This story follows on from our original InMoov project post.
When building InMoov; we looked at using Gael's recommended tablet - the Lenovo Thinkpad 8.
Lenovo don't actually produce the Thinkpad 8 now but we managed to find a new one on Amazon with 4G/LTE for £170 which is pretty good.
Lenovo Thinkpad 8
The Thinkpad 8 must be a newer version than the one Gael has used as it has a Micro USB 3.0 instead of a Micro USB port - not sure if it's in the same location either but the specs suggest that it has the same dimensions so it should fit into our InMoov build. The back is currently printing so we'll know for sure in a few days time.
- Quad Core Intel Atom Z3770 @ 1.46GHz
- 2GB RAM
- 64GB Storage
- 1920 x 1080 IPS Display
- Micro HDMI Port
- Micro USB 3.0 Port
- Micro SD Card Slot
- SIM Slot
Gael mentions that finding a working USB OTG cable with charing proved difficult and supplies a link to a working cable.
As our Thinkpad 8 is of a newer design, with Micro USB 3.0 - we needed to source a different cable.
After much reading; this cable has been confirmed to work correctly.
It seems to be an absolute minefield when it comes to OTG cables as the majority of them will not charge the device - even when they come with an additional USB connector for (more) power, this is only for the peripheral devices.
The tablet is a nice shape and size; it's light yet heavy enough to feel good in the hand - the dot in the "i" of ThinkPad lights up red when powered up which is a nice touch.
The tablet feels quality; there's no creaking or real "plasticky" feel to it when handled and the Full HD (1920 x 1080) screen is very nice and a rarity on tablets like this.
There's one Micro USB 3.0 port, a Micro HDMI port, headphone jack, Micro SD card slot and a SIM slot.
Our experience with using the Thinkpad 8 didn't get off to a great start; fresh out of the box running Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows Update would not work at all, nor would Windows 10 Upgrade as they both just stuck on a loop.
After lots of annoying attempts and trial and error; in the end - forcing the Windows Update service to stop periodically during the initial Windows 10 Upgrade process (completely fresh install to remove the Lenovo bloatware) we finally got Windows 10 Pro onto the tablet.
After the initial software configuration issues the tablet is running fine and is quite a nice device to use to be honest. It's not going to replace a laptop any time soon; certainly not for us dedicated Mac users but it's great for InMoov.
We've ordered the OTG Cable noted above and will look into upgrading the Lenovo to Windows 10 x64 (assuming it's fully x64 compatible) when that arrives which will also let us test external hardware connectivity as the cable Gael references is, of course; not compatible with the updated version of the Thinkpad 8.
Alternative: Linx 8
We have an old Linx 8 tablet that we use for testing and with a Hantek 6022BE for an Oscilloscope; it's not as nice as the Lenovo, I think it came with Windows 8 but it's now running Windows 10 Home and I think we got it new for around £65 which is an absolute bargain.
- Quad Core Intel Atom Z3735F @ 1.33GHz
- 1GB RAM
- 32GB storage
- 1280x800 IPS display
- Micro HDMI Port
- Micro USB Port
- SD Card slot
The dimensions are only ever so slightly smaller than the Lenovo so it should be a decent budget alternative to the Lenovo and with a few simple shims printed it should fit in rather well.
Once we've built the back of our InMoov we'll test fit both of these tablets as well as try them out with MyRobotLab and update this post accordingly.


text:
Massachusetts reports 4,378 new breakthrough COVID-19 cases in 4.61 million vaccinated individuals
Massachusetts public health officials reported 4,378 new COVID-19 breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated individuals in the past week, data from the state's Department of Public Health shows.
A breakthrough case is when an individual tests positive for COVID-19 after they've been fully vaccinated against the disease.
The 4,378 new breakthrough cases were reported to the DPH between Sept. 18 and Sept. 25.
During the same seven-day period, the state reported 11,137 new COVID-19 cases among the state's whole population.
The data from the DPH shows there have been 36,723 total cases of COVID-19 in fully vaccinated individuals as of Sept. 25. Last week, the DPH reported 32,345 total breakthrough cases through Sept. 18.
The 36,723 total breakthrough COVID-19 cases are among the 4.61 million residents considered fully vaccinated in Massachusetts, or about 0.8% of those individuals.
The state health department said 1,155 total breakthrough cases have resulted in hospitalization, an increase of 154 over the previous week.
The state said 254 breakthrough cases have resulted in death based on information reported to date, an increase of 37 in the past week.
Massachusetts hospitals have begun to see a decline in hospitalizations since a summertime surge that started just after the Fourth of July. The number of COVID-19 patients currently stands at 606. It dipped to as low as 80 on July 4 and as high as 707 on Sept. 13.
The seven-day average of hospitalizations has increased from a low of 85 on July 9 to the latest mark of 615.

domain: medical


text:
Many cities are experiencing the urban heat island effect, which has tremendous impacts on residents as climate changes increase the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Urban Heat Islands occur when municipalities replace green space with an urban environment such as pavement, buildings, and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat. Concentrated urban heat islands in cities can increase energy costs, air pollution levels, heat-related illness and even resident mortality. Climate change is only going to increase these effects as heat projections for the next several decades continue to rise. The warming from climate change compounded with urban heat islands is already having a severe impact across the country, as over the last 30 years (1992-2021), extreme heat caused more fatalities compared to other extreme weather events such as floods, tornadoes, cold and hurricanes.
Research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been mapping the urban heat island effect in more than 60 cities across the country and has found that poor communities tend to be hotter than wealthier neighborhoods. Often these low-income neighborhoods line up with historical redlining policies, thus disproportionately harming Black communities and communities of color. To alleviate these disparities, cities can look at heat equity, which is the development of policies and practices that can mitigate the urban heat island effect. Along with low-income neighborhoods, other groups like older adults, outdoor workers, and people who live alone or are homeless are also vulnerable to urban heat. Special attention should be given to groups with existing medical conditions such as asthma, which is more common in low-income and minority groups, because heat on sunny days can react with air pollutants to form smog, a major trigger of asthma.
Heat Resilience Solutions
To help with urban heat islands the EPA recommends communities invest in the following to mitigate the effects:
- Plant trees and increase vegetation
- Install green or cool roofs
- Replace normal pavement with cool pavement
- Think about adopting a smart growth
The EPA also has database of actions taken by communities to reduce heat islands. For example, the city of Saratoga Springs, NY’s urban forest project partners the city with a local non-profit to inventory city street and park trees. This inventory will then be used to develop an Urban Forest Master Plan. The city of Boston, MA has created a new forestry division within the Parks and Recreational Department as a part of the city’s Urban Forest Plan. The new division will work to maintain and increase the tree canopy throughout the municipality. Boston’s forestry initiative works in conjunction with their Heat Resiliency Solutions plan, a “framework to prepare Boston for hotter summers, with particular focus on Boston’s environmental justice neighborhoods.” Municipal leaders can also look to learning modules to assess and create solutions like the Heat Action Platform. Elected officials can also invest in transportation systems to reduce heat stress and impacts during heat events. Phoenix, AZ has been working to improve their bus shelters to cool passengers as they wait for buses by designing them to provide maximum shade. Route prioritization between vulnerable areas and cooling centers is something else that local leaders can consider. More resources are available at heat.gov and the Climate Mapping for Resiliency and Adaptation.
Several funding sources exist to combat excess urban heat. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes Neighborhood Access and Equity Grants, providing competitive grants for transportation infrastructure overhauls as well as explicit approval for urban heat mitigation projects; and Environmental and Climate Justice Grants, which also includes mitigating urban heat as an eligible activity. The IRA also allocates $1.5 billion to the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, which helps cities and towns plant trees through the State Urban Forest Resilience program and the National Urban Forestry Challenge Cost Share Program. Some federal agencies have ongoing grant programs in which funding can be used for many of the solutions used to combat urban heat. NOAA holds their annual Urban Heat Island Mapping campaign, which cities can apply for funding and technical assistance. Furthermore, your state is likely to have grants for tree planting – a simple google search will return relevant results for state and non-profit programs providing money to local governments. Lastly, NLC will be launching a new technical assistance program to support participating communities make resilient infrastructure the default in construction – stay tuned for more information and lessons learned.
Tool Explanation and Guidance
NLC has created the tool below to assist local governments in mitigating the urban heat island effect in their own community by visualizing which bus stops should be prioritized. We focus on bus stops and their corresponding heat wave risk to help address heat inequity, as vulnerable populations are more likely to take public transportation and live in areas with above national average heat wave risk. Along with heat wave risk, we also layer in tree canopy data, and you can see in the corresponding scatterplots the relationship between these two variables.
In the default “city view” page, each point represents city averages for tree canopy and heat risk, calculated by averaging all the individual bus stops within the city. You can toggle between the color scales for tree canopy cover or heat wave risk. On the city view scatterplot, the dotted line indicates cities’ national averages for both indicators, so you can see where your city’s bus stops are with respect to the average – useful data when applying for federal or state grants.
The “bus stop” view is best suited for exploring an individual city, which can be selected by the drop down menu in the upper left corner. In this view, each point on the map is an individual bus stop, which can also toggle between tree canopy cover and heat wave risk. On the bus stop view scatterplot, the dotted line indicates the national bus stop averages. By hovering over individual bus stops, you can view the corresponding census tract’s racial demographics and public transportation usage to further inform priority stops.
Lastly, you can also select for specific characteristics from the sliding scale bars in the top right corner, or by clicking and dragging over the scatterplot, which will filter the stops shown on the map. For example, you can filter for stops on the map that suffer from above average heat risk and/or below average vegetation cover to determine priority areas of investment.
- Tree Canopy – United States Forest Service
- Heat Wave Risk – FEMA
- Bus Stop – National Transit Database
For more information on tool methodology, contact Joshua Pine at firstname.lastname@example.org.

domain: geography


text:
Much has been said about the unmitigated disaster that is the Ontario Green Energy Plan, and its destructive impact on hydro rates and Ontarians’ pocketbooks, let alone negative environmental impacts like threatening certain at-risk animal species and sullying the countryside with unsightly wind farms. This policy has cost us all a fortune – with the exception of the many government-friendly businesses and individuals who received massive subsidies to produce so-called “green” energy. And despite all the expense, wind and solar power contribute very little to our electricity system; we are still largely dependent on the more reliable fossil-fuel based sources to generate hydro power. Any beneficial impact on the environment has been elusive at best.
All of this is well known. What has become increasingly clear and shocking in recent months is the extent of the dishonesty and subterfuge engaged in by the Ontario Liberals, senior bureaucrats and outside advisors to conceal what they were up to from the taxpaying public. Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk and Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer J. David Wake have done courageous work, while being regularly castigated and contradicted by various Liberal Ministers, to bring the truth about the hydro fiasco to Ontarians. Initially focusing on the massive amounts of money that have been misspent in the name of “green” energy, Lysyk has more recently weighed in on the deception involved in the so-called Fair Hydro Plan. This plan was purely political, and was only implemented after Premier Wynne saw her abysmal approval ratings, caused in part because of sky-high hydro costs. The plan saw hydro rates temporarily reduced by borrowing from future hydro ratepayers and taxpayers. If the Liberals were to remain in power, hydro rates will inevitably increase sharply in the coming years as nothing structural has been done to change the problems in the system.
In addition to that cynical ploy, the Liberals also faked the fact that they had balanced the budget in the 2017-2018 fiscal year by effectively borrowing the money to reduce hydro rates in a complex accounting scheme involving the Independent Electricity System Operator (at a higher cost of borrowing) so they could hide these funds and pretend they were not part of the provincial deficit. Another element that Lysyk and others have noted is that involvement in this cover-up was widespread and had to involve senior bureaucrats and the outside accounting firms that were paid handsomely with tax dollars to audit government books. The situation has become so bad that Lysyk has commented she may be forced to issue a “qualified opinion” on the province’s books, which basically means the government’s financial statements cannot be believed. It is a highly complex mess. The only certainty is that the so-called Fair Hydro Plan will cost Ontarians many billions of dollars more in future than if it had never been implemented at all. It is pretty ironic that all this dishonesty and theft from taxpayers is intended to convince voters this government should be re-elected.
Ontario Liberal governments under Dalton McGuinty and later Kathleen Wynne have been caught in lies on a number of occasions, to the extent that one of their senior advisors ended up doing jail time for his role in furtively erasing emails from the Premier’s office concerning the gas plant scandal. When we see the incredible dishonesty these Liberals have shamelessly pursued regarding the hydro cover-up, the question remains; how much more skullduggery have they been up to that we don’t even know about yet? I suspect the answer is lots. Ontario government finances are in dire shape on the basis of what is already known, but it is probable that they are actually much worse because of other hidden time bombs. There is only one way to find out, and that is to vote out the Liberals on June 7. The province will certainly by better off by distancing itself from this incompetent and dishonest government, but based on the evidence to date it will take a very long time to clean up the mess they will leave.
Catherine Susan Swift is the former Chair of the Board of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. She is currently the spokesperson for Working Canadians www.workingcanadians.ca
Catherine Swift is currently President and CEO of Working Canadians (www.workingcanadians.ca. Prior to that, Catherine Swift had been with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business since September 1987, initially as Chief Economist. She became Chair in June 1999 after being named Chief Executive Officer in July 1997 and President in May of 1995. Her various responsibilities included coordinating policy issues at federal, provincial and municipal levels of government, representing CFIB with politicians, government, business, media and other groups.
Ms. Swift has worked with the federal government in Ottawa holding several positions with the Departments of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, Industry and Communications. Her areas of specialization included corporate and industrial analysis and international trade. Catherine Swift has a MA in Economics.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines and other media on such small business issues as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship and women small business owners. Ms. Swift is a Past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the C.D. Howe Institute and past President of the International Small Business Congress. She was cited in 2003 and again in 2012 as one of the top 100 most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network.

domain: finance


text:
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA) requires health plan sponsors to submit detailed information on prescription drug expenses and coverage reports to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
For fully-insured groups, carriers are largely taking on the responsibility of reporting, but employers must still ensure that the carrier is filing on their behalf. It is important for plan sponsors to keep any written communication from the carrier that states how they are complying with the reporting requirement on behalf of fully-insured plans.
Self-Insured Groups / Level-Funded Plans
Self-insured groups, including level-funded plans, have more responsibility in ensuring the reporting is completed. We recommend that self-insured (and level-funded) plan sponsors contact their carrier, TPA and/or PBMs to ensure how these vendors can assist with the reporting requirement.
Self-insured plans may enter into a written agreement with their vendors to fulfill the reporting function on behalf of the plan; however, the plan sponsor remains liable for any failures.
RxDC Carrier Guidelines
For your reference, Ascela has prepared a document for RxDC Reporting carrier guidelines.
Please click the button below to access.

domain: law


text:
Forward. 3255 pts.
Eight members of the European Union continue to use their own national May 05, 2021 · Researchers. Between 2014 and 2020, the EU will provide almost €80bn in funding for research, mainly through its flagship research programme Horizon 2020. This funding usually takes the form of grants, to part-finance a broad range of research projects. EU funding for research & innovation. Jul 21, 2010 · The undisputed first-choice for his country, Pedro Gallese was one of Peru's key figures when they graced the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ after a 36-year absence from the world stage.
Henkel operates worldwide with leading brands & technologies in three business areas: Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care and Adhesive Technologies.
Schindler's Swiss-engineered elevators, escalators and moving walks keep the urban world moving, safely, comfortably and efficiently, 24/7 worldwide. Henkel operates worldwide with leading brands & technologies in three business areas: Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care and Adhesive Technologies. Advancing the world takes three letters.
Euro area. The eurozone, officially called the euro area, is a monetary union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro ( €) as their primary currency and sole legal tender. The monetary authority of the eurozone is the Eurosystem. Eight members of the European Union continue to use their own national
Spain 0 0 20:00 Sweden. Tuesday 15th June. Hungary 0 0 Weekly VC Overview: All 100+ European startup funding rounds we tracked this week (June 7-11) Anto Guarin - June 11, 2021. 0. It's Friday which means a new edition of our weekly VC funding round overview is here! Mar 19, 2021 · Commercial vehicle registrations in Europe have dropped by an overall 19.4 percent in 2020, a dip which has been felt in every country in the region.
+44 20 7182 3348. Jun 04, 2021 · What are Switzerland's group fixtures at EURO 2020? Switzerland vs Wales, 12 June, 15:00 (Olympic Stadium, Baku) Switzerland vs Italy, 16 June, 21:00 (Stadio Olympico, Rome) Switzerland vs Turkey The industrial and logistics market is gaining market shares against other assets. It represented 17% of total commercial real estate in 2020.
Choose from our selection of natural sparkling water flavors to make your favorite soda, or delicious flavored seltzer water. Out of SodaStream gas? Order a CO2 gas cylinder exchange or buy a spare CO2 carbonator. . UEFA EURO 2020 was postponed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. (18:00, Munich) Group E: Spain vs Poland (21:00, Seville) Sunday 20 June. No use for commercial purposes may be Highlights: Spain 4-0 Lithuania.
The railway construction market is set to top €1.5 billion in 2015. Poland, as the strongest player in Central and Eastern Europe, accounts for 60% of construction output in the region. 3.
- Euro 6d gennaio 2020 czech republic vs. england
- Live tv streams free france vs. germany
- Austria poland euro 2020 video highlights austria vs. north macedonia
Trophy Replica "80mm" UEFA EURO 2020™. €24.95. Add to cart. Pin "Amsterdam" UEFA EURO 2020™. Euro 2020 Fixtures. Fixtures Seasons Poland 0 0 17:00 Slovakia. Spain 0 0 20:00 Sweden.

domain: economics


text:
A Look Inside BGB Group’s NYC Office
BGB Group, a medical communications agency that fuses both creative execution and scientific insight, reached out to architecture & interior design firm TPG Architecture to design their new offices in New York City.
“The office incorporates what were originally two separate cast iron 19th-century buildings. The bones of the space showcase classic Soho loft elements: wooden floors, high ceilings, columns throughout, brick walls and huge windows along the perimeter walls that, because this is on a corner, face east, south and west. The reception area on the 6th floor gently welcomes guests with a 5’ high, deep red divider and seating area that intersects a very long wooden table/bar along the length of the front (west-facing) wall. The table is a reception desk near the elevator, becoming a DJ’s turntable on the far side of the divider, and including beer taps a few feet away – must-haves for any downtown millennial-centric office. An adjacent lounge riffs on living room motifs with a big flat-screen TV, a non-working fireplace full of a pile of real wood, plaster-cast (anti-taxidermy) animal heads mounted on the wall, mid-century furniture and a kitschy life-size ceramic zebra. Both floors are outfitted with private lounge areas and informal breakout stations for interns, per diem employees or anyone looking for a quiet place to work. TPG worked closely with its in-house graphics team to create a personality in each conference room; it was the client’s idea to strongly theme the street name conference rooms because they feel that their location in Soho is an integral part of the firm’s identity. Accordingly, Spring Street’s walls are covered in an oversized photo print of a vibrant spring landscape; Orchard Street walls are decorated in Flavorpaper bright yellow banana wallpaper and Greene Street’s feature wall is a mosaic of 3” wooden squares cut from skateboards. Furnishings were also carefully chosen and include Tom Dixon pendants in the Bond room and the Vitra chairs in the Spring room. As a creative agency, BGB showcases its in-house design capabilities as well; bright graphics along the upper interior walls complement TPG’s interiors. Super-blown-up images of biological imagery like cells and tissue are abstracted and interspersed with photos of New York, all intensely colored, at the ceiling line. The New York conference room is the largest and can be separated into two smaller rooms (called Uptown or Downtown) by a clear garage door that divides the space in industrial style. TPG took each and every detail info consideration including the connecting stairs that boast an oversized, supergraphic Star Trek theme against a deep blue background. On the 5th floor, the library is a quiet working area defined by blue furniture, an intense yellow bookshelf, a graphic black-and-white accent rug and oversized Fontana Art dome pendant lamp. Nearby, employees can meet, work – or play billiards – in the Billiard Room, easily recognizable by three bright faux bookshelves,” says TPG Architecture

domain: artistic


text:
It is 30 diet with the rice slow at night
It is diet heap of with the rice slow at night
Diet is beautiful with the slow rice at night
Diet is green with the slow rice at night
It is diet gold with the rice slow at night
It is diet natto heap of with the rice slow at night
DHC force collie 30th
DHC diet power 30th
05 bags of DHC protein diet
15 bags of DHC protein diet
15 bags of DHC protein diet plump mousse
Dr.Ci:Labo acai smoothie berry plus
30 Dr.Ci:Labo beauty Zen food soybean flour taste
30 Dr.Ci:Labo beauty Zen food cacao taste
Full stomach 30 times diet candy kiwi taste
Full stomach 30 times diet candy acai taste
Full stomach 30 times diet candy strawberry taste
FANCL calorie mitt
Calorie mitt of FANCL adult
FANCL perfect slim
Sun foods sale konjac tip 17 g
21 B max low food 50
Vitamins and 117 g of mineral aesthetic nouveau
YA-MAN leg queen twister
60 Japan-limited choice straight enzymes
Japan-limited choice straight enzyme 60 to swallow up
60 ジプソフィラ straight enzymes
ジプソフィラ straight enzyme 21 to swallow up
ジプソフィラ straight enzyme green smoothie mango
ジプソフィラ straight enzyme acai smoothie banana
60 straight enzymes of ジプソフィラ adult
21 straight enzymes that ジプソフィラ adult drinks
Straight enzyme green smoothie of ジプソフィラ adult
50 metabolic five support chitosans
30 metabolic dent diet
120 medicine food same source 232 beauty princess enzymes
120 medicine food same source 232 night enzymes
120 medicine food same source 232 elation enzyme premiums
Medicine food same source 232 diet enzyme premium 120 drops
180 leaf diet of the Ohta's Isan mulberry
540 leaf diet of the Ohta's Isan mulberry
It is 180 abLada's super diet bang
|Brand name||Straight enzyme green smoothie 200 g banana taste << barley young leave-containing food of ジプソフィラ adult≫|
|Inner capacity||200 g|
|Product explanation||Both the trouble of the diet and the care to be worried about are beautiful; elegantly.|
|Way of rising of to call it||You classify 6-12 g a day into a shaker in an aim, and you may put water to about 200CC rank and mix it, and please have it.|
|Precautions||It may not be rarely correct by constitution, physical condition. In that case, please cancel the use. Please talk about the one hanging to the medical institution with a doctor. The person with allergy to food, please refer to raw materials name indication. Please keep it in the place that does not reach the hand of the infant. You avoid high temperature and humidity and direct rays of the sun, and please save it in the cool and dark space. Please use it after opening as soon as possible.|
|Advertisement responsibility for the contents of an article||SDL (TEL: 0493-36-3266)|
|Production sales agency||GypsophilA|
|Division||Product made in Japan, health food|
|JP Post EMS||Your order will be shipped to you via Japan Post EMS. Japan Post is a speedy delivery service that delivers to more than 120 countries. With an effective tracking system and insurance program, EMS is able to offer a secure delivery worldwide. You can track your package with the tracking code provided and it will be delivered within a week. See estimated shipping fee|
|S.F. Express (China and Hong Kong Only)||Your order will be shipped to you via SF Express service. SF Express holds 87 warehouses and 7 distribution centers and provides one-stop supply-chain logistics service in China. You can track your items online, that'll give you real-time, detailed progress as your shipment speeds through the SF Express network. -Maximum weight per item SF Express can ship: 70kg -Estimated shipping days: 6 to 10 business days (to Chinaonly) *Please keep in mind that delivery time may vary due to weather condition, custom and unexpectedoccurrence.
For orders made using SF Express, please be aware of the following: In accordance with Chinese import regulations, personal shipments with multiple quantity and items per order into China cannot be valued at more than 1,000 RMB (approximately 18,000JPY) per order. To ensure that you can receive your products in the fastest possible time, please make sure that each order is valued at less than 1,000 RMB. In the event that you purchase only 1 piece, the total value of that order cannot exceed 5,000 RMB (approximately 90,000 JPY) The quantity for each order cannot exceed 10 pieces Once the shipment arrives into China warehouse, SF Express will contact you with regards to the import duties and taxes For new customers utilizing SF Express, a copy of “National Identification Card” is needed when processing your item through customs in China only for your first purchase. Please provide copy to SF Express via Wechat (SF Express Self-service) or email at firstname.lastname@example.org after order is confirmed.
|Credit Card||We accept credit and debit cards.
The following credit and debit cards can be used:
|PayPal||We accept PayPal. After receiving the order confirmation e-mail, please proceed with the PayPal payment.
*Please note that if payment through PayPal is not confirmed by the date indicated in the e-mail, your order will be automatically cancelled.
|Alipay||The “Payment Amount” is calculated as below.
“Payment Amount” = Product price total + shipping fee
Upon confirming your order, we will send you a link to make a payment via Alipay’s secure payment page.
You must finish the payment process before the deadline to complete your order.
Please check the payment process from the link here.
This product cannot be shipped to United States from the store.
Please contact the store for further information.

domain: food


text:
When I first saw the box for Topps Series two, by first reaction was: Pedroia?? I guess it was a reward for doing a very funny video game commercial. I'm not gonna lie, this was by far the best of the packs.
441 Clete Thomas
604 Braves Franchise
Henny Youngman hoisting the 2004 Division Banner. We'll have to get us a new one of those this year. The back is kinda cool:
CMT63 1956 Ernie Banks Yo Momma Card
LL-53 Nolan Ryan/Justin Verlander Legendary Lineage
Jake Peavy Silk # 19/50
458 Todd Wellemeyer
507 Francisco Rodriguez
Max Scherzer TAttaxTown
Allrighty, that was the bet of the bunch by far. Once I get my act together I'll post the Mick.

domain: hobby


text:
The much-hyped Cloud Atlas hit theatres this week, based on the acclaimed novel by David Mitchell and directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski siblings. The film has ignited a controversy for its use of white actors as Asian characters. Brent spoke with Asian American actor Pun Bandhu
. He's had roles in Michael Clayton, Burn After Reading and Nurse Jackie.

domain: news


• Memory: 16GB RAM | / 16GB Intel® Optane"
• Storage: 1TB HDD & 256GB SSD
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB
• (3D Mark) Time Spy score: 7796
• Get the most out of your games with high-end hardware
• Huge amounts of storage space for all of your media and documents
• Easily upgrade your system to keep up with the latest gaming demands
• IceTunnel 2. 0 keeps the system cool while running demanding games
The Acer Predator Orion 5000 Intel® Core™ i5+ RTX 2070 Gaming Desktop which features the most powerful PCs available today.
It has superior graphics and processing performance to suit the most demanding gamer.
The Acer Predator Orion 5000 is powered by an overclockable 8th gen i5 processor, so you can play your favourite games at higher settings with complete confidence.
In-game visuals are brought to life by an NVIDIA RTX 2070 graphics card • whether you're watching for enemies on the battlefield or immersing yourself in the latest virtual reality experience, every detail will be clear and vivid.
Huge amounts of storage space With a 1TB hard drive and 256GB of SSD storage, you'll have all the space you need for your games, media and documents.
You'll be able to access your entire library of games without having to worry about uninstalling anything to create more room.
Games are constantly evolving, pushing the boundaries of the available hardware to create increasingly realistic and dramatic experiences.
You can easily upgrade the Predator Orion 5000 if you need even more power • simply remove the easy-open side panels and push-open front cover to upgrade the internal hardware with ease.
You'll even be able to marvel at your system, with a see-through side panel making it easy to see everything in action.
While playing the most demanding games, it's important to keep everything cool.
The Predator Orion 5000 Desktop features IceTunnel 2.0, an advanced airflow management system that helps to remove heat from your PC case.
There's also dual LED fans to draw cold air into the system, with an internal filter to prevent annoying dust from getting inside.
|Processor: ||Intel® Core™ i5-8600K Unlocked Processor | Hexa-core | 3.6 GHz / 4.3 GHz | 9 MB cache |
|RAM: ||16 GB DDR4 (2666 MHz) | 64 GB maximum installable RAM |
|Intel Optane: ||16 GB |
|Storage: ||1 TB HDD (7200 rpm) | 256 GB SSD |
|Graphics card: ||NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
|Memory card reader: ||SD |
|Colour: ||Black & blue |
|Operating System: ||Windows 10 |
|Dimensions: ||253 x 520 x 563 mm (H x W x D) |
|Weight: ||17 kg |
|SKU: ||DG.E0SEK.022 |
|Connectivity ||• WiFi: Killer dual-band AC WiFi | 2x2 |
• Ethernet: Gigabit Ethernet port
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.0
• USB: USB Type-C x 1 | USB 3.1 x 7 | USB 2.0 x 4
• Video connections: HDMI x 1 | DisplayPort x 1 | DVI x 1
• Audio connections: 3.5 mm jack x 6
|Features ||• Mouse / trackpad: No |
• Keyboard: No
|Performance ||• Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-8600K Unlocked Processor | Hexa-core | 3.6 GHz / 4.3 GHz | 9 MB cache |
• RAM: 16 GB DDR4 (2666 MHz) | 64 GB maximum installable RAM
• Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | 8 GB GDDR6
• Storage: 1 TB HDD (7200 rpm) | 256 GB SSD
• Intel Optane: 16 GB
Whats in the box: ACER Predator Orion 5000 Intel® Core™ i5+ RTX 2070 Gaming Desktop + Charger
These Units are Ex Demo Display units from a major retailer and in immaculate ( A+ Grade ) condition with little or no signs of use but may have a VERY minor buff or scuff on the casing due to handling. The unit will be supplied in its original retail packaging or will have been professionally plain boxed. The units carry a 3 Months Warranty for Peace of Mind.
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Wicked offends again with “fat girls are harder to kidnap!”
WICKED Campers have copped another caning for offensiveness, but their politically incorrect slogans will be a sight on the Sunshine Coast for a while yet.
Although a call last year to exclude the infamous campervans from Coast caravan parks won support, no such ban has been implemented.
The State Government is also still considering possible controls on outdoor advertising that may apply to the campervans.
Wicked Campers have been the subject of complaints for their trademark cheeky slogans, which include racial and sexual jokes and sometimes foul language.
The Advertising Standards Board recently upheld a complaint about a van scribed with "fat girls are harder to kidnap!"
The complainant said the slogan was offensive and objected to kidnapping being used as humour.
The board found that the reference to fat girls was "tasteless" and "not nice", but did not discriminate against or vilify anyone.
However, it did find that the reference to kidnap was "making light of and encouraging" behaviour that was not in line with community standards.
Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson expressed support for a ban on offensively worded vehicles last year, saying standards should be upheld.
A spokesman said council was waiting for the State Government's response to recommendations from a parliamentary committee inquiry into sexually explicit outdoor advertising.
Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said the government was considering the report's recommendations.
The report makes nine recommendations, including the development of a code of ethics for outdoor advertising and that an adjudication board be established to consider breaches of the code.
The report recommends that the board have the power to investigate ads that use sex, nudity or sexuality, even without complaints.
WICKED SLOGANS (that we can print)
- Drink til she's pretty
- Dig a lil hol, planta lil seed, grow a lil tree, smoke a lil weed!
- A fool and his money are soon partying
- Inspect her gadget
- Honk if you're not wearing undies
- A diet is a penalty for exceeding the feed limit


So what's a good level of growth for your social media community? The answer, of course, is a case-by-case proposition - it's pretty unlikely that most brands will be able to add millions of new followers from a standing start, so what, exactly, should businesses expect? What type of audience increases are realistic, platform-by-platform and what growth levels are other brands seeing that might help you get a baseline on where you should be tracking and what you should be aiming for each quarter?
To help with this, content analytics provider TrackMaven has released its 2016 Social Media Inflation Index report, in which they've analyzed 12 months of follower growth data from almost 27,000 brands across five of the biggest social media networks - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. The study aims to measure how much brands have been able to grow their followings, giving others an idea of what they can expect, as well as an overview of the platforms on which businesses are seeing audience growth - and, conversely, where they're not.
And the details provide some interesting considerations - from TrackMaven's report:
- On average, brand follower growth on Instagram increased by 6% to 8% month-over-month. That's twice the monthly follower growth rate on LinkedIn and more than three times that on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. In fact, the average brand doubled its number of followers on Instagram year-over-year.
- On Facebook, brand follower growth took a major hit in March 2015 with the cleanup of inactive accounts from brand page likes.
- Annually, the average brand grew its Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn audiences by a quarter (23%, 23%, and 24%, respectively). Brands see the smallest annual follower growth on Pinterest at 20%.
The data shows that Instagram has been a big winner for brands in terms of building audience, and that's no surprise. The visual platform has been a big focus for many businesses in recent months, with marketers looking to capitalize on the network's massive audience growth - Instagram's doubled its active user base from 200 million back in 2014 to 400 million at last check. The platform opened up its ad platform last September and recently reported that they already have more than 200,000 active advertisers, underlining that growing brand focus. But that, in turn, has also undoubtedly played a part in Instagram's recently announced decision to switch to an algorithm-defined timeline - much to the chagrin of its dedicated, power users.
Will those audience growth levels hold-up? You'd think that with the implementation of an algorithm - which will limit post reach - those numbers are going to have to drop. But still, Instagram's current follower increases of 6%-8% on average are significantly higher than other networks. It may be worth getting in and working to build an audience on the platform now before those reach restrictions take full effect.
Overall, the median annual follower growth for brands was 42% - meaning your typical brand had a 42% larger social media audience by the end of the year, in comparison to the start. Brands on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn grew their followings by almost 25% for the period, with Pinterest recording the lowest annual follower growth at 20%. The Pinterest numbers reflect the way in which that platform is increasingly being used - it's essentially becoming more of a 'discovery' network than a 'social' one. In this sense, people don't so much go to Pinterest to connect with their favorite brands or friends, they go there to find new things via search, which, in turn, means they're not looking to follow brands so much as they are trends. It's an interesting dynamic and may lead to a re-defining of what Pinterest is as the platform moves further into the eCommerce space.
And one important note - that big dip in Facebook numbers in March? That was due to Facebook's account clean-up, in which a large number of "deactivated and memorialized" accounts were taken out of Page Like counts. The impact of this purge was particularly significant for some major brands - as noted by TrackMaven:
"Long-established Facebook brand pages took the biggest hits: In March 2015, Pepsi lost 1.8 million page likes and Dr. Pepper lost 1.3 million page likes."
TrackMaven's Social Media Inflation Index highlights some interesting data, particularly around the ongoing growth of social and the part that plays in overall audience growth. For example, as social media platforms are increasing in use across the board, you'd expect that brand pages would also gain more followers as a result. TrackMaven's data can help you contextualize your actual growth and get a better understanding of whether your results are necessarily due to improvements on your behalf, or because of overall trends which see more people coming to social anyway (i.e. if you're audience is growing above the median rate of 25% across those major platforms, you're operating above the norm, which is a positive endorsement of your strategy).
It'll be interesting to see how Instagram's data holds up over the next 12 months, and whether the troubles at Twitter also lead to declines in engagement and growth.
You can read the full TrackMaven report here.
Main image via Scyther5/Shutterstock.


text:
By Sue Hamilton,Ruth D Whitehouse,Katherine I Wright
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domain: library


text:
I love nature and the many wondrous things that are around
us. Below is a photo presentation of my husband and his friends
hunting on the Chesapeake. I also have many wildlife and nature
photos that will be available for sale online soon. Below
right is a gallery of some of my recent nature photography.
Move your mouse over the pictures and down to view more.


150 Blog Posts Since 2003
Go to Page:
Wrapping Up at Capitol Quarter: Construction Completed, Nearly a Decade of Photo Treks Now Finished
Nov 12, 2012 11:16 AM
For close to 10 years, there has almost always been something going on to photograph between 5th, 3rd, L, and Virginia. Between 2003 and 2007 there was the boarding up and demolishing of the old Capper/Carrollsburg
dwellings and the construction of the two new
Capper apartment buildings. Then, in 2008, work finally began on Capitol Quarter
's mixed-income townhouses, starting at 5th and L and working northward then back southward.
And now, as 2012 comes to a close, the final batch of homes, on the south side of L between 3rd and 4th, have been completed, and with the photos I took Sunday
, my work in the Capitol Quarter blocks is done.
There will be more to come at Capper--apartment buildings
are still to be built on the empty lots between 2nd and 3rd, and on the trash transfer site, and at the old Capper Seniors site at 7th and L, plus office buildings at 250 M
and 600 M
--but until those get underway (timelines all currently unannounced), my days of traipsing around the old Capper footprint with camera in hand are at an end.
I've taken more than 5,000 photos of just this portion of Near Southeast, and while not all of them are on the web site, if you go to the Photo Archive map
and click on a star or use the search form, you can follow the progression I've witnessed at the 14 Capitol Quarter intersections (such as the one above, showing the southwest corner of 4th and L
from 2006 to 2012, and the one below, showing the northeast corner of 4th and K
from 2004 to 2009).
The photos, of course, mostly just track the physical change, and don't really reflect how these blocks now have so much more foot traffic, so many more strollers, and so many more bikes (and so many more shades of pastels on the buildings!). The photos probably do hint at the, ahem, shift in demographics from a nearly 100 percent public housing community to a mixed-income area that includes some of those previous public housing residents alongside newcomers who've paid close to $1 million for their new homes, which probably still elicits a grumble here or there, though that's also an on-going discussion across the city, not specific just to Near Southeast.
But for those of us who saw what this area south of the freeway had looked like for so many years, there can still be moments of wonder that this redevelopment actually happened. It's been amazing to watch, and I'm so glad I got to see it up close from start to finish.
Canal Park Progress: Peeking Through the Fences (and the Trees)
Jun 10, 2012 5:25 PM
Although the temperature was a bit high for my liking, it still felt good to take a walk with camera in hand for the first time since April around Canal Park
and Capitol Quarter
to get a new batch of photos. And, thanks to the planting of numerous trees along with other visible improvements, my months and months of complaining about not really having much to photograph during the park's construction have come to an end.
With the arrival of the trees and some initial streetscaping now in place on the portion of L Street that runs through the park, you can now see how narrow the street is going to be in order to work to slow vehicular traffic as it crosses the park. (The completed streetscape will also give a visual cue to Slow The Hell Down.) K Street will get a similar treatment.
(Southeast corner of 2nd and K. I love the first shot, from nearly nine years ago, with lots of school buses and without USDOT.)
The official Canal Park web site
can also give you more information, along with these slides
from a presentation
at last month's ANC 6D meeting. Though, judging from the people who chatted me up while I was poking my camera through the fences, we're long past the "what" stage and deep into the "when" ("WHEN!?!") stage. An opening in November is still the target.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Quarter
's last block, framing has now gotten underway on 4th Street, with bricking and painting finished on the houses on the 3rd Street side. My suggestion is to scroll through the Capitol Quarter Phase 2 Expanded Photo Archive
, because I can't imagine at this point the before-and-afters need much narration.
(Southeast corner of Third and L, in December 2004 [through the windshield!] and today.)
Updated Photos from the Usual Spots (Holiday Edition)
Apr 8, 2012 6:35 PM
Because of a need to burn off some calories before digging into my "Reeseter's Bunny" (milk chocolate-coated peanut butter bunny, which the label says is four servings [ha!] at 180 calories per), I did my usual wanderings this morning to grab updated photos around, Capper
, 200 I
, Canal Park
, and the Boilermaker Shops
. Alas, I did not hide any Easter eggs in any of these shots, nor did I find any.
The framing and Tyvek-ing is underway on 3rd Street south of L, in the shadow of the 300 M Street office building, as Capitol Quarter
continues its march toward completion. I also took a lot of photos of other CQ Phase II blocks, so spend some time in the Capitol Quarter Phase 2 Expanded Photo Archive
(and scroll down a bit) to hop through the many (many!) before-and-afters.
Then there's the Boilermaker Shops
at the Yards
, where some work was being done even on Easter Sunday. The walling off the interior space for the different tenants has begun, with the studs visible--and some drywall has even gone in on the mezzanine level, as seen at right, in a view from 4th Street, through what will be the Bluejacket space.
The work is on-going at Canal Park
, but continues to not be terribly exciting from a photographic standpoint, unless you're wowed by images of new curbs. But the Canal Park Expanded Photo Archive
can take you for a walk around the park's perimeter to see the current views, if you don't see it every day. (I also like my barbed wire shot [above right], the result of desperation after being without photos from the east side of 2nd and L for a very long time now. But, no, I didn't jump the fence.)
I also enjoyed being watched very closely by a USDOT security guard with a clipboard as I took photos of the park's progress from the south side of M Street. "What are you taking photos of?" she finally asked, trying to sound stern. "Stuff," I replied, as I smiled and kept walking.
There's also updated shots from 225 Virginia/200 I
(seen at right), with the landscaping now starting to go in.
Now I need to go find that peanut butter bunny. I think I earned it.
Capper Milestone: Capitol Quarter Townhouses Now Sold Out
Mar 29, 2012 9:40 AM
It's a real milestone in the redevelopment of Near Southeast to report that the entire stock of townhouses for sale at Capitol Quarter
has now sold out.
The first reservations for units were taken in October 2006
(remember the people camping out?), construction began in summer 2008
, Phase 1 finished construction and Phase 2 reservations began in 2010, and now, with construction underway on the last group of houses on L between 3rd and 4th, the finish line for the project is not far away.
The development has been the third phase of the Hope VI redevelopment
of the old Capper/Carrollsburg
public housing project, replacing the old housing with nearly seven blocks of brightly painted rowhouses, containing not only 130ish market-rate townhouses (a few of which have broken the $1 million barrier) but also 90ish special workforce-rate
houses for smaller incomes, in addition to nearly 90 subsidized rental units.
Those units, combined with the 300 built at Capper Seniors #1
and 400 M Street
, mean that more than half of the 700 units in the old Capper have now been replaced. The rest are slated to come in five mixed-income apartment buildings
, located on the west side of 3rd Street, on L Street south
of the Marine Bachelor Enlisted Quarters, and on the DPW/trash transfer station site at New Jersey and K. No timelines have been announced for any of the remaining buildings, but you can see on my main Capper page
a map with estimated unit counts for each.
I've taken a lot (a LOT) of photos of the Capper footprint since 2003: my Capitol Quarter Phase 2
and Phase 1
pages give a good overview, or you can just pick a spot along 3rd, 4th, or 5th Streets in my Photo Archive
and take a look.
Thursday Tidbits: Minutiae from Wandering the Streets (and Twitter)
Mar 22, 2012 3:38 PM
* Shipping containers have been arriving
at the Fairgrounds
(Bullpen) site. (They say there's going to be a "preview" event on March 30--looks like a lot of work to do in eight days. But the real opening is supposed to be
in time for the Nats' season opener on April 12.)
* Greenery is arriving
at 200 I/225 Virginia
, and the sidewalks are done. Apparently the fences will be moved back sometime next week to keep the building perimeter secure but to allow the sidewalks to be used. (In other words, the "street sidewalk" will finally disappear.) There should also be repaving and crosswalk striping around the site coming in early April.
* Framing is racing along on the stretch of Capitol Quarter
townhomes on 3rd south of L.
* Curbs are going in on 2nd Place next to Canal Park
and the pavilion.
* The cherry trees in the Center Field Plaza at Nats Park
are budding, but don't look on the verge of popping yet. Perhaps they can hold on until April 3.
* Yesterday we were talking about the possibility of a little BOOM
, but here's what might happen 'round these parts if there's a really BIG BOOM
* The Post writes about the neighborhood
as part of the big Mega RealEstate focus on walkable communities, and keys in on the fact that the area has a number of different names. (For the record, it's not like I made up "Near Southeast"--I was just following the city's lead
.) Within a few hours, though, Greater Greater Washington may have solved the problem by pointing us to the area's late-19th-century moniker: "Bloodfield
." Wouldn't that work great for ballpark headlines? ("Phillies Dismembered at Bloodfield.")
Anything else folks are seeing?
Tuesday Tidbits: Best Evaluated by Volume, Not Weight
Mar 13, 2012 9:19 AM
So many Tweets
recently, such small items. Let's see how short I can keep them:
* Justin's Cafe is looking to have a block party
on Saturday, April 14 (when the Nats and the Reds play at 4:05 pm), and ANC 6D has supported the request to close 1st Street between K and L. (Thanks to SWill
for, once again, picking up my slack.) Still probably some bureaucratic hoops to jump through before all is confirmed. This was moved from
Opening Day so it would be on a weekend, Will says,
* New striping and bike lanes were installed Monday on I Street SE between South Capitol and New Jersey.
Anything else going on these days? Besides that sandwich shop opening?
Let's add the elephant parade
! Starting tonight at 8 pm, on the southern edge of Garfield Park at the train tracks where Virginia crosses under New Jersey, says WTOP
: I sent a lackey
down to Potbelly to get a few opening-day shots
. Hope he's not expecting to get reimbursed for his lunch.
Photos from All Over, Feb. 2012 Edition
Feb 27, 2012 11:34 AM
Take a gorgeous Sunday, add an obsessive-compulsive need to document all the change underway, and what do you get? Nearly eight miles of walking and a shameful number of new photos.
The Foundry Lofts
building is all but done, with only the retail spaces left to be built out, so I took a bunch of "after" photos that will probably last for a while. But that new Potbelly sign sure stands out! I also pressed my nose against the glass to peek inside the sandwich shop's space--it sure doesn't look far from opening.
Embarrassingly, I haven't had a camera in hand on the Navy Yard's portion of the Anacostia Riverwalk since 2004. (I'm always worried they're going to toss me in the brig as a security threat, especially after a run-in a few years back where I was chased down by both a gate sentry and the DC police after taking photos of the Hull Street gate from across M Street.) But I pushed forward yesterday and got a bunch of new shots that I've added to my Navy Yard page
, taking care to demonstrate to the many security cameras that I was photographing the river and not the installation. (Don't miss the especially cool before-and-after of the gate to the Yards Park.)
I will probably be creating a separate Riverwalk page before too long, but not today.
Then there's Canal Park
, where I mainly took some new photos of the pavilion under construction near M Street, since photos of digging and ground work don't quite rise to the level of "interesting." I also hit most of the angles for the Boilermaker Shops
, as well as for Capitol Quarter Phase II
, where the security guard expressed concern about my actions (I need a laminated Photography Approved card or something). And I wandered the 225 Virginia/200 I
11th Street Bridges
, 225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I
, Boilermaker Shops/Yards
, Canal Park
, Capitol Quarter, Foundry Lofts/Yards
, Navy Yard
, The Yards
Tidbits, Capper Edition: Trailers Leaving, New Curbs, More
Feb 22, 2012 8:05 PM
It's not often I have enough content for a location-specific tidbits post, but there's a few items of note from the Capper
neck of the woods worth passing along:
The trailers are scheduled to be hauled away sometime next week; I hear that the Housing Authority folks are looking into keeping the fence that CHDS put up and laying down some additional sod in order to create a small playing field for kids.
There's still no word on when the community center itself may get built, though DCHA is (still) working on getting the financing.
* If you've seen new granite curbs and gutters going in along 3rd, K, and L in front of Cornercopia and the "legacy" houses around which Capitol Quarter has been built, those are being installed by the Housing Authority as a small community benefit for those homeowners who have been surrounded by a whole lot of construction over the past few years. New brick sidewalks will be coming as well; new street lights are also a possibility, though that's not confirmed.
* Foundations are being poured for the townhouses along 3rd Street south of L that are part of the last block of Capitol Quarter construction. Didn't see framing underway when I rode by on Saturday, but perhaps that's started since?
* There's also apparently some kerfuffling these days within the CQ homeowners association, sparked by working on the community's response to the plans for the Virginia Avenue Tunnel reconstruction
(the project that continues to put a smile on everyone's faces!). I mention it here because I wouldn't want to be accused of sweeping such important news under the rug, but I'd really prefer that my comments section not become a place for the battle to be litigated.
A Slew of Shots Snapped on a Sunny Saturday Sojourn
Dec 4, 2011 5:24 PM
Yes, it's time for another batch of updated construction photos. This is a tough stretch of year to take these--the sun never gets very high in the sky, so anything facing due south is about impossible to get without glare. And, for places like Canal Park
, it's hard to even get some locations out of the shadows long enough to get a photo that you can decipher. But you can see (below left, and on the project page) a couple of shots of the progress on the park's pavilion where the Park Tavern restaurant
will be housed, along with plenty of shots vaguely showing the other ongoing ground-level work. Meanwhile, at Capitol Quarter
(below right), they continue to just zip right along, with framing now well underway on the north side of L and around up 4th, and prep work for foundations continuing in the project's final block, on the south side of L.
In the Renovation/Rehabilitation portion of the tour, we have a few updated images of the Boilermaker Shops
(above left), another building that's tough to shoot in winter, even more so when there's not much of it other than steel beams at the moment (though they have recently been painted white). Meanwhile, 225 Virginia/200 I
is coming pretty close to the end of its exterior renovations, though work inside will continue in preparation for the arrival of three DC agencies later this year.
There isn't much new to see of Lot 38 Espresso (aka the Little Red Building 2.0, above left), which the grapevine says is now shooting for a mid-December opening. (But, really, at this point, it opens when it opens--the last batch of permits and approvals is always slow going, and I bet the owner wants it open even more than you do.) I also took a bunch of shots of the former National Geospatial Intelligence Agency building at 1st and M (above right), not because there's been any changes to it, but because I really enjoyed finally being able to aim a camera at it without having guards reaching for their guns. (Nyaah! Nyaah! Click! Click! Click!)
I came home with 438 new photos (yikes), and you can browse the 180-plus I decided to upload to the online archive here
. (Yes, it's true, you don't actually get to see every photo I've ever taken. Which is probably for the best.)
Remember to click the
icon to see the entire range of photos for any location, while the project pages linked to above are your best bet if you're looking for paired before-and-afters and/or narrated tours.
And, in case you didn't see my tweet
or my late-night update
, the residential/Teeter project at 4th and M
got all the dotted i's and crossed t's I mentioned in my initial post, and is officially now considered by Forest Ctiy as "commenced." (I just can't call it 1212 4th Street yet. Doesn't really make the location pop as well as "4th and M.")
Updated Photos: Capitol Quarter Phase II and 225 Virginia/200 I
Oct 23, 2011 2:43 PM
October may be my favorite month for taking photos of Near Southeast--if you can get a bright clear day, the just-starting-to-change trees give a nice additional color pallette, plus the sun still gets high enough in the sky to (mostly) allow for southward-facing photos. It was eight years ago I first found this out, as you can see in this October 2003 gallery
--there's still a lot of shots where clearly I hadn't found my routine yet (and you can see my dirty windshield here and there!), but there is still something special about the light in them. And looking at how different things look is kind of cool, too.
The old Post Plant monolith ain't quite so monolith-y anymore, is it?
There's apparently been some concern by Capitol Quarter residents about the 200 I construction, but representatives of Stonebridge gave an update to them saying that "base building work" (i.e., outside stuff) will be completed in the next four months, which seems pretty much on the schedule announced when work began
back in February. Interior work will begin in December, with DC agencies expected to begin moving in around June 2012. But 3rd and I streets will probably be a bit of a mess as utility work and the construction of the single-deck parking garage continue. My post from March on the parking garage
configuration may also be of interest, if you haven't been following along, as might all of my 225 Virginia/200 I posts
, going back many years....
And, once you're finished wandering through these shots, how about filling out my Reader Survey
? (I PROMISE that this link actually works!) It's only going to be up for a few more days....
Final Capitol Quarter Workforce Housing Lottery Completed
Oct 18, 2011 1:32 PM
The folks at EYA have passed along that the fourth and final lottery for workforce-housing units at Capitol Quarter
was completed on October 1, with 66 people entering for the 12 houses that were made available. (EYA also drew 24 names for a backup list in case any of the chosen 12 withdraw.)
I don't have any of the documents for this round of the lottery (didn't get any notification of it in advance this time around), but here's the information provided for the last lottery
, back in March. At that time, household income needed to be under $119,025 in order to qualify, and there were scads of qualifications and requirements that potential lottery entrants needed to be certified as having passed in order to participate.
As for the rest of Capitol Quarter, it is nearing the finish line, with seven or eight market-rate homes left to sell on the second-to-last block (bounded by 3rd, 4th, K, and L), along with the 12 market-rate homes that will be available on the final block on the south side of L between 3rd and 4th (right behind the 300 M Street office building).
This portion of the Capper/Carrollsburg redevelopment
should be completed by next summer, with the two phases of the Capitol Quarter townhouse development bringing approximately 120 market-rate houses, 82 workforce-rate units, 25 Section 8 ownership units, and 86 subsidized rental units. This is in addition to the 162 subsidized senior housing units at 900 5th Street
and 138 subsidized units at 400 M Street
. This leaves five mixed-income apartment buildings
and the 250 M
and 600 M
office buildings still to be built to complete the Hope VI plans
that will replace the 707 units of public housing one-to-one, along with constructing an additional 1,000-plus market-rate and workforce-rate units. No timelines have been announced for the next phases.
Tree Planting on Saturday, Metro Name, Nats Park Uses
Oct 12, 2011 8:38 AM
* On Saturday, Oct. 15, a group of neighbors together with Casey Trees is having a tree-planting event in the "triangle park"
bounded by Virginia Avenue and 4th, 5th, and I streets, SE. No prior experience is required, and coffee and treats will be provided along with a post-planting lunch for volunteers. More information and how to volunteer here
* WMATA staff has recommended that
"Ballpark" be added to the Navy Yard Metro station name as one of its new "secondary" (subtitle) names, rather than the requested "Navy Yard-Ballpark."
However, since there is not yet any organization that has committed to paying for the name change (which a DDOT rep said at a recent ANC meeting would be in the $100,000 range for a two-exit station), WMATA's board will not be voting on this name change at its meetings on Thursday
. They will vote on whether to change the Waterfront-SEU station to just "Waterfront," having veteoed the city's request for "Waterfront-Arena Stage" as being over the 19-character length limit and also having a "commercial naming rights issue." (via GGW
Bullet from Freeway Gunfire Strikes Virginia Ave. SE House
Sep 25, 2011 3:51 PM
Readers are reporting that late Saturday night three or four shots were fired on the Southeast Freeway that resulted in a bullet going through a window of one of the houses in the 300 block of Virginia Ave. SE, with the one of the bullet's shards then ending up either lodged in or very near the bassinet of a 5-day-old baby. No one in the house was injured. The gunfire seems to have been the result of people in one car on the freeway shooting at another car.
There's no police report anywhere as yet, so these are only details I'm getting from readers, but perhaps more information will become available. (I've sent a request into the MPD 1D mailing list
UPDATE: This is Commander Hickson's reply to my question on the MPD-1D list: "There was a shooting on the Freeway that involved a passenger in one moving vehicle firing at another moving vehicle. As a result of that shooting a shot struck and entered a private premise in the 300 block of VA Ave SE, causing damage to the home and the targeted vehicle. Thankfully, no one was injured in the vehicle or the home. The only description that was provided was for a black "luxury" vehicle, occupied by three subjects."
A Few Photos Before Downshifting into the August Doldrums
Aug 1, 2011 3:31 PM
I'm anticipating that the next couple of weeks will be pretty quiet, at least the Foundry Lofts
start their pre-leasing on Aug. 15, followed by the Ward 6 Redistricting Task Force
release of its first draft of proposed new ANC/SMD boundaries on or about Aug. 18. So here's a bit of a potpourri, and then I'm going to probably take a blog-breather unless really big news breaks. (As always, I'll still be popping up on Twitter
with tidbits here or there.)
A smidge belatedly, I've added the three garages demolished a week ago on the southeast corner of 1st and K to my Demolished Buildings Gallery
, as entries 163, 164, and 165. (It might soon be time to create a Not Demolished Gallery, which would be far far smaller.) I was surprised when digging in my archives to find a couple of photos of the garages still in operation (above), from 2006 and 2007. You can also see how that stretch of 1st has changed since 2003, looking south from K
and north from L
I also grabbed a quick photo
of the progress on the new bridge bring built by the city that will link Diamond Teague Park
to the Yards Park
, scheduled to be completed this fall. (And I guess it's time to also officially get rid of the "floating bridge" nomenclature, because, as we've seen for months, there are big ole' piles in the river.) It'll be interesting to see if usage of the First Base Gate at Nationals Park
at 1st and Potomac increases noticeably next season with this new riverside walkway available. (It will also make arriving at Teague Piers via water taxi to attend events at the Yards Park involve a much more enjoyable walk, compared to schlepping up to N Street and over.)
If you're looking for other links to help kill time over the next few weeks, take a look at the JDLand Headlines
to be sure you haven't missed any big items lately.
Demolition of the Market Deli at 1st and L Underway; Other Photos
Jul 11, 2011 3:41 PM
With raze permits for the old structures along 1st Street SE between K and L finally approved in mid-June, the days were truly numbered for the Market Deli and its neighbors, and today the demolition got underway, with most of the rear section of the Deli's structure knocked in. Fences are up
all around the 1st Street structures, which are all owned by Akridge, and with this initial wrecking underway I imagine it won't be long until the five buildings are added to my Demolished Buildings Gallery
, as entries 161 through 165.
There's a few more images here
, showing that the demolition isn't quite so obvious from 1st Street (yet). Also, hopefully the folks who have been tending to the cats living in the abandoned building can report in as to their fate. (I heard a rumor that some kittens were removed today, but would defer to an update from anyone with more knowledge. UPDATE
: In the comments of another post, reader jenniferp says that five very young kittens were indeed captured this morning, but there are several more still on the loose.) And, if you haven't been following along on the tale of the Market Deli for the past few years, here's some enlightenment
And, because it would have been silly to wander down there in the ghastly heat and humidity and walk past a whole lot of spots where I needed to take updated photos, you can see the latest progress at 225 Virginia
(aka 200 I Street)
and the second phase of Capitol Quarter
, where framing is being completed on the last portion of its first block, along Fourth Street.
Photo Update: 225 Virginia's New Clothes, Townhouses A'Poppin'
Jun 12, 2011 2:53 PM
While the number of photos I took
while in Spain and Italy should have been enough to tide me over for quite a while in the camera department, the guilt at not having taken Hood photos since APRIL (!) shoved me out the door on hot and hazy Sunday morning (ick) for a walk around the major activity zone between 2nd and 4th Streets.
The re-dressing of 225 Virginia/200 I/Old Post Plant/Old Star Plant
continues, with most of the north face now sporting the building's new look; some windows have even been installed on the east front, facing 3rd Street. It's expected that the exterior work will be done by early 2012, with tenants from three city agencies starting to move in about a year from now. My 225 Virginia project page
has a guided tour of the project, or you can take the virtual walk-around-the-block
for a bigger batch of before-and-after photos to watch the building's transformation from Big White Monolith to 21st century office building.
In the meantime, work is speeding along at Capitol Quarter
, where the block bounded by 3rd, 4th, I, and K (bisected by the soon-to-be-birthed 3rd Place) has construction in all phases, from the nearly completed houses at 3rd and I
to the new framing at 4th and I
, and foundations now poured at 4th and K
. And, as briefly mentioned a few days ago, the trailer that housed the original sales center at 4th and L
is now gone. If you just want the short version of Capitol Quarter's second-phase transformation, check out my Capitol Quarter project page
, otherwise you can take the virtual walk
around the blocks now under construction for a boatload of before-and-afters.
As always, remember that the
icon on any page gets you to the full batch of photos I've taken at any location. Or, if you're interested in only a certain location, you can use my Photo Archive map to get right to it. The entire set of 178 photos I posted today can be seen all at once, too, if you're so inclined.
(And, as an aside, let me send my huzzahs to Microsoft for getting fixed in IE9 whatever it was in IE8 that would cause the browser to stop displaying local hard drive images after a certain amount of page loads, causing me to having to restart the dang thing eight or nine times during each photo archiving stint. [It's pretty much the only thing I still use IE for.])
Back from Across the Pond; Lots of Tidbits While I Recover
Jun 8, 2011 9:09 AM
I'm back in DC, having spent 11 wonderful days
in Madrid, Barcelona, and cruising across the Mediterranean to Pisa, Florence, Rome, the coast south of Naples, and Mallorca. Needless to say, while I checked in on the news back home from time to time and tweeted an item or two if the timing was right, I wasn't following developments closely, and I'm pretty out of the blogging groove at this point. So I'm going to start back slowly with some easy items.
: The city council voted Tuesday to approve a redistricting map that, as expected, keeps Near Southeast in Ward 6. This continues to make Marion Barry extremely unhappy, and the Examiner reports
that he'll be "asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to open a Justice Department review of proposed new D.C. ward boundaries because, Barry says, they violate residents' civil rights." There's still a final vote to be had on the plan, probably on June 21. As for the last-minute changes that ended up keeping much of Ward 6 intact (moving Reservation 13 to Ward 7 instead of other areas), you can read Tommy Wells's blog
for more details.
: The Navy Yard announced last week
that its portion of the riverwalk along the Anacostia River, running from the 11th Street Bridges to the Yards Park
, will now be open from 5:30 am until "official sunset," seven days a week and including holidays; though there will still be closures as needed, which are announced on the Navy Yard Riverwalk Twitter feed
. (I admit that I got a bit of a kick passing along this news via Twitter
while riding on a train north of Rome.)
* DPW Move
: The council passed emergency technical legislation
on Tuesday that allows Capper PILOT funds
to be used to build a new location for DPW operations in Northeast, which means that they should be moving from the 2nd and K site this fall (before "leaf season").
* Ward 6 Family Day
: Tommy Wells's yearly event for Ward 6 residents will be held on Saturday, June 25
, and will be at the Yards Park
for the first time. It's from 1 to 5 pm, with "free food, live music, games and activities for the whole family as well as raffles featuring gift certificates from local businesses and sporting memorabilia from the Wizards, DC United and Washington Nationals."
* ANC 6D
has its next meeting on Monday, June 13, at 7 pm at Arena Stage. The agenda
is light on Near Southeast items, with only a resolution by David Garber about Near Southeast bike stations and requests by Cornercopia and Harry's Reserve to be exempted from the ban on the sale of "singles."
* Food Truck Festival: Bo Blair, the owner of the Bullpens and the organizer of Truckeroo on June 3, said in an e-mail that the event was a "massive, incredible success," with somewhere between 17,000 and 18,000 attendees and "zero problems." The next date for the event will be announced soon.
* Construction and Destruction
: Construction has stalled on the Little Red Building v2.0 at 2nd and L
, which ANC commissioner Garber says
is a "building permit issue that is in process of being resolved - construction should start back 'soon.'" Meanwhile, the "re-dressing" of 225 Virginia
is well underway, with the new exterior walls being hung on the north side of the building. And if it hasn't already happened, the trailer
that was the original sales office for Capitol Quarter
is being torn down, since construction of townhouses is now underway on that block. (Photos to come, at some point.)
And, since this just came across Twitter: Dan Steinberg reports
that Shake Shack and the other new Nats Park restaurants will open next Tuesday, the beginning of the homestand vs. the Cardinals.
225 Virginia/Old Post Plant/200 I
, Alcohol/Liquor Licenses
, ANC News
, Capitol Quarter, cornercopia
, Trash Transfer Site/DPW
, Foundry Lofts/Yards
, Harry's Reserve
, Little Red Bldg/Lot 38 Espresso
, Navy Yard
, JDLand stuff
, The Yards
Spring Has Sprung Photos: 200 I, Capitol Quarter, Yards Park
Apr 25, 2011 9:18 AM
With the sun finally coming out, it shouldn't be surprising that I took camera in hand on both Saturday evening and Easter Sunday and did some wandering to catch up with the progress at two locations, and to get shots of a few new items I hadn't yet documented.
The old 225 Virginia
, on its way to becoming 200 I (boo), is now almost completely disrobed. (I think I'll go with that from now on rather than "deskinned.") It's been such a monolith for so many years that it's strange to see it broken up. You can take a virtual walk around the block
to see how the old Star/Post plant looked before along with its current state, and visit my 225 Virginia project page
for more info and background. (If you haven't been following along, by this time next year 200 I is expected to be nearly complete, with three DC city agencies on the boards to move there.)
Just to the southwest, work continues on the first block(s) in the second phase of the Capitol Quarter
mixed-income townhouse development, with bricking proceeding on the new houses along I Street while framing has made it around and up the new 3rd Place; plus, foundations have now been poured along 4th Street. Here's your walk around the block
to be reminded of the old public housing units that stood there for a long time and to compare them with the construction going on now. For more information, see my Capper
and Capitol Quarter project pages
Meanwhile, down at the Yards Park
, the flowers are in bloom, a geodesic dome that looks like the Earth is hosting foodies,
and work appears to have begun on the floating bridge that will connect the Yards Park to Diamond Teague Park
(right by Nationals Park
) later this year. You can see my quick gallery of photos
showing these items, along with a picture of the sign laying out the rules for using the Navy Yard portion of the riverwalk (since it was Saturday, I could only stand forlornly at the gate and look eastward), plus the progress on the Foundry Lofts
building just to the north of the park. And some shots of the Navy Yard buildings that are adjacent to the park, just because I like being in a spot where I can take photos of them without having guards chase me down the street.
Updated Photos From the Center of the Neighborhood
Mar 20, 2011 10:16 AM
Saturday was a lovely day for taking a couple of walks with camera in hand, and with work underway at locations that couldn't be any closer to my out-of-neighborhood house, I had no excuse to not get some updated photos of 225 Virginia/200 I
, Capitol Quarter Phase 2
, Canal Park
, and the Little Red Building
. (It was also nice chatting with the folks who correctly guessed that the oddball standing in the middle of the street taking photos must have been me.)
The showy demolition work is now well underway at 225 Virginia/200 I, and if the few shots and renderings on the project page
aren't enough for you, you can do a virtual walk around the block
to see which walls and windows are blown out at this point and to compare the current images with their "befores."
No time is being wasted at Capitol Quarter
, where framing has now wrapped around from I to 3rd to K Street on the first block of Phase 2. You can take a "walk" around that block
, too, if you haven't lately, or wander through the project page
, both of which have plenty of images of the old Capper public housing buildings that were on this block for a very long time. I also added to the database some photos of what will eventually be the intersection of 3rd Place and L
, once the new street gets built through its second block south of K. If you're big on old Capper photos, there's a few "before" images of L Street buildings in that sent that haven't been displayed on the site before now.
If photographs of fences are your thing, take a "walk" around the Canal Park perimeter
, to see many pictures of the "traffic control" now in place in advance of the start of construction on the park (presuming it ever actually comes). Those barriers are going to put a crimp in some of my standard shooting locations for the next year or so, including where I've stood for the past eight years to take photographs of the Little Red Building
, which in its new incarnation is now more of a brick red
than the beet red it used to be. ANC commissioner Garber posted on Friday
that the roof is going in over the next few days, at which point work on the interior can begin, as it slowly progresses toward becoming "Lot 38 Espresso
Remember that the
icon on any page gets you to the full batch of photos I've taken at any location (which, since I'm getting into the eighth year of doing this, can be kind of voluminous in some spots).
(I know that It seems kind of odd to still be posting photos when so many readers now live in the neighborhood, which of course wasn't always the case. But it's my schtick, and so I continue onward! Plus. there are plenty of people interested in Near Southeast who don't wander around every day--or maybe some of the residents don't know what these spots used to look like before....)
Capitol Quarter Phase II Workforce Lottery March 26
Mar 15, 2011 9:58 AM
EYA has announced
that up to 11 houses at Capitol Quarter
are being made available at workforce-level prices in another lottery, the third since Capitol Quarter began being developed in 2006. Household income must be under $119,025, and there are a lot of qualifications and requirements
to meet, requiring a visit to the sales office before March 20 in order to be certified as eligible. The lottery will be held at 10 am on March 26 at the sales office at 4th and L, SE. (There may be fewer than 11 houses, since former residents of Capper/Carrollsburg
are given an opportunity to purchase homes in this program before they are made available.)
Go to Page:


text:
I was born at home in a third-floor bedroom of our home in Dorchester, Massachusetts, during a snowstorm in January. My transition into this world was labored and guided by hands who saw my entrance as sacred. My grandmother served as a midwife. She cared for me and my mother in the hours after. I come from a family that thought differently about birth, illness, and death. Babies were born at home. Loved ones with Illnesses were cared for at home. The last stages of life were lived and labored at home without the interventions of doctors, or the loudness of machines or the red tape of billing and deductibles. Home is an ephemeral space for the movement of time and the activity of life. As a result, I see home spaces and community care as the ultimate gift we can offer each other during all of life’s transitions.
Today, like many, I am at home. I am writing, watching the news, and coping while caring for myself and my family under shelter-in-place orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The home space has become a center stage for all of our activities, needs, and challenges. Our ability to cope daily depends on how we can access not only basic resources like food, water, medications, and safety, but also care and connection. How do we sustain community for ourselves within and beyond our walls? Our ability to access emotional health while sheltering in place is the difference between the home becoming the container for our suffering or a harbor of our deep connection to others.
As a Black, queer former sex worker who is currently mothering, I know firsthand the way homes as containers can be beautiful, terrifying, and many variations in between. For Indigenous people, Black people, people of color, women, and transgender and non-binary people, our struggles with the home as space are part of a long liberation struggle to depart from the colonial definitions of land, home, property, and the exploitation of our bodies. Outside of colonization ideology, home is a continuum—a space for experiences, rituals, physical bodies, pleasure, and care. This moment of locating ourselves and each other while at home is not a phenomenon but an intimate reckoning in search of a paradigm shift towards decolonization.
What Would an HIV Doula Do? (WWHIVDD) Collective has been challenging and expanding radical care across media for years, and their work has not changed in our uncertain COVID-19 world. What Would an HIV Doula Do? is a community of people who come together in response to the ongoing AIDS crisis. They understand a doula as someone who holds space during times of transition. They understand HIV as a series of transitions that begins long before being tested or getting a diagnosis and continues after treatment. They believe that since no one gets HIV alone, no one should have to deal with HIV alone. As a group, they create an ongoing presence in the lives of others to ensure no one is ever alone. They ask questions as a process that leads to inclusion.
Tamara Oyola-Santiago, M.P.H., is a collective member who participated in the first WWHIVDD dialogue convened by Ted Kerr, which took place at Housing Works’ Keith D. Cylar Community Health Center. Oyola-Santiago believes that “doula work is about loving, caring, advocating, moving, transforming, reflecting, and holding one another,” she said. “Only beings can do doula work, not institutions nor agencies nor entities. So it is critical in 2020 and always and forever, because we need to humanize and hold our humanity.” According to Oyola-Santiago, the ongoing challenge to this work is “the business of everyday life,” because it impacts the ability to organize and meet face to face. Online and electronic organizing make it easier but don’t necessarily “feed the soul.”
These challenges continue now amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet the work of caring for each other continues. How do we find each other when we need each other the most? While social media is not a physical home, it is a space often traversed, cycled back to, and ritualized. This collective has found ways to maximize connecting online.
Ted Kerr, a founding member of WWHIVDD, often uses Facebook to engage with others by posing questions related to the complexity of caring for ourselves and others. He recently posted: “How do we make space for the “reasonable” desire to not get sick, while also refusing ableism? How do we engage with the wrought state of health while recognizing our organic matter? How do we exist in the epidemic with our fears? With our solidarity? With our bodies? With each other?” These questions began a discussion on where we locate ourselves and how we relate to each other. As I scrolled through these questions, I didn’t feel judged—instead, it provided an opportunity to breathe, think, and reflect. This process of questioning brought me home to me. This allows me to better engage with others.
This model of collective questioning recently emerged in two WWHIVDD projects: “Twenty-Seven Questions for Writers & Journalists to Consider When Writing About COVID-19 & AIDS” and the “What Does a COVID-19 Doula Do?” zine.
The 27 questions offer a “series of questions as provocations and illuminations, put forward with the understanding that there are no single or correct answers. Rather, as a group of people who benefit from interrogation, collectivity, and accountability,” the collective offers questions as a gift to those in the field.
The “What Does a COVID-19 Doula Do?” zine, made in collabaration with the ONE Archive Foundation, emerged as a snapshot of time from the WWHIVDD community, responding in words, actions, and images to the unfolding, unprecedented, global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.
LET’S NOT BE AFRAID OF EACH OTHER
LET’S NOT BE AFRAID OF EACH OTHER
LET’S NOT BE AFRAID OF EACH OTHER
These words repeat themselves throughout the zine. These words resonate with me as I draw from my well looking for comfort. Between press conferences and dark memes between friends, I can feel my love tank emptying. I want to connect on video chat, but I don’t want to connect on video chat. I want to participate in the world of internet-based art performances but often feel overwhelmed at the thought of participating. I want to receive love and give love. I want to touch and be touched. I want my home to be a circle of protection and space of comfort, yet I do not want to live in fear of an outside world full of beautiful otherness. The art within the zine echoes the ways we are all searching for a home in our self and with others.
R&B/soul singer-songwriter Luther Vandross, on his 1981 debut album Never Too Much, sang a song titled, “A House Is Not a Home.” Vandross’ sweet voice reminded us that
A room is still a room
Even when there’s nothing there but gloom
But a room is not a house
And a house is not a home
When the two of us are far apart
And one of us has a broken heart.
I am reminded of this love ballad, as I feel my heart growing weary amid this pandemic. The work of the WWHIVDD collective inspires me to accept the ways my heart is broken and mourn the loss of an old life, while remembering that the old life was also broken. I am not broken, my communities were not broken, but the systems my Black, queer, Indigenous, poor, differently abled friends and I live in have always been broken.
I am learning that personal nostalgia is OK. Yet romanticizing the world we knew before COVID-19 is not helpful, because there is still work to be done in solidarity with Indigenous struggles, Black Liberation, Queer Liberation, the freeing of Palestine, global wage workers, de-gentrification, and the dismantling of patriarchy and capitalism. And while I am not pressuring myself to start a revolution between Zoom meetings, I do realize we are in a pivot towards a revolution. This is a birthing. This is a transition. This is a shift.
I return home to the questions drawn from this collective. Kerr poses questions for us in this transition: “Please consider all the images of the amazing people who are figuring out how to go outside and social distance that is not being #shared. Please consider the work that went into getting streets closed so people could have more safe space, and please consider all the people using these now available spaces. Please consider the multiple people who live in tiny homes who are figuring out how to keep their sanity and safety. Please consider overly simplistic divides. Please consider camera angles. Please consider the economics of retweets and shares. And please consider how your outrage is being stoked, monitored, used.”
These considerations are vital for us to make it into the future together. We must follow the lead of groups like WWHIVDD, because we have to first be here caring for and loving each other as a radical practice. There will be no future if we do not thrive in the present.

domain: literature


Debbie McGee is to make her stage acting debut as a kooky psychic in the thriller The House on Cold Hill, by the No.1 best-selling author Peter James, at The Mill at Sonning.
Best known as the assistant and wife of the late magician Paul Daniels, Debbie wowed the country on the last series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. She hosts a regular Sunday morning show on BBC Radio Berkshire and is a recurring member of ITV’s ‘Loose Women’ panel. She said: “I am overflowing with excitement and nerves for my stage acting debut, I have always wanted to act and because I love The Mill so much I cannot think of a better venue to step into this new world. When Paul and I first started going to see productions at the Mill 20 years ago, we were amazed at the quality of the plays in such a small venue. But it is actually the intimacy that makes The Mill so special.”
Director Keith Myers said: “‘The House on Cold Hill’ is the third Peter James thriller I will have the pleasure to direct for the wonderful Mill at Sonning, and now that pleasure is enhanced by the lovely Debbie McGee joining us to play the whacky psychic, Annie. I’m sure anyone who has seen her on stage or TV will agree with me that she is a natural comedienne.”
A ghostly story of the Harcourt family, who move into the house of their dreams that has been empty for the last 40 years. However, their dream home quickly turns into the stuff of nightmares as they begin to wonder whether they may not be the only residents at Cold Hill…
The House on Cold Hill will run for 8 weeks from 23 April – 13 June at The Mill at Sonning.


150,000 Poinsettias Give Mexico A New Guinness Record
MEXICO CITY — Almost two centuries ago, the first U.S. ambassador in Mexico brought poinsettias to the United States, turning them into the Christmas Holidays icon that we know. And Mexico celebrated its traditional Christmas flower by breaking a Guinness world record.
Poinsettias are known in Mexico as “Flor de Nochebuena” or “Christmas Eve Flowers.” And today they are the most important element for Mexico’s recent world record.
Just a few miles away from the Teotihuacán archaeological site lies the world’s biggest flower carpet, according to the Guinness Records.
It took seven months to grow 150,000 poinsettias used on the carpet. Nineteen different species depict Teotihuacán’s most iconic structure, the Pyramid of the Sun.
The carpet’s size is nearly 18,000 square-feet, and overthrew Saudi Arabia’s as the record holder.