text:
Last Updated on October 10, 2022
For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at [email protected].This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…
Dave is a full-time professional illustrator and works from his home studio in Manchester, UK.
After education, Dave developed his skills as a professional by working as a self-employed greeting card illustrator, a product designer and character artist at a toy company and a graphic designer as part of a creative agency before making the leap to full-time illustrator in 2017.
Sports illustration is where it all began, starting with a small football exhibition in London – Dave’s work has been featured in exhibitions all over the globe. Which helped his uniquely stylized artwork build a worldwide audience and boasting clients including Nike, Adidas, UEFA, and ESPN.
Dave is also an official Star Trek artist and was honored to be part of the 50/50 exhibition which celebrated the 50-year anniversary of Star Trek. CBS selected 50 illustrators from around the world to produce a poster for based on the show’s history.
His style injects his own understanding of the subject within his work, creating heavily character-driven compositions which compel the eye to look closer at the extra detail. He believes every good poster trigger an emotional response and evokes the feeling of wanting the viewer to watch the movie again.
Dave only started creating poster artwork for collectors in 2018, but has been a follower of the alternative movie poster scene from the start. Since 2019, his posters have all sold out, which already shows the level of demand for his work.
JoBlo: What got you started as an artist?
DAVE: After straddling the positions of graphic designer by day and an illustrator in evenings and weekends for almost 8 years, I decided to go all-in on my career as an illustrator in 2017 and have never looked back.
I’ve been drawing as early as I can remember. I used to draw wherever I could, spaceships on the underside of our dining table, doodles all over my grandparent’s sofa, and superheroes on my bedroom walls – I did eventually move onto more suitably acceptable drawing surfaces.
As a youngster, I used to copy artwork from comics (in particular 2000ad, Secret Wars, Roy Of The Rovers), video game covers, book covers (especially the Fighting Fantasy books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone), and movie posters, which coincidently is everything my illustration work revolves around now.
Upon reflection, this helped me understand the basic constructs behind what made great art and helped me discover what I really warmed towards aesthetically.
Since then, I’ve worked many roles in my career, some creative, others not so much, but all seem to manifest themselves in my practices today as an illustrator.
Who were some of your favorite artists growing up?
I’ve been infatuated with the works of many different artists over the years from surrealist artwork of Salvador Dali, MC Escher, and Hieronymous Bosch to comic artists like John Romita Snr, Simon Bisley, and Alex Ross to video game artists like Oliver Frey and Bob Wakelin and not forgetting the mandatory mentions of movie poster artists such as the ‘legendary’ Drew Struzan, Bob Peak and John Alvin.
I could go on listing names and works but these guys have had the biggest influence on my work.
Who do you really dig these days, follow on Instagram?
There are a lot of fantastically talented artists out there nowadays who churn out works of the highest quality. The works of Greg Ruth, Tony Stella, Orlando Arocena, Marc Aspinall, Dave Guertin, Ben Oliver, Paul Shipper, Rory Kurtz, Sam Wolfe Connelly, Karl Fitzgerald, Rockinjelly Bean, Sara Deck, SG Posters, Tracie Ching, Hans Woody and Phantom City Creative always.
What advice would you have for budding artists today?
Take the negatives and make them positive and take the positives and make them better.
What should we be looking out for from you in the future?
Currently, illustrating a cover for a fictional series of books.
Three posters are being currently at the printers – Shaun Of The Dead, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Running Man.
I’ve also been talking to Greymatter Art and hopefully looking to produce some work with them before the year is out.
In addition to this, my sports illustration is still going strong and I currently have a very long list of private commissions to work through – next up is Wayne’s World and Starship Troopers.
Being a fansite, we have to ask you… What are some of your favorite movies/TV shows of all time?
I’m glad you said ‘some’ because there’s no way you can just pick one, although, even ‘some’ is a tough ask – I tend to base the term ‘favorite’ on how rewatchable they are.
Movies, I’ll start with a few obvious choices like:
Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Goonies, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, Back To The Future, Total Recall, The Thing, Predator, Terminator, Akira, The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Die Hard, Goodfellas, The Departed, Shawshank Redemption, Avengers – Infinity War.
then add some not-so-obvious:
Black Book, Old Boy, The Reader, Midsommar, Blair Witch Project, Edge Of Tomorrow, Evil Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, Spirited Away, Primer, Under The Skin, Arrival, Being John Malkovich.
TV all-time favorites…
From childhood, I used to love A-team, Knight Rider, Street Hawk, Automan, Different Strokes, Cheers, Baywatch, Happy Days, Mr Merlin, Dukes Of Hazard, Tales Of The Unexpected, Twilight Zone.
Favorite modern-day TV shows …
Game Of Thrones, Stranger Things, Mad Men, Rick and Morty, The Boys, Ted Lasso, and Breaking Bad.
TV currently watching…
Rings Of Power, Cobra Kai, Andor, and She-Hulk.
Scroll down to check out some of our favorite art pieces from Dave as we continue to follow his journey across his Website and social media hubs: Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / YouTube / Behance / Hero Complex / Gallery 1988 / Sticker App
The Big Lebowski
Escape From L.A.
Escape From New York
FPS: First Person Shooter
From Dusk Till Dawn
In Search of Darkness Part III
The Lost Boys
National Lampoon’s Vacation
Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves
Solo: A Star Wars Story

domain: hobby


text:
For decades, the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki have captured my imagination and changed my life. It’s hard to watch Kiki’s Delivery Service these days without crying and remembering all those years I spent watching it with my daughter as she was growing up. But time passes, and so do torches.
For Miyazaki and his anime [...]
No matter how hard or how often shortsighted television executives tried to assassinate it, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s animated sci-fi satire Futurama has refused to expire. Payback is a shiny metal ass, fully bitten. To honor the anticipated return of the show’s half-finished season, and the recently greenlit seasons to come, I picked [...]
Uncompromising but repeatedly rewarding animator Peter Chung brought anime to the MTV generation with the epochal Aeon Flux. His technocultural inquiry injected philosophy and heart into The Animatrix. But his newest CGI film Firebreather, Cartoon Network’s first, is an amped monster sci-fi hiding out in high school. I chatted up the opinionated Chung again for [...]
For animation and anime lovers, Genndy Tartakovksy is toon royalty. He’s made crossover kids’ stuff Dexter’s Laboratory and The Power Puff Girls, and more mature essentials like the award-winning Samurai Jack and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Now he’s back at last after years working on films like Iron Man 2 with a whole new [...]
M. Night Shyamalan’s cinematic compression of Nickelodeon’s stunning animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender has serious fandom boots to fill. And it needs much more time to fill them.
Like the Fire Nation’s obsessive, disgraced Prince Zuko, Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, the first installment in a planned film trilogy, could use more patience and less tortured [...]
This was one of my favorite pieces of the year so far. I wrote it for Wired.com, but I’m not sure they appreciated it as much as I did. Maybe it’s because I saw Ralph Bakshi films in the ’70s and ’80s, and they utterly blew my mind. And Peter Jackson’s. And John Kricfalusi’s. And [...]
For some ridiculous reason, it took Disney a year to get Japanese animation auteur Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film Ponyo across the pond. Maybe because it took that long for Miley Cyrus’ sister and the Bonus Jonas to make a hideous autotuned theme song? Whatever the reason, the wait it over at last.
And it was worth [...]
My mind is wiped after a frenetic week spend on the content treadmill. On Friday alone, I tackled the fine programs in the subject line above. So I’ve decided to start a daily feature called the Wired Dump, wherein I offload part of my workday onto you, fine reader. Thank you for being so strong, [...]
Like Superman and Batman before her, Wonder Woman has finally received her own mature animated film, which is definitely not for the kids. Unless you have kids in their teens. I reviewed the hotness for Wired the other day, which made waves thanks to a steady stream of sexual innuendo and sexualized backstory. Confused? Let [...]
On Wired, we usually have to end things with a question mark. So picture the title of this blog entry in question form, and you have what follows below in a nutshell.
But on my own blog, I’m unafraid to be declaratory. As a professional rule, I try to write about what I like. And I [...]

domain: artistic


Our Mason pant is the ultimate classic menswear pant for your collection. Made form 100% cotton twill and featuring a 34 inch inseam, you won't want to leave the house without them on. This structured pant, with a slim fit design throughout the pant leg will ensure you have a fitted look that's versatile for both daytime and evening activities.
100% Cotton Twill
Machine Wash, Cold Water, Gentle Cycle, Tumble Dry Low
Whether you're 4'9" or 6'6" these clothes were made to fit you. But, sometimes it takes a little trimming to get it just right! Feel free to have a tailor adjust the hem for a personalized fit.


text:
The Martello Hotel
Price range: €
+353 1 286 8000
- Getting here:
- Search our area for…
- Something not right...?
- Suggest a change to the info for this place
The Martello Hotel provides a reasonably-priced choice of accommodation - 25 en-suite bedrooms, some with wonderful sea views, and 19 self-catering apartments are all decorated and furnished to provide a comfortable stay at affordable prices.
If you know of any events happening at The Martello Hotel, please add them.
Your place? Edit page
In addition to adding a description of your business, you’ll also be able to…
- Respond to reviews
- Get free calls for your customers
- Post special offers
- Upload photos & business details
- Partner with local businesses
…and much more! Claim this page now!

domain: travel


Higher Education Funding Council England (HEFCE)
|Printable version||E-mail this to a friend|
Public survey shows support for investment in higher education
A survey of the public carried out by Ipsos MORI shows strong support for public investment in higher education (HE) and that its benefits to the UK are clearly recognised.
The final report on the survey was published recently following publication of a summary report in September by Universities UK.
The survey aimed to develop a nationally representative picture of attitudes to public investment in HE and its perceived benefits to the UK economy. It included a cross-section of adults aged 15 years and over across Great Britain, and ran between 31 July and 6 August 2010.
It found that:
90 per cent of those surveyed thought it was important for the Government to invest in HE, of which 59 per cent thought it was very important
80 per cent said that public investment in HE should either increase or stay the same
widening access or the benefits of HE to the economy were the most common unprompted reasons for increasing public investment
consistently around 70 per cent of the respondents acknowledged HE's benefits to skills, business development, the arts, and the UK as an internationally competitive economy
86 per cent of respondents thought a university education was 'very' or 'fairly' worthwhile these days.
Final report on public perceptions of the benefits of HE (November 2010)
Summary report published by Universities UK (September 2010)


text:
Video Game Industry Hits Reset In 2020
Gaming innovations are set to replace console gaming. The new gaming console releases from Xbox and PlayStation may be the last, as new ways of gaming make physical consoles obsolete. This article by Global X examines these changes, and what they might mean for gaming.
Consoles are currently the second-largest player in the gaming market, at 30 percent. To coincide with the new console releases are new games, which take advantage of the consoles' upgrades to deliver new experiences for gamers.
In the past, game developers have benefited greatly from new consoles upgrades. During the last console upgrade in 2013, for example, almost 20 million game sales occurred in just 5 weeks.
Despite the popularity and profitability of consoles, however, cloud gaming is set to take over the industry. Streaming games over the cloud is an extremely appealing form of gaming that businesses such as Microsoft, Sony, and Google are already developing.
In the future, cloud gaming could take the form of a subscription service, similar to the current Apple Arcade. Global X estimates that within the next 7 years, cloud gaming could deliver a gaming experience as good as console gaming, making it the preferred gaming option.
Another disruptive force in the gaming field is mobile gaming, which is currently the leader in market share, at 46 percent. Even popular games, such as Call of Duty, are beginning to take mobile form.
As gaming moves to the cloud, investment opportunities will continue to arise for savvy investors who want to keep up with these gaming innovations. Here are some investment ideas for investing in gaming.

domain: news


text:
Restaurant tech firm Toast valued at over $32B in market debut
Shares of Toast Inc jumped more than 63 percent in their New York Stock Exchange debut on Wednesday, valuing the restaurant software provider at nearly $32.6 billion.
The stock opened at $65.26, compared with its initial public offering price of $40 per share.
The Boston-based company, which makes software to help restaurants with online and in-store orders, sold 21.7 million shares in its IPO, raising about $869.6 million. Its IPO was priced above an earlier targeted price range of $34 to $36 per share.
Toast’s listing comes at a time when demand for online food delivery has skyrocketed due to COVID-19 lockdowns, with homebound customers ordering more through DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and other services.
The 10-year old company builds software that helps restaurants manage online orders, operate an on-demand delivery network and integrate payments.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan were the lead underwriters for Toast’s IPO.


Sunday, September 28, 2008
Mark and I went to see "Fireproof" this Friday. We loved the show! Kirk Cameron plays a firefighter who begins trying to save his marriage after his father challenges him with something called "The Love Dare". Some of the conversations are a little stilted and awkward, but by the end of the movie you've forgotten all of that as the emotional and spritual tug of the movie has you examining your own marriage. This is the third movie (that I know of) that this church has made, and in each movie you see an improvement in the quality of the film. My opinion is that this movie is much better than "Facing the Giant". It's a great clean movie for a couple's date night. Check it out!


text:
Strategy Games For Mobile
Method video video games have flip into one of many well-liked sport genres on this planet, which made me marvel – what are the very best ten approach video video games for cell? In accordance with one of many principal cell sport engines like google like google, these are probably the most well-liked approach video video games on the market on cell models:
1. Battle of Clans – Unequivocally probably the most well-liked approach sport today. Battle of Clans is an web multiplayer sport, launched in 2012 by Supercell, by way of which the participant builds a bunch and assaults totally different players to earn gold and elixir, and makes use of them to assemble defenses.
2. Empire: Four Kingdoms – Runner up for prime ten approach video video games, launched in 2012 by Goodgame Studios. In Empire: Four Kingdoms the players rule a kingdom, assemble a fort and defend the residents by turning into a member of mighty alliances and arming themselves for assaults in the direction of their cruel enemies.
3. Plague Inc. – Launched in 2012 by Ndemic Creations, this sport combines extreme approach and sensible simulation, and undoubtedly belongs inside the prime ten approach video video games file. In Plaugue Inc. chances are you’ll must develop a deadly, world plague and convey humanity to an end. It’s you in the direction of humanity, and solely the strongest will survive.
4. Weapons 4 Hire – Launched in 2013 by Revolt. In Weapons 4 Hire you will Command the toughest squad on this planet and battle corrupt dictators and crime lords. Must you like weapons, chances are you’ll completely benefit from this bullet celebration!
5. Galaxy Legend – Tap4Fun launched this method sport in 2013, and created an excellent trying setting by way of which you assemble your space base and star fleets. You’ll have to complete a number of of missions and lead your forces to galactic conquest. Get fortnite hack v bucks
6. Enhance Seashore – Revealed in 2013 by Supercell. The game is prepared in a tropical archipelago, and the players can assemble their base, enhance their defenses and unlock troop upgrades.
7. Triple Metropolis – A method puzzle cell sport with city-building components, developed by Spry Fox and launched in 2012 for cell models. The combination of approach and puzzle creates a troublesome and interesting gameplay, extraordinarily helpful for these of you who’re looking out for contemporary approach video video games.
8. Samurai Vs. Zombies Safety – Defend your village from the zombie assault! Samurai Vs. Zombies Safety was launched in 2013 by Glu, and is all about approach – recruit allies and assemble defenses to protect your people in the direction of the zombie mass.
9. Iron Desert – In Iron Desert you are the commander, principal your forces to battle in the direction of merciless enemies inside the black desert. This sport was launched in 2014 by My.Com BV, and is actually an addictive warfare sport.
10. Spartan Wars – Ultimate nonetheless not least on the very best ten approach video video games for cell file. Moreover a Tap4Fun sport, launched in 2014, which takes place inside the historic metropolis of Sparta. In Spartan Wars you will lead your navy to beat the whole world and arrange a strong empire. The game combines every approach and place play simulation and has fantastic graphics.

domain: entertainment


text:
The Sixth Gun #1 Cgc 9.8 Signature Series Ss Bunn And Hurt Double Signed For Sale
This listing is for a beautiful CGC 9.8 copy of The Sixth Gun #1 signed by creators Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt. This book is super rare and has been optioned for a TV pilot. No need to hype further, you know how good this book is.
Check out my other listings for more awesome stuff and combine shipping on multiple purchases! Please note, any scuffs or scratches or weird lines are because my scanner is very old. The book and CGC case are mint.
This item has been shown 0 times.
The Sixth Gun #1 Cgc 9.8 Signature Series Ss Bunn And Hurt Double Signed:
Enormous #3 Lot Of Two Low Print Run 923 Rare 215 Ink
Shutter #7 Image Comics Scarce Austin Books Variant Comic
Guardians Of The Galaxy #6 2013 Comic Nm- 1:50 Paulo Rivera Variant
Guardians Of The Galaxy #3 2013 Comic Nm- 1:50 Leinil Yu Variant
The Sixth Gun #4 Comic Bunn Hurtt Nm- Oni Press Actual Scans
The Sixth Gun #1 Fcbd Edition Comic Bunn Hurtt Vf Oni Press
Wicked And Divine #1 Austin Variant G & H First Printing Set Of 2 Near Mint Ltd
The Sixth Gun #22 Comic Cullen Bunn Brian Hurtt Vfnm Oni Press
Mlp My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic #1 Ghost Variant Limited Release Nm
Justice League #19 Sketch Cover Comic Nm Dc Comic


Full Stack Engineer
Bellhops is the largest and fastest growing tech-enabled platform for moving services, serving 20+ U.S. cities. We are transforming the industry with a new breed of moving services that are accessible for everyone, including price conscious do-it-yourselfers and those who desire a simple, affordable, and trustworthy alternative to traditional movers.
We’re looking for engineers (2+ years experience) and senior engineers (6+ years experience) with product intuition who are passionate about building great web applications in a fast-paced, high-growth start-up environment.
As a full stack engineer, you'll be responsible for pushing applications into production environments used by our growing customer-base, Bellhops, and internal HQ employees. We're passionate and pumped to be disrupting an antiquated industry. Help us change the way people move.
- Team Player. You believe that you can achieve more on a team — that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You rely on others' candid feedback for continuous improvement.
- Iterative Design and Development. You think a MVP is the best way to make a point. You strive on proving that speed and quality are not conflicting; that you can achieve both at the same time.
- Versatility. In addition to having an intimate knowledge of the whole web stack, you understand how all the pieces fit together (front-end, database, network layer, etc.) and how they impact the performance of your application.
- Strong architecture chops. You know how to build highly scalable, robust, and fault-tolerant services that support our unique rate-of-growth requirements. You stay up-to-date with the latest architectural trends.
- Passion. You feel ownership over everything you ship; you'd never call code "released" until you’re confident it’s correct. You pride yourself on efficient monitoring, strong documentation, and proper test coverage.
- Design and business acumen. You understand requirements of a high-growth business. Whether you’re working on an API used by other developers, an internal tool used by Bellhops HQ operation teams, or a feature used customers, your attention to details leads to a delightful user experience.
- Health, Dental, Vision & 401K w/ company match
Bellhops is a nationwide, tech-enabled company that mobilizes awesome, beefy student labor for collegiate and small residential moving. Currently operating in dozens of cities nationwide, and contracting thousands of student Bellhops, we are reaching a growing number of clients rapidly. Since launching in 2011, we have executed thousands and thousands of moves by leveraging technology to provide a simple, affordable, on-demand solution for local micro-moving.
About Our Team:
We currently manage a growing e-commerce market and labor force management system for thousands of our contractors and customers nationwide. An engineer that works with us will be expected to adopt team practices and, after onboarding, will be expected to work closely with team members to solve the desires and needs of our customers and operations team. We aggressively test (TDD) and our new hire would need to be competent at completing test cycles for new features. We often pair program when making architectural design changes but will put our heads down on days when minor changes are requested. Our team operates at a fast pace and will cloud deploy multiple versions of our product continuously throughout the day. We’re growing quickly and our new team member is not only critical to our success but has a great deal of input into the course of the company from a technical perspective. We need your influence and we want your experience.


text:
New Delhi, Apr 04 (ANI): The biggest Marvel comic franchise, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ will be releasing on April 27 and fans have already started counting the days. In the era of social media, phone cameras often play a huge role in leaking the plot of the film and thereby spoiling the moment for fans that do not get to catch the first day first show. Owing those fans, the directors of the film, The Russo Brothers took to Twitter and requested the fans not to leak the plot of the film. ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ will witness the coming of superheroes from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Dr Strange’, ‘Spider Man’, ‘Black Panther’ and the original team of ‘Avengers’.
Peoples are using these keywords: Thanos, Avengers, Avengers: infinity war release date, Russo brothers, Avengers: infinity war


Posted by Natalie Layne on Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Children’s Lit on the Web
A new article from Mo Willems about getting your child to read.
Elizabeth Bird, of School Library Journal’s blog A Fuse #8 Production, has compiled a top 100 list for picture books using suggestions from readers of School Library Journal. Take a look here and find your favorites!
The DC public libraries put on a great summer program for kids this summer. Check out the details here.
One more about our beloved Mr. Sendak.
Happy reading, Brookline! Stay tuned for our fall schedule, featuring a new craft series for children 6-10!
Tags: | Permalink


text:
The protesters wanted to start the march at Daley Plaza, but last Thursday, a judge sided with the city in rejecting that plan, saying it would create traffic and security problems.
Now, the group says it will agree to a proposal by the city to begin the march in Grant Park.
The activists want the march to end close enough to McCormick Place to allow them to be seen and heard by the world leaders attending the Summit.
If they do not have a written agreement by Wednesday, the group is threatening to take the matter to federal court.
The city is considering the plan.

domain: sociology


Xbox 1 E3 Announcement: Why It Was So Absolutely Scary
There is more to PRISM than just NSA slides and government data mining. We now know that the government has recorded our emails and phone calls. But what more are they recording?
On Monday, two major tech conferences showcased the future of technological innovation: Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) presented the cutting-edge, game-changing iOS 7 Apple mobile operating system, and the new Macbook laptop; simultaneously, E3, the biggest public gaming conference in the world, saw Microsoft present it's next-generation Xbox console to gamers, which boasts a new motion-censor Kinect feature that scans the room and allows you to remotely control the system with a swipe of your hand or a voice command.
Both companies, Apple and Microsoft, have been implicated as collaborators in the PRISM scandal.
Both companies showcased new tech innovations that are more deeply connected to everything we do than ever before.
At E3 and WWDC, the future of PRISM was on display.
The PRISM scandal which has rocked Washington and Silicon Valley underlines a relatively new challenge to the core values of American society: For the first time in history the government can, literally, track everything we do.
It's kind of always been assumed, though, right? The "government" is "everywhere" and sees "everything" ... straight out of 1984.
But 1984 has always been fiction, no matter how close it imitated reality. The PRISM scandal, to lay it bare, is scary because it proves that fiction has become reality.
Our vast technological web is becoming more and more entwined with everything we do — it's our social life and our professional life; technology maintains our deepest secrets, and provides a public image for who we are. Technology is who we are. And the government and major technological industry has exploited this feature of our modern world. That's what makes PRISM so frustrating.
But it gets worse when you think that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and the battle we're waging today with PRISM may just be the start of many more civil liberties battles to come.
PRISM brought to light privacy issues in the tech world, but one of the top tech companies at the heart of this scandal — Microsoft — has been defending itself over privacy allegations weeks before Edward Snowden leakes a couple of classified files.
This particular issue centered on Mincrosoft's Xbox One, which is billed as the next-generation of gaming and an evolution in entertainment. Xbox One has been subject to an absolute firestorm of criticism from hardcore gamers who have called the new console invasive. The Xbox One is built on a couple of outlandish features:
- Xbox One will always be on, in stand-by, and plugged into a broadband connection;
- Consoles will have to check-in online every 24 hours;
- If you're playing your games on another console, you'll have to check-in every hour;
- Added to this feature is the Xbox Kinect, a motion-censor device which tracks users' voice and hand commands, almost like an all-seeing Xbox eye.
So you have an "always-on" Xbox tracking you with the Kinect "eye," beaming info back to some Microsoft cloud ceneter which, as we now know, is tapped by the government.
The criticsm about Xbox One was so loud, it prompeted Microsoft to issue detailed information on the console before the E3 event on Monday, in which they said: "If you don’t want the Kinect sensor on while playing games or enjoying your entertainment, you can pause Kinect."
The fact that a gaming company has to make that clear distinction is scary. I mean, this is a video game console. Which kids play. Not some high-tech NSA mumbo jumbo. A next-gen video game console.
Technology is our society. Look around you. Any street corner. Any office. Any shopping mall. Any restaurant. You will see people tapping on touchscreens. We come home and turn on the TV. We play video games. We play Wii bowling and Snapchat chats that don't really delete with our significant others. Technology is constantly evolving. We wait and foam at the mouth when E3 shows us the new Xbox, or WWDC gives us the next Apple gadget. We want Siri to understand us better and Kinect to respond to our hand motion better. We want technology to be more seamless, more integrated in our lives.
The new Xbox gaming system and the "top secret" PRISM scandal: At the the intersection of two completely different news items we see the future of privacy battles. The future of technology is also the future of civil liberties.


text:
Home sales in Lawrence plunge 45% in latest report; single-family home construction also on pace for new low in 2023
photo by: Shutterstock
Home sales in Lawrence continue to fall, and now are doing so at a rate significantly faster than our neighbors in the Kansas City metro area.
But on the flip side, housing prices are beginning to fall, and they too are dropping at a rate faster than in Kansas City communities.
Lawrence home sales dropped by 45% in April, according to the latest figures from the Lawrence Board of Realtors. There were just 63 home sales in April, which usually is a busy month as buyers look to finalize deals in time for a summer move.
The 45% drop continued a trend for the year, but it was the steepest drop yet in 2023. For the year, home sale totals in Lawrence are down 32.5% compared with the same period a year ago.
Home sales have been dropping in many communities as mortgage interest rates have risen. But the decline in sales in Lawrence is now more than twice as steep as what’s occurring in the Kansas City metro area.
According to the latest report from the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, homes sales in the KC region are down 18% through April.
Lawrence, though, may be facing pressures that go beyond interest rates. Local real estate agents for several years have said the pace of new home construction in the city is inadequate to create a healthy housing market. Real estate leaders amplified that concern with this latest report.
“While other communities in Kansas, and across the country, are showing helpful increases in new construction homes, Lawrence is well behind the trend and simply is not producing enough new homes to keep up with demand,” Brian Johnson, president of the Lawrence Board of Realtors, said in the report. “The City of Lawrence needs to prioritize the investment in infrastructure needed to facilitate construction of new homes in a variety of styles and price ranges. Affordable housing starts with more housing.”
Single-family home construction hit a new low in 2022, with only 79 new homes built in a community that in previous decades routinely used to build 300-plus new homes a year. Thus far, the downturn is accelerating in 2023. Through April, the city has issued only 12 single-family building permits. That’s down from 25 single-family building permits issued through April 2022.
In other words, after hitting a historic low of 79 single-family building permits in 2022 — and with the market getting news that 4,000 jobs are coming to nearby De Soto for a Panasonic battery plant — Lawrence is now on pace to issue just 38 single-family building permits in all of 2023.
But Lawrence is not alone in struggling to boost single-family home construction. The latest report from the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City shows the metro area is also posting some of its lowest single-family home construction totals in years. Single-family building permits are down nearly 39% from the same period a year ago in the KC metro area, according to the report.
The metro area has seen 1,083 single-family housing starts in the first four months of 2023. That’s the slowest start to a year since at least 2016, according to the report. The last time the KC metro area failed to start at least 1,500 homes by the end of April was in 2019, when the market produced just over 1,200 single-family housing starts.
Still, Lawrence’s decline in single-family home construction is significantly outpacing the dropoff in Kansas City, with Lawrence checking in with a 52% decline in single-family building permits thus far in 2023.
That could be enough to account for why Lawrence is seeing home sale totals fall at a much faster rate than the Kansas City market. There are signs that new housing construction is becoming more important in the real estate market.
Will Ruder, executive vice president of the Kansas City home builders association, said that historically about 10% of home sales in the KC market came from newly constructed homes. But more recent numbers show that about 40% of all active listings in the Kansas City market are newly constructed homes, he said in the home builders’ April report.
“Current homeowners with a sub-three percent fixed rate mortgage are understandably more reluctant to sell, so it’s difficult to imagine an increase in the number of existing homes hitting the market any time soon,” Ruder said in the report. “New home construction is going to be an increasingly important component of the regional housing mix.”
If so, that could be bad news for Lawrence.
People looking for a home in Lawrence, though, have seen some falling prices recently. April was the second month in a row that median selling prices of homes fell in Lawrence. The median selling price of homes in April was $275,000, down 13.5% from April 2022 totals. Year to date, the median selling price in Lawrence is down 5.8% to $282,500.
The Kansas City metro area, in contrast, is seeing average selling prices increase slightly. The median selling price in the KC market is up 0.5% to $275,000 thus far in 2023.
Here are a few other items of note from Lawrence’s April real estate report:
• Homes continue to sell quickly. The median number of days a home sits on the market before selling is five thus far in 2023. That’s one day longer than the average was at this point in 2022.
• The Lawrence market did end April with significantly more homes for sale than it did last year. The April report lists 107 homes that were actively on the market. That’s up from 78 homes during April 2022.
• Pending contracts, which provide a glimpse of sales that are likely to get booked in the next month or so, were down at the end of April. There were 149 pending contracts compared with 170 in April 2022.
• The Lawrence real estate industry as a whole is taking a big hit in its top line revenue. With falling homes sales and now some falling prices, the Lawrence real estate sector has sold $22.4 million worth of homes thus far in 2023. That’s down from $39.3 million at this point in 2022.

domain: finance


text:
Robert Sutherland Rattray
Robert Sutherland Rattray, CBE, known as Captain R. S. Rattray (1881, India – 1938) was an early Africanist and student of the Ashanti. He was one of the early writers on Oware, and on Ashanti gold weights.
Rattray was born in India of Scottish parents. In 1906 he joined the Gold Coast Customs Service. In 1911 he became the assistant District Commissioner at Ejura. Learning local languages, he was appointed head of the Anthropological Department of Asante in 1921. He retired in 1930. He was killed while flying a glider in 1938.
- Vernon Blake, "The Aesthetic of Ashanti".
- Hausa Folk-lore, translated from Maalam Shaihua's original, 1913.
- Ashanti Proverbs: the primitive ethics of a savage people: translated from the original with grammatical and anthropological notes, 1916 (repub. 1969). With a preface by Sir Hugh Clifford.
- Ashanti, 1923.
- (ed.) Religion and Art in Ashanti, Oxford University Press, 1927.
- Ashanti Law and Constitution, 1929.
- Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales. Collected and translated by ... R. S. Rattray ... and illustrated by Africans of the Gold Coast Colony, 1930.
- The Tribes of the Ashanti Hinterland Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2 vols., 1932.
- A Short History of Ashanti Gold Weights
- Daniel Miles McFarland, Historical Dictionary of Ghana, 1985, p. 153.
- Noel Machin, "Government Anthropologist": a life of R.S. Rattray, 1998
- Captain R. S. Rattray, C.B.E
- Works by or about Robert Sutherland Rattray at Internet Archive
- Works by or about Robert Sutherland Rattray in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
|This article about a writer or poet from the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|

domain: library


text:
Come get ’em while they’re hot (or free) 😉
- Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase
- A FAERIE FATED FOREVER by Mary Anne Graham
- Her Wiccan, Wiccan Ways: A Rhiannon Godfrey story, book 1 by Traci Hall
- Waterfall: A Novel (River of Time Series) by Lisa T. Bergren —> SO many amazing 5 star reviews on this one – and it appears to be about time travel (back in time to Italy) wooo hoo!!
I’ve read strange neighbors, it’s a good shorter read and makes you want to read the rest of the (neighbors) books!


text:
Still reaping the benefits of Restaurant Week last Thursday, I had a great meal at City Lobster and Steak in Midtown. Despite my fear of fish still inside their shells (and my fear of never getting good seafood in Midtown), I thought it was great; from the service to the food, everything was spot on and in some cases, better than I expected.
We started out the meal with shrimp cocktail and the fried calamari, aka two of my favorite seafood appetizers in existence. The shrimp might have been injected with HGH or something because they were so meaty and big. Loved it. The fried calamari came with a thai lime dressing and a side of spicy mayo for dipping – we got an extra order of the spicy mayo because it was that good.
The lobster bake was a 1-1/4 lb lobster steamed with mussels, clams, potatoes and corn on the cob. For a restaurant week menu, it was a sizeable portion, and even though I was afraid it was going to get up and walk off the table, I tasted some and it was very fresh. I got the Bahamian Grouper with scallops, clams, mussels, lobster and shrimp in a light tomato and clam broth. I normally don't really like clams, but this was delicious. The fish was perfectly cooked, and the sauce was not fishy or 'clammy', with pieces of lemony artichokes in it. I ate every. last. bite.
Best part of Restaurant Week? Dessert is comin, whether you like it or not (you like it). We got the blueberry shortcake with vanilla ice cream and peaches, and the profiteroles with espresso ice cream and chocolate sauce. This was tough, because I'm normally a chocaholic and coffee-addict, but the blueberry shortcake was so seasonal and fresh, I loved the sweet berries and peaches sitting in a bowl of ice cream. The shortcake was a nice addition; a semi-sweet sponge that soaked up all the creamy goodness. NUMS.
I would definitely come back here, but I noticed that they don't have the prices on the menu anywhere for the lobster/main dishes, which is something steakhouses (or any uber-expensive restaurant) will do. I usually like to know what I'm getting into…so I guess I'll advise that if you come here and it's not Restaurant Week…make sure it's not "Just Paid My Rent Week".
City Lobster and Steak
121 West 49th Street, btwn 6th and 7th aves

domain: food


text:
A Portrait of Citizen Diplomacy
"Precisely because I am a private citizen, I can act without the restrictions of profit, position or policy. My only position is that of an ordinary human being, and it is in that role that I hoped, in some small way, to bring together and consolidate the will for peace into a global commitment."1--Daisaku Ikeda
In 1974, Daisaku Ikeda traveled to the Soviet Union and met with Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin and other Soviet officials.
Ikeda's trip had been undertaken amid a storm of criticism from the Japanese media and political figures. Criticism centered on the question of what purpose the leader of a Buddhist organization could have visiting a country whose defining ideology rejected religion and discouraged religious belief. This was in the midst of the Cold War, and visceral hostility toward the Soviet Union permeated Japanese society. Tensions between the Soviet Union and China had also been escalating, with the threat of military confrontation looming. Ikeda's response to these critics was at once simple and reflective of his fundamental approach to diplomacy: "I am going to the Soviet Union because there are people there."
Consolidating the Will for Peace
Fostering person-to-person ties: Ikeda and Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin at the Kremlin (Moscow, 1974)
Ikeda's motive for his visit of building bonds of friendship was roundly criticized as naive. He described later, however, a personal sense of urgency to act in whatever way he could to help improve the situation. "I was deeply concerned about the effect on the ordinary people of the world of the tense relations . . . Nothing could be more regrettable, I believed, than for future generations to be forced to live in mutual suspicion and constant fear of a Third World War."2
Just four months prior to his trip to the Soviet Union, Ikeda had paid his first visit to China. He recalled the sight of children helping construct underground bomb shelters at their schools in case of attack on China. "The threat of war had even cast its ominous shadow over these children. It was a painful sight,"3 he wrote.
Ikeda was struck powerfully by the yearning for peace he sensed among the ordinary citizens of the Soviet Union, a country that had seen its cities razed and millions of its people killed in World War II. For Ikeda, this was confirmation of universal human sentiments--the desire for happiness and peace--transcending national and ideological differences.
During his visit to the Soviet Union, Ikeda was at pains to be frank and open, building genuine relations with the individuals he met.
With students of Moscow State University (September 1974)
Moscow University's Leon Strijak, who was the interpreter for Ikeda's meeting with Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin in 1974, recalls: "The subject matter of the Ikeda-Kosygin meeting was quite different from that normally discussed by Japanese delegations visiting Moscow. They spoke about war and peace, about war and its victims and how to prevent war."4
Reportedly, Kosygin was initially doubtful about meeting with the Buddhist leader. Ikeda began, however, by describing his poignant impressions from his recent visit to Leningrad. The city, now St. Petersburg, had suffered an appalling toll in human lives in the infamously brutal Siege of Leningrad during World War II. Strijak recalls: "Listening to him, Kosygin's wary expression began to soften, and he replied, 'I, too, was at Leningrad at that time.' That broke the ice, and they seemed to open their hearts following that point."5
During the dialogue Ikeda asked Kosygin whether the Soviet Union had any intention of attacking China. Kosygin assured him that it did not and agreed that Ikeda could convey this to the Chinese leadership.
The Dimension of Our Shared Humanity
Ikeda's forthright attitude won the trust of the political, academic and cultural figures he met with in the Soviet Union. He continued to cultivate and build upon such friendships with individuals around the globe; many of them spanned decades.
Ikeda's friendship with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has blossomed since 1990.
The depth of these relationships is evident in the touching personal tributes paid to Ikeda by these leaders. On Premier Kosygin's death, for example, his daughter presented Ikeda with a number of the communist leader's personal effects and described the warm tones in which her father had spoken at home of his encounter with Ikeda.
The trust and respect Ikeda established is also attested to by the many academic and other awards with which he was presented. Moscow State University was, in 1975, the first university to present Ikeda with an honorary doctorate. Today, the number of such academic awards from institutions of higher education around the world stands at over 400.

domain: history


text:
Meta's Threads goes the Twitter way, imposes rate limit on posts, Elon Musk says..
Twitter rival Threads has implemented rate limits to combat spam accounts. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri made the announcement, prompting criticism from Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who has previously accused Threads of being a copycat app.
Twitter rival Threads has announced imposing a rate limit to the posts in order to ward off spam accounts. The announcement by Instagram CEO has drawn a sharp reaction from Twitter CEO Elon Musk who has criticized Meta's latest social media offering from day one.
This is not the first time that Musk has called Threads a ‘copy cat’ app. Soon after the launch of Meta's latest social media app, Musk threatened a lawsuit alleged the social media behemoth of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property."
Twitter claimed that Meta had recruited numerous former Twitter employees who had allegedly kept unauthorized devices and documents from their time at Twitter and these employees were assigned to work on the Threads app.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk led Twitter had decided to impose a temporary restriction on post limit that can be viewed by verified and non-verified users. Musk said that the limit was being imposed in order to deal with extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation. However, later in a blogpost Twitter noted that the move was taken in order to detect and eliminate spams, bots and other bad actos from the platform.
Musk had earlier announced that unverified Twitter users would be able to view 600 posts a day while verified users could view 6,000 posts per day. This limit was later increased to 10,000 posts for verified users and 1,000 for unverified users. Last weekend, Musk again announced a 50% increase on the rate limit.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!


text:
Just got laid off, has 5 kids, and needed work urgently.
I was trying to hire her since I knew she had the skills– but I wasn’t able to coordinate key details.
The anxiety and emotion of the last couple of weeks had her in a panic state, preventing her from being able to listen.
Imagine you’re a 911 operator…
People are calling you in a state of emergency.
It’s your job to listen at first, show empathy, and then provide instruction.
When someone is in a state of panic, they aren’t able to properly reason or listen.
I know this is true for me (and you, too)– so if I’m feeling any sort of emotion, especially fear, I will defer making a decision.
The decision you make under panic and fear is one you will regret later.
Some people use the HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, tired) method to diagnose and relieve problems.
I did end up hiring her, but it could have been a lot easier.
Be okay with slowing down and repeating yourself.
We’re in a crisis, so be ultra-sensitive to how people are feeling.
Pretend you’re a 911 operator, being calm when others are in a panic– even though you’re facing real challenges, too.

domain: psychology


text:
Save the Children Recalls Mugs
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ A mug maker for the Save the Children charity has recalled nearly 2,400 mugs after several showed high levels of lead during tests in California.
A Save the Children spokeswoman said Tuesday night the mugs met federal guidelines for lead content, but had more lead than a voluntary standard to be introduced in California in April 1999.
California’s Department of Health Services put out a warning to consumers Tuesday to stop using two types of 20-ounce Save the Children mugs.
The department said samples of the ``Popsicle Faces″ mug and the ``Here comes Santa″ mug were tested and found to have 21.6 parts per million of lead and 57 ppm of lead, respectively. That’s higher than the 4 ppm-level the state plans to adopt as a voluntary standard next year.
The current voluntary industry standard, set by the Washington-based Society of Glass and Ceramic Decorators, is 25 parts per million.
Tony Reed, director of licensing for the Westport-based charity, said 2,380 of the questionable mugs were distributed nationwide.
The company that makes and distributes the mugs, Norwalk-based Centrum Corporation, has ordered all mugs remaining on store shelves to be destroyed, Reed said. Centrum also asked stores that carry the mugs to hang signs informing customers of California’s health warning.
It was unclear how many of the mugs already had been sold, but many remained on store shelves because the 20-ounce size was not a fast-seller, she said.
Lead is toxic to humans, especially small children and pregnant women. Representatives of Centrum did not return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The recall is the charity’s second publicity mishap this year. The Chicago Tribune reported in March that Save the Children and three other children’s relief organizations often gave little or no benefits directly to children who were sponsored.
In response, the group said it does not try to fool sponsors, specifying in its ads and literature that the money is used for the entire community in which the child lives.
Reed said eighty cents of every dollar donated to the organization, active in 40 countries, goes to children’s programs in health, education, humanitarian relief and to building small enterprises.


text:
Boundary Vision is the home for writing, photography and visual art by M-C Shanahan, Professor of STEM and Design Education at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. M-C studies identity, language, media and gender and their influence on participation and engagement with science, technology and engineering by people of all ages.
As a professor…
In my professional world, I am a science education, design and communications researcher interested in the social parts of science, technology and engineering. How can students feel welcome and accepted in science and technology classes and programs? How can adults feel comfortable and confident learning about new scientific and public health information? How can we invite adults and children to participate in computation and coding in public spaces?
With a background in mechanical engineering, I started my career as a junior and senior high school science teacher and I realized the complexity of the decisions that students make at that age about who they are, what matters to them and what they’re interested in. Students that I thought were excellent science would often say things to me like “Oh Miss, I’d never study science after high school. I’m just not a science person.”
Inspired by those students I returned to graduate school to do research in the sociology of science and science education. After completing an MA and PhD at the University of Toronto, I am now a professor at the University of Calgary. I do research into language, communication and identity in science both in education settings and in public communication, such as in the media, social media, and public spaces like museums and science centres. Our Mind, Matter and Media lab website (co-lead with Dr. Pratim Sengupta) has links to recent collaborative projects with the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Telus Spark in Calgary.
If you really want to learn more about what I do at work: MCShanahan CV
Photography and Visual Art
I am a self-taught photographer and began my practice by teaching myself to work with film and a broken hand-me-down camera in my early twenties as a way to document travels and adventures. I wandered around Toronto on the weekends, without light meter, guessing at exposures and writing copious notes along the way. But a few years later, my camera broke completely and I got swept into the current of adult life: grad school, partner, move across the country for a job, start a family. It was only recently, that I’ve had the chance to pick up a camera again and explore what I have to say with it. As someone with a busy full time job and caregiving responsibilities, it was first out of necessity that my artistic practice was tied to my every day: taking photos to learn and develop while around the house, while working, or at the playground or dog park. I now embrace that as an opportunity. My work focuses on capturing the moments that might seem mundane but are where we were actually construct who we are. I don’t typically extensively plan or set up my photos, but I carry my camera or phone nearly all the time and pay attention. My photos are glimpses of what I see and notice while living. I try to create photos that invite the viewer see what I see and feel what I feel, sensorially and emotionally.
Why is the blog called Boundary Vision?
As an MA student, one of the papers that I most vividly remember changing my understanding of science was Thomas Gieryn’s (1983) Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science. In it and his later work he creates a very striking analogy of cartography as a way of thinking about science. Nothing is as simple as science vs. not-science or science people vs. non-science people. Instead it’s a complex terrain with boundaries that are negotiated and fought over but also very real. The topics that I cover here take this view. I’m interested in shining a light on the places where science and education and culture overlap and have to share and negotiate territory. To reflect that aim, my brother Vancouver musician and artist Tony Dubroy created Boundary Vision’s beautiful light bulb header image.


text:
Botanical science is the basis for all serious discussion of garden plants, the foundation for everything we know about the plants we grow. By classifying and describing our garden plants in an impartial scientific way, science provides a dependable basis for discussing and growing the plants. And the public expression of this fundamental research is the botanical monograph.
For more than twenty five years the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the greatest botanical institution in the world, has been publishing a series of monographs in association with the venerable Curtis’s Botanical magazine, founded in 1787. The latest title has recently appeared.
The Genus Erythronium (cover left, click to enlarge) continues in the style of its predecessors. The simple and elegant design of the pages entices us into the depth of the comprehensive content while the fourteen paintings, shared mainly between two fine, artists Christabel King and Pandora Sellars, combine the beauty of the individual species with botanical accuracy. These are augmented by more than sixty photographs, and 30 color distribution maps (below, click to enlarge).
The text by Chris Clennet, the Gardens Manager at Kew’s satellite garden at Wakehurst Place in Sussex, covers the 29 species with the thoroughness we expect although it’s only fair to be clear that the language of the descriptions is necessarily botanical. The natural distribution and ecology is discussed thoroughly and there are very helpful notes on the cultivation of each species are the result of years of experience and research.
There’s also an invaluable descriptive list of 49 garden hybrids and selections, the plants that are most widely available from nurseries and which most non-specialist gardeners actually grow. Included are useful notes on the distinctive features that separate similar plants.
The book is not intended for the occasional gardener. But for serious enthusiasts and growers, and for people like me helping everyday gardeners choose good plants and grow them well, books like this are indispensible.
I was fortunate to be involved in the publication of the very first books in this series, back in the late 1980s, and it’s heartening to see that the tradition is thriving. However, my admiration and appreciation of these books is tempered a little by one important point: the price. In spite of support from the Finnis Scott Foundation established on behalf of my old friend, the legendary plantswoman Valerie Finnis, this 148 page book is listed at £52.00/$85.00, which puts it beyond the range of many who would appreciate it. But it’s made me want to plant more erythroniums.
Look out for the latest in the series - Meconopsis. Out in the UK now, due in the US in January.
The Genus Erythronium by Chris Clennet is published by Kew Books and distributed in North America by the University of Chicago Press.
For more on erythroniums, see my blog post from back in 2006.


text:
On February 3rd, 1959 the plane carrying Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on the flight, but he gave up his seat to the Big Bopper. Ritchie Valens was only in the plane, some say, because he won a coin toss with […]Read more "The Day the Music Died – February 3rd 1959"
It looks as if man-spreading is nothing new. In 1946 a young photogapher by the name of Stanley Kubrick took pictures on New York’s subway and sold them to Look Magazine. Kubick took photos for Look for several years before turning to film-making. I think aesthetically recording spontaneous action, rather than carefully posing a picture, […]Read more "Man-spreading is nothing new … just ask Stanley Kubrick"
It should be explained at the outset that we cannot observe the killing of cats at firsthand. We can study it only through Contat’s narrative, written about twenty years after the event.Read more "Teaser Tuesdays"
We are rapidly approaching Peak Cocoa, according to both Mars and Callebaut (the two biggest chocolate-makers in the world.)Read more "We Are Approaching Peak Cocoa"
by Niall McArdle Here’s a rather sobering image to start your week: a map of every car bomb explosion in Baghdad since 2003, courtesy of @BrilliantMaps (well worth following) A map of every car bomb explosion in Baghdad since 2003. pic.twitter.com/A85jier0Ha — Brilliant Maps (@BrilliantMaps) October 19, 2014 The image originally appeared in the Guardian‘s Datablog here.Read more "A map of every car bomb explosion in Baghdad since 2003"
This is a reposting of a piece I wrote about James Rorke, originally published at World Irish. Click here to read it.Read more "The Story of Rorke’s Drift: The Irishman and the Zulus"
By Niall McArdle Today, June 6th, is the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. The success of Operation Overlord owed more than a little to a man from Ballymore, Co. Wexford. Commander Rickard Charlie Donovan, RN, CBE (1898-1952), a son of the Irish Ascendancy, was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges in Osborne and Dartmouth. […]Read more "The Wexford Man Who Helped Plan D-Day"
He was actually working at his hospital in London on the morning of the race, and had to take the train to Oxford in the afternoon.Read more "The 60th Anniversary of the Four-Minute Mile"
By Niall McArdle May 1st is – among other things – International Workers Day. The date was chosen to commemorate the Haymarket Riot in May 1886 Fittingly, Seattle raised the minimum wage to $15 today. You can read my story about the real-life Mother Jones here.Read more "Happy May Day!"
We’ve gone from A to Z, Alpha to Omega, Aleph to Taw, Dot Dash to Dash Dash Dot Dot, 01100001 to 01011010Read more "April A to Z: Zen, Zeno, Zero, Zonkeys"


text:
An accountant and a peon of Health Directorate were arrested by City Police on Thursday for bungling ` 40 lakh by stealing leaves from the office cheque books.
The two used to siphon off the cash to the account of a medicine store owner of Berhampur. The account has been frozen.
According to IIC of Capital Police Station Asim Panda, accountant Antaryami Sahu along with peon Manoj Jena used to take away leaves from cheque books. Over a period of two months, they had misappropriated at least six leaves and encashed four of them for `10 lakh each.
The cash used to be parked in the account of Manoj Mohapatra, a friend of Jena. When the Directorate came across the missing cheques, it looked for bank statements which reflected bungling of ` 40 lakh. Following this, a complaint was lodged with Capital Police. “We verified the cheques and have frozen the account of Mohapatra who has been arrested,” Panda said.


The fate of the American health care system now rests with a group of allegedly “moderate” senators, who are getting ready to approve a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a repeal bill so monumental in its cruelty that they feel they have no choice but to draft it in secret, not let the public know what it does, hold not a single hearing or committee markup, slip it in a brown paper package to the Congressional Budget Office, then push it through to a vote before the July 4th recess before the inevitable backlash gets too loud.
“We aren’t stupid,” one GOP Senate aide told Caitlin Owens — they know what would happen if they made their bill public. Even Republican senators who aren’t part of the 13-member working group crafting the bill haven’t been told exactly what’s in it.
Today, we learned that in a break with longstanding precedent, “Senate officials are cracking down on media access, informing reporters on Tuesday that they will no longer be allowed to film or record audio of interviews in the Senate side hallways of the Capitol without special permission.” Everyone assumes that it’s so those senators can avoid having to appear on camera being asked uncomfortable questions about a bill that is as likely to be as popular as Ebola. As Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News tweeted about the secrecy with which this bill is being advanced, “I have covered every major health bill in Congress since 1986. Have NEVER seen anything like this.”


INGERSOLL ROAD EN3 -TEMPORARY RESTRICTION OF TRAFFICNotice ID: WAT2056622
INGERSOLL ROAD EN3 -TEMPORARY RESTRICTION OF TRAFFIC
Further information may be obtained by telephoning Traffic & Transportation on 020 8379 2039
1. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that in order to facilitate essential Utility works on Ingersoll Road EN3, the Council of the London Borough of Enfield propose to make the Enfield (Ingersoll Road EN3) (Temporary Restriction of Traffic) Order 2021 under section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.
2. The effect of the Order would be to prohibit traffic:
(i) from entering or proceeding on Ingersoll Road at its junction with Hertford Road EN3; and
(ii) from waiting and loading on the north and south sides of Ingersoll Road from Its Junction with Hertford road for a distance of approximately 50 metres eastwards, as and when directed by signage.
3. The prohibitions referred to in paragraph 2 above would not apply to works vehicles or, if the works allow, to police or emergency services vehicles.
4. The prohibitions would come into operation on 26 April 2021 and would continue in force for approximately 5 days or until works are completed.
5. Whilst the prohibitions are in force the diversion route would be via Hertford Road, Riley Road, Elmore Road Ingersoll Road and vice versa.
Dated 14 April 2021
David B. Taylor Head of Traffic and Transportation


text:
Perched on a rooftop, playing a gig to an audience halfway across the world, Aussie singer-songwriter Matt Boylan-Smith explains to them the lightning-crack moment he knew he needed to stop his part-time dabbling in music, and embrace his ambition fully – witnessing The Lumineers play ‘Morning Song’ to a rapt Sydney crowd – before launching into a gorgeous cover version of his own.
“I was performing at the time while also working full time, and went and watched their gig,” he tells me now, the memory of that Sydney show still completely fresh. “It’s a beautiful song on their album, but watching it live made me realise that to perform with such passion would require me to completely give myself to music.
“It was a subconscious decision in retrospect,” he adds. “I explained this feeling I had during a show on a roof top in Athens, as it was there that I realised that I had given myself completely to music and had an audience listening to my songs on the other side of the world.
It vindicated my inner decision to pursue music with every part of me
“It was an incredibly powerful moment, interacting on a deeply personal level with the audience, observing tears and laughter from my songs, and it vindicated my inner decision to pursue music with every part of me.”
With the stability of a full-time job the one thing holding him back, as it is for plenty of aspiring musicians, it wasn’t an easy decision for Matt to make, but he knew it was the right one – and it’s since lead him to opportunities from overseas tours, to performing at the Sydney Opera House for its 40th anniversary.
The Lumineers’ ‘Morning Song’ led Matt to life as a musician
“I was conflicted mostly because I’d studied and worked on something that was secure and guaranteed to support my bank account,” he admits. “My family didn’t have much money growing up, and I guess and I thought I’d have to slave my ass away at doing something I wasn’t completely passionate about to enact change.
“The leap was more about leaving this feeling of needing to be financially viable behind, and to keep fearlessly pursuing music. It was at this point I started travelling and touring, and really improving my songwriting.”
The journey so far
“I’ve loved it,” Matt enthuses, when asked about his experiences over the last handful of years, and the expectations he had of what a life in music would entail. “I’ve performed in some wonderful cities and met extraordinary people doing so. I’ve played with beautiful musicians that inspire me in different ways.
“I can’t say whether it’s lived up to expectations,” he adds, “as I’ve tried not to set too many in terms of where I want to be – all I wanted was to live off my art and be content, and so that expectation is being met.”
It’s hard to tell your story when you’re living life through others
Matt dabbles in a style of acoustic music that is often very narrative-driven and intimate and, especially as a solo artist, the task of songwriting can be a particularly demanding one – with each musician having to become comfortable with their own methods in time.
“In terms of song-writing I don’t necessarily find the process difficult,” Matt explains, “it was more about getting to know my process. I can write a song in ten minutes, or some take ten years. They can be a little prophetic in how they work and it’s sometimes that I’ll leave a song and come back to it when I feel I’ve grown into it.”
Matt performs his song ‘Beacon In The Sky’ in Buenos Aires
For fellow songwriters, Matt believes the key to doing your best work is becoming comfortable with yourself, in order to tap into your own stories. “Just live and be yourself,” he says. “With narrative songs, it’s hard to tell your story when you’re living life through others.
“And when an idea comes, write it down. Whatever it is, record it, and then you can come back to it when you’re ready. A verse can appear one day, and the next verse might appear five years later.”
While songwriting comes with its own challenges, so does being a singer-songwriter in Australia, a country that, despite its clear love and affinity for music, brings unique hurdles.
“With the sparse population outside of cities it’s a challenge to gain momentum on a tour,” Matt says, “and all it means is driving or flying to gigs which can make it hard financially – but on the plus side you’re meeting new audiences.”
Smaller venues have opened up that are conducive to soloists, which is a good way for singer-songwriters to hone their craft
The challenges for an emerging artist aren’t merely geographic, though, with Australia’s music scene undergoing steady shifts in culture, and the way it engages with artists.
“There has been a slight reluctance in the Australian audience to actively find new music,” Matt believes. “I’m finding that this is slowly changing and I find I get amazing support from my home community of Bathurst, and am seeing great support for singers coming up there, so I think the trend is improving.”
“In Sydney there’s the much reported problem with lock out laws and residential noise complaints against venues,” he adds, having had plenty of experience now playing in the city. “I understand people’s need to sleep and keep a normal life, but it’s hard to justify having a problem with noise when you moved next to a bar or live music venue.”
‘Johnny’ tells the heart-wrenching story of a soldier returning from war
While lockouts and noise complaints have crippled the city in some ways, they’ve also brought with them new opportunities for performers like Matt, in what he’s seen as a return to the more intimate ‘pub’ gigs of decades past.
“It’s meant that smaller venues have opened up that are conducive to soloists, which is a good way for singer-songwriters to hone their craft. It just seems like legislation and a lack of arts support has meant that the scene isn’t as ambitious in what it is capable of.
“It’s not all gloom though – I’ve been part of some pretty magnificent gigs,” he adds. “I supported Sarah McLeod recently at Factory Floor – the audience there was raucous – and I also played at the Basement with Jeff Martin (The Tea Party), which was excellent.”
Collaboration and inspiration
While he’s played solo gigs across the world, and is about to launch back into another European run, some of Matt’s biggest exposure has come from collaborations with artists of completely different genres like electronic producers Alora & Senii, a tactic that he feels artists should consider pursuing, if it feels right for them.
“These collaborations happen from people finding my songs online,” Matt explains. “The narrative style of my tracks perhaps lends itself to being able to be used across genres, and in this case on a few deep house tracks.
My narrative style perhaps lends itself to being able to be used across genres – in this case on a few deep house tracks
“The tracks were great on their own, but adding lyrics and melodic structure worked to give them more context,” he feels. “There has been a trend recently for people/producers to simply remix existing tracks into different genres, but it was nice to write and be involved in a more organic way from the genesis of the songs.
Unexpected deep house collabs helped Matt find a whole new audience
“It’s important to branch out and collaborate because in all that’s how we grow,” he asserts. “But I also understand the need to stick to the essence of what we do as writers and performers. I tell stories, and was able to do this in the context of our songs that we worked on together.
“‘Down By The Ocean’ charted on some viral charts on Spotify in Germany and Finland, and since then I’ve had more offers of collaborations come through – it helped both of us reach a new audience we may not have accessed before.”
It shows that a heap of work leads to longevity
In terms of more local inspirations, Matt looks to the other Sydney artists making strides recently, especially the ones going it solo.
“It’s been great to see Julia Jacklin come through,” he says. “I remember playing a folk night with her a few years back for FBi Radio, and to see her reaching audiences across the world is splendid.
“I just worked with Cate Hartmen on the clip for ‘We Can Be Together’, and she works with Julia on some of her vids too, so it’s still a nice little community we have here in Sydney,” he reflects. “Smith & Jones from Bathurst are a class act too, and are doing well in the country side of things, which is great to see.”
Matt’s brand new single, produced with The Tea Party’s Jeff Martin
It’s that path of the troubadour that Matt will continue to tread as he releases his new single ‘We Can Be Together’ this week, followed by a European tour and the unveiling of his debut album (produced with The Tea Party frontman Jeff Martin in his Byron studio) next year.
But for Matt, it’s Australia’s singer-songwriters that tell the most important story, and light the way forward.
“She’s already come crashing through, but it’s nice to see someone like Sarah McLeod touring strong with her solo releases,” Matt smiles. “It shows that a heap of work leads to longevity.”
This article originally appeared on Tone Deaf.


text:
Corey Moss interviewed the following people at the Almo E4 Experience in Chicago on Tuesday March 12th:
Glenn Haussman – President at Rouse Media – Show Host, No Vacancy News & Podcast (Presenting at E4 Experience)
Apryl Lamberti – Director of Business Development – Hospitality at Almo Professional A/V (about the growth of Almo Hospitality, Cape Soleil outdoor furniture line, customization)
Justin Kennington – President, SDVoE Alliance (about SDVoE Alliance, SDVoE Certification Training at the E4 Experience)
Brian McClimans – VP Sales, North America and APAC at Peerless-AV (about news of the day Peerless-AV® Named a 2019 Brand Official of Forbes Travel Guide, hospitality and DSE
Ramon Macias – Area Manager at Ecler (on the show floor) *
New Almo Pro A/V vendors:
Matt Vaillancourt – Director of Distribution at D-Link (on the show floor)
Michael Baker – Vice President of Sales at VDO360 (on the show floor)
Edward Gurr – Regional Sales Manager at Vivitek (on the show floor)
This Convergent Week episode is on iTunes.
Download and subscribe here.


Our client is seeking a Communications Network Engineer to work with Integrated Battlefield Telecommunication Network, Mission Partner Environment and BMS-C2 systems. The system will use current and next generation small form factor Satcom bearer systems.
The solution needs to support a user whilst moving, with potential for additional users whilst static, and will have constrained WAN access through the use of a LEO L-band Satcom Service Provider and 4G/LTE.
- Broad experience in Integrated Battlefield Telecommunication Network
- and Tactical Communications Network
- Satellite communications, networking, HACE
- Configure and support satcom modems, IBTN and BMS-C2 systems
- Configuration of Linux standard operating environment (SOE)
- Configuration of remote access technologies (Citrix, RDS)
- HAIPE and encryption technologies
Eligibility: This role is in a Federal Government environment and the client is limited to accepting Australian Citizens with at least an NV1 security clearance.
Does this sound like you? If so, we will be pleased to receive your application. Click Apply Now!
If you require further information please contact Keith on 0386139999 or one of our consultants on 0262010100.


text:
There are 10 Manicure & Pedicure Providers in Monroe County, Florida, serving a population of 76,745 people in an area of 983 square miles. There is 1 Manicures & Pedicure Provider per 7,674 people, and 1 Manicures & Pedicure Provider per 98 square miles.
In Florida, Monroe County is ranked 4th of 67 counties in Manicure & Pedicure Providers per capita, and 26th of 67 counties in Manicure & Pedicure Providers per square mile.
Find addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, hours & services for Monroe County Manicure & Pedicure Providers.
Affordable Nails By Margaret 5177 Overseas Highway Marathon, FL
Allure Nail Spa 91910 Overseas Highway Tavernier, FL
Flow Spa 508 Southard Street # 105 Key West, FL
Key West Nail Lounge 2508 North Roosevelt Boulevard # 305 Key West, FL
Lien Nguyen 88005 Overseas Highway Islamorada, FL
Oasis Nail Spa 10980 Overseas Highway Marathon, FL
Room Nail Bar 99348 Overseas Highway Key Largo, FL
Sunset Nails 5103 Overseas Highway Marathon, FL
Trung 811 Peacock Plaza Key West, FL
Vi Nails 82751 Overseas Highway Islamorada, FL

domain: geography


The Creatures in Our Midst
The Cashiers-Highlands Plateau is filled with an abundance of special beings; where humans as well as bird and animal life co-exist.
We as visitors or residents of this beautiful land are especially blessed to be able to witness these creatures often and they fill our souls with awe, wonderment, and pause.
In this encaustic painting, you will find a red fox, a black bear, a yellow finch, a whitetail deer, and a Peregrine Falcon; all gifts of our mountain life.
This painting will be available at the Cashiers Designer Show house from August 25th-September 2nd.


text:
ASI was involved in the development of a management plan for Ruthven Park, the mid-nineteenth century historic estate of Colonel David Thompson, one of the chief proponents of the Grand River Navigation Company. The estate is approximately 640 hectares (1,600 acres) in extent and is situated on the east side of the Grand River north of Cayuga, Ontario. It encompasses an exquisite Greek Revival mansion within a fine example of a nineteenth century picturesque landscape. The Park is managed by the Lower Grand River Land Trust Inc. and is now a National Historic Site open to the public.
Click below to view "Ruthven and the Collection of Andrew Thompson: A Case Study of a Nineteenth Centurey Antiquarian" as a PDF:


text:
April 9, 2013
This summary was prepared in response to public questions and comments for Jacobs Consultancy’s “EU Pathway Study: Life Cycle Assessment of Crude Oils in A European Context (2012)” report.
May 2, 2012
Discusses policy implications arising from the findings of the report "EU Pathway Study: Life Cycle Assessment of Crude Oils in A European Context" by Jacobs Consultancy, which provides a comprehensive comparison "wells-to-wheels" carbon intensity emissions of transportation fuels refined from...
March 1, 2012
The goal of this study was to evaluate the Life Cycle Analysis greenhouse gas (LCA GHG) emissions for potential pathways to Europe for producing gasoline and diesel from representative heavy crude oils from Alberta. Another goal was to evaluate the LCA GHG emissions of representative crude oils...


Can scheduling work outside the MES?
September 12, 2014
Production planning and scheduling have always been very complex processes, especially at the shop-floor level where the activities planned on a piece of paper or spread-sheets are actually executed. What makes scheduling for actual production complex is the fact that the planner or planning team actually scheduling jobs making many trade-offs and considering priorities, have very little or no insight of what is transpiring on the shop-floor and further have no way to control such events. Any discrepancy made in one operation can derail the entire schedule prepared by the planners due to the ‘knock-on’ effect and cause the plant significant damage. Previously we have discussed many features of the MES application and how it is the ideal system to plan, schedule, orchestrate and optimally execute a production process.
Today we will zero-in on the scheduling part of the MES and how it is imperative that the scheduling/planning function be directly embedded in the MES application, therefore enabling truly optimized planning and subsequent production, which provides excellence in both service and efficient execution.
MES applications from their very existence, have been applications which bridge the gap between the planning and the execution layer. They have a capability of capturing data from the shop-floor and provide actionable information to other applications such as the MRP or ERP in real time. MES applications are also capable of modeling a production process to its every specific detail, right from the total equipment base to the number of employees in a shift, to the total possible recipes in an operation and their possible execution routes. Let’s understand how the two features mentioned above make the MES the best possible vehicle to carry a scheduling module for any plant floor. Scheduling, as an activity, is far more complex than it is given credit for. A master schedule first considers all prime components to ensure smooth production right form material availability, to demand, to cycle times, to personnel availability and so on. This master schedule is then converted into an operational schedule which is more specific and routes specific orders through specific machine/personnel in a time-bound manner, to ensure final production and resultant cycle time is compliant with the master schedule. Now depending on the process, the schedule may be decided for various time frames, daily, weekly, monthly or more, what adds complexity. Here is that the schedule needs to be dynamic, considering actual and predicted demand, customer service priority, optimal production efficiency, production cost, material use optimization, change-over times. Also other variables which keep changing constantly, such as material availability, machine uptime, operator availability etc.
Now imagine a process which produces 5 different products, all of which can be customized. Each product involves hundreds of components, some being commonly used, others used specifically for a particular product. All products follow different production routes, but these routes intersect at times, meaning the same piece of equipment may be required by two or more products. Operators are skilled, but can’t be switched in operations, which means unavailability of personnel may cause down-time. With just the simple snap-shot of a modern process, it becomes clear how complex a scheduling activity might become if it’s executed manually through spread-sheets or even through a separate software application, which is capable of performing multiple complex trade-offs and optimizations. Also, it becomes an even more complex activity if the actual scheduling is not embedded in the application which is modeling the process, executing the planned activities and capturing each shop-floor transaction as it happens, which in most cases is the MES application.
For being even remotely effective, the scheduling activity needs to be proactive. It needs to equate demand and priorities with cost of production machine/manpower availability, cost of production and overall cycle time, that too in real-time. The entire scheduling operation might be jeopardized if a break-down which happened to a bottle-neck equipment/tool at 3 am in the night is captured and reported to the planner at 8 am next morning. This is where having an MES application capable of scheduling jobs becomes extremely important, as it perfectly models a manufacturing process and captures data as events happen on the floor. When a break-down occurs, the application alerts not only the planner/plant manager, but can provide contingent plans to the operators, which may range from getting the machine back up, to taking an alternate route, to switching the recipe or trying out another equipment and compromise on the spec (within tolerance levels of-course!!). A sort of dynamic schedule becomes possible when data from the shop-floor provides inputs for planning, as the planner now has access to the ERP/MRP data, which helps prioritize jobs in short-term, plan material and support customers. Also process data which provides status of all process bottlenecks, operator availability, current schedule compliance, deviation from schedules, in the form of Gantt charts, which are generated automatically and in real-time. The activity of scheduling and re-scheduling becomes very scientific and fact based when the MES is used of scheduling as, it is the same application which is responsible for executing the schedule, managing/training personnel, routing/re-routing jobs, ensuring asset availability, reporting KPIs and providing management reports based on actual performance.
Without the process rich data generated by the MES application, the planner or planning team, no matter how sophisticated their algorithms, calculations or software might be, will remain at best reactive and would definitely experience the knock-on effect sooner or later. There is a common yet flawed notion in many organizations that an Advanced Planning and Scheduling software may be used for production scheduling, as it has been equipped with many complex algorithms and optimizations. This may be used to make the service-efficiency trade-off and yet provide the best possible schedule allowing factories to meet standard lead times and yet insure quality. To this end, it becomes critical to consider the arguments made above, about MES and how it should carry the APS or operational scheduling module, simply because any advanced software without data would just provide it’s users garbage, since the input to the software is old/outdated process data, which is collected manually or through spread-sheets. By the time it is fed into the modern software with all possible logic, the actual constraints of the production process have changed on the actual production floor, the system which gets a garbage input will only give a garbage output. Modern automated plants dealing with thousands on inputs and many possible customizations to produce a plethora of diverse products using sophisticated multipurpose equipment, need scheduling to be real-time and be triggered by events as they happen, at both the planning and the production levels. This avoids unnecessary costs, shortages, down-times and to reach an optimal equilibrium between service and efficiency on a weekly, daily and hourly basis.
For such optimization to ever take place, the only real possibility is to have the production scheduling functionality embedded in a bigger software module such as the MES which may not only model the production process, but integrate the shop-floor to the top-floor which is the ERP/MRP. This ensures that the strategy, which was translated to a tactical schedule, may be properly executed through a real-time, automatically adjusting and dynamic operation schedule.
DOWNLOAD NEW WHITE PAPER:
IIoT Has a "Thing" for MES. Why IoT Platforms Won’t Replace MES for Industry 4.0
by Iyno Advisors and Critical Manufacturing


Several female friends occasionally suggest that they might pee their pants from laughing so hard.
I’ve never seen it happen but there are Big Boy diapers in my future if Mayor Tony Mack continues to send news releases such as this one about a bust of President Barack Obama destined for City Hall.
Mayoral aide Anthony Roberts commissioned the effort to honor our nation’s first African-American president.
“The Committee’s intent was to find a way the City of Trenton could honor President Barack Obama,” Roberts noted via a released statement. “His election represented so much pride and hope to so many Americans and we wanted to memorialize it.”
Roberts likely shifted a load in his pants with those remarks. This smells because a band of Brothers has managed to connect a successful President Obama to our incredibly unsuccessful Mayor Tony Mack. City Council refused a resolution to acknowledge Roberts’ initiative after he did not supply the group with a list of private donors who paid for the Obama bust.
A city official said every donor will be announced on Thursday during a special ceremony at city hall.
Sure, Barack Obama makes me feel all warm and fuzzy but his election to the U.S. throne provides personal inspiration to get involved in my community, work hard, love my family, be a decent man and father.
You can bet that Washington, D.C. operators have orders to not accept any phone calls from Trenton unless it’s President Obama’s BFF Gov. Chris Christie.
Any Trenton resident can honor President Obama by taking advantage of all this freedom America offers.
We have libraries. Oh, wait a minute. We have one library that offers services to help individuals improve their lives whether they want to learn English as a second language or even as a first. Book withdrawals are free. Newspapers. Music. Videos. Computer use. Man, if you want to change your life then start at the library.
A personal verdict here is that Trenton experienced a bad time when residents failed to fight Mayor Mack’s closings of four satellite libraries, a signal that education had been kicked to the curb.
The jury remains out on Mayor Mack but he appears to have jeopardized an opportunity of a lifetime by an association with Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, a convicted sex offender. Plus, now the United States of America has earned an indictment of Mack on eight counts of criminal activity.
This city waits for a trial that could potentially send our mayor off to prison for 10 years or more. This Roberts-inspired Barack Obama bust fiasco represents more folly than the Cadwalader Park entrance sign that citizens had Mack take down.
Even after being trapped in a government sting, by the way, with what was probably the FBI’s freshman or junior varsity squad, these guys still think that they are smarter than the average Trenton resident.
We have a tree decorated with enough Mack photos to subliminally alter our minds about this guy. Now, arrival of a bust of Barack Obama should somehow distract us from an overflow of murders, shootings, stabbings, truancy and trash, all of which contribute to the depression found in our most challenged neighborhoods.
I can’t even resort to my pat answer about the importance of education because our mayor is a Howard graduate. His brother, Ralphiel, also indicted in this FBI investigation, is a Temple University alum.
Education may get a bad name if the guys with the degrees end up in prison like the guys who dropped out of school.
A Mack insider said that the Obama bust effort started months ago.
OK, no problem. Then store Mr. Obama in a closet until this FBI mess is finished.
Mitch Hortsmann, owner of the St. Louis Sculpture Factory which designed and manufactured the bust, said the imagery he hoped to create “was that of a leader with rolled up sleeves and a loosened tie; someone who was ready to work.”
Sounds just like Mayor Mack.
Yeah, I’m peeing my pants.
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Reach him at laparker@Trentonian.com.


Professional Mold Inspectors look for trapped moisture behind walls floors and ceilings to locate hidden mold. With this tool, you can do the same!
REMEMBER: MOLD IS CAUSED BY WATER… FIND THE WATER AND YOU HAVE FOUND THE MOLD!
The easiest way to find trapped moisture is with the Sonin Moisture Test Tool. With this simple moisture detector, homeowners and do-it-yourselfers can quickly locate hidden mold behind the walls, floors, and ceilings. The Sonin Moisture Test Tool uses a 4-LED light system to alert users to possible mold and moisture problems. The new tool is especially valuable for any homeowner or do-it-yourself who is specifically looking for mold, getting ready to paint or wallpaper, stain a deck, or put down carpet or tile.
- Detects moisture percentages 14-20%
- Locate and trace roof leaks and water seepage, and assess the extent of mold growth, wet rot, and hidden condensation.
- Detect level of moisture present in wood, sheet rock, carpets and more.
- Find out if potentially damaging excess moisture is present.
- Test hard or soft wood, concrete, plaster, carpet and more, to determine the extent of moisture problems.
- Check decks before staining or sealing.
- Helps to select drier lumber.
- Requires one 9V battery (not included)
- One year warranty


text:
Trithrinax campestris Caranday palm
Awesome large palm native to Argentina this clustering palm produces a spiny crown and scissor like pattern on the trunk. The stiff bluish green leaves are a spectacular sight on larger plants Buyer beware !, Thiis palm needs it’s space away from children. Hardy to -10 degrees, smaller palms make an attractive patio plant..
5ltr medium plants £ 29.95
35ltr large plants £ 125.00 ( First picture shown )

domain: biology


text:
Odisha Handlooms and Textiles Minister Rita Sahu appreciated the Telangana govt’s schemes and initiatives for development of handlooms and textiles sector.
Hyderabad: Odisha Handlooms and Textiles Minister Rita Sahu appreciated the Telangana government’s schemes and initiatives for development of handlooms and textiles sector in the State.
She complimented the State government’s schemes, especially 40 per cent yarn subsidy, insurance to weavers, Nethannaku Cheyutha and others. As part of a three-day tour to Telangana from September 27, the Odisha Textiles Minister along with three officers, visited handloom clusters and cooperatives in the State.
On Wednesday, Sahu had visited Pochampally handloom cluster and HWCS Limited Koyyalgudem in Yadadri district which is famous for Double Ikkat bedsheets. During the tour, she also visited Pochampally village and interacted with weavers weaving Ikkat in different designs and patterns.
She appreciated the weaving style employed by the weavers in weaving, dyeing with natural vegetable dyes and designing. She also visited the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple at Yadadri and appreciated sculptures of the temple.
On Thursday, she met Handlooms Minister KT Rama Rao in the city. During the meeting, she briefed him about the Odisha government’s handloom schemes like providing work sheds and accessories to weavers.
The Ministers exchanged their views on implementation of various schemes in their respective States for handloom weavers’ welfare and development. Sahu also invited Rama Rao to visit Odisha, and he accepted the invitation.