includes the establishment of a 'Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative' and legislative proposals to include the sector in the EU's emissions trading scheme (see LinksDossier on Aviation & ETS).
The Clean Sky initiative is a €1.6 billion public-private research partnership to help the air-transport industry develop environmentally friendly technology for planes. It was officially launched in February 2008 with the aim of halving noise, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre, as well as slashing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 80% by 2020.
Aviation appears to have recovered from the temporary slowdown following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. The European Commission estimates that air traffic will grow by 4-5% annually over the coming years, leading to a near doubling of traffic by 2020.
"Current air traffic control infrastructure will probably be incapable of meeting the new challenges relating to the sustainable development of European air transport," states a March 2007 Commission Communication reviewing the European aviation situation. According to the report, the capacity of the current air traffic management (ATM) system has "reached its limits," while the technologies used "are obsolete". It adds that "the proliferation of different technical systems remains a concern".
The result has been a sharp increase in delays for aircraft, with major repercussions for both users and airlines, for whom hold-ups can cost up to €2 billion a year. The rise in traffic also adds to safety concerns and is causing emissions from the sector to grow despite technological progress.
Increase safety by a factor of 10.
The EU's upper airspace is currently defined by the national borders of its 27 members and managed by more than 50 air traffic control centres. The fragmentation impacts on safety, limits capacity and adds as much as €5 billion per year to operating costs, according to the Commission. It concludes that a more rational organisation of air traffic, with greater portions of airspace operated as one single entity, could thus help resolve the looming air capacity crunch faced by the EU.
A key tool proposed by the EU executive in this respect is the so-called 'functional airspace blocks' (FABs), whereby two or more countries can agree to integrate their upper airspace and designate a single service provider to control air traffic in that block. FABs are also be extended to non-EU countries.
To overcome governments' concerns about ceding control over their national airspace, current legislation allows for a "bottom-up" approach whereby it is left up to the member states to decide on how to restructure. Member states were to have the FABs in place by 4 December 2012.
However, European officials conceded that ambitious plans to consolidate national air traffic control into a regionalised system had failed, hampered by national inaction despite years of planning.
Siim Kallas, the European Commission vice president in charge of transport, vowed to take “every possible action” to enforce the eight-year-old agreement after many countries missed the 4 December deadline for merging national air traffic control space into nine functional air blocks.
The SESAR project (formerly known as SESAME) is the technological component of the SES, aimed at modernising air traffic management systems and infrastructure so as to facilitate the re-organisation of European airspace.
SESAR consisted first of a four-year "definition phase", launched in 2004, during which a consortium of 29 companies and organisations representing airspace users, airports, supply industry, safety regulators, controllers and research centres drew up an "Air Traffic Management Master Plan" outlining development and deployment plans up to 2025 for next-generation ATM systems.
Following the formal presentation of the 'Master Plan' on 6 May 2008, a five year "development phase" was launched under the control of the 'SESAR Joint Undertaking' (JU), which involves 32 companies, including aircraft operators, Airbus and other stakeholders. Their role is to develop the new systems and infrastructure, of which large-scale construction should begin as of 2013, under the final "deployment phase".
The technological advances envisaged include the use of satellite navigation for more accurate trajectories and a better knowledge of meteorological data with a view to improving the ability of traffic controllers and pilots to anticipate problems. A more efficient telecommunications network would also be established to replace anachronic radio control systems that increase the risk of mistakes and misunderstandings and result in flight safety problems. An updated telecommunications network would also give all stakeholders simultaneous access to flight information status, reducing arrival queues at airports and disembarkation delays and helping to improve responses to security crises.
New sensor technologies, increased automation and "smooth approach" procedures are also being developed to help improve visibility and reliability while reducing noise and gaseous emissions.
A total of €1.4 billion from the European Commission (€350 million under the Community's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development and €350 million under the trans-European transport networks budget) and Eurocontrol (€700 million) will be available for R&D work and cross-border projects developed during the second phase of SESAR. The rest of the money is to come from governments and industry, although whether this will happen in practice remains dubious.
Around 30 major airports in Europe, responsible for handling 70% of the continent's traffic, are considered capacity-constrained. And yet, despite the fact that a shortage of runway capacity would render major investments in airspace capacity pointless, the 'Master Plan' does not address the issue, because it is a local or national planning issue over which Brussels has no power. And governments are not always willing to find the necessary money and confer planning permission for airport expansions.
So instead, the Commission has presented a separate action plan on tackling congestion at airports, which calls on governments to optimise existing capacity through improved slot allocation and more efficient flight plans. Parliament has however criticised the Communication for not going far enough, arguing that the EU will need new airports. In a non-binding report, it called on the EU executive to come up with a "Master Plan for enhanced airport capacity in Europe" before 2009, with measures to "promote and coordinate any national and cross-border initiatives for building new airport capacities".
The new package also aims to transfer increased competences to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). While the agency currently deals only with the certification and safety of airlines, Brussels wants to hand over responsibilities for aerodromes, air traffic management and air navigation services to the agency so as to counter the rising safety risks related to the increased operational pressure as traffic rises.
European Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani urged EU governments to "overcome the idea that national sovereignty prevails over airspace", saying the current situation was "ridiculous", causing aircrafts to fly on average 49km more than is strictly necessary.
Jacqueline Tammenons Bakker, chairwoman of the 'High Level Group' on the EU's aviation regulatory framework and the Netherlands' Director General for Air Transport, said the continuing fragmentation of EU skies places an unnecessary financial burden of €3.3 billion per year on both airlines and passengers. The HLG's July 2007 report sets out ten recommendations to speed up implementation of a Single European Sky, including granting more regulatory powers to EU bodies such as Eurocontrol and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) - as member states are to blame for the delay in implementation - new economic legislation to encourage individual air navigation service providers to work together in order to reduce costs and addressing the EU's airport-capacity crunch to avoid bottlenecks on the ground.
French State Secretary for Transport Dominique Bussereau, whose country will hold the EU Presidency during the second half of 2008, said speeding up progress towards the SES would be a top transport priority. But earlier statements from the French Senate state that "national security must come first".
According to the Association of European Airlines (AEA), around 12% of European airlines' carbon-dioxide output is needlessly caused by inadequate infrastructure. AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said: "While the EU seeks to incorporate aviation into the Emissions Trading Scheme, we are facing the prospect of having to buy permits to fly round in circles waiting for landing slots, or zigzag across the sky from one national airway network to another."
The association believes that the SES project "is technically feasible" and that "its greatest obstacle is political".
European airports association ACI Europe President Yiannis Paraschis said: "The de-fragmentation of the European sky through SES is the key element that requires immediate action." But he highlighted the lack of attention paid to airport capacity in current SES legislation. "Airport capacity is the main bottleneck that the aviation system will be facing over the coming years. You can add as much capacity in the sky as you want, but if this is not matched by capacity on the ground, you are not resolving anything but rather just creating more inefficiency from an economic and environmental point of view […] Optimisation of existing capacity is not enough, what is needed is new airport infrastructure."
Paolo Carmassi, President of Honeywell Aerospace’s European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) operations, whose company is involved in the SESAR project, says implementation must be much faster. "We are in favour of efficiency – it goes directly on our balance sheet. So if there's a way to reduce my fuel bill by 1%, then I am not going to wait for legislation to do it. But what we need from regulation is for it to help us build an air traffic management system for the third millennium. And waiting for the ultimate solution is not an option. We favour a much faster implementation of incremental changes as opposed to waiting for a large-scale change. The sooner we start introducing what’s available the better. For the moment the implementation date for a number of new procedures and technologies is 2020 or 2025 and we frankly think that’s to long,” he told EURACTIV, pointing to potential costs of delays for the next decade of as much as $170 billion.
European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) and Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe say that the system of air traffic management must be restructured "urgently" to take better account of environmental impacts. "Contrail formation and thereby cirrus cloud build-up can largely be avoided by making aircraft fly at altitudes and flight paths where meteorological circumstances are more favourable. Often minor changes are enough to avoid most of the impacts. Restructuring the system of air traffic management to better take into account these impacts is therefore urgently needed," they state.
While Friends of the Earth Europe supports the objectives of the SES, it argues against increased airport capacity as an instrument for reducing air traffic bottlenecks, saying that the costs of airport expansion, which include increased air and noise pollution, damage to built and natural heritage and to local communities, and additional road congestion, outweigh the benefits.
March 2004: Adoption of regulations aimed at creating a 'Single European Sky'.
25 June 2008: Presentation by the Commission of a detailed assessment of progress on the Single European Sky and of fresh proposals for speeding up implementation. | 2019-04-23T16:05:35Z | https://www.euractiv.com/section/transport/linksdossier/single-european-sky-towards-greener-air-travel/ |
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Governor Rick Scott requested that President Donald Trump declare a pre-landfall emergency for the State of Florida in preparation for Hurricane Michael, which is currently forecast to make landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in the Florida Panhandle very soon.
This declaration will provide important resources and assistance from the federal government, as well as free up funding sources for emergency protective measures.
To view the Governor’s request, click HERE. The pre-landfall declaration request is for 35 Florida counties – Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Bay, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Gadsden, Liberty, Franklin, Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, Columbia, Hamilton, Suwanee, Lafayette, Dixie, Gilchrist, Levy, Citrus, Pasco, Hernando, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Alachua, Union, Bradford and Baker Counties.
The Governor has also expanded Executive Order 18-276 to include Bradford, Pasco, Hernando, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Alachua, Union, and Baker Counties. With these additions, the state of emergency includes 35 Florida counties in total.
A hurricane watch is now posted for the northeast Gulf Coast from the Alabama/Florida border to Suwanee River, Florida. This includes Pensacola, Panama City and Tallahassee. Hurricane watches are issued 48 hours before the arrival of tropical-storm-force winds which is when outside preparations become dangerous.
Tropical storm watches are in effect from Suwanee River, Florida, to Anna Maria Island, Florida, including Tampa Bay. Also in a tropical storm watch is a swath of the Alabama/Florida border to the Mississippi/Alabama border as well as inland areas of southern Alabama and southwest Georgia.
A storm surge watch is in effect from Navarre, Florida, to Anna Maria Island, Florida, including Tampa Bay. This means life-threatening storm surge inundation is possible in the watch area within 48 hours.
Governor Scott has called on every local government to immediately confirm their mutual aid agreements between investor-owned utilities, municipals and co-ops are in place and effective so there is no delay in power restoration for Floridians. These agreements allow municipal utilities to receive aid from investor-owned utilities and co-ops as they work to restore power to customers. Without these agreements in place ahead of time, power restoration will be delayed. To view the full list of Florida utilities with agreements in place, click HERE.
The Florida National Guard currently has approximately 5,500 Soldiers and Airmen available for activation. The Governor activated 500 Florida National Guard Troops on state active duty orders for pre-landfall coordination and planning.
They are well-equipped, with assets including high water vehicles, helicopters, boats and generators. They are preparing for possible missions to include humanitarian assistance, security operations, and search and rescue.
In addition to personnel and assets, they can bring in an additional 30,000 personnel from other states through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC).
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is actively monitoring Hurricane Michael and ready to respond. On standby are 40 officers from outside the projected path ready to deploy if needed. They will respond with a variety of specialized equipment, including shallow draft boats, ATVs, airboats and four wheel drive vehicles.
The Florida Highway Patrol is actively monitoring the storm and assisting with emergency management missions.
The Florida Highway Patrol will begin staffing the Bryant Patton Memorial Bridge in Franklin County (St. George Island bridge) beginning today.
The Florida Highway Patrol currently has 24/7 representation within the State Emergency Operations Center coordinating preparation, response and recovery efforts.
The Florida Highway Patrol is actively monitoring the storm and ready to assist with any weather-related missions.
The Florida Highway Patrol is making preparations for approximately 342 state troopers to activate to 12-hour shifts. The activation would provide 24-hour enhanced coverage across Florida’s Big Bend and Panhandle.
Florida Highway Patrol will maintain high visibility on Interstate-10 and associated evacuation routes to assist motorists, clear the roadways of any abandoned or disabled vehicles and will routinely check rest areas to assist residents and visitors.
DHSMV’s Florida Licensing on Wheels (FLOW) mobiles are on standby to respond to impacted areas as soon as the storm passes.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s (FDLE) Mutual Aid team is communicating with law enforcement partners and participating in regular conference calls with the State Emergency Operations Center.
FDLE has communicated with members and partners in the panhandle to make preparations and be ready to begin response operations tomorrow morning.
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is currently preparing roadways for impacts from Hurricane Michael.
FDOT has suspended all construction operations from the roadways.
FDOT is coordinating with the Florida Highway Patrol on bridge and roadway closures and detours.
FDOT is monitoring roadways for potential evacuations and identifying bridge inspectors statewide.
FDOT is preparing all standby generators for traffic signal support.
FDOT issued an Emergency Road Use Permit letter to relieve size and weight restrictions for vehicles responding to Hurricane Michael.
The Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) is continuing to monitor the storm and regularly sharing information with waiver support coordinators and providers to ensure the health and safety of the customers the agency serves.
The Florida Department of Health is actively monitoring Hurricane Michael and has activated ESF-8 personnel to staff the State Emergency Operations Center. A conference call is scheduled with county health departments (CHDs) today at 4 EST to discuss situational awareness and current needs.
The Department has requested 5 ambulance strike teams and 35 Special Needs Shelter Teams to support relief efforts.
CHDs will coordinate with their local County Emergency Management to ensure preparations are in place for Special Needs Shelters. Call downs will be conducted to persons on Special Needs Registries to ensure plans are in place for potential evacuations.
CHDs will review their local continuity of operations plans to ensure public health activities and CHD services are not interrupted by the storm.
CHDs will conduct outreach to healthcare facilities within the county to ensure they are implementing facility level emergency plans.
AHCA will host a call with the Florida Health Care Association and all residential and inpatient healthcare facilities including all areas of the panhandle and east to Jacksonville.
AHCA has activated the Emergency Status System (ESS) for health care facilities in the panhandle to enter their storm preparedness status including generators and utility company information, emergency contacts, and bed availability.
The Florida Department of Elder Affairs is in contact with Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) in Planning and Service Areas (PSAs) in the projected storm path.
AAAs continue to coordinate with their Lead Agencies, local service providers, and local county offices of emergency management as part of their emergency relief measures. Call-downs have already begun to assess client needs before, during, and after the storm.
The Department of Elder Affairs has also been communicating with our Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCOP) and CARES field offices who anticipate office closures. CARES staff is trained and stands ready to participate by assisting at Special Needs Shelters in affected areas, including with the discharge planning.
The Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs (FDVA) operates six skilled nursing facilities and one assisted living facility. All state veterans’ homes are currently operational.
The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) is working with courts in Florida Panhandle counties to sign blanket travel approvals for all foster parents to evacuate with children in foster care.
DCF has ordered an early release of food assistance benefits for those Florida residents in the 11 counties under a hurricane watch who would have received normal SNAP benefits between now and 10/28. Benefits will be released to their cards 10/9 at 6:00 a.m. in the impacted counties.
DEP staff are in the process of contacting high-priority regulated facilities to remind them of storm preparations they should be making and offering assistance where needed.
165 Disaster Debris Management Sites (DDMS) have been pre-authorized for the counties addressed by the Governor’s Executive Order.
The current condition of the state’s beaches has been assessed, which will expedite post-storm assessments.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) continues to encourage businesses to visit FloridaDisaster.biz for disaster preparedness tips and register to receive updates as the storm progresses.
DEO will coordinate with CareerSource Florida, local workforce boards, and other public-private partners.
The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) is in contact with school districts, state colleges and universities for updates and to determine needs before, during and after emergency events. All school districts, colleges and universities are monitoring Hurricane Michael and collaborating with local emergency preparedness officials to make decisions that ensure student and staff safety.
Bay County District Schools will be closed Tuesday (10/9) and Wednesday (10/10).
Florida A&M High will be closed Tuesday (10/9) through Friday (10/12).
Florida State University Schools (Florida High) will be closed Tuesday (10/9).
Leon County Schools will be closed Tuesday (10/9) through Friday (10/12).
Florida State University will be closed Tuesday (10/9) through Friday (10/12).
The Division of Blind Services and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation are monitoring Hurricane Michael to make decisions regarding office closures.
Districts are preparing in the case that their facilities are needed for shelters.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) is prepared to order property insurers to submit claims information from Tropical Storm Michael, if necessary.
In accordance with the Governor’s Executive Order, OIR has notified all health insurers, managed care organizations and other health entities of their statutory obligation to allow for early prescription refills during a state of emergency.
The Florida Department of Financial Services’ Division of Consumer Services has resources for consumers seeking assistance with the claims-filing process or to file insurance complaints HERE.
The Florida Department of Management Services, Division of State Group Insurance, has arranged for early prescription renewals starting today for members of the state group insurance program. | 2019-04-26T04:19:15Z | http://spacecoastdaily.com/2018/10/gov-rick-scott-requests-pre-landfall-disaster-declaration-extends-emergency-order/ |
A swine-origin influenza A virus has been identified as the cause of outbreaks of the febrile respiratory infection that has spread throughout the world since April 2009. As of October 3, 2009, 99% of circulating influenza viruses in the United States were 2009 H1N1 influenza. This virus has genes from human, swine and avian influenza A viruses and has been called novel influenza A (H1N1).
Age-specific attack rates for 2009 novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection cases are higher in younger persons and lower in older persons, compared with seasonal influenza infections. Older persons, as a group, might have preexisting immunity to the 2009 H1N1 virus. One small study indicated that approximately one third of adults aged >60 years had cross-reactive antibody to 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus detected, compared with none detected among children. Another factor might be higher contact rates among teenagers.
The most common symptoms are fever and cough, followed by sore throat and shortness of breath. Other symptoms include headache, rhinorrhea, myalgias, arthralgias, fatigue, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Worldwide, the majority of patients infected with the pandemic virus continue to experience mild symptoms and recover fully within a week, even in the absence of any medical treatment. A small subsets of patients have rapidly developed very severe progressive pneumonia. The risk of severe or fatal illness appears to be highest in three groups: pregnant women, especially during the third trimester of pregnancy, children younger than 2 years of age, and people with chronic lung disease, including asthma. Neurological disorders can increase the risk of severe disease in children. However, many severe cases have occurred in previously healthy young people. Predisposing factors that increase the risk of severe illness in this population have not been identified.
Disadvantaged populations, such as minority groups and indigenous populations, have been disproportionately affected by severe disease. Obesity and especially morbid obesity have been present in a large portion of severe and fatal cases. Obesity has not been recognized as a risk factor in either past pandemics or seasonal influenza.
Primary viral pneumonia is the most common finding and is often associated with organ failure or marked worsening of underlying asthma or chronic obstructive airway disease. Secondary bacterial infections have been found in approximately 30% of fatal cases. Bacteria frequently reported include Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant strains in some cases. Respiratory failure and refractory shock have been the most common causes of death.
Seasonal human influenza viruses are thought to spread from person to person primarily through large-particle respiratory droplet transmission (e.g., coughing or sneezing near a susceptible person). Transmission via large particle droplets requires close contact between source and recipient persons because droplets do not remain suspended in the air and generally travel less than 6 feet. Contact with respiratory-droplet contaminated surfaces is another possible source of transmission. All respiratory secretions and bodily fluids should be considered potentially infectious. Incubation period is 1 to 7 days.
The duration of shedding with novel influenza A (H1N1) virus is unknown, but is probably similar to seasonal influenza virus infection. Persons with novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection should be considered potentially contagious from 1 day before to 7 days following illness onset. Persons who remain ill longer than 7 days should be considered potentially contagious until symptoms have resolved. Children might be contagious for longer periods, up to 10 days.
CDC recommends that people with influenza-like illness remain at home (except when necessary to seek required medical care) until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8°C]), or signs of a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications. This recommendation applies to camps, schools, businesses, mass gatherings, and other community settings where the majority of people are not at increased risk for influenza complications. Keeping people with a fever at home may reduce the number of other individuals who get infected, since elevated temperature is associated with increased shedding of influenza virus. CDC recommends this exclusion period regardless of whether or not antiviral medications are used.
Patients with influenza like illness should be separated from patients without influenza.Hospitalized patients should be placed in a single-patient room with the door kept closed. If available, an airborne infection isolation room with negative pressure air handling can be used.Doors to patient rooms with influenza like illness should remain closed as much as possible. Surfaces should be disinfected frequently. The ill person should wear a surgical mask when outside of the patient room, and should be encouraged to wash hands frequently and follow respiratory hygiene practices. Staff should stay home if they are ill.
All waiting areas should be segregated to the extent possible. All visitors who exhibit signs and symptoms of influenza like illness should be asked to put on a surgical mask, instructed in respiratory etiquette and instructed not to visit patient care areas if their presence is not critical to a patient's emotional well being.
Standard, Droplet and Contact precautions should be used for all patient care activities and maintained for 7 days after illness onset or resolution of symptoms, whichever is longer. Personnel providing care to or collecting clinical specimens from suspected or confirmed cases should wear disposable non-sterile gloves, gowns, surgical mask, and eye protection to prevent conjunctival exposure.Healthcare workers should wash their hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizer immediately after removing gloves and other equipment and after any contact with respiratory secretions.
Personnel engaged in aerosol generating activities (e.g. collection of clinical specimens, endotracheal intubation and extubation, nebulizer treatment, bronchoscopy, open suctioning of airways, resuscitation involving emergency intubation or cardiac pulmonary resuscitation and autopsies) should wear a fit-tested disposable N95 respirator or Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) in addition to standard precautions. Only personnel who are essential to patient care should be present during these procedures.These procedures should be conducted in a negative pressure room if possible. There is currently no recommendation for reuse of surgical or N95 masks due to the risk of inoculating the virus into the eyes.
Persons younger than 19 years of age who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy.
Children 2 year to 4 years old are more likely to require hospitalization or urgent medical evaluation for influenza compared with older children and adults, although the risk is much lower than for children younger than 2 years old. Children aged 2 years to 4 years without high risk conditions and with mild illness do not necessarily require antiviral treatment.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends treatment with oseltamivir as soon as possible after the onset of influenza symptoms. Treatment is most beneficial if it is started within 48 hours of onset. Data from studies on seasonal influenza indicate benefit for hospitalized patients even if treatment is started more than 48 hours after onset. Treatment should not be delayed while waiting for the results of viral testing. The recommended duration of treatment is five days.
Some cases of oseltamivir resistant H1N1influenza have been reported worldwide. All of them have the same genetic mutation in the neuraminidase gene, known to be associated with resistance to oseltamivir. So far, all of these cases have been susceptible to zanamivir.
The widespread use of antiviral medications for chemoprophylaxis is not encouraged due to the concern of developing resistance. Antiviral chemoprophylaxis should generally be reserved for persons at higher risk for influenza-related complications who have had close contact with someone likely to have been infected with influenza. Early treatment is an alternative to chemoprophylaxis after a suspected exposure. Household or close contacts (with risk factors for influenza complications) of confirmed or suspected cases can be counseled about the early signs and symptoms of influenza, and advised to immediately contact their healthcare provider for evaluation and possible early treatment if clinical signs or symptoms develop. Early recognition of illness and treatment when indicated is preferred to chemoprophylaxis for vaccinated persons after a suspected exposure.
Children and adolescents aged 5 - 18 years who have medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications. These conditions include chronic pulmonary (including asthma), cardiovascular (except hypertension), renal, hepatic, cognitive, neurologic/neuromuscular, hematologic, or metabolic disorders (including diabetes mellitus); or immunosuppression (including immunosuppression caused by medications or by human immunodeficiency virus).
People 25 years through 64 years of age who have certain medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.
Then, when vaccination programs and providers are meeting the demand for vaccine among persons in these target groups, vaccination should be expanded to all persons aged 25-64 years.
Finally, once demand for vaccine among younger age groups is being met, vaccination should be expanded to all persons aged ≥65 years.
The CDC recently updated testing recommendations for novel H1N1 influenza A (MMWR 58(30);826-829, 8/7/09 and www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/rapid_testing.htm).A number of different laboratory diagnostic tests can be used for detecting the presence of influenza viruses in respiratory specimens, including direct antigen detection tests, virus isolation in cell culture, or detection of influenza-specific RNA by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR).These tests differ in their sensitivity and specificity in detecting influenza viruses as well as their ability to distinguish between different influenza virus types (A versus B) and influenza A subtypes (e.g. novel H1N1 versus seasonal H1N1 versus seasonal H3N2 viruses).
Rapid influenza diagnostic tests are antigen detection tests that detect influenza viral nucleoprotein antigen. The major advantage of rapid tests is that they can provide results within 30 minutes or less. Rapid tests can either:i) detect and distinguish between influenza A and B viruses; ii) detect both influenza A and B viruses but not distinguish between them; or, iii) detect only influenza A viruses. None of them can distinguish between influenza A virus subtype.
For detection of seasonal influenza A virus infection in respiratory specimens, rapid tests have low to moderate sensitivity compared to viral culture or rRT-PCR. The sensitivity for influenza B is lower than influenza A viruses.Higher sensitivity is obtained with specimens collected from children than from adults.
Three recent analytical studies indicate that commercially available RIDTs are reactive with the nucleoprotein of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus. Rapid tests have variable sensitivity (40-70%) for novel H1N1 flu, with optimal performance when testing occurred in the first 3 days of illness. The CDC has concluded that a positive rapid influenza result can be useful in making treatment decisions, however, a negative result does not rule out infection. Rapid influenza testing can be performed on nasopharyngeal swabs or aspirates.
The CDC recommends that when definitive determination of influenza infection is necessary, rRT-PCR testing should be performed. Two PCR testing options for novel influenza A H1N1 are available. One option includes a screening PCR test for influenza A and B, followed by reflex testing for H1N1 when the screening PCR is positive for influenza A. There is an additional charge when the reflex testing is performed. The second option is PCR testing for influenza A only with H1N1 reported specifically when present. Acceptable specimens for PCR testing are nasopharyngeal swabs or aspirates. Turnaround time for influenza PCR testing is 48-72 hours.
A negative result does not exclude influenza infection of any type. | 2019-04-18T23:37:29Z | http://www.clinlabnavigator.com/h1n1-influenza-a-virus.html |
This was the 'who governs' election, fought in the midst of a miners strike. Edward Heath appealed for a mandate to adopt a strong policy towards the trade unions, but was denied it. The outcome was the first hung parliament since 1929, and a Labour minority government which went to the country after just seven months. The Liberals gained their best result – 19% of the vote – since the 1920s, but only 14 seats in the Commons. The Scottish nationalists also made striking advances. The February 1974 election inaugurated the era of multi-party politics in Britain.
This lecture is on the February 1974 Election. It is the third in a series of six on significant post-War elections, and I think this is the most significant and important election of all. It was a crisis election, the only crisis election in Britain since the War, held amidst a miners’ strike, in really unique circumstances because the Government was really pushed, or felt itself pushed, to go to the country to call an election when it did not really want to do so and it still had a working majority in Parliament, which, as you can see, it lost. The Government still had another sixteen months of its term left, and the Election was called then at the behest not of the Government but of the coal miners, who had called a national strike against the Government’s statutory incomes policy. The conditions were really stark. There was a miners’ strike, a three-day week, and a state of emergency, and some would say the country was also held amidst a constitutional crisis, a crisis of legitimacy. It sometimes called the “Who Governs?” election. But if you look at the outcome, the answer the British voter gave to the question “Who Governs?” was “None of you,” because it led to a hung parliament, and the election gave the first indication that the two-party system might be crumbling. You will see the Liberals gained 19% of the vote, though very few seats – they gained nearly a fifth of the vote.
And this was the only post-War hung parliament before that of 2010, but it is very different from the hung parliament of 2010 because, in 2010, after a few days’ negotiation, there was a coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats which has a comfortable majority of 78 in the House of Commons, and whether you favour this Government or not, I think you would have to agree it is provided strong and stable government, it has not been in danger of defeat in the Commons, and contrary to the expectations of many, including I have to say myself, it is lasting for the full term of five years. But you can see, the situation there was quite different because not only could no single party command a majority but no two parties together, except for Conservatives and Labour, could command a majority. You need 318 seats for a majority, and no parties could do it, so if you wanted a coalition, it would have to be a three party coalition.
Now, in the event, Edward Heath, the Prime Minister, tried to secure a coalition with the Liberals, but that did not work and the Conservatives were resigned and they were replaced by a Labour Government, a minority government, led by Harold Wilson, and that Government survived for seven months and then there was a second General Election that year, the first time that had happened since 1910. Labour then, in that second election, got a very narrow overall majority of three seats.
But this election also showed, as well as the rise of the Liberals, you can see the rise of the Scottish Nationalists, and it showed that nationalism was a growing force in Scotland in particular. In Northern Ireland, the Unionist Parties in Northern Ireland, who had previously supported the Conservatives, no longer did so and were independent, as they are now. And I think all this may be of more than historical interest because some people predict this is what is going to happen this year, that we are going to have a hung parliament, not like 2010, but a fragmented one, in which the Liberal Democrats, with many fewer seats, will not be able to get any other party over the line for an overall majority, and possible gains again for the Scottish Nationalists.
Now, as I have said, this Election was called the “Who Governs?” Election, but it raised a further question, a more difficult one to answer really: was Britain governable? In particular, was Britain governable against the wishes of powerful trade unions?
The Labour Government, which succeeded Edward Heath, despite its close links with the unions, also ran into trouble with them, and it was finally destroyed in 1978/9 by a wave of public sector strikes, called the Winter of Discontent.
Some argued in 1974 that the experience of the Heath Government showed that one could not govern without the consent of the trade unions, but the experience of the Labour Government which followed seemed to show you could not govern with their consent either, and the issue was not finally settled until Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government removed the trade union veto in 1985, when she defeated another miners’ strike led by Arthur Scargill, which was much longer lasting than the one in 1973/4. It lasted 11 months and marked by much greater violence. But during the 1970s, that question “Who governs?” was to remain unresolved.
The Heath Government had come to power in 1970, rather unexpectedly. 1970, incidentally, is the only occasion since the War when a party with the working majority has been replaced by the opposition party with a working majority. It is the only occasion when it has happened. And it was unexpected, an unexpected victory for Heath, because, a week before the Election, one poll had shown a 12% lead for the Labour Party. The Economist published a cover on the week of the Election showing Harold Wilson, and Roy Jenkins, his Chancellor, under the caption “Life in Wilson’s Britain”, assuming that Labour would win. The Conservative Party were making plans to seek Heath’s resignation immediately after the Election – Lord Carrington was going to visit him with, as it were, a loaded pistol. But that did not happen, and Heath’s unexpected victory gave him considerable authority over his Cabinet and his party. The Economist said, after the Election, “Only one man has really won this Election and that man is Edward Heath.” But it may also have given him excessive confidence in his own judgement.
Certainly, the Conservative programme bore all the imprints of Heath’s leadership. His strategy, since he had become Conservative leader in 1965, had been clear. He wanted to reform the economy by introducing more competition and removing the dead hand of the State. He wanted to end restrictive practices and bring the trade unions within the framework of the law. At the same time, he promised to end the Labour Party’s incomes policy and restore free collective bargaining between unions and employers. Above all, he was determined to get Britain into the European Community, as the European Union was then known, and that was I think his main ambition. His first speech as a backbench MP in 1950 had been to propose that Britain join the European Coal & Steel Community, the precursor of the European Community and the European Union.
Now, the Heath Government was extraordinarily united. There was not one single resignation on policy during the period of the government and great loyalty to the Prime Minister. Indeed, it was so united, there seems never to have been a vote in the Cabinet. Decisions were reached by agreement and consensus after discussion. Now, a complaint against Heath was not that his Government was divided, but that it was not divided enough, that it was a Cabinet of likeminded people, all of whom agreed with Heath, but dissenters and questioners had been excluded. The Cabinet agreed on the strategy laid out by Heath, which I have just described, the strategy of 1970, but then, in 1972, it also agreed on a quite opposite strategy, the famous U-turn, a policy of intervention in industry and a statutory incomes policy, and these were policies the Conservatives had expressly repudiated in 1970. Indeed, when they were adopted, Harold Wilson, who was now Leader of the Opposition, he congratulated Heath on his conversion to socialism.
This U-turn caused great problems for the Government and some resentment amongst backbenchers, who felt he was introducing, if not socialism, then some form of corporatism. It was unattractive for most Conservatives to see the State to be intervening to such an extent in industrial matters and in wages because Conservatives, after all, believe in minimising, not in extending, the role of the State. This new disposition therefore was ideologically unattractive to Conservatives and could be justified only by success.
There was a further problem: that Heath was not a very skilful communicator and found it difficult to put his policies across, either to the party or the country, and that may be one of the reasons why he did not win the February 1974 Election. If democracy is, in essence, government by explanation, this was a crippling weakness.
Until 1974, however, it did not seem to matter too much because it seemed that Heath could simply bulldoze his way to victory, as he had done in 1970. His mastery of facts and figures, his sheer depth of knowledge, and his commitment on issues such as Europe, seemed sufficient to overcome all opposition. But it meant that, when crisis came, voters did not warm to him, nor sympathise with the message he was trying to convey.
So, why did the Conservatives change course in 1972? In 1970, they proposed a policy of free collective bargaining, but that could only work, so it seemed, in the private sector. What about the nationalised industries? The ‘70s of course were the days before privatisation and there was a large nationalised sector in which wages were determined as much by government decisions as by the market because nationalised industries were not subject to the same market disciplines as the private sector. They could never say, as a private firm could, “If we meet this wage claim, we will be forced to go out of business.” More money could always be made available from the Government. So the determination of wages in the nationalised sector was bound to be, in part, a political decision.
Heath proposed a policy of gradually reducing wages in the public sector, but the policy collapsed with the first miners’ strike in 1972, when the extent of picketing and sympathy from other trade unions forced Heath to concede defeat, and the miners were given a very substantial wage increase of well over 20%. Now, Heath introduced the statutory incomes policy in 1972 in response to this defeat, and on the day on which the miners’ settlement was announced, Heath said: “We have to find a more sensible way of settling our differences.” He initiated talks with the trade unions on voluntary wage restraint, but when these talks failed, he introduced a statutory policy.
Now, one of the reasons why talks with the trade unions failed was due to trade union hostility to the Industrial Relations Act of 1971, and this sought to bring the trade unions within the framework of the law, but because of their bad experience with the courts in the early twentieth century, the trade unions were very suspicious of the law, even when it seemed to be giving them benefits, and they wanted to retain free collective bargaining. From the first, everything went wrong with the Industrial Relations Act. Against the expectations of the Government, most trade unions refused to register under it, and the TUC expelled those few unions that did register, and the Act seemed to do little to alleviate industrial problems. Indeed, by antagonising the unions, it made them worse, and it also annoyed many employers since it seemed to be making labour relations more difficult.
The trade unions had already forced the previous Labour Government to withdraw similar proposals, called “In Place of Strife”, and the Conservatives never asked themselves the question “If the Labour Party, with its strong links with the unions, could not secure the consent of the unions to industrial relations legislation, how on earth would the Conservatives be able to do it?” And so, relations with the unions were strained already when the incomes policy was introduced.
Now, this policy gradually became more and more complex, and by Autumn 1973, a stage three of the policy was announced, which set a limit of 7%, a statutory limit of 7% on incomes, and a statutory limit for any individual of £2.25 per week and a total of £350 per year. The key question was whether the miners would accept this policy. Difficult for us to understand now because there are hardly any mines left in Britain, but at that time, the miners were the seventh largest union, with over a quarter of a million members, and even more important, there was much sympathy for them in other parts of the trade union movement because it was felt they were doing an unpleasant and unattractive job. I think there was also a much wider sympathy in society as well for the miners, including perhaps in some unexpected places. During the second miners’ strike, the Queen Mother is supposed to have said, “I wonder how Mr Heath would like to go down the mines?” I think that was [a] general feeling.
Ministers were well aware that there would be a problem with the miners, so in July 1973, three months before the policy was announced, Heath had a secret meeting with the President of the National Union of Mineworkers, a man called Joe Gormley. Gormley was a moderate and perfectly prepared to agree to the Government, and they agreed that there should be an escape clause for the miners because there had be an extra criterion in the statutory policy in which any group of workers could get more money if they worked, and I quote, “unsocial hours”. Heath said this would be used to give the miners more than the 7%, and Gormley said that is fine and that was a deal, and the Government breathed a sigh of relief that the problem was over. They made a number of false assumptions… They first assumed that Gormley was fully in control of his union and could control the militants. They then assumed that, even if there would be industrial action, it would not be as dangerous as in 1972 because coal stocks were higher and they thought would get them through the winter.
When the negotiations with the miners began, the Coal Board immediately offered the full amount allowed under stage three, which, with the escape clauses, probably amounted to around 10%. Now, the Board was criticised for offering the maximum immediately and offering no scope for negotiation, but the trouble was that under the statutory incomes policy, the maximum immediately became the minimum, so it was very difficult to negotiate at all. Anyway, the miners rejected the deal. They said the unsocial hours’ criterion would give some miners more than others, and they wanted more for all, and that would mean breaking stage three.
Ministers, not unnaturally, felt they had reached an agreement and that the Miners’ Union was betraying them, but the truth is that they, and Heath in particular, misunderstood the trade union movement. They assumed that Gormley and the other moderate leaders could command their members. That may have been true in the past. By the 1970s, it was no longer true. Deference to leaders was coming to an end in all walks of life. In the trade unions, it meant power to the shop floor, and the statutory incomes policy increased the power of militants because they could always say the moderate leadership had sold out and that the miners could get more money by going on strike, as they had in 1972.
But Heath had been an army officer in the War and then a whip in the Churchill, Eden and Macmillan Governments. He lived in a world where authority was not to be questioned. He lived in a command and control world. He saw himself as Prime Minister as the commanding officer of the nation. The Cabinet would make its decisions after discussions, including discussions with the trade unions, and these decisions would then be carried out. One hands down orders and things happen. You tell businessmen to invest in the needs of the economy, and they invest. You tell the unions to hold down wages, and they comply. Now, that was the world of disciplined authority. It was the world of the War and the immediate post-War years. It was not the world of the 1970s.
Then a further crucial factor came into play, which completely undermined the policy. Just two days before stage three was announced, a war broke out in the Middle East, and the Arab States, on which Britain then depended for two-thirds of her oil, decided to retaliate against the West for what they saw as Western support for Israel, and they said they would cut oil production by 25% and they threatened to quadruple oil prices – in fact, oil prices doubled. All this came on top of increases that had already occurred in world commodity prices, in particular raw materials and foodstuffs, so everyone’s standard of living was falling very rapidly. Inflation was growing and more wages were needed to keep up. And all this set a wholly new context for British politics.
It meant, first, that plans to expand the economy and the improvements in living standards which Heath had hoped would reconcile the unions to wage restraint, all those plans would have to come to an end. The dash for growth was over. Some economists say the policy was, in any case, unsustainable, but whether so or not, it would have to come to an end. In retrospect, we can now see that 1973 was the watershed in which the long boom of the immediate post-War years, the boom which would sustain the post-War consensus, that was coming to an end.
But the second, and more immediate, effect of the rise in the price of oil was that coal became much more important to the British economy. Many people asked “Why should we pay more for oil when we have got our own coal? Instead of paying more to the Sheiks in the Middle East to send oil to Britain, why not pay British miners to produce more coal, which would still be cheaper than oil?” One union leader asked Heath, “If a Government is prepared to pay the Sheiks for oil, why not pay the miners for coal?” The whole strategy of replacing coal by oil was undermined and the bargaining position of the miners immeasurably strengthened. Stage three was beginning to appear highly unpatriotic.
Now, miners, having rejected the offer by the Coal Board, voted for an overtime ban and cut production by 30%. The electricians then proclaimed their own overtime ban in sympathy with the miners. The Government responded by declaring a state of emergency, the fifth in just over three years of the Heath Government. There had only been seven others since 1920, since the idea of a state of emergency received statutory recognition. Street lighting was curtailed, floodlighting banned, a 50 mph speed limit on roads to limit consumption of petrol – some argued for petrol rationing, though the Government did not accept that, and worst of all for most people, all television programmes by 10.30pm. Some thought that was just a gimmick for the Government to enhance the crisis atmosphere. At this stage, some people began to argue for an early election.
Now, what was the Government to do? It seemed trapped. On market principles, it ought no doubt to have responded to the Middle East war by increasing the offer to the miners. But four million workers had already settled under stage three, and counted themselves lucky to do so, given the problems the economy faced. Perhaps they would also seek more money if the miners got more money. Most important for Heath, Conservatives on the backbenches and the country simply would not countenance what they would see as a second surrender to the miners, the first having been in 1972. Douglas Herd, who was Heath’s Political Secretary at the time told him: “A settlement in manifest breach of stage three would not be possible for this Government because it could destroy its authority and break the morale of the Conservative Party.” One backbencher put it more pithily: “If Heath gives in, he’s had it!” On December 12th, there was a headline in the newspapers, “Ministers predict an Election if the industrial situation gets worse”.
Now, all Heath’s instincts were against an early election, and that was not because he feared he might lose but almost the opposite reason, he feared he might win and he thought that would polarise the country. He did not want to polarise the country in a “Government versus miners” election. He had grown up in the years of a post-War settlement, when Government and the unions worked together. The unions were given a voice in policymaking, in Conservative as well as Labour Governments, and in return, they would act with moderation. The Government, for its part, would ensure that it did not return to the unemployment of the inter-War years and it did not return to the confrontation of the General Strike. Heath, in particular, had great contempt for the Conservative Governments between the Wars, which he said had tolerated a very high level of unemployment. He thought everyone should work together for the prosperity of the country. But perhaps, politically, if people thought there might be an early election, this might help settle the strike because the Labour Party might fear it would lose such an election and put pressure on the miners to settle, so it might not do harm if the idea that there was an early election got about.
Heath then called the miners to Number 10 and said that he had found a further way out of the problem. He said the Pay Board, which had been set up to police the statutory incomes policy, was shortly going to produce a report on wage relativities, and he was fairly sure that would recommend more to be paid to the miners. He said he would also review investment and increased pensions and health benefits for the miners, and he asked the miners if they would accept this new offer. Gormley was, again, in favour, but his Executive voted 18 to 5 against putting it to a ballot, Gormley being one of the 5. It was not that the militants, as the Conservatives thought, had a majority in the union Executive. The moderates had a very narrow majority, but they said, understandably, if you keep up pressure against the Government, they are on the run and you will get more concessions. But the Vice-President of the National Union of Miners, a man called Mick McGahey, was a member of the Communist Party, and he is alleged to have told Heath at the meeting at Number 10 that he was determined to break the pay policy to get him out of office. It is not clear whether he said it or not. It was put about that he had said it, and was to be much-quoted by the Conservatives during the Election campaign.
After the miners refused to put this offer to a ballot, the situation rapidly worsened. On the railways, the union called a ban on overtime and a work-to-rule following an inter-union dispute. Sunday trains stopped and there was disruption in suburban services. The day after this was announced, the Government proposed a three-day week to save electricity, in an attempt to cut electricity consumption, and then hopefully the country could get through the winter. The new Energy Minister, Patrick Jenkin, distinguished himself by saying that all could help in saving electricity if they would brush their teeth in the dark… The Government also introduced an emergency budget announcing cuts in public spending.
Now, you may think that is bad enough, but there were even further problems the Government faced, serious ones, in Northern Ireland at the time with terrorism, because, after very difficult negotiations, they had reached an agreement with the various parties in the province which was called the Sunningdale Agreement, which provided for a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland, rather similar to that negotiated 25 years later by Tony Blair. Now, here too, leadership proved inadequate because the unionist leader in Northern Ireland who had signed the Agreement, Brian Faulkner, was repudiated by the other Unionists, just as Gormley had been repudiated by his members, and the other Unionists said he had sold out Unionist principles. At Westminster, the Ulster Unionists, who had hitherto been part of the Conservative Party, they opposed the Agreement and declared their independence from the Conservatives. If you look at that list of Conservatives, I think 11 of them were Ulster Unionists who were separate in 1973. These Ulster Unionists formed a new coalition which they called the United Ulster Unionist Coalition and were determined to fight the Sunningdale Agreement. Now, this increased the problems for the Government because those Unionists who supported the Agreement, led by Faulkner, had not, as it were, got their act together for any early election, so it meant that an early election would almost certainly lead, as it did, to success for the Unionists who were opposed to the power-sharing agreement and that would be destroyed, and that was one reason why…really inhibiting Ministers against an election.
You will not be surprised, after all this, to hear that Edward Heath said this was going to be the worst Christmas since the War, and if I can work this machine, you can hear Edward Heath saying it, and I think this does reveal his method of speaking at people perhaps rather than to them.
In the New Year, in 1974, there was renewed talk of an early election, helped by one opinion poll which showed that the Conservatives were ahead for the first time for three years. Perhaps in response to this, the Trade Union Congress made an attempt to settle the problem of the miners. They said to the Government that if the miners were allowed extra money to break stage three, the other unions would not use this as an argument in their own negotiations. The Government rejected this, and it was blamed for it after the Election, but the TUC could not prevent any award to miners being used in that way, and in any case, most workers had already settled under stage three, and those that remained were not in a very powerful bargaining position. What the Government thought was a formal commitment that no other union would break stage three, indeed the Conservative Party would probably have insisted on this, the TUC could never have been offered such a commitment because it had no power over individual unions, which remained autonomous organisations. But perhaps, nevertheless, the Government should have accepted the offer, challenging the TUC to deliver it. In her memoirs, Margaret Thatcher, who was Education Secretary in the Heath Government, she argued this was a policy to follow, though she did not say it at the time, but she said so later. She said that “We might have done better to accept this offer and put the TUC on the spot. Either the Government could have triumphed by forcing the unions to accept wage restraint, or it would have an excuse for a tougher line against the unions.” But the trouble is, the Government was beginning to believe that agreements with the unions were not actually worth very much. Nevertheless, that may be the key point at which they missed the last chance of an agreed settlement.
Heath was now saying to the miners: “If only you will accept stage three, we will find a way to give you a bit more under the relativities idea,” and the Pay Board said that they would consider all that if only the miners would resume work. But the miners were saying we will not accept stage three, and so there was a deadlock, and the Election was seemingly a means to resolve the deadlock – but how? If, as was likely, the miners would get more money under the relativities procedure, would that or would that not break stage three? And in any case, why did you need an election to resolve that question? The factors causing the crisis would still be there after the election – the shortage of oil, and the consequent need to pay the miners more. Perhaps an election might give the Government more leeway to break the guidelines of stage three and give the miners more, but the Government was going to be calling the election in defence of stage three and being fair to workers who had already settled under it, so what was the point of the election?
Now, perhaps if you had had the Fixed Term Parliament Act and the Prime Minister could not have dissolved and he could not have called an election, perhaps there might have been a settlement – who knows?
But the crisis now worsened. The new Energy Secretary, Lord Carrington, made a foolish speech in the middle of January, saying the three-day week was not causing as much of a loss of production as had been feared, since coal stocks were in a reasonably good state, and that Britain could now move, he hoped, to a four-day week. The miners’ response was to call for a ballot on an all-out strike, and this of course ended all talk of a four-day week, and on the 24th of January, they voted 81% for a strike.
One Conservative Cabinet Minister then said, “The miners have had their ballot. Perhaps we ought to have ours.” On February 7th, Heath announced an election for February 28th. He remained, I think, reluctant to the end, and for this reason, he did not fight a union-bashing campaign. He might have done better perhaps if he had. He said the main reason for the election was the oil price rise and the very serious economic situation it created, and so the central message came to be very muddled, especially as, the same day as he announced the election, he said the miners’ claim would be examined by the relativities machinery of the Pay Board and any award would be backdated to March 1st. So, the election was very ironic. It was called in defence of a statutory incomes policy that had been explicitly repudiated by the Conservatives in 1970, and it was unclear how the election would help settle the problems which that policy had aroused. What the Conservatives were in fact doing was to seek a mandate to pay off the miners, to do what they were not prepared to do before the election, and did not that make nonsense of the whole policy? Because if the miners would be paid off afterwards, why not pay them now? The election was really about who would the country choose to pay off the miners. The Conservatives could argue at least they were offering a quasi-judicial and fair way of ending the strike, rather than a concession to brute force, as Heath put it, “an orderly, rational, not off-the-cuff way”, but the Pay Board was widely seen as a fig-leaf for the Government’s decisions, for political decisions. So, the answer to the question “How are you going to settle the strike?” was not “We are going to stick to what has been offered,” but “We are going to pay the miners more but not until we have won the election.” It may be that such a deal would not have been acceptable before the election because the Conservative Party would not have accepted it.
But nevertheless, when the election was called, Labour feared they would lose, and they begged the miners to call off the strike. Gormley wanted the strike postponed till after the election, but he was again defeated by his Executive, by 20 votes to 6. The noted psephologist David Butler told his friend Tony Benn the election would result in a Conservative landslide, and one Labour MP at the time told me, some years later, he feared he would lose his seat when the election was called.
Bringing Europe into it shows the tremendous difficulty of trying to confine a campaign to a single issue, though, as I have said, I think the single issue itself was also unclear. Wilson argued, throughout the election, that Heath was hoping them miners’ dispute would distract voters from what he called the real issues – prices, high mortgage rates, the collapse of the housebuilding programme, and Europe, on which he thought the Conservatives were not in a strong position.
Now, the election was called, as I have described, in an atmosphere of something of a crisis and some bitterness, and it was expected the campaign would be confrontational and unpleasant, but instead, it proved remarkably good-humoured. The miners’ issue gradually receded from the forefront of the campaign and the atmosphere of crisis and confrontation gradually dissolved. Roy Hattersley, who was a Labour Shadow Minister at the time, said, in three days of canvassing, only one constituent had referred to the miners. The ban on television after 10.30pm was ended. The weather was good, and people found themselves rather enjoying the three-day week. The railway strike was called off, and the miners, wisely, reduced the scale of their picketing. This made some people think perhaps there was no crisis at all and the election had been called for nothing. As the campaign continued, Wilson, in response to the opinion polls, laid much greater emphasis on prices because polls showed that was a key issue for swing voters. There had been a 50% increase in food prices since 1970 – inflation was going through the roof. The polls also showed, admittedly, the public were in favour of the statutory incomes policy and they did not blame the Government for the rise in prices but world factors, so the Conservatives had some hope there.
Now, in the week before the election, there were three further blows for the Conservatives. On the 21st of February, a week before the election, the Deputy Chairman of the Pay Board said that miners’ pay had been wrongly calculated, and that, on the proper measure of calculation, their wages were not above the national average for manual workers in nationalised industries but 8% below. Harold Wilson smartly turned this to advantage. He heard about it in the early evening, campaigning in Essex, and he quickly rushed back to the television studio to make the point, and by the time the Conservatives could, it was too late. The point had got into the public consciousness, and it made the Government of course appear incompetent. But you may say, well, any Government can make a mistake. What made it worse was it seemed to highlight the fact, as people believed, that Government was unwilling to settle and was looking for any excuse not to settle when the means for settlement were available.
The second blow was on the 25th of February, three days before the election, when monthly trade figures showed a £383 million deficit for January, the largest ever recorded. That brought home to people’s minds that all the economic indicators were appalling. Prices were rising at over 20%, unemployment was rising, economic growth was falling, with a heavy balance of payments deficit likely.
So, you may say what is remarkable about the February 1974 Election, from that point of view, is not that Heath lost but that he came so near to winning in those circumstances.
The third blow came on the 26th of February, two days before the election, when the Director-General of the CBI, talking as he thought to a private meeting, where he thought his remarks were off-the-record, said that the Industrial Relations Act had soured the industrial climate and he would like to see it repealed. That was reported in public. And it is fair to say other CBI leaders had said the same before.
Even so, on the day of the election, all the opinion polls indicated a Conservative lead of between 2% and 5%, but also a high Liberal vote. Wilson expected to lose, and he thought, if he lost a second election, he would have to resign as Leader of the Labour Party. He was staying at a hotel in Liverpool, near his constituency, and he had prepared a statement resigning as Leader, and he had prepared a secret getaway by helicopter so he would not have to face the media after what he assumed was a second consecutive election defeat. He, with all his psephological knowledge, was as surprised as anyone by the result. It is one of those rare elections – perhaps they will become more frequent – where the campaign made a tremendous difference. The conventional wisdom till then was the campaign did not matter, that people had made up their minds long before, and that I think was true in 1945 and the elections of the 1950s, when parties divided on a tribal basis. It was not true anymore in the era of party volatility. The February 1974 campaign was decisive and the polls showed that more people switched their votes than in any previous election.
Now, the Labour Party, in a sense, won the election, but if you look at the previous thing, you see that they actually lost nearly 6% of their vote from 1970 when they had lost the election. They had lost around one-seventh of their vote from 1970 when they had actually lost the election.
Obviously, the key factor is the surge of the Liberals. Now, their vote, in a way, was even higher than shown there because they did not fight every seat. They fought 517 seats, and their average vote per candidate was 24%, nearly a quarter, and you may say that is a strong argument, and certainly they thought so, for proportional representation – they got a fifth of the vote in total and hardly any seats. With PR, they would have got 120 seats. They had become a national party again, for the first time since the 1920s, and in the next election, in October 1974, they put up candidates in every seat, so there was the theoretical possibility of a Liberal Government for the first time since the 1920s, and proportional representation back on the agenda.
Then the Nationalists were back, Scottish Nationalists, 22% of the Scottish vote, higher than they got in 2010, when they got 20%, and in October, they were to get 30% of the Scottish vote. They were more popular then in Westminster than they were in 2010.
The Ulster Unionist Coalition got 11 of the 12 Northern Ireland seats on 51% of the vote and that finished off the Sunningdale Agreement, which collapsed in the summer.
Now, after the election, Heath did not resign. He was entitled to stay on, indeed, to meet Parliament. But what he did, he called the Liberal Leader, Jeremy Thorpe, to Number 10 and offered him a coalition, and he said the Conservatives and Liberals agreed on a statutory incomes policy and on Europe, so there was a mandate for that from the country he said, and he also said the Conservatives had won more votes than Labour. Thorpe replied, “Well, if votes are the criterion, are you a convert to proportional representation?” which of course Heath was not. His mandate argument was absurd. Polls showed most voters did not know where the Liberal Party stood on these issues, but in any case, half the voters were against British membership of the European Community, including many who voted Liberal. If the mandate argument had any meaning, surely it went against Edward Heath because he had called for a mandate and failed to achieve it. You may say it is not clear what the voters meant by the result, but one thing they clearly did not mean, I would have thought, was that Heath should continue as Prime Minister. In any case, a coalition with the Liberals would not have yielded a majority. Now, when Thorpe said there has to be progress on PR if we are going to join you, Heath said, and he could not do any more, he would set up a Speaker’s conference with purely advisory powers and take account of that, and Thorpe said that was not enough.
Now, the Conservatives also offered the whip to seven of the 11 of the Ulster Unionist MPs. They were not going to offer the whip to Ian Paisley, who had opposed the Sunningdale Agreement really very violently. But the Leader of the Ulster Unionists said you have got to offer it to all 11 of us or nothing, so that too collapsed.
Now, while all this was going on, Wilson was waiting, very shrewdly, saying he would not make any deals with anyone, and his Deputy, James Callaghan, said “Let Heath swing – he can’t stay,” and you can hear Harold Wilson’s rather clever statement I think, made after the election.
When Heath resigned, Wilson formed a minority government and, as I said earlier, there was a second election in October which gave them a narrow majority.
Now, some people say Heath was unlucky – if only he had called the election three weeks earlier, as many Conservatives wanted, he could have won. I think that is by no means clear because people might then have said he was seeking a confrontation with the unions, who attracted much sentimental sympathy. There would have been I think fewer Liberal candidates three weeks earlier. If they had not got their act together yet, there had have been about 400 rather than 517 who fought. But the more important advantage you might have got from an early election was it might have prevented the strike if the election had been held before the strike ballot was called because if the strike had then been called, it would look like an interference with the democratic process and would have backfired on Labour. You may argue, Heath’s tactical mistake was to allow the National Union of Mineworkers to call their ballot first.
But it seems to me this is not the point that if he had won the election, would he not have had to do what Wilson did? Wilson made an offer to the miners, in excess of stage three, which was accepted and they went back to work. Perhaps the voters failed to support Heath because they noticed the incoherence of the “Who governs?” approach, and if so, that incoherence would have been just as noticeable three or four weeks earlier.
And of course, the subsequent history of the Wilson and Callaghan Governments showed that regulating the economy through an incomes policy led again to that cul-de-sac because it imposed on the trade union leadership obligations which they were not only unwilling but perhaps also unable to meet. They saw their role not as one of helping the Government run the economy, but of getting the best they could for their members, and if they failed, they would be undermined by militants who could do the job better. But more important, I think, that the social solidarity which alone could have sustained an incomes policy was being undermined by the very prosperity and affluence which both Conservative and Labour Governments had championed, and the Heath Government, like its Labour successor, was defeated not by collectivism, not by the solidarity of the unions, but by a new rampant individualism.
If Churchill or Attlee had said that in the ‘40s or early ‘50s, I think people would have respected it. By the 1970s, it was greeted with derision because each group was out for itself. It was the world of “I’m alright, Jack,” quite different from that in which Heath had grown up. And in any case, a Conservative Government committed to an incomes policy would always be outflanked by the Labour Party, whose ties to the unions would also make it say “We can get you a better deal with a Labour Government,” and the Conservatives therefore were repelled by the increase in State power and the links with the unions which a statutory incomes policy involved, so they looked for an alternative method of regulating the economy, which did not rest upon the consent of the trade unions, and they found it in 1974/5, a revolution in Conservative thinking, led by Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher, the philosophy of economic liberalism and monetarism. So, the policy on which Heath fought the election was almost certainly unviable, and I think even if he had won the election, he would either have got into a cul-de-sac or been forced to abandon it.
The Labour Party, I think, drew the wrong lessons from 1974. It was not only the Conservatives who lost the election, but also the right-wing of the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, under Roy Jenkins, who had resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in 1972 in protest at Labour leftward movement. He had assumed that Labour fighting on a left-wing programme would lose the election, and he says in his memoirs that: “1974, according to my strategy, was the year in which temporising Labour Party leadership was due to receive its just reward in the shape of a lost General Election,” so the left would be weakened and Roy Jenkins’ moment would have come.
Now, as we have seen, Labour won the election only in the sense they lost fewer votes than the Conservatives, but the system misled them because they won more seats than the Conservatives and so it seemed to show that Labour could win on a left-wing programme, and it led to 1983 and Michael Foot, which tested Benn’s theory one could say to destruction really.
February 1974 then is a defeat not just for Heath but for the right-wing of the Labour Party, and I think you can see the roots of the SDP breakaway in that election defeat of the right-wing. The Labour Party ignored the fact that, even though Heath was defeated, every single opinion poll, without exception, showed that the voters believed the trade unions to be too strong and not too weak, to have too much influence and not too little. But the Labour Government proceeded to give the trade unions extra privileges, despite the fact that every poll showed they already had enough. These privileges were given under the theme of the social contract. But the Chief Secretary of the Treasury in the Labour Government, Gerald Barnett, was later to say in his memoirs, “To my mind, the only give and take in the contract was that the Government gave and the unions took.” That led to the Winter of Discontent, after a further wave of public sector strikes, in 1978 and 1979.
One commentator said the Winter of Discontent was “the final crisis of democratic socialism” because the decline of social solidarity was a much greater threat in the long run to the left than to the right. The Conservative response could be individualism, Thatcherism, if you like. More difficult for a party of the left to accommodate to the decline of the traditional loyalties and community feeling – it took 20 years before Blair was able to accommodate the Labour Party to that.
So, the failure of Heath convinced many Conservatives that incomes policy could not work, but it also convinced the British people that the trade unions would have to be curbed. Margaret Thatcher’s success was built on Heath’s failure. But in every other sense, Heath was the antithesis of Margaret Thatcher because Heath thought to resolve Britain’s problems within the constraints of the post-War consensus, by preserving in particular full employment. Margaret Thatcher, unlike Heath and all of her post-War predecessors, was prepared to abandon that goal, and hers was the first Government since the 1950s to govern against that goal. Thatcherism proved a response to a constituency which the post-War Conservatives, and Edward Heath in particular, had ignored – it was a Conservative constituency but ignored by them. Heath was accused of being a corporatist, of looking to the large organisation – the trade unions and large companies. But what about those who were not represented by large organisations – the self-employed, those on fixed incomes, or pensioners – how were they to protect themselves against inflation? They were the people the Conservative Party ought to be defending, people with little or no capital of their own who feared losing what little they had. They formed the bedrock of Thatcherism to protect themselves against rising prices when they did not have strong unions to represent them. They had been ignored by the post-War settlement, which was a settlement of the big battalions, and these forgotten people were those who helped remove Heath because they’d been patronised or ignored by previous Conservative leaders.
Heath was the last Conservative Prime Minister to seek to uphold the post-War settlement. He was, as one commentator suggested, the last loyal signatory of the 1944 Full Employment White Paper, by which Governments promised to secure a high and stable level of employment in return for wage restraint, but he was fighting against an ineluctable tide of opinion which would have engulfed him even if he’d won in 1974. Heath, I think, strained the post-War settlement beyond its natural limits and it snapped in twain, and I think we are still living with the consequences, and I suggest therefore, and conclude, that we still live in the shadow of the defeat of Edward Heath in February 1974. | 2019-04-24T01:10:57Z | https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-general-election-february-1974 |
We currently offer weekend classes for Furniture Restoration, Wood Working, Wood Carving, Upholstery, Stained Glass and Jewellery Making, and evening classes in Wood Carving (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and Wood Working (Mondays and Wednesdays).
All of those classes cost £275, with a £100 deposit and the remaining of the tuition due on the first day of class. Payments can be made in cash, cheques or debit cards. Note credit cards can be used, but there is a 2% surcharge added to cover the bank charges. Tools are supplied for all courses, materials will be charged separately for Upholstery, Wood Working, Jewellery Making and Furniture Restoration.
We are currently planning on classes in French Upholstery, Traditional Finishes, Colouring Techniques, Using Machines in Wood Carving, and Seat Caning and Rushing. Please write and we will keep you informed of the future classes. Also, watch this space!!!!
Beginning students will learn the craft of Wood Carving using traditional tools through a couple of challenging exercises, talks and demonstrations. Those new to Wood Carving will learn all the basics and will develop the basic skills to successfully carve objects in wood. They will develop an understanding of wood, how to use the basic tools, then how to conceptualise a final Wood Carving goal and how to reach that goal. More advanced students will continue to improve their skills by carving more advanced pieces with careful guidance from the tutor.
Class Dates (every OTHER Saturday): Apr. 27, May. 11, 25, Jun. 8, 22 (no classes on School Holidays).
Class Times: All classes start at 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m..
The instructor for this class is Candace Pearce who has been teaching the Jewelry Making classes at Bucks New University in High Wycombe for over 30 years. Over this time many of her students have gone on to become award winning designer/makers.
This course is designed for both the absolute beginner and for those wishing to learn more advanced skills (Note those wanting to learn more advanced skills should contact the school to discuss specific learning objectives.).
Beginners will make a variety of items including rings, bracelets and charms. They will also learn to work with copper and silver and they will learn to use many of the basic tools used to make beautiful jewellery. Materials will be at an additional cost (approximately £25) which is payable directly to the tutor.
The tutor will guide the more advanced students and will facilitate the successful completion of their project.
The idea of making pictures with coloured glass, balanced with shapes and rhythm has fascinated generations. This course will introduce students to this amazing craft. Students learn the handling of tools and materials. Developing confidence from straight lines to curves on coloured glass. Projects will introduce the students to the basic techniques such as to score (cut) glass safely, copperfoil and traditional leadwork. This is a hands on practical course, with aspects of design and soldering. As with the Applique technique the students will be able to develop their own design once they have mastered the basics. No previous experience in either art or stained glass is needed for this introduction – just a sense of play and adventure!
Advanced students are also welcome. Lilly will guide and facilitate the creative direction that they want to pursue.
Students are also expected to pay a material cost of approximately £25.
Class Dates (every OTHER Sunday): Apr. 28, May. 12, 26, Jun. 9, 23 (no classes on School Holidays).
Phil Lyons, of Lyons Restoration Ltd, has designed a series of courses to teach the major aspects of Wood Working. This course starts with an overview of common furniture woods and their qualities as well as the basic hand tools and how to sharpen them. Students will then be introduced to basic Wood Working techniques while each making a beautiful wooden box with a few options to suite all skill levels. Some of the skills students will be introduced to include: using a plane, using chisels to produce dovetail joints, turning, using a cabinet scraper among others. Finally students will try out different finishing techniques before choosing one to apply to their box.
Note the price does not include a £25 materials cost which is payable to the instructor on the first day of classes.
Class Dates (every Monday): Apr. 29, May 6, 13, 20, Jun. 3, 10, 17, 24, July 1(no classes on School Holidays).
Class Times: All classes start at 6 p.m. and end at 9 p.m..
Beginning students will learn the craft of Wood Carving using traditional tools through a couple of challenging exercises, talks and demonstrations. Those new to Wood Carving will learn all the basics and will develop the basic skills to successfully carve objects in wood. They will develop an understanding of wood, how to use the basic tools, then how to conceptualise a final Wood Carving goal and how to reach that goal. More advanced students will continue to improve their skills by carving more advanced pieces.
Class Dates (every Tuesday): Apr. 30, May 7, 14, 21, 28, Jun. 4, 11, 18, 25, Jul. 2 (no classes on School Holidays).
While building on the basic skills learned in the first course, it is also suitable for students with some basic Wood Working experience. Students are taken through the process of making a beautiful stool with a couple of unusual features to provide a technically challenging but enjoyable project. In addition to making further use of the basic Wood Working skills (using chisels, plans, saws, etc.), it will also include an introduction to mortice and tenon joints, more complex setting out, some specialist tools and more.
More advanced students can, with the approval of the tutor, work on custom projects.
Note the price does not include a £75 materials cost which is payable to the instructor on the first day of classes.
Class Dates (every Wednesday): May 1, 8, 15, 22, June 5, 12, 19, 26, July 3, 10 (no classes on School Holidays).
Although students will focus on pieces that can be worn they will also look at how these techniques can be used Fine and Decorative Arts. They will follow a basic set outline and they will use these techniques to make items that they will be confident in using. However one goal is to encourage their creativity and if they wish, the design of a piece can be up to them to express their likes and style. Precious metal work and especially jewellery is for everyone, be you a maker, wearer, male or female and it is all about the design, as students follow this course and feel more confident with making pieces I will encourage them to create work that reflects them. However, another side of this will be to teach them the mastery of the techniques related to working with metals.
Students will begin by looking into the basic tools, workshop health and safety, at best practices for the use of equipment and workshop awareness. The first project will teach them about annealing metal, and which involves using a blowtorch, flux and safety pickle, hammering, forging, mark making and polishing. The end result will be a copper bangle.
Finally students will make a number of different items including more brooches, necklaces, etc. The last week will be open to allow them to explore their specific area of interest.
Class Dates (every OTHER Wednesday): May 1, May 15, 29, June 12, 26 (no classes on School Holidays).
This class offers a discounted rate for ICON members.
Class Dates (every Thursdasy): May. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, Jun. 6, 13, 20, 27, Jul. 4 (no classes on School Holidays).
Beginning students will learn the craft of Wood Carving using traditional tools through a couple of challenging exercises, talks and demonstrations. Those new to Wood Carving will learn all the basics and will develop the basic skills to successfully carve objects in wood. They will develop an understanding wood, how to use the basic tools, then how to conceptualise a final Wood Carving goal and how to reach that goal.
More advanced students will continue to improve their skills by carving more advanced pieces.
Class Dates (every Thursday): May. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, Jun. 6, 13, 20, 27, July. 4 (no classes on School Holidays).
The Wooburn Craft School is pleased and proud to announce a series of courses for children (aged 10 to 15). This series is particularly aimed at home schooled children who do not have access to school workshop facilities or to those in school who have limited craft course offerings. The series includes Wood Carving, Stained Glass, Wood Working (making things out of wood). In each class, the children will have both talks and practical works and they will leave each course with an item that they can take home with them to show to their friends and family.
Please contact the school for schedule of courses and to discuss entry into the class. Each program (Wood Carving, Stained Glass and Wood Working) is on every Friday morning and/or afternoon (9:00 to 13:00 / 13:00 to 16:00) and lasts 8 weeks. The cost for each is £200 but may have additional material costs (usually less than £25).
Class Dates (every Friday): May. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, Jun. 7, 14, 21, 28 (no classes on School Holidays).
Class Times: All Jewellery Making classes start at 1 p.m. and end at 4 p.m..
In this exciting course, Greg will help students of all levels from complete novices to experienced upholsterers. All types of projects are possible (We do suggest you send a picture of the object if this is your first class with the school).
All materials can be provided by the school (although a charge may apply). Students learn how to upholster traditional and modern furniture by working on their own prized objects.
At the end of the course there will be a small charge for materials used.
THIS CLASS IS NOW FULL!!!
Class Dates (every OTHER Saturday): May. 4, 18, Jun. 1, 15, 29 (no classes on School Holidays).
In this course, Paul will help students of all levels from complete novices to experienced restorers. All types of projects are possible (We do suggest you send a picture of the object if this is your first class with the school). All materials can be provided by the school (although a charge may apply). Paul will carefully walk the student through every step of the entire process of restoring their selected project.
With over 25 years experience at The Wallace Collection, and over 10 years as the course leader of the Furniture Conservation Course at Bucks New University in High Wycombe, Paul is one of the leading teachers in this field in the UK and one of the best to guide anyone to the successful completion of their project.
Class Dates (every OTHER Saturday): May 4, 18, Jun. 1, 15, 29 (no classes on School Holidays).
Class Dates (every OTHER Sunday): May 5, 19, Jun. 2, 16, 30 (no classes on School Holidays).
Class Dates (every OTHER Sunday): May. 5, 19, Jun. 2, 16, 30 (no classes on School Holidays).
The Wooburn Craft School, is pleased to announce that Suzy Wright of Modern Mosaics, a successful Mosaic Artist and tutor will be teaching a taster class in Mosaics Art this spring. In this 2-day course you will learn a few basics about mosaic design, the tools, and the different considerations when choosing and cutting materials, including adhesives and grouting. We will start with a small, simple piece of work then progress to bigger projects as time permits. The tutor has a large collection of images/books for inspiration and a great selection of materials for making your mosaic or you can bring your own design and Suzy will help in translating it into Mosaic Art.
All levels of experience are welcome – no experience is needed. Furthermore…you don’t have to be an artist to create a beautiful Mosaic Art!
Marquetry is frequently called the art of ‘painting with wood’. And indeed it is, as furniture makers and artists have been using this technique to produce beautiful pictures with wood for hundreds of years. Examples can be seen in many 18th, 19th and 20th century pieces of furniture. The course will concentrate on the saw cut marquetry techniques used in the 18th century by using two exercises; the Boulle technique, using brass and pigmented horn. A floral design in wood veneers using, the piece by piece method. There will also be the opportunity for the participants to use a marquetry donkey and electric scroll saw.
Each day will begin with a short lecture then; a series of group demonstrations will be given on the techniques and procedures for each project. Each participant will carry out the two exercises, working at their own pace; the exercises will get progressively more complex as the week progresses.
Each participant should at the end of the week have two marquetry panels attached to brown paper for ease of transport, which they can glue onto a substrate of their choice following the course. Of course, if time permits, these can be glued to a substrait in the class.
The tutor, Paul Tear, MBE, has been working with marquetry furniture for well over 35 years. First he was the head of conservation at The Wallace Collection, then course leader of the Furniture Conservation Course at Bucks New University in High Wycombe. During that time, one of his primary specialties has been in the restoration and creation of marquetry furniture and design.
Marquetry is frequently called the art of ‘painting with wood’. And indeed it is, as furniture makers and artists have been using this technique to produce beautiful pictures with wood for hundreds of years. Examples can be seen in many 18th, 19th and 20th century pieces of furniture. The course will concentrate on the saw cut marquetry techniques used in the 18th century by using two exercises; the Boulle technique, using brass and pigmented horn and a floral design in wood veneers using, the piece by piece method. There will also be the opportunity for the participants to use a marquetry donkey and electric scroll saw.
Each day will begin with a short talk then; a series of group demonstrations will be given on the techniques and procedures for each project. Each participant will carry out the two exercises, working at their own pace; the exercises will get progressively more complex as the week progresses.
Class Dates (Monday to Friday): Jul. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Pyrography is an ancient and unusual art, traditionally the art of wood burning. The effect is achieved by scorching the surface to various depths of brown to produce a picture. It gives a similar impression to that of a pen and ink drawing, or an engraving, but is capable of additional subtle and beautiful effects. Indeed, anything that burns can be used as a substrate for this work and it has been executed on leather, velvet, cork, paper and glass.
Pyrography is frequently used in conjunction with wood carving in order to add depth to a piece. It can be used to create shadows or to bring out things such as hair or feathers. In Marquetry it can be used to add details such as facial features or perhaps, like carving, to show feathers or hair.
In this two day course, students will be introduced to some of the tools used in the pursuit of this artistic skill. You will be given a number of exercises designed to teach different techniques and effects.
Class Dates : Jul. 6 and 7.
Power tools, disks and materials will be supplied but please bring your own safety equipment such as anti vibration gloves, eye protection Visor, dust mask, aprons or smocks and ear defenders (the school can provide eye protection and ear defenders other items can be provided at an additional cost.).
Class Dates (Monday to Friday): Jul. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
This is a five-day carving course, for those with some experience in woodcarving. The exciting undertaking will be to carve a Ball and Bellflower motif onto a circular mirror frame. The wood will be lime and the carving is designed to be done with an assortment of carving tools (including a number of number 2 chisels, a skew and a V-tool). While all tools will be provided students, everyone is welcome to bring their own tools.
In this class, the mirror frame will come as a blank with the basic design routed out; this means the carving depth will be set and students need to do a minimal amount of edge shaping before commencing the more important aspect – the carving. The course will begin with an explanation of this historic importance of the design and end with painting and finishing the frame and pinning the mirror in place.
Note there will be a material charge of £25 or less – paid directly to the tutor.
Class Dates (Monday to Friday): Jul. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.
Class Dates (Monday to Friday): Jul. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.
Beginning students will learn the craft of Wood Carving using traditional tools through a couple of challenging exercises, talks and demonstrations. Those new to Wood Carving will learn all the basics and will develop the basic skills to successfully carve objects in wood. They will develop an understanding of wood, how to use the basic tools, then how to conceptualize a final Wood Carving goal and how to reach that goal. More advanced students will continue to improve their skills by carving more advanced pieces with careful guidance from the tutor.
In this summer course, a special emphasis can be placed on furniture or decorative arts design elements such as a shell, an acanthus leaf, a ball and claw foot, etc.
In this week-long class you will learn how to cane a chair seat or back using the standard six-way pattern.
Students need to bring their own piece of furniture which must be suitable for caning. It should have one or more panels with regularly spaced holes going all the way through the frame. Any repairs should be complete before caning, as well as cleaning, painting or French polishing. A trapezium shaped bedroom chair is suitable for beginners.
We will be looking at different shaped panels and the challenges they offer, preparation, weaving the pattern with cane, and methods of finishing the edges.
Other students may want to learn how to rush a chair. So, there will also be an opportunity to weave a rush seat using English rush in the ‘envelope’ pattern. A small bedroom chair or stool is suitable. The piece should have solid rails around the seat with raised corners. A drop-in seat is not recommended for beginners.
For those with experience of cane seating there will be an opportunity to learn more advanced techniques such as to do blind or double caning, to work a sun rise or medallion shape, to perform hexagonal weave or close caning.
In all cases students will need to bring their own furniture to work on, although it will be possible to purchase a suitable piece from the Wooburn Craft School. Please contact the school well in advance to discuss your requirements and the suitability of your furniture.
All students should let us know what you want to learn in this class so we can plan appropriately.
Class Dates (Monday to Friday): Jul. 29, 30, 31, Aug. 1, 2.
In this special class, the tutor Simon Clements will introduce the students to that exceptional design element – the acanthus leaf. Seen on many pieces of decoration through out the ancient Greece, to the renaissance, through to modern pieces of furniture, learning to carve this design element is important to all carvers. In this course, students will select one of two versions of the acanthus leaf to carve either a gothic or classical Greek. Most students will then have time to complete the carving of the second piece. There will also be presentations and discussions on the differences between the different styles of the Acanthus leaf as it evolved through history and how important it was to design.
As with all carving courses, chisels will be provided, however students are encouraged to bring their own tools. There will be a small materials charge (less than £25) paid directly to the teacher at the end of the course.
Class Dates (Monday to Friday): Aug. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
As a beginner’s course, this class starts the process for learning French Upholstery. The instructor will teach the basics of French upholstery, including the use of French materials (webbing, cord, etc.), tools, and methods (different approaches to measuring, stitching, etc.) ending with a basic buttoned footstool. The students are expected to have some upholstery experience in upholstery but not necessarily experience with French Upholstery. This course will also accommodate those with some experience in French Upholstery (those who have taken the beginning section). For this we will ask that you notify the school so we can discuss options. One is to produce a panel which includes all the basic stitching used in French upholstery other options might be to reupholster a French chair (e.g. a Louis XVI chair). We will have another course in October so you can do both an introductory and an ‘advanced’ session.
This class offers discounted rates for students and ICON members.
Class Dates (Monday to Friday): Oct. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25.
This very popular course is returning to The Wooburn Craft School. Taught by a leading Conservator – Restorer and teacher in France, Pierre-Alain Le Cousin, who will instruct students on the fine art of finishing decorative objects. Particular attention will be spent on French Polishing and the use of wax finishes. As a leading expert in the field of restoration and conservation, Pierre-Alain will be able to share with the students many techniques and insights that would be difficult to get elsewhere. In this course, he will discuss the basics (the ‘mouse’, the different types of shellacs, the different types of waxes), he will present different recipes for using shellac for varnishing, and for filling, different wax recipes, the use of resin based shellac for filling. This will be a very hands on course as Pierre-Alain, will show students how to apply the shellac and wax, how to apply black shellac and shellac for brasses. If times allows, Pierre-Alain will also demonstrate the use of painting techniques in restoration. | 2019-04-26T13:53:02Z | http://thewooburncraftschool.com/craft-class-schedule/ |
The Trump Right and the Corbyn Left are significantly different on paper, but both are symptoms of the same kind of political problems. Trump rails against free trade and immigration; Corbyn against big multinationals, foreign property investors, and the free movement of capital that enables tax evasion. Their target market is the kind of people that academic scholars call the ‘losers of globalisation’ – those who see the world changing around them but haven’t seen the advantages, those who have been told about the prosperity brought about by globalisation but haven’t gotten any better off, those who see an establishment talking about life getting better but feel like life has gotten worse.
The benefits of globalisation are well-documented, but too little has been done to spread the resultant prosperity. Prosperity has been centralised: the primary beneficiary in the UK has been London, with rural areas and our smaller towns and cities not feeling the benefits. The primary beneficiary of economic development in many cities has been the city centre, with those on the fringes largely ignored.
For conservatives to fight the rise of figures like Corbyn and Trump, we need to find ways to help those who have heard about the benefits of globalisation, but not seen them for themselves. Fortunately, we are best placed to provide long term, viable solutions to spread the benefits of a changing world to everyone in our society: Corbynism consists of dangerously short-termist policies – throwing unsustainable amounts of money at a broken system, at the expense of massive national debt which will force future generations to deal with worse problems with far less money to play with; Trumpism is largely empty rhetoric, designed more to win office than to solve anything; but Conservatism has the pragmatism and the ideological tools needed to help spread the benefits of globalisation – primarily through our commitment to the spread of opportunity for all.
When proposing any solution, it is important to remember our social contract with future generations not to impact their living standards at the expense of our own. While Corbynism is happy to spend tomorrow’s money today, leaving higher taxes, higher debt and increased austerity for future generations, we must ensure that we invest in sustainable, long-term projects.
A policy priority for spreading opportunity to all must be investing in our rural regions and regeneration of urban areas. Infrastructural investment in better roads, improving existing housing stock and building new houses, and investing in facilities for businesses will be an important long-term way to bring opportunity to everyone. We need to invest in job-creation by bringing businesses to areas with low levels of employment by building business parks on brownfield sites and encouraging long-term economic growth by providing long, cheap contracts for businesses to move into those areas and providing rates relief based on the number of employees a business takes on.
As well as bringing jobs to disadvantaged areas, we need to find ways to get people from those areas to jobs elsewhere. As well as investment in roads, an efficient and regular system of public transport is needed. That means regular buses in rural areas and an extension of existing bus routes in urban areas to make them accessible to everyone. Means-tested bus passes should also be considered, as a way to increase the accessibility of public transport.
To truly transform our society and bring opportunity for everyone, we also need to revolutionise our education system. The hysteresis in human capital from long term unemployment can leave people unable to find work. Implementing new free adult education programmes to enable people without work to gain new skills or trades that will make it easier for them to find work would help us to expand opportunity, and change the mindset that education is the exclusive preserve of young people. These adult education sessions should be held in areas with high unemployment, to ensure that they are accessible to those who would most benefit from them.
Reforms to other areas of education are important as well. Reducing the focus on grades and making it about learning will lessen the strains of our education system on mental health, and reducing the emphasis on exams would allow people to learn all the way through the year, rather than school being reduced to learning largely irrelevant facts for three quarters of a year and then spending a significant chunk of the year with a series of exercises that test recall ability more than actual knowledge. Children deserve choice too. An education system that allows them to choose between a focus on technical education, a focus on a more academic education, or a comprehensive focus on both is one where children can better reach their potential and will be less dissuaded from seeking knowledge. The current education system is a poor fit for many pupils, so giving them a chance to have a different style of education where they can learn about something they are interested in will enable more of our young people to fulfil their human potential.
While we’re on the subject of education, something needs to be done to continue to improve the accessibility of higher education for disadvantaged students. Maintenance grants should be reintroduced, so that the cost of higher education for these students is more in line with their counterparts, and the interest rate on our student loans should be held at inflation, to reduce the anxiety such a loan will cause. More work also needs to be done to reduce the myths that have been perpetuated around student loans. Students have become steadily more concerned about the impact that student debt will have on their lives – in part because of unhelpful scaremongering rhetoric from those who oppose tuition fees – when it is in reality no different to a means-tested tax with a 30-year period and an upper limit on how much it will cost you.
As Conservatives we are the party of home ownership, and so this is another area where we need to do more to help people. Encouraging the development of housing on brownfield sites and renovating and redeveloping run-down social housing would be an important long term investment in our country’s infrastructure. State-run housing is unfortunately incredibly inefficient and poorly maintained, and so we also need to come up with a way of balancing the need to house people with the knowledge that them owning the house will increase their standard of living and housing quality. Help to buy has already achieved a lot here, but another solution might be to simply hand over the home to its tenants (if they so desire) and then take payments towards it in the form of a means-tested tax. Those earning too little to pay the upkeep would receive housing benefit, while those who could afford it would pay towards the value of the house until they had contributed a certain amount. This would remove the up-front cost associated with getting onto the housing ladder and could be used to help both disadvantaged households and first-time buyers.
Finally, it is important that we consider how we can spread opportunity when taking advantage of Brexit. Being outside the European Union’s Customs Union means that we will have lots of opportunities to secure free trade deals and encourage foreign direct investment. This increased globalisation will benefit our country as a whole, but it is also important to ensure that it benefits rural areas and urban areas which have been left behind by globalisation thus far.
The Corbyn Left and the Trump Right are ultimately two symptoms of a wider societal problem that conservatives are well-placed to solve. In an increasingly globalised world, too many people have heard about the benefits of globalisation without feeling any of them. Populism, whether from the left or the right, has empty rhetoric and short termist solutions; conservatism has the unique combination of pragmatism and commitment to equality of opportunity that is needed to spread the benefits of globalisation to all. It is not that communities which have been left behind cannot catch up, it is simply that they haven’t been given the tools to respond to the rapid societal changes that have occurred. We need a radical commitment to expanding opportunity to improve our society. | 2019-04-19T04:55:19Z | http://mallarduk.com/the-answer-to-the-trump-right-and-the-corbyn-left-matthew-cowley/ |
A stunning addition to Tel Aviv’s hottest neighborhood for hotel stays, the Jaffa Hotel is a must-go for visitors to Israel, even if only to gawk at The Chapel bar. Pros: gorgeous renovation of a historic space, fun neighborhood, friendly staff. Cons: not the greatest view from my room, mixed-up room-service beverage order, not enough dates.
A former monastery and hospital, the Jaffa Hotel opened its doors in late August as part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection brand, joining the Setai Tel Aviv and the Drisco in turning the 4,000-year-old port city of Jaffa into arguably the hottest neighborhood in the city. And when I went on a trip there earlier this winter, I found that its much-buzzed-about restoration and renovation of a 19th-century Neo-Gothic and Neo-Renaissance architecture did not disappoint.
The Jaffa was a Category 6 property in the Marriott award chart at the time of this review, but the hotel has since moved to Category 7. Award nights were available for the dates I needed, so I booked a two-night stay for 50,000 points per night — a pretty solid value considering rooms were going for around $600 in cash.
My booking got me a deluxe king room with a balcony and a city view in the hotel’s contemporary wing. If I could do it all over again, I’d aim for a room in the historic wing, with its lofty ceilings, arched windows and pool views, though.
The hotel is nestled on a hilltop in the heart of Tel Aviv’s ancient Jaffa neighborhood, overlooking the port and the Mediterranean Sea. It’s a five-minute walk to the beach, the Jaffa Flea Market, the famous Abouelafia Bakery and a plethora of incredible shwarma restaurants.
From Ben Gurion Airport (TLV), the hotel was a 30-minute taxi ride in moderate traffic for around 150 shekels ($40). (Make sure you tell them to turn on the meter so they don’t charge a random amount.) The hotel didn’t have an airport shuttle, and the nearest bus and train stations were about two-and-a-half miles away.
As soon as I walked down the long corridor to the lobby, I was in awe of this remarkable renovation and the impeccable design by renowned British architect John Pawson, in collaboration with local architect and conservationist Ramy Gill. The lobby, in the new building, combined remnants of a 13th-century Crusaders’ bastion wall, together with furniture by Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata and Damien Hirst paintings.
Part of a 13th-century Crusader’s bastion wall runs through the lobby.
Beautiful furniture by Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata and Damien Hirst artwork line the lobby.
I was met with a pomegranate mocktail and bottle of water as I checked in. There was an issue with my booking, as they were having difficulty finding my reservation, but despite that and the fact that I was rather tired and irritable from the long flight, the staff was charming and everyone did their best to clear it up in a speedy manner.
Complimentary pomegranate mocktail on arrival.
I took the opportunity to enjoy the bespoke backgammon tables in the lobby.
My deluxe king room was in the modern part of the building rather than the historic wing, and my attentive bellman bravely led me through the dark corridors to the room, giving me an informative (maybe too informative) explanation of all the lighting and air-conditioning fixtures.
The mirror doubles as a TV.
The all-important complimentary dried-fruit plate.
The room was lovely, airy and light-filled, thanks to an inviting balcony and many mirrors. It was not the largest room I’d been in, but felt more spacious than a New York hotel room.
Some of the other rooms in the contemporary wing faced the inner courtyard of the hotel, but my room stared at a neighboring wall. Still, it got warm afternoon light, and the balcony was pleasant to munch dates on.
The room was stocked with plenty of water, local wine, fresh fruit, coffee machines, a minibar with Pepsi and pomegranate juice (never a shortage of that in Israel) and well-curated spirit bottles, ready to decant. Oh, and did I mention the dates? Sadly, the dates were not replenished every day.
I am a sucker for hotel beds, but this “floating” one was particularly comfortable.
The closet held a safe, robe and flip-flops, and a iron and board arrived promptly at my door after I asked reception for them.
The bathroom had a spacious rainfall shower, private water closet, generous number of towels and an array of amenities, including a shoeshine kit and a loofah, which I had forgotten to pack.
Having just flown from New York, the last thing I felt like ordering was a bagel with lox and cream cheese, but the Jaffa had a menu influenced by Brooklyn delis. The all-day Golda’s Delicatessen, which substituted as the room-service menu, was packed with tuna melts, avocados toasts, various kinds of eggs and triple-decker sandwiches. I was looking for something more Middle Eastern (there is nothing better than an Israeli breakfast) but instead landed on an omelet with smoked salmon, tea, pomegranate juice and coffee. The pomegranate turned out to be beet juice (easy mistake, but still disappointing), but the coffee was delicious, and the buttery sourdough toast hit the spot. The room-service breakfast was about 100 shekels (around $30).
I went back to Golda’s the next morning for breakfast. It was on the lower level of the 19th-century building and featured original vaulted ceilings. My chilled melon, scrambled eggs, mint tea, and avocado challah toast were pretty great. I didn’t need the side of buttered bagel, but I ate it and loved it, I won’t lie. The avocado toast was 44 shekels ($12).
The other dining option at the hotel was the Italian-American restaurant, Don Camillo, a collaboration between Israeli chef Roi Antebi and a New York restaurant group. Dinner there was primarily an affair of a pasta, fish and meat with a touch of the Mediterranean. This restaurant required a reservation.
What the lobby bar lacked in atmosphere, it made up for in mixology. It was not a place to while a night away, but it was a good for a quick strong drink or two and an espresso — the perfect storm before a night out in Tel Aviv! I had two tequilas and an espresso for about 120 shekels ($35). Don’t judge my weird drink combination.
And speaking of vibe, the pièce de résistance of the Jaffa was the bar and lounge, built into what was once a prayer space and aptly named The Chapel. Without a doubt, this was one of the most stunning bars I’d ever seen, and it was worth a visit for the architecture and furniture design alone. But it was more of a place to gawk at the beauty and have a quick overpriced cocktail on the way to somewhere else. That’s what I did, getting a tequila cocktail for 70 shekels (about $20). It opened at 10:30pm, hence the espresso at the lobby bar! To drink there, you needed a reservation with the concierge.
The Jaffa had a 4,500-square-foot L. Raphael beauty spa with an array of traditional spa services, as well as many more expensive ones that promised oxygen, gravity and diamonds. I do love diamonds, but I opted for the free steam and sauna instead. The steam did not seem to be working and had a rather musty odor, so I spent most of my time pouring water over the coals in the furiously hot sauna. Unfortunately, it was not hot enough to sweat out all the pita bread I ate.
The pool was absolutely lovely and quiet, with the perfect ratio of shade and sun. Plus, the water was a great temperature, according to my toe. As it was winter in Tel Aviv, I wouldn’t have hated a hot tub, but pool it was! There were a couple of people laying out and drinking pomegranate juice (or was it beet?), but in general it was quiet.
The gym was well-equipped, spacious and empty, with plenty of machines even if it did get busy. I used the treadmill enough to work off half a date. If indoor gyms were not your bag, the hotel offered complimentary bikes and helmets.
The Jaffa is a gorgeous renovation in a convenient and fun neighborhood and with friendly and accommodating staff. It felt welcoming and comfortable but still like I was treating myself to a luxe experience. It was quiet but still had a friendly buzz to it. Granted, this was winter in Tel Aviv and only three months after it opened, and it may be a different scene come summer. I would stay there again in a heartbeat, but would opt for a room in the historic wing — and ask for more dates. | 2019-04-25T10:06:35Z | https://thepointsguy.com/reviews/jaffa-hotel-tel-aviv/ |
For many, the West Coast MC Game is one of the more underrated artists of our time. Since his arrival to the mainstream in the early-mid 2000s courtesy of 50 Cent and Dr. Dre, Game has remained a mainstay in hip hop culture. His catalog is seen by many as one of the more underrated in the genre, and today, that's what we are here to discuss. Keep in mind, this discography check will NOT include his work with JT The Bigga Figga or the miscellaneous projects that aren't "official". With that out of the way, we look to answer a few questions. Does Game have a top tier catalog? Does he have multiple classic albums? Let's take a look at Game's discography.
-His official debut, released on G-Unit/Aftermath is one of my favorite albums of that year. Game had the privilege of utilizing the hook writing skills of 50 Cent, as well as the executive producing genius of Dre to his advantage, and with their assistance, his first album was essentially a classic. There was substance, balancing tracks for the ladies with West Coast street anthems, and soulful hip hop. The features on this album are top notch, and unbelievable for a debut, as 50, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, and Nate Dogg all assisted the Compton rapper. Production wise, it's almost as if Game gathered the biggest names and worked with an All Star producer cast, as Dre, Hi-Tek, Scott Storch, Just Blaze, Buckwild, Havoc, Kanye West, Cool and Dre, and Timbaland all would contribute to the sound of this album. In many ways, The Documentary was set up to be a hip hop classic, and to most, it is. Songs like "Hate It or Love It", "Start From Scratch", "Westside Story", and "Dreams" all showcased the talent of the rising star. I'd still consider the Documentary the best, or the 2nd best album from Game at the very least for sure.
-This is honestly one of my favorite albums in his catalog and with good reason. This album sees Game all alone, on his own, without G-Unit, without 50, without Dre, and he finds his own identity for the most part on this album. Still, you can hear traces of 50 and an enormous trace of Dre all throughout the album, as evidenced by the title. However, there's no actual Dre contribution, no Dr. Dre assistance, but Game keeps the sound consistent with West Coast production vibes from DJ Khalil, Will I. Am, Scott Storch, Jelly Roll, and J.R. Rotem, while getting more lush sounds from Kanye West, Hi-Tek, and Just Blaze. The album has solid hits in "One Blood", "Wouldn't Get Far", a missed potential single in the Jamie Foxx featured "Around The World", but I'd be lying if I didn't admit the strongest songs are when Game gets honest and talks from the soul on tracks like "One Night", "Ol' English", and "Why You Hate The Game". Overall, this album is cohesive and should be considered a huge win for Game, considering he was kicked out of G-Unit, beefed with 50, Jay, and others in the fallout since his debut and still knocked out a great album that saw success.
-If I had to pick a Game album that was my least favorite, this would probably be the one (or my 2nd least favorite). It's not that the album is bad necessarily, but it's a step down from the standard his first two set. It has a lot of great features, as we have come to expect from Game albums, but it's very flawed in the important areas, like cohesion and sequencing. Game never seems to slack lyrically, but this album feels a bit lifeless. Still, the features from Ice Cube, Bilal, Raekwon, Lil Wayne, Common, Ludacris, DMX, and Nas don't disappoint, but the album could have benefited from a smaller tracklist (19 songs on the regular edition, 23 on the deluxe edition). Production wise, he utilizes Hi-Tek, Kanye West, J.R. Rotem, Nottz, Cool and Dre and more, all producers who worked on his previous albums to keep that vibe intact. It works on songs like the Common assisted "Angel", the Nas assisted "Letter To The King", and the Bilal assisted "Cali Sunshine", but there are one too many misses on this album. It's a solid listen, but cutting out the filler would have worked wonders.
-This was a plain attempt to revive what he might have lost on the previous album, but much like LAX, this album is uneven and misses more than it should. Pharrell and Dr. Dre serve as executive producers on the album, and you'd think that would help it, but from the beginning, there's something missing. The Dr. Dre intro is a nice touch, and the opening track featuring Kendrick Lamar "The City" is great, but after that, we begin an up and down ride quality wise. The features from Lil Wayne here are hit or miss, the Drake assisted "Good Girls Go Bad" is disappointing, and the single "Pot Of Gold" with Chris Brown leaves us a bit unsatisfied as listeners. However, when Game keeps it simple, as usual, he shines. Tracks like the Rick Ross and Beanie Sigel assisted "Heavy Artillery", the DJ Khalil produced "Ricky", and the DJ Premier "Born In The Trap" all work well, but this album has the same issue as LAX: too much filler. Cutting off about 7 to 8 of these tracks would make this a much more enjoyable album. This is as middle of the road as a Game album can be.
-I have mixed feelings on the album. It's hard, with the right production, and the aggressive lyrics, but Game continues his trend of adhering to the style and flow of his guests rather than bring them into his. Still, it's an enjoyable listen, but feels more like a "Game and Friends" compilation album than a Game solo. With features from artists like Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Meek Mill, J. Cole, Kanye West, Common, Trey Songz, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, Fabolous, Pusha T, Kendrick Lamar, and even more, this is honestly like the Hip Hop All Star Game. With a shorter tracklist than his previous two, there's not much filler to complain about, my only issue is that there's not enough Game on this album. There's only a few solo songs, and even those have features on the hook, making this album a fun listen as a compilation, but it was a bit lackluster as a solo album. Still, who could deny "Name Me King", "Celebration", the title track, "Ali Bomaye", and other anthems that he created? This is a solid album, better than his previous two, but not matching his first two.
-This is one of those albums that is similar to Jesus Piece, as it feels like a compilation as well (and it appears to be labeled as such). It has features from Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, T.I., Yo Gotti, French Montana, and many more, but thanks to a smaller tracklist, it doesn't get boring. It's not the best work Game has been a part of, and it's not the worst, it's essentially right there in the middle of his catalog. I'd suggest giving it a listen at least once if you haven't yet.
-The sequel to his legendary debut came over 10 years after the release of the original. Game went back to get producers like Kanye, Cool and Dre, DJ Premier, and others who he had worked with earlier in his career and stacked the lineup for production. He surprisingly has Stat Quo of all people help to executive produce the album, and it's an enjoyable listen overall, but not as good as the original. It's rare a sequel is better than the first, and this is no exception. While he had a hit with the Drake assisted "100", and a West Coast legend fest with the Dr. Dre and Ice Cube assisted "Don't Trip", Game doesn't keep the cohesion and consistency long enough during the tracklist to make this a great album. I'd consider this project to be just below the first two albums and right below Jesus Piece, but there's still some dope music to listen to here, even if it doesn't flow as well sequencing wise.
-In what is an interesting contrast, 2.5 is much better than 2. Game gives us more of a gangsta rap perspective here than he does on 2, and his rhymes are even better here. The production is more gritty and the instrumentation is much better, and the features are even more hip hop centered. With Anderson Paak, Nas, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, Scarface, a focused Lil Wayne, DJ Quik, and more featured, there's a comfort level that Game finds on this album. This album is good enough to compete with his first two, but I think it rests comfortably at the 3rd spot in his discography. From the production to the songs to the lyrics, everything about 2.5 exceeds 2, and elevates it in his catalog.
-The last album that Game has officially released is actually pretty dope and has minimal features, taking heed to criticism he's received his career and spitting in the face of it. It's a solid listen, but I'd only have one complaint and that's the uneven production, but otherwise, this album is a really good project. It's got an older sound in some aspects, but also feels current, a perfect blend that fits right with Game. I think 1992 is right there under The Documentary 2.5, and competing with Jesus Piece for that 4th spot, which is not a bad place to be in terms of catalog. With one final Game album reportedly coming, I wonder what he has up his sleeve for the last chapter of his career. Only time will tell.
"I Grew Up On Wu-Tang" | 2019-04-23T23:55:19Z | http://www.definearevolution.com/2017/06/discography-check-game.html |
Going back in time .
Well I am starting this blog to record my return to an older type of shaving . Like most of us I at present use the ubiquitous supermarket disposable razors , and have done so for , well I don't really know how long . When did these disposable and cartridge type of razors come about ? I guess I have been shaving regularly since I was around 16 which ,as I was born in 1953 , make it around 1969 when I started . I have a memory a very faint one I admit , to having a razor that twisted to open and receive a double edge blade of the kind that came in little rectangular boxes . I remember that the blades came wrapped in paper and the used blades were posted into a slot in the back of the box . Now that is all I actually remember of these things and as soon as the more modern types , disposables came out I started using them. Well you would wouldn't you how many teenagers want to do things as their Fathers do most of us wanted to look modern I guess , well I did anyway .
So where is all this rambling leading to , I am glad you asked ! As I am getting somewhat better at sharpening knives My poor weak mind seems to be taken with the idea of buying a straight razor from an antiques centre ,something from the 1880's to around the demise of the Old Queen , in 1901 I think . I admit that I only knew the date of Queen Victoria's death from watching my favourite John Wayne film The Shootist . So the thought of going from a modern razor to an inexpertly sharpened cutthroat is for me a daunting prospect and unusually good sense has prevailed and instead of leaping straight back to the end of the nineteenth century perhaps the 1950's may be a better place to start .
I have now checked out a few video's on YouTube and have found that the razors that I remember from my youth are indeed called DE or double edge . In fact this whole retro shaving lark is alive and kicking without me knowing anything about it . Youtube is awash with helpful young fellows scraping the whiskers off their finely honed chins with razors that they certainly don't remember from the first time round . Mind you I have learned an awful lot more about shaving than my Father ever taught me ,I guess it must have been him that showed me the ropes though I don't remember the lesson .
So I now have an Edwin Jagger DE89 razor and am waiting for those fine folks at Amazon to deliver the rest of the not inconsiderable amount of gear that it seems I must have . A styptic pencil ,what a word from the dawn of history , anyway I have forgotten to order one so in the short term things may get bloody !! The razor looks nice and I am thinking that it is probably of a lot higher quality than I would have had in the late sixties. I would likely have had an old one of my Dad's to start .
I hope to return to this blog in the future , blood loss allowing , and record my return journey to the shavings of my youth and hopefully back in time to the days of the Old Queen and a wonderful straight razor . Got to get through my lack of a styptic pencil first , can't imagine what a young girl in the chemist will think if I ask for one of those .
I have recently discovered that synthetic shaving brushes are available, not only are they out there but these things are reputedly very good.
Traditionally brushes tended to be either Badger hair or Boar bristle, which incidentally used to be the preferred material for toothbrushes I believe ! There are horse hair brushes and some that have a mixture but generally, that was it. recently I began hearing good reports about synthetic ones from a Chinese firm called Yaqi, available from Aliexpress so bound to be economical. Thought I should try one, and at $17 including postage then why not? It arrived last week after the usual couple of week delivery wait. Very very good is my opinion, and if I had known how economical they were then I would never have bothered buying Badger brushes. Well if anyone is either in need of a new shaving brush or wishes to treat a husband or partner then take my advice and go for one of these.
You know many folks in our age bracket, dont try new things as frightening as holding a straight razor to their face and throat. I am not only impressed that you tried it but that you embraced it to the point your willing to hold up your trial and error sharpening ! Kudos my friend, you have earned the rank of shaving ninja from me!
It's been two years now and I am still fascinated by straight razors.
I have quite a few, can sharpen them pretty well and don't knick myself very often.
Using a straight razor is a great way to start the day, it does wake you up.
Altogether it must have been eighteen months before I really felt confident in both the use and the sharpening. Then again learning anything is more difficult when you are over sixty, I am glad I did it though and equally glad if I don't have to learn anything else that is quite as ...well frightening, as the first few times I put that razor against my face.
Even having said that I do recommend this old fashioned way of shaving as it gives better results and is a great way of waking yourself up in the morning.
Well it has been a year now since I wrote the first part of this blog , how quickly time does pass !
My wish was to return to an earlier way of shaving and in the past year that is just what I have done . Learning to use a DE razor again was really no trouble at all and they are a whole lot better to shave with than the multi blade disposable type , which seem to be an unnecessarily complex and expensive answer to a question that no one asked .
The next step that I wished to achieve was to buy , sharpen and learn to use a straight razor from the time of Queen Victoria . I am happy to now have several razors from that era and have managed to get them back into use .
So to finish off this blog a brief summary of this process may be of help to anyone else who wishes to follow this path .
Well learning to use a DE is easy and a good introduction to the old fashioned way of shaving . However using a straight razor is a little more demanding to start with and there is a definite learning curve to be negotiated ! However as long as you go slowly and steadily then there is nothing to be afraid of .
Sharpening a razor , now that is probably a more tricky area to approach . The reasons why are because of the sheer amount of information available online these days . Without youtube learning this sort of thing would be tricky , however with youtube it is very easy to get lost in the sheer amount of conflicting views . I have bought an awful lot of sharpening gear over the past year and although I don't begrudge it in all honesty I could have managed with a lot less . Sharpening a razor isn't as difficult as the terribly earnest guys on some of the forums would have you believe , but you do need a set of sharpening stuff which is a whole lot finer than you might have for your knives .
Anyone who wants to have a go at this way of shaving and are willing to take my advice then to save a lot of time and effort simply buy a sharp razor and a pasted loom or paddle strop.
Not all razors are sharp from the maker just as is the case with knives . So buy a razor from someone who guarantees to sharpen it for you and you will be able to maintain the edge with a pasted strop for long enough to get used to the art of using an open razor . You could do that with new equipment for around £100 in the UK and a good deal less if you use ebay and know someone who can sharpen . Got to be a guy who is used to razors though !! I am sure that the price would be somewhat less in the States . If I knew then what I know now the whole operation could have been done a lot cheaper , wouldn't have been as much fun though.
Oh yes the answer to the question I get asked most frequently is, I have cut myself three times and none of them were at all serious just about the same as I used to do with a disposable .
I am still just amazed at the number of older razors, still in fantastic shape out there. I suspect there must have been many razor collectors early on (1920-1940).
Thanks Dale , and your kindness helped the collection to grow in quality !
It's been a good year for you, John .. congrats !!!
I went back & read this thread .. very nice !!!
Thanks Jan , it has been an interesting trip that only started in February . I have learned what appears to be an awful lot about razors and sharpening in that time , though I am sure there is a long way to go . If this helps others to see that it isn't as scary as you may at first think and if I can revive some old razors that craftsmen made some years ago then anyone else could do the same .
You are right Allan , an unfortunate choice of words !!
"I promise to try to catch up the events calendar this week"
"I have notified NING and they are working on fixing the photo issue. You will be able to add soon" | 2019-04-24T17:00:34Z | https://iknifecollector.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3181080%3ABlogPost%3A1395262&commentId=3181080%3AComment%3A1458799 |
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OSIsoft Users Conference 2012 (UC 2012) was the biggest event ever with a lot of energy around new releases (PI Server 2012). Partners and customers also brought a lot to the table in the Expo and all across the presentations, lounges, and hallways. The vCampus team had a strong presence throughout the event with our stand in the Social Lounge and the notorious green t-shirts! We met with a lot of existing and potential vCampus members. We also handed out a 45-day trial subscription to OSIsoft vCampus for the UC attendees. If you know someone who attended the UC and is interested in the trial please let us/them know.
With that behind us, vCampus Live! 2012 is approaching faster than we can imagine! We have already started planning and brainstorming about the event to make it bigger and better than ever! Last year we added the hands-on angle to the event which was received very well by you, the community.
For one thing, we are planning to have hands-on sessions again and will plan them better to iron out the wrinkles we experienced in 2011. Also, the new venue is recently renovated, looks much more modern, and is literally steps away from the world-famous San Francisco Union Square!
Let us know what you would or would not like to see in vCampus Live! 2012. This is the perfect time to express your ideas. Looking forward to seeing your comments here!
Assuming you guys still have the thread with immediate feedback from last year's event...an addition to that list would be a challenge. Some form of challenge that runs throughout the 2 days, and the winner(s) are announced in the closing ceremony/event - you know, the closing event that you guys are going to add this year.
Challenges are getting more and more popular. In fact we are organizing a challenge alongside this conference for non-PI developers. This should give us a very good insight into how this would be run and what we should expect out of it.
At the same time, some of the comments we got last year was that there were too many things going on at vCampus Live! in parallel. We need to be wary of the balance as well.
A bit far out there, how about a live community project or code snippet(s) that is developed in the evenings of vCampus Live (when we should be drinking beer)? We decide on what topic in the weeks leading up to the vCampus Live.
I'm all for having some kind of coding challenge/hackathon at vCampus Live! 2012. Maybe we could have it as a Day 0 event? As Ahmad stated, the event itself is already packed with sessions. Having a Day 0 coding challenge could be pretty awesome.
The vCampus Team had the opportunity to tour our new hotel in San Francisco (yes, vCampus Live! 2012 is going to be in a different hotel...) And the new hotel is super duper awesome. It has a great atmosphere, and has a great vibe to it. The venue has some great opportunities to have some sort of a programming challenge. And, don't worry. It is very close to the Palace, but at an even better location! We will share more details shortly!
If you are talking about doing a PI Hackathon then that sounds brilliant. Be very interesting to see what different people come up with in a few hours. The ones I've seen in the past came up with great ideas.
Also we here on VCampus that might not't make it might like some tweets on what is happening when you all get together.
So how about a Day 0 coding challenge (Community Project?) streamed live - maybe not as an "organised" event but a web cam or two left running in the war room so big brother (Ryan ) is always watching? OSIsoft can supply the red bull (other leading energy drinks providers are available).
Looks like we are getting somewhere with this idea! Can you think of or are you leaning toward any specific topic or technology for the challenge?
Big Brother - Thanks Rhys If we want to take it a step further perhaps some kind of remote controlled arm to prod those who fall asleep coding.
Not sure about ideas. Personally I am very interested in seeing mobile phone development or iPad development.
Maybe you could wait till the day for ideas and when teams get together they can think up their own ideas - that's how they usually do it and it opens it up for lots of different things. On the last day you could also show case the winning idea.
If you do it you need some kind of prize I think.
By the way, maybe you can delegate your Big Brother tasks to a PI System to historize people's KPI measurements and send you notifications when someones falls asleep; how about that as an idea?
I think you could be missing a trick here. You know best the challenges that face companies around the world in terms of infrastructure and you are trying to work out how best to address these. So you set before hand the architecture that the teams have to work within. The challenge being make something cool that brings the most value under these constraints.
That's when you get some wild ideas that for the most part might not work but if you get one that make sense then it's worth it Okay in terms of client machines for developing I guess you need to give some flexibility and get some clarity before hand.
I vote for AFSDK/RDA. It's new so most everyone would have the same starting point.
Nice this is getting some real attention .
Get a bunch of developers together and build new Data References in teams. We can build a library of useful DataReferences, and host and maintain them on vCampus. A lot of people have experience building these, and people who have not can be quickly introduced. This can be really productive.
How about something web-based using the new PI AF and PI Event Frames capabilities in the next version of PI Web Services?
Very entertaining and interesting thread. Not to rain on anyone's fun, but one problem with a Hackathon is that by choosing a given task, you may have accidentally favored one segment of the coding population over another. For instance, I've written over 2-dozen data references and feel I have a good understanding of what goes on for a DR. Now my co-worker, fellow developer, and boss, Randy Esposito, really knows very little about writing a DR. But if you gave us a task to write a Powershell script, the tables are turned. Randy becomes our go-to guy and I'm a blithering idiot with Powershell.
The Kinect sensior is a cool idea because if you're going to host a Hackathon, you'd want to give away a prize, so why not give the winner the Kinect?
What about a live pub quiz style competition, two teams of OSIsoft vs the Community. You know, you are shown a few pixels of an OSIsoft application from which you have to guess the application and version. Some lines of code have some method names missing, you have to fill in the gaps. Some general facts & figures about OSIsoft that have to be guessed. And so on. Lets see who knows OSIsoft better.
For the coding challenge, what about a Metro UI application?
First off, I love trivia contests. # of OSIsoft offices? obscure port numbers? List out 4 wild uses of PI System, and the contestants need to choose which one actually exists?
Sounds good to me, Stuart.
Maybe we could even have a specialist subject round like on the TV show Mastermind. Lets stick Chris Manhard under the spotlight and test his knowledge of the new AF SDK (Someone like Rick Davin could be the community representative).
Stuart, in any case: you should be the game show host!
I never thought of that, but yes I think we have found our host. Congratulations Stuart.
We will use a really strong bulb in the spotlight to make him hot, make him sweat and confused, well we can try to confuse him but not sure it will work.
Yikes, This thread has taken an alarming turn.
It's not too difficult to get me confused, however hot and sweaty might just depend on whether the beer tracker is paid up front.
Cool! So do we have any other suggestions for vCampus Live! on top of a contest and confusing Chris with a hot light bulb?
I know the hands-on sessions were embraced well and we need to work on some aspects of the execution. Is there anything else about them you like to change? What topics would you like to see covered?
Was the social lounge useful and effective? Anything to improve there?
An OSIsoft hackathon? This is, after all, the prime time of the year PI System developers from the whole world are in one location. With 24hr food available.
Ahmad, assuming we see cloud based data services for the PI System introduced before or around the vCampus Live 2012 event, how about covering that in a hands on lab? Or, is the whole Data Services running in the cloud going to be an extension of the PI Web Services? | 2019-04-18T13:29:55Z | https://pisquare.osisoft.com/thread/3803-uc-2012-is-over-hello-to-vcampus-live-2012 |
Influence comes in many forms. It can come through having the wit, intellect and experience that makes people listen to you. Most importantly, it is demonstrated when you can change the thinking and behaviour of those who are listening.
This year’s list of the 10 most influential people in the Australian IT industry is a group who have all proven capable of influencing the thinking and actions of others. Whether it is in shaping (or reshaping) the organisations they lead, the industry as a whole, or our broader society, they have all driven tangible outcomes that might not have otherwise been possible.
And with technology and innovation rising in Australia’s national agenda, their influence is only likely to grow stronger.
Many people have played a role in the invigoration of Australia’s startup scene and its elevation to national policy discussion, but one person who has been working for years on this goal is Peter Bradd. As a founding director of the Fishburners coworking space he helped grow it from hosting 30 entrepreneurs to 180, drawing support along the way from corporates including Optus, PwC, News Corp and Google. He regularly works with traditional businesses to inject startup thinking, and is a regular speaker and writer on startup processes and culture. Now, as the inaugural chief executive of startup advocacy group StartupAUS, he is working to develop policy to benefit Australia’s emerging high growth businesses, working closely with Canberra policymakers.
As a founder of Australia’s only unicorn (a venture capital-backed company that achieves a valuation of $US1 billion), Mike Cannon-Brookes could be excused for spending his time growing his 13-year-old business. Today Atlassian boasts more than 48,000 customers in over 160 countries, serviced by 1200 staff globally (with more than half in Sydney), and is on its way to a $US3 billion initial public offering. Cannon-Brookes has played a hand in creating a unique corporate culture that gives great freedom to employees, and has seen Atlassian named Australia’s Best Place to Work in 2014 and 2015. He has also been a tireless campaigner for growing the Australian startup sector, most recently by weighing in with a proposal to retain Sydney’s Australian Technology Park as a startup precinct, and has been recognised numerous times for his work, including winning the 2015 Advance Global Impact Award with Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar.
Often referred to as Australia’s ‘godfather of agile’, there can be little doubt about the influence that Nigel Dalton has had both on his employer, REA Group, and the entire Australian agile development movement. His relentless speaking schedule has seen Dalton delivering the closing keynote at the Agile Australia conference amongst dozens of other engagements. He has also mentored numerous startups and met with more than 500 organisations to discuss agility and disruption. But it is within REA that his impact is most visible, where he has created a culture based around agile practices that extends far beyond the tech team, and even influenced the design of the company’s new Melbourne headquarters.
Success can be fleeting, unless you’re Adrian Di Marco, founder and executive chairman of TechnologyOne. Since founding the enterprise software company in a factory in 1987 he has grown it to become Australia’s largest software makers, listing it on the ASX in December 1999 and subsequently joining the ranks of the top 200 ASX listed companies. Last year the company notched up 11 consecutive years of record revenue. He is also a big investor in R&D, having sunk more than $400 million into his company’s software which is now being sold across Asia and the UK with plans to expand to the US. Di Marco himself has been an outspoken champion of the local tech industry, as a founding member of Software Queensland an active participant in the QLD InQbator, as well being a regular speaker at events across the country.
As the chair of Australia’s largest technology company, Livingstone holds an unrivalled position of authority. And she has used that to drive one of the most impressive transformation programs in Australian corporate history, empowering her team to make sweeping changes that have rewritten the culture of what was once a moribund public sector organisation, and successfully guided Telstra into a stronger position despite the potentially disruptive emergence of the NBN. She is a passionate advocate for the role of technology in transforming Australian business, which she has pursued through her role as President at the Business Council of Australia, and was the focus of her widely-reported speech on disruption to the National Press Club in April this year.
Microsoft has experienced something of a renaissance globally under the leadership of Satya Nadella. But its success in Australia owes much to the work of Pip Marlow. A 20-year company veteran, Marlow held numerous roles with Microsoft both locally and in the US, before taking on the role of managing director in January 2011. She was the instigator of a program to transition to local office to activity-based working, making Microsoft an award-winning example of this new mode of working. She also drove Microsoft’s 2015 campaign on Joined-Up Innovation, to demonstrate the importance of innovation to business success, and the importance of culture to successful innovation. This included a parliamentary presentation to demonstrate the key finding that accelerating innovation among SMEs can potentially add $11 billion to Australia’s GDP. Marlow is also on the board of the Australian Information Industries Association and chairs the Business Council of Australia’s Labour Market, Skills and Education Committee.
Larry Marshall was surprised when he received the offer last year to head up Australia’s peak scientific research organisation. Many of those that know him well were even more surprised that he accepted. But the chance to improve Australia’s patchy record on commercialisation was sufficient to lure this multi-time successful Silicon Valley-based expat entrepreneur home. Marshall inherited an organisation shell-shocked by massive budget cuts, but has worked hard to create CSIRO’s 2020 strategy, placing significant emphasis on digital innovation and accelerating CSIRO’s entrepreneurial capacity. He has also overseen the merger of NICTA and CSIRO’s digital research business to create Data61, and launched the CSIRO On accelerator program to build the organisation’s entrepreneurial skills, facilitate new collaborations, and implement new funding models.
Envato may not be a household name, but given it operates many of the world’s largest online media marketplaces, there is a good chance you have used its services. Co-founder Cyan Ta’eed has been a key figure behind Envato’s growth, and has also found time to become a passionate advocate for greater gender diversity in the Australian tech sector. Envato was the first Australian tech company to produce a diversity report in 2014, and challenged others to do so to draw attention to the low levels of women in technical roles. She has since established a comprehensive program within Envato to begin rebalancing its gender mix, including reforming recruitment process, and extending flexible work policies, leave offerings, and job sharing. She is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and women in startups and tech generally at events including Syd Start 2015 and Tech23; has been a finalist and winner in numerous entrepreneur’s awards; and involved in a slew of initiatives to get girls more interested in tech, including Girl Geeks, She Hacks, and Code Like A Girl.
As Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull was always a strong contender to appear on this list. As the prime minister, his influence has grown by an order of magnitude. It is unlikely that Turnbull will be able to entirely let go of the NBN, and his strong interest in innovation shines through in the appointment of Christopher Pyne and Wyatt Roy to ministerial positions within that portfolio. His decision to bring the Digital Transformation Office under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office also speaks to him retaining a strong hand in the digital modernisation of federal government. The startup community particularly greeted his ascension with joy – it remains now to see how much influence he can wield within cabinet (and with the Australian people) to deliver his promise of making Australia a more agile and innovative economy.
When it comes to Australian CIO roles, there are few bigger shoes to fill than those of former Commonwealth Bank CIO Michael Harte. While David Whiteing might not have achieved the public profile of his predecessor, he has nonetheless continued on a digital transformation agenda that has turned a bank into a technology company in its own right. Whiteing has continued to drive the bank’s innovation agenda, helping open the CBA Innovation Lab and backing the bank’s $5 million investment in helping Australian-based researchers build a silicon-based quantum computer. He has advocated for greater training in cybersecurity, including the creation of university prize for this field, while also backing programs to keep children safe online. And he has also found time to deliver a raft of innovations within the bank itself, including more than a dozen major new process and services releases in the past 12 months, and more than 3500 system changes each month. | 2019-04-19T11:15:51Z | https://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/emerging-technology/australia-s-10-most-influential-people-in-tech/ |
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1. Below there are specified conditions in accordance with which Arttel, ul. Gajowicka 95/112, 53-421 Wroclaw, Poland, VAT UE: PL8992241856, bank account: 86 1140 2004 0000 3602 3032 6864 (hereinafter referred to as „Online store Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk”' „Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk”) will implement and accept from you (hereinafter referred to as „User”) orders of products from this online store.
2. The agreement of sale and delivery of products is concluded between the User and Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk store.
f) that the agreement will be concluded in accordance with the Polish law.
5. Small colour discrepancies of the fabrics are permitted. We have undertaken all possible technical precautions in order to present colour of our products in a possibly realistic manner. However, we have to reserve the possibility of colour discrepancies between colours presented in this online store and the actual colours.
6. Orders can be placed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the whole year. Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk reserves the right to introduce restrictions in regard to the use of the store, caused by important reasons e.g. safety or technical reasons.
7. After placing an order by the User, he will receive response from the Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk website confirming the acceptance of the order. Confirmation of the order by Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk depends on successful authorization of the User’s credit or debit card. However, if you won’t receive confirmation within reasonable period of time, then please contact us directly. We would want to implement clients’ orders without undue delay, but we can’t accept responsibility for the circumstances caused by the problems or errors in electronic communication.
8. All prices presented on the Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk website are gross prices (they include VAT tax). We issue VAT invoice for each sold product. Price of the ordered product, fees (if applicable), as well as the total value of the User’s purchases are always indicated in the order and in the order confirmation. Note: if you want an 0% VAT invoice (only for VAT EU companies) you have to inform us about it (via e-mail) before ordering.
10. Within the limits permitted by law, Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk reserves the rights to change products prices contained in the offer. Change of prices does not apply to orders already accepted for implementation.
11. Within the limits permitted by law, Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk reserves the right to withdraw the individual products from the offer. Possibility to withdraw products from the offer does not apply to orders already accepted for implementation.
12. Within the limits permitted by law, Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk is not responsible for non-delivery of the product or delay in delivery caused by incorrect or inaccurate address provided by the User.
14. In the case of orders consisting of several products (which are supposed to be delivered in one package), implementation period will depend on the time needed for completion by Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk of the last element of the given order. Exception from this rule is possible through individual agreements.
15. As a consumer, you have legal rights under applicable mandatory rules regarding the sale of products to consumer, if the products delivered by us turn out to be faulty or not compliant with the description. A product is considered faulty, if it does not comply with the sales agreement with respect to its quantity, quality and characteristics or if the product is not suitable for the purpose, for which it has been purchased.
16. In the case of a defect of the delivered products, the User is obliged to notify us without undue delay. The User has the right to free of charge repair of such product or free replacement of the faulty product, if this does not result in disproportionate costs for us.
17. Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk issues two-year FAKRO warranty for FAKRO products purchased in our store Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk.
18. In case of any complaints, please contact Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk via email: [email protected]. While submitting complaint you need to provide order number, full name of the orderer, number of the proof of purchase (VAT invoice) and description of the subject of complaint.
19. Your defective product will be picked up by a courier service that cooperates with us: UPS or DPD. The courier will contact you before the pick up at the address you specified. After the receipt, we will send the product to the manufacturer. All costs associated with the complaint of faulty product will be covered by Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk store.
20. The User should give defective product to the courier, so that it gets back to Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk. If the picking up of the product is impossible due to the lack of cooperation from the User, then our company reserves the right to withhold the shipment of the replacement product.
21. Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk store is responsible for the damage caused during the transport. Complaints (in the case of mechanical damage caused during transport) will be considered after the preparation of damage protocol signed by the recipient and deliverer of the package. Before accepting a package from the courier, you need to check whether the packaging has not been damaged during transport. In particular, you need to pay close attention to the condition of tapes and seals placed on the package. If the packaging includes visible damages, which could suggest the destruction of content, please do not accept such package. In the case like that, please indicate on the delivery document that the package seems to be damaged, and then contact us. If such damage will not be indicated on the delivery document, then we won’t be able to accept complaint in regard to the damaged content of the package.
In the case when the packaging shows the signs of damaging or when seals (tapes) are broken, then in the presence of the courier, you need to prepare damage protocol and contact us as soon as possible in order to clarify the matter. Verification of the package upon arrival is a necessary condition for the consideration of possible claims.
22. The User has the right to return the products without providing a reason, under withdrawal from the agreement within 14 days since receipt of the products, excluding the products manufactured for individual order (i.e. not coming from the stock). In Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk store, the products manufactured for individual order are marked with the date of delivery up to 12-14 working days. IMPORTANT: all FAKRO blinds have transparent plastic window. Thanks to that, the User does not need to open it and destroy the packaging to determine whether he likes the colour! Possibility of return does not apply to business entities.
23. If you wish to exercise the right of return, you need to contact Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk company in order to clarify the conditions of the return (especially identification of the order and information about the products, in relation to which you want to exercise your right to withdraw from the sale agreement). Our e-mail address: [email protected].
25. In the case of withdrawal from the agreement (return of the product), the agreement is considered null and valid, and the consumer is released from all obligations. The product returned in this mode will be accepted only when it is sent back in the unchanged state. Otherwise, the User is responsible for the possibility of reduced value of the products, resulting from handling of the products in a manner, other than necessary for the determination of nature, characteristics and functioning of the products. In order to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the products, the User shall handle and inspect them with due care and in the same manner as he would typically be allowed to do in a store. This means that the User can check the products like in the store, but he can’t install them. Any handling or inspection of the product in excess of the above-described scope may result in a reduction of the product’s value, which Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk store will be entitled to deduct, when reimbursing the payment received from the User. The determination of any reduction of the value will be made individually on a case-by-case basis. The User can open the packaging and inspect the products with due care, provided that the opening is done without wrecking the packaging. If the packaging is wrecked, the User may expect that this will result in reduction of the product’s value. The User can also expect that installation of the product will also result in reduction of its value. Therefore, the User should remember that during the period when he’s in possession of the products, until they return to us, he is responsible for any damage they incur.
26. Genuine-RoofBlinds.co.uk store has the right to withhold the reimbursement of the paid amounts, until the time of receipt of the returned products by us or until the User delivers us confirmation of sending back the products, whichever occurs first. The User is responsible for ensuring that the returned products are appropriately packed and that they will return to us in the same state as they were previously delivered to him.
27. In regard to matters not regulated by these Terms and Conditions, the provision of the Civil Code and Act of 02.03.2000 on Protection of Certain Consumer Rights and Liability for Damaged Caused by a Dangerous Product, are applicable.
28. Personal data of each User is subject to protection. Shopping in our online store is safe and you risk nothing by placing an order. The store operates in accordance with the Polish Law, which protects the consumer and provides the same guarantee of the purchase as in the case of purchasing in the normal store. Your personal data is subject to protection in accordance with the Act on Personal Data Protection.
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30. Personal data will be stored in our database. The User always has the right to access his personal data and correct them. Personal data is processed by us only for the purpose of order implementation, and with consent of the User the data may be used for marketing purposes.
e-mail address will also be deleted from the database. Restoration of such account will not be possible and the User will have to re-create the account from the beginning and again enter all data.
32. We guarantee maintaining confidentiality of the personal data and we do not share our address database with anyone.
33. Change in Terms and Conditions may be carried out only for important reasons, about which the User will be previously and appropriately informed on the store’s website, at least 7 days in advance. If after this period the User will continue to use the website, then it is equal to the acceptance of the new conditions.
34. Agreements concluded through this online store are subject to the Polish law. Polish courts have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes arising from the agreements concluded through this online store. | 2019-04-20T10:54:11Z | http://www.genuine-roofblinds.co.uk/terms-conditions |
To rehabilitate and improve mobility following hip replacement surgery.
At the age of 84 it was important to Frances to recover a level of mobility and independence following a full hip replacement.
The outward opening door ensured getting in and out of the treadmill posed no problems. Ability to set the water to a precise depth allowed a comfortable level of buoyancy for Frances, permitting independent movement for the first time since her operation. The depth can be adjusted to suit individual height and weight, maintaining the optimum level of support and resistance.
The treadmill's low starting speed assisted Frances' first steps to rehab. A comfortable temperature helped with pain reduction, which increased range of motion and stride length. Psychological benefits included a belief that recuperation was possible, boosting overall confidence.
Following spinal surgery Wendy struggled to mobilise for more than two to three minutes before having to sit down to relieve her symptoms. Her walking speed was extremely slow, her posture was stooped and she was in constant pain.
Wendy's treatment plan included sessions in the HYDRO PHYSIO treadmill and in the WELLBEING pool. The water decompressed her spine and allowed a greater range of movement while exercising.
The sessions were designed to work all muscle groups and provide the opportunity to increase exercise intensity without the risk of injury. Poor posture and mobility meant that knee and hip pain had also become a problem for Wendy but this reduced during her treatment.
As a result, not only has Wendy's muscle strength, tone and flexibility improved, she's lost weight and is feeling much more positive about her situation.
Intensive pre and post knee surgery rehabilitation.
Re-constructive knee surgery was postponed for two months to allow the ligaments to begin repairing. An intensive 10-day programme began to prepare for surgery. Strengthening supporting muscles, improving flexibility and reducing the swelling aiding post-op recovery. Kulvinder walked in the Underwater Treadmill and performed knee exercises in the Wellbeing Pool twice daily.
Pre-op the consultant commented on the "exceptional physiotherapy" he had undergone and confirmed that the posterior crutiate ligament (PCL) and lateral collateral ligament (LCL) were fully repaired. The medial collateral ligament (MCL) had repaired itself but was slightly loose and required surgery, along with a new donor anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).After surgery, Kulvinder continued an intensive 10-day rehabilitation programme. He progressed to walking without crutches and reducing his limp, fast-tracking his road to recovery.
Rehabilitation following shoulder surgery (Weaver-Dunn Procedure).
A horse riding accident left Christopher with a dislocated acromioclavicular joint, which required reconstructive shoulder surgery. Recovery time was estimated at 12 and 16 weeks, but the need to return to work sooner led him to a more proactive approach towards his rehabilitation.
Ten days post op Christopher began Aquatic therapy in the HYDRO Treadmill. Christopher started walking at a slow pace with the water-level high, which increased the buoyancy. The walking motion gently exercised his shoulder and allowed only moderate movement.
Part of Christopher's treatment included sessions in the wellness pool as exercises in the 38ºC water assisted with the internal and external rotation of the shoulder and active range of movement.
After three sessions, Christopher could remove his sling and after his seventh session he reported that he felt 80% better. He was fully recovered after just eight sessions.
Rehabilitation following a hip replacement operation.
10 weeks after Sue’s operation she completed the limited physiotherapy and hydrotherapy that was available to her post-op. She suffers with lower back pain as a result of her previous mobility problems. Not feeling as mobile as she hoped started at an Aquatic Therapy programme to continue her rehabilitation.
Setting the water-level above Sue's hips gave her support and buoyancy. The low starting speed assisted her steps towards rehabilitation and allowed the physiotherapist to monitor her movements precisely.
With a constant temperature of 31ºC, Sue's pain was greatly reduced, which helped to increase her range of motion and stride length and maximise the training session. The sessions also benefited Sue psychologically as it boosted her overall confidence and helped her feel well on the way to recovery.
Russell sustained serious injuries to his hip and spine following a motorbike accident.
Russell was involved in a road traffic accident on his motorbike where he sustained a fractured pelvis and crushed discs in his lower back. He needed two crutches to be able to mobilise and was in a great deal of pain due to the fracture and subsequent nerve compression.
Russell's programme comprised of sessions in the HYDRO PHYSIO treadmill and exercises in the Wellbeing Pool complimented by physiotherapy.
The objective has been to build supportive muscles, build core strength and promote faster recovery. We are pleased to be able to report that Russell is now able to walk without crutches and feels that he's well on the way to make a full recovery.
Rehabilitation following crush injury to right foot.
Maurice sustained a complex fracture and dislocation of his right foot, following an accident at work in which he was hit by a forklift truck. Over the course of several months, he underwent a series of reconstructive operations and was left with poor mobility and constant pain.
Maurice had poor mobility, reliant on one crutch and only able to walk for 100 yards before stopping to rest. Exercising in the HYDRO treadmill, with reduced pressure on his foot, allowed him to mobilise more comfortably. This helped to strengthen the supporting muscles, which in turn encouraged greater weight bearing. Being able to put weight on the foot creates osteoblasts that knit the bones together and promote faster healing. Maurice was able to perform more dynamic exercises without pain in the Wellbeing Pool.
Rehabilitation following pioneering surgery to replace a femur.
An early hip replacement set the tone for Pat Newell, as more replacements followed and eventually the need for pioneering surgery to give her a new femur.
Pat had very poor mobility she could only walk 10-15 metres at a slow speed, using two sticks. After 12 sessions she walks further, quicker and is a lot less reliant on her sticks. Rehabilitation on the HYDRO treadmill has improved Pat's day-to-day life as she is now able to get out and about much more. This greater independence, together with the reduction in pain, has resulted in Pat feeling happier and more fulfilled.
Weight loss and improved muscle strength have had a significant impact on Pat's recovery and will continue to contribute to a much healthier future.
Rehabilitation following a broken ankle which resulted in ankle fusion surgery.
Having fallen from a tree and broken his ankle some years ago, Jack suffered ongoing problems and eventually had ankle fusion surgery. His was poor due to pain and limited movement and he also needed to wear an air cast boot.
Jack was given an individual programme of HYDRO treadmill sessions combined with cold and compression therapy to loosen up his ankle and reduce inflammation. Jack has had six sessions so far and already enjoys 40% improvement in his ankle flexion and extension. He can walk further, in a lot less pain and no longer uses the air cast boot.
A key objective in Jack's treatment was to prevent any long-term damage to his spine, knees and hips, which may arise from walking difficulties.
Rehabilitation following a football injury which resulted in knee surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
Harsimran underwent reconstructive knee surgery three weeks before his first HYDRO PHYSIO session. Following the operation, he was on two crutches with minimal weight bearing on his leg and forced to sit around doing nothing.
Walking pain-free on the treadmill enabled Harsimran to walk forwards, backwards and sideways dynamically as well as performing squats and single leg squats in the second. The water-based exercise allowed the joints to be loosened off, muscles to be cushioned and foot lift went from barely off the treadmill to at least 10cms.
The extension lag on the supporting leg went from -15º to -5º and flexion in the knee went from 30º to 90º after just two sessions.
Rehabilitation following a fractured ankle.
Dancing at a stag night six months ago, left Mark with a fractured ankle. At the time, Mark thought he'd just sprained his ankle but after a restless night, an agonising journey home from Newcastle and a visit to A&E, a fracture was confirmed.
He underwent surgery to pin the bone and was left with limited range of motion and unable to bend his knee. Climbing the stairs was extremely difficult and, as an IT consultant, Mark had to work from home lying on the sofa with his ankle propped up for weeks.
He came to hydrotherapy to speed up his recovery with three aims in mind – driving, golf and badminton.
Walking on the HYDRO PHYSIO underwater treadmill helped Mark to get moving and loosen up his ankle. The water decompressed the joint and reduced the load, which allowed Mark to strengthen the supporting muscles.
Sessions were then finished off with the cold and compression cuff, which reduced any swelling and inflammation.
Four months after the accident, Mark was back on the golf course. | 2019-04-23T01:03:53Z | https://www.hydrophysio.com/human/case-studies/orthopaedic-and-post-op |
When looking for the best men’s dive watches, you can also see various brands that are also competing out there. These options have been making rounds throughout recent years when it comes to quality. While some may be very expensive, there are also others that are really affordable. Whatever your preference may be, it is often best to check the options that you have in front of you.
These watches are not ordinary watches. Some of these watches don’t work like ordinary watches. And the best among them are those that combine the features of regular watches with that of the water features.
If you are a diving enthusiast, you certainly want to make sure that you have all of the gear that you need while doing your favorite activity. One such item is a dive watch. These days, there are a lot of different options that you can choose from. Whether you need it for yourself or you are planning to give it to somebody else, it is very important that you get the best option available. After all, there are also a lot of affordable dive watches that are available and all claiming to be water resistant. However, there is a huge difference between being water resistant and being simply waterproof.
I’ve come up with yet another list that features the best dive watches that makes underwater resort a treat for everyone. Not only are these watches amazing tools for carrying out research under sea, they also help you in actualizing your dreams of chasing fish under water – isn’t that cool? You can get accurate information on different locations, under water without using a compass. Before going for your next trip, take your time to read this dive watches review and select one of these watches to take along with you.
Dive watches from Seiko are among the classiest dive watches currently available on the market. The best thing about these options are that most of these watches are really affordable. The Seiko SKA761P1 model also looks amazing and is comparable to higher-priced watches from other brands.
The design of this watch also uses kinetic motion in order to make sure that it keeps ticking, rather than using a battery. This only means that this watch can be considered an automatically-powered underwater watch. The functioning of this watch depends on your daily motion. This dive watch can be used to a depth of up to 200 m (660 feet). It also has the capability of dealing with any condition underwater.
The Seiko SKA761P1 Stainless Steel Kinetic Dive Watch comes with a crystal quartz bezel that is amazingly scratch resistant. At the same time, its stainless steel for a band is quite tough; enough to have the capability to hold to whatever it is being thrown at. Since it has a 42 mm bezel, it is of medium size and perfect for any type of occasion as well. While being a dive watch, it is also an elegant option that can fit even for non-diving activities.
If you are into Citizen watches, being one of the most respected brands in the watch industry, the BN0151-09L ProMaster is definitely a good choice. This model comes with a simple and a very elegant and classy look. As a result, aside from using it for diving, it is also great for both casual and professional settings.
This underwater water watch comes equipped with a bezel feature with a sporty strap for the wrist. It also uses a light for charging an eco-driven, small solar cell. This feature allows the watch to automatically charge by itself without having to replace batteries. At the same time, its 42mm bezel comes with an aluminum ring that rotates, enabling you to track the time you have spent diving thanks to its readable and anti-reflection display.
This BN0151-09L ProMaster dive watch from Citizen is great at performing up to 200 m (660 feet), making it perfect for those who are doing recreational scuba diving. It has received a lot of positive feedback on Amazon. Aside from being very classy and elegant, with functionalities that are great for its price, this watch is also very affordable.
This diver’s watch is known in the market for its stylish appeal. It comes with super elegant stainless steel which screams both sophistication and fun. It is also accented with a touch of orange, keeping it really interesting. At the same time, the stainless silver band together with black bezel and white accents introduce a classy finish. Also, it is equipped with smaller internal dials that can be used as a timer, as well as in displaying elapsed time in both hours and minutes, while the smaller dials can show seconds as well as a 1/20th fraction of a second.
While the dials of this dive watch seem intricate, the bezel stays easier to read and uncluttered, even when you are reading the time in a dark area. This is all thanks to its luminous markings and dials. It also has its strap extension which can fit easily onto your wetsuit. It can be used for diving up to 300 m (984 feet). This depth is great for any type of diver. Aside from using it underwater, this is also perfect for use even on social and formal occasions.
This is another dive watch you should make part of your package for your next tour. It is designed to show you all information clearly even deep down in the water with the help of the illumination system. It is built with a stainless steel metal, which contributes to its robustness and durability. It is backed by a one-year warranty from the manufacturer. It can be used for scuba diving since it is waterproof from 1 ft. to 660 ft. This information is based on what we gathered from the manufacturer.
It is designed with an intuitive design.
It is built to be resistant to shock and for long-term usage.
It gives accurate information under water.
The glowing on this model is brighter than some other models on the market. This important feature helps surfing deep under water.
This model comes with a functional and effective bezel. The bezel does not come up when you don’t need and the response to touch is quick.
The manufacturer is known for bombarding people with advertisements. Although there is nothing wrong with this, some people do take offense to it. If you are not bothered by advertisements and marketing, this shouldn’t be a big deal for you.
The bezel on this unit is made from plastic, which might not make it durable.
The synthetic strap onboard is flimsy.
The handle on this unit is designed to provide you with an ergonomic grip with its intuitive design. It includes Precise Swiss-Quartz movement with mineral crystal design. It weighs around 15.8 ounces and is 6.5 x 3 x 2 inches. This is perfect to use under water.
This is another product proudly manufactured in the United States of America. It weighs 5.3 ounces and is 0.4 x 0.4 x 0.4 inches making it lighter than the Luminous Men’s 30001 dive watch. It has 2-year manufacturer warranty. A dive watch can stand water up to 200 meters without water getting into it. It is built with mineral crystal material and has both IQ collection and Quartz movements like the regular watch.
This model does what it says it would do.
It measures the accompanying battery automatically.
The rendering of information by this model is accurate.
The ticking on this unit is noiseless.
It is ideal for scuba diving.
One customer complained that the indigo light emitting from this model is not bright enough to enable accurate reading of dial.
Another downside is that the temperature gauge is designed in tiny numbers, which makes reading them uneasy.
During our research, we discovered that it is not a certified dive watch.
It has an onboard depth meter that is easy to operate. It provides a strong grip due to the rotating bezel. It has a simple and nice looking interface.
This watch is backed by one-year warranty. It is suitable for swimming as well as snorkeling. It covers up to 330 ft. (100 meters) of water resistance capacity. It has luminous hour hands so that you can see it easily at night. The design is stylish and intuitive.
This model is less expensive.
It has an adjustable bezel for easy adjustments.
It is of a simple design and it is easy on the arm.
It would feel snugly around your arm.
This is an analog waterproof dive watch.
You can easily access the day and week on the display.
The florescent on this watch is not very effective when it comes to working in the dark. Some customers have complained about this.
The background of the watch is clear enough to make it easy for you to read the information on it, which makes it great for under water diving.
This is a product is manufactured in the United States. It is designed to appeal to the eyes. This unit has a high quality timepiece technology suitable for its purposes. It has an analog display with the Japanese Quartz movement. It also includes a mineral crystal dial window for making effortless adjustment.
The bezel on this watch is non-clickable. It displays the time and date on the interface too. It is backed by one-year manufacturer warranty. It is impermeable to water up to 330 ft.
It is a durable dive watch.
It is produced by a trustworthy company.
It is an affordable dive watch.
It also displays the date and time both of which are easy to adjust.
It comes in a simple design for the enthusiasts.
It is solid and is well shaped.
It might not be suitable for someone looking to do scuba diving.
It might slide off often as one previous user has pointed out. Although, we still think that might be because of a manufacturer defect.
This watch is light in weight. You might not even feel it while you have it on your arm. It renders accurate information.
These best underwater watches included in this list come with their own set of features, with all the advantages and disadvantages. The thing with diving is that you have the liberty when it comes to choosing the gear that you will use. Your option in choosing a dive watch depends on your actual need. For instance, if you are more into diving at great depths, the Jiusko Deep Sea Mens Divers Watch is more suitable for you. On the other hand, if you are into recreational diving, the other options will work for you.
If you are looking for a dive watch that is produced by a reliable company (as seen from several customer reviews), we recommend the Casio Men’s MRW200H-1BCT. A quality dive watch gives you the value for what you pay for. Another dive watch that is intelligent and comes with a bright display and easy interface is the Timex Intelligent Quartz T2N810 Men’s Indiglo Depth Thermometer Watch.
Aside from a few shortcomings, the Luminou Men’s 3001 Original Navy SEAL Dive Watch has garnered many positive reviews from previous users stemming from its consistent performance.
When it comes to choosing the best dive watches we have compiled reviews of the top brands to make the choice easier. | 2019-04-20T10:43:08Z | https://lifestyle.reviews/best-dive-watches/ |
There are real advantages to owning a property that does not have a very large lawn. Smaller lawns are a lot easier to maintain and care for than large ones, for fairly obvious reasons. This allows you to really concentrate on paying more attention to the details of the lawn. It is more likely that you will be able to catch weeds as soon as they crop up on a smaller lawn; you can more easily overseed the lawn when it starts getting sparse or as winter approaches; and you will notice brown patches or bare spots a lot more quickly on a smaller lawn. But best of all, you do not need a big, power lawn mower to keep a smaller lawn looking great.
In the past, power mowers had several advantages over reel mowers: not only did they have much wider cutting decks than reel mowers, they also generally outperformed reel mowers in terms of the power they could provide and the evenness of the cut they gave the lawn. But this is no longer the case. In recent years, design innovations have increased the width of reel mowers’ cutting decks considerably, and now there are models available that can provide the same widths as many power lawn mowers. And in a similar vein, modern reel mowers have extra blades that are made to spin faster and provide professional looking manicured cuts to your lawn.
There are plenty of reasons reel mowers can be a superior choice to gas powered or even electric lawn mowers. For starters, there is the environmental aspect: reel mowers are the only ones that are truly 100 percent free of carbon emissions. These machines run on nothing but human power, and you can significantly reduce your family’s carbon footprint by switching to one. Reel mowers also do not need the kind of maintenance that gas powered lawn mowers do, and unlike electric lawn mowers they do not have batteries that will one day die.
In fact, if they are properly taken care of, reel mowers can last practically indefinitely, and may even outlive their owners. Beyond that, reel mowers are much simpler to use than power mowers: you simply point the reel mower in the right direction and start pushing. And they are much lighter and take up far less storage space in your garage or tool shed than electric or gas lawn mowers do.
But there are a lot of reel mowers out there, made by different companies, and with different designs, reel widths, and other specs. It can be difficult to determine which one is the best for you. Fortunately, finding the right reel mower does not have to be that hard. By familiarizing yourself with the characteristics that set the best reel mowers apart from the pack, you can quickly determine whether a particular model is quality or not. Then, once you have narrowed down the field to a few of the best models, all that’s left is figuring out how much you want to spend.
On any lawn mower – but especially on reel mowers – the cutting reel width is going to be one of the most important factors in determining the mower’s efficiency. The width of the cutting reel is going to establish how big a swath the lawn mower can cut in a single pass. Wider cutting reels can cut a lawn in fewer passes than narrower cutting reels can, which will save you a great deal of time and effort in the long run. You want to make sure you are getting the widest possible cutting reel for your price range. But it is also important to ensure that the cutting reel is not so wide that it will be unwieldy or difficult to get into tight corners. While this is not usually much of a problem with reel mowers, it is still something that is worth thinking about.
The width of most cutting reels is typically between ten and twenty inches, although there are a few reel mowers that are slightly wider than that. Regardless of how small your lawn is, I do not think it is a good move to get a ten inch reel mower – no matter how cheap it is. Increasing that width by just a few inches can cut down on the total amount of time you have to spend mowing your lawn by as much as thirty percent.
That may not seem like a lot – especially if it takes you less than half an hour to cut your lawn – but it can seriously add up over the course of a summer. As much as I love working in the yard, in my opinion the less time you have to spend mowing the lawn the more time you can commit to weeding and feeding it, edging it, and making sure it is the best looking little lawn on your block.
Very wide reels are of course going to be able to cut your lawn much faster than even medium sized ones, but there is a limit to the return you will get on reel sizes. As they get bigger, the extra inch or two does not have the same effect that it will on a small lawn mower’s ability to cut a lawn quickly. So you will reach a point – usually around 80% of the biggest available size – in which the extra cost outweighs the benefit.
The design of the blades and cutting reel on a manual reel mower is very important – arguably more important than the design of the cutting deck on a power mower to that kind of machine’s performance. That is because on a reel mower, there is no motor or engine helping to drive the blades through grass. On mechanical machines, the engineering and design of key components is what will determine their overall ability to get work done. If the design is shoddy – or even if it is not the most superior available – you are going to wind up doing a lot more work to get a good cut than you should have to.
There are various designs for the cutting reel, and certain ones are definitely superior to others. The traditional design for a reel mower is one in which the cutting reel is mounted on a free wheel assembly that is connected to the outer wheels; as the wheels turn, they push the cutting reel. This design has its limits, however: much like on a single-speed bicycle, it takes a fair amount of effort to overcome the resting inertia of the cutting reel and get it spinning quickly.
More recently, cutting reel design has improved so that it does not take the same amount of effort to get the reel spinning at a good clip. These models have their reels mounted ball bearings between the shaft and the blades. These reels will also have more shafts – called “spiders” in the industry – mounted between each end to both provide more support to the blades and more contact points to the wheels. The contact points are mounted on ball bearings. Extra contact points allows for more ball bearing supports. More ball bearings allow the cutting reel to spin much more freely than on older models, which makes it far easier to get the cutting reel spinning quickly and makes sure the cutting reel spins longer without losing momentum.
The number and design of the blades is important as well. Five blades is always going to be superior to three or even four. The design of the blades will either be traditional, in which the cutting reel makes contact with a slicing blade in the rear of the mower, or no-contact. No-contact reel mowers are exactly that: the cutting reel does not make contact with the rear slicing blade. These mowers run almost silently, which is one advantage; more importantly, they do not need to be sharpened as often.
Again, as with the design of the cutting reel, the materials that the reel mower is constructed with are going to have a huge impact on its ability to cut the lawn. With a power mower you can get away for a little while with blades that are not made of high gauge steel or a body that is made of thick plastic, but this is not the case with a reel mower. These machines have no power source to support them, and so they need to be made of the highest quality materials.
This is especially true if you are purchasing a mower with a traditional style cutting reel, although it also applies with a no-contact reel mower. Because the blades on a traditional style reel are making contact with a thick rear slicing blade on every single spin, they will get worn down very easily if they are not made of durable, high gauge, heat treated steel. This will mean you have to sharpen them more often than once a year – which is the maximum you should have to sharpen reel mower blades – and will wind up costing you a lot of time, effort, and possibly even money in the long run.
But it is not just the blades that have to be made from durable materials. The entire machine has to hold up to the rigors of manually cutting the lawn. The wheels on reel mowers are almost universally made of plastic, but there are plenty of models that have rubber tires as well. Make sure the wheels are made of a durable composite poly, and not a thin plastic. Metal wheels are obviously better. Te tires do not have to be very thick, but they should at least have treads that will help provide more traction to the mower.
The handle should also be made of durable metal. Aluminum handles, unless they are reinforced, are not going to cut it. You will be putting your weight on the handle in order to get the mower going – especially if you are pushing it through dense grass or working on tough Bermuda or St. Augustine varietals – and you do not want to have the handle buckling or bending under the strain. Finally, make sure the connections are made of solid, well designed nuts and bolts. I generally stay away from wing nuts, and avoid plastic connectors altogether for obvious reasons.
The height adjustment options are very important on reel mowers for a number of reasons. Depending on the season and type of grass you have, you are going to want to be able to cut it at different heights. A fair number of reel mowers do not have very tall settings for their blade height, and this can present problems depending on what kind of grass you have.
It is more important to let the grass grow a bit taller in the heat of summer than it is in colder months (obviously if you live in a climate that gets real winters, you will not be mowing it during the winter at all, and rarely in the spring or summer). It is also important to make sure you are never cutting your lawn shorter than 1/3 its current height, because this can leave it susceptible to all kinds of problems. Grass that is consistently cut too short will be more likely to suffer the effects of drought. It will also be more likely to develop problems with insects, invasions from weeds, or microbial infections.
But on the other hand, there are times when you do want to cut your lawn very short. If you are preparing your lawn for overseeding it, this is part of the process. Overseeding is an important part of lawn care, especially if you live in a region where warm season grasses predominate; these species go dormant during the winter, and overseeding with winter rye can keep your lawn looking great through those months. Overseeding is also a good way to reinvigorate a lawn that is getting thin or straggly. The first step in overseeding is scalping the lawn, or cutting it down to a half an inch or so. With a reel mower that does not go that low, you will have problems properly caring for it.
You can see why it is important to find a reel mower that has a fairly wide range of height adjustment options. I prefer mowers that can be adjusted from a half an inch all the way up to 3.5 or even 4 inches. This gives you a good range for whatever length your grass needs to be cut. In addition to this, make sure the reel mower has several options within that range. It’s no good if there are only two or three height options to choose from.
There are a few other considerations to look at once you have narrowed down your decision to a few reel mowers based on the width, design, and height of the cutting reel and the height options. Some of these affect how easy it will be to use the mower, and others influence how well the mower will function. They include the mower’s size and weight, ergonomic considerations, grass management options.
The size and weight of the reel mower are important for a variety of reasons. While reel mowers are the most compact lawn mowers out there, they do vary in weight a bit. A lighter mower is going to be a bit easier to maneuver around the yard and lift up to but away on a hook in the tool shed, which is good. But heavier reel mowers have the advantage that they will be more stable on uneven ground and be able to tackle tough patches of grass more easily.
The overall footprint of reel mowers is typically pretty small, too, but again there is some variance here. One area in which the total size of the mower is important is in relation to the width of the blade. You do not want to buy a reel mower that has wheels that are set much wider apart than the cutting reel. When this is the case, you are left with a trip of uncut grass at the edge of the lawn, especially if it abuts walls or fences, which will force you to go back over that strip with an edger.
The ergonomics of the machine will determine how comfortable it is to use it, and this is important for your own health as well. Make sure the handle of the reel mower is well padded with foam. The handle should be adjustable to accommodate users of different heights. Loop handles tend to be more ergonomic than T-shaped handles.
Not many reel mowers come with multiple options for managing the clippings, but some do. Certain models come with rear grass catchers, which get rid of the need to rake clippings from the lawn or sweep them up. And among reel mowers that do not have grass catchers, most kick clippings out the back of the cutting reel. But more recently, designs in which the clippings kick out the front of the mower are becoming more common; these are great for saving your shoes from grass stains. | 2019-04-23T14:10:42Z | http://www.gardendad.com/best/best-reel-mower/ |
2013-09-16 Assigned to THE PRIVATEBANK AND TRUST COMPANY reassignment THE PRIVATEBANK AND TRUST COMPANY SECURITY AGREEMENT Assignors: MACHINE SOLUTIONS, INC.
An apparatus for folding a pre-pleated catheter balloon comprises a stationary base member; a rotatable drive hub which is moveable in relation to the stationary base member; and a folding head aligned with respect to the stationary base member and to the rotatable drive hub. The folding head includes at least three segments, each having a proximal end and an angled distal end with at least one angled side face terminating in an edge of a predetermined length. The segments are arranged so that the segment distal ends are disposed adjacent to and defining a central aperture The segment distal ends move closer to the central point upon rotation of the rotatable hub member in a predetermined direction, whereby the balloon is folded around the shaft substrate upon rotation of the rotatable hub.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/180,875, filed Jul. 13, 2005, which will issue as U.S. Pat. No. 8,128,860 on Mar. 6, 2012, which is a division of U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,881, issued Jan. 24, 2006, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of provisional application Ser. No. 60/278,817, filed Mar. 26, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Referring to FIGS. 12-15, each segment 33 preferably has a rectilinear configuration with a proximal end 40, a distal end 41, a front face 42 and a rear face 43. A proximal end face 44 is preferably flat and rectangular with a predetermined area. The distal end 41 preferably terminates in a thin edge 45 formed at the intersection of side faces 46 and 47. Although the distal end 41 is shown to have a rectilinear, flat and uniform dimension, with particular dimensions, it may be alternatively configured with a curvilinear, non-flat, textured, and/or non-uniform surfaces, such as stepped geometries and various specialized surface textures, in a variety of dimensions. The distal end 41 can include a truncated end to provide particular gripping, compression or pleating function, depending upon the article configuration and material. The width of edge 45 is variable between approximately 5 and 100 mm and is based upon the length of the balloon to be pleated or article to be engaged, held and/or radially compressed. Preferably, both side faces 46 and 47 are angled and equivalent.
FIG. 13 shows optional incut portion 53 of face 47, which face is disposed away from the wedge 24 actuation direction. This provides tip angle tolerance during disactuation of the wedge 24. FIGS. 16 and 17 show alternative segment embodiments 53 and 54, wherein respective single faces 55 and 56 are angled and opposing respective faces 57 and 58 are not angled. Returning to the preferred embodiment, front face 42 has a proximal lower portion 48 and a distally oriented raised or extended portion 49. A combination of the raised portions 49 of the faces 42 of all of the segments yields center portion 37. Center portion 37 provides optimum wedge 24 stability with minimal friction.
Referring also to FIGS. 19-22, in operation, the wedge 24 has an initial, fully open state with a centrally disposed pleating aperture 62, (best shown in FIGS. 19 and 21), a fully closed state, wherein the aperture 62 has a minimum size (best shown in FIGS. 20 and 22), and a plurality of intermediate states between the initial fully open state and the fully closed state, wherein the aperture 62 becomes progressively smaller. The maximum diameter of the aperture 62 is variable, up to approximately 12.0 mm. The minimum diameter is also variable, approaching zero. The length or depth of the aperture 62 is also variable between approximately 1 mm and 100 mm. A balloon to be pleated or another article to be engaged and/or radially compressed is inserted and longitudinally advanced a desired distance into the aperture 62 in the initial, open state. The balloon is pleated by rotating the actuation arm 17 counter-clockwise, which contracts the aperture 62. Contraction causes the aperture 62 wall to contact and exert a radially compressive force on the balloon. The balloon diameter is reduced a desired amount and engages a catheter body or another structure, as desired, in a balloon manufacturing process. At the desired reduced diameter, the actuator arm 17 is held in position for a desired dwell time, typically between 0 and 20 seconds. Subsequently, the actuator arm 17 is rotated clockwise to expand the aperture 62 and release engagement of the balloon. The balloon and related structure is retracted and removed from the aperture 62.
FIGS. 25A-C illustrates an alternative embodiment of the segmental, radial compression apparatus and the process of the present invention with distally driven, off-centerline drive pins and proximal, on-centerline pivot pins. The wedge 90 has ten segments 91. Proximal portions of the segments 91 are pivotally coupled to a stationary base 92 by pivot pins 93, which are disposed on centerline 98. The pivot pins 93 are permitted a slight amount of radial movement, with respect to the stationary base 92 or to the segment 91, via elongated slotting, previously described. Distal portions of the segments 91 are coupled to a driven (counter-clockwise rotatable) drive hub 94 by drive pins 95, which are disposed off centerline 98 to the left (towards the direction of drive hub 94 rotation). FIG. 25A illustrates a first state with a fully open aperture 96. The centerlines 98 of the segments 91 are not radially aligned, and the distal most points of the segments 91 are spaced from wedge's central axis. FIG. 25B illustrates a second, intermediate state wherein the hub 94 is traveling. The centerlines of the segments 91 are still not radially aligned. The distal most points of the segments are approaching wedge's central axis 89. FIG. 25C illustrates a final state, where the aperture is closed. The centerlines of the segments 91 are aligned and radiate from the central axis 89. The aperture is fully closed.
Referring also to FIGS. 35-41, the pleating head 146 shown has a relatively compact, preferably rectilinear, configuration. The pleating head 146 comprises, basically, a pair of base or housing plates 151 A and B, a pair of drive hubs 153A and B, a radial compression wedge 154, two sets (each set including a plurality of pins, preferably 15) of pivot pins 155 A and B, two sets of drive pins 156 A and B, and a pair of separator plates 157A and B of a predetermined width, which couple the base plates 151A and B. The base plates 151 have a predetermined thickness with a central hub apertures 159A and B. The hubs 153 have an annular configuration with a flat face portion. The wedge 154 consists of a plurality of separate segments 160.
The hubs 153 are constructed of rigid, preferably metallic, material. The hubs 153 are preferably connected to respective annular roller bearings 161A and B. The hubs 153 are connected to respective actuator arms 149, preferably via respective thrust washers 162A and B. In this embodiment, the actuator arms 149 move in a counter-clockwise direction during actuation to perform a holding, compressing or pleating function. The base plates 151 are also constructed of a rigid, preferably metallic, material. The hubs 153 are rotatable with respect to the base plates 151. The wedge 154 has a roughly cylindrical configuration with a predetermined maximum depth and circumference, such that it is housed between the base plates 151. The pivot pins 155A and B mate with respective, aligned pivot slots 162 A and B in base plates 151A and B, and further to respective, aligned pivot slots 165A and B in the front and rear faces of the segments 160 (at their proximal ends). The drive pins 156A and B mate with respect, aligned drive slots 163A and B in the drive hubs 153A and B, and further to respective, aligned drive slots 166A and B in the front and rear faces of the segments 160 (at their distal ends).
The pleating head assembly 171 portion of the system is described in detail with respect to FIGS. 11 a and 11 b above. The folding head assembly 172 portion of the system operates in the same mode as the pleating head assembly 171, except that the distal end 41 of each wedge segment 33 is flat to produce a uniform radial compression on the spiral-pleated balloon to affect a tight folding of the balloon wings on the balloon support. The folding head assembly 172 is described in detail in copending U.S. Patent Application No. 60/210,319, filed Jun. 8, 2000, in the name of Tom Motsenbocker, and entitled, Stent Crimping Device. This application is hereby incorporated by reference as part of the specification.
d. rotating the rotatable member of the folder in an opposite direction for removing the folded balloon from the folder.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein each segment of said folder has a proximal point and a distal point, one said point being disposed on a segment centerline and one said point being disposed off the segment centerline.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein each segment of said folder has a proximal point and a distal point, both said points being disposed off a segment centerline.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein each segment of said folder is pivotally coupled to the stationary member by a pin contacting an exterior surface of the segment.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the pleated balloon has wings in a curved configuration.
Information concerning Conception and Reduction to Practice contained on the IDS. | 2019-04-22T06:58:42Z | https://patents.google.com/patent/US8679398B2/en |
Constants are by convention usually denoted by lower-case letters from the beginning of the English alphabet, such as a, b, and c.
In a polynomial (or a generalisation of a polynomial, such as a Taylor series or Fourier expansion), the constant term is associated to the exponent zero.
A number that is constant in one place may be a variable in another.
A mathematical constant is a quantity, usually a real number or a complex number, that arises naturally in mathematics and does not change.
Therefore, f(1)/f(0) is a mathematical constant, the constant e.
Mathematical constants that one can talk about are definable numbers (and almost always also computable).
Constant's New Babylon project, which he worked on almost continuously from the middle of the 1950s up to the end of the '60s, has attracted renewed interest over the last few years.
Constant's interest in architecture and urban development began early in the 1950s when all over Europe cities damaged during the war were being rebuilt.
Constant addressed himself to the rational, monotonous functionalism then being utilized that he maintained would limit a free and creative life.
In the computer science subfield of algorithmic information theory the Chaitin constant or halting probability is a construction by Gregory Chaitin which describes the probability that a randomly generated program for a given model of computation or programming language will halt.
(The constant N heavily depends on the encoding choices and does not reflect the complexity of the axiomatic system in any way.) This is an incompleteness result akin to Gödel's incompleteness theorem and Chaitin's own result mentioned under algorithmic information theory.
Chaitin's constant is uncompressible (others may say irreducible, or algorithmically random).
Constant came to world attention at the height of the coup regime, on October 10, 1993, when the US sent a ship with a cargo of 200 soldiers to help restore the exiled President Aristide to power.
Constant was held in the U. for extradition for over a year but was later released because, according to U. S officials, Haitian courts could not handle his return.
Constant, our city, this state, and indeed the world must know that the laws and policies of the United States are intended to provide protection for people fleeing from persecution and not shield people who are persecutors." Mitchell Cohen of the Green Party of New York also supported the resolution.
Constant pool entries that are referenced from other constant pool entries are resolved when the referring entry is resolved.
A given constant pool entry may be referred to from any number of Java Virtual Machine instructions or other constant pool entries; thus, constant pool resolution can be attempted on a constant pool entry that is already resolved.
Constant pool resolution is normally initiated by the execution of a Java Virtual Machine instruction that references the constant pool.
The dielectric constant of snow (es) is comprised of an imaginary part, which is directly related to wetness (W), and a real part which is a function of the density (r) as well as the wetness.
By using a dielecric constant that is relative to that in a real vacuum (the dielectric constant of air is not significantly different than that of a vacuum), a simple relationship between the complex refractive index and the complex dielectric constant can be assumed.
The dielectric constant of a water molecule is dominated by the reorientation of the molecule due to its large dipole moment.
Constant Touch Communications, Inc. reserves the right to terminate your Service should you tamper with the Device, leaving you responsible for the full month's charges to the end of the current term, including without limitation unbilled charges, plus a disconnect fee, all of which immediately become due and payable.
Constant Touch Communications, Inc. relies on third parties for the forwarding of information underlying such routing, and accordingly Constant Touch Communications, Inc. and its third party provider(s) disclaim any and all liability or responsibility in the event such information or routing is incorrect.
Constant Touch Communications, Inc. may recover these amounts by means of a per-call charge, rounded up to the next cent, or in such other fashion as Constant Touch Communications, Inc. deems appropriate for the recovery of these costs.
Constant is one of Haiti's most-wanted men, an alleged death-squad leader implicated in at least 50 killings but living in the United States with apparent impunity.
Constant and the rest of the old military junta are to be tried, albeit in absentia, for murder and torture.
Constant's rare status is shared in only one other case: that of six Irish Republican Army men whose deportation proceedings were suspended in 1997 because of State Department concerns for the Irish peace process, INS officials said.
Benjamin Constant was born Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebècque in November 1767 to Louis Arnold Juste de Constant and Henriette Pauline Chandieu in Lausanne, Switzerland, where his Protestant family had been exiled from France upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Constant went into hiding but emerged to have an interview with the former emperor, who persuaded him to prepare a liberal revision of the constitution: L'Acte additionnel aux constitution de l'Empire.
After losing the Minerva in 1818, Constant was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the next twelve years-the forum from which he continued to fight for freedom of the press-and his enemies questioned his citizenship.
The use of all caps for constant names is merely a convention, although it is recommended in order to make constants stand out and to help avoid collisions with other barewords, keywords, and subroutine names.
As of version 5.004 of Perl, the appropriate scalar constant is inserted directly in place of some subroutine calls, thereby saving the overhead of a subroutine call.
Unlike constants in some languages, these cannot be overridden on the command line or via environment variables.
Constants that aren't dimensionless can be regarded as relating one sort of unit to another.
The electromagnetic coupling constant is just another name for the fine structure constant; it describes the strength of the electromagnetic field.
Instead of the electromagnetic coupling constant together with the masses of the W, Z, and Higgs, we could have used 4 other constants: the U(1) coupling constant, the SU(2) coupling constant, the mass of the Higgs, and the expectation value of the Higgs field.
CONSTANT is a Brussels association founded in 1997 with the objective of promoting, to the public and among artists, creative and/or critical works using new media in dialogue with other forms of expression.
To do this, Constant organises exhibitions, conferences, workshops, publishes texts, with a view to developing the current media discourse.
Constant also works at bringing together artists and the public during debates, conferences and workshops.
The speed of light is inversely proportional to alpha, and though alpha also depends on two other constants (see graphic), many physicists tend to interpret a change in alpha as a change in the speed of light.
That translates into a very small increase in the speed of light (assuming no change in the other constants that alpha depends on), but Lamoreaux's new analysis is so precise that he can rule out the possibility of zero change in the speed of light.
Variable "constants" would also open the door to theories that used to be off limits, such as those which break the laws of conservation of energy.
Constants and (global) variables are in a different namespace.
It is possible to define constants that have the same name as a built-in PHP keyword, although subsequent attempts to actually use these constants will cause a parse error.
When you define a constant, it becomes fixed at that point and is immutable.
Constant made with various agencies of the U.S. government when he was released.
Constant, our city, this state, and indeed the world must know that the laws and policies of the United States are intended to provide protection for people fleeing from persecution and not shield people who are persecutors.
It is possible to define constant values on a per-class basis remaining the same and unchangeable.
The value must be a constant expression, not (for example) a variable, a class member, result of a mathematical operation or a function call.
Dereferencing constant references incorrectly (such as using an array subscript on a constant hash reference, or vice versa) will be trapped at compile time.
It is not possible to have a subroutine or keyword with the same name as a constant in the same package.
Even though a reference may be declared as a constant, the reference may point to data which may be changed, as this code shows.
Surprisingly, the answer has nothing to do with the actual speed of light, which is 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second) through the "vacuum" of empty space.
For example, beams of light from a lighthouse, from a speeding car's headlights and from the lights on a supersonic jet all travel at a constant rate as measured by all observersdespite differences in how fast the sources of these beams move.
The speed of light is constant and does not depend on the speed of the light source.
A sufficiently large cosmological constant will cause galaxies to appear to accelerate away from us, in contrast to the tendency of ordinary forms of energy to slow down the recession of distant objects.
A positive cosmological constant increases the volume of space in between us and a source at any fixed redshift, and therefore the probability that such a source undergoes lensing by an intervening object.
The value of the cosmological constant is an empirical issue which will ultimately be settled by observation; meanwhile, physicists would like to develop an understanding of why the energy density of the vacuum has this value, whether it is zero or not.
The problem with constant objects is that they pose a small risk of making your programs a little bigger or slower than they would be if you used enumeration constants.
The crux of the problem with constant objects is that, while an enumeration constant is an rvalue, a constant object is a non-modifiable lvalue.
Although you can declare an enumeration constant in local or global scope, the declaration's scope is unlikely to affect the way the compiler generates code for the constant.
Coulomb's constant can be conveniently represented as the result of four discrete components.
From equation (1.8a) it can be seen that conductance of the Aether is a swirling motion as it is related to the angular momentum of Planck's constant.
One practical use of the Aether conductance constant is in the equation for particle strong charge (electromagnetic charge).
The value of the Hubble Constant is important for both observations of the objects in the Universe, as it allows us to convert their recession velocities into true distances, and for estimating the age of the Universe.
The value of the Hubble constant therefore determines the rate at which the Universe is expanding, and equivalently allows us to roughly estimate the length of time it has been expanding, since the Big Bang, and thus the age of the Universe.
Hubble Space Telescope were to use it to measure the sizes of distant galaxies and to detect the variations in the luminosity of variable stars in distant galaxies.
Constant Lambert studied at the Royal College of Music under Vaughan Williams, R.O. Morris and George Dyson for composition, and Malcolm Sargent for conducting.
Constant Lambert: Piano Concerto & Sonata; Li-Po Poems; Mr.
When Hubble's study of nearby galaxies showed that the universe was in fact expanding, Einstein regretted modifying his elegant theory and viewed the cosmological constant term as his "greatest mistake".
The main attraction of the cosmological constant term is that it significantly improves the agreement between theory and observation.
A cosmological constant term added to the inflationary model, an extension of the Big Bang theory, leads to a model that appears to be consistent with the observed large-scale distribution of galaxies and clusters, with COBE's measurements of cosmic microwave background fluctuations, and with the observed properties of X-ray clusters.
Portland, Oregon: You can buy the Constant Rider and other fabulous zines when you visit Reading Frenzy, Powells, or Q is for Choir.
Online: the Constant Rider and other amazing publications are also available for order from Echo Zine Distro and Microcosm Publishing.
Inquiries for the Constant Rider Omnibus (issues 1-3) should be directed to Microcosm Publishing.
is useful if you need to retrieve the value of a constant, but do not know its name.
Much quicker and cleaner than using defined() and constant() to check for a simple boolean.
This applies to constants being defined as Boolean values, and may-be applies generally.
In 1813 he published a pamphlet attacking Napoleon and urging constitutional government and civil liberties.
After Napoleons final defeat at Waterloo and the restoration of the Bourbons, Constant continued his political pamphleteering, calling for a constitutional monarchy.
Constant gained a great reputation as a liberal publicist, and his funeral (shortly after the July Revolution, 1830, which he had supported) was the occasion for great demonstrations. | 2019-04-24T08:48:46Z | http://www.factbites.com/topics/Constant |
The Helsinki Cultural Office is the department of culture in the city of Helsinki.
We are developing the Helsinki-model for cultural “hors murs” – activities for inhabitants in the outskirts of the city and new funds for cultural operators for such activities and would therefore like to compare and discuss our work with colleagues from other cities with similar issues.
Nina Gran, Specialist Planner, dep. of Cultural Policies, works with cross-sectorial development work at the Cultural Office.
“The Helsinki model – enhancing cultural participation” is a new way of organizing art and culture activities in Helsinki’s suburban areas. The initiative promotes reinforced co-operation within the city administration, among art organizations and institutions, local NGOs and citizens. The three year project aims to create new collaboration models and ways of art organizations to implement different cultural actions in dialogue with the local parties and citizens.
Helsinki is a culturally rich and vibrant capital city. Most of the art institutions and professional artists are based in the Metropolitan region. However, at the same time most of the culture and art organizations mainly locate in the city center. The infrastructure and offering for culture beyond the very center of Helsinki is poor. In this project the aim is to make culture and art available near the people, in different neighborhoods of the city.
The Helsinki City Council has outline as one of the city’s main challenges the equalization of the inhabitants’ welfare differences. Many statistic demonstrate that these differences have increased when comparing different neighborhoods. This challenge is common to each sector and one of the culture department’s tools to strengthen the regional equality by means of culture is the Helsinki cultural model.
Many background surveys have been taken into account when formulating the aims of the Helsinki model. The regular statistics outlined by the Helsinki Urban Facts Office and the studies undertaken by the Arts promotion centre Finland and the Cupore – The Finnish Foundation for Cultural Policy Research have been carefully studied before initiating this pilot model.
The Culture Office outlined in 2013 a study of the geographical distribution of all the grants (approx 17 million euros) given to the arts field yearly in Helsinki. The study demonstrated clearly that the inequality between various districts in relation to arts and culture offerings are drastic. Some neighborhoods were identified which did not have any culture activities or services.
The Helsinki participatory cultural model aims to reinforce the positive profile of suburban areas and the cohesion of communities through increased local participation. The aim is to diversify and create a balance between cultural activities offered in various parts of the city and to ensure that all Helsinki residents have access to culture.
The long term objectives are to increase the social cohesion and the social capital of the citizen’s in the neighborhoods. Trough arts and culture we will promote wellbeing, social inclusion and citizenship. The cultural institutions and organisations are encouraged to step outside their premises in the city centre and to work together with local residents and communities in various districts. The model will strengthen the interaction between art institutions and residents and provide them new content. It also promotes innovative ways of reaching new audiences. Residents and communities are encouraged to take a more active role in the creation of culture contents, instead of being mere spectators.
The aim is to create new models of collaboration and dialogue between local organisations, art institutions, the city departments and the inhabitants. The aim is to make use of the resources of the various stakeholders and to reinforce at the same time the possibilities of local participation and the influence of people in their own neighborhoods.
We have identified four pilot neighborhoods for a period of three years (2016-18) where art outreach activities will be promoted and art will be incorporated more comprehensively into the local, social and cultural development of the area.
The Helsinki model consists of many activities which are in connection with each other. The Culture office is responsible of the overall coordination and administration of the project.
The art activities in the neighborhoods will be produced by art institutions and organisations. The Helsinki City Library and Cultural Board will fund 12 participatory projects during 2016-18 through grants (approx. 1 130 000 euros). These projects were chosen based on an open call in June 2015. The selection process included hearings in neighborhoods during which the opinions of the inhabitants and the local stakeholders were heard. The selection process underlined the strong dialogue which is the essence of the model.
The art institutions responsible for producing the culture projects represent theatres, museums, dance and contemporary circus companies, music institutions and artists’ associations. The diversity among them is interesting, the actors vary from stable institutions such as the National Theatre to small artistic organisations such as the media association m-cult.
The four regional cultural centres of the city have a crucial role in the model, they are located in the suburb areas of the city, two of them in the chosen pilot areas. The aim of all the regional centres is to open up even more their activities to the local communities and to increase the possibilities of the inhabitants to influence the activities. These centres have been working in the areas since the 90’s and they have built strong local networks and knowhow from the local arts field.
The pilot phase of the Helsinki Model focuses on four different types of area, namely Kaarela, Maunula, Jakomäki and Vuosaari. We have identified and engaged local players, networks and cooperation partners from these pilot districts and opened up the dialogue between them and the art institutions. The role of the culture office is to enable the collaboration and to guide them when necessary.
One important activity is the evaluation of the practice, the research and analyze of it’s impacts and success. We have outlined an evaluation plan for the model with various stages and outcomes.
The pilot phase of the Helsinki Model focuses on four different types of areas, which are located in different parts of the city. These neighborhoods face very different challenges and development needs. However they all share the low rate of culture offerings and infrastructure, and participation to culture services.
For instance, the Vuosaari area has a population of almost 40 000 inhabitants. Vuosaari is a very diverse area with many realities, cultures and challenges. The activities realized in the neighborhood will be targeted especially to young people with the aim to strengthen their feeling of identity, trust, equality and respect for each other and their environment.
The smaller districts of Maunula and Kaarela are communities where the people have become more active and many local participation projects have been initiated. Many urban regeneration projects have also been promoting the positive profile of these area. However, there are many severe socio-economic challenges and feeling of insecurity and loneliness in the mentioned districts. Problems related to violence, and disorder have unfortunately also influenced the image and identities of the areas.
The population segment to which the activities are targeted are very diverse. The main aim is to reach those people who are not active and feel neglected by their communities. Many of the projects realized in the areas will focus on changes related to empowerment, increased participation and engagement. The aim is to reinforce the social cohesion in the community and trough arts and culture strengthen the citizenship of the inhabitants.
In the future, we hope that this model will become a permanent operating model in Helsinki. We hope that during the upcoming three years we will be able to challenge existing structures and create new innovative ways to work locally trough arts and culture. This initiative enables the formulation of new operating models within the city as well as for local organisations and art institutions. | 2019-04-20T20:51:18Z | http://www.culturaldevelopment.eu/helsinki/ |
[Both Christians and moderate Muslims are the enemies and the victims of the armies of militant “Islamists” which we have recruited to overthrow the government of Syria and to replace it with another, Taliban-style government. Isn’t it unbelievable that our “way of life” requires that our government become the world’s primary sponsor of state terrorism? We tie the world in knots over our claims that Shiite “Iran sponsors terrorism,” yet it is Sunni terrorism that plagues the world today, killing mostly Muslims. Most often, the Muslim victims are Shias, or anyone who is not Sunni. It is much more than “coincidence” that Sunni terrorists kill the allies of our enemy, Iran; it is the plan. American planners have finally wised-up to the insanity inherent in openly starting a war with tenacious Iran and opted for silent, covert war, instead. Our Saudi and Qatari allies have helped us put together secret terrorist armies that are composed mostly of radicalized Sunnis, who have waiting for this moment most of their adult lives, yearning for the day when they would be free to slay the “enemies of God.” Little did most of them realize, that their “Holy War” would be waged for the benefit of the “Great Satan.” Their “Jihad” is the real foreign policy of the United States, NOT these “piss ant wars” that are fought in Afghanistan and elsewhere, merely as a diversion to the Real War (SEE: The Real War –vs– The Illusions).
The American Bible Belt Christians have been the cornerstone of this policy of willful blindness in the face of arrogant evil. Now that their Christian cousins in Syria and throughout the Middle East are starting to pay the price for their slothful spiritual laziness, perhaps a few of Jesus’ “little lambs” will open their eyes in time to see the circling wolves. The Qusayr Christians mentioned in the article below could have used their help before now, but perhaps the “scales will fall from their eyes” in time to motivate them to help change the fate of the rest of Syria’s ancient Christian enclaves.
Thousands of Syrians are fleeing into neighboring Lebanon — not entirely due to fear of the Assad regime. The country’s minority Christian population is suffering under attacks waged by rebel troops. In the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, Christian families are finding temporary refuge, but they are still terrified.
There had been many warnings that the Khouri* family wouldn’t talk. “They won’t say a word — they’re too scared,” predicted the mayor of Qa, a small market town in northeastern Lebanon where the Khouris are staying. “They won’t even open their door for journalists,” said another person, who had contacted the family on behalf of a non-governmental organization.
Somehow, though, the interview was arranged in the end. Reserved and halting, the women described what happened to their husbands, brothers and nephews back in their hometown of Qusayr in Syria. They were killed by Syrian rebel fighters, the women said — murdered because they were Christians, people who in the eyes of radical Islamist freedom fighters have no place in the new Syria.
In the past year and a half, since the beginning of the uprising against Syria’s authoritarian President Bashar Assad, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled their homes and sought safe haven abroad. Inside the country, the United Nations estimates that 1 million people have left their homes to escape violence and are now internally displaced. The majority are likely to have fled to escape the brutality of Assad’s troops. Indeed, as was the case at the start of the Syrian civil war, most of the violence is still being perpetrated by the army, the secret services and groups of thugs steered by the state.
With fighting ongoing, however, the rebels have also committed excesses. And some factions within the patchwork of disparate groups that together comprise the Free Syrian Army have radicalized at a very rapid clip in recent months. A few are even being influenced by foreign jihadists who have traveled to Syria to advise them. That, at least, is what witnesses on the ground are reporting in Qusayr, where fierce fighting has raged for months. Control of the town has passed back and forth between the two sides, at times falling into the hands of the regime and at others of the rebels. Currently, fighters with the Free Syrian Army have the upper hand, and they have also made the city of 40,000 residents a place where the country’s Christian minority no longer feels safe.
“There were always Christians in Qusayr — there were around 10,000 before the war,” says Leila, the matriarch of the Khouri clan. Currently, 11 members of the clan are sharing two rooms. They include the grandmother, grandfather, three daughters, one husband and five children. “Despite the fact that many of our husbands had jobs in the civil service, we still got along well with the rebels during the first months of the insurgency.” The rebels left the Christians alone. The Christians, meanwhile, were keen to preserve their neutrality in the escalating power struggle. But the situation began deteriorating last summer, Leila says, murmuring a bit more before going silent.
Grandmother Leila made the sign of the cross. “Anyone who believes in this cross suffers,” she says.
It is not possible to independently corroborate the Khouri’s version of events, but the basic information seems consistent with what is already known. On April 20, Abdel Ghani Jawhar involuntarily provided proof that foreign jihadists are engaged in combat in Qusayr. Jawhar, a Lebanese national and commander with the terrorist group Fatah al Islam, died that day in the Syrian city. An explosives expert, Jawhar had been in Qusayr to teach rebels how to build bombs and accidentally blew himself up while trying to assemble one. Until his death, Jawhar had been the most wanted man in Lebanon, where he is implicated in the deaths of 200 people. Lebanese authorities confirmed his death in Syria. The fact that the rebels had worked together with a man like Jawhar fomented fears after his death that the ranks of insurgents are increasingly becoming infiltrated by international terrorists.
Grandmother Leila makes the sign of the cross again. It wasn’t only her son-in-law who got killed. Her brother and two nephews were also killed. “They shot one of my nephews, a pharmacist, in his apartment because he supported the regime,” she says.
Like many Lebanese and Syrian Christians, Saad is also a supporter of the Assad regime. As a religious minority in the Middle East, Christians don’t have much choice other than to align themselves with a strong leader who can protect them, Saad says. “The rebels haven’t managed to convince me they are fighting for more democracy,” the mayor says.
The attacks on Afghan leaders come as the NATO force hands over more security duties to the Afghan police and army and begins its troop drawdown in earnest.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Tamim Nuristani used to own a pizza chain in California. Now he’s a marked man in Afghanistan.
This month, insurgents ambushed the provincial governor’s convoy in northeastern Afghanistan, sparking a fierce battle that pinned down his entourage for the night. When the motorcade tried to move in the morning, the assailants struck again. Miraculously, all those in the convoy survived.
It was not the first attempt on Nuristani’s life; he did not expect it to be the last. Not long ago, security forces discovered and defused a remote-controlled explosive device apparently meant for him, and a defecting Talibanfighter told officials that he had been personally tasked with assassinating the Nuristan governor.
Taliban and other insurgent groups have long targeted Afghan government officials and community leaders. But this month has seen an extraordinary spate of assassinations and attempted assassinations of public figures, raising the specter of many more such killings as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization force here begins its troop drawdown in earnest.
Over a span of four days beginning July 13, a provincial women’s affairs chief in eastern Afghanistan was killed by a car bomb; the mayor of a western town was gunned down on the way home from evening prayers; a prominent member of parliament was slain in a suicide attack that also killed 18 others at festivities for his daughter’s wedding; a district police chief in Kandahar was killed in a drive-by shooting; a Cabinet minister and another provincial governor escaped uninjured when their motorcade was bombed; and a district chief in northern Kunduz province hopped out of his vehicle to shop — just before the car blew up.
The latest jolt came Sunday, when the governor of Chak district in Wardak province, Mohammad Ismail Wafa, was shot to death by assailants. His young son died with him. And the Muslim holy month of Ramadan proved no protection for a prominent imam in Oruzgan province: He was killed Monday by a bomb outside his mosque.
Authorities are uncertain whether the recent drumbeat of attacks represents a coordinated campaign by a single group or if the strikes were unrelated actions by disparate militant organizations — or even whether internal power struggles were at play.
Either way, the seeming open season on Afghan public servants represents an ominous trend as the NATO force hands over more security responsibilities to the Afghan police and army, while simultaneously trying to build public confidence in all levels of the Afghan government.
“What better way to undermine government power than by killing the Afghan leadership?” asked Brig. Roger Noble, an Australian serving as a senior military operations officer with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. At a recent shura, or consultative session with tribal elders, he said, the most urgent request was for more support for vulnerable district officials.
Ramadan, which began Friday, could prove particularly perilous, because politicians and dignitaries are expected to mingle with crowds of constituents at the daily iftar, the evening meal that breaks the daytime fast observed by devout Muslims. And the Taliban has vowed no letup in violence during the time of fasting and prayer.
The latest series of killings and attacks was unusual in that it was largely concentrated inAfghanistan’snorth, a region that is mainly populated by ethnic minorities with a more pronounced grass-roots distaste for the Taliban than is seen in the predominantly Pashtun south and east, historically the war’s main battlegrounds.
Some non-Taliban insurgent groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Pakistani-based organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba have made inroads in the north in recent years. And the security situation is complicated by internecine tensions among some former comrades in arms from the Northern Alliance, the U.S.-backed militia that helped drive the Taliban from power.
Some northern strongmen have reportedly been stockpiling weapons in advance of a potential power vacuum when Western combat troops depart, or in the event of a peace pact with the Taliban, which most of them strongly oppose.
The wedding hall blast in Samangan province that killed the father of the bride, well-connected lawmaker Ahmad Khan Samangani, swiftly gave rise to a rash of conspiracy theories about his rivalries with other northern power brokers.
But the Samangan police chief, Gen. Khalil Andarabi, blamed what he described as an Al Qaeda-linked faction assembled by the late Mullah Amir Gul, a onetime Taliban shadow governor in the province who also once served in the Afghan army.
The Taliban movement, made up of sometimes-quarreling factions and with fluid and shifting alliances with other militant organizations, has claimed responsibility for some of the recent attacks, including the one against Nuristani. But its leadership has disavowed responsibility for others, such as the July 13 car bombing that killed Hanifa Safi, a respected women’s rights advocate in Laghman province.
Although Taliban fighters have repeatedly targeted and threatened women’s activists, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid — disingenuously, perhaps — suggested that “personal enmity” might lie behind Safi’s murder. No arrests have yet been made in her death, which brought an outpouring of grief and anger from the community, including many conservative male tribal elders.
Special correspondents Hashmat Baktash and Aimal Yaqubi contributed to this report.
(AP) NEW DELHI – India’s energy crisis spread over half the country Tuesday when both its eastern and northern electricity grids collapsed, leaving 600 million people without power in one of the world’s biggest-ever blackouts.
The power failure has raised serious concerns about India’s outdated infrastructure and the government’s inability to meet an insatiable appetite for energy as the country aspires to become a regional economic superpower.
The outage in the eastern grid came just a day after India’s northern power gridcollapsed for several hours. (Click on the player at left for a full report). Indian officials managed to restore power several hours later, but at 1:05 p.m. Tuesday the northern grid collapsed again, said Shailendre Dubey, an official at the Uttar Pradesh Power Corp. in India’s largest state. About the same time, the eastern grid failed as well, said S.K. Mohanty, a power official in the eastern state of Orissa. The two grids serve about half India’s population.
Traffic lights went out across New Delhi. The city’s Metro rail system, which serves about 1.8 million people a day, immediately shut down for the second day in a row. Police said they managed to evacuate Delhi’s busy Barakhamba Road station in under half an hour before closing the shutters.
S.K. Jain, 54, said he was on his way to file his income tax return when the Metro closed and now would almost certainly miss the deadline.
The new power failure affected people across 13 states — more than the entire population of the European Union. They raised concerns about India’s outdated infrastructure and its insatiable appetite for energy that the government has been unable to meet.
India’s demand for electricity has soared along with its economy in recent years, but utilities have been unable to meet the growing needs. India’s Central Electricity Authority reported power deficits of more than 8 percent in recent months.
But any connection to the grid remains a luxury for many. One-third of India’s households do not even have electricity to power a light bulb, according to last year’s census.
Last week, the NATO powers launched their long-awaited summer offensive against Syria. This was a multi-pronged effort designed not just to overthrow the government of President Assad, but also to totally disintegrate the existing structures of the Syrian state, dissolving the entire country into chaos, confusion, secession, attempted coups d’état, and a likely massacre of Assad backers, Alawites, Christians, Kurds, and other minority groups.
This assault peaked between July 18 and July 21. Almost a week later, all indications suggest that Assad, the Baath party, and the Syrian state have proven to be much stronger than the NATO planners had imagined, and that the imperialist attack has been defeated for the time being.
The easiest way for NATO to destroy independent Syria would be to obtain a UN Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone, a bombing campaign, and incursions by special forces, many of them sent by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other reactionary Gulf monarchies. But this path has been blocked by the courageous resistance of Russia and China. Another method would be to form a coalition of the willing outside of the United Nations and proceed to the attack, as was done in the cases of Serbia and Iraq. But, with Russian President Vladimir Putin reasserting Russia’s support for Syria, this method poses the risk of Russian and Chinese retaliation in ways which the Anglo-Americans might find extremely painful. Therefore, NATO created a multi-layered strategy to subvert and destroy the Syrian state using covert action below the threshold of bombing and invasion, although including out special forces and espionage.
The signal to activate the assembled capabilities was given by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on July 8, when she warned Damascus that little time remained to avoid a “catastrophic assault” capable of destroying the Syrian state. This is exactly what was attempted last week.
First, NATO attempted to isolate Syria by interrupting communications with its traditional ally, Iran. According to the Wall Street Journal of July 23, the United States in particular has exerted pressure on the government of Iraq to deny overflight permission for flights between Syria and Iran through Iraqi airspace. An official US diplomatic demarche delivered in Baghdad demanded that such flights be banned. At the same time, pressure was exerted on the government of Egypt to violate the international status of the Suez Canal by preventing the transit of Iranian ships allegedly headed for Syrian ports. But these efforts have yielded only mixed results, according to this account.
The main diplomatic thrust of the destabilization effort was yet another UN Security Council resolution opening the door to Chapter Seven economic sanctions and military attack on Syria. This transparent bid for a general war in the Middle East was duly vetoed by Russia and China, while Pakistan and South Africa abstained despite US pressure. United States Ambassador to the UN Susan E. Rice became hysterical, raving that the Russian Federation was “pitiful,” “dangerous,” and “deplorable” after she lost the vote. Hillary Clinton had previously branded Russia as “despicable” and “intolerable.” One imagines these charming ladies chewing the carpet as Hitler reportedly did during the run-up to the Munich conference of September 1938.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov correctly described the US diplomatic posture as “justifying terrorism.” According to Lavrov, the US stance amounted to, “We will continue to support terrorist attacks until the Security Council does what we want.” It would now be in order for Russia and China to propose a Security Council resolution condemning the United States and its allies for giving material support to terrorism.
The most dramatic single episode of the assault was an apparent explosion on Wednesday, July 18 in one of the main Syrian government buildings which killed Defense Minister Rajha (the top Christian in the government), crisis management director Turkmani, and Assef Shawkat, a military intelligence expert and brother-in-law of President Assad. Interior Minister Shaar was reported wounded, and national security director Ikhtiyar succumbed later to injuries. Western media were quick to gloat, attributing the explosion to a suicide bomber recruited from inside one of the key ministries, but this may reflect an attempt to launch a variation of Operation Splinter Factor among top officials. Other hypotheses include a rocket fired from a US drone. Thierry Meyssan has reported that the explosion was detonated from inside the US Embassy, which is nearby.
The goal of this attack was clearly the decapitation of the Syrian military and security forces, and of the Syrian state overall. But thanks to the fact that President Assad was not involved, Syria was able to maintain continuity of government and a functioning command structure, which quickly recovered from this staggering blow. Within hours, replacements for the slain officials had been nominated and announced to the public, and a reshuffling of top jobs continued for several days. If NATO had prepared a coup d’état to fill the void, there is no indication that it ever got off the ground.
So far, the NATO attack on Syria has depended mainly on Salvadoran-style death squads composed mainly of foreign fighters, including al-Qaeda and similar groups, some of which had originated as part of the US counterinsurgency effort in Iraq in 2005, during the tenure in Baghdad of US Ambassador John Negroponte. One of Negroponte’s disciples, Ambassador Robert Ford, was present in Damascus during the pre-2011 preparation of the current assault.
But, given the inability of the numerically weak death squads to capture and hold even a single town or village, to say nothing of a region of the country, it was decided to recruit and deploy an entirely new echelon of foreign fighters from all over North Africa and the Middle East. These were necessarily mercenaries, fanatics, convicts, and adventurers whose military training and weaponry would be inferior even to those of fighters deployed by NATO so far.
Their task was to implement a strategy of swarming. In military terms, swarming is the attempt to overwhelm an opponent by a rapid series of attacks from loosely coordinated autonomous groups. Quantity trumps quality. Many thousands of additional fighters were shipped in by NATO; Meyssan puts their numbers between 40,000 and 60,000, but this may be excessive. They crossed Syrian borders with Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraqi Kurdistan. The fighters themselves came from Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, and other countries. As they entered Syria from foreign territory, the fighters seized temporary control of several border crossings, a fact much-hyped by the Western press.
The premise of this irregular assault had been the wishful notion that resistance by the Syrian army would collapse. But the Fourth Armored division, the Republican Guard, and other key units held fast. This left the foreign fighters as sitting ducks in vulnerable positions they could not hope to defend. As of this writing, the foreign fighters have been largely mopped up in Damascus, and another large concentration in Aleppo appears to be surrounded and destined for annihilation. NATO’s pool of cannon fodder has thus been sharply depleted.
To spread the idea that Syrian resistance had collapsed and that further resistance against NATO was futile, Ben Rhodes of the Obama White House, the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Saudi Prince Bandar, and other officials had also prepared a campaign of psychological media warfare and video fakery. Syrian state television, al Adounia, and other pro-Syrian broadcasters were to be denied access to Nilesat and Arabsat, and their signals replaced by fake programming generated by the CIA, including with movie sets and Potemkin villages in the Gulf monarchies. But this plan had been revealed many weeks in advance, notably by Meyssan. Accordingly, loyal Syrian broadcasters prepared their audience with public service announcements about what was coming, and how to receive genuine programming.
Programming on Nilesat and Arabsat was in fact repeatedly interrupted, while the widely hated al Jazeera of Qatar and Saudi al Arabiya reported that Assad had fled. But few were fooled by the crude NATO substitutes, so shock and awe fell flat. A NATO plan to organize a panic run on the Syrian currency, contributing a further dimension of economic and logistical chaos, also fell short.
As it became clear that the anti-government forces trapped in Damascus were being decimated, King Abdullah of Jordan began harping on the danger that Syrian chemical weapons might be used or get out of control – an established meme of NATO propaganda. NATO was clearly still looking for a pretext to attack, but the eleven Russian warships assigned to Tartus and the eastern Mediterranean left that approach fraught with peril.
A danger is also emerging for the reactionary feudal monarchs who are NATO’s main allies in the Middle East. Partly as a result of NATO’s incessant pro-democracy rhetoric, the ferment of social protest is now widespread in Saudi Arabia, surely one of the countries most vulnerable to a mass upsurge. On July 22, an explosion occurred at the headquarters of the Saudi intelligence service in Riyadh, killing the deputy director. The target may also have been Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who had just been named intelligence boss, and who is deeply implicated in the Syrian events. Was this somebody’s payback? More importantly, might this attack become the trigger for a mass movement in Saudi Arabia powerful enough to threaten the feudal-reactionary dynasty and the power of the infamous Sudairi clan?
Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1946, Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley is a philosopher of history who seeks to provide the programs and strategies needed to overcome the current world crisis. As an activist historian he first became widely known for his book George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), a masterpiece of research which is still a must read.
UNITED NATIONS: A UN convoy carrying unarmed observers came under attack in Syria, but none were injured, UN chief Ban Ki-moon told reporters Monday.
The five-vehicle convoy which was carrying UN mission chief General Babacar Gaye came under small arms fire near the protest city of Homs, a UN peacekeeping spokeswoman said.
"Fortunately there were no injuries," Ban told reporters as he announced the attack on Sunday.
The convoy was at the village of Talbisa, traveling from the protest city of Homs when one vehicle was hit by three bullets and another by one bullet, a UN peacekeeping spokeswoman, Josephine Guerrero, told AFP.
"It was an convoy of five vehicles, which was carrying General Gaye, which came under small arms fire," she said.
UN officials said it was not known who had fired the shots.
Gaye told a press conference in Damascus that he had been on his first field visit since his arrival one week ago to take charge of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS).
He did not mention the shooting incident but told reporters: "During my visit to Homs, I was personally able to witness heavy shelling, from artillery and mortars, ongoing in the neighborhoods of the city."
Ban made a new plea for President Bashar al-Assad to halt the "violent measures" of his forces in Homs and the city of Aleppo, which is the target of a major new assault.
"We are deeply concerned that they are using all sorts, all kinds of heavy equipment, including military airplanes and attack helicopters and heavy weaponry. This is an unacceptable situation," Ban said. "The situation is getting worse and worse."
Posted in death squads, How Do We Build the Resistance?, idiot nation, image of the beast, monsters, Organizing resistance, Shut Down the Source, strategic failure, The Most Moral Army In the World?, there are no sunglasses, UnIslamic "Islamists"
JERUSALEM (AP) — Mitt Romney told Jewish donors Monday that their culture is part of what has allowed them to be more economically successful than the Palestinians, outraging Palestinian leaders who suggested his comments were racist and out of touch with the realities of the Middle East. His campaign later said his remarks were mischaracterized.
Palestinian reaction to Romney was swift and pointed.
As criticism mounted while Romney traveled to Poland, campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said: “His comments were grossly mischaracterized.” The Republican’s campaign contends Romney’s comparison of countries that are close to each other and have wide income disparities — the U.S. and Mexico, Chile and Ecuador — shows his comments were broader than just the comparison between Israel and Palestine.
While speaking to U.S. audiences, Romney often highlights culture as a key to economic success and emphasizes the power of the American entrepreneurial spirit compared to the values of other countries. But his decision to highlight cultural differences in a region where such differences have helped fuel violence for generations raises new questions about the former businessman’s diplomacy skills.
As he has at home, Romney in Jerusalem cited a book titled, “Guns, Germs and Steel,” that suggests the physical characteristics of the land account for the differences in the success of the people that live there.
“And you look at Israel and you say you have a hard time suggesting that all of the natural resources on the land could account for all the accomplishment of the people here,” Romney said, before citing another book, “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations,” by former Harvard professor David Landes.
Romney, seated next to billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson at the head of the table, told donors that he had read books and relied on his own business experience to understand why the difference in economic disparity between countries is so great.
His comparison of the two economies did not take into account the stifling effect the Israeli occupation has had on the Palestinian economy in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem — areas Israel captured in 1967 where the Palestinians hope to establish a state.
And although Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it continues to control access and has enforced a crippling border blockade since the Islamic militant Hamas seized the territory in 2007.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund repeatedly have said that the Palestinian economy can only grow if Israel lifts those restrictions.
The breakfast with top donors — including Adelson, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and hedge fund manager Paul Singer — concluded Romney’s visit to Israel, the second leg of a three-nation overseas tour designed to bolster his foreign policy credentials.
In Israel, Romney did not meet with Abbas or visit the West Bank. He met briefly with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Romney’s campaign says the trip, which began in England last week, is aimed at improving the former Massachusetts governor’s foreign policy experience through a series of meetings with foreign leaders. The candidate has largely avoided direct criticism of U.S. President Barack Obama while on foreign soil.
The Jerusalem fundraiser, however, was a political event that raised more than $1 million for Romney’s campaign. It marks at least the second finance event during his tour. The first, in London, attracted about 250 people to a $2,500-per-person fundraiser.
Romney’s declaration that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital was in keeping with claims made by Israeli governments for decades, even though the United States, like other nations, maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv.
His remarks on the subject during a speech drew a standing ovation from the audience, which included Adelson, the American businessman who has promised to donate more than $100 million to help defeat Obama.
A goal of Romney’s overseas trip is to demonstrate his confidence on the world stage, but the stop in Israel also was designed to appeal to evangelical voters at home and cut into Obama’s support among Jewish voters and donors. A Gallup survey of Jewish voters released Friday showed Obama with a 68-25 edge over Romney.
Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem and Steve Peoples in Washington contributed to this report. | 2019-04-26T04:11:30Z | https://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2012/07/ |
PGA National played host to the 1983 Ryder Cup matches between the USA and Europe. Team Captains were Jack Nicklaus (US) and Tony Jacklin (Europe). Having never yet lost on home soil, the US Team almost succumbed to the Europeans in Florida. Seve Ballesteros, three up against Fuzzy Zoeller with five to play, stood on the last tee all square. He hit his drive into deep rough and then hacked out into a bunker. Seve then hit a 240-yard 3-wood from the trap to the fringe of the green and then chipped and putted for par and a halve. A wonderful shot from the Spaniard but it wasn’t enough for Europe. USA 14 ½ - Europe 13 ½. The Ryder Cup was played at Walton Heath in 1981 and at The Belfry in 1985.
With five 18-hole golf courses in its portfolio, the PGA National Resort & Spa at Palm Beach in Florida offers a true smorgasbord for hungry golfers. The star attraction on the PGA National menu is the Champion course, which was the battleground for the 1983 Ryder Cup – one of the closest contests in Ryder Cup history. The match was deadlocked at 8-8 after the first two day’s play and teams were still tied after the first 10 singles matches. Eventually Jack Nicklaus’s team edged out Tony Jacklin’s European side 14½ 13½, denying Europe their first Ryder Cup victory on US soil.
Tom and George Fazio originally designed the Champion course at PGA National in 1981 with major tournament play in mind. Not only did the Champion course prove to be a worthy Ryder Cup venue but also it was the course used for 1987 PGA Championship which Larry Nelson won after a playoff against Lanny Wadkins.
The Champion course received a major Jack Nicklaus redesign in 1990 and he returned to modify it again in 2002. Now it’s very much a Golden Bear creation and even has the tough-as-nails closing trio (15-17) labelled “The Bear Trap”. Measuring 7,158 yards with par set at a measly 70, the Champion really is a tough course, even for the pros who try to tame it during the annual “Classic”. Honda has sponsored the Classic since 1982 and the event has been contested on the Champion course since 2007 – the Classic was formerly hosted at Mirasol Country Club on their Sunrise course.
Jack Nicklaus – course architect writes: "We didn't just change the golf course, we basically designed a new one. For the most part, we kept the previous routing in tact because most of the original land usage including the changes in direction were fine and it also made good economic sense. The basic objective of the redesign was to try to make the Champion course a more playable golf course, or feel like it was a more playable golf course for all golfers concerned. To do this, wherever feasible, we eliminated the convex fairways. The original fairways were drained from the center out. This type of fairway has the tendency to make you feel uncomfortable. Balls hit and bounce off the fairways – giving you the feeling that the golf balls are collected into the fairway. We used the same basic philosophy with the green areas. The original greens were designed more as repelling greens. For strategic reasons, there are certain times when you design repelling situations, however for the most part, the fairways and greens now accept shots rather than repelling them."
In the 2010 Honda Classic, Colombia’s Camilo Villegas cruised to a five-stroke win. His 13-under 267 total was a tournament record for the Champion course, underlining the ferocity of the course’s challenge, even for today’s top professionals. In the 2011 event, South Africa’s Rory Sabbatini claimed his sixth PGA Tour title with 9-under, winning by a single shot from South Korea’s Y.E. Yang. Another Rory, this time a certain Rory McIlroy, won the 2012 Honda Classic and in doing so also claimed the No.1 spot in the world rankings. The Northern Irishman also became the second youngest player to reach number one.In terms of difficulty, the Champion course is in the PGA Tour’s Top 10 for scoring difficulty. It’s one of the toughest driving courses on the PGA Tour circuit and, with only two par fives on the card – the par five 18th is one of the most difficult on tour – do not expect too many low scores to be carded on the Champion. As for eagles, they are as rare as hen’s teeth.
Rory McIlroy stole the Honda Classic headlines for the next two years. In 2013 he controversially walked off the course, initially citing “being in a bad place mentally” but later said it was because of a sore wisdom tooth. Michael Thompson went on to win the 2013 Classic, his first PGA Tour title. The following year McIlroy led the tournament from the off, but let a final round two-shot lead slip and lost in a four-man playoff (that also featured Ryan Palmer and Russell Knox) to Russell Henley, who claimed his second PGA Tour title following a birdie on the first playoff hole.
Rain delayed proceedings in 2015 and the final round was completed on Monday. After seven years in the doldrums, Padraig Harrington prevailed, beating American rookie Daniel Berger in a play-off to win the 2015 title. Adam Scott beat Sergio Garcia by one shot in 2016 and Rickie Fowler cruised to victory in 2017.
PGA National hosts 5 course, of which the most famous is the Championship, with the infamous Bear Trap. The facility is great for any kind of golf getaway. To the course, one great feature are 6 tee boxes. We need to encourage people to play the right tees. The first hole is welcoming, a short par 4, with water left and trees right. It sets the tone for what is to come. I think there is only one hole, the 10th, without a water hazard. The 4th hole looks like a birdie hole, but, due to fairway bunkers, right and left greenside bunkers and a narrow green danger lurks. The par 5 6th is a short reachable par 5. However, there are bunkers right and the fairway slopes left towards the water hazard. If you go for it, favor the right side as the green runs hard to the left rear. Not really sure why this is the number one handicap hole? The 9th is a dogleg left where you get to choose how much of an appetite you have. It has an elevated green with a bunker so take an extra club.
To me the 12th is one of the toughest holes on the course. It is a long dogleg right that is guarded with bunkers right and left and water and trees. As with many Nicklaus designs, this hole significantly favors faders. The short par 4 13th is probably your last birdie oppty before hitting the Bear Trap. Having said that it has a narrow landing area with bunkers on the left and water right. The green is slightly elevated with bunkers right and short.The Bear Trap is one of the most famous stretches of 3 holes in golf. The 15th is a 176 yard par 3. When we played the wind was swirling and there is water short, right and long with a bunker left to keep us honest. We only lost two balls. The 16th is a bear, no pun intended. Long par 4 with water all the way down the right, fairway bunkers left and right and then a carry over water on your approach. I forgot two-tiered green. We were consistent, only lost two balls. To me, the par 3 17th is eerily familiar to the 15th. Water, water everywhere. Go for the middle of the green. We did not lose any balls! Then came 18. I do not know why this is not considered part of the Bear Trap. I think it is a super finishing hole. Dogleg left with fairway bunkers left and right that narrows as you get closer to the green. Oops, forgot to mention the water all down the right side. On your approach, bunkers left, water right and the green gets extraordinarily skinny the further right you go. Our short-term euphoria of not losing any balls on 17 was dashed as we splashed 4 and staggered to the clubhouse. Good but not great, I would not go back unless you are paying.
There's a tendency to link difficulty and architectural greatness. However, the former is merely about the wherewithal to create a series of challenges that can often times prove insurmountable most notably when courses are pushed either right to the edge or even go over it. Florida golf -- with very few exceptions -- invariably entwines the presence of water on a steady basis. In some cases, the presence of water hazards can be saturated -- no pun intended -- to the point of excess.
The Champion Course hosts the annual Honda Classic on the PGA TOUR and those competing for the title are well aware of the dangers. The course's reputation for difficulty is further enhanced by varying wind velocities so the pressure on pure ball striking only becomes more intensified.
For many people the level of difficulty is assumed to be in league with compelling architecture. Top tier architecture is about the necessity for a wide range of shotmaking acumen. The issue I have with much of Florida golf is that water is inserted to the point of overkill. No doubt it's tied to the fact that nearly all the State is right at sea level. Water is also chiefly more penal in its role. Very rarely do players who come in contact with it have any other option except to drop ball and play on from there. Pity any player having issues with one's driver -- you'll likely be contacting the pro shop to have more ammo sent to you. My best wishes to Tiger Woods who plans to compete this week at a course that has absolutely zero tolerance for wayward driving.
When wind speeds exceed 20-25 mph, which is not unheard of in the winter / early spring period -- the air game is certainly tested to the max. Given the nature of the spongy turf -- there's little meaningful roll so a ground game option is generally not included. That is one of the main reasons why much of Florida golf is of limited appeal to me and others. The bounce of the ball is a needed element when wind speeds pick-up. In playing links courses the fescue grasses allow for players to succeed by using the ground option as a way to mitigate severe blowing conditions.
The Champion Course has been upgraded by Jack Nicklaus and the feature item of discussion is always holes #15 thru #17 -- infamously known as - "The Bear Trap." Two of the holes are par-3's and water is a central issue to overcome on both. The slightest push to the right on either means the very real possibility in scoring a double-bogey or worse. The 17th can be absolutely terrifying to play in any crosswind - especially when coming from left-to-right. The other hole in the trio -- the 16th -- is a fine par-4 which often gets the least attention but is nonetheless a fine hole.
Players can make-up ground one final time with the closing par-5 18th. But only with the best execution. This is one hole which only grudgingly gives up birdies and even rarer yet eagles. The hole features a drive zone turning left and then a fairway narrowing considerably the closer one gets to the green. There's also a water hazard hugging the right side of the green and needs to be thoroughly respected. The 18th provides a range of options and scoring situations and is one of the very best holes at The Champion.
There's little in terms of note regarding topography and for many the memorability of the course may be an issue -- save for the visceral impact caused by The Bear Trap.
The Champion shows that difficulty is an item of primary concern but riveting architecture is more often than not in short supply here. Just be sure to have your frog mask and fins available if the golf clubs fail you. And pay heed to the alligators lurking nearby!
Recently spent a couple days staying at PGA National resort. The first impression is how impressed I was with the scale of everything, even the roads going in to the resort which seem like main roads share the name giving an indication that this entire areas was made up with golf and catering to golfers and their families in mind. Sure the scale of everything is huge but with year round sunshine and near perfect conditions it’s pretty unique and pretty cool from my perspective. Naturally the Champions Course is famous from the Honda Classic one of the big stops on the PGA Tour. It’s highly characterized by the 15-17 holes called the Bear Trap.
I’m not the guy that gets overly excited about playing on championship courses but on this day I went out with a member and his daughter and we had a blast. The course was fun, I’d say a solid resort course from the tees I played, the men’s back tee and it was playing firm and fast which made it more enjoyable. Add a nice Florida breeze and we were all set.
I actually had a great round going till I went into the bear trap holes. They are tough and don’t have too much margin for error. The par 3 17th was, in my mind the toughest, playing into what was then a hard left to right breeze. I chickened out to the left, which is the safe side or at least I thought it was. The shot I was left with was almost impossible. I had to pitch it down wind over a bunker onto a fast green with water behind and the green sloping toward the water from my angle. A shot I tried several times with no success. No matter how good I pitched my 60 degree wedge I couldn’t get the ball to stop without going into the water (of course the member was standing there stopping my balls from rolling in), so I left knowing that there are some shots the pros are faced with that I wouldn’t want to have on a day to day basis at my home club. Accept and move on.
The resort itself was a worthy place to stay as it’s really all about the golf. The rooms were nice and the atmosphere was pretty buzzing with golf excitement as well. There is something to be said for waking up to paradise out your window for avid golf fans. For me the courses themselves would not be enough to convince me to visit but the combination of everything makes for a great place to visit and even use as a base to see some of the golf in the area.
It’s tough that’s for sure but it’s certainly not architecturally interesting, nor is it fun. It’s a slog for anyone with a double digit handicap and fits squarely into the mould of a flat and unimaginative Florida course that is stacked full of golfers who seem to enjoy 6 hour rounds. In my opinion tough doesn’t equal good and I agree with the previous reviewer, it will be a sad day if this course makes anything other than the Florida Top 100. Fun it is not.
A championship venue offering great drama every year. This will be on everybody’s wish list coming to the area!
The PGA resort in West Palm Beach is a really great place to stay and with five golf courses, there is plenty to offer golfers of all standards. I only played the Champion course which is probably the pick of the five and where the Honda Championship is played each March. It is always a great honour to play courses that are featured on the PGA or European Tours and this was no exception. For me the opening four holes give a good chance to play to handicap with three reasonable par-4's and the par-5 3rd is a definite chance to score well on. The rest of the front nine bites back with a series of tough holes, usually with water to negotiate - so any score around handicap after nine holes is a great achievement. My opinion of the start of the back nine is the only reason that the course is not a 6-ball rating; the run of holes from the 10th to the 13th are great but a little predictable - just get yourself prepared for one of the most memorable five hole finishes you will play. Obviously this includes the famous 'Bear Trap'; the run of three holes from the 15th. The first is a par-3 over water to a very protected green, then a brilliant par-4 where the tee shot is not particularly difficult but the approach to the green is, again over water but also this is likely to be something like a 200 yard shot. The 17th completes the Bear Trap trio and with more water to negotiate on this short hole, tee shots yet again have to be very accurate. The 18th hole is a tough cookie and a dramatic finale to a wonderful course - this par-5 is the longest hole on the course and twists and turns all the way to the lakeside green - par is a welcome score for most golfers and even the pros average score here is around 4.9...A post round libation on the patio watching the sun go down is a perfect end to the day. | 2019-04-24T16:55:40Z | https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/pga-national-champion |
On behalf of the Student Alumni Ambassadors, the student branch of the University of Illinois Alumni Association, we would like to ask for your help in identifying the top 100 seniors from the graduating class of 2016. Senior 100 Honorary recognizes outstanding graduating students for their academic achievements, engagement, service, and demonstrated leadership while on campus. Our hope is that these young alumni will stay connected to the University, strengthen its future and share a message of excellence within the global community.
We are hoping that you will share Senior 100 Honorary information with your students via email or by your preferred method of communication with the campus community by directing them to the application link at: http://illinisaa.com/senior-100-app.
We also encourage you to nominate outstanding individuals at: http://illinisaa.com/senior-100-nomination.
We ask that you also share this link with your colleagues. Applications are due Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 11:59 p.m.
If you would like more information about Senior 100 Honorary, please do not hesitate to contact the Senior 100 Honorary Team; we are more than willing to answer any questions. Thank you for sharing this wonderful opportunity.
If you have any questions, please contact the Senior 100 Honorary team at [email protected]. We would be happy to answer any questions.
We will be hiring I-STARs to work particularly with Summer Registration, with the opportunity for the position to continue into the Fall semester. I just posted the position on the Virtual Job Board <https://secure.osfa.illinois.edu/vjb/detail.aspx?type=nonfws&postid=29405> , as well as included the description below. Please encourage any and all students you may think would be a good fit for this position to view the position and email me directly to demonstrate interest and a provide a resume.
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has Summer positions available for Illinois Student Admissions Representatives (I-STARs). We are looking for students who are articulate, flexible, reliable, and energetic, and who have a positive attitude and are enthusiastic about Illinois.
All I-STAR positions will involve giving tours of campus to prospective students and families. Summer I-STAR positions will also include assisting with Summer Registration for new students. This includes assisting with check-in, course registration, speaking with new students and parents/guests, and other tasks associated with the registration program. For this hiring season, students will begin training on May 16, 2016 and Summer Registration will begin May 23, 2016. Students must be able to work Monday-Friday during the hours of 7:30am-4:30pm the entire summer, with the option to work full-time (35 hours per week) or part-time (20 hours per week). There will also be an opportunity to continue work in the Fall semester part-time.
During the Fall and Spring semesters, I-STARs are required to work a minimum of one two-hour shift per week, with additional hours required during our large admission programs and three Saturday programs. The largest number of available work hours will be during the Summer Registration program, which is scheduled to run from May 23 to July 8, 2016. Relatively fewer hours are available from July 11 through the beginning of fall classes. Compensation is $8.25/hour with an opportunity to receive higher wages after one year of employment. Applicants must be undergraduate students in good academic standing and must be eligible to work on campus. Seniors graduating in May 2016, August 2016, or December 2016 are not eligible for this position.
Interested applicants should email a resume to [email protected] by February 12, 2016. We may then request additional information. Those selected for an interview will be notified and scheduled for an interview. Round I interviews will take place March 1 and March 4, 2016. If selected, Round II interviews will take place the week of March 7, 2016. Successful applicants will be required to attend training week May 16-20, 2016.
Questions regarding the application process should be directed to Katie Pollard at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, 217-300-3245 or [email protected].
Students will develop their overall level of cultural competency through our I-Program, Inclusion. Developing this unique skill is vital to the success of any individual working in a diverse environment. Sign up here!
Having a strong positive philosophical foundation on morals and ethics can develop the next leaders into good members of society. Being aware that there is a difference between personal ethical values and societal ethical values can have a large part in influencing the way many people make decisions. Sign up here!
Managing effective group and organizational development is an important skill to have for any individual managing a team in the workforce or a registered student organization here on campus. 96% of Ignite participants learned techniques that they could use when leading a change initiative. Effective I-Program isn’t it? Sign up here!
Insight is coming up! At Insight you will learn how to utilize your intrinsic leadership style that is unique to you. That’s not all! Students will discover their strengths, values, and social identities which can develop individuals into a more well-rounded person. Sign up here!
Team building activities and knowledge can help any individual work effectively in any group. Intersect helps students build upon these skills so that when they encounter a situation where they might have to flex these skills, they’re prepared.
There are certain leadership skills that are necessary to have when successfully managing personal or professional transitions. Come learn these skills at Imprint! Sign up here!
The Diversity and Leadership Summit will help you build connections, develop new skills and overall, it will mold you into better leader. Cultivating passion through learning how to create social change, exploring your identity, or leading consciously will develop you into an individual who has some level of understanding of the world around you. Participation in this summit will count towards the Leadership Certificate and the LENS Diversity Certificate Program. Register by February 18th! The summit will be held on February 28th from 10:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m at the Ikenberry Commons room 2025. Lunch will be provided.
Once again, welcome back Illini! We hope you start off your semester strong and keep the same effort level throughout these next 16 weeks. If any of the I-Programs or events/committees interested you in this email don’t forget to sign up! Have a great first week of classes.
Leadership in Health Gen Ed Course – open seats!!
I wanted to share a new general education class that we are offering that still has some availability. This course is approved as a Social Sciences gen ed and is the process of getting approved to be on the Leadership Minor electives list.
Develops a framework to understand practices of exemplary leadership. Topics include: 1) Modeling behavior, 2) Inspiring a shared vision, 3) Challenging processes, 4) Enabling others to act, and 5) Encouraging passionate leadership. Case studies of individuals who are recognized leaders in health and well being at local, regional, national and global levels will be explored. Through various assignments, students identify their own leadership style and understand the important role they can play as leaders to address local and global health challenges.
Please share with students who are interested in Health and/or may be pursuing the Leadership Minor.
Please inform Juniors, Seniors, and Graduate students about the new course below and attached, which is open to all majors.
Build emotional intelligence skills, the key to leadership success, through hands-on learning during a leadership project. Discover and lead by your strengths, address risk and uncertainty through adaptive change, and frame requests in a way that creates partnership. Unleash new possibilities through mindfulness and resilience skills that increase creativity and productivity and reduce stress.
Involves a variable-credit leadership case study involving any university or non-university group activity. Prerequisites are RHET 101 or equivalent; and Junior, Senior, or Graduate standing.
Happy Monday Illini! We hope you had a great weekend! The year is coming to a close and we have included below information regarding our final offerings and upcoming events for the school year, so get involved! We wish you the best on your final exams!
Been to an i-Program before? You are already well on your way to obtaining a Leadership Certificate! Enroll in our Leadership Certificate Program today!
Application processes for these awards.
Congratulations, seniors – graduation is just around the corner! To celebrate your successful college careers and your transition from students to alumni alongside your fellow graduates, be sure to attend GradFest May 16, 2015 from 2:00 pm. to 5:00 p.m at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center, brought to you by Student Alumni Ambassadors and the University of Illinois Alumni Association. Attendees will be treated to lunch (Gluten free and vegetarian options available!) and have the opportunity to win a variety prize giveaways while enjoying performances by various student groups. We are excited to welcome you into Illinois’ alumni family and congratulate you on your achievements.
*If you wish to unsubscribe from the ILC Newsletter, please send an e-mail to [email protected] including your name and e-mail address.
Thanks for your attention, we hope you have an awesome week. Good luck with your finals! | 2019-04-20T08:26:31Z | http://publish.illinois.edu/statadvising/category/leadership/ |
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Copyright © Henson Height Adjustable Executive High-Back Home Office Chair with Wheels By Ivy Bronx in Candle Style Chandeliers All right reserved. | 2019-04-23T03:02:57Z | https://lolzao.com/Desk-Chairs/2617-opt-for-henson-height-adjustable-executive-high-back-home-office-chair-with-wheels-by-ivy-bronx-2019-04-17-04-54-04pm.html |
A holiday art show sponsored by the Art Society of Old Greenwich will run through Dec. 27 at the Gertrude White Gallery at the YWCA of Greenwich, 259 East Putnam Ave., Greenwich. All paintings are for sale. Call 203-869-6501 for hours or contact [email protected].
The Mary Bush Society of the Children of the American Revolution, the Putnam Hill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and others will commemorate Veterans Day at 4 p.m. Friday by placing flags on the graves of veterans in the Christ Church Cemetery, 254 East Putnam Ave. All are welcome.
The Greenwich Veterans Council comprised of local veterans posts will host A Community Walk to Honor Veterans at 10:30 a.m Friday near the top of Greenwich Avenue. A Veterans Day ceremony will follow at 11 a.m. At 7 p.m., the council will host a ceremony at the Byram Veterans Association, 300 Delavan Ave, Byram.
North Mianus School Veterans Day North Mianus School community members are invited to a Veterans Day Remembrance at 9 a.m. Friday at the school, 309 Palmer Hill Road. James Waters, a former Navy SEAL, will participate in a Flag Ceremony Assembly in the gym at 9 a.m. followed by a breakfast at 9:30 a.m. in the cafeteria.
Any veteran visiting a Splash Car Wash, including the one at 625 West Putnam Ave., on Friday can get a free car wash. To get the no-cost wash, veterans should simply inform a Splash employee of their former or active service. Visit graceforvets.org to doublecheck participating car washes in Connecticut.
Andrew M.T. Moore, president of the Archaeological Institute of America, will be the featured speaker at the Saturday meeting of the Archaeological Associates of Greenwich. Moore will speak on “Archaeology, Climate Change and Human Society” at 2 p.m. at the Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive. Programs are free to AAG, Bruce Museum members and students with an ID. Non-member admission $20.
Greenwich Council of the Boy Scouts of America will host its annual sport shooting “Turkey Shoot” from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Seton Scout Reservation, 363 Riversville Road. Registration for the event is open to Cub Scouts grades 1 to 5. Events include BB shooting, archery, slingshots hammer throwing and shooting marbles.
Girl Scouts in Connecticut will be holding statewide cookie booths at a variety of locations from Nov. 5 to Nov. 13. The sales help fund Girl Scout programs and projects. Locally, the cookies will be available on from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Shoes ‘N’ More, 251 Greenwich Ave. Election Day Booth Sales dates and times are subject to change. Visit gsofct.org and click on the “Looking for Cookies” button for updated booth information.
The Gateway Orchestra will perform Dvorak’s New World Symphony at 7 p.m. Sunday at Second Congregational Church, 139 E. Putnam Ave. For tickets, visit www.gatewayclassical.org.
The Chamber Players of the Greenwich Symphony for its 45th season will feature Bassist Timothy Cobb for “The Bottom Line,” the concert slated for Sunday and Monday, joining the chamber players in works by Kielsen, Dvorak and Schubert. The March concerts, March 12 and 13, is “Snake Charmers,” focusing on works for oboe by Holst, Cimarosa and Bellini. The finale includes Beethovan’s string quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, Op. 127. The April concerts, on April 23 and 24, will celebrate “Old World and New World” with works for piano and strings by Mozart, Copeland and Zarebski. All Sunday concerts are at 4 p.m. at Round Hill Community Church and Monday concerts are held at 7:30 p.m. at the Bruce Museum. Each includes a wine and cheese reception. Season tickets are $90 for adults and $15 for students. Single concert tickets are $30 for adults and $5 for students. For more information, call 203-637-4725.
Temple Sholom of Greenwich will host Senior Bingo and dinner from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the temple, 300 East Putnam Ave., Greenwich. Free. Prizes will be awarded for winners of each round. Registration is required in advance. For more information and to register, contact Alice Schoen at 203-542-7165 or at [email protected].
Greenwich Animal Control, 393 North St., will hold a Thanksgiving Open House from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Enjoy autumn treats, create a Thanksgiving card, and meet the fantastic pets! Your furry forever friend is waiting for you! For information, call 203-622-8299.
Greenwich Literacy Volunteers will hold its 16th annual Scrabble Challenge at 6 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Stamford Hilton Hotel. The event is co-chaired by Greenwich residents David Ball and Ann Croll along with Stamford resident Rob Vendig. Proceeds will support Literacy Volunteer’s English-language, literacy and education services programs. Teams are being sought. To register or become a sponsor, visit www.familycenters.org or contact Aleksa Lazarewicz-Anstey at [email protected] or 203-869-4848.
The Garden Education Center of Greenwich, 130 Bible St., Cos Cob, has announced its next set of programs. Girl’s Night Out: create a botanical decoupage tray, three-night series, 6 to 6:45 p.m. Nov. 15 and 21. Cost is $35 for members, $45 for non-members plus the cost of the tray. Putting Your Garden to Bed, 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 21. cost is $15 per person. Author Andrea Wulf will speak about her new book, “The Invention of Nature,” Alexander von Humboldt’s new world, a Mary C. Raymond Event. 7 p.m. Nov. 15. Free but preregistration required. Hunter Smith will work on a “Thanksgiving Centerpiece that WOWS!” at 10 a.m. Nov. 22, registration required by Nov. 16. Cost is $60 for members, $75 for non-members. The holiday tidings, trimmings and toasts shop’s sip and socialize is set for 4 to 7 p.m. Nov. 30. Cost is $50 for members, $60 for nonmembers.
The Banksville Community House Inc. will hold its annual meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Banksville Community House, 12 Banksville Ave., Greenwich. For more information, call 203-622-9597 or email [email protected]. The organization’s website is www.thebch.org.
Greenwich Library will host a Coding with Scratch program from 4 to 5 p.m. Nov. 15 to teach beginning programmers grades 6 to 8 the basics of programming. The class will be held at the library, 101 West Putnam Ave. Scratch is a visual programming language suited to an introduction to programming course. Contact Siobhan Schuggmann at [email protected] or 203-625-6536.
Jillian Alli, George Hennig and Meaghan Nagurney will speak on “Holiday and Changing Routines: Using Visuals and Social Stories to Help Your Child Cope” from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Nov. 15 at Abilis, 50 Glenville St., Greenwich. The talk will focus on how to use visuals, social stories and other environmental supports to help children manage through the sometimes overwhelming holiday season. For more information or to register for your spot visit www.abilis.us/therapeutic-services.
Tickets go on sale on Nov. 15. for the Greenwich Department of Parks and Recreation’s presentation of “A Christmas Carol.” The play, designed for children ages kindergarten through sixth grade, will be performed from 4 to 5 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center, 449 Pemberwick Road, Glenville. Greenwich residents can buy tickets at www.greenwichct.org/webtrac. Tickets are limited.
A Movember forum on Men’s Wellness will be at 6 p.m. Nov. 16 in the Hyde Conference Room at Greenwich Hospital, 5 Perryridge Road. Panel experts include James Rosoff, M.D., a urologist, Taimur Habib, M.D., internal medicine, and others. To register, call 888-305-9253 or visit www.greenwichhospital.org/events.
Bobby Valentine, former Boston Red Sox and New York Mets manager and current athletic director at Sacred Heart University, will speak on “Reflections of a Sports Leader” at the Greenwich Retired Men’s Association meeting on Nov. 16 at the First Presbyterian Church, Lafayette Place. Admission is free. Social break starts at 10:40 a.m. followed by presentation at 11 a.m.
The Potomack Company invites residents to an appraisal session of items for auction from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 16 at Putnam Cottage, 243 East Putnam Ave. Panel discussion from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. about current art market trends. RSVP to Potomack’s Greenwich, contact Suzanne at 203-676-3582 or [email protected].
The Social Justice committee of St. Catherine of Siena Church will honor the Greenwich World Hunger Association at its Dinner with a Cause at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at the church hall. Featured speaker will be Keith Heard, president of GWHA, speaking from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m. Donations to benefit Greenwich World Hunger Association projects. For reservations, call 203-637-3661, Ext. 310.
In conjunction with its current exhibit ‘An Eye to the East: The Inspiration of Japan,’ the Greenwich Historical Society will hold its fall Story Barn at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at the society, 39 Strickland Road. The doors open at 7 p.m. for anevening of personal stories in a cabaret-like setting. This year’s speakers will offer tales based around the theme of “Lost in Translation,” offering stories illustrating how simple attempts at communication can go awry.
An opening reception for “Near and Far: Inspiration Through My Lens,” will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Ave. The show will run from Nov. 17 through Jan. 11, 2017. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 12 to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call 203-862-6750.
The 2016 Great American Smokeout will be held Nov. 17 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Greenwich Library and in the Greenwich Hospital cafeteria atrium from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The hospital event includes appearances by expderts who teach the Freshstart smoking cessation program, including a pharmacist, nurse and exercise physiologist. Free. For information on the hospital portion, call 203-863-4444.
Greenwich Library will host a Middle School Book Club for literature fans grades 6 to 8 at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at the library, 101 West Putnam Ave. This month’s selection is ‘The Iron Trial’ by Holly Black. Register for the program and obtain a copy of the book at the second floor registration desk. Contact Margaret Walsh at [email protected] for more information.
An opening reception for an exhibit by artist Charles Patrick will be from 6 to 8 p.m., Nov. 18 at the Samuel Owen Gallery, 382 Greenwich Ave., Greenwich. RSVP to [email protected].
Fish and chips and clam chowder and will be part of the menu at the St. Lawrence Society’s Fish and Chips night at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at the club, 86 Valley Road, Cos Cob. Menu also includes cole slaw and dessert. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for kids under the age of 12.
Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities will present “Effective Approaches to Developing Executive Function Skills,” a lecture by Peg Dawson, from 9:30 to 12:30 a.m. Nov. 18 at Innis Arden Golf Club, 120 Tomac Ave., Greenwich. Subjects covered will include getting organized, staying focused and regulating emotions. Cost is $75. Register at dawsonworkshop.eventbrite.com.
The Loft Artists Association and Laurel House will hold the annual small work art market from Nov. 18 through Dec. 18 at the gallery, 575 Pacific St., Stamford. An opening reception is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 18. Pieces are 18 inches by 18 inches or smaller. A portion of the proceeds will go to support the work of Laurel House in Stamford. Gallery hours are 1 to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission and parking are free. Handicapped access available by appointment. For information or directions, visit loftartists.com or call 203-247-2027.
Pianist Frederic Chiu will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in Greenwich Library’s Cole Auditorium as part of the fourth annual Wendy Tisch Memorial Concert. The concert series was begun by Richard Tisch to honor his late wife with a concert featuring the best pianists in the world. The concert is open seating. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 general admission, $15 for students ages 6 through 18. No children younger than 6. Tickets can be purchased through [email protected] or by calling Linda Maranis at 203-966-5520. Check or cash only.
An exhibit on the ancient past, “Last Days of Pangea: In the Footsteps of Dinosaurs,” will begin on Nov. 19 at the Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, and remain on view through July 16. The show features fossil discoveries from the Connecticut Valley and other places in New England. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday to Tuesday. For more information, visit www.brucemuseum.org.
Greenwich Hospital’s Moulin Rouge 2016 Gala to support diagnostic and interventional cardiac services is planned for 6 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Greenwich Country Club, 19 Doubling Road, Greenwich. Tickets to the gala are available at a range of sponsorship levels. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Special Events Team at 203-863-3865 or contact [email protected].
A Pigeon Show is coming to the Esatern Greenwich Civic Ceenter, 90 Harding Road, Old Greenwich, on Nov. 19. For more information, visit www.newyorkcombine.com/big_apple_invitational.htm.
The American Red Cross will hold a blood drive from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 23 at Greenwich Hospital, 5 Perry Ridge Road. To make an appointment to give blood, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-733-2767.
Have brunch with Santa from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Nov. 27 at the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, 90 Harding Road, Old Greenwich. For information, visit [email protected] or call 203-637-4583.
“I’ve Lost Control Again,” an art exhibit featuring the works of Johnny Adimando, Sebastian Biskup and Ira James Carr, will run at the Flinn Gallery at Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Ave., through Nov. 30. The exhibit explores issues of control in contemporary life and art. Gallery open daily Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. For more information, call 203-622-7947 or visit www.flinngallery.com.
Les Beaux Arts Gallery will display the paintings of Greenwich artist Hazel Jarvis through Nov. 30 at the Round Hill Community Church, 395 Round Hill Road, Greenwich. Gallery hours: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday, closed Saturday, open 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sundays. For more information, visit roundhillcommunitychurch.org.
The Greenwich Choral Society’s December Holiday Concert, a performance of “Holiday Brass,” will be at 4 p.m. Dec. 3 and at 2:30 and 5 p.m. Dec. 4 at Christ Church Greenwich, 254 East Putnam Ave., Greenwich. The concert will combine brass, organ and percussion with long time favorite harpist Rita Constanzi as featured soloist. For additional information on tickets, concerts, subscriptions and auditions, visit greenwichchoralsociety.org or call 203-622-5136.
The eighth annual Greenwich Holiday Stroll Weekend along Greenwich Avenue and environs will be held from noon to 5 p.m. Dec. 3 and 4. Presented by Whole Foods Market. Live nativity, horse-drawn carriage rides, live music, entertaintment tents, ice sculpting demos, food trucks and more than 120 participating retailers and restaurants.
The Greenwich Winter Antiques Show will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 3 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 4 at the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, 90 Harding Road, Greenwich. Vendors will display 18th to mid-20th century art, decorative objects, estate jewelry, furniture, prints and vintage accessories. Opening night preview tickets available for Dec. 2. For information, visit www.greenwichhistory.com/antiquarius.
More than 35 vendors will ply their wares at the Holiday Boutique at Greenwich Country Club, 19 Doubling Road, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 7. Boutique will feature knitwear, monogrammed children’s clothes, decor items and more. For tickets and more information, visit www.greenwichhistory.com/antiquarius or call 203-869-6899, Ext 10.
A new exhibit at the Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Road, will feature art by and of women from local private collections. “Her Crowd: New Art by Women from Our Neighbors’ Private Collections,” will be on view through Jan. 2.
The newest Bruce Museum exhibition, “Towards Abstraction, 1940-1985: Brett Weston Photographs from the Bruce Museum Collection,” will run through Feb. 9 at the museum, 1 Museum Drive. For more information, call 203-869-0376 or visit brucemuseum.org.
A historical exhibition exploring the influence of Japanese art and culture on the United States will run through Feb. 26 at the Greenwich Historical Society, 39 Strickland Road, Cos Cob. The exhibit, “An An Eye to the East: The Inspiration of Japan,” will be open from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Regular admission, $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, and free for members. | 2019-04-21T16:43:33Z | https://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Things-to-do-in-and-around-Greenwich-10606837.php |
You can see why Premier League teams in January were considering bidding for Pléa. 24-year-old strikers who produce like that and aren’t already with super expensive clubs don’t exactly grow on trees. Add in that he passes the smell test in terms of athleticism and you’ve got yourself quite the tantalizing forward. Truth be told, I was somewhat skeptical of Alassane Pléa coming into this season. Some of why I was skeptical could be seen here. My main issue was having that nagging feeling that Ben Arfa’s one year renaissance + Germain’s unselfish movements made life for him considerably easier and that those two leaving him would have a knock-on effect. It wouldn’t mean that he’d suddenly fall off the face of the earth, but the most likely scenario would’ve been a slight decrease in his numbers from having to shoulder more of the burden in attack. I also wasn’t quite factoring in the chances of him becoming a much more centralized player, which would hide some of the lack of dynamism he had on-ball.
As it turned out I was wrong, in fact I was dead wrong. Jean Michael Seri had a really good season as a playmaking midfielder, with him and Pléa developing nice chemistry together. Mario Balotelli was fine in the minutes that he and Plea played together, which allowed him to develop even more. You combine that with his natural growth in the striker position–higher volume of shots along with better shot quality–and what you come up with is one of the best forwards in Ligue 1 who if you need him to, can also still play spot duty on the right-hand side.
This year, it’s been different. With so much of the playmaking being tasked to Seri and others, he’s been allowed to be more of a predator, working off the shoulders of center backs and attacking openings with his speed. On the face of it it’s just a simple switch, but it’s one that turned him from a below average shot-maker who had a fairly pedestrian xG per shot of ~12%, to one where he much more resembled a shot-taker.
In a sense, what he’s done this year is somewhat reminiscent of the evolution that Alexandre Lacazette went through between 2014-17; both transitioned into being a centerback’s worst nightmare. Comparing the two today; Lacazette is a better player because he’s just a more fluid attacker in buildup and more adept at getting his own shot off. Particularly the thing that pushes Lacazette over the top in this comparison is his supreme ability to seal off defenders and either spin into open space after receiving the ball or lay it off for a teammate.
But the Lacazette we know today wasn’t the same one at age 24. Sure, he had some of the traits that would turn him into the player that Arsenal are reportedly set to pay a club record fee for, but it would take a couple of more seasons before it led to being a consistently top notch xG contributor. In that sense, one could argue that Pléa at 24 is a better prospect than Lacazette was at that age.
Judging by expected assists or key passes, Alassane Pléa would rank lower on the totem pole for strikers. And I’m not going to say that he’s a brilliant playmaker for a center/wide forward, but I do think he’s fine in the sense that he can make passes that can get his team into advantageous areas on the pitch. On a team with already established playmakers, having a striker who can at least do stuff like this is an asset.
If you had to put me on the spot and ask what is Alassane Pléa’s best spot in the pitch, I would say through the middle, which wasn’t something I would’ve said going into this season. I just think he’s more of an impactful player when he’s concentrating on getting on the end of throughballs and finishing chances. If you structured a team where as a wide forward, all he’d have to do is provide width and make runs, then that’s a different case and he would be a worthwhile gamble. I just think that asking him to be anything resembling high usage with the evidence we’ve seen of him is not getting the best out of him.
So how much will Alassane Pléa cost a club? Well that’s a bit hard to pin down. Technically, Ligue 1 doesn’t allow for release clauses to exist but more clubs are getting past that legality, and reports suggest that Pléa’s got one in the region of €50M. Nice just qualified for the Champions League and combine the funds they’ll get from that along with the probable sale of Seri for big money and the Chinese takeover in ownership, there isn’t the need for Nice to sell. Having said that, what could depreciate his value a bit is that he’s had two major knee injuries over the past two seasons, and he could well be at risk in the future to sustain another one. He had an ACL injury that knocked off four months in 2015-16, and lost the back end of 2016-17 to another knee injury. You don’t have to be a doctor to figure out that repeated trauma to your knees doesn’t exactly scream confidence of avoiding future injuries, but that’s just making an educated guess. Teams that are looking to buy him will get the medical reports and determine whether these two injuries are immediate red flags.
Let’s assume a world where Alassane Pléa has his age 24-29 year uninterrupted by serious knee injuries, what teams would be the best fit for him? One place that could’ve been fascinating was a return to Lyon as a potential replacement for Alexandre Lacazette, though the purchase of Bertrand Traore and the probable asking price from Nice makes the fit considerably more difficult. It’s kind of a shame because the prospects of an attacking core featuring Memphis, Pléa, Traore, and Nabil Fekir as a backup plan for Lacazette’s departure would’ve been grand. For now, we could probably label this as unlikely, even with the scattering of reports that had Bruno Genesio making him a priority this summer.
In England, Southampton could be an intriguing place for him because in many ways he’s the actualized version of what Claude Puel tried to do with Nathan Redmond when he tried to convert him into a secondary striker. The two could work very well together since they’re both capable passers who could interchange positions on the pitch because of their athleticism. He’d also alleviate the worries of what would happen if Gabbiadini got hurt for an extended period because the two aren’t dissimilar in playing style. Again, the worry here isn’t so much in terms of fit as much as whether he’s over their price range, even with them just raking in £122M in Premier League funds in 2016-17. It’d be much of a Southampton move if they instead targeted someone like Yann Karamoh from Caen; who’s only 18 years old, has one year left on his contract, and has shown signs of possibly being a very good forward soon.
There are other places for him to go to in England if it’s not Southampton. Arsenal need forwards and certainly have the money, though the increasing likelihood of Lacazette going there means if they still wanted to get him, it’d probably be more so as a wide forward more so than a striker. Pléa does fit some of the requirements that Arsenal look for: pace, shot location discipline, and not having two cinder-blocks for feet in the passing department, and they could use Pléa in a role not so dissimilar to what Theo Walcott was at his apex. Numerous jokes have been made about West Ham’s continued search for a center forward, and their interest in January probably indicates the search hasn’t ended. On strictly pure need this makes the most sense and West Ham certainly can pay the big money it would probably take to get him, but my level of trust in West Ham putting together a cohesive midfield to accentuate the best parts of Pléa’s game isn’t exactly high.
Alassane Pléa has turned himself into a very solid player in Ligue 1 despite being a late bloomer of sorts, having just completed only his third season of over 1000 league minutes at age 24. He’s increased his shot load from last year and simultaneously improved his shot location as well. His ability to operate in tight areas has improved, his passing is fine, and combined with his ample athleticism makes him a good player that’s embarking on the prime years of his career. We don’t know if the knee injury that ended his season took something out of him, and if anything, that’s the biggest worry. He’s certainly worth monitoring through next season, and with health, at 25 could still represent a good purchase. Once again, we find Ligue 1 to be housing high quality talent and the path from France to Europe’s bigger clubs is well trodden. Pléa could well be one of the next guys to make the switch. | 2019-04-26T15:53:37Z | https://statsbomb.com/2017/07/identifying-ligue-1s-next-big-breakout-talents-4-alassane-plea/ |
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What: Indie-pop outfit founded in Oakland a decade ago and anchored by drummer Pat Spurgeon and singer/guitarist/namesake Zach Rogue, because “Schwartz Wave” would have been a pretty bad band name.
Why: They released their fifth full-length Nightingale Floors at the start of June, and are now on tour to support it.
Who else: Brooklyn’s Caveman opens up.
How: Tickets for the show are $19.50 in advance but courtesy of LiveNation, I’ve got two pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see Rogue Wave” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, June 23.
What else: MTV Hive and Metro have feature pieces on the band.
Frank YangObjectively speaking, there’s not a world of difference between Widowspeak’s 2011 self-titled debut or the follow-up Almanac, released in January of this year. You can file them both quite comfortably under “the soundtrack to dreams of dusty country roads”, not too far from lazy but not inaccurate reference points Mazzy Star and Cat Power, but something about Almanac grabs me the way that Widowspeak, as much as I dug it, didn’t. And it’s not something as simple as they’re getting more dynamic or rocking out harder, as refresher listens to their debut confirm there’s no shortage of volume spikes amidst the sleepiness. There’s just something more present, more assured, in Almanac‘s grooves – like lucid dreaming versus wake-walking. Whatever it is, I love it, and so their show at The Garrison on Monday night – their first non-festival headline date in Toronto – was a must-go on my calendar.
Local support came from The Auras, signed to Toronto’s Optical Sounds and labelmates with B-17, whom I’d just seen just a few days earlier; if there’s some sort of shadow conspiracy to get me more attuned with the city’s psych-pop scene… then it’s working. Mind you, The Auras didn’t impress the same way that B-17 did, but they’re not really built to. Comprised of fresh-faced youngsters rather than scene veterans, they were a bit of a mish-mash visually – a mass of paisley, headbands, shaggy hair, tassels, and with half the six-piece band in sunglasses, all bathed in their a bring-your-own light show. Sonically, they felt more like a a psychedelic jam session, rotating through four lead vocalists and possessing more of vague mandate to sound like a more shambolic, polite Black Angels than a firm mission statement. Understand that this is not a complaint, but actually more a point of envy. Having a group of like-minded players to jam, gig, and record with sounds like the best thing ever, actually.
I saw Widowspeak twice last year – in the same room at NXNE and a few months earlier at SXSW – but this time there was a new rhythm section in place and a fifth member in the fold on guitar and keys. The heart of the band, however – Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas – were still there, ever front and centre. Opening with Almanac leadoff “Perennials”, the template for the show was quickly established – Hamilton serenely cooing into the mic while Thomas got to play the role of guitar hero, although he would have been more effective at it had his guitar not been the quietest of the three on stage; a little more volume would have helped his leads achieve the prominence they deserved and might also have quieted the reasonably-sized if disproportionately chatty crowd audience.
As the show progressed, the chatter either diminished or the genuinely interested moved up to the front – in either case, they were drawn in by the performance, which maintained the same basic rhythm through the better part of an hour, offering a good mix of Almanac and Widowspeak material though sadly omitting two of my favourite new songs, “Devil Knows” and “Spirit Is Willing”. They did shift gears slightly towards the end with a cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” – yeah, having Hamilton wrap her voice around it is a bit on the nose, but still gorgeous – and a keyboard-led “Thick As Thieves”, before closing with a relatively raucous “Ballad Of The Golden Hour” and “Harsh Realm”. An encore wasn’t a foregone conclusion, but Hamilton was enticed to come back out for a final number, a reading of “Limbs” done solo because the rest of the band didn’t know how to play it, and were also busy selling merch off to the side. A modest finale to a modest yet wholly enjoyable show.
Iamnosuperman and Good Times have interviews with Robert Earl Thomas and The Riverfront Times chats with Molly Hamilton while El Paso What’s Up talks to both.
Not necessarily enough show announcements this week to devote a post, but still a few things of note. Seattle’s Cave Singers will bring their new album Naomi – released last month – to town for a show at The Horseshoe on June 17, tickets $15. There’s a feature on the band at 85-26.
California’s Rogue Wave are back with a new record in Nightingale Floors coming out on June 4, and are teaming up with Brooklyn’s Caveman, who just released their second self-titled album, for a Summer tour that hits The Mod Club on June 25, tickets $18.50/.
Another bi-coastal bill will team Californian psych-pop outfit Woods, still working last Fall’s Bend Beyond, with New York ’90s indie rock revivalists Parquet Courts and their debut Light Up Gold for a date at The Horseshoe on July 17, tickets $15.50.
Los Angeles’ Julia Holter brings last year’s Ekstasis to The Drake on July 17, tickets $16.50.
Consequence Of Sound, Spinner, Vulture, and Spin talk to Thermals frontman Hutch Harris and PopMatters to drummer Westin Glass about their just-released new record Desperate Ground, and they also talk to The AV Club and Clash respectively about action movies. The Thermals are at The Horseshoe on May 21.
MTV Hive and Stereogum have features on The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose new record Mosquito arrived this week.
Interview and The Victoria Times-Colonist talk to Sam Beam about the new Iron & Wine album Ghost On Ghost.
PopMatters, eMusic, Forbes, and Spin have features on The Flaming Lips and their new album The Terror.
The National Post talks to Steve Earle about his latest The Low Highway.
Ra Ra Riot is streaming the single they’ll be releasing for Record Store Day this Saturday via T Magazine. The Alternate Side also has a session with the band, who are here on May 25 at The Sound Academy supporting The Shins, then back for the Field Trip fest at Garrison Commons on June 8.
Stereogum has a stream of The Hold Steady’s contribution to this week’s Game Of Thrones closing credits, while Wired examines the intersection of the kingdoms of Westeros and the world of indie rock. The Hold Steady are here as part of the Toronto Urban Roots Fest on July 6 at Garrison Commons.
NPR has a Tiny Desk Concert concert with Yo La Tengo, one of the names at the final day of the Toronto Urban Roots Fest at Garrison Commons on July 7.
Kurt Vile is also playing TURF Sunday; Noisey has an interview with him about being a rocker parent rocker.
Janelle Monáe dishes a bit to Billboard about her long-awaited second album The Electric Lady, due out later this year.
Stereogum have premiered the new video from Low’s The Invisible Way.
Okkervil River’s Will Sheff has squeezed another video out of his Lovestreams side-project.
NPR welcomes Local Natives for a World Cafe session.
What: Rangy Californian power-pop merchants and dusty Texan folk-rock throwbacks team up for a bill that’s all about value.
How: Tickets are $19.50 in advance but courtesy of Collective Concerts, I’ve got five pairs of passes to give away for the show. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see a Rogue Wave on the Midlake” in the subject line and your full name in the body. Contest closes at midnight, September 21.
What else: Revue interviews Tim Smith of Midlake, who just rolled out a new video over at Stereogum.
J J BullockHave we officially christened a “song of the Summer” for 2010 yet? Do we even have enough of a monoculture anymore that a consensus on such a thing is even possible? If so – or if not – I would like to nominate “Zorbing”, the lead track and single from Beachcomber’s Windowsill, the debut album from Oxford, England’s Stornoway. It’s a simple but instantly catchy tune about the metaphorical joys of rolling around London in a giant hamster ball – I think – that’s elevated from good to great with a couple of key flourishes: the low “whoaaa” harmonies in the chorus and the jubilant horns in the bridge that hearken to Belle & Sebastian’s finest moments.
And said Scots aren’t a bad reference point for Stornoway in general, at least as far as articulating the aesthetic of their orchestrally-appointed folk-pop. But while they’re clearly capable of wide-eyed upbeatness, as “Zorbing” and the follow-up single “I Saw You Blink” clearly evidence, Stornoway’s hearts are inherently heavier and Brian Briggs’ vocals more inclined to drama – so maybe it’s to their benefit that Briggs doesn’t seem to have much luck in love; it makes for great lyrical fodder. His bandmates back him up with all the standard pop band accouterments, but close listening shows there’s a lot of detail hidden in the nooks and crannies of their seemingly austere sound – pianos, kazoos, strings, Morse code, church bells… and it’s these touches, like those aforementioned little details in “Zorbing”, that elevate Stornoway above the pack. If your Summer consists of getting your heart broken or wishing you were getting your heart broken whilst lounging on grassy hills (and maybe watching people roll down said hills in giant plastic balls) then Stornoway should be, if not your soundtrack, then at least in your playlist.
Drowned In Sound has a feature interview with the band. Beachcomber’s Windowsill is out in the UK right now and digitally in North America. It will be out in physical form on this continent on August 10. So far their American itinerary has consisted of an expeditionary gig in New York earlier this month, but promises are being made of a full incursion this Fall. Update: The album is now up to stream at Spinner.
Shonen Knife have a date at the Horseshoe on October 1, tickets $15.50. Their new album Free Time will be out on August 31.
Justin Townes Earle will follow up the September 14 release of his new record Harlem River Blues with a Fall tour that includes an October 15 date at the Horseshoe. Jessica Lea Mayfield supports.
Sharon Van Etten records a Takeaway Show for Le Blogotheque. Her new record Epic is released on October 5.
Daytrotter has served up a session with Rogue Wave. They’re at the Opera House on September 24.
Billboard talks to Dean & Britta about the release tomorrow of their 13 Most Beautiful soundtrack album which is out tomorrow.
Spinner talks to Ra Ra Riot about the making of their new record The Orchard, out August 24. They’ll be at the Molson Amphitheatre on August 28 supporting Tegan & Sara and City & Colour.
The Omaha World-Herald talks to Spoon bassist Rob Pope.
Lazy-i interviews Jim Wilbur of Superchunk. Their new record Majesty Shredding is out on September 14.
Las Vegas Weekly tries to squeeze more information about Matador 21, going down October 1 to 3 at the Palms in Las Vegas, out of label head Gerard Cosloy. | 2019-04-22T06:03:47Z | http://www.chromewaves.net/tag/rogue-wave/ |
There have been a number of advances in canine atopic dermatitis treatment within the past few years, notably the introduction of the janus kinase inhibitor Apoquel (oclacitinib), manufactured by Zoetis. While the shortage has been aggravating, Apoquel has proven safe and effective for the treatment of canine atopic dermatitis. Recently, Zoetis has conditionally released a new product to veterinary dermatologists that adds to the therapeutic options for one of veterinary medicine’s most common disorders. Currently, the product is called “Canine Atopic Dermatitis Immunotherapeutic” or CADI. It’s a once monthly subcutaneous injection for atopic dermatitis related pruritus that grew from the research that brought us Apoquel.
Interleukin-31 is a cytokine associated with pruritus and inflammatory cell infiltration into the skin in humans and dogs with atopic dermatitis.¹ IL-31 is produced by activated Th2 lymphocytes and when signaled, binds to a heterodimeric receptor causing initiation of a signal transduction cascade. One of the components of this cascade is the janus kinase system, which is inhibited by oclacitinib.
CADI is a canine monoclonal antibody that specifically targets IL-31, neutralizes it, and prevents binding of the receptor. This inhibits the entire cascade, which in turn decreases janus kinase–mediated itch. In essence, it works like oclacitinib, but earlier in the pathway and with more specificity. A single subcutaneous injection of CADI produces noticeable pruritus relief versus a placebo for up to 56 days.² Veterinary dermatologists are now exploring how CADI is accepted and incorporated into clinical practice. It’s not known when CADI will be more widely available. Hopefully, it will soon be another option veterinarians will have for managing canine atopic dermatitis.
To take a quick look at the body locations commonly affected, the symptoms, and the types of lesions associated with each of these conditions, check out www.itchology.com. Itchology is the app for dedicated pet parents to mange their itchy dogs.
Retrospective evaluation of Apoquel® (oclacitinib) for the treatment of atopic dermatitis. Part 2: monitoring for side effects.
In September I reported on the effectiveness of Apoquel® (oclacitinib) in controlling pruritus (itch) in the first 117 dogs that I had treated with this newish medication from Zoetis. When I prescribe Apoquel, I recommend obtaining a baseline complete blood count (CBC), serum chemistry, and urinalysis, with examinations and additional monitoring scheduled at 3, 6 and 12 months. There is no specific guidance from Zoetis or the FDA concerning monitoring the long-term use of Apoquel. This is the level of monitoring that I would do for my own dog taking this new drug, given that it modulates the immune system. Each veterinary practitioner will recommend what they are comfortable with and this may be influenced by experiences (positive or negative) and will likely evolve over time.
I selected several laboratory parameters to analyze over a 6-month period for 66 dogs. Note that this is not a rigorous clinical trial and may well suffer from selection bias. The parameters that I chose to present here are some of those that showed significant changes over time in some of Zoetis’ clinical trials, although in some cases at different time points than mine.
Descriptive findings: There was a slight decrease in the mean WBC count from day 0, but in none of the dogs did the WBC count fall below the reference range.
The dog with a WBC count of 25,700 at day 0 had generalized, severe pyoderma, a normal body temperature, and was extremely itchy (pruritus visual analog scale score of 10.0). We elected to continue Apoquel despite the elevated WBCs, as well as cefpodoxime. At his 3 and 6-month examinations, the WBC counts and itch levels were back within normal ranges.
Among individual white blood cell lines, neither mean neutrophil nor mean lymphocyte counts were greatly changed during the 6 months of Apoquel therapy.
Next time I’ll present data from these dogs for cholesterol, alkaline phosphatase, and globulin.
Have you had a chance to check out Itchology for iPhone? It’s an easy and fun way for dedicated pet owners to chart their dog’s itch level and treatments, set medication reminders, and look for possible causes and effective treatments. Available on the Apple App Store or visit www.itchology.com for a demo video and more information.
Atopica® (cyclosporine) and Apoquel® (oclacitinib) are separate and distinct medications. Both are used for controlling the signs and symptoms of atopic dermatitis (“allergies”) in dogs. They are two of the most effective allergy treatments for dogs. Let’s see how they compare.
Atopica was FDA approved more than 10 years ago and is widely available as a prescription drug through veterinarians.
Apoquel was launched in January 2014, but the demand quickly exceeded the manufacturing capacity of the manufacturer, Zoetis. This has led to very limited availability and backorders. Most veterinary clinics are unable to order any Apoquel at all. Zoetis anticipates that production will be able to keep up with the demand in the spring of 2015.
Atopica comes in four sizes: 10, 25, 50 and 100 mg capsules. It is dosed based on your dog’s body weight. Each size is priced differently and larger dogs may require more than one capsule. Depending upon your dog’s weight, the initial cost may range from $1.50-$10 per day. Significant rebate programs are often available when purchases are made through veterinarians (as much as 50% off ) but not through online pharmacies. The cost often goes down over time if the dose is able to be reduced.
Apoquel comes in three sizes: 3.6, 5.4, and 16 mg tablets. Dogs less than 90 pounds need only take 0.5 or 1.0 tablet per day, long term. Big dogs will require 1.5 or 2.0 tablets per day. A novel feature of Apoquel is that all three tablets are priced the same. There isn’t much information on the retail pricing of Apoquel available, but it is likely to be around $1.50-$2.00 per tablet in most veterinary hospitals that have it in stock.
Atopica comes as capsules, which are fairly large in the 100 mg size. Pet owners often find the larger size difficult to administer. The initial dose is 5 mg per kg body weight. In most cases, it is given once daily for the first month. If your dog responds well, the dose can often be reduced to every 48 hours or even twice weekly. It is then given long-term, or at least during the seasons that your dog itches from allergies.
Apoquel comes as scored tablets, which are fairly small and easy to administer. There is a narrow dose range of 0.4-0.6 mg per kg of body weight. Your veterinarian will sometimes need to use half of two different sizes to get the proper dose. For up to 14 days, Apoquel is administered twice daily. In cases of chronic itch in dogs, it is given once daily, long term. Apoquel has a short half-life, meaning that it doesn’t persist for long in the blood stream. Missing even one dose may result in a return of the itching behavior. Establishing a daily routine or setting an iPhone reminder is important. Check out the Itchology app on Facebook, which has a built in medication reminder.
Atopica does not usually achieve its maximum effect on itching until after daily dosing for four weeks.
Apoquel reduces itching quickly, often within one day. There is a major reduction in itching within 7 days in most dogs. In a head-to-head study, Apoquel reduced the itch level more than Atopica during the first 14 days. There is often a slight increase in itch level when Apoquel dosing is switched from twice daily to once daily, usually at 14 days of therapy.
Both Atopica and Apoquel affect the immune system. An allergy is, after all, an overactive immune system. Atopica is considered immunosuppressive, effecting T-cells. Apoquel is considered immunomodulatory, blocking transmission of the itch sensation, among other activities. Both medications have the potential to increase the risk of dogs getting infections. In reality, this is uncommon at recommended doses. In clinical trials, skin infections (pyoderma) do occur, but dogs with allergies often get skin infections whether they are taking one of these medications or not.
Atopica is associated with vomiting and diarrhea more often than Apoquel. In a review study compiling results of 672 dogs treated with Atopica, vomiting occurred in 25% and diarrhea or soft stools in 15% of dogs. Usually, veterinarians and pet owners can overcome this, with a slight modification of dosing.
Apoquel is uncommonly associated with vomiting or soft stools (1-2% of dogs). In most studies, these occur with a similar frequency in placebo-treated dogs and those treated with Apoquel. Because Apoquel is still relatively new, it is prudent to monitor our patients rather closely. I recommend an examination, complete blood panel and urinalysis at 0, 3, and 6 months, then every 6 months while taking Apoquel, for now.
Retrospective evaluation of Apoquel® (oclacitinib) for the treatment of 117 dogs with atopic dermatitis. Part 1: control of pruritus (itch).
We started hearing about a new drug to control the itch of allergic dermatitis and canine atopic dermatitis in dogs over 1 year of age at the Vancouver World Congress of Veterinary Dermatology. Like most veterinary dermatologists, I was eager to try it in my practice. I started prescribing (oclacitinib) Apoquel® for itchy dogs at SkinVet Clinic in November 2013. Although there are now several peer-reviewed publications on the safety and efficacy of Apoquel , I would like to share my experience with the first 117 dogs that I treated.
The clinical sign of most importance to pet owners of dogs with atopic or allergic dermatitis is pruritus (itch). At SkinVet Clinic, we ask pet owners to grade their dog’s itch level at each examination using a validated visual analog scale (0 – 10). While this is the best method that we have had to grade itch in practice, it gives an incomplete picture of itch severity over time. Soon, pet owners and veterinarians will be able to easily record and view a more complete itch diary using the Itchology app for iPhones (see www.itchology.com for more info and to sign up to get notified when it is released).
Figure 1 shows the owner-reported itch level of dogs pre-treatment and at months 1, 3 and 6. Both per-protocol data (dogs returned for recommended follow-up examinations at 1, 3, and 6 months) and intent-to-treat (ITT) data (previous value carried forward when dogs did not return for examinations or medication was discontinued) are shown.
117 dogs started taking Apoquel at least 40 days ago (day 0 median = 6.0). Month 1 itch level scores were available for 104 of these (median = 2.5). The ITT data yielded similar results taking into account carried-forward values for the 13 dogs that did not return (median = 2.7).
108 dogs started taking Apooquel at least 3 months ago (day 0 median = 6.0). Month 3 itch level scores were available for 85 of these (median = 2.0). The ITT value was slightly higher (median = 2.5).
91 dogs started taking Apoquel at least 6 months ago (day 0 median of these 91 dogs = 5.7). Month 6 itch level scores were available for 59 of these (median = 2.3). The ITT value was similar (median = 2.5).
The percentage of dogs that achieved a level of itch considered “normal” by dog owners (0.0-1.9) was 36.8% at 1 month, 39.8% at 3 months, and 40.7% at 6 months (based on ITT values). Many others were in the “very mild” itch category.
These findings are remarkable, considering that most of the dogs began taking Apoquel during cooler, winter months and follow-up examinations more often occurred during warmer months, when many dogs with allergies would be flaring up. Further, as this was not a rigorous clinical trial, the day 0 itch level was often recorded while the dogs were still taking other medications – from prednisone to Atopica®. (These were discontinued for three days prior to the owner initiating Apoquel, in most cases.) Therefore, it is likely that the day 0 itch level reported here was slightly lower than it would have been with a medication wash-out period.
All in all, Apoquel has performed very well in my hands.
Take a look at a preview of the app.
Sign up to get notified when the app is released at http://www.itchology.com. It will be free for only a short while and available on the Apple App Store in early November.
How itchy is your dog, really?
Scratching, biting, chewing, rubbing, and excessive licking can all be signs of itch (pruritus) in dogs. A number of methods have been developed to try to quantify itching, but these are most useful in research settings. One method is to take videos of kenneled dogs, then track all itching behavior seen over a period of time. Another idea that I have published research on is the use of sophisticated motion sensors attached to dogs’ collars. The most widely used method is to ask the dog’s guardian to rate the level of itch severity on a linear scale.
Why might measuring itch be important, you ask? I think of it like this: would you start a weight loss program without knowing how much you weigh or put a pet on a diet without recording a body condition score?
Excessive itching has a negative impact on dogs’ quality of life. Surprisingly, most veterinary medical record standards do not require us to record itch severity, although it is one of the most common presenting complaints. A meaningful measure of itch severity that dog owners could share with their veterinarian would be a great step forward in helping pet owners participate in the management of their itchy dogs. As a veterinarian that consults primarily on itchy dogs, I would love to have more accurate information about itch severity in my patients.
Subscribe to the SkinVet e-Newsletter! | 2019-04-19T06:34:42Z | https://skinvetblog.com/ |
When most people think of Boys Town, they think of Mickey Rooney or Spencer Tracy, or maybe even the phrase, "He ain't heavy, Father, he's m' brother." They might wonder if it still exists. It does, and today Boys Town is the home of a reading center that is part of the National Resource and Training Center. A laboratory for older adolescents with reading problems, the goals of the Reading Center are to develop research-based programs that prove effective in Boys Town's schools and to disseminate them to other schools around the country. Toward these goals, the Reading Center has developed the Boys Town Reading Curriculum. Our purpose in this article is to describe that curriculum, along with the research and experiences that led us to design it the way we did.
Although boys and girls typically come to Boys Town two to three years behind in reading, some are as far as five to six years below grade level. We needed a curriculum that would help students at several different points along a continuum of reading development. We also needed a curriculum that would give us huge results in a relatively short period of time; the average length of stay for Boys Town youth, placed mostly through courts and social service agencies, is 18 to 22 months.
Prior to coming to Boys Town, we both had worked in the Harvard Reading Laboratory with students who ranged in age from seven to 50 years old. Based on our experiences, we knew our curriculum needed to incorporate the principles that we had found successful in our one-on-one work in the Lab (Chall & Curtis, 1987). We knew that instruction had to have a developmental framework, that students' strengths had to be used to build on their needs, and that learning had to take place in stages. Unlike the lab, we wanted group instruction rather than one-on-one. We also knew that our teaching materials and techniques would need to appeal to our audience of young adults. We will discuss each of these elements in detail.
We knew that our students' skills in reading were not going to be acquired overnight; they would develop gradually. Jeanne Chall's stages of reading development (1996, 1983) was the theory that helped us the most in recognizing how we as teachers could best accelerate this growth (see box below).
Decoding Relationships between letters and sounds, and between printed and spoken words are being learned; simple texts with predictable words can be "sounded out"
According to Chall, reading is a process that changes as the reader becomes more able and proficient. She suggests that, in the beginning stages of learning to read, students learn how to recognize and sound out words -- the basics of the alphabetic principle. With practice, their reading becomes more fluent and automatic, increasing their ease in dealing with texts that use concepts and themes already within their experiences. At this point, students have learned how to read. The challenge they face next is acquiring the ability to use reading as a tool for learning. This involves working with texts that go beyond what they already know, thereby increasing their vocabulary as well as their ability to think critically about what they read.
The content of each of the four courses in our curriculum is designed specifically to reflect students' current level of reading development, along with the level to which they need to go next. In each course, we try to make sure that we are building on strengths. Take Mark, for example. He was 16 years old when he began the program. Although he had difficulty reading text above the third grade level, his vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension skills were at about the seventh to eighth grade levels. Mark was placed in the first course in our curriculum, where students' strength in understanding is used to address their need in decoding. Although he struggled when he was asked to read, we interested Mark enough in the content of what he was reading to make that struggle worth-while. Later, when we asked him what he would say to other students entering the program, Mark said, "No matter how hard the work is, just stick with it ... People making me read made me read better because I got used to reading."
In each of our courses, we strive to use a three-step process when introducing new concepts and skills. First, we demonstrate or model the new material. Next, we give students an opportunity to practice, with the teacher as a guide. The third step involves independent practice with feedback.
We use this same strategy when working on increasing students' knowledge of word meanings. We use direct instruction to introduce definitions and examples of different contexts in which words can be used. We then give students activities like games and puzzles to engage them in discussions that provide supported practice. Finally, students practice independently when they incorporate the vocabulary words in written responses to short readings.
Since our goal was to develop a reading curriculum that could be disseminated nationwide, we needed to keep costs in mind. One-to-one tutoring is way too expensive for high schools. So, we knew from the outset that we had to get results with groups. We had another reason for wanting to work with groups. For the young adult with reading difficulties, inappropriate classroom behaviors often contributed to academic failure. By working in groups, our kids would also have opportunities to practice the social skills that are so critical to their future success (Connolly, Dowd, Criste, Nelson, & Tobias, 1995).
We designed our curriculum specifically for the older adolescent. Although the characteristics of effective reading instruction are the same, regardless of the learner's age, the specific techniques and materials used must be age appropriate. For instance, when working with young children, it's fine to teach the "oa" sound with words like boat and coat. But when working with older adolescents, who can often read words like this on sight, such an approach can turn them off. In selecting our materials and techniques, we paid particular attention to ensuring that they would be appealing to young adults. When we teach the "oa" sound, we use words like cockroach and scapegoat.
Each of the four courses in our curriculum lasts about 16 weeks. In each course, students meet for about 45 minutes a day, five days a week. This amounts to almost four hours of direct reading instruction a week as compared to Adult Basic Education students, who average between 5.5 and 13.0 hours of instruction per week, according to the Department of Education. Our courses are usually taken as electives, allowing students to complete their regular high school program while they are receiving help in reading.
Decisions about where to place students in the curriculum are based on whatever diagnostic data are available. On Boys Town's home campus, we give the Diagnostic Assessments of Reading test (Roswell & Chall, 1992), an individually administered, criterion referenced test (see page 16 for more on the DAR). Other sites we work with use other kinds of information for placement, including both standardized test data and curriculum-based measures.
Our experiences, both in the Harvard Reading Lab and in working with the Boys Town Reading Curriculum, convinced us that an accurate diagnostic picture of the students is one of the key ingredients for accelerating their growth in reading. Another key ingredient is ensuring that instruction is focused clearly on the components most critical for growth at each level of reading development. In the sections that follow, we talk about how each of our courses has been designed to accomplish this.
Foundations, the course for young adults reading below the fourth grade level, maps onto Chall's Stage 1 of reading development. Our goals in this class are to teach the most common letter-sound correspondences, and to provide opportunities to apply this knowledge while reading books aloud. About ten students make up a Foundations class, along with a teacher and, when available, a paraprofessional. For about ten minutes each day, students work in pairs on spelling software (Spell It 3, by Davidson), which we have customized to teach up to 17 different phonics rules. Groups of students also spend about ten minutes each day playing a game with words that fit the rule they are working on, like Concentration or Wheel of Fortune (see also Curtis & McCart, 1992). Students learn very quickly that time is limited, and they know the more they are on-task, the more fun they will have.
The remainder of class each day is spent in a small group, four or five students with a teacher, reading aloud from a novel. Novels are at a high enough level to provide practice in applying the phonics rules being learned, and interesting enough to make the effort it takes to do so worthwhile. Novels we've used include Whispers From the Dead by Joan Lowery Nixon and Toning the Sweep by Angela Johnson. The reading is done collaboratively, with students and teacher taking turns reading and passing back and forth at unexpected times. This technique requires everyone to follow along and to stay engaged. The teacher supplies unknown words when necessary, while at the same time encouraging students to identify un-familiar words. Informal discussions about the novels help to maintain com-prehension and interest. Homework includes finding words that do and do not fit rules, and sentence writing.
Adventures, the course that corresponds to Chall's Stage 2 of reading development, is intended for those reading between the fourth and sixth grade levels. The goals in this course are to improve students' ability to recognize words and their meanings, and to increase oral reading fluency. As in Foundations, students work in pairs for about ten minutes each day, on computer software customized to improve their reading vocabulary (Word Attack 3, by Davidson). They spend about ten minutes each day in small groups playing games that provide practice with the words, like Password and Jeopardy.
Oral reading is part of Adventures for the same reason we use it in Foundations: students need informed practice as they learn to read. We use the same procedure for oral reading in this class as in Foundations, and the emphasis continues to be on application and enjoyment during reading. In Adventures, however, fluency rather than accuracy is the focus. Novels we've used to promote these goals include Something Upstairs by Avi and Flight #116 is Down by Caroline B. Cooney. Homework includes crossword puzzles, cloze sentences, and analogies -- all providing additional practice on the same words used in the computer software and the games.
Mastery, which relates to Chall's Stage 3 of reading development, is designed for those between the sixth and eighth grade levels. The goal in Mastery is to build up knowledge of word meanings to improve compre-hension. The classes run anywhere from ten to 15 students per teacher.
improvement in students' ability to use words in speaking and writing, as well as to recognize their meanings, is emphasized.
Students read mostly informational text, including articles from materials like Disasters and Heroes, Jamestown Publishers, and The Kim Marshall Series, Reading, Educators Publishing Service. Because students are now making the transition from "learning to read" to "reading to learn," much of the reading is done silently. Homework includes writing assignments using target vocab-ulary words, along with cloze passages and sentence completions.
The final course in the curriculum is designed to correspond to Chall's fourth stage of reading development. Intended for those reading at the eighth grade level and beyond, the goal in Explorations is to promote the ability to integrate information, via both reading and writing. Students learn study skills like note taking and summarizing in the context of materials taken from a variety of content areas. Strategies for Reading Nonfiction by Sandra Simons, published by Spring Street Press, is a resource that we use frequently. Students practice using study skills when they work on problem-solving software (Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego, Broderbund). Use of study skills is also required on an activity we call the Explorations Board, where they respond in writing to short-answer and essay questions. Homework provides additional practice in using reading and writing as tools for learning.
We use curriculum-based information, data from norm-referenced tests, and consumer data to assess the effectiveness of the program. In the first three courses, students take weekly pre- and post-tests on the content being taught, and feedback on weekly writing assignments is provided via rubrics. Explorations' students get weekly updates on their progress.
Results from curriculum-based measures have been quite encouraging. For instance, by the end of Mastery, students can use nearly 75% of their words correctly in writing, as compared to 35% before the course begins. The curriculum-based measures have also helped us to see which students may need some additional help or additional challenge. Students appreciate data like these as well. Even when they get less than 100% on their post-tests, they can see improvements from their pre-tests, and this keeps them motivated.
We use norm-referenced tests for evaluation because results from national samples, as well as results from the various sites we work with, provide baselines for gauging how much reading growth students are making. We picked the tests to correspond to the components addressed in each course. For example, in Foundations and Adventures, we have given students the basic reading and vocabulary sub-tests of the Woodcock-Johnson, Revised (Woodcock & Johnson, 1989). Average gains after 36 weeks of instruction have been more than two grade levels. In Mastery and Explorations, students take the vocabulary and comprehension sub-tests of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (Karlsen & Gardner, 1995). Gains on these measures average one year for every semester of instruction.
At the end of every course, we ask our students (our "consumers") ques-tions about the class activities, materials, assignments, and so on. Responses are always positive. Particularly revealing is the question that asks kids what advice they would give others who are just starting the program: "It helped improve my learning and spelling abilities. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn to do your work. I liked the classes and the computers are fun. Most of all I liked the games we played and I didn't even mind reading so much."
Although the content of this curriculum was designed specifically to appeal to older adolescents (15-20 years old), we believe that the following factors make the program successful and can do the same for any ABE program.
A curriculum must have a strong foundation in theory and research. When students are continuously engaged in tasks that are at the appropriate level of reading development, accelerated growth will be the result.
For anyone who has failed in school, an environment that is clear, consistent, and encourages risk-taking is crucial. When learners know ahead of time what they will be asked to do, and that help will be available when they need it, they feel safe and in control.
Teacher training and consultation are essential ingredients for a successful program. Teachers need to understand the rationales behind curricula, the goals and principles of what they are teaching, and the reading profiles of their students. They must also be able to ask questions, seek advice, and receive feedback once instruction has begun.
A program needs to make sense to students and provide them with hope. They need to know why they have been placed in a particular class, and more importantly, what they will be able to do when they get out.
Teachers and students alike need to define success both by how much is learned as well as by how well tasks get performed. When success is measured by how much is learned, students are willing to be continually challenged. As challenge results in growth, motivation will increase.
Concern about illiteracy abounds, yet solutions are difficult to find. Indeed, in many circles, reading failure in older adolescents and adults is viewed as failure too late to overcome. The Boys Town Reading Curriculum has success-fully reversed reading failure in young adults. This success would not have been possible without the cooperation and help of the teachers and students for whom the curriculum is designed. This is what really makes the curriculum work. It was developed in vivo rather than in vitro, keeping us continually aware of the needs of the teachers and the students we were seeking to help. To them we owe a special thanks.
Chall, J.S.(1996, 1983). Stages of reading development. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Chall, J.S., & Curtis, M.E. (1987). "What clinical diagnosis tells us about children's reading." The Reading Teacher, 40, 784-788.
Connolly, T., Dowd, T., Criste, A., Nelson, C., & Tobias, L. (1995). The well-managed classroom. Boys Town, NE: Boys Town Press.
Curtis, M.E., & McCart, L. (1992). "Fun ways to promote poor readers' word recognition." Journal of Reading, 35, 398-399.
Karlsen, B., & Gardner, E.F. (1995). Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (fourth ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace.
McKeown, M.G., & Curtis, M.E. (eds.) (1987), The nature of vocabulary acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Roswell, F.G., & Chall, J.S. (1992). Diagnostic Assessments of Reading. Chicago: Riverside.
Tucker, J. (I 985). "Curriculum-based assessment: An introduction." Exceptional Children, 52, 199-204.
Woodcock, R.W., & Johnson, M.B. (1989). Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement. Chicago: Illinois. | 2019-04-24T03:49:54Z | http://ncsall.net/index.html@id=466.html |
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This is the 3rd part of a series of posts that present myths and misunderstandings about the tropical Pacific processes that herald themselves during El Niño and La Niña events. In the posts, I’m simply reproducing chapters from my recently published ebook Who Turned on the Heat?
Many of these myths were created by proponents of manmade global warming who have no understanding of the coupled ocean-air processes that result in El Niño and La Niña events. Those persons look at an El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) index and wrongly assume the index represents all of the processes of ENSO—when, in reality, the index simply shows the impact of El Niño and La Niña events on the variable being measured for that index. ENSO indices (like NINO3.4 region sea surface temperature anomalies presented in the post) do not capture in recharge aspects of La Niña events that are evident in the ocean heat content data for the tropical Pacific and they do not capture the impacts of the discharge and redistribution processes of major El Niño events that are plainly visible in the sea surface temperature anomalies of the Atlantic-Indian-West Pacific Oceans(90S-90N, 80W-180).
For almost 4 years, my presentations about the long-term effects of El Niño and La Niña events indicate the global oceans over the past 30+ years have warmed naturally. The long-term impacts of El Niño and La Niña are blatantly obvious. Proponents of anthropogenic global warming apparently have difficulty comprehending that, so they use misinformation to try to contradict what’s plainly visible. Many of the myths they’ve created are failed attempts to neutralize strong El Niño and La Niña events—to redirect the observable causes of the warming over the past 3 decades from natural factors to manmade greenhouse gases.
The following discussion is from Chapter 7.1 Myth – ENSO Has No Trend and Cannot Contribute to Long-Term Warming. It begins with a reference to Section 5 of Who Turned on the Heat? The chapter titles of that section give a general description of the topics discussed. See the table of contents in the book preview here. Most of those discussions have been presented in numerous posts over the past 4 years at my blog and in cross posts at WattsUpWithThat.
We’ve discussed and illustrated in Section 5 of this book how ENSO has been responsible for the warming of global sea surface temperatures over the past 30 years. In fact, the intent of this book was to provide the reader with a strong enough background in ENSO to understand why this myth [ENSO Has No Trend and Cannot Contribute to Long-Term Warming] is wrong. Regardless, let’s examine this myth a little closer and see what else we can learn from it.
The “ENSO has No Trend” part of this myth depends on the dataset. That is, since 1900, some sea surface temperature-based ENSO indices show long-term trends, warming and cooling; another is flat. Let’s look at NINO3.4 sea surface temperature anomalies using a number of different datasets. We’ll start with ERSST.v3b and Kaplan, both from NOAA, and HADISST from the Hadley Centre. Refer to Figure 7-1. NINO3.4 sea surface temperature anomalies for the ERSST.v3b, Kaplan, and HADISST datasets are available through the KNMI Climate Explorer Monthly Climate Indices webpage. The ERSST.v3b version of NINO3.4 sea surface temperatures has a significant warming trend, while the Kaplan version of NINO3.4 data shows significant cooling. The HADISST-based NINO3.4 data since 1900 has a slightly negative trend, but it’s basically flat.
Figure 7-2 presents the average of the ERSST.v3b, HADISST and Kaplan versions of NINO3.4 sea surface temperature anomalies. The linear trend of 0.003 deg C per decade is basically flat.
HADSST2 and HADSST3 are also available at the Climate Explorer, but their data for the NINO3.4 region are so sparse at times that there are large gaps, with many missing months. Fortunately, a recent climate paper presented an ENSO index based on HADSST2 sea surface temperature anomalies. The paper was Thompson et al (2009) Identifying signatures of natural climate variability in time series of global-mean surface temperature: Methodology and Insights. We’ll discuss this paper again in another myth. Thompson et al (2009) were kind enough to provide data along with their paper. The instructions for use and links to the data are here. Thompson et al (2009) used the sea surface temperature anomalies for Cold Tongue Index region instead of the more commonly used NINO3.4 region. There are very slight differences between the two datasets. Thompson et al also scaled the data so that they could subtract it from global surface temperatures. We’ll standardize it so the dataset doesn’t look so odd, Figure 7-3. The trend clearly shows cooling. That’s even steeper than the cooling trend in the Kaplan NINO3.4 data.
In summary, sea surface temperature anomaly-based ENSO indices do have trends. The trend depends on the dataset. Most show a cooling trend over the 20th century and on into current times.
That’s not the primary fault with that myth. What defies logic with that fairytale is the idea that a variable source of heat with a flat long-term linear trend cannot raise or lower temperatures over periods of time.
For example, let’s say a hospital recently built a new multistory wing. The engineering department has received complaints about the temperature in a storeroom. Rarely does anyone enter the storeroom, but when they do, the temperature there can be very cool or very warm, or sometimes it’s just right. The storeroom is in the center of the building. It’s surrounded by occupied spaces and there are occupied floors above and below it. The temperatures in all of the spaces surrounding the storeroom are controlled by thermostats to maintain temperatures at 21 deg C (70 deg F). The lights in the storeroom are controlled by an occupancy sensor and there is no equipment in that space causing a heat load. Basically, the storeroom has no heat gains or losses when it’s unoccupied. To save on construction costs, hospital administrators elected not to install a thermostat in the storeroom with a separate supply of heating and cooling. The heating and air conditioning system does, however, serve the storeroom, providing a minimum amount of conditioned air for ventilation. The air conditioned or heated supply air comes from a duct that’s controlled by a thermostat in an adjacent office space, which is unfortunately an exterior zone, with heat losses and heat gains and varying occupancy. The head of the engineering department sends a new hire to the storeroom with a couple of temperature sensors and digital recorder.
After a period of time, the new hire stops by the boiler room to consult with the crusty old boiler room foreman. The new hire explains his findings to foreman. The temperature of the storeroom does vary, and he provides a graph that shows the temperature there initially warmed, then cooled slightly, and then warmed again. See Figure 7-4.
The new hire is baffled, though. The graph of the temperature of the air being supplied to the space, Figure 7-5, shows lots of variability. If he compares the supply air and space temperature, the new hire can see that the temperature of the air being supplied to the space has a strong short-term effect on space temperature. When there’s a short-term supply of warm air, the space temperature warms and, conversely, when there’s a short-term supply of cool air, the space temperature cools. What baffles the new hire is that space temperatures obviously warmed over the long-term, but the supply air temperature shows no trend. In fact, it shows a slight cooling trend.
The boiler room foreman suggests the new hire determine the average temperatures of the supply air entering the space during the early and late warming periods and determine the average supply air temperature for the relatively flat temperature period between them. The new hire returns with a revised graph that shows the average supply air temperatures were in heating mode during the two warming periods and in cooling mode, just slightly, during the period between them. All of the variability had hidden the obvious from him when he looked at the data for the first time. The new hire states the supply air was an uncontrolled supply of variable heating and cooling, and it was causing the space temperatures to warm and cool. The foreman and the new hire go into a more detailed discussion to clarify the reasons for the warming and cooling before the new hire reports back to the head of engineering.
If you hadn’t noticed, I used scaled and ranged NINO3.4 sea surface temperature anomalies since 1900 to create the supply air temperature data in Figures 7.5 and 7.6, and the space temperature in Figure 7-4 bears a striking resemblance to global surface temperatures since 1900 as well. I’m sure some readers will think it was a poor example and that there are better examples I could have used in the discussion above, but let’s look at the bottom line.
Isn’t that all ENSO is? Isn’t ENSO simply a natural, uncontrolled, variable source of heat to the global oceans and atmosphere? Global Land Plus Sea surface temperatures warmed from 1917 to 1944 and warmed again from 1976 to present, and they cooled slightly from 1944 to 1976. Using period-average NINO3.4 sea surface temperatures, we can see that El Niño events dominated the global warming periods, and La Niña events dominated the period between them when global temperatures cooled.
We’ve discussed this in Chapter 5.8 Scientific Studies of the IPCC’s Climate Models Reveal How Poorly the Models Simulate ENSO Processes. Let’s repeat that discussion.
The strength of ENSO phases, along with how often they happen and how long they persist, determine how much heat is released by the tropical Pacific into the atmosphere and how much warm water is transported by ocean currents from the tropics to the poles. During a multidecadal period when El Niño events dominate (a period when El Niño events are stronger, when they occur more often and when they last longer than La Niña events), more heat than normal is released from the tropical Pacific and more warm water than normal is transported by ocean currents toward the poles—with that warm water releasing heat to the atmosphere along the way. As a result, global sea surface and land surface temperatures warm during multidecadal periods when El Niño events dominate. See Figure 7-7. Similarly, global temperatures cool during multidecadal periods when La Niña events are stronger, last longer and occur more often than El Niño events.
The myth “ENSO Has No Trend and Cannot Contribute to Long-Term Warming” is flawed in a number of ways.
The remainder of this series of posts will be taken from the following myths and failed arguments. They’re from Section 7 of my book Who Turned on the Heat? I may select them out of the order they’ve been presented here, and I’ll try to remember to include links to the other posts in these lists as the new posts are published.
And I’ll include a few of the failed arguments that have been presented in defense of anthropogenic warming of the global oceans.
Failed Argument – The East Indian-West Pacific and East Pacific Sea Surface Temperature Datasets are Inversely Related. That Is, There’s a Seesaw Effect. One Warms, the Other Cools. They Counteract One Another.
INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT EL NIÑO AND LA NIÑA AND THEIR LONG-TERM EFFECTS ON GLOBAL SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES?
Why should you be interested? Sea surface temperature records indicate El Niño and La Niña events are responsible for the warming of global sea surface temperature anomalies over the past 30 years, not manmade greenhouse gases. I’ve searched sea surface temperature records for more than 4 years, and I can find no evidence of an anthropogenic greenhouse gas signal. That is, the warming of the global oceans has been caused by Mother Nature, not anthropogenic greenhouse gases.
Who Turned on the Heat?was introduced in the blog post Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about El Niño and La Niña… …Well Just about Everything. The Updated Free Preview includes the Table of Contents; the Introduction; the beginning of Section 1, with the cartoon-like illustrations; the discussion About the Cover; and the Closing. The book was updated recently to correct a few typos.
Please buy a copy. (Credit/Debit Card through PayPal. You do NOT need to open a PayPal account. Simply scroll down past where they ask you to open one.). It’s only US$8.00.
For those who’d like a more detailed preview of Who Turned on the Heat? see Part 1 and Part 2 of the video series The Natural Warming of the Global Oceans. Part 1 appeared in the 24-hour WattsUpWithThat TV (WUWT-TV) special in November 2012. You may also be interested in the video Dear President Obama: A Video Memo about Climate Change. | 2019-04-19T16:29:42Z | https://bobtisdale.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/el-nino-southern-oscillation-myth-3-enso-has-no-trend-and-cannot-contribute-to-long-term-warming/ |
James Meadway analyses the causes of the lull in the student movement, and argues that if the movement was to sustain itself beyond the activist minority, it had to maintain its relationship to the wider mass of students.
After thoroughly shaking up British politics at the end of last year, all the way up to the fateful tuition fees vote on 9 December, where protests, at their height saw 20-30,000 storm into Parliament Square and the Treasury invaded, the student movement was quieter last term. A second wave of occupations did not materialise and street mobilisations were notably smaller. At the same time, a series of debates have opened up around the movement and the left more generally.
It’s worth recalling the November-December movement’s achievements: perhaps most importantly, the consensus that the Coalition had carefully developed for immediate and swingeing public spending cuts has disintegrated. The students broke the argument on spending wide open, and from a majority of public support for spending cuts at the time of the Spending Review, the majority now oppose the Coalition’s plans. The case for maintaining public spending now has a real constituency - with even Ed Miliband belatedly recognising this, appointing born-again Keynesian Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor last January.
We wrecked the Lib Dems, and mercilessly exposed their broken promises. We showed that it was possible to stand and fight against this government, helping push the movement against the cuts onwards - whether through UK Uncut or local anti-cuts campaigns. And the TUC anti-cuts demonstration simply would not have been 500,000-strong without the prior impact of the student movement.
Mediocre NUS President Aaron Porter is stepping down and his replacement will have to pay at least lip-service to the movement. We have now in the colleges a larger and more confident left than at any time in years, with election after election returning anti-cuts, anti-fees candidates. Support for the lecturers’ strikes in March was widespread, with festival-like scenes on picket lines and a number of colleges occupying in solidarity.
But while acknowledging all this we need a sober assessment of our current situation. Fees were not stopped. Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is still due to be scrapped this year. Cuts are proceeding apace. It is in dealing with the challenges of this new situation that the movement has wobbled.
In part, this uncertainty was inevitable. With term ending shortly after the vote, universities and colleges closed until early January, breaking the momentum. For some institutions and courses, assessment through coursework and years structured around semesters, rather than terms, meant unpleasant deadlines in January and February. A- and AS-level students faced at least mock exams over the same period. Structurally, the academic year works at a different pace, post-Christmas.
All this was known beforehand, however. More pressing was the change of pace and direction forced by the parliamentary vote on 9 December. From the initial, NUS-led 10 November demonstration to the vote, the whole movement had a definite target to aim for: we all knew that, one way or another, the more of a political ruckus that could be created ahead of the vote, the more likely we could inflict a defeat on the government. This provided a structure and unity to the movement, and forced the pace of our actions. Every occupation and protest could all point towards the same definite goal, and questions of strategy subordinated to that. Disagreements that already existed over the best way forward for the movement mattered less when we all knew time was short, and momentum was on our side.
Those disagreements were real nonetheless. They included, for example, the critical argument over the purpose of student occupations. Those on the socialist left, including Counterfire, argued that it was an important strategic move by students - a way of applying pressure to college managements, who in turn would be forced to apply pressure directly to government. For this to be most effective they would have to be run on a mass basis, seeking to win the widest possible layers of students in their support.
An occupied space could then provide a meeting point and a base for further protest. The alternative, associated more with autonomists and anarchists, tended to argue for occupations as an expression of resistance in itself - the creation of a liberated zone as both a symbolic representation of how a new, better education system could function, and a vital organising centre for activists. Strategic considerations came second.
At the height of the movement such divisions mattered little. Occupations spread throughout the country and provided the backbone of the movement until 9 December. They were well supported by students on their campuses - in general, on a far broader scale than the January 2009 occupations over Gaza. And they provided a base of operations for further protests, including the innovative teach-outs (in which impromptu lectures would be given in public spaces, in protest at the privatisation of knowledge) and the huge street demonstrations.
Contained within the debate over occupations, however, were the seeds of a far wider argument - the one that came to the fore as students returned after the Christmas break. This centred on the vexed question of relationships between the activist minority, a wider layer of less mobilised students, and beyond them the student body as a whole. This is never a settled, or easy question to answer, and assumes a distinctive form in the colleges, where it is nearly always possible for a small minority of students to pull off at least some form of action. They can relate, or not relate, to the rest of the student body as they choose.
It is not possible to act (for example) as a workplace militant in the same way. To act without the support - even the passive support - of your workmates is to leave yourself open to immediate victimisation. At every point, the question of the activist’s relationship to the wider environment is central. There is a necessary relationship between the activist and the wider political body that in the colleges and universities can appear to be an optional extra.
This distinction can give student politics a dynamism that workplace politics may lack. A minority on campus can move very rapidly into activity - occupying a building or staging a protest - and potentially detonate a wider mobilisation. This was roughly the pattern in the student movement: a very large minority of students occupied Millbank and the square opposite, more passively supported by the rest of the demonstration. A minority of students staged the initial college occupations, winning over huge numbers as time went on. Initial actions helped ferment broader support. It was a case study in winning hegemony - and on the basis of radical activity. Gramsci would have been proud.
However, early successes did not remove the central political question. If the movement was to sustain itself beyond the mobilised, activist minority it had to maintain its relationship to the wider mass of students. Despite its many successes, it is now clear that the minority did not do so. Mobilisations have been self-evidently smaller and more sporadic since Christmas. Even allowing for changed circumstances - the break, exams and coursework, the passing of the Act - this has to be considered also a failure on the part of the activist minority.
It is a failure that developed precisely from the failure to answer correctly the core question of how the activist minority relates to the rest. In some cases, this was a deliberate, strategic choice, seen in prototypical form in the dispute over the purpose of occupation. Those who weighted the immediate symbolism of an action more highly than its role in building the movement could ignore the question. Those influenced by autonomist politics inclined towards this position. Many of the political innovations arising from the student movement, like UK Uncut’s high-street occupations, or the teach-outs, were sparked from this quarter. But where in boiling mass of the November-December movement this could appear as a glorious exercise in political imagination, in straitened times post-Christmas the same style of activism too often the character of an isolated political sideshow: perhaps most glaringly in the slightly nutty plan to occupy anti-cuts ULU as an ‘anti-cuts space’, proposed by a handful of activists. Nonetheless, that section of the movement influenced by autonomism and anarchism displayed an imagination and initiative that might otherwise have been lacking.
For those in the organised far left, who would on the whole pay at least lip-service to the need for activists to relate immediately to the movement, the issue is more complex. In practice, it seems that much of the left fell victim to a pleasant optical illusion. The November-December movement had, in its wake, created a far larger body of students prepared to identify with the left generally. These students did not, on the whole, join the existing left organisations, forming instead a broad left milieu across different campuses. (Indeed, it is striking that most of the existing far left appears to have failed to recruit from the movement, despite strenuous efforts.) That milieu could be mobilised for different purposes, and would - if it turned out - provide the impression of success: certainly relative to the scale of mobilisations the student left had been used to. But it was not quite the same as relating to the wider body of students. It just meant the immediate audience was somewhat larger.
This became clear on 29 January when the national demonstration that NUS had finally been provoked into calling, up in Manchester, was opposed by a demonstration of the student left in London. The London turnout was somewhat higher than the official march, as the new milieu was mobilised, and certainly higher than left-led student demos in previous years; but the political damage was more than done. The movement had split itself, in the most obvious way possible. A single, united march in Manchester, with the left building for the demonstration and pushing union bureaucrats into doing likewise, could have been bigger than the 10,000 who turned out on the day in London. Its political impact would have been all the greater, whatever the turnout.
By deliberately separating out the radicals from the official march, the movement as a whole was weakened, while the possibility of provoking NUS into further anti-cuts efforts was lost. A few cat-calls directed by the usual suspects at Aaron Porter in Manchester did not substitute for a serious mass mobilisation. Meanwhile, the ability of the left to relate to the wider student body - as it had done successfully, pre-Christmas - was markedly hampered. We had chosen a self-inflicted irrelevance. The split, far from exposing the NUS leadership - as some of those pushing for it argued - merely exposed our own serious weaknesses.
It was this inability to understand how to build and sustain a movement that helped cripple it after the Christmas break. It allowed, in the 29 January farce, even a clodhopper like Aaron Porter to briefly outmanoeuvre the left, running a disruptive (but entirely untrue) story about the “racist abuse” he had suffered in Manchester.
The same weakness, however, also arose from deliberate political calculation. Clare Solomon’s failure to win re-election as President of the University of London Union (ULU) was, of course, a blow. Candidates of the left won every single other position in the ULU elections this year, and Clare’s vote increased very substantially on last year’s total. Her margin of loss (around 100 votes) was small. Nonetheless, we need to understand how - after the last year - this happened. Many students were plainly shocked at the result.
First, precisely because Clare is a successful, high-profile student leader of the left, who has brilliantly campaigned for her members over the last year, she has attracted a backlash from the right. That she is also a single mother, a mature student, and LGBT added a predictably revolting virulence to the howling and shrieking. London Student, ULU’s independent newspaper, had spent the year attempting to stoke this hysteria in a campaign bordering on the obsessional, with seemingly endless pages devoted to varying degrees of character assassination, wilful misrepresentation, and plain snidery pointed in Clare’s general direction. In any case, substantial votes against Clare were recorded in the historically right-wing campuses of Queen Mary, University College London (UCL), and Kings College London (KCL).
So Clare attracted opposition. But she also attracted great support. The majority of students in London, as other elections across the capital confirm, have clearly identified themselves with the anti-cuts, anti-fees position she articulated - and not with the watered-down Aaron Porteresque politics of her opponent. It should have been possible to mobilise this leftish constituency in greater numbers for Clare than the right managed for their nonentity.
This brings us to the second reason for failure. Clare’s election campaign relied critically on Counterfire members and the independent left. With a few honourable distinctions, the organised far left did essentially nothing to help. This, in a winnable election for a critical position, was a serious political mistake, driven by a narrow concern for group-building over a wider concern for movement-building. It compounded the bad decision, earlier in the year, not to stand Clare for NUS President. As the most high-profile student activist, by some distance, she could have galvanised a national campaign and secured a larger vote on the conference floor.
NUS conference is enemy territory for radicals and it was always unlikely that this year would prove substantially different. Conference delegates were elected prior to the November-December movement and reflect last year’s politics more than this; but the fragmentation and weakness that has been revealed in recent months also has real political costs. No single group or tendency has anything like hegemony over even the left itself, and there is a certain organisational weakness that is hard-pushed to stand up to the - battered but not broken - Labour machine inside the National Union. As it was, a weaker Presidential candidate won fewer votes than others on the left standing for different full-time positions, and fewer votes than the leading left candidate managed at the last year’s conference. Conference even managed to reject a call for a further national demonstration. Elections for the multi-member National Executive Committee were more promising, with four socialists elected, but (although useful) this is a weaker, part-time body.
It was, given the state of play at NUS nationally, a significant error for most of the organised left to duck out of supporting Clare’s campaign for re-election at the important regional centre of ULU. Given the close result, a small push would have tipped the balance. But the desire to push factional advantage outweighed consideration for the wider movement. The overall result has been to help weaken the student movement, confuse many of those in it, and hand the right easier eventual victories. The whole sorry business reinforces, once again, the absolute centrality of relating outwards, to the movement and to those huge layers of students not contained within the ranks of the self-identified left. A failure to grasp this helped produce a defeat for Clare, and fragmented the movement itself over the last term.
Much, nonetheless, has been achieved. Across the country, a new student left has come together. It may in general not be joining the traditional organisations of the left, but there is now a serious mass of students that broadly identify with the radical’s concerns and analysis. In college after college, this is now taking institutional shape, with significant victories for anti-cuts, anti-fees candidates in students’ unions - including places where no previous left presence existed, like Royal Holloway.
For the colleges themselves, the holes in the government’s shoddy plans for universities are becoming daily more apparent, whether in the £9,000 fees that are becoming the standard rate, or the financial black hole the proposed loans scheme opens up. Next year could see further explosions in academia as the cuts begin to bite, although it is not clear there will be the same national focus.
But it is perhaps the impact of the student movement on wider society that is its greatest single legacy. Anti-cuts campaigns gather momentum across the country, taking heart from the students’ own battle. If the 500,000 plus on the TUC march did nothing else, they nailed the lie that the cuts are popular - or that no-one will protest about them. Of course, the TUC demonstration did more than this. It raised the spectre of a real mass campaign against the cuts, broad and radical, pulling in unions and workplace militancy alongside flashmobs and council chamber occupations. The most urgent task now is to turn that spectral possibility into a living and breathing movement - local activity alongside a national umbrella of the kind offered by the Coalition of Resistance. | 2019-04-22T15:58:09Z | https://www.counterfire.org/education/12133-the-student-movement-results-and-prospects |
Home > News & Resources > Blogs > August 2017 > What does the McColl's and Morrisons partnership mean for the retail market?
What does the McColl's and Morrisons partnership mean for the retail market?
"As we’ve seen with the Tesco Booker merger this year the market continues to consolidate with the big 4 supermarkets branching further in to the convenience and wholesale sectors. But what does this mean for the rest of the market?
It’s already clear that there will be casualties along the way and some well known brands are beginning to question their current business strategies. However, there are also going to be plenty of opportunities for those in the sector who understand their consumer and listen to their requirements. It has become quite clear that the consumer appetite for food-to-go and fresh food is gaining in strength, however there will always be demand for the local convenience store offering. We expect to see some rebranding of existing portfolios, and we may even lose some brands as they are taken over, but there are brands that have scale and ability who will fight back."
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Published on embedded.com January, 2013.
In September I wrote about the new Ada 2012 standard. That article elicited quite a few responses, and some misinformation. So, I digested some of the discussion into questions which I sent to the folks at AdaCore. They were kind to reply. Here's that discussion.
Are Ada's runtime libraries generally written in Ada? If not, why is that?
In some circles Ada has long held a reputation of being bloated, in terms of size and performance of the generated code. I know there are some profiles, like Ravenscar, that can scale back the size quite a bit. How does the code generated by modern compilers compare to that from, say, C of C++ compilers?
* The fundamental computation model of Ada is imperative and most concepts of imperative programming are available with semantics that are very close to those of these other languages. There is no reason why those in Ada would be slower.
* In the case of GNAT, the code generator is the same, whether you compile for C, C++ or Ada and that's where the bulk of the optimizations are performed. As a result, for the same algorithms, the performance will be the same.
* One common mistake in comparing the performance of Ada with that of C is to compare Ada with checks enabled and C without checks. Indeed, if you assign a value to a numeric type in Ada, the compiler will generate a check verifying that the value is in range, which takes more time than just doing the assignment. However, we then have two programs that do different things so the difference in performance is reasonable. It's perfectly possible to produce the same performance in Ada by altering the semantics, in this case removing those checks.
* There are a number of cases where code generated by Ada is actually faster than C or C++ code because the language provides semantics that can be better optimized by the compiler than code that's written manually. Subtype checking is a good example of that.
* For run-time size, comparing Ada with C++, which offers the same level of capabilities (object orientation, exception, multi-threading, etc), is the most relevant. It shows a comparable run-time footprint. Indeed, for smaller systems, smaller Ada run-times exist: with GNAT, you can go all the way down to no run-time at all.
Readers complain that there's little support for Ada on 8 and 16 bit processors. Is that the case?
Ada tends to be used on relatively large systems that require lots of processing, so our customers are not pushing very hard in the direction on small processors. That being said, if you look at the GCC technology, all GCC targets could potentially have support for Ada. In particular, we have AVR 8 bits ports. So it's not really a technical limitation at this stage, more where the market pressure is coming from.
One very interesting argument I've seen before is that Ada by itself adds little to the development of highly-reliable code. Some people suggest that Ada users are just better or more careful developers, so would excel working in any language. It's an interesting thought, since it implies that some (or too many) non-Ada people are less competent or less careful. Care to comment?
I would go even beyond that and say that the language by itself has little impact on the reliability on the code being developed. What really matters is the development environment: the language, its toolchain (compiler, debugger), its editing environment (IDE), its analysis tools (static and dynamic) and its testing capabilities. And, of course, the competence of the team.
What the languages provide are foundations to put this environment together, in particular with regard to static analysis. Many errors can be detected at compile time and an entirely new class of errors can be detected by the static analysis tools, much more than C. This is really a key to developing reliable software.
Now to the developer competence discussion. Thinking that a bad developer can do a good job because he has a good language is a myth. No matter what the technology, you need good, competent people. Ada allows these developers to be more productive because they can develop software at the right level of abstraction and use the semantics of the language to obtain guarantees and proofs that they would otherwise only gather through painful analysis.
Another interesting point relates to big systems developed and maintained over decades. With millions lines of code, no matter how good the team is, nothing can prevent you from making mistakes (not even Ada ;-)). What you need are all possible means to mitigate as many mistakes as possible and concentrate on the few that can't be prevented. That's what Ada is offering.
Finally, C provides surprisingly little support for the separation between specifications and implementation or helping with global program architecture. For example, headers files are merely a convention with no dedicated language features behind them, there are different ways of handling global variables, and C doesn't provide namespaces while C++ allows distributing them across several files. Ada provides a nice way of identifying programming modules, separating the specifications from the implementation, and providing the specification with high level semantics such as strong typing, parameter modes (e.g., readonly, and read-write), data ranges, etc. In a way, this makes Ada usable as a programming tool as well as a design tool.
One common complaint whenever anyone takes a swipe at a sacred cow like C is "good craftsmen shouldn't blame their tools." Should they?
There's a reason why a craftsmen uses a hammer over a stone, or why developers chose C over assembly language. However, blaming the success or failure of a project on its language is always a mistake: it's a combination of the development environment and people's competence. What matters most is to select a tool that's fit for the task at the beginning and make the best use of it as possible. Using C doesn't make the task of writing reliable code impossible, nor will it inevitably produce a failure, but there are many reasons why choosing Ada development tools are likely to reduce costs and produce a better outcome.
What trends do you see in the adoption of Ada? One recent article on embedded.com pegs Ada use at around 4% of the embedded space. Is that changing?
First of all, we need to agree on what "embedded space" means. Are we talking about mobile devices? Embedded software on an aircraft? Temperature control programs running on my heating system?
With regards to embedded development, Ada makes the most sense when some reliability aspects need to be taken into account. That's the only market that's really worth looking at. For example, although I'm strongly committed to the language, I wouldn't use it for a commercial phone application.
So to answer to your question, taking into account the general embedded market, I would expect numbers to look a bit smaller for Ada, and a lot smaller for C or C++, when compared to languages such as Java and Objective C. But that reflects a market change within the embedded space more than anything else -- embedded development on mobile platforms such as iOS or Android has exploded over the past few years. This doesn't mean Ada usage has fundamentally changed.
Indeed, if you concentrate on the reliable software niche, what we're seeing from our (admittedly biased) vendor point of view is an increase in interest and usage of the language, sometimes in areas where we wouldn't have thought it would have been used previously. It also appears there's increasing attention being given to concerns such as certification or formal proof, where Ada provide notable advantages over C. This is probably one of the reasons that explain this increase of interest.
On fascinating comment was "Add Coverity, add KLEE, add Test Driven Development, add valgrind, add all the other checking tools and it becomes harder to make the errors that people blame C for." Do you think these extra tools Ada-ize C?
That's the counterpart of "good craftsmen shouldn't blame their tools", isn't it ;-)?
These tools do add useful verification to C, and they do improve C code reliability. But they don't really Ada-ize C -- as a matter of fact, you will need similar set of tools for Ada as well. That's the development environment I was talking about.
The real question is, with these tools, what level of reliability are you achieving? If buying a complex C static analysis tool merely brings you to the level of a standard Ada compiler, why bother? And yet, if you have the funds to buy that static analysis tool, why not buy an Ada one, and reach an order of magnitude higher standards?
Another reader commented that Ada isn't available for lower-end ARM CPUs like the Cortex-M series. Surely these parts are going to be huge in the embedded space. Is that comment correct, and do you see this changing?
SPARK, of course, offers even lower bug rates than regular Ada. But it does require much more of a mathematician's mindset in crafting the annotations. What is your take on SPARK? Is there any reason to prefer regular Ada over SPARK?
Most of today's formal methods do require a strong mathematician mindset. This is true for SPARK as well as many similar languages and tools. On the other hand, the level of reliability you can achieve goes way beyond what any other methodology could bring. It's beyond lowering the bug rate, but actually formally verifying the correctness of the specification. But the incentive to do this, as of now, indeed has to be very strong.
However, there's no reason to see formal methods as the opposite of standard programming languages or SPARK as the opposite of Ada. Indeed, it's perfectly reasonable to consider a continuum stretching from code being verified by test to code being verified by formal methods, allowing an application to combine both. A new generation of SPARK that Altran and AdaCore are currently working on allows this. As a result, an engineer with no particular mathematician background will be able to iteratively introduce formal methods wherever it's simple enough and makes sense, using traditional methods for the rest of the code.
There's much more to say about the above, but the first version of this effort is part of a project called Hi-Lite, available from http://www.open-do.org/projects/hi-lite/.
Ada was originally a DoD mandate in an effort to get better code into their products. Yet the F-35 is written in C++. What happened there?
I don't have any input on this story, so I can't comment on this particular one. However, I've seen many occurrences of migration from and to Ada and can make some guesses. There's often political reasoning when moving from Ada to C++. In particular in the defense domain, lots of today's managers were developers in the 80's, back when Ada tools where extremely poor, and they kind of stuck to this understanding. Therefore, they're trying to use anything other than Ada. There's also a belief, again at the management level, that the languages written on a developer's resume must match the languages in which the project is developed. Of course, any decent technical person would tell you that the language is the least of their problem when moving to a new project, but that's still something that a number of managers are hung up on.
On the other hand, we've seen opposite moves, from Java, C or C++ to Ada. What I have personally witnessed is that while the choice to move from Ada to C or C++ is often initiated from the management level, the move to Ada is often initiated from the technical team.
I always look at these issues not from a technology basis, but from a business perspective. It seems to me the selection of a language comes down to some tech issues (e.g., size and speed of the code) but more to business concerns: productivity and quality. How does Ada compare to C and C++?
There's no such thing as a language that allows better productivity than another one, generally speaking. It all depends on the context. I wouldn't use Ada to develop a mobile application, a video game or a web server. My productivity would be lowered due to the lack of standard environments and tools for these purposes, and I although I would probably achieve a higher-reliability result, this reliability would not likely be one of my initial requirements.
However, if I'm developing an application that must not fail, then using Ada will most definitely allow higher productivity. Take something as simple as type range checking. With C or C++, I would need to manually write verification that the numeric values being manipulated are within range. With Ada, the developer does it once, at type definition level, is sure not to forget a spot, and can change this in only one place. And on top of that, tools are automatically aware of the ranges. There are many examples like that.
One of my pet peeves is that the vast majority of embedded people keep no metrics at all, so talking about productivity or bug rates is usually just that: talk. Of course, the vast majority of embedded people code in C or C++. Are the Ada folks any more methodical in keeping metrics?
There's really little difference that I can see between an Ada developer and a C developer if they're in the same market. I've seen everything from people really methodical in keeping these metrics to people that barely knew they exist. However, there's a general trend in the embedded market towards more and more static metrics, no matter what language. Here again, however, Ada can bring advantages, as the static analysis tools tend to be more precise (see previous discussions on this).
A lot of the numbers one sees for Ada come out of the safety-critical world like those who have to conform to higher levels of DO-178C. But since so much C code is not safety-critical, and so does not incur the expense of MC/DC tests and the like, comparing that to 178C seems like comparing apples and oranges. How does Ada measure up when used in non-safety critical applications?
Let me first define non-safety as non-safety-but-still-reliable applications. In this context, there's no doubt Ada is way more efficient than C. Just looking at coding standards for C makes things obvious enough -- a fair amount of the rules in those don't make sense in Ada because those rules are already included in the language.
Where there's no reliability-oriented concern whatsoever, i.e., little in the way of coding standards and testing and no concerns about maintenance or scalability, then it becomes harder to tell. At this stage, whatever you're used to would fit, I guess. I personally would have a preference towards Visual Basic.
If you were trying to sell the use of Ada to dyed-in-the-wool C programmers, what would be your principle arguments for adopting it?
Conversely, where do you see C as trumping Ada?
You really want me to end this on a negative note on Ada, don't you ;-)? Let me make a more general statement. For any development starting today, in 2013, the only reason why I would see C used is when the environment doesn't provide any alternative. Maybe it's a small custom chip for which the manufacturer doesn't provide anything other than C. Maybe it's a large legacy C application that can't be recompiled with more modern tools. Or maybe it's just a small function in a (non-Ada) system that needs dedicated performance control so you'd use C a bit like people used to use assembly code while trying to boost very localized performance.
But for anything else, today, as of 2013, I can't see why you would select the C language. There are so many better alternatives out there: Java, Python, C++, Visual Basic, Ada, etc. All perform pretty well for their target applications. And I'm not even talking about domain specific languages, which have a yet better fit when applicable. Why on earth would you start using a language coming from the Cobol and Fortran era, with a list of vulnerabilities larger than anything that has been done since then, not implementing any of the modern software architecting paradigms? Nostalgia?
Thanks much to AdaCore for their responses to my - and your - questions. | 2019-04-21T05:04:55Z | http://www.ganssle.com/rants/ada2012_redux.html |
Mandy's PUPPIES at 9 Weeks Old!
December 23 - The puppies are now 7 months old and celebrating their first Christmas. Lexie (aka Tiffany) sent me the most wonderful Christmas present. It is a hand painted Sweat Shirt made by her talented new dad, Bert Singer. Hunter (aka Miel) and Amy graduated with flying colors from their second obedience class on Thursday night. Amy and Miel showed in their first AKC show on their 6 month birthday. They both won first place in their class -- Puppy 6 to 9 months. Tiffany has decided she would rather not show. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years.
October 25 - The puppies are 5 months old. Lexie went to her new home last Sunday. I get daily reports from her new owners and she is adjusting beautifully. We miss her. I knew it was best for her and that is why I finally decided it was time. Amy misses her sister but is adjusting. Amy spends her time now with the "big girls". She sleeps in a crate at night like the big ones. Amy and I get to see Miel (Hunter) every Thursday night at obedience class. Amy & Miel started real obedience class and are doing great. I'm amazed how smart Bichon puppies are.
October 14 - The puppies are 4 1/2 months old. Next week the three puppies graduate from their first obedience class. They have learned a lot in the past 6 weeks. I have to brag about my Amy. We went to a "Fun Match" on Saturday and Amy won Group I in the Non Sporting Group. I am soooo proud of her. Lexie has the sweetest personality. She showed beautifully but only one of the girls could win and this time it was Amy. Maybe next time Lexie will win. It really doesn't matter because it is a learning experience and for fun.
September 13 - The puppies are sixteen weeks old. Amy and Lexie started puppy socialization class last night. We were proud of both our girls. They did what they were supposed to during the class. We learned submission. This will really help with grooming. We did a little work on learning to walk on a lead -- "Go for a Walk". There is so much to learn!
August 31 - The puppies are fourteen weeks old. Time sure flys! All 3 puppies were evaluated by a Bichon judge. She stated all 3 are SHOW quality. We'll start taking them to more matches to get ready for the big day when they turn 6 months old and can be shown in AKC shows for points towards their conformation championship.
August 24 - The puppies are thirteen weeks old. We have adjusted to Hunter (his new name is Miel) being gone because we get to see him often. We're all going to a match tomorrow. All the puppies are learning to walk on a leash. They are not real pleased with this new activity.
August 17 - The puppies are twelve weeks old. Hunter left today for his new home. I decided I couldn't give him as much love and attention as he deserved so I let him go to a wonderful show home. I miss him already but it is best for him to be the center of his new owner's attention. Amy and Lexie miss their brother and Mandy has looked outside in the yard for him. I'm sure we'll all adjust but it is like one of your children leaving home even though you know it is for the best, it doesn't make it any easier.
August 10 - The puppies are eleven weeks old. All the puppies love to splash in the wading pool especially since our weather has been 100+ each day. We live in Danville, California (in the Diablo Valley, inland from San Francisco). If the puppies are not swimming, they are laying on the air conditioner vent. Boy, that's a dog's life!
August 3 - The puppies are ten weeks old. I bought them a wading pool today. Amy loves to splash in the water. Then she loves to roll in the dirt. What a mess! Oh well, she's a puppy and having fun. The other two haven't found out how much fun it is, yet.
July 26 - The puppies are nine weeks old. How time flys when you are having fun. The puppies are a joy to be around and you never know what they are going to get into next. We went to the vet today for their second shot. Everyone did great. They ate cookies while the vet gave them their shots and not one made a peep. Amy weighs 4 lbs. 8 ozs.; Lexi weighs 4 lbs. 9 ozs. and Hunter weighs 4 lbs. 11 ozs. They sure have grown. They learned how to dig this past week. Of course, they dig in the mud and then want to come into the house (I have white carpeting). Needless to say, they get numerous paw washes. They sure are cute!
July 19 - The puppies are 8 weeks old. They are now eating real puppy food (Nutro Lamb and Rice). I stopped adding water and making mush out of it. They have teeth. They can go in the backyard without being in their ex pen because they are real careful around the swimming pool and I watch them like a HAWK. No one has fallen in yet and I don't want them to fall in. They love to run on the grass and chase the older Bichons.
July 11 - The puppies are 7 weeks old. They are sure growing into little Bichons with the wonderful Bichon temperament. I love playing with them on the lawn. They love to bring leaves to me. They come to their names (Hunter, Amy, and Lexi) sometimes. So CUTE!!
July 5 - The puppies are 6 weeks old. They had their first shot this morning. The girls were very brave and didn't say a word. Hunter let us know it hurt. The vet gave all of them a clean bill of health. She said their pigment and coats are great. The puppies have decided that they love their puppy food better than mommy and since they now have teeth, we are in the process of weaning them. Mandy still thinks she should be feeding them.
June 22 - The puppies are now on puppy food. They do NOT like it as well as human baby food but they will adjust. They are still nursing and gaining weight. I made soft toys with squeakers for them. They are so funny when they play with their toys. They still sleep most of the time.
June 18 - The puppies all weigh over 2 pounds. They are eating solid food that includes Gerber's Rice cereal, baby puree meat, and canned milk. They love it when they are not walking in it. I have a wash cloth handy for clean up. They still nurse. They have developed individual personalities. Everyday they do something new. I noticed that they were only going potty on the extra towel I put in their whelphing box so I put a piece of paper in one corner. The smartest girl, Amy, is using it to go potty on. By the way, all puppies are sort of named -- Hunter, Amy, & Dawn.
June 13 - The puppies are three weeks old. They are now up on all four feet walking around. They are so cute when they fall over because they are not real steady on their feet, yet. They are learning to bark and growl. Two of the puppies like to practice it at night. Everyday they get cuter and do more things.
June 7 - All the puppies weigh at least one pound even my little male, Hunter. All of them have their eyes open now. They are so cute.
June 4 - The puppies are still gaining weight. The girls are up to over one pound each. The boy weighs almost a pound and catching up with the girls. They are starting to open their eyes.
May 28 - The puppies are continuing to gain weight. Mommy and puppies are doing great, still. They keep me busy with washing the bedding, cleaning up, and feeding mommy but I enjoy it.
May 25 - The puppies are doing great. They had their front dew claws removed this morning. Mommy and puppies are getting along wonderfully. The puppies are gaining weight and the vet gave them a clean bill of health. It looks like I'll be adding two new family members to my family. I plan on keeping a girl and the boy (I named the boy Hunter).
May 23 - The puppies were born today. The first female arrived by natural birth at 4:00 p.m. and the other female and male were born by C-Section at 5:00 p.m. Mother and babies are doing fine.
We purchased a new whelping box for the happy event. The box is the Original Dura-Whelp made by Fawn Run Corporation. Their telephone number is (800) 998-3331. I would highly recommend this whelping box to anyone expecting puppies. It is really great. The cleanup is so easy. I am very pleased with the performance of this whelping product. I'm not the only one who thinks the world of this whelping box. Recently an article appeared in the AKC Gazette regarding whelping boxes and this is the one that was recommended. (This is not a paid advertisement for their product - I just like it.) At 6 weeks old, we took the puppies out of their whelping box. It still looks just like brand new. | 2019-04-20T09:03:44Z | http://bichonfrise.org/puppies.html |
Australian dining is all about slinging a prawn on the barbie, cracking open a tinnie and opening a bottle of Aussie chardy, right? Not according to our panel members, who give their own thoughts on what Australian cuisine is all about.
– Kylie Clarkin is from Manly Beach, Sydney, but has lived in Singapore on and off for 12 years and is currently studying health science and nutrition.
– Luke Mangan is a renowned chef, originally from Melbourne and now residing in Sydney. His Singapore restaurants include Salt Grill and Sky Bar, and Salt Tapas and Bar.
– Hugh Daniel is a British expat who has lived in Australia for nine years, more recently with his girlfriend Larissa in Sydney.
– Liz McCabe is from Bellingen, Australia, and has lived in Singapore for one year with her husband Craig and children Bonnie and Isaac.
– Mark Laming is a Melbournian chef living in Singapore. He works for Singapore Airport Terminal Services, which looks after in-flight catering at Changi Airport.
– Justine Gayer, originally from the Blue Mountains, has been living in Singapore for three years with her husband and son. She works as a scientific programmes (nutrition) communications manager at an NGO.
– Mel Cassidy is an Australian mum with a 16-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son, and runs the Singapore arm of Bloom n Fit fitness club.
– Juliet Keys is a British expat who lives in Singapore with her Australian husband and their daughter. She works in Human Resources.
What are your Aussie favourites when eating out and dining in?
LUKE: I love a piece of grilled fish like a snapper or barramundi with some simple sides such as green beans or steamed asparagus, along with a glass of chilled Australian chardonnay. At home, it would be anything on the barbecue: a nice piece of Australian beef or butterflied lamb with chargrilled veggies, or barbecue prawns and a mango salsa. Australia has the perfect climate for cooking and entertaining outdoors.
KYLIE: In a restaurant, it’s got to be fresh, fantastic seafood: bugs, prawns, lobster –Australia’s fresh seafood is the best. To cook at home, though, it would be a good old slow-roasted leg of lamb.
HUGH: I’d never had bugs until I moved to Australia; though they look prehistoric, they taste like crab or lobster and are well worth it. Kangaroo isn’t bad either.
LIZ: I love seafood in Australia, particularly oysters au natural from the mid-coast of New South Wales. I also like food with indigenous flavours like pepperberry and lemon myrtle. My favourite Australian dish to cook at home is not really a meal but a conserve, Davidson plum jam. And I don’t actually make it, Mum does!
MARK: If I’m in a restaurant, it’s not so much an Australian dish I would order, but rather fresh and in-season ingredients. Items such as King George whiting, West Australian marron (crayfish) and rabbit will always catch my eye, and I always bake a pavlova at home for special occasions.
JUSTINE: As good quality Australian beef and lamb is comparatively expensive here, I like ordering it at restaurants where a professional can cook it to perfection. At home, we love to have a traditional Aussie barbie with marinated steaks, sausages and sometimes seafood.
MEL: I’d order a barramundi grilled with mash, and I’d make an Aussie burger with beetroot, bacon, egg, cheese and caramelised onions.
What does Australian food mean to you?
LUKE: It’s all about fresh ingredients with fresh flavours that are cooked and prepared simply, showcasing the best of Australia’s produce and letting it be the star of the dish, not overcomplicating things. It’s about barbecues, dining outdoors, fresh seafood with Australian wines and also embracing and experimenting with different food cultures and flavours.
KYLIE: It’s a real blend – from fresh farm and sea produce straight to the plate, to a real fusion now of Australian flavours with great new cultural influences such as Asian, Greek, Italian and Lebanese.
HUGH: To me, it’s international cuisine made with very high quality local ingredients.
LIZ: I think Aussie food can either mean food using indigenous ingredients, or it could describe the fusion of Asian and European food that has become common in Australian households and eateries.
MEL: I would say it’s essentially British, but with a twist (and probably better!), like beef sausages rather than pork, and Vegemite rather than Marmite.
JUSTINE: I often use the term “nostalgia food”: the foods that remind me of growing up in Australia, such as Vegemite on toast, Weetbix, Arnotts biscuits, lamingtons, pavlova, sausage rolls and meat pies, fairy bread and pikelets.
What’s the best city in Australia for food?
LUKE: I think Sydney and Melbourne would have to be my favourite cities to eat in. Sydney for its climate and outdoor dining options and Melbourne for its eclectic dining scene and embracing so many different food cultures.
KYLIE: I think Adelaide, or actually the Barossa, for the fresh organic food, the wine (oh the wine!), and the great restaurants.
HUGH: I’d have to say Sydney because I live here and don’t really know enough about the others to give judgement. I will say, however, that having a bad meal anywhere in Australia is such a rarity that it tends to stand out.
LIZ: Melbourne, especially for breakfasts and great coffee. Bellingen is pretty good too for a small country town, because of the abundance of locally grown, organic produce.
What Australian food can’t you go a week without?
LUKE: Fresh figs when they’re in season. They’re so versatile. You can eat them on their own, toss them through a salad with blue cheese and prosciutto, grill them with ice cream or serve them on a cheese platter. For cooking, it would be the Murray River pink salt and fresh Australian herbs that go into all my meals.
KYLIE: Definitely Vegemite, lamb, Aussie sausages and bacon.
LIZ: I hate to be unoriginal, but it’s got to be Vegemite toast for breakfast.
MARK: Maybe not quite every week, but a good Aussie hamburger. The bun should be toasted and buttered. Apart from the beef it must include iceberg lettuce, tomato, onion, fried egg, bacon, a ring of pineapple and beetroot. For authenticity, the pineapple and beetroot are the canned variety. To achieve the best results, the beetroot should be Australian.
JUSTINE: I can’t go a week without Weetbix; it’s a family staple. My seven-year-old could happily eat it every day, just like I used to when I was his age.
JULIET: None for me, but my daughter insists on roast lamb every Sunday.
Which Australian restaurants, bars or cafés do you rate here?
LUKE: I recently dined at Australian chef David Pynt’s Burnt Ends restaurant, which was a great experience and is a new concept for Singapore’s dining scene. David has perfected the art of barbecuing with his custom-built four-ton ovens; it’s all counter-top dining with an open kitchen, so you can watch the chefs smoking and grilling right in front of you.
KYLIE: Salt is great, and there’s Boomarang, which is best when there’s a game on that draws a crowd and an atmosphere.
JUSTINE: Boomarang for its delicious “big brekkie”, family-friendly atmosphere and live telecast Aussie sport; Toby’s Estate, Cafe Brunetti and Common Man Coffee Roasters for truly understanding the concept of a “strong flat white”; Jones the Grocer for drool-worthy gourmet big breakfasts and fabulous coffee.
MEL: Jones the Grocer for the best coffee and a good breakfast.
JULIET: I like South Coast at Marina Bay. It’s a very casual, 70s-inspired deco bar, which is good for a casual brunch at the weekend after a bike ride from the East Coast. They have a good breakfast menu and some great hangover juice blends such as the liver cleanse. Also, the kids can scoot up and down outside.
Any other Aussie food quirks we should know about?
LUKE: There are Aussie food icons like the Chiko Roll, made predominately from cabbage and very popular at milk bars and fish shops back in the 1980s. Then there are “scrolls” – cheese and Vegemite sandwiches.
KYLIE: The Jaffle; it’s basically a toasted sandwich that is sealed by the Jaffle (or Breville) maker. We usually fill the sandwiches with baked beans and cheese, creamed corn, ham and cheese or leftover spaghetti bolognaise; they were our easy dinner nights. Christmas in Australia is more focused on seafood, ham, chicken, salads and pavs (pavlovas); roast turkey is not Australian.
MEL: A damper is bread cooked in a fire pit and traditionally eaten with butter and golden syrup, but these days people make a hole in the middle and fill it with cheesy dip. Every movie theatre sells Choc Tops, an ice cream in a cone with a hard chocolate top.
Warren Fahey writes in his book Tucker Track: the Curious History of Food in Australia: “For some reason the idea of hamburger wrapping stained by beetroot juice was accepted as the sign of a great hamburger. People get quite emotional over the subject of Australian hamburgers. Some say a real hamburger must have slices of canned beetroot and others still declare its inclusion as a travesty.” Purists insist on tinned beetroot for its earthy, briny flavour, but whatever way it’s prepped (shredded, grated, sliced) an Aussie burger isn’t an Aussie burger without beetroot, apparently. | 2019-04-21T01:17:43Z | https://expatliving.sg/all-about-australian-food-aussie-readers-on-all-need-to-know-and-more/ |
Previous: Chapter IX. Auntie Sue's Proposition.
Chapter X. Brian Kent Decides.
Brian had walked along the river-bank below the house to a spot just above the point where the high bluff jutting out into the river-channel forms Elbow Rock.
The bank here is not so high above the roaring waters of the rapids, for the spur of the mountain which forms the cliff lies at a right angle to the river, and the greater part of the cliff is thus on the shore, with its height growing less and less as it merges into the main slope of the mountain-side. From the turn in the road, in front of the house, a footpath leads down the bank of the river to the cliff, and, climbing stairlike up the face of the steep bluff, zigzags down the easier slope of the down-river side, to come again into the road below. The road itself, below Elbow Rock, is forced by the steep side of the mountain-spur and the precipitous bluff to turn inland from the river, and so, climbing by an easier grade up past Tom Warden's place, crosses the ridge above the schoolhouse, and comes back down the mountain again in front of Auntie Sue's place, to its general course along the stream. The little path forms thus a convenient short cut for any one following the river road on foot.
Brian, seated on the river-bank a little way from the path where it starts up the bluff, was trying to decide whether it would be better for him to follow his desire and stay with Auntie Sue for a few weeks or months, or whether he should not, in spite of the land he might clear for her, return to the world where he could more quickly earn the money to pay back that which he had stolen.
And as he sat there, the man was conscious that he had reached one of those turning-points that are found in every life where results, momentous and far-reaching, are dependent upon comparatively unimportant and temporary issues. He could not have told why, and yet he felt a certainty that, for him, two widely separated futures were dependent upon his choice. Nor could he, by thinking, discover what those futures held for him, nor which he should choose. Even as his boat that night had hung on the edge of the eddy,--hesitating on the dividing-line between the two currents,--so the man himself now felt the pull of his life-currents, and hesitated,--undecided.
Looking toward the house, he thought how like the life offered by Auntie Sue was to the quiet waters of The Bend, and--his mind finished the simile--how like the life to which he would go was to the rapids at Elbow Rock; and, yet, he reflected, the waters could never reach the sea without enduring the turmoil of the rapids. And, again, the thought came, "The Bend is just as much the river as the troubled passage around the rock."
When he had given up life, and, to all intent and purpose, had left life behind him, the river, without his will or knowledge, had mysteriously elected to save him from the death he had chosen as his only refuge from the utter ruin that had seemed so inevitable. As the currents of the river had carried his boat to the eddy at the foot of Auntie Sue's garden, the currents of life had mysteriously brought him to the saving influence of Auntie Sue herself. Should he push out again into the stream to face the danger he knew beset such a course? or should he wait for a season in the secure calm of the harbor she offered until he were stronger? Brian Kent knew, instinctively, that there was in the wisdom and love of Auntie Sue's philosophy and faith a strength that would, if he could make it his, insure his safe passage through every danger of life, and yet--The man's meditations were interrupted by a chance look toward the bluff which towered above him.
Judy was climbing the steep trail.
Curiously, Brian watched the deformed mountain girl as she made her way up the narrow, stairlike path, and her cutting words came back to him: "God-A'mighty and my drunken pap made me like I am. But you,--damn you!--you made yourself what you be." And Auntie Sue had said that the all-important thing in life was not to DO something, but to BE something.
The girl, who had gained a point halfway to the top of the bluff, paused to look searchingly about, and Brian, who was half-hidden by the bushes, started to call to her, thinking she might be looking for him; but some impulse checked him and he remained silently watching her. Climbing hurriedly a little higher up the path Judy again stopped to look carefully around, as if searching the vicinity for some one. Then, once more, she went on until she stood on top of the cliff; and now, as she looked about over the surrounding country, she called: "Mr. Burns! Oh, Mr. Burns! Who-o-e-e! Mr. Burns!"
Brian's lips were parted to answer the call when something happened on top of the bluff which held him for the moment speechless.
From beyond where Judy stood on the brink of the cliff, a man's head and shoulders appeared. Brian saw the girl start and turn to face the newcomer as if in sudden fear. Then she whirled about to run. Before she could gain the point where the path starts down from the top, the man caught her and dragged her roughly back, so that the two disappeared from Brian's sight. Brian was halfway up the bluff when he heard the girl's shrill scream.
There was no sign of weakness, now, in the man that Judy had dragged from the river. He covered the remaining distance to the top in a breath. From among the bushes, a little way down the mountainside, came the sound of an angry voice mingled with Judy's pleading cries.
An instant more, and Brian reached the spot where poor Judy was crouching on the ground, begging the brute, who stood over her with menacing fists, not to hit her again.
The man was a vicious-looking creature, dressed in the rough garb of the mountaineer; dirty and unkempt, with evil, close-set eyes, and a scraggly beard that could not hide the wicked, snarling mouth.
He stood for a second looking at Brian, as if too surprised by the latter's sudden appearance to move; then he went down, felled by as clean a knockout as was ever delivered by an Irish fist.
"Are you hurt, Judy?" demanded Brian, as he lifted the girl to her feet. "Did he strike you?"
"He was sure a-fixin' ter lick me somethin' awful when you-all put in," returned the poor girl, trembling with fear. "I know, 'cause he's done hit to me heaps er times before. He's my pap."
Judy nodded;--then screamed: "Look out! He'll git you, sure!"
Judy's rescuer whirled, to see the man on the ground drawing a gun. A vigorous, well-directed kick, delivered in the nick of time, sent the gun whirling away into the bushes and rendered the native's right arm useless.
The man rose to his feet, and stood nursing his damaged wrist and scowling at Judy's companion.
"Are you this girl's father?"
"I reckon I am," came the sullen reply. "I'm Jap Taylor, an' you-all are sure goin' to find that you can't come between a man an' his lawful child in these here mountains, mister,--if you-all be from the city."
"And you will find that you can't strike a crippled girl in my presence, even if she is your daughter,--in these mountains or anywhere else," retorted Brian. "What are you trying to do with her, anyway?"
"I aim ter take her back home with me, where she belongs."
"Well, why didn't you go to the house for her like a man, instead of jumping on her out here in the woods!"
"Hit ain't none of your dad burned business as I can see," came the sullen reply.
"I am making it my business, just the same," returned Brian.
He turned to the girl, who had drawn back a little behind him. "Judy," he said, kindly, "I think perhaps you better tell me about this."
"Pap, he was a-layin' for me in the bresh 'cause he dassn't come to the house ter git me," said the girl, fearfully.
"But, why does he fear to come to the house?" persisted Brian.
"'Cause he done give me ter Auntie Sue."
"Gave you to Auntie Sue?" repeated the puzzled Brian.
Jap Taylor interrupted with, "I didn't sign ary paper, an'--"
"Shut up, you!" snapped Brian. "Go on, Judy."
"Hit was a year last corn-plantin'," explained the girl. "My maw, she died. He used ter whip her, too. An' Auntie Sue was there helpin' weuns; an' Tom Warden an' some other folks they was there, too; an' they done fixed hit so that I was ter go an' live with Auntie Sue; an' pap, he give me ter her. He sure did, Mr. Burns, an' I ain't a-wantin' ter go with him, no more."
The poor girl's shrill monotone broke, and her twisted body shook with her sobs.
"I didn't sign ary paper," repeated Judy's father, with sullen stubbornness. "An' what's more, I sure ain't a-goin' ter. I 'lows as how she'll just go home an' work for me, like she ort, 'stead of livin' with that there old-maid schoolma'am. I'm her paw, I am, an' I reckon I got rights."
He started toward the girl, who drew closer to Brian, and begged piteously: "Don't let him tech me! 'Fore God, Mr. Burns, he'll kill me, sure!"
Brian drew the girl behind him as he faced the father with a brief, "Get out!"
Brian went one step toward him: "Do you hear? Get out! And if you ever show your dirty face in this vicinity again, I'll not leave a whole bone in your worthless carcass!"
And Jap Taylor saw something in those Irish blue eyes that caused him to start off down the mountain toward the river below Elbow Rock.
When he had placed a safe distance between himself and the man who appeared so willing and able to make good his threat, Judy's father turned, and, shaking his uninjured fist at Brian, delivered a volley of curses, with: "I'll sure git you-all for this! Jap Taylor ain't a-lettin' no man come between him an' his'n. I'll fix you, an' I'll fix that there schoolma'am, too! She's nothin' but a damned old--"
But Brian started toward him, and Jap Taylor beat a hasty retreat.
"Never mind, Judy," said Brian, when the native had disappeared in the brush and timber that covered the steep mountain-side. "I'll not let him touch you. Come, let us sit down and talk a little until you are yourself again. Auntie Sue must not see you like this. We don't want to let her know anything about it. You won't tell her, will you?"
"I ain't aimin' ter tell nobody," said Judy, between sobs. "I sure ain't a-wantin' ter make no trouble,--not for Auntie Sue, nohow. She's been powerful good ter me."
When they were seated on convenient rocks at the brink of the cliff overlooking the river, Judy gradually ceased crying, and presently said, in her normal, querulous monotone: "Did you-all mind what pap 'lowed he'd do ter Auntie Sue, Mr. Burns?"
"Yes, Judy; but don't worry, child. He is not going to harm any one while I am around."
"You-all are aimin' ter stay then, be you? I'm sure powerful glad," said Judy, simply.
Brian started. A new factor had suddenly been injected into his problem.
"I was powerful scared you-all was aimin' ter go away," continued Judy. "Hit was that I was a-huntin' you-all to tell you 'bout, when pap he ketched me."
"What were you going to tell me, Judy?"
"I 'lowed ter tell you-all 'bout Auntie Sue. She'd sure be powerful mad if she know'd I'd said anythin' ter you, but she's a-needin' somebody like you ter help her, mighty bad. She--she's done lost a heap of money, lately: hit was some she sent--"
Brian interrupted: "Wait a minute, Judy. You must not tell me anything about Auntie Sue's private affairs; you must not tell any one. Anything she wants me to know, she will tell me. Do you understand?" he finished with a reassuring smile.
"Yes, sir; I reckon you-all are 'bout right, an' I won't tell nobody nothin'. But 'tain't a-goin' ter hurt none ter say as how you-all ort ter stay, I reckon."
"And why do you think I ought to stay, Judy?"
"'Cause of what Auntie Sue's done for you-all,--a-nursin' you when you was plumb crazy an' plumb dangerous from licker, an' a lyin' like she did ter the Sheriff an' that there deteckertive man," returned Judy stoutly; "an' 'cause she's so old an' is a-needin' you-all ter help her; an' 'cause she is a-lovin' you like she does, an' is a-wantin' you-all ter stay so bad hit's mighty nigh a-makin' her plumb sick."
Brian Kent did not answer. The mountain girl's words had revealed to him the selfishness of his own consideration of his problem so clearly that he was stunned. Why had he not, in his thinking, remembered the dear old gentlewoman who had saved him from a shameful death?
Judy went on: "Hit looks ter me like somebody just naturally's got ter take care of Auntie Sue, Mr. Burns. All her whole life she's a-been takin' care of everybody just like she tuck me, an' just like she tuck you-all, besides a heap of other ways; an' now she's so old and mighty nigh plumb wore out, hit sure looks like hit was time somebody was a-fixin' ter do somethin' for her. That was what I was a-huntin' you-all ter tell you when pap ketched me, Mr. Burns."
"I am glad you told me, Judy;--very glad. You see, I was not thinking of things in just that way."
"I 'lowed maybe you mightn't. Seems like folks mostly don't."
"But it's all right, now!" Brian cried heartily. "You have settled it. I'll stay. We'll take care of Auntie Sue,--you and I, Judy. Come on, now; let's go to the house, and tell her. But we won't say anything about your father, Judy;--that would only make her unhappy; and we must never make Auntie Sue unhappy--never." He was as eager and enthusiastic, now, as a schoolboy.
"'Course," said Judy, solemnly; "'course you just naturally got ter stay an' take care of her now, after what pap's done said he'd do."
"Yes, Judy; I've just naturally got to stay," returned Brian.
Together they went down the steep cliff trail and to the little log house by the river to announce Brian's decision to Auntie Sue. They found the dear old lady in her favorite spot on the porch overlooking the river.
"Why, of course you will stay," she returned, when Brian had told her. "The river brought you to me, and you know, my dear boy, the river is never wrong. Oh, yes, I know there are cross-currents and crooked spots and sand-bars and rocks and lots of places where it SEEMS to us to be wrong. But, just the same, it all goes on, all the time, toward the sea for which it starts when it first begins at some little spring away over there somewhere in the mountains. Of course you will stay with me, Brian,--until the river carries you on again." | 2019-04-19T02:58:01Z | http://www.classicreader.com/book/3752/11/ |
We came back from Paros on the Artemis. It chugged its way into Ermoupolis just after midnight on Sunday. I couldn’t have been happier – not because we were back in Syros, but I was just happy and thankful to be able to head off on little adventures like that. The boat was quiet and we spent the time on deck watching what must have been a fishing fleet out in a circle formation. It was spooky as we were just able to make out the mast lights, intermittent red and green flashes in the inky darkness of the sea. We just had two nights to explore Pariaka, the islands main town and felt like we crammed a lot in. It was busy and nice to be among so many tourists. We did lots of people watching and idling time in cafe’s hearing voices from around the world, including a lot of young English backpackers as well. On the recommendation of the apartment owner, we went to Pete’s Place on Krios beach on Sunday. I swam in the turquoise sea and found a wallet sinking underwater into the rocks. Luckily it didn’t take much of my detective skills to deduce it belonged to the panicked man going through his belongings on the sand. He looked bemused when I strode over to return the dripping wallet. ut he was thankful to have it safely returned. I like Paros, it’s a nice island with lots to see, and has some great restaurants and beaches, don’t miss the Panaya of Ekatontapilian – the Byzantine church. And if you are wearing shorts like me you too get to borrow a tartan wrap skirt to preserve your modesty and respect the place of worship. Plus, it kept me nice and toasty in the 30c heat! Although don’t make the same mistake of walking out to the Asclepeion – the Sanctuary of Pythian Apollo on the other side of town, as the site is all cordoned off due to falling rocks. But we did instead get a nice swim at little beach and a tasty lunch instead.
It’s been a funny few days this week. It isn’t all stand up paddleboarding, gardening and dream making here – in between work and play, there has been a lot of thinking. It seems to be that worry befriends you in moments of weakness and makes a mockery of each silly and happy thought. I was struggling this morning so I went swimming. I ended up swimming a full length of the bay in front crawl. That doesn’t sound like much but it was to me. Front crawl is my arch-nemesis, I have struggled to master it for years. The trick is in breathing and matching your strokes, with a head turn to ‘sight’ the shore. Today I followed the curved lines mapped out in the sand underwater by waves and the rituals of ocean floor creatures. Through shoals of small silvery fish. Each breath expelling tiny bubbles. My arms gathering strength as they ploughed through the waves. I felt much better. If everyone went for a swim everyday, I am convinced we’d all be happier, healthier and in harmony.
I think my anti-waste mentality has exaggerated recently – ‘must not let things go uneaten’ I repeated like a mantra baking plum cakes and apricot loaves. Boiling up jars of apricot preserve will last for months. And if life (or a kind landlord) gives you courgettes; roast them, grate them, stuff them and even make cakes with them! Although not all is rosy in the garden plot; the tomatoes are proving tricky – blossom end rot has hit some of my crops, possibly water related or perhaps a fungus? Either way there might be a sad struggle to get some decent fruits this year. I walked back from the field my heart and head were full of doom about the tomatoes. Then I stopped.
It was early, a morning like any other with the sun just peeking over the hills in the East and started inching its rays through the valley. Soon it would be hot. But now there was a cool damp stillness in the air. I listened to the breeze blowing through olive tree branches and traced the hum of a motorcycle passing a curve on the road miles away.
My fixation on the tomatoes unjust fate was unworthy of such attention. So what if each tomato rotted from the inside, slowly turning from green to brown and withering on the vine. It was something I couldn’t control or change, or worry about. I don’t need the tomatoes to feed me, I don’t sell them for income. If I was simply annoyed that my energy and patience was being wasted on something frivolous and unfruitful. Yet, it only took a moment to look upwards and take in where I was to remind myself that this was it all. Under a blue sky sits mountains and rocks which will outlive me and all my worries. If this is the worst thing that can happen to me today, I am the luckiest person alive. Acceptance that harvests will fail, change will happen and not everything can be saved and stored away. It isn’t the simple fact of life but a way of giving into a life of simplicity.
Like anyone I keep googling and looking at my phone for answers – brains turning to mush as we flit from one distraction to the next. There lies a tale of tragic modernity. There is no greater waste than looking for purpose or meaning where none exists. I don’t want notifications and gratification of my worth – I scroll through Linkedin or instagram it makes me feel lost – not connected. I don’t know what my next step is (guess what, that’s okay!) and feel a need to return to the surface of things. Sometimes the surface of things begins where you least expect it.
I’m not a massive fan of pancakes – but maybe you’ll find me singing in my kitchen baking cakes.
At dusk the tzitzikas will start singing- their presence marks the high heat of the months ahead. It is just a week before midsummer stretches out the daylight hours into evening’s orange glow. In the midst of every day is life. It is not just in adventures and wild ambition. It is nestled between the door that slams in an unexpected gust and the fridges that hum and click. The cockerels that wake up and commence crowing at 2am. It is in the clocks that tick and the angry silent face of time passing us by. Life is in as much of these daily rituals as it is in the moments of joy and wondrous awe we seek. It is also in the hours we let ourselves get drawn into worry and pain. I’m learning to let each one go.
Christmas is spent with ghosts.
Just like the three ghosts that visit Ebenezer Scrooge (or Frank Cross, played by Bill Murray in my favourite version, Scrooged), the phantoms of our past, present and future haunt us every year. I am not alone in thinking more about the big things in the days after the frivolity of Christmas while awaiting the shiny promise of a New Year.
If Christmas is for nostalgia, the Ghost of Christmas Past has been and gone by the 29th December, discarded like the turkey bones thrown into the food recycling bin. If you’re lucky to not be back in work this week it is like a no-man’s land, some call it ‘Twixt-mas’ or the in-between days before NYE’s fizz. We sit and watch repeats on the telly, internet shop and wonder what the future will hold. These days are prime hunting ground for the Ghost of Christmas Present, who asks questions about here and now, waiting the future to knock at the door as the clock strikes midnight onto 2018.
Every year I feel berated by the grace of John Lennon’s lyrics; “Its Christmas time and what have you done, another year older, a new one’s just begun”. I can’t help feeling he’s pointing accusations when I hear it. Yes, compared to a member of the Beatles, my life has been quiet from one year to the next. But I think it is fair to say 2017 has been a myriad of adventure between the UK and Greece – one which has given me a lot to be thankful for.
Action: Things are learnt by action not by indecision. If I kept waiting for the right time – a momentary bliss when the earth aligned on its axis, the moon was cradled softly by a cloud in an open sky and there were no distractions, no moments in which my mind would wander and fill with the voices and dreams of other lifetimes. How long would I wait? Now is the time. Postponement is not a state to relish.
Sunsets: by realising that sunsets are just an illusion of the end of the day as the world continues on round its path, I did not feel cheated. Instead I felt wonderfully relived, that these were not endings but merely intervals like curtains being drawn over one day to the next, they only had meaning when we see them collectively and gave power to them. 2017 was a year of many sunsets, so many beautiful minutes of silence as the earth spun slowly round into the magic of the blue hour where the fading echo of the sun’s light turns the scene sepia gold before turning away into darkness again. To witness this repetition is be sure of nature’s true hold of time.
Language: I am still a beginner at Greek and need way more practice with the language. If I believed in resolutions for 2018, this would be high on the list. Instead I just believe in giving it a go.
Sunrises: also pretty special to witness. Nothing can beat that feeling of excitement holding cups of coffee to keep our hands warm on the deck of the Blue Star Ferry in early April, watching a dawn rising up from the horizon of port buildings in Piraeus with no idea what would happen when we arrived on Syros. Reflecting against the jumbled architecture of Athens port, orange and pink light reflecting off silvery towerscapes and crumbling warehouses, we looked outwards and held expectations against the unknown, fears and hope, not realising the possibilities those months ahead would reveal.
Cats: when a little black and white long-haired furball with a mottle tail and one eye permanently dilated, turned up at the house in Greece, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It became obvious had moved into its territory and it eyed us up for a few days…slinking from one side of the terrace to the other, nose in the air and sniffing. Eventually she came closer, growing trustful when we responded with saucers of water at first, then later titbit snacks she would devour with her snaggled tooth grin. She sidled up to us and purred, played with string and sticks. I think wherever she is now, she is still a little rebel-rebel like Bowie her namesake.
Books: I have cherished the time alone this year with just a book. Some have moved me to tears, made me angry, hopeful and even disappointed – an act that felt voracious and needy, hungrily devouring their pages. It felt like a good year to a be a reader. I meandered through a range of fiction, biography, history, philosophy and poetry – losing count of numbers, but feel enriched and privileged by the worlds I have peeked into. I have already started hastily compiling a list for 2018. Please send me your recommendations!
Writing: sometimes you come to the page with an intention, a fully-fledged idea and other times I come unstuck with just a few words, allow them to form and take you away. Anything can happen here. Practice, explore, mess around with structure – I am happiest doing this, easing off the pressure. Fight the will to compare or mediate or suffocate the process. Just let it flow. Anything creative with words will be a long battle.
Noise: To take yourself away from the noise, not just the ever-present hum and whirr of traffic, over-crowded cities, distracted by the cacophony of digital attention and the rich/poor, left/right, good/evil, fake/true paradox that entrenches indifference. 2017 was filled with heartache, etched by news that broke at such speed and changed direction from despair to joy in seconds. Most of us prefer to keep up rather than check out – the competitiveness of being busy and misappropriation of information as wisdom. The only thing I needed in this year was to slow down and stop being afraid of what happens away from the noise. The internal noise of my own brain hasn’t yet shut up, chattering over long held beliefs and holding the stick of other people’s success up like a marker. But it is quietening down and allowing me to focus. I now like the sound of a ticking clock, the fierce meltemi wind, the sea waves crashing in a storm and the song of cicadas. This alone won’t solve much in the world but it allows me to think and process what I can do.
Fear: I held so much anxiety inside me in the UK I didn’t recognise another sensation when I wandered round grinning ear to ear, walking over hills scattered with spring flowers and being on the verge of tears of what felt like happiness. The weight of fear and worry is mostly based on imagined threats. By taking away those tiny small stresses that pile up to a mountains, I found myself standing differently, shoulders hang freely and hands that don’t fidget. I found it took me a while to ease into the blankness of living without them. I mean blankness as the only way to describe the feeling when the heaviness goes away and the catastrophe of worry subsides. I will save my worry for things I can change.
Family (and friends): the time I have had with them this year has been up and down, but filled with stories and laughter. The annual Christmas journey from Kings Cross has been done countless times with my backpack, balancing presents and cake tins on my lap on an overcrowded train. The same ritual since I was 21 is still being recreated year after year, a return to a home-town that you no longer know but all is still familiar and steeped in memory. Family waiting by the door, food stock piled, the aging Advocaat bottle in the drinks cabinet, the sprout jokes and plastic After Eight chocolate (apart from that one year it went ‘missing’?). This time of fervent celebration is shaped by nostalgia, that busy time when you try to see everyone, give presents and have long talks over bottles of wine. Amidst the calm currents, loneliness and grief bubble up to surface of our lives. I am thankful for their health, happiness, support and most of all…jokes.
When the clock strikes midnight and we collectively look towards a New Year wrapped up in possibility with its promise of newness, reinvention and satisfaction. I for one will be looking outward thinking about how I can do more in 2018 and keep the Ghosts at bay. | 2019-04-24T00:52:32Z | http://inthegreekgarden.com/tag/meditation/ |
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There is one thing I’ve always appreciated about Olympus cameras: they rarely leave you feeling indifferent. It’s not necessarily due to a specific feature or specification but rather a balanced mix of interesting capabilities and a design that delivers a pleasant user experience without sacrificing beauty. All this helps to create a positive feeling between the photographer and the machine.
The Pen F is the latest example and one of the best: a camera that, whilst not perfect, is packed with many advanced features and has the most beautiful design achieved by the company so far.
Instead of replacing the other Pen models, the Pen F is positioned above them, making it the flagship camera. Its design is inspired by the original Pen F film camera, an interchangeable-lens system released in 1963.
The Pen F is the first Digital Pen camera to have a built-in viewfinder and includes some of the latest specifications and functions you can find on advanced OM-D models. It is the first Olympus camera to house the new 20MP sensor. I first saw it in January at the press event but it took me some time to finish my complete review.
The Pen F is a camera that surprised me: the things I now like the most were actually those I was ready to give a “thumbs down” at the beginning.
11 Conclusion: is it an expensive camera?
Note: rather than listing all my findings in the traditional way, I’m testing a new format for our review articles where I start from what I like the most to what I like the least. Let me know if you like it or if you prefer the default structure of our other reviews.
The design of the Pen F shows a precise attention to detail. One of them created some controversy at the beginning: the front dial (otherwise known as the Creative Dial) is a physical declaration of Olympus’ intention to push their colour, monochrome and artistic picture profiles. You can quickly access creative effects such as Art Filters, Colour Creator and the two new creative profiles. To many people (including yours truly), it looked like a missed opportunity not to use the dial for more important settings like ISO or shutter speed.
Colour Creator was introduced with the E-M1 and allows you to change the saturation and hue of your images’ colours. I admit I never use it. The Art filters were introduced a long time ago and Olympus has developed new profiles since. Some of them are quite interesting while others are too drastic or cartoonish. Here again, I rarely use them.
This is probably why I was reluctant to try the new Colour and Monochrome Profiles that you can customise entirely on camera with the help of dials and buttons. At the same time, I didn’t like the idea of having such a nice dial and not using it so I decided to give these new profiles a chance and I’m very glad I did.
The Monochrome Control Panel on the LCD screen.
I won’t go in-depth about how to use them because I wrote a dedicated article about the Color and Monochrome profiles where you can find examples and descriptions of all the options. After producing the images for that specific article, I kept using these profiles and they became my favourite thing about the Pen F. Here are the reasons why.
First, the monochrome profile: Olympus made an effort not only to render beautiful black and white images with rich grey tones but they also did a good job with the film grain simulation.
In my humble opinion, the Pen F produces some of the best digital black and white images seen from a mirrorless camera. I compared them to other monochrome capable cameras and the Pen F wins mainly because it offers more customisation and because the results are simply beautiful. If you like black and white, this is a serious camera to consider.
Then we have the colour profiles: they are more difficult to use and require some trial and error at the beginning. But I like them because you can create you own personal colour profile that reflects your style of shooting, or a specific genre.
These new profiles personalise the camera for the photographer.
I also like the concept behind it: for once I don’t have to praise the megapixels, the huge number of AF points or the shooting speed. Olympus decided to put more effort into a basic yet very important aspect: the look of your image. I always praised Fujifilm cameras because of their film simulation modes: now I can do the same with the Pen F.
The only criticism I have, as mentioned in my dedicated article, is that I would like for the front dial to be customisable so that I can assign my custom profiles to it directly instead of having to go through the Super Control Panel (Quick menu) which adds an extra step to the operation.
It is easy to praise compactness when it comes to Micro Four Thirds gear but the Pen F is once again a nice reminder of this.
While using it with small and compact lenses such as the 17mm f/1.8 and the 75mm f/1.8, I admired how small this system can be and how much fun it is to carry around.
Because the Pen F’s viewfinder is on the left side and doesn’t stick out from the body, it is even easier to fit inside a jacket pocket or a small bag than an OM-D camera.
The Pen F and 17mm 1.8 can fit inside a jacket’s pocket.
The camera fits nicely in the hand, the rear thumb grip is comfortable and most of the dials and buttons can be reached easily.
There is a downside of this compactness however: with larger and heavier lenses, the camera can become uncomfortable to hold because it lacks a substantial grip on the front.
The 12-40mm Pro lens is a good example of the limit due to size and weight.
There is an optional grip (ECG‑4) that can improve the ergonomics but it won’t be as effective as the grip of an OM-D E-M1 for example.
The level of customisation is good (9 custom buttons) and I appreciate the front button especially, which I use to re-position the focus point at the centre (Home Position).
You can configure the control pad on the rear to automatically move the focus point which I did. By doing so you lose 4 custom buttons but I find it easier to move the AF point that way.
The custom button on the front is my favourite. I use it to set the focus point in Home position.
The arrow pad can be set to move the AF point directly.
I also like the double function you can set to the two exposure dials. By default you use them to change the shutter speed and aperture. If you use the pre-assigned button on the arrow pad or configure a function button (in my case, Fn1) with the dedicated option, you can use the dials to change White Balance and ISO when that button is pressed. Pressing it a second time or half pressing the shutter release button will bring back the dial function to default.
Another nice addition is the possibility to save four custom shooting modes on the main dial. For example you can configure all your settings for action (C-AF, continuous shooting etc) to C1, all your favorite settings for landscape to C2, etc.
The mode dial has 4 custom options.
The double function of the dials allows you to change WB and ISO at a glance.
The build quality is excellent overall: there is no visible screws (even at the bottom) and the design team did a good job with the various buttons and dials. You really appreciate all the little details including the vintage On/Off switch.
The electronic viewfinder is excellent, large enough even when using glasses like I do. It has a good refresh rate, brightness and resolution. The lag time is fine especially when shooting action and fast moving subjects.
The LCD screen is touch sensitive and can be flipped to the side and rotated. Personally I would have preferred a solution that only tilts up and down, but I know other users appreciate the full articulation.
The LCD is fully articulated. Not my favorite solution on this camera but others will appreciate it.
The tripod plate mount is really close to the lens mount. With larger lenses (like the 12-40mm Pro) it can be uncomfortable: to remove the lens you have to detach the tripod plate. The optional grip is a solution as it has its own plate attachment at the centre.
I’ve never masked my appreciation for the 5-axis stabilisation system. The Pen F incorporates the same sensor shift mechanism found on the E-M5 mark II which is the most advanced designed by Olympus so far. It becomes the third camera to be compatible with Sync IS when using the Olympus 300mm f/4 Pro lens, although I doubt that it is a good fit for the smaller body of the Pen F.
Concerning stills, my best score is a hand-held shot taken at 2 seconds with a wide angle lens. It requires various attempts but the results are similar to the test I performed with the E-M5 II. With a telephoto lens, the best result was around 1/4s.
Note that you can set the IBIS to work in all directions, horizontally or vertically only (good for panning) or automatically depending on your settings.
The sensor stabilisation works for video too. With static shots, you can get an almost perfect result. When I used the M.Zuiko 60mm macro lens to record close-ups of butterflies, the stabilisation was less effective because of the short focus distance and magnification involved.
However, if you look at the macro footage and remind yourself it was done hand held, the results are quite impressive.
M-IS1 uses both the sensor and software stabilisation and is ideal for static shots. Note that the frame is cropped a little.
M-IS2 uses sensor shift only and it’s best when moving with the camera to avoid excessive jello and distortion (which won’t disappear completely because of rolling shutter).
with complex movements that also involve panning, it can cause some sudden shifts in the footage: an element or your subject will look as if it has quickly shifted to the left or right of your frame.
Distortion and jello effects can be present especially with wide angle lenses.
In some shots you can notice a discrepancy between what’s stabilised in front and behind which causes the background to look less stabilised than the subject or the foreground. It can happen especially when M-IS1 is selected because it adds software stabilisation too. I noticed a similar effect when using the Warp Stabiliser tool in Adobe Premiere Pro for example.
When I test extra functionalities on a camera I always try to figure out if I would use them in real life. Some of them found on the Pen F can make your work easier in specific situations.
The High Res shot was introduced on the E-M5 mark II. Thanks to the new 20MP sensor, you now get a 50MP JPG and 80MP RAW file (versus 40MP and 64MP on the E-M5 II).
The camera takes 8 shots and moves the sensor by half a pixel between each shot to collect more details from the photosites in different positions. The 8 shots are then merged to obtain the high resolution image. Because the pixels change their position 8 times, the camera also collects more colour data: each point on the image is captured by each of the blue, red and green pixels that make up the standard Bayer sensor.
Because the process is based on 8 consecutive shots, this mode is limited to tripod use and static subjects (still life is the best example). Moving subjects or elements will cause artefacts in the final result. For example, the image below looks fine at first glance but if we have a closer look at the water, we can notice several points and fine grids caused by the pixel shift.
Click to open the 80MP version.
Crop: you can notice the “grid” near the water.
Note: the maximum aperture available is f/8, the max. shutter speed is 8s and the max ISO is 1600 when using the High Res Shot.
To activate them, you simply rotate the shutter speed dial toward the slower speeds until you reach Live Time and Live composite.
Live Time allows you to take long exposures with a live preview on the LCD screen. This is helpful to see how the exposure is coming along and when to stop it. For example you can keep the histogram activate on the display and stop it when you’re about to clip the highlights. There is also an option (Menu E/Live Time) to choose the interval in which you want the live view to refresh. For example if you set 4s, the live view will update every 4 seconds.
Live composite allows you to do composite in camera with star trails, fireworks, light painting and other similar ideas. The camera records new exposures but saves the brighter pixels only. You set your aperture and the exposure time per image, then you press the shutter button once to enter in preview mode and a second time to start the composite.
Focus bracketing is another excellent example of a useful feature. In this case it can make macro photographers’s life easier by taking a series of shots automatically while changing the focus distance. The process is very quick because you don’t have to do it manually. The camera takes the burst at 11fps using the electronic shutter. Unfortunately it doesn’t do stacking in camera so you will need to stack the images with a separate software on your computer.
Focus bracketing was reviewed in-depth by Heather when the E-M10 mark II came out so I advise you to look at her article if you want to find out more.
Electronic shutter: it allows for silent shooting and fast shutter speeds up to 1/16000s. Beware that it produces rolling shutter when panning or when fast moving subjects are inside the frame.
Anti-shock shutter: it uses an electronic first curtain to minimise shutter shock. It also helps when shooting at slow shutter speeds hand-held with IBIS activated.
Time-lapse: you set the interval time between each shot and the number of shots you want to take (max. is 999). It can save individual RAW and JPG files but you also have the option of creating a movie file in 4K at 5fps, Full HD at 15fps and 720p at 30fps. The video frame rate in Full HD and 4K especially are too low unfortunately so the result won’t be fluid.
Bracketing modes: in addition to Focus, you can also use AE (up to 7 frames and 0.7Ev), White Balance, Flash (up to 3 frames and 1Ev), ISO (3 frames, 1 Ev) and Art filters (you can select as many you want).
HDR mode: similar to AE bracketing, but it also gives you the option of saving the result in JPG (2 versions available) or gives you more range up to 7 frames and 2 Ev of difference.
RC mode: allows you to control compatible flash units wirelessly (optical communication) with the supplied FL‑LM3 Flash.
Wifi: you can connect the camera to a mobile device to remotely control it or transfer JPG images (no RAW). You will need the Olympus OI.Share app (free) on iOS and Android devices.
When we hear about a new sensor, we tend to believe that there will be a concrete improvement in image quality. In this case, I admit I forgot that the camera had a new sensor after the first days of use.
My intention isn’t to sound negative but I thought it would be more interesting to separate this topic from the rest. I did some comparison shots with the E-M1 that has an almost three-year-old sensor and I haven’t found any concrete difference concerning the IQ. Actually at the extreme ISO value of 25600, the E-M1 retains better detail and it’s the only thing worth sharing really.
In low light, the Pen F gives you usable pictures up to 6400 ISO and in some situations I can accept even 12800 ISO. Only at 25600 does the noise become really invasive and the loss of detail important. Note that unless you need a faster shutter speed because of moving subjects, the 5-axis stabilisation can help a lot in keeping lower ISO values and capturing better quality in low light.
Click on the image to open the full set of high ISO images.
Overall the dynamic range is fine and the RAW files offer good flexibility if you need to heavily post process your image. However extreme highlight or shadow recovery won’t give you good results. In that case, AE or HDR bracketing is a good solution to work with more tonal range and avoid banding or colour artifacts.
The JPG engine is also excellent as shown in the Creative profile chapter and the default picture profiles have nice colour and contrast rendering too. This means there are little excuse to not achieve everything you need with this camera.
My conclusion is the same we came to about the Panasonic GX8, the other Micro Four Thirds camera to house the new 20MP sensor (you can find a specific comparison here). It doesn’t bring anything substantially new in comparison to the previous 16MP sensor. You get those extra 4MP which are welcome but in terms of dynamic range and low-light performance, I haven’t noticed anything worth sharing.
The reason I’m insisting here is because I think the new sensor is not the main factor that should influence your decision to buy the camera or not.
What you need to know is that it is good and perfectly in line with what Micro Four Thirds cameras can offer in present day, but the real strengths of the camera are what I described in the previous chapters.
I’ve read several complaints about the autofocus performance of the Pen F especially in Continous mode. The truth is that I don’t find it bad and I actually got very good results in a sports environment.
The Pen F has a contrast detection AF system with 81 points. The AF points can be selected individually (two sizes available), within a group of 9 points or in Multi mode where the camera picks the appropriate point automatically. I find the smallest single point for S-AF and the 9 target group area for C-AF the best options.
In Single AF, the performance is fine in all situations. It can slows down a little in low light but that is to be expected with a contrast detection system. The only problem, as with most Olympus cameras that use the same AF system, is that it can mis-focus if there are specular highlights in the background.
As I said above, the continuous AF performance is good too and gave me the same results I got with the E-M5 II and E-M10 II (same AF system). If we take a look at the marathon races I shot on two occasions, my average keeper rate was around 60%. This is not much worse than most Panasonic cameras and their DfD technology. The best performance is achieved with the 9-group target while the keeper rate diminishes with AF Tracking (below 50%).
A good example of a single burst: out of 19 images, 1 is slightly blurry (sepia) and 1 is out of focus (B&W).
Because of the contrast detection system, the camera can misfocus between one shot and another but most of the time it recovers fast (1 or 2 shots before it focuses correctly again). But you won’t experience perfectly consistent performance. The results can also vary depending on the colour of your subject versus the colour of the background and the light conditions (backlight can worsen the performance).
The bottom line is: the camera won’t cope with very fast subjects but it works fine for slow/medium subjects.
The continuous shooting speed is decent. In S-AF it can go as fast as 10fps or 11fps with the electronic shutter. For continuous AF, it is better to choose the low mode of 5fps, otherwise the focus will lock at the first frame. The Low mode gives you a live view with blackouts while the High mode shows you the last picture taken during the burst.
So, from my experience, the Pen F is not bad at all when it comes to autofocus and continuous shooting speed. However, I agree it could be better. I think that the time has come for the AF system of Olympus cameras to be taken to the next level. As I said earlier, there is a lot of competition and other brands (Sony, Fujifilm and Panasonic) are making interesting progress in that department. It’s not a real criticism but more of a word of encouragement.
Here I want to talk about certain aspects that I don’t find necessarily bad or unusable but that could definitely be improved. The video quality is the first that comes to my mind.
When you see what the competition is capable of offering today (Panasonic and Sony mainly), it is fair to say that Olympus is still lagging behind.
The company made some improvements to the E-M5 mark II and the Pen F inherits the same specifications.
You can shoot in Full HD up to 60fps. You have full manual control but you can’t change aperture or shutter speed while recording. The footage is fine but can lack some sharpness and you can also encounter moiré and aliasing. There is a slow motion mode that automatically conforms the 60fps footage to 24 or 25fps.
Movie clips: you can record short clips (up to 8s) that you can re-arrange and save as a unique file in camera.
Movie+Photo mode: you can choose between two options. The first won’t interrupt the recording and save a JPG at a lower resolution (8MP). The second will save a full resolution image (JPG) but stops the recording and resumes it after the shot is taken.
Shutter function: you can choose to record video by pressing the shutter release button or leave it to its default purpose if you want to take stills during movie recording.
The video quality as well as the features you can find on the camera are more than decent but won’t satisfy advanced video users or professionals. Personally I am not too bothered by this for the following reason: it makes it easier for people to decide which camera (or system) to buy. If you want better video capabilities, you can choose Panasonic, if you prefer advanced or unique still features, Olympus has lots to offer.
However I have another thought in my mind worth sharing: up until recently, Olympus had the advantage of the in-body stabilisation. While not perfect, it proves very effective in some situations when recording video.
Now the competition is catching up in the sensor stabilisation department and the new Panasonic GX80/85 especially is closing that gap.
In a market that is growing fast, it is also true that better video quality, better video features and perhaps also 4K is something worth considering if Olympus wants to remain competitive in every department.
Personally I am very familiar with Olympus cameras because I’ve used them for work in the past so naturally I know the menu system and interface very well. However if I put myself in the position of a new customer, there can be some confusion.
For example there is a hidden menu called Custom Menu. If you don’t activate it in the Setup Menu, you will miss out on some very important settings concerning image quality, autofocus, video, etc.
The Super Control Panel (Quick menu) that you activate with the OK button is useful but sometimes you have to scroll a lot to reach a specific setting (for example self timer). I wish they could divide things up a little more. Another example is the fact that you have to rotate the shutter speed dial a lot to activate the Live Composite instead of being able to access it more quickly with a custom button or in the Super Control Panel directly.
You will get used to it after a while and it is a very complete menu system. But I am sure Olympus can improve it on the next generation of cameras. Here again it’s more a word of encouragement.
The only thing that really disappointed me on this camera was the battery life: it drains very quickly.
A concrete example is the following: I spent an entire day taking pictures in various locations, starting from 11am to 9pm. By the time I was on the train heading back home, I was using my third battery with approximately 450 shots on my SD card. I didn’t record any video or shoot in continuous mode. So that gives you a precise idea of how the performance is. My advice is to have at least a second battery.
Another small thing Olympus could consider is the option of charging the battery via USB. It can be helpful to charge on the fly with a portable battery charger or via a laptop if you are in a hotel with limited wall sockets (which happens all the time!).
Conclusion: is it an expensive camera?
I hesitated a lot about where to put the price topic. This is another contentious topic surrounding the Pen F. The main problem is that the E-M5 mark II, that has a few extra benefits like complete weather-sealing and a larger EVF, is less expensive ($200 less). However, when it was released, the E-M5 II price was a little higher ($100) so the Pen F’s price could drop later on. I agree it isn’t cheap and it’s not the best deal you can find amongst Micro Four Thirds cameras but I do not find the price excessively expensive.
Is the Pen F worth the price? The answer to that question always depends on what you are looking for, but to me, it is.
The Pen F is a camera that delivers an excellent user experience and is packed with tons of features that allow you to do pretty much everything. The new profiles can make the camera more personal and they deliver the best black and white images I’ve seen from a digital camera.
The new sensor doesn’t bring any substantial improvements but the image quality is on par with the best you can find in the Micro Four Thirds realm. The autofocus performance is good, and the build quality and design are excellent. It’s a beautiful camera to own and to use especially with compact lenses.
Great photography features including High Res Shot, Focus bracketing, Live Composite etc.
Though it lacks concrete improvements, the sensor and the AF system deliver good performance.
Weather sealing would have made the build quality perfect. | 2019-04-22T22:10:19Z | https://www.mirrorlessons.com/2016/05/11/olympus-pen-f-review/ |
My theory on the N2 is that it's actually getting discontinued, because it is the slowest seller among the AvantGrands.
This is what my Yamaha dealer tells me -- the N2 will be discontinued, there will be no N2X. I have no reason to doubt him, for instance, he told me about the forthcoming N1X back in August, although he had several unsold N1 units in stock.
I switched back to the old version and that is working so I guess it’s that for a while until they fix the new one.
In the traditonal hand-made style of piano construction, the person tasked with construction of the soundboard is called a "bellyman". The name is derived from how the process creates a soundboard with an arched configuration. The board "bellies up".
Some rebuilders/manufacturers design a replacement soundboard by treating the structure more like a floor with the ribs curved by the milling process to help impart arch to the soundboard. Some rebuilders/manufacturers do not arch the ribs but glue the ribs only when the panel has been dried to a very low humidity. Some rebuilders/manufacturers use an arch shaped gluing caul to help impart the arch and some arch the bottom surface of the bridge to do the same. And some rebuilders/manufacturers shape the gluing surface of the rim to fit the crown in the board.
Thus there are many variables and standards common to the trade, and they can be mixed and matched so as to blur the distinction between fully compression-crowned and rib-crowned bellies.
The belly procedures at NY and Hamburg Steinway factories are not identical and have significant differences in the magnitude and proportion of the arching methods described above.
Thus one can see that there seems to be at least two styles of constructing an officially "authentic" Steinway.
Add to this that over time, both factories have evolved their belly procedure significantly. Thus a new NY board has significant differences from one made in 1900 or in 1950. Plus, each Bellyman has differing styles of making boards and they always have.
Testing to determine the signifigance of all these variables has never been done in a rigorous method. No one wants to spend that much money it seems.
I agree with Chris above where he opines that some diaphragmatic NY soundboards are too thinned in the treble for good endurance. I also share the opinion that not using a high enough proportion of compression crown available via the process is a mistake.
But there are so many other significant variables when you consider a rebuilt piano. Does the rebuilder understand the importance of shaping the V-bar to a true V-shape and that all agraffes need to have the string holes champfered to improve the string terminations? Is the rebuilder skilled enough in tone regulation to understand what components are in need of attention? Is the rebuilder skilled enough to see the "mistakes" in things like speaking length, striking point, string heights and tuning pin hole alignments in any given piano? Does the rebuilder understand that attempting to just "copy" what is there is impossible? That one must deduce the original design intent and use all the methods at hand to reimpose this design intent into a piano that carries "errors"?
No factory rebuild does this detail of work because no factory makes new pianos where these details are properly established.
Then does the rebuilder understand that some original design weaknesses can be solved or mitigated by applying new technology such as my Patented Fully Tempered Duplex Scale? Does the rebuilder understand how to make a "Hybrid Wire Scale"?
These are the things that can bring a rebuilt piano to a better than new state.
I do suggest you audition the pianos of any rebuilder you are considering to ascertain whether the skills are there in real time and you are not seduced by eloquent verbiage. This is enough material to chew on for now. Hope it helps you.
Could it be 'Pianists at Play' by Dean Elder?
Teaching piano requires communicating effectively. That doesn't mean you have to use long words. Sometimes, you simply say "stop" to a young beginner.
Your post indicates you need to learn more about speaking clearly and effectively. Always edit what you write so that you learn to boil things down to the essential message.
Only time will tell if teaching is right for you. Right now, concentrate on your own piano studies, and try many other jobs to improve at working with others.
I learned typing as a child, and playing the piano as an older adult. Oh how I wish it was the other way around! I type really fast, and I play the piano really slow.
Well, not that slow, but fast pieces are a struggle.
I received my Massdrop/Sennheiser HD 58X Jubilee headphones yesterday. I'm not an audiophile and this is the first set of open back headphones I have owned. I'll compare these to the Shure SRH 440's that I've been using. First, let me mention Massdrop.
I never heard about Massdrop until this thread. This forum continues to bless my heart. I saved a substantial (for me) amount of money. I placed my order and they were suppose to ship on the 5th (20 days ago), but there was a delay in the process. Massdrop was very prompt in responding to my inquires. I was impressed with their customer service and would definitely order from them again.
Now for the headphones. I can only compare them to the Shure 440 since that's all my experience will allow.
They are significantly lighter and more comfortable than the 440's. That really is a big benefit. The 440's actually caused pain to the top of my head after prolonged use. The 58X's are light as a feather. They are also very quiet compared to the 440's that rattle and make a lot of noise when handling. I think they look ok. However, I'd prefer it if the grills were black.
I spent last night listening to a stylistically diverse amount of music and immediately I could tell that there was more clarity and instrumental separation with the 58X's. I don't know the proper audiophile nomenclature, but I could hear more of what was going on compared to the 440's where the frequencies seemed to be mashed together more. There was more discernible texture in the music if that makes sense. Also, they sounded better as the volume was increased compared to the 440's that seem to wash out more as the volume went up. I was able to drive the 58X's with both my iPhone and MacBook Air to ear damage decibels if I wanted.
It's easy to preform a comparative analysis with the N1X since it has two headphone jacks. I first listened to the demo songs on the the N1X and it was readily apparent that the 58X's had a more pronounced bass and evenness across the frequency spectrum. The 440's sounded a bit hollow/shallow with less frequency separation if that makes sense. Again, the louder I turned the volume, the better the 58X's sounded compared to the 440's which seemed to diminish in performance as the volume was increased. I then played the piano for a few hours switching between both headphones, and the aforementioned characteristics of the 58X caused me to eventually stop reaching for the 440's.
The N1X drives the 58X's fine at a little past 50% volume for me. I really like the open back design. I can hear myself singing and it feels more realistic compared to the 440's, giving me a stronger sense that I'm actually sitting in front of an acoustic piano. Overall, I feel they are a really good deal (for me) at $160. As long as I don't try anything "better," I should be happy with these.
These are Massdrop/Sennheiser 58X Jubilee.
Aha - just found "my" version on IMSLP- it's in the arrangements listing, not the original page. Posted in 2009.
What has really been neglected in the performing repertoire are the additional forms that Soler developed, beyond the binary sonatas of Scarlatti. There are sonatas with three or four movements, but they are not played nearly to the extent the binary sonatas are. I have to admit, that although I have some of the non-binary sonatas, I have not explored them myself.
Comments: Very satisfied with the setup, not so satisfied with my beginner skills. Focus is on learning stuff not on upgrading hard or software.
As mentioned just above, there are indeed a number of controllers with serious actions. My dilemma is of course which one.
If you will allow a sound generator to be in the product, then you can add a few others including the Kawai MP11SE.
The Piano Forums will be closing at approximately 8:00 a.m. EST Friday April 26.
We are planning to do a major upgrade at that time.
If all goes well the forums should be up and running again by 10:00 a.m. EST.
I will post a follow up once we are back up and running (or, if for some reason we have to reschedule).
If we do get to complete the upgrade I would like you to let me know if you see any problems (or improvements).
I suspect that you could by a new Yamaha Disklavier for what less than it would cost for a decent restoration of this piano. If you have several hundreds of hours of free time, plus a few thousand dollars for parts and materials, you might be able to do a passable job, although I would suggest that if you really want this to work, you start with something easier, like restoring a piano without a player first.
Agreed - and with buying a Disklavier or similar, you'll know what it will feel and sound like before spending the $$$. Plus, you'll have time to play rather than spend repairing etc.
And if you don't want the player piano facility, you could buy a very nice new, or fairly young piano for what it'll cost you.
But, attempting a restoration without experience, besides possibly being quite expensive, will leave you with what? - possibly a piano you don't like.
You might be able to get a technician to service it and repair any obvious problems and have an old piano which will maybe sound reasonable - and while they are there, ask for an assessment of whether it's worth spending time or money on it. I suspect not.
Speaking of stands, does anyone have the stand for PX-S1000/3000? Can someone measure the keybed height when it's on the stand?
As has been said by others, all pianos are somewhat hand-made. So anyone selling pianos can correctly state that it is hand-made. Every piano is made with a lot of machine work as well. No one is out there hand-carving action parts, etc. So piano makers rely on machinery in many aspects of the manufacturing.
It is possible to take a truly great design, build it out of the ideal materials, but build it badly. It is also possible for the finest craftspeople to build a piano of inferior design, and it will still be an inferior design - it will just be very well built.
A really great design that is tweaked for rapid, high volume production will be a solid, reliable piano - but pianists will not be anxious to play it.
"When the skills of the craftspeople have a greater impact on the final instrument than the type of tools they use."
Bsntn99, wow, thanks for the pics. Sounds like Kawai recognized this as a problem and addressed it moving forward, but I don't know whether existing owners get the benefit of that.
I wrote the number down before I forgot it.
Why are there so many Unanswered Questions on Pianoteq?
To me that seems very strange. What`s happening there ?
What "unanswered questions" are you referring to?
Can you provide a link to a website in which these questions are raised?
Awesome!! Thank you everyone! Really helped me to narrow it down. The Waltz op18 is a fun piece with technical challenges that I would benefit from but the Prelude op28 no20 has a slower tempo, hard choice between the 2 but I am going with the Prelude op28 because it has a slower tempo which will be a relaxing addition to the fast tempo pieces I am working on right now, I will enjoy bringing out the melody notes and the chords are so soul striking I made my decision without looking at the pieces because If I like my first impression to be the love of the sound.
Another update: Issue 106 arrived in my mailbox today...I am enjoying this magazine, wish I had known of it years ago.
I suppose that anyone who is taking lessons remotely is bemused by this question.
What surprises me is that no one has answered with "over easy, with a side order of bacon" or something to that effect.
I bet 0.01% of Earth population know about the spire on the church there and the rest 99.99% know Chesterfield as a brand of cigarettes.
Yep - that was my only thought. | 2019-04-26T06:05:12Z | http://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/activetopics/30/1.html |
Noir. Fans of suspense thrillers will find much to enjoy in a debut novel titled, The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn, a pseudonym of Daniel Mallory, who had worked as an editor at Morrow. Finn delivers great complex characters, the gradual unveiling of an entertaining plot, and a narrative that offers homage to great noir films. I found my reading pace remained steady, like the regular frames of a film as sentences went by a constant clip. If you've been entertained by a Hitchcock film and enjoy noir, chances are you'll like this novel and the fine writing it offers. Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase The Woman in the Window from amazon.com.
Connections. The twelfth collection of short pieces from The Scotsman featuring the neighborhood of 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh is titled, A Time of Love and Tartan. Instead of my usual method with this series of reading just a few short chapters over the course of several weeks, I read through it all in just two sittings. As with all of Smith's writing, the characters are memorable and interesting. There's kindness and love underlying most episodes, and the right people get their comeuppance, eventually. The plot moves along at the usual deliberative pace in this collection, and fans of the series will love the prospect that Irene may actually be leaving Stuart, Bertie and Ulysses behind to leave for Aberdeen. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase A Time of Love and Tartan from amazon.com.
Delay. Chances are, if your education is anything like mine, all you really think of when the name Neville Chamberlain comes to mind is "appeasement," something our leaders should avoid. In his novel titled, Munich, Robert Harris covers just a few days in 1938, the days before and after Chamberlain's meeting with Hitler in Munich over Germany's takeover of the Sudetenland, a German speaking area of what was Czechoslovakia. As in earlier novels, Harris describes settings with great detail, offers an interesting and engaging plot, and leads readers to a view of Chamberlain that is kinder now than in recent decades. In the novel, the delay that Chamberlain achieved in Munich was in response to the lack of preparedness in England to engage in war with Germany. As in our lives, when our choices are less than satisfying, we will select the least bad alternative, and Harris presents Chamberlain as doing just that in 1938. He delayed confrontation with Hitler until the country was ready, and that prudent act was in no way appeasement. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Munich from amazon.com.
Greenlight. The third Orphan X novel by Gregg Hurwitz is titled, Hellbent. Any reader who has not read the earlier novels in this series will lose a lot by starting with this installment. For fans of the series, this third novel moves the action forward violently and expertly, while filling in more of protagonist Evan Smoak's backstory. A new and interesting character joins the story. There's a big revelation of who has given the greenlight to eliminate Orphan X, and a setup toward the next installment. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Hellbent from amazon.com.
Voice. I was reminded when reading every page of the new short story collection by the late Denis Johnson titled, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, that he will no longer be sharing his voice with fans. Each of the five short stories in this collection offers deep insight into human nature and provides a lyrical telling of stories about the vibrancy of life. Like most of us, these characters are limited by constraints of one kind or another, they have a good sense of humor, and their hopes resonate with our own. Like many great writers, Johnson had the ability to introduce us to people who seem to be not at all like us, and after a while we realize how much we have in common. Readers who enjoy expertly written short stories are those most likely to enjoy this collection. Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase The Largesse of the Sea Maiden from amazon.com.
Human. In her novel titled, This Could Hurt, Jillian Medoff puts the "human" in Human Resources. Workplace novels can often lean toward shallow and boring stereotypes. While Medoff veers in that direction sometimes in this novel, for the most part she creates interesting and complex characters who behave in ways, both good and bad, that will resonate for most readers. Set mostly during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, the novel offers a plot that fits that time very well. Each character has to respond to change, like it or not. Rating: Three-star (It's ok) Click here to purchase This Could Hurt from amazon.com.
Words. I read Emma Glass' novel titled, Peach, in a single sitting. My reaction to this odd novel when I finished was something like, "Huh. What was that all about?" I almost considered another reading but decided the novel would be no less odd on a second reading. The prose is lyrical, and the words carefully chosen for rhythm. Sample a page or two to see if you have an appetite for what Emma Glass offers in her odd debut novel. Rating: Three-star (It's ok) Click here to purchase Peach from amazon.com.
Truth. Readers who enjoy intricate plots will love the novel by Christopher Yates titled, Grist Mill Road. Yates offers the perspective of a trio of characters, Matthew, Patrick and Hannah, about events in 1982 and in 2008. As Matthew says on p.184, "Truth is seldom a lens, truth is a kaleidoscope, and I have my truth also." The construct Yates creates draws readers into one perspective of the truth, and then shifts views on the puzzle in this story to lead us to question what is true. The ties that bind these characters include the ropes that appear on the book jacket. Does that make you curious? Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase Grist Mill Road from amazon.com.
Flyover. From 36,000 feet above land, Iowa looks like most of what many readers think of as flyover country: the calm and indistinguishable flat middle of the United States. The tornado on the cover of Thisbe Nissen's novel titled, Our Lady of the Prairie, promises more of the topsy-turvy reality that a flyover obscures. Just about all aspects of protagonist Phillipa Maakestad's life are in turmoil, and when an actual tornado arrives for her daughter's wedding, it couldn't be more fitting. Nissen's prose can meander at times to the impatience of plot focused readers, but for those who enjoy the messy way life plays out for flawed characters, this novel will be a treat. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Our Lady of the Prairie from amazon.com.
Curtains. A short novel by Hanif Kureishi titled, The Nothing, is a portrait of an artist as a dying man. The novel is set in London and features protagonist Waldo, a filmmaker, as he produces his grand finale: his death. Kureishi understands revenge and writes with great skill about the sexual tension between Waldo, his wife Zee, and an acquaintance named Eddie. Fans of black humor and finely written literary fiction are those readers most likely to enjoy this novel. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Nothing from amazon.com.
Slapstick. When will I ever learn? Just as my book queue swells to unreadable proportions, I open up a new novel from a series that was unfamiliar to me. The 21st Serge A. Storms novel by Tim Dorsey is titled, The Pope of Palm Beach. I read it in a few delightful hours, and now I'm likely to add another series to my regular reading list. Dorsey has created an endearing and manic character in Serge, and his constant motion in this novel provided me with comedic entertainment, albeit of the slapstick kind. Two plot lines converge at the point of Serge in this book, and links between the past and present are offered to fill out the story. Any reader looking for a laugh or two will find plenty here, and those who find Florida a source of amusement will delight in all the local color that Dorsey provides. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Pope of Palm Beach from amazon.com.
Immorality. Lotte and Soren Hammer have reprised Copenhagen homicide detective Konrad Simonsen for a dark novel titled, The Lake. The subject of the novel involves human trafficking, and the authors explore a culture and society in which immorality can thrive when certain behaviors are not illegal. Readers who enjoy noir Scandinavian crime fiction are those most likely to enjoy reading this novel and this series. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Lake from amazon.com.
Brothers. Fans of spy novels are those readers most likely to enjoy the finely written book by Joseph Kanon titled, Defectors. Set mostly in 1961 in Moscow, the novel tells of two brothers: Frank Weeks, who defected from the United States to Russia, and his brother, Simon, a New York book publisher. The Kremlin has encouraged Frank to write his memoirs and has allowed Simon to come to Moscow and edit the manuscript, which he does with the support of the United States government. Thanks to Kanon's fine writing, readers can enjoy the ways in which treachery endures reunions and schemes, motives and allegiance are as fuzzy as determining what and who is true and loyal. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Defectors from amazon.com.
Grief. Julia Cooper has written an odd little book titled, The Last Word: Reviving the Dying Art of Eulogy. She reflects on her own loss and grief while observing the rituals of death, especially the eulogy. Often packed with clichés, the eulogy comes so quickly after a loss that grief has not been present long enough to provide the perspective necessary to describe a life lost and to come to some understanding of our sorrow. Her writing in this book is lively and playful and will be of interest to anyone who expects to deliver a eulogy or to listen to one. Rating: Three-star (It's ok) Click here to purchase The Last Word from amazon.com.
Value. Many people spend time over the holidays reflecting on what is of lasting value and many use New Year's resolutions as a way to align one's behavior with one's values. One holiday afternoon I read a novella about values and what a life is worth by Fredrik Backman titled, The Deal of a Lifetime. Most readers will spend more time reflecting on the story than is spent reading it. Any reader reflecting on the meaning of life should consider using this novella as one way to delve deeper into those reflections. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Deal of a Lifetime from amazon.com.
Nigeria. The fourth novel by Todd Moss to feature Judd Ryker and his wife, Jessica, is titled, The Shadow List. This time out the State Department sends Judd to Nigeria to find a missing investment banker while the CIA has Jessica in Russia posing as an assassin for a crime boss. As Moss is wont to do, while he sends the couple out on distinct missions, connections draw them into joint peril in the same place. Fans of thriller novels are those most likely to enjoy this novel and this series. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Shadow List from amazon.com.
Typewriters. I enjoyed reading most of the seventeen short stories in a collection titled, Uncommon Type, by Tom Hanks. Many of the stories included detailed descriptions of manual typewriters, an object the author enjoys and appreciates. The writing is as down-to-earth as Hanks appears to be, and the stories are both entertaining and interesting. I sensed the joy and pleasure that must have surrounded Hanks as he wrote these stories to share that pleasure with others. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Uncommon Type from amazon.com.
Tradition. I consumed many cups of tea while reading Lisa See's novel titled, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. None of those cups was brewed from the Pu Erh cake teas described in this novel, since I've never developed a taste for that tea. Give me an oolong any day, along with a second flush Darjeeling for my bride. See describes the changing lives of people across generations and continents and the ways in which tradition provides continuity for finding one's way in the world. I was drawn into the story and the lives of these interesting characters, and before long I cared very much about what happens to them. This is a sweeping story with a big heart that will appeal to those readers who appreciate a well-told story with emotional tugs. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane from amazon.com.
Titan. Stanley Bing is the penname of Gil Schwartz, Senior EVP at CBS, and his latest novel is titled, Immortal Life. Bing takes the news stories of corporate titans funding projects to extend human lifespan, especially their own, combines that with major corporate consolidations and adds progress made in artificial intelligence. The result is a satire about corporate arrogance and greed, and an inquiry into what it means to be a person. Bing is being playful in this novel, as he does regularly in his writing. The characters are larger and smaller than life. He pokes around the edges of what might be a future and leads us to laugh at the permanence of human folly. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Immortal Life from amazon.com.
Honor. I was greatly entertained by Christopher Swann's debut novel titled, Shadow of the Lions. Set at an exclusive Virginia prep school, the novel spans two different time periods: when protagonist Matthias Glass was a student at Blackburne, and when he returned there as a teacher a decade later. Matthias' best friend, Fritz, disappeared from Blackburne following an argument they had during their senior year precipitated by one's adherence to the school's honor code. Swann teaches at a Georgia prep school, and he captures the setting perfectly. Characters are well-developed, and the plot maintains a steady pace as a mystery unfolds. The prose flows as readers reflect on friendship and the impact of the past on the present. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Shadow of the Lions from amazon.com.
Choices. Abortion is one of the most contentious issues in America and those with divergent views are solidly convinced that their position is clearly the right one and the other side is absolutely wrong. In her novel titled, Red Clocks, Leni Zumas offers readers a vision of a future in which a personhood amendment has outlawed abortion in all fifty states. Another law, "every child needs two," is about to prevent adoptions by single people. Zumas structures the novel by alternating the perspectives of five different women and their choices. The writing is superb, the characters compelling, and the structure intriguing. Book club members will spend more time than usual talking about this book. Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase Red Clocks from amazon.com.
Lurid. Hermione Hoby's debut novel titled, Neon in Daylight, paints New York City in 2012 with vivid scenes and characters. Protagonist Kate leaves England for New York City and stumbles into relationships with a father, Bill, and his daughter, Inez. Hoby's prose is finely written and her descriptive language enlivens every page. Along the way, she explores desire, solitude, and the complications of finding one's way in the world. Few readers will like the characters in this novel, and even fewer will emulate their behavior. Any reader who enjoys finely written literary will admire and appreciate Hoby's fine prose and relish this debut novel. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Neon in Daylight from amazon.com.
Aliens. All over the world there is conflict between people based on "us" versus "them." A late friend often said the most important question we must answer is: "When we say 'we,' who do we mean?" Min Jin Lee writes in her novel titled, Pachinko, about multiple generations of Koreans living as aliens in Japan during the twentieth century. The universal themes of love and family and hard work dominate the novel, and so many elements are perfect: character development, plot and descriptive language. I was absorbed in the story and entertained from beginning to end. Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase Pachinko from amazon.com.
Dislocation. The struggles and challenges of the characters in the novel by Neel Mukherjee titled, A State of Freedom, are different, but each person faces being removed from one way of living and needing to adjust to a new situation. Mukherjee expresses their hunger and striving with great skill. The extremes of inequality can be leveled when facing dislocation or upheaval of any sort. What are we looking for? What will it take for us to be free? Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase A State of Freedom from amazon.com.
Longing. The second novel in the seasons series by Ali Smith is titled, Winter. Patient readers will meander along with Smith in the bleakness of the season with a cast of characters who are somewhat unmoored and be rewarded with some beautifully crafted prose. My patience was waning until page 215 where Smith describes how Arthur has had enough of Christmas and now longs for winter itself. Here's the single sentence that gave me the prose payoff for my patience: "He wants real winter where words are sheathed in snow, trees emphatic with its white, their bareness shining and enhanced because of it, the ground underfoot snow-covered as if with frozen feathers or shredded cloud but streaked with gold through the trees from low winter sun, and at the end of the barely discernable track, along the dip in the snow that indicates a muffled path between the trees, the view and the woods opening to a light that's itself untrodden, never before blemished, wide like an expanse of snow-sea, above it more snow promised, waiting its time in the blank of the sky." I read the novel in winter and will read this sentence multiple times again after the next snowfall. Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase Winter from amazon.com.
Connections. I enjoy reading fiction that draws me into an unfamiliar place and into the lives of the people who live there. The fourteen connected stories in a collection by Melissa Fraterrigo titled, Glory Days, describe the people who live in Ingleside, Nebraska, a ranching and farming town. Fraterrigo develops these complex characters with deep insight into human behavior and in the context that progress and setbacks live side by side. Connections among people can be fragile and hard to maintain, especially when times get tough. Land in Ingleside can bring prosperity and disaster. Cattle can increase wealth or generate great losses. Readers who like finely written fiction with flawed characters should enjoy this book. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Glory Days from amazon.com.
Privilege. For fans of John Hodgman, the stories from his own life are as entertaining as the made-up ones we've come to know and love. In a book titled, Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches, Hodgman turns the comic lens on himself and his life of privilege. Any reader who has spent time in Maine or who owns a vacation home anywhere will find this book especially poignant. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Vacationland from amazon.com.
Technique. Dilbert creator Scott Adams predicted early in the 2016 presidential campaign that Donald Trump would win. In his book titled, Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter, Adams explains why. The basic premise of the book is that Donald Trump has mastered the techniques that are proven successful at persuasion. Adams explores many different techniques that Trump uses successfully and explains why those techniques work. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Win Bigly from amazon.com.
Celebration. I am a latecomer to the mystery novels of Katherine Hall Page featuring protagonist Faith Fairchild. The twenty-fourth installment and my introduction to the series is titled, The Body in the Casket. Faith has been hired by Max Dane to cater a weekend celebration of his seventieth birthday. Max is a Broadway musical producer and director, and the guests for this party are all associated with his last and unsuccessful production. Mystery fans will find a pretty straightforward story and some mild entertainment as well as a villain who was easy to spot. Rating: Three-star (It's ok) Click here to purchase The Body in the Casket from amazon.com.
Openness. Many of us have strong confirmation bias, whether right or left, conservative or liberal, reinforced by our friends and neighbors thanks to how we've sorted ourselves. Former NPR CEO Ken Stern spent a year outside his liberal and Democratic comfort zone and spent time listening to those outside his bubble. He describes the experience in his book titled, Republican Like Me: How I Left the Liberal Bubble and Learned to Love the Right. As a result of his openness to different points of view, he came away from this experience with some of his positions changed, and with a greater appreciation of views different from his own. We can all benefit from this example as we can try to overcome what seem to be intractable divisions. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Republican Like Me from amazon.com. | 2019-04-21T07:24:00Z | http://bkrev.blogspot.com/2018/02/ |
And here’s Answer Me This! Episode 285, featuring correspondence from an actual OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST.
Although the main podcast I make is a comedy show, my favourite genre of podcasts to listen to involves people telling true stories. The Moth, Love + Radio, Unfictional, This American Life, Strangers, Third Coast International Audio Festival… So imagine my excitement when I was invited to speak at Spark London, London’s premium stand-on-a-stage-and-tell-a-story-from-your-life show!
Then imagine my panic, because much as I enjoy my mostly solitary and undramatic life, it doesn’t generate much True Story material.
The Spark London podcast is available on Mixcloud or iTunes.
*Maybe in 30 years I can return to Spark to tell it.
PS In case you don’t believe me about the typo on my grandmother’s gravestone, here’s photographic proof.
PPS Spotted backstage at Spark: a baby on a stick. Wonder if they have one of those at the Moth.
But enough reflecting upon podcasts, it is time for some actual podcasts!
And there are new episodes of Answer Me This! of course, although half as many because the show is now fortnightly. But each episode is longer, so it’ll work out as roughly the same amount of AMT over the year. Now that I have to think about the show half as often, I feel more than twice as positive about it.
The year always ends with a flurry of editing to cobble together the Best of Answer Me Thises, and here they are. Here they bloody are.
Congratulations to fellow podcaster and all-round good egg Neil Denny on reaching the 300th episode of the excellent Little Atoms. He commemorated this milestone by interviewing John Lloyd, but also by letting me talk about growing up with a sculptor, my dad Zack Zaltzman. Here’s the show. The picture above is of one of the huge plaster casts from dad’s gelatine-carving phase.
I’m very excited to be appearing on another of my favourite podcasts, Getting Better Acquainted. We’re recording live as part of the Writeidea Festival Fringe at the Ideas Factory this Sunday, 17th November. We’ll be on around 4.30pm, but come along for the afternoon because Wil Hodgson will be performing, and there’s a panel discussion about comics featuring Tom Humberstone, who makes Solipsistic Pop. One night a couple of years ago, my husband and I were sitting on the East London Line indulging in a little light bickering, when a gentlemen walked past, handed us a copy of a beautiful comic, then hopped off the train. This was an exciting mystery, and after some Twitter detective work, we discovered it was Tom himself. So I’m well disposed towards him. Altogether it’ll be a worthwhile use of your afternoon, I’m sure.
Also! This week I went along to the Houses of Parliament to attend the Rewind and Reframe panel discussion, about music videos being sexist and racist, and reported back to the Guardian’s Media Talk about it. Click here to hear.
Perhaps because even my body thinks I should shut the hell up occasionally, I lost my voice this week. This is a bit problematic when your job involves talking, and I had to cancel a couple of things; but the Sound Women podcast soldiers on, albeit with links that sound a like a creaking gate. Happily, alongside my rusty voice is the Voice of An Angel: I spoke to none other than Charlotte Church after she delivered the BBC 6 Music John Peel Lecture at the Radio Festival. It’s well worth listening to her lecture about the music industry’s sexualisation of young female artists – you can download it here.
I also caught up with Louisa Compton who is, er, my boss at Saturday Edition, as well as the formidable editor of 5 Live’s daytime content including Victoria Derbyshire, Shelagh Fogarty and Richard Bacon. And self-confessed radio anorak Andrea Day told me all about what goes into radio traffic reports: A LOT OF WORK.
Also, this week’s Answer Me This! was a bit of a novelty, as we recorded in Olly‘s new house in the country, which just happens to be close to a dinosaur-themed adventure golf course. Now I understand why he moved out of London.
In this month’s Sound Women podcast, I interviewed Annabel Port and Geoff Lloyd, who host Absolute Radio’s Hometime Show which I can’t recommend highly enough.
During the chats, I learnt how Annabel’s radio career revelation came to her up a Mexican mountain; how she was subsequently Discovered by Geoff; and how working with him has caused her to lose all her social inhibitions. They also lay into those who propagate the notion that women aren’t funny. The fact that people still trot out this statement almost makes me object to the notion of free speech. Perhaps we should all have to sit an exam before we’re permitted to express any opinions.
Behold, here is the Sound Women podcast episode 2: Attack of the Clones featuring numerous exciting people who spoke at the recent Sound Women Festival, such as Fi Glover, Anita Anand, Angie Greaves and Jo Good. By all accounts the festival was an excellent day, but, alas, I didn’t get to go; it was my husband’s birthday, which he commemorated by walking from Rotherhithe to Crystal Palace via many of South London’s unloveliest industrial wastelands.
If you want a lovely walk through South London, though, I wholeheartedly recommend the Green Chain route. And naturally I wholeheartedly recommend subscribing to the podcast via iTunes or following it on SoundCloud.
I’m very excited to say that I’m making a new podcast!* It’s called the Sound Women podcast, because I’m making it with the Sound Women network of women (and men) in British radio. Ergo, the podcast is about women and radio, and if you’re interested in either of those things, I hope you like it.
In Episode 1, I interviewed the inimitable Lauren Laverne, who told me how to get rid of earworms and what Jamie Oliver keeps in his toilet; I also spoke to Nicky Birch of Somethin’ Else, who suggests not being a pain-the-arse slacker if you want to get ahead in radio, and Maria Williams to find out why she set up Sound Women in the first place (clue: because the radio industry is sexist, innit). Plus dispatches from SRAcon by Emma Bradshaw, and Ruth Barnes found out from Sinead Garvan how to get to be a reporter at Radio 1’s Newsbeat.
Oh, and Martin wrote the theme music, what a gent.
Have a listen at iTunes or SoundCloud.
*Don’t worry, I haven’t dumped Answer Me This!. I’m just cheating on it with another podcast.
If you’re currently doing internet dating, would you be willing to be interviewed by me about it, before and after you go on the date, for a new podcast I want to make? By all means you can use a false name if your bashfulness threatens to conquer your exhibitionism.
If you’re interested in allowing me to nose gently into your private life, then please email me: [email protected]. Think of it as free therapy, over Skype.
PS Over-18s only, please; sorry kids.
Lots of noise-work over the past weekend. Firstly on Friday evening, I joined the roundtable on the Ian Collins show on LBC with Ian Dunt of politics.co.uk; podcast should appear here shortishly. Saturday Edition as usual on Saturday on BBC 5 Live. Then on Sunday morning, my first appearance on the Jeni Barnett Show on BBC London which you can hear here. Whilst songs are playing, most radio presenters spend the time reading listeners’ messages/news feeds/in discussion with the producers/going to the loo. Not Jeni. She dances exuberantly around the studio, because she is fantastic.
There’s also AMT251, and I’m on the new episode of International Waters, along with Jesse Thorn, Janet Varney, Ricky Carmona and my former flatmate Matthew Crosby! And thus the photo on the post about the episode is a photo of me and the Crosb sitting on my sofa in 2008, holding up our iPods for a shot to go with an ‘episode’ of his now defunct Readable Podcast. If you want, you can roll back the years and read the episode here. There are even jingles. I had forgotten all about this, which was probably for the best.
I just returned from SXSWi in Austin, Texas, where I spoke on a panel about podcasting with Colin Anderson, Jesse Thorn and Roman Mars. We were scheduled against talks by Selena Gomez and also Shaq, which made for a very difficult choice for people who were interested in both the monetization of podcasts AND the cast of Spring Breakers.
…and unwinding afterwards in a sausage restaurant.
I reported back to the Guardian’s Media Talk podcast, which you can hear HERE. Aside from a lot of interesting talks about new media and tech, there was plenty other excitement, including several outstanding film screenings (keep an eye out for An Unreal Dream, The Spectacular Now and Partly Fiction), some classic Texan barbecue, and free corporate swag including a branded harmonica, a branded shaky egg and some giant Post-It notes. Got to recoup the cost of my flight where I can.
NB if you want to arrive somewhere fresh in body and mind, don’t spend 37 hours on a train immediately prior. But you already knew that.
As the end of the year approaches, tradition dictates we look back upon the past twelvemonth, reflect and ruminate, then pick out some of the highlights of that year and edit them into an audio package.
This we have done with Answer Me This! – the Best of 2012 part I is out now, and part II will follow on Thursday 20th. Embedded above is one of my favourite passages; drunk-dialling can be strangely moving.
Olly and I also run through the year’s biggest online events on Saturday Edition, BBC 5 Live 8pm 29th December or available shortly after as the Let’s Talk About Tech podcast; and you can hear us discussing Christmas gadgets and songs on Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2 on 20th December.
Not finished yet! I crop up on BBC 5 Live’s Radio Review of 2012, which will be on at 11pm on Christmas Eve, repeated 4pm on Christmas Day, or, if you want to listen at a more sensible time, available on the 5 Live website straight after. There’s some very interesting stuff on it, and it’s co-hosted by Jane Garvey – any show with Jane Garvey on it is a show worth hearing.
Lastly, Olly and I also wrote some bits for the Celebrity Juice Christmas Specials; part one is already on ITV Player and part two will follow on Thursday 20th.
And now, having provided a thorough summation of 2012, I’m taking the rest of it off. See you in 2013, assuming that apocalypse is another let-down.
Olly’s and my regular Saturday night gig, talking about the week’s most involving internet events on BBC 5 Live’s Saturday Edition, is now available as a podcast! It is called The Joy of Tech and you can get it HERE.
In September Olly and I spoke at Next Radio, a great one-day event with lots of rapid-fire talks about the radio industry and where it is headed (there are broadly two schools of thought: 1. somewhere more magnificent than ever 2. straight to Fucktown).
Thanks very much to James Cridland and Matt Deegan for letting us take part; click here to view videos of other talks from the day, they are well worth your while.
What you can’t tell from the videos is that we were at the Magic Circle headquarters! While the auditorium was very normal-looking, the corridors and rooms were full of display cases with magicians’ props, puppets, magic coffins etc.
What I hope you can’t tell from the video is that this was my first ever Powerpoint presentation! I rarely get the opportunity to make one in my ‘line’ of ‘work’. | 2019-04-23T13:10:36Z | https://helenzaltzman.wordpress.com/category/podcasting/page/3/ |
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When looking for Private Houston Science Tutors, .you want to enroll your child in a proven program and a track record of making real improvements. At Suprex Learning we make sure to use teaching techniques and strategies that will strengthen your student’s Science skills. When looking for a Science tutor in Houston it is important to understand that your student’s study skills and general skills need to be assessed in order to provide the best possible service. Each student is started with a baseline assessment to provide our tutors with a clear picture of your student’s strengths and weaknesses. This information is also used to create a personalized plan to address their specific goals. Our Houston Science Tutors know that tutoring isn’t just about meeting your current needs. Our tutors are committed to making sure that your student is confident in their current Science skills, in addition to preparing them for future Science courses. We want to reinforce your student’s foundation so that they will have a solid background upon which they can continue to build and succeed. Stop searching for Private Science Tutors in Houston TX and make Suprex Learning your service of choice.
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Teaching Science in Houston: Testing is a huge part of every modern student’s academic career. They’ll be tested in every class as well as at state or school level standardized testing. Help your student prepare for their next exam, whether it is a scheduled school exam, a private school entrance exam, college acceptance exam or standardized state examination. You will see results with our tutors. We ensure that every one of our In Home Science Tutors in Houston possess a demonstrated record of success so that you know your child is in good hands. It doesn’t matter if your child needs help with the basics of earth science or the qualities of quantum mechanics, Suprex Learning has tutors that are equipped with the skills needed to work with your student. Many children are unable to thrive in today’s overloaded classroom environments. For some children, it can be difficult for them to get the one on one attention they need to fully grasp the information. Your student may need a personal tutor to help them achieve success in Science. Let us answer whatever questions your student may have. Since much of Science is focused on building upon information from previous years your student’s foundation is of the upmost importance. If it is weak, cracks will show and their difficulties will only increase the longer they go without repairing those cracks. The case with most students who struggle with science isn’t that they are less intelligent than their classmates, it’s that they don’t understand the information the way that the teacher has presented it. Give your student an opportunity to really do well in their Science courses; if your student is lacking in fundamental principles from the previous year, let us address them. Set your child up to succeed and let the Houston Science Teachers at Suprex Learning Houston help increase their confidence and improve their skill sets. Make an appointment to talk to our Director today and get started on your private Science tutoring classes as soon as you are ready to start!
Are There High School Science Tutors At Suprex Learning of Houston, Texas?
The academic consultants in the tutoring program in Houston, Texas can help students having trouble in any area and level of science—Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Suprex tutors provide more than a vast knowledge of the science content; they also teach the students strategies, such as memory development for vocabulary or scientific reading techniques for text exploration, which will make them more successful in all subjects. Regardless of the level of your child’s skill in science, we have a tutor who will provide him or her with the knowledge, strategies, and tools necessary to perform well in class and on the STAAR and/or AP tests. | 2019-04-22T22:00:21Z | https://www.suprexlearning.com/houston-science-tutoring/ |
With WordPress making the permanent switch to the Gutenberg editor, there’s no doubt about it: page builders are no longer the future of web design and content creation. They’re the present.
For many of you, this isn’t news. WordPress page builders have been around for years. That said, you and your clients might not have given serious thought in adopting them when they were just an alternative option for building websites.
Considering where we are today with the page builder serving as the primary means for creating content in WordPress, all of that has changed.
If you or your clients haven’t found the new WordPress editor to be a help in your workflow, it may be time to consider installing one of these page builder plugins. You could, of course, always return to the classic editor, but that would put you and your clients at a disadvantage by taking a step backward instead of forwards.
Consider your page builder options and find one that makes your life easier.
Our team at WP Buffs helps website owners, agency partners, and freelancer partners maintain their WordPress sites 24/7. Whether you need us to manage 1 website or support 1000 client sites, we've got your back.
That’s why we’re going to focus our attention on Beaver Builder and Elementor today. There are other page builder plugins available -- as this review from WP Shout demonstrates -- but we want to present you with the best options for web designers and clients today.
These introductions will give you a good idea of why these plugins continue to dominate the list of WordPress page builders today.
Beaver Builder was first introduced to the WordPress ecosystem in 2014.
The Beaver Builder Lite (free) plugin currently sits in the WordPress repository with over 500,000 downloads and a nearly five-star rating.
McCullough’s agency started to receive more requests from clients to build custom websites that they could then edit themselves.
As this new complexity was introduced, the agency turned to a combination of Advanced Custom Fields and page templates to develop their websites. This solved one part of the problem -- the time commitment -- but not the client usability piece.
What they needed was one framework they could build every site from and that clients would have no problem adopting.
This is where Beaver Builder, formerly FastLine Page Builder, entered the fray.
What began as a premium page builder plugin, eventually went the freemium model so that users could use the free version from the repository. In addition, they converted to GPL so that other developers could extend the capabilities of what it could do. A beautiful example of this is Themer Pro, produced by Eric Hamm and Cobalt Apps which extends the capabilities of Beaver Themer.
It helps the the team behind Beaver Builder seems genuinely cool, too. Robby and Joe, our Head Buff, went to BeachPress together! According to Joe, Robby is an awesome person, which bodes well for the quality of the page builder as well.
Robby even came on the WPMRR WordPress podcast once and chatted with Joe for all to hear. It was a great convo and in it, Robby discusses how he is preparing to travel the world for a year while still helping run Beaver Builder. Truly inspiring stuff.
The Beaver Builder community is pretty fantastic, too. They have a great Facebook group with over 13,000 members that's there to help answer any question you may have.
Elementor was introduced two years after Beaver Builder in 2016.
The free Elementor plugin currently sits in the WordPress repository with over a million downloads and a nearly five-star rating.
In terms of Elementor’s origin story, you can read all about it from CMO Ben Pines. In the meantime, let me give you a quick play-by-play of how this page builder came into being.
The designer - They don’t want to code, but they want control over every aspect of the design.
The developer - They want to hard-code everything into the page, which means working in a minimal interface.
The client - They don’t want to code and they don’t want to control everything. They just want a simple way to build or manage their website.
In the end, Elementor created a much loved and widely adopted page builder tool that could aptly serve as an alternative to the original innovator in the space: Beaver Builder. And it continues to expand features as well. In fact, just recently, Elementor launched a visual popup builder, which makes it easy to create custom popups quickly and easily, all from within a familiar interface.
Let’s look at pricing for Beaver Builder vs. Elementor as it stands today. Then, break down what you can reasonably expect from the free vs. premium versions of each.
Beaver Builder makes no secret about the limitations on the free version of its plugin. That’s why it’s called “Lite”. However, if you only intend on building one website or you’re brand new to page builders altogether, Beaver Builder Lite isn’t a bad choice to start with.
Drag-and-drop builder on the frontend.
Basic “modules” (elements for building a page) that include text, HTML, image, video, audio, and sidebar blocks.
WordPress-specific modules for integrating typical features from WordPress into the builder.
Manipulation of rows and a variety of column choices within each.
Color, image, or video background options.
Customize elements with custom CSS.
All of the free Beaver Builder and WordPress modules; plus, other standard elements that are missing from Lite like contact forms, image sliders, maps, blog post add-ons, and social media icons.
Pre-made templates for pages and sections that shorten the time it takes to create pages from-scratch. You can get a glimpse of these templates over at Is It WP.
Save your own page layout and row element templates and easily add to other pages.
Export your own templates for commonly used elements or pages to include on other client sites.
Build your own modules and save and export them, too.
Premium support from the Beaver Builder team so you’re never left hanging.
Beaver Themer - to help them build and customize their own WordPress themes.
For websites your client will go on to manage on their own, the free Elementor plugin will suffice. For your own business purposes, you’ll want the premium version.
Drag-and-drop live page builder on the frontend.
Fully responsive web design capabilities, which you can also test in mobile and tablet views.
About 30-page “widgets” (elements for building a page) that cover a wide gamut of purposes.
Additionally, you can control a number of settings for each widget, including font choice, background overlays, gradient backgrounds, animations, color selection, sizing and spacing, and so on.
Page and block template library to pull pre-designed elements from and save yourself time building websites from scratch.
Create and save your own page and block templates for repurposing on this site or to export and use on others.
Instantly put your website into Maintenance mode if it’s not ready to go live.
Only one of the premium plans allows for an unlimited number of websites. This is the only differentiator between the plans, so pay close attention when choosing one.
All premium plans include over 50 pro widgets, including ones for e-commerce, image and video sliders, marketing automation, and CRM integration.
Widgets can be set to “global” so you only have to configure them once and then apply the exact configuration site-wide.
Users get access to over 300 pro templates, which will expand the complexity and diversity of your site-building capabilities.
Theme Builder and WooCommerce Builder allow you to customize more of your web design elements, like headers, footers, blog layouts, and more.
Support and updates are included for free for one year.
If the price is a deciding factor for you, make sure to do a side-by-side comparison between Beaver Builder and Elementor pricing and features. Although Beaver Builder’s prices may appear higher at first glance, you do get many more developer-friendly features. So, focus on the value instead of the actual price tag when making that call.
Now it’s time to dig into the interface and usability of Beaver Builder and Elementor. While both are frontend builders that enable you to create and edit pages in a visual editor interface, there are major differences between the two.
Once Beaver Builder is installed in WordPress, you can configure settings for it under the Settings tab. Though, to be honest, there isn’t much reason to do this unless you want to restrict the page builder to certain parts of the website (like pages only) or if you want to remove certain modules from view.
You can stick with the standard Gutenberg editor or you can move into the frontend Beaver Builder.
Beaver Builder will open and then display a panel where you can choose next steps.
It fills in the page or post title you set inside the WordPress editor but then prompts you to add more content.
The main drop-down on the left contains many options, so acquaint yourself with it first thing if you’re interested in quickly duplicating layouts, using code, or exiting out the builder safely. The notifications ringer doesn’t have much point, so you can disregard that.
The +/x button on the right side is where you open the modules panel. The “Done” button will reveal additional options for “Discard”, “Save Draft”, and “Publish”. And you’ll see the orange “Upgrade Today” button if you’re using Lite.
This panel is split into three key areas.
The first is “Modules”. When “Standard Modules” is selected under “Group”, this is where you’ll see all available modules from Beaver Builder.
The next tab is for “Rows”. This is where you choose how many columns you want to appear within the row as well as what percentage of the row they should take up.
In Lite, you won’t find anything under “Templates” with the exception of a button asking you to upgrade. Once you have paid for premium, you’ll tap into all of the page and section templates Beaver Builder has created for its users. You can also start to save your own here. Until then, you’ll have to build everything from scratch.
Beaver Builder allows you to work with the panel wherever you feel most comfortable with it. So, if you’re unhappy with it as a dropdown or with it on the right side of the page (which makes it feel a little like Photoshop), go ahead and pop it over to the left sidebar.
Finally, let’s look at how to build a page with drag-and-drop modules.
First, add a new row and column configuration. Then, drag the preferred modules or WordPress widgets into their places.
Simply grab ahold of the three dots that appear when you hover over a block and then move the module or row into its new place.
Configure them to your liking and then save changes in the top admin panel.
Beaver Builder is an all-around solid option. Great features, a user-friendly interface, and total flexibility makes it a great choice for a wide range of developers.
Upon installation, a new Elementor menu will appear on the sidebar of WordPress. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the options for customization that are available there.
Click on the blue button to switch from the standard WordPress editor to Elementor.
The interface may look greatly simplified at first, with two main pieces to engage with.
Here’s the thing though: this panel isn’t just where you drag elements out of.
Elementor actively enables you to switch between the views as you build your page.
These pertain to default and global settings for the page.
As for building your page, Elementor works much like how other page builders work. You locate the widget you want to add to the page, click on it, and drag it to the editor.
If you’re unsatisfied with where an element ended up or you want to experiment with different layouts, it’s easy to drag-and-drop your elements all around the page.
This makes navigation of the page builder an easy one to pick up.
In terms of what you can accomplish within the Elementor interface, it’s one of the best out there. The free version alone comes chock full of features and templating which will make your job a significantly easier one.
Just bear in mind that this type of interface isn’t for everyone. Because there are so many features available and abundant settings to control for each element, this may prove overwhelming for clients. It might also prove to be an impediment to your productivity.
Elementor has twice as many users as Beaver Builder and accumulated them in half the time, too. There are two reasons for this.
One of which is more aggressive marketing on the part of Elementor. Beaver Builder played it very conservative in its first year of business, which is understandable as it was the one that paved the way for page builder plugins that came after it.
After spending time in both, it's apparent the target user has something to do with it as well.
What its high points are.
What its major weaknesses are.
What type of user most commonly uses it.
How responsive the company is in protecting its brand identity.
Less than 1% of Beaver Builder users have left reviews for the plugin in the WordPress repository. That said, the overwhelming majority of them are positive.
Clean Coding - Many users tout the plugin as a solid product. Overall, there seem to be very few things to complain about when it comes to bugs or usability issues.
Amazing Support - For the users that have reported running into hiccups, most of them say the support team has been helpful. Even if you look at the one-star complaints about support, they’re either unsubstantiated or they’re about a related Beaver Builder plugin.
Dedicated Beaver Builder resources like Pro Beaver make the support even better as it offers a self-support option for developers who want to better understand the ins and outs of the plugin.
Developer-Friendly - If you look at the reviews, many developers talk about how they’ve built dozens of websites over the years with Beaver Builder. Or about how it decreases the amount of time they spend building client websites.
While novice users could certainly use Beaver Builder, it appears to be a massive success with developers -- especially ones who are thinking about expanding their business to build themes, sell managed hosting, or provide ongoing site maintenance.
High Cost - Out of the box, Beaver Builder would be a sufficient tool for someone building a personal website. But for web developers -- who seem to comprise a good chunk of users -- an upgrade to premium is required, which is why you’ll often hear this complaint.
Limited Features - Again, this issue isn’t really an issue for people that can afford to upgrade to premium as its jam-packed with all the page builder features anyone could need. But the free version is seriously limited.
Similar to Beaver Builder, less than 1% of users have left a review for Elementor, but the majority of them are overwhelmingly in favor of the plugin.
Beginner-Friendly - Elementor is heralded by a lot of novice WordPress users. Some of them proclaim their “noob” status, while it’s clear with others that they’re really only using it to build and manage their own website.
Ease of Use - One of the main reasons why users are so fond of Elementor is because of how much more they can accomplish -- and easily -- with the extensive amount of add-ons created for it. One such example is WPDeveloper, who’s developed the Essential Addons for Elementor plugin.
Even without plugin extensions, Elementor has a lot to offer developers and agencies who are tired of wasting time in the web design workflow. Take WP Elevation, for instance, who recently moved away from a custom theme to Elementor.
Catch Troy Dean of WP Elevation on the WPMRR WordPress podcast as he chats more about scaling their business, standard operations procedures and gratitude!
Great Features - The free version of Elementor comes with a wide variety of page widgets, which makes it a more robust tool to build websites with out of the box.
The WP Elevation 6-week Blueprint guides web freelancers, devs, online marketers and all-around webrepreneurs in mastering essential business skills, practices and techniques needed to build smarter, better and more profitable digital businesses. Boom!
Theme and Plugin Incompatibility - In a number of those cases when users complained, the team member who responded often attributed the issue to a theme or plugin update. This appears to be another common issue.
If you’re building websites that have to integrate with other tools, there’s a chance this page builder may be incompatible, so you have to be careful before purchasing the premium version of this or another tool on your site. Specifically, if you’re planning to use a theme in conjunction with Elementor, try to find one that comes bundled with it as Jupiter X does.
One last point of note is about maintaining a WordPress website that’s been built with Beaver Builder or Elementor.
As Abhijit Rawool points out, Beaver Builder hasn’t had any major security issues. That doesn’t mean that they’re non-existent as this vulnerability from 2016 demonstrates, but there doesn’t seem to be anything of serious concern when it comes to the security of this plugin.
Elementor receives a “Good” rating because the current version is the only one Jetpack deems safe enough to use.
There’s a proven contrast between the way Beaver Builder and Elementor affect the speed of a web page built with them. Thanks to Pagely, we have side-by-side speed tests to demonstrate this point.
It loaded in 489 ms.
It loaded in 655 ms.
That’s a big difference in terms of loading speeds, though it’s important to take note of how many HTTPS requests were made by Elementor as well as database queries. Although Beaver Builder loaded more slowly, Elementor was more taxing on the server.
You have a lot of information to work with when attempting to make the choice between Beaver Builder and Elementor. It’s clear that Beaver Builder is a more developer-friendly plugin, but that doesn’t mean that Elementor can’t be used by developers -- especially if clients find it more usable. You really have to look at the big picture and determine what’s best for your workflow as well as for your clients’ management of their own content. And if you need additional help, you can always check out our care plans for hands-on support with your websites. | 2019-04-23T15:51:46Z | https://wpbuffs.com/beaver-builder-vs-elementor-page-builder-guide/ |
1389 Moonlight Trail, Brentwood, Kings Crossing; Buyer: Corie and Eric Smetana; Seller: Samantha and James Reedy III; $809,900.
768 Sinclair Circle, Brentwood, Princeton Hills; Buyer: Janice and Rodney L Burt; Seller: Judy Ann and Peter S Scully; $1,195,000.
315 Wilson Pike, Brentwood, Mooreland; Buyer: Todd H Hancock and Larry T Hancock; Seller: Gwen and Scott Oatsvall; $349,000.
146 Rue de Grande, Brentwood, Crockett Springs; Buyer: Peggy and Glen Bartosh; Seller: Jerrelynn J Davis; $650,000.
1003 Lexington Drive, Brentwood, Saratoga Hills; Buyer: Shelby and Benjamin Scott Shepherd; Seller: Susan M and E Dow Walker Jr; $530,000.
1862 Barnstaple Lane, Brentwood, Morgan Farms; Buyer: Mary Kay Wright; Seller: Turnberry Homes LLC; $1,091,406.
809 Davis Drive, Brentwood, Carondelet; Buyer: John Samolis; Seller: Mae Fannie; $508,410.
8216 Holly Road, Brentwood, Brenthaven; Buyer: Louise R and Michael G Miller; Seller: Dana T Brooks; $1,237,250.
813 Steeplechase Drive, Brentwood, Foxboro Estates; Buyer: Stephanie A and Kory R Dawson; Seller: Cynthia Ann and Thomas Shawn Rasey; $675,000.
1694 Kindra Court, Brentwood, Raintree Forest South; Buyer: Christa and Scott Ballew; Seller: Bridget J and Derek M Lenard; $604,500.
2607 Myers Park Terrace, Brentwood, Brookfield; Buyer: Kalpana Chand and Niren Naidu; Seller: Amanda and Nathan W Hamlet; $510,000.
886 Holly Tree Gap Road, Brentwood; Buyer: Helena and Erik Horsman; Seller: Botsko Builders Inc; $401,150.
3 Carmel Lane, Brentwood, Governors Club; Buyer: Susan K and Douglas J Rohleder; Seller: Linda S Hinton; $1,450,000.
1564 Fawn Creek Road, Brentwood, Raintree Forest; Buyer: Victoria L and Travis E Parker III; Seller: Leigh F and William A Parsons; $537,000.
1630 Volunteer Court, Brentwood, Mooreland Estates; Buyer: Ashley L Renner; Seller: Beverly B and David K Knox; $324,900.
6904 Holt Lea Court, Brentwood, Stone Creek Park; Buyer: Amy and Mark Thompson; Seller: Monica Fabiana Moscheni and Horacio Bortolotti; $595,000.
1215 Devens Drive, Brentwood, Brenthaven; Buyer: Jennifer and Richardo Val Ybarra; Seller: Nancy C and John J Bailey III; $970,000.
1251 Wheatley Forest Drive, Brentwood, Bridgeton Park; Buyer: Haroun Soltan; Seller: Esmaeili Farnaz and Payman Zad; $460,000.
1525 Boreal Court, Brentwood, Raintree Forest Reserve; Buyer: Pamela J and George H Clayton; Seller: Bennie Helland; $160,000.
816 Turnbridge Drive, Brentwood, Concord Crossing; Buyer: Demyana Girgis and Ashraf Ibrahim; Seller: Tara Jones; $580,000.
2216 Hillsboro Valley Road, Brentwood, Hillsboro Valley; Buyer: H Rodes Hart Sr; Seller: Carolyn Sue Sieveking 2014 Trust; $1,700,000.
1486 Marcasite Drive, Brentwood, Woodlands at Copperstone; Buyer: Archana and Vinay Prasad; Seller: Megan and David Christian Vazquez; $625,000.
Right of way on Mountview Place, Brentwood; Buyer: State of Tennessee; Seller: Melvin D Law Jr; $32,322.
Right of way on Ragsdale Road, Brentwood; Buyer: City of Brentwood; Seller: Governors Club Property Owners Association; $4,600.
Right of way on Sunset Road, Brentwood; Buyer: City of Franklin; Seller: Carol Branam and Rex Elbert H Arebdall II; $34,100.
507 Sunberry Court, Brentwood, Mooreland Estates; Buyer: C B Investments LLC; Seller: Rebecca S Edzard; $170,000.
Horton Highway, College Grove; Buyer: Tim C Hill and Greg S Mashburn; Seller: Urban Samuel Scales; $325,000.
6820 Falls Ridge Lane, College Grove, Falls Grove; Buyer: NVR Inc; Seller: Brentwood Communities LLC; $107,350.
8491 Heirloom Boulevard, College Grove, the Grove; Buyer: William E Siren; Seller: Beth S and Joseph R Nacarato; $337,000.
Lots 18, 24, 25, and 28 on Holly Leaf Way, Fairview, Deer Valley; Buyer: Ole South Properties Inc; Seller: Global Trust Investment Co LLC; $174,000.
Lot 22 on Holly Leaf Way, Fairview, Deer Valley; Buyer: Ole South Properties Inc; Seller: Global Trust Investment Co LLC; $43,500.
7195 Elrod Road, Fairview; Buyer: Lindsey Mitchell and Dakota Blackwell; Seller: Philip Wilburn Walker; $155,000.
7107 Aggie Hamilton Lane, Fairview; Buyer: Joe Anne and Alexander Garrison; Seller: Cheryl and Donnie Mangrum; $475,000.
Lots 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 on Fernvale Springs Way, Fairview, Fernvale Springs; Buyer: Duke & Duke LLC; Seller: Youssi Custom Homes of TN LLC; $107,500.
7521 Fairfield Court (Quitclaim with consideration), Fairview, Fairfield Court; Buyer: Julia G and George G Gray; Seller: Rebecca Lynn Gray; $161,287.
7112 Taylor Road, Fairview; Buyer: Barbara Dawn and James Paul Evans; Seller: Nellie Raye Pewitt; $150,000.
Horn Tavern Road, Fairview; Buyer: Innovated Construction Co LLC; Seller: James P Caldwell Sr; $35,000.
7232 McCormick Lane, Fairview, McCormick Grove; Buyer: Mary E and David W Fox; Seller: Linda K and Ronald A Rowe; $565,000.
7103 Dogwood Court, Fairview, Glenhaven; Buyer: Jennifer M and David B Formosa; Seller: Melissa A and Chad A Feyerabend; $184,500.
7887 Horn Tavern Road, Fairview, Springway; Buyer: Michelle R Gerety; Seller: Rachel O Meadors; $205,000.
Brooklet Cove, Fairview, Deer Valley; Buyer: Todd Theroff; Seller: Ole South Properties Inc; $304,510.
7163 Triple Crown Lane, Fairview, Heartland Reserve; Buyer: Jennifer and Robin C Rutherford; Seller: Jones Co of TN LLC; $419,800.
7134 Glenhaven Drive, Fairview, Glenhaven; Buyer: Rebecca A Wall; Seller: David L Bibee; $195,000.
7323 Horn Tavern Road, Fairview, Horn Tavern Estates; Buyer: Lisa Ann Gusty; Seller: Robert E Corliss; $232,000.
7329 Sullivan Road, Fairview, Sullivan Fannie Estates; Buyer: Curtis Poe; Seller: Arthur V Stinson; $80,000.
821 Victoria Drive, Franklin, Rebel Meadows; Buyer: Andrew G Mornout; Seller: Kathy S and Richard Pearson; $315,000.
2704 McLemore Way, Franklin, McLemore Farms; Buyer: Audrey S and Thomas G Kuhn; Seller: Shannon and Richard M Lambert; $565,000.
5038 Rockport Avenue, Franklin, Stream Valley; Buyer: Julia A and Wesley B McDaniel; Seller: NVR Inc; $593,734.
390 Southwinds Drive, Franklin, Woodlands; Buyer: GSKS Properties LLC; Seller: David Copper LLC; $1,000,000.
1015 Generations Way, Franklin, Franklin Christian Academy; Buyer: Franklin TN Alzheimers Investors LLC; Seller: Harpeth Medical Investors LLC; $1,400,000.
5084 Donovan Street, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: Melonnie and Donald H Klein; Seller: Mike Ford Custom Builders LLC; $451,275.
3201 Baker Lane, Franklin, Kinnard Springs; Buyer: Mary Ann and David L Ragan; Seller: Wendy and Les Boehme; $896,000.
5888 Pinewood Road, Franklin; Buyer: Willow Branch Partners LLC; Seller: C E Crews Jr KC Trust; $150,000.
516 Eastview Drive, Franklin, Eastview; Buyer: Woodroof Corner LLC; Seller: William T Smithson; $189,000.
306 Everbright Avenue, Franklin, Everbright; Buyer: TBM Properties LLC; Seller: Barbara M Ables; $250,000.
1060 Clifton Street, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: Natalie Madge and John P Haines; Seller: SLC Homebuilding LLC; $562,122.
5411 Pinewood Road, Franklin; Buyer: Jedidiah LLC; Seller: Floyd Moss Rev Living Trust; $135,000.
2056 Beamon Drive, Franklin, Highlands at Ladd Park; Buyer: Casey and Travis Brown; Seller: NSH Nashville LLC; $428,165.
516 Castlebury Court, Franklin, Buckingham Park; Buyer: Diana Vraney; Seller: Larry Cox; $285,000.
5114 Donovan Street, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: Virginia and Jeffrey V Brys; Seller: Mike Ford Custom Builders LLC; $465,740.
2121 New Highway 96 West, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: SLC Homebuilding LLC; Seller: Westhaven Partners LLC; $137,868.
4336 Peyt-Trinity Road, Franklin; Buyer: Aspen and Raymond Lee Luzier Jr; Seller: CC Bishop Investments LLC; $275,000.
2014 Beamon Drive, Franklin, Highlands at Ladd Park; Buyer: Theresa Michelle Harris; Seller: NSH Nashville LLC; $489,645.
466 River Bluff Drive, Franklin, Riverbluff; Buyer: Celebration Homes LLC; Seller: Riverbluff Investments LLC; $110,000.
9112 Keats Street, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: Kathy and John Reynolds; Seller: Caroline C and Johnston Cooper Hopkins; $620,000.
1248 Carriage Park Drive, Franklin, Carriage Park Condos; Buyer: Genovese D Gallagher; Seller: Monica and Mark W Hudgins; $216,750.
5001 Ryecroft Lane, Franklin, Highlands at Ladd Park; Buyer: Erin Williams; Seller: NSH Nashville LLC; $441,901.
479 Forrest Park Circle, Franklin, Forrest Crossing; Buyer: Sandra and Justin Collins; Seller: Julianne L and Jeffrey A Caldwell; $429,900.
3601 Leipers Valley Trail, Franklin, Leipers Valley; Buyer: Charles J English; Seller: Lepley Properties LLC; $348,000.
1552 Championship Boulevard, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: 1552 Championship LLC; Seller: Anita G and Harry P Daily; $835,000.
Waddell Hollow Road, Franklin; Buyer: Kari Paige and Jason Grant Buck; Seller: Lisa M and Jim Fitzsimmons; $210,000.
1307 Windsor Drive, Franklin, West Meade; Buyer: Karen Ritchey; Seller: Andrew Gentry Fox; $219,900.
502 Tiger Lily Court, Franklin, Sullivan Farms; Buyer: Ruth Elise Bates and Eugene Franklin Caldwell; Seller: Amy T and Andrew B Brown; $336,900.
807 Ronald Drive, Franklin, Rebel Meadows; Buyer: Megan I and Nathaneal M Galaske; Seller: Israel Holliday; $349,000.
Rich Circle, Franklin, Highlands at Ladd Park; Buyer: Burnswick Construction Co Inc; Seller: Boulevard Building Group LLC; $270,000.
4437 Savage Pointe Drive, Franklin, Savage Pointe; Buyer: Suzanne M and David N Banker; Seller: Samantha and Kevin Santilli; $529,900.
1394 Buckingham Circle, Franklin, Buckingham Park; Buyer: Anna Conlee and Gerald Jonathan Jones; Seller: Emma and Matthew McCarthy; $395,000.
2125 Summer Hill Circle, Franklin, Summer Hill; Buyer: Kelly J Roy and Michael M Meyers; Seller: Sherry A and Jesse C Bowe; $864,000.
706 Fountainwood Boulevard, Franklin, Willowsprings; Buyer: Ruth Lea and Andrew J Larsen; Seller: Jackie and Lewis Bonadies; $520,735.
5024 Rockport Avenue, Franklin, Stream Valley; Buyer: Farhana Nazmin and Mo Saidur Rahman; Seller: N P Dodge Jr and the N P Dodge Jr Trust; $583,000.
409 Strathmore Drive, Franklin, Sullivan Farms; Buyer: Margaret P McLaughlin and Matthew R Hoek; Seller: Theresa Michelle Harris; $437,500.
368 Byron Way, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: M Kathryne and James W Bauerly; Seller: Rachael Krupek Duperrieu; $425,000.
1036 Clifton Street, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: Helen and David Rood; Seller: SLC Homebuilding LLC; $564,656.
710 Abbott Place, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: Rachael Emma Krupek and Steven Wynn Duperieu; Seller: Bonnie Alsup and Kim Alan Richardson; $650,000.
335 Starling Lane, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: Lee I and David R Farabaugh; Seller: Carol A Thomas; $624,200.
Streamside Lane, Franklin, Stream Valley; Buyer: NVR Inc; Seller: Stream Valley Franklin LLC; $94,567.
Rural Plains Circle, Franklin, Berry Farms Town Center; Buyer: Laurene Giagnorio; Seller: Regent Homes LLC; $301,350.
205 Coffenbury Court, Franklin, Stream Valley; Buyer: Meredith D and David A Gauthier Jr; Seller: NVR Inc; $416,151.
108 Addison Avenue, Franklin, Westhaven; Buyer: Kimberly M and Jonathan M Davis; Seller: Jessica R and Robert M Cietek Jr; $620,000.
161 Grigsby Road, Franklin, Highlands at Ladd Park; Buyer: Sara Beth and Scott Matthew Miller; Seller: Jill and Kunu Kaushal; $540,000.
2125 Homestead Lane, Franklin, Heritage Pointe; Buyer: Cornerstone Investments Inc; Seller: Priority Trustee Services of TN LLC; $610,000.
106 Granville Road, Franklin, Orleans Estate Condos; Buyer: Dawn Marie Dejongh; Seller: Dawnita Haywood and Christopher Thurston; $124,000.
108 Sontag Drive, Franklin, Polk Place; Buyer: Paula D and James W Cannon; Seller: Christina S and John J Latina Jr; $460,000.
5556 Hargrove Road, Franklin; Buyer: Meredith B and Christopher M Weis; Seller: Citifinancial Servicing LLC; $115,000.
3124 Bruce Gardens Circle, Franklin, Spencer Hall; Buyer: Christina N and Timothy H Thom; Seller: Jessica Barrera and Josh Knotts; $485,000.
2007 Beamon Drive, Franklin, Highlands at Ladd Park; Buyer: Rosario and Ian A Minchey; Seller: NSH Nashville LLC; $451,872.
1101 Downs Boulevard #96, Franklin, Hardison Hills; Buyer: Smitha and Ravi Tiyyagura; Seller: Mary K and Ian Z Henderson; $200,000.
4443 Harpeth School Road, Franklin; Buyer: Brianne and Jarrad Grant Shivers; Seller: Doris Irene and Gary Pedrick; $250,000.
405 Autumn Lake Trail, Franklin, Cool Springs East; Buyer: Mary and Mark Stamelos; Seller: Peggy S and Glen F Bartosh; $725,000.
3014 Bent Tree Road, Franklin, Falcon Creek; Buyer: Robin Harris; Seller: Mary Lisa Manier; $299,900.
4115 Verde Meadow Drive, Franklin, Village of Clovercroft; Buyer: Mary Brad Petty; Seller: Patrick P Jackson; $559,899.
217 Scurlock Court, Franklin, Cool Springs East; Buyer: Elizabeth and Grant Hinton; Seller: Jennifer and Eric Davis; $549,000.
90 Clovercroft Preserve, Franklin, Clovercroft Preserve; Buyer: NVR Inc; Seller: Clovercroft Preserve LLC; $157,000.
243 Bateman Avenue, Franklin, Cool Springs East; Buyer: Jong Chul and Joo Hyang Choi Park; Seller: Zhizhou and Lijun Wang; $425,000.
421 Grant Park Drive, Franklin, Residences of Grant Park; Buyer: Amanda Marie Mills; Seller: Vicki Lynch and William Allen Sherrard; $421,000.
3611 Herbert Drive, Franklin, Breezeway; Buyer: Maria Mercedes and Jason Wayne Cluck; Seller: Ladonna Y Boyd; $657,000.
199 Broadwell Circle, Franklin, Cool Springs East; Buyer: Ellen H and James D Finney; Seller: Paula M and Ronald E Taylor; $455,000.
3201 Aspen Grove Drive #K6, Franklin, Aspen Grove; Buyer: Robert W Bates; Seller: Robert M Lufkin; $270,000.
1031 Nolencrest Drive, Franklin, Tap Root Hills; Buyer: Alison A and Blake S Blackshear; Seller: Patterson Co LLC; $494,113.
225 Bateman Avenue, Franklin, Cool Springs East; Buyer: Graham Perkins; Seller: Faye W Goins; $380,000.
Edward Curd Lane, Franklin, Highfield Park; Buyer: Project Holding Co LLC; Seller: Small/Curd Road LP; $9,600,000.
4104 Clovercroft Road, Franklin; Buyer: Holly Holy LLC; Seller: Cornerstone Investments Inc; $1,500,000.
106 Mission Court #801, Franklin, Mission County Office Condo; Buyer: Maria and Jeremiah Steinhauer; Seller: Randall Alex Thompson; $225,000.
307 Neely Court, Franklin, Cool Springs East; Buyer: Megan A and Jonathan M Williams; Seller: Kimberly L and Matthew T McCall; $419,900.
1343 Mother Boulevard, Franklin, Gateway Village; Buyer: Patrick Jackson; Seller: Natalie B Ruggiero; $434,990.
8000 Penbrook Drive, Franklin, Fieldstone Farms; Buyer: Emory Christopher Martin; Seller: William H Mahler Jr; $323,853.
508 Bridal Way Court, Franklin, Fieldstone Farms; Buyer: Lee and Robert Brewster; Seller: Tammy Lynn Easley; $299,900.
2141 Hartland Road, Franklin; Buyer: Turnberry Homes LLC; Seller: McKay Living Trust; $4,000,000.
278 Gateway Court, Franklin, Commons at Gateway; Buyer: Susan D Shell; Seller: Patterson Co LLC; $360,000.
151 Clarendon Circle, Franklin, Fieldstone Farms; Buyer: Sandra K and Lawrence D Patrick; Seller: Linda J Johnson; $349,200.
329 Cannonade Circle, Franklin, Fieldstone Farms; Buyer: Susan M and Brian Fuzzell; Seller: Deborah K and Thomas R Kleinschmidt; $365,000.
1225 Kilrush Drive, Franklin, River Landing; Buyer: Melodee and David Shatswell; Seller: Susan D and Thomas J Schumacker; $800,000.
339 Colt Lane, Franklin, Meadowgreen Acres; Buyer: David Rosen; Seller: Donna Osburn; $280,000.
197 Boxwood Drive, Franklin, River Rest; Buyer: Don E Sherwood Family Trust; Seller: Elaine H and Phillip D Husband; $330,000.
861 Stonebrook Boulevard, Nolensville, Stonebrook; Buyer: Alan Smith; Seller: Susan Reed and Douglas McLean; $330,000.
164 Whitney Park Drive, Nolensville, Whitney Park; Buyer: Tara J and Nathan Page; Seller: Jones Co of TN LLC; $423,605.
9130 Holstein Drive, Nolensville, Farms at Clovercroft; Buyer: Melissa S and Jeremy P Hand; Seller: Turnberry Homes LLC; $770,419.
155 Whitney Park Drive, Nolensville, Whitney Park; Buyer: Jia Zhuang; Seller: Jones Co of TN LLC; $464,875.
1208 Countryside Road, Nolensville, Stonebrook; Buyer: Katherine and James Toney; Seller: Tosha R and Dennis Michael Haynes; $300,000.
1729 Warren Hollow Road, Nolensville; Buyer: Renny A and Nancy K Osburn; Seller: Susan H and David V Waddell; $610,000.
1423 Bluegrass Road, Nolensville, Stonebrook; Buyer: Martha E and Brian J Lewis; Seller: Christopher A Campbell; $286,900.
7399 Nolensville Road, Nolensville; Buyer: Terravista Development Co; Seller: Baldeep S Hayer; $1,200,000.
7407 Nolensville Road, Nolensville; Buyer: Terravista Development Co; Seller: Linda J and Donald R Rawls; $750,000.
1237 Fallsworth Drive, Nolensville, Whitney Park; Buyer: Cindy J Forman and Danielle G Kendall; Seller: Jones Co of TN LLC; $478,648.
731 Eldon Lane, Nolensville, Summerlyn; Buyer: Kohn Lee and Soo Lee; Seller: Jones Co of TN LLC; $486,475.
2289 Jo Ann Drive, Spring Hill, Spring Hill Estates; Buyer: AH4R-TN 3 LLC; Seller: Kathleen and Leon Verdoorn; $208,000.
1938 Portway Road, Spring Hill, Ridgeport; Buyer: Caroline Blythe and Jacob Thomas Fleming; Seller: Stephen H Schwandner; $250,000.
1019 Hemlock Drive, Spring Hill, Woodside; Buyer: CSH Property One LLC; Seller: Nicole C Mitchell; $264,000.
Easement at 2900 Burtonwood Drive, Spring Hill, Burtonwood; Buyer: State of Tennessee; Seller: AMH2014-3 Borrower LLC; $701.
Easement at 2900 Burtonwood Drive, Spring Hill, Burtonwood; Buyer: State of Tennessee; Seller: AMH2014-3 Borrower LLC; $899.
6048 Sanmar Drive, Spring Hill, Wades Grove; Buyer: Lessie B Baskin; Seller: John Maher Builders Inc; $320,000.
6034 Sanmar Drive, Spring Hill, Wades Grove; Buyer: Erica A and Tyler H Kahn; Seller: John Maher Builders Inc; $315,760.
707 Rain Meadow Court, Spring Hill, Brixworth; Buyer: Patterson Co LLC; Seller: Avenue Homes LLC; $87,000.
1958 Allerton Way, Spring Hill, Cooper Ridge; Buyer: Sheila R and Rodrick A Montgomery; Seller: NVR Inc; $345,861.
1960 Allerton Way, Spring Hill, Cooper Ridge; Buyer: Casandra and Alan Bates; Seller: NVR Inc; $321,870.
105 Hiram Court, Spring Hill, Baker Springs; Buyer: Misty and Cameron McLaughlin; Seller: Jennifer Stone; $220,000.
1219 Chapmans Retreat Drive, Spring Hill, Chapmans Retreat; Buyer: Lindsay and Christian Vandever; Seller: Christopher J Lafave; $290,000.
6051 Sanmar Drive, Spring Hill, Wades Grove; Buyer: Nicole and Brandon Williams; Seller: John Maher Builders Inc; $377,442.
4023 Williford Way, Spring Hill, Tanyard Springs; Buyer: Wayne M Eckerle; Seller: Kandra N and Edmund T Morison; $354,900.
200 Oldbury Lane, Spring Hill, Shirebrook; Buyer: Donna G Wilkes; Seller: Regent Homes LLC; $254,225.
1043 Hemlock Drive, Spring Hill, Woodside; Buyer: Hannah and Brad Oliver; Seller: Ruby Alene and Donald Edmondson; $240,000.
301 Cashmere Drive, Spring Hill, Cherry Glen Condo; Buyer: Carmen D and Stephen L Traylor; Seller: Dorothy L Stanley; $91,640.
Easement at 2919 Sams Court, Spring Hill, Pipkin Hills; Buyer: State of Tennessee; Seller: Kristin M Reynolds and Jeremy D Williams; $1,600.
1621 Zurich Drive, Spring Hill, Wyngate Estates; Buyer: Russell D Urquhart; Seller: Day Joiner and William B Henderson; $277,000.
1409 Savannah Park Drive, Spring Hill, Spring Hill Place; Buyer: Elizabeth L and Jeffrey M Weatherly; Seller: Wilma and Richard Marlow; $485,000.
4026 Haversack Drive, Spring Hill, Arbors at Autumn Ridge; Buyer: Denise L and Robert J Jones; Seller: Enterprises LLC D/B/A Landmark Building Co; $449,900.
1009 Misty Morn Circle, Spring Hill, Highlands at Campbell Station; Buyer: Kathy and Richard Pearson; Seller: Margaret and G W Brown; $238,000.
1012 Lexington Farms Drive, Spring Hill, Lexington Farms; Buyer: Amber and Matthew Williams; Seller: Lilian K Thomas-Wilson; $283,000.
6044 Sanmar Drive, Spring Hill, Wades Grove; Buyer: Renee Hall and Mark Dragone; Seller: John Maher Builders Inc; $299,556.
3007 Fresh Water Court, Spring Hill, Tanyard Springs; Buyer: Pamela Ann and Steven Kent Clark; Seller: Ashley and Mandi Gaskin; $346,500.
206 Oldbury Lane, Spring Hill, Shirebrook; Buyer: Rebecca Lee Curry; Seller: Regent Homes LLC; $209,250.
4060 Miles Johnson Parkway, Spring Hill, Autumn Ridge; Buyer: Dena M Provenzano and Caleb R Hunter; Seller: Dustin W Cheek; $480,000.
1068 Cantwell Place, Spring Hill, Belshire; Buyer: Debbie and Dennis L Fenton; Seller: Julia Lynne and Michael P Atzert; $420,000.
Right of way at 100 Baker Springs Lane, Spring Hill, Baker Springs; Buyer: State of Tennessee; Seller: Lisa and George Martin; $48,100.
2006 Via Francesco Court, Spring Hill, Benevento East; Buyer: Katherine and Michael Nash; Seller: Robert Wagers; $399,900.
2983 Stewart Campbell PT, Spring Hill, Cherry Grove; Buyer: Elaine and Steven P Hoff; Seller: R G Custom Homes LLC; $525,000.
2004 Devonwood Drive, Thompson’s Station, Fields of Canterbury; Buyer: Mary Kelsey and Zachary Brian Jeppesen; Seller: Leah M and Bryan J Hurlbut; $418,000.
2710 Camden Court, Thompson’s Station, Cameron Farms; Buyer: Kristopher Sage; Seller: Elaine M and Gregory F Sage; $250,000.
2105 Newark Lane, Thompson’s Station, Towne Village at Tollgate; Buyer: Janice Carnal and Jacqueline Weatherly; Seller: Becky S Dean; $274,000.
1105 Newpath Court, Thompson’s Station, Newport Crossing; Buyer: Chandler and William Blalock; Seller: Casandra M Bates; $225,000.
3524 Robbins Nest Road, Thompson’s Station, Bridgemore Village; Buyer: Tiffany and Chad Anderson; Seller: Meritage Homes of TN Inc; $537,049.
716 Rain Meadow Court, Thompson’s Station, Brixworth; Buyer: Angela and Trenton McCally; Seller: Celebration Homes LLC; $417,765.
2655 Dunstan Place, Thompson’s Station, Fields of Canterbury; Buyer: April E and Joshua P Cribbs; Seller: Willow Branch Partners LLC; $416,000.
2640 Paddock Park Drive, Thompson’s Station, Fields of Canterbury; Buyer: Kristin L and Christopher J Lafave; Seller: Willow Branch Partners LLC; $411,605.
2825 Stacey Street, Thompson’s Station, Pecan Hills; Buyer: Laurie A and David W Malone; Seller: Laurel A and Andrew S Walsh; $525,000.
2797 Jutes Drive, Thompson’s Station, Crowne Pointe; Buyer: Deborah T and Herbert F Nelson Jr; Seller: Elizabeth L and Jeffrey Michael Weatherly; $293,700.
804 Cashmere Drive, Thompson’s Station, Cherry Glen Condo; Buyer: Katherine M and Toby R Kemp; Seller: Breanne E Martel and Trenton M Ehrlich; $157,000. | 2019-04-19T02:44:13Z | https://nolensvillehomepage.com/just-sold-property-transfers-as-of-april-24-2017/ |
I’M ASHAMED TO ADMIT that, until a few months ago, I’d rather forgotten what Baz Luhrmann, the Aussie mastermind behind Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and, most recently, the musical spectacular Moulin Rouge, could do. More important — and, to my mind, improbable — I’d forgotten how much I liked it.
I don’t expect to make that mistake again.
It’s been nearly five years since his electrified William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet shot to the number one spot at the box office its opening weekend, propelled by the dollars of pre-teen Leo fans and My So-Called Life lovers eager to see Angela Chase play the balcony scene and kiss a boy even dreamier — and more emotive — than the blankly mysterious Jordan Catalano.
And in the four years since the doomed lovers left theaters, it’s been business as usual at the ticket window. Action-packed blockbusters and romantic-comedy pablum (both as ever-present and inevitable as death and taxes) have shared the marquee with a stream of teen-targeted dreck (Freddie Prinze Jr., I’m looking at you); edgy, violent comedies; and quiet and quirky character-driven indies.
But Baz Luhrmann…you don’t find films like his. And that’s more than a shame. Because this year he unleashed the most refreshing product to hit the big screen in recent memory. With its pop songs as narrative, its visual and emotional extravagance, and its unabashed zealousness and heart, Moulin Rouge is everything those ironic, talky, world-weary indies to which I otherwise gravitate are not. And I love Luhrmann for it.
He’s spent more than a decade creating new worlds (on both stage and screen) by re-imagining those we think we know. In a 1990 production of La Boheme for the Australian Opera, he made an oft-told story new again by hurling the time line forward more than a century to 1950s Paris. His 1992 film debut, Strictly Ballroom, was a sweet-tempered and wacky fairy tale — inspired by, of all things, Cold War oppression — about an ugly ducking and a rebellious dancer who — that’s right — fall in love.Ballroom won over the audience at Cannes and earned Luhrmann status as an exciting new talent. Asked about his motivations in a 1993 interview in the_ New York Times,_ Luhrmann told writer Peter Brunette that he believed the best drama was produced by artists in touch with the popular culture and that he felt “driven” to emulate the wide appeal of Shakespeare. His next film, of course, was William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet.
Received at the time of its release as an audacious, brilliant failure, if you weigh the critical commentary onto one scale, Romeo + Juliet seems now, as viewed through Rouge-colored glasses, a million-dollar rehearsal for Luhrmann before he and his team set out to make their own love story spectacular. Like the aspiring author who copies another author’s book word for word so that the rhythm might seep into his own hand and mind, Luhrmann transferred the Bard’s tale to his own medium, offering the world a kind of video picture-book of the tragedy. The director was quick to emphasize (see the title) that the film’s screenplay was straight from Shakespeare’s text, but just how much of his verse actually made it to the screen is another matter.
Still reeling from a tab-dropping episode with Mercutio and “Queen Mab,” Romeo — dressed as a young knight — finds his way through the Capulets’ cacophonous and garish costume party to the quiet of the men’s room. There, through a gorgeous aqua aquarium, he spies Juliet (in the adjacent ladies’ room) for the first time. Luhrmann slyly shows us that their views of each other are distorted by the water and two layers of glass — don’t we always see what we want to see in those first exciting moments of infatuation? Her head shifting back and forth among the vibrantly colored fish, Juliet, stunningly costumed as an angel, by turns holds and ducks Romeo’s gaze for a few exquisite moments. Could anyone ask for a more beautiful reality to which to come down? By the time the Nurse pulls the young girl away, Romeo is, understandingly, smitten.
But here’s the rub: Luhrmann has created this intimate, tentative, breathtaking scene…and his two principals have yet to utter a word of Shakespeare’s language to each other. That’s the way in films by Baz. Big scenes and big moments carry the story, sweeping you along until the film’s end.
Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet and Strictly Ballroom comprise what Luhrmann calls his Red Curtain trilogy, films populated by easily recognizable characters and set in a heightened creative world that is at once familiar and exotic. Each Red Curtain film, Luhrmann explains on ClubMoulinRouge.com, “has a device which awakens the audience to the experience and the storyteller’s presence, encouraging them to be constantly aware that they are in fact watching a film.” In Ballroom the device is dance, in Romeo + Juliet it is Shakespeare’s verse and in Moulin Rouge characters break into song at the most dramatic moments.
It’s what makes Luhrmann’s world go round.
While the Moulin Rouge story line is generally borrowed from the myth of Orpheus, the young lad who journeyed to the underbelly and charmed it with his music, Luhrmann gives us a romantic lead strikingly similar to Romeo in his fixation on love. Christian’s a poet; we first glimpse Luhrmann’s Romeo writing verse in his journal as he bemoans being out of favor with his current fixation, Rosaline. Romeo’s “love” for her is shallow, as Father Lawrence tells him; Christian acknowledges, hungrily, that he’s not yet been in love. Neither young man has any idea of the trauma that awaits him when he really falls for a girl.
But we do. Even before a character tells us so, we understand that a romance such as Christian and Satine’s “always ends bad.” And Luhrmann wants it that way. He wants us to immediately understand and recognize the characters — a consumptive courtesan with a heart of gold; a penniless poet with his heart and ideals glowing on his sleeve; a rich dandy who thinks he can (or knows he must) buy love — so that we can jump right in. Never mind struggling to learn some new subtlety of the human experience; with Luhrmann, the film is the experience. He aims to illustrate the things we all already know — love, beauty, pain — but may have forgotten or stored away under intellectual labels. His Moulin Rouge is about fun and idealism and heartbreak and feeling.
And that’s where the actors come in. Lavish sets and Luhrmann’s (sometimes frustrating) penchant for quick edits are breathtaking and exhilarating in their place, but it’s the actors who anchor — and sell — his flights of fancy. In Romeo + Juliet it’s DiCaprio who reels us in just as the cartoonish depiction of the warring clans is growing tired. His pensive face fills the screen against a tinted, sunlit background — and suddenly the film has heart. And as Juliet Claire Danes exhibits a mournful gravity that makes her immediate marriage to Romeo seem not impulsive, but necessary; through her eyes, we see that Romeo is indeed the knight come to rescue her from her unhappy home.
Of course, DiCaprio, the screen embodiment of disenchanted youth, and Danes, who gained recognition playing an introspective teen wise beyond her years, were hardly playing against type as the doomed young lovers. Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman took considerably greater risks when they signed on to sing, dance, emote and pratfall in a Luhrmann musical that no one seemed able to aptly describe. While Romeo and Juliet were the (largely) calm center in their film, with other characters handling the comic relief and Sword-toting swagger, in Moulin Rouge McGregor and particularly Kidman have to do it all.
As the courtesan Satine — reigning star of stage and bedroom — Kidman becomes a turn-of-the-19th-century pop star who rules as much through glamour and charm as through talent. (She has a sweet voice, but it’s not strong enough to have built her legend alone.) We first see her glamorously dangling from a swing above a sea of black-tie gentlemen; then, moments later, she’s all greed and multiple personalities as she plots how best to seduce a rich duke in the audience. She doesn’t quiet down until Christian — romance incarnate as played by McGregor — belts out Elton John’s Your Song — for her.
Satine, with all her masks and contradictory allegiances, is the more multi-faceted character. But McGregor has the task of making a puppy dog-like poet substantial enough to be worth throwing one’s world into tumult over. His nuanced performance as Christian is as near to three-dimensional as Luhrmann’s script with Craig Pearce (their longtime friendship and collaboration began, appropriately enough, when they performed together in Guys and Dolls) will allow. With his marvelous voice and expressive face, McGregor is all shiny optimism and youthful ideals as a young boy in love with love, but he also shows us why Christian pursues Satine so unabashedly: This is a boy who has yet to know the heartbreak of not always getting what he really wants.
But Kidman and McGregor have to do much more than play romantic joy and angst, because their director won’t allow any single mood to linger for too long (or, often times, long enough). Moments after their first kiss, his leads are pogoing and mugging like fools in an impromptu song and dance for the duke. In the space of any five minutes, Moulin Rouge is a comedy, then a romance, then a tragedy.
It’s an admirable ambition. The problem, however, is that in today’s world of satellite dishes and a channel for every niche, not everyone wants to sit through the somethings thrown in for everyone else…even when they’re delivered in as quick succession as Luhrmann does in his frenetic musical.
He sees the world in terms of moments — scenes, really — and he uses the same raw materials in his art. In Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann’s insistence on keeping us engaged in the process of watching a film extends not just to setting his story to modern pop songs but also to a zigzag visual style of quick edits and extreme close-ups. As a result, the viewer is often left at a frustrating distance, unable to linger over the breathtaking, lavish costumes and sets, the wonderful performances or the emotions they evoke.
Rapid-fire glimpses of the action may be true to how we experience a setting such as the Moulin Rouge in actuality, of course, but we look to film and literature — to storytellers — to craft a narrative. It’s what we humans are drawn to — it’s why we linger over past events, why we tune into series television, why we read chapter-long descriptions of events that last for mere moments. We’re forever looking inward and outward for meaning, for relationships between events or ideas. Shakespeare has lasted not because he wrote ancient blockbusters but because he so vividly and accurately expressed the intricacies of the human condition — so much so that people who’ve never read one of his plays unknowingly drop his phrases over coffee at the diner.
Luhrmann doesn’t achieve similar depths with his new bag of audiovisual tricks nearly as often as you’d like. But when he does — as when he transforms the Police hit Roxanne into a flashy but affecting tango of heartbreak and innocence lost, effectively cutting between scenes of Satine and the duke, a jealous Christian and an impromptu dance interpreting all of the above — Moulin Rouge becomes a mandatory, unforgettable film-going experience.
Luhrmann labored four years to make Moulin Rouge, his ultimate modern musical…and he says it’s the last of his films in the Red Curtain vein. Next he’ll do something entirely different — maybe a small, gritty character study. The idea, I admit, made me nervous at first — Baz making the kind of film so many others have brought us? — but then I remembered just who was doing the talking.
Let Luhrmann have his way with a more typical genre if he wants to…I’ve seen enough to believe that — come, ahem, what may — anything Baz Luhrmann creates will be delightfully, frustratingly, spectacularly just a little bit unlike anything else on the scene. I wish there were more filmmakers like him. | 2019-04-21T00:42:59Z | http://shinygun.com/articles/40 |
God, God, God, I love thee now.
Before your presence I humbly bow.
A chant, a prayer, to invoke your power.
Each, yes each and every hour.
Oh Eternal Life, there is no end!
I aggregate power and peace release.
Peace now flows right here today.
God’s Eternal Peace we all now share.
I cut through all the vei1s with a sharpened knife.
I transcend the lower and bring out the best.
The Higher Self I gladly reach, .
The channel flows and I start to teach.
A Christed being with Golden Speech.
In all my seven bodies, God’s strength and might.
I lift my being to expanded heights.
I draw from this ocean, and Cosmic Energy flows.
I am filled with God Wisdom, Power, Strength and Might.
God, God, God, to you I bow.
Thy gift of Love I now to the World endow.
Inspired by an Aquarian Foundation Lesson.
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NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner.
Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied Sept. 8, 1997.
Myron Boe, Little Rock, AR, argued (Mark Alan Peoples, Little Rock, AR, on the brief), for Petitioners/Cross-Respondents.
Bruce E. Buchanan, Little Rock, AR, argued (Frederick L. Feinstein, General Counsel, Linda Sher, Associate General Counsel, Aileen A. Armstrong, Deputy Associate General Counsel, and Linda Dreeben, Supervisory Attorney, National Labor Relations Board, Washington, DC, on the brief), for Respondent/Cross-Petitioner.
Before WOLLMAN and MURPHY, Circuit Judges, and TUNHEIM,1 District Judge.
The National Labor Relations Board (Board) found that Precision Industries, Inc. (Precision)2, violated sections 8(a)(1), (3), and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act), 29 U.S.C. §§ 158(a)(1), (3), and (5). The Board found that Precision refused to hire employees formerly employed by its predecessor, Universal Die Casting, Inc. (Universal Die), because those employees were represented by the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) (the union); that Precision did so in order to avoid recognizing and bargaining with the union; and that Precision did in fact refuse to recognize and bargain with the union and unilaterally implemented changes in employment conditions. Precision petitions for review of the Board's decision and order, and the Board cross petitions for enforcement of its order. We deny the petition for review and grant enforcement of the order.
Pace Industries, Inc. (Pace), is an aluminum die casting company located in Harrison, Arkansas, and owned by James Keenan and Bob Gaddy. In 1988, Keenan and Gaddy sought to expand their business and, along with another Pace officer, Jim Alford, formed Precision. In October of 1988, Precision agreed to purchase two plants owned by Universal Die, one located in Little Rock and the other in Malvern, Arkansas. Universal Die-Malvern was unionized, while Universal Die-Little Rock was not.3 Gaddy testified that Precision was interested in Universal Die because Universal Die had been profitable, had a reputation for quality work, and would serve as a basis for future growth. At about the same time as the Universal Die acquisition, Gaddy and Keenan, along with three others, also purchased two other non-union die casting companies in Alabama. In January of 1990, Gaddy and Keenan purchased an additional non-union die casting company.
During the week of October 10, 1988, Precision ran newspaper advertisements soliciting job applications from the general public for employment with Universal Die-Malvern. The employees at Universal Die-Malvern were informed that to secure continued employment they would have to submit applications. On October 14, 1988, Universal Die-Malvern ceased operations and discharged all of its employees. Universal Die-Malvern plant manager, Mike Nowak, continued in his position, as did the majority of all managerial and salaried employees. The Universal Die plant in Little Rock continued operations. Although its employees were required to complete an application, all but two or three of those employed before the purchase by Precision were rehired without any thorough review of the applications.
Precision implemented an elaborate hiring procedure at the Malvern plant, which cost between $75,000 and $100,000 to implement, caused an interruption in production, and resulted in a six to eight week hiring process, which Precision admitted jeopardized its commitments to its customers. Applicants were required to complete a nineteen-page application, which included an eight-page section requesting information such as the applicant's name, address, education, and work history. The application included a five-page medical questionnaire section, followed by a six-page short-answer essay section. Before former Universal Die employees' applications were considered, their personnel files were reviewed, with a notation being made concerning the employees' attendance records, disciplinary actions, and medical limitations.
Applicants who made it through the initial screening and review were then required to undergo a battery of verbal, numerical, and dexterity tests. Dr. Mamdouh Bakr, an industrial engineer whose expertise was in retraining existing employees and not in hiring new employees, was hired to assist in this phase of the hiring process. Malvern plant manager Nowak and Precision's industrial engineer, David Watson, were also recruited to help in this phase of the process. Neither Nowak nor Watson appears to have had any experience in devising and applying tests designed to find suitable die casters.
Applicants who applied for tool and die and maintenance positions were subjected to the National Tool and Machine Association (NTMA) tests, which consisted of mechanical comprehension, verbal, mathematics, and problem-solving tests. Although the NTMA tests are not ordinarily given to maintenance employees, maintenance applicants were also given NTMA tests, as well as an applied electricity test. It is not clear who set the cut-off score for the NTMA tests or how that number was determined.
Other applicants were given Personnel Tests for Industry (PTI) and dexterity tests. The verbal part of the PTI consisted of fifty multiple-choice questions on defining words and identifying the non-relationship of words and phrases. The numerical test consisted of thirty mathematical problems in areas of basic addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. The scores on these two tests were added together, and the passing score was apparently arbitrarily set at thirty. It appears, however, that the cut-off scores were not set until after Nowak and Watson had reviewed a number of the test scores. A five-point bonus was given to former Universal Die employees.
Dr. Bakr designed the dexterity tests, which purportedly tested for speed and accuracy. The tests included a "pegboard test," which consisted of inserting wooden dowels into holes; a "sorting card test," which entailed arranging cards according to the number of holes per card; and a "paint test," which required the applicant to put flat steel washers onto spokes and then remove them. Watson, who admittedly had no testing expertise, was given the responsibility of establishing time limits and penalties for the dexterity tests.
New applicants who successfully completed these tests advanced to the next phase of the hiring procedure--physical examinations and x-rays. Former Universal Die employee-applicants, however, were further reviewed before advancing to this phase. Even after passing the physical and x-ray examinations, the former Universal Die employees' personnel files were again reviewed in order to determine their medical limitations.
Although employees at non-unionized Universal Die-Little Rock were required to complete the application, they were subjected to neither the battery of tests nor the physical examinations. In addition, the plant manager for Universal Die-Little Rock, Roger Connor, had complete discretion in hiring and in fact rehired nearly all of the former employees at that plant. The employees of the three other non-union die casting companies acquired by Gaddy and Keenan were retained without having to complete applications and without having to undergo tests or physical examinations.
Connor and Little Rock sales associate, Debbie Key, questioned Precision officials about the differences in hiring procedures. Although Connor was initially told that the Malvern plant was not as busy as the Little Rock plant and had higher insurance costs, those reasons were never advanced during the investigation or at trial. Rather, Precision officials testified before the administrative law judge (ALJ) that the reason for the difference was the institution of new operating procedures. Connor testified that he asked whether the hiring procedures were an effort to keep out the union, and that his suspicions were later confirmed by Precision officials. Precision officials never denied Connor's accusations, but testified that they told Connor the union was not the reason. Connor and Key were later fired for alleged differences in business philosophies.
Of the 103 former Universal Die-Malvern employees that applied, only some twenty-two were ultimately rehired. Sixty-two of those that were rejected are alleged discriminatees in this action, which was brought by the union and charged Precision with engaging in unfair labor practices. The ALJ concluded that Precision refused to hire those sixty-two former Universal Die-Malvern employees because of their union affiliation and in order to avoid recognizing and bargaining with the union, in violation of sections 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act. In addition, the ALJ found that Precision violated section 8(a)(5) of the Act by unilaterally changing the preexisting conditions of employment.
Precision's first argument is that res judicata bars enforcement of the Board's order. Precision argues that the claims now before the court could have been brought in an earlier lawsuit that the union filed in district court under section 301 of the Act, which alleged that Precision had breached the purchase agreement by refusing to pay plan-provided health and life insurance benefits established in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), thereby violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et. seq. The district court found that Precision had not agreed to assume the insurance benefits program and dismissed the action.
"Under the doctrine of res judicata, a judgment on the merits in a prior suit bars a second suit involving the same parties or their privies based on the same cause of action." Parklane Hosiery Co., Inc. v. Shore, 439 U.S. 322, 326 n. 5, 99 S.Ct. 645, 649 n. 5, 58 L.Ed.2d 552 (1979). Although res judicata bars not only relitigation of claims that a party raised, but also claims the party could have raised in the prior adjudication, see Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 94, 101 S.Ct. 411, 414-15, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980), Precision's assertion that the unfair labor practices claim could have been brought in the earlier proceeding is without merit.
The allegation of unfair labor practices is not a claim that could have been raised in the earlier proceeding, for an allegation of unfair labor practices brought pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 158 of the Act is a claim within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board. See Sears, Roebuck and Co. v. Solien, 450 F.2d 353, 355 (8th Cir.1971) ("It has long been settled that jurisdiction to prevent persons from engaging in unfair labor practices is exclusively vested in the Board and courts of appeals."). Precision argues, however, that although the district court has no jurisdiction to hear a claim of unfair labor practices, the union could have styled its claim of unfair labor practices as a breach of the CBA, which the district court would have had jurisdiction to hear pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 185. Precision's reasoning is flawed, for "[W]hen an activity is arguably subject to § 7 or § 8 of the Act, the States as well as the federal courts must defer to the exclusive competence of the National Labor Relations Board...." San Diego Bldg. Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236, 245, 79 S.Ct. 773, 780, 3 L.Ed.2d 775 (1959)(emphasis added). The unfair labor practices alleged in this claim are more than just "arguably" subject to section 8 of the Act; they fall squarely within its purview, and the district court would have been required to defer to the Board for adjudication of those alleged violations.
Precision contends that substantial evidence does not support the Board's finding of unfair labor practices. As a successor employer, Precision is generally free to set its own terms and conditions of employment. Because Precision has continued the predecessor's business in substantially the same form, however, Precision is obligated to bargain with the union if a majority of Precision's work force were also the predecessor's employees. See U.S. Marine Corp. v. NLRB, 944 F.2d 1305, 1315 (7th Cir.1991) (citing Fall River Dyeing and Finishing Corp. v. NLRB, 482 U.S. 27, 47, 107 S.Ct. 2225, 2238, 96 L.Ed.2d 22 (1987)). Discriminatory hiring decisions and a refusal to employ former employees in order to avoid bargaining obligation constitute a violation of section 8(a)(3) of the Act. Id. The question, then, is whether the hiring procedures reflected an attempt by Precision to avoid its bargaining obligation.
First, we shall require that the General Counsel make a prima facie showing sufficient to support the inference that protected conduct was a "motivating factor" in the employer's decision. Once this is established, the burden will shift to the employer to demonstrate that the same action would have taken place even in the absence of the protected conduct.
Id. at 1089 (footnote omitted). The Board may infer unlawful motivation from direct and circumstantial evidence and is " 'permitted to draw reasonable inferences, and to choose between fairly conflicting views of the evidence.' " Concepts and Designs, Inc. v. NLRB, 101 F.3d 1243, 1245 (8th Cir.1996) (citations omitted).
We afford "great deference to the Board's affirmation of the ALJ's findings." Town and Country Elec., Inc. v. NLRB, 106 F.3d 816, 819 (8th Cir.1997). The Board's order will be enforced "if the Board has correctly applied the law and its factual findings are supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole, even if we might have reached a different decision had the matter been before us de novo." Id. Although in the past we have applied a "shock the conscience" standard of review to an ALJ's credibility determinations, we have recently indicated a preference for considering credibility determinations "with the rest of the NLRB's factual findings under the general substantial evidence test derived from Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951)." Id. We conclude that the record reveals that the Board's findings and its credibility determinations are supported by substantial evidence.
A. Substantial evidence supports the Board's credibility determinations.
The ALJ conducted an exhaustive analysis of the testimony and made detailed findings as to the credibility of the witnesses, as evidenced by his fifty-two page opinion. In crediting Connor's and Key's testimony, the ALJ found that while there were some variations in their accounts of the events that took place, these inconsistencies were minor and did not relate to the substance of their allegations. Other evidence tending to detract from Connor's and Key's credibility was likewise insubstantial and was refuted by evidence to the contrary. For instance, although there was testimony that Connor was bitter about being fired and that he wished to "get back at" Precision, that evidence was offset by the fact that Connor first raised the issue of the discrepancy in hiring procedures sometime in October of 1988, which was prior to his March 1989 termination. Connor's willingness to cooperate in helping with Precision's customers even after his termination further refutes the assertion that his accusations were motivated by revenge. The ALJ remarked that during their testimony neither Connor nor Key appeared to harbor animosity or bitterness toward Precision. Furthermore, Connor's credibility and the veracity of his allegations are bolstered by the fact that even after Connor questioned Precision about its motives in implementing the hiring procedures, he was made vice president of Precision and given a pay raise.
We also conclude that sufficient evidence exists to affirm the ALJ's decision to discredit the testimony of Alford, Gaddy, and Nowak. These witnesses' accounts of events are not only self-contradictory, but at times also contradict each other. In addition, even after the decision had been made to close the Little Rock facility, Alford and Gaddy admittedly lied to Connor about the possibility of the Little Rock plant remaining open.
B. Substantial evidence supports the Board's finding that anti-union animus was a motivating factor behind Precision's hiring decisions.
We also conclude that substantial evidence supports the Board's finding that anti-union animus was a motivating factor in Precision's implementation of the hiring procedure.
Alford testified that Precision officials learned in August or September of 1988 that if it hired more than fifty percent of Universal Die's work force, it would have to bargain with the union. It was during this time period that Precision decided to implement the hiring procedure.
As indicated earlier, when first questioned by Connor about the differences in hiring procedures, Alford gave as a reason the fact that the Malvern plant was not as busy as the Little Rock plant and that higher insurance costs mandated the physical examinations at Malvern. This explanation, however, was never asserted during the investigation or at trial. Connor testified that the next time he questioned Alford about the reason for the different procedures, Connor remarked that it was to get rid of the union. Connor testified that Alford never denied the statement, but instead told Connor to never say that. Connor testified that three or four subsequent conversations about the hiring procedures at Malvern revealed that it was an attempt by Precision to keep its new work force to less than fifty percent former Universal Die employees so as to avoid having to bargain with the union. Precision's witnesses never explicitly denied making remarks about getting rid of the union, testifying only that they "didn't remember" or were "not aware" of those statements.
Connor also testified to conversations with Nowak in which they discussed the fifty percent ratio. Connor stated that he and Nowak frequently discussed the progress of the hiring procedure and specifically the number of former Universal Die employees that had been hired up to that point. Connor recalled that about a month after Precision had purchased Universal Die, Nowak told him that things looked good because only seventeen of the forty-three employees hired were former Universal Die employees. Connor also stated that Nowak told him that the less Connor knew, the better, because they would ultimately end up going to court.
Connor also testified about a meeting with Nowak and Universal Die's former owner, Lou Zachery. Connor testified that he heard Zachery say that union representation was costly and caused many headaches and that he had made a mistake in not getting rid of the union at Malvern. When questioned about these remarks, Nowak did not contradict them, but merely stated that Precision's relationship with the union was good.
Anti-union motivation is also evident from the reasons why many of the alleged discriminatees were not hired. Eight of the alleged discriminatees were rejected because they had entered too high a wage rate on their applications. Several of these, however, also indicated that they would accept a reasonable or compatible rate. Three were not hired because their medical information was incomplete; however, all three had been Universal Die employees for the previous eleven years and all of the requested information was contained in their personnel files. One applicant was rejected because he failed to list his industry experience; he had been an employee with Universal Die for twenty-three years and had indicated that he had a total of forty years' maintenance experience. The ALJ noted that six non-Universal Die applicants had been hired despite similar omissions in their applications. An additional seven former Universal Die employees were rejected because of medical limitations. Some of the purported limitations were unrelated to positions for which the applicants applied, however, and some of these applicants were rejected despite their past demonstrated ability to perform the job. Eight non-Universal Die employees were hired even though they had attained test scores for which Universal Die applicants were eliminated. Eight Universal Die applicants were rejected because they failed the back x-ray, even though they were actively employed before the October 14 closing. Two union officers that passed the tests were never notified to take the physical exams and thus were not considered for employment.
Viewing the record as a whole, then, we conclude that substantial evidence exists to support the ALJ's finding of anti-union animus, and the first element of the Wright Line test has therefore been satisfied.
C. Precision has not met its burden of showing that it would have taken the same action absent its anti-union animus.
Gaddy and Alford testified that the hiring procedure was implemented in large part because of Precision's desire to implement statistical process control (SPC), a process which relies less on inspections at the end of the production process and more on the involvement of the workers to detect problems during production and at the earliest possible stage. The ALJ discredited that testimony not only because of Gaddy's and Alford's pecuniary motives and contradictory testimony, but also because they admittedly never advanced that reason during the entire investigation. Moreover, Alford never stated that SPC was the reason in his affidavit to the Board, either initially or when given the chance to review his affidavit and make additions or deletions. The ALJ also pointed out that although SPC-capability was allegedly such an overriding concern, neither Gaddy nor Alford questioned anyone about SPC-capability prior to purchasing Universal Die. Moreover, the assertion that an entire new workforce was needed in order to implement SPC is refuted by Gaddy's and Alford's testimony that Universal Die was purchased because they thought it was SPC-capable. Furthermore, other evidence indicated that an SPC program was already to some extent in place at Universal Die-Malvern.
Precision also claims that its change in operations from mostly proprietary work to all custom work warranted the hiring of a new work force and created the need for the hiring procedures used. Nowak's testimony, however, reveals that he was given instructions to devise a hiring procedure in September of 1988, which according to the ALJ's findings was well in advance of any discussions that Nowak had about Universal Die employees' new job functions. Another fact that belies the assertion that custom work warranted the new work force is that, according to Precision's own witnesses, the only difference between custom and proprietary work is ownership of the dies--the die is owned by the customer in custom work, while Precision owns the dies for proprietary work. In addition, Alford admitted that the same basic jobs that were done at Malvern before the sale continued to be performed there even after the sale to Precision. Those facts, along with the facts that Malvern was already doing some custom work and Little Rock was doing all custom work, refute Precision's assertion that a new work force was mandated by the change in operations.
The alleged need for the physical and x-ray examinations is contradicted by the fact that the new castings that were to be made at Precision were only a few pounds heavier than the previous castings and that many of them were very light, weighing only one to three pounds.
Alford stated that the reason for the testing and examinations was that with the changes planned at Universal Die-Malvern, the work and equipment would be more sophisticated and the required engineering and intellectual capacity of the workers would be greater. Alford admitted, however, that the work at the Alabama plants, which were both non-union, involved greater degrees of sophistication and engineering, yet no testing of any sort was done there. Maintenance applicants were required to take the NTMA tests despite the fact that those tests are not recommended for testing in that position. The NTMA tests are appropriate to test machinists and tool and die makers, yet the NTMA tests were not given to such employees at the non-unionized Alabama plants, where manufacturing and major repairing of dies was done.
The dexterity tests were devised by Bakr, Nowak, and Watson, none of whom had experience in developing and applying tests for hiring employees for die casting positions. There was no evidence to show that Bakr was instructed by Alford or Gaddy to design tests that would specifically identify SPC qualities, and the tests were not shown to test for abilities relating to functions of either SPC or non-SPC die casting. The passing scores for the tests were likewise arbitrary and were established only after more than 200 of the tests had been reviewed.
Significantly, although Watson admitted that experience was, overall, the best indicator of job performance, experience was in no way factored into the screening process.
We conclude that substantial evidence supports the Board's finding that the proffered reasons for implementing the hiring procedure were largely pretextual and that Precision did not sustain its burden of showing that it would have taken the same action even absent the unlawful motivation.
Precision contends that the Board's remedy exceeds its authority. In reviewing this claim, we keep in mind that the Board has "primary responsibility and broad discretion to devise remedies that effectuate the policies of the Act, subject only to limited judicial review." Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883, 898-99, 104 S.Ct. 2803, 2812, 81 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984). The "Board draws on a fund of knowledge and expertise all its own, and its choice of remedy must therefore be given special respect by reviewing courts." NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575, 612 n. 32, 89 S.Ct. 1918, 1939 n. 32, 23 L.Ed.2d 547 (1969). The remedy will be enforced "unless it can be shown that the order is a patent attempt to achieve ends other than those which can fairly be said to effectuate the policies of the Act." Virginia Elec. & Power Co. v. NLRB, 319 U.S. 533, 540, 63 S.Ct. 1214, 1218, 87 L.Ed. 1568 (1943); Packing House and Indus. Servs., Inc. v. NLRB, 590 F.2d 688, 697 (8th Cir.1978).
Ordering Precision to offer reinstatement and back pay is plainly within the Board's power, as it comports with the plain language of the Act. Section 10(c) of the Act provides that the Board may order that a violator "cease and desist from such unfair labor practice, and to take such affirmative action including reinstatement of employees with or without backpay, as will effectuate the policies [of the Act]." 29 U.S.C. § 160(c).
The order likewise comports with the policies underlying the Act. The goal of a remedial order is to restore "the situation, as nearly as possible, to that which would have obtained but for the [unfair labor practices]." Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U.S. 177, 194, 61 S.Ct. 845, 854, 85 L.Ed. 1271 (1940). Ordering Precision to offer reinstatement and backpay to the discriminatees is directly aimed at and fulfills that purpose. See Packing House and Indus. Serv., Inc., 590 F.2d at 697. ("An order requiring reinstatement and backpay is aimed at 'restoring the economic status quo that would have obtained but for the company's [wrongdoing].' ") (citation omitted); see also Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. at 900, 104 S.Ct. at 2813 ("the general legitimacy of the backpay order as a means to restore the situation 'as nearly as possible, to that which would have obtained but for the illegal discrimination,' is by now beyond dispute." (citation omitted)).
is based on the established principles applicable to successors who discriminate in order to avoid a bargaining obligation; such employers lose the right to set initial terms and conditions of employment and may be ordered to rescind any changes in those terms and compensate employees for losses in order to put them in the position they would have been but for the employer's unlawful conduct.
We have reviewed the remainder of the Board's remedy and conclude that it does not transgress the authority conferred upon the Board by the Act.
The petition for review is denied. The Board's order is enforced in its entirety. | 2019-04-19T18:17:59Z | https://openjurist.org/118/f3d/585 |
Conversations with school leaders, teachers and technicians around ‘why’ technology in education, is critical to the success of fully integrating information and communication learning technologies in education.
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Keynote brings imagination to life in stunning presentations. Make history move with exciting animations. Share science projects step- by-step with seamless transitions. And make English lessons more engaging with eye-catching themes.
Numbers lets you organise and present data in creative and personalised ways. Show students how to analyse and present data collected in a science lab. Track class fundraisers with charts and graphs that go beyond a mere spreadsheet. And use videos and images to teach fractions in a fraction of the time.
Enhancing Productivity with iPad shows you how to help students get more done using multiple iOS apps in a connected workflow. You can use iPad to streamline learning processes, organise assignments, and save time so students can be more engaged in meaningful tasks. As you enhance productivity, you’ll discover new ways to help students collaborate and communicate.
iMovie brings effortless filmmaking into the classroom to create engaging learning opportunities. Capture video of a chemical reaction and share it in slow-motion. Highlight key themes of a novel with a Hollywood-style trailer. And use titles and filters for a video report that will inspire and amaze your students.
GarageBand turns your iPad into a musical instrument and a full- featured recording studio to bring lessons to life in the classroom. Create songs that make vocabulary and poetry verses easy to remember, or add a soundtrack to history class by mixing famous speeches and sound effects.
Creativity with iPad shows you how to engage students in the creative process using multiple iOS apps in a connected workflow. Learn how to use iPad to help students generate innovative ideas, gather inspiration, and bring compelling stories to life. As you foster creativity, you’ll help them develop their critical thinking and problem- solving skills.
Mac makes it easy to bring new ideas and teaching methods to your class. Create inspired lessons with powerful apps. Use built-in features to manage time and increase productivity. With Mac, your classroom comes to life like never before.
Keynote brings imagination to life in stunning presentations. Make history move with exciting animations. Share science projects step-by-step with seamless transitions. And make English lessons more engaging with eye-catching themes.
Enhancing Productivity with Mac shows you how to help students get more done using multiple Mac apps in a connected workflow. You can use Mac to streamline learning processes, organise assignments, and save time so students can be more engaged in meaningful tasks. As you enhance productivity, you’ll discover new ways to help students collaborate and communicate.
GarageBand turns your Mac into a musical instrument and a full-featured recording studio to bring lessons to life in the classroom. Create songs that make vocabulary and poetry verses easy to remember, or add a soundtrack to history class by mixing famous speeches and sound effects.
Creativity with Mac shows you how to engage students in the creative process using multiple Mac apps in a connected workflow. Learn how to use Mac to help students generate innovative ideas, gather inspiration, and bring compelling stories to life. As you foster creativity, you’ll help them develop their critical thinking and problem- solving skills.
A step by step guide to making an interactive iBook textbook for the iBooks store using iBooks Author. This course is designed for authors to create, design and publish interactive iBook textbooks to the iBooks app using the free software for macOS.
Ba Ed (Media), Cert IV Training & Assessment, Dip Interactive Media, Apple Professional Development, Digital Publishing Suite Adobe Certified Expert, Microsoft Innovative Educator, Apple Teacher, Apple Swift & iOs SDK, Final Cut Pro & Keynote Certification.
Anton is a qualified teacher and trainer, with 20 years of experience. He has worked in the fields of video production, animation, web development and rich interactive media, incorporating both the Apple and Adobe software suites.
A professional multimedia practitioner with trainer certification, Anton has presented industry seminars and training, as well as developed curriculum and taught at tertiary level.
Anton is passionate about multimedia and the delivery of quality outcomes using efficient and best work practice. He is constantly evolving and developing his own skills and encourages others to join him in the pursuit of excellence.
Vicki is heavily involved in school strategic planning encompassing whole school community PD options, 1:1 and BYOD planning and infrastructure deployments. She is Apple ACN certified to deliver Apple Professional Development (APD), the iPad Learning Experience and 1:1 Strategic planning.
She has worked in a variety of settings including print, advertising, education and IT, and brings this experience to her role at CompNow. Vicki is passionate about film and animation particularly, but also all things multimedia, particularly in the area of education.
We also have a Training & Professional Development page and a Certified Training web page. | 2019-04-25T04:18:30Z | https://www.compnow.com.au/professional-learning/ |
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Seneca Partners has launched a new VCT offering, raising up to £10 million with an overallotment facility of £10 million. Despite being new, it could potentially start paying dividends in the early years.
This is possible because rather than launching from scratch, Seneca has partnered with the existing Hygea vct plc (now renamed Seneca Growth Capital VCT plc) and has launched a new, separate B share class.
Crucially, this new share class will have access to distributable reserves on its balance sheet. Seneca plans to use them potentially to fund dividend payments for the first few years, until the investments held within the B shares mature and can be realised to help fund dividends. Please note dividends are variable and not guaranteed.
Experienced and well regarded manager – since 2012 Seneca has participated in more than 70 investment rounds across over 39 companies, often investing alongside the likes of Octopus Investments, Northern, Mobeus and Baronsmead.
Seneca has a history of delivering gross average annual returns of 8.9% (7.3% net) in its two growth capital EIS portfolios, although please note past performance is not a guide to the future – see annual performance below.
Although Seneca is new to the VCT market, it is an experienced and well regarded growth investor.
It started making growth investments in 2012 and since then has participated in more than 70 investment rounds across over 39 companies, often investing alongside the likes of Octopus Investments, Northern, Mobeus and Baronsmead. Today it manages in excess of £50 million of EIS capital through the Seneca Growth Capital EIS Fund and the Seneca EIS Portfolio Service.
During the 5 years to 31 March 2018, the Seneca Growth Capital EIS Fund and the Seneca EIS Portfolio Service have together delivered a combined average (unaudited) NAV growth rate of approximately 8.9% per annum (or an estimated 7.3% per annum after fees and charges), although please note past performance is not a guide to the future.
Source: Seneca Partners, March 2018.
NAV (Net Asset Value) calculations include quoted companies at year-end closing share prices, cash from realisations, private companies valued in line with the share price of the investee company’s most recent fundraise (unless otherwise impaired) and represent gross performance before Seneca‘s stated fees. The Annual Management Charge and Performance Fee are contingent and only due on the realisation of investments, after return of capital to investors. Due to the lower number of exits relative to the number of investments, limited fees are due up to 31 March 2018. For illustrative purposes only, if all investments were to be realised at their prevailing values as at 31 March 2018 and the fees apportioned over the investment period with reference to the funds under management at each March year end, the combined average (unaudited) NAV growth rate for the 5 year period to 31 March 2018 would be approximately 7.3%.
The Seneca Growth Capital VCT will be managed by the same strong team behind the EIS offering, including shareholder directors Richard Manley, Ian Currie, and Tim Murphy. All three are SME specialists by background. Their previous experience includes KPMG, NM Rothschild, Cenkos Fund Managers, Altium, Apax, RBS, Deloitte and HBOS.
Members of Seneca’s senior management team are investing £200,000 of their own money in the new VCT offering.
The existing Hygea VCT plc investment portfolio will be realised when the opportunity arises and its performance will not influence the performance of the new share class.
Broadly speaking, the VCT is likely to invest in businesses similar to those targeted by the Seneca EIS funds. It will benefit from the same deal flow and mirror the investment process.
Seneca tends to invest in businesses to help them expand, rather than at a very early stage. It enjoys a strong flow of growth capital investment opportunities from its network of introducers, professional contacts and entrepreneurs.
Seneca typically reviews hundreds of investment opportunities a year and meets many of the businesses involved but transacts with only a fraction of these. The VCT intends to make between seven and ten investments initially if the fundraise is successful.
capability to deliver a timely and profitable investment exit.
What kind of companies might be held in the VCT?
Three examples are SuperCarers, LoopUp and Yü Group. To clarify, these are part of Seneca’s existing EIS portfolio. They’re mentioned to help give a flavour of the type of investment VCT investors might expect. Please remember past performance is not a guide to the future.
SuperCarers is an online matchmaking service for people in need of care (or their families) and vetted, reliable, local carers.
It was founded by brothers Adam and Daniel Pike after witnessing the difficulties their mother encountered when trying to arrange care for their dementia-suffering grandmother.
In 2012 Adam Pike was working on policy to improve care for the ageing population as a policy advisor in the Cabinet Office and Treasury, on secondment from Deloitte. Unsatisfied with the outcome, in late 2015 he launched SuperCarers with his brother, from their father’s small office.
SuperCarers has created technology that cuts out the middleman, i.e. care agencies, thereby cutting costs and improving the experience for both care workers and customers.
Demographic trends support demand for services of this kind: 4 million elderly people are estimated to need help by 2025.
SuperCarers was originally backed by the founders of Innocent Smoothie via their JamJar Investment Fund and Sir Tom Hughes-Hallett, the former CEO of Marie Curie, now the Chairman of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Its advisory board includes Alan Rosenbach, until recently Director of Strategy of the Care Quality Commission (CQC); Paul Burstow, former Minister of State for Community and Social Care; Jan Burns MBE, Chair of the National Dignity Council; and Andrea Pope-Smith, Ex-Director of Adult Social Services at two Councils.
SuperCarers has grown consistently since its launch and has a clear path to profitability.
Seneca Partners invested £1.25 million in March 2018, in a funding round led by Mobeus VCTs.
Yü Group, which trades as Yü Energy, is a gas, electricity and water supplier to SMEs.
Bobby Kalar, the entrepreneur founder, started the company in 2012 to ‘take on’ the “Big Six” utility suppliers which control 85% of that market.
At the time, he ran his own care home business and experienced first-hand the frustrating combination of crippling prices and poor service SMEs tend to receive from utility suppliers. This gave him the idea for Yü Energy, which he funded through the sale of his care home business and personal savings.
The idea is simple: help SMEs manage their energy with great service and transparency. Practically this means each customer has a personal account manager and the call centre works on a three-ring guarantee, with an average query-resolution time of 90 seconds. Yü Energy provides flexible contracts and payment terms, and the billing and account platform has been designed to be as simple as possible.
The founder is still the major shareholder. Other significant shareholders, besides Seneca Partners, include Octopus Investments, Miton Group, Legal & General and Artemis. In October 2018 an internal review highlighted Yu had underestimated the number of bills unlikely to be paid and overestimated the energy consumption of several of its customers. This has had an impact on expected profits for 2018 and caused the shares to fall in value.
In 2016, business users spent 163 billion minutes on conferences calls in the U.S. and U.K. alone. It is estimated that in each call 15 minutes are wasted on problems getting started and distractions throughout. LoopUp was created to address this. Its premium software aims to make audio conferencing simpler and more efficient.
Unlike alternatives, LoopUp doesn't offer a myriad of features. Its software is aimed at mainstream users, who just want something that works. So LoopUp is simple and intuitive and doesn't require any training. It alerts you when your first guest joins the meeting, calls out to your phone when you wish to join, shows you who’s on and who’s speaking, and lets you share your screen with a click.
LoopUp sells direct to enterprises as well as using major distribution partners including Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, BT, and Cable & Wireless Communications. Over 2000 enterprises worldwide use LoopUp, including Travelex, Kia Motors America, Planet Hollywood and National Geographic.
Seneca Partners invested in August 2016, when LoopUp floated on AIM. It was floated at 100p back then and was up to 175p within a year. The share price currently sits around the 400p mark, helped by rising profits over the past 18 months and the recent acquisition of competitor MeetingZone Group in June 2018. Please note though past performance is not a guide to the future.
Whilst the distributable reserves of the Hygea VCT allow the potential for dividends earlier than if Seneca had launched a brand new VCT, there is no guarantee that dividends will be paid early.
If fundraising is slower than expected, or does not reach its anticipated targets, there may be a delay in allotting shares, and fewer investments will be made overall.
Seneca’s expertise to date has only been in EIS investments.
The full initial charge is 5.5% before the Wealth Club saving of 3.25% and an additional discount for existing Seneca and Hygea shareholders of 0.25%. When you invest through us, Wealth Club will receive initial commission (0.0%) and trail commission (0.5%) on the sale. Commission is paid by the product provider so there is no additional charge to you. We may also receive a share of the net initial charge: again there is no additional charge to you. There is an annual management fee of 2% of the net asset value of the new "B" share pool. Annual running costs of the new B share class are capped at 3% of the net asset value for the first three years. All of these annual costs will be allocated to the B share pool only. After three years the annual running costs will be proportionally allocated to the ordinary and B share pools.
The directors, including the Chairman, are each paid an annual fee of £12,750, amounting in aggregate to no more than £75,000 per annum. Annual running costs of the new B share class are capped at 3% of the net asset value for the first three years. All of these annual costs will be allocated to the B share pool only. After three years the annual running costs will be proportionally allocated to the ordinary and B share pools. The directors, including the Chairman, are each paid an annual fee of £12,750, amounting in aggregate to no more than £75,000 per annum. The B Share class has a performance fee of 20% for returns over 5% per annum.
Seneca is an experienced growth investor, well poised to take advantage of new VCT restrictions. Since 2012 Seneca has participated in more than 60 investment rounds across over 30 companies, often investing alongside the likes of Octopus Investments, Northern, Mobeus and Baronsmead. Whilst VCT investing is new to Seneca, its EIS funds have delivered encouraging performance to date – note this is not a guide to the future. The distributable reserves of the existing Hygea vct plc offer the potential for dividends from the early years, although again this is not guaranteed. | 2019-04-24T10:49:09Z | https://www.wealthclub.co.uk/venture-capital-trusts/venture-capital-trust-offers/seneca-growth-capital-vct/ |
This is the second in a series of articles examining the work undertaken by patient organisations to help those affected by WM.
Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia (WM) is a rare, slow growing blood cancer.
Approximately three in one million people are diagnosed with WM every year in the USA.
In Europe, approximately five in one million people are diagnosed with WM each year. WM is classified as an orphan disease, i.e., one so rare that funds for research and enough patients for clinical trials are scarce. Treatment options for WM are often based on research undertaken in other disorders.
The International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation (IWMF) got its start in 1994 when Arnold (Arnie) Smokler, a pharmacist living in Washington, DC, was diagnosed with Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinaemia (WM).
“Because he had an enquiring mind, he went to great lengths to learn about this incredibly rare disease,” said Sara McKinnie. Sara is the office manager at IWMF. She is also responsible for administrative services.
Not only did Arnie have an enquiring mind, he was also computer savvy for the time and able to find information by electronic means.
“He reached out, via email, to people worldwide and found doctors in the Maryland and DC area who told him about other patients in the USA and outside the USA who had WM,” said Sara.
Through these efforts, a support group was formed comprising 21 people and by 1995, Arnie was sending a newsletter to 125 people with WM.
Following his retirement in 1998, Arnie created a more formalised organisation which was the IWMF as it’s known today.
“He was definitely a pioneer in WM. When he formed the first Board of Trustees, they all had the same goals and were really intent on spreading awareness through the creation of patient resources so everybody who came along and was scared and confused and might not know how to pronounce their disease would have some place to start,” said Sara.
Promote and support research leading to better treatments and ultimately, a cure. The work that the IWMF started doing was crucial for patients with WM.
“All the initial publications and information available on the internet, via the National Cancer Institute, were erroneous,” Sara said.
Sara joined the IWMF in 1998 where she was initially hired part-time to prepare bank deposits, answer the phone and undertake data entry. However, within two years of joining the organisation, Sara had to take on a much bigger role.
“The IWMF was about to go the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting for the first time when Arnie had a stroke. I was asked to go in Arnie’s place and I thought ‘Great, I’ve done trade shows,’ although they were for the music business,” said Sara.
While it felt a bit like baptism by fire, Sara said she learned about WM and the frustrations experienced by patients as a result of being misdiagnosed.
“Until this meeting, I hadn’t been involved in any of these sort of things. I was not articulate whatsoever,” she said.
Today, Sara manages the IWMF’s Business Office, which is based in Sarasota, Florida, in the USA, and reports directly to the IWMF Board’s Executive Committee.
“We’re a fulfilment centre and I’m involved in coordinating most of the educational programmes as well as the partnerings and collaborations we do with other organisations, such as the Lymphoma Coalition,” she said.
The IWMF has 65 support groups (http://www.iwmf.com/services/support-groups.aspx) in the USA, seven in the various territories and a sister organisation in Canada, and 13 in other parts of the world. However, there is always room for more support groups.
“I’ve always got my eye out to find people, especially in areas that are remote or where we don’t already have a support group set up,” said Sara.
Anyone who is willing to run a support group is contacted by the IWMF Support Group Facilitator. Once the green light is given, that individual is considered to be sanctioned by the IWMF.
“We give our support group leaders a handbook that contains helpful hints and directives on such issues as to where to have your first meeting, how to set it up and so on,” she said. A copy of the handbook can be found in the members section of the LC site.
In addition to providing the handbook, the IWMF also holds a one-day workshop for support group leaders. This workshop takes place the day before the IWMF’s annual Educational Forum.
“This workshop provides group leaders with an opportunity to compare notes, share ideas and learn how to perform some of the required functions,” she said.
One of the requirements of a support group leader is list management.
“A crazy administrative thing like list management is sometimes a challenge for volunteer group leaders and that is a lot to ask a volunteer to do,” Sara said.
The IWMF tries to make it as easy as possible through the provision of the handbook, clerical support from the IWMF Business Office and spending time on this topic at the workshop.
How often a group meets depends on the location and size of the group and the support group leader.
“In Idaho, there is a group of five that gets together for a summer barbecue every year and that’s the only time they meet, while the New York City group, with between 300 and 400 potential attendees, meets every three months,” she said.
IWMF-Talk is an interactive online email discussion list where all matters regarding WM are discussed among patients and caregivers.
“It’s a really great way for people to get input from others with WM quickly, particularly about side effects, treatment and complementary or alternative therapies” said Sara.
Participants come from around the world and include physicians who treat patients with WM. Sara estimates 2,000 people participate in the internet discussion list, which is moderated by one of the IWMF Trustees who also has WM.
The IWMF’s 2014 annual Educational Forum, held in May in Tampa, Florida, was a great success with nearly 300 people attending, including nine exhibitors and 15 speakers.
“The highlight was a breakout session on ibrutinib. We had to get more chairs in the room as more than 120 people wanted to attend the session,” Sara said. Ibrutinib is currently being studied in a phase II trial in patients with WM. To view the presentations as well as videos presented at this year’s Forum click here.
While the majority of attendees to the 2014 Educational Forum were from the USA, attendees also came from Canada, India, Israel, Australia, France and the UK.
Over the years, the number of newly diagnosed patients attending the Forum has increased.
“People who have just found out they have WM find the idea of networking with others in the same situation very supportive,” she said.
Other attendees come because they want to find out what’s new from the previous year or they want to reconnect with those they met previously.
As part of the registration package, attendees receive a list of everyone attending the Forum, including their phone number and email address. When registering for the Forum, attendees are asked whether their contact information can be shared.
“Everybody appreciates this list. They refer to it and maybe get in touch over the year with some of the people they met,” she said.
IWMF tries to promote awareness about its services through its members, support group leaders and other volunteers who place IWMF literature in local cancer centres and in their own doctors’ offices. The internet has also helped with the spread of information relating to WM as newly diagnosed patients can request to receive an information package from the IWMF.
“Until about three years ago, we sent out between 40 and 60 information packages each month. Now we send out between 80 and 100,” Sara said. IWMF’s publications can also be downloaded from the IWMF website (http://www.iwmf.com/publications/).
The biggest challenge confronting patients with WM is deciding what treatment will be best for them.
“Getting involved or having the ability to get involved in a clinical trial or being fortunate enough to see the right doctor who specialises in WM and prescribes the right line of treatment are huge issues for patients,” said Sara.
Clinical trials for WM are few and far between and, as Sara notes, not everyone can miss work and take time off to travel to where the clinical trial is being conducted.
Grateful thanks to the IWMF for all their efforts to support those with this rare form of lymphoma. | 2019-04-21T04:29:34Z | https://www.lymphomacoalition.org/peek-iwmf |
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What makes Beautiful on Raw GLOW Facial Cream so Special?
There is a "secret" ingredient in Beautiful on Raw Facial Cream, a secret about to be revealed. That ingredient is Sea Buckthorn Oil.
Sea Buckthorn plant (Hippophae rhamnoides - no, you won't find this one in your neighborhood nursery) is native to mountainous regions in Siberia. And this year's new formulation I have TRIPLED the amount of Sea Buckthorn Oil!
Creating this cream has been a labor of love. I have carefully selected each ingredient and I am committed to keeping it the best quality possible. After 2 years of research into 30 companies, I finally have a product that I am willing to stand behind 100%!
Sea Buckthorn Oil aids in reducing the effects of the sun’s harmful rays on the skin, including burns, irritation, dryness and itchy patches that are typical in many common skin conditions. Its nourishing, revitalizing action seems to have practically no limit.
In fact, the extract of Sea Buckthorn berries has been used for centuries in Asia, Russia, and Scandinavia, due to their belief in its inherent restorative properties. The value of the annual production of Sea Buckthorn products in China exceeds $20 million, yet the Sea Buckthorn is virtually unknown in the West.
Tonya, I recently purchased your cream. I love it. I thought it would simply not damage my skin. I have very sensitive skin. But, it is wonderful. My skin looks like satin. With the brushing I see a real difference in my skin. There is a polished look. Much like you have. Only it will take time to have a complexion that compares to yours. Thanks for sharing with all of us.
The red and yellow berries of the Sea Buckthorn contain a high percentage of several essential vitamins including Vitamins C, E, and beta-carotene (pro vitamin A). The vitamin C content is among the highest for any plant. Combined, these vitamins can serve as powerful antioxidants, known for their ability to combat wrinkles, dryness, and other symptoms of aging or neglected skin.
Now with Apple Stem Cell Extract!
We added plant stem cell extract taken from a very rare variety of apple - the Uttwiler Spätlauber apple.This is probably not a name that you're familiar with, but that’s to be expected. The use of the Uttwiler Spätlauber was first recorded over two hundred years ago in Switzerland.
Not recognized for its taste, growers instead noticed that it stored better and for longer than any of the other varieties. While other apples wrinkled and withered, Uttwiler Spätlauber was still firm and fresh.
With this in mind, Swiss researchers have extracted stem cells from the Uttwiler Spätlauber variety and believe that these cells can help aid stem cells found in our own skin to remain firmer and “fresher” for much longer. Their research has shown promise that these extracts have properties that slow down the effects of aging on the skin, and could be the next big thing in the cosmetics industry.
The Beautiful on Raw Facial Cream contains a patented, sought-after and highly reputable ingredient called AQUAXYL™. Derived from natural sugars, AQUAXYL™ helps to hydrate your skin, improving water reserves and limiting water loss by realigning cutaneous water flow to better moisturize and strengthen the skin.
In simple terms, AQUAXYL™ creates a barrier through which the water in your body can not escape. It helps to defend your skin against external damage resulting from dryness, temperature or pollution. Not only is this the product that everyone with dry and/or sensitive skin has been waiting for, but AQUAXYL™ can also greatly benefit anyone who wants to protect their skin from the elements.
Tonya...I just began using the cream with the facial brush two days ago and can already see and feel the difference! This is a first and I've used so many different creams in my 54 years. My face has not been this smooth since I was a child. Last night when I went to bed my husband even noticed how good my skin smelled. I recognize the vanilla and he said that he was a fan. Thanks so much! Although I'm weaning myself off cooked foods and not 100% yet, I'm loving my raw diet evolution. I can't wait to share progress pictures as I transform my life. Thanks so much!
Changing your lifestyle as completely as you do when you go raw, you become more sensitive to certain outside influences that previously had no effect. Some ingredients, which were never a problem for a person consuming a cooked food diet, become like poison to a raw food person. The same thing might happen with skin care products.
Based on this idea, I started creating and using my own homemade cream. After years of refining the formula, I was able to produce an excellent facial cream, and have been sharing its many benefits with my customers. I've been using variations of this cream since I was 30- that's over 20 years. In 2006, I was able to start sharing this product and its benefits with my customers, and this Beautiful on Raw™ Facial Cream has consistently been our most popular product.
Click here to learn all about the ingredients of my Beautiful on Raw "Glow" Facial Cream with Plant Stem Cell Extract and Seabuckthorn Oil!
My specially formulated cream contains wild crafted and organic essential oils and certified organic herbs that have been shown to encourage the development of new cells. The cream has an exquisite and delicate floral aroma. No artificial fragrances used in this process, the scent was created using 100% natural essential oils. The ingredients include oils of almond, coconut, mango seed, sesame seed and avocado.
The consistency of this cream is really light and fluffy. These are the main characteristics of the "mousse" style, the latest trend in the cosmetic industry for skin care products.
The Beautiful on Raw Facial Cream is soothing and has anti-inflammatory properties. It can be used on any type of skin, including sensitive skin. It can be used as a daily moisturizer because it nourishes dry, dehydrated skin, leaving it feeling firmer and softer. It can be used under makeup foundation or as a soothing aftershave cream. The cream does not leave a film residue, since the ingredients are quickly absorbed by the skin.
Tonya ... Thanks so much for getting that wonderful face cream and brush to me so quickly. The brushing feels fabulous,and the cream is such a treat to use. The texture and scent is divine. Thanks again. Blessings and good health.
Tonya, I have been using your face cream with outstanding progress. I had a mole on my cheek that has been there for years, now it is almost gone, it has lightened up to almost not being able to even see it now. So I need another jar of your cream.
Is the Cream Raw and All-Natural?
Even if a truly "all-raw" product could be formulated, it would have the same fate as the fruits or vegetables that sit in your refrigerator for more than a week. The product would have to be refrigerated, and even then, after a few days, mold would begin to grow, and it would not be safe to use. My dilemma was to formulate a good cream that would last. I certainly did not want to run to the kitchen to create a batch every time I needed moisturizer!
The production of enough of my cream to sell to others meant that I had to consider the perishable nature and short "shelf life" of truly all-natural products. Oils can become rancid, and natural extracts can get moldy or develop pathological bacteria as they travel between different regions of the country or even overseas as well as when they sit on a shelf. I needed to find a way to avoid having my cream go bad without using toxic substances.
The goal was to find a preservative that would not harm your skin, would not introduce toxins into your body, and could be used at the smallest possible concentration while at the same time be able to prevent the risk of microbial contamination. As a result, we are using a new Ecocert-certified, organically-certified preservative system. Ecocert, a certification body for sustainable development, is one of the largest organic certification organizations in the world.
I LOVE your cream! Between the brushing and the cream, my skin feels very, very soft and even after just using it this short time, it has a glow to it. Soon I will have to order another jar of your cream, and I also plan on getting a jar for my teenage daughter.
Three weeks ago we started using your beauty cream and the facial brushing procedure (we are up to 60 seconds a day) and our skin is looking really good. Until I started your diet 6months ago I could not sit in the sun or even use filtered water on my face as it was red and rashy. My husband had some nasty skin cancers around his eyes but since applying the cream daily the cancers are almost gone.
We were at our organic food shop the other day and the lady serving us looked at my husband’s face and told him what beautiful skin he had. She then commented on the lovely smooth healthy looking nails he had. We love the cream so much that we ordered another 4 jars along with your new book due for release next year.
Thank you for your help and information and the cream is just fabulous.
The cream will work even better if you practice the mantra: Beauty is as Beauty eats! Eating right is a vital way to develop your outer glow. In my eye-opening books I reveal the details of how natural foods have helped me to achieve beauty at a later age - and how you can do the same! I have produced this cream to supplement the power of raw eating. I am justifiably proud of my Beautiful on Raw Facial Cream, and I want you to be completely satisfied.
Tonya~ Hi from Minnesota. I HAVE to tell you how wonderful your cream is. Since I began dry brushing and using your cream, my eczema has all but disappeared (it was QUITE bad and painful).
I have very, very sensitive skin and have struggled with eczema since my early teens. I am about 50% raw at this time.
I can't thank you enough for your wonderful cream and the brush you included with it. I am only 34 and I know that with continued use I will continue to look younger than my actual years. Thanks again for all you do!
I have such confidence in the cream's purity and power, that I offer a 60-Day money back guarantee. Try our cream. Use it regularly, as indicated. It will revitalize your skin, rescuing it from the ravages of dryness, redness, and minor inflammation. You will notice how well it moisturizes and freshens your face, accentuating your natural beauty. However, if for any reason you are less than completely satisfied, simply return the unused portion for a full refund (less S/H).
Tonya, I purchased your BR Facial Cream about a month and a half ago, and am so happy to finally have a product that nourishes my super dry skin.
I have always used organic products, but this is the first cream to actually keep my skin moisturized throughout the entire day. Along with the facial brushing and about 65% raw diet I have more supple and radiant skin than ever.
Another great point is that your cream is so gentle I did not have any problems with break outs switching from my current skin moisturizer to yours. I love it!! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful beauty secrets. | 2019-04-23T02:34:28Z | https://www.beautifulonraw.com/anti_aging_cream_with_sea_buckthorn_oil.html |
The Chicago College of Performing Arts has long been a respected contender in the world of theatre education. Located in the heart of Chicago, which has a history of producing well-known actors, singers and comedians, it is in the perfect position to grow and modernize with the rest of the theatre community. As well as this, CCPA often displays its ability to integrate its curriculum with Roosevelt’s social justice mission statement. While it does provide exceptional education for performers, CCPA students have noticed it does lack one thing: modernized racial sensitivity.
Although Roosevelt is known for its racial diversity in Chicago, CCPA continues to struggle to catch up. Roosevelt posts the demographics of its diversity for all to find. However, CCPA – specifically, the theatre and performance majors – lack the same public statistics. The issue goes beyond student diversity, however. Many students believe that the lack of diversity in the staff members is equally an issue.
Herbert White, freshman musical theatre (MT) major, says that when he first applied to schools, he put much effort into finding education that would do diversity justice in order to cultivate himself into a performer that would one day inspire other black youth.
The reason he chose CCPA as his higher education was because, when he applied, he felt as though the program would cultivate his voice. After coming, he feels as though he has seen many different sides of the program.
Institutional research provided Fall 2018’s statistics for current theatre majors who identify as non white, excluding non-resident aliens. The statistics show that 14 out of 69 students in the freshman class, six out of 66 students in the sophomore class, seven out of 44 students in the junior class and 15 out of 55 students in the seniors identify as non white.
Marta Bady, MT freshman, went into depth on the issue of microaggressions within the CCPA community.
Bady cited another student’s experience, MT freshman Alcee Jones, as an example of microaggression. Jones then talked about his experience with microaggressions in the musical theater program.
White explained his views on how to expand the program’s racial sensitivity and awareness, citing that a more diverse faculty would do the school wonders.
“I think Roosevelt, they have to diversify their faculty, and I think that’s what’s going to push them over the edge compared to to other schools.” White said he believes that a lack of people of color (POC) teachers in schools can lead to a feeling of alienation for POC students.
Maxel Schingen, freshman MT major, agreed that change would be brought on by diversity.
“I think that we have a real problem with a lack of diversity. And I think that, you know, compared to the rest of Roosevelt – the rest of Roosevelt is extremely diverse and always has been, that’s the history of the school. However, CCPA, I feel, has become extremely white-washed,” Schingen said.
Schingen went on to explain examples of how a lack of diversity creates tension within the program, explaining more microaggressions he and other POC students had allegedly faced.
Schingen expressed disappointment in coming to what he considered a social justice school only to face microaggressions and a lack of diversity.
“Because…we come to a social justice school, we’re excited about being in a program that is going to focus on people like us who want to further our own people in a career that has been extremely white in the past. And I feel like it’s hard going to classes whenever you feel like you’re not being taught by people who understand you or even want to understand you. And I think that that’s the frustrating part of being in CCPA,” Schingen said.
Cast of “Color Me,” a recently revived POC showcase. Photo by Tatyana Sampson.
In the past, students have claimed to feel uncomfortable with the choices in shows, with “Anything Goes” being one of the most controversial picks. The musical is widely accused of stereotyping Chinese people, going as far as to have three main characters assault and steal clothes from Chinese characters. Then, the play promptly shows them impersonating those characters to disrupt a wedding.
Originally, according to a student who requested to remain anonymous, the roles of the Chinese characters were going to be outsourced to the music conservatory students. Allegedly the plan never happened, and theatre conservatory students were still casted as the Chinese characters.
However, after in-depth meetings with the director, the students involved said that the previous concerns had been rectified and that they were moving forward with the production. Despite this, not every student is satisfied.
Bady said her class is taking action in ways CCPA has never seen before.
“We have these conversations with each other all the time,” Bady said. “The people in our class, we don’t hide about it.” She explained that she and other students have had several conversations with staff members to address issues about lack of diversity within the theatre program.
However, it isn’t just the freshmen class addressing white-washing in the theatre conservatory. Alix Rhode, a junior in the MT program, took matters into her own hands with fellow Latin American students when she felt underrepresented by her program. She and the other small amount of Latinx students created a show named “Mi Latinidad” as a way to carve out their own space in the CCPA theatre scene.
Rhode said. “Because… there’s literally three or four shows that have ever been written in musical theatre history that have been written for us, about us,” Rhode said.
The casts of “Mi Latinidad” and “Color Me,” two showcases centered on POC performers were met with the suggestion to add their shows into the official CCPA performance season. The showcase performers declined the offer.
“We all kind of came to the conclusion that we created these things from literally nothing, on our own, and we didn’t we want to give it to them after we worked so hard on something, and then next year have all the POC be forced into this show instead of another show that might be their dream role or something,” Rhode said.
When this concern was brought to CCPA Dean Rudy Marcozzi, he wanted to assure students that all shows and showcases within the season were open to all students in the casting pool.
Rhode explained that although casting wasn’t hindered by skin color, oftentimes the “diversity” felt forced.
“Instead of doing plays that are politically charged and make a stance of some kind on race, sexual orientation, gender, etc., we often do shows that shy away from it and “color blind” cast one or two of our POC students into an otherwise white cast,” Rhode said.
Tatyana Sampson, senior acting major, said throughout the years, Sampson has had several meetings with CCPA staff with little success. Sampson said frustrations grew with every meeting.
However, Sean Kelley, associate dean of CCPA, said students are welcome to meet with him to discuss these issues.
Sampson said by 2019 their senior class has seen each others’ views on diversity grow and expand, just not through CCPA’s direct actions. Sampson said the class has grown together through witnessing the lack of diversity and racial sensitivity and then attempting to combat it together.
When questioned about the topic of racial tension and insensitivity in the CCPA program, Kelley explained what he had seen throughout the years.
Kelley said the directors and producers are informed of Roosevelt’s social justice mission.
“This university is founded on social justice and every director of a production is aware of that,” said Kelley.
Kelley also mentioned that a diverse alumni board was in the works in order to help screen the productions that CCPA wants to put on. Marcozzi clarified that although the project was in the works, it had not yet been finalized. However, he had hope that the board would create an example of the program’s diversity.
Overall, students see hope for change in the future – student led, but in collaboration with staff. | 2019-04-24T00:10:23Z | https://rutorch.com/2019/04/15/musical-theatre-students-speak-about-racial-prejudices-within-program/ |
Continuning BIG TICKET DAY, we have the very cool LEGO Creator James Bond Aston Martin DB5. Your best bet (and price) is to order it directly from LEGO.
Open the doors and you’ll discover a detailed interior with a concealable radar tracker and a door compartment containing a telephone. And when it’s time for action, activate the passenger ejector seat, turn the revolving number plates, raise the rear-window bulletproof screen, deploy the wheel-mounted tyre scythes and pull back the gearstick to reveal the front wing machine guns.
This collectible model car also features a detailed straight-6 engine, drum-lacquered silver front and rear bumpers, moulded silver-coloured wire wheel rim inserts and front and rear Aston Martin logos. The model has been designed to provide a challenging and rewarding building experience full of nostalgia—a must-have for fans of the Aston Martin DB5, James Bond movies and LEGO building sets.
Just like the Aston Martin in Goldfinger, this sporty vehicle has a few tricks up its sleeve.
Lift the bonnet to check out the straight-6 engine detailing. Pull back the rear bumper to eject unwelcome passengers. Revolve the number plates, raise the rear-window bulletproof screen and deploy the wheel-mounted tyre scythes. Pull back the gearstick to reveal the front wing machine guns.
Collectors can own this collectible replica of the Aston Martin DB5, as featured in the classic James Bond™ Goldfinger movie. And they get to build it themselves.
This set includes over 1,290 pieces and is suitable for ages 16+. The finished model is thirteen inches long, three inches tall and four inches wide, and it’s the perfect gift for the Bond fanatic on your gift list who also likes to build things. You can find it in LEGO stores, or order it from them online, where you can expect to spend a hundred and fifty bucks or so.
IAmElemental, the toy company that pioneered strong, healthy female action figures, has issued limited-edition gift sets of its award-winning superheroes for this holiday season. The gift sets feature female action figures from the company’s Series 1/Courage (Bravery, Energy, Honesty, Industry, Enthusiasm, Persistence and Fear) and Series 2/Wisdom (Creativity, Ingenuity, Curiosity, Logic, Exploration, Mastery and Oblivion).
We told you about IAmElemental a few years ago when we encountered their founder at the International Toy Fair in New York, and it’s great to see that they’re still going strong and making their figures available in these affordable gift sets for the holiday season.
There is a special gift set that’s exclusive to Cocoa Crayon.
TheElements of PowerBoard Book, introducing young children to the positive and powerful messages of the IAmElemental universe; and Courage Tableware Set, a child-size place setting including an 8.5” plate, a 5” bowl and a 10.7 oz glass.
Three randomly selected Series 1/Courage Mystery Packs, each with a 3.75” Courage action figure and powerful accessories, for the price of two.
IAmElemental’s 3.75” female action figures offer nine points of articulation and come with a removable, interchangeable accessory, a shield that can also be worn as a charm, and two trading cards – one to keep and one to share.
TheElements of Power Board Book, introducing young children to the positive and powerful messages of the IAmElemental universe.
One randomly selected Series 2/Wisdom Blister Pack, with a 3.75” action figure and powerful accessories. Inspired by Hypatia, Series 2/Wisdom female action figures were finalists for 2018 Toy of the Year.
These are perfect gifts for young girls who like action figures, but want to play with female figures. Collectors of 3 3/4″ figures will also be struck by the high quality and detail on these figures.
This immaculate hardcover collection of the mini-series is the perfect gift for the fan of gothic horror or just folks who appreciate beautiful comic art on your shopping list.
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s immortal gothic horror tale, Frankenstein Alive, Alive brings new life to the Promethean monster, courtesy of Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and Bernie Wrightson (Frankenstein, Swamp Thing). Victor Frankenstein’s cobbled together creature continues his adventures, embarking on a journey to discover his own humanity.
Collecting the four-issue series along with an extended gallery section of never-before-seen layouts and pencils by Wrightson, all scanned from the original art.
This is the final art produced by Bernie Wrightson, a master of modern horror art, who lost his battle with brain cancer before the original mini-series was finished. Additional art is supplied in the final chapter by Kelley Jones (at Wrightson’s request), who stepped in to complete the series upon the comic book legend’s untimely passing. This book collects some of the finest work by one of the best artists to ever illustrate comics.
Niles is also a master of the horror comic, as a writer, and he crafted a story that played perfectly to Wrightson’s many strengths. Wrightson had been associated various adaptations and interpretations of the story of the Frankenstein Monster since the mid-1970s, and this book was seen as the crowning achievement of his storied career. It is a real work of art. Kelly Jones also deserves major kudos for stepping into a very challenging position and admirably filling the shoes of Wrightson to finish this work. That he was hand-picked by Wrightson is a testament to his considerable talents.
Using the ISBN code, you ought to be able to order this book from any bookseller, but be advised that Amazon has it for about eight bucks less than the list price.
Okay, I realize that you probably don’t really need instructions for a gift guide, but just so you know what to expect over the next month, I’m going to try to lay out everything as clearly as possible.
This is the fourteenth annual PopCult Gift Guide, and every year I try to suggest cool things that I think my readers would like to know about so they can give them (or receive them) as Christmas (or Hanukah, or Kwaanza, or whatever) gifts this holiday season. Every year we do things a little differently that we have before, and 2018 is no exception. Superficially, I’m not putting the words “PopCult Gift Guide” in the headline for each post. It makes the links a tad unwieldy, and any readers ought to be able to discern what they’re reader from the context and the graphics.
I’ve also added an extra graphic to our header post, to drive that point home, although it’ll disappear after December 1, so that won’t really be an issue for folks reading these as archives posts in the future. And oddly enough, some of my previous gift guide posts still attract readers more than ten years after they were originally published, all year-round.
I have made one change since the preview post I put up last week. Instead of Saturday being BIG TICKET DAY, where each gift idea costs more than a hundred bucks, now Saturday and Sunday will both be BIG TICKET DAY, where I reccomend two gifts per day, and each gift idea will cost over sixty dollars. The main reason for the change is that a lot of the things I was going to recommend have dropped in price since I first started compiling my list, and this way we can still include them all. This means that through the week, each gift suggestion should cost you under sixty bucks.
I will try to include at least one local-to-West Virginia item every weekday. Some of these will be recommendations for Charleston-area stores or restaurants. Many items I suggest will only be available online, and I’ll include links for ordering, but in the case of things that are available locally, I will try to tip you off to where you can shop local. My readership is about 20% local and 80% everywhere else, so please don’t get upset if it seems like I’m not doing enough to promote our local businesses.
Posts should go up in the afternoon each day, and you can expect at least three gift ideas a day, and as many as five. The 2018 PopCult Gift Guide runs the entire month of November, so if you have to order something, you should have plenty of time to get it delivered.
During the gift guide, we are suspending two of our regular features, The RFC Flashback and Sunday Evening Videos. You can still expect to find Monday Morning Art and The PopCulteer on their usual days.
With those points established, and also with the guide already underway (we started with three gift ideas yesterday–you can find links to the right), let’s let things resume. Look for three more posts later today.
As has become tradition, our first day of The PopCult Gift Guide includes this year’s HESS Toy Truck. We tell you about this one on the first day because it’s a limited edition, and if we held off, they might sell out before you can get your hands on one. Once sold in HESS Oil gas stations, these keepsakes are now only sold online, since HESS sold their retail outlets to Marathon Oil a few years ago.
This year HESS released a bonus truck, an 85th anniversary edition of their very first tanker truck, and it sold out in less than two days, so you don’t want to wait around on this one.
This year lucky kids and collectors can get The 2018 Hess RV with ATV and Motorbike. a powersport trio ready for any adventure. The set features a sleek and modern recreational transport loaded with lights, and a spirited wheelie-popping pair of teammates eager for on and off-road action!
The RV is strikingly vibrant with 60 LED lights, a gleaming chrome front, white body, contrasting black fenders, and dark tinted cab windows. Clear windows showcase the two internally illuminated compartments housing the ATV and Motorbike, which are accessed by button-release drop-down ramp doors.
The ATV has oversized, terrain-tough tires that partner with a powerful pull-back motor to race flat or flash its impressive wheelie-action. A roll cage encloses the driver while the 10 switch-activated lights and chrome details shine bright. Getting in on the race challenge and wheelie-popping power is the sport-tourer style Motorbike, with a push-friction motor, and working head and tail lights.
One change this year, which may be considered a blessing to some parents, the HESS RV with ATV and Motorbike does NOT have any sound features. Some folks might miss them, others will be very happy to see them go.
In total, this 3-in-1 combo includes an eye-popping 73 lights, the most ever on a holiday Hess Toy Truck! The 2018 Hess RV with ATV and Motorbike is sold exclusively he at The Hess Toy Truck website, for $33.99 plus tax, which includes 8 Energizer® batteries and free standard shipping.
Our first pick in the 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is a graphic novel by Jason Pell, Pinpricks: A Book of Tiny and Terrible Oddities, which I told you about back in its Kickstarter incubation stage earlier this year. The book is now available, and I highly recommend it as a gift for fans of the macabre and the unusual.
Pinpricks: A Book of Tiny and Terrible Oddities is not really a novel, per se. It’s one-hundred and one illustrated short stories of misfits, monsters, and the terminally awkward. You will meet unusual characters who get caught up in extraordinary situations, which get resolved very quickly in ways you won’t expect.
You will meet monsters and madmen and mimes and very unusual children among the many short, short stories. Pell’s cleverness shines through as he crafts atmospheric scenarios with a minimum of words and pictures.
This compact book of eerie vignettes is the perfect gift for the person who enjoys the offbeat elements of life. You can order it from Amazon, where it is currently just under $16. | 2019-04-26T14:11:42Z | http://blogs.wvgazettemail.com/popcult/2018/11/page/9/ |
Grilled Venetian-Style pizza from Mancini’s Al Fresco. I just don’t think you can screw up a grilled pizza. That sounds delicious.
Indi Frites from Hot Indian at the Midtown Global Market stall in the International Bazaar. These (and the rest of Hot Indian’s offerings) will only be available August 27-September 1. These are going to be winners. I’ve had them off their food truck, and they are delightful. Don’t think about it, just go get some.
Cannoli from Mancini’s Al Fresco. Because cannoli. And I was really impressed with Mancini’s offerings last year.
Cowboy Dave’s Cluck & Moo from The Blue Barn. This combo of smashed potatoes, roasted beef, and grilled chicken topped with gravy, crispy onions, and mustard BBQ looks like a solid choice if you want a sit down dinner.
Butter Chicken Samosas from Hot Indian at the Midtown Global Market stall in the International Bazaar. These (and the rest of Hot Indian’s offerings) will only be available August 27-September 1. My money is on everything Hot Indian. These guys know what’s up. I’m betting these, and the Indi Frites (which are already staples on their food truck) are going to be huge sellers.
Cowboy Bites from Frontier Bar are sweet corn kernels, bacon, jalapeños, and cheese all mixed up and deep fried. I can’t say why, they don’t look super appetizing in the photo, but I just feel like these could be winners.
Buffalo’d Bones from Famous Dave’s. Probably going to be good if you like ribs and buffalo sauce. A pretty safe bet.
Italian Dessert Nachos from the Pizza Shoppe. Cinnamon sugar cannoli chips with ricotta filling, strawberries, chocolate chips, nuts, and candy. I’m on board.
Minnesota BEE-NICE Gluten-Free Muffing from Minnesota Farmers Union could be a winner. Not because I’m eager to eat a blueberry muffin at the fair, I think there are more unique ways to spend my eating time, but I love that it’s made with pollinator-friendly blueberries. We have to show the bees some love, people.
Salad Named Soo from The Rabbit Hole at Taste of Midtown Global Market in the International Bazaar. This (and the rest of Rabbit Hole’s offerings) will only be available September 2-7. Because fresh fruits and veggies are sometimes very necessary at the fair. You need something to cut the salt of those cheese curds you just ate, and this salad looks delicious.
Sara’s Tipsy Pies is a new vendor this year! I’ve sampled her wares at farmer’s markets, and they are fantastic. Also, pies + booze. Don’t ask, just eat. They’ll come in 5 flavors, bring a crew and try them all: State Fair Rhubarb Blue Hunny Do, 2 Gingers Irish Apple, Bapple (blueberry apple made with mead) Maple Bacon Apple Breakfast (only available 8-10:30am), and Salted Caramel Apple.
Seafood Slider from Minnesota Wine Country. I’m usually wary of seafood at the fair that doesn’t come from Giggle’s Campfire Grill, but I’d be up for trying anything featuring wine aioli.
Shanghaied Henri’s International Tacos. I would eat any of these tacos; they’ve got Korean Bar-B-Q Beef, an Oslo Taco, St. Paul Taco, and Yucatan Taco. All unique, all sound tasty.
Sriracha Balls from Alton’s BBQ and Wings. If I give in, and do the Sriracha trend happening this year, it will be these. Stuffed with either chicken, corn, tomatoes, egg, Srirarcha, or Sriracha cream cheese, corn, tomatoes, and egg, and then deep fried, they sound promising.
Tikka-on-a-Stikka from Hot Indian at the Midtown Global Market stall in the International Bazaar. These (and the rest of Hot Indian’s offerings) will only be available August 27-September 1. Everything from Hot Indian is going to be delicious. They are a safe bet if you love Indian flavors.
Walleye Stuffed Mushrooms from Giggles’ Campfire Grill. I just love everything Giggles does. They do magic with seafood at an event where you maybe should rethink ordering seafood.
Wine Fried Kalettes from Minnesota Wine Country. Kale + Wine + sweet chili sauce = excellent idea.
Chocolate Dipped Cherry on a Spoon from Johnny Pops. I love Johnny Pops. Thank you for not making your ice cream spicy, Sriracha-ed, or pickle flavored.
BBQ Pickle Ice Cream from R&R Ice Cream. I purposefully put this at the top of my bad list. This will not ever taste good. Why would anyone even do something like this to ice cream. What did ice cream ever do to you???
Burger dogs from Gass Station Grill. This is a blend of hamburger, hot dog, bacon, cheese, and a “splash” of jalapeño on a hot dog bun. This is a mash up of already questionable meat products from a place called “Gass Station Grill”. I just don’t have high hopes.
Hot Tail from The Rabbit Hole, located at the Taste of Midtown Global Market at the International Bazaar. This is only available September 2-7. It’s actually a roasted pig tail coated in a ginger scallion sauce. I was super excited to see The Rabbit Hold showing up at the State Fair, but I just can’t eat tail. Points for a funny name though.
Limerick Stix from O’Gara’s at the Fair is a blend of pimento cheese and cayanne pepper coated in corn meal and deep fried. It’s another fried cheese stick. Unless the cheese is high quality, I won’t be filling precious stomach space with these.
Chocolate Jalapeño Ice Cream from Rainbow Ice Cream. I don’t like spicy ice cream. It’s not cute. I want sweets, fats, sugars. Not spice. Also, think of all the sad children who just want some chocolate ice cream and suddenly their mouths are on fire. Not cool.
Maple bacon funnel cake from Funnel Cakes. This one is a dud for me because I am not a huge bacon bits fan, and I’m not a huge funnel cake fan. If you love both, this could be for you.
Pretzel Croissant Sandwich from French Meadow Bakery. I’m sorry, I love you, French Meadow, but I just don’t think a pretzel croissant is a great idea. Pretezels are pretty much the opposite of croissants, and after the disappointing cronut you debuted a few years ago, I just don’t think this will be anything special.
Fire and Ice Kreme from Goertze’s Dairy Kone. I just…what? Ice cream with Sriracha (ENOUGH ALREADY!) and crunched up corn chips. Those corn chips will get soggy. Sriracha never needs to be on ice cream. Ever.
Prime Rib to Go from Coasters. I’m just not that into prime rib. If it’s juicy and tender, I could be totally wrong, and this cone sandwich could be a delight.
Smokey’s Breakfast Burger from Smokey’s Char-Broiler. I don’t love burgers with additional meat as a topping. Especially not for breakfast.
Spam Burgers in 5 new flavors from Spam Burgers. Enough already. Stop with the Spam. If you’re curious, the new flavors are Jalapeño, Hot & Spicy, Bacon, Hickory Smoke, and Black Pepper.
Salted Caramel Puff Malts from the Dairy Goodness Bar. Salted caramel sounds great, but you know those puff corns are going to be all soggy later.
Sriracha Dog from Snack House. Ugh. Just ugh.
Stuffed Italian Meatloaf On-a-stick from Green Mill. I’m not a meatloaf fan, and I’m not a Green Mill fan, so I don’t have high hopes.
Totchos from Boulevard Grill. I feel like we’ve been here before. Can totchos even be considered a “new” food?
Mac & Cheese Cupcake from LuLu’s Public House. It’s the Cheez Whiz on top that is bugging me with this one. The mac & cheese looks solid, but can’t we find a better topping than Cheez Whiz?
Chilled Bread Pudding from Blue Moon Dine-In Theater. I just don’t know about this. I have some issues with Blue Moon Dine-In. They always make things that sound like they would be good, but are just mediocre when you stack them up next to other offerings at the fair. Plus it’s chilled and not hot. So there’s that. Also, no ice cream. Meh.
Deep fried ribs from the Ball Park Cafe. My resident rib expert says this could be good, but it could also go horribly wrong. We’re not sure what frying the ribs would do to the meat in terms of that juicy, fall-off-the-bone quality we like.
Grandma Deb’s Snicker Bar Salad from The Blue Barn is a mix of vanilla pudding, Granny Smith apples, and Snickers bars topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce. I think this will be a huge hit with a certain segment of Minnesotans, but I’m not a huge fan of jello salad and things like that, so I’m not convinced I would love this particular dish.
Minnesota Wild Rice Benedict Muffin from LuLu’s Public House. The hollandaise sauce on this wild rice English muffin with sliced ham and a soft-cooked egg could make or break this dish. If I find myself eating breakfast at the fair, this is probably what I’d go for.
Doo Wop Dip from West End Creamery. This is a croissant stuffed with strawberry ice cream, dipped in chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate. I’m sold if the croissant isn’t frozen with the ice cream. I want a soft, flakey croissant, please!
Island Slaw from Island Noodles. This looks promising, but it’s all based on the quality of the slaw. If the slaw is fresh, we have a winner, and a healthy-ish option at the fair. IF it’s your standard cafeteria fare, then it could fall flat.
Meatloaf Hash from The Blue Barn is meatloaf, sautéed potatoes, peppers, and onions, topped with scrambled eggs and béarnaise sauce. Personally, I am not a meatloaf fan. But I do know a few people who would go for something like this, so I’m putting it in the wild card pile.
Espresso Floats from Java Jive. This will be big with coffee lovers.
Steak Apizzaiola from Spaghetti Eddie’s. This steak sandwich is served with a side of marinara sauce, which could make for one tasty bite if done right.
Sweet Potato Taco from Potato Man & Sweetie. I love that vegetables are the star here, but I’m not convinced about the texture of mashed sweet potatoes in my taco.
Up Nort Shoreman’s Lunch from The Blue Barn. This battered norther pike with fresh tomato sauce, potatoes, and corn will probably be solid if you’re looking for an entire meal on one plate.
Butter Queen Coffee Ice Cream from Hamline Church Dining Hall. Izzy’s puts up solid flavors each year. I’m just not a coffee fan.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged food reviews, Minnesota State Fair Foods 2015, New Minnesota State Fair Foods 2015, New State Fair Foods 2015, Weird Foods, Wild State Fair Foods by theculinarycapers. Bookmark the permalink. | 2019-04-19T03:06:37Z | https://theculinarycapers.com/2015/06/24/its-that-time-of-year/ |
To help manufacturers navigate one of the most transformative times in history, SyncronTM, a provider of cloud-based after-sales service solutions focused on empowering the world’s leading manufacturers to maximise product uptime and deliver exceptional customer experiences, today published “2019 After-sales Service Predictions: Powering the Journey to Servitization Through Maximized Product Uptime.” Service experts from Accenture, Daimler Trucks North America, Spartan Motors, Carlisle & Company, Bocconi University and Syncron shared insights on the time, resources and technology manufacturers will need to win in 2019 and beyond.
Servitisation – where organisations transition from selling one-off products to selling the outcome or value those products deliver – is leading manufacturers to evolve their after-sales service operations from reactive, break-fix models focused on repair execution, to a new paradigm focused on dynamic repair prevention and maximising product uptime. In this new white paper, Syncron unveils how manufacturers can succeed in this shift to servitisation.
Maintenance technicians are busy feeling their way around a new power station in northern Finland – even though the plant hasn’t been built yet.
They’re part of a team that’s breaking new ground with augmented reality (AR) technology, working within a virtual model of the facility, even “walking” its rooms and machinery two years before it’s completed.
In this digital environment the technicians are familiarising themselves with the Oulu Energy Co power station’s layout and using the platform to make alterations to its design before construction begins next year.
"It means there are no delays and there is no downtime when the plant eventually opens, the engineers will know every centimetre of it when it’s open..."
Karaila is a leading expert in the application of AR, and its cousins virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) to maintenance and support services, a subject he elaborated on in detail at Aftermarket 2018. He foresees a future in which crucial training and maintenance will be carried out remotely and virtually.
“The technology is there already and we are using it,” he said.
For more than 30 years, Karaila has been developing and putting into operation distributed control systems and integrated controls systems, and has more recently turned to artificial intelligence and visual technologies.
In his presentation, Karaila donned a pair of high-tech digital glasses and headset to demonstrate how the Valmet software can add virtual elements to a real-life environment. Via a giant video screen linked to Karaila’s headset, assembled delegates watched a huge paper processing machine materialise in the room. As Karaila walked around, his view of the digitally visualised machine adjusted accordingly.
Still, in its infancy, the technology is being driven mostly by the gaming industry, where players demand increasingly immersive and life-like experiences. But Karaila says AR, MR and VR’s application in industry will grow in sophistication as it becomes more widely adopted.
Its potential for field services and aftermarket services are enormous, he said.
"Eventually, of course, we will be able to use this software in conjunction with robots to perform repair and maintenance tasks remotely..."
Lasse Laanikari, head of area customer service management at Liebherr, said the technology would be suitable for his company.
The Valmet technology enables collaboration between multiple engineers in the same virtual space. In a demonstration, Karaila showed how other team members are represented as simple plain head-and-shoulders avatars. But he said soon the software will be able to project images of those individuals’ faces onto their digital forms.
In an outcome-based economy, the customer’s experience becomes the focus of the production process. But if a new product can achieve the same experience as an older model, where does that leave innovation?
According to IFS global industry director for service management Mark Brewer, innovation becomes even more essential, even if it’s driven in different ways.
Brewer has spent his 20-plus year career in presales, product management, business development marketing and he crisscrosses the world representing IFS at trade shows and winning business for the Sweden-based software developer.
"Rather than restricting innovation, the manufacturer is induced to continually reflect on how the product is behaving in the field..."
While the service industry is undergoing a transformation that’s putting the focus on experiences and outcomes rather than product manufacturing, Brewer says innovation will come in the form of better, more cost-effective, ways to provide those experiences.
Earlier, he explained the concept to dozens of delegates at the Berlin event using the example of Philips. The Dutch electrical giant used to sell tens of thousands of light bulbs to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Now, he explained, it no longer sells bulbs – instead, it provides a contract that will ensure the facility’s lights never go out.
“When you take ownership of the outcome, sure it turns the model on its head but in that example, they want to minimise the amount of product they shift because it’s all coming off the profit margin of their contract,” he explains.
In his presentation, Brewer said research showed companies could earn $12 in product servicing contracts for every $1 earned in product sales. BMW, he pointed out, earned 12% margins on the sale of each car but 65% on provision of services for each of those cars.
Driving that change is technology, he explains later. “Digital twinning”, in which manufacturers track the performance and condition of their products in the field via inbuilt monitors, has the potential to revolutionise the service industry.
"For the first time, the customer is no longer the sensor - the machine is the sensor now..."
“For the first time, the customer is no longer the sensor to say, for instance, that an elevator is broken; the machine is the sensor now,” Brewer says. “When a company sends a product out they never lose sight of it.
The end result is innovation targeted at creating better customer experiences. More and more, that will come in the form of software upgrades.
Every year, the team at Copperberg AB, producers of the forthcoming Aftermarket Business Platform gather the brightest service leaders from the largest manufacturing companies and from all corners of Europe to dissect the ongoing service transformation and share the key to a successful servitization journey.
It is a networking experience which has proven to be critical for defining new business models that can allow field service companies to respond to changing customer expectations, which are moving from ownership to outcome-based solutions.
One such service leader is Carl-Henrik Sjölund, Global Consultancy Service Director at SECO TOOLS, whom Copperberg recently interviewed for a new eBook in order to put together an eBook on Servitization that shares some practical steps towards a successful servitization journey.
Within the eBook Sjölund outlines what he sees as 10 key steps that field service companies should consider when approaching shifting to a servitized business model.
Match the customers’ challenges with the biggest cost of “inefficient use of components” with your best core competence to “fix it"
Check customer interest of your new service by using real proof of concept. Could be fake landing pages for services where people can click for interest to buy, subscribe or just know more.
"The journey was more or less OK except that we had too much trust in the existing product sales organization to sell the new services."
"They just didn’t understand it, he added. "Instead we found a few of our own salespeople for service sales with different backgrounds to understand the complete customer journey (challenge) and communicate with the highest management level about this. It’s important to bring people from the product service organization along to learn and pick the best.
The eBook also draws on the wider pool of senior Service Professionals that attend the Aftermarket Business Platform and as such outlines some of the key trends that are becoming prevalent amongst Manufacturers across Europe.
Manufacturing companies are faced with smaller and smaller batch sizes because of faster and faster development cycles.
This leads to challenges to estimate costs earlier, prepare for the unknown and have very fast set-up of machine. Added to that, the need to produce good parts directly when there are orders means there is no time for optimization.
Companies lack staff with the right skills and working methods for this.
Many suppliers are promising industry 4.0 ready-to-use solutions without success support and this leads to bad experiences.
Of course, as we have discussed many times here at fieldservicenews.com technology is a major factor in enabling the growth of servitized business strategies and models.
However, for Sjölund, the sheer volume of innovative technology that is empowering field service organisations to push ever further the boundaries of service excellence, a path that logically leads towards servitization, can be something of a double-edged sword.
"Technology is part of the problem: what is good and what to do?" He asks. "We already tried out a lot of technology (AI, Robotics, 3D Printing, AR/VR) to know what is usable and what is not."
"Most important change according to my experience so far is the use of big data mining to predict the future and access virtual good advices combined with virtual collaboration between users for “reality checks” and confirmation between professionals," Sjölund continues.
"This needs, however, data generating systems (IoT) in the workshop and well managed virtual communities. This is today not yet spread and partly not even available."
Don’t be caught in the Emperor’s new clothes. First focus on the customer!
Despite huge leaps forward in technology coming at us left right and centre, the companies that will get the most from a process of digitalisation are those that keep fundamental, traditional values of putting the customer first at the core of their ethos writes Nick Frank, Managing Partner, Si2 Partners.
Those companies that are successful in implementing a digital-led growth strategy don’t bother with the jargon of the moment!
The leaders in this field start with the basics – a deep understanding of their customer’s problems and then work backwards to offer solutions that create value or reduce risk. As part of the journey, they look hard at their own DNA and take action to fill their capability shortfalls. They identify the actual data they need and then automate the data collection/analytics process to deliver scalable solutions.
Businesses starting this shift to service led growth would do well to note that successful companies do not focus on the rhetoric, but rather have an intense obsession with how to make their customers more successful. The lesson to be learned is using the latest jargon does not put you ahead of the game. Believe this and you might not realise that you are leaving your business ‘naked’ to competitive actions, just like the emperor in the children’s story.
In the last year, I have heard this same story time and time again. At the recent After Market conference in Hamburg, we heard speakers from SKF, Outotec, Caterpillar and Serco tools all starting with the customer problem, defining the customer pain map in terms of real money.
Talk to experts in machine learning or knowledge management and one hear’s exactly the same story. Start with the business problem or the KPI and then work back to the data solution. For some, this means adding services such as analytics or remote access to products to create customer value. Others go further and no longer sell a product but an outcome such as leasing a tractor unit of a truck by the mile.
In all the success stories there is a common theme. Each company is able to articulate in terms of money, why their customers should buy their solutions.
They almost all do this following what I call the Value Iceberg principal.
The cost of the product or service you provide can be clearly seen above the waterline.
However, from the customers perspective, there are many other costs within their business below the ‘waterline’. Some are easy to define such as labour, material throughput and energy. Others are much harder such as overheads or obsolescence. And then there is RISK and UNCERTAINTY that are extremely intangible and frightening when quantified, but which have a strong emotional impact on companies buying decisions.
The most profitable manufacturing companies understand the iceberg very well. By adding services to their products and creating integrated solutions, there exists a huge opportunity to capture more value that is hidden deep within the customers’ business processes. Take the truck example. The tractor unit represents maybe only 8% of the annual running costs. Below the waterline 50% of the operating costs is the fuel used, 25% the driver and profit accounts for perhaps 2-3%.
Over 20 years ago, MAN truck’s UK distributor identified this value and added maintenance services to their portfolio that were designed to reduce fuel consumption by 10% and so double the profitability of a tractor unit over the year.
Using telematics technology in the cab, they were able to manage the running costs so well, they could shift their business model to effectively lease trucks by the mile. The resulting value argument was so compelling, that over a 20-year period their business grew from £50M to 550M. The other OEM’s are now following!
For leaders of change, this deep, almost obsessive understanding of customer value, gives them the confidence to know in what businesses and technologies to invest. It allows them to understand whether customers can afford more outcome-based services and how far their business should move along the Product to Service continuum.
Perhaps this realization that our view of manufacturing is fundamentally changing, is the reason why many people focus on the digital or IR4 technologies, forgetting that these are only enablers of change. In most part, it is through services that the technologies add new value and not the other way around. But sadly many companies have yet to grasp this notion. The reality is that unless they do, many players will be left wondering why digitization and IR4 have never quite delivered on the promise!
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, has released a primary research study revealing that legacy software solutions used by speciality and trade contractors could prevent them from profitably delivering aftermarket services to their customers.
The survey of 200 HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), plumbing, electrical, building automation, low voltage electrical, signage, overhead door and other speciality contractors paints a picture of an industry in the grips of a digital transformation.
85 percent of study respondents said they have maintenance contracts with customer-specific terms, service level agreements (SLAs) and pricing, but only 14 percent said their software facilitated these contracts “very well.”Many respondent companies did not enable field technicians to improve the customer experience or drive new revenue. Only 38 percent said technicians could access information on the terms of the contract including customer-specific requirements. Only 15 percent of respondents have the technology to empower field technicians to upsell or sell new service contracts, only 25 percent could issue new estimates and 23 percent could get customer approval for an estimate.
89 percent of respondents said they use subcontractors, but just over 10 percent have adopted the current technology by giving their subcontractors a mobile app to interact with their field service management software.
IFS Senior Product Evangelist for Field Service Management Tom DeVroy added, “The adage is that the future is here—it is just not evenly distributed. This is true for trade contracting, where our data shows that residential contractors seem to be ahead of commercial contractors when it comes to Digital Transformation.
As Erik Kjellstrom, Pre-Sales Manager, Syncron, stepped down from the stage having just given a presentation at this year’s Aftermarket Conference, I was looking forward to the opportunity to catch up with him for a number of reasons.
His organisation has been something of an anomaly in our sector of recent years. A pioneering lone voice that often were seemingly single-handedly trying to bring a dedicated solution to what was often the unloved piece of the field service puzzle – parts management.
Whether, it be pricing, inventory management or stock ordering, Syncron have successfully over the last few years been one of few brands to be associated with taking this part of the aftermarket conversation seriously. We’ve seen Syncron a lot at various conferences over the last 24 months and almost each time they’ve been armed with case studies and hard data that revealed just how much (and how easily) their solution has improved their clients P&L both in terms of top line revenue and bottom line profit.
However, this time around there was a twist to their approach. Having recently brought a new in module into their offering that is focused on predictive maintenance and based on IoT, were they shifting their focus - or was this development just a natural evolution that reflected the changing dynamics of the industry?
The central thrust of Kjellstrom’s presentation was that essentially there are a number of interesting trends appearing in the aftermarket industry – covering a lot of the ground that regular readers of Field Service News will be familiar with.
We are seeing futuristic concepts such as Drones, 3D Printing, Augmented Reality and Autonomous Vehicles all of which have all been on the horizon offering the promise of industry revolution for a while but are now really starting to come into the mainstream conversationTo begin with, coming from the technology perspective we are seeing futuristic concepts such as Drones, 3D Printing, Augmented Reality and Autonomous Vehicles all of which have all been on the horizon offering the promise of industry revolution for a while but are now really starting to come into the mainstream conversation. Alongside this with have already seen wide adoption of Mobile, Cloud and increasingly the Internet of Things amongst manufacturers and service providers.
However, the changes we are seeing in our sector are not just driven by technology alone.
Sweeping demographic change within the workforce, accelerated by the ageing workforce crisis being faced by companies across the globe and being exacerbated by the unprecedented differences between the incoming Millennial generation and the outgoing Baby Boomers, is of course another factor driving industry evolution forwards.
Finally, add into this mix our shift to a much more service and outcome orientated society as a whole - arguably itself the result of the generational shift alongside the technical advances referenced above and we are seeing companies turn their entire business models on their head.
Servitization has gone from fringe concept to buzzword across the last eighteen months or so as talk of ever decreasing SLAs and increasing First-Time-Fix rates has morphed into discussions around guarantees of uptime and the financial impact of unplanned downtime.
As such our industry is in a fascinating and exciting state of flux at the moment and it was this rapid development and the various drivers behind it that were at the heart of the Kjellstrom presentation in Hamburg.
Of course, such dynamic changes within the sector need to be reflected within the solutions provided and it is the shift towards preventative maintenance (itself a major stepping stone on the way to servitization) that Syncron have focused their latest efforts on.
“We have been working very much to support more reactive service models in the past in terms of inventory management and pricing but what we are now doing, both from a product stand point but also from a service offering standpoint, is we are working towards an uptime supporting module.” Kjellstrom explained when we caught up.
In brief, Syncron are integrating a new module into their current service network optimisation capabilities.
These capabilities in the past had all been centred on the parts management area of the Aftermarket sector – pricing, inventory management, and ordering. However, their new module is a predictive maintenance module they call Uptime (makes sense), which Kjellstrom explains is intended to ‘blend together the aspect of inventory management and pricing etc with an understanding of the actual assets that use these parts.
It seems a natural alignment to bring the asset and the parts management together in the preventative management worldIt seems a natural alignment to bring the asset and the parts management together in the preventative management world. Indeed, much of reasoning behind this development from Syncron echoes a similar line of conversation that ServiceMax put forward when they announced their integration with GE Digital’s technology Asset Performance Management (APM).
Essentially both Syncron and ServiceMax are approaching the same central maxim - just from two different angles. In a world of IoT and sensor-led preventative maintenance the asset is King and everything else should fall in line around and work back from that one premise.
However, where one does feel that viewpoints will change between the two organisations is in how the ecosystem is built. Through their recent acquisition list including Servicemax, it is clear that GE Digital have their eyes set on building a comprehensive and all encompassing new platform for age of the Industrial Internet.
For Syncron however, the focus for the time being at least, appears to be in line with their best-of-breed heritage.
“I think that a product such as ours and a Field Service Management (FSM) system are complimentary products.” Kjellstrom explains.
With so many technologies evolving at once a clear case could be made for establishing a comprehensive technology ecosystem across a service orientated business and Syncron is set to be an important part of that ecosystem.
Yet, in a world that seems to be in constant Beta, not all developments are equal and Kjellstrom believes it is important to understand how different technologies can impact the way we work when building out your own tech strategy.
Certain technologies will bring refinement whilst others offer revolution.
“We definitely see more potential impact from some types of the technologies than others,” he comments.
Does the development of autonomous vehicles mean that we will begin to see car sharing across a team of engineers“How about autonomous vehicles? Does the development of autonomous vehicles mean that we will begin to see car sharing across a team of engineers” he asks rhetorically before outlining that such technology could lead to servitizing the fleet at which point automotive manufacturers concerns about spare parts really begin to truly change and evolve into an entirely new set of thinking and processes.
“These are the types of questions that we are interested in, in terms of the emerging technology.” He explains.
However, whilst he believes the shift to Servitization and outcome based solutions will continue to grow, Kjellstrom also insists that the traditional break-fix market and the aspects of pricing, parts management and inventory which that function drives forward, will never fully disappear.
Indeed, whilst we wait for the weighting between the old and the new to do a 180 flip, one thing is clear, for the short-term at least we need to be able to accommodate both – which means looking to the future today – something Kjellstrom and his colleagues have embraced which is clearly evident by their introduction of the new Uptime module. | 2019-04-25T14:16:59Z | https://www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/aftermarket-2 |
Antibodies are produced by the human body in response towards infections as a means of protection. The in vivo production of antibodies by B-cells involves a series of intricate gene editing processes resulting in a highly diverse pool of antibodies. However, this diversity can be replicated in vitro using phage display. Phage display offers the potential to present the antibody phenotype together with the cloned genotype of the specific antibody in a single-phage particle. Antibodies are highly sought after for diagnostic applications owing to its specificity and affinity towards a target antigen. The advent of recombinant antibody (rAb) technology allows for a faster and more cost-effective solution for antibody generation. It also provides diagnostic developers with the possibility to customize the antibodies. Antibodies have been utilized successfully in various diagnostic platforms ranging from standard immunoassays to lateral-flow assays, nanoparticles, microfluidics, DNA‐integrated assays and others. The limitless application of antibodies in the field of diagnostics has made it a critical component in any diagnostic development platform. This chapter focuses on the processes involved in antibody discovery including the various forms of antibody libraries for phage display and panning processes. We also highlight some diagnostic platforms that apply recombinant antibodies.
The human body is made up of a series of complex networks or systems that involve different tissues and cells to work in harmony to regulate different functions in the human body. The immune system is one of the vital systems in the human body as its main function is to protect the body from infectious agents and pathogens. The immune system is divided into two main forms of immunity, namely the innate and acquired immunity. The innate immunity is the physical barrier that prevents foreign invasion. If the innate immunity fails to inhibit the entrance of these foreign molecules, the second line of defence being the adaptive immunity will then come into play. This response will take place with the help of both T‐ and B‐cell . B‐cell activation to secrete antibodies can work through either the T‐cell dependent or the T‐cell independent pathway. The T‐cell dependent activation would require T‐helper cells to trigger the processes required for antibody production through B‐cell proliferation . This will then lead to the secretion of antibodies in the body.
Over decades, the application and function of antibodies has expanded from being an immunologically important protein to an essential research tool. The basic application of antibodies surrounds the natural feature of antibodies being high affinity and specific binders against target molecules. This feature has allowed antibodies to be successfully applied for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. In general, diagnostic kits are likely to apply antibodies with superior affinities and specificity against a target antigen for detection via different orientations. This includes either the detection of antibodies by antigens, detection of serum antibodies by the corresponding antigens or by competition [4, 5].
Antibodies are a form of recognition protein , which is ubiquitously found in serum and body fluid of vertebrates. The diverse antibody repertoire is important for the identification of antibodies against a specific target. Antibodies undergo gene rearrangement processes to generate different gene segment combinations that result in antibodies with different gene sequences. The complexity of antibody diversity is mainly attributed to the combinatorial joining of multiple V, D, J segments of the heavy chain and the V, J segment for the light chain. This process involves multiple gene‐editing enzymes to produce numerous combinations of gene segments. After gene segmentation, another process named somatic hypermutation takes place to further diversify the antibody repertoire [7, 8]. Taken together, these processes are mainly responsible for the highly diverse repertoire of antibodies found in the human body. This variation is the basis of the existence of different antigen‐binding specificities and affinities of immunoglobulins (Igs) [2, 9].
The story of antibodies can be dated back to 1890, with the first report detailing the presence of antibodies and its function by Emil von Behring and Shibasaburo Kitasato. They used serum from animals immunized against diphtheria for administration to other animals infected with diphtheria and subsequently curing the infected animals [10, 11]. However, Paul Ehrlich in 1900 proposed the side‐chain theory based on his hypothesis that the binding ability of a receptor is based on the side chains available for binding . The side‐chain theory was then supported by the ‘lock and key’ hypothesis by Emil Fischer that focused the hypothesis mainly on enzyme functions . The constant evolution and understanding of immunology has helped open new avenues of antibody application and function.
Another major breakthrough in antibody technology development is the introduction of hybridoma technology. Traditionally, antibody production for diagnostic applications involved the use of animals. The immunization of animals with an immunogenic protein with and without an adjuvant would generally produce a collection of polyclonal antibodies . A polyclonal pool of antibodies is defined as a set of heterogeneous antibodies targeting a specific antigen at multiple epitopes. The ability to identify monospecific antibodies only came about after Kohler and Milstein introduced the hybridoma technology in 1975. Hybridoma technology allows for monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to be produced by fusing myeloma cells with antibody‐producing spleen cells to create a hybrid exhibiting both characteristics . This resulted in the formation of an immortal cell line with characteristics from both the spleenocytes and myeloma cells known as a hybridoma. The hybridomas are then screened until a single clone is obtained and the production of it is up‐scaled. It is well known that antibodies generated via this manner are likely to have high affinities due to the maturation process that it underwent. Although successful, the process may be cumbersome and time consuming as researchers have found it at times difficult to generate antibodies using this method against toxic antigens, self‐antigens and sensitive antigens such as membrane proteins or DNA. For all the benefits attributed to hybridoma technology, a major pitfall lies in the fact that for every new antigen a new animal host is required for immunization. Thus, it is difficult to predict or predefine the genetic information and epitope of the clone [11, 14]. This increases the difficulties, cost and time required to make antibodies, making it not the idle solution for antibody production .
This brought about a string of alternative methods for antibody production. The turn of the century saw the booming of molecular biology due to the success of recombinant DNA technology. Researchers were hard at work to develop the next alternative method for monoclonal antibody generation. This brought about various methods including phage display and other multiple display methods such as yeast display, ribosome display and mammalian cell display methods . In addition, the use of transgenic animals was also introduced mainly with the xeno‐mouse technology [11, 13, 14]. Even so, phage display is the preferred choice for recombinant antibody (rAb) production in most laboratories. Phage display allows for a faster and cost‐effective solution towards antibody generation using Ff filamentous phage. In general, rAb production involves several steps including the generation of an antibody library, selection and enrichment of phage‐displaying antibodies against specific antigens through the panning process, screening of monospecific antibodies and recombinant production of the antibodies via expression systems . As phage‐derived rAb may suffer from lower affinities, an additional stage of affinity maturation may be introduced to improve the antibodies produced. A major advantage to the use of phage display for rAb generation in contrast to conventional animal‐derived methods is clearly the omission of animal use in the process. Another advantage of phage display is the lower downtime required for antibody production in between antigens. Conventional methods require immunization that may take up to weeks if not months to yield sufficient immune response for antibody production. This makes phage display rather efficient in the long term for antibody production process. However, one must acknowledge that phage‐derived antibodies suffer from lower affinity when compared to conventional antibodies. This is due to the absence of affinity maturation in phage‐derived antibodies as animal‐derived antibodies are produced post maturation.
This chapter highlights monoclonal antibody development for diagnostic applications via phage display technology. This includes the different types of antibody libraries associated with antibody phage display. The chapter also highlights the different methods used to isolate antibodies against target antigens. The application of recombinant antibodies in different diagnostic platforms is also discussed briefly.
Phage display makes use of the natural replication cycle of bacteriophages to fuse a specific peptide or protein with the coat protein on the surface of the filamentous phage particles for selection. This design allows the presentation of a predefined foreign phenotype on the phage surface with the genotype being retrievable in the phage. This allowed a physical linkage between the phenotypic characteristics with the genotypic information to be established [11, 16–22].
There are two main methods for the display mechanism on phage. The first is with the use of a phage vector system, which allows the expression of coat protein III (pIII) to the foreign protein, in this case the antibodies are driven by the natural phage promoter [23, 24]. Additional helper phages are not required for phage packaging with phage vector systems. Unlike the phage vectors, the expression of the antibody‐pIII protein by phagemid systems requires an artificial promoter such as the lac promoter. In addition, phagemid systems also require helper phage for phage packaging. As phagemid vectors do not carry the phage genome, complete phage packaging can only be done with the presence of the helper phage that carries the genetic information for the other proteins required for phage packaging. Therefore, a competition between wild‐type pIII with the mutant pIII will occur. This difference in design of both phage and phagemid vectors also contributes to the display efficiency as phage systems are able to provide a multivalent display of the antibodies on pIII, whereas phagemid systems only allow monovalent display.
The isolation of antibody‐presenting phages post binding with a target antigen allows simple identification of the clones by standard sequencing. Therefore, this approach has been utilized to introduce a collection of different antibody sequences into the phagemid vector to produce a collection of varying clones known as an antibody library . The generation of antibody libraries will bring together a different set of considerations that is outlined in the following section.
For antibody isolation with phage display technology, a collection of antibodies has to be first made available. This involves the initial investment to generate a library of antibody clones to be presented on the surface of bacteriophages. The choice of library to be generated is rather dependent on its application, which would influence the subsequent decision‐making process. This is because the type of library required would determine the source required and the minimum library size required ranging from 106 to 1010 . In general, there are four main types of antibody libraries, namely naïve, immunized, synthetic and semi‐synthetic library. Naïve and synthetic antibodies are known as ‘single‐pot’ libraries, which can be screened against any antigen [22, 26]. Figure 1 shows the overall summary of all the libraries and their differences. However, each different library has its own particular characteristic that makes it preferred for certain applications. The application of phage display for antibody generation is not confined only to human antibodies but can also be applied to animal‐derived antibodies.
Types of antibody library design.
Naïve antibody libraries are by definition a collection of antibody genes that are naïve in nature. In other words, the V‐gene repertoire originates from IgM isotype of unimmunized or healthy donors . The main characteristic of a naïve library is the unbiased nature of the repertoire. The antibody repertoire of healthy donors would mean no prior exposure or infection of the donors to any form of infection that could skew the immune response. As antibody production by the immune system is a direct response to the exposure of the individual to any pathogen, it is necessary for naïve libraries to obtain its repertoire from truly healthy donors.
The main advantage of a naïve or single‐pot library is its large repertoire for monoclonal antibody identification against numerous targets such as self, non‐immunogenic or toxic substances. A technical bottleneck associated with naïve libraries is the sheer number of donors required as well as the number of theoretical diversity required. This would involve a large number of ligation and transformation experiments to achieve such numbers. A common problem of naïve libraries is the number of unknown and uncontrollable contents, such as the presence of memory cells of past infections that might influence the true nature of the naïve repertoire due to the huge naïve repertoire . Another issue common to naïve libraries is the isolation of antibodies with varying degrees of affinities. It is common to obtain antibodies of modest affinities using naïve libraries, as the repertoire would have not undergone affinity maturation processes as opposed to hybridoma‐derived or immunized library‐derived antibodies.
The adaptation of naïve antibody libraries for diagnostic applications is not a new concept with several antibodies successfully being isolated for various diagnostic targets. Naïve libraries are useful for diagnostic as it can be used for selection against haptens, foreign and self‐antigens. The ErBb2 protein, which is a tumour marker expressed by breast tumour, was selected against a naïve antibody library to obtain antibodies for immunoassay applications [28, 29]. Table 1 summarizes the application of naïve antibody libraries to generate antibodies against a variety of antigens for diagnostic purpose.
Examples of naïve antibody libraries applied for diagnostic applications.
The antibody‐binding region is located at the three complementarity‐determining regions (CDRs) of the variable region in both the light chain and heavy chain. The gene sequences along the CDR are highly heterogeneous as a consequences of gene diversification such as V(D)J gene recombination, class switching and somatic hypermutation. The randomization in the CDR is responsible for the varying affinities as well as specificity to all target antigens. DNA technology advancement encourages synthetic antibody design and synthesis at a reasonable cost in laboratory with the help of structural bioinformatics. This is because the prediction of antibody‐antigen interaction can be done after considering the antibody structural constraints and preference.
It is with this information that antibody engineers are now able to design, improve and generate customized frameworks for antibody production. The ability to synthesize specific gene sequences and codons has made it possible to introduce randomization at the CDR. In general, CDR3 are found to be the region with the highest diversification other than CDR1 and CDR2 . In addition to gene randomization, antibody‐binding site was altered by inserting preferential amino acids that can also be used to introduce specific criteria to the antibody‐binding sites. Another key factor is the CDR length that can also be predefined by the user.
In the context of synthetic antibody libraries, the natural immune maturation and somatic hypermutation process can be elevated to generate similar quality antibodies. To construct a synthetic library, the unarranged and randomized V‐gene segments are synthetically assembled ex vivo normally by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). However, customization can be done on the genetic sequence, local variability and overall diversity for synthetic libraries unlike naïve libraries. Even specific codon usage can be applied to suit the needs of the user. Modifications to the framework can be carried out to improve features such as solubility and heat stability . The main criterion for synthetic libraries to be beneficial is the theoretical diversity of the library. As the repertoire is largely naïve, the potential combinations generated by synthetic methods are able to rival the process carried out naturally with the large library size. However, the sheer size of the library diversity makes it difficult to re‐culture without eventual loss of diversity. Even so, the antibodies enriched from synthetic libraries showed comparable affinities to those derived naturally . Another major bottleneck associated with the use of synthetic libraries is the cost of generating a synthetic library. Even so, the turn of events in genetic engineering over the past few years has seen the cost for oligonucleotide synthesis reduced tremendously. Therefore, now it is a plausible solution for most laboratories to generate their own version of a synthetic antibody library.
A key subset of synthetic libraries is the production of semi‐synthetic libraries. The first semi‐synthetic library was reported in 1992, in which rearrangement of 49 human VH gene segments with five to eight residues of synthetic CDR was carried out to yield a semi‐synthetic single‐chain fragment variable (scFv) library . The key difference between semi‐ and fully synthetic libraries is the source of the diversity. In semi‐synthetic libraries, the diversity is largely obtained from natural sources whereby the genes encoding the CDR are isolated. These CDR genes are then inserted to a fixed framework sequence, which encodes the antibody backbone [27, 34]. The diversity is still natural, taking advantage of the maturation processes of antibodies in vivo. The application of synthetic antibodies to develop antibodies for diagnostic applications has allowed the generation of antibodies against various antigens of diagnostic value.
This is evident with approximately three billion clones in the ETH‐2‐Gold library that were used against a wide range of recombinant antigens, such as extracellular glycoprotein of tenascin‐C (TNC) . Other versions have been reported such as the Tomlinson I library with 18 amino acid side‐chain diversity on the CDR, and the Griffin library was constructed by using six diverse synthetic CDR3 regions . The main difference between Tomlinson I and J libraries is the choice of randomization used before clone into pIT2 phagemid system. The Tomlinson I library uses the DVT degeneracy to introduce diversity at the CDR. The Tomlinson J library makes use of the NNK degeneracy in the CDR design. Nucleotide degeneracy is commonly used to introduce mutations in the codon at the CDR regions that are responsible for antigen‐binding specificity and affinity. DVT and NNK degeneracy are generic codons abiding a specific formula for base usage. The base usage of each degeneracy is as follows: D is 33% G/33% A/33% T; V is 33% G/33% A/33% C; N is any nucleic acid and K is 50% G/50% T. When the degeneracy is translated as a codon, it will yield multiple combinations of amino acids to increase the diversity of the gene. The application of different degenerate codons also allows the application of different groups of amino acids in the CDR design. The antibodies isolated from these libraries could then be used as a diagnostic tool [37, 38].
The HuCAL library from Morphosys is a famous fully synthetic antibody library with predefined randomized frameworks . The different versions of the HuCAL libraries, namely HuCAL Gold and HuCAL Platinum, were generated with six trinucleotide‐randomized CDRs [40, 41], whereas HuCAL and HuCAL Gold libraries were made with seven VH, four VK and three Vλ germline families. This allows the generation of 49 framework combination of the VH‐VL . Structural diversity of the CDR was introduced by randomization of CDR1, CDR2 and CDR3 . Another version of the HuCAL library is the HuCAL Platinum that consists of seven VH, three VK and three Vλ framework sequences. HuCAL Platinum was designed without the use of VH4 and VK4 as they are found to be rare . The HuCAL libraries have been used also for antibody generation for the diagnosis of bovine insulin [39, 40, 42]. Table 2 shows a list of some known fully-synthetic and semi-synthetic libraries used for diagnostic applications.
A list of fully‐synthetic and semi‐synthetic libraries and application in diagnostics.
The immunized library repertoire originates from V‐gene of immunized donors or disease‐infected donors. In immunized libraries, the immunized repertoire would be specific for one antigen or a collection of antigens specific for a particular disease. This limits the use of the libraries when compared to naïve and synthetic libraries. Even so, the V‐genes are collected from donors that have been exposed to the target antigen allowing isolation of higher‐affinity antibodies using such libraries. These antibody libraries mainly produce antibodies of good affinities with high clonal diversity due to in vivo somatic hypermutation that contributes towards affinity maturation. This would influence the library diversity in a way that the final library size required does not necessarily need to be as high as naïve libraries . This is useful to study disease immune responses, vaccination strategies and human immunity. The major setback to such libraries is the need to generate a new library to study every different disease [22, 26, 27].
Several different libraries have been developed for various diseases such as hepatitis B and those listed in Table 3. These libraries contain a plethora of useful antibodies that are specific to the disease making it a valuable asset for infectious diseases. The generation of immunized libraries is not restricted to humans but can also be carried out in animals such as mice. Immunization of mice with the target antigen would likely yield a library of clones against the specific target protein. Although this may not differ much from the conventional hybridoma technology, however, conversion to a recombinant version would allow easy up‐scaling for production and also for modification.
A list of immunized antibody libraries and application in diagnostics.
Immunized libraries have been used successfully in developing antibodies against diagnostic biomarkers. This can be seen with the application of this concept for epitopes of immunogenic antigen, such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) [32, 45]. Anti‐CEA antibodies can be applied for targeting and to image colorectal tumours. This transcends the conventional diagnostic platforms allowing in vivo cell staining or even with clinical imaging technologies. Besides, immune Fab antibody libraries were used to isolate antibody clones against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and herpes simplex virus (HSV) . Additionally, hepatitis A antibodies were isolated from hepatitis A immune library against CR236 via serodiagnostic immune adherence test (IA) or complement‐fixation (CF) test . Diagnosis of heparin‐induced immune thrombocytopenia (HIT) was made possible by using HIT antibodies from immune libraries. This is crucial as patients who have been diagnosed with HIT are required to stop heparin and start using alternate anticoagulant for treatment [48, 49]. Diagnosis of anthrax was done via detection against antigen Bacillus anthracis spores with immunized scFv antibody phage display library .
Panning is an in vitro selection method that functions to isolate antibody fragments based on their affinity towards the antigen from a diverse collection of clones. This approach is common for antibody development for diagnostics and therapeutic application [51, 52]. Before selection of antibodies can be carried out, the antibody libraries must be developed first. The constructed library must then be packaged as fusion protein on bacteriophage particles. The basic principle involves accessibility of phage‐presenting antibodies to bind to a target antigen based on affinity.
In this respect, (Figure 2) shows that the target antigen must first be immobilized on solid surfaces such as nitrocellulose, magnetic beads, column matrices or plastic surfaces in the form of polystyrene tube or 96‐well microtitre plates . In fact, the major difference among all the panning selection strategies is the immobilization surface where antigens are coated on. Other than this, parameters such as washing, elution and enrichment steps can be optimized for a successful selection process. As for evaluation, polyclonal and monoclonal antibody phage enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is usually used to determine the presence of a positive clone after panning .
To date, there have been a number of different panning strategies reported for the isolation of MAbs against various antigens. Traditionally, the favoured method for most researchers is to immobilize or coat antigens on solid supports such as polystyrene immunotube and polystyrene immunoplate .
The attachment of antigen to the polystyrene surface can either be direct using surface‐treated plates or by using intermediate capture mechanisms. This includes streptavidin‐coated plates to capture biotinylated ligands (protein or peptide). The biotin‐streptavidin mechanism is useful to avoid epitope disconformation during antigen immobilization on a plastic surface . After the immobilization of antigen, phage‐displayed libraries are incubated with the bound antigens for affinity capture. This was then continued with the washing of unbound phages before phage elution for rescue. Then, the eluted phage was subjected to amplification and precipitation steps for the following panning round until a positive clone is obtained . Here, the wash step can be modified to introduce different degrees of stringency to specify certain characteristics required for the antibodies. This way, customization of the strategy helps to determine the final output characteristics.
To increase the screening effectiveness, streptavidin magnetic beads can be used to coat the biotinylated antigens. A major advantage in using nanoparticles is the higher surface area to volume ratio for the capture of higher amount of targets. Magnetic‐based panning allows multiple antigen screening at the same time. A semi‐automated panning process includes manipulation of magnetic beads by multi‐pin method, robotic arm or a robotic system during the panning process to increase the panning efficiency . The main concept of panning using the semi‐automated process applies a similar concept of affinity‐based selection as the conventional method. The incubation, wash and elution steps are carried out with automation to improve reproducibility and accuracy. However, the phage rescue process is still carried out offline by manual infection. Even so, the process still utilizes significant automation to lower labour involvement and allows for high‐throughput screening to be carried out.
The concept of full automation refers to a pipeline process without the involvement of any human, whereas semi‐automation requires human involvement at some point of the process . The main benefit that high‐throughput panning brings to the process is a higher efficiency in selection with minimum labour as all the parameters can be easily programmed for repetitive steps. This also increases reproducibility of the incubation time, temperature, washing and elution condition. This allows for easy handling of multiple targets at the same time. Such protocols can help to reduce from 2 days to a single day for one selection cycle, which means only a week is required for the entire panning process. This method is easily automated with the use of magnetic particle processors such as the Kingfisher Flex system .
The next‐generation phage display allows differentiation of unselected and selected phage after enrichment rounds against a target antigen for both large combinatorial peptide and antibody libraries through DNA sequence analysis of the phenotype‐bearing phage . There are some similarities of this platform with conventional phage panning, where both includes laborious colony picking and functional ligand screening. The sheer number of clones to be analysed is easily overcome by the use of next‐generation sequencers (NGSs). This strategy is cost‐effective, fast and less labour intensive as compared to conventional phage display selection. Moreover, this technology improves the overall accuracy for large quantification. In terms of coverage, DNA deep sequencing through NGS offers a high coverage for full repertoire of ligand particles. In short, high‐throughput DNA sequencing through NGS method is cost‐effective, provides higher accuracy and high coverage for large quantification especially for library screening .
Another method utilizing the mass spectrometry immunoassay (MSIA™) system was introduced where the separation of antibodies and antigen for mass spectrometry (MS) analysis is done via affinity. Previously, the MSIA™ method is an immune affinity method used in protein analyte purification for MS detection purposes. The MSIA™ tip was successfully used as a solid phase to carry out semi‐automated panning for antibody enrichment. The MSIA™ tips that contain streptavidin that are covalently linked to a porous monolithic solid support will function as the capture molecule. The streptavidin capture molecules are best known for the easy capture of biotinylated target through biotin‐streptavidin interaction. The MSIA™ tip method only requires the use of a standard electronic multichannel pipettor and an adjustable pipette stand. This method is also cost‐effective for phage display panning as it does not require investments on instrumentation. However, the method can also be incorporated to larger pipetting instruments for antibody panning also. The panning protocol uses the similar concepts as conventional panning that includes incubation, washing and final elution. Then, bound phages are then amplified and used in the following panning rounds to obtain clonal enrichment. This method was reported to successfully identify antibodies against the hemolysin E antigen of Salmonella typhi . In short, this method is also an attractive alternative for high‐throughput screening.
Cell panning is an innovative screening method using whole fixed or live cells, tissue section or live animals expressing the antigen of interest for panning . In other words, whole live cells serve as an antigen carrier to screen phage antibodies [59, 60]. All the selection methods mentioned were panned against purified antigens, but whole cell antigen is used in whole cell panning. This panning strategy is usually an alternative method for complex and difficult antigens which cannot be purified with similar properties, for example, cell surface receptor or antigen is only functional when retained in lipid bilayers . There are several parameters to consider when carrying out cell panning such as (1) quality of antibody library, (2) display manner, (3) antigen concentration and (4) cell‐surface antigen density. This is to ensure the success of the panning process.
Antibodies are normally identified in a Y‐shape configuration. The variability is mainly due to the V‐region (two arms of Y‐end) as this is where the antigens bind . Thus, smaller versions of antibody formats have been developed to take advantage of the binding specificities of the V‐region. Due to advancement in recombinant DNA technology, a number of new antibody formats such as domain antibodies, single‐chain fragment variable, tandem scFv, diabody, tetrabody, minibody and single‐chain fragment antigen binding (scFab) have been introduced (Figure 3).
Antibody fragment design. (A) Full antibody; (B) fragment antibody binding (Fab); (C) single‐chain fragment variable (scFv); and (D) single‐domain antibody (sdAbs).
A main consideration of antibody formats is the size; smaller fragments have an advantage that they are able to retain the antigen‐binding specificity and can be produced economically [26, 62]. This is important for application in diagnostics, as this will in turn contribute to lowering the production cost during manufacturing. The main consideration for any antibody to be used on a diagnostic platform is mainly the specificity and affinity of the antibody against the target antigen. These two characteristics are not lost with the use of smaller fragments albeit there will be no avidity effect with the monomeric smaller fragments.
Both scFv and Fab formats are commonly used in research and industrial applications, and are the preferred formats for presentation on phage [16, 20, 34, 62, 63]. This is because the expression of complete IgG is not suitable for Escherichia coli as the large size and post‐translational modifications available are not designed for bacteria . In the context of antibody formats for application in phage display, the smaller‐sized formats are preferred due to the ease of expression and presentation efficiency. Larger native structures may not be tolerated well by the bacterial host required for the packaging of new phage particles. The following section will mainly discuss the antibody formats commonly used in phage display. This includes the domain antibodies, single‐chain fragment variable and fragment antigen binding, which are truncated versions of the full immunoglobulin.
Domain antibodies are small (11–15 kDa) and consist only of either the VH or the VL domain . Thus, they will only have three out of a possible six CDR from a full variable region consisting of both VH and VL. It was found that single‐domain antibodies (sdAbs) are able to provide better stability as well as solubility when specific families such as the VH3 framework are used. The stability of the human VH domain antibody can be further enhanced by extending the length of CDRH3 loop , much like the hypervariable region of camelid VHH that are longer than the human VH. According to Ponsel and Neugebauer , camelid and cartilage fish's single‐domain antibodies are more stable, with a high resistance towards aggregation and temperature due to the framework sequence [34, 66].
Domain antibodies can also penetrate tissue efficiently as compared to full‐length IgG due to their smaller size. VHHs are commonly used as detection units on biosensor or immune‐adsorbent to identify the presence of lysozyme, carbonic anhydrase, alpha‐amylase , beta‐lactamase or even act as a cancer‐imaging agent. It was also used to detect the surface antigen of different hepatitis serotypes . In addition, single‐domain antibody is used due to an easier production system when compared to conventional antibodies because of the size and folding [56, 68]. As domain antibodies are devoid of any quaternary structure, production and stability of domain antibodies allows it to be used at extreme conditions. This provides great benefit for diagnostics, as the improved heat stability would allow easy transportation of antibodies without cold chain. This is especially beneficial for diagnostic kit development for in‐field diagnosis of infectious diseases in areas with limited resources.
Single‐chain antibody variable fragment is made up of VL and VH domain with a glycine‐serine flexible linker in between to hold the domain in proximity to form the binding cavity upon folding . In addition, GS linkers are known to improve the folding, flexibility and stability of the single‐chain fragment variable as compared to proline‐rich linker. This is because pro‐rich sequence exhibits rigid and stiff conformation due to the absence of hydrogen at the amine, which forms hydrogen bonds with other amino acids . Therefore, the scFv fragments are designed with six CDRs, thus increasing the diversity and repertoire of the antibodies. The scFv has been shown to bind to a variety of antigens, such as hapten, protein, carbohydrate, receptor, tumour antigen and viruses . Moreover, small scFvs are easily folded and producible in E. coli for diagnostic applications too [3, 63, 64, 70].
As a linker joins the VH and VL domain physically, the single polypeptide composition helps to facilitate the production and folding in E. coli that allows for efficient presentation of antibody repertoire on phage surface [70, 71] due to better expression in E. coli [14, 71]. Thus, many libraries generated use the scFv fragment as the preferred format for selection [64, 72]. The scFv format has been used in whole blood agglutination assay for rapid diagnostic test for HIV‐1 . The scFv fragment was detected by tags in ELISA besides fusing with reporter enzyme to act as secondary antibody .
As a comparison to scFv, Fab fragments are composed of the VH, CH1 and entire VL fragment held together by interchain disulphide bonds. The Fab fragments have a tendency to form dimers which could cause problems with binding and affinity as it exerts the avidity effect . In vitro, Fab expression vector is more complex than the scFv system as it consists of two separate polypeptide chains linked by the formation of a disulphide bridge. Thus, it is important to ensure a balanced expression of both antibody chains in order to allow good presentation of Fab on phage.
There are several designs used for Fab presentation that includes either the monocistronic or the bicistronic arrangement of antibody. The gene arrangement of a Fab fragment for phage display requires fusion of either VL or VH to the phage pIII coat protein. The production of the accompanying chain will be carried out simultaneously as an independent protein allowing it to locate each other at the periplasmic cavity to form disulphide bonds between them for proper presentation. This challenge is overcome by alternative approaches using molecular chaperones to improve the presentation of full Fab fragments during phage display and protein expression .
In diagnostic applications, Fab‐peptide epitope and Fab‐Fab bifunctional reagent were used to detect the HIV‐1, HIV‐2 and hepatitis B surface antigen, which were known as antibody‐based reagent in agglutination assays. Table 4 shows the broad application of different antibody formats for diagnostic applications. There is no actual best format for diagnostics but is mainly subjected to the preference of the users and the diagnostic platform set‐up.
Application of antibody fragment as diagnostic probe.
Recombinant antibodies are used in diagnostics due to its binding specificity and affinity. There are many platforms, such as lateral‐flow assay (LFA), ELISA and cell imaging available in the market today, which are rapid and accurate in identifying the target antigens found in sample. Most of the platforms make use of either the antigen‐capture assay or the antibody‐capture assay to diagnose the presence of certain diseases .
Lateral‐flow assay or immunochromatography assays are normally found as a test strips with the most common being the pregnancy test strip. The theory behind lateral‐flow assay is based on the capillary action that occurs in the nitrocellulose membrane to migrate molecules along the membrane to cause a reaction and detect target antigen [75, 76]. This is because the presence of antigens in the sample matrix against a specific antibody reflects the onset of certain disease and treatment should be carried out immediately. (Figure 4) shows the actual design, polyclona antibodies against the target antigen were conjugated with gold nanoparticles and are deposited on the membrane. The migration of the sample when mixed with the antibody‐coated particles will allow the particles to flow along the membrane until it is captured by a secondary antibody that is permanently fixed along the membrane as a line. Therefore, the presence of the antigen will be reported by the appearance of a band on the dipstick that represents the concentration of the gold nanoparticles on the target line.
The conventional design of the lateral‐flow strips will show a single control line and another test line. The control line indicates the control assay to show that the lateral‐flow system is in order. The working assay requires buffer to improve the performance as well as the compatibility with other components used in assay. There are two formats used in LFAs, sandwich and competitive format . In short, dipstick assay is sensitive enough to detect the antigen constituent within 10 min besides the simple usage that does not require professional personnel to carry out the test. The conjugation of recombinant antibodies to gold nanoparticles is essential for the generation of lateral‐flow assays. The ability to produce recombinant antibodies easily using bacterial expression systems would facilitate rapid kit production at a lower cost.
Microfluidics makes use of the movement of small amounts of fluid along a small diameter channel. Microfluidics was vastly applied due to the small sample volume needed for fast and precise result. The microfluidic platform is highly sensitive, efficient and portable .
Recent developments in microfluidic technology including on‐chip detection and imaging, on‐chip flow cytometry, on‐chip immunoassay and nanosensor for point of care (POC) diagnostic application help to overcome conventional ELISA's limitation for immunoassay‐based diagnosis; micro‐ELISA systems have been proposed for sensitive and rapid diagnostics using a fluidic chamber. This modified ELISA platform uses a microfluidic platform that reduces the amount of sample required by 10 times (<10 µL), 20 times faster analysis (<20 min) with a higher sensitivity range (Um–pM) as compared to conventional ELISA [79, 80]. Rapid diagnosis is the most important selling point for biomarkers such as protein, carbohydrate, lipid, metabolites, genomic DNA and RNA by using immunoassay due to the obvious advantage in disease management.
To improve the quantitative result, fluid‐handling components and data acquisition software were used. In addition, microfluidic kits are integrated with electrical, optical and mechanical transducer to improve the platform [79, 80]. Other than that, the development of on‐chip diffusion assay allows the measurement of small molecules within the microfluidic channels. This is done by detection of the labelled probe by antibodies against the probe itself. This study also proves that microfluidic diffusion is suitable for blood sample analysis . There have been other versions of assays utilizing recombinant antibodies in fluidic platforms such as malaria detection with on‐card dry reagent storage of microfluidic immunoassay from blood samples .
The ELISA platform takes advantage of the specific interaction between antibody and antigens to allow a capture base for detection. The method requires a series of incubation and wash steps, which can be time consuming and tedious. Thus, antigens are first coated on a microtitre plate and then blocked overnight before incubation with antibodies. To detect binding between antigen and antibody, bio‐conjugate and chemical‐conjugate proteins coupled with reporter enzymes such as horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or alkaline phosphatase (AP) are used. Lastly, 2,2’‐azino‐bis(3‐ethylbenzothiazoline‐6‐sulphonic acid) (ABTS) is used as a colour indicator for successful binding between antigen and antibody. However, the conventional ELISA approach has setbacks such as long assay time, large amount of expensive antibodies, chemicals, plastic ware and liquid‐handling platforms. This process although straightforward may still require professional training in order to minimize any false‐positive result and ensure reproducibility .
The advent of nanotechnology has brought about the introduction of nanosized particles and with it a series of new diagnostic platforms. There are many nanoparticles that have been used for diagnostic platforms. This includes gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) [83–86], carbon nanotubes and carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) . The chemical property of these nanoparticles has allowed the expansion of the diagnostic platforms from simple colorimetric assays to the introduction of electrical signal, fluorescence and even phase transition readouts [83–85].
Although the use of AuNPs is associated with its application in lateral‐flow dipstick assay as the immobilization surface for DNA, antibodies and proteins for the line development, it has also been used independent of the lateral flow. An assay was developed using AuNPs with influenza‐specific antibodies acting as labels to detect influenza virus. This will result in the AuNPs probe aggregating and causing a readout in dynamic light‐scattering (DLS) spectroscopy. Thus, the detection of AuNP aggregation was analysed using the DLS to determine the concentration of virus present. This method monitors the size change of aggregated nanoparticles and not change colour. However, the DLS approach is more suitable in detecting larger viruses with multiple epitopes .
The latex antigen detection or latex immunoagglutination test established in 1959 makes use of protein‐conjugated latex microspheres to magnify the antigen‐antibody interaction . This LAT assay is fast and simple to use for the diagnosis of circulating antigens in patients with systemic infection because latex is sensitized with the serum of an immune donor . The latex complexes will agglutinate if the target antigen is present . The LAT platform has been used for the diagnosis of systemic candidiasis [90, 91], visceral leishmaniasis , invasive pulmonary aspergillosis , Helicobacter pylori infection and Meningococcal meningitis . The diagnostic test can be done using blood, cerebrospinal fluid or other body fluids depending on the design of the agglutination test.
Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay is an assay that uses the enzymatic reaction as a basis of reporting. However, such assays sometimes suffer from a lack of sensitivity to detect low‐dose drugs or biomarkers . To overcome this issue, the fusion of DNA technology with protein engineering has brought about newer reporter systems that can increase the sensitivity of assays. This includes modified hybrid methods such as antigen‐DNAzyme, immuno‐PCR, immuno‐QPA and immuno‐RCA.
The antigen‐DNAzyme‐based probe reporter system is a simple and rapid immuno‐based assay that depends on the peroxidase activity as a reporter signal and the affinity of antigen‐antibody for binding. DNAzymes also known as deoxyribozyme, founded by Ronald Breaker and Gerald Joyce in the year 1994, are catalytically active DNA molecules, which are able to function mimicking enzymatic reactions . G‐quadruplex (G‐quad) structures are formed by guanine‐rich nucleic acids. The guanine‐rich sequence will form a guanine tetrad structure with intra‐Hoogsteen hydrogen bonding. This will then allow two or more guanine tetrads bind to form a G‐quad. The G‐quad structure is further stabilized by the presence of cations. The complexation of G‐quad structures with a hemin will form a peroxidase mimicking DNAzyme that catalyses the peroxidase‐mediated oxidation of ABTS [97, 98]. The main difference of this antibody‐antigen detection assay is the use of G‐quad DNA structures in association with hemin as a reporter system. The addition of hemin to a G‐quad structure will allow the transfer of electrons from the guanine to hemin in the presence of peroxide to oxidize the ABTS to form a green complex that is visible to the eye .
This assay design allows the fusion of the G‐quad to function as a DNAzyme to generate a colorimetric readout as a reporter system for the rapid detection of small haptens such as hormones or drug molecules . Thus, DNAzyme can be conjugated with antibodies for signal enhancement with the help of hemin and is suitable to be used as an immunoassay in biodiagnostic platforms . As the G‐quad sequence is made up of oligonucleotides, the sensitivity of the assay can be greatly improved via external DNA amplification processes to generate more G‐quad sequences for reaction with hemin.
Immuno‐quadruplex priming amplification is another hybrid method that couples both the calorimetric DNAzyme detection with an effective DNA amplification for improved sensitivity. IQPA is an immunoassay platform that generates G‐quad reporter molecules via an isothermal quadruplex‐priming amplification process. The reporter G‐quad forming sequences, which were amplified from isothermal QPA, allow QPA to fuse with an immunoassay platform. In other words, we can avoid reporter conjugate enzyme in the immunoassay platform. QPA employs a set of primer and enzyme to maintain the stringent condition for target amplification to generate multiple copies of the G‐quad sequence at an isothermal condition. Streptavidin can be sandwiched between the antigen and antibody DNA to form the binding for IQPA to work. The hemin molecules are then used complex with the amplified G‐quad structures to catalyse the colour change of ABTS in the presence of hydrogen peroxide .
Immuno‐PCR is another hybrid immuno‐based assay that combines ELISA‐type ligand‐binding assay (LBA) technologies with PCR amplification signal without the use of antibody‐enzyme conjugates. As a replacement, antibody‐DNA conjugates were used whereby the DNA marker is physically linked to the capture antibody and a polymerase chain reaction step is introduced to generate copies of the DNA sequence. This allows improvements of 100–10,000‐fold in limit of detection (LOD) as compared to conventional ELISA [95, 101]. Although the LOD of IPCR is almost in line with the ligand‐binding assay, IPCR assay has been considered as challenging. Thus, various modifications are required to increase its sensitivity. This includes technical issues such as the availability of thermostable enzymes, high protein‐binding capacity microplates and minimizing cross‐contamination by avoiding plate transfer steps. IPCR has been reported in detecting human interleukin 6 (IL‐6) for neurological disease .
A further enhancement includes the immuno‐RCA method that is another diagnostic platform, which utilizes DNA amplification steps to enhance the signal of immunoassay. This method employs similar concepts to IPCR but the method of DNA amplification varies. As IPCR utilizes the standard PCR amplification cycles, IRCA uses an isothermal amplification method, which does not require a thermal cycler. This makes it more attractive as there is a reduction of dependency on high‐end instrumentation. IRCA was used to develop assays in detecting ovalbumin (OVA) allergens and foot‐and‐mouth disease virus (FMDV) . In IRCA, oligonucleotide primers are attached covalently to the antibody. However, DNA circularization is required to allow binding of the DNA primer to work with DNA polymerase and nucleotides for amplification to start . The detection sensitivity of IRCA exceeds the conventional ELISA and microparticle formats. Thus, IRCA is a system that can allow detection of specific antigens using antibodies at high sensitivity with a wide dynamic range to detect a single molecule . In short, DNA‐fusion technologies with recombinant antibodies could potentially aid in the development of newer assays with improved sensitivities.
Phage display technology is commonly used for recombinant antibody production. The ability to produce antibodies via recombinant methods can help to improve the speed at which newer antibodies are produced at a fraction of the conventional cost. The freedom associated with recombinant antibodies would also allow the customization of antibodies for various downstream applications in diagnostics. This is particularly important as the development of newer technologies in sensing and reporting mechanisms, the flexibility of recombinant antibodies towards modifications would allow the antibodies to evolve with the advancement of sensing technologies. Therefore, phage display‐derived recombinant antibodies provide an important platform for antibody generation for current and future diagnostic applications.
The authors would like to acknowledge support from the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education under the HICoE program and Universiti Sains Malaysia under the Research University Individual Grant scheme (1001/CIPPM/812173). | 2019-04-25T20:49:09Z | https://www.intechopen.com/books/proof-and-concepts-in-rapid-diagnostic-tests-and-technologies/phage-display-derived-antibodies-application-of-recombinant-antibodies-for-diagnostics |
Check Out the New Personal Size Daily Planner Printables!
Personal size planners are wonderful for many reasons, portability being right up there at the top. If you’re like me and have larger handwriting, or if you have a lot going on each week, their size can present a few hurdles that need to be overcome. Namely – having enough space to properly plan your days and weeks. To help combat that problem I made a couple personal size daily planner printables that can be used in a few different ways to make sure we’re making the most of these smaller pages.
If you normally use an A5 (half-size) or larger style planner, chances are good that a weekly spread works well for you. Most of them afford enough room to be flexible and versatile. A weekly spread is one of the most common ones out there because it works well to fit many different needs. In a personal size planner, though, the weekly spread doesn’t leave a lot of planning space.
That’s where having daily planner pages on hand can really help. You can use them when you need them for those extra busy days or use them every day to keep yourself on track. I tried to think of different ways these might be used when I made them so there are two different layout options available.
Like I mentioned about, space is limited in personal size planners so I gave the layout of these a lot of consideration. I wanted to create a planner printable that was super functional.
Because space was so tight I opted to skip the usual headers and titles and just keep it simple. The top of the page has the initials for the days of the week and space to write out the date. You can use it however you like. I envisioned circling the day of the week and writing out the actual date in the box when I made it.
Next is the agenda or schedule area. This section gave me some grief, in the end, I had to just go with hourly segments.
You know me, I never met a checklist I didn’t like. This section has a lot of versatility to it. Use it for your to-do list, shopping list, spending tracker, anything really.
And lastly a section for notes. I purposefully left this area blank for those of you who like to use stickers and stamps to decorate your planners or add in some extra functionality. There isn’t much room, but what is there can be easily customized to what you need. Or you can just do like I go and jot down any notes or reminders for the following day.
As always to snag a copy for yourself just click the picture and you’ll be taken to the PDF file.
The more I thought about the ways the personal size daily planner printables could be used, the more I realized that there might be some of you who would need more planning room, whether for more notes or details about appointments, or whatever else you might need to keep track of in your planner. As you can see, this one I paired with graph paper so that you have your structured planner page on one side and your unstructured space on the other.
I couldn’t resist whipping this one up to go with the others. I know it’s not really a daily planner page, but I thought it might be handy for anyone who likes to takes to take notes or keeps extra paper in their planners.
I’d love to hear what you think about the personal size daily planner pages. Do you think they’re something you will use? Would you like to see the same layout in half and full-size as well? Drop me a line in the comments below and let us know.
I appreciate the daily planner sheets you have designed and especially that you make them so versatile. I noticed you didn’t get any comments on this so I really wanted you to know that at least one person really appreciates and uses this size notebook.
I also include a list of books I want to read, or videos I want to watch, for when I go to the library. It’s nice to have that list handy whenever someone suggests a book or video they enjoyed.
Your pages will work just fine in the sheet protector as well and can be used over and over again. Thank you for all the motivation and tools you provide.
Hi Esther, I’m happy to hear that the 31 Days challenge is helping you. Isn’t it amazing what a difference those three things makes? It sounds like you have a great set up for your planner. I need to start keeping a list of books to read and movies to watch in my planner too, I’m sure I’ve forgetting more than I’ve remembered.
I’m so excited about this! I haven’t found a mini planner weekly spread that I like so I have been writing my own- which look very similar to this, so I’m super excited to print these out and not have to write them out myself 🙂 Thanks!
Hi Stephanie, I’m happy you’re excited about them. I’m working on a couple new ones too so that people have more colour options and a couple different layouts to choose from. So, if these aren’t quite right maybe one of those will be.
Hi Neha, thanks so much. I hope you like them and find them useful.
I’m so glad you like them Barbara!
I’m SO excited about your personal size printables!!! I can’t wait to see what other layouts you will come out with!!
Hi Emily. I’m happy you like them. I’m working on a few other ideas for this size. Trying to pack them with planning power without compromising usability is proving a little tricky for me, but I’ll have more ready before the new year.
I’m happy to hear that these are working for you, Toni. I need to carry my planner with me too, I think that’s the reason I have a few of them. The personal size was surprisingly useful. I used to think it was too small too, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I hope you enjoy them!
Alli, you are such a gem for sharing these with us. I can’t thank you enough.
I know this will probably be an easy fix, but I can’t get them to print on both sides of the page? Any ideas?
H Tracey, you’re are most welcome! I hope you enjoy them. Does your printer duplex for you? (automatically print double-sided) If it doesn’t you might need to print out half of how many you want, and then put the printed ones back into printer so that it will print on the other side. I recommend testing it on a single page to start with so you can figure out how to put the paper back in so it prints on the blank side.
One thing I’ve found helpful is to mark the paper when I put it in the printer. I draw a line on the bottom of the page and write L on the left side of the page and R on the right. Then I load the page into my printer so that the line and letters are face up and closest to me. That way, when it prints, I can use that to figure out how the paper gets moved through the printer so I can figure out how to flip it so it prints the right way up on the blank side.
I wish I could be more help. Every printer is different, it’s just a matter of testing it to see how it works.
I personally like the Portrait half-sizes as my planner is an Avery notebook – I just purchased today – so I am happy to have found your blog – thank you so much! I am looking around to see what I can print – blessings.
You are very welcome. I have a lot of half-size planner printables to choose from. I’m currently working on putting them all on their own pages to make them easier to find. I hope you find some that you like.
The personal printable are great. I love them and they look great. Personal size month on 2 pages would be great also. Thanks for all of your hard work. You are appreciated!
Thanks for the personal size planner printables! They work great.
Oh I’m so happy you like them. I’m working on some more, just trying to figure out colours and fonts for them.
Hello, I found out about your website through a YouTube video on DIY planners, I am so glad I did… Once I found out about your site I must have gone on a downloading frenzy!.. LOL, I appreciate your generous offer into making these planner inserts free, such a rare treat, especially for those who are just getting started and have no idea where to begin.
I’d like to ask a question on the above printable .. I’m confused as to how to use them.. the numbers on the side make it hard for me to understand fully.. It’s numbered 5-12 and then 1-8, can you pleas explain how those numbers are to be correlated with the days of the week. Again excuse my ignorance but as I stated before I am new to the Planner community, and would like to understand more, Thanks. | 2019-04-22T16:33:00Z | https://scatteredsquirrel.com/2016/08/check-out-the-new-personal-size-daily-planner-printables/ |
In both Television and The movies, there’s a subject that has carried out really well within the last few years: Zombies. This idea has produced for many amazingly enjoyable, majorly lucrative, and also award-winning television shows and motion pictures. However it’s just fiction, right?
Once you have lived for virtually any time period, it’s no doubt that you really have heard an individual inform you just how imperative sleeping is. It’s very likely that you’ve acquired this lesson for your own benefit, and it’s also likely that you’ve found out from many others that definitely have acquired it also. Without sleeping, we feel like… well, zombies.
Just as if feeling sleepy isn’t already sufficiently of a challenge, there’s a great deal more to the narrative. When we are sleep deprived, our human brain pretty much malfunctions. That basically signifies that our human brain absolutely does not operate well. In reality, our human brain actually begins closing down certain areas and functions that are unnecessary for staying alive. As a result being lacking sufficient sleep is not only a feeling, it is a physically weakened state of life.
Helping to make matters worse, long lasting sleep loss triggers over production of cortisol. Cortisol in it’s best amount may help us to really feel some pressure and urgency to get things carried out. However when it’s overproduced, it results in us to feel stressed, anxious, as well as concerned all of the time. This could certainly cause even deeper professional medical issues of anxiety and depression. As expected, a serious lack of sleep is not good for any of us.
We’ve all been there. So many times, our daily lives require a lot from us. We dedicate vast amounts of our time and energy to our jobs and also vocations, our relatives and buddies, as well as our interests as well as activities. Often, it feels like there can be little left, and it is usually hard to rest and also refuel your energy.
And yeah, perhaps we can all use a little more rest. Nevertheless, what happens if we can easily do more than rest longer. Imagine if you can easliy sleep better?
It suggests that they’ve taken the mattress experience to the next degree using development new products as well as innovations. It indicates that they’ve combined the best of typical cushion design that has coils, as well as integrated it with the very best modern-day design of advanced foams, materials, and materials. It suggests they have actually created a premium mattress with the very best of every little thing.
If you feel like you or a loved one might be a zombie, it’s very likely because of poor quality of sleep. Perhaps you hurt whenever you get up in the morning. DreamCloud addresses this on several levels. It begins with implementing the newest breakthroughs in mattress and also fabric technologies, as well as the best of traditional mattress coil technology (read on for more information about that), as well as bringing those together in a single product. And don’t be worried about having to decide precisely what level of firmness to purchase and hope that you chose well. DreamCloud has built their mattress to a degree of firmness that stabilize the give and take of the entire body weight when you lie in numerous positions in the course of the night, supplying you with exactly the right degree of comfort and also support. To help you to rest assured (no pun intended) that whichever position you are lying in, it’s the best one.
Yet there’s a whole lot more to it than that. Perhaps you don’t simply feel sore or uncomfortable when you awaken. Maybe your neck, spine, shoulder muscles, hips, and/or hind legs hurt. Not anymore. Whenever you lay on your back, DreamCloud mattress supplies the proper amount of firmness to support the natural curvature of your spine. At the time you lay on your side, you need your spine to stay in a straight line. Other mattresses are often too firm, so they press against that natural curvature, or perhaps too soft and also allow your spine sink an excessive amount. Either way, both of them are incorrect, because your spine is pushed one way or another out of positioning. DreamCloud answers this concern, and the results are just as much of a breakthrough as the design of the mattress itself. DreamCloud has definitely polished the level of firmness and also support to a breakthrough level.
You can find another problem that will occur when mattresses don’t breathe well as well: moisture. Every time air flow doesn’t circulate in a mattress, it gathers moisture from the air that comes in but is unable to let it out. This considerably lessens the life duration of a mattress, considering the fact that the trapped moisture will start to make the materials in the mattress break down. In addition it extensively diminishes the comfort, considering that the broken down elements in the mattress do not perform as they should. The mattress will get uncomfortable, and also keeps being uncomfortable over its lowered expected life. What a waste!
We live in a world that is persistently changing. DreamCloud is a paradigm shift in the strategy a mattress is created. The truth is, mattresses have been in existence years and years. And exactly like cars and trucks as well as households, the way that one is built now a days is different than it was generations ago. Across all industries, people are always studying as well as making groundbreaking discoveries. From creating and utilizing new innovative substances, to advancing on a design and also introducing a new one, the manner in which we carry out things transforms as time passes.
Traditional mattresses are made from a set of box spring together with a mattress. The box springs go underneath the mattress, delivering an added layer of support to the mattress. The mattress consists of columns of coils all throughout to offer support. Then on top the coils is some type of “topper”. In past times, this topper was made up of various sorts of stuffing or padding, as well as in newer times various layers of foam. There are numerous brands which have been producing mattresses for years such as Serta, Sealy, Jamison, Sleep Number, and also Amerisleep.
As stated earlier, DreamCloud is hybrid luxury mattress. Since you know about traditional bed mattress as well as the advancements in foams, it’s simpler to understand how DreamCloud brings both of these together to create an item and also experience that are genuinely one-of-a-kind. Let’s analyze those innovations and exactly how they exist in the unbelievable as well as detailed building and construction of the cushion.
DreamCloud is constructed of 8 layers from top to bottom. The top layer is a Truetufted Cashmere Polyester blend. This supplies both breathability and also softness. The breathability is critical to you sleeping cool and extensive life of your mattress. And also the coolness is crucial to a top quality nights rest.
The second layer is Gel Infused Memory Foam. This gives contouring assistance that conforms to your body. This layer is in charge of providing coolness too, as well as it’s likewise a significant contributing element the amazing assistance that DreamCloud provides.
The 3rd layer is Super Soft Quilted Memory Foam. As you lay on the bed mattress, the leading 2 layers sink right in to this layer, which gives an incredibly soft give that you feel promptly. It belongs to the design that supplies simply the correct amount of strong assistance while likewise offering soft qualities and also comfort.
The 4th layer contributes to the very same components as the 3rd. It’s Supreme Natural Latex, and it is hypoallergenic. It includes supporting and bounce, while additionally aiding the bed mattress support the natural contouring of your body.
The sixth layer is Super Dense Super Soft Memory Foam. That’s not a typo. It’s a layer of foam that is really thick, yet additionally repays assistance. This allows for you to find the convenience of “sinking in”, while likewise being sustained as well as held in positioning, no matter what position you prefer to sleep in.
The seventh layer is Patent Pending BestRest Coils. This is where DreamCloud’s foam technology incorporates with standard spring innovation. It is a compression system made from micro coils. These micro coils are encased in foam, and have 5 zones of give and take. So as you move, change, and also settle in, these are there all throughout the mattress, continuously supplying the best foundation that you require for a top quality nights rest consistent with sleeping on a cloud.
As well as lastly, the eight layer at the very bottom is the structure of it all. Its a High Density Super Soft Memory Foam layer. As well as once again, that’s not a typo. It’s a layer that thick enough to provide you all the support you need, but soft enough to let all the comfort as well as gentleness that you require be ever-present. Every layer is critical to the unequaled comfort that DreamCloud supplies, yet this one is the foundation of everything.
All these technological elements total up to one point: You will fail to remember that you are really resting on a mattress since your body will think you’re on a cloud.
It certainly is not unusual for comfort and also quality to go coincide. Nevertheless they always accompany a cost. Well, usually. But definitely not now.
DreamCloud offers you comfort together with support in accordance with mattresses that cost $3,000-5,000+. With that level of quality, you could be undoubtedly wishing that they might be at the low end of that selling price, at around $3,000. Or it could be you may have your fingers crossed specifically wishing that they are really only $2,500, or even closer to $2,000. However do not quit reading now. Simply because you will not even be having to pay that.
They do not cost $3,000 . They don’t cost $2,000. Each of the DreamCloud mattresses start around $1,000. Additionally they are all in the $1,000’s, even for a California King! At that cost , any person in your house are able to slumber much better for the cost of just one traditional mattress. And, they will bring it to your home, set up, and take all of the packaging and your old mattress out for you. For free.
The only approach to discern that you prefer something would be to give it a go for yourself.
Absolutely. It’s one thing when something seems fantastic on paper or in a commercial, still it’s another to certainly experience something on your own. And with DreamCloud, it is possible to. Not only does DreamCloud provide you with a remarkable value, in addition they back it with an unbelievable guarantee.
However with DreamCloud, the game has entirely totally changed. Because they will deliver it for free to your home, and you can give it a try for a night. And you can try it for a week. And you can check it out for a month. And even two months. And even three months. Exactly where am I going with this? With DreamCloud, you can try it risk free for a year! You get a 365 night home trial. They deliver it to you for free. And if you are actually not 100% happy, they will come and pick it up for free. But nevertheless I doubt you will need them to.
There is no catch. There’s simply DreamCloud. Well, there is much more. There’s a superior mattress with great value. There’s a completely new paradigm in making a mattress, with new technology at every single turn. There is the ease and comfort as well as support that you really deserve. There is unbelievable quality and value. There is a great product, reinforced by a magnificent guarantee. There’s an end to the zombie apocalypse. | 2019-04-20T10:43:59Z | https://www.anchoragecentennial.org/dreamcloud-mattress-review-mattress-and-frame-bundle/ |
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I have taught English in secondary schools for twenty years, and I can’t remember any other period of curriculum change as rapid as the one we are currently experiencing. Although many of the changes are to be welcomed, in terms of workload, the demands of teaching new exam specifications cannot be underestimated. Clearly, it is not only those working in my sector and subject specialism who feel this way; according to a recent survey by the NUT, of more than 3,000 teachers aged 35 and under who responded to the union’s survey, only 55 per cent said they planned to stay in the profession for more than five years.
While working in this context, how can we ensure that the morale of our teaching staff remains high? Improving staff morale is a complex undertaking, but the potential consequences of low staff morale in a school environment should not be ignored. In addition to the responsibility workplaces have for staff wellbeing, studies on staff morale, school climate and educational productivity suggest that high levels of morale can have a positive effect on student attitudes and on learning itself. Teacher satisfaction in our work is particularly important in comparison to other professions: we are role models for the students that we teach.
Five years ago, I learnt a great deal from conducting my own piece of research into staff morale in my workplace. At Wyedean, we continue to strive for systemic ways in which we can help our teachers feel more supported. These include returning teachers’ sense of professionalism; we ensure that there is time to hone subject-specific knowledge, and to engage in pedagogical debate. Specifically, this has meant focussing whole-staff teaching and learning briefings on pedagogy rather than on admin and notices. The provision of professional reading during this time is key, and so far, we have used this time to explode popular educational neuro-myths, and to explore the threshold concepts in our subjects. Any opportunity to discuss the concepts our students find difficult with fellow subject-specialists, and consider ways to teach these more effectively is invaluable, particularly in the light of new exam specifications.
Research-based lesson study triads are proving to be a popular form of CPD at our school, and the rigour of this process means we can more easily evaluate the impact of what we do in the classroom. Members of staff choose the focus of their CPD based on their own development needs and interests, including whether they work in subject-specific or cross-curricular groups. In these ways, we are abandoning policies and practices that do not deliver the needs and aspirations of the school, its staff and its learners: we believe senior leaders should add value, not burden, and in creating a school culture that is not one of competition, but of a group culture, built of co-operation and mutual support. Through these initiatives, we are empowered to do what we do best: helping our students to learn.
As part of my gained time last summer, I was tasked with creating a unit to provide stretch and challenge opportunities for our most able year 8 students.
For me, the obvious choice was to recycle redundant key stage 5 texts. So my process involved taking extracts from drama texts and poetry anthologies to create tasks under my umbrella of ‘Explorations in to Identity’. Undoubtedly, my examining experience helped here as my choice of material is challenging and stimulating. ITE trainees have been overwhelmed by such sophisticated discussions and confident outcomes. Debates have ranged from moral responsibility for others when we used Miller’s ‘Broken Glass’; to detailed analysis of how characters’ lives can be, for a brief moment, transformed beyond their ordinary identities through Friel’s ‘Dancing at Lughnasa.’ Students look forward to the seminar-type structure in the library and the chance to discuss and reflect with those from different English groups. These sessions run fortnightly and I have been pleased to share my resources with colleagues from other centres as a model of good practice. Other students want to join the group.
And this is where I think we can make dent in to a sometimes stifling curriculum. The opportunity to use (rather than belittle and condemn) the straightjacket of the new GCSE to offer creativity, extended reading and comparative analysis can be used to transcend typical homework tasks. Here, SMHW has been inspirational in facilitating task setting for both years 8 and 10 where engendering a love of reading through ambitious and stimulating text choices has been refreshing. Providing enrichment for one group of 12 year 8 students has created opportunities for stretch and challenge for all.
In a recent Wednesday morning briefing I found myself sat between two teachers who kindly introduced themselves to me. However, I felt that I needed to explain to them that I wasn’t a new teacher but an existing member of staff who has been at the school for over 2 years…and yet; I could totally understand why they wouldn’t necessarily know who I am. I rarely venture outside my classroom and like most teachers spend break time and lunchtime working. There are many teachers that I have yet to meet and they probably have no idea who I am.
In taking part in Lesson Study, I was able to meet other teachers and share ideas and good practice. It took me out of my classroom and I was able to put names to faces. So often we live in our own little bubble, doing our own thing and can lose sight of what is going on around us.
So my colleagues observed the 3 students in a lesson and we interviewed the students afterwards. It was apparent that one was struggling with the learning. The second student just needed a different seating plan, and is working much better sat with learners of the same gender. This has now fostered in him a more competitive edge to get the answers right before his peers and has made the games we play much more fun and enjoyable. The third student just needed to be sat closer to the front of the class and told explicitly what they needed to do to improve, and given more thinking time before asking him for an answer.
Are these things that I could have worked out for myself? Yes probably, but I realise that the priority for me has always been lesson planning and teaching lessons. Sometimes it is good to get an outside opinion from other colleagues and put our heads together in a non-threatening but mutually supportive way. Indeed collaborating on the lesson planning and being involved with the observations has meant that the individual needs of the students were identified much earlier than I may have seen them and this can surely only be a positive thing.
The casualty in front of me wasn’t responding. He lay twisted awkwardly on his back on the damp ground, wrapped in layers of winter clothing. I knelt beside him, talking reassuringly as I went through my checks …airway… breathing…circulation…damage… any sign of bleeding from the ears indicating skull compression? My team mate turned away: “I feel sick!”. He crumpled to his knees, collapsing, helpfully adding to the casualty count.
That was Day 2 of my Outdoor First Aid course. It took place on a cold January weekend, with Tewkesbury School playground acting as a backdrop for mountain and moorland first aid scenarios. I left, mentally exhausted, but having successfully completed the course – and with my head brimming with strategies for the range of scenarios I might just have to encounter when running Duke of Edinburgh expeditions with our youngsters.
Two months later myself and Rob Durston found ourselves labouring across moorland above Princetown. The sun shone from clear skies and a gale blew forcefully over Dartmoor as we laboured, cursing under our breath over knee-high tussocks of ankle-twisting, energy-sucking marshland. We were shadowing Richard – the D of E Assessor we had been assigned to. We scoured the maps, checked compass bearings, reviewed the route cards completed by the Gold Expedition groups andtriangulatedapoint at which we hoped our paths would intersect. There are 20 conditions that expeditions have to fulfil and we were pleased that our pre-assessment training had paid off – to the degree that the previous evening our assessor, sitting in front of an empty pint glass, shifted uncertainly when we were accurately able to describe and number the conditions – including some that he had forgotten.
Twice this year I have experimented with this strategy and both times, it has been a success.
Once we had explored the content and analysed Steinbeck's methods, students wrote sentence sums to decode how he had constructed his sentences, so that they could replicate his formulae.
As a result, they could successfully evaluate authorial intent; confidently compare narrative styles (commenting on Steinbeck's preference for unfussy noun phrases rather than exaggerated adjectives, which, for them, 'was to reflect the harsh and minimal conditions of the American Depression'); and skilfully explore such a purposeful approach in their own writing. They were tasked with describing their own character's room and used setting to reflect the persona.
This has been a successful way to embed numeracy in to the English curriculum as this strategy uses mathematical methods to structure sentences.
This also helps with GCSE preparation, especially tricky Paper 1 Question 3 as they are forced to consider what happens when in each sentence and why. They will be equipped with a range of approaches for Question 5 too.
And, they love it. They enjoy the rigidly enforced structure; the inevitable success with accurate and varied punctuation; the ability to create tone and to experiment stylistically. Students who may struggle with creativity and ponder, 'But how do I start' have ordered stepping stones already laid out for them. And by exposing them to a range of literary styles, we are instilling high expectations.
I have very much enjoyed writing pieces of work to mimic author’s styles. My main reason for this is that it is a challenging way to stretch my learning, whilst sticking to a structure. The pieces of work we have mimicked so far have been inspired by Dickens and Steinbeck – for these pieces, we have been instructed to stick closely to the structure of the author for at least the first paragraph. To help me with this, we constructed ‘structure sums’. I liked the way we had to focus more on using varied and sophisticated language within a set structure, as opposed to rambling on and using punctuation that wasn’t needed. I find this style of writing interesting and surprisingly fun and I would be very happy to do it again.
People sometimes ask me what does a school librarian mainly do? So I was quite amused when I came acrossauthor John Townsend’s description in the School Librarian SLA journal, based on his observation of librarians in schools over the years (I have added 1 or 2 of my own for good measure!): “ author expert, agony aunt, administrator, bibliophile, book bargain hunter, cataloguer, chewing gum scraper, coat finder, data manager, display expert,events organiser , form filler, grammarian,helper, hat-wearer,IT trouble-shooter, information literacy consultant, interior designer, jam tart maker, Kindle expert, literacy co-ordinator, learning resource manager,lift-controller, loudness monitor,money raiser, motivator, memory stick rescuer,nagger, nurse,online librarian, photographer, proof reader, phone confiscator, query handler, researcher, social worker, storyteller, social media advertiser, shusher, supervisor, tissue-provider, utilities provider ( have you got a stapler Miss?) vocabulary expert, websiteevaluator, Xmas tree decorator, (I struggled with X!) youth worker, yummy cake-maker and zip file creator (and Z!).” (SLA, 2012, The School Librarian, volume 60, no.4).
Isolation can sometimes be a problem for school librarians, but this is overcome by the great support I get from the English team and am also very well supported by the LSE (Gloucestershire Council’s Library Services for Education, whose role is to provide learning support in a range of educational settings). It’s a great opportunity to share ideas and problems, and I usually return fully recharged! I also like to collaborate and get involved as much as I can with what is going on in the wider world of literature and librarianship. We have worked with the public library quite a lot and taken the year 7 students down this year to check out resources. We have also been involved with the Reading Hack – providing student volunteers for projects within the public library such as the summer reading challenge. Carnegie Shadowing also widens our horizons, uniting students and librarians across the UK for 3 months of the year and another highlight of my year is our annual trip to the Hay on Wye literature Festival where we meet a range of famous authors and experience the very special atmosphere of the festival.I also really enjoy being a judge in the BBC 500 words competition as it is something really different and fun.
As a school librarian there is always some new competition or initiative just around the corner. The role of the school librarian is evolving and changing rapidly in line with digital changes and away from the former traditional role. There is no end of projects to get involved with, not enough hours in the day and no two days are ever the same! Whoever said being a librarian was boring?
Having successfully introduced Latin at KS3 a year ago, Wyedean is now seeking to expand Classics provision to an accredited level. We plan to introduce Latin at GCSE to Year 9 students as a twilight extra subject and Classical Civilisation at GCSE to 6th formers as an enrichment option. This will certainly strengthen the work we already do and, hopefully, encourage interest and enthusiasm in general.S ince none of our staff have admitted to having sufficient knowledge of Latin to run the course in Year 1, we intend to recruit a peripatetic Latin tutor for the first year. Staff members interested in this unusual CPD opportunity will shadow the tutor over the course of the year, receiving further training from Bristol University, with a view to taking over in Year 2 and beyond.
Thus far, the response to Latin from both the students and parents has been overwhelmingly positive. Currently, a group of thirteen students in Year 8 targeted for stretching and challenging are working independently on Classical Civilisation projects. The work they have thus far produced is phenomenal. The enthusiasm for this intellectual opportunity has been astonishing. Students were given a basic outline of the topics they might like to research and then invited to follow their own interests as they investigated. This is where the beauty of Classical Civilisation lies. Students have chosen to follow their interests in linguistics, history, politics, architecture, fashion, culture, mythology, anthropology and criminology.
There is already a real sense of excitement at Wyedean about the possibility of offering Latin at KS4.
The school will be offering an extra GCSE thus giving students further opportunities in terms of further education and employment. It will develop the spirit of Latin and Classics as being part of Wyedean and more importantly an important part of education generally.
One of the main areas that I have focused on over the 6 months, is for Wyedean to build on the British Council International School Award status. Thank you to all of you who have supported this and continue to celebrate the international and global links in your subject areas on a whole school level.
The International School Award requires us to continue to raise the profile of languages throughout the school. In September, we held a Mandarin workshop for students in September, which has led to a successful weekly lunchtime lesson for KS3 we continue to be the local hub for Mandarin teaching and learning whereby our Mandarin teachers are based at Wyedean and travel to our feeder primaries to teach them on a weekly basis. From March, we are also offering a 6 week long intensive Business Mandarin course to our sixth form students and staff as part of their enrichment.
In September, we celebrated World Day of Languages with our food tasting café, which was a great success.
We continue to establish links with schools worldwide and the school continues to Skype with other schools around the world in collaboration with the eTwinning scheme and Skype Classroom.
We continue to work with the language school ‘In Lingua’ – based in Cheltenham – on School Integration Days. We are now one of their best schools for them to place visiting students from countries around the world in order that they experience what a day in the British school system is like. So far this year, we have welcomed 55 Japanese students and we have another 35 visiting in July along with 38 Italian students and 20 French students in April.
We are a school that continues to promote Global teaching and learning and being a Global Learning Program Expert Centre (GLP) this year has allowed us to become a CPD hub for teachers across South Gloucestershire who wish to improve Global learning in their school.
This year, I have made some further progress with whole school numeracy, leading a Wednesday briefing in the autumn with ideas for staff to think about implementing. One key idea was that numeracy can also be about mathematical thinking, such as sequencing events. A google survey was put out and after collating I will look to analyse our strengths and shortcomings with numeracy across our wide curriculum. I was also lucky enough to be granted a day at Bradley Stoke school to see their sport and numeracy day with year 7s. The visit gave me some good ideas which I hope to embed soon.
I've tried to launch creative writing journals several times.
They have started with good intentions: students engaged; well received within school.
But then the nagging starts ... and the writing stalls ... and eventually the venture folds like a used paper napkin.
However, this time I think I've cracked it. Having followed @the_Book Fairies on Twitter, I have been impressed with their charitable philosophy of sharing worldwide passions for literature by hiding varied works of prose in secretive locations, to be found by unsuspecting members of the public, with the instruction to take the book, read it and then leave for the next person to enjoy. It struck me that we too could adopt the same philosophy. Instead of our creative magazine festering in the back of a disused filing cabinet, why not share across the community?
I put the proposal to my year 8 students who immediately bought in to the idea. We had been studying Dickensian characters and they were particularly motivated by the intensity of Gradgrind and Scrooge. So, we decided to create our own 21st century stereotypes by mag-pieing Dickens' structural devices (preparation for GCSE English Paper 1, question 3). Each student came up with a character with whom they could associate: the angry dinner lady; the teenager glued to the cracked screen on their phone; the disaffected fast-food outlet employee. We then explored one hour in their characters' lives, practising the art of condensed narrative (Paper 1, question 5) and saying a lot about a little.
Encouraged, we compiled the journal and then arranged where and when we would drop the magazines on to the unsuspecting public. So this weekend should see 'The Wyedean Review' popping up in coffee shops, hair dressers, hospital waiting rooms, primary schools, leisure centres, libraries ... There are endless possibilities. Students have been encouraged to photograph locations and tweet @WyedeanEnglish using the hashtag #whyreadwyewrite. By bombarding the local community and using the twitter sphere, I hope to enthuse others with similar projects.
The benefits are vast. In terms of preparation for GCSE, we have stepped outside the classroom and created a live audience for our writing. Undoubtedly this has meant students have valued crafting a 'professional' piece of literature for public consumption. And as covertly as they are dropping their magazines, I have snuck in many valuable skills required for GCSE English Paper 1.
This will be a half termly project, where differing ages and abilities will take responsibility for producing the content, promoting our culture of high expectations for all. This project also has wings: excitingly, the Art department have offered to produce the front cover; Business Studies students have offered to deliver the publication ... there are endless possibilities for collaboration.
However, most importantly in times where we repeatedly read about creativity being sapped out of the curriculum, we have reinvigorated a love for creative writing. That most wonderful skill of creating a character and shaping their future.
I have even written this blog.
Labelling and notions of fixed ability are prevalent in our education system. Students are divided into groups according to their prior attainment and ‘appropriate’ work is provided as a result. OFSTED inspectors check that teaching is differentiated accordingly and some teachers are encouraged to provide lesson objectives according to ‘all, most, some’, creating an opportunity for teachers and students to subconsciously lower their expectations. From the earliest stages of formal education, teachers are required to make predictions about future development based on present attainment, determining students’ academic ability.
Rubie-Davies et al refer to teachers as ‘high and low differentiating’, finding that ‘none of the high expectation teachers grouped their students by ability’, suggesting that ‘within-class ability grouping (can have) detrimental effects on student self-beliefs’. Compared to setting, however, Baines suggests that within-class ability grouping is an advantageous form of grouping as it can ‘be more closely connected to learning and teaching objectives’ and ‘offer greater flexibility in reassignment of students’, although warns against homogenous ability groups as ‘all participants have similar understandings or assume that others already have these understandings’.
A further characteristic of high expectation teachers is a positive teacher-student relationship. Ireson and Hallam find that ‘pupils who feel supported by their teachers are less likely to become alienated and disengaged from their work’, claiming that ‘environments that foster a sense of belonging (should) also promote achievement. Muller et al report students feel ‘it is important to have teachers who care about them. They want…their teachers to be able to believe that they can do good work and demand it’.
The final aspect of practice in which high expectation teachers differ markedly is through goal setting based on regular, formative evaluation. Providing students with clear, specific feedback about their goals can aid student progress. Hattie also claims that ‘feedback is among the most powerful influences on achievement’. In order to have the most impact, feedback needs to be ‘purposeful, meaningful and compatible with prior knowledge’ as well as ‘relating to specific and clear goals’. The research warns against directing feedback at the level of ‘self’, and stresses the importance of allowing learning from mistakes, suggesting that ‘we need classes that develop the courage to err’.
The terminology of ‘a culture of high expectations’ is in itself complex and problematic, but any opportunity to explicitly raise expectations should be seen as a moral imperative. | 2019-04-19T15:10:43Z | http://www.wyedean.gloucs.sch.uk/Blogs/ |
SEO copywriting refers to the art of writing copy that ranks well in search. It is relatively easy to do (if you have some experience), and it’s an excellent way to gain valuable web traffic without spending thousands of dollars on paid advertising.
But it’s not all about rankings and traffic. Writing search engine optimized content is also about engaging readers, building authority, and selling products. After all, what is the point of getting prospects to pages that do not serve a purpose?
To help you please both your readers and the search engines, we’ve compiled a list of 35 of the best SEO copywriting tips for rocking content, all of which are based on actual experience. We have also included a number of resources for writers and marketers.
Knowing whom you are writing for is one of the best and most important copywriting tips anyone can give you. Your content can never really rank or sell if it doesn’t appeal to a particular audience/consumer. Do your homework. It will pay off.
An irresistible, well-thought-out headline gets your article read (c-r-i-t-i-c-a-l) and sets the tone for your content. It’s also what makes an outstanding first impression. Throw some effective SEO into the mix, and BOOM… your content rocks, rolls, and ranks!
Really want people to read your articles? Use numbers in your headlines! Studies show that headlines with numbers (especially odd numbers) get more clicks. It’s psychological; our brains love lists. In addition, they promise something specific and suggest readability.
Save time and still get clicks. Some of the best, most compelling copy titles are just modifications of old SEO copywriting headline formulas, so don’t hesitate to take advantage. Here are 102 good ones that others have used with great success.
Writing headings and subheadings in Title Case has become the norm, especially in blogging, but it may not suit every blog or purpose. Sentence case may be more suitable in some situations. Whichever case you choose, be sure to use it correctly and consistently.
Whether or not using bold and italics is a good SEO content strategy is anyone’s guess, but making certain words and phrases stand out can definitely enhance readability. The more digestible your text is, the more people will read your articles.
Does longer content rank better in search? It sure does. Look at these studies by serpiq, seomoz, and quicksprout. Longer posts (1,500 words +) also enable you to provide more value for readers, which helps you establish authority and expertise.
Ranking for terms with high search volumes can be tough, especially if your website is new. This is where long-tail keywords come to the rescue. By refining your keywords, you can minimize your competition drastically, as well as boost traffic and conversions.
Another way to take advantage of the long tail. When people have questions, they type them into Google. That is why Hummingbird came about. When you answer those questions insightfully and credibly as a content writer, your copy ranks, engages, and sells.
Great copywriters know the importance of using “power words” during content creation – they evoke emotion. Once you hit those emotional chords, you connect with and influence the reader. Additionally, power words tend to compliment keywords nicely.
Keyword density is a tireless SEO myth. While it is important to include strong keywords in your content and not “over-optimize,” there is nothing indicating that search engines favor a particular density. Who wants to read keyword-stuffed mumbo jumbo, anyway?
Rather than focusing on keyword density, you may want to pay more attention to LSI. Using related keywords, synonyms, and grammatical variations not only improves your chances of ranking in the SERPs, but it also prevents redundancy in your copy.
Since we are on the topic of freshness… Covering hot new topics and industry news is an excellent way to get to the top of the SERPs fast. Everybody wants to know the latest and greatest. You could even go the curated content route – but tread carefully.
A lot of us ignore them because they take time to write. Nevertheless, good SEO copywriting is almost pointless without attention-grabbing Meta descriptions. They directly affect how much traffic a web page receives from a given search result.
Seeing that articles with photos, infographics, and other visuals get up to 94% more views, it’s safe to say that not including visuals is a colossal mistake. They also hold some weight in terms of search engine optimization – if you optimize them correctly.
Videos don’t work for everyone, and some marketers argue that they do very little to help SEO. Yet, they can be an excellent way to boost engagement, sales, and conversion rates. There are pros and cons to using video. It’s worth looking into.
Links to relevant resources and references in the body of your copy can support key points and provide more value for readers. What's more, search engines view websites with outbound links to trusted blogs and sites as more valuable.
Linking internally is equally important. As in, interlinking the pages on your own website. Why do this? Because, like linking out, it adds value and improves user experience. Your internal link structure also affects the ‘crawlability’ of your site in search.
Sharing information is what the Internet is all about. But do it incorrectly and you could start receiving threatening letters from webmasters and their lawyers. Plus, it can lead to search engine penalties. Learn how to cite authors and blog writers correctly.
Plagiarism is another thing that gets content penalized. Not to mention that people don’t want to read regurgitated text. Be unique and original. Use plagiarism checkers to avoid unintentional duplication. Remember, “research” doesn’t mean stealing.
Why work harder than you have to? There are tons of handy tools online to help with your SEO copywriting, and most of them are free. All it takes to find them is a quick Google search. Here are 9 tools no online writer should be without.
Likewise, many free search engine optimization tools and resources on the Internet can help copywriters with their content marketing. Here is a comprehensive list of the best SEO tools by Moz content astronaut Cyrus Shepard.
Did you know that Word has a “Find” feature that can help you spot overused words, or that there is a text to speech feature that can read text aloud? Here are a few MS Word tips and tricks to get you started, but you may want to play around and see what it can do.
You can write content that sings and dances, but one mistake and the grammar cops are all over you. Errors kill your credibility. Word processors don’t catch everything and people slip up. Ask a friend to proofread for you, or hire a freelance writer.
Tracking things like page views, bounce rate, and SEO, as well as likes and shares, can give you a sense of how well people and search engines receive your content. This can give you the insights needed to refine and replicate it. Check out these web analytics tools.
Every serious writer should keep a “swipe file,” a collection of SEO copywriting templates, ideas, tools, and references, even keywords – anything that inspires you and helps you be more productive. It saves time and makes it easier to produce rocking content.
What is professional copywriting without an enticing call to action? It’s how you get your readers do what you want them to do, which is usually the purpose of the copy. Many strong, high-traffic keywords make great call to actions. Win win.
Let’s face it: not everybody is a writer. Even if you are, you may not have the time or desire. This is where a copywriting service can come in handy. A good blogging service or copywriting agency can handle the article writing and website copywriting for you.
How do you really get your SEO content to rock? You promote it! Get people to it. Ask people to read it. Encourage them to share it. Once search engines notice the increased activity, they will usually reward your efforts. The result is more sales.
Here's a list of the Best Link Building Tools you might want to check out.
By quoting influencers in your industry, you make your content more authoritative. Linking out to relevant websites is great for SEO.
Even better, it’s how you make your content viral.
Reach out to influencers once your blog post is published. Some will share your post on their networks. That’s the way to attract attention and get more traffic.
These days Google rolls out several algorithm updates per day. In the past, search engines cut description tags at exactly 160 symbols, but in the mobile age it’s no longer about the exact numbers.
The general recommendation is to stick to between 150 and 160 symbols.
Be sure to explain early why people should be reading your post – in the beginning of your description tag – to make sure surfers actually get to see it.
And don’t forget about the keywords. Bring those to the beginning as well.
When writing a bullet list of 5 or more points, put the most important points at the top and the bottom of the list. The information in the middle is rarely noticed. Those vital points should also contain keywords, which will improve your content’s ranking.
Put a meaningful and descriptive caption under the photos or pictures you use, because people read those. This improves indexing and makes it possible to enrich your content with strong and matching keywords.
Put text near the buttons readers should click. The text will act as extra persuasion. It works well when combined with a call to action. Click triggers include incentives, testimonials or deadlines (such as a “limited offer”). Those little messages will help to promote the conversion, as readers will feel more encouraged to take action.
Include the right keywords and link to the target page to create an anchor text that’s relevant. This will positively affects backlinks, necessary for building internal links. In general, the usage of anchor text improves search engine rankings.
This doesn’t mean you need to write a vital message twice in a row. Remind people of the main message you’re trying to deliver. Online readers are easily distracted, and they may just skim through your post. State your call to action or other valuable info multiple times in your copy. You’ll increase the chances of people noticing it and therefore improve conversion rates.
Sharing on social media brings more traffic, earns more backlinks and basically spreads your content around the web, so more people know about it.
To make it easy for readers to share your content, place share buttons in convenient spots, or use widgets. Also be aware of which social media platforms your audience is using the most. Don’t include ALL the options, so it’s not confusing for them – you don’t want to scare them off sharing.
Use link baits to grab people’s attention. Provide users with free stuff, unique and valuable info or anything that will spark their interest. If you know your target audience well, this won’t be an issue. The creation of effective link bait boosts traffic and leads to higher rankings.
You always need to make sure that the titles and keywords you use completely match the content you’ve written. When readers find your content, they want to get all the answers and in-depth info, without the need to visit other sites or go back to Google. Tell them everything: you’ll keep people happy and it will positively affect the rankings.
Case studies drive more traffic and improve page rankings. Research-based content is preferable, because it’s backed up by actual proof. Link out to case studies related to your topic or make one of your own to explain the main idea and purpose of your product or service.
Video transcriptions improve indexing and usability, and add supplementary content. It enriches content with keywords, gives more ranking opportunities and allows people to “read” video if they’re unable to listen. All you need to do is write the video transcription.
When you research keywords for your future content and come up with the list, always narrow down the list and keep only the most relevant ones. This way you’ll have higher chances of generating more traffic and ending up on top of SERP.
Along with a caption under the photo, also consider writing a descriptive alt text. This makes your content more accessible because screen readers read out this text. It helps to generate more traffic from the images you use.
Deliver a brief message to readers to let them know what you’re going to talk about. It’ll save their precious time and they’ll be more likely to continue reading. It’s also a nice opportunity to include keywords for better rankings and link to other related posts.
Concentrate on 20% to 30% of your target audience when writing a copy. Write content that’s appealing to people who are most likely to convert. Narrow down your focus – and you’ll avoid low conversion rates.
If you’ve got a complex topic to write about, consider creating an ultimate guide and dividing it into chapters rather than putting all your thoughts in one article. People usually scan through most of the content online, so they may miss the point you’re trying to deliver. With an ultimate guide, you’ll be able to cover all the details and make your readers come back for more. It improves indexing, generates more traffic and eventually leads to better ranking. Here’s an example.
The easier it is to read your content, the more likely it is that your readers will share it. Don’t pack one paragraph with thoughts; dedicate one thought per paragraph instead.
Add white space between paragraphs to visually separate the ideas. The easier it is to consume your content, the higher the chance of it being shared.
Longer posts provide more value for readers, but only if they’re of great quality. If you write a long article just for the sake of making it long, it’s not going to work. Add more value to your words. If you can say something in fewer words, do so. Remember: quality will lead to your content being shared.
When you have the structure for your future copy in front of your eyes, it’s easier to decide what to do next. A well-planned structure makes your writing more effective. Think of the most strategic positions for keywords and links. In turn, this creates a better user experience and increases shares of your content.
Your turn. Did you find these copywriting tips helpful? Have we left anything out? Please share in the comments section below.
I found this very helpful. I’m about to start working as a fulltime junior copywriter for a technology company. This has increased my confidence substancially. Thank you!!
This is a great help for enthusiasts like me. This provides me understanding of SEO. Thank you!
Good Read, Nice and brief and almost covering all important information regarding copywriting , I appreciate your writing. Thanks.
Thank you for the wonderful article that you have shared. Engaging seo content writing really can rock andhelp to get more visitors for a website.
Really its great article to help us to write a unique article, nowadays the competitions is very high and the better content optimization only will lead the world.
great site…able to learn so many things and understand SEO more clearly..
These are great! One thing to point out though is that writers should not only focus on post length but also its relevance and quality as well.
Olá Bruno. Fico feliz que você gostou. Não, português =) Obrigado pela visita!
Wonderful, precise and informative tips there.Good work.
The article was really useful, covering all the topics. I hope to write a good article like this soon. Thank you so much.
Glad the article was helpful! Good luck in you future endeavors!
Great you found it useful. Come back for more!
I am looking for some suggestions regarding my web content. I hired some content writers for my website but I don’t know what to look at the SEO content. I don’t know how many keywords or words do I need to have in a content? Can I brake down a keyword into few places or do I need to write a full keyword.
Jai, you may read some of our articles on SEO here. Hope you’ll find what you need.
What a great blog! Thank you so much for putting this together and I look forward to having a browse through them all.
Extremely useful information. Thanks from an enthusiastic newbie.
Please edit your note.33, ‘to’ is omitted after ‘readers’.
Before this principle read I already follow this ptactice rulse. Thank you for sheareing.
This is a good list – all valid points for making online copywriting more effective. I particularly like point 17, about making copy more conversational. If written tone of voice reflects the way people talk, it’s far easier to read. And as you point out, search engines will pick up on popularity, so considering tone of voice in web copy is good for SEO too.
Thank you for the feedback. We’re glad you liked the post.
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I’d really enjoyed your article. I will surely follow those.
Glad you liked it, Illia.
Thanks, Sanyam. Hope you will like our other posts as well.
I’ve just started copy writing and these tips will most definitely come in handy.
Thank you very much. I was confused a lot about Seo copywriting at first, then I found your article. I read it word by word carefully (perhaps because of my poor english).
I just want to comment here to show my appreciation to your contribution.
Thanks for your kind words, Kaci! I’m glad that the article was of help to you. If you’re interested in SEO copywriting you should check our SEO section. There are many posts on the topic there.
Always enjoyed your post nelson!! It’s been last many years that, I follow your amazing blogs. For SEO you have to write fresh and updated content according to the business.
Absolutely agree on that Lorent. Thank you for sharing. Will check out the tools.
I really appreciate your writing skills .
Must read article for content writers.
Thanks for the post. I was digging through the internet for infos about SEO, because in the marketing field nowadays it’s all about SEO. Was short and simple and you had interesting (and for me necessary Link Outs). Will have my first Copywriter interview next week, so this helps with prepping for it.
Very rich in content. I’m wondering if you can share with us some swipe file?
Very useful and practical and I learned a lot about copywriting. Thank you guys so much!
Pretty awesome short article. I undoubtedly enjoy this web-site. Commence the very good function!
Your article is great. So many tips !! I would like to work as a copywriter at the future.
simplesmente fantástico, para além das dicas consegues aplica-las ao mesmo tempo o que é muito bom. geralmente as pessoas falam, falam mas no final das contas não dizem nada e nem se quer aplicam o que dizem. gostei bastante também todos os links bastante úteis que foste publicando, conteúdo de muito valor. mais uma vez obrigada pela partilha.
Think carefully about the message of your piece. What do you want to tell your readers or which central question do you want to answer? What’s the purpose of your article? And what do you want your readers to do at the end of the page? Before start writing, carefully follow the blogs written by the professional essay writers of the dianathenerd. | 2019-04-26T01:51:29Z | https://writtent.com/blog/35-seo-copywriting-tips-rocking-content/ |
In the previous chapter we looked at how to find out if a company was any good or not. In a nutshell, good companies get back a lot of profit or cash flow as a percentage of the money they invest – they earn high financial returns.
As a private investor buying the shares of a company you should probably be trying to achieve the same thing if you want to grow the value of your savings. To do this you have to buy a share as cheaply as you can. This sounds simple in theory, but in practice is actually very difficult. To have a chance of doing this, you need some tools that will help you weigh up the value of a share.
In this chapter, I’m going to take you through some of the valuation ratios that SharePad has to offer. I’ll start off with the basic ratios and then get into some more advanced stuff later on.
SharePad has lots of valuations ratios. You can see the ratios for Tesco in the table below. To the novice investor, they can easily look like a set of meaningless numbers. But they can help you decide whether to buy a share or whether one has become too expensive and should be sold.
The PE ratio compares the current share price of a company with the profits attributable to that share (earnings per share or EPS). It can be based on different measures of EPS but SharePad bases its calculation on the underlying or normalised EPS. What the PE ratio is essentially telling you is how many years of current profits are reflected in the share price.
So if a company has a share price of 100p and EPS of 10p it will have a PE ratio of ten times current EPS. If the share price was 200p, the PE ratio would be twenty times EPS. The number of times EPS is reflected in the share price is sometimes referred to as the PE multiple – the multiple of profits or EPS.
With one or two exceptions, companies that are expected to grow their profits strongly in the future see their shares trade on higher PE multiples than those that are struggling to grow or shrinking.
As you can see from the table, Tesco at the time of writing was trading on a PE ratio of 8.2 times. Back in 2010, the PE multiple was 16 times. The fall in the PE ratio since then is a clear illustration of how investors have become more downbeat about Tesco’s future profits. Whether that is the right PE multiple is impossible to say without the benefit of hindsight. I’ll have more to say on this in the chapter on value investing.
You may be quite comfortable thinking about shares in terms of PE multiples and that high numbers mean a share is more expensive than low ones. If you find this a little bit confusing then help is at hand.
In the last chapter, we looked at expressing company returns in terms of interest rates to make them more meaningful. Well, you can do the same with investor returns such as the PE ratio.
To turn the PE ratio into an interest rate so that you can compare it with other investments such as bonds or savings accounts you just turn it upside down or invert it. This gives you a number that is known as the earnings yield.
So let’s look at Tesco again. It has a PE ratio of 8.2 times. If we turn that upside down then this would give us an interest rate or earnings yield of 12.2% (one divided by 8.2).
Now, that might look tempting compared with the interest rates on bonds or savings accounts and could be a sign that Tesco shares are good value. Maybe, but whether you will make money on the shares depends on the earnings that Tesco will produce for shareholders in the future.
You can use the earnings yield as a way of showing you the interest rate on the shares that you buy. If you buy a share with growing profits then the interest rate that you will get on the price you paid for the share will go up. If profits fall then the interest rate will fall too which can coincide with a falling share price and you losing money. I’ll show you what I mean when looking at Tesco.
Until 2013, things were looking reasonable. The buyer of Tesco shares at 420p was getting a rising return on their investment based on its EPS. In 2014, profits and returns fell. What’s even worse is that the share price is now 230p, Why is this?
The main reason is that investors expect Tesco’s profits and EPS to be a lot lower in the future than they were in the past. I’ll explain more in the next section.
The problem with PE ratios in their basic form is that they are based on profits that have already been reported. This is information that is known by lots of people. Share prices don’t tend to be based on what happened in the past but on what is likely to happen to profits in the future.
You might be thinking how on earth you can know work out what next year’s EPS will be. The good news is that you don’t have to. Professional investment analysts spend most of their working day scrutinizing company accounts and industry trends so that they can try and predict future profits for companies. Some of these forecasts are based on very sophisticated models. Others are part guesswork based on the assumption that the current trend in profits will continue. SharePad collects forecasts from a selection of analysts and calculates an average EPS forecast. This is used to calculate the prospective PE ratio.
This might explain to you why Tesco’s share price has fallen so much.
As you can see Tesco’s profits are expected to be significantly lower than they have been historically. They now trade on a very high prospective PE ratio of 23.2 times rising to 26.7 times and offer very low earnings yields.
Does this mean that Tesco shares are very expensive? Maybe. However, an important point to note about PE ratios is that they can be very high when profits (the EPS bit of the PE ratio) are low. These PE ratios can be justified if profits can rebound back to previous levels.
As a shareholder, a company’s earnings per share is your share of the annual profits. However, unless you own all of the company this is usually not what ends up as cash in your pocket. That depends on the amount of those profits that are paid to shareholders as a dividend.
Whilst profits can move around a lot from year to year, dividends per share tend to be more stable. The amount of dividend paid tends to be based on what the directors of the company believe is sustainable and affordable given the expected future profits of the business. A reduction in the dividend paid is seen by many as a last resort.
This means that some investors like to weigh up the value of a share based on the hard cash – the dividend – that ends up in shareholders’ pockets. Once paid, a dividend cannot be taken away and represents a tangible return on owning the shares which isn’t dependent on the ups and downs of the stock market. Lots of investors buy shares for their dividend income as a source of money to live off as well.
The current dividend is unsustainable and will be cut or cancelled.
Future dividends won’t grow very much.
I’ll say more on these topics in the chapter on dividend investing.
Let’s look at the dividend yield of Tesco as an example. In 2014, it paid a dividend of 14.8p per share. Based on a current share price of 230p, this gives the shares a dividend yield of 6.4%. That looks quite attractive.
But wait. Just as with earnings, we need to pay attention to what future dividends will be. The 6.4% dividend yield for Tesco might be attractive if its dividend is sustained or it increased. To look at this, you calculate the dividend yield on a prospective or expected basis.
If you have been working your way through this book, then you will know by now that Tesco’s profits have been falling are expected to continue doing so for a while. The forecast dividend for 2015 is expected to be just 1.2p per share. This gives it a yield of just 0.5%, making the shares look a lot less attractive on this measure.
A couple of chapters ago, we looked at why for some investors cash is king. They don’t trust profits as much because they can be manipulated. As a result, they are not as interested in comparing the price of share with the earnings per share. They want to weigh it up against its free cash flow per share – the cash equivalent of the PE ratio.
As with the PE ratio, you can turn this calculation upside down to get the free cash flow yield.
Tesco free cash flow has been very low and so it does not stack up well on this measure. It has a price to free cash flow of 60.8 times or a free cash flow yield of 1.6%. A sustainable free cash flow yield of 10% or more might be seen as an attractive share.
You can also use a free cash flow yield to do a quick check on the sustainability or otherwise of a company’s dividend. Ideally you want to invest in a company where the free cash flow yield is more than the dividend yield to have a degree of comfort that the company has enough spare cash to pay you.
Some investors prefer to look at a company’s asset values instead of its profits or free cash flows. The main reason for this is that the asset values on a company balance sheet tend to be more stable than profits or free cash flows. There may also be some assets that have some value but do not currently produce profits or free cash flow. So by comparing the value of company against its assets you may be able to find undervalued shares. The measure of price to net asset value (NAV) is sometimes referred to as price to book value.
As we saw earlier, a company’s net asset value is its total assets less its total liabilities. It can be seen as a measure of what the company would be worth if all its assets were sold off and all its liabilities were settled.
Asset values are overstated (i.e. they can’t be sold for the value on the balance sheet).
Assets are obsolete or out of date.
The assets cannot produce sufficient profits as evidenced by a low return on assets (ROA) or return on capital employed (ROCE).
That said – as I will talk about in the chapter on value investing – value investors have been able to make big profits by buying shares in companies trading at a big discount to their NAVs.
Tesco’s NAV per share based on its last annual accounts was 182.2p. At a share price of 230p, this equates to a P/NAV of 1.26 times which suggests that Tesco shares are not in bargain territory.
As with most ways of valuing shares, NAV or book value is not without its drawbacks. The main problem with NAV is that it can have a large value of intangible assets such as goodwill or brands which are very difficult to value. The way round this issue is to compare the share price with the tangible assets per share instead (land, buildings, stocks, trade debtors etc less all liabilities). If you can buy the shares of a company for less than this value then you are arguably being more conservative and stand a better chance of making money.
Tesco’s tangible asset value per share from its last annual accounts was 135.2p. At 230p, the shares trade on a P/NTAV of 1.7 times which suggests that conservative value investors might find them a bit too dear.
You can get a reasonably good idea of whether a share could be good value or not by looking at the basic measures that have just been described. However, if you want to take your analysis up to a more advanced level and gains some more valuable insights into a company, then SharePad provides some more sophisticated ways of valuing them.
In this section, I am going to expand a bit more on how PE ratios can be tinkered with to get some better measures of company value. I’ll then move on to the old problem of debt and how this can trick investors before finishing off with a formula used by one of the all time great investors – Benjamin Graham.
So what on earth is a PEG ratio? In its most simplest form it is the price to earnings ratio (PE) of a share divided by the expected growth rate in earnings per share (EPS).
A share with a PE ratio of 15 and expected earnings growth of 20% has a PEG ratio of 0.75 (15 dividend by 20). Another share also with a PE of 15 and expected earnings growth of 5% has a PEG of 3 (15 divided by 5). As I’ll explain later, the share with the lower PEG would usually be seen as the better one to buy.
PEG was developed because of the perceived limitations of just relying on PE ratios alone. By comparing the PE of a share with the expected growth rate in earnings it might just be possible to buy great, fast growing companies at a reasonable price and make a lot of money.
PEG came to prominence as a winning strategy when it was used by the successful US investor Peter Lynch during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Between 1977 and 1990, Lynch ran the Fidelity Magellan investment fund and trounced the stock market with returns that averaged 29% per year. In the UK, PEG was championed by investor Jim Slater in his book The Zulu Principle.
Most of the time the stock market is pretty smart. Companies that are growing their profits rapidly tend to be valued at a high multiple of current profits – they have high PE ratios.
However, by comparing the P/E ratio with the expected growth rate in earnings, shares that might look very expensive on PE ratios alone could actually turn out to be undervalued gems. To see why this might be so, consider the following fictional company below and see how earnings growth and PE ratios help to determine share prices.
Bob’s Bike Shop has been growing rapidly during the last five years and is expected to keep on doing so in the years ahead. Its shares trade on a PE of 15 which is in line with the general stock market and so appears to be reasonably valued – neither too cheap nor too expensive.
If the shares continue to command a PE of 15 over the next three years the share price will go up in line with earnings growth and an investor will almost double their money. That sounds good.
But the likes of Lynch and Slater argue that the high rates of earnings growth should command a higher PE ratio. A simple rule of thumb is that a company growing its profits or earnings at 25% could be expected to see its shares trade on a PE ratio as high as 25 (the same as its expected growth rate). This would result in a ratio of PE to earnings growth or PEG of 1.
This would happen if the market re-rates the outlook for the company and bids the share price up. If this were to happen to the shares of Bob’s Bike Shop above then its share price will be even higher in three years’ time. This is because its EPS will have a higher PE multiple applied to them.
Jim Slater suggested buying shares with a PEG ratio of much less than 1. He tried to buy shares where the ratio of the PE to expected earnings growth – the PEG – was two thirds or less. In other words, a PEG ratio of 0.66 or less. This way he reasoned that he could buy before the rest of the market worked out what a good investment a company was. Something like Bob’s Bike Shop for example.
Does PEG work in the real world?
This all sounds well enough in theory but does PEG really help investors to make a lot of money?
There aren’t that many published studies that have looked at how good the PEG ratio is at picking winners. In his 1996 book, Beyond the Zulu Principle, Jim Slater posted some compelling evidence that buying shares with a PEG of 0.6 or less during 1995/96 beat the market handsomely. But that was nearly twenty years ago and over a very short time period.
SharePad calculates five different types of PEG ratio ranging from a simple version to more sophisticated ones. I’m going to look at three versions using SharePad data on a leading FTSE 100 share and will use BT (LSE:BT.A) as an example. That’s because SharePad isn’t giving a PEG value for Tesco given the fact that it’s EPS is expected to shrink rather than grow.
Don’t worry if these calculations start to look a bit complicated. You just have to understand the logic behind them. SharePad will do all the number crunching for you.
This is calculated using the historic PE ratio (share price/last annual normalised EPS) and dividing it by the expected growth rate in earnings for the next year. So BT has a PE of 15.9 and an expected one year growth rate in earnings per share of 13.4% giving an historic PEG ratio of 1.19. (15.9 divided by 13.4).
Some people prefer to calculate a PEG ratio based on forecast (or projected) PE ratios and earnings growth rates. This is because past profits are known. The future is what really matters. Using projected values might therefore give the investor an edge.
You calculate a projected PEG by taking the forecast PE ratio (share price/forecast normalised EPS) and the forecast EPS growth rate in one year’s time. The forecast EPS growth rate to use is the forecast two years out (30.3p) compared with the forecast for one year’s time (28.8p). For BT this is 5.21%. With a projected PE of 14.0 this gives a projected PEG ratio of 2.7 (14.0/5.21).
Slater argues that if you are comparing projected PEG ratios between two companies it is important that you are basing them on the same timeframe – one whole year ahead. For example, if it is March and a company’s year end is December there is really only a 9 months’ forecast potentially being used.
To get round this you can calculate what is known as a rolling PEG based on one year rolling EPS figures and growth rates.
SharePad calculates this figure to the nearest day (based on 252 trading days in a year). I am being slightly lazy in order to make the calculation easier to understand. My figures will be therefore slightly different to the ones that you will find in ShareScope.
Taking the case of BT. It has a March year end and we are currently near the end of December. So to calculate a rolling EPS figure you take the historic EPS of 25.4p (March 2014) and multiply by 0.25 (three months) and the following year’s forecast of 28.8p (March 2015) and multiply by 0.75 (nine months). This gives a rolling EPS forecast of 28.0p.
To get the rolling EPS growth rate you have to move the process forward one year. Take the 2015 forecast EPS of 28.8p and multiply by 0.25 and the March 2016 forecast EPS of 30.3p and multiply by 0.75 to get a figure of 29.9p.
The rolling EPS growth rate ((29.9/28.0)-1)) is 6.78%. The rolling 1 PE is 14.4 (404/28.0) and the PEG is 2.13 (14.4/6.78).
Given these three PEG figures it would seem unlikely that someone such as Jim Slater would be a buyer of BT shares at the current price. That’s not to say that the shares might not look attractive on other measures.
PEGs should only be used with genuine growth companies. Look at the past five years and make sure that profits have been growing strongly. Avoid cyclical companies (e.g. house builders or engineers) whose profits move up and down in line with the economy.
PEG may work better with smaller companies that are less extensively researched by City analysts.
The lower the PE, the better. This gives you a better chance of making money from the market re-rating the company to a higher PE when profits keep growing. Avoid very high PEs. Share prices of high PE companies can fall sharply if profits disappoint.
Slater thinks that PEG works best with PEs between 12 and 20 and earnings growth of between 15-25%.
Pay very close attention to analysts’ forecasts. This is a key part of the PEG strategy. ShareScope has a list of forecasts for you to look at. Check when the forecasts were last updated and then see when the last piece of significant news about the company was released. Out of date forecasts lower the value of any PEG ratio. Looking at the market as a whole, forecasts tend to be optimistic but they are all we have to go on.
How are the company’s earnings growing? Make sure that it is by selling more goods and services (sales growth). This is genuine growth. EPS can grow through less sustainable means such as cost cutting, buying other companies or spending lots of money on new assets but getting low returns. Make sure that EPS growth in the past has been backed up by a stable or growing ROCE. Share buybacks often boost EPS but this can be a poor source of growth.
It is quite possible that you will not find many – or any – shares that meet a PEG criterion. This may be telling you that the stock market itself is getting quite expensive. This is not a problem. As a private investor you are not under pressure to buy shares all the time. You can wait until shares become cheaper and build a watchlist of shares in the meantime.
PEG has been criticised for discriminating against shares where earnings aren’t growing particularly fast but pay a substantial dividend. To get round this the PEG can be adjusted to take into account the dividend yield of the shares as well as the expected growth rate in earnings. This ratio is known as the PEGY (pronounced “peggy”).
This measure was talked about in Peter Lynch’s book One up on Wall Street. Like the PEG ratio, we want a low PE and a high forecast growth + yield – so the lower the PEGY value the better.
Many successful investors insist on being conservative and building in a buffer – often expressed as a margin of safety – when buying shares. This was the key theme behind legendary value investor Benjamin Graham’s strategy.
He suggested that investors base the price they are prepared to pay for a share on the average of its last seven to ten years’ earnings. He argued that by doing this you reduced the chances that you are overpaying for a company based on a temporary boost in current profits – something that became very evident during his time investing during the 1930’s depression.
In his books he introduced rules such as not paying more than twenty five times the 7 years average profits of a company. But I’m not sure many analysts or investors think like this nowadays.
That said, using average profits to value the market as a whole has been attracting more attention in recent years. Graham’s idea was revived by Robert Shiller in the late 1980’s and he used it to convincingly argue that the American stock market was significantly overvalued during the late 1990’s.
Shiller takes the current value of the S&P 500 index and divides it by the ten year average profits of the index adjusted for inflation – so profits made ten years ago are increased to reflect the increases in inflation since then. The resulting figure is known as the cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio (CAPE) or sometimes PE10.
SharePad calculates a CAPE for individual shares but uses a slightly different calculation (see the SharePad Help for details). SharePad will use ten years data where available but no less than eight. If you can buy a company with a low CAPE then you may be on to a bargain.
Bear in mind that eight years may not take in the ups and downs of an economy so you need to take some care when looking at CAPE figures. It’s also worth bearing in mind that companies can change a lot over eight years say by buying into different business that perform differently in relation to the economy.
It also might be the case that company profits may not rebound or fall back. Having said that, for certain companies – such as manufacturers or housebuilders – where profits do tend to move up and down with the economy, CAPE can be a useful measure to look at.
As you can see above, the earnings per share of house builder Barratt Developments has been very volatile. Over the ten years from 2005-14, it has ranged from a peak of 77.9p to a loss of 78p. Such wild swings in profits can make its shares very difficult to value. This is where CAPE can come in handy.
By smoothing out the earnings to get an average EPS figure adjusted inflation you can get a better feel for Barratt’s valuation. Using a PE ratio when profits are temporarily high or low will probably confuse you.
What we can see with a CAPE is that Barratt Development shares looked very cheap between 2008 and 2011. But they look more expensive based on the 2014 figures if history repeats itself and profits move between boom and bust.
As we saw in the previous chapter, if a company finances itself with some debt then some ratios such as return on equity (ROE) can get distorted. Debt can make you think that something is better than it actually is.
The same is true with PE ratios. Debt lowers PE ratios, whereas having no debt and lots of cash increases them. As I’ll explain in a minute, if you think that a company with debt is cheaper than one without you might be making a mistake.
That’s why SharePad has some different valuation measures to help get round this problem. They are based on a company’s enterprise value (the value of its equity and debt together) or EV for short. These valuations are arguably more powerful and are often used by professional investors.
Wesley Gray, an American who is a bit of an expert on value investing has done a lot of research into the best valuation measures to pick winning shares. As far as he is concerned, the best measure is to compare a company’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) – or trading profits – with the enterprise value (EV) paid for a company (the market value of its equity plus its debt minus its cash). This gives an earnings yield for the whole business expressed as an interest rate. The higher the interest rate, the cheaper the share.
He’s not the first person to advocate this measure. Joel Greenblatt, the author of The Little Book That Beats the Market uses it as a key part of his magic formula of picking shares (more on this later in the book). His aim is to rank shares by their interest rates and return on capital. He reckons this allows him to buy good quality businesses (signalled by a high return on capital) at a cheap price (with a high interest rate). You can find Greenblatt’s magic formula in SharePad.
The reason that EBIT/EV (or EV/EBIT) works so well is that gives you a lot of information about what you are paying for the assets of a business or enterprise value (which are financed by its equity and its borrowings) and the profits that are actually produced from them – EBIT. If you just concentrate on the equity of a business you could make mistakes and buy the wrong business or pay the wrong price. Basically debt makes shares look cheaper on a PE and can fool people into thinking shares are cheap when they are not.
Let’s say there are two identical office blocks for sale where you live. Both have an asking price of £1 million and both have annual trading profits of £100,000. The first office, known as Market Place is financed with a £800,000 bank loan at an interest rate of 5% leaving it with remaining equity left over of £200,000 (£1m less the bank loan of £800,000). Park Square has no debt at all, so has an equity value of £1 million.
Their finances are shown in the table below.
By using PE ratios you could be mistaken for thinking that Market Place is considerably cheaper than Park Square when in fact on the basis of EBIT/EV they have the same value.
Gray says that the EBIT/EV consistently picks better stocks. He looked at the shares of 1000 large and medium sized companies between 1963 and 2013 and ranked them into deciles based on their EBIT/EV ratios. He then put together lots of random 30 stock portfolios. What he found was that buying the cheapest shares handsomely beat the more expensive ones. Not only that, but they were also much less risky with lower levels of volatility.
According to Gray, the magic from Greenblatt’s magic formula all comes from the EBIT/EV part. Focusing on high returns on capital can lead to investors over paying for quality. It’s therefore better to just buy shares with a high interest rate on the basis of EBIT/EV.
If you prefer to work with numbers rather than yields or interest rates you can use the EV/EBIT measure. Cheaper shares have low numbers on this measure with higher ones for more expensive shares.
SharePad also calculates a debt-adjusted PE. Here the EBIT is taxed at the UK or US company tax rate and divided into its enterprise value. As you can see, Market Place and Park Square have exactly the same debt-adjusted PE which is how it should be.
The great thing about using debt-adjusted PEs and EBIT/EV is that it can stop you buying shares that look cheap on a PE measure but aren’t – they just have more debt. It can also tell you that companies with lots of cash and no debt are cheaper than they look on a PE measure. This means that you might buy some shares of a company that you might otherwise have ignored.
This is a formula devised by the legendary investor Benjamin Graham. It comes up with a price that is the maximum amount that a conservative investor should pay for a share.
It is based on a company’s earnings per share (EPS) and book or net asset value per share.
You might be thinking where does the number 22.5 come from? It is based on Graham’s view that the maximum PE ratio to be paid should be no more than 15 times the last reported annual EPS. The maximum P/NAV should be 1.5 times (15 x 1.5 = 22.5).
So for Tesco, the last reported EPS was 28p and the last reported NAV per share was 182.2p. If we plug that into the formula we get a maximum price to pay for Tesco shares of 338p. This compares with a share price at the time of writing of 230p. Comparing these two prices gives us the Graham ratio.
For Tesco, the Graham ratio is 0.68 which means that the shares are 32% (1-0.68) below the maximum price to pay suggested by the Graham number. Does this mean that Tesco shares are cheap?
Not necessarily. As we know EPS and NAV values can change. With EPS expected to be much lower in 2015 than 2014, the Graham number for Tesco is likely to fall significantly. | 2019-04-25T21:41:24Z | https://knowledge.sharescope.co.uk/2015/10/06/chapter-9-share-valuations-how-to-tell-when-shares-are-cheap-or-expensive/ |
A solid ink composition comprising at least one crystalline oxazoline compound and at least one amorphous component derived from a polyol, and a colorant and optional viscosity modifier, which are suitable for inkjet printing, including printing on coated paper substrates. In embodiments, the solid ink formulation comprises a blend of an amorphous and crystalline components which provides a solid ink with excellent robustness when forming images or printing on coated paper substrates.
1. A solid ink composition comprising: at least one phase change component; at least one amorphous component derived from a polyol; a colorant; and optionally a viscosity modifier, wherein the phase change component is crystalline and comprises one or more substituted oxazoline compounds and/or substituted oxazoline derivatives and further wherein the solid ink composition exhibits a phase change transition from a liquid to a solid and further wherein the crystalline phase change component and amorphous component are blended in a weight ratio of from about 50:50 to about 95:5.
2. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the one or more oxazoline compounds or derivatives are represented by the following formula ##STR00025## wherein: R1 is: (1) an alkyl group, including substituted and unsubstituted alkyl groups, wherein hetero atoms either may or may not be present in the alkyl group; (2) an aryl group, including substituted and unsubstituted aryl groups, wherein hetero atoms either may or may not be present in the aryl group; (3) an arylalkyl group, including substituted and unsubstituted arylalkyl groups, wherein hetero atoms either may or may not be present in either or both of the alkyl portion and the aryl portion of the arylalkyl group; or (4) an alkylaryl group, including substituted and unsubstituted alkylaryl groups, wherein hetero atoms either may or may not be present in either or both of the alkyl portion and the aryl portion of the alkylaryl group; and R2, R3, R4, and R5 each, independently of the other, are: (1) hydrogen atoms; (2) halogen atoms; (3) alkyl groups, including substituted and unsubstituted alkyl groups, wherein hetero atoms either may or may not be present in the alkyl group; (4) aryl groups, including substituted and unsubstituted aryl groups, wherein hetero atoms either may or may not be present in the aryl group; (5) arylalkyl groups, including substituted and unsubstituted arylalkyl groups, wherein hetero atoms either may or may not be present in either or both of the alkyl portion and the aryl portion of the arylalkyl group; or (6) alkylaryl groups, including substituted and unsubstituted alkylaryl groups, wherein hetero atoms either may or may not be present in either or both of the alkyl portion and the aryl portion of the alkylaryl group.
3. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the amorphous component is a polyol derivative having two or more hydroxyl groups.
4. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the amorphous component is a polyol derivative selected from the group consisting of polyol esters, urethanes of aromatic acids, isocyanates, polyol esters of aliphatic acids, isocyanates, and mixtures thereof, and further wherein the acids or isocyanates have one or more carboxylic acid or isocyanate functional groups.
6. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the crystalline component is present in an amount of from about 50 percent to about 95 percent by weight of the total weight of the solid ink composition.
7. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the amorphous component is present in an amount of from about 5 percent to about 50 percent by weight of the total weight of the solid ink composition.
8. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the crystalline component has a viscosity of from about 0.5 to about 15 cps at a temperature of about 140.degree. C.
9. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the amorphous component has a viscosity of from about 1 to about 2000 cps at a temperature of about 140.degree. C.
10. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the amorphous component has a viscosity at least 10.sup.5 cps at room temperature.
11. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the crystalline component exhibits crystallization (Tcrys) and melting (Tmelt) peaks and the difference between the peaks (Tmelt-Tcrys) is less than 60.degree. C.
12. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the crystalline component has a melting point of above 60.degree. C.
13. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the amorphous component has a Tg value of from about 0 to about 50.degree. C.
14. The solid ink composition of claim 1 further including one or more additives selected from the group consisting of compatibilizers, synergists, rheology modifiers, tackifiers, plasticizers and mixtures thereof.
15. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the viscosity modifier is selected from the group of sorbitol esters, esters of polyol, a substituted or unsubstituted alkynamide, or mixtures thereof.
16. The solid ink composition of claim 1 having a viscosity of less than about 20 cps at about 140.degree. C. and a viscosity of at least about 10.sup.6 cps at a temperature between about 20 and about 35.degree. C.
17. The solid ink composition of claim 1 having a hardness value of at least about 60.
18. The solid ink composition of claim 1, wherein the colorant is selected from the group consisting of a dye, pigment, and mixtures thereof.
19. A solid ink composition comprising: at least one phase change component; at least one amorphous component being a polyol derivative having from two to twenty hydroxyl groups; a colorant; and optionally a viscosity modifier, wherein the phase change component comprises one or more substituted oxazoline compounds and/or substituted oxazoline derivatives represented by the following formula ##STR00026## wherein R1 is an alkyl group of from about 1 to about 55 carbon atoms, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are alkyl, an alkyl alcohol or an alkyl ester, each alkyl containing from about 1 to about 55 carbon atoms, and further wherein the solid ink composition exhibits a phase change transition from a liquid to a solid within a temperature change of about 20.degree. C. and further wherein the crystalline phase change component and amorphous component are blended in a weight ratio of from about 50:50 to about 95:5.
20. A solid ink composition comprising: at least one phase change component; at least one amorphous component derived from a polyol; a colorant; and optionally a viscosity modifier, wherein the phase change component is crystalline and comprises one or more substituted oxazoline compounds and/or substituted oxazoline derivatives and further wherein the solid ink composition exhibits a phase change transition from a liquid to a solid within a temperature change of about 20.degree. C., and the phase transition occurs at a temperature between about 45 and about 130.degree. C. and further wherein the crystalline phase change component and amorphous component are blended in a weight ratio of from about 50:50 to about 95:5.
Reference is made to U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (not yet assigned; Attorney Docket No. 20101648-US-NP), filed concurrently herewith, entitled "Phase Change Inks Containing Oxazoline Compounds and Polyterpene Resins," to Rina Carlini et al., the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference.
Reference is made to U.S. application Ser. No. ______ (not yet assigned; Attorney Docket No. 20101649-US-NP), filed concurrently herewith, entitled "Phase Change Inks Containing Crystalline Trans-Cinnamic Diesters and Amorphous Isosorbide Oligomers," to Adele Goredema at al., the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference.
The present embodiments relate to phase change or solid ink compositions characterized by being solid at room temperature and molten at an elevated temperature at which the molten ink is applied to a substrate. These solid ink compositions can be used for ink jet printing. The present embodiments are directed to a novel solid phase change ink composition comprising a crystalline oxazoline compound, an amorphous component that is derived from polyols, and optionally a colorant, and methods of making the same.
Solid phase change inks (also referred to as "phase change inks" and "hot melt inks") have been used in various liquid deposition techniques. Solid phase change inks are in the solid phase at ambient temperature, but exist in the liquid phase at the elevated operating temperature of an ink jet printing device. At the jet operating temperature, droplets of liquid ink are ejected from the printing device and, when the ink droplets contact the surface of the recording substrate, either directly or via an intermediate heated transfer belt or drum, they quickly solidify to form a predetermined pattern of solidified ink drops. Phase change inks have also been used in other printing technologies, such as gravure printing, as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,879 and German Patent Publications DE 4205636AL and DE 4205713AL, the disclosures of which are totally incorporated herein by reference.
Solid inks have also been used for applications such as postal marking, industrial and office marking, labeling, and for rapid 3-dimensional prototyping of objects.
Solid inks are desirable for ink jet printers because they remain in a solid phase at room temperature, for example, 20° C. to about 35° C., which is convenient during shipping and ink handling, enables long term storage, and ease of use. In addition, the problems associated with nozzle clogging as a result of ink evaporation with other aqueous or solvent-based liquid ink jet inks are largely eliminated, thereby greatly improving the reliability of the ink jet printing. Further, in solid ink jet printers wherein the ink droplets are applied directly onto the final recording substrate (for example, paper, transparency material, and the like), the droplets solidify immediately upon contact with the substrate, so that migration of ink along the printing medium is prevented and image quality is improved.
Ink jet printing systems generally are of two types: continuous stream and drop-on-demand, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,547,380. The entire disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,195,430 and 6,547,380 are totally incorporated herein by reference.
There are at least three types of drop-on-demand ink jet systems. One type of drop-on-demand system is a piezoelectric device that has as its major components an ink filled channel or passageway having a nozzle on one end and a piezoelectric transducer near the other end to produce pressure pulses. Another type of drop-on-demand system is known as acoustic ink printing. Still another type of drop-on-demand system is known as thermal ink jet, or bubble jet, and produces high velocity droplets.
In a typical design of a piezoelectric ink jet device utilizing solid inks, whether printed directly onto a substrate or onto an intermediate transfer member, such as the ones described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,372,852; 7,063,410; and 7,448,719 the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties, droplets of liquid ink are ejected from the printing device at the printhead operating temperature. When the ink droplets contact the surface of the recording substrate, either directly or via an intermediate heated transfer belt or drum, they rapidly solidify to form a predetermined pattern of solidified ink drops.
Many solid inks typically used with ink jet printers are comprised of (semi)crystalline and polymer waxes as part of the ink vehicle (or ink base). Crystalline waxes and other functional wax components enable the sharp melting of the ink and narrow phase-change transitions from the molten liquid state to the solid state. The wax components also reduce the coefficient of friction of the printed image, which aids the automated feeding of printed documents across the glass platen and other subsystems of the printer. Such wax-based, solid ink jet inks provide vivid color images.
In typical systems, these crystalline wax inks partially cool on an intermediate transfer member and are then pressed into the image receiving medium such as paper. Transfuse action spreads the image droplet, providing a richer color and lower pile height. The low flow of the solid ink also prevents show through on the paper.
However, the use of crystalline waxes can pose some limitations on the printed image. Conventional crystalline waxes are non-polar hydrocarbon polymers and aliphatic molecules, which are attracted together by weak, non-covalent van der Waals forces. Such waxes typically have poor adhesion to paper substrates because there is low affinity for the higher polarity paper. This mismatch of intermolecular forces and polarity between ink and substrate can make the wax-based solid prints vulnerable to mechanical damage, such as abrasions and creases, which can lead to poor image robustness and lower image quality. Further, the nonpolarity of these ink components often leads to compatibility issues with commonly available commercial dyes and pigments, resulting in the need for custom-designed colorants to ensure good solubility or dispersibility in the ink carrier and good long-term thermal stability to prevent colorant degradation or colorant migration. There is consequently a need for new solid ink compositions having higher polarity than wax-based inks and that have good affinity for a wide variety of paper substrates. There is also a need for new solid ink compositions of higher polarity and good compatibility with commercially available colorants and ink additives. There is furthermore a need for such new ink compositions to have improved durability on paper substrates compared with wax-based solid inks.
Oxazolines are a promising class of heterocyclic compounds which have been previously reported for medical, pharmaceutical, and veterinary uses, and also as additives in personal care and consumer product formulations, such as shampoos, detergents, and the like, and in oleaginous compositions such as mechanical lubricating oils and as oil and sludge dispersants. Oxazolines can be prepared efficiently in one or more reaction steps from simple starting materials, which are typically an organic carboxylic acid and a primary amino alcohol. Detailed reviews of the chemistry of oxazoles and oxazoline compounds are known, as illustrated by R. H. Wiley and L. L. Bennett in Chemical Reviews, Vol. 44, pp. 447-476 (1949), and also extensively described by J. W. Cornforth in Heterocyclic Compounds, 1957, chapter 5, pp. 300-417, the disclosures of each of which are totally incorporated herein by reference. Furthermore, oxazoline derivatives being the major product from the reaction of an organic acid and amino alcohol is also known, such as disclosed by A. I. Meyers and D. L. Temple in Journal of the Chemical Society, Vol. 92, p. 6644 (1970), the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference. Further, in Garrett C. Moraski et al. in European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 45, (2010), 1703-1716, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, there is described low toxicity anti-tuberculosis agents derived from o-hydroxy phenyl-oxazoline and o-hydroxy phenyl-oxazole benzyl esters.
While known materials and processes are suitable for their intended purposes, there is a need for improved phase change inks. In addition, there is a need for phase change inks that exhibit sharp and rapid phase transitions from the molten liquid state to the solid state. Further, there is a need for phase change inks that exhibit good adhesion to paper substrates, including coated and uncoated paper substrates. Additionally, there is a need for phase change inks that exhibit good image robustness, such as scratch-resistance. In addition, a need remains for phase change inks that exhibit good `paper fold` performance and reduced cracking and creasing of the image when the document is folded. Additionally, a need remains for phase change inks that exhibit good compatibility with commonly available colorants. In addition, there is a need for phase change inks that are suitable for ink jet printing under a variety of conditions, such as direct-to-paper (DTP) printing conditions. Further, there is a need for phase change ink compositions prepared from low-cost raw materials, that are compatible with a wide variety of papers that generate high quality images on a wide variety of papers. These and other needs and advantages can be achievable with the solid ink compositions comprising crystalline oxazoline compounds and amorphous compounds derived from polyols of the present disclosure.
Each of the foregoing U.S. Patents and Patent Publications are incorporated by reference herein. Further, the appropriate components and process aspects of the each of the foregoing U.S. Patents and Patent Publications may be selected for the present disclosure in embodiments thereof.
According to embodiments illustrated herein, there is provided novel solid ink compositions comprising at least one crystalline oxazoline compound and at least one amorphous component derived from a polyol, and a colorant and optional viscosity modifier, that exhibit excellent image robustness for ink jet printing, including printing on coated paper substrates.
In particular, the present embodiments provide a solid ink composition comprising at least one phase change component; at least one amorphous component derived from a polyol; a colorant; and optionally a viscosity modifier, wherein the phase change component is crystalline and comprises one or more substituted oxazoline compounds and/or substituted oxazoline derivatives and further wherein the solid ink composition exhibits a phase change transition from a liquid to a solid.
wherein R1 is an alkyl group of from about 1 to about 55 carbon atoms, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are alkyl, an alkyl alcohol or an alkyl ester, each alkyl containing from about 1 to about 55 carbon atoms, and further wherein the solid ink composition exhibits a phase change transition from a liquid to a solid within a temperature change of about 20° C.
In yet other embodiments, there is provided a solid ink composition comprising at least one phase change component; at least one amorphous component derived from a polyol; a colorant; and optionally a viscosity modifier, wherein the phase change component is crystalline and comprises one or more substituted oxazoline compounds and/or substituted oxazoline derivatives and further wherein the solid ink composition exhibits a phase change transition from a liquid to a solid within a temperature change of about 20° C., and the phase transition occurs at a temperature between about 45 and about 130° C.
For a better understanding of the present embodiments, reference may be had to the accompanying figures.
FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating the scratch results of some ink samples of the present embodiments as compared to the control ink samples; All of the rheology measurements were made on a Rheometrics RFS3 strain-controlled rheometer (TA instruments) equipped with a Peltier heating plate and using a 25 mm parallel plate geometry tool. The method used was a temperature sweep starting from about 140° C. to about 40° C. in temperature steps of 5° C., a soak (equilibration) time of 75 seconds between each temperature and measured at a constant frequency of 1 Hz.
In the following description, it is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and operational changes may be made without departure from the scope of the present embodiments disclosed herein.
Phase change or solid ink technology broadens printing capability and customer base across many markets, and the diversity of printing applications will be facilitated by effective integration of printhead technology, print process and ink materials. The solid ink compositions are characterized by being solid at room temperature and molten at an elevated temperature at which the molten ink is applied to a substrate. As discussed above, while current ink options are successful for porous paper substrates, these options are not always satisfactory for coated paper substrates.
In the present embodiments, it is discovered that a robust solid ink can be obtained through a blend of crystalline and amorphous components. The present embodiments provide a new type of ink jet solid ink composition which comprises a blend of (1) at least one crystalline oxazoline compound; (2) at least one amorphous component derived from a polyol; (3) an optional viscosity modifier; and 4) a colorant. In these embodiments, the crystalline component acts as the phase change component while the amorphous component acts as the binder.
As used herein, the term "viscosity" refers to a complex viscosity, which is the typical measurement provided by a mechanical spectrometer that is capable of subjecting a sample to a steady shear strain or a small amplitude sinusoidal deformation. Each component imparts specific properties to the solid inks, and the blend of the components provide inks that have suitable viscosity for inkjet printing in a piezoelectric printhead, and also exhibit excellent robustness on uncoated and coated substrates.
R2, R3, R4, and R5 each, independently of the other, are (1) hydrogen atoms, (2) halogen atoms, such as fluorine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine, (3) alkyl groups, including linear, branched, saturated, unsaturated, cyclic, substituted, and unsubstituted alkyl groups, and wherein hetero atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, and the like either may or may not be present in the alkyl group, in one embodiment with at least about 1 carbon atoms, in another embodiment with at least about 2 carbon atoms, and in yet another embodiment with at least about 3 carbon atoms, and in one embodiment with no more than about 36 carbon atoms, and in another embodiment with no more than about 30 carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms can be outside of these ranges, (4) aryl groups, including substituted and unsubstituted aryl groups, and wherein hetero atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, and the like either may or may not be present in the aryl group, in one embodiment with at least about 5 carbon atoms, and in another embodiment with at least about 6 carbon atoms, and in one embodiment with no more than about 24 carbon atoms, and in another embodiment with no more than about 18 carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms can be outside of these ranges, such as phenyl or the like, (5) arylalkyl groups, including substituted and unsubstituted arylalkyl groups, wherein the alkyl portion of the arylalkyl group can be linear, branched, saturated, unsaturated, and/or cyclic, and wherein hetero atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, and the like either may or may not be present in either or both of the alkyl portion and the aryl portion of the arylalkyl group, in one embodiment with at least about 6 carbon atoms, and in another embodiment with at least about 7 carbon atoms, and in one embodiment with no more than about 36 carbon atoms, and in another embodiment with no more than about 24 carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms can be outside of these ranges, such as benzyl or the like, or (6) alkylaryl groups, including substituted and unsubstituted alkylaryl groups, wherein the alkyl portion of the alkylaryl group can be linear, branched, saturated, unsaturated, and/or cyclic, and wherein hetero atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, and the like either may or may not be present in either or both of the alkyl portion and the aryl portion of the alkylaryl group, in one embodiment with at least about 6 carbon atoms, and in another embodiment with at least about 7 carbon atoms, and in one embodiment with no more than about 36 carbon atoms, and in another embodiment with no more than about 24 carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms can be outside of these ranges, such as tolyl or the like, wherein the substituents on the substituted alkyl, aryl, arylalkyl, and alkylaryl groups for R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5 can be (but are not limited to) hydroxy groups, halogen atoms, amine groups, imine groups, ammonium groups, cyano groups, pyridine groups, pyridinium groups, ether groups, aldehyde groups, ketone groups, ester groups, amide groups, carbonyl groups, thiocarbonyl groups, sulfate groups, sulfonate groups, sulfonic acid groups, sulfide groups, sulfoxide groups, phosphine groups, phosphonium groups, phosphate groups, nitrile groups, mercapto groups, nitro groups, nitroso groups, sulfone groups, acyl groups, acid anhydride groups, azide groups, cyanato groups, isocyanato groups, thiocyanato groups, isothiocyanato groups, carboxylate groups, carboxylic acid groups, urethane groups, urea groups, mixtures thereof, and the like, wherein two or more substituents can be joined together to form a ring.
In one specific embodiment, R2, R3, R4, and R5 each, independently of the others, are unsubstituted alkyl groups, or hydroxyalkyl groups, such as those of the formula --(CH2)n OH wherein n is an integer of in one embodiment at least about 1, and in another embodiment at least about 2, and in one embodiment no more than about 12, and in another embodiment no more than about 10, although the value of n can be outside of these ranges, or alkyl ester groups, such as those of the formula --(CH2)p--OOC(CH2)m--CH3 wherein p is an integer of in one embodiment at least about 1, and in another embodiment at least about 2, and in one embodiment no more than about 12, and in another embodiment no more than about 10, although the value of p can be outside of these ranges, and m is an integer of in one embodiment at least about 1, and in another embodiment at least about 2, and in one embodiment no more than about 36, and in another embodiment no more than about 24, although the value of m can be outside of these ranges.
wherein n is 0 or an integer of from 1 to about 36.
and the like, as well as mixtures thereof.
Oxazolines can be prepared by any desired or effective method, such as by a condensation reaction at elevated temperatures between an acid having an R group with at least 1 molar equivalent of an amino alcohol. Oxazolines can also be prepared as described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,817,169 and 5,698,017 and in R. H Wiley and L. L. Bennett, Chemical Reviews, Vol. 44, pp. 447-476 (1949), J. W. Cornforth, Heterocyclic Compounds, 1957, chapter 5, pp. 300-417, and A. I. Meyers and D. L. Temple, Journal of the Chemical Society, Vol, 92, p. 6644 (1970), the disclosures of each of which are totally incorporated herein by reference.
can be prepared in one embodiment by a condensation reaction occurring at a suitable temperature, such as from about 120° C. to about 220° C., of an acid having an R1 group as defined hereinabove with at least 1 molar equivalent of a suitable amino alcohol per mole of acid. The condensation reaction between the acid and the amino alcohol can be performed at reduced pressure, such as less than about 100 mmHg. The condensation reaction can be carried out with or without the use of a catalyst; catalysts can be used to expedite completion of the reaction. Suitable catalysts include tetraalkyl titanates, dialkyltin oxides such as dibutyltin oxide (dibutyl oxostannane), tetraalkyltin oxide compounds such as dibutyltin dilaurate, dialkylstannoic acid compounds such as butylstannoic acid, aluminum alkoxides, alkyl zinc, dialkyl zinc, zinc oxide, stannous oxide, or mixtures thereof; and which catalysts are selected in amounts of, for example, from about 0.005 mole percent to about 5 mole percent based on the starting diacid. In some embodiments, the condensation reaction is complete (i.e., at least about 95% of the diacid has been reacted) in less than about 15 hours.
In a specific embodiment, the crystalline oxazoline compounds disclosed herein have sufficiently low viscosities in the molten state that render them highly suitable for use as crystalline phase change agents in solid inks for ink jet printing. In these embodiments, the crystalline oxazoline compounds, such as the specific compounds illustrated hereinabove, can have complex viscosities when measured at temperatures above about 110° C., of in one embodiment at least about 1 cPs (centipoise, or mPa-sec), in another embodiment at least about 2 cPs, and in yet another embodiment at least about 3 cPs, and in one embodiment no more than about 20 cPs, in another embodiment no more than about 15 cPs, and in yet another embodiment no more than about 13 cPs, although the complex viscosity can be outside of these ranges. At room temperature, the complex viscosity of the crystalline oxazoline compounds disclosed herein can be about 1×105 cPs.
The crystalline oxazoline compound is present in the ink carrier in any desired or effective amount, in one embodiment at least about 1 percent by weight, in another embodiment at least about 2 percent by weight, and in yet another embodiment at least about 5 percent by weight, and in one embodiment no more than about 95 percent by weight, in another embodiment no more than about 90 percent by weight, and in yet another embodiment no more than about 85 percent by weight, although the amount can be outside of these ranges.
The crystalline oxazoline compound is present in the ink in a total amount in any desired or effective amount, in one embodiment at least about 10 percent by weight, in another embodiment at least about 20 percent by weight, and in yet another embodiment at least about 25 percent by weight, and in one embodiment no more than about 90 percent by weight, in another embodiment no more than about 80 percent by weight, and in yet another embodiment no more than about 75 percent by weight, although the amount can be outside of these ranges.
The properties and features of the oxazoline compounds of the present disclosure include, for example, sharp-melting temperatures that are within the 50-120° C. range, large viscosity change (>105 cPs) during a narrow temperature range for crystallization (which can lie anywhere in the range of from about 50° C. to about 110° C.), higher polarity compounds that allow for easier blending with commonly available colorants, dispersants and other functional additives, and facile, low-cost synthesis by standard neat condensation reactions (a solvent-less process with water as the only by-product). Examples of suitable crystalline oxazoline compounds, including mono-oxazoline compounds and ester derivatives, are provided in Table 1 (with their physical properties and functions in the phase change ink composition).
The amorphous component in the solid phase change ink provides tackiness to help bind together the crystalline phase change component with other optional ink additives. Further, the amorphous component imparts robustness to the printed ink.
In embodiments, the amorphous component is one or more compounds that is a derivative of a polyol compound having two or more hydroxyl groups, or more specifically, a derivative of a polyalcohol compound having from 2 to 20 hydroxyl groups. In embodiments, the polyol (polyalcohol) compound can have from 2 to about 50 carbons, or from about 4 to about 40 carbons or from about 5 to about 36 carbons, and which may have alkyl, aryl, or alkylaryl carbon-containing groups. In embodiments, the alkyl portion of the polyol compound may be linear, cyclic, or branched and have ethylenically unsaturated groups. The polyol compound may also contain heteroatoms such as O, N, S, P, B, Si along with the carbon atoms.
In further embodiments, the one or more amorphous components is an ester derivative of a polyol, wherein the ester group can be derived from a simple monofunctional carboxylic acid, difunctional carboxylic acids, or can be an oligomeric or polymeric ester group derived from difunctional and polyfunctional acids, and mixtures thereof. The carboxylic mono-acids and di-acids can be aromatic having from 6 to about 14 carbons, or aliphatic acids having from about 2 to about 50 carbons, or alkylaromatic acids having from 6 to about 25 carbons. The aliphatic portion of the mono-carboxylic and di-carboxylic acids can be either linear, branched, cyclic and/or ethylenically unsaturated alkyl group.
In the present embodiments, desirable amorphous materials have relatively low viscosity (<102 cPs, or from about 20 to about 2000 cPs, or from about 30 to about 1500 cPs) at about 140° C., but very high viscosity (>106 cPs) at temperatures less than about 60° C. The lower viscosity at 140° C. provides high formulation latitude to enable inkjet printing while the high viscosity at room temperature imparts robustness for the printed image. The amorphous materials have Tg (glass transition temperatures) but do not exhibit crystallization and melting peaks by DSC (measured at 10° C./min from -50 to 200 to -50° C.). The Tg values are typically from about -10° C. to about 50° C., or from about -5° C. to about 45° C., or from about 0° C. to about 40° C., to impart the desired toughness and flexibility to the inks.
suitable for including in the inks disclosed herein, wherein n is an integer of in one embodiment at least about 2, and in another embodiment at least about 3, and in one embodiment no more than about 10, and in another embodiment no more than about 8, although the value of n can be outside of these ranges, and R'' is (1) an alkylene group, including linear, branched, saturated, unsaturated, cyclic, substituted, and unsubstituted alkylene groups, and wherein hetero atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, boron, and the like either may or may not be present in the alkylene group, in one embodiment with at least about 2 carbon atoms, and in one embodiment with no more than about 10 carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms can be outside of these ranges, (2) an arylene group, including substituted and unsubstituted arylene groups, and wherein hetero atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, boron, and the like either may or may not be present in the arylene group, in one embodiment with at least about 6 carbon atoms, in another embodiment with at least about 7 carbon atoms, and in yet another embodiment with at least about 8 carbon atoms, and in one embodiment with no more than about 20 carbon atoms, in another embodiment with no more than about 18 carbon atoms, and in yet another embodiment with no more than about 16 carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms can be outside of these ranges, such as phenylene or the like, (3) an arylalkylene group, including substituted and unsubstituted arylalkylene groups, wherein the alkyl portion of the arylalkylene group can be linear, branched, saturated, unsaturated, and/or cyclic, and wherein hetero atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, boron, and the like either may or may not be present in either or both of the alkyl portion and the aryl portion of the arylalkylene group, in one embodiment with at least about 7 carbon atoms, and in one embodiment with no more than about 20 carbon atoms, in another embodiment with no more than about 18 carbon atoms, and in yet another embodiment with no more than about 16 carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms can be outside of these ranges, such as benzylene or the like, or (4) an alkylarylene group, including substituted and unsubstituted alkylarylene groups, wherein the alkyl portion of the alkylarylene group can be linear, branched, saturated, unsaturated, and/or cyclic, and wherein hetero atoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, silicon, phosphorus, boron, and the like either may or may not be present in either or both of the alkyl portion and the aryl portion of the alkylarylene group, in one embodiment with at least about 7 carbon atoms, and in one embodiment with no more than about 20 carbon atoms, in another embodiment with no more than about 18 carbon atoms, and in yet another embodiment with no more than about 16 carbon atoms, although the number of carbon atoms can be outside of these ranges, such as tolylene or the like, and wherein the substituents on the substituents on the substituted alkylene, arylene, arylalkylene, and alkylarylene groups can be (but are not limited to) hydroxy groups, halogen atoms, amine groups, imine groups, ammonium groups, cyano groups, pyridine groups, pyridinium groups, ether groups, aldehyde groups, ketone groups, ester groups, amide groups, carbonyl groups, thiocarbonyl groups, sulfate groups, sulfonate groups, sulfonic acid groups, sulfide groups, sulfoxide groups, phosphine groups, phosphonium groups, phosphate groups, nitrile groups, mercapto groups, nitro groups, nitroso groups, sulfone groups, acyl groups, acid anhydride groups, azide groups, cyanato groups, isocyanato groups, thiocyanato groups, isothiocyanato groups, carboxylate groups, carboxylic acid groups, urethane groups, urea groups, mixtures thereof, and the like, wherein two or more substituents can be joined together to form a ring.
In one specific embodiment, the diacid is selected to be derived from a bio-based or renewable resource. Examples of suitable bio-based diacids include, but are not limited to, succinic acid, itaconic acid, azelaic acid, and the like, which are derived from agricultural and forestry sources.
An additional feature of the novel solid ink compositions of the present embodiments is that some components are bio-based, safe, and inexpensive materials commonly used as food additives or for personal care applications. Examples of bio-based components include Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11 in Tables 1 and 2 above.
In embodiments, the substituted oxazoline compounds and/or substituted oxazoline derivatives of the present disclosure may be incorporated into colored or non-colored (or colorless) phase-change ink compositions that include from about 0 to about 30 percent, or from about 1 to about 20 percent, or from about 2 to about 15 percent by weight of dye or pigment. In embodiments, the substituted oxazoline compounds and/or substituted oxazoline derivatives may be present in an amount of from about 1 to about 100 percent, or from about 25 to about 98 percent, or from about 50 to about 97 percent by weight of the phase-change ink composition.
In specific embodiments, the weight ratio of the crystalline components to amorphous components is from about 50:50 to about 95:5, or is from about 55:45 to about 90:10. In one embodiment, the weight ratio is about 65:35 for the crystalline and amorphous components, respectively. In another embodiment, the weight ratio is about 75:25 for the crystalline and amorphous components, respectively.
The one or more crystalline components in the ink formulation is responsible for the phase change by rapid crystallization upon cooling. The one or more crystalline components also sets up the structure of the final ink film and creates a hard ink by reducing the tackiness of the one or more amorphous component. The crystalline components exhibit crystallization, relatively low viscosity (η) at 140° C. of less than about 15 centipoise (cPs), or from about 0.5 to about 15, or from about 1 to about 13 cPs, and high viscosity (>106 cPs.) at room temperature. Because the crystalline components dictate the phase change of the ink, rapid crystallization is required to allow further immediate print processes if required (i.e., ink spreading, duplex printing, etc.) and more importantly to prevent excessive showthrough on uncoated substrates. By differential scanning calorimetry analysis (DSC) (using typical analysis method of 10° C./min from -50 to 200 to -50° C.), desirable crystalline components show sharp crystallization and melting peaks, and the ΔT (Tmelt-Tcrys) between them is less than 50° C. The melting point must be below 150° C., which is the upper limit of the jetting temperature, or preferably below from about 145 to about 140° C. The melting point is preferably above 65° C. to prevent blocking and offset print transfer upon standing at temperatures up to 65° C., or more preferably above about 66 or above about 67° C. In specific embodiments, the melting point from about 65 to about 130° C.
In embodiments, the crystalline component is present in an amount of from about 60 percent to about 95 percent by weight of the total weight of the solid ink composition. In embodiments, the amorphous binder comprises from about 5 to about 50 percent, or from about 7 to about 40 percent, or from about 10 to about 35 percent by weight of the ink composition. In further embodiments, the solid ink composition may include a colorant, such as a pigment or dye, and one or more additives, such as compatibilizers or viscosity modifiers, as further discussed below.
In embodiments, the phase change inks can be solid inks which have melting points of from about 60° C. to about 130° C., for example from about 65° C. to about 120° C., from about 70° C. to about 115° C., as determined by, for example, by differential scanning calorimetry. In embodiments, the phase change ink has a crystallization point of from about 50° C. to about 120° C., or from about 60 to about 115° C., or from about 65 to about 110° C.
In further embodiments, the phase change inks can have a complex viscosity in the molten state, such as for example temperatures above 130° C. in the range of from about 1 to about 20 cPs (centipoise, or mPa-sec), or from about 2 to about 18 cPs, or from about 3 to about 15 cPs. The complex viscosities of the phase change ink can be measured at a range of frequencies, such as from about 1 Hz to about 50 Hz. At room temperature, the phase change ink can have a complex viscosity of about ≧1×106 cPs, or more specifically, from about 5×105 to about 1×109 cPs.
The solid ink composition of the present embodiments exhibits a phase change transition from a liquid to a solid within a temperature change of about 20° C., or more specifically, from about 5° C. to about 30° C. In embodiments, the solid ink composition has a phase transition at a temperature between about 45 and about 130° C. or between about 65 to about 120° C. The solid ink composition of the present embodiments have a viscosity of less than about 20 cps at about 140° C. and a viscosity of at least about 106 cps at a temperature between about 20 and about 35° C., or in more specific embodiments, a viscosity of from about 2 to about 18 cPs at about 140° C. and a viscosity of from about 106 to about 109 cPs at a temperature between about 20 and about 35° C.
The ink of embodiments may further include conventional additives to take advantage of the known functionality associated with such conventional additives. Such additives may include, for example, at least one antioxidant, defoamer, slip and leveling agents, clarifiers, viscosity modifiers, compatibilizers, synergists, rheology modifiers, adhesive or tackifiers, plasticizers, mixtures thereof and the like.
The compositions of embodiments, which may be incorporated into ink(s) or coatings, may further include conventional additives to take advantage of the known functionality associated with such additives. Such optional additives may include, for example, an antioxidant, defoamer, UV absorber, slip and leveling agents, synergists, adjuvants, clarifier, tackifier, adhesive, plasticizer and the like.
In embodiments, the ink may optionally contain antioxidants to protect the images from oxidation and also may protect the ink components from oxidation while existing as a heated melt in the ink reservoir. Examples of suitable antioxidants include (1) N,N'-hexamethylene bis(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxy hydrocinnamamido) (IRGANOX 1098, available from Ciba Inc.), (2) 2,2-bis(4-(2-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyhydrocinnamoyloxy))ethoxyphenyl) propane (TOPANOL-205, available from ICI America Corporation), (3) tris(4-tert-butyl-3-hydroxy-2,6-dimethyl benzyl) isocyanurate (CYANOX 1790, 41,322-4, LTDP, Aldrich D12, 840-6), (4) 2,2'-ethylidene bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl) fluoro phosphonite (ETHANOX-398, available from Ethyl Corporation), (5) tetrakis(2,4-di-tert-butylphenyl)-4,4'-biphenyl diphosphonate (ALDRICH 46, 852-5; hardness value 90), (6) pentaerythritol tetrastearate (TCI America #P0739), (7) tributylammonium hypophosphite (Aldrich 42,009-3), (8) 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methoxyphenol (Aldrich 25, 106-2), (9) 2,4-di-tert-butyl-6-(4-methoxybenzyl)phenol (Aldrich 23,008-1), (10) 4-bromo-2,6-dimethylphenol (Aldrich 34, 951-8), (11) 4-bromo-3,5-didimethylphenol (Aldrich B6, 420-2), (12) 4-bromo-2-nitrophenol (Aldrich 30, 987-7), (13) 4-(diethyl aminomethyl)-2,5-dimethylphenol (Aldrich 14, 668-4), (14) 3-dimethylaminophenol (Aldrich D14.400-2), (15) 2-amino-4-tert-amylphenol (Aldrich 41, 258-9), (16) 2,6-bis(hydroxymethyl)-p-cresol (Aldrich 22, 752-8), (17) 2,2'-methylenediphenol (Aldrich B4, 680-8), (18) 5-(diethylamino)-2-nitrosophenol (Aldrich 26, 951-4), (19) 2,6-dichloro-4-fluorophenol (Aldrich 28, 435-1), (20) 2,6-dibromo fluoro phenol (Aldrich 26,003-7), (21) α-trifluoro-o-creso-I (Aldrich 21, 979-7), (22) 2-bromo-4-fluorophenol (Aldrich 30, 246-5), (23) 4-fluorophenol (Aldrich F1, 320-7), (24) 4-chlorophenyl-2-chloro-1,1,2-tri-fluoroethyl sulfone (Aldrich 13, 823-1), (25) 3,4-difluoro phenylacetic acid (Aldrich 29,043-2), (26) 3-fluorophenylacetic acid (Aldrich 24, 804-5), (27) 3,5-difluoro phenylacetic acid (Aldrich 29,044-0), (28) 2-fluorophenylacetic acid (Aldrich 20, 894-9), (29) 2,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzoic acid (Aldrich 32, 527-9), (30) ethyl-2-(4-(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenoxy)phenoxy) propionate (Aldrich 25,074-0), (31) tetrakis (2,4-di-tert-butyl phenyl)-4,4'-biphenyl diphosphonate (Aldrich 46, 852-5), (32) 4-tert-amyl phenol (Aldrich 15, 384-2), (33) 3-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4-hydroxy phenethylalcohol (Aldrich 43,071-4), NAUGARD 76, NAUGARD 445, NAUGARD 512, AND NAUGARD 524 (manufactured by Chemtura Corporation), and the like, as well as mixtures thereof. The antioxidant, when present, may be present in the ink in any desired or effective amount, such as from about 0.25 percent to about 10 percent by weight of the ink or from about 1 percent to about 5 percent by weight of the ink.
The ink may further contain an optional tackifier such as the commercial derivatives of rosin acids derived from gum rosins or tail oil resins. Representative examples include, but are not limited to, a glycerol ester of hydrogenated abietic (rosin) acid such as FORAL 85 (commercially available from Eastman), or a pentaerythritol ester of hydroabietic (rosin) acid such as FORAL 105 (commercially available from Eastman), or CELLOLYN 21, a hydroabietic (rosin) alcohol ester of phthalic acid (commercially available from Eastman), or triglycerides of hydrogenated abietic (rosin) acid such as KE-311 and KE-100 resins, (commercially available from Arakawa Chemical industries, Ltd.), synthetic polyterpene resins such as NEVTAC 2300, NEVTAC 100, and NEVTACO 80 (commercially available from Neville Chemical Company), WINGTACK 86, a modified synthetic polyterpene resin (commercially available from Sartomer), and the like. Tackifiers may be present in the ink in any effective amount, such as from about 0.01 percent by weight of the ink to from about 30 percent by weight of the ink, from about 0.1 percent by weight of the ink to about 25 percent by weight of the ink, from about 1 weight percent of the ink to about 20 weight percent of the ink.
Plasticizers such as UNIPLEX 250 (commercially available from Unitex), the phthalate ester plasticizers commercially available from Ferro under the trade name SANTICIZER, such as dioctyl phthalate, diundecyl phthalate, alkylbenzyl phthalate (SANTICIZER 278), triphenyl phosphate (commercially available from Ferro), KP-140, a tributoxyethyl phosphate (commercially available from Great Lakes Chemical Corporation), MORFLEX 150, a dicyclohexyl phthalate (commercially available from Morflex Chemical Company Inc.), trioctyl trimellitate (commercially available from Sigma Aldrich Co.), and the like. Plasticizers may be present in an amount from about 0.01 to about 30 percent, from about 0.1 to about 25 percent, from about 1 to about 20 percent by weight of the ink.
In embodiments, the ink compositions described herein also includes at least one colorant. Any desired or effective colorant can be employed in the ink compositions, including dyes, pigments, mixtures thereof, and the like, provided that the colorant can be dissolved or dispersed in the ink carrier. Any dye or pigment may be chosen, provided that it is capable of being dispersed or dissolved in the ink carrier and is compatible with the other ink components. The ink compositions can be used in combination with conventional ink colorant materials, such as Color Index (C.I.) Solvent Dyes, Disperse Dyes, modified Acid and Direct Dyes, Basic Dyes, Sulphur Dyes, Vat Dyes, and the like. Examples of suitable dyes include Neozapon Red 492 (BASF); Orasol Red G (Ciba); Direct Brilliant Pink B (Oriental Giant Dyes); Direct Red 3BL (Classic Dyestuffs); Supranol Brilliant Red 3BW (Bayer AG); Lemon Yellow 6G (United Chemie); Light Fast Yellow 3G (Shaanxi); Aizen Spilon Yellow C-GNH (Hodogaya Chemical); Bernachrome Yellow GD Sub (Classic Dyestuffs); Cartasol Brilliant Yellow 4GF (Clariant); Cibanon Yellow 2GN (Ciba); Orasol Black CN (Ciba); Savinyl Black RLSN (Clariant); Pyrazol Black BG (Clariant); Morfast Black 101 (Rohm & Haas); Diaazol Black RN (ICI); Orasol Blue GN (Ciba); Savinyl Blue GLS (Clariant); Luxol Fast Blue MBSN (Pylam Products); Sevron Blue 5GMF (Classic Dyestuffs); Basacid Blue 750 (BASF), Neozapon Black X51 (BASF), Classic Solvent Black 7 (Classic Dyestuffs), Sudan Blue 670 (C.I. 61554) (BASF), Sudan Yellow 146 (C.I. 12700) (BASF), Sudan Red 462 (C.I. 26050) (BASF), C.I. Disperse Yellow 238, Neptune Red Base NB543 (BASF, C.I. Solvent Red 49), Neopen Blue FF-4012 from BASF, Lampronol Black BR from ICI (C.I. Solvent Black 35), Morton Morplas Magenta 36 (C.I. Solvent Red 172), metal phthalocyanine colorants such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,137, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, and the like. Other suitable dyes include those disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 201010086683 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,732,581; 7,381,831; 6,713,614; 6,646,111; 6,590,082; 6,472,523; 6,713,614; 6,958,406; 6,998,493; 7,211,131; and 7,294,730, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Polymeric dyes can also be used, such as those disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,022 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,135, the disclosures of each of which are herein entirely incorporated herein by reference, and commercially available from, for example, Milliken & Company as Milliken Ink Yellow 869, Milliken Ink Blue 92, Milliken Ink Red 357, Milliken Ink Yellow 1800, Milliken Ink Black 8915-67, uncut Reactant Orange X-38, uncut Reactant Blue X-17, Solvent Yellow 162, Acid Red 52, Solvent Blue 44, and uncut Reactant Violet X-80.
In embodiments, solvent dyes are employed. Examples of suitable solvent dyes include Neozapon Red 492 (BASF); Orasol Red G (Ciba); Direct Brilliant Pink B (Global Colors); Aizen Spilon Red C-BH (Hodogaya Chemical); Kayanol Red 3BL (Nippon Kayaku); Spirit Fast Yellow 3G; Aizen Spilon Yellow C-GNH (Hodogaya Chemical); Cartasol Brilliant Yellow 4GF (Clariant); Pergasol Yellow CGP (Ciba); Orasol Black RLP (Ciba); Savinyl Black RLS (Clariant); Morfast Black Conc. A (Rohm and Haas); Orasol Blue GN (Ciba); Savinyl Blue GLS (Sandoz); Luxol Fast Blue MBSN (Pylam); Sevron Blue 5GMF (Classic Dyestuffs); Basacid Blue 750 (BASF), Neozapon Black X51 [C.I. Solvent Black, C.I. 12195] (BASF), Sudan Blue 670 [C.I. 61554] (BASF), Sudan Yellow 146 [C.I. 12700] (BASF), Sudan Red 462 [C.I. 260501] (BASF), mixtures thereof and the like.
Pigments are also suitable colorants for the ink composition described herein. Examples of suitable pigments include PALIOGEN Violet 5100 (commercially available from BASF); PALIOGEN Violet 5890 (commercially available from BASF); HELIOGEN Green L8730 (commercially available from BASF); LITHOL Scarlet D3700 (commercially available from BASF); SUNFAST Blue 15:4 (commercially available from Sun Chemical); Hostaperm Blue B2G-D (commercially available from Clariant); Hostaperm Blue B4G (commercially available from Clariant); Permanent Red P-F7RK; Hostaperm Violet BL (commercially available from Clariant); LITHOL Scarlet 4440 (commercially available from BASF); Bon Red C (commercially available from Dominion Color Company); ORACET Pink RF (commercially available from Ciba); PALIOGEN Red 3871K (commercially available from BASF); SUNFAST Blue 15:3 (commercially available from Sun Chemical); PALIOGEN Red 3340 (commercially available from BASF); SUNFAST Carbazole Violet 23 (commercially available from Sun Chemical); LITHOL Fast Scarlet L4300 (commercially available from BASF); SUNBRITE Yellow 17 (commercially available from Sun Chemical); HELIOGEN Blue L6900, L7020 (commercially available from BASF); SUNBRITE Yellow 74 (commercially available from Sun Chemical); SPECTRA PAC C Orange 16 (commercially available from Sun Chemical); HELIOGEN Blue K6902, K6910 (commercially available from BASF); SUNFAST Magenta 122 (commercially available from Sun Chemical); HELIOGEN Blue D6840, D7080 (commercially available from BASF); Sudan Blue OS (commercially available from BASF); NEOPEN Blue FF4012 (commercially available from BASF); PV Fast Blue B2GO1 (commercially available from Clariant); IRGALITE Blue BOA (commercially available from Ciba); PALIOGEN Blue 6470 (commercially available from BASF); Sudan Orange G (commercially available from Aldrich), Sudan Orange 220 (commercially available from BASF); PALIOGEN Orange 3040 (BASF); PALIOGEN Yellow 152, 1560 (commercially available from BASF); LITHOL Fast Yellow 0991K (commercially available from BASF); PALIOTOL Yellow 1840 (commercially available from BASF); NOVOPERM Yellow FGL (commercially available from Clariant); Ink Jet Yellow 4G VP2532 (commercially available from Clariant); Toner Yellow HG (commercially available from Clariant); Lumogen Yellow 00790 (commercially available from BASF); Suco-Yellow L1250 (commercially available from BASF); Suco-Yellow D1355 (commercially available from BASF); Suco Fast Yellow DI 355, D1351 (commercially available from BASF); HOSTAPERM Pink E 02 (commercially available from Clariant); Hansa Brilliant Yellow 5GX03 (commercially available from Clariant); Permanent Yellow GRL 02 (commercially available from Clariant); Permanent Rubine L6B 05 (commercially available from Clariant); FANAL Pink D4830 (commercially available from BASF); CINQUASIA Magenta (commercially available from DU PONT); PALIOGEN Black L0084 (commercially available from BASF); Pigment Black K801 (commercially available from BASF); and carbon blacks such as REGAL 330® (commercially available from Cabot), Nipex 150 (commercially available from Degusssa) Carbon Black 5250 and Carbon Black 5750 (commercially available from Columbia Chemical), and the like, as well as mixtures thereof. Other suitable pigments include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,905,954; 7,503,973; 7,465,348; and 7,427,323.
The ink may also contain one or more dispersants and/or one or more surfactants for their known properties, such as for controlling wetting properties of the pigments in the ink composition. Examples of suitable additives that may be used in embodiments include, but are not limited to, BYK-UV 3500, BYK-UV 3510 (BYK-Chemie); Dow Corning 18, 27, 57, 67 Additives; ZONYL FSO 100 (DuPont); MODAFLOW 2100 (Solutia); Foam Blast 20F, 30, 550 (Lubrizol); EFKA-1101, -4046, -4047, -2025, -2035, -2040, -2021, -3600, -3232; SOLSPERSE 13000, 13240, 17000, 19200, 20000, 34750, 36000, 39000, 41000, 54000, individual dispersants or combinations may optionally be used with synergists including SOLSPERSE 5000, 12000, 22000 (Lubrizol); DISPERBYK-108, -163, -167, 182 (BYK-Chemie); K-SPERSE 132, XD-A503, XD-A505 (King Industries).
When present, the optional additives may each, or in combination, be present in the ink in any desired or effective amount, such as from about 0.1 to about 15 percent or from about 0.5 to about 12 percent by weight of the ink.
The amount of colorant in the phase-change ink of the present disclosure, may be from about 0.5 percent to about 20 percent or from about 1 percent to about 15 percent by weight, or from about 2 percent to about 10 percent by weight of the ink composition.
The ink compositions can be prepared by any desired or suitable method. For example, each of the components of the ink carrier can be mixed together, followed by heating, the mixture to at least its melting point, for example from about 60 to about 150° C., such as from about 80 to about 140° C., or from about 85 to about 120° C. The colorant may be added before the ink ingredients have been heated or after the ink ingredients have been heated. The molten mixture may optionally be subjected to grinding in an attritor, bail mill ore media mill apparatus, or to high shear mixing, in order to effect dispersion of the colorant in the ink carrier. The heated mixture is then stirred to obtain a uniform molten ink, followed by cooling the ink to ambient temperature (typically from about 20° C. to about 25° C.). The inks are solid at ambient temperature.
The hardness of the phase change ink is a characteristic that can serve as an indicator of ink robustness on the printed image (for example, resistance to abrasion, folding creases, and the like). The ink hardness can be measured using a needle penetrometer apparatus, such as the PTC® Durometer Model PS 6400-0-29001 (available from Pacific Transducer Corp., USA) equipped with a Model 476 Stand with standard 1 Kg load, in this Durometer apparatus, a sharp tip (or needle) that is mounted within a retractable post is pressed against the surface of a molded sample of ink. The degree of resistance to the needle tip upon pushing down on the ink surface is measured and correlated to the distance by which the needle tip has retracted backward into the mounting post. A measured value of 100 would indicate a perfectly hard and impermeable surface (such as glass).
The inks disclosed herein have hardness values, measured at about 25° C. using the FTC® Durometer, of in one embodiment at least about 60, in another embodiment at least about 65, and in yet another embodiment at least about 70, although the value can be outside of these ranges.
The phase-changes inks of this disclosure can be printed onto paper substrates by any suitable method. The K-proofer apparatus is a useful printing tool to screen a variety of inks at small scale and to assess image quality and/or coloristic properties on various substrates, before an ink formulation is scaled up and optimized for more in-depth printing tests. In embodiments, the phase change inks were printed onto Xerox® Digital Color Elite Gloss (DCEG) coated papers (120 gsm stock) using a "K-proofer" gravure printing apparatus (obtained from Testing Machines Incorporated, New Castle, Del., USA), which was equipped with a "type B" single wedge gravure plate having 150 lines/inch (60 lines/cm) and three 100%-80%-60% density zones on the plate. The gravure plate temperature was set at 142° C. (actual plate temperature is ˜135±1° C.) and the pressure roller set at low pressure.
Image robustness of ink prints can be evaluated using a scratch (or abrasion) tester. Two different scratch tests were performed on the inks disclosed in embodiments, which are the "coin" scratch test and the "gouge finger" test. The "coin" scratch test evaluates how much ink, or toner, is removed from printed coating or image after a beveled-edge circular tool (referred to as the "coin" tip) is run across the surface. The instrument used for this test is a modified Taber Industries Linear Abraser (Model 5700) with a custom "coin" scratch tip that weighs 100 grams, which when lowered onto the test print sample, is then scratched across the print surface for either 3 cycles or 9 cycles at a frequency of 25 cycles/minute. A two inch long scratch is examined to characterize the amount of ink or toner material removed from the print sample, by first scanning along the scratch length using a flat bed scanner, and then performing image analysis with software that counts the area of paper substrate that is visible, and compares it to the original amount of ink in the scratched area.
Another scratch test tool is called the "gouge finger" tester, which is a custom apparatus equipped with three separate sharp, finger-like tips that are dragged across the ink print sample. Different force loads are applied to the three fingers, labelled as "Heavy", "Medium" and "Light" force loads. The prints prepared with the phase change inks disclosed herein were scratch-tested using only the medium and heavy load gouge finger tools, as these are considered stress test conditions. For each gouge finger tip, a single scratch that runs down the length of the print sample is conducted at constant speed setting. The scratched area of the print sample is then examined to characterize the amount of ink or toner material removed from the print sample, in the same manner as done for the "coin" scratch tester described above. Commercial image analysis software converts the pixel count to a unit-less measurement CA (crease area). White areas in the scratch zone (i.e. areas where ink has been removed from the substrate by the scratch tip) are counted. Higher pixel counts correspond to more ink being removed from the print and showing more damage. A perfect non-scratched ink print would have no material being removed and therefore would have very low pixel count (and CA) approaching zero.
The data in Table 3 shows the CA values (which are directly proportional to pixel count) for the scratched areas of the K-proof ink prints, generated by the coin scratch test. Crease Area (CA) values are obtained from coin scratch test for K-proof prints of Example Inks 1, 4 and 6 and Comparative Ink (Xerox Phase Cyan solid ink). While there is inevitably some variation in the data due to threshold limits of the image analysis for the scratch areas, the relative CA data show that three of the Example Inks, prepared with oxazoline crystalline components and amorphous polyol ester resins, all demonstrated significantly better scratch resistance than the Comparative Ink (Xerox Phaser Cyan solid ink).
The inks can be employed in an apparatus for ink jet printing processes either directly to paper, or indirectly to an intermediate transfer member. Examples of apparatuses that are suitable for printing the phase-change inks described herein include apparatuses comprised of at least one thermally controlled ink retaining reservoir to store or hold molten phase-change ink, an ink jet head for printing the ink, and an ink supply line for providing the phase-change ink to the ink jet head.
Another embodiment disclosed herein is directed to a process which comprises incorporating an ink as disclosed herein into an ink jet printing apparatus, melting the ink, and causing droplets of the melted ink to be ejected in an imagewise pattern onto a recording substrate. Known direct printing process may be suitable for applying the ink compositions of the present disclosure onto a substrate.
Yet another embodiment disclosed herein is directed to a process which comprises incorporating an ink as disclosed herein into an ink jet printing apparatus, melting the ink, causing droplets of the melted ink to be ejected in an imagewise pattern onto an intermediate transfer member, and transferring the ink in the imagewise pattern from the intermediate transfer member to a final recording substrate. In a specific embodiment, the intermediate transfer member is heated to a temperature above that of the final recording sheet and below that of the melted ink in the printing apparatus. In another specific embodiment, both the intermediate transfer member and the final recording sheet are heated; in this embodiment, both the intermediate transfer member and the final recording sheet are heated to a temperature below that of the melted ink in the printing apparatus; in this embodiment, the relative temperatures of the intermediate transfer member and the final recording sheet can be (1) the intermediate transfer member is heated to a temperature above that of the final recording substrate and below that of the melted ink in the printing apparatus; (2) the final recording substrate is heated to a temperature above that of the intermediate transfer member and below that of the melted ink in the printing apparatus; or (3) the intermediate transfer member and the final recording sheet are heated to approximately the same temperature. An offset or indirect printing process is also disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,958, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In one specific embodiment, the printing apparatus employs a piezoelectric printing process wherein droplets of the ink are caused to be ejected in imagewise pattern by oscillations of piezoelectric vibrating elements. Inks as disclosed herein can also be employed in other hot melt printing processes, such as hot melt acoustic ink jet printing, hot melt thermal ink jet printing, hot melt continuous stream or deflection ink jet printing, and the like. Phase-change inks as disclosed herein can also be used in printing processes other than hot melt ink jet printing processes, such as hot-melt lithographic, flexographic, and related offset ink printing processes.
Any suitable substrate or recording sheet can be employed such as plain paper, coated paper stocks and heavy paper stocks, transparency materials, fabrics, textile products, plastics, flexible polymeric films, inorganic substrates such as metals or silicon wafers, wood, and the like. Suitable examples include plain papers such as XEROX 4200 papers, XEROX Image Series papers, Courtland 4024 DP paper, ruled notebook paper, bond paper, silica coated papers such as Sharp Company silica coated paper, JuJo paper, HAMMERMILL LASERPRINT paper, and the like, glossy coated papers such as XEROX Digital Color Elite Gloss, Sappi Warren Papers LUSTROGLOSS, specialty papers such as Xerox DURAPAPER, and the like, transparency materials, fabrics, textile products, plastics, polymeric films, inorganic recording mediums such as metals and wood, and the like, transparency materials, fabrics, textile products, plastics, polymeric films, inorganic substrates such as metals and wood, and the like.
The inks described herein are further illustrated in the following examples. All parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise indicated.
While the description above refers to particular embodiments, it will be understood that many modifications may be made without departing from the spirit thereof. The accompanying claims are intended to cover such modifications as would fall within the true scope and spirit of embodiments herein.
The presently disclosed embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of embodiments being indicated by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description. All changes that come within the meaning of and range of equivalency of the claims are intended to be embraced therein.
The examples set forth herein below and are illustrative of different compositions and conditions that can be used in practicing the present embodiments. All proportions are by weight unless otherwise indicated. It will be apparent, however, that the present embodiments can be practiced with many types of compositions and can have many different uses in accordance with the disclosure above and as pointed out hereinafter.
Selected examples of the synthesized compounds and solid ink compositions were prepared as follows.
To a 1 Liter Parr reactor equipped with a double turbine agitator and distillation apparatus, was charged in order: dodecanoic acid (200 g; Sigma-Aldrich, Milwaukee, Wis.), tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (92 g; EMD Chemicals, NJ), and butylstannoic acid catalyst (FASCAT 4100; 0.45 grams; Arkema Inc). The contents were heated to 165° C. for a 2 h period, followed by increasing the temperature to 205° C. over a 2 h period, during which time the water distillate was collected in a distillation receiver. The reactor pressure was then reduced to about 1-2 mm-Hg for 1 h, followed by discharging into a tared container and cooling to room temperature. The product was purified by dissolving with mild heating in a mixture of ethyl acetate (2.5 parts) and hexane (10 parts), and then cooling to room temperature to crystallize the pure product as a white granular powder. The peak melting point (by DSC) was determined to be 97° C.
Rheological analysis of this material was measured over a temperature range starting at 130° C. and cooling down to 40° C., using a RFS3 Rheometrics instrument (oscillation frequency of 1 Hz, 25 mm parallel plate geometry, 200 applied strain %). The melt viscosity at 130° C. was 8.2cPs, and the onset of crystallization of this material occurred at 97° C., with a peak viscosity of 4.5×106 cPs.
A 1 L Parr reactor equipped with an agitator, distillation apparatus, and bottom drain valve was charged with stearic acid (426 g, obtained from Sigma-Aldrich), tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (181.5 g), and 0.75 g butylstannoic acid (FASCAT 4100). The mixture was heated to 165° C. and stirred at 150 rpm under a nitrogen inert atmosphere. The mixture was then heated to 196° C. over 4 h and maintained at 197-202° C. for an additional 2 h, after which the product was discharged into a tared container. The water by-product (51 g) was collected through the distillation receiver. The product was recrystallized from isopropanol to yield a white product with a sharp melting point at 107° C. as measured by DSC.
Rheological analysis of this material was measured over a temperature range starting at 130° C. and cooling down to 60° C. using a RFS3 Rheometrics instrument (oscillation frequency of 1 Hz, 25 mm parallel plate geometry, 200 applied strain %). The melt viscosity at 130° C. was 3 cPs, and the onset of crystallization of this material occurred at 107° C., with a peak viscosity of 7.2×106 cPs.
To a 500 ml round bottomed flask equipped with a Dean-Stark trap and a condenser was added isosorbide (27.61 grams, 189 mmoles, available from Archer Daniels, Midland, Ill., USA), succinic acid (10.63 grams, 90 mmoles, available from Sigma Aldrich) and toluene (200 mL). The reaction mixture was heated gradually under inert atmosphere to about 120° C. (external bath temperature). The reaction mixture was heated at reflux overnight during which about 3 mL water was collected in the Dean Stark trap. The reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature and the crude product was collected as a brownish residue. Toluene was removed by decanting, and the crude product was dissolved in dichloromethane (600 mL) and washed with saturated solution of NaHCO3 (2×200 mL), followed by deionized water (1×200 mL). The solution was dried over MgSO4, and the solvent removed in vacuo and then dried under vacuum for 24 hrs, to affordan fluffy off-white solid. The product was further dried in a vacuum oven (about 200 mm-Hg at 120° C.) overnight, then cooled to room temperature to give a transparent solid material (15 grams). Glass transition (Tg) by DSC: 35° C., Viscosity at 130° C.: 515 cPs, viscosity at 60° C.: 7.3×106 cPs.
Small quantities (from 5 to 15 grams) of ink was prepared for K-proofer printing test and subsequent scratch test for image robustness, using the following procedure as described for Example Ink 1 (10 grams). Into a 30-50 mL glass vessel was charged, in the following order: 6.70 g 2-undecyl-5,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)-4H-oxazoline, prepared as described in Example (67.0M %), 3.0 g penta-erythritol tetrabenzoate (obtained from Sigma-Aldrich; 30 wt %), and an optional viscosity modifier compound (as noted in Table 4. The materials were first melted together at 130° C. for 1 h, after which was added 0.3 g Orasol Blue GN dye (obtained from Ciba) to the molten mixture. The colored ink mixture was heated at 130° C. while stirring at 300 rpm for an additional 2.5 h. The dark blue molten ink (Ink 1) was then poured into a brass mold and cooled at room temperature to solidify. The solid ink sample was tested next for needle penetrometer hardness, then for K-proofer print test.
Compositions for Examples Inks 1-7 are shown in Table 4 (below) which indicate the relative wt-% proportions of their components. All inks were prepared in a manner similar to Example Ink 1 (described above in Example IV).
Into a 250 mL stainless steel vessel was charged, in the following order: 67 g of oxazoline of Example I (67 wt %) and 30 g of pentaerythritol tetrabenzoate (compound 8 of Table 2, 30 wt %). The materials were melted at 130° C. for 3 hrs, and then allowed to stir mechanically at 250 rpm while heating at 130'C for 1.5 hrs. Following, 3 g of Orasol Blue GN dye (3 wt % as colorant, obtained from CIBA) was added in portions to the molten mixture of ink components over a period of 30 minutes. The colored ink mixture was allowed to stir an additional 2.5 hrs. The ink was then filtered in a heated KST apparatus through a 5-micron stainless steel mesh filter. The filtered ink was collected into a flexible mold tray and cooled at room temperature to solidify.
Table 5 lists the physical and thermal properties for Ink Examples 1-7 and for the Comparative Solid Ink 1 (Xerox Phaser Cyan Solid Ink). The data in Table 5 along with the rheology profiles shown in FIG. 1, indicate that the inventive inks have comparable jetting viscosities and sharp phase-change transitions (within 5-15° C. range over the ink crystallization event) as the comparative commercial ink. The inks made with the oxazoline phase change component have a good onset temperature for crystallization, broadly ranging between 70° C. and 110° C. Having the onset crystallization of the ink be within this range is desirable so as to control ink jettability as well as the degree of ink penetration into paper and prevent excessive ink showthrough.
Each prepared ink was poured into a brass mold to prepare a disk sample of the ink that was approximately 5 mm thick. The ink hardness was measured using a needle penetrometer apparatus, wherein a sharp tip (or needle) is pressed against the surface of a molded sample of ink and the depth of immersion of the sharp tip into the ink surface is measured as a percentage of the total possible distance for immersion of the needle tip, which corresponds to the percentage of needle penetration into the ink. Using the FTC® Durometer Model PS 6400-0-29001 (available from Pacific Transducer Corp., USA) equipped with a Model 476 Stand with standard 1 Kg load, the ink hardness is measured in the above manner and expressed as a hardness value, indicating ink resistance to the penetration of the needle tip, whereby 100 hardness indicates zero penetration of the needle tip into the ink surface (that is, a totally impermeable surface).
Table 5 lists the hardness values for Example Inks 1-7 and compared with Comparative Ink 1 (Xerox Phaser Cyan solid ink), which shows values ranging from about 67 to 83 hard. These values are either moderately or significantly higher than the commercially available ink Comparative Ink 1 (Xerox Phaser Cyan solid ink, 67). This data is an indicator of ink robustness.
Image robustness of a set of K-proof prints were made on DCEG coated papers (120 gsm stock) with the Example Inks 1, 4 and 6 and Comparative Ink (Xerox Phaser Cyan solid ink) were evaluated using a "coin" scratch test. The coin scratch test was conducted with a modified Taber Industries Linear Abraser (Model 5700) which uses a beveled-edge circular tool (referred to as the "coin" tip, weighing 100 grams) that is run across the surface of the ink print in two test series, one where only 3 cycles of scratches were made, and another with 9 cycles of scratches (both series had scratch frequency setting of 25 cycles/minute). Image analysis software was used to assess how much ink was removed from the scratch zones on the prints, by counting the pixels in the area of paper substrate that is visible, and compares it to the original amount of ink in the same area before scratching. The software pixel count is converted to a unit-less measurement CA (crease area), and the higher the pixel count (or CA value), the more ink is removed from the print to reveal a scratched area (and more whiteness from the paper). It is understood that a perfect non-scratched ink print would have no material being removed and therefore would have very low pixel count (and CA) approaching zero.
As discussed previously, the data in Table 3 shows the CA values (which are directly proportional to pixel count) for the scratched areas of the K-proof ink prints, generated by the coin scratch test. The relative CA data show that three of the Example Inks 1, 4, and 6--each prepared with oxazoline crystalline components and amorphous polyol ester resins--all demonstrated at least a 4-fold improvement in scratch resistance than the Comparative Ink (Xerox Phaser Cyan solid ink), and in some instances about a 10-fold improvement in scratch-resistance.
All the patents and applications referred to herein are hereby specifically, and totally incorporated herein by reference in their entirety in the instant specification.
Top Inventors for class "Compositions: coating or plastic" | 2019-04-20T00:37:25Z | http://www.patentsencyclopedia.com/app/20130032057 |
Zenon W. Pylyshyn, Things and Places: How the Mind Connects with the World, MIT Press, 2007, 255pp., $34.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780262162456.
Pylyshyn's new book ranges over a number of topics in perceptual psychology, including perceptual reference to external objects, the roles that representations of locations play in various perceptual processes, attention, perceptual binding, tracking objects across time, the nature of visual objects, the evidential significance of conscious experience for scientific theories of perception, the nature of experiential representation, the visual imagination, and spatial reasoning. Despite this breadth of scope, the book has several unifying concerns, foremost among which is the goal of presenting and defending a theory of how, at the most basic level, the visual system hooks onto the world, achieving perceptual engagement with specific objects in the local environment. This theory is scientific rather than philosophical in character, and in general, the book is scientific in its orientation and manner of argument, with experimental evidence almost always in the foreground. But Pylyshyn is philosophically sophisticated and devotes a number of pages to discussing the philosophical implications of his scientific views. These passages are frequently quite interesting -- on the whole, they occasioned lively discussion in a philosophical reading group that recently worked through the book. To be sure, it is far from clear that Pylyshyn's theory of foundational perceptual reference has the philosophical significance that he attributes to it, but the question of its significance is itself a matter that is of philosophical interest.
The book has five chapters and a short concluding section that summarizes its main findings. The first three chapters are devoted to Pylyshyn's theory of foundational perceptual reference, the fourth primarily to perceptual consciousness, and the fifth to spatial reasoning. In addition to their primary concerns, the fourth and fifth chapters also deal at some length with the nature of the visual imagination.
Pylyshyn's exposition is on the whole admirably clear and comprehensive, but at certain points it is helpful to refer to the corresponding passages in his previous book, Seeing and Visualizing: It's Not What You Think (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003). The coverage of key experiments tends to be less compressed in that earlier work. Also, in an appendix to Chapter 5, the earlier work presents a sketch of how Pylyshyn's ideas about early vision might be implemented by a connectionist model. It can be useful to keep that model in mind.
These passages capture the core of Pylyshyn's position, but it is necessary to interpret them with some care. In describing the processes by which FINSTs come under the control of specific objects, he acknowledges that this could not happen if the visual system was not sensitive to certain clusters of external properties. That is, he explicitly allows that objects capture or "grab" FINSTs by instantiating clusters of properties to which the visual system is sensitive. To appreciate the point of the quoted passages, we have to follow Pylyshyn in distinguishing between a mechanism that is sensitive to the causal influence of a property cluster P and a representation of P that can combine with representations of objects to form predications. In maintaining that foundational reference is achieved independently of properties and locations, he means only that it is achieved independently of representational elements that have this sort of combinatorial, predicative capacity.
As Pylyshyn notes, his radically externalist position is a counterpart of the views of Kripke, Putnam, and Kaplan concerning the direct reference of proper names, kind terms, and demonstratives. In effect, Kripke argued that the ability to use a name N to refer to an object X depends on there being an information channel that connects one's use of N to X. Similarly, Pylyshyn maintains that the ability to perceive specific objects depends on there being a flow of information from the objects to pointers or indexes in the early visual system. This view provides indirect support for Kripkean semantic externalism. Further, as Pylyshyn also notes, even though it is concerned with early vision, his externalist account of perceptual reference has connections with philosophical accounts of higher level perceptual awareness of objects, and also with philosophical accounts of the ability to refer to objects in thought. It may be, he says, that Quine and Strawson were right in claiming that higher level reference to objects involves subsuming them under sortals, and therefore under principles of identity, but this means only that we must make use of sortals and attendant principles of identity in order to represent objects as determinate items and to achieve knowledge of their spatiotemporal boundaries. That is to say, while Quine and Strawson arguably give us necessary conditions of higher level cognitive engagements with objects, their conditions are not sufficient. If higher level cognitive endeavors are to make contact with specific external objects, then they must rest at some point on perceptual engagements that are purely informational in character.
Pylyshyn offers a number of arguments in support of his views about foundational reference. The most prominent of these derives from an experimental paradigm that he calls multiple object tracking (MOT).
The basic finding in experiments of this sort is that, as long as the number of targets remains comparatively small, subjects are quite successful in tracking them. Pylyshyn maintains that this finding is best explained by the hypothesis that the targets grab FINSTs and continue to exert control over them. At the end of an experiment, the subject responds to the question "Which objects are the targets?" by simply pointing to the ones that are associated with FINSTs.
Let us grant the experiments are best explained by supposing that targets grab demonstrative elements. It remains open whether we should follow Pylyshyn in supposing that representations of properties play no role in MOT. Couldn't it be that a subject opens an object file for each of the target objects at the outset of the experiment, where an object file consists of a FINST and several representations of properties, and that each file is automatically updated as the experiment proceeds? (Perhaps we could just identify FINSTs with object files.) Pylyshyn states a number of objections to proposals that belong to this general family. It is clear, he points out, that successful tracking does not rely on information about the color, size, or shapes of targets, for the targets in the experiments resemble the distractors in all these respects. Of course, it could still be true that subjects represent color, size, or shape -- they need not make use of all of the information that is available to them in all of their cognitive endeavors. But if subjects did in fact represent these properties, then tracking should improve in versions of the experiment in which targets have colors, shapes, or sizes that distinguish them from the distractors. Experiments show that this does not happen. What about representations of locations? The hypothesis that MOT requires such representations is initially plausible, but Pylyshyn thinks that is very likely wrong. Unfortunately, it is not altogether clear why he rejects the hypothesis. Thus, his only truly decisive argument against it, stated on p. 37, does not rule out all versions of it. In particular it has no force against the version which claims (i) that subjects track moving objects by deploying object files, (ii) that object files contain representations of locations, and (iii) that these representations are continuously and automatically updated. In the end, I conjecture, Pylyshyn is opposed to the hypothesis because he thinks it is possible to explain MOT more simply and efficiently in terms of another hypothesis. Let us suppose that once a target has grabbed a FINST, it can continue to exercise control over the FINST as long as it moves continuously through space. According to this idea, facts about locations play an essential causal role in FINST-based tracking, but they need not be represented by the visual system. This hypothesis is simpler than the forgoing hypothesis about object files. Accordingly, if it can be made to work, it should be preferred on methodological grounds.
There are a number of problems with the picture I have been describing. I will mention three.
First, as Pylyshyn himself points out, there are experimental grounds for thinking that MOT does after all require representations of locations. Thus, subjects are able to keep track of targets over intervals during which they are behind occluders and are therefore invisible. There is good reason to think that this aspect of tracking makes use of representations of the locations where the objects disappear. In Pylyshyn's words, it "seems at least that when tracked targets disappear there is a record of where they were when they disappeared" (p. 40). How can he recognize this fact while denying that tracking requires representations of locations? The answer is that he thinks that normal tracking can proceed without such representations; it is only in the unusual condition of occlusion that that they are required. That is to say, he claims that representations of locations are created only when objects disappear: "our assumption is that the disappearance itself causes locations to be conceptualized and stored in memory" (p. 80). This is a possible interpretation of the results, but Pylyshyn seems not to realize that a mechanism that detects disappearances and then creates representations of last known locations (perhaps by drawing on iconic memories of the locations) may not be simpler than a mechanism that creates representations of locations at the outset of a tracking venture and then automatically updates them. In other words, his interpretation of tracking across disappearances adds significantly to the complexity of his initial FINST-based hypothesis about tracking, and may thereby undercut the methodological argument for its correctness.
Second, like any other purely causal or informational theory of reference, Pylyshyn's theory is called into question by the fact that there are always multiple causal stories to be told about the activation of a representational element. The rabbit before me is a cause of the current deployment of one of my FINSTs, but so are the surface of the rabbit, the lepiform image that is on my retina, and the projections of that image onto various low level processing sites. Which of these causes is the referent? Pylyshyn is aware that he needs an answer to this question. Otherwise FINSTs will have a referential ambiguity that will render all predications involving them indeterminate, and that will be inherited by all of the higher level representational items that depend on FINSTs. But he has no answer.
I applaud the courage and honesty of this passage, but I do not share Pylyshyn's underlying confidence concerning the possibility of explaining the reference of perceptual items purely in terms of causal control by external objects. Suppose you are looking at a rabbit. The rabbit is the referent of a conscious perceptual state. Why? What makes it the referent? It is surely right to say that reference here depends on an informational relation between you and the rabbit, for if the rabbit were not a cause of your experience, the experience would simply be a hallucination that happens to occur when a rabbit is present. On the face of it, however, it also seems relevant that the rabbit has certain of the properties, including especially the location, that your experience represents as jointly exemplified. To be sure, it need not be true that the rabbit has all of the properties that your experience attributes to it. But could it be true that it has none of those properties? Probably not. Experiential reference to individual objects seems to require representation of properties that is at least partially apt. But why should it be different at the level of Pylyshyn's subpersonal indexes? How could indexes be autonomously referential if reference at the level of experience requires support from a background chorus? How can indexes achieve what cannot be achieved elsewhere?
Third, it is difficult to reconcile Pylyshyn's account of MOT with our conscious experience of tracking. According to Pylyshyn, the main work in MOT is done by demonstrative devices that are subpersonal, pre-predicative, and pre-attentive. Indeed, MOT can be fully explained in terms of the ways these subpersonal devices are mechanically controlled by external objects. But there is nothing in our experience of tracking that answers to such devices. On the contrary, tracking seems to us to require perceptual experiences that are irreducibly predicative in character, in the sense that they represent objects of awareness as endowed with properties. This opposition between the subpersonal processes that Pylyshyn describes and the person-level activity that we engage in becomes especially vivid when we recall Pylyshyn's view that representations of locations play no role in tracking. With regard to the person-level activity of tracking, we are strongly inclined to think that if we had no experience of the locations of objects, we could not track them. We feel this way, I suggest, because it seems that it would be impossible to keep track of the individual members of a group of objects at the level of conscious experience unless we could distinguish among the objects, and because the only way of distinguishing among the objects in a MOT experiment is on the basis of location (differences in location being the only differences among the objects). Now in view of this difference between person-level tracking and Pylyshyn's subpersonal processes, it is hard to see how the former could be constituted or realized by the latter. But if it is not constitutive, then the relationship between person-level tracking and Pylyshyn's processes is purely causal. Unfortunately, since Pylyshyn claims that subpersonal processes can fully explain the success of tracking, it follows that if his theory is correct, then most aspects of person-level tracking are epiphenomenal, including our conscious experience of locations. No one could feel happy about this conclusion.
Chapter 4 is concerned with conscious experience and the form of representation that consciousness involves. It addresses epistemological questions concerning the evidential value of first person testimony about experience, focusing particularly on questions about the value of such testimony for scientific theories of perception, and it also addresses metaphysical questions about the nature of experience and its representational content.
In the early stages of his epistemological discussions, Pylyshyn points out how hard it is to answer various questions about experience from a first person perspective. "[D]o I experience the uniformity of the color and lightness of the wall which, as it happens, I know is in fact not uniformly illuminated? Is the uniformity of lightness and color constancy that I am describing an inference or a direct experiential content?" (p. 104). After citing a number of problems of this sort, Pylyshyn goes on to review various respects in which experience is known to be unreliable as a guide to underlying processes, citing, among other things, Libet's experimental demonstration that the experience of willing an action actually follows the early stages of the neural activity that produces the action, and the rubber hand illusion, in which it seems to a subject that he is moving a hand that in fact belongs to another person. (Because the subject sees the alien hand in a mirror, the hand seems to him to be in the place where he knows his own hand to be.) These observations are intended only to weaken our intuitive commitment to the idea that first person testimony about conscious experience should always be taken at face value. The next step is to deliver what Pylyshyn takes to be the coup de grace -- an updated version of his well known theory of mental imagery. It seems to us that mental imagery involves experiences that are qualitatively similar to those that are involved in perception, and, more particularly, that both imagery and perception make use of a proprietary form of representation -- a form that is naturally regarded as depictive or iconic in nature. These intuitions have received a lot of experimental support, principally from work by Roger Shepard and Stephen Kosslyn. Moreover, Kosslyn has developed the intuitions into a highly sophisticated theory that explains both behavioral and neuroscientific data in elegant ways. As he has in a number of earlier works, Pylyshyn criticizes both the intuitions themselves and the theories to which they give rise. His alternative explanation of the data is complex, but the key idea is that when we are asked to imagine something, we use tacit conceptual knowledge of how the thing would look to us if we were actually seeing it. Subjects in imagination experiments "have certain beliefs about what things look like, how they change (e.g., how they move), and how events happen in space and time, and they can use these beliefs to mimic what would happen in a real situation" (p. 128). It follows that our perceptions about what happens when we imagine something are quite mistaken.
Turning finally to metaphysical issues, Pylyshyn argues that experience does not have a single proprietary form of representation, but rather involves a mixture of forms. What we experience is a mixture of sensory information, amplified by constancy transformations, and "high level cognitive recognitions (i.e., familiar people, places, things, and events)" (p. 145). One of the consequences of this is that "equating nonconceptual representation with the content of conscious experience is a mistake" (p. xii). Consciousness makes use of both conceptual and non-conceptual representational schemes.
Space limitations preclude an extended evaluation of these arresting views. I will say a few things about them, but I should acknowledge in advance that my remarks will not do full justice to the power and subtlety of Pylyshyn's position.
First, philosophers who are not committed to radical Cartesian views about the power and reliability of introspection will have no difficulty accommodating Pylyshyn's initial epistemological arguments. Yes, there are questions about experience that unsupplemented introspection cannot resolve, and yes, introspective testimony about certain domains is unreliable. But this is old news, and anyway the same things might be said of any specific method for investigating questions about the mind. Pylyshyn's observations have no tendency to imply that introspection is weak or generally untrustworthy.
This hypothesis, which Pylyshyn calls the index projection hypothesis, is developed in some detail, and experimental support is adduced for it. It appears to warrant further attention. Even so, I never quite got beyond my initial skepticism about the hypothesis. In effect, Pylyshyn is claiming that spatial reasoning depends essentially on concurrent perceptual input. Initially, at least, this view seems very implausible. In undertaking to defend it Pylyshyn assumes a rather large burden of proof.
Although I have raised a number of objections, my overall feeling is one of gratitude to Pylyshyn for writing the book. It is a richly illuminating work and also an exciting work. It is highly recommended for philosophers who are interested in perception, mental representation, the imagination, and visual space.
Besides myself, the group consisted of Jacob Beck, David Bennett, Justin Broackes, Alex Byrne, Katherine Dunlop, Heather Logue, and Susanna Siegel. My debts to these people are quite extensive: they saved me from a number of errors, and they also provided a number of illuminating suggestions about the nature and possible limitations of Pylyshyn's arguments.
D. Kahneman, A. Treisman, and B. J. Gibbs, "The Reviewing of Object Files: Object-specific Integration of Information," Cognitive Psychology 24 (1992), 175-219.
For an extended defense of an alternative to Pylyshyn's theory of the imagination, see Stephen M. Kosslyn, William L. Thompson, and Giorgio Ganis, The Case for Mental Imagery (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
For a discussion of depth information, see Stephen Palmer, Vision Science (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999), Chapter 5.
Here I am particularly indebted to Bennett.
I am grateful to Zenon Pylyshyn for commenting on an earlier version of this review. I have made a number of changes as a result of his advice. I should say, however, that the review still contains a number of claims to which he objects. The most important of these are my claims about the nature of the image-theory. Thus, for example, he thinks the "sophisticated image-theorist," as I portray her above, is a fiction. As he sees it, image theorists are as a rule committed to saying that we "see" or "scan" images. Perhaps it will be possible to engage Pylyshyn's position more fully on another occasion.
I am also grateful to Stephen Kosslyn, who commented on the penultimate draft, and to John Campbell, for support and encouragement. | 2019-04-20T10:56:12Z | https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/things-and-places-how-the-mind-connects-with-the-world/ |
Ard–Dioplóma sa Dlítheangeolaíocht agus san Aistriúchán Dlíthiúil / Advanced Diploma in Lawyer–Linguistics and Legal Translation - The Honorable Society of King's Inns.
GA: Is teanga oifigiúil den Aontas Eorpach í an Ghaeilge agus beidh institiúidí an AE ag earcú dlítheangeolaithe agus aistritheoirí dlíthiúla le hardleibhéal scileanna Gaeilge as éadan as seo go deireadh 2021. Tá os cionn 80 aistritheoir Gaeilge agus os cionn 20 dlítheangeolaí Gaeilge le hearcú toisc go bhfuil deireadh á chur leis an maolú ar stádas oifigiúil na Gaeilge san AE. Tá na poist seo ar fáil i bParlaimint na hEorpa, sa Choimisiún Eorpach, sa Chomhairle agus sa Chúirt Bhreithiúnais agus iad lonnaithe sa Bhruiséil agus i Lucsamburg. Tá tuarastal agus coinníollacha oibre den scoth i gceist.
Is ag aistriú reachtaíochta agus cáipéisí oifigiúla eile a bhíonn na haistritheoirí. Deimhníonn na dlítheangeolaithe, a bhfuil céim sa dlí agus/nó cáilíocht ghairmiúil sa dlí acu, go bhfuil na leaganacha éagsúla teanga den reachtaíocht den éifeacht chéanna ar fud an Aontais. Bíonn aistriúchán ar pléadálacha agus ar bhreithiúnais ar bun ag na dlítheangeolaithe sa Chúirt Bhreithiúnais freisin.
Tá sé mar aidhm ag na cúrsaí seo na rannpháirtithe a ullmhú do scrúduithe earcaíochta an AE ach ar ndóigh ní féidir le hÓstaí an Rí aon ráthaíocht a thabhairt go n–éireoidh leis na rannpháirtithe poist a bhaint amach leis an AE tar éis dóibh an cúrsa a chríochnú.
Cuireann an Roinn Cultúir, Oidhreachta agus Gaeltachta tacaíocht airgeadais ar fáil don dá chúrsa seo.
EN: Irish is an official language of the European Union and EU institutions will be recruiting lawyer–linguists and legal translators with high competence in Irish regularly between now and the end of 2021. Over 80 Irish translators and over 20 Irish lawyer–linguists will be recruited as the derogation on the official status of Irish in the EU comes to an end. These positions are available in the European Parliament, Commission, Council, and Court of Justice, located in Brussels and Luxembourg. Pay and conditions in such positions are excellent.
Translators translate legislation and other official documents. Lawyer–linguists, who have law degrees and/or professional legal qualifications, ensure that the various language versions of legislation are of the same effect throughout the Union. Lawyer–linguists also translate pleadings and judgments in the Court of Justice.
The aim of these courses of to prepare students for the EU’s recruitment process and examinations, however King’s Inns cannot guarantee that participants will secure employment with the EU on completion of the course.
The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht provides monitory support for these courses.
GA: Múinfear gné na teanga (gramadach na Gaeilge, téarmaíocht agus scileanna aistriúcháin) den dá chúrsa don dá rang mac léinn in éineacht: 40 tráthnóna (120 uair a’ choig teagaisc).
Múinfear 12 uair a’ chloig bhreise de ranganna ar an ábhar “Córais Dlí” don dá rang mac léinn in éineacht. Ina theannta sin, gheobhaidh gach mac léinn dhá sheisiún (= 6 uair a’ chloig) ar áiseanna ar líne agus dhá sheisiún eile (= 6 uair a’ chloig) ar thástáil shíciméadrach & earcaíocht don Aontas Eorpach.
EN: The linguistic content (Irish grammar, terminology, and translation skills) for both courses is taught to a combined class of all students on both courses: 40 evenings (120 teaching hours).
12 extra teaching hours are delivered in the subject “Legal Systems” to students on both courses. All students will receive two sessions (= 6 hours) on on–line resources and two other sessions (= 6 hours) on psychometric testing and the recruitment process of the European Union.
GA: Reáchtáiltear na ranganna gach Luan agus Céadaoin i rith na bliana acadúla 6pm–9pm ag tosú an 7ú Deireadh Fómhair 2018 agus críochnú leis na scrúduithe ceannchúrsa an 4ú agus an 5ú Aibreán 2019. Mar chuid den chúrsa beidh turas staidéir ar institiúidí an Aontais sa Bhruiséil agus i Lucsamburg 21–23 Deireadh Fómhair 2019 agus beidh dinnéar in Óstaí an Rí á eagrú do na rannpháirtithe i dtreo dheireadh an chúrsa. Múinfear an t–ábhar dlí agus na seisiúin ar thástáil shíciméadrach & earcaíocht don Aontas Eorpach ag an deireadh seachtaine.
Dáta Tosaigh an Chúrsa: Dé Luain, an 1ú Deireadh Fómhair 2018 ag 6pm, clárú ag 5.30pm.
EN: Classes are delivered Monday and Wednesday evenings during the academic year 6pm–9pm beginning 7th October 2019 up to the end of course examinations on the 4th and 5th April 2020. As part of the course there will be a study visit to EU institutions in Brussels and Luxembourg 21–23 October 2019 and a dining night in King’s Inns will be arranged for participants towards the end of the course. The legal content and the sessions on psychometric testing and the recruitment process of the European Union will be delivered at the weekend.
Course Start Date: Monday, 7th October 2019 at 6pm, registration at 5.30pm.
Ní foláir do gach mac léinn cumas Gaeilge ag leibhéal C1 TEG, ar a laghad, a léiriú d’Óstaí an Rí sara mbronnfar an tArd–Dioplóma air/uirthi. Reáchtálfar na scrúduithe cuí i rith na bliana acadúla. Is leor a léiriú go bhfuil pas faighte agat sa scrúdú C1 TEG i 2018 nó i 2019.
Scrúdófar gné an dlí den chúrsa dlítheangeolaíochta le ceisteanna ilroghnacha agus le ceisteanna aiste (3 uair a’ chloig).
Scrúdófar gné an dlí den chúrsa san aistriúchán dlíthiúil le ceisteanna ilroghnacha (2 uair a’ chloig).
Every student must demonstrate an ability in Irish at level C1 TEG to King’s Inns before being awarded the Advanced–Diploma. The appropriate exams will be sat during the academic year. It will suffice to show that one passed the C1 TEG examinations in 2018 or 2019.
The law content of the lawyer–linguist course will is examined by MCQs and essay type questions (3 hours).
The law content of the legal translator course will is examined by MCQs (2 hours).
GA: Tá an dá dhioplóma oiriúnach do chéimithe ar mian leo fostaíocht a bhaint amach leis an Aontas Eorpach. Ní gá céim sa Ghaeilge ach is gá ardchaighdeán sa Ghaeilge agus fonn cur le do chumas sa teanga. Is gá freisin scileanna ríomhaireachta agus a bheith oscailte don tríú teanga Eorpach a thabhairt leat.
Maidir leis an gcúrsa do dhlí–theangeolaithe, teastaíonn céim sa dlí a fhianaíonn staidéar ollscoile de thrí bliana ar a laghad, nó a choibhéis, nó a bheith cáilithe mar abhcóide nó aturnae. Ní foláir fianaise maidir leis an gcáilíocht dlí a léiriú chun sástacht Óstaí an Rí le trascríbhinn torthaí.
Teastaíonn bunchéim leibhéal 8 ar a laghad agus caighdeán maith Gaeilge labhartha agus scríofa. Ní foláir d’iarrthóirí an leibhéal seo cumais a léiriú go sásúil i scrúdú iontrála a reáchtálfar in Óstaí an Rí Dé Luain an 16 Meán Fómhair 2019 18:00–18:30. Má bhain tú amach TEG B2 (lánchreidiúnt) nó leibhéal níos airde ó 2017 i leith, is leor fianaise ina thaobh sin a chur chuig Óstaí an Rí seachas an scrúdú iontrála a shuí. Roinntear an líon teoranta áiteanna ar an gcúrsa ar bhonn fiúntais.
EN: Both diplomas are suitable for graduates who wish to secure employment with the European Union. A degree in Irish is not necessary but a high standard of Irish is required as well as the desire to improve one’s command of the language. Computer skills are also necessary as is an openness to acquiring a third European language.
Regarding the lawyer–linguist course, a law degree evidencing at least three years university study, or equivalent, is necessary, or a qualification as a barrister or a solicitor. One must produce evidence of such legal qualifications to the satisfaction of King’s Inns by means of a transcript of results.
A level 8 degree at least is required as well as a good standard of spoken and written Irish. Applicants must demonstrate this level of ability in an entrance exam in King’s Inns Monday 16 September 2019 18:00–18:30. If you achieved TEG B2 (full credit) or higher in or since 2017, it will suffice to produce evidence of this to King’s Inns rather than sitting the entrance exam. The limited number of places on the course is awarded on merit.
GA: Táillí an chúrsa dhlítheangeolaíochta: €2,425 iníoctha faoin 20 Meán Fómhair 2019.
Táillí an chúrsa san aistriúchán dlíthiúil: €1,975 iníoctha faoin 20 Meán Fómhair 2019.
Tá an dara gála táillí (c.€175*) le híoc go díreach le hOllscoil Mhá Nuad as an TEG C1 a shuí.
Déantar an íocaíocht tríd ár gcóras íocaíochta slán ar–líne. Gliogáil anseo i gcomhair tuilleadh eolais.
EN: Fee for the lawyer–linguist course: €2,425 payable by 20 September 2019.
Fee for the legal translation course: €1,975 payable by 20 September 2019.
A second moiety of fees (c.€175*) is payable to Maynooth University for sitting the TEG C1 exam.
Payments are processed through our secure online payment system. Click here for more information.
GA: Gliogáil anseo i gcomhair tuilleadh eolais faoinár gcuid teagascóirí agus léachtóirí.
EN: For more information about our tutors and lecturers, please click here. | 2019-04-24T20:06:58Z | https://www.kingsinns.ie/prospective-students/courses-open-to-lawyers-nonlawyers/advanced-diploma-in-lawyerlinguistics-and-legal-translation |
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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently developing a national electronic manifest (e-Manifest) system (link leaves DEC's website) that will facilitate the tracking and transmission of the EPA uniform hazardous waste manifest form (EPA Form 8700-22) using a web browser. This system will be implemented by the EPA in partnership with industry and states. The new system will be designed to make manifesting more effective and convenient for users. Paper manifesting will still be allowed under this new system, however, the cost of using paper manifests will be higher than using electronic manifests. For paper manifests, a newly revised version of the paper manifest form will be required (a new 5-copy manifest will be used instead of the old 6-copy manifest). The e-Manifest system launched on June 30th, 2018.
Manifests that must be submitted to e-Manifest: Hazardous waste manifests need to be submitted if they are used to ship a waste that is required to be transported using a hazardous waste manifest by EPA or the state regulations of the generator state or destination state.
On July 17, 2018, DEC issued an enforcement discretion letter implementing certain provisions of EPA's e-Manifest rule in New York State. The letter describes how DEC will exercise enforcement discretion with respect to certain less-stringent provisions of EPA's e-Manifest rule. The letter also discusses the more stringent New York State requirements that will be maintained. The letter can be accessed here: DEC e-Manifest Enforcement Discretion Letter (PDF, 76 KB, 2 pages).
The regulated community can prepare themselves for the new e-Manifest system by taking advantage of the various outreach materials provided by EPA.
EPA conducts webinars (link leaves DEC's website) related to the development and progress of the e-Manifest system initiative; archived copies of previous e-Manifest webinars are located on the same webpage. EPA's e-Manifest team provides updates through the EPA e-Manifest listserv and EPA Monthly Update webpage. These updates cover a range of topics including system development, implementation, and various meetings and workshops. You can access these updates by subscribing to EPA's e-Manifest listserv (send a blank e-mail to [email protected] to subscribe) or visiting EPA's e-Manifest Monthly Update webpage (links leave DEC's website).
It is recommended that you use RCRAInfo Web (link leaves DEC's website) to verify that the EPA ID number, site name, location address, mailing address, and contact phone number that are associated with your site are correct. The information associated with your site in RCRAInfo will be used on your electronic manifests in the e-Manifest system, so it is important that the information in RCRAInfo is correct. Site information can be updated in the myRCRAid module of the RCRAInfo Industry Application (App) (link leaves DEC's website).
EPA Region 2 issues the EPA ID numbers for sites located in New York State. EPA ID numbers are assigned to a site's physical location (an EPA ID number does not transfer with the handler if the handler moves to a different site). Small quantity generators (SQGs), large quantity generators (LQGs), and treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) are required to have an EPA ID number. EPA ID numbers for New York facilities beginning with "NYP" are provisional ID numbers and should only be used for 30 days after the number is issued. EPA ID numbers for New York facilities beginning with "NYP" or "NYN" should not be used as the permanent EPA ID number for a site in the e-Manifest system, please contact EPA Region 2 for details. For more information about New York site locations, please see the EPA Region 2 webpage on obtaining EPA ID numbers (link leaves DEC's website) or call EPA Region 2 at (212) 637-4106.
Generators will need to communicate with their selected transporters and receiving facilities (e.g., TSDF, recycler, etc.) to decide who will be responsible for creating new manifests and whether paper or electronic manifests will be used; this will help to prevent duplicate manifests for the same shipment.
Receiving facilities will be responsible for the submittal of final, signed manifests to the e-Manifest system and the payment of associated fees. It is recommended that generators and transporters contact their receiving facilities for available participation options and costs under the new system.
Account Registration Users must register for a production RCRAInfo Industry App account (link leaves DEC's website) to sign or submit official manifests using e-Manifest. It is important to note that Pre-production RCRAInfo accounts are only used for testing purposes, will not work in Production, and cannot be used to submit real manifests to EPA.
Receiving facilities must have a RCRAInfo Industry App account (link leaves DEC's website) prior to the e-Manifest system launch. Receiving facilities who receive wastes that require the use of a hazardous waste manifest (federal hazardous wastes, state-only hazardous wastes, etc.) are required to have an EPA ID number to use the e-Manifest system, even if the facility is not obligated to have an EPA ID number under regulations.
If a receiving facility has an EPA ID number and is registered for e-Manifest, but is not available to be selected as the "designated facility" on an electronic manifest, the facility may need to be added to e-Manifest's receiving facility lookup table by DEC. In this case, the facility should contact DEC and request that their facility be added to the lookup table by sending an email to [email protected] with the subject "e-Manifest: Add Facility" (the facility's EPA ID number should be included in the email).
Receiving facilities will be required to submit all final manifests to the e-Manifest system. There will be a fee for each final manifest that a receiving facility submits to the e-Manifest system and each receiving facility will be billed on a monthly basis. See the e-Manifest User Fee Rule FAQ (link leaves DEC's website) for more information. Receiving facilities accepting wastes that are state-only hazardous wastes will be required to submit final manifests to the e-Manifest system. This includes wastes that are state-only hazardous wastes in New York State or state-only hazardous wastes in the state where the waste was generated.
Transporters must have an EPA ID number. Transporters should be identified as a Transporter of Hazardous Waste in RCRAInfo (Item 11.A.1.a. on the EPA Site ID Form 8700-12; can be updated in myRCRAid module). Transporters may verify their hazardous waste transporter activity using RCRAInfo Web (link leaves DEC's website). Transporters will need to obtain a RCRAInfo Industry App account (link leaves DEC's website) if they wish to access and sign electronic manifests using the e-Manifest system web-based submittal software. Note: Transporters of hazardous waste that pick up from or deliver to locations in New York State must have a valid Part 364 Waste Transporter permit issued by DEC. Please see DEC's Waste Transporter page for more information.
Generators will need to obtain a RCRAInfo Industry App account (link leaves DEC's website) if they wish to access and sign electronic manifests using the e-Manifest system web-based submittal software. If generators intend to meet the manifest recordkeeping requirements by storing their manifests in the e-Manifest system, they will need to obtain a RCRAInfo Industry App account and have access to their site in e-Manifest.
Completely paperless (electronic) manifesting is the lowest cost e-Manifest submittal method. If a generator wishes to use completely electronic manifests, then the generator must select a transporter and a receiving facility that are also able to use completely electronic manifests. Note: All records for completely electronic manifests will only be accessible through RCRAInfo, which requires internet connectivity.
Users who wish to correct paper manifests may correct those manifests on paper prior to the receiving facility submitting them to EPA's e-Manifest Paper Processing Center, or electronically after the paper manifest has been submitted to e-Manifest. Paper based corrections cannot be made after a paper manifest is submitted to e-Manifest and revised paper manifests should not be mailed to EPA's e-Manifest Paper Processing Center. Users who wish to correct hybrid or electronic manifests can only correct those manifests electronically.
Beginning on September 21, 2018, electronic corrections may be made to manifests using the e-Manifest system. Manifest data may be edited before a manifest is initially e-signed and submitted to e-Manifest by the Receiving Facility. After a manifest has been e-signed, corrections may be made at any time to the manifest data using the "Make Corrections" button.
EPA is allowing users to test early versions of the e-Manifest system and has provided information about registering test accounts and the testing process (link leaves DEC's website) on their website. *Note: Test accounts will not work with the final Production system. Anyone who wants to use the final system will be required to create another account in the RCRAInfo production system*.
EPA issued the Final Rule: User Fees for the E-Manifest System and Amendments to Manifest Regulations (User Fee Rule) (link leaves DEC's website) on January 3rd, 2018. This rule created the initial fee schedule for users of the e-Manifest system. The e-Manifest fees incurred by the regulated community will be based upon the method used to collect the manifest data (e.g., paper or electronic). EPA is only imposing user fees upon receiving facilities. Receiving facilities will be assessed a fee for each final manifest that they submit to the e-Manifest system and will be billed on a monthly basis. EPA will revise the fee schedule every two years to ensure that the fees charged to the regulated community reflect the cost of running the e-Manifest system. See the e-Manifest User Fee Rule FAQ (link leaves DEC's website) for more information.
Where can I get additional information about e-Manifest?
General e-Manifest questions (federal requirements, software design and development, etc.) should be directed to EPA via email sent to: [email protected] (link leaves DEC's website).
Why can't I find my manifest in my site's e-Manifest tab in the RCRAInfo industry app?
Receiving facility staff are responsible for entering data into RCRAInfo for most paper manifests they receive and accept. If the receiving facility entered the manifest into e-Manifest and the manifest does not appear on a handler's e-Manifest tab in RCRAInfo, then it may be that an error was made when the receiving facility user entered the EPA ID number from the paper manifest into e-Manifest. If the receiving facility mailed the paper manifest to EPA for processing or only uploaded an image file of the scanned paper manifest into RCRAInfo, then it may still be awaiting processing by EPA at the Paper Processing Center. Handlers may want to consider contacting their receiving facilities for more information about their manifests. Note: Export manifests to foreign receivers are not entered into e-Manifest.
Are there any additional requirements in New York State under this new system?
The use of all applicable state hazardous waste codes including: PCB wastes (state-only hazardous waste codes B001-B007) in 6 NYCRR 371.4(e) (link leaves DEC's website) and ultimate disposal method code (L, B, R, T) (See 6 NYCRR 372.2(b)(2)(ii) (link leaves DEC's website)).
Generators must continue to submit a paper copy of the generator copy of hazardous waste manifest forms to DEC if the generator uses paper or hybrid manifests to ship hazardous waste. Additionally, if a waste is exported, generators located in New York State must mail a paper copy of the manifest to DEC. DEC will evaluate the necessity of this requirement after the EPA e-Manifest system has been operating for a reasonable period of time. Generators who use the EPA e-Manifest system for entire manifest transactions (electronic manifest from the generator to the receiving facility) will not be required to submit paper copies of electronic manifest forms to DEC. Instead, DEC will have access to the manifest data in the EPA e-Manifest system.
Note: The following fact sheets are current as of June 14, 2018; any changes to federal e-Manifest requirements after that date will not be reflected in these fact sheets. Please see EPA's e-Manifest Stakeholder Fact Sheets (link leaves DEC's website) for any new or updated federal requirements. New York State requirements in the following fact sheets are current and fact sheets will be re-issued if DEC modifies New York State requirements under e-Manifest.
e-Manifest is a federal program. The content on this page is for informational purposes only and, while believed to be accurate, should not be relied upon for official federal requirements of the e-Manifest program or legal interpretation.
For help with PDFs on this page, please call 518-402-8730. | 2019-04-25T07:52:58Z | https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/112876.html |
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As you’ve read in last week’s Speedy Tuesday article, this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Speedmaster. It goes without saying that we love the Speedmaster and thought it might be a nice idea to share the thoughts and favorite Speedmasters of our team for a change.
Below, you will find the six of us talking about the Speedmaster and giving you the Top 3 Speedmasters of our personal choice. This, of course, might change a bit over time, as taste and preferences change and perhaps Omega will blow us away in BaselWorld in a couple of weeks with an anniversary piece. You will be the first to know here on Fratello Watches on March 23rd, with all details and live images.
“For me, the Speedmaster is one of those watches that everyone needs in their collection. It has changed so little since the mid 1960’s and that’s a real credit to its timeless design. There are so many classic chronographs to choose from, but the combination of the Speedmaster’s unique case and an amazing history filled with accomplishments make it the “one” chronograph to own if only one can be chosen.
– the 105.012 because it is the original “lyre” lugged case that is still with us today and it’s also the watch that made history.
– the 105.003 “Ed White”…the first watch worn during an EVA is also the last of the “old guard” straight lugged modes. I love it for its simplicity and that it played a part in the Space Race story.
“When I first saw the face of the Speedmaster Professional I couldn’t find enough superlatives to describe it. A perfect balance between form follows function and characteristic details. Besides the history and technical innovation, it does have a lot to offer looked from a design point of view. I dare to say: probably one of the most interesting watches to zoom in. Books like ‘Moonwatch Only‘ underline this. Almost every core visual element has evolved through time and got its own story. From typeface variations in the tail of ‘R’ in ‘Speedmaster’ until the refinement of the lug shape. What I also like is that the fact that there is still a Speedmaster for almost every wallet. Sure, the ‘oldies’ or pre-moons get more expensive, but you still can find 80’s/90’s Speedies for a reasonable price compared to other same level brands and their chronographs.
It’s really hard to choose out of the great collection of Speedies. Although, as always, I think the total population consists out of winners, averages and losers.
-Speedmaster ref. 105.003 (aka ‘Ed White’) – the one that passed the NASA tests and opened the doors for becoming the one and only Moonwatch.
-Speedmaster ‘Speedy Tuesday’ Limited edition ref. 311.32.42.30.01.001 – with united forces Omega launched a true milestone in Speedy-history. Also from a design point of view. It is really different and distinctive compared to the ancestors unlike some other limited siblings.
“There are only a handful of watches that have a timeless design. A watch that looked the same 30-40 years ago as it does today. If you look at the evolution of the Speedmaster you see that it is such a watch. For this and many other reasons to me the Speedmaster is the perfect timepiece; the size, the color, the chronograph feature, the aforementioned timelessness and that fact it is an Omega tick the most important boxes for me. I can’t imagine my collection without a Speedmaster. My “transitional” connects me to so many memories and adventures of my life, I simply cannot see myself without it.
The lack of “Professional” blows the watch size up visually in my opinion. The straight lugs are killers and the watch in general has tremendous wrist presence. They look fantastic as they age, a true crown jewel to any -vintage – Speedy collection.
Such an over-looked watch by many. Let that be the regular black dialed version or the funky colorful Racing the Mark II is a great alternative to a “normal” Speedy Pro. It is also versatile piece and technically bulletproof with the caliber 861 and the C-case. If only it had a hesalite crystal.
“The Omega Speedmaster is the watch my watch collection seriously took off with. My first encounter was the Speedmaster from a friend, before I’d never thought about watches in that price league. Shortly here after I had the first Speedmaster Professional on my own wrist, bought second hand at 1.750 Dutch guilders. I think we’re talking 1990 or so, the equivalent of that price was around € 800,= then.
I consider the Speedmaster Professional as one of the most iconic wrist watches ever. It’s reserved style and important role in history is what attracts me most. Incredible that in 60 years the style of a watch does not have to change while still being up-to-date to todays standards.
As a purist the Speedmasters which I like the most are the regular most simple models with acrylic crystal and a solid steel case back. So I’d begin with the ref. 2998 with cal 321 and symmetric case, then the 105.012 with cal 321 and asymmetric case, the 145.022 with cal 861 and asymmetric case, the 3570.50.00 with cal 1861 and asymmetric case.
“The Speedmaster Professional is the watch that started it all for me basically. I had other watches, but nothing in the same league as this legendary chronograph. I bought my first Speedmaster Pro (a 145.012) in 1999 in Gerard Nijenbrink’s watch shop in The Hague (he closed it two years ago). I didn’t know him and it was by shear coincidence that I came across this watch (and his shop) as I just passed by it one evening on my bicycle. Ever since, I have been reading, writing and discussing the Speedmaster in length. It is my first and true love, and what better way to honor that with a weekly dose of Speedy Tuesday?
I believe that the Speedmaster is not only the most iconic chronograph ever, it is also one of the best readable ones. Also, I firmly believe that Omega stayed true to the Speedmaster in all these six decades by keeping the hand-wound version as close to the original as possible. There might be a couple of nice variations like the Dark Side of the Moon, Moonphase Master Chronometer and other automatic (reduced) versions, but the purist’ choice is the hand-wound piece.
-Speedmaster CK2915 – I always fancied the CK2998 to be honest, until I came across a CK2915 last year that I thought was amazing. It sparked my interest for this very first reference. Price went crazy though, it is only for the fortunate ones.
-Speedmaster Professional 105.012/145.012 – This, to me, is the Moonwatch. Interesting is that you will find a lot of small differences in these references, due to aging for example. Different color hour markers, hands, dials etc. It makes it fun to ‘select’ the one you like best. It is also the last reference with caliber 321 movement. I bought mine when they were still (very) affordable. If I would have to buy a vintage Speedmaster today, I would aim for a nice 105.012/145.012 while they are still under 10.000 Euro.
-Speedmaster BA145.022 – The BA stands for yellow gold in Omega’s coding table. So this is the 1969 Speedmaster Professional Apollo XI numbered edition. I personally have the later gold model, from 1980, but the 1969 is a bit more iconic you could say. The rich and fancy dial, the closed yellow gold caseback with red filled inscription and of course the burgundy red bezel. It is an amazing piece and every time I try it on, it just gives me goose bumps.
I don’t feel comfortable to include the Speedmaster Speedy Tuesday Limited Edition in my top 3, but on the other hand.. I am very pleased with the result and ever since I received the 0/2012 piece in December, it has been very difficult to take it off.
“When looking at the watches in my collection it pretty much comes down to iconic watches with a rich history and timeless design. Given the fact that we’ve been able to compose weekly articles on this watch says it all. Try and find any other watch model that gives you the same amount of content to write about. With the Speedmaster still being available in it’s purest shape and form, highly resembling the original model with hand wound movement and Hesalite crystal to name a few features, makes this watch just one that can’t be missed.
The cool thing is that the Speedmaster is available in so many variations. With my first one being a vintage Speedy from ’71, many others (read: limited editions) have followed. While these special models highly resemble the iconic Speedmaster, they all have unique design features that make them stand out. It’s hard to narrow it all down to a top 3. There are so many great models out there, not to mention the Speedy Tuesday limited edition. This will for sure be one of the watches that will spend most of the time on my wrist, instead of being locked up at the bank.
– 2915-3 – The first Speedy reference in a transitional model. Love the clean look of this straight lug Speedy and the dauphine hands complete it for me. Yet I doubt there will ever be one in my collection as the prices have gone through the roof.
– The 3570.40 Speedmaster aka ‘Japanese Racing’ Speedy. Ever since I bought a Speedmaster in this configuration it has been one of my favourite models. Not many watches out there feature a grey dial with highly contrasting orange details. This makes it stand out for me and after acquiring this Speedy it has spent many weeks on my wrist. Still one of my most worn Speedmasters. | 2019-04-26T14:53:49Z | https://www.fratellowatches.com/fratello-team-top-3-speedmasters/ |
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The Best Psychics are waiting to talk to you. Live Chat & Free Sign up.
Want a Quality Free Tarot reading?
Not everyone wants to spend tons of money for a reading, and get an unsatisfying answer at the end. Tarot reading is almost always accurate, no matter who the tarot card reader is, however absolutely free tarot card reading is a real rear jewel to find. But also if we do not know what to expect from a tarot card reader, paying for a reading is not a very good idea. It is a much easier decision to choose a tarot card reader based on a little demonstration of a reading.
If we do not know what to expect from any psychic reading we would want to experience, than walking into any psychic shop we see on the street is not the smartest idea. Of course there are ways to see how different psychics do their readings, be it clairvoyant readings, mediumship or divination readings, such as tarot card readings, rune readings, etc. Online psychic websites are a smart way to find more psychics in one place. It is also a lot higher possibility to find a great tarot reader online, than right next door to us. And amazingly, having the opportunity to search the web for free tarot readings online just might bring us more options in finding it than it would on the street.
Where to find a good Tarot card reading?
There are many Websites now days with totally free online psychic chat rooms where you, as a registered member, have the access to any intuitive reader you choose. And the positive aspect of these free, real time, video stream chat rooms is you can take your time as you observe the Tarot card reader at work, you can also ask questions about how the tarot cards can explain, help or answer the question one asks. Signing up to become a registered member on Oranum however is absolutely free feature, and it basically requires you to come up with user name and password you will be using in interaction with our psychics.
What is a demo reading?
The time and the chance to observe tarot card readers at work also means they normally will perform the demonstrations or so called “demo readings” to show people participating in free online psychic chat rooms how they do their readings and how tarot cards actually work. The demonstrations they do are often different games that engage entire room or better said all the participants, or sometimes they just pick someone from the group and let them ask questions. Now being a 100% free psychic chat room also means if you are chosen for this demo reading or you win the game, you get your official mini absolutely free psychic reading.
But now that we covered the basis of how online psychic readings will have more good Tarot card readers and psychics to choose from and a lot higher chance to find a totally free psychic reading as well. Now we should take a chance and see how we can surf through many great but all so different psychic intuitive readers as well as divination readers.
UPDATE: Demo Reading is no longer avialable on Oranum.
What kind of psychic readings can you find online?
Before we even start to go on the search after your preferred fortune teller, we need to first decide on the divination method we are going to be looking for. You must be wondering what a “divination method” is by now, well divination method stands for methods intuitive people use to predict the outcomes we ask for. So a tarot card reading is one divination method, clairvoyant psychic reading is another divination method. There are many different methods of divination. Now to simplify this “divination method” topic, lets say we will be looking for one of the methods we can never go wrong with. Tarot Card Reading.
There are so many different tarot card decks on the market to choose from, and with that said there are just as many different ways of Tarot card readings to choose from. Tarot card decks consist of 78 cards. And each card can be its own answer to your question. Now having said that, I was trying to explain how it is not really important to ask for a full reading every time around when you have a question. Which means if you are just a little bit resourceful and think long and hard how to ask the question you want to know the answer to, you can get your answer any time you come to visit free online psychic chat rooms on Oranum.
Finding your perfect tarot card reader, or maybe you prefer psychic clairvoyant reader, whichever you choose in the end, is just the first step you take to finding your own personal psychic. As you know by now, life is not set in stone, and most of the times all we need is a little push towards the goal we strive for. So knowing what we want and knowing what is stoping us, having our own personal fortune teller gives us the missing link to finish the path, when the path is too foggy to see through.
Free psychic readings are mostly a brief brush on the surface of your issue, just to show you that they know where you are in your life at the moment you are asking. So these absolutely free psychic readings will give you very limited answers to your questions. So when you know who best fits your needs, and can answer your questions in detail and manner you can understand them, than that would be the time to take a leap of faith and go for a payed reading.
Knowing that people are dreading to pay for readings mostly because they fear the use of credit cards. Many of these Online Psychic reading websites no longer have credit card payment option as only paying method available. In fact most common payment option in most of these sites these days is paypal account, which is safe and controlled way to follow up on your payments.
Knowing that payed reading can drag into a long reading and you might spend a lot of money, and we really do not want you to waste money, we prepared a few tips on how to stay within your budget and get the most out of your payed reading.
How to get a good psychic reading on a budget?
Before you decide to go into a payed reading, assess your budget, and set it aside. Than start writing your questions down on a piece of paper or electronic gadget if you prefer. Think long and hard how those questions could be asked differently or how they could be a lot more focused, so your fortune teller could pick up only on the specifics you want to know about at that time, and will benefit you to gain clarity in the matter. It is also a smarter option if you are on a budget.
Asking a general question will take more time to swift through all the information a fortune teller will be given and will probably make no sense what so ever at that point. If you ask a general question but you are focused on a specific matter you want to get out of it, chances are you will probably not benefit from that kind of answer. Because answer to general question is normally what will get you out of the situation over all at the end, not in a specific situation where you are at the moment.
So ask questions focused to demand short and clear answers, write them down and do not engage in conversation too much if you have not come to the end of the list yet. After you are done with your list and your time is still not up, my favourite question to ask is a general tell me “what I need to know today”. That will give you your guidance for the future, if you understand the message. If you don’t understand what was said at that moment, write it down, it will fit into your future somewhere along the way.
When you try to have a payed reading you have to distinguish between you trying to test the reader or seer, and getting your answers. Asking question such as, I want to know about finances, or love, or relationship, are going to give you a long reading from the get go. Just think about it for a second, do you really want to know all about love, if you are in a relationship and you are asking about this specific person? Or asking about finances in general, if you have a job or project in mind and want to know how to benefit from it, or shift it around to benefit from it.
These more specific questions will save you a lot of money, and at the same time protect you from psychics that love to chit chat in their private sessions that are both timed and payed for every minute for basically nothing if they don’t focus on your questions. Want to chat away with them, I suggest 100% free psychic chat room, and take all the time you need. And use your payed sessions for your need to know answers to your questions. And the budget? Well the budget will not fail you, since Oranum has private chat set so it starts count down based on your budget or credits you payed for, and once they are used it will just pop you out of your private chat. So you should not be too worried about spending more than you set to spend.
Tarot cards are not a tool singled out for only intuitive people or fortune teller professionals. There are many decks of tarot cards to choose from. Every individual can find themselves the tarot card deck they will love. And knowing that everyone can learn to read tarot cards, everyone can look for themselves and find their own answers to their life questions.
Of course for more in detailed readings one should seek out a professional tarot card reader, who will be able to read with advantage of not being invested and emotionally attached to the issue at hand, and will also have the advantage of experience in reading tarot and already developed intuition to their fullest. But for all the little questions that have you puzzled, you can always shuffle and pick a card that will roughly give you the outlook on answer you seek.
Tarot card decks are also a beneficial tool to develop your intuition. In order to be able to read the cards one must first become familiar with the meaning of the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana cards, once you master the meanings of each card and what they represent in a reading you should find a tarot card spread that works best for you. Sometimes people use different tarot card spreads for different reads. But see what works for you and keep practicing on friends. This is a great way to develop sensitivity to different cards, to learn how to differently connect them and to develop and deepen your intuition.
So now that we covered all the specifics and tips for tarot card readings. I believe we should touch up on some other Cards that are useful for fortune telling or your own intuition development. Again many to choose from.
Which Tarot Cards are the right for you?
The easier ones for your every day tips and motivations will be the Angel cards. Angel cards have 44 plus cards in deck, depending on which Angel cards you take. These decks normally have angel messages written on cards, which makes reading them easier, especially if your focus is mainly on the issue or question you have, they will be easier to operate. All you have to do is shuffle with question in mind and pull a card. It is motivational and simple.
There is also a gypsy card deck. These are a little bit harder to use than Angel cards, but will probably be less effort to learn than the entire Tarot card deck of 78 cards. Gypsy cards only have 32 cards in the deck. There is many versions of gypsy cards, but mostly in terms of picture presentation. The best thing about them is that their pictures are unlike Tarot card pictures very straight forward in meaning and image description. So some cards would be Home, Letter or Mail, Lover, Widower etc. And again as with Tarot card reading you must find a good Gypsy card spread to use, or a few different ones if you prefer to read the questions or situations you wish to ask the cards. There are a few different versions of gypsy card decks as well as tarot card decks.
There is another Divination method that uses drawn images for a reading. You have probably at least once heard of the fairly small wooden, clay or even rocks blocks, circles or chips shape with inscriptions like letters or images, called Runes. Runes are a very old divination method, possibly the oldest known to date. Because of the age and a lack of written explanations, the full potential explanation is to this day unknown. So anyone who starts to learn about the rune readings must find their own way around researching for deeper meanings of the rune symbols or so called alphabet.
There are two different kind of runes. Older version of the two is 24 piece Rune collection with actual Rune alphabet signs named Futhark and in the other version, younger version there is 12 pieces of images such as sun, moon etc, these are named Witches runes. These will be easier to learn, but never the less both versions are possibly best interpreted by a very intuitive seer.
Rune reading is an old craft, I have to admit, I only had one experience with the runes, and a rather short one, so I do not personally know that it brings many information, but I was told these readings can be very interesting and if the Rune reader is good with their tool you get quite in detail explanations to what is a good or a bad decision to make in any given situation you find yourself in. Mind the fact that same as through any cards reading, runes have their own spirit behind the reads and the manner of reading the runes can be quite detailed.
Wanting to develop your sensitivity to spiritual world, or maybe train your intuition or even just find a way to answer your own questions to situations that have you puzzled? Well if you are not yet sure if you want to try a Psychic right away, than why not choose one of the divination tools described above and learn to do it yourself.
How do divination tools work?
For any of divination tools mentioned above, if you own one and you want them to work properly, you need to make sure you are always in tune with them and also that the energy of your tool is always clear and light. Every divination tool works based on energy working with them. And if you are the owner than your energy has to be in tune with your divination tools.
So before using any of the cards or runes you purchase, you need to clear their energy and than tune them to sync to your energy. When owning a divination tool, you also need a few accessories to store your cards or runes in, to keep them protected and in tune with your energy at all times.
Now there are many different methods of cleansing and tuning your divination tools to your energy, you just need to find one that fits your personality and your style.
My preferred divination tool is my Tarot Cards. Lately I only use one, they are called Goddess Tarot Cards. But there are many other more traditional tarot card decks you might feel more connected to, such as a very traditional Rider-Waite Tarot, or a bit more modern design of Gilded Tarot.
How to tune and clear your Tarot cards?
There is so many different ways with divination tools. It is hard to decide what will best fit you, but keep in mind, you should try different ways until you find what best works for you. This is what best works for me, so here’s a few tips I use to keep them clear, always ready and in tune with me. When you purchase Tarot Cards or any other Cards you choose, make sure you take time and look through all your options, don’t rush, make sure you find the perfect ones for you.
Once you purchase your set of cards, I don’t recommend using them straight away. I take about a week to work on them so they can clear and sync the energy with me. So my normal way about cleansing the cards is a way a Tarot card reader taught me long time ago, it is old fashion, since she was taught by her grandmother. What I would normally do to clear the energy, and this might sound a bit funny, but it is pretty hands on and practical, anyone can do it. So I start with finding a wooden board or piece of wood to put cards on it and I hit 3 times with open palm on top of them, some times a few more times, depends on the intuitive instinct you get, thinking of my energy pushing out the energy they had before me.
Always use wood as an object you will push energy through, it is natural circle. I guess you could use crystals as well but I have never done it with crystals myself so I can’t tell how that works. I do however place them near or on crystals to maintain the vibration, but not to clear the energy. Once it’s done and I am satisfied with my swipe I just start shuffling them, I keep them with me and shuffle as many times a day I feel drawn to them, at night I have them under or by my pillow while sleeping. They are ready to use when you can shuffle them smooth without dropping them.
How to keep your tarot cards stored and tuned in?
Along with purchasing Tarot Cards I would find myself a nice drawstring bag my cards will fit in and obviously when you look for any items you will use with your Tarot cards it needs to resonate with you in terms of matching your personality, preference, comfort and convenience. Now for my cards I only use a drawstring bag because I take them with me a lot, and at home I have an area in my office where I keep all my crystals and candles and incenses so I just drop them on a wooden plate that holds my crystals. But if you do not like leaving your Cards out exposed like that or don’t have the place to just put them down, I would suggest a wooden box.
When purchasing a wooden box for your Tarot Cards, I suggest the box to be a little bit bigger than the cards themselves, so you can add some crystals in there as well. In terms of the looks of the wooden box, you can actually get a plane wooden box, and than put your own touch to it and invest energy in the box by decorating it your way, by drawing on it, painting it or whatever art you like to do. As I mentioned before I would drop cards on crystals, but you can put crystals in your box with your tarot cards, I many times drop my cards on Selenite wands on my wooden tray to keep their energy refresh and clear. Selenite is awesome as a cleansing crystal, simply because it does not need to be cleansed itself. I use it to cleanse my other crystals or for my energy work. But you can also add Amethyst, Rose quartz, Obsidian, Clear quartz, or even Lapis lazuli in the box. It is up to your preference.
Get 10 min Free Psychic Reading NOW! | 2019-04-18T20:35:29Z | https://www.tarotreadingmaster.com/ |
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Defense Commission: Hon. Rizzo, "proud of our military and of the role that Italy plays"
A delegation from the Defense Commission of the Chamber has just returned from the oldest mission area for our soldiers: now 40 years!
In Lebanon the result of the long presence of Italians can be appreciated in many nuances of everyday life, the simplest is the spontaneous smile of those receiving the passport upon arrival in Beirut, the most complex is the long - but cordial - wait because you are in transit for Syria (albeit with a journalistic visa ...).
We met the President of the Commission, Mr Gianluca Rizzo, for feedback on the visit and to understand the details and perspectives of the Land of the Cedars, a fundamental crossroads for all the neighboring countries.
Mr Rizzo, together with colleagues Roberto Paolo Ferrari and Marta Antonia Fascina, returned from a visit to our blue helmets on a mission to Lebanon. What is the real situation of the country in general and the work area of our military in particular?
The contribution that Italy is giving to the stabilization of Lebanon is enormous and commendable. Lebanon from the Middle East has all the potential to transform itself into a model of coexistence, democracy and peace. Once the term "libanization" was synonymous with fragmentation. Today we can say that the term means composing a balanced mosaic, in which diversity becomes a force and not a weakness.
Lebanon hosts about a million and 500 thousand Syrian refugees on its territory, to which must be added tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees. We are in a relationship of 1 refugee every 4 inhabitants, any other State would have collapsed under this pressure. The government of Saad Hariri II called the "government of repossession of trust" is today the expression of a true national unity of the country. A national unity that was fundamental to not import the Syrian civil war also in Lebanon. The Unifil, of which Italy has the command and also the bilateral Italy-Lebanon mission, the MIBIL, as well as contributing to the maintenance of the ceasefire with Israel, supports the training of the Lebanese Armed Forces (FAL).
The construction of a national army recognized by all the subjects is in fact considered by analysts a fundamental element for the full recovery of the national sovereignty of Lebanon.
Has something particularly hit you in the positive?
Many things I found positive. For example, the very high consideration with which the variegated Lebanese political world has shown recognition for the activity and commitment of our country. And then something from "southern" I want to say: that feeling of hospitality and hospitality is very reminiscent of what is inherent in the culture of my land. We are both Mediterranean peoples and this is seen and heard.
I can not define negative the difficulties that a country, repeatedly destroyed and repeatedly rebuilt, crosses or has crossed. I see positive signs by far and it is on those we have to work on.
Had he already been to Lebanon?
Never. In the last legislature some fellow Members of the M5S instead had been there and I was told. I am happy to have found in my visit all the positive things that they too have told me. Perhaps compared to the mission of a few years ago, with the threats to Lebanon by Daesh (ISIS), the situation has still improved. In fact, in the summer of 2017 a real battle took place between the FAL and the men of the Caliphate. The Lebanese army has conquered some heights, until then the prerogative of Isis, in the border area with Syria. The hills lie between the towns of Ras Baalbek and Arsal, in the Bekaa Valley. On that occasion the military destroyed some fortifications of the Islamic State and killed many fundamentalists. All this was possible not only because of the level of training achieved by the FAL, but also because behind it was the Lebanese national unity I was talking about earlier.
He also visited Nave Magnaghi in Beirut.
Yes and it was for me and for the whole delegation another significant moment. The ship is moored in the port of Beirut where we boarded. The activity of Nave Magnaghi in Lebanon is divided into two complementary areas, combining a hydrographic survey campaign carried out by joint personnel of the Italian and Lebanese Marine, with an intense training program for the latter's staff, to supplement the training offer of the MIBIL.
The Lebanese military is transferred theoretical and practical knowledge in navigation, communications and fire safety, both in port and in navigation, supporting the Italian personnel and continuing with exercises where the Lebanese personnel work independently, under the supervision of the instructors. of the Naval Naval Training Center, boarded on the ship. Our sailors are doing a great job.
The war across the border has taken a different turn with the Russian intervention and the change of president in the United States. Is there a return to the homeland of Syrian refugees?
Unfortunately, the war in Syria is not over yet and even Daesh has not been completely defeated. Many powers beyond those mentioned, are present with their own military in the Syrian territory: Iranians, Turks, English and French. The return of refugees to their cities must be safe and yet this fact is not sufficiently guaranteed. The Syrian people have suffered and are still suffering a lot. A lasting peace agreement is the precondition for cities that are reduced to rubble to be rebuilt and repopulated again. Italy provides humanitarian aid and cooperation projects in the health field but we would like to do more, perhaps following the Lebanon model.
It is blasphemous to speak of "religion" when politics is always responsible for wars. Have you heard again about "tensions between Shiites, Sunnis and Christians"?
It is not a question of blasphemy that it is always a mistake to use religious affiliation to divide a people. Generally they are external powers that blow on the fire of these divisions. But now Lebanon resists these self-destructive drives.
In the meetings we had with the Lebanese parliamentary president Nabih Mustapha Berri, with the defense minister Yaacoub Sarraf and with a delegation of Lebanese deputies members of the defense commission, I found awareness of this risk but also a strong desire to avoid it. The Lebanese people have already paid too many times on their skin the cost of civil wars often induced by external interests and powers.
How was the visit to the Unifil Joint Task Force Lebanon?
Of great interest as well as of great emotion. We must bear in mind that there are military members of 41 countries on virtually every continent. We must have a great command capacity to lead a contingent in a context, that of the blue line, which however remains at high risk.
General Stefano Del Col has recently become head of mission and commander Unifil. It is not the first time that it happens to Italy and this shows the esteem that the Italian soldiers have earned over time. I would like to remind you that the so-called "tripartite" is also the result of Italy's diplomatic capacity. It is a building on the blue line, partly in Lebanese territory and partly in the Israeli one, where the Lebanese armed forces and those of Tel Aviv meet to maintain the armistice. These are special meetings, without the two delegations coming into contact with each other. They look at both Unifil commanders. An indirect dialogue, through a third person but that takes place in real time. It is thanks to this "invention" that tensions were managed between the two camps.
Have the other members of your delegation given such a positive reading of your parliamentary mission?
I can reasonably say that both colleague Fascina and colleague Ferrari share a feeling similar to what I have outlined, but you can easily ask them. Together we will report to the Commission on our visit and we will do it all with pride for our soldiers and for the role played by Italy in that context.
Exclusive interview with Libyan interim government minister: "The Italian government (not Italy!) Supported Al Sarraj"
Undersecretary of Defense on. Raffaele Volpi: the right man on the wrong step?
Interview with Nicolò Manca, general still "in the (vain) search for an Army"
Interview with the President Committee Specificity Civil Defense Staff: "You can not pretend that 26.000 people do not exist"
Click on days highlighted in red and find out what's in the box.
"The last 2 missile: chronicle of an asymmetric war" | 2019-04-19T19:21:46Z | http://en.difesaonline.it/evidenza/interviste/commissione-difesa-rizzo-orgogliosi-dei-nostri-militari-e-del-ruolo-che-svolge |
We offer effective individual care and treatment based upon sound physical therapy skills to help our patients return to functional or recreational activities as quickly as possible.
We encourage each patient to actively participate in their rehabilitation program in order to improve strength, flexibility, and range of motion.
We are not a production line. We pride ourselves on individual care to each and every patient.
We offer an honest treatment for your dollar and firmly believe that you are the reason we succeed!
B.S. Physical Education in 1994, AS in Psychology from Keene State College, B.S. Health Science in 2000, and M.S. in Physical Therapy in 2001 from Nazareth College. Served 7 Years with the Army Infantry.
I graduated from Nazareth in 2001, Worked at Geneva General Hospital, and then opened Churchville Physical Therapy in May of 2005. Life experience is an ongoing process and I am enjoying every day of this education!
I am a firm believer in the prospects of the United States of America and strongly believe that we have the greatest nation in this world. I have a deep love and respect for my family which includes my wife and daughters. I enjoy spending time in the woods. I enjoy life and helping people through some tough physical times.
I really enjoy this community and all of the fine people in the surrounding areas. I love my co-workers. I enjoy working alongside of them as we all strive to improve the overall quality of life for our patients. I enjoy the clinic atmosphere and look forward to coming to work every day.
B.S. degree from Daemen College in 1991.
What made you want to become a PT? :When I was in high school, I had two friends who were injured in automobile accidents. I kept in contact with each of them during their physical therapy treatments. It was fascinating to listen and watch as one went from being bed bound to using a cane, and the other was wheel chair bound.
Batavia Veteran’s Hospital, United States Air Force Active and Reserves, Rehabilitation Clinics in Wisconsin and Arizona, Outpatient clinic in Alaska, Wisconsin, and New York State.
I enjoy reading, gardening, exercising, and cooking. I also spend my time chasing after my children for after school activities.
The beautiful smiles on everyone’s faces, the helpful nature of the whole staff and the genuine kindness of the team.
Doctorate of Physical Therapy in May 2013 from Nazareth College, Bachelor of Science in Health Science May 2011 from Nazareth College, and A.A.S. Physical Therapy Assistant May 1994.
What made you want to become a PT?
Growing up, I slowly became aware of the negative effects an unhealthy lifestyle can create on the human body. I grew to appreciate the science of the human body and the positive effects of exercise. This led to a healthier lifestyle change for me and interest in the field of physical therapy. I began volunteering at several physical therapy clinics which soon lead me to obtain my first degree as a Physical Therapy Assistant (PTA). In my experience as a PTA, I grew hungry for more knowledge in the field and decided in 2006 to pursue my doctorate of physical therapy degree.
I spent most of my PTA experience in outpatient sports orthopedic physical therapy clinics, approximately 19 years. I developed strong manual skills, worked with several area high school programs for high school volunteers interested in physical therapy as a career. After graduation, I worked per diem in outpatient orthopedics. In addition, I served 8 years with the Army infantry 1999 to 2008.
Staying fit and enjoying the outdoors. I have fun snowboarding, skiing, hiking, biking, traveling, and social atmospheres that include friends and family. I also enjoy completing a variety of building projects. I believe in being an active member in my community, I am grateful to have served in the United States Infantry and I support fellow veterans past and present and their families.
My clients have said it best, Churchville PT is like being part of a family and I agree. I am surrounded by great co-workers in a friendly, professional atmosphere.
Graduate of Daemen College with B.S. in Physical Therapy 2001. Certified Spine Care Specialist.
Growing up, I always had an interest in the medical field. When I was in high school, I had an injury to my knee while playing baseball. This required PT treatment and sparked my interest in the field. After doing some observation hours, I saw what a positive impact the profession has on people.
I have had 16 years of practice in outpatient orthopedics and a number of continuing education classes including becoming a certified spine care specialist.
I enjoy spending summers in the Adirondacks camping and hiking with the family. In the Fall, I enjoy being in the woods hunting with friends and family. I also spend time coaching my kids in a number of sports including football, soccer, and basketball.
What is your favorite aspect about working at Churchville Physical Therapy?
Working at Churchville PT is an absolute pleasure for me. They say if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. The work environment that CPT provides is top notch- from my coworkers who work so well together, to the people in the Churchville community. I feel so fortunate to be able to work here and look forward to helping the community reach and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
A.A.S. Genesee Community College, Health and Fitness Instructor through the American College of Sports Medicine.
I wanted a career that I could stay close to fitness, athletics, and sports. Also, I injured my ankle in high school and was able to rehab in an outpatient clinic which lead me to look into physical therapy.
I have 15 years of experience in outpatient clinics and have been at Churchville Physical Therapy for 5 years.
I like fitness and sports, hunting, yard work, and landscaping. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends.
I like the relaxed atmosphere here and that I am able to be myself. I have a very positive relationship with the staff and owner. I like that I am able to provide a high quality of care to patients here. There is no other place that I would rather work and no other owner that I would want to work for.
B.S. in Communications from SUNY Brockport, A.A.S. and Physical Therapist Assistant from Genesee Community College. Licensed PTA.
I wanted a career that was rewarding for both myself and those I worked to help. I enjoy learning about the body and helping others to feel better and healthier, which the physical therapy field is perfect for.
Clinicals at Batavia’s United Memorial Hospital, Churchville PT, and Villages of Orleans Nursing Home. I have now been at Churchville Physical Therapy since August 2011 and working per diem at Villages of Orleans Nursing Home.
I enjoy watching, playing, discussing, and betting on sports; specifically basketball, football, and golf in the summer. I also enjoy the outdoors; hunting, boating, swimming, and just being outside, especially with friends and loved ones.
The atmosphere at CPT is great. To be able to work at a place that is fun, relaxed, and enjoyable, yet provides quality care is truly amazing. Churchville is a great community with great people that add to that atmosphere as well.
I joined the Churchville PT family in February 2011 working part time as I finished my B.A. in Psychology at Nazareth College. I transitioned to a full time administrative assistant later that year and in 2018 became the Office Manager. I thoroughly enjoy my position here, ensuring that the office runs smoothly in order to give our patients the best experience possible. I also specialize in and directly handle all of our Workers' Compensation cases and have established and maintain the social networking and website development for Churchville PT.
I love spending time with my family and friends. I truly enjoy the outdoors, going for walks, camping in the Adirondacks with my family, and almost any type of outdoor activity. I also love to paint, craft, and garden in my spare time.
It says a lot about your job if you like to come to work each day. I love the light, fun atmosphere offered at CPT. I work with a really great group of people, in a very friendly community, and witness the positive growth of patients every day!
I started at Churchville PT in April of 2018. Coming in with 13 years of experience in the medical field, including physical therapy and chiropractic, joining this practice was a great transition for me. I am responsible for the everyday office tasks here, along with directly handling all of the No Fault cases.
I love working here. It is a joy to come to work at a place where everyone is smiling and eager to help! | 2019-04-22T10:53:27Z | http://www.churchville-pt.com/locations-aviator/ |
Here are 12 tips for doing social media right.
These tips have been adapted from the 2014 Digital Marketing Guide by Anthony Britten (Playmaker Digital).
Start early: The sooner you start engaging in the social media space the better. An established and engaged fanbase is a powerful thing but it takes times to build a community. Even if you are in the pre-production phase, set up your social media presence and share your production journey.
Less is more: Focus on the social media channels that best suit your production but don’t try and have a presence on every single one. Social media is resource intensive and managing too many channels is counterproductive. You can also investigate social media management tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, but each channel should be posting different content.
Pick your time: All social media platforms have analytics that show you the peak windows where fans are interacting with your content so use that data to inform your strategy. In general, most people are active on social media when they’re commuting, at lunch and at night. Be conscious of what you post in relation to time e.g. if you drop a video on YouTube at night, that gives the person the choice to watch it on their phone or on their TV at home, without having to worry about finding their headphones.
Be social: It’s called social media for a reason – remember to interact with your fans, answer their questions, and ask them questions! Don’t feed the trolls and if someone is being genuinely abusive, block them.
Bank content (assets): It’s a tired expression but ‘content is king’ and you’re a content creator. If you are in the production phase, try and hold on to bonus behind-the-scenes materials that you will be able to use further down the track to market your original. And if you are in a position to create bespoke content for social media then do so! Keep your profiles fresh by rotating profile and header images at every 4-6 weeks.
Maintain tone of voice: Ensure your tone of voice is consistent across all your social media channels and that it represents your title accurately. Fun fact: Aunty Donna rotates which team member is responsible for their social media every week.
Follow and engage media influencers: Identify and follow the personalities and companies relevant to your production. That includes influential journalists, bloggers and other creators. ‘Like’, ‘retweet’ and ‘share’ anything they have to say which is relevant to your audience, and engage with them directly and interact when appropriate. US YouTube superstar Colleen Ballinger launched her career by cleverly interacting with people as her alter ego Miranda Sings on social media.
Regulate self-promotion: Your audience has signed up to hear from you, but they don’t want to be spammed by you! Regulate how often you post and don’t just post about your title. Post about the topics your audience is likely to be interested in that might directly or indirectly relate to your content. Be genuine at all times.
Leverage talent: If you have established talent attached to your project who have an influential social media presence, you should look to capitalise on this. Encourage talent to share key content, photos and news from your production. This is a great way to attract new followers to your community and tap into an already active fan base who are likely to want to engage with your production. This follows on from the cross-promotion tips mentioned earlier.
Create shareable content: This includes everything from .gifs to memes to extracts to Snapchat filters to custom content.
Understand best practice and latest trends: Social media platforms are changing every month, constantly adding new features whilst others go out of favour completely (MySpace anyone?). Keep up with the latest social media trends by following as many like-minded titles and creators as possible to watch what they’re doing. Marketing industry publications like Mumbrella and Media Week also report on trends.
Most social media platforms do not provide 100% organic reach, meaning just because you post something, doesn’t mean all your fans will see it. The way around this is to ‘boost’ aka use sponsored posts explained previously. However the aim of the game is still to create highly engaging posts that drive up your organic reach. Use boosted posts sparingly and test different styles of posts to see what performs best before committing further investment.
Your choices of social media platform will constantly evolve, but the big ones (as of August 2017) are listed below. Remember that although Australian audiences may be your initial focus, always consider what platforms overseas markets are using e.g. most of the audience for Aussie series Starting from Now are actually from the US. Also consider what specific audiences are using, for instance if your content would appeal to Chinese-Australians, consider Weibo.
Facebook: Over 16 million Aussies are on the platform so it’s hard to avoid. Note the Facebook feed preferences video posted natively on its own platform (as opposed to YouTube links, Vimeo etc). Excellent tagging and comment features make Facebook a fan favourite, although hashtags are still not widely used. A modest amount of posts are considered good etiquette, around 1-2 a day.
Instagram: Owned by Facebook, image service Instagram has a local following of 5 million users. It also includes video and Snapchat-like ‘Stories.’ There is a focus on imagery/video being curated and of a high quality. Instagram has the advantage of discoverability through hashtag use and by the service recommending similar content on the home screen.
Snapchat: Squarely aimed at the younger audience, Snapchat has over 4 million users in Australia. Snapchat is not broadcasting like a public Instagram account, as on Snapchat you need to sign up to follow a user – you can’t browse their account without doing so. Best known for its filters, Snapchat is good for disseminating instant news/messages to fans, but not as a destination for long-form video. You can post often, but if you’re replicating content for Instagram Stories consider whether you really need both.
Twitter: The 140 character limit has not stopped Twitter remaining a favourite for those commenting on live events (especially TV) and sharing news, thanks to its now decade-old #Hashtag format. Native video is limited to 2min 20seconds at a maximum of 720HD, so you’re more likely to use it to tease content and for cross-promotion, rather than it being the home of your content. Twitter might be small in Australia (around 3 million users a month), but it’s still big in the U.S. and lots of actors maintain a large presence, which comes in handy for cross-promotion. More frequent posts are acceptable on Twitter (1-4 a day).
YouTube: Facebook may be nipping at its video heels, but when it comes to a destination for screen content, YouTube reigns supreme with over 15 million Aussies using it every month. Although it probably won’t make you rich, YouTube has the advantage of allowing original creators to share in ad revenue, making it an enticing prospect for housing video. Your fans are also able to subscribe to your channel and get notifications of new content. YouTube is also owned by Google, meaning your videos are easily found on that particular search engine if you’ve tagged them correctly. YouTube videos can be embedded on basically any website or social network, meaning other people can share your content without having to post it natively.
Vimeo: Sometimes considered the ‘pretty YouTube', Vimeo has no distracting ads if you have a paid account and a much smaller, but devoted viewing community. Vimeo is often used for screeners (viewing link) because they can be password protected and you can replace the file without the link changing. Vimeo On Demand also lets you sell content for a set retail price.
Other sites to be aware of include blogging sites Tumblr, image site Pinterest, news aggregator Reddit (the platform behind many a viral hit!) and LinkedIn which is mainly for professional profiles of cast/creatives.
If you need some help, there are agencies who will manage your social media for you. Although it’s important that you’re across the detail of your social media plan, if you’ve got the budget to use a consultant, then go for it! | 2019-04-22T12:30:00Z | https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/screen-news/2017/09-15-communications-for-online-originals/part-5-social-media |
What is better than a fluffy hot Southern Cornbread? I’ll tell you! The crispy crust of a Southern Cornbread is best! Today, I share the PRO TIP for a crispy crust to the cake of your HOT Southern Cornbread!
Have you ever sat down to a big bowl of steaming hot pinto beans with a buttery chunk of Southern Cornbread that you crumbled up into the bowl?
Hello sweet memories of a little country diner in Rock Island, Tennessee home of the Goddesses of cornbread and pinto beans!
Anyway, if you are enjoying a proper piece of cornbread then you need the crunchy bottom crust to slap a little butter on and eat by itself because, HELLO crispy cornbread crust! HELLO!
If what you are after in your cornbread is a crispy cornbread crust, then you are at the right place, because I am going to tell you.
The first thing you need to do is to heat your oven to a screaming hot 400 degrees and place your oven safe 9” round baking dish inside while it heats up. I use my cast iron frying pan for this job.
For a crispy crust, before you put the cast iron into the oven, you want to coat the cast iron skillet good with an oil that can withstand the job. Vegetable oil is fine, but I find that shortening works better and if you can find it, lard. That’s right, I said it. LARD. As much as no one wants to hear it, LARD is the best coating for a cast iron skillet when making southern cornbread. (It only takes about a tablespoon).
Once the oven comes to full temp, allow the cast iron skillet to heat a little longer (about 5 minutes). Then, place your batter, a rubber spatula (‘cause you want to get every last drop of southern cornbread goodness out of the bowl) and a pair of GOOD heavy oven mitts near the oven door.
As quickly as you dare, open the oven door, hold your head back to avoid the blast of heat, pull the rack out enough to expose the iron skillet completely. Pour the batter into the bowl and use your rubber spatula to scrape out the cornbread batter.
Southern Cornbread in the hot pan!
YOU WILL HEAR A SIZZLE!
You will hear the batter sizzling and you’ll know you are on your way to creating a crispy delicious crust!
Once the batter is in the skillet, push the rack back in the oven and close the door as quickly as you can. Then, do NOT open the oven door again for at least 15 minutes. No matter how much you want to, just don’t. Let the oven elves do their magic.
Cornbread is an old fashioned pan bread that is made from cornmeal, oil and an egg, usually. Of course, other recipes exist, but why would you want one?
WHAT KIND OF CORNMEAL DO I USE?
Please save yourself the time and trouble and simply purchase a cornmeal mix. AND, I don’t mean the mix like Jiffy either. I mean a substantial old fashioned cornmeal mix. If you get plain old cornmeal, then you’ll be needing to mix other ingredients in or it will turn out flat as a fritter, so to speak.
Cornmeal mix already has #allthethings mixed in. Easy peasy!
Here is the link to Tendabake company, check out their corn meal mixes. Any of those are A-OK in my book. Sorry, no Amazon link today to see what it looks like, Amazon doesn’t carry Tendabake, surprisingly.
Well, the answer is an emphatic “NO”, southern cornbread is not sweet. You can call it a lot of things, like simple, savory, corn flavored and most especially, DELICIOUS, but you would never ever call it sweet.
Sweet cornbread is for people from the far far north OR Floridians, whichever you please. If you want to try sweet cornbread, then it would be a good time for the Jiffy mix.
WHAT CAN I DO WITH CORNBREAD LEFTOVERS?
I am SO glad you asked what to do with cornbread leftovers because there are a few things to do with them!
Make a wonderful and savory Southern Cornbread Dressing!
You could toast up some squares for Cornbread Croutons to use in soups and salad.
Crumble up some cornbread into some buttermilk and drink it up for breakfast (Southern Old Timers favorite).
Use a good quality 9” cast iron skillet for this job.
A paper towel or a butter wrapper makes an ideal application tool to spread the oil, grease, lard onto the skillet to prepare it before the batter.
If you want a crispy southern cornbread crust then you need to get that pan in the oven as it preheats and allow it to stay in there for a full 5 minutes after the oven comes to temp. It can be a little scary pouring the batter into the very hot pan, but a crispy crust is not for the faint of heart.
Resist the urge to peek to check on your cornbread. Every time you open the door, you reduce the temperature. Cornbread requires a SCREAMING hot oven ya’ll.
Prepare your southern cornbread as close to dinner time as possible, hot cornbread right out of the oven is the best dinner time experience ever.
Serve your southern cornbread with REAL butter. Don’t skimp. Go for it.
Just so you know, this is an affiliate link to Amazon and if you click through to check out prices and end up buying, I will receive a commission from your purchase. Of course, this costs you nothing extra, so Thank you!
This is one of my favorite pans for a crispy southern cornbread crust. You can always count on the quality of a Lodge skillet.
A simple recipe for Southern Cornbread. You can't go wrong.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a 9 or 10" cast iron skillet with the butter/shortening by rubbing a thin layer all over the inside of the pan. Place the pan into the oven on a center rack while the oven preheats. Once oven is preheated, allow pan to stay in the oven another 5 minutes.
Once the oven has come to temp, allow the skillet to remain in the oven for a few more minutes. Gather together the following items at the stove: Cornbread batter, good hot pad/oven mitt, rubber spatula.
As quickly as possible, open the oven, pull the rack that the pan is sitting on out where you can easily pour the batter into the pan without getting burned (use your oven mitt). Use the rubber spatula to quickly scrape all of the cornbread batter into the skillet. You should hear some sizzling (that is good because that is a crusty bottom on your cornbread developing!).
Using your oven mitt, push the rack and skillet back into the oven and shut the oven door and don't dare open it again for at least 15 minutes. The cornbread is done when it has risen and is golden across the surface. You will probably notice some C shaped cracks near the edges of the cornbread and that is fine.
Have you ever thought about the life of Paul, the author of much of our modern day Bible? I think about ol’ Paul a lot. Sometimes in my reading, I can see that Paul let a lot of himself into what he wrote.
Of course, much of what is in our Bible is Paul’s letters to various early churchs. He had no way to know that we would one day be reading his personal messages as words of our faith. I wonder what he would have said to know that?
Paul seemed to have pretty rotten luck in his travels. He kept being arrested and thrown in jail, he was even stoned at one point for his beliefs. That didn’t dampen his love for Jesus though.
I admire that kind of doggedness even if I don’t always agree with the way that Paul chooses to teach things. Most of all, I admire his devotion. I pray that given a similar circumstance that my own love for Jesus would hold up to scrutiny.
We should all hope so much.
In Paul’s second letter to the Philippians, he encourages them to be uplifted in their love of Christ together.
When people are arguing and disagreeing to you ever think, “Hey, let’s figure out where we are on the same page and then go from there”. I sure do. Consider that the next time you become exasperated with someone on line or in general.
I too am from the deep south. I like to use a cornmeal mix too! I think they are easier and really taste better.
This is a great recipe. I do use buttermilk most of the time. Some people don’t like or have buttermilk in their kitchens. It is just a choice. But this is great cornbread!
Hi Karen! Thanks for leaving a comment. I appreciate it! Glad you love it!
This is not like any southern cornbread I have ever made. We always use corn meal and flour and buttermilk. It’s always been that way with all my family and we were born and raised in the south. I’ll try your way but it sounds like it will be very crumbly. Not good for making dressing on Thanksgiving or to use with pinto beans or other southern dishes.
Linda, I’m wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving. I pray that love and friendship envelopes your get togethers and that you will be blessed. Best wishes.
Delicious cornbread, this recipe is perfect! | 2019-04-20T14:17:07Z | https://www.loavesanddishes.net/southern-cornbread/ |
While sifting through archives, came across this media report in DNA of 21st June 2010. Wondering, why these people have remained silent since then? Has the Church authorities stopped illegal sale of Church land?
We don’t think so. Church authorities will not let this goldmine slip out of their hands so easily. More than just rhetoric, it needs a concerted effort by all. A persistent approach is needed to put a stop to this plunder of Church properties, by some corrupt members of the Clergy, who are misusing their authority as SOLE TRUSTEE.
Taking a cue from their Anglican brethren, who have launched a full-throttled war against the illegal sale of church land, the influential East Indian community, too, has decided to knock on the doors of the archbishop of Mumbai, Oswald Gracias, demanding that church land should not be handed over to developers and realtors.
If the archbishop pays no heed to their demand, the community outfits will take out a protest march, spearheaded by the Mobai Gaothan panchayat, on Saturday. Mobai Gaothan panchayat is a citizen activist outfit comprising representatives of gaothans across the city. The protesters will demand that church land be used for constructive work only. Along with the gaothan activists, Bombay Catholic Sabha, Mumbai Easter Association, National Association of Fishermen and Dharavi Bet Bachao Samiti, too, will join the march.
Ladislaus Pereira, a sarpanch of Gundowli in Andheri, said that land donated to the church for evangelical purposes have been sold off without the consent of the Catholic community. “Sacred Heart in Santa Cruz, Holy Family in Andheri, St John’s in Thane, Marinagar in Mahim are the parishes that have been sold off to realtors,” he said.
The East Indian community is surveying how many acres of land have been disposed of to developers.
His car skidded off the road and he was flung outside in a deep gorge.
A Catholic priest and a student died when they fell into a deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh.
The incident happened when Father Shijo Paul, an assistant posted at Holy Angels Parish at Tajo in West Siang, and his co-passenger Raju Bunyi, a grade five student, were returning after a village visit Thursday.
Their car skidded off the road while negotiating a narrow patch of a rain-battered road. The vehicle slipped towards the edge of a cliff, got stuck mid-way and the deceased were flung outside.
Father Paul belonged to the Itanagar diocese of Arunachal Pradesh.
A large number of priests, religious and laity paid their last respects to the deceased priest.
Father Paul’s body is being taken to Shillong, Meghalaya, for funeral.
Tok Butum, president of Arunachal Pradesh Catholic Union (APCU), Taw Tebin, general secretary APCU and Toko Teki, general secretary of Arunachal Christian Forum have expressed grief over the demise.
She is the first woman professor of New Testament at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, a Pontifical university in Pune.
Pope Benedict XVI has invited an Indian Catholic nun to participate in the next month’s Bishops Synod in Rome.
“The Holy Father has appointed me as one of the auditors for the Synod,” Sister Rekha M. Chennattu, the provincial superior of the Religious of the Assumption of the Indian province, told ucanindia.in today.
“I consider it a special grace and responsibility to participate in the discussions, highlighting the Indian perspectives as an Indian religious woman and a biblical scholar and theologian,” the nun said.
The nun said she would seek clarity on understanding and implementing the idea of new evangelization in the Catholic Church in India amidst its multi-faith and multi-cultural context.
She said those participating at the synod as audi�tors are given an opportu�nity to ex�press their opinion in the small language groups or in the auditiones during the plenary sessions.
“During the days of general discussion, provision is made–depending on the time available–for auditiones, that is, opportunities for those who are auditors and fraternal delegates to speak on a subject di�rectly related to the topic of the synod,” Sister Chennattu said.
The nun, who is a member of the Indian Women Theologians Forum and Indian Biblical Scholars, said in the context of secularization which ignores the presence of God and the sacredness of the cosmos, the real challenge is to find creative ways to preserve the dynamic and rich heritage of Christian faith to enhance life and inspire hope for future generations.
The other Indians invited for the synod by the Vatican include Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Cardinal George Alencheery, Archbishop A. Malayappan Chinnappa of Madras, Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao of Goa, Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt of Palai, Bishop Stanley Roman of Quilon.
Pope Paul VI established the Synod of Bishops on September 15, 1965 in response to the desire of the participants of the Second Vatican Council to foster the spirit of collegiality they experienced at the council.
It said religious leaders should restrict themselves to temporal and religious activities.
Bangalore:The Karnataka high court has strongly criticized a prelate for speaking on the issue of land for a church-run leprosy center at a time when the matter is sub judice.
“Has he (Archbishop) become a legal expert? Shall we issue contempt (notice)? The archbishop has no business to speak on the (pending) issue,” said chief justice Vikramjit Sen.
He was speaking on the comments of Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore on the issue of the state government deciding to take back most of the land of the Sumanahalli Society, run by the archdiocese since 1978.
Sen said that religious leaders should restrict themselves to temporal and religious activities.
Senior advocate Raviverma Kumar, appearing for the leprosy center, told the court that the prelate’s statements were only against the state’s decision to limit the extension of lease to 5.23 acres and take back 48.23 acres.
He said the centre is looking after leprosy patients who were once beggars and needs the land in its drive to completely eradicate the dreaded disease.
The chief justice said there is no doubt that the leprosy center is doing a yeoman service.
“I know how these centers receive funds. But there is no dearth of funds. The question is why do you want the land which is someone else’s?” Sen asked.
The bench then directed the government to file a status report on the facilities available at the Beggary Relief Center.
It also asked for a report on the money received by way of beggary cess along with the property tax and its disbursement.
Franciscan Realism and honesty both fascinates and challenges humankind today. Many want to identify with, and connect with Francis and his story. From Franciscan Spirituality we can derive naïve spiritual honesty. This Spirituality is not a matter of superficial and spontaneous naivety, but rather one of depth and commitment. Franciscan Spirituality does not constitute the point of departure, but rather the point of arrival, through hard work which separates out deceitful passions and resolves itself in a heart-filled benediction or bowing in obeisance before the whole of creation. Only when we walk in the footprints of Brother Francis will we be able to transcend from worldly frivolities to mystic introspection. The Franciscan Revolution has a solution to the Ecological Disconnect of today. Franciscan Spirituality is a Spirituality of Relationships.
Francis related to all of God’s creatures which is why, he could colloquy with Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brothers Wind and Air, Sister Water, Brother Fire, Sister Mother Earth and even Sister Death. Way back in the 13th century Francis (1182-1226) was aware that the Cosmos was not a collection of objects but a communion of subjects. He was part of a whole-the huge cosmos.
This realism that Francis comprehended made him come across to others as a great paradoxical figure. Hailing from a rich cloth merchant’s family, he chose to dump it all and embrace Sister Poverty. Being a man of passion who loved women, he willingly vowed his life to chastity. By temperament he was an artist, who loved the pleasures of the natural world, yet he decided to live an austere life. He was willing to give up everything, to the extent of portraying himself as clown, who stood on his head in order to see the world aright and he did see the cosmos aright! Yet he often described himself as God’s fool. Only posterity can decipher that he was not mad, but a sane creature who comprehended God’s ways.
Francis knew that in the great adventure of life on Earth all of God’s creatures have a role to play. Every species has its place. No one is either useless or harmful. We all balance one another. It was this deep insight that compelled Francis to say, “Let the Sister Weeds grow”- being the first human to call the weeds, Sister Weeds and to care for them too, to grow. This realism encouraged the Holy Cross Hazaribagh sisters in Bettiah (North India) to decide during their National Chapter in 2009 to create a “Franciscan Forest” by setting aside 5 acres of land for natural growth. Like Francis they believe that all of God’s creatures have a right to grow and bloom including the weeds, the mosquitoes, the snakes, the rats, the worms et al.
In a Spirituality of Relationships all our problems can be sorted out, by talking with each other, by adjusting and accommodating, thus giving space to all. Francis set the example. When the wolf of Gubbio troubled the villagers, to the extent that they all lived in fear and trepidation, the villagers decided to complain to Francis. Francis who had attained the ability of communicating with all God’s creatures, gently called the wolf and explained to him, how his bad behaviour had become a source of nuisance for the villagers. The wolf bowed down in shame and humility before Francis. It was finally amicably settled and agreed upon that the wolf and the villagers live together in peace and harmony. The villagers gave the wolf food and he stopped terrorising them. What was more, it is reported that when the wolf died, the whole village cried for him. He had become a part of the village family. A strong bond was created between him and the villagers. We too need to create strong bonds with Mother Earth, feel for her and care for her and cry with her and with all other creatures of God.
As we celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the Patron of Ecology on 4th October 2012, let us adopt the Hindu and Bahai ideology of Vasudhaivakutumbakam-the whole world is one big family. Let us make the Franciscan Spirituality of Relationships a reality in our lives by reducing our carbon footprint, increasing our Hand Print and living in peace and harmony with all around.
(With Inputs from Dr (Fr) Robert Athickal SJ, Director Tarumitra Bio-Reserve, Patna. | 2019-04-25T23:48:25Z | https://silentmaj.wordpress.com/2012/09/ |
When performing word studies, it is imperative to pay close attention to the context in which the word is used, lest we arrive at meaning of the word that was not intended by the Spirit. This caveat should not be surprising, for even in English, context is critical to understand what a given word means. So if I say "trunk", what pops into your mind? Now what if the context includes the word "tree"? Or what if I am describing a car? Or a big, gray mammal? You get the point. So clearly, you were able to determine the correct meaning of "trunk" in each instance by noting the context. The same principle applies to Greek Word studies.
In summary, Greek and Hebrew word studies are vitally important in order for us to glean the full meaning of God's Word, but they must be performed with a sense of "reverence and awe" lest one derive a meaning which is not what the Spirit intended in a given passage. Every saint should become conversant with Word Studies that they might be better Bereans (Acts 17:11-note) when using the Greek and Hebrew Lexicons. Otherwise how do you know their definition is accurate?
John Bunyan author of Pilgrim's Progress alluded to the value of personal original language word studies when he wrote - "Read the Bible, and read it again. Do not despair of help in understanding something of the will and mind of God. Though you have no commentaries and expositions, pray and read, and read and pray. A little from God is better than a great deal from man. What is from man is uncertain and often lost, but what is from God is fixed as a nail in a sure place. There is nothing that so abides with us as what we receive from God. The reason many Christians are at a loss as to some truths is that they are content with what comes from men’s mouths without searching and kneeling before God to learn of Him. Even known truths are new to us when they come with the breath of heaven upon them."
Performing a Hebrew word study is not as easy as Greek word study, for there are fewer resources and Hebrew is a more poetic language than Greek. Remember though that the ultimate goal for performing a Hebrew word study is that we might KNOW God better and GROW more like His Son learning to walk "in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" and growing in "the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (Colossians 1:10, 2Peter 3:18, cp John17:3, Php 3:10, Eph 4:15). Therefore it behooves us as we begin our word study to go to God in prayer beseeching our Heavenly Father to grant that our Teacher, the Spirit would guide us into all truth (Jn 16:13), for spiritual truth is spiritually revealed by the Spirit (1Cor 2:10; see The Bible and Illumination).
"In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation."
(a) Enter Ex 15:13 in the Search box above.
(b) Click on the word Lovingkindness to open a dropdown window.
(c) Note Strong's Number in the Upper Left Corner. (Strong's 2617) Record that number in the word study worksheet (see example). You will need Strong's number to perform Step 2.
(e) Note the box labeled Origin - This box has the Strong's Number (02616) of the verb form chasad from which the noun chesed is derived. Clicking on ORIGIN can occasionally give insights into the meaning of the word you are studying. Record your observations.
(d) Note the bottom box labeled Translated Words which is the total number of times the Hebrew word chesed is used in that the KJV or NAS followed by all of the ways it is translated into English. By observing the different ways chesed is translated you can begin to get a sense of the different nuances of meaning (e.g., "faithful love," "loyalty," "love," etc). Step 3 will look in more detail at all the OT uses of chesed and how they can be used in your word study.
(e) Note Brown-Driver-Brigg's (BDB) Definition - Below is the abbreviated version of BDB's original definition of chesed, and if click on Strong's, you also get his abbreviated definition. Contrast the brevity of these definitions with the unabridged BDB definition obtained in Step 2.
Strong's Definition From H2616; kindness; by implication (towards God) piety; rarely (by opprobrium) reproof, or (subjectively) beauty: - favour, good deed (-liness, -ness), kindly, (loving-) kindness, merciful (kindness), mercy, pity, reproach, wicked thing.
a). Select the appropriate range below (e.g., 2617 for chesed). Scroll to Strong's number and click for BDB's full definition. Record your notes. I cannot read Hebrew but still find these definitions useful as the main portion of the definition is in English. As you can see, chesed has a lengthy definition and it may take a while to read over it.
b). Note that in the right column of this resource are the uses of chesed in NAS, KJV and Interlinear (INT). Click the INT and note from top to bottom - Strong's, Transliterated Hebrew, Original Hebrew word, English word, and Parsing of the word (click parsing for key). Note that Interlinear retains the word order of the original Hebrew text.
Here is Brown-Driver-Briggs full definition of chesed (02617). Note how BDB divides the definition into chesed of man and chesed of God. And while there is a considerable amount of original Hebrew, notice how the essence of the definition is easily determined as are the passages that use chesed with that particular definition.
חֶ֫סֶד: 247 noun masculine2Samuel 16:17goodness, kindness; — absolute ׳ח Genesis 24:12 85t.; חָ֑סֶד Genesis 39:21 12t.; construct חֶסֶד 8t 1Sa 20:8.; suffix חַסְדִּי Psalm 59:18 120t. suffixes; plural חֲסָדִים Genesis 32:11; constructחַסֵדֵי Isaiah 55:3 5t. (BaerJes p. 79 Ges§ 93, R, 1. F.); suffix חֲסָדַי Nehemiah 13:14 + 10t. suffixes; (not in H or P).
1 kindness of men towards men, in doing favours and benefits 1 Samuel 20:15; 2 Samuel 16:17; Psalm 141:5; Proverbs 19:22; Proverbs 20:6; יהוה ׳ח 1 S 1Sa 20:14 the kindness of ׳י (such as he shews, Thes MV; that sworn to by oath to Yahweh Mich Dathe; shewn out of reverence to Yahweh Th Ke); compare אלהים ׳ח s-.. 2Sa 9:3 ׳תּוֺרַתאחProverbs 31:26 instruction in kindness, kindly instruction עָשָׂה חֶסֶד עִמָּדִי do or shew kindness(in dealing) with me Genesis 20:13; Genesis 40:14 (E),1 Samuel 20:14; 2 Samuel 10:2 (עִמִּי in "" 1 Chronicles 19:2); with עִם Genesis 21:23 (E), Genesis 24:12,14; Joshua 2:12 (twice in verse); Judges 1:24(J), Judges 8:35; 1 Samuel 15:6; 2 Samuel 2:5; 2 Samuel 3:8; 2 Samuel 9:1; 2 Samuel 9:3; 2 Samuel 9:7,10:20a = 1Chronicles 19:2a, 1Chronicles 19:2b 2Chronicles 24:22; with עַל 1 S 2 Sa 20:8 with לְ 1 s 1Ki 2:7 לפני ׳נשׂא ח obtain kindness before Esther 2:9,17; ׳היטיב ח Ruth 3:10.
3 (rarely) affection if Israel to ׳י love to God, piety:נְעוּרַיִךְ ׳ח Jeremiah 2:2 piety of thy youth ("" love of thine espousals to Yahweh); possibly alsoחַסְדְּכֶם כַּעֲנַןבֹּֿקֶר Hosea 6:4 your piety is like a morning cloud (fleeting), and כִּי חֶסֶד חָפַצְתִּי וְלאֹזָֿ֑בַח Hosea 6:6 for piety I delight in and not in peace-offering ("" דעת אלהים, compare 1 Samuel 15:22); — so Wü Now Hi (1Samuel 15:4) Che; Ke Hi (1 Samuel 15:6) al. below 2 (or 1); — נַנְשֵׁי חֶסֶד men of piety Isaiah 57:1 (""צַדִּיק); plural pious acts 2Chronicles 32:32; 35:26;Nehemiah 13:14.
4 lovely appearance: כָּלחַֿסְדּוֺ כְּצִיץ הַשָֹּׁדֶהIsaiah 40:6 all its loveliness as the flower of the field (so Thes Hi De Che Di and others; but δόξα ᵐ5 1Peter 1:24 & gloria ᵑ9 favour an original reading הוֺדוֺ Lo orכְּבֹדוֺ Ew, see BrMP 375; Du הֲדָרוֺ).
II. of God: kindness, lovingkindness in condescending to the needs of his creatures. He is חַסְדָּם their goodness favor Jonah 2:9; חַסְדִּי Psalm 144:2;אֱלֹהֵי חַסְדִּי God of my kindness Psalm 59:18; in Psalm 59:11 read אֱלֹהַי חַסְדּוֺ my God with his kindness ᵐ5 ᵑ9 Ew Hup De Pe Che Bae; his is the kindness Psalm 62:13; it is with him Psalm 130:7; he delights in it Micah 7:18.
a. in redemption from enemies and troubles Genesis 19:19; Genesis 39:21 (J), Exodus 15:13 (song), Jeremiah 31:3; Ezra 7:28; Ezra 9:9; Psalm 21:8;Psalm 31:17; Psalm 31:22; Psalm 32:10; Psalm 33:22;Psalm 36:8; Psalm 36:11; Psalm 42:9; Psalm 44:27;Psalm 48:10; Psalm 59:17; Psalm 66:20; Psalm 85:8;Psalm 90:14; Psalm 94:18; Psalm 107:8; Psalm 107:15; Psalm 107:21; Psalm 107:31; Psalm 143:8;Psalm 143:12; Job 37:13; Ruth 1:8; Ruth 2:20; men should trust in it Psalm 13:6; Psalm 52:10; rejoice in it Psalm 31:8; hope in it Psalm 33:18; Psalm 147:11.
c. in quickening of spiritual life Psalm 109:26; Psalm 119:41; Psalm 119:76; Psalm 119:88; Psalm 119:124;Psalm 119:149; Psalm 119:159.
e. in keeping the covenants, with Abraham Micah 7:20; with Moses and Israel שׁמר הַבְּרִית וְ(הַ)חֶסֶד keep-eth the covenant and the lovingkindness Deuteronomy 7:9,12; 1 Kings 8:23 2Chronicles 6:14; Nehemiah 1:5; Nehemiah 9:32;Daniel 9:4; with David and his dynasty 2 Samuel 7:15 =1 Chronicles 17:13; 2 Samuel 22:51 = Psalm 18:51, 1 Kings 3:6 (twice in verse) = 2Chronicles 1:8; Psalm 89:29; Psalm 89:34; with the wife Zion Isaiah 54:10.
2 חֶסֶד is grouped with other divine attributes: חסד ואמת kindness (lovingkindness) and fidelity Genesis 24:27 (J), Psalm 25:10; Psalm 41:11; Psalm 40:12;Psalm 57:4; Psalm 61:8; Psalm 85:11; Psalm 89:15;Psalm 115:1; Psalm 138:2; ואמת עם ׳עשׂה ח 2 S 2Sa 2:6; 2 Samuel 15:20 (ᵐ5, see Dr); with אֶתֿGenesis 24:49; ואמת ׳רַב ח Exodus 34:6 (JE),Psalm 86:15; also "" אמת Micah 7:20; Psalm 26:3;Psalm 117:2; "" אֱמוּנָה Psalm 88:12; Psalm 89:3;Psalm 92:3; ׳אמונה וח Psalm 89:25; ואמונה ׳חPsalm 98:3; "" רחמים Psalm 77:9; ורחמים ׳חJeremiah 16:5; Hosea 2:21; Psalm 103:4; ומשׁפט ׳חJeremiah 9:23; Psalm 101:1; "" צדקה Psalm 36:11;׳טוב וח Psalm 23:6.
a. abundant: רַבחֶֿסֶד abundant, plenteous in kindness (goodness) Numbers 14:18 (J), Nehemiah 9:17 (Qr), Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Psalm 86:5; Psalm 103:8 (compare Exodus 34:6 J E; Psalm 86:15); רֹב חַסְדְּךָ Nehemiah 13:22; Psalm 5:8; Psalm 69:14;Psalm 106:7 (ᵐ5 ᵑ9 Aq Targan, to be preferred to ᵑ0חֲסָדֶיךָ); רֹב חֲסָדָו֯ Lamentations 3:32; Psalm 106:45 (Kt ᵐ5 in both to be preferred).
c. everlasting: לעולם חסדוֺ Jeremiah 33:11; 1 Chronicles 16:34,41; 2Chronicles 5:13; 7:3,6; 20:21;Ezra 3:11; Psalm 100:5; Psalm 106:1; Psalm 107:1;Psalm 118:1; Psalm 118:2; Psalm 118:3; Psalm 118:4;Psalm 118:29; Psalm 136:1 (26 t.); חסדךָ לעולםPsalm 138:8; מעולם ׳ח ועד עולם Psalm 103:17;עולם ׳ח Isaiah 54:8; אל כּל ׳ח היום Psalm 52:3.
4 plural mercies, deeds of kindness, the historic displays of lovingkindness to Israel: shewn to Jacob Genesis 32:11 (R); but mostly late Isaiah 63:7; Psalm 25:6; Psalm 89:2; כְּרֹב חסִדיו Isaiah 63:7, see 3a; promised in the Davidic covenant Psalm Psa 89:50; חַסְדֵי דָוִיד mercies to David Isaiah 55:3; 2Chronicles 6:42; mercies in General Lamentations 3:22; Psalm 17:7; Psalm 107:43f. — חֶסֶד in proper name, masculine ׳בןחֿ see below בֵּן. On Leviticus 20:17; Proverbs 14:34 see חֶסֶד below II. חסד.
II. חֶ֫סֶד noun masculine shame, reproach, only absolute: — הוּא ׳ח Leviticus 20:17 (H) it is a shame (shameful thing); לְאֻמִּים חַטָּאת ׳חProverbs 14:34 sin is a reproach to peoples.
In the search box above Enter Strong's Number for the word you are studying (as an example use lovingkindness - chesed and enter 2617) to retrieve a brief definition beneath which is a table labeled "Frequency/Word [Book|Word] (Note: the chart below is just an example - it does not copy well so you need to see the original chart). This table is a list of all the OT uses of chesed in the OT - KJV 248) , NAS (248) and HCS (246). Now click on a book name like Genesis and in the right column you can see all the verses that use chesed and how each use is translated into English.
The basic procedure for study is to look up each of the verses in which the target word appears, determining the possible meanings for the word, and then make a decision--based on the context (Keep Context King) of the verses being studied--about the meaning to assign to the word in that verse....Remember that the meaning of a word depends on its context. For instance, the English word "run" can have many meanings. You can say that paint "runs" down a wall or that you will "run" a classified add; and you can refer to a "run" on a bank, a long "run" of a Broadway play, or a 10K "run" for charity." And so you see that the single, simple English word "run" has multiple distinct meanings depending on the context. The same principle applies to word studies in which one examines every OT use.
Let's review how to do a study of all the uses of a Hebrew word - Click here for the Frequency Chart (the example below . Then Click Genesis to open all the uses with the English translation highlighted for easy recognition (eg. lovingkindness). Now click on Exodus in the KJV and HCS (Holman Christian) versions and note the different ways chesed is translated. I personally do most of my word studies in the NAS but often check the other versions. The HCS translation of chesed as faithful love is worth noting. As noted it is always important to examine the context, which you can do by clicking on the verse (e.g., open uses in Exodus and click Exodus 15:13 under Verse Results) and toward the bottom of the new window select Show Context (see below highlighted in yellow). With some practice and reliance on your Teacher, the Holy Spirit, you will begin to glean a good sense of how a word is used in the OT and thus how it is "defined." The Frequency/Word list also gives you a quick sense of which book has the most uses (e.g., 127 uses of chesed in Psalms, which is almost 50% of all the OT uses).
who keeps lovingkindness forthousands, who forgives iniquity,transgression and sin; yet He will by nomeans leave the guilty unpunishedvisiting the iniquity of fathers on thechildren and on the grandchildren to thethird and fourth generations."
When I perform Hebrew word studies, Step 3 is one of the primary tools I use to arrive at a definition. In fact if you look at many of the popular lexicons like the Theological Wordbook of OT words and Vines Expository Dictionary of OT words, you will note that often their definitions are a compilation of the information gleaned from the various uses in the Scripture. In the case of chesed there are 248 uses which makes for a lengthy study (when there are that many uses, I usually do not examine every use.) Below is an example of my personal definition of chesed gleaned just from examination of the Scriptural uses.
Yes, this method of determining the shades of meaning of an OT word takes some work but it can be extremely rewarding and significantly enhance your understanding of how the Spirit used the word in the OT.
This 1940 Pdf edition of Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words states that it has no copyright and therefore I presume it can be used. (If you find out otherwise please let me know). The most efficient way to search this Pdf of Vine's is by using the Strong's number. For example, continuing our study of chesed, if we search using Strong's Number 2617 we retrieve 5 hits but only one is the Hebrew word hesed. This resource includes both Hebrew and Greek words, and Greek words with the same Strong's number will be retrieved. This resource is more difficult to search by the English word. E.g., if you search for "lovingkindness" you will not find Vine's definition of chesed, because he spells it "loving-kindness" (hyphenated). Note also that Vine does not have an entry for all OT words, in contrast with the BDB which has definitions for all the Hebrew words.
This 1897 work on the Hebrew synonyms examines 127 Hebrew terms (e.g., altar, almighty, atonement, etc). Using the Septuagint (Lxx), Girdlestone explains the relation of the Hebrew word to the corresponding Greek word in the NT. This work is designed to be used by those who understand little or no Hebrew. In the alphabetical list below there is no hit for Lovingkindness but there is one for Mercy, which is our Hebrew word chesed.
Don't overlook the value of a simple study of Webster's dictionary when doing WORD STUDIES. For the plain definition of a word, I prefer the 1828 edition as it is more Bibliocentric (often using Scripture to illustrate definitions).
Click for a list of over 400 in depth definitions of Hebrew words on this website including many of the more common Greek words. This list will be expanded over time.
Now take the insights you have gleaned and practice re-phrasing the verse by substituting some of the definitions/insights you have gleaned from the above steps. Your goal is to arrive at a better understanding of the verse. A word of caution is in order. You need to be aware that many Hebrew verbs have more than one meaning, so you must be careful that the definition you substitute into the verse makes good sense in context. Otherwise you might misinterpret the passage.
Let me give you an example of improper use of the definition of chesed (2617) in interpreting a passage, by "rephrasing" or "amplifying" Proverbs 14:34 -- "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is [goodness, kindness in doing favors ] to peoples" Clearly the context of this passage indicates this sense of chesed is totally inappropriate, even absurd! So again just a reminder to be very careful when "amplifying" passages with the shades of meaning you discover for a given Hebrew word, always assiduously seeking to Keep Context King!
NB.: To do a more thorough word study, there are a couple of other steps you can take. | 2019-04-19T03:10:24Z | https://www.preceptaustin.org/hebrew_word_study |
When I was fourteen, I graduated from high school in Albuquerque, where we happened to be at the time. Early graduation then was rare. Now schools know how to handle it. But then... There was not much interest in Yoga by the public at that time. It seems that the West pursues Eastern thought for solace in periods when the materialistic culture is failing, such as the Great Depression. In boom times such as World War II and my graduation year 1947, the interest dies off. We were staying with my wife's next younger sister Cornelia in Albuquerque while my parents were trying to figure out how to make a living. We were broke. I selected the college I wanted to enter entirely on my own. My father was a graduate of the University of Calcutta, my mother did not graduate from UCLA. There was no such thing as a guidance counsellor. I had no advice whatsoever. I reasoned that I was more likely to get in if I did not apply for financial aid. I heard of Chicago because half the Los Alamos people migrated there. I found out that there would be a lot of students there my own age, a unique thing for a major university. I was accepted at Chicago, and went there with only a bus ticket and seventeen dollars in my pocket, without money for either tuition or board and room. Some would think this foolhardy, but I think I had acquired my father's attitude that Providence will provide. I have always felt that I live under a lucky star, that I am protected by unseen powers, that this is the best of all possible worlds, at least for me. This is surely derived from my father's entirely identical view of himself. I moved into the dormitories with some very fine roommates, and immediately went to the Bursar, Albert Cotton, to see what I could borrow. He suggested that perhaps I should get a job. I told him I was under the minimum age for employment in Illinois. He shrugged his shoulders and loaned me everything I needed, every year, till my Ph. D. I paid it all off after I finally finished. It shows how little I knew about financial aid. One of my friends had a full scholarship based on need; his parents were buying a bank and had no spare cash. The Bursar, I was told later, was the first to offer such long term loans to students, not only at Chicago, but in the United States. Providence was pretty effective.
The roommates I had the first year at Chicago, Robert L. Ross(deceased) and Daniel J. Robbins (deceased), remained life-long friends. But when I looked at a list of those going to the Chicago 50th reunion of my class of 49, I did not recognize a single name, and therefore did not go. Ross knew what he wanted to do, become a high school chemistry teacher, and that is exactly what he did in Peekskill, New York. Robbins was in process of becoming a painter, but switched, perhaps under the historical influence of the college, into art history. When writing his dissertation at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts, he concentrated on Albert Gleizes, a transitional figure in the development of cubismGleizes.. Gleizes' wife gave him the Gleizes' papers, including a shoeboxfull of photos of all his work. Robbins became THE Gleizes specialist. He was successively a modern art curator at the Metropolitan, at the Guggenheim (where he did a definitive exhibition and catalogue for Gleizes), Director of the Rhode Island Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design (a truly major museum most people have not heard of). I visited him there at the time of a Christmas art sale at the museum. He and I both bought Roy Lichtenstein works, op art from a very brief Lichtenstein period when he did op art using silvered paper and plastic sheetingLichtenstein Robbins was then offered a Professorship at Yale together with the directorship of their museum, alternately the Directorship of the Fogg at Harvard without a professorship. I strongly advised him that since he was introducing more 20th century into the museums, the old line Art Historians at Harvard would kill him if he were not a professor, while the Professorship in Art History at Yale would prevent that from happening there. Boston was closer to his farm in Vermont, so the Fogg is where he went. The Art History professors at Harvard were very unhappy with his direction. An opportunity came to boot him out, and they did. There was a robbery of gold coins at the Fogg. They awakened Robbins in the middle of the night, he said to leave it to the police, he would contact them in the morning. The fact that he did not immediately go to the scene of the crime was the pretext for getting rid of him. I am sure they knew he would have made a very poor Nero Wolfe.
Although he published a lot on Gleizes, he had not even turned his thesis in at that time, a common thing among museum curators and directors. The profssors attacked him as being an irresponsible graduate student in charge of the Fogg. He did eventually turn in his thesis at NYU. Then he took a Professorship in Art History at Union College, near his Vermont farm, and immediately irritated the President tthere by launching a campaign preventing him from tearing down a large building by an important 19th century architect. This time he was luckier. He held a tenured Chair. He died a few years ago of an incurable degenerative disease. He helped many people in their careers, artists, art historians, collectors, etc. I am told his funeral had attendence from all walks of life from all around the world. He was one of my favorite people.
So I entered the Hutchins Great Books program at the University of Chicago, thinking of majoring later in physics. That was 1947, when ex-soldiers under the GI bill flooded Chicago and every other institution with dead serious intent to learn and make up for lost time. Their company was a quick maturing experience. I enjoyed the Hutchins program a lot. I read the complete great book whenever a snippet of one was assigned in one of the Hutchins courses. I had the noted southern poet Allan Tate as my preceptor in the metaphysical poets. I had seminars with T.S. Eliot. I remember speaking to and listerning to Nehru at a reception. I spent an evening with Dylan Thomas in a local tavern. Class attendance was not required in the Hutchins college, so I attended only lectures of enlightening teachers, usually not in the classes in which I was registered. Otherwise I read and read. This was all Hutchins' work. He really liked providing undergraduates with broad intellectual and cultural experiences and complete independence. Then there was the Hyde Park neighborhood, with the Compass group with Elaine May and Mike Nichols and crew, whom I and my friends went to see at virtually every opportunity during its heyday and before Second City. There was also Severn Darden and his fabled escapades at the university. Then there was Chicago. In that new postwar period, the Premier Grand Cru Bordeaux and Burgundy were two dollars a bottle; no one over here valued them and France needed currency. Many evenings were spent in intellectual discussions over a bottle of Margaux or Hermitage with cheese. There were cultural events at the Chicago Art Institute, at the Oriental Institute, at theatre groups on campus, there was acting as hatcheck for downtown legitimate theatres in return for free tickets, there was being a subject for autohypnosis experiments with Tony Eidson, who had studied with Andrew Salter. I had a wonderful time in a wonderful place. Most of the successful products of that milieu feel the same. Of course there were many others for whom either the standards or the freedom led them to disaster.
The memory that sticks most vividly from Hutchins College days was a little scary and unconnected with education. In my second year I commuted by bus and streetcar from a trailer where my family was living in the suburb of Oak Lawn. One day I felt very uncomfortable about the streetcar ride, and, for the only time- decided to stay overnight at the dormitory with a friend. I read the Chicago papers the next morning and discovered that the (hourly) streetcar I always took had been rammed by a gasoline truck. All passengers had been incinerated. Such are the ways of Providence.
Not everything was golden about the surrounding Hyde Park neighboorhood, either then or now. My parents settled in Hyde Park on Dorchester, below 55th, in 1951 in a small brick house built to house workers at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. They settled down because they had two younger children, Kiron and Rabindra (Robin), and travelling constantly with children had become a nightmare for my mother. My father hardly noticed. He did not leave on this earthly plane. My first night in that house, I was alone and heard screams on the street. I called the Hyde Park police and told them someone was being beaten up in front of the house. Their station was three blocks away, but no one came. I finally went to the door and a patrolman called to me that he had been in a fight with a suspect, and to call the police. I then called back and told them that a POLICEMAN was calling for help. Within one minute the entire street was filled with police cars and sirens, and they took them off. So much for getting help for the ordinary mortal from the Chicago police department. The next day I found the sidewalk drenched in blood, and heard that the policeman had beaten the suspect to death. Of course, it was not worth a mention in the Chicago papers, and nothing came of it. That was my introduction to Hyde Park outside the dormitories. The non-academic part of the university was a mixed blessing as well. To protect themselves from the black belt, the university administration was cooperating with the developers to get rid of the small home owners in the 55th street region and put in more expensive large apartment buildings as a buffer to the near south side black belt. We were called to a meeting at the local Buddhist temple down the block by Julian Levi (or was it his brother?) who told us that we the owners of the housing had champagne tastes and beer incomes, and would have to move out of the area to accomodate richer people. He said we had bought into a neighboorhood in which people of modest income should not live, and we should sell out to the developers on their terms. I got up and gave him hell. He tried to shut me up, but no one ever has, and we did own property. My mother was very capable. She formed a neighboorhood group, and the area is still into old remodelled housing 50 years later. I was very sorry when I heard that one of the Levi's had become president of my alma mater. I am sure they loved it, but I don't love them. I don't think Hyde Park has improved much since. My mother's house on Dorchester below 55th was broken into by burglers three times in the late 1990's, once possibly by alocksmith who had changed her locks! The last time my mother lambasted the burgler with her cane and drove him out of the house. Enough is enough, at 91 I moved her to a a 31st story apartment on Wells street on the near north side, with a doorman downstairs and cameras trained on all entrances. She died there at 94.
In the early 1960's, my mother proved her mettle again. There was a riparian war taking place near her childhood home in Mancos, Colorado, and her next younger brother Sharon was in jail accused of taking pot shots at the tractor of an upstream rancher trying to divert water. There appeared to be something fishy, and she flew to Denver to examine the materials on the case. All I know is that when she took information on collusion between prosecutor and the so-called victim back to Mancos, the prosecutor, who had a local reputation as a silver tongued orator, swallowed his tongue, had a heart attack, and dropped dead. The case was dropped.
My first physics teacher at Chicago (Lawson) told the class the first day that he would flunk at least half the students in order to cut the classes down in the subsequent courses. I took this as meaning that physicists there did not care much about the undergraduates. Anyone saying that today would be lynched. In addition his teaching assistant was incomprehensible, and on enquiry I found that the Physics Department (Voorhes) could not care less. I did not regard the physics department as hospitable. When I took mathematics and philosophy courses there, the teachers were friendly and I encountered no teaching assistants as teachers, teaching assistants just graded. I naturally inclined toward these disciplines. I was introduced to modern logic in the seminars of my much beloved philosophy professor, Rudolf Carnap, whose sixtieth birthday party in his apartment I remember well. I was thinking of working with him. He told me I was his best student, and suggested I go into mathematics because that was where the future of logic lay. At that time there were few logicians in mathematics departments (Church, Kleene, Rosser, Curry, Tarski); most were in philosophy departments ( Quine, Carnap, Reichenbach, etc. ). The obvious thing was to transfer to Berkeley (Tarski), Wisconsin (Kleene), or Princeton (Church), but it never occurred to me that he might be suggesting this. I therefore went into mathematics at Chicago, not realizing that I had stumbled into what was the beginning of Chicago's reign as arguably the most outstanding mathematics department in the world, what MacLane referred to in his autobiography as the "Stone Age" after its instigator Marshall Harvey Stone. I thought then that the math graduate students there were the run of the mill students you might find at any graduate school. I was simply very ill informed. This gave me unrealistically high expectations for graduate students when I finally became a professor. As is well known in the mathematical community, that student body of the Stone Age contained many of the most prominent mathematicians of the latter half of the twentieth century.
Chicago had the reputation of being a premier Bourbaki school with Andre Weil as its most famous personage, and Bourbaki did not believe logic was a branch of mathematics. Fot those not in mathematics, I should say that Bourbaki was a small French Mafia with Weil as the Godfather, writing a series of modern texts covering what they considered to be core mathematics. From the point of view of the rest of the mathematicians, they appeared to have taken upon themselves the role of arbiters of mathematical taste. Their mathematical horizons did not include Applied Mathematics, Probability, Statistics, or Logic. As to Logic, their foundations book showed that none of them had any understanding of the subject anyway. I looked over the Chicago faculty with great care for an advisor. Paul Halmos was creating his version of algebraic logic at the time, perhaps to show that logic was algebra, but he was not knowledgeable in recursive function theory, which I loved from Post's papers. I took the trouble to look up the background of all the faculty members, and found that MacLane had done his dissertation in logic, nominally under Hilbert, actually with Weyl and Bernays, and that his Category Theory was pretty close to logic anyway. No one then realized it was the typed lambda calculus in an arrowed disguise. There were no logic courses in the mathematics department, but I asked MacLane to sponsor a logic seminar, which he did.
The only students interested in logic when I entered the department were Ray Smullyan and Stanley Tennenbaum.. They were joined later by Bill Howard and Michael Morley.
Ray was very smart and very slow. The phrase "slow" can be misinterpreted. He learned everything with an incredible attention to understanding every aspect of every definition and every construction, including alternate definitions and alternate constructions. This took a very long time, much longer than the courses ran. Much of his success has been due to finding elegant new ways of doing things which are the product of this kind of protracted analysis. So "slow" is not perjorative. He had been "discovered" by the algebraist McDuffee in a beginning course at Wisconsin, and sent to Chicago. He earned his living as a table magician at a popular downtown Chicago restuarant. Smullayn's special thing was to be able to do each trick 15 different ways, with the same effect, so you could not possibly figure out at all what he was doing as he switched between them. He did not really matriculate at Chicago. Finally Carnap, who had a very high opinion of him, got him a one year job at Dartmouth when John Kemeny became chairman of math and was short a person in September as he arrived back from a visit to Europe. The powers at Dartmouth discovered that Ray had no bachelor's degree, and gave him an ultimatum that he had to pick up one at the end of the year if he wanted to stay a second year. It is a tribute to Ed Spanier that when Smullyan came back to Chicago and told him this, he simply counted all the courses that Smullyan was teaching and all the ones he attended without grades at Chicago, and gave him his bachelor's degree. Try that in the modern Ivy League! Later, again due to a letter from Carnap, Smullyan became a student of Church at Princeton. Due to a tendency to want to overprepare , he was terrified at his preliminary exam. He was put at ease by Emil Artin, who knew he was an accomplished magician, and who told him at the exam to do some magic tricks instead. He spent his career at Yeshiva and CUNY, ever original and productive. His puzzle books are also a delight.
Stan came from high school in Cincinnati to the Hutchins Great Books Program and graduated with a Ph. B. a couple of years before I did. He was five years my senior, but my contemporary in entering mathematics.. After getting his Ph.B. Stan never got himself organized enough to finish courses in the graduate school, much less to get a degree beyond the Hutchins college Ph.B. But he did significant mathematical work then and later. Why did he not get an advanced degree? He was a true intellectual, a true product of the Hutchins' college as Hutchins had intended it. In that college, which I also went through without attending classes, there was no obligation to attend classes as an undergraduate, only an obligation to take a six hour exam in each course at the end of the year. Stan took advantage of this freedom and instead spent a lot of time reading the great books, in intellectual discussions with Chicago luminaries such as Robert Hutchins, Joe Schwab, Leo Strauss, Mortimer Adler, Bruno Bettleheim, and all others with an interest in the philosophy, psychology, and practice of education at all levels, an endless list. In graduate school he had none of the habits for success in a mathematics department such as attending classes, doing homework, or taking tests. I had the same habits he had, from the same source, for my first quarter in graduate school, but his habits were unchanged forever. He married Carol and had his first son early, and always supported them with a variety of jobs while a student.
There were many true anecdotes about him. One of his jobs was as a night cab driver. I got into his cab on a winter night, and discovered that the windows were completely covered with thick opaque snow, with only an eyehole cleared in front of the driver. This scared me, so I offered to clean the window. But Stanley drove off, saying it was much better to have the limited vision, because other cars would notice it and stay away. This was at night, with lots of traffic. He was fascinated by the idea that limiting information could improve performance. But in this instance...When Marcel Marceau visited Chicago, Stan took his small son to a performance. Stan wanted to meet Marceau, so he told the backstage manager that his son was a great fan and wanted to meet the great man. Marceau loved children, Stan loved children, and they spent the rest of the evening with him. I have not doubt that Stan used such strategies many times. He knew a lot of famous people outside the university that you don't run into on the street. One of the things that surprised me about him was a love of football, acquired in high school. My memory, which may be faulty, is that he played football in high school, but suffered an injury and had to stop. In any case he had the highest intellectual respect for certain football players, who were not very big, possibly not very fast, but out-psyched their opponents. Typical was his admiration for Charley Trippi of Georgia who could wiggle his hips deceptively, misleading pursuers, who then predicted incorrectly his twists and turns and tackled thin air. He was taken with the triumph of brain over brawn.. When Elvis became a sensation among the teenagers, and the rest of us were perplexed at the crowd hysteria we saw on tv, Stan expressed great admiration for Elvis for wiggling his pelvis while performing, saying that it was a great cultural advance that Elvis was a male permitted to express sexuality in the same way as women dancers in our overly inhibited society, a very thoughtful observation.
In 1959 he was the first to show that there were no recursive models of formal arithmetic, improving a corresponding result for set theory of Michael Rabin from 1958. In1963, while under support of one of my federal contracts, Stan proved the independence of Souslin's hypothesis. I was in Princeton at IAS and IDA. We made him an an appointment with Godel so Stan could show him the proof. Stan was understandably nervous, and arrived the day before to have me check the proof, since I had read Cohen's work the day Paul spoke at IAS earlier in the year. He was nervous and took a sleeping pill. I found minor errors. He then asked for dexedrine, which he knew I had. This made me extremely nervous, but I gave him a couple, and he corrected the errors that night before seeing Godel the next day. In his place I would not have taken a sedative and a stimulant at the same time, but that was Stan! Later, during and after a visit to Penn, he proved, with Solovay, the consistency of the Souslin hypothesis. These were the first concrete independence result in general mathematics after Paul Cohen's work. Cohen was a younger fellow student of ours at Chicago, who learned logic by osmosis while renting a room in Stan's house, where logicians and logic students congregated a decade earlier.
Stan always had a doubtful relation to MacLane, probably because Stan had never finished his courses at Chicago. When we were students, Stan said that whenever he had told Saunders anything, Saunders always checked with me afterwards to make sure it was right. It always was right, but it annoyed Stan greatly. Here is a Peter Freyd anecdote that illustrates this. "A story about the two of them: in 1964. I called Mac Lane in the middle of the summer to ask him why he was blocking a a one-year visitorship for Stanley in the Penn Philosophy department. (I had concluded that the Provost's friendship with Saunders must be obstructing the appointment. The Provost -- perhaps on orders from Saunders -- hadn't told me that there was even an obstruction, never mind that it came from Saunders.) In a somewhat heated conversation, Saunders said at one point that the Tennenbaum he knew could not possibly have proved the independence of the Suslin conjecture. I asked if I could quote him. Long pause. He then responded that he would call the Provost and undo the obstruction. Stanley's visit was actually a great success." Stan's proof, as I said earlier had been verified already by no less than Godel, but Saunders was not aware of this. He always underestimated Stan.
Stan was a bit of a conspiracy theorist. He was sure that that Freeman Dyson was part of a secret U S government sponsored group which controlled world weather and much of world affairs. He believed that this organization started in World War II with MacLane's deployment to an applied mathematics group at Columbia in New York City, also involving the man who brought me to Cornell, J. Barkely Rosser, who was very much involved with the military at a very high level. He viewed my work for many US military organizations over many years as cover for my participation in this project. My wife Sally's introduction to this was when she was walking on the Arts quad at Cornell and encountered Stan and said conversationally "It's a nice day". His reply was "and do you know why", proceeding to launch into this tale, hoping she would let something "slip" I could not disabuse him of these thoughts. He kept trying to trip me up into inadvertantly revealing the conspiracy. Since I did work for various agencies, whenever I said I was not at liberty to discuss some topic, he immediately interpreted this as protecting the "secret". Stan had a vivid imagination.
Stan was a truly exceptional teacher. In the early days he often taught at the night school of the downtown college of the University of Chicago. Later, at Cornell, I arranged for him to come during summers to teach prospective and established high school teachers in a program sponsored by Shell Oil. After the initial Souslin work, he got a tenure position at Rochester, without having an advanced degree, through the efforts of a brave chairman, Len Gillman, and references that I suggested from those few who then understood his work at that time. He stayed there for awhile, then got upset at a faculty meeting with then President Wallace, whom he had known at Chicago as a Statistics professor, walked to the front, spit on the President's shoes in contempt, left the meeting, and resigned from the University.
He left the academic community altogether to become a remarkably unsuccessful entrepreneur. He was a great teacher and felt he could find a mechanism for transferring this expertise to others in a way that would give him an income. But this did not happen. He never held another tenured position. He became entirely peripetetic, with visiting positions or no position for the rest of his life. He greatly valued his lifelong friendship with Hutchins. He told me a few years ago that the difference between him and me is that I grew up and he did not. His peregrinations were quite wild. After leaving Rochester, he came back and invited a large number of mathematicians to a meeting in a Rochester motel without informing the Rochester mathematics department. Afterwards, he sent the the department the bill. Instead of refusing to pay, as I would or you would, that ever kind Chairman Gail Young paid the bill. Finally, over his life he helped a great many people in their lives, giving freely of his time and energy whenever needed.
He had many excellent ideas for educational projects. People he knew occasionally gave him money to try to bring them to reality. It never happened. I don't think he had any idea how hard it is to make a concrete business plan for a venture which will convince backers that there would be a stream of income. He thought that an inspiring idea and a sketch of a plan would be enough to get interested parties to invest. It is not as easy as that. I would guess he acquired this excessive optimism from Hutchins, who had a motto that "ideas have consequences". This enthusiasm was an endearing quality to all who knew him. Another of his sterling qualities was that whenever anyone was in trouble, he would rush to their aid. If they needed money, he would borrow it from someone else and give it to them. If they required his time or professional help, he would offer it. This is one of the reasons he was so beloved by his friends.
Such was the fate of my fellow logic students in the year I entered.
My closest friend in the Hutchins college and in graduate school was Ed Nelson, who has spent his career at Princeton as a Professor of analysis and probability. He also made later contributions to nonstandard models of set theory and ultrafinitistic mathematics. I met him in 1948-9 when I was still in Hutchins' college. He had come in from a Roman Lycèe, taken the exams that are given when you entered Chicago, and placed out of all the courses. He was awarded his bachelor's degree without taking any of the required courses. Time magazine carried a picture of him next to a pile of all the required books he did not have to read, a pile nearly as tall as he was. He was best man at my first wedding. At that time he was not interested in logic. I had not seen him for a long time, we met again at the Tennenbaum memorial at CUNY in April of 2006. He said he was now a great-grandfather.
Michael Morley and Bill Howard joined me as part of the logic student contingent somewhat later. I think I can fairly claim to have induced both Michael Morley and Bill Howardright howard to do logic dissertations with MacLane. At least, Bill Howard has expressed gratitude for the suggestion ever since. I think he was too depressed at the time to think clearly. He had thought he solved a famous problem, told Weil, who telegraphed it to the elder Cartan. It turned out to be in error, Weil demolished him, and he became extremely depressed. He was also interested in proof theory from the beginning. Howard's most famous discovery was in the middle sixties, the Curry-Howard isomorphism for intuitionistic arithmetic. We now express this as the correspondence between natural deductions and typed lambda calculus terms, very important in computer science.
In the case of Morley, he had discovered some extension theorems for 1-1 endomorphisms of groups to automorphisms of larger groups. I suggested he should do the same for first order logic. Overnight, he read up on what first order logic was, and extended his theorems. He had no previous experience with logic. This was the beginning of the saturated models work. He also developed recursive analysis. He presented his work to MacLane, who said it was not enough for a thesis. Morley pointed out Abraham Robinson's recent book on the Metamathematics of Algebra on MacLane's bookshelf, and said his work was certainly as good as that. MacLane agreed, took the book, and told Morley he could keep it. More about how he got his degree later. Michael has always been a down to earth fellow, stemming I am sure from his upbringing in a Youngstown blue collar environment. When he and fellow student Vivienne Brenner decided to marry, they took a streetcar downtown, were married by a judge, and returned to attend an afternoon math tea. No one is less pretentious.
As a student I realized that I should try to make a good impression on the rest of a department dominated by that ultimate sceptic about logic, Andre Weil. In those days for the Ph.D. qualifying exam the student chose three areas for examination, areas in which one might write a thesis. I choose logic as one, and algebraic topology for MacLane. I noticed that Weil was giving an elliptic and modular functions year course, so I decided to take it and choose that subject as my third topic. The course of Weil was most memorable. The audience at the beginning contained Armand Borel (visitor), Serge Lang (instructor), Ed Nelson (student), and me, as I remember it. Weil almost always turned up with some large red volumes and gave the lectures while looking at these volumes and then going to the board and working things out in Weierstrass p-function terms. At the end of the course, I located the books; they were Kronecker's collected works, and at sight he was translating proofs from the Kronecker notation to the Weierstrass notation, no mean feat! This was part of his preparation for writing his "Basic Number Theory"; he always consulted the classics. This reinforced my interest in reading 19th century mathematics, which I have done ever since. I have occasionally given courses in the history of nineteenth century mathematics as a result. I remember the last week of his course, when almost everyone had stopped attending. I came late, the chairs were empty, and Weil had already started lecturing and had filled up three blackboards!
I took a lot of courses from almost everyone there including all visitors, since I like every branch of mathematics. This has stood me in good stead for over fifty years. When I need to use things from subjects very remote from logic, they are usually among the topics I learned as " mother's milk" at Chicago. Without the Chicago background from the early 1950's, I certainly don't think I would have been able to recognize Finsler metrics arising from Lagrangians and use them to compute connections to be used as control policies for physical devices. I learned "modern" differential geometry from Chern that long ago! He had had one of my graduate student friends, Louis Auslander (now deceased) write a Finsler Space paper which I read at that time.
A significant logical influence on me was provided by three visitors in about 1952-3. They were John Myhill in Philosophy, Jim Dekker in mathematics, and Burt Dreben in Philosophy. They became my lifelong friends, but all three are now deceased. Dekker got his degree under Paul Rosenbloom at Syracuse. Rosenbloom was an analyst who wrote a really nice short book on logic using Post productions. Dreben and Myhill were students of Quine.
Dana ScottScott turned up as an instructor at Chcago for a year, which was a delight. I believe he met his wife Irene Schreier there. Irene was the stepdaughter of a well-known music teacher in Chicago (Jonas) who knew Smullyan, also a pianist. She is the daughter of the mathematician Schreier. Everyone in the mathematics world passed through Chicago. For a logician, especially memorable were lectures and teas with Von Neumann and Brouwer. Brouwer was really hard to communuicate with, even though I knew his work quite completely.
I remember first meeting Myhill in an apartment in Hyde Park in about 1952. He had tried to paint it blue, and blue had been transferred to floors and tables. He ended up having all objects in the room bright blue with no contrast. It was a blinding sight when I met him in that room in bright sunlight. I bumped into everything in the room, they all were invisible. There are many stories about Myhill. One he was hardly able to live down. He had gone to a local tavern with friends, and a women there insisted that Myhill was a child and needed a women's care. When they left the tavern, Myhill passed by a baby carriage parked in front of an apartment building. He climbed into it, and she began to roll him along the sidewalk. The owner looked out the window, saw his diappearing baby carriage, and called the Hyde Park Police. They took him in, and one of the party happened upon Bill Howard, who rushed down to the station to rescue Myhill. He told them that Myhill was a professor of philosophy. The Irish cop, with an Irish Brogue, asked Bill what HIS profession was. Bill replied that he was a mathematician. The cop replied skeptically "Oh, a mathematician, eh, lets see if you can extract the cube root of 7". Bill desperately tried to remember high school algebra, and painfully started to work it out, with the cop saying "that's right, you're getting it." This was probably not a typical Chicago cop, even among the Irish ones. Unfortunately a stringer for the Chicago Tribune was in the station. The next morning the headline on the front page of the Tribune read LOGIC GOES BUGGY, and started out roughly saying "a man, claiming th distinction of a Harvard Ph. D. and Professorships at Yale and Chicago, was apprehended in a ..." The Philosophy Department Chair at Chicago claimed he was not a faculty member, which may be technically true since he was merely a visiting assistant professor from Yale. This tale followed him for quite a while. At the end of the fifties he had an unpleasant divorce and became a bit erratic. He took too many leaves, and lost his tenured position. He was regarded as unstable. I put a huge effort into convincing my friends at Buffalo to take him on. He was a great positive influence there for upgrading the department, since he was very social nationally with the best mathematicians. He built a terrific constructive mathematics group, married one of them, Miss Kino. His life ended in tragedy. He told me that Ms. Kino committed suicide without warning, and that her family blamed it on him. I have heard differing accounts on her death from others. Then he succumbed to lung cancer from a lifetime of smoking. One of the last things he did was to invite me over to meet his latest student, Andre Scedrov, who would have no one looking after him after Myhill's imminent death. He asked me to, and I did. They also left a teenage daughter, of whom I have lost track.
In 1954 I met Moe Schreiber (deceased) , also a graduate student in mathematics, and noticed that he could afford decent clothes and apartment etc., unlike the TA's and RA's. I ask him how, and he mention Prof. Walter Bartky's Institute for Air Weapons Research, located in the upper reaches of the Museum of Science and Industry, which did classified work for the US Air Force. Bartky was Dean of the Physical Sciences Division of Chicago at the time. Moe said the work was consistent with writing a dissertation and probably comparable in time consumption to being a TA or RA, but paid two or three times as much. Bartky (deceased) was the only applied mathematician in the Mathematics Department, a celestial mechanist. Schreiber offered to get me an interview. I was interviewed by Bernie Howard, an MIT Ph.D. who was running a new Institute for Systems Research under Bartky, sponsored by the Air Force. He hired me in 1954, and I spent the first three months reading the MIT radiation series from cover to cover, till a secret clearance came through. Then I went into the business of simulating rival designs for airborne weapon systems. At that point, Michael Morley was stuck so far as getting a dissertation going, and I suggested he apply too. Eventually he and I and his wife Vivienne were all there.
There was a very impressive engineer, James Corbett (deceased), highly mathematical, who was Bartky's advisor. From him and on the job I learned many branches of applied mathematics and mechanical and electrical engineering and control theory, and participated in weapons system design and simulation. At the end of Corbett's career he introduced the use of the Euler characteristic to check that when maps are fitted together, from aerial observation, the roads are connected properly. It is in use world wide. My job also meant that I was deferred from the Korean War. My Chicago draft board was in a working class neighborhood, and resented mightily my not serving. But Bartky and his Air Force program manager told them I was doing essential military work, and that was that.
It is because of the work with Corbett that I have been a consultant for many military and inductrial projects over fifty years. Bernie Howard went on to found the computer science department at the University of Miami at Coral Gables. Bartky died a premature death. Corbett lasted till 1998. Morley often visited him.
I met my first wife, Sondra Raines, in 1952 when she was the girlfriend of one of my closest friends, Robert L. Ross. I more or less grabbed her away, which irritated Ross, but he found a very fine wife a few years later, and we were all friends again later.We started dating when she was 18, I was 20. She was my very first girlfriend, and by everybody's accounts a considerable beauty. I actually didn't notice, I just liked her company. I think most mathematicians choose wives without a lot of regard for looks. She was my first female good friend. Sondra was an undergraduate in the Hutchins College, I was in mathematics graduate school. In 1955 the income from the Bartky Institute job meant that we could afford to marry. The wedding ,My First Wedding was in Barnes Chapel at the Chicago Theological Seminary next to the Chicago campus February 12, 1955. She went to graduate school in art history, but this did not work out. Much later, after divorcing me and remarrying in 1968, she went to Law School in Buffalo and became a lawyer. Our oldest son Christopher, was born in 1957,our middle son Gregory in 1965.
I wrote my dissertation in 1955-6 on a topic of my choice without any external advice, while MacLane was on leave in France. He went through it by mail, and I received my Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1956.graduation. The thesis was on an algebraic abstract formulation of substitution in many-sorted free algebras and its relation to equational definitions of the partial recursive functions. I unfortunately acceded to the referee's request that the one-sorted case was enough to publish, the many-sorted subject by now has been revived several times in computer science under the name instantiation theory and also abstract theory of data types. I was awarded an NSF postdoctoral fellowship, but decided to spend one more year (1956-7) at Bartky's Institute completing projects no one else would have completed. It was there that I was able to support some of Myhill's early work on Automata from Air Force grants and occasionally Tennenbaum. This led to my work in 1958 on linear automata, and the Nerode's theorem that is in many beginning Computer Science textbooks. I am not going to include my mathematical autobiography for years before 1992, because there already is a very complete mathematical biography eighty five pages long by my former student J. B. Remmel in the 1992 Festschrift volume "Logical Methods".
For me a signal event was the Cornell NSF Summer 1957 Institute in Logic, arranged by J. Barkley Rosser. I was told to go by Paul Halmos, bless his heart, and I did so. Except for Gödel, every significant logician in the world was there, a group of no more than 60 people. Gödel thought he was was not healthy enough to attend, but he sent Kreisel with a paper for the conference. It was the FIRST time many major figures had met, and everyone had a wonderful time. It was a society of equals; everyone was asked to say what they wanted to present, and to give an abstract. I gave two. One was on my thesis, the other had two theorems: the continuous functions on the partial functions are precisely the relative recursive functionals; the everywhere defined reduction procedures are precisely the truth table reductions. The published version of this paper is referenced by Scott as one of the origins of his continuous functionals interpretation of computer programs. I thought Cornell and Ithaca were the prettiest places I had ever been. The other signal event of 1957 was the birth of my eldest son Christopher.
In 1958-9 I went to the Institute for Advanced Study with Deane Montgomery as sponsor, since MacLane regarded him as more likely to complete administrative matters than Gödel. My officemate there was C. C. Chang. Gödel was the person I worked with. There were so many rumors about him that a Polish friend in Chicago gave me a formal European letter of introduction to a rich Princeton friend of Gödel who had followed Gödel from Europe. I met the friend first, and he gave me a second letter of introduction to Gödel, which I used. All of this was entirely unnecessary; Gödel was happy to talk once a week, and was a pretty fair administrator. There are many anecdotes about Gödel, a few of which are true. What I remember that year about him is the two of us taking an Institute car every week of the winter into town. He wore a European heavy black overcoat and fedora. As it got to be a warm spring and a hot summer, I wondered when he would leave these at home. One day in June in blazing heat he had. He had changed over to a heavy European brown overcoat and brown fedora, which he wore the rest of the year. He was very helpful . He took seriously questions about automata and the question whether there were nonstandard models within the Dekker isols. I proved a few years later there were. Dekker was around Princeton in 1958-9, as was Myhill. I got extremely interested in Myhill's new combinatorial functions, and spent a number of years working out the metatheory of isols using them. I was also priveleged to meet Heyting as he passed through. I spent a couple of hours talking to him. Paul Halmos was in the room, and afterwards said, "ah, you have been conversing with the AntiChrist". This reflected the general opinion about intuitionism in those days. Of course, those of us in recursive function theory understood it through its recursive function theory interpretations (realizability) established a decade earlier by Kleene.
I wrote and asked Tarski, whom I had met at the 1957 Cornell conference, if he could arrange a visit, and he arranged a visiting assistant professorship at Berkeley for 1958-9. I was the officemate of Leon Henkin. He and his wife were most hospitable, as were Julia and Raphael Robinson and the Tarskis. Julia cooked us some excellent dinners. I learned there from Tarski how to run a real logic seminar in which papers in all logic subjects were covered and the students wrote up things that had previously been written badly. I copied this when I got to Cornell. At Berkeley my first semsester teaching assignments were for courses in differential geometry, existence theorems in differential equations, and foundations of mathematics. I apparently had succeeded in creating a persona of being a genuine mathematician, rather than a specialized logician, since I did not ask for these courses. That same reputation meant that I have had to referee papers in a vast variety of subjects only remotely related to logic, which was probably good for me. At a regional meeting I heard Bob Vaught of Berkeley give a talk, half the theorems of which were those of Morley's incomplete thesis of earlier years. I told Vaught about Morley, and Vaught got the manuscript from Morley. They then wrote the Morley-Vaught paper on saturated models. Vaught also told Michael to come out and try to find something interesting to do for a thesis. One of the first things Morley heard at Berkeley was Los's conjecture, which he solved that fall. That satisfied MacLane, and he got a Chicago Ph.D. in about 1961. He cast the thesis in category theory form in honor of his advisor. He never felt MacLane should have accepted the previous manuscripts, even though their content included many theses accepted elsewhere. Morley believed in high standards too. | 2019-04-19T10:17:15Z | http://pi.math.cornell.edu/~anil/highereducation.html |
What a lot of these people don't understand is that patent law is the great success story in opening up proprietary technology. That is its purpose, and nothing has been found which does it better. Patent law is extremely subtle, and its real purpose isn't obvious to anyone who looks only at the short run.
Consider for the moment the position of an inventor without any patent law. Why should he reveal what he has created? If he does, then his competitors can duplicate it, and he gets nothing for his brilliance and hard work (and usually considerable investment). In this situation, he wants to keep as much of his invention secret as he can, for as long as he can.
But even then, he's not out of the woods; because simply by analyzing copies of his invention, his competitors may be able to duplicate it.
Patent law offers him something important, but at a high price. If granted a patent, then he gets exclusive ownership over the technology for a limited duration, and has the privilege of preventing others from making things which work the same way even if they are created independently. But in exchange for this, he pays the following prices: he agrees that the technology will enter the public domain in 20 years, and he has to explain in public exactly how it works so that when the patent expires others can duplicate it. And this was deliberate; it was the purpose of patents from the very beginning. The goal of patents is to encourage inventors to reveal how their inventions work and to release that intellectual property into the public domain.
But to convince inventors to do this, it's necessary to give them something in return. The 20 years of exclusive rights to the invention are the prize which makes it worthwhile for an inventor to reveal how the invention works. 20 years is not a long time, and in the long run this causes technology to expand faster.
Patent law is enshrined in the US Constitution for precisely this reason. As short as that great document is, the founders felt it important to include granting of patents as one of the capabilities of the US Government, because they had observed how valuable patents were toward economic and technological progress. Even 200 years ago it had become apparent that countries with strong patent laws tended to flourish relative to the ones which didn't.
Hence the paradox: I support patent law because I want as much technology in the public domain as possible. And nothing has ever been found which is more effective at moving proprietary technology into the public domain.
Which is not to say that a patent prevents innovation even while it's in force. It's possible to challenge a patent on numerous grounds, or to demonstrate that your device doesn't infringe a patent. A patent consists of two substantive portions amidst all the boilerplate: the description of the invention and the claims.
The description of the invention is the reason that patents open technology, because it must be sufficiently detailed to permit a person "skilled in the art" to reproduce the invention without further information. Thus when the patent runs out, everyone can and will make their own. Indeed, one way a patent can be challenged is by demonstrating that the description of the invention is incomplete or not sufficiently detailed so that it can't be reproduced. But that doesn't happen often.
The legal protections offered by a patent are embodied in the claims. These are a sequence of statements which describe the aspects of the invention which are to be protected by the patent, along with reasonable applications and extrapolations of that invention to other reasonable applications.
1. We invented a pushbutton.
2. We think we can put a plastic cap on it.
3. If we do this a hundred times with different caps, we can make a keyboard.
4. The keyboard can be used to enter data into a computer.
5. This facilitates making a convenient way of producing nearly any user interface for a computer.
So, from the hypothetical invention of a pushbutton, they try to claim control over nearly all computer user interfaces. This is a little over the top, but I've seen worse in patents. Another reason for using a series of claims like this is to see how much you can sneak past the patent examiner. He might grant 1-3 but not grant 4 or 5.
So, we've worked our fannies off and created a device and started shipping it, and then one of our competitors points out a patent they have. What next?
This happened once at a company I worked at, and I was handed the patent and told "Do your best." So I read it in detail, analyzed it carefully, and then composed an analysis of each of the 42 claims in it and showed a plausible case for why we weren't in infringement of that claim. I was able to make a successful case; I never was asked about it but I later saw something written by our lawyer (who never felt the need to talk to me) which echoed my conclusion: we were not in infringement of 41 of the claims, and the 42nd was "overly broad". I guess the other company was convinced as well, because it wasn't necessary for us to go to court and we did continue to ship.
1. Doesn't apply. Simply, that what we did doesn't fall within the claim. This comes down to analyzing the details of the claim and trying to show that it doesn't describe us. It's a matter of fact and by far the strongest defense against a claim of patent infringement because if true it's usually pretty easy to prove in court. Of course, it might not be possible.
2. Contract law. If we've negotiated a license to the patent and paid royalties, then we can't be sued for infringing the patent.
All the other approaches come down to trying to demonstrate that the patent is invalid and was issued by mistake. That's more difficult; the patent holder has more to lose and will defend it more vigorously. "Doesn't apply" means that we're not infringing but it leaves the patent in place. Any successful challenge takes away the patent claim entirely, not merely as it applies to us but as it applies to everyone. Obviously the patent holder takes a dim view of this.
3. Prior art. Patent law doesn't permit anyone to protect anything. You have to have created it, and it has to be new. If someone else did it first, even in secret, even if you didn't know about it, then the patent claim is invalid. The "keyboard" patent above couldn't be issued now because switches and keyboards have existed a long time. This is a very powerful claim because it is also a matter of fact and usually easy to prove. Indeed, there used to be (and I think still is) a timewindow of 1 year after you first reveal your technology within which you had to file your patent, and if you missed that window then you lost your right to file for a patent. (And of course, no-one else could file a patent because of your prior art.) This is by far the most common way of challenging a patent claim.
4. Obvious. This is more difficult to prove, but it's a valid defense nonetheless. Patent law requires true innovation. If a patent is issued for something that nearly anyone "skilled in the art" could think of without any trouble, then the patent claim is invalid. Unfortunately, "obvious" is in the eye of the beholder, and you have to prove it to a judge. Generally the standard of proof for this is very high. Usually this is difficult to prove in court, so this is not a favored defense except when the claim is egregious. Also, the exact wording of the claim is important. For instance, IBM created and patented a way of using copper on ICs. Shortly thereafter several other companies revealed that they'd also been working on copper technology. Previously, aluminum had been used and the electrical properties of copper are known to be superior. (Silver is even better, the best known for any pure element, and it wouldn't surprise me if someone out there is working on use of silver in ICs.) IBM was granted patents on the specifics of their technology, but if they were granted a patent on the concept of using copper on ICs, it would have been challenged on grounds of being "obvious".
5. Overly broad. The "nearly all user interface" claim above deriving from the invention of a push button would be overly broad. Patent law permits reasonable applications of the invention to be protected, but not unreasonable ones. Again, this is a judgement call but it's usually easier to prove than "obvious" is. Judges experienced in patent law will usually understand this without too much difficulty. In this case there's no evidence needed beyond the patent itself; it comes down to convincing a judge.
6. Significant improvement. This one is also hard to prove. If what we're doing falls within the claims of the patent but is actually dramatically better, then we're not in infringement. Indeed, in such a case we might even be granted a patent of our own. The difficulty is that we have to be a lot better. The standard of proof for this is very high and this is not a favored defense.
7. Dirty hands. This is a rather strange defense; it means that the owner of the patent did something underhanded. In one case I can think of, one company was suing another over a patent and it turned out that the patent holder had stolen something (a prototype) from the other company as part of the process of investigating it. (The patent holder was lucky that criminal charges weren't filed against the employee who did it.) This is luck; you can't rely on the patent holder being so stupid. But if they are and hand you a weapon like this, then it's an extremely powerful defense indeed. Judges have a tendency to punish "dirty hands".
8. Contract law deux. This is a relatively new form of challenge and derives from contract law. Sometimes members of an industry will form a consortium to create an industry standard for something. Not always, but sometimes such an industry standard body will require all participants to give up the rights to any intellectual property which might cover that standard, so that the standard will be open and products compliant with it won't require any license. If a company participates in such a body and makes that agreement, and then later pops up with and tries to enforce a patent on a critical part of the standard, their rights to enforce that patent can be taken away from them. (In essence, it will be argued that they already granted everyone perpetual non-royalty-bearing agreements to the patent.) Dell Computer lost rights to a patent this way, and right now (3/2001) Infineon and Hyundai and Micron are trying to invalidate certain patents belonging to RamBUS on grounds of participation by RamBUS in JEDEC which required such an agreement from its members.
It's not always the case that an industry standard is "open". Indeed, it's very common for an industry standard to require a license to intellectual property. Ethernet was a standard which required a license from Xerox. GPIB (IEEE-488) was a standard which required a license from HP. IS-95 (the standard governing CDMA cell phones) requires a license from Qualcomm. The mere fact that something is an industry standard doesn't mean it's open. However, it does if participation in the standards process required an up front agreement by all participants that the resulting standard should be open, such as was the case in the development by JEDEC of the standard for SDRAM. It remains to be seen whether RamBUS will lose its rights to the disputed patents.
In the case of the patent I analyzed that one time, I was able to directly challenge all but one of the base claims on the basis of "Doesn't apply", and that last one on the basis of it being "overly broad". In each of the former cases what I wrote was a detailed explanation of what the claim actually meant, and then show how what we had done was outside of it. My "overly broad" claim was more a matter of judgement and I simply suggested it as grounds. My writeup was intended for our lawyer. He apparently thought it made sense because he said the same thing in the letter we sent to the other company. They evidently didn't feel like pushing the case; my technical arguments on all the points except one would have stood in court, and they risked losing the last one if we had successfully convinced a judge it was "overly broad". Better to simply let it go.
Even during the period of protection, patents usually don't lock up technology. It's rare (although completely legal) for a company to hold its patents closely and refuse to license them, the most common example of this being the Polaroid corporation's patents governing instant film. Far more common is for patent holders to license those patents freely in exchange for royalties or rights to patents owned by others. And they can do this without fear because they retain their rights under the patent. If they were not protected by patent, they'd be much more fearful of doing this. Therefore, even in the short run, the protections offered by a patent facilitate the sharing of technology.
So patent law encourages the creation and distribution of technology by encouraging inventions and by encouraging the inventors to reveal how those inventions work, and best of all by encouraging those inventors to release their inventions into the public domain. What's not to like?
« 1, Take The Lead, I Got Your Back! | 2019-04-20T10:13:57Z | http://www.haitianinternet.com/articles/patents-and-intellectual-property.html |
When I was waiting on the day of the revision surgery, I was scared of what I was facing. My original left knee replacement in April 2009 was extremely painful. However, I am totally blown away by how different my knee replacement surgery in April 2009 was from my left knee revision this past October. There was hardly any pain with the revision. With the replacement, I was out-of-work for 3 months.
No one should have to manage pain, not when you have an institution like HSS, with exceptional doctors and incredible staff.
In May of 2017, in chronic pain and only able to sleep in one, very awkward, position, I started researching surgeons at HSS and selected my top three to begin the process. My hip had taken over and had put me on the sidelines of life. Dr. Westrich was at the top of my list. I met with him and scheduled my surgery for June 1st.
I am now at seven months post-op. I walk the streets of New York and have moments of pure joy when I notice that I no longer have pain and can walk as far as I desire. I am sleeping through the night again — in multiple positions. In September I entered the river in search of trout for the first time in three years. In November I kicked a soccer ball around with my physical therapist, and this winter I hope, with the doctor’s permission, to ski at least the bunny trail and feel the wind in my face. I used to think it was hyperbole when those who had had the procedure said it was the best decision they had ever made. Now, on the other side, I can honestly say that it was the second best decision I have ever made. The first was asking my wife to marry me.
I travel all over the world and my domestic travels are almost daily. I saw several different doctors in several different states before I made a decision as I am very wary of surgeries, especially when it can hinder my work. I was extremely selective. I know I made the right choice with Dr. Westrich and his team. In my opinion, Dr. Westrich is the best. He was knowledgeable, listened to my concerns, understood my position, and worked with me. He is top notch.
Denise Palacios is a miracle worker. As office manager and surgery coordinator, I am amazed at all she juggles so seamlessly. She has always been there for me with my questions or concerns. She goes far beyond what her title dictates and I appreciate her responsiveness and professionalism. She really seems to care.
The team at HSS is amazing, pure and simple. Everyone was so kind and caring and took excellent care of me. There were many people that came in to check on me and I am sad that I can't think of their names, but it is they that made my experience so positive.
I am overjoyed with the results of my surgery. The healing process was work but it went quickly and I healed very well. The whole experience went very smoothly. My travels are kicked back into high gear again. I still need to get my other knee done and when I do, it will be done with Dr. Westrich and HSS.
Luckily, I was referred to Dr. Geoffrey Westrich after having knee replacement at another hospital and suffering for many months with a metal allergy. The implants used contained nickel and cobalt.
After the original surgery, I developed terrible pain throughout my body and became weaker and weaker. My original orthopedic surgeon did not take my complaints seriously, and other doctors in the area did not want to see me before a year had gone by. I thought I would soon be in a wheel chair. I was finally referred to Dr. Westrich and traveled to New York to the Hospital for Special Surgery for the consultation. He showed compassion when I explained my symptoms.
Dr. Westrich was caring and understanding, and took the time to explain my options. He performed revision surgery on my left knee in January, 2014 and I noticed a substantial difference afterwards. My right knee revision surgery was done in May, 2014 and by July, 2014, most of my pain was gone. I have regained my strength, can now take care of myself, and enjoy life as I did before my original surgery. I commend Dr. Westrich for taking an interest in my situation, and for having extensive knowledge and experience to handle my complex complications. I credit Dr. Westrich as being the best Surgeon in his field due to his background in research. In addition, the care and attention I received from Dr. Westrich’s staff and the Hospital for Special Surgery staff were of the highest quality. I highly recommend Dr. Westrich and the Hospital for Special Surgery for all orthopedic conditions.
I went to five different surgeons, and with each surgeon I was told that it was a very risky surgery and the outcome could be amputation. When I saw Dr. Westrich and he told me he thought he could save my leg, I was so happy, I burst out in tears.
Every day I thank God for surgeons like Dr. Geoffrey Westrich... who care about their patients and want them to lead a normal, productive life.
At a dance, I tripped on a chair, fell on my left side, and my left femur separated from my hip. Being in much pain, the local fire department took me to a nearby hospital in Long Island where I was operated on the next day for a partial hip replacement. I exited the hospital in good shape in five days and started physical therapy. Everything was going great but, after five weeks, I developed a staph infection that put me back in the hospital for 25 days. The prosthesis was removed, I was on intravenous antibiotics for eight weeks, and spent the next eight months in a wheel chair.
My eldest son of four children did some research and found on the internet that Dr. Geoffrey Westrich of the Hospital for Special Surgery did "reconstructive" hip surgery and advised me to go into the city to have it performed. I saw Dr. Westrich and after looking at my x-rays and a consultation with him, he decided to take my case. I first had to be cleared by Dr. Barry Brause, the Director of Infectious Disease, who gave me many "hurdles" to clear before I could have constructive surgery. After clearing all these hurdles, I had the operation on December 29, 2010. The nurses, physical therapists, and doctors at HSS are knowledgeable and caring. I've been in physical therapy now going on six months but everyday am feeling stronger and better.
Posted on Hospital for Special Surgery website: I have trained in the martial arts for over 40 years and hold black belts in karate and jiu jutsu. Although I was 56 years old at the time of my surgery I was still regularly training in the martial arts and Bikram yoga, working out at least 5 times a week. I came to HSS and Dr. Westrich after enduring increasing pain in my left hip over a three year period. The pain in my hip was constant and excruciating, and despite all this I resisted seeking treatment. To make my story all the more unique is that I have been in healthcare my whole adult career, as a paramedic (and to this day still work as such at New York Presbyterian), nurse, hospital executive and healthcare attorney, and yet I was deathly afraid of facing the inevitable, I knew I needed a new hip. I so feared surgery and especially anesthesia.
However, when the time came to have surgery I turned to HSS. I had always advised friends and families, and anyone else who sought advice on where to go with an orthopedic problem, to head straight to HSS. Being steeped in New York healthcare community I held HSS is the highest esteem. Moreover, when I had dislocated my elbow a year or so earlier, I headed straight to HSS and Dr. Daluiski. So when I finally resigned myself to the fact that I had to have surgery I turned once again to HSS.
Two good friends of mine, who are physicians, told me about Dr. Westrich. From the very first encounter with Dr. Westrich’s office I felt my fear and anxiety begin to ebb. Denise, the office manager, was so sweet yet so professional. From my first appointment for a consult through my surgery scheduling to my follow up, she was absolutely amazing.
Dr. Westrich examined me and took the time to explain every aspect of the surgery and allay my fears. He demonstrated incredible poise, empathy and professionalism, attributes that are, unfortunately, difficult to find in medicine today. I walked out of that first consultative visit with total confidence in Dr. Westrich and HSS.
Prior to my surgery I was required to take a class as part of the pre-surgical process. The professionals leading the class covered virtually every aspect of the hospital and recovery process. Dr. Meng, who conducted my pre-op medical examination, was absolutely wonderful.
On my day of surgery, I arrived at the appointed time, and was escorted through the registration and pre-op process by a series of amazing staff and professional personnel. The process was so organized and efficient, but concomitantly warm, welcoming and comforting. I was taken to the operating room at my appointed time, sedated by the anesthesiologist and woke up several hours later without any pain in my hip.
My two and a half days in the hospital were equally impressive with a parade of nurses, physicians and other professionals caring for me and explaining at every turn the process. I was discharged home walking with a cane.
I participated in physical therapy as prescribed by Dr. Westrich. In a little over a month post-op I was walking without a cane. After about two months, I was back to doing yoga and jiu jutsu on a limited basis. Three months later I was doing karate, Jiu Jutsu and yoga virtually without limitation. As I write this, nine months post-op, I can honestly say that my surgery and recovery have far exceeded my wildest expectation. I have enjoyed, since my surgery, a pain free and active life, engaging in the activities that I love and frankly doing things that I have not been able to do for a very long time. The relief of pain cannot be overstated – I am able to sleep through the night without waking up in pain throughout the night. This in and of itself is an incredible result.
Perhaps the greatest testament to the incredible impact that Dr. Westrich and HSS made on my life is the fact that five months post-op I carried my three year old grandson on my shoulders all around the Bronx zoo for an entire day.
It is not hyperbole to state that Dr. Westrich, his staff, and the entire HSS team have dramatically changed my life. Thank you.
My case was very complicated and there were many risks involved. As you can imagine I was very anxious and worried about traveling to a different country in order to be operated on. When I came across the reviews for the hospital I was impressed, however, what inspired me was the doctor who handled my case. Due to complications from my previous surgery, this surgery would be extremely risky to perform. If it were not for him, I’m not sure I would have had such a great outcome.
Dr. Geoffrey Westrich took on my case and made certain to address my fears every step of the way. He showed great compassion, care, and professionalism from the moment that I met him. He wanted me to feel comfortable and secure before and after my surgery. For the first time I can say I felt like everything would go well. I had confidence in Dr. Westrich and believe I could not have made a better choice. I am extremely grateful that he worked on my case. If it were not for his expertise... I may not have been writing this letter today.
How do I even begin to say thank you to Dr. Westrich at HSS for giving me back my life and—most importantly—my hope. After 13 years, I had my initial hip revision redone, and during the procedure my pelvic bone was broken. As a mid-30s woman with a small child at home, this was devastating to me. I ended up having to go through four additional hip revisions in two separate states—only to have my hip continually dislocate—even when just sitting down. My hometown doctor was afraid to even try anything at this point, so I went to see Dr Westrich at HSS and instantly felt that he was the right doctor for the job. His knowledge, his expertise, and the high regard he held from other medical personnel gave me the confidence to try surgery once again.
Living out of state made it difficult to work out appointments, but his amazing staff always worked well to accommodate me—especially for pre-admission testing. Unfortunately, on the day I arrived in NY for my pre-admission testing, I fell and broke my femur bone in my good leg and ended up at a hospital in Long Island. Immediately upon receiving a phone call from my brother about what happened, Dr. Westrich arranged for me to be transported to HSS for immediate femur surgery. Knowing I could not bear to be away from my family in VA, he arranged to do the hip surgery only 2 weeks later. The surgery went off fantastically, and he placed a specially-made plate down the length of my leg to keep the hip from popping out the back where all of the muscles had been shredded from being dislocated over 5 times in the past 3 years.
It has now been over a year since my hip has dislocated and with each passing day my confidence grows stronger. I can't imagine how life would be today if I had not met Dr. Westrich and allowed him to perform the surgery that he did. He did such an amazing job (and has such a great bedside personality to boot) that when my mother recently needed her knees replaced for the 2nd time, she went to Dr. Westrich as well. As for me, my hips are in his hands for any future surgery that I may need—no matter how far I have to travel to have it done. Thanks to him, I am now back driving (after 2 yrs without being able to) and getting out to enjoy life with my husband and son. Thank you, HSS and thank you, Dr. Westrich. You all are the best!
In case any of your patients need inspiration, here's a picture of my first rock climbing adventure six months after knee replacement surgery! Not bad for a 56 year woman! Dr. Westrich, I can't thank you enough for giving me my life back!
After knee surgery (at another hospital), I went for two years with further pain, especially in walking up and down stairs. After complaining to my original surgeon for two years and him telling me that there was nothing more that he could do for me and that maybe I should see another doctor for a consult, I saw Dr. Westrich. He immediately diagnosed my problem. He set me up to do a revision of my knee, due to the fact that the original surgery omitted the resurfacing of the patella. Today I can walk up and down stairs and have less pain each day. I can stand several hours at a time and even do a light jog for exercise. | 2019-04-21T06:36:12Z | https://www.westrichmd.com/testimonial/ |
As the number of restaurants continue to increase, and alternate sources for prepared food multiply, food service industry saturation has become a serious problem for restaurants.
Over the last 25 years people have been eating out more frequently than their parents or grandparents did. The population has been growing...the number of places available for dining has been growing even more rapidly.
In 1970 there were 17,231 people per fast food outlet; in 1985 there were 8,432 per outlet.
In the mid-1980s there were 845 people per full service restaurant. By 1990 that number had gone down to 685...today it is approaching 600. Lots of competition!
The same implications are applicable for other retailers as they are for food service. To grow, most restaurants have to identify their niche. And then use marketing to obtain customers and retain them.
They are increasing their market share mainly at the expense of their competitors - competitors who are not doing customer relationship marketing.
Customer Relationship Marketing - or DataBase Marketing - is a rather recent innovation for retailers generally and restaurants specifically. Until just a few years ago restaurants appealed to a mass market. And were marketed in that manner.
As more and more places to eat out have become available, full-service dining has become specialized. Restaurants appeal to specific and particular groups of diners. That, and the high cost of mass media, have created a change in restaurant marketing strategy from mass marketing to very specific target marketing.
Full-service restaurant chains who know who their customers are and learn from them what they want are successful. They increase market share by building databases of their customers... and then talking to them as customers.
They don't spend money up front getting them in the first time...and then spend money again getting them in the second time. They already know their customer. They invite them back again and again at a much lower cost. And, at a much higher profit!
The vice president of marketing of a national full-service restaurant said the demographics and lifestyles of his customers are similar regardless of the geographic location. That very well may be so. At the same time, as a restaurant ages its customers will age, too.
The winning restaurant (and other retailers as well!) will invest in the future by finding ways to bring in new customers. And work to keep the average age of the customer about the same.
This automatically means their overall customer base grows. And, their total volume grows, which allows them the opportunity to be more profitable.
Marketing is certainly more than advertising and promotion. Marketing is hospitality and salesmanship and service and making the customer feel good. Making the customer feel this is "my place". It's a place where I like to come and I like to bring my friends and family.
Marketing and customer service are inner-related. Just as frequency and loyalty are inner-related.
During the last decade and a half marketing promotions have become a major part of restaurant promotions. The mix of advertising to gain awareness and marketing to build a database and keep the customer is now "accepted".
Even those organizations who are not using what direct marketing calls a database, recognize the power marketing and Customer Relationship Marketing have when you do build a database.
A successful database marketing promotion has 6 major components.
1. The person to whom it is sent.
The person to whom the promotion offer is directed must be the right person. They must be the person most likely to respond. The promotion must be directed to the correct person at the correct address...and if possible, personally addressed.
The best mailing list any organization has is its own customers. Because they are most likely to read and respond to any promotional offer you make.
A customer list also gives you the opportunity to identify key characteristics of those customers. And to be able to clone them by selecting other individual and specific names, according to that criteria.
An interesting additional benefit of Customer Relationship Marketing is that it allows you to use what you know about current customers to find new customers.
those most likely to become new customers are those who are most like your current customers.
The offer is what motivates customers to respond. A promotion will be more successful if you offer something the recipient wants or needs rather than what you may wish to sell.
People know what they want and need. In making an offer do not try to change their habits. The objective should be to get as many responses as possible by fulfilling the customers needs.
An offer directed to your current customers can be weaker than an offer directed to prospective customers. Less incentive is needed to motivate a repeat visit than is necessary to motivate a trial visit.
Generally, promotions should be redeemable over several weeks. Don't make it too short...or you'll lose. On the other hand don't make it too long...or there will be no incentive to respond.
Most promotions should offer an added value. Such as a bottle of wine, desert, a sweepstakes...some incentive to stay with you. Some incentive to return to you. Some incentive to try you.
Our experience in the restaurant business is that these incentives do not decrease the perceived value of your product. They do not decrease the average guest check. In fact, in most cases the guest check average remains the same or increases... and the average number of guests per visit increases.
Experience with our major clients over the last dozen years shows that multiple mailings to your audience (at least 4 times a year and as many as 8 times within 12 months) does NOT cheapen your image. Or in any way degrade your position in the marketplace. Quite the opposite happens...your customers appreciate the fact that you recognize who they are and specifically invite them back.
You can make a special event out of almost anything. Valentines Day. Mothers Day. Flag Day. Back to School. And countless other opportunities.
Customers birthdays and anniversaries are personal and unique to that customer. They work because they are personal. In most cases birthday offers out draw any other offer made. Why? Because more people go out to eat on their birthday than any other single day of the year.
Other offers that you might include are anything "new". If it's a restaurant it might be a new menu. Or a new manager. Or an anniversary for the restaurant. Or anything that gives you a reason to let your customers know you would like to have them visit you again.
It is obviously essential that you get your recipient's attention. As in all direct response marketing the creative process is an art . . . not a science.
For most retail sales and specifically for restaurants, the message needs to be clear and simple and easy and brief. It encourages action and it does it quickly.
The graphics should be clear and to the point. Support the restaurant. Support the theme. Support the idea. The graphics should make the copy and the offer blatantly clear.
We live in a visual world. And we live in a color visual world. Anybody under the age of 40 has grown up in a color marketplace. And anybody over 40 is so use to it that everybody expects it. Use graphics and visuals that gain attention and help maximize the understanding of your message. Of your offer.
People buy benefits - not features. People buy What's In It For Me. Make sure your offer is clear and quickly communicated. People need to know why you are sending this message to me and what I'm suppose to do with it. And how I'm going to be better for doing it.
Obviously, personalization is more likely to be noticed than not. Because you are building a database and know the names of your customers you should be personalizing your message to them. If it's reasonable, it should even be signed by the sender.
Since you are going to be going to your audience on a frequent bases, you might consider a "series" of contacts over the year. That have a theme. That are color coordinated. That are the same size or shape. In other words, you need to think your creative through from the beginning.
We have all experienced having heard or read or seen an advertising message. And gone to the retailer to take advantage of the offer. And come upon a group of people who had no idea what we were talking about. This is not good.
Everyone who has any contact with the customer needs to know about any special event and any promotion that is going on at any time.
You need to make sure all of the team who have contact with your customers know what you are doing. You need to get them involved.
You need to communicate to overcome any problems that might occur in service or sales. You must make sure these people who are communicating and touching and being involved with your customers know everything there is to know about your promotion.
Our experience has been that employees can relate to promotions. And the more they know about it the prouder they are of it. The more they will participate with it. The more successful they will be. And, the happier your customers will be. The more likely they will be to return because they've enjoyed a pleasant experience.
It is absolutely imperative to know what happened. You need to have all the numbers. And relate all the numbers to money. Not just costs...but also profit!
In addition to accounting, marketing must aid in tracking and tracing results. This means the local retail outlet must coordinate and cooperate. If you are on-line it will be easy to do. There may be some hand work. It really doesn't matter...what matters is that you know what works. Because when you know what works - then you also know what does not work. You repeat what works and you eliminate what does not work. You learn from the process.
I'll close this article with a bit of philosophy. I really don't believe in failure. I don't think there is such a thing as a marketing or promotional failure. Because I believe that every program teaches us something. There is no such thing as failure...there are only lessons. | 2019-04-24T14:41:25Z | http://presentation-pointers.com/showarticle/articleid/423/ |
Nearly half (46%) of sales and marketing leaders admit that customers and prospects increasingly want to interact with their brand over social media.
Today businesses struggle to create an advertisement that would be efficient and successful. Now almost every brand creates ads on websites, blogs, social media, and networks. But these platforms are flooded with information and became overwhelming for many people.
38% of US adults have installed an ad-blocker to reclaim their online experiences.
Here is where Facebook and chatbots can help you out.
Facebook is a social network that currently has more than 2 billion users. Its wide audience creates excellent possibilities for advertising. Together with chatbots, Facebook ads offer a great way for a personalized conversation between a business and a customer.
Instead of linking an ad from a news feed to another website, now FB Messenger is a destination point for ads. This Facebook feature enables users to instantly communicate with your business by clicking on your ad.
To use the full potential of Facebook advertising you need a chatbot first.
A chatbot is a service powered by rules and sometimes artificial intelligence. Users communicate with a chatbot via the chat interface, similar to how they would talk to a real person.
By creating targeted advertising on Facebook, a user would then come across your ad. If interested, they would click on the button with CTA where it would start the conversation with a chatbot in Messenger. By instantly getting in touch with the user, a chatbot increases your chances of closing a deal.
At the same time, a chatbot qualifies leads so employees won’t spend time on leads that would eventually turn out to be dead ends. A bot would ask a person a few questions and gather the necessary data. Moreover, if your bot is integrated with CRM, information about a lead will automatically be sent there.
How your business is going to benefit from chatbot advertising?
In today’s fast-paced world people love when everything is done instantly. It means that companies have to figure out ways to accelerate their businesses to not fall behind others. And the faster you can respond to a potential client the more likely the odds you will have to close a deal. People are not willing to wait on the hours to go by to only receive a letter on their email.
A study conducted by Harvard Business Review indicates that many companies are too slow to follow up on their leads.
Chatbots reach out to a new lead in a matter of seconds at any time. And as we already know, the faster you respond – the better chances to close the deal.
Using chatbot advertising creates a personalized customer experience of interacting with the brand at an individual level.
With chatbot advertising, your business can start a conversation that feels natural and makes users feel safer and confident when using your services or buying your product. The other significant advantage about this combination is if you reach a user once, you can send them messages anytime.
The next important advantage chatbot advertising has to offer is it keeps a user on the same website, and as an outcome, it reduces the bounce rate.
Collecting information about a user through a chatbot is much more reliable than redirecting a person to a different website so they could fill out a registration form on their own. Messenger enables people to ask questions and get instant answers without leaving Facebook.
Chatting with a chatbot gives more information not only to your business but for your customers as well. This gives the possibility to create an offer that is much more personalized and tailored to users needs.
Facebook states that 53% of consumers are more likely to buy from you if they can message you.
Chatbot guides and leads a user through the buying process to the right product. Moreover, Messenger supports payments which sets up a hassle-free purchase without ever leaving Facebook. In the long run, chatbot advertising can have a massive positive impact on sales rates.
Chatbot advertising on Facebook enables companies to drive a great amount of local traffic to their business. You can select a specific local audience that lives nearby your office, cafe, restaurant or shop to see your ad.
Reaching local people with deal-based offers can boost your sales rate and increase localized brand-awareness.
For example, you own a small shop and want more people to get to know about your business. To do so, you can place a targeted advertisement on Facebook that offers people a coupon for a discount if they visit you within the week. You may add a CTA button such as, Send a message or Get a discount or something along these lines. And after that, a chatbot will reach out and offer a discount coupon to people who clicked on your ad.
The other thing that shows that Facebook is a powerful platform for advertising is that it’s open and click-through rates are fantastic. The average Messenger open rate is near 80-90% compared to 20% for email. And average CTR (Click Through Rate) on Messenger is 30% and emails CTR is only 3.3%.
Using chatbot advertising for remarketing is great. You can re-reach to thousands of people with personalized messages. Sending a customized message gives you a better chance at starting meaningful conversations that will convert in the end. With these ads you are not limited only to users’ news feeds, you can reach back to them naturally with the direct message in their Messenger Inbox.
For instance, previously you had a Facebook ad about your seminar. With the chatbot, you can reach to people who have engaged with your ad before and send them a message about a new upcoming workshop that will soon be taking place.
Facebook is perfect for fast and efficient remarketing and the possibilities of chatbot advertising there are massive.
You can also create an ad that will appear right in the user’s Messenger Inbox. This types of ads are called sponsored messages.
There are no special labels or headers on the message, so it doesn’t look too promotional scaring people straight away.
When a person clicks on the message, he will see the sponsored message that typically consists of text, image, description, button and this time with the “Sponsored” label.
Note: You can send Sponsored Messages to those users, who have already engaged with your brand.
These ads use Messenger chatbot as a destination point.
For example, a user sees an ad displaying a local shop offering a discount coupon with a CTA button (send a message, learn more or get your discount now, etc).
When a user reacts to this ad by clicking on the button, it instantly opens a chat in Messenger with a message from a bot. This gives your business the ability to communicate with your current and potential clients directly.
So, let’s set up a click-to-messenger ad.
1. If you’re creating an ad for the first time, I recommend you to create a Business Account to manage your business setting easily and in the future. If you have one, skip this step and head to your Facebook Ad Account.
2. Go to the “Campaign” tab and click a green “Create” button in the top left corner.
You may be offered to choose between guided and quick creation. The first option is much easier to follow, and I will guide you through this one.
3. Now you see the list of objections. Choose the one that works best for you, but remember that not every objective gives an ability to use messenger as a destination.
We’ll break down the “Messages” option.
4. After choosing the objective, you’ll see a field where you can name your campaign, create a split test and turn on budget optimization.
Let’s name your campaign. Only you will see this, so pick the name you can easily understand in the future. It’s okay to leave the other two options as they are at this stage.
5. The next step would be configuring your ad set options.
Give a recognizable name to your ad set and choose a message destination.
If you don’t have a business represented in WhatsApp, you can pass through this option and concentrate on Messenger.
You can refer to the “Messenger Destinations” section above or see hints to help you decide with message destination. We’ll stick to the “Click to Messenger” option for now.
6. Let’s move to targeting.
Facebook enables a variety of targeting options, but let’s start with the basic ones and then move forward.
The way you speak with a teenager from LA differs from a 40 years old bank worker somewhere in London, so be thoughtful about segmenting your audience.
Start with the most valuable group you understand and can personalize your message for.
Hint: you can analyze your existing clients base and try to identify patterns you may apply to targeting.
7. Now you can move to a detailed targeting. Here you can choose more advanced parameters based on the knowledge or assumptions about your target audience.
Take some time to explore the available options.
It’s important to remember that you can narrow down your audience or exclude a certain group from your targeting.
As you may see in the example, I’ve added 3 different blocks with targeting options.
You may also consider that the first block contains two targeting options.
Add as many parameters as you wish, but keep your audience broad enough for Facebook to show your ad. Two to five thousand would be okay for the beginning.
8. Let’s move to placements.
You can choose Automatic Placements, which is a recommended option from Facebook, or Edit Placements and select the places you want to appear.
While you may not know which placements will work best for you, it is better to create a few similar ad sets, but for different placements. This way you’ll see well-performing and underperforming placements instead of an average result.
If you know your audience well and understand the platforms they use, feel free to narrow down the placement options.
You can also choose to target only mobile or desktop devices or live it as it is to target both.
9. Now you can choose your budget and schedule.
You can choose between Daily and Lifetime budget. It’s up to you to decide what works best for your business. While spending your budget daily is more smooth, the Lifetime option enables more precise scheduling.
Both options give an ability to choose the Start and End dates. What’s noticeable for the lifetime budget option is that you can select specific dates and hours (in your or your user’s time zone) for your ads to appear.
It’s a nice option if you understand how the day of your audience looks like or at least track the activity patterns on your page.
10. As soon as you’re done with Ad Set configuration, you can move to the Ad section. Here you can define how the ad will appear and configure the Messenger setup. But let’s start small.
Name your ad and choose an identity that will represent you on the platforms. Usually, it is your Facebook and/or Instagram page.
11. Choose the format of your ad. There are a carousel and single image/video options available. It depends on the type of business and the audience which format will work better, so it’s up to you to decide where to start. As always, you can create two ads to test.
We’ll consider a single image option as an example.
You can upload your image or choose between stock images available for free. You can also make a video out of pictures right on Facebook.
Whatever you prefer, be picky about your visuals. It’s the first interaction point between you and your audience, so make sure it won’t be the last one.
12. In the Ad Setup section, you’ll need to add text, headline, description, and a call to action for your ad. You can read some best practices on writing facebook ads here.
You can preview your ad on different platforms and devices in the Ad Setup section. If it’s hard to keep the appearance of the add equally good on different platforms and devices, you can take a few steps back and split your ad set by placements and device types.
13. The part that differs the process from the ordinary way is Messenger Setup. Here you can configure the way your bot will start a conversation with those who have clicked the ad. It is necessary to pay attention to this section and provide value right away to keep users engaged.
In this section, you can choose between creating your own welcome experience and a bot’s “Get started” screen, which I do not recommend since it gives little to no context to a user came from an ad.
Your welcome experience can be “Standard” or “Custom”. While “Standard” is a good option for a simple automated response, “Custom” gives broader space for tailoring your message to context.
14. Let’s create a custom message.
If you have a developer, you can pass your requirements on how the welcome message should look like and ask them to send it back to you as a JSON file. After receiving a code, you need to go to a corresponding tab and replace a standard facebook template with your snippet of code.
Make sure there’s nothing left from the standard template that may break the structure of your code.
Hint: Ask a developer to send you as a code snippet, not as a text message. If ignored, the quotation marks within the code will prevent it from working correctly.
Now let’s talk about the visual editor.
formats of the welcome message.
15. Edit your greeting text in a corresponding field and choose customer actions that’ll work best for your case. You can choose between FAQ, buttons, and quick replies. The hints in the Ads Manager will help you to decide.
I’ve stopped on a quick replies option. Here you can add replies to your bot and see its appearance right in the same window. Simple.
16. Now you need to connect your bot to the quick replies you’ve just created. You can do it by clicking a “Connect Your Bot” button and then adding a corresponding Bot Payload.
A Bot Payload is a unique value assigned to each message of your bot. By adding a Bot Payload, you say which message of the flow a particular quick reply should return.
If you have troubles with it, it is better to reach out a developer to provide it to you.
In case you use chatbot builders like Manychat, there should be no problems setting up your custom welcome message.
However, If you have a custom chatbot that cannot be created using simple builders, it’s handy to request a list of payloads from a developer to use in the future.
If you’d like to have a platform to manage custom chatbots using a simple interface and set up ads painless, you can download our platform presentation to learn more.
17. Launch your ad and keep track of the results. Analyze, make continuous improvements, and turn off underperforming ads to optimize your spendings.
Facebook enables businesses to create efficient and targeted advertising that in combination with a chatbot work as great conversation starters. There is no need to explain how important real natural conversations are with potential clients for companies.
Combination of Facebook ads and chatbots opens a new horizon of possibilities for successful advertising and marketing.
Why Is It Essential To Build A Good CUI? | 2019-04-22T18:03:27Z | https://botscrew.com/facebook-ads-chatbots/ |
Orchestral Music Librarian Job Description: Catalogs and orders music for the orchestra, assists Conductor by copying scores and sheet music.
Of his work, Paul Gunther, Orchestral Music Librarian with the Minnesota Orchestra says, “We Librarians are responsible for the care, upkeep, distribution and research involving all the music that’s performed, whether it’s sheet music or whether it’s digital. We’re responsible for making sure that music reaches the people playing it in the best possible way so there’s as little barrier as possible between the musicians playing and the audience listening. That can range from a task as mundane as contacting a Music Publisher or Printer and saying, ‘We need these parts, please send them’ to something much more profound such as ‘Which version of this music do you want and how do we know what’s best for this Conductor and these Players?’ For example, there are compositions that have many different versions and compositions that are hard to find because they aren’t particularly popular. It’s not just Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, but contemporary Composers with their own websites or a Composer from New Zealand someone heard on YouTube. We have to know how to do research and have connections. That’s one reason we have an international organization [the Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association].
Orchestral Music Librarians begin their careers as Interns, volunteers, or part-time workers. Not everyone starts off working with an orchestra’s music library; ballet companies, opera companies, and other performing arts organizations also have music libraries where the relevant skills can be learned. After on-the-job training, an Associate or Assistant Librarian position is the next step. From here, advancement means securing a position as a full-time, salaried Music Librarian with a prestigious, well-known orchestra.
Unlike Music Librarians in a public or academic library, Orchestral Music Librarians cannot enroll in specific degree training programs to learn the necessary skills. Instead, you’re more likely to meet Orchestral Music Librarians who have degrees in Music Performance or a similar course of study. “The way most people get there, with variations, of course, is first being a musician — studying music, learning music, performing music,” Gunther says. “I think that’s probably a common factor of every single person involved. There is no schooling for this, no upper-level education. It’s one of the few bastions of on-the-job training. You pick it up on the job and sometimes it takes years.
For example, when I started, I had moved to Minneapolis and I knew only one person. This happened to be my old percussion Teacher, the timpanist in the orchestra, the late Jack Moore. I had studied with him for ten years or more. I was talking to him on the phone one day and he said, ‘Why don’t you come to Minneapolis? It’s a cool place.’ So I picked up and left and said, ‘What do I do about a job?’ He said maybe there was something at the orchestra. There was a part-time job for someone to open the mail and distribute it. Someone said to me, ‘You’re a musician, right?’ and they said the library needed part-time help. That’s how I started. I did whatever the Librarian asked me to do. I did that for almost two years, picked up a lot of stuff on the way, and really enjoyed it.
Now it’s a real profession. When I first started, the Librarian historically was the Conductor’s helper who took care of his scores, who was sitting in the violin section when they needed someone to pass out the music and collect it after concerts. It was a part-time job and the profession was for whoever had the time, energy and know-how to copy music by hand. [That person] got the appointment and maybe they made a few dollars extra a week for that.
Eventually, in the ‘40s and ‘50s in the United States, there became more weeks in the [orchestral] season and more concerts to play. Pretty soon the job became more demanding and maybe someone who had retired from playing would become a Librarian. They were always musicians. There was never a time when someone moved into the job and didn’t know music. After that, starting in the ‘50s through the ‘60s, there were a few people who were just Librarians who weren’t Players. Around the time I started there were several orchestras in the country who had one or two Librarians, like New York, Chicago, Boston, and Minneapolis.” In today’s world, although all major orchestras now have a Music Librarian on staff, the training requirements and opportunities haven’t changed — which means aspiring Orchestral Music Librarians need to have a “take charge” attitude in building their own careers.
Research and communication skills are essential for Orchestral Music Librarians, as is an understanding of how an orchestra works. Gunther explains, “Some of the funniest and brightest people I’ve ever met have been my colleague Librarians. These are people who know a lot about a lot of different things. I consider myself a specialist; the specialty is being a generalist. You have to know a lot of things, like how to find stuff using clues you might have gleaned ten years ago from something else. You have to know how to communicate very clearly because everybody needs information and most orchestras run on too few people. It’s a non-profit ensemble and no one is getting rich.
There are a lot of details when you think about a music score. For example, [when] you see a Conductor’s score [it] has notation that moves both vertically and horizontally at the same time. That’s a good metaphor for a Librarian’s mind because we have to be thinking globally while working on very meticulous data. In other words, you’re not just opening a box of music and passing it out. The music has to be marked and categorized at any specific time. The Minnesota Orchestra probably has 10,000 titles in different formats. Some are digital, some are print. Some are piano vocal scores, some are chamber music.
The work lifestyle of an Orchestral Music Librarian depends on the orchestra’s schedule. “It can vary from week to week or day to day,” Gunther says. “There’s no set schedule. We are able to set our own schedule and (as I explained already) there’s always a lot to be done. That schedule could average anywhere from forty to eighty hours a week. There are weeks that are easier and weeks that are harder. For example, we might be in multiple venues so we work with Stagehands to make sure music is transported properly to every venue. There’s always a Librarian on tour when the orchestra travels, whether it’s in-state or out of the country.
“There is an international group of Orchestra and Performance Librarians, MOLA,” Gunther tells us. “There’s a public website and a private website for members. There are around 300 member groups and members within those groups. It includes major orchestras and performing ensembles of all sizes all around the world. The Minnesota Orchestra is a member.
“If this [career] is something you think would interest you, by all means, take music classes. Study an instrument. Study compositional technique, music theory, and music history. All of that will help.
If you really feel like exploring the options with an orchestra library, I would say it’s pretty crucial you see what a working library is like. If you happen to be attending school in a smaller town and not near a big city, you’d be at a disadvantage because you wouldn’t be able to figure out what’s going on. You need to see it for yourself, otherwise, it’s just pie in the sky and you won’t be able to see if it holds any appeal. I strongly urge people to bite the bullet, take a leap of faith and even blindly contact their local orchestra library. Even if it’s just by email, ask a couple of questions. Most of my Librarian colleagues are fully aware there’s no way to be in the business besides to be in it. Again there are no college courses [for this career path], so I encourage anyone who’s curious to contact their Librarian. You need to see the orchestra library and get the grand tour — even if the grand tour only takes a few minutes.
“If you’re a person who has gotten far enough to be considered a serious candidate for a position, the only real mistake I can think of is communicating your interest to the Librarian and then not being available. If you want to learn the job you have to do the work.
A macrobiotic chocoholic, Paul Gunther is a study in contradiction. Having played percussion since age 7, he performed in a United States Army Band for two years and then was honorably discharged in 1969 as a conscientious objector. His most recent percussion teacher was Jack Moore, former Minnesota Orchestra principal timpani. Gunther worked as Assistant librarian with his Minnesota Orchestra Librarian predecessors, John Tafoya and James Berdahl. His degree is in music theory and composition; his eyes are hazel, his hair salt-and-pepper, and his favorite book was voted greatest novel of the 20th century in England.
The Minnesota Orchestra Library staff, under Gunther’s supervision, ensures that the correct 100,000 pieces of sheet music each year are placed on the right music stands at the right time for the players onstage. Also, all performance data (more than 100 years’ worth) – titles, composer names, duration of pieces, places performed, artists’ and conductors’ names, publishing sources, and so on – must be filed correctly for posterity.
Gunther is a founding member and twice president of MOLA (Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association), an international organization of over 200 institutions and 400 individual members who are orchestra and performance librarians. He invites any interested visitor for a tour of the Minnesota Orchestra Library. | 2019-04-20T14:49:26Z | https://www.careersinmusic.com/orchestral-music-librarian/ |
With the return of cooler weather to Seattle I appreciate that the heat at my house turns up just in time for me to get home. From an efficiency perspective, it is comforting to know that the heat also automatically turns down when I leave the house. These simple optimizations are just the beginning of what the Internet of Things can enable in our everyday lives. I am looking forward making more of the devices in my home “smart” and especially to when I can interact with them by voice or even have them predict what I want to do and just do it.
However, as a security professional I am both blessed and cursed with a mild state of paranoia. It doesn’t help that every day there are new articles that proclaim how the internet of things will allow criminals to access my refrigerator, turn off my lights, open my front door, or interfere with traffic in the city. Without a doubt, there are significant security challenges for information technology generally whether its criminals running botnets or cyber organizations targeting large corporations. Moving more assets and valuable data to the internet of things will make it all the more enticing to attackers, of course.
Security professionals have never backed away from the challenge of defending individuals and organizations against these threats so why are we so negative about the IoT? Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the term itself. “Internet of Things” has been used to the point where there is no single definition and means different things to different people. If we don’t know what something is, it is very difficult to think about how to defend it.
Ability to communicate with physical objects. From household objects to industrial equipment, IoT devices will send and/or receive data over a network.
Physical world input or output. Perhaps the biggest difference from traditional computing, IoT have physical inputs and outputs. For example reporting the current temperature or closing the lock on a door.
Automated or even autonomous control. IoT devices can be controlled without direct human interaction and may be controlled by other physical objects. Some of the most interesting IoT scenarios involve devices communicating directly with each other to take action.
Data from things. When things act as sensors they can generate enormous amounts of data about their own operation and the environment around them. This data can be stored and processed locally or more likely in the cloud.
Analysis of sensor data. Analyzing the data generated by these sensors can reveal non-obvious usage patterns or even make predictions about what is likely to happen.
Examined through this lens, I argue that the problem is much more tractable. The characteristics listed above can help security professionals construct threat models for internet of things devices and services. While the Internet of Things brings about many exciting new scenarios the security principles of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability have not changed. Fortunately, this means that many existing security approaches can and should be adapt to help secure the Internet of Things.
I want to be clear that I am not understating the added attack surface and potential risks that the Internet of Things brings about. However, I am also a born optimist. As an industry we have put a PC on every desk, smart devices in your pockets, and connected nearly half the worlds’ population to the Internet. We owe it to society to tackle the challenge of securing the internet of things.
Stay tuned next week for when my colleague Tim Rains shares several practical steps you can take to secure the internet of things.
As my colleague Kevin Sullivan wrote in part 1 of this two-part series, the Internet of Things (IoT)holds great promise for organizations and consumers. But like many new technologies, it brings with it a number of security and privacy challenges. The industry can work to help address many of these challenges by building on some of the lessons learned from decades of experience connecting traditional computing devices to the Internet, as well as understanding the unique challenges that the IoT presents.
Insecure design: Some of the early IoT devices I have seen in the market today have not been designed with security in mind. Some of these devices lack basic security capabilities, while others have security capabilities, but they are inappropriate for all the scenarios that the device can be used in. It’s also easy to imagine that some IoT devices have been released with insecure default settings.
Disclosure of personal information: When devices, sensors, appliances, etc., are connected to the Internet (or when physically accessible), it can raise concerns that everyday activities, preferences, and sensitive information, could be monitored and disclosed without proper authorization. Additional concerns arise with the possibility that data gathered from IoT devices could be correlated with other sources of data and used for purposes, such as the creation of self-learning autonomous systems, without the appropriate consent from the data owner.
Limited ability to receive updates and change configurations: Keeping systems up-to-date with security updates is one of the most effective security practices today. As vulnerabilities are discovered and attackers attempt to exploit them, it’s critically important that vendors have a well thought through response plan and the capability to update and reconfigure systems to mitigate these attacks. Not all IoT devices are going to be the same. Different devices are going to have different hardware and software, and subsequently different capabilities. Some devices might have limited update capabilities or might not even have an operating system. What’s the plan to update a t sensor that doesn’t have a full operating system installed on it? This type of requirement needs careful consideration.
Insecure data: How IoT devices store and transmit data is another important consideration. Securing data communications, including authentication, and encrypting data at rest, have become common expectations for systems today. The ability to manage settings for such security features is also a common expectation. Many IoT devices might be connected to networks that are themselves insecure making how well these devices protect data in untrusted or hostile environments a consideration.
Secure by design, secure in development and secure in deployment (SD3): This is the same mantra we started in Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft many years ago. IoT devices and services should be designed and developed in manner that improves security and privacy during the lifecycle of the device by applying secure software development processes such as Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle.
Secure communications: Presumably, in the future many IoT devices will operate on the public Internet or on other networks where they may face a variety of threats to data confidentiality. IoT devices and services should utilize strong encryption techniques to protect data, and networks should use the latest communication protocols and up-to-date security architecture. On IoT devices that host third-party applications, the security of these communications needs to be addressed as well. Some more primitive IoT devices will lack the ability to perform encryption themselves. In such cases, one possible solution would be to design the device to allow its data to be encrypted by an intermediary gateway device on the local network before the data is sent over the Internet.
Manageability and security updates: Many IoT devices will likely be built for single purpose applications and will have limited input/output capabilities to manage the device. IoT devices need to be designed to apply important functionality and security updates, preferably with the option of automatic updates requiring little or no administrator interaction. Devices should be designed to respond to security issues impacting devices, services, or applications. Awareness of the security or privacy issues related to other services and devices with dependencies should also be accounted for in update planning. IoT devices lacking the physical requirements for manageability and updates should be designed to allow security management by an intermediary gateway device on the local network before the data is sent over the Internet – as one possible solution.
Privacy and data use: Because of the potential volume of personal or proprietary data that can be produced and stored by the IoT, both consumers and businesses will insist that the privacy of their information be protected. IoT products should take privacy-impacting collection and use of data into consideration from the earliest stages of design through development and deployment. IoT devices and services that seek to collect data pertaining to people should undergo appropriate scrutiny and evaluation for privacy concerns. Companies should also consider how they manage the commercial sharing of data as the IoT becomes a platform for trading information.
Appropriate level of cloud service capacity: Cloud services will need to be designed for a significantly higher number of simultaneous connections and greater volumes of data traffic given the expected proliferation of IoT devices. If cloud services are unable to manage the expected data flows generated by the IoT, they could be overwhelmed.
What should consumers do to protect their security and privacy related to IoT?
Evaluate security and privacy at purchase: Understand what security and privacy controls the device and services provide.
With updatable devices, keep software/firmware for your devices up-to-date: If the device offers automatic updates, consumers should enable them. Otherwise, consumers should check the manufacturer’s website regularly for new security updates.
Stay informed: Be aware and learn more about IoT devices and services.
You can learn more about Microsoft’s Internet of Things strategy here. | 2019-04-24T00:14:10Z | https://infrastructureland.wordpress.com/category/iot/ |
Allen Welsh Dulles (April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian and the longest serving (1953–61) director of central intelligence (de facto head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) and a member of the Warren Commission. Between stints of government service, Dulles was a corporate lawyer and partner at Sullivan & Cromwell. Allen W. Dulles was one of the directors of the J. Henry Schroder bank.
Allen Dulles was born on April 7, 1893, in Watertown, New York , and grew up in a family where public service was valued and world affairs were a common topic of discussion . Dulles was one of five children born to Presbyterian minister Allen Macy Dulles and his wife Edith (Foster). He was five years younger than his brother John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower's Secretary of State and chairman and senior partner of Sullivan & Cromwell, and the grandson of John W. Foster, another Secretary of State and brother to diplomat Eleanor Lansing Dulles. His paternal grandfather, John Welch Dulles, had been a Presbyterian missionary in China. His uncle (by marriage) Robert Lansing also was a U.S. Secretary of State. His nephew, Avery Dulles, was a Roman Catholic cardinal, Jesuit priest and noted theologian who taught at Fordham University .
Allen Dulles graduated from Princeton University , and in 1916 entered the diplomatic service. Dulles was serving in Switzerland and was responsible for reviewing and rejecting Vladimir Lenin's application for a visa to the United States. In 1920 he married Clover Todd, daughter of a Columbia University professor; their only son, Allen Macy Dulles Jr., was wounded and permanently disabled in the Korean War when a mortar fragment penetrated his brain. In 1926 he earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School and took a job at the New York firm where his brother, John Foster Dulles, was a partner. He became a director of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1927, becoming the first new director since the Council's foundation in 1921. He was the Council's secretary from 1933.
Dulles was appointed by William J. Donovan to become head of operations in New York for the Coordinator of Information (COI), which was set up in Room 3603 of Rockefeller Center , taking over offices staffed by Britain's MI6 . The COI was the precursor to the Office of Strategic Services, renamed in 1942.
During the 1930s Allen Dulles gained much experience in Germany . An early foe of Adolf Hitler, Dulles was transferred from Britain to Berne , Switzerland for the rest of World War II, and notably was heavily involved in the controversial and secret Operation Sunrise. He is featured in the classic Soviet TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring for his role in that operation. Dulles became the station chief in Berne, Switzerland, for the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to the CIA), a logical one. Dulles supplied his government with much sensitive information about Nazi Germany.
Dulles worked on intelligence regarding German plans and activities. Dulles established wide contacts with German émigrés, resistance figures, and anti-Nazi intelligence officers (who linked him, through Hans Bernd Gisevius, to the tiny but daring opposition to Hitler in Germany itself). Although Washington barred Dulles from making firm commitments to the plotters of the 20 July 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler, the conspirators nonetheless gave him reports on developments in Germany, including sketchy but accurate warnings of plans for Hitler’s V-1 and V-2 missiles.
Dulles's career was jump-started by the information provided by Fritz Kolbe, a German diplomat and a foe of the Nazis. Kolbe supplied secret documents regarding active German spies and plans regarding the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. In 1945, he played a central role in negotiations leading to the unconditional capitulation of German troops in Italy.
After the war in Europe, Dulles served for six months as the OSS Berlin station chief. In 1947, Congress created the Central Intelligence Agency. Dulles was closely involved with its development.
In the 1948 Presidential election, Allen Dulles was Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey's chief advisor. The Dulles brothers and James Forrestal helped form the Office of Policy Coordination. Under President Eisenhower, Dulles became CIA director.
In 1953, Dulles became the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence, which had been formed as part of the National Security Act of 1947; earlier directors had been military officers. The Agency's covert operations were an important part of the Eisenhower administration's new Cold War national security policy known as the "New Look". Under Dulles's direction, the CIA created MK-Ultra, a top secret mind control research project which was managed by Sidney Gottlieb. Dulles also personally oversaw Operation Mockingbird, a program which influenced American media companies as part of the "New Look".
At Dulles' request, President Eisenhower demanded that Senator Joseph McCarthy discontinue issuing subpoenas against the CIA. In March, McCarthy had initiated a series of investigations into potential communist subversion of the Agency. Although none of the investigations revealed any wrongdoing, the hearings were still potentially damaging, not only to the CIA's reputation but also to the security of sensitive information. Documents made public in 2004 revealed that the CIA had broken into McCarthy's Senate office and intentionally fed disinformation to him in order to discredit him.In fact, the CIA had been seriously compromised and "duped by Soviet and Chinese intelligent services" from its inception. Dulles discredited McCarthy, knowing that revelations of these facts would lead to the agency's destruction as well, presumably, as that of his own career and reputation.
In the early 1950s the U.S. Air Force conducted a competition for a new photo reconnaissance aircraft. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's Skunk Works submitted a design number called the CL-282, which married sailplane-like wings to the body of a supersonic interceptor. This aircraft was rejected by the Air Force, but several of the civilians on the review board took notice, and Edwin Land presented a proposal for the aircraft to Dulles. The aircraft became what is known as the U-2 'spy plane', and it was initially operated by CIA pilots. Its introduction into operational service in 1957 greatly enhanced the CIA's ability to monitor Soviet activity through overhead photo surveillance. Ironically, the aircraft eventually entered service with the Air force, who still operate it today.
In 1953, Dulles was also involved in the covert operations that led to the removal of Mohammad Mossadeq, prime minister of Iran , by the Shah. Rumors of a Soviet takeover had surfaced due to the recent nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. In actuality, British diplomat Christopher Woodhouse had pitched the idea of a coup to President Eisenhower to try and regain British control of the oil company. He would later say, "Not wishing to be accused of using Americans to pull British chestnuts out of the fire, I decided to emphasize the communist threat [to Iran].
At the direction of President Eisenhower, Dulles established Operation 40, comprising 40 officials and agents whose primary area of operations was the Caribbean region, including Cuba . On 4 March, 1960, La Coubre, a ship flying a Belgian flag, exploded in Havana Bay. It was loaded with arms and ammunition destined for the armed forces of the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The explosion killed 75 people and over 200 were injured. Fabian Escalante, an officer of the Department of State Security (G-2), later claimed that this was the first successful act carried out by Operation 40.
Operation 40 not only was involved in sabotage operations but also, in fact, evolved into a team of assassins. One member, Frank Sturgis, claimed: "this assassination group (Operation 40) would upon orders, naturally, assassinate either members of the military or the political parties of the foreign country that you were going to infiltrate, and if necessary some of your own members who were suspected of being foreign agents... We were concentrating strictly in Cuba at that particular time."
Over the next few years Operation 40 worked closely with several anti-Castro Cuban organizations including Alpha 66. CIA officials and freelance agents such as William Harvey, Thomas G. Clines, Porter Goss, Gerry Patrick Hemming, E. Howard Hunt, David Sánchez Morales, Carl Elmer Jenkins, Bernard Barker, Barry Seal, Frank Sturgis, William Robert Plumlee ("Tosh" Plumlee), and William C. Bishop also joined the project.
Dulles went on to be successful with the CIA's first attempts at removing foreign leaders by covert means. Notably, the elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran was deposed in 1953 (via Operation Ajax), and President Arbenz of Guatemala was removed in 1954. The Guatemalan coup was carried out under the CIA code-name Operation PBSUCCESS. Dulles was on the board of the United Fruit Company. Dulles saw these kind of clandestine activities as an essential part of the struggle against communism.
During the Kennedy Administration, Dulles faced increasing criticism. The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and several failed assassination plots utilizing CIA-recruited operatives from the Mafia and anti-Castro Cubans directly against Fidel Castro undermined the CIA's credibility, and pro-American but unpopular regimes in Iran and Guatemala that he helped put in place were widely regarded as brutal and corrupt. The reputation of the agency and its director declined after the Bay of Pigs Invasion fiasco; he and his staff (including Deputy Director for Plans Richard M. Bissell, Jr. and Deputy Director Charles Cabell) were forced to resign (September 1961). President Kennedy did not trust the CIA, and he reportedly intended to dismantle it after the Bay of Pigs failure. Kennedy said he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds."
Dulles published the book The Craft of Intelligence (ISBN 1-59228-297-0) in 1963.
On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Dulles as one of seven commissioners of the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy .
Despite his knowledge of the several assassination plots by the CIA against Castro, he is not documented to have mentioned these plots to any investigating authorities during the Warren Commission.
In 1969 Dulles died of influenza, complicated by pneumonia, at the age of 75. He was buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland .
In the film The Good Shepherd, William Hurt portrays the fictional head of the CIA, Phillip Allen, who appears to be based on Dulles.
In the film JFK, Jim Garrison suspects Dulles as having a role in John Kennedy's assassination and attempts to subpoena him. | 2019-04-18T11:31:09Z | http://maps.thefullwiki.org/Allen_Welsh_Dulles |
Welcome back to the part of the Internet where random purple text and owning a domain called BloodOfKittens is not considered cool, where once again we will try to focus on the miniature painting hobby specifically how to give your minis that extra special base. Hobbyists with Internet access and a credit card are spoiled these days with specialty pre-made resin base manufactures. I’ve tried several and on my recent trip to Strategies Games and Hobbies on Main Street in Vancouver, I picked up some square bases covered in skulls manufactured by Micro Art Studio and Reaper Miniatures. I couldn’t find any cool cavalry bases (or 25mm by 50mm outside of GW land), so I was stuck with making one somehow.
Now I’d read online of the miracle basing product known to the rest of the world as cork tile. Basically they are a form of flooring for homes, I found some excess thin cork at Urban Source, also on Main Street in Vancouver, which was 50 cents a piece. You can use this cork to make bases, or rubble, or even buildings for your miniature wargaming needs.
First you need to cut out a piece of cork about the size of your base. It can be a bit bigger on the front and the sides, but for ranking up not too big. I don’t really plan to rank this model. After you cut the basic shape you just randomly bust off, or pinch off, little bits of cork around the edges until you end up with an irregular shape, that fits basically on top of your plastic GW cavalry base.
Once you have a suitable shape, you get out your white glue, in my case Weldbond brand and you coat the cork with it on one side. You then position the cork on top of the plastic base and clamp it tight. Now you really need to give the glue time to dry, that is why I started with that part of my basing task.
Next I started cleaning up the bits and pieces that make up an old Chaos Sorcerer, an old Steed of Slaneesh with Daemonette rider, and an old Fiend of Slaneesh. I used a file and in some cases an exacto knife. The Steed did not have a tab, but may have had one originally, I got the model in a trade of sorts in about 1996, maybe be a bit after. I filed down the feet so I’d have a nice flat surface to work with. I test fit the legs and put weight on the back to see which position would be most solid. Then I put super glue in the molded holes and glued both legs at once and let it sit. It stands upright as you can see in some of the photos, this should make mounting it to the base easier.
After that I glued the rider together. I twisted the upper torso around quite a bit, not to be dramatic, but because that was how the model fit together tightest. You can do a certain amount of filing and adjusting, but sometimes you just have to go with whatever pose works best. Finally I glued the lower jaw to the head and let the Steed sit on my hobby table in three separate pieces, four if you count the base.
The sorcerer was going to be the easiest, but still might provide a lesson in mounting models to resin bases. That is right I’m using pre-cast skull bases that I bought in a blister. I clipped off almost the entire tab on the sorcerer. When mounting metal models to resin bases it is best to leave a small spike of metal jutting out from the bottom of the model. I didn’t take the best photo at this stage but I was busying working away and all these pictures were just quick snaps with my iPhone. After filing the the tab as level as possible I then test fit it on all five skull bases in the blister. I found the one that seemed to work best with this model and I painted a dab of white paint on the metal spike. Then I again test fit it, now there is a little glob of white paint on the base where the spike should go. You then drill this out with your pin vise.
Then you test fit the model again and assuming all is well glue the bottom of the model and the spike to the base.
Setting aside the sorcerer I turned to perhaps the most problematic of the three models, the circa 1995 Marauder Fiend of Slaneesh. I gave this model a good filing and test fit the various pieces. The main torso is in two pieces and the base I bought for it is solid metal. The first thing I did actually was trace out a 40mm by 40mm square of sheet styrene. I scored it and broke it off like it says to do on the packaging. Then I glued that to the bottom of the Reaper skull base which I’d also cleaned with a file and exacto knife.
If you use super glue like I did you only get one chance to do this. If it is a little off you can just file and cut off the white styrene that sticks out. Even before I opened the blister I’d decided to do this, I thought the model would slide better on the table and it added a little bit more height to the small Fiend of Slaneesh. Turns out the base is partially hollow, I don’t think the sheet styrene was absolutely necessary, but I had it at hand and it does slide nice on my hobby table.
After basing the base I decided to trim off the tabs from the two halves of the Fiend torso. I had already decided it was best to get the torso together before trying to base it. I left a single spike on one leg and filed the rest flat. It actually fit quite well on the base with three legs supporting it upright. I’ve gotten ahead of myself, old multi-part metal models are often notoriously difficult to get a good fit. This model wasn’t bad, I didn’t get out greenstuff, but I did file it a lot before and after I super glued it together.
With the model together and an optimal position on the base determined, it was time again for a dab of white glue and the pin vise. I didn’t drill into the styrene, the base is plenty think enough to accommodate the spike. Again I put super glue on all four paws and the spike and set it down on the base. I held it together for 30 seconds or whatever then got out the arms. I test fitted them and though the pose might not be the best, again I went with the tightest fit. One arm fit better than the other so I did yet more filing. At some point the model came partially unglued from the base, so more super glue to the rescue.
With the arms on the model, it was time for the head. This had lots of surface to glue to, but not the best fit. I may get out the green stuff for this, but I might just go with it. It’ll likely never be an award winning model but I still think I can make it look cool. I dubbed it “Retro Demon” and it will get a suitably disco paint job.
I flipped over the cork base and could still see white glue. White glue, the brands I prefer anyway dries clear, that is how you know it has set. So it was time for lunch and a blog post, not exactly in that order, but I’m getting hungrier as I type. Later tonight I may finish off the cork base and the Steed of Slaneesh which is the most instructive half of this little project, then it is primer and back to brush work for me. Though before that I may build a couple of movement trays and there is also 54 Night Goblins that need to have their bases finished. They’ll get less elaborate bases to be sure. I have a lot of work to do in order to play in the Warhammer 8th Edition Mighty Empires campaign.
So work has been ongoing on re-basing my old Beasts of Nurgle and creating a custom movement tray for my Horde of 40 Plaguebearer. These models and a couple Nurgling stands and Slim are set to make their Warhammer 8th Edition debut. Most of these models have never been used in WFB. I think Slim hasn’t, the Beasts have and maybe 16 Plaguebearers have.
I didn’t have much luck gaming with them over a decade ago. Daemons could break and run, they had no ranged attacks and negligible ranged spells. Beasts moved random distances and not terribly fast, my most reliable unit in the few small games I played was the Nurglings. Now under the current rules they may be the weak link, of course in bigger points games I can field 10 stands which might make a difference, my proposed 2000 point list had two units of 5 stands, while at 1500 points I have one unit of four stands.
Anyway it isn’t a tactical army or carefully chosen, it is just a bunch of Nurgle demons I painted up for the Diseased Sons.
The bases and movement tray were made of balsa wood, glue, and sand. I used some plastic and metal bits to decorate the Beast bases, but mainly it is my traditional drybrush order of Scorched Earth, Snakebite Leather, and Bubonic Brown. After the drybrushing was done I touched up various bits on the Beasts with black. Then I just plan to do a quick job on the little details I added so I could get everything finished and either take a break from painting tomorrow or get back to working on my Astronomi-con Vancouver army.
They do not rank up the best. Most of them are fine but the DIY standard bearers and even worse the DIY Gong of Despair just won’t rank up. I think I need to retire that model and paint the musician with the bell that I picked up more recently. Originally when the rules came out you had to convert your standard bearers, musicians, and unit champions. You still kinda have to convert your Heralds of Nurgle. I’m just using the one with the bigger banner.
This was actually quite a lot of work. I was all proud of my old world handcrafted quality but when I was using a size three brush to paint the tray black, I started thinking that it is worth it to buy pre-made movement trays especially if you can get them magnetized which is my plans for the goblins, I just need to talk to Litko and of course get a job and make the money to afford it. If I add anymore units to my tenuous Warhammer Daemon army, say a unit of Daemonettes or even just some Flesh Hounds of Khorne I may go all out and get premade bases and matching movement trays, Micro Art Studios and others make really nice resin pieces. If you’re going to put as much time and effort into your models as I usually do, the extra expense for the resin bases isn’t that much and it does tie the unit together which is doubly important in Warhammer Fantasy Battle. | 2019-04-21T10:31:25Z | https://musksminiatures.wordpress.com/tag/micro-art-studio/ |
As the controversy over the India-Pakistan joint statement refused to die down, New Delhi today denied that Pakistan Premier Yousaf Raza Gilani had handed over any dossier to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their meeting at Sharm El Sheikh, alleging India’s involvement in the unrest in Balochistan.
Cutting across party lines, leaders today reacted sharply to the US Transportation Security Administration's statement that frisking of former President Abdul Kalam was "in compliance" with American regulatory requirements.
Inordinate delay in procurement of operational safety systems by the IAF led to the loss of seven pilots and as many combat aircraft in the intervening period.
The investigative wing of the Jharkhand cabinet’s vigilance department carried out simultaneous raids on Friday at the official and ancestral house of former chief minister Madhu Koda and three ex-ministers of his erstwhile cabinet. Koda is now an independent member of the Lok Sabha from the Singhbum constituency.
Sulking over the proposed introduction of Land Acquisition Amendment Bill and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee today skipped the lunch which leader of the Lok Sabha and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee threw for the MPs on the Parliament House premises.
The Congress party has apparently rehabilitated its controversial leader, Jagdish Tytler, by appointing him in charge of the Bihar unit. He replaces Iqbal Singh and is expected to play an active role in reviving the party’s base in that state. Singh was appointed lieutenant governor of Pondicherry earlier this week.
The government has given its approval for the development of a Rs 500-crore advanced communication satellite to provide telecom links with small Ku-band terminals operating across the country.
The government today strongly defended the end-user monitoring arrangement reached with the US for defence procurements in the face of mounting criticism of the accord both by political parties and the intelligentsia.
The Delhi High Court today issued notice to Gammon India, a contractor in Delhi Metro Rail project, on a petition filed by the family members of victims of the July 12 mishap, seeking compensation.
The BJP has reacted with caution and restraint on the Gujarat High Court verdict allowing the apex court-appointed SIT to investigate the role of state Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others, including his cabinet colleagues and senior officers, for their role in the Gujarat riots of 2002.
Expressing shock at the alleged stripping of a woman in public, the National Commission for Women today sought a report from the Bihar government and asked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to ensure such incidents do not take place.
Official sources also sought to rebut the charge that India had lost considerable ground diplomatically by allowing Balochistan to figure for the first time in an India-Pakistan joint statement. They argued that Gilani had rather put an internal matter of his country on the India-Pakistan table by getting the reference to Balochistan incorporated in the joint statement.
The sources acknowledged that a ‘limited dialogue process’ at the foreign secretary level had begun with Pakistan. The pace and progress of the process hinged on the action Pakistan takes in the coming days to address India’s concerns on the issue of terrorism.
It’s quite clear that the UPA government is on the defensive as it grapples with the building storm over the joint statement that was adopted at Sharm El Sheikh last week.
The attempt being made by government managers is to highlight the fact the Kashmir does not figure for the first time in an India-Pakistan statement while the Balochistan issue has been internationalised.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is said to be consulting his top aides on how the government would deal with recent controversies over foreign policy matters when they are debated in Parliament next week. UPA chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi has also asked senior party leaders to ensure full backing to the government’s foreign policy initiatives on the floor of Parliament.
On a report in a leading Pakistan daily that Pakistan had given a dossier on Balochistan to India, the sources said Islamabad was obviously trying to create confusion. “May be they (Pakistan) had prepared some dossier but Gilani would himself have found that it was very weak,’’ they added, recalling that Islamabad had given dossiers in 2006 to the US, Britain and France alleging India’s involvement in Balochistan but all these major powers had laughed off the suggestion.
Senior officials of the External Affairs Ministry feel that the Indian media was also playing right into the hands of the Pakistan propaganda machine, which has become overactive after the Sharm El Sheikh encounter between the two Prime Ministers.
BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy wondered "whether such things are happening due to the 'kneel down before US' policy of the UPA government".
"Government should give a thorough reply on this matter. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have to give a clarification on the issue," the former civil aviation minister said.
He also sought to know whether the government is properly maintaining its protocol list or not.
Terming the incident of Kalam being frisked by staff of a US airlines as "sad", NCP MP Supria Sule said," there is a protocol and airlines have to follow the guidelines enforced by the operating country".
Congress MP JP Agrawal said, "if it (following protocol in frisking) is not in their (US) law, they should bring amendments into it."
BJP MP Vinay Katiyar and former Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh even called for a similar treatment to US dignitaries if the Americans do not follow protocol for Indian VIPs.
"There is a greater threat of terrorism in our country than in the US. If the US airline companies do not follow protocol for our dignitaries, we may also do the same to their dignitaries," Katiyar said.
Singh, Independent MP from Bihar, said, "we will face this problem as long we do not use protocol as a weapon of diplomacy.
"When I was in foreign ministry, we have done it and then our foreign minister was not frisked. We will have to adopt a policy if such things happen to our dignitaries, the same treatment will be meted out to their dignitaries as well," Singh said.
Rajya Sabha member from Congress Rajiv Shukla, however said, "the civil aviation ministry is competent to take whatever action is required. Let us leave it to them. They have already lodged an FIR."
Earlier, the US body had argued that TSA requires all passengers and their accessible property to be screened for any goods listed on the prohibited items list.
"There are reports that the government of India has an official list of VIPs and their spouses that are exempted from pre-board screening procedures. However, such a list does not mirror US requirements for passengers that are exempted from pre-board screening when travelling aboard the US commercial aircraft," it said.
The IAF had lost three pilots and four aircrafts up to December 1999, the beginning of the process for procurement of the system, due to pilot disorientation. During January 2000 to March 2008, four more pilots and three aircrafts, costing about Rs 282 crore were lost due to the same reason.
Revealing this, the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General has pointed out that the installation of the vital systems, procured from a foreign vendor for Rs 37.42 crore and delivered between December 2006 and January 2008 had also not commenced.
The procurement of 35 such “vital” systems, which was to increase operational effectiveness on dark nights and enhance safety of aircraft by reducing the pilot’s workload and enabling him to concentrate on navigation, target acquisition and weapon delivery, took more than eight years to complete.
The integration of the system onto the aircraft was to be done by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The fitment of the system was to coincide with the Navigation Weapon Aiming Sub-System (NAVWASS) upgradation that was being undertaken by the HAL. The entire fleet was to be equipped with this system.
A feasibility study in December 1998 before conclusion of the contract had identified the avionics bay area of the aircraft for fitment of the system. However, despite this and two more subsequent feasibility studies conducted till 2002, the placement of the system in the aircraft remained inconclusive. It was only by 2003, nearly four years after the conclusion of the supply contract, that a suitable area in the aircraft could be identified for placement. This delay led to the postponement of the delivery, which was to have been completed by June 2002.
Further, the contract concluded in 1999 provided that IAF would be able to obtain Transfer of Technology for indigenous licensed production of the system. Though a proposal for setting up the production facilities was initiated in January 2000, no further progress was achieved, leaving the IAF dependent on foreign vendors.
The search operation in nine different places in Ranchi, Chaibasa, Palamu and Garhwa was still on till the time of filing this report at 6 pm. Preliminary reports said many incriminating papers were seized from the homes of these politicians. The squad conducting the raid also seized a country made pistol along with some bullets from the Ranchi house of Bandhu Tirkey, who was HRD minister in the Koda cabinet.
The other ex-ministers whose houses were raided are independent MLA Bhanu Pratap Shahi, who was health & family welfare minister, and Kamlesh Singh, who held the water resources department portfolio in the Koda ministry.
When contacted by The Tribune, chief of the Vigilance department’s investigation wing Neyaz Ahmed, a DG rank IPS officer, said the search operations at the houses of the four politicians were conducted in connection with a case filed against them at the Ranchi vigilance police station about two weeks ago. He said the case, under different sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, that also included charges of possessing disproportionate assets, was filed at the behest of the special vigilance court. One Rajesh Sharma had filed a complaint petition against Koda and his ex-cabinet colleagues in the court of the Special Judge Vigilance, Ranchi, charging them with amassing huge wealth, misuse of official property and indulging in corrupt practices, he added.
While hearing the petition the court asked the vigilance department’s investigation wing of to conduct a probe into these charges. On the basis of the court’s directive the vigilance sleuths carried out a preliminary inquiry and found the allegations to be substantially true. Following this a regular case was lodged against them and a notice was served to Koda and his former colleagues to reply to the charges within two weeks. However, of the four accused only Koda and Shahi bothered to reply though after the stipulated deadline. The other two, Tirkey and Singh, had still not replied to the notice, said Ahmed.
Hers’ was the only party that went unrepresented at the goodwill bash, which marked the introduction of the Finance Bill in the Lower House today. Not that it made a significant difference, with government sources reiterating that the twin bills mooted by the Rural Development Ministry would be introduced in Parliament in the current session in any case.
Once brought, they would be referred to the Standing Committee on Rural Development, which can then record the apprehensions of Mamata, who is particularly opposed to the 70: 30 clause in the Acquisition Bill. The clause, she feels, does not provide for the protection to farmers from eviction and is open to exploitation. With little choice on the front now, TMC sources said today they would put across their views on the subject when the bills come up for discussion in the House, adding that they would “vote accordingly”.
Meanwhile, the coming week will witness cracker of a session, with urgent issues of national importance like drought and foreign policy to come up for discussions in the Lok Sabha. While the drought-like situation would be debated on July 28, the other issue will be taken up the next day.
Tytler was dropped as the party candidate for the Northeast Delhi seat in the recent Lok Sabha elections. This was done in the wake of an incident in which a reporter hurled a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram to protest against the CBI’s ‘clean chit’ to Tytler over his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The former minister’s political career has seen several twists and turns. He was given the party ticket from Northeast Delhi but the shoe-hurling incident once again brought into focus the case in which Tytler was an accused. As the matter threatened to snowball into a major political issue, fearing reprimand from the Sikh community in the Punjab elections, a nervous Congress persuaded Tytler and co-accused Sajjan Kumar to withdraw from the electoral fray.
The Congress is now preparing for the assembly polls in the state that are due next year and Tytler’s appointment comes at a time when a majority of leaders in the Bihar Congress unit feel the party should go it alone and not have any truck with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD.
The clearance for the design and development of GSAT-11 communication satellite, which is planned to be realised in 30 months, came at the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late last night.
The GSAT-11 is an advanced communication satellite which will be a high capacity multi-team Ku/Ka-bank spacecraft.
An official release said, "The launch of GSAT-11 will augment the Ku-band capacity considerably for telecommunication services in the country".
With 16 beams in Ku-band and frequency reuse factor of 4, it can provide 10 GHz effective bandwidth equivalent to about 22 transponders of 36 MHz, it said.
GSAT-11 employs a new 1-4K Bus. This craft is configured with two sided large solar array panels generating around 11 KW of DC power. The craft structure is designed for a lift-off mass of about 4,500 kgs with a dry mass of 2100 kg.
“The arrangement clearly provides for joint consultations on verification of the equipment…we are not permitting automatic access to our military bases or facilities,” official sources here said.
The accord reached during the recent visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India attracted sharp criticism from the Opposition parties in Parliament with members in both Houses describing it as a sell-out.
The sources said the fears of the Opposition were entirely misplaced. The accord provided a win-win situation for India. “What we are trying to do is to systematise our defence procurements for the future.” Replying to a question, sources said there was no discussion on the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) with Hillary during the visit.
On the joint statement adopted by the G-8 countries vowing to ban transfer of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies to countries which are not signatories to the NPT, they said India was confident that those nations which had entered into nuclear agreements with India would fulfil all their obligations. “What we want is that there should be no discrimination against us…we got a clean waiver from the NSG,” they added.
Justice Rewa Khetrapal directed the company to file its response by August 20 when the matter would be taken up for further hearing. The court passed the order on a joint petition filed by family members of four persons who lost their lives in the mishap.
Six persons, including an engineer, were killed and more than 12 others injured when an under-construction over-bridge of the Delhi Metro collapsed on July 12 in south Delhi.
The High Court rejected the petition of a former BJP MLA Kalu Malivad seeking to stay the SIT investigations against Modi and others. Malivad is one of the accused.
The apex court took cognisance of a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP, was burnt alive in his house in Gulbarg colony in Ahmedabad on February 27 by the rioting mob. His urgent phone calls to the state police and administration to save him went unheeded. She and 39 others had alleged in the complaint that Modi, his cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior bureaucrats aided and abetted the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
Malivad had asked the Gujarat High Court to restrain the SIT from arresting persons named in the complaint, including Modi. Now the SIT is free to question Modi and other accused and if there is a prima facie evidence to register cases against Modi and anyone else, the SIT may find him guilty of aiding and abetting the riots.
The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the setting up of six fast-track courts to hear nine major riot cases and also directed protection to the witnesses.
NCW Chairperson Girija Vyas said she was “shocked to see TV footage” of the incident and had asked for a report with regard to the incident when the 22-year-old woman was allegedly stripped by a group of people in Patna yesterday. The woman, a resident of Jasidih in Jharkhand, was allegedly engaged in flesh trade and had picked up a quarrel with one Rakesh, a suspected pimp, over sharing of money, the police said.
She then took Rakesh’s mobile demanding more money. | 2019-04-20T02:22:24Z | https://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090725/nation.htm |
Marc Lombard is a naval architect and his name bears remembrance of legendary yachts which made sailing history: The Figaro 2 racing yacht (read the interview with Marc here), his works for Jeanneau´s Sun Odyssey, aluminium alloy boats for Alubat, Futuna, superyachts JFA, cruising cats from Privilege, Nautitech and of course his racing boats, from IMOCA 60, down to successful mini’s and class 40 (such as the Akilaria, read here), over to trimarans.
He directed me to the stand of Fora Marine – RM Yachts where we sat down to discuss the topic. It was here when I first heard about the fact that a yacht builder is making big and yet fast sailing cruisers from plywood.
Last week I happened to be in La Rochelle at the Atlantic Ocean Coast and it suddenly struck me as I was driving through a large commercial area when I saw the big RM-Yachts logo and I suddenly remembered. I took the chance and called the company and I was very excited to have Justine at the other end of the line – the very lady who was so kind to arrange the meeting with Marc during the boatshow in the first place: “Sure, of course you can come and have a visit at our yard. We would be delighted!”, she said and offered me her company to show me around. That was my lucky day.
Why is it such a news that there is a company making sailing yachts from plywood? Boats and ships have been made from timber for many hundred years before: Mankind´s first boats have been hollow dug out canoes, Egyptians have set out on the Mediterranean in rafts made of reed, Polynesians have conquered much of the Pacific Ocean in cleverly rigged, very fast tiny outrigger boats and finally had the Europeans roamed the Oceans in huge sturdy yet fast and reliable timber made sailing vessels. But I admit: In a world made of plastic it sounds a bit awkward to have a yacht made from plywood considered to be “modern” or state-of-the-art.
When we entered the large production facility, not after the owner of the company greeted me and was wishing me a nice stay, I was surprised to hear from Justine than RM Yachts is selling some 40 units annually. That is much, much more than very renown Scandinavian boat yards such as admired Luffe for example. “We want to make some 48 boats this year”, she says, “The maximum limit for these facilities as you may see would be some 80 boats anually.” You know what struck me most as I stand in the hall? The smell. No biting GRP polystyrene-odors but the fine smell of wood. Very nice.
Making a plywood sailing yacht is – not unlike the building of a GRP boat – a lot of hand labor. When I was visiting the yard it was bristling with people. What I liked a lot was the fact that I equally saw young people working here as well as elder craftsmen which is a sign of a good healthy workforce and the ensuring of knowledge transition between the generations. There appeared to be no pressure here – people did their work thoroughly, I often saw them putting away the tools to intensively check on the outcome. All of the male workers of course found their time to greet Justine with French bisous as well.
“We have no molds to make a yacht´s hull”, Justine explains as we stand in front of a huge construction made of thick plywood: “That´s the negative model of the hull and the equivalent to the GRP-mold if you want. The craftsmen will put the pre-cut parts in a certain manner to a certain place and thus form the skeleton of the hull.” I get closer to watch: First they will put in the bulkheads. Then stringers and ribs will be complemented. The longitudinal parts such as stringers will be put in place as well. “It´s a giant puzzle!”, I said and she nods, smiling.
This forgotten stable in the Spanish province of Cáceres was converted into a vacation rental that takes full advantage of its geography in order to ensure energy efficiency.Because the original stable was in such bad shape, it had to be resurrected from scratch. The team at Madrid-based studio Ábaton Arquitectura took on the job.
They demolished the dilapidated stable, but reused many of the materials—including old stones, iron beams, and a mixture of cement and local stone—to rebuild a much sturdier structure with similar dimensions.
Because the house is sited on a hill and located below two streams that flow down from a mountain, the architects built a courtyard on the downward sloping side. They incorporated a stone water fountain in this courtyard to collect the pure water, which flows year-round from the two streams.
Available for rent through Urlaubsarchitektur, this house makes the most of its heritage and site, and would make a great eco-friendly escape for a large group.
A new home replenishes Quebec’s vanishing stock of farmhouses.When a Toronto couple with shared interests in land conservation and craftsmanship approached Lee and Macgillivray Architecture Studio (LAMAS) to build a new home on their 200-acre property in North Hatley, Quebec, a fertile partnership took root. The couple, an artist and a farmer, had bought the land—originally two adjacent farms—15 years earlier and wanted to replace the derelict homestead on one of them with a new house now that they had retired and were spending more time there. While attending a dinner party in North Hatley, the couple were delighted to learn that their hosts’ son, James Macgillivray, was a Princeton-and Harvard-trained architect.
The timing was perfect for everyone, as Macgillivray had recently left Peter Gluck and Partners in New York to launch his own studio with his partner, Vivian Lee, and was looking for opportunities to build their reputation. "It was our first project from the ground up, our first baby as a company," Lee says. "It was all we would think about when we weren’t teaching."
It was this process that led them to the realization that the house would best take advantage of the views, the prevailing wind, and the movements of the sun if it adopted a more circular form. "It seemed like this ‘eureka’ moment, where we had this pinwheel," Lee recalls. The final structure expresses typical farmhouse elements in new ways, with its three connected buildings circling around a central courtyard so that the windows often align to frame the landscape through other interior views. The result is a building that looks largely traditional from the exterior, but whose modern interior produces a mesmerizing telescoping effect.
Fifty years ago, a group of young architects began planning a cluster of contemporary houses on a rugged strip of coastline north of San Francisco. The goal was to turn a ten-mile expanse of bluffs and beaches into a community where modest, rustic second homes would blend in with the landscape. Among the founding architects was Charles Moore, a future dean of the Yale School of Architecture whose own condo featured a bedroom raised on corner posts over the living and dining rooms, partaking of their light and views. Another was Joseph Esherick, whose famous Hedgerow Houses use occasional steps, two or three at a time, to scale the gently sloping sites.
Over the years, Sea Ranch has become a destination for architectural pilgrims, me included in 2017, attracted by the pastoral modernism of its early buildings. But it’s also a thriving community that gains 30 or so houses each year. One of the newer structures, sheathed in rough concrete and Cor-Ten steel, takes the Sea Ranch principles to heart. As Donlyn Lyndon, one of the original Sea Ranch architects, says, "It is a real continuation of what we were trying to do."
For a site just outside of San Francisco, American studio Faulkner Architects has created a family residence clad in Corten steel panels and shaded by large oak trees. The residence, called Miner Road, is located in the town of Orinda, on a gently sloping site at the base of the Oakland Hills. The property encompasses nearly eight acres (three hectares), and is blanketed with rich green foliage and native oak trees. The three-bedroom home was designed for a couple with two young sons, who wanted a distinctive home imbued with an environmental ethic.
"They wanted to construct a house that was deeply ecologically site-specific, energy-efficient, and had a strong design identity," said Faulkner Architects, a studio based in Truckee, California. To inform the design, the team drew from a "dense observation of the landscape, climate, culture, and existing uses and patterns of the site". The footprint of the new residence was influenced by an ageing house that once stood on the property. The team retained a large fireplace from the old dwelling, which was wrapped in concrete and serves as a major structural element and visual anchor.
The hillside was left open and natural. The home is shaded by mature oak trees, which were integral to the design.
"Those big trees felt like refuge before we even built anything," said architect Greg Faulkner. "They're a free material that became part of the house."
The home is entered from the north, where a covered walkway leads to the front door. Inside, one finds light-filled rooms with high ceilings and views of the landscape.
Providing a strong connection to the outdoors was a guiding concern for the architect. In the main living area, a 12-foot-wide (3.6-metre) retractable glass wall opens onto a patio and garden.
The home recently won a design award from the California chapter of the AIA. Other winners included the Alamo Square Residence by Jensen Architects, which involved updating a historic Victorian residence in San Francisco.
Photography is by Joe Fletcher Photography. | 2019-04-25T10:57:49Z | https://www.davidsimister-architect.com/blog/archives/03-2018 |
Oct 29, 2016. You can Windows xp service pack 3 free download by click the download button below on the bottom of this page you can also Windows 7 Sp1 x86 Free. Product:Windows xp service pack 3; Setup Size:622 MB; Version Detail:service pack 3; System Architecture: Compatible for x86 bit Windows. Apr 13, 2017. Windows XP SP3 ISO Free Download 32/64 bit: This is an operating system that is released after the windows XP professional release beta version. This is the latest edition in Win XP SP 3 release covers the enhance and fix the bugs and defects that were present in the previous versions. As the Microsoft.
FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 3.8 Windows Add-In (32/64 bit) (3.8.0.97) We lead the pack! More formats, more camera models supported, from Windows XP SP3 to Windows 10, all editions 32 and 64 bit: you can't go wrong with the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack! Maximum compatibility guaranteed (*). The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack adds fast thumbnail and preview support to Microsoft Windows for many image formats, including RAW formats from more than 580 digital cameras, Photoshop PSD, OpenEXR, TGA, DDS, HDR, Maya IFF, SGI RGB, JPEG 2000 and more!
The Codec Pack is compatible with Windows 10 Desktop, Windows 8.x Desktop, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP SP3 and also creates thumbnails for Google SketchUp, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, EPS and Adobe PDF-XMP. Find all your images visually, directly in Windows Explorer just like JPEGs, without the need to launch any program!
New for version 3.8: Got a new digital camera not supported by your version of Adobe Photoshop®? The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack helps bridge the gap: open any raw image supported by the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack in most versions of Adobe Photoshop® using the included FastPictureViewer Import Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop®.
More features, same low price! April 23, 2017: Version 3.8.0.97 addresses a technical issue with Windows 10, where the Codec Pack sometimes gets un-registered when certain Windows updates are applied. The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack contains image decoders (codecs) that enables robust support for 45+ image formats, including RAW formats from more than 580 digital cameras in Windows Explorer, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Photo Viewer, Windows Live™ Photo Gallery and, on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, also within Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player 12, with full 64-bit compatibility.
The Codec Pack supports raw formats from digital cameras from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony, Hasselblad, Fuji, Panasonic, Leica and more, as well as Adobe DNG, Photoshop PSD, Google SketchUp (thumbnails), and Computer Graphics image formats including OpenEXR, Radiance HDR, TGA, Softimage PIC, Autodesk Maya IFF, PNM, and DirectX DDS including ATI 3Dc compression. See full list below. (*) Due to technical limitations currently imposed by Microsoft for their WinRT platform, the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack decoders are not exposed to 'Metro' aka 'Modern' aka 'Windows Store' applications at this time, as they elected to block non-Microsoft codecs for those apps. Need any more convincing? Try for yourself, on your own computer, with your own files: (No questions asked free trial, fully un-installable from Control Panel Add/Remove Software) Our codecs expose EXIF/IPTC metadata where applicable so Windows Explorer is able to display information such as shutter speed, F-stop, ISO and date taken, as illustrated below.
Integration with Windows Search let users find their images instantly from any Explorer search prompt, for example by camera model, date and more. Fast extraction of JPEG preview images embedded within raw files enables near-instant previewing of most supported raw formats.
Thumbnail extraction from most recent XMP-enabled Adobe InDesign (INDD) and Adobe Illustrator (AI) files is supported, as well as EPS TIFF previews. Running Windows 7 with Media Center and have an Xbox 360 or another Media Center Extender? Wirelessly stream your images - including RAW files - straight from your 64-bit PC to your living room TV set, with EXIF-based auto-rotation, thanks to our product's uncompromised Windows compatibility! Why the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack? • Superior performance, rock-solid stability The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack far outperforms competing codecs, starting from existing manufacturer codecs or codecs supplied by Adobe or Microsoft, making near-instant large size previewing a reality for most popular raw formats, with rock-solid stability.
In fact, the Microsoft team behind the Image Composite Editor panorama stitcher lists the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack as ' tested and recommended'. The Codec Pack is in use in the largest game studios in the world, including and. • Broadest compatibility The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack is second to none regarding Windows compatibility, from XP SP3 to Vista to Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and Windows 10, including 64 bit editions, as well as for timely camera model support (more than 580 digital camera models including the latest and greatest from 15 top manufacturers, updated several times a year). • Extensive formats support The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack goes beyond raw formats by supporting Adobe Photoshop® PSD and Adobe Lightroom® previews, as well as a wide selection of image formats popular amongst graphic artists and in the Computer Graphics industry, plus some unique specialties like 2D previewing of images taken with 3D cameras e.g.
Fuji FinePix Real 3D W1/W3 (MPO), or JPEG-Stereo (JPS) images. • Best feature set The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack includes a faster JPEG codec that performs automatic rotation of thumbnails and previews in Windows Explorer, according to EXIF information. We make Windows 'EXIF orientation-aware'. Our codecs expose all of the metadata contained in most raw formats, including color-space information as well as any embedded IPTC/XMP metadata, in addition to the full EXIF data. Finally, all our components are optional and can be opted-out during setup.
User quotes: “I got the Fast Picture Viewer Codec Pack 3.0 and IT WORKS IT WORKS IT WORKS!!!!” – Katia Grondin, obviousidea.com forum user “What a difference! It's so nice to be able to see the PSD and RAW files without having to launch PSE” – Senior contributor, Some of our most distinguished corporate customers includes. Beware of imitations: the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack delivers true Windows-compliant image decoders that enable the full RAW viewing experience in Windows Vista and Windows 7, including extra-large thumbnails and fast, large size previewing and slideshows, as well as EXIF metadata display in Windows Explorer and full integration with Windows Search, which let users locate RAW files by author, tags, camera model, date taken etc., instantly, from any Explorer 'search' box in Windows Vista or Windows 7. Last but not least, our product enable raw support in Windows Media Center 6.1 (the version that ships with Windows 7), including support for Media Center Extenders (stream slideshows to TV w/Xbox 360). Check out our short video demonstrating the easy installation procedure and benefits of the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack on Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP (all editions are supported, 32-bit and 64-bit). How is this possible? How does it work?
Some background information: Windows Vista introduced a brand new and extensible imaging framework called Windows Imaging Component (WIC), enabling far better imaging support at the operating system level than what was available during the Windows XP era. The new operating system came with built-in support for most standard image formats including JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF and HD Photo in both Windows Explorer and in the newly introduced Windows Photo Gallery, a built-in application replacing the venerable Windows XP Picture and Fax Viewer (together with the outdated Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer add-in) with a much improved, modern and slick photo organizer. Windows Imaging Component made it possible for 3rd parties to add first-class support for additional image formats to the operating system through plugin components known as 'codecs', providing thumbnail views in Explorer, as well as previews and slideshows in Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Photo Viewer and, on Window 7, also within Windows Media Center 7 and Media Player 12, as well as integration with the built-in desktop search engine. WIC-compliant codecs also enable a number of applications to directly open new file formats, such as for example Microsoft ICE, Sony Creative Software's Vegas Professional or The Panorama Factory, just to name a few. We at FastPictureViewer even created an optional (and experimental) Photoshop Import Plug-in which let older versions of Photoshop (CS, CS2, CS3.) import newer raw files through our codecs (currently with some restrictions), provided that the plug-in is installed as well. The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack provides what Microsoft calls 'platform support' for many additional image formats, beyond what's supported by the Windows Operating System out-of-the-box, including most popular 'camera raw' image formats, covering the latest digital cameras on the market.
The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack effectively turns Windows 7 and Windows Vista's Explorers into raw image viewers. The Codec Pack also works on Windows XP SP3 with some limitations: thumbnail views are enabled in Windows XP Explorer but separate applications, such as our own FastPictureViewer Professional or Microsoft's Window Live ™ Photo Gallery, are required to open files for previewing and full-size viewing on Windows XP.
The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack contains 28 different image decoders, or 'codecs', at last count, each in 32-bit and 64-bit flavor, supporting 48 image file extensions such as PSD, DNG, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, ORF, SR2, SRW and more, including specialists image formats such as OpenEXR, Radiance HDR, TGA, PNM, DDS and JPEG2000. For example our CR2 codec and NEF codec supports the latest top cameras from Canon and Nikon, respectively, and ships as part our codec pack in both 32-bit and 64-bit form, enabling the broadest compatibility with both the latest cameras and the latest operating system editions. Some of our codecs also take advantage of the latest processor technology, providing previously unheard of raw previewing speed, rivaling (and sometimes exceeding) the usually fast display speed experienced when using the standard JPEG format. Windows Vista and Windows 7 users also get automatic rotation of JPEG images, provided that orientation data was written in the images by the camera. Images containing the EXIF orientation data will be presented in the correct orientation automatically in Windows Explorer.
This feature works with thumbnails and previews in Explorer and for large-size viewing in Photo Viewer, Photo Gallery, the Slideshow sidebar gadget and in Windows Media Center 7. Photographers shooting in portrait orientation will instantly appreciate this feature!
Digital cameras owners venturing into 'raw shooting' to get the most of their equipment will find the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack a must have essential tool, as it makes raw file handling in Windows Explorer as simple and easy as it is with the JPEG format: quick identification of images straight in Windows Explorer (and standard 'Open File' dialogs in most Windows applications), as well as instant search and previews means faster workflow, and since time is money this product fully pays for itself within minutes of use! In addition to Windows Explorer, a growing number of codec-enabled applications such as our own image viewer, Windows Live ™ Photo Gallery from Microsoft, Vegas Professional from Sony Creative Software, among others, 'automagically' gain the ability to open new image formats once our decoders are installed.
See our FAQ to learn standalone photographer-oriented image viewer. When possible, the full metadata is exposed by the codecs so Windows Search can pick up and index your files, gathering information about date taken, camera model, tags etc, enabling Windows' built-in search to locate your pictures from metadata!
Once the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack is installed on your computer, do not miss the. We are a Microsoft Registered Partner, and Microsoft refers their customers to this page directly from their own website as we are listed as one of the approved suppliers of Windows-compatible image codecs in the Microsoft Pro Photo Resources section of the microsoft.com website, alongside camera manufacturer like Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax and Sony (our product goes beyond what camera manufacturer offers in terms of image formats support, 64-bit platform and operating systems compatibility, and speed). Microsoft Research also lists the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack on the WIC Codecs for Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor (ICE) page, where they describe our product as 'much faster at decoding CR2 raw images' in their experience. Clicking the Buy Now button navigates to Axel Rietschin Software Developments checkout page on PayPal secure web site.
We are a PayPal Verified Business since Oct 30, 2001, which means you can shop with confidence. The money back guarantee is at the discretion of our support team: refunds are issued only if we are unable to work around or fix a reported, reproducible and acknowledged technical issue that significantly disturb the normal operation of the product. Customers agree to work with us and help resolve any issue they report by providing all the necessary information and sample images needed for us to reproduce, acknowledge and correct the issue.
In most countries, PayPal offers the option to make purchases without opening or owning a PayPal account. Most major credit cards are accepted. Security: Modern web browsers such as Microsoft IE 8 or Firefox 3.6 will display a green address bar with the destination site's name, meaning that the web page is verified to belong to paypal.com and that the connection is securely encrypted. Quick Facts: your payment is processed securely by PayPal and your payment details (credit card number, expiration date, name on card) are never sent to us as we don't need them at all. In most countries a PayPal account is not required to purchase this product: PayPal account registration is optional and one-off Credit Card transactions can be made without opening or owning a PayPal account. This site is scanned for malware daily: Advertisement: help us keep the Codec Pack price affordable by getting your photo gear & accessories from the store below. Fri Aug 20, 2010: We finalized our first Fortune 500 corporate deal for the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack: Electronic Arts Inc., from Redwood City, CA, USA - the world's largest game software publishing company - acquired a site license covering all the CG workstations of their largest development studio in Burnaby, British Columbia!
We got the purchase order today, thanks Colin and Claude for making this happen! Sat Aug 21, 2010: FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.3 is available, with a distinctive new feature for Windows 7 and Windows Vista users: automatic, on-the-fly JPEG files rotation, based on orientation data written by compatible digital cameras.
The files are left intact on disk: our JPEG codec rotates the images, as needed, when images gets loaded by compatible applications. JPEG thumbnails and previews in Windows Explorer, Photo Gallery, Photo Viewer and Media Center 7 and Media Player 12 are shown in the correct orientation, and we even managed to improve performance over the standard Windows JPEG decoder, speeding up JPEG viewing throughout in Windows Explorer and Windows' built-in image viewers about 25%. Overall raw preview JPEG decoding performance was also improved markedly across all major raw formats codecs in this release, in particular when running on dual-processor or multicore computers. Tue Aug 24, 2010: A new Radiance HDR codec was added to the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack! The new codec enable support for the HDR format, popular in the Computer Graphics industry, and preserves the full dynamic range of the images by returning true 32 bit RGBE pixels.
Thu Aug 26, 2010: FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.3 R5 improves compatibility of the newly introduced JPEG auto-rotation feature and brings additional performance improvements. Full-size JPEG viewing in Windows Photo Viewer, Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Media Center 7 is now up to 30% faster, compared to the stock JPEG decoder on Windows 7. Thu Aug 26, 2010: Orbit Studio from Copenhagen, Denmark, joined the ranks of our corporate customers. Fri Aug 27, 2010: Today we supplied a small site license to the Canadian offices of Avid Technology, Inc, a world leader in the digital audio/video sector.
Mon Sep 13, 2010: FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.4 was released, with improved performance in the OpenEXR codec for Zip-compressed images and an all-new Adobe Photoshop PSD and Adobe PhotoDeluxe PDD codec, supporting files saved in Maximum Compatibility mode, as well as providing simple layer blending for images saved without the compatibility option. The codec exposes EXIF and XMP metadata, if present in the files, as well as color profile information enabling color-managed display of PSD and PDD files in Windows Explorer and other color-managed codec-enabled applications, including our own FastPictureViewer Professional 1.2.165 standalone image viewer. Fri Sep 17, 2010: Today we welcome Hidden Path Entertainment, Inc., of Bellevue, WA, USA - a leading Xbox, PC and Mac game publisher, author of the award-winning Defense Grid game - among the growing ranks of our corporate customers. Mon Oct 11, 2010: Blizzard Entertainment from Irvine, CA, USA, publishers of the renowned StarCraft and World of WarCraft games, purchased a FastPictureViewer Codec Pack site license. Thu Oct 14, 2010: Electronic Arts from Redwood City, CA, USA purchased another FastPictureViewer Codec Pack site license for The SIMS team. Thu Oct 14, 2010: The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.5 was released with updated Nikon NEF and Canon CR2 codecs, enabling color managed previews in Windows Explorer and Windows Photo Viewer (Vista and later), by exposing color profile data for raw CR2 and NEF files shot with the camera set to Adobe RGB.
Sat Nov 06, 2010: The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.5 R2 is a performance update featuring even faster JPEG unpacking for unmatched raw preview speed in codec-enabled applications and multi-processor computers. This version also features an important fix that corrects an issue that prevented Windows Search to properly index image metadata in some cases, despite the data being displayed properly in Explorer. Some raw codecs and the Photoshop PSD codec also expose additional metadata elements to Windows Explorer (on Vista and later), such as the software version, exposure program, focal length, flash mode and more, where applicable.
You can now use Windows Search's Advanced Query Syntax (try for example to type datetaken: in an Explorer search prompt) to locate any image by metadata directly from Explorer's search boxes on Vista or later. Thu Nov 11, 2010: The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.5 R3 adds support for several new cameras, including the Nikon D7000, D3100 and Coolpix P7000, Canon EOS 60D, PowerShot G12, Hasselblad HD4, Panasonic FZ40, FZ100 and LX5, Pentax K-r, K-5 and 640D, Samsung GX20 and WB2000 as well as Sony A33 and A55V. Sat Dec 11, 2010: FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.5 R4 is a small maintenance update fixing an issue with the Photoshop PSD codec (related to 32-bit gray scale images) as well as a crash occurring in a very specific scenario. Tue Dec 14, 2010: FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.5 R5 rolls back some recent changes that caused intermittent stability issues when processing some image types on multiprocessor computers. Thu Feb 10, 2011: FastPictureViewer Codec Pack 2.5 R6 is a camera compatibility update adding support for several new models (Canon S95, Panasonic GF2, GH2, Samsung NX100, Sony A-580).
Wed Mar 23, 2011: Version 3.0 (3.0.0.20) was released today with thumbnail support for Adobe InDesign (*.INDD), Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) as well as Encapsulated PostScript (*.EPS) and Portable Document Format (*.PDF) provided that those files contains an embedded XMP packet with a ready-made preview thumbnail. EPS files containing a TIFF preview, such as those saved by Adobe Illustrator 8 or later, are also supported. XMP and IPTC4XMP metadata, if present, is exposed to Windows Explorer for display and to Windows Search for indexing. Sat Apr 02, 2011: Version 3.0 was refreshed to v3.0.0.24 with support for Canon EOS 600D, Canon Digital Rebel T3i, Canon Kiss Digital X5, Canon EOS 1100D, Canon Digital Rebel T3, Canon Kiss Digital X50, Sony DSLR-A390 and Fuji FinePix X100 digital cameras. Wed Apr 13, 2011: Version 3.0 was refreshed to v3.0.0.25.
The only change is an improvement in memory efficiency in our Adobe Photoshop PSD codec, which helps performance when decoding huge (1GB+) Photoshop PSD files on memory-starved computers. Sun Apr 24, 2011: Version 3.0 was refreshed to v3.0.0.26 to correct an issue which prevented correct detection of some very old Olympus raw files. Wed Apr 27, 2011: Version 3.0 was refreshed to v3.0.0.27 to better support non-standard (hacked) thumbnail sizes in Windows XP Explorer. For performance reasons, we don't recommend the use of non-standard thumbnail dimensions larger than 160 pixels on Windows XP. Thu May 12, 2011: Version 3.0 was refreshed to v3.0.0.29 with support for Nikon D5100, Sony DSLR-A230 and A290, Olympus E-PL1s and XZ-1, Fuji FinePix F550EXR and HS20EXR as well as Kodak EasyShare Z990. Thu May 12, 2011: Today we welcome Sony Online Entertainment, acquirer of a FastPictureViewer Codec Pack Site License, among our distinguished corporate customers. Mon May 16, 2011: Version 3.0 was refreshed to v3.0.0.30 with an enhanced DirectX DDS codec, now supporting the ATI 3Dc (ATI2N) compression format.
Mon May 23, 2011: Version 3.0 was refreshed to v3.0.0.31 with a small update to our JPEG decoder regarding CMYK JPEG files handling by our own image viewer, occurring on old Windows versions (Windows XP and pre-platform update Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008). Users of the Codec Pack alone don't need to install this update. Mon Jun 20, 2011: Version 3.1 (3.1.0.33) was released, featuring three brand new codecs: Softimage PIC, Silicon Graphics RGB and Autodesk Maya IFF, as well as a cure for an issue some users have been experiencing for some time when viewing deleted images in the Recycle Bin or stored on DVD, Blu-Ray and CD medias. Users of Windows XP will also find a new option in the Codec Pack Control Panel applet, letting them control the thumbnail's background shown in Windows XP Explorer thumbnail views: users can now choose between black, light gray, dark gray, white and checkered background, to be used underneath thumbnails in XP Explorer thumbnail views for image formats supporting alpha-transparency and whose support is provided by one of our codecs, such as DirectX DDS, Truevision TGA, or the new Autodesk Maya IFF, Silicon Graphics RGB and Softimage PIC codecs. Windows Vista and later natively supports thumbnail transparency and the background color in Explorer thumbnail views is white. Tue Jun 21, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.34 with some fixes to the Maya IFF codec (regarding mixed compressed/uncompressed files) and Silicon Graphics SGI RGB codecs (for 4 channels files, also fixes a small memory leak and adds some level of parallel decoding).
All codecs have been rebuilt, as an extra precaution, after we applied the changes recommended in Microsoft security bulletin MS11-025 (KB2538241 and KB2542054). Thu Jun 30, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.36 with support for FUJI FinePix REAL 3D W1 and W3 stereo cameras (MPO files, displayed as 2D previews), as well as some minor fixes related to invalid or corrupt files handling for some formats. Our fast JPEG decoder also benefits from additional performance enhancements over previous versions when running on Intel® Atom CPU, as well as processors supporting the Intel® AVX 256 bit instruction set. Fri Jul 8, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.40 with small compatibility updates and fixes in the Truevision Targa, Silicon Graphics RGB, Radiance HDR and Softimage PIC codecs, providing better support for files created by some less rigorous 3rd party applications.
Mon Jul 25, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.41 with support for seven new cameras: Olympus PEN E-P3, Leica D-LUX 5 and V-LUX 2, Panasonic DMC-G3 and DMC-GF3, Sony NEX-C3 and SLT-A35. Up-to-date and timely! Tue Jul 26, 2011: Microsoft releases its Camera Codec Pack supporting 120 old cameras, pretends it's something new.
Thu Jul 28, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.42 with improved detection and support of rebranded camera models producing slightly different files due to firmware differences, increases the number of supported camera models to 379. Mon Aug 01, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.43 with a new codec supporting the VTF format (Valve Texture Format), as well as some additional raw previewing performance tweaks aimed at Windows Photo Viewer and Windows Photo Gallery. Minor update to our experimental Photoshop import plug-in optional download. Sat Aug 13, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.44 with support for 8 and 16 bit gray scale linear DNG files created by scanner software such as Hamrick Software's VueScan. Tue Aug 23, 2011: A freely downloadable of the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack has been made available. Fri Oct 07, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.46 with support for eight new cameras: Fuji FinePix F600EXR, Nikon Coolpix P7100, Olympus E-PL3 and E-PM1, Panasonic DMC-FZ150, Sony NEX-5N, SLT-A65 and SLT-A77, raising the total number of supported models to 387.
Wed Oct 26, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.47 to fix an issue where the registration data was removed unduly when the installation got repaired, ending the trial period too soon or unregistering the product. This small fix avoids the need to uninstall/reinstall the product. Wed Dec 21, 2011: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.48 with support for seven new cameras: Canon PowerShot S100, Fuji X10, Nikon 1 J1, Nikon 1 V1, Panasonic DMC-GX1, Leica V-LUX 3 and Samsung NX200. Support for XMP-based PDF thumbnails is now a separate option which can be opted-out during setup (to avoid conflicts with Adobe Acrobat own PDF thumbnail provider if installed).
The FastPictureViewer Codec Pack installer now remembers previous feature customizations across upgrades. Fri Jan 06, 2012: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.49 to fix a bug in the JPEG decoder occurring with rare files using the (rather uncommon and low-quality) 4:1:1 chroma subsampling. Oddly enough, this format variant suddenly became more popular this morning when someone at Nikon had the strange idea to publish one of the (edited) Nikon D4 samples using it (the full res airborne red/blue wrestlers picture). Mon Jan 09, 2012: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.50 to work around a JPEG color space issue caused by inconsistent EXIF color space information found in some files (typically out-of-camera JPEG files shot in Adobe RGB mode then converted to the sRGB color space by applications failing to keep metadata in sync with the actual data). Sat Jan 14, 2012: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.51 to resolve occasional license activation issues encountered in some corporate networking environments. Wed Jan 18, 2012: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.52 to work around a crash induced by one of the new features introduced by Adobe in the (yet unpublished) next specification of its proprietary DNG format.
The upcoming 'fast load' and 'lossy' DNGs variants are undocumented to this day and are ignored by our present codec. Tue Jan 24, 2012: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.53 to fix a regression bug related to 4-channels CMYK JPEG files.
Tue Feb 21, 2012: Version 3.1 was refreshed to 3.1.0.54 to fix a regression bug introduced in 3.1.0.52 and affecting some Sigma X3F files. A bug was fixed in the XMP-based PDF thumbnail provider component registration. A bug was fixed in the Maya IFF codec where one of the many supported variants, uncompressed RGBA8, was decoded incorrectly.
Wed Mar 28, 2012: Version 3.2 (3.2.0.55) was released, with thumbnail support for Google SketchUp documents (SKP) as well as SketchUp material files (SKM). The JPEG 2000 codec was enhanced and supports a few additional JPEG 2000 format variants. The fast JPEG decoder got a bug fix related to some odd-sized CMYK files, finally the EXR, PSD and JPEG codecs got some speed improvements. Fri Apr 06, 2012: Version 3.2 was refreshed to 3.2.0.56 to fix a small memory leak discovered in the auto-rotating JPEG codec.
Mon Apr 16, 2012: Version 3.2.0.57 adds support for Computerinsel's PhotoLine thumbnails. Fri Apr 20, 2012: Version 3.2.0.58 fixes an issue in the JPEG2000 codec occurring under a specific usage scenario. Sun Apr 29, 2012: Version 3.2.0.59 fixes a small (and uncommon) issue affecting some codec-enabled applications performing their own auto-rotation, when auto-rotating JPEG files from some specific digital cameras. Tue Jun 12, 2012: Version 3.2.0.60 and 3.2.0.61 fixes another small (and uncommon) issue affecting the JPEG auto-rotation feature when applied to files from some specific digital cameras, and that were edited in a certain way.
Thu Jun 19, 2012: Version 3.3 adds support for 20+ new cameras (Nikon D4, D800/D800E, D3200, Canon EOS-1D X, EOS 5D Mark III, PowerShot G1 X, Fuji HS30EXR, F770EXR, X-Pro1, X-S1, Olympus E-M5, Panasonic DMC-GF5, Sigma SD15, DP1, DP1S, DP1X, DP2, DP2S, DP2X, Sony NEX-F3, A37, A57) as well ad DNG support for files created by Adobe Lightroom 4.x with 'fast load' and / or 'lossy' options. This release also fixes small issues reported by customers. Sun Jul 01, 2012: Version 3.3.0.64 discontinues support for JPEG auto-rotation inside Microsoft Windows Live Photo Gallery, due to a number of issues encountered when enabling this feature inside this specific application. Raw and raster formats support provided to Windows Photo Gallery by the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack is unaffected by this change and, as a side note, the JPEG Auto-Rotation feature of the FPV Codec Pack is entirely optional and can be opted-out during setup without affecting any of the remaining functionality. Sun Jul 01, 2012: Version 3.3.0.65 is a raw compatibility update, adding support for three new cameras: Canon EOS 650D, Samsung NX20 and NX210, and Sigma SD1 digital cameras.
Sun Jul 01, 2012: Version 3.3.0.66 is a raw compatibility update, adding support for two new cameras: Samsung NX1000, Sony DSC-RX100. Thu Aug 09, 2012: Version 3.3.0.67 improves raw decoding of Canon EOS-1D X CR2 files, reduces the memory footprint of the Photoshop PSD codec (uses less dynamic memory for decoding of some PSD files) and updates the OpenEXR codec - now built using the OpenEXR 1.7.1 library. The new OpenEXR codec implements support letting applications access the multi-resolution levels of tiled OpenEXR images through IWICBitmapSourceTransform, vastly minimizing the decoding memory footprint when the full resolution image is not needed or wanted. Sun Aug 19, 2012: Version 3.3.0.68 features an improved codec for the DirectX DDS format, adding support for several variants like BGR565, BGRA5551, 16bppGrayHalf, RGBA1010102 and RGBA1010102XR, 32bppRGBE, 1bppBW and couple of others.
Our DirectX DDS codec now reads more than 60 (!) DDS flavors. Fri Aug 24, 2012: Version 3.3.0.69 fixes a bug in the PSD codec which prevented our FastPictureViewer image viewer to properly display some PSD files with embedded ICC profiles. Mon Sep 04, 2012: Version 3.3.0.70 is a minor maintenance release. Wed Sep 19, 2012: Version 3.3.0.71 is a Windows 8.x compatibility update. Tue Nov 13, 2012: Changed our code signing certificate from Comodo to VeriSign Class 3, re-signed all executable, codecs and installers for v3.3.0. Free Download Airtel Usb Modem Driver there. 72.
Fri Dec 21, 2013: Today we welcome High 5 Games, of New York City, NY, USA, among our distinguished FastPictureViewer Codec Pack Site License customers. Sun Dec 23, 2012: Version 3.4 was released, adding support for 31 new cameras: Canon EOS 6D, EOS M, SX50 HS, S110, G15, Fuji FinePix F800EXR, X-E1, XF1, Leica D-LUX6, V-LUX4, Nikon D600, Nikon 1 J2, Nikon 1 V2, Coolpix P7700, Olympus E-PM2, E-PL5, XZ-2, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200, DMC-G3, DMC-G5, DMC-LX7, Pentax K-5 II, K-5 II s, Samsung EX2F, NX210, Sigma DP1 Merill, Sigma DP2 Merill, Sony DSC-RX1, Alpha NEX-5R, NEX-6, SLT-A99V. Tue Jan 1, 2013: Version 3.4.0.75 fixes an issue in the Autodesk Maya IFF codec, which prevented files above a certain size to be recognized as valid. Sun Feb 17, 2013: Version 3.4.0.76 fixes a bug in the 32-bit OpenEXR codec which caused a crash under some particular circumstances.
Sun Mar 03, 2013: Version 3.4.0.77 fixes a bug in Fuji RAF full decoding, which failed for some camera models like the S3Pro. This release also fixes some potential security issues and has been internally reviewed and rebuilt with the latest guidance in mind. This version is now validated for use with the (highly recommended). Mon Mar 04, 2013: Today we officially retired the Canon CHDK codec, a special codec that was handling raw files from some Canon pocket camera models owned by enthusiasts who hacked their camera's firmware to dump the raw sensor data and simulate a raw shooting mode that is normally not present on these models. While functioning as expected, due to the nature of those special raw files, this codec was likely to cause interferences with some applications and as such we did not install it by default.
Users having this codec installed reported a number of issues in other applications lately, as well as incompatibilities with some recent Microsoft updates, so we took the decision to retire this component from the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack effective immediately. Raw files created from the following Canon PowerShot camera models, modified by their owners using the CHDK hacked firmware, are no longer supported: Canon PowerShot A460, A470, A530, A570, A590, A610, A620, A630, A640, A650, A710 IS, A720 IS, G7, S2 IS, S3 IS, S5 IS, SD300, SX20 IS, SX30 IS, SX110 IS, SX120 IS and SX220 HS. Support for JPEG files created by those models, as well as raw support for all other Canon models we handle is unaffected by this change. More information about the Canon CHDK hacked firmware can be found at Tue Jun 11, 2013: Version 3.5.0.78 is a recommended raw compatibility update and application compatibility update. Thu Jun 27, 2013: Version 3.5.0.79 is a bug fix release which resolves an unwanted interaction issue between our Targa (TGA) codec and Microsoft Office 2013.
Sat Jul 20, 2013: Version 3.5.0.80 is a bug fix release which solves an ICC profile issue in our JPEG decoder which caused some JPEG files to be rendered as solid blue or otherwise incorrectly. Sat Jul 27, 2013: Version 3.5.0.81 is a bug fix release which solves a rare crash, only occurring with specially crafted 1 pixel JPEG files encoded in a certain way. Thu Aug 01, 2013: Version 3.5.0.82 is a bug fix release which solves an issue where some TIFF files created by Nikon Capture NX software (NEF files converted to TIFF) were misidentified. Sat Aug 24, 2013: Version 3.5.0.83 fixes an issue in our PSD codec, which now supports a couple more format variants that were previously ignored. This release also fixes an issue with some TIFF files created by onOne software, which were sometimes misidentified as raw files. Sun Sep 15, 2013: Version 3.5.0.85 fixes an instability issue in the 64-bit Photoshop PSD codec when used with PSD files without composite image and having multiple layers and/or effect layers. This is a recommended update.
Thu Sep 19, 2013: Republished the installer. Thu Oct 24, 2013: Version 3.5.0.88 is a minor maintenance release: the Codec Pack has been rebuilt with updated tools (VS2013). FastPictureViewer Professional users must update the viewer together with this Codec Pack update, to version 1.9.326.0 or later. Wed Jan 15, 2014: Version 3.6.0.90 is a raw compatibility update.
Sun Apr 14, 2014: Version 3.6.0.92 is bug fix release that corrects an issue occurring (only) with Sigma X3F files shot with the 'Medium Resolution' camera setting. Sat May 10, 2014: Version 3.6.0.93 is a raw compatibility update.
Sun Sept 28, 2014: Version 3.7.0.94 is a raw compatibility update. Sun April 26, 2015: Version 3.8.0.96 is a raw compatibility update and also introduces the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack Import Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop® - Install the codec pack then copy the plug-in in Photoshop's Import-Export plugin's folder and start importing any of the raw files we support into most versions of Adobe Photoshop. The plug-in comes in handy when your current ACR version does not support your latest cameras: the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack Import Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop® helps fill the gap until your next Photoshop upgrade! Sun April 23, 2017: Version 3.8.0.97 is a technical update that addresses an issue that was reported by many customers where the Codec Pack gets unregistered when certain Windows 10 updates are applied, in particular major updates like the Windows 10 Anniversary Update or the Windows 10 Creator Update.
From this version (and going forward) registering the Codec Pack should be permanent on Windows 10 just as it is on other versions of Windows! Installing Vmware Workstation On Windows Server 2008 R2. The Codec Pack in action on Windows 7 64-bit (Explorer set to 'Extra large icons' mode). Fast previewing of NEF files from embedded JPEG previews, reflecting all camera and Capture NX settings.
Photo credit: Windows 7 Explorer Metadata Search Integration: find images by Tags, Date Taken, Author. Thumbnails, Large size viewing and Slideshows in Windows 7 Media Center. Works with MC extenders too! On Windows 7, the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack enables RAW support and automatic JPEG rotation straight into Windows Media Center! If you own a Media Center Extender, such as the XBox 360 and a wireless connection, you will be able to stream all your images, including RAW files, to your living room TV set. CG and Gaming formats: OpenEXR, DirectX DDS, Targa TGA, PNM, JPEG2000, Radiance HDR, Photoshop PSD Our product. | 2019-04-22T02:13:55Z | https://supernewgiga.netlify.com/windows-xp-service-pack-3-64-bit-iso-free-download.html |
Take this quiz to find out what kind of relationship you currently have with yourself and how this may be influencing your experiences in life. When it comes to our self-worth, it forms the foundation of our self-image and how we show up in the world. If our self-worth is not rooted in wholeness and unconditional acceptance, we may experience challenges in our lives that affect our mental and emotional health. I offer tips to help move you forward to that next level of feeling good in your own skin!
When it comes to these scenarios, think about a time recently when you may have experienced something similar in your life and what you did in that situation. If you have never experienced one or more of the below scenarios, imagine what you most likely would do if you were faced with such a situation, and choose the best corresponding answer.
1. You've been invited to a social networking gathering by a colleague where you don't know any of the attendees. You are also aware that most people at this gathering are more advanced in their career than you are. When you arrive, what do you do?
A: You decide to cling to your colleague and ask him/her to introduce you to attendees as you don't feel you have the courage to approach people on your own. You feel very intimidated being surrounded by others who are more advanced in their career, and you notice yourself being very self-conscious when speaking with others. B: You decide to approach a few people on your own to have a chat. You make a concerted effort to highlight your talents and skills when speaking with them, all the while comparing yourself to how you measure up to them. You notice yourself either judging yourself or judging others based on these comparisons. C: You look around the room and approach those people you find interesting. You ask a lot of questions and want to learn from everyone you meet. Although you realize that you are not as advanced in your career as some of the other attendees, you want to soak up as much wisdom as you can from them, and perhaps even make a few friends.
2. You've been asked by your boss to complete a big project within a short amount of time. He/She is counting on you to also make a presentation to the team about your findings. This is the first time you've been given this much leadership and responsibility. How do you handle this task?
C You feel both excited and a little bit nervous that you've been given this much responsibility. You also realize that this is your first big project like this, and so you treat it as a learning experience. You devote a good amount of time to the project, but not at the cost of your well-being. You don't put pressure on yourself to get it perfect. When you deliver the presentation, you take on board both the praise and constructive criticism from your colleagues. You are happy with your efforts. A You immediately feel a strong anxiety and worry over how you're going to do this. You feel overwhelmed and unmotivated to get started. You end up procrastinating as the thought of tackling this project seems too difficult. In the end, you either have to ask for an extension or end up putting something together last minute that doesn't deliver the standard expected. You feel disappointed with yourself and ruminate over your perceived failure. B You feel some anxiety over completing this task and make a point to do as much research as possible to get it 'perfect'. After all, you don't want to slip up in any way. You end up completing the project on time and delivering a good presentation. This has come at a cost though of over-exerting yourself and working overtime just to make sure you get this done to as high standard as possible. Despite your boss advising that you did a great job, you still feel you could have done 'better'.
3. You and your partner decide to go out for a fancy night of dinner and dancing. You both get dressed up and are looking forward to having a good time. Throughout the night, you notice that your partner is looking at many other good-looking people both at the restaurant and on the dancefloor. How do you respond?
B You feel slightly insecure about your self-image when you notice your partner glancing at other people who look nothing like you. You feel some slight jealousy and decide to do the same thing and check out other people too just to get back at your partner. You notice which people seem to grab your partner’s attention and decide you’re going to work even harder to impress your partner. A You immediately feel very insecure about your own self-image as you notice your partner glancing at other people that look nothing like you. You wonder if he/she finds them more attractive than you? You are clearly upset about this and your partner can read it across your face. You end up not enjoying yourself as much as you would have liked. C You pay attention to your partner when he/she is looking at other attractive people and decide to join in and comment on how good looking they are. You know what your worth is and can joke with your partner about the attractive people you both see in the room. You understand that it is normal to be drawn visually to other physically attractive people, but real attraction is more than skin deep. You feel secure in your relationship with your partner, and don’t need to question their motives.
4. You recently broke up with your partner and have been single for a few months. Meanwhile, all your friends are either in relationships, getting married, or having children. You also notice your family and relatives asking about your relationship status and when you’re finally going to settle down. How does this make you feel?
A You feel horrible and begin wondering whether there is something wrong with you because you are still single. You question what you did wrong that led to the breakup of your last relationship and you wonder if you will ever find someone else? You want to avoid any social gatherings where your ‘coupled up’ friends will be or any family situations where you will be asked questions by your family members about your ‘relationship status’. B You feel upset about the situation and decide that you need to do something about this – fast! You sign up to three different dating apps and feel determined that you will find someone else quickly. You end up going on lots of dates with random people as you can’t bear the thought of sitting at home alone. Although you like the feeling of excitement in meeting all these new people, you also feel disappointed when a date doesn’t really lead to anything serious or worthwhile. C You feel sad about the breakup, but also realize it just wasn’t meant to be. You give yourself time to process your emotions and decide to focus on self-care. You don’t want to jump into anything new with someone without first working through healing the wound from this relationship ending. You therefore focus on giving yourself what you need. You engage in hobbies and passions that give you a sense of joy, all the while looking back and reflecting on the lessons you can take away from this last relationship. You don’t feel any internal pressure to be with someone just to avoid being single.
5. You have worked quite hard throughout your life to achieve much financial success and abundance. You feel very proud of your accomplishments. Your company is doing very well, until one day you make a very bad business decision that ends up costing you more than you ever thought possible. Losing nearly all your assets and on the brink of filing for bankruptcy, what do you do next?
A You are devastated and feel like a complete failure. You believe everyone is judging you for your horrible mistake and feel ashamed of what’s happened. You don’t want to tell anyone because of the embarrassment and loss of reputation that you worked so hard to achieve. Your identity was largely attached to your role as a leader and you let your whole company down. You therefore don’t want to take any more risks and struggle with moving forward. You consider settling for getting a job that will be much easier and safer. B You feel extremely ashamed of what’s happened but vow to not show it. You don’t want people to really know how bad you feel. You decide you will hide away the truth and not reveal what’s happened. When people ask you about it, you get quite upset but deny fully owning up to your mistake. You therefore make up an elaborate story of what happened to try and salvage your pride and ego. You blame the circumstances and feel very sorry for yourself. C You may feel awful about what’s happened, but you take responsibility for your mistake. You understand that you are human and that your greatest failures are here to teach you your greatest lessons. You therefore humbly acknowledge the truth and be transparent about it with others. You decide that you will keep moving forward and find a solution to bounce back. You know that you can fail forward and you let go of punishing yourself. Others admire your courage and attitude to not give up.
6. You have had a busy week and feel exhausted from all the tasks you have been needing to complete both at home and work. You are really looking forward to the weekend to just relax and do nothing. On Friday evening, you receive a message from a relative who asks if you can help them out with moving the next two days as their partner has become ill. You realize that moving furniture is the last thing you want to be doing on the weekend, especially since you had planned some time to relax and unwind. How do you respond?
A You decide that your relative really needs you and you don’t want to disappoint them. You say yes, knowing that you won’t feel guilty for upsetting them. You feel frustrated however that your big relaxing weekend has gone down the drain. You help them out but all the while wish you were at home enjoying some movies. You think, well at least now if I need help, they will be able to repay me. C You understand that your relative needs help, but you are also aware that your own self-care needs are really important too. You think about how you will feel the entire next week at work if you don’t give yourself the rest you need, and you can see how negatively this will impact on your well-being. You therefore politely decline stating that you would love to help but already have prior commitments that you need to attend to. You suggest a few other solutions that your relative can try. You don’t feel guilty for looking after your needs. B You struggle to decide what to do and therefore choose not to respond at all. You think, well at least if I don’t respond, it may look like I didn’t receive the message. You still feel guilty the whole weekend even when you are relaxing at home, because a part of you knows that your relative is left hanging. You prefer to avoid situations that are uncomfortable though. The next time you see your relative, you notice they are more distant and tense around you.
7. You have been dreaming to start your own business of helping other people and travelling the world. It makes you feel excited whenever you think about it! Your family and friends however keep pointing out how this is a very risky decision, since you have never done anything like this before and may fail. They recommend you stay with your secure corporate job that is familiar and safe, and avoid taking such big risks. You know you don’t feel happy in your current job role and dream about this business daily. What do you do?
C You decide life is too short to waste away at a job that you don’t like. You thank your family and friends for their feedback, and decide to take the risk anyway. You tell yourself, that even if you fail, you can learn from it and keep moving forward. You save up some money that will hold you over for a few months to get things going. You plan your exit strategy and step into the unknown, fully realizing you have no guarantee that it will work out. A You begin to think about all the things that could go wrong if you decide to start this business and how awful it would feel to fail. You also begin worrying that you may not have what it takes to succeed. Because there are so many unknowns, you listen to your family and friends and decide to stay with your secure job. Even though you are not happy here, at least you are not failing. B You really want to leave your current job, but also understand the risks. You keep telling your family and friends that one day you will leave. Every time the thought of leaving comes up, you seem to find an excuse as to why you need to wait a little longer to take action. You may need to save some more money, and just do a bit more research, and find a few more resources, and maybe take a few more seminars on entrepreneurship. Even though you plan to start that business one day, you keep putting it off till tomorrow because the timing isn’t quite right at the moment.
8. You and your partner have gotten into a really bad argument the other day. It spiralled out of control and you both said some pretty horrible things. You felt a lot of sadness and hurt. The next morning, you still feel the tension within your body when you see your partner. How do you respond to your partner when you see them?
C You step back and examine how you both created this situation. You take responsibility for your actions and words and decide to apologise for these things. You also let your partner know that when they said certain things, it made you feel sad and hurt. You express your desire to want to resolve the problem and reconnect, so you can move past this current issue. You ask if your partner is willing to do the same? You are willing to forgive your partner for their actions, while maintaining your boundaries of what is acceptable/non-acceptable behaviour. B You feel completely hurt by your partner. How could they say such horrible things to you? You feel rejected and start questioning whether they really love you. You decide that until your partner ‘proves’ their love for you, you will not be pleasant and give them the silent treatment. After all, they should be the one to come and apologise. You’re not sure if you could forgive your partner for what they’ve said. A You feel awful the next day and begin questioning your actions and what you said. You begin worrying that you may have pushed your partner away and that they will no longer want to be with you. You also criticize yourself for losing control over your emotions like that. You feel insecure that the relationship may end. This leads you to want to do everything in your power to keep your partner. The next day, you apologise profusely, give them a really expensive gift, and swear you will never behave like that again.
Please check your email - the results will be emailed to you within the next few minutes. | 2019-04-18T10:41:49Z | https://www.drkasiawilk.com/online-self-worth-quiz/ |
This article is about the Canadian actor. For the Canadian musician, see Drew Nelson (musician). For other people named Drew Nelson, see Drew Nelson.
Drew Nelson (born August 11, 1979) is a Canadian actor and voice artist born in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada. He is best known for playing Duncan on the Canadian cartoon series Total Drama and Matt Sayles in The Strain .
Etobicoke is an administrative district and former city that makes up the western part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s; the municipality grew into city status in the 20th century. Several independent villages and towns developed within the area of Etobicoke, only to be absorbed later into Etobicoke during the era of Metro Toronto. Etobicoke was dissolved in 1998, when it was amalgamated with other Metro Toronto municipalities into the City of Toronto. Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River, on the west by Etobicoke Creek, the city of Mississauga, and Toronto Pearson International Airport, and on the north by Steeles Avenue West.
Total Drama is a Canadian animated comedy television series which is an homage and parody to common conventions from reality television. The show and its sequel seasons are collectively referred to as the Total Drama series. It premiered on the Canadian cable television specialty channel Teletoon in Canada on July 8, 2007, and on the American cable television channel Cartoon Network in the United States on June 5, 2008. All of the contestants have distinct personalities that serve as main plot points with the characters consisting of the eponymous fictional reality series and the contestants therein. The style of this series is similar to that of Survivor. Total Drama was met with critical acclaim upon release and has developed a cult following.
He has been in numerous television shows. He first appeared in the television series Friends as an extra.
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking or nonsinging (silent) capacity, usually in the background. War films and epic films often employ background actors in large numbers: some films have featured hundreds or even thousands of paid background actors as cast members. Likewise, grand opera can involve many background actors appearing in spectacular productions.
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci. It premiered on the Fox network on September 9, 2008, and concluded on January 18, 2013, after five seasons and 100 episodes. The series follows Olivia Dunham, Peter Bishop, and Walter Bishop, all members of the fictional Fringe Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, based in Boston, Massachusetts, under the supervision of Homeland Security. The team uses fringe science and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe.
Rookie Blue is a Canadian police drama television series starring Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith. It was created by Morwyn Brebner, Tassie Cameron and Ellen Vanstone. The police drama premiered on June 24, 2010, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern/8:00 p.m. Central, and aired on Global in Canada and ABC in the United States.
Nelson is also currently working on a project called Lost Ones as a writer-producer. The project is an urban fantasy centered around a 13-year-old orphan named Malik. It is set against the backdrop of hip hop and street art, and the film follows Malik and his crew as they plot to foil a greedy mayor's plans to gentrify their hood.
Richview Collegiate Institute is a secondary school in Etobicoke, in the west end of Toronto, Ontario. It is in the Etobicoke Board of Education which in turn became the part of the Toronto District School Board in 1998. RCI has been an integral part of the Etobicoke community since 1958.
Reach for the Top is a Canadian academic quiz competition for high school students. In the past, it has also been a game show nationally broadcast on the CBC. Teams qualify for national rounds through several stages of non-televised tournaments held at high schools throughout Canada during the year which are known as Schoolreach.
Eglinton Avenue is a major east-west arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga, in the Canadian province of Ontario.The street begins at Highway 407 at the western limits of Mississauga, as a continuation of Lower Baseline in Milton. It traverses the midsection of both cities and ends at Kingston Road.
Kipling Avenue, is a street in the Cities of Toronto and Vaughan in Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, 6 concessions (12 km) from Yonge Street, and is a major north–south arterial road. It consists of three separate sections, with total combined length of 26.4 km. (16.4 mi.).
Etobicoke Collegiate Institute is a high school at the former centre of Etobicoke in the Islington neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is overseen by the former Etobicoke Board of Education, which is part of the merged Toronto District School Board.
Asia Molly Vieira is a Canadian actress best known for her early role in the 1991 made-for-television Omen IV: The Awakening and playing as Christine Harrison in the Disney Channel original series, Flash Forward.
Katie Boland is a Canadian actress, writer, director, and producer. She began her career as a child actress in film and television and has since branched out into adult roles, in addition to writing, directing, and producing her own projects.
Jeff Johnson is a former professional Canadian football running back who played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
The Metro Bowl has traditionally been the championship game for Secondary School football teams in the Greater Toronto Area from 1982 until 2012. The game was revived by the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations beginning in 2015 as one of a series of nine regionally themed bowl games held as part of an annual Ontario football bowl game festival since 2015. Rather than a strictly Toronto-area championship, the Metro Bowl is now held between one of either the Toronto District College Athletic Association (TDCAA) representig Catholic schools or the Toronto District Secondary School Athletic Association (TDSSAA) representing public schools, alternating each year, against another Ontario association's champion determined by draw. The Toronto association not playing in the Metro Bowl in a particular year will instead play in one of the other bowl games.
Lyriq Bent is a Jamaican-Canadian actor. He is known for his roles in the Saw films, the television series Rookie Blue, and The Book of Negroes. Bent portrays Jamie Overstreet in the Netflix series by Spike Lee, She's Gotta Have It, based on the film of the same name.
Total Drama Island is a Canadian animated television series which premiered in Canada on Teletoon on July 8, 2007. This is the first season of the Total Drama series and has 26 episodes, each 22 minutes in duration with a special 44 minute episode at the end. The season is mostly a parody of the series Survivor, and features 22 campers in an elimination-based competition. On the Cartoon Network airing in the United States, some content has been removed from the episodes by censors in order to keep the rating open to a younger audience; for example, putting in words instead of long bleeps, and censoring of sensitive body parts, for the episodes "That's Off the Chain" and "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon". The fourth season, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, takes place on the same island as this season, but with an all-new cast. Total Drama Island was created by Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch with their production studio, Fresh TV, which also created their previous animated series, 6teen.
Total Drama Action is a Canadian animated television series. It is the second season of the Total Drama series, which began with Total Drama Island. The show premiered in Teletoon at 6:30 pm ET/PT on January 11, 2009. This series was also created by the makers of 6teen, another Teletoon program. This is the only season for Teletoon not to air a new episode every week.
Devon Bostick is a Canadian actor best known for playing the lead role of Simon in the Atom Egoyan directed film Adoration, Brent in Saw VI, Rodrick Heffley in the first three Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies and Jasper Jordan on The CW show The 100 from 2014 to 2017.
Arts Etobicoke was founded in 1973 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are an incorporated not-for-profit arts council governed by a volunteer Board of Directors from business, the arts and the community. They serve thousands of students in their arts education programs, a membership of 50 arts organizations, 200 individual members, 60 individual artists and clients in an Art Rental program, hundreds of artists through their arts programming and exhibitions, 22 scholarship recipients, the general public and numerous project partners.
Kirsty Ellen Duncan is a Canadian politician and medical geographer from Ontario, Canada. Duncan is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Liberal Party of Canada in the Toronto riding of Etobicoke North and was appointed Minister of Science, on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015. In January 2018, she also became Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities.
Elliott Richardson is a professional Canadian football defensive back who is currently a free agent. He previously played for the Edmonton Eskimos and Saskatchewan Roughriders. Elliott attended Richview Collegiate Institute, in Etobicoke. He was signed by the Eskimos as an undrafted free agent in 2009. He played CIS football for the Acadia Axemen.
Central Etobicoke High School is a secondary school located at 10 Denfield Street, bordered by Widdicombe Hill Blvd to the South and Clement Rd to the North in the Richview neighbourhood of Etobicoke in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. There are four course levels offered: Essential, Workplace, Open and K. It is also governed by the Etobicoke Board of Education that was transferred over to the Toronto District School Board after 1997.
↑ "Drew Nelson on The Strain - Twitter Update - Twitter". twitter.com.
↑ "TIFF 2011 "Rookie Blue" Drew Nelson with Canadians Abroad Interview - Drew Nelson Interview - YouTube". youtube.com.
↑ "Drew Nelson – Total Drama Island Actor Fights The Strain". Success Circuit. Retrieved 2015-06-07.
↑ "Drew Nelson". Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved 2015-06-07.
↑ Reason, Cynthia (2014-06-17). "Richview Collegiate grad Drew Nelson says dream come to true to work on The Strain with director Guillermo del Toro". Inside Toronto . Retrieved 2015-06-07.
↑ "Katie - Drew Nelson - Update - Facebook". facebook.com.
Anime News Network (ANN) is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and other editorial content, forums where readers can discuss current issues and events, and an encyclopedia that contains a large number of anime and manga with information on Japanese and English staff, theme music, plot summaries, and user ratings. | 2019-04-24T14:26:04Z | https://wikimili.com/en/Drew_Nelson_(actor) |
As I see Baker’s transition team start to come together, it is striking to me how many business executives he is filling his inner circle with. We all knew that Baker is in the pocket of big business. Why didn’t we run on it?
The Massachusetts Democratic Party ran a huge campaign about “Big Dig Baker”. Frankley, voters don’t give a crap about that. They care about the issues, particularly the economy. Elizabeth Warren ran and won on a message of economic populism. Coakley and the Massachusetts Democratic Party? Not so much. By turning Baker’s business credentials into a negative, we could have pushed the fact that Baker is beholden to corporate interests at the expense of the little guy. We could have tied Charlie to the failed policies of Trickle-down economics. Why was both the Party and the Coakley Campaign so focused on trivial attacks?
Going forward we have a chance to right this wrong. We need broader issue based messaging that paints a whole picture about the differences between Democrats and Republican policies. That didn’t happen this time around, and the blame doesn’t just lie with Coakley. Let’s figure out what went wrong so we can improve our ground game and fight for a progressive vision of the future.
Tom Joad built this country and its wealth, not John Galt.
Why not build messaging around the fact that the real “job creators” are the people who spend money to buy things? The more that governmental policies look out for people so that they can not only have jobs but those that pay well, the better off the entire economy becomes.
Not diminishing the role of the worker in building this country, but the 19th and early 20th century industrialists had the ideas, assembled the corporations, obtained the financing and industry and national infrastructure resulted. It’s capitalism.
A hundred years before that our own country was founded by business people who thought they would prosper more without the Crown. Some studies have shown that George Washington was perhaps one of the richest men in the country at the time. Without them we’d be South Canada.
So far Baker has appointed a college COO, a State Rep small business owner and a City manager to cabinet posts. Hardly indicative of a government run by business interests.
Take away the public roads, the people educated in public schools, and Henry Ford’s Model T is worthless. Wealth comes from strong, educated, healthy, prosperous communities.
as were the canals and railroads.
The car drove the creation of real roads in this country not the other way around.
AAA was formed to document decent roads so that people could take trips. They also advocated for more roads. You get some sense of this in the PBS series mentioned below. The abundance of cars created the demand for more roads.
And that’s the point. And that’s what’s missing in the “Praise the Job Creator” rhetoric. Both are needed. Simply having “wealthy people” and waiting for their largess to flow or trickle down to us common folk never turns out well and never will.
No matter how many cars there are, it is still the government who funds there construction. I question how Baker can cut revenues and continue to build roads. Sure, capitalism plays a role in our society. The problem is when it comes at the expense of the wellbeing of the public.
I would suggest that it was the Model T that stimulated the demand for roads.
Baker’s not even in office yet so we’ll have to see what budget ideas he proposes when the time comes.
“it is still the government who funds there construction”.
With money it gathers from productive taxpayers, like corporations.
Ford paid living wages and kept his production in his community in Michigan. Ford built American cars for American workers in American factories and communities. Baker won Outsourcer if the Year and his 2010 platform bragged about all the workers he planned to fire. Union busting Ford was a friend of the worker compared to Baker.
and I don’t care much for Ayn Rand so it’s not about that part either.
I’d just thought I’d mention that George Washington owned most of his wealth in slaves.
about how large an impact (and therefore proportion of the wealth) that slavery had to the Southern economy. It was much more that previously thought.
workers and capitalists in terms of production in the 19th and early 20th century. A capitalist system seems to require both.
It’s the balance that has gotten out of whack. At the beginning of the last century, there was a war on workers and workers waged a war on capital back. They had strength in numbers. Those numbers have dwindled, and workers in general don’t realize the extent to which they’ve retreated in the last 40 years or so.
Our laws and working arrangements are national, but the labor market is global in many respects, and many corporations are also global. Democracy is suffering as a result.
I’m tired of “globalization” being the accepted rationale for low wages and the continued hammering (with kudos to Senator Warren) of the middle class in the USA.
Denmark is on the globe as is Canada and other nations where workers get decent wages, health care, and more.
Japan is on the globe and there CEO’s make a fraction of what our CEO’s make in the USA.
Excuse my rant, please, but globalization is just a way of saying that one supports public policy where working class has to compete with the lowest common denominator while our wealthy class is exempt because “this is America and we’re different”.
There, I fixed it. They’re all happy now.
One example is that the US is one giant unified market. It makes sense for a manufacturer in a low wage/low regulation country to target the US markets. Heck, you see packages now with English/French/Spanish labeling and you’ve hit the entire continent. Now think about what it takes to sell in Denmark and what your return on investment would be- maybe you’d just leave the Danish market to the locals.
This is one one component of the complexity, though many business people from other countries have cited this as the reason that people want to sell here- one unified market. Add in a fair legal system, reasonable regulation compared to other countries, great transportation, big box store distribution etc etc and you can see where this leads.
Yes, which equates to “it means labor gets screwed in the USA and the non developed nations of the world” while in the developed nations, it means they care more for their entire population, not just the few who benefit from such injustice.
But for example, in many European countries there are restrictions on weekend shopping. Why? So workers don’t have to work them. Who is inconvenienced? Shoppers, who are actually other workers. We used to have blue laws in MA (when I first arrived here in 1982). No malls open. No grocery stores. No liquor. Everyone hated them.
For many years large scale retailers were not allowed in some countries, driving up prices. Who benefits and who loses from that?
Japan is the classic example, preserving lots of jobs by forcing (through law) convoluted distribution systems.
There’s a similar (though rarer) system here in MA- did you know if you start your own microbrewery that you would be barred from selling directly to liquor stores? You must use a distributor.
By exporting manufacturing capacity, we are actually exporting the attendant pollution to other less developed countries. the whole Woburn ‘Civil Action’ scenario is being replayed ad infinitum around the world to benefit us.
And I am genuinely asking, you honestly seem like someone who recognizes the problem and has a moderate/center right perspective that could enable a proactive solution.
I am willing to die on the hill of resurrecting the New Deal consensus and rebuilding the economy we had in the 1950s, but that strategy has kept unions irrelevant for the last three decades and doesn’t seem to be one that will be effective from a policy implementation or political marketing standpoint-even if Sanders or Warren are considerably more mainstream today than they would’ve been in the 80s or 90s. The neoliberal globalization genie is still well out of the bag, and it will prove difficult to put it back in.
Basic income seems like a more sensible and implementable policy solution, it alters the distribution of profit but not the means of production, but one that has long been opposed by the people it would benefit most. I know Douthat and Seilem <3 EITC and would expand it, but it seems that Brazilian conditional cash transfers are more efficient.
… that this is deliberate?
I would certainly agree that this is a side effect of trying to do things as cheaply as possible but I’m not willing to suggest that somebody deliberately wants to pollute in extremis and is actively searching for ways to make the worlds air dirtier.
It’s also of interest that you make note of “a Civil Action” as that involves pollution by a tannery (that is a processor of leather goods). Leather goods have been manufactured world-wide since well before America was America. Maybe the chemicals used have been refined but that general processes of tanning have been imported to America and not the other way around. I’m not an expert on tanning hides but I believe that it can be done with a minimum of electricity. One of the biggest drivers of pollution is electricity demand driving coal fired plants. The other very large driver of pollution is, well, drivers… of automobiles.
This is indeed a process going back millennia but the gross byproduct was less then. It was ALWAYS gross, but I mean the amount produced by a tannery. Leather was a luxury good not available to many; shoes were often just rags tied around feet. Even at the start of WWI, there were many rural recruits who did not wear shoes regularly and didn’t like them much – the whole ‘throw him down on his back to but shoes on him’ jokes. The idea of having MANY shoes, or shoes that fit, or shoes that weren’t mended is a late 20th century conceit. And it was made possible by the exponential increase of leather good in general, generating far more polluting waste than an early tanner could have dreamed of; it also became more chemical (and less animal turd) based at the same time. So the electricity portion of the program was the least of it.
Next – it is not deliberate, it is merely possible. Other countries want the production to feed their population, and don’t care about the pollution. Let alone taxes, OSHA regulations, limited work hours, minimum wage, insurance and product liability – all the happy stuff that is piled upon US manufacturing in the name of protection. The cost of shipping the finished goods here is vastly less than the differential in cost to manufacture here after factoring in business regulations. It’s not an accident that iPads are made by economic slaves – who are considered fortunate by their neighbors as they earn money at all.
The question “what are people supposed to do for work?” is truly not being answered by anyone, assuming by work you mean providing a reasonable wage and one that is proportional to the amount of time and money (educational costs) needed to get there. If one eliminated inter-generational fund transfers the issue would be more stark.
I think the workforce is even losing that beyond what traditionally has been called middle class. If you are not funded by parents and borrow your way through college and law or medical school, and end up a pediatrician or an average lawyer, it’s going to take you a long time to recover both the real and opportunity costs.
That doesn’t seem right, and I’m not even talking fairness. If all sorts of careers don’t make economic sense, what’s going to happen then?
It is one few policymakers in either party are addressing, and certainly one few economists on your side (center to the right if I might presume) of the aisle have yet to really ask, let alone, address with a concrete solution. Warren is offering a solution-tighter regulations that force companies to play by the rules, that return us to traditional ‘small c’ conservative banking principles, and that create an economy where living wages and made in America can be ensured again.
Yet with Pandora’s Box of globalization out of the bag, it seems difficult for her solutions to be workable on the scale required to solve the problem. I see problem avoidance and sunny rhetoric on the other side-though I would be interested to see what a center-right economist would offer as a solution.Most seem to involve wage insurance and subsidization through tax incentives like expanding EITC, which doesn’t seem palatable to their base or the business class.
Wasn’t there quite the flap about him accepting an award for being outsourcer of the year?
There was a minor kerfulffle when a bold, progressive female Massachusetts politician pointed this out. Of course, that person was not Martha Coakley, so it didn’t go too far. I don’t remember lots of ads and speeches.
Warren did more for Coakley in that last week than Coakley did for Coakley.
The saddest thing is, as deplorable as her record was as AG, she really did go after bankers on bad foreclosures and mortgages. It would’ve actually been easier for Coakley to cut this kind of ad than it was for Sen. Franken, but, instead I got a lot of stuff about war on women and breaking the glass ceiling. Stuff totally irrelevant to Massachusetts, in my opinion, certainly to all the independent voters who opted for Baker and the Democrats who stayed home.
It was a superPAC ad with Charlie in a tuxedo with a top hat. No monocle.
Rachael Maddow et al got very excited when a photo was found of Baker accepting an award for outsourcing in a tuxedo. But the ad was dark and faux-sinister and cartoon-y, making him look like The Penguin. The ad kind of destroyed the impact of the photo, IMO.
Ad or no ad, the fact remains economic populism was not a key part of the debate in this election. Showing a picture of Baker in a tux is hardly a substantial debate.
Twice. Not once. Twice. Were you, perhaps, unconscious the entire time? Comatose? Kidnapped? Out of the country? Off the planet? Mayhap you took halloween a wee bit too seriously and method acted your way into another, more blissfully unaware, character? Hmm?
Twice. In the last ten days of the campaign… That’s how many times I saw Martha Coakley make Charlie Baker squirm in person, on TV, during a debate ON THIS VERY QUESTION. One more than the number of times EW brought up the issue. There are a few debates I did not see, but in which, I’m given to understand, she similarly pressed the issue. And squirm he did.
Several times she asked him point blank why he outsourced jobs, to his face. No ads. No surrogates. No passive aggressive SuperPAC filtration. Straight up MC pressing the point home while CB nearly visibly panicked. She made repeated reference to his salary. She asked him, many many times, why he didn’t release his employment contract with General Catalyst and put, immediately, to bed the question of ‘pay-to-play’. She took the game to him again and again. You’d have to ask the Globe and the Herald why these moves didn’t get the traction… but that doesn’t mean she didn’t bring it.
The undecided voter is far more likely to get his/her information from campaign ads and make his/her decisions accordingly. Coakley won the debates, I think every pundit agrees with that on all sides of the spectrum. So did Kerry and Gore, hands down. So did Romney by most pundits, for that matter. It didn’t matter. Obama swift boated Romney early with this ad, which is when my gut started to tell me Mitt was gonna lose, and lose bigger than expected. Coakley never ran an ad that simple, direct, and effective.
This is the kind of attack ad Democrats need to learn how to run on reflex.
Debates are raw material for narratives at this point, not convincing actions of their own. Coakley never used the raw material in a way that she could have. No ads. No spots. No single message being used by all surrogates.
How many times does Coakley have to lose before some people admit she can’t win?
I’d say that this line of argumentation is beneath you, except that you made it, so apparently… it isn’t.
From Nixon’s five o’clock shadow to Kennedy (Edward M) trouncing Mitt Rmoney and on to Obama’s “please continue Governor”… Debates have often been the turning point for the election. And the idea that debates (in this instance three in the last 10 days of the campaign) are just fodder for narrative is ridiculous on the face of it.
She has to, first, lose more than she’s won. Secondly, she has to lose by more than 4 points… which she’s never done. How many times do we have to get the shaft before some people admit there’s a hand on the other end of it?
…it obviously wasn’t enough for the Dem ticket to win.
I think you misread my comment. “Please continue Governor” — your only example less than two decades old — was a big deal not because of the the debate, but because it was flogged by everyone the next day. Because liberal standard-bearers trumpeted it and turned it into a story. They made it a subject of conversation.
Coakley never did. Yes, she made a good first move at the debate, but did not follow it through.
Petr, if we were in Alaska, and we had only one or two Democrats capable of winning anything ever, I’d say give Martha a second chance. But we have choices. Anybody who supports a two-time loser to give a Republican a third major win only has themselves to blame for the inevitable result.
We all knew that Baker is in the pocket of big business. Why didn’t we run on it?
Because our nominee was just as tied to big business as Mr. Baker.
If we pursued that strategy with Ms. Coakley as our nominee, we would have invited attacks on our nominee’s cozy relationships with the casino industry (or at least its advocates and lobbyists), the health care industry (let’s not forget that the AWFUL Partner’s deal was our nominee’s work), and long list of other similar relationships. That’s BEFORE we start talking about the leadership of the various unions. I’m strong supporter of labor. Labor is, nevertheless, a “big business” too.
So long as we maintain our practice of choosing “centrist” candidates, leaders, and poobahs, we will find it VERY hard to attack GOP candidates in this way.
I remember a time when we could attack GOP nominees because of their long history of corruption. Our own behavior has taken that weapon off the table as well. A great many voters “don’t care” about the Big Dig corruption because eight years of total Democratic control of state government has produced a LONG LONG list of equal corruption.
(1) Taxes: due to various management misadventures under Patrick, Baker was able to make the somewhat dubious argument that he would manage better and therefore be able to provide MORE services with LESS taxes.
For me the most ironic part of this whole presentation was that a large part of Baker’s employment experience has been in government, and he was then able to leverage that background to make money in the insurance industry, a highly regulated field where he drew upon his government contacts to get preferential treatment. No one seems to know exactly what he did after HPHC but it seems to involve knowing a lot of people . . . Whereas Massachusetts voters really didn’t have a chance to get familiar with the two real entrepreneurs in the gubernatorial race, Dan Wolf and Don Berwick, both of whom started their own successful businesses. | 2019-04-20T14:24:35Z | http://bluemassgroup.com/2014/11/retrospect-we-should-have-targeted-big-business-baker/ |