Mary Baker, a longtime staff member with the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, announced last week she was retiring.
The highly respected Baker joined land use in 1985 and has been the deputy director since 1997.
"I'm so glad I did it as long as I did," she says. "I'm ready to rest for a little bit."
She notes that she'd like to do some other things, but didn't elaborate.
Baker leaves on something of a high note with the unified development code passing both the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission last week, as well as approval last week of the new Midtown Overlay District by the Land Use Control Board. The Midtown plan now has to go before the City Council.
"It's time to go," Baker says.
Memphis mayor A C Wharton presented his administration's preliminary report on the city's beleaguered general services division this afternoon, saying the problems seemed almost by design.
"It's hard to believe any government operation could just slip into this sort of disrepair," he said.
The city's general service division has been the subject of investigation for a range of problems, including allegations of fraud that involved a tire repair contractor. Recently, it also came to light that 90 police vehicles — a purchase of almost $2 million — delivered in the spring had carpet floors instead of the necessary rubber mats.
"There has not been sufficient attention devoted to fleet operations and the control of fleet assets has been totally ineffective," the report says. "Performance measures are meaningless at best and nonexistent at worst."
The report recommends that the city revamp purchasing specifications so that all vendors have a local presence, allow divisions to outsource vehicle repair work to reduce a current backlog, and begin restructuring management and administrative functions. The mayor said general services employees will also receive additional training.
"Many of the employees do not know what they're supposed to be doing," he said.
The mayor noted that the city of Memphis lacks a comprehensive performance evaluation system, and has for some time.
"For the most part, there are no performance appraisals in the city of Memphis," Wharton said. "That's why it's hard to fire people around here."
However, four senior employees have already left the division; an investigation is pending for one more.
The administration also plans to implement a whistle-blower system for employees across city government to anonymously report abuses such as those that have occurred in general services.
"We're looking everywhere," Wharton said. "People know I won't retaliate against them if they see something wrong. ... That's what I want to engender. That's why I want to ramp up this whistle-blower system."
The NYT has an interesting story today on the extreme cutbacks being taken by state and local governments across the nation.
Focusing on school furloughs in Hawaii, transit cuts in Clayton County, Georgia, and darkened street lights in Colorado Springs, the story looks at what the economic downturn has meant for city services. And the news is not good.
"Faced with the steepest and longest decline in tax collections on record, state, county and city governments have resorted to major life-changing cuts in core services like education, transportation and public safety that, not too long ago, would have been unthinkable. And services in many areas could get worse before they get better.
The length of the downturn means that many places have used up all their budget gimmicks, cut services, raised taxes, spent their stimulus money — and remained in the hole. Even with Congress set to approve extra stimulus aid, some analysts say states are still facing huge shortfalls."
Oh, there is also a slideshow.
[Btw, the next commenter on this blog will be the 1,000th.]
If you're not sure where your precinct's voting location is, go here.
Shelby County has a large footprint ... and now it knows how big its carbon footprint is, too.
Data presented at a meeting between Shelby County mayor Joe Ford and local activists Wednesday showed that Shelby County government emitted a total of 102,174 tons of CO2 during the 2008 - 2009 fiscal year.
In total, almost 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions came from government buildings and facilities. Twenty-one percent was from employee commutes.
"The mayor wants to do some sort of energy efficiency program," says John Freeman with the mayor's office.
The program, which would begin in mid-August, will draw directly from employee suggestions solicited by survey earlier this year.
Freeman says they could include encouraging employees to bike to work or ride public transportation, to carpool with other employees, or to take advantage of a four-day work week.
Other topics at the meeting included the county's recycling program, ground water and environmental infrastructure, and the possibility of becoming one of 15 deployment communities nationally for a new electric vehicle program.
The first — the mayor's virtual town hall meeting — is tonight at 6 p.m.
Billed as "four locations, one conversation," the meeting will be held at the Ben Hooks central library, the Orange Mound community center, the Bert Ferguson Community Center, and the Whitehaven library concurrently.
The second — MPACT's "How to Speak in Front of City Council — is tomorrow from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the organization's offices on South Main. The event is free for members and $10 for non-members, and will feature TN Stand for Children Memphis director Kenya Bradshaw.
The Metro Charter Commission, enacted by a joint City Council/County Commission vote to create a new charter for a combined government, presented 14 recommendations to those two bodies yesterday at the U of M.
The recommendations included separate school systems; adopting the annexation reserve areas of the suburban cities; mayors and legislators limited to two four-year terms; non-partisan elections; an appointed chief of police to head up public safety and an elected sheriff to be over the jails; an annual five-year strategic plan from the mayor's office; a countywide network of parks; an office of general counsel that would streamline and stem legal controversy; a three-year property-tax freeze under the new government; three taxing districts (urban, general, and special); and, among others, one IT system for all of the various branches of government, including judicial and the constitutional offices such as the sheriff.
Still pending is how the legislative districts would be drawn under the new government.
"This is not personal; this is structural," said charter commission chair Julie Ellis. "Our two-government structure impedes collaboration and cooperation. ... We have found there is a tremendous opportunity to operate more efficiently."
As evidence, Ellis also cited Shelby County's loss of population and income ($1.9 billion, to be exact) over the past decade. About 2,500 local households moved to Nashville alone.
Last night, I checked out the town hall meeting on consolidation put on by MemphisConnect.com, Rebuild Government, and Livable Memphis.
The charter commission is currently drafting what would be the new consolidated government — the one that both city and county voters will decide on at the polls November 2nd — at their weekly Thursday meetings.
But I'm just going to be honest with you. I have a hard time getting to *all* of the metro charter commission meetings (Thursday is a big day for meetings, for whatever reason) so I'm not as up to speed as I would like to be about what they've decided.
Some highlights from last night's meeting: There would be a three-year freeze on property taxes under the new government, an appointed police chief would be in charge of law enforcement while the elected sheriff would be over the jail and security in the courts, and MLGW would become a separate authority much like the airport authority (I have my concerns about this). That actual number of seats on the metro council have not yet been decided, but members will be limited to two terms.
There will be three public hearings done by the metro charter commission shortly before they are to submit the final draft of the charter: July 8th at the Ben Hooks Central Library, July 15th at Southwind High School, and July 22nd at the Ed Rice Community Center. I believe they are all at 5:30 p.m.
The Leadership Academy's MemphisConnect.com is trying to do just that tomorrow night: Connect.
In partnership with Rebuild Government and Livable Memphis, MemphisConnect is hosting a town hall meeting 5:30 p.m. tomorrow at the U of M's FedEx Institute of Technology. The meeting and panel discussion, moderated by Darrell Cobbins, will focus on the metro charter commission and consolidation process.
But perhaps the most exciting part is that you don't have to go to be there.
They'll be live-streaming the event at the town hall section of the site and taking questions for the panel — consisting of Rebuild Government's Brian Stephens, Livable Memphis' Emily Trenholm, and retired office of planning and development staffer Gene Bryan — online.
Just go to the site and then log in to your Facebook and Twitter accounts and your updates will post directly to the live feed. Fun!
"From the Memphis Connect point of view, it's part of our mission to promote civic awareness and involvement," says Elizabeth Lemmonds. "We feel like this is an important dialog. If a number of people who might not know what's going on [with the consolidation effort] can log in for a while and learn more about it, it's effort and time well-spent."
(I should note: If you like to kick it old-school, you *can* still attend the event in person. )
Well, I was going to blog about this Bass Pro report called "Fishing For Taxpayer Cash" today, but it appears John Branston beat me to it.
So now I'm just going to link to John's post instead.
But just a small note: The report has a nice chart about the more than $567 million in taxpayer subsidies given to Bass Pro for its various projects. That equals out to about $29 million in taxpayer subsidies per project. We've promised about $42 million in federal stimulus bonds to fund the Pyramid project.
When Leadership Memphis began its first season of FastTrack, a two-month program aimed at emerging leaders in 2008 — the same year the organization turned 30 — I wrote about it.
"It is targeted to a younger and more up-and-coming leadership group," Leadership Memphis president David Williams said of FastTrack. "The executive program is targeted at proven leaders, those people already in senior leadership positions."
"For the last four years, with our executive program, we've been talking about the importance of recruiting and retaining talent in Memphis," Williams says. "We said let's see what we can do, and voila."
Earlier this year — full disclosure — I went through the program myself.
Now, I don't see how Leadership Memphis could find a better group of talented, wonderful, socially conscious, community-oriented, and fun individuals than they had in the FastTrack program this past spring, but they seem bound and determined to do so.
From now until June 30th, Leadership Memphis is taking nominations for the FastTrack 2010 Fall program, which begins in August and ends in November.
During the program, participants will learn about leadership skills and about Memphis. There are even field trips! (Just like in grade school, but without the boxed lunch or the bus driver.)
For more information about the program, visit www.leadershipmemphis.org or call Leadership Memphis at 901.278.0016. To nominate someone (including yourself), send name and contact information to: email@example.com.
I just sort of mentioned/glossed over this in a straight news blog post, but the word of the day was definitely privatization.
"It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. It can be a win-win proposition."
This is an idea proposed [this morning even] by former Indianapolis mayor/Harvard professor/New York deputy mayor Stephen Goldsmith at a Rebuild Government forum. During his tenure as mayor, Goldsmith cut costs in the city by $400 million, some by making public service work competitive.
When bidding out projects, they would allow the public sector if they could find a way to do it as cheaply or efficiently, and more often than not, the public sector won.
"Public employees are not inferior to private employees; the public system was inferior to the private one," he said. "The incentives were different."
The City Council's operating budget committee approved Mayor Wharton's proposed budget cuts, excluding $1.4 million for parks and public services.
"I don't believe we've gotten any emails about anything in the city attorney's office. No one in city has emailed us about personnel vacancies in general services," said council member Myron Lowery. "We have, however, heard a lot from citizens on golf courses, community centers, day camps, and police services."
A city council committee had earlier recommended closing the city's three nine-hole golf courses in Overton and Riverside parks and in Whitehaven. Wharton's initial proposal also saved the courses, at least for the first three months of the fiscal year.
"If we cannot make [Riverside and Overton] operate at a break-even level, I'm going to come back to this body and say we've got to close them," Wharton said, "unless this body says we're going to subsidize them."
Whitehaven wasn't included for closure under the mayor's proposal.
Nonprofits might be making more money than you think.
"The nonprofit sector is an important economic sector. It's 11 percent of the workforce," says Sonal Shah, White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation director. "Nonprofits generate $600 billion a year."
"The President and First Lady believe that the solutions to the problems we face are in communities around the country," Shah said. "Our job is to find those."
The office allocates growth funds to successful programs around the country and looks for public/private partnerships, such as the text4baby program with Johnson & Johnson and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Text4baby aims to stem high infant mortality rates among low-income mothers by sending those women a text about what they should do each week of their pregnancy.
"Many times public/private partnerships mean government has paid for services or that government wants something for free," she said. "Each of us has to give something."
(Sorry that posting has been light/nonexistent. I was out of the office last week, visiting family, and despite my best intentions, didn't hit up the blog.)
In discussions with Shelby Countians, Rebuild Government has found that the issues they seem to care most about in consolidation discussions are crime, education, and ethics.
Education is off the table in the merger discussions, both because it's a hot-button issue and b/c, legally, neither the County Commission nor the City Council have the power to force the Memphis City Schools to consolidate.
But the metro charter commission recently approved ethical guidelines for the new government. In response, Rebuild Government has set up a survey to get feedback from citizens. You can take that survey by going here.
The first part of that same ethics survey, completed last week, "showed a mandate" for strong ethics policies with anti-nepotism approved by 91 percent, anti-cronyism approved by 81 percent, and anti-fraternization approved by 50 percent.
To read more about the metro government push in Shelby County, read the Flyer's earlier cover story: A Decent Proposal?


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Great week: book launch reading in Seattle (standing room only, sold out of books: a world gone gonzo), had some of the new poems provisionally accepted by one of my favorite journals, and found out I'll be having a book-signing at AWP (2:00-2:30 on Friday at the Greensboro Review table). Can't wait for DC...
(on the list: Paula Deen, Christine O'Donnell, and LeBron James)
Here’s a leap. Hemingway’s story “Hills Like White Elephants” is many things: perfection of his minimalist style; an example of excellent dialogue; a snapshot of two people that reveals their entire lifetime; imagery that resonates in its depth and emotion; and of course, being a “teachable” story that often requires an explanation that the young couple is talking about an abortion. But the story’s staying power is in its tragedy: it’s a story about not being able to see the world in metaphor, a story about the crushing of a woman’s imagination.
via Terry L. Kennedy
I applaud Luke's generous work for managing to be both religious and domestic, without being high-handed or overly sentimental. Above all this book is an honest account of difficult love.
-Many thanks to Sandy Longhorn, for her incisive and generous review of the book. If you haven't read her work, do yourself a favor and buy this book.
"Since I started writing poetry as a child I’ve had one object: to see clearly. There are moments of my life that I keep returning to, writing about, and never getting “right,” so I return again and again. A few years ago I wrote a chart of a hundred moments that my mind drifts back to, or that still puzzle me, and I spent the last year relistening to them, some deep listening, that was more of a meditative practice than a writing process, but much of my second book,Migratory Restlessness, (coming out in a few years from Copper Canyon Press) has arisen from this re-seeing, re-listening."
Great interview with Ed Skoog from over at the Ploughshares Blog
And now for something completely different. You're welcome.

domain: artistic


Electrical Engineering Archive: Questions from September 28, 2006
Anonymous askedAn integral controller is used for speed control with a setpoint of 12 rpm within a range of 10 to 1...An integral controller is used for speed control with a setpoint of 12 rpm within a range of 10 to 15 rpm. The controlleroutput is 22% initially. The constant KI = -0.15%controller output per second per percentage error. If the speedjumps to 13.5 rpm, calculate the controller output after 2 s for aconstant error.•0 answers
Anonymous askedThe full circuit loo...I've looked at the solution, but I still have a question regardingthis question.
The full circuit looks like this
and the solution states that the differential half circuit lookslike this
so my question is: how did you get the 30k resistor? •1 answer


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Would you believe I still have several furniture makeovers from Lucketts to share? The past few years, I got too busy to take before & after pictures and I really kicked myself for it. This year, I made myself grab the camera and take a before of every piece AND made sure I had an after picture of each piece before it was loaded into the truck.
This antique pine table was one of my favorite pieces. I guess I had a lot of favorites this year, because this is like the fifth piece I’ve called one of my favorites! I found it on my shopping trip to Virginia. It was one of the pricier pieces I bought, but I really loved it and thought it would make a nice “focal piece” in my booth. Plus, I loved it so much, I didn’t mind if it didn’t sell. It wasn’t purchased in the Saturday morning rush and I actually leaned over and whispered to a few people that I would be totally at peace with taking it home with me.
Well, I didn’t. It sold Saturday afternoon to a very sweet couple who live in a 1700’s home and were looking for aged pieces that would look at home there. I think this piece fits the bill pretty well.
Here’s how the table started…
The pine top was old and had an amazing patina to it, but the based was obviously newer. It looked like it was custom made for the top and was really well-built, but the difference in the patina of the wood wasn’t working for me, so I bought it with the intention of painting the base.
Gorgeous top, right?
I knew I wanted to do a layered technique on the base to add an imaginary history…a story that it was painted and repainted over the years. Actually, this was the paint finish I was asked about most at Lucketts. People kept asking me about the colors and how I finished it. When that happens, it means I hit the nail on the head.
I started out by painting the table in a mix of all of the greens I had left on my workbench from other projects. I couldn’t begin to tell you what the ratio or mix was, but it was part MMS Milk Paint Lucketts Green, part Boxwood and part Kitchen Scale. I took my chances and didn’t add the Bonding Agent and didn’t prep the surface by sanding.
I then added Vaseline to the edges and a few other places where paint might naturally wear away over time. (You can see a tutorial on the technique HERE.)
I applied a coat of MMSMP Shutter Gray and then lightly distressed by hand with fine and heavy grit sand paper. I took some of the paint back to the wood and some to the green layer. The piece was finished in Antiquing Wax, which was applied with a brush and wiped away.
Now the top and the painted base have a more cohesive feel to my design eye.
Several people were hoping to buy the scale at Lucketts that I used in styling this shot, but I yanked it from my kitchen counter for the picture and then it went back. I can’t see letting that scale go anytime soon!
I did take the painted splint basket to the market, but just as a display piece for the lavender. The chippy paint on it is perfection and I bought it for myself.
It did get a lot of attention at the market. Someone asked me about buying it, but I quoted a ridiculous price and thankfully they passed it up!
For the first time ever, I totally sold out of lavender! I’m almost always left with lavender at the end of the market, but it was sold out by Saturday afternoon. I’ll make sure to bring more next year!
The pine table and Eulalie’s Sky cabinet were my two “focal pieces”, meaning I put them front and center as a first-impression representation of my style. I think it’s important to have those defining pieces at a market, booth, antique mall or shop to get people to come into your space. Sort of an appetizer…if you like this, you have to see what else I have.
A few of you pointed out that I’m not doing a very good job resting if I’m also posting, but I can do that while in my jammies watching Netflix! That’s the key! Jeff let me sleep in two mornings this week, has been content with leftovers and salads for dinner AND has been rubbing my tight neck and shoulders. All of that to say, I’ve been well pampered and am getting rest…although, there is an antique hutch in the basement calling my name…

domain: hobby


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UC Riverside scored the final 10 points of the game, including a go-ahead layup by Steven Jones with 25 seconds remaining, to come from behind and stun the Cal Poly men’s basketball team, 61-58, Saturday night in Riverside.
The Mustangs (8-11, 4-2 Big West) led 58-51 on a Ridge Shipley layup at the 3:29 mark, but were shut out the rest of the way.
The Highlanders (7-13, 2-4) scored three field goals and a pair of free throws to take the lead by one, and Jamal Johnson missed a jumper with six seconds remaining that would have put Cal Poly back in the lead.
Sam Finley hit a pair of free throws with one second left on the clock to ice the game.
Dave Nwaba tied a game high with 17 points, including 13 in the first half, as the Mustangs led by as many as 11 in the opening frame and by six, 26-20, at halftime.
But Riverside tied the score at 31, and the two teams went back and forth until Cal Poly took a seven-point lead, 50-43, on a Chris Eversley jumper with seven minutes remaining.
The Mustangs held that margin until they went cold from the floor in the final stretch, and the Highlanders rallied to win.
Eversley finished with 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Maliik Love came off the bench to score 10 points and dish out a team-high four assists.
Steven Jones had 11 points and 10 rebounds for Riverside, and Chris Patton scored 17 on 5-of-13 shooting and 7 of 7 from the foul line.
Cal Poly made five more field goals than the Highlanders (22-17), but Riverside was 22 of 25 from the free-throw line compared to the Mustangs’ 11 of 13. Cal Poly shot 17.6 percent on 3-pointers, making 3 of 17.
The Mustangs forced 12 turnovers while committing just three, but shot 38.6 percent from the field (22 of 57) to Riverside’s 42.5 percent (17 of 40).
Moorpark 71, Cuesta 63
The Cougars (15-9, 4-2 Western State Conference-North Division) lost on the road to the Raiders.
Moorpark 65, Cuesta 63, OT
The Raiders went on a 19-5 run at the end of the second half to tie it at 57 before edging the Cougars in overtime.
Prior to Moorpark’s run, Cuesta (18-5, 3-3 WSC-North) led 52-38 with 6:15 to go in the second half.
Katie Rodriguez scored a team-high 21 points for the Cougars.
Miriam Zabinsky finished with 16 points, including 8 of 8 from the foul line, nine rebounds and four assists.
Utah 4, Cal Poly 0
Marco Comuzzo and Matt Thomson gave the Mustangs their lone victory of the day — a 6-4 victory in the first doubles match.
However, Cal Poly (0-4) lost its next two doubles matches and the next three singles matches to get swept by Utah. The remaining three singles matches went unfinished.
San Francisco 5, Cal Poly 2
Jennifer Cornea and Ane McPike won the first doubles match, but the Mustangs (0-1) dropped the next two matches and conceded the doubles point.
In singles, Emily Gibbens defeated Sofia Holmberg (6-4, 6-3) and Kathryn Webb defeated Milica Hadzi Tanovic (6-3, 6-3) to give Cal Poly its two points of the match.
MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING
Cal Poly 166, UC Santa Cruz 94
Adrian Brynnel won the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 43.86 seconds, and the 500 freestyle in 4:43.02. Mickey Mackle won the 400-yard IM by more than 30 seconds with a time of 4:02.01.
WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING
Cal Poly 201, UC Santa Cruz 74
Sami McIntyre broke her own school diving record in the 1-meter board with a score of 273.82 points, meeting the qualifying standard to advance to the NCAA Zone Championships in March. She would also win and qualify for the championships in the 3-meter board with a score of 284.77.
The Mustangs also took second and third in the 1-meter, with Grace Greenwood scoring 256.19 points and Meaghan O’Meara 246.6.
O’Meara went on to finish second in the 3-meter with 283.87 points to qualify for the Zone Championships.
Rachel Cleak won the 200-yard butterfly in 2:07.95 and the 100-yard freestyle in 53.64 seconds.
Taylor Spivey won the 500-yard freestyle in 5:14.06, and Amanda Maffris won the 400-yard IM in 4:40.38.
Cleak, Jill Jones, Kelsey Engel and Daniell Wong won the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:32.93.

domain: news


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Killer Daisy Growers in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda
The Pyrethrum daisy, with its potent insecticidal properties and wide range of applications, has been an important natural resource in the fight against pests and insects. Its effectiveness, coupled with its relatively low toxicity and environmental impact, has made it a popular choice for both agricultural and domestic pest control.
The Pyrethrum daisy flower is a natural insecticide flower that thrives at high altitudes, grows in volcanic soil and grows in many of the most interesting places in East Africa's Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. The Pyrethrum daisy is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows up to 60 centimeters in height. It features finely divided, fern-like leaves that are grayish-green in color. The flowers are daisy-like with white petals and a yellow center. They are arranged in clusters at the top of long stems.
The Pyrethrum daisy produces natural insecticides called pyrethrins in its flowers. Pyrethrins are potent insecticidal compounds that effectively repel and kill a wide range of pests, including mosquitoes, flies, fleas, and moths. They act by disrupting the nervous systems of insects, leading to paralysis and eventual death.
To extract pyrethrins, the flowers of the Pyrethrum daisy are harvested and dried. The dried flowers are then crushed or ground to a fine powder. This powder contains the active pyrethrin compounds, which can be further processed and formulated into insecticidal sprays, powders, or other forms for commercial use.
SC Johnson Company substantially increased its purchase of pyrethrum from Rwanda’s 15,000 farmers who harvest chrysanthemum flowers for pyrethrin in the Ruhengeri area of Rwanda.
In Kenya, MGK, an accounting and auditing firm licensed the extraction and refining technology to the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya, PBK who collects flowers from growers in several regions in Kenya. In Tanzania, the pyrethrum industry is under operation of a private company Pyrethrum Company of Tanzania, PCT which MGK is its majority owner.
Producers in East Africa, mainly Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda succeed in growing the pyrethrum flower because the unique plant thrives at high altitudes and in volcanic soil.
Together we build awareness that boost harmony, education, and success, below are more links to articles you will find thought provoking.
- Historical African Country Name
- Top 20 Largest Countries in Africa
- How many countries does Africa have?
- Roots of Africanized Christianity Spiritual Songs
- Paying Money To Tour Slums in Africa
- Awesome Kenyan Woman
- Land is Not For Women in Sierra Leone
- African Kente Cloth Facts
- Accra the Ghanaian Capital Ultimate Mall Experience

domain: agronomy


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CHÂTEAU ANGÉLUS TASTING IN ASIA AND AUSTRALIA
This month, Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal and Thierry Grenié de Boüard, accompanied by Bong Grelat Tram went to Hong Kong for a series of dinners and tastings with great amateur, connoisseurs and trade professionals. Hubert de Boüard presented Château Angélus in Sydney, Australia
It is on the occasion of a dinner created by the Chef Yannick Alléno and hosted by Angélus in Hong Kong as part of Vinexpo 2018, that the Angelus sound has been officially revealed by Yaron Herman in a private concert.
The name Angélus alone conjures up the sound of church bells, the symbols of the estate found on the bottle labels, in its logo and bell tower. Angélus has sought to capture this unique sound and entrust it to the great jazz pianist Yaron Herman for the creation of the estate’s sound identity.
The worldwide launch of the new cinematic documentary series “Wine Masters” was on 18th March. The series tells the stories of terroir, taste and tradition as expressed by some of the most prestigious winegrowing families in different winegrowing regions.
To add depth to each season, two Masters of Wine, Jeannie Cho Lee and Tim Atkin, will share their knowledge and critical opinions of these regions, their grape varieties, terroirs, wines and wine producers.
Wine Masters Season 1 highlights five French winegrowing regions. It was filmed over the course of a year in the most prominent family-owned winegrowing estates.
In Bordeaux the Merlot and Cabernet Franc story is told by the Boüard de Laforest family, which has owned Château Angélus in Saint-Emilion for eight generations.
After a very favourable start to the growing season with a very early bud-break, the vine cycle was delayed at the end of April by a frost which hit the Bordeaux region very severely. At Angélus, where nature was kind, we were mostly spared this sad episode.
However, over the small area affected by the frost, substantial selection work was carried out.
Johan Berglund accompanied us throughout the 2017 harvest, casting an artist’s eye over Angélus. He produced a unique perspective in a collection of images, which were put on show at Angélus during primeurs week.
2015 was a blessed, dreamt-of year, with favourable weather conditions from spring to harvest. Each step took place under ideal conditions: flowering was even, and then the necessary rainfall for the growth of the vines came before the very dry months of June and July. Véraison went like a wonder. The pips started to ripen very early. August, with some timely rains and mild temperatures, allowed the vine to develop well and for the grapes to ripen in a balanced way. The fine days and cool nights in September, accompanied by some showers, favoured the ripening of the tannins.
At the Cape Wine Auction on 9th and 10th February, Hubert de Boüard de Laforest represented Château Angélus with a lot consisting of an Imperial of Château Angélus 2011, a stay at the local Saint-Emilion hotel Logis de La Cadène and a private tasting and tour of Château Angélus. This two-day auction celebrates South African wines on the world stage, while inviting sector professionals to a charitable event that supports the education and seeks to improve the life of children living in the Cape winegrowing region.

domain: geography


text:
One woman, many hats. CEO. Teacher. Home manager. Wife. Minister. That’s a lot for one person, and the potential for me to get super stressed out is high. Obviously, stress is neither good for myself or for the girls, so I have to find ways to reduce stress in ways that don’t involve eating copious amounts of chocolate. At the same time, I want to do things that are good for my brain, good for my body, and somewhat productive. But not soap. Ninety-eight percent of the time, making soap is for business, though I do enjoy playing with it occasionally. I choose activities that can stand separate from soap.
For my body, I’ve been doing some resistance exercises daily, and in the past week or so, the girls have been joining me, so we can count that as part of school as we learn about how our muscles work and how these exercises help us. I started out with planking, wanting to strengthen my arms and tone my core. Then I decided to add push-ups to the routine so I can get rid of annoying upper arm dimples and tone the muscles there. Next, I got this wild hair about doing crunches. Like that’s not enough, a friend posted on Instagram a brief video of her doing roll ups. If crunches are like a street gang’s tag artist, roll ups are Al Capone. Yep, that much more evil. Supposedly, each roll up is comparable to four crunches. This is what they look like.
I started with where I was then, even though my counts were pitifully low. However, I’ve steadily increased my counts, my seconds planking, and my strength. It feels awesome! My first goal? Get these arms toned to look great with my red sleeveless dress before attending a wedding next weekend and the abs smoother so I won’t have to wear a body shaper under it. My second and long-range goal is overall fitness and tone.
For my brain and body, I’ve been spending time knitting. Studies have shown that knitting is good for the brain, as well as stress levels which positively impacts the heart as well. I’ll knit about anything, and I’m constantly pushing myself to learning new patterns and techniques. Last week I finished a long-term project – my first lace shawl.
Pair the relaxation of knitting with the absolute peace that comes from having a cat curled up next to you asleep, and that’s the way I end many of my days. I’m so chill by that point that I can barely make it upstairs to bed. This leads to a sound night’s sleep and a refreshed awakening, which is a great way to combat stress!
What do you do to just chill?

domain: health


text:
(CNN) – A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday, halting the Wisconsin budget repair bill from becoming law, the Dane County District Attorney's office said. The proposal in part limits collective bargaining rights of union members and has been the subject of fierce protests in the state.
HOPE is alive? WONDERFUL? The court intervening AGAIN in what is a legislative item? There is NO MENTION as to why the court intervened. The article does not quote what constitutional violation occurred with this law. For the court to step in there MUST be a constitutional violation or the court is openly MAKING LAW FROM THE BENCH. Whether we agree or disagree with the law at issue, the bigger point is the violation of roles the court is taking on. There is supposed to be a separation of power. The President/Gov; The Legislative; and the Court. The Legislative branch makes the law. The Pres/Gov approves/disapproves the law. Th Court ensures the law is not unconstitutional. For the court to put a halt in place an not give a constitutional reason is wrong. They are over stepping their power.
It's a great day in Wisconsin !
But don't be surprized if Scott and Scott have some other sneaky, mean spirited, underhanded (possibly illegal) scheme ready to go.
There is a conflict of interest with government unions. It will stand up to court scrutiny.
On what grounds? Sounds like partisan BS to me. I'm not sure that bill was a good idea, but I don't see how it could be construed as unconstitutional
Let au all crush the tea partiers recall all of them around the country corperate racist stooges. hooray for Wisconsin I hope you all learn your lesson when you vote do not let anger cloud your judgement, you put the same fox that stole all the eggs from the hen house to guard the hen house a second time that was very stupid.
You liberals would give your first born if Obama siad it would be a good idea. Can't you see that it's the unions that has gotten the U.S. in the shape it's in today. Pull your heads out of your a$$ and wake up.
...and for any conservatives fixing to scream about liberal judges, Judge Sumi was an appointee of GOP governor Tommy Thompson.
AWESOME!!! Hats off to the protesters for standing firm.
You Wisconsinites have your work cut out for you with your new Guv. Walker is nothing but a Koch employee out to do their bidding people's will be damned. Recall the stooge, and regain your democracy.
Hope...to see the "People" drive the state they live in to bankruptcy. LOL!!! So quick to take when times are good and then when a sacrifice is asked of them, all they can do is cry foul.
Finally! Someone with some common sense. I don't think you would find anyone who believes that spending cuts are not in order, but Gov. Walkers approach is ridiculous.
So thankful that there are people who will examine the high handiness of the governor. Recall needs to be successful.
And the basis of this decision was...what?
You all in Wisconsin have the right to settle Wisconsin affairs. The issue here is not union busting. But to FORCE someone to join a union, FORCE them to pay dues, then use that money to support politics that one does not agree with should never have been put into play in the first place. Here in Georgia I would be going through the roof if I knew I had to give up money to support Obama and his crowd. A last word – when I think of unions, I think of U.S. steel mills.
Maybe middle class Americans will not
have their rights violated by the runaway
Republican Party. The Republicans didn't
receive a mandate to dissolve the
Gee whiz... Who woluld have thought that Rethugnicans falsely saying the union busting/ ending collective bargining was a budget issue and then creating legislation saying it was not? Holding conference committee on the new revised "face saving and unpopular" modified legislation without publication of the changes but only saying that it took stuff out. Holding the conference committee when there was no rule allowing votes for a bill that never passed thier Senate was the rethugnican dictate. They denounce the democrat walkout but think that the US Senates record breaking Rethugnican fillabusters was ok. Oh and the need for a $121,000,000 dollar tax break for corporation then saying there is a $136,000,000 budget shorthfall. Bullies of the Rethugnican persussion, and come next January lead bully Governor Walker, deserve to be recalled.
I am so proud of Wisconsin, its citizens, its integrity, its courts, and its concern for the common man.
Finally, someone with some common sense. Fight on Wisconsin employees. We in Minnesota stand with you.
Does that mean Snotty and his pals may have to give back the payola they recieved in washington this week?
And who, my friends, is going to be paying for all the extras that the unions keep bargaining for?
How are "we the people" going to pay for the government excesses when the state is broke?
Are you signing up to kick in a little extra?
Oh please, if the 14 Dems didn't NOT do their job and vote we wouldn't need this nonsense. Hey Governor, send out the layoff notices and be DONE with it. Public unions are a joke and should be removed from civil society...BYE BYE.
So much for democracy! No wonder people are upset in this country!
Wisconsin just proves we are in a post-democratic era in this country. I find the democrats’ behavior appalling. To think a legislator would up and run to thwart the process is beyond belief. If Walker and his ideas are so rotten, he and the Republicans will be thrown out in due time. Also, there's no 'right' to collective bargaining people!! It was granted by pro-union types; it can be taken away. Sorry you must face the real world everyone else has to live in.
The liberal judges measure has no merit.
How many liberal activist judge's just got thrown out during the mid terms?
Thanks be to God, He still have someone to look out for his people that being demonized by Hate filled GOPs.

domain: law


text:
The blistering pace of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies follows the old “move fast, break things” mantra of the tech business, which often favors getting something to market before considering the broader implications of the role a product could play in society.
Considering AI’s ever-increasing role in day-to-day life—from autonomous cars to contact tracing—a role like that of Hypergiant Industries’ Chief Ethics Officer Will
becomes more crucial.
Griffin, 49, has been at the
-based AI company just over a year (he was previously at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Urban Institute, among other roles), and in that time has helped Hypergiant hone a code of ethics that directs how it does business and the solutions it offers its public and private sector clients. Ethics have long played a backseat role in tech but are now rapidly ascending as new initiatives consider, among other things, privacy and data use.
Diversity was a central tenet of ethics long before the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, but has taken center stage as companies around the world announce plans to make their workforces more representative of the populations they serve.
Penta spoke with Griffin to learn about his evolving role in the AI world and where tech needs to focus its efforts to create real improvement in workforce and business diversity.
PENTA: What kind of crossover into diversity considerations does your role as Chief Ethics Officer have?
Will Griffin: In our world, diversity is an ethics issue. Ethics are the core values of who you are as a person, establishing what you believe is right and wrong. This is a big part of how we view ethics at Hyperigant. With every AI use case, I go through and help our developers, designers, and strategists perform ethical vetting to understand the broader implications of their solutions. Much of the credit of our ethical framework goes to [Hypergiant founder]
, delivering as he says, “the future we were promised.” We have been promised major efficiencies, reducing reliance of fossil fuels, and building climate change solutions, and ethics has been meshed into that workflow.
Our process is unusual. In a lot of companies, ethics are similar to compliance, so they come in after solutions are developed. So much inertia goes toward a particular solution that it becomes difficult to consider ethics once something is out there. Ethics are early in our process here, so they’re baked into the solutions we create. It makes for robust solutions to our clients’ problems and also solutions that can withstand public scrutiny.
How do you start and progress the conversation for those who may not have considered the ethical ramifications of not working toward more diversity either in their company or the industry as a whole?
At our company, it’s not client dependent. If you depend on the client, that will make your ethics situational. At Hypergiant, our ethical reasoning is about who we are, our values. When I talk about our workflow, the client is choosing between a set of solutions that have already gone through our ethical vetting. This process gives us a competitive advantage.
Our reputation for ethical solutions is so timely because of the pandemic and how AI is being implemented in contact tracing and with facial recognition in law enforcement. Especially with the BLM movement, we’re starting to see what happens when the technology hasn’t been ethically vetted. IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon have issued moratoriums on the technology. This shows how ethical vetting doesn’t stifle innovation, but can create more robust solutions if that vetting had been done prior to release.
Considering the current national social climate, what do you think are some of the most productive conversations and actions that could create long-term sustainable solutions?
As a venture capitalist, you should know African-Americans want the same deal that you would want for yourself. They want to get funded, innovate, and be rewarded for their innovation. But how do you get rewarded? You receive equity as a founder, part of a founding team, C-level executive and/or board member. Or, you’re an equity partner at a VC firm that makes investments. So in order for there to be meaningful change, African-Americans have to be in these roles in ventures.
The interesting thing I’m seeing is a lot of companies and people investing in bootcamps, internships, et cetera, but you don’t see a lot of those important high-level position announcements.
I like to use this analogy: In terms of innovation and scaling,
and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley get to run the 100-meter dash to equity and wealth, but most of these entry-level programs are marathons that put you so far away from the payday in the industry. The most successful stories in tech are of those who either dropped out of college or were right out of college, so when the industry thinks they’re addressing these problems, they’re actually investing in marathons, but African-Americans want to run those same sprints as Musk. You want to offer the same tools that lead to the same opportunities that other successful entrepreneurs have.
When you advocate for giving African-Americans equity stakes, do you think that should be for any Black employee that joins or do you see a specific way that minorities should be given extra assistance to help make the jump to those high-level positions?
There are hundreds of African-Americans in Fortune 1000 companies in tech roles that run billion-dollar P&L’s. However, those people aren’t being funded to start companies, but their credentials make them fundable. I liken it to how in 1947, there were hundreds of African-Americans that could play baseball but there was only one owner who would bring them in: Brooklyn Dodgers owner
. The problem is, there aren’t enough Branch Rickey’s in tech, those that want to bring in African-Americans as founders or founding members.
These same people running the billion-dollar P&L’s aren’t being recruited to run companies. This is a founder/board/VC issue. Those are the people in the positions to be the
. While HR & diversity teams are important for building the talent pipeline, this is squarely on the back of those at the highest positions, those who make the investment decisions.
How do you help these leaders at the highest level understand the value of the “sprint” over the “marathon”?
When it comes down to it, these are not just business issues, these are societal issues. BLM is basically saying that our institutions are not equal in the way they function and that legitimacy is at stake. The combination of the pandemic and Wall Street at record highs, juxtaposed against the millions who are unemployed and not feeling like our current system is set to help them succeed. In fact, many are making the argument that the institutions are actually set-up against them.
I am a capitalist and I believe in our economic system, but I believe it functions best when it expresses our highest deals: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—for everyone and making that possible for everyone. When we’re not moving fast enough to support these ideals, it spurs people to question the legitimacy of their institutions and that’s a big reason why you’ve seen so many corporations make 9- and 10-figure commitments to address systemic racism in their industries.
Is there anything that you think people miss when discussing diversity?
The one point I would make is that when it comes to diversity or race relations, a lot of decision makers make the mistake of knowing a lot about African-American history and culture, but not acting on their own values. I compare it to understanding the implications of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. I don’t need to know anything about China or Chinese culture to know how those events affect your values as a person—I want to be in a world with more freedom, more justice, more equality.
It’s your own values that can put change into motion in this industry. Diversity doesn’t create opportunity alone. Your values allow you to be more of who you want to be, and simply, it allows America to be more American. When I hear a conversation start with “I didn’t know many Black people growing up” or “there aren’t enough Black people in Silicon Valley,” the point-of-view should be, “I was taught everyone was equal and that everyone should have the same opportunity.” It’s irrelevant if you grew up around Black people. If freedom and equality are your values, you should want that for everyone you meet.


text:
Porsche has informed customers who have orders in the pipeline that they may be liable for an extra 10 per cent in the event of no Brexit deal.
With the clock ticking down to the Brexit deadline on 29 March, Porsche has decided it’s time to keep their customers informed about costs a no deal Brexit might mean.
If the UK does leave the EU without a deal, then WTO rules will apply, and that will probably mean import tariffs of 10 per cent on cars, adding anything up to £20,000 to the price of a new Porsche.
Under WTO rules, the UK won’t be able to reduce standard tariffs for imports from any country unless it has a trade deal in place. And, if there’s a no deal Brexit, the default tariff will apply.
Porsche say the potential tariffs will only apply to cars ordered since 18 January, and the announcement was intended to help customers plan properly. The statement from Porsche said:
As one potential outcome of the Brexit negotiations, there is a possibility that a duty of up to 10pc may be applied to cars imported into the UK by us after March 29.
In light of this, we have chosen to inform customers whose cars are likely to arrive after Brexit occurs to warn them that they may be affected by this tariff – allowing them to be fully informed at the point of sale and, if they wish, to adjust their order accordingly.
Clearly the statement is designed to raise the rhetoric as well as inform customers, and it’s a statement which applies to every car coming from Europe (and any car currently imported to the UK from a country with which the EU has a free trade deal) in the event of us leaving the EU with no deal.
Although it’s a pretty unlikely scenario.


text:
One of my first interviews that I can remember happened when I was 12. I felt fine about meeting the bishop. He asked me if I obeyed the law of chastity. Fully believing I had, I answered in the affirmative. He questioned back with ‘are you sure?’ still fully believing in myself, I said Yep! Then he caught me off guard and asked ‘I believe you masturbate and don’t follow the law’
I was shook. 1) I had no idea what masturbation was. 2) I had been taught that bishops would receive revelation for you during these interviews, so I believed as an impressionable 12 year old that he must be right. I admitted my guilt, not even knowing what I was guilty of.
I was told I couldn’t pass or take the sacrament. That I was to read the miracle of forgiveness, and I was given plenty of quotes and stories about how ‘its better to die than lose your virtue.’
Then I fully believed I had done something wrong and was punished for it. I fell into a self hatred spiral that pushed me deep into suicidal and castration thoughts. All because I believed this bishop was inspired to ask me this question.
But now? I see it for what it truly was. A blatant abuse of power over a 12 year old boy. It was a disgusting act, and it shouldn’t have happened and it should never happen again.
I will not let my children be in a room alone and asked any sexual related question. Nope, not even if they obey the law of chastity. That is not their place, and I won’t stand for my kids to be treated how I was.
These questions don’t need to tolerated.

domain: psychology


text:
Huanduj is a book that defies categorisation, it can be read from end to end, or dipped into at leisure, or one can just look at the pictures for fun!. Buy Huanduj: Brugmansia (): NHBS – Alistair Hay, Monika Gottschalk, Adolfo Halguín, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This is the first full taxonomic revision of the genus Brugmansia ever published.
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Horticultural varieties of brugmansias are many and various, and here is where the sumptuousness comes in. Brugmansia combines original field and botanical research with horticultural expertise and the review of more than six hundred bibliographic references spanning the sixteenth century to the present day. This is definitely going to be be a well-used book!
Huanduj is a book that defies categorisation, it can be read from end to end, or dipped into at leisure, or one can just look at the pictures for fun!
Developmental evidence helps resolve the evolutionary origins of anther appendages in Globba Zingiberaceae. Illuminating the systematics of the Spiranthes sinensis species complex Orchidaceae: Share your thoughts with other customers. Conservation Land Management CLM is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles.
Plants of the World. They are yet another member of that oh-so-useful plant family the Solanaceae which also comprises potatoes, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and ground cherries.
The second part of this book returns us to today – to the varied aspects of cultivation and decorative use of Brugmansias in uhanduj parts of the world.
Huanduj: Brugmansia | Kew Gardens Shop
Garden Media Guild Awards: Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. To ask other readers questions about Huandujplease sign up.
This covered every question I ever had on the brgmansia and many of its relatives both in growing and its other uses Add Items to Cart Quantity: Will recommend you to others and buy from you again.
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Huanduj: Brugmansia | Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society | Oxford Academic
The authors have included in these sections a wealth of information, some of it well-supported and some anecdotal from single literature references. It not only brings current knowledge together in a refreshingly original way but also – just as importantly – points up what we still do not understand about the biology of these enigmatic plants. What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? It should be on the bookshelves of anyone hrugmansia in plants, whether a botanist, a horticulturalist or just a lover of nature.
The title may seem a bit obscure to the average reader and might not attract the general buyer of botanical books, but to me it is the icing on the hunduj.
Huanduj is one of several names ascribed to the Brugmansia by indigenous peoples of South America. The section on botany treats not only the taxonomy of the genus in all its nomenclatural gory detail but also natural history and ethnobotany. This massive and beautifully stunning book is the definitive work on Brugmansia. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. Sumptuous about does it.
Well worth the brugmannsia for Brugmansia enthusiasts and ethnobotanists alike.
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Docket No. FMCSA-2012-0081]
FMCSA announces its decision to deny applications from 14 of 15 individuals seeking exemptions from the Federal cardiovascular standard applicable to interstate truck and bus drivers and the reasons for the denials. The Agency reviewed the medical information of each of the individuals who applied for an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) exemption. Because the medical information received from the cardiologist concerning one individual indicates the ICD has been disabled due to improvement of his heart function, the exemption is no longer needed to operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce. Based on a review of the applications and following an opportunity for public comment, FMCSA has concluded that the remaining 14 individuals in the notice did not demonstrate they could achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety that would be obtained by complying with the regulation.


Survey reveals East Anglia’s small firms catching up with the big boys on staff development
- Credit: Archant
The region's smaller businesses are catching up with their larger counterparts when it comes to investment in employee training, a new survey has revealed.
Findings from Best Employers Eastern Region 2018, which saw businesses seek opinions on their performance from their staff, show that employees of small firms rate their companies higher in terms of staff development and say that levels of motivation have increased in recent years.
This compares to 'minimal' changes in these measures reported by the employees of large and medium businesses.
Since the launch of the 2018 survey, the fourth in the biannual Best Employers initiative, hundreds of companies around the region have asked their employees how well their company engages staff and keeps them satisfied.
The 2018 scheme has been delivered by psychometric experts Eras and recruitment agency Pure, which founded Best Employers Eastern Region in 2012, with publishing company Archant and law firm Birketts.
Alex Pearce, director of assessment at Eras, said the leaps made by small businesses in terms of engagement was one of the report's most significant findings.
'It is obviously becoming more important in smaller organisations,' he said.
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Good communication from the higher ranks was also found to have a 'profound effect' on employee engagement and satisfaction, Mr Pearce said.
'One of the biggest things we found for engaged employees was that one of the key factors was having access to the senior people in the organisation – for them to make themselves known to different levels in the organisation costs nothing.
'In a large company it can be difficult to give people access to the executive team but they can get access to a couple of levels up.'
The increase in scores for learning and development among small companies – defined by the scheme was those with less than 25 employees – was also flagged by Lynn Walters, executive director of Pure.
She said: 'Smaller companies have smaller learning and development budgets and when times are tight that is the thing that tends to get cut.
'What I have seen from the smaller companies is a lot of them are digital or professional services which are really 'people' businesses. There has been a big shift towards those businesses realising that they need to invest in their people and they have increased their learning and development.'
Ms Walters said the number of people who had taken part in the 2018 survey – around 15,000, more than double the amount of the previous survey in 2016 – was 'heartening'.
'About 15,000 people have been able to have their say about what it is like to work in the Eastern region. That is some pretty amazing, valid data and the organisations who have taken part are going to get some really good benchmarking,' she said.
'It is a ringing endorsement that the young companies are realising the link between an engaged workforce and better performance.'
Mr Pearce said the survey offered an opportunity for companies to hear from the 'silent majority' who are 'happy with their lot'.
'For the people who do not normally speak out this is a chance for them to have their say on the performance on their organisation,' he said.
'There is still an argument over whether the increase in engagement is because companies are more successful, or whether the increase is driving success.
'I think the truth is a bit of both. Obviously if the company is doing well it may have more in the pot to share with the staff but the other side of the coin is if people are more engaged and motivated they are more likely to go the extra mile for the business.'
Mr Pearce said changes to improve employee engagement and perceptions could be inexpensive, such as providing more in-house training or holding more regular staff briefings to improve communication.
'There are very simple things that people can do to make sure employees know they care,' he said.
'The first step is to identify the areas that are important for the business to improve and then to engage your staff – the executive team cannot make the changes without all employees pulling in the same direction.'
He added: 'The worst thing organisations can do is put the [survey] results on a shelf and ignore them. It is meant to be a foundation for change even if you are a company that did well.'


text:
Some photographs courtesy of: Nir Ben-Yosef :: xnir.com
**Do not use any of his images without written permission. Not for commercial use.
The Dead Sea (Hebrew: יָם הַמֶּלַח, Yām Ha-Melaḥ, "Sea of Salt"; Arabic: البَحْر المَيّت, al-Baḥr El-Mayyit, "Dead Sea") is a salt lake in Jordan to the east and Israel to the west. Its surface and shores are 422 metres (1,385 ft) below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land.
The Dead Sea is 378 m (1,240 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, with 33.7% salinity. which is 8.6 times as salty as the ocean. This salinity makes for a harsh environment where animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea is 67 kilometres (42 mi) long and 18 kilometres (11 mi) wide at its widest point.
The Jordan River is the only major water source flowing into the Dead Sea, although there are small perennial springs under and around the Dead Sea, creating pools and quicksand pits along the edges. There are no outlet streams.
Rainfall is scarcely 100 mm (4 in) per year in the northern part of the Dead Sea and barely 50 mm (2 in) in the southern part.
The Dead Sea zone's aridity is due to the rainshadow effect of the Judean Hills. The highlands east of the Dead Sea receive more rainfall than the Dead Sea itself.
To the west of the Dead Sea, the Judean Hills rise less steeply, and are much lower, than the mountains to the east. Along the southwestern side of the lake is a 210 m (700 ft) tall halite formation called "Mount Sodom".


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text:
The Sunset District is a neighborhood in the west-central part of San Francisco, California, United States that is primarily residential and is built along a grid pattern. It was one of the last areas of San Francisco to be developed, and most of its homes and buildings date from the 1920s through the 1950s, with the fastest rate of construction occurring during the 1930s and 1940s (although parts of the Inner Sunset were developed beginning in the 1890s).
Paul Gomes hailed from the Sunset District of the home timeline. He told Lucy Woo this, trying to deflect her curiosity. This just made her even more curious, as the Sunset District of her alternate was a very rundown and dangerous neighborhood, and she could not conceive of the apparently affluent Paul as having grown up there.


text:
Within the space of a year, citizens from 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries will elect new presidents that are likely to forge even closer ties with China.
The reason for greater cooperation, experts say, is a region-wide trend towards a ‘neoliberal’ economic model that originated in the US and Europe and promotes the deregulation of industrial sectors such as mining – upon which relations with China are based.
“We can already see this trend in administrations like [Mauricio] Macri’s in Argentina, Lenin Moreno in Ecuador, and the return of [Sebastián] Piñera in Chile,” said to Diálogo Chino Margarita Flórez of Colombian non-government organisation Ambiente y Sociedad (Environment and Society).
Even the left-wing governments that preceded these were neoliberals, who include openness to foreign capital and a trade surplus in their economic policies. “There have been no barriers to oil drilling or use of any other type of natural resource in any progressive government,” Flórez said, warning of the dire social and environmental consequences.
This policy orientation matches China’s interest in investing in public works and continuing to extract raw materials.
The current wave of Latin American presidential elections began in November last year with the disputed election of incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez in Honduras. Chile followed in December, with the return of the businessman Sebastián Piñera, who will take office on March 11. Also in March, and for the first time in 60 years, Cubans may see someone outside the Castro family assume power.
China has had to adapt to the ideological and political changes in Latin America and the Caribbean because it benefits from the region
In April, Costa Rica will hold a second round of elections. Paraguay, which does not have diplomatic relations with China, will also elect its president and troubled Venezuela has set a date of April 22. Voters will choose a president for the Caribbean island of Barbados in May, while Colombia will hold its first presidential election with the participation of decommissioned guerrilla group FARC, which is now a political party of the same acronym – the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (in English). On July 1 Mexico will elect a new president, and Brazil will hold first round of elections on October 2.
“China has more experience dealing with leaders from both left and right (or in between) from a number of countries and so are likely to be able to engage in their preferred ‘pragmatic’ style,” said to Diálogo Chino Matt Ferchen of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy in Beijing. Ferchen added that perhaps the more important issue is the quality of governance and that this is a crucial yet complicated issue in almost all of the countries with upcoming elections.
According to Ferchen, China has yet to show a deep understanding of these governance challenges and instead mostly offers “development” based engagement through trade, investment and loans. “Maybe that’s better than a country that seeks to deeply involve itself in the affairs of others, but it also limits the breadth and depth of relations to mostly commercial matters.”
Margaret Myers, director of the China and Latin America programme at think tank the Inter-American Dialogue said China has had to adapt to the ideological and political changes in Latin America and the Caribbean because it benefits from the region.
“Beijing wants to expand foreign trade, employ reserves and excess capacity, and also implement its businesses in construction and other areas,” she told Diálogo Chino.
Loans and agreements
Most of the countries holding elections feature highly on the list of recipients of Chinese loans. According to the Inter-American Dialogue, China Development Bank and the China Export-Import Bank have lent more than US$ 141 billion to companies and governments in the region, by far outpacing the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
“The volume and conditions of loans made by the Chinese banks have created a relationship of dependency, without room for future governments to manoeuvre. The multilateral banks do not have the economic capacity to meet the high demand for financing in more developed economies in the region,” said Paulina Garzón, director of the China-Latin American Initiative for Sustainable Investments (IISCAL).
“China has a well-planned long term strategy to strengthen its relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean, and has created the instruments needed to implement this strategy, such as, for example, bilateral cooperation accords, the China-CELAC cooperation plan, [and] mechanisms for regional and bilateral dialogues,” Garzón added to Diálogo Chino.
China’s largest debtor is Venezuela, which owes US$62 billion to be repaid in oil revenues, according to an agreement signed with former president Hugo Chávez. His chosen successor, President Nicolás Maduro, is expected to be re-elected, amid an expected boycott from the opposition, which alleges there will be fraud.
China has invested into Latin America as of 2015
China’s second-largest borrower is Brazil, with a US$36.8 billion debt to China, according to the Inter-American Dialogue. China has invested more in the continent’s largest economy than any other, some US$37 billion as of 2015, according to data from the Brazil-China Business Council.
In October, Brazilians will elect a new president and the relationship with China is expected to grow even more, according to Luiz Augusto de Castro Neves, vice president of think tank the Brazilian Centre for International Relations (CEBRI).
“China is looking to ensure supply for its needs: oil, gas, raw materials, investments in infrastructure, because Brazilian infrastructure is very precarious and is a burden on productivity. This will be good for us and will be good for China, which is our main importer,” said to Diálogo Chino Castro Neves, also a former Brazilian ambassador to China.
“We all know that, with this actor (China), there needs to be a connection. In one way or another, the models that exist in the region will look for integration, whether bilateral, on a sub-regional level – as in the case of the Pacific Alliance – or regional,” said to Diálogo Chino Fernando Reyes Matta, director of the Latin American Centre for China Studies at Chile’s Andrés Bello University.
Reyes Matta is a former Chilean ambassador to China, and cited Chile as an example of continuity and even closer relations with China. President-elect Piñera was elected has already met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“Regardless of which political parties take power this year, China will continue to be an attractive partner for for the region. If relations with the U.S. fail to improve, China could establish an even stronger foothold in the region,” said to Diálogo Chino Guy Edwards, co-director of the Climate and Development Lab at Brown University. “If relations with the US do not improve, China could establish an even stronger point of support in the region,” he added.
One key factor, according to Edwards, is the extent to which China is willing to demonstrate its interest in diversifying trade and financial ties with the region, which up to this point have been concentrated on natural resources.
He said that “a greater focus on Latin America’s need for investment in sustainable infrastructure including in renewable energy and electric public transport could be a game changer for China-LAC relations and take an important step towards aligning their partnerships with the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.


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We are pleased to announce the latest Thematic Collection in Lab on a Chip – Droplet-Based Single-Cell Sequencing!
We are delighted that Lab on a Chip Advisory Board member David A Weitz (Harvard University, USA) is Thought Leader of this collection!
The field of droplet-based single-cell sequencing field has made increasing advances in recent years. Large numbers of studies are underway to collect and explore the new information that is now accessible with single-cell RNA-seq. Improvements to microfluidics are advancing rapidly and extensions to other sequencing methods are also being developed, enabling investigations to probe information beyond mRNA alone. This has rapidly become a burgeoning field, where microfluidic techniques are essential and where droplet-based microfluidics has enabled a major advance.
For more context, please read the editorials “Perspective on droplet-based-single cell sequencing” by David Weitz and “InDrops and Drop-seq technologies for single-cell sequencing” by Allon Klein and Evan Macosko.
The goal of this collection is to highlight the new advances in this growing field, with an emphasis on the interface between the technological advancements and high impact applications of droplet-based single-cell sequencing.
Read articles included in the collection so far at rsc.li/drop-sc-seq
Interested in submitting to the collection?
If you are interested in contributing to the droplet-based single-cell sequencing collection, please get in touch with the Lab on a Chip Editorial Office at firstname.lastname@example.org and provide a title and abstract of your proposed submission.
Articles will be published as they are accepted and collated into an online Thematic Collection, which will receive extensive promotion.
Submissions for this collection are open from 15th July 2017 to 30th April 2018

domain: library


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Roseberry Topping is a distinctively shaped hill in North Yorkshire, near Great Ayton. At 1049 feet, the summit is not the highest hill on the North York Moors, but it stands out from a level skyline. It is affectionately known locally as the “Yorkshire Matterhorn”. The highest hill on the North York Moors, is Urra Moor at 1490 feet. Its distinctive conical shape is the result of the hill’s hard sandstone cap protecting the underlying shales and clays from erosion. In 1912, a geological fault and possibly the mining of alum and ironstone, caused the collapse of the western face, producing a jagged cliff. The name, Roseberry Topping, is derived from the Vikings in early medieval times. ‘Toppen’ is an old Danish word, meaning hill. Although the hill is managed by the National Trust, there is a car park operated by the North York Car Park Authority. A stepped path and stone track provide a steep ascent to the top, where there are fine views across North Yorkshire and the Cleveland Plain as far as the Pennines on a clear day. The hill also provides walks across heather moorland and bluebell woods.
Captain James Cook, the famous explorer and navigator, spent his boyhood years at Aireyholme Farm, south of Roseberry Topping and went to school in Great Ayton. It is believed that he gained a taste for adventure when exploring the slopes of Roseberry Topping. A sixty feet high monument to Captain Cook was erected in 1827 on the summit of Easby Moor. It can clearly be seen from Roseberry Topping.
Where in England is Roseberry Topping, North York Moors, Yorkshire?
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