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Extremists using video-game chats to spread hate
Campaigners say including extremist narratives among everyday conversations can be a pathway to radicalisation.
"Once you're in that world, then the radicalisation starts to happen," Joe Mulhall, of anti-fascist organisation Hope Not Hate, said."That's when you start to go to other meetings, to smaller groups that aren't necessarily playing games, talking about politics more explicitly."
In response, Telegram told BBC News it used a "combination of proactive monitoring of public spaces and user reports" to remove content breaching its terms of service.DLive and Odysee have not responded to BBC News's requests for comment.
Their policies cite zero tolerance against hate and violent extremism and both say they are proactive at removing any content violating guidelines.image captionExtreme view were slipped into chats on DLive and OdyseeCall of Duty said: "The actions we have taken to confront racist behaviour include banning players for racist and hate-oriented names, implementing new technology and making it easier for players to report offensive in-game behaviour." headtopics.com
But the researchers also found extremist "roleplay" scenarios within games on various platforms that let players create and share their own custom maps and environments.These included Nazi concentration camps and a Uyghur detainment camp in games such as Roblox and Minecraft.
One Roblox driving game invited players to "become a racist" and simulate the murder of people belonging to ethnic minorities by running them over in a car.image captionA user-generated game in Roblox let players run over non-white characters
"These are small and not played by a huge amount of people but what they do is allow extremists to create role-playing experiences... to live out radicalised fantasies online," Jacob Davey, from the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, said.Roblox said: "We work relentlessly to ensure our platform remains a safe and civil space, and with a combination of machine learning and a team of over 2,000 moderators, we monitor for safety 24-7 to detect and swiftly act on any inappropriate content or behaviour."
Minecraft said: "Terrorist or violent extremist content is strictly forbidden by our community standards and we take action to remove such content if it appears on our systems."But extremists may have turned to gaming spaces after the social-media giants increased enforcement of their rules, according to the researchers. headtopics.com
Mr Davey said: "The extreme right-wing have potentially found safe harbours to broadcast their ideology or to engage in more traditional propagandising - the sorts of things that they would have done a few years ago on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
"Online gaming basically forms a means for people to connect over a shared hobby online, and this includes extremists."It's a way for them to connect with like-minded individuals, to socialise and ultimately form firmer social bonds, which can be really important in terms of advancing and furthering extremist movements globally."
Mr Mulhall said: "You sit at home after school and play games, so the gaming element can create a sense that it's normal, not extremist, not dangerous."The Royal United Services Institute is part of a team of counter-extremism experts launching a large-scale investigation into online gaming.
The defence think tank' s Dr Jessica White said: "The online and chat space where moderation tends to be poor is being increasingly encroached upon by extremists but we need to get widespread evidence of its scale."Protecting playersThe government is also in talks with industry bodies to discuss steps to tackle the exploitation of gaming spaces by extremists. headtopics.com
A representative of Ukie, the UK's gaming trade body, said: "We use sophisticated AI [artificial-intelligence] moderation tools and trained community managers to build safe spaces."We also work closely with government and law enforcement to further protect players.
"We know the challenges we face are shared by other forms of digital entertainment and we continue to adopt a positive and proactive approach to protecting players." Read more: BBC News (UK) »
Chris Packham: Fire attack on New Forest home will not sway me
The broadcaster vows to continue campaigning after a suspected arson attack outside his home.
That’s what this thing is for! Well i can tell you elite dangerous have just had to ban a group of racist player, who set up a slavery system, stranding new players in the middle of nowhere forcing them into slavery, and was using racist language and harassment on discord. They call themselves a cult 'extremists'
Grow up I’m sorry but I don’t know anyone that uses Telegram for gaming chats 😂 It’s either all in house on PlayStation or Xbox services or Discord Correct me if I’m wrong as I might just be old, people? I've been online gaming since the 90's. This has always been a thing. (The pain) BREAKING NEWS When i saw what happened in kabul airport. I pick up my pen and i started to write a long paper. Then i stopped and i cut that paper. And i wrote this, in a simple words: (Biden is killing america
This is not news lmao This falls into the same category as all the other gibberish people talk on headsets while playing video games. Trying to hold a serious conversation while concentrating on not dying or scoring a goal is more tricky than it looks. News from circa 2002. They know just idiots play game! They have trageted correctly !
Woman, 26, dies after illegal butt lift as mum and daughter charged with murderVideo footage allegedly shows the pair injecting the woman with liquid silicone, a medically unsafe substance often used to seal windows and in construction, in California, US 'butt lift'? What is that?
RMcElhenney Life imitating art ala Mythic quest ? Never Is it not time to just accept we all hate each other? Or your comments sections... Wait til they hear Call of Duty lobbies Extremists, eh? Have you seen the profiles of the bad guys on a lot of the games? Arabs, brown people and chinese. No shit sherlock
In fairness all video game chats involve people shouting ‘kill that f**ker!’ Tends to happen when playing COD😂 You’re right, edgy 13 year olds are spreading extremist propaganda through COD lobbies and trolling of course. bbc is sleeping, they just woke after 20 years
Trainee cop 'hid in wardrobe to watch colleague have sex after Instagram chat'The trainee officer was alleged to be part of an Instagram group chat with other students which made jokes about rape.
Lads, be in any lobby of any game of the last 20 years to hear nothing but hate 🤞🤞 Been happening in the states for years, the liberal left extremist like antifa terrorists use it to recruit young American teens No, it’s just call a COD lobby. Then what happened?
British Rail logo designer appalled by green makeover ‘mess’Gerry Barney says updated branding, to be used by Great British Railways, uses too many colours So my friends challenged me to try cross fit after they saw my videos on different competitions. I headed to their call and it was an awesome experience. Support me by watching and then subscribing redefine What British Rail? Looks ugly to be honest.
Fox blasted for comparing unvaxxed Strictly stars to 'HIV positive dancers'No, HIV cannot be spread by dancing.
Alabama cops investigating possible sightings of Brian LaundrieAlabama cops have said that investigations into multiple possible sightings of Brian Laundrie have not yielded any leads about his whereabouts as rumors spread.
Prince Philip ‘hated’ being filmed for BBC royal documentary now locked awayPRINCE PHILIP 'hated' being filmed for a BBC royal documentary that was branded an 'awful mistake' and has since been locked away in the archives, according to an unearthed account.


When thirsty, nothing tastes better than an ice-cold Pepsi or Coca-Cola – or so we’re told. Both carbonated soft drinks were created in the late 19th century (Coca-Cola in 1886, followed by Pepsi in 1898), meaning they’ve been around longer than we – and our parents – have. Despite more than a century of somewhat similar branding and marketing successes and missteps (clear Crystal Pepsi or Coca-Cola’s Tab Clear, anyone?) and a more or less comparable list of main ingredients – including the possible cancer-causing aspartame – blind taste tests show that consumers can tell the two apart. So, are these American beverage behemoths more alike or different?
Here are three arguments showing that there is a distinct difference between Pepsi and Coca-Cola and three more suggesting otherwise.
There are distinct differences
In flavor and popularity
Pepsi and Coca-Cola are set apart by both flavor and international popularity. In a marketing campaign that has come to define the 1980s, Pepsi introduced a taste test called the Pepsi Challenge in 1975. This got Americans to focus on and acknowledge that Pepsi has a distinctly sweeter taste than Coca-Cola – a taste that Americans preferred back then; its sales jumped in stores nationwide, surpassing Coca-Cola sales. To regain its market share, Coca-Cola tried to literally sweeten the competition, transforming its product into New Coke. While this sweeter version failed, it made the company return to its roots, rebranding itself as Coca-Cola Classic and pushing its popular Diet Coke, to great success. In 2020, Forbes’ list of the world’s most popular brands ranked Coca-Cola as the world’s sixth most popular brand whereas Pepsi is ranked #36 on the same list. However, while Coca-Cola may be bigger internationally, Pepsi is more popular in the US.
In long-term branding and growth
Amid growing nationwide awareness of wellness and nutrition, including the government’s attempts at passing a soda tax, Americans are drinking less soda than ever before. This trend may grow now, given the WHO‘s findings that aspartame, found in Diet Coke, may be a carcinogen. Long before the WHO’s announcement, both Pepsi and Coca-Cola had been embarking on different paths to remain relevant and competitive in the long term. Coca-Cola has been transitioning into a “total beverage company,” partnering over the last few years with various brands of bottled waters, teas, premium milk and even canned alcoholic drinks in Japan. Meanwhile, Pepsi has jumped on the nutrition bandwagon, ditching aspartame from its diet beverages back in 2015 and later expanding its portfolio of snack foods to include “guilt-free products” that contain grains, fruits, vegetables or protein as well as healthy drinks. (That being said, it also introduced a limited edition Pepsi Apple Pie flavor.)
In target audience and marketing
Over the decades, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have targeted different consumer demographics. Pepsi has historically succeeded in targeting younger consumers. (This is despite Pepsi’s 2017 advertisement fiasco with Kendall Jenner attempting but failing to engage Millennials by promoting social responsibility.) Pepsi introduced “the Pepsi Generation” in the 1960s, marketing itself to the younger, hipper, more daring teen and pre-teen segment, relying on celebrities to show how youthful and energizing the beverage is. (It also appealed to younger consumers by being cheaper than its rival.)
In contrast, Coca-Cola has always represented itself as classic Americana, endearing itself to older, more traditional consumers, playing to their emotions, and promoting a reliable drink that goes well with any kind of food or company. Its most memorable embodiment of comradery, unity and diversity was Coca-Cola’s iconic 1970s advertisement that showed people singing about harmony on a hilltop. Fast forward through the decades, and its 2014 Super Bowl commercial again promoted diversity.
There Are No Differences between Pepsi and Coca-Cola
Both created by pharmacists
Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola were created by pharmacists. Coca-Cola inventor John Stith Pemberton had been a chemist and druggist before serving in the Civil War. Pain from war injuries led to a morphine addiction, which was later replaced by cocaine, which inspired Pemberton to concoct a beverage containing coca leaves and kola nuts, called French Wine Cola. In 1886, he replaced the wine with sugar syrup, and, voila, Coca-Cola. Cocaine was removed from the formula in 1929.
As for Pepsi, Caleb Bradham was a part-time pharmacist while in medical school. After dropping out and becoming a full-time pharmacist, he developed Pepsi in 1893 in his own drug store. Known back then as Brad’s Drink, it contained water, sugar, caramel, nutmeg, and lemon oil, among other natural additives, and was sold as an energy booster and digestive aid. Despite this marketing gimmick and its 1898 trademarked name Pepsi, the enzyme, pepsin, which helps digest the proteins in food, was never an ingredient in Pepsi.
Imprinted on the brain
The makers of both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have succeeded in convincing us that their brand names are more influential than their actual flavors. Research shows that our brains apparently have little taste preference between Coca-Cola and Pepsi – but prefer both name brands over a generic brand of cola. Brain scans of study participants revealed that compared to generic cola brands, those who thought they were trying Pepsi or Coca-Cola, had more neural activity in the left ventral striatum, which is the part of the brain that is activated when reward is received or expected. This effect was found even though all the samples consisted of the same beverage.
Surrounded by the same controversy
The companies behind Pepsi and Coca-Cola have been surrounded by the same controversy regarding reported attempts to undermine the health of American consumers. From 2011 to 2015, they both gave millions of dollars to 96 national health organizations to develop relationships that would have positive associations for their brands. However, at the same time, they both spent millions more lobbying against legislative efforts to combat obesity in America, according to a study by Boston University researchers that was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. During the five-year study, the companies reportedly lobbied against at least 28 public health bills aimed at reducing soda consumption.
The Bottom Line: Despite having distinct differences in flavor, target audience and branding ventures, both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have similar histories, consumer sway and power to influence societal norms. Do you have a personal preference?


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The overall objective of the PAPBio Comoé project is to promote endogenous, sustainable and inclusive economic development around the biodiversity area of Mont Tingi on the outskirts of the Comoé National Park located in northern Côte d'Ivoire. Three main results must be achieved by the project:
- Stakeholders trained and involved in a regional dialogue allowing for concerted management of natural resources (elaboration of the Regional Land Use and Development Plan for the Tchologo region)
- The villages targeted by the project are officially demarcated and have Local Development Plans which integrate the challenges of preserving natural resources and have financing plans
- The production capacities and valorization of natural resources by the populations are improved, in particular by the realization of productive investments carried out and managed in an inclusive and transparent way in the sectors of agriculture, livestock and ecotourism
For the position of Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, your mission will be to develop and coordinate the monitoring and evaluation system of the project which will mainly concern the communities living near the Mt-Tingui Bio-Diversity Zone in collaboration with the Project Manager and in good understanding with your other collaborators and to participate fully in the reporting of activities with donors and technical and financial partners.
>> Download the complete job offer here
For the position of Animator of Agricultural and Local Development, you will be responsible for the preparation, implementation and monitoring of the various activities dedicated to the agricultural and local development of the project which will mainly concern the communities bordering the Mt-Tingui Bio-Diversity Zone.

domain: agronomy


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the boy and i drove to utah friday night and saturday morning. there’s just nothing like seeing the wasatch mountains fill the horizon after driving through nevada and the salt flats. i feel a feeling of home in a lot of different places, but never quite in the same way i do in northern utah. filling my lungs up with my mountain air has been incredibly refreshing and rejuvenating and revitalizing.
we went straight to the boy’s dad’s-side family reunion at vivian park up provo canyon and have been staying since at my parents’ in park city, strolling up mountain trails sprayed with wildflowers and eating meals on the deck and talking under the stars.
on monday after lunch with my all-time best friend eating my all-time favourite meal, i drove up to alta with my dear julie for a hike to the albion basin and cecret lake. it was spectacular.
there’s just nothing like utah home.

domain: travel


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Mother of Pearl silk print top Size 10UK
Floral and bold monochrome stripe silk short sleeve top with invisible zip at back
Measures 58cm/23" from neck to hem at back
CONDITION: AS NEW - worn once
STYLE WITH: Classic black, ivory, grey or red tailored trousers, black or white denim jeans, and soft, flowing palazzo pants in the summer. Perfect under a blazer or with a toning chunk knit cardigan.
ORIGINAL PRICE: £425

domain: design


The federal government reports that seat belt use in the United States has reached its highest level since regular national surveys began in 1994. How much of a difference does seat belt use matter? Keep reading to find out.
The latest data comes from a study by the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It shows that daytime belt use reached 90.1 percent, up from 88.5 percent, in 2015. Even with higher use, NHTSA notes that nearly half (48 percent) of people killed in crashes in 2015 were not wearing their belts. When used properly, lap/shoulder belts reduce the risk of death to front-seat passenger or car occupants by 45 percent. And belts reduce the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent.
Seat belts saved nearly 14,000 lives during 2015 and an estimated 375,000 lives since 1975. NHTSA credits state legislators for enacting strong laws, and the nation’s police officers for strong enforcement of those laws.


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Illayaraja sends notice to SPB for singing his songs
Chennai: March 20, 2017, DHNS 1:01 IST
Balasubrahmanyam, who has rendered many hits composed by Illayaraja over the past some decades, said he cannot now perform the maestro's compositions following the legal notice. DH File photo
Composer Illayaraja served a legal notice on his long term friend and playback singer SP Balasubramanyam for rendering his songs in a concert in the US recently without his consent.
Shocked by the notice, SPB said on Sunday that he would not render the songs in future. The incident has revealed strains in one of film industry’s long cherished friendship.
s voice to thousands of film songs composed by Illayaraja for the past 40 years. The duo have been working together since the late 1970s.
"In any stage in future, I will never sing any of his songs", the playback singer said in his social media while responding to the legal notice from Ilayaraja.
Pointing out that his son S P Charan organised several music concerts across the globe as part of his 50 years in cinema, Balasubramanyam said: we have been performing at Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and USA."
"I wonder why problems arise only when we stage a show in USA", he said, appealing to all music-lovers not to make an issue out of this.
DH News Service

domain: news


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Stockholm, Malmö move to close municipal gyms and pools
Published fredag 20 november kl 14.44
Sweden's first and third-largest cities are closing public swimming pools, gyms and museums to the general public as well as limiting the number of visitors to local libraries to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, already closed its pools and gyms at the end of October.
Stockholm will also ban visits to elderly care home for one week starting Monday.

domain: sociology


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Grand Canyon National Park announces bus schedule changes
Jul 16, 2021, 4:05 AM
(Facebook Photo/Grand Canyon National Park)
PHOENIX– Those traveling to Grand Canyon National Park starting on Saturday should expect changes to typical shuttle bus operations.
All buses and shuttle operations are still altered in order to meet COVID-19 guidelines, but routes such as the Village, Hermits Rest, Kaibab Rim and Tusayan are all affected by the update, officials said in a press release Wednesday.
The Village route will run from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m. while the Hermits Rest and Kaibab Rim routes will operate from 5 a.m. until one hour after sunset.
Other updates include that the Tusayan route will not operate during 2021 and the Kaibab Rim route will run to all locations, officials said in the release.
Passengers can expect reduced capacity and required face coverings in compliance with COVID-19 regulations.
For more information regarding changes to routes not mentioned, and to keep up to date on all shuttle information, visit nps.gov.


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Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan“In Games Without Rules, Tamim Ansary has written the most engaging, accessible and insightful history of Afghanistan. With gifted prose and revealing details, Ansary gives us the oft-neglected Afghan perspective of the wars, foreign meddling and palace intrigue that has defined the past few centuries between the Indus and Oxus. This brilliant book should be required reading for anyone involved in the current war there -- and anyone who wants to understand why Afghanistan will not be at peace anytime soon."
“A breezy, accessible overview of centuries of messy Afghan history, including the present military quagmire . As a native of Kabul, Ansary lends precious insight into the makeup of the typical Afghan village, with its tidy, self-sufficient, patriarchal hierarchy and need to keep the nomads at bay Lively instruction on how Afghanistan has coped, and continues to cope, with being a strategic flash point.”
Christian Science Monitor“Games without Rules" explains longstanding problems and internal difficulties encountered in efforts toward nation-building in Afghanistan and shows how great power politics (and invasion) have been stalling the process for the past two centuries.”
San Jose Mercury News"Despite extensive reporting on the war in Afghanistan, San Francisco journalist and author Ansary thinks there's still a great deal of misunderstanding about the reasons for the conflict. In this history, he focuses on key developments that shaped current events."
Middle East Journal
“Ansary sheds light on over two centuries of Afghan history, giving an account of the historical struggles undertaken by a fractious people across a landscape of rugged steppes and unforgiving deserts . [He] argues that the fatal error of unsuccessful modern invaders lies in their inability to recognize the internal struggles of those with whom they intervened.”
Booklist“Ansary tells the history of modern Afghanistan with a master storyteller’s confidence this is a nuanced, sophisticated historical narrative that strives to tell Afghan history from an Afghan perspective The author’s love for his native land and his optimism for its future shine through.”
Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
“Ansary, an Afghan-born US citizen offers an illuminating history of the country, providing not only a chronology but a deep cultural analysis that allows outsiders a comprehensive picture of Afghan mores and practices. This insider's perspective fills large gaps in contemporary outsiders' understandings of why these powers have failed and hopefully points the way towards forms of international cooperation that will work for Afghanistan rather than against it. Ansary has a gift for using informal language to illustrate his points in a way that doesn't compromise the legitimacy of his narrative. His ability to contextualize the history and situate it in culture, as well as to remind readers of when to keep track of important figures (sometimes for decades) is refreshing. Ansary has produced an invaluable resource to those curious about this tumultuous region.”
Geographical Magazine“As an Afghan-American, Tamim Ansary is well placed to present the Western reader with a penetrating view of his complex and often baffling native land. With the 2014 draw-down of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan approaching a better-late-than-never understanding of how the country works and its history is crucial if we’re to avoid the mistakes of the past.”
New Statesman“(Ansary’s) is an authentically Afghan voice, offering not an authoritative account of the ebb and flow of foreign entanglement in Afghanistan but a personal account of how an intelligent Afghan observer sees the course of events from the outside.”
Irish Times“Ansary has that rare gift of being able to blend an academic’s knowledge with the skill of a natural storyteller. He if Afghanistan-born, and although he left when he was just 16, in 1964, he has clearly spent a lifetime collecting stories, which he has edited masterfully, knowing exactly when to move away from the major events and focus on the tiny details that give you a sense of what life must have been like for the country’s many poor villagers, who often had no idea what was happening in their capital city. Refreshingly he keeps his focus on Afghans, with the foreigners appearing for brief periods, usually offering little and understanding less. I was gripped as I read the first 200 pages of GAMES WITHOUT RULES
The author brilliantly describes the personalities of these men and the conflict, conceit or foreign intervention that brought them to power.”

domain: library


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Sana Kakar, 18, is striving to change the way children and adolescents think and behave, for a better tomorrow.
Kabul, Afghanistan, 15 November 2018 – It is lunch time during an adolescent photography workshop in Bamyan province. I am about to finish my Afghan Kabab and Kaabeli Palawo (special rice dish) when I notice a young girl rehearsing lines for her next performance of the famous BBC radio programme, ‘Stories of Life’, where she takes on the educator “The Parrot”.
I strike up a conversation with the girl, Sana, asking her about her role as The Parrot, and how she came to be on Stories of Life.
“My mother has been involved in radio for as long as I remember,” Sana said. “I was 6 years old when playing roles on radio soap operas and programmes became a passion. “I would follow along, holding on to the hem of my mother’s dress as she rehearsed her lines, and I would repeat those lines after her like a typical parrot. I guess that is how I started my first lines for radio programmes and the concept of a parrot.”
It has been tough for Sana growing up in an environment with so little to offer girls and women–to advance in life, build careers, make a name or become agents of change. “I have been lucky because my mother was my inspiration,” Sana said. “She broke the taboos that existed in my extended family, where for a woman to perform on radio shows and play various roles was out of the question.
“My mother didn’t give up and continued to follow her passion and today has become a successful voice on the radio, and a role model for many women in my family,” Sana said.
Sana is excited as she starts to talk about her role as The Parrot.
“The reason I love my role is that I was also deprived of information and knowledge that would have helped me, although I had my mother who was a medical student and would tell me and my siblings about issues that can transform our lives,” Sana said. “But think of millions of children around the country who may not have such a mother, thus making it imperative for The Parrot to tell such things to the children.”
The programme talks about issues such as children’s rights, hygiene, healthy food, time for play and time for studies, respect for parents, and the importance of a safe and protected childhood.
“It is so strange when I hear my own voice on radio while commuting home or to the office. Once, when my programme was on the radio, an old cab driver asked if I would mind him listening to it. His grandchildren were huge fans of The Parrot and when he hears it he feels he is with his grandchildren,” Sana said. “I was about to tell him that I was The Parrot, but I decided not to. I did not know if I could trust him.”
Sana is also creating paintings of the issues that are close to her heart. She paints a girl going to school in a wheel chair, and a young girl with long hair by the window of her house, yearning to go out like the boys and live her life.
“I will continue to play my role as The Parrot, and also as a painter. With these two avenues I can change the lives of many children in Afghanistan, especially girls,” she said.


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Draco Fong, our audit and assurance partner at Mazars in Hong Kong was interviewed by ACCA Accounting and Business magazine and shared valuable insights regarding his track to partnership and advises towards young accountants about their career path in the accountancy industry.
He agrees that mentoring can help people understand more about industry norms, and provide them with valuable comments & industry experience, which helps their personal development.
In addition, he advises young accountants to be willing to listen and understand different points of view, to embrace new things & be prepared to take on challenges. It is important to be constantly learning, and to keep up to date with the frequent changes in accounting, auditing and other standards and regulations.
Click here to read the full article.
Credits: Accounting and Business magazine, 21st July 2021

domain: finance


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Angels lose Guerrero for a month with torn pectoral
Posted Apr 19 2009 11:01pm
A line-up that was already offensively challeneged received more bad news Friday when the Los Angeles Angels said the will be without bopper Vladmir Guerrero for a month or more with torn pectoral muscle, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Obviously, short of Vlad needing surgery, this is a big blow," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "We'll see how he progresses. Some of the windows we've been given [for how long he'll be out] are optimistic; some are longer. But we're going to be conservative. He'll be reevaluated in a month, and we'll see where he is."
According to the Times, Guerrero suffered the injury while throwing from right field to third base in an April 2 exhibition in Dodger Stadium and was relegated to designated hitter for the first eight games. He had an MRI test Thursday in Seattle. The initial diagnosis was a strain.
But Guerrero returned to Southern California to be examined Friday by Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels' team physician, who reviewed the MRI results and deemed the injury more serious.


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Newsweek is set to publish a book titled “A book that explains the Internet,” according to the publisher.
The book, entitled “Internet: A Book About the Internet” by David S. Pizarro and Matthew T. Walsch, will hit shelves July 26, and the title is being written by the authors, who have previously published “An Insider’s Guide to the Internet: A Memoir.”
The book is the third book in the “Internet” series.
Pizzarro is a former editor at Time magazine and author of “The Web: Inside the Next Big Thing.”
Walscher is a tech journalist at Business Insider and former editor of “Digital Trends.”
They both also wrote books about technology, including “I Am The Internet,” “The Internet: Why It Matters” and “The World’s Most Memorable Internet Moments.”
The title of the book is “The Book That explains the Web.”
Newsweek says it plans to “release more books, as the Internet continues to evolve, and it’s a pleasure to be able to contribute to the continuing exploration of this extraordinary new phenomenon.”


Samsung is working on an in-house optimised version of a 64-bit mobile processor and the tame Apple press is screaming that it is cheating.
Cnet thundered that Samsung was just copying Apple by moving to 64-bit. After all it is completely illogical for a company to move with the technology trends.
“Apple drew plenty of oohs and aahs when it revealed the first 64-bit chip for smartphones in September. That Apple A7 processor is also an ARM-based design that has been optimized and tweaked by Apple. It is now shipping in the iPhone 5S and iPad Air,” advertised Cnet.
So imagine Cnet’s anger when Stephen Woo, president of System at Samsung Electronics, told a presentation at Samsung’s Analyst Day in Seoul, South Korea that it was adopting a two step approach to adopting 64-bit.
It was using a design from ARM, then, developing its own “optimised” 64-bit design. Which is probably not copying Apple, just following a logical method of adopting ARM 64-bit in the shortest possible time.
Woo said that there is considerable demand for 64 bit based mobile gear and it was pressing ahead with its roadmap.
The whole concept that Apple invented 64-bit first is naïve to say the least. PCs progressively moved to 64-bit and there is pressure to have mobile with the same amount of power. For the mobile revolution to work, 64-bit is an obvious no brainer, particularly if you want PC performance from smaller toys.
Central to mobile development is the ability to address larger memory sticks, something that 32-bit chips can’t do. True, Apple was one of the first off the boat to realise this, but hell following the logical technology progression is hardly copying Jobs’ Mob. Sheesh.


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This past week Reggie had a bump on his lower eye lid removed which meant he had to wear the cone of shame for 10 days until the stitches dissolved. The first day was rough- he banged into just about everything. But dogs are resilient and he found his way, or rather banging into things just became the norm.
However, by day six things seemed to shift. He seemed cranky. He was snappish. He growled at me when I asked him to move. He snapped at a friend who was playing catch with him. He growled at me again when I was petting him. Reggie is a curler, meaning he likes to sleep curled up rather than flat on his side. With the cone, sleeping curled up in his bed wasn’t possible. He slept in my bed flat on his side.
Was Reggie having a bad day on day six? Is that possible for dogs? It certainly seems plausible. Reggie wasn’t comfortable and wasn’t getting restful or an appropriate amount of sleep. Science and biology would dictate that sleep is important and not getting enough can adversely affect one’s health.
The dog brain, structurally, is almost exactly the same as the human brain. Parts of the brain like the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, thalamus, hypothalamus, and pituitary glands are all areas we have in common. The depths of emotion that a dog can feel we explored a little (Does my dog love me?). But what about things like self-awareness, discomfort, headaches, and perception of pain?
Dogs obviously can’t tell us how they feel, and there are even some sound theories that dogs are quite good at concealing their discomfort or pain. From an evolutionary standpoint this makes sense; if a dog appears weak or injured they would be more susceptible to a predator, as prey.
I once again refer to the dog brain research in Dog Sense. I cannot say it any differently so,
…most emotions appear to arise in parts of the midbrain, which is connected to the spinal cord through the hindbrain and, in mammals, is almost completely encased inside the much larger forebrain, the “thinking” part of the brain. Two structures in the midbrain that are key to the generation of many emotions are the hypothalamus and the amygdalae, but these structures are also engaged in other functions, such as hunger, thirst, the sleep-wake cycle, and learning. (162)
The amygdalae is responsible for forming and retrieving memories of frightening events, and also generating the response to them. The hypothalamus is responsible for relaying information back and forth from the brain to hormone producing areas like the adrenal glands, which would release adrenaline in a fight-or-flight fear response. Sleep, or rather the lack of, depletes your serotonin levels. Serotonin is the happy hormone. And exercise releases endorphins- we’ve all heard that before right? Same for dogs- same part of the mammal brain. Exercise makes you happy (sorry it’s true). Take your dog for a walk!
What is the point in all of this scientific babble? While the human brain is more complex than the dog brain, with around 20 billion neurons in the cerebral cortex of the human brain and 160 million in the dog brain (300 million for cats, you cat lovers), the function and structure is essentially the same. This means that the information processing, reactions, and emotions are the same as ours- albeit less sophisticated. So it is reasonable to assume that the neurological connections, emotional and biological responses, and hormonal reactions are the same as ours- again to the degree of complexity of the development of the dog cerebral cortex.
So was Reggie experiencing…frustration? As a mammal with a disturbed sleep-wake cycle, a lack of adequate water intake, and restricted levels of physical activity he would have had reduced levels of serotonin and endorphins, and higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. So one can deduce that, yes, Reggie was cranky.
In other words, dogs can have bad days.

domain: psychology


This helicopter is powered by a single turbo shaft engine produced for the civil market. It is targeted to favor lower running costs of a single-engine aircraft over redundancy of a twin. It has a wide-body fuselage, sufficient seating capacity in the cabin and allows for two litters and medical attendants to be carried in the medevac role, whereas most similar-sized helicopters can only carry one. The actual cabin volume is approximately 30% greater than other helicopters in its class.
Foresee Aviation – Luxury business & Private jet aircraft charter


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Hortifrut, VBM to merge
Hortifrut S.A., one of the partner/owners of Naturipe Farms LLC and the leading berry grower/exporter in Chile and South America, and Vital Berry Marketing (VBM) S.A., the second largest berry grower/exporter, have announced a merger... more »
Vilsack appoints USHBC members
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently appointed seven members and their alternates to the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council. Appointees will serve a three-year term of office beginning Jan. 1.Members include producers Mark D. Hurst of Sheridan,... more »
Group asks for input about Spotted Wing Drosophila
The Northeast IPM Spotted Wing Drosophila Working Group (headed up by Greg Loeb at Cornell Univ.), is gathering information on the level crop damage that occurred on grower farms in the Northeastern U.S.Please take five... more »
EPA extends Guthion usage for a year
EPA recently decided to allow growers to use their existing stocks of azinphos-methyl (AZM) for another year. The new deadline is Sept. 30, 2013. The deadline cancelling the distribution or sale of AZM, however, was... more »
SWD guidelines for management and control in berry production
The 2012 fruit growing season is nearing conclusion almost a month ahead of previous years due to unusual climatic conditions that prevailed for most of the growing season. In addition to the problems created by... more »
Can pilfering PYO pickers be pinched?
Who hasn’t seen someone “sample” the fruit in a pick-your-own stand, or seen kids walk out from the strawberry patch with as many berries on them as they have in the bucket? In some cases,... more »
Is traceability ready to go in 2012?
In the wake of recalls and other safety concerns regarding fresh produce in recent years, the produce industry has felt a push from both consumers and the federal government for case-level traceability. One result was... more »
New storage and packing facility opens markets
North Bay Produce Inc., a grower-owned fresh produce marketing and distribution cooperative based in Traverse City, Mich., recently opened a new 36,000-square-foot cold storage and packing facility at the Mid America Airport in Mascoutah, Ill.... more »


Two CEOs of Indian affialiates of US multinationals- PepsiCo India President Manu Anand and Walmart India head Raj Jain - quit in quick succession. Raj Jain, who headed Walmart's joint venture with the Bharti Group for six years, leaves at a time the retail giant is facing allegations of lobbying, violation of FDI norms and protests by political parties over its India entry.
The Supreme Court has dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a probe against Ranbaxy Labor-atories for allegedly manufacturing and selling substandard medicines. The SC bench said that it could not decide the plea against the company on the basis of a judgment passed by a US court against Ranbaxy.
- Mobile internet rates are falling, and how. A host of companies, including Vodafone, Airtel, Idea Cellular and Tata Docomo have rushed to offer substantial discounts on current rates.
- After a premature announcement earlier, the consortium of ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd has finally announced the signing of agreements with Videocon Mauritius Energy Ltd to acquire 100 per cent shares in Videocon Mozambique Rovuma Ltd for $2.475 billion. This company in turn holds a 10 per cent share in the Rovuma block, which lies off the coast of Mozambique. The area has the potential to become one of the world's largest natural gas producing hubs with first deliveries of liquefied natural gas expected in 2018.
Tech Mahindra has completed the merger of its unit Satyam Computer Services with itself, making it the country's No. 5 Indian IT services provider. The new merged entity has revenues of $2.7 billion and a team of 84,000 professionals servicing 540 customers across 46 countries. Part of the $16 billion Anand Mahindra-led Mahindra Group, Tech Mahindra bought Satyam in a government-backed auction in 2009 after the founder of the Hyderabad-based company admitted to one of India's biggest accounting frauds.
India has retained its position as the world's third most attractive destination for investment by transnational corporations (TNCs) during 2013/15, according to a survey by UNCTAD. Based on responses of 159 companies, India was ranked after China and the U.S. Australia, Russia and the U.K. slipped down the rankings from last year's survey.
Russia, the world's largest energy producer, and China, the world's largest energy consumer, have signed one of the biggest deals in the history of the oil industry. The $270-billion deal, signed by Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corp, will ensure Russian oil supply to its eastern neighbour for 25 years.
The banking counter is buzzing with activity. While a host of giants, including the Tata Group and the Birla Group, have lined up for the new bank licences, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd, the non-banking financial company of the Mahindra group, has decided not to apply for a bank licence. Its reasoning: the criteria set by the RBI for getting licences were disadvantageous for large, successful NBFCs like itself, favouring smaller ones instead.
India's current account deficit may widen because of money outflows, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said. The current account deficit (CAD) in the fourth quarter of 2012/13 was 3.6 per cent of the gross domestic product, lower than market expectations which had forecast 4.4 per cent. The finance ministry is set to review financial and operational performance of about 70 schemes, including mid-day meal, bank recapitalization and rural employment guarantee schemes. The reivew is being done for fiscal 2014 and the medium-term expenditure statement will be tabled in the monsoon session.
The government has allowed Reliance Industries to surrender its special economic zone in Haryana. Interestingly, the company has sought a seventh extension of in-principle approval for setting up of a multi-product SEZ at Raigad in Maharashtra.1.5%
Growth of India's steel production in May this year as compared to the global growth rate of 2.6 per cent. During January-May, India's steel output grew at 3 per cent to 33.5 million tonnes, well above the world average rate of 2.1 per cent to 658 million tonnes.Rs 6,370 cr
Domestic pharma sales in May, registering a growth of 6.8 per cent. For the 12-month period ended May 2013, the pharma market stood at Rs 74,117 crore, a growth of 10 per cent over the same period last year. The anti-infectives market stood at Rs 915 crore, cardiac at Rs 775 crore, gastro-intestinal at Rs 737 crore, pain/analgesics at Rs 520 crore and vitamins at Rs 514 crore.MARKETS
The Reserve Bank of India has said developers building low-cost or affordable houses can avail foreign currency loans on softer terms than other builders. Developers with three years of experience can raise money through external commercial borrowings, as compared to the earlier norm of five years of construction experience. Low-cost housing involves units priced below Rs 30 lakh each.
Ford India has set a new benchmark in the compact sports utility vehicles market. Its latest entrant EcoSport comes with a starting price of Rs 5.59 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The pricing will give stiff competition to Renault's Duster and Maruti's Ertiga and Mahindra's Quanto.COMING UP
India could lift foreign direct investment caps on various sectors by the third week of July, finance minister P. Chidambaram said. The Arvind Mayaram panel has suggested raising the FDI cap in multi-brand retailing to 74 per cent, in defence production to 49 per cent and in telecom to 100 per cent.
Gold imports are expected to more than halve to about 150 tonnes in the coming July-September quarter, against the projected 350 tonnes in the current quarter, due to sluggish demand, according to the Bombay Bullion Association.


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Gianfranco ROSI (1964) was born in Eritrea and has lived in Istanbul, Los Angeles and Rome. He studied at New York University Film School and lives and works in Manhattan as a filmmaker, cinematographer, screenwriter and producer. His films have been awarded prizes at numerous international film festivals. Sacro GRA (2013) received a Golden Lion for Best Film in Venice.
Boatman (1993, doc), Afterwords (2001, short, co-dir), Below Sea Level (2008, doc), El Sicario Room 164 (2010, doc), Sacro GRA (2013, doc)

domain: artistic


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HerbCo was founded in Duvall, Washington in 1992 by two couples: one, organic farm owners; the other, marketing specialists. When they combined their assets with their love of all things culinary, the result was a first in the Northwest culinary market: the first company to provide local year-round availability of certified organic fresh herbs.
While the farm has since changed ownership, the passion for quality, innovation and customer service remains as strong as ever. Today, included among HerbCo’s many firsts are its first use in the United States of an herb container made of corn; the first Northwest herb company to implement a food safety program; the first herb company in the United States to test herb suppliers for organic compliance; the first herb company to be certified as a Salmon-Safe farm; and the first herb company in the United States to use an in-house staff to visit supermarkets to ensure herb quality and merchandising effectiveness.
HerbCo Texas, (formerly Generation Farms), the Southwest’s premier culinary herb grower, became part of the HerbCo family in June 2007. This addition gave both farms access to more product with their farm’s differing growing seasons, as well as greater purchasing power and the ability to serve larger customers with facilities in multiple regions. November 2008 saw the launch of Michigan Fine Herbs, located in Shelbyville, MI. This facility greatly expanded our national reach and instantly created over 75 new jobs in an economically challenged area. The original packing facility was quickly outgrown, and a brand new facility was opened in September 2010.
HerbCo made its third acquisition in August of 2010, creating Rocky Mountain Herbs in Denver, CO. Our great reception by wholesale and retail customers alike prompted a move to a new facility twice the size of the original in 2011, ensuring plenty of room for future growth. Just as exciting is our recent partnership with a 100 acre local organic farm located just outside of Denver. Rocky Mountain Herbs is pleased to accommodate the ever-growing interest in locally grown produce!
With acres of certified organic land already in cultivation in Hawaii for our mainland customers, the addition of a packing facility to serve the Islands just made sense, and to that end HerbCo Hawaii became a reality in early 2011. Today, HerbCo’s sunniest location supplies more grocery stores and wholesalers in the islands than anyone.
Well, Hawaii was the sunniest HerbCo location. HerbCo Phoenix, opened in May 2014, to serve our desert Southwest customers’ growing appetites for locally packed organic herbs. The brand new 12,000 square foot facility is conveniently located in Tolleson and will certainly employ the most suntanned crew of any HerbCo division! The cherry on the sundae will be the seasonal availability of locally farmed organic herbs from one of Arizona’s oldest culinary herb farms. We’ve never been so thrilled – and prepared - to share our class-leading customer service and quality to a new region.
Not satisfied with opening just one new facility in 2014, HerbCo took advantage of a terrific opportunity and acquired Sweetwater Growers of Canton, GA. Sweetwater Growers, founded by the hard-working Dault family, has built a stellar reputation for integrity, customer service and product quality throughout the Southeastern US. Two facilities just north of Atlanta provide a four-state area with potted and living herbs, as well as a full wholesale and retail herb program. A new, Certified Organic packing facility was just completed to accommodate the ever-growing interest of organics in the Southeast. With the addition of Sweetwater Growers into the HerbCo family, our impact is now truly coast to coast.
Though HerbCo’s reach now extends to over 5,000 supermarkets and dozens of wholesalers in 25 states across the U.S. (and even Guam!) our focus remains the same: to ensure that our customers have the best possible experience purchasing and cooking with fresh organic herbs.

domain: food


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PSNI Assistant Chief Constable, George Hamilton has condemned the attack on a patrol car and said they are treating it as attempted murder:
This evening at approximately 7.35 pm whilst on patrol duty a police car was attacked by approximately 15 masked individuals, windows of the vehicle were smashed and a petrol bomb thrown into the car whilst an officer was still in the vehicle.
The officer was lucky to escape without injury.
More top news
Emily Middlemas has been kicked out in the X Factor semi-finals - leaving 5 After Midnight, Saara Aalto and Matt Terry through to the finals
Prince Harry has visited a children's home founded by the controversial religious sect known as the Moonies during his tour of the Caribbean
Cloud continues rolling in from the west overnight which, combined with fresher winds will keep temperatures above freezing here.


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We were staying at this hotel/resort and the restaurant is the only place to eat for some distance. because of this we had arranged half board for one of the nights, and bed & breakfast for the other because we were arriving late in the evening.
The breakfast buffet was quite extensive and staff most helpful, remembering our table preference on the 2nd morning.
As vegetarians who do eat fresh fish we had a problem with the dinner menu, however during the day we'd spoken with the restaurant manager who brought the chef out to try to assist us.
He arranged vegetarian spring rolls and freshly cooked snapper that was very nice.
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.


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Markus Conrad is a businessperson who has been at the head of 6 different companies. Currently, he is Chairman-Supervisory Board of Edel SE & Co. KGaA, Chairman-Supervisory Board for Zuckerraffinerie TangermŘnde Fr. Meyers Sohn Holding GmbH, Chairman-Supervisory Board at ZERTUS GmbH (a subsidiary of Zuckerraffinerie TangermŘnde Fr. Meyers Sohn Holding GmbH), Managing Director at CERF GMBH and Chairman-Supervisory Board of Libri GmbH.
He is also on the board of Edel Management SE.
In the past Markus Conrad held the position of Chairman of Tchibo GmbH and Partner at Bain & Co. Germany, Inc.
He received an undergraduate degree and a doctorate from the University of Hamburg, an undergraduate degree from Hochschule fŘr Musik und Theater Hamburg and an MBA from INSEAD.

domain: economics


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A bill in the Florida Legislature that would dramatically change the way some hospital taxing districts in the state function has painted a bulls-eye on the region’s public hospital system, Halifax Health.
Hospital leaders at a recent board meeting voiced strong opposition to a law proposed by state Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, that would allow residents to decide every 10 years whether or not to abolish the Halifax Hospital District.
Senate Bill 740, which does not yet have a sponsor in the House, maps out broad changes to hospital taxing districts that would impact where their collected tax dollars go; how and where district-supported hospitals can build new facilities; and how much information they must readily disclose to the public.
The bill would also cut funding community redevelopment areas receive from taxing districts.
“This bill is very problematic. It’s bad legislation. It’s bad policy. It’s written poorly. It’s horrible,” Halifax Health CEO Jeff Feasel said during a recent board meeting. Although he didn’t name names, Feasel implied that it might be the handiwork of another hospital system trying to stall the construction of their plans to build a freestanding emergency room, medical office building and later a 95-bed hospital in Deltona.
The hospital is being sued in Volusia County Circuit Court by Nancy Epps, the former Ponce Inlet mayor who alleged in a lawsuit filed last June that the Halifax Hospital District did not have the authority to construct facilities outside the district it levies taxes on.
“It seems to me that if they dissolve the district, that erodes their argument that we’re operating outside of the district in Deltona,” Commissioner Ed Connor said during the meeting. “It’s kind of a circular argument.”
Halifax officials have said, without any hard evidence, that their would-be competitor in Deltona, HCA-run Central Florida Regional Hospital, is possibly pushing the lawsuit behind the scenes. Feasel alluded to that point again during the board meeting.
“A part of it (the bill) is targeted right at us,” Feasel said, “(and) that which somebody can’t do within the courts they are now trying to do legislatively, and that is to keep us from operating in Deltona. But this piece of legislation will not stop us from doing that because we have other avenues available.”
Steube, whose district takes in parts of Sarasota and Manatee counties, said the intent of the law is to curb the type of competition hospitals frequently engage in while collecting money from taxpayers. He cited Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System, which operates medical facilities in both counties, but only levies taxes in Sarasota.
“No other hospital in the district has an ad valorem $50 million baseline coming to their hospital,” Steube said, “and then they’re using that money to go out and compete with other hospitals outside of their jurisdiction.”
Beyond the perceived maneuvering, Feasel said the bill has some practical issues in regards to how purchasers of hospital bonds would be affected. He suggested the law, if passed, opens the door for lawsuits from bondholders.
The bill has a “remote chance” of becoming law, Feasel said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make certain it doesn’t pass.”


NAN – Gov. Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun has re-appointed Mr Taiwo Adeoluwa as Secretary to the State Government (SSG).
The oath of office and oath of allegiance was administered on Adeoluwa on Monday, June 1, 2015 by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Olatokunbo Olapade in Abeokuta.
After the oath administration, Amosun hinged the re-appointment of Adeoluwa on performance.
He, however, advised Adeoluwa to work harder in ensuring that the dividends of democracy were delivered to the people of the state.
He said “the first term feats were building blocks for the second term expectations.
“The only reason for your re-appointment was because you worked well.
“We have to continue to demonstrate that we mean well for our people by giving them things that will make life more comfortable for them.
“Your re-appointment requires more hard work as we strive to move the state forward.’’
Responding, Adeoluwa pledged his loyalty to the administration and to the people of the state.


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Use this guide to plan your flexible working approach in the short and long term
Date: 03/03/2015 Duration: 00:25:02
Parents of babies born or adopted on or after 5 April 2015 will be able to take advantage of shared parental leave, one of the biggest family friendly working reforms in years. But does this legislation do enough to truly suit the needs of the future workforce?
In this podcast we discuss the future of family friendly working and the advantages to be gained from embracing a culture of agile working. We hear from Jo Swinson, Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Women and Equalities Minister, about how shared parental leave will work and what she expects the take up to be. Jo also discusses why legislation like shared parental leave will help challenge conceptions in society and drive change to achieve a more level playing field for male and female employees. Tim Munden, Vice President of HR at Unilever, discusses how Unilever are looking to go beyond implementing the new legislation to start incorporating parental and other family absences (like eldercare) into their talent planning pipelines and the importance of line managers and role models in communicating this type of culture. We also speak to Jennifer Liston-Smith from My Family Care about the issue of pay and why employers should consider the business case for embracing family friendly working in terms of recruitment and retention. Jennifer also gives her advice for employers who want to embrace the future of family friendly working, including how to equip managers to handle requests for leave.
To discuss this episode on Twitter, use the hashtag #cipdpodcasts.
View the full podcast transcript
You're reading the transcript to the CIPD podcast series.
Philippa Lamb: Next month family-friendly working gets a significant boost in the shape of new legislation giving parents the right to share leave following the birth, or adoption, of a child. Until now new mothers have qualified for 52 weeks’ paid leave while fathers could take two weeks paternity leave and also qualify for up to 26 weeks additional time off. Under the new rules couples with babies due on or after April 5th will be able to divide up to 50 weeks leave between them so this is a major step towards equality.
Jo Swinson is Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs and Women and Equalities Minister.
Jo Swinson: Well, the basic principle is that until now we’ve had a situation where mums have been able to take up to a year of maternity leave after their baby’s born and dads have had just two weeks of paternity leave. There was something called ‘additional paternity leave’ but hasn’t been particularly taken up and was quite inflexible. So generally mums have had up to a year, dads have had just two weeks.
That doesn’t really seem very fair in today’s society, either for families, for children, or indeed for workplaces as well and so what we’re doing with shared parental leave is introducing the flexibility for parents to choose how they split that same amount of time but then they can have whatever combination of sharing that leave that works for that particular family.
PL: To give you an idea of how the new rules might work they could mean for example that a mother takes two months of leave, then another two months of leave at the same time as the father, and then she goes back to work while the father remains at home. And this is a big change because until now the law has assumed that the mother will always be the primary caregiver. Jennifer Liston-Smith has 20 years’ experience in consulting, training and coaching. Since 2005 she's been a pioneer of maternity coaching supporting employers including global law firms, investment banks and accountants. Here’s her take on the new system.
Jennifer Liston-Smith: It was intended to achieve two things, the greater participation of women in the workplace and the increase of choice among parents about how they share care which obviously means the inclusion of dads and engagement of dads. So to achieve those two ends is really catching up with where society is going and in that sense it’s legislation that was needed.
PL: So this is one of the biggest family-friendly reforms in years but the government announcing a new type of parental leave might be ringing bells. That's because back in 2011 additional paternity leave arrived. That gave dads or same sex partners the option to take 26 weeks extra leave while the mother went back to work. It was an acknowledgement that fathers might want to stay home and look after their kids but for Jo Swinson it didn’t go far enough.
JS: It is much more flexible than the additional paternity leave which only let the leave be shared after the baby was six months old and it had to be a sort of binary swap, so instead of Mum being on leave then Dad was on leave for the rest of the time. This is going to enable parents to take leave at the same time, and indeed perhaps to take it in several blocks.
PL: The take-up of additional paternity leave, that 2011 reform, has been tiny, less than one in 50 dads, or same sex partners, opted to take time off work to look after their children. So does the government expect shared parental leave to be more popular? Jo Swinson is cautious.
JS: Well, the low end of our expectations would be a bit more than additional paternity leave, so the lowest end is 2% and initially we think 8% is probably about the highest level but it is quite difficult to predict and there have been a range of surveys that have shown anything as much as a third of fathers might take this up.
PL: Of course the hope is that take-up will grow year on year and there is evidence that it might. Additional paternity leave managed just 0.8% take-up in its first year but it grew to 1.4% in the second year, still small but an 80% increase in just 12 months. Another clue that shared parental leave might really ring the changes is that multinationals such as Unilever are already talking about ways to incorporate long paternal absences into their talent planning. Tim Munden is Vice President of HR for the UK and Ireland at Unilever.
Tim Munden: We believe that within five years we should expect to have at least 20% of fathers taking it up.
PL: That high?
TM: And we think it’ll be that high because of the demographic of our workforce which has a lot of young people in it, because of how strong our benefits are. And I think just the generations are changing, so it’s about 20% in some of the Scandinavian countries, I think we’ll get there.
PL: There are still obstacles however, some practical and others cultural, that society will have to overcome before we can hope to match Scandinavia where 20% of fathers take chunks of time away from their careers to help raise their children. The biggest of these obstacles is money. It’s still the case that men earn on average significantly more than women and in 80% of partnerships the father is still the main breadwinner. With statutory pay for parental leave set at just £139.58 a week from 5th April there's no doubt that for some families the maths of a father taking more time off just won't add up. Having said that as Jennifer Liston-Smith points out the number of women out-earning their partners is growing.
JL-S: What we have noticed recently is that it isn’t any longer a traditional set up where you'd have a man who’s earning and therefore a huge loss of earning while the woman takes time out and can sacrifice her job because she's a supplementary earner, a lot of women are breadwinners these days.
PL: Of course some employers already offer enhanced pay for women on maternity leave and some of them may choose to do the same for men taking shared parental leave, but they're under no legal obligation to do so. Here’s Jo Swinson again.
JS: We’ve seen, I think really encouragingly, many companies, I think Shell and PWC and some others have outlined that they’re going to match what they do for maternity pay with shared parental pay, indeed the Civil Service has led on this as well, I'm very pleased, within government and Whitehall that we’re also going to be making sure that the shared parental pay is enhanced.
PL: Despite the administrative and financial challenges for employers policies like shared parental leave are an opportunity for them to distinguish themselves as employers of choice by enhancing pay for both men and women. The birth of children is a big driver for mums and dads to change jobs and employers will need to weigh the potential recruitment and retention wins of doing that very carefully.
JS: That has a huge cost to employers of having to re-recruit and re-train new members of staff. If they can get this right at what is a major life-changing moment in their employees’ lives and be supportive and helpful they also reap a great benefit from employee loyalty.
PL: Which is why getting this issue right is fundamental to the Unilever business plan.
TM: Our consumers are often women and the shoppers are often women and so our business needs to reflect that. So that's a business outcome we need and we’re getting more and more of. Women rising to senior jobs is also really, really important, we measure it and we track it. And so getting gender balance in the more senior levels also really, really matters. And we want that because it will drive the best business outcomes for us and so in the end the greatest measure of all is in the success of the business.
PL: When it comes to recruitment, engagement and retention being an organisation that helps employees to manage their work and family responsibilities harmoniously is key so the business case isn’t hard to grasp. Jennifer Liston-Smith.
JL-S: We’ve got a lot of organisations that have decided to be family-friendly across the board.
PL: For hard commercial reasons?
JL-S: For hard commercial reasons, I mean very often it’s about wanting to be a leader in their field. We know from our own surveys that about 80% of people will look at what the family-friendly provisions are in your organisation when they’re making a choice so there are hard commercial reasons around recruiting and attracting talent and then of course retaining talent.
PL: For Tim Munden far from being a radical step forward shared parental leave doesn’t actually go far enough.
TM: Shared parental leave on its own isn’t going to change things because it is a period of time around and after a birth but then the children have got to be raised, you have to do the whole thing. So I think we’ll continue to talk to our people about family-friendliness, we’ll talk about the raft of things which go from thinking about having a family through to back-up care. We also have things for elder care because whilst we’re focusing in this conversation on shared parental leave the issue that’s probably going to grow even faster for us is employees who have elder care issues and in fact have childcare and elder care at the same time. I think one of the reasons why we’re a highly desirable place to work is because we have agile working as standard. So that's the people’s ability to choose when and where they work, around the needs of the business but around the needs of their family, and that’s vital: it’s a mature, modern workplace. People want that. And that's the kind of way of working that I think everybody benefits from.
PL: But cultural perceptions about the division of labour in child rearing are slow to evolve in some quarters and Jo Swinson has found her Twitter feed to be a revealing barometer of just how negative some men feel about sharing parental leave.
JS: Sometimes I will get some really quite strident comments from blokes saying, “This is not a man’s role it’s a woman’s role to look after children!” And clearly for a section of the population this very concept that dads will be really involved in child rearing is a challenging concept. But I mean I'm a fairly new mum and so I've recently gone through the whole experience of having a baby and engaging in parent and baby groups and the National Childbirth Trust and so on and my experience of doing that recently has been that guys these days do want to be much more involved in that parenting than perhaps a generation ago. And so I think for men who are currently becoming dads this is not such a stretch, it is something which they’re interested in and of course there will be all of those considerations about money and how it’s going to work for the family and there’ll also be the consideration about how long the woman wants to take on maternity leave, because many women will want to have still a very significant chunk of maternity leave and that's absolutely fine. But I think that cultural issue is one that's changing and this will help drive that change.
PL: Some fathers will welcome the new law but for others the negative impact of taking a significant period of time off on their long-term career will take the shine off.
JS: You’re right that one of the barriers that a lot of men suddenly say when they consider this they say, “Oh but that might mean that might have an impact on my career.” And you feel like saying, “Welcome to the world that women have been negotiating for however many decades.”
PL: A recent TUC study found that 60% of women feel side-lined at work the moment they say they’re pregnant and 40% of employers say they’re wary of hiring a woman of child bearing age. And with older mothers becoming more common attitudes like that could hit women of any age from their teens to their mid-40s.
JS: There are definitely some dinosaur attitudes that prevail amongst certain employers.
PL: No that's not niche, that’s big.
JS: No, no, I'm not saying that this is not a significant problem, in fact the other thing to bear in mind about shared parental leave, given that there is pregnancy discrimination actually this is helpful. Because if you’re a woman of child bearing age and there are some employers out there that are going to take that attitude well with shared parental leave they can't just be on the viewpoint that a man might not end up going on parental leave. It’s suddenly no longer something that will only apply to the women who are working for you.
PL: But do you think men would in organisations like that? Aren't they just looking at it as an administrative nightmare and a problem and not really something that men will engage in?
JS: Well, I think ultimately this will be a legal right that men have, so this will be an issue that businesses have to deal with.
PL: Jennifer foresees the same impact.
JL-S: It does level that playing field, if anybody who becomes a parent has options around taking leave in a way that’s a good thing in terms of female talent recruitment and attraction, what I would say about gender roles and what we all need to do, which again I think sometimes gets overlooked is we women need to be willing to let go and stop making kind of daddy day care jokes about guys not being capable of knowing which way to hold a baby and all of the stuff that we do that disempowers men, you know, “Oh I wouldn’t have used the pink one!”
PL: It’s interesting you raise that. Absolutely yeah. And I think that's definitely there isn’t it? And we’ve got research haven’t we saying that women, I think it was less than half of women who were asked about whether they would be willing to give up some of their leave to their male partner said that they wouldn’t, you know, they don’t want to give it up.
JL-S: Yeah that was a Working Mum’s study wasn't it?
JL-S: Yeah, so I think there's a way to go, I think, I'm a mother myself, I happen to be the female breadwinner, I'm the breadwinner in our family but there are parts of our children’s lives which I'm not too fussed about the day to day management but I kind of like to be the director, so, you know, with some involvement in their school choices or whether they’re going to do piano this year or football...
PL: The bigger stuff.
JL-S: ...yeah, so I think there is still for many people a whole bunch of assumptions about gender roles and this brings it to the surface.
PL: Shared parental leave may well prompt a lot of conversations between parents over the division of roles and it’s already prompting organisations, big and small to think hard about how best to make it work.
TM: The nature of our business is one of ongoing service to customers, ongoing production, ongoing management of brands that people want, it isn’t a business that can really have people come in and out because they’re doing casework. And that does present us with challenges so we had been wanting to look at whether we could hardwire into our talent systems the space for people to push pause buttons and all the rest of it and I think where we’ve come out is actually the fundamental thing in this, as in most other things is a good conversation between the individual and their leader, that's what really, really matters. For the company to be really clear about potential, where it sees people going and what they need to do to really deliver on that potential and for individuals to tell us how they feel about that, what they want to do, how they see it, it’s in the maturity of those conversations that all of this happens because in that you can then start to make plans that build people’s various needs.
PL: Obviously women have been dealing with the motherhood penalty since time immemorial in terms of their career outcomes and trading career advancement for time at home with their kids if that's what they choose to do, I'm interested to know quite how you wrangle that if it’s men and women? Clearly it’s a good thing, it levels the playing field but for you as a business for someone to say, “I want to defer my promotion,” in effect or, “I just don’t want to take that move,” or whatever how do you accommodate that as a business because clearly the work needs to be done doesn’t it a role needs to be filled?
TM: We have hopefully talent pipelines that are strong enough to have other candidates. I think again that's the upside of being a big business with really strong attractiveness to people.
PL: But you can replace people, can't you but then how do you get Person A back into the role they’ve said they want to defer?
TM: So it’s about planning and about good management of talent. Good management of talent always has two aspects it’s about the plan for the individual and it’s about the plans for the roles and who’s going to do those in future and our job is to try and marry those two things together.
PL: Organisations such as Unilever have the strength and size to communicate those vital messages about agility and flexibility effectively from the top down. But the role of line managers is very important here because they’re the ones who will be having conversations with employees expecting children. Jennifer Liston-Smith has been training managers in the run-up to April’s changes.
JL-S: The lived experience day to day for individuals is the manager and it is important to say that we don’t mean managers becoming a kind of mother hen who’s falling over themselves to make sure everyone can take all the leave they want because managers are going to find that quite challenging.
PL: Sure, yeah.
JL-S: It’s about having realistic conversations, you know, if somebody wants to take leave, talking about the timing of that and the handover and how to manage it, so equipping managers to be willing to have the conversation but also helping them know that they are allowed to debate it and discuss it.
PL: There's bound to be a degree of anxiety among some managers about how to approach the new system but there are things organisations can do to help.
JL-S: I'm always surprised and rather touched in a way by how grateful managers are for some fairly straightforward guidance, so if we’re working with an HR team to produce some checklists for managers, what to go through in a conversation pre-leave, what to go through before somebody’s return and so on, just a simple piece of guidance that says, when somebody announces that they’re expecting a child the first words that leave your lips will be remembered...
PL: Absolutely and the expression on your face.
JL-S: … and if they’re negative they’ll be repeated. Yes exactly. And just that reminder and especially if you have managers in a group together in a room just the relief of understanding that we all do struggle with that because it does test our people management skills when somebody’s going through leave and returning, we have to consider their needs, the organisation’s needs, we have to cover their role, it’s challenging and just for managers to be recognised that, that is challenging but actually here’s some pointers as to how to have that conversation. Most managers are actually quite glad in my experience, they’re not trying to get out of it they just don’t really know how to get started.
PL: One approach some organisations are now chewing over is how to evolve less linear career pathways to suit the growing agility of employees, pathways that perhaps might offer a pause button for those times when your family, your children or indeed your elderly parents, for instance, might need more of your time. Jo Swinson.
JS: We are not robots. Work is a huge part of our life if you think about the percentage of our waking hours that we spend at work, people want to be happy in the workplace and of course they will be more effective as employees if they are fairly happy in the workplace but people have other things in their lives too. Now there will be times in people’s careers where they are very happy to work much longer hours and put huge amounts of extra effort into their career. There’ll be other points where there might be other things that are going on and I think for organisations to recognise that in different ways makes perfect sense but I think we also need to challenge some of the 1950s assumptions about what the workplace is and what working hard is. There's this presenteeism culture, it’s about sending the email at 7:03 in the morning and the jacket being on the back of the chair and being the last to leave the office and yet you could have somebody else who is working perhaps flexibly, maybe working partly from home, working different hours and being much more effective at what they do, I think enlightened employers recognise that what’s important is that the job gets done.
PL: Jo’s hope is that shared parental leave will start shifting the culture which assumes mothers are the ones who should be at home looking after the children and role models are vital here. Tim Munden again.
TM: It’s interesting isn’t it there's something so human about wanting to see people who are in a situation like yours succeed. It’s absolutely vital and we’re fortunate we have some very successful, very senior people who are role models of great family life as mothers and as fathers.
PL: You know whenever I ask organisations about role models they always talk to me about senior people and I do wonder is there an issue that there aren’t enough role models in more junior roles, that the sense that the message that goes to people who work in organisations is if you’re very senior you have the clout to ask for this stuff but if you’re lower down the tree it’s probably not for you, you have to earn it?
TM: Yeah, no I'm not sure about that, I think that we talk about senior role models because we feel if someone’s got senior doing it then the chances are there are more people on the way doing the same thing. So if you’re seeing at senior levels you’re going to see it at the more junior levels as well.
PL: Yeah, you think that is the message you’ve sent?
TM: I think so, it’s certainly the message we intend. I think it is. I think people want to see that even if they don’t think they can get to the same level the person who is at that senior level is leading and living in a way that is resonant with their own values.
PL: So if employers want to do more than just comply with the new shared parental leave rules and really enter into the spirit of them what do they need to do now? Well here are some thoughts from Jennifer Liston-Smith and Jo Swinson.
JL-S: You can make sure that you use the word ‘fathers’ or ‘partners’ not just parents, because if you use the word ‘parents’ a lot of dads assume you mean mums so you can be overly inclusive if you like in your language. You can use nice pictures and illustrations, instead of just a plain policy you can have a new parent pack. I've seen a lot of HR and diversity teams make huge ground in just pulling together communications effectively, whether it’s a page on the intranet with some nice pictures and great links to useful resources or benefits or policies that the company has.
JS: The first step is for employers to get up to speed and understand what the situation is and clearly podcasts like this and the resources from organisations like the CIPD are helpful in that and of course there's plenty of guidance that's available out there, ACAS have produced some excellent guidance and the gov.uk website has got plenty of information. And then also talking to staff about it, making sure that line managers feel comfortable discussing it and understand the situation and what might be happening.
PL: And if all this is feeling a bit overwhelming take a look back in history to see just how far we’ve already come on this. Jennifer Liston-Smith.
JL-S: You know people have had to get used to longer maternity leave, not long ago somebody taking a year out for maternity leave would have been regarded as preposterous and an unmanageable impact on the business but we’ve caught up with that and it happens. We probably won't see that many people take it up.
PL: It’ll be a slow burn?
JL-S: It’ll be slow, we’ll learn as we go and if you’re reasonably open about it I don’t see any problem in saying to somebody, “Fantastic that you want to do this, do you know what you’re the first in our organisation. So let’s look at this together and let’s gain your feedback on how it goes.” In some ways it’s all about better conversations isn’t it?
PL: That's it for this week but we’d like to know what plans you've already made for shared parental leave. Tweet us @CIPD with your thoughts on how to make it work and whether it really will revolutionise family-friendly working.
Now next month is our 100th episode. Since the series began hundreds of people have sat in the podcast hot seat and we’ve travelled the length and breadth of the country peeking inside organisations big and small. We’ve gone backstage at government departments, factories and supermarkets and charted the ebb and flow of an HR profession that's fast-evolving into a 21st century powerhouse. For this our 100th episode it’s your turn in the hot seat we asked you to get in touch with your thoughts, hopes and fears about your profession and get in touch you did in droves so next month listen out for a collection of interviews with you, our listeners talking about the seminal moments in your careers, the gems of advice you've never forgotten and the monumental screw-ups you wish you could forget!
That's the 100th episode of the CIPD Podcast series going live on April 4th – don’t miss it!
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Join the Chapters Public Lands Defense Team
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by Chris Yoder |
As an American, you are the partial owner of a vast legacy of lands of incredible beauty and the repository of untold wealth. As owners of the land, Americans have an all-too-often ignored responsibility of stewardship for the lands entrusted to us. Protection of these priceless lands was one goal for John Muir and the other visionaries who founded the Sierra Club in 1892. You, as a member of the Club, are an heir to their vision.
As an American, you are the partial owner of a vast legacy of lands of incredible beauty and the repository of untold wealth. These public lands include:
193 million acres of national forests and grasslands;
262 million acres administered by the Federal Bureau of Land Management;
More than 390 national parks, battlefields, seashores, monuments and historic sites in the National Park Service system;
100 million acres of wildlife refuges and other sites controlled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and
More than 300 recreation areas on water projects administered by the Bureau of Reclamation.
These lands offer us, and our descendants, an irreplaceable legacy of natural values. However, these lands also contain irresistible lures for those who would exploit their resources. The natural values of your public lands are constantly eroded by the pressures of excessive logging, overgrazing, irresponsible mining and rampant off-road-vehicle users. As owners of the land, Americans have an all-too-often ignored responsibility of stewardship for the lands entrusted to us. Protection of these priceless lands was one goal for John Muir and the other visionaries who founded the Sierra Club in 1892. You, as a member of the Club, are an heir to their vision.
As a practical matter, management of your public lands falls to federal agencies overseen by the U.S. Congress and acting in accordance with legislation enacted by the Congress. Sierra Club members can protect our nations natural legacy by ensuring that our representatives know that we, as their constituents, support legislation to protect public lands and that we demand strong oversight over the agencies entrusted with their stewardship.
You can help preserve these national treasures by doing one or all of the following.
Join the Maryland Chapters public lands protection team. Contact Chris Yoder, team chair, at 410-466-2462 or at firstname.lastname@example.org to get on the e-mail list (or snail mail if you dont have e-mail) of public lands defenders. We will let you know when legislation needs the support of our delegation or when land-management agencies need congressional pressure to stand strong in protecting the land rather bowing to pressure from commercial or motorized recreational interests.
Act now to support pending legislation. The following bills are moving now, or may move soon, in the House of Representatives. Your congressional representatives need to hear that you support these bills.
HR 3287: The Tumacacori HIghlands Wilderness Act. HR 3287 would designate 85,000 acres of spectacularly eroded cliffs and hills that host over 50 sensitive species and act as a refuge for endangered species such as the jaguar, peregrine falcon and Mexican spotted owl.
HR 2593: The Borderlands Conservation and Security Act. This bill is designed to help mitigate damage to federal and tribal lands from illegal border activity and border-enforcement efforts by increasing coordination between land management agencies and the Department of Homeland Security.
HR 3682: The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act. With the help of this legislation, 125,000 acres would be designated as wild and scenic, and it also would create three new wilderness areas, which are important to the future of locally endangered species such as bighorn sheep and desert tortoises.
HR 2334: Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness. HR 2334 would protect as wilderness areas a spectacular national park that might otherwise be overrun by excessive use.
HR1919: Americas Red Rock Wilderness Act. More than 9 million acres of Utah would be protected as wilderness under this bill. These unique and fragile lands are threatened by off-road vehicles, mineral and energy exploration, and development. The bill needs more cosponsors. From Maryland, only Representatives Cummings, Van Hollen, and Wynn are cosponsors. Please contact your representatives and ask them to join in cosponsoring this important legislation.
So far this session the House passed HR 1011, The Virginia Ridge and Valley Act of 2007. The Senate companion bill is S. 570. Please contact Senators Cardin and Mikulski and ask them to support these bills in the Senate.
You can contact your representatives through the Capitol switchboard at 202.225.3121 or by writing to them at: [insert name of representative]
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
You can contact your senators through the Capitol switchboard at 202.224.3121 or by writing to them at:
[insert name of senator]
Washington, D.C. 20510
Chris Yoder is a long-time member of the Sierra Club, a member of the Maryland Chapters Executive Committee, and an advocate for protecting the natural values embodied in Americas public lands.
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domain: health


text: The two clubs were in action in the county final after progressing through the early rounds. After beating the A team 595-594, Bidefords B team will now go on to meet Cornwalls winning team in the intercounty final at Okehampton on March 24, where they will be hoping to keep the shield in Devon for the fourth consecutive year. Each member of the six-strong team chose a start score, with the aim of achieving a total score of 100 when the start is added to the score card. The first detail saw the B team go in one point ahead. Mog Thomson on the A team and Yvonne Hoile on the B team both achieved their desired score. The second detail saw the teams shoot equal scores. Keith Murkin achieved his chosen score for the B team as they held on to their one-point lead.

domain: sports