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I recently had the opportunity to interview Devin Thorpe who is a personal role model of mine, having successfully made the transition from C-suite executive to a value-driven entrepreneur. In 2011, Devin was “let go” from the best job he’d ever had, as CFO for a multinational company. He and his wife spent the next year in China where he wrote Your Mark on the World, an insightful book that merges financial planning with social impact. He has since embarked on the career he always wanted, yet hadn’t dared dream. As a self-described champion for social good, Devin writes, speaks, consults, and advocates for social good, mostly from his home office. He recently released his fourth book, Crowdfunding for Social Good, and produces consistently inspirational content through his blog and as a contributor for Forbes. I interviewed Devin specifically to better understand how he made the leap to a lifestyle business after 25 years in the corporate world and he was graciously open in his responses: Some of my favorite highlights from the interview (for those of you at work or in a rush): At what point did you commit to this new career path? The career has evolved and continues to evolve, but I knew immediately that I would not be seeking another job like the one I had. I sat down with my wife and we began to talk about what it is that we wanted to do. We began to look for opportunities to give back and do something interesting. We settled on the opportunity to go teach in China for a year…and the rest is history. What does your life look like now? Everything is different! In almost every way, it’s better. I work from home. I still have a traditional schedule. I get up in the morning and go to work down the hall. I “come home” at night. I get a nice early dinner with my wife nearly every night. It helps to manage that personal work/life balance in a way that is absolutely wonderful. What I do every day is vastly different. Most of my time is spent writing or doing interviews. I’m excited about doing things like today: I got to train an organization on crowdfunding, which is one of my very favorite things to do in the whole world: helping organizations be empowered to do more. There’s a deep satisfaction that comes from my work. Life couldn’t be much better. Do you wish you had left the corporate world sooner? I was engaged and involved in my church and community organizations, but looking back I wish I had been even more engaged. So, I regret the good I didn’t do during my career more than I regret staying in it so long. Whatever it is that you do in life, do it well, but make time for doing good alongside.” There are so many different ways to get back, both in terms of time and money. Everyone has that opportunity and everyone should take that opportunity to try conscientiously to make a difference in the world. It seems that there is nearly always a disruptive change prior to that ah-ha moment that allows us to make a drastic shift in our lives. If you hadn’t been laid off, where do you think you would be now? I think I probably would have left eventually and ended up somewhere similar. But you never know. It’s difficult to walk away from a high salary and a job you love, no matter what you think might be on the other side. I think there is a lot of truth to your observation that those changes that are forced upon us catalyze actions that turn out to be great benefits and blessings in our lives.” How would you describe your personality? I’ve always thought of myself as a type-A personality, although I’m certainly not an expert. I don’t have trouble finding things to do. My problem is the opposite. In the last 90 days I have been flat out, everyday…it’s kind of a 16 hour a day work environment. I find myself much more focused on untangling this mess that I’ve created because I am really kind of overwhelmed by it all. I do think being an entrepreneur requires an element of that self-starterness. You have to be able to create your own to-do list, rather than have one handed to you to be successful. My wife. I think a lot of entrepreneurs will tell you the same, that the number one most important asset is their spouse. It isn’t just emotional support or financial support. It’s everything. I don’t mean to suggest that single people can’t be entrepreneurs, but I do suggest it’s harder. That support you get from a spouse is really invaluable. Biggest surprise? The biggest surprise is not one specific thing so much as in general how much harder it is that we think it is. Entrepreneurs are optimists. I have never met a successful entrepreneur who wasn’t. Entrepreneurs are not glass half-full people. They look at a glass that is approximately half full and they say “That sucker is ¾, maybe 80% full”. They just can’t fathom the idea that it isn’t almost a guaranteed shot.” It’s crazy. We’re wrong so much of the time…but if we weren’t optimistic, if we weren’t willing to try the crazy things, the world would be much worse off. Of course, every business in the world came from an entrepreneur. I knew it would be ‘hard’…I had no idea.” If you could go back and do it all over, what would you do differently? I can’t think of one thing I would do differently. It’s been such a wonderful journey. Maybe eat barbecue once or twice more than I did, but that’s it. There is a host of people out there that will tell you just to chase your dream…I would suggest that you take a moment to get real clarity about what it’s going to take. We are such optimists as a rule that even presented with realistic data, we tend to ignore it. The impact on a family, personal life, finances can be so devastating when entrepreneurship doesn’t work out. You’ve got to have a 360 degree view of the plan. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey I am just starting Devin’s book, Your Mark on the World, and will be posting a review shortly. In the meantime, you can get free copies of BOTH Your Mark on the World and Crowdfunding for Social Good simply by signing up for Devin’s blog, which is filled with inspiring interviews and stories: Get Devin’s Books FREE by subscribing here. I recently became much more engaged in giving back to my community through my local Community Foundation, inspired to do more in part by Devin’s work. How do you engage in your community or find ways to give back that intersect with your career? Tags: entrepreneur, impact, lifestyle, workstyle Previous Article Next Article Em Capito October 21, 2013 Done by Forty says: October 21, 2013 at 2:17 pm I really enjoyed the interview, Emily. I love Devin’s balanced advice of really trying hard to understand what’s entailed in pursuing your passion before embarking on it. While it seems to be worth it almost all of the time, I suspect that I (and a lot of other would be passion-followers) completely underestimate the time and effort involved. October 22, 2013 at 12:09 pm Absolutely. I look back at how naive I was and it’s hilarious. I thought I would have a publishing contract within a year…as a no name author…with no tribe…right… It definitely takes an enormous investment and a whole lot of commitment to get results. Thank you for commenting! Kevin says: October 21, 2013 at 8:36 am Really interesting interview, Emily. I like how he described himself after being laid off as a “free agent” – certainly a perspective that lends itself to opportunities and options rather than fear and narrow thinking. Your Mark on the World sounds like a good read – our conversion to financial health (paying off debt, saving, preparing for the worst) has always lended to spotting and taking advantage of opportunities to give back. October 21, 2013 at 9:05 am Diana says: October 21, 2013 at 8:31 am Love the quote about entrepreneurs and optimism – fits so many people I know to a tee! Looking forward to more interviews!	8,226
Massive Darkness it´s maybe my favorite DungeonMasterLess board game out there; it´s the gaming experience of playing D&D without to prepare an adventure or bothering a DM. Just sit from 1 to 6 players and have fun DUNGEONCRAWLING for treasure and having level, gearing yourself with the new found weapons. This game it´s based on Zombicide game mechanic but evolved in a way characters feel apart from the other, to be a cooperative game, so you play a hack and slash game with the Diablo RPG experience, You and your team take turns (sometimes could take a while to be your turn again, like in any D&D game rolling eyes) but the game experience its great and monsters cardboard IA really smell you fear scaling into level and losing in an appearing random but fun way, that gives this game a lot of replayability. Some say this game Replayability it´s stuck on the adventures (10 scenarios and 8 from an expansion) but really having lot of characters to choose and investing in different monsters this game changes a lot and keep being fresh to be played. Rules for this game are simple each player have 3 actions on his turn; Move/open doors, Attack and or reorganize your stuff... so you gotta equip armor, weapons and gear to match the current level and be optimate to be useful for the party, since it´s like a roleplay cooperative game. You roll your attack and defense of the monster and apply rules, you get experience by killing and raise level with the whole team purchasing new skills to make your life better and improve your character. CMON surprises us with LOTS of plastic crack, from the base and expansion that gives you tons of orcs, goblins, evil dwarf, barbarians, ratlings, and roaming huge monsters that go from a ogre, demon and a huge spider! with a lot of rules of behaviour. I play this game in several conventions having the most playability on scene, it covers the RPG space we cant have since time/speak (noisy conventions) and really gives you the best RPG tactical experience of D&D on the table. I expect this game have more reinforcements one day, saddly to play with zombies (from zombicide) you gotta find and expensive expansion cards from ebay since they where an exclusive of the kickstarter, but with the monster it does have it´s a great gaming experience. Also the game box have trails that keep then in order so i applaud CMON for such design. paint your Massive Darkness it deserves. By all this it´s my favorite DungeonCrawler nowday and really like to have everything from it. 0 Thread replies Most reacted comment newest oldest most voted Member Miniatures are great, but the gameplay is an overcomplicated HeroQuest. Doesn’t really stand out from any other “roll more bips than baps” dungeoncrawler in my collection.	2,889
I know you've probably already read about the president's press conference, because my friends John Amato and Susie Madrak have already written about it. If you haven't read theirs, you should, and you should also read Mike Lux' analysis of the By Karoli Kuns — January 15, 2013 I know you've probably already read about the president's press conference, because my friends John Amato and Susie Madrak have already written about it. If you haven't read theirs, you should, and you should also read Mike Lux' analysis of the issues surrounding the deficit. These are people I deeply respect, but I confess that I simply did not hear the same messages in the press conference that they did. In fact, I heard something completely different. What I heard was that the president was done with efforts to find a Grand Bargain. He expressed his concerns about the deficit, yes. But he also left the negotiating table. Here's the key moment, in the Q & A session with Major Garrett asking the question: MAJOR GARRETT: Thank you, Mr. President. As you well know, sir, finding votes for the debt ceiling can sometimes be complicated. You, yourself, as a member of the Senate, voted against a debt ceiling increase. And in previous aspects of American history — President Reagan in 1985, President George Herbert Walker Bush in 1990, President Clinton in 1997 — all signed deficit reduction deals that were contingent upon or in the context of raising the debt ceiling. You, yourself, four times have done that. Three times, those were related to deficit reduction or budget maneuvers. What Chuck and I and I think many people are curious about is this new, adamant desire on your part not to negotiate, when that seems to conflict with the entire history in the modern era of American Presidents and the debt ceiling, and your own history on the debt ceiling. And doesn’t that suggest that we are going to go into a default situation because no one is talking to each other about how to resolve this? THE PRESIDENT: Well, no, Major, I think if you look at the history, getting votes for the debt ceiling is always difficult, and budgets in this town are always difficult. I went through this just last year. But what’s different is we never saw a situation as we saw last year in which certain groups in Congress took such an absolutist position that we came within a few days of defaulting. And the fact of the matter is, is that we have never seen the debt ceiling used in this fashion, where the notion was, you know what, we might default unless we get 100 percent of what we want. That hasn’t happened. Now, as I indicated before, I’m happy to have a conversation about how we reduce our deficits further in a sensible way. Although one thing I want to point out is that the American people are also concerned about how we grow our economy, how we put people back to work, how we make sure that we finance our workers getting properly trained and our schools are giving our kids the education we deserve. There’s a whole growth agenda which will reduce our deficits that’s important as well. But what you’ve never seen is the notion that has been presented, so far at least, by the Republicans that deficit reduction — we’ll only count spending cuts; that we will raise the deficit — or the debt ceiling dollar for dollar on spending cuts. There are a whole set of rules that have been established that are impossible to meet without doing severe damage to the economy. And so what we’re not going to do is put ourselves in a position where in order to pay for spending that we’ve already incurred, that our two options are we’re either going to profoundly hurt the economy and hurt middle-class families and hurt seniors and hurt kids who are trying to go to college, or, alternatively, we’re going to blow up the economy. We’re not going to do that. That was a clear signal to me that the president is done trying to mash up budget resolutions, tax reform and the debt ceiling. It sounds to me like he was saying plain and flatly that nothing other than a clean, reasonable increase on the debt ceiling will be acceptable. Further, he acknowledged the progressive argument advanced in John Amato's post that the real solution to the deficit is economic growth. In other words, he acknowledged that the deficit issue is a Republican flog, and Americans have something else on their minds. He reinforced that later in the Q&A session when he said this, which I found to be the strongest gesture that he expected these things to be dealt with in an orderly fashion, beginning with a clean debt ceiling vote, in response to Julianna Goldman's question: THE PRESIDENT: No, Julianna, look, this is pretty straightforward. Either Congress pays its bills or it doesn't. Now, if — and they want to keep this responsibility; if John Boehner and Mitch McConnell think that they can come up with a plan that somehow meets their criteria that they’ve set for why they will — when they will raise the debt ceiling, they're free to go ahead and try. But the proposals that they’ve put forward in order to accomplish that — only by cutting spending — means cuts to things like Medicare and education that the American people profoundly reject. Now, if they think that they can get that through Congress, then they're free to try. But I think that a better way of doing this is go ahead and say, we’re going to pay our bills. The question now is how do we actually get our deficit in a manageable, sustainable way? And that's a conversation I’m happy to have. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are free to try and get something through Congress, but they will have no assistance from the White House. There will be no approval from the White House on proposals that simply gut Medicare, education and other social safety nets, because that goes against what the American people want. Whatever they might try to do with deficit reduction has nothing to do with the debt ceiling. The president also invited people to use their voices to pressure Congress. It was subtle and almost easy to miss, but still there in his answer to Matt Spetalnick: But it seems as if what’s motivating and propelling at this point some of the House Republicans is more than simply deficit reduction. They have a particular vision about what government should and should not do. So they are suspicious about government’s commitments, for example, to make sure that seniors have decent health care as they get older. They have suspicions about Social Security. They have suspicions about whether government should make sure that kids in poverty are getting enough to eat, or whether we should be spending money on medical research. So they’ve got a particular view of what government should do and should be. And that view was rejected by the American people when it was debated during the presidential campaign. I think every poll that’s out there indicates that the American people actually think our commitment to Medicare or to education is really important, and that’s something that we should look at as a last resort in terms of reducing the deficit, and it makes a lot more sense for us to close, for example, corporate loopholes before we go to putting a bigger burden on students or seniors. But if the House Republicans disagree with that and they want to shut down the government to see if they can get their way on it, that’s their prerogative. That’s how the system is set up. It will damage our economy. The government is a big part of this economy, and it’s interesting that a lot of times you have people who recognize that when it comes to defense spending — some of the same folks who say we’ve got to cut spending, or complain that government jobs don’t do anything, when it comes to that defense contractor in their district, they think, wow, this is a pretty important part of the economy in my district and we shouldn’t stop spending on that. Let’s just make sure we’re not spending on those other folks. In other words, House Republicans can go ahead and blow everything up if they really think that's what they were elected to do, but it would appear that they were not elected to do that, and so their constituents should speak up. For the rest of January and into February, President Obama has the bully pulpit. He has an inaugural speech coming up next Monday, and a State of the Union speech coming up the following month. He has the benefit of winning the last election by over 5 million votes, and he has the message that resonates with Americans on many levels. I did not in any way, shape or form hear him say he wanted a Grand Bargain. I heard him say he wants a clean debt ceiling raise with no negotiating or bargain. Period. I heard him say that while he views deficit reduction as something to pay attention to, we've already tackled a chunk of the deficit reduction issue by $2.5 trillion in spending cuts and increased taxes, that this Congress is incapable of being reasonable, and he's done with the Grand Bargain game. While it's true that he mentioned the Grand Bargain in his introduction, he also did it in the past tense, which to me meant he's done with the bargaining and has moved into action mode. Here's my question: What happens if they pass a debt ceiling increase loaded with cuts that do harm to Medicare and Medicaid and that somehow gets through the Senate? That would place him in an untenable position, where we all would wish that Grand Bargain had been struck. I worry that they're trying to maneuver him into vetoing their bill so they can have their choice of people to blame: him or the Senate. In reality, I would expect the Senate to reject any debt ceiling increase that wasn't clean, but it would still fall on the head of Democrats in that situation. Key Republicans are beginning to make some critical statements to their side of the aisle. Frank Luntz' remarks about how they should abandon the hostage-taking over the debt ceiling were very telling, and even Peggy Noonan, incoherent as she is, also says the same thing. If they couldn't bring themselves to see the fiscal cliff from the other side of January 1st, I doubt they (or their billionaires) want the entire global economy on the brink. It's interesting how all of us can watch the same things and take out different points. To me, the President said the time for bargains are behind us. Others heard an appeal for a Grand Bargain. In the end, I think the purpose of this press conference was to educate the public about what the debt ceiling is, why it must be raised, and why it is unrelated to any discussion of deficit reduction. Can you help us out? For 18 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you. To become an ad-free subscriber please select one of the following two options. Once you click your selected plan a window will open taking you to Admiral, our ad-free partner. Enjoy ad-free browsing while paying as you go. Enjoy a full year of ad-free browsing. If you don't mind the ads and would rather donate, please select one of the options below: payable to: Crooksandliars We are currently migrating to Disqus On May 14, 2022, we started migrating our comments from Insticator back to Disqus. During this transition period, some posts will have Insticator and some Disqus. For more information on the transition, as well as information regarding old C&L accounts, please see this post. We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.	12,656
Fans longing for new music from legendary Canadian progressive rocker Alex Lifeson of Rush will have to wait no longer, as the guitar virtuoso’s newest group, Envy of None, has delivered some of the most inventive and surprisingly vital work of the 68-year old’s career. Envy of None, their debut album, was released on April 8. Listeners will be delighted to a cohesive blend of alternative and indie, with hints of industrial sprinkled across the soundscape. Along with Lifeson, the cast of players includes bassist Andy Curran (of Coney Hatch), actress turned singer/songwriter, Maiah Wynne, and guitarist Alfio Annibalini. When asked about the project, Lifeson quipped that Envy of None “had no rules,” an approach that seems to be an ongoing and most successful methodology for the veteran axe-slinger. To see that the old dog can in fact be taught some new tricks is nothing short of delightful. I talked with Andy Curran and Maiah Wynne about the uber-surprising Envy of None project. Andrew Daly: Tell us about Envy Of None. Maiah Wynne: I first started working on some songs with Andy around five years ago. The project started out slowly, with zero pressure. It was just for the fun of making some cool music together. Even when Alex [Lifeson] got on board, there was never any pressure to do anything differently or try to make any sort of big hit song. It wasn’t until four years and ten songs later that we decided [to] officially release it. The music is diverse, and I love that about the project. There [are] heavier songs like “Dogs Life,” and “Enemy,” [and softer and sweeter songs like “Old Strings” and “Western Sunset.” Any song idea was on the table, and we just enjoyed the process of creating together. Andrew Curran: Envy Of None was really four like-minded musicians adding their ideas to seeds of songs that just seemed to ooze out of all of us. It had been in the works with no real master plan, and no label or management driving us. It wasn’t until Alex Lifeson asked me one day, “Andy, what are we going to do with all these songs?” that we felt we should share it with some music industry people. “Liar” was requested for the Netflix series Tiny Pretty Things, and then, when the team at K-Scope/Snapper Music heard the music, this caught fire, and we then had a mission to finish, record and release [the album]. AD: How did everyone in the band meet? MW: I met Andy through a song contest I won five years ago. One of my prizes was a mentorship with Andy through Zoom. We got to talking about an industrial-sounding song of mine that he really liked. Andy had been working on some similar music, and I offered to add vocals to them – not having any clue about who Andy was at that point. Alf [Annibalini] was already Andy’s creative partner. About two songs into working together, Andy called me out of the blue and said, “Alex [Lifeson] really likes the songs, and wants to add some guitars.” I flew to Toronto and met everyone. That was a really exciting day. AC: Alex Lifeson and I have known each other for years, and at one time were label mates on Anthem Records (Rush’s label). I [had] an A&R job at Anthem and had worked together with Rush for over a decade. Alf and I met when I was recording an album with the band Leisureworld, and we instantly hit it off. I met Maiah when she [did the] online radio competition. I played Alex a song called “Shadow” that we co-wrote. He added some guitars and loved Maiah’s voice and the vibe, and bingo – we had a lineup! AD: What first got both of you hooked on music? MW: One of my earliest memories is playing the piano at three years old and figuring out notes that sounded good together. I vividly remember the rush of excitement that gave me. I loved piano lessons. I took choir and band in school and always loved singing harmonies. At 13, I started teaching myself guitar and drums, and that’s when I really got the bug for learning new instruments. I still get that same rush now, branching out into synth and MIDI instruments and music production. AC: I grew up in a household where music was all around. My grandpa, Joe Curran, was a professional musician and played in the BBC Symphony Orchestra. My dad played piano and guitar, and my sisters and older brother Mike introduced me to so many cool bands. But it wasn’t until I saw the Edgar Winter Group perform at Maple Leaf Gardens that I was really hooked. That was a defining moment where I remember thinking, that’s what I wanna do. Oh, and the opening act was Bad Company…my mind was officially blown. AD: What themes are you exploring with your new music? How has your background brought you to this point in your musical journey? MW: A big part of music for me is working through whatever I’m going through. I tried to bring a lot of personal perspective to the lyrics for Envy Of None. Most of the songs were co-written, where Andy would have a few specific words, and I’d build the rest of the song around them. In retrospect, we probably used the word “darkness” a few too many times! A lot of the songs are pretty dark. It might make a fun drinking game while you listen to the record. [Laughs]. Envy of None, album cover. AC: I felt it was time to move outside my [musical] comfort zone. [My previous band] Coney Hatch was full-on hard rock, and with [the band] Soho, I started leaning a little more alternative. By the time Caramel and Leisureworld were written, I’d gone into a much darker alt-rock vibe [but with] some melodic hooks. During those years, I started writing a lot more “chilled” stuff, playing more keyboards, Moog bass lines, fretless bass, and guitars. I was listening to a lot of ambient, dub [artists]. It certainly influenced my writing, and that’s where a lot of the Envy Of None material started. Lyrically, I’ve never changed my approach. There are so many things that happen to me daily, so there’s no shortage of lyrical ideas that sit right under my nose. AD: How about the production side of things? MW: The four of us co-produced the record. Everyone was sort of in charge of recording and producing their own [songs], with some crossover at the end of the process. On many tracks, Aliephant, a producer I work with, co-produced the vocals, adding some cool effects layers. Alex Lifeson mixed a few of the songs and Alf mixed the rest. AC: Everyone had the freedom to do what they felt was needed to develop the song. The only time we went outside our bubble was to play a few songs for our friend [Canadian record producer] David Bottrill to get some feedback. He said, “you guys are doing great, the material and sonics are really good,” offered a few tips, and sent us on our way. It was a nice confidence booster. AD: What went into the decision to release “Liar” as the first single? MW: We let the label decide the singles. I think we all agreed that “Liar” was a great first track, and it was an easy choice. AC: I was on board just for the fuzz bass alone (laughs). AD: Who are some of your early influences? MW: My dad. He played piano and I would watch his hands. My grandpa plays banjo and mandolin. I listened to a lot of No Doubt, Radiohead, Norah Jones, Aimee Mann, Duran Duran, Queen, and the Pixies with my parents. Around 13, I was learning the drums and listened to ACϟDC, Led Zeppelin, Rush, and pretty much anything that I discovered while playing Guitar Hero. I then went through an indie phase and listened to artists like Daughter, Iron and Wine, Florence and The Machine, Ben Harper, and Feist. AC: Like I said, Edgar Winter was a big one for me, [also] bands like Aerosmith, UFO, Cheap Trick…and Rush! When I started learning bass, that’s when Yes, Genesis, Return to Forever, Weather Report, and Jeff Beck were on my turntable 24/7. AD: What are a few of your favorite albums, and why? MW: Some of my favorite albums are Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Fiona Apple’s Tidal, and Radiohead’s OK Computer. They feel really cohesive from beginning to end. AC: Some of my new favorite records are from Tame Impala, Bones UK, and a Toronto artist called Jaguar Sun. They’re not new, but I love Middle Class Rut. This is a darn good playlist if I do say so myself. (laughs) AD: What other passions do both of you have? How do they inform your music? MW: I love acting. I hope I can pursue a career in acting as well as music. There is a lot of crossover between the two worlds, especially when putting on a concert. In order to give a good musical performance, you have to be a good entertainer, and that includes channeling emotion and having a good rapport with the audience. I also enjoy writing poetry and that informs my lyrics at times. AC: Those who know me well will tell you hockey is a big passion. I was skating three times a week all year until COVID hit and rinks were shut down. I’m a die-hard Chicago Blackhawks fan. My family means the world to me, and that includes my four-legged canine friends. Those personal connections certainly find their way into my lyrics. Hockey not so much. (laughs) AD: In your opinions, what is the state of the music business these days? Should artists be hopeful? Scared? Both? MW: I think the state of the music industry today is a double-edged sword. There are benefits to everything being so accessible, like any artist being able to share their music with the world, and anyone being able to listen to them across the globe. However, digital music platforms have devalued music to the point where artists can’t make money easily anymore. An already challenging career path has become ten times harder. On top of that, COVID and the inability to tour safely and easily have created a huge deficit for artists trying to survive. I don’t see us resolving these issues anytime soon. Unless someone can create a digital streaming platform as convenient and cheaper than Spotify that treats artists more fairly, I don’t think the average person is going to take the time to change the way they listen to music. I would like to believe there will be a better solution in the future, but it is going to take work and a conscious effort from a large number of people. AC: I really feel hopeful. There are so many great opportunities for young artists to get their music out there. The internet has leveled the playing field in terms of [having] a destination to share music. You have an uphill battle to get your music heard, and poke your head above the pack, but if I compare [the situation] to when I started, unless you had a label behind you there was no way your music was going to get out to a global marketplace. The live scene has shrunk for sure, but as my friend, [Canadian music executive] Ray Danniels will say, “nothing can get in the way of a great song.” Persistence and patience are the names of the game. November 26, 2022 at 6:51 am I’ve been playing piano/synths for almost 40 years, seen Rush, Genesis about 16 times, Rick Wakeman solo 3 times. I have a long history with great prog legends. I listened to 4 of these songs from the album. Some are incomprehensible and not listenable to me. A couple are OK. However, I cannot hear even a smidgen of Alex Lifeson anywhere. They have promoted him well in this band, but this music is definitely a product of the other players with a sprinkling of Lifeson. I’m glad Alex is back working and creating, but I just cannot get my mind into this stuff. Alex is probably the most innovative prog guitarist I have known, but this music is just not for me. Wish it was. Log in to Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment. Also From This Issue Chairman At The Board: Bill Schnee On The Making of Some Iconic Records The 1970s was a landmark era for both technological and… Every so often I find it’s generally good practice to… We C What You Did There License to brag: taken at Pebble Beach Golf Links, California. I was not thinking about much; mostly I was just… Subscribe to Copper Magazine and never miss an issue. Δ Join the hi-fi family Δ Stop by for a tour: quick links	12,930
IFSC Code: Search by MICR is a tool accepts input of 9 characters which also broadly known as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. To get IFSC code directly, only MICR is required only. In Short Tools is a subdomain which comes under BFY. BFY broadly known as Banksforyou, a banking info blog which focuses on quality and actionable content which any customer of any bank can get help. Now this tools subdomain focuses on customers focus on the tools that are common in banking sector, can be said tools which are based online but are highly useful.	555
A recent decision issued by the Tribunal of Milan (full-text in Italian available here), Specialized IP Section, has acknowledged special artistic merit, hence copyright protection (under Art. 2.10 of Italian Copyright Act implementing Art 17 of EU Directive 71/98) to after-sky boots, branded Moon Boots (as designed after the US astronauts’ boots ), a popular model marketed (also) in Italy since more than 40 years. Aldrin’s boot and footprint in lunar soil – credit: Nasa (As known, in some countries like Germany and Italy, copyright protection of industrial design products requires a plus of artistic merit than the mere ‘individual character’ requested by the general copyright paradigm). The trump card for this recognition was the Louvre Museum’s choice of Moon Boots as one of the 100 most representative industrial design works of the XX century. The readers will think, and with reason, that this position is not novel, either in Italy or in other countries (Germany,i.a.). And with reason: as a matter of fact, Milan’s Tribunal just follows the blueprint of Flos. So, it is not for its peculiarities that we are recalling the Moon Boots decision. Rather, it is an occasion for some critical comments on the general position – general: aside from the specific case – espoused by the Milan Court. First: is the selection/exposition by even prestigious museums a per se decisive argument for assessing special artistic value? More precisely: is it so without inquiring whether the exhibition was the Museum’s choice an autonomous initiative, or was it sponsored by the producers of the industrial design products? We all know how quite often, nowadays, public and private museums and art galleries, as well as the press, generalist and specialized, specialized struggle for balancing their budgets. And how a skillfully set up ‘environment’ can frame prestige and ‘cultural’ aura for the presentation of even everyday household appliances. And we know, of course, how intense is the ‘race’ by industrial design producers to obtain that prestigious upgrading, which translates in a potentially over 100 years rent-seeking position. So, at least Courts should adopt the test ‘sponsored or autonomous’? One might add that an even more significant test could be adopted. By checking whether this or that industrial product, of which the producer/plaintiff claims special artistic value, has ever been auctioned at art sales by famed houses as Christie’s, Sotheby’s and the like. Or, just by checking with same houses if they are prepared to auction such products as after-sky boots… (I am personally interested to this, I must confess: in my garage I have a couple of forgotten old used boots that I was going to throw away…). Let’s now give a broader glance at the issue. First of all, its ‘competitive cost’. Is it reasonable, and consistent with the principle of freedom of competition, that utilitarian products sold since many years, even after the expiry of the 25 years design registration, and whose basic model has been currently adopted, after such expiry, by many competitors (usually SMEs ) — is it reasonable, then, that a sudden ‘copyright baptism’ makes them again object of exclusive rights? — possibly, repeat, for more than a century ahead! I do not think so: however, the question of an ‘easy’ building of such rent/seeking positions is not worth neglecting. Also for an additional reason. Under Berne Conventions’ rule on derivative works (Art.2.3) the rightholders on the original design retain the faculty to inhibit the production and marketing of competing products bearing variants. At least — at the very least— a more balanced regime should establish a suitable term for competitors, who entered the market after the expiry of the registration, to continue production and sales as not to waste the investments poured therefor. On the determination of such ‘transition’ period, it is well known, lobbies of big international furniture producers are actively at work, e.g. now in UK after the disgraceful repeal (itself lobby-driven), of Sec. 52 of Design Act by the Enterprise Act of 2013 . Finally: let alone SMEs, do Courts worry about the cost for consumers, i.e. effect on price, of such… baptism? Not that I know. Court of Milan, IP Section, decision of 7 July 2016, No. 8628/2016 This blog aims at providing a heterodox review of selected significant decisions and legislative Acts and Bills concerning Intellectual Property law and related matters, each of them reconstrued in its essential features, and critically commented. Thus, we particularly address the happy many (?) who want to go beyond mere updating and descriptive overviews, and rather inquire into both the systemic coherence and the jurispolitical meaning (“who gains, who loses”) of the various legal “novelties” which attract our attention. We are of course aware of the higher risk of ‘subjectivity’ that such approach implies. But we do believe that a critical reader is immunized against such risk, and privileges a more controversial but “salty” dish vis-à-vis an insipid one. And in this very spirit, however, we will welcome the readers’ comments: especially the critical ones.	5,292
This is how To join Zoosk Internet dating – Relationship – Nairaland Don’t just swipe! Zoosk lets you lookup well-known truth, matches easily, otherwise get developed. There are a selection out of his to satisfy local single people. Off website and... Recent Posts I’m inside the a relationship with one whoever wife off thirty five decades passed away history Now i need 2000 today – just what are my personal possibilities? For most people a totally free and you can increasingly cocky sex can also be appear regarding conflict making use of their health conditions Brand new French design had started acting in the 1952 and you will appeared in several comedies while in the the lady industry	709
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WPC2027 is the most played cockfighting game in the Philippines WBC stands for World Pitmaster Cup. WPC2027 is not only for the people of the Philippines but anyone from all over the world can participate in this game on which players play against each other in this game. Basically WPC2027 is an online game. In this game bets are placed on your favorite cock and the winners of the final round of this game receive all the money at the end. By playing WPC2027 game, people all over the world are earning a lot of money from it on a daily basis. This game is talked about all over the world and this game is also very popular. Now let’s talk about how you can join WPC2027 and how you can earn a lot of money while playing this game. So for registration of WPC2027 you first need to go to WPC2027 website and after entering this website, 1. You must be 21 years of age to register for WPC2027 otherwise you cannot join WBC2027. 2. If you are 21 years then fill the WPC2027 registration form and submit it to the website and your account will be activated instantly. 3. During registration, the required information will be asked for name, password, date of birth and occupation information which you will have to submit. 4. After creating a WPC2027 account you must also have a Microsoft account to access the dashboard. By following the instructions above you can easily create a WPC2027 account and enjoy playing this game. If you are an active member of WPC2027 and you have forgotten your WPC2027 account password, you don’t need to worry at all because WPC gives full access to recover password of your active account by which you can change your password and access your account. Just remember that when you create a new account, you need to enter a phone number and whenever you forget your password, WPC account password is received on your phone number after which you can change your account password. What is Live Dashboard? One of the most frequently asked questions regarding the WPC2027 game is what is the live dashboard in WPC? So Live Dashboard is an internet connected platform for those who want to watch live cockfighting game. In this people first have to apply by filling a form after which WPC2027 provides live dashboard service to all those people. There are some service charges to get live dashboard which has to be paid only after that we can watch live tournament on live dashboard. In this live dashboard all those who have submitted the application can see live cockfighting on their screen. In this dashboard, WPC2027 also provides all the information about all the upcoming events and tournaments to the people. Conversely, if you want to watch all WPC tournaments without a live dashboard or get information about cockfighting, then you have to join the WPC2027 social media pages. Where you can get all the information and updates on the official page of WPC. Features of WPC2027: In today’s advanced era, instead of walking from one place, people prefer to see everything online with the help of the internet on the screen of their mobile phones. And there are numerous games that we can bet on online as well. WPC2027 is also a similar platform where people can enjoy watching the game live on their phone screen with the help of online internet at home and you can bet on it. WPC games are available for both Android and iOS devices. If you want to know about upcoming events and games schedule on this platform, you first need to create an account on its official website and turn on the notification of the WPC2027 application installed in your phone. To enjoy through WPC2027 application you visit the official website of WPC2027 or you search it you can install and use this application. WPC is currently the most played game in the Philippines. Downloading this app is absolutely free while some subscription charges are required to access its official version and this application is available in three languages. Pros of WPC2027: 1. WPC is one of the best online games in the Philippines 2. You can completely kill your boredom by playing this game 3. You can also earn a lot of money on daily basis by playing WPC game 4. This game is not very difficult to play but very easy 5. The game keeps all its users informed about all the upcoming events and tournaments Cons of WPC2027: 1. WPC actually wastes a person’s valuable time and it also wastes a person’s money 2. Humans should not fight against each other through WPC game which creates chaos in the minds of humans 3. Apart from human mind, WPC game also has a bad effect on human training There are very few bird related games in the world that are played live and bet on. The Philippines also developed a game in which money is earned by betting on animals other than roosters fighting live. It must be a little strange to see and hear, but it is nothing new. These games go on for hours, wasting people’s precious time. Despite being one of the biggest online games in WPC Philippines, its website ranking is very low which is below 190000. The number of daily visitors to this website is also very low currently which is around 350. The reason for such a low ranking is that this website i.e. the game is about four months old. It is a game that offers different rounds of tournaments and the game has been around for centuries. According to various experts, this game is definitely old but not unwanted and extinct. In today’s new era, the demand of this game will increase further as people are earning a lot of money and also enjoying this game. This platform is very useful for gambling gamblers and people who have fun because on this platform the gamblers get the chance to gamble while the revelers get the entertainment. What is WPC2027? WPC is an online betting game where people gamble by joining various tournaments that require people to deposit money first. How to register for WPC2027? Go to WPC2027 website and fill the registration form and submit it to the company. Phone number is required for verification. Can we make money from WPC2027? Yes of course you can earn money and enjoy playing WPC2027 game but you can also lose money because it is a gambling game. Can we watch WPC2027 tournaments live? To watch WPC tournaments live you will have to pay something after which WPC will provide you live dashboard facility and you can watch all the tournaments live on the dashboard.	6,542
In a flurry of misinformation, Israeli papers declared that “Representatives of 50 Christian evangelical groups have agreed to make an unprecedented joint statement promising not to carry out missionary activity in Israel.” The agreement was hammered out by MK Zvili, one of the controversial anti-missionary bill’s original sponsors, and representatives of the Christian community. (See text of agreement below.) However, the above interpretation of the agreement, published the day before a meeting with MK Zvili at which the agreement was to be signed, led to a boycott by both the Messianic Action Committee (MAC) and the United Christian Council in Israel (UCCI). MAC Chairman Baruch Maoz, in response to headlines that shouted “No missionary activity in Holy Land,” told Ha’Aretz that Messianic Jews would not stop their “missionary activity,” and that asking them to do so would be like asking the Labor party not to try to win an election. The statement, which was originally endorsed by the MAC and UCCI along with other Christian groups, is definitely open to interpretation. The clause in question states that “We… will not engage in activities …… to alienate (the Jewish people) from their tradition and community.” Maoz states that the activities of Messianic Jews often bring Jews closer to their tradition, and that “Zvili is a politician. He was looking for a statement he could interpret however he wanted. We were willing to give it to him, so he would drop the bill.” The UCCI also did not endorse the statement in response to the early publicity. UCCI president Charles Kopp said that “the publicity had made it appear that those present would be relinquishing their right to say what they believed.” In the end, the agreement was signed by one of its main sponsors, Bridges for Peace, as well as a number of ecumenical groups. But even the “day after” article in the Jerusalem Post, though it acknowledges the boycott, is headlined with the generalization that “Christian groups eschew proselytizing.” As representatives of Christian churches, schools and charitable institutions from different parts of the world, living and working in the State of Israel, we rejoice in the presence of the Jewish people in this country of their ancestors and delight in their return to it after many centuries of persecution and suffering. We trust that the Almighty will guide them in all aspects of their religious and communal life and will inspire them, in the tradition of the prophets, to shape a just and compassionate society. We pray for the establishment of peaceful relations with their neighbors, as well as with the members of the Christian, Muslim and other religious communities in this country. We pray for God’s blessing over all Israel’s inhabitants. We believe that the covenant which God concluded with the people of Israel was never revoked. We deeply respect the Jewish people in their identity and integrity and will therefore not engage in activities, which have as their intention to alienate them from their tradition and community. Nor will we exploit, for the benefit of our denominational interests, such economic, social or psychological needs as may emerge. Recalling the grim events preceding Israel’s rebirth, we are sensitive to their memories, hurts and feelings, even as we pursue our religious callings. We also recognize the potential for healing between our faith communities as we live in the midst of a Jewish majority, sharing its challenges while living together in a land sacred to both our traditions. We earnestly call upon the government of Israel to maintain its enlightened policy which allows our Christian communities in this country, both native as well as expatriate, to freely follow our vocation, which includes among others, caring for our members; engaging in many social and charitable projects; welcoming and assisting pilgrims and visitors from abroad; and maintaining schools and institutions for teaching and research – to the end, that the Christian communities in the State of Israel may flourish in harmony with those of other faiths. Hadashot Mishpaha, March 26 1998 “I truly hope that we won’t have to follow in the steps of Rabbi R. Solovichik, who lay on the floor of ex Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and cried in order to prevent autopsies.” Thus said the legal advisor to the orthodox factions in the Knesset, in a meeting with Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein regarding Israel’s “anti-mission” laws. Rubinstein acknowledged that the laws in question have not always been enforced, adding that he will weigh options to change this situation. The AG and State Attorney Edna Arbel promised that religious legislation will not be discriminated against. Rubinstein also agreed to appoint his top aide, Attorney Solberg, to be responsible for the enforcement of religious legislation. Whenever members of the orthodox lobby feel that the police have neglected to press charges or enforce the law, Attorney Solberg will investigate the matter. Kol HaDarom, March 20 1998 The conversion of a family in Ashkelon was discovered when their five year old son told his kindergarten teacher that he had been baptized. She promptly notified the Yad L’Achim anti-missionary organization, who stepped in to try to convince the father to return to Judaism. The mother, who refused to go along with the conversion, maintains that her husbands motives were purely financial, and that after his baptism he would receive money and help with housing. She also claims that he was told to divorce her if she didn’t convert, and that “he has turned into a robot.” In another southern city, an IDF officer’s involvement with “a cult” was reported to the military, who did not respond. Yad L’Achim cites cases like these to prove the need for harsher anti-missionary measures as well as for fundraising, since they are fighting “15 thousand missionaries with a budget of millions.” Zman Tel-Aviv (Ma’ariv supplement), March 13 1998 According to the US report on religious freedom published in July 1997, Israel is not the place to be a Jehovah’s Witness. Members of the world-wide group have been consistently harassed, beaten and threatened by orthodox anti-missionaries. This article documents a number of such attacks, including two “missionaries” being held at gun-point and a mob beating 3 sisters who had simply been visiting a friend. Victims have filed complaints with the police, but so far no charges have been brought against the perpetrators, even though in some cases their identity is known. Yad L’Achim, while denying complicity in illegal acts, recently ran the following notice in a Russian language paper: “Caution, Jehovah’s Witnesses. Yad L’Achim has commenced an operation against Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Dan region (Tel-Aviv area – ed.). Actually this should have been done long ago… Of course missionary activity is illegal… Yad L’Achim has started a war against this cult, and in certain cases we resort to violence against missionaries in order to force them to obey the law.” MK Dedi Zucker of the left-wing Meretz party plans to bring the problem of religious intolerance, as well as the lack of appropriate response by the police, to the attention of the Knesset. And meanwhile, the police spokesman says that the matter is “under investigation.” Ha’Aretz English edition, March 29 1998 The following is excerpted from the article: Brother David moved into an apartment on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem to secure what he believes will be a front row seat for the return of Christ in 2000. …He is in touch with dozens of Americans who are ready to sell their possessions and move to the Holy Land in the next two years. Next door, a hotel run by Palestinian Muslims is making an unusual sales pitch. “How would you like to be staying at the Mount of Olives Hotel the day Jesus returns?” reads a flier sent to 2000 Christian congregations in the US. These are just some of the signs that as the millennium approaches, this city… will be a magnet for Christian “end-timers” who believe the second coming of Christ is near. While officials in Jerusalem tackle the millennium as a practical problem (such as providing lodging, toilets and water for the 6 million visitors expected between mid 1999 and the end of 2000 – ed.), there is growing expectation among millions of evangelical Christians that the city will soon witness dramatic events. According to such beliefs, the creation of the state of Israel is a sign that the end of the world and Christ’s return … are near. Most preachers in the US are reluctant to set a date, but many are stirring anticipation among their flocks. Most pilgrims … will tour holy sites and go home if nothing happens. But Jerusalem has a history of doing strange things to people. The Jerusalem district psychiatrist predicts he’ll see more that the usual three of four annual cases of “Jerusalem Syndrome”—people without prior psychiatric problems who, once in the holy city, believe they are biblical figures or have a godly mission. Sufferers might engage in washing rituals, begin wearing white or deliver confused speeches at holy sites. Brother David …. spends his days distributing food and clothes to the needy. He said he has helped dozens of Christians find cheap apartments in the area, and has received letters form dozens more who want to come. “I have waited all my life for this,” said David. But he has also left himself an out. If Christ’s return is delayed, he will just keep praying. “It just gives us an added drive to do what we know is good while we have time,” he said. The Jerusalem Post: National English language daily, published in Jerusalem. Tends to the religious right, but careful and relatively fair towards believers (has a large Christian readership). Friendly towards right-wing political Christianity. Ha’Aretz: National daily, published in Tel-Aviv, mostly objective towards believers. Mishpaha/Hadashot Mishpaha: Jerusalem religious weekly. Ma’ariv: National daily, published in Tel-Aviv. Politically tends to the right, mostly objective towards believers (depends on the reporter).	10,325
We’ll give the bulls an ‘A” for effort. Every day this week they pushed the S&P 500 higher, making two new yearly highs, before sellers appeared to drive the averages back down. Friday was no different. The S& P 500 hit 1,119 intraday, another yearly high, before sellers took profits. The Dow and NASDAQ experienced the same kind of action. A lot of the volatility can be blamed on the dollar, which had ceased its downward descent and instead bounced up and down while taking the markets with it. Those investors who believe the stock market is taking its cue from the economy have it wrong. As I’ve written before, the markets have discounted most of the economic news you are reading today. The unemployment numbers released on Friday are a great example. Clearly, they were better then expected and although the averages initially rallied on that news at the opening, traders used the gains as another opportunity to sell. It was, in my opinion, a rational thing to do. For the last few weeks, I have been suggesting to readers that it might be time to start taking some profits. I still believe that. The decline in gold on Friday is a great example of what can occur when you sit on profits too long. Last week I advised readers to sell some of the metal since gold had reached the lower end of my target range of $1,200-1,300/ounce. This week gold hit an all-time high of $1,213 while silver climbed to almost $19.50/ounce. My target there is $20/ounce. Investors who did not heed my advice woke up Friday to discover gold dropping rapidly and last I looked was down $62 to $1,156. Silver dropped 69 cents to $18.43. What changed overnight? My answer: profit-taking, nothing more, nothing less. I hasten to add that after this much-needed period of consolidation, gold and silver will continue to move higher and at some point achieve the higher end of my predicted range. Wouldn’t it be nice to have taken some profits, sit back and watch the decline and maybe buy back $100 lower? The same thing can happen at any time in the stock market for the same reason—profit-taking. Like gold, stocks have had a huge move since March and are ripe for a correction. After a pullback, I believe the markets will resume their upward climb. You can either resign yourself to standing fast, accepting an erosion of the profits you’ve made, while waiting for the averages to come back, or you can take some money off the table now. Remember, you can’t profit from market pullbacks unless you have the cash to invest. So what! You can still use the money to re-allocate your portfolio. Buy sectors or stocks that have underperformed up to now. Small cap stocks, for example, have had a great year; but maybe its time to switch into large caps or use some of your gold profits to buy the agriculture sector or consider consumer durables. Now, I know some of you will find my advice contrary to everything your broker or money manger tells you. The ‘Buy and Hold” mantra that wiped out 30-50% of your savings last year is still very much alive among those in the financial advisory community. Most likely, many of them finally put you into conservative bond funds (after begging them to do so all last year) at the bottom of the market. As a result, you’ve made some money back but you haven’t really participated as you should in this 50%- plus move to the upside. Stop listening to them. Listen to yourself instead; or better yet, your wife. That’s right; I believe women have an intuitive sense about profit-taking while men find it extremely difficult to sell. Use a Buy and Sell strategy, especially when you have made the kind of windfall profits the stock and commodity markets have given you this year. Posted in At the Market, The Retired Advisor Bill Schmick is registered as an investment advisor representative of Onota Partners, Inc., in the Berkshires. Bill’s forecasts and opinions are purely his own and do not necessarily represent the views of Onota Partners, Inc. (OPI). None of his commentary is or should be considered investment advice. Anyone seeking individualized investment advice should contact a qualified investment adviser. None of the information presented in this article is intended to be and should not be construed as an endorsement of OPI, Inc. or a solicitation to become a client of OPI. The reader should not assume that any strategies, or specific investments discussed are employed, bought, sold or held by OPI. Direct your inquiries to Bill at 1-413-347-2401 or e-mail him at [email protected] Any mention of specific securities or investments is for illustrative purposes only. Adviser’s clients may or may not hold the securities discussed in their portfolios. Adviser makes no representations that any of the securities discussed have been or will be profitable. Bill is not affiliated with or supervised by BMM. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of BMM or its employees. Investments in securities are not insured, protected or guaranteed and may result in loss of income and/or principal. This communication may include opinions and forward-looking statements, and we can give no assurance that such beliefs and expectations will prove to be correct. Investments in securities are not insured, protected or guaranteed and may result in loss of income and/or principal. This communication may include opinions and forward-looking statements, and we can give no assurance that such beliefs and expectations will prove to be correct. June 13, 2022 October 31, 2022 by Allen Harris Charles Schwab’s sixth-annual Modern Wealth Survey revealed that people with money do have a heart. Almost three-quarters of the American respondents (73 percent) say that their values govern their life decisions. And almost as many (69 percent) say their top... Read more 6 Benefits of Having an Estate Plan \| Protect Your Family and Legacy July 13, 2022 October 31, 2022 by Peter Coughlin An estate plan is essential for protecting the people and things you care about when you pass away, regardless of your age or wealth. However, only 1 in 3 American adults have one. I recommend that everybody create... Read more June 23, 2022 October 31, 2022 by Allen Harris In marriage and divorce, through life and death, your money is in motion. Making the right financial decisions can feel downright impossible when relationships and emotions come into play, but protecting your family and future is especially critical... Read more Investments in securities are not insured, protected or guaranteed and may result in loss of income and/or principal.	6,981
Sony announced sales targets for its upcoming PlayStation 4 for the first time today, saying that it plans to sell five million units by the end of the year. The fiscal year. That means it will have to sell just over a million consoles a month between its November 15th North American launch and March 31st, 2014. The company made the announcement this morning at its Tokyo Game Show keynote address. In comparison, it took Microsoft a full calendar year to ship its first five million Xbox 360s back in 2006, and Sony’s PlayStation 3 hit 4.28 million sales worldwide at the end of Q1 2007, seven months after its release in November of 2006. Unlike its predecessor, however, the PlayStation 4 won't be immediately available in Japan in November; instead, fans in Sony's home country will have to wait until February 22nd. It’s now been seven years since the PlayStation 3 was first launched, and even though competitors have been seeing weak sales, it isn’t unreasonable to assume the pent-up demand for next-gen gaming could pull a million PS4s a month into stores around the world. From that point of view, Sony’s announcement could be taken a different way: it expects to be able to produce five million units between now and the end of March. Anker’s Eufy lied to us about the security of its security cameras Elon Musk is dragging Apple into the culture wars Netflix CEO says he’ll order Dave Chappelle specials ‘again and again’ despite employee backlash Valve will give away a free Steam Deck every minute during The Game Awards / Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox daily. Email (required) By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.	1,897
I like to think it started with the first song written by Hope Darling. It was probably a rudimentary song and I don’t doubt it was probably raw, but it set the stage and put us on this musical journey. It started when the lead singer Gabriel who had been in a cover band for several years decided he had enough of playing other people music and decided to take a stab at writing his own. The rest as they say is history. Was there any bumps on the road? What kind of challenges did you have to deal with? There have been quite a few bumps in the road. Pandemic affected us all where shows were cancelled, shows and opportunities were loss. I think the biggest challenge for Hope Darling was the loss of our friend and drummer Patrick Brown in 2017. Long story short, he was at a local bar watching a band and a drunk unruly patron was making racial slurs directed to one of the musicians. Patrick didn’t like it, words amd fists were exchanged and ended helping the establishment kick the gentleman out which resulted in a no trespass order filed against this drunk S.O.B. About a week or 2 later this guy returned to the same bar and unfortunately Patrick was there sitting at the bar with his back towards him and didn’t see this guy come in with a firearm and shot Patrick in the back. Aside from Patrick being our friend, a father, a husband, a son, and a brother he was a 2 tour Army Veteran and I know if Patrick didn’t have his back turned he would of saw this guy coming from a mile away. Unfortunately this event happened and Gabriel pondered for quite awhile if Hope Darling was even going to continue. It was thru the support of friends, family and the brotherhood of the band that convinced him to revive the band. What was the most fulfilling and satisfying moment so far? There are quite a few highlights from hearing our song on the radio, to TV on a Netflix series but I think the best is being able to go to a Touchtunes Jukebox found in any bar or restaurant in any state and then pull up our song “Lifeline” and then hear it rocking the room! How would you describe the music that you typically create? Emotionally charged, anthemic and melodic rock and roll! What is your creative process like? Its triggered with an idea, concept, event, a person, a moment or even an emotion. What follows is usually a melody and then lyrics. Eventually we come together in our rehearsal room to find our rhythm and structure. Its always work in process with each song but in the end we don’t stop working on the song until we can walk out of our rehearsal feeling good about what we created. If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be? Should the music industry change or should we as fans, as listeners, as consumers be the ones changing? The music scene is alive and vibrant and the industry has adapted with the rise of the internet. It has created platforms, services, greater accessibility and profit making for them while keeping the artists, bands, musicians working twice as hard. As Richie our bass player says “in the past, artists would tour to promote their album. Now artists release their music to promote their tour”. If you were asked to give a piece of advice to upcoming bands, what would that be? Always trust your instincts. What has been the best performance of your career so far? We have had quite a few great shows, and quite a few not so great but I think the best one to date was when we went to North Carolina for a music festival. It was a musical road trip in the simplest description. We played 2 stages back to back that night, the main Indie show and then a impromptu open jam at a local bar. I think it was the moment, the event, the adrenaline but I felt like we all meshed that day. It wasn’t so much the performance but the feel of having the privilege of being able to perform. If you didn’t become a musician, what would you be doing now? We all have various interests but I believe that we would all be doing something in the arts or even music related. Sound engineering, producing, or even just something that allows us to be creative. What is new with the band at the moment? What are you currently working on and would like to share with the world? We just released a 9 song album that is currently available on all major music platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Amazon music or Apple music. In the meantime we are in the rehearsal studio writing, and working on new music for a new album. by Keith Clement You May Also Like November 28, 2022 November 28, 2022 November 27, 2022 November 27, 2022 November 27, 2022 November 27, 2022 We are fans of all genres and subgenres of Metal... \m/ Links Sponsors © Copyright 2021, Metalheads Forever Magazine Re-designed by Black Speech Create a Menu in Menus and assign it as Hidden Menu in Theme Location We use cookies on this website to improve your experience. ACCEPT This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. Non-necessary Non-necessary Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.	6,492
The MOBI-MIX project intends to facilitate the up-take of innovative transport solutions to fulfill their potential and have a positive impact in reducing carbon emissions. To achieve this the project will develop and source state-of-the-art public-private collaboration models for more effective implementation of micromobility and MaaS solutions, ultimately leading to a more livable city. POLIS would like to invite now transport stakeholders to participate in a direct dialogue about challenges and solutions regarding public-private collaboration. The roundtable will be held virtually and led by international experts following a list of discussion topics set in advance. Register for the rountable here. This is the second in a series of discussions with experts from the US and Europe for European cities to learn best practices and strategies for collaborating with the private sector. You can visit the results and join the discussions of the first roundtable here. What can you expect from the expert discussion? Direction on how challenges can be addressed by cities Examples of failed practices Why organize a high-level discussion roundtable? The involvement of international experts allows public authorities to source and select globally the best ideas, state-of-the-art approaches and innovative examples that enables the public authorities to have a wide range of design options which goes beyond the usual options in their local network. This transforms cities into informed decision-makers, ultimately leading to an improved implementation of Smart Mobility.	1,605
We have a quick video for you here today. It's a quick little Insider's Report and this is kind of really going forward and not like looking backward and necessarily anything. But this is really why buying rental real estate is going to huge in the roaring twenties and the twenties coming ahead. It's going to be the best of times I think or the worst of times for people depending on what situation you're in, depending on really what kind of attitude you have, what kind of mindset you have. Because I think we're going to see some great things. We're also going to see some bad things come to fruition over a decade. It could happen sooner than later. You never know. However, you just never know. Let's just put it that way. It could be bad things happening this year. It could be happening eight years from now. You just don't know. But I think they're going to happen in this decade. Good, bad and different. It's kind of like every other decade, right? There's good, bad and it is balanced. There's neutral, right? So what is going to happen in his decade and how can you prepare going forward? Whenever there are bad things happening, like for instance, the last decade, I believe it was the first decade in existence where we didn't have a recession, real recession or a depression, the like events. What does that mean? Probably gonna have one in this decade. I thought we're going to have another one five years ago, a recession, kind of a dead cat bounce if you will. Not going to get into too many technical terms here, but how can you prepare for that? That's the biggest thing. Like, "Okay, that's great and all Brandon." But how can you prepare for that? How can you do things going forward? You don't need a lot. Ten houses over the course of time can set you up for the rest of your life. Right? Ten houses paid off over the course of 10 20, 30 years, a lot of people can pay them off if you really focused on just those in 10, 12, 15, 17 years. How are you going to do that? What are you going to do? Getting 10 properties that will pay you once they've been paid off a thousand a month in cash flow is $10,000 a month. I mean, I think most people could live off a $10,000 a month, not having to do anything, right? Pretty awesome. That's over six figures, $120,000 a year, we'll just say a hundred grand a year just in case there' are some things that happened there and you don't make the whole full $120,000 but you have a hundred grand a year in passive income. A lot of cases, if you're doing it right, tax-free income, it's depreciated. There are tax advantages for it. So what can you do to do that? It's buying rental real estate. You don't have to get into the apartment complex. You don't have to get into all that stuff. Buying single-family homes, rentable, buying undervalue, buying appreciating homes that are gonna go up in value over time where they're going to be rentable to the average common family. Some of the things coming forward, just some trends that are coming ahead - some reports saying if 50% of people are going to be renting if 50% are going to be owning homes. Right now, we have 64% homeownership. We had almost 70% homeownership before the crash. It's steadily declining and these new generations coming up there, they want to rent more. There's a report saying that in the next decade or two, next couple of decades, we're gonna have 50% of the country renting. Getting into that game and preserving your wealth. Not only that, there's a fourth reason actually. It rates. That's another reason why we wanted to have that. So we're going to talk about that. This is huge, obviously, right? Just massive, just trends, always following the trends. Remember, the trend is your friend. I say that in all of our videos, our market updates. Two is rent control. I'm getting in while you can cause the rent could be maybe grandfather, maybe you can kind of get past that rule possibly. Probably not though. But you'd never know. I just wanted to put up here because it is something that's coming and it's something to be, really be wary of - where you're investing in what's coming down the pike. Three - rent, really control of your cash flow, taxes, wealth and retirement. That's the biggest thing. That's what everyone wants, right? That's what people are working for. That's what they are investing in stocks for, in real estate or wherever, a business. They're investing to really gain cash flow and improve their wealth and hopefully retire. It would actually have something to live off of and be retired. Right? So that's what the investing in single-family homes will do for you. If you manage your properties, you get the right education to do it. This is what it's all about and this is what it's here for. The last one is rated. We're seeing negative rates around the world. In Denmark, they are paying for your mortgage. Instead of paying interest, you're getting an interest payment. Can you imagine that? Instead of paying principal and interest as we do here, you're paying principal, then you're getting an interest payment because they have negative rates there. So people that are holding their money in the bank are losing money. They're paying to have their money saved. But the negative rate is that they are telling people, "We want you to go invest." If you go invest in rental properties - you have 10 rental properties and they are paying you a thousand a month, they're paid off and you're getting $10,000 a month. Oh, and you're getting an interest payment paid to you on each of those. Now how much does it go up then? Maybe another grand, two grand, three grand a month in cash flow that you're getting from interest. Rates, you can say all you want. Rates keep going down and people always say like - there's a lot of commercials around here and say, "They're not going to go down forever." They can and they've shown it around the world. Now you can keep rates to zero or they are going to go negative. There's not a lot of ammunition left in the old chamber. There are one of those things that they've already talked about. I believe Trump and what's his name - John Powell, the chair of the Fed. They've already talked about negative rates and stuff like that. I think that's one of the things that might be coming here eventually. It could be, again, three years from now, five years from now, who knows? But something may be prepared for and start building this now while you can and while times are good, right? Prepare now that way the crisis for many is an opportunity for you. I appreciate you guys, appreciate your time, your energy. If you got something on this, please let me know. Send us a message. We get a lot of messages from you or when we see you about whatever. We get a lot of people asking and saying stuff about this, but if you have something or a question that we can help other people with, please put it in the forum here so that we can answer it and help as many people as possible. So I appreciate you guys. I appreciate your time, your attention. It really is the most important asset we have, and we will see you guys in the next one. Posted in Current Events Questions? Ready to Get Started? Fill out the form below and a member of our team will get in touch with you right away! Δ Your information is safe with us! We will never spam you or sell your information to an outside party. Absolutely gorgeous 4 bed, 2 bath Flushing farm house! $215,000 🤑 October 31, 2022 One of our builders is doing something crazy….. for a second month in a row! October 18, 2022 Vegas has been good to us! October 13, 2022 Thanks to all that joined us on this beautiful day at our Mitten Made Properties Appreciation Event! October 4, 2022 APPRECIATION EVENT with the Mitten Made Properties team September 22, 2022 This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. Non-necessary Non-necessary Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.	9,536
As I wrote in my previous post (and in a few others these past months…), I’m in the middle of my dissertation writing. One of the best thing about doing this is all the reading that I get to do. I have come across so much interesting literature and I wanted to share three very good reports with those of you who are interested in better understanding where our agro-food systems come from, where we are today, and where we are heading vs. where we need to go. The State of Food and Agricuture 2000: The 2000 issue of FAO’s annual report SOFA gives a good summary of the growth of global agriculture in the 20th, which only over a fee decades multiplied yields and grew beyond that of population. The report is surprisingly silent on the agricultural policies that to a large extent drove this growth but also distorted markets, but if keeping this in mind, it explains well what impact modernization of agriculture had on those who couldn’t keep up in quantity focused production systems. Food and Agriculture: The fiture of Sustainability is a new study published by the UN that gives a good overview of the environmental impacts from the agro-food systems that we developed in the 20th century and why they are not sustainable. The study also suggests alternative paths for future food systems in order to cope with an increasing population, climate change, and nutritious diets. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012: This year’s issue of FAO’s annual publication SOFI gives a good overview of the changes in diets that are taking place all over the world, or the nutrition transition as it is called. (This is also the topic of my dissertation.) This transition is partly good, i.e. the shift to more diversified diets is essential for food security in many parts of the world. However, many times, this also means diets that are higher in salt, sugars, and saturated fat, which has negative health implications. Similarly, the shift to more animal-sourced and often more processed foods has implications for the environment. It gives a good overview of where global food consumption is heading. It is up to you to determine if you think this is realistic or if we all need to make changes. Pumpkins again, this time from Whole Foods Related This entry was posted in On Agriculture and Food and tagged Agricultural Policies, Agriculture, Food, Food Systems. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a Reply Cancel reply On Books, Movies, Education, and Conferences Posts From Washington DC Recipes Archives Select Month February 2018 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 June 2016 August 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 March 2008 December 2007 November 2007 September 2007 August 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 February 2007	3,954
In this episode, Lesley Crews talks with Judy Sheriff, VP of Demand at Refine Labs, on the importance of operations in a demand gen strategy. ABOUT THIS EPISODE In this episode, Lesley Crews talks with Judy Sheriff, VP of Demand at Refine Labs, on the importance of operations in a demand gen strategy. 00:00:02 - 00:03:04 Yeah, welcome back to GDP growth. I'm Leslie Cruise with sweet fish media. If you are new here we are currently reaching the tail end of our deep dive into demand generation today. I am so excited to talk with judy Sheriff VP of demand over at refined labs judy thanks so much for coming on the show today. Thank you so much for having me. Super happy to be here. Yeah, I'm so excited for you to be here. I'm so excited to talk all things to me and jen and I love talking to anyone from refined labs because you guys have such a specific, you know, you guys are so great in that category and you guys are so big in that category escape us on lengthen. Never ever impossible. So the first question I always ask and I'm really excited to hear your answer since you've kind of been working in this industry in the space for quite a while now is how do you, in your own words define demand generation. Yeah, great question. And honestly I was like thinking about this, what is demand generation? Because the name itself is kind of self explanatory if you break it down. Like ultimately to me, I think of it as any type of marketing that's creating new interest for your product, new interest demand. So you know, the variety of marketing tactics, but it's something that's going to generate that awareness and demand for whatever it is that you're offering our fine labs. We really focus on B two B SAs. So typically what I'm thinking of as demand gen is how are we generating demand for your software product and how are we creating more users who want to use your product? You know, I think when I maybe first got into demand gen, I was actually just called online marketing or digital marketing but it really was a lot of the components of demand gen bucket id into a broader marketing marketing role. I've seen that become more specifically broken out. There are people now with demand gen titles at companies instead of just being a digital marketer. But I also think maybe people conflate demand gen and lead gen. And historically when you think about demand gen or maybe the types of campaigns I was running early on in my career when I was first getting into demand gen were really lead generation campaigns and I think that's evolved especially in recent years to there's a clear differentiation between sourcing a lead. It's really contact information and creating demand for someone who really wants to use your product because of the marketing that you've done. So in a nutshell, that's how I think about demand gen. Yeah, I love that. And I love that you mentioned in your previous roles because I was going to ask like how your definition now has kind of changed over time, as you've grown in your role and when you started doing demand gen, you know, you said it was really more legion, so kind of back then, how did you define this new thing? You know, emerging thing and what has shaped the way you define it now? Yeah, I think, You know, I started moving and working in the B2B space in 2014, so about about seven years ago and a lot of the campaigns and just the goals that the marketing team was focused on and what like the sea level would judge our success on were very top of funnel goals, very focused on what is that... 00:03:04 - 00:06:02 ...volume of net new names that are coming into our contact database. So really it's how many email addresses were recapturing and I think the longer I worked in the space and the more I was running those types of campaigns, you notice there's a big difference between getting someone's name and getting someone who actually wants to use your product. So there's not necessarily a lot of intent behind leave, jen, I think a lot of marketers have encountered this, but it's hard to break out of that cycle of wanting to hit your leave numbers, you know, your gold on certain things. It's easy to get lead numbers compared to sourcing people who genuinely want to use the product. That's a harder, it's a harder sell. So I think for me it was that realization like what I'm doing isn't necessarily driving the business outcomes that we'd like to be having. You know, just getting gated e book leads coming in from a campaign on linkedin is not turning into net new revenue for the, for the business. And that's where this shift to focus on. How do we genuinely create more interest in the product? How do we make people aware of what the product does and make them want to come use it so that they're coming inbound, really qualified to us and we're truly sourcing demand and not sourcing leads. So I think a lot of it is just seeing what, what didn't work and how we can pivot away from that, which this is a big part of what we do. A refined labs is helping companies shift to that mindset. Absolutely. And kind of shifting right into that. Do you mind sharing like some simple practices that refine labs is doing with their clientele um, in these demanding strategies that kind of makes you stand out among those competitors? Yeah, we really think about demand gen is like a two pronged approach. We want to make sure that for the existing demand that's out there for our clients or for anybody that has a software company, people that I know of you and know they need you. It's very easy for them to convert. And so we really want to market to people in those high intent channels, make their conversion funnel on the website. Super. Optimized. Make sure anyone coming in direct or searching your brand name or converting on google paid ads on a direct response campaign. Going to get all those people for sure. But we have this other half to the marketing that is creating net new demand in your in your keep your ideal customer profile. And for that we really want to help our clients showcase themselves as the leader in the industry and create this ah ha moment for their prospect in their I. C. P. That's like oh I have that problem. I didn't know this software could solve that problem and now that I do I want to learn more about it. So I think a lot of people focus more on capturing the existing intent and existing demand and forget to focus on generating net new demand. So a lot of what we're doing with the net new is awareness channels like facebook and linkedin having a lot of product focused ads. Uh product marketing ads showing values and future benefits how they solve pain points or more content campaigns that... 00:06:02 - 00:09:01 ...are educating the buyer problem, awareness blogs. Case studies of how other companies have solved the same problem using this software. A lot of these messages that are going to follow the users around as we're cold targeting them on facebook or on Lincoln and really keep the company's top of mind for them so that when they are ready to purchase, that's the first company they're gonna think of. Yeah, I think that's our general approach to demand gen. Obviously there's tips and tricks within each channel and some of that's proprietary but that's how we're overall thinking about it and really focusing on the inbound funnel as a whole and not necessarily what is being attributed to marketing maybe in the crm or attributed to a specific paid channel. But how are we looking at overall inbound growth? How is that increasing over time? How are your conversion rates improving as we're driving better quality traffic and better quality I. C. P. Fits into your funnel. Looking at total inbound verse outbound instead of just what's may be attributed to pay because we know that so much of the campaigns that were running impact, organic and direct traffic, the awareness, the word of mouth plays that are harder to measure from a attribution standpoint. Absolutely. What are some things that you feel marketers tend to kind of get wrong in this space? Yeah, that's a good question. You know, I audit lots of different B2B marketers, accounts add accounts, their their crm. Is there marquee animation platforms? I definitely see some commonalities for sure. I think one area that I often see a gap in is really thinking about marketing operations as it relates to demand gen. I think people will often operate in silos and there's a lot of operational best practices to get in place that make demand gen so much easier. Even things just like having a really clear understanding of what your funnel is. What are the stages that you want a buyer to move through. Being aligned with sales, on that, being able to measure that in salesforce, having a timestamp field when your opportunity, status change, stage changes from open to qualified and you're able to measure how many new opportunities were qualified each month. Like those pieces of being able to tell the full story of your funnel, I think often get missed. Um, I'll see sort of operational issues around not having your marketing automation in your crm system integrated correctly. Maybe there's source reporting in your hubspot, but it's not mapping into salesforce. You can't report on opportunities by source. There's these components that make it harder for the demand gen, marketers to really show the influence of the campaigns are running and be able to tell that story. And I think oftentimes they'll focus a lot on the front end metrics of like how is the campaign performing? How much am I spending? What clicks am I getting But without having the operations really tied in to see that all the way through the funnel into their crm. I see that as a big mess. Um, another mistake I think... ...people, people do often is not taking full advantage of some of the resources out there that are free, like the google suite. As often see clients that are potential clients that don't have google analytics set up and tracking correctly. Tag manager isn't on all of their domains by pixels are not firing correctly. Still, conversion tracking is often platforms, these foundational best practices that once those are in place, just put you in a good position to be able to scale up from a demand gen paid perspective as a marketer, you're probably brainstorming outside the box ideas to engage your prospects and customers working remotely. And you've probably thought about sending them direct mail to break through the zoom fatigue. But how do you ship personalized gifts to remote decision makers When you have no idea where they're sitting at B two B growth, we use the craft and platform to send hyper personalized gifts to anyone working from anywhere. Crafting, makes it easy for your prospects and customers to pick and personalize their own gift in real time and offers highly secure data capture. So decision makers feel comfortable submitting their home addresses for shipping purposes to get your own personalized craft and gift. Go to craft um dot io slash growth to schedule a demo and receive a complimentary personalized gift from craft um to claim your personalized gift, go to craft um dot io slash growth. Absolutely. And I want to dive a little bit more into into marketing ops because I think that's something that a lot of people don't ever focus on in the demand in strategy, because it's more, I mean really it's like an organizational thing, right? So it's not, people are thinking, oh, like my strategy, my strategy, but really it's like, let's take a step back and let's look at the organization as a whole and kind of see how they, how they communicate. So what are some key things that marketers can kind of focus on in their operations? I know you mentioned a couple, but maybe like some examples to have a more successful demands on strategy. Yeah, I mean, I think the basics, you want to have a functioning marketing automation platform and crm together. So I think hubspot is a great one if you're just starting out and you want to have it kind of combined into one. Obviously I'm a big fan of Salesforce, big fan of marquette 02 I think there's a lot of good tools out there, but you know, getting your basics of your integration together. I think like I mentioned taking advantage of the google suite tag manager, google analytics, search console, getting everything sink in there, linking your analytics and your google ads together, so you're able to report on all of that and google analytics. It's really one of the best free tools out there. I think that marketers, fingertips and people are really under used. There's a lot of powerful things you can do with google analytics, I think maybe less kind of tactically on the tool side of things, but really into operations is just that alignment with sales and making sure that you guys feel really good about the flow of a new leader prospect coming in, if a demo comes in, how is that going to be tracked, measured? Who's following up with it? How are we seeing which opportunities are coming from those demo requests? The sales aligned with qualification and what... 00:12:00 - 00:15:01 ...we're considering a qualified demo versus unqualified. So really more of that team alignment component. And then I think the bigger thing is, I mean it's related to team alignment, but within a marketing or I think there can be ways to actually structure operations and demand gen together under the same marketing leader or two teams that are working very closely together so that they're not measuring up to different goals or they're very much aligned on the same outcome. So that demand gen feels really comfortable going to ops and saying we need help getting this program running this specific way and we want to make sure this is all tracked and it's all working towards the same end goal instead of being done in two disparate groups. Absolutely. So if someone's listening to this and they're thinking, you know, I'm a small business, maybe a business of one person, they don't have a lot of people on their team and they're wanting to kind of start implementing demand generation into their organization. What are some specific tools of specific advice that you would offer to someone who's in that kind of a situation? Yeah, that's great. Like I mentioned before, getting your operations straight, even if you're a team of one, just figuring out what is it that I want to make sure I can measure from whatever my first demand gen campaign is going to be. So, you know, I think typically people probably are going to start with a google presence first. If you're thinking about paid demand because organic searches huge, everybody uses google and there's likely some keywords that's going to drive high intent for whatever your software is, you can really orient around uh figuring out from like that specific channel. If I'm launching my first campaign and I have my key words set and I have my ads built out and I want someone to request the demo. How am I going to measure that? Am I going to have a demo form on my website that they're going to fill out, making sure your pixels gonna fire on the back end, like mapping all of that out before you start. So you can see what is the main end goal that I want to be working towards and make sure you're gonna be able to measure it. Like a a team of one perspective. I think there's a lot of great tools out there that are actually pretty low cost to, to kind of round out your marketing. Obviously google suite is free. There's cool things to the like canvas, an awesome tool. If you're trying to get your ads created on your, on your own, you don't have a designer in house and you want to just build out some creative for social. There's some great tools for your website, like hot jars, a website optimization tool that's free that would let you track the keep maps of if someone's coming in from paid where they're landing on your site, where they're going next. That user behaviors, there's some good resources out there. But I think the main thing is that you want to get down is how much budget do you have to play with and which channel makes the most sense for you right off the bat? Typically see google as a nice starting place and then facebook instagram often even in B two B, because it's so much more cost effective than Lincoln if you're going to be launching for the first time and you're really trying to put your name... ...out there about your product, B two B marketers are still on social media, even if maybe they're not consuming tons of business content and those channels there there and you're going to get their eyeballs and it's a great channel for being able to test different creatives, different messages, figuring out what's resonating with your audience in a way that is more cost effective than running those same type of experiments that work on Lincoln. So I would recommend if you're going into the testing phase of figuring out like what is my audience even going to respond to? Do they like people in the images, Do they care about color? Do they want anything that's gonna be video or more emotion focused? Like once you get those down, take what's working and then you can build that out on linkedin or some of the more premium channels that you don't want to waste your spend on by running experiments and then just making sure that whatever you're doing from a paid perspective, you're measuring your full funnel, you're looking at everything that's coming in and bound regardless of if it looks like it's organic or it looks like it's direct, you know, so much of the types of campaigns that you and we run, marketers run on really any of the channels is not always going to be attributable. There's a lot of, a lot of association just from being able to view an ad and that brand recall and having the eyeballs on it and cross device as well. People are going to engage on mobile from facebook and linkedin. Probably most of your clicks are going to be on mobile, but they're not going to necessarily come back and sign up for a free trial or request a demo on their phone and that's gonna look like a later organic or direct visit that's coming in on, on desktop and you're never going to see that attribution. So just always encourage new demand marketers to look at their full inbound funnel regardless of if it looks like it's coming from paid or not because there's a lot that can be missed. Absolutely. I love that you mentioned testing out different, different socials and different things because personally it's like, it seems like everybody's like, oh everything's on linkedin, it's all linked in. But it's not like you said, B two B marketers are still on social media personally. When I'm scrolling through, Tiktok, if I see a business Tiktok, I get so excited because I'm like, oh, that is so rare and I want to go and follow this person and see what they're doing and see, I mean what they're talking about because it's so interesting to me. That's exciting. Yeah, totally. I, I love that you, you mentioned Ticktock, not a channel. We currently are doing much on a refined lines, but interesting to see where the potential will go with that for me to be. But I feel the same way just as a marketer on instagram, probably the main social media that I scroll through and maybe I'm not going to click through and like buy a product. But rippling is an HR software. That is a great example of this myself and a couple other people that refine labs saw their ads for, I don't know, nine months before we finally purchased with them and they were just in the cold targeting and then I think eventually retargeting from them. But they were in my instagram all the time, just constantly on my feet. And then when I was like, oh we need an HR software is the first one we thought of. So I think there's, you can think of examples in your own life of how you would like how you shop, how you would engage. That's not necessarily going to be click on... ...linkedin, fill out form, immediately convert on website right away. Like that's just not how people buy. Yeah, it's crazy. Advertising is so crazy now. It's like you think of something and there it is like you think I need to buy dog food and it's like, oh I get six ads for it. I mean they're definitely listening. I don't have proof, but I have proof from the ads that I'm receiving were probably I'm probably gonna get some ads just from our conversation now from my phone eavesdropping on me. Absolutely. Oh man, you talked a little bit about attribution and your last answer and I want to hit on that. You know when optimizing for the customer journey. I feel like there's a lot of Controversy around this in this space. Do you think the attribution is important or do you think it's something that needs to be left like in 2010? Yeah, it's attribution is such a hot topic right now. The data nerd in me like with my office background, I love attribution. It's so cool. You can see all this history of what people have done, but I think people lean weigh too heavily into it. It does not tell the whole story and there's a lot of things that the decisions that marketers make that are skewed because they're trying to get attribution um in a prior role, we use an attribution software is able to look at marketing campaigns prior to an opportunity closing. And it was really great as a marketer to be able to see like, oh look at all these touchpoints, but what's not there is the the word of mouth referrals, the conversations that people have, like offline. And then, like I was talking about before, sort of the the brand awareness component of any marketing campaigns that are being run that's not going to be tracked. So I think a lot of times marketers will lean heavily into campaigns that give them attribution. That's why gated content has gotten so huge. It's easy to put an e book on linkedin, get a ton of leads from it. If one of those leads is that a company that happens to close, you're going to get that attribution called out on that deal. It's gonna look like someone from that deal down all of this content. These it's not to say the content doesn't help the deal, but if they consume that content without the gate, maybe they probably would have closed anyways. It's the fact that we put the form in front of them and have their name associated to it is not necessarily the reason that the deal was closed. And more than likely most people downloading the books are not going to convert. And there's not a lot of buying intent behind it, but it makes it easy for records to say, I don't want to run this campaign because I'm not gonna be able to tie this attribution back into whatever that paid effort was. You know, my management wants to see trials directly associated with facebook and the in realistically, it's probably not going to happen. I mean you're going to have a couple of direct conversions maybe, but most of it's gonna show up as organic or direct because people are not gonna click through being the facebook browser, I frame on their phone and go through a whole form fill when they're signing up for a business product, they're gonna maybe click through, read a blurb blurb about a case study or take five tips on how your software can help them generally improving their job even if they're not a customer and that's like the... ...beneficial component of it. But when they come back and convert, you're not gonna get any attribution on that content piece. So I guess if I was going to sum it up, I think attribution is cool data, it's cool visibility for when you have it. But it should not be like an end all be all, it should not be what you make, all of your decisions off of because think if you just think about it from a common sense perspective and like we were talking about how we buy, we're not buying to give someone attribution, you're buying a good user experience for the prospect. Absolutely awesome judy. This has been so great, so insightful for me. Thank you so much. And if listeners want to hear more from you or learn more about refined labs, um where can they find you online? You can find me on linkedin linkedin dot com slash judy moon. Yes, Moon is my middle name. I have healthy parents grew up on an island in the woods, love it. Yeah, but love to connect with new people on linkedin. And like I said before, once you start following us, you're going to see your fine. Let's content all over the place. So get ready. Absolutely. I love it was fantastic. Thank you again so much for joining me here on beautiful growth. Yeah, thank you for having me. Are you on linkedin? That's a stupid question. Of course. You're on linkedin here. Sweet fish. We've gone all in on the platform. Multiple people from our team are creating content there. Sometimes it's a funny gift for me. Other times it's a micro video or a slide deck and sometimes it's just a regular old status update that shares Their unique point of view on B two B marketing leadership or their job function. We're posting this content through their personal profile, not our company page and it would warm my heart and soul if you connected with each of our evangelists, we'll be adding more down the road. But for now you should connect with Bill Read our Ceo Kelcy Montgomery, our creative director, dan Sanchez, our director of audience growth Logan Lyles, our director of partnerships and me, James Carberry. We're having a whole lot of fun on linkedin pretty much every single day and we'd love for you to be a part of it. Yeah. Search across all episodes within this podcast Episode · 2 weeks ago Welcome to The Echo Chamber where James and Benji throw in their 2 cents on what B2B marketers are talking about on the internet. Today Benji reacts to hearing the story of Mattress Mack for the first time and the guys discuss lessons learned from the love he has received from the city of Houston. Sponsors: Sign up and get a $75 credit to sponsor your first job for better visibility, more applications and quicker hiring times. Stay in control with payment billing options, no long term contracts, pay for only what you need and pause spending at any time.* Sponsored Job credit offers available only for new U.S. accounts posting a job that expires one year after account creation. Upon expiration of credits, users are charged based on their Sponsored Job budget. Terms, conditions, and quality standards apply. Today we are featuring an episode from a new show: Owned, a series exclusively on AudiencePlus co-hosted by Anthony Kennada and B2B Growth’s own, James Carbary. Owned is a show that tears down popular consumer media brands and applies key learnings to B2B companies who are building their owned media strategy. To watch the full episode, get notified of future releases, get access to exclusive content, and more, subscribe for free at audienceplus.com. Episode · 3 weeks ago James and Dan provide behind-the-scenes documentation of the journey to turn B2B Growth into every B2B marketers’ favorite media property. Today's discussion: When gated content can be useful and how we are using it. Sponsors: Sign up and get a $75 credit to sponsor your first job for better visibility, more applications and quicker hiring times. Stay in control with payment billing options, no long term contracts, pay for only what you need and pause spending at any time. Sponsored Job credit offers available only for new U.S. accounts posting a job that expires one year after account creation. Upon expiration of credits, users are charged based on their Sponsored Job budget. Terms, conditions, and quality standards apply. Episode · 3 weeks ago Welcome to The Echo Chamber where James, Dan, and Benji throw in their 2 cents on what B2B marketers are talking about on the internet. Today, Kyle Lacy takes issue with Category Creation, and says brands just need better stories, but is it really that simple? Sponsors: Sign up and get a $75 credit to sponsor your first job for better visibility, more applications and quicker hiring times. Stay in control with payment billing options, no long term contracts, pay for only what you need and pause spending at any time. *Sponsored Job credit offers available only for new U.S. accounts posting a job that expires one year after account creation. Upon expiration of credits, users are charged based on their Sponsored Job budget. Terms, conditions, and quality standards apply.	29,537
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In which G.M. Norton sets the record straight as he leads you along the path of musical righteousness. Incredible as it may seem, there are people growing up who don’t have the foggiest idea what a vinyl record is. Luckily, my formative years were spent listening to my parents’ vinyl records with the sound of The Beatles filling the family home. Not to be confused with the Spinning Jenny For roughly 100 years, vinyl records were the musical format of choice for any self-respecting fellow, until CDs and these new fangled MP3s reared their ugly heads. Downloading music is enough to send a shiver down the spine of any thoroughbred chap. Before evolving into the gentleman that I am today, I amassed hundreds of CDs and could regularly be found purveying the aisles in forgotten establishments such as Andy’s Records and Our Price. As music downloads started to replace the CD format, I began to lose faith with the soulless concept being bandied about and longed for a return to those happy memories of flipping through huge piles of old records and discovering ‘new’ music for my ever-eager ears. So I made the decision to turn to vinyl. The Rolls Royce of record players - not too shabby looking for 45 years old Getting the records wasn’t a problem with the great number of charity shops up and down Britain’s high street and those curious shopping experiences where people sell things out of their motorcars. What I was in desperate need of was a playing device. In my earnest search for a suitable record playing contraption, I was naturally drawn to the traditional wind-up gramophone with the protruding brass horn. Baulking at the cost, I mentally crossed that off my list and explored other options, taking me from a turntable with separate amplifier and speakers to the iconic 1960s Dansette. It was during this search that I discovered what would become my most treasured possession – a 1968 Bush SRP51. Described by more knowledgeable fellows than me as the ‘Rolls Royce of record players’, it was love at first sight. For a machine that is nearly 45 years old, it still looks and sounds fiendishly good. Made during the height of the space age between 1968 to 1970, it’s a smashing example of the design and style from this period. As a 60s obsessive, it makes me tickled pink to own something from this era. Bush SRP51 operating instructions - a first edition, surely I’ll never forget the first song I played on it – The Animals’ haunting version of The House of the Rising Sun. A song that I had heard countless times seemed richer and deeper than I had ever heard before. It was as if I was hearing it for the first time. Listening to what is essentially a slab of black plastic is like borrowing a piece of nostalgia from a more simple, pre-internet age. Putting on a record allows me to escape the modern world before returning to my life as your favourite protagonist. There is a ceremony and delicious expectation that comes from simply dropping the needle on a record. Conjuring the illicit reverence of a pagan ritual, you can’t help but appreciate the sacrament of handing the record, poring over the huge album cover artwork and reading the liner notes and lyrics. You could say that vinyl makes the world stop spinning. Jolly more rewarding that the click of a mouse or the flick of a finger on a screen. One doesn't get this visual plethora with new fangled MP3s As I welcome Otis Redding into my home again this evening, I will raise a glass to Thomas Edison in gratitude for his most life-changing invention. If only I could light a gas lamp too. Blasted light bulbs. Protagonist of ‘Norton of Morton’ Posted by G.M. Norton at 4:00 pm 8 comments Wendy Bayford 8 October 2012 at 12:12 I have my Dad's Dansette 'Thames' from the 60's which I adore. I love the way the sound gradually crackles as it creeps from the speaker whilst it warms up, unfortunately it does have a rather nasty habit of shaving the vinyl as it plays, so I have resorted to a modern albeit 'old styled' one to play my ever increasing collection. There is something wonderful about listening to songs the way they were originally heard, the sound quality is so much richer and the act of putting the record on, knowing that it will only last a precious few minutes, makes it feel so much more of an experience than shuffling on your Ipod for an endless stream of tracks. I think its safe to say I am a fan! ReplyDelete Replies G.M. Norton 8 October 2012 at 19:32 A lady after my own heart! Welcome to 'Norton of Morton'. It’s wonderful that you’re in possession of your father’s record player. Unfortunately, fixing things isn’t my forte so I am unable to make an accurate diagnosis to prevent your records meeting a grisly end. Dansettes are magnificent beasts – I am particularly taken with the Bermuda model with the screw-on legs. As far as the more modern players go, the Crosley is a real beauty, available at Urban Outfitters. Delete Replies Porcelina 11 October 2012 at 20:05 I have to confess... I don't own a record player! But own records. I should address that really. Thanks for finding my blog, and I'm pleased to have found yours! ReplyDelete Replies G.M. Norton 11 October 2012 at 22:08 Greetings, Porcelina! Thanks for stopping by. I trust you found 'Norton of Morton' agreeable. Should you wish, your record player predicament could easily be rectified. Messrs E&Bay sell a whole array of them for your viewing pleasure. One could be snapped up for peanuts if you are ready to pounce at a moment's notice. If you decide to take the plunge, I'd be only to happy to assist you in your search. Vinyl records - it's the past, present and future! T.T.F.N. ReplyDelete Replies Unknown 15 December 2013 at 16:51 I also have an SRP51 but no manual and wonder whether you would be happy to scan a copy for me? many thanks ReplyDelete Replies Ruby 4 April 2014 at 20:55 I can relate to you. Vinyl records are getting outdated nowadays because let's face it, the new digital format is just like so easy. However, the good thing about it is that the coming of digital age indirectly preserves the value of analog technology. So owning vinyl records is just like having treasure. ReplyDelete Replies G.M. Norton 6 April 2014 at 16:47 Very true, dear lady! A sizeable record collection may well be a wiser investment than any savings account. Delete Replies Unknown 14 November 2015 at 22:42 i own several record player one or two i have had from new .i have to say the Crosley so called record player should be avoided like the plague these are primitive contraptions made in the back of beyond with inferior components and they sound terrible play a record on one of these and its ruined forever .They also sound terrible when compared to a REAL record player such as the Bush discribed above .If you want a recordplayer spend your cash on a vintage model and have it serviced	7,042
Investors have, on the whole, been taking a more positive view about the outlook for the world economy... U.S. Durable Goods Orders Post Solid Rise in October New orders for durable goods increased a larger-than-expected 1.0% m/m (10.7% y/y)... Initial claims for unemployment insurance increased to 240,000 (-2.1% y/y)... U.S. Mortgage Applications Rise for a Second Week Mortgage applications were up for a second consecutive week in the week ended November 18... Viewpoints Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics. State Coincident Indexes in October 2022 State Labor Markets in October 2022 No Responsibility without Authority: Place Control of Monetary Policy in the Executive Branch? State Coincident Indexes in September 2022 IFO Backs Off as Bundesbank Blames Bottlenecks for German Eco-angst by Robert Brusca October 25, 2021 The German IFO gauge stepped back in October as the all-sector climate reading fell to 12.9 from 16.9 in September. The current business situation weakened marginally falling to 28.2 in October from 28.9 in September. Expectations fell to a reading of zero in October from 4.1 in September. The weakening was broad-based with climate improving in only one of five sectors, Current conditions improved in two of five sectors, with expectations improving in two of five sectors. The construction sector improved on all three measures while services improved in the current and in the expectations measures but not in the climate measure. Climate, current conditions, and expectations The rankings or standings on these three metrics also are moderate-to-weak with the climate reading and current reading each sitting at about the two-thirds mark in their respective historic queues of data. Expectations sit in their lower quartile with four of five sectors posting standings below their respective historic medians (below 50%), one near the bottom 25 percentile cut off and two below the 25-percentile cut off. In short, expectations are still very weak and are weak across the board. In a statement today the Bundesbank blamed German economic weakness on delivery lag issues. In its monthly report (here) the Bundesbank concluded that bottleneck and raw materials deliveries damped industrial production, reducing the strength of the German recovery. However, the Bundesbank sees the German recovery continuing. Data from IHS Markit (see story Here) show the severity of delivery lags by regions for a group of 18 counties/regions. Germany ranks as the 11th worst in terms of delivery lags in that table. Only Asian countries, Turkey, Russia, Canada, and the world average are worse than Germany on delivery lags. Germany is marginally worse off than Japan and much worse off than North America. Germany of course is very plugged into the global economy as its exports and imports are at an extremely high ratio to GDP compared with most developed countries. The ratio of German exports plus imports to GDP in nominal terms is 88%. Germany is highly dependent on trade both sending exports and gathering imports, many of the imports are raw materials, to fuel its economy. When trade impediments emerge, they tend to hit Germany harder because of this international dependency. The service sector is the weakest The service sector continues to be the weakest among the five sectors detailed. Across all three metrics climate, current conditions, and expectations the services ranking averages a very weak 28%, that is followed by a 47-percentile average for retailing and a dead neutral 50 percentile average for wholesaling. Manufacturing averages a 56.8 percentile standing with construction at a much firmer 77.0 percentile. All-in-all these are not very robust readings. It's been a weak recovery Looking at performance since the virus struck and changes in these index readings since January of 2020 reveals a weak recovery. The changes in the average on all three measures since January of 2020 just before the virus struck shows retailing, services, and construction to be net lower on balance- that’s no recovery and further weakening. Wholesaling has an average rise from January of 2020 of 6.8 points while manufacturing posts and average of 19.3, a gain so large it propels the overall average change on the three metrics to a +6.3 Despite having three sectors net lower on this same net-change gauge. The current index usually scores the highest standings Looking at the individual metrics we find some of the highest percentile readings under current conditions where construction and wholesaling have standings in their 86th and 84th percentile, respectively. Manufacturing and retailing are ranked in their respective 70th percentile deciles but because of a weak 33 percentile standing for services the current standing only logs an all-sector rank that only falls in its 66.5 percentile. On balance the German economy is struggling. The service sector is quite weak. Manufacturing logs solid to strong readings on a consistent basis despite the international supply chain problems. All central banks globally are convinced that these problems are being solved and will not pose a lasting problem for inflation. Yet corporate executives continue to see supply chain issues extending into 2022 and see pricing pressures remaining and getting worse next year. Both the ECB and the Federal Reserve are having trouble keeping the faithful convinced that this is not a real inflation problem that it is overwhelming them. So far markets have been willing to take the guidance from central banks and run with it. But in the US a well know economist and former US treasury secretary in a Democratic administration, Larry Summers, has expressed concern that the central bank in the US is downplaying authentic inflation risks. Time will tell on this one. In the meantime, choose your side in this debate but remain vigilant and nimble.	6,208
A wedding can be stressful with planning and with managing your guests and their travel plans. However, one of the many benefits to opting for a destination wedding is that it allows you to spend your special day with the ones you love most. This is a once in a lifetime trip, and you have one chance to get it right. My mission is to customize a honeymoon so that you can devote your time doing what matters most: spending time with one another. Whether it is your first anniversary, your second, fifth, tenth or fiftieth, I am ready to help you plan a dream vacation that recognizes how far you and your significant other have come and does not limit how far you will go. What makes us different? I will work closely with you, taking note of your wants and needs for your vacation and will create a tailor-made vacation you actually want, not something that’s pre-packaged and created for everyone else. The level of care that I provide for my clients is something that you will not experience when you book on an internet site. You’re a person, with vacation dreams and goals, not just a number. You are my TOP priority. My clients are important to me and it’s important that I build a lasting relationship with you and become your trusted travel advisor. I’ll answer your emails and phone calls no matter where you are on the planet and will be your point of contact for every aspect of your vacation experience—before, during, and even after your vacation. I know even the most minute details that you just won’t find in a Google search. My expertise and extensive knowledge on different countries around the world has my clients prepared to travel abroad EVERY SINGLE RESORT that I send my clients to is vetted. This means I have either traveled there personally or the locations maintain a longstanding positive history within my clientele base. 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Thank you Kendra for all your help and making our honeymoon a great experience!” When it comes to our advice, we’re proud to say we’re different. We offer something a little more special. Let’s talk Honeymoons Let’s talk honeymoons! I have been inundated with honeymoon designs these past few months! You probably know by now that honeymoons are my FAVORITE vacations to design. [...] Traveling to Jamaica During COVID Traveling to Jamaica During COVID Last month I was able to take the ONLY vacation that I had ALL YEAR to Jamaica. I had 7 trips planned and 2020 was supposed to be my [...] ITS ENGAGEMENT SEASON! This time of year, is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only am I excited about all things Pumpkin Spice and decorating [...] As your travel advisor, I want you to feel confident in entrusting me with the opportunity to plan your vacation. I am always looking to further educate myself about all the destinations that I have the opportunity to send my clients to. I have obtained several credentials that enable me to provide my clients with the best vacation experience possible.	6,047
Homelessness is never a choice but often due to just one, or a series of unfortunate events such as debt, illness, loss of a job, inability to find work because of bad health, inadequate or no healthcare and no money to pay rent or mortgage. With no place to go, the streets or bush become their only alternative where they become one of thousands, sleeping when and where they can, searching for food in the trash and seemingly invisible to the passing crowds. Unfortunately, for those who can’t get out of this situation quickly, it only gets worse from there on. Norman McGillivray, founder of non-profit Beddown, had a light-bulb moment walking through an empty parking lot one night and saw the perfect space for a ‘pop-up’ shelter. With loads of planning, willing partners and collaborators, Beddown was ready to give the idea a go. The organization asked one of the largest car park operators, Secure Parking, and they agreed to launch a two-week trial in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Beddown’s aim is to use places only used during daytime and standing empty at night and turning them into safe and secure shelters for the homeless overnight. Sleep deprivation is one condition many homeless people suffer from since they are constantly at risk of having the little they have being stolen. Depression, diabetes, hypertension, memory loss are just a few of the conditions as a result of living rough. During the trial, Beddown provided additional services to the guests, including doctors, nurses, dentists, and hairdressers. They also helped provide social services, gave them new clothing, and a place to clean themselves. “It was great to start bringing the Beddown vision to life last night with a group of our awesome volunteers for the Dry Run. Thank you to our awesome group of volunteers who came in late on a Saturday night to help us trial and set-up some beds. Although as expected we had a few challenges to overcome, it was awesome to start bringing Beddown to life. Beddown will provide an immediate response for those who sleep rough to access safe, secure shelter and access to a comfy bed and a great night’s sleep. We will work with our other collaborative partners to provide long term solutions to transition our guests into accommodation, education and employment opportunities and ultimately put ourselves out of business (this is the vision). A few of many comments from those who were part of the trial had this to say of their experience: “After spending the week here, having a good sleep at night and a routine, it reminded me of life and I booked myself into Rehab for 6 months.” “Being able to sleep all night and away from drugs, I’m clearer in the day and have not used drugs for 8 days.” “It’s the first time I have had a dream in years.” “I don’t have to watch my back here.” This article was originally published on EducatedInspireChange.org If you found this story to be uplifting or inspirational, please remember to SHARE our article with your family and friends on Facebook!	3,156
Ernie came to Helping Up Mission in 2010, struggling with his addiction. A bright guy with skills, he just couldn’t stay clean and keep a good job. An experienced floor care guy, Ernie went to work at the airport. When clean, he’s a great worker and that quickly became evident to his boss. Knowing he’s from HUM – Ernie put it out there – the boss let Ernie bring some other HUM guys in for interviews. Over a dozen guys now work with Ernie and he is a shift supervisor. Originally from Virginia, Ernie’s continued living on campus in our graduate transitional housing. But, yesterday, he told me he is now moving into his own place here in the city – three and a half years after arriving at HUM. But Ernie will still be back at HUM regularly. First to continue working on his HS diploma and second to connect with our Workforce Development Coordinator to get other guys hired at his place of employment. Five more actually start this weekend! Ernie says HUM saved his life and he wants to give back. Man, this stuff really does work! One Guy at a Time, Deputy Director Previous Update Next Update CEO Updates From the Men Events Archives Select Month November 2022 (5) September 2022 (3) July 2022 (1) May 2022 (4) April 2022 (1) February 2022 (1) January 2022 (3) December 2021 (2) November 2021 (3) October 2021 (1) September 2021 (3) June 2021 (3) January 2021 (1) December 2020 (2) October 2020 (2) June 2020 (1) May 2020 (4) April 2020 (1) March 2020 (2) December 2019 (1) November 2019 (2) September 2019 (2) August 2019 (3) July 2019 (3) June 2019 (3) May 2019 (3) February 2019 (1) July 2018 (1) April 2018 (6) March 2018 (1) February 2018 (1) December 2017 (2) November 2017 (6) October 2017 (6) September 2017 (3) August 2017 (4) July 2017 (3) June 2017 (2) May 2017 (3) April 2017 (2) March 2017 (1) February 2017 (2) January 2017 (1) December 2016 (4) November 2016 (1) October 2016 (2) September 2016 (2) August 2016 (5) July 2016 (10) June 2016 (9) May 2016 (11) April 2016 (9) March 2016 (11) February 2016 (3) January 2016 (5) December 2015 (13) November 2015 (12) October 2015 (22) September 2015 (42) August 2015 (28) July 2015 (34) June 2015 (37) May 2015 (25) April 2015 (42) March 2015 (36) February 2015 (13) January 2015 (27) December 2014 (24) November 2014 (26) October 2014 (36) September 2014 (22) August 2014 (33) July 2014 (33) June 2014 (31) May 2014 (23) April 2014 (39) March 2014 (38) February 2014 (19) January 2014 (41) December 2013 (39) November 2013 (26) October 2013 (36) September 2013 (41) August 2013 (38) July 2013 (43) June 2013 (8) May 2013 (5) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (11) February 2013 (2) January 2013 (10) December 2012 (5) November 2012 (7) October 2012 (7) September 2012 (5) August 2012 (9) July 2012 (11) June 2012 (11) May 2012 (4) April 2012 (12) March 2012 (12) February 2012 (2) January 2012 (9) December 2011 (7) November 2011 (6) October 2011 (4) September 2011 (9) August 2011 (12) July 2011 (7) June 2011 (5) April 2011 (3) March 2011 (2) February 2011 (5) January 2011 (13) December 2010 (4) November 2010 (7) October 2010 (8) September 2010 (3) August 2010 (6) July 2010 (7) June 2010 (6) May 2010 (7) April 2010 (2) March 2010 (6) February 2010 (6) January 2010 (5) December 2009 (4) November 2009 (6) October 2009 (9) September 2009 (7) August 2009 (6) July 2009 (4) June 2009 (5) May 2009 (3) April 2009 (5) March 2009 (6) February 2009 (3) January 2009 (2) December 2008 (8) November 2008 (6) October 2008 (17) September 2008 (9) August 2008 (16) Sign up for our email and enewsletters. We are leading the fight against addiction, poverty, and homelessness in Greater Baltimore. If someone you know needs help, please visit our Get Help page. If you can support these efforts, please give! Now it's up to HIM. God is our foundation. Jesus is our inspiration. The Gospel is our hope. While we serve all men and women without discrimination, we are a Christian community. Learn more. Now it's up to THEM. A person's journey to wholeness begins with an acceptance of responsibility. They must be committed to their own recovery. Learn more. Now it's up to US. If this community will join together to help men and women fighting addiction and homelessness, all Baltimore will be raised up along with them. Learn more. Now it's up to YOU. All are invited to serve here in the manner that is most appropriate for them — whether through giving, volunteering, advocacy, or some other act of charity. Learn more.	4,731
Partnering with your in-house team, Resolutions works with corporate Education and Training Departments to world class online course development compatible with any LMS. Injuries, fines and high insurance premiums can be avoided with effective safety and compliance training. Protect your employees and your bottom line by educating your team with tactical, effective online training. Product Training Sales and post-sale support can make or break your business. Online tools for sales reps, customer service staff and your customers will increase awareness, drive revenue and reduce support calls. By RMGI on April 11th, 2013 in Business, Course Development, Marketing, Online training tags: business, Education and Training, eLearning, Learning, Online Training \| Leave a Comment My friend and fellow Toastmaster Mike Hayes, wrote an article this week titled, Strong Opinions Make Your PR Campaign Great! The basic premise being that you need to take a stand and have a position in order for your message to be heard in a crowded marketplace. This got me thinking about how this basic premise should be applied to online training application for businesses. The e-learning world tends to be run by academics and instructional design theory. Those principles certainly have their place, but without focus on a sound business objectives results may be hard to come by, much like having your marketing or PR message heard when you fail to take a firm stance or have an opinion. E-learning, whether you are looking at it from a big picture view or down to a specific course must focus on the business objective in order to achieve a business result. Resolutions has had the good fortune of working with many different types of clients all of whom have different objectives when it comes to the development of online training applications, but the constant message we preach to them is, “what is the business objective ?” It seems like a simple question that should warrant a simple answer, but that is not always the case. You would be surprised how difficult it can be to answer if it was not the focus in the first place. When I talk about a business objective I am not talking about the specific learning objectives of a course. Every online training module has its learning objectives, I am talking about the big picture. The things that keep the CEO up at night like major citations, fines, accidents, bad press, declining revenue… the list goes on. E-learning applications built for a company should consider how they can positively affect the actual BUSINESS of their business. If a client comes to me and says, “I need to build a course on ladder safety.” My first question is, “What happened? Did someone get hurt?” Chances are their is a hidden business objective behind the launch of a ladder safety course that the person put in charge of execution may not have been made aware. My guess is there was an accident, someone got hurt and either sued the company or made an extremely costly insurance claim that leadership would like to avoid in the future. Simply understanding that will make a dramatic difference in the development of the training. Think about it. If you go to work and all of a sudden you are asked to take a course on ladder safety, what is your first thought? Most likely, “This is ridiculous I know how to climb a ladder.” You are probably right, you do know how to climb a ladder, but if the person developing the training presents ladder safety with an clear understanding of the business objective it can be framed in such a way that is valuable to the user. When you present something of value there is a much higher likelihood of retention and behavior change over time. A clear focus on the business objective can help trainers and e-learning developers build training that can have a real impact on their company. Take a stance, have an opinion and meet a specific business objective. It will help the company and the user achieve and actual result. By RMGI on April 8th, 2013 in Business, Course Development, Online training tags: behavior change, business, e-learning, e-learning development, Learning, Online Training, Training \| Leave a Comment You are busy, your business is required to produce results, and you rely heavily on your employees to help produce those results. Training is probably seen as a necessary evil, or considered an afterthought. Something that sounds good in theory, but not something that is going to help your business get Results! What if you took a different approach to training and use it as an opportunity to change behavior and create a company culture. It all starts with one simple question, “What is the terminal objective of my training?” Typically there are two answers, but how you answer can dramatically the result you get from the training. Many times we see the answer to this simple question fall into one of two categories. Meet Compliance: Employees should be able to pass a test in order to be in compliance with some sort of regulation Change Behavior: Help my employees understand the consequences of the actions on the job and ultimately transfer that knowledge to their job performance. Your answer will dictate the type of training you develop for your organization and ultimately make the difference in the return you see on your e-learning investment. A look at the use cases for each will give you a better perspective on the differences in the two answers. Many times training simply to meet compliance results in training with little to no interactivity, media stimulus and is primarily text and graphic based. The positive is that it will most likely be relevant to the users job function since it is of a regulatory nature and in most cases the employee’s job will be dependent on staying in compliance. The outcome for this type of training is for the student to be able to recall information for the test and pass. The return on investment is the employee keeps their job and the company does not incur penalties or fines for lack of compliance. Changing behavior requires a different approach. In order to successfully change behavior the employee must successfully transfer knowledge learned to on the job skills. There are some key points to remember when delivering training for behavior change, deliver in small easily digestible learning chunks, relevant, easy to use interactive content. Appropriate use of media and you are much more likely to develop engaging and effective e-learning which maximizes ROI. Returns could be a safer workplace, consistent customer service, a defined sales process and of course compliance, on paper and in practice. Before you begin your next training project ask yourself, “Is my goal to simply be compliant?” or “Do I want to change behavior?” You answer could change your business.	6,965
Christian Lee Huston, the 24-year old described best as the "King of Bummercore," writes the type of songs that are begging to be featured in an indie romantic drama or a self-discovering coming of age tale of some sort (and make no mistake, I mean that in a good way). It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I consider myself somewhat of a movie connoisseur–and by that I just mean I watch A LOT of movies and typically have a strong opinion on whatever I see. However, sometimes I find that even a mediocre film can be saved by a stellar soundtrack, and a great movie can be dulled by a poor choice of a cliché song. But those really beautiful movies that have both an engaging storyline as well as a thoughtful soundtrack are the ones that stick out in my mind as classics that I will revisit time and again. Like who could forget Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides that introduced to us the lust-worthy Trip Fontaine to the sexy beat of Heart‘s “Magic Man,” and again when Lux Lisbon snuck out of the house to straddle Trip in his car for a quick make out to “Crazy on You”? But most notably remembered was the soft childlike twinkling of Air’s “Playground Love” that leaves you with a uncomfortably numb feeling long after the credits. Christian Lee Huston, the 24-year old described best as the “King of Bummercore,” writes the type of songs that are begging to be featured in an indie romantic drama or a self-discovering coming of age tale of some sort (and make no mistake I mean that in a good way because I thoroughly enjoy those movies.) A Nashville-via-LA singer/songwriter, Christian is debuting his sophomore full-length album Yeah Okay, I Know on Trailer Fire Records following up 2013’s The Hell With It along with a previous career in the now-defunct Driftwood Singers. A disguised voice of experience delivering lines like, “I’m old enough to know that I know nothing” and “You only want me because I’m a mess” are picture perfect for a scene where the young antagonist is downing whiskey at a local dive contemplating his next move after the grand fuck-up. The self-loathing drunken lyrics are paired with folky acoustics that pulse with the honest energy of Christian’s vocals. The album closes with a somber track appropriately titled, “Monster,” that depicts the type of ending in a movie where the lead character finds himself to be his own worst enemy–uncomfortably numb. Alas, it seems Christian might still be a true romantic at heart because his Nashville Five consists of creative date ideas for anyone who may need an excuse to go out for a good time. Christian Lee Hutson’s album Yeah Okay, I Know is available now on Trailer Fire Records and you can bring a date to his album release show at The Stone Fox February 17th. –Kimberly B. 5 Pretty Cool Date Spots (but not cool enough to make up for my personality): 1. Cult Fiction Underground – If you’re into weird cult horror films or you suspect your date might be, see what’s playing at Cult Fiction Underground. It’s a little movie house in the basement of this neat vintage shop. For 5 bucks you can crack jokes through the whole picture and squeeze your date’s hand when some dude gets eaten by a mutant crocodile. I’ve invited several dates to join me for the early showing, but literally every time, I was stood up and had to call my friend Nathan to come catch the late showing so that I didn’t look weird for having waited around all night. Admittedly, the place is sort of difficult to describe without it sounding like you’re taking a girl to your friend’s basement to watch some B movie. 2. The Red Bicycle – This is a great coffee shop in Germantown that I used to visit everyday when I was making my record. My friend convinced me to ask one of the baristas out and she gave me her number, but when I called to ask when I should pick her up, she texted me saying she had a boyfriend. I think they serve crepes too. 3. The Wild Cow – If your date is a vegan or you’re into that kinda shit just ’cause, this is the spot for you. I went on a date here and ordered the Veggie Quinoa Bowl, I think. I don’t really remember but it is definitely a legit restaurant. The date ended in an embarrassing kiss that I asked for and then proceeded to talk through like a total amateur. I haven’t seen her since, BUT that has nothing to do with The Wild Cow, at least not to my knowledge. 4. Plaza Art Store – I wouldn’t take a date here unless the date involved some kind of arts and crafts project. Even then you probably should pick the materials up beforehand so that you’re not wasting your date’s time with a trip to the store. I could be wrong, I don’t know what the project is. The week I moved to Nashville, I went in there to buy stencil making stuff and was helped by the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. She was wearing these amazing little blue glasses. We shared a laugh when I jokingly proposed to her and my low self-esteem let me walk out of there without even asking her name. I went in once a week for the following month and could never seem to figure out what day she was working so I never saw her again. I bought a lot of spray paint that I never used, as a result. 5. Highland Trail at Beaman Park – If I ever had a date that turned into a relationship, this is where we would go to hike or whatever. I went for a run here alone on a rainy October morning and it was beautiful. I made friends with a turtle that I almost stepped on and took a lot of pictures of leaves. This probably isn’t a great spot for a first date unless you’re trying to throw kidnap-y vibes for some reason. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to print (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Published by kimberlybaugh Kimberly Baugh is a writer from Chicago with an old rock-n-roll soul. She can usually be found in her favorite leather motorcycle jacket perusing Nashville’s many beloved music venues, record shops and coffee joints. When she’s not busy getting acclimated to her new digs or playing shopgirl at Third Man Records, she’s indulging in fashion blogs and magazines with her extremely photogenic cat, Wolfie.View all posts by kimberlybaugh	6,623
We are excited to bring you a new look and enhanced site for your Owners' Association. Our hope is that this community website serves as an information resource for your community and a resourceful tool for communication with your management company. Online Payments are Available! Login to the site and select Billing. Complete email and password to the right and click green Log In button with the credentials sent to you. If you have not received a login, please click the white Sign Up button to request one.	525
The Democratic National Convention kicks off this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, hacktivists working within the group “Anonymous” are claiming they’ve caught the FBI spying on more than 12 million Apple customers, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor used Labor Day on Monday to shill for big businesses and CEOs, and more. You need to know this. The Democratic National Convention kicks off this week in Charlotte, North Carolina. And already, we’re seeing pretty stark differences between this week’s DNC and last week’s RNC. One week after Republicans unveiled the most radical major party platform in American modern history – Democrats have put forward their own political platform. Some of the planks include: a full embrace of marriage equality and woman’s right to choose, comprehensive immigration reform, the right for unions to collectively bargain, support for Obamacare, protection of Medicare, as we know it, increased funding for the arts, and cutting off tax breaks for job outsourcers like Bain Capital. While there are too few differences between Republican and Democrats when it comes to the big issues facing the nation like war, free trade, and the corporate takeover of our democracy, there are still huge differences between the two parties as reflected in each platform. While Democrats want to keep moving the nation forward – extending civil rights and economic opportunity to more and more Americans – Republicans want to drag us all backward to the era of the Robber Barons. In screwed news…if you use an Apple product – the FBI could be spying on you. Hacktivists working within the group “Anonymous” are claiming they’ve caught the FBI spying on more than 12 million Apple customers. On Monday night, the hacktivists released FBI files that contained over 12 million Apple UDID’s – which are specific numbers exclusively assigned to apple products like Iphones and Ipads. Along with the UDIDs, Anonymous is saying the FBI database also included user names, cell phone numbers, and addresses. The FBI has yet to comment on the story. In a statement on the discovery, Anonymous said, “For the last few years we have broke [sic] into systems belonging to Governments and Big corporations just to find out they are spending millions of tax dollars to spy on their citizens. They work to discredit dissenting voices.” It’s true, we are being spied on. The emerging surveillance state is a consequence of corporations taking over our government. One major difference between democratic rule and corporate rule – there is no transparency or individual privacy when corporations are in control. The biggest obstacles to the Republicans’ strategy to rig the election in November so far have been the courts. On Friday – Republican voter suppression efforts were knocked down again – this time in Ohio. U.S. District Judge Peter Economus overturned early voting changes made by Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State John Husted. Despite tens of thousands of Ohioans using early weekend voting in 2008 – Secretary of State Husted put an end to it – arguing that early voting will increase voter fraud – even though he was unable to show any actual cases of fraud. Judge Economus smacked down that argument, ruling, “There is no definitive evidence before the court that elections boards will be tremendously burdened…Certainly, the public interest is served by restoring in-person early voting to all voters.” From Voter Suppression ID laws, to cutting back on early voting, to making it harder to register – Republicans are trying their best to keep Democrats from the polls in November. And all these efforts prove one thing: Americans are long-overdue for a federal right to vote. Mitt Romney might want to re-think running on his Bain Capital experience now. The New York Times is reporting that since July, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been investigating Bain Capital for tax evasion. Bain is one of a number of private equity firms under scrutiny from the New York Attorney General’s office, which is alleging that Bain and other companies illegally filed income as capital gains when it actually wasn’t – thus avoiding a larger tax bill. As the New York Times reports – Bain may have saved as much as, “$200 million in federal income taxes and more than $20 million in Medicare taxes.” It’s important to note that Romney is still collecting fat paychecks from Bain Capital, and thus profiting off screwing over the government and American taxpayers. Then again, with all the cash he has stashed in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, Romney may have his own tax evasion issues to worry about. There’s been a major setback in the United States’ exit strategy in Afghanistan. Following a series of what are known as “green on blue” attacks, where trained Afghan soldiers are turning their guns on coalition forces – the United States has suspended the training of new Afghan security forces. In the last month, 45 Western soldiers – mostly American soldiers – have been killed in green on blue attacks. Top US military commanders have put the breaks on training new Afghan recruits until the vetting process for those recruits is reexamined. A key pillar in the U.S. exit strategy is training a large enough Afghan security force to take over once the United States leaves. But with green on blue attacks on the rise all over Afghanistan – it loos like it’s getting harder and harder to officially end America’s longest war. And finally…are Republicans trying to redefine Labor Day? House Majority Leader Eric Cantor used Labor Day on Monday to shill for big businesses and CEOs claiming in a statement that, “Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.” According to the Department of Labor, Labor Day is a holiday, “dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.” In other words, Labor Day is for workers – not business owners. It officially became a holiday in 1894, after two railroad workers were killed in a strike demanding better wages from business owners. Welcome to the new front in the Republican war on labor – a full assault on the one holiday honoring American workers. And that’s the way it is today – Tuesday, September 4th, 2012. I’m Thom Hartmann – on the news. We don’t have much time — can you help? With everything going on right now — from escalating white supremacy to the threat of nuclear war to the climate change-fueled disasters across the world — Truthout is working overtime to bring you the latest information as it happens. But we’re still facing an existential threat to our survival, and we can’t keep publishing without your support. Donations are down across the board, making it absolutely imperative that we raise what we need to meet our news production costs this month. We’ve been proudly donor-supported for two decades, but our future will depend on the action our readers take today. Whether you’re able to make a $5 monthly donation, or give more — we need you. Please, do what you can to help us get through this trying time. Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America and more than 25 other books in print. He is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute. More by this author… Our daily email newsletter will keep you up to date. Truthout is a nonprofit and depends on your financial support. Follow us for first access to the latest news and analysis. Staff Report an Issue To donate by check, phone, bitcoin, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page. Get daily news, in-depth reporting and critical analysis from the journalists, activists and thinkers who are working to improve our world..	8,230
It’s important, in these unique times, to redeem the hours and make the most of the moments we have together. There are negative ramifications to the current state of affairs in our world—and you don’t need to see them broadcast in the media, many of you are experiencing them firsthand. But the negative effects of the Coronavirus do not need to overwhelm us. We can also choose positive effects: spending time with family, taking longer rests, finding solitude, and escaping the busyness of our normal lives. With that in mind, here’s my list of 25 things to do while stuck at home to redeem the time and make the most of it. 0. Wake up, get dressed. I need to include this one here because it’s important to start each day with the right attitude. Every day is an opportunity to make the most of it. Don’t miss a single opportunity—regardless of the circumstances around you. 1. Declutter. Minimize your possessions and declutter the stuff in your home. The more we spend time in our home, the more we can recognize what can and should be removed—and the more time we have to do it. Check out Clutterfree if you’re looking for steps to get started 2. Learn new card games. I grew up playing cards‚ even as a young child. And not just Go Fish and War, but strategy games like Hearts, Spades, Rook, and Pinochle. They taught me how to think ahead, play out scenarios, and learn from others. All valuable life skills. 3. Make phone calls. Safe to say the phone call is making a comeback. All those people you would usually see at work, church, or social gatherings, give them a call to say hello. 4. Teach your kids life skills. My son is a junior in high school and my wife and I have a long list of life skills we want him to know before he leaves the house. We’ve been using these weeks to make up for lost time. If you haven’t already, use the time to teach your kids cooking, laundry, cleaning, car repair, budgeting, or any other life skills that come to mind. 5. Go outside. If still allowed in your local area, go on long walks or hikes. Spend time in the park or walk along the river. 6. Workout. We need to be taking care of our physical bodies and taking care of our physical fitness during this time as well. Look up at-home workouts/yoga on YouTube or Google and do them together as a family. 7. Watch educational programs. I see a lot of people spending time on Netflix—binging movies and television shows. And there’s certainly a place for that. But you can also watch educational documentaries on Netflix and YouTube about history, science, or events in the world. 8. Learn a new skill. Been wanting to pick up a hobby? Now’s your chance. Learn a new language or how to code. Pick up an instrument or new artistic skill. Because of the Internet, finding a teacher (free or paid) has never been easier. 9. Create. I started this blog as a hobby—somehow it grew to over 2M readers/month. Start something of your own. Create a blog or a YouTube channel. Write some stories or poetry. Or use your hands in the workshop. Create something, we need you now more than ever. 10. Do a Facebook Live. Nothing to it. Just click a few buttons on your phone and suddenly all your friends can see you. It’s super fun. If you haven’t before, now’s your time. 11. Write letters. To a family member or friend you haven’t seen in awhile. 12. Invent a game. Looking around the room at the supplies you have, make up a game to play with your kids. Or better yet, invent an entire Family Olympics where each member of the family gets to pick 1-2 of the events. Keep a running total of the points. 13. Read books. You should probably be doing that anyway. 14. Late night movie with the family. Depending on your local school situation of course. But if it works, there’s nothing more fun for little kids than staying up past bedtime, eating popcorn, and watching a movie with mom or dad. Make it happen. 16. Home repairs or a deep clean. Make up some ground on that list of yours. 17. Sort through boxes of old photos. Keep the best and put them in photo albums or digitize for future generations. 19. Curate and organize your recipe/cookbook stash. I use index cards to keep all my favorites in the same place. 20. Make up TikTok dances with the family. I see a lot of those short, choreographed dances being posted. Super fun for everyone. 21. Create games to share with family members. Invent a WordSearch or Crossword Puzzle using the members of your family and send them out for everyone else to complete during their downtime. 22. Take a class online. You can find plenty of courses for kids and adults available for free online. Including Yale’s most popular college course ever. 23. Order takeout and have a picnic. If your local community still allows that, you can support local business and enjoy time outside as a family (weather-permitting of course). 24. Research your family tree. You can use online tools or do it the old-fashioned way—calling family members to begin piecing it together. 25. Learn online tools for business. One’s thing is for sure—business is going to change going forward. Learn as quick as you can how remote work is accomplished: Zoom, Slack, Skype, Dropbox, and numerous others. Now’s your time to learn them. There are so many options to make the most of the time now—and probably ahead of us for a little bit longer. What have you been doing that could be added to the list? Comments Esther says March 28, 2020 at 7:40 PM These are great tips! I’ve been quarantined for 15 days. (I’m Spanish, and we’re only allowed to leave the house to buy food or medicine. This has been extended for another 15 days at least) I’ve been doing lots of reading, signed up for a few online courses, watched some movies and TV shows,and my apartment’s never been so clean and tidy! I live on my own so I keep in touch with my family and friends through whatsapp, skype and phone calls. We’re having a great time doing movie night via Skype and playing silly games online! I’m so grateful because everyone I know is okay! The virus is taking such a big toll on Spain ? and we’re genuinely scared. Here are some tips that can help through this difficult time: – Set your objectives for the day (They can be as simple as getting a shower, cooking a healthy meal, keeping your home tidy or maybe take some time to read, learn, etc. Rigid schedules don’t work for me so I give myself all day to do those things and it’s definitely helping) – Make an effort to get out of bed and get dressed (Comfy loungewear is a good option if you’re staying in). If you can try to do some exercise. My house is tiny so not an option for me, though. -Be patient with yourself and your family. We’re all somewhat anxious so let’s be kind to each other and ourselves. -Remember humor can relieve our distress. There are lots of memes out there that are really funny. -Take time to do those things you never have time for, whatever that is for you. If you never have time to enjoy around family this is a great moment to reconnect with them. – Don’t watch too much news. 10 minutes a day is enough to keep you informed. Watching or reading too much about this will only increase your anxiety. -Reach out if you need to talk or let your feelings out. I’ve always been an anxious person so over time I’ve developed my own coping strategies. Now some of my friends who never knew what anxiety was are reaching out to me and I’m happy to help them feel a little better. Being stressed is normal, but if you’re healthy, there’s food in your pantry, running water, you’re in a safe home and have an internet connection you have way more than many other people in the planet. This is but a small sacrifice. Stay safe everyone and may you find the silver lining to the situation. Nadja Salter says March 28, 2020 at 2:05 AM G’day from downunder. Just a little note to show appreciation. Your posts have been an absolute pleasure and inspiration to follow, simply a delight to look forward to. Thank you and every best wish to you and your family, take care ? laura mcdonough says March 26, 2020 at 6:39 PM I had decluttered really good until the recent run on canned goods, household cleaning items and then others saying to hoard these items incl paper items. Now I have lots of clutter as these items now accumulate for I don’t know how long. Many Iknow are depressed about all this we are told to distance 6 ft, no gatherings of any kind in groups, churches closed and run on grocery items. Will bank runs be next? Rickrolled: This country is trashing down hill and it’s a power grab indeed. halturnerradioshow.com Judy says March 27, 2020 at 4:06 PM This too, shall pass. Rachel says March 26, 2020 at 2:16 PM Thanks Joshua, we are in full country lockdown here in NZ. Lots of community sharing, so I will share this as well : ) Amy says March 26, 2020 at 10:57 AM Sewing face masks is a great family endeavor for all those who need it, take up time in a useful and meaningful way, and might make a unique and interesting contribution to this list. There’s a pattern available here: https://readingmytealeaves.com/2020/03/make-your-own-face-mask-coronavirus.html BB says March 28, 2020 at 2:13 PM Thanks for the link for a pattern to make face masks, Amy. This helps the rest of us have something constructive to do with our time and excess fabric that can help ourselves as well as others. Very nice of you to share this with us. :-D patricia says March 26, 2020 at 10:34 AM adopt or foster a dog or cat from a shelter or reputable rescue organization – my foster dog is my at-home therapist and snuggle buddy Judy says March 26, 2020 at 10:40 AM Susan Hawkins says March 26, 2020 at 8:19 AM I’m a 64 yr. old woman with a 3 yr. old organizing business. I’m going to jump into the arena and do FB live posts- 30 minutes, 30 days- 30 ways to organize your house. Hopefully, it’ll help families not only survive, but thrive through this time. Thanks, Joshua, for your amazing contribution to our lives! joshua becker says March 26, 2020 at 9:20 AM CJ-R says March 26, 2020 at 12:15 PM Susan, you might want to hold off on telling people to get rid of old cotton sheets, washcloths & rags until after this Covid-19 situation. It’s already hard to find kleenex (facial tissue), paper towels and toilet paper. The sheets could be cut up to use as washable hankies (if you have a sewing machine to hem the edges better yet), the old wash cloths used in place of paper towels and rags for “toilet rags”. Just having a plan B & having those things on hand may help some people feel a little less panic. Laurie Timmerman says March 26, 2020 at 7:37 AM Thank you for the inspiration. At first the list was overwhelming but then I stopped and reminded myself to pick what applies to me at the moment. Judy says March 26, 2020 at 7:16 AM How about watching some old silent films—- old black and white movies—- and some classic early horror films? Not for everyone —- but I love these type of movies! Amber says March 26, 2020 at 7:11 AM Hey Joshua! I’m not sure if you will see this, but I have a question. I’m on the hunt for minimalism for kids books. I love the book you wrote for parents, but a book for my son to understand minimalism and decluttering would be amazing!! Any chance you’d write a book like that, especially with a Christian outlook?? ?? If not, do you have any suggestions? I keep seeing books on Amazon about having “too many toys”, but they don’t really teach why we shouldn’t be greedy, or how we can bless others. Debbi says March 26, 2020 at 7:11 AM If you are under a stay at home order and/or in a community where it is dangerous for the elderly to leave their homes, consider delivering meals to the elderly and to low income people. I realize this is not an option for many people who are working from home or are working in essential services (all of you, from grocery stockists to health care workers have my gratitude and prayers right now) or for people whose situation puts them at high risk but, at least in NOLA, the requests for senior and low income meal delivery have exploded. My normal volunteer obligations have been cancelled while we are on the stay at home order and I have been delivering meals every afternoon. I cannot say it is particularly fun – you ring the doorbell and immediately leave to avoid infecting recipients and I am not a big fan of driving to unfamiliar places with a car full of meals – but the normal volunteers are completely overwhelmed right now. Seniors and others, including families living on the edge who just lost their paychecks, are requesting meals in record numbers. Donna Wynn says March 26, 2020 at 6:42 AM Everyone of you that corrected Joshua, please stop and think about how unnecessary it was. We should all be more gentle to each other. If something on this list doesn’t sit with you, that’s ok. But don’t criticize another human who is trying to provide something useful and meaningful to others. Grateful for this blog. Annelize says March 26, 2020 at 6:30 AM This is all wonderful, but where do people find the time for this? I usually work from home, so nothing has changed for me in that respect (except I now have less time so earn less!). I now have four people at home all the time who needs feeding three times a day, the house gets messed up faster (and no-one seems to notice), I have to home school a nine year old and keep her from going crazy… I don’t think I’ll get through that list of 25 things! joshua becker says March 26, 2020 at 9:18 AM Thanks for the feedback Annelize. I wouldn’t expect anyone to get through the entire list. Pick a few that work for you. I know many people who are continuing to work (including me, obviously). But with most every social and community gathering cancelled, it’s pretty safe to say people are spending more time at homes these days than before. LuckyLindy says March 26, 2020 at 5:54 AM 0.0 Before you get dressed…develop a morning ritual. If you have one already, richen it. I read an inspirational passage, either from secular writing or scripture…sometimes both. Journal my reflections from the previous day and my intentions for today. Close with a prayer: expressing Gratitude for blessings, asking for Grace for my transgressions and Guidance for the day ahead. Bookend the day with reflection and quiet time before slumber. Nicola says March 26, 2020 at 5:44 AM STUCK at home?? How about the word is changed to SAFE at home. Please change the messaging you are sending out to the world, many of us (health care workers) are not so privileged to be able to stay and be safe in our homes. Rickrolled says March 26, 2020 at 6:05 AM Be grateful you have an income during this utter SHAM and tyrannical power grab being foisted upon us; the illusion of “safety” at the expense of liberty. Amber says March 26, 2020 at 6:59 AM Thank you for everything you do!! It truly is appreciated. ? Please be safe. I’m praying for all healthcare workers and first responders. Judy says March 26, 2020 at 7:31 AM Thank you Amber! I am a caregiver and I make sure that elderly shut-ins have their needs met. I am running errands for them… I would not be out and about if I didn’t have to be :( So many of us are still out there —- and God bless the store clerks too! joshua becker says March 26, 2020 at 9:19 AM Thanks for your help in this way. Esther says March 28, 2020 at 7:43 PM Hmmm maybe he chose that word because of SEO? Thank you for putting yourself out there for everyone. Keep yourself safe too. Shaban says March 26, 2020 at 5:15 AM ” Make up TikTok dances with the family. I see a lot of those short, choreographed dances being posted. Super fun for everyone.” Please dont. joshua becker says March 26, 2020 at 9:16 AM I think they’re clever when I see them. Linda Sand says March 25, 2020 at 8:24 PM Write your memoir. Once you start remembering childhood events they can come back faster than you can write them down. Kids love reading what their parents were like way back then. Even young kids can draw pictures of things they remember then tell you about it.	16,526
Corporate welfare is something we love to hate. On the political left, economist and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich derides it as "business subsidies that don't make sense." The consumer watchdog group Common Cause estimates that federal subsidies to U. S. businesses amount to more than $150 billion annually in various manifestations, including "direct payments to companies, provision of public goods or services at below-market value, federal purchases of goods or services at above-mark May 24, 1998 \| 3 min read Corporate welfare is something we love to hate. On the political left, economist and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich derides it as "business subsidies that don't make sense." The consumer watchdog group Common Cause estimates that federal subsidies to U. S. businesses amount to more than $150 billion annually in various manifestations, including "direct payments to companies, provision of public goods or services at below-market value, federal purchases of goods or services at above-market value, federal tax breaks, and exemptions from otherwise applicable laws." Aggressive, highly competitive entrepreneurs and business executives also oppose corporate welfare, which, they say, distorts the marketplace by substituting bureaucrats' amateur judgments for market forces. Worse still, American industry falls victim to the vicious circle created by government taxing and spending to "support" commercial growth. With corporate taxes high, companies lobby for give-backs to remain competitive--leading to higher taxes and a new tax-and-spend cycle. Interested in reading more? Become a Member of Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!	1,809
Following are more of my thoughts on Laura Kipnis's discussions of university sexual harassment and assault policies in Unwanted Advances. All the obvious content warnings. I had an opportunity to hear Laura Kipnis speak about her book at Simon Fraser University last week. Most of what she said was a repeat of material from the book, but I noticed a few new things. In the Q&A, for example, she made a few comments about a couple high-profile cases of sexual harassment and assault allegations in academia I hadn’t previously heard her speak about—she thinks Geoff Marcy was “hung out to dry”, and that he wasn’t a sexual harasser, just someone who “touched people in ways that made them uncomfortable”. (You can read about the "uncomfortable touching" alleged here. One instance perfectly matches President Trump's famous self-report.) She also cautions against rushing to judgment against John Searle, since accusers sometimes lie. (You can read some of the many, many allegations she thinks might all be lies here.) (Side note: read this piece on Marcy on the challenges to bringing complaints. It is a useful corrective to the picture Kipnis paints of overzealous administrators jumping at any chance to punish accused wrongdoers. It also connects to my point last week about how many of the problems Kipnis finds with Title IX processes—e.g. transparency—are things student activists are on her side about, e.g. here: A cynical take is that the forces that allowed Marcy to harass women for so many years — his prestige; his ability to bring in funding; the employment protections he enjoyed as a tenured professor; the outdated, onerous, and secretive nature of sexual harassment investigations — are not anomalies of an outlying department, but in many cases defining traits of academia. Undoing these advantages, some experts say, will spur the next big wave of legal battles on college campuses. (emphasis added) I took the occasion, at Kipnis's talk, to ask a question about a running theme in the book, which she also discussed in Vancouver—the idea of “retroactively withdrawing consent”. According to Kipnis, contemporary sexual panic has codified this dangerous possibility. “Sexual consent can now be retroactively withdrawn (with official sanction) years later,” she writes on p. 91, “based on changing feelings or residual ambivalence, or new circumstances. Please note that this makes anyone who’s ever had sex a potential rapist.” (See also her similar remarks on p. 122.) Kipnis often describes sexual assault allegations in these terms. She says that there was a consensual sexual encounter, and then, months or years later, someone “retroactively withdraws” consent, converting what had previously been a permissible sexual encounter into an assault. Her language suggests a kind of "backwards causation"—one can reach back into history and create rapes that weren't there by removing the consent. The implication: this absurd metaphysics is being embraced by campus activists, demonstrating both their intellectual depravity and their danger. But why is Kipnis so confident that, in these cases, there was consent in the first place? After all, there is such a thing as a nonconsensual sexual encounter where the victim doesn’t think of it as such at the time, or doesn’t decide to report it at the time. There is such a thing as being coerced, manipulated, or bullied into a sexual relationship. When this happens, one is quite likely to keep quiet about it at first, either for fear of repercussions, or out of failure to understand what has happened. Take an example. Suppose someone is coerced into a nonconsensual relationship by a manipulator. She feels awful about it, but only gradually realizes the violent nature of the harm she’s suffered. She is ambivalent about making a report—once she understands how she was abused, she doesn’t want to let them think their behaviour was acceptable. But she knows that many people won’t believe her story, or will blame her for it, and she doesn’t want to go through all of that in public. But eventually—when she sees someone else telling a similar story about the same manipulator, say—she does decide to make a report. These are my stipulations about a hypothetical thought experiment. My view is that these are pretty realistic stipulations; I think stories like this are common. But everyone should agree that they are possible. But—and here's the challenge I put to Kipnis at her talk—cases like this will look, from the outside, just like the cases Kipnis describes in which a party to a consensual relationship "retroactively withdraws" consent. So I asked her: how can you categorically assert that the cases you discuss are cases where there was consent? Kipnis agreed that "there are tough questions about what is and what isn't consent," admitting that she's not sure where to draw the line, but took it to be obvious that in the cases she discussed, there had been consent. She recounted a story from her book (pp. 15–6), about a male student who was found by his university to have verbally and emotionally coerced a female student into performing oral sex on him. "This was a case," Kipnis said, "of consent where somebody changed her mind and decided that it had been a nonconsensual experience." (This was new—consent was not asserted in the book. Kipnis also said in the talk that the male student was expelled—the book said he was temporarily excluded.) She also repeated her characterization from the book of Peter Ludlow's relationship with a Northwestern graduate student as a consensual one. But the considerations she cites in favour of this interpretation are ones equally consistent with the coercion hypotheses. Kipnis is not very impressed by worries about coerced sexual activity. (In this interview, she endorses the "old-fashioned" view that it's only rape if you use physical force to compel sex.) About the student found to have verbally and emotionally coerced another student into oral sex, she writes: The ruling was that he should have known that consent had to be "voluntary, present and ongoing." For campus officials to find this kid responsible for "emotional coercion" not only means prosecuting students for the awkwardness of college sex, it also brands an eighteen-year-old a lifelong sex criminal—all college applications now ask if a student has been found responsible for "behavioral misconduct" at a previous institution, and demand the details. ... If incidents like these are being labeled sexual assault, then we need far more discussion about just how capacious this category is becoming, and why it's in anybody's interests. (16) I don't know the specifics, but even from Kipnis's one-sided description (as she says on pp. 15–16, she never includes the complainants' sides of the stories), this student doesn't come off looking good. Verbal and emotional coercion is absolutely a thing. Maybe the complainant just made up these allegations. It's possible to be a vindictive liar who wants to hurt your ex-boyfriend. Maybe he was just being "awkward", and he wasn't being a threatening and manipulative asshole. But Kipnis hasn't given any reason beyond her own assertion, based only on one side of the story, to think this is so. It seems she doesn't think she needs to—she thinks that putting the phrase "emotional coercion" in scare quotes is enough to show that this student was treated unfairly. Speaking as someone who knows a thing or two about emotional coercion: it's not. Kipnis says more about the Ludlow case. Although she is well aware that her description of Ludlow's relationship with a graduate student as consensual and romantic is contested, she repeats the assertion many times in the book (and again in last week's talk). She is clearly under the impression that she has strong evidence that there was a consensual relationship. For example, she has, via Ludlow, a copy of the email and text correspondence between him and the student. "What would it mean," Kipnis writes, in one of the more bizarre non sequiturs in the book, "to not consent to sending a thousand texts and emails?" (p. 95) I don't know how seriously she intends that flippant remark, but it is suggestive of that pillar of rape culture—the fallacy that if one has consented to anything, then one has consented to everything. The fact is, all of the evidence offered in the book about that relationship is consistent with the coercion hypothesis. (I'm also in a position to assert—though not to argue—that some of the evidence offered is given in an extremely misleading way, given the broader context that Kipnis choose not to share.) So the fact that in these cases universities sided with the complainants does not imply that they're countenancing notions of "retroactive withdrawal of consent". They are taking seriously retroactive reports of non-consent. (And "retroactive" there doesn't add anything interesting to the meaning—reports about things in the past are always in the relevant sense "retroactive". If my bike gets stolen today, I may make a "retroactive theft report" tomorrow.) Contrary to Kipnis's scaremongering rhetoric, if you've ever had consensual sex, that doesn't mean you're at risk of becoming a retroactive rapist due to a partner's retroactive withdrawal of consent. That's not a thing anyone real believes in. Posted by Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa at 5/11/2017 02:30:00 AM 78 comments: ReplyDelete Replies Hi Anonymous, I'm not sure what point exactly you're gesturing at here, but I can say a few things about this case. You're pointing to a story in a conservative news outlet that about a case similar to the ones Kipnis is complaining about. Indeed, she mentions it herself on pp. 8–9, repeating many of the talking-points in the piece you link. This is an example where one student accused another, Doe, of sexual assault. Brandeis issued him a disciplinary warning and required him to undergo an educational program. Doe sued. This piece describes what seem to me to be four central claims about Brandeis's handling of the case: 1. Brandeis inappropriately leaked the confidential findings, leading to harm. 2. Doe had been in a long-term relationship with the student who would become his accuser. They remained friends for four months after their breakup, until his ex-boyfriend, "began to change his thinking" about the relationship, and decided he'd been assaulted. 3. The special examiner who performed the investigation's biography played a significant role in Title IX policy in 2011. 4. The examination was unduly secretive, and Doe wasn't told the nature of the charge or allowed to retain counsel. Of these, only (2) has anything to do with my post here. If (1) is true that is obviously a significant injustice, and, I would think, be appropriate grounds for a lawsuit. I have been quite clear (including in this post, and the one I linked in it) that I do not support the secrecy implicated in (4). (3) strikes me as irrelevant; I don't understand why it's mentioned here. So that leaves (2). This does look like a case that Kipnis would describe as a "retroactive withdrawal of consent". I do not find that description compelling, for the reason explained in this post. It is certainly possible for someone to engage in abusive and nonconsensual sexual activities, with a long-term partner, and for that partner not to realize until months later that this is what happened. Do you agree that it is possible? You may want to ask me now whether I agree that it's possible for someone to lie about their past relationship and say it wasn't consensual even if it was. But don't ask me that because I've been very clear that I do. (Read the post again if you disagree.) When a complaint comes in like this, it's the job of the investigation to determine which scenario is likelier. That's not always going to be an easy job, but that just is the job. So I don't see anything in this article that makes me rethink the points in my post. In this case too, the idea that we're assuming there's such a thing as "retroactive withdrawal of consent" in these cases is just propaganda. Delete Replies The Kipnis lecture you refer to is this one. I find it reassuring that the person who selected the name for the html file chose "intellectual-freedom" because to me, that is an important value for academia. I value your opinion, so I wonder how you feel the lay person should respond to Marcy's alledged Trump-like behavior (grabbing p u s s y)? As I understand it, that was purely he-said/she-said in terms of evidence, related more than 8 years after the event, which meant that the statue of limitations (3 years for UC's policies) had expired, and also UC lacked jurisdiction, so do you think a professor should be punished in that case? And if not punished by the official procedures, then by public opinion or peer rebuke? I am not actually asking about Marcy's case specifically, but more a hypothetical case in which that (described above) was all the Title IX officer had. If I ask myself, then I figure I have very little go on, and if I just had to guess, I would tend to guess that the female graduate student is telling the truth and the male professor is lying, because the woman has little incentive to report such an event and the man has a lot of incentive to deny it. So if I am forced to render a judgement based upon a preponderance of bias, then my bias is to believe the claim, but if my judgement is to be based upon a preponderance of evidence, then I would say there is no evidence, there are only contradictory claims. The easy way out would be for me to render no judgement but dismiss on technicalities: jurisdiction and statue of limitations. But I value your opinion and would like to to read it, if you have the time. Maybe it is worth an entire post. ReplyDelete Replies Hi Anonymous, I am not intimately familiar with the details of the Marcy case—I'm mostly going on the two or three news pieces I've read on it. I'm also not intimately familiar with the federal and university-specific rules that govern this kind of situation. I don't know, for example, if the usual obligation to investigate assault and harassment is waived if the alleged misconduct occurred too long ago. I do know that Marcy seemed to have a long history of misconduct, which was widely known about, but for which there had been no sanction, because no one was willing to take the professional risk of making a formal complaint. So the hypothetical you're asking me to consider, where we're just looking at a single person's testimony about events from eight years ago, is quite far removed from this real-life case, and from any real-life case I've heard of. I guess I don't really know what to think about this case. (I don't even have super strong opinions about what the appropriate sanction is for more conventional findings of assault.) I agree with your assessment that, unless there's some particular reason things are unusual, it doesn't seem very likely that someone would just make something like this up. If I were the investigator, I'd want to ask some follow-up questions, and ask the accused for their perspective too. But if we're imagining that for some reason this is impossible, and all I have to go on is the one standalone allegation, I guess I think it's probably likelier than not to be true. (I wouldn't call this "preponderance of bias"—it's a genuine preponderance of evidence, it's just that there's only a tiny amount of evidence either way.) I could probably be convinced out of this stance, but my gut reaction is that no very severe sanction would be warranted, for an isolated case that only slightly probably happened, from eight years ago. I'd want it to be entered into a confidential record—it's very relevant evidence, should a future complaint under more conventional circumstances come up. So I guess that's my answer? Talk to them, make sure it's known that this complaint happened and was taken seriously, make sure we're all clear that this is unacceptable behaviour, and be pretty ready to believe further allegations that come up later? Again, I want to stress, this is a pretty strange thought experiment we're imagining. In the real world, we'd do an investigation and get way more evidence. Delete Replies I am fascinated by this hypothetical's illumination of your views on what constitutes evidence. It's important because at some point an investigator is asked to determine the "preponderance of evidence" whatever that might mean. Philosophers must have much to contribute to this. I feel there are two individuals claims, basically "he grabbed me" and "I deny that." But claims are not evidence, or are they? Perhaps their testimonies could be considered evidence? Do you think? So if she vividly describes "his unusually long fingernails slowly coursing through her hairs on the unshaven left upper thigh as the grand father clock tolled 9:15PM" and he only states, "I deny that." Is that evidence of one's truthfulness compared to the other's? (Some feel detailed testimony is more likely to be true.) It's also interesting that you feel that one he-said/she-said complaint would be very relevant evidence to a future (second) complaint. My lay person feeling is, "of course you're right!" but then I remember that in western jurisprudence we specifically do not allow prior unproven charges to influence a current case before a court. Convictions yes, but not accusations. So should Title IX procedures discard that rule? And if so, why? I think there's some Bayesian analysis that some might try to apply to these cases. Again, hypothetically, let's suppose (only for sake of argument here) that in an excellent and relevant study, it was found that 1% of women much like the claimant falsely accuse men in similar he-said/she-said situations, should we apply that "bias" (or call it "Bayesian prior") to the particular case before the officer? If we do, are we basing the assessment on the preponderance of evidence? I don't think this is a strange thought experiment. I think it is both a common circumstance and exactly the particulars of the case you alluded to, of Marcy and the graduate student in Hawaii. The investigation did not turn up way more evidence. The only other evidence was testimony of two witnesses from the dinner table that couldn't recall anything out of the ordinary about the night in question (8 years after the fact). That does not exonerate Marcy of that charge, but it does make the thought experiment similar to the actual case. Delete Replies I actually have quite a lot of thoughts about what counts as evidence. My new book, coming out next month, defends an idea a number of contemporary epistemologists have been interested in the past couple of decades, according to which one's evidence is everything that one knows. I think sometimes, when one receives testimony, one comes to know the thing told. I'm in Scotland right now. If you believe me, you know that I'm in Scotland right now; so your evidence includes the fact that I'm in Scotland. Sometimes, however, knowledge is harder to come by—this is often the case when there is conflicting testimony. A says the vase just fell on its own, and B says that A knocked it over. Maybe I can't know what actually happened, but I do have some evidence. I do know some things. I know, for example, that A says the vase just fell on its own. And I know that B says that A knocked it over. Those two facts—facts about who said what—are among my evidence. I also may have more evidence: I may know that A lied to me yesterday about a similar circumstance, and I know what kind of track record B has in testimony of this sort. I know some things about how the testimony was delivered: who was able to include which details, whether their respective stories are internally consistent, etc. Maybe all told, the total evidence supports believing B. The reason I think the hypothetical you're considering is quite different from the Marcy case is that there were many allegations against him, from many different people. So there's quite a lot of evidence. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/12/2017 08:29:00 AM Ah, thank you. I was partitioning the Hawaii dinner alone (with the disputed Trumpian behavior) for the hypothetical case in order to focus the discussion here, but you were thinking of the entirety of the case. That explains our differing evaluations of how plausibly authentic my hypothetical was. I look forward to reading your upcoming book, although I expect it will go over my head and I will need to consult the dictionary every page. Does it have a working title that you are willing to post already? And an ETA? You wrote that Kipnis said that she thought Marcy was "hung out to dry" and that makes me wonder, "Who does she think was doing the laundry?" University administrators? Faculty member(s) of his own department? Current students? Former students? Astronomers from other universities? Reporters? Activists? Did she indicate who and why? (Since you acknowledge that you're not especially familiar with the case, I am not asking for your assessment but instead whatever you may have heard Kipnis say. I acknowledge that her knowledge of that case (Marcy) may be too incomplete for her to feel comfortable commenting at length on it.) Given your philosopher experience, how should a person (J) behave in the following? Let's imagine an astronomer, call this person J, knew Marcy and also one or more of his accusers. Let's also assume that J (via one or more accuser) knows the case has been completed and that the University has sanctioned Marcy but has not revealed the sanction to anyone but him. Obviously J can confirm that Marcy was still working as a professor. Does J have a moral or ethical obligation to go to the press (and hence to the court of public opinion) to have the case revealed? Prior to that does someone (the University officials?) have an obligation to inform the accusers (or the public) of the outcome and the sanction(s)? Suppose one or more of the accusers (or a third party like J) knows but is not satisfied with the sanction? When I think about these issues, I am reminded of some of the reasons why (most) real trials are public events. Coincidentally there is a philosophical issue here (in Title IX land) that also relates to some of the bigger Trump events of late. Secrecy causes some people to behave in ways that don't make sense and cannot make sense, to those that do not know the secrets. P.S. I hope you are enjoying Scotland. Delete Replies Information on my book is here: I don’t think that, in general, I’d think it was a great idea to go public about cases that have been resolved quietly. Maybe in special circumstances that might be warranted, I don’t know. It’d depend on a lot of things. Kipnis’s discussion of Marcy at Simon Fraser was quite brief. Someone in the audience pointed out that, since Kipnis was relying on anecdotes instead of more quantified data, it’s relevant to consider anecdotes that pull in the opposite direction—cases where harassment and assault were not taken seriously enough, despite clear harm that was being done. The audience member said that he’d spent some time talking to faculty members in Berkeley Astronomy about the Marcy situation, and that they had emphasized that there had been a long history of complaints, but no action taken. Kipnis said that she had looked into the Marcy case, and that, in her opinion, he wasn’t a harasser, just someone who touched people in ways they didn’t appreciate. I believe she used the word “hugger” to describe him. (I think, but am not sure, that she may have made a point of saying that there was no evidence of quid pro quo harassment.) She said that, in her opinion, he was “hung out to dry”—that’s a quote, I’m pretty sure—but didn’t specify by whom. Delete Replies Thanks for taking the time to expand on what you heard Kipnis say. It may be a glass-half-full situation for some people to feel that "no action had been taken" to correct Marcy's touchiness and on the other hand, the written record is that he had been admonished by department chairpersons on a few occasions, almost at regular intervals. (half-full = "admonishment is action" and half-empty = "admonishment is not action") I think there is mention in the file of complaints brought to Marcy's attention in 2001, 2006, 2011, 2013, and then 2014. The 2013 warning was for pre-2011 behavior, reported anonymously, and may have been a lead up to the 2014 case that forced his retirement in 2015. It's clear in the file that the Title IX officials were seeking any misbehaviors that followed, not preceded, the 2011 warning. No such events (after 2011) are discussed in the file. It's possible that Marcy had mended his ways and no longer misbehaved after the 2011 warning. Alternatively, it also possible that some additional specific allegations existed in 2014-2015, waiting in secret and kept from officials, but that the faculty and Marcy independently or collaboratively agreed for him to retire instead of continuing the harm of more investigations. But that (the possibility of additional misbehaviors after 2011) is absolutely nothing but speculation on my part. We will not know what really happened in the Marcy drama until Oliver Stone makes a documentary movie. ;) Delete Replies Here seems to me an issue, Jonathan. If "evidence" is "what we know at the time", think about what people know and don't know in a sexual encounter. If a man takes some unexpected, unpredictable or surprising action, even short of forceful action, a woman has no "evidence" as to whether or not he is a rapist, or a guy who "won't take no for an answer." I can sympathize with then, say, having a guy who was - let's not be too graphic - performing one action on you, to which you were receptive and responsive, and then spontaneously performing another action, and being concerned he might be dangerous. But to call that sexual assault seems like an unfair conclusion, especially if she decides to passively surrender, lay still, say nothing (having been warned of how frequently assault occurs, wrongly, and of the toxicity and danger of men), and later define the behavior as an assault. That would seem to be an error. And likewise imagine a man, with the evidence available, say, being in a relationship with someone, having had sexual encounters before, having an experience with a partner where both are emotional, or neither are, or their personal willingnesses to sex fluctuate, or both indicate interest, and then some new behavior - say, pulling hair without asking first, in the moment - gets no response, or gets feigned enjoyment or submission - and no indication of discontent or objection - that man has no evidence available to know that he "is" committing "sexual assault." If he had it, and might stop with it, but was not given that evidence, is he culpable? Delete Replies In addition, I don't know how successful we will be in asking ordinary people to be epistemologists of the boudoir. Inexperience is one factor, with college students. Intoxication is another. Both make it easy to misread, difficult to convey clearly. Beyond that, even sober adults have difficulties. That's where Kipnis' more Freudian model seems fair. We are all opaque to ourselves, we do not have perfect self-knowledge, we often misinterpret others' behavior and intentions, we project our feelings onto them, and sometimes we don't know what we want, or pursue things we don't "truly" want. Psychotherapists train partly as analysands, to "do their work" and submit themselves to scrutiny enough to ensure that they don't consistently misinterpret or misconstrue the meanings and intentions of their patients. Even with that training, questioning one's own "counter-transference" is a constant practice. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/16/2017 04:53:00 AM I don't know what to say to above anonymous' comments. They seem like very compelling points. Delete Replies I agree with Kipnis about Marcy. I think you're being a bit slick about conflating the "touching" that Kipnis is most likely talking about with the implausible episode that might be compared to Trump. Marcy denied the incident in Hawaii and I'm sure Kipnis, like me, does not believe he did it. ReplyDelete Replies I don't know what you mean by "slick". Here's the allegation I had in mind: According to her account to Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, she was at a post-colloquium dinner with her graduate department at the University of Hawaii when Marcy placed his hand on her leg, slid his hand up her thigh, and grabbed her crotch. As you point out, Marcy denied having done this. (Donald Trump has also denied doing this.) You can believe Marcy (or Trump) if you want to, but I really don't see that that's well-supported by the evidence. The complainant would have nothing to gain from lying about it, if it didn't happen—while Marcy has every reason to do so if it did. And it fits well with the picture of Marcy described by many people cited in the piece I linked. And I want to emphasize, this is only the most egregious of the many harassment allegations against Marcy. Kipnis's own stated view is that he "touched people in ways that made them uncomfortable". How she combines this with supposing that he's not guilty of sexual harassment, I don't know. (Perhaps she thinks that it's only harassment if it's quid pro quo—this might fit well with her stated view that it's only rape if it involved physical force.) Delete Replies By "slick", I meant the insinuation that Kipnis was sorting grabbing a woman's crotch without her consent under merely "touching people in ways that make them uncomfortable". You can believe that story if you want (I think the evidence is weak and the story is wildly implausible); I'm just saying that Kipnis was not excusing or minimizing that behavior. What she is talking about is things like supportively touching someone's shoulder during a conversation about personal matters. I've looked at the case, including the documentation of the Berkeley investigation, very closely. Marcy is right when he says, "There was no sex, no intention for sex, and no abuse of power that resulted in damaging any of the complainants’ careers." (He has not even been accused of these things.) I think it's that sort of thing that Kipnis is also thinking about. It's not just that there was no quid-pro-quo; it's that there was nothing that a reasonable person would consider a hostile work environment. If you're interested, I've written a lot about the Marcy case at my blog. Here's a place to start. Marcy violated policies at Berkeley that are intended to prevent sexual harassment (or, more likely, from the University's point of view, accusations of sexual harassment). He did not actually commit sexual harassment. One might compare accounting procedures that are intended to prevent fraud, or safety procedures in a laboratory intended to prevent accidents. Violating these policies does not in itself constitute fraud or cause an accident, but an employer has a legitimate complaint with people who do so. That is, Marcy violated policies, not women. That's an important distinction to make when thinking about whether or not his career should have been ended, i.e., whether or not he was "hung out to dry". Indeed, I believe that some of Marcy's students "retroactively withdrew" their friendship (under peer pressure from gender activists). None of his behavior would have been inappropriate with a friend. In fact, it's important to keep in mind that about half of the complaints against him were made by people who merely saw him behave "inappropriately" and this made them (i.e., the witnesses) uncomfortable. Delete Replies I don't care to get into an argument about the specifics of the Marcy case. I'll just say that I strongly disagree with you. The number of people who are alleging harassment over decades defies dismissal in the way you are suggesting. I note that in some of the cases a few minutes' googling got me to, there are records of complaints that were made at the time, which disrupts the hypothesis that they were ginned-up after-the-fact inventions of "gender activists". Some are described here. Delete Replies OK. Thanks for responding. I don't think there's any question that Marcy had long cultivated a particular kind of interpersonal style. We would have to get into the details to decide whether forcing Marcy out of science was the right thing to do. But it's tangential to your broader concerns about Kipnis's ideas, I guess. It's probably true that Kipnis and I disagree with you (and many others) about how much "discomfort" people in science should have to tolerate. Or how much of an effort it should take to maintain one's own boundaries. One of the problems is that brilliant scientists are famously "socially awkward". This can express itself in many ways, some of them sexual. There are lots of stories that suggest that, in today's climate, people like Feynman and even Einstein would not be tolerated. Or perhaps they would themselves find the current conditions intolerable. Either way, it's a loss to science. The question is whether it is necessary, i.e., whether the discomfort that repressing such personalities avoids is great enough to make it worth it. The Devil, like I say, is in the details though. Thanks again. Delete Replies You've been a professor for a number of years, right? Imagine a senior professor of your department had advised or mentored dozens of graduate and undergraduate students over a couple decades. Now imagine that another faculty member at another University started sending emails to those students that asked "in confidence" if they had had any good or any bad experiences with that professor, your colleague. Would you recoil in disgust at such behavior of a vigilante? Or could there be circumstances in which such behavior was warranted? Isn't there something like the Kantian test? (I recall Kipnis' book invokes this in another context.) What if everyone did that? Or even if everyone doesn't, what if we as an academic community celebrate those that do that instead of repudiate their unofficial investigations? Delete Replies I just had a long comment eaten by the commenting system, so apologies for the curtness of this reply. But your claim that it's a loss to science if it doesn't tolerate harassers (you can substitute whatever term you like for the people we're discussing) is highly dubious. People are also leaving science because of the harassers--for instance, the woman in the story Jonathan linked who said that after Marcy touched her breast she just wanted to get her Masters and leave--and there's no reason to think that the contribution of the harassers outweighs the contribution to science that those people would've made, if they hadn't left. And in a climate where it was clear that harassment wasn't tolerated, it's likely that many of the harassers would develop a different interpersonal style, that didn't involve this sort of sexual expression, and so their contributions wouldn't be lost after all. I personally don't think we should set our policy strictly in terms of how much science gets done and ignore the harm done to those who have to deal with this sort of sexual expression (this applies to other sorts of science policy too), but in any case, it's not clear that your argument succeeds on its own terms. Delete Replies The only thing that also seems worth pointing out here prominently is that if there is as much evidence against Marcy as Jonathan suggests, he would have been found "guilty"/responsible under the pre-OCR standard, and would be found guilty even with the benefit of due process/procedural rights. So the issue was not with the prior system, but with failure to enforce it, and reluctance of people to speak up for other reasons. Delete Replies Hi Matt, I'm happy to discuss this. But I will insist on not construing my argument as tolerant of harassers. I was arguing for tolerance of discomfort with behaviors that we would, thereby, not be construing as a harassment--because they don't, finally, produce a hostile work environment for reasonable people. It's the threshold for harassment we're talking about, if we are. What Kipnis and I are suggesting is that these stories are not sufficient grounds to kick people out of a field 20 years later. They may very well be sufficient grounds to push back at the time. (And many of the stories do in fact include such pushback, which generally had the desired effect.) In an important sense, we're also saying is that being hugged too warmly, or even having your breast touched once, by what you can't be sure wasn't an accident, isn't a reason to leave science either. I can easily think of good reasons to leave science. I.e., behaviors that constitute a hostile work environment, which then are a good reason to kick someone out of science if they perpetrate them. Touching someone's breast whenever you (and not they) like and threatening to use your power to destroy their career if they don't let you keep doing it should not be tolerated, no matter how brilliant the person doing it is. Delete Replies Re: Anonymous 12:54 p.m., a few things: 1. If power dynamics obtain in all settings, having a faculty member ask students for "concerning" stories about a colleague is likely to exert some coercive pressure, isn't it? Or is power sometimes not a determinant? 2. Isn't it likely some complaints might be due to a personal grudge or subjective perception? 3. Isn't even the asking of the question through backchannels likely to exert a corrosive effect on a person's reputation by raising suspicion? 4. Isn't it very easy for whisper campaigns to start, especially in academia? 5. How do we know that colleagues might not recruit or flatter or bribe or otherwise influence students in order to draw them into a smearing project for other reasons? There are a ton of variables in all of these situations beyond the less-than-handful that have been applied within an ideologized framework based on false facts and premises. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/13/2017 06:55:00 AM I agree with much of Thomas' points above. However, I am concerned about American society's tending toward a nominal sanction of firing an employee or forced resignation for a first offense (or first adjudication simultaneously of more than one offense). Add to that the social media mob and you've got two potentially unreasonable punishments, which will make everyone fear being accused. This fear (the other side of the coin of Kipnis' "paranoia") will remove many good things from academia. Or I should write "are removing" or even "have removed" from academia. The following are too risky for faculty now to do with students and were regularly practiced in academia. (The list is incomplete. Even if you never did one of these, my point is that in my experience I would say these were common, and now are less so and are practiced with a greater fear of accusation resulting from them. In the following list, imagine N faculty and M students, with N>0 and M>1, e.g. N=2 faculty members and M=3 students.) Late night meetings at a cafe, drinking, dancing, back packing, going to the beach, swimming, boating, hot tubbing or hot springing, bachelor or bachelorette parties. Also inadvisable now, with N=1 and M=1, is being in the following at the same time: An office with the door closed, a car, a private boat, a hotel room, or a campsite. You may feel these were never advisable. With this paranoia and the stakes so high (the nominal sanctions that I mentioned) and the standards of proof as they appear to be in some cases, it's a different environment now. Although your work environment may not include these behaviors, some research fields do. I am willing to give up the first category of faculty-student mingling (somewhat grudgingly) - but losing the second group will hurt academia in very fundamental ways, and it will reduce opportunities more for under-represented minorities, e.g. females in my field, than the majority. If one scientific field adopts a paranoid distrustful culture and another does not, the fun, innovative, creative types will enter or remain in the latter and avoid the former. Delete Replies "I will insist on not construing my argument as tolerant of harassers." Well, in the first version of this comment I typed out something along the lines of "socially awkward people with a certain style of interpersonal style which expresses itself sexually in a way that is unwelcome," but it was awfully awkward, and I didn't feel it worthwhile. As for this: "we're also saying is that being hugged too warmly, or even having your breast touched once, by what you can't be sure wasn't an accident, isn't a reason to leave science"--who are you, or Laura Kipnis, to lay down rules as to what unwanted sexual conduct people should have to tolerate? And it was pretty clear from the article, if you read it, that the people who were subject to this conduct at SFSU did push back, and their concerns were ignored. It's also clear that Marcy's conduct was ongoing, not something that had simply happened 20 years before. (The allegations from SFSU were 20 years old because that was when he was at SFSU.) I won't be continuing this conversation, partly because I think everything that needs to be said has been--people can find out the details of Marcy's case themselves--but mostly because it's very difficult for me to post here, for some reason. Delete Replies There is a case at SFSU where Marcy appears to have engaged in a conversation and email exchange about his behavior. I'm not sure how that can be interpreted as "ignoring" the concerns. The problem is that there's no simple way to settle it. If someone has a sense of humor that others find offensive, it's not immediately clear that he should shut up. Likewise, if someone has an interpersonal style that some people find uncomfortable, that in itself doesn't mean they should change who they are. No one has right never to be offended, nor even never to be creeped out. People have a right not suffer ongoing abuse. It's this environment whey discomfort and offense have become show stoppers that some us are worried about. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/14/2017 12:00:00 AM "Late night meetings at a cafe, drinking, dancing, back packing, going to the beach, swimming, boating, hot tubbing or hot springing, bachelor or bachelorette parties. Also inadvisable now, with N=1 and M=1, is being in the following at the same time: An office with the door closed, a car, a private boat, a hotel room, or a campsite." That list is absurd, it's way too libertine. If you're hot-tubbing with students no older than 22, you know, eye roll. At the same time, academia does seem structurally "into" some of these things - the routine MLA interviews in hotel bedrooms, perched on the edge of a bed? There are some "libidinal investments" to reflect on. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/14/2017 04:06:00 AM I think Thomas makes a good point. I can extend it. In some implementations of Title IX and Title VII, the respondent is not told the specific charge or the complainant's name. Only that "complaints have been made about their behavior." Such implementation policies create incentives for bad behaviors (lying) and institutional malpractice (Universities caring more about anonymity than truth). The corrosion of trust among colleagues is the worst part. If potential complainants are assured such anonymity, they realize that they can attack the reputation of one of their colleagues with impunity and with the full power of the organization behind them. They know that if they stick to he-said/she-said accusations, they cannot be proven as liars. And in a "never question the victim" attitude supported strongly by the community, they also hardly risk much backlash if the promised anonymity fails. If more than one individual is willing to conspire to lie or exaggerate, they can have someone fired because of a supposed "pattern of behavior," or behavior that didn't stop after he was warned. Alternatively, the threat of doing any of the above can be an effective form of blackmail, either perpetrated by a student on a professor, or by a department chairperson on a professor. Rebutting this by stating that you have never heard of such outlandish things actually happening only reinforces the concern for the effect on academia. It is happening, you never hear about it, and hence you blame its victims as being paranoid celebrants of due process that are part of the problem resisting sexual harassment. This sets up a conflict between two types of people: those that trust that Title IX implementations are doing a lot of good (Professor Ichikawa) and those that have experienced it first hand and know that it is being abused (Kipnis). Delete Replies I'm getting pretty tired of people saying I say things I haven't said. I almost didn't approve this last comment for this reason. I've said very clearly, I am opposed to the secretive abuses of power that seem to characterize some Title IX investigations, in part because I do not trust that Title IX implementations are doing a lot of good. I won't approve further comments saying false things about me. They are tiresome and distracting to me, and confusing to readers. Delete Replies Thank you for asking those rhetorical questions. They are good ones. You didn't mention it, but I had another thought: The deterrent to one faculty member "researching" another one in the way I suggested is that it is so unseemly, only a very rare self-righteous person would do it. And even then it could be interrupted by one of the students rightly interpreting the email request as one for "digging up dirt" on the targeted professor and report it as such. One way to work around that would be to demand "utmost confidentiality" and another would be to circulate a "climate survey of the department" to all members and alumni of a department without naming the targeted individual specifically, but then sifting out any feedback addressing that person for follow up investigation. "Sexual paranoia strikes academe" was a good title! Delete Replies Professor Ichikawa, Thank you for approving my comment and responding to it. Doing so has allowed you to be on the record clearly: you "do not trust that Title IX implementations are doing a lot of good." In good faith I thought you were of the opposite opinion, that you thought while some aspects of Title IX were doing good, others were not. I think all reasonable people would agree with the latter, and I imagine you are a reasonable person. I apologize for misrepresenting your position and for costing you the time to reply to correct my error. My point is that each abuse of Title IX changes a faculty member (or student), and potentially many faculty members or students that hear of it, from an "ignorance is bliss" trusting attitude to a more hardened and distrusting one. Delete Replies I certainly think that Title IX administrators have done some good things and some bad things. I do not take it on trust that they are doing good things. I agree with the complaints that they are often insufficiently transparent, and not motivated by fairness or correctness. I am absolutely convinced that these investigations are sometimes—probably often—run in ways that are designed to protect the university from scandal and/or liability, rather than to find out what actually happened and respond appropriately. The main point of one of my previous posts was that these complaints about Title IX investigations are very common among student anti-rape activists. Delete Replies OK, now I just need to recalibrate my understanding of what we (or Jonathan and Kipnis) are disagreeing about. I think everyone agrees that sexual harassment and assault are bad things about which something needs to be done, both in general, and in specific cases. The Title IX apparatus is certainly doing something about it. No doubt, it has rightly punished some people. Some innocent people have no doubt also been "hung out to dry" unfairly. Finally, some guilty parties have no doubt gotten away with what they have done. That's all under Title IX as currently practiced. Is the real point of dispute not whether Title IX is doing more harm than good or more good than harm? That is, isn't Kipnis arguing that women would actually be safer if they were not "protected" by Title IX but educated in a more traditional way about the risks of sex and ways to mitigate them, and that men, certainly, would be at a lower of risk of being wrongly accused and disproportionately punished? And that this climate would be much healthier all around than the what she calls the "paranoia" of the current Title IX regime. And much better able to solve problems as they arise? So, if we take the Marcy case again, we might all agree that his behavior was "problematic". But if we also all agree that the behind the scenes intrigues that occasioned the Berkeley investigation and the subsequent media push to get him to resign was disproportionate, and that a different way of pushing back would both have been more effective and more fair, and better for science, then I don't think we're really disagreeing about very much. I don't personally think Marcy was guilty of sexual harassment, but I do think our way of dealing with harassment issues (going all the way back to the 1990s) caused a lot of damage, including to the women that he made uncomfortable. I think telling them (as Title IX does) that they were, in fact, harassed is a mistake. By this I don't mean that they should have just "taken" it. I mean they should have found him sufficiently unthreatening to deal with it locally and informally. Delete Replies Thomas, I don't come anywhere close to agreeing with what you suggest might be common ground about Geoff Marcy. I don't see how you could think that I, or others who have expressed disagreement with you on this thread, do. Delete Replies Here's what I suggested: 1. Marcy's behavior was "problematic". 2. It was handled poorly. 3. The final outcome was disproportionate. 4. A better way can be imagined. I take it that it's especially point 3 you disagree with. That is, you think that justice was finally done in 2015. Or, perhaps, like some of Marcy's critics, you think he got off easy by keeping his emeritus status, for example, or even his no doubt substantial pension? That is, perhaps we could agree that 3. The punishment did not precisely fit the crime (it was either inadequate or excessive). At the very least, it came too late. If 4 means something better than letting it go on for 20 years and then just putting him out to pasture in ignominy, I thought we would agree that (as per 2) that wasn't the best way to do things. The Marcy case was a Title IX process, to it's an example of the pros and cons of these processes. I thought we could simply agree that it doesn't constitute an ideal way of handling such matters. Delete Replies Thomas, you seem to think that per Title IX, matters of mere offense are thereby legally codified as harassment. But nothing in Title IX makes it such that matters of mere discomfort are thereby matters of sexual harassment. That's just not what the standard is under the law. Unwanted conduct of a sexual nature (i.e., sexual conduct which causes discomfort in that it is unwanted) does not rise to the level of harassment unless it is sufficiently severe and pervasive to create a hostile environment, or reasonable interferes with equal access to educational programs. You can read about the standard here: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/shguide.pdf It seems pretty important to me to get clear on this because everyone agrees there are problems with how Title IX is implemented, but that's an entirely different question from what the law says, or does, and unless you know what the law says, it's hard to get clear on where the folks on the other side of this actually stand on various issues (like how harassment ought to be responded to). Delete Replies Kathryn Pogin - from your posts you seem to be knowledgeable beyond most in Title IX. So I am surprised that you write "unwanted" instead of "unwelcome" which Title IX and VII use. Many popular posters use "unwanted" but it is imprecise and inaccurate to do so. Delete Replies I'm not sure where I left that impression. I generally insist on the "severe and pervasive" standard. The criticism of the Title IX regime is precisely that it enforces a much lower one. This has also affected the social science of harassment, especially the study of harassment in college and STEM. What is counted as harassment in surveys is often far short of severe; and each case is counted regardless of frequency. The most radical case of this is the recent study of the climate at the University of Texas. The report says: "The terms employed in this study are used in the context of social science research, and not in their legal context. They are not intended to indicate that the responses of results of the survey constitute or evidence a violation of any federal, state, or local law or policy." Within this "social science" framework, it is able to conclude that 15% of the female undergraduates at UT Austin have been raped. The researchers are of course part of the Title IX apparatus, closely allied with it. The worry here is that the behaviors that these women experienced can become the basis of Title IX proceedings by which the "perpetrators" are then expelled as, indeed, "rapists". But what they did was not rape by any legal or commonsense standard. The same would go for still milder behavior for which they might be expelled for "assault" or "harassment". I believe the legal standard gets it right. And it's on that standard that Title IX gets it wrong. Delete Replies Delete Replies Thanks for the reminder Anonymous -- I referred to the welcomeness standard elsewhere below, but spoke imprecisely above. Thomas, you seem to be conflating a number of things. Social science research on harassment is separate, of course, from "the Title IX apparatus," and so far as I can tell it's not closely allied with it in any meaningful sense that helps your case. Jennifer Freyd, for instance, is one of the more prominent social science researchers working on related areas, and of course she has been exceedingly at odds with the way Title IX is implemented in a number of cases (advocating against broad mandatory reporting policies, for instance) -- indeed, that is the very focus of her research. She's certainly not alone among social scientists, particularly those who have worked closely with student activists. But aside from that, and focusing on the particular study you cited, isn't the fact that the language is clarified and qualified evidence against the idea that the behaviors in that study are thereby being construed as legally actionable under Title IX? And further yet, of course language surrounding assault under civil rights law needs to be disambiguated from language under criminal law because in certain jurisdictions the criminal law does not match up with civil law, e.g., https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/27/oral-sex-rape-ruling-tulsa-oklahoma-alcohol-consent (and in some cases, of course, rightly so! It's important to have avenues of redress for protecting equal rights and it's also important to be extraordinarily cautious in exercising state power in a manner that can result in imprisonment). And lastly, don't forget that institutions are responsible under Title IX for maintaining environments in which students are not subject to sex discrimination. A university community might maintain a culture of pervasive sexism such that students are repeatedly subject to demeaning treatment on the basis of sex without any particular individual harassing anyone (say, Joe calls Jane a sexist slur, then in her next class, Jim tries and fails to grope Jane, then in her next class, Bob yells sexist insults at her -- it might very well be that none of that on it's own is tantamount to harassment, but that doesn't entail the university isn't on the hook for the collective impact). To that extent, it is valuable for social science research to look at patterns of behavior that can give rise to hostile environments even when the behavior is not harassment per se. But also, I think the best information we have is that students are not broadly being expelled for sexual assault even when found responsible for it (most get suspensions, less than a third it seems are expelled), e.g., http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/29/campus-sexual-assault_n_5888742.html Delete Replies Hi Kathryn. There is certainly some independent research out there. I am familiar with Freyd's work and have been impressed so far. Not incidentally, the work of hers that I've seen (with Marina Rosenthal and Alec Smidt) has found a very low rate of faculty-on-student harassment in science (for women: 1.44 on a scale from 0 to 72). In the UT case, however, the research reported was released at a press conference in which the Title IX coordinator also participated. I think there is an enormous overlap of interests between social science research in this area and Title IX administration. Indeed, UT paid almost 2 million dollars to fund the project, certainly as part of its Title IX effort (and certainly something that will be reported to OCR to show how serious they are), and not as an exercise in pure social science, insulated from practical interests. As a critic of Title IX, I of course acknowledge (and never forget) that institutions have been given certain responsibilities. I simply disagree that it is wise to interpret those responsibilities the way they are currently being interpreted. I don't believe that college campuses are generally populated by pervasively, and severely sexist students. I think Joe, Jim and Bob are probably ordinary assholes and Jane (and her friends) can probably handle them. Or maybe there's something about Jane other than her gender that is triggering these men to call her bad names or make clumsy moves on her. Who knows? I don't think our default go-to explanation for why she's getting this treatment should be "systemic" sexism that the institutions are responsible for (by, for example, "training" all men in the appropriate treatment of women.) Fortunately, not everyone is getting expelled, as you point out. But I would hope that a Title IX investigation that concludes that someone is rapist would in fact expel that student. That's why it's important to keep words like that precise in their meaning. Delete Replies PS: From the UT report's acknowledgements: "Our gratitude and appreciation goes out to UT Austin CLASE Stakeholder Group chair Associate Vice President and Title IX Coordinator LaToya Smith and fellow members Director J.B. Bird, Captain Charles Bonnett, Associate Vice President Chris Brownson, Chief David Carter, Chief Information Office Bradley Englert, Clinical Coordinator Leah Leeds, Chief Compliance Officer Paul Liebman, Pro-gram Manager Linda Millstone, Associate Director Katy Redd, Assistant Vice President Jessica Sentz, Teaching Assistant Fatma Tarlaci, Assistant Chief Don Verett, and Associate Professor Lynn West-brook for their commitment and tireless energy developing recruitment and promotional efforts that led to a successful fall survey launch. Chris Kaiser, director of public policy for the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) and Aaron Setliff, director of public policy for the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV), receive our immense gratitude for their superb legal prowess and guidance." When I say the research is allied with the apparatus, this is the sort of thing I mean. Delete Replies I find your rebuttal of Kipnis' description of Ludlow's relationship with the grad student particularly non-compelling. Unless you have a case that Kipnis actually made up the quotes in question and the many references to the romantic relationship between Ludlow and the grad student and her very active role maintaining that relationship, then I really don't think you have a case. No, consenting to one thing in a sexual relationship does not mean consenting to anything, but I think these emails speak quite strongly against the idea that the relationship was wholly or largely coercive. Also, keep in mind that the woman in question wasn't even his grad student, so it's not like he had any direct power over her. I'd also say that while one could argue that Kipnis' description of of Ludlow's encounter with the undergrad depends on her simply offering a differing reading of events, a version one may or may not buy, her case that Ludlow's relationship with the grad student was consensual is on far more solid ground. Kipnis offers a particularly strong argument that the Title IX investigator's twisted the narrative here to rule in favor of calling this anything like a case of sexual assault. The investigators were clearly so attached to this ideology of vague "power differences" utterly nullifying clearly expressed consent that they basically railroaded a finding of guilt in Ludlow's case. Now if you have any evidence that Kipnis has made up or twisted the report to suit her narrative, please, let me know. I have no interest in defending a lie. But if we're working from the same set of reports, I'd say your interpretation is way off base. ReplyDelete Replies I want to tread lightly here. I'm deeply uncomfortable with the fact that these private exchanges are being discussed in the public domain at all. But since I can't change that, I'll just say two things: 1. I disagree that the quotes and paraphrases Kipnis offers amount to a strong case that there was a consensual romantic relationship, and that the graduate student played an active role in maintaining it. Many of the examples she cites struck me as total non sequiturs. To give one example, on p. 94 she says the student asked Ludlow to stop seeing another woman that he was seeing, and says that this shows there must have been a romantic relationship. I find this bizarre for at least two reasons. First, I just don't see why Kipnis thinks only romantic partners would ever say things like this. Kipnis tells us none of the context, so the reader has to imagine all the many possible ways this could go. Suppose for instance that someone I am close to and spend a lot of time with is dating someone who is violent and abusive, towards him and towards me. Then I might well ask him to stop seeing her, regardless of whether he and I are in a romantic relationship. Second, even if, as the picture Kipnis is suggesting has it, they had a relationship with roles approximating those of typical romantic relationships, that's no evidence against the allegation that it was coerced and nonconsensual. If one were bullied into a romantic script, it's to be expected that one would play out some of the conventional romantic roles. 2. You ask if I have additional non-public evidence about the situation. I do. I have seen much more of the context than has been made public. My own opinion is that yes, Kipnis is representing things in a very misleading and inaccurate way, even separately from the interpretive issues gestured at above. But in my public writing about the book, I've made the decision to focus only on publicly accessible considerations. I don't want anybody to have to "just take my word for it". So I'm not trying here to make the case that Kipnis's description of the evidence is inaccurate. I'm just answering your question by reporting my opinion that it is. Delete Replies "Now if you have any evidence that Kipnis has made up or twisted the report to suit her narrative, please, let me know." One problem with this case is that responding to this request, which is made frequently, would require those who could do it to further violate the privacy of the students in question. Already, despite the paper thin uses of a pseudonym in various contexts, the identities of the students are widely known. If we respond in detail we simply add to the gossip and public humiliation. Let me say this: I have direct knowledge that the book attributes a number of actions and statements made by real people to a non-existent composite person, with no indication from Kipnis that she is creating a composite figure, and completely severed from relevant context. Others with axe to grind have told me similar things about other parts of the book. Kipnis is an unreliable narrator. Delete Replies The scenario you describe in part 1 seems quite contrived. You're saying that the plaintiff could have in thought that this other woman was being abused, and that she therefore tried to instigate a breakup to protect the other woman. Your evidence for this scenario is...what? This is a weak argument, at least as it stands. Even under the "preponderance of evidence" standard, a defendant is still a defendant, entitled to some presumption of innocence. Which means speculative scenarios like you've offered for holes in the plaintiff's case are not sufficient for establishing a defendant's guilt. Now if there's actually evidence in the record supporting that scenario, that would be a different story, but so far, I've seen none of Kipnis critics offer actual evidence of the falsifications they accuse her of. Also, I don't share your discomfort that the private exchanges were made public. As far as I'm concerned, that ship sailed when the exchanges were used in a quasi-legal proceeding that was used to terminate the Ludlow's employment and effectively end his career. Maybe Ludlow really did have it coming, but the evidence for this and the process by which this was reached really ought to be transparent. Otherwise, it really does come to "take my word for it", and I simply don't think that's adequate, given the seriousness of the accusations and the consequences for the accused. Obviously, I like Laura Kipnis work, and hence, I lean in her favor, but I don't take her word blindly either. If her critics offered actual evidence rather than throwing shade, I would definitely be open to hearing out that side. Delete Replies I think you misunderstood the scenario I was trying to point out: I was imaging that my friend is dating someone who is abusive to him and/or to me. Then I might ask my friend to stop seeing her—for his benefit and mine, not for hers—even though I’m not dating any relevant parties. The version you thought I was saying also seems possible, although I agree it’s a bit less plausible. At any rate, my point was to show that Kipnis’s attempt to demonstrate a romantic relationship is inconclusive, because it is consistent with interpretations like this one. I’m saying it’s possible, not that it’s true. Maybe I need to be clearer about the dialectic I am engaging in in this post. I am not trying to argue in this post that Ludlow is guilty and was rightly terminated. (I’m not saying I don’t think this—I’m just not trying to argue it now.) I am trying to argue in this post that Kipnis’s discussion of “retroactive withdrawal of consent” is unwarranted, and that she fails to make the case she think she does about the Ludlow case. So in this context, the burden of proof rests with Kipnis, not with me. She wants to affirmatively assert that there was a consensual romantic relationship. I am saying she hasn’t earned that conclusion. (I am not saying that I have earned the opposite conclusion, that there was no consensual romantic relationship.) If Kipnis had written, “this looks like it was probably a consensual romantic relationship to me,” she would not be vulnerable to the objection that I am making. But she said, both in the book, and to my face when I asked her about these issues, that these cases were definitely consensual. That’s what I’m (here) complaining about. Delete Replies In my lifetime, I have had a few experiences in which I was directly involved and then read the description of events elsewhere. In all cases, and this includes simple and uncontroversial events, the description did not match my first hand, eye witness account. Even allowing for the general fact that different people witness the same events differently, and even allowing for the possibility of my own errors, I conclude that expecting ANY narrator to get a story correct is expecting too much. And errors do not generally impeach an entire narrative. Kipnis may have reasons to create composite characters and even to include disinformation. I don't recall if she acknowledges such in her new book. Sometimes these techniques are used to masked identities or avoid law suits. Delete Replies Is it not a normal technique to create a "composite" for the sake of illustration, without meaning to do violence to real people, especially if it keeps them from having their identities revealed? And/or is it possible that - maybe - there are enough similar cases all over the country that people recognize a detail that resembles their own and might wrongly think it to be taken from their experience? Delete Replies Without judging whether this is what happened in this particular case, it is decidedly not normal to create a composite character without acknowledging that the character is composite, particularly in a work of advocacy journalism as opposed to literary non-fiction. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/14/2017 01:03:00 AM Perhaps it's not a composite character, but a real person whose permission Kipnis requested, and because there are details in which people recognize themselves and their own dramas, they are wrongly attributing some deception to her? Delete Replies Kipnis has the facts wrong. One example, but not the only one, is that she thinks that one person did a, b, c, when in fact no one did a and different people did b and c. Given how much significance Kipnis places on many of the events she gets wrong, these mistakes matter. But because explaining in detail everything she has wrong would require a massive violation of privacy, its not going to happen. Which means that all the anonymous posters can come along and claim that people "wrongly think it to be taken from their experience", or that mistakes happen but that doesn't mean the overall narrative is false. This is what's so pernicious about Kipnis's book. She has behaved unethically, but no one can demonstrate that to all these people who desperately want to believe her without behaving equally unethically. Jonathan is doing a fine job showing that even if we take the facts to be as stipulated Kipnis's interpretations don't hold water, and so this is really a distraction anyway. I'm making this my last comment on the matter. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/15/2017 11:09:00 AM What a cheap evasion. I know Kipnis is wrong, but I can't tell you why in any detail. You just have to trust me. But we don't trust you. Trust me, we don't. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/16/2017 04:52:00 AM That doesn't convince me. If this is about cases at Northwestern, then Kipnis could only write and surmise based on the information available in the public record. If other details were private and off-limits, she had no way of writing about them or even knowing about them. What seems more pernicious is that nit-picking details and errors in Kipnis' book seems like a way to keep the focus on her and her "unethical" or "pernicious" behavior, to prevent us from questioning whether the Title IX enforcement and machinations might themselves be unethical or pernicious. Delete Replies If this is about cases at Northwestern, then Kipnis could only write and surmise based on the information available in the public record. If other details were private and off-limits, she had no way of writing about them or even knowing about them. You obviously haven't read the book. As Kipnis says, she relies extensively on documents that have not been made public, but instead were given to her privately by Peter Ludlow. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/16/2017 11:13:00 AM Yes, and these records were part of the case record of NU's termination proceeding. They are rebuttal evidence against the charges. If the charges are public, the rebuttal evidence should be also. That's the way fair proceedings work. We don't have secret trials in this country, with secret evidence. Delete Replies So she relies on evidence provided only by one party, and doesn't seek out accounts of others, or give them an opportunity to rebut the evidence she's been provided? Delete Replies Anonymous, I get the impression from the tone of voice I feel like you'd read that comment in that you think you're making some kind of clever tu quoque point or something, but if so it is lost on me. Are you under the impression that Title IX investigations rely on evidence provided by only one party and don't seek out competing accounts? Do you think that's what happened in Ludlow's Title IX hearing? Do you think that's what happened in Kipnis's Title IX hearing? Delete Replies We don't have secret trials in this country, with secret evidence. So I want to say a couple of things about this. First—and I'd thought this was obvious—Peter Ludlow was not being tried for any crime. He was investigated by his private employer for violating his professional obligations. It is true that some of the things he was accused of were in fact illegal, but this wasn't a law enforcement investigation. Second, relatedly, the idea you suggest, Anonymous—that in cases like these, the evidence should be made public—is I think more radical than you think it is. Consider an analogy. Suppose I make a serious plagiarism allegation against one of my students; a university disciplinary process ensues, and we each present relevant evidence to the university's investigators. They conclude that yes, this was a serious case of plagiarism, and sanction the student, perhaps by expelling them. Do you think in such a case it would be proper for the evidence I presented to the university panel to be made public? I don't. Much of it remains protected by privacy law; we can imagine versions of the case where much of it is embarrassing and personal to me or to the student. You may have seen that Doe, the graduate student Kipnis discusses at length filed a lawsuit yesterday against Kipnis and her publisher. I wrote about it here: http://blog.jichikawa.net/2017/05/laura-kipnis-and-harper-collins-have.html The lawsuit includes a summary of the Doe's description of her relationship with Peter Ludlow. According to her version of the story, he fixated on her before she even became a student, cultivating an inappropriately personal relationship, and exerted persistent sexual pressure on her, despite her stated preference to keep their relationship professional. She also alleges that he raped her and that she declined to file a formal complaint for fear of negative professional consequences, but that she was finally convinced to do so when she heard about other allegations against him. Suppose for the purpose of argument that Doe's allegations are true. If so, her complaint was appropriate, and a genuine service to the profession. She did not think—nor should she have thought—that her complaint would or should have resulted in having intimate details of her relationship and her life history being aired and debated by strangers in her professional orbit. If she had, she'd've been, one assumes, less likely to come forward. And if other people in similar situations come to think that this is what happens to people who speak out when they've been victimized, then they will be much likelier to keep quiet when they have been victims of sexual misconduct. I am sure that that's the result that some people want. But I am not among them. Delete Replies Anonymous 5/17/2017 08:15:00 AM The secrecy of proceedings has both good and bad aspects. There are at least two sides to every story. The Title IX procedures are flawed and probably cannot be fixed, even with a lot of time and effort by well-meaning wise people empowered by a consensus of students, faculty, administrators, legislators, and the public. An incomplete but practical solution that should please everyone is to limit the number of people (accusers and accused) that enter the Title IX system. That is where Kipnis' world view holds a lot of practical wisdom: adjust behaviors in real time. Also, develop a culture that supports that adjustment to behavior. Delete Replies If you have time and inclination, could you set out a bit about what you have in mind by consent and coercion. ReplyDelete Replies I am unclear why it matters if there was a romantic relationship between Ludlow and the graduate student. Even if this is true and consensual, sexual assault can still happen. After all, this is the reason why marital rape is now considered a crime. Consenting to 99 instances of consensual sexual relations within a consensual romance has no bearing on the level of consent of the 100th instance of sexual contact. Consent has to be given for every instance. ReplyDelete Replies Thanks. I totally agree with this. Delete Replies I agree also, in some very narrow principled way but feel "no bearing" is hyperbolic. I think there's a relevant analogy that you may not agree with. The truthfulness of 99 accusers has no bearing on the truthfulness of the 100th accuser. Or does it? How about the statistical relevance of "99% of accusers are truthful" (just for sake of argument) to any particular case? Delete Replies It matters because the specific claim being made against Ludlow is that he coerced the plaintiff into a relationship. Kipnis found evidence against this claim in the records of the case itself. Now if the case had been that the had a consensual relationship, and that Ludlow had sexually assaulted her in the course of that, then your point would be absolutely valid. That's not what Ludlow was charged with, however. And, honestly, this emblematic of the kind of smears that are thrown at Kipnis. It's being claimed that she's defending classic rape myths, such as the claim that you can't be raped once you're in a relationship with somebody. She's in fact saying nothing of the kind. Delete Replies I think Illinois is a yes-means-yes state now. And may have been one at the time of Ludlow's hearing (I don't know). It probably was not one at the time of the alleged infractions (again, I don't know). I offer it up for discussion: should Title IX proceedings be required to apply the policies that were in effect at the time of the alleged infractions? Or is there a greater good to be achieved by allowing (insisting) that Title IX hearings apply current policies to past actions even if the actions were not against any policy in effect at the time? I realize that this is a bit off topic. But not entirely so. I feel it brings up again the question of whether we believe a greater good is achieved by respecting procedures, whatever they are, i.e. do we conceptualize a due process, or whether we feel we know better and will seek extra-judicial sanctions? The Title IX office and UC (one could argue) mostly tried to follow procedures, while Marcy's faculty peers sought extra-judicial sanction, a vote of no-confidence in Marcy. It's possible that both behaviors are good and justified and correct. Undoubtedly the different groups (Title IX officials, faculty peers) had different bodies of evidence informing their actions. To me, the disconcerting behavior is that of the online mob, judging quickly and without the evidence that either the Title IX officials or Marcy's faculty peers had available to them. Delete Replies There were multiple allegations made. One allegation is Ludlow coerced the complainant into a relationship she didn’t want to be in. Another is that he raped her. Zain's point, I think, is that the latter is very serious on its own, and doesn’t rest on the former. But yes, iamcuriousblue is correct that both are relevant to the Northwestern investigation. I focused on the former claim in this post because it’s the one where Kipnis explicitly runs her “retroactive withdrawal of consent” line. And, honestly, this emblematic of the kind of smears that are thrown at Kipnis. It's being claimed that she's defending classic rape myths, such as the claim that you can't be raped once you're in a relationship with somebody. She's in fact saying nothing of the kind. I am being pretty careful in my posts to deliberately source my attributions of views to Kipnis. I haven’t accused her of defending that particular classic rape myth, but I really do think she defends some of them, such as the myth that charming and attractive men don’t rape people, or the myth that it’s not rape if the complainant’s sexual agency is part of the explanation for how it happened, or the myth that if someone is sexually assaulted, they will definitely cut off all friendly contact immediately afterward. These aren’t accusations I’m throwing around willy-nilly—I’m arguing pretty carefully for them in the main text of my posts. Delete Replies My understanding is that (a) being manipulative and emotionally coercive (I'm not totally sure I understand that concept) to get sex is not illegal, and (b) universities should apply the same standards to sexual harassment as in the law, which is only concerned with consent. It would follow that being manipulated and emotionally coerced is compatible with consent. You seem to think it is not. Where am I mistaken? ReplyDelete Replies Anonymous 5/13/2017 06:58:00 AM Where there is a power differential. So, for example, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. If it was Monica and Joe Blow that works at the FDA, then I agree with you. Delete Replies 1. Sexual harassment is prohibited under Title VII and Title IX because it is a form of sex discrimination under the law, and sexual assault is prohibited because it constitutes an extreme form of sexual harassment. The standard under Title VII (and Title IX is often understood by way of reference to Title VII) is not consent but welcomeness, so its very unclear consent is the standard under Title IX (if that seems weird, remember the statute isn't concerned with carving out sexual assault in particular--it's concerned with sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination). A school or employer might craft a policy to comply with Title IX that uses consent to distinguish assault from harassment as a policy matter, but it need not (and probably should not, given some of the differences) use the same language that would carve out sexual assault as a criminal matter. Title IX is to ensure equal access to educational opportunity as a civil right matter, it's not a stand-in for a criminal proceeding. 2. Being manipulative and emotionally coercive to get sex is not necessarily illegal, but there are certainly ways that can proceed which are illegal. Delete Replies Why think (b)? Organizations can and do set policies for their members that go beyond 'follow the law.' There is nothing preventing a university from insisting that their students have duties to one another beyond the student's legal responsibilities, including regulations of sexual conduct. The university lacks the power to jail people for violations of these policies, but termination or expulsion is well within their purview. Your other concern is wide-ranging. Suffice to say that it seems possible for someone to be manipulated to the point where they give permission but do not consent - consider the case of an already emotional suspect being manipulated, lied to, emotionally blackmailed and berated for hours by police until they 'confess.' I think the suspect did not consent to the confession. Delete Replies First of all, universities are only setting these policies because they've been "blackmailed" by OCR and feel forced to comply. It's a quasi-public, quasi-private grey area. Beyond that, even if organizations are allowed to go 'beyond' the law, that doesn't mean we should encourage the setting of policies that are unrealistic, dishonest, or unfair. Delete Replies Re: Anonymous 5/14/2017 12:00:00 AM That list is absurd, it's way too libertine. If you're hot-tubbing with students no older than 22, you know, eye roll. I agree that if one made a regular habit of all of these behaviors, that would be libertine, and quite possibly too libertine. (Let's be clear: I am not advocating the more libertine list for one-on-one interactions.) But these activities can and do happen without incident. At conference hotels there is often a pool and hot tub: is a faculty member to leave the hot tub if a student enters? How about the exercise room? or locker room? If the conference is held at a scenic locale and the graduate students ask a faculty member if he or she would like to come along to the beach on the free afternoon, must the faculty member decline the invitation? Is it wrong for a faculty member to invite students to his or her home for a dinner party? Or do go together on a skiing weekend? Especially for research fields in which field work is essential: Is it wrong for faculty and graduate students to backpack together? If they are at a remote hot spring, must they take turns according to academic development and/or by gender? For everything: does it matter whether we are imagining graduate students or undergraduates? I think it does, but only in the sense of "good manners" not in terms of "good defensible policy." The benefits of such experiences to the graduate students are greater than for the undergraduates. Thanks for linking to the SNL video. Will Farrel's character asks midway through, "Whose hand is on my cul de sac?" This is the response Kipnis (and Thomas here) argue for: solve it in the moment and move on. Waiting years to file a Title IX complaint is no good. Leaving the hot tub much earlier would have been better, but he was kept there by his romantic tension with his girl friend. Again, Kipnis' point is that sex is complicated. If he had left the hot tub at his first discomfort (at the moment the other couple entered the water apparently without the first couple's consent), and filed a report with the conference organizers, then what do we wish for their response to be? A) "I'm sorry you were offended. Now grow up and handle these things yourself..." B) "Thank you for reporting this behavior. We will open a case, interview everyone involved, bully the conference hotel to provide surveillance video (because we cannot subpoena it), and also make some discrete inquiries of others at the conference if they had any uncomfortable interactions with the accused. We are also reviewing our hotel selections for future conferences." ReplyDelete Replies You either have agency or you don't. You either accept the responsibilities of citizenship in the community governed by laws, or you don't. That's the simple way to describe it. The complex way to describe it is to accept that democracy and self-government are based on illusions, that people are rulers and ruled, dom and sub, slave and master, that love takes many forms and "moral responsibility" deserves to be subject of mockery. That's the logic of De Sade and the sexual political underground. "The color is black, the material is leather, the seduction is beauty, the justification is honesty, the aim is ecstasy, the fantasy is death." If politics is a discussion of shared public life, this is anti-politics, nihilism in the name of moral honesty, against the moralism of lies. But beware: if no one is responsible for anything it's left for the strong to rule as they will. The strong may be puritan- "No one is responsible for anything, with the exception of myself and my equally enlightened friends" - or fascist. It's amusingly perverse how the philosophy of the anti-bourgeois underground, reactionary, individualist, decadent, sexually wild, emotionally hot and cold, denying anything beyond intimate experience, and therefore opposed to political reforms- Genet opposed prison reforms because prison made him the man he was- has found a home in the academy, made vanilla: non-contradictory. The best answer to the Dolezal absurdity is an absurd film by a comedian, a man who is exactly the mixed race person Dolezal fantasized of becoming Get Out is the honest answer to Tuvel, just as DeSade and Candy Darling are the honest answers to men who want to be called women. "...if only you knew this fantasy's charms, if only you could understand what one experiences from the sweet illusion of being no more than a woman! incredible inconsistency I one abhors that sex, yet one wishes to imitate it! Ah! how sweet it is to succeed, ... "I've been up all night alone, wondering about my identity. Trying to look for an explanation for living this strange, stylized sexuality. Realization cuts feeling off. I try to explain my identity as being a male who has assumed the attitudes and somewhat the emotions of a female. I don't know what role to play." Wanting to be something is not being it. https://paisleycurrah.com/2016/04/26/feminism-gender-pluralism-and-gender-neutrality-maybe-its-time-to-bring-back-the-binary/ Wanting people to see you as you see yourself is one thing. Demanding that people see you as you see yourself and the state putting your demands as law, is fascism. Tell me about transgirls and Title IX, about transwomen feminists opposed to abortion (if they don't know any you will soon enough). The post above like the arguments I've just mentioned are founded in the politics of fantasy. Rationalism without empiricism, founded on self-reporting. You've underlined Enlightenment humanism in the name of what you imagine is your own enlightenment. In the war between philosophers and comedians, comedians always win. Idealists become fascists. Comedians are empiricists. ReplyDelete Replies Obvious typo at the end: "undermined" not underlined. And fyi, Kipnis came out of art school. You want to talk about fun. The old days were fun. Another answer to Tuvel, and to you. ReplyDelete Replies If people aren responsible what's the result? ReplyDelete Replies Anonymous 5/27/2017 11:11:00 AM ReplyDelete Replies I actually respect D. Ghirlandaio for trying here. His post ended up as a disaster, but he really poured his heart and soul into this! And at least it was a memorable disaster. ReplyDelete Replies I know I'm about 18 months late to the discussion, but I would like you to expand on what you mean by "coerced into a nonconsensual relationship by a manipulator." You seem to take this possibility as self-evident, and it is nothing but to me. First, I would like to note that it is almost tautological that if you are being (emotionally) coerced or manipulated into giving consent, then you ARE giving consent. But I can accept the principle that it might be a bad and invalid kind of consent. But when exactly does manipulating or emotionally coercing someone to have sex constitutes sexual assault (or even sexual harassment)? Consider a few cases. 1. A male professor threatens his student that if she doesn't have sex with him, he will thwart her career. The student decides to have sex with the professor, even though she was unwilling. (I assume you would consider this rape.) 2. A male student threatens his colleague that if she doesn't give him oral sex (to keep it concrete with the example above), he will tell everyone they know she is a tease. The colleague decides to give him oral sex, even though she was unwilling. (This seems much less clear-cut. Calling someone a tease is not remotely illegal or abuse of power, and arguably not even anti-ethical, if the student believes her action would make her a tease.) Now, if you decided that 1. is rape and 2. is not, I ask: what is the objective difference between 1 and 2 that decides one is rape and the other is not? But we can go further: 3. A male student tells his colleague that if she doesn't give him oral sex, he will break up with her. She decides to give him oral sex, even though she was unwilling. (I don't think even the most radical feminist would deny that a person has the right to stop dating another whenever, AND for whatever reason. Is this rape? Is this sexual assault? Is this emotional coercion?) In the unlikely case that you still find 3. sexual assault, what if instead of threatening to break up with her, he merely stated "I'll be disappointed"? And if so far we have walked at baby steps, let's try to go to a limit case: 5. A man uses a ear-phone and repeats from it a conversation with a woman. The woman gets seduced by this conversation, and decides to have sex with the man. The next day, she discovers that she was manipulated, that the man wasn't the real one saying those words, and regrets the sex. Was the sex nonconsensual? Was this rape?	97,009
Amelia has over 25 yrs of experience in the IT, Training and Education, and eLearning industry. She is also an author of over 14 books. Want to save space in your home office? Or, like me, if you like to multi-task, would you like to have the convenience of switching from TV to computer by pressing one button? I was recently in the market for a new flat panel monitor to replace my old large monitor for my secondary computer. I wondered if I could buy a flat panel TV around the same size and use the TV as a computer monitor. This would save me money and at the same time save me space. I was thinking of adding a small TV to my home office anyway to catch the news or my favorite TV show once in a while, but other than mounting it on the wall, I didn’t really have a place for it. So I decided to buy a TV and put it right on the corner of my desk, so if I wasn’t using the computer at the moment, I can switch to TV mode. What Kind of TV to Buy I shopped around and asked a lot of questions in stores to find out what kind of TV I needed to buy. I was told that I needed a TV with HDMI connectivity. HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface. It supports TV or video format. I was told that using that connection would provide the best quality. Later, I also figured out that I could also use the RGB port on the back of the TV and connect that to the back of my computer’s CPU (without using the HDMI connection). If I use the RGB port with a coax cable vs. the HDMI port with an HDMI cable, I might not get the same quality as I would as compared to using an HDMI cable, but it was another option. As far as a brand, I went with a reputable brand, based on user reviews and recommendation by the sales technician. My final purchase was a 19” Vizio LCD HDTV, for $178.00. Connectivity instructions are explained in more detail below. What Kind of Cabling and Accessories Do You Need? While still at the store, I wasn’t sure if I needed to buy an HDMI cable just yet. This was because the sales technician mentioned that an HDMI cable might be something that our cable company could provide. Plus, I knew I had the option of using the RGB port. The sales technician stated that he was able to get a free HDMI cable from his cable company. He simply called and asked for one, and since he was a loyal customer for over 20 years, they provided him with a cable. I decided to wait until I got home to check and see what cables I may already have on hand before purchasing any additional cables. As far as additional accessories, this depends on what equipment you have, and how your equipment is setup. In my case, I already had a router and a cable modem setup in my home office, along with a splitter. The router allows wireless connectivity in our house for other computers and devices, such as laptops, portable game systems and WII game system. One end of my splitter connects to my cable port in the wall, and the other end connects to my cable modem. Here’s how I connected my new TV to my computer, along with my existing router and cable modem. I have high-speed internet through my cable company (Comcast). If you have FIOS or another form of internet, then unfortunately I’m not sure these instructions will work exactly the same way, but procedural it’s probably similar. Here’s how I have my cable modem connection setup. A router is essential to have in your household if you have multiple computers which use a wireless connection for internet connectivity. Here’s how I have my router connections setup. To switch between my computer and your TV, I just use either TV button, or the RGB button on my remote control to switch back and forth. Did I leave anything out? If I did, let me know and I will try to help. Please note: Connectivity may vary depending on the type of equipment you have, and the type of internet service you have as well. This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters. Question: I went from a VGA to an HDMI adapter, and it did not work. Why is this? Answer: After you switch from the VGA to the HDMI adapter, did you change to HDMI in the auxiliary setting? When I want to switch to the TV mode, I press my HDMI button on the remote for my Vizio TV remote and this switches it to TV mode (at that point, a message appears on my screen that I have to press MENU on my Verizon FIOS remote and then I can change the channel and watch TV). Then when I want to switch back to use my TV as a monitor, I press RGB on my Vizio TV remote; for the latter, if my computer is off or in sleep mode, it says there is no RGB signal, and the TV turns off. If you have a large smart TV, and a newer computer, you may not have an RGB option (for the computer connectivity) so the option may be different; for example, if I want to plug my laptop into my large smart TV, I would use an HDMI cable to do so and then change my source from Cable to HDMI. Question: After connecting the CPU to TV, what is next? Answer: After connecting the CPU to your TV, the next step would be to change the source so that it recognizes your input. For example, on my remote, I have an HDMI button (I'm using an HDMI cable) and it allows me to toggle between my TV and the input from my computer. Comments Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on October 29, 2018: Hey Bill, You are correct...I didn't mention about an actual converter cable (yep, I see Amazon sells VGA to HDMI connector for less than $10.00). Good tip! Thanks for pointing this out, which is yet another possible combination. So I hope the converter cable worked for your equipment. :-) Bill Yost on October 29, 2018: Hi Amelia you left out one. How bout VGA to HDMI converter about ten dollars and your complete as 1080 hd Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on October 28, 2018: Hi Bill, So, although this article explains how to connect your TV to your computer as a monitor (via VGA and coax cable connection), I have also connected one of my laptops to my large screen TV in another room (it's a Samsung, flat screen big TV), and here's I get that to work: I connect an HDMI cable directly from from my laptop to my TV (both of which have HDMI ports); then I press "Source" on my TV remote and I change my source from Cable to HDMI. So in this case, I don't use a VGA cable at all (in fact, my laptop doesn't have a VGA port). I also plug in my wireless keyboard and mouse connector into the USB on my large TV. How old is your TV and how old is your PC? Depending on the age of the equipment, you may or may not have HDMI ports on both. If you don't have HDMI ports on both, let me know what ports are available and I'll try to help further. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on November 24, 2012: One more note, dccook, or for anyone else connecting your computer to TV, if you have a new TV, and a new computer, there should be an HDMI port on each so you can use your HDMI connection to connect the devices, instead of going the RGB route. You might have to buy the HDMI cable. Hope that helps. Please let me know if you've tried this and how it's worked out. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on November 23, 2012: Dear dccook, Is your coax cable from your wall (for cable) connected to your DVD player, then from your DVD player, you have a cable to your TV? I think all you would need to do is connect your VGA cable from the back of your computer CPU, into the back of your TV, similar to my picture where I have my VGA cable connected to the back of my TV and it is labeled RGB space PC. Then select that input when you want to use it (as in the end of my article when I switch from my computer to TV). In general though, you don't need to connect your computer to your DVD, but instead connect your CPU directly into your TV. I hope this works. However it also depends on what kind of TV you have and how old or new it is. Let me know if this worked. Regards, dccook@cableone.net on November 23, 2012: can i connect my computer to my dvd recorder, the dvd player is then connected to the tv.. using the cables etc in this site.. thanks cb Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on November 07, 2012: That's good to hear, kimathi! Glad you found the hub helpful. :-) kimathi on November 05, 2012: finally i was able to connect my TV and my computer. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on July 07, 2012: Hi Totty, if you tried another monitor and that display is fine, then you can safely say that the original monitor is in need of a tune up or repair. To be perfectly sure, you can try connecting the monitor in question to a different computer and I would guess that the monitor would still be blurry or having issues. At this point, your best bet would be to take it to a repair shop for further troubleshooting. Then you can decide if it's worth fixing or if you need to buy a new monitor. Hope that helps. Good luck with the repair! totty on July 07, 2012: @easylearningweb, thanks alot for your tips. The diplay was perfectly ok when i connected another monitor. I tried what u said bt d function keys, F6 or F8, did not display anything for me to adjust the graphic display of the monitor. Could it be that the monitor is completely damaged or i should proceed wt taking it to a tech expert for repair? Thanks. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on July 06, 2012: Dear Totty, thanks for your Hub comment, and sorry to hear that your monitor is not working properly. There are a few things you could try. First, power down, then disconnect and then reconnect your monitor into your CPU. Then power on your monitor , then your PC. If problems persist, reboot again and then look for a function key for set up which is usually F6 or F8 depending on your system. This will give you access to your configuration so you could check your video display selection, in case that got changed. The other thing you could try is to connect a different monitor into your PC to narrow down the problem. For example, it could be the video card in your CPU, or to be a problem with the monitor itself. Finally if all else fails, I would recommend taking the monitor to a local tech shop, like their tech repair department at Staples. They will be able to troubleshoot your monitor for you. They might do that for free or charge you a small fee in order to give you an estimate of what it would cost if it needs repair. I hope that helps. totty on July 06, 2012: thanks alot for this great information. Pls i need help. I formated my pc but after reinstallation, the monitor display became blurred and dim. Pls what do i do. I use compaq monitor. Thanks. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on January 24, 2012: So glad you found this hub helpful, Annette! I appreciate your comment. :-) Annette R. Smith from Ocala, Florida on January 24, 2012: What a helpful hub, with great illustrations and easy-to-follow instructions. Thank you for taking the time to share this excellent how-to. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on May 31, 2011: Thanks for your comment, Tracy Robinson. I'm glad you found it helpful! :-) Tracy Robinson from Mauk, Georgia on May 31, 2011: Good illustations. Excellent writing. Thank you, maybe now I can really do it. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on January 25, 2011: Thanks for your commment, ajeet.kislay. I'm glad you liked this hub. :-) ajeet.kislay from India on January 25, 2011: Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on August 10, 2010: I'm glad you find this hub helpful...that's my goal, to write helpful hubs that others can really benefit from. Thanks! Stephanie Marshall from Bend, Oregon on August 09, 2010: I'm with Habee - I am a tech dummy, so this hub is especially helpful. I may even try to do this at home without my hubby! ;-) Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on May 09, 2010: Glad I could help! Thanks for your comment. Regards, TnFlash from Tampa, Florida on May 06, 2010: Great Hub! I've been wanting to do this forever. Thanks bunches for the information. Up-rated. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on April 21, 2010: Thanks for your comment, Sandyspider. I hope you find this hub as well as my hubs helpful and informative. :-) Sandy Mertens from Wisconsin, USA on April 20, 2010: You make it looks so easy to set up. Pictures and all. Amelia Griggs (author) from U.S. on April 01, 2010: Glad you found it helpful. I'm proud to say I'm a computer nerd, but I think I like computer guru better. LOL. I'm planning on writing a lot more computer related hubs. Thanks! Holle Abee from Georgia on March 31, 2010: Wow! This is soooo helpful! I'm a tech dummy! © 2022 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.	13,431
As a Healthcare Assistant at Newcross Healthcare, you’ll provide hands-on personal care that makes a difference. We’re looking for carers with compassion and enthusiasm in the Cambridge area to support people’s physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. This Senior Care Assistant role pays up to £17.29 per hour (inc holiday pay) and you’ll have the autonomy to select flexible shift patterns, exclusive bonus scheme and access to instant pay. Our HealthForceGo app makes flexible working easy so you can choose whether you work full-time, part-time, day or night shifts. We’re dedicated to helping Britain get the care service it deserves and our HCA’s make a rewarding difference to people’s lives every day. That’s why we’re an accredited Living Wage Employer with excellent hourly rates and a range of benefits including: Same day pay with FlexiPay: get instant access to up to 50% of the value of your completed shifts even on weekends and bank holidays Wellbeing support: MyHealthPlan gives you healthcare and mental health support and access to in-app virtual appointments with NHS registered GPs Free training: access Newcross World, our app-based learning platform for carers and nurses with over 400 free courses £500 when you introduce a Friend: receive up to £500 when you introduce a friend or family member Perks at Work: benefitting from over 30,000 exclusive deals and discounts for your favourite brands across 20 categories including, groceries, fashion, electronics and more As a Senior Care Assistant you’ll have: 3-months UK personal care experience from within the past 3-years Good equipment knowledge Moving and handling experience Excellent teamwork skills, flexibility and professionalism The right to work in the UK Helping Britain get the care service it deserves At Newcross Healthcare we’re building something to serve people like never before, while treating caregivers with the utmost respect. We carefully select our healthcare workers and employ them on a permanent basis with guaranteed minimum hours. Our people make a difference to the lives and wellbeing of those who need care. We believe in delivering the right specialist nurses and carers, giving the right standard of care in the right places at the right time. To do this we provide the support and technology so you can focus on doing what you do best.	2,347
Countries have already started treating face masks as optional despite an increase in Omicron cases. Olga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images Since the rise of Omicron, many countries have removed COVID-19 related restrictions in anticipation of entering an endemic phase. Even after the Omicron wave passes, uneven immunity across the world and a new variant could threaten progress. In a post-Omicron world, lockdowns will likely be lifted, but short-term restrictions and personal precautions such as masks may be needed in an emergency. Is Omicron our “exit wave” out of the active phase of the COVID-19 pandemic? After 2 years of living through a global pandemic, many scientists and policymakers are trying to answer what will happen next. The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has led to an unprecedented number of infections worldwide, despite appearing in November. Countries with high levels of immunity, whether from vaccines or previous infections, have also seen lower rates of hospitalizations and deaths. This is also the result of Omicron being softer than its predecessors. Due to declining rates of hospitalizations and deaths, many hope that we are entering a new stage where we learn to live with the virus. Some European countries, such as Denmark and the UK, despite high numbers of daily COVID-19 cases, have already eased or lifted many restrictions. “It’s based on the anticipation that we’re about to enter an endemic phase, but we’re not there yet. As the saying goes, we’ve seen this movie before. There’s a big trend, and we’re seeing it here in the United States as well, for restrictions to be lifted,” said Dr William Schaffnerprofessor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition, many experts still believe that some countries can be rushed in their decisions and warn against being too optimistic. Here’s what experts predict will happen as Omicron loses steam. Based on the current data and trajectory, it is still premature to speak of a breakthrough shift to endemicity, experts say. “It is too early to raise the banner of mission accomplished. We are not there yet. In public health, there is a great tendency to eradicate the control program before the disease is [under] control,” Schaffner said. If the world becomes complacent, “the virus will continue to spread its way with gusto until it runs out of susceptible people,” he said. Schaffner said his “cautious optimistic anticipation” is that Omicron will be simmering in the next 6 weeks or so in the United States. if there are no new variants of concern. He said he hoped the country would be able to talk about the COVID-19 endemic by the end of February or the beginning of March. “[W]We will have documented across the country a fairly sustained reduction in the proportion of new cases and hospitalizations, as well as deaths, so the CDC will provide guidelines to help us transition into the new normal,” says Schaffner. “And, of course, across the country, there will be people who just wish, more carefree ways, to return to the old normal,” he added. Scientists agree that there is no consensus on whether the new coronavirus will remain less deadly or whether the current pandemic cycle will end with Omicron. “Dr. Fauci has flagged the word endemic. But he’s also much more cautious in his messages, not necessarily indicating that we’re going to transition yet,” said Dr Monica Gandhiinfectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. Still, there are several public health threats even when the current wave passes, they say. One is the inconsistent immunity between different populations and different countries. Uneven protection, whether due to unequal vaccines or waning immunity from vaccines or infection, could create transmission hotspots around the world. “I think [after Omicron] there will occasionally be transmission hotspots and transmission hotspots occurring across the country. Similar things will likely happen in Europe,” Schaffner said. Meanwhile, the biggest obstacle to planning a roadmap for a post-Omicron world is vaccine inequality, said Katharina D. HauckPhD, Professor of Health Economics and Deputy Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics in London. About 3 billion people are not vaccinated by choice or do not have access to vaccines. “I think there will be a larger discussion coming up about the fact that 3 billion people in this world are unvaccinated,” she told Healthline. “The threat this poses to the emergence of variants, because of the costs in terms of lost lives and the need for non-pharmaceutical mitigation, is [unquantifiable].” “Many epidemiologists believe that the worst, in terms of hospitalizations and deaths at least, is over. But as some say, including the new [higher daily] numbers, there will be possible bumps in the road,” Hauck said. She said one of those bumps is the threat of new variants: “[T]hey are very likely to arise. But I think most epidemiologists think they’ll probably have a less traumatic impact than Omicron just before Christmas. And it is because of the very high level of immunity in [many] country, both [due to] previous vaccinations and infections. Schaffner agreed and said new variants would emerge as transmission continues largely unabated across much of the world. The real concern, he said, is whether they will spread widely or be more deadly than previous variants. He stressed that we must be on our guard and have a new eventuality. “There is always the threat of a new variant appearing on the international scene, which will once again change the equation. Of course, this has happened twice before. We were cautiously optimistic. Then came Delta. Just as we were beginning to control Delta, Omicron arrived. Hauck noted that new variants often have a “transmission advantage” over previous variants. “Viruses actually have an interest [to] keep infected and contagious people in the community for as long as possible and able to transmit as efficiently as possible,” she said. A predominant view in recent pandemic discussions is that endemicity means less dangerous than pandemic stage. However, the belief that new variants always become less severe is not necessarily true, said Hauck. The Delta variant is a prime example. A better phrase would be “not as dangerous”, said Gandhi. Once the world is in an endemic phase, the world will be “a much safer place because the virus is under control”, she said. Schaffner reiterated that while the virus is unlikely to pose a big threat to the majority of the immune population, there will always be vulnerable groups. “It is still a very dangerous virus for unvaccinated people and also for people who are immunocompromised or very frail, with a number of underlying conditions that predispose them to serious illness. We in public health must continue to urge people to be careful, in order to limit the spread of the virus to those who are most vulnerable or those most at risk of serious illness, ”he told Healthline . This could prompt some people to take their own precautions and mask up if necessary. “If there are outbreaks of COVID-19 in a community, I think many people, especially older people, people with underlying conditions and people with compromised immune systems, will again reach for their masks and get engage in social distancing on their own. They will rent the film rather than go to the cinema. So we’ll see a lot more of that kind of behavior,” Schaffner said. “I think we can’t stress enough how much we’ve learned about masks over the past 2 years. [T]Immunocompromised people should wear these good masks, N95s,” Gandhi said. The decision for an annual COVID-19 vaccine would be made based on the level of transmission globally and local communities, said Gandhi. If transmission in a community is high, vaccination can be encouraged periodically, she said. “It all really depends on what’s going on. It is a bit premature to make these predictions,” she said. One possibility, Gandhi said, is that Omicron could drive extremely low cases around the world, even in places with low vaccination levels, such as South Africa. “The question is, does this reduce transmission enough that we have relatively low transmission rates by this time next year? And in this case, we will not vaccinate everyone. In fact, we will only do those who need to be – immunocompromised or older with chronic conditions,” she said. On the other hand, Gandhi thinks we might need another vaccine that targets the virus as a whole for broader immunity, to use as a booster for mRNA vaccines. A candidate, she says, is Covaxina vaccine developed in India that could protect against multiple variants. “What if a variant comes out that’s even more mutated through the spike protein? [With a vaccine like Covaxin] you have developed immunity to the whole virus,” she said. Schaffner, meanwhile, said the world might need booster shots from time to time, like the flu shot. “We will indeed have to adapt the vaccine that we use, or the booster may have to be modified like we do with our flu vaccine on an annual basis,” he said. Hauck said policymakers are currently weighing their decisions carefully, trying “to navigate a really difficult trade-off between infection control and the social and economic costs of restrictions.” Gandhi said lockdowns would be unlikely, but restrictions could be reintroduced periodically if hospitalizations increase or an uptick above “what is expected” is seen in winter. She said that level would be different for many countries. “In the future, there will be an acceptable number of hospitalizations. I don’t know what that number will be. I think 10 out of 100,000 is possible. If it goes much higher, there will be restrictions and an emergency will be triggered. Hauck said that going forward, hospital capacity would be a key factor in governments’ lockdown decisions. “Obviously the main concern for policy makers is the number of deaths, but potentially more important is whether hospital capacity is being breached,” she said. “It’s easy to multiply the number of beds, [but] you cannot increase the number of medical staff so quickly without incurring huge costs for other patients. Thus, at a certain level of infections, it is inevitable to put in place containments. Related posts: Man from Mass. receives thanks from Biden for custom masks Go behind the scenes at Denver Fashion Week Ready-to-Wear Summer 2021 Why is the German Antonio Rudiger wearing a face mask at Euro 2020? Prev Post Next Post You might also like More from author Finally, hotel skincare that actually works Model Winnie Harlow makes a popular Christmas drink in the Caribbean 21 Nordstrom beauty and personal care deals to buy now Prev Next Comments are closed. 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I was honoured to have been invited to attend the inaugural vRetreat event in the UK. The event, arranged by Red-Track Ltd, took place at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone on 27 January 2017, and was attended several well known bloggers and virtualisation community members. The day was made possible by Zerto, Veeam and Cohesity who presented on their respective products and upcoming capabilities within their product suites. This provided ample opportunity for those present to discuss several product features and their possible use cases in the world of hybrid and public cloud infrastructure. Published in Industry News and Events RT @elonmusk: The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really…	842
The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008, known as the SAFE Act, is federal legislation that was enacted as a partial response to the mortgage crisis that arguably resulted, in part, from a lack of appropriate monitoring, oversight, and regulation of the intermediaries between consumers and lenders in the residential mortgage industry; i.e., mortgage loan originators (MLOs). The federal SAFE Act requires each state to enact SAFE legislation or defer to the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for such regulation. State SAFE legislation must be compliant with the federal SAFE Act. The SAFE-compliant administrative rule (750 IAC 9) promulgated by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) required MLO licensure by July 1, 2010. Indiana’s SAFE Act can be found at: 750 IAC 9. Was this article helpful? 0 out of 1 found this helpful Have more questions? Submit a request What is a Mortgage Transaction? Are there any exemptions to licensing for mortgage loan originators? What kind of background check is required, and how often is it required, in order to be licensed as a mortgage loan originator or principal manager?	1,240
SP Hofrichter examines the differing conceptions of time found in science fiction works as varied as Doctor Who and Groundhog Day. The View from the C-Series: Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" If I were to say to you that the extinction of feudalism led to the pandemic of the Bubonic Plague, you would tell me that I was wrong and that I had gotten my facts backward: the outbreak of the Plague led to the eventual extinction of feudalism and the invention of a middle class. You would, of course, be correct, assuming we exist in a universe where only the A-series and the B-series are valid perceptions of events in Time. However, McTaggart, who coined the terms A-series and B-series in his essay “The Unreality of Time” also briefly mentioned the C-series. He described it thus: But this other series – let us call it the C series – is not temporal, for it involves no change, but only an order. Events have an order. They are, let us say, in the order M, N, O, P. And they are therefore not in the order M, O, N, P, or O, N, M, P, or in any other possible order… And the C series, while it determines the order, does not determine the direction. (461-2) If I were to attempt to put his ideas graphically, it might look like this: In other words, while both the A-series and the B-series rely on previous events and their effects on later events, the C-series is under no such constraints. In a C-series understanding of the universe, World War I and World War II are related, but neither was the cause nor effect of the other. They simply exist in an order; things like “before” and “after” depend on which side of the event line you are looking from. Great, you say. But that doesn’t really matter, because in the real world, cause leads to effect. The C-series is an interesting thought experiment, but has no bearing on reality. The C-series makes a case for humans imposing a timeline, a sense of cause and effect on an otherwise random set of events. Consider this scenario: Someone asks you to recall a very specific Christmas, say the one when you were twelve years old. You go back and think. When you were twelve, you loved Transformers. Your Grandma Monica always gave you a framed poster of your favourite movies for Christmas, but that year, for some reason, Grandma Monica wasn’t at your family’s Christmas party. You remember that, sometime in your early adolescence, your Grandma Monica died in a car accident. You assume that her absence means that she had died before that Christmas occurred, when, in fact, she’d decided on a whim to go on a cruise with her new boyfriend that year. Her death wouldn’t occur until the following February. Grandma Monica’s absence caused a great deal of scandal amongst your aunts and uncles, but you don’t remember that; you have created a series of causes and effects that make sense to you: Grandma Monica always gave you a poster for Christmas; Grandma Monica was not there for that Christmas; Grandma Monica died around that time in your life; Grandma Monica must have been dead for that Christmas. This holds true with what psychologists have discovered about human memory – that when we pull a memory file to examine, we recreate it from scratch. Every time we try to recall something, we are creating a copy of a copy of the original event. As anyone who has ever tried to make copies of copies of paperwork can tell you, after a certain number of iterations, the copy is completely illegible and nothing like the original. In fact, psychologists use this fact to help people who suffer from PTSD. By having their patients recall a traumatic memory while in an opposite emotional state, the psychologists are able to recalibrate the neurons associated with that memory, turning the memory from traumatic to manageable. The original event hasn’t changed—only the patient’s experience and memory of it. Later, you go and ask your mother when your Grandma Monica died. She verifies that Grandma Monica died two months after your twelfth Christmas. She reminds you of Grandma Monica’s boyfriend at the time. You remember, now, your pre-adolescent confusion about Grandma Monica’s absence; you remember the tension around the dinner table. You remember that the following Valentine’s Day was a somber event, because of the car accident. The C-series is a difficult concept to grasp initially, because we rely so heavily on cause → effect. Sometimes, the best way to understand a difficult concept is to apply it to an enjoyable medium, such as fiction. Ted Chiang’s short story “Story of Your Life”, upon which the film The Arrival was based, is one of the best examples of the C-series idea in science fiction literature. Linguistics! Physics! Aliens! Philosophy of Time! This story has everything science fiction could possibly need, without becoming overwhelming. The story follows a linguist who has been called upon to interact with an alien species that has landed on Earth. She spends months and months learning how to communicate with them, learning their language and writing system, to the point that she is able to think in their language. It affects the way she understands the universe, leading to beautiful sentences like this: I remember when you’ll be a month old, and I’ll stumble out of bed to give you your 2:00 am feeding. After spending many months interacting with an alien species who fails to see the universe as a system of causes and effects, the narrator begins to remember things that have yet to occur. Whereas humans believe that M → N → O, the aliens determine O and extrapolate N → M. No cause or effect, simply an order. A true C-series explanation. So did the Bubonic Plague lead to the death of feudalism and the birth of the middle class? Did it occur the other way around? Or did both events happen concurrently and historians simply decided that one must have affected the other? In either case, it doesn’t matter. The Bubonic Plague hit England in 1348, and continued to ravage the island until the 17th century, well after the establishment of a middle class. The last Christmas you got to see Grandma Monica was when you were eleven. She never came to Christmas again. The reason why is irrelevant. The brilliance of the C-series lies in its focus on how we interpret distant facts and memories. When faced with a set of discrete facts, the human mind goes and puts them in an A-series or B-series order. The C-series proves that humans thrive as long as we can understand Time as a linear progression of cause and effect, this leading to that. It shows us that, while we cannot always separate cause from effect, we can impose them as needed to keep a steady understanding of the universe. And that’s a pretty neat trick. Reddit You might be interested in In my last article about the Doctor Who universe, I asked the question “What is the point of Time Travel Wibbly-Wobbly Stuff: Doctor Who and the Case for Eternalism One of the most iconic episodes in the recent Doctor Who reboot is season 3’s “Blink.” In this episode, the Time is one element that exists in every story we read, watch, or hear. It is so ubiquitous that we In my last article about the Doctor Who universe, I asked the question “What is the point of Time Travel in an Eternalist universe where nothing can be changed because everything has already happened?” I wanted to briefly discuss one possible answer. I mentioned in that article that the only way the Weeping Angels could have evolved is if they inhabited an inherently Eternalist universe, in which every point in time is a “fixed point in Time” – Past, Present, and Future – and thus, changing any event creates a timeline instability that the Angels feed upon. In such a universe, the Doctor serves as the Moving Spotlight, showing the Present to his companions (and thus the audience) as it is occurring; no matter what Time it is outside the TARDIS, the Doctor is the Present. But if the Doctor is an Eternalist – if he understands that all points in Time are fixed and immutable – then why does he get upset about choices he’s made, such as destroying Gallifrey or allowing Davros to live? Choices which, according to the Eternalist framework under which he supposedly operates, were fixed and immutable by the time he had the opportunity to make them? The answer, I think, lies in how the Doctor serves the narrative of the show. He doesn’t just act as the Moving Spotlight for his companions and the audience; no, he is a Moving Spotlight for his own Timeline. Within his Eternalist universe, the Doctor is an Egocentric Presentist. Presentism is the logical opposite of Eternalism. Where Eternalism states that every moment in Time is real because it has already occurred, Presentism holds that only this exact moment right here is real, and everything else is either memory (Past) or deductive reasoning (Future). Egocentric Presentism is Presentism with a hint of Solipsistic Hedonism, however, which favours the subjective experience of Time (and, in the above linked article by Hare, avoidance of pain) over all else. It is the Philosophy of Time’s response to the Philosophy of Science’s “Perspectival Realism,” which argues that only objects that the subject witnesses are real. (Interestingly, both terms were coined by the same philosopher.) Knowing what we do about the Doctor Who universe, we can see that having the Doctor be an Egocentric Presentist is the best answer to why Time Travel works (as a narrative technique, at least). His personal timeline is the only one that matters to the narrative and, of course, to him. He befriends his companions, helps them, and receives their help – but ultimately, he is the only character whose Past, Present, and Future are never manipulated or questioned. While, yes, this courtesy is nominally extended to some of his companions (such as when the Eleventh Doctor (played by Matt Smith) offers to return his companion to the night before her wedding so that they can go adventuring), it doesn’t fully apply. Companions will occasionally meet younger versions of themselves, or older versions of themselves; the Doctor will sometimes run into Past versions of his companions or alternate versions of his archenemy. However, with only one (thinly veiled) exception, the Doctor’s own timeline is untouchable. His timeline is the timeline around which all other story arcs, plot devices, and character development must revolve. Which answers two questions in one go: Why does he put so much emphasis on predetermined (from the Eternalist viewpoint) tragedies? And, why does he bother Time Travelling at all? Because, from his perspective – and from the perspective of the audience, the companions, and the universe at large – his Present is the only Real Present. Everything else is just supporting, background information. In an Eternalist universe, the Perspectival Realist is king. Reddit You might be interested in The View from the C-Series: Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" If I were to say to you that the extinction of feudalism led to the pandemic of the Bubonic Plague, Wibbly-Wobbly Stuff: Doctor Who and the Case for Eternalism One of the most iconic episodes in the recent Doctor Who reboot is season 3’s “Blink.” In this episode, the Time is one element that exists in every story we read, watch, or hear. It is so ubiquitous that we Wibbly-Wobbly Stuff: Doctor Who and the Case for Eternalism One of the most iconic episodes in the recent Doctor Who reboot is season 3’s “Blink.” In this episode, the Doctor and his companion, Martha, are the supporting characters, trying to assist one-off character Sally Sparrow, even though they are trapped 38 years in Sally’s past. The complicating factor here is the Weeping Angels, a race of quantum-locked villains (they don’t exist when they’re being observed), which this episode introduces into the series. Leaving physics aside for a moment, this episode asks a whole (angelic?) host of questions regarding how Time actually works in the Doctor Who universe. Between the Doctor’s unusual role as Cassandra when dictating to Billy the exact moment of his death, and the culinary preferences of the Weeping Angels, this episode seems to make the argument that all events in Time are inherently immutable – they are all “fixed points in Time.” Which, as any fan knows, flies in the face of the argument made by many Doctors in the last twelve years. Let’s start with the most famous line from the episode: People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a nonlinear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff. Here, the Doctor has put on his Philosophy Professor hat and is trying to educate his hapless helpers via a cleverly-timed one-sided video conversation. But what he is saying is nonsense, isn’t it? A strict progression of cause to effect. Although his main thesis is that Time is not linear, everything he does in the episode relies on the intimate relationship between cause and effect. He manipulates things such that the end result – the desired “effect” – is caused by, well, something he caused. If cause and effect really were not related, as he posits, then he would be stuck forever in 1969, because nothing would affect anything in any meaningful way. Nonlinear, non-subjective viewpoint. We are never told whose viewpoint this is, but it doesn’t matter anyway because this statement is absolute nonsense. A point of view requires a subject to hold it. Viewpoints are, by their very nature, subjective. Big ball of wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey stuff. With this line, one might imagine a tangled skein of yarn, or a bowl of spaghetti. He is claiming that Time does not exist in a line, but rather, Time is a scattershot of events that humans sort of force into a line in order to keep from going mad. Which is a nice thought that builds on the ‘nonlinear, non-subjective’ argument, except that even he doesn’t buy it. Okay, so now that we’ve set up the science fiction, let’s look at the philosophy aspect. In Philosophy of Time, there exist two major theories of how Time is experienced, and proponents of each theory tend to be adamant that their theory is the correct theory. These theories are cleverly called “A Series” and “B Series.” The A Series assumes that the way humans experience Time is constantly changing: along a timeline, there exist events M, N, O, and P. At any given moment, N will be the Present, which means M is in the Past and O is in the Future. But the next moment, O will be the Present, and so on. The A Series explains our experience of time as “Past, Present, and Future,” which means it is mutable. The B Series, on the other hand, says that Time is immutable and fixed: along that same timeline, M is earlier than N, O is later than N. Because the B Series states the experience of Time is a series of relationships (earlier vs later), they will never change. Put another way, Queen Elizabeth I’s birth will always antedate Sir Isaac Newton’s, the same way 1901 will always come before 2001. (There are several assumptions here that I will not be unpacking because if I tried, we would never, ever get back to Doctor Who.) Now, what McTaggart asserts in his 1908 essay “The Unreality of Time” (linked above) is that humans use both the A Series and the B Series when experiencing and describing Time. However, the two Series are mutually exclusive – Time cannot be both constantly changing and permanently immutable. Because Aristotle determined that Time is a measurement of Change, the A Series is a given. Which means that if the B Series is also legitimate, then Time cannot be real. One popular idea that accompanied the B Series in the early 20th century was that of the Moving Spotlight, which was a subset of the theory of Eternalism. Eternalism states that all points in Time are equally valid, because everything that has happened or ever will happen is already on the metaphorical timeline. It is the opposite of the A Series’ Presentism, which states that the only Reality is the immediately Present moment. The Moving Spotlight Theory, which fell out of favour amongst Philosophers of Time in the later 20th century, argues for a preferential perspective (arguably the Present), which happens to “light up” the already pre-existing events on the timeline – like a roving police spotlight. Several times in the episode, the Doctor plays the role of Cassandra – Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam who was cursed by Apollo to always prophesy the truth and never be believed, because her prophecies were horrible. She was very popular at parties. The Doctor channels this seeress when he tells Billy that he will meet Sally Sparrow again on the day that he dies. He goes one step further, and mentions that he, Billy, won’t pass until “the rain stops.” Similarly, at the climax of the episode, Sally and her friend, Larry, are having a “conversation” with the Doctor, via pre-recorded one-sided speeches on an unlikely collection of DVDs. Larry begins to transcribe Sally’s half of the conversation, leading to a transcript that looks like a genuine back-and-forth talk. At this point, Sally asks, “How can you have a copy of the transcript? It’s still being written!” And the Doctor replies: “I’m a Time Traveller. I got it from the future.” Later, after everything is resolved, Sally sees the Doctor and Martha in the flesh, and runs out to greet them. Sally is a bit put out when they don’t recognise her, and we, as the audience, can understand why: She’s just been through some very unpleasant events, including the death of her best friend; she nearly died helping the Doctor and Martha; and she had a pretty huge violation of privacy in the course of events – the unlikely collection of DVDs on which the one-sided conversations were recorded were the only seventeen DVDs Sally Sparrow owned. After all that, these people dare to pretend that they don’t know who she is? The Doctor pauses and explains: “Things don’t always happen to me in the right order.” And Sally realises that she is the initial vector for the information for the rest of the episode, hands over everything she’s collected, and goes off to start a relationship with Larry. So, what are we seeing in this episode? We are seeing an episode that assumes Eternalism. As opposed to the entire second half of season 7, where some version of the companion Clara Oswald appears, helps the Doctor, and dies, only to reappear again – and each instance is, for her, the only instance of living – what “Blink” shows is a universe where everything that will happen has already happened, and the Doctor is playing the role of the Spotlight, shining light on events as they occur. Wherever the Doctor is is “the Present.” We are seeing evidence of a universe that assumes Time is linear. Despite the Doctor’s insistence that Time is actually a big ball of wibbly-wobbly Timey-wimey stuff, the way he lives his lives is with a Past, a Present, and a Future – along a line, in other words. His explanation to Sally further assumes a linear progression – “Things don’t always happen to me in the right order” – and from the way he seems to believe those events are permanently placed (whether they occur in the “right order” or not), we can assume that he is a B-Theorist, where N happens before O but after M, no matter what. We are also getting a hint at the power of historiography. Historiography is the writing of history – specifically, the study of written history. If that written history is inaccurate – or worse, is outright propaganda – then how will that affect future students who rely on these texts as factual sources of information? What if Larry had mis-transcribed something Sally said to the Doctor? What if he’d gotten bored, or his mind had begun to wander? What if Sally, typing up the conversation six months later, had misread something that Larry had written? How would that have affected the conversation that ultimately saved the Doctor, Martha, Larry, and Sally? We can’t assume that Sally has perfect recall, because psychologically speaking, no one does. Not even the Doctor. What if Sally’s best friend, Kathy, had misremembered the date or time of her encounter with the Weeping Angel? It had been sixty years, after all. In short, this episode requires good faith actions on the parts of everyone involved, and it has zero wiggle-room for clerical errors. And as anyone who has ever studied medieval manuscripts can tell you, clerical errors are the norm. What about the Weeping Angels themselves? The Doctor tells us that they are “the only psychopaths to kill you nicely. No muss, no fuss, just zap you into the past and let you live to death.” They are a race of quantum-locked beings who can’t exist if they’re being observed. They survive by sending their victims into the past, and feeding on the victim’s “lost potential” in their erstwhile Present – which means a Time Machine like the TARDIS would be an all-you-can-eat buffet for them. We see here that the existence of an Eternalist universe is the only way the Weeping Angels could have evolved. By thrusting their victims into a Past that they would have never otherwise inhabited, the Weeping Angels feed on the resulting chaos of an adulterated timeline. And if they thrive on that instability and that chaos, that means that there is already a set, dictated series of events that were meant to happen. “Fixed points in Time,” then, don’t just apply to Big Events, like the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius or the nuclear explosion on Mars after the discovery of water there; every single person, place, and thing is a fixed point, that is supposed to have been there. Which makes one wonder: if the Doctor has this understanding of Time, then why does he spend so much energy wringing his hands over silly things like allowing Davros to live or destroying Gallifrey? Those events, like literally everything else, were fixed on the timeline by some unknowable “objective observer” and could therefore never be manipulated or avoided. What is the point of Time Travel in an Eternalist universe where nothing can be changed because everything has already happened? Reddit You might be interested in The View from the C-Series: Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" If I were to say to you that the extinction of feudalism led to the pandemic of the Bubonic Plague, In my last article about the Doctor Who universe, I asked the question “What is the point of Time Travel Time is one element that exists in every story we read, watch, or hear. It is so ubiquitous that we Time is one element that exists in every story we read, watch, or hear. It is so ubiquitous that we fail to notice its existence, unless the narrative forces us to focus on it. But what about assumptions we make about the nature of Time itself? Assumptions like: Time is linear. We even have a compound word in common usage to reflect this assumption: timeline. The past is irretrievable, the future is unknowable, and once the present has passed, we will never revisit that moment again. Time is uni-directional. Queen Elizabeth I was born a century before Sir Isaac Newton, and there is no way that the opposite will ever be true. Time is a constant. Much the same way a kilogram is a kilogram (or 2.205 pounds), and much the same way a mile is a mile (or 5,280 feet), an hour is an hour, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity aside. If an event happens at 10:01pm and lasts for 60 seconds, then its very measurability makes it a fact. Effects have causes. The widespread famine in Iceland in the 18th century was caused by the 1783 Laki eruption. Plants died from sulphuric acid rains and animals died from skeletal fluorosis after the eruption released these chemicals, not before. (See also: Time is uni-directional). These are things we simply assume to be true of Time, until a story tells us otherwise. Doctor Who famously describes Time as not linear, but rather ‘a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey…stuff.’ Interstellar forces its audience to acknowledge that Time is not a constant, and that how quickly it passes can vary between two different points in space. The book series Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, argues that cause and effect are immutable forces of nature, which not even a Time Traveller can affect. The Hugo Award-winning novel Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, has an entire plotline surrounding a little girl who suffers Merlin’s Disease – that is, every day, she grows younger, moving closer to the day she no longer exists because she has not yet been born. Of course, every work of fiction has a different take on and different rules for how Time works. Both Doctor Who and Outlander star Time Travellers, but the Doctor can bounce around Time at will while Claire can only go between two points: her past-present and her future-present, both of which march forward at the same rate. Both Doctor Strange and Phil Connors (Groundhog Day) get caught in Time loops, but the former can control his loop while the latter has to find a way to escape his. The Terminator’s sole purpose is to go back and eliminate a threat – changing the past to affect the future – while the hapless Sandy and Dennys Murry from Madeleine L’Engle’s Many Waters essentially float on the surface of events in antediluvian Israel, lacking any real power to change them. Still other works consider aspects of Time and Time Travel not normally analysed. In Connie Willis’s award-winning Doomsday Book, a PhD candidate from 21st century Oxford spends several years learning Anglo-Saxon, Old French, and Middle English, as she prepares to jump back to the year 1320, only to arrive, incapable of understanding the spoken language at all. James SA Corey’s recent space opera series, The Expanse, considers the difficulties of having space battles when communication between the warships and the Command Headquarters can only travel at the speed of light – the difficulties, in other words, of reality happening at different speeds for the soldiers in the heat of battle and their commanders fifteen light-minutes away. So what is the purpose of this column? To look at works of science fiction and determine how Time plays a role in them. What assumptions does the audience make? What assumptions do the writers manipulate? What difficulties arise from looking at Time in this universe in this way? How do Time Travellers, like the Doctor and his companions, determine what is Past or Future? What is their go-to starting point? How does memory function for them, if Time is neither constant, nor linear? What language barriers would they run up against in trying to verbalise those memories? What about disease vectors? Travelling backwards in Time would be arguably safer, since humans today are the by-product of thousands of years of surviving plagues and developing immunities to fairly toxic elements. But what about travelling into the Future, where bacteria and viruses may have evolved a hundred times beyond what the Traveller’s immune system has experienced? How can one define ‘simultaneity’ in deep space? What are the deeper implications of some films focusing on a preferential experience of Time (such as Groundhog Day, where everyone has to relive the same day repeatedly until Phil Connors figures out how to escape)? How does the recording of a past event (in text or video form, for example) affect the memory of that event and the language surrounding it going forward? What happens if that text or video becomes corrupted, or mistranslated? How does that change the memory, understanding, and discussion of the original event? Each article in this column will look at some work of science fiction – whether a television show, a book, a graphic novel, or a film – and analyse it for its use (and possible abuse) of Time. We will look at how Time is described, how it is experienced (by both the audience and the protagonist), what rules have been put in place, and how it compares to what we normally assume when we think of ‘Time’ as an entity. Hopefully, this column will encourage conversations and (friendly) debates, and I am always happy to discuss different interpretations of various works. Most of my philosophical enquiry will be informed by JME McTaggart’s 1908 essay ‘The Unreality of Time’, but this will likely evolve as time goes on. Reddit You might be interested in The View from the C-Series: Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" If I were to say to you that the extinction of feudalism led to the pandemic of the Bubonic Plague, In my last article about the Doctor Who universe, I asked the question “What is the point of Time Travel Wibbly-Wobbly Stuff: Doctor Who and the Case for Eternalism One of the most iconic episodes in the recent Doctor Who reboot is season 3’s “Blink.” In this episode, the Recent Posts Support Sci Phi We are a volunteer-run, ad-free, non-profit publication. 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Both Pfizer and Merck and. now. Shionogi & Co. begin a fight to see who will be the first to put their own pill against covid on the market. which. without a doubt. would have repercussions worldwide. being one of the great discoveries from. the history. If we add to this that some pharmaceutical companies have entered a new field of marketing their vaccines. as Sinovac did recently in the Copa América. it is an ideal scenario for next year in which the presence of covid is expected to -19. with most of the population vaccinated. is diminishing. Now read: They accuse a Mexican restaurant of an outbreak of Covid-19 ‘without control’; so he answered Chart of the day: The most common variants of Covid-19 in Latin America With the landing of companies on the internet. Reviews have become a vital part for consumers to decide to buy a product or purchase a service. A bad review or criticism can be a blow to the image of a company. so there are those who seek to resolve it as soon as possible by having them removed as soon as possible. as is the case with Elon Musk and Tesla . however. there are who prefer to deal with the matter by legal means. Such is the case of Executive Roof Services. a roofing company in the United States. which seeks to sue a couple from Vancouver. Washington. for 112 thousand dollars (2 million 241 thousand 694.56 Mexican pesos at the time of writing this note) after receiving a one star review on Google. Autumn Knepper and Adam Marsh. who wrote Latvia phone number reviews about the company after they had two separate phone calls with one of the company’s receptionists. as reported to the KGW8 media. Knepper said that when he called the Executive Roof Services office to ask how quickly they could fix a leak in his attic. the receptionist was dismissive of the customer. “She refused to give me any information.” Knepper recalled. “She said that she would have to get it from the owner. I asked to speak to the manager and she laughed at me. She told me that she was verbally abusing her and that she was the office manager. She hung up on me.” A situation that Marsh relived with the exact same woman. Reviews. complaints and threats According to the information. the couple decided to share their reviews and file their complaint with the Better Business Bureau. since they never received a report on the work. Shortly after. Knepper told KGW8 that they were hooked up by company owner Michael Mecham. “He told me he knew where I lived. He said that he had a coroner and that he would gladly spend a hundred thousand dollars to sue me. ”she assured. Likewise. the woman indicated that shortly after she received a text message in which she was required to withdraw her review before “more damage is done”. Call the police to stop the harassment. but that did not happen. . By the end of June. the couple received a lawsuit filed on behalf of Executive Roof Services. “Honestly. I cried right away.” Knepper told KGW8. “She was terrified. I can’t afford a lawyer. I can’t pay $112.000. And I can’t. I don’t want to file for bankruptcy.” David Bowser. an attorney representing the roofing company. Assured him that the lawsuit focused on Knepper and Marsh’s intent. Which he described as “improper” because they “intentionally harmed. ERS by posting one-star reviews with the purpose of obtaining. A report to which they were not entitled.” Additionally. according to Newsweek. Executive Roof Services decided to file lawsuit papers to accuse them of defamation and intentional interference with business expectations. A bad review With businesses landing on the internet. reviews have become a vital part of consumers. Deciding to buy a product or purchase a service. according to Search Engine Journal . 91 percent of young consumers trust reviews. While that the likelihood of a product being purchased increases by 270 percent when it receives five reviews. Although this is a clear example of why companies are increasingly looking for more reviews. Especially positive ones. however. Having received a bad review will not be the end of the world. You may also like Published March 14, 2022 “The Crown”, the historical series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. price and quality However, analysts understand that everything will come […] Published March 14, 2022 The desire for revenge and the will. of regeneration. In his latest and most successful novel. the Cuban Leonardo Padurait captures precisely […] Published March 14, 2022 In particular the peculiar position of the larynx in the neck. The larynx is a cartilage box located just at the entrance […] Published March 14, 2022 Complete and exhaustive census collected to date of Barcelona’s buildings affected by the bombs. 1939. The fall of Barcelona An emotional story […]	5,055
Personal development is defined as a lifelong course of action. Self improvement involves things to do which build a model’s capabilities and possible, grow man money, convenience job, enhance total well being along with ambitions and awareness of wishes and objectives. Personal growth can happen over a person’s life. For some, this technique takes place for a continuous procedure unfolding as time passes. Practical knowledge progress in the simple moment in time, as an example through youth or early adolescence. Personal growth starts off with starting particular ambitions, even though other individuals. These goals have to be manageable and realistic, nevertheless they should in addition large a higher level enthusiasm. This derives from racking up self esteem in one’s own ability to attain these aims and producing the best perspective to accomplishing them. It is within these personal development goals that a person actually provide the competencies he demands in order to become profitable as part of his picked discipline on the job, in the sociable romantic relationships and in his informative undertakings. The most essential process in self improvement is environment genuine ambitions. Without the need of clearly described goals, there is no way to understand specifically what your location is likely – and ways in which you’re going to make it happen. That can assist you design your personal development ideas, below are some typical tips on how to collection ambitions. Very first, start off by considering the largest point you would like to complete in your lifetime. To be able to attempt, contemplate what knowledge you might want to produce. If you’re an businessperson, by way of example, you might want to develop your command abilities, your company abilities whilst your profits competencies. When you’ve decided your daily life objectives, produce them decrease, bearing in mind irrespective everything you eventually do inside your self improvement mentoring apply, your lifestyle aims will always be in example of what you need to complete. Now, change the goal graph or chart to a map. Use coloring-coding to highlight each individual expertise. As an example, a high level business owner, you can shade-rule the chance to convey nicely, your capability to organize properly and also your understanding approach just like you success in the direction of your development objectives. Every skill may substantial objective, as you learn to work with it in the personal growth coaching exercise. It’s also possible to shade-value your growth strategies while you learn new stuff. You might like to study interesting things connected with making your level of confidence regarding presentation, one example is. Your own progress plan may possibly put together a few talking events. There will probably be a number of 1-on-1 education visits which has a customer as this individual endeavors to handle a particular situation within their lifestyles. Or you’ll just be outline for you several small group training consultations in places you inquire people to share testimonies of defeating complicated everyday living events. Utilize them and achieve color-html coding in place, you could review how well on a weekly basis. Discover finding apparent advance, potentially you should modify the plan you developed to determine if you are preparation. Or, you might have to reread your purpose to actually are environment apparent goals and adhering to them. You could even want to assess the documents you accustomed to produce your individual progression system and pay attention to if you have still got the information you need so that you can placed aims and them before you decide to. The instruments are pretty straight forward enough should you have time. You are able to adhere to the techniques defined over. With constant program, these strategies and blueprints will help you create your self-development and personal advancement abilities, self confidence within your abilities, whilst your self-confidence and abilities within your romantic relationship with your many other individuals. These self-improvement and growth knowledge will empower that you moderate your potential. Know more currently! If you liked this information and you would certainly like to obtain even more facts pertaining to click the next internet site kindly browse through the web site. Terrific suggestions in connection with the topics on this page, you could like: Click Webpage	4,666
Clear quartz is a storm that is primarily composed of both oxygen and silicon atoms. The clear quartz is a luscious, transparent crystal as its name suggests. The stone is believed to bring mental clarity to all those people who carry this gemstone and this gemstone is commonly associated with having several healing and spiritual properties. The clear quartz is known for being a detoxifier or a stone that provides clarity to the mind and the body. It is known to be the ideal stone for anyone who believes in setting new goals and targets. It is a powerful stone that is known to help individuals carve out their visions and provides a clear path away which can be followed to achieve all goals. The Unique Colour of the Clear Quartz There are several components that contribute towards the transparent and clear colour of the clear quartz Crystal. The crystal is a colourless crystal that is a variety of silicate minerals. The clear quartz belongs to the same gemstone group as the rose quartz, amethyst, onyx, jasper and citrine. This unique clear crystal is commonly known as rock crystals or crystal quartz due to its transparent colour. These gemstones are made up of silicon dioxide and are one of the most abundant and common chemical compounds on Earth. This is beneficial for us since the clear quartz is rich and in abundant quantities. Moreover, the clear quartz crystal has a trigonal crystal structure and has a waxy or dull lustre. This gemstone is known for its clarity and its transparent almost opaque colour. The clear quartz crystal is known for its clarity and any gemstone that is eye clean has higher monetary values. Many gemstones have inclusions such as gas, dust particles and even liquid particles that are a result of mineral impurities during crystallisation and hence these gemstones will be cheaper. Why is The Clear Quartz Clear and Smooth? Clear quartz is known to be the second most abundant mineral that is present in the Earth’s crust. It comes in several different varieties which include amethyst, citrine, onyx and agate. The most basic and easiest way to understand the formulation of clear quartz is that it is the crystallised form of silicon dioxide. These clear quartz are formed in igneous rocks or mostly in environments that have geothermal waters. In igneous rocks, these quartz form as magma cools and as water turns to ice, these silicon dioxide particles crystallise while they cook down to fork the quartz. Slow cooling contributes to increasing the size of the gemstone and the gemstone is larger when it is cooled slowly. The quartz is derived from a German word that means hard and many ancient Greeks called the quartz ‘krustallos’ which means icy cold and hence is known as the quartz crystal in English. These quartz crystals are formed through a hydrothermal process and are normally found in three types of geological formations. These environments include silica-rich molten rocks when they are cooling down and solidifying, pegmatites during the pneumatolytic process and watery solutions of the silica which is present under high temperatures and higher pressures. Thereby, the constant changes in pressure and temperature play a crucial role in the overall structure and formation of quartz crystals. The formation of quartz crystals is a slow and gradual cooling process of magma from igneous rocks or the precipitation from the hot watery silica solution. The Various Shapes and Sizes of The Clear Quartz There are several types of shapes a crystal can come in and surprisingly these shapes have strong connections with the meaning of the crystal, its energy output and its use. The point or tower is a type of clear quartz crystal shape that consists of a 6 or 8 sided tower that has a flat base that allows the tower to stand. The energy of this tower shape is usually directed upwards and out. Moreover, these crystal towers are mainly used for Feng Shui, meditating and for cleansing the soul and relaxing the mind. In addition to the crystal towers, another shape is the sphere which is known to emit energy from all its sides and these spheres are known for providing a feeling of harmony, stability, unity and peace. The sphere is known to resemble the circle of life and hence it brings an energy that connects and brings our life force together. The main function of the pyramid is to assist an individual in manifestation. The solid structure of this pyramid is known to have a grounded and stabilised energy and it is known to connect the root and crown chakras. This allows an individual to connect with higher dimensional thinking while still remaining grounded. The main uses of this shape are for Feng Shui, manifestation, cleansing and balancing of the chakras and lastly meditation. The Healing and Soothing Properties of the Colour The transparent colour of this unique gemstone has several soothing and healing properties. This clear colour is not only attributed to mental clarity but also decluttering of the negativity and distractions in the mind, soul and body. This gemstone is a detoxifier as it aligns the mind and soul to focus on achieving the goals that have been set. This gemstone is a perfect addition to people who procrastinate or individuals who easily get distracted. Get yourself clear quartz and see the miracles of this gemstone. The Calmness & Clarity Embodied by The Clear Quartz After going through the unique opaque colour of this clear quartz I’m sure you’re looking to get your hands on one. The key to buying good quality and rare clear quartz is finding a crystal that is eye clean and completely clear.. It is an excellent gift or addition to your gemstone collection. It is commonly associated with providing direction, focus and clarity to individuals. About Author See author's posts Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ by Mr Stew December 7, 2022 Top 11 Food New companies in India by Mr Stew December 7, 2022 by Mr Stew December 7, 2022 by Mr Stew December 7, 2022 by Mr Stew December 7, 2022 Taking advantage of this new type of content, Stewcam aggregates professional communities devoted to topics such as business, health, lifestyle, fashion, finance, news, politics, food, travel, and more.	6,664
Thank you to our great friend, Mandy, for always taking our family photos. We love her and her photography skills! Here are a few things we did this past month… Heather and I took the kids to the Natural History Museum. Kyan was totally into everything; Kayli not so much. But she still had fun following Kyan around and she loves “little Kendall”. My sister, Kelli, graduated from college. She is gonna be a teacher like her big sis! I’m so proud. Haha. Although she will be taking on the middle schoolers! Mother’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year! Kenny really surprised me this year with a girls’ trip to California with some of my best girlfriends in July! Pictures to come later! We had so much fun at Kendall’s first birthday luau! Heather made the best pork and had the cutest luau. Jill and Alise were also able to be there with all of their kids so it was a fun reunion! It was super fun watching all the kids play together. Kyan chased Beau around all night. Kayli chased Kendall around all night… Rachel and I took the kids to Nielsen’s and it’s a super cute little diner! Cousins are the best! We finally finished our table! It took a few weeks since we could really only work on it on the weekends. I’m getting tired of eating on the floor! I love the way it turned out though! We just took our old table, Kenny rebuilt the top, and I painted the legs. He stained and sealed it all too. He’s the best for always letting me do projects and for helping me too! And he’s starting to realize that all the crazy ideas I get from Pinterest are good ideas! Haha. Beau is always hungry, loves to spit, teething, sleeping great, and always wanting mommy. We sure love our almost 10-month old! Kayli loves to take care of her dolls, go running, sing, shop with mommy, go to the library, and tell me “remember when…” and then tell me something that happened months ago. Her memory boggles my mind. She knows all the words to “I Love to See the Temple”. She loves the temple so much that the other night my parents took her to walk around the temple while Kenny and I were there. She was so sad that she couldn’t come with us. My mom said she danced and sang “I Love to See the Temple” for an hour while they walked around. She’s also my sporty little girl. She watched me play volleyball for a weeks at the church and now she always wants to “go to volleyball” and she always has “volleyball class”. I don’t mind at all! We had a big family softball game the other night and she had so much fun running the bases, catching the football, and playing volleyball with her aunts. (All with a princess crown on of course.) And she has Beau well trained… Kenny keeps on working…being a business owner is hard work! (As you can see…) Comments Casey says June 17, 2013 at 3:49 am Oh my gosh, cute cute cute! I love the family pictures. And how fun to see Jill and Alise and their kids?!?!!? LUCKY!!! Love you!	3,102
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Though cliché and repeated to no end, that statement is one of the truest things in the whole wide world. It’s why people put such great stock into education, into learning, whether it’s in a classroom or in the comfort of their own homes. Online courses are gaining more and more traction these days, most notably in a Covid-19 world. So what better time than now not to just learn new things, but to actually go out there and share what you have and teach something online? How hard can it be? Unsurprisingly, it is extremely hard. Aside form the technological logistics of preparing a good camera set-up and getting great sound, you must fix your courses, plan out every lesson, edit your classes into something engaging and not at all boring and finally get it out there. You can have the best classes in the world, but if it can’t get it into the hands of the ones that need it the most, then what is the point right? And that is where Thinkific comes in. Thinkific is an online course platform that can help you create, sell and market online courses on your website. If you are the teacher in this circumstance, Thinkific makes sure you have a school full of paying pupils eager to learn. You guys work hand-in-hand to change lives. So is Thinkific any good? Let us find out. Thinkific shines in its features. Not only is it easy to use, friendly to people even with hardly any experience in this sort of thing, it has everything you may need. They have a wonderful Website Builder you can use to house your educational content. Though you can’t set up your own style sheets, it is still a fairly versatile tool which allows you to make a fairly good looking home page and as many custom pages as you need, for all of the information you might need. For now there are three themes for the website to choose from, and under each theme are a number of variants to choose form, providing you with a wide range of options. Apparently, they do plan on expanding the number of themes eventually. There are also pre-built sections you can insert into your site as needed, if you ever want to, and there is also a blank slate”Text and Media” option if you would like to build from scratch. It all boils down to you needs. If you wish to build your entire site on Thinkific, you can! It’s equipped enough to allow you to do that. A far more shining aspect of Thinkific is its course creator, not because its fancy or anything, but because of its beautiful simplicity. A mostly drag and drop editor, it lets you stack up whatever you need, which makes the procedure all very painless. If you wish to mess around with the code though and really get into it, you can do this as well. You can make it as unique and customized as you want However, for most people, they would happily lean into the drag and drop editor. In terms of the kinds of lessons you’ll be able to create, Thinkific’s got you covered. You can whip up Video Lessons, Multimedia Lessons, Quiz Lessons, Survey Lessons and Audio lessons to name a few. It is all there. Communication with your students is also a breeze. You can send individual emails to your students or begin a conversation with the whole community. They even remember to concentrate on the little things that people tend to gloss over: Visual Management. Each student’s picture can be seen, names, contact information and how far they are into their course is visible. To sum it up, Thinkific is quite easy to use and offers you everything you might need in creating your course. We should never forget how important it is to have the right tools and software for our business. However, now that you have created your platform, how can you fill it up with students? Sometimes, some online platforms kind of skimp out on the promotions area, which is honestly a key failure on their part. After all, what’s the use of an online course with no pupils right? It doesn’t matter whether you have the best course in the world if no one will ever hear of it. Thinkific understands this and therefore, built their promotional tools and programs in their platform at a really smart and powerful way. That and it’s automated, making it even easier for you. If you want to introduce specific content to your pupils, wherein they’ll be informed of certain courses that will be released over time, Thinkific can accomplish this. If you would like to target specific people who may be more inclined to go for what you are offering, Thinkific can send automated emails to them. It can even be scheduled if you’d like! And you have the power to be compensated immediately once someone signs up for your course, so that is a good added bonus. If you’re searching for an affiliate program so that you can request help of others in getting more students, Thinkific has that also. You can even have coupons ready so you can easily lure prospective new students with great deals. If you want to have the ability to track where these students are coming form, informing your possible next steps in terms of advertising, you can do that from the dashboard as well. You can see and track affiliates, coupons, and link up your Adwords, Facebook and other social networking accounts for a better view of the traffic. In other words you can set up a simple sales funnel! In terms on integrations in advertising though, Thinkific was smart enough to focus on 6 important points: E-Commerce, Automation Tools, Analytics (which is very important), Email Marketing, Student Success and Growth Tools. The degree of which you can access these integrations though are determined by which specific plan that you have, so that’s something you have to remember. They are very versatile when it comes to this aspect, so that’s always a great thing to have on your side. And speaking of those that are on your side. > > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < < Thinkific includes a Help Center that’s going to be very helpful, especially when you’re starting out. It has a getting started, training and community section. The community section is of particular note, because here you can interact with, request support from and just generally talk to other Thinkific users. It’s wonderful to have a guide, but it’s really different being able to speak to another person about particular things. There is also a resource page with all kinds of product demos to introduce you to the stage, and to help you out. A blog filled with really helpful tutorials is also available, and there’s even a free training video ready for whenever you feel you want it. Sadly, Thinkific doesn’t really have a number you can call for help, and that is honestly one of its failings. > > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < < Their pricing is split into four plans, one of which is Free and perfect for those who sort of just want to dip their feet in the water first. This is the aforementioned free plan, which offers you the most basic core features of Thinkific. It’s got a fairly high 10% transaction fee, and gives you what you need to start making, marketing, selling, and upselling your courses. It even has the basic integrations, Stripe/PayPal support (which will always be helpful ) and access to all the funds. At $49 a month, this is where things get a bit more interesting. Apart from the core features, the transaction fee is now 5 percent, and you also get new things such as coupons and promotions, monthly subscriptions, class bundles, a higher level of integration, basic Zapier, drip content, affiliate reporting, a bulk student emailer, custom domain and extra course prices. This is for the ones that want just a little bit extra, but are not going all in yet on their online learning platform. This could be ideal for smaller courses. To access the Business Plan, you’ll need to shell out $99 a month. Apart from getting all of the features in the prior plans, you’re now supplemented by no transaction fees, completion certificates, private and hidden courses, site white labeling, a host storyline, intermediate Zapier, webhooks, three-course accounts, advanced HTML/CSS editing, priority support, teacher payout reporting, an onboarding call, payment plans, and an immediate Infusionsoft integration. And lastly, for $279 a month, you can go all in. You get everything in each of the prior plans Plus a single sign-on (SSO), three site admin accounts, 10-course admin accounts, an onboarding specialist, onboarding package, public API, advanced integrations, and advanced Zapier. If you want to go big, Advanced is the way to go. All in all, the pricing for Thinkific stands at a pretty reasonable price, with what’s competitive as compared to other similar platforms. > > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < < So now that that we have run down the fundamentals of what Thinkific offers, do you think that it’s the right platform for you? Honestly, we believe that it could very well be. We love what it has to offer, and we truly believe that it’ll empower you to really be an education entrepreneur that can go to the next level. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner, or that you have already started in this particular industry. Thinkific will help take you to the next level. You do not have to think that hard about it. Q: Is there a MoneyBack guarantee with Thinkific? A: Yes, Thinkific does offer a 30-day money back guarantee! Q: Is Thinkific considered as an LMS? A: Yes Thinkific is considered as an LMS (Learning Management System) Q: Is Thinkific friendly to people without technical expertise? A: Thinkific was created so that anyone can come onboard and begin their online education business, whatever the degree of experience of experience. > > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < < ← Previous Post Next Post → Knowledge is power. Though cliché and repeated to no end, that statement is one of the truest things in the whole wide world. It is why people put such great stock into education, into learning, whether it’s in a classroom or in the comfort of their own homes. Online courses are gaining more and more traction these days, most especially in a Covid-19 world. So what better time than now not to just learn new things, but to actually go out there and share what you have and teach something online? How hard can it be? Unsurprisingly, it is extremely hard. Aside form the technical logistics of setting up a fantastic camera set-up and getting great sound, you have to fix your courses, plan out each lesson, edit your classes into something engaging and not in any way dull and finally get it out there. You can have the best courses in the world, but if it can not get it into the hands of the ones that need it the most, then what is the point right? And that is where Thinkific comes in. Thinkific is an online course platform that can allow you to create, sell and market online courses on your website. If you’re the teacher in this circumstance, Thinkific makes sure you have a school filled with paying students eager to learn. You guys work hand-in-hand to change lives. So is Thinkific any good? Let us find out. Thinkific shines in its features. Not only is it easy to use, friendly to those even with hardly any experience in this type of thing, it’s everything you may need. They have a wonderful Website Builder you can use to house your educational content. Although you can’t set up your own style sheets, it is still a pretty versatile tool which lets you make a pretty good looking home page and as many custom pages as you need, for all of the information you may need. For now there are three themes for the website to select from, and under each theme are a number of variants to choose form, providing you with a wide range of options. Apparently, they do plan on expanding the number of themes eventually. There are also pre-built sections you can insert into your website as needed, in the event that you ever want to, and there is also a blank slate”Text and Media” option if you want to build from scratch. Everything boils down to you preference. If you wish to build your entire website on Thinkific, you can! It’s equipped enough to allow you to do that. A far more shining facet of Thinkific is its course creator, not because its fancy or anything, but because of its beautiful simplicity. A mostly drag and drop editor, it lets you stack up whatever you need, which makes the process all very painless. If you want to mess around with the code though and really get into it, you can do this as well. You can make it as unique and customized as you want However, for most people, they would happily lean into the drag and drop editor. Concerning the kinds of lessons you’ll be able to make, Thinkific’s got you covered. You can whip up Video Lessons, Multimedia Lessons, Quiz Lessons, Survey Lessons and Audio lessons to name a few. It is all there. Communication with your students is also a breeze. You can send individual emails to your students or start a conversation with the whole community. They even remember to concentrate on the small things that people tend to gloss over: Visual Management. Each student’s picture can be seen, names, contact information and how far they are into their class is visible. To sum it up, Thinkific is quite simple to use and offers you everything you might need in creating your program. We should never forget how important it is to have the right tools and software for our business. However, now that you’ve established your platform, how do you fill it up with pupils? Occasionally, some online platforms kind of skimp out on the promotions area, which is honestly a key failure on their part. After all, what is the use of an online course with no students right? It doesn’t matter if you have the best course in the world if no one could ever hear of it. Thinkific understands this and as such, built their promotional tools and programs into their platform at a really smart and effective way. That and it’s automated, making it even easier for you. If you want to introduce specific content to your pupils, wherein they’ll be informed of particular courses that will be released over time, Thinkific can accomplish this. If you want to target certain people who may be more inclined to go for what you’re offering, Thinkific can send out automated emails to them. It may even be scheduled if you would like! And you have the ability to be paid immediately once someone signs up for your course, so that’s a good added bonus. If you’re looking for an affiliate program so that you can ask for help of other people in getting more students, Thinkific has that too. You can even have coupons ready so that you can easily entice potential new students with wonderful deals. If you want to be able to monitor where these students are coming form, informing your potential next steps in terms of advertising, you can do this from the dashboard also. You can see and track coupons, affiliates, and link up your Adwords, Facebook and other social media accounts for a better view of the traffic. In other words you can set up a simple sales funnel! In terms on integrations in advertising though, Thinkific was smart enough to focus on 6 important points: E-Commerce, Automation Tools, Analytics (which is very important), Email Marketing, Student Success and Growth Tools. The level of which you may access these integrations though are determined by which specific plan that you have, so that is something you need to remember. They are quite versatile when it comes to this aspect, so that is always a good thing to have on your side. And speaking of those that are on your side. > > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < < Thinkific comes with a Help Center that is going to be very helpful, particularly when you’re starting out. It has a getting started, training and community section. The community section is of particular note, because here you can interact with, request support from and just generally speak to other Thinkific users. It’s nice to have a guide, but it is really different being able to talk to another person about particular things. There’s also a resource page with all sorts of product demos to introduce you to the stage, and to give you a hand. A blog filled with really helpful tutorials is also available, and there’s even a free training video prepared for whenever you feel you want it. Sadly, Thinkific doesn’t actually have a number you can call for assistance, and that’s honestly one of its failings. > > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < < Their pricing is split into four plans, one of which is absolutely free and ideal for those who sort of just want to dip their feet in the water . This is the aforementioned free plan, which offers you the most basic core features of Thinkific. It’s got a fairly high 10% transaction fee, and gives you what you will need to start making, marketing, selling, and upselling your courses. It even has the basic integrations, Stripe/PayPal support (which will remain useful) and access to all the funds. At $49 a month, this is where things get a little more interesting. Apart from the core features, the transaction fee is now 5 percent, and you also get new things such as coupons and promotions, monthly subscriptions, course bundles, a greater degree of integration, basic Zapier, drip content, affiliate reporting, a bulk student emailer, customized domain and extra course prices. This is for those that want a little bit extra, but are not going all in yet on their online learning platform. This could be good for smaller courses. To access the Business Plan, you’ll need to shell out $99 per month. Apart from getting all the features in the prior plans, you’re now supplemented with no transaction fees, completion certificates, private and hidden courses, site white labeling, a host storyline, intermediate Zapier, webhooks, three-course accounts, advanced HTML/CSS editing, priority support, teacher payout reporting, an onboarding call, payment plans, and a direct Infusionsoft integration. And finally, for $279 per month, you can go all in. You get everything in all the prior plans Plus a single sign-on (SSO), three site admin accounts, 10-course admin accounts, an onboarding specialist, onboarding package, public API, advanced integrations, and advanced Zapier. If you want to go big, Advanced is the best way to go. All in all, the pricing for Thinkific stands at a pretty reasonable price, with what’s competitive as compared to other similar platforms. > > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < < So now that that we have run down the fundamentals of what Thinkific has to offer, do you think that it’s the right platform for you? Honestly, we believe it could very well be. We love what it offers, and we truly believe that it’ll empower you to truly be an education entrepreneur who can go to another level. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner, or that you’ve already started in this specific industry. Thinkific can help take you to another level. You do not have to think that hard about it. A: No, it’s an authentic free plan. If it suits your needs, you can use it for as long as you want. Q: Is there a MoneyBack guarantee with Thinkific? A: Yes, Thinkific does offer a 30-day money back guarantee! Q: Is Thinkific regarded as an LMS? A: Yes Thinkific is considered as an LMS (Learning Management System) Q: Is Thinkific friendly to those without technical experience? A: Thinkific was designed so that anyone can come onboard and start their online education company, no matter the degree of expertise of experience. > > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < < ← Previous Post Next Post → Copyright © 2022 Educational Freedom \| Sitemap \| Disclaimer: We receive compensation from companies whose products and services we recommend	20,716
A bed mattress is a difficult purchase to make and you want to ensure you get something that fits your particular needs. Products can differ dramatically in materials, functions, and prices so it’s crucial to understand what you’re trying to find and what to ask when buying a bed mattress. There are numerous elements to consider, such as the type of bed mattress, the size of the bed, and your sleeping practices. The first thing you should do is find out what kind of bed mattress you desire. There are 3 main types: innerspring bed mattress, foam bed mattress, and airbeds. Innerspring mattresses are made with coils that provide support for your body while foam mattresses provide a more comfy sleep experience. Airbeds are fantastic for visitors since they can be inflated or deflated depending on the number of individuals will be sleeping on them. Bed mattress can be found in 4 different types: foam, spring coil, air, and water. Foam bed mattress are normally made with polyurethane foam and priced the most affordable. Spring coils mattresses are made with springs inside of the bed( usually individually wrapped). Blow-up mattress use air as their filling product and an electrical pump as the inflator. The last bed mattress type is water which as you would picture uses water filling product within it with an electrical pump for inflation.” With these standard functions in mind, you can now start narrowing down your search for the ideal item. Prior to you begin looking for a mattress Your bedroom requires a mattress if you are looking to start your mattress search. To do this, consider personal characteristics- namely, qualities about your preferences. Picking a mattress is a really individual choice and there is no one-size-fits all. However, there are some things you need to know prior to buying a mattress. The most important feature of a bed mattress is the convenience level. It’s the structure of your mattress, and you wish to feel rested when you wake up and comfy when you go to sleep. Bed mattress can be divided into the following 4 convenience levels: firm, luxurious, medium, and soft. Firm bed mattress tend to be the most firm and the least pillowy. To begin the narrowing down process, you’ll need to consider a different mattress type. That is, one that is thicker, a hybrid, or one with a memory foam. The innerspring bed mattress, which is harder to find these days, is typically made from steel coils and may be covered with material to assist cushion the springy sensation. While continuous coils avoid motion transfer when sleepers are laying in the very same bed, they are not able to fully avoid the transfer of motion in between the two sleepers. For the most part, if there are two bedfellows, they will require a bed mattress with separately wrapped coils.A mattress with separately wrapped coils can be the most economical mattress you’ll discover, however it’s also the least comfortable. There are lots of types of mattresses that can be found in various sizes, shapes, and fabrics. Polyurethane foam cushions are typically the bottom layer of foam bed mattress. Often these bed mattress have a company feel as they are filled with polyurethane foam that is tough. Memory foam bed mattress, when produced a whole mattress, appear to go together with the name because of their special methods to support your body Memory foam is the bottom layer in these bed mattress, due to the fact that it tends to be soft and complies with your body. So, the mattress companies include foam, gel, or perforations to their bed mattress to improve airflow and enhance temperature regulation. Latex mattresses are made with products that feel more durable and cooler to people who sleep hot or alter their sleeping position often. You may even wish to prevent traditional and organic foam bed mattress because of their inability to hold heat. If you sleep on a bed mattress that traps you in one spot, you may wish to consider latex options, considering that natural memory foam bed mattress don’t exist. Numerous latex mattresses have organic or natural materials that are more resilient and cooler than memory foam. If you want to sleep natural, however, you need to search for latex options. Memory foam is typically more comfortable to use than latex. A “hybrid” bed, including a coil spring base and an extra layer of foam or latex, combines the very best features of foam, latex and coil spring– for body comfort. Hybrids often cost more than their foam and latex equivalents. These mattresses likewise keep a comfortable level of air-flow, even when it is hot in your bed room. Their design does not use support the method a coil spring mattress does, however, so a bed mattress with a hybrid coil spring base must only be utilized if you need firm support. Airbed Sure enough, you can bring a comfortable inflatable bed with you when you go camping. A better quality variation is offered which includes cushioning on top. Airbeds that can be “personalized” work well for individuals with altering assistance requirements. A great brand with a good guarantee is a must. Make sure to check the quality of sleep before taking you camp is too away the main roads. It can’t hurt to consult your doctor to ensure the bed mattress you’re selecting can safely offer the best assistance for the very best night’s sleep. It’s finest to prevent soft bed mattress and firm ones rather. Foam mattresses are a great choice for most people as they use both comfort and support. The best bed for back sleepers is a bed that provides firm assistance and also provides sufficient room for your body. You should likewise consider the density of the bed mattress, the size of the mattress, and the rate prior to making your purchase. There are lots of bed mattress on the marketplace that are created specifically for back sleepers These mattresses have a firmer feel, which is what the majority of people prefer when they sleep on their backs. Sleeping on your side puts a lot of pressure on your shoulders and hips so you should try to find a bed that enables you the comfort and assistance you require. Numerous side sleepers discover that memory foam or pillow-top bed mattress supply one of the most support.. Side sleepers are the most common kind of sleeper. They are also the most tough to find a bed mattress for. The best mattress for side sleepers is one that is firm enough to support their weight, however soft adequate to offer convenience and pressure relief. The very best bed mattress for side sleepers are those that have a medium-firm feel. This will offer the correct amount of support and convenience for your body while you sleep on your side. Healthcare companies may recommend a stomach-sleepers switch to a mattress position that uses more health benefits. According to an online short article published on Feb 7, 2007 by The Sun, sleeping on your stomach puts stress on your spine. Gradually, that stress in your spinal column can lead to back and neck pain. Having a company bed mattress or hybrid bed mattress might have the ability to protect your spine while enabling you to sleep on your stomach. Individuals who have a tough time adjusting to moving regularly in bed are “combination sleepers.” Sleeping on a mattress that offers both comfort and support is vital if you are a combination sleeper. A medium-firm mattress might be precisely what you require, considering that it will keep you comfy whether sleeping on one side or your back. Attempt a soft, latex or memory foam mattress that will react well to movement, such as a hybrid bed mattress. Related Posts: Physique You may have to search for a various bed which is firmer for individuals with a lower weight. Your body type can also impact the level of assistance you need. Everyone has a various shape, which will impact the pressure on your spine as you attempt to sleep, Longo says. Individuals who weigh less, or less weight than roughly 130 pounds, will more than likely requirement more support for a good night’s sleep. It is fine if you prefer a firmer bed, but if you require pain and pressure relief, and have a much heavier body type. Consumer Reviews On The Ghostbed People weighing more than 300 pounds or two require a firmer bed to get appropriate support. Hybrid beds, which offer both the support of innerspring coils and the comfort and softness of foam, can supply enduring quality no matter what your weight. You’ll also have a much better sleep if you purchase a bed mattress longer than 12 inches given that the bed mattress will not be too short. Full sized bed mattress that are between 12 and 16 inches long are normally appropriate for the majority of people, but taller people will probably want that they had bought the longer option, and much shorter people with much shorter legs might have difficulty with a full-sized bed mattress. Consumer Reviews On The Ghostbed If you are a bigger frame, and have actually been struggling to sleep, you’re more than welcome to buy the mattress you want as well as the boxspring. New bed mattress can be of great quality or at cheaper costs however you can get them from about $600 to $1,000. That’s about average. Nevertheless, it’s not just the mattress itself that determines its expense, but also the accessories, such as extra pillows, flippability, temperature guideline, and other features. These things tend to be extremely pricey. An up-market mattress, such as a queen luxury one, can cost as much as $1500 and more. You may not require a high-end bed mattress, however you likely will not get a good night’s sleep from a poor-quality mattress. You may just need a replacement in a couple of years, so it’s typically worth buying a great mattress. A good bed mattress should last around 10 years. Many mattress companies now make a trial duration in which you can return your mattress totally free within a specific time frame if you’re dissatisfied by the quality of the bed. Examine the service warranty. While you’re looking for brand-new, ensure you look for a service warranty on the mattress you are buying. With the majority of bed mattress, you’ll generally get a minimum replacement or non-prorated warranty of 10 years. Secure your financial investment. Don’t forget an anti-allergen mattress protector. That bed mattress might be stained, no matter what you believe. It can still void your guarantee. Keep in mind: higher rate does not always equivalent higher quality. It is natural to believe that the more you spend, the better the bed mattress. High prices do not guarantee quality, and they certainly do not guarantee that you will personally delight in the mattress. Instead, what you see is what you will get. As you check out, think about whether the products of which the mattress is made are durable and environmentally noise. As you sleep on it, search for your own preferences in a bed mattress that will enable a healthy spine and sleep, not to mention an economical mattress you can. Consumer Reviews On The Ghostbed	11,377
Water is a most vital resource for sustenance of life on Earth. Water is used in almost every sector including household, construction, irrigation, industrial and commercial sector, etc. Water has been exploited uncontrollably, without any provision since the civilization exists. Water efficiency simply means minimizing wastewater. Water conservation implies improved practices and technologies to save or store water at every possible opportunity and using water resources as sparingly as possible and thus, reducing wastewater. The safety of the building occupants and corresponding environment is a fundamental goal and it must be guaranteed during and after the construction of any building. The materials and method used must ensure green safety standards. Green buildings are future the for sustainable development. Green building or sustainable design building refers to the practice of increasing of buildings and their sites which use energy, water, minerals, etc. and reduces impact on human health and environment. India has currently two rating systems namely, LEED and GRIHA: LEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. GRIHA: Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment. techniques/Ways to Conserve Water in Construction 1. Use of Fly ash as Replacement to Cement in Concrete Fly Ash possesses siliceous and aluminous characteristics and can be used to replace cement in concrete mix up to appreciable extent. Use of Fly Ash proves to be an economical replacement which is also recognized as environmentally friendly due to its Low Embodied Energy (LEE) it means, much less energy is required for its overall processing. Concrete mix containing Fly ash requires less water and provides better workability at same water content. Drip curing, a new technology based on concept of drip irrigation, gives the most promising results. Practically, at site drip curing gives the optimum level of compressive strength along with that using water resource most efficiently. In drip curing, water is applied directly at the required spot or location, minimizing conveyance losses. Moreover, to increase the efficiency of curing we can cover the concrete surface by moist canvas. Sometimes, membrane curing is also preferred as moist curing generally requires less water because the membrane helps to keep a satisfactory and optimum temperature, preventing unnecessary evaporation water loss. Use of these admixtures, reduce the amount of water required, while maintaining am optimum level of workability and consistency i.e., provide certain workability at less water cement ratio, which further results in better strength and durability. It also decreases the concrete porosity and reduces permeability, thus, further reducing loss of water. Water reducing admixtures actually neutralizes surface charges and allows for better dispersion resulting in reduced flocculation of cement particles and formation of greater slump In general, maximum amount of water is used during preparation of mortar and during curing. Use of dry mortar, efficiently reduces the water requirement as there is no need of wet mortar. Moreover, use of dry mortar completely eliminates the curing need. This helps in massive conservation of water in pre-construction phase. The process of collecting natural rainwater or used grey water with a motive to reduce the exploitation of water and further treating and reusing the collected water. In case of household, water harvesting is mostly used in conjugation with dual pumping and grey water treatment. These mechanisms, reduces the sewer traffic and designing becomes economical. The stored water can be used whenever required and small scale construction during rainy season with proper precautions always proves economical and water efficient. 6. Proper Management of Resources during construction A proper management is required to save water during application in a construction. The saved water from harvesting or recycled water can be surely used for works other than mixing in cement, like cleaning working site, cleaning equipments, etc. If conserving water is major concern then, while cleaning site and equipment a continuous water flow through pipes must be avoided and application in small packets like buckets might be used. 7. Reducing Consumption of Water by Design and Using Water meters Low flush toilets or High efficiency toilets, waterless urinals contribute to huge water savings. Modern taps and showers entrails air with the flow, reducing quantity of water flow. Further, marking and monitoring the quantity usage of water may result in higher average water savings and helps in creating awareness for water scarcity. Use of water saving fixtures and appliances can reduce the water consumption by as much as 30% to 40%.	4,917
Hello everyone, Over the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to announce a lot of exciting developments within Zodiac Fleet. Tonight I am afraid that I have to share a sad one. My dear friend Maj Patton has shared that the Timeship Herodotus has chosen to close. The Herodotus is a fascinating game. Set aboard a Federation timeship in the late 24th Century, the mission of the Herodotus is to both explore and protect time itself. I will deeply miss the Herodotus, but I surely wish each and every member of the team aboard it well. They are now and always will be part of the Zodiac Fleet family.… read more Will Comments Off on USS Herodotus is no more Out of Character June 2, 2019 / The 16th Fleet has been lucky in the last several weeks to have experienced the growth of our organization as new friends join our efforts to have a group run by gamers for gamers. It is my pleasure to announce that we have had three more additions to our group in the last few weeks, bringing us to 13 games within our growing organization. The Starship Aries is a Defiant Class starship that was launched to carry out the missions that no one else could accomplish, starting their career during the Dominion War until they vanished without a trace. 20 years have passed and now the Aries is back with…	1,335
The fist-sized Mini Buckler is smaller and more maneuverable at deflecting blows than larger models. Its size gives it distinct blocking and defense advantages in situations where a larger buckler might be an impediment. Shipping from This product is shipped from our supplier's warehouse in Celina, OH, United States Our guarantee This product is brand new and includes the manufacturer's warranty, so you can buy with confidence. A 25% handling charge is levied against all authorized returns except those due to our error. Unauthorized returns are subject to a 40% handling charge. Damages & defects must be reported to us within 14 days.	641
Some say data & AI will make recruiters’ jobs obsolete. Others say AI could never replace recruiters… So where is the lie? Honestly, as recruiters, we’re excited about what data and AI can tell us, and we want to embrace it as much as we can. We are already surrounded by sophisticated algorithms that can read & sort through CVs quicker than any human can, there’s even one that can analyse user behaviour on LinkedIn to identify people who aren’t actively looking for a job, but wouldn’t mind hearing about one either. There’s talk of AI being able to conduct initial phone/video screenings, although we’re less convinced of quite how much further along an artificial intelligence could carry the process… A lot of the time getting the right fit relies on that gut feeling, that lightbulb moment when you’re listening to a potential candidate speak and think, “Damn, this is just right!”. But for the things that AI can do, we’re all for it. Why not embrace something that makes your life easier? Complex data capture helps us to reflect on our processes and identify exactly what we could be doing to streamline our workflow and make our offering more valuable to our customers. And intelligent automation of some of the more administrative, time-consuming tasks that take up our days right now means we can spend longer focusing on the human element of serving our customers better. So there are recruiters who could, and likely will be replaced by AI in the near future. Those in the firing line first will be those who approach their roles as a machine would, ticking boxes and clocking up numbers. Or, to put it in slightly less eloquent terms, throwing s**t at the wall until something sticks. But there aren’t many of this type of recruiter left, especially in our industry, and those still about could do with weeding out as far as we’re concerned! No one can really know the full extent of how technological advancements will affect all of our jobs in the future. But what we do know is that the employment landscape as we know it will change forever. And as this new landscape evolves, so should recruitment. So we say bring on the machines, there’s plenty of room for both of us. Just not Skynet. 14th November 2022 You have a viable product and now it’s time for rapid growth. In order to achieve this, you need a talented and tenacious go-to-market (GTM) team. Putting together the right GTM team can seem like a daunting task and is largely dependent on your strategy. Typically, you need a team that will be able to […] Read more 10th November 2022 The 7 Most Common Hiring Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them) If you’re like most founders or heads of talent at tech startups or scaleups, you’re probably always on the lookout for top talent. But as your company grows, it can be tough to keep up with the demand. And as you race to fill open positions, it’s easy to make hiring mistakes. In this blog […] Read more 1st September 2022 We’ve put together a list of the 9 best GTM (go-to-market ) job boards in Europe to help you find the right growth champions for your team. 1. Sales Jobs Sales Jobs is a dedicated sales job board for GTM professionals in the UK. Sales Jobs postings are seen by over 915,600 registered […]	3,366
Sam Hunt released a brand-new song, "Sinning With You," on Friday (Jan. 3). The track, which readers can hear above, takes a look at changing religious beliefs through the lens of love. "It’s a metaphor for a small-town guy who was raised with traditional values, a lot of those rooted in church and faith,” Hunt tells Rolling Stone. "Most of the value systems that I grew up around are rooted in religion and church. "You start to read books and talk to people who grew up in different backgrounds, and you try to collect that knowledge and find some meaning, some truth," the singer continues. "It speaks to the broader pursuit of truth and understanding, in terms of how you are supposed to live your life." The lyrics of "Sinning With You" talk about a woman "raised in the first pew" with a "spotless record [that] was probably in jeopardy" when she started seeing a man with a "checkered" past. Hunt's wife, Hannah Lee Fowler, is the daughter of a pastor. "His grace and your grace / Felt like the same thing to me," Hunt sings. "I never felt like I was sinning with you / Always felt like I could talk to God in the morning / I knew that I would end up with you / Always felt like I could talk to God in the morning / If it's so wrong, why did it feel so right? / If it's so wrong, why'd it never feel like / Sinning with you?" Hunt explains to Rolling Stone that he "100 percent" hopes "Sinning With You" resonates with LGBTQ+ fans, too. "You hope that we can evolve out of some of the naiveté that may or may not have been necessarily rooted in right or wrong, but more tradition that’s been passed down," he reflects. "I think it’s important we think about these things and don’t accept rules because they are rules. We should try to understand the ‘whys’ behind the things we do, and the moral structure we apply to our lives," Hunt adds. "It takes some living and learning, but I’m always in pursuit of that.” "Sinning With You," which Hunt has been playing live for a few months, is the second new song from a forthcoming sophomore album from the artist; it's also his first track since being arrested for DUI in November, an event that caused the song's release to be pushed back. The song and its predecessor, the single "Kinfolks," follow 2017's "Body Like a Back Road" and 2018's "Downtown's Dead." Hunt has not released a full studio record since dropping his acclaimed debut disc, Montevallo, in 2014. “It was a crazy time, in the political world -- all the bumps in the road as we progress as a society. I needed to figure out what part I was going to play in all that, and how I wanted to go about it," Hunt says of processing his new role as a country music star post-Montevallo, and of figuring out how to progress. "Is music the right direction? I had to sit and think about those things, because the world tells you that if you have this opportunity to make music and be on the radio and be rich and famous, you should do that. Because people would kill to. But that’s not enough of a reason. I wanted a deeper understanding of what I was doing, and why.” In late 2019, Hunt said his long-awaited sophomore album was due to his label on Jan. 1; album details are still sparse, but he's shared that "Nothing Lasts Forever," along with "Kinfolks" and "Sinning With You," are part of the project. “There is more of that lighthearted sentiment on some songs," Hunt says, "and then there are some reflective songs that balance those songs out." Producers Zach Crowell, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne are back for Hunt's sophomore album. He notes that the break he's taken from the studio -- and, in 2019, from the road -- has put him back in touch with not only family members and dear friends but with his musical roots. "I definitely, if anything, will slide back into even a more traditional sound," Hunt says. "I like the idea of being adventurous and finding new ways to combine styles and to try to come up with something new and fresh." Source: Sam Hunt Says New Song ‘Sinning With You’ ‘Speaks to the Broader Pursuit of Truth and Understanding’	4,139
According to recently filed court documents, federal authorities have recommended a prison term of 41 months for one East Helena brother who participated in the January 6, 2021 riot in Washington, DC, and 51 months for the other. The government has demanded that Joshua Hughes, 38, not only be sentenced to almost four years in prison but also that he undergo three years of supervised release and $2,000 in damages plus a mandatory $100 special assessment pays. Authorities are asking for four years and three months in prison for Jerod Hughes, 37, plus three years supervised release, $2,000 in compensation and a mandatory $100 special assessment. The sentencing is in the middle of counseling guidelines, according to court filings. “A 46-month sentence reflects the seriousness of Joshua Hughes’ conduct while also recognizing his early admission of guilt,” they wrote. On Jan. 6, 2021, the brothers were part of a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump who broke into the Capitol to contest confirmation of the Electoral College vote that would nominate Democrat Joe Biden as president. Trump falsely claimed he won the election. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia said the brothers “lead the spear” that day and “actively participated in the destruction of government property,” harassed and obstructed Capitol police, and obstructed a joint session of Congress. The Hughes brothers were among a group who smashed down windows and doors to get into the Capitol, according to federal court documents. The brothers turned themselves in to authorities upon their return to Montana and were initially jailed in early 2021. They pleaded not guilty and were released from custody on their own initiative. The brothers pleaded guilty on August 25 to obstructing an official arraignment process. At one time they faced nine offenses. Officials determined that as of January 6, 2021, more than 100 law enforcement officers were injured and more than $2.8 million in damage was incurred. Authorities note that some of the losses on the day are “incalculable”. The sentencing memoranda were filed Nov. 15 in US District Court in the District of Columbia, where the brothers recently pleaded guilty over the phone with Judge Timothy J. Kelly. The judge has requested that the brothers come to Washington DC for sentencing on November 22nd. Joshua Hughes asked the court on Nov. 15 to sentence him to a four-year suspended sentence with conditions, including community service, for time served. He said that if the court was “inclined to give him a prison sentence,” he could put himself in the Bureau of Prison’s SeaTac facility in Seattle. As of late Friday afternoon, no such request had been made by Jerod Hughes. Kelly on Friday ordered Jerod Hughes to file a sentencing memorandum by November 19 or the court would not sentence him on November 22. Federal authorities said in the memorandums that the brothers advanced through a violent crowd on the western front and climbed scaffolding on the northwest steps to get past the crowd and advance even further. They said they pushed up the stairs to the front of the rioters to break through the very last line of police protecting the Capitol. They saw the rioters smash windows. Of Joshua Hughes, they said, “He eagerly jumped through the broken window to become the ninth rioter that day to occupy the US Capitol.” He then approached Jerod, who had kicked open the Senate wing door to let in hundreds of rioters. The brothers then roamed the hallways threatening police and chasing Eugene Goodman, a Capitol Police officer, according to the memorandum. Authorities said Jerod Hughes then shouted threats at the police guarding the Senate chamber. Joshua and Jerod Hughes led the group advancing up the police line, and they folded their arms as they advanced. He reportedly texted friends a few minutes later: “We broke into the capital.” Authorities said the brothers then went into the Senate chambers and watched as other rioters checked “sensitive documents” left behind by senators who were forced to flee. Joshua Hughes threw his cellphone in the trash when he learned he was wanted by the FBI, authorities said in the memorandum. The brothers drove nearly 2,150 miles from Helena to Washington, DC beginning January 3 and spent the night in Gaithersburg, Maryland on January 5. Joshua Hughes received an email from his girlfriend on Jan. 5, warning him that the rally he was going to attend could be “extremely violent,” according to a cellphone screenshot. She said she hoped he would stay safe. “…and remember, I don’t want a partner who engages in violence,” she wrote. Joshua Hughes responded, but only to say he made it to Maryland, authorities said. Joshua Hughes said in a memorandum to the court filed by his attorney that he never felt the need to set foot on the Capitol, nor did he plan to, he just wanted to see what was going on. He denies pushing his way through the line of Capitol Police officers, but followed the crowd and worked his way to the front of the line to “see what was going on.” Joshua Hughes argues he was shocked by what happened when he left. “My God, what have we done?” he thought. He said he knew he was wrong to be there, felt misled by Trump and “deeply regretted” his actions there. The response to the memorandum states that he was arrested and transported to Washington, DC on February 1, 2021 and was detained for 68 days before being released on April 7, 2021. Hughes and his attorney, Palmer Hoovestal, said Hughes contracted COVID-19 while traveling through Oklahoma and was under a 24-hour lockdown. They state that he complied 100% with the terms of his release. “The benchmark for imprisonment is greater than necessary in these facts and circumstances,” Hoovestal wrote. His memorandum contained several letters to Judge Kelly in support of Joshua Hughes. One was from an employer, Belva Lotzer, owner of Tizer Botanic Garden & Arboretum, who said Joshua approached her shortly after returning from Washington, D.C. and told her he was “in serious trouble” and was getting up FBI’s most wanted list. Wanting her to know so she wouldn’t be alarmed, he gave her the opportunity to fire him. Lotzer said Joshua has been a house cleaner for them for the past three years and does his job efficiently and helps out with other chores. “Josh is a young man of strong character and old-fashioned values, a person I wish my grandchildren and co-workers would emulate,” she wrote. Lotzer said she understands the seriousness of the charges. “I think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said. “That’s not who he is.” There were about a dozen such letters from friends and family members. In the 22 months since Jan. 6, 2021, nearly 900 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the U.S. Capitol break-in, including over 275 people charged with assault or obstruction of law enforcement, the said US Attorney’s Office. The investigations are ongoing. Source Related Posts: East Helena man sentenced to 3 years in prison for US… East Helena man's sentencing postponed to January 6 in… East Helena man's sentencing postponed to January 6 in… Montana Man Sentenced to 38 Months in Jail for Actions…	7,674
The building at 65 North Beretania St. would be turned into a homeless triage center(Hawaii News Now) Published: May. 29, 2020 at 10:56 PM HST Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii's largest homeless services provider has a new plan to help keep coronavirus off the streets. It starts with buying an old building in Chinatown. "People ask us why Chinatown?" said Connie Mitchell, Institute for Human Services Executive Director. “We need to be close enough so people can actually be brought there rather easily. They won't go with us sometimes when we ask to put them in a car to take them to another place." The building, at 65 North Beretania St., would be turned into a “Homeless Triage & Cares Station.” IHS says it would aim to keep the mentally ill and chronically homeless off the streets and reduce the risk of COVID-19 in the community. “We're not bringing people in who have COVID into the area. It's really to take them off the street and get them somewhere else where they won't be as much of a public health to folks," Mitchell said. However, Chinatown residents and business owners are asking them to put the facility elsewhere. "We don't want them here. Chinatown does not want IHS here. We got enough. We are tired, exhausted, embarrassed, violated," said Chinatown Neighborhood Board member Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock. Many say they were blindsided by the proposal and dozens have signed a petition to stop it. The center would be located near several residential buildings. Some worry it will become a new hang out spot for the homeless. “If they can actually take those people off the street and put them in a building, I would rather have them in a building than on the street,” said State Senator for the district Karl Rhoads. “But you're always afraid it's going to be like the men's shelter down in Iwilei Road where everyone just congregates all day long every day." "This is not a proposal set in stone. We are looking for community input,” said Mitchell. However, business owners at the location say their landlord already told them the building was sold and they need to vacate by August 13th. "I want to stay. It's hard to find another spot,” said Francis Wong, Jenny's Lei Shop owner. “I have to find my own spot. So, I'm looking right now." Pham Rogers has been a hairstylist next door for almost 30 years. She said she is already selling her belongings. “I might just sell my stuff and retire. Start all over again, that’s not easy you know,” Rogers said. IHS says if all goes well, they hope to be operational in a year. "Yes, some homeless people follow services providers. But it's really the vices that people follow. It's the drugs, it's the drugs that are coming off the boat. It's the prostitution,” said Leina Ijacic, IHS’ Chief Administrative Officer. “We need to also try to get the drugs of the streets. we need to try to get the prostitution off the streets."	3,037
WORLDEXECUTIVESDIGEST.COM \| Booking Great Talent to Endorse Your Brand: 4 Factors to Consider \| Establishing a solid brand is challenging, but it is far from being an impossible feat with the right branding strategy. Digital marketing is arguably the most sought-after method, but the need for brand ambassadors and endorsers remains an effective means of making a brand known. Still, choosing a celebrity is not something that should be taken lightly. In fact, you should make sure that you know the intricacies of booking great talent to bring your brand one step closer to local or global recognition. To help you out, below is a list of four factors you must consider when accomplishing this task: In any kind of media, the target audience is one of the most significant factors that should be considered when crafting a message. It is also a major deciding factor when picking a way to deliver the message to yield the desired results. This means that, before choosing an endorser, you must first do some research on target market demographics. Remember to choose someone who is not only an “organic fit” to the brand image but also a person who can appeal to the target audience. Otherwise, all your efforts would be moot. For example, if you are after the generation who are most active on social media, you must pick an endorser who is always active on social media. You’d be surprised how much a celebrity who tweets or posts on Instagram consistently can affect your company sales. You should also take into account the celebrity’s fan base. Regardless of their Hollywood resume, talents who appeal to the demographics you’re targeting are more likely to provide more value to your company than someone who is very recognizable but isn’t the type your audience likes. Another major consideration you should think about before hiring any model or celebrity for your brand endorsement is the message you wish to relay. Experts explain that it is important that the message is simple, straightforward, and clear. Don’t attempt to do too much just because you’re now working with a celebrity. You wouldn’t want your ad going viral for the wrong reasons. Fortunately, there are ways to make sure that your content is not offensive or can spark controversy in any way. One way is to have it tested first with a preview audience to see how people will react. Or you can have it analyzed based on consumer psychology. Image and Status of the Talent Before deciding to associate your brand with a celebrity, you should know that there are risks that go with it. After all, actors and models are human beings who might make mistakes and behave in a way that may be different from what social norm dictates. Because of this, it’s crucial to do plenty of research about the person you’re planning to hire. One effective way to do this is by seeking help from talent agencies who have collected information and managed talent for years. The Type of Celebrity and Extent of Involvement Before proceeding to agencies in your quest to seek a brand ambassador, you should first determine the kind of celebrity you want and how extensive their involvement will be. These days, there are two main types of celebrities you can hire: a household name or a social media influencer. A celebrity who has been established as a household name is typically an actor, athlete, musician, or any other person famous for leading a specific trade. Social media influencers, on the other hand, are people who have established a solid presence online and affect their fans’ decisions through their videos, blogs, and posts. If your brand requires high engagement, social analytics, creative content, and affordable costs, you might want to go with the latter. This is because influencers are likely to post more about your brand than celebrities who need to maintain a certain image. Social influencers also tend to be more engaged in the marketing strategy and may have a wider reach on social media. Building your company from the ground up requires an effective branding strategy. If yours requires the participation of a familiar face, you must make sure that you partner up with talent based on what your brand needs. — Adam Jacobs is the Managing Director of Bubblegum Casting, the longest running agency specialising in babies, children and teen talent in Australia. Bubblegum Casting works with some of Australia’s biggest brands, media properties and agencies to secure talented children to work in Television, Film and Modelling roles	4,601
Millions of Americans suffer from the pain of arthritic knees. But an innovative exercise regimen may help relieve discomfort and improve knee function, a new study finds. The program is called STEP-KOA (short for stepped exercise program for patients with knee osteoarthritis). It starts with gentle exercises at home and, if needed, moves to phone consultation and in-person physical therapy. "STEP-KOA could be an efficient way to deliver exercise and physical therapy services for people with knee osteoarthritis, since it reserves the more resource-intensive steps for people who do not make improvements earlier," said lead author Kelli Allen. She's a research health scientist at the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina. "This could be important in health systems that are trying to maximize resources or when there is limited access to physical therapy," Allen said. For the study, researchers from the Veterans Affairs Health Care System randomly assigned more than 300 patients with painful knee osteoarthritis to either STEP-KOA or arthritis education. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in the knee. It is a degenerative, "wear-and-tear" type of arthritis. STEP-KOA starts with an internet-based exercise program. If it is not effective, the patient moves to step two, which included twice-monthly coaching phone calls for three months. If pain still does not improve, the patient moves to step three, which included in-person physical therapy. Participants in the arthritis education group were mailed educational materials every two weeks. After nine months, 65% of patients in STEP-KOA progressed to step two, and 35% went on to step three. Compared to participants who received education only, the stepped-care group had greater improvement in pain and function, the researchers reported. This strategy could lower health care costs and tailor programs to patients' needs, the study authors said. However, a prominent orthopedic surgeon called this approach backwards. It should start instead with physical therapy and move on to patients doing exercises on their own, said Dr. Jeffrey Schildhorn of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "It seemed like this study was designed for a style of medicine that I think very few of us would appreciate," Schildhorn said. "It was almost like you're preparing for a future where there are limited resources, and you try to do everything remotely, and you put the responsibility on the patient," he added. Schildhorn noted that 90 patients dropped out of the program, and only 10% remained at step one throughout the study. Because each patient's knee damage and perception of pain is unique, an effective program must be individually designed, he said. "I think that it's imperative that people who have mild to moderate disease try to do whatever they can on their own, with or without in-person physical therapy," Schildhorn said. The key is to keep the joint moving with gentle exercise. A multimodal approach that includes periodic check-ins with a therapist, being shown in person how to do the movements with follow-up by phone or video chat is a viable approach, he said. But patients need to do their exercises at home every day, Schildhorn emphasized. "Someone who goes to physical therapy three times a week probably doesn't do as well as someone who goes three times a week and practices on their own. The majority of the value comes with daily in-home, stretching exercises," Schildhorn said. "If you go to physical therapy two times a week, then do nothing the other five days, there's zero value there." The report was published online Dec. 29 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Learn more about knee osteoarthritis from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. SOURCES: Kelli Allen, PhD, research health scientist, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, N.C., and associate director, Durham Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation; Jeffrey Schildhorn, MD, orthopedic surgeon, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Annals of Internal Medicine, Dec. 29, 2020, online Health News is provided as a service to Martin's Pharmacy site users by HealthDay. Martin's Pharmacy nor its employees, agents, or contractors, review, control, or take responsibility for the content of these articles. Please seek medical advice directly from your pharmacist or physician.	4,401
FILE - This artist sketch depicts the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, left, as he testifies before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on charges of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, Nov. 7, 2022. Jury deliberations are expected to begin soon. (Dana Verkouteren via A, File) WASHINGTON – As angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, ready to smash through windows and beat police officers, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes extolled them as patriots and harkened back to the battle that kicked off the American Revolutionary War. “Next comes our ‘Lexington,'" Rhodes told his fellow far-right extremists in a message on Jan. 6, 2021. ”It's coming." Jurors will begin weighing his words and actions on Tuesday, after nearly two months of testimony and argument in the criminal trial of Rhodes and four co-defendants. Final defense arguments wrapped up late Monday. The jury will weigh the charges that the Oath Keepers were not whipped into an impulsive frenzy by Trump on Jan. 6 but came to Washington intent on stopping the transfer of presidential power at all costs. The riot was the opportunity they had been preparing for, prosecutors say. Rhodes' followers sprang into action, marching to the Capitol, joining the crowd pushing into the building, and attempting to overturn the election that was sending Joe Biden to the White House in place of Trump, authorities allege. Not true, the Oath Keepers argue. They say there was never any plot, that prosecutors have twisted their admittedly bombastic words and given jurors a misleading timeline of events and messages. Hundreds of people have been convicted in the attack that left dozens of officers injured, sent lawmakers running for their lives and shook the foundations of American democracy. Now jurors in the case against Rhodes and four associates will decide, for the first time, whether the actions of any Jan. 6 defendants amount to seditious conspiracy — a rarely used charge that carries both significant prison time and political weight. The jury’s verdict may well address the false notion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, coming soon after 2022 midterm results in which voters rejected Trump’s chosen Republican candidates who supported his baseless claims of fraud. The outcome could also shape the future of the Justice Department’s massive and costly prosecution of the insurrection that some conservatives have sought to portray as politically motivated. Failure to secure a seditious conspiracy conviction could spell trouble for another high-profile trial beginning next month of former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and other leaders of that extremist group. The Justice Department's Jan. 6 probe has also expanded beyond those who attacked the Capitol to focus on others linked to Trump's efforts to overturn the election. In the Oath Keepers trial, prosecutors built their case using dozens of encrypted messages sent in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6. They show Rhodes rallying his followers to fight to defend Trump and warning they might need to “rise up in insurrection.” “We aren’t getting through this without a civil war. Prepare your mind body and spirit,” he wrote shortly after the 2020 election. Three defendants, including Rhodes, took the witness stand to testify in their defense — a move generally seen by defense lawyers as a last-resort option because it tends to do more harm than good. On the witness stand, Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, and his associates — Thomas Caldwell, of Berryville, Virginia, and Jessica Watkins, of Woodstock, Ohio — sought to downplay their actions, but struggled when pressed by prosecutors to explain their violent messages. The others on trial are Kelly Meggs, of Dunnellon, Florida, and Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville, Florida. Seditious conspiracy carries up to 20 years behind bars, and all five defendants also face other felony charges. They would be the first people convicted of seditious conspiracy at trial since the 1995 prosecution of Islamic militants who plotted to bomb New York City landmarks. The trial unfolding in Washington’s federal court — less than a mile from the Capitol — has provided a window into the ways in which Rhodes mobilized his group and later tried to reach Trump. But while authorities combed through thousands of messages sent by Rhodes and his co-defendants, none specifically spelled out a plan to attack the Capitol itself. Defense attorneys emphasized that fact throughout the trial in arguing that Oath Keepers who did enter the Capitol were swept up in an spontaneous outpouring of election-fueled rage rather than acting as part of a plot. Jurors never heard from three other Oath Keepers who have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy. Over two days on the witness stand, a seemingly relaxed Rhodes told jurors there was no Capitol attack plan. He said he didn't have anything to do with the guns some Oath Keepers had stashed at a Virginia hotel that prosecutors say served as the base for “quick reaction force” teams ready to ferry an arsenal of weapons across the Potomac River if necessary. The weapons were never deployed. Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate and former Army paratrooper, said his followers were “stupid” for going inside. Rhodes, who was in a hotel room when he found out rioters were storming the Capitol, insisted that the Oath Keepers' only mission for the day was to provide security for Trump ally Roger Stone and other figures at events before the riot. That message was repeated in court by others, including a man described as the Oath Keepers' “operations leader" on Jan. 6, who told jurors he never heard anyone discussing plans to attack the Capitol. A government witness — an Oath Keeper cooperating with prosecutors in hopes of a lighter sentence — testified that there was an “implicit” agreement to stop Congress’ certification, but the decision to enter the building was “spontaneous.” “We talked about doing something about the fraud in the election before we went there on the 6th," Graydon Young told jurors. “And then when the crowd got over the barricade and they went into the building, an opportunity presented itself to do something. We didn’t tell each other that.” Prosecutors say the defense is only trying to muddy the waters in a clear-cut case. The Oath Keepers aren't accused of entering into an agreement ahead of Jan. 6 to storm the Capitol. Defense attorneys for Caldwell, Watkins and Harrelson worked on Monday to cast doubt on the timeline presented by prosecutors, saying that communications were hampered by overwhelmed cell towers and that other rioters forced Congress to recess before they arrived. Prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler, though, said any lag was brief and the Oath Keepers were among the rioters who interrupted congressional proceedings by preventing lawmakers from coming back into session to certify the presidenial vote. Citing the Civil War-era seditious conspiracy statute, prosecutors tried to prove the Oath Keepers conspired to forcibly oppose the authority of the federal government and block the execution of laws governing the transfer of presidential power. Prosecutors must show the defendants agreed to use force — not merely advocated it — to oppose the transfer of presidential power. After the riot, Rhodes tried to get a message to Trump through an intermediary, imploring the president not to give up his fight to hold onto power. The intermediary — a man who told jurors he had an indirect way to reach the president — recorded his meeting with Rhodes and went to the FBI instead. Rhodes told the man, speaking of Trump, “If he's not going to do the right thing and he’s just gonna let himself be removed illegally then we should have brought rifles.” He said, “We should have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang (expletive) Pelosi from the lamppost,” Rhodes said, referring to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Richer reported from Boston. For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines. Contests and Rules Careers at WSLS 10 Internships at WSLS 10 facebook twitter Get Results with Omne Copyright © 2022 WSLS.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings.	8,908
Starting in August with 150 smart fortwo vehicles, expanding to a total fleet of 450 cars until mid of September car2go business area of about 120 square kilometres Rental costs €0.29 per minute, all inclusive Registration starts today with a promotional offer: no registration fee and 30 minutes’ free rental until end of September Milan, Aug 08, 2013 – car2go, first completely flexible car sharing service in the world, is starting its service in Milan today. The joint venture of Daimler and Europcar is bringing the first 150 smart fortwos to the city. The car2go vehicles can be rented autonomously, without dedicated stations. The total fleet of 450 car2go smart fortwos will be available until mid of September. The cars can be used as needed and left in any public car park in the 120 square kilometres business area, without time restrictions or any monthly or annual fees. Registered users only pay for their actual usage with an all-inclusive price per minute (taxes, insurance, fuel, parking costs and congestion charges linked to the so-called Area C). car2go is a new and innovative solution for urban mobility that is easy to use, economical and environmentally friendly. It’s the future for urban mobility. “Milan is a dynamic, modern city, which is very attentive to the problems of an intelligent urban lifestyle and sustainable mobility,” said Stefan Mueller, CEO of car2go Europe GmbH.“Italy is the largest market in the world for smart, and the smart fortwo – a perfect combination of lifestyle and functionality – is valued for being completely at home in an urban environment. That’s why we are confident that the people of Milan will experience car2go as a new, easy, and environmentally friendly way of getting around the city.” car2go will make its debut in Milan today, starting with a fleet of 150 environment-friendly smart fortwo Coupés (98 g C02/km), active over an area of about 120 square kilometres covering almost the whole city and all its main gathering points. Until mid of September all 450 car2go vehicles will be available. The cars can enter the limited traffic Area C and the congestion charge is included in the rental. It is also possible to park in yellow line spaces reserved for residents and without having to pay on the blue lines. Clients can preregister online at: www.car2go.com and in the car2go shop at the smart centre at Piazza XXIV maggio and at the Click Utility on Earth offices at the Colonne di San Lorenzo. New members must be at least 18 years old. Payment will be by credit card. The registration is free until end of September. After the starting period there is a one-time registration fee of 19 Euro. The public transport network of Milan and the car2go project will complement each other. car2go is the alternative solution for commuters to reduce traffic and pollution in the city. This is why car2go won the most important Legambiente prize in 2012 for “Environmentally Friendly Innovation.” Fabrizio Ruggiero, Managing Director of car2go Partner Europcar Italia says: “We are indeed happy to be part of this project introducing in Italy a new concept of mobility, particularly created for an urban environment. car2go is somehow completing our rental offers and perfectly fits our philosophy to stay close to our clients and their need in terms of mobility.” As easy as using a mobile phone Once you are registered, the rental is charged by the minute.There are no monthly fees, or minimum charges, only a one-off subscription charge (free during the launch). You only pay for the time you are actually driving. Each new client gets thirty free minutes so they can easily learn how the service works. Clients don’t have to bring the car2go car back to the same place they got it from. There are no time limits on use, so the cars can be used for many different routes, even for a short trip around the city. How it works car2go is the first “independent” on-demand car sharing service in the world, which can offer unique solutions, in particular: Charge by the minute: Subscribers pay a charge by the minute, only for the time they use, with discounted rates for use by the hour (€14.90 including 50 km) and by the day (€59 with unlimited mileage). There is no minimum use time for the car: five minutes or a whole day, car2go subscribers can get in the car and drive for as long as they need, they don’t have to know beforehand when and where they will return the car. The price includes parking, fuel, maintenance, insurance and the congestion charge there is no annual or monthly subscription charge. Registration starts today with a promotional offer that for the launch period waives the one-off €19 registration fee. On-demand: Members can take the first car2go available using a smartphone app, with the car2go search function on the car2go.com site, or by simply getting into one of the available car2go cars. No need for advance booking, because subscribers have unlimited 24/7 access to car2go cars. Maximum freedom of rental: Members can take and return the cars at any point in the area covered by the car2go service. When finished with, they can even be left in blue line (paying) and yellow (residents) parking spaces without time restrictions. Subscribers do not have to take the car back to where they got it from, nor are they limited to a predefined time period. They can drive for as long as needed, park the car once they have arrived at their destination and finish by swiping their card over the reader on the windscreen. The car will be available straightaway for the next client. Step 1: Registration – People with a driving licence can register on the car2go.com site and at the shop in 12 Piazza XXIV maggio in Milan. They will get their subscription card straightaway. Once registered, clients will have access to all the cars available in Milan. They can also register at the Click Utility on Earth offices at the Colonne di San Lorenzo. For the launch, the one-off registration charge will not apply and clients will get 30 minutes free. Step 2: Locating car– Members can use the car2go finder on the car2go.com site, with the smartphone and tablet app, or the Facebook car2go app to locate the nearest available car. They can use the car independently (without booking) or book a car2go on the site or with the app. Step 3: Getting in the car – Members find the car2go and swipe their card on the reader on the windscreen. This unlocks the doors. After entering a PIN on the touchscreen and confirming the conditions, the key is activated and the driver can drive off. Step 4: Driving – Members can take the key placed near the touchscreen unit, start the engine and drive off. They can drive for as long as they want without restrictions on time and location for returning it within the area served by the car2go. Step 5: End of the trip – Members can return the cars at any point in the area covered by the car2go service. Charges are calculated by the minute (€0.29 a minute) and are debited from the client’s credit card once the vehicle is returned. Costs of fuel, parking, maintenance insurance and the congestion charge are included without additional cost. 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I participated in a local holiday art & craft fair this past weekend. I was really excited about this one....I attended this show as a shopper last year and was impressed by the large crowd in attendance. The show was so busy that it was almost hard to shop! I like my odds at those kind of events. I really thought this was going to be a good show for me. If you read the title of this post, you've probably deduced that my experience as a vendor this year was not what I had expected....In fact, it was awful...I didn't even make enough money to cover my booth fees. It was the worst show I've ever had! Ouch. It's so easy for me to work myself into a funk after I've had a bad show....I take what I do very seriously and very personally. I wonder, "Is what I make sub-standard? Do I really have talent? Is it time to hang up the "artist" towel and go back to teaching?" After a little pouting, I put on my "critical thinking" hat and tried to figure out why this show went so wrong. I quickly deduced that my lack of sales had little to do with the quality of my work. It had more to do with the venue and my placement in it. My booth was placed in an almost hidden portion of an immense show. At any point during the show you could walk into the main area of the show and be met by throngs of people, while only a trickle would make it back to my locale. The numbers were against me. Had more people seen my work, I'm quite confident I would have been more successful. I jotted this down in my sketchbook during the show. This will be my goal in the coming months.....I need to find that target audience, and maybe it's not at the local craft show. Maybe I have to think bigger and beyond local. All I know is that I'm not giving up. Creating is a part of me. I will make and eventually...the buyers will come more readily than they are today. So my fellow maker friends, how did you connect with your target market? Any advice for me? Thanks for reading. Ta-ta for now. Posted by Unknown at 9:16 PM Labels: 2012, art, business of art, life, local events 5 comments: It's hard when you have such high hopes for a show! I always 'go for the experience', so that meeting people and chatting to people looking around is my biggest goal. That way I don't get too upset if I think about the financial side of it! ReplyDelete Replies Unknown November 13, 2012 at 8:16 AM That is a great way to approach things Charlotte! Delete Replies Johwey Redington November 13, 2012 at 10:10 AM It's hard to not take these types of things personally, but you're doing a great job of being realistic about it. I don't have any amazing advice for connecting with your target market. But when it comes to shows where there's a disconnect, I do my best to smile and wait for the ones who actually appreciate my work. When that person (even if it's just one for the whole show) stands before me, I put all my mental energy into connecting with them. If I can connect with a single person who appreciates what I do, in my mind I can call it a success. There are always other things to observe and learn as well. Ever been to a show with 3 or 4 vendors all selling the same scarfs or the same jewelry? When I apply to a show, I like to ask the organizer how it's being juried and how the range of products is being controlled and diversified. ReplyDelete Replies Unknown November 13, 2012 at 1:13 PM Hi Johwey. Thanks for your comments! We recently moved down to Southern Illinois, so I've been trying out all sorts of new shows. Hopefully I'll find some events that are a better fit for me in the future. I just took a look at your blog and read Troy's post on your Barrington show. Ugh. Happens to the best of us. Hope you've got some more promising shows coming up in the future! Delete Replies Carmen November 23, 2012 at 7:19 AM I can relate to your situation so much. I've been in many craft markets and fairs where I've done badly as well and sometimes it just makes me want to cry because of all the time, money and emotion energy invested in these event to come away without even one sale. So I don't have an answer. I bring something to work on so my day isn't totally wasted and hopefully I can make at least one connection with someone to appreciates what I do. And wants to BUY my work. ReplyDelete Replies Thanks for chiming in! I love to hear what you have to say. Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) home For 35 years, I was Jennifer Mullin. It was me, my family, my art. Before getting married this summer, I thought long and hard about keep... Weighing In on "More to Love" Last night "More to Love" premiered on Fox. As stated on the Fox website, " MORE TO LOVE, the new dating competition show fr... Hi there. How are you? You may have noticed that I didn't blo g last week. .... We were bu sy moving! We were lucky ... Greetings friends. I wanted to share a few pics that I snapped at the Tinker Exhibition last weekend. It was really cool to see my work in... Back to [Art]Work Greetings friends! I've taken a hiatus from my online life for the last week. It felt good to unplug, and spend time in my offline li...	5,539
Normal News' Mike Adams likewise affirmed his organization got the letter. "This is going on, people! The capital controls start on November seventeenth. The bank runs may pursue before long. Pursue Bank is currently conceding that you can't utilize your own cash that you've kept there," composes Adams. Then, money related master Gerald Celente said the news was an indication that Americans ought to plan for a bank occasion. Pursue is clearly quick to make it difficult for their clients to have any sort of power over their investment funds and is attempting to keep them from sending dollars to another country, inciting worries that Cyprus-style record gouging could happen in America. The transition to confine stores and withdrawals while forbidding global wire moves through and through is an unusual approach and will injure numerous little and medium-sized organizations with Chase accounts. Purchasing stock from abroad in any sort of amount will presently end up inconceivable for some organizations while paying representatives will likewise be a cerebral pain. Markets or eateries that turnover more than $50k a month will be not able to utilize their record. Why has Chase reported such an over the top and prohibitive approach change? The theory is overflowing that the bank is planning for some sort of financial emergency by "securing" its clients' cash Others dread the transition to confine universal wire moves is a piece of an arrangement to ensure against a not so distant future breakdown of the US dollar. Whatever reality behind the strategy change, Chase actually needs to freely clarify its thinking so as to subdue the hypothesis. The bank's notoriety was at that point under investigation following an occurrence prior this year where Chase Bank clients the nation over endeavored to pull back money from ATMs just to see that their record parity had been decreased to zero. The issue, which Chase ascribed to a specialized glitch, went on for a considerable length of time before it was fixed, provoking frenzy from certain clients. Recently it was additionally revealed that two of the greatest banks in America were stuffing their ATM's with 20-30 percent more money than expected so as to take off a potential bank run if the US defaults on its obligation. UPDATE: Chase Bank affirmed to Infowars that all business account holders were being exposed to these new guidelines. Given that even a moderately little supermarket or café is probably going to turn over more than $50k every month in real money installments. WBW Global Director Back to member profile >> This article was published on 14.07.2019 by David Williams Member comments: No comments yet Facebook comments: Member Ad No Recruiting - Weekly Profits NovatechFX is an absolute game changer! Don't sleep on this opportunity. Experienced Forex/Crypto Traders do the trading for you- let the experts do that for you! Company Launched 6/2019!	3,015
I work with Marlene Finkel at E. Clarke Travel and I’d like to give her a shout out for getting me and my husband a complete refund from Jet Blue! We were scheduled to fly to Palm Springs on April 4th and and were about to cancel the air when Jet Blue actually canceled the flight. Even though they canceled, their policy was still no refund for the traveler. Marlene was on the phone for 3 hours fighting for us and was finally able to get someone from the airline to agree to the full refund. I know I could not have done this myself and thank you, Marlene. We certainly hope to book something again with her when the pandemic subsides. Deanna was AMAZING! She planned the most perfect trip to Greece for our honeymoon and we will be forever grateful. We visited 3 places in two weeks and every location was perfect —we even got upgraded to the honeymoon suite in Santorini, which was out of this world gorgeous! We cannot wait to book our next trip and would recommended her to anyone and everyone. Thanks again! There is such a misconception that booking a vacation online is easier and less expensive than using a travel agent. Our recent experience booking a Punta Cana vacation with Kristyn at E. Clarke Travel was so easy and such a pleasant experience. She found exactly what we were looking for at The Hideaway, an all inclusive including a swim up pool, top shelf liquor, 24/7 concierge, 6 5 Star restaurants, a private beach, a spa and much more. The package also included non-stop flights and airport transfers. I highly recommend using Kristyn at E. Clarke Travel! I have traveled extensively for many, many years. I have found Marlene Finkel and E. Clarke Travel to be the most professional, thorough and customer care travel agents that I’ve ever used. During this most difficult time, they have helped us through an extensive cancellation process of two trips with total professionalism. I highly recommend them and look forward to future travel with them. Allen K.May 2020 In all honesty, we couldn’t have asked for a better experience/itinerary for the honeymoon we will never forget. At first we were a little worried seeing how much we were doing in a given day (especially in Bangkok) but loved that we started off quite busy and then moved to more relaxation by the time we got to Phucket. We also loved all the hotels and every hotel we stayed at we loved even more than the last. The food was amazing. The itinerary was amazing. The experience was amazing. All the suggestions and excursions were absolutely wonderful. Even the glamping part which I was a little hesitant of was exquisite. In terms of the best pictures the glamping may have topped it all off. Haha. My wife and I were saying that next time we want to plan a trip we will definitely be using you and we will definitely be recommending you when friends ask if we have a travel agent. Our next destination I believe will be South America at some point. Before that we will be going to Greece for a couple of weeks and Spain for a couple of days. We may pick your brain for ideas/suggestions/itineraries for Spain once we figure out the budget for that trip. We can’t thank you enough for an amazing honeymoon itinerary. I will let my wife chime in but hands down I was absolutely amazed, stunned, and relaxed by the time we left. Thanks a million!!!! “As always thank you SO much Deanna! You make it so easy for me to do what I love” JoAnn I. - from Westwood, NJ “We’ve booked several trips thru Marlene and she has yet to steer us wrong with hotels, tour guides and restaurants. Our most recent trip to Rome and the Amalfi Coast didn’t disappoint. The semi private boat trip to Capri and each hotel was even more impressive than the previous. Thanks to Marlene and E. Clarke Travel for another memorable vacation!” Lori and Kevin - from Manhattan, NY Thank you, thank you. You know I used to travel often, always did it with Travel Agents and I can tell you that you are the BEST!!. I want to let you know how WONDERFUL AND PERFECT everything was. Thank you again. I loved every minute of it, the ship, the crew, the food, the drinks, the views. All the tours, the included as well as the one we bought. Even the weather cooperated. Thank you again, “Marlene planned an amazing and memorable honeymoon for us! She made initial recommendations related to the location, itinerary, restaurants, and activities. She booked everything for us in Santorini and the Amalfi Coast, and made sure all the hotels and restaurants knew we would be on our honeymoon (which resulted in welcome treats and room upgrades!). She was very attentive while we were on our trip, for troubleshooting any questions and sending additional restaurant recommendations. We had an issue with our flight home, and thanks to Marlene’s recommendation to buy travel insurance, we were able to get some money back. We’re grateful for her expertise in helping to plan our amazing trip! “ Brittany F. - from Philadelphia, PA “We had the most incredible and unforgettable honeymoon and we owe it all to Marlene! Working full time and planning a wedding allowed for no time to plan a honeymoon but thanks to Marlene I didn’t have to worry about doing any research or planning. We stayed in the most magical hotels in both Greece and Italy and were treated like royalty everywhere. We did a lot of traveling and the advice Marlene provided was extremely helpful. We were also impressed by how seamless the transportation was from each island and city we visited – we didn’t have to worry about anything for the three weeks we were away. To anyone planning a honeymoon I highly recommend using E. Clarke! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING, MARLENE! ” I echo everything Demetri said! It was magical! Each place was better than the next and the itinerary was fantastic! The only possible thing I could suggest would to do the phi phi islands before the elephant hills lake only because, as gorgeous as phi phi was, the lake at kao sok and the rainforest are even more mind blowing! Though I’m sure that’s a matter of preference too. But honestly everything was on-point! Like Demetri said, we 100% will be working with you again and recommending you to all! THANK YOU SO MUCH for everything! You made our honeymoon dreams come true I wanted to say thank you and let you know that we had the most wonderful trip. Everything went so smooth and we loved the hotels! The last hotel we were upgraded to a better room with the most magnificent views. The Positano car service was great. The only issue we had was on Sunday in Capri. We were scheduled for the boat tour of the Blue Grotto, however the waters were rough and choppy and all boats, including ferries, were cancelled. So we never got to visit the Blue Grotto, which means now I need to go back again!	7,024
Long COVID-19 package combines screening for common tests and investigations for person who still have Long COVID-19 conditions or symptoms after treatment and discharge from hospital, hospitel, or home isolation include Difficulty breathing, shortness of breath Easy to get tired, weak Cough Many of COVID19 survivors still have symptoms preventing them from feeling back to healthy. This chronic condition is called "Long COVID-19" or "Post COVID-19 Syndrome" “Long COVID-19” can happen to any COVID-19 survivors from all illness severity. This chronic syndrome refers to a range of symptoms that lingers for weeks or months, such as fatigue, headache, muscles pain, fever, palpitation, shortness of breath, insomnia and so on. Eventhough response to the infection differs between individuals, chest and airways system tend to be affected the most. Coronavirus can lead to lung scarring and fibrosis, especially ones with severe pneumonia or with history of lung disease prior to infection. Early detection leads to early treatment, resulting in speedier and even full recovery. Those Suitable for Testing This package is recommended for COVID19 survivors with residual discomfort or symptoms and all with history of COVID19 pneumonia. Talk to our Referral Office Representative in Qatar Our local representatives speak your language and can assist you by answering any questions you have about the hospital as well as book travel arrangements. There are no additional costs for using this service as per Bumrungrad's One Price Policy.	1,573
Community Counseling Center offers treatment at a higher level of care for those who experience mental health challenges in conjunction with substance use. Typically, these individuals attend individual and group treatment multiple days per week. In this program, depending on the severity of the client's mental health and substance-related needs, we offer 3- or 5-day programs that include both group and individual counseling sessions. These services focus around implementing comprehensive evidence-based treatment modalities that also provide education on mental health disorders, symptoms, and the progression of addiction. They also address medical compliance, the negative consequences of substance use on existing mental health disorders, and identifying emotional and physical triggers, while creating healthy coping skills and a relapse prevention plan. All clients in this program must be engaged in psychiatric care. Referrals are available as needed. Our SAPTA-certified services are designed to provide a continuum of care, including: Early Intervention Level 2 Intensive Outpatient (5-day) Level 1 Outpatient (3-day) Copyright © 2021 Community Counseling Center of Southern Nevada \| Las Vegas NV \| All Rights Reserved.	1,244
When you need professional, affordable, and efficient heating installation, replacement, repairs, and maintenance service in Decatur, Illinois, the only option is GMR Services. For over 30 years we have been the community’s number one choice and that is because our company has experience, competitive prices, superior customer service, state-of-the-art technology, and top-rated brands for your furnace. Whether you need to replace your current heating system or make sure your current one is at its optimal performance, GMR Services’ technicians are the ones for the job. We can make sure that your heating system is prepared to keep you warm during the upcoming winter freeze. We also offer 24-hour emergency service and provide free estimates! Residential Heating Installation and Replacement When you are having trouble with your heating system, GMR Services is here to help. There can be a number of reasons why your furnace is failing, whether it’s from poor furnace installation or neglecting annual maintenance, our certified technicians offer solutions. The best way to ensure that your heating system is efficient and performing the way it should, is having an experienced, licensed professional handle your installation. GMR Services has been the go-to choice for furnace installation in Decatur, Illinois for the past 30 years. When your furnace starts becoming inefficient, call on GMR Services for your furnace repair and maintenance in Decatur, Illinois. In the case of emergencies, we also offer 24-hour repair service, making sure that our trained technicians are there for you when you need it most. Rest assured that when your furnace sputters to a halt in the middle of the night, during a winter freeze, we can dispatch our technicians to ensure your discomfort won’t last long. The best thing any homeowner can do when they need furnace repair, is have a local, reputable heating company provide the right solutions. Luckily for you, GMR Services has been doing that since 1986. You can trust your furnace repair with our well-trained and licensed technicians. We also provide free estimates and financing options.rvice, making sure that our trained technicians are there for you when you need it most. Rest assured that when your furnace sputters to a halt in the middle of the night, during a winter freeze, we can dispatch our technicians to ensure your discomfort won’t last long. Residential Heat Pump Service Heat pumps can be utilized to heat and cool your home, with modern technology they are incredibly efficient and in recent years, have been one of the more popular options when it comes to a heating system. A major benefit to a heat pump in Decatur, Illinois is that the Midwest is notorious for its fluctuating temperatures, and due the heat pumps ability to heat and cool your home, makes it an appliance that can be used year-round. Whether you need heat pump installation or heat pump repair in Decatur, Illinois, GMR Services is the heating company to trust for the job. We offer 24-hour emergency repair service to help limit your discomfort, and free estimates and financing options. We pride ourselves on being able to help our customers when they need it most, at a price they can afford, and capable of fitting all homeowner’s budgets. Contact GMR Services for your heat pump installation and repair. What People Say About Great service, great price & awesome equipment!!!GMR Services is top notch. Great HVAC service. If you want great service done right the first time, at a budget-friendly price, give them a call. You won’t be disappointed. On hot summer’s day they came by and fixed my air conditioner. They were friendly and the price for the job was reasonable. They replaced my old furnace, at great price. I will call them again if I ever need air/heating work to be done again!	3,943
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022,… St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) Cardinals’ Wainwright back in 2023; coaching staff to change by: DAVE SKRETTA, Associated Press Posted: Oct 26, 2022 / 02:33 PM EDT Updated: Oct 26, 2022 / 11:27 PM EDT St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022,… St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) by: DAVE SKRETTA, Associated Press Posted: Oct 26, 2022 / 02:33 PM EDT Updated: Oct 26, 2022 / 11:27 PM EDT Adam Wainwright will pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals next season, choosing to return for an 18th and final year with the club even as longtime teammates Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina head off into retirement. The 41-year-old Wainwright agreed Wednesday to a $17.5 million, one-year contract that includes $10 million in deferred pay and the chance to earn $1 million in bonuses for starts. He informed the NL Central champions of his decision to return shortly after they were eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Wainwright did not pitch in either game in part because he had struggled with his delivery late in the season. “I do tend to think the way the season ended led even more to me coming back,” Wainwright said Wednesday, “because I just didn’t like that. I don’t like gong out like that. I wasn’t performing like I know I should have been performing. Wasn’t helping the team like I knew I should have been helping the team. We didn’t win. I love my teammates.” “But looking back on it now, it just seemed like everything that happened led me to coming back one more year,” he said. Asked whether it would be just that — one final year — he replied: “Yes.” But then Wainwright made it clear that he has no interest in answering questions about retirement every week, instead imploring folks to “just let me go out and pitch.” Wainwright finished 11-12 with a 3.71 ERA in 32 start, his first losing season in which he made at least 20 starts. He won just twice over his final six starts, though, and had a 7.22 ERA while dealing with what he called a “dead arm.” Wainwright’s deal includes $1 million payable each July 1 from 2024-33 and the chance to earn $500,000 each for 28 and 30 starts. He gets a full no-trade provision and a hotel suite on road trips. He would earn $500,000 for finishing among the top 10 in Cy Cy Young Award voting, $50,000 each for making the All-Star team, winning the Leaguue Championship Series or World Series MVP awards or a Gold Glove, and $25,000 for a SIlver Slugger. Wainwright earned $17.5 million on a one-year deal last season. “We all know how competitive he is, we know how special he is in that clubhouse and what he means to this organization,” Cardinals president John Mozeliak said, “so we’re just glad we could get it done.” Wainwright heads into next season needing five wins to reach 200 . The right-hander is 15 behind Jesse Haines for the second-most wins in franchise history; Bob Gibson is the leader with 251 of them. Wainwright and Molina set the major league record for career starts as a battery last season, eventually hitting 328 starts together. But with Molina heading into retirement, Andrew Knizner is in line to be the everyday catcher, though Mozeliak did indicate Wednesday that the club would be in the market for help behind the plate. “We’re super excited that he’s coming back, and we understood that he had interest in pitching again,” Mozeliak said. “He and I started talking about this in early September, and obviously the September didn’t go as he wanted it to, but we really do feel like there’s something left in that tank.” In other news, Mozeliak said he was willing to offer new contracts to pitching coach Mike Maddux and hitting coach Jeff Albert but both decided to step away. The 61-year-old Maddux had been with the Cardinals since 2018 and Albert spent time with the Astros before taking over as the Cardinals hitting coach ahead of the 2019 season. The Cardinals had already lost bench coach Skip Schumaker to the Marlins as their manager this week. And with bullpen coach Bryan Eversgerd being reassigned as a special assistant within the organization, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol will have four spots to replace on his staff heading into his second season in charge. Turner Ward, who had been the assistant hitting coach, could be a candidate for promotion. Pitching strategist Dusty Blake also will be back and could be among the candidates to replace Maddux as the pitching coach. “Clearly we have a lot of openings,” Mozeliak said. “We’ll look internally and we’ll look externally. We know we have some qualified people within the organization but we also want to make sure were addressing all our needs.” Mozeliak also acknowledged spending time this week with All-Star third baseman Nolen Arenado, who must decide within five days of the end of the World Series whether to opt out of the remaining five years and $144 million on his deal. Arenado, a nine-time Gold Glove winner, is coming off a season in which he hit .293 with 30 homers, 103 RBIs and a career-low strikeout rate, putting him in the MVP race alongside teammate Paul Goldschmidt. And whereas opting out might have been a longshot last year, Arenado’s year raises the question of whether he could ear more on the open market. Mozeliak said there is “optimism” surrounding Arenado and the Cardinals but there was nothing to announce yet. More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.	6,202
The milestones are flying by me so fast I don’t know where to look first. Bar Mitzvah, overnight camp, his own set of house keys, laptop, cell phone, the list goes on seemingly endlessly. He was a toddler like two days ago. Really. But the most recent milestone affected me more than I’d anticipated. My thirteen year old son, Levi, just got his first set of contact lenses. Now Levi’s been wearing glasses for as long as I can remember. They were unobtrusive at first. But as time went on and his quirky style began to emerge, we were able to find specs that matched his personality and charm. In fact, one of my proudest mom moments was when I bought him a pair of non-returnable, retro, tortoise-shell frames without him even being in the room. They fit him perfectly in every way. “That’s how well I know my kid,” I boasted to anyone within ear shot. But this contact lens thing has me shaken. He looks so grown up, and so…handsome suddenly. His bright, happy face is now unobscured by frames. He’s more open, more vulnerable, more himself. Can a pair of contact lenses make someone more of themselves? Not sure. I suddenly feel the pain of losing him. I’m scared that he’s growing up too fast. He talks about driving all the time. How am I ever gonna cope with that? I’ve always insisted that I was the type of parent who welcomed each stage of development. Not one to linger in the past or lament the “good old days,” But what happens when they do grow up? When they go away? When your life isn’t about them anymore? Then who are you? Who do you become? How do you still matter? It’s really unfair that you go through these huge identity crisis when you’re young. You struggle to figure out who you are and how you fit into the Universe. By your mid 20s you think you’ve got it nailed down. Then by 35 you realize you weren’t even close. You settle into a comfortable routine in your 40s, meaningful work or building your family and fortune. Then suddenly your kids grow up and you have to start the whole darn process all over again. It’s daunting to say the least. My youngest son, Eli, is in 4th grade. He’s still somewhat dependent. But his stubborn individuality reminds me daily that he too will be flying the proverbial coop just as soon as his minor status terminates. He’s in the stage where everything I do embarrasses him. I remember that stage with my parents all too well. My father used to insist on holding my hand as we crossed busy streets and my heart would crumble with shame if anyone saw us. Sure wish I could hold his hand one last time today. I think about my father a lot, about how much he taught me and how much I miss him. In my son, Eli’s, fleeting serious moments, he begs me not to die and leave him, ever. Not sure it’s right to promise him what I surely cannot deliver. But I do so anyway. Just like my dad promised me. Life is about broken promises. In the meantime, I find myself often tearful, lost and afraid of what the future holds. I want to protect my boys from everything and everyone. I want to be able to shield their eyes from pain and stand between them and any potential heartache. The realization that I can’t do that is what’s breaking my heart. For their lives to work, they will have to see beyond my horizon, to see for themselves. I guess the whole contact lens thing signifies something a whole lot deeper than I first imagined. Reddit posted on December 11, 2013 filed under childcare, culture, guilt, Jewish, lessons, love, memoir, mothering, parenting, relationships, responsibility, women tagged as Bar Mitzvah, boy, boys, childcare, childhood, children, contact lens, contacts, eyes, family, glasses, growing up, guilt, jewish, kid, kids, lenses, lessons, life, love, mama, maternal, mom, mother, parent, parenting, parents, promises, son, specs I think I have completely lost it. My son’s Bar Mitzvah is in exactly one week and I just broke down sobbing in the middle of Summer Winds plant nursery while trying to select a few trees to beautify the front entry of our home. My husband, a bit taken aback by my sudden onset hysteria, asked me what seemed to be so upsetting about two Red leaf banana trees and a flat of succulents. To which my only reply was, “They’re going to die. They’re all going to die.” You see while many may miss the logic of my distress, it is more than obvious to me what is transpiring inside my twisted psyche. My baby boy is becoming an adult, at least in Jewish terms. What does that mean? It means in 5 years he’s off to college, then grad school maybe, a job, a marriage, his own family. The cycle continues. The same will happen with my youngest, at least that’s what I hope and wish for. But it also means that my reasons for existing are only temporary and will go off to live their own miraculous lives and leave me as a distant (and likely annoying) memory. This feels unbearable to me. I complain bitterly about never having enough time to do the things I want to do, to read the books I want to read and write the stories I want to write. The pressures to work and mother and create meaningful art overwhelm me most of the time. But the reality that in the not-too-distant future I’ll have nothing but time is the most painful acknowledgement of life’s tragic progression that I’ve ever experienced. I am fully aware that I was somebody else once; before I was a mother. I was somebody who lived alone and went out with friends, who always cleaned up her dishes after she ate, who worked 80 hours a week and went to the gym whenever she felt like it and sometimes just laid around the house watching reruns of “Dick Van Dyke” and “I Love Lucy.” But I don’t do those things anymore, mostly because I’m too busy running errands, supervising homework detail, carpooling or doing perpetual loads of laundry. Yet suddenly it seems impossible to imagine meaning in any life that doesn’t include my eternal sorrow over dirty socks on the floor, unpicked up dog poop in the yard, or two day old breakfast dishes still sitting at the table wistfully hoping that some thoughtful child will place them neatly in the dishwasher. I don’t enjoy every moment I have with my boys. For that I am grief-stricken. I waste the precious time we have being angry about stupid things and longing for time to be alone, with my own thoughts, my own agenda. Can it be different? Can anyone keep her eye on the essential reality that everything is fleeting, that each moment brings us closer to loss, emptiness and solitude? How can anyone live life with that kind of uber-awareness? Ernest Becker explains in The Denial of Death,“To live fully is to live with an awareness of the rumble of terror that underlies everything.” Getting caught up in the minutia is our only escape from the devastating reality before us. I long to appreciate the fleeting moments I still have with my children. I promise to try to relish every second in this tumultuous week of family drama, party plans and Bar Mitzvah preparation. My goal is to celebrate the amazing young man my son is becoming, to love him with every ounce of my being, and to joyfully release him to become his own man and forge his own path through life. I’ll let you know how it goes. Sniff sniff. It’s not likely to be an easy week. Reddit posted on October 12, 2013 filed under culture, Jewish, lessons, love, mental illness, mothering, nostalgia, parenting, relationships, religion, responsibility tagged as adult, adulthood, Bar Mitzvah, child, childhood, children, cycle, family, growing up, jewish, kids, lesson, letting go, life, loss, love, maternal, mother, mothering, parenting, parents, society, son Yesterday was a milestone day for me. My almost 11 year old son, Levi, got his Bar Mitzvah date for 2013. That may sound a ways off to you. But to me, it sounded a lot more like a speeding train careening out of control. I laughed. I cried. It was totally surreal. I mean, how could my baby, who I’d swear was just born last week, be approaching the Jewish equivalent of manhood. Yikes. In addition to that, I had to take both boys to the orthodontist for their first appointments. Learning that braces are in our future was another minor shock to my system, and not just because of the impending financial commitment these wire jaw molders will require. Finally, I took Levi shoe shopping and was astonished to learn that the petite paw that once fit easily into the palm of my hand, had reached the substantial size of 9 mens, surpassing my impossible to fit size 9 and a half AA in women’s. Honestly, my 11 year old son has shoes that are bigger than mine? How could that possibly be? We went to the pool that same day. Levi begged to race me across it. Suddenly I flashed back to my youthful self, a summer’s day, at the pool with my dad. “Oh, come on,” the tween me begged. “Just race me once, the width of the pool!” Finally, my dad acquiesced and we prepared for one all out swimathon across the Olympic sized public swimming pool in Prosel Park, across from our home in Lincolnwood, Il. “On your mark…get ready…set…GO!” I tore across that pool with the determination of a Gold Medalist. When I reached the other side, winded and panting, I emerged from the water to a horrible sight. My heart sank as I saw my infallible pop swimming the final strokes towards me at the side of the pool. At first, I gleefully chanted a few bars of “I won! I won! I finally beat you.” But after a moment, I saw clearly what that victory actually meant. That time was passing. That life was fleeting. That one generation makes way for the next. It was sad. Heartbreaking in a way I will never forget. “No racing today,” I announced definitively. My fragile heart couldn’t take one more jolt. No. I was still faster, stronger and physically omnipotent in a way I wasn’t willing to risk losing. There’ll be time for more races. Time for his growing body and soul to surpass me in all of its endeavors. Just not today. Not yet. Instead, I grabbed him and twirled around as fast as I could. I spun him round and round madly until he was giggling hysterically, all the while reciting the familiar hymn from years past, “…Motorboat, motorboat, go so fast. Motorboat, motorboat, step on the gas!!!!” Granted, it was silly, I’ll even admit it was cheap. But at that moment, I would have done anything to hear that boyish giggle and watch his sweet eyes flicker with glee as he let go of his body and fell deeply into my strong embrace. Reddit posted on August 13, 2011 filed under childcare, culture, Jewish, lessons, love, mothering, parenting, relationships, religion tagged as Bar Mitzvah, boys, jewish, kids, mother, parenting, sons Debra Rich Gettleman is a professional actor, playwright and journalist living in beautiful Seattle, WA with her husband and two amazing sons. 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True? #altonbrownlive https://t.co/tWB4rXcyJN 6 years ago	13,863
Skip to main contentSkip to site footer Movies and Culture Matt Wardlaw Published: December 20, 2014 Photo credit: Anna Webber 20 years ago, Allman Brothers Band members Warren Haynes and Allen Woody wanted to have some fun outside of their regular day job and they formed Gov't Mule. As Haynes recalls, they didn’t have any serious goals for the band when things first got rolling. “It was just a fun side project. We didn’t even have any designs on doing a second record or turning it into a touring band or any of the things that eventually happened,” he says. “Maybe that’s why it worked, because we were just flying by the seat of our pants and taking it one step at a time. Every decision we made was based on what we felt like would be the best for us and in no way second guessing the marketplace or music industry. "We were just kind of saying, ‘Well, since we are becoming a band, what’s the next step?’ We’d try something and see where it went. The one thing we knew was that we didn’t want to stay where we were. Us starting out as an experimental rock power trio, if you will, was just a fun thing to do in the moment. It was never like, ‘Let’s do that for the rest of our lives,’ it was, ’Let’s do that and see what happens.’ Once it turned into a band, then we had to figure out, ‘Okay, what’s the second record going to be like.’” Two decades later, Haynes and Gov’t Mule are continuing to explore and find answers to those questions as they come around. They’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of Gov’t Mule with a flurry of releases culled from the band’s legendary Halloween and New Year’s Eve gigs, including the recently released ‘Dark Side of the Mule,’ 90 minutes of Pink Floyd covers recorded live during a 2008 Halloween concert in Boston. (Gov't Mule will perform their Floyd tribute as one of their two sets at Mountain Jam 2015). Similarly, the limited edition vinyl release ‘The Stoned Side of the Mule: Volume 1,’ featuring tracks recorded during a 2009 Halloween gig in Philadelphia, captures the band making their way through seven handpicked classics from the Rolling Stones catalog. They’ll continue to unpack treasures from the archives in early 2015, with ‘Dub Side Of The Mule,’ a set of reggae jams with Toots Hibbert of Toots & The Maytals, taken from a 2006 New Year’s Eve gig in New York City, an evening which also featured guest appearances from Gregg Allman and Blues Traveler’s John Popper. The group also plans to finally release the long-anticipated recordings of their 1999 collaboration with jazz guitarist John Scofield, who teamed up with the group for two shows. Fans can finally hear the results of those shows via a newly mixed and mastered three-hour set called ‘SCO-MULE’ that will be released on double CD and double vinyl in January. To celebrate the arrival of the ‘SCO-MULE’ album, Scofield and Gov’t Mule will hit the road for a special set of tour dates. We recently had the chance to speak with Haynes and he shared details regarding the upcoming trek and the anniversary releases. He also spoke about some of the new music that he’s working on and the “once in a lifetime opportunity” that he had being a member of the Allman Brothers. Playing covers for you seems like it’s a way to continue to educate today’s music fans and keep an awareness going of the important songs and cornerstone artists that might otherwise fade away. That’s definitely part of it. You know, it’s also just having fun and kind of interjecting some freshness into our three-hour shows. Because I think when you play a long show like that, doing something that’s a bit of a curveball kind of rounds out the overall picture. And as I mentioned, it’s fun for us and the audience that we’ve kind of garnered through the years is used to that sort of thing. Because since we’re somewhat lumped in with the other jam bands, a lot of them or all of them take a similar approach. We’re just a little bit more of a rock band, I think. Are there curveball moments that stick out as far as things you tried out in the moment like that which didn’t work? Not for the most part. You know, we’re pretty good at picking stuff that we’re confident in and also a lot of preparation and rehearsal goes into it. You know, it’s funny, I guess the audience has changed a bit in our 20 years, because the first time we covered the song 'Tempted' by Squeeze, I think the audience scratched their head and wondered why we were doing it. Then we didn’t do it for quite a few years and the next time that we did it, everybody thought it was awesome. [Laughs] I know that when I look at Mule Tracks, sometimes I’ll see a song pop up and I’ll be really curious to hear the spin that you are going to put on it. I’m sure that there are some that didn’t come off as well as others, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head. We’re brave in the way that we’re really going out on a limb and exposing ourselves. Since you brought up Mule Tracks, just the concept of making every show that you play available to the public is kind of guilty of that bravery or stupidity or whatever it is. You guys and the Allmans started releasing live recordings from every concert really early on. Initially, was it difficult to make that decision to openly document and share everything like you have? Well, we’ve been allowing people to record the shows and trade the tapes as long as no money changes from the very beginning. When we started Mule Tracks in 2004, it was just an extension of that to offer what we consider a higher quality recording of the shows. It’s turned into a nice business venture for us, you know, we’re approaching three million songs downloaded and for a band like Gov’t Mule that’s largely under the radar, that’s pretty impressive. There are bands that have tried what you have done and just haven’t found the demand from the audience. Well, it works because we do a different show every night. If we just went through the motions of performing the same setlist every night, it would be futile. But since the shows do vary to the extent that they do, it works for us and it presents a challenge to us as well. Because we have to make sure that every show is different. I think Mule fans are stoked to hear about the tour with John Scofield. What have you guys talked about for those shows so far? We haven’t really dug too far into it other than the obvious that we’ll do a lot of the stuff that’s on the upcoming release of the recordings that we did in the late ‘90s, but we’ll expand on that quite a bit as well. There will be a lot of stuff from his catalog and a lot of stuff from our catalog and maybe some outside material that we’ll add. We’ll try and make those shows different from night to night as well, so that’s going to be a fun challenge too. I’m expecting that it will be the equivalent of Gov’t Mule doing a set without John and a set with John or something along those lines. There are a few new archival Gov’t Mule things that have come out recently. There’s the 'Stoned Side of the Mule' thing that was released on Black Friday and the 'Dark Side of the Mule' release that just came out. What’s special about both of those bands for you as a musician and as a music fan? I grew up in such a fertile time for great rock music. It’s really easy to take for granted a lot of the amazing music and amazing bands and artists that we were all exposed to growing up. Music like Pink Floyd music and Rolling Stones music, when you hear it now, it’s as good or better than it was when it was created and that’s the highest compliment that I can give any band or artist. Both of those bands are unique in the way that every song they perform sounds like them and no one else. So the challenge for us was, how do we put our stamp on that music but still pay tribute to the uniqueness that is inherent in the music? It does show that we’re influenced by that music, but it also allows us to try and merge their sound and our sound together, even on a song-by-song basis. On some of the songs, we stick a little bit more true to the original versions and on some of them, we get a little more carefree with the interpretation. But all in all, it’s about having fun and doing something cool for Halloween that we enjoy and that the audience enjoys as well. The ‘Dark Side of the Mule’ release comes with video of the entire show. Have you filmed quite a bit of stuff over the years? Not a ton. We filmed a few special shows here and there. There’s also a bonus DVD of the set that we did with Toots Hibbert for the ‘Dub Side of the Mule’ that’s coming out that’s taken from one of our New Year’s Eve shows. But the filming process for that was not nearly as high-tech as the filming process for ‘Dark Side.’ When we did the Floyd stuff, we pulled out all of the stops for that. We had surround sound, we had a laser light show, we had three female background vocalists, two of which toured with Pink Floyd. We had Ron Holloway playing saxophone, so it was a really over the top night and we wanted to make sure that it was on film. For this upcoming New Year’s Eve show, I understand you’re going to be jamming AC/DC tunes with Myles Kennedy. That sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, we’re psyched about that. We’ve been talking about doing an AC/DC set for quite a few years, but it’s a little out of my range from a vocal standpoint. Myles’ range is higher than mine and it worked out that he was available this year. He’s the perfect guy to do it. That’s a band that if people only know the radio hits, there’s just so much more beyond that. Yeah and similar to what I said about the Stones and Pink Floyd, somehow everything they do sounds uniquely like AC/DC and there’s no confusing that. I know you’re starting to think about another Gov’t Mule record and I’m curious about that. But I’m also curious to know if you think you want to do another solo record at some point? I’m actually working on a solo record right now and Matt [Abts] and Jorgen [Carlsson] are almost finished with the second POA (Planet of the Abts) record, which sounds great. I made an appearance on there as did Danny Louis. My solo record is coming from a much more acoustic standpoint, although there’s a lot of electric guitar as well, it’s predominantly acoustic instruments with a more singer/songwriter approach. There’s a lot of Appalachian instrumentation but there is a lot of playing. It’s a record that I’ve been wanting to make for many years now, so I’m glad that it’s coming to fruition. As far as the next Mule record, we’ve been talking about what kind of directions we might explore, but that’s about as far as it’s gone. We want to make sure that it’s completely different from ‘Shout!’ and probably different from anything we’ve ever done. When are you charting to have that solo record out? I’m going to continue working on it for the next few months, off and on and we’ll see where it goes. Hopefully next year sometime. Now that the Allman Brothers thing is wrapped up, what are your thoughts looking back on that whole experience? Well, that was a once in a lifetime opportunity and experience for me. You know, the Allman Brothers were and are always one of my favorite bands. To have that opportunity to be involved, especially to the extent that I was for 25 years, I have nothing but positive emotions about that. It is a little bittersweet -- it’s a very emotional time right now, because it was such a huge part of my life. Especially when I was in the band, but even prior to that. That music means more to me than anyone could imagine. Being on the inside of it and helping keep it alive was an unbelievable experience. On one hand, I hate to see it end but on another hand, I think it’s the right decision.	12,356
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Just last week, on the feast of St. Pope John XXIII, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, which occurred on Oct. 11, 1962. Some of us are very familiar with the council, having lived before, during and after this significant event in the life of the Church. Many of us grew up during the days of the council and the implementation of its work. Others of us do not know personally the years of the council and, having grown up after it, are familiar with it only as history. However, no matter our living relationship to the Second Vatican Council, it continues to have a profound influence upon our lives of faith as members of the Catholic Church. At the opening of the council, St. Pope John XXIII delivered an address which set the tone for the deliberations. This talk, titled “Gaudet Mater Ecclesia” (“Mother Church Rejoices”), would not only set the council’s tone but also the implementation of the council’s deliberations. Pope John XXIII said, “Mother Church rejoices that, by a singular gift of Divine Providence, the much-desired day has now dawned, on which, under the auspices of the Virgin Deipora, whose maternal dignity is commemorated today in a festive rite, here at the tomb of the Blessed Peter, the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican begins solemnly.” One of the points that St. Pope John XXIII made abundantly clear at the opening of the Second Vatican Council was that its greatest concern was to clearly present the teaching of the Church, which was not subject to any change. However, that teaching had to be presented in a manner understandable to a changing world. The condition of the world changes, but the teaching of the Church does not. The substance of the deposit of faith is one thing, but the manner in which it is presented is another. The pope stated so well, “The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more effectively. … In order, however, that this doctrine may influence the many facets of human activity and be meaningful to individuals, to families and to societies, it is necessary that the Church should never depart from the sacred treasure of truth inherited from the Fathers. But at the same time, she must ever look to the present, to the new conditions and new forms of life introduced into the modern world, which have opened new avenues to the Catholic apostolate.” As the pope spoke to the Council Fathers, he made clear that the Church rejoiced in the council and the work it was about to undertake. However, the history of the Church and the council have made clear that the Church also rejoices always in her vigor, in her peace and in her prayer. Vigor, peace and prayer are hallmarks of the Church, which are essential to our daily lives. The Church rejoices in her vigor. The Church is vigorous because she is the people of God. The Second Vatican Council revived the biblical notion of the Church as the people of God. “Hence, the Universal Church is seen to be a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (“Lumen Gentium,” 4). God is with His people, and “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). The vigor of God’s people is divine life and nothing less. Many today may understandably lament the difficulties the Church is facing and fear she is faltering. However, historical perspective shows us that the Church has faced worse times than these, and the vigor of the people of God has always endured through God’s grace. In his opening address to the Council Fathers, the pope said, “The prophets of doom always talk as though the present, in comparison to the past, is becoming worse and worse. But I see mankind as entering upon a new order and perceive in it a divine plan.” How fitting are his words for today. The Church rejoices in her vigor. The Church rejoices in her peace. The Church is a place where peace is to be found. The message of Christ is a message of peace. On Oct. 20, 1962, the Council Fathers, at the direction of the pope, delivered a message to the world. One of the calls that the Fathers placed before us is that of peace. They said, “There is no one who does not detest war, no one who does not ardently desire peace. This is the greatest wish of the Church as mother of all. … We proclaim that all men are brothers, regardless of the race or nation to which they belong.” The Church, as the people of God, rejoices in the peace of Christ which she wishes to foster among all people. How much today our world, facing war, terrorism and the violation of the right to life, needs this message of peace. The Church is an instrument of peace. When we recognize our equality as made in the image and likeness of God, then peace becomes more attainable for us. That peace must radiate from our individual lives. The Church rejoices in her peace. The Church rejoices in her prayer. Prayer is where we most deeply enter into the mystery of ourselves and of God. Prayer is where we renew our vigor and find our peace. Above all, the Eucharist, the prayer of the Church, is where we are united with Christ and each other most intimately. In the Eucharist, we are fed with the Body and Blood of Christ so that the living people of God truly become the living Body of Christ. In prayer, the Church rejoices most earnestly. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis celebrated Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The pope spoke insightful words, well summed up, as he said, “Let us rediscover the council’s passion and renew our own passion for the council! Immersed in the mystery of the Church, Mother and Bride, let us also say, with St. John XXIII: Gaudet Mater Ecclesia! May the Church be overcome with joy. If she should fail to rejoice, she would deny her very self, for she would forget the love that begot her. Yet how many of us are unable to live the faith with joy, without grumbling and criticizing? A Church in love with Jesus has no time for quarrels, gossip and disputes. May God free us from being critical and intolerant, harsh and angry! This is not a matter of style but of love. For those who love, as the apostle Paul teaches, do everything without murmuring (cf. Phil 2:14). Lord, teach us your own lofty gaze; teach us to look at the Church as you see her. And when we are critical and disgruntled, let us remember that to be Church means to bear witness to the beauty of your love.” October 21, 2022 9995 N. Military Trail © Diocese of Palm Beach 2022 What Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website. Personal Information You Choose to Provide We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys. If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. 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I will need 1,200-1,500 words. The Elora Jean & Co. owner has come to you asking for guidance on a few issues that were brought to her attention. With the rapidly growing workforce, an increasing number of employees have requested extended time off from work. The owner does not want to grant the time off because of its effect on productivity. When asked for examples of the requests, she provides you with the following scenarios: Employee #1 has been with Elora Jean & Co. for 13 months. She has requested time off to help care for her terminally ill mother-in-law. She is not sure how long she will need to be out of work, but it could be as long as 3 months. Employee #2 has been with Elora Jean & Co. for 18 months. His wife just had a baby, and he is asking to take 6 weeks off of work to help with the new responsibilities at home. Employee #3 developed health problems since her start with Elora Jean & Co. 7 months ago. Her work attendance is unpredictable. She has exhausted all of her sick days and advised her supervisor that her doctor is requiring her to stay home for a period of 6 weeks. Employee #4, who has been with Elora Jean since the company started, has a son that has been called to active duty for the military. Her son, who is a single parent, has a 3-year-old daughter who needs to be cared for. The employee wants to take 8 weeks off work to get her granddaughter situated and transitioned into a new routine as her father leaves to fulfill his military responsibilities abroad. As the human resources (HR) consultant, you have many questions, and you would like to gather all of the necessary information before providing additional guidance or recommendations. You are aware of the company’s legal limitations and discretions, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The owner has also advised you that the company has no formal leave policy for any type of employee absence, other than 7 paid sick days per year. After conducting your research, in a memo to the owner, address the following questions: Considering the Elora Jean & Co. work environment and history (124 employees, in business for 18 months, mix of union and nonunion), is the company currently exposed to any legal risk by not having a defined leave policy in place? If so, what are the risks and the penalties for violation? Of the 4 employee cases described, discuss whether each one would qualify for FMLA leave. Why or why not? For employees who do not qualify under FMLA, what would you recommend to the company? Explain other employee leave options for the company without compromising the company’s financial objectives. Develop a sample leave policy to be presented to the company owner. Be sure that the policy covers the key components of a comprehensive leave policy, including requirements for eligibility, leave benefits provided, job restoration, pay, and benefits status while on leave. Outline a summary of your recommendations to the company owner, and advise her about the value of implementing this type of policy. \| Get an A+ //Custom, Plagiarism-FREE papers Order Now Interested in a PLAGIARISM-FREE paper based on these particular instructions?...with 100% confidentiality? Order Now I will need 1,200-1,500 words. The Elora Jean & Co. owner has come to you asking for guidance on a few issues that were brought to her attention. With the rapidly growing workforce, an increasing number of employees have requested extended time off from work. The owner does not want to grant the time off because of its effect on productivity. When asked for examples of the requests, she provides you with the following scenarios: Employee #1 has been with Elora Jean & Co. for 13 months. She has requested time off to help care for her terminally ill mother-in-law. She is not sure how long she will need to be out of work, but it could be as long as 3 months. Employee #2 has been with Elora Jean & Co. for 18 months. His wife just had a baby, and he is asking to take 6 weeks off of work to help with the new responsibilities at home. Employee #3 developed health problems since her start with Elora Jean & Co. 7 months ago. Her work attendance is unpredictable. She has exhausted all of her sick days and advised her supervisor that her doctor is requiring her to stay home for a period of 6 weeks. Employee #4, who has been with Elora Jean since the company started, has a son that has been called to active duty for the military. Her son, who is a single parent, has a 3-year-old daughter who needs to be cared for. The employee wants to take 8 weeks off work to get her granddaughter situated and transitioned into a new routine as her father leaves to fulfill his military responsibilities abroad. As the human resources (HR) consultant, you have many questions, and you would like to gather all of the necessary information before providing additional guidance or recommendations. You are aware of the company’s legal limitations and discretions, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The owner has also advised you that the company has no formal leave policy for any type of employee absence, other than 7 paid sick days per year. After conducting your research, in a memo to the owner, address the following questions: Considering the Elora Jean & Co. work environment and history (124 employees, in business for 18 months, mix of union and nonunion), is the company currently exposed to any legal risk by not having a defined leave policy in place? If so, what are the risks and the penalties for violation? Of the 4 employee cases described, discuss whether each one would qualify for FMLA leave. Why or why not? For employees who do not qualify under FMLA, what would you recommend to the company? Explain other employee leave options for the company without compromising the company’s financial objectives. Develop a sample leave policy to be presented to the company owner. Be sure that the policy covers the key components of a comprehensive leave policy, including requirements for eligibility, leave benefits provided, job restoration, pay, and benefits status while on leave. Outline a summary of your recommendations to the company owner, and advise her about the value of implementing this type of policy. June 5, 2017 suzet I will need 1,200-1,500 words. The Elora Jean & Co. owner has come to you asking for guidance on a few issues that were brought to her attention. With the rapidly growing workforce, an increasing number of employees have requested extended time off from work. The owner does not want to grant the time off because of its effect on productivity. When asked for examples of the requests, she provides you with the following scenarios: Employee #1 has been with Elora Jean & Co. for 13 months. She has requested time off to help care for her terminally ill mother-in-law. She is not sure how long she will need to be out of work, but it could be as long as 3 months. Employee #2 has been with Elora Jean & Co. for 18 months. His wife just had a baby, and he is asking to take 6 weeks off of work to help with the new responsibilities at home. Employee #3 developed health problems since her start with Elora Jean & Co. 7 months ago. Her work attendance is unpredictable. She has exhausted all of her sick days and advised her supervisor that her doctor is requiring her to stay home for a period of 6 weeks. Employee #4, who has been with Elora Jean since the company started, has a son that has been called to active duty for the military. Her son, who is a single parent, has a 3-year-old daughter who needs to be cared for. The employee wants to take 8 weeks off work to get her granddaughter situated and transitioned into a new routine as her father leaves to fulfill his military responsibilities abroad. As the human resources (HR) consultant, you have many questions, and you would like to gather all of the necessary information before providing additional guidance or recommendations. You are aware of the company’s legal limitations and discretions, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The owner has also advised you that the company has no formal leave policy for any type of employee absence, other than 7 paid sick days per year. After conducting your research, in a memo to the owner, address the following questions: Considering the Elora Jean & Co. work environment and history (124 employees, in business for 18 months, mix of union and nonunion), is the company currently exposed to any legal risk by not having a defined leave policy in place? If so, what are the risks and the penalties for violation? Of the 4 employee cases described, discuss whether each one would qualify for FMLA leave. Why or why not? For employees who do not qualify under FMLA, what would you recommend to the company? Explain other employee leave options for the company without compromising the company’s financial objectives. Develop a sample leave policy to be presented to the company owner. Be sure that the policy covers the key components of a comprehensive leave policy, including requirements for eligibility, leave benefits provided, job restoration, pay, and benefits status while on leave. Outline a summary of your recommendations to the company owner, and advise her about the value of implementing this type of policy. Interested in a PLAGIARISM-FREE paper based on these particular instructions?...with 100% confidentiality? Order Now Compile a list of methods to stop different cyber crimes. Using the book and other resources, write a 1 to 1 ½ page paper (using APA style formatting) on methods to either catch or stop cyber criminals. Explain the different methods in detail. Prepare: The topic of your essay needs to be a global societal problem from the following list: adult illiteracy, funding for General Education vs STEM in primary and secondary schools, minimum wage, oceans desertification, overcoming the digital divide, refugee (escaping persecution, war, or death) crises, species extinctions (modern), tax havens, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), universal statement of human rights (pick one), airport security, or wealth disparity. Review this GEN499 Sample Final Paper Guide for additional guidance on the expectations of this assignment. Reflect: Based on the topic that you have chosen, you will need to use critical thinking skills to thoroughly understand how this topic can be a global societal problem and determine some logical solution(s) to the problem. Write: This Final Argumentative Essay will present research relating the critical thinker to the modern, globalized world. In this assignment, you need to address the following items in separate sections with new headings for each: Identify the global societal problem within the introductory paragraph and conclude with a thesis statement that states your proposed solution(s) to the problem. For guidance on how to construct a good introduction paragraph, please review the Introduction Paragraph Guideline from the Ashford Writing Center. Describe background information on how that problem developed or came into existence. Show why this is a societal problem, and provide perspectives from multiple disciplines or populations so that you fully represent what different parts of society have to say about this issue. Construct an argument supporting your proposed solution(s). Be sure to consider multiple disciplines or populations so that your solution shows that multiple parts of society will benefit from this solution. Provide evidence from multiple scholarly sources as evidence that your proposed solution is viable. Interpret statistical data from at least three, peer-reviewed scholarly sources. Do this by discussing the validity, reliability, and any biases; identifying the strengths and weaknesses of these sources; and pointing out limitations of current research and attempting to indicate areas for future research. You may even use visual representations such as graphs or charts to explain statistics from sources. Evaluate the ethical outcomes that result from your solution. Be sure to provide at least one positive ethical outcome as well as at least one negative ethical outcome that could result from your solution, and explain at least two ethical issues related to each of those outcomes. It’s important to consider all of society. Develop a conclusion as the last paragraph(s) of the essay, starting with rephrasing your thesis statement and then presenting the major points of the topic and how they support your argument. For guidance on how to write a good conclusion paragraph, please review the Conclusion Paragraph Guideline from the Ashford Writing Center. The Final Argumentative Essay Must be 3,300 – 3,900 words in length (approximately between 10 – 12 pages; excluding title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Must include a separate title page with the following: Title of paper Student’s name Course name and number Instructor’s name Date submitted Running header with page numbers Must include in-text citations from at least 10 scholarly sources. Be sure to integrate your research rather than simply inserting it. Must document all sources in APA style as outlined here and here. Must have no more than 15% quoted material in the body of your essay based on the Turnitin report. Reference list will be excluded from the Turnitin originality score. Must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Source Document Requirements: Multimedia sources (such as videos) may be used, but no more than two such sources may be used. If multimedia sources are used, they must be authored and distributed by credible sources, such as universities, law schools, medical schools, or professors, or found in the Ashford University Library. Government sources may be used, but no more than two such sources may be used. Examples include whitehouse.gov, state.gov, usa.gov, cdc.gov, etc. These websites can be used to make a stronger point about your proposed soluation within the argument. Where print documents are used for source materials, those must be peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles, and academically published books. Popular media sources (e.g., newspapers, magazines, television and radio shows, etc.) must not be used. Materials from advocacy groups (e.g., Greenpeace, Human Rights Campaign, National Organization for Women, etc.) must not be used. Sites such as ProCon.org and Wikipedia must not be used. Religious texts must not be used. Good Critical Thinking Tips: Your paper should include academic sources that explain multiple sides of the issue. Your interpretations of the evidence should be objective and state the conclusions and theses presented in the evidence clearly and fairly. Your paper should place the various forms of evidence in relation to one another and demonstrate why one form or perspective is stronger than the other positions that one could take on the issue. Your paper should point out the limitations of current evidence and attempt to indicate areas for future research.	15,253
If you tried to describe early 21st century politics with a single word, apocalyptic would be among the top contenders. From climate change and COVID to biodiversity change and abortion, the rhetoric surrounding most issues seems to be "The world (as you know it) is going to end. Only radical action can hope to save it." Whatever the merits of the argument that the relevant indicators have gone from merely "bad" to a "crisis" might be, the consequences from democracy have been deadly. Once political problems are framed as potentially apocalyptic, the implication that they are therefore too important or pressing to be solved by regular old democracy tends to be taken for granted. Participants become polarized and fanatical, seeing their opponents as not just behind the times or ignorant of "the facts" but enemies of the future of humanity. What's more is that it imposes a disaster narrative. And like a tornado bearing down upon us, the expectation is that people lay all other concerns to the side and just do what they're told. But as I've pointed out earlier, that story about the politics doesn't really hold up. I think that we're not going to make consistent and dependable progress on the global crises we face until we can learn to talk about them as merely "big problems," rather than as cataclysm. Decades of political experience have told us that no amount of screaming about "the facts" or insisting on the stupidity or evilness of other people will make them drop their own political views and do what we tell them. Most of all, it only takes a bit of reflection to recognize that these problems are not at all like a disaster, like a tornado we can see with our own eyes. They depend upon our trust in experts and those communicating the science. The pandemic, for instance, is not something the average citizen perceives in its totality. It is a diffuse problem, one that people have to be constantly reminded of. Choosing to wear a mask or get vaccinated, as a result, is not at all like stacking sandbags in the face of rising flood waters. It is asking people to play their part in an improving epidemiological situation that is only understood to government modelers. It demands that people see imperceptibly influencing statistical projections of viral spread and healthcare burden as a heroic and necessary act. That can't be done except by building trust, by doing democracy, by convincing your opponents that you're not only credible but honest and benevolent. Science and technology scholars write and talk a lot about post-normal science, the unique political situation that emerges for issues where there are considerable stakes and high levels of (perceived) uncertainty. I was asked to give a talk on short notice at the World Biodiversity Forum this week, and I used it as an opportunity to think through how people involved in areas of post-normal science and politics try to cope with or escape the situation of post-normality. Can the stakes be reduced while still addressing the problem? Can the perceived uncertainties be lessened without other stakeholders seeing it as dishonest, biased, or unfair? Those are just a few of the thoughts that I explored. Unfortunately, the talk wasn't recorded, but here is a link to the slides. Rural People and Conservation Biodiversity conservation is riddled with conflict. This is unsurprising, given that people live where we also find important and charismatic animal species. Although there has been a lot of good work looking into how to reconcile the often divergent interests of conservationists and rural peoples, I feel like a lot of it is on the wrong track. No doubt is it well intentioned. There is a long history of treating rural people as conservation "problems," one that goes at least as far back as efforts to remove native peoples from America's newly established national parks. The idea that species can only be protected by creating "pristine" wilderness areas is increasingly recognized as not only ahistorical but also the driving force behind the expropriation of land from rural residents. The future of conservation relies on moving past the historical antagonism between typically urban-dwelling, "science following" conservation advocates and the people who live within the landscapes seen as needing protection. The response within conservation has paralleled a similar move within Science and Technology Studies, consequently suffering some of the same drawbacks. Researchers in STS have done great work to highlight the existence of "lay expertise," that non-scientists have important knowledge to contribute. Similarly, environmental scientists have uncovered how indigenous and local peoples often have an intricate understanding of their local environment and have developed strategies that allow them to live off the land in ways that sometimes more sustainable or supportive of biodiversity than what so-called modern people do. Work in both these areas try to encourage scientists to be more humble and open to listening to non-scientists. The risk is romanticizing lay people. Not all indigenous peoples have lived so sustainability. Mesoamerica, for instance, was once dominated by groups who sustained themselves as much by imperialism as by their home grown agricultural practices. More broadly the antithesis of "follow the science", can devolve into a kind of epistemological populism, where it is non-experts whose knowledge becomes sacrosanct or unquestionable. Recall how Newt Gingerich, in the lead up to the 2016 election, argued that American's belief that the country was more dangerous than in the past, despite statistics to the contrary, was all that mattered for the election. Democracy is served by putting different kinds of knowledge in conversation, not by venerating the little guy. The question here is not whether the average American is wrong or if FBI statistics are right, but why Americans would still feel unsafe despite this data. The apparent contradiction uncovers a unresolved problem that policy should address. I think that part of the problem is that we've confused political problems for knowledge conflicts. Past injustices were often justified by science, such as when pristine (read "human free") protected areas were argued to be the only way to preserve nature. So the appropriate response seems to be that we can prevent those injustices by elevating lay knowledge so as to be equal in value to science. The idea is that the power differential was created by the unequal weight given to different kinds of knowledge, but really the causality worked in the opposite direction: Power legitimates one group's knowledge over that of others. So we focus excessively on developing ways to give diverse forms of knowledge equal weight when the real issue is simply that the way we decide what is a problem and how to solve it is insufficiently democratic. We're treating the symptom rather than the cause. The way out is both agnostic and agonistic. I think it's better to not get into the morass of deciding which knowledge should have the most influence or whether different ways of knowing are or are not equal. Rather, groups with different ideas about what is important and different ways of knowing about the environment should have more equal say in deciding how to solve collective problems. We settle political conflicts through democracy, not convoluted analytical schemes for realizing epistemological equality. This is also the right way, because rural people should have a say in what conservation measures are deployed where they live and how, full stop. They have this right not because they have special knowledge or because they live in appropriately non-western or native ways, but because they live there and have a stake. No amount of scientific know-how justifies depriving someone else of a say in decisions that affect them, insofar as we want to live in democratic societies. In any case, if you intrigued by this line of thought, take a peak at a commentary that I recently published in One Earth. We have all heard stories of people pilloried online. One of the earliest instances occurred in South Korea in 2005, when a young woman’s dog pooped in a subway car and she didn’t clean it up. Someone had taken photographs with a flip phone and posted them online, unleashing nationwide public harassment. The most famous story from Twitter is that of communications director Justine Sacco, who in 2013, before a flight to South Africa, tweeted a hamfisted joke about getting AIDS. Even though she had only 170 Twitter followers, the post blew up — as did her life. The two stories show rather different kinds and levels of offense and shaming. But they both illustrate the same reality. Once upon a time, an ill-advised comment or action drew an appropriately stern rebuke from a friend or a boss or a stranger; today it draws a public firestorm that can ruin you. So now everyone is on guard, because everyone is watching. Continued at The New Atlantis Fact-checking may be important, but it won’t help Americans learn to disagree better Entering the new year, Americans are increasingly divided. They clash not only over differing opinions on COVID-19 risk or abortion, but basic facts like election counts and whether vaccines work. Surveying rising political antagonism, journalist George Packer recently wondered in The Atlantic, “Are we doomed?”... Continued at The Conversation [We must] rethink the proper place of scientific expertise in policymaking and public deliberation. [An] inventory of the consequences of “follow the science” politics is sobering, applying to COVID-19 no less than to climate change and nuclear energy. When scientific advice is framed as unassailable and value-free, about-faces in policy undermine public trust in authorities. When “following the science” stifles debate, conflicts become a battle between competing experts and studies. We must grapple with the complex and difficult trade-offs and judgment calls out in the open, rather than hide behind people in lab coats, if we are to successfully and democratically navigate the conflicts and crises that we face. Continued at ISSUES... Is it better to tolerate seemingly prejudiced political opinions, or should we be intolerant of people whose views on diversity, equity, and identity strike us as harmful? I am an advocate for radically tolerating political disagreement, even if that disagreement strikes us as unmoored from facts or common sense. One reason is that dissent makes democracy more intelligent. While many believe that vaccine skeptics misunderstand the relevant science and threaten public health, their opposition to vaccines nevertheless draws attention to chronic problems within our medical system: financial conflicts of interest, racism and sexism, and other legitimate reasons for mistrust. People should have their voices heard because politics shapes the things citizens care about, not just the things they know. Tolerating disagreement also ensures the practice of democracy. Otherwise, we may find ourselves handing off ever more political control to experts and bureaucrats. Political truths can motivate fanaticism. Whether it is “follow the science” or “commonsense conservatism,” the belief that policy must actualize one’s own view of reality divides the world into “enlightened” good guys and ignorant enemies who just need to go away. But what about beliefs that seem harmful and intolerant? You might question, as the political philosopher Jonathan Marks does, whether a zealous belief in the idea “that all men are created equal” is so problematic. Why not divide the political world into citizens who believe in equality and harmfully ignorant people to be ignored? The trouble is that doing so makes actually achieving equality more difficult....Continued at Zocalo Public Square This is a more academic piece of writing than I usually post, but I want to help make a theory so central to my thinking more accessible. This is an except from a paper that I had published in The Journal of Responsible Innovation a few years ago. If you find this intriguing, Intelligent Trial and Error (ITE) also showed up in an article that I wrote for The New Atlantis last year. ITE is a framework for betting understanding and managing the risks of innovation, largely developed via detailed studies of cases of both technological error and instances when catastrophe had been fortuitously averted (see Morone and Woodhouse 1986; Collingridge 1992). Early ITE research focused on mistakes made in developing large-scale technologies like nuclear energy and the United States’ space shuttle program. More recently, scholars have extended the framework in order to explain partially man-made disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina’s impact on New Orleans (Woodhouse 2007), as well as more mundane and slow moving tragedies, like the seemingly inexorable momentum of sprawling suburban development (Dotson 2016). Although similar to high-reliability theory (Sagan 1993), an organizational model that tries to explain why accidents are so rare on aircraft carriers and among American air traffic controllers, ITE has a distinct lineage. The framework’s roots lie in political incrementalism (Lindblom 1959; Woodhouse and Collingridge 1993; Genus 2000). Incrementalism begins with a recognition of the limits of analytical rationality. Because analysts lack the necessary knowledge to predict the results of a policy change and are handicapped by biases, their own partisanship, and other cognitive shortcomings, incrementalism posits that they should—and very often do—proceed in a gradual and decentralized fashion. Policy therefore evolves via mutual adjustment between partisan groups, an evolutionary process that can be stymied when some groups’ desires—namely business’—dominate decision making. In short, pluralist democracy outperforms technocratic politics. Consider how elite decision makers in pre-Katrina New Orleans eschewed adequate precautions, having come to see flooding risks as acceptable or less important than supporting the construction industry; encouraging and enabling myriad constituent groups to advocate for their own interests in the matter would have provoked deliberations more likely to have led to preventative action (see Woodhouse 2007). In any case, later political scientists and decision theorists extended incrementalism to technological development (Collingridge 1980; Morone and Woodhouse 1986). ITE also differs from technology assessment, though both seek to avoid undesirable unintended consequences (see Genus 2000). Again, ITE is founded on a skepticism of analysis: the ramifications of complex technologies are highly unpredictable. Consequences often only become clear once a sociotechnical system has already become entrenched (Collingridge 1980). Hence, formal analytical risk assessments are insufficient. Lacking complete understanding, participants should not try to predict the future but instead strategize to lessen their ignorance. Of course, analysis still helps. Indeed, ITE research suggests that technologies and organizations with certain characteristics hinder the learning process necessary to minimize errors, characteristics that preliminary assessments can uncover. Expositions of ITE vary (cf. Woodhouse 2013; Collingridge 1992; Dotson 2017); nevertheless, all emphasize meeting the epistemological challenge of technological change: can learning happen quickly and without high costs? The failure to face up to this challenge not only leads to major mistakes for emerging technologies but can also stymie innovation in already established areas. The ills associated with suburban sprawl persists, for instance, because most learning happens far too late (Dotson 2016). Can developers be blamed for staying the course when innovation “errors” are learned about only after large swaths of houses have already been built? Regardless, meeting this central epistemological challenge requires employing three interrelated kinds of precautionary strategies. The first set of precautions are cultural. Are participants and organizations and prepared to learn? Is feedback produced early enough and development appropriately paced so that participants can feasibly change course? Does adequate monitoring by the appropriate experts occur? Is that feedback effectively communicated to those affected and those who decide? Such ITE strategies were applied by early biotechnologists at the Asilomar Conference: They put a moratorium on the riskiest genetic engineering experiments until more testing could be done, proceeding gradually as risks became better understood, and communicating the results broadly (Morone and Woodhouse 1986). In contrast, large-scale technological mistakes—from nuclear energy to irrigation dams in developing nations—tend to occur because they are developed and deployed by a group of true believers who fail to fathom that they could be wrong (Collingridge 1992). Another set of strategies entail technical precautions. Even if participants are disposed to emphasize and respond to learning, does the technology’s design enable precaution? Sociotechnical systems can be made forgiving of unanticipated occurrences by ensuring wide margins for error, including built-in redundancies and backup systems, and giving preference to designs that are flexible or easily altered. The designers of the 20th century nuclear industry pursued the first two strategies but not the third. Their single-minded pursuit of economies of scale combined with the technology’s capital intensiveness all but locked-in the light water reactor design prior to a full appreciation of its inherent safety limitations (Morone and Woodhouse 1989). No doubt the technical facet of ITE intersects with its cultural dimensions: a prevailing bias toward a rapid pace of innovation can create technological inflexibility just as well as overly capital-intensive or imprudently scaled technical designs (cf. Collingridge 1992; Woodhouse 2016). Finally, there are political precautions. Do existing regulations, incentives, deliberative forums, and other political creations push participants toward more precautionary dispositions and technologies? Innovators may not be aware of the full range of risks or their own ignorance if deliberation is insufficiently diverse. AIDs sufferers, for instance, understood their own communities’ needs and health practices far better than medical researchers (Epstein 1996). Their exclusion slowed the development of appropriate treatment options and research. Moreover, technologies are less likely to be flexibly designed if deliberation on potential risks occurs too late in the innovation process. Finally, do regulations protect against widely shared conflicts of interest, encourage error correction, and enforce a fair distribution of the burden of proof? Regulatory approaches that demand “sound science” prior to regulation put the least empowered participants (i.e., victims) in the position of having to convincingly demonstrate their case and fail to incentivize innovators to avoid mistakes. In contrast, making innovators pay into victim’s funds until harm is disproven would encourage precaution by introducing a monetary incentive to prevent errors (Woodhouse 2013, 79). Indeed, mining companies already have to post remediation bonds to ensure that funds exist to clean up after valuable minerals and metals have been unearthed. To these political precautions, I would add the need for deliberative activities to build social capital (see Fleck 2016). Indeed, those studying commons tragedies and environmental management have outlined how establishing trust and a vision of some kind of common future—often through more informal modes of communication—are essential for well-functioning forms of collective governance (Ostrom 1990; Temby et al. 2017). Deliberations are unlikely to lead to precautionary action and productively working through value disagreements if proceedings are overly antagonistic or polarized. The ITE framework has a lot of similarities to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) but differs in a number of important ways. RRI’s four pillars of anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, and responsiveness (Stilgoe, Owen and Macnaghten 2013) are reflected in ITE’s focus on learning. Innovators must be pushed to anticipate that mistakes will happen, encouraged to reflect upon appropriate ameliorative action, and made to include and be accountable to potential victims. ITE can also be seen as sharing RRI’s connection to deliberative democratic traditions and the precautionary principle (see Reber 2018). ITE differs, however, in terms of scope and approach. Indeed, others have pointed out that the RRI framework could better account for the material barriers and costs and prevailing power structures that can prevent well-meaning innovators from innovating responsibly (De Hoop, Pols and Romijn 2016). ITE’s focus on ensuring technological flexibility, countering conflicts of interest, and fostering diversity in decision-making power and fairness in the burden of proof exactly addresses those limitations. Finally, ITE emphasizes political pluralism, in contrast to RRI’s foregrounding of ethical reflexivity. Innovators need not be ethically circumspect about their innovations provided that they are incentivized or otherwise encouraged by political opponents to act as if they were. An op-ed that I wrote with Nicholas Tampio was published in the Washington Post on Saturday. The reaction was much stronger than I anticipated it would be. I was ready for the run-of-the-mill social media negativity that I see on Twitter everyday, but the vitriol in the article's comments and in Twitter replies was really something else. One person came to my wall to write that I had "blood on my hands", and no shortage of people questioned my intelligence and moral compass. In our article, Nick and I don't exactly come out against mandates writ large (though some have interpreted it that way), but that pursuing vaccine mandates right now will not be worth the costs. The thing to remember is that we're living through two pandemics at the moment: COVID and rampant political polarization. Getting vaccine numbers up faster while only making our democracy even more pathological is not a wise move. Things weren't helped by Tom Nicholas retweeting it to his 500k followers with such authoritative pronouncements as "It [vaccine mandates] is exactly how things work in a democracy, which is why you didn't get polio." For a guy who pronounced the "Death of Expertise," you'd think Nichols would pause to consider that maybe he might want to learn from people who study vaccine hesitancy and resistance before claiming to know what's best, but he hasn't. Nichols, like many people today who decry the declining respect for truth or democracy, is really taking issue with the reality that people think differently than him rather than that they don't respect expertise or act democratically per se. And that's exactly the problem that, as I argue in my book The Divide, underlies contemporary democracies. It's not so much that people are "irrational," but that political opponents are absolutely convinced that they are on the right side of truth, whether they are pro-vaccine or anti-vaxx. This fanatical certitude produces demand for fanatical policy. Just look at Max Boot's now deleted tweet praising vaccine mandates in the notably undemocratic Saudi Arabia, or Matthew Yglesias's suggestion that vaccine resisters should be given the jab by force. A lot of leftists and centrists are just as anti-democratic in their thinking as reactionary conservatives. It's just that that attitude only comes out when there's a population of citizens that refuse to embrace a truth that is accepted by the political mainstream. It's in these moments that self-described liberals and centrists out themselves as technocrats and agitate against the fundamental features of democracy: dialogue, negotiation, and compromise. But they're not alone. As I demonstrate in my book, plenty of otherwise intelligent people have been confusing democracy with The Truth for quite some time, and that explains a lot of the political gridlock and intransigence in modern democracies. The question will be whether enough of us can rise to the challenge of democratic citizenship in the near term in order to avoid the "death spiral" of polarization that previously infected nations like Venezuela, pre-Pinochet Chile, and pre-Franco Spain. Using mandates as a stick to punish the unvaccinated, especially while also giving the appearance that it's motivated by partisanship, will make a polarization death spiral in this country a real possibility. But that's not the only thing that I've noticed in the reaction to the piece. First, many vaccine mandate advocates are unsurprisingly similar to the vaccine hesitant citizens in how they perceive risk. It's just in the opposite direction. One commenter described being worried everyday about her 3 year old ending up in the ICU with COVID. That's certainly a possibility, but the risk to children is actually not much more than it has been for other long-prevalent viruses like the flu and RSV. It's common to chide the vaccine hesitant for their "irrational fear" of vaccine side-effects, but plenty of vaccine supporters have a similarly outsized worries about COVID. Both should be considered "legitimate" concerns that we ought to take seriously, even if the goal is to eventually lessen the magnitude of those worries. The more annoying argument is the comparison between getting vaccinated and driving drunk: We don't let people onto public roads while drunk, why should we let the "reckless" unvaccinated into public spaces. This is a terrible metaphor. No one comes into the world drunk or driving the automobile, but we were all born without immunity to COVID. A person has to explicitly imbibe alcohol to become a drunk driver, while not being a COVID spreader (well, less of one) means permitting someone to inject a vaccine into your body. The metaphor completely blinds us to all of the important differences in these cases, making it easier to ignore the immense amount of trust in doctors, the FDA, and the pharmaceutical industry that it takes to get vaccinated. Plus, it reduces human beings to being disease-ridden virus vectors, which is somewhat dehumanizing. I think it's better to think of herd immunity as like an airplane, except it's an enormous plane that some 80 percent of us have to board before it can take off. People fear flying. They have to give up control. They have to trust the pilot, the FAA, and that engineers at companies like Boeing are all doing their jobs diligently. Would we strap people into their seats in that case or talk to them to try to alleviate their fears? Other thing that I've learned from some of the emails that I've received is that there's a big overlap between "essential workers" and the vaccine hesitant. At my own college and others throughout the country, it is staff and not faculty who are shunning the vaccine. At hospitals, it is nurses and orderlies who more often refuse, not doctors. Those of us who have been relatively shielded from most of the harms of COVID are often the ones most ardent in calling for mandates. A reader who emailed me framed it as "The professional class took none of the risks during the pandemic and are now forcing an experimental vaccine on us." That's a perspective that I hadn't considered, and it's one that I'm still thinking about. I think it explains some of the class dynamics of vaccine mistrust. One final realization that I've had concerns vaccines as technological fixes. Dan Sarewitz wrote that he thought they were the best example of using a technology to sidestep the social complexities and difficulties in solving a tenacious public problems. I now think that he's wrong. The techno-fix for disease like COVID-19 is treatment, not vaccine. This should be obvious, given how many of the vaccine hesitant have latched onto to uncertain treatments like Invermectin. Vaccines, like I noted above, require immense amounts of trust. They also ask that people who are not currently sick take a form of medicine. Treatments don't. People who are exceptionally sick see risks differently. They're looking to get better, not avoid getting sick. In light of the fact that pandemics aren't going to disappear anytime soon, we may want to put as much R&D into improving treatment options as into developing vaccines. We would be better off having a techno-fix that lets us temporarily sidestep the messy problem of vaccine hesitancy, giving us more time to engage with the vaccine hesitant, to hear their concerns, and build trust. In his review of Elizabeth Kolbert’s latest book, Ted Nordhaus chides humanity for being too “bashful” when it comes to manipulating nature, insisting that such manipulation is necessary if we are to meet our environmental protection aspirations. We’ve likely been in a kind of Anthropocene for far longer than we recognize. The cat is out of the bag, Nordhaus seems to be saying, so we might as well learn to embrace environmental tinkering in earnest. Yet for all his chiding of environmental activists and their “grossly simplified models of the relationship between humans and nature,” Nordhaus ends up offering an equally facile binary in its place. Nordhaus is no doubt correct that the concept of nature has always been problematically slippery. Metaphors like “carry capacity”, “balanced webs”, and “great chain of being,” obscure as much as they enlighten. He reiterates the well-known problem with “nature.” That is, it is very difficult to draw the line where humanity ends and nature begins. Humans impacted the climate as soon as they discovered fire, a tool that they used to reshape their environment. Yet, despite William Cronon’s over 25-year-old critique of the fantasy of pristine wilderness and how it blinds people to the difficulties of our unavoidable interconnectedness to nature, the myth of the untouched environment persists. But humans think metaphorically. No differently from the problematic categorizations people use to order their world, they are a largely inescapable component of our imaginations. Eliminating previous metaphors and categorizations usually doesn’t uncover a previously hidden objective reality, because that process of elimination invariably involves overlaying new value-laden images on top of it. What exactly is the metaphor driving Nordhaus? It would have been nice if Nordhaus had been more explicit. I feel like he hid behind the truism that humanity’s tinkering with the environment has been ever present. But it’s not too difficult to read between the lines when he seems to put prehistoric humans creating grasslands where forests once stood at the same level as genetically engineering coral to survive anthropogenic climate change. Michael Shellenberger, only formerly associated with Nordhaus’ Breakthrough Institute, isn’t so keen to hide his cards. In coming out against renewable energy, he claims that their problem is that they cannot be sufficiently “modern.” Shellenberger makes a little bit too much out of a few Heidegger and Bookchin quotes and a handful of decontextualized statistics to claim that a society based on renewable energy would be inevitably arrested in a state of agrarian backwardness. Although Nordhaus isn’t so brazen, he doesn’t seem too different from Shellenberger when he talks of humanity’s relationship with the environment. In contrast to Shellenberger, however, he does recognize the risks, something apparent when he recounts the compounding unintended consequences brought on by creation of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The canal was first constructed to keep Chicago’s sewage from inundating Lake Michigan. Asian carp was introduced to control weed and algae growth, but the carp’s capacious growth now threatens the ecosystem—only being reined in by erecting electric barriers to limit the species’ movement. As lamentable as this turn of events might be, Nordhaus waves it off: “Most Chicagoans would probably choose [ecological tragedy] over open sewers running through their streets.” Imagine that humanity’s control over their tinkering with the environment were regulated by the same controls in an automobile. Nordhaus and Shellenberger seem to be preoccupied with the accelerator and brake. The above depiction of the Chicago Sanitary Canal ends up implying almost the same Hobson’s choice as Shellenberger presents for renewable energy: We either dig canals and electrify them, following previous technological errors with new technical fixes in the same style, or we wallow impoverished and in shit. To fair, technological decisions don’t happen in a vacuum. They are path-dependent. We are partly ruled over by earlier decisions made by people who are now long dead. Electric (and perhaps automated) vehicles appear to be the only answer to the ills of the automobile in a country where travel by foot, bicycle, or trolley car is made difficult to impossible by already established infrastructure—not to mention culturally entrenched ideas connecting automobility to progress, America, and masculinity. But the answer given by eco-modernists, even if more implied than explicitly stated like in Nordhaus’s book reviews, reads almost like a kind of learned helplessness in the face of "progress": “This is the path we’re on, we might as well stick with where the least resistance seems to be. But don’t worry! We have read the statistical tea leaves. Everyone will probably be better off. We might as well push forward with our current mode of tinkering.” History may end up vindicating ecomodernists’ faith in linear progress, at least in the short term, but their quickness to discount alternative pathways stifles a more charitable conversation about environmental problems. There is a real and troubling tendency in ecomodernist writing to reduce the debate into a black-and-white struggle between cornucopians and Malthusians, modernity and pre-modernity, or abundance and austerity. Such a move is just as oversimplifying as the “pristine nature” myths they critique. Notions like modernity, progress, and abundance are themselves inextricably value-laden. If there is anything productive to come out of debates about how humanity ought to tinker with nature it will only be if those debaters were more honestly up-front about their value commitments. Too often ecomodernism (or degrowth) is presented similarly as liberalism, as if it were just a neutral path toward a better world rather than a one particular partisan vision of the good. And too often, statistical trends read from thirty thousand feet are included less to inspire thoughtfulness and more to lend one side’s argument an aura of inevitability: “Can’t you see that collapse/progress is coming?” Obscured are deeper questions about what makes for a good life and a good society. Exactly what kind of world should our environmental tinkering lead to? Just because words like “nature” can be problematic social constructions doesn’t mean that they are useless. Most people would admit that there is a significant difference between viewing a tiger at the zoo and encountering one in a jungle. All the thorniness inherent in the concept of wilderness aside, dispensing with the notion that non-human or “natural” agency is important prevents a more complex conversation regarding biological and environmental problems, one that can’t be reduced to facile questions like “Is energy use good or bad?” Consider minimalistic shoes, of which Vibram’s FiveFinger shoes are only one example. These shoes are touted for helping runners realize a more “natural” running form, biomechanics ostensibly discouraged by the heavily padded runners developed during the 20th century. The debates regarding the merits of the shoes quickly went into scientistic territory, with no shortage of evidence available for either side to declare victory. But most observers missed that the central tension was only superficially about what constitutes a “natural” human gait. It was really rooted in the question of how people should interact with the very ground that they run on. Are the parts of nature outside of our own bodies something simply to insulate and protect against or should there be a more dynamic dance between the agencies of non-human nature and of people? Should our shoes be built to make the material configuration of the ground almost irrelevant to our running or keep it as something we are forced to reckon with on an intimate level? Taking these examples seriously doesn’t mean falling back upon an idealized bucolic nature, one without the “corrupting” influence of human beings and their technologies. Rather, the point is that there are different qualitative styles to engaging with world that the exists outside people and their creations. A pair Vibrams is no less a technological creation than Nike’s Vapormax running shoes, but each take for granted a different relationship to inherited human biology and how it intersects with the ground. Our disagreements about nature will only be productive when we recognize that it is the tension (and fuzzy border) between nature-to-be-controlled and nature-to-be-engaged, not fanaticizing binaries like “abundance vs austerity,” that lies at the root of them. It’s easy to forget that Chicago only needed a Sanitary Canal because American society chose to dump its waste into waterways rather than compost it. Chicagoans were wallowing in shit because they failed to envision a relationship with waste other than trying to make it disappear into ditches, sewers, and lakes. Because they failed to commune with composting bacteria, early modern cities had to go to war with cholera. We lose the ability to reimagine the dynamics and character of humanity’s tinkering with nature when progress is imagined as a binary. The pathways available to us are not just forward and backwards, toward “modernity” and away from it, or doing things “because we can” and environmental asceticism. There is a steering wheel available to human societies, which they could use to chart any number of pathways through our environmental challenges, if we would only remember that it’s there. Author Taylor C. Dotson is an associate professor at New Mexico Tech, a Science and Technology Studies scholar, and a research consultant with WHOA. He is the author of The Divide: How Fanatical Certitude is Destroying Democracy and Technically Together: Reconstructing Community in a Networked World. Here he posts his thoughts on issues mostly tangential to his current research.	39,492
Die Hundefreunde - Wir sind das Original » Die Ecke für den Hundehalter » Erziehung und Ausbildung » an logo.The Hall of Fame class of 2017 will have Themen-Einstellungen Thema drucken #1 \| an logo.The Hall of Fame class of 2017 will have 30.04.2019 07:58 Informationen anzeigen Registriert seit: 16.02.2019 No one could make the argument that Ken Griffey Jr. didnt bring pizzazz to his Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.In addition to sporting his signature backward cap look, Griffey wore a pinstripe suit -- and the pinstripes spelled out the words Hall of Fame Class of 2016.As if a pinstriped suit with words on it wasnt enough, Griffeys gold tie featured his Swingman logo.The Hall of Fame class of 2017 will have an uphill climb if it hopes to enter Cooperstown in similarly flashy style. Clearance Nike Roshe .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. Nike Roshes Cheap Online . The 31-year-old Spain midfielder hasnt played since Madrid lost in the Copa del Rey final to Atletico Madrid in May due to back and foot injuries. http://www.cheapnikeroshe.com/ . After slipping from the summit during the week, the Gunners overcame struggling Crystal Palace 2-0 on Sunday thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlains second-half brace. Nike Roshe Sale Cheap . -- Whether Jeremy Hill deserves a prominent role in LSUs offence this early in the season is a matter for debate. Roshes Shoes For Sale . LOUIS -- St. DETROIT -- The Tennessee Titans set the tone for their game against Detroit on the opening kickoff, when Cody Riggs was called for a penalty during the return.The Lions answered immediately with Haloti Ngatas offside infraction on the first play from scrimmage.Forget the final score of 16-15 Titans. For much of Sundays game , the story was the penalties, which occurred with such frequency for the first three quarters it looked like these two teams might threaten a 65-year-old NFL record.Detroit finished with 17 penalties for 138 yards, and Tennessee was flagged 12 times for 83 yards.Thats got to be an NFL record, Titans coach Mike Mularkey said. Id have to think that.Not quite. The record is 37 penalties by Cleveland (21) and Chicago (16) on Nov. 25, 1951. The Lions and Titans were nearly halfway there after two quarters, having combined for 18. They were at 26 by the end of the third.In 1937, Detroit was called for only 19 penalties for 139 yards all season -- two records that still stand. The Lions nearly reached both of those totals in one game Sunday.Ive never seen anything like that, Detroit cornerback Darius Slay said. The refs were calling everything. Got to clean it up and do better next week.The flags cost Detroit crucial points in an almost farcical sequence toward the end of the first half. A pass interference call on Tennessee gave the Lions first-and-goal from the 1. Then Detroits Eric Ebron had a touchdown catch wiped out by an offensive pass interference call on him.On the next play, Matthew Stafford had another TD pass nullified, this time by a holding penalty. And the Lions were called for holding again on the play after that, leaving them with first-and-goal from the 226.dddddddddddd They settled for a field goal.Obviously, the penalties were a problem. Seventeen penalties is ridiculous, Detroit coach Jim Caldwell said. We need to stop this. Time after time, we put the ball into the end zone and had it brought back by penalties, and we let the Titans off the hook several times with defensive penalties.A flag on a punt pinned the Titans back at their 5 in the first quarter and led directly to a safety that gave the Lions a 2-0 lead. Detroit had a touchdown called back in that quarter as well, but the Lions reached the end zone on that drive anyway.There were four offside calls in the first quarter, and in the second, the Titans managed to get flagged for offside while kicking off after a field goal.Tennessee tight end Delanie Walker said the teams could have anticipated this type of game with referee Brad Allens crew. There are scouting reports on officials too.We knew what type of referees we had, Walker said. They were probably throwing the most holding penalties, which they showed. We expected that. They made the game slower, but they are the referees. Theres no use fighting with them.In the third quarter, the Lions drove 63 yards in 14 plays for a field goal and a 15-3 lead. There were five penalties on that drive: holding on Detroit, unnecessary roughness on Detroit, holding on Tennessee, offensive pass interference on Detroit, and roughing the passer on Tennessee.It was that kind of day.Tough to win a game that way, Stafford said. Tough to get into a rhythm.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' ' nach oben springen man roster.Kalil had missed three of the past four g » « Todd Fraziers two-out bloop single in the sixth.	5,127
This BoB club is in formation and we are currently looking for founding members to secure their exclusive places so that the club can officially launch when we have 12 members. To secure your place all you have to do is pay the one-off registration fee. Annual membership becomes due when the club reaches 12 members and this is when your 12 months membership will commence. Please send us an enquiry to find out more. Want to keep up to date with whats happening in BoB Clubs? Subscribe to our newsletter I agree to BoB Clubs Terms and conditions Connect with us We are very active on Social Media. Connect with us and keep up to date with all of our BoB clubs meetings.	713
I was 17. The school day had ended. The courtyard was full of cheery students rushing off to catch their buses or dash home for an evening of Street Fighter Alpha, Lik-a-Stik candies and ring pops. It was a simple time. Birds chirped. Squirrels played their little games, the rules of which mankind can ne’er dream to discern. The crisp spring air intertwined with the setting sun, launching the evening’s aura into paroxysms of verisimilitude. The world was a happy place. Or so we had been taught. Our teachers, our parents, the posters in our classrooms all agreed: All people should be treated equally. Diversity is to be celebrated. We’re all OK just the way we are. Ah, those days! Such joy! Would that I could plug back in, and return to the simple pleasure of believing in those empty slogans. Alas I cannot, because on April 4th, 2003, for the first in my life, I stared deep into the eyes of swole hate. Today, I share my story. I was making my way to the rugby pitch, when I was accosted by a “friend” of mine from class. Her name was Jennifer. She asked me where I was going. “Practice,” I said, sensing something amiss. Jennifer positioned herself in front of my path, forcing me to stop. “How late does practice go?” She asked, smiling. “Do you want to hang out after?” “I’m going to the gym after practice to lift weights,” I replied, avoiding her invasive eye contact. I felt uneasy, like an (incredibly swole for his age) antelope in a cage with a lion. The next words dripped from her mouth like venom: “Ah, working on these I presume?” Her hand darted out like a scorpion’s tail, and she began massaging my upper arm. Rubbing, squeezing. Not stopping. “Yes,” I said, tears streaming from my eyes on the inside. “I have to go. Coach makes us run hills when we’re late.” “Okaaay,” she replied with a pouty face, her hand still resting on my arm. “Wouldn’t want the big strong rugby team captain to be late.” I jogged past her and towards the pitch, away, away, far away from her caliper-like fingers. My calves burned with pain, because yesterday was a leg day. My heart burned as well, but yesterday wasn’t a heart day. When I arrived at practice, coach pulled me aside. “Elihu,” he said, “come here for a second. I’m moving you to the back of the line-out. You had the perfect build for a jumper last year – 6’3 and 165lbs – but you’ve swoled up to almost two hundo since then. The other guys aren’t swole enough to lift you.” My heart sank. Even coach, a man I’d always trusted to see me as a human being, considered me swole first, Elihu second. After practice, I went to the gym with my swole bros. We lifted in the name of the Father, The Son, and The Swoley Spirit. We lifted, and we saw that we had lifted, and it was good. But the words of coach and the unsolicited touches of Jennifer stayed with me. In their own separate, and possibly even well-meaning ways, they had taught me something: I was The Other. On that day, my eyes were opened. I saw through the veil of systemic weak privilege and institutional anti-swolism in our society. But I ignored it. I battled anti-swole prejudice for half of a decade after that day. The looks. The unwanted touching. The soft bigotry of high expectations. The never-ending cries of “show us your ___!” I tried not to let it get to me. I laughed along with friends when they joked about my swoleness. I accepted the aggressive advances of women, because I was swole, and ‘you know how girls are!’ I paid extra to substitute salad for french fries so many times, I wasn’t even sure I was human anymore. Worst of all, I thought I was the only one. All day, every day, I bore my cross-shaped torso swolone. My undergrad gym was not a swole safe space, and every day I lived in fear of accidentally grunting or clanging a plate, thus earning the glares of the weak privileged among me. I pushed through the pain period for a long time. But one day, I couldn’t bear it any longer. I had tolerated swole hatred past my failure point, and my soul was doing forced negatives. In October 2011, I committed Swolicide. Fed up with my swolitude, I chose to end it all. I stopped lifting, moved to Thailand, and spent three months training Muay Thai, partying, and traveling around Southeast Asia. Day by day, the grace of the swole left me. After that, I moved to an Ashram in India and spent two months eating a strictly vegetarian diet, practicing yoga and meditating. I felt the spirit of the Swole leaving me every day. Then I moved to Basque country, to surf and party for two months in Hossegor and San Sebastien. By that point, the glares had stopped. The groping had stopped. I experienced the joy of knowing that the girls I met liked me for me, not because I looked like a swole Robert Redford. My heart and swoul were barely clinging to life. Finally, I hammered the final nail into the coffin of my formerly swole self. I hiked across Spain in the August heat. By the time I finished, I was no longer swole in the slightest degree. I was a regular guy. I had my first taste of weak privilege, and it was sweeter than any aspartame and whey protein shake I’d ever had. I flew back to Canada in an airplane seat that fit me. I ate the meal they served me, rather than bringing my own steamed broccoli, chicken breast and almonds. The cute flight attendant served me like I was any other passenger, instead of leering at me with hungry, objectifying eyes. When I got home, I thought I had it all. I thought I had cured myself of my self-hatred. I thought I could settle down into a normal life, finally. But then I discovered the Swole Acceptance Community. At first I thought it was funny. But the more I read, the more I realized that as nice as it is to be a beneficiary of Weak Privilege, nothing on Earth is worth sacrificing your swoul for. And so, I made a decision. I am undergoing Swole Reassignment Surgery. I am Swole. I was born this way. I’ll die this way. And then I’ll be buried in a coffin that has to be let out in the shoulders. I’m also calling on swole brothers like FlyFreshandYoung, Virgle Kent, Roosh, Victor Pride, and Danger and Play, to stop hiding. Because we’re not going away. Because we don’t care how much hate we endure from the Weakcriarchy. With Brodin as our witness: We’re here, and we’re Swole, so get used to it. Further reading for Swolebros and the Swolecurious: Swole Acceptance FAQ: Everything you want to know about Swole Acceptance but are afraid to ask, brought to you by the Swole Acceptance Subreddit. Recent Posts FreedomTwentyFive.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an amazon associate we earn affiliate commissions from qualifying purchases. FreedomTwentyFive.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an amazon associate we earn affiliate commissions from qualifying purchases.	7,537
Many professionals who have not ever encountered a child who is alienated find it difficult to know how to understand or respond to the phenomenon. In this current climate of continuous elevation of a child’s voice in the process of family separation, professionals may well be meeting children who have, for quite some time before their encounter, been given all of the decision making power over their relationship with their other parent. This process, of placing a child in charge of relationships, is one which is upheld by the increasing reliance in the UK on tools such as Wishes and Feelings reports. When these tools are used indiscriminately and without any kind of analysis, professionals working with the alienated child are simply colluding with the alienation and entrenching an already serious problem of role corruption. A child in a separated family should not be in control of the relationships that are had with both parents. When a child is elevated to that position, it is often accompanied by role corruption, which means that the child is being used as a replacement spouse or partner to the parent with whom they are living. This role corruption, which is a serious form of attachment disorder should, in itself be considered abusive by professionals. A parent who is relating to a child as if they are a partner or a spouse should be assessed further to understand what has gone wrong in the relationship. When this is accompanied by the child’s fervent expression of independence in terms of making decisions about the relationship with the other parent, alienation is very likely to play a strong part in what has gone wrong. Many alienating parents rely upon their child to uphold the ‘decision’ that the other parent is not a good parent and has caused the rejection themselves. Professionals who are challenged by the notion of a parent having caused the rejection should look closer at what really happens when parents do abuse their children. Justified rejection, which is the rejection by a child of a parent who has harmed them, does not occur because of small and relatively minor problems between a child and a parent. Any child who is rejecting a parent based on frivolous or minor issues (he made me do my homework, she got hold of me and made me wash my face) is likely to be exaggerating everyday happenings which are then amplified by the aligned parent as if they are abusive acts in themselves, they are not. What they are are events which an opportunistic alienating parent has seized upon as ‘proof’ of the other parent being dangerous to the child. They are examples of how the child’s mind has been manipulated and the child’s dependency upon that parent has been exploited. Any professional confronted with a child who uses frivolous, absurd or weak reasons for complete and total rejection of a parent should be on the alert. When a child’s mind is used in this way to achieve the objectives of revenge, that child is being abused and action should be taken to prevent it immediately. For professionals, the first encounter with an alienated child is an important one. This is because it is within this first encounter that one can begin to assess the level of pressure which is being placed upon the child to maintain their rejecting stance. First encounters with the child should ideally take place close to the assessment of the aligned parent, although they should never be undertaken with the aligned parent present. A checklist of presenting behaviours can be used with both parent and child if alienation is suspected. This should be cross referenced and analysed to determined how many of the signs of alienation in the child and alienating behaviour in the parent are demonstrated. With experience, it becomes easier to determine when alienation is present within a very short period of time, but at the start a professional should cross reference and analyse at length to ensure that what is being seen is actually alienation. Alienation is not difficult to mix up with justified rejection. When a child is justifiably refusing a relationship with a parent they are able to articulate that with reasoned argument which does not appear to be fragile or brittle or repeated. A child who uses phrases which are uncommon for their age group or sound rehearsed, alienation should be suspected and further indepth analysis of the relationship between the child and the aligned parent should be undertaken. One of the common mistakes that professionals who do not understand alienation make is to treat the rejected parent suspiciously. This is often the approach taken by professionals who are schooled in the idea that the voice of the child is of paramount importance in any dispute between parents. Rejected parents, whether they are newly rejected or have been struggling with the relationship with the child for some time, are deserving of support, care and guidance at all times. Rejected parents may have made some mistakes in the past, especially when the child first went into withdrawal from them. This does not mean that they are the cause of the problem and it does not mean that they should be treated in the same way as the aligned parent. When alienation is suspected the aligned parent should be treated firmly but with respect. The rejected parent however should be supported to talk and express their feelings in readiness for the work that can bring about change. Many professionals unfortunately do not behave this way but instead act as if both parents are to blame in an attempt to keep the aligned parent onside. The aligned parent who knows that they are doing however will only exploit that kind of approach and will exert all of the power that they possess (control of the child’s mind for one) to manage the professional’s interaction. Professionals who are unknowing or uncertain can easily be lead into the triangulation into a collusion with the fused and indignant dyad of alienating parent and child. When this happens, rejected parents lose heart and what little hope they have hung onto and alienating parents grow stronger and more powerful on the control that they continue to exert. In between the child loses hope that rescue is at hand and collapses further into compliance with the wishes of the dominating parent upon whom they realise they will have to continue to depend upon. First encounters between professionals and alienated children are critical because of the hope that children in these circumstances harbour, that rescue from this dreadful dilemma is close at hand. The professional who is equipped with the right knowledge and the courage to act swiftly and determinedly is the professional who will help the child. Those who are uncertain of themselves, unable to confront conflicted people and who are swayed by the alienating parent’s expressions of distrust and dislike will fail the child. Liberating alienated children is not easy and it does not come with an automatic ‘like’ button. Professionals who act for children in these circumstances face complaints, outrage, disbelief and accusations as well as the often gruelling process of being cross examined. There is often little in the way of thanks other than the gratitude of the rejected parent and the knowledge that children whose lives have been split, scarred and damaged, will have a chance to grow up more normally. So why do we do it? Ask anyone who has had a first encounter with an alienated child reuniting with a rejected parent. The magical reappearance of the love for a parent that was previously so violently disavowed by the child, which emergences in an instant when the child becomes aware that they are freed from the grip of the alienating parent is all that is needed to understand why. Liberating children from the child abuse which is parental alienation should be the core skill of all professionals who work with children in separating families, currently it is not. But when enough people understand the reality of alienation and its impact on children, it will be. Related Published by karenwoodall View all posts by karenwoodall Previous Previous post: Mother shaming: the dynamics of the alienating father Next Next post: Alienation as a gendered experience 33 thoughts on “First encounters with an alienated child” Kat says: 16 Sep 2014 at 1:01 pm I wish every social worker and CAFCASS officer in the country would read this! However, what about a child making serious allegations of abuse against the rejected parent. These may have been investigated by social services or the police and no further actioned. Sometimes they may be not credible (children remembering sexual abuse from when they were babies and such like) and can be easily rejected other times there is not hard evidence either way? Karen, I pray that CAFCASS read your blog and/or your work. In my case, the children were given complete powers, and then the solicitor manipulated the children and the already extremely stressed mother (I could really use other words but better not) as well as CAFCASS and let the matter get from very bad to almost irrepairable (I say almost because I still live in hope). If only CAFCASS were educated in the contents of this blog posting even, then it would make a whole lot of difference… It seems to me the only time “…enough people understand the reality of alienation and its impact on children….” is when judges, lawyers, cafcass people , politicians, have suffered being the alienated parent that they may understand and do something…. Having said that, the so-called-expert in my case himself doesn’t seem to have understood alienation enough to do enough and bring about a solution, and in fact, like cafcass allowed himself to be manipulated by other side solitor (it seems to me) and then left things worst than they were. So then, I keep going back to prayer cause it seems that’s all I have left….. Having said all that, blaming everybody and there dog is not healthy as all of that is out of my control. What I can do, and have control over, is to work on myself and improve whatever I have contributed to the situation and hope (and pray!) that that will improve matters…. 16 Sep 2014 at 2:49 pm PMK, I have worked with you long enough now and I understand you and your situation well enough now to be able to say to you that YOU did not contribute to the severe alienation your children are suffering. Your task is to stay well and stay focused on your path and your journey until your children can free themselves. And I will be here with you for as long as that takes. K 16 Sep 2014 at 3:21 pm And that means everythiing Karen! a) that you say that b) that you are there cos else I don’t know how I could keep going… Thank you so much ! 16 Sep 2014 at 3:43 pm When involved at Court over child arrangements two years ago I was informed by the Childs Gaurdian appointed by the Court that Cafcass do not employ a single child psycologist or psychiatrist. An organisation without the ability to understand about the emotional abuse suffered by children that are placed before it. Emotional issues of the parents the bread and butter. This self imposed blindness is surely irresponsible of Family Courts? Agree about blaming and the anger with no place to go. Yet feel responsable for the next generations children, when they become parents themselves, to try and make it a better place for them. Can make changes in all sorts of ways to do this. Reckon disabling myths and reminding our us of our responsabilities as human beings is pretty good. 16 Sep 2014 at 4:19 pm 16 Sep 2014 at 5:24 pm As a regular follower of your blog I’ve become used to reading things that could easily be autobiographical. It’s a strange sensation. There appear to be regular patterns to the alienation phenomenon. It’s almost formulaic and predictable. I think that this piece should be compulsory reading for all practitioners involved with children. There is one CAFCASS officer in particular whom I have met that I think should read this piece. This person saw all the things you describe – plus a few that you don’t, nevertheless everything that this “professional” heard and observed was taken literally at face value. There was no critical analysis whatsoever despite a child’s account that just a tiny amount of inquiry would have registered as unfeasible. There was plenty of EVIDENCE to prompt some serious questions and further investigation. But, like any fervent believer or religious zealot, this person simply shut out anything that conflicted with their belief system, contradicted their own prejudices or suggested a variation to their own tune. This happened to the extent that vital details were omitted, evidence was portrayed as hearsay and supervising managers were deliberately misled. To compound matters, and, despite prior promises to the contrary, the first and only encounter between this officer and my child took place at the home of the aligned parent. This is a small building with paper-thin walls. My child’s voice was effectively “liberated” (sic) ( or, more accurately, squeezed out with the alienator breathing down my child’s neck). It is now clear that the officer identified with and, to a certain extent, bonded with, the aligned parent. The manner of the interrogation carried out also left my child (a bright, sensitive and very perceptive kid) in absolutely no doubt as to which side of the fence this FCA was sat on. My child could hardly have been left feeling more isolated and wretched if someone had set out to deliberately achieve precisely that. CAFCASS were instrumental and complicit in my child’s emotional abuse. Their shoddy, biased and self-righteous investigation provided a cloak for the emotional abuse of my child and temporarily denied my child the vital support of a good dad and a wonderful paternal family. The same people that bragged openly of protecting children and liberating their voices were actually ensuring that a child that needed protecting was being exposed to the elements. Their hypocrisy and weasel words still induce nausea. Frankly, the entire episode was such a litany of bad judgements and errors, from an apparently “ trusted, very experienced and respected” officer, that one is forced to question this person’s intent. I shudder when I recall this officer’s self-satisfied, berating, belittling, sneering and abusive tone when they telephoned me to inform me of their recommendations. You have already written about the ritual humiliation of those accused either rightly or wrongly. This person seems to exemplify a demographic you have previously described that unfortunately seem to swell the ranks of practitioners of “social science”. Science and scientific methodology are concerned with evidence and truth. Both concepts would appear to be alien to practitioners such as this one that almost denied a beautiful, wonderful, vulnerable and gifted child any hope for the present or the future. Despite trumpeting the promotion of children’s voices, without proper training and without a willingness to entertain different ideas (regardless of research findings) I’m afraid that some in CAFCASS and our social services are ensuring that, through their selfish and bigoted idealism, they are actually facilitating the isolation and abuse of vulnerable children. Their stated intentions regarding the paramount nature of children’s welfare are unfortunately the antithesis of the reality. Anonymous says: 16 Sep 2014 at 5:48 pm Simply brilliant as always Karen, in the region where I come across cases (Hawkes Bay, New Zealand) many children would have been much better off if only many of the ‘professionals’ involved would read your columns. 16 Sep 2014 at 9:26 pm I totally agree my husband has gone through this just this year,he no longer sees his daughter because of her mother that abuses the system in nz to her advantage, even her daughter has told her why she doesn’t want to go to her dads, because of what her mum says to her. She refuses to listen and we have gone through court since she was 1 till the age of 5 and it makes no difference. The lawyer for child spoke of his daughter being rehearsed and entertaining her when she visited their home, she couldn’t get his daughter to even talk about her dad at all. It was in her report but nothing done about it.She is now 7 and we have to ring to talk to her while you can hear her mother telling her what to say. Courts in nz need to wise up and the children should feel safe to love both parents and share in their lives. This should be a requirement for family services so they can identify these problems. 16 Sep 2014 at 7:56 pm Karen you speak so much sense. Everything you say is spot on. unfortunatly people who behave like this are in the small minority and this makes people believe the family courts are working. And they do for normal healthy like minded people who want to work together so their children can enjoy the happiest option which is to enjoy time with both parents. the small minority of people who display this kind of behaviour do so because they can!! Tactics to play the system and throwing all kinds of disgusting false lies and allegations around tought to them by womans groups and dodgy solicitors..and again why?? Simply because they can. There is no punishment in place after such lies and allegations are found to be false. imprisonment is ruled out as its not in the best interest of the child yet they wouldnt think twice about putting the same person in jail if they refused to pay their council tax!! After my experience in court my advice would be to any parent thinking they can take someone on who has this over my dead body attitude and is prepared to brainwash a child and say all kinds of disgusting hideous lies about you would simply be dont bother. Dont waste your time or your money as you cannot win. you will be treated like the accused and will recieve little support from knee jerk so called professionals who instantly side with the alienator. until things are put in place i.e professional people who understand it and are not afraid to get to the truth of the alienation process then sadly i say again keep your money in your bank account. Professionals like yourself and serious punishment for alienators who have been found to be destroying childrens minds and relationships with innocent decent target parents is what is needed and until this starts to happen nothing will change. i havent seen my daughter for over 2 yrs now she is missing out on so much its such a hideous crime it really is. 16 Sep 2014 at 9:22 pm My experience of social workers is the opposite of what they should have been trained. A number of years ago, I had written to a senior social worker to ask for help to re-establish contact with my sons – he wrote a reply to me basically saying that the children were correct and within their rights to deny me any contact & that their mother was working to re-establish their contact with me. After the court cases started a young female social worker made a report to the court basically saying that I was not really a good father and the problems were caused by me. I had fantastic loving relationships with all my children prior to their mother & I separating. So many years have passed since then and there is still no contact & I wonder how these “professionals” could have made such an utter mess of my family’s lives – probably for all time. 16 Sep 2014 at 11:38 pm Brilliantly written as always Karen. In the area where I’m involved with cases (Hawkes Bay, New Zealand) many children would have benefited over the last ten years if only the ‘professionals’involved had read this and many of your other articles. 17 Sep 2014 at 4:55 pm The article is brilliant and unusally incisive even by the high standard of KW. However I sadly feel it misses one very important point. It believes as many do that if the professionals were properly trained then children would be much better protected from alienating parent emotionally abusing the child. The sad fact is the UK family court system and myriad add on agencies does not want to be retrained. In my work I see it every day facilitating and promoting parental alienation using the ‘welfare of the child’ as an excuse of convenience. Quite simply mal practice has become standard practice. That said it is deeply regrettable that so few are prepared to put their head above the parapet and seek proper standards from ‘professionals’ within the UK family court industry. Great credit to Karen Woodall for being consistently brave and describing so many of the institutional faults And thanks also for enhancing the knowledge of others such as myself. 18 Sep 2014 at 10:46 am I agree that this should be compulsory reading for everyone working with children and families. In many cases, the first allegations arrive with the first CAFCASS report. The allegations often have no basis whatsoever. Furthermore, the accuser will have made no effort to obtain any help at all. There will be no medical records of doctor’s visits, no visits to health visitors, no concerns from schools – absolutely nothing other than a monologue that is reeled off parrot fashion. If mediation is attempted, a year can easily pass before an alienated parent knows anything about any allegations. CAFCASS include failing to take a child to a doctor when needed in their definition of neglect. Yet mysteriously, despite the fact that aligned parents are frequently unable to offer any evidence to support their allegations (and waited for ages before even mentioning them), their behaviour, which would be neglectful if there was any basis in reality, never seems to get another mention. At the moment abusive parents are given an excessive amount of credence and support to wilfully mislead courts and cock two fingers at all concerned whilst they are given even further time and space to refine their stories. Furthermore the lack of communication between CAFCASS officers and the lack of a requirement for file notes to be made following the initial conciliation appointment yields yet further opportunities for the abuser to hone their narratives and indoctrination. I have no doubt that sometimes there are allegations which are true but an understanding of the context is always vital in order to properly assess anything and one size does not fit all. Consequently, clear signals of abuse are missed. The courts act in a way that actually facilitates abuse and i can’t help feeling disbelief and nausea when anyone involved in this sleight of hand gives me yet another sanctimonious reminder that the “Welfare of the child is the court’s paramount consideration”. I don’t know how they can trot these words out every day and still keep a straight face. I feel that it would be difficult to devise a more biased system, that promotes the emotional abuse of children, if one tried. Kat says: 21 Sep 2014 at 7:49 am To me the types of allegation you mention seem obvious to dismiss as made up (I know “the system” gives them far too much credence with horrific results for the children, not to mention the alienated parent). The ones I was referring to are the ones where the children themselves make allegations of sexual or physical abuse. The aligned parent has referred these to police/social services and they have been investigated and no further actioned because of lack of evidence. Someone has to decide whether these are true allegations or originate in an unhealthy dynamics between the aligned parent and the child, possibly with the child making up the allegation to please this parent. I guess the answer is to listen very carefully to exactly what the children are saying and pick up the clues from there. I guess what I do not understand is why social services and CAFCASS are so ready to believe that children’s rejections of a parent are justified, when it seems to me that most children who are abused will blame themselves as deserving the abuse, try to cover up that abuse and even if they are taking steps to protect themselves they want to maintain a relationship with their abuser. daddyhardup says: 27 Sep 2014 at 10:35 pm Your two comments on this post remind me a lot of the article here: http://expofunction.org.uk/2012/09/25/imagine-a-child-you-know-loses-a-parent-through-illness-accident-or-military-conflict-what-would-you-expect-to-see-2/ which goes some way to answering your question, what about the child who make serious allegations of abuse againt the rejected parent? (and which I notice you, or someone sharing your name, commented on). I suppose part of the answer is that competent persons should intervene promptly to interview the child, take detailed notes and form a view before Alienator Parent has had a chance to doctor the evidence by poisoning the child’s mind, to ‘refine their stories’ and ‘hone their allegations and indoctrination’ as Cafcasstrophy so lucidly puts it. Unfortunately, the first professional on the scene is typically a CAFCASS officer, often displaying the bias and plain incompetence for which the organisation is notorious (see the many examples cited on this blog). The case drags on and on, parental alienation sets in and the child’s increasing hostility muddies the waters, memories become vague with the passing of time, and Alienator Parent’s allegations become increasingly lurid and also precisely targeted as they learn how to work the system to their advantage. In my daughter’s case this went on for two years before we reached a fact-finding hearing, which, not surprisingly, went badly for me, the rejected parent. That neither my daughter nor her two step-siblings made any allegations against me until after a year into the proceedings made no difference, they were still seen as credible… 19 Sep 2014 at 8:02 pm Recently Simon Hughes MP talked about the importance of listening to the voice of children https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/simon-hughes-speech-at-the-voice-of-the-child-conference. However it appears that Simon Hughes knows little of ‘alienation’ and that the children who are listened to may have been manipulated /coached by their resident parent. When my grandson was interviewed by CAFCASS ,CAMHS,etc it was always in presence of mother only.False allegations by mother and stepdad and letter allegedly written by grandson were accepted by judge,without any chance to refute. I would like to send this last great post by Karen in its entirety to Simon Hughes.Is that OK? 19 Sep 2014 at 8:04 pm Hi Grandmani, if you send me an email I will send you a formal article which would be better to send as it has the Clinic’s name and address on it. K I think you have my email .It is manipart@blueyonder.co.uk Mirror says: 19 Sep 2014 at 9:53 pm Alienation needs to be understood in broader terms. It starts with mom going to the solicitor. If the latter was a decent person like a counsellor perhaps, rather than a scumbucket wearing a suit, mom might be advised to work things out amicably and respect the fact that children need their fathers too. Solicitors instil feelings of power, hatred, revenge and so on, turning their clients into delusional criminals of a kind. This often gets them into trouble, but more often than not it plants the idea in their little minds that they have won something. Even the biggest minds can be reduced to turd-for-brains by a cunning solicitor. Add to all this the application to the CSA. This adds to all the nastiness onehundredfold. Now we have financial reasons too, to make up allegations, stall the progress, deceive judges who are want to be deceived so they can make their status-quo rulings. Mom could be the nicest person in the world, and without a solicitor (and the CSA) might have worked out a good parenting plan with the dad. But alas, she’s become the victim of a solicitor, and the child in turn becomes the victim of alienation. Until we look at the root motivations for alienating parents, we won’t get anywhere. It’s not for nothing that the divorce industry protects alienators or turns a blind eye, when it itself is the root cause of alienation. Anonymous says: 21 Sep 2014 at 10:55 am What is described as alienation is a continuum that may have begun before the parents separated and will probably continue long after the psychologists and counsellors have weaved their family restorative magic. What Karen describes here is very real for me and some of the separated parents I have met. One of the key enablers for the release of children from the scourge of the other parent’s derogatory and persuasive child centred manipulations is the strength of determination and understanding of the target parent. Whilst the ability to alienate is not dependent upon gender, the reason why the target parent is usually the father is simply the fact that he is given comparatively little parenting time with his children thus allowing the self-centred notions of the alienating parent to take hold. Whilst the Judiciary seem to run with the idea that all school time is best served up by just one of the parents the other parent’s chance of remaining in their role reduces and deteriorates in direct proportion to the amount of childcare/school time available to them. Simply put. A child who has no time with a parent cannot be parented by that parent. Of course parents who have time with their children reduced (post-separation), can and do continue their role but it is often far from satisfactory. They will have to contend with the surrogate parent who has replaced them getting far more time with his children than he does himself. The time spent with his children will often be frivolous and inconsequential in parenting terms frequently being little more than time to repair the damage rendered to the children whilst at the hands of the alienator. There will be scarcely enough time to do more than entertain. In many cases the time allotted to fathers is less than that they would have had had they been sent to jail. Up until recently this has been known as “contact time” the equivalent in America being visitation rights……………………………….perhaps an apt description of the sentencing handed down to a father convicted of separation . Whilst a more equal division of parenting time between separating parents is no solution for the ills of parents determined to use the children to their advantage it does give the target parent a better chance of making a good “shared parenting model” stick. He will use his skills to make the transition between homes for his children an easy one. The self-assured talks he has with them will help his children deal with the conflicting opinions of both parents. His involvement in his children’s school work and their fears and friendships will help establish his role and also re-assure his children, boosting their self-confidence and self-esteem. Perhaps this is a good time to remind ourselves that the laws of the land can only deliver practical changes to an existing system. The law cannot by itself better our behaviour, change neither attitudes nor sooth our feelings. Whether the gender war, that rears its ugly head in the family court, delivers 95% feckless fathers versus 5% stigmatised mothers or re-aligns itself to a gender neutral 50% feckless fathers versus 50% stigmatised mothers, the need for good care and counselling will always exist at the point parents separate and there are children involved. one cannot parent if one does not have parenting time… a universal truth I believe. It is one of the themes of PA however that children are said to be abused by a parent parenting – even when they do not have any parenting time… daddyhardup says: 21 Sep 2014 at 8:38 pm Thank you again Karen. I would like to hear more of your thoughts on “this current climate of continuous elevation of a child’s voice in the process of family separation”, a theme which appears commonly on this blog. What is behind it and how can we challenge it (I don’t just mean within the court process, but within the wider debate on family policy)? It certainly contributed to the alienation of my daughter from me. Her mother depicted me to the court as an authoritarian, over-intellectual parent forcing his daughter to listen to the books he read her and preventing her from enjoying TV, internet use, junk food &c. &c., and produced a ‘Secret Diary’ in which my daughter dutifully made these kinds of allegations, and worse, as justification for not wanting to see me anymore. The CAFCASS officer was only too happy to jump on this bandwagon, acting in cahoots with my ex-wife’s barrister (this is no exaggeration; on one occasion when I represented myself, the two of them ganged up on me before the hearing in one of the meeting rooms outside the court, both berating me for my allegedly domineering parenting that had ‘justifiably’ turned my daughter against me). Their attitude was curiously at odd with that of my daughter’s school, which encourages parents to read to their children every day, something which my daughter very much enjoyed and which formed a special bond between us; when I first told her I was leaving home, she specifically said ‘but there’ll be no one to read me stories’. The school also, quite rightly, takes a firm line on healthy eating and on internet safety. At about that time I read Rowan Williams’ essay ‘Childhood and Choice’ in his book ‘Lost Icons.’ He argues that ‘children need to be free of the pressure to make adult choices if they are ever to learn how to make adult choices…. Failure to understand this is losing the very concept of childhood.’ He sees childhood play as the space where children take on and model adult roles and learn how to make the choices that go with them, while crucially not being bound by the consequences – after all, it’s a game, and if things go wrong, the game may be spoiled but the harm shouldn’t spill over into real life once the game has finished. If the tower of bricks I build carelessly then collapses (my example, not RW’s) this doesn’t have the consequences of a real tower block falling down because it has been badly designed and constructed. RW is concerned here mainly with the impact of consumerism on children, especially the kind that risks sexualising the child and setting her up as a rival to other children and to adults, as with risqué fashion clothing for girls. But it seems to me that his argument applies just as well to the way in which the courts push the child into the role of making choices about a parent that have real consequences for the relationship that are not easy to reverse (and which are scarcely ‘choices’ in any case if the child is under the control of the other parent, who is making their wishes known very clearly….). I sometimes think that my daughter’s childhood came to an end at the age of seven when alienation against me set in. Which is not to say that she became mature – on the contrary, she became more timid and fearful, at least when she saw me – but that her time of playful innocence was over. Anonymous says: 22 Sep 2014 at 9:03 am And the child said, “She got hold of me and made me wash my face” And the child said, “She helped me clean myself before I went to bed” And the child said, “She took me gently in her arms and bathed my tired face” And the child said, “I love my Mummy” Slowly the child began to accept the return of her mother’s love. At least for now all was well when at Mum’s house. More than words could say the behaviour of the child moved from one of scowls, rejection and temper tantrums to one of confidence acceptance and a self-assured nature. The wrinkled brow, the upturned nose, the wild gesticulations and strained grimace had all gone to be replaced by a warm smile, calmness, cuddles and serenity. Meanwhile, back at Dad’s place he was beginning to think the plan to find his daughter a new beginning was foundering. He had been persuaded against his better judgement to tell his daughter that her Mum was after all ok. She was different, sure, but nevertheless a good parent. His main concern was that he would lose his precious daughter on account of the fact that his marital separation had been so acrimonious and that he knew his daughter was very fond of her mother. It was these insecurities that had led him to hope that the new partner he had found would to a large extent replace his daughter’s needs for a mother. Back in the Counselling sessions there was some way to go to convince Dad of his value as a father to his daughter and the special and unique relationship he had. No-one need touch that ……………… 22 Sep 2014 at 1:13 pm am really not sure what you are trying to say here, you seem to be saying that reuniting a mother with a child puts the relationship with the father at risk. You seem not to understand that an alienating father is equally as capable of employing all manner of problematic behaviour as an alienating mother. what is your point, can you clarify it because it doesn’t make sense. Anonymous says: 23 Sep 2014 at 12:55 pm The alienator is not Dick Dastardly; he could be a reasonable person too. I was suggesting what might be his reasons for alienating his children and how difficult he might find it to re-adjust to a better co-parenting arrangement and the re-uniting of the children with their mother. (I do believe that children should have a meaningful relationship with both parents) I do not mean to imply that this behaviour, where one parent takes “control” over the parenting by psychological manipulations is in any way specific to men or women. I have seen this behaviour in both men and women. I am trying to fill in the blanks. This is one scenario that could explain why some parent’s attempt to alienate the other. The parents will suffer varying degrees of shock. Often the mental scars are an encumbrance to normal living. In extremity the mother/father has been known to take the life of the child and themselves simply because they cannot cope with a future that seems to exclude them from their lives. The act of alienating the children is a predictable response to parents separating, encouraged by the space and time limiting exercises that will accompany a parent moving away from the family home. Without concrete plans in place and a continued tacit agreement between parents to make life for their children an experience that will continue with both parents having an active and inclusive role in their children’s lives, there will continue to be further disturbances. In your example I suggested what the father (could be the mother) might be feeling. When he tried to alienate the mother, his actions could have been driven by fear of losing his children (real or imaginary). Insecurity can be a by-product of separation. Unfortunately there is no “blueprint” of good family life post-separation. We hear much about what is wrong but very little about the successful shared parenting scenarios. I am in no way trying to condone anyone’s poor behaviour, simply trying to understand the motivators for such behaviour. The scenario I gave was a reflection of the real fears that some parents feel when faced with separation from their partner. If mistrust, blame, denial, accusations are all high on the list (which is normal for parents in conflict) then the prospects for alienation of the children remain high. 23 Sep 2014 at 12:59 pm Oh I see, well by the same token, alienting mothers then cannot be the female version of dick dastardly – I think you are talking about Hybrid alienation here. K Anonymous says: 26 Sep 2014 at 4:40 pm I am interested in the way in which a child becomes alienated. How long does it take? It is so much easier for the alienator to justify their position when the target parent is not around. The absence of the target parent in the short term may make the child’s heart grow fonder but in the long term this leads the child to doubt the sincereity of the target parent’s love for them. I don’t know what you mean by pure alienation. Are you talking about the child’s state of mind (syndrome) or that of the parent whose sole motive is to eradicate any pleasant memory of the other parent from the child’s mind (the pure alienator)? Why is it that the Alienator goes on to have further relationships bringing more children into the world, with possibly a more balanced view about the new partner’s role in the family. Aren’t we simply talking about egos; our desire to see ourselves in this context as arbiters of better decision making than the partner we have fallen out with. One of the common traits of single parent’s post acrimonius separation is that they see themselves as the better parent…………….”I thought I was the better parent”…… was a comment I heard recently from a single parent who had brought three boys up on her own. (only to find her youngest deserted her when he was a teenager to go and live with his Dad). 6 Oct 2014 at 8:21 pm I have been living this Nightmare for a little over 2 1/2 years. It all started when my husband (not my kids father) lost our house without my knowledge and then he abandoned me. Shortly after my Sister passed away with me and my mother became sick and passed away as well. Since having no Husband and Family my kids father & his alienating wife (with her 3 kids as well) has used that opportunity to create fear & hate towards me. My kids father is an anesthesiologist and due to many surgeries for a past bone tumor my working career ended 15 years ago, therefore I do not have the income to go up against him and and our naive courts. I continue to show up at any school or sport functions that I am aware of which has been no easy task to find out. I also try to provide for any needs that I can provide for my kids. I call daily with endless unanswered calls & messages, and even provided my 15 y/o with a cell phone but her dad replaced it with one on his plan and they threw mine in a drawer as I continued to pay $50 extra per month unaware. I am constantly rejected and ridiculed by my Ex and distanced more and more by my kids. Regardless of all my efforts and continual optimism I am alienated and scorned worse as time goes by. Some days I feel like all hope is lost and what is my purpose in life, but I try so hard to have faith that this is temporary. Thank God for sites like this that have educated me and informed me of Parental Alienation Syndrome otherwise I can only imagine the blame, guilt, & hate I would be feeling towards myself. I am desperate for help but don’t know where to turn anymore. I dreamed my whole life of being a Mother and I have been so Robbed. My heart Cries. My email address is I thought it was very strange that the psychologist assigned to our case did not think it alarming that my ex had been alienated from his mother by his dad and that he was married to his 5th wife, yet treated our 14 year old daughter much like an adult, with “privileges” that were clear neglect and child endangerment, according to other experts I described the situation to (but were not involved officially). He also treated our daughter like a confidante. I noticed the GAL treated her like an adult, too, and did not seem concerned about evidence of anti-social patterns and lies. In fact, the GAL knowingly lied in front of the judge, and allowed my ex and his 5th wife to drag my daughter out of school to come to a court appointment she was not supposed to attend. My ex was always the one to bring my daughter to any of these appointments and wait outside or be in the room with her while I was kept in the dark. Stepmom was allowed to talk to a psychiatrist brought in once my daughter got dangerously depressed, but I was left out except for the bill. I am not against stepmoms being involved — I proactively reached out to include her in recitals, email address to my daughter’s camp, etc., believing the more who loved my daughter, the better… but later the stepmom testified against me, having never laid eyes on me (& not by my design). I assumed the best of her just as I had my ex, and now our family has suffered greatly. I am thankful for this blog and those who understand and educate. It has been a cruel journey. Reblogged this on Daddy don't you walk so fast. 6 Mar 2018 at 7:09 pm “One of the common mistakes that professionals who do not understand alienation make is to treat the rejected parent suspiciously. This is often the approach taken by professionals who are schooled in the idea that the voice of the child is of paramount importance in any dispute between parents. ” This is what I’m dealing with right now. My 10-year-old daughter’s therapist advocates giving my daughter a voice… which, on the surface, is good and well intentioned. But in the context of alienation, it’s burying me deeper into rejection. This therapist by the way was “mom’s choice”. What can I do? It’s like I’m paying this therapist to help bury me even more. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. 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A computational fluid dynamics image shows how air would behave when Rocketplane XP flies at 2.74 times the speed of sound; red is high pressure, blue is low. NASA WHEN THE ANSARI X-PRIZE was awarded in 2004 to Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites for making the first privately funded manned trips to space, the other teams that had been vying for the $10 million prize money, though no doubt disappointed, kept plugging away at their designs for commercial spacecraft. Some, Rocketplane Global among them, are now racing to be the first to offer suborbital tourist flights; I chronicle these efforts in my recent book Rocketeers. Since the book was printed, Rocketplane hit some turbulence on the way toward launching Rocketplane XP, its space tourism vehicle. In August 2006, the company won a contract through NASA’s new Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program to develop orbital cargo ships for servicing the International Space Station. Because the NASA money is earmarked strictly for orbital ships, the company began channeling its engineering resources away from the suborbital Rocketplane XP and into an orbital spaceship under development by Rocketplane’s newly acquired Kistler Aerospace. The decision delayed launch of the suborbital vehicle by at least a year; the first flight is now planned for 2009 instead of 2008, and only if the company can raise additional funds. Among the casualties of the work slowdown: chief engineer David Urie, who was laid off last May. The company also says to expect changes in Rocketplane XP. “It will still have the same bizjet look,” says Rocketplane’s George French III, and the mission profile will be the same. As this issue of Air & Space/Smithsonian went to press, the company had not released specific information about the modifications. In the meantime, the contest for the suborbital tourism market has a new entrant. In June, EADS Astrium, a division of the formidable European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, announced its design for a tourist spaceship. EADS Astrium’s vehicle, which has yet to receive a name, will send four passengers and a pilot into space, using twin jet engines to climb to 39,000 feet before firing a rocket engine fueled by methane and liquid oxygen. The design bears more than a passing resemblance to Rocketplane XP. Explains Astrium chief technical officer Robert Lainé: “A self-propelled plane is going to be the best for the operator because then they can fly from [any] airport,” with no special launch infrastructure required. The following excerpt from the book Rocketeers: How a Visionary Band of Business Leaders, Engineers, and Pilots is Boldy Privatizing Space, by Michael Belfiore, is reprinted by permission of Smithsonian Books/Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins publishers. In April 2005, I had dinner with Rocketplane business development manager Chuck Lauer at an Oklahoma City sushi bar, along with the company’s Japanese business representative and Reda Anderson, the first person to pay for a ride on the company’s Rocketplane XP. Anderson stabbed a finger at Lauer and said, “You have one year to find me a man.” “Me?” laughed Lauer. “You have to do that.” “I can’t do that,” said Anderson. “I’ve tried.” Lauer had just finished describing the marketing scheme he and our other tablemate, Ms. Misuzu Onuki, had hatched: Rocketplane would host the first wedding in space. Rocketplane XP would be a suborbital vehicle, imparting only four minutes of weightlessness after its rocket engine cut off and it coasted out of the atmosphere at supersonic speed. The bride and groom would have to work fast, and in cramped quarters. The ship would have four seats. The pilot would have his hands full flying it. The bride and groom would ride in the back. That left the right front seat for a priest, rabbi, or justice of the peace. Nevertheless, Onuki had already been collaborating with a fashion designer in Japan on a dress whose white trusses would rise in graceful undulating ripples below the bride’s seatbelts when weightless. Much as Anderson liked the idea, she lacked a crucial ingredient: a groom. At 66, she doesn’t look anywhere near her age. Slim and athletic, she smiles easily and laughs often, but steel in her eye hints at the no-holds-barred deal-making that earned her a minor fortune in California real estate. After watching Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne rocket into space on June 21, 2004, Anderson couldn’t resist the idea of going herself. Only days after that company won the X-Prize, Anderson met Lauer at a space conference, and after Lauer gave her the Rocketplane pitch, she asked for a business card. She wrote “Number one signed customer” on the back of it, signed it, wrapped a dollar bill around it, and handed it back. Lauer later explained, “The dollar made it a genuine contract.” Lauer had once been a real estate wheeler-dealer himself; the two spoke the same language. Lauer had always thought that providing tourist flights to space made good business sense, even when it was unfashionable to think so. Back in mid-1995, when he’d co-founded Rocketplane, the prevailing wisdom among rocketeers was that the real money to be made was in satellite launchers. No one would take the company seriously, his board told him, if one of its principals went around talking about sending people into space for fun. Then, in the late 1990s, the bottom dropped out of the satellite launch market, and in 2001, Dennis Tito became the first passenger to buy a ride into space, shelling out $20 million for a trip on a Soyuz spacecraft. Clearly, there was a market for space tourism. ONE DAY IN APRIL 2006 found Anderson peering down the throat of a sawed-off Learjet 25 fuselage at Rocketplane’s workshop at the airport in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Structural engineer Derrick Seys pointed to guidelines marked on the white hull like those drawn on a patient’s skin before surgery. He explained how his team would splice in part of another salvaged fuselage to lengthen the original by a good 20 inches—space needed for kerosene and liquid oxygen tanks that would power a 36,000-pound-thrust rocket engine in the craft’s tail. According to company engineer Bob Seto, starting with an existing fuselage made more sense than designing one from scratch. “There’s a big cost to designing the details of a fuselage,” he said. “Purchasing the fuselage reduced a lot of that risk and development effort. We don’t have to spend a large amount of time starting from a blank sheet of paper.” Bill Lear’s business jet can take 3-plus Gs without breaking up, and has an operational ceiling around 50,000 feet—above 90 percent of the atmosphere. Rocketplane would replace the Learjet’s horizontal stabilizers with a V-tail that would better enable the plane’s nose to pitch up coming off the runway with a heavy load of fuel. The Learjet’s wings would be replaced by a new delta-shaped assembly that was optimized for supersonic flight and, like the original wings, would hold jet fuel. The wing assembly and tail would also give the ship the extra structural hardiness it needed for the 4-G spaceflight. By the time workers finished transforming the gutted shell into the Rocketplane XP, there wouldn’t be much left of the Learjet: just that fuselage, or rather two fuselages, and the Learjet 25’s standard pair of General Electric CJ610 jet engines. The engines would power the spaceship to a launch altitude of 25,000 feet. There, the pilot would shut down the jets and light the rocket engine for a 70-second boost to space and a maximum speed of three and a half times the speed of sound. After the rocket engine shut down, Anderson would get four minutes of weightlessness, a view extending as far south as the Gulf of Mexico and west to the Rocky Mountains, and, with any luck, her wedding-day kiss. A personal display for each passenger would let everyone toggle through views piped in from seven cameras around the craft. For good measure, the pilot would use the ship’s reaction-control system (RCS) to roll the craft so all the windows got a good look at Earth. The Rocketplane XP pilot would navigate the changes in pressure and speed experienced during reentry by using computerized flight controls. And the engineers would give Rocketplane XP at least one advantage over SpaceShipOne. As the ship left and then reentered the atmosphere, the XP’s computers would blend RCS control with inputs from standard airplane control surfaces, providing seamless control at all phases of the flight. The XP’s computers would fly the ship from boost to reentry, with the pilot taking over only in an emergency and for landings. The pilot would restart the jet engines at 20,000 feet for a powered landing. Total flight time: 60 minutes. The idea had been hatched by Mitchell Burnside Clapp, an aerospace engineer and former test pilot instructor for the Air Force, as a way to get himself to space. While still in the Air Force, Burnside Clapp decided to try to resurrect a perennial Air Force dream: building a manned spaceship the armed forces could call their own. His initial idea was for a single-seat rocketplane, one that could rocket into orbit to launch small satellites. Burnside Clapp left the Air Force to pursue a commercial version of the ship, forming Pioneer Rocketplane in 1996 with Chuck Lauer and aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin (best known for the concept of manned expeditions to Mars making their own return fuel from elements of the Martian atmosphere). Pioneer Rocketplane set its sights on the X-Prize, but it was chronically short of funds. Zubrin left the company in 1998. In 2003, the company got a fresh cash infusion from a new president, Wisconsin outdoor advertising businessman and space enthusiast George French, who had been an early investor. As 2003 drew to a close, French, Lauer, and Burnside Clapp saw within their reach a cash award that was worth even more than the X-Prize. They called it the O-Prize. The state of Oklahoma needed good jobs; young graduates who couldn’t find work in the state were leaving to seek work elsewhere. The solution Oklahoma came up with: provide tax credits to technology companies. In exchange, the company would have to be headquartered in Oklahoma, have at least $10 million already invested in it, and demonstrate that it really would produce new jobs for the state. The Oklahoma Space Industry Tax Incentive was worth $18 million in tax credits. The beauty of the credits was that they were transferrable—the company that got them could sell them for cash. The O-Prize had to be won before 2004. Rocketplane beat out its competitors to win the prize in the final hour: at 4:42 p.m. on December 31, 2003. French then sold the credits for $13 million, and at last the Rocketplane XP had wings. Early in 2004, French brought in aerospace engineer David Urie to lead the Rocketplane design team. Not long afterward, Burnside Clapp quit the company. “ ‘Citing creative differences’ is the standard Hollywood way to say that, right?” he said to me. He declined to elaborate except to say that he was skeptical of the idea that flying tourists in space was a viable business operation for something as cash-intensive as building and flying a spaceship. French would have been hard-pressed to come up with a better engineering chief than David Urie. Urie came to Rocketplane after 30 years’ experience as an engineer and manager at Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works. During his 50 years at aerospace companies like Boeing and Douglas Missiles, he worked on 35 types of aircraft, from long-haul bombers to missiles. Urie couldn’t resist coming out of retirement to work on one last bold aerospace engineering project. The chance to fly into the market under the radars of monolithic aerospace companies like Urie’s previous employer was just too good to pass up. Once settled at Rocketplane’s new headquarters, a single-story building at Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers Airport, Urie set about hiring a team of engineers composed of equal parts seasoned veterans and young engineers right out of school. One of Urie’s prime hires was engineer Bob Seto, who took over the day-to-day operation of building Rocketplane XP. Talking to him made the whole enterprise sound almost reasonable to me. Seto explained that at a maximum velocity of three to four times the speed of sound, Rocketplane XP wouldn’t experience anywhere near the heating from atmospheric friction that the space shuttle, traveling at 25 times the speed of sound, encounters returning from orbit. Nevertheless, reentry heat would pose a problem for an ordinary Learjet’s aluminum structure. Aluminum, used for airframes because of its light weight, melts at a lower temperature than a heavier metal like steel. So Rocketplane’s engineers and machinists would replace the areas subjected to the greatest heat—the engine inlets, the nose, and the leading edges of the delta wing—with steel or titanium. The rest of the ship would get a coating of a heat-dissipating paint that had been developed at NASA for next-generation spaceships and that had then been released for commercial use. Even though the bulk of the ship would still be of lightweight aluminum, all those modifications, plus the rocket engine and its fuel, added up to a much heftier craft. At takeoff, Rocketplane XP would top out at 19,500 pounds, compared with the unmodified Learjet 25’s 15,000 pounds. The spaceship would need a hell of a long runway to get airborne. Fortunately, the state of Oklahoma had one. Burns Flat, Oklahoma, is 80 miles from Will Rogers Airport. Bob Seto flew me there, along with Reda Anderson and Misuzu Onuki, in his Cessna 182. He banked on approach so that we could get the best view of the 13,503-foot runway at Burns Flat’s former Strategic Air Command base. It had been built during the cold war for heavily laden B-52 bombers ready to scramble at a moment’s notice to rain nuclear death on the Soviet Union. Seto remarked that he could take off sideways on it. The place was all but deserted. These days the only traffic the place saw was Air Force pilots practicing takeoffs and landings. In June 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration certified the place as a commercial spaceport, and it officially became known as the Oklahoma Spaceport. This is where Rocketplane chief pilot John “Bone” Herrington will fly from and land if the spacecraft becomes operational. Herrington had left the NASA astronaut corps early and taken a pay cut to join Rocketplane. He’d flown in space once, on the last space shuttle mission before the shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003. He knew he’d likely have a long wait before his next ride on the shuttle, and he just could not pass up a chance to be part of what he thought would be a historic event—the first suborbital flight to carry paying passengers into space. Anderson grilled Herrington about the Rocketplane XP’s flight profile, about every aspect of the experience of flying in space, about all the potential dangers. And about whether she’d get a good view out the window. “I’m not wild about getting out of the seat and floating around,” Anderson told the pilot. “I’m more interested in the view.” Fortunately, there just wasn’t time to get up and float around and get used to the sensations of weightlessness and take in the sights. The cramped interior of the Rocketplane XP would prevent much floating anyway. But would Rocketplane XP even get off the ground? Dan Erwin, associate professor of aeronautics at the University of Southern California, thought it had an excellent chance. “The performance numbers given by the company are reasonable, based on their estimate for vehicle mass at launch,” he told me. The team’s greatest challenge would be the ship’s rocket engine. The AR-36, built by Polaris Propulsion, will run on kerosene and liquid oxygen and deliver 36,000 pounds of thrust. Its regeneratively cooled design (in which kerosene circulates along the combustion chamber’s outer wall before flowing inside to be burned) would allow the engine to be fired many times without much maintenance, just like a jet engine. This design had an advantage over rocket engines with ablative coatings, which char and flake away to take heat with them; ablatives have to be replaced after every firing of the engines. ROCKETPLANE AND RICHARD BRANSON’S Virgin Galactic, which is buying space tourism craft from Scaled Composites, seem to be vying for the honor of flying the first suborbital space passengers. But theirs are by no means the only ventures gearing up for suborbital flights. Scaled Composites’ neighbor at the Mojave Airport, XCOR Aerospace, has been working on a two-seat rocketplane design that, like Rocketplane XP, would launch under its own power from a runway but without the encumbrance of jet engines; Xerus would be rocket-powered all the way. And, working in secret, Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has built a self-funded company, Blue Origin, to produce a suborbital tourist spaceship called New Shepard (after Alan B., America’s first astronaut). New Shepard would take off, send three passengers on 10-minute flights out of the atmosphere, return, and land on its tail. According to Environmental Protection Agency papers he has filed, Bezos plans to launch tourists to space by 2010. With all this competition, it seems possible that within the next decade or two, suborbital passenger service to space could drop to the cost of an ordinarily expensive vacation—a Caribbean cruise, say. But not all of those passengers would be space tourists. In fact, most of them wouldn’t be. “We think that the future for suborbital is really in point to point, both for people and for fast cargo,” said Rocketplane’s Chuck Lauer. In other words, the biggest market would be for intercontinental travel at rocket speed. A computational fluid dynamics image shows how air would behave when Rocketplane XP flies at 2.74 times the speed of sound; red is high pressure, blue is low. NASA The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue Innovation Renew Advertising Member Services	18,946
All dresses will be shipped via express. Normally you will receive your order in 2-10 days after it was shipped. We ship to all over the world. If you can not find your country when check out, please contact us. Standard receiving time (Time you pay successfully) = Tailoring time (around 22-30 Calendar days) + Shipping time (around 2-10 Calendar days). If you need the dress urgently. Please note us the date you need the dress, we will put your order on prior schedule and make sure you receive it on time. For some styles with complicate beading and hand work, it may take a few more days for processing. Order Cancellation Our dresses are all made to order. Once the tailoring process has begun, the materials can not be reused. But there is still time to change your mind after placing your order. For details, please refer to our cancellation policy below Cancellation Policy -Unpaid orders will not be processed. If you do not need it, please simply ignore it. -Order cancelled within 24 hours of payment confirmation will be eligible for a full refund. -Cancellation within 24 to 72 hours after the order is paid: you will get a partial refund consisting of 50% of the item price and the full shipping cost. -Cancellation within 72 to 120 hours after the order is paid: you will get a partial refund consisting of 30% of the item price and the full shipping cost. -Cancellation beyond 120 hours after the order is paid: you will get a partial refund consisting of the full shipping cost. -Once your order has been shipped, it can no longer be cancelled. If you need to cancel your order, please email service@usaweddingdress.com for help. If you want to change size or color after payment. Please contact us in 24 hours after payment. Please note color and size can not be changed once the process has begun. If you really want to change size or color, the extra cost would be charged. Please contact us. Our dress size is true to our size chart. So please double-check our size chart and make sure the size fit. We also offer custom size without extra cost. As all of our dresses are hand-sewn and made to order, the finished gown may vary by approximately one inch in either direction of the specified measurements. We would check the size and measurements before we ship them. Therefore, the mistake on size and measurements are very rare. 1. Contact us within 2 days after you receive the items. 2.We will send new dress once we received the item you returned. 3.You need to pay the return shipping fee and the shipping fee of new dress. All dresses made by hand work, although we can’t be careful, there might be some small problems which we can’t be totally avoided, but take it easy, if there are our problems to make dresses wrong size, color, style, you will get full payment back! For custom , petite, plus size order, sorry we can't accept returning, please note this policy, because even they returned, we can't sell them again in the future. For standard size dress in picture color only, we accept return. You need to pay the return shipping fee. Since the return shipping would be too expensive, we highly suggest you choose size carefully. Please double check our size chart and order the correct size. For accessories, we do not accept return. Please note accessories are final sale. We will accept returns if there are quality problems, we also hold the right to refuse any unreasonable returns, such as wrong size you gave us, but we offer free alternation. And we do not accept return for try-order. If you just need one dress, please DO NOT order more than one dress and return other dresses you do not like. Because all dresses are made after payment, we can hardly sell it again even they are returned. Please carefully follow our guide: 1. Contact us within 2 days after you receive the items. 2. Provide us with photos of the dress, to show evidence of damage or bad quality, this also applies for the size, or incorrect style and color etc. 3. Item must be returned in 7-15 days upon delivery date. The returned item must be in perfect condition (as new), you can try the dress on, but be sure not to stretch it or make any dirty marks, otherwise we will refuse the return. 4. Please fold the dress inside out. The tracking number of the returned item must be provided together with the reference code issued.	4,486
We serve and protect for safe and healthy communities through leadership, partnerships and engagement and we believe in maintaining law and order through: ethics and professionalism, accountability and transparency, inclusion and diversity, and collaboration and community spirit. You are here: The CBRPS takes great pride in its community-based approach to policing and values the role that community partners play in the balance between enforcement and prevention. The CBRPS is committed to working with the people it serves towards achieving a shared goal of building safe and healthy communities. This section of the website features some of the many partnerships we've built within the community, and the valuable crime prevention programs that have developed as a result.	820
You might think of Equinor mainly as an energy company, but did you know we’re also one of Norway’s largest IT employers? More than 600 people are directly employed by Equinor IT departments, and in total our IT community is close to 2000 people including external partners. While some work with maintenance and operations, others work within the growing field of software development. Working in Equinor IT means you get to help shape the future of energy. Most of our software developers are located within Technology, Digital and Innovation (TDI), but there are people working with software in other areas of Equinor as well. So, what makes people want to work with us and more importantly - what makes them stay? I work in Equinor because ... “I get to be at the forefront and an ambassador of new ways of delivering IT in the company.” Yu He “I get to use my skills to help create a better and more sustainable future." "The opportunity to use 20% of my work hours on competence building meant a smooth transition from life as a student." Taking a stand from within As an employee in Equinor IT, you’ll get to work in a wide variety of energy-related fields. You’ll be part of a department that develops solutions for the entire business, from oil and gas to wind farms and other renewable energy sources. Professionally, you’ll get a variety of interesting issues and challenges to tackle and a direct opportunity to influence the direction the company takes - a quite unique position to be in. "My generation wants to save the world. So the best thing about working here is being a part of the solution and contributing to the transition to a low-carbon society with increased use of renewable energy." Creating a software community Building strong teams and allowing people to learn new things is crucial in order to develop the best software. That’s why we organize Equinor Developer Conference - our own annual in-house conference. Dubbed EDC among friends, the conference is a three-day event packed with workshops, keynotes, talks and presentations. The topics have ranged from 3D printing and Google Sprints to programming languages and software architecture. EDC is open to everyone working with software development in Equinor. May 26, 2020 Get the down-low on why we host our own developer conference and how it helps us stay ahead of the game. May 26, 2020 December 07, 2021 Did you miss the Equinor Developer Conference in 2021? Or do you want to take a walk down memory lane and relive the three-day event? Then we got you covered. May 26, 2020 February 09, 2022 New technology is popping up faster than anyone can manage to keep track of. And there’s only one way of figuring out if it`s a viable tech - you have to try it out. May 26, 2020 Working in a big company You get the time to immerse yourself in a few selected technologies, and you get to learn from colleagues in different fields of expertise. We don`t expect you to know everything from the start. I work in Equinor because ... “There are so many exciting tasks – and the means and willingness to put good ideas into life.” "I get to work with some really clever people from all across the entire organization." “I get to work with software development focused on speed and agility. The fail fast approach suits me, and helps me stay current." Our field of work is constantly changing and new technologies or solutions are always appearing. This means that it’s going to take some effort in order to stay ahead of the curve. “Our CEO has said that we are to be digital leaders, not followers. To achieve this, we need the opportunity to grapple with technology and we have to stay up to date on the latest developments. In terms of IT we’ve been given the opportunity and the freedom to plot our own course in recent years." We’re not afraid of putting our money where our mouth is - which is why we encourage our teams to choose the technology they see fit for new projects. Working with software development in Equinor means you can have a direct impact on the technology you work with and what direction we take as a company. Join our software community Are you a software developer and looking to join our team? Then check out the list of job openings using this link: Job openings in Equinor We also have summer internships and graduate positions available in all of our offices. Summer Internships in Equinor	4,679
Canada began its Olympic defence with an assured 5-1 victory over Switzerland – and introduced a batch of new names to its illustrious history at the Games. Rene Borque and Wojtek Wolski scored two goals apiece, while Derek Roy had a hat-trick of assists to mark their Olympic debuts. Deprived of its NHL stars, the current Canadian roster has an rather unfamiliar look. Drawn largely from European-based players, it’s a team that combines NHL veterans approaching the end of their careers with players who tired of life on the bubble and gambled on a fresh start in new surroundings. Head coach Willie Desjardins did not exactly bang the drum at his team’s final practice, suggesting that Canada might have to “score by committee” in this competition. Chris Lee, a D-man who never made the NHL, explained how the new-look Canada is coming together as a team. “We have a lot of emotion in the room, and we’re playing for each other and for the emblem,” said the Metallurg Magnitogorsk blueliner. “It doesn’t matter who scores the goals. We’re all going to chip in with a blocked shot or a goal or a hit. It’s fun to see that emotion.” However, if it’s going to take a committee to get goals for this team, Bourque made an impressive bid to be the executive at the head of the working party. Less than three minutes into the game, he rolled up to the doorstep in time to apply the finishing touch to a Chris Lee pass from the point and send the puck behind Leonardi Genoni in the Swiss net. Bourque is a player typical of the NHL-free Canada roster. Undrafted, his career has been a tale of trades and debates rather than trophies and celebrity. Along the way, he’s struggled with injuries – including a horrific neck injury when inadvertently slashed by a skate during a scrummage in the crease while playing for the Blackhawks in 2006 – and faced accusations of failing to make the most of his talent. Highlights included a call-up to Canada’s 2010 World Championship roster and a time when he was viewed as the answer to Calgary’s scoring needs. A summer move to Djurgardens in the Swedish Championship paused an NHL career with 725 appearances, and opened the door for an Olympic call-up. And he had a role in Canada’s second, which arrived in the eighth minute on the team’s first power play of the night. Maxim Noreau met Chris Lee’s feed with a devastating one-timer from the point; Bourque threw up the screen for the SC Bern defenceman to score on his club colleague Genoni. Another man who characterises the unlikely Canadian line-up is defenceman Chay Genoway. In the KHL, his Lada Togliatti team is well out of playoff contention, but tonight he was making his Olympic debut. Not surprisingly, he was fully motivated. “It didn’t take much to get up for this game,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been thinking about this for a while. It was fun to get out there and burn some energy.” Switzerland sought to recover from those blows, but struggled to generate offence in the first period. And the game was effectively ripped from Swiss hands in the 26th minute when Canada scored twice in quick succession. Bourque made it 3-0, a lovely touch and backhand finish as he got right in front of Genoni to convert Derek Roy’s pass with some style. That had Canada two from two on the power play – another area Desjardins had identified as mission critical – and in control. Then came Wolski, crowning his incredible recovery from a broken neck with a goal on his Olympic debut. As a Swiss attack broke down, Wojtek streaked onto Noreau’s pass down the right channel, danced his way past Simon Moser and Fabrice Herzog, and fired an early shot past a startled Genoni. That was the last action of the night for the goalie; Jonas Hiller was called from the bench to replace him and was almost beaten by Roy almost immediately when the Linkoping forward shot over an empty net. It was an emotional moment for Wolski, whose life was turned upside down after a freak accident playing for Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the KHL in 2016 left him with a broken neck and potentially paralyzed. “There were a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “I’m so grateful for how it worked out, for being here. I’m so happy I can experience this but it wasn’t easy. There were times when I didn’t think I’d be able to walk again, be able to play hockey, to lead a normal life. It’s pretty special to be here.” In the face of the Canadian offence, the Swiss struggled to find a way into the game. A couple of early wobbles from goalie Ben Scrivens offered Switzerland some hope, but the Salavat Yulaev Ufa man survived those anxious moments and grew into his game. There were flashes of encouragement for the Europeans – lovely hands from Andres Ambuhl created a presentable second-period chance for Eric Blum – but it wasn’t until the last minute of the second period that Scrivens saw any sustained pressure in front of his net. Moser felt that his team’s improvement in the closing stages was partly due to Canada putting the result beyond doubt, but still saw some positives from the way Switzerland finished the game. “They didn’t have to play their hard game anymore. They just had to focus on defence and that gave us time with the puck,” he said. “If we manage the puck better and believe in our skills, I think we can play the game better.” The final frame saw Switzerland get a great chance to score its first goal of the Games during a 5-on-3 power play eight minutes into the session. Denis Hollenstein dinged the post, Scrivens survived a breakdown in communication in front of his crease, but Moser finally forced the puck into the net when he stuffed home the loose puck after Thomas Rufenacht’s shot squeezed through the goalie’s defences. That goal came with Hiller on the bench, sacrificed for an extra attacker during the power play. But when Switzerland repeated that gamble at even strength with almost six minutes to play, the plan backfired. Wolski cashed in to fire his second of the night into the empty net after the Swiss turned over possession in the Canadian zone. It wrapped up a satisfying night for Canada, but Wolski warned there could be more to come. “We’re happy with how we played, we’re happy we won but we have to forget about it,” he said. “We’ll celebrate a little bit after the game, cherish the moment, but tomorrow we’ll look at the video, see where the mistakes were and see where we can build.” Olympics Previous post Next post From the Land of Canaan to Canada, Israel’s first hockey star shoots for NHL Connect with us: Events Links Growing up in Canada I was a huge hockey fan, but it wasn't until the 1972 summit series and the 1976 Canada Cup that I became a big fan of international hockey. The best players in world all playing on a sheet of ice. over the years Ice Hockey as grown and is still growing all over the world. On this website you find Video Hi-lites of International Games, Ice hockey News, National Team Records, All Time Results, Scores, Schedule to upcoming games and all International Tournaments from around the world.	7,251
What effect might social distancing have on the experience of fine dining? We set about creating a restaurant concept to explore that question. One that takes as its starting point, the constraints of keeping customers apart. The first important idea is to change the existing mindset around these restrictions. A great restaurant doesn’t let other health and safety requirements have a negative impact on customer experience, so why should this be any different? If approached creatively, the requirements for physical distancing could be used to reinforce a genuine sense of caring hospitality. After all, you are doing it in order to look after people. Also, given that private dining has been increasing in popularity, the enhanced separation could be used as a way to create a more unique, special experience for guests. The restaurant concept is called Alone Together and this is its story: “As the warm light of dawn breaks and we step tentatively out of enforced hibernation, it feels like the world may have changed. Perhaps just for now (although we can’t be sure) we need to keep our distance from other people. One thing is certain though, we are social creatures and have missed our physical connection with others. We need to be Alone, but want to be Together.” There are separate entrance and exits, both of which are generous, revolving doors to adequately keep guests apart and reinforce a sense of specialness akin to a 5 star hotel. Air filtration equipment linked to the HVAC system is installed throughout (which remove viruses from the air). On entering, the generous lobby area includes hand washing stations for guests to use, plus space to have their temperature checked, if necessary, before heading through to the restaurant. A glass wall runs the length of the kitchen so that standards of hygiene are clearly visible. This takes the open kitchen idea to its logical extreme. The delivery orders are served via a separate entrance with a waiting lobby for delivery drivers to avoid them mixing with customers and staff. Circulation spaces are generous and multiple routes around the space are possible. The main dining space sees well spaced tables combined with translucent curtains to provide reassurance and peace of mind. Toilet cubicles are individual, self contained pods that keep people apart whilst creating a very Instagrammable experience. Doors, taps, soap and hand driers are all automatic to minimise points of contact. The items that customers touch e.g. door handles, table tops etc. are copper. Viruses have been shown to live for much shorter times on copper than stainless steel. At the bar, framed glass screens are used to separate customers and staff from each other with a small band of open space just above the bar top to allow for interaction. If taking coats, bags etc, these are taken to a separate cloakroom and will be disinfected for the guest before they leave. Coats and bags are brought to the table when guests leave to avoid any unnecessary congregation. Tables are only served by a single member of staff throughout their visit. Food and drink are brought to the table on a beautiful trolley. Guests can choose to take the food themselves or to move away from the table as their food is served. Wine is left next to the table for guests to top up themselves. The staff uniform includes tailored gloves and a face mask that feel part of the brand DNA as well as being functional. Menus are delivered through an app on the guest’s phone or as a back up option, printed on disposable paper to then be immediately recycled. Payment is also taken through the app or via contactless card machines. No cash is accepted, including for tips. As there are fewer guests to be served, a fine dining takeaway service is offered, including a beautifully boxed meal, access to the restaurant’s music playlist and a virtual chef’s table. This chef’s table is set behind glass in the restaurant and linked to a webcam to allow for live streaming of cooking demonstrations. Guests that order delivery are granted access for 1 hour, so they have the opportunity to engage with the restaurant and give live feedback or ask questions. Alone Together invests heavily in developing an enhanced digital relationship through social media, a dedicated app and email comms pre and post visit, including a detailed explanation of how the experience will be tailored to them. Naturally, all guests are contacted after their visit to gain feedback on their experience. To maximise revenue streams the brand has many different ways that it can offer additional customer experiences including: c) Cook at home meal kits d) Ingredients to buy So that’s it, a fine dining experience designed to be special, even in the face of social distancing. If you are looking for more general thoughts on what changes a fine dining restaurant may need to make in the face of social distancing measures, please take a look at this article here. You can also download a pdf presentation of this concept here Finally, if you have any questions feel free to get in touch with david@objectspaceplace.com This post was written by David Chenery Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Similar posts What effect might social distancing have on the experience of fine dining? We set about creating a restaurant concept to... View Article	5,609
Real Madrid won 2014′s FIFA Club World Cup tournament with a tougher-than-expected 2-0 defeat of San Lorenzo. The Argentinian team played a very rough and physical game through out with the intention of stalling the game and stopping Real’s flow. A goal they achieved as the first 30 minutes rarely saw long stretches of time without a foul. After the 30th minute mark however Real stepped up the pressure and intensity to score their first goal thanks to the ‘Decima’ man Sergio Ramos. Ramos has now scored in the Champions League final and the Club World Cup final. His goal forced the well-organised San Lorenzo team to set out and attack (a bit). San Lorenzo though maintained their 4-1-4-1 formation while defending which succeeded in stifling Real’s full backs as they rarely found them selves free to go forward and exploit the spaces (not that their was much space to exploit). The 4-1-4-1 formation also managed to pack the centre of the pitch with enough players to pose a problem to Real’s creative outlets. That, however, couldn’t stop Isco from picking out Bale in the early stages of the second half as the reigning European champions doubled their lead. From then on Real dropped their intensity significantly as they saw to ride out the game with a 2-0 lead. They where so superior to San Lorenzo that the first time Iker Casillas was tested was in the 84th minute. He was tested soon after that but those 2 shots were the only pieces of action Iker faced all night. The night was particularly significant to some Real players like Gareth Bale, who scored in his 3rd final of 2014, only missing the net in the UEFA Super Cup in August (assisted a goal that night though). Also this night saw Iker Casillas make his 700th appearance which he cemented by being the first captain in history to lift La Liga, Copa del Rey, Supercopa, UEFA Super Cup, Champions League, and Club World Cup. Toni Kroos also finished 2014 with his 5th title, more than any other player. He certainly finished a year that he can be proud of. Finally the coach of the champions himself, Carlo Ancelotti, managed to set some records as he became the first Real coach to ever win 4 titles in 1 year, first Real coach to ever win the Club World Cup, first coach to win 51 matches in a year with a Spanish team, and finally first coach to manage a team who scored 178 goals in a calendar year. He certainly made his case for being selected as FIFA’s Coach of the Year a lot stronger. It was a close call between Kroos and Pepe but ultimately the German took the honours with a superb display that held Real madrid’s midfield through out the match even with San Lorenzo’s excessive violent tactics. He managed to distribute the ball efficiently yet creatively, pressed to win several balls (even the one that almost opened the scoring after 60 seconds), and contributed equally in defence and offence. Overall a complete display that comes the closest to perfect. Comments comments	3,194
An astronaut who flew on one of the most famous space missions of all time has died. Michael Collins, 90, was part of the three-member crew on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission in 1969. Unlike Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, he never walked on the moon. Collins stayed behind and piloted the command module as it circled above. Because of that, Collins is often called the "forgotten astronaut." Collins had been battling cancer. A statement released by his family said, "He spent his final days peacefully, with his family by his side. Mike always faced the challenges of life with grace and humility, and faced this, his final challenge in the same way." NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said the nation lost a true pioneer. "NASA mourns the loss of this accomplished pilot and astronaut, a friend of all who seek to push the envelope of human potential," Jurczyk said in a statement. "Whether his work was behind the scenes or on full view, his legacy will always be as one of the leaders who took America's first steps into the cosmos. And his spirit will go with us as we venture toward farther horizons." AP In 1969, President Richard Nixon greets the Apollo 11 astronauts in quarantine after their mission to the moon. The Apollo 11 crew members (from left) are Neil Armstrong, Collins and Buzz Aldrin. When Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon, and Armstrong uttered the famous phrase, "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed," Collins was in orbit, 60 miles above, just as busy, and just as excited, telling the team back in Houston he was listening to communications with his comrades, and it was "fantastic." Aldrin and Armstrong were on the lunar surface just under 22 hours. The world was transfixed, seeing them bunny-hop along, take pictures and collect lunar samples during a single, short moonwalk. All the while, Collins circled the moon, looking down at the barren lunar landscape and peering back at the Earth. "The thing I remember most is the view of planet Earth from a great distance," he said later. "Tiny. Very shiny. Blue and white. Bright. Beautiful. Serene and fragile." "He was the keystone of the mission" As he orbited, he could talk to controllers half the time, but when he was on the back side of the moon, he was completely cut off. It was because of this part of the mission that some dubbed him the loneliest man in humanity. As he recalled in a 2016 NPR interview, he didn't think of it that way. He said, "The fact that I was ... out of communications, rather than that being a fear, that was a joy because I got Mission Control to shut up for a little while. Every once in a while." "It's a shame that when people are asked, 'Can you name the Apollo 11 crew?' Mike Collins is normally the name that doesn't come to mind," said Francis French, space historian and author of many books on the space program. "Because in many ways he was the keystone of the mission. He was the one who really knew how to fly the spacecraft solo (the only person who flew a spacecraft solo in the entire mission) and the only one who could get all three of them home." "And if something went wrong with the lunar lander that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were in," French noted, "Michael Collins had the engine that could try to rendezvous with somewhere around the moon and rescue them." Mike Collins was born in 1930 in Rome, where his dad was a major general in the U.S. Army. Service and duty were a part of Collins his whole life. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and later joined the Air Force and became a test pilot. NASA chose him as an astronaut in 1963, and his first flight was aboard Gemini 10. On that mission, he became the fourth human to conduct a spacewalk. As a boy, Collins dreamed of going to space. "I used to joke that NASA sent me to the wrong place, to the moon," he said, "because I think Mars is a more interesting place. It's a place I always read about as a child." AP Collins receives an award for aviation from Vice President Al Gore in 1999 at a ceremony at the National Air and Space Museum. Fellow Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong (left) and Aldrin also were honored at the event marking the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing. Life after space Mars was also a place he wrote about as an adult. Collins authored several books, and one, Carrying the Fire, is considered the best of all the astronaut autobiographies. Apollo 11 was his final trip to space, and he never dwelled on missing a chance to step on the moon. "As an astronaut I always thought I had the best job in the world, and I still think that," he said, "but for me when it was over it was over." Still, he said, he would look up and see the moon and think, " 'Oh my God! I've been there!' I was up there, you see. Kind of takes me by surprise despite all these years." He called his time with NASA "a chapter in my life — the shiniest best chapter in my life — but not the only one." Collins achieved the rank of major general. He left NASA in 1970 to join the State Department. Later he became director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, overseeing its construction and opening in 1976. In his later years, Collins didn't slow down. He competed in triathlons, loved fishing and even took up painting. As NPR's Southern Bureau chief, Russell Lewis covers issues and people of the Southeast for NPR — from Florida to Virginia to Texas, including West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. His work brings context and dimension to issues ranging from immigration, transportation, and oil and gas drilling for NPR listeners across the nation and around the world. See stories by Russell Lewis Give Monthly To WNCW Sign Up Today! See the complete list of Top 100 albums of 2021, as voted on by our listeners and programmers. Hosted by Kevin Washington, this show explores musical connections between the 20th century and the 21st.	6,276
I am a programmer who likes to connect random inputs and outputs to see what people will do with them. I often take virtual streams and provide them physical facilities to exaggerate their impact on our lives. I am equally uncomfortable coding in C, C++, Rust, Javascript, Coffeescript, Python, Piet, Basic, Hypercard, and Bash. I painted a simple echo program and could very easily see myself holed up for the winter just with canvas and wine. Some communities I’m a part of and love include the school for poetic computation, hacker school, arthackday, the medialab at the met, itp camp. If you are interested in chatting about any of these, please reach out! A more traditional resume, pdf Copy-pasted from a response in work slack channel regarding a project that ripped out all the io-ts and fp-ts code after our company built the initial version. Dusting off the Stacks This is a WIP talk for Bard Graduate Center, for the work I did during The Interface Experience show. Hackerschool, 2 weeks later The first two weeks of hackerschool was way better than I expected. Some of the highlights include learning how to use the BeagleBoneBlack PRU with Dana, building a wifi probe request sniffer using libtins, and finishing the first week of stanford networking course CS144. How to protect your computer at a hacker conference in 30 minutes or less HOPE X is in 8 hours, and I want to protect my laptop without installing a fresh OS. I want to take reasonable precautions that still let me get to bed in the next 30 minutes.	1,570
That’s what you will experience if you are a healthcare professional with a BMI of 35 or higher and you apply for a job at Citizen’s Medical Center in Victoria, Texas. The hospital feels that employees “should fit with a representational image or specific mental projection of the job of a healthcare professional,” including an appearance “free from distraction” for hospital patients. So what they are saying is, they only want to hire employes who fulfill whatever stereotypes people may have about health care professionals, as long as they can get away with it legally. Chief Executive David Brown elucidates: “The majority of our patients are over 65, and they have expectations that cannot be ignored in terms of personal appearance. We have the ability as an employer to characterize our process and to have a policy that says what’s best for our business and for our patients.” Let’s paraphrase “We perceive that our customers are weight bigots and so we choose to be weight bigots as a company.” For the record, I’m not asking them to ignore the patients expectations, I’m expecting them to educate them that weight and health are two different things, and allow fat employees to give these patients the opportunity to question their stereotypes. They are using BMI, a simple ratio of weight and height, to determine obesity. So, if The Rock got his nursing degree and applied to work at Citizen’s Medical, he would be turned down because of his “obesity”. Using BMI discriminates against tall people and muscular people as well as fat people. The “good news” according to news reports is that existing employees who are or become obese aren’t getting fired. Only Michigan, and six cities (Santa Cruz & San Francisco California, Madison, WI, Urbana, IL, Washington, DC and Binghamton, NY) have laws protecting from discrimination based on size. In Texas, where I live (until I move to LA in a couple of months) this discrimination is perfectly legal. There is no protection from discrimination based on size, which is why this hospital can say that they don’t want to hire fatties because their patients are prejudiced against them, and that’s a perfectly legal reason. And that’s fucked up. Especially since every bit of evidence that exists says that most fat people cannot become thin longterm. What this supposed healthcare organization is encouraging, whether they know it or not, is that people in Victoria Texas who have developed healthcare skills and want to use them at this hospital have to diet to “make weight” so that they can be hired, knowing that they will gain the weight back and be subject to the dangers of weight cycling (not to mention the dangers of being fired.) Make no mistake, Citizen’s Medical is blatantly discriminating against people based on whether or not they fit a stereotype of “health” that has been largely created by the diet industry which profits from the illusion that weight and health are the same thing. When Citizen’s Medical says “We have the ability as an employer to characterize our process and to have a policy that says what’s best for our business and for our patients.” what they are saying is – we want to provide our patients with employees who fit with our patients stereotypes, whether or not they are the best people for the actual job. And they know it. The hospital has stated that its new policy doesn’t show that there was an increased cost for obese employees nor did the policy claim that obese workers could not perform their job at a satisfactory level. Hospital officials stated that the sole reason for the policy is appearance and the image of the hospital. How far does this go? What other businesses will take a page from the Citizen’s Medical book and decide that their clients are prejudiced against fat people and so they should just discriminate against us in hiring. This is why I’m a Fat Activist. You know the old saying – you’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll get steamrolled by weight bigots who want to revel in their bigotry – or something like that. UPDATE: Our letter writing campaign worked and they have rescinded their discriminatory policy. Activism works! Like this blog? Consider supporting my work with a donation or by becoming a member! For ten bucks a month you can support size diversity activism, help keep the blog ad free, and get deals from size positive businesses as a thank you. I get paid for some of my speaking and writing (and do both on a sliding scale to keep it affordable), but a lot of the work I do (like answering hundreds of request for help and support every day) isn’t paid so member support makes it possible ( THANK YOU to my members, I couldn’t do this without you and I really can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support!) Click here for details If you are uncomfortable with my selling things on this site, you are invited to check out this post Reddit Related Published by Ragen Chastain ‹ PreviousIs it True that Most Fat People Don’t Exercise? April 7, 2012 at 11:58 am Healthcare professionals: we go there because of what they can do, not because of what they look like! How bout we instigate a rule that only really attractive people can become plastic surgeons! How many male plastic surgeons have you seen that look like brad pit eh? lol… I think the only time i ever got annoyed with the size of a healthcare professional was the one who told me to lose weight. being told you need to lose weight at 280lbs by someone who weighs at least 350lbs is like her removing a splinter from my eye while keeping the plank in her own! I was rather peeved by that experience. how gives a rat’s ass what someone looks like providing it doesn’t impinge on their ability to do their job. April 7, 2012 at 5:19 pm We have a woman like this where I work. She’s one of the residents (I work in a retirement community) so we can’t tell her off. She’s around the same size that I am (a 2x to 3x, and I know because I wash her clothes every other week.) The day shift fellow has a little bit of a pot belly although he’s an in-betweenie at most, and she’s always shaking her finger at him whenever he brings her clothes back or makes her bed or such and telling him “young man, you should not have a pot belly like that!” I told him it made me wonder if she was living in denial of her own hefty build, or if she had fun house mirrors in her apartment to make her appear thin. April 9, 2012 at 2:00 pm Apparently, plastic surgeons only care to have really attractive people working for them, however. I once applied for a job (for which I was quite qualified) in a plastic surgery practice and was not hired because I was told I did not fit the image that the practice was trying to project. Damn! I thought I looked really, really good the day I went for that interview! bigliberty says: April 7, 2012 at 1:54 pm I think CMC is somewhat unique not because it discriminates against people of size, but because it’s codified and publicized that discrimination. Sizist discrimination is rampant in hiring, as sizism is rampant. If most people believe that fatness is equivalent to lack of motivation, intelligence, and creativity, then instead of saying, “BMI is too high,” in their interview notes, they’ll say something like, “Not a good fit for the company: might not be able to handle big projects, or think outside the box.” (I know, what an ironic statement!) In my opinion we’re going to be seeing a lot more outright sizist discrimination in hiring like CMC’s, and outright sizist discrimination in benefits rewards like Whole Foods. I tell everyone who I talk to about size issues that we’re nowhere near the peak of this moral panic yet. This is going to turn into an all-out crusade, as an aging population is going to push healthcare costs up and up and up. Constant vigilance. Write to these places. Publish your letters on your blogs, Tumblr’s, FB pages, Google+, Pinterest. Speak truth as loudly as you can. Right now, it’s our only defense. And if we don’t want the next generation — our children, or the children in our lives — to be put on forcible diets or be subject to surgical procedures or a lifetime of second class citizenship, then we need to keep fighting back. If you think those things aren’t going to happen, then realize they’re already happening: school districts are working to get kids to consume fewer calories of the ‘right’ foods, and WL surgery for kids is being blessed the UK’s NHS: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2052581/Obese-children-young-11-gastric-implant-NHS.html April 7, 2012 at 2:13 pm Find it sad that one of the cities on that list is Madison. We have lived there in the past and have worked there. My husband keeps telling me that I’m more likely to find a job than he is because I’m a female with hearing loss and that makes me more desirable for a company than an older male with no disabilities. Find it sad though that my size would be used against me and I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some racism involved in this too considering the high population of Hispanics in that area. Statistically, they are more likely to be overweight and obese compared to Caucasians so the question does cross my mind. Betsy says: April 7, 2012 at 2:35 pm I think she said Madison is one of the few cities where it is illegal to discriminate based on size or weight (rather than the other way around). I would be disappointed, too, if they had laws allowing it, since I used to live in Madison and have always loved it. April 7, 2012 at 2:44 pm Oh, okay I didn’t read that right. What happens when I try to read when I have a cold, reading comprehension goes down the drain. When I first read it, it didn’t make sense because I had always thought Madison was a little more progressive (well, at least before the current governor came in and ended collective bargaining for state union workers) which was why the thought that it might have been race related came to mind. That’s good to know though if we ever move back to that area. My husband lived there for years and I lived there with him for a brief period and then we spent a few years about half an hour NE of there but he worked in Madison. Always enjoyed it, really wished I had gone to college there instead of where I went to college (which was where my mom wanted me to go). I had a brother who lived there for years too. If only housing wasn’t so expensive! April 7, 2012 at 2:26 pm There’s nothing on their facebook page – yet. Help me come up with a “short to the point” for their wall? (“Weight discrimination is wrong”) is too mild, but I don’t want to be rude (kill ’em with kindess) bigliberty says: April 7, 2012 at 2:46 pm How about, “Heavier healthcare workers are no less competent than thinner ones. Your refusal to hire them is your loss, not theirs.” Or: “Hate and ignorance are bad hiring polices. Don’t discriminate against heavier people in hiring.” Or: “Don’t hide behind your clientele. They’re not to blame for your ignorant discrimination against heavy people in your hiring policy: you are.” Or: “You discriminate against heavy people in hiring. What’s next, discriminating against heavier patients? Healthcare is supposed to be for everyone, not just those who you think look like they ‘deserve’ it.” April 7, 2012 at 2:48 pm There was one message when I posted mine around 9AM Eastern. I also commented on two of their posts. If both wall posts, and all my comments, are gone, then they are deleting them. April 7, 2012 at 2:50 pm yep, they’re deleting wall posts. The comments on their posts are still there. April 7, 2012 at 2:59 pm I suggest posting comments on their existing posts AND on their photos. For example, they have three photos that appear to be marketing materials. These could present the perfect opportunity to educate them on issues of weight. That dude definitely looks like his BMI could be greater than 35. You wouldn’t want do offend potential customers. The guy on the left, in the baggy shirt, he looks like he’s trying to hide his higher BMI. For the sake of your elderly patients, you should ‘shop in a thinner model. I wonder what their BMIs are? Because, as I said before, they are deleting wall posts. April 7, 2012 at 3:21 pm Jill, you can tag them from your own page as well. I did both. Start getting screen caps of the good stuff. JenC says: April 7, 2012 at 2:46 pm Dear Citizens Medical Center, I came across several articles reporting the disturbing news about discriminatory hiring practices at your facility and I would like to ask you if this information is true. Do you discriminate against prospective employees who are above a BMI of 35? If so, what is your lower range of acceptable BMI? Do you also discriminate against prospective employees who are underweight? I would think if your concern is to present a stereotypical image of a health care professional you would not want anyone excessively thin working for you, as excessively thin people tend to also look unhealthy, especially in the eyes of those over 65. Do you likewise discriminate against prospective employees based on skin color? For instance, someone with a ruddy complexion, or a sallow complexion? As these traits may indicate some form of illness regardless of a person’s weight. Because you appear to be very concerned with how your employees look, can it then be assumed that prospective employees who fit within a certain BMI category regardless of any existing health problems such as alcohol or drug addiction, cancer, mental illness, HIV status or other health conditions that may not be readily apparent based on someone’s size will not be discriminated against? Lastly, do you accept and treat patients whose BMI falls above your threshold? As according to the articles I have read, your concern is for the sensibilities of your patients, and if seeing an overweight employee might be in some way distressful for them, I can imagine having to see an overweight patient might also cause them some emotional or mental anguish. Please let me know, as I have friends and family in the area and would like to direct them away from your medical center should they be at risk of offending anyone who works there or uses the facilities by having the audacity to be of a BMI over 35. Thank you for your time and consideration. bigliberty says: April 7, 2012 at 2:48 pm April 7, 2012 at 5:14 pm Your letter is far better than my snippy tweet. I bow down! bgardner says: April 7, 2012 at 7:06 pm Thanks! I could have gone on for pages. This whole thing just makes me insane. Pat says: April 7, 2012 at 3:18 pm I had this happen when I applied for a job at a healthclub. I did work out there and I did lose inches but I never lost the weight. However people saw the changes in me. I applied for the job because I thought since I knew all the machines there very well and was always teaching others how to use them that It would be perfect for me. Instead the owner was looking at some skinny college kid who never worked out a day in her life. I got mad. I told her who do you think those people out there will listen to…….me who they watched working out and doing the very thing they are doing or some skinny kid whos never even been in here? This was many yrs ago before people knew how to handle discrimination like this. But I persisted and got the job. Still its a shame that people assume cuz we have some weight that we cant do a job or be a good representative for others. April 7, 2012 at 3:22 pm GOOD FOR YOU!!! April 7, 2012 at 5:12 pm I faced similar prejudices when looking for jobs as a bartender, of all things. These restaurant and club owners want their bartenders to be cute young thangs. Well, the cute young thangs are going to be the ones calling into work on a Friday night because they’ve got a hot date. Their loss for not hiring Old Reliable, who is going to show up because she needs the work! April 7, 2012 at 4:13 pm commented on the post other people had commented on. wow, just wow. April 7, 2012 at 5:10 pm I told ’em “Hey @citizensmedical size discrimination is bigotry, just like any other prejudice. A person’s size doesn’t determine their ability.” Nanasha says: April 7, 2012 at 5:40 pm I live in Santa Cruz, CA, and while there are many issues here (such as every other surrounding county dumping their homeless in our city- including San Fran at some point giving all the most high-needs homeless free one-way bus tickets to Santa Cruz to the point that we have tons of homeless roaming the streets like zombies with little to no medication or support services for their sheer numbers, which makes me feel both sad and unsafe in many situations…blargh, but that’s a rant for another time) the whole “cannot discriminate based on size” is a really important one for me. I work for the County and we did have a wellness program for healthy lifestyle changes awhile back, but they did blood draws, measurements, etc to get baselines for health instead of JUST weighing people (although there was some weighing and that was why I did not feel comfortable participating in it). The focus was on improving blood test numbers (cholesterol, etc) over a span of 6 months to a year, offering healthier food choices in the cafeteria, and workout groups during lunch/breaks for people to feel more comfortable doing aerobic walking or cycling or pilates/yoga. It was very awesome to some extent- I saw people who said they never felt comfortable exercising meeting up outside with coworkers every day to enjoy a nice brisk walk, and even though most of them didn’t lose weight, their health improved (proven by the blood draw at the end of the program) and most of them have continued their lunch time walks even after the program ended. Many of the women who participated were larger, and many of them seemed very focused on the weight loss aspect at first, but when they noticed that their cholesterol was better, and they felt more energetic, many of them seemed to care less about the weight loss than the improvements in their health and well being. Obviously, there were prizes for people who improved numbers and health markers the most, and a special party at the end for all participants- but it was fairly non-weight-loss centric as far as these sorts of programs tend to go. I think that it’s absolutely important for a workplace to encourage healthy habits in their workers. In Japan, they often have stretches and morning calisthenics for all of their workers before starting the day. And in my work, I am an avid bike-to-worker and have been using my connections to help improve our cycling conditions and facilities (we just refurbished a bunch of bike lockers and our enclosure has been altered to be much more accessible). All of these things make exercising easier and more fun, instead of difficult to schedule and outright torture. Our jobs, whether we like or not, are a huge part of our lives, just as school was a huge part of our lives before. All institutions where we must be present for 6-8 hours minimum should have comprehensive health options that give workers/students options and easy opportunities for fitness/exercise/healthy food options to choose from. If the workplace is health-positive (instead of weight negative) I honestly think that EVERYONE will benefit (especially those who are older, or those who never exercise because they think that being thin exempts them from movement). I just don’t think that it’s ok for a workplace to judge someone’s weight as the main marker for health or worthiness for a job. Weight is an unrelated factor- it is an appearance and possibly a mobility aspect (especially if you have other disabilities as well), but it is by no means a disqualifier for your ability to do a great job in your career. I do, however, find myself blessed to live in such an accessible area. I live within walking or bicycling distance to pretty much everywhere I want to go, and that is probably one reason why my health is so good (even though my weight has remained around the same for the last couple of years since my last pregnancy). I think that we need to address the infrastructure and composition of our communities- make them intuitively accessible and safe for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Because, let’s face it, there are many places in the country where it’s unsafe to walk around and you live so far from everything else you’re forced to drive all over the place. I think that, as a culture, we must work diligently to solve this for the health of our whole country. Because it’s not just about weight. It’s about isolation and forcing people to be slaves to their gas-and-electric-guzzling vehicles. April 7, 2012 at 5:54 pm YES, exactly Nanasha! This is why I get SO frustrated when people compare the US to other countries as far as weight. The US is HUGE and there are massive areas of the country that are rural with NO access to public transportation. Other parts of the country, while not as rural, have really sucky public transportation. The US, when it comes to public transportation in the majority of the country, SUCKS in comparison to other countries. Not sure how Japan compares to South Korea (though I know that cost of living is significantly higher in Japan) but South Korea had EXCELLENT public transportation. You also had places where you could not drive at all, you HAD to walk (something we don’t see a lot of around here). When I was in Korea, I lost 7 lbs (maybe more, not sure what I weighed before I left) in a matter of months simply from walking more (because I sure wasn’t eating any better, if anything, I was eating WORSE due to all of the donut places over there and all the eating out we were doing). And I really do think that the reason for that was all of the walking I was doing. We lived in a very small apartment which meant I needed to get out more or I would go nuts. We lived near the subway/bus stop and there were places to go where we did a lot of walking around (including a zoo that was on a hill!). You don’t see this in the US and while there’s a lot of talk about how we need to consume less gas and use more public transportation, the money is not put into the programs to make this possible and it’s SO incredibly frustrating. It’s one of the things I really wish the US would get going on but I know that it’s not entirely possible in some places due to the amount of rural areas we have. And yes, it does leave people pretty much dependent on driving. April 8, 2012 at 2:54 am “I think that it’s absolutely important for a workplace to encourage healthy habits in their workers” “Encourage”? That’s an interesting word to use for employers intruding in their employees’ lives. I have a masters degree and abilities and experiences for the jobs I’ve done that have nothing what-so-ever to do with my “health habits”, and I have nothing but absolute contempt for any employer who would insult my intelligence by doing anything to “encourage healthy habits” in me or those around me. It is a tiresome trope used against fat people that they’re stupid and don’t know how to be “healthy”. And who defines these so-called “healthy habits”?—oh yeah, people who know fuck all about my personal health or the health of any of their other employees. Soo not so “healthy” after all on their part it’s just massive fail. It also leads to discriminatory “habits” such as the above where this hospital decides they don’t want fat people working there. They’re not alone of course as discrimination against fat people is well documented and many industries will not hire fat people in certain positions–usually high profile and/or highly lucrative positions. That’s also why fat people earn less than their thinner counterparts. You know what’s “absolutely important for a workplace to encourage”?–Equality and non-discriminatory practices in the workplace. If they’re want to encourage their employee’s to be “healthy” then they can pay a living wage, contribute to a 401k, offer health care insurance and not discriminate against those marginalized in society. The above named hospital fails on all counts. Nanasha says: April 8, 2012 at 4:50 am To be absolutely honest, my comment was not directly in reference to the hospital in question or the discrimination of fat people. In the County where I live (Santa Cruz) there is an actual law on the books against weight or size discrimination. I am well known in the bicycling community and can often be seen cycling around town (and to and from work several times a day). When the health program started at my job, I decided not to participate in it specifically because I have my own work out routine and get regular blood work done for my various health conditions (Hashimoto’s Disease/PCOS). No one asked me if I was doing the program or not, and I am a fairly large lady. I think that in the case of many workplaces, the way that they implement “wellness programs” is draconian and messed up. However, I don’t think that just because they are doing it wrong now, that there is no potential to improve the services and options. I mean, what if a health support program was simply part of your benefits package? I know that at my job I have Medical and dental insurance, but I know people who don’t use their dental insurance or opt out of medical coverage. It’s a choice, just like any other- but the idea that the workplace would be interested in offering the level of access to comprehensive wellness programs (instead of simply preaching weight loss and thinness), I think that it could be a real revolution in keeping workers happy and healthier, regardless of their waistlines. I also honestly think that people are absolutely welcome to never exercise a second in their lives and eat whatever they want. And it is not the place of the workplace to JUDGE or STIGMATIZE people for their choices. However, if the interest is promoting health, changes in infrastructure in the workplace can really make it much easier for people to make the sorts of changes that they do not otherwise have the support to make in their lives. And THAT is a truly empowering feeling. danceswithfat says: April 8, 2012 at 3:29 am Thanks for the awesome comment. I wanted to discuss more the concept of “I think that it’s absolutely important for a workplace to encourage healthy habits in their workers.” One thing I think that we need to be careful of is taking a “one size fits all” approach to health. I haven’t been in a corporate workplace for a while but one of the things that I had trouble with the last time I worked in an office was that I didn’t participate in company exercise programs (because my training schedule for dance is rigorous and specific and I don’t need more activity). I got a tremendous amount of peer pressure and a talk from the person who hired me about how they were committed to a healthy workplace. I know other workplaces where fat employees are forced to participate in Weight Watchers on their unpaid lunch hours (a program that has a greater than 95% failure rate), including weekly weigh-ins in front of their coworkers, and if they refuse or they lose their benefits or have to pay significantly higher co-pays. I think we need to remember that work is a contract whereby I do a job for a prescribed amount of compensation, and if I want to live a sedentary life eating only Twinkies and Cokes then I’m allowed to do that as long as it does interfere with my ability to do the job. If I were the underpants overload, insurance would not come through our workplace so that they could focus on hiring the best person for the job they need done and not worry if that person will increase their healthcare premiums. I’m all for work providing a variety of foods for people to choose from and offering movement options that people enjoy, but I think we need to be very careful to make a distinction between giving people the ability to choose from a variety of options based on how highly they’ve prioritized health and what path they’ve chosen, rather than telling people what constitutes being healthy and how they have to go about it. Nanasha says: April 8, 2012 at 4:35 am When I was saying “Encouraging” healthy habits, I was speaking more in an infrastructural sort of way. There are a lot of people who would exercise more or eat higher quality foods if they had ACCESS to them, and that’s more really what I’m hoping for- access for ALL. There are a lot of poor areas where there are food deserts and the only food nearby is the local fast food place. While it’s nice to have fast food if you want it, if it’s the ONLY OPTION, that’s where I get my panties in a bunch- I think that people may WANT to choose something else, but are unable because of the way that their location is set up. I think that workplaces should make it easier and more intuitive to enjoy healthy behaviors if they are truly all about the health thing. And honestly, one of the best parts about the program that my workplace put into effect was that it really helped connect people to do lunch and breaktime walks and other fun stuff TOGETHER, which really made the exercise fun and enjoyable. I’m not saying everyone has to exercise and eat the best possible ever (lord knows, I’m not perfect either!) but I do think that giving people ACCESS to make their own choices is a very important thing that many people will want to take advantage of. Besides, I honestly think that if you’re working or going to school somewhere at least 6-8 hours a day, you’re spending a good chunk of your 24 hours there per day and that’s an integral part of one’s lifestyle- and at least for me, lifestyle includes EVERYTHING, in and out of work. So as far as I’m concerned, if my workplace cannot support my healthy lifestyle, I will be less likely to choose that place of work for my own career. The really important thing here is choice. To truly make the best decision for yourself, having options like this would be very empowering for many people, even if not everyone would be interested. Nanasha says: April 7, 2012 at 5:49 pm I know I totally just wrote a novel above, but I also want to say that as the employee newsletter writer for my department, whenever we do health-specific articles, I always try to make them HAES-friendly and cut out the weight loss advice. I want to make health articles health-positive, not “make you feel like crap so you’ll go on a diet.” Just like Ragen said before- there is always something you can do, even if it’s just something small. When you lead by example, it can give courage to others, even if they never say anything about it. Duckie says: April 7, 2012 at 7:29 pm Part of me wants to send them my very qualified resume, and my fantasy is that when they call me for an interview, I show up with a bunch of rad fatties and dance through their hallways obnoxiously in protest…it kind of makes me smile to imagine it! Allison says: April 7, 2012 at 7:35 pm just went to the FB page for this hospital. I haven’t finished my coffee yet so no witty response from me, but there are a plenty of comments about the policy! hehehe! yay! April 7, 2012 at 9:50 pm I am (barely) within the weight limit, but I have quite the visual distraction: My leg brace and cane! So I guess I wouldn’t qualify. April 7, 2012 at 10:37 pm I left a msg on their facebook and sent an email. You know, at first I was mad, then frustrated and now I am just sad and you could say hurt. What the “hell”? We just have to keep up the work of education. I hope I can meet you before you move to Ca. Where in LA are you moving to? My book Fatology 101 is almost finished. I will send you a copy if I can finish it before you move. The cover is being designed and I hope to have it printed in 4 weeks. Keep up the good work and I will sure do my part. Nellie says: April 7, 2012 at 10:44 pm SO MUCH WISDOM in this article AND in all the responses. Workplace wellness is all the rage because healthy employees are less expensive. The obvious next step is “we can’t hire you because fat people have expensive health problems.” Never mind the skinny smoker /alcoholic / lousy driver etc. Health care and hiring have to be for all! Nanasha says: April 8, 2012 at 12:26 am Honestly, I don’t think that being unhealthy should ever be a reason not to hire someone. I mean, honestly, we all die. And people who don’t die now will die later. There are no immortally young workers (as much as you might think that such things existed from all the media hype). In general, I think that “health” concerns are generally thinly designed initiatives to get rid of workers before they get enough seniority or pay so they can actually have a nice lifelong career. Any excuse to get rid of an employee because they’re “expensive” is basically an excuse to get rid of an employee because the company is full of greedy bastards and would prefer to just make everyone work for free (slavery) if they could get away with it. Of course, if you think about it, that’s basically what unpaid internships are, especially since many of them do NOT lead to actual paid jobs. April 8, 2012 at 12:54 am Their FB page is now covered with awesomeness! April 8, 2012 at 1:12 am Thank you for posting this. This is an issue I care about deeply, as my late fiance suffered weight bias. I have made it my mission to love people “from the inside out” and motivate others to do the same. See my blog (linked on my name) for more. In a recent post I embedded a video made by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, a fantastic organization that (among other things) fights weight bias. The video talks about weight bias in health care generally and then lists several things that doctors and other medical professionals can do to eliminate weight bias in their practices. Here’s the link: http://lovingfromtheinsideout.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-doctors-can-do-about-weight-bias.html. I plan to post the video to the hospital’s FB (and perhaps try to educate them in other ways too) and share your post here as well. Keep up the good fight! April 8, 2012 at 4:59 am I wanted to ask Citizen’s Medical if they were going to start patrolling the Facebook pages of their prospective employees, refusing to hire them because they were smoking a cigarette or drinking in a photo. Then I realized the answer is “probably.” Bea says: April 8, 2012 at 5:42 am Some of their older patients probably have some longstanding racial and gender prejudices, too. Seeing a non-white healthcare professional, a female physician, etc., probably messes with those people’s preconceptions about what a healthcare professional “should” look like way more than seeing a fat healthcare provider. Hard to know where to draw the line if you’re going to start indulging people’s prejudices to avoid making them uncomfortable . . . The Well-Rounded Mama says: April 9, 2012 at 2:32 am Exactly. Thanks for addressing this, Ragen. I was going to, but you beat me to the punch. Yay! And Bea, spot on. Many people have all kinds of biases about various professionals “should” look like. Are they going to cater to those kinds of biases? Bottom line, are they going to hire the best person for the job, or someone less competent but whose looks is less likely to bother someone? Shouldn’t it be about competence? April 8, 2012 at 9:04 am “Chief Executive David Brown elucidates: “The majority of our patients are over 65, and they have expectations that cannot be ignored in terms of personal appearance.” Ya know, that’s also a ballsy assumption to make of senior citizens, too. Where the hell does THAT logic come from? Any senior I’ve ever met cares far more about how long their doctor (etc.) has been practicing than how much they weigh. I would be stunned if CA EVER passes an anti-weight discrimination law because our big business is movies and tv. I think there’d be a revolt from casting directors alone if they were suddenly forcd to see every fat girl in L.A. County for parts they’d prefer to directly offer to whoever the current carefully sculpted “it girl” is. It would be amazing…but stunning. April 9, 2012 at 2:12 pm As someone who is veering dangerously close to age 65 herself and someone who has spent her whole adult life in healthcare, I can say one thing for certain…Darci, you are absolutely right when you question David Brown’s logic. Anybody 65+ in a hospital is just hoping their health care professional is smart enough to figure out how to get their medication schedule right. They don’t give a rat’s behind what that person looks like! They just hope they make it out of the hospital alive! Also, as one other poster pointed out, once you get to be a certain age, thinness is perceived differently. It tends to be associated more with serious illness and impending death. David Brown’s rationale for his discriminatory policies are nothing but BS. April 9, 2012 at 7:59 pm After giving it some futher thought, it was pretty cowardly of them to throw the 65+ under the bus. Did they take a survey? I am approaching 65 and am from the baby boom generation. I believe we are not as prejudice as our parents and grandparents. I think it is BS. I believe the administration just threw that out there without really talking to the 65+ . April 9, 2012 at 6:20 am I can remember several occasions when my now 89-year-old grandmother has been in the hospital and I go to visit her and she’s made some comment like “I’m so surprised at the large number of brown people working here, why aren’t they hiring white people?” or “And my doctor for this and such was Indian?! I wasn’t expecting that!”, or similarly ridiculous things, luckily this is just observational commentary and she never follows it up by suggesting these people can’t do their work, and I would be very appalled at a hospital that started to make staffing choices so as not to surprise or confuse people like her, some times the world does not exist to make everyone comfortable, and I suspect the number of patients they lose by hiring non-white, non-skinny, non-whatever employees is much less than the number they will lose by openly announcing their discriminatory policies, so sucks for them April 10, 2012 at 6:42 am At my hospital (which is closely affiliated with a specific insurance company) they were giving out 100$ for completing “health assessments”, which included BMI along with bloodwork, smoking history, etc. I smelled the stink of corporate survelliance on it and I was right. Smokers and overweight people are now being threatened with having their premiums increased if they don’t quit smoking/lose weight. Their pregnancy program is crappy too, it steers women towards hospital birth with an OBGYN only, never mentioning that other options exist at all. April 10, 2012 at 3:44 pm Yep, I could see it coming 30 years ago with the non smoking police. Now they are everywhere trying to make us all the same. Everyone gets the same, everyone has “rights” to the same, on and on. I hope this stops. What a mess this has made. Unfortunately I can see this becoming a political issue. When it does, it will divide us and they will win. Lets not allow this to happen. Stay strong together. danceswithfat says: April 10, 2012 at 4:01 pm Thanks for the comment. I personally believe that smoking and obesity are two different things – notably because a smoker hurts everyone within breathing distance every time they light up as they increase each of those people’s risk of getting cancer while taking away those people’s right to be a non-smoker. Having just come back from NYC, I was astounded at how much smoke I had to breathe in just to get from my friend’s apartment to the subway. No such issue exists with obesity, even if the person participates in all of the stereotypically unhealthy obesity behaviors. My right to punch ends at the tip of someone else’s nose so while I have the right to eat a quadruple cheesburger and a fried twinkie, I don’t have the right to force other people to eat them because they happen to be walking by on the street. I also disagree with you that if this becomes a political issues “it will divide us and they will win”, I don’t believe it’s not as simple as an us vs. them, or one group wins and one group loses situation – I think it already has become political and we are all winning and losing some battles. I personally prefer to keep a positive view and just keep fighting the good fight. April 10, 2012 at 7:14 pm thank for your reply. I do agree with you on the health effects of smoking. I grew up with 2 parents that smoked and I hated it. I cant breath. I was referring the her comment that the “big bad businesses” are greedy wanting to tell us that fat people cant work and it is all about the medical center laying people off. It isnt about big greedy businesses. Its just an excuse to control people. You have said it many times that because they dont like how we look……and has nothing to do with our ability to do a good job. I hope I made it a little clearer. Im not that good with words like you are. LOL. I appreciate your blogs and they are great. My whole goal and passion on this subject is the same as yours, to take the stigma off of being fat and teaching people that we will not accept the rude and unfair treatment of being fat. Thanks again, Marla	43,118
We had the antipasti which was very good. I had the classic cheese pizza and hubby had gnocchi with shrimp. All was delicious, the service was great and the atmosphere was a notch up for Elkins. We left full and satisfied. Another great meal at Vintage. It’s becoming our “go to” place when my daughter comes to town. I had dinner there this evening with my husband. We both loved it! The wait staff was great esp. Katelyn. Her and Jayson made our “date night” very memorable. The food was terrific, I had the steak and my husband had the duck. We will be back and will bring friends and family. Thanks for the great food and great experience! The decor is clean, beautifully subtle and inviting. A lot of attention to has been given to details everywhere one looks. … The food is reasonably priced. The menu is varied. They are having specialty nights to try out new dishes to enlarge the menu. … All the food has been delicious. … Wait staff are friendly, knowledgeable and attentive. … Great choice. We were seated in a room away from the bar and business lunch crowd. Our server Casey was very hospitable, efficient and knowledgeable about the menu. We ordered the she crab soup, which was excellent, and I also enjoyed a salad of mixed greens, grilled pears and blue cheese crumbles with blue cheese dressing. … The owner stopped by to talk with us and offered that the chef has 26 years experience and came from Charleston, SC — no wonder the soup was so good! … Prices seem very reasonable. This restaurant is an elegant addition to the dining scene in Elkins and we plan to return for lunch again and dinner with our husbands. February 18, 2018 via Trip Advisor This is the perfect date night location. It is exactly the romantic setting we were hoping for. My husband reserved a booth in the back private room area for our anniversary. They seemed to know instantly that we were the ones with a reservation (without us even saying anything.) The treatment we received was fantastic. The wait staff had dimmed the lights, and lit a candle for us. The room had about four similar styled booths and two tables. The remaining booths were filled later, but the privacy was still maintained. This was a celebration, so were prepared to splurge on all menu items. We started off with one of their February specialty cocktails each; both were well-made. We ordered the sesame tuna appetizer, and it did not disappoint. Everything on that plate flowed well, and was incredibly flavorful. This was the best appetizer we have ever ordered at any restaurant, and had us looking forward to dinner. We were not let down by dinner either. I ordered the Sun-dried Tomato Cod served with lobster risotto, asparagus, and paired with a George Deubouf Chardonnay. I am not usually a Chardonnay fan, but this dish and pairing made a believer out of me. My husband ordered the Vintage Tender Cut Medallions, and a malbec flight to try with it. The Altos Malbec was included in the flight, and was the recommended pairing to go along with his dish. That wine, was truly the best with his dish. We commented at how both our dinners tasted truly married to the wines they were paired with. We wondered how the chef and cook staff had managed the amazing compliment. We had tried the Altos Malbec previously, and with the recommended dishes it stated on the bottle and online, but none of the pairings we had seen or tried before compared to the way this tasted. We never order dessert, but everything was so incredible that we decided to try one. We shared their bread pudding dessert of the night. It beat my grandmother’s hands-down. Everything we had last night was amazing. Phenomenal is the word I kept thinking the whole time we were there. I think only weather could keep us away from having this as an anniversary tradition from now on. We’ve tried higher end restaurants in Morgantown, Charlotte, and other areas, but this is the best of them all. We will be back! We even look forward to casually dining and ordering a pizza at some point, but the entrees were so good! Snowshoe, West Virginia Reviewed April 29, 2018 We visit Vintage almost every time we are in Elkins. Their pizza is hand tossed and wood fired and it is sooooooo good. They have the classics like margharita, but they also also have creative combinations like the “Whole on the Hog” which is one of our favorites. We rarely order anything else because we can never get past the pizza menu! LOL Décor is beautiful and inviting and the service is friendly and efficient. They also have some great private rooms for groups of about 16-24 for special parties, etc. I highly recommend this restaurant, even if you don’t want to order pizza.	4,917
Topics dealing with mental health, grief, relationships and the sole reliance on trusting God. All articles are written by Debra Pasquella. Other Apps - November 18, 2005 Black coffee, an inhaler, cough syrup with codeine and occasionally steroids, can be on my table usually in the winter months. This time of year gives me anxiety. I usually find myself waking up with croup cough and an asthma attack in the middle of the night. Madelene then rushes me to the ER. On the way up to the hospital, it usually clears out due to the cold air. I’m not sure why this happens, but it’s typical of asthma patients and people who suffer from chronic bronchitis. Forced air heating systems and smoke, usually cause me to have these attacks. Madelene and I both share a house with my parents. We live upstairs, in a separate apartment which is very spacious, and my parents reside downstairs… Both my mother and father smoke. My father is more like a chain smoker. Even though doors are closed and we are very separate from being near them, the smoke will flow through the air ducts and/or doors, making me cough my lungs out. On top of that, we have vents that shoot out hot air---which leaves my throat and lungs dry. Even though the house is quite large, I can detect anyone lighting up anywhere in my house. When I was younger, my parents would smoke around me all the time. I remember every night while eating dinner with the family, my father would light up a cigarette—even before we were done. I never thought anything of it, because that was all I knew. Even when my mother was pregnant, she still smoked. One night, I woke up coughing up a lung. I couldn’t even talk, and if I did, I sounded much like the exorcist. You could hear me breathing in and out—but through that croupy windpipe that was closing up each second. Madelene would turn the hot water on in the shower so I could get some steam. Moisture usually helps me. In this particular case, it wasn’t working. Mom would always hear the ruckus and come up to my pad and see what was going on. Mom would be making me black coffee, while Madelene would be rubbing my shoulders giving me my inhaler. This should definitely do it. Nope. It got even worse--my throat was closing up…I couldn’t get air in or out almost. Madelene threw some sneakers on me, and rushed me off to the emergency room. It was cold, probably about twenty degrees outside. My breathing was calming down a tad, due to the cold air, but not much. I sounded like a mule walking into the hospital as my coughs wailed throughout the corridors. We finally get into the emergency room, and Madelene flags down a nurse. “Excuse me? Can you help us? She’s having an asthma attack!” “Sure…just sit right at this desk, and someone will be with you to fill out your insurance information.” “Maam!!! She’s having an attack now! Can we get to that after the doctor gives her something? This is an emergency!” Madelene cries out to her. “Well then—sit right here and we’ll be right with you.” We sat down on a chair in the emergency room. To my surprise, there was only one person in the whole ER! An old lady who was sleeping. There weren’t ANY emergencies. People are walking around; doctors are strolling about, and nurses passing me by—hearing my croup cough, not saying one word. Not one person looked my way. “Deb!!! Are you okay??? Deb!!! Help! Someone help us!” Madelene screams out. I fell on the floor because my breathing was making me dizzy. My windpipes were closing and I had hardly any oxygen left. It was then, that the doctors thought it may be a good idea to take a look at me… Finally. Sorry to interrupt their coffee clutch. They carried me on to a bed, and put an IV in me full of muscle relaxants. The doctor gave me a cup of cough syrup with codeine, and the other nurse filled the IV bag up with steroids. Between the codeine, steroids, muscle relaxants and the coffee I had prior, I didn’t know whether to relax, or bounce off the walls. The muscle relaxants took over, and my throat began to open up. The doctor also had me sucking on a nebulizer pump full of albuterol. Another stimulant--great... I go through this almost every year. I don’t even have ‘the typical asthma’----it’s only smoke induced and it happens when the air is way too dry. My parents always say, “Oh you were brought up with smoke around you—this shouldn’t bother you…” HELLO? Maybe this is the reason why I’m having more and more ER trips? Naw…they don’t think so. It’s “all in my head”… I’m just crazy and I don’t know what I’m talking about. Now---someone in my family may get upset over this next topic because I’m airing this out on my blog---but “I’m upset” over this. Family members: Feel free to make a rebuttal if you wish, or debate me on my next topic. My sister brings over her daughter---my little niece who I love & adore… My mother watches her, because my sister goes on business trips frequently. It’s nice having my niece over, and getting to see her in the middle of the week…but I have a major concern. Both my mother and father smoke in front of her. She is only three years old. Her lungs are impressionable and shouldn’t be exposed to that kind of environment. They’ll sit in this one room where the TV is, smoking up a storm. I’ll walk in to say hello---and walk right back out coughing my lungs up. How can my little niece sit there in that cloud full of smoke? The question is----how can my parents smoke that much around her----or at all for that matter? “Oh you grew up on cigarettes…” My mother will always debate with me. Now yesterday morning, I got really upset. My niece was up, I walked downstairs to say hello, get my coffee and head back upstairs… My niece was coughing so much. She had this croupy cough---the one that sounds way too familiar. My heart broke right there. Then I hear my mother on the phone. I love my niece, and I don’t want her growing up to develop what I have. My other sister has two kids. A son and daughter who are adorable…same age range too. She doesn’t come over that much, because she knows that the smoke is bad. I don’t blame her. I find it extremely sad that my parents are letting their smoking habit interfere with their relationship with their grandchildren. Can’t you at least stop smoking during their visit- or just go outside if you need a cigarette? I don’t get it. It’s a blessing now that my sisters all have holiday dinners at their house. Smoke-free and you can actually breathe! Please don’t get me wrong, I love my parents with all my heart, but I wish they would realize how much this can affect their grandkids…They should know by what I go through. Or is it ‘all in my head’?... Here's a picture of my niece. She's already trying to grow up way too fast--wearing my high heels and drinking Bailey's on the rocks. (It's chocolate milk in a huge sniftor glass) As long as she doesn't play with candy cigarettes, I'm okay with it. Other Apps Powered by Blogger Theme images by Michael Elkan All Material Written on this site is Copyright © by the Owner of this site. Author of A Prayer Away From Healing, freelance writer, editor. Main topics deal with mental health, anxiety, depression and grief as well as my personal coping skills. My main source of help in dealing with anxiety and depression is God. With God, all things are possible. I am not a psychologist or mental health professional. I'm a patient that has been dealing with anxiety for almost 30 years. Anxiety never leaves us--we consciously choose to incorporate new coping skills in order to survive.	7,803
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You can try using a plunger to clear the clog, but if that doesn't work, you'll need to call a professional plumber to take care Every day there are hundreds of gallons of water flowing through pipes, fixtures, and drains in your home, and because of that, they can get clogged or start to show signs of wear and tear over time. When your plumbing system starts to fail you, it is essential you immediately contact a plumber so they can evaluate the current and potential damage and offer you further guidance on the plumbing repairs you need to consider having done. Most of the items you put down the drain will remain unchanged from the time they go down the household drain or toilet. They don’t breakdown and tend to clog the wastewater system. The cost of maintaining the system will reflect on your utility bill. Grease is a liquid when it goes down but quickly hardens on the pipes. 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Faucet repair and replacement If you're dealing with a clogged or broken kitchen sink, then you need a reliable plumbing service company to help you get things fixed. Fortunately, our team is here to help. We have years of experience dealing with all sorts of kitchen sink repair issues, so we know how to get the job done right. We understand that a broken or clogged kitchen sink can be a major inconvenience, which is why we offer 24/7 emergency service. No matter what time it is, we'll be there to help you fix the problem and get your kitchen sink back in working order. We also offer a wide range of other plumbing services, so if you're having any other issues with your home's plumbing, we can help with that as well. Just give us a call and we'll be happy to assist you however we can. If you have a frozen pipe, turn on the nearest faucet so that thawed ice has somewhere to go. This gives the pressure somewhere to go, which may prevent bigger damage for your home. To avoid having your outdoor faucets freeze up in the winter, detach all hoses before the first freeze. Also, close the shutoff valve that leads to the outdoor faucets, then turn on all outdoor faucets to let them thaw out. Once water is flowing freely again, turn the outside faucets off and store all hoses away safely for the winter. If you want to keep your kitchen drains from clogging up, don't pour grease down them. As it cools and congeals it can trap other food or waste particles, which over time can slow the draining of water and even form a clog that will not be easy to remove. To avoid wasting water and having a potentially high water bill, check your home for leaky faucets periodically. Fix any leaks that you find right away. You may be able to do the repair yourself, but if not, you may have to seek the assistance of a plumber to make the repairs. If you have a clogged toilet and a plunger is not helping to clear the blockage, if the water level is low, pouring a bucking of boiling water from a height into the toilet bowl could resolve the problem. Do this as often as necessary until your clog is gone, and you can flush normally once again. Use enzymes to clean clogged drains. Enzyme based cleaners work by using natural bacteria that turns the sludge clogged in your pipes into a liquid, allowing it to flow down the drain with ease. Enzyme cleaners are considered one of the best ways of maintaining your drains. If you own property where the temperature gets below freezing for an extended amount of time each year, you should make sure that pipes located in unheated areas, such as crawl spaces and garages, are insulated. Pipes that are exposed to the outside elements or those that are prone to freezing, should be protected by heat tape or thermostat-controlled heat cables to prevent them from freezing. If water backs up from one sink to another, it is because the lines are connected. The part of the branch line for one device might be higher than another, but most likely there is also a blockage in the branch line connecting the two devices as well. This blockage must be cleaned. Periodically check your pipes for leaks and cracks. These can be forgotten, since pipes are usually hidden away, but checking for leaks and cracks can help you identify a small problem before a big problem occurs. You may have to enlist the help of a family member to turn on and off the water stream as you are checking. Beware of black water in your toilet tank. Chances are, the color is caused from too much magnesium or iron in your water. Although this is usually harmless, it can be annoying for some people. If it is iron or magnesium in your water, the only way to fix it is by filtering the water. If you see any water pooling near your hot water heater, turn the water off to the heater immediately. If you don't, a small leak can turn into a much larger leak, making it harder to shut off. Make sure everyone in your home knows where the main water shut off valve is and that they know how to work it. That way, if there is a water problem, anyone in your household can turn off the water, thereby reducing the chances that your home will incur major water damage. If you have an automatic sprinkler system, make sure that you regularly test these valves for leaks. If leaks are detected, make sure to repair them before the first freeze which can occur in the fall. Freezing cold water can and will crack pipes, whether they are copper, steel, or plastic. Cracked pipes can lead to extensive water damage to your home, resulting in very costly repairs. 1. Turn off the main water supply before working on plumbing fixtures in your home. This will ensure that you aren't accidentally flooding your home or causing major damage by plugging up a drain while trying to fix another one. 2. Doing your own plumbing can be very rewarding, but it can also be a lot of work. Regardless, if you know what needs to be done and how to do it properly, you can fix most plumbing problems yourself. 3. If you are using PEX tubing for the supply lines in your home, make sure you get the right tools for the job. PEX tubing requires a completely different tool type than regular lines. Make sure you have a PEX cutter on hand to make the job go more smoothly. 4. Be careful about using liquid clog cleaners. These liquids can contain chemicals that are extremely bad for your pipes. Instead, use a snake or a plunger to dislodge any clogs you might encounter. Be sure to try these things before giving up and calling a plumber, who will probably re-perform those same acts. 5. When you're going away on a vacation, you should consider shutting off the water supply to your home. This can help stop many problems before they start. If you don't do this, you should have someone stop by your house regularly to check that nothing has gone wrong and that your home isn't flooded. 6. Make sure that you disconnect all hoses outside your house when the fall season hits. This is important to reduce the chance of freezing, which can cause damage to the connecting pipes. Disconnect all of your water hoses and store them safely to put your family in the best position for the fall. 7. Plumbing is one of those jobs that you should not do your self. If it is something easy like a toilet repair or changing out a faucet, go ahead and give it a try. If it is a major repair, then you are better off hiring a contractor and it may be required to have a licensed plumbing contractor do the work for you. 8. In any DIY plumbing project, make sure that you always test the drains and the supply lines before you close up the walls. It is a lot easier to find and solve problems if you look for them while you are still in the process of actively doing the job. 9. If your sink is letting rusty water out and it will not drain, it is mostly likely because of the biological scum and grease that is built up in the pipes. You need to have your drains professionally cleaned, allowing maximum flow through your drains. Your drains must be open completely. 10. If you are having any kind of problems with your water line or plumbing in general then you will first want to cut of your water supply. One of the most common mistakes that people make is to leave their water running while they are trying to fix things and this leads to bigger problems. As a leading plumbing company, we're committed to offering top quality service and products to keep your plumbing in the best condition. Whatever the season, don't gamble on a small company with limited experience. Trust us – we're a seasoned organization with decades of success. We were founded 25+ years ago, and since then we've developed talent and expertise to serve all of your plumbing needs. You'll get the highest quality workmanship with over 25+ years of industry experience. If you value quality over everything, work with a company that will be there for you. We're proudly one of the leading plumbing providers in our area, doing top-notch work at an affordable price. So no matter what your plumbing needs are, we'll be there to help – we've been tackling this task since time immemorial, so trust us and don't settle for anything less.	13,663
There are few questions we can ask ourselves that are not already answered on the Internet. For better or worse, ... The Ministry of Health extends the health plan for self-diagnosis tests in pharmacies by admin_l6ma5gus January 28, 2022 A pharmacist shows self-diagnosis tests for Covid, in a file image. / Guillermo Carrion / AGMThe situation caused by the ...	364
A Fraternity President Needs to be a Visionary – The Fraternity Advisor \| Make Your Fraternity the Best on Campus Books A Fraternity President Needs to be a Visionary January 8, 2010 by Pat Hagerty in Fraternity President The president must define the goals for the fraternity. They must also lead the brothers into a mindset that it doesn’t matter who gets a job done, as long as it gets done. It would be amazing what could get accomplished if this fraternity utopia could be created. The fact is, one of the best parts about fraternity is the challenge to accomplish great things. The satisfaction brothers would get from a job well done is what it is all about. If they don’t have that satisfaction, if they don’t have that ownership, from the fraternity’s success then they really aren’t much different than the drunken guests who attend your parties and leave. I was a horrible visionary as a fraternity president. As president, I wanted my fraternity to win the award for having the best chapter in my fraternity in the country. That was my vision. We were going to do whatever it took to get there. We did charity events, donated money and I volunteered us for everything under the sun. It was a grueling year, and everyone was pretty burnt out in the process. We had a lot of fun, but the fraternity almost became a chore along the way. During that summer’s convention, I found out we didn’t win the award. We did win an award recognizing us as being one of the top five chapters though. When I received the award on behalf of my fraternity, it hit me that I was the only one who cared. Just to make sure the point hit home, I found out that no one really cared when I brought the trophy back and put it in the fraternity house. I failed because I made our goal to chase this stupid award. I missed the point. The point was to have fun. If awards came, than that was great. If they didn’t, then that was great too – as long as we had fun. Despite some successes, my fraternity went through terrible growing pains that year. We had a good number of brothers who quit because they didn’t want to pay their dues. We had a few brothers quit because they were into drugs. On top of all that, we were put on social probation because our grades were bad. As a result, we didn’t do anything fun. We went well over a semester without having a social event. Our rush effort was mediocre, and we pledged two guys who never really became active brothers. It was a dreadful year. I didn’t set the vision to get us out of the doldrums. I hunkered down to weather the storm, and the fraternity followed my lead. I wish I could do it all over again. I would start my first fraternity meeting by handing everyone a piece of paper stating what I thought the goals should be for the year. I would then open the discussion to see who agreed with those goals, and if so, who wanted to volunteer to lead one of the teams to accomplish them. By the end of the meeting, I would expect that everyone in the fraternity would be on the same page with what we wanted to do, and I would expect that there would be several excited brothers to lead great events. My job wouldn’t be done though. It would be on me to help those brothers into making those events come to life. To paraphrase George Patton though, a leader tells his followers what to do, but not how to do it. I would be there to aid the brother in whatever he needed to pull his event off. If he needed someone to do some of the grunt work, I was his man. If he needed to get approval from the university, I’d happily get it for him. Whatever my guy needed to get the job done, I would assist him. If he needed someone to brainstorm with – then I’d do that too. I know this would work because I did do this with some of the brothers that I trusted. Unfortunately, I did not do it enough. Imagine what would happen if the brother would take ownership in his project, and his excitement would become infectious to the rest of the brothers. The brother would feel a stronger connection to the fraternity because he would be able to point at a successful event and say, “that was mine.” That is a powerful thing for a brother’s ego. If you had a entire fraternity of brothers who could point to something in the fraternity with pride and say, “that was mine” then you would have a thriving fraternity and probably the best fraternity on campus. To learn more, check out our most in-depth article on being a fraternity president: How To Be a Great Fraternity President January 8, 2010 by Pat Hagerty in Fraternity President Recent Posts link to The Most Important Skill You Can Learn in College The Most Important Skill You Can Learn in College Modern college is a lot of smoke and mirrors. Professors are pushing their social agendas. Most classes are a complete waste of time. Essentially you are there to get piece of paper that says... link to #1 Secret to Fraternity Recruitment #1 Secret to Fraternity Recruitment The #1 secret to fraternity recruitment really has nothing to do with recruitment – it is much bigger than that. The Fraternity Advisor was created in 2009. The site has helped hundreds of thousands of students improve their fraternities and develop as leaders in the process. Our two books - The Fraternity Leader and The Chapter President - are for student leaders looking to take their chapters to the next level.	5,549
Since April, Bryan had been asking me what I’d like to do for Mother’s Day. It’s always tricky for me. I didn’t want “the day off” because to me, the whole purpose of Mother’s Day is celebrating motherhood so it feels wrong to do so by not being with my children. I wanted to do something special, but also didn’t want to fight crowds or overpay for mediocrity or deal with stress of traffic or tickets to something or being somewhere on time. Then again, a lazy day at home doing nothing seemed boring to me. I so appreciate how much he wanted to make sure that my wishes come first on this Hallmark holiday, but I couldn’t even really make sense of my wishes, let alone turn them into reality. For the past four years since I’ve been a mom, he’s always put me first on Mother’s Day, and for that he’s a true partner in parenting and marriage. That, alone, is a gift more thoughtful than any big hullabaloo we’d end up doing. And my mom has never been one to make a big fuss over holidays and has said that I should put the focus on myself and my own kids, but I couldn’t possibly imagine celebrating Mother’s Day without my own mother! So I decided that what I really wanted was just to have the whole family together at our home, even it if meant cooking for them and cleaning up after them — I’d rather do something genuine on Mother’s Day than something generic just for the sake of doing something. Plus, I’d be lying a little bit if I said I hate hosting parties. While in Trader Joe’s, I flirted with frozen quiches and had a quick love affair as I fondled the box in my hands, and while my head said yes, my heart said no. So instead, I purchased ingredients to make them from scratch, in addition to a few other brunch favorites. And right then and there, my idea to have “a simple Mother’s Day breakfast” became “Ah! The Four Seasons will rue the day that I take Mother’s Day into my own hands and kitchen!” I might have even whooshed my cape over the frozen food section of convenience. Some pre-baking (scones and coffee cake!) and cooking (those damn quiches) the day before allowed for a fairly easy morning on Sunday when I awoke to Madelyn at my side of the bed, in full voice: “I KNOW YOU’RE STILL SLEEPING, BUT HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, MOMMYYYYYYY.” Yawn. The wake-up call, though abrupt, was probably a good thing as it got my tush in action to put the finishing touches on our table and brunch set-up, like getting the fixings to the scones (Devon cream, jam, lemon curd) and yogurt bar ready in their serve-ware straight out of a Crate & Barrel wedding registry collection. You know you’ve only been married for 8 years when you still get a kick out of playing house with your wedding loot. Everyone arrived at 11 for brunch and we chowed down like the hungry and deserving mamas — and dads! — that we are. Madelyn made pictures for each of the moms in the room and we all praised her for her work. Brunching at home in the aroma of fresh coffee and baked goods was such a nice and relaxing way to spend the day together. Mimosas flowed and seconds and thirds of food were served. I loved having our family gathered in our dining room. It’s why we bought this house. The original mothers at the brunch get first dibs at the buffet. Ironically, on Mother’s Day, the mothers are out of focus and the focus is on the food. There is deeper meaning to this photo after all. Thankfully, the living room is a few steps away, so when we were stuffed, we reclined and relaxed on the couch with baseball in the background as the kids played together. My nephew, Jordan, finally has a playmate in Arielle who is almost keeping up with him, and Madelyn loves doting on both babies. I know both Mimi and Grandma were thrilled to be with the kids, and my own Grandma came along with my parents since she’s nearby and nothing makes her heart happier than being with family and seeing the little ones bounce around and discover everything around them. I’m pretty sure we’ve all reached the stage in life where we can sit back and let the kids do the entertaining. In no time, I’m sure Madelyn will be directing and starring alongside Jordan and Arielle in shows they all make up as we sit with full bellies and manage to find room to laugh. That’s what these family holidays are made for. All I really wanted for Mother’s Day was to get a few family shots with my girls. I’m so glad that my Grandma is able to join us at these little gatherings so it was important to have her in all her 92-year-old glory pose for a quick photo, too. I totally burned off all the calories from brunch while trying to get Arielle to cooperate for a picture. Babies, man. I really worked for that (digital) Kodak moment. Mother’s Day was such a nice day this year. The novelty of my first Mother’s Day remains a favorite memory, and I’ve loved celebrating preschool Mother’s Day once Madelyn became a preschooler, but there’s something to inviting the whole gang to our house to remind ourselves why we are all so special with good food and good company. There’s certainly something warm-fuzzy about cooking with my wonderful husband while our girls played together, as we prepared to welcome the people who brought us together and put us in the middle of generations. Also, the quiches from scratch were delicious. Yes, yes they were! Thank you for a wonderful day! sharon siegel What a wonderful day! From kids to quiches, from babies to bagels—it was all very delish and fun being together. Thanks for hosting and honoring us Moms. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. April 29, 2016 Why is This Year Different From All Other Years? by Bryan Friedman in All In The Family, Daddy's Corner, The House With apologies to T.S. Eliot, April is the sweetest month for me. Spring is my time – it’s my favorite season because it means better weather, good strawberries, the return of baseball, and…Passover. For those who have a love affair with all things bread (like my wife for example), it is sometimes hard to understand why I love Passover so much. Even as a kid it was my favorite Jewish holiday. Of course the obvious choice here would have been Chanukah – presents, latkes, dreidels, chocolate, all the bread you can eat. But somehow I’ve always preferred the other eight-day Jewish festival. Maybe it’s the sweet, sweet charoset. Or the buttered matzah. Or the reclining at the table? I guess for me it always kind of felt like Jewish Thanksgiving except you replace turkey with brisket, cornbread with matzah, football with baseball, and pumpkins with strawberries. Those are pretty much all upgrades in my world. (Except for the cornbread I guess. I mean I do love matzah, but let’s get serious.) Sure, it may seem like a slog through the Haggadah before the meal – but I love the story of Exodus and all the seder plate symbolism. Plus that’s the whole point right? Remembering that “once we were slaves, but now we are free.” Then we eat. (It’s a familiar Jewish holiday pattern.) When I was little, we did seder at my mom’s house for a lot of years, then eventually just did it with our old congregation (before Alison and I joined the one we involved with now). But after Alison got pregnant with Madelyn, I decided it was time for us to start a new tradition. It was time for us to own Passover. Thanksgiving at Mimi’s house. Chanukah at Grandma’s. Passover at our house. That’s how it would work. Luckily, Alison loves me so much, she jumped on board. Plus she makes the best charoset around, a totally mean (and easy thanks to the crock pot) brisket, and amazing matzah ball soup. (Hat tip to my own Grandma’s recipe – the trick is to use seltzer water in case you didn’t know.) So we started the tradition and we’ve kept it alive. Sort of. In 2011 we had our first annual Friedman Family seder in our old condo. In 2013 we were in the process of moving so we had no dining room table and even though we made everything, we had the seder at my mom’s house instead. 2014 marked the birth of our current dining room for our first seder in our new house. And then in 2015 Arielle was born like 3 weeks before Passover started, and I had to travel for work, so we had to forgo having our traditional seder last year. (But Alison threw me an awesome impromptu surprise mini-seder complete with a seder plate of Madelyn’s toy food.) This year though, I was determined to get our tradition back on track. Plus, we now have a total Passover pro in our household this year. Madelyn came home from school one day and recited all four questions flawlessly then explained what all the seder plate foods represent. Jewish preschool for the win. The festivities for us started on Friday night, the first night of Passover, when Madelyn and I watched “The Prince of Egypt” together. I love the music in this movie and also its version of the telling of Exodus. Two years ago we also watched it together, but I don’t know if Madelyn really got what was happening. This time, since she already knew about everything – Pharoah, Miriam, the burning bush, the plagues – she totally followed along. It was really fun to analyze it with her and answer the tough questions like “Did God really talk to Moses?” and “Is it all just magic?” I definitely want to make a yearly tradition out of watching this together, and I can’t wait for Arielle to join the fun. The next day was our seder. While Mimi and Poppa were in New York this year having pizza instead of matzah, we invited Gigi to join us as well as Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Alison, Uncle Michael and Cousin Jordan. A perfect amount at our dining room table! We had all of Madelyn’s Preschool Passover pictures and assorted artwork on display for everyone to admire. I led the Haggadah reading, handing off sections to everyone at the table to get them all involved. Madelyn even asked the four questions herself in English before we all joined her and sang the Hebrew. Arielle and Jordan did their part too, eating charoset, soup, matzah balls, brisket, and everything else in sight. The seder is the peak of my Passover happiness. Food and family. Hungry but humble. A Jewish holiday at its finest. We ended the night with strawberries and Cool Whip and a lovely flourless chocolate cake courtesy of Auntie Alison. (Delicious enough in fact that no one thought to take a picture of it first.) And of course, Maddie found the afikomen since she doesn’t have very worthy competition yet and this garnered her a whole $2.50 – paper money from Gigi and Grandpa and a half-dollar coin from Daddy. Now she’s really rolling in [matzah] dough. She was very happy to get “money” to put in her “purse.” I kept things going for one more day as Maddie and I made matzah brei the following morning. She was so confused about soaking the matzah first, but she liked breaking it up. Girl loves her matzah. Like father like daughter I guess. While we’re sitting at the table eating this Passover breakfast, she turns to me unsolicited and says, “You know what my favorite part of Passover is?” “Matzah?” I said. “Nooo. (Well yes I love matzah too.)” she answered. “What’s your favorite part then?” I asked. I was really curious now. “Family and prayers,” she says. Family and prayers! Are you kidding me? Who is this kid? She’s my daughter of course. I couldn’t agree more, Madelyn. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. April 13, 2016 by Alison Friedman in All In The Family, Amazing Arielle, Another milestone, Judaism Just a little over four years ago, Madelyn had her baby naming at Temple Adat Elohim and it was perfectly planned and timed for an age when we were comfortable with keeping her out and up late. We made the date months in advance, I bought a new dress, and we carefully orchestrated the day around what was to come later that evening. For the second time around in this first of of Jewish lifecycle events, Arielle’s baby naming took place in December. A month before, we realized she was nearing her first birthday and the holidays were about to explode all over the calendar, and we scrambled to get a date that worked for our families. It was so last minute, and while I did get to buy a new dress, it was out of necessity because nothing in my closet was fitting and I was suffering lots of breastfeeding problems that were causing engorgement (enjoy the photos below. Holy boobs). From the minute we arrived, Arielle and Madelyn acted like they owned the place. Is it just me do the photos you deem most important usually come out most awkward? I so wish I could change a million things about this photo, but this was life in that very minute — a teething baby, a distracted Madelyn, an exploding and painful chest… Memories, folks. To say that we threw Arielle’s baby naming together in a huff is an understatement, though our wonderful cantor and dear friend, David Shukiar, walked us through the brief ceremony and picking out her name. And repicking out her name. And picking it out again. You see, selecting a name for Arielle was definitely not a fly-by-night part of the process, which, I suppose, is the actual most important part. We knew for certain we’d be honoring my mom’s dad, Jules, but weren’t sure how to go about doing so. Would we use his actual Hebrew name and call it a day? (We didn’t love it). Would we just use the first initial “J”? (Hard to do, since there’s no “J” in Hebrew). Would we go by the literal meaning and use the name that matches the definition? (Not as easy to match). Just when we’d found a combination with a meaning that worked, we didn’t necessarily like the way it sounded. Well, maybe that was me. Bryan was a lot less picky (shocker), but I was getting hung up on all kinds of little details because pronunciation is important. But with Hebrew, pronunciation can be hard. And I know her Hebrew name is mostly only used for ceremonial purposes; we won’t be calling her down to dinner using her Hebrew name and she won’t be answering to it when she raises her hand in school. Still, though, I wanted it to sound pretty while also maintaining the integrity and memory of her great-grandfather. At the baby naming in December, Bryan and I brought up our darling 9-month-old to the bimah and took turns sharing these words: Generous and with the best smile. That’s how people described my Grandpa, Jules Kaplan, and Arielle Jane’s namesake. He was generous with his heart. His 3 daughters and their families always received such thoughtful gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, Hanukkahs, and other simchas. He was also generous with his wallet, often giving to charities that he felt were important. (When cleaning out his office desk, we had found piles and piles of return address labels and wall calendars and other chazerai from all the philanthropies he gave to). He was always most proud to donate to Jewish organizations and projects that supported Israel. The other remarkable trait that everyone commented on — from his dashing young army days to the end with his family by his side — was his smile. He was a very handsome man, and he always smiled at everyone from strangers to his 3 daughters that made him proud. He always had smiles for Madelyn, who he knew for 20 months. I can even remember my own school friends growing up and hanging out with my family, remarking on my Grandpa’s smile. If you were lucky, you even got a wink. Happy and joy oozed from that smile. Two of many things that made my Grandpa smile: Cheering on his family members as he did when he came to see me in action at a UofA football game; and going to Dodger games with my dad — he loved baseball. While Arielle’s middle name, Jane, is in honor of her great grandfather Jules, we knew that we’d also want to incorporate these two traits of his in giving her her Hebrew name. Semecha is the Hebrew word for Happy or Joyous. It just so happens that Arielle is one happy baby. She hands out smiles like candy and flashes her gums for anyone who catches her eye. She is full of joy, and in return, brings so much joy to us as well. Netanya is the Hebrew word for Gift. The gifts that Alison’s Grandpa gave to everyone through his generosity is also parallel to the gift we have in Arielle. Every day with her feels like a present, and we know she’s special and unique like the best gifts are. Arielle, we wish more than anything that you could have met my Grandpa. I know he would’ve been dazzled by your gorgeous smile with your scrunched up nose and sparkly eyes. I also know he would be proud of the person you will become, gifting people not only with your wonderful presence – the best present – but with your generosity and commitment to do your part to heal the world. We wanted you and waited for you, and in March you arrived, our perfect, little, joyous gift who completes our family. Your two great grandmothers, your four kvelling grandparents, your overjoyed mom and dad, and your partner in crime for life, Madelyn, could not be happier about the gift that you are to us and your community. We love you. After the ceremony, we shared the rest of the Shabbat service and a Hanukkah candle lighting with our family and friends, surrounded by the community we’ve surrounded ourself with at temple. It was so nice to see so many of our friends from preschool, members from various committees we work with, and fellow chairs who are on Board of Directors with me. So thankful for the friends I’ve made through Madelyn’s preschool. Also so thankful for lifelong friends whose special events we share together. And especially thankful for this guy who is a devoted friend and shares his sweet family with us too, while also being a leader without whom we’d be lost. His beautiful voice, his poetic words, and his fountain of knowledge keep us coming back for more. We love our cantor and friend, David! My Grandma and Grandpa created a big, beautiful family, and I’m so glad that my mom and her sisters were there to hear us speak about their dad. It was nice to have most of us together as another feather of remembrance in my Grandpa’s cap. Four generations represented in this photo. My grandpa would’ve liked it a lot. It’s just missing a few cousins and my uncle. Madelyn has asked a lot of questions about her baby naming and is already so interested in and proud about all the holidays and symbols she’s learned by being part of her Jewish community. I’m excited to watch Arielle connect with her version of this community over the years, and she hit the jackpot having her big sister to show her the way. I am so happy & grateful that you carry a part of Grandy with your Hebrew & given name. We will share lots of stories about him with you & you’ll know what a generous person he was. I know if he was still here he’d always flash his handsome smile at the sight of you & your big sister. You are so loved! <3 Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. April 11, 2016 by Alison Friedman in All In The Family, Amazing Arielle, Birthdays, Mommy's Musings, You say its your birthday! What the heck happened to the first year of my baby’s life? It went faster than my legs on their way to lunch at In N Out (that toasted bun, man). I legit could not keep up with all events and milestones and monthiversaries. And the minute I wanted to really slow down and soak it all in, my household was sick with a bug during the days leading up to Arielle’s birthday. It didn’t help, too, that I was stressed out from planning a party while nursing Bryan back to health and crossing every bone in my body that I didn’t get sick, too. I am proud to say that I never did, but Madelyn did get fevers that were more fickle than ping pong balls at a tournament, and finally ended up with an ear infection. So, enjoying those final days with my baby as a baby was pretty difficult. I wallowed, yes, and even though I knew Arielle would never know that her actual first birthday on March 4th pretty much sucked, I was sad that memories of her first days with us were upstaged by thermometers and popsicles being juggled through the house. We did enjoy a “happy birthday” song at preschool after I dropped off Madelyn. Arielle and I sat on the bimah and Madelyn was her spokesperson (business as usual), sharing her name and age with the crowd. Arielle didn’t have a total meltdown during her 15 seconds of fame, so I call that a win. That was the highlight of the day. Shortly after, Madelyn came home from school with a very sudden fever and I yelled a lot of swear words about that. There was no special outing or birthday dinner for Arielle. I don’t think I even had time to get emotional like I normally would because I was so busy Florence Nightingale-ing it up. Maybe that’s a good thing. Thanks, germs, for the distraction. I will share that on her first birthday, Arielle woke up with 2.5 teeth and those teeth are really helping get that food to her belly, because the chunk was finally starting to roll out. Her weigh-in was 19.5 pounds and while she’d once been a petite lil thing, she jumped from 9-month clothes to 12-month clothes almost over night. By 12 months, her crawling was non-stop with no desire to choose to walk instead. Shrug. Whatevs. When Arielle climbs up the stairs on all fours, she swears she’s reached the top of Mt. Everest. Blowing kisses and clapping and waving and giving high-5s were all of her mastered party tricks. She also suddenly became aware of bows and headbands on her head (boooo) and started to show her dissatisfaction with these accessories (Madelyn went through the same thing at the same age and now look at her! Accessory whore! She doesn’t want to take off a tiara to wash her hair). At 12 months, Arielle’s favorite foods are fruits, veggies, grains, dairy, and fats. Yes. The entire pyramid. The girl is a bottomless pit. She just does not stop eating. One day she may become a picky eater because I’ve seen this movie before, but right now, she just loves food. I do too. But the rolls on my thighs are not nearly as cute. I managed to get a few snaps of Arielle on her first birthday. Two days after her birthday, it was party time. Bryan was finally recovered and Madelyn’s fever couldn’t make up its mind about staying or going. She had no other symptoms other than a fever that I would later find out was due to an ear infection. I quarantined her to her room for most of the party just to be on the safe side, and we were all so sad about it. I wanted to celebrate my littlest baby, while wanting to ditch the party to cuddle with my biggest baby who was devastated to be missing out. Thankfully Princeton was like, “I’m fine. You’re welcome.” Arielle loves to jam to music. Since the beginning, her little body has always grooved to any beat she hears, so I thought it was fitting to have a music gal come and do a big toddler music session. Amy Tibert of Rise & Sing put on a great little show and had all the kiddos dancing and playing. And since Arielle is such a bright and cheery presence, I threw together a loose rainbow hearts theme with the decor. It was a fun and crafty party for me to design. Lots of paper decorations and lots of sprinkles! Party recaps are best done through photos, but these parties are always a labor of love and I secretly love-hate these big ones. I love having our family and friends together to celebrate my kiddo, but the work that goes into it makes me a crazy lady. I so appreciate my mom swooping in to lend me a hand when my usual party-planning partner was down for the count the week of the bash. Who needs sleep when you can be making this sign into the wee hours of the night three days before the party? So, I have this thing for banners. And P.S. — note to ovaries: thanks for deciding to get us pregnant in June and giving us a March baby which makes party planning a total nightmare because the battle of Indoor vs. Outdoor is uglier than anything you’d see on Game of Thrones. I was a wreck watching the weather, which, by the way, was gorgeous and perfect and sunny and in the 80s for two weeks before the party and then did the whole “Oh! It’s March! I forgot it’s supposed to be El Niño! Here’s the rain I must deliver!” So, indoor party with children and sugar … I’m such a glutton for punishment. I will say, though, that everything was fabulous, and everyone had a great time especially the little birthday girl herself. The music was so fun for the kiddos as they played with different instruments and puppets and a parachute. Even the big kids were dancing and showing the little ones what to do. Arielle got to sit in the middle of the parachute and she loved the breeze whooshing through her incoming wispy hair as we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. Madelyn observed from the balcony seating aka the stairs outside her room while Poppa and Grandpa took turns keeping her company. Madelyn was fever-free and seemed to brighten up a bit, so she came down to check out the party just as Amy, the music leader gave all the kids a chance to sing “Happy Birthday” solos on the microphone. It was so sweet how a lot of Madelyn’s adorable preschool friends performed for the birthday girl who they all know and adore. I wasn’t sure if Madelyn was feeling the vibe, but she not only asked to sing, she did a rockstar job! Hey, Seacrest. Get back on TV. Dim the lights. We have a new American Idol! Once the music portion of the party was over, it was chow time for most of the guests and I finally got a chance to schmooze with all of our fabulous friends. I love having all my favorite people in our home to celebrate good times. There’s really nothing that makes me happier than fluttering around and visiting with all the wonderful families we’ve met in recent years from preschool and baby groups, or people we’ve known for what seems like forever from college or theater or our expanded family. It was during this portion of the party that I realized all the hard work was worth it. Cousins Arielle and Jordan enjoy lunch with the original Friedman ladies. Meeting new moms with Arielle has been so enjoyable. We have a good little group with cute kids and fun mamas. And then it was cake time. Or, as Arielle might have described it: BORINGZZZZZZZZZ. She was quite underwhelmed. That’s right. Who participated in the most disappointing cake smash ever? Arielle Jane Friedman. Yup. She looked at her cake like, “Oh how nice,” and then couldn’t be bothered to dig in. The girl who shoots up milk like she’s a Breaking Bad character and the girl who can’t. stop. eating. bagels was negative 72 enthused about eating sugary bread with sugar goo and colorful sugared crunchies. So for anyone who considers first birthday cake smashes a spectator sport, this was a disappointing display. Instead, my generous babe dipped her finger into the frosting and tried to feed it to ME. I mean, I didn’t mind, but I was fresh off a Whole30 and didn’t want to steal her spotlight with my own personal adult cake smash. So instead, we looked like a couple on their wedding day, delicately feeding each other cake. Oh and since she hardly touched it, I spent the next three days finishing it myself. (Whole30, what?) She didn’t understand why we light our food on fire. Perhaps it was because I was emotionally unstable and losing my mind while singing my girl “Happy Birthday” with 70 of our closest friends and family that Arielle was silently judging me. Sentimental she was not. Arielle was all business. Fun fact: this is the only photo of the 4 of us from the entire party. After this, we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon. Eventually she got a little more into it once she realized that cake is really delicious. Thank goodness. I was about to start doing DNA tests to make sure she was actually my daughter. Then the bride baby cheated on me and did romantic cake exchanges with Bryan. And that’s that. The infancy stage of motherhood is over. No more babies in this house. To say I was super emotional about that for weeks before her birthday is an understatement. But now that we’ve crossed the other side, it’s fine. She didn’t turn into a toddler overnight. In fact, Arielle is still very much a baby since she isn’t walking and doesn’t have any words for communication yet. She seems to be on her older sister’s heels of developmental milestones, and I’m OK with that. She’s on Arielle time, and for now, it’s still baby o’clock. And as long as she’ll let me, I’ll kiss her and nuzzle her and enjoy her soft skin and clean perfume. A year with Arielle has been a delight and even though she keeps us on our toes with a feisty attitude and a decisive sense of determination, she’s still our silly little cuddle bug who’s brought so much joy to our completed family. Happy first birthday, Arielle. We are all crazy about you. Happy 1st Birthday, adorable Arielle! Not only do I LOVE you, I’m crazy about you too! ? Keep dancing & singing like its 2016! Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. July 2, 2015 Disneyland Party of 4: New & Improved and Now With Pro Tips! I never thought we’d be those crazy people to bring a new baby to Disneyland, but we joined that club. It was a perfect storm that made it almost impossible not to. It was my birthday. We hadn’t been in months due to that whole pregnancy thing. And our annual passes are set to expire in August and it’s unknown if/when we will renew (the answer, I’m sure, is yes). So we just kinda … had to go. Disneyland with Madelyn was a routine that we finessed in the past two years. I’d even done a few trips with Madelyn just by myself with no help. So when it comes to taking a toddler to see The Mouse, it’s a no brainer. But with an almost three-month-old in the mix? We were nervous. We had considered leaving Arielle at home, but with the boob thing and imposing on others to watch her, that was almost impossible. So, we went into it with low to no expectations and figured it would just be a difficult day. Well. I’m glad to say we were wrong! The beautiful thing about taking a new baby to Disneyland is that the baby just sleeps the day away. She had no idea — nor any care! — about where she was, and frankly, that was OK with us. Madelyn still got to enjoy all her usual favorites and we had the bonus of extra storage in the double stroller! Score! (I will mourn the day my kids are out of strollers and we will have to utilize Disney lockers again!) Having Arielle with us just meant that if she was sleeping or couldn’t go on a ride due to size requirements, Bryan and I would split up and one would stay with the baby and one would go with the big kid. We took turns doing just that, and I didn’t even mind the breaks with the baby because sitting and people-watching at Disneyland is almost as fun and entertaining as the attractions. Our favorite ride is Soarin’ Over California at Disney California Adventure and we were so excited that Madelyn was finally tall enough to go! Thank goodness for a couple wisps of hair because she just baaaaaarely made the 40-inch minimum. She went on with Bryan first while I waited with a snoozing Arielle and all I could think about was that Madelyn would lose her mind over going up in the glider — and not in a good way. She doesn’t even love the swings at the park, so motion and a big movie with a total sensory experience seemed like a bad idea, but hey, I was outside relaxing with a baby while watching a family in all matching t-shirts figure out how a Fast Pass works. A Madelyn Meltdown was Bryan’s problem. So, color me wrong when 20 minutes later, a proud Bryan walked behind a galloping Madelyn with the greatest smile on her face. “MOMMY!! WE WENT OVER THE OCEAN AND I SMELLED TREES AND IT WAS LIKE A PLANE WITH NO WINDOWS!!!!!!!!” She loved it. So then I got to take a turn with my girl! It was so much fun to see her reaction a second time around. And I loved it more than I ever had before. Rider switch is so great!! When you get to the cast member at the front, tell him or her that you have a baby that is staying with one parent. That way, when the other parent wants a turn to go on the ride, the other parent doesn’t have to re-wait in line again and they move on to the “on deck” portion of the line (basically, the second parent avoids the zig-zags). This is called Rider Switch or Child Switch — they’ll know what you mean. Since we had Fast Passes for Soarin’ Over California, we really waited no time at all, maybe ten minutes each time. We decided to take advantage of a baby who continued to sleep and eat lunch. As all parents know, the moment you get hot food in front of you, that’s when babies decide to wake up and be needy. Thankfully, Arielle cooperated while we enjoyed lunch right next door to Soarin’. Having an extra adult IS helpful since while Bryan ordered for us, Madelyn and I snagged a table that also accommodated the bus. I mean, double stroller. While we waited, Maddie and I talked about all the things we wanted to do the rest of the day. She’s such a little Disney expert. ‘ Our first ride that included Arielle was The Little Mermaid ride, Madelyn’s all-time favorite. While Arielle stared out into the acid trip that is music, colors, and movement by cartoony mannequins, Madelyn danced and sang along with each part of the ride, narrating to her rookie little sister what was happening. Arielle could not care less. Another day in babyland. When it comes to rides that babies can go on, have one parent handle the big kid and the diaper bag and another parent handle just the baby. On some rides, babies can be worn in a carrier, but I didn’t even whip out my carrier because it was just too hot to wear the baby and she was totally fine laying down in the stroller. It was less stressful to assign this combination between us parents because getting on and off rides can sometimes resemble a gymnastics event, and only having to think about the baby (instead of the baby and the bag and the big kid) was less stressful. We meandered through California Adventure for a few more hours with no agenda whatsoever. It was easy to avoid the area that caters toward older kids and instead, we just found ourself moseying around and enjoying whatever we stumbled upon. Like Vintage Minnie! Madelyn is still a big time Minnie fan, so she was super excited to meet her in this great outfit. Minnie signed Madelyn’s autograph book and then spent some time with Arielle. She played with her toes and gave her lots of kisses. Arielle stared blankly at her, not even fazed by this gigantic mouse with eyelashes in her face. Oh, babies. Then Minnie used her amazing Mouse Sign Language to ask what her name was and when Maddie told her “Arielle,” Minnie, ever so original, proceeded to hold her nose and dive down, as if she were a mermaid swimming in the water. “Oh Minnie,” I told her. “It’s Arielle, not Ariel!” and then she silently giggled and wrote in the air with her gloved hands “R,” “E,” “L” and then I high fived her. Madelyn loved all the attention both she and her sister received from Mrs. Mouse. Maybe it was having her little sis with her for the first time, or maybe she is just growing up, but Madelyn was suddenly eager to go on rides that she used to be afraid of. The sounds and darkness of the Monsters, Inc. ride always frightened Madelyn so I’ve been conditioned to walking right by it. But this time, she saw the big pink door that belongs to Boo and asked to go on. I was shocked. But happy! I love that little ride and it’s one that we can all go on together, so that was a nice bonus. Instead of being scared, Madelyn protected her sister with, “Don’t worry, Arielle! They’re monsters, but they’re not really mean!” Arielle breathed a deep sigh of relief. Or passed gas. Who knows. Around the corner from Monsters, Inc. was the new-ish “Frozen” pavilion that we hadn’t seen. It opened up just around the time I stopped going to Disneyland a few months before Arielle’s arrival. We walked over to see a super short line to meet Olaf. Madelyn is not a typical Frozen Fanatic like a lot of other girls her age. She likes it and all, but doesn’t aspire to be Elsa or Anna, so I even though she didn’t go totally gaga over the friendly snowman, we all figured we would enjoy some warm hugs on a hot day because it was new. And conveniently, the “Frozen” sing along show was next door so we decided to give that a whirl in the name of trying new things. It replaced the Muppet 3D show which I adored because Muppets. I was looking forward to seeing this new “Frozen” show because I assumed it would be stellar and entertaining. Oh, and there was air conditioning. As we waited to go in the actual theater, Arielle fell asleep but then as soon as it was time to go in and get seats, she got hungry. Shows make great places to feed babies since you can multitask; family fun isn’t interrupted and the baby gets to eat. Everyone wins. Bonus points for breastfeeders: dark theaters give you a little privacy and everyone is so focused on the entertainment that nobody is looking at your boobs. Usually, shows are dark and there’s lots of ambient noise, so the baby can go to town without too many distractions and you can also look at something while you’re feeding. The “Frozen” show started and I was quickly underwhelmed. Five minutes in and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. It was a really super loose script that narrated the chunks of the movie during which the screen played the song parts of the film with words to sing along with. The live narrators were fine even though their material was horrible, but the live “Frozen” characters that sporadically came out totally phoned it in. I expected a lot more from Disney on this attraction. It was tossed together and quality was sacrificed, but oh well because “Frozen” lovers will love it anyway. Even Madelyn seemed bored and I thought the best part of the whole show was the indoor air conditioning and the rest that my feet got. We crossed over to Disneyland for some old fashioned Disney fun, and went straight to It’s A Small World. I was curious to see if Arielle would react because the famous Sherman Brothers song is one that always works to get her calm when she’s crying, but as usual, she just looked around and had no idea what all the fuss was about. Our only “Oops” of the day happened as we were exiting the boat. Bryan’s long, lean legs got a little excited and too close to Madelyn’s face, so as he stepped out, his foot made contact with her cheekbone. I saw a bruise already forming so through her screams — oy! the guilt! — we rushed over to the first aid center to get some ice. The deed was done, though, and she endured some swelling and black-and-blue there. The nurses could clearly see the anguish in the poor dad’s face, so they wrote up a coupon for a free ice cream to redeem anywhere in the park by the end of the day. Madelyn cheered up — which was a relief to Bryan — and we were on our way, beat up but not beat down. You know what makes little girls feel better after getting kicked in the head? Princesses. We caught up with the girls at Madelyn’s favorite stop in all of Disneyland. As usual, the line was about 45 minutes, so Bryan stood in line while Madelyn and I walked around with Arielle in the stroller. Want your baby to sleep in the stroller? Both my kids have successfully napped at Disneyland without having to go back to a hotel all thanks to the magical Disney cobblestone. There’s sleep dust in that groundwork. As long as the stroller is moving and going over cobblestone or wooden paths or anything with a bumpety-bump, my kids sleep. I imagine kids who cry in the car won’t have success with this, but kids who go to sleep with motion (mine! yay!) will also conk out in the stroller as long as they’re moving over ground with texture. This is how we got Arielle to sleep the day away and make things easy for us! We stood in front of the castle and I snapped pics of Madelyn with the diamond anniversary decor. We also killed time by walking over to Snow White’s wishing well and we listened to her sing. Finally, we browsed some shops and Madelyn made friends with mannequins as she does when we shop anywhere. Time passed quickly, and then we were ready to see the princesses. When we went in, we knew we’d see Snow White and Cinderella, but there was also a surprise princess. For the first time, Madelyn met Jasmine and she was a little timid as she took her in. By the end of their meet up, though, they were good friends. That must’ve been some magic carpet they were standing on. Ba-dum ch! As dinner time drew close, we were getting hungry. We were unsuccessful landing reservations at our favorite restaurants the day before when I looked online for slots, but we tried to get in on standby at the Thunder Ranch BBQ and we were seated shortly after. This is the best meal and deal at Disneyland! The food is delicious and plentiful! It’s all-you-can-eat BBQ and it’s REALLY yummy! The service is great and there’s usually a little show that the kids enjoy during dinner. For what you get and the quality of food, it’s reasonably priced too (for Disneyland at least) so I highly recommend it, especially to big groups. They also accommodate diet limitations, and since I’m ditching dairy and soy in exchange for a happy breastfed baby (OMG Arielle was a nightmare until I did this), the chef came out to talk to me and shared how I would be accommodated and still enjoy my meal. I was and I did! DISNEYLAND WITH KIDS PRO TIP #5:Since the restaurant is right next door to the Big Thunder Ranch petting farm, while we waited for our table, I took Madelyn to see her goat friends. They’re so cute and well behaved. So many people don’t know about this little petting area. Sometimes Clarabelle the cow and a horse are there, but the goats are almost always out. It’s a great way to let little ones run around in a contained area, especially if another parent and the baby are waiting in line somewhere else and the older kid doesn’t have patience to wait. Keep in touch with the cell phones and voila! Happy children and happy parents! Also, hand washing stations there for the win! Sometimes I go there just to wash hands when I want to avoid crowded, stuffy bathrooms, assuming I don’t have to actually use the potty. It was almost parade time and I heard that the new parade was not to be missed; that it was like the Electrical Parade on crack. So while Bryan and Madelyn set up camp and got a spot on Main Street to wait for the parade, I fed Arielle in the Baby Care Center just off of Main Street. I’d always heard what a haven this place was, and it really was. While I am OK with nursing in public, it was kind of nice to also have a mostly private area and legit chair to sit in and feed the baby. There are outlets in the Baby Care Center. That may mean pumping area to some, or phone charging stations to others. So yes, I fed my baby and fed my phone. It was truly a win-win. Also, a serving of air conditioning. I met some nice moms in there and it became a breastfeeding support group. Disneyland is magical that way. It was kind of funny that we all agreed we were comfortable nursing our babies throughout Disneyland, but that we came solely for the cooling off. Really, though, this place is great and I recommend it since they also have a large baby changing area, tiny potties for older tots, and a kitchenette with a microwave and high chairs. The new parade was awesome, despite being very loud. I would recommend bringing ear plugs or covering a baby’s ears. You can’t really avoid the speakers — they’re everywhere! It’s a super cool parade to watch, but I have major concerns about the damage that the sound is doing to kids’ ears. Other Disney pros told us to stay on Main Street for the new fireworks show that would happen shortly after the parade. But, it was not to be. About 3.75 raindrops fell from the sky and a leaf fluttered once or twice on a nearby tree and it was Storm Watch 2015. The fireworks show was canceled and we were so sad! Madelyn cried. Actually, lots of kids cried. And then we were stuck in a waterfall of angry people who wanted to get out of the park. Once we got out of the crowd, we continued walking around the different lands. Bryan and Madelyn went on Pirates of the Caribbean while a sleeping Arielle and I watched nighttime happen around the park — romantic couples, kids with light up toys, teenagers on the prowl. We explored a few more areas and then at 11 p.m., we redeemed that ice cream voucher at Gibson Girl that we received from the nurses at first aid. If you want a treat before you leave the park — we always do! Holding onto Disney magic in our hearts… and on our thighs — go to the Gibson Girl for fancy ice cream desserts DURING “Fantasmic!” because once it’s over, the rest of the park makes a mad dash to leave and they have the same idea about one last taste of Disney deliciousness. This is good when you have sleepy kids and you just want to get home after your final treat. Madelyn was so, so tired, but she soldiered on to enjoy her strawberry sundae with her Daddy. I scowled at them in my no-dairy bubble and Arielle slept through the whole thing. So, the outcome of taking an almost four-year-old and a three-month-old to Disneyland? Piece of cake. Really. It might be harder later on when Arielle wants to move around more or has opinions to express, but as a blob of a baby — let’s face it, that’s what they are for the first few months — it ended up being a very successful and rewarding day. And yet, I’m excited for this sleepy little baby to wake up a little bit, too, because she will absolutely love Disneyland once she’s old enough to truly enjoy it. Some of Madelyn’s happiest memories in her short little life have been made there. Mine too.	46,725
Each instruction is simple and repeatable. It's important to understand that the instructions work on all similar problems, not just one. Here's an algorithm for sorting any set of numbers, to get them into order. Start with 4,3,5,6,2 for example. The bubble sort algorithm is simple. Compare two numbers. If the first number is higher than the second, switch them. So now it's 3,4,5,6,2. Next step is to compare positions two and three. If the second is higher than the third (it's not) switch them. Repeat for the whole string. Then start over. Do it over and over again until you can go the whole way with no switching. Done. Same trick works for alphabetizing words or sorting kids in order by height. Of course, there are algorithms that are far more complex, far more intuitive or far more useful. Algorithms don't care a bit if you believe in them or not. They either work or they don't. Algorithms in business appear to be magical, because they allow you to be smart about problems you haven't seen before. The 'angry customer' algorithm or the 'promote a book' algorithm don't always work, but they are approaches that work on a huge range of problems. All of which is a long way to wish Charles Darwin a happy birthday. The simple algorithm he described is often misunderstood but is robust and flexible and powerful, and it works for ideas and businesses as well as fruit flies and turtles. Ideas that spread, win. Sometimes ideas get changed in transmission, and sometimes those changed ideas spread even farther and with more impact than the ideas that came before them. In business, if you lock down ideas, make them difficult to change and spread and have impact, you fail. If you accept the fact that change is real, that there is competition for your ideas and that amplifying the good stuff works, you can grow and thrive. Seeing the algorithm in action (which the Net makes easy) helps you understand the notion of failing fast, of exposing ideas to the real world with a posture of perpetual beta. The clothing store Zara doesn't have clothes for a particular season, they launch clothes for a particular fortnight. They watch and measure and adjust and then repeat. Your organization (and your career) either embraces change and turmoil and sudden shifts in the rules or you fear it. In times of rapid change (that would be now), embracing the algorithm of the evolution of ideas and systems is a significant competitive advantage. February 12, 2009 next Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.	2,589
Due to the high levels of salt and sugar in popular snacks, consuming too many can cause obesity if eaten too much. Plenty of people rely on snacks be 16 October 2021 Read more Full view here Due to the high levels of salt and sugar in popular snacks, consuming too many can cause obesity if eaten too much. Plenty of people rely on snacks because they do not have the time to cook their own daily meals. The problem is that it can significantly increase their calorific intake. Obesity has been linked with numerous life threatening and long term health problems. A number of solutions to the problem have been raised including brain training apps but obesity is unlikely to fall any time soon. If people are concerned about the effects snacks have on their bodies there are several things they can do. This includes staying active, monitoring their diet and being aware of ingredients. When people eat so many snac ks that it increases their weight they will likely have to engage in more exercises. Cardio is a good option as it will burn off excess fat. It will also help to minimise the unhealthy effects of a sedentary lifestyle. Sometimes consumers do not realise that they are eating too many snacks. This will eventually become apparent when they develop health conditions or gain too much weight. This can be prevented by simply reducing snack intake. For example, the person could cut down to one packet of crisps per day. Snack packaging contains plenty of information about any unhealthy ingredients or high calories. However, it is often hidden in small print. The consumer needs to carefully check their snack packaging before purchasing it.	1,708
Illinois State Representative Tom Bennett: Changes made to SAFE-T Act, but much more needs to be done By ohtadmin \| on December 02, 2022 One of the top issues facing legislators this fall was what to do about the SAFE-T Act, the controversial criminal justice overhaul which passed last year over the objections of most in law enforcement. The goes into effect on January 1, but public outcry over such issues as the elimination of cash bail caused its proponents to make some changes […] By ohtadmin \| on November 18, 2022 By TOM BENNETT Sunday night I was involved in a car accident on my way home from an event in Iroquois County. I spent some time in the hospital before coming home earlier this week. I am happy to be able to report to you that I am on the mend and am looking forward to getting back to work […] Illinois State Representative Tom Bennett: Democrats continue their hold on Springfield By Andrew Rosten \| on November 10, 2022 While some of Tuesday’s races remain too close to call, enough results have come in to confirm that Democrats will retain their control of state government. Governor JB Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton were re-elected, as were Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Treasurer Mike Frerichs and Comptroller Susana Mendoza. Our new Secretary of State will be Alexi Giannoulias. Democrats also […] Illinois State Representative Tom Bennett: Illinois state report card shows poor results from lockdowns By TOM BENNETT Every year the Illinois State Board of Education releases the state’s report card, an annual report on how well our schools are doing. The report includes information on several topics from graduation rates and class sizes to the results of standardized tests taken by students. This year’s report card revealed some disturbing results about the learning loss that occurred […] Illinois State Representative Tom Bennett: Illinois unemployment now a full percentage point worse than national average By Andrew Rosten \| on October 28, 2022 As the national economy has struggled to recover from the pandemic shutdowns, Illinois has struggled more than the nation as a whole. Other states, including some of our neighbors with better jobs-creation climates, have added jobs at faster rates than Illinois has, and we have continued to lag behind the national recovery as well. According to the recently-released September preliminary jobs […] Consolidation of SAFE-T Act lawsuits requested By [email protected] \| on October 26, 2022 By WILL BRUMLEVE [email protected] KANKAKEE — A lawsuit filed by Ford County’s sheriff and state’s attorney challenging the constitutionality of Illinois’ controversial SAFE-T Act could be consolidated with the dozens of others filed by state’s attorneys across the state. In an email Friday to the Ford County Chronicle, Ford County State’s Attorney Andrew Killian confirmed that he and the other […] Illinois State Representative Tom Bennett: Additional charges filed against former House Speaker Michael Madigan By ohtadmin \| on October 21, 2022 Back in March, former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan was indicted on several federal corruption charges related to a bribery scheme involving the utility giant Commonwealth Edison. A few days ago, more charges were filed against Madigan, this time in connection to a probe involving AT&T. AT&T entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s office. The phone […] By ohtadmin \| on October 14, 2022 The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued its first crop report for the fall 2022 harvest season, and it shows conditions in Illinois to be good overall. The report was compiled statewide, but concentrates mostly on fields which grow corn and soybeans, Illinois’ top two agricultural products. In all, 69% of Illinois’ corn and soybean fields were rated to be in good-to-excellent […] No single source for farm injury, fatality data By ohtadmin \| on October 06, 2022 By TIMOTHY EGGERT FarmWeek Calculating the number of severe injuries and fatalities surrounding agriculture in Illinois is largely yeoman’s work because there is no single government agency report or public database that tracks and compiles the incidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration through its Fatality Analysis Reporting Systems releases annual data on deaths that occur on roadways, and the […] CAPITOL RECAP: Another Democratic senator charged in bribery scheme By ohtadmin \| on September 23, 2022 By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Emil Jones III has been charged in federal court with three criminal counts tied to his dealings with a red light camera company. Jones, a Chicago Democrat, is the son of former Senate President Emil Jones Jr. The younger Jones has served in the Senate since 2009 following his father’s retirement. He […] Category Pages are limited to 90 days. Please use the archive page or the search box to find older articles.	5,139
Quoting this is a blast from your past! I changed from 1/4 cables between my Helix rack and Presonus Studio 192 to SPDIF a few weeks back and my problem is the 2-3 second sound dropout during a two hour period, consistently. The Rack's firmware is 2.21 and the Presonus is the most recent too. Before I take up time writing down all the details, I thought I'd see if any updates solved your problem like L6 suggested it would. Thanks! October 5, 2017 Doug6String replied to AlexKenivel's topic in Helix Hey Alex - thanks! I do a lot of crunch/heavy stuff so it's been fun checking these out and tweaking to my taste! Thanks for putting them out there! Doug September 27, 2017 7 replies This is a pretty great and helpful forum. Doug6String replied to hideout's topic in Helix Funny! I posted similar comments early this am. I have approaching 100 views of a topic on another forum with zero replies and here I got 6 helpful replies in a few hours! Something about this group! September 20, 2017 5 replies Doug6String replied to Doug6String's topic in Helix Ha ha - I have to quote myself because that was a stupid comment! Of course if I take the sound in the MP3 and put it on a disk I'll hear it in a dvd player using a spdif connection! Wanted to correct myself before you all respectfully correct me! September 20, 2017 9 replies Amazing! I debated whether I should waste space writing this, but I am. We all know this is a great forum as others have said it, and it has helped people like me (bought the Helix just this year) get tremendous pleasure out of it. When you post a question, comment, anything here, you get instant feedback, and it's helpful and respectful and even fun. I'm new to the forum thing (yeah, I'm oldish) but I'm a member of a few now and none, really none, are in the league of this one. I won't name names but I posed a question to another forum and here because I wasn't certain where the problem was (which device), and over there, I have 58 views after many days with ZERO responses. Here I have a half dozen thoughtful, helpful replies in less than 12 hours! So to the regulars (we know who you are) and all the others that help, I think we all say thanks and great job! OK - it's midnight on the east coast which means it's time to play guitar! Doug September 20, 2017 1 reply Doug6String replied to Doug6String's topic in Helix Wow - it does sound like a ring modulator! Yes, plugged into the 192. The only other device I have that'll take spdif is an oldish dvd player. I can't hear this sound in that with a movie on, but as I write this, I'm thinking I should take that MP3 I attached and put it on a dvd and play it. I did open a ticket. I like the idea of a reset. I hate to screw with the Helix when every other thing works fantastically well so I'll see what L6 says and save that as a last resort. September 20, 2017 9 replies Doug6String replied to Doug6String's topic in Helix Yup - thanks for the help. I've stooped so low as to read the manual and I did this today! I noticed with my Helix rack, the only clock options are Internal and WordClock. I have the same problem with the 192 as the spdif clock and the Helix using Internal (both are on 44.1 kHz). With the Helix on WordClock there's no sound. I'll see what Line 6 says since I opened a ticket, but, based on your experience, is it worth getting a WordClock cable and trying that? The Helix and 192 both have that connection, although Helix only has "in" so I guess it'd be the slave to the 192. September 20, 2017 9 replies Doug6String replied to Doug6String's topic in Helix spdif noise.mp3 I guess it's good it works for some/most. I'm attaching an MP3. It's a preset with the Essex A30 and one IR. It's pretty obvious. You can hear it in an empty preset but it's much more subtle. With any FXs, it's far worse! September 19, 2017 9 replies Doug6String replied to Doug6String's topic in Helix Iâ€™ve tried many presets with the same result. I have no effects on and just the amp on, or everything incl the amp off and just a delay. In all cases itâ€™s there, only on the right. I even tried two guitars â€“ itâ€™s more noticeable with a single coil vs. Humbucker due to the higher tone, I think. Dist and stereo effects make it more obvious, but itâ€™s there. And I tried an empty preset (great idea) â€“ same issue, still only on the right. Youâ€™re right â€“ very odd that I hear this only on the right side even with everything being mono! I donâ€™t have any other deices â€“ just the two cables to try. Any chance you use spdif? If you do, can you pluck an A note on the B string at the 10th fret? Thatâ€™s where itâ€™s loudest. Seems like a bug. Iâ€™ll try a ticket. As always, thanks for your help! September 19, 2017 9 replies I use two 1/4" cables from my Helix rack to my Presonus Studio 192 audio interface. I decided to use the spdif connection to free up those to inputs and cables. I can hear extra tones (not distortion) on some guitar notes only in the right channel when using spdif on all the presets I tried. I tried two different cables (2 feet and 6 feet) and they do the same thing. I note that the sound is "real" and is recorded to my DAW (Presonus Studio One 3.5). It's definitely not there when using the 1/4" cables. I set the Helix preset output to spdif, and in the Helix settings I selected digital out and spdif. This is not clipping. It's literally extra tones - not super loud but loud enough that when I'm playing alone I hear it. It's there if I use a mono preset (still only on the right) or stereo preset. A friend suggested opening a support ticket, but I thought maybe someone encountered this and knows something I'm missing. Thanks (Win 10, i7-7700, 64 bit, 16 Gb ram, SSD) September 19, 2017 9 replies September 16, 2017 5 replies Native and Mixcraft Workaround for me Doug6String replied to Doug6String's topic in Helix Native Hey - thanks! I didn't see that 1.01 was out. I'll check it out. September 16, 2017 2 replies workaround Ha ha! That makes two of us! September 13, 2017 45 replies Noob questions about IRs Doug6String replied to ronballllllls's topic in Helix I'd suggest you start with the Helix cabs and explore them fully before buying IRs. A lot of forum users love the cabs and I can say that I learned a ton about mics and their placement and the effect on sound using the Helix cabs before switching to IRs. You obviously know very little, if anything (and this should sound condescending) about the Helix or IRs, so why complicate things further by buying IRs you don't actually have a reason to buy yet. Get the Helix and get some understanding of it first and use the cabs. Helix is the greatest musical device I've ever bought (I've been a guitar player for 50 years so I've bought a lot!) and I love it and it's easy to use. BUT - there are so many "knobs" you can turn that it's easy to spend too much time doing that instead of making music. Adding a pack of IRs into that mix raises the number of parameters to an even higher level for a newbie. Of course this is just one more opinion! Congrats on having a Helix on the way! September 5, 2017 5 replies Native and Mixcraft Workaround for me Doug6String posted a topic in Helix Native I run Mixcraft 8 Pro on a PC (Win 10) and have the known issue that when switching presets a few times, Mixcraft crashes. I found that if I have the first setlist that opens in Native be the one I want to work in, AND if I have Native "off" when changing to a diff preset in that setlist, I can't crash it - I tried! Once I change to a diff setlist, it crashes after a very small number of times switching presets even with Native not active. I was skeptical of this, so I've tried it a couple days in a row, and it's consistent for me. September 5, 2017 2 replies workaround Using Helix with Helix Native Doug6String replied to Doug6String's topic in Helix Native Wow - as always, thanks for some great ideas. Seems like just using the Presonus mic/inst/line inputs (there are 8) might be limiting me. I'll give all this a try. Thanks again for taking the time to help! September 2, 2017 10 replies Doug6String replied to JohnnyJ1971's topic in Helix Native I got a rely for my "ticket" on this. Unfortunately all I got was "At this time we don't support Mixcraft." The Mixcrat Forum had some replies saying they believe L6 will address this soon. I hope that's not just wishful thinking. September 2, 2017 8 replies Using Helix with Helix Native Doug6String replied to Doug6String's topic in Helix Native I did a little testing and when plugging into the Helix with an empty preset, then into the Presonus and then the DAW (via PC), there is a tiny audible latency even at 256 buffer size compared to directly plugging my guitar into the Presonus. So that's a reason to stop doing what I am doing (having Helix in the loop).. But I'm still interested in other ideas that could be better. Thanks! September 1, 2017 10 replies Using Helix with Helix Native Doug6String posted a topic in Helix Native I've had the Helix Rack since earlier this year. Just got Native this week. I like plugging my guitar into the Helix using an empty preset, then working in my DAW (Mixcraft 8 Pro) with Native. I use Presonus Studio 192 for my audio interface, not the Helix. I've tried using the Helix as the interface, and I know many of you do that, but there are limitations on that that I don't like. My approach, plugging into my Helix, running that into my audio interface and then to my DAW seems to work OK. But I'm thinking many (most?) of you are much more clever than I and have a better idea. I can also plug directly into the Presonus and that works fine. But I (shock of all shocks!) like the Helix tuner and use that all the time and I also like having the Helix presets there to test ideas out with while also using Native in the DAW. Anybody have a better idea on this? Based on my experience with the Helix and the Forum, I'm figuring I'm missing something worth knowing! Thanks! September 1, 2017 10 replies Is Line 6 the only place to buy Native at the 99.00 price? Doug6String replied to jimbojamz's topic in Helix Yup - bought mine at sweetwater earlier today. I selected Helix Rack owner when buying and paid $99.99. Somewhere in the process it was verified (I assume) that I am a Helix rack owner. No issues downloading it or verifying it on my PC. August 31, 2017 3 replies Doug6String replied to JohnnyJ1971's topic in Helix Native Thanks - just opened my first ticket! August 31, 2017 8 replies Doug6String replied to JohnnyJ1971's topic in Helix Native I've had Helix rack since early this year and it has worked great. Saw a need for Native while recording tonight so got it just an hour or two ago. I use Mixcraft 8 Pro (have used Mixcraft since 5 without issues), Windows 10 (new PC with plenty of power). It crashes so often I don't think I can use it. And it does seem to happen when changing presets, although I can't see a pattern. I was searching for an answer and saw this post! I'm a member of the Mixcraft Forum and will check there later today in case they have an idea. Doug August 31, 2017 8 replies Doug6String replied to BigRalphN's topic in Helix Hi Ralph â€“ Thereâ€™s another thread where someone went into some detail on how he does this you might want to find. Hereâ€™s my experience, which is of course, subjective. I mimic the Mimiq using two different methods. First is the dual amp and path method with a pitch shifter (see the pic). Per a friend of mine from this forum, I pan it R and L at 75 and that works well. The downside to this approach is you run out of DSP fairly quickly. This works best for me if both paths are identical, except one has the pitch effect. Second, I use a dual delay (see the pic). This sounds really similar to the dual path approach, but it is different. The up side is it doesnâ€™t require dual paths so you have a lot more DSP. When it comes to jamming and laying down early tracks (that I prob wonâ€™t keep), these sound great for a big sound. Because of the return policy, I recently decided to buy the Mimiq and see if it was worth having. I wanted to love it â€“ but I sent it back after some experimenting. Iâ€™m sure others will disagree since this is really a matter of taste, but I compared the Mimiq using itâ€™s options to the two methods above by recording the same guitar part in my DAW and comparing the effect. I had a friend weigh in this too without knowing which technique he was hearing. While I would concede the Mimiq is slightly different than the Helix approaches above, itâ€™s not better for my purposes, which is all studio (my house) playing and recording. In my experience (50 years) when recording, nothing beats playing the part or variations of the part on different guitars with different settings and panning them to get that big guitar sound. The Mimiq doesnâ€™t mimc that better than the two approaches I mentioned here. And the best part about using the Helix to mimic the Mimiq is that you donâ€™t need one more pedal and more cables! Let me know what you think! I can also send you these presets if that would help. Doug August 20, 2017 6 replies Doug6String replied to AlexKenivel's topic in Helix Thanks - this is good! It actually has a tone that I use a lot (I write and record - no live band playing), so with a couple minor mods, I'm keeping this. Very nice! I like the "clean" sound and with the Minotaur. I made a minor adjustment in the delay to hear it just a little on the L and R. What intrigues me about trying other's presets, including those I've purchased, which I rarely like or keep, is why they do why they do. Others here are more sophisticated than me and use dual amps like this but I'm still just creating presets using one amp. I got my Helix in March this year, I think, so I'm still figuring out single amp tones with all the other parameters. What's not obvious to me here is what you are trying to do with the 2 EQs, both how you put them in the path and the settings. Would you enlighten me, please? I'm not certain I hear a benefit to them in the tone. The other thing I did was to add 2 more snapshots with two IRs I like (a RW and OH). This preset has a really nice range of tones between the cab and 2 IRs. Not wildly diff, but a nice variety depending on what I'm doing. Again, great preset, and thanks.	15,209
STATEWIDE– Summer is in full swing, with national parks, rodeos, and the water calling your name. Unfortunately, whatever fun adventures you go on this summer, invasive species may hitch a ride, which poses a threat to wildlife and ecosystems throughout the cowboy state. The Wyoming Weed and Pest Council (WWPC) strives to educate recreationists and tourists on how to enjoy hiking, boating, and riding responsibly without spreading invasive species or pests. Luckily, everyone can take a few simple steps to reduce and even stop the spread. “Summer is a fun time in Wyoming, and we want it to stay that way,” said Larry Smith, Wyoming Weed and Pest Council president. “That’s why we’re asking everyone to get involved in reducing invasive species while exploring our great state.” With the warm weather, weeds like to grow and spread as far as possible. These noxious weeds can take over areas of native wildlife and make it hard for anyone to recreate due to pesky thorns or allergies. The spread happens even quicker with more and more people exploring the beautiful habitats of Wyoming. That’s why protecting the wild places everyone loves is essential. Here are six easy ways tourists, recreationists and adventure seekers can keep Wyoming wild and beautiful: Clean footwear, clothes, packs, and pets before and after exploring or hunting Clean horses’ hooves and feed them certified weed-free hay before your adventure Clean, drain, and dry your watercraft and angling gear Clean trailers and recreational vehicles to remove mud, plants, and hidden pests before traveling Buy certified heat-treated firewood where you plan to burn it or gather it on-site when permitted Learn about invasive species in your area and report them if found It’s important to remain vigilant when it comes to fighting invasive species. To learn about invasive species and how to avoid the spread, visit wyoweed.org.	1,901
Review the Resources and reflect on your thinking regarding the role of the nurse in the design and implementation of new healthcare programs. \| Prince Writers How It Works Place Order Your Perfect Assignment is Just a Click Away We Write Custom Academic Papers 100% Original, Plagiarism Free, Customized to your instructions! How It Works Order Now Review the Resources and reflect on your thinking regarding the role of the nurse in the design and implementation of new healthcare programs. Review the Resources and reflect on your thinking regarding the role of the nurse in the design and implementation of new healthcare programs. As their names imply, the honeyguide bird and the honey badger both share an affinity for honey. Honeyguide birds specialize in finding beehives but struggle to access the honey within. Honey badgers are well-equipped to raid beehives but cannot always find them. However, these two honey-loving species have learned to collaborate on an effective means to meet their objectives. The honeyguide bird guides honey badgers to newly discovered hives. Once the honey badger has ransacked the hive, the honey guide bird safely enters to enjoy the leftover honey. Much like honeyguide birds and honey badgers, nurses and health professionals from other specialty areas can—and should—collaborate to design effective programs. Nurses bring specialties to the table that make them natural partners to professionals with different specialties. When nurses take the requisite leadership in becoming involved throughout the healthcare system, these partnerships can better design and deliver highly effective programs that meet objectives. In this Assignment, you will practice this type of leadership by advocating for a healthcare program. Equally as important, you will advocate for a collaborative role of the nurse in the design and implementation of this program. To do this, assume you are preparing to be interviewed by a professional organization/publication regarding your thoughts on the role of the nurse in the design and implementation of new healthcare programs. Review the Resources and reflect on your thinking regarding the role of the nurse in the design and implementation of new healthcare programs. Select a healthcare program within your practice and consider the design and implementation of this program. Reflect on advocacy efforts and the role of the nurse in relation to healthcare program design and implementation. The Assignment: (2–4 pages) In a 2- to 4-page paper, create an interview transcript of your responses to the following interview questions: Tell us about a healthcare program, within your practice. What are the costs and projected outcomes of this program? Who is your target population? What is the role of the nurse in providing input for the design of this healthcare program? Can you provide examples? What is your role as an advocate for your target population for this healthcare program? Do you have input into design decisions? How else do you impact design? What is the role of the nurse in healthcare program implementation? How does this role vary between design and implementation of healthcare programs? Can you provide examples? Who are the members of a healthcare team that you believe are most needed to implement a program? Can you explain why? 1. Professional & Expert Writers: Sight Writers only hires the best. Our writers are specially selected and recruited, after which they undergo further training to perfect their skills for specialization purposes. Moreover, our writers are holders of masters and Ph.D. degrees. They have impressive academic records, besides being native English speakers. 2. Top Quality Papers: Our customers are always guaranteed of papers that exceed their expectations. All our writers have +5 years of experience. This implies that all papers are written by individuals who are experts in their fields. In addition, the quality team reviews all the papers before sending them to the customers. 3. Plagiarism-Free Papers: All papers provided by Sight Writers are written from scratch. Appropriate referencing and citation of key information are followed. Plagiarism checkers are used by the Quality assurance team and our editors just to double-check that there are no instances of plagiarism. 4. Timely Delivery: Time wasted is equivalent to a failed dedication and commitment. Sight Writers is known for timely delivery of any pending customer orders. Customers are well informed of the progress of their papers to ensure they keep track of what the writer is providing before the final draft is sent for grading. 5. Affordable Prices: Our prices are fairly structured to fit in all groups. Any customer willing to place their assignments with us can do so at very affordable prices. 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We adhere to strict standards of editorial integrity to help you make decisions with confidence. Please be aware that some (or all) products and services linked in this article are from our sponsors. The IRS has begun distributing direct payments to families as part of the expanded child tax credit contained in the most recent pandemic aid package — and parents are celebrating in a big way. They blew up TikTok last weekend, as videos on the social media platform using the hashtags #childtaxcredit and #childtaxcredit2021 received millions of views. Families have plenty to be excited about. Households with children under 6 will receive up to $300 per child every month from now until the end of 2021, and those with kids ages 6 to 17 will receive up to $250 for each of their children. And that’s just half the story: Come next year, credit cash not paid out directly can be taken as tax refunds, and put more money into parents' hands. The expansion of the credit is supposed to last only one year, but prominent Democrats — including President Joe Biden — are already talking about keeping it going, maybe indefinitely. Will it happen? Wise up with top stories and timely tips Tuesdays and Thursdays. What people are saying about the child credit payments Lucky Business/Shutterstock In addition to the splash the child tax credit payments have made on TikTok, they’re all over Twitter, too. "The first child tax credit payments went out to 65 million kids yesterday," former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich tweeted on July 16. “It could cut the overall poverty rate by 40 percent. This is a huge deal and it’s not being talked about nearly enough." "The extra child tax credit is awesome," added Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price in a tweet of his own. "I don’t have any kids. But there’s this weird thing where I want the next generation to have it better than we did. Not sure when that became scandalous." It hasn’t all been positive. Many people on Twitter have pointed out that the monthly payments are really just an advance on the credit they normally receive come tax season. "It's okay to say you had no idea you were benefiting before, but the child tax credit isn’t new,” tweeted user Click41607465. “The amount isn't much different, just the payment method." That’s not untrue. The original child credit was packaged as a straight, $2,000 tax credit. The expanded version, which maxes out at a possible $3,600 per child, goes out in halves — half as six monthly direct payments, the other half as a traditional tax credit. Sponsored Simply add Capital One Shopping to your browser, and shop like normal. This free tool does the work for you. Extending the beefed-up child tax credit An active line of discussion around the pumped-up child tax credit is whether it will be made permanent. As laid out in the COVID rescue bill President Biden signed in March, the child credit will revert back to its original form next year. Top Democrats want to make the expansion permanent, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen — and the president himself. “This is a right thing to do, and it's a smart thing to do," Biden said last week. But permanence is far from guaranteed. Democrats recently agreed on a $3.5 trillion budget deal that will include some sort of extension of the expanded child tax credit — though it's not clear for how long. Originally, Biden wanted to see the credit last until 2025. If the new spending deal hits any significant snags, a separate bill focused on making the expanded child tax credit permanent could be spun off from it. But a stand-alone bill might need Republican support in the U.S. Senate, and no Republican voted in favor of the COVID stimulus bill that gave us the one-year expansion. What would a permanent expansion look like? No one knows There’s no telling at this stage how a permanently expanded child tax credit would function. Based on the positive reaction the first direct payments have received, it's safe to assume vote-hungry lawmakers would see some value in the way the credit is currently constructed, with some monthly payments going to families. One theory sees the program being administered by an existing government agency, like the Social Security Administration. “We could have a streamlined spending program that we could commit to in the federal budget, and then families wouldn’t have to do this really complicated dance of figuring out how this affects their overall tax credit,” University of Maryland economist Melissa Kearney told CNBC. Even leading proponents of a permanent child tax credit expansion, like Speaker Pelosi, admit more work needs to be done to build support for the initiative. In order to lengthen the life of the expanded credit, "we need to show that it really is working," Pelosi said during a news conference last week. Get your FREE credit score and see what you can do Sponsored Sign up for Credit Sesame and see everything your credit score can do for you, find the best interest rates, and save more money at every step of the way. Get the most from the current child tax credit A fresh $250 — or more — in the bank can be a pretty sweet thing to wake up to. But to get the most from your child tax credit payments, try combining them with other, proven ways of saving money. If you haven’t refinanced your mortgage in the past year, your family could be missing out on life-altering savings. With interest rates at their current levels, mortgage technology and data provider Black Knight recently said 13.9 million homeowners could save an average $293 a month with a refi. If a refi isn’t for you, your household might reduce the cost of homeownership by finding cheaper home insurance. A little comparison shopping may be all you need to save hundreds of dollars on your coverage. The same strategy can help you save big on car insurance, too. If you’re carrying a lot of high-interest debt, like credit card balances, reducing your monthly interest costs is a way to open up room in your budget. Paying off your balances with a single low-interest debt consolidation loan can help wipe out your debt faster and more cheaply. Never assume that you don't have the means to earn money in the stock market. A popular app helps you invest in a diversified portfolio using just "spare change" left over from everyday purchases. Sponsored What are your spending habits? When you know where your money is going, you can make better financial decisions. With Rocket Money, get a breakdown of your spending to see exactly where your money is going. Manage subscriptions, lower your bills and put your savings on autopilot. Managing money just got easier with the Rocket Money app. About the Author Clayton Jarvis is a mortgage reporter at MoneyWise. Prior to joining the MoneyWise team, Clay wrote for and edited a variety of real estate publications, including Canadian Real Estate Wealth, Real Estate Professional, Mortgage Broker News, Canadian Mortgage Professional, and Mortgage Professional America. What to Read Next A TikToker paid off $17K in debt by cash stuffing This old-school budgeting hack is one of four ways you can weather rapidly rising prices. By MoneyWise Things you should never buy at the grocery store If you are trying to stretch your household budget, look for better deals and savings elsewhere. Many millennials will likely be able to relate to more than one of these issues. 3 tips for selling in a buyer's market Learn how to give yourself an edge in the cooling market. The content provided on MoneyWise is information to help users become financially literate. It is neither tax nor legal advice, is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, either express or implied, with respect to the data provided, the timeliness thereof, the results to be obtained by the use thereof or any other matter.	8,666
Red Bull have decided to take on the giants in the drink market. Pepsi and Coca-Cola, but how does it taste? Read our Red Bull Simply Cola Taste Test to find out. So time to Taste Test a drink for the first time. It’s the Red Bull Simply Cola Taste Test. The reason why I’m testing this one is that it was recently launched on the Swedish market. The Simply Cola was first introduced by Red Bull in 2008 so it has been around for awhile. When introduced Simply Cola was launched in a number of countries including the home of Cola, the United States. But in the US Simply Cola never took off and in 2011 Red Bull stopped selling Simply Cola in the US to focus on other markets. I guess that includes Sweden. I can understand that Red Bull tries to expand beyond the Energy Drink niche that they are in. With the Red Bull Simply Cola they are making some things right. With this product they are going all natural and are marketing the Cola as a more adult and natural alternative to regular Cola. But how does it taste and what does it contain? Packaging and Design I bought the can version. Like the original Red Bull can it is thinner and higher, something many other brands have adapted. The colors is red, blue and silver and it just says Simply Cola. There’s also a Red Bull logo on the can. To me the design is nothing that stands out. It looks ok but nothing more. I’m also guessing that Red Bull have been struggling with the product when it comes to the marketing. In all the marketing material I’ve seen Red Bull have explained what the product is. It’s Red Bull but not an energy drink. I get how they want to use the powerful name of Red Bull and still go natural but it is always bad news when you can’t rely on the consumer to understand the product. There is lots of stuff in a Simply Cola. More than 20 ingredients like lemon, ginger, nutmeg, mustard, cinnamon just to name a few. The sweetener is caramelized sugar which also gives the Cola it’s color. The stuff contains lots of things but nothing bad so nothing to complain about here. Sadly Red Bull Simply Cola falls when it comes to the taste. I didn’t really like the flavor, too herby and spicy. For me there are too many flavors at once. Think herbal tea or something that sort of reminds me of a shot of Fernet Branca. Not terrible but not great either. This might be one of the issues with launching a Cola. We are simply too used to Coca-Cola to be able to appreciate something new. With that said I still like that someone is trying to take on the biggest in the industry. But good effort doesn’t mean I can give it more than 2 out of 5. Bought: Sweden Taste Test at Ateriet is what it sounds like. We test food and drinks from all over the world and rate each product. The result is a grade that rates from 1-5 where 1 is bad and 5 is outstanding. This is also the only category at Ateriet where we might write down a product or brand. For any taste suggestions, opinions or if you have a product you want us to try contact us via email. For all Taste Tests check out the full coverage here.	3,183
Trails across Canada have seen an explosion of use since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and with this, many new trail users have discovered trails and fallen in love with the natural outdoor experience they provide. As we head into winter, trail use and trail designation changes for a variety of very important reasons as described here. For those of us in cold-weather climates with sub-zero winters, snow brings with it a dramatic shift to the landscape for anywhere from 4-6 months of the year. Cold and snow dramatically hide that years growth, creating a fluffy white canvas for the life that will spring forth the following year. Spring, summer and fall trail maintenance is relatively straightforward with tree trimming and control of foliage encroachments on the trail. Most trail systems during these three seasons can be used by all user groups as they wish. Winter changes all of that. Winter requires using specialized trail maintenance equipment every time it snows to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all trail user groups. The challenge is that many groups require very different grooming and trail needs. This is when winter trail use designations come in and adjust how we all use trails for a few months every year. As we embark on what is sure to be another stunning winter season of trail use, this article seeks to explain the various winter trail needs of each user group. If all trail users understand these important details, we can better appreciate winter trail designation and the critical role we all play in being good trail stewards for: the general safety and usability of the trails, maximum user enjoyment of the trails, the volunteers who spend countless hours maintaining trails and repairing compromised winter trails after mis-use. Trail users in this category include walkers, hikers, trail runners, dog walkers, etc. Trail design requirements and trail surface needs are minimal with this user group with the exception of trail runners who generally seek out more adventurous trails, not unlike most mountain bikers. Grades (inclines and declines) are generally kept to a minimum for novice level trails and may increase with more moderate and advanced trails. The major safety requirement for winter users in this group is to have a generally flat and well packed trail to walk or run on where post-holing is kept to a minimum. Winter hiking trail with flat but expected varying surface. Post-holing is described as taking place when a person’s foot breaks through the snowy surface of the trail, creating a hole in the trail surface. For pedestrian users, stepping into these holes can lead to leg injuries or sprained ankles. As described below, these can lead to even more severe injuries for some user groups. With the exception of trails signed for specific use, pedestrians are encouraged to use all trails in winter but if frequent post-holing is taking place, they may consider avoiding the trail until proper grooming has packed the trail surface. XC skiers use trails with specially groomed machine-set tracks to keep their skis running safely and enjoyably down the trail. The primary trail design requirement for XC skiers is that they have winter trails free from disturbed tracks, dirt, stones and branches. For the safety of skiers, this typically means having XC trails free of other user groups entirely. Damaged XC trails often render them unsuitable for skiers until the next snowfall and subsequent grooming. Hikers, snowshoers, fat bikers, dogs and other user groups can unknowingly and very quickly cause vast damage to XC groomed trails, thus resulting in safety issues and making the trail unsuitable for skiers. When XC skiers are descending a trail with speed or coming around a corner, catching a ski on a damaged section of groomed ski trail (or worse, an unexpected post-hole) can lead to serious injury and at the very least, be extremely unpleasant and frustrating for the skier. XC skiers ski on dedicated trails groomed and cared for exclusively by fellow skiers. These trails are generally not for use by other trail user groups. Not unlike skiers, fat bikes require groomed trails to make for an enjoyable trail experience but these trails require different grooming than XC ski trails. The tires on fat bikes are generally 4” or wider and run at very low tire pressures (as low as 1 or 2 psi) so that the tire squishes out and “floats” across the snow without punching deeply through the packed surface. Groomed fat bike trail with smooth, firm packed surface. Ideal fat bike trails are flat, smooth, well packed, free of soft spots, and as described above, without post-holes. Riding over uneven trail that is riddled with holes and boot depressions is similar to driving over gravel road washboard (but without the vehicle suspension). Unexpected soft spots in the trail and uneven surfaces can lead to a frustrating and unenjoyable trail riding experience and in rare cases, injury when fat bikes are travelling at speed. Trails designated for fat biking can take much of the winter to reach maximum ride-ability, but can be quickly undone by those who use them without regard for maintaining trail integrity. Fat bikers can also compromise winter trail integrity by riding with too much air pressure in their tires, which may cause deep ruts or damage trail edges and corners. Unless conditions are exceptionally firm, suggested tire pressure is generally 3-10 psi. Fat bikers primarily ride trails designated for their use only. Occasionally, they share some trail sections with pedestrians, provided the surface has become smooth enough to make for a comfortable ride. In many areas, fat bikes will ride pedestrian-focused trails, regardless if it makes for an enjoyable ride, creating a smoother and more firmly packed trail for everyone. The needs of snowshoers are the least particular of the winter trail user groups described here. The broad surface area of snowshoes permits them to travel well over most winter terrain, from well packed trail to soft fresh snow. Snowshoers are generally free to travel on all trails, including both pedestrian and fat biking designated trails, but should avoid XC trails unless signage indicates otherwise. Snowshoers enjoying the trail. The size, shape and even weight distribution of snowshoes means that they greatly enhance the trails they travel over. For this reason, large dedicated fat bike trail systems often invite snowshoe use all winter season. Winter Trails For Everyone Freshly groomed (or tracked) trails often need a few hours (or overnight) to consolidate and firm up enough to support use. If things feel exceptionally soft, all trail users (except snowshoers) may want to try an alternate route or return when the trail has “set.” Volunteers maintain the grooming and repair of all trails throughout the winter season. They do this to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all trail users. Frequent mis-use and damage of the trails cause frustration and unnecessary repair work for trail volunteers. Appreciating winter trail designation becomes easier to understand when the experience and needs of each user group are clearly defined—both from a safe-use perspective and how everyone chooses to enjoy them. All winter trail users share a common love of being outdoors and enjoying the magic of the season. The mix of deeply inhaling that crisp cool air, working up a sweat in sub-zero temperatures, elevating one’s heart rate, or just casually enjoying a walk—these are at the core of what every winter trail user appreciates. Trail access, construction and maintenance don’t come easily, free, or without a lot of sweat equity by (usually) some very dedicated and selfless volunteers. Add a lot of winter snow into the mix and all of the above is magnified many times. With the information shared here, it is hoped that all trail users will become greater trail stewards and appreciate the work being performed by the volunteers that make our trails so special for everyone. Winter trails are quiet and still in ways that can not be adequately described until you find yourself gazing up at a stand of tall spruce or poplar trees where even a whisper sounds like too much noise. Snow brings a silence and beauty to nature that must be experienced to be fully appreciated. So, don’t let the cold keep you indoors. Get outside and explore. Stay safe, keep our trails safe, respect the designated trail use, and enjoy the beautiful outdoors this winter. Special thanks to the many website articles that were read and researched for this piece, the valuable contributions of the VLR Board, and the many friends of VLR for consulting on this article and/or offering their review including: Kevin Newton (Westman Trails Association), Clayton Swanton (Dauphin’s Northgate Trails), Jeff Hehn (Saskatoon’s Fat Tire Brigade), and Leigh Heigh (Camrose, Alberta). Posted byvalleyliferec6264 November 22, 2021 November 24, 2021 Posted inNews Previous Post Previous post: Next Post Next post:	9,500
Learn more about how The Trust Company of Kansas is responding to concerns about coronavirus (COVID- 19) Click here Learn more about how The Trust Company of Kansas is responding to concerns about coronavirus(COVID-19)Click here The Trust Company of Kansas Staff Directory A Tax Break for the Elderly September 27, 2018 September 7, 2018 Many states offer some tax relief for their elderly citizens. There may be some generosity behind the offer, or it may be part of an attempt to compete with lower-tax states for retiree residents. That competition may heat up now that the state and local tax deduction is limited to $10,000. The tax relief takes different forms around the country: tax credits that phase out at higher income levels; homestead exemptions to lower property taxes; freezes on assessed valuations; or property taxes deferred until death, payable when the home is sold. Deferred property taxes may include interest charges, as seen in a recent Massachusetts case: Frances Arntz filed for property tax deferral on her home in 1989, when she was 76 years old. Her son suspects that she mistook “deferral” for “forgiveness,” and did not understand that the tax eventually would have to be paid, because she had the financial resources to pay the tax. Frances never told anyone what she had done. Frances moved out of the home in 2008, so the deferrals ended. Her son began to rent the home, and he took charge of paying the property tax every year. The tax bills included a notation at the bottom: “Prior tax bills outstanding.” Unfortunately, the son overlooked that warning. When Frances died in 2018, her children expected to inherit the house free and clear, as the mortgage had been paid long ago. Instead, they received a property tax bill from the town for $170,000. Some $50,000 was for the deferred taxes; the rest was interest that had been charged at 8%. About $70,000 of the interest was incurred after 2008, from the time that Frances moved out until she died. The heirs are understandably upset that the town didn’t warn them about the tax time bomb. But the town did follow the letter of the law, and in fact, had that notice on the bottom of every tax bill. The notice just didn’t spell out how big the bomb was, or the interest that was running. Financial discussions between elderly parents and their adult children can be difficult, even emotional. But they are very important to have. We can help with this. At The Trust Company of Kansas, we help people. We promise to minimize the burden of wealth management and bestow the freedom to enjoy everything else. The officers at The Trust Company of Kansas are always willing to discuss your financial goals with you and help you to create a plan that is well-aligned with your wishes. If you have a specific question about wealth management or estate planning, please contact us at (800) 530-5254 or visit tckansas.com/contactus, and one of our Certified Trust and Financial Advisors will be happy to assist you. C.T.F.A., Vice President & Trust Officer My art is emphasizing the importance of family harmony. Most Recent IRA Amendments Recent Posts Weekly Update as of market close December 2, 2022 Weekly Update as of market close November 25, 2022 Weekly Update as of market close November 18, 2022 Weekly Update as of market close November 11, 2022 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 The Trust Company of Kansas Staff Directory Privacy Policy © 2017 The Trust Company of Kansas This is a test to see how this might work. I don't know how much we want to have here. Thanks! The Trust Company of Kansas (TCK), like other businesses, is reacting to the rapidly evolving reality surrounding the COVID-19 global pandemic. TCK falls under the ‘essential business’ definition as a ‘financial institution’ under the stay-at-home orders currently affecting its office locations. TCK will continue to provide services to our clients and the communities we serve. Our offices will remain open as long as allowable under local orders, but the health and safety of our employees and their families is of utmost importance. Many of our employees will be working remotely for the next few weeks, therefore, we ask that you please call the location you wish to visit to make an appointment. All staff will be maintaining regular business hours to the extent possible, and can be reached by email or by phone. Contact information for each office and staff member can be found on our website, under the Staff Directory and Contact tabs. During these times of uncertainty, The Trust Company of Kansas remains dedicated to helping our clients reach their goals.	5,859
Group health plan insurers are paying out $689 million in rebates to plan sponsors this year, as required by the Affordable Care Act’s “medical loss ratio” provision. The provision requires insurance companies that cover individuals and small businesses to spend at least 80% of their premium income on health care claims and quality improvement, leaving the remaining 20% for administration, marketing and profit. The MLR threshold is higher for large group insured plans, which must spend at least 85% of premium dollars on health care and quality improvement. Employers who sponsor health small and large group health plans around the country in the last few months have received notices of rebates from their insurers. For those who have received one for the first time, there’s always a question of what they should do with the surprise funds. MLR rebates are based on a three-year average, meaning that 2020 rebates are calculated using insurers’ financial data in 2017, 2018 and 2019. You received a rebate…now what? Health insurers may pay MLR rebates either in the form of a premium credit (for employers that are still using the insurer) or as a lump-sum payment. More than 90% of group plan rebates come as a lump-sum payment. Once an employer receives this money, it is their responsibility to distribute the rebate to plan beneficiaries appropriately within 90 days, or risk triggering ERISA trust issues. How the employer distributes the check will depend on how much their employees contribute to the plan, if at all. Here are the basic rules for employers handling their MLR rebate checks: If you paid 100% of the premiums, the rebate is not a plan asset and you can retain the entire rebate amount and use it as you wish. If the premiums were paid partly by you and partly by the participants, the percentage of the rebate equal to the percentage of the cost paid by participants must be distributed to the employees. If you have to distribute funds to the plan participants, the Department of Labor provides a few options (if the plan document or policy does not already prescribe how they should be distributed): The funds can be used to reduce your portion of the annual premium for the subsequent policy year for all staff who were covered by all of your group health plans. The funds can be used to reduce your portion of the annual premium for the subsequent policy year for only those workers covered by the group health policy on which the rebate was based. You can provide a cash refund to subscribers who were covered by the group health policy on which the rebate is based. Total premiums paid to an insurance company for a plan with 100 covered employees during 2019 = $2,000,000. Total participant contributions during 2019 = $500,000 (25% of total plan premiums for the year). The employer receives a $30,000 rebate from the carrier in 2020. A total of $7,500 is considered plan assets and must be distributed to the employees (25% of the $30,000). Tax treatment of cash refunds If your employees paid for their share of the health premium with pre-tax earnings, the refund would also have to be taxed. But if they paid for their premiums post-tax, they would not be required to pay taxes on the refund (unless they deducted the premiums on their income tax returns). You must distribute rebates to your staff within 90 days of receiving them. Group Benefits Solutions, Group Health Plans You may also like Narrow Networks, Tiered Plans May Reduce Costs Narrow Networks, Tiered Plans May Reduce Costs Many Injured Workers Feel Unsupported, Frustrated by Claims Process Many Injured Workers Feel Unsupported, Frustrated by Claims Process Would you like to reduce healthcare costs while also providing better benefits, care, and outcomes for employees? Download NextGeneration Healthcare for free now!	3,919
In the mid-1930s, the Ukrainian writer Yurii Lypa compared the Ukrainian nation to an island in his book Pryznachennia Ukrainy (The Destiny of Ukraine): The Ukrainian race is an island among its neighbours, an island with its own life, its own holy things and all-human values. Foreign and imposed spiritual values are worthless, and even non-imposed values are adopted in time, only if they pass the nation’s test… The Ukrainian race is an island, and this is its worth. All the values of humankind are measured against its own values. For Ukrainians, the most important world-view meridian is the one that runs through Ukraine. Now, an important note before we continue. While the term “race” is often connected to notorious legacies—of Nazism, of slavery—Lypa was writing in the legitimate dictionary sense of “a tribe, nation, etc., regarded as of a distinct ethnic stock.” According to Tetiana Podkupko, the usage of “race” was entirely in the spirit of the epoch and was used by many scholars in 1930s. Lypa’s “race” was never limited to a narrow genetic meaning, but rather meant a broad national identity. What makes the Ukrainian nation an “islandish” one, according to Lypa, is a tradition of perceiving itself “from the outside.” Ukrainians draw the borders of their “island” by self-defining where Ukraine starts as a state. On the one hand, this helps them to regard their nation as a wholistic, territorially bound unity. On the other hand, this allows the Ukrainian nation to be quite decentralized and “patchy” within its settlement territory. Drawing a comparison to the real world, Britain provides a suitable example: a single island with numerous interdependent political and ethnic factions living on it—all of these factions can be called British. Lypa admired Great Britain, by the way, and would compare Ukraine to it. Another “islandish” feature of the Ukrainian nation is that its identity can be concealed in the face of danger. Lypa states that even if they are conquered by foreign invaders, Ukrainians keep on maintaining their way of life, continue living on their own “island.” This usually misleads invaders into thinking that the Ukrainians have been assimilated, but they are not. They are always aloof, minding their own business, and their true nature can reveal itself at the proper time. Ukrainians are also very good at what Lypa terms “racial solidarity.” This can be defined as a feeling of national unity and readiness to mobilize around shared objectives. According to Lypa, however, effective mobilizations do not occur as explosions but as a continuity. He warns against explosions, one of which had taken place in 1917 and ended badly. Above all, the feeling of a nation as a balanced and functional organism should be cultivated. Lypa also emphasizes the insular readiness of the Ukrainian nation to engage in external struggles, which include withstanding external pressures. Under pressure, the nation self-organizes and becomes self-sufficient—or, as Lypa puts it, Ukraine approaches its identity median and introduces order into daily life. Self-organization under pressure is crucially important for nation-building, and it makes Ukrainians very productive, deliberate, and efficient. In a word, Lypa regularly portrays Ukrainians in contrast to foreign invaders, who do not understand the insular nature of Ukrainian identity and try to change it, but they fail. He also portrays the nation as a holistic unity which may be eroded on the surface, but always stands rock-solid against all odds—an island. By referring to Ukraine’s island destiny and presenting it as a metaphor to its indigenous identity, Lypa touches upon some very important layers in the collective memory of Ukrainians. In particular, these references evoke the historic images of the island of Khortytsia in the iconic Dnipro River, and the Cossack semi-state of the Zaporozhian Sich that was built upon it. A sovereign fortress on an island in a hostile external environment—it’s the very core of the Ukrainian identity. Now, one may reasonably argue that metaphorical writings from the 1930s are too naïve and have little to do with real-life Ukrainian conditions. But is it really so? Here we have a couple of examples which prove that Lypa might not have been that naïve. In point of fact, the structure and values of the Zaporozhian Sich, as well as its “islandish” modus operandi, have reinstalled themselves in numerous political and cultural landmarks in contemporary Ukraine. Because of their wide-scale social resonance, these reinstallations have led to the construction of what Lypa called the meridian of the Ukrainian nation. Let us, for instance, take the EuroMaidan Revolution of 2013–14. This is how Aleksei Levinson described the protesters’ camp on Independence Square. Please note, this report was made by a Russian scholar—a foreigner who was observing the events “from the “outside”: Prototypes of the form of organization they set up can be found … in the history of Ukraine—specifically, in the organization of Cossack units at the Sech [Ukr: Zaporozhian Sich] and, later, in partisan formations during numerous wars on the territory of Ukraine in the twentieth century. Such forms are still preserved in the collective memory as things that are accepted as natural and reasonable in the given situation. The participants were deployed in squads and platoons representing specialized groups … Eventually, these units were assigned to particular locations on Independence Square (Maidan) and nearby blocks … Among the others who came to stand watch there was also a highly developed organization in action. Hundreds of people took upon themselves the logistical functions of supplying the Maidan with essential provisions, equipment, and food. The Maidan had a kind of distinct economy of its own. This quote by Levinson prompts us to make a few deductions. First, the camp on Independence Square was clearly a reminiscence of the Zaporozhian Sich. The camp resembled the fortress on the island of “freedom” that struggles to survive in a hostile external environment. The latter poses an existential threat to the core values of the fortress. Second, the camp was constructed and maintained by Ukrainians who self-mobilized around shared objectives. Here is a fine example of Lypa’s “racial solidarity”: a social explosion under pressure that leads to immediate forms of productive coexistence. Third, the shared objectives and sense of purpose of the people on the square materialized regardless of the prevailing expectations. Against the forces of Ukrainian President Yanukovych and his Russian backer, President Putin—which should be regarded as foreign invaders—who did not foresee any wide-scale protest to take place, the “insular” identity of the Ukrainian nation revealed itself. Demonstrating their dissent, the people proved that the countless Russian imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet denationalization programs had failed, in the same way that Lypa had argued they would. Fourth, the camp on the Maidan had its own specific values, structures, and modus of existence. It was a state within a state, which perceived the outside world through the lens of its survival interests. Here you may recall Lypa’s statement that the values of humankind are measured by national criteria. Or that the only meridian which matters to Ukrainians is the one which runs through Ukraine. Finally, the EuroMaidan experience refined the Ukrainian national and civic identity. A new generation of citizens and leaders was born on Independence Square. Moreover, a fundamental reassessment of national priorities and objectives took place—in particular, a re-evaluation of Russia’s role in Ukrainian political life. Again, this is what Lypa wrote about: national refinement under pressure. Actually, this was not only the camp during the EuroMaidan Revolution that resembled the Cossack Sich. If we look at all three major Ukrainian revolutions—in 1990, 2003–04, and 2013–14—they invariably included “identity fortresses” constructed on “islands of freedom” (usually Independence Square, or the Maidan, at the centre of Kyiv). The events which took place within the “walls” of these “fortresses,” and especially their outcomes, were groundbreaking for Ukraine’s nation building process. In the aftermath of the revolutions, the events spilled over into greater Ukraine and led to reboots of the state system. These revolutions surely varied in effectiveness and continuity, but they always took place. Today, the dynamic and bright cultural phenomena that we can observe in contemporary Ukraine also reflect an “islandish” identity and “fortress” values. In cinema, for instance, a major box office success in the history of Ukrainian cinematography is the film Cyborgs: Heroes Never Die. It’s about a group of highly motivated soldiers from different backgrounds who defend Donetsk Airport from Russian attacks, and their dramatic experiences. Another promising film, still in production, is Cherkasy, about sailors whose minesweeper was blockaded in Donuzlav Bay during the Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but the crew nevertheless heroically tries to break through into the open sea. Or the historical fantasy Storozhova Zastava (Stronghold), about a garrison’s guard outpost that helps to protect the lands of Rus’ from Cuman raids (Polovtsians). In all these films, as well as in numerous others, we clearly see the same leitmotif: a comparatively small group finds itself in a very hostile environment and struggles to achieve its survival objectives. On the way to achieving their objectives, the people withstand enormous external pressures and confirm the rightfulness of their values. They also discover new forms of cooperation and become more productive, purposeful, and efficient. This is exactly what Lypa wrote about, quite prophetically indeed! Therefore, regardless of its metaphoric nature, the perception of the Ukrainian nation as an “island” and Ukrainian identity as a “fortress” can be quite productive. This perception may not wholly explain all political and social situations, but it is still worthy of consideration and needs deeper study. The results of my research on Ukrainian national identity are presented in my book Ukraine and Russian Neo-Imperialism: The Divergent Break https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498558631/Ukraine-and-Russian-Neo-Imperialism-The-Divergent-Break I will also have the opportunity to engage in deeper research as a John Kolasky Research Fellow at CIUS this year. ===== Ostap Kushnir is an assistant professor at Lazarski University in Warsaw. He holds an MA in Journalism from Odesa Mechnikov National University, an MA in International Relations from the University of Wales, and a PhD from Nicolaus Copernicus University (Toruń, Poland). His academic interests include geopolitical and boundary-forming processes in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically in the Black Sea region. Dr. Kushnir is the author of the book Ukraine and Russian Neo-Imperialism: The Divergent Break (2018). He is also a member of the editorial board of the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (Czechia). Ukrainian identity Ostap Kushnir is an assistant professor at Lazarski University in Warsaw. He holds an MA in Journalism from Odesa Mechnikov National University, an MA in International Relations from the University of Wales, and a PhD from Nicolaus Copernicus University (Toruń, Poland). His academic interests include geopolitical and boundary-forming processes in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically in the Black Sea region. Dr. Kushnir is the author of the book Ukraine and Russian Neo-Imperialism: The Divergent Break (2018). He is also a member of the editorial board of the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (Czechia). Next Explaining the “Westsplainers”: Can a Western scholar be an authority on Central and Eastern Europe? July 19, 2022 Seven Truths of Russian Neo-imperialism: Unceasing Expansion March 11, 2022 “One cannot understand Russia by reason…”: what about Ukraine…? April 7, 2021 February 16, 2021 December 5, 2020 Resolution of the Donbas war: Is it time for Zelenskyi to announce “Plan B”? October 19, 2020 Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. We are on social media Forum for Ukrainian Studies is a research publication for experts, practitioners, and academics to discuss, explore, reflect upon, develop, and transform international understanding about contemporary affairs in Ukraine. This online, open-access platform was created and is run by a team in the Contemporary Ukraine Studies Program at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.	13,466
For this year’s New Year’s resolutions, focus on overall health and wellness, making yourself a priority. Here are nine ways to practice self-care for a better you. The pandemic has taken a toll on our mental and emotional health, our stress levels, and our self-love. By focusing on self-care this year, you can build your physical and mental strength. Practice these self-care tips throughout the year to build your self-esteem and confidence. The trick about self-care is that it’s all about practice. When was the last time you made yourself a priority? It can often feel like there are more important things to think about or do. But it’s equally important to take time for yourself—take a breath and focus inward. Self-care is the effort of putting yourself first. We hope these self-care suggestions give you a daily dose of happiness and peace. 9 Ways to Practice Self-Care for a Better You Focus on getting enough sleep. Sleep can have a huge effect on your emotional and physical state. Consider your nightly routine and ways to improve. Try to avoid caffeine and sugar before bed. Make sure your bedroom is dark—blackout shades are life changing! Stay away from your computer, phone, and tablet before bed. The stress of being an adult, especially during a global pandemic, can sometimes mean it’s harder to self-soothe compared to when we were children. Find ways to relax and decompress. Listen to music, read a book, or meditate. Above all, establish a sleep schedule. Go to bed the same time every night and wake up the same time every morning. This steady routine will help you stick to the schedule and get plenty of rest. Eat healthy and get into a self-care eating routine. Eating healthy can boost your energy level, improve your physical health, and enhance your overall happiness as a result. Try to eat healthy meals regularly. Create a schedule and eat meals at the same time each day. Avoid eating or snacking after 7pm because your body is less likely to break down and process the food. Take care of yourself by taking care of your food health. Say yes to fun activities weekly without the guilt. Put yourself first and do things that make you happy every week. Avoid guilt-tripping yourself like, “I should be working” or “I could be cleaning.” Push aside those negative thoughts and make yourself a priority. Do things that you love like reading, bicycling, watching your favorite movie, eating dessert in bed, tuning in to a virtual concert on your laptop. Set aside time to have fun! Make a list of fun to-dos each month. If you love lists and checking boxes, this self-care practice is for you! Journal a list of activities you want to do each month. By listing them out, you’ll be more likely to do them. Cross them off or check the box every time you finish one. Create a list of activities big and small. For example, here is a possible list for February: eat a piece of chocolate cake, join a virtual fun run, have a friend over for socially-distant catch up, watch a favorite movie, sleep in on Saturdays, knit a scarf. Don’t make a crazy list you can’t finish. Instead, try listing activities that are simple, easy, and fun. When you look at the completed list, you’ll feel good knowing you devoted time to self-care. Make time for self-care trips. Take a self-care trip every now and then to disconnect and rejuvenate. Whether you go on a big bucket list trip or a mini road trip, a self-care vacation can make a big difference in your mental health and wellness. Schedule weekends when you can get away. Just make sure to check that the locations you want to visit are open. Unwind by visiting a beach or find peace in nature by hiking in a state park. Even taking a trip to another local town helps you escape your regular routine. Boost your health and happiness with some dedicated self-care time. Show up for others to build a healthy community. An important part of self-care is providing support to others. If you want positive, healthy support from others, you also need to reciprocate. Healthy relationships are two-way. By giving and receiving, you will build a healthy community of friends and family who care. They will show up for you when you need them. Self-care isn’t about isolating yourself. It’s about giving time to yourself as well as spending time with others who build your confidence, self-esteem, and healthy mindset. You will also feel good when you provide support to someone else. Doing something kind for someone else is a great way to provide support. Surprise a friend or romantic partner with a thoughtful gift, such as the Book of Us®. This custom book about love is full of kind, sentimental messages that will make your loved ones feel special and valued. Create a hygge space in your home that’s just for you. Design a corner or small spot in your home that has all your favorite things. Create your space with “hygge” in mind. If you haven’t come across the hygge trend yet, “hygge” is a Danish word—without a direct translation—that generally means a feeling of cozy contentment and enjoying the simple things. Embrace hygge by designing a spot in your home with warm blankets, a good book, candles, hot chocolate, fuzzy socks, twinkling lights, pictures of friends and family, and self-care products like nail polish, face masks, and body lotion. This inviting space will encourage you to relax and enjoy a few self-care hours in cozy happiness. Discover a creative activity you love that also helps release emotions. Self-expressive activities focus your mind, pushing out negative or persistent thoughts. They also help manage stress. If you are looking for a creative outlet, you can paint, draw, crochet, craft, write poetry, or take up an instrument. Express yourself creatively to work out problems, cope with stress, and embrace the beauty all around you. Schedule an appointment with a counselor. Counselors can help teach mindfulness and self-talk techniques for making a better you. Therapy isn’t just for those who are experiencing extreme anxiety or depression. Therapy is for everyone, to help establish a positive state of mind and to handle day-to-day frustrations—or the enormity of a pandemic—a little lighter. Speaking with a counselor is self-care for your mind and emotions. Consider therapy to build an even greater love for yourself and those around you. Related Posts 7 Ways to Pamper Yourself in January Ways to Destress at Home During the Holidays 9 Ways to Practice Self-Care for a Better You For this year’s New Year’s resolutions, focus on overall health and wellness, making yourself a priority. Here are nine ways to practice self-care for a better you. By focusing on self-care this year, you will become stronger physically and mentally. Build your self-esteem and confidence with these self-care tips you can practice throughout the year. The trick about self-care is that it’s all about practice. It requires focus and effort. You may find yourself falling into familiar patterns, focusing on tasks and responsibilities. But it’s equally important to make time for yourself. Self-care is the effort of putting yourself first. This year it’s all about you! We hope these self-care suggestions give you a daily dose of happiness and peace. 9 Ways to Practice Self-Care for a Better You 1. Focus on getting enough sleep. Sleep can have a huge effect on your emotional and physical state. Consider your nightly routine and ways to improve. Try to avoid caffeine and sugar before bed. Make sure your bedroom is dark—blackout shades are life changing! Stay away from your computer, phone, and tablet before bed. The stress of being an adult can sometimes mean it’s harder to self-soothe compared to when we were children. Find ways to relax and decompress. Listen to music, read a book, or meditate. Above all, establish a sleep schedule. Go to bed the same time every night and wake up the same time every morning. This steady routine will help you stick to the schedule and get plenty of rest. 2. Eat healthy and get into a self-care eating routine. Eating healthy can boost your energy level, improve your physical health, and enhance your overall happiness as a result. Try to eat healthy meals regularly. Create a schedule and eat meals at the same time each day. Avoid eating or snacking after 7pm because your body is less likely to break down and process the food. Take care of yourself by taking care of your food health. 3. Say yes to fun activities weekly without the guilt. Put yourself first and do things that make you happy every week. Avoid guilt-tripping yourself like, “I should be working” or “I could be cleaning.” Push aside those negative thoughts and make yourself a priority. Do things that you love—either alone or with friends—like reading, bicycling, watching your favorite movie, eating dessert at a café, visiting a museum or the zoo. Set aside time to have fun! If you love lists and checking boxes, this self-care practice is for you! Journal a list of activities you want to do each month. By listing them out, you’ll be more likely to do them. Cross them off or check the box every time you finish one. Create a list of activities big and small. For example, here is a possible list for February: eat a piece of chocolate cake, join a fun run, host a Galentine’s Day party, watch a favorite movie, sleep in on Saturdays, knit a scarf. Don’t make a crazy list you can’t finish. Instead, try listing activities that are simple, easy, and fun. When you look at the completed list, you’ll feel good knowing you devoted time to self-care. 5. Make time for self-care trips. Take a self-care trip every now and then to disconnect and rejuvenate. Whether you go on a big bucket list trip or a mini road trip, a self-care vacation can make a big difference in your mental health and wellness. Schedule weekends when you can get away. Nature and beach trips are perfect for unwinding. City trips introduce new cultures and amazing sights. Even a trip to another local town helps you escape your regular routine. Boost your health and happiness with some dedicated self-care time. 6. Show up for others to build a healthy community. An important part of self-care is providing support to others. If you want positive, healthy support from others, you also need to reciprocate. Healthy relationships are two-way. By giving and receiving, you will build a healthy community of friends and family who care. They will show up for you when you need them. Self-care isn’t about isolating yourself. It’s about giving time to yourself as well as spending time with others who build your confidence, self-esteem, and healthy mindset. You will also feel good when you provide support to someone else. Doing something kind for someone else is a great way to provide support. Surprise a friend or romantic partner with a thoughtful gift, such as the Book of Us™. This custom book about love is full of kind, sentimental messages that will make your loved ones feel special and valued. 7. Create a hygge space in your home that’s just for you. Design a corner or small spot in your home that has all your favorite things. Create your space with “hygge” in mind. If you haven’t come across the hygge trend yet, “hygge” is a Danish word—without a direct translation—that generally means a feeling of cozy contentment and enjoying the simple things. Embrace hygge by designing a spot in your home with warm blankets, a good book, candles, hot chocolate, fuzzy socks, twinkling lights, pictures of friends and family, and self-care products like nail polish, face masks, and body lotion. This inviting space will encourage you to relax and enjoy a few self-care hours in cozy happiness. Discover a creative activity you love that also helps release emotions. Self-expressive activities focus your mind, pushing out negative or persistent thoughts. They also help manage stress. If you are looking for a creative outlet, you can paint, draw, crochet, craft, write poetry, or take up an instrument. Express yourself through creativity to work out problems, cope with stress, and embrace the beauty all around you. 9. Schedule an appointment with a counselor. Counselors can help teach mindfulness and self-talk techniques for making a better you. Therapy isn’t just for those who are experiencing extreme anxiety or depression. Therapy is for everyone, to help establish a positive state of mind and to handle day-to-day frustrations a little lighter. Speaking with a counselor is self-care for your mind and emotions. Consider therapy to build an even greater love for yourself and those around you.	13,100

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