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Learning and Teaching Development Excellence in teaching is at the heart of our missionView content The Learning and Teaching Development team work closely with colleagues across the University to implement the Learning and Teaching Strategy. The L&T Strategy sets out the University's vision to enhance curriculum and pedagogy, to engage students in actively shaping their learning, and to foster a passion for excellence in learning and teaching among staff. The strategy underlines the importance of research underpinning teaching. Learning and Teaching Strategy The L&T Strategy sets out a vision of excellence in Learning and Teaching, concerned with curriculum, pedagogy, student engagement and the continuing professional development of staff. The Strategy sets out aspirations for learning and teaching in line with the University Values in three principal domains: Imagination, Expanding Horizons, and Wider World. The purpose of the strategy is to guide all L&T activity towards systematic enhancement by setting shared goals for deliberate enhancements. The LTD team work in partnership with colleagues and in synergy with academic processes and committees to ensure that pockets of good practice become systemic enhancements. The use of evidence-led approaches like TESTA inform curriculum and assessment design within periodic review cycles, while institution-wide L&T and Student Fellow projects drive innovation and enhancement. At the heart of our approach is a belief in evidence-informed practice, a passion for creating dynamic learning environments, and respect for disciplinary ways of knowing. Faculty Academic Development Committees promote enhancements in the faculties. LTD devolves funding for faculty development and enhancement activities. Funding either supports Learning and Teaching Fellows, or enhancement projects. Funding across the faculties supports the Winchester Research Apprenticeship Programme (WRAP). For more information about our strategy, see our policies and procedures section Learning and Teaching Development Initiatives Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) TEL is implemented in an evidence-based and systematic way at Winchester, in spite of the rapidly changing environment. The purpose of using technology is central to any innovation we support - the use of TEL at Winchester starts with why. Students play an active role in shaping the digital environment, and in supporting innovation at Winchester. The University of Winchester has a long history of using mobile devices in education. LTD co-led the JISC funded FASTECH project (Feedback and assessment with students using technology) which pioneered the use of Student Fellows as catalysts in bringing about evidence-informed changes in teaching and learning. Following this a Mobile Device Scheme, run by Student Fellows, was developed to promote staff and student use of technology for pedagogical purposes. This scheme has since been expanded through a number of iterations and now exists as iLearn, a tablet loan scheme that seeks to explore the benefits of integrated mobile device use in the classroom. FASTECH enabled staff and students to make technological innovations based on educational principles. For example, programmes used blogging as a way of encouraging students to undertake formative tasks. Other programmes improved feedback by using screencasting to personalise and enrich students' experience of feedback. The University of Winchester uses Canvas as its virtual learning environment. Canvas has been designed with current students in mind and features an intuitive user interface and a range of mobile apps for both staff and students. Completely cloud-based, Canvas ensure that students studying at the University of Winchester always have access to their course content as long as they have an internet enabled device. The REACT (Realising Engagement through Active Culture Transformation) programme was a £304K catalyst funded project from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The project was designed to make a significant impact on student engagement and the student experience in the Higher Education (HE) sector in England and Wales over a two year period, from July 2015 to July 2017. The focus was on the engagement of so-called ‘hard to reach’ students, and the programme included investigation into the term ‘hard to reach’ and a consideration of which students are characterised in this way. This took shape as a formal research project looking at links between student engagement, retention and attainment, a systematic literature review of ‘hard to reach’ students and a development programme as a collaboration between fifteen UK universities. More information on the REACT website. The University of Winchester leads 'Transforming the Experience of Students through Assessment' (TESTA), a National Teaching Fellowship Project (2009-12). TESTA collects evidence about programme assessment patterns, providing a student-centred yet collegiate approach to enhancing student learning, based on assessment principles. More than a 100 programmes in over 50 universities in the UK, Greece, India, Australia, and the USA have participated in TESTA. TESTA has enabled many programme teams to rethink programme assessment patterns in relation to the following key areas: - Balancing assessment for measuring & assessment for learning (summative/formative) - Creating cycles of feedback feeding forward across tasks and modules - Developing more challenging tasks which integrate learning from different modules - Encouraging students to distribute effort and spend more 'time on task' - Streamlining and sequencing varieties of assessment across the programme - Calibrating marking standards through collaboration - Developing students' capacities to evaluate their own and others' work - Challenging solo and silo approaches to curriculum development Alfred is the University of Winchester’s student journal. It showcases some of the incredible work from students across the university, in order to celebrate the exciting academic contributions from students and provide a platform for officially publishing their work. Students are invited to submit essays, creative pieces, book reviews, critical commentaries etc. Each volume contains a plethora of fantastic work from students from various disciplines exploring inspiring, insightful and thought-provoking topics. Read the latest copy and discover previous editions: Capture is an e-journal about research, innovation and enhancements in Learning and Teaching at the University of Winchester. It is edited by a panel of lecturers in a peer-review process. Many of the articles in CAPTURE come out of funded L&T projects. Volume 1, published in Summer 2008, covers a wide range of research, including: drama projects in HM Prison at Winchester; developing Special Effects (SFX) in Media Studies; exploring the meaning of Research Informed Teaching; an analysis of gendered views of primary teacher training; the evolution of a new Law degree; and a study of the relationship between teaching spaces and pedagogy. CAPTURE. Vol. 2 Volume 2, published in Summer 2010, covers a range of topics, including: Loykie Lomine: National Teaching Fellow 2008; Can Wikis Make Students Think Differently?; Problem Based Learning; Disabled students perspectives on web accessibility; Writing for Children; Risk in Romania: Child Protection; and more, including a number of new courses. Volume 3 (Spring 2011) includes four research articles on assessment – staff perceptions of effective feedback, the balance of summative to formative on programmes, student perceptions of plagiarism, and assessing dyslexic students. Two further articles explore the development of a blended learning community and teacher identity. One conversation starter profiles the WRAP research apprenticeship scheme, another the Kyoto Exhibition. Volume 4 (Spring 2013) includes articles on personal tutoring, imagination, creativity and innovation; student perspectives on feedback, transforming assessment, learning environment, enhancing employability and slow & eco pedagogies. Volume 5 (Spring 2017) is a special edition focused on Assessment and Feedback– the challenges, the myths and the possibilities for innovative practice. The contents are broad-ranging and feature different voices; academic, manager, researcher, administrator, Student Union and student. All of these support our joint endeavours to offer students a fair, purposeful, appropriate and developmental assessment experience. Student Fellows Scheme The purpose of the SFS is to recruit, train and empower students who can work alongside academics and professional staff on educational development projects. SFS projects address a range of topics which vary in scope and size but must be relevant to enhancing the student experience. The Student Fellows themselves must be highly committed to their projects. In return, they receive experience and insight about academic processes in Higher Education, project management skills, research training and experience, dissemination opportunities, and a bursary of £600 (year long) or £400 (semester long) depending on the length of project. The SFS aims to build student capacity to address barriers to an excellent teaching, learning and social experience. Student Fellows engage in educational and social science research with their student peers, implementing new initiatives, and developing interventions. Project ideas can come from staff and students and they will be paired based on shared areas of interest. Example from 2018 include- - Introducing a taught session on gender and trans identity to the UG and PGCE primary courses at Winchester - Developing a Production Design Module on Film Production - Digital Skills and Employability within HSS - Developing support at the University for people with ASD/Aspergers Syndrome and Mental Health - The enhancement and updating of the School Resources Centre within the Martial Rose Library - An audit of animal welfare standards on campus If you would like more information about the Student Fellows Scheme or would like to apply, please contact [email protected] Senate Awards for Learning and Teaching The Senate Awards for Learning and Teaching recognise and reward learning and teaching excellence. They raise the profile of learning and teaching champions, at Winchester, and highlight innovative practice. These awards aim to celebrate individual success and collaborative learning and teaching initiatives that positively impact the student experience in creative and innovative ways. Each award will recognise an individual or team who have enabled a positive change, in practice, for colleagues and/or students across a variety of institutional contexts. For further information, please contact Debra Mildenhall Learning and Teaching Innovation Funding This funding stream is designed to support colleagues who wish to undertake an activity to enhance learning and teaching. While it has been in existence for a number of years, we have now revised this process to allow for greater variety in terms of the size and scale of projects. It is also intended that this new approach will help applicants make a more dynamic case for their proposal and facilitate speedier starts to initiatives. For further information, please contact [email protected] The Play and Creativity Festival The Play and Creativity Festival is a weeklong showcase and celebration of the ways play and creativity permeate our teaching, research and professional activities. Whether physical, game-based, imaginative, communal, noisy, quiet or solitary, play makes an important contribution to University life. The festival is jam packed with playful events involving everything from LEGO®, balloons and maggot racing to gamified learning and playful food. Staff and students from all areas of the university are invited to attend all, or any, of the open sessions throughout the week for teaching inspiration and to have some fun in the final week of the semester. For more information or to see what we have been up to, please visit the Play and Creativity Festival website. To contact the Play and Creativity Festival team, email [email protected]. The purpose of Learning and Teaching Development is to enhance the student learning experience and to provide educational development support to staff and programmes at Winchester. LTD works with students and staff to enhance learning and teaching, develop innovations and research best practice. The team has a national and international reputation for leading the sector in assessment and feedback, technology enhanced learning, and student engagement. The LTD team works closely with colleagues in the Academic Quality and Development Department, driving forward enhancements through quality processes. The LTD team: Professor Alison James, Director of Academic Quality and Development Jo Trelfa, Head of Academic Professional Development Juliet Winter, Senior Researcher Learning and Teaching Development Cassie Shaw, Learning and Teaching Enhancement Officer - Dave Barber, Head of Technology Enhanced Learning and Digital Literacies Matt Elphick, Technology Enhanced Learning Research Officer Louise Clark, Canvas VLE Developer and Trainer Anna Hayman, Events Manager and Administrator (Technology Enhanced Learning) Carol Mottashed, AQD and Staff Development Officer Our specialisms are: - State of the art professional development in our Master's in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education - System-wide programme collaboration in curriculum and assessment design through TESTA - Implementing two university-wide student engagement schemes (WRAP and the Student Fellows Scheme) - Supporting colleagues in innovative Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), including mobile devices and the iPad pilots on first-year programmes - Reward, recognition and reflective practice through our CPD with AQD scheme Learning and teaching dept. University of Winchester Tel:+44 (0)1962 841515

If you're someone who actively endeavors to scope out the best of eats wherever you go like I do, you would often come across near perfect plates of food that transform your existing notions of gastronomic grandeur. Whether it’s an amazing burger or a slurpy good bowl of Ramen, what makes a dish great is usually a delicate balance of flavors, textures, and tastes that work in synergy to produce a wonderful end result. Every once in a while, there also happens to be a certain secret ingredient that makes a noticeable difference in the way a dish tastes--one that is hard to identify unless revealed. Whether it is jaggery in a wholesome sambar, nutmeg in creamed spinach, or even cayenne pepper in a smoky delicious brownie, secret ingredients offer completeness to dishes that would otherwise be mediocre in comparison. Most such ingredients today are in fact not very obscured in secrecy. I believe the internet, mass media, and globalization are to blame.

Meet Dr. Glen Earl With over 30 years experience in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Dr. Glen Earl brings a wealth of knowledge to Synergy Wellness Center. Beginning his journey in the health profession in Big Sur, California his intention was to become a traditional M.D. After falling extremely ill, he received his first acupuncture treatment that changed his career path forever. Dr. Glen Earl began his career studying under some of the most renowned Oriental Medicine Doctors in the world, including Dr. Tin Yao So, Dr. John Shen, and Dr. Ted Kaptachuck. During this time, he also lived as a Buddhist monk in a Korean Zen Center, fully immersing himself into the Asian lifestyle. Later, he received advanced training in both acupuncture and herbal medicine at the Long Wah Hospital in Shanghai, China. As a founding member of both the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, he was instrumental in writing the national exam for both acupuncture and herbal medicine. During this time, Dr. Earl received his Ph.D., writing a doctoral thesis on lupus and autoimmune deficiency disorders. During this time he received an Acupuncturist of the Year Award. As an O.M.D practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine, he’s a family practitioner and treats a diverse array of concerns. Some of the techniques he uses, in both diagnosis and treatment, are known by only a handful of practitioners in the United States. We are proud to have Dr. Glen Earl’s unique experience on staff as we are confident he will deliver an unparallelled experience for our acupuncture patients. “To me, Oriental Medicine is more of an art than a science. Don’t get me wrong, the science behind Oriental Medicine is sold. But what makes it truly effective – and occasionally transformative – is the intuitive nature that a dedicated practitioner develops through clinical experience.” – Dr. Glen Earl Stop by, call 928-756-8352 or schedule your next acupuncture appointment with Dr Glen online, and experience the transformation.

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These illnesses ultimately affect numerous organ programs reminiscent of kidneys, GI tract, pores and skin, and many others. The book is organized in five elements. Half I delves into the skills-primarily based strategy to health training, explaining the importance of the approach and the best way to perceive pupil motivation. Part II focuses on the best way to train expertise which might be based on the National Health Training Standards: accessing legitimate and reliable information, products, and services; analyzing influences; interpersonal communication; choice making and goal setting; self-administration; and advocacy. To pick out the perfect one, ask guidance out of your doctor or any health skilled. It’s also possible to call the affiliation of psychologists in your area. Consult your faculty division in case you are a scholar and tell them your considerations. Going to a group or native health middle may even give you the needed steerage. … Read More ... 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That should be obvious to anybody who reads here usually. The industry views copyright infringement as a much more serious crime than baby porn, so IP legal guidelines should abide by a decrease standard and may ignore pesky issues like prior restraint and the First and Fourth Amendments. All authoritarians know that child porn serves a useful goal – it allows all types of government actions to have the excuse that we’re simply defending the youngsters. If baby porn went away you’d destroy innumerable grandstands and questionable power grabs that hide behind “We should shield the children” while really doing nothing that successfully protects the children. On the lookout for a fun method to get your coronary heart price up? The licensed group health instructors at Wave Well being & Fitness motivate you with slicing-edge lessons and energy coaching strikes designed to spice up power, health and temper. 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By now you’re in all probability uninterested in listening to how breakfast is a very powerful meal of the day—however this tired piece of advice couldn’t be more true! In a single study completed on the Imperial Faculty of London, members who skipped breakfast had been extra tempted to achieve for unhealthy, high-calorie foods later within the day. And in case you need extra proof to eat that a.m. meal, further research found that girls had a larger drop in ghrelin (the starvation hormone) when they ate a hearty breakfast versus a small one. These are the advantages of Obamacare – the legislation that Republicans wish to repeal. Though it’s interesting – whenever you ask Republicans whether they’d repeal the advantages I just mentioned, whenever you say to them, well, do you suppose it is the fitting factor to do to let younger individuals keep on their parents’ plans to allow them to hold insurance coverage, … Read More ...

Sleeping fitfully under his blankets, 5-year-old Mahmud Jan is fighting for his life against a fever that struck nine days ago. Because he happens to live in war-shattered Afghanistan, his chances for survival are poor. Like most Afghans, he drinks polluted water, which may be what brought him his illness. His daily diet, bread and tea, has left him and other children here too weak to fight disease very well. And he has no doctor or clinic within reach. A neighbor who is a medical technician thinks Mahmud may have meningitis, but in the provincial capital of Bamiyan, as in most of Afghanistan, "there is no way to do even a simple blood test to learn what his illness is," said the technician, Abdul Basir Rezai. The boy's father, Habibullah, carried him for two hours to a healer down the valley, who guessed that the boy has typhoid and prescribed $130 worth of medicines that may not work. Habibullah borrowed from a bazaar merchant to buy the medicines and has bought his son fruit drinks and milk--expensive luxuries--in the market. "We have done all we can ... but we are afraid he will die," Habibullah said. "My wife is crying all the time." Threat in inaccessible areas Although the Taliban militants have fled power and Afghanistan has a chance to end its 23 years of warfare, this country is entering a dreadful, dangerous winter in which poverty, drought and the devastation of war will kill many people, especially children like Mahmud. The deaths will be greatest in inaccessible regions such as here in Afghanistan's mountainous center, the Hazarajat. In Yakaolang, one of the Hazarajat districts most damaged by recent years of fighting, "I estimate that 25 percent of the children under age 5 will die this winter," said Mira Jan Dadris, the district's only doctor. In the Hazarajat, and much of Afghanistan, some causes of the humanitarian crisis are new. In the past year, the Taliban burned or looted tens of thousands of homes, plus food stocks, markets and hospitals in the Hazarajat, apparently all as part of an effort to depopulate areas where people continued to resist their rule. The recent months' brutality was the worst by Taliban forces in their three years of control over the Hazarajat and its people, ethnic Hazaras. Hazaras especially vulnerable Much of what threatens to kill thousands of Afghans this winter, though, is the same old poverty they have faced in a country that effectively collapsed as a state in the 1970s and '80s. Even when governments worked in Afghanistan, they discriminated against the Hazaras because of the group's ethnic Mongol origins and adherence to the Shiite sect of Islam. The Hazarajat got few development projects. A bit larger than Rhode Island, with perhaps close to 5 million people, the region never has had a paved road or more than a handful of high schools or hospitals. The Taliban regime deepened that isolation and the Hazaras' chronic malnutrition by blockading food deliveries to the Hazarajat starting in 1997. Amid this synergy of poverty and war, simple things endanger Mahmud and millions of other Afghans. With so many homes destroyed, people are crammed into those that remain. Typically, only one or two rooms in rural Afghanistan's mud-brick homes are heated, so they are packed at night with people sleeping shoulder to shoulder on the floor. A tubercular cough or an influenza sneeze easily spreads illness. Homes are heated by stoves meant to burn wood or charcoal, but the Hazarajat is a rugged land of rock and scrub brush with few trees. The roads are dirt tracks that turn to muddy bogs with rain or thawing snow and they often conceal land mines, making it impractical to truck in coal or wood. So many families burn dried animal dung, filling homes with dirty smoke that promotes throat and sinus infections and tuberculosis, Afghan doctors said. High prices, few resources The dirt tracks and truckers' struggles to navigate them raise the cost of virtually everything. Wheat flour in Bamiyan sold recently for 20 percent to 30 percent more than in Kabul, and medicines are prohibitively expensive. When heavy winter snows fall, transportation shuts down in much of the region, leaving people sealed in their mountain valleys or villages, in some cases for months. The Taliban made matters worse. Earlier this year, after the Taliban massacred an estimated 300 people in Yakaolang in January and sacked the town in May, the population fled. In so doing, they had to abandon, or sell cheaply, their sheep, cows and other livestock. Thus, the chronic malnutrition of many years has deepened dangerously, said Dadris, the doctor. "Now there is no milk or cheese," he said. "Last year, when we had these foods for protein, about 10 percent of our children [younger than 5] died. Now, unless we can get some high-protein emergency food to replace the milk, the deaths will be greater."

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Karen Bovenmyer (Popular Fiction, S’13) has 7 pieces of exciting news this month. - Her new short story “Snow as White as Skin as White as Snow” has been accepted into fellow alumni Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s Art & Words Show—Karen is so very excited to participate in the show again!!!! - Also, Karen’s haunted house flash “So Normal and Unwritten” (reprint) is forthcoming in Iron Soap’s 200 CCs on October 7, 2016. - The sad puppies kerfuffle poem Karen mentioned last month, “Keep Hugo Stormed,” is now available for reading (scroll all the way to the bottom) at Eye to the Telescope Magazine. She is still nervous about potential reactions to the poem but as yet has received only positive feedback. - Her epic science fiction novella “Failsafe” (18k word salute to Aliens) will be reprinted in a forthcoming science fiction anthology put out by Onyx Neon Shorts. - A 1250-word “Like a Soul” flash, originally published in The Stonecoast Review, will be reprinted in Centum Press’s first anthology, One Hundred Voices. - She’s going to be an author guest (with Stonecoaster Mur Lafferty) at the GenCon Writer’s Symposium this August, moderating/speaking on seven panels and one critique workshop. - The DSP Publications editing team working on her 27,000-word pirate adventure novella “Swift for the Sun” (coming 1st quarter 2017) have crafted this very cool blurb: Benjamin Swift imagines himself a smuggler, a gun runner, and an all-around scoundrel. A preacher’s son turned hard-bitten criminal. Sinner extraordinaire. But first and foremost, a survivor. He’s never considered himself noble. When Benjamin is shipwrecked on a tropical island, fortune sends an unlikely savior: a blond savage who is everything Benjamin didn’t know he needed. Falling in love with Sun is easy, but pirates have come looking for the remains of Benjamin’s cargo. They find their former slave, Sun, instead. Held captive by the pirates, Benjamin learns the depths of Sun’s past and the horrors he has been exposed to and forced to perpetrate. Together, they must not only escape, but prevent a shipment of weapons from making its way to rebellious colonists. Benjamin is determined to save the man he loves and ensure their peaceful future together is never threatened again. To succeed might require the unthinkable—an altruistic sacrifice. Amy Burroughs (Creative Nonfiction, W’16) will have an essay appear in the fall issue of Jabberwock Review. Thanks to the mentors and members of Suzanne Strempek Shea‘s workshop who helped her work on this piece. This is Amy’s first published essay. Paula Treick DeBoard’s (Fiction, S’10) third novel, The Drowning Girls, was published on April 26 by Mira. It was chosen by Target as an Emerging Authors pick and has received early critical acclaim, including a starred review in Library Journal. She was a recent guest on Capital Public Radio’s Insight with Beth Ruyak to discuss writing the book. Her first novel, The Mourning Hours (workshopped at Stonecoast and mentored by Suzanne Strempek Shea and Boman Desai), is being rereleased this summer in a mass market format. Paula is a lecturer in writing at the University of California, Merced, and will serve this summer as permanent faculty at Go Deep, a writing and yoga retreat in the Sierra Nevadas. More information can be found on her website www.paulatreickdeboard.com In April, Mike Langworthy (Creative Nonfiction, W’11) was hired by Sony Television International as a consultant in Moscow on Russian adaptations of American television comedies. After a month on The Voronins, the Russian version of Everybody Loves Raymond, he has been assigned to run the writers’ room on Lucky Us, the Russian version of Roseanne. Mike will oversee the writing staff as it prepares outlines and scripts for episodes of the series. Joe M. McDermott (Popular Fiction, S’11) sold a new science fiction novel called The Fortress at the End of Time to Tor.com. Laura Navarre‘s (Popular Fiction, W’11) award-winning Tudor fallen angel romance Magick By Moonrise was picked up by Harlequin’s worldwide paranormal romance program as a direct-to-consumer release for August 2016, thereby proving again the wisdom of the writer’s adage: “Don’t follow the trends. Write what you love.” Laura’s amazed that it worked. 🙂 John Christopher Nelson‘s (Fiction, S’15) short story, “Sola Fide,” will be featured in the summer issue of Able Muse Review. Historic Acadia National Park: The Stories Behind One of America’s Great Treasures by Catherine Schmitt (Creative Nonfiction, W’12) has just been published by Lyons Press, part of a series of books in observance of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016. Schmitt will host a launch party at the Northeast Harbor Library on May 18. Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam‘s (Popular Fiction, S’13) short story “The Split,” a fantastical fictionalization of her move to Eugene, OR, in 2010, appeared in The Master’s Review. She has also announced the participants in the 2016 Art & Words Collaborative Show she curates annually, which started out as her Stonecoast Third Semester Project, and she was thrilled to see a plethora of Stonecoast alumni in her submissions queue. This year the show will feature alum Shawna Borman and Karen Bovenmyer. For a complete list of participants, click here. From Joanne Turnbull (Fiction, S’11): Thanks to the contributions of Stonecoast leaders and alumni, Artists Wielding Words and Images was a huge success. Robin Talbot‘s unassuming grace made it possible for 85 artists, students, and community members to gather and explore the power of art (broadly defined to include written word and visual image) to effect social change. Justin Tussing moderated a panel of writers and photographers who shared challenges of creating work that reflects social issues. Novelist Ellen Meeropol (Fiction, ‘06) discussed the personal journey that led to two novels with themes addressing the emotional impact of political activism. Alumna Helen Peppe (Creative Nonfiction, ‘11) and student Jenny O’Connell (‘17) helped to create breakout sessions in which participants experienced ways in which their own creativity might influence social change. Adult artists and the King Fellows (high school students whose creative writing focuses on racism and social justice) facilitated the breakouts. Artists Wielding Words and Images will be the blueprint for ongoing community conversations about art as an agent of social change. Jennifer Wade (Creative Nonfiction, W’13) is a reader for Creative Nonfiction magazine and its new enterprise, True Story magazine, which will debut this fall, featuring one long form CNF piece each issue. Ashley Warren (Fiction, S’12) has four poems—“Modern Witchcraft: A Business Meeting,” “Ode to Procrastination,” “Spreadsheet,” and “Symptoms of a Brain Injury”—in an April 2016 issue of Easy Street. Carina Bissett‘s (Popular Fiction) poem “Swimming with the Shark Boys” is featured online in the May selections of Mythic Delirium (Issue 2.4). Ellie O’Leary’s (Poetry) poem “The Ghosts Rondeau in the Granite” will appear in issue 36 of The Northern New England Review. Her poem “The Woods Are Open to Me Now” (a rimas dissolutas) will be in the book The Crafty Poet II: A Portable Workshop by Diane Lockward. David Anthony Durham‘s (Fiction, Popular Fiction) novel, The Risen, about the Spartacus rebellion against ancient Rome will be published on May 3rd, both as a hardback and as an audiobook. Aaron Hamburger (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Popular Fiction) will be teaching at the Peripatetic Writing Workshop this summer, in Woodstock, NY. It’s both a workshop and a writing retreat with lots of opportunities to get extensive feedback, especially for those working on longer projects. Check out their website for more info: http://www.peripateticwritingandart.org/home Elizabeth Hand‘s (Fiction, Popular Fiction) novel Hard Light has received rave reviews from Maureen Corrigan at The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press, among others. She was featured as part of the Rubin Museum’s Brainwaves Festival in NYC, where she appeared with neuroscientist Dr. Carl Bazil in a conversation about parasomnia, spoke with the A.V. Club’s Jason Heller about her five favorite books on music, and did a reading at the Mysterious Bookshop in NYC. Just announced: she’s co-editing the upcoming issue of the literary magazine Conjunctions with Bradford Morrow. Her essay on Hillary Chute’s Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form appeared in The Boston Review. Recent reviews include Lavie Tidhar’s A Man Lies Dreaming for The Washington Post. Nancy Holder (Popular Fiction) will participate in StokerCon™, the annual horror conference presented by the Horror Writers Association, at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas from May 12-15. She will be riding the HWA Los Angles StokerBus, leaving the Iliad Bookstore in North Hollywood on Thursday around 10 AM. There are still seats available! Cost is currently $176 but will decrease with every new rider. Contact Nancy if you are interested. At StokerCon, she will participate in signings, readings, panel discussions, and teaching “How to Write Scary” at Horror University. Her panels include “Screenplay Writing for Authors” with Jack Ketchum and “The Romance of Horror” with Heather Graham. She will co-present the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel with Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. Also, Fire at Sea, Nancy’s third Beauty and the Beast novel, set in the universe of the CW TV show, will go on sale on May 31. This month Mike Kimball (Popular Fiction, Scriptwriting) will make his acting debut as comedian Henny Youngman in his short play Henny and Hitler in Hell. The play is part of a collection of seven short plays in a show called Group Synergy. The Actors Studio of Newburyport. The Tannery, Mill #1, Suite 5, Newburyport, MA 01950.

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Stratford Road Speed Limit Change to 40mph speed limit - consultation We're asking for your views and opinions on a proposal to remove the existing national speed limit along part of Stratford Road (between Stony Stratford and Wolverton) and replace it with a 40mph speed restriction. The proposed change will provide continuity of the speed limit along that section of Stratford Road between Stony Stratford and Wolverton. The draft order, notice of proposal and a plan showing the proposed changes can be viewed by clicking on the icons in the left hand column under the heading ‘documents’. Any objections to the proposal, together with the grounds on which they are made can be sent . Alternatively you can send your objection by post to the Network TRO Manager at Synergy Park, Chesney Wold, Bleak Hall, Milton Keynes, MK6 1LY. Please quote reference TRO-230. The closing date for this consultation is 8 November 2018. Please submit your comments before the closing date.

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There has been a lot of focus on millennials of late, and the biggest reason the church is talking about them is because statistically they aren’t GOING to church. Before I go any further, I want to clarify that being in a church building or an official member of a local congregation is not a requirement to BE the Church, but GOING to Church used to be the clear marker. The Church, especially in the west, for too long has equated church attendance and membership to faith. Essentially: If someone attends church then they must be a ‘better’ person than someone who doesn’t. The problem is that church attendance and membership doesn’t perfectly equate to faith or “good.” I was out to dinner last night and saw a family praying before their meal together, and as soon as they said “amen”, the dad yelled at a daughter about how her chair was positioned. Seeing this made a seemingly meaningful moment feel cheap. I think this is just a small example of why many millennials have passed on Church. They have examined the fruits of the church community that they know and have found the Church wanting. So then, is there any hope for the Church and millennials? I think that the Church NEEDS millennials in order to no longer just survive, but to become more who Jesus calls the us to be, the Kingdom of God. We are missing an important rock that would provide better balance. This isn’t just a millennial thing or a filling a pew thing, but a desire for everyone to be a part of the Kingdom of God. Here are a few reasons why I think that the Church needs millennials: 1. Millennials see beyond what currently is to what could be. One of the reasons I love working with teens and young adults is that they have an amazing gift to see beyond what is. Maybe it is because life hasn’t beaten it out of them yet, or maybe it is because they haven’t been lulled to sleep by the monotonousness of work, home, tv, sleep, repeat. Whatever it is, I think that the church needs more of it. They need dreamers who can ask “What if?” and find where God is at work in the community and push the church to jump in. 2. Millennials demand answer to their “WHY?” and “We’ve always done it this way” doesn’t work. This is one of the biggest things that the Church needs right now, but probably doesn’t want. To do things just because we always have just doesn’t compute. Millennials want a “why.” The “why” is important because it sets a reason and purpose behind doing something. If there isn’t a reason or purpose, then kill it. It really is that simple to Millennials, but for the Church it might mean years or decades of wasted time and resources because we just kept the status quo (which by the way, doesn’t work anymore). 3. Millennials are some of the most creative people. Everyday I see new Millennials coming up with new ideas, starting new companies, blogs, videos, products, etc. They feed off of each other’s creativity in a sort of synergy way that is simply amazing. Because so much information is available all the time, they have become experts in using all different types of tech and media and information to create an even better ideas to make our world a better place. They can do this for the church too! Millennials are finding a huge value to their souls in ancient spiritual practices like silence, solitude, journaling, etc. While the church thinks they want the newest praise team, Millennials might prefer a small group discussion that involves art and lectio divina. 4. Millennials are willing to take huge risks without being paralyzed by possible failure. This is the big one. While risks always have a possibility to fail, Millennials are able to see the payoff more than the possible failure. The Church has become way too good at asking, “How do we avoid getting sewed?” and have stopped asking, “What crazy thing is God calling us to do?” All of this doesn’t mean that there isn’t hope. I think there is a huge potential for Millennials in the Church but the church CANNOT maintain what it has always been to do it. Here are a couple steps for the Church to take to connect to Millennials: 1. The Church needs to stop trying to be relevant, cool, or new. Just simply be an authentic community of people seeking to love God and love people. Millennials, and really everyone, want the Church to be REAL, not relevant. Just be yourself. If you are a hardcore traditional Church, then do that with all you have. If you find your Church to be gifted with artists, then use them in every way possible. If you have teachers, host amazing Bible studies. Whatever you do, make sure it is authentic to who you are as a Church. We have to stop jumping on the newest church trends just because. 2. The Church needs to give Millennials a real voice and allow them to take risks in the name of the Church. This is probably the best place to start and hardest thing for the Church to do. The Church has to let go of control. Which, let’s face it, God should have been the one in control anyway not the trustees or finance committees. Have Millennials preach, lead Bible studies, start mission projects, serve on church committees, and not just as a token, but as a real voice. Have a “Big Crazy Risks” line item in your church budget that is specifically to fund the new risks adventures that just might change your community. So, that’s a lot, what do you think? What do you agree with? What don’t you like? How do we do this?

Steve Eggers and his band, The Nines, have emerged from six-year hiatus with their first studio album since 2007’s Gran Jukle’s Field. The self-titled album is what we’ve come to love and expect from Eggers: Insanely catchy hooks, gorgeous chord progressions, and homages to previous pop music geniuses sprinkled throughout the production. Eggers has a knack for writing memorable, sweeping compositions that seem to emanate from him almost effortlessly. And like most artists covered on this blog, he’s relatively unknown. Is that fair? I had a chance to ask Steve about this, his new album, and his approach to songwriting. Okay let’s get this out of the way first. It makes me mad to hear such perfectly created music that’s not even approaching the Hot 100. Does that matter to you? Why is that? Well, I would love to be on the Hot 100, or approaching to Hot 500 even. Having said this, I’m actually lucky to have people put down money and take time to buy my music. Would I like more people to love the Nines? I would most definitely. I think some music that becomes massively popular can be musically great. Obviously there is some top 40 that is horrible, but you find that with indie music as well. People like music for different reasons, and it is very subjective. Tell me about the new album. What’s different from your previous releases? I actually write a lot of songs, and a lot of songs I just lose interest in because I think I have ADD, or ADHD … my attention span is very brief and fleeting. The album is the result of the songs that I like the best. With this album I tended to gravitate to more rock numbers or uptempo numbers as opposed to ballads. The new album sounds like a cross between Wings-era McCartney and some of the AM radio staples from the late 70s. I even hear some Frampton Comes Alive in “Backseat”. The 70s sometimes gets a bad rap, but there was a lot to appreciate there. Yes, I added the crowd sounds to “Backseat” because it felt very stadium-like and was recorded almost live off the floor with the band. The 70s was great because it was BIG and BRIGHT and it was fragmented. You had huge acts like Elton John, but then you had KC and the Sunshine Band and Abba, right next to Led Zeppelin. I liked all of those outfits. I liked Billy Joel and David Gates as well as Gary Numan and Bowie. If 70s music was a movie it would be a movie of extreme mood changes. I’ve heard several of the album tracks over the past few years from demos and outtakes where you’re basically just humming where the words go. How did these songs evolve? That’s the way I write most of my songs. I think a lot of writers do that. Paul Simon has said that it’s the sounds of words as opposed to just the meaning that is important. The sound conveys a meaning almost. I believe that. If the music is strong enough, you can convey a lot of emotion that is impossible to articulate in words. Paul Simon has said that it’s the sounds of words as opposed to just the meaning that is important. The sound conveys a meaning almost. I believe that. If the music is strong enough, you can convey a lot of emotion that is impossible to articulate in words. Sometimes words get in the way and can interfere with the musical emotion. I write music first and then build a story around some of the words that sound “right” in the song. Having said this, I wrote a song “Virginia” as a nonsense song, called “Government Plan” and got rid of all the words and recrafted the lyrics from scratch. So there really isn’t a formula to how I approach songs, which I like, because if there was a formula it would make it feel like I was actually working as opposed to playing. I’ve previously written about “I Would Never” and its perfection – major to minor chords, the sweeping falsettos, and some chord progressions that just bring a smile to one’s face. What’s the background to the writing of that song? Thanks. “I Would Never” I wrote on the piano and the chorus of that song I had written as a ballad. When we started as a band one thing we thought was unique was that I would write rock songs with “piano” structured chords and translate them to guitar – i.e., write a piano ballad and make it a rock song. That translation from piano to guitar created unique phrasing that would not sound like typical guitar chord structures. “I Would Never” was one of those piano to guitar songs. There is the melancholy of a piano ballad built into the DNA of that rock song. How have you evolved as a songwriter since your first album, 1998’s Wonderworld of Colourful? I think I’m less inhibited and more confident in my approach. When we did Wonderworld of Colourful, my goal was to stay away from piano because grunge was big and I always grew up digging the Police and three-piece bands that were guitar based. I liked Nirvana as well at the time and the punk thing…and as a live outfit we were a heavier band live. I didn’t feel confident enough to be a piano-based live outfit. On recordings we kept the guitar-based thing but built layers on it; layers we could not recreate live. I remember Bryan Potvin, the A & R guy at Polygram (he was also one of the chief songwriters in the Canadian pop band the Northern Pikes) who had signed us to a demo deal in the 90s, kept telling me, “Steve, you have to play piano live, and on your recordings, that’s what you’re about. You are a good piano player and a weak bass player.” I think I wanted to be a “guitar” punk/alternative or heavier band because I didn’t feel like a “singer songwriter” piano guy. Now I do whatever I want. So if I want to do a piano ballad, I do it. Or a reggae album, I just do it. I was going to do a dub reggae thing and still might. Stay tuned… Lots of reviews of you and the record refer to you as “genius” when it comes to pop music. There seems to be some sort of synergy between you, Mike Viola, Andy Reed and Bleu when it comes to creating these irresistible catchy hooks. Where do they come from? Is it years of listening to XTC and the Beatles, and the chords are innate by now? Or is it still a struggle sometimes to find the right mix? Well I am not a genius or particularly smart. My spouse is much smarter than I am. Genius is used for everything and seems to be misused more and more now. Having said this, I will take a quote like this and not stop myself from aggressively advertising it to everyone (laughs). When you look at the history of music, there really are only a few true geniuses, and most predate the 20th century, I’d argue. Popular music has actually become simpler and simpler over the decades. I like listening to music I simply can not do. I listen to a lot of jazz (Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Charlie Parker) because it’s simply beyond my abilities or beyond my scope to truly take influence from it. I think Mike, Bleu and Andy and myself grew up as kids listening to a pool of music that was based on album tracks and singles of the 60s, 70s and 80s and a lot of FM and AM pop radio, so while I know we all have over the years expanded our musical tastes into other genres, that pool is the commonality. I think our approach to music and composition differs based on our take of what we’ve listened to or what other elements outside of that pool we draw on… as well as life experience obviously. I also gravitate to composing on piano 95 percent of the time versus guitar because that is fundamentally the instrument I can play quite well, versus being somewhat of a hacker on the other instruments. In your opinion (somewhat of an academic question), why do those chords elicit such happiness and reaction among pop fans? Why do we like George Harrison’s diminished chords, McCartney’s jumps in melodies and Queen’s multi-part harmonies? Why do I like every chord change in “Take What You Want?” Well thanks again…I would be the last person to analyse why someone likes certain melodies and not others. I have my theories but again, some people just like music because of the drum beat or the sound of a synth or the words of a song resonate with them. I really like the cinematic elements of those bands you mentioned. They made albums (a lost art now with iTunes) which was a musical motion picture for the mind, really, and the goal of the song was to take the listener on an emotional ride. (Laughs) Well, that’s what it did for me even without dope. Each song was a concept. The Beatles did that cinematic thing not only within the album, but within the song. Queen did this too. Bowie did this as well. I hear a lot of top 40 music and even music for Disney, as I have little kids, where I can hear that there is obviously someone who understands song craftsmanship very well. And I get hooked because they use those tricks (the “right” chords” here and few minor changes there). It’s like crack for me…I get hooked on even the cheap stuff. But what makes me get off that crack is it just feels uninspired and more like a pop song jigsaw puzzle. It feels like a song pitch winner or an ad campaign because that’s essentially what it is. Having said this I’m likely not above doing it myself though as I’m not that pure. Bottom line is that music connects with people on a number of levels, and authenticity and inspiration I think is still very important. Are you content with your place in the music world right now? You’ve released several acclaimed albums and have a small but fervent following who seem to GET your music. Would you like to see a return to the power pop/new wave era of the late 70s and 80s, or is this okay? I’d love to make millions of dollars and have a lot of people love my work. To say, no I’m good with a cult following and mass appeal ain’t for me would be a lie. But the flip side to this is I am very fortunate to have the loyal following. In fact I actually loved a lot of bands that were “cult following” kinda bands. I loved XTC when they weren’t touring. I still love the Lilys which really is one guy and a bunch of musicians he works with. I think Kurt Heasley is great. I love Scritti Politti’s last album on Rough Trade. He’s got the soundscape thing in his head. So I’m in a band or project that is actually like a band I would like. What’s next? Tour? StageIt shows? Well, we’re looking at some additional distribution for this new album in Europe and Japan so we’ve got some stuff cooking there, so we’ll see. I have a batch of live recordings that were recorded by this guy, John DS Adams, for a show I did at the University of Toronto with the Hart House Chamber Orchestra, conducted by my bandmate Paul McCulloch, as well as some live recordings of some band gigs. So we’re looking at releasing a live album. I also am finishing up Polarities 2 (not sure of the name) as I have a batch of demos and unreleased songs that I think are interesting. I’m also tracking a new album which I’m not sure will be out as Steve Eggers or the Nines, but the songs are piano based songs…so straight songs in the flavor of Joe Jackson, Randy Newman, Paul Simon, Billy Joel. This project is just simple arrangements of songs that I think are some of the best songs I’ve written so far, so I’m excited about that. I plan to do a few shows in the U.S. in 2014 and some joint shows with some artists that we work well with…so we’ll keep you posted. Coming tomorrow: A review of The Nines

Elemental's 10th anniversary inspires mindful reflections & renewed hopes (part 2 of 2): illumination That Elemental, the Power of Illuminated Love, would prove a challenge to get published had always been known. Potential traditional publishers had no problems admiring its bold creativity and uninhibited spiritual intensity. What most could not accept was something traditionally troublesome when it comes to artists and the marketplace: the financial risks involved. With all respect to healthy doubts and sensible reservations, so far as Luther and I were concerned the years of energy, labor, and determination already invested in Elemental by the time 2006 rolled around equated to something more than a calculated transactional value. From the perspectives of our deepest meditations and intentions, the completion of Elemental meant contributing to the cultural legacies established by creative artists like those who made possible such movements as Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and the Harlem Renaissance. This last, especially, was one which had already stamped our destinies as Luther had studied with artists of the Harlem Renaissance and I had already co-authored Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. The center image for this art graphic features the first two stanzas of a poem by Aberjhani from ELEMENTAL (p. 22) titled "Past, Present & Future Are One" based on a Luther E. Vann painting of the same title. The third-eye illustration seen above was drawn by Jason Maurer when the poem was published in the former SCAD newspaper The Georgia Guardian in 1993, 15 years prior to the publication of ELEMENTAL. The combined creative synergy demonstrates how ELEMENTAL has helped to inspire and empower others from the beginning. But once creative passion and committed partners empowered us to finally produce a physical book, we reached two important conclusions. First: we recognized the need to articulate, both for potential buyers and booksellers, as definitively as we could, the goals and values inherent in Elemental. Secondly: it seemed obvious the work could be adapted for different mediums. These considerations resulted in the following statements: When envisioning Elemental as a staged musical or as a video production, I described it thus: ...An exploration and documentation of the way human beings occupy public spaces in interpretative contrast to how they experience inner spaces... It illustrates the way collective intention makes communal interaction possible while individual need and impulse maintain the integrity of a person's separate being. For example, the Luther E. Vann painting "Christ Listening to Stereo" (p. 27) is of a youth on a bus in New York City (please see image below). The image reveals how the youth is at once physically part of a larger setting while remaining, via his personal stereo, completely apart from it. Immersed in his music, he claims a connection to the artist who made the music and who allows him to not only share in the expressed creative passion, but to utilize the same as a kind of soundtrack for his own anticipations, memories, desires, needs, or fears of the moment. Very similar and yet very different scenes are enacted in such public spaces as parks, malls, back yards, office buildings, clubs, and street corners. They all make the individual part of a larger whole even while many individuals continue to exist primarily as isolated fragments of that whole. Contemporary award-winning author of classically-styled works in history, poetry, creative nonfiction, speculative fiction, and journalism.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to churn out back-to-back recaps for a K-drama but previous experience certainly doesn’t make it easier. It does help that the drama in question is Pinocchio, still so compelling and satisfying even if the light moments are few and the serious stuff remains front and center. I suppose the two cute leads have a lifetime to be happy together living their age rather than with the weight of the world on their shoulders, so might as well focus on getting that big gorilla off their backs with three episodes left. Operation Bring Bad Mom down runs into a major landmine as the writer either coincidentally or intentionally includes an action sequence straight out of the pages of recent real life news. Bum Jo is confirmed to be faking the return to momma’s boy routine but his mom turns out to be onto him from the very beginning since she knows him even better than he knows himself. The drama has turned into a serious of lead characters needing to battle forces within the family as well as the greater pressures of public discourse, but each time the right decisions reached never feel forced or inevitable because there is always a price to pay. My reluctance over Cha Ok’s redemption is now washed away by the drama handling it the way Jae Myung’s criminal acts were fully his burden to bear. Cha Ok can finally come clean in her own terms not because she’s suddenly a person with a conscience, but because she has finally decided to stop. Episode 18 recap: Ha Myung gambles on Cha Ok’s conscience to finally do the right thing, handing over the cell phone and text message records so that she can report on her own collusion with Bum Jo’s mom, rather than leave it up to In Ha to do it and become a whistleblower in the process. Cha Ok acts all uninterested in doing the right thing until after she starts to walk away which is when she breaks down and starts crying about how the kids are making her feel so pathetic. ‘Bout time! Cha Ok puts the items Ha Myung gave her safely into her desk drawer and locks up tightly. In Ha returns to the MSC newsroom and both her sunbae reporters warmly welcome her back. In Ha is determined to keep voicing her strong opinions going forward, to be the reporter who covers the truth to better serve the public. It’s the same thing Reporter Kim said to her before and she’s never forgotten it even if he demurs that he doesn’t remember saying that. In Ha knows the truth and vows to follow the lead of the real Reporter Kim who also believes in reporting the truth. PD Hwang isn’t so sure Ha Myung was correct in placing his bet with Cha Ok to do the right thing. Ha Myung admits he’s not certain she’s swayed or that she’ll do the right thing, but he has a backup plan with another whistleblower who is feeding information to him. We see Bum Jo leaving his mom’s office and passing Cha Ok as she comes to talk with his mom. Cha Ok informs Bum Jo’s mom that she got the text messages and cell phone back and destroyed both so this worry has been eliminated. Bum Jo’s mom is relieved and trusts Cha Ok who she calls “her person”. Bum Jo’s mom hasn’t forgotten the request to meet In Ha but Cha Ok claims there is no need since this issue has been resolved and she’ll better educate In Ha going forward. Bum Jo’s mom acts fine with that except she points out that this is the first time Cha Ok hasn’t done what she asked. The MSC reporter duo hears that Cha Ok is missing an upcoming editorial meeting and doesn’t plan to attend those going forward. Reporter Kim starts celebrating after Cha Ok walks away, happy that finally he gets his voice heard in those meetings without Cha Ok around. In ha immediately brings up revealing Cha Ok’s misconduct during the recent waste treatment facility fire and digging into who is behind it. The meeting is awkward but In Ha isn’t swayed and calls out to Reporter Kim to support her. He awkwardly half-raises his arm to join In Ha when there is a vote to cover the story but then lowers it in the end. Reporter Kim claims he’ll cursorily pass the request onto to Cha Ok knowing full well she’ll scuttle it. Shockingly Cha Ok orders Reporter Kim to cover the story and investigate per In Ha’s request and she’ll report on it afterwards. Reporter Kim is shocked and collapses on the desk afterwards. Reporter Lee hears and worries what will happen if Reporter Kim gets fired over this, what with his wife and kids overseas. He calls his wife to summon the family home and asks if his wife can fry chicken to open a store. Bum Jo’s mom gets a call from the MSC chief who is sitting with Reporter Lee after hearing that Cha Ok has authorized the investigation into this story. Ugh, I hate these people. Bum Jo’s mom isn’t surprised that Cha Ok is turning and thinks back to all the recent pressure she’s faced from Ha Myung digging into the past. She muses that the recent events gives her a bad premonition. Ha Myung walks In Ha home and hears that she’ll keep investigating the story. They arrive outside the condo and Ha Myung asks how Grandpa is doing? He hears Grandpa is mostly fine and turns down In Ha’s suggestion to go inside and see him. A motorcycle comes racing towards them and Ha Myung pulls In Ha away to safety. She thinks it’s just a reckless driver but Ha Myung doesn’t look so confident about that. Ha Myung goes back to his apartment and finds Bum Jo playing with hyung’s dog outside. Bum Jo is here to share information with Ha Myung like he promised last time. Flashback shows us that Bum Jo told Ha Myung before he quit as a reporter to go back to his mom’s side. But Bum Jo is doing this to get to the truth because he will never hear the truth from his mom as a reporter but only as her mom. He promises to tell everything to Ha Myung after he finds out and the two make a pact. Ha Myung welcomes Bum Jo to his studio apartment and the rich boy marvels at such compact living quarters. Ha Myung offers him beer but purposely shakes the can beforehand, heh. Bum Jo starts by telling Ha Myung that he still sees his mom as the kindest person in the world. Which is why he’s so tormented doing this now. Turns out Bum Jo has been using his cell phone to record all the conversations he’s privy to while being around his mom. Bum Jo asks how In Ha is doing and hears that she misunderstands Bum Jo as still being a momma’s boy. Bum Jo thinks he probably is and opens his beer can only to have it sprayed all over him. We see a strange man standing outside Ha Myung’s apartment staring at it. The guy arrives at YGN network carrying a box and claims to be making a delivery to the newsroom. The team is gathered for a meeting to discuss the updates to the investigation between Bum Jo’s mom and the congressman. The fake delivery guy walks into the newsroom and opens the box to pull out a giant nail gun and screams out Ha Myung’s name before starting to randomly fire. Everyone screams and takes cover while the guy uses up the nail gun to shoot up the newsroom while screaming for Ha Myung to come out. Ha Myung grabs a bottle of water and throws it at the guy, knocking him off balance and giving him room to kick the nail gun out of his hands. Chief then kicks the nail gun away while Ha Myung tries to subdue the guy. They tussle but the guy manages to get away and runs out of YGN while Ha Myung runs after him. The police pull up to YGN with their sirens blazing while the guy succeeds in evading capture and runs into MSC network. In Ha is working in the video room watching old news footage of the congressman and discovers MSC covered that particular congressman a lot. Cha Ok joins her and sits down to help. The guy runs into Reporter Lee in the lobby and asks to make a delivery to Cha Ok and In Ha and is directed to the newsroom. Ha Myung runs back to the YGN newsroom and is asked if there is a personal vendetta against him since the guy called out for Ha Myung by name. Ha Myung remembers the near bike accident last night and runs back out with a bad premonition. Yoo Rae notices blood around and everyone looks around for an injury but the one who is cut up is Ha Myung who is growing increasingly worried when he can’t reach In Ha by phone. MSC is now under attack as the guy now wields a knife and is demanding In Ha and Cha Ok to come out. Cha Ok calls the police to report the attack while Ha Myung runs into MSC and bypasses the security guards to rush inside. The guy finally locates In Ha and Cha Ok locked inside the video room and smashes the window to grab them. Ha Myung arrives and tussles with the guy who raises his knife to stab him. In Ha runs out and hits the knife out of his hands while Ha Myung finally holds the guy down long enough for the slow-ass security guards to arrive and drag him away. In Ha looks over Ha Myung to make sure he’s okay only to see that he’s bleeding from his arm. Ha Myung relaxes and collapses on the ground. Cha Ok and In Ha are waiting outside the surgery room as Ha Myung gets stitched up for his arm injury. Reporter Kim and PD Hwang arrive together and everyone pieces together that the attacker is unknown to Cha Ok, In Ha, and Ha Myung, yet he attacked both news networks specifically demanding them. Cha Ok remembers back to her last ominous conversation with Bum Jo’s mom. The two reporting teams run into each other racing to interview the other network for the newsroom attack. Reporter Lee reluctantly agrees to be interviewed and sighs that In Ha and Cha Ok are just too bold lately. The YGN team doesn’t think so as they are just being good reporters to try and report the true. They decide they don’t even care to interview Reporter Lee and swan off, leaving Reporter Lee wondering why he’s so disliked these days. The newsroom attacker is handcuffed and being interviewed at the police station. The various rookie reporters are all clustered around the door and trying to eavesdrop but they can’t hear anything. Yoo Rae texts the detective and wheedles for him to talk louder and he actually does start shouting his questions. The attacker claims he doesn’t know In Ha, Cha Ok, and Ha Myung and did it to avenge his dad. The news reports on the dual attacks on YGN and MSC and the attacker is the twenty year old son of the bus company president that the reporters outed before as a liar. He claims to be doing this to avenge his dad’s ruined reputation. Bum Jo watches this report and hears that Ha Myung was injured in the attack. He then plays a recording of his mom insisting that she built up her empire through years of hard work and can’t sit by and watch it be destroyed now. In Ha and Dad meet Ha Myung at the hospital to take him home. Dad wants Ha Myung to come back to live at home while he recovers otherwise he’ll risk a permanent injury to the arm. Ha Myung hears that the attacker is the son of the bus company president and the attack was revenge for the reporters outing his dad as a liar. Chief informs the YGN team that he sent Ha Myung home to rest until he recovers. Discussion goes to the attack being in revenge for the report and the sunbaes all wonder why they have been threatened over the years over various angry members of the public yet Ha Myung has just been a reporter for such a short time and is already the target of a real terror attack by a disgruntled person. PD Hwang thinks there is more to the story and the attack might be a warning of sorts, to warn Ha Myung off what he is investigating. PD Hwang reveals that Ha Myung is investigating the connection between Cha Ok and Bum Jo’s mom. We see the YGN rookies trying to eavesdrop on this meeting and another rookie tells Yoo Rae that PD Hwang may be interested in her as he grabbed her to safety first when the attacker came. The team notices the rookies eavesdropping but PD Hwang speaks up for them as eavesdropping is a sign of their dedication. Cha Ok meets with Bum Jo’s mom and brings up her suspicion that the attacker was sent by Bum Jo’s mom to warn against further investigation. Bum Jo’s mom claims there is no such thing……but if she were to have sent an attacker that means their relationship has cracks. She warns Cha Ok to be careful lest their relationship completely shatters. Bum Jo walks with his mom and asks if she sent the attacker to the news networks. Mom candidly admits she sent the attacker as a warning to back off and we see Bum Jo recording her. Mom then tells Bum Jo the same warning to back off before taking his cell phone away. She knows when her own son is lying so he can’t pull anything over her. She knows her son is disappointed in her but can’t they return to the way things were. She does the dirty deeds while he lives the way he likes. In Ha and Ha Myung return home together and find dinner a nutritious meal of abalone porridge. All three members of the Choi family immediately pick up a dish to offer to Ha Myung who just smiles to be back with family. In Ha finds Ha Myung trying to shave with his left hand and sits him down to shave him. She promises to be careful and not cut him. In Ha then jokes that shaving is dangerous in horror movies and she might slice his neck should she suddenly hiccup! In Ha then laughs at Ha Myung’s worry before settling in to shave her man so tenderly while he smiles at her. Ooooof, so sweet! Dad chances upon the tender shaving scene and is about to get upset before leaving the lovebirds be. Dad offers to help Grandpa make his bed and brings up a weird dream he had recently. He dreamed that Dal Po hyung was in love with In Ha and asked for his approval. Grandpa hits him with a pillow to speak of such incestuous things happening! Dal Po is his son while In Ha is dad’s daughter, they can never be together! Dad shrinks back as Grandpa threatens to smack him. Cha Ok orders Reporter Kim to release the text messages immediately otherwise if their chief finds out then he will stifle the report. Cha Ok reveals that Bum Jo’s mom has gone crazy and ordered the attack to warn them off. That’s why she wants the report to go out now and if the entire world knows then there is nothing Bum Jo’s mom can do to stop the truth from coming out. Cha Ok and Reporter Kim find the other reporters are gathered around a human resources announcement where the two of them are being transferred to different departments to stifle their ability to report on this news. In Ha finds Reporter Kim packing up and hears that he got demoted because of In Ha’s insistence on investigation the case. Cha Ok approved and told him to keep investigating which is what caused this mess. Their continued investigation led to Bum Jo’s mom sending the attacker as a warning to back off. In Ha is shocked to hear this, Reporter Kim is resigned to his demotion and sees it as a chance to go back to being a real reporter. Cha Ok calls In Ha out to meet and she rushes over to break room to find her mom making coffee. In Ha knows her mom and Reporter Kim have been demoted to keep them away from reporting the story. Cha Ok hands the cell phone and text messages to In Ha to hand back to Ha Myung. She wants him to report it but she’ll be the whistleblower isn’t of In Ha. In Ha hands it back to Ha Myung and confirms her mom wants to report the truth finally. Cha Ok knows that the case from 14 years ago is now passed the statute of limitations so she needs help from Chan Soo. She wants Chan Soo to press charges again her for slander and libel in ruining a reputation. Ha Myung goes to find Chan Soo to ask him to do as he asks. Chan Soo returns to his old precinct to press charges against Reporter Song Cha Ok for running his reputation. Once Cha Ok is a defendant then she can reveal the truth from now and from 14 years ago during the trial. Cha Ok wants In Ha to report on the trial and don’t miss a single word. She warns In Ha that Bum Jo’s mom will use her wealth and connections to try to discredit her and squirm free so In Ha needs to be strong. In Ha worries that her mom’s career is over if she does this but Cha Ok doesn’t mind. She’s tired after all these years doing this. In Ha cries and Cha Ok tells her not to cry because it’ll worry her. In Ha holds her mom’s hand and cries while promising to be strong. In Ha asks Ha Myung if he also felt such pain and agony before when he was sending his hyung away? How did he endure and survive? Ha Myung moves over next to In Ha and hugs her, telling her that he still hurts now and doesn’t know how to get over it. In Ha apologizes because she knows her mom brought this on herself but In Ha still hurts seeing Cha Ok make such a difficult decision. Ha Myung can only embrace In Ha as she cries. Ha Myung tells hyung about what’s going to happen to get the truth out. Jae Myung can tell Ha Myung doesn’t look happy about this turn of events. Ha Myung apologizes to hyung because In Ha reporting on her mom’s wrongdoing reminds Ha Myung of how he turned Jae Myung in. Hyung wants Ha Myung to stop feeling guilty and reveals that Ha Myung actually saved his life. Jae Myung’s original revenge against Cha Ok, he actually planned to kill himself afterwards. But Ha Myung’s promise to avenge their dad his own way gave Jae Myung hope to keep living so he could see Ha Myung accomplish that goal. Because Ha Myung reported on Jae Myung truthfully, now he can hold his head up high to question Cha Ok for the truth. Cha Ok receives the summons for the charges Ahn Chan Soo filed against her. Bum Jo’s mom gets a report that charges have been filed against Cha Ok for her false reporting ruining Chan Soo’s reputation. Bum Jo’s mom isn’t planning on stepping in to help her since Cha Ok could have orchestrated this herself so she has a platform to reveal the truth after getting demoted at the network. Bum Jo’s mom is not worried that reporters will cover this trial. Cha Ok arrives at the police station and looks around the empty lobby. The rookies at the station notice Cha Ok and rush over to interview her about whether she’s here for questioning on the charges against her. In Ha walks up and Cha Ok shoots her a look before answering the rookie questions. She promises the truth will come out after questioning. She schools a rookie for asking her a stupid question like how she feels and tells them to have substantive questions for her after she comes out from the questioning in a few hours. The rookies are impressed with her reporter aura. Cha Ok encounters Ha Myung upstairs and he asks to interview her after the questioning. Cha Ok remembers her first meeting with Ha Myung when he promised to come back after he learned what it means to be a real reporter. Cha Ok asks if Ha Myung knows what it means to be a reporter now? Ha Myung knows a bit and Cha Ok smiles, telling her that he’s ready to go up against her now and she’ll be ready to answer his questions. Thoughts of Mine: There were tons of great developments in this episode but knowing episode 19 was right around the corner made some of the tension deflate. I feel compelled to address to big news room attack scene, an effective trigger for things to get real serious real fast in the drama, but really leaves me discombobulated watching it so close to the real life terrorist attacks in Paris on reporters. I’m fairly certain it wasn’t a gambit to milk a real life tragedy since the event happened just week ago and this story line unfolded in episode 18 with synergy in pushing the narrative forward. With that said, it’s not the easiest thing to watch in a fictional drama even if toned down the attacker wielding a less deadly nail gun and knife. I also didn’t think Bum Jo’s mom was ready to go commando on her pesky reporter flies pestering her for the truth. It worked as the catalyst to finally turn Cha Ok from her clutches but it felt too much and too fast, an over-the-top warning for an investigation that really didn’t seem to be going anywhere. At least it kickstarted the final showdown as the two moms will take it to the end rather than leaving their kids to do the dirty business. I’ll keep this thoughts section short and save it for after I tackle the recap for episode 19! Click here to watch Pinocchio.

It is rather obvious to me from the get-go that the Doppelganger to Jack is both the most useful, and the most disposable man in his employ. Not only does he now look like Jack, the Doppelganger’s entire identity and history has been replaced with Jack’s own, making any great heroic actions performed by him as Jack’s own, while also becoming a scapegoat against any would-be assassins. (note: I only had a lvl 44 Celestial Doppelganger COM at the time so the highlighted skills are boosted by 4) The Disposable Man build reflects and projects that disposability onto the Doppelganger’s Action Skill, getting as much as we can from Digi-Jacks dying against the enemy. Hero of the Story: Best Foot Forward: A no-brainer for the build, the more we (and by we, I mean me,) kill, the longer the Action Skill lasts. Just Compensation: To be perfectly honest, I only picked this skill because I like throwing my Tediore gun at the enemy to make them explode. Something about using disposable guns on a disposable man just fits. You Have my Shield: Why are we using this skill on a build that focuses on letting the Digi-jacks die? Because two words: Nova Shields. Those war-hippies and that testosterone poisoned idiot had done something right for once when they started producing these. Just put one on and watch your enemies die in a series of explosions all over the dang place. Jack’s Cache: This just beautiful with Leadership from the Greater Good tree and Just Compensation by giving us a free grenade every four kills. This doesn’t count towards our max grenade count, so we still can have the full benefits of Just Compensation. Integrity: A nice FINISH HIM skill, boosting gun damage when they have less than 40% Health, and even more if somebody else (including our Digi-Jacks,) hits them first. Collaborate: The more I (and by I, I mean my copies,) die, the more powerful I become. Synergy: Bonus Critical and Weapon Damage. Do I even need to say more? Teamwork: The more I (and by I, I mean you,) die, the longer I survive. Commitment: The more I (and I think you’re getting the picture here by now,) die, the faster I shoot and reload. Accountability: Same idea as Commitment. Optimism: When I die (do I even need to say it at this point?), I take you all with me! Potential: So not only do I explode when I die, I explode when I come back too. Also the ability to use the Action Skill while in FFYL is really good. Believe: Look, this kill skill boost nearly everything related to guns, why would I not take this skill is the bigger question. Delegation: While we ourselves would rather not get hit, this helps us when we inevitably do… by having the Digi-Jacks take it instead. LEADERSHIP: So whenever a Digi-jack dies, it counts as if I killed an enemy. Aka, all of my kill skills are immediately activated (Synergy and Believe) while also adding a stack toward Jack’s Cache. This is probably the simplest and yet best cornerstone skill for this build. Guns: For the most part, we can use any guns we like, but to really excel with this build, we will want; Non-elemental Tediore SMG/IVF- The IVF is the legendary version of the Tediore SMG, spawning two grenades when it explodes, making it’s potential throw damage even more amazing. However, even a vanilla SMG will work wonders with Just Compensation. We want non-elemental because reload damage will default to explosive, which is boosted if the target is frozen (which will happen VERY often with a Cryo Nova.) Hefty (+damage) or Refill (+reload speed) Casual Ravager/Torguemada/Flakker- BECAUSE EXPLOSIONS, THAT’S WHY. Tediore isn’t the only manufacturer that gets bonuses from Grenade Damage, and Torgue has MUCH better selection of shotguns. Shock Tediore Splitter or Railgun- Shock is a really good element to have, with most enemies (especially near end-game) that have shields. In fact, with only 9/5 JC, I can and have two-…shot? Thrown? The Invincible Sentinel’s shields. Cryo Nova/Avalanche- We’re gonna focus on the Damage and Range of the nova shields, so pure Maliwan all the way. With this, we’re gonna make Elsa’s “Eternal Winter” look like a light dusting. Coms: Like Marcus once said, “a Sniper without a Sniper COM is just a guy with a gun,” so we need a COM that suits us. Thankfully, we have several COMs to choose from; Unbelievible or Incorruptible Hero (+6 Believe/Integrity, +5 to the other): More Gun damage AND more Fire Rate? Just what a Hero always needs. Boosting Believe is reccommended once we have Leadership, since it will basically turn it into a constant while our Action skill is active, though Integrity is not a bad choice either. Accented Antagonist (+6 Collaborate, +5 Delegation): This reduces the cooldown of our Action Skill, which is good since it normally clocks in at 40 seconds. Delegation helps our Jacks die faster while keep us up longer, thereby giving us more Collaborate stacks earlier. Originally this build was going to include Winning, but until some of the issues are sorted out with (not restoring shields when kill skill is already active, doesn’t work beyond 6/5?) a blue version with Collaborate as the primary skill is the best. Praiseworthy or Shrewd Entrepreneur (+6 Synergy/Believe, +5 to the other): All of the skills boosted by this COM are Kill Skills, which isn’t too much of a problem when, again, we have Leadership. These are both fantastic skills that just helps us keep the kills going. The Best Man (+6 Just Compensation, +5 Lean on Me): This one will take a few skill points shuffling to get, since if you notice, we only have Just Compensation in the base build. However, this not only turns Tediore weapons into monsterous weapons, but most Torgue weapons as well with the bonuses to Grenade damage affecting them as well. Celestial Doppelganger (+5 to Best Foot Forward, Just Compensation, Collaborate, Teamwork, Incentives, and Marginal Benefits.) This is probably the best COM we can get, and we don’t even need to spec into all 6 skills, just the first four. As a result, our Action Skill lasts longer, we’re harder to kill, and Tediore/Torgue guns are much more awesome. It also gives all brands a lesser version of the Hyperion gimmick. Oz kit: Bomber: More grenade damage, which works beautifully with our Tediore SMGs and Grenades. The free grenades doesn’t seem to work with Jack, though that isn’t a problem with Jack’s Cache giving us more grenades anyway. Grenades: Singularities. Maybe we don’t want to move closer to the enemy, but still want them to be hit by novas? Pull them out of cover with Hyperion’s own Singularity grenades. Damage and element aren’t all that important, since it’s only the initial pull that we want, so the best one is Longbow with <1.0 Fuse Time. Level 17: Collaborate 5/5-> Teamwork 3/5 -> Best Foot Forward 5/5-> You Have My Shield. Around this point in time, Nova Shields have started to appear from loot sources. I feel that getting a source of healing early on helps a lot when there are no dedicated items easily accessible, so we’re going into the Greater Good tree first to pick up Collaborate and then Teamwork. The reason why I don’t go into Best Foot Forward->Take their Freedom is that TTF doesn’t mesh very well into the whole “Let Digi-Jacks die for you” theme of this build, and TTF is a kill skill at this point so we can’t rely on it in between engagements. Teamwork is a better choice even though it seems it would heal less because it doesn’t rely on kills to heal us up. However, immediately dismissing the Digi-Jacks after deploying them will give you two stacks of Teamwork right off the bat with the Action Skill ready again in less than 5 seconds. Level 22: Integrity 2/5-> Commitment-> Accountability-> Optimism 1/5. Hopping back to the Greater Good Tree after getting You Have My Shield, we spec into Integrity, which basically is Omega-Senshu that only boosts guns. In addition, we get the multiplier from our own Jacks doing the damage for us, so anything that deals a lot of damage at once (shotguns, sniper rifles, railguns,) will help you shred weakened enemies apart. Moving on to Commitment and Accountability, which provides us with Fire rate and Reload speed bonus the more our Digi-Jacks/allies die and take damage, respecively. Commitment offers a good amount of Reload Speed for only one point, though the stacks decay faster than Teamwork, so often you will only have 2 stacks of this. Accountability is especially really good in co-op, it being easier for you to get stacks when there are 1-3 other players taking gunfire for you. Finally we put one point in Optimism. The Explosive nova damage from Optimism is not really that much, but it’s the secondary effect of this skil that we’re after, making the Digi-Jacks respawn with less health. This helps us get stacks of Collaborate, Teamwork, and Commitment faster, since the Digi-Jacks will have shorter life spans, as well as set off their novas more often. However, more points in Optimism will not decrease the lifespan of the Jacks, sadly. Level 31: any combination of 3 points in Integrity or Synergy-> Potential-> Believe OR Delegation 4/5-> Leadership: Now we’re starting to get somewhere! After getting Optimisim, we go back up the Greater Good, either to finish up Integrity like I did, and/or put them into Synergy. Next is Potential, but then we have a choice: Believe or Delegation. Take Believe if you need more DPS rather than tanking, or Delegation for tanking ability with Teamwork. Either combination of 4 points until we have Leadership available. Remember, Digi-Jacks naturally decay over time, so long as their lifespan is shorter than your FFYL time, you’re golden. Level 32-50: anything you want. With Leadership, the main core of our build is basically complete. Just Compensation is just icing on top, so while recommended, is not completely necessary for this build. In fact, you could move around some points to grab Money is Power, or get everything up to 5/5. Level 60?: I plan taking a point out of Optimism (down to 2/5 or maybe even down to just 1/5) from this posted build, and then put 1 point in Incentives, 4 in High Frequency Trading, 5 in Marginal Benefits, and then finally get Money is Power.

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The synergy between Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and a team of leading companies will give life to an exclusive event that will make its debut as part of Bologna Water Design, and as a sideshow to the showroom of Cersaie 2012. From September 25 to 29, in the refurbished buildings of the monumental complex of the Former Hospital Bastardini, the spotlight will turn to STONESCAPE the fable-like set-up installed for Agape, Il Casone and Mapei in the form of a lytic landscape where natural and artificial elements coexist in an awe-inspiring scenery. Through a project concept and a sensual approach that interpret the embracing setting of Pietra Forte Fiorentina sandstone with the same refinement of the elements for the bathroom space that rise out of the water, Il Casone leader in the industry of extraction and processing of Pietra Forte Fiorentina , Agape for 40 years now the benchmark for bathroom decor projects in the top-tier market , and Mapei the biggest manufacturer worldwide of adhesives and sealing products for architecture, have chosen the poetic and essential creativity of Master Kengo Kuma to assert their avant-garde technological know-how and to experiment with their propensity for innovation. The water models the space in curve and convex lines, drawing liquid shapes that transform the surfaces from matt to shiny, and urges the onlooker to gently caress them. The body of water that takes center stage and is sculpted into the Pietra Forte Fiorentina is a magical and fascinating picture of soft and elegant domestic sculptures: large bathtubs and wash-basins, the latter a tribute to the work of Angelo Mangiarotti, who recently passed away. STONESCAPE will be officially inaugurated on September 25th (event strictly reserved,) in the presence of architect Kengo Kuma and with the appearance of Philippe Daverio, special guest of the event Bologna Water Design 2012.

Next, you’ll need the right tools. You can be as complicated or simple as you want depending on your comfort with audio equipment, but at the minimum you’ll want a microphone and software for recording your voice. Companies like Behringer, Blue, Focusrite, and others sell studio-quality plug-and-play podcast setups that can get you recording today. At work, you had to keep your desk neat so that you looked organized—and sure, it’s always helpful to see the top of your desk. But at home, who cares if clutter collects around you? Well, don’t fall into that trap (especially video conference calls are part of your routine). While you might miss the building services team, who used to wipe down your crusty keyboard and empty your waste paper baskets every night, it’s ultimately up to you to keep your space spic and span so you can do your best work. If you are a creative type, then you could make money online by designing and selling crafty products on Etsy. Etsy sells a range of beautiful and original items from independent suppliers. Categories range from jewelry, clothes, and accessories, to art, collectibles, and vintage. So if you have some stunning crafty creations, Etsy is the perfect platform from which to sell from. Understand how a niche website works. A niche website focuses on very targeted, specific information. The content must be specific, useful and interesting to your target audience. Successful niche websites get anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 visitors per month. You build content on a particular keyword, and you make passive income with Google Adsense or through affiliate links. As you start regularly putting out content, you’ll hopefully start to build a bit of an audience. But to start seeing real money from YouTube you need to market your videos elsewhere. Share your channel on Twitter and Facebook. Distribute videos anywhere else you can think of. Also, interact with comments and build a community around the videos you’re making so people will share it with their friends. The 2012 Status Telework in the Federal Government features teleworking highlights from the past 18 months as well as goals for improving teleworking in the future. Reports finding that all 87 agencies participating in the Data Cell had established telework policies and 73 percent of the policies met the Telework Act Requirements. More than 684,000 federal employees were deemed eligible to telework, this represents approximately 32 percent of all federal employees. More than 144,000 federal employees had written teleworking agreements with their agencies. 27 percent of teleworkers worked remotely three or more days per week. In addition to the findings, the reports examine teleworking at the Department of Defense. According to the report, there are more than 793,000 employees in the DoD and of those employees, 134,477 were deemed eligible for teleworking. Overall, the federal government seems to have embraced teleworking and is attempting to create more remote working opportunities for employees. In closing, the report listed several ways that the government could make more jobs available through telework. Suggestions include using telework as a tool to retain employees at or near retirement age and using telework to expand hiring of highly trained disabled veterans. If you’re a fitness buff and have the right combination of charisma and business sense, working as a part-time online personal trainer can be both physically and financially rewarding. Once you build up a reputation and client base for yourself, it could easily turn into a full-time endeavor for you. Check out this interview with several fitness blog owners who are making a living online, from MonetizePros. As well, I'd recommend checking out this resource if you want to take this business idea seriously and get started with a business plan for your personal fitness trainer business today. If you offer freelance services or have a physical services business, then creating a blog is a must. On your blog you can write about the services you offer and how they will benefit your clients. Importantly you can add a ‘Services’ page, outlining the services you provide, what they include, and any other important information potential clients may need. This is an effective way to promote your services, generate leads, and increase your revenue. Finding legitimate work-at-home jobs isn't that hard if you're looking for the right kinds of jobs in the right places. If you're hoping to lick envelopes or are using Google to find work, you're more likely to come across scams. The reality is that legitimate work-at-home jobs are like traditional work-at-home jobs. They have the same titles (teacher, nurse, assistant, etc.), and they require you to go through an application, and often an interview process. My name is Jamie Spencer and I have spent the past 5 years building money making blogs. After growing tired of the 9-5, commuting and never seeing my family I decided that I wanted to make some changes and launched my first blog. Since then I have launched lots of successful niche blogs and after selling my survivalist blog I decided to teach other people how to do the same. The roots of telecommuting are found in early 1970s technology that linked satellite offices to downtown mainframes through dumb terminals using telephone lines as a network bridge. The ongoing and exponential decreases in cost along with the increases in performance and usability of personal computers, forged the way for moving the office to the home. By the early 1980s, branch offices and home workers were able to connect to organizational mainframes using personal computers and terminal emulation. Telework is facilitated by tools such as groupware, virtual private networks, conference calling, videoconferencing, virtual call centre, Voice over IP (VOIP), and by the decreasing cost of good quality laptop computers. It can be efficient and useful for companies since it allows workers to communicate over long distances, saving significant amounts of travel time and cost. As broadband Internet connections become more commonplace, more and more workers have adequate bandwidth at home to use these tools to link their home to their corporate intranet and internal phone networks. Become a proofreader. All kinds of businesses hire professional proofreaders to look over their copy and content for errors before they publish. This side hustle is one that could work for nearly anyone since you can work from home provided you have a computer and an internet connection. You can find online proofreading jobs through websites like Indeed.com and FlexJobs.com Coworking is a social gathering of a group of people who are still working independently, but who share a common working area as well as the synergy that can happen from working with people in the same space. Coworking facilities can range from shared space in formal offices to social areas such as a coffee shop. Entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs often cowork in shared office and workshop facilities provided by business incubators and business accelerator organizations. In entrepreneurship, coworking allows creative start-up founders, researchers and knowledge workers to meet and share ideas, collaborate, share new research, and find potential partners. Here’s a good example of how lead sales can work in real life: My second website, Life Insurance by Jeff, brings in a ton of traffic from people who are searching the web to find answers to life insurance questions. While I used to have the website set up so I could sell these people life insurance myself, it was a lot of work to process all the different requests and clients. As a result, I started selling the leads I gathered instead.

Just recently I stared plying as a plague doctor and I absolutely love it. I made this my main char now and would love to keep playing as a PD… but as it seems re:Build removed the pandemic range attribute and BDS fast contagion attribute I don’t care as much about the BDS attribute, but having a much smaller pandemic range sounds very troubling to me. Did anybody play as PD in Re:Build yet and could share some opinions? Right now I am playing as Cleric 2, Sadhu 3, Diev1, PD3. I wonder if this setup will still work in Re:Build. Wohooo! That sounds great! I really have trouble imagining playing with the default size. I enjoy PD playstyle so much… even though people tell me it’s weaker then most classes I still very much like it and plan on keeping it as my main char I really like PD playstyle too! All those damage over time skill. More importantly, healing factor and bloodletting gives insane survival! I think bloodletting is getting removed in re:build, but beak mask becomes a 100% uptime buff? I think people say PD is weaker than most classes, but only in terms of DPS? Edit: btw, I don’t have any experience with re:build, but I heard owl statue is very strong, so cleric-diev-sadhu-PD should be a strong magic dps. I’d change diev to exorcists though, but need to test it first. PD isn’t weaker in terms of damage, only against dark property/demon race enemies since a lot of other Clerics can exploit their element or weakness to physical attacks. The main problem of PD is that it relies heavily on debuffs and takes longer to kill than your average 3x God Smash, Breast Ripper, Breaking Wheel,Rubric,Katadikazo,Koinonia,Fanatic Illusion,etc. This is also the reason why PD doesn’t fit well together with a lot of Classes since they’d effectively work against him (i.e. when using a nuke attack, infected&burned enemies will die anyway, making PD useless in the build except for the support skills) since a lot of Cleric Classes feature quick defeat tactics. The Classes working best together with PD would be probably Miko,Dievdirbys,Monk,Sadhu,Chaplain as none of them really focuses on nuking enemies but on dealing with them slowly over time. Still unsure about Zealot, might be good to have or might not be a good solution, you’d have to test it out and make a choice. If we go over to the support side, there would be Pardoner (increases debuff duration,but only for up to 5 targets; requires Kabbalists Nahash for an effective spread of Discerning Evil[no idea if you can spread it via Pandemic]) and Oracle (Divine Might, Prophecy,Death Sentence all help with DOT and Twist of Fate can help killing pesky boss monsters faster) to help with dealing more damage continuously or repeatedly. probably, as long as it’s funded. Sadhu isn’t that good anymore,though, so you might be willing to exchange it for something else. Just try out any Class you think is working well together with PD. Just do yourself a favor and decide on if you either want to be Plague Doctor with some support or you want to be build x where PD plays a not insignificant, but also not major role. Once you’ve got that identity down, I think you’ll make the right choices when testing. By the way, with the new reset system you’d rather want to test out the weakest choices first, since you need to accumulate reset points by doing content after using up your free 3 resets at the beginning of the event. Would have posted a tos.guru link but it isn’t working for me atm o…o Bloodletting is removed but Methadone now also prevents r2 debuffs when its up. (10s duration / 30s cd though.) Beak Mask is now a 1 pointer that lasts 60s and has a 10s cd. (+now prevents all r3 and lower debuffs on you.) It was one the lower side of cleric dps prior to re:build, post rebuild it’s above average in terms of cleric dps. Don’t quite know how that relates to other base classes though. Not anymore, owl got nerfed and then slightly less nerfed several weeks ago prior to ktos release. Now its just average if you have enough spr. (though still need to see tests on its aoe ratio which could hinder it.) I Wouldn’t exactly advise sadhu though, as it got nerfed quite a bit. (reduced tp values, reduced tp upkeep, low dmg on almost all skills aside of possession and even possession is only average with tp active.) Pardoner + Exo can also work as aqua benedicta + discern evil gives you an AoE discern evil that extends debuffs by 100% every 25s. Paladin is also decent alongside PD since conviction should be a +30% dmg debuff now with a 20s duration. That and Sanctuary works nicely on incin/bds. Bonus round of undoing Umineko’s misinfo: Chaplain/Exorcist only tbh, other holy skills are lacking atm. And yes we all agree holy is op. Inquisitor and Zealot would be the only ones capable of exploiting that, and I’m not sure it’s as big of a deal as you make it out to be as demons also have a 0.7 hp modifier anyhow. Zealot also relies on damage over time effects, they’re just buff based instead of debuff. Exorcist is a lot faster, but it’s also the top cleric dps class atm by a large margin. PD is still up there in the top cleric classes after re:build though. I CAST CHORTASMATA FOR INSTANT DEATH! No, seriously what on earth are you even talking about? Only Inquis, Exo and full lycan (for 33% of the time anyway) fill that niche for us clerics in the rebuild, everything else doesn’t. Nope to infinity. Right for now for PD the best dmg source is incineration, though bds is a bit to average perhaps. As such it favors the more debuff heavy classes like Druid/Zealot but can also work really well with the Discern Evil AoE synergy. Miko has lousy dmg and a tiny aoe, and people were saying kagura only worked for magic circles. Neither incin or bds are magic circles fyi. Dievdirby is a decent secondary option as long as you grab enough spr, which is a given for pd anyhow. Monk who’s dmg is so low most monk fans are already depressed 24/7? probably not a good recommendation. Sadhu also has lousy dmg, and while it has a good chunk of debuffs atm they tend to last very short or are tied to a channel so it’s not very compatible atm. Transmit Prana + a ton of pd hits is their best synergy, but transmit prana was heavily nerfed. (50% upkeep 20%/75% iirc) Chaplain focuses primarily on auto attacks and has no debuffs, it’s not useless as a combination but also not the most synergetic either. As if that ever stopped you from giving out “information” before. only for up to 1 target, it’s like you don’t even play this game. And holy circles can spread it to all enemies inside. (Hamaya / Aqua Benedicta and Nacash.) There are several builds possible for PD with all those roles intact fyi. PD + Druid + any or PD + Pardoner (+ DE aoe synergy class ideally exo) have a good mixture of dmg, healing and utility from the get go. Thx for your advices. I only took sadhu 3 cause I get a great DMG boost with TP right now. I mainly want to focus on PDS playstyle with spreading debuffa and burning enemies to the ground. All other classes should somehow compliment that style feels like great DMG loss now that TP doesn’t work as well anymore Having trouble coming up with something good right now I don’t get why people always say PD deals less damage than other clerics. I resetted through all kinds of builds by now. It’s harder to apply damage but for relevant content there are typically debuffs everywhere. The damage is splendid and I get more out of my PD than with an Exo/Druid build. Hard to compare to physical builds because of gear difference. But Zealot felt like complete crap for relevant content but a lot more smooth for questing because of zapping aura. The strength of Pandemic is amazing. Exo has better burst but the overall damage of PD is higher and the typical combo of Poison Fire Pandemic is not that hard to get off and really shines in CM. Sadhu3 is the best damage addition imho. Anything that increases the tick damage is very welcome. Also with Thauma in a party prana into swell is very neat. Sadhu3 also decent for questing as you can fire a strong Posession if you don’t want to waste a Fire overheat. PD has a Rank 10 problem. You get circles 7-9 filled with the Doc and then you need something to finish the build. Most casting circles feel a bit wasted as single circle. Druid2 is decent but then Sadhu3 isn’t possible. My personal favorite now: Zealot. Sounds like madness which is a perfect fit for the doc. Fanatism adds a solid +30% dmg boost you can flip onto all dots with a single keypress. Knockback immunity is also very good as PD has animations. My goto combo is: Poison -> Fire -> Pandemic -> Fanatism And then a cure in case of bosses. Feels really good, burns good and the theme is totally fetting. Also something I advice to take: Bokor. 8sec CD free debuff especially nice for question. Hexing can be spread which is also nice. For party I actually prefer: C3 -> Paladin3 -> Doc3 -> Zealot Reason: Barrier is useful and ticks with magic damage. Sanctuary is a very nice switch after Fanatism which adds your defense as holy damage onto all ticks that burns down dark/demons very well. And you get insanely tanky which I really like about PD. Given the actual data this translates into rebuild. For damage all in into dot damage and slap survivability and utility onto it. For me PD will be safe in the build together with Druid. Druid is a solid damage boost with 100% uptime. Also more damage, binds crit damage boost. The good thing about having a lot of ticks is that crit% directly translates into damage as it can’t happen that the burst goes off without crit and sits on CD then. If the stats won’t hurt that much I will take Zealot as last circle. I really took a liking to it. Zealot can be played purely with buffs. Fanatism and Beady Eyes are 30 points directly gone for very good skills. Especially with dots burning everywhere it’s super easy to apply beady eye crit boost. Very tasty. I will wear a 2-Hand Hammer as I don’t want a shield. Maybe I will also take one of Zeas physical skills depending whether it actually makes a difference otherwise it’s the whole 15 points in knockback immunity. The incoming support changes for PD are very welcomed. The value point into Mask and Fumigate are really nice. Methadone seems pretty bad with low duration. Poison will be a value point as the damage is dumpstered anyways. A nice indirect buff is Incineration as it doesn’t lose much damage but there’s still the +50% Agny boost. Given the whole damage reduction across the whole class board this means a lot. Which means incineration with 100% Attributes and Agny is 197,2% on Lv1 and 266% on Lv15. Not sure if I will actually level it up and instead throw the points into Factor and Haste. The future is bright. I am really thrilled for rebuild. Yes. Iirc ein sof doesn’t recover SP in re:build. Obviously I was talking about now since I mentioned circles of the classes… I was only talking with Sciguma. I posted a suggested build for re: build above, but like I said, need to be tested. Seems like Wurmheart is saying owl got nerfed so it’s just an average skill, and he/she does not suggest sadhu either, so I would do cleric-exorcist-PD-X. Probably druid if nothing else is good. Druid has lycanthropy and more DoT! You should use https://tos.guru/ktest/simulator to check some skill descriptions to have a overall idea of how RE:Build works. Use google translator on it so you can read in english. PDs do lose their Pandemic range, but it’s still big enough to spread BDS or Conviction into a somewhat grouped mob. PDs are very good in RE:Build as they have very solid support skills together with two considerably strong dps skills (BDS and Incinerate). At max level, Incinerate deals 135% per 0.3 sec, which equals about 450% factor per second. Over 10 seconds, it’s 4500% factor. That’s pretty intense, considering the average strong skill in RE:Build deals about 1000% factor damage. BDS deals considerably lower damage, since it doesn’t have as much factor or the -0.1 tick delay attribute anymore. However, it still combos nicely with Velnia Monkey cards and provides +30% to all damage on a poisoned monster. In RE:Build, getting +% damage debuff to monsters is much more difficult, getting such debuff usually demands you to sacrifice a lot of dps to take a full support class (i.e. new Death Sentence from Oracle’s or Conviction from Paladin’s). The fact these two skills deal tons of hits, as opposed to skills that deal few hits of high factor, also gives you a considerable advantage when using buffs such as Blessing or Sacrament. In RE:Build PDs get a skill that is basically the same as Chronomancer’s Haste, and they do also get 100% immunity to rank 3 debuffs and lower with 100% uptime for themselves for only 1 skill point into Beak Mask. Getting debuff immunity in RE:Build is also much more difficult, with most other similar skills being nerfed (i.e. Prophecy lasts 30 sec but 60 sec duration now and still only protects rank 1 debuffs). And of course, last but not least, Healing Factor has an insane healing power as always, healing as much as a Cleric’s Heal every 2 seconds. If making a party member nearly immortal with 100% upkeep time isn’t good enough to justify PD as a good class, then I really don’t know what is. PD Can’t compete in terms of dps with an Exorcist, or even a Sadhu, but of course it’s a hybrid dps/support class that brings your survivability and supportiveness much higher. That’s also always my selling point for PD. If there was actually hard content and not everything a DPS race you could go Priest Oracle Doc and be that immortal Cleric guy keeping the party going. That would be my favorite build but given the actual state more damage is typically the best option.

Community Re-integration of Veterans: Resilience, Well being and Employment Amy Armstrong, Tommy Waterworth This webcast will introduce pilot data concerning the self-reported resilience, employment experience and perceived quality of life of OEF/OIF Veterans. Potential implications for wellbeing, community re-integration and employment will be discussed. Amy Armstrong is chair and associate professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Counseling at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been involved in advocacy, education and employment issues related to individuals with disabilities for over 25 years. She has extensive experience providing national personnel training on disability-related issues, employment of marginalized populations, leadership and motivational topics. Armstrong has held a variety of community agency positions including both direct service and management at the local, regional and national levels (including the National United Cerebral Palsy Association and the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Supported Employment/Workplace Supports). Her interests include the employment of individuals with significant disabilities, community re-integration, resilience, leadership and personal/professional transformation. She received an M.A. in Rehabilitation Counseling from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Education from VCU. Tom Waterworth is a 2010 graduate of VCU’s Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness program and a former communications director of VCU’s Student Veterans’ Association. During Tom’s time as a student at VCU he worked closely with the administration to address the needs of returning servicemembers, spouses, and their dependents. Expanding on the synergy between the veteran student body and the administration, Tom upon graduation accepted a position as the Military Student Services Coordinator to help establish VCU as the preeminent institution of higher education for military inclusiveness. Along with the outstanding leadership of Dr. Martha Lou Green Ed.D, Tom helped VCU establish the Military Student Services Center located on the 3rd floor of Harris Hall, adjust policy to accommodate active service members, train faculty members on the salient issues facing returning veterans and create a veteran-centric orientation process for incoming student veterans.

Duel Decks- Zendikar vs Eldrazi: Eldrazi Deck Review (Part 1 of 2) Is she or isn’t she? At time of writing, one of the biggest areas of speculative debate centers around what the unspeakable horror at the heart of Innistrad’s woes could be. The previews of Shadows of Innistrad are upon us, and one of the theories with the most traction is that it’s Emrakul, the third Eldrazi titan and the one whose whereabouts are currently unknown. On the one hand, it makes perfect sense, since the ELdrazi were conceived as Magic’s version of Lovecraftian horror, unspeakable and inscrutable things out of space and time. It would make an interesting connection between two standalone blocks as we transition into the two-set block system, as well. On the other, there are many who feel like it would be too much or too soon. Regardless, especially when viewed through the flavor-overload design of Innistrad, the Eldrazi have captured the imaginations of Magic players. While we’ve had a number of new Eldrazi decks to look at as we’ve made our way through Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch, the Duel Deck released in the run-up to Battle for Zendikar has a much more old-Eldrazi feel. This is mainly down to card selection, which draws heavily from Rise of the Eldrazi. Similarly, it employs Eldrazi Spawn, the 0/1 original token/mana banks, rather than the updated 1/1 Scions. But it’s not fully on-theme, given that the Duel Decks product line seeks to deliver a gaming experience, not just a thematic one, and where it’s made sense to add Goblins, Insects, and Vampires, Wizards has happily done so Today we take a look at the Eldrazi deck, and see what an ancient and terrible enemy has mustered. Pleas for Death We open the deck with a pair of Runed Servitors, humble 2/2 two-drops that replace themselves in your hand when they die. Of course, they also give your opponent a card as well, which is something of a push. As simple, colorless Bears it’s not a very exciting card, and there will be plenty more you’d rather draw at most any point of the game. It’s main value is that- provided you haven’t missed a land drop- you’ll usually be able to play it on your second turn, whereas your other options require you to be in the right color. For a card like Bloodthrone Vampire, having access to Black on turn 2 isn’t too difficult, and it makes a fine play later-game because of it’s sacrifice ability. It’s resource-heavy, but if you’ve managed to field a horde of creatures (including Eldrazi token creatures), it can be a must-block threat. The risk with sacrifice outlet creatures is that you go through all the trouble of pumping them only to see them die to removal, but the removal in this Duel Decks environment is very meager. Finally, if your second-turn mana is just right, you can even deploy your first Eldrazi in the Forerunner of Slaughter. Much like the Vampire, this is just as fine to play at most any point in the game, particularly when you have the extra mana to do so. Giving one of your Eldrazi titans haste can make for a very nasty surprise. Moving up to the three-drops, again you only have single Eldrazi here, the Dominator Drone. Although you can’t reliably be on-curve with only four two-drops, there are still plenty of colorless creatures in the deck for you to get maximum value out of the card when played later. 3 power is solid here, but the ingest ability is fairly useless. Unlike the Eldrazi-based Intro Packs in Battle for Zendikar/Oath of the Gatewatch, the Duel Deck version doesn’t go into the ingest/process mechanical space. It’s not an entire dead end, though, as any cards exiled with the Drone can still feed the Oblivion Sower. That sort of sometimes-synergy is a foundation of the modern Duel Deck experience, as we’ve often pointed out. Not every card will synergize with every other; often, you’ll need to get the exact two or three cards in play to take full advantage. This is by design, and combined with the near-singleton nature of the deck list it helps offer a wide variety of game experiences and, thus, ensure replayability. Consider our next three-drop, the powerful Vampire Nighthawk. Games with an early Nighthawk will often be considerably different than games without, given its ability to swing games through difficult-to-block lifelink damage and a solid 3 toughness. Even later in the game, it can be a formidable defensive option as opponents might hesitate trading their larger attackers for a three-drop defender, thanks to deathtouch. This is the kind of card you’ll always be delighted to see in your opening grip, and it’s a terrific inclusion. Next up is the Pawn of Ulamog, your first Eldrazi Spawn token generator. The Pawn’s Spawn only generate as a death trigger, but it makes for a nice consolation prize when your creatures shuffle off the mortal coil. It also allows for some of those “occasional synergy” interactions that turbocharge the deck, such as when you have the Magmaw in play. Sac a critter to Magmaw to ping your opponent, then sac the Spawn to do it again- as many times as you have mana. You’d never do this until you had the game in hand, but it’s a nice closing option for when the board state has stalled out in the red zone. Another stall-breaking option appears in the Bloodrite Invoker. Part of a cycle of Invokers from Rise of the Eldrazi, these were designed for precisely the purpose of acting like a safety valve for games that weren’t progressing. Dump in eight mana, and you’d get some large repeatable effect that could help move the game towards its conclusion. In this case, it’s a 3-point life drain. The last two creatures here are the Torch Slinger and Cadaver Imp. The Slinger is a modest body with a potential Shock attached through kicker. The Imp, meanwhile, is graveyard recursion, an option in case something important died that you’d like to get back. Neither are exceptional, but both are occasionally-useful niche players. Another pair of kicker cards occupy the four-drop slot in a pair of Heartstabber Mosquitos. You’ll almost never want to play this just as a creature, given the paucity of removal you have access to. While it’s maddeningly expensive (seven mana for the whole package) and at sorcery speed, it’s almost always going to be worth it to thin out your opponent’s creature base. Ordinarily we tend to lump 5+ costed creatures in our “top of curve” analysis, but decks like this, which have so many options there, need a little more dissection. While we mainly have the beatsticks you’d expect with any Eldrazi deck here, there are some enabling options as well. A trio of Emrakul’s Hatchers are central to the deck’s strategy, as apparent by the quantity on offer. Each of these five-mana 3/3’s can ramp you into a next-turn eight-drop like Ulamog’s Crusher, or propel you to even more expensive options. The 3/3 body is reasonably relevant, though not much of a closer- that just isn’t their job. You have a couple of “setup pieces” in the aforementioned Magmaw, as well as the Butcher of Malakir. Both of these are here to synergize with the fundamental core of the deck, particularly the Eldrazi Spawn tokens. Magmaw is a sacrifice outlet, letting you turn your board into a source of dump damage to finish off a wounded opponent. The Butcher, meanwhile, goes after your opponent’s creatures. This Grave Pact effect is always applicable, but it’s even more potent when you’re playing with Eldrazi Spawn that you can sacrifice to convert into mana. It’s worth a quick aside to note that the “occasional interactions” we’ve discussed in the Duel Deck environment aren’t just balanced within their own decks, but actually are balanced across them as well. Decks will often contain “silver bullets” that are designed to be difficult for your opponents to handle- a classic example being the Silver Knight from Duel Decks: Knights vs Dragons– but they’ll often also have “silver shields” that let them sidestep the thrusts of their opponent. For the Zendikar deck, one of these is the deck’s foil premium rare, Avenger of Zendikar, whose Plant tokens make excellent sacrifice fodder. That leaves a playset of the Eldrazi titans to close things out, any of which can turn the game on its axis. The cheapest of these is the Oblivion Sower, the deck’s premium rare card. The Sower is a 5/8 with an enters-the-battlefield ability that can help build your manabase. Exiling the top four cards of your opponent’s library should usually get you at least one land, and if we remember that in the late-game we’re playing a land on average every third turn, that can go a long way towards helping the deck advance its agenda. Next up, costing two more mana at eight, is Ulamog’s Crusher. A full 8/8 with annihilator 2, it attacks each turn if able. This was a deliberate design choice when the card was being made, as related by head designer Mark Rosewater in an interesting narrative: It features in my favorite developer story of the set. One of the things we do during development is to bring Magic players from elsewhere in Wizards to playtest our sets. It’s important to get a sense how people react to the set when they play it for the first time, so we like to hold playtests with fresh eyes and a more casual sensibility. During the first such playtest, we noticed that when players got an Eldrazi out, they wouldn’t attack with it. R&D had quickly realized the power of the annihilator mechanic, but the less experienced players didn’t seem to feel safe throwing their giant creatures into the fray. We took notes and talked about it, but changed nothing. The next playtest the same thing happened, and the playtest after that. During one development meetings we had a discussion about what we could do to make less experienced players realize that you should be attacking with the Eldrazi. And voila! Not only do you have a massive titan that attacks each turn if able, but an interesting insight into how these creatures were designed and received. Moving to a nine-drop, we find the Artisan of Kozilek. Even larger than the Crusher, it also has annihilator 2. But it’s not just a stat boost you get for the extra mana, but the Artisan also can resurrect a creature from the graveyard and put it right onto the battlefield. Although this becomes stronger in a deck where you have discard outlets to seed your graveyard, Eldrazi has no such options available. Typically, then, you’ll be returning things you already cast, and that typically means something smaller. The final, top-of-curve behemoth is the 11/11 It that Betrays. A true closer in every sense, not only does it force sacrifice through annihilator,but it also lets you take control of almost anything your opponent might sacrifice- the only provision is “nontoken.” This is in essence a “drain” ability not unlike the Invoker’s, but on a much grander scale. If you manage to find the mana to play it, there’s a very good chance that the game is yours. Since this is ostensibly the slower deck of the two in this Duel Deck environment, it benefits for a somewhat more robust removal suite. This is designed to let it buy some time while it races to bring a battlecruiser on-line, though as we’ve seen already the Zendikar deck is perhaps a step too slow on the pace to put up a consistent challenge. Nevertheless, the removal is certainly welcome. Forked Bolt is the least of these, a slow-motion Shock that lets you divide the damage. It’s also your only burn in the deck, as the rest of the removal comes from the Black slice of the color pie. First up is a dose of pinpoint removal. Smother is a cheap and easy way to kill an opposing beater, with the caveat that it be one of your opponent’s smaller creatures. Induce Despair can kill anything, provided you have a large enough creature in your hand that you’re able to reveal. One problem with decks heavily weighted towards expensive cards is that it can reduce your earlier options. A card like this gives you some benefit to having an uncastable titan in your hand. Finally, Corpsehatch will kill anything your opponent can field. Although it costs five mana, it does have the benefit of delivering a pair of Eldrazi Spawn. The last bit of removal comes in the form of a pair of sweepers, though both of these tend to be limited to the lower-hanging fruit. Marsh Casualties will give -1/-1 to all your opponent’s creatures (-2/-2 if it’s kicked), while Consume the Meek hits the lowliest of creatures across the entire table. Since token creatures have a CMC of 0, you’ll want to be sure you’re not playing this on a table filled with Spawn unless you have no other choice. The rest of the deck is a mixed bag. Mind Stone offers some additional mana ramping, while Read the Bones gives you both a sacrifice outlet as well as card filtering/card draw. Lastly, Hellion Eruption is a solid way to close out the game by brute force if you’re sitting atop a pile of Eldrazi Spawn. Although the Hellion’s don’t have haste, giving your opponent a turn to brace for impact, they can substantially add to the power of your army in a stroke. For nonbasic lands, there are a few options here to help move things along. Akoum Refuge’s give you some mana fixing, and the drawback to these cards- that they’re slow- isn’t much of a problem in a deck that’s already on the slower side You get three of those, as well as a pair of Rocky Tar Pits. These also offer slow mana fixing, and while they’re not as versatile as the Refuges, they also thin out your deck of land which marginally improves card draw quality in successive turns. Finally, an Eldrazi Temple delivers a touch of acceleration for your endgame, making Eldrazi and their abilities cheaper to play. And that’s the Eldrazi! We’ve assessed the threat they’re up against, we’ll be back with a playtest to see how they hold up.

|Synergy Life and Wellness Coaching, LLC |Synergy Life e-Newsletter| Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. Welcome to the FIRST edition of Synergy Life e-News! I have a confession to make!! I've been working on this newsletter in "snippets" now for several weeks, and have been waiting until it is just PERFECT before I sent it out to you. Early this morning as I started working more on this, I began feeling overwhelmed with all the things I have yet to do in order to feel it is JUST RIGHT... You know, all the bells and whistles I want to have in place eventually. So I sat down with a hot cup of coffee, lit a candle, took some deep breaths, asked for help, and began "writing it out" as I often do when there's something I on my mind that I'm trying to figure out. Then it hit me... This is just like times I've held myself back in the past because I didn't feel I was ready...that I wasn't "good enough" yet... and, yes, that something important wasn't PERFECT before I released it out into the world. I realized I've been so focused on what isn't done, what isn't finished, and the things I still need to do, that I haven't acknowleged my progress, or celebrated how far I've come in what I DO have ready to send out to you! So...In the spirit of celebrating progress, I am adjusting my expectations and challenging myself to share this, just as it is! It will be short and sweet, but nonetheless, I will consider it complete! (YEAH!) My intention in doing this is to challenge you as well today: Is there some kind of progress YOU need to celebrate? Are you grateful for the things you have accomplished, or are you frustrated and beating yourself up for what you haven't gotten to yet? When will it be "good enough"? Please take a moment to consider a shift in perspective. Isn't it time to broaden the definition of "perfect"? How about asking "Have I done my best? Yes. Have I made progress? Yes. Will I designate a block of time in my schedule to work on this at least an hour over this weekend? Yes. If it was someone else seeing the glass half empty wouldn't I encourage them to look at the positives? Yes. Well, I don't know about you, but this new perspective makes PERFECT sense to me! How about you? Please share your thoughts... what can you decide to celebrate today? Synergy Life and Wellness Coaching, LLC |Want information about our Synergy Resilience Coaching Programs? "Business Transformation" Private Mentoring for Women Entrepreneurs who want to work smarter not harder while creating work/life balance. 6 months "Power Shift" Coaching Program "Momentum" Coaching Program Workshops & Events 1 Staunton Choral Gardens B & B 14 JMU Training/Development 29 Synergy Success Circle Planning meeting~McAlister's 12 Dairymen Specialties Training/Development 26 Synergy Success Circle 5:30-7 "Bounce Back into Balance" (A Featured Article in the Summer Edition of BLOOM magazine!) by Christina Kunkle, CTA Certified Life and Wellness Coach, R.N. Sometimes I wake up in the morning feeling anxious and wondering how I can possibly "get it all done". Those are the times I feel like I'm behind before I even get out of bed, and for a fleeting moment I consider the possibility of pulling up the covers and calling in "sick". There's a sinking sensation as I face the reality that's just not an option - my 3 year old daughter will be up soon and need hugs and breakfast. My son has a 7th grade project he needs help with before catching the bus to school, and this is the day my husband leaves early for a meeting. The anxiety escalates to overwhelm as I remember l need to tie up the loose ends on a business presentation that is due in a few hours. With my heart racing and on the verge of panic, I push back tears and reach for the precious tools I've learned that always help me "bounce back into balance". At times like these I am grateful for tough life lessons that have taught me how to transform my stress into strength instead of letting my overwhelm lead to complete burn out. I've been there and survived that. I now count as blessings those "gifts" I couldn't appreciate before because they arrived wrapped in sandpaper. It wasn't always this easy to reach for healthy coping skills, and believe me I've had my share of days in the past when I "pulled up the covers and called in sick" - with low self confidence and poor communication skills, I isolated myself behind a wall of perfectionism, emotional eating, looking to others for validation, and trying to please everyone else at the expense of my own well being. I've heard it said that "we teach best what we need to learn ourselves", and I feel this truth is what fuels my passion to make a difference in the lives of the women I serve through my Coaching practice. The comment that I hear expressed most often by clients and workshop participants is "I thought I was the only one struggling to keep it all together!" I am always delighted to see the air of competition melt into warm collaboration as women recognize we are not so different in our challenges. This experience of synergy seems to be summed up by one of my favorite quotes..."You have to do it by yourself, And you can't do it alone." by Martin Ritte. We are so much stronger as a band of women moving forward together. If you're a daughter, mother, professional, or stay-at-home mom, there will always be an endless and growing list of things that need your attention. We have the choice to place stress on ourselves to "get it all done" while pleasing everyone at once, or we can reach for tools that help us avoid overwhelm and eventual burn out. My intention is to help you recognize the symptoms of overwhelm and burn out, and offer you practical action tools to help you "bounce back into balance" when you find yourself under pressure. Ready? Let's get started! Overwhelm is experienced when the focus is on "too much"... Too much on the to-do list, too many bases to possibly cover, too much expected of us from others, and a frantic use of time and energy to juggle all the demands we're facing. Some of you are already experiencing this. Only when we acknowledge this overwhelm, and take steps to move back into balance, can we avoid the flames of burn out. Burn out is experienced when the focus is on "not enough"...Not enough resources, not enough help, not enough money, not enough time... leading to when you simply don't have enough energy to even care anymore. This is a dangerous place to be, and is damaging to our health, sanity, the quality of our work and close relationships. We've all heard someone say "I feel fried to a crisp". Some of you may find yourselves standing at the edge of burn out right now. Use these Practical Action tools to reduce overwhelm and bounce back into balance 1. Cut yourself some slack! Accept yourself and where you are with compassion. Instead of beating yourself up when you are struggling, celebrate the awareness that you can do better... A great action tool of mine is to say the Serenity Prayer: "God, Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to Change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference." Listen for clues and then take inspired action. Trust and have faith that a power greater than yourself sees the big picture, and knows how all the things you are experiencing will come together for your highest good in time. There is always divine guidance available if we allow ourselves to be still enough to listen. 2. Build in rest and renewal into your schedule. Treat this appointment with yourself as if you would any other commitment. It's important to write it down in your personal and family calendar. Otherwise, when will you find the time to do this? When the dishes are done, the laundry is folded, the bathrooms are cleaned, and things are "caught up"? Personally, I find this approach never works, because things are never completely caught up around my house. There is always more to do before things are completely done, and then the window of opportunity closes, leaving me still feeling exhausted and frustrated! Doing what relaxes you, like spending time with family and friends, hobbies that bring you joy, or soaking up the beauty in nature helps us be more effective, keeps our minds clear, and leads to better problem solving . I love the way Life Coach Cheryl Richardson explains why it is so important to take extremely good care of ourselves: "By taking care of ourselves, we can better care for those around us. When we do this, we begin to care more about others and we become more available to our family, our friends, and our community. Our availability to be of service to the world is directly related to our ability to be of service to ourselves." 3. Focus on progress not perfection. Adjust expectations and embrace changes in plans and outcomes from what you thought was best. Take small steps, make small changes, and celebrate small achievements - over time you'll see a big difference in how you feel throughout even the craziest of days! Let's adopt a more flexible approach instead of expecting ourselves to be perfect! How about shifting our expectation from perfect to being happy with progress? What a relief to give ourselves permission to realize we are perfect in our imperfection. We are already good enough! 4. Manage your energy by setting personal boundaries. Often we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but it is possible to learn to say No and deliver it with Grace and Resolve. By saying No to what you can't do, you show up for what you can do! You will get more of what you focus on... The Law of attraction states that where attention goes, energy flows... Practice Gratitude for what wonderful things are in your life already, and don't give your best attention to what is lacking. Think abundance and you will find it renews positive energy. 5. Embrace Life's Challenges... The winds and the rain will always come, that is part of life. Through tough times we have the chance build resilience. Will we give up when the wind howls or resolve to grow stronger? It's not whether we will face hard challenges in life. It's a matter of which ones we will be called to face, and when. The added gift of building our resilience is that our children learn how to handle adversity from watching our example. In closing, please be patient as you begin putting these tools into practice, and enjoy the best rewards of the journey by sharing it with others. There will be days where you know you could have done better to stay balanced. When this happens, remember this inspiring quote by Mary Anne Radmacher: "Courage does not always roar, Sometimes courage is the quiet voice At the end of the day Saying "I will try again tomorrow". Here's a toast to bouncing back! Are You Ready? Are you ready to learn how to transform stress into strength instead of getting overwhelmed and frazzled when under pressure? Then I can help you Create a more Resilient mindset, strengthen your emotional hardiness, and build your physical resilience through Synergy Resilience Coaching! Send me a message by Clicking on the "Contact Christina" link on my website to claim your gift of a 30 minute consultation and let's begin closing the gap between where you are and where you want to be! |About Synergy Life and Wellness Coaching, LLC Hi, I'm Christina Kunkle, the founder of Synergy Life and Wellness Coaching. My practice is dedicated to helping Professional Women squelch overwhelm and prevent burn out by promoting bounce-back resilience to stay focused, positive, & excited through challenges of work and life. In addition to one on one coaching, I facilitate workshops and seminars on various hot topics related to Resilience and Work/Life balance. Curious about how this works or involved in a group that could use some inspiration and practical tips? I'd love to share with you what I believe to be the most powerful tool for change on the planet! Synergy Life and Wellness Coaching, LLC 4033 Cannery Woods Drive Bridgewater, Virginia 22812 |Please Visit my website and take advantage of great freebies! www.synergylifeandwellnesscoaching.com

This essay is considering the institutions of the European Union as a coordinative construction. Different forms of coordination are investigated, and the roles of national cultures are considered. This is pointing towards a question of coordinating the internal coordination of the member states, rather than superseding these with a centralized form of political coordination combined with unhindered operation of market forces. The connection between coordination and innovation is brought up and related to a possibility of internalizing conflicts and problems that are affecting several member states. Innovation is also related to creating synergy, and a particular kind of synergy between cultural and natural phenomena is related to the formation of national cultural cohesion. This can seem to make a cultural form of coordination particularly important as a conditioning factor for economic and political coordination. A reconstruction of the European Union is deemed important in order to obtain a form of coordination that can make use of cultural diversity as a source of innovation.

Branch manager Zella-Mehlis = active networks Cost-efficient marketing of broadband wiring The target of broadnet+ is the development of an integrated realisation model that is not only more cost-efficient, faster and more environmentally compatible as compared to today's versions, but also a turn-key result independent of topology. A shared concept, development and later marketing is to expand the potential of every single network member and optimally use synergies. This vision of a turn-key realisation model will prevent focus on a single development area in the scope of broadnet+. Instead, innovations in several areas must be made interdisciplinary, making the project an ambitious and highly innovative project. Contact: Michael Oesterreicher Tel.: +49 7961 9256-238 Within the framework of the network "Identification, analysis and reduction of fine dust - Clean Air", solutions to the problem of fine dust are to be developed. In order to develop marketable products and processes focusing on the identification, analysis and reduction of particulate matter, the network covers the entire value chain. This broad expert knowledge should also help to illuminate and better understand the particulate matter problem from several perspectives. Various technological aspects for solution approaches are also examined. Contact: Florian Lintl Tel.: +49 7961 9256 262 Energy Efficiency for IT The network Green IT is to be established in the IT world as the powerful competence network for energy efficiency and energy savings in data centres and IT departments, in order to implement at least ten to 50 percent cost savings from increase of energy efficiency, e.g. by development of software and services for controlling and preparing applications and data in data centres, development of new Hardware for converting heat from servers and development of systems for economic re-use in buildings. The state subsidy for the cooperation network ended in 2012. Contact: Wolfgang Scherer Tel.: +49 7961 9256-217 Visualisation systems for information and data sensors The target of the network is the development of a competence and technology platform for development, combination and marketing of innovative sensors and sensor products, sensor data, recording, analysis and evaluation concepts. Visualisation systems for information and data sensors hold a key position in the industry, since they deliver the necessary data and information in all areas of production. The synergy effects achieved by sensor combination permit improved data recording, evaluation and, as a result, improved product and process controls. In addition to cost savings, further additional benefits are expected from miniaturisation, use of innovative materials, maintenance and energy optimisation, as well as mobile applications. Sensors for the areas of water, industrial automation/plastics/biogas/biomass/fermentation are developed specifically. The state subsidy for the cooperation network ended in 2012. Contact: Tobias Kübler Tel.: +49 7961 9256-223 Ubiquitous information processing in real estate management UbiImmo is the network for ubiquitous information processing in real estate management. Ubiquitous computing represents the ever-present information processing integrated in properties and previously passive everyday objects in order to permit an unprecedented adjustment to the needs of people, increase of performance and quality of life. Increasing costs for building use, the wish for increased transparency and comfort, as well as the generation and social change motivate the network. Contact: Boris Buckow Tel.: +49 40 5488704-34 Energy-efficient buildings and quarter Networking Manufacturers, planners, executing companies, operators and scientific facilities are to cooperate in the scope of the network "Vernetzte (Klein-) KWK-Systeme" for linked (small) CHP systems in order to successfully integrate CHP technology in the re-design of power supply in Germany. The network supports and promotes the partners involved in establishing and implementing market-oriented research and development and to minimise the economic and technical risk of implementation of complex innovation processes, growing in their markets in the long term and permanently improving its competitiveness by targeted technology transfer and development. The target of the network is developing innovative solutions for better market integration of CHP systems. Contact: Marcel Hartung Tel.: +49 3682 40062-22

Through the patio doors of the sleek studio apartment in San Francisco’s brand-new Nema complex, one catches a glimpse of a 65-inch flat-screen TV next to the saline lap pool. The furnished unit is tricked out with all the comforts of home, from bedding to kitchen supplies to bath towels. “This is more comfortable than a hotel, and includes access to all the building’s amenities, from the solarium to yoga classes,” said Anthony Gonzalez, business development associate at Synergy Corporate Housing of San Ramon. “With clients like Yelp, Uber, Dropbox, Zynga, Twitter and Square, we’re excited to be here in the middle of the new Mid-Market area.” His company, which recently opened a San Francisco office, is on a spree of renting dozens of apartments in the residential mid-rises now springing up in the city and turning them into corporate housing – temporary digs for executives on assignment from elsewhere, consultants, new hires, interns and others. “Our goal is to have 400 units in San Francisco by the end of 2014,” Gonzalez said. Synergy also has units at Rincon Green, Potrero Launch and 38 Dolores. The little-known world of corporate housing is surging in the Bay Area thanks to the growing tech economy, while the building boom provides plenty of potential new units. Oakwood Worldwide, the industry leader, has more than 1,000 units in the San Francisco Bay Area – about three-quarters in Silicon Valley and a fifth in San Francisco – a 25 percent increase in just the past year, said Ric Villarreal, president. It’s by far the company’s fastest-growing region. “We’ve seen enormous growth in this marketplace, primarily from expanding technology companies,” he said. “Facebook, Twitter and others look at recruiting as their biggest opportunity for aggressive growth.” In response to demand, Oakwood also added units this year in Mid-Market and SoMa, he said, in the buildings 1188 Mission at Trinity Place and the Archstone South Market Apartments at One St. Francis Place. Unlike hotels or extended-stay residences, corporate housing requires a minimum 30-day stay – which means travelers are not subject to the hotel occupancy tax. That’s a big concern for some. “The hotel tax is critical to the city’s general fund; it’s budgeted at a staggering $274 million in fiscal year 2013-14,” said Peter Cohen of the San Francisco Council of Community Housing Organizations. “If short-term housing for workers could be done through the hotel system, it would be more beneficial to the city.” Shortage for locals In addition, he worries that corporate housing diverts units away from locals who are struggling to find affordable places to live. “I don’t see how it advances our true housing needs for residents,” he said. “A significant portion of new housing in San Francisco gets absorbed by nonresidents – transient housing, speculator/investor housing, second or third apartments for folks with primary residence elsewhere. It’s troubling.” Corporate housing prices are roughly comparable to a hotel – the Bay Area average is $171 a night – but being located in residential neighborhoods and having a kitchen are plusses for longer-term travelers. “A hotel room can get claustrophobic in 30 days,” said Mark Skinner, a partner at the Highland Group, a hospitality consulting and research firm. “Corporate apartments give a full residential experience.” Highland pegs the overall U.S. corporate housing market at $2.66 billion. That’s only about 2 percent of the overall hospitality industry. Highland’s studies show that the biggest users of corporate housing are new employees relocating from elsewhere. Unlike hotels, providers of corporate housing are nimble, because they simply lease existing units. “Corporate housing can have a very rapid contraction and expansion in response to economic changes,” Skinner said. “That already happened in San Francisco during the dot-com boom and collapse, and now it’s happening again.” How it works is simple. Corporate-housing companies lease apartments in residential buildings, furnish them and then re-rent them at a higher rate to people staying at least 30 days. Most provide other services, such as 24-hour on-call concierges. For instance, Synergy rents out the slightly under 500-square-foot Nema studio for $139 a night, which comes to $4,170 a month. People who sign long-term leases with Nema would pay about $2,500 for a similar-size unit. Villarreal said that tech companies are ramping up their intern programs, bringing in summer workers from both college and high school to get a leg up on future recruiting. Oakwood houses some 400 tech-firm interns annually in this area. “Companies like to entice these young kids early and make them feel that they are really special,” Villarreal said. “They ask us to extend their campus culture of a more open, more unstructured creative environment into their corporate housing.” That can mean catering to them with a mix of services and amenities that sounds lifted from the Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson comedy “The Internship” about Google. “These kids need connectivity, since they were just living in their parents’ homes or dorm rooms,” he said. “We make sure there are places where they can come together as a group after hours. We provide more youthful furnishings; a whiteboard in the kitchen; 50-inch LED smart TVs; a dining table that doubles as a work surface. Music is very important to them, so we make sure we have iHomes and other devices.” The company also establishes bike-sharing programs for its travelers and offers delivery of groceries and dry cleaning. Oakwood is in talks with developers now constructing new buildings in San Francisco and Silicon Valley to add still more units. “There are quite a few buildings soon to come online that we’re monitoring and pursuing,” Villarreal said. What: Furnished apartments rented for 30 days or more to company workers Market size: $2.66 billion in 2012 U.S. units: 63,000 S.F. metro area units: 2,670 Projected 2013 change in S.F. metro units: Up 16.1 percent Average S.F. metro daily rate: $171 Average U.S. stay: 88 days Source: Highland Group Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @csaid

SESSION 4: Drug metabolism prediction Center for Bioinformatics, University of Hamburg Metabolism of small organic molecules can yield metabolites with substantially different physicochemical and biological properties . Consequently, understanding metabolism is of immediate relevance to the safety and efficacy of drugs, cosmetics, nutritional supplements and agrochemicals. Recent advances in experimental and computational approaches allow the generation of a fairly complete picture of xenobiotic metabolism. The integration of methods of both domains holds an enormous potential for synergy, which however is not fully harnessed yet . In this contribution we assess the scope and limitations of the leading experimental and computational technologies for metabolism prediction, with a focus on the prediction of sites of metabolism and metabolite structures. We discuss current strategies for improving the prediction accuracy and relevance of in vitro and in silico models and present recent case studies illustrating the synergies created by using these approaches in tandem. Kirchmair, J.; Howlett, A.; Peironcely, J.; Murrell, D. S.; Williamson, M. J.; Adams, S. E.; Hankemeier, T.; van Buren, L.; Duchateau, G.; Klaffke, W.; Glen, R. C. How do metabolites differ from their parent molecules and how are they excreted? Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling 2013, 53, 354-367. Kirchmair, J.; Göller, A. H.; Lang, D.; Kunze, J.; Testa, B.; Wilson, I. D.; Glen, R. C.; Schneider, G., Predicting drug metabolism: Experiment and/or computation? Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 2015, 14, 387-404.

RMIT is a global university of technology, design and enterprise. Our mission is to help shape the world through research, innovation, teaching and engagement, and to create transformative experiences for our students, getting them ready for life and work. The School of Architecture and Urban Design delivers innovative scholarship in architecture, landscape architecture and interior design. Landscape Architecture at RMIT has a lively tradition of ambitious and experimental design investigation through its design-led, studio-focused teaching and research. This teaching and research synergy is underpinned by a focus on the way knowledge is produced through practice - that landscape is observed, engaged with and understood through a range of 'ways of knowing'.The discipline is developing particular interest in the rapidly-changing greater Melbourne region as a site of landscape investigation with opportunities to draw on and strengthen industry relationships in this context. The programs also have a commitment to the building and strengthening of relationships with Aboriginal communities, knowledge holders and Traditional Owner groups through the development of cultural awareness and capacity around Indigenous knowledge in Indigenous-led projects. The Role and Your Responsibilities The Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor (Landscape Architecture) will take a leadership role in teaching, research and industry relationships in the Landscape Architecture programs. This will include developing and teaching innovative and high -quality courses, as well as collaborating with and mentoring other staff on teaching matters. The Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor (Landscape Architecture) will also take a leadership role in developing and delivering high quality research projects that extend the Landscape Architecture discipline's capacity through publication, exhibition and funding. This will include mentorship and collaboration with other staff, and the development of strong relationships with industry partners. This role will also include the Program Manager role for the Master of Landscape Architecture. This is a three-year role taking academic leadership and management of the MLA, and working with the Associate Dean (Landscape Architecture) and the management group in the Landscape Architecture Discipline to create a cohesive and productive working environment. Skills & Experience Required The Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor (Landscape Architecture) will demonstrate experience in high quality innovative teaching with a strong design-led focus, and a well-developed research trajectory related to the landscape architectural design research agenda of the Landscape Architecture Discipline at RMIT. This role requires experience in the management of academic processes at course, program and School level, and experience in dealing with all aspects of the research process, from the conceptual to the institutional and industry level. This role requires highly developed communication and management skills and excellent time management capacity. In order to support this wide-ranging work, we seek people who work across different aspects and modes of landscape architectural practice, across discipline boundaries, and at a range of scales, landscape programs and types. We are particularly interested in applicants with the enthusiasm and capacity for taking on the academic leadership and curation of different aspects of the programs, to broaden the experience and knowledge base of the teaching and research team. Mandatory: PhD Qualification For further information please contact Associate Professor Katrina Simon [email protected] or to view position descriptions a view position description, please visit yourcareer.rmit.edu.au and search using job reference number #572624 Applications close 03 February 2019. Applications should clearly indicate in your cover letter which position they are applying for and at which level. Applicants are asked to supply a covering letter addressing the relevant selection criteria, a portfolio of teaching and practice-related design work and a CV. This role will require satisfactory confirmation of a Working with Children Check. RMIT is an equal opportunity employer committed to being a child safe organisation. We are dedicated to attracting, retaining and developing our people regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and age. Applications are encouraged from all sectors of the community and we strongly encourage applications from the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community. #LI-EX

Similarly, the Integrated had a wonderfully delicate and grain-free treble but wasn’t the last word in extension and top-end air. The treble was utterly liquid and refined; there was none of the hash that makes vocal sibilance annoying; cymbals had a delicacy that emphasized the rich lower harmonics rather that top-end sizzle; and saxophone lacked the thinness of tone color that is all too common in solid-state amplifiers. The Integrated is an amplifier that communicates through creating a relaxed, easy-going, and intimate experience rather than bombarding the listener with hyped detail. Some listeners may find the Integrated a bit too polite in the treble. As always, matching an amplifier to the loudspeaker for the greatest musical synergy is vital. Partway through the review process Absolare sent to me a new set of tubes from a cache that it had just discovered. Oddly, these 1965-vintage NOS tubes were shipped to me from Australia. As good as the Integrated sounded initially, the new tubes were significantly superior in nearly every regard. The palpability in the mids increased; the soundstage was more dimensional, and the music had a greater sense of life. The new tubes had less midbass bloom, which made the presentation a little leaner, but the low bass extended deeper and with better definition. Living with the Absolare Integrated fosters a very different relationship between listener and hi-fi system. It’s an entirely different aesthetic from the feature-laden component with a brightly lit alphanumeric display, sharp-edged metal casework, and sound that values treble detail at the expense of rich musicality. Instead, I found something tremendously compelling about the utter simplicity of the Integrated’s operation, the way it looks like a piece of art rather than a product of industrial engineering, and the warm and fatigue-free listening it offers up. The Integrated’s sound is not just tube-like, but SET-like in its lush midrange liquidity and voluptuous warmth. But unlike any SET—even Absolare’s own powerful and robust Passion 845—the Integrated will drive a wider range of loudspeakers and deliver deeper and more controlled bass. Some tube-transistor hybrid amplifiers are a mix of compromises and trade-offs, with the designer attempting to minimize each technology’s shortcomings while maximizing its strengths. I see the Absolare Integrated not as a product of compromise, but rather of distillation. The company has found a way to bring the magic of its all-tube Passion components to a product that is not only more affordable, but also more flexible because of its ability to drive a wider range of loudspeakers. Give the Integrated a listen; I suspect that many of you will be captured by its many charms, just as I was. Specs & Pricing Absolare Integrated Amplifier Type: Tube/solid-state hybrid stereo integrated amplifier Output power: 150Wpc into 8 ohms, 200Wpc into 4 ohms Inputs: Unbalanced RCA jacks (x4) or balanced XLR jacks (x4), user specified Tube complement: One each 12AU7 Input impedance: 100k ohms Attenuator: 48-step resistor network Dimensions: 15" x 7.9" x 26.4" Weight: 70.4 lbs. Price: $26,500 (balanced); $24,750 (unbalanced) Echole Limited Edition Cables, Interconnects, AC Power Cords Interconnect: $19,500 3' pair XLR Speaker cable: $23,500 6' pair Power cord: $16,000, 6' ABSOLARE USA LLC 40 Pemberton Road Nashua, NH 03063

To leave every person, team, organization, and situation, better than we found them. —Henry Evans We deliver expertise in five basic areas of competency. This gives us a competitive advantage over consultancies who claim to be “expert in everything”. We deliver on our promises and focus on always delivering excellence to our clients. Our focus is on driving accountability, strategic execution, talent development, all while increasing employee engagement. This requires us to have a deep understanding of operations, people, and how to keep the two in balance. Simply put, we help drive better business results without leaving dead bodies in the road. Our expert resources are in deep relationship with one another. The big firms have you speak with a Senior Partner and then assign people who are less experienced and don’t know one another. We assign deeply experienced people who also are used to working with one another in a coordinated delivery. This synergy within our team creates results for your team. We are committed to adding value, not meeting quotas. Our firm does not have financial quotas for our consultants. This means that our resources are not incentivized to sell clients services which they have no organic need, and instead focus on delivering excellence within our five areas of expertise. We create and leverage proprietary methods like our Winning With Accountability™ and Emotional Safety™ trainings that drive better business results, supplemented by 3rd-party expertise. We ensure that our clients gain and maintain a competitive advantage with access to thought leadership and solutions which are only available from us.

Neckarsulm, 02 November 2011—Citrix Systems once again named the recipient of the Citrix Partner Award at the 2011 Citrix Summit partner conference in Barcelona. With this award, the leading provider of virtualisation, network and SaaS (software as a service) technologies honours exceptional performance in areas such as innovation, competency, training and creativity. For the second time, Citrix honoured partners not only from Germany, but also from Austria and Switzerland. From a total of twelve honourees, three were members of the Bechtle Group. Bechtle's Munich IT system house received the prize for the category Most Certified XenDesktop. The award honours the most extensive employee certification of all Citrix's German partners, taking both quantitative and qualitative aspects into account. Bechtle received this prize for the second time in a row; this is the 18th time Bechtle's expertise in virtualisation has been honoured by a manufacturer in Germany. In Austria, the Citrix Best Networking Partner award went to the HTH Consulting system house—a member of the Bechtle Group since 2010. This award honours the highest achievements in revenue, on-going customer support and involvement with Citrix solutions. For HTH, this award was a repeat of the previous year's success. In recognition of the highest percentual increase in revenue as compared to the previous year, Citrix also awards the title Rising Star to a company in the region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In Switzerland, the prize went to Comsoft direct, the Bechtle Group's software specialist. The Partner Award is a special prize for the Citrix partner whose particular focus on the Citrix portfolio achieved outstanding results in the past year. "We're pleased to be able to give the Citrix Partner Awards to our dedicated partners for the third year now," says Jen Lübben, Managing Director for Germany and Area Vice President for Central Europe at Citrix. The prize not only honours exceptional performance with Citrix solutions and services, but is also intended to motivate the company for future projects. The award has come to be seen as something like a seal of quality for partners. This means the winners can really offer their customers something more." The Citrix Partner Awards 2011 were handed out at the Citrix Summit on 24 October 2011 in Barcelona. The conference, designed especially for the Citrix Partner Network, is closely connected with the Citrix Synergy conference. This event informs Citrix's partners about the latest developments in virtualisation, network optimisation and cloud solutions.

Otto Middle School School Hours: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. School Colors: Maroon and gold Motto: Otto bobcats: we choose success! Year Opened: 2010 Phone: (469) 752-8500 Fax: (469) 752-8501 504 North Star Road Plano, TX 75074 Art Club; AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination); Basketball; Band; BLAST; Book Club; Cheerleading; Choir; FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes); Football; Geography Bee; History Club; K-Pop Dance Club; KEYYS (Keeping Education Your Stepping Stone); Journalism/yearbook; Math Counts; Math Rocks; NJHS (Nation Junior Honor Society); PAL (Peer Assistance & Leadership); Pawsitivity Club; Pokemon Club; Science Fair Club; Soccer Club; Student Council; Speech & Theatre; Spelling Bee; Tennis Club; Track; Volleyball; Whiz Quiz; Writing Club Breckinridge Park Animal Hospital; Breckinridge Tech; Culinary Affairs - Meals-To-Go; Dentek Systems; Fesler Orthodontics; Joyce Lynn Chandler Keller Williams; Reliable Chevrolet; Springhill Veterinary Clinic- Dr. Mark Carter; Tiemeyer Team Keller Williams Realty; and Yoga Synergy Spa. History of Otto Otto Middle School, named after Superintendent Dr. Douglas Otto, opened in August 2010.

Međimurje IT Cluster (Cluster MIT) was founded May 30th 2007th year and brings together 10 companies that are engaged in the field of ICT in Međimurje and Međimurje University for Applied Science. Firms in the cluster are in average 7 years old. According to the structure of revenues 53.5% goes to their own products – IT services made up 32.5% of revenue, the sale of ICT equipment make 8% and 6% goes to rest. The cluster members export 50% of its products and services. The member companies of the Cluster employs 85 persons, of which 32 ICT specialists, 20 staff have high school education and 38 of them have a college or university degree. Some companies have signed a technology partnership with Microsoft and Borland. MIT cluster covers a wide range of activities: development and implementation of information system (ERP systems), systems for document management and archiving, managing ISO documents, web development, web applications (CMS, web shops), multimedia presentations, graphic design, software development, planning and implementation of computer networks , business software development and hardware sales. Activities of the Association include: - developing, promoting and coordinating professional and social activities of the members, - organizing and coordinating joint promotion and appearances on the market, - organizing the exchange of experience and knowledge in execution of projects in the field of ICT, - design and development of new ICT products and solutions, - collaboration with IT organizations and associations, - developing a program for international collaboration, - collaboration with other similar associations in the country and abroad, and all other organizations, institutions, legal entities and individuals that support the work of the Association, - organization of seminars and lectures for members of the Association to exchange experiences and information. MIT cluster mission is a common appearance in the market with the aim of achieving greater competitiveness of its products and achieving synergy effects for the benefit of all members and the local and regional community. MIT cluster vision is coordination and integration of methods and resources to create an organization that can appear on the market as an authority and a regional leader and to accomplish more complex projects in Croatia and the EU.

'Kong: Skull Island' sets all-time record in Vietnam Warner Bros.’ Kong: Skull Island has set a new box-office record in Vietnam, drawing about two million viewers and grossing $7.2 million in ticket sales by the end of March. The phenomenal result made the film the biggest box-office earner in Vietnamese history, according to its sole national distributor and exhibitor, CJ CGV Vietnam. The company is the country’s largest film distributor and cinema chain operator and a wholly owned subsidiary of South Korea’s CJ Group. CJ CGV Vietnam had signed a strategic contract with Warner Bros., giving it exclusive direct distribution and marketing rights in Vietnam for the film. Although March and April traditionally are a very slow box-office period in Vietnam, Kwak Dong-won, managing director of CJ CGV Vietnam, said: “Kong: Skull Island will go down in [Vietnamese] movie history as an example of overcoming an off-peak season and greatly expanding the local film market through the synergy of distribution and screening.” The movie’s success also helped CJ CGV Vietnam to achieve itshighest quarterly performance ever. In March alone, the circuit earned some $16 million in ticket sales from more than four million moviegoers across the nation. According to Kwak Dong-won, “CGV Vietnam is the number-one theatre operator and distributor in Vietnam, accounting for a 50% share in total annual box-office sales and a 65% share of the distribution market.” Korea Multiplex to Sell 19.5% of Megabox Stake South Korea’s third-largest cinema operator, Korea Multiplex, announced that it will sell 19.5% of its 50% stake in the Megabox cinema chain to financial institutions KB Asset Management and Shinhan BNP Paribas for KRW110 billion ($97.5 mil.). The trade comprises a total of 157,410 Megabox shares, although it is unknown how many of these exactly are earmarked for each of the two institutional investors. The decision for the deal was apparently made by South Korean media company JContentree Corp., which controls 98.5% of Korea Multiplex and also owns 50% of Megabox, the other half being held by Korea Multiplex itself. JContendree is anticipated to use the proceeds from Korea Multiplex’s Megabox share sale to mitigate its own rather precarious financial situation. At the end of last year, it had posted a debt ratio of a staggering 340% versus its total assets. But despite the sale, JContendree still is going to retain a comfortable commanding stake of 80.5%—either directly or through Korea Multiplex—in Megabox and has announced that it will further expand the already existing partnership between the cinema chain and South Korea’s largest shopping mall operator, Shinsegae Group. At least two new Megabox cinemas have already opened in Shinsegae-operated malls since last September. And while Shinsegae will take over COEX Mall in Seoul in October, where Megabox has had a presence since 2000, the cinema chain is expected to also follow Shinsegae to yet more locations across the country this year. Women’s-Rights Film Finally Cleared For Release in India An award-winning women’s-rights feature film has finally been cleared for release in its native India following a ruling by an arbitration panel. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), India’s censorship body, in February had effectively blocked Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016) from being released by denying it the needed certificate on the grounds that it was "too lady-oriented" and contained "contentious sexual scenes and abusive words." As news of the board’s decision spread across social media, it raised a storm of public outrage, criticizing it as a small-minded and shameless attempt at curtailing freedom of speech and expression. The Hindi-language drama’s directors, Prakash Jha and Alankrita Shrivastava, subsequently petitioned the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), a panel entrusted with arbitrating censorship cases and holding the power to overrule decisions made by the CBFC. Although ruling in favor of Lipstick Under My Burkha, the FCAT still ordered the directors to make a number of minor cuts and also only accorded the film an adult certification, which means it can only be shown to audiences of ages 18 years and older. Following its ruling, the FCAT said in a statement:"There cannot be any embargo on a women-oriented film or one that contains sexual fantasies and expressions of women’s innermost desires… If the aspect of sexual desires and their expression is sensitively handled without conveying coarseness, vulgarity, obscenity or pandering prurient tendencies, then [such a film] is not to be disallowed." Set in a small town, Lipstick Under My Burkha chronicles the lives of four Muslim women in search of a little freedom from the constraints imposed by society and religion. In the process, they engage in small acts of courage and stealthy rebellion. For example—and as the movie’s title already implies—they begin applying lipstick and makeup and wanting to look sexy under their body-covering traditional dresses known as burkhas (or burqas), trying to assert their personal and sexual rights. Thought-provoking and pointing an accusing finger at rigid and outdated social and religious attitudes that degrade women to objects that cannot be permitted to live out their human desires and needs, Lipstick Under My Burkha has received a number of prestigious awards. It won the Oxfam Award for best film on gender equality at the Mumbai Film Festival, the Spirit of Asia Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Audience Choice Award at the Glasgow Film Festival. For inquiries and feedback, contact Thomas Schmid at [email protected].

The SC18 comes from Lamborghini’s Squadra Corse division, which literally translates to “racing team”. This car isn’t meant for streets, it’s meant for tracks, and it comes with a dominating design to match. Slightly a step down from Terzo Millennio’s absolutely aggressive style, the SC18 still looks like it would unleash hell on the track. The SC18 is a one-off model, crafted bespoke for a motorsports customer, in synergy with Centro Stile Lamborghini, the car company’s innovative studio that looks to further develop Lamborghini’s inimitable style through endless exploration. It features air intakes in the style of the Huracán GT3 EVO with side and rear fenders designed to look like the Huracan Super Trofeo EVO, while its headlights look distinctly like the Aventador (the taillights are a hat-tip to the Huracan too). The car was designed to be street-legal, but remains more of a race-track car, with its V12 engine delivering 770 hp at 8,500 RPM and a torque of 720 Nm at 6,750 rpm. The car’s incredible power is furthered by its lightweight construction thanks to the carbon-fiber body, with a ground clearance of just 109 millimeters. This unique construction resulted in the SC18 having a distinct growl that’s characteristic of Lamborghini’s cars. That should be enough to spook your opponents off the tracks! Designer: Lamborghini Squadra Corse

"When the saint preaches tranquility of life, artist preaches tranquility of design", said Van Zeller. If you say art and business walk side by side, then this is not wrong. "Branding is design because every consumer's contact with a brand involves the name, product itself, the logo, the colors, the signature tune, the advertising, the packaging, and the store", says Sujata Guha. The three key rules of marketing are brand recognition, brand recognition, and brand recognition. To carve or enhance a brand's recognition, excellence in design is required. "Brand equity is built upon the emotional meanings of brand design and brand promotion. It is not dependent upon its sources of production or the source of its company's ownership", says M. Kotler. It is an art and a science. The art is in interpreting key competitive advantages visually, and the science is in knowing how to use any and all media available, to connect you with your audience. "Brand design encompasses a vast array of design disciplines, from traditional graphic skills to digital design, broadcast animation, retail, interiors, and even architecture. Nowadays, even products are considered to be an expression of brand design, as each and every manifestation of an organization communicates the brand value", as said by Paul Barlow. Color is the most important of the elements. The color that a brand is represented by, does not only represent its strength but also its stability. Hence, colors like red, yellow, black, or any bright color that gets noticed at first glance must be used. Further, building synergy is also vital, which requires a balance of proportions, good positioning on the product, and choice of colors that are closely associated with the brand. For example, Cisco, a company that manufactures networking equipment, has its name 'CISCO' in red, and a couple of blue bars above the word in its logo. The red color depicts determination, whereas, the blue color depicts prosperity, excellence, and calmness. ICICI uses it in its logo by overlapping an orange round with a brown one, and adding the letter 'I' to it, in a way that the letter is colorless and still seen. Hutch by Ogilvy, when launched, used minimalist aesthetics as well - the large, blank 'white spaces' with a close-up of a smiling face, and a crisp, bold 'Hi' was striking, and immediately moved Hutch into a league of its own. Music is greatly integrated in brand designing. A brand is not limited only to its logo, color, and curves, but music can also define a brand in many ways. The use of special themes can establish an identity for a brand. Take the jingles of Nescafe, Titan, or Airtel for example. Airtel reached to new frontiers in branding when it unveiled A.R. Rahman's catchy signature theme, and used it to redefine the brand. Designing in a Digital Economy In a digital platform, like the Internet, you only have a second to make a powerful impression. So, the design should reflect professionalism and trust. It should also manage to generate interest in your target audience, to initiate compelling sales overture. Brand designing from an e-commerce perspective is more than just an aesthetically pleasing graphic design. The design of the user interface on the Internet is often of critical importance. So, have a tactical rationale for the placement of every graph, image, and word, thus, making a design knowledge based brand. In the design process, companies can also integrate knowledge of their customers' needs and wishes directly with new knowledge about materials and design.

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Anyone who has ever scavenged the Net for laughs can understand the gratitude lavished on The Onion (www.theonion.com) by an adoring public: There's a lot of drivel out there. Casual comedy-surfs dig up sites stoked with Dixie-cup gags that made you yawn when you were eight; sex-and-dismemberment riffs on Princess Diana and Nicole Brown Simpson that make you wish computers came with side-mounted surf-sickness bags; and spammy lists of faux-Martha Stewart Christmas tips, DIY Dilbert yuks, and so on - not to mention the endless spew of Clinton-Lewinsky jokes so stale they couldn't make it on Leno or Letterman or even into the cartoons of the New York Post. And then there is The Onion - "America's Finest News Source" - which induces helpless laughter by skip-ping the shtick and telling it like it is. Celebrating its 11th year on paper, its third as the Web's leading source of satire, and its first as an out-of-control pop icon, The Onion may be vulgar, insensitive, sexist, racist, ageist, antipapist, or even, on occasion, offensive, but unlike its Web rivals, it's bankably funny. That is, of course, in the opinion of the people who get it. But for those poor clods who mistake them for real news, Onion stories often have a bitter tang. For instance, when The Onion in February 1998 ran the scoop CLINTON DENIES LEWINSKY ALLEGATIONS: 'WE DID NOT HAVE SEX, WE MADE LOVE,' SAYS PRESIDENT, Democratic action groups called the offices to protest what they mistook for a partisan dig. Following the much ballyhooed birth of the seven McCaughey babies, The Onion reported a similar case abroad: CHINESE WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO SEPTUPLETS: HAS ONE WEEK TO CHOOSE, explaining that the surplus six infants would be flung from a mountaintop "in accordance with Chinese multiple-birth law." Email soon reached The Onion's offices, informing the staff that heartsick churchwomen were holding prayer vigils. POPE CONDEMNS THREE MORE GLANDS prompted neurotic correspondence from pious souls who feared they might be guilty of internal sin, and when The Onion ran a photo feature on NEW SMOKABLE NICOTINE STICKS that could help smokers quit, gullible doctors and nurses phoned in to find out how to obtain them for their patients. "You can get them anywhere," incredulous Onion staffers told the callers. "They're called cigarettes." __ News you can't use - on the Web. __ The confusion is easy to understand. Despite The Onion's cocky motto Tu stultus es - "You are dumb" - people are not duped merely because they are dumb, nor simply because The Onion sets out to mislead, but also because readers cut, paste, and forward Onion stories to friends and newsgroups without saying where they came from. Through the overly literal sorting process of the Net, outrageous accounts fall into straight-laced searches, bringing satire to people who are in no way prepared for it. Well-meaning new parents, trawling for general information on infant care, have called The Onion to protest that their Net searches turned up NEW YORK TO INSTALL SPECIAL 'INFANTS ONLY' DUMPSTERS - an invention the article described as part of an "ongoing campaign to revitalize New York City's public image." "You'd be amazed," says Onion managing editor Robert Siegel, a boyish but exhausted-looking 27-year-old. "People see things in print, especially when there's no byline, and they don't say, "'Gee, this article sounds pretty crazy.' They regard the printed word as having dropped from the heavens." This, of course, is just what Siegel wants. "We love to be misunderstood," he smiles. Still, not all misappropriations are equal. A recent cover story, '98 HOMOSEXUAL-RECRUITMENT DRIVE NEARING GOAL was picked up by Fred Phelps, architect of the notorious God Hates Fags Web site, who listed the article as proof of a gay conspiracy. Onion Webmaster Jack Szwergold quickly doctored the link so that Phelps groupies who clicked on it would be transported to The Onion's homepage, where they would understand (he hoped) that it was a spoof of the very kind of homophobic paranoia Phelps peddles. There was a time not all that long ago when hardly anyone misunderstood The Onion, because not that many people read it. Between 1988, when it was founded in Madison, Wisconsin, and 1996, when the Web site was launched, the paper was distributed only in the Midwest, and its volatile charms remained the eccentric passion of students and anarcho-syndicalist academics in Madison (home of the University of Wisconsin) and a handful of humor buffs in New York and Los Angeles. After a few years, some of the writers ditched their $10-a-week gigs at the paper to try their luck out on the coasts, and now, a few alums write for places like the Late Show with David Letterman and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But otherwise, word of The Onion rarely spread beyond the coot-rich waters of Lake Monona or the nearby shores of Lake Michigan. * We made The Onion editors write this headline. Here are some others they suggested: AREA NEWSPAPER HATES WORLD, LIFE, YOU GLORIFIED COLLEGE RAG SOMEHOW SNAGS BOOK DEAL HEADLINE-MAKERS MAKE HEADLINES And a few they missed: ONION EDITORS DISCOVER PROZAC, RENOUNCE HUMOR, SATAN, REVENGE SECRET SOURCE OF ONION JOKES REVEALED: TIPPER GORE ONION TO WORLD: GO TO HELL The paper was founded by Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson, who now publish, respectively, The Stranger in Seattle and Albuquerque's Weekly Alibi. They named it The Onion for no reason but whimsy, though some say onion is old-time slang for a juicy, multilayered news story. In '89, The Onion's second year, Keck and Johnson sold the paper, then just a black-and-white sheet sprinkled with jokes, to some of their colleagues, including Scott Dikkers, a 24-year-old cartoonist and editor, and 21-year-old Peter Haise. Dikkers became editor in chief and his friend Haise the business manager. Ten years later they're still at it. In time they built what Andrew Welyczko, The Onion's design director since 1996, calls "a successful college-humor rag." Profits increased year by year, until, in the summer of 1995, Dikkers decided it was folly not to attempt the jump from campus to the real world. His plan was to cut the heavy-handed humor and attempt a more subtle goal; to lampoon USA Today with a color-enhanced version that used deadpan journalese to assault the banality of everyday life and to spoof major news events. Welyczko perfected the design, and Siegel, who had joined the staff as a writer earlier in the year, introduced the new no-nonsense, Associated Press style. "Robert's writing style was perfect," Dikkers says. "It felt like a new guard." It's this new-guard Onion that's hit the big time. In person, the writers - not counting Siegel, Dikkers, and graphics editor Mike Loew, who are lean and presentable, more or less - are a grumbling, beflanneled herd of irascible couch potatoes. There are five full-time humor writers. Todd Hanson, the famously glum head writer, looks like Jesus, if Jesus had eaten a lot more fries. Carol Kolb, his girlfriend, recently incensed passersby in her busy neighborhood by installing a poignant shrine to a dead baby - complete with a framed photograph and artificial flowers - in a ditch in front of her house. She specializes in bleak, squalid tales, such as IT'S NOT A CRACK HOUSE, IT'S A CRACK HOME and the much reprinted essay by Thunder the Ferret, I CAN'T STAND MY FILTHY HIPPIE OWNER. Then there is Maria Schneider, small, plump, smiling, reminiscent of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and the only writer whose desk décor is not overtly terrifying. She has a pink flapper's feather taped to the computer, where she writes her popular column "by" Herbert Kornfeld, a drab middle manager who speaks a foul-mouthed jive, and her weekly "message" from T. Herman Zweibel, The Onion's demented, libidinous "publisher emeritus." John Krewson, who looks like Travis Bickle and once did drive a cab in New York City, writes the horoscopes; a December offering to birthday-week Sagittarians: "Though it's certainly true that you're not as young as you used to be, the stars say you're just about as old as you'll ever be." Finally, there's Tim Harrod, the most recent hire: a pale, flaxen-haired, muttering presence who writes the "News In Brief." In 1996 Harrod relentlessly bombarded the editors with viable headlines until Dikkers gave up and let him join. __ Through the overly literal sorting process of the Net, outrageous accounts fall into straight-laced searches. __ The writers and editors work together all week, with only Mondays off, and Siegel and the writers hang out together after hours. Dikkers and Loew tend to keep more of a distance. Dikkers, who looks like a monk moonlighting as a Navy SEAL, and Loew, who is 25, 6'4", and so silencingly cool that he seems like an anime cartoon of an anime cartoonist, are both loners. But the whole team comes together to make humor. Loew's family photo will appear in The Onion's forthcoming book Our Dumb Century, illustrating a story called IOWA FAMILY BLASTED FOR LACK OF DIVERSITY. Dikkers, who has only once dropped in on the staff's annual Christmas bash (attended by the full 50 members of the supporting cast, including distributors and ad salespeople), spends most of his time overseeing The Onion's new high-profile projects and looming over his staff as a do-not-disappoint-me figure. Still, he weighs in from time to time with columns, such as "Smoove B." A recent Smoove invitation to an unnamed ladyfriend titled I GOT WHAT YOU NEED begins, "You are looking very fine. I am serious. But I am not here to tease you with words," and takes the lady through an imaginary evening out with His Smooveness, during which she will be treated to dinner at a restaurant where "there will also be cloth napkins" and then whisked to a bedroom where, he vows, "I will sex you wild" on sheets that will be "sparkling clean, as they will have been washed with only the finest laundry detergents." A jilted boyfriend later emailed Smoove's honeyed words to his ex at the University of Arizona. She promptly called the police. Onion HQ is a stuffy, low-ceilinged, gray-carpeted suite of offices near Madison's capitol building. To pinpoint the office more precisely would be unkind; the staff lives in terror of being hunted down by talentless gag writers. The Onion does not publish its street address, there is no plaque in the lobby, and, indeed, from the street no sign hints that any activity occurs in the building other than lawyering, accounting, or UW Badger boosting. The Onion's weekly war on complacency is waged in a bedraggled den known as the "writers' room," where Schneider, Kolb, Hanson, and Krewson have their desks. With its Satanic-nursery kitsch clutter, its squishy brown modular sofa chunks, and its Chex mix of free-floating crud on the floor, the room recalls an East Village cybercafé. On Tuesdays, everyone piles in with their fast food and diet sodas, and what unfolds is a revival meeting set in newsroom hell. Their inspiration is fueled not by malevolent glee, Siegel says, but by "serious personal problems, evil politicians, and the sad state the world is in." On a dry-erase board late in November, a story idea from a previous Tuesday lingered: VIOLENCE: THE ANSWER\? The currency of every Tuesday meeting is headlines. Every article, whether a cover story, a news brief, a feature, or just a one-line teaser or poll question, starts as a headline. For each news-based story one person suggests a headline, another may write the article, and still others edit that, and whether one or six pencils produce the effort, in the end there will be no byline. This anonymity means that every Onion writer is invested in every Onion story; as in the old Hollywood studio system that produced Casablanca, everyone feels pressure to excel, nobody gets sole credit for anything, and the work ends by being a true collaboration. This kind of teamwork doesn't happen easily in cutthroat comic environments like Saturday Night Live, where writers compete or get sacked; it is only possible here because the writers are not only rivals, they are a handpicked group of friends selected over the course of a decade, and they're not afraid to scream at each other when they disagree. "We're like a family," Siegel says. "There are stretches of time where we just hate each other." Still, he allows, cringing as he says it, they do have a "synergy" that other comedy klatches lack. Whatever it is they have, it's something a growing number of people want in on. Late last summer, Crown shelled out $450,000 for two Onion books, one of them a best-of collection, the other Our Dumb Century: 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source - a year-by-year romp through imaginary front pages of ye olde Onion, which is due in stores next month and slated to be promoted with an hour-long network-TV special written by Dikkers and staff. The pages of Our Dumb Century resemble Wendy's restaurant tabletops but the headlines breathe new life into yesterday's news. A front page dated July 21, 1969, reads HOLY SHIT: MAN WALKS ON FUCKING MOON; a related editorial asks WE CAN PUT A MAN ON THE MOON, BUT WE CAN'T BOMB A TINY ASIAN NATION INTO THE STONE AGE\? Hyperion Press, which had originally bought the book, ditched the project late in the game when the "right lawyer," as Siegel put it, finally saw the manuscript and proclaimed it too controversial. Siegel shakes his head: "I don't know what they were thinking." The flattering rush of attention from book publishers, TV networks, and even Hollywood does not come from The Onion's humor alone; if that were true, the staff would have long since relocated to palm-dotted Sunset Boulevard digs. The sudden vogue is the result of the fact that in May of 1996 The Onion finally put the paper online, a move that Dikkers, a Web skeptic, had staunchly resisted. Jack Szwergold convinced Dikkers that a move online was necessary to increase readership. He was right: Now that people can read The Onion without flying to Madison, 1.2 million a month do. The paper version has 363,400 subscribers, but 300,000 readers cackle over online postings each week, most of them from their desks, in their offices, where they are supposed to be working. "In a way, all our readership is white-collar crime," Szwergold muses. Indeed, some companies have caught on to the scam, and lately Szwergold and Siegel have received calls and email from distressed employees at Andersen Consulting and Salomon Smith Barney complaining that they can only log on to The Onion at home. It was a pre-Web story by Siegel, published in December 1995, that convinced Dikkers to make the leap to cyberspace. In the story, CLINTON DEPLOYS VOWELS TO BOSNIA: CITIES OF SJLBVDNZV, GRZNY TO BE FIRST RECIPIENTS, Siegel described "Operation Vowel Storm," which would "provide the region with the critically needed letters A, E, I, O, and U, and is hoped to render countless Bosnian names more pronounceable." The article also quoted a desperate Bosnian, Trszg Grzdnjlkn, 44, who wailed, "My God, I do not think we can last another day. I have six children and none of them has a name that is understandable to me or anyone else. Mr. Clinton, please send my poor, wretched family just one 'E.' Please." Before long, the story was circulating wildly on the Web. The following February, not knowing where it came from, the hosts of the NPR radio show Car Talk stumblingly read the entire piece on the air, laughing so hard they could barely speak. Art Bell recited the story on his radio show, and Pat Buchanan's presidential campaigners ran it on the Go Pat Go Web site. Nobody credited The Onion, because nobody knew The Onion was the original source. Going online, Szwergold told Dikkers, would mean that when a story got filched and began to crop up across the country in newspapers, Web sites, and TV programs, The Onion could prove that the copycats had stolen someone else's punch lines. Credit could go where credit was due. Dikkers agreed to go online, and what Szwergold predicted came true. In 1996, Chevy Chase, an avowed Onion fan, plucked "Vowel Storm" off the site for yet another public airing; he read it out loud to President Clinton and other Democratic bigs at a DNC fundraiser in New York - and he made sure to credit The Onion. The president, Chase says, laughed heartily, calling it the funniest thing he'd ever heard, and thanked "Chvy Chs" - leaving out the vowels - for the humor break. During the summer and fall of 1996, the staff sat back and watched, stunned, as the anonymous, miserably paid years of work they had spent financing their Onion habit by temping, washing dishes, and cashiering in liquor stores part-time at last started paying off. They started getting salaries and benefits - and, in another unexpected perk, e-correspondence with great and wise men. Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, emailed his credit card number so they could debit him $40 for the pleasure of his (free) subscription, and when The Onion ran a story about how the astrophysicist Stephen Hawking had thrown away his wheelchair and welded his head to a Robocop-like exoskeleton, Hawking emailed, "You have blown my cover as a wheelchair-bound mad professor. But little do you guess I'm really a Time Lord from Andromeda." __ The paper version has 363,400 subscribers, but 300,000 readers cackle over online postings each week, most of them from their desks. __ People still do rip off The Onion, but in a surprising twist that Dikkers, in his pre-Web gloom, did not anticipate, the bon mot thieves who try to pass off Onion gems as their own soon find themselves assailed by rabid legions of cultlike fans. When loyal readers come across a newspaper or Web site that pirates The Onion, they routinely email the "borrowers," suggesting that the source be credited; and sometimes they don't stop there. Last fall, when talk-show host Tom Snyder read out the story CONGRESS PASSES AMERICANS WITH NO ABILITIES ACT on his show (which prompted email from dozens of citizens who wanted to know if they qualified), Dikkers randomly called up LA subscribers for help. Within 10 minutes he found someone who happily agreed to drop everything and drive a copy of the relevant issue to Snyder's set so the TV personality could show The Onion on air if he felt like it - which he did. Onion lawyer Ken Artis says fondly of the publication's online following, "If they were bounty hunters, they couldn't be better," and even Dikkers is impressed by their loyalty. "It's great," he says gruffly. "We're going to have them all kill themselves one day. We'll pass out Kool-Aid." He laughs, adding, "We were all raised Christian here." This spiritual impulse may explain two recent religious offerings in The Onion's news sections: the feature GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS OF PARALYZED LITTLE BOY: 'NO,' SAYS GOD and the memorable November 1998 front-page story CHRIST KILLS 2, INJURES 7 IN ABORTION CLINIC ATTACK. In the photo collage by Mike Loew that accompanied the clinic article, a guilty-looking, bearded Christ wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and a crown of thorns is led away by cops. Dikkers loves this one - indignant right-to-lifers be damned. "I get USA Today and read it and I think, 'This is somebody's idea of what's going on in the world today - but it's really not all that relevant to me, it doesn't touch me,'" he says. "But I look at The Onion, and it's filled with humor and sadness." "For us, comedy equals tragedy," Dikkers elaborates. "Mel Brooks said comedy equals tragedy plus time. It's funny: One of the reasons why people conceive of us as edgy, or groundbreaking, is because we're telling jokes about tragic events much more close to the tragic event than you're supposed to." Sometimes this immediacy offends. For example, the story 5,000 BROWN PEOPLE DEAD SOMEWHERE, a send-up of disaster coverage and First World indifference to the Third World, ran a bit too soon after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America to strike some readers as funny. Dikkers wasn't bothered. "I think we're very much speaking for a new type of sensibility that's very prevalent in our generation here," Dikkers says. "There is nothing sacred, there is nothing offensive, there's nothing too horrible to say." "We would have been much more famous much sooner if we'd been in San Francisco or New York," Dikkers likes to grouse. It is the office mantra; improbable as it may seem, the bawdy, brutal, high-spirited Onion is, in the end, the product of a handful of overworked, depressed, caffeine-raddled malcontents who live in fear that the floor will collapse under them. "You'd be surprised how close the margin is between a funny, hilarious, that's-the-funniest-thing-I've-ever-seen publication and a totally mediocre, OK publication," Dikkers says. "We ride that line every week." Siegel, who is responsible for holding that line, wrestles mightily with his own personal demons. "If one person says we're not funny, I'll believe that person instead of the 10,000 who say we are," he says. "My confidence would be shattered." Sure, sure, and he believes it too. But that doesn't mean he and Dikkers and the whole sad-sack staff aren't gunning for Our Dumb Century to turn them into obnoxious, unrepentant millionaires overnight. Until then, they're contenting themselves with smaller but no less transforming fantasies. This month, for the first time, the newly famous Onioners will attend the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and one of them, at least, may get his slice of heaven. John Krewson, running a hand over his freshly shaven scalp, says dreamily, "I'm going to go up to Janeane Garofalo and say 'You're pretttttty.'" His fervent hope is that she will slap him.

The listing of publications is kept at O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1982), Human Limits to Man made Models, Proc. Modeling & Simulation Conf. '82, Vol. 13, Pittsburgh. The models that we make are projections of our perceptions; this requires that we understand how our mind works, and how we relate our subjective and objective experiences. The paper presents the 4D logic, which puts the locus of co-ordination on the interface, rather than inside us. It means that we do not act on reality, but interact with it: reality is a realisation. “We need as least as much consciousness, as the energy that we work with”. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1983), Yes (Earth is a Living Organism), Proc. Nat. Audubon Society "Is the Earth a Living Organism?", Amhurst, USA. It is surprising that people ask if Earth is a living organism. Why do they not see that the definitions that they use for themselves, also apply to our context? Why do they not realise that the so-called “laws of Nature”, also describe us. Or, rather, perhaps, describe only us, in the way we think and behave. Objective science is based on the subjective experience of scientists, always. By seeing how we reflect our context, and the context reflects in us, we can see that Earth and humanity are partners in a dance of life in creation. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1985), l'Homme au Centre de l'Univers, Conference Astrologique, Lyon, 1985. One of the sciences that has long studied the relationship between objective behaviour and subjective realisation is astrology. Humans are part of the uniVerse, and the processes that we experience within us, are part of universal dynamics. it is possible to study the relationships between rhythms, those within us and those around us. Fourier analysis described this or physics; astrology describes this for phasics. By looking at the pattern dynamics, it is easier too see that, and how, the human and context are interrelated. And that we are indeed part of the whole. Inversely, this means that the whole can be lived in the part. It is this higher level awareness (intuition) that enables humans to give care to our earth. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1987), Patterns in Process(es); Amsterdam Conf. on Mutual Uses of Cybernetics and Science (ed. R. Glanville). Reality is a Realisation. But in order to see this, scientists of the Classical kind need to realise that matter is made up of molecules: all that is static is essentially dynamic. However, all processes are interrelated, and transform each other in and by their interaction. Everything is therefor in transformation, and merely probabilistic; not deterministic: molecules are composed of atoms. The essence of atoms however is not their substance but their organisation; all exist, and are formed, as part of the universe. It is the pattern of interconnectedness that determines the dynamics of the uniVerse that we live in; and are part of. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1988a), Æffecting Changes Æffectively, International Free University, Maastricht, private edition. The processes in our body and the process dynamics of our context are interrelated. Within us, we use freedom of choice to change our inner process dynamics. Around us, we change our context on changes of choices that we made within us. When we aim to affect our context, we can do so only to the extent that we associate ourselves with it That requires that we need to be able to identify with it. (Thus, have our own experience, and that of what happens around us, both at the same time. And, be able to discern between them.) In dealing with people, as e.g. i healing, we act in this manner. We use our freedom of choice, but then: so do they. In order to be effective in the interaction the communications needs to be based on what happens within the individual people, but on what is share between them. This is what they also share with their context. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1988b): AstroLogisch (in Dutch), private edition. Astrology is a language designed to describe process dynamics. Its main focus is on cycles; and the way it is possible to relate different cycles in terms of cycles within cycles. The planetary motion is but an explicit representation foe the way process cycles in our body, physiology, interweaves with the process cycles of our context. In astrology the representation is 4D always: systems of cycles can be part of larger cycle systems. They are always interrelated, even if they appear to be separate from each other. The UniVerse is one integral system of vibration. The language of astrology reflects a dynamic logic to describe this. This description applies to all relativistic levels of descriptions, of processes in interaction. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1989), InterFacing & InnerPhasing; Amsterdam Conf. on Problems of Society, Support & Culture (ed. R. Glanville). Whatever happens within an interface, changes the interface also. Analytical science disregards the interface. It disregards the context. It disregards the interaction, and thus the way the subject reflects in the object and vice versa. It requires understanding o the interface, and its inner dynamics, to work with it. Innerphasing - the phases changes within the system - is what our body is based on, even in its structure, dynamics, organisation and emergence. Objective Analytical Science is a conundrum; an oxymoron. Every boundary is a Field, and vice versa. Every Separator is a Connector. Closed systems do not exist. There are only forms of interaction which turn the dynamic into a pattern that is static, momentarily only. Space is a form of Time which is a form of Energy which is a forms of Consciousness (Phase Space). This is how our involvement shapes the lives that we live. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1993), Realising Reality (Values: Absolutely Relative (In)Variants); Proc. Amsterdam Conf. Problems of Values & (In)Variants (ed. R. Glanville and G. de Zeeuw), pp. 139-148. Reality is a Realisation. Reality does not exist. Objectivity is Subjective; anything called objective is but consensus. This means that all we hold to be true is but a bias, and truth is a truism. For many this seems a contradiction: “it all seems so real”. As long as people do not realise how they create the reality that they perceive, they cannot imagine either how they can be mis-taking in their perceptions and con-fusing their projections with their perceptions. Scientists need to learn elemental mental skills, such as mental and emotional hygiene, understanding techniques of denial and repression, in order to calibrate their thinking and beliefs, in the same way they need to calibrate the instruments they use for taking measurements of nature. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1994), EmbryoGenesis (TopoLogical EmbryoLogy); unpublished work. Humanity emerged as part of the development of the universe as a whole; never have we been separate from, or outside of it. Natural laws apply to humans also. The logic that links subjective and objective also applies o the relationship between information and matter. In living organisms the two are combined. Our body shows how this takes place. We can trace the interweaving of information into matter by seeing how humans are forms of animals, which developed on principles found in plants (our vegetative system) which are based on properties found in minerals. The degrees of freedom involved relate to changes in topology. Development of life forms is therefor a logical unfoldmend of dimensional transitions described in mathematics as Topology. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1995), The Gearbox of Realities (Transcendental Complex Vortex Systems Cybernetics); Proc. Amsterdam Conf. Problems of Excavating Cybernetics and Systems (ed. R. Glanville with G. de Zeeuw). pp 221-222 Stable and static objects are based on process dynamics. The relationship between process flow lines (meridians) is determined by vortices (chackras). The medical models of meridians, chackras and auras describe the same as the mathematical models of vectors, tensors and fields. It is necessary to heal health care by bringing science to life. The most abstract forms of mathematics describe the way our body functions; many mathematicians need to reflect that what they formulate describes ... themselves. This will help them to understand the more refined intricacies of mathematics - how all its dialects are interrelated - and that it is not the formulations of mathematics that matter, but the wholeness that they describe. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1996a), Robot Doctors (Health Care in Perspective); Proc. Cybernetics Conference, Vienna. It is much cheaper and simpler to program robots to function as doctors, than to condition doctors to function as robots. Medical protocols suffer from the deadly misconception that living beings are treated as if they are subject to laws of dead matter, while the material laws were designed by living beings. Repeatability, verifiability and predictability are valid only in inertial fields. Robots can deal with such matters, leaving people free to deal with creation, freedom of choice, learning by trial and error, and thus living with the consequences of making mistakes. Healing requires this insight in order to be effective. The more doctors are able to enter into the uniqueness of human being, the more healing they can be for their context. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1996b), Organic Data Organisation (Human Being as Data Process(or)); Proc. ABA Conference, (Symposium on Cyber-Cluster-City-Concepts), Athens, July 10-17 1996, Athens, Greece. Organisations, societies and cities are modelled on models of dead matter. The result is that cities, societies and our environment become more deadly: they are more devoid of the living essence of nature; innovation and newness. This can be seen also in our body: it is a supercomputer. of which the form is the output of its computations. Anatomical medicine takes this end result as its starting point for its considerations. It is more sensible, sensitive, and it makes more sense to instead focus on the traits that are characteristic for living beings. This too can be found in our body: all materials that we are ‘composed of’ are highly responses to changes in the flow of information. They are like the materials sought after, for making super computers. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1996c), 4-Dimensional Time (Modelling beyond Eternity; The Paradox of Time); Proc. Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics '96, Baden-Baden. (Symposium "Modelling Anticipative Systems"). Time is not a number shown by a clock; which is based on inertial rotation in an invariant field. Much more important than time is Timing, the ability for processes to link up and interconnect. More relevant than this is synchrony: the capacity of time cycles to interweave and reinforce each other, creating flexible state time dynamics. But most important are Time Timing networks, in which processes are nested and embedded with/in each other, and at the same tome producing as being produced. Birth and death requires the understanding of time beyond time, timing and synchronisation. It requires the dissolution of time and the emergence of time out of the emergence of forms of manifestation. Time is an aspect of experienced energy, not a reality onto itself. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1996d), ’The Architecture of the Soul (Control Systems Control System), Proc. Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics '96, Baden-Baden. Our body has a regulatory system, which has a regulatory system. This is at the level of 3rd order cybernetics (thus a reduced form of a 4th order system cybernetic). It is this system that endows the body to balance itself in a changing context, offers the option for compensating in untoward contexts, and even allows for the system to seal itself of in its own local niche context, in an unfavourable context. The Soul can thereby be definitely and clearly defines. As a 3rd order system it can also be understood why the soil is depicted as a point in our living body system: it is the dynamic floating point of contact - the dynamic system set point reset cusp - which (like a hologram) determines the local system stability (and adaptability) within its context. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1996e), Objective Subjectivity & Subjective Objectivity; 4D (Socio) Psycho Logics(4D Personality ((Non-Euclidean) Socio-PsychoLogics), Proc. 10th Cybernetics & Systems Conference '96, Bucharest. A person is a simultaneous blend of an identity, a pole in a relationship, a momentaneous pivot in a group process, and a point of inversion (of manifestation) of society, humanity, all life forms, and the universe as a whole. The different pertaining modes of involvement reflect in different forms of consciousness in observation, communication, realisation and creation. In dealing with people, all these aspects of (im)personal being need stop be addressed, also for understanding their physical, mental social and natural states of health; and the forms of dis-ease. An individual relates to a group integral collective always. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1997a), Acts of Consciousness (Reflections on/off Reflexes); Proc. Amsterdam Conf. Problems of Actions & Observations (ed. R. Glanville). Freedom of choice discerns living people from rocks. We cannot base our understanding of life forms on laws of dead mater. yet at the same time much of or human being is based in our living with/in the material context. The patterns of information in matter is best seen in the study of reflex. These are autonomous functional patterns, which when acted out once, can always be re-en-acted with lesser degrees of consciousness and or awareness. In the study of reflex it is more easy to see when, where, how and why we use freedom of choice in creation. Or can let reflexes run our life as a whole. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1997b), S.P.I.R.i.T. (Systems Pathophysiology: Integral Response interActive Therapies), Proc. Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics '97, Baden-Baden. Our body is at the same time a unit (one whole body), a unity of organs, and a unity of living cells. At the same time our body is integral part of our context; a part of it not apart from it. Every body response takes place at all of these levels. We thus cannot regard the reaction of a cell separate from the organ system it is involved in, or the whole body it forms in part. The reaction of each cell at the same moment ties in with the response of all body cells, the whole body and our context. Integral system response requires a different understanding than analytical thinking can offer. Therapeutic interactions always need to take this integral systemic body response into account, because pathological processes are normal processes of the body our of their normal integration with each other an the body. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1997c), Infinite Forms of Infinity (Opening Closed Systems), Proc. Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics 1997, Baden-Baden. Mathematical models are bounded in their application. Mathematics as a whole is a mental construct. It formulates a set of symbols and relations between them. Mathematics therein is a reflection of our way of thinking. The limitations of mathematics can be described in the same way as mathematics describes other observations. This means: we can apply the thinking of mathematics to mathematics. The limitations of mathematics can thereby be described as singularities of the system, of mathematics. This means that these singularities of mathematics can be used to turn mathematics inside-out. They are the handles for understanding how mathematics expresses the essence, principles and processes of our thinking. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1998a), "The Simplicity of Complexity" (The (Psycho) Logic of (Social) Integration), Proc. World Sociology Conference, Quebec. [PPT] “If the universe were complex, it would not have lasted more than a fraction of a second”. The continued coherence, in/and development of the uniVerse as a whole is indication that the basis of the manifestation of the universe must be simple. This also shows that this simplicity is not a characteristic of matter. It pre-existed in stellar forms, in the Cosmic Gas, and the pre-Big Bang phases. It means that the nature of coherence of the uniVerse is embedded in phase space; and each point in Phase Space. This is elaborated in STEC: every ‘pixel’ of the uniVerse is holographic. Every point in the uniVerse relates to the uniVerse as a whole. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1998b), "Healing Systems", (Healing of Systems of Healing of Systems of ...), Proc. Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics '98, Baden-Baden. [PPT] From the perspective of Systems Theory, any object is part of a process, in a relationship group that forms part of the whole. This relation implies a cyclicity that can be used, and recognised, in Healing. Healing is the dynamic process by which the part recalibrates its role as part on/of the whole. This again means that the properties of healing can be applied to both healing, the relationships in healing, and the mutual interactive transformation. Healing has autopoietic characteristics: it can restore its integrity on basis of its integrity as part of the whole. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1998c), "(Dis)Integrity; The one source of health, the one cause of disease", Proc. Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics '98, Baden-Baden. [PPT] Heath is based on the embedding of the part as part of the whole. In that case the interface is an integral connector. Whenever this interface is warped and an interference pattern emerges between the part and the whole, then the embedding of the part into the whole will change also. Whenever the boundary changes are transient and stable, the system adapts. When the boundary become unstable, the situation can lag and the system must compensate. When the boundary interference becomes unstable, the system state will collapse, as will the system: it dies. Healing has one element only: the restoration of the integration of the interface to restore the integrity of the part as part of the whole. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1998d), “BioHolograms, (Phase Coherence of Life)”, Int. Congress On Cybernetics, Namur, Belgium. [PPT] There are some fundamental inconsistencies in the laws of electromagnetism. If protons annihilate electrons, end north poles attract south poles; why is the universe not exploded or congealed? There must be other factors in play which determine how the universe unfolded, and developed different forms of coherence. These same principles are at play in the development of all life forms. Each of which must by principle be part of the universe as whole. This lead to the idea of the Bio-Hologram, which serves also to understand the coherence of each life form. This has direct relevance for the understanding of health and healing. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1999a), "PsychoLogics" (4D Logic Principles of the Psyche); Proc. Amsterdam Conf. Problems of Participation & Connection. (ed. R. Glanville). [PPT] Psychology is often understood as the quest for understanding of our thinking. In our body we see that our personal experience is mingled with our part in shared experiences with others, our part in group experience, and our experience of our context. Each of these levels of awareness is processed in a different manner. This helps to see that we operate four distinct levels of consciousness, always. It also means that within us we have much more awareness than just that of our personal perspective. The 4D logic that is the core of all these papers also applies to our psyche. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1999b), “Synergetic Systems” (Processing Reality beyond the Speed of Light), Proc. Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics '99, Baden-Baden. [PPT] The Newton Pendulum is an example how group action can operate much more quickly than individual action: one marble hits the end of a row of juxtaposed marbles, of which the last of the end at once moves onward. This demonstrates that speed of group-action depends on coherence. In wave mechanics this is known in the relationship of waves, a wave group, the envelope of the group wave, and the soliton, in which a wave can travel on its own in its context. It is long known that in wave groups signals can propagate at speeds higher than what is called the light speed. This understanding is of use in synergy in social systems, and for understanding health: the coherent symbiosis of cells in our body. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1999c), “STEC: Space-Time_Energy-Consciousness” (The Paradox in Model Making), CASYS, Liège, 1999. [PPT] Cosmology made clear that matter is a form of information. Matter is composed of molecules made up out of atoms defined by subatomic phase fields. From this we can conclude that information (change of coherence of phase space) underlies all forms of energy. Energy in turn underlies the cyclic transformations which determine time. Stable patterns in time determine space. This is the relation between phase, a wave front, a wave cycle, and a standing wave. The difference between Changes in Phase Space Coherence (Consciousness), Energy (transformation), Time (recursion) and Space (invariance) is thus a difference of perspective. It is also reflects a difference of involvement, which means that we need to take this into account for all models made and used in science. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1999d), “1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Order Cybernetics” (Thinking around in Circles), WOCS, Brunel, 1999. [PPT] Systems Theory has become more widely used and since developed into more detailed descriptions. As a result some researchers introduced the concept of 2nd order Cybernetics. Where 1st order cybernetics us held to be valid for machine dynamics, second order cybernetics is held to be of use for interpersonal communications. This paper points out that by this approach we can also define 3rd and 4th Order Cybernetics, dealing with respectively the interactions of complicated systems, and the integrity of complex (holic) systems. This understanding however merely points out that 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Order Cybernetics express the same principles an concepts as are already described in the basic formulations of systems theory and cybernetics. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (1999e), “BioMathematics” (Our Body as Model for Science), BioMath, Paris, 1999. [PPT] BioMathematics describes an approach in mathematics in which biological systems are modelled in descriptions of mathematics. This paper points out that the inverse approach seems to be more useful: humans created mathematics. Thus mathematics is always based on properties of humans. Mathematics is an expression of the way we function. It also means that we can use our body as example for recognising different forms of mathematics. We do not need to develop mathematics to describe our body. We can use our body to identify different forms of mathematics, and the relationships between them. This also may be used to discover blind spots in our understanding of mathematics: all those instances where we can not yet find a form of mathematics which represents the functioning of our body. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2000a), “Coping with Creation" (Curing Institutionalised Rape and Abuse of Individuals), 2000, Panticosa. [PPT] Analytical thinking has been led to the extreme where the findings have become alienated from the natural environment. Mechanical Science is an example: it has led to the belief that reality is objective. However, it is based on personal realisation and is thus always subjective. Other life forms, and the planet, have become regarded as if objects. This has created a global waste society. It is also the basis of diseases: all levels where humans and humanity loose contact with their context will backfire. Planetary pollution is an example. "Sustainability" is a deception based on the same premise: control. What, instead, is needed is the re-integration of humans and humanity with all life forms and earth. Integration, and healing, are the key words for curing the ills that result from (analytical) alienation from our natural context. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2000b), “Information Medicine: Healing Information” (The role of Information as a means to restore Wholeness), 2000, Baden-Baden. [PPT] Dynamic coherence is the essence of living systems. Loss of coherence is characteristic for diseases. The coherence between the cells in the body is not described in reference to the cells, but by the relationships between them. This involves the regulatory system (SOUL), and the system for information integration (S.P.I.R.i.T.). As our body is composed of living cells, which are self aware and aware of their context, the basic need in healing is to restore the operational integrity between them. This is specified as the need for healing information, for the cells to relearn and refind their respective coherence. It also specifies Information Medicine as any technique or method that can convey this information. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2000c), “Options, Choices, Doubts and Decisions” (Precisioning the Pivot Point of Power), CASYS, Liège, 2000. [PPT] Interfaces determine the relationships between systems. System Closure and Open Systems are determined by the phase characteristics of the interface that connects them. Interface Dynamics thereby is the prime agent in 1) changing the degree of openness of a system, and 2) relating systems to each other. One operator (phase change of the interface) thus determines the stare of the part and the relationship of the part to the whole. It is a singularity where the whole and the par can be changed. This is the case also for the membranes of our body cells, and all the membranes of organs and bodies. All these inner-phasings (phase changes of the interface) also apply to our psychological experience of these changes of balances between cells, and our body in our context. Options & Choices, Doubts & Decisions makes our involvement in this explicit. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2000d), “Perfect Anticipation” (Why you (won’t) want it), CASYS, Liège, 2000. [PPT] Anticipation is most often a continuation by inertia. Inertial systems are invariant systems; they are predictable and lifeless. Any system that is predictably offers no information for the future. Its future state is but a continuation of its past. Predictable systems identity the invariant aspects of our context; the trellis of sameness in a context of changes. This may be of use to help optimise decisions. It asks for a more spacious interpretation of the principles of potential ad kinetic energy, in terms of (predictable) regions of invariance, and the art of creation within them. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2001a), "Human – Humanity” (Individual Uniqueness and Collective Consensus); Proc. Amsterdam Conf. Problems of Participation & Connection. (ed. R. Glanville). [PPT] Humans are often described as individuals. Often this is held to mean that they are unique and separate from all others. By our biology and psychology we see that all humans are related to all others. This has profound implications: while many believe that we all have our ‘separate’ experience of existence, we in fact share many experiences with others. Much of our ‘individual’ realisations are in fact based on subconscious and unconscious ideas and beliefs that we share with all others. This understanding can be turned around: we are not individual beings but part of a much larger being. Humans are the cells of the body of humanity. This calls for an understanding of humans to function and operate at this level. And, as humanity, live in response-able relationship with/in our context. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2001a), “Information Medicine” (Core Concepts), '01, Baden-Baden. [PPT] Information Medicine is not the applications of computers to measure laboratory results or brain wave. It is not the use of informatics in helping classical doctors to doctor the body. It is quite the inverse: it is the understanding that our body is an information processor; all cells react to their context. Together they are able to efficiently interact with their context. It means they do not respond as individual units but operate like a computer network, in which each living cell is a fully functional computational unit, making decisions in choices, yet as one integral unit. Information Medicine appreciate that this calls for a different understanding of 1) our cell function and 2) informatics. In our body always four modes of computations are concurrent. In our body it also is he software that determines the hardware. This gives Information Medicine a profound meaning for healing. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2001c), “Referon Analysis” (pReference of Reference), CASYS, Liège [PPT] Physics and mathematics make use of models. Each of these models maps a specific perception of what is being observed. Physical science still often assumes that these models are independent of the observers. Although many o these model are based on communal observer perspectives, each of these models also represents a respective perspective bias. If this is disregarded, it cannot be regarded and studies. Referon Analysis makes explicit that this (collective) observer bias is fundamental in science, and needs to be made explicit, Singularity theory can be used to point this out and resolve this. Dimensional Analysis is an illustrative example: the choice of parameters by which a system is described defines the Critical Boundary of the system. Including/excluding a parameter changes the critical boundary of the system. Referon analysis makes explicit that we must define our unit reference system in all descriptions of science. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2001d), “MatheMagics”, (Equating Equations to Changes of Consciousness), CASYS, Liège [PPT] Mathematics makes use of symbols. The symbols on paper are the score for a choreography for a dance in our mind. Mathematics is not an operation on paper; it is a representation of a change in our mind. Such changes can be felt; the collapse of a complex consideration in a simplified understanding can be felt: the beauty of mathematics. The essence of mathematics however is that we can effectuate changes in our mind, and - as a result - changes in realisation. As quantum theory has described: reality is a Realisation. Rather than regarding mathematics as an ‘objective’ ‘descriptive’ ’science’, it is wiser to understand that it is a tool by which we change our way of thinking, individually and collectively. This is important because, as a result, this also has effect on our context. It means that we need to develop those forms of mathematics that are healthy for our body, our mind, our society and our context. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2002), “Human Body Regulation Systemics” (Interactive Integral Process Optimisation), WOCS, Pittsburgh, 2002. [PPT] Our body is an integral system. We can see how different levels of function are interrelated. What takes place between organs is seen. more explicit, in our interaction between muscles. Muscle contractions, agonist and antagonist complementarity, homolateral and heterolateral duality, body and mind complementarity lead theway to understanding a fundamental concept: our body already ‘knows’ what it can do and how it can do it; it can be compared to a puppeteer’s puppet. In the cerebellum be find the system state processor for all muscle operations in our body. It also includes a dual function for the interplay between all organs. This centre for body integration is connected to an ‘overlay’ of the cortex with information from out context. This is in fact sensory information from cells in and on the surface of our body. Between the cerebellum and cortex lies the region of the pineal gland, which serves as a ‘joystick’ for the optimal attunement of our body response to changes in our context. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2003a), “Total System Inversion” (The Alchemy of Realisation), CASYS, Liège. [PPT] “Singularities” are a topic in mathematics where a system is connected in/to its context. In those singularities both the effects of the system and its context are present. It is by definition a node of multiple existence (a multidimensional gate point). Any singularity is thereby anode where the system interacts with the context, and the context interacts with the system. Compare this to the interplay between the river and the bedding. Catastrophe Theory has proposed a more general understanding of this concept. This understanding can be generalised in a yet more encompassing manner: in every singularity we experience not only the interplay between the system and the context; as a result in these we also experience the existence of the universe as a whole. Such singularities are therefore dimensional gateways for Total System Inversion. This topic is relevant because it is needed to define and describe the properties of birth and death. It is relevant to understand that the multi-dimensional properties of the singularities are not material, nor based on the characteristics of the system. They are basic properties of transdimensional connections, and thereby properties of the whole universe and its creation. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2003b), “Dimensional (de)Compression” (The Art of Black Hole Navigation), CASYS, Liège. [PPT] Singularity nodes are simultaneously nodes of the system and of its context. Complicated and complex systems are determined by coherent patterns in the singularities of the system: the System Stability Singularity Set. This system Singularity Set determines the coherence of the system and its integration with/in its context. Living Systems are characterised by their ability to operate and reorganise the System Singularity Set, and thereby change the dimensional nature of the integral system. This also makes it possible to maintain the system coherence during Total System Inversion; the birth and death of the system. Not the material properties are therein decisive, but the transdimensional transitions, and the coherence in the stages between them when the System Singularity Set is compressed and com-plexed: compacted onto itself in a systematic cascade of Dimensional compression. (Or the inverse, an unfolding of decomplexification - such as seen in the unfolding of the Zygote) involving Dimensional Decompression. The Vortex nature of a Black Hole serves as illustration for a simple example of the process that is experience in embryogenesis. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2005a), “Integral Education in Integral Health Care” Conference on Information Medicine, Hawaii. [PPT] Our body operates, simultaneously, as anatomy, physiology, neurocrine regulatory system, and information integration system. This means that it is simultaneously a classical object, a relativistic process, a quantum state and a unified field. This means that we need to be able to understand and describe it in each of these four manners, and interact with it accordingly, byourselves functioning as object, part of the process, participant in the transformation, and integral involved in the information integration (‘co-processor’). This requires four different modes of functioning, and four different modes of learning. It is significant that the four main modalities of healing on the planet correspond with each of these four aspects. That also means that it is necessary to learn to use these methods by four fundamentally different types of learning. Fortunately we can integrate these all: in our body, Because our body is composed of each of these four concepts. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2005b), “Qi Healing” (Bio-Information Integration), Conference on Information Medicine, Hawai’i. [PPT] Our body makes use of various information/integration/communication systems. Well known are the slow speed Hormonal and relatively faster neuronal system. The Hormonal system has been compared to Mail delivery, and the Neuronal system with Telephone lines, We also have the equivalent to ADSL and Fibre optics in respectively the meridian system and the Chackra system. The Meridian System is a regulation system that operates on phase. It serves to synchronise large cell groups of diverse kinds throughout the body. It serves to stabilise the singularity system by which we interphase with/in our context. The Chackra System serves to attune these meridians and thereby operates at a yet higher or more fundamental level of the embedding of the system in the context. This system is Vortical in nature and operates the calibration of dimensional cascading. All of these systems can be used together in Qi Healing. Qi is the Energy-information system of the body. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2005c), “The Blind Spot of Science” (Life, Love, Consciousness and Health), CASYS, Liège [PPT] Science has a fundamental blind spot: the scientist. In regarding the reality of objects, classical science ignored that it was based on the realisationn of subjects As a result science got lost in the analytical approach of matter, while disregarding the cognitive information processing on which all its finding were based. It came to outspoken statements about reality, and neglected that all these statements were based in the processing of immaterial information. As a result the start difference between life and matter was lost from description. Matter has no internal freedom of choice, Life, Love, Consciousness and Health are all expressions of the experience of Freedom of Choice in interaction with our context. There are respectively the 2st, 3nd, 4ed and 5rh order expressions of Freedom of Choice in our body. The Blind Spot of science must be studied to bring science to life. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2005d), “Consciousness and/of Freedom of Choice in our Living Body (The Dynamic Logic of Dimensional Phase Change)”, CASYS, Liège. [PPT] There is a fundamental difference between the properties of dead matter - as studied by Classical Science - and the properties of living beings. Living beings have Freedom of Choice. In looking into our understanding of cosmogenesis and the emergence of life forms it is possible to recognise a simple underlying logic in which freedom of choice was incorporated into matter. It can be seen that this involves a simple transitions of Topological rotations. These show a principal relationships between minerals, plants animals and self-conscious beings, of which we find all traits in our body. Integral health care integrates all these four levels of perspective. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2005b), “Integraal Onderwijs in Integrale Geneeskunst”, Tijdschr. Int. Geneesk, (In Dutch) Learning has four very different aspects. Sometimes it involves a purely internal realisation, coming up with hew understanding and insight. Sometimes it involves the experience of the effect of a trigger from the context, how it impinges or impacts on our internal sensations and feelings. At times it is about sensing and feeling the changes in an ongoing contact with our context And at times it is all about witnessing what happens around us. There four different modes of learning also require four different modes of teaching. These differences are best seen in the different forms of healing. Objective medicine regards our body as if an object and describes its properties as facts. Ayurvedic medicine supports and guides the processing of our body and addresses the ongoing contact with the context. Acupuncture medicine interacts with the body response to triggers from our context and senses the response of the body to such impulses. Spiritual medicine regards the integration of the person as part of the universal context, and as integrity into themselves. In education of Integral Health Care all these methods of teaching and learning need to be combined. Our body is the integrative factor for these different modes of learning. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2005b), “Voeding en Gezondheid” (Het toenemend verschil tussen Levensmiddelen, Etensmiddelen, Voedingswaar, en Nutriënten), Tijdschr. Int. Geneesk, (In Dutch) Nutrients, Ingredients, Food, and Produce are worlds apart in our description of what we eat. The scientific approach has become centred on molecules interacting with cell receptors; nutrients. The dieticians approach has become restricted to the selection of supplements and elements for the purpose of interacting with specific organs or body systems. (And calorie counting as if we are machines.) Cuisine has come to focus on the emotional satisfaction on combinations of flavours. From the level of the body, however, what we eat is a means for informing the body of our context. In the same way as our senses take in information from our context via signals of vibrations, likewise the food we eat is a material transfer of holographic information of the integrity of our context. We physically chew food in the mouth, chemically simmer it in the stomach, digest it with enzymes in the duodenum, and absorb the molecular spectrum in our gut. It is evident that the food is broken down into its molecular spectrum to feed the cells. It is the signature of that spectrum that informs our body of our context. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2007a), “The Mind of the Scientist” (Calibrating the Core/Code of Science), CASYS, Liège. [PPT] Descriptions of objective science is based on scientists’ subjective experience. The language of equations and formulations are a reflection of the internal processes in our mind. The relationship between the external reality and internal realisation is found in our body. All impressions of the ‘world around us’ are in fact sensations from sensory cells in and on the surface of our body. As such, we do not experience a reality ‘around’ is. it means that the image that we construct of our context is an artefact, based on the integrative regulatory digestive processes of the cells within our body. These intracellular and intercellular processes are experienced as our mind. It means that we need to (learn to) calibrate the characteristics and settings of our mind as is done for all measuring devices that are used in science. We need to learn to calibrate and use the mind of the scientist, as that is the one tool of science on which all science is based. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2007b), “The Equation of Health” (Our Body Math/Map of Health and Knowledge), CASYS, Liège. [PPT] Health can be described in great precision and detail. The Equation of Health is a formal formulation of the nature and characteristics of the integrity of our body. It is based in the trace of the unfoldment of the first cell of our body, the Zygote. This method makes use of a generalised form of the Time Fractal of Susie Vrobel. The same method can be used to trace back the origin of the zygote from the merging of all the ancestors of a person. This trace back can be done also for all previous state phase changes from which our body was formed. Together this shows, in fractal form, the complete decision tree by which the organism unfolds its coherence in the context. This is the Equation of Health. The result is a 4D Fractal Tree that interfaces with its context: the inputs from the context integrate back into this fractal system. Experience which ‘do not compute’ into this system fractal disintegrate the system, locally in nodes, pathways or circuits or systemically by the disintegration of whole system. The Equation of Health offers a fundamental basis for healing by a first principle understanding of health. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2007c), “Creation and Creativity in Science”.. Science is a social activity. It is a culture (or cult) of communication, in which the outcome of the collective is based on the qualities of the individual. Personal experience, interaction in relationships, group membership and belonging to a species are all processed at different levels of conscious. All of these level play a role in the creation of the findings of science. Science itself is inherently unscientific (in the Classical sense): it is neither predictable nor repeatable. Instead of focussing on the archiving and validation of the work of others in science, it pays of to focus on the art of seeing the unseen and communicating the unknown. It is the artist-scientist, not the scientist-archiver, which creates science. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2007d), “Time and Timing in our Body and Life”.. The cells in our body operate as a unit, in unity, because of the synergy our of their synchronisation. The Gap Phase in the cells cycle makes it possible for cells to, individually, work together. The Meridian system is a high speed system for phase integration. The Time Fractal Susie Vrobel) makes it possible to describe how all the cells in our body form one integral unit. This can be best seen by regarding our body not as an object, but as a process in time. On basis of understanding the principle of process coherence, it is possible to also discern loss of process coherence. There are many Time Base Diseases, in which the loss of cell synchronisation, locally or regionally, is the basis of loss of body integrity. These can be found in the body anatomy, physiology, regulatory and phase information systems of the body. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2009a), “Science of Life (Partcipation in Creation)” Life operates by the use of Freedom of Choice.Freedom of choice is located in the interface, in the system boundary. It is a singularity, operated by a 4D Vortex dynamic. In our body this can be sen in the dynamic of Cell Division, in the principle if information/material ingestion, in immunity/consciousness and in the regulatory system, representing the dynamics of life. Life is the experience of Freedom of Choice; which we learn to operate by trial; and error. Error (Feedback) is a crucial factor in learning how to operate the vector operating the 4D Dimensional logic. We experience in our body how this links and unifies the light field, electromagnetic, chemical and physical fields in the body; i.e. the photon, electron, free electron (chemical) and boudn electron (physical) balance; which is the means for the Consciousness Activation Cascade. O#o (van Nieuwenhuijze, Otto), (2009a), “Scientific Consensus (Is Science Scientific?)” Science is NOT scientific, in the classical sense. The development os science is organic, because iot is developed by scientists. Every 'Objective Observation' is based on Subjective Sensation. Science is created by scientist, as instrument for collective Angst Reduction; a psychologic defence strategy for society. Science developed out of resistance against the church rule in Europe, with its oppressive mind control., said to be founded on scripture. All descriptions are always based on experience; not the other way around as some scientific fundamentalists aim to proclaim. These are the so-called unscientists, practising unscience, and thus able to declare anything to be unscientific. Unscientists operate emotional means to prevent scientific research. Scientists explore the unknown; Unscientists attempt to prevent such studies by proclaiming something unscientific. The unscientists operate the same methods as were used by the inquisition for their witch hunts. By understanding how we relate to the unknown we can also understand that nothing is 'unscientific".

A combination of natural herbal botanical extracts to help your pet cat and dog cope with stress, anxiety and hyperactivity. Works within 20 minutes. Ideal for firework season and anytime your pet cat and dog is stressed or anxious. Contains: Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) Naturally powerful, non-addictive and anti-spasmodic nerve relaxant, sedative, and pain reliever. Its actions are due to its calming and balancing effect on the central nervous system. Traditionally used for all states of nervous anxiety and irritability. Skullcap (Scutellaria laterifolia) Relaxing herbal remedy, traditionally used for nervous tension and anxiety with calming effect. Oats (Avena sativa) Gentle calming herb with a special affinity with the nervous system. In combination with Valerian, the synergy is special, each herb enhancing the action of the other. Passionflower (Passiflora incarnate) Traditionally used for sleeplessness, anxiety and irritability, its non-addictive calming effect is due to its action on the central nervous system. Wild Lettuce (Lactuca virosa) Traditionally used for hyperactivity, insomnia, anxiety, nervousness and excitability and to promote restful sleep. Works well in combination with Valerian and Passionflower. Jamaica Dogwood (Piscidia erythrina) Well known mild sedative and nerve relaxant, used by herbalists for over-excitability and sleeplessness. At times of stress the body uses vitamins and minerals at a high rate, in particular B vitamins. Supplementing the diet with a specially designed animal multi-vitamin and multi-mineral complex can be beneficial. Phytopet K9-Sure Super Green Food is an ideal addition to Calm to promote healthy, happy pets.

Invest in true values like education, health, humanity, nature and sustainability. Greening Deserts are economical, educational, cultural, social, scientific and sustainable projects to reduce desertification and global warming, to improve healthy environments, agriculture and forestry. Also for urban areas, city forests and gardens – especially community and rooftop gardens. They are good to cool down urban areas and filter the air. @Urban Greening, Rooftop Greening, Community Gardening and City Farming (City Nursery)! We can start primarly in the countries where we get the best, fastest and most support, also financially. The goal is to establish Research and Greening Camps for drylands and wastelands, especially in African and Arabic nations. We want to connect them during the years and bring the nations together, also by connected megaprojects like the third Great Green Wall Project, the Green Ring Africa Platform (coastal greening), the Greenhouse Ship and Greening Coasts project. At the Frankfurt Book Fair and during the years we exchanged and talked a lot with many awesome people around the world. Exchanged and invited many ambassadors, ministers, trade commissioners, scientists and experts to join our campaigns, initiatives and projects – especially the 100 Billion Trees project and the Trillion Trees Campaign! If each nation would plant a billion trees minimum during the next years we maybe can cool down the planet and really reach some of the climate goals. Healthy and natural environments are the best for health! That’s why Greening Deserts projects want to create and restore healthy environments worldwide. By the way, trees and many plants produce not just fresh air and water, they provide food and are the best medicine or health therapy. Clean air, water and a healthy environment are Human Rights! To support the greening and forestation process, we want to develop seeding and greening drones, for larger areas we can use solar planes. It’s one of the first projects we will start at the first Greening Camp next year. The drones are mainly for greening drylands and wastelands fast and efficient, they are also good to improve the diversity of existing areas and forests. To reduce paper and wood waste we not just recommend recycled papers and produce on demand technologies, we started two projects to save the forests, too. Hemp Papers and Hemp Houses was founded during the last year. We will produce a lot of hemp during the greening process and can deliver a lot of raw materials for innovative paper, carton packaging and building products (like hemp bricks, press plates and OSB-boards). Because hemp is one of our key plants for the greening projects, so we can offer this resource for hemp product producers, the book, paper, packaging and building industry. Investors and strong future partners are welcome to join us in the early stage with green finance and seed capital. You can download the article: Greening Deserts Sustainable Investment in CleanTech GreenTech Education and GreenFinance Drought and heat are also a problem for the farmers. European farms expect harvest losses of 30 to 50 percent compared to the previous year. In parts of Germany, the soil is as dry as it has been for 50 years. Extreme drought, thunderstorms and floods often occur together and can severely affect affected countries. These extreme weather conditions are increasing not just in Africa but also in Europe, particularly hit countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy, where massive forest fires and the resulting desertification increases extremely. This year, even European countries such as Germany and Poland are affected, where some regions even introduced emergency harvesting and water restrictions after the second drought. In some regions, rivers and lakes dry up, even the groundwater and drinking water is scarce. Greening Deserts has been reporting extensively on these topics for years, especially in terms of soil degradation and desertification. Large opencast mining areas (surface mining deserts), cities (concrete deserts) and urban regions also contribute to this extreme climate. Many of these consequences of man-made climate change are not exactly predictable, but can be estimated very well with today’s scientific findings in climate research. We discussed with many climate researchers, nature and environmentalists and exchanged about this problem. Other topics such as the reform of agriculture, soil improvement and water improvement have been and will be discussed in detail. Unfortunately, we have not received any active and financial support from the responsible authorities since years. For a long time we could do research on more effective cultivation and irrigation methods with a first greening and research camp in the surface mining landscape of Leipzig (Lakeland Neuseenland) – if our inquiries and demands had been taken seriously, especially by the big parties who were informed several times. Our demands and requests for help to over 700 German foundations, especially in the field of education, nature and environmental protection were ignored or there were the usual excuses. We hope for quick help or support, so that we can work together with all involved parties to make the coal exit and transformation of the energy industry and agriculture to clean energy and technologies (cleantech) fast and efficient. We want to cultivate bamboo, hemp and palm trees on a large scale in opencast mining areas – not just because of the benefits in these areas, but also because of new innovative developments and compensatory measures in relation to global warming. In addition, special desert plants, extremely resistant, robust and undemanding plants are explored, such as rock garden plants and desert bamboo. Thus, many useful plants for improving the quality of soil, air and water can be used not only on land, but also in urban areas and large cities. Of course we will run a diverse agriculture and gardening – this is also called ecofarming. Wild blooms and flowerbeds counteract massive bee and insect deaths or in general the massive extinction of species. As you can see Greening Deserts is not only concerned with deserts and desertification but with many other important tasks and topics. If this is not eligible .. an extensive consultation and accompaniment to appropriate funding would be really appropriate. Visit our social and scientific pages and groups for more information. You’re welcome to discuss and to exchange with us about all these topics! We are proud to announce a new project and initiative for Greening Deserts projects like Greening Coasts and Greening Islands. The world’s first greenhouse ship, container ship and solar ship together in one big transport ship can deliver and transport greenhouses and equipment for professional gardening, greening, farming, forestation and other fields like solar applications or solar installations directly to areas where it’s needed. It’s a logistical and infrastructure innovation, because the ship can ship along the coastlines between the big habours of the world – you don’t must drive hundred or even thousands of kilometers from the habours to the destinations. With solar boats, drones, landing crafts and solar trucks the needed goods can delivered directly to the customers on the shortest ways, also deep into the continents. Boat landing stages are not necessary because landing crafts and small transport boats can ship directly to the coasts with fortified areas and roads nearby. Sustainable shipping with greening ships and solar ships will change the world into a better, cleaner and greener place. Greenhouse Ships, container ships and Solar Ships could have mobile units or sections inside and outside. So you can move and exchange containers like in automated parking systems. This allows to load and unload the ship at any place of coastlines. Solar modules can be folded out and affixed with clever clip connections on the top or sides of the containers and on other free places or surfaces. A mobile floating solar field can be spread out on the water to charge the solar accumulators. Desalination of sea water is no longer a problem these days, so the greenhouse section (fixed or mobile greenhouse containers) will have fresh water and service water. On the official Greenhouse Ship and Solar Ships page we will report about the project development in future and also about interesting developments related to greenhouse boats and ships. Greenhouse Ship™ was founded and initiated by Oliver Gediminas Caplikas from Leipzig. http://www.greenhouseship.com About Greening Deserts: Greening Deserts are economical, educational, cultural, social, scientific and sustainable projects to reduce desertification and global warming. Further tasks and goals of the projects are the education, research and realization of a sustainable greening, management and cultivation of all kinds of poor, barren and dry areas, landscapes (drylands) or regions. That’s why the main projects of Greening Deserts treating not only typical deserts but all types of deserts, including surface mining deserts, concrete- or urban-deserts. This can all be done with suitable greening and research camps, stations or centers. Desert research, research and development of sustainable greening methods, greenhouse management, forestry, agriculture and cultural industries are the primary fields of the concept and greening deserts projects. The greening and research camp with a greenhouse, office and laboratory containers or tents for the research and development of greening and irrigation methods is the primary objective for opencast mine or post-mining landscapes. Secondary objectives, such as sustainable recreational use and tourism offers, can be realized while the operation during the years. Greening Deserts has already applied for some idea, startup and business competitions, e.g. for the Hamburg Innovation Award, but to date no answer or any feedback. Today is a very special day. Greening Deserts is proud to announce the first palm nursery and tree nursery, for important and rare endangered plants, in Leipzig. We will plant and research also other crops for advanced plant biology, usefull essences, medical substances, biomass and material science. LE PALMS (Leipzig Palms), the official palm platform, portal, forum and group for palms was founded last year. The page and shop is ready and in progress. We want to open the first palm café, lounge and palm shop in Leipzig, Saxony. In relation to the greening and research camp in the area of Leipzig we can use a greenhouse and part of the camp for the palm cultivation. Since years we have the idea to launch an extra palm garden and palm shop with café directly in Leipzig. (Palm Café Leipzig). LE Palms is a new platform and portal for palms, especially for Africa, Europe and Middle East. We want to establish primarly world famous and usefull palms in Europe. Building palm gardens, parks, woods and forests together with European palm societies. Everyone is invited to join our palm tree, greening and plant community. Stay tuned for more news and updates. Visit the official pages for more information. http://www.lepalms.eu Greening Deserts are economical, educational, cultural, social, scientific and sustainable projects to reduce desertification and global warming on a large scale. And Greening Deserts projects arn’t just for deserts or dry landscapes (drylands or wastelands), they are also good for urban regions. Greening camps in cities could build gardens, parks, woods and forests in urban areas (Urban Greening). The projects could have a very positive and big impact on many important sectors. With the right financial support, sustainable fundings or investments the projects could be realised fast and efficient. The new Master Plan, Business Plan and Financial Plan for the Greening Deserts projects is ready after months of work. A first draft of the master plan and financial plan (budget) was pre-released in October, the complete business plan in December 2017. Both current versions in German can be downloaded here or in the download area. The professional translation into English was not possible due to other important work or projects, also because special variants of the business plan for Germany and a startup competition of start2grow were made and sent there. In the next few days, a general public version of the business plan will be put online. Here is a short excerpt: The first greening camp (pilot project) is planned for the opencast mining area in the Leipzig region (Lakeland) in Saxony. Preferred land or terrain are located at the Cospudener-, Markkleeberger- and Zwenkauer See. However, the project can also be realized in other opencast mining regions. Alternative locations can also be found outside of open-pit landscapes. Terrains at waters, such as rivers, lakes and seas are always prefered. Dune, coastal, field and desert research are primary fields of science. Equally important is the research and development of sustainable greening methods, greenhouse management, forestry, agriculture and cultural economy in conjunction with the sciences. The first greening and research camp with greenhouse, office and laboratory container(s) or tents should be a central meeting place and research station for all the topics and areas mentioned. Interesting insights and developments are shared with institutions and partners and published when needed. With interested and competent persons, organisations or bodies will be communicated during the project. Communication, exchange of experience and knowledge as well as good management of innovation and knowledge are important areas for the future. The Change-, Compliance-, Decision-Making-, Risk- and Project Management plays also an important role (partly also in the initial phase). The management instruments and the organizational structure will be adjusted accordingly. With sufficient financial resources, a financial manager (alternatively CFO) and project manager will be hired as soon as possible. The tasks of the CEO as well as CTO can be taken by the founder of Greening Deserts. Extensive information is available especially in the areas of development, management, risk analysis and finance. In order to mitigate or prevent most risks from the outset, the best possible risk spreading will be established. For particularly important areas there are alternative solutions and plans. For the company it is important to create a balanced working environment and working methods. A positive working environment, a pleasant atmosphere and relaxed interaction are fundamental principles. It is planned to work sustainable and forward-looking or proactive manner. This corporate culture should also be carried out to the world. With serious interest in cooperations or partnerships and after concluded cooperation agreement (alternatively CDA and LoI) the current business plan, financial plan and many interesting annexes can be sent also in English. The general concept (master plans) and the business plan are constantly being developed. The internal version will not be published or otherwise published and only will be made available to future partners if there is genuine interest in collaborations or meaningful cooperations. It is a living business and master plan that is constantly expanding, improving, simplifying and evolving. The projects can start also in countries that invest first in a big Greening Deserts camp. The time to invest is now! Help us to reduce global warming and negative human-made climate changes on a global scale. Here is a shortened version, the first pages of the German Business Plan. The second Greening Deserts Master Plan for desert areas such as open-pit deserts is ready and of course in continuous development. The business plan, concept and study on sustainable greening methods, greenhouse management, forestry, agriculture and cultural economy for opencast mine and post-mining landscapes can also be adapted as needed or revised for any situation. In the following a few special Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) and innovative ideas are briefly summarized. Most work, services or services can be realized with sufficient resources and resources with a few helpers. With money, financial resources or support it is no problem to build fast a good time. The services are chargeable, but in some exceptions such as investments, joint ventures, sponsorships or similar collaborations may be free or mutually beneficial. Various constellations, partnerships and synergy effects are possible. Further information can be found in the Masterplan 2 and partner, investor or sponsoring concept. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. – Albert Einstein Faith moves mountains, intelligence goes over them, wisdom goes around them, but love levels them. – Matshona Dhliwayo You don’t climb mountains without a team, you don’t climb mountains without being fit, you don’t climb mountains without being prepared and you don’t climb mountains without balancing the risks and rewards. And you never climb a mountain on accident – it has to be intentional. – Mark Udall Doubt makes the mountain that faith can shift. – German proverb Faith can move mountains. Doubt can create them. Excerpt of the Business Plan and Master Plan 2 in german language: Greening and Research Camps for Surface Mining Deserts: Concept and Study on Sustainable Greening Methods, Greenhouse Management, Forestry, Agriculture and Culture Industry for Surface Mining and Post-Mining Landscapes. – This is a pre-release published on 31 October 2017, Reformation Day in Germany. Desert research, research and development of sustainable greening methods, greenhouse management, forestry, agriculture and cultural industries are the primary fields of the concept and greening deserts projects. The greening and research camp with a greenhouse, office or laboratory containers or tents for the research and development of greening and irrigation methods is the primary objective for open pit mines. Secondary objectives, such as sustainable recreational use and tourism offers, can be realized during the operation over the years and are not necessary for the successful start of the research project and base camp in the opencast mining area or a post-mining landscape. This also eliminates all associated conditions, provisions and legal regulations, since for the time being no public recreational use or tourism operation takes place. Nevertheless, forward-looking considerations and planning approaches as well as extensive points on the areas or topics were worked out and summarized in this concept. Greening Deserts projects are always planned as long-term and sustainable as possible. Further tasks and goals of the projects are the education, research and realization of a sustainable greening, management and cultivation of all kinds of poor, barren and dry areas, landscapes (drylands) or regions. That’s why the main project u.a. Greening Deserts, which treats not only typical deserts but all types of deserts, including open-pit deserts, concrete or urban deserts. This can all be done with suitable greening and research camps, wards and centers. In this work and in the concept possibilities and ways of doing so are analyzed and discussed on the example of research and greening camps for opencast deserts, mining landscapes or post-mining landscape landscapes. The research camp should be an encounter, education and communication platform in post-mining landscapes, internally for experts, experts and scientists, and in future also publicly for all possible visitors. For a start, the greening, nature and research projects focus on nature experiences, important experience and research in the particular area or terrain. Everything is analyzed, documented and informed about interesting findings and developments. In the course of the project, interested and competent bodies or persons will be communicated – via existing and new networks, and then on site as well. In addition to well-known environmental education instruments and programs, the active experience of nature and creative forms of exploration and experimentation should also be researched and developed. Particular attention is paid to the practice-oriented work, if possible outdoors. The motto is: away from unhealthy, artificial working and living spaces. Out of sterile offices or laboratories. Out of the house or city, work and live in healthy habitats, in a positive environments of true and true nature or natural environment. Extensive research results, discoveries, developments and experiences in all mentioned areas of projects can be exchanged and compared with international institutions and scientific institutions. Most of the information and results are publicly or online available and will be published according to their level of development or needs. This will further enhance development and processes and can really help problem areas and poor countries (Third World / Emerging Countries). The research results, experiences and insights form a cornerstone for space gardening or space research in relation to professional greenhouse management, even for desert planets such as Mars. Also interesting would be a Mars Research Station for surface mining or post-mining landscapes. For this reason, with sufficient financial support or funding, further developments and research should be carried out, such as hydroponics, such as aquaponics or hydroponics, solar greenhouses and special biospheres. During the first years additional places, paths and paths for recreational activities or recreational activities such as hiking and cycling can be planned and set up. For this purpose, with sufficient resources extra vantage points, experience rooms, rest areas, shelters, actuation and art objects can be realized. This is very good due to a strong presence and good contacts.. Further information (texts, pictures, lists, tables, etc.) in the concept or appendix. This concept, scientific study, market analysis and master plan was writen by Oliver Gediminas Caplikas. Shocking news, facts and scandals about the Climate Conference in Morocco. “The organization of COP22 will cost some €100 million.” Where all the money is gone or for what exactly was it spent on? We wanted to visit the UN Climate Conference of the Parties (COP22) in Marrakesh, Morocco. Seems we are not welcome, we got no invitation. But ok, we have enough to do, no money and also no time for endless talks like in Paris which changed nothing or too little. Since years we call for help and real support, also financially. Hope they start finally to do something for the nature, for the poor people and for the regions really need change or help – so how they promised the last years. With all the money they waste for such conferences or campaigns they could help all that poor people and regions. And what is with animal and human rights and biggest climate problems like air pollution caused by meat and coal production? Questions over questions Of course we are for the good people, organisations and developments at and around the conference, especially for the alternative camps like Alter Cop22 Forum de la Terre. Today we want to write a bit about greening projects for refugees. Why so many refugee camps have no or so less greenhouses, gardens and parks? For some time we think about to help the poor with our greening or gardening projects, for countries (landscape greening) or cities (urban greening). Together it’s really easy to build up little greenhouses, community gardens and use permaculture or gardening techniques fit good with the regional conditions and environment, also without big irrigation. There are great greenhouse projects like Roots Up using water supply by air. The refugee camps also could use cheap and portable (pop up) greenhouses, just for the case that camps will be closed and destroyed. How you can see we always thinking sustainable, economically and social. Greening Deserts camps are a good example for refugee camps – greening camps for refugees. We are proud to announce press releases in three languages, new press releases and more languages coming soon! Share our sustainable greening projects for a better and greener future. Download the official Media Package: http://www.greeningdeserts.com/greeningdeserts_media.zip L’agriculture durable et le reboisement pour les zones sèches avec des projets de Greening Deserts Leur objectif était toujours de rendre les zones sèches verte avec l’aide de cultivation durable. Ils ont hâte de rendre ce monde plus vert pour les générations futures. Avec l’initiative pionnière de Greening Deserts, l’organisation envisage de faire un bon usage de l’agriculture durable et les énergies renouvelables pour le bien de cultivation des zones pauvres. Considérant que les plantes du désert spéciales comme Desert Bamboo qui sont capables de produire des couches de terre végétale rapide et peut également offrir des ombres à d’autres plantes autour, ce projet vise essentiellement à cultiver les bosquets et les forêts, mais aussi la nourriture, les herbes et les plantes médicinales de chaque région. Avec l’utilisation de systèmes d’eau de mer et de partage filtrés sur- et sous-sol, ce projet peut effectivement être un énorme succès. Avec l’accent principal sur l’utilisation des technologies propres, ils prévoient d’utiliser des conduites d’eau de bambou dans le but d’atteindre les zones sèches ou les régions éloignées dans le futur. Alors que le scénario mondialisé a pris tout l’univers sur un parcours d’une verdure perdue, cette organisation vise à rendre la planète plus verte du nouveau. Ils sont prêts à commencer partout où il y a une forte potentialité de produire la couche arable. Ils ont choisi des pays secs comme l’Egypte, la Libye, l’Algérie, la Tunisie, l’Afrique, le Maroc, l’Espagne, le Liban, la Syrie, l’Arabie Saoudite, Qatar, Émirats arabes unis, l’Iran, le Pakistan, l’Inde, la Chine, et beaucoup d’autres. Join the official Facebook Group for Greening Deserts, there you can discuss and exchange about sustainability, greening and other similar themes. Show some support, invite your friends and share the project. Each good or constructive feedback is welcome!

Former San Fransisco Shock player David "nomy" Lizarraga Ramirez Osmar has had one hell of a year. The kind-hearted main tank has gone from leading the charge for his team in the Overwatch League to showcasing why he made it there in the first place on the Overwatch Contenders team, First Generation. The team is preparing for their week five match against Boston Uprising Academy and nomy is laser-focused on one thing: catapulting his team to success. He’s had a taste of Overwatch’s grand stage, but his appetite for it is far from full. A veteran in his own right, nomy has been working, tooth and bone, to make his dreams a reality. Roughly two years ago, he was playing under the Immortals banner and booking his tickets to the Overwatch Winter Premiere, which he would end up winning. Nomy’s faced hurdles before and being let go from the Shock was just another hurdle he’ll undoubtedly leap over in due time. This return to form for nomy could come sooner than expect seeing how he and First Generation are already qualified for the Overwatch Contenders playoffs set to conclude sometime in January of 2019. A top-four placing or even a win coupled with his past experience could be the push he needs to return to the biggest stage in Overwatch. The Overwatch League alumni spoke with Esports Heaven about his recent stint in the amateur division of Overwatch Contenders and what his goals are leading into the new year.Obviously, you are not with the San Fransisco Shock anymore, but that doesn’t mean that the experience wasn’t valuable. What were some of your biggest lessons learned with your experience in the Overwatch League?I learned a lot, it changed the perspective on how I see and play the game, also I learned a lot from playing with and against the best players in the world; there are no words to describe how much I was able to learn and I'm so grateful for itMotivation has been something that has been a talking point it seems like for a while and as someone who quite literally played since day one, how do you focus on improvement above all else with all the distractions that everyday life provides us? For me practicing with my teammates helps me a lot. I really like my teammates and I want them to be successful in Overwatch and their esports careers. I want to be the best teammate I can, and make sure we are successful together. When it comes to the limitations of age in esports there seems to be some very hard and fast opinions. Do you think the way that the Overwatch League and Overwatch Contenders for that matters is structured helps to extend the age gap of professional players? Yes, the way that some of Overwatch characters are designed allows for a different set of skill set to come into play, as an example with the current GOATs meta. Instead of relying on raw mechanics, you need to have good cooldown and ult management to be successful. Of course, mechanics are still important, but decision making and cooldown and ultimate management matter a lot.Recently you and First Generation played in Jayne’s Tournament of Future Champions and you managed a very respectable 3-4th place finish. What I’d like to get your take on is the talk that hero bans may be something that the tournament is willing to test. From a player’s perspective, how do you think that would impact the game?Hero bans sound really interesting in general. I think it can make the game less stale and more dynamic. In the beginning, it will have a huge impact on the professional scene, but I'm very positive it will bring a new and different set of problems that people will dislike.Heading into the North American Contenders playoffs, what would be the ideal scenario for you and First Generation? Who would you like to pull for your first round match?The ideal scenario is being able to win Contenders and provide a good finals match. For the first-round match, I think a win vs XL2 sounds really good to me.With a close series against Fusion University and being able to take a map off of Atlanta Academy, it’s safe to say that Next Generation is not to be overlooked. You’ve played some of the strongest teams in North American Overwatch; what are some of the big points that separate the ‘good’ from the ‘great?’ I think being able to have a good core on a team is important. If you play with the same teammates, you develop team synergy and personality. I do believe if you build a nice foundation for a team; the more time that core stays and plays together, the better of a team they will be.There is no question that you're skilled at the game, but would you ever consider following someone like Avast or JAKE into the broadcasting side of esports? Would you tease the idea of being a coach at some point? Someone is going to have to build up the next generation, pun intended. Hahaha, I have been thinking about the coaching or analyst position for the future. For me, as long as I can play and prove that I have the potential and mechanical skills to play the game at a very high level I will still compete because that is what I love.With the new year quickly approaching, what are some of your personal goals you want to meet coming into 2019? I want to perform my best in all my following tournaments and get myself back into the Overwatch League.Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him [email protected] courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

A method for rehabilitating children with cerebral palsy and cerebrospinal diseases with use of an evolutional robot The function determines the material and field forms of synergy, the basic law of bionics. Any movement of a purposeful character is realized in the presence of a multilink biokinematic structure and instantaneous control units (synergies) of this structure. Biomechanical or neurological pathology curtails the constructive processes, observed in children with diseases/damages of the brain. The author described purposeful movements at norm and, on this basis, a synthesized back task in case of pathology (deficit of muscular and controlling activities). Full Text:PDF (Русский) Dyukendzhiev E. Bionics in the rehabilitation of cerebral palsy and spinal diseases. T. I. / E. Dyukendzhiev. — Riga: Riga Technical University, 2011. — 178 p. Doman G. What to do if your child has brain damage / G. Doman. — Moscow: Terevinf, 2007. — 330 р. Dukendjiev E. Rehabilitācijas lokomotora robots. Patenta pieteikums Nr. P. 12–15, 31.01.2012. Dukendjiev E. Evolūcijas rehabilitācijas robots. Patenta pi¬eteikums Nr. P. 12–59, 16.04.2012. Copyright (c) 2014 Yevgeny Diukenjiev This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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The success of our company - this is our team. We appreciate people who have their own opinion, ready to defend it, with the ability to hear the opinion of their colleagues. The initiative, focus on results, accountability and professionalism - these are the qualities that enable our team, made up of a bright and creative people to work on the principle of synergy. We enable employees to grow professionally and personally, and the team work on a common goal, we can create confidence in the future. Annually by Superjob.ru conducting large-scale research among companies, identifying the most attractive employers in terms applicant. The title of "Attractive Employer 2015" awarded to companies whose activities meet these criteria: - The level of fees proposed in the job, not below the average for the city. - No complaints of applicants for vacancies employer during their publication on the portal Superjob.ru. - No complaints on the failure by the employer applicants terms of the employment agreement within 6 months of employment. The title of "Attractive Employer 2015" received by the company - a measure of confidence of applicants and a sign of an open and forward-looking company with a stable position on the market. It is also a competitive advantage of our company in the fight for the best candidates. JSC Valta Pet Products 5th year in a row the title of "Attractive Employer".

Over the summer I was working with a case-study who I knew needed to get back into the tub. This person used to take baths galore, but ceased to do so since moving to New York City (read: small bathroom and a not-so-ideal-sized bathtub). I needed to deliver a synergy of essential oils to her via the bath but did not want to bog her down with dilution instructions and cautions that might have kept her from using this beneficial modality (e.g., diluting in a lipophilic substance at x number of drops/dilution rate and why). So where did that leave us? Bath Bombs (a.k.a., Aromatic Bath Fizzies)*! The thought behind using essential oils via this delivery method is to: - Ensure the safe delivery of essential oils to the bather - Not make the bather worry about “doing things right” (stress is anathema to a relaxing bath) - Make it a fun (fizzing!) and therapeutic bathing experience. So, I needed to do some research. How do I make these? What are the ingredients and why am I using them? What are the correct ratios? What is the best order of operation for making these crazy things? I did the research for you–read on for the results and have fun! (By the way, these fizz because of the acid/base reaction when the two are catalyzed by water.) *There is NOTHING therapeutic about using the word “bomb,” especially when considering the wellness of a sentient being. (Always remember: solubilize essential oils in a lipophilic solubilizing agent (e.g., honey, milk, a nut/seed oil) before adding them to a bath as some essential oils may be dermal irritants and/or mucus membrane irritants.) |Baking Soda (Sodium bicarbonate)||4||ounces||Mild alkaline| |Citric Acid (substitute: cream of tartar)||2||ounces||Mild acid| |Magnesium sulfate||0.5||ounces||Inert (keeps chemical reaction from happening as water is added in the mixing process)| |Corn Starch (substitute: Arrowroot powder, Milk powder, Coconut Milk powder)||0.5||ounces||Inert (helps soak up liquid/solidify the ball)/Corn starch helps “float”| |Nut/Seed Oil (use a light/less dense oil)||20-25||ml||Acts as your dispersing agent; adjust amount accordingly| |Essential oils||1-2||ml||(20 drops of EO in 1 ml)| |Hydrosol||5-10||sprays||The water element helps “glue” the dry ingredients together (as does the carrier oil). Though beware, as it is a catalyst for the chemical reaction!| |Equipment needed: (You might not have all of these-what matters is the ratio–see below in the end-notes) - Measure out the Baking Soda, Magnesium and Arrowroot powder using a scale. - Combine the three ingredients together and run through a sieve to ensure no clumps remain. - Mix well with a non-reactive spoon to ensure the ingredients are evenly distributed. - Measure out the Citric Acid in a separate bowl and set aside. - Measure out the Carrier Oil and Essential Oils in a beaker or graduated cylinder. - Ensure your essential oils are solubilized in the carrier oil. - Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix to thoroughly distribute the oils. - Spritz the mixture with the hydrosol of your choice and mix thoroughly to distribute the moisture amongst the dry ingredients. - Remember, you can always add but not subtract—spritz a few times, stir and then see how well the “dough” clumps together. If the “dough” is too wet, add a tiny bit more arrowroot powder. - Add the Citric Acid to the mixture and stir evenly to distribute. - The citric acid is added at the end of the process as it reacts with the baking soda if water is present. If the water (hydrosol) is incorporated into all of the other ingredients first, it is “tempered down” and will not react (as much/minimally) with the baking soda. - Once thoroughly mixed, pack the dampened mixture into your molds of choice. - Once firmly packed and formed, place the aromatic fizzies onto a tray lined with parchment paper. - The aromatic fizzies will be firm within 2-3 hours; allow 24-48 for them to fully dry before storing them. - Once dry, store the aromatic bath products away from moisture, in a sealed, non-reactive container. (Moisture/Water is the catalyst for the acid-base reaction!) *Don’t get too fancy—shelf stability matters (e.g., I thought of using liquid coconut milk as a dispersing agent (as opposed to jojoba oil) and determined that would be a bad idea unless I planned on freezing the end product). **Ratio guidelines: 2 parts Sodium Bicarbonate: 1 part Citric Acid: (Optional: 0.5 part Starch: 0.5 part Salts); Dry ingredients should be 90-98% of the product whereas wet ingredients should be 2-10%; NO MORE THAN 2 ML of EOs should be used in a bath fizzy–more than that is wasteful, disrespectful of the plant and could be harmful depending on the EOs used. The therapy of EOs lies in their subtlety (i.e., less means more). Note: Many recipes call for only using the base, acid and alcohol-based witch hazel, many recipes also call for spritzing the product with alcohol (as a fixative), adding dyes and other objects like glitter. While always thinking about the therapeutic nature of the product (e.g., organic ingredients, using coconut milk powder and jojoba for skin softening) you are using/making, also consider how some substances should NOT go down the drain (glitter), how others may stain your tub (e.g., dye) and how it might not be a great idea to immerse your body in questionable substances. Aromatherapy is subtle and therapeutic—this is why I chose to use hydrosols instead of alcohol and/or the witch hazel commonly sold in drug-stores.

About MeMore About Me Classically trained and professionally freelancing since 2010 I’ve had an opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients from youth ministers to attorneys. I am always interested in new opportunities to apply my design and development skills. My specialties are branding & corporate identity, web design, email development and graphic design. Find out more about my services. A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. Great branding and identity goes beyond a solid logo, branding is about maintaining your visual style across all channels to deliver a consistent experience for your customerst. I offer professional branding and corporate identity development services for businesses, including logotypes and graphic standards manuals. I will develop a design proposal tailored to support your specific needs. There are three responses to a piece of design—yes, no, and WOW! WOW is the one to aim for. I can create a visual experience to enhance your communication with your audience across all channels and create stronger brand synergy with your customers. Great graphic design is key to show your existing and prospective customers the uniqueness of your event, publication or product. I have over five years professional experience creating print-ready designs and can create nearly any type of design, including: brochures, stationary, infographics, reports, business cards, trade show materials and more. 75% of subscribers say they are highly likely to delete an email if they can’t read it on their smartphone. Tired of struggling with your email designs? I can help you design/develop fresh email templates or one-off campaigns for any email service provider. Without modern and responsive email designs you are missing out on a huge opportunity to optimize your campaigns for mobile users and greatly increase engagement. Why Choose Me? Because I am... What People Say ? Michael and I worked together on many design projects at Hallmark Data Systems and I was consistently blown away by his ability to create new and original content. We worked together on a massive company rebranding and several product launches that Michael supported with his design skills and expertise. Always going above and beyond, Michael took on multiple side projects and was never afraid to try something new. I was always excited to see what he had in the works. What People Say? Michael is as talented an individual as they come in the business. Don’t be fooled by his title, while he may be a graphic designer first it hasn’t stopped his willingness to learn new crafts and trades. On the email team, Michael is known as our subject matter expert on new emerging technologies. He’s always the first to discover new things and experiment with them in the field. I know many of our clients have relied on the word and findings of Michael and have trusted him in being integral parts of their overall marketing strategy. Always a customer first guy, he’s always looking at what he can do to better the client or fulfill their needs. Working with Michael, I could tell early on that he brings a level of maturity and “zen-like” professionalism to the job. He never gets rattle during high pressure situations and always seems to deliver on time. What impresses me the most is that Michael displays all these attributes at such a young age – whereas many of us would be lucky to “get it” later in our career or if at all. I consider myself quite fortunate to work with Michael in the early stages of his career and I look forward to seeing his success grow in the future. What People Say ? Michael and I have worked closely together for the past year on various marketing efforts as well as on the same operational team for our email marketing product. Michael strives for excellence in his graphic design, and always has the user in mind. I am able to create copy that I know he will take and design engaging, informative material that fits our company branding and culture. He is passionate about what he does, and knows how to take direction – as well as work on teams with people who may not know much about graphic design. On the operations side, Michael is able to quickly understand a user’s workflow and where any inefficiencies may lie. He has been a big help with developing our best practices standards for clients and consulting with them on email design. I have enjoyed working with Michael and look forward to what he brings to the table next. What People Say? Michael Dulle has created my business website, brochures, business cards, and even photographed my work to be featured online. He is creative and helpful during the creative process as well as with follow up! I most recently hired Michael to create personal logos and a gobo design. He is professional, efficient, and wonderful to work with – which is why I’ve continued to work with him for the past three years. I highly recommend Michael Dulle for all of your graphic design needs! What People Say ? Michael is an extremely versatile designer and email developer, with exceeding talents in graphic and web design especially. He has a keen eye for aesthetics while balancing and providing solutions for UX as well. I’ve worked with him on several small and large scale projects, on everything from enterprise level templating to iconography to even digital stock photography. It has been a great pleasure to work with him as a creative and I would very highly recommend him to anyone looking to do the same.

RNA Therapeutics Institute Biochemistry | Biophysics | Molecular Biology | Structural Biology Most human genes contain multiple introns, necessitating mechanisms to effectively define exons and ensure their proper connection by spliceosomes. Human spliceosome assembly involves both cross-intron and cross-exon interactions, but how these work together is unclear. We examined in human nuclear extracts dynamic interactions of single pre-mRNA molecules with individual fluorescently tagged spliceosomal subcomplexes to investigate how cross-intron and cross-exon processes jointly promote pre-spliceosome assembly. U1 subcomplex bound to the 5' splice site of an intron acts jointly with U1 bound to the 5' splice site of the next intron to dramatically increase the rate and efficiency by which U2 subcomplex is recruited to the branch site/3' splice site of the upstream intron. The flanking 5' splice sites have greater than additive effects implying distinct mechanisms facilitating U2 recruitment. This synergy of 5' splice sites across introns and exons is likely important in promoting correct and efficient splicing of multi-intron pre-mRNAs. CoSMoS, RNA, biochemistry, chemical biology, human, molecular biophysics, single-molecule, snRNP spliceosome, splicing, structural biology Rights and Permissions © 2018, Braun et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. DOI of Published Version Elife. 2018 Jun 22;7. pii: 37751. doi: 10.7554/eLife.37751. Link to article on publisher's site Braun, Joerg E.; Friedman, Larry J.; Gelles, Jeff; and Moore, Melissa J., "Synergistic assembly of human pre-spliceosomes across introns and exons" (2018). RNA Therapeutics Institute Publications. 35. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Startup Spotlight: Location Services Startup Gives Directions to Big Customers Through Microsoft Marketing Programs Date Updated: Thursday, December 6, 2018 This post was created by the Microsoft Customer Stories team and was originally posted on https://customers.microsoft.com People rely on GPS for everything from food delivery and booking a taxi to meeting up with friends and finding a coffee shop. But what about indoors? There is no established widespread indoor location technology that works in large places where it can be easy to take a wrong turn, like stadiums, conference centers, hospitals, shopping malls, and airports, to name a few. Pointr is helping fix that problem. We show organizations how to better achieve digital transformation by combining indoor location intelligence with machine learning. Our Deep Location cloud platform solution provides actionable business intelligence by harnessing large amounts of data and continuous learning. Other providers in our market space provide location solutions that often omit critical functionality. It’s not a matter of, “Hey, Pointr is a little bit better than the others.” It’s a matter of, “Hey, Pointr works.” If you’re building a ship, the one that floats isn’t just a little bit better than the one that sinks. Location solutions are hard to develop because obstacles such as high ceilings, metal construction, and never-ending changes in floorplans wreak havoc on traditional solutions. We believe that the Pointr Deep Location platform is the only truly scalable option in these difficult situations. Pointr is not a beacon or sensor company, and unlike competitors’ offerings, Pointr is hardware-agnostic. It was developed top-down for business intelligence and analytics. There’s no getting lost in this cloud Deep Location combines cloud resources—Microsoft Azure in our case—with the utility of iOS and Android smartphones, apps, software development kits, and augmented reality (AR) technology into a topological hierarchy. The platform can be overlaid on any indoor location sensing technology (including beacons) while increasing their positional and directional accuracy through our patented technology. Deep Location also collects sensor information without an app using our Pointr of Presence module. We used the open-source ASP.NET framework to develop our backend systems, so taking advantage of Azure was the natural next step. We tried other cloud services on past projects, but Azure stands out as offering high performance and a great development experience. Our decision to go with Azure was purely technical. Our team already liked the Microsoft stack and wanted to continue using the technology they trust. Also, our customers have confidence in Microsoft enterprise-quality software, which increases their confidence in us. Intelligent decisions about locations The founders of Pointr have expertise in AI, machine learning, and technologies related to sensors, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth and have worked with Microsoft Research on AI projects. Our development team is computer-science driven, and we use a variety of AI techniques for data analytics in Deep Location. The platform takes advantage of native AI technology in Azure, but we worked with AI before it was part of Azure, so our core software is internally developed and platform-neutral. We also have expertise in AR, and the AR capabilities of Deep Location are popular with our customers. Early on, we worked on ways to make interfaces that are more user-intuitive. It’s one thing to know your location but another to find your friends in a large concert venue, for example, or see the shortest path to your gate at the airport. The result is that Deep Location offers accurate location in part because it has accurate orientation (the direction you’re facing). Even if our competitors had comparable accuracy, they likely wouldn’t be able to combine it with the correct orientation. From our perspective, Pointr offers the only solution that makes sense in an AR context. A smoother path to success Early on, Pointr became part of Microsoft Accelerator London (now Microsoft Scale Up), which was extremely useful because we needed to connect to big clients. We also gained access to Microsoft experts who gave us legal advice, marketing support, and business guidance. We signed at least two key deals that we believe wouldn’t have been possible without the program. It’s tough to know for sure, but being validated by Microsoft back then helped a lot. The name Pointr would not have impressed the officials of a major airport, for example. And there were cases where Microsoft helped us connect with the right people in large companies—people who have the power to make purchasing decisions—who would otherwise be hard to track down. That success has continued as we now work directly with Microsoft to sell solutions. Microsoft is motivated to support us because we attract Azure customers that it might not be able to satisfy by itself. That is, a customer might need the location technology we offer that Microsoft doesn’t have with its existing solutions or channels. We work in parallel, and it generates more revenue for both of us. That’s what synergy is all about. It’s also part of how Pointr became a selling partner so quickly after establishing its relationship with the software company. A relationship based on mutual understanding Whenever we meet Microsoft program team members, we find people who know what they’re talking about and who understand what we’re trying to do. This is especially important in a B2B setting where we have demanding customers. Even in countries where we haven’t worked with Microsoft teams before, there are always stakeholders who have done their research and know how to help us find prospects in that region. This isn’t a case of Microsoft finding deals for us; it’s a collaboration of finding them together. It’s a corporate friendship where we have a common technical mission. Pointr has never had a single negative experience with Microsoft for Startups stakeholders. If anything, the relationship—and the results—just keep getting better.

In his most intricate and ambitious work to date, Caldecott Award winner Brian Selznick delivers a magnificent reinvention of his signature form. Two seemingly unrelated stories, one in words, the other in pictures, come together with spellbinding synergy! The illustrated story begins in 1766 with Billy Marvel, the lone survivor of a shipwreck, and charts the adventures of his family of actors over five generations. The prose story opens in 1990 and follows Joseph, who has run away from school to an estranged uncle's puzzling house in London, where he, along with the reader, must piece together many mysteries. How the picture and word stories intersect will leave readers marveling over Selznick's storytelling prowess. Filled with mystery, vibrant characters, surprise twists, and heartrending beauty, and featuring Selznick's most arresting art to date, The Marvels is a moving tribute to the power of story.

The American City, Part 4: Complexity and Pattern in the City course featuring Dr. Mark David Major is now available from Planetizen Courses. The course is approved for 0.75 professional development credits with the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and Congress for New Urbanism (CNU). Watch an extended preview here. The American City, Part 4: Complexity and Pattern in the City The course discusses the design of the urban pattern in several American cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Seattle, St. Louis, Orlando, and Phoenix). The course examines: 1) the synergy between different scales of movement patterned into the urban grid, which contributes to the “urban buzz” of distinctive neighborhoods and places; 2) the large role that local topography plays in allowing, limiting, or denying certain possibilities for urban growth, due to the massive horizontal scale of American cities and the practical necessity of overcoming topographical conditions; and 3) the consequences of government regulations, Euclidean zoning, modern transportation planning, and suburbanization during the post-war period in generating a hierarchal grid logic to the American regular grid planning tradition. The implications of development patterns and land consumption unseen during the history of city building over the previous 10,000 years are discussed. Click here to purchase the course by subscribing to Planetizen Courses.

Are you ready to be seen? Here's a bit of feedback from those who have: What We Do Together If you come to me for a reading, my aim is to empower you. I will thus focus us on finding growth opportunities within challenges. Together, we will make conscious the underlying patterns driving your life now as well as different factors to consider within your environment and relationships. I'm here to help you raise your level of self-awareness--consciousness around your unique life path--so you can make more informed decisions based on WHO YOU ARE. From 20+ years of studying astrology—formally and privately—I will share with you the patterns and information in a clear, dynamic, conversational, needs-based way. If you have specific questions, that can be answered through the chart as I see it, of course we will cover this. You might be more surprised at the questions answered that you didn't even have to ask. This is not a motivational session that wears off. This is an empowerment session that perpetually offers more understanding as you reflect long after it's over. It will be more realistic than you might expect, uncovering patterns that you never thought anyone could find, let alone voice yourself. Yet once light is cast on these patterns, they are no longer powerful in the way they once were--in fact that power shifts into your conscious hands. Initial sessions*--including write-up (written by me and not computer generated), one-hour session in-person or via Skype (which you are free to record for later listening)--are 150 CHF, payable via Paypal or bank transfer. Geo-relocation sessions--pick five locations, and I will run them to discuss which ones present which key themes in your life as it may be different from your natal chart (depending on the distance these points fall from it). 150 CHF Synergy readings--for both you and a partner, friend, family member, etc.--are 200 CHF for initial sessions. These are aimed to help couples locate ways they might unconsciously be reacting to differences that are best consciously understood and worked with. Follow-up guidance on specific transits/aspects is 100 CHF per hour. Follow-up sessions and solar returns--looking into transits at any given time or key themes to the year ahead from one's solar return (when the Earth is at the same position relative to the Sun as your birthday) after an initial reading are an hour, interactive, recorded, and are 100 USD. *For those on a budget, I am happy to offer a 50 CHF option for initial readings, which does not include the live discussion. Instead, I write up your chart—including current transit information and any other time-sensitive considerations given those transits—and send to you. Workshops (TBD--I am an experienced teacher who will prepare presentations and resource materials to interested groups): The strength in our weaknesses Unlocking potential within relationships Harnessing the power of personal/collective transits and retrogrades

Telomere shortening occurs during cell division, and results in cell senescence and death when a critical minimum length is reached. Telomere length is usually maintained by telomerase, an enzyme that is present in about 85 percent of human tumors, but seldom in normal somatic cells. This property makes telomerase an attractive therapeutic target;yet no successful telomerase-directed therapy has thus far been developed. A major reason is that pre-existing telomeres in tumor cells usually are of sufficient length to support multiple rounds of cell proliferation, so that telomerase inhibition is not cytotoxic before a lethal tumor burden is reached. The overall goal of the previous grant was to develop a strategy to use telomeres and telomerase as cancer therapeutic target. This goal has been achieved. Briefly, we established simultaneous targeting of telomeres and telomerase as s a useful therapeutic strategy. We found that paclitaxel causes direct damage to telomeres and induces telomerase activity, and that telomerase inhibitors, including hTR antisense and 3'-azido-3'deoxythymidine (AZT), enhanced paclitaxel activity in tumor cells and tumor-bearing animals without enhancing host toxicity. We further found that this strategy only works for chemotherapeutic drugs that damage telomeres and/or induce telomerase and only in tumors that depend on telomerase for telomere repair. Furthermore, the synergy between AZT and paclitaxel was diminished at higher AZT concentrations that are known to cause cell cycle arrest. The goal of the present application is to translate these earlier findings on the novel mechanisms of paclitaxel resistance and synergy between paclitaxel and AZT to useful clinical treatments. Aim 1 examines the generalizability of this strategy and provides additional molecular evidence of the role of telomere/telomerase in paclitaxel activity. Aim 2 will use PD- and computational modeling approaches to translate the preclinical data to find the AZT regimens that deliver to tumors the desired AZTTP levels and the optimal balance between the desired telomerase/telomere effects and the undesired cell cycle blockade effects, in humans. Aim 3, which is to test the strategy of extending the telomerase inhibitor treatment beyond the cytoreductive chemotherapy, may provide a means to control residual tumor cells and to sensitize tumor cells for subsequent chemotherapy. Aim 4 will identify the tumor types with the correct molecular target and response profile (i.e., tumors that depend on telomerase to repair paclitaxel-induced telomere damage and show synergy with AZT). This is necessary even though -85% of human tumors express telomerase because, as we have shown, not all telomerase expressing tumors are dependent on telomerase for telomere maintenance. Collectively, the proposed studies represent a rational therapy development paradigm, designed based on our newly discovered mechanism of paclitaxel resistance and synergy with telomerase inhibitors. Confirmation that the telomerase-mediated resistance is important for paclitaxel will support clinical development of the telomerase/telomere-targeting approach and may yield a novel treatment paradigm that maximizes the therapeutic value of paclitaxel. |Gan, Yuebo; Lu, Jie; Yeung, Bertrand Z et al. (2015) Pharmacodynamics of telomerase inhibition and telomere shortening by noncytotoxic suramin. AAPS J 17:268-76| |Li, Yinghuan; Wang, Jie; Wientjes, M Guillaume et al. (2012) Delivery of nanomedicines to extracellular and intracellular compartments of a solid tumor. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 64:29-39| |Mo, Yiqun; Gan, Yuebo; Song, SaeHeum et al. (2003) Simultaneous targeting of telomeres and telomerase as a cancer therapeutic approach. Cancer Res 63:579-85| |Naasani, Imad; Oh-Hashi, Fujiko; Oh-Hara, Tomoko et al. (2003) Blocking telomerase by dietary polyphenols is a major mechanism for limiting the growth of human cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Cancer Res 63:824-30| |Johnston, Jeffrey S; Johnson, Andrew; Gan, Yuebo et al. (2003) Synergy between 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine and paclitaxel in human pharynx FaDu cells. Pharm Res 20:957-61| |Gan, Yuebo; Mo, Yiqun; Johnston, Jeffrey et al. (2002) Telomere maintenance in telomerase-positive human ovarian SKOV-3 cells cannot be retarded by complete inhibition of telomerase. FEBS Lett 527:10-4| |Gan, Y; Engelke, K J; Brown, C A et al. (2001) Telomere amount and length assay. Pharm Res 18:1655-9| |Gan, Y; Lu, J; Johnson, A et al. (2001) A quantitative assay of telomerase activity. Pharm Res 18:488-93| |Johnson, A L; Jurcisek, J A; Trask Jr, O J et al. (1999) A method to monitor DNA transfer during transfection. AAPS PharmSci 1:E6|

Every year thousands, if not millions, of people turn to gyms and fitness centres to help them to lose weight and get in shape. Whether you own a gym, or if you’re considering opening one up to offer services to those in your area; you’ll undoubtedly already have an idea of just how expensive the necessary equipment can be. From weight and rowing machines all the way to treadmills and everything in between – there aren’t many pieces of machinery that will cost less than a few thousand dollars. Stocking an entire facility can be a very expensive task. Gym equipment financing can be a fantastic solution and as many banks will be happy to lend a substantial amount to business owners in need – you could benefit from a loan to cover your immediate costs, whilst repaying what you owe over time. Where we come in At Tundra Finance it’s our job to ensure that our clients receive the best deals on loans. Over the years, we’ve developed relationships with some of the most reputable lenders in Australia – and this allows us to fast-track applications, as well as negotiate cheaper terms and rates. Our clients come to us whenever they need a reliable service that can benefit their financial situation in the long run; and this is exactly what we aspire to do. Our experts are available to offer advice and guidance to our clients, as well as support them throughout the entire application process. Whether you’re hoping to purchase a few pieces of equipment for a private gym, or if you’re keen to pack your professional premises with state-of-the-art facilities; we are here to help. From the smallest loan that can be repaid over the course of a year, all the way to substantial amounts that can be spread over the course of a decade; there’s a reason why we’re recognised as one of the leading firms in the country. It’s because we know what it takes to provide incredible results. If you’d like to get to know a little more about our services, or if you were hoping to get your application process underway; give us a quick call, or send us an email and we’ll be sure to see to your requirements as quickly and efficiently as possible. Tundra - Experts in Business Finance (03) 9021 3774 Tundra Business Synergy Credit Representative Number 496186 is authorised under Australian Credit Licence Number 389328. ABN - 63 007 814 458. Member of MFAA. Disclaimer: Your full financial situation would need to be reviewed prior to acceptance of any offer or product.

The 12th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) comes at a time when inclusive multistakeholder approaches to internet governance are both mainstreamed and precarious at once. National and regional IGF initiatives (NRIs) are growing, but they are also struggling to achieve legitimacy and sustainability as inclusive platforms for debate and collaboration and to translate multistakeholder approaches into actual policy shaping and making on issues that impact how the internet is used, run and developed. Some governments remain skeptical of the multistakeholder approach, adopting it inconsistently, if at all. Some continue to demand the establishment of a multilateral/intergovernmental agency or mechanism to coordinate or oversee internet-related public policy. This is evident from submissions to the Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development. Non-governmental forums such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) continue to evolve, but being influential in ICANN requires a degree of effort and consistency which is difficult to sustain. The global IGF remains a unique and vibrant forum, producing valuable intersessional work that is being used in other forums. However, even in the IGF the fragility of the multistakeholder approach is evident as participation from governmental and business actors appears to be tailing off. The absence of a government volunteering to host IGF 2017 is a symptom of this broader condition. Inclusive and participatory spaces for policy development are continuously being challenged and are not to be taken for granted. IGF enthusiasts and IGF skeptics should work together to maintain and strengthen the annual event and its intersessional processes. There is no substitute for it. This does not mean that convenors should be complacent. Just the opposite: as internet governance is not a finite process, new internet policy-making challenges and issues will continue to emerge, intertwined with old ones, and a more dynamic, inclusive and outcome-oriented IGF is needed to respond to the changing climate. The IGF remains the only global forum where different stakeholders can engage with one another in the same space, building common ground, but also engaging in debate, thereby understanding divergences in approach and interests in a way that contributes to more effective internet-related policy and development. 2. Reflections on the IGF agenda The overall theme for IGF 2017 is “Shape Your Digital Future!”, which makes it fitting that more workshops are forward-looking, falling under the “New Technologies & Emerging Issues” subtheme (26), than under any other sub-theme. Admittedly there is quite a bit of overlap between sub-themes, but the appetite for bringing in hot topics to the IGF is clear, with a large number of workshops on artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, blockchain, virtual reality, cybersecurity platform regulation, and fake news. The fact that the IGF agenda responds to some of the most pressing internet-related public policy issues is good news and its critics should take note, as this clearly demonstrates its relevance. Issues that have steadily gained traction at the IGF over the years, such as gender and internet shutdowns, are also prominent on the agenda, included in main sessions for the first time. A large number of workshops focus on access, inclusion and diversity (21) and on multistakeholder cooperation and governance (25). Though less trendy and perhaps not as exciting as emerging technologies, they are every bit as important to shaping the digital future, so it is encouraging to see them still receiving the attention they deserve at the IGF. IGF 2017 is taking place amid a time of political turmoil and a surge of regressive actions concerning internet policy and human rights and social justice more broadly, in many parts of the world. Taking place on the heels of a decision to repeal net neutrality in the United States, and a number of alarming developments over the year ranging from severe restrictions on access to and use of the internet ahead of the Catalan referendum to the arrest of two IT consultants in Turkey under anti-terrorism laws while they were participating in a workshop with human rights defenders, the current political climate is likely to colour the nature and dynamics of discussions at the IGF. Another factor that we expect to impact on the climate at the IGF is its location. Taking place in Geneva comes with advantages and disadvantages. Given that Geneva is home to a number of international organisations that are increasingly dealing with internet-related public policy issues, having the IGF in Geneva this year will make it easier for the IGF to carry out two parts of its mandate: facilitating discourse between bodies dealing with different cross-cutting international public policies regarding the internet and discussing issues that do not fall within the scope of any existing body; and interfacing with appropriate intergovernmental organisations and other institutions on matters under their purview. It may also help to attract the participation of states that are typically under-represented at the IGF, from small and developing countries, which have limited travel budgets but have permanent missions in Geneva. In fact, having the IGF in Geneva is an opportunity for diplomatic missions, which may deal with aspects of internet policy within their own purview, but do not typically have the chance to engage with a broader set of internet issues that impact their work. On the other hand, the extremely high cost of travelling to and staying in Geneva, at any time of the year, but especially just before the holiday season, may mean that participation from the global South, and from civil society in particular, is more limited this year. This is no small matter, as barriers to participation at the IGF, which is meant to be open to all interested stakeholders, is a persistent challenge. However, it is important to remember that the IGF is not an event, but a process. Intersessional work carried out by the Best Practice Forums (BPFs), Dynamic Coalitions and others, as well as NRIs, deserve recognition for facilitating multistakeholder participation in internet policy processes throughout the year. 3. Priorities for IGF 2017 APC will be concentrating our engagement on access at the IGF this year on community-based and local access infrastructure, building on the momentum of a robust programme of activities on this subject at the IGF last year, and our newly launched “Local Access Networks” project. Innovations in low-cost communications technology have created new possibilities for the development of affordable, locally owned and managed communications infrastructure. A growing number of communities and small local and regional operators are using off-the-shelf low-cost commodity networking equipment to provide themselves and others with Wi-Fi, GSM and fibre connections. These innovative bottom-up initiatives are still relatively rare. They generally face overwhelming regulatory and financial hurdles and require technical, economic and regulatory support to meet scaling and sustainability challenges. They are also hard pressed to exchange experiences and learning systematically. Therefore, we are looking forward to using the IGF as an opportunity to explore with the IGF community whether local access infrastructure models are a viable alternative to connecting the unconnected, and if so, what are the circumstances that make them successful? And what are the benefits to the local community in terms of well-being, gender equity and social or economic development where connectivity infrastructure is locally owned? We will participate in relevant workshops and sessions, including the Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity. In addition, APC is actively involved in IGF discussions on gender and access (see 3.3) and we will continue to participate in relevant sessions like the Dynamic Coalition on Public Access in Libraries to advocate for ending digital exclusion through addressing the underlying barriers concerning market access and network provisioning models, spectrum use, content controls, and public access. 3.2 Human rights As with previous years, human rights will continue to be a priority for APC at the IGF. In addition to our Day 0 event on cybersecurity and human rights (see section 3.4), our priorities for human rights at for the 2017 IGF are: Encryption and privacy enhancing technology: The crackdown on the use of secure digital communications in many parts of the world is very concerning, posing a threat to freedom of expression, privacy, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and a range of associated rights, especially for persons at risk. A number of governments, including Australia and the United Kingdom, are threatening to legislate backdoors for law enforcement in encryption standards, which would substantially weaken security for everyone while increasing the likelihood of damaging attacks from bad actors. Recently, Turkey arrested IT consultants for professionally imparting their skills and knowledge around technical matters to human rights defenders. APC, ARTICLE 19, IFEX, Access Now, Greenhost and Aspiration will organise an evening of lightning talks and informal discussions around this disturbing trend at our 4th annual Disco-tech to raise awareness and share strategies for pushing back. Freedom of expression: Attacks on freedom of expression online come from a range of actors, including the state through repressive legislation, non-state actors through harassment and trolling, and sometimes a combination of the two, when organised attacks take place with some level of endorsement or tacit approval from the state, given the level of impunity that follows. APC will launch two publications relating to restrictions on freedom of expression in Asia. The first, “Let the mob do the job”: How proponents of hatred are threatening freedom of expression and religion online in Asia”, examines freedom of expression and religion practices online in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Pakistan, taking a multi-layered approach that considers political, economic and social structures, the impact of inequalities in societies and individual agency to help explain why the internet has become a tool for mobilising hatred and inciting mob violence in these four countries. The second, “Unshackling Expression: A study on laws criminalising expression online in Asia”, brings to light the problematic trends in the use of laws against freedom of expression in online spaces in six Asian states – Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand – in a resource that civil society, internet policy experts and lawyers can use to understand the legal framework domestically and to reference other jurisdictions. Network shutdowns: As internet shutdowns continue to be imposed with disturbing frequency and duration, APC plans to draw attention to the impact of shutdowns on a wide range of rights through our participation in the main session on “Local Interventions, Global Impacts: How Can International, Multistakeholder Cooperation Address Internet Disruptions, Encryption and Data”. While there is growing international consensus that network shutdowns are not an acceptable policy option, thanks to the contribution of civil society efforts, we observe a trend of governments caving to international pressure when they first impose shutdowns, but reimposing them once the international outcry fades away. This is the case in Togo, where the government first shut down mobile internet services in the country for six days in September. The government grudgingly restored services after six days of blackout when met with widespread condemnation from internet freedom groups across the globe, but then continued to shut down or constrict access repeatedly for the following few months. Local protests continued but the international outcry did not. Sexual rights: APC carried out our third EROTICS Global Survey to collect data on and map trends concerning sexual expression online, and the impact of the internet on the rights of LGBQTIQ people and sexual rights activists. We plan to share the findings of the survey at the IGF. The goals of the survey were twofold: one was to map how sexual rights activists use the internet to advance their work; the second was to document and provide insights on the types of risks, harassment, content regulation or censorship they deal with, and how they respond to them. The findings illuminate the connections between internet surveillance, online sexual sociability and expression, and how gender and sexuality markers, among others, mediate access to and meaningful use of ICTs. They provide evidence to help explain the impact of internet regulation on sexual rights activists’ work, and make inferences about the exercise of gender and sexual rights in the contemporary online/offline continuum. Insights from the EROTICS survey might also help explore strategic ways for sexual rights activists to address digital security and advocate for gender and sexuality issues among internet rights activists. This year the IGF will have its first ever main session on gender, specifically on “Gender Inclusion and the Future of the Internet”. The fact that this session is taking place is a testament to the visibility and importance that gender issues have attained over the last few IGFs. At the same time, the debates within the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) over the relevance and desirability of such a session, which included disparaging and misogynistic remarks from a MAG member, demonstrate why now more than ever, efforts are needed to ensure gender equality in meaningful access to and use of the internet. The main session on gender, which APC’s representative on the MAG is co-organising, will address key issues and challenges, including women’s rights, intersectionality, access, online gender-based violence, education, and new and emerging technologies, as well as mechanisms and structures for gender inclusion in internet governance processes. APC views barriers to meaningful access to and use of the internet as reflecting discrimination faced by women in society, be it based on location, economic status, age, gender, racial or ethnic origin, social and cultural norms, education or other factors. These barriers may manifest themselves as lack of affordability of internet access, harassment and violence online, or discrimination built into algorithms that shape search results. Inhibitors to ICT access and use on the basis of gender should be addressed as part of the state’s obligation to respect, protect and fulfil all human rights and as part of the private sector’s responsibility to respect human rights. At IGF 2017, APC is prioritising: Online gender-based violence (GBV) and discrimination: APC is co-organising a workshop to explore best practices in countering online GBV and to explore the risks and opportunities that emerging technologies like artificial intelligence present for gender equality. In addition, we are participating in the annual Latin America in a Glimpse event, organised by APC member Derechos Digitales, which will focus this year on the intersection between gender politics and the internet. The event will discuss the main challenges that Latin America is facing regarding women's rights online. Issues like discrimination, online GBV, online harassment, social media moderation policies, local legislation, and how to create safe spaces on the internet will be addressed. Gender and access: Throughout the year, APC has been co-facilitating the Best Practice Forum on Gender and Access, which this year examined the specific barriers faced by specific communities of women – including women with disabilities, refugee women, young women, elderly women, LGBTIQ women, women in rural areas, and indigenous women. The BPF’s previous work has indicated that the initiatives and literature available on women’s ability to access and use the internet largely tend to approach women as a homogeneous group and fail to truly account for the unique way in which contexts and circumstances might impact women’s ability to access and use the internet. The survey conducted by the BPF highlighted lack of infrastructure, insufficient local and relevant content, and social and cultural norms as major hindrances to internet access for refugee women, indigenous women, queer women and young women. The BPF session will discuss the preliminary findings and recommendations for further exploration, and the ways in which stakeholders can support the work in addressing barriers to meaningful access faced by specific communities of women. In addition, APC will be speaking at a number of sessions on women’s meaningful access to the internet. Sexual surveillance: Surveillance through the collection of population data has historically functioned as an oppressive tool to control the bodies of women and other marginalised groups. Today, “big data”, metadata and the technologies used to collect, store and analyse them are, similarly, by no means neutral, and come with their own biases and resultant exclusions. Building on an APC issue paper on “Big data and sexual surveillance” and using the Feminist Principles of the Internet as a framing, APC will host a workshop on the connection between “big data”, surveillance and sexuality in the gathering and exploitation of data relating to internet users’ online identities and behaviours. The session will explore the evolution and normalisation of surveillance through “big data” and its relationship with the growing reliance on algorithmic decision making, particularly at the level of the development and implementation of public policy. With cybersecurity threats more frequently becoming front page news, and responses to such threats often undermining people’s human rights and security, APC decided to co-organise a Day 0 event to convene IGF participants around the following theme: “A rights-based approach to cybersecurity: A pipe dream or a critical means to a secure and stable internet?”. The pre-event aims to deepen understanding of how cybersecurity policy impacts on human rights, reviewing major developments in the field of cybersecurity that impact on human rights, and mapping out future opportunities for collaboration to advance rights-based approaches to cybersecurity that bridge technical and policy approaches. In addition to the Day 0 event, APC will speak at the main session, “Empowering Global Cooperation on Cybersecurity for Sustainable Development and Peace”, as well as a pre-event organised by the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace and the BPF on Cybersecurity session, both of which we have been contributing to over the course of the year. This year’s BPF on Cybersecurity focuses on the implications of cybersecurity for achieving sustainable development. APC’s main priority around internet governance is fostering inclusive, participative and bottom-up internet policy and development processes. A significant barrier to these priorities is the fact that the global internet is resource intensive (Geneva being a good example of an expensive destination for many actors in the global South). National and regional IGF initiatives (NRIs) have been increasingly gaining visibility and traction, in part to address the barriers to participation and to addressing local issues. The diverse and distributed nature of NRIs means that they have different strengths and weaknesses, making it difficult to draw many useful conclusions from the 100+ NRIs in existence. It is no longer possible to view the IGF and the evolution of internet governance without also considering the role and impact of NRIs, and it is in this context that APC is publishing two editions of Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) that focus on NRIs this year. One is the annual GISWatch report, which provides critical and analytical perspectives, primarily from civil society actors, in 40 countries. The other is a companion publication, “Internet governance from the edges: NRIs in their own words”, which tells the stories of the creation, evolution and future perspectives of these initiatives. Another internet governance priority for APC at the IGF is preparing for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference next year, in order to set the stage for planning and strategising around Plenipot by understanding key internet-related policy discussions happening at the ITU, and what is at stake for next year’s big meeting. Capacity building in internet governance, one of the IGF’s greatest outcomes, needs continuous, long-term effort and investment. APC is pleased to be part, for a second year, of the IGF Academy project with iRights and LirneAsia that will bring fellows from eight countries from Africa and Asia to Geneva. They are all involved in building national inclusive, rights-based internet governance processes, and being at the global event will be both a reality check and an inspiration. Overall, it is impressive to see how the IGF process, particularly through NRIs, continues to act as a platform for building knowledge and confidence. It gave rise to schools of internet governance, and one of APC’s priorities for the 2017 IGF – in its capacity as convenor of the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) – is to share experience with other schools and develop a strategy to ensure their sustainability. APC conducted a tracer study to gain knowledge of the longer-term impact of AfriSIG and will share the results in Geneva. 3.6. Intermediary liability and/or responsibility: To regulate social media platforms or not? APC, along with others who developed and endorsed the Manila Principles on Internet Intermediary Liability, consider it very important for freedom of expression and association and the right to privacy that intermediaries do not interfere unduly with the content that they host. However, the nature of the relationships, use and behaviours of users and platforms is changing. The community guidelines and terms of service agreements of social networking platforms now often set guidelines related to content. The behaviour of search engines, and how they retrieve and display results, constitutes a form of sub-editing and layout by algorithm. Have some of these platforms become “news sources or distributors”? Does this mean that they are more than intermediaries? What are their responsibilities in this regard? Does advertising on these platforms need to be regulated in a different way from traditional regulation of advertising? Is existing regulation being applied to online advertising and does it have the desired effect? Does the “right to be de-listed” (more commonly known as the “right to be forgotten”) as it is implemented in various jurisdictions turn search engines into arbiters of the public’s access to information? Or does it give meaning to the right to privacy at a time when people’s entire lives may be captured online? While the hype about fake news might just be hype, the issue of whether these platforms need to be regulated or not is real and needs to be discussed with the platforms, media practitioners, human rights defenders and policy makers in the room, without risking reducing their value as platforms for expression, and without legitimating undue restrictions or rule making. This is why at IGF 2017, APC will be actively involved in discussions on this topic, including the session organised by the Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility. 3.7 Measuring change and progress: GISWatch and the UNESCO internet universality indicators APC’s GISWatch publication series assesses the state of the internet and an inclusive information society in different topical areas every year. Editions of GISWatch that will be launched at the IGF in Geneva have already been discussed above. APC will also be involved in a new and significant effort to measure change and progress related to the internet at this year’s IGF. UNESCO launched its concept of Internet Universality in 2013 and presented it at a pre-event at the Bali IGF. In 2015, UNESCO’s General Conference endorsed the concept, which embraces four principles (now known as the ROAM principles) that should be fundamental to the development of the internet and its role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): R – that the Internet is based on human Rights O – that it is Open A – that it should be Accessible to all M– that it is nurtured by Multistakeholder participation. UNESCO intends to adopt a framework of Internet Universality Indicators to assist governments and other stakeholders to assess their national internet environments and develop policies to advance these principles. In 2017 they partnered with APC and a consortium of researchers to develop these indicators, and to do so in a way that is open and consultative. The draft indicators, released in early December, are intended for use by stakeholders in interested countries where resources can be mobilised for the necessary research. They are not intended to rank countries in comparison with one another. UNESCO and the APC consortium will present the draft indicator framework at the IGF in Geneva and seek critical feedback from the broader IGF community. 3.8 Strengthening the IGF IGF 2017 is the first IGF in its new 10-year mandate. In the last, it has been encouraging to see intersessional efforts to strengthen the IGF, including MAG working groups such as the Working Group on Multi-year Strategic Work Programme, and the Working Group on IGF Improvements, which APC co-chairs. We see value in these groups to work in synergy, with recommendations for improvement feeding into the IGF’s multi-year work programme. We encourage these groups to revisit the recommendations that were inputted into the IGF retreat, and to focus on clarifying the mandate of the MAG. We see a lack of clarity of what the IGF’s institutional identity and capacity are, which can impact on it engaging in collaborative activities with other entities. Finally, it is critical for the IGF to invest in intersessional work, in particular the BPFs, which have produced valuable outputs that are being used in spaces outside the IGF. But support from the IGF Secretariat is key for sustained engagement, for example, by setting regular meetings, documenting discussions, and being familiar with formats and processes. 4. APC’s activities at the IGF 5. Follow APC online at IGF 2017 We will be sharing updates on: Twitter: @APC_News and @GenderITorg Our Facebook page Flickr (send us your images to the group) For GenderIT.org contact [email protected] in English. Check in-depth resources on our publications page. Updates on gender and ICT policy on GenderIT.org. 6. APC members and staff at IGF 2017 Members at IGF 2017: Carlos Afonso (Nupef, Brazil), Veridiana Alimonte (Intervozes, Brazil), Roger Baig (Guifi.net, Spain), Arturo Enzo Bregaglio (Asociación Trinidad/Radio Viva, Paraguay), Julian Casasbuenas (Colnodo, Colombia), Stéphane Couture (individual member, Canada), Bishakha Datta (Point of View, India), Jessica Dheere (SMEX, Lebanon), William Drake (individual member, Switzerland), Nicolas Echaniz (AlterMundi, Argentina), Htaike Htaike Aung (Myanmar ICT for Development Organization/MIDO, Myanmar), Yatanar Htun (MIDO, Myanmar), Bardhyl Jashari (Metamorphosis Foundation, Macedonia), Anja Kovacs (Internet Democracy Project at Point of View, India), Michel Lambert (Alternatives, Canada), Serene Lim (EMPOWER, Malaysia), Mohamad Najem (SMEX, Lebanon), Lillian Nalwoga (Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa/CIPESA, Uganda), Juliet Nanfuka (CIPESA, Uganda), Nadim Nashif (7amleh, Palestinian Territory), Leandro Navarro Moldes (Pangea, Spain), Maria Paz Canales (Derechos Digitales, Chile), Liz Probert (GreenNet, UK), Renata Aquino Ribeiro (individual member, Brazil), Reza Salim (Bangladesh Friendship Education Society/BFES, Bangladesh), Gayathry Venkiteswaran (individual member, Malaysia), Montserrat Vidal (Instituto DEMOS, Guatemala), and Sharolina Villalta (Instituto DEMOS, Guatemala). APC staff, interns and volunteers at IGF 2017: Karen Banks, Maud Barret Bertelloni, Valeria Betancourt, Deborah Brown, Kathleen Diga, Avri Doria, Anriette Esterhuysen, Shawna Finnegan, Chat Garcia Ramilo, Mike Jensen, Jac sm Kee, Leila Nachawati Rego and Carlos Rey-Moreno.

- CII National Energy Efficiency Circle Competition - CII Lean Award – Jaipur Plant - National Safety Award by Government of India in two categories : Accident free years and Lowest Average Frequency Rate – Jaipur Plant - Confederation of Indian Industry: Business Practices Competition Award – Bengaluru Plant - 3R Award 2018 - Nashik Plant - Quality and OPPM awards from Toyota Kirloskar Motors - Business Award from Maruti Suzuki India Limited - Best New Product Development Award from Greaves - PHD Annual Award 2017 for outstanding contribution to Social Welfare – Jaipur Plant - Best Supplier Quality Award from General Motors, India – Nashik Plant - KOEL Supplier Quality Improvement Contest Award – Bengaluru Plant - Award for energy conservation and management by Government of Maharashtra – Nashik Plant - Environmental Best Practice – Most Innovative Award Greenco. – Nashik Plant - CSR Award for Quality Education by Government of Rajasthan – Jaipur Plant - Finest India Skills and Talent Award 2017 – Bengaluru Plant - The Machinist Super Shop Floor Award for Safety – Bengaluru Plant - Supplier of the year award from SMLI - Zero Defect Supplier for 2017 by Hyundai India – Nashik Plant Directors’ Report including Management Discussion and Analysis The Directors have pleasure in presenting the SIXTY SIXTH Annual Report together with the Audited Financial Statements for the Financial Year ended March 31, 2018. 1. Financial Results The following are the financial highlights for the Financial Year 2017-18: The Company does not propose to transfer any amount to its Reserves for the year under review. Pursuant to the requirements of the regulation 43A of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, the Company has adopted a Dividend Distribution Policy. This Policy is uploaded on website of the Company and can be accessed at https://www.bosch.in/media/our_company/shareholder_information/2017_2/dividend_distribution_policy_2017.pdf. This policy is enclosed as Annexure ‘A’ to this Report. In line with the Dividend Distribution Policy, the Board has recommended a Dividend of INR 100 per share for the Financial Year 2017-18, aggregating to Mio INR 3,679.4 including Dividend Distribution Tax. The dividend payout ratio is approximately 26.8 percent based on the profits as per Ind AS. The Dividend is subject to the approval of the shareholders at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting. 3. Management Discussion and Analysis In order to avoid duplication between the Directors’ Report and Management Discussion and Analysis, a composite summary of the Company’s performance and its various business segments is given below: 3.1 Economic Scenario 3.1.1 Global Economy The global economy grew by 3.8 percent in 2017. The pick-up in global growth has been broad-based with notable upside surprises in Europe and Asia. The global growth forecast for 2018 is expected to tick up to 3.9 percent. [Source: IMF] Advanced economies are expected to continue their growth trajectory while emerging markets and developing economies are projected to show an improvement. Risks to the global economy arises from increasing protectionism as was witnessed by the tariffs introduced by US and China, rising commodity prices and increase in global interest rates. 3.1.2 Indian Economy GDP growth for 2017-18 is projected at 6.6 percent against 7.1 percent in 2016-17 which is ascribed to the temporary slow-down induced by the rollout of structural reforms such as GST and demonetization. Subsequently, there has been a revival in the last few quarters and the quarterly GDP for the December quarter improved to 7.2 percent. This is based on a revival in demand post-demonetization. Strong infrastructure spending, pick-up in rural growth and supportive global factors are also other positive factors. Continuing strength in economic indicators like IIP indicate that an economic recovery is in place. Recently, the GST collections of above the INR 1 Trillion mark in April also reinforced the positive trend. It is important that this momentum continues and improves into a consistent economic trend. Some of the concerns for the Indian economy are increase in prices of crude oil and other commodities putting pressure on the trade deficit and the challenge of financing the budget deficits of the central government as well as state governments. Consumer inflation has been under control so far but recent movements in the fixed income market suggests that markets have concerns on this aspect. Going forward, monsoons in 2018 and political risk in the run-up to the general elections in 2019 will be the key factors affecting the Indian Economy. 3.2 Industry Structure and Development Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCVs) production posted a subdued growth of 3 percent due to changeover in the emission norms and GST impact. The Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) market grew by 18 percent predominantly due to changeover in the emission norms, GST impact and increased thrust in agriculture based FMCG and e-commerce sectors. In 2017-18, Passenger Car production grew by 6 percent on account of new launches and a favorable GST impact. Three-wheelers production increased by 31 percent due to higher demand driven by abolition of permit system in Maharashtra and Karnataka and granting of new permits in Delhi. The Tractor market grew by 14 percent driven by a good monsoon and positive farmer sentiments. The Automotive Aftermarket industry grew by ~5.5 percent in 2017 driven predominantly by Passenger Cars and Tractor segments. The Indian Power Tools market is expected to grow at 6 percent in 2018 over the previous year. This is in line with the estimated growth of the construction sector, which is its biggest customer. The market trend is shifting towards the mid-price category indicating that the users are steadily upgrading from hand tools to power tools. The Indian Professional Tools market is estimated to be around INR 16.9 billlion by value in year 2017 and is expected to grow at 5-6 percent over the next few years, year-on-year. The Security technology market in India is evolving rapidly. The overall market is expected to grow at around 4 percent in 2018 over the previous year, on account of the increased awareness around Security, Safety and Communication topics and convergence of technology around Intellectual Property and Software Analytics. The growth in this space will be supported by growth in segments of Transportation and Government led Infrastructure projects. Additionally, the market is preparing itself to deal with security threats originating at different locations and levels. The growth of the Indian packaging industry is heavily influenced by changing demographics such as growing urbanization and rising proportion of middle class consumers in the country. These changes drive the need for new packaging formats like different sizes, materials and material strength. Flexible packaging, the leading pack type in the Indian packaging industry, is expected to continue its growth. Over the last few years, the demand for flexible packaging, which is used extensively in food, household and cosmetics and toiletries industries, has been largely driven by innovative and convenient designs from manufacturers, thus making the packaging more appealing to consumers. The solar energy sector in India experienced uncertainties during the year under review mainly due to changes in tax structure (GST) and increase in the price of imported solar modules. Despite these uncertainties, the cumulative solar installations in India crossed the 20 GW mark in January 2018. The momentum in the solar energy is expected to strengthen in the current fiscal year with continued investments in the sector by domestic and international players. It continues to be a focus sector for the government’s plans for sustainable economic growth. 3.3. Business and segment wise performance The overall performance of the Company witnessed a growth of 12.8 percent. Mobility business (Automotive) posted a growth of 15.0 percent, while the Business beyond mobility (Others) grew by 0.3 percent. Domestic mobility business witnessed an increase of 14.8 percent, higher than the automotive market growth of 11 percent, mainly driven by Powertrain Solutions with the increased demand from LCV segment and demand of new generation products subsequent to the introduction of BS-IV emission norms effective April 01, 2017. As the Company predominantly operates in manufacturing and trading of mobility solutions, this constituted 86.4 percent of total sales for the Financial Year 2017-18. The Business beyond mobility, comprising of Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods and Energy and Building Technology, had a share of 13.6 percent. Hence, the operating segment consists of “Mobility Solutions” (Automotive Products) and “Business beyond mobility” (Others). 3.3.1 Operating Segment The Powertrain Solutions division was formed effective January 01, 2018. The former Diesel Systems and Gasoline Systems divisions were merged to form this division. The objective of the merger of the divisions is to develop comprehensive and flexible solutions in powertrain technology regardless of the energy source. The Diesel Systems division (now a part of Powertrain Solutions) is a systems supplier of key powertrain components. It offers an extensive range of energy efficient, eco-friendly diesel injection systems for applications ranging from passenger cars and all kinds of commercial vehicles and agricultural equipments to large-scale industrial power-generation units. It focuses primarily on the common-rail system, which comprises of a high-pressure injection pump, the rail and various injectors. The Diesel Systems business grew by 17.9 percent over the previous year. Higher sales volume of new generation Common Rail System (CRS) coupled with higher price of the said system due to nation-wide implementaion of BS-IV emission norms, with effect from April 01, 2017, resulted in this increase. The Diesel Systems business will continue to ride on new generation CRS in the majority of vehicle segments for future growth. The distributor pump injection system has seen a considerable reduction post implementation of BS-IV emission norms. The In-line pump system continues to be stable on account of demand from Tractor and Genset segments Gasoline Systems division (now a part of Powertrain Solutions) registered a growth of 40.8 percent over the previous financial year. This growth is mainly due to growth in demand for 2-Wheeler products (Fuel System Maintenance, Injectors and Sensors), overall growth in the passenger car market and new launches having Gasoline Products manufactured by the Company. During the year under review, the 2-Wheeler business acquired major customers which will secure its future business. The current year is vital for the division on account of key customer acquisition due to proposed BS-VI implementation in both 2-Wheeler and passenger car businesses. The Automotive Aftermarket division (AA) offers a comprehensive range of spare parts for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and 2-Wheelers for the aftersales-market and repair solutions including diagnostic and repair-shop solutions. The product portfolio consists of Bosch manufactured products like Fuel Injection Equipment and Spares, Spark Plug and Filter, as well as products and services like Battery, Lubricant and Lighting developed and manufactured by other manufacturers. The Automotive Aftermarket division is the largest Independent Aftermarket (IAM) network in India. During the year under review, the Division de-grew by 0.5 percent due to liquidity constraint in secondary market post-demonetization and apprehensions due to GST roll out. The division re-organized its IAM sales structure to address the specific needs of each vehicle segment and unlock growth potential, especially in the 2-Wheeler and passenger car segments. During the year under review, first ever “Order Pe Offer” campaign was completed in November 2017, reaching out to more than 10,000 retailers across India, to help in increasing the secondary sales. Business beyond Mobility: The Business beyond Mobility witnessed a muted growth of 0.3 percent. It was driven predominantly by exports which contributed to 16.8 percent of total business beyond mobility during the year under review as compared to 10.3 percent during the previous financial year. The Packaging Technology Division is a provider of packaging solutions for the food and confectionery industries. The range includes individual machines, system solutions including secondary packaging and a comprehensive service portfolio. Packaging Technology division witnessed a moderate growth of 6.7 percent. During the year under review, the division made progress in Horizontal Form, Fill and Seal (HFFS) product line and bagged orders primarily on the on-edge technology which ensures an optimal product control throughout the packaging line. In the confectionery (CC) product line, the Company has been designated as the global supplier for Bosch CC machines and the first such order to Japan will be executed during the current financial year. The export sales increased by 70.8 percent over the previous financial year due to new System Solution projects with customers in Bangladesh. The Power Tools business comprising of Electric tools, Accessories, measuring instruments and spare parts for Power Tools witnessed a growth of 3.7 percent. The Division achieved 100 percent growth in terms of Channel expansion to Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets. “Zero distance to user” strategy also supported the core tool business. Launch of more affordable products has played vital role in business growth and also helped in overcoming systematic risk. E-commerce channels emerged as important contributors to the overall business. The Building Technology division offers innovative products and solutions in the field of security, safety and communications primarily for commercial applications. The product portfolio encompasses video-surveillance, intrusion-detection, fire-detection, public address and voice-alarm systems, accesscontrol, building management systems, professional audio and conference systems. The business achieved a growth of 13.3 percent, driven by orders in the verticals of Transportation, Commercial and Energy. Trend-setting products like the new range of IP Cameras, Professional Audio speakers and Amplifiers, Conference Systems, Loudspeakers and Microphones introduced were well received. During the year under review, the exports increased due to rise in demand of Video Systems (VS) from SAARC customers. The division’s revenue de-grew over the previous year owing to challenging market conditions in the Solar Photovoltaic (PV) segment. The Solar PV market witnessed a slowdown during the year under review due to change in tax structure and an unexpected increase in price of solar modules. Despite the above challenges, the business was successful in executing various key projects with reputed customers like Bangalore International Airport Limited. With the momentum in the market set to regain in the current fiscal year, the division has set its sights on a large segment of the market that needs captive power generation, thus enabling ‘energy self-reliance’ for its customers. The Energy Efficiency (EE) business, which is part of the said division since January 2014, has grown over the previous financial year. This business primarily focuses on providing energy cost savings to industries and commercial buildings through customized solutions for optimization in heating and cooling processes. Electric water heater continues to dominate the water heater space. Though the market for Solar water heater and heat pumps for hot water is small, there is increasing trend of heat pump and hybrid of solar water heater and heat pump picking up due to their overall energy efficiency and potential savings. KUSUM initiative of Government is expected to provide thrust to the solar water pump market. 3.3.2 Revenue by geographical area The export sales of the Company contributed 9.2 percent to the total sales for the year under review as compared to 8.3 percent during the previous financial year. The Company’s exports, bulk of which were to Germany, China, Turkey, Bangladesh and Brazil increased by 39.9 percent majorly from Powertrain Solutions and Energy & Building Technology Divisions. 3.4 Financial Performance and Condition Sale of products Sale of products grew by 12.8 percent over previous year on a comparable basis and stood at Mio INR 113,929. The Powertrain Solutions division consisting of Diesel and Gasoline powertrain products has mainly driven this growth. Sale of services Sale of services registered a growth of 15.1 percent over previous year, mainly contributed by increase in development receipts from BS-VI projects. Other operating revenue Other operating revenue at Mio INR 2,108, decreased by 18.7 percent over the previous year, due to higher provision written back in the previous year. Other income, which mainly comprises of mark-to-market gains, profit on sale of marketable securities, dividend and interest income, decreased by 17.1 percent over the previous year. Income from net gain on financial assets measured at Fair Value through Profit and Loss (FVTPL) was Mio INR 2,185 for the year under review as against Mio INR 3,172 in previous year. Income from interest on bank and inter-company deposits increased by 1.9 percent due to higher asset base. Cost of materials consumed The cost of materials consumed as a percentage of revenue increased from 50.9 percent to 53.9 percent during the year under review. This increase is mainly due to change in the product mix from conventional to new generation in the Powertrain Solutions division subsequent to the change in the emission norms. Personnel cost as a percentage of revenue decreased from 12.9 percent to 11.6 percent during the year under review. This is attributed to continuous productivity improvement measures and reduced depth of production of new generation products. The Company continues to focus on rationalizing its workforce based on its business needs in a fair manner, while sustaining productivity and competence. Depreciation and amortization The depreciation charge for the year under review was Mio INR 4,672 as against Mio INR 4,562 during the previous year ended on March 31, 2017. The addition of fixed asset is mainly on account of the expansion of new generation products at facilities situated in Bidadi (Karnataka) and Nashik (Maharashtra). Provision for Tax Income tax expenses for the year under review is 3.0 percent higher due to discontinuation of investment allowance exemption and additional depreciation. Profit After Tax (PAT) PAT for the Financial Year 2017-18 was Mio INR 13,708, a decrease of 5.1 percent mainly due to higher tax expenses as above. Other Comprehensive Income The investment in equity securities is classified as financial assets through other comprehensive income as per the requirements of Ind AS 109. The changes in fair value of equity securities is recognized under other comprehensive income. Accordingly, the impact of Mio INR 1,415 during the year under review is mainly contributed by increase in fair value of those investments. Earnings per Share (EPS) EPS (basic and diluted) of the Company for Financial Year 2017-18 was INR 449 per share. As on March 31, 2018, the Authorized Share Capital comprises of 38,051,460 Equity Shares of INR 10 each. The issued, subscribed and paid-up capital is Mio INR 305.21 divided into 30,520,740 equity shares of INR 10 each. Reserves & Surplus Reserves & Surplus as on March 31, 2018 stood at Mio INR 92,298, which includes retained profit for the year under review of Mio INR 70,313. Other Reserve increased from Mio INR 5,962 to Mio INR 7,210 mainly due to change in the fair value of equity investments valued in line with Ind AS. The total Shareholder’s fund increased to Mio INR 99,813 as on March 31, 2018 from Mio INR 87,996 as on March 31, 2017, mainly due to profit for the year under review. Fixed assets – capital expenditure The gross fixed asset value (including Capital Work-InProgress) as on March 31, 2018 was Mio INR 27,629 compared to Mio INR 23,257 as on March 31, 2017. The Company made capital investments of Mio INR 4,600 during the year under review in addition to Mio INR 6,267 invested during previous year. Major investments were made towards development of new products and facilities in Bidadi (Karnataka) and Nashik (Maharashtra) as well as towards solar power project at Belagavi (Karnataka). Surplus funds not required for immediate operational needs were invested prudently in tax effective low risk instruments. The total investments (excluding investment in property) as on March 31, 2018 was Mio INR 52,228 as against Mio INR 39,090 as on March 31, 2017. Inventory as on March 31, 2018 increased by 3.9 percent to Mio INR 12,258 from Mio INR 11,804 as on March 31, 2017 to support growth in sales. However, Inventory Turnover Ratio has reduced by 1 day as an effect of GST implementation, which enabled consolidation of warehouses and continuous focused measures on Inventory reduction. Trade receivables as on March 31, 2018 increased to Mio INR 16,156 as against Mio INR 11,862 as on March 31, 2017. This increase is a result of an increase in sales, change in the product mix and increase in average collection period in Powertrain Solution Division majorly affected by liquidity constraint in OE market. Cash and Bank balances The total cash and bank balances as on March 31, 2018 was Mio INR 18,878 (including cash and cash equivalent of Mio INR 3,633), compared to Mio INR 17,176 (including cash and cash equivalent of Mio INR 1,312) as on March 31, 2017. 3.5 Human Resource Development and Industrial Relations Human Resource Development During the year under review, Human Resources (HR) continued its transformation initiatives, in a volatile and uncertain business environment, to cater to the organizational requirements. The Company has collaborated with the global organization ‘Great Place to Work’, in its endeavor to become a great place to work. The objective is to bring about a High Performance Culture and Ownership and build a High Trust Culture of collaboration and thereby achieve Organizational Objectives. The Company continued its efforts to foster and drive younger generation towards future leadership. The Company was again recognized at the National competition for Young Managers 2017 conducted by the All India Management Association with the Company bagging the national level award. The Company, through its Integrated Talent Management initiatives, continued to enable learning, networking and collaboration by emphasizing on cross entity movement between different Bosch legal entities enabling holistic development and encouraging integration across different entities/locations. Industrial Relations (Employee Relations) Industrial Relations in all plants generally remained cordial during the year under review. Transitioning from ‘Industrial Relations’ to ‘Employee Relations’, a more focused approach on increased Employee Engagement and increased collaboration between various plants, corporate departments and amongst all level of employees was continued. The Company, during the first week of May 2017, successfully concluded the long-term settlement with the Associates of the Jaipur Plant effective June 01, 2017 for a period of 4 years, in an amicable and fair manner, with support of the Labour department, Government of Rajasthan. As on the date of this report, negotiations over the longterm settlements at the manufacturing facilities situated at Bengaluru, Nashik and Naganathapura are ongoing. The Company continues to deal with the said matters in a fair and firm manner. During the year under review, several initiatives such as introduction of Grievance policy, increase connect with Government and statutory bodies, Engagement calendar, Compliance checklist, self-audits and cross audits, etc. were continued to strengthen Employee Relations. 3.6 Internal Audit and Internal Financial Controls The Company has an Internal Audit function. The Internal Audit Department evaluates the efficacy and adequacy of internal control system, its compliance with operating systems and policies of the Company at all locations of the Company. Based on the report of internal audit function, process owners undertake corrective action in their respective areas and thereby strengthen the controls. Significant audit observations and corrective actions thereon are presented to the Audit Committee. The Company has an effective and reliable internal financial control system commensurate with the nature of its business, size and complexity of its operations. The internal financial control system provides for well-documented policies and procedures that are aligned with Bosch global standards and processes, adhere to local statutory requirements for orderly and efficient conduct of business, safeguarding of assets, detection and prevention of frauds and errors, adequacy and completeness of accounting records and timely preparation of reliable financial information. This also identifies opportunities for improvement and ensures that good practices are imbibed in the processes that develop and strengthen the Internal financial control systems and enhances the reliability of the Company’s financial statements. The efficacy of the internal checks and control systems is validated by self-audits and verified by internal as well as statutory auditors. The Audit Committee reviews the internal audit plan, adequacy and effectiveness of the internal control system, significant audit observations and monitors the sustainability of remedial measures. It also reviews functioning of the Whistle Blower mechanism and reviews the action taken on the cases reported. 3.7 Opportunities and Threats The various government initiatives put in place to bridge the gap of India and the developed nations offers a gamut of opportunities for the fast adaptation of technology in India. The budget demonstrates a very significant push on infrastructure including rural infrastructure which opens up opportunities for the Company’s beyond mobility divisions like Building Technology and Consumer Goods (power tools). In the mobility scenario, the various initiatives of NITI Aayog/Ministry of Road Transport and Highways have provided an impetus to close the technology gap as India moves from BS-IV to BS-VI in three years, time typically taken for one step. In this challenging environment, the Company is closely working with the OEMs in various concurrent projects to deliver the BS-VI mandate. In the new product mix that will evolve with BS-VI, localization and dieselization trends are the focus areas. The push for digital India and the digital trendy demographics of India encourages the use of technology to create a connected mobility ecosystem. The Company has this trend in its radar and is working actively towards catering to this demand. With regard to the Business beyond mobility, the Company is providing integrated solutions in the areas of industrial technology, consumer goods and energy and building solutions for turn-key mega infrastructure projects such as airports, metro stations and smart cities. 3.8 Risks and Concerns The Company follows a specific, well-defined risk management process which is integrated with its operations, for identification, categorization and prioritization of operational, financial and strategic business risks. Across the organization, there are teams responsible for the previously mentioned processes who report to the senior management. The Risk Management Committee headed by Mr. Soumitra Bhattacharya, Managing Director reviews the effectiveness of the process at regular intervals. Following are the major risks and mitigation measures: 1. Disruptive norms: Major changes influencing the industry like BS-IV, BS-VI, Electrification, etc., are considered by the Company as a major risk(s). (a) Shift to BS-VI: The jump from BS-IV to BS-VI in a short span of about 3 years, the pace of change and the short time duration for preparedness are challenging. Shift to BS-VI products, which are largely based on imports and have low replacement requirements in the Aftermarket, may have an adverse financial impact on the Company. The Company is currently working on customer project acquisitions and measures are being enforced to minimize the financial impact. (b) Electrification: There has been a lot of discussion on electrification by various stakeholders including the Government, OEMs and auto component manufacturers. The technological dominance, which the Company currently has in the auto component industry, might not be available once electrification has its way into the industry. However, the Company, being an end-to-end solution provider, has its own advantage and is working closely with some of the top customers in the industry. The Company operates in a highly competitive environment due to which there are risks of pressure on pricing, loss of market due to de-risking from some customers, judicial changes and increased import content. Spurious parts and cheap imitations continue to put pressure on existing market share, primarily for Automotive Aftermarket and Power Tools divisions. The Company, as a strategy, localizes products over a period resulting in reduction of price of the product and consequent increase in the market share. Respective business unit teams undertake a comprehensive competitor analysis periodically to evaluate competitors’ strategies vis-à-vis, our own products and services and define our counter strategic and marketing plans. 3. Industrial Relations (IR): IR-related risks continue on account of surplus capacity at the Company’s Diesel systems plants and high lead time for wage settlement. These include possible risks arising from stoppage of production and/or leading to unpredictable cost structure and/or possible lay-off. The Company adopts more focused continuous action plan for wage settlement, offers attractive EVR schemes, Firm and Fair approach for settlement with contract labour and implement “selected” best practices. As continued process in building capability initiative, special trainings were conducted on Employee Relations and adding value to Front line leadership development in the plant. 4. Heavily auto sector dependent: About 85 percent of the business is dependent on the auto sector. Performance of the Company, therefore, is dependent on this sector’s growth. 5. Low diesel image: Diesel engines are being portrayed as polluter & environment unfriendly due to anti-Diesel lobbying. One of the major challenges currently faced is poor market for alternate fuels segment. The share of diesel in the total passenger cars’ sales has reduced in the last 4-5 years and possess further challenges. The Company has proactively taken steps to mitigate the risk in a socio-environmentally responsible manner. Geopolitical Scenario: The Company is operating in a Global business environment and continues to be impacted by any major geopolitical changes. The build up to the general elections in India from second half of 2018 might also impact the performance of the Company. The signs of growth indicate that an economic recovery is underway in India. Sustaining and enhancing the momentum would be the key factors determining this recovery. The Company is optimistic of an overall growth in the automotive industry in 2018-19, with continued strong upward trend in passenger cars, LCVs and tractors. Predicted favorable monsoon and faster economic growth this year are likely to boost farm income, which, in turn, will boost rural sales of 2-Wheelers, passenger cars and tractors. For the non-automotive segment, the Company is cautiously optimistic inspite of having positive economic indicators like robust economic growth, rising household incomes and increase in consumer spendings due to unprecedented business exigencies. 4. Manufacturing Facilities 4.1 Bengaluru (Karnataka) The 67 year old Bengaluru plant is transforming itself into a lean and agile plant with its 90 year old product ‘A Pump’ still going strong in the tractor and diesel genset segments of Automotive Market. During the year under review, the plant achieved a milestone of manufacturing its 20th million A-pump. The Plant has implemented an intensive System Continuous Improvement Process for improving and sustaining quality and remaining cost competitive. With this as a blueprint, the restructuring of machinery and equipment together with focus on increasing operational efficiency on the shop floor have made value streams even leaner. Additionally, the Plant is using low cost automation solutions for process optimization and reduction of manual effort resulting in better quality and speed in the value chain. 4.2 Bidadi (Karnataka) The Bidadi plant progressed by integrating low cost Cobots (Collaborative Robots) for common rail pumps, simultaneously achieving two targets: creating a clear finish time for products within the manual line and significant cost reduction. Locally developed Industry 4.0 solution for deviation management are implemented at all stations. These applications are developed locally instead of using standard solutions available in Europe. The plant has commenced lake rejuvenation project in the area adjacent to its facilities. During the year under review, 1.2 MW of solar power capacity has been installed in addition to the existing 3.5 MW of solar power capacity. 4.3 Nashik (Maharashtra) Nashik plant manufactures the Common Rail Injectors (CRI) and components including nozzles for both common rail and conventional diesel injectors. During the year under review, the plant successfully transferred the production facility of Conventional Injectors (NHA) to Jaipur plant. Additional capacity was added for CRI product by relocation of a high volume line from Bosch Turkey plant. Nashik plant celebrated the production of 25th million CRI and became the second largest manufacturer of CRI 2-16 injectors in the Bosch group globally. During the year under review, the Nashik Plant continued its endeavor to use renewable source of energy. The Plant has an overall capacity of 13 MWp of solar energy generation. The plant is the first Bosch plant in India and fifth worldwide to receive ISO 50001:2001 certification for Energy Management. Focusing on behavior based safety, reduction of first aid cases and capturing & working on near miss incidents, the Plant recorded a “zero accident” year. The Plant was awarded by CII for the Manufacturing excellence practices of Industry 4.0. 4.4 Jaipur (Rajasthan) The Jaipur Plant produces Distributor (VE) Mechanical and Electronic Diesel Control Pumps used in Light and Heavy Commercial Vehicles, Sports and Multi-Utility Vehicles and tractors. Relocation of manufacturing of Conventional Injectors from Nashik to Jaipur was successfully completed during the year under review. These are used in both on-highway and off-highway applications including Light and Heavy Commercial Vehicles, Locomotives, Tractors and Gensets. Growth in the domestic LCV and tractor markets resulted in good turnover inspite of reduction in other OE volumes due to implementation of BS-IV Emission Norms with effect from April 01, 2017. The Plant is the first Bosch plant in India to win the “National Safety Award” in two categories ‘Accident free year’ and ‘Lowest Average Frequency Rate’ from the Government of India in September 2017. The Plant also won other awards including CII Lean Award for lean manufacturing. 4.5 Naganathapura (Karnataka) The Naganathapura Plant produces Spark Plugs, a product produced by the Bosch group for over a century. The year under review witnessed an increase in the turnover mainly due to higher demand from OE and Independent Aftermarket segments. Focusing on improving cost competitiveness, productivity improvement projects were implemented in addition to safety and quality improvement programs. During the year under review, Machine building division and manufacturing of automotive service solutions were relocated from the Bengaluru Plant to Naganathapura Plant. 4.6 Verna (Goa) The Verna Plant provides a variety of applications and solution relating to packaging market in India and SAARC countries. The products and solutions of the Plant also have good presence in Africa. During the year under review, Verna plant executed many challenging projects, made successful product transfers and took big steps in Horizontal Form, Fill & Seal product line. The plant also introduced new products like SVI 4000WR and BVK 1200 in the market. 4.7 Gangaikondan (Tamil Nadu) Situated at Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu with a 6,200 sq. meters of built up area, the state-of-the-art Gangaikondan plant is the Powertrain Solutions plant in India catering to the needs of growing Gasoline automobile market (both four and two-wheelers) in India. This plant was inaugurated in 2015 and achieved a break-even during the year under review. The Plant mainly produces Powertrain Sensor products, Air Management products, Fuel supply Modules, Fuel Injection products for Gasoline vehicles. Year on year, the Plant has increased its output by 30 percent and is ready to face the market demands. 4.8 Chennai (Tamil Nadu) The Power Tools facility admeasuring approximately 8,500 sq. meters is located at Indospace Industrial Park, Orgadam, Tamil Nadu. At present, the facility caters mainly to the Indian and SAARC markets. It primarily manufactures Small Angle grinders, Large Angle grinders, Marble cutters, Blowers, Drills and two-kg Hammers, along with their motors. The Plant produces Blowers for the entire global market. The Plant was accredited with Power Tools plant excellence award for the second consecutive year as well as best improving plant within the Power Tools international network. 5. Information Technology (IT) As part of GST preparedness and business process readiness, all relevant IT systems have been upgraded with necessary changes as per GST time line. Additional GST changes are being incorporated in respective IT systems based on GST notifications on an ongoing basis. During the year under review, the Company continued to enhance its IT Infrastructure to facilitate better internal as well as external communication providing an opportunity to employees to ‘work from anywhere’ seamlessly. 6. Change Initiatives 6.1 Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) Considering the potential for further improvement in CIP practices at the Company to foster a culture of process orientation and problem solving, a project has been undertaken for defining CIP road map by end 2018 and for its structured deployment and review by Senior Leadership. This project has supported in considerable improvement in various Key Performance Indicators like Number of Implemented Suggestions per Employee, Savings from CIP Activities, No. of CIP Workshops, No. of VSDIA (Value Stream Design in Indirect Areas) Projects, Key CIP Competencies, Processing Time per Suggestion, etc. with involvement of associates across the Company. 6.2 Bosch Production System (BPS) In this competitive business scenario where Customers demand zero defects, reduction in costs and quick response, the only way to stay competitive and be agile is to practice BPS as a way of life. During the year under review, the theme has been on “Collaboration and Synergy” across all the Company’s manufacturing facilities. The focus has been primarily on People. “Improved Competence in People result in effective processes and thereby products which lead markets”. While leaders were coached on Key BPS element twice a year by Bosch central experts, BPS week was conducted at different plants where all associates had a chance to work on simulation with a concept “Learn by Doing” enabling a better understanding on BPS which will lead to swift implementation of BPS Projects. Through various forums like “Share and Learn”, benchmark practice sharing by visiting different plants and training, the Company was able to achieve increase in productivity, reduction in inventories and on-time delivery fulfilment to customers. 7. Business Excellence Agility, Customer centricity and Empowered teams are the founding principles forming the basis for all transformation. Strategy Management, Risk Management, Process Management, Benchmarking & Good Practices, which are core to business excellence are integrated, bringing in uniformity & cross learning within the organization. The year under review saw major organizational transformation both in Bosch world and the Company. Two of the biggest units - Diesel Systems & Gasoline Systems were merged to form Powertrain Solutions (PS) effective January 01, 2018. Business Excellence has played a pivotal role in integrating the two and creating synergy, agility and efficiency. 8. Awards and Recognition During the year under review, the Company won several awards for excellence. Few such awards are: 9. Directors and Key Managerial Personnel 9.1 Director Retiring by Rotation In accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and Articles of Association of the Company, Mr. V. K. Viswanathan retires by rotation at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting, and being eligible, offers himself for re-election at the said meeting. 9.2 Changes in the Key Managerial Personnel and Board 9.2.1 Board of Directors Mr. Prasad Chandran resigned from the Directorship of the Company with effect from the close of business hours on September 01, 2017. The Board places on record its sincere appreciation for the valuable guidance provided by Mr. Chandran during his tenure as Director of the Company. The Board of Directors, on recommendation of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee, appointed Ms. Hema Ravichandar and Mr. S. V. Ranganath as Additional Director(s) in capacity of an Independent Director(s) for an initial term of 5 years and 3 years respectively with effect from September 02, 2017 and July 01, 2018 respectively. Mr. Jan-Oliver Röhrl resigned as Alternate Director to Mr. Peter Tyroller with effect from the close of business hours on June 30, 2018. The Board of Directors, on recommendation of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee appointed Mr. Röhrl as an Additional Director and Executive Director with effect from July 01, 2018. The Company has received notice(s) from member(s) under section 161 of the Companies Act, 2013, proposing candidature of Ms. Ravichandar, Mr. Ranganath and Mr. Röhrl for the office of Director(s) of the Company at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting. Mr. S. C. Srinivasan, who joins the Company as Chief Financial Officer with effect from July 01, 2018 was appointed as an Alternate Director to Mr. Peter Tyroller with effect from the aforementioned date. Mr. Srinivasan, by virtue of being in employment of the Company on July 01, 2018, would be placed in position of a Whole-time Director. The Board of Directors, therefore, approved his appointment as a Whole-time Director from July 01, 2018 to June 30, 2021, subjected to the approval of the shareholders. The following resolutions, in addition to re-appointment of Mr. Viswanathan, who retires by rotation, relating to the aforementioned re-constitution of the Board of Directiors of the Company will form part of the Notice convening the 66th Annual General Meeting of the Company: - Appointment of Mr. Jan-Oliver Röhrl as Director. - Appointment of Mr. Jan-Oliver Röhrl as Executive Director with effect from July 01, 2018. - Appointment of Ms. Hema Ravichandar as Independent Director for a period of 5 consecutive years with effect from September 02, 2017. - Appointment of Mr. S. V. Ranganath as Independent Director for a period of 3 consecutive years with effect from July 01, 2018. - Appointment of Mr. S. C. Srinivasan as a Whole-time Director with effect from July 01, 2018. Brief profiles of Mr. V. K. Viswanathan, Ms. Hema Ravichandar, Mr. S. V. Ranganath, Mr. Jan-Oliver Röhrl and Mr. S. C. Srinivasan will form part of the Notice convening the 66th Annual General Meeting of the Company. 9.2.2 Key Managerial Personnel Mr. Soumitra Bhattacharya, Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer and Mr. S. Karthik, Joint Chief Financial Officer have relinquished their positions as Chief Financial Officer and Joint Chief Financial Officer respectively with effect from the close of business hours on June 30, 2018. Mr. Bhattacharya and Mr. Karthik will continue to discharge their responsibilities as Managing Director and Vice-President (Corporate Finance & Accounts) respectively. The Board of Directors, on the recommendation of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee and Audit Committee appointed Mr. S. C. Srinivasan as Chief Financial Officer of the Company with effect from July 01, 2018. Mr. Srinivasan has also been appointed as an Alternate Director to Mr. Peter Tyroller with effect from the aforementioned date and consequently as a Whole-time Director. The appointment as Whole-time Director is subject to approval of the members at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting. Mr. R. Vijay, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer resigned from the Company with effect from the close of business hours on May 23, 2018. The Nomination and Remuneration Committee will identify and recommend to the Board appointment of new Company Secretary. In the interim, the Board of Directors, on recommendation of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee, appointed Mr. Anuj Sharma as the Compliance Officer of the Company (interim) in terms of the requirements of Securities & Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations & Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, with effect from May 24, 2018. As on the date of this report (i.e. May 22, 2018), the following are the Key Managerial Personnel of the Company: - Mr. Soumitra Bhattacharya (Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer) - Dr. Andreas Wolf (Joint Managing Director) - Mr. Jan-Oliver Röhrl (Chief Technical Officer & Alternate Director) - Mr. S. Karthik (Joint Chief Financial Officer) - Mr. R. Vijay (Company Secretary) 9.3 Independent Directors The Independent Directors have given a declaration to the Company that they meet the criteria of independence prescribed under section 149(6) of the Companies Act, 2013 (the Act) and SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (Listing Regulations). 9.3.1. Familiarization Programme for Independent Directors For details of the familiarization programme for Independent Directors, please refer to the Corporate Governance Report. 9.4 Performance Evaluation of Directors In line with the provisions of the Act and the Listing Regulations, the Board has carried out an annual performance evaluation of its own performance, its Committees and individual Directors. For details of the performance evaluation including evaluation criteria for Independent Directors, please refer the Corporate Governance Report. 10. Board Meetings During the year under review, five meetings of the Board of Directors were held. The particulars of the meetings and attendance thereat are mentioned in the Corporate Governance Report. 11. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee and Initiatives Consequent to changes in the Board of Directors during the year under review, the CSR Committee was re-constituted by inducting Ms. Hema Ravichandar as a member and re-designating Mr. Bhaskar Bhat as Chairman of the Committee with effect from September 02, 2017. As on the date of this report, the CSR Committee comprises of Mr. Bhaskar Bhat (Independent Director) as its Chairman and Ms. Hema Ravichandar (Independent Director), Mr. Soumitra Bhattacharya (Managing Director) & Dr. Andreas Wolf (Joint Managing Director) as its members. The CSR Committee oversees the Company’s CSR initiatives. The Board of Directors have adopted a CSR policy in line with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013. The CSR policy, inter-alia, deals with the objectives of the Company’s CSR initiatives, its guiding principles, thrust areas, responsibilities of the CSR Committee, implementation plan and reporting framework. Some of the key CSR initiatives during the year under review include the following: - Reaching out to less-educated, lesser-privileged youth and bringing them into the fold of employment through BRIDGE (Bosch’s Response to India’s Development and Growth through Employability Enhancement) program in 148 BRIDGE Centers across India. Approximately 16,000 youth have been trained and placed at entry level jobs through the BRIDGE program till date. During the year under review, 25 Model BRIDGE Centers were established with technical facilities of a smart classroom. - Expansion of Child Health Development Program (CHDP) under Health, Hygiene and Education Initiative to other cities besides Bengaluru covering approximately 300 government schools in Nashik, Bidadi and Jaipur, benefitting 70,000 children. - Upgradation of local dispensary in Adugodi, Bengaluru at par with a private healthcare facility. - Make Your Own Lab (MYOL) initiative was launched to enable Science Teachers in Government schools develop innovative kit. - Neighbourhood project as per the local needs identified the Company’s plants: Setting up of Reverse Osmosis Plant in Jaipur, Check Dams in Nashik, construction and operation of “Bosch-Akshaya Patra” kitchen in Jigani, etc. Details of the CSR Committee meetings and attendance thereat forms a part of the Corporate Governance Report. Annual Report on Corporate Social Responsibility Activities of the Company is enclosed as Annexure ‘B’ to this Report. 12. Audit Committee Consequent to changes in the Board of Directors during the year under review, the Audit Committee was re-constituted by inducting Ms. Hema Ravichandar as a member in place of Mr. Prasad Chandran with effect from September 02, 2017. As on the date of this report, the Audit Committee comprises of Ms. Renu S. Karnad (Independent Director) as its Chairperson and Mr. V. K. Viswanathan (Non-Executive and Non-Independent Director), Mr. Bernhard Steinruecke (Independent Director), Mr. Bhaskar Bhat (Independent Director) & Ms. Hema Ravichandar (Independent Director) as its members. During the year under review, the Board accepted all the recommendations of the Audit Committee. Details of the roles and responsibilities, particulars of meeting and attendance thereat are mentioned in the Corporate Governance Report. 13. Subsidiary and Associate Companies 13.1 Subsidiary Company MICO Trading Private Limited (MTPL) The Company has only one subsidiary viz., MICO Trading Private Limited. The financial performance of MTPL is as under: The Directors’ Report along with the Audited Statement of Accounts of MTPL has been uploaded on the website of the Company at www.bosch.in under the “Shareholder Information” section. 13.2 Associate Company Newtech Filter India Private Limited (NTFI) The Company has one Associate Company viz., Newtech Filter India Private Limited. The Company holds 25 percent and Robert Bosch Investment Nederland B.V. holds 75 percent of the paid-up share capital of NTFI. NTFI is the manufacturer of automotive filters, selling their products to the Company which further sells the same to end customers. Aftermarket contributed to 72 percent of the product sales while 28 percent were attributed to OEM and OES channels in 2017-18. The financial performance of NTFI is as under: A separate statement containing the salient features of the financial statement of the aforementioned Subsidiary and Associate is enclosed as Annexure ‘C’ to this Report. 14. Remuneration Policy The Nomination and Remuneration Policy, inter-alia, provides for criteria and qualifications for appointment of Director, Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management, Board diversity, remuneration to Directors, etc. The policy is enclosed as Annexure ‘D’ to this Report. The policy can also be accessed at the following link: https://www.bosch.in/media/our_company/shareholder_information/2015/nomination_and_remuneration_policy.pdf . 15. Particulars of Employees Disclosures pertaining to remuneration of employees and other details, as required under Section 197(12) of the Act and rules framed thereunder is enclosed as Annexure ‘E’ to this Report. The information in respect of employees of the Company required pursuant to Rule 5 of Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014, as amended will be provided on request. In terms of Section 136 of the Act, the Reports and Accounts are being sent to the Members and others entitled thereto excluding the aforementioned particulars of employees, which is available for inspection by the Members at the Registered Office of the Company during business hours on any working day. Any member desirous of obtaining a copy of the same may write to the Company at [email protected]. 16. Corporate Governance A report on Corporate Governance in terms of the requirements of the Listing Regulations and a certificate from the Practicing Company Secretary, forms part of this Annual Report (Page No. 191). 17. Risk Management The Company has a well-defined Risk Management policy. The policy has been developed after taking cognizance of the relevant statutory guidelines, Bosch Guidelines on risk management, empirical evidences, stakeholders’ feedback, forecast and expert judgment. The policy, inter-alia, provides for the following: Risk Management framework; - In-built pro-active processes within the Risk Management Manual for reporting, evaluating and resolving risks; - Identifying and assessing risks associated with various business decisions before they materialize. Take informed decisions at all levels of the organization in line with the Company’s risk appetite; - Ensuring protection of shareholders’ stake by establishing an integrated Risk Management Framework for identifying, assessing, mitigating, monitoring, evaluating and reporting all risks; - Strengthening Risk Management through constant learning and improvement; - Adoption and implementation of risk mitigation measures at every level in order to achieve long-term goals effectively and sustainably; - Regularly review Risk Tolerance levels of the Company as they may vary with change in the Company’s strategy; and - Ensuring sustainable business growth with stability. In the opinion of the Board, there are no risks that may threaten the existence of the Company. 18. Whistle Blower Policy/Vigil Mechanism The Company has a Whistle Blower Policy, which includes vigil mechanism for dealing with instances of fraud and mismanagement. Details of the Whistle Blower Policy have been mentioned in the Corporate Governance Report. The Whistle Blower Policy has also been uploaded on the website of the Company and can be accessed at the following link: https://www.bosch.in/media/our_company/shareholder_information/2014/whistle_blower_policy.pdf . 19. Business Responsibility Report In terms of the requirements of Regulation 34(2)(f) of the Listing Regulations, a report on Business Responsibility in the prescribed format forms a part of this Annual Report (Page No. 204). 20. Related Party Transactions The Audit Committee accords omnibus approval to Related Party Transactions which are in ordinary course of business, foreseen, repetitive in nature and satisfy the arm’s length principles. The Audit Committee reviews, on a quarterly basis, the details of the Related Party Transactions entered pursuant to the aforementioned omnibus approval. Additionally, the Company obtains a half yearly certificate from a Chartered Accountant in Practice confirming that the related party transactions during the said period were in ordinary course of business, repetitive in nature and satisfy the arm’s length principles. The details of Related Party Transactions under Section 188(1) of the Act required to be disclosed under Form AOC - 2 pursuant to Section 134(3) of the Act is enclosed as Annexure ‘F’ (Page No. 80) to this Report. The Company has framed a policy for determining materiality of Related Party Transactions and dealing with Related Party Transactions. The said policy is hosted on the website of the Company and can be accessed at the following link: https://www.bosch.in/media/our_company/shareholder_information/2014/rpt_policy.pdf . 21. Energy Conservation, Technology Absorption, Foreign Exchange Earnings & Outgo The report in respect of conservation of energy, technology absorption, foreign exchange earnings and outgo as required under Section 134 of the Act read with Rule 8 of Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014, as amended, is enclosed as Annexure ‘G’ (Page No. 81) to this Report. 22.1 Statutory Auditor The shareholders at the 65th Annual General Meeting of the Company held on September 01, 2017 appointed M/s. Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP (Firm Registration No. 117366W/W-100018) as Statutory Auditors of the Company for a period of 5 years until the conclusion of the 70th Annual General Meeting of the Company subject to ratification of their appointment at every subsequent AGM. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs vide notification dated May 07, 2018 obliterated the requirement of seeking Members’ ratification at every AGM on appointment of Statutory Auditors during their tenure of 5 years. The Auditors’ Report on the Standalone as well as Consolidated Financial Statements for the Financial Year 2017-18 is unmodified i.e. it does not contain any qualification, reservation or adverse remark. 22.2 Cost Audit & Cost Auditors The Board of Directors, on recommendation of the Audit Committee, appointed M/s. Rao, Murthy & Associates, Cost Accountants, Bengaluru (Registration No.000065) as Cost Auditors to audit the cost accounts of the Company for the Financial Year 2018-19 in terms of the provisions of Section 148 of the Companies Act, 2013. In terms of the requirements of the said section, the members shall ratify remuneration payable to the Cost Auditors. Accordingly, resolution ratifying the remuneration payable to M/s. Rao, Murthy & Associates will form a part of the Notice convening the 66th Annual General Meeting. 22.3 Secretarial Auditor The Company appointed Mr. Sachin Bhagwat, Practicing Company Secretary, to conduct Secretarial Audit as per the provisions of the Act for the Financial Year 2017- 18. The Report of the Secretarial Audit is enclosed as Annexure ‘H’ (Page No. 83) to this Report. There were no qualifications, reservations or adverse remarks in the Report of the Secretarial Auditor. 22.4 Reporting of Fraud There have been no instances of fraud reported by the aforesaid Auditors under Section 143(12) of the Act and Rules framed there under either to the Company or to the Central Government. 23. Directors’ Responsibility Statement Pursuant to Section 134(5) of the Companies Act, 2013, the Board of Directors report that: - in the preparation of the annual accounts, the applicable accounting standards have been followed along with proper explanation relating to material departures; - they have selected and consistently applied accounting policies and have made judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent so as to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company at the end of the financial year and the profit of the Company for that period; - proper and sufficient care has been taken for maintenance of adequate accounting records in accordance with the provisions of the Act for safeguarding the assets of the Company and for preventing and detecting fraud and other irregularities; - the annual accounts have been prepared on a ‘going concern’ basis; - proper internal financial controls are in place and that such controls are adequate and are operating effectively; and - proper systems to ensure compliance with the provisions of all applicable laws were in place and that such systems were adequate and operating effectively. 24. Details of Loans, Guarantees or Investments Details of loans, guarantees or investments covered under Section 186 of the Act, are provided in the Notes to the Financial Statements. During the year under review, there were no deposits as per the provisions of Companies Act, 2013. 26. Material Changes and Commitments There were no material changes and commitments between the end of the year under review and the date of this report affecting the financial position of the Company. 27. Material Order Passed by Regulators or Courts No material orders impacting the ‘going concern’ status of the Company or its operations in future were passed by the Regulators or Courts or Tribunals during the year under review. 28. Extract of Annual Return In terms of the requirements of Section 134(3)(a) of the Act, an Extract of Annual Return as provided under Section 92(3) of the Act is enclosed as Annexure ‘I’ (Page No. 85) to this Report. 29. Cautionary Statement Statements in the Board’s Report and the Management Discussion & Analysis describing the Company’s objective, expectations or forecasts may be forward looking within the meaning of applicable laws and regulations. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the statement. For and on behalf of the Board of Directors V. K. Viswanathan Date: May 22, 2018 Annexure ‘A’ to the Report of the Directors BOSCH LIMITED - DIVIDEND DISTRIBUTION POLICY SEBI vide Notification No. SEBI/LAD-NRO/ GN/2016-17/008 dated July 08, 2016 amended the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 by inserting Regulation 43A, requiring the top 500 listed entities based on the market capitalization (calculated as on March 31 of every financial year) to formulate a Dividend Distribution Policy. The Company, being one of the top 500 listed Companies, has formulated this Dividend Distribution Policy. Unless the context otherwise requires: - ‘Act’ means the Companies Act, 2013 and includes the rules framed thereunder; - ‘Board’ means the Board of Directors of the Company and includes any Committee thereof constituted or to be constituted. - ‘Company’ means Bosch Limited. - ‘Dividend’ shall have the meaning ascribed to it under the Act and includes an Interim Dividend but excludes Special Dividend. - ‘Listing Regulations’ or ‘SEBI LODR’ means Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, including any statutory modifications or re-enactments thereto. - ‘Free Reserves’ shall have the meaning ascribed to it under the Act. - ‘Policy’ means Bosch Limited - Dividend Distribution Policy. The words or expressions used but not defined herein, but defined under Companies Act, 2013 or the Listing Regulations shall have the same meaning assigned therein. Words in singular number include the plural and vice-versa. III. Effective Date: The policy shall come into force from the date of approval of the Board of Directors i.e. February 10, 2017. Dividend payout is contingent upon various factors and their combination thereof, which are enumerated below and the Board of Directors shall before deciding the dividend consider these factors in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders. 1. Circumstances under which the shareholder may not expect dividend The shareholder may not expect dividend, inter-alia, in the following circumstances, subject to discretion of the Board: - In event of loss or inadequacy of profit or cash flow. - Higher capital investments on account of expansion of business, etc. by the Company. - Decision to undertake any acquisition, amalgamation, merger, takeover, etc. requiring significant capital outflow. - Other business condition(s) in the opinion of the Board it would be prudent to plough back the profits of the Company. - De-growth in the overall business. - The Company has been prohibited to declare dividends by any regulatory authority. - Any other extra-ordinary circumstances. 2. Financial Parameters While determining the quantum of dividend the Board of Director shall, inter-alia, consider the following financial parameters:- - Profit After Tax considering write-off of accumulated losses, exceptional and extraordinary items, if any - Accumulated reserves - Cash flow and treasury position keeping in view the total debt to equity ratio - Earnings Per Share - Dividend Payout during the previous years - Capital Expenditure - Contingent Liabilities 3. Factors to be considered while declaring dividend The quantum of dividend is an outcome of due deliberation by the Board considering various Internal and External factors including, but not limited to:- - Business Forecast (near to medium term) - Earning stability - Availability of liquidity - Accumulated Reserves - Working capital requirements of the Company - Capital Expenditure requirements of the Company - Investments in new line(s) of business - Expenditure on Research & Development of new products - Investment in technology - Acquisition of brands/businesses - Replacement cost of end-of-lifecycle products - Statutory provisions, legal requirements, regulatory conditions or restrictions laid down under applicable laws - Prevailing macro-economic environment - Re-investment opportunities - Investor Expectations - Prevailing taxation structure including any amendments expected thereof. Dividend will generally be recommended once a year by the Board, after the approval of the Audited Financial Statement and shall be subject to approval/confirmation of shareholders at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). In certain years and to commemorate special occasions, the Board may consider declaring special dividend for its shareholders. Considering the above factors, the Company would endeavor to declare a dividend (excluding any special dividend or a payout in the form of a one-time/special dividend) resulting in a pay-out ratio upto 30% of the annual standalone Profits after Tax (PAT) of the Company. V. Utilization of Retained Earnings Subject to the applicable regulations, retained earnings may be applied for: - Funding the organic and inorganic growth of the Company - Diversification of business - Capacity Expansion - Replacement of Capital Assets - Declaration of Dividend in future years - Issue of Bonus Shares - Buy-back of Shares/Capital Reduction - Other permissible purposes VI. Parameters that shall be adopted with regard to various classes of shares The Company has only one class of shares viz., Equity Shares of Face Value of INR 10 each. Since the Company has issued only one class of equity shares with equal voting rights, all the members of the Company are entitled to receive the same amount of Dividend per share. In terms of the requirements of the Listing Regulations, this policy has been uploaded on the website of the Company viz., www.bosch.in and will also form a part of the Annual Report of the Company In case the Company declares dividend on the basis of parameter in addition to the parameters stated in this Policy, such parameters will be disclosed on the website as well as in the Annual Report of the Company. This Policy is subject to revision/amendments in accordance with the guidelines as may be issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI or other regulatory authority from time to time, on the subject matter. Accordingly, the Company reserves the right to alter, modify, add, delete or amend any of the provisions of this Policy. Not withstanding anything contained herein but subject to the applicable laws, the Board may, at their discretion revise, amend or modify the policy, which they in their absolute discretion may deem fit. In case of any amendment(s), clarification(s), circular(s), etc. issued by the relevant authorities, not being consistent with the provisions laid down under this Policy, then such amendment(s), clarification(s), circular(s), etc. shall prevail upon the provisions of this Policy and this Policy shall stand amended accordingly from the effective date as laid down under such amendment(s), clarification(s), circular(s), etc. IX. Cautionary Statement The Policy reflects the intent of the Company to reward its shareholders by sharing a portion of its profits after retaining sufficient funds for growth of the Company. The Company shall pursue this Policy to pay, subject to the circumstances and factors enlisted herein above, which shall be consistent with the performance of the Company over the years. This document does not solicit investment in the Company’s shares nor is it an assurance of guaranteed returns (in any form), for investments in the Company’s shares. The Policy is not an alternative to the decision of the Board for recommending dividend, which is made generally every year after taking into consideration all the relevant circumstances contained in this Policy as may be decided by the Board. Annexure ‘B’ to the Report of the Directors ANNUAL REPORT ON CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) ACTIVITIES FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2017-18 A brief outline of the Company’s CSR Policy, including overview of projects or programs proposed to be undertaken and a reference to the web-link to the CSR policy and projects or programs. Brief outline of the CSR Policy and overview of projects and programs undertaken are given in the Directors’ Report. The CSR Policy can be accessed at: - Mr. Prasad Chandran, Chairman (erstwhile Independent Director) @ - Mr. Bhaskar Bhat, Chairman (Independent Director)# - Ms. Hema Ravichandar (Independent Director)$ - Mr. Soumitra Bhattacharya (Managing Director) Dr. Andreas Wolf (Joint Managing Director) @ Chairman of the CSR Committee upto September 01, 2017 # Member upto September 01, 2017; appointed as Chairman with effect from September 02, 2017 $ Member with effect from September 02, 2017. Average Net Profit of the Company for the last three financial years: Mio INR 18,122 Prescribed CSR Expenditure (Two percent of the amount as in item 3 above): Mio INR 362 Details of CSR spent for the Financial Year: - Total amount spent for the financial year: Mio INR 363 - Amount unspent, if any: Nil - Manner in which amount spent in the financial year is detailed below: Details of the implementing agencies:- Karuna Trust, a registered trust since 1986, is a Non-Government Organization of repute primarily providing free primary health care for the past 26 years in partnership with various State Governments and Funding Agencies. Akhila Bharatha Mahila Seva Samaja (ABMSS) is a social organization set up in Bengaluru in 1993 primarily to work towards the betterment of women and children. Since 2013, they added cleft lip and palate treatment as one of their major programmes with the support of Deutsche Cleft Kinderilfe E.V Germany and local donors within the country. Agastya International Foundation (“Agastya”), founded in 1999 in Bengaluru is an Indian education trust and non-profit organization whose mission is to spark curiosity, nurture creativity and build confidence among economically disadvantaged children and teachers in India. Agastya runs hands-on science and art education programs in rural and semi-urban regions across 18 states. It is one of the largest science education programs that caters to economically disadvantaged children and teachers in the world. Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) was founded in the year 2000 as a joint programme of Public Affairs Centre and Swabhimana, two Bengaluru based NGOs. CMCA was registered as a Public Charitable Trust on June 15, 2009. Akshaya Patra Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Bengaluru. The Foundation strives to fight issues like hunger and malnutrition in India, by implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in the government schools and government-aided schools. Academy for Creative Teaching Trust (ACT) is an institution for teacher training and educational consultancy set up in 2005. It has resources of academicians and academic administrators. Bosch India Foundation (BIF) is a trust formed in 2008 by Bosch group companies in India for public purpose of community and societal development, with a clear focus on sustainability, thus sustaining the philanthropic values of the Bosch Group in India. The trust is governed by the Board of Trustees who are the heads of the entities of Bosch Group in India. 6. Reasons for not spending the amount specified in Point 5 (b) above: 7. A responsibility statement of the CSR Committee that the implementation and monitoring of CSR Policy is in compliance with CSR objective and Policy of the company. The CSR projects were designed, implemented and periodically reviewed in accordance with the CSR Policy of the Company framed pursuant to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and rules made thereunder. Joint Managing director Corporate Social Responsibility Committee Annexure ‘C’ to the Report of the Directors STATEMENT CONTAINING SALIENT FEATURES OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF SUBSIDIARIES/ASSOCIATE COMPANIES/JOINT VENTURES Part “A”: Subsidiaries Name of the subsidiary: MICO Trading Private Limited 1. Names of subsidiaries which are yet to commence operations: MICO Trading Private Limited 2. Names of subsidiaries which have been liquidated or sold during the year: None Part “B”: Associates and Joint Ventures Name of Associate: NewTech Filter India Private Limited 1. Names of associates or joint ventures which are yet to commence operations: Nil 2. Names of associates or joint ventures which have been liquidated or sold during the year: Nil |For and on behalf of the Board| Place : Bengaluru V. K. Viswanathan Annexure ‘D’ to the Report of the Directors NOMINATION AND REMUNERATION POLICY In terms of Section 178 of the Companies Act, 2013 and clause 49 of the listing agreement (as amended from time to time), this policy on Nomination and Remuneration of Directors, Key Managerial Personnel (KMP) and Senior Management of Bosch Limited has been formulated by the Nomination & Remuneration Committee and approved by the Board of Directors. This policy shall act as guidelines on matters relating to the remuneration, appointment, removal and evaluation of performance of the Directors, Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management. In this policy unless the context otherwise requires: - Act means the Companies Act, 2013 and rules made thereunder, as amended from time to time. - Company means Bosch Limited. - Board means Board of Directors of Bosch Limited. - Independent Director means a Director referred to in Section 149(6) of the Companies Act, 2013 read with clause 49 of the listing agreement. - Committee means Nomination & Remuneration Committee of the Company as constituted by the Board from time to time. - M&SS means Managerial & Superintending Staff of the Company. - Key Managerial Personnel or KMP means Managing Director, Joint Managing Director, Whole-time Director, Chief Financial Officer, Company Secretary and such other persons who may be deemed to be KMP under the Companies Act, 2013. - Senior Management Personnel means personnel of the Company comprising of all members of management one level below the executive directors including the functional heads. The designation and categories of such Personnel will be determined by the Company based on the functional and reporting structure. - ASR means Annual Salary Review. - SLx means Salary Level. The words and expressions used but not defined herein, but defined under the Companies Act, 2013 shall have the meaning assigned therein. 3. Constitution of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee: The Board has the power to constitute / reconstitute the Committee from time to time in order to make it consistent with Bosch policies and applicable statutory requirements. At present, the Nomination & Remuneration Committee of the Company comprises of the following members: - Mr. Bernhard Steinruecke, Chairman, Independent Director - Mr. V. K. Viswanathan, Non-Executive Non-Independent Director - Mr. Prasad Chandran, Independent Director - Mr. Bhaskar Bhat, Independent Director Membership of the Committee shall be disclosed in the Annual Report. The terms of the Committee shall be continue unless terminated by the Board of Directors. 4. Key objectives of the Committee: - To guide the Board in relation to the appointment and changes in Directors, Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management including appointment of M&SS in KMP and Senior Management positions; - To evaluate the performance of the Members of the Board and provide necessary report to the Board for further evaluation; - To recommend to the Board on remuneration payable to the Directors, Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management; - To develop a succession plan for the Board and to regularly review the plan; - To determine remuneration based on Company’s financial position, trends and practices on remuneration prevailing in the industry; - To retain, motivate and promote talent and to ensure long term sustainability of M&SS talent including KMPs & Senior Management Personnel and create competitive advantage; and - Consider any other matters as may be requested by the Board. The meeting of the Committee shall be held at regular intervals as deemed fit and appropriate. The Company Secretary of the Company shall act as the Secretary of the Committee. The Nomination and Remuneration Committee shall set up a mechanism to carry out its functions, any/all of its powers to any of the Executive / Whole-time Directors and/or Senior M&SS of the Company, as deemed necessary for proper and expeditious execution. The Chairman of the Committee or in his absence any of other member of the Committee authorized by him on his behalf shall attend the General Meetings of the Company. 6. Committee members interest: - A member of the Committee is not entitled to participate in the discussions when his/her own remuneration is discussed at a meeting or when his/her performance is being evaluated. - The Committee may invite such executives, as it considers appropriate, to be present at the meetings of the Committee. 7. Effective Date: This policy shall be effective 03.12.2014. 8. Appointment of Director, Key Managerial Personnel & Senior Management - Criteria & Qualification: The appointment of Director, Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management will be based on the outcome of strategic planning. The recruitment process for selection to these categories of personnel commences after the approval of manpower requisitions by the appointing authority (depending upon the SLx levels). Relevant approval of concerned is also obtained as part of the process, as deemed fit depending upon the level of hiring. The Committee shall consider the standards of qualification, expertise and experience of the candidates for appointment as Director, Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management and accordingly recommend to the Board his/her appointment. 9. Remuneration to Directors, Key Managerial Personnel, Senior Management Personnel and other employees: - The Key Managerial Personnel, Senior Management Personnel and other employees shall be paid remuneration as per the Compensation and Benefit Policy of the Company as revised through the Annual Salary Review process from time to time. - The Human Resource department will inform the Committee, the requisite details on the proposed increments for every ASR cycle / process including payouts for the variable part (Performance Incentive). - The Compensation structure will also be based on the market salary survey. The survey for total remuneration would be commissioned with external consultants. The basket of companies will be finalized by HR department after considering all the relevant aspects. - The composition of remuneration so determined by the Committee shall be reasonable and sufficient to attract, retain and motivate the Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management of the quality required to meet high standards of performance. The relationship of remuneration to performance shall be clear and meet appropriate performance benchmarks. The Committee may review remuneration of identified senior management personnel from time to time. Remuneration to Non-Executive & Independent Directors The Non-executive Directors and Independent Directors of the Company are entitled to sitting fees as determined by Board from time to time for attending Board / Committee meetings thereof in accordance with the provisions of Act. The profit-linked Commission shall be paid within the monetary limit approved by the shareholders of the Company subject to the same not exceeding 1% of the net profits of the Company computed as per the applicable provisions of the Act. Profit linked commission would comprise of a fixed and variable component considering the overall performance of the Company, attendance at the meetings of the Board/ Committees, Membership/Chairmanship of Committees and responsibilities of Directors. 10. Policy on Board diversity: The Board of Directors shall comprise of Directors having expertise in different areas / fields like Finance, Sales and Marketing, Banking, Engineering, etc. or as may be considered appropriate. In designing the Board’s composition, Board diversity has been considered from a number of aspects, including but not limited to gender, age, cultural and educational background, ethnicity, professional experience, skills and knowledge. The Board shall have at atleast one Board member who has accounting or related financial management expertise and atleast one woman director. 11. Changes amongst Directors, Key Managerial Personnel & Senior Management: The Committee may recommend to the Board, changes in Board, Key Managerial Personnel or Senior Management Personnel subject to the provisions of the Act and applicable Company’s policies i.e., Rules and Regulation of Service and Conduct for M&SS, Code of Business Conduct and Principles of legal compliance framed and adopted by the Company from time to time. The Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management Personnel shall superannuate as per the applicable provisions of the regulation and prevailing policy of the Company. The Board of Directors will have the discretion to retain the Key Managerial Personnel and Senior Management Personnel in the same position/remuneration or revised remuneration after attaining the age of superannuation for organizational development reasons. 12. Amendments to the Nomination and Remuneration Policy: The Board of Directors on its own and/or as per the recommendations of Nomination and Remuneration Committee can amend this policy, as deemed fit from time to time For and on behalf of the Board of Directors V. K. Viswanathan Date: May 22, 2018 Annexure ‘E’ to the Report of the Directors I. The ratio of the remuneration of each Director to the median remuneration of the employees of the Company for the Financial Year: * Employees for the above purpose and Point No. III below includes all employees except employees/associates governed under Long-term wage settlement. @ resigned from the directorship of the Company with effect from the close of business hours on September 01, 2017. $ appointed as an Additional Director in capacity of an Independent Director with effect from September 02, 2017. % Mr. Peter Tyroller has waived his remuneration as Director of the Comp II. Percentage increase in the remuneration of each director, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary in the financial year: |@||Mr. Prasad Chandran resigned from the directorship of the Company with effect from the close of business hours on September 01, 2017. Hence, the remuneration drawn for the year under review is not comparable with the previous year.| |#||Appointed as Additional Director in capacity of an Independent Director with effect from September 02, 2017.| |$||Mr. Peter Tyroller has waived his remuneration as Director of the Company.| |*||Appointed as Alternate Director to Mr. Peter Tyroller and consequently as a Whole-time Director with effect from February 11, 2017. The remuneration drawn for the previous year is for the period February 11, 2017 to March 31, 2017. The percentage increase in remuneration in the financial year is calculated on a propotionate basis.| |&||Served as the Company Secretary for a part of the previous financial year. The remuneration drawn for the previous year as Company Secretary is for the period February 11, 2017 to March 31, 2017. The percentage increase in remuneration in the financial year is calculated on a propotionate basis.| III. The percentage increase in the median remuneration of employees in the Financial Year: There was an increase of ~5.37% in the median remuneration of employees. IV. The number of permanent employees on the rolls of the Company: As at March 31, 2018, the Company had 9,934 permanent employees on its roll. V. Average percentile increase already made in the salaries of employees other than the managerial personnel in the last Financial Year and its comparison with the percentile increase in the managerial remuneration and justification thereof and point out if there are any exceptional circumstances for increase in the managerial remuneration: Percentage increase made in the salaries of the employees other than the managerial personnel in the last Financial Year i.e. 2017-18 was ~8.9% whereas the increase in the managerial remuneration in the Financial Year 2017-18 was ~23.55%. VI. Affirmation that the remuneration is as per the remuneration policy of the Company: It is hereby affirmed that the remuneration paid to the Directors, Key Managerial Personnel and Employees is as per the Nomination and Remuneration Policy of the Company. Annexure ‘F’ to the Report of the Directors Form No. AOC-2 Form for disclosure of particulars of contracts/arrangements entered into by the Company with related parties referred to in sub-section (1) of section 188 of the Companies Act, 2013 including certain arm’s length transactions under third proviso thereto. 1. Details of contracts or arrangements or transactions pursuant to section 188(1): 2. Details of material contracts or arrangement or transactions at arm’s length basis: Robert Bosch GmbH (Holding company) Ongoing, repetitive, in ordinary course of business and on arm’s length basis. Approval of the Audit Committee and the shareholders have been obtained pursuant to the requirements of erstwhile Listing Agreement/SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 and the Companies Act, 2013, for an aggregate amount upto Mio INR 50,000 for each financial year. For and on behalf of the Board of Directors V. K. Viswanathan Date: May 22, 2018 Annexure ‘G’ to the Report of the Directors CONSERVATION OF ENERGY, TECHNOLOGY ABSORPTION AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE EARNINGS AND OUTGO A. Conservation of energy (i) The steps taken or impact on conservation of energy: - Optimization of ventilation system. - Use of energy efficient pumps and motors in Air Handling Units - Heat Pump utilization for Aqueous cleaning machine. - Installation of centralized Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) control for ACs. - Use of Carbon Fiber Composite (CFC) trays in place of Metallic trays for batch loading of heat treatment furnaces. - Adoption of Auto Power Factor Control. - Replacement of conventional luminaries with LED lights. - Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) installed for Compressors, etc. - ‘Dew point’ based control of compressed air dryers. - Use of timers & motion sensors for office lighting. - Energy Saver Panel for lightings to consume optimum electrical energy. - Installation of solar thermal unit for generation of hot water at the kitchen block of canteen. - Thermal imaging of the furnaces and leakage correction. - Energy analytics to review energy conservation on line. - Temperature optimization in Dürr cleaning machine. - Interlocking of exhaust fans with machine controls. - Elimination of standalone chiller unit for centralized oil filtration system. - Batch quantity and charge grate weight optimization in furnace and heat treatment. - Roof exhaust fan automation. (ii) The steps taken by the Company for utilising alternate sources of energy: - The Company has installed Solar Plants at its various manufacturing location for using solar energy as a source in place of conventional sources. - The details of the installed solar capacity of the various manufacturing facilities of the Company is given below: (iii) The capital investment on energy conservation equipment(s): During the year under review, the Company focused on investments aiming to reduce usage of conventional energy, energy conservation projects and increase the generation of solar energy and/or optimization of energy utilisation. Location wise details of investment on energy conservation/solar energy equipment(s): B. Technology absorption (i) The efforts made towards technology absorption: - Introduction of Heat Pumps in place of electrical heating. - Introducing lean manufacturing concept for energy efficiency projects through leveling and auto loading for increasing utilization of machines. - Smart LED lighting technology for street lighting and office areas. - Energy analytics to monitor energy consumption and take energy conservation measures. - Energy efficient chiller. - Energy efficient control drives used for furnace. - Quench oil optimization in conveyer brazing furnace. (ii) The benefits derived like product improvement, cost reduction, product development or import substitution: The initiatives have resulted in benefits for customers and the end users as enumerated below: - Synchronization of Diesel Generator with purchased electricity to ensure the fuel economy which result in emission reduction. - Reducing exhaust emissions. - Improving fuel economy and consequent reduction in CO2. - Optimum cost/benefit ratio for system solutions. (iii) In case of imported technology (imported during the last three years reckoned from the beginning of the financial year) (iv) The expenditure incurred on Research and Development: For and on behalf of the Board of Directors V. K. Viswanathan Date: May 22, 2018 Annexure ‘H’ to the Report of the Directors SECRETARIAL AUDIT REPORT For the financial year ended 31 March, 2018 I have conducted the Secretarial Audit of the compliance of applicable statutory provisions and the adherence to good corporate practices by Bosch Limited (hereinafter called “the Company”). Secretarial Audit was conducted in a manner that provided me a reasonable basis for evaluating the corporate conduct/statutory compliances and expressing my opinion thereon. Based on my verification of the Company’s books, papers, minute books, forms and returns filed and other records maintained by the Company and also the information provided by the Company, its officers, agents and authorised representatives during the conduct of Secretarial Audit, I hereby report that in my opinion, the Company has, during the audit period covering the financial year ended on 31 March, 2018, complied with the statutory provisions listed hereunder and also that the Company has proper Board-processes and compliancemechanism in place to the extent, in the manner and subject to the reporting made hereinafter: I have examined the books, papers, minute books, forms and returns filed and other records maintained by the Company for the financial year ended on 31 March, 2018 according to the provisions of: - The Companies Act, 2013 (the Act) and the rules made thereunder; - The Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (‘SCRA’) and the rules made thereunder; - The Depositories Act, 1996 and the Regulations and Bye-laws framed thereunder; - Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the rules and regulations framed thereunder to the extent of foreign direct investment. The provisions of external commercial borrowings and overseas direct investment were not applicable to the Company. The following Regulations and Guidelines prescribed under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (‘SEBI Act’):- - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011; - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015; - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009; (Not applicable to the Company during the audit period) - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Share Based Employee Benefits) Regulations, 2014; (Not applicable to the Company during the audit period) - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities) Regulations, 2008; (Not applicable to the Company during the audit period) - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agents) Regulations, 1993 regarding the Companies Act and dealing with client; - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Delisting of Equity Shares) Regulations, 2009; (Not applicable to the Company during the audit period); and - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Buyback of Securities) Regulations, 1998; (Not applicable to the Company during the audit period) - As per the representation made by the Company, no law was applicable specifically to the Company. I have also examined compliance with the applicable clauses of the following: - Secretarial Standards issued by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India - Listing Agreements entered into by the Company with BSE Ltd. and the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. and The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. During the period under review the Company has complied with the provisions of the Act, Rules, Regulations, Guidelines, Standards, etc. mentioned above. I further report that: The Board of Directors of the Company is duly constituted with proper balance of Executive Directors, NonExecutive Directors and Independent Directors. The changes in the composition of the Board of Directors that took place during the period under review were carried out in compliance with the provisions of the Act. Adequate notice is given to all directors to schedule the Board Meetings, agenda and detailed notes on agenda were sent at least seven days in advance, and a system exists for seeking and obtaining further information and clarifications on the agenda items before the meeting and for meaningful participation at the meeting. As per the minutes of the meetings duly recorded and signed by the Chairman, the decisions of the Board were unanimous and no dissenting views have been recorded. I further report that there are adequate systems and processes in the Company commensurate with the size and operations of the Company to monitor and ensure compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations and guidelines. I further report that during the audit period, no specific events / actions took place having a major bearing on the Company’s affairs in pursuance of the above referred laws, rules, regulations, guidelines, standards, etc. referred to above. Place : Pune Date: 9 May 2018 This report is to be read with my letter of even date which is annexed as Annexure and forms an integral part of this report. Annexure to the Secretarial Audit Report My report of even date is to be read along with this letter: - Maintenance of secretarial records is the responsibility of the management of the Company. My responsibility is to express an opinion on these secretarial records based on my audit. - I have followed the audit practices and processes as were appropriate to obtain reasonable assurance about the correctness of the contents of the secretarial records. The verification was done on test basis to ensure that correct facts are reflected in secretarial records. I believe that the process and practices I followed provide a reasonable basis for my opinion. - I have not verified the correctness and appropriateness of financial records and books of accounts of the Company. - Wherever required, I have obtained Management Representation about the compliance of laws, rules and regulations and happening of events, etc. - The compliance of the provisions of corporate and other applicable laws, rules, regulations, standards is the responsibility of management. My examination was limited to the verification of procedures on test basis. - The Secretarial Audit report is neither an assurance as to future viability of the Company nor of the efficacy or effectiveness with which the management has conducted the affairs of the Company. Place : Pune Date: 9 May 2018 Annexure ‘I’ to the Report of the Directors FORM NO. MGT - 9 EXTRACT OF ANNUAL RETURN (As on the Financial Year ended March 31, 2018) I. REGISTRATION AND OTHER DETAILS: II. PRINCIPAL BUSINESS ACTIVITIES OF THE COMPANY: All the business activities contributing 10% or more of the total turnover of the Company are given below:- III. PARTICULARS OF HOLDING, SUBSIDIARY AND ASSOCIATE COMPANIES: IV. SHARE HOLDING PATTERN (Equity Share Capital Breakup as percentage of Total Equity) i) Category-wise Share Holding ii) Shareholding of Promoters: iii) Change in Promoter/Promoter Group’s Shareholding: iv) Shareholding Pattern of top ten Shareholders (other than Directors, Promoters and Holders of GDRs and ADRs): v) Shareholding of Directors and Key Managerial Personnel: Indebtedness of the Company including interest outstanding/accrued but not due for payment VI. REMUNERATION OF DIRECTORS AND KEY MANAGERIAL PERSONNEL A. Remuneration to Managing Director (MD), Whole-Time Directors (WTD) and/or Manager: B. Remuneration to other directors: Note: Mr. Peter Tyroller, Non-Executive Director has waived his remuneration as director. # Total remuneration to Managing Director, Whole-time Director and other Directors [being the total of (A) and (B)]. The ceiling for the total remuneration to all directors is Mio INR 1,973.2, being 11 percent of the profits calculated as per Section 198 of the Companies Act, 2013. C. Remuneration To Key Managerial Personnel Other Than MD/Manager/WTD VII. PENALTIES / PUNISHMENT/ COMPOUNDING OF OFFENCES: For and on behalf of the Board of Directors Place : Bengaluru Date: May 22, 2018 V. K. Viswanathan

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Makeup Ghana is a movement to create an ecosystem for the emerging and fast growing beauty industry in Ghana. The movement was initiated with the objective of creating a platform to bring together players from the Makeup profession, the Makeup Brands, the Wholesale and Retail trade, the Fashion media in GH, etc. under one umbrella to generate synergy and propel the business forward. Makeup Ghana invites nominations for the inaugural Ghana Makeup Awards event scheduled for this August at the La Palm Royal Hotel in Accra Makeup Ghana is organizing the first Makeup Awards in Ghana to reward trailblazers and budding talents in the makeup industry in Ghana to celebrate makeup artistes whose contribution to the beauty industry has not yet been recognized as well as the younger generation of makeup artistes who are breaking new grounds and pushing the boundaries in the Makeup profession. The awards is also to acknowledge the work of the makeup brands, retailers and all other industry players in supporting the makeup artistes to develop the makeup industry in Ghana. The Ghana Makeup Awards follows prior events organized by Makeup Ghana to create a platform for make up artistes and makeup brands among others to come together to promote the makeup Industry in Ghana. Makeup Ghana Connects was organized this March to showcase industry players followed by another stakeholder’s engagement at La Palm to deliberate on issues that will promote the makeup industry in Ghana. The award is the third installment in the series of events earmarked at promoting and celebrating best practice in the Makeup Industry in Ghana. Nomination for Award Categories starts on Wednesday June 15th and ends on Thursday 30th June 2016. Nomination format will be Name of Nominee + Category + Short Description of nominee and nominee work. Three finalists will be shortlisted for each category based on pre-determined criteria done by Board made up of industry experts, patrons, etc. The shortlisted nominees will be announced at the launch of the Ghana Makeup Awards in July 2016. - Makeup Artist of the year - Most Glamorous Celebrity - Best Beauty/ Makeup Blog - Best Beauty/ Makeup Vlog - Best TV Makeup - Best Special Effects Makeup Artist (Movies/Theatre) - Best Editorial Makeup Artist - Best Bridal Makeup Artist - Makeup/Beauty Brand of the year - Best Beauty Retail Shop - Best Celebrity Makeup Artist - Most promising Makeup Artist - Best Makeup /Beauty School - Most Promising Ghanaian Owned Brand Follow the awards on Facebook at fb.me/ ghmakeupawards and on Twitter and Instagram @ghmakeupawards. Email us at [email protected]

If you’ve been following our Free Dining Plan at Walt Disney World updates, you know tomorrow (April 24, 2017) is the rumored release of this popular discount. For many of you, Free Dining release day is like Christmas morning…except you’re buying something in order to get something “free” instead of receiving a bunch of totally-free* presents (*unless you’re an adult) from Santa Claus. Okay, so maybe it’s more like a cross between Black Friday and Christmas morning, but now you’ve made my whole comparison clumsier. ANYWAY…the point is that the promotion should be released tomorrow. Again, it’s rumor at this point, and everything is subject to change until Disney officially releases the promo with exact details. Who knows? Maybe we’ve got the rumor all wrong and instead of a ‘Free Disney Dining Plan’ promo, this year it’s a ‘Free Doofus Drake Pin’ promo as part of some convoluted synergy play for the reboot of DuckTales on Disney XD. (Hey, it’s possible!) Alright, jokes aside, there are a couple of important things to keep in mind as you ‘prepare’ for the release of Free Dining. If this is your first rodeo with Free Dining release day, you need patience and flexibility… In terms of patience, you need to be prepared for hiccups in Disney’s online booking system, long waits on the phone lines, and who knows what other errors. If you’ve spent any amount of time on Disney’s websites, you know that Stitch has a penchant for eating random pages. 😉 On the flexibility front, it’s highly likely that room availability–even at resorts that are not excluded–will be minimal to nearly non-existent at some resorts, over some date ranges. Thanks to Pandora – World of Avatar marketing and strong consumer confidence in the United States right now, fall/winter occupancy rates have been trending above average. Since Walt Disney World only offers the Free Dining promotion to increase occupancy rates (no, it’s not because they are “nice”), higher occupancy means less of a need for the promo to fill rooms. Less of a need means less availability. What this means to you is that having a backup (or 3-4 backups) plan is essential. If your first choice is unavailable, you need an alternative ready to go. Sometimes this means being open to a different hotel, sometimes it means being willing to upgrade room categories or even tweak your travel dates (if possible). If you are totally inflexible, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. If you’re using a travel agent, be sure to let them know the ways you’re flexible. I also recommend giving them some leeway to make other tweaks if good options present themselves. This flexibility is incredibly important if you’re staying at Pop Century or Port Orleans Riverside. Even though the Picnic Burger topped with hot dogs is gone (RIP), Pop Century is still going to be in incredibly high demand. Riverside won’t have availability (at all) for some date ranges, and will be very limited for others. Other resorts are going to be similarly limited, but those are the big standouts. Other details are covered in our Free Disney Dining Plan at Walt Disney Worldpost; if you’ve been following this stuff, you’ve probably read a lot of this dozens of times, so I’m not going to rehash it all here. I’ve spent the entire morning updating our category of Free Dining posts on the blog, so if you want a good way to waste your Sunday, take a look at those. I’d recommend taking a nap instead, but that’ll probably be the natural result of 10 minutes on one of those blog posts, anyway. 😉 One thing I’m working on is new post ideas covering Free Dining. Our main Free Dining Plan post has over 1,000 comments, with many of those being questions from confused readers. While I think I do a good job of covering frequently asked questions, I find myself updating and refining the text in that post a lot based on recurring questions. A problem with being ‘too close’ to any topic is that you start to assume knowledge that isn’t so common for newbies. There’s no doubt that has happened with me and the Disney Dining Plan (something with which I have a love/hate relationship). I’m working on a couple of posts right now (including one on whether you should upgrade or downgrade), but if you have ideas for things you’d like to see covered or questions that I could addressed, please share in the comments here. I’m all ears! I think our various Free Dining posts cover almost everything, but are there are lingering questions? As mentioned, we know this can be more overwhelming for Free Dining newbies than it is for seasoned vets, so don’t be afraid to ask any questions! Are you planning on booking Free Dining? Opting for a room-only discount instead? Have any tips for free dining rookies? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Teal Leadership BootCamps Teal Leadership Bootcamps are designed for people who want to get start the journey towards more participatory ways of leading their organizations. Bootcamps are designed for participants to get familiar with 'Teal' or participatory leadership methods, techniques, tips and tricks and it has them experience the tools to evolve, to lead, to create synergy, to share experience, to lead teams, to create healthy relationships, to manage a project, an away day, change processes and to facilitate finding purpose. Leadership Bootcamps are being organized by: Diamond Leadership Academy

We’re excited to share the following news… The Parade of Homes, dating back to the 1940’s, is an annual event hosted by the Metropolitan Builder’s Association (MBA) of Milwaukee. Twenty different home building companies participated in the 2018 event. This year, James Craig Builders Inc. of Milwaukee decided to push themselves to the limit—and it paid off. The James Craig model, the Rosewood Cottage, took home nine of the twelve judges awards in the Lilly Crossings subdivision site in Brookfield. When the Lilly Crossing subdivision was announced as one of the sites, Craig Rakowski, owner of James Craig Builder, knew he wanted to participate in this year’s Parade of Homes after a 10-year absence. “The reason we did it this year was twofold,” said Rakowski. “We wanted to celebrate our 20th anniversary by creating a home that included extra features and a lifestyle-oriented design. Also, since this year’s Parade of Homes was so close to our office, it gave us the chance to build the perfect representation of what we do for our customers right in our proverbial backyard.” In this year’s Parade of Homes, James Craig Builder’s accepted the following nine judges awards from the Metropolitan Builders Association for the Rosewood Cottage in the Lilly Crossings subdivision: Best Overall Model Home – Gold, Best in Construction, Best in Design, Best Exterior – Design, Best Kitchen, Best Family Living Area, Best Interior, Best Finished Basement, and Best Master Suite. As you might expect, the Rosewood Cottage design features some unique details on the floor plan. For example, there is a door that goes directly from the study to the front porch. This design is for several reasons. “In the ‘day of Amazon,’ it makes it easier for people working at home to bring packages in,” said Rakowski. “It also helps people working from home guide clients into the work area without having them go through other living spaces.” A business that has product pickups could also have packages picked up through this space with minimal intrusion. Additionally, the home features a living space for an elderly family member needing a caregiver. The basement area features a curtain-less, accessible shower area. There is also a door with a finished staircase leading from the garage to the basement, so a hired caregiver would be able to go directly to the person needing care. They would be able to pull their vehicle right into the garage and go directly downstairs. “Our Parade home this year was a good representation of what we do for our customers,” Rakowski said. “We didn’t use any different subcontractors or suppliers on the Rosewood Cottage. Every process was the same for building a home for any of our customers.” Rakowski mentions again and again that the expertise of his staff helped make this year’s build a success. The synergy and experience that the staff had with each other were a major component in the success of the project. Staff members at James Craig, such as Tory Heil (Builder), Brenda Kugler (Interior Designer), Tyler Rakowski (Builder), and Dave Montguire (Director of Construction) all made major contributions in building the Rosewood Cottage. Thank you is extended to the entire James Craig staff, contractors, and subcontractors who helped build, finance, and organize the construction of the Rosewood Cottage. To James Craig Builders, this project was a labor of love. They are truly thankful for not only the judge’s response but the public’s reception to the Rosewood Cottage as well. To learn more about the award winning model located in Brookfield, click here.

Hawaii Regains Footing After Early Stumbles on Race to Top Sixty-five miles from the nearest town of Hilo, over the volcano and past groves of coffee and macadamia-nut trees, is Naalehu Elementary School. Here, students travel as far as eight miles along privately owned roads to reach the closest school bus stop on the main highway, contributing to chronically high absenteeism. Children from the Marshall Islands, a U.S. territory where the American military tested nuclear weapons during the Cold War, come to escape poverty and contamination, and often arrive at school with health problems and little English. Naalehu Elementary is a training ground for new teachers, who typically do two years of duty, get tenure, and then leave for schools in larger towns on the Big Island of Hawaii, or on Oahu. The 459-pupil school and the others in what's known as the Kau-Keaau-Pahoa complex area are among the primary beneficiaries of a $75 million Race to the Top grant, part of an intensive state and federal effort to transform Hawaii's school system from one of the nation's worst, by some metrics, to one of its most improved. Just two years ago, the state was floundering so badly in executing its plan that it nearly lost the coveted grant. Today, it looks as if the federal bet may pay off. "We pushed real fast and real hard," said state Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi. "Now, it's a question of time. It's giving people time to love it and learn it and practice it," she said of the state's aggressive Race to the Top agenda. This geographically challenging state—an eight-island chain 2,400 miles off the coast of California—features a single, state-run school district of 185,000 students, with 255 schools in all. One million of its 1.3 million residents live on Oahu, which includes Honolulu, meaning a large swath of Hawaii is extremely rural—and its schools very remote. So in this way, Hawaii shares many of the challenges of other Race to the Top states, with both poor urban centers and isolated rural communities. Despite such difficulties, Hawaii has made a relatively controversy-free transition to the Common Core State Standards, developed an enviable new data-driven culture among educators, seen early progress in its turnaround schools, and posted impressive test-score gains—all since winning its federal grant three years ago. Consider Hawaii the come-from-behind character in the Obama administration's Race to the Top story. "Lots of folks sort of scoffed when we invested in Hawaii through Race to the Top. People thought that was a loser, that Hawaii could never do anything. ... Hawaii, to their tremendous credit, has proved a lot of skeptics wrong," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a media call Nov. 7 praising Hawaii's significant improvement on the National Assessment of Education Progress. From 'Disastrous' to 'Successful' The 2013-14 school year is the final year of implementation for the 12 states that shared $4 billion in grants as part of a program that will likely be central to the education legacies of President Barack Obama and Mr. Duncan. There is little doubt that supporters, along with critics who debated the value of spending billions on an education competition, will be eyeing Hawaii and the other Race to the Top grant winners in assessing the outcome of the administration's education agenda. At Keaau High School on Hawaii's "Big Island," the principal utilized federal Race to the Top money to help turn around a low-performing school. Read more. Hawaii came out of nowhere to win its grant in 2010. The Obama administration devised the contest, financed with 2009 economic-stimulus money approved by Congress, to spur change in four areas: standards and tests, data systems, educator effectiveness, and low-performing schools. Virtually no one—not federal education officials and not the Hawaii grant-proposal writers—had thought the Aloha State was a favorite to win. In fact, when Superintendent Matayoshi got the call as she was leaving for work on an August morning telling her that Hawaii won a grant, she was so shocked that she drove into her husband's car in their driveway. And the state seemed to prove the doubters right when, less than a year later, federal officials threatened to take its grant away over widespread problems of implementation, particularly with teacher evaluations. Among the many problems: The state education department wasn't organized in a way to carry out such a bold, high-profile plan. Its officials struggled with a heavily front-loaded agenda that promised a lot in the first two years for a state that even educators acknowledge operated without a sense of urgency. So Ms. Matayoshi did two key things: She overhauled her leadership team and tapped Stephen Schatz, a former teacher and complex-area superintendent whose on-the-ground battle scars gave him credibility with rank-and-file teachers, and put him in charge of Race to the Top efforts in August 2011. And she ingrained Race to the Top into educators' everyday work, turning Hawaii's proposal into the state board of education's adopted strategic plan. Although the state's Race to the Top plan is outlined in a 220-page document, it can be boiled down to a two-pronged mission: transform the K-12 culture into one driven by data, and raise expectations for students, educators, and administrators across all the islands—whether in struggling rural schools like Naalehu Elementary or more successful schools in the wealthy ZIP codes of the beach-filled Windward Coast of Oahu. Hawaii's work, strongly backed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat, has even turned some hard-nosed Washington insiders into believers. The NAEP scores alone are reason enough to pay attention to what Hawaii is doing, said Michael J. Petrilli, a vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank, and a former education official in President George W. Bush's administration. When the Race to the Top winners were announced, he picked on Hawaii in particular and called its selection a "disastrous outcome." Now, he said, "Hawaii's education leaders deserve a lot of credit for pushing ahead with a coherent, bold reform agenda." "Hawaii, with its unitary system, has always had the potential for successful standards-based reform," Mr. Petrilli said. "It appears to finally be living up to that potential." To be sure, the state still has a long way to go. Although its NAEP scores show big improvement in math, especially, its reading scores—although improved—are still among the nation's worst. Big Island, Big Challenges Hawaii's K-12 structure is distinctive: The single system spans the state's wildly diverse islands, with 15 "complex areas." (Think of a complex area as a district in the traditional K-12 governance structure.) The District of Columbia, also a Race to the Top winner, has the only other "statewide" system in the country. In Hawaii, Race to the Top aid has created additional preschool classes, extended learning time for students deemed at risk of academic failure, a more sophisticated teacher-induction program, and aligned data systems that can now be accessed with a single logon. But Hawaii's Race to the Top initiative is as much about a shift in mindset as it is about implementing certain programs or buying products for schools and students. "What we've started here is about effective teaching and effective leading. It's not about fancy tools. It's not something that we bought," said Ronn Nozoe, the deputy state superintendent. "There's a lot of pain and suffering. It's a heavy lift, and that's hard." At Kanoelani Elementary, a 785-student school in Waipio on the island of Oahu, the common core is being integrated into a school that prides itself on a cohesive approach to learning across grade levels. Read more. The state has created several layers of tactical teams that are in charge of making Race to the Top come to life in every school. A complex-area-support team, or CAST, of 75 educators, paid for in part by Race to the Top dollars, is made up of specialists in implementing all the "big bet" state strategies: the common-core standards, comprehensive student supports, data teams, educator-effectiveness systems, teacher and leader induction and mentoring, and academic-review teams. Then, those academic-review teams—found in each complex area and school—serve in a cabinet-like advisory role to leaders to make sure strategies are working and to plot course corrections as needed. And finally, grade- and department-level data teams of teachers look at trends, problem spots, and success across, for example, all 3rd grade math classrooms. Race to the Top in the state is perhaps best showcased in the Kau-Keaau-Pahoa, or KKP, complex area, one of two "zones of innovation" that house Hawaii's lowest-performing schools, and that have received the most attention, money, and resources. The challenges across this chunk of the Big Island are huge: Up to 49 percent of students are chronic absentees; 86 percent are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price school meals; half don't have Internet access at home; 47 percent are Native Hawaiian and hundreds more are immigrants from the Marshall Islands, who must overcome significant language, cultural, and financial barriers. That's not to mention the gas plumes from the still-active Kilauea volcano, which contribute to high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases. Armed with the power and money of Race to the Top, complex-area Superintendent Mary Correa launched a three-pronged attack: improve the quality of leaders and teachers in an area of the Big Island that has a huge recruitment problem, find ways to extend learning time for students, and address the lack of early education by implementing new preschool programs. To help make that happen, she brokered a three-year contract with School Synergy, an Oregon-based school turnaround group. "I can't spend my effort getting parents jobs or getting them health care," said Ms. Correa, who runs a war room for the school improvement effort out of a renovated garage, and liberally doles out cough drops to ward off coughing fits caused by the volcanic gases. "I spend my effort on what I can control." Teacher Training Ground Hawaii's biggest Race to the Top roadblocks came in putting in place new teacher evaluations tied to students' academic growth. That move touched off a protracted spat with the state teachers' union that lasted almost two years and nearly cost the state its federal grant. And now, the state has to implement the evaluation plan among rank-and-file teachers, whose buy-in is crucial. (It helps that as part of the new contract, teachers got recession-era pay cuts restored, plus additional salary increases.) "We have so much on our plates," said Sheila Bradley, a student-support specialist at Naalehu Elementary School. New "student learning objectives" that teachers work on in concert with their principals are particularly time-consuming, she said. "To add [those objectives] to prove that we are effective—to me that seems questionable," Ms. Bradley said. Ms. Correa, of the KKP complex area, knows it's a lot. But, she said, her complex area had a lot of room to improve. In 2008, just 50 percent of her area's teachers in the core subjects met the "highly qualified" definition under the No Child Left Behind Act, she said; now, it's 80 percent. (The national average is 97 percent.) Every year, the state must find 700 to 1,000 teachers to replace those that retire or leave the profession; the K-12 teaching field employs about 12,000 teachers. And a lot of the vacancies are in schools like Naalehu Elementary, whose location about an hour from the nearest sizable town makes for a long haul when gas can top $4 a gallon and beginning teachers make about $40,000 a year. "We feel like we're a training ground," said Assistant Principal Karen Pare. "It's frustrating sometimes. But at least we know we're training them well." For that reason, says state Superintendent Matayoshi, Hawaii "isn't a place where you just throw people away. You help them. You provide a safe place for them to get better." For those in the KKP complex area, that means that new teachers are each assigned a community member to serve as a "cultural mentor." They take part in group activities, such as learning to paddle a canoe in a quiet part of the Pacific. The goal: To foster teamwork and to introduce a new cadre of teachers, many of whom are not Native Hawaiian, to the cultures of their students. What's more, KKP superintendent Ms. Correa created perhaps the state's strongest teacher-support team of school leaders. These teams observe every teacher in her schools twice a month and provide feedback, which has nothing to do with the official high-stakes evaluation process. Keaau Elementary School in Hawaii used its status as a Race to the Top "zone of innovation" school to raise money to give each student a computer. Read more. The pace of change in Hawaii, for teachers and administrators alike, is intense. Teachers are not only implementing the common core, but also new tests aligned to the standards, on top of being subject to the new evaluations. "The amount of components being done at the same time is a huge challenge," said Stacie Kunihisa, the principal of Kanoelani Elementary School, on Oahu. She has a stack of binders that would reach almost to the ceiling that contains various data sets, mission plans, and curriculum tools driving her work. "There's a lot of pressure on schools," she said. "I'm drowning." But, Ms. Kunihisa said, "this is bigger than Race to the Top. It's knowing you are moving as a school." In another year or so, however, all of the Race to the Top money will be gone, and Hawaii's underlying school funding concerns will loom ever larger. The state's economy and its aid for schools are tied to tourism, an industry that is especially sensitive to economic conditions. Visitors spent $14 billion in 2012, a big uptick from the depths of the recession, when in 2009 they spent just under $10 billion. A little more than $1 billion of that goes directly into the state's coffers in the form of tax revenue. And for better or for worse, Hawaii's fate is determined not just by U.S. economic forces, but by the Japanese economy as well. So when a tsunami hit Japan in 2011, and Japanese visitors to Hawaii dwindled, the state budget also took a hit. All of this affects the public schools, which are entirely state-funded, except for the roughly 14 percent that comes from federal sources. Because of state budget woes, Hawaii had to cut 17 school days for students in 2009-10. For this fiscal year—2013-14 and the next—the legislature cut a combined $25 million from the Hawaii Department of Education's administrative budget at a time when state officials are implementing Race to the Top, a new NCLB-law waiver, and the common-core standards and tests. Only this year have teachers had their pay cuts from the Great Recession reversed. For all of these reasons, sustainability of Race to the Top improvements is a big issue. That's evident in how Ms. Pare at Naalehu Elementary frets about the additional preschool class that Race to the Top provided. "A lot of our kids are just not ready for kindergarten. We were retaining 25 [percent] to 50 percent of our kindergartners before we started this," Ms. Pare said. Once Race to the Top aid runs out, the school will need additional state money to keep preschool classes open, she said. Last year, the state's lowest-performing "zone" schools added nearly an hour a day, for four days a week, for extended learning time—also an expensive proposition. With that, Naalehu Elementary added a 45-minute intervention period at the beginning of the school day. Janice Ogi, who became the school's data coach through Race to the Top, pored over the data, working with teachers to group students by need, and not by grade level. Students who needed help with phonics went to one classroom; students who needed help with fluency went to another. "Before, we'd focus on the 'bubble' kids," Ms. Ogi said, referring to the students who were just on the edge of becoming "proficient" under No Child Left Behind Act standards. "But now we're looking at every child." But, in the long term, continuing that broad emphasis would carry a significant price tag. "This was all teachers, all kids. Everybody, every day. That has a bigger price tag, and in the long run, there were questions about whether that was affordable," Mr. Schatz, the state's assistant superintendent for strategic reform, said. So the state decided to scale that initiative back and get schools to target extended learning time to the neediest students. These sustainability questions might mean Hawaii's improvement efforts could be tenuous. For the state education department, building stronger ties with private foundations will be critical to the long-term stickiness of the Race to the Top work. "This really pushed us to act like a system. And that's key," said Alex Harris, a former state education department official who is now the senior program officer for education at the Kailua-based Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, which finances a variety of education and environmental projects in Hawaii. "We've made really good gains, but they're fragile." Vol. 33, Issue 14, Pages 1, 24-26Published in Print: December 11, 2013, as Hawaii's Early Stumbles on Race to Top Give Way to Pace-Setting Outcomes

The science behind mobile pricing and monetization Principles of pricing Even though pricing is so essential to make a company profitable and drive revenue, it’s a marketing element often overlooked by companies mostly because they think that is something they have no control over, the market is going to define it, or that the competition has already set the price. Part of the marketing efforts should be directed at designing a pricing strategy that simultaneously creates the consumer’s incentive to buy the product and the firm’s incentive to sell the product. Tools to help you define a pricing strategy: Value, structure, CLV, price sensitivity, and business’s goals Value and pricing The more unique your product is, the less important the price becomes. However, the more your product is seen as a commodity, the more the price becomes the only factor consumers are going to use to choose your product over the one from your competitors. As an example, think about the first computers or the first smartphones that Apple sold. The product was so unique, never seen before, that price was not important especially among the early adopters. And over the years, Apple has been able to maintain a higher price because it has never been perceived as just a commodity. For every product you are going to deliver to the market, there’s a ceiling and a floor. The floor is the cheapest price you could sell your product and still make a profit. However, as we have seen in the mobile world, sometimes you can go below the floor pricing and offer your product for free because you have another monetization strategy in place. At the top, we have the ceiling. The ceiling is set by the perceived value that is usually set by the marketing efforts of the company or the price of substitutes. At the very top, there’s what is called “objective value” (true economic value): this is potentially the real value the product has to offer. When a perceived value has been defined, it’s very hard to go all the way to the objective value. At the end of the day, you are looking for that price point that gives the consumer an incentive to purchase it and the company an incentive to sell it. - Consumer’s Incentive to Purchase = [Perceived Value-Price] - Firm’s Incentive to Sell = [Price – COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)] Price point and structure The more your company can leverage structure as part of its pricing strategy, the stickier is going to be for your company for a number of reasons: - It’s harder for your competitors to copy it. - It naturally drives upsells. If as a consumer you see three different price levels, you are going to consider which one of them is offering you the best value compared to the others. It also provides entry options for people that may not have the financial capability to access your product. Once you have them, even at the lower point of entry, you can work to build them up to higher prices over time. One downside of price structure is that you can make it too complicated. Pricing and CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) What is the value you want to see out of that customer over time? You also want to be sure that the CLV is greater than the CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). If not, you don’t have a profitable business, to begin with. So, when considering the price you have to look at: - Customer Acquisition Costs - Customer Break-even Analysis - Lifetime Value Analysis When considering your price strategy, try to understand your buyer persona (this is valid for B2B and for B2C). Know who the targeted audience is, how they buy, and what their price sensitivity is. That ties into things like customer economics, customer search and usage, and competition. - Will the decision maker pay for the product? - Does the cost of the item represent a substantial percentage of the total expenditure? - Is the buyer the end user? If not, will the buyer be competing on price in the end-user market? - In this market, does a higher price signal higher quality? Customer search and usage - Is it costly for the buyer to shop around? - Is the time of the purchase or the delivery significant to the buyer? - Is the buyer able to compare the price and performance alternatives? - Is the buyer free to switch suppliers without incurring in substantive costs? - How is this offering different from competitor’s offerings? - Is the company’s reputation a consideration? Are there other intangibles affecting the buyer’s decision? Pricing and business’s goals Considering your business’s goals, you can skim pricing or use a penetration pricing strategy. Skim pricing when: - You can show value to justify a premium - You think new entrants/substitutes are unlikely - You need higher margins for “push” - You need funds for R&D/Marketing - You want to signal high quality About price signal Ask yourself this question, what is the message my pricing is going to send relatively to the rest of what I’m doing in my business? A successful pricing is dependent on the synergy between: - Price and image - Price and the rest of the marketing mix - Price and company philosophy. Ex. Swatch “Price has become a mirror for the other attributes we try to communicate” – Nicholas Hayek Penetration pricing when - You want to stimulate rapid trial - You want market share and long term “annuities” - You want to deter new entrants - You must displace low-priced substitutes There are four traditional pricing models - Deal Oriented – Pricing is managed on a deal-by-deal basis - Value-based – Pricing is consistent with the value returned to the customer - Competition-based – Pricing is established based on what the competition is charging - Cost-plus – Pricing is a function of total cost + markup You usually end up using more than one pricing model, for example, value-based and competition-based, cost and competition-based. There are also mobile pricing models - Free – Free; revenue comes from other sources: Free to Premium, in-app purchases, in-app advertising, subscriptions - Paid – One-time payment For mobile monetization see my post 6 Common app monetization models Pricing and the TALC When designing your pricing strategy, keep in mind that pricing change relative to the market. You need to understand where is the market today and where are you plugging in. Are you in the early stage where early adopters are not so price-sensitive? And then, as the market is maturing you start thinking about a value-based pricing model where you get as much money out of the market as you can. When the market is at its peak, you move to a competition-based model. Pricing and the role of marketing Is your product marketing intensive or sales intensive? Here you need to consider things like: - Price (cheap/expensive) How much is the customer willing to pay? Is a big or a small economic decision for the buyer? - Market size (many customers/few customers). The market size is determined by the quantity of potential customers. A lot of potential buyers=marketing intensive. Few potential customers=sales intensive. - Level of complexity (simple/complex). Complex products tend to be sold no marketed. Products that require education, manuals, and customization to derive utility are sales intensive. - Fit and finish (high/low). Is it an out-of-the-box solution or something that requires multiple steps or points of support to operate? - Customer (B2C/B2B). Identify if you are selling directly to companies or to people? There are more consumers than businesses. - Relationship (single transaction/long lifetime). Customer economic lifetime. Do you expect to have a long-term relationship with the customer? The longer the lifetime of the relationship the more consideration goes into how you deliver and sell the product. - High-touch or low-touch selling. A complex product requires relationship-building, long, complex and technical selling campaigns. With low-touch selling, you don’t need to customize sales according to the relationship. Understanding the mobile app marketing funnel Stage 1 Exposure and discovery In this stage, marketing helps drive awareness and app discoverability. For mobile apps, the “purchase decision” time is the time it takes to decide to download the app. This time can be relatively short. According to Google’s research, the main sources of awareness of smartphone apps are: - 52% friends, family, and colleagues - 40% browse the app store - 27% search engines - 24% company website - 22% TV Some marketing tactics to use at this stage. Here you can use most of the tactics we use for the traditional marketing funnel (PR, social media, email marketing, internet forums, Q&A sites, social bookmarking) Then we have a specific mobile app tactic which is ASO (App Store Optimization) Many tactics for paid customer acquisition are the same as traditional marketing. Some paid tactics to use to help discover your app: - Affiliate marketing. App marketers join an ad network to create featured widgets and code snippets that other app or web publishers embed on their platforms, and the app marketer pays affiliates a small fee for each download. - App install ads - Retargeting ads Stage 2 Consideration For apps, much of the consideration stage is done via app ratings, reviews, and social proof on the app page in the app stores. This stage is about demonstrating trust signals. Tactics. Focus on the app page and app ratings and reviews Stage 3 Conversion Depending on the type of app you have a conversion can be different things, downloading the app, signing up for a subscription, making an in-app purchase, setting up an account, etc. - Onboarding (see guide to mobile app onboarding) - Usability and visual design Stage 4 Customer relationship Build customer relationships by identifying the appropriate mobile moments to proactively communicate with your customers. First, you will need to identify the right mobile moment, for example, moments when you can alleviate a frustration or after a positive experience. - Personalized messaging. Personalize messages using customer data - In-app communication. Provide a way for your customers to communicate with you within the app. Provide access to an in-app feedback button. Stage 5 Retention Respond to users’ feedback and ask them directly to leave feedback. - Frequent app updates - Feedback outlets - Fresh content - Push notifications - Loyalty programs Some notes to optimize your mobile app funnel In order to optimize your mobile app funnel, think about it in a quantitative way. Break down the numbers. For each stage annotate the total users you are getting, the % that pass to the next stage, and the % that drops off. It’s also important to segment your funnel into the at least following segments: - User type - Behavior (WAUs, MAU, used X feature, etc) Understand the drivers of that funnel, how and why do people purchase? Where in the user journey do people buy? What value propositions do users care about? Read more about pricing and marketing funnel Our 6 must reads on pricing a product Leslie’s compass a framework for go to market strategy The mobile app marketing funnel The mobile shopping life cycle What marketing funnel metrics really mean A quick guide to value-based pricing How customers perceive a price is as important as the price itself More on Mobile Marketing Foundations of a cross-platform marketing strategy – Mobile marketing How to design effective user acquisition campaigns – Mobile marketing Guide to mobile app onboarding – Mobile Marketing How to increase user engagement – Mobile marketing

alphaspirit - Fotolia To gather data and insights about the converged and hyper-converged infrastructure markets, Taneja Group initiated a primary research study called "All Things Convergence" earlier this year. It surveyed 600-plus IT decision makers and practitioners across the globe, representing a wide range of industries and business sizes to get to the bottom of current and planned deployments of converged infrastructure vendors. The study examined awareness, adoption and preferences concerning on-premises CI and HCI versus various traditional architectures. The group then conducted in-depth phone interviews with a subset of respondents to learn more about the "hows" and "whys" driving purchase, deployment and use. Here are a few highlights that demonstrate why the future is bright for converged infrastructure vendors. Preferred architectures for the future One of the key questions Taneja Group asked was, "Which architecture is the preferred vision for your data center going forward?" The result: 55% of IT practitioners preferred CI and HCI over all other architectures. What should be most concerning to market-leading vendors is that only 31% of respondents chose either traditional architecture or using a software-defined DIY approach on commodity servers. The problem with traditional, DIY It's has become very apparent that there is a sense of "DIY fatigue" within the IT community. Once exposed to a converged approach, customers tend not to return to the old way. When asked a common set of questions describing typical architecture attributes that respondents would ascribe to each architecture (both likes and dislikes), what was most striking was the sheer number of "dislikes" ascribed to building out traditional and -- to a lesser extent -- DIY software-only infrastructures. Multivendor support, high operating and deployment costs as well as complexity, manageability and scalability led the dislikes. HCI and CI: Why so popular? While both popular, CI was almost twice as likely to be currently deployed versus HCI (65% to 36%, respectively) as compared to traditional infrastructure (94%). And while CI and HCI both earned high marks for simplified administration, pre-engineered and certified solutions and simplified support experience, HCI displayed a significant advantage in ease of use and modular scalability over other architectures -- while converged and traditional include compute layers, hyper-converged takes a software-defined approach to collapse storage, hypervisor and compute onto commodity servers. When posed the question of whether HCI will eclipse CI as the preferred architecture by the end of 2018, 68% indicated HCI would, while only 32% of respondents disagreed. This is startling when you consider how recently the HCI market emerged. What's next for convergence? Although traditional CI was the original convergence architecture, HCI is currently getting much more attention and investment. This is no accident. Vendors have been furiously engineering solutions to make on-premises infrastructure as cost-effective and easy to use as public cloud alternatives, while maintaining the required reliability, availability and flexibility enterprises crave. There's a great chance HCI's flexible, modular and software-defined scale-out architecture will make on-premises infrastructure even more cost-effective than public cloud for many IT workloads. Convergence on the rise At the beginning of this decade, the initial converged infrastructure (CI) market consisted primarily of VCE Vblock (now part of Dell EMC), HP Converged Systems (now HPE) and FlexPod (NetApp and Cisco). The $10 billion-plus industry now includes numerous vendors delivering a variety of products with architectural approaches capable of satisfying almost every IT workload. Within a few years of the advent of CI, a new category of converged products emerged. Coined hyper-converged by Taneja Group, these products enhanced CI by collapsing storage, compute and hypervisor onto commodity computers using a software defined approach. The hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) portion of the convergence market is growing by an order of magnitude faster (greater than 100% per year) than the general converged market, and now represents more than 10% of a $10 billion-plus market. This rapid growth has made HCI the darling category of the industry. Early HCI pioneers included Nutanix, Pivot3, Scale Computing and SimpliVity, among others. Fast forward to today and you'll find that every major system vendor boasts HCI products, typically coexisting alongside CI and traditional counterparts. Here's where some leading converged infrastructure vendors are headed: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is investing in "composable infrastructure," mainly with its Synergy product. This allows flexible amounts of compute, network and dedicated storage to be constructed and deconstructed through one API call covering the entire data center for traditional, CI and HCI architectures. The composability API approach will include 3PAR storage and ProLiant servers as well. HPE is also doubling down on its own software-based StoreVirtual technology to create a full-featured composable data fabric as a foundational data services layer to its composable infrastructure. HyperGrid (formally Gridstore) will focus on subscription-based HCI as a service. The company will also use technology from its DCHQ acquisition to offer full application lifecycle management -- initially concentrating on helping IT transition traditional applications to container-compatible applications that run in any environment. HyperGrid will also offer heterogeneous hypervisor choice. Nutanix is building on its original HCI offerings to become an enterprise cloud infrastructure vendor. The company is investing in its own hypervisor and building-in application mobility between various hypervisor environments, including public cloud. The goal is to make the entire infrastructure layer (seemingly) invisible. Pivot3 acquired NexGen earlier this year and is focused on making a HCI that can better meet mission-critical mixed workloads by using advanced quality of service technology, low latency server-side flash and highly efficient data services. Riverbed offers hybrid hyper-converged products focused on solving critical enterprise remote/branch office requirements. These edge products solve distributed management and storage issues crippling the staffing and budget issues that often limit this type of deployment. SimpliVity is focusing on building market-leading data services under a customer's hypervisor of choice. Using an architecture that minimizes data redundancy at ingest, the goal is to minimize all copies of data and enable nearly unlimited snapshots, built-in data protection and business continuity through the global WAN-optimized distribution of HCI systems. VMware is investing in a new unified software-defined data center (SDDC) platform called VMware Cloud Foundation. The SDDC platform brings together VMware's compute, storage and network virtualization into a natively integrated stack, delivering enterprise-ready cloud infrastructure, with unique automation and management capabilities for simplified operations, that is consistent across private and public clouds. Dell EMC will offer a fully integrated hardware/software version of this product under its VxRail brand. Near the tipping point This small sampling exemplifies the diversity of approaches -- along with the massive amount of investment -- among converged infrastructure vendors. I believe we are very close to a tipping point where breakthroughs in the total cost of ownership of on-premises infrastructure based on convergence will soon stem the tide of the recent shift toward public clouds. It is an exciting time to be in convergence. And while there will be many winners and losers among converged infrastructure vendors, the biggest winners of all will be customers. About the author: Jeff Kato is a senior storage analyst at Taneja Group with a focus on converged and hyper-converged infrastructure and primary storage. A closer look at the converged vendor marketplace Examine converged infrastructure market offerings Many approaches to converged infrastructure products - The Gorilla E-book to Converged Infrastructure –Pure Storage + Cisco - The case for converged infrastructure –TechTarget - Converged infrastructure: Essential guide –ComputerWeekly.com - How Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Holds Up –Cisco

The ex vivo dual recirculating human placental perfusion model can be used to investigate the transfer of xenobiotics and nanoparticles across the human placenta. In this video protocol we describe the equipment and techniques required for a successful execution of a placenta perfusion. Cite this ArticleCopy Citation | Download Citations Grafmüller, S., Manser, P., Krug, H. F., Wick, P., von Mandach, U. Determination of the Transport Rate of Xenobiotics and Nanomaterials Across the Placenta using the ex vivo Human Placental Perfusion Model. J. Vis. Exp. (76), e50401, doi:10.3791/50401 (2013). Translate text to: Decades ago the human placenta was thought to be an impenetrable barrier between mother and unborn child. However, the discovery of thalidomide-induced birth defects and many later studies afterwards proved the opposite. Today several harmful xenobiotics like nicotine, heroin, methadone or drugs as well as environmental pollutants were described to overcome this barrier. With the growing use of nanotechnology, the placenta is likely to come into contact with novel nanoparticles either accidentally through exposure or intentionally in the case of potential nanomedical applications. Data from animal experiments cannot be extrapolated to humans because the placenta is the most species-specific mammalian organ 1. Therefore, the ex vivo dual recirculating human placental perfusion, developed by Panigel et al. in 1967 2 and continuously modified by Schneider et al. in 1972 3, can serve as an excellent model to study the transfer of xenobiotics or particles. Here, we focus on the ex vivo dual recirculating human placental perfusion protocol and its further development to acquire reproducible results. The placentae were obtained after informed consent of the mothers from uncomplicated term pregnancies undergoing caesarean delivery. The fetal and maternal vessels of an intact cotyledon were cannulated and perfused at least for five hours. As a model particle fluorescently labelled polystyrene particles with sizes of 80 and 500 nm in diameter were added to the maternal circuit. The 80 nm particles were able to cross the placental barrier and provide a perfect example for a substance which is transferred across the placenta to the fetus while the 500 nm particles were retained in the placental tissue or maternal circuit. The ex vivo human placental perfusion model is one of few models providing reliable information about the transport behavior of xenobiotics at an important tissue barrier which delivers predictive and clinical relevant data. The placenta is a complex organ which is responsible for the exchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients and waste products and at the same time able to keep the two blood circuits of the mother and the growing fetus separated from each other. Additionally, it prevents rejection of the child by the maternal immune system and secretes hormones to maintain pregnancy. The cellular barrier is formed by the cytotrophoblast cells which fuse and form a true syncytium without lateral cell membranes 4,5. The whole placenta is organized in several cotyledons, which contain one fetal villous tree and represent one functional unit of the placenta. The study of the placental barrier function was intensified with the discovery of the thalidomide induced malformations in the 1960's. For obvious reasons translocation studies with pregnant women cannot be performed. Consequently, various alternative models have been developed 6,7. The most promising and probably most clinical relevant model is the ex vivo human placental perfusion model developed by Panigel and co-workers 2,3. Many women are exposed to different xenobiotics such as drugs or environmental pollutants during their pregnancy 8. For some drugs which were already administered regularly during pregnancy, in vivo studies can be performed by comparison of the maternal blood concentration with that in umbilical cord blood. However, generally there is only limited information about the pharmacokinetics and -dynamics in the fetus and the teratogenicity of these substances. For example opiates like heroin easily cross the placental barrier and can lead to intrauterine growth restriction, preterm delivery or spontaneous abortion 9,10. So, in case of missing abstinence during pregnancy a replacement therapy with methadone is recommended. The ex vivo human placental perfusion model revealed that the transfer of methadone into the fetal circulation is negligible 11, which correlates well with the calculated cord blood-to-maternal blood concentration ratio after delivery 12. Nanotechnology is a growing field especially in medicine. So, beneath the naturally occurring fine (< 2.5 μm in diameter) and ultrafine particles (< 0.1 μm in diameter) in fumes of forest fires, volcano eruptions and in desert dust, exposure to engineered nanomaterials (at least one dimension < 0.1 μm 13) is increasing. This raised questions about the toxicological potential of engineered nanomaterials. Although no human hazard could be proved yet, there are principal experimental studies indicating that engineered nanoparticles can cause adverse biological responses leading to toxicological outcomes 14. Recently, some studies indicated that prenatal exposure to air pollution is linked to a higher respiratory need and airway inflammation in newborns and children 15,16. In addition, small nanoparticles might be used as drug carriers to specifically treat either the fetus or the mother. Therefore, it becomes evident that extensive studies of distinct xenobiotics or nanomaterials and their ability to cross the placental barrier are required. An actual overview on the current studies on placental permeability to engineered nanomaterials is summarized in Menezes et al. 2011 17 and Buerki-Thurnherr et al. 2012 7. The ex vivo dual recirculating human placental perfusion model provides a controlled and reliable system for studying the placental transport of various endogenous and exogenous compounds 3,11,12,18,19 and a wide range of other functions of the placenta like mechanisms responsible for the development of pathological states like preeclampsia 20-22. In this protocol we focus mainly on the set up, handling and method that allow the study of accumulation, effects and translocation rates of a broad set of xenobiotics or nanoparticles. 1. Preparing the Perfusion System - Set up the perfusion system consisting of a water bath, a perfusion chamber, two columns for oxygenation, two peristaltic pumps, two bubble traps, two flow heaters and one pressure sensor (Figure 1). Connect these components with tubing sections composed of silicone and polyvinyl chloride materials according to the scheme in Figure 2. Finally there are two circuits representing the fetal and maternal circuit, respectively. - Turn on the water bath, the flow heaters and the heating for the perfusion chamber. The temperature should be 37 °C. - Warm up the perfusion medium (NCTC-135 tissue culture medium diluted 1:2 with Earle's buffer (6.8 g/L sodium chloride, 0.4 g/L potassium chloride, 0.14 g/L monosodium phosphate, 0.2 g/L magnesium sulfate, 0.2 g/L calcium chloride, 2 g/L glucose) supplemented with glucose (1 g/L), dextran 40 (10 g/L), bovine serum albumin (10 g/L), sodium heparin (2,500 IU/L), amoxicilline (250 mg/L) and sodium bicarbonate (2.2 g/L); pH 7.4) in the water bath. - Consecutively rinse the arterial systems of the fetal and maternal circuit with a) 200 ml distilled water, b) 50 ml 1% sodium hydroxide, c) 1% phosphoric acid and d) again 200 ml distilled water (flow rate: 15 - 20 ml/min). - Connect the fetal cannula (Ø 1.2 mm; blunt needle should be attached to a modified winged needle infusion set) to the fetal arterial tubing. - Rinse the arterial systems of the fetal and maternal circuit with perfusion medium until all tubes contain medium (flow rate: 15-20 ml/min). During this step fill up the bubble traps and remove all bubbles downstream of the trap. Then stop the pumps. It is really important that the afferent arterial tubes are always free of bubbles; otherwise after cannulation especially the fine fetal vessels can rupture. - Turn on the gas flow. The maternal circuit is oxygenated with 5% carbon dioxide and 95% synthetic air and the fetal circuit with 5% carbon dioxide and 95% nitrogen. - Start the recording of the pressure sensor. 2. Cannulating the Placenta - Obtain intact placentae from uncomplicated term pregnancies after primary cesarean section. Written consent has to be given (was obtained in the case of our studies) by the mothers before delivery and the study has to be approved by the local ethics committee (was the case in our studies). First visual control should be done by midwives to assure a healthy and intact placenta. - Cannulation of the placenta is a critical step! During perfusion every small disruption in the tissue can lead to a leak between the maternal and fetal circulation. The placenta has to be obtained within 30 min after delivery. - Select an intact cotyledon at the marginal zone of the placenta without visible disruptions on the maternal side. At the chorionic plate, tie up both associated branches of the umbilical artery and vein upstream to the later cannulation side (towards the umbilical cord) by using surgical suture material. Make always two knots. - Cannulate the fetal artery first. The fetal placental arteries are always smaller and thinner than the veins. - Make a suture around the fetal artery, but do not tie it up immediately. Hold the vessel with a forceps, cut the vessel carefully and put the small cannula (Ø 1.2 mm) in the artery. Then tie up the suture (two knots). - Proceed with the fetal vein in the same manner but use a bigger cannula (Ø 1.5-1.8 mm; blunt needle should be attached to a modified winged needle infusion set). - Turn on the fetal pump (2 ml/min). If there is no visible leak and blood emanates out of the fetal vein cannula, slowly increase the flow up to 4 ml/min. Observe the pressure in the fetal artery, it should not exceed 70 mmHg. If fluid leaks out at the fetal or maternal cannula fix them with another suture. - Place the placenta on the tissue holder with the fetal side up and pull the placental membrane and tissue over the spikes. In the end the perfused cotyledon should be in the middle of the hole in the tissue holder. - Stabilize the part where only the membrane holds the placenta with a silicone membrane (Ø 1 mm) or alternatively two parafilm pieces. - Assemble the complete tissue holder, tighten the screws and cut the overhanging tissue. Please note that the venous and arterial cannulae are not pinched but instead lay in the small channels of the tissue holder. - Turn the tissue holder upside down, put it into the perfusion chamber and add the cover. Now, the maternal side should be at the top. Check always if the fetal circuit is still intact and the medium is flowing out of the fetal vein tubing. - Turn on the maternal pump (12 ml/min). Introduce the three blunt cannulae (Ø 0.8 mm) at the end of the maternal artery tube into the intervillous space by penetrating the decidual plate. To return the perfusate to the maternal circuit put one tube as venous drain which is also connected with the maternal pump to the lowest position in the upper part of the perfusion chamber. - Connect the fetal vein cannula to the fetal vein tube. 3. Executing the Pre- and Experimental Phase of Perfusion - To allow the tissue to recover from the ischemic period after delivery and to flush out the blood in the intervillous space, an open pre-phase of 20 min is necessary. That means the maternal and fetal vein are not leading back to the arterial reservoir containing the perfusion medium. Collect the fetal and maternal venous outflow in a bottle and discard it after the pre-phase. - To assess the integrity of the perfusion perform another pre-phase of 20 min but in a closed circuit. Use two separate reservoirs with perfusion medium for the fetal and maternal circuit and close the circuits by leading the fetal venous outflow back in the fetal reservoir and the maternal venous outflow back in the maternal reservoir. - For the main perfusion experiment prepare two flasks with 120 ml perfusion medium (one for the maternal and one for the fetal reservoir). Add the radiolabeled 14C-antipyrine (4 nCi/ml; serves as positive control; CAUTION: radioactive substance) and the fluorescently labeled xenobiotic or nanoparticles which one wants to analyze to the maternal reservoir. Mix the maternal perfusate well. - Start the experiment by exchanging the pure perfusion medium with the two prepared flasks (fetal and maternal reservoirs). Close the circuits by leading the fetal venous outflow back in the fetal reservoir and the maternal venous outflow back in the maternal reservoir. - Continue the perfusion for 6 hr and take samples regularly. Always resuspend the medium in the fetal and maternal reservoir before withdrawal. - Control the pressure in the fetal artery (should not exceed 70 mmHg), pH in both circuits (should be in a physiological range 7.2-7.4) and the volume of both reservoirs (fetal volume loss should not exceed 4 ml/hr) during perfusion. If necessary adjust the pH values using either hydrochloric acid or sodium hydroxide. - If the volume loss in the fetal reservoir exceeds 4 ml/hr there is a leak in the tissue and one has to stop the perfusion. The success rate of a perfusion for 6 hr without leak is about 15-20%. - Stop the perfusion after 6 hr. Turn out the pumps, water bath, flow heaters and gas flow. - Remove the placenta from the tissue holder, cut the perfused cotyledon (brighter than the unperfused tissue) and weigh it. - Take samples from unperfused (part of the placenta which was cut in the beginning; could be already taken during the pre-phase) and perfused tissue (each about 1 g) and store them at -20 °C until homogenization or in liquid nitrogen for later analysis. Fix another tissue sample in 4% formalin for histopathological evaluation. The samples should include all layers of the placenta. - Clean the tubes after perfusion by successively rinsing the arterial systems of the fetal and maternal circuit with a) 200 ml distilled water, b) 50 ml 1% sodium hydroxide, c) 50 ml 1% phosphoric acid and d) again 200 ml distilled water (flow: 15-20 ml/min). The entire working procedure of the placenta perfusion experiment is depicted in Figure 3. 4. Analyzing the Samples - Centrifuge the perfusate samples for 10 min at 800 x g before analysis to remove residual erythrocytes. Take the supernatant for the further analysis. The samples can be left overnight at 4 °C. For the analysis of leptin and hCG production the samples can be stored at -20 °C. - To evaluate the permeability of the placenta analyze the 14C-antipyrine by liquid scintillation. Mix 300 μl of the fetal and maternal samples with 3 ml scintillation cocktail and measure for 5 min in a beta counter. - To assess the transfer of the fluorescent nanoparticles or the xenobiotic of interest read the fluorescence at 485 nm excitation and 528 nm emission in a microplate reader (indicated wavelengths are for analysis of the yellow green label which we used for the nanoparticles). - To determine the viability of the placental tissue during perfusion measure the glucose consumption and lactate production in the fetal and maternal circuit with an automated blood gas system. Additionally, evaluate the production of the placental hormones human choriongonadotropin (hCG) and leptin in the homogenized tissue samples and the perfusates by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Figure 4A shows the perfusion profiles of small polystyrene particles (80 nm) which were transported across the placenta compared to bigger polystyrene particles (500 nm) which were not transferred to the fetal compartment. Each data point represents the mean particle concentration to the given time point of at least 3 independent experiments. For polystyrene nanoparticles the placental transfer is size-dependent 19. After 3 hr of placenta perfusion already 20-30% of the initially added 80 nm polystyrene particles were transferred from the maternal to the fetal circuit, while the 500 nm polystyrene particles were not appearing in the fetal circuit even after 6 hr of perfusion. Nevertheless, the maternal concentration of the 500 nm particles is decreasing. Fluorescence images on histological section of the tissue after perfusion showed that these particles accumulate in the villi of the placenta (data not shown). Figure 4B depicts a characteristic perfusion profile of the radiolabeled 14C-antipyrine. Antipyrine as a small lipophilic molecule is distributed over the placental barrier via passive diffusion and serves as control for the integrity of the circuits. After 4-6 hr of perfusion an equilibrium between the fetal and maternal antipyrine concentration should be built 23. To assess and compare the placental transport rate of xenobiotics the fetal-to-maternal drug concentration (F/M) ratio is usually displayed (Figure 5). Through the analysis of lactate and placental hormone (human choriongonadotropin and leptin) production as well as glucose consumption the viability and functionality of the placental tissue during the perfusion could be monitored (Figure 6). The values for the perfusions with xenobiotic should always be in the same range as the values from control perfusion without xenobiotic. In addition, histopathological evaluation of the perfused placental tissue could be performed. A comparison with non-perfused placental tissue could then reveal pathological changes due to perfusion (e.g. bacterial contamination) and therefore could serve as another quality control parameter. Further representative results obtained with the ex vivo dual recirculating human placental perfusion model were published recently 11,19. Figure 1. Ex vivo human placental perfusion set-up. 1) Water bath with maternal and fetal reservoirs, 2) perfusion chamber, 3) bubble trap, 4) oxygenator columns, and 5) flow heater. Figure 2. Schematic illustration of the ex vivo human placental perfusion model. FA: fetal artery; FV: fetal vein; MA: maternal artery; MV: maternal vein; BT: bubble trap; PS: pressure sensor Figure 3. Working procedure of an ex vivo human placental perfusion experiment. After delivery the placenta has to be cannulated within 30 min. Before the 6 hr experimental phase with recirculation an open pre-phase and closed pre-phase should be performed for at least 20 min each. Figure 4. Perfusion profiles of polystyrene particles and 14C-antipyrine 19. Perfusion profile of polystyrene particles in the sizes 80 nm (n=4) and 500 nm (n=3). Initially 25 μg/ml particles and 4.2 nCi/ml 14C-antipyrine were added to the maternal circuit. The amount of particles (A) and 14C-antipyrine (B) were measured in the maternal (M, solid symbols) and fetal (F, open symbols) circuits after the indicated time points. Displayed is the mean concentration ± SE. Click here to view larger figure. Figure 5. Size-dependent transfer of polystyrene particles across the human placenta 19. The ratios between fetal and maternal concentrations of 14C-antipyrine and polystyrene particles were calculated after 180 min of placenta perfusion. Data represent the mean ± SE of at least 3 independent experiments. The control column depicts perfusions without particles but with 14C-antipyrine. (* p < 0.05 compared with 80 nm ratio value). Figure 6. Viability of the placental tissue during perfusion 19. (A) Glucose consumption and lactate production in the perfused placenta. Displayed is the sum of changes in total content in the circuits (fetal and maternal) over time divided by the weight of the perfused cotyledon. (B) Normalized net production (NP divided by initial tissue content T0) of the placental hormones human choriongonadotropin and leptin. Data represent the mean ± SE of at least 3 independent experiments. Beneath the dual recirculating perfusion showed here, there are several other experimental configurations possible depending on the question which has to be answered. Particularly open placental perfusions are commonly used to assess the drug clearance at steady-state concentration 3. The recirculating perfusion set-up can be also applied to confirm active transport of endogenous or exogenous substances. For this approach the same concentration of the xenobiotic has to be added to the maternal and the fetal circulation. Assumed that there is active transport against the concentration gradient, accumulation of the test substance in either one of the both circuits may be observed 24. Of note, the addition of the test substance only to the fetal circuit is also feasible and can reveal the mechanism of transport across the placental barrier of this particular substance 25. The protocol has evolved over time and can vary between different research groups especially concerning the flow rate, composition of perfusion medium, form of oxygenation and heating 26,27. Especially the flow rate can influence the time at which transplacental transfer occurs. To control this, the addition of a passively transported reference compound like antipyrine is important. The transfer rate of the xenobiotic can be always compared to the transfer rate of antipyrine (F/M ratio should be above 0.75) 26. Since the antipyrine transfer is mainly limited by the flow and exchange surface, this comparison takes differences in the flow and the size of the perfused cotyledon into account which could vary between the experiments. In addition, FITC-dextran could be added to the fetal circuit to serve as control for the integrity of the barrier 26. Fetal volume loss is also used as marker for the barrier integrity. Usually a fetal fluid loss up to 4 ml/hr is allowed 28, but there is no generally accepted limit. Obviously, there are some disadvantages of the ex vivo human placental perfusion method like inter-individual variations and a low success rate (15-20%). Moreover, a perfusion period of 6 hr cannot simulate a chronic drug treatment and therefore can't completely exclude the transfer of a xenobiotic after long-term exposure. Another limitation of the model is that mainly the transplacental transfer at term is assessed while the transport rate at early gestational ages when the barrier is thicker remains still unknown. Indeed, perfusion of first trimester placentae is possible but the availability of these placentae is rather limited. Nevertheless, up to now the ex vivo placental perfusion method is the only model to study the transport of various xenobiotics or nanoparticles in organized human placental tissue. While toxicodynamics in the ex vivo human perfusion model can be analyzed only in the placental tissue, animal experiments can indeed provide also information about the embryotoxicity. Though, because of the anatomic differences of the placental barrier between humans and rodents these results cannot be extrapolated to humans 4,5. Another possibility to investigate transplacental transfer may be cell culture models like primary cytotrophoblasts, choriocarcinoma cell lines, isolated plasma membrane vesicles or placental tissue explants 29. The most used model is the BeWo cell line; these cells are derived from a malignant gestational choriocarcinoma and can form a confluent monolayer on a permeable membrane, so transport studies can be performed. Results of transport studies using the BeWo cell model correlate well with results obtained in the ex vivo human placental perfusion 30. However, to study the details of drug transport (e.g. contribution of a specific transport protein) and metabolism, the BeWo cell model may be more feasible primarily because it is easier to handle and susceptible to manipulation like expression of genetically altered transporters or enzymes, but regarding general drug transfer studies the reliability of this model is limited. It lacks blood flow and the integrity of the monolayer has to be evaluated carefully since it depends on several factors like cell culture conditions, seeding density, exposure duration and the membrane insert 6,29. Different xenobiotics and also nanoparticles bind to various plasma proteins which can significantly influence the transplacental transfer 31; considering the binding to plasma proteins is therefore important. The perfusion medium contains bovine serum albumin, the most frequent plasma protein. Recently, a study showed that the transfer ratios of various substances obtained with the ex vivo human placental perfusion model correlate well with the in vivo cord blood to maternal blood concentration ratios when the transfer ratios were adjusted according to the extent of plasma protein binding 12. Overall, the ex vivo placental perfusion model is a valid and reliable method to study the transport across the human placenta and to predict the in vivo transplacental passage of xenobiotics and nanoparticles. The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests. This work is financially supported by the Swiss National Foundation, (NRP 64 program, grant no 4064-131232). |NCTC-135 medium||ICN Biomedicals, Inc.||10-911-22C||could be replaced by Medium 199 from Sigma (M3769)| |Sodium chloride (NaCl)||Sigma-Aldrich, Fluka||71381| |Potassium chloride (KCl)||Hospital pharmacy||also possible: Sigma (P9541)| |Monosodium phosphate (NaH2PO4 · H2O)||Merck||106346| |Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4 · H2O)||Sigma-Aldrich, Fluka||63139| |Calcium chloride (CaCl, anhydrous)||Merck||102388| |D(+) Glucose (anhydrous)||Sigma-Aldrich, Fluka||49138| |Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3)||Merck||106329| |Dextran from Leuconostoc spp.||Sigma-Aldrich||31389| |Bovine serum albumin (BSA)||Applichem||A1391| |Amoxicilline (Clamoxyl)||GlaxoSmithKline AG||2021101A| |Sodium heparin||B. Braun Medical AG||3511014| |Sodium hydoxide (NaOH) pellets||Merck||106498||CAUTION: corrosive| |Ortho-phosphoric acid 85% (H3PO4)||Merck||100573||CAUTION: corrosive| |Maternal gas mixture: 95% synthetic air, 5% CO2||PanGas AG| |Fetal gas mixture: 95% N2, 5% CO2||PanGas AG| |Antipyrine (N-methyl-14C)||American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc.||ARC 0108-50 μCi||CAUTION: radioactive material (specific activity: 55mCi/mmol)| |Scintillation cocktail (IrgaSafe Plus)||Zinsser Analytic GmbH||1003100| |Polystyrene particles 80 nm||Polyscience, Inc.||17150| |Polystyrene particles 500 nm||Polyscience, Inc.||17152| |Thermostat||IKA-Werke GmbH Co. KG||3164000| |Peristaltic pumps||Ismatec||ISM 833| |Bubble traps (glass)||UNI-GLAS Laborbedarf| |Flow heater||UNI-GLAS Laborbedarf| |Pressure sensor + Software for analyses||MSR Electronics GmbH||145B5| |Miniature gas exchange oxygenator||Living Systems Instrumentation||LSI-OXR| |Tygon Tube (ID: 1.6 mm; OD: 4.8 mm)||Ismatec||MF0028| |Tubes for pumps (PharMed BPT; ID: 1.52 mm)||Ismatec||SC0744| |Blunt cannulae ( 0.8 mm)||Polymed Medical Center||03.592.81| |Blunt cannulae ( 1.2 mm)||Polymed Medical Center||03.592.90| |Blunt cannulae ( 1.5 mm)||Polymed Medical Center||03.592.94| |Blunt cannulae ( 1.8 mm)||Polymed Medical Center||03.952.82| |Perfusion chamber with tissue holder (plexiglass)||Internal technical department||Similar equipment is available from Hemotek Limited, UK| |Surgical suture material (PremiCron)||B. Braun Medical AG||C0026005| |Winged Needle Infusion Set (21G Butterfly)||Hospira, Inc.||ASN 2102| |Multidirectional stopcock (Discofix C-3)||B. Braun Medical AG||16494C| |Surgical scissors||B. Braun Medical AG||BC304R| |Dissecting scissors||B. Braun Medical AG||BC162R| |Needle holder||B. Braun Medical AG||BM200R| |Dissecting forceps||B. Braun Medical AG||BD215R| |Automated blood gas system||Radiometer Medical ApS||ABL800 FLEX| |Multi-mode microplate reader||BioTek||Synergy HT| |Liquid scintillation analyzer||GMI, Inc.||Packard Tri-Carb 2200| |Scintillation tubes 5.5 ml||Zinsser Analytic GmbH||3020001| |Tissue Homogenizer||OMNI, Inc.||TH-220| |pH meter + electrode||VWR||662-2779| - Ala-Kokko, T. I., Myllynen, P., Vahakangas, K. Ex vivo perfusion of the human placental cotyledon: implications for anesthetic pharmacology. Int. J. Obstet. Anesth. 9, 26-38 (2000). - Panigel, M., Pascaud, M., Brun, J. L. Radioangiographic study of circulation in the villi and intervillous space of isolated human placental cotyledon kept viable by perfusion. J. Physiol. (Paris). 59, 277 (1967). - Schneider, H., Panigel, M., Dancis, J. Transfer across the perfused human placenta of antipyrine, sodium and leucine. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 114, 822-828 (1972). - Enders, A. C., Blankenship, T. N. Comparative placental structure. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 38, 3-15 (1999). - Takata, K., Hirano, H. Mechanism of glucose transport across the human and rat placental barrier: a review. Microsc. Res. Tech. 38, 145-152 (1997). - Saunders, M. Transplacental transport of nanomaterials. Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Nanomed. Nanobiotechnol. 1, 671-684 (2009). - Buerki-Thurnherr, T., von Mandach, U., Wick, P. Knocking at the door of the unborn child: engineered nanoparticles at the human placental barrier. Swiss Med. Wkly. 142, w13559 (2012). - Gendron, M. P., Martin, B., Oraichi, D., Berard, A. Health care providers' requests to Teratogen Information Services on medication use during pregnancy and lactation. Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 65, 523-531 (2009). - Burns, L., Mattick, R. P., Lim, K., Wallace, C. Methadone in pregnancy: treatment retention and neonatal outcomes. Addiction. 102, 264-270 (2007). - von Mandach, U. Drug use in pregnancy. Ther. Umsch. 62, 29-35 (2005). - Malek, A., Obrist, C., Wenzinger, S., von Mandach, U. The impact of cocaine and heroin on the placental transfer of methadone. Reprod. Biol. Endocrinol. 7, 61 (2009). - Hutson, J. R., Garcia-Bournissen, F., Davis, A., Koren, G. The human placental perfusion model: a systematic review and development of a model to predict in vivo transfer of therapeutic drugs. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 90, 67-76 (2011). - International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Technical Specification (ISO/TS) 27687. Nanotechnologies – Terminology and definitions for nano-objects – Nanoparticles, nanofibre and nanoplate. (2008). - Pietroiusti, A. Health implications of engineered nanomaterials. Nanoscale. 4, 1231-1247 (2012). - Latzin, P., Roosli, M., Huss, A., Kuehni, C. E., Frey, U. Air pollution during pregnancy and lung function in newborns: a birth cohort study. Eur. Respir. J. 33, 594-603 (2009). - Lacasana, M., Esplugues, A., Ballester, F. Exposure to ambient air pollution and prenatal and early childhood health effects. Eur. J. Epidemiol. 20, 183-199 (2005). - Menezes, V., Malek, A., Keelan, J. A. Nanoparticulate drug delivery in pregnancy: placental passage and fetal exposure. Curr. Pharm. Biotechnol. 12, 731-742 (2011). - Muhlemann, K., Menegus, M. A., Miller, R. K. Cytomegalovirus in the perfused human term placenta in vitro. Placenta. 16, 367-373 (1995). - Wick, P., et al. Barrier capacity of human placenta for nanosized materials. Environ. Health Perspect. 118, 432-436 (2010). - Dancis, J. Why perfuse the human placenta. Contrib Gynecol. Obstet. 13, 1-4 (1985). - May, K., et al. Perfusion of human placenta with hemoglobin introduces preeclampsia-like injuries that are prevented by alpha1-microglobulin. Placenta. 32, 323-332 (2011). - Guller, S., et al. Protein composition of microparticles shed from human placenta during placental perfusion: Potential role in angiogenesis and fibrinolysis in preeclampsia. Placenta. 32, 63-69 (2011). - Challier, J. C. Criteria for evaluating perfusion experiments and presentation of results. Contrib. Gynecol. Obstet. 13, 32-39 (1985). - Kraemer, J., Klein, J., Lubetsky, A., Koren, G. Perfusion studies of glyburide transfer across the human placenta: implications for fetal safety. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 195, 270-274 (2006). - leal, J. K., et al. Modification of fetal plasma amino acid composition by placental amino acid exchangers in vitro. J. Physiol. 582, 871-882 (2007). - athiesen, L., et al. Quality assessment of a placental perfusion protocol. Reprod. Toxicol. 30, 138-146 (2010). - Myllynen, P., et al. Preliminary interlaboratory comparison of the ex vivo dual human placental perfusion system. Reprod Toxicol. 30, 94-102 (2010). - Malek, A., Sager, R., Schneider, H. Maternal-fetal transport of immunoglobulin G and its subclasses during the third trimester of human pregnancy. Am. J. Reprod. Immunol. 32, 8-14 (1994). - Prouillac, C., Lecoeur, S. The role of the placenta in fetal exposure to xenobiotics: importance of membrane transporters and human models for transfer studies. Drug Metab. Dispos. 38, 1623-1635 (2010). - Poulsen, M. S., Rytting, E., Mose, T., Knudsen, L. E. Modeling placental transport: correlation of in vitro BeWo cell permeability and ex vivo human placental perfusion. Toxicol. In Vitro. 23, 1380-1386 (2009). - Mathiesen, L., Rytting, E., Mose, T., Knudsen, L. E. Transport of benzo[alpha]pyrene in the dually perfused human placenta perfusion model: effect of albumin in the perfusion medium. Basic Clin. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 105, 181-187 (2009).

Add To Cart Add To Cart - Media Type▼▲ - Theological Tradition▼▲ - Author / Artist▼▲ - Top Rated▼▲ Spirit and Power is a fresh, scholarly, and definitive look at what Pentecostals believe and why. Whether you are a Pentecostal or a non-pentecostal, this book will help you get a thorough understanding of Pentecostal perspectives and their Scriptural foundations. Number of Pages: 256 Publication Date: 2000 |Dimensions: 9.00 X 6.00 (inches)| The times have long passed when Pentecostals were viewed as Protestantisms untouchables. Today, the shock waves from Azusa Street have influenced countless Evangelicals worldwide. But if dialogue between Pentecostals and Evangelicals has awakened within the latter a thirst for the power of Gods Spirit, it has challenged Pentecostals to examine their theology more deeply in the light of his Word. Just how firm is the biblical foundation on which they stand? Spirit and Power provides a cutting-edge look at Pentecostal theology. It addresses the concern expressed by its authors and echoed throughout charismatic churches today: "Although our Pentecostal forefathers intuitively grasped the correlation between the reality they experienced and the promise of Acts 1:8, they did not always articulate their theology in a manner that was convincing to other believers committed to the authority of Scripture." In response, theologians William and Robert Menzies explore Pentecostalism in a scholarly and current light. Spirit and Power is no mere paraphrase of dated approaches. It is a fresh and penetrating look at the whys and wherefores of Pentecostal doctrine that sets a new standard for Spirit-filled theology. Whatever your persuasion may be as a Christian, this books thoughtfulness, balance, and biblical integrity will help you appreciate more fully the strengths of the Pentecostal stance. Laying the groundwork for an accurate understanding of Lukes writings in particular, the authors help you grasp the foundations of Pentecostal theology from the standpoints of history, hermeneutics, and exegesis. Then, in Part Two, they give you an in-depth look at specific Pentecostal concerns: the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a blessing subsequent to salvation, evidential tongues, signs and wonders, healing in the atonement, and more. Youll deepen your understanding of the basis for Pentecostal beliefs. And youll gain a feel for the mutually beneficial dialogue that continues between Pentecostals and Evangelicals today. Robert Menzies (PhD, U. of Aberdeen, Scotland) is Director of Synergy, a rural service organization located in Kunming, China.

This week Zach Long and Chris Ritter launched the online Global Performance Summit, an online, free summit held from May 9-16th. It is amazing to see great Physiotherapists who are passionate about sharing knowledge put so much effort into educating others. They've connected with experienced, curious and very intelligent individuals who sharing thoughts in the fields of strength and condition, elite level coaching and physical therapy. It is really hard to find a collation of information that beats this Global Performance Summit. Yesterday session 1 was launched with three fantastic speakers. I was taken back by how much I enjoyed listening to all three sessions - so diverse and well presented and definitely worth the time. Here is a brief overview of the key messages I took away from each of the session 1 speakers. Nick Winkelman (@NickWinkelman) Nick discussed the topic of cuing in coaching which I found very interesting. The questions were directed towards lifting and training in a more typical gym setting but the thoughts that Nick shared are applicable to all types of coaching. How often do we consider the real purpose behind what we say? Are you trying to give an internal body cue or external cue? Which one is more appropriate to your client and what are you trying to achieve with your verbal feedback. It was amazing to listen to Nick, who obviously has done a lot of research about communication and sports psychology. What a great way to kick of the Global Performance Summit too. I was not entirely sure before I began listening, how much these sessions would relate to my practice as a Physical Therapist or Pilates Instructor, and I've was quickly convinced that it would translate into both areas of my practice. The key take home message from Nick's session for me, was to be mindful of the words I choose to explain exercises and movements to others. Particularly, to check and clarify that my clients understand exactly what I say and that it means the same thing for them. Metaphors and analogies are a great place to start but be sure that each person interprets it on the same level. Dean Somerset (@deansomerset) Dean spoke on the topic of core training and post-rehab business. I really enjoyed listening to someone speak positively about core training. There is too much negative stigma at the moment that core training is an all or nothing approach. Dean spoke in depth about the varying degrees in which we need to be able to engage our abdominal and pelvic floor muscles and how that is dependent on the level of activity. How refreshing to listen to Dean approach the topic of the continuum of rehabilitation into fitness and wellness training. As fitness and health professionals we all have our individual areas of interest, expertise and through sheer repetition we develop skills in different areas. If we don't make a better effort to communicate with each other, we will miss the opportunity to progress clients from the initial stages of injury, through rehabilitation and into wellness training. After listening to Dean's session I was reminded how important collaboration and sharing of knowledge is to build and strengthen our profession. It doesn't mean that other professionals will replace us, but instead we can build a greater appreciation for the areas of expertise each holds. Charlie Weingroff (@CWagon75) Charlie spoke about a different topic - athlete assessment and the team performance model. He began with an overview of the difference between assessment and screening. Something I think becomes blurred yet should not be interchanged. Screening is using a tool for identifying risk and areas for assessment, and assessment aims to find the underlying cause of the problem. While we have some screening tools available to help identify people who are high risk, such as the FMS and FMSA, there are not a lot of validated sport-specific assessment and performance tools. It is an area the continues to develop and will become more prominent in time. But where do these screening tools come from? Well Charlie discusses a model which as four levels: movement, output, readiness and sensory system. Movement relates to understanding what normal movement and normal anatomy really is. Focussing on movement initially helps us understand if someone has the desired movement to function normally in everyday life. Output is the capacity to work. This is where we start to think about the requirements for training and sport. What do they need to be able to do to move and perform well? The next tier is readiness and sensory system incorporates the roll of our visual and vestibular systems in movement readiness and output. I really enjoyed listening to it presented in this way and understand how this relates back to the development of screening tools as well as Physiotherapy assessment. So without spoiling the juicy bits of each session, I hope this has given you enough of a taste to go ahead and check things out for yourself. Dr. Zach Long is not your average physical therapist. After years of working in the field of Strength & Conditioning, he earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy. The skill set he gained from both of these areas allows him to improve the sports performance of athletes of all skill levels. Zach’s expertise is sought out by high-level athletes in Olympic weightlifting, CrossFit, professional bodybuilding, the NFL, and elite runners & swimmers. Chris Ritter has over a decade of experience successfully coaching a diverse population of athletes and clientele. All ages and abilities have seen results training with Chris, from youth to beginners, masters athletes, even Olympic Gold Medalists. Chris has the wisdom and ability to scale workouts and programs to your current ability but aiming towards your goals. He is always learning and refining the RITTERSP training methods. His professional and academic credentials include a degree in Exercise Science & Kinesiology, CSCS, NASM-PES, USAW and IYCA-YFS. rittersp.com Meet the speakers Charlie is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, a Certified Athletic Trainer, and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. He is currently a Physical Therapist and Strength & Conditioning Coach at Drive 495 in Manhattan, NY and Fit For Life in Marlboro, NJ. He also is a member of the Nike Executive Performance Council and serves as the Physical Performance Lead and Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Canadian Men’s National Basketball Team. Prior to returning to his home of NJ, he was the Director of Physical Performance and Resiliency and Lead Physical Therapist for the United States Marines Corps Special Operations Command in Camp Lejeune, NC. He graduated from Ursinus College with a degree in Exercise and Sports Science in 1996, and went on to earn an MSPT in 1999 and DPT in 2010 from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dan John has spent his life with one foot in the world of lifting and throwing, and the other foot in academia. An All-American discus thrower, Dan has also competed at the highest levels of Olympic lifting, Highland Games and the Weight Pentathlon, an event in which he holds the American record. Dan spends his work life blending weekly workshops and lectures with full-time writing, and is also an online religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri. As a Fulbright Scholar, he toured the Middle East exploring the foundations of religious education systems. His books, on weightlifting, include Intervention, Never Let Go, Mass Made Simple and Easy Strength, written with Pavel Tsatsouline as well as From Dad, To Grad. He and Josh Hillis co-authored “Fat Loss Happens on Monday.” In 2015, Dan wrote Can You Go? on his approach to assessments and basic training. In addition, Before We Go, another compilation akin to Never Let Go became an Amazon Bestseller. Scott Iardella, MPT, CSCS, CISSN, SFGII, CK-FMS, PN-L1 has a long history in the field of health and fitness with nearly thirty years of experience. He has an extensive background in strength and conditioning, sports physical therapy, competitive bodybuilding, and is an expert the area of Russian kettlebells and movement based training. Dean is a personal trainer, author, and international public speaker whose main area of expertise is injury and medical dysfunction management through optimally designed exercise programs. His main calling is making people stronger, fitter, faster, more Kanye-er than they thought possible, even if they’re recovering from major or minor injuries, or while dealing with medical disorders. His clientele has included clients with post-surgical joint replacement rehabilitation, cardiac rehabilitation & wellness, sports injury post-rehabilitation, neural impairments and spinal cord injuries, cancer patients and even elite runners and fire fighters. Chris Duffin is a dominant force in both raw and multi-ply lifting, He currently held the all-time raw (with wraps) world record with a 881-pound squat at 220-pounds bodyweight. In 2014, he posted a raw total of 2061 pounds in the 220-pound class. In addition to his own competitive success, he has been the owner and coach of Kabuki Strength Lab in Portland, Oregon since 2008. Chris Duffin holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from The Oregon Institute of Technology and an MBA from The University of Phoenix. Duffin approaches powerlifting at a level of technical efficiency that is unsurpassed. His insight into training has helped many of his students go on to success beyond their expectations. Dr. John Rusin is one of the leading pioneers in the development and implementation of the hybrid model of strength and conditioning based physical therapists in the fitness industry and rehabilitative based medical communities worldwide. His innovative vision for the future of elite level sports performance physical therapy and injury prevention based training protocols are highlighted by the synergy of high-performance strength and hypertrophy programming with a cutting-edge, pain-free training methodologies, are revolutionizing the way his athletes and clients look, feel, function and perform. Mike has a BS in Exercise Physiology from Ohio University, an MSS in Coaching Science from Ohio University & a PhD in Biomechanics from LSU. Additionally, he has been recognized as a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) from the National Strength & Conditioning Association, a Level 3 coach by USA Track & Field, a Level 2 coach by USA Weightlifting & a CrossFit Level 1 coach. He is on the advisory board for the Korean Weightlifting Federation and has been featured in publications ranging from the New York Times to ESPN Insider. Quinn Henoch has a Doctorate of Physical Therapy from the University of Indianapolis and is head of sports rehabilitation for JuggernautHQ in Orange County, CA. He is also the founder of ClinicalAthlete, which is a network of health care professionals who understand the performance-based needs of athletes. Quinn played football at the Div 1-AA level at Valparaiso University as a defensive back. Since 2011, he has trained exclusively for the sport of weightlifting, having competed in the 2014 American Open and posting qualifying totals for the 2015 National Championships, as a 77kg lifter. He has also competed in track and field, Crossfit, and powerlifting. Dr. Tilley comes from an extensive gymnastics background, having been involved in the sport for 20+ years. He was a competitive gymnast, working up through the J.O. program to Level 10 and competing 4 years on the Springfield College Men’s team while pursuing his Doctorate in Physical Therapy. He also has been coaching both men’s and women’s gymnastics at a variety of different levels for 12 years. Dr. Tilley served as a director USGTC for 5 years, 2 two years traveling coaching with Svetlana Boginskaya’s Oylmpia Gymnastics Camp, has coached at various gyms through the North East, and currently still coaches optional gymnastics for the North Shore Wildcat’s in Beverly, MA. Following the completion of his Doctorate in 2013, Dave went on to continue his education completing certifications in the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA), the Functional Movement Assessment (FMS), Systemic Dry Needling, the McKenzie System, and Functional Range Conditioning (FRC). He is currently pursuing a Board Certification in Sports through the APTA and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS). Dr. Mario Novo, DPT, PT is a results driven sports orthopedic physical therapist who specializes in strength and conditioning. Known well by his clients/patients as a mentor and educator, Mario’s passion is to unify the highest levels of rehab science with successful mind and body strength coaching. With Mario’s research having focused on new advancements in muscle hypertrophy periodization and joint health, his goals are to share his knowledge and improve on the human condition through personalized cutting edge program design. Mario currently resides in middle TN where he plans on integrating his skills and knowledge in resistance exercise and rehab to empower and inspire those individuals ready to make a change in their lives through health and fitness. With over 11 years of strength coaching, education, nutritional counseling, and personal training experience, Dr. Seedman has had the privilege of working with a wide variety of clientele, from professional athletes and bodybuilders to elderly individuals and adolescent athletes. In order to maximize performance and health, he trains his athletes and clients to improve muscle function and movement mechanics via advanced neuromuscular re-education techniques aimed at re-sensitizing somatosensory feedback mechanisms such as intrafusal muscle fibers (muscle spindles). Dr. Seedman believes that by teaching individuals how to move and function the way The Almighty intended them to, all characteristics of performance, fitness, and health improve no matter the athlete or training goal. Dr. Kirk Parsley is a former Navy Seal turned Medical Doctor. While working with the SEALs, he postulated that poor sleep was causing severe metabolic and hormonal derangement, and that nutrition, lifestyle modification, and supplementation could correct these derangements. His entire career is now dedicated towards understanding how to mitigate the effects of sub-optimal sleep, how to optimize sleep, how to educate the masses, and how to inspire change in the powers that be so that sleep becomes a priority for our nations most valuable resources: our workforce and our children. Don't miss out! If you haven't taken the opportunity to register for this free event, don't waste another moment. It's not often that my attention is caught and held for 3 hours but I have really enjoyed the first session and can't wait for the rest. Register online here

So the Force is strong with your child and your little one thinks he or she has what it takes to be a Jedi? Then the Jedi Training Academy: Trials of the Temple at Hollywood Studios is just the thing for you are looking for. Let’s take a look at what the Jedi Training Academy: Trials of the Temple is, who is eligible, and what it takes to reserve a spot for the Jedi Training Academy. Continue reading Jedi Training Academy At Hollywood Studios Who wants free dining? Or maybe you prefer a discount on your room? Either way today is the day because both offers were released early this morning and as usual I was up bright and early working to get those discounts for my valued clients. Before we get into the details of the free dining offer you need to understand a few things. The dates are limited and so are the rooms. Just because Disney has a room does not mean it qualifies for the free dining (or the room only discount for that matter.) The Disney website is getting crushed today and is experiencing technical difficulties (expect to see Stitch a lot.) The phone lines are also being hammered so expect long wait times if you try to call in. Continue reading Free Dining 2018 and Room Only Discounts Disney will start charging for overnight parking In somewhat of a surprise move Disney has announced they will start charging for overnight parking at the Disney owned resort hotels. Guests who book their Disney vacation package before March 21st will not be charged. How much is Disney charging for parking Charges for parking will be based on resort category. Disney Value resorts will be $13 Disney Moderate resorts will be $19 Deluxe and Deluxe villa resorts will be $24 Complimentary standard self-parking is available while enjoying select dining, shopping, entertainment, and recreation experiences at Disney Resort hotels. Guests who booked with Disney Vacation club will also receive complimentary parking. Even though Pandora just opened there are still Animal Kingdom rumors. According to separate rumors there are two new expansions under consideration. Those two new expansions are Indiana Jones and Zootopia. Both expansions are based on popular Disney movie properties. This means Disney is keeping the synergy alive. But what are the chances that either of both of these will actually be built? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons and you can decide for yourself. Be sure to let me know in the comments if you think they will happen or if you even want them to happen. Continue reading Two Animal Kingdom Rumors Indiana Jones and Zootopia Recently some guests have been offered the opportunity to trade Mousekeeping for a gift card. This program is not something Disney is announcing on their website nor does it apply to every resort. The amount offered on the gift card has ranged from $15 per night to $20 per night. Would you trade Mousekeeping for a gift card? Mousekeeping is what a lot of Disney fans call the housekeeping department at Walt Disney Word resorts. It is not an official term but it is a cute one! Continue reading Would You Trade Mousekeeping For A Gift Card Did you know that guests staying at a Disney resort have the option to purchase a Disney Dining Plan? Well they can and I have put together 10 great Disney Dining Plan tips to help you understand it and get the most out of it. But before we get to the tips lets take a quick look at what is available. There are three levels of Disney Dining Plan. They are the Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan, the Disney Dining Plan, and the Disney Deluxe Dining Plan. The Quick-Service is the cheapest and the Deluxe is the most expensive. Continue reading 10 Great Disney Dining Plan Tips 2018 Disney Dining Plan Changing Are you a fan of the Disney Dining Plan? If so you should know that that 2018 Disney Dining Plan is changing. In addition to a price increase, which we see every year, beverage options are changing too! 2018 Disney Dining Plan Changing Beverage Options Starting 2018 you will no longer be limited to Coke products, coffee or tea with your meal. Guests age 21 and over can choose from select alcoholic beverages or specialty non-alcoholic beverages. Continue reading 2018 Disney Dining Plan Changing Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Bog Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, first announced that Star Wars was coming both Disneyland and Walt Disney World at the D23 Expo in August of 2015. He promised a unique and immersive experience but did not really give much in the way of detail. In fact he did not even give this new Star Wars land a name. In August of 2017 Bob Chapek, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, told us this new land will be called Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge but what else do we know about this new Star Wars land? Continue reading Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Big News From D23 2017 Every two years Disney holds the D23 Exposition. It is an opportunity for Disney fans to get together and share their love of all things Disney. It is also a stage to make big announcements about what is coming soon to the Disney empire. The announcements cover everything from the parks to upcoming movies. This year, perhaps more than any other so far, there was great news for Disney fans but especially for Disney parks fans. If you are a Disney parks fan here are the big news from D23 2017! Continue reading Big News From D23 2017 Tron Coming To Walt Disney World When Shanghai Disney opened in 2016 one of the biggest attractions was a Tron roller coaster. To be honest when I saw the videos I was more than a little jealous . When rumors started floating around I got a excited. But rumors are just that which leaves us with the question, is Tron coming to Walt Disney World? I cannot give you a definite answer. Bob Iger won’t return my calls but we can look at what the Tron coaster is, how likely it might show up in the States and where it might fit.

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Culture is what makes an organization unique – the character, personality, and sum of its values, traditions, beliefs, interactions, behaviors, and attitudes. In our Culture Corner series, we’ll be raising the curtain on the company culture here at ScribbleLive and sharing our journey. This is where you’ll also get insight into what to expect from the day-to-day Scribbler life and advice on how to be successful during the recruitment process. You’ll be hearing firsthand from Scribblers about their experiences at ScribbleLive, and have the opportunity to interact with them by leaving comments or questions. To kickoff this series, Voula V, ScribbleLive’s Head of Talent Acquisition, shares her journey from new hire to now. So who is Voula? I’m ScribbleLive’s Head of Talent Acquisition and have been in recruitment for the past 12 years. Most of my recruitment experience has been in retail, given my fashion background. But I knew I wanted to do something BOLD with my career. So I did what scared me the most…I decided to get into tech! After making this decision and announcing it to the universe, a friend introduced me to ScribbleLive. What was my ScribbleLive recruitment experience like? To be honest, I had no idea what ScribbleLive was before my friend introduced me. But I did my research so I was prepared when I came into the office. From the first step into the office, I already had a really great impression. To my delight, I was greeted by the best Office Manager I’ve ever met and could feel the energy in the office. I knew I somehow belonged here. Next step was to actually interview. I was immediately invited back after my initial in-person interview to meet with whom would later be my boss. Soon after, I was invited back to meet the CEO, Vince Mifsud. I received my job offer before I even got into my car and started a few days later! They don’t waste time at ScribbleLive and were in constant communication so I knew my status during the recruitment process. What made me decide to work here? After meeting my potential manager during the 2nd interview, I knew we had great synergy and so, I really wanted to work with him. I was so excited to join the company and haven’t stopped smiling since. Literally. (I often wonder if my boss had known beforehand how much I talk AND laugh, would he have made the same decision?) Did I make the right choice? Four months in, I still feel like I’ve made the right choice (I think the feeling is mutual as well with ScribbleLive). I love the fast pace and agile environment. Moving from one initiative to the next, one interview and meeting after the other no matter what part of the world the candidates and hiring managers are located in, no matter the time zone. I love fast paced environments and this has been one amazing ride since Day 1. ** Make note: If it wasn’t already obvious, to be successful here, you must love to work in a fast paced environment!** What’s it like working at ScribbleLive? Before I say what it’s like to work at ScribbleLive, let me tell you a little about ScribbleLive as a company. What’s important to know is that we’re one of Canada’s fastest growing companies, we move fast, and we’re very agile. We are a privately owned global company with Headquarters in Toronto, but have offices in London, Dubai, Berlin, Munich, New York, San Francisco and many more to come. We are a tech team that includes engineering and product, marketing, sales, customer success, and of course finance and HR. Today, we have almost 200 employees and are aimed to double in size over the next 18 months. The pace, passion, and professionalism is no different than organizations I’ve worked for in the past. I was, and remain, very impressed. If I was to describe characteristics that everyone shares, they would be hard working, always wanting to learn and improve, and acting with integrity. Along with that, each person also gets the opportunity to have their voice heard, is given lots of autonomy, and contributes to decision-making. The only notable difference that I’ve noticed between my previous experiences and at ScribbleLive is that there’s limited on-boarding and training, so one must hit the ground running and be comfortable working independently. Having a more comprehensive onboarding experience is something that my group is actively working on with various departments. Our goal is to improve this experience because we believe that having a strong foundation right from the start will enable Scribblers achieve success in their role. We are a mighty global team with talented experts in each vertical. We work in an open and sharing environment, each person striving to achieve the best results. We work with passion and pride and it can sometimes be timely and energy consuming…but definitely worth it! What I’m excited about as I continue my journey at ScribbleLive Many things about my journey at ScribbleLive excite me. First thing would be the potential for career growth. I have seen over a handful of individuals who started around the time I did already be promoted to leadership roles. The fact that Scribblers’ hard work and energy get noticed and rewarded really elevates my energy. Secondly, the collaboration and synergy between the various global teams is mindblowing. Everyone works so closely together. Their opinions and feedback really do mean something to the team members and, although many opinions do vary more often than not, the teams stand united. It’s unlike anything I have experienced at previous companies and I think it’s a very admirable environment. I would also say working at ScribbleLive brings an element of surprise and spontaneity to my day because every day can be so different. Sometimes, it’s like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. And let’s not forget the people. It’s the type of crowd where we all “get” each other – we’re open, encourage sharing, and make a lot of effort to understand each other. In the Toronto office, there’s definitely a huge mutual feeling of love for the “Breakfast Bananas, Burrito Boyz + Dorito Party Mix”. Advice to future Scribblers My best advice to any future Scribbler is to expect something different everyday. One must be open and comfortable working in an ever changing fast paced environment. But most importantly… enjoy the ride! With our growing global business, I am always excited to hear from those that are interested in being a part of our team. As an open networker, please reach out at [email protected] or connect with me today

As the co-founder of The Age of No Retirement, he’s on a mission – to create a world where age does not define us. And with ageism dubbed “the last acceptable prejudice”, its work that is vital to a more inclusive society. In the work environment, traditional ideas of retirement lead to rich and productive working lives cauterised by an arbitrary age line for both women and men. Dr Collie talks about how we can – and should - challenge this, looking at how the power of meaningful work throughout the whole life course can benefit ourselves, business and society – as well as play a key role in closing the Gender Pay Gap. Anna: Hello and welcome to the everywoman Podcast. I'm Anna, editor of everywoman, and every month we'll be bringing you the stories, insights, and opinions of inspiring people in business on a wide range of topics. Asking the questions you want the answers to and, doubtless, prompting some more in the process. Anna: Today, we're looking at the subject of ageism and age inclusivity, and the role of work within that. In the studio we welcome Jonathan Collie, co-founder of The Age of No Retirement, an organisation with a mission to create age positive social change. Anna: Welcome Jonathan. Jonathan Collie: Thank you. Hi. Anna: Your mission is to create a world where our age no longer defines us or the opportunities that are open to us. You say that this should be true whether we're 20 or 80. I'd like to start with the first question of, is ageism the last acceptable prejudice and why? Jonathan Collie: I think that we'll always find conflicts and tension, so we might succeed in tackling ageism, but then we'll no doubt find something else that we need to tackle after that. As far as diversity is concerned, diversity in the workplace is concerned we find that many of the diversity issues, the inclusivity issues have been addressed quite successfully to some extent in the workplace, but age certainly hasn't. As far as diversity in the workplace is concerned age, I think, is the next big one that we need to crack. Anna: The next big tackling? Jonathan Collie: Yes. Anna: The Age of No Retirement, so for some people this sounds like hell, for others pure joy. Let's look at the baseline, how is the concept of work and indeed retirement changing and why should we possibly start looking at these in a different way? Jonathan Collie: First of all, The Age of No Retirement is not saying that ... or we're not advocating that people work until they drop. What we're saying is that we are indeed living in an age where retirement in its traditional stereotypical form no longer exists. In the old days, when retirement was first popularised, people had enough money in retirement to live a life of leisure, more leisurely existence. That was largely because they didn't last very long in retirement. I think, the average age in retirement was three years. I think, the average life expectancy was actually lower than the retirement age. Now, when people retire they can expect 10, 20, 30, 40 years even in retirement. It's a question really in two parts. The one is, is retirement or modern non-retirement all about money? The answer to that is, obviously, not. Also, because you got so much time can you really afford to spend that time only going on cruises, and doing gardening, and watching TV, and looking after the grandkids? That model just doesn't exist anymore. Anna: Is that enough for people? Jonathan Collie: That's what we're finding more and more, that that isn't enough for people and that people need that continued purpose, that sense of fulfilment, that sense of reward. People want to continue to learn to do things. They want to keep building their social networks, they want to continue to be challenged. We find more and more that in the age of no retirement, work is indeed becoming a much more important element of people's lives beyond the 50, 60, 70-year-old timeframe. Anna: Presumably, the idea of work is also becoming more fluid. We'll talk about this later, but you do a lot of work with entrepreneurs in later life. Are we talking specifically when we say no retirement of entrepreneurial activity or are we talking within working structures as well? Jonathan Collie: Yes. Very interestingly, we're starting to work with large employers, employers that have more than 1000 employees, and in many instances have more than 10 or even 100,000 employees, to start thinking about blurring that black line of retirement and what it actually means to each individual as well as organisation itself. What does the win-win look like, and it's certainly not just extending a 9 to 5 career in your current job rule. Jonathan Collie: As people get older their priorities change, they want different things, and we're finding, and in fact what we will increasingly see, is a trend towards drawing in elements of retirement into the workplace and extending elements of the workplace into that retirement space. You're going to start seeing not just flexibility in location and time, how much work and where you do it, it's going to be a complete rethinking of job roles. Almost a deconstruction of job roles. You're looking at as a portfolio of tasks, and projects and objectives, and how people and their skill sets, and how much they want to work, and what value they can really add, how that more fluid approach can start to redefine the boundary between career and retirement. Anna: In essence then, age or rather the challenges of an ageing population could end up defining work for a lot more people just than that particular cohort. Jonathan Collie: Absolutely right. In fact, when we are asked to help companies to rethink about retirement our starting point is always why does it only have to be your older workers? Why can't we rethink work? Rethink how your company performs, how people want to live their lives, start to measure productivity not in presence, and also retraining line managers so they're much more flexible in their approach and accommodating approach, and looking at the deliverables rather than whether they see people every day. Anna: Let's talk about this idea of age defining us. Your mission, as I said, is to create a world where age doesn't define us at whatever age we are. You're very clear to say it's 20 to 80, or 90, or 100. Who says? There might be a centenarian that wants to set up a business. Is it possible and actually why is it desirable? Don't we have certain things that define us at age that are quite positive? Jonathan Collie: We don't advocate abolishing age as a concept. Chronology, time they're irrefutable. There's only so much that you can say that we want to get rid of. What we want to do is to make sure that people don't see their age as a reason for them not being able to do something or that they have to behave in accordance with their age. When we start to work with organisations mostly in the third sector with lots of charities, when they start to develop services and products for people, they say, "Well, this is for 50+ or this is for 65+." Our challenge is you can't design for age because a 65-year-old can as easily be running a marathon as he can be in a care home with dementia. Designing for that age is absolutely meaningless. What you need to design is for needs, one's desires. If you get that right then whatever you're designing it can address people of any age. The commonality is that need. Anna: There is, certainly I know in later life, that homogeneity, that sense that you get to a certain age and that's what you want to do. Jonathan Collie: We all have to dress the same, you live in the same place, you do the same thing. It's what's expected. Jonathan Collie: When we launched Trading Times, which was the precursor to The Age of No Retirement it was back in 2014, it was all around people over the age of 50 and engaging them in flexible or for flexible part-time paid work. Looking at people who want to build that portfolio career, that portfolio approach, and matching people who've got 10, 20, 30, 40 years of work experience who could be retiring at the very top of their game and matching them with the flexible resource needs of local small businesses who can't afford to hire a full-time equivalent. They just want those rich skills as and when they need them. Jonathan Collie: We found that many of the people who were older entering this retirement space, who had these incredible skills, they felt ... and they were assuming the stereotype, they were absorbing it themselves. They felt that they couldn't or shouldn't work because they are taking jobs from younger people, that it's their time to give back, and not to earn money. That they need to be volunteering in charities, and doing things like that. It was a source of frustration. In The Age of No Retirement where we're living so much longer and the economy needs to grow with everybody's contributions, with all the resources, and certainly the experience it's built up over decades of careers. We just can't afford to have all these people not engaged in the economy anymore. Anna: On a cruise. Jonathan Collie: Just absent, just removing themselves from society in general. People need to learn from their experience, you need to retain. It's like humanity is a library, you got to nurture and you got to retain this heritage. Anna: The over 50s is a traditionally marginalised group because of this retirement space. It's about enrichment then, I guess, and it's putting it all back in. Jonathan Collie: A big challenge we have is the absence of role model models and good stories. In a youth success society and you open up the media, and read the news every day, and all the popular type stories they're all around youngsters, young entrepreneurs. If they are about older people they tend to be more of a sensationalist nature. If an older person is running a startup as an entrepreneur, the astounding aspect is not what he or she is doing, it's the fact that they're older and an entrepreneur. We just need to normalise these things a bit more. We need more stories of normal people who are older, who are doing things with their longer years, with their longer lives that's just occupying their time and inspiring them. Then, that can be referenced by other people who start to feel that it's normal for them to start going back to university, or starting a new career, or starting a business, or becoming self-employed, or the hobby that they're passionate about, they can start to build that into a new business. There's a million things that they could be considering doing. Anna: Normalising is the key, isn't it? Jonathan Collie: It is the key, yeah. Anna: Give me a little bit of a background about how The Age of No Retirement is working towards that. Jonathan Collie: We're working in three areas. We're working with organisations in the workforce, how it is that we can take the us and them out of the workplace. The younger versus older, the over 50, or around the retirement, or the concept that older people are blocking space and they need to move on and retire. It's re-thinking that. That's going to take some time. I know through experience, that in the HR environment in businesses, once enough change starts to happen then the change starts to accelerate really greatly. The other two areas are the community, just broadly speaking community. We want to start to cultivate, nurture more intergenerational cohesion within communities. We need to arrest and reverse the trend of quarantining older people in old age facilities and keeping people, generations apart, we need to start exploring that. We've just finished, or are about to finish, a very exciting project in the London borough of Islington where we're exploring what it is that needs to be developed and created within a community in order to really cultivate and drive intergenerational cohesion. The third area is in product line. That includes developing brands and communication, so reclaiming normal language for normal people rather than coming up all the time with these new euphemisms, jargons, and the silver surfers, and the golden age, and all these things that- Anna: They're diminishing. Jonathan Collie: They do more harm than good all the time. It's just normal language for normal people is what we need to reclaim. It's those three areas that we're focusing on and it's all around doing things because we're not a think tank. We do a lot of thinking, but the very earliest opportunity we want to start prototyping change and start to demonstrate how it is that action can actually translate it into broader changes, and thinking, and behaviour. Anna: This what you're exploring in your into intergenerational research unit, then? Jonathan Collie: We're not a research organisation, so all the research we do is in support of project work that we do. A big piece of research that we did when we first received some funding from a big lottery fund to actually set The Age of No Retirement up as an organisation at the beginning of 2016 was a big research project, we called it In Common. We couldn't continue with the Age of No Retirement without the proof that there's more that binds people and connects people of all ages than separates them under these generational stereotypes. Jonathan Collie: We demonstrated quite clearly that whether your 25 or 65 you pretty much thinking along similar lines. Your 65-year-old self is not that different to your 25-year-old self and yet marketing departments and media they all love talking about millennials and boomers and how completely different they are and they think so differently. We set out to prove that on your 50th birthday going from 49 to 50 you don't all of a sudden become a different being overnight. Building on the fact that we have more in common is really, I think, the root answer to everything that we're really grappling with. Anna: Let's talk further about the differences and commonality with regard to gender. Obviously, we're talking about collapsing this idea of age and making it inclusive, but are there differences in the way that that plays out with men and women? I know you've done a bit of research recently on this. Jonathan Collie: We don't focus specifically or particularly on gender issues, but we do come across trends quite a lot. We need to work really hard on ensuring that whatever it is that we do is accessible, and open, and inclusive to everybody. Jonathan Collie: There's a few things that, I think, we can highlight here. When we launched Training Times in 2014, I think, within six months in London there were 2000 candidates that registered with the service, 60% of whom were women. If you think about that, the appetite for working in later life, and obviously we haven't done a broader study on this, but it was very interesting that 60% of the people who volunteered their time, their effort, their experience were women. Jonathan Collie: Most interesting was if you think about an older woman, what would she be offering? It's not what you would think if you were thinking stereotypically. It's not admin/clerical roles. These are people who've got 20, 40 years experience working in marketing, or finance, or consulting. It was amazing that there was a very broad even distribution across all the skills and all the sectors. We were extremely excited about what we could offer by way of a resource pool to employers on a part-time flexible basis. That was very interesting. Jonathan Collie: More recently, we did a project in ... we're doing this project in Islington, which has caused us very interestingly to speak to so many people in the borough of all shapes and sizes, ages, races, cultures, to try and understand what makes them tick, what their fears are, what their hopes and dreams are. We interviewed quite a few people on high streets, in counsellor states, and we realised that there's been a trend in recent times away from the patriarch of the community who would help kids tinkering with their bikes or do the bloke stuff in the community. We noticed quite a significant absence of men and now the patriarch has been replaced by the matriarch. We have the women who own the streets, who are telling the kids to behave, and who are doing favours, and chores, and help for their neighbours, and popping in for a cup of coffee, et cetera. Jonathan Collie: Again, this isn't a formal study of ours, but it's something through all the conversations that we had we realised that whatever it is that you need to do in order to make significant change along intergenerational lines within a community has to be done through the women. Jonathan Collie: That's one thing of late. I suppose, it's born out a little bit by, look at the Cub Scouts movement. I think the majority of people who run the evening Cub Scouts are the mothers not the fathers anymore. Certainly, my son who's been in Cubs, I don't think that we've had a father involved there. There must be 10 mothers who run the three that he's been involved in. Anna: That's interesting. I love that idea that women can play this amazing role in collapsing these intergenerational boundaries. Anna: I just wanted to return to entrepreneurialism actually because I know that you've done a project, or I think you're still doing it, with the over 50s entrepreneurs and matching them up with younger entrepreneurs. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Tell me, are there women involved in that? How do women's attitudes in later life relate to entrepreneurialism? Jonathan Collie: That's quite interesting. In fact, it is the project in Islington that we've been working on. It started off as an intergenerational startup hub, that was the hypothesis we were looking to test. The one thing, our approach is all around design led thinking. We never go in with an answer that we're looking to build. We go in with a hypothesis or a direction of travel and then through all these interviews and the conversations it sorts itself out. It was midway through the project that the intergenerational startup hub became less of an exciting and an exciting idea and it was replaced- Anna: Sorry, explain to me, explain to the listeners what exactly that involved initially in its inception. Jonathan Collie: Initially, we were thinking that people around the age of graduating from university, who've got lots of learned knowledge but very little applied to knowledge, lots of excitement of what the future might hold, also a little bit of trepidation as to whether they're going to get a job and whether they're going to be able to afford to buy a house and move out of home. There's lots of text savviness and lots of social connectivity, social networks which may not be that interpersonal. It might be more online or through social media channels. That's on the one side. Jonathan Collie: On the other side, we're looking at the 55 to 63-year-old person who is emerging from a full-time career now thinking, "Well, I've got 20, 30 years left what am I going to do for the rest of my life?" Again, with some hope and excitement of the newfound freedom of choice, but also trepidation as to what it is they're going to be able to do. Not so much as learned education and knowledge, but an incredible amount of acquired experiential knowledge. We're thinking that both of these groups of people are sitting at a major life transition point, so wouldn't it be amazing if we could get them together and younger people can learn how to debate, and talk, and think, public speaker may be. Learn by experience and leveraging the experience of older people. Older people can learn about technology, and they can revitalise themselves, I suppose, after having spent many years in a career. Jonathan Collie: That was thinking, if we can put them together and, I suppose, the real thing that would that apart is more that a breadth of age of those co-founder groups would mean that they would have a better understanding of market needs in general and therefore they would have a much better potential for developing the right product. Of course, as the product is developed and the business is launched they would have the breadth of skills in order to run a more resilient durable business. There were all these perfect synergy type equations going on. Jonathan Collie: Then, we started to speak to the people and the wheels didn't come off. The interesting thing was that the wheels still stayed on this, but it was so many other things that we could do. It became this non-simplistic, non-linear intergenerational start up hub and it became, what we're now calling, The Common Room where it's for people of all ages. It's not just for those 2 cohorts. It's to look at how it is that we can bring people together and, in so doing, raise everybody's game. They can help each other, nurture each other, raise everybody's game, create a hotbed of intergenerational productivity and exploration and, in so doing, attract other parties into this mix. Jonathan Collie: You think of companies that have lost touch with their customers and they go to third-party market insights. They can just pop up and they can run focus groups, and workshops within this hub. Companies who're looking to understand customer needs, user insights they can engage with us. The local authority might say, "Well, we've got a problem with childhood obesity in our borough." Well, let's take it to the residence, let's see if they can solve this if they can develop new social enterprises, new social ideas, new problems. NHS in the local area can come with their problems and roll up their sleeves with the residents. Jonathan Collie: Now, this isn't going to happen spontaneously. We need to have a host creative team and a host development team in there, but more of a facilitation role, not a class based educational curriculum role. Anna: Also, equally important, I guess, is that all of this is an equal relationship. It's collapsed the traditional idea of hierarchy where the older person teaches the younger person or actually the inverse hierarchy now where the younger millennials know everything and the older people know nothing. I find that really fascinating. I also find that the idea that this intergenerational idea with work can then lead on to intergenerational solutions in society and that's part of the whole thing. Anna: I'm just going to ask you one final question before we go. Tell me, what is the next stage? Where are you going now and what do you want to see happen through Age of No Retirement in, say, the next year, 5 years, 10 years? Jonathan Collie: Very interestingly, this project, the intergenerational startup hub that's now become The Common Room, that has enormous potential to become a network of community-based... I don't know what the critical mess of community, whether it's a borough, or it's a town, but aggregating across this network there is a movement for social change and a powerful intergenerational story. The Age of No Retirement, if we can get that moving, if we can get that out the gates ... Now, this project was funded by Innovate UK, which is a government sub-department of the Department of Base Business Enterprise and Industrial Strategy, I think. If we can now get the pilot going and start to test it in different locations and gain traction that's really where we want to get because that would drive innovation, community redesign, intergenerational cohesion, a new narrative, new language, new stories, new role models. Jonathan Collie: One of the conversations I had, one of the interviews I had was with a mother, a young mother who was looking to get back to work. Now, she was very successful, she'd come from the city, budding career in finance. Then, she had her first baby and her thinking changed. She now no longer wanted to go back to the cities. She wanted to explore, I don't know, something a little bit more meaning, with a little bit more of a social impact, as well as generate some income for herself, but there was nowhere for her to go. She was almost knocking on charity by charity within the local community. The Common Room, we want those kinds of people, those kinds of people with a little bit of an agitation, a little bit of an itch to scratch, a little bit of dissatisfaction with the status quo, an ambition to do better, to be better. That's the answer that we want to start to provide. Anna: What also is interesting to me as well about that and about that broader social change and working change is if you have for men and women working longer and in different styles then, obviously, this can contribute to helping to close the gender pay gap, which has been in the news recently. It will help to level the playing field. It is the answer, or one of the answers, to a more inclusive society. Jonathan Collie: The gender pay issue is exacerbated towards the retirement type line where you find that women tend to be the principal carer, so if there's an ailing parent, older parent, it's the daughter, if there is a son and daughter, it's the daughter that takes that principal role. It's the sandwich caring burden falls more on the mother and the daughter and so I find that the livelihoods, the careers of women are under greater threat than men, and with that comes an erosion in pay, and in promotions, and salaries, and things like that. I'd like very much for us to be able to start to drive collaborative innovation on a peer basis, that everybody's got the same stake and start to create or to demonstrate what is possible on that basis. Anna: Obviously, there is a lot that is possible. Jonathan Collie: There is a lot that is possible and there's a lot to be done. Anna: Jonathan Collie, thank you very much- Jonathan Collie: Thanks very much Anna. Anna: Thank you all for joining us as well on this everywoman podcast and we look forward to continuing the conversation with you next time. Anna: Don't forget, in the meantime, there's a wealth of information, interest, and further talking points on the everywomanNetwork and app if you want to access us on the move. Until we meet again, have a great day and keep on living your best life.

Kalaripayattu is a martial art that also practices traditional Indian methods of healing, leaving its impressions on both war and wound. In a more creative way it has also inspired some traditional performing art forms of Kerala, and even travelled east to birth the Kung Fu. Martial arts have existed in India for thousands of years. While there are mentions of fighting and combat in Indian mythology, some earliest records have been traced down in caves of ancient men, who drew battle scenes on walls of their shelters. It has been discovered that the pre-historic man imitated animals for its fighting techniques, fetching inspiration from lions, tigers, elephants, wild boars and even crocodiles. Eventually the fighters also started developing weapons, one of the first being a stick, which acted as an extension of the arm. Various other weapons were invented in the ages that followed. Besides weapons, fighting techniques also took form, eventually being refined to the stage of it becoming a martial art. Kalaripayattu, from the south Indian state of Kerala, is believed to be the oldest martial art in the world, a fact that can be backed by its fighting techniques, which are inspired from those of wild animals. Legend has it that Sage Parasurama, the master of all martial art forms, who developed its techniques, trained warriors in the art form, making them as sharp and supple as animals. The use of weapons followed. “The first weapon students of Kalaripayattu are given is a stick,” says Priyanka Dalal, a beginner level trainee at CVN Kalari, one of the oldest Kalaripayattu schools in India . “Eventually, as they learn to control it, curved sticks, spears, swords, daggers and other weapons are introduced in the training,” she adds. The training of Kalaripayattu involves a rather holistic approach. It aims to help one develop control of their mind and physicality, with the weapons only being an extension of the body and in control of the fighter to achieve high degree of perfection in both offensive and defensive combats. “I find the training to be a rather meditative process, and not at all aggressive – an emotion one would expect from the training of a martial art form,” shares Dalal. “Before beginning the routine, all students kneel and pray to the lords and to the floor of the gymnasium, making it a very spiritual process,” she adds. Kalaripayattu is practiced in an enclosure called kalari, which is 21 feet by 42 feet gymnasium. The kalari houses its guardian deities, who also symbolise the seven strengths or abilities each trainee is expected to have. There are the idols of Vigneswa (strength), Channiga (patience), Vishnu (commanding power), Vadugashcha (posture), Tadaaguru (training), Kali (expression) and Vakasta – purushu (sound). Other deities, most of them incarnations of the Bhagavathi or Shiva, are also installed at different corners. While kalari means place, threshing floor, or battlefield, payattu means exercise or practice. Practitioners of the art devote themselves to learn this challenging form. “For the ones, who learn Kalaripayattu traditionally, it becomes their lifestyle, unlike in the western method of learning which ends with a class or session,” says Joy, a physical theatre artist who has had the opportunity to learn the martial art. “The traditional style is also tougher and requires more dedication. It is mostly practiced in the north of Kerala and by fewer people. The style practiced in the south of the state is the one more popular aand practiced now as it has been slightly modified as per urban lifestyles,” Joy shares. A synergy of art, science and medicine The training of Kalaripayattu includes learning the tricks of Ayurveda (ancient Indian medicine and healing system) and in locating the vital points of the body. “In a traditional practice, the art form is passed down through generations and within a family. My gurukkal (Malayali word for teacher) taught it to both his son and daughter, who work with him at the training institute. While the son gives therapeutic massages to men, the daughter takes care of the females,” says Dalal. Kalari has a traditional orthopedic system which is known to help people with displaced bones. “People suffering from rheumatism, a type of arthritis, often come to my teacher’s house, to get cured,” says Dalal. The traditional method of healing includes usage of oils, pastes, herbs to treat muscle and bone injuries. In a Kalari massage the therapist uses his hand and feet, applying pressure on the marma points or the 108 sensitive pressure points in the human body, which are said to hold the prana, or life’s vital energy. Of these 64 are considered as kulamarma or deadly points, which could be used to heel or harm. If these points are pressed hard, it could result in trauma or even death. A kalari masseur uses the marma points to heal. Kalaripayattu has left its impressions on both wound and war. While its medicinal practice heals many, its fighting techniques were once used by warriors from the state. More subtly and creatively, the martial art has also shadowed various performing arts. Influencing other arts “Kalaripayattu has had influence on Theyyam and Kathakalli, traditional dance form from Kerala,” says Joy. Both the dance forms were once practiced and preached by the Nair community, which also comprised of the original Kalari fighters. “It can also be seen in contemporary dances, with dancers drawing inspiration from its fighting techniques for their acts,” he adds. It is also believed that the eastern martial art form of Kung Fu hails out of Kalaripayattu. The Indian martial art travelled to China in the 6th century A.D. with Daruma Bodhidarma – an Indian Buddhist monk and a Kalaripayattu master.

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Table of Contents - Rumors of the ISBN’s Demise - Jane Friedman’s Guidance: Forget Fiction Platforming - Hash it Out: #IBT13 - When It’s All Coming Up Roses: Patrick Wensink - The Used-Digital Debate: Nagging at You? - Conferences Coming Up - Last Gas: On Writing and Reading, Boys and Matt Haig The International Standard Book Number (ISBN), invented in Britain in 1965, took off rapidly as an international system for classifying books, with 150 agencies (one per country, with two for bilingual Canada) now issuing the codes. Set up by retailers to ease their distribution and sales, it increasingly hampers new, small and individual publishers. Yet digital publishing is weakening its monopoly. Those lines caught a lot of folks by surprise when published earlier this month in The Economist. (I can’t credit the author of the piece, of course, because of The Economist‘s long-standing and rightly derided policy that asserts the news is more important than its reporters. Anyone in the industry! the industry! of publishing will reject this tradition of not bylining journalists as a shameful denial of the essential centricity of writers.) The story in question, headlined Book-keeping: Digital publishing may doom yet another analogue standard, points out that in the UK, Nielsen, the ISBN agency there, charges about $190 for 10 ISBNs. It then writes, “Americans can pay $125 for a one-off number to R.R. Bowker, another data provider, but subsequent editions require another fee.” What’s left out is the fact that Bowker sells 10 ISBNs for $250–$25 each. In November, here at Publishing Perspectives, Ether for Authors led with a point that we don’t actually know how many ebooks there are, in fact, because ISBNs aren’t used consistently enough. In Can We See You?, I looked at what can’t be looked at — without ISBNs going onto ebooks, they’re rendered invisible to statistical tracking. While Bowker Research can count some 32.8 million titles in its Books in Print scan, we know that this figure can’t take into account many, many ebooks that have been published—often self-published—without the industry-standard tracking device on them, the ISBN. The Economist‘s writer gets awfully close to this problem of untracked books without seeing it: Self-published writers are booming; sales of their books increased by a third in America in 2011. Digital self-publishing was up by 129%. This ends the distinction between publisher, distributor and bookshop, making ISBNs less necessary. Contrary to what our anonymous journalist thinks, we don’t actually know how much sales of self-publishers’ books went up, again because we can’t track all the books or all the sales, in part because the ISBN isn’t used in many instances. What’s more, sales figures aren’t reported by certain retailers — I’m looking at you, Seattle — so we have anything but the clear picture of an upturn in 2011. As an aside, I should add that I have yet to meet a self-published writer who is “booming.” Some are bellowing, of course. But I think our byline-less author here meant that self-publication, not its authors, are booming. Good writing is never the wrong choice, you know. Boom all you like, without the universal code that establishes a book’s presence (and each format needs its own ISBN), then we’re looking at what appears to be an empty shelf. What should be the primary interest of our industry? Producing literature and serving its readership, of course. Our artists and their readers are the key points. But is there something inherently wrong — or somehow too determinedly journalistic — in wanting to be able to quantify, categorize, and track the progress of the industry through the “tagging” of its output? Nawotka asked it this way in Survey: Is It Time to Get Rid of the ISBN?: Is it now time for the system, a legacy largely tied to print, to end? Or should it be revised and updated to reflect new digital, financial and political realities? Take our survey and let us know what you think in the comments. Oddly, The Economist‘s story writer seems to think that several proprietary tags might take the place of the long-established ISBN: Amazon has introduced the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN). Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) tag articles in academic journals. Walmart, an American supermarket chain, has a Universal Product Code (UPC) for everything it stocks — including books. Humans are also getting labels: the Open Researcher and Contributor ID system (ORCID) identifies academics by codes, not their names. And ISBNs are not mandatory at Google Books. Among the first to respond to The Economist‘s piece is Michael Cairns. He leads off the comments on the story with the succinct overview, “This is a curious article: In some cases, it misses the point and, in others, it misinforms the reader about how the publishing industry currently works.” He repeats his comments in full at his Personanondata column. In MediaWeek (V7, N9): ISBNs, Books & Commuting, Course Guides, Music Money + More, addressing the unnamed writer of the piece: It is hard to agree with your statement that the ISBN hampers small publishers when the past ten years have seen the most significant growth in small- and medium-sized publishers in history. Both Bowker and Nielsen report these numbers each year for the US and UK markets. One circumstance you allude to is that in ‘olden times’–when we had more than two significant bookstore chains (in the US)–there was no question as to whether to obtain an ISBN; however, a publisher today could make a perfectly valid decision not to acquire an ISBN and simply sell their book or eBook through Amazon . . . and they could do okay with that. But why would any publisher with a book offering legitimate sales potential want to exclude all other retailers? That would be hard to understand. By the time Mick Rooney, a leader in the international self-publishing community and publisher in Ireland of The Independent Publishing Magazine, joins the responses, you have to wonder if The Economist‘s enforced anonymity isn’t merciful in this case. Rooney writes: Some articles on publishing from the mainstream media are just dumb. This is one of them. While the whole ISBN system for books has been under review for a couple of years, and has its limitations in view of digital publishing, the writer of this article in The Economist clearly knows Jack Shit about how the publishing and bookselling industries work. A frequent commenter on the publishing scene, our Canadian colleague Thad McIlroy also gets into the discussion at The Economist. His intent is to deepen the discussion, developing a point indicated but not clearly landed by The Economist: To remain within the spirit and the practice of the ISBN system, each digital permutation should be awarded a unique identifier. It’s at this moment that the ISBN system collapses. Assuming a publisher even wanted to assign an ISBN to each permutation the cost would be prohibitive (particularly for self-published authors and smaller general trade or academic publishers). But Bowker’s chief of identifiers, Laura Dawson, who leads the Friday “ISBN Hour” on Twitter and who was my interviewee in the November piece, has a deeply experienced and dramatically different view. Dawson tells Webb: ISBNs are necessary if the self-published author intends to sell her books using the traditional book supply chain. If the author is selling direct from her own website, or solely through Amazon (which doesn’t require ISBNs), then no ISBN is necessary. But if the author is distributing her books through a third-party distributor (such as Ingram, or Bookmasters, etc.), then an ISBN will be required. If the author is placing books at Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million or Hastings, an ISBN will be required. And here’s one of the most compelling reasons Dawson offers for entrepreneurial authors to be sure to get ISBNs—control of a book’s data: If an author insists on not getting her own ISBNs for her books, then they will be assigned for her by the trading partners who need them to do business. Then it becomes a question of ownership and control. The organization that maintains the ISBN data (the title of the book, the suggested retail price, the descriptions, cover image, etc.) will have more influence over how the book appears on websites and where it gets shelved in stores simply because industry systems operate on that data. If I were a self-publisher, I would want to have as much influence as possible in these areas, rather than passively allowing my trading partners to make those decisions for me. What about Amazon’s ASIN and other identifiers, Webb asks? Dawson: The ASIN is a great identifier — if you’re within Amazon’s “walled garden.” Outside of Amazon’s environment, it’s a fairly meaningless number. In her interview with Webb, Dawson also explains the relation to the ISBN of the UPC (the bar code standard) and the EAN, formerly the European Article Number, “an ISO number that forms the backbone of global trade of both physical and digital items.” Still, Rooney balances his own commentary on The Economist‘s story, with a view that prevails among some authors, in a guest post from Ian Lamont headlined Guest Post: How Bowker uses its U.S. ISBN monopoly to rip off new authors. Lamont asserts that Bowker “enjoyed multi-million dollar profits on the backs of new and independent authors and small publishers” — but he doesn’t have this information from the company. Instead, he extrapolates it from reports of small-press self-published titles. He concedes that Bowker “did not respond to my March 5 email about ISBN pricing.” He also seems to equate Bowker’s recommendation that each format of a book have an ISBN with saying that books must have ISBNs. He writes: Even though ISBNs are not necessary for ebooks, Bowker urges new authors to buy ISBNs “for each format of your book…ISBNs may be used for either print or digital versions” while admitting to the publishing establishment that “no ISBN is necessary” for authors using Amazon. Lamont refers in his piece to The Economist‘s article, and repeatedly asserts in his story what is already known to be true, that some ebook publishing platforms don’t require authors to use ISBNs. @pablod Without an ISBN-like process, Joe Author is competing with Big Publisher and Amazon, et al. Joe Author loses that battle. — Guy L. Gonzalez (@glecharles) March 8, 2013 But while Bowker doesn’t, to my knowledge, falsely assert that an ebook absolutely must have an ISBN, the company’s Laura Dawson tells Jenn Webb: In the digital realm, the number that a publisher gives a book is even more important! How else will a search find it? You can search by title and author, but how will you know — without some kind of number differentiating it — whether it’s a PDF or an EPUB? A hardcover or a paperback? The ISBN is the machine’s shorthand for these formats, and without it, searches are much more ambiguous. And Cairns’ reply to the unknown writer at The Economist rounds out the response of those who think ISBNs have a lot of usefulness ahead. He writes: Even if a book can be easily downloaded and paid for, someone still has to do the accounting and make sure the right publisher gets the right payment so they can the pay the author and contributors their share. Individuals and small publishers could possibly do without an ISBN but, in doing so, they may only be limiting their opportunities. Whenever I write a sentence that has “had had” like that in a row, I immediately throw on some Linkin Park and sit in the corner and cry. — Dan Krokos (@DanKrokos) March 15, 2013 I’ll make a bold statement right here that I don’t think I’ve made before. If you’re a totally new, unpublished writer who is focused on fiction, memoir, poetry, or any type of narrative-driven work, forget you ever heard the word platform. Time is short as this item arrives, so I’m going to direct you quickly to Jane Friedman’s new guest post at Writer Unboxed, Five Industry Trends Requiring Every Writer’s Attention. Note that Friedman is talking fiction. And primarily about new writers of fiction. Exception to the rule: Nonfiction/non-narrative authors and entrepreneurial authors who are self-publishing. Sorry, but you should probably focus on platform as much as the writing. But this is, even in fiction, probably the most direct guidance yet suggesting that the emphasis on platforming has been at the least over-stressed and perhaps over-weighted. Friedman writes: I think it’s causing more damage than good. It’s causing writers to do things that they dislike (even hate), and that are unnatural for them at an early stage of their careers. They’re confused, for good reason, and platform building grows into a raging distraction from the work at hand—the writing. I have to agree with Friedman, having seen many writers all but carried off by their platform efforts, the work lying behind them undone. More discussion of this clarification from a highly influential member of the community’s thinking will follow in coming days and weeks. For now, do check out this brand-new post, and here’s a bit more: Build your platform by writing and publishing in outlets that are a good fit for you, lead to professional growth, and build your network. The other pieces will start to fall into place. It might take longer, but who cares if you’re feeling productive and enjoying yourself? Go be a writer and take a chance on the writing. Writing and publishing good work always supports the growth of your platform—and I’m willing to bet more valuable platform building will get done that way, especially for narrative-driven writers. And where do I wish I were? Well, okay, the forecast rain and snow sounds a bit daunting after the frozen slush-hell of Boston last week for AWP. But I’d like to be in Milano for If Book Then, a daylong conference that has a rather elegant sequential layout to its program. There’s a keynote titled “Publishing is Technology” from our colleague Javier Celaya, followed by a first-rate panel on the proposition. Then there’s a keynote titled “Publishing is Data.” That one is given by my own long-suffering editor here at Publishing Perspectives, Ed Nawotka, and is followed, again, by a panel discussion. And finally, there’s a keynote titled “Publishing is Content,” a favorite theme of its presenter, Kassia Krozser. The panel that follows that one includes “radical advocacy” agent Jason Allen Ashlock of The Rogue Reader collective and Movable Type Management, and digital author Kate Pullinger of Bath Spa University. Keep an eye March 19 on that #ibt13 hashtag. Because if nothing else, there’s something to be said for such a graceful layout of a day’s debates. That was the rumor circulating around my wife’s family. One more week on Amazon’s best-seller list and I would have seven figures in the bank, easily. Her cousin had looked this fact up on the Internet, so it had to be true. It’s the kind of article authors do and don’t want to read. Patrick Wensink’s tale of coveted success is a relief, yes, because maybe that grass on the other side isn’t all that green, after all. And it’s a nightmare, too, because maybe that grass on the other side isn’t all that green, after all. My book was the No. 6 bestselling title in America for a while, right behind all the different “50 Shades of Grey” and “Gone Girl.” It was selling more copies than “Hunger Games” and “Bossypants.” So, I can sort of see why people thought I was going to start wearing monogrammed silk pajamas and smoking a pipe. In My Amazon bestseller made me nothing at Salon, Wensink doesn’t just burst the bubble, he smears the soap all over that face of mystical anticipation. After all, no matter how fervently authors might tell themselves that the real breakaway successes are flukes, that the runaway hits are one in a million, that the takeaway is never really taken away…who can give up that dancing dream? Well, Wensink is here to help you sit one out. There’s a reason most well-known writers still teach English. There’s a reason most authors drive dented cars. There’s a reason most writers have bad teeth. It’s not because we’ve chosen a life of poverty. It’s that poverty has chosen our profession. Ready for it? This is what it’s like, financially, to have the indie book publicity story of the year and be near the top of the bestseller list. Drum roll. $12,000. Hi-hat crash. That’s what he made on the hit he’s talking about, Broken Piano for President. It’s worth noting that Wensink on his Twitter biography terms himself: “America’s 103rd most popular humorist. (Right behind Dane Cook.)” But as with Matt Haig’s excellent material for Booktrust (see our Last Gas in this column, the final segment), Wensink gets himself right past even the dodge of self-deprecation before he’s done here. Why didn’t I just tell my wife’s family the truth to begin with? Why don’t most authors talk about money? My theory: because it’s embarrassing. Nobody’s favorite part of writing, maybe, but there it is. In the same way I’d like to ask a lot of the greats how they allowed the industry! the industry! to so nearly infantilize authors for so long — actually, I’d like to kick their asses for it — I’d also like to know why the collective psyche somehow seems to see inadequate compensation of authors as okay, even as right or prideful. I’m no more enamored of the new price range for books than I’m encouraged by 99 cents as “the new free.” Wensink hasn’t got these answers, either. But he’s got the routine down pat: I did the most rock star thing imaginable for a stay-at-home-dad/recipient-of-a-famous-cease-and-desist: I used the money to send my kid to daycare two days a week so I can have more time to write. I have an unerring ability to choose cab drivers who can’t figure out how to get anywhere in New York City. Amazeballs. — Colleen Lindsay (@ColleenLindsay) March 16, 2013 “This will wreak havoc with the business model,” said New York-based copyright lawyer Lloyd Jassin, adding, “this shows just how creaky the publishing business model is.” In Thursday’s Writing on the Ether segment on the steady hubbub around this phrase “used digital content”—lots of folks still trying to wrap their heads around “the dog-eared ebook”—we heard from some good people, including Joe Wikert, Brian O’Leary, Jenny Shank, Rachel Deahl. This time, it’s Digital Book World’s Jeremy Greenfield in his Forbes column, talking with attorney Lloyd Jassin. I’m wondering these days why such long headlines are in vogue, usually saying so much that no one has to read the story. Maybe that’s the ADD idea, huh? This one is: What Happens to Publishers and Authors If a Used Ebook Market Becomes Legal? There’s no beating around the bush on the proposed answer: For consumers, this could be very good news indeed. Imagine seeing on an ebook’s Kindle page a link that will take you to a sell page for the exact same product for half the price. Same ebook, same user experience, even lower cost. For publishers, this would undoubtedly be very bad news. The doctrine of first sale, of course, provides the right to sell what you’ve bought without reverting to the original seller, Jassin and Greenfield point out. That’s how used print books are sold by their owners. In this scenario, the publisher (and author) get no compensation. If the same were true for the resale of digital goods, it could be devastating for publishers. In the case of reselling digital goods, however, there may be something different in the offing. Greenfield writes that Apple’s ebook patent proposal and ReDigi’s (music reselling) business model provide for publishers “and, perhaps, by extension authors) would get a piece of the resale.” Apple‘s ebook patent and ReDigi’s business model…factor in these fears. Under their systems, publishers (and, perhaps, by extension authors) would get a piece of the resale. “If the publisher can’t control the resale of a book but they get compensated, perhaps that’s good enough,” said Jassin. And for authors? Here, a cloak of secrecy comes into play. Greenfield references an attorney “who specializes in ebook contracts (but) did not want to be named.” He quotes this mystery man or woman: “There are potentially catchall licensing agreements in publishing contracts that might apply to a resale,” the lawyer said, adding that if not, “authors may now want to negotiate a provision for that purpose.” Oh, good. Another day, another negotiation worry. Isn’t the digital dynamic swell? Greenfield goes on to hypothesize a scenario in which Amazon — which has achieved a relevant patent—creates a standing marketplace format for used ebooks. Let’s say for example that in the new world of used ebooks, Amazon offers readers who have reached the last page of an ebook the option to put it up for sale in the Amazon Used Ebook Marketplace. By checking a box, the user would now have that file up for sale at a predetermined price stipulated by publisher-retailer contracts — say 50% of digital list price. If the digital list price is $14.99, then the resale price would be $7.49. I’ll let you follow where this exercise takes him. Suffice it to say here that Greenfield gets eventually to this line: Not quite as good for the publisher or the author. These troublesome elements of the digital doo-dah, of course, always take root in a that far-flung Land o’ Speculation beloved of our many publishing pundits—the ones who seem to have hours of time daily to fire off showy emails that usually reflect on how they told us so long ago. This is not the province of Greenfield’s article, but it’s the nursery in which these worrisome questions will be nurtured like finicky children by folks who enjoy alarm more than most of us. Remember, we have not heard from Amazon what its plans are, if any, for its digital-resale patent. No such marketplace has been built by Seattle to date. ReDigi’s effort is the closest thing so far, and there are legal issues already in play there regarding music, not books. Nevertheless, Greenfield’s piece is a step in the business’ thought about this thorny issue, one that many never saw coming (no matter how eager some will be to tell you they told you so long ago, etc., etc., etc.). Because digital goods don’t degrade as physical ones do, and because we had attached our general ideas of “used” to something the condition of which might reveal its use, a “used digital” thing hadn’t easily sprung to mind for a lot of folks. If you can buy a “used” ebook, then how will I sell more than a single ebook? Or, max, a couple of hundred. — Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) February 18, 2013 As Greenfield puts it: With ebooks…the file would be no worse for wear than when it originally rolled off the assembly line. It would be so easy that I would predict many people would wait until they could get a used copy of an ebook before they bought a new one — especially of best-selling titles — hurting initial sales; not to mention the effect it would have on sales long-term. Forgot to take a picture of the quails pacing outside my window. — Carolyn Kellogg (@paperhaus) March 17, 2013 If you have a publishing conference in the offing, let me know about it via my contact page, and I’ll be happy to consider including it in my site’s listing and in columns as I have the chance. Here’s a look at conferences coming in the near term. March 19 Milan IfBookThen: “This year IfBookThen opens to a European synergy, thanks to a partnership with Sweden and Spain.” That partnership will see the conference seated in Stockholm, Barcelona and Madrid, as well as Milan. This iteration in Milan features our good colleagues Ed Nawotka of Publishing Perspectives here, and Jason Allen Ashlock, Kate Pullinger and Sebastian Posth, plus Frank Rose, Andrew Rhomberg, Luca de Biase, Christian Damke, Bob Stein, Suzanne Azzopardi, Adrian Todd Zuniga, Evan Ratliff, David Walter, and Serena Danna. March 21 Stockholm IfBookThen: The second iteration of the year for this conference, in Sweden, sees a roster of speakers that includes: Andrew Rhomberg, Evan Ratliff, Svein Moe Ihler, Nille Svensson, Marco Ghezzi, Joakim Formo, Suw Charman-Anderson, Tove Leffler, Joanna Ellis, and Molly Barton. March 24 Bologna Children’s Book Fair O’Reilly Tools of Change (TOC) Bologna: “This unique event covers new developments that relate to the whole children’s book industry. Whether you are an editor or writer, a publisher or illustrator, a marketeer or web producer this is one place to gather practical tools and insights into the changing face of children’s publishing.” April 5 New York City Writer’s Digest Conference East Boot Camp: Join me in a participatory special-focus workshop, Public Speaking for Writers: How To Turn Your Readings Into Book Sales. Learn what a public reading is really about; what an audience wants from an author at a reading and how to give it to them; how to choose what to read, rehearse it, prep your listeners (it’s not about “setting the scene”), and how to present yourself to your audience. Bring a couple of pages of a manuscript, we’re going to get you up on your feet for this one. (Note: The Writer’s Digest Conference Boot Camp sessions have an additional charge, check for details.) April 5-7 New York City Writer’s Digest Conference East: Author James Scott Bell, who knows the value of coffee, gives the opening keynote address this year at “one of the most popular writing and publishing conference in the U.S. Writer’s Digest Conference 2013 is coming back to New York at the Sheraton New York Hotel. Whether you are developing an interest in the craft of writing, seeking an agent or editor and publisher for your work, or a veteran hoping to keep current on the latest and best insights into reaching a broader readership, Writer’s Digest Conference is the the best event of its kind on the East Coast.” (This conference’s hashtag is #WDCE. I’ve started an Epilogger account on it, which you might find useful in keeping up with materials in one spot.) Discount: Writer’s Digest is offering a reduced rate to registrants using the code PORTER. April 5-7 New York City Screenwriters World Conference East: Led by Jeanne Bowerman, this is the East Coast iteration of the Los Angeles conference held last fall. Complete with a “pitch slam” like that of the Writer’s Digest conference, Screenwriters World is, the material tells us, “your chance to meet and learn from professionals in every aspect of the entertainment industry. Our panels, sessions, and workshops are hosted by leading experts that can help you improve your craft, find and agent, and sell it to the people who make movies and television shows. You’ll receive real feedback from successful screenwriters, agents, execs, actors, filmmakers and more.” (This conference’s hashtag is #SWCE. I’ve started an Epilogger account on it, which you might find useful in keeping up with materials in one spot.) April 17 New York City paidContent Live: Riding the Transformation of the Media Industry: Brisk and bracing, last year’s paidContent Live conference was efficient, engaging, and enlightening, not least for the chance to see many of the talented journalists of Om Malik’s GigaOM/paidContent team work onstage — Laura Hazard Owen, Mathew Ingram, Jeff John Roberts, Robert Andrews, Ernie Sander, et al. Among speakers listed for this year’s busy day: Jonah Peretti, Jason Pontin, Chris Mohney, Erik Martin, David Karp, Mark Johnson, Aria Haghighi, Matt Galligan, Rachel Chou, Lewis D’Vorkin, John Borthwick, Andrew Sullivan, Jon Steinberg, Alan Rusbridger, Evan Ratliff, and, of course, Dominique Raccah and Michael Tamblyn. May 2-5 Oxford, Mississippi Oxford Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference & Workshops: Susan Cushman follows her Memphis Creative Nonfiction confab with this year’s gathering at the shrine. Among faculty members: Neil White, Leigh Feldman, Lee Gutkind, Dinty W. Moore, Beth Ann Fennelly, Bob Guccione Jr. and Lee Martin. Pre-conference workshops or just the creature itself, your choice. May 3-5 Boston The Muse & the Marketplace 2013 is a production of Eve Bridburg’s fast-rising non-profit Grub Street program. Its material tells us that organizers plan more than “110 craft and publishing sessions led by top-notch authors, editors, agents and publicists from around the country. The Manuscript Mart, the very popular and effective one-on-one manuscript reviews with agents and editors, will also span three days. We expect nearly 800 writers and publishing professionals to attend, while maintaining the conference’s wonderfully intimate, ‘grubby’ energy that we love.” Back to Table of Contents @chriskubica I have an inexcusable amount of yarn. — ljndawson (@ljndawson) March 16, 2013 Writers have always been self-publicists. Mark Twain, for instance, always went around in a white suit saying ‘look at me, here I come in my white suit’. Maigret author Georges Simenon once had the very real plan of writing a novel while sitting inside a glass box so his readers could watch him as he wrote. Now Twitter is our glass box. And you can walk past it if you want. We are lonely. We are impossibly lonely. Up in the attic, eating toast and wondering when we should have a shower and trying to remember what wearing shoes felt like. We therefore like to chat to people. Haig’s voice, his own voice, outside his work in The Radleys — or maybe in the upcoming The Humans (looks like May in the UK, July in the States) — is the sort of literary presence that gets termed “delightfully weird” by critics. Maybe “delightfully weird” sells books. But what I appreciate about Haig’s blogging for Booktrust is that it’s not weird, not even delightfully so. It’s rather studied, terse, and telling. As the eighth such resident for Booktrust, he’s taking the assignment seriously. In Writers and Twitter, for example: No writer started off writing for money. A writer writes primarily to be understood, to share their strange imagination, to feel validated, to entertain, to make you laugh and cry, to delight, to thrill through the magic of words, to provoke thought, to shout to humanity and shine torches on our mistakes, to be Shelley’s ‘unacknowledged legislators of the world’. It is not about the advance. My debut got £5000 and sold a respectable 60,000 copies in the UK. My third got an advance ten times that and had zero promotion. It struggled to shift 2,000 copies. Sometimes, for longevity, it is better to sneak in under the radar and prove your worth. And in How Writing Saved My Life: At my lowest point, in February 2000, I stopped believing in words. Until then I hadn’t realised that the act of using language is an act of faith. (‘In the beginning there was the word…’) But it is. You have to believe there is a point of there being words, and that they can offer real meaning. Normally this belief is taken for granted, but that is because normally we are taking the world itself for granted. But when your mind crumbles to dust everything you thought you knew suddenly becomes something to question. — Elizabeth Fremantle (@LizFremantle) March 15, 2013 Speaking of minds crumbling to dust, back to Writers and Twitter: Writing books is hard. It is like holding a hot coal tight in your hand. And the Internet is like a bucket of ice. And I really have no idea where I am going with this analogy. But if Gogol and Woolf and Hemingway and Sexton had the ability to chat online about amusing gifs featuring kittens, well, they might have lived a bit longer. Possibly. And finally, I want to leave you with an installment of Haig’s series that has special meaning for me. I wish it had special meaning for all of us. Haig here takes on the issue of men and reading, particularly boys and reading. Without overlaying my own opinions of how—inadvertently but steadily — many women are contributing to this while thinking they’re working to better things, I can commend to you what Haig does here. There’s a certain bravery to saying these things because he’s walking around the outer edges of some accepted masculinities here to say them. Not always easy in a culture that likes to stay well, well within the lines on these issues. The post is Books, Boys, and Football: A very dark cloud passes across my soul when I hear that footballer Frank Lampard has been commissioned to write five – five! – kids books. Why does it bother me? Because it is patronising, that’s why. Just as it is patronising when Theo Walcott or any other footballer or B-list celeb is commissioned to write a book. How good that there’s nothing “delightfully weird” going on now, huh? This is Haig, the man. What a welcome, welcome, anything-but-weird voice: Why is it patronising? Okay, here goes: It is patronising to boys to think they’ll be interested in something just because it has something to do with football/celeb world. They like footballers playing football. They might buy a pair of trainers because a footballer tells them to, but are they going to sit through 50,000 words of drivel? Doubtful. He’s not done. It is patronising to writers because yet again it confirms the myth that anyone can be a writer, and that the creation of brilliant stories is far simpler than playing football. I am waiting for the call from Manchester United, but apparently this football-to-writer thing operates on a one-way system. What to do? Finish novel edit and be the next HEMINGWAY. Or write informative, witty blog and be the next MATT HAIG. — Michael Crossan (@MichaelCrossann) March 15, 2013 See why I said this takes guts? And he’s still not done: Most of all though it is patronising to books and literature as a whole, to say that they need added value from the world of celebrity. If you are a publisher or bookseller who seriously believes that a good story isn’t what is important then I have to wonder why you are in the business of books, and why you aren’t working for Heat magazine or for Match of the Day or something. I hope you’ll read some of what Booktrust has brought about in giving us this un-weird voice of the author Haig. We all have our preferences, which is great. This voice is mine. The way to get anyone to read anything is to write and publish and sell good books that appeal to actual and potential readers. As a twelve year old I discovered the power of books via the brilliance of S E Hinton, a woman who understood the teen boy mind better than anyone ever. Would I have been made to love books more if I had been reading stories written by Gary Linekar instead? I seriously doubt it. And if we treat boys — of all ages — as the readers they really are and stop telling them they’re not readers, not writers? Done and done. No sports stars needed to denigrate us and them and literature. It may sound like a novel concept, but the route to readers is through writing. Good writing – just like good football or good TV – will always be valued on its own terms. So let’s not be insecure. Let’s not wish books were more brash and shiny. Let’s be proud to love books, and let’s not try and turn them into yet more throwaway artefacts of celebrity culture. A month to go until #LBF13 – time to go to the mattresses — Sam Leo D’Elia (@samito) March 16, 2013 Porter Anderson is a Fellow with the National Critics Institute, a 32-year journalist with several newspapers and three networks of CNN, as well as a producer posted to the Rome headquarters of the United Nations’ World Food Programme. His Writing on the Ether is read Thursdays at JaneFriedman.com and he is a regular contributor to WriterUnboxed.com. More of his writings at Publishing Perspectives. More about him at PorterAnderson.com. Main image / iStockphoto: SolarSeven

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Stock Code 304.HK Price(as at 9/4/03) HK$0.415 Target Price HK$0.90 Heading for Success Transformation of Business Model By acquiring 2 existing brands, Milus and Sergio Valente, Peace Mark is expanding into OBM. In addition, Peace Mark is moving downstream to capture the distribution profits through the JV with Omni in the US. Tapping the Tremendous China Market Through authorized distribution, Peace Mark has been actively establishing sales network in China and targets to have over 200 sales points by FY04. Moreover, Peace Mark plans to set up a network of service centers, providing repair services of high-end Swiss brands. The mainland market potential is enormous and will contribute to the bottom line. Dividend Payout Resumption As Peace Mark’s financial status has been improved, dividend payout has been resumed from 1H03. Assuming a 34% dividend payout ratio for FY03 and 30% for FY04, yield reaches 7.2% for FY03 and 7.7% for FY04. Attractive Valuation Peace Mark is only trading at 4.8X FY03 PER, which is very compelling, when compared to 8X average of industrial or manufacturing stocks. This means that the share price should have 100% upside potential. Source: Peace Mark, Tung Tati Securities Since its founding in 1983, Peace Mark has been a leading timepieces manufacturer and distributor. Peace Mark has successfully transformed itself from an OEM manufacturer to an ODM manufacturer. It designs, manufactures and distributes timepieces for a variety of international brands. To enhance its profitability, Peace Mark developed licensing and OBM manufacturing business. With its production facilities located in Shenzhen and Dongguan, China and Bienne, Switzerland, Peace Mark serves mainly the US, European and Asian markets. High Degree of Vertically Integrated Production Recognizing the benefits of vertical integration, Peace Mark has deployed a lot of resources on upgrading and improving its production line. It demonstrates strong capability in design, product engineering, components manufacturing, electroplating and assembly. Peace Mark has a strong design and product engineering team, that comprises 22 designers and 78 product engineers. The group is sensitive to market trends and caters to customers’ needs. For components manufacturing, Peace Mark has invested more than $80M last year in upgrading its facilities. Peace Mark projects a profit margin can be increased from 1% to 1.5% starting from FY03. Currently, Peace Mark produces about 30% of stainless steel components with the remaining components outsourced. To complement excellent design, Peace Mark invested in an electroplating factory with a partner in the industry. Peace Mark has also developed highly automated assembly lines for watch assembly, thereby reducing yield loss and enhancing high efficiency. To further strengthen its production, Peace Mark acquired machines that produce watch components such as bands and cases composed of various materials. The sum invested was less than $10M. We believe the investment in production will lead to further cost savings and contribute to the bottom line immediately. Extensive Distribution Network Across The Globe A wide distribution network is extremely important for creating market demand. Peace Mark has successfully built an extensive sales network worldwide. It has distribution agents in Canada, USA, UK, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Dubai, Chile, Mexico, etc. This robust network spurred demands for collaboration from many name brands. Further Penetration into the US market In order to further expand its distribution network in the US, Peace Mark has formed a joint venture with Omni Quartz in August 2002. Peace Mark invested a sum of US$3M to take a 51% stake for the acquisition of Omni’s existing business network, logistics infrastructure, intellectual property and other tangible assets. After forming the JV, Peace Mark became the sole supplier of Omni. Omni’s total reliance on Peace Mark’s supply proves its confidence on Peace Mark’s expertise on timepieces. Peace Mark contributes design and production capability, while Omni provides logistics infrastructure, a workforce of 150 employees and 85,000 square feet of distribution centres. Leveraging on Omni’s sales network, Peace Mark’s designs can be sold both in upscale department stores and major retail chains. The synergy effect is well demonstrated by the WalMart program in which 48 designs are suggested to be sold. Sergio Valente, the brand acquired in the JV, also has dominant presence in drug store chain in the US. The program covers 65% of the total drug store chains. By establishing the JV, Peace Mark has captured the distribution profits. Profit margin can be enhanced from 16% to over 20%. Furthermore, Peace Mark has direct inventory information so that products can be delivered in a more timely and efficient manner. The JV is estimated to generate an annual turnover of $200M. Profit after minority interest is likely to be $7M. Based on this estimation, the initial investment is likely to be recouped in 2 to 3 years. Riding on the success of the JV, Peace Mark is in negotiation with an UK distributor to form a JV that can enable Peace Mark to extend its market in Europe. Details will be confirmed by the end of 2003. Expanding into Licensing and OBM business Having rich experience in OEM and ODM business, Peace Mark decided to expand into the higher margin OBM (own brand manufacturing) business. Profit margin of OBM can reach 40%, compared to about 12% and 18% for OEM and ODM. Sergio Valente is the brand acquired through the JV with Omni. Peace Mark also acquired a Swiss brand, Milus, in March 2002. According to management, Milus was originated in Switzerland in 1919 and it has been well received in Europe, Japan and Germany. The brand has its own design house in Bienne, Switzerland. Peace Mark will enhance the brand awareness through its existing network. Peace Mark is one of the few Hong Kong companies that have acquired Swiss brand names. Besides OBM, Peace Mark is the licensee of a portfolio of famous brands. Each brand has its niche market, enabling the licensing to be well diversified. Tapping the Tremendous China Market Despite the global economic downturn, retail sales market in China remained robust. The good performance was supported by the sustained economic growth. Mainland’s GDP growth is expected to be over 7% this year. Purchasing power, especially from the middle class, is surging with affluence. Mainland customers have becoming more brand conscious and are more willing to spend on high-end watches. According to TDC, annual consumption in China is low i.e. 5 pieces per 100 persons when compared to 23 pieces and 12 pieces of developed and developing countries. The watch market potential is enormous. At the same time, following the accession of the WTO, import tariffs will be lowered and restrictions on foreign goods will be gradually relaxed. To tap the vast mainland market, Peace Mark has been actively establishing sales network in China. It has signed 5 distributors that cover 87 sales points. Pierre Cardin is the first brand used for market development. Peace Mark targets to have 200 outlets by 2004 and contributes a turnover of $80M. Peace Mark adopts a prudent policy in selecting distributors that it carefully assesses their track records. It targets to sign about 22 distributors and risks will be much diversified. The first flagship store located in Guangzhou was opened in Oct 2002. The store currently serves the wholesale market, but penetration into the retail market is possible. We believe flagship shop will be the future trend and it is an effective way to introduce foreign brands into the market. Peace Mark is the forerunner in this area. Establish Service Centres in China As China becomes more affluent, demand for the high quality Swiss watches will increase and it will create a corresponding repair services market. However, there are very few qualified repair service providers in the mainland. To tap the huge market potential, Peace Mark is planning to set up 100 service centers for watches in China. The service centers will provide specialized repair services for high-end Swiss watches. Among them, 40 will be fully equipped and 60 will be served as collection centers. $24M has been set aside from August’s right issue for the purpose of the service centers. 5 staff obtained certificates from the largest Swiss movements manufacturer in recognition of their skills. Two fully equipped centers have been opened in Guangzhou as a pilot run. Peace Mark is negotiating with several Swiss brands for authorized services agency. Little Impact by SARS Due to the outbreak of SARS in Asia recently, watch companies from infected countries, including HKSAR, were being barred from participating the 2003 Bazel and Zurich Watch Fair. Peace Mark has two separate booths, one in the Hong Kong Pavilion in Zurich, and the other in the Swiss Pavilion in Basel. As Hong Kong companies were being barred from participating in the Hong Kong Pavilion, Peace Mark’s Zurich booth was inevitably affected. The negative impact will be significant for small companies that rely heavily on the Fair for receiving orders. Peace Mark has established close relationships with its overseas OEM and ODM customers. In addition, Peace Mark has another booth in the Swiss Pavilion for its own brand, Milus. The booth was operated by their Swiss marketing team. Peace Mark made use of their Swiss booth and their office in Bienne to replace the booth in Hong Kong Pavilion. Therefore, Peace Mark is much less affected than other small companies in this regard. Since Peace Mark is well established and has a strong customer base, we believe SARS will have little impact on it. On the other hand, Peace Mark may benefit from the orders diverted from the small companies. Having rich experience in timepieces manufacturing, Peace Mark is the market leader in the industry. Its production is highly vertically integrated that costs are at their minimum. We believe the investment in production facilities has started to pay off and further cost benefit will be enjoyed in coming years. Apart from the strong capability in production, Peace Mark has an extensive sales network. The JV in the US enables Peace Mark to further penetrate into the market and capture the distribution profits. The proposed JV in Europe is also likely to be a success. One of the future growth drivers is the expansion into the high margin OBM. Together with the licensing business, Peace Mark’s business will be well diversified. The promising China market offers enormous business opportunity. We expect the sales network and service centers in China are the long term growth drivers. Peace Mark has resumed dividend payout in 1H03. To be conservative, assuming a 34% dividend payout ratio for FY03 and 30% for FY04, yield will be about 7.2% for FY03 and 7.7% for FY04 based on the current price of $0.415. Currently, Peace Mark is trading at FY03 PER of 4.8X and at a deep discount of 64% to NAV/share at $1.15 for 1H03. Given the leading position in the industry and the earnings growth potential, Peace Mark is seriously undervalued. |Research Home Page| |If you would like to know more about a specific stock, you can ask us by emailing:Mr Kenny Tang.| This circular is for information only. The information and opinion presented are believed to be accurate but are not guaranteed and without legal responsibility. Neither the information, nor any opinion expressed, constitutes a solicitation by us of the purchase or sale of any securities or futures contract, or options thereon.

Frequently Asked Questions Why is Excelleum Different and Answers to Your Frequently Asked Questions Below Are Answers To More Of Our Frequently Asked Questions - I already have a coach. - I already have too much business. - I don’t have time for a coach. - I’ve tried coaching in the past and it didn’t work. - Why does your coaching cost more? - My market is different. How can your coaches help me? - How did Debbie become a coach? What’s her background? - Coaching costs too much. - Who are your typical clients? - How can you coach in an industry you’ve never worked in? - How can you help loan officers when you’ve never done a mortgage? - How can you benefit a mortgage company? - What’s the benefit to hiring you? - What makes your team unique? - How can I be a coach for you? - What’s in the complimentary coaching call? I already have a coach. We hear this a lot. Yet, if you already have a coach that you’re 100% satisfied with, why are you at our site now? It’s very common that people sign up for coaching and they’re not really sure what are they signing up for. Other times, after they get started with a coach they find out that their coach isn’t really qualified to help them get where they need to be. If you’re happy with your coaching experience, good for you! Continue with it. There’s no need to change. However, if you’re not satisfied and you’re looking for a change or if you’re seeking an additional coach, talk to us. What makes us unique is in our approach to coaching. Everything we do is customized to you, your needs and what will take you to the next level of success. What you end up with is your own custom blueprint. We won’t force you to fit you into a box, or a process that may not be right for you. When you reach out to us, one of our coaches will respond to you; not a sales person. They’ll conduct a complimentary consultation to determine if we are a good fit for each other. Call us at (714) 625-5226. I already have too much business. First off, maybe you don’t need a coach. Although, I would ask you, are you 100% satisfied with the performance of your staff and your team? What about your systems and processes? Are they streamlined, duplicateable and predictable? What about your life? Do you have free time? Do you even get a day off? Many of our top producing clients come to us, not because they aren’t satisfied with their production, but they’re not satisfied with the quality of their life. They know that there is potential inside of their team and their staff that they’re not maximizing. When we examine your team, first we look to their areas of strength. We look at the processes that they’re using to create business in that area. Then we examine how we can go deeper When you come to us, we will analyze your business, your systems and your team. If you would like, we’ll even fly to you. We do a complete assessment. We look forward to talking to you and finding ways to make your life better, your team more productive, and increase your profits. Call us at (714) 625-5226. I don’t have time for a coach. Often our clients come to us and say “I’m so busy, how can I possibly have time for coaching?” That’s one of the reasons they need coaching. The very first thing we do with clients who say they are busy, overworked and overwhelmed, is we start to look at what’s actually going on in their business and in their life. One things we often discover is that because they are dynamic, exciting and entrepreneurial people, they’re overcommitting. They’re saying yes to things because they’re the one that people think will get the project done. We look at how to get rid of some of those spinning plates. We narrow it down to the key things that are important to them and that are important to their business? Our Performance Plus coaching, which is our personal one-on-one program, is only 36 hours a year (Our Black Diamond is 46 hours). In that time investment, we’re going to help you take back your life. We’re not going to overwhelm you because we understand that in this process you need to spend time with your clients. Our goal is to help you move your day to a point where 80% of your time is spent on billable activities; eye to eye, ear to ear with customers, generating revenue. Call us at (714) 625-5226. Coaching hasn’t worked for me in the past. I’m not surprised. The reason I say that is there are many coaching companies out there who have one method or system and they look to fit everyone into that ‘box.’ You’re an entrepreneur. You’re very unique. Your business, your market, has different twists and turns. It’s very common that when they try to put you in a box with everyone else that it is not going to be a good fit. Another reason that coaching may not have worked in the past is that many coaches lack industry experience. I started working in real estate while I was still in high school. Now, with 32 years experience in the industry, 16 years of it coaching with over 52,000 completed coaching calls, I understand how critical it is that any coach that works with me has to have many, many layers of business and industry experience. In fact, if they don’t have at least 10 years, full time experience in the industry, I do not hire them. Each and every one of them are trained by me. Every call and every file is overlooked and discussed with me. We want to make sure that as a team, we’re helping you grow. I would say that if coaching didn’t work for you before, most likely it wasn’t your fault. Wrong Program. Wrong Coach. Maybe even the wrong time in your life. Now it’s time to make an investment in something that will work for you and we’re here to help you.Call us at (714) 625-5226. Why does your coaching cost more? Why are we more expensive? Quite simply, we’re better at it. I have a higher caliber of coaches which of course means it costs more to bring in that type of talent to give you what you need. Also, we invest more time. The average coaching company only offers forty 30-minute calls a year; which is only 20 hours of coaching a year. Our program gives you 36 hours of private coaching (46 hours if you are in Black Diamond) and unlimited access to your coach in between the calls. Some of those other companies will load their coaches up with 60, 70 even 80 clients that they have to speak to every week. Our coaches won’t take more than 30 so that they can be available when you need them. Bottom line, we’re better because you do get more time. We’re also better because we have the skills to get you where you need to be- faster. Talk to us. Within the first 30 minutes of speaking to one of the coaches, you will clearly see the difference. Call us at (714) 625-5226. My market is different. How can your coaches help me? Each market does have some unique nuances and differences and yet where your coach is located is not necessarily a factor. We coach clients all across North America. If you ask me what’s going on in the market in Nashville, Tennessee, or Alaska, Toronto, or Manhattan, I know because I’m talking to clients all across North America. I will say though that I’m very careful to choose coaches that are located in highly competitive market places. You know that old saying “If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere.” If they can sell Real Estate in some of the most competitive markets in the nation, working with you in your market won’t be harder than what they are used to. What we’ve noticed is when we take tools and techniques from markets that are highly competitive and apply them to a market that’s not too aggressive… wow… the coaching client just blows the doors off their market. That’s exactly why we don’t just “assign” you a coach. We do a consult and we have you speak with a coach that will match up with your market perfectly. If you don’t feel it’s a great fit, you talk to me. We’ll start the process again until we find the coach that’s a great match for what you do. I know you‘ll be satisfied, our clients always are. Call us at (714) 625-5226. How did Debbie become a coach? What’s her background? I started selling Real Estate at the age of 18… Actually, at the age of 17 I decided that I needed to sell Real Estate so that I could save enough money to go to college since my parents didn’t have the funds to send me. I thought I wanted to be an attorney. I got a job as a receptionist in a Real Estate office. The minute I turned 18, I took the real estate agent test, passed it and I never looked back. Real Estate was just a passion. By the time I was 21, I was awarded the #1 agent in LA and Orange County for Century 21; and was ranked in the top 10 in the nation by Century 21 International. I sold, on average, 150+ homes a year. That was before the concept of teams. (I don’t know why we never figured out the team concept!) That was me working 16 hours a day with one assistant. My volume attracted attention. Because of the volume, because of my age, people would call me and they’d ask, “Will you coach me?” “Will you come speak at our office?” “Can I buy you lunch?” “What do you do?” “Can I shadow you?”’ I found that I enjoyed working and building agents almost as much as I enjoyed selling. When my twin daughters were born I knew I couldn’t work 16 hours a day anymore. I was offered a position to join a growing coaching company. What was great was that I was given top agents from all over the country to work with. I came across all types of situations: mortgage, title, Realtors, teams, new agents, veterans, coaches to train, etc. This really honed and perfected my coaching skills. I did go on to be the Vice President of the coaching division for a couple of years. In real estate, I’ve spent the first 16 years selling houses. The last 16 years have been all about working with great sales people; whether it’s real estate, escrow, title, mortgage, inside and outside sales people. That’s now my passion. Again, I discovered it by accident and yet it was just such a perfect fit after 16 years of being in the street. It also helped me understand who I needed to hire to be my coaches so that they could deliver that type of experience for you. I love selling. People ask me, “How do you stay enthusiastic and energetic about the whole business after all these years?” It’s because I’m always learning new things. I’ll talk to you soon. Call us at (714) 625-5226. Coaching costs too much. What will not coaching costing you? What does it cost you with the sales opportunities that you miss or lose? What about the presentations where they don’t choose you? What our clients often find is often just that one transaction will pay for a whole year of coaching with us. (Depending on your market, maybe it’ll take two.) Many of our clients find that after one single coaching session with us, they are able to change their business in such a way that they can create additional revenue. From just one call, the ideas pay for an entire year of coaching. One of my clients, before they signed up, said to me, “Well, I think I need to lead with revenue first. I think I need more money before I sign up for coaching.” I happen to know that they had kids in college. I said are your children leading with revenue? “What do you mean? Of course not. They’re in college and then they’re going to graduate and then they’ll get a job and then they’ll pay the students loans.” I said, “Well aren’t you worth the same investment?” You can keep doing what you do over and over again and continue getting the same results. Or you can hire a coach and we can fine tune what you do and take you to that next level quickly. Can you afford not to have us? Give us a call. Call us at (714) 625-5226. Who are your typical clients? If I had to say what is typical about my clients, it would be that they’re all extremely committed to being the best in the business that they can be. They’re dedicated to what it takes to be even better. After that, there is nothing typical about my clients. They can be a brand new up and coming agent that approaches real estate as if they’re launching a new business. Often, they’re college graduates and they’ve set aside money to market and promote themselves: they’re very serious. Then we have teams. Big teams with great staff and agents that want to do better. Then we often have luxury agents. That’s one of our specialties. Many of our clients sell homes to the rich and famous. That’s a unique niche. Also, resort market agents. That is a unique and difficult type of prospecting. Then we coach other industries and corporations, inside/outside sales people. This could include mortgage, title, escrow, etc. While our clients are not typical, what they do share is their passion and their commitment to growth. Out coaches mirror that in our commitment to you. Call us at (714) 625-5226. You coach industries other than real estate. How can you coach in an industry you’ve never worked in? The companies that hire me, they hire me because I’ve never worked in their industry. They’re looking for a fresh perspective. They’re looking for a new approach. When I approach a new corporation, what I do first is I study everything about them. What they sell. What they do. The people inside the organization. I absorb their culture. I interview the sales people. I interview top to bottom, the management. In fact with the battery company I’ve been training for 5 years, I actually put on the uniform, got in the truck, and rode the route for a couple of days with the sales people to see and experience what they saw out in the field every day. Once I absorb the culture, then I create a training proposal. We review that together and we tweak and fine tune it until we have a unique training program custom tailored to your own needs. I don’t bring a standard, off the shelf kit and say, “Here’s my corporate training kit.” I create your own program. Your own materials. I even write scripts for you. I’ve written scripts for most of my corporate clients and they love them. When I take the words to sell a $10 million property and apply that to selling a battery, you can sell a lot of batteries. Talk to me about your needs. Let’s customize something that will really help your people achieve the sales success that you know is possible for them. Call us at (714) 625-5226. How can you coach loan officers when you’ve never done a loan? It is true. I’ve never ever closed a loan. However, in having closed on over 3,000 home sales, almost all of them have needed a loan. I know what agents, lenders and home buyers need to hear. Over the last 16 years, I’ve coached many mortgage professionals. With the market changing as it is today, you already know it is time to attack the purchase market. This means you have to brush off those skills and get out and build your Real Estate agent connections; that’s where I come in. What I help you with is how to create a game plan to connect with the agents to stand out against the masses of LO’s that are going after their business. Also, how to bring value to those agents so that they want to work with you. How to lock in and cement their loyalty. I also help you master time management. I’ll give you the right words and when to use them. I share my very powerful, cutting edge scripts for mortgage professionals. Both for talking to your borrowers and for talking to your real estate agent prospects. Our mortgage clients also find that we’re valuable to them because we know a lot of great real estate agents in the industry. When you think about it, this business really is all about connections. I find that I’m able to connect my loan officers with great agents and great companies that then makes them money and more than pays for the coaching. Talk to us and I think once you see what we have to offer for the mortgage industry, you’ll be convinced that if you’re going to have a coach why not have a coach that actually understands the prospects that you’re going after. Call us at (714) 625-5226. How can your coaching benefit a mortgage company? Many large mortgage companies reach out to me because of their two major needs. First, they need to recruit. For this, they need systems, processes and scripts to recruit quality loan officers. Second, they need training for these loan officers. They need to get them on a schedule. Teach them scripts. Teach them how to prospect. Help them create their agent business. I do this in combination of onsite trainings, private coaching for select agents, and group coaching over the phone (or group coaching in person). It’s quite affordable when you think about the impact that it has across the talent pool in your organization. If each and every one of them can grow their business, it creates a substantial increase in profits. I look forward to getting to know you, your company and your team. I’ll customize the tools and programs that you need to help them attack the purchase market today. Call us at (714) 625-5226. What is the benefit to hiring you? The biggest benefit that a corporation has when they hire me is that I come to them with them as a blank slate. In other words, I leave my opinions and my preconceived ideas at the door. I sit down with them and I truly absorb who they are, what they do and what the goals are that they have for their company. I often find that they have a dysfunctional culture where one of the things they need me to bring to them is methods and processes to pull those staff members and team members together and have them inspired to work as a team. The process grows and evolves. I don’t preset a game plan. We do it one session at a time so that each time we do a new session it’s very specifically addressing the current needs of the team. That makes it easy to turn on a dime because we’re creating as we go. One of my clients calls it “Organic Training” because we ask for input from the people participating, as well as the management, and we all create the program together. Call us at (714) 625-5226. What makes your team unique? First of all, I have an incredible marketing team which is why you’re watching this video right now. In addition to my incredible marketing team, I have a VP of Operations who is a high touch customer service concierge so that we’re sure that you’re getting everything you should be getting out of the program. I believe in hiring and growing young talent. At any given time we have at least two college interns on staff. They bring next generation ideas, enthusiasm and synergy. We also have phenomenal coaches. We have a resort market coach. We have a luxury market coach. We have a coach that has had to move and rebuild her business now three times. (So if she can do it she can certainly teach you to do it.) We have coaches that come out of some of the most aggressive markets in the nation. My coaches also know what is working in terms of the tools, marketing, and all the toys that are out there because they have tried them. They can tell you what to buy, what to avoid and how to use what you’ve got. At the same time, we’re always looking for new talent. We’re always looking to upgrade inside of our team our skills and our commitment to you. When you meet anyone on my team, you will be impressed. Call us at (714) 625-5226. How can I be a coach for you? What does it take to be one of my coaches? It takes a lot. I’d love to talk with you. I will tell you right up front, it’s not an easy process. One of the first things we’re going to do is we’re going to talk about your background and your skills. And then we’re going to test them. We’re also going to look at your reputation and your integrity in the industry. Then I’m going to have a serious heart to heart with you about exactly how demanding and how challenging it is to be a truly great coach. The commitment level that I expect from my coaches is extremely high so I’m not going to talk you into it. In fact, I’ll try to talk you out of it. Once you hear what it takes to be a coach and you believe you have the passion to be one of the best coaches in the industry, then I will work with you personally to train you. So if you think it’s for you, reach out, give me a call at (714) 625-5226. What’s in the complimentary coaching call? When you sign up for a complimentary coaching call with one of our coaches here’s what happens: First of all, my team will send you a pre-coaching questionnaire. It’s really important that you take a minute and fill that out. Our coach wants to make this call as valuable as possible. So when we have some information in front of us about you, your business, and your goals, we can really accomplish a lot in that session together. Second, my team will also look you up online. We’ll go and check out your bio, your team if you have one, and we’ll look at your website. We want to be sure that we have a sense of who you are. Then, when you join the coach on the call, they’re going to ask you a series of questions. Our goal is to make sure that not only do you leave that call excited about coaching with us but that you leave that call also with some great tools and techniques that you can take and implement immediately. I do want you to know that this will truly be a business consult, not just a sales promotion. Of course, at the end of the call, the coach is going to ask you to join us. Call us at (714) 625-5226.

The local climate of Cebu is normally heat 12 months spherical, generally in between 23-330C. Rain falls evenly believed the year with the exception of the dry summer months, between March and could. The island is surrounded by wonderful beach locations, coral atolls and various islands. The seas all over Cebu also are abundant fishing grounds. Underneath Web site utilization of site products and services, click Prompt for each Web site when on a daily basis or Prompt for every Internet site just one time only., 81??9|The buildings all feel somewhat new. Even though I can not comment on the teachers I'm able to say that the campus presents off an incredibly cozy and inviting emotion.|Sticking into the cinematic language but lacking its echo, Street Zinema is an international audiovisual Competition Discovering present-day artwork and concrete cultures. Other climbing and popular situations include things like the Horror and Fantasy Festival in October (21st version in 2010) as well as the Surfilm Festibal, a cinema festival featuring browsing footage, Specially shorts.|New modern district erected from the 2000s close to the town's interior bypass and south highway entrance to Donostia. A pedestrian bridge spans the Urumea river on to the Cristina Enea Park. Martutene|This section stands about the east aspect of the town at the foot with the Mount Ulia Park, around the left hand facet in the highway heading from Donostia to Pasaia and Irun. It includes a residential space, Apart from Keeping quite a few instructional institutions, society and sports activities centres designed considering that 1980.|I am a supporter of the level of 1-on-1 concentrated attention and enable out of your instructor which you can get while in the programs. Moreover, There may be no cost tutoring made available anytime for the drop-in tutoring Heart. They've got a great number of terrific means!|They refused to release entire loan amounts as well. They might separate them into two payments over a two month period of time. More than the four decades my partner continues to be attending EVCC we have gained his money punctually As soon as. Which is horrible.|Cebu is a unique and fascinating location. Its shut proximity to other exotic vacationer destinations, small earth quake and typhoon action and wide selection of geological miracles are combined with a fascinating variety of plant and animal species.|The instructors on the splendor school ended up also excellent; they had been very supportive and did a great task supporting us out in a number of different ways. We experienced a single teacher that was a barber and so she was capable of support us with Males's haircuts, though A different Instructor was wonderful at wrapping perms. When I graduated from natural beauty college, I ongoing using on the net classes so I could obtain my associates diploma also. I think that as long as you're inspired that on line classes get the job done very well. It had been great to get professional instructors who would give good notes and online lectures, and having the ability to do the job at my own speed was great. All in all, if I necessary to return to school I'd contemplate attending EvCC again.|In case you wish to visit a university sooner or later, EvCC can also be a good choice to begin a perfectly-rounded training and obtain a university transfer degree.|- "u99abu0027u003bu2026ueaf0u0020u0020u0313u0020u3099uff09u208eu2011u2007u2060u000au0020u0020u300bu0bf9",|Training course deposits needs to be compensated to our administrative Middle. Credit score/debit card payments tend to be the fastest and most affordable way to pay out, but we also acknowledge payments via Western Union, Shell out Pal and lender transfer.|View information without having leaving Gmail. You can also conserve attachments on to your Travel to arrange and share them in a single, Safe and sound place.|?�為?�們知?�，??��?�得孩子?�信任才?�讓孩子?�發??��主性並?�己?�力?�前|+ "u2014u0a83ufdfcu003fu00a0u0020u000au2991U0001d179u0020u201dU000125f6u0a67u20a7ufeffu043f",|Somewhat dear If you're having just about anything technical since the lab charges certainly are a killer! In general I am glad I have Came And do not regret it.} The campus is clean up, well maintained and delightful. It's totally near the h2o so it smells similar to the ocean. The landscaping is great plus the bouquets and sculptures make the campus appear extremely pretty. - "ufffcu301bu0fa5U000e0103u2060u208eu17d5u034fu1009u003au180eu2009u3111", hop??in an effort to locate their excellent lifestyle balance. This might involve a improve in job, the choice to stay in the home with young children, or simply having ??time out|day out|outing|day trip|trip}??from the vocation to vacation or interact in volunteer perform.|San Sebastián exhibits a dynamic cultural scene, where grass-roots initiative based on distinctive portions of the town and also the concerted private and general public synergy have paved the bottom for any wealthy range of alternatives and gatherings catering on the tastes of a wide and picked community alike.|Details : This shows the knowledge concerning the day that you got your area name and its expiry date. / Archive.org Information and facts|This position is actually a specialized school posing to be a faculty. I've had lots of troubles given that I started in this article, primarily with The mathematics department, however there are a few Amazing instructors listed here in various fields.|Districts of chopping-edge layout happen to be erected, such as Ibaeta or Riberas de Loiola, Although some crucial projects hold within the balance prompted by money tensions. Districts of the town|Stop next Shana M. 2/28/2015 I graduated from EVCC in 2013 with an AFA in Pictures. I did a lot of study, (including in-person visits), for images degrees just before enrolling. EVCC checked off all my boxes from my initially stop by to graduation: high-quality curriculum and lecturers, inexpensive tuition and parking permits, ample parking, effectively-maintained amenities and lecture rooms, wonderful foodstuff court and health and fitness center, all-all over great experience amongst Assembly fellow college students in my important in addition to photography and artwork teachers, improvement of a full photography portfolio and resume together with images exhibitions equally on campus and at local galleries. No regrets right here and one of the better academic selections I have at any time check here built. I transferred with self esteem to UW Seattle majoring in Visual Arts depending on the invaluable instruction and talent sets I acquired from EVCC. The only real encounter there that was under enjoyable was the economical aid Business office - All people who labored there have been very polite, but for a student, you need to be sure you retain keep track of/preserve a report of all deadlines, sorts, emails, and mobile phone phone calls.|The calendar year long sunshine and reasonable weather is ideal to delight in, rest and analyze in. If you are the kind of individual who appreciates the energetic metropolis and also craves the relaxation with the beach, the Cebu is the ideal spot for you.|EvCC prepares students for transfer to four-calendar year schools, provides training and retraining for people making ready to enter the workforce, offers customized company education for pros, teaches primary competencies and literacy and provides courses for private enrichment.|You'll be liable for protecting the best academic and 菲律賓遊學代辦 student services expectations at ACMI. The job could be great for somebody with a robust Normal English and IELTS education preparation background.|Our delightful food designs are built by registered dietitians and food items gurus that may help you get rid of bodyweight, eat more fiber, go gluten-no cost plus much more. Search dozens of meal plans to uncover one which's ideal for you.|Info : This shows your web pages IP tackle and its areas (physical locale/s where is is based). You can see a far more thorough check out in the map. HTML Information /} The Main of this district will be the Easo plaza, While using the railway terminal of Euskotren closing the sq. at its south. Amara Berri This is a neighborhood Pageant held on the main Saturday of February linked to the forthcoming Carnival, where by different groups of men and women wearing Romani (Gypsy) tinkers attire get to your streets banging rhythmically a hammer or spoon from a pot or pan, and usually bar-hop although they sing the standard music for the occasion. I totally advise taking part in school things to do like golf equipment, senate and frequent celebrations. All the school is basically lacking is a significant garage/parking lot but Additionally they furnished ORCA bus cards which saved a great deal dollars. If a visa is issued, there might be an extra visa issuance reciprocity fee, determined by your nationality. The Division of Point out's Internet site can help you learn if you have to pay back a visa issuance reciprocity price and what the cost sum is. Seasonal Positions: Should you?�re a pupil who requirements tuition or gas money, consider these summertime Positions (a phrase towards the wise: get started implementing properly just before Spring term finishes, considering the fact that there is often a great deal of Opposition from other students for these Careers). Economic downturn??from 2007 to 2009, when Lots of people dropped their Careers.|Over the years, it has been supplying quality schooling by using a very extensive curriculum that satisfies the requires of its students. Since remaining proven, it has enhanced its facilities to deliver a more comfortable spot for its college students don't just for educational purposes and also for its college students to rest for the duration of their free time.|I appreciated evening lessons. Our teacher was pretty gifted in teaching. He utilised fantastic approaches although training English. I feel his identify was James.|Simulate examination day by having an official exercise check. Then, rating your check. The responses include explanations so you can understand from your problems.|When you make your deposit, you might obtain an electronic mail with the informational packet that gives comprehensive specifics of the program and Cebu alone.|Well-known Expert Gaur Gopal Das swears by a simple psychological physical exercise that retains you happy, healthier, and in control.|+??ud604uc7acub294 ??uac80ucc30uc774 ??ubd84uc2ddud68cuacc4ubb38uc81cub97c ??uc870uc0acud560 ??uac00ub2a5uc131uc740 ??uc5c6ub2e4u002e??+ "Away from range price returned by BreakIterator::next().n" "Random seed=%d index=%d; adhering to returned %d; lastbreak=%d",} When you select a Local community faculty, you'd like to make sure that the campus suits you. It should be relaxed to hand around in, have teams that you might want to take part in, and courses that you'll would like to choose. EvCC provides all these items for many people. Drawing app for Artistic industry experts SketchBook® for Organization drawing and painting software delivers designers, architects, and notion artists the tools to sketch Strategies swiftly and produce wonderful illustrations. Accessible for most platforms and devices. Whether or not a Bachelor's or Learn's diploma or PhD - the DAAD database provides a wonderful selection of international diploma courses from which to choose.} (an auxiliary term accomplishing the grammatical capabilities of temper), fusion of le + a, follows soon after 比如 mentioned illustrations It really is well suited for Individuals Doing the job during the wine market, wishing to development into management roles or for the significant wine enthusiast wishing to develop on knowledge gained at Amount three and obtain even further experience in wine. Autodesk Movement Style and design: Autodesk® Movement Style and design software program has long been discontinued and commercial variations are now not on the market. Should you have downloaded a previous Model of Move Style and design, you are able to continue to run that Model; even so, you won't be able to obtain a more moderen version. St Giles London Central is a large, lively college with a global truly feel and is perfect for college students aiming to take pleasure in modern-day research amenities and luxuriate in all the things the capital has to offer. La Salle almost closed once again as a consequence of a lack of students during Entire world War II, plus the soccer team was disbanded because of a lack of gamers, but the faculty professional a duration of development from the late nineteen forties. Several new structures ended up produced during the 1940s and 1950s, which includes a whole new library, scholar union, in addition to a science building. It was also in the course of this time that the primary scholar home halls ended up manufactured at La Salle, totally on land obtained from the previous Belfield Country Club. In an effort to cope With all the rapid social improvements plus the shifting demands and aspirations of our senior citizens, we have been constantly prepared to deal with issues, Check out new Suggestions and pioneer choice methods. Use Arnold with 3ds Max to render beautiful design and style visualizations. Make use of the Digital truth-ready camera to produce immersive activities. Reward, Target of the program : This training course is made up of 4 topics which can be listening, Talking, producing and reading. Within the listening element, The scholars deal with the various various issue sorts, dictation and distinctive English expressions. The MS in Utilized Statistisc gives a theoretical foundation in probability and mathematical figures with applied programs in regression; style of experiments; logistic regression and designs of counts; and multivariate strategies and exposure to various software including SAS, JMP, and R. Presents experiments in the history of art from historical to modern-day situations, with special concentrations in American art and in European art from your Renaissance throughout the modern day eras. The pliability allows for schooling in several classes of positions in data science: facts analysts (use mathematical, statistical and modeling methods to unravel difficulties), knowledge engineers (design and style, build and retain an organization?�s details and analytical infrastructure) and knowledge scientists (generate advanced analytical models to develop new info sets and derive new insights from details). Literature from that period of time contains the usage of How-do, how-do And exactly how as currently being a greeting used by the Scottish when addressing Anglo settlers in greeting. The double type of the idiom proceeds to get found in parts of the American Southwest as Howdy, howdy. The Academic Engineering plan presents the grasp?�s degree prospect with both equally a theoretical as well as a sensible grounding in educational know-how techniques and techniques, emphasizing theories of instructing and Studying that aid these approaches. Opinions??over the aspect from the monitor if you are ready to accomplish the survey.||This present-day architecture composition Homes the central marketplace and an underground archaeological elaborate. The terrace roof is frequently a metropolis viewpoint.[forty five]|Seasonal Professions: Once you?�re a scholar who wishes tuition or gasoline dollars, take a look at these summer time Positions (a time period on the clever: start off out using properly in advance of Spring phrase finishes, due to truth there might be many Degree of Opposition from other pupils for these Do the job).|Recognised from your Philippines as the Queen Town While using the South, Cebu may be the pretty initially indigenous settlement for getting found out by western explorers. By utilizing a laid again Way of life, comfortable ambiance, and beautiful natural environment, It is appeared upon as one particular of numerous place?�s tropical paradises.|Subscribe to our e-newsletter to acquire specifics of our hottest additions, pursuits and web site articles or blog posts or blog posts.|Proper right before putting in almost any ingredient, pleaseClick DetectionSet your surroundings consistent with the requirements with the strategy purely natural natural environment|School pupils will not going only Increase their fluency and likewise their accuracy in Speaking English. Curriculum is prepared systematically Every specific 7 days and indigenous lecturers and specialized instructors use verified procedure supplies.|Login in this article to use online on your Student visa. Inside the celebration you have not acquired an account, it's possible you'll create only one right here.|The Business office of Kinesiology and Used Physiology?�s grasp?�s diploma in Clinical Workout Physiology delivers learners with the opportunity to develop an in-depth know-how and palms-on encounters in preventive and rehabilitative ways for people with cardiopulmonary, metabolic, and musculoskeletal Problems Together with evidently nutritious and really low risk populations.|Most apartments come with a washing unit, on the other hand, if yours is just not likely to, you can find very low-cost laundry services in town.|We would like lecturers that have a novel fascination in training Children but may even be joyful to show children and Older individuals. We would like people who find themselves eager to make as academics, not individuals who want a vacation.|St Giles London Central is a considerable, energetic faculty with a globe actually sense and it is ideal for higher education pupils trying to get to realize from fashionable take a look at amenities and enjoy Virtually almost everything the dollars provides.|This program delivers customized manufactured lessons to suit pretty much each individual College college student's distinct calls for and options. College or university learners can increase their English competencies swiftly.|The tapas scene is with out doubt among the principal cultural points of interest on the city: persons go from one bar to a unique, earning the most of small dishes named tapas (basically "lids" or "covers" in Spanish, referring to their possible origin as snacks served on small plates utilised to safeguard beverages). |Pricing is in , Pricing is in , Pricing is in , which is latest as of , on the other hand selling prices are subject matter to vary and should be unique at time of scheduling.|The research in the program addresses significant problems in education, develop the idea of training and Discovering in numerous contexts, and bring on enhanced outcomes for all learners.|79 Economic Report and Accounts 22. Economic AND Money Threat MANAGEMENT AND FAIR VALUES OF FINANCIAL Devices (Ongoing) d) Forex chance (Continued) (i) Exposure to forex hazard (Ongoing) The sensitivity Assessment assumes which the adjust in international exchange prices had been placed on re-evaluate All those fiscal instruments held from the Group which expose the Team to overseas forex possibility at the conclusion of the reporting time period. The Evaluation is performed on the same foundation for e) Other selling price risk The Group is subjected to cost modifications arising from monetary assets at FVTPL which comprise mentioned and unlisted investments. Choices to order or market investments are depending get more info on every day checking of your effectiveness of investments by fund professionals, who post studies on portfolio overall performance to the Team routinely. The Group controls the risk by means of benchmark guidelines and asset allocation. The vast majority of Group s investments are detailed on the Inventory Trade of Hong Kong. Shown investments held inside the investment decision portfolio have already been selected primarily based on their longer time period growth probable and therefore are monitored frequently for general performance from expectations. Sensitivity Assessment The sensitivity Investigation down below has become established dependant on the exposure to equity selling price threat at the end of the reporting period. At 31 March 2017, it is believed that 10% increase/lessen in the price of the respective fairness securities, with all other variables held frequent, would have lessened/enhanced the Group s deficit for that yr as well as Team s standard deficit by approximately HK£1,033,504 (2016: HK$908,567). The sensitivity Examination indicates the instantaneous improve while in the Group s surplus/deficit for that yr and various check here parts of funds used that will crop up assuming that the variations inside the inventory selling prices had transpired at the end of the reporting period of time and had been placed on re-measure People monetary devices held from the Team which expose the Group to fairness price chance at the conclusion of the reporting period of time.|?�工作坊�?將朱?�力?�甜?�萄?�放?��?齊，�?��樣將快樂 (?�埋糖份) ?�倍，?�望?�為?�帶來�??�幸福嘅?�覺??Biomedical engineering applies fundamental engineering ideas into the examine of biology, drugs and wellness.|We talk to that oldsters and guardians of all college students below eighteen study and fully grasp our Below-18s pointers prior to enrolling their baby at our school. You should go to our Underneath 18s pages for these tips and more specifics.|The folks guaranteeing payment of this sort of rates will have to supply proof of their electric power to accomplish that, Generally in the form of financial institution or other statements of earnings/Price tag cost savings or Accredited copies of gains tax returns.}} I'd personally truly suggest it to anybody. Every person has anything to get from these types of a global knowledge.??了解學生?�求後，完?�申請�??�，代訂住�??�申請簽證、訂機票等手續，並仔細檢?�，?�有??��，顧?�會??��學校?��?，同學只要將護照?�基?�資?�等準備好，就可以輕鬆遊學去?? Applicants must submit all files associated with their scholarship application on the Korean Embassy in their state of home to or maybe the domestic university involved. sense anxious or overwhelmed about the concept of residing and dealing in another country, however it's truly fewer frightening than you think. So in case you have an interest, just Opt for it!???�在很多代辦�?��??��?�取代辦費用?�，?�他?�賺什麼錢??��他們的費用????�會?�潤給他?�，?�以其�?��較代�?��?�候，?�務?��?些細節就變得重要！?�跟你們說?�怎麼?�擇?�唷～～�?Favicon Good, your internet site incorporates a favicon. Favicons are the little icons that seem close to your website?�s identify or URL in a browser. They can be displayed from the handle bar, a browser tab title or bookmarks. Be sure it's per your brand name.|Ｑ：?��??�有沒有什麼�??�或?�有趣的?�他?�套？還??��??��?�上課！？參?�語言學校?�底??��樣?�生活？|What to do When you implement What to anticipate if Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) wants far more specifics from you, in addition to issues to keep in mind following you get an eTA.|?��??�各家�??�都不太一樣，?�以也??��跟代辦中心要學校宿舍?�照?�來?�看?�況，寄�?家庭?��??�各?��?壞，?�把?�缺點整?�出來給大�?，可以自行判?�嘿～：|Concerning 1896 and 1914 settlers from all around the environment poured into the world in response towards the provide of free of charge "homestead" land. Agriculture and ranching turned essential elements of the regional financial system, shaping the way forward for Calgary For a long time to come.|We have made a classy selection of classes to fulfill our students??needs and pupils can pick whichever certainly one of our courses best suits their learning requirements.|?��??�該??��?��?大的?��?代辦�?��，走?�風?�是專�?�?��，每年都?�辦?��??�育展，風評也蠻不錯?�！但是就是走比較制式化?�流程，網站上基?�資訊都?�，但�?要更詳細?�資訊得?��?市才?�了解清楚。建議假如是觀?�中?��?子們，展覽?�可以找?�間?�展覽看?�，代辦?�務?��??�資訊可以�?起了解�?下！|Whatsoever your current degree inside the language you would like to master, no matter what your preferences, this Web site will get you to the proper language course for you personally.|之前紀?�過?�的學校了，?�篇就來記錄?�代辦』吧！總之我覺得?�擇代辦對我來說，第一?�就??��?�考量（代�?��），第二?�是?�務?�選?�性是??��?�，沒辦法太太很?�打算盤，不?�於什麼都要�??�到一毛不?�，但還??��?�揮?�省?�省，多比較?�瞭解的?�度??Having far more web page views is possible for This great site should they boost their links website page-to-page. Draw users consideration to other webpages also every time they check out website.|美國?�第二大?�洛?�磯，除了四季氣?�宜人之外，?�校?�州大�??�加州理工大學等也座?�在?�裡，為洛杉�?��?�源源不絕的?�化?�教?�氣??��??��常適?�遊學的?�市?�不?�在決定?�洛?�磯?��?後，?�有?�裡?�合?�課餘時?�走走，|?�助家遊學網站是?��??��??�，?�為他們網站上?�試算公式，??��?�先?�道費用，沒�?��太太很�??�，?�給?�價?�再說啦！自?��??�自己出?�遊學雜誌，?�如?�了解遊學趨??��??��買雜誌來?�，也蠻?�便?�，他們的風格比較親切活潑，我?�代辦中心是?��?，�?後我?�的跟我?�顧?�變?�了?�友，他?�在?�爾??��學校?�擇很多（我?�目標就??��?�蘭?�），他?�也算是?�灣?�三大的代辦�?��，網�?��?�也?�蠻不錯?��? ?�覺得曼?�頓?�自?��??�某?�面很類似，風評?�不??��規模不大但很活潑，但比較??��?�是，有些周?�資訊比較沒?�麼多，但他?�網站做得也不錯，算??��活化?�簡????��?University application: to assist you total an entire software method, mail details and phone the school, till you receive admission We?�re a person firm, but we?�re organised into a number of divisions that concentrate on various regions of our business. Update your XML sitemap to make sure the URLs incorporate HTTPS and update the robots.txt file to reference this version employing technological innovation, study and layout. Here?�s only a few samples of how we?�re executing it:|You can?�t carry small children along with you on a Functioning holiday getaway. If you have a spouse who would like to arrive at New Zealand, they?�ll have to make an application for their own individual visa.|第�?天�??�會?��??�很??��?�書?�，但我?�沒?�到，但?�的好有上�??�感覺唷�?總覽 ?�治 社會 ?�際 財經 ?�活 評論 體育 娛樂 3C ?�尚 汽車 ?�紙?�聞| At the same time, Calgary's proximity into the Rocky Mountains affects Winter season temperature normal mean temperature with a mixture of lows and highs, and tends to end in a moderate winter for any metropolis during the Prairie Provinces. Temperatures can also be impacted with the wind chill variable, Calgary's ordinary wind pace is fourteen.2 km/h, considered one of the best in Canadian cities.|Ｑ：?�間學校?�老師好嗎？會不會?�補習班？會不會?�付了事?�樣？（?�沒?�帥?�？?�是?�點?�！！吼！）|+ "Away from vary value returned by BreakIterator::subsequent().n" "Random seed=%d index=%d; adhering to returned %d; lastbreak=%d",|Do you do have a enthusiasm for travelling and social media marketing? Consider the chance and get, along with a colleague, relative or partner, a 4-week language stay in Australia and share your adventures with the globe!|No matter if you've got booked a homestay or home, you'll always receive a heat, particular welcome. All our hosts are absolutely briefed regarding how to make you feel comfy and effectively-well prepared on your initially working day of classes.|A NOC C position might also be accepted In case your internship is immediately connected to your discipline of scientific tests that has a post-secondary institution in your country.|Portion of what I really like is how EF will get you to definitely the subsequent massive issue. It won't subject in which you are, when you are good, EF helps make you Excellent and normally takes you to definitely sites which were not on the 'record' prior to. Mauricio Estrella Creative Director A part of what I love is how EF receives you to the following huge issue.|?�著就是了解資訊?�細節??��?�就????�長?�的?�程，會?�覆?�來?�去，了解適?�自己的學校?�住宿方式，?�時要試算費?�等等，?�時大概??��?��??�苦?�時?�吧～哈?�哈?�～太太?�題很多，問?�來?�問?�去，剛好我?�顧?�winnie也在?�爾??��學過，我?�去?��??�他也�??�，?�以我就搬?�了?�萬?�為什麼的姿態?�著他狂?��?The present registration demands for Croatian staff will expire on 30 June bringing their rights to work in Britain according to other EU citizens.|+ // Commence by producing the Unique empty node we use to indicate that the parent // terminates a term. This need to be node 1, because the builder assumes|+?�ど?�せ?�本語を?�強?�る?�由?�つ?�て?�?�て?�と??��?�も?�ら?�い?�と?�ん?�。�?Resource: Search for an excellent domain title. If no excellent names can be found, contemplate a 2nd hand domain. To prevent manufacturer theft, you may perhaps look at trademarking your area title.|You will find certain expertise urgently required in New Zealand. 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The UED Awards aims to reward the establishments which offer the most effective all-spherical expert services to Turkish college students and we are thus especially very pleased to own won the award for the last two years. The support has a considerable person next in the Bigger China region.HistoryPixnet was began in 2003 as a web-based Picture internet hosting support for college kids, and eventually advanced right into a social network. In 2007 it acquired economic backing with the Hong Kong-dependent TOM Team. This backing supported the positioning's hosting by Amazon Net Solutions in order for it to mature; AWS procedures in excess of 10 million photos each day.} Cebu is a singular and intriguing desired destination. Its near proximity to other unique tourist Locations, low earth quake and typhoon exercise and wide range of geological miracles are combined with an interesting variety of plant and animal species. Your resume offers a window into your Qualified heritage and is among the most important files in your job lookup, due to the fact it offers the very important first perception on a hiring committee. [?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：�??�の?�リ??��?�ム?�セ?�島?�つ?�て is way too moderate in winter to be called a 'good' continental place. It is actually in a relative distance from the a few more substantial cities in the country, and Lisbon in Portugal, which makes it by far the largest city within the south from the Iberian peninsula.|Please make sure to get there on the primary working day of your system using a notebook in addition to a pen. We also persuade you to definitely convey a laptop computer as Now we have Wi-Fi on the education center. We'll offer all system supplies in your case so there is absolutely no need to provide anything for that program by itself.|The year long sunshine and average weather is ideal to delight in, unwind and research in. For anyone who is the kind of person who appreciates the lively metropolis but in addition craves the rest of the Seashore, the Cebu is the ideal location for you personally.|-??uc0c1ud56d ??ud55cuc778 ??uc5f0ud569 ??uc7a5ub85cuad50ud68c ??u1109u1161u11bcu1112u1161u11bc ??u1112u1161u11abu110bu1175u11ab ??u110bu1167u11abu1112u1161u11b8 ??u110cu1161u11bcu1105u1169u1100u116du1112u116c ??The Torre del Oro was created to be a watchtower and defensive barrier around the river. A series was strung with the drinking water within the foundation in the tower to circumvent boats from touring into your river port.|??Demonstrated power to conduct assessments for your AMEP and SEE software, making use of proper applications, eliciting data from shoppers and interpreting final results|Much with the make also comes from small strawberry farms while in the outskirts of Baguio As well as in nearby municipalities of Benguet. |+??uc0c1ud56d ??ud55cuc778 ??uc5f0ud569 ??uc7a5ub85cuad50ud68c ??u1109u1161u11bcu1112u1161u11bc ??u1112u1161u11abu110bu1175u11ab ??u110bu1167u11abu1112u1161u11b8 ??u110cu1161u11bcu1105u1169u1100u116du1112u116c ??It is found south of the town Heart. Due to the limited length of the runway that's 1,802 meters or five,912 feet, it is actually limited to commuter dimensions aircraft. The airport is utilized primarily by helicopters, turbo-prop and piston motor plane, Though on uncommon celebration mild organization jets (LBJ) have flown in the airport.|"Like" us to attach with other learners, watch movies, see job presents and also get Unique savings.|The mythological founding father of the town is Hercules (Heracles), frequently identified Together with the Phoenician god Melqart, who The parable suggests sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar to the Atlantic, and Started buying and selling posts at the current web pages of Cádiz and of Seville.[seven] The original Main of the town, during the neighbourhood of the existing-day Avenue, Cuesta del Rosario, dates to your 8th century BC,[eight] when Seville was on an island while in the Guadalquivir.|The Philippines is a good looking archipelago, inhabited with welcoming men and women as well as a prosperous lifestyle. Its functions contain marvelous beaches, a prosperity of flora and fauna, and vivid night lifestyle.|?�茨??�� ??���?馬達?�斯???�洛??納米比亞 ?�塞俄比�??�非 突尼西亞 ?�干??贊比�?津巴布韋|* 以上之簽證及?�續費用?�適?�於?�加?�公?�旅行團?�購買自?�行?�品?��??��?[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：３?�間??��?�ル?�ト?�ー?�ン??We belong to both the Kenyan and Tanzanian Intercontinental educational facilities associations, which permits even further chances for education and also the sharing of excellent exercise.|Kiettisack Global Faculty is constantly upgrading its training and Discovering stages to make certain we sustain with international standards. Because of our continuing development and expansion We have now a need for additional instructors on our ... Posted: 6 days in the past|This course will not likely only assist you to productively pass the IELTS Examination, but will likely help you Develop??Apple CarPlay?? lets you give consideration to the street when accessing your audio library, Guidance and textual material messages as a result of your apple iphone®. Android Automobile?|As an illustration, if you have a big work gap given that your last situation, you may want to make use of a useful resume as an alternative to a chronological 1.|Kings Summer season is devoted to the safeguarding of our college students. All summer time team are going to be anticipated to adhere to our Little one safeguarding plan. References (2 the latest Specialist references) will be adopted up and gaps in CVs must be spelled out satisfactorily.} Our recently refreshed party leader bedrooms are complete with furnishings, tea and coffee producing amenities in addition to a radio-alarm. You can find also a significant party leader lounge, Outfitted with Web enabled computers, very hot drink building services and cozy sofas to heat up after a chilly working day while in the woods and revel in the beautiful view of Moel Famau in the gap as well as the surrounding place. the ones making People products but there were no initiatives from town to suitable vacationers' notion?? she claimed. |Experienced Trades: In this article?�s how to clearly current the specialised competencies you?�ve made, both via certification education or apprenticeship, to potential businesses.|DESIRABLE Prerequisites: Earlier training practical experience with youngsters and younger learners, In particular with multinational lessons. Earlier encounter Doing the job in the busy summer months college.|Login here to apply on the internet for the Perform visa. In case you have not received an account, you can make a single in this article.|The A?�s Online Tutorial Institute aims to supply English teaching to learners of various stages (starter, intermediate and Sophisticated) of different ages to create a solid foundation for them to realize excellence in English.|So self-confident are we in the standard and price of our programs, that if You're not fully pleased with the service or item that you get, then We are going to refund your payment without having questions requested.|Customer care: It will require both equally patience and also a sincere want to support Many others to excel in customer care roles. Should you have sturdy interpersonal and communications techniques, below?�s tips on how to structure a resume that may help land a fulfilling customer care task.|As a Berlitz trainer, the corporation encourages you to go after even further development of your personal and EFL vocation targets.|"Like" us to attach with other college students, enjoy video clips, see position provides and in many cases get Specific bargains.|It is determined by your citizenship no matter if You will need a residence and perform permit in order to operate in Iceland. Citizens of EU/EEA member states tend not to require permits but non EU/EEA citizens do.|- "u002duff1bu02c8u2029ufeffu0f22u2044ufe09u003au096du2009u000au06f7u02ccu1019u2060",|Do you've encounter teaching languages and a enthusiasm for sharing your like of various languages and cultures with Other individuals?|The theater occupied a location of 4600 m² and could accommodate 1100 viewers. Its architecture is Spanish Baroque Revival, currently being the developing devoted to this fashion equally inside the set and in its ornamentation. Scenic box, seats, stalls, bins, amphitheater and paradise, provide a impressive splendor for the theater.|We use nearby Filipino pupils for the trainees??teaching observe. The students are very keen and enthusiastic and since we don?�t charge them to show up at, all college students come to classes purely mainly because they choose to!|As soon as you make your deposit, you might get an email by having an informational packet that gives thorough information about the class and Cebu by itself.|Food stuff and Hospitality Companies: In our company economic climate, you will find normally Careers readily available for people who take pleasure in the troubles and rewards of restaurant function. Below?�s how to develop a good resume for both entrance- and back again-of-property positions.|Inside the late 16th century the monopoly was broken, While using the port of Cádiz also authorised for a port of trade. The good Plague of Seville in 1649 diminished the populace by almost half, and it wouldn't Recuperate until the early 19th century.|Class expenses are all-inclusive which means you gained?�t be questioned to pay for extra fees for class related products or products and services. This also consists of class moderation and accreditation charges, airport choose-ups* and life span job support.|Tourism is one of Baguio's key industries due to its awesome climate and historical past. Town is one of the country's leading vacationer Locations. Throughout the 12 months finish vacations many people from your lowlands desire paying out their holiday vacation in Baguio, to encounter chilly temperatures they almost never have inside their house provinces.|The St. Mary in the See Cathedral was crafted from 1401??519 following the Reconquista on the previous internet site of the town's mosque. It is between the largest of all medieval and Gothic cathedrals, concerning the two spot and quantity. The interior would be the longest nave in Spain, which is lavishly decorated, with a significant quantity of gold apparent. La Giralda is often a tower attached towards the Cathedral that dates back again on the twelfth century.|for the goal of measuring the general performance of Canada.ca and continuously strengthening the website. Your participation is voluntary.|To make an application for this visa, you?�ll initial want to build an account. As you?�ve accomplished this, you can then login and use. You may also use your login to examine your application status.|Simultaneously, locals for instance blended-media artist Santiago Bose and filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik were being also creating work in town. Even today, artists like painters and sculptors from everywhere in the place are drawn to the Baguio Arts Festival that is held on a yearly basis.|Single pupil include fees are outlined as follows. Other premiums can be found for couple or relatives go over.|Data : This shows your internet sites IP handle and its spots (physical site/s in which is is predicated). You could see a more specific view through the map. HTML Data /|Citizens from all other nations should Speak to their community consulate to acquire recent travel restrictions.*} Baguio was established like a hill station because of the Americans in 1900 at the positioning of the Ibaloi village referred to as Kafagway. It absolutely was America' only hill station in Asia.[six] The identify of town is derived from bagiw, the Ibaloi phrase for "moss". This economic development of town and its urban space is supported by good transportation one-way links to other Spanish cities, which include a higher-speed AVE railway link to Madrid, plus a new Global airport. Baguio beans throughout the Philippines?�are delivered to main city marketplaces throughout the archipelago.)[citation required]|Most Look for Queries : This shows how your internet site was found on search engines, which words and phrases had been used to uncover your site.|When reviewing the templates and examples, select the format that is best for your personal situation. Whilst all resumes should really present information on your work and education and learning working experience, in addition to your techniques and accomplishments, you can find various ways to present this facts.|[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：■?�キ?�ー?��??�ビ?�グ?�イ?�ン?�取�?�?????�?�?????�???�?�?�?�???????????�?�???????�??� �???�???�?�?Evaluation the next templates that match a variety of employment cases for inspiration for composing your own private resume. Remember, your resume ought to impress the selecting supervisor ample so you will get the interview. Which means it needs to be great.|Remember to electronic mail your resume and provide a quick description from the guest accommodation you offer to James Willcox at the e-mail handle provided on the job heading.} It can be an outstanding illustration of Regionalist Revival Architecture, a strange and loftily conceived combination of assorted historic styles, for instance Art Deco and lavishly ornamented with normal glazed tiles.[forty six][forty seven] Kiettisack Intercontinental University is constantly upgrading its teaching and Mastering levels to make certain we sustain with Worldwide standards. - accommodate learners, so owning a nice visitor place available is necessary - giving total board accommodation is required hop??in an effort to come across their excellent daily life harmony. This may well entail a adjust in profession, the decision to remain at home with younger children, and even having ??time out|day out|outing|day trip|trip}??from a career to travel or have interaction in volunteer function.|two) In what ways have your occupation encounters so far connected with SDIS?�s vision and mission and ready you for this publish?|Apply Now! There are a number of accommodation alternatives available to trainees on our Cebu TESOL class which includes lodges and hostels during the surrounding spot. We've got formulated very good working interactions with quite a few companies meaning that trainees will acquire pretty aggressive charges.|Utilize Now! Our modern day, air conditioned TESOL training facility offers a snug surroundings through which to master and study. Cost-free tea, espresso and Access to the internet is delivered and all the means and supplies you would require through your study course will probably be accessible.|Get in touch with us with the above mentioned described files by using e-mail within the deal with offered on The task heading, for the eye of: Ms. Cilem Arslanturk. We sit up for Listening to from you.|I am traveling to the U.S. and wish to go to Canada. Do I want an eTA? What do I do if my application will not be authorized at once? Get much more solutions to the eTA thoughts Services and information|Miguel and Tulio are con artists that stow absent with a ship sure for The brand new Earth and acquire a map for your fabled lost town of gold, El Dorado, and therefore are invariably observed as gods through the locals.|The Braeburn Group of Global Educational institutions is a group of 9 co-instructional Global educational facilities featuring British/Global curricula in Kenya and Tanzania. Using a Neighborhood of virtually 100 diverse nationalities and practically as a variety of cultures, Now we have occasional options for TEFL skilled academics. Doing the job in a diverse multicultural setting presents the chance to broaden expertise and experience.|The largest mosque in the area is Masjid Al-Maarif, which is a known centre of Islamic research inside the Philippines. The city also has more compact numbers of Buddhists and atheists, coupled with members of other faiths.|The teaching staff members is highly-skilled and experienced. Moreover, They can be pretty variety and affected person to students so that each pupil would study and make improvements to their English abilities in an incredibly fascinating, comfy and powerful way.|VisaView lets instruction providers to check the small print of the student's recent visa. Watch our detailed guides for VisaView.|2. Tuition and an official Take a look at payment is presented to the students until eventually he/she obtains their goal rating|Baguio could be the melting pot of different peoples and cultures inside the Cordillera Administrative Area. For that reason, numerous investments and small business possibilities are lured to town. Baguio has a big retail sector, with customers coming to the town to make the most of the range of competitively priced commercial goods on sale. The city is usually preferred with discount hunters??some of|a few of|a number of|several of|many of} the most well-liked bargaining spots contain Baguio Industry and Maharlika Livelihood Center.|Trường cạnh biển và nằm trong resort EGI nên rất phù hợp cho học viên vừa học vừa ngh�?dưỡng, tắm biển.|For a lot of causes, including the internationalization in the business enterprise world, it is becoming Progressively more essential for all industry experts in order to aid discussions in English.|Ability to not only remedy correctly, but will also to reply properly in accordance with the situationAbility to contrast TOEIC Speaking as a result of shadow Talking different expressionsConversing using a classmate|The Seville metro ("Metro de Sevilla" in Spanish) is a light-weight metro community serving the city of Seville and its metropolitan region. The procedure is completely impartial of almost every other rail or Avenue targeted traffic. All stations had been created with platform monitor doors.|Seville is the only real industrial river port of Spain, and the sole inland town while in the region the place cruise ships can get there inside the historic centre. On 21 August 2012, the Muelle de las Delicias, controlled because of the Port Authority of Seville, hosted the cruise ship Azamara Journey for 2 days, the biggest ship at any time to go to the city.|To apply for 1 of these visas, you?�ll initial want to produce an account. Once you?�ve performed this, you can then login and utilize. You can even make use of your login to check your software position.} Rinconete y Cortadillo, a preferred comedy among his performs, features two youthful vagabonds who arrive at Seville, attracted because of the riches and condition which the 16th-century commerce With all the Americas experienced introduced to that metropolis. places??alongside the route, which the Mines and Geosciences Bureau attributed to the fragility in the rock foundation, the abandoned mining operations near the highway and the purely natural floor fractures that were undetectable within the 1900s. |Be sure to tend not to consist of sensitive personalized information during the concept box, like your name, handle, Social Insurance plan Quantity, private funds, healthcare or operate background or some other information by which you or everyone else may be determined by your opinions or views.|Resumes in these days?�s work marketplace are no more mere summaries of 1?�s perform experience (because they were being thirty yrs back). Instead, They are really self-marketing documents that, ideally, show how your qualifications align beautifully with All those asked for inside a occupation advertisement.|We are seeking dependable, flexible, tricky-Doing the job and enthusiastic English Instructors, with instant availability, to deliver English lessons to our students in language centres and in various places in Bogota and Cartagena.|+ // Start by making the Specific empty node we use to indicate that the guardian // terminates a phrase. This have to be node one, as the builder assumes|+ // Look for comparing a node to by itself, to stop spurious duplicates if (still left == proper) return 0; |[sixty five] The University of Seville plus the University Pablo de Olavide are important centres of Understanding in western Andalusia as they offer a variety of academic classes; consequently the city has a lot of pupils from Huelva and Cádiz.|Aids to beat any hard subject areas in TOEIC not only as a result of ESL Talking textbooks, but additionally through discussing a wide range of numerous subjects|The function from the teacher at Kings Summer time is to supply a beneficial EFL instruction to our Worldwide college students. Several of our colleges run a zigzag method where fifty percent The scholars have lesson each morning and the other 50 % in the afternoon more than five days.|Seville also features a corral de comedias theatre, could be the Corral del Coliseo, now applied being a household setting up.|The city council signed a deal Together with the multinational Company JCDecaux, an outside promoting business. The public bicycle more info rental method is financed by a local advertising and marketing operator in return for the town signing about a 10-calendar year licence to take advantage of citywide billboards.|For Jolly Kingdom, educating experience is less significant than aptitude. All our new teachers acquire training before operating their very own courses.|Outsourcing also contributes to the town's financial state and employment. There are plenty of get in touch with centers current in the city. Teleperformance Baguio is headquartered in front of Sunshine Park.[citation wanted]|+ //kOffsetContainsValue = 0x80000000 // Offset has benefit for father or mother node ; // The two node sorts are distinguished through the kVerticalNode flag.|Seville is house towards the bi-once-a-year flamenco Competition La Bienal, which claims to be ??the biggest|the largest|the greatest|the most important|the most significant} flamenco event around the world??and lasts for practically per month. | The course operates from in a school so we inquire you to definitely be aware of this, together with getting conscious within your friends and to regard The point that you are a visitor Overseas.|- "u1781u0b68u0f0cu3010u0085U00011f7au0020u0dd6u200bU000e007au000au2060u2026u002fu2026u24dcu101eu2014u2007u30a5",|Information and facts : This shows the information concerning the date that you bought your area title and its expiry date. / Archive.org Information} Google sees hyphens as phrase separators when underscores are disregarded. Hence the net online search engine sees as all a person term. levels Celsius reduce as opposed to temperature from the lowland area.|[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：■?�タ?�フ??��?�さ??Typically, women put on elaborate flamenco dresses and Gentlemen gown in their most closely fits. The marquees are build with a long lasting fairground while in the district of Los Remedios, in which Each and every Road is named after a renowned bullfighter.|[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：キ?�ピ?�ル??��?�パ?�と??��?�ッ??To submit an application for 1 of these visas, you?�ll to start with have to have to produce an account. Once you?�ve carried out this, you'll be able to then login and implement. You may as well make use of your login to examine your application position.|English Prepositions List: You'll be able to down load this PDF e-book immediately and browse it on your own computer, pill or smartphone, or print it out on paper. You will be absolutely free to photocopy any pages and make use of them for self-examine or as worksheets and handouts in school.|??Demonstrated significant stage interpersonal, penned and verbal communication capabilities in the multicultural Mastering atmosphere|The Spanish presidencia, which was Positioned at Bagiw for the vicinity of Guisad Valley was later on moved to Cariño's dwelling where by the current metropolis corridor stands. Bagiw, a neighborhood time period for "moss" once ample in the area was converted because of the Spaniards into Baguio, which served given that the identify of your rancheria.[seven]|catastrophe sites??together the route, which the Mines and Geosciences Bureau attributed to the fragility while in the rock foundation, the abandoned mining capabilities near the street in addition the organic flooring fractures that were undetectable during the 1900s. |To post an expression of need, you?�ll initial involve to provide an account. Once you?�ve performed this, you can then login and article an EOI. You can even utilize your login to check the status of the EOI.|To submit an software for one specific of these kinds of visas, you?�ll 1st call for to make an account. Any time you?�ve carried out this, you can then login and make the most of. You may also make full use of your login to examine your application status.|This has really been additional to The mix of other cultures and developed extravaganzas of monitor and dance including the Sinulog Pageant. The usually means the international influences intertwine with Group fore make for a truly superb celebration.|+ // ":;u309bu309cu3005u309du309eu30fdu30feu2019u201du00b0u2032u2033u2034"|At do The work or in Corporation, Kiwis Have got a 'can accomplish' Mindset and revel in Doing work jointly to contain the function attained. Your expertise and experience could produce a helpful contribution in New Zealand.|These days, individuals these days from all all over the world Dwell aspect by aspect Whilst using the close 菲律賓遊學 by Adult males and women in Cebu. While nearly Just about every and each religion is practiced in particular type, Roman Catholicism is among the most important religion. For plenty of the mountain villagers, the pre-Spanish tradition carries on to get their tactic for each day residing.|Login proper below to apply on-line in your University college student visa. While in the celebration you might have not bought an account, you can produce just one detailed below.|Price tag ranges fluctuate based on the regular of your respective accommodation but there is one area to suit all Decisions and budgets with Quite possibly the most cost effective choice commencing at all around US$ 235 for that period in the education training course.|James Asher formulated a "whole brain" methodology for language instructing, this video clip clip describes the concept of "TPR".|?�了下午?�點跟船家約好的?�間後就準時上船?�到岸上，結?�這�?天的行程?�到宿霧�?... When the freeway duration stretches to only somewhat more than one hundred kilometres (sixty two miles) from La Trinidad metropolis in Benguet into the Mountain Province money of Bontoc, These raring for expertise and new sights need to be ready to commit 6 hours inside of the road. |If you wish to ascertain a lot additional, Genuinely don't be unwilling to Phone us at the email tackle presented around the perform heading.|Yet, Additionally, it acknowledges The point that specified pupils have to have further help to meet these types of anticipations and to create their theses or dissertations suitable and value reading through. In its wish to offer this here wanted guidance, Mobile now delivers modifying expert services in APA and/or grammar and Firm at considerable fees.|When there won't be any deadlines for any deposit, programs can fill up promptly and also your seat will only be reserved following the deposit has been compensated.|All site visitors for the Philippines are required to have a passport valid for at least 6 months right after their arrival date. People for the Philippines from the United Kingdom, United states of america, Australia and New click here Zealand can stay in the Philippines for just a greatest of 60 times with out a visa and this can certainly be extended.|All of our proposed accommodation choices give a Risk-free, clean and comfy surroundings and are located with a brief distance with the TESOL college. For included convenience There may be accommodation obtainable instantly earlier mentioned the coaching Centre.|In the course of this era, availability of infrastructure in the town contributed to The expansion of an overall economy dominated via 菲律賓遊學代辦 the services sector, but in which sector nonetheless retains a considerable position.|+ // take care of root node as Unique scenario: Do not simply call unpackOneNode() or unpackHorizontalArray() immediately|Web page pace has a giant impact on effectiveness, influencing person knowledge, conversion charges and in many cases rankings. ?�By reducing Web page website page load-conditions, buyers are certainly not as likely to have distracted and the assorted search engines usually tend to reward you by score your Web pages higher Within the SERPs.|+ "Outside of variety worth returned by BreakIterator::pursuing().n" "Random seed=%d index=%d; subsequent returned %d; lastbreak=%d",|Kennon Street starts at Rosario, La Union and winds upwards through a slender, steep valley. This is usually the fastest path to Baguio but it surely is particularly perilous, with landslides over the wet time and sharp dropoffs, some without guardrails.|+ "u3010u200bu2029ufeffufe6au275bU000e013bufe37u24d4u002du1806u256au1806u247cu0085u17ac",|??Demonstrated capability to use Main engineering in classroom supply and innovation within the adoption of systems and purposes|TEFL Worldwide presents the area?�s most highly regarded and effectively-regarded TEFL coaching certification. On completion from the system, we?�ll give you the option to assist you look for a teaching career in Cebu, the Philippines or just about anywhere else you?�d like to work.}} Setting up backlinks for your inside webpages may even assistance search engines like google discover, crawl and index them. Nofollow backlinks from dependable boards, discussion boards and social networking will even assistance crawlers discover and index your webpages. Backlinks are backlinks that point to your web site from other Sites. They can be like letters of suggestion for your website. is way also delicate in Winter season for being described as a 'right' continental location. It is actually in a relative length through the a few more substantial cities from the place, as well as Lisbon in Portugal, making it undoubtedly the largest town within the south of the Iberian peninsula.|Bitter Seville oranges grow on trees lining town streets. Formerly, significant portions had been gathered and exported to Britain to be used in marmalade.[citation wanted] Right now the fruit is used predominantly as compost regionally, rather then like a foodstuff.|On the first working day of arrival college students will have a composed and oral placement examination to ascertain their inlingua Amount of English. Students could also take our on the web test in advance of their begin day to be able to approach their examine interval.|[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：■?�キ?�ー?��??�ビ?�グ?�イ?�ン?�取�?With Each and every Trainer, we conclude a framework agreement that defines precisely the mutual obligations and in addition determines the quantity of remuneration. This includes a hard and fast component, that's added on the variable bonuses for the qualification, the size in the work knowledge, the dimensions of The work, as well as other standards that may choose you with the suitable methodology when putting together the contract.|For all input and tutorial periods within the education location, there is only one precise gown need: Each Gentlemen and girls must have a shirt masking their shoulders.|Outsourcing also contributes to the city's overall economy and employment. There are various call centers existing in the city. Teleperformance Baguio is headquartered in front of Sunshine Park.[citation wanted]|[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：■?�タ?�フ??��?�さ??We are considered one of the largest businesses, with above +200 faculties inside our network from just about every age range, and area during the state.|It is important to carry out key word investigate to obtain an understanding of the keywords and phrases that the viewers is employing. There are a selection of keyword analysis tools readily available online to help you pick out which search phrases to target.|MetroCentro can be a area tramway serving the centre of the city. It started running in Oct 2007.|The government found 471 ??disaster|catastrophe} places??together the route, which the Mines and Geosciences Bureau attributed into the fragility on the rock foundation, the deserted mining operations near the road as well as the normal floor fractures which were undetectable in the 1900s. |localdom. Working with an SSL certification creates an encrypted connection involving your customer's browser and your website's server including an additional layer of stability. In 2014, Google announced that HTTPS would develop into section of their ranking algorithm and considering that your internet site is not HTTPS, it'll probably rank under your HTTPS opponents. When going to HTTPS, stick to these finest tactics for just a sleek transition:|In line with legend, the Arabs introduced the bitter orange to Seville from East Asia by way of Iraq round the 10th century to beautify and perfume their patios and gardens, together with to supply shade.[sixty two] The flowers on the tree really are a supply of neroli oil, typically Employed in perfumery As well as in skin lotions for therapeutic massage.|If you want to become Portion of our staff, you can use by making contact with us by means of email in the deal with supplied on The work heading.|Utilize Now! Our modern-day, air conditioned TESOL education facility provides a comfortable natural environment in which to understand and examine. Free tea, espresso and Access to the internet is delivered and all the resources and supplies you would require during your training course will likely be obtainable.|This membership may be manufactured at any level in the course of your contract and lasts to get a year, at which stage you are able to merely renew your pass. The equivalent pass is also offered in our other metropolitan areas in France.|[sixty four] The College of Seville as well as the University Pablo de Olavide are important centres of Understanding in western Andalusia as they supply a variety of academic programs; Therefore the city has a lot of students from Huelva and Cádiz.|Produce a Twitter account in your brand and website link it with your web site to prevent brandjacking and assist make your social websites internet marketing more practical. Here are a few recommendations to assist make a Twitter promotion plan.} [?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：�??�の?�リ??��?�ム?�セ?�島?�つ?�て the fold" articles in below a person 2nd.|Baguio has actually been A part of UNESCO's Imaginative Cities Community on account of craft and folk artwork traditions of the town. The city is the main metropolis to become Element of the inter-metropolis network which aims to advertise the Innovative industries along with combine tradition in sustainable urban growth.|Berlitz Mexico offers A variety of alternatives for TEFL experienced instructors to work with one of many entire world?�s leading providers of language instruction and world wide leadership training. Do you need a gratifying vocation in Mexico? ... Posted: Previous week|The worth of Cebu was very first seen because of the Chinese, who set up it to be a buying and selling article in 900 Advertisement. When the Philippines had been colonized via the Spanish, Cebu was an clear option as being the Philippines first city, on account of its fantastic place. The moment established because the de facto funds in the Spanish colony, Cebu was a central place while in the investing and delivery industries.|The Philippines is a gorgeous archipelago, inhabited with friendly men and women and a abundant culture. Its capabilities contain wonderful beaches, a prosperity of flora and fauna, and vibrant night time lifestyle.|one. This program presents college students with customized courses, curriculum and textbooks which the R&D crew at SMEAG has independently made|The educating staff members is extremely-certified and expert. On top of that, they are very kind and affected individual to college students so that every college student would learn and increase their English skills in an incredibly interesting, relaxed and effective way.|Search engines even have problems with frames because they are unable to crawl or index the content in them. Avoid them if you can and utilize a NoFrames tag when you can't.|There are actually certain competencies urgently required in New Zealand. Use this Resource to check In the event your expertise are in demand from customers.|Legend states which the title was offered by King Alfonso X, who was resident in the town's Alcázar and supported with the citizens when his son, afterwards Sancho IV of Castille, made an effort to usurp the throne from him. The emblem is existing within the municipal flag and features on town residence such as manhole handles, and Christopher Columbus's tomb in the Cathedral.|It is possible to additional transform your User Interface by including measurement and density buckets to accommodate various machine dimensions and monitor densities.|Your rely on is our top rated problem, so companies cannot spend to change or clear away their opinions. Find out more. × Research inside the critiques|TEFL Recruits is really a recruitment business setup and operate by previous ESL instructors and professionals. We know the types of jobs that TEFL capable academics want with salaries they are worthy of. Our partnered universities have all been verified or checked by international academics which have worked there to ensure pay out is specified on time and contracts are followed.|Enjoyment and business coexist happily here, with Workplace buildings using their put around the fantastic Seashore resorts, all beneath the welcoming, blue Cebu sky.} James Asher developed a "entire brain" methodology for language educating, this movie points out the speculation of "TPR". At function or in enterprise, Kiwis Use a 'can perform' Frame of mind and luxuriate in Doing the job alongside one another to find the task done. Your techniques and expertise could create a worthwhile contribution in New Zealand. Baguio beans across the Philippines?�are transported to main city marketplaces across the archipelago.)[citation necessary]|We provide: A competitive wage A professional education and progress application Visa sponsorship and insurance policies|The equilibrium in the program charge need to be paid by funds, PayPal or bank transfer on to the education Centre on the very first working day of the system.|Our R&D Heart is one of the only handful of Chinese owned English education and learning providers in China to become registered by having an internationally accredited R&D Centre, and presently has above one hundred course developers possessing masters or doctorate levels.|We have been Highway Encounter. We chose this title for the reason that we think men and women explore more details on them selves and the world close to them when about the highway. Our mission is to recruit competent EFL instructors to teach ... Posted: Previous thirty day period|The equilibrium of course charges is payable in funds (US pounds or Philippine peso) on the main day of course. Alternatively, you will pay via financial institution transfer but these payments must be designed at least two weeks ahead of time from the course?�s begin day.|Should you exhibit enthusiasm and commitment while dealing with us, and have the ability to demonstrate your abilities in teaching, and in addition discover our work natural environment satisfying, you may well be presented a 1-calendar year educational agreement upon completion with the summer season plan. For that reason, this 8-7 days summer season faculty will function a probationary time period.|Beneath Web-site use of locale expert services, simply click Prompt for every Web-site once every day or Prompt for each Site one particular time only.|To use: When you have an interest in Performing for us, be sure to mail your CV to the e-mail handle specified on The work heading.|[email protected] Faculty of Tomorrow, an Ethiopian owned personal school set up in 1993, with nine branches in numerous areas of Addis Ababa, has a direct prospect for the TEFL experienced Instructor. We have been Among the most ... Posted: three months ago} ??Kor Camp consists of two consecutive intervals in the summertime. The main session is on 26th June-tenth July, whilst the next session operates on 12th-twenty sixth July. ??A counselor Ordinarily operates for one period of time only, but working for two periods could possibly be considered by management. century, it grew to become underneath the Charge of the Kingdom of Tondo right until it returned to an indigenous plutocracy from the sixteenth century. In the event the Spanish arrived in the Philippines, the realm was under no circumstances fully subjugated by Spain a result of the intense defense strategies from the indigenous Igorots of your Cordilleras.|[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：ス?�ル?�キ?�ン?�ス?�ら??��?�シ?�ク??��?�パ?�へ|Your web site at the moment includes a robotic.txt file. You need to use Google Lookup Console's Robots.txt Tester to post and take a look at your robot.txt file and to make sure Googlebot just isn't crawling any restricted files.|Login below to apply on line in your College student visa. Should you haven't obtained an account, it is possible to produce just one in this article.|Instituto Estelar Bilingue will be the foremost English language college in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, with 450 learners and twelve English teachers. Only one hour from several of the most stunning beach locations on this planet, Liberia provides TEFL academics an genuine cultural experience and a world airport just 10 minutes away. Estelar is major on Neighborhood outreach and seeks to make a variance by way of volunteering.|Instituto Estelar is a bit distinctive from other language institutes. As an alternative to choosing hourly workers who Are living independently and come to operate at different times, we have been building a Local community of teachers and staff members who're dedicated to the Estelar Way of living of teaching, Mastering, and living cooperatively.|Kennon Highway begins at Rosario, La Union and winds upwards via a slim, steep valley. This is commonly the quickest path to Baguio nevertheless it is especially perilous, with landslides through the rainy year and sharp dropoffs, some with out guardrails.|Myanmar is often a creating state and it's switching swiftly. Adaptability and a sense of experience will probably be towards your advantage in this article, as well as a willingness to work inside of a group and also to decide to a powerful do the job ethics.|The overall English Classes are made for learners of all concentrations and also have an emphasis on Talking, communication plus a high amount of learner participation. The intention would be to increase your precision and fluency as you move up the concentrations from newbie to State-of-the-art in addition.|La Salle virtually closed again due to a lack of students throughout World War II, and the soccer team was disbanded due to an absence of gamers, but the school professional a duration of advancement from the late forties. Quite a few new properties ended up created while in the forties and 1950s, including a new library, university student union, in addition to a science building. It absolutely was also through this time that the primary university student home halls have been made at La Salle, mostly on land obtained from the former Belfield Country Club.|Other learners could be part of this course reasonably quickly if they are of the same amount. Through which situation, 6 far more class hours would be included.|Specifying language/character encoding can reduce issues with the rendering of Particular characters.|Seville is also house to many Intercontinental educational institutions and colleges that cater to American college students who 菲律賓遊學 arrive to review overseas|Our summer time camp, also referred to as Kor Camp, delivers remarkable job options for English-native and English-speaking counselors who want to get an enriching cultural and Experienced experience making use of their TEFL capabilities.|The middle is happy with its academics who are professionals inside their fields, specially on English Language and its software. All language lecturers are very carefully screened as well as their continuing instruction is necessary. This can make the middle the most beneficial of its kind on this side of the entire world.|The mythological founder of the town is Hercules (Heracles), normally identified with the Phoenician god Melqart, who the myth states sailed throughout the Strait of Gibraltar for the Atlantic, and Launched investing posts at The existing sites of Cádiz and of Seville. The first Main of the city, within the neighbourhood in the existing-working day street, Cuesta del Rosario, dates for the 8th century BC, when Seville was on an island during the Guadalquivir.|two. Tuition and an official Take a look at charge is provided to The scholars till he/she obtains their target rating|At the same time, locals which include combined-media artist Santiago Bose and filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik were being also creating perform in the city. Even nowadays, artists like painters and sculptors from all over the nation are drawn into the Baguio Arts Pageant which is held per year.|Instructing in our summertime plan will give you a singular possibility to exchange language and society using a vibrant, awesome group of scholars. Our plan is effectively structured and in many cases gives you each week of paid out getaway for the Drinking water Competition to journey and investigate the nation.|The college has well-Outfitted laboratories, libraries, Personal computer labs, pedagogical facilities, spacious athletic compound and fields and creatively intended buildings that enhance the organic natural beauty of the various branches of The varsity all support to make University of Tomorrow not only educationally outstanding but also aesthetically beautiful.} Cuenca, Ecuador is situated significant in the valley in Ecuador's southern Andes. Cuenca is usually a town of over 500,000 people and it is the third biggest city in the region. com.tw. Twitter, simply put, is big: sixty seven million monthly American consumers and 310 million persons around the world. Better yet, there's a positive correlation between social networking use and education and learning and domestic earnings. By not getting a Twitter account, you might be potentially missing out on a tremendous viewers. Studio of Languages?? We were the franchisee of the Berlitz in Istanbul for your previous fourteen yrs and are already giving high-quality education in all languages above twenty years with in excess of a hundred and twenty experienced native speaking instructors and Turkish 菲律賓語言學校 personnel.|These non-public classes are various from "semi-personal intense programs in that a university student has asked for special tutoring and no college students will likely be added to their class. There exists yet another demand of $50.00 for your Preliminary registration and Instructor produced elements. Price|To make certain every one of the internet pages on %(area)s are crawled and indexed, build and post an XML sitemap to the major search engines like google.|Acquiring acquainted with extensive sentences as a result of shadow speakingPracticing speaking by function fiddling with classmatesGiving displays to construct self-assurance|Seville had a lively rock new music scene while in the 1970s and 1980s [fifty six] with bands like Triana, Alameda and Smash, who fused Andalusia's regular flamenco new music with British-type progressive rock. The punk rock team Reincidentes and indie band Sr Chinarro, together with singer Kiko Veneno, rose to prominence from the early nineteen nineties.|In spite of the intensive character of our system, you?�ll have an abundance of downtime for experiencing all of that Cebu has to offer. Cebu has fantastic seashores outside of its bustling click here city Heart.|Electronic mail Privateness Warning! Not less than 1 e mail handle has actually been located in simple textual content. We don?�t endorse introducing simple textual content/joined e mail addresses to the webpages, as destructive bots scrape the internet seeking e mail addresses to spam. Alternatively, consider using a Make contact with form.|Large-scale Roman archaeological remains might be witnessed there and with the nearby town of Carmona also.|They could also incorporate data like your internet site?�s most recent updates, frequency of adjustments and the importance of URLs.|[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：■?�ッ?�メ?�ト??��別�?[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：■?�キ?�ー?��??�ビ?�グ?�イ?�ン?�取�?Make sure click here to only include the pages you'd like search engines like google and yahoo to crawl, so leave out any that have been blocked in a robots.txt file. Steer clear of utilizing any URLs that trigger redirects or error codes and be sure to be dependable in utilizing your desired URLs (with or without having www.|Ninety-eight percent of incoming learners gained grants or scholarships. La Salle College supplied much more grant aid and university student bank loan aid to incoming freshmen than both the standard non-public not-for-income 4 year college or click here university in Pennsylvania and the standard faculty in Pennsylvania.} This manufactured Seville the ideal defended port to provide the riches with the Americas. A 'golden age of growth' commenced in Seville, as a result of its staying the one port awarded the royal monopoly for trade With all the expanding Spanish colonies in the Americas plus the influx of riches from them. Considering the fact that only sailing ships leaving from and returning to your inland port of Seville could interact in trade Using the Spanish Americas, retailers from Europe together with other trade centres necessary to visit Seville to acquire New World trade products. The city's inhabitants grew to over a hundred thousand people today.[eighteen] those generating those solutions but there had been no initiatives from the city to suitable visitors' perception?? she claimed. |At the moment, the tap targets on dewey.com.tw are far too tiny for touchscreen customers. They must be at the very least a 48 pixels peak and width with a minimum of 32 pixels of additional Room on all sides.|Seville is home to your bi-annual flamenco Competition La Bienal, which claims to generally be ??the biggest|the largest|the greatest|the most important|the most significant} flamenco event globally??and lasts for almost a month. [forty nine]|[?�ィ?�ピ?�語�?���?��?�ミ] ?�ィ?�ピ?�の語�?�?��：■?�ブ島に上陸?�た?�ー?�ー?�風|Make sure you Take note the refund ask for have to be made in just 3 times of distributing your on line training course payment.|The Sevici Group bicycle programme has integrated bicycles into the general public transport community. Bicycles can be found for employ round the city at cheap and green bicycle lanes is often seen on most significant streets. The volume of individuals working with bicycles as a method of transport in Seville has amplified considerably recently, multiplying tenfold from 2006 to 2011.|Maple Bear is surely an immersion university that teaches students by way of hands-on, Engage in based Mastering. At Maple Bear International Universities we believe that practically nothing is more critical compared to schooling of our kids. The Maple Bear mission is to provide a college student-concentrated Understanding process in a safe, safe and stimulating ecosystem that prepares college students for fulfillment in the put up-secondary amount and that instills a enthusiasm for life-extended Discovering.|The present registration prerequisites for Croatian workers will expire on thirty June bringing their legal rights to work in Britain according to other EU citizens.|The most important mosque in the area is Masjid Al-Maarif, that's a known centre of Islamic scientific studies from the Philippines. The city also has smaller sized numbers of Buddhists and atheists, coupled with customers of other faiths.|We compute the overall star rating applying only opinions that our automated software now endorses. Learn more. Text to Cell phone|Added pupil housing was provided by obtaining or renting nearby households, including the residence often known as "The Mansion", on David and Logan Blain's Belfield Estate. 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Album Review: A$AP Rocky – Testing What does A$AP Rocky really want? Sometimes I think it’s just for everyone to know he’s well-rounded. He raps, produces, models, designs, directs, acts, fronts a rap crew, and steers whatever AWGE is. People don’t expect boys from Harlem to have that range. You can see it in certain folks’ pleasant surprise to see kids grow up with different plans than city work or career college, in their tendency to size up muscular boys and telegraph what kind of sporting career they’re angling at, and in the nagging habit of genteel older white folks to adopt a light, outdated AAVE and say things like “my man” to you because they learned some jive in the ’70s. Everyone means well, but what they’re really doing is socializing us into a sense of creative scope that’s smaller than our actual sphere of possibilities. If you’re a dreamer, that puts a chip on your shoulder, and you live to show the world what you’re capable of. There are moments when the new A$AP Rocky album, Testing,gestures at this desire to be understood and appreciated, to look back at the young entrepreneur’s road to riches in amused disbelief at how a young man makes it out of homeless shelters and onto magazine covers and movie screens. “Tony Tone” opens up saluting Rocky’s parents and wondering why other people go to the trouble of siring children they appear to have no intention of raising. Elsewhere, “OG Beeper,” offers a rags-to-riches story where a young Rocky craves cash and notoriety, then present-day Rocky relishes the fact that he finally found it. It’s told in a cadence that resembles a nursery rhyme, but unlike, say, Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story,” which uses its cautionary kiddie-tale conceit to lay out stakes and consequences for its ill-fated stickup kid protagonist, “Beeper” is relieved to get through the bad parts so it can lounge around in the fact the guy’s rich now. Testing gets off to a rowdy, promising start, but as the album unfolds, Rocky’s interest in the act of rapping dwindles, as he gets to work cultivating an intriguing sensory experience. It’s playing a different game than your average 2018 hip-hop album most of the time, one you notice 30 seconds into the album opener “Distorted Records,” when a flatulent bass line cleaves the silence, and the rapper picks up rhyming over a beat whose textures and intricacies slowly divide and expand like bacteria. Testing is a drug album, but to paraphrase Chance the Rapper, they’re not doing the same drugs anymore. LSD is clearly the guiding light, where the inspirations for the great early A$AP records were southern rap, promethazine syrup, and the dearly departed A$AP Yams’s exquisite taste. Rocky’s been talking about acid since 2015, when he lead his sophomore album At Long Last A$AP with the psych-rap nugget “L$D,” but Testing is the first A$AP record that actually sounds designed by, and for, people who are tripping. Often, Testing’s vocals feel like enticing fabric swatches rather than centralized narrative lines. (That makes sense. People on hallucinogens fixate on colors and patterns to a point where they can describe the sights of a trip in lurid detail for days afterward.) The best songs, like the Smooky Margielaa and Playboi Carti tag team “Buck Shots,” warp the sound of the human voice, sometimes at the cost of trailing off in the middle of what sound like good verses. “Back in my younger days all I want was braids,” Rocky raps in the third verse, after spending the first two just pinballing cocky insult lines. “All my mama want from me was grades.” Instead of resolving the story, he disappears again. “My biggest distraction is that I get distracted,” he says in “Changes.” Rocky’s raps always attempted a risky balance of style and substance, but these songs dip in and out of profundity like someone testing steaming bathwater for temperature but never taking the plunge. This quality might make Testing the first post–Playboi Carti, A-list major-label rap album. The best moments of Carti’s AWGE debut, Die Lit, sounded like the Ewok scenes in Return of the Jedi; human voices comingled with humanoid noises to commute both an expression of and an alien distortion of the English language. On Testing, voices pop in and out of frame, samples get chopped and screwed, record scratches cut into the present with shards of the recent past, and uncredited collaborators slide in and out unannounced. While the approach to vocals mirrors Carti’s work, the way samples are used mirrors that of excommunicated A$AP Mob affiliate Spaceghostpurrp, whose Blackland Radio 66.6 and Purrped and Chopped tapes drafted the same kind of overcooked Three 6 Mafia–obsessed splatter-paintings-on-a-bedroom-wall level in 2011. All these records make for appropriate summer music, not because they elicit the ease of speeding down a highway on a sunny afternoon but because they sound like what suffering on a hot day feels like, the sensation of everything inside and outside of you slowly melting. What Testing has that some of its antecedents might not, is clout. Flacko wants you to know this thing cost money and deep connections to make. There’s Outkast and Lauryn Hill interpolations; instrumental tracks from Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes and MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden; and vocals from Frank Ocean and FKA Twigs. It takes a special kind of magnetism, Testing seems to want you to know, to gather all of these parties for the same project. Rocky often makes fascinating use of his guests. In “Gunz N Butter,” he raps over a screwed-up slice of the Project Pat song “Still Ridin’ Clean” until Juicy J, Pat’s brother and the original song’s producer, pops out disorientingly mimicking the same flow. On “Praise the Lord (Da Shine),” Skepta crushes a verse that shouts out DMX, and “Tony Tone” restores some old New York feeling with Diddy ad-libs and a funny mini-skit where Rocky gets cussed out by a listener for language. As often as Testing expresses good taste and synergy, it makes some fascinatingly weird moves. The decision to sample Moby’s Play on “A$AP Forever” and Lauryn Hill’s Unplugged 2.0 on “Purity” smacks of the kind of premature “’90s-kid” nostalgia for turn-of-the-millennium monoculture that’ll evoke a wince from anyone who still remembers the sound of “Porcelain” dripping out of all available PA systems and TV commercials in the year 2000. (There is, perhaps, a sort of poetic justice to Rocky making disrespectful rap music out of an album that cashed out making easy listening out of old black blues and soul singers’ voices.) “Calldrops” ditches beats and raps as Rocky sings a wan lullaby over a strummed guitar, joined eventually by Kodak Black singing through what sounds like a jail phone. “Changes” is an audacious psych-pop track with guitar melodies that wouldn’t sound out of place on an old Harry Nilsson record, trippy vocal harmonies, and sharp beat changes. Both tracks feel like the logical conclusion of a journey beyond the boundaries of hip-hop hinted at with “L$D.” Both tracks also feel like the moment in every good ’60s psych album where the band leans too hard into its “muse” and loses itself (See: “Mind Gardens” from the Byrds’ Younger Than Yesterday.) The last third of Testing is enticing in some spots and unlistenable in others. “Kids Turned Out Fine” serves the beginnings of a great melody but keeps warping and modulating it, so you never retain a sense of keys and chord progressions for longer than a few seconds. The experiment might’ve made an interesting curio coming from a band with formidable musique concrète chops like Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention circa Uncle Meat. Here, it flounders because Rocky is not a natural singer, and because his raps borrow liberally from the mix of impressionistic words and G-Herbo flows Frank Ocean knocked out of the park on songs like “Chanel” and “Unity.” When Frank himself turns up on “Purity,” he delivers a verse that’s very nearly the best on the whole album, mostly because it’s one of a half-dozen times Testing commits to a single mood long enough to pass it along. (What does Rocky do? Talk through it.) Testing is, by turns, fascinating but disorienting mood music and good, solid druggy rap music. One wishes there were more serviceable rap tracks like “Fuck Sleep,” “Buck Shots,” “Purity,” and “Hun43rd” — where Rocky bounces the woozy post-regional North-meets-South swagger he’s good at off other singers and rappers with unique vocal tones — and less studio wank like “Kids Turned Out Fine.” The new music does an arresting job of solidifying A$AP Rocky as a director of dizzying, unusual sounds but not enough of the work required to remind listeners why they love to hear him rap three years after his last official solo album. Like the Beatles’ “Glass Onion,” the puckish White Album deep cut John Lennon used to pour fuel on nonsensical Beatles conspiracy theories for kicks in 1968, Testing is densely layered but not often “deep.” Article originally published via: vulture.com Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

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Kirsten Milenko is an Australian composer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Milenko works with vocal, instrumental and electronic media to express music as environmental phenomena. Working intimately with movement, her music embodies a constant synergy between sound and motion to capture perceptions of space. In December 2017, her single ‘Ex Aere’ released on Spotify, Bandcamp and iTunes. Her debut album ‘Caeli’ is scheduled for release in April 2019. Currently, she studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music under Niels Rosing-Schow and Simon Løffler. Previously, she studied under Liza Lim, Rosalind Page, Natasha Anderson and Ursula Caporali at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where she is a recipient of the Ignaz Friedman Memorial Prize (2015). She has attended international workshops and masterclasses including: Hatched Academy with Ensemble Offspring (Australia 2018), Dartington International Summer School (England 2018) where she is a recipient of the John Amis Award, Conductor’s Workshop with Jessica Cottis (England 2017) where she received a bursary from the Royal Philharmonic Society, Conductor’s workshop with Mark Shiell and Melbourne Youth Orchestras (Australia 2017), Synthetis International Summer School for Composition (Poland 2016). Milenko is represented as an associate artist with the Australian Music Centre. Her produced work is signed to the Australian label Muisti-Records and available on iTunes, Spotify and Bandcamp. Live recordings of concert works are available through Soundcloud and YouTube. Links to these sites can be found at the end of each page. Establishment of Chamber Ballet series: I have long been interested in the architecture that music is capable of being. Movement when entwined with music is a subject of great fascination, both in the process of instrumental writing and also during external collaborations with choreographers and dancers. The potential that music holds to link an audience with both the seen and unseen worlds of human perception has been a great source of inspiration since I first began composing. To present the unknown in a way that entices both curiosity and gentleness of the human spirit is an image often present throughout my work.

Advances in Agricultural Science 05 (2017), 04: 13-31 Metallic Trace Elements (MTE) in soils and plant organs of some crop in periurban of Abidjan (Ivory Coast) Thierry Guety 1*, Emile B. Bolou Bi 2, Bongoua-Devisme Affi Jeanne 2, Brahima Kone 1 1 University Felix Houphouet Boigny, UFR STRM, Department of Soil Science, LIEVASOL, Côte d’Ivoire.2 University Felix Houphouet Boigny, UFR STRM, Department of Soil Science, LIFBIOS, Côte d’Ivoire. The quality of the plant production in periurban agriculture is subjected to question given the potential contamination of soils that can affect the crops. The levels of contamination of soils and vegetables by Metallic trace elements (MTE) as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in the district of Abidjan, have been evaluated. Multi-sites survey of cropping areas of sweet potato and Hibiscus was conducted in three municipalities in Abidjan (Port-Bouët, Yopougon and Bingerville) in relation to the intensity of industrial and commercial activities. The site of Bingerville has been used as the reference site referring to the low activities. Soil samples (in 0-20 cm and 20 – 40 cm), combined with that of plants (leaf, stem, and root), and water were collected, transported in laboratory for analysis. The total amounts of MTE in soil, as well as the different fractions extracted were determined in addition to the respective concentration in plants (Hibiscus and Sweet potato). Toxic level of Pb (< 8 mgkg-1) was observed in the plant organs collected at Port-Bouët site indifferently to crops while lowest content of Pb (35.5 mgkg-1) was accounting for the soil of Yopougon (39.8 mgkg-1). A neutral pH of the soil has been considered more favorable to the contamination of plants in Pb on the polluted sites somewhat differing for extractable fractions. The acidity and small width of leaf as observed for Hibiscus, were identified as the control factors of crop contamination in periurban agroecosystems prone to Pb pollution. To strengthen the consistency of the knowledge, studies of the interaction between Pb and Zn as well as the translocation of Pb in the plants to tubers are suggested in the tropical ecosystems. In the area of wet drill bit of West Africa, the urban population is very important compared to that of the rural population (Drechsel et al, 1999). Approximately 2/3 of the population will be living representing a huge challenge for the security of the food supplies (Maxwell, 2000). Hence, there is emergence of new informal economies (United Nations, DESA, 2006) among which, periurban agriculture is major regarding to the additional income for populations. Indeed, the often precarious lifestyle of a fringe of the urban population imposes upon him the return to agriculture in the vicinities of the cities for its subsistence and to generate income (FAO, 2008). The urban agriculture or periurban areas, according to Moustier et al. ( 2004), refers to the forms of agricultures coproduced by the cities, that they are located on the inside of the city or in the urban periphery. This agriculture can supply approximately 30% of food requirement in the world (Smith et al, 1996; N’Dienor, 2006). Ivory Coast, like many African countries, has experienced over the past few years, significant urbanization, with as a subsequent strong development of the periurban agriculture. In the district of Abidjan, vegetable production has taken an important part in this activity mainly characterized by production of leaf vegetables. It thus contributes to the supply of fresh products of the markets of the ten municipalities (Kouakou, 2009). The proximity of vegetable cropping site to industrial zone and traffic road are promoting the risk of pollution including an accumulation of metallic trace elements (MTE) in soils and crops (Sposito, 2010). The MTE or micro-metal pollutants are chemical elements in the crust of the earth for less than 0.1 per cent and their accumulation over is a danger man, animal and/or plants. Several studies are state of the harmfulness of such accumulation for the human and animal health, as well as for the plants to a certain extent (baize, 2000). Among the pollutants of most encountered in the soils, cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are toxic even for trace concentation (Godin, 1983). In constrast, certain pollutants such as zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) are becoming toxic for high concentration (FAO, 2008). The current work is dealing with the pollution of sweet potato and Hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdaroufa), as popular diet in urban and rural areas. These ETM particularly concerns the Pb and Cd whose phytodisponibilité would depend on the Cu and Zn. The characterization of such affinities would deepen the knowledge of the Ecotoxicity in periurban agriculture and to consider more effective remediation strategies. Therefore an exploration has been carried out in the periurban agroecosystems of the District of Abidjan to assess levels potential pollution of soils and contamination of a plant at tuber compared with a plant has not tuberous root with regard to Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd. This study aims to: (i) determine the levels of these chemicals in plants in relationship with the characteristics of the soil, (ii) identify relationships soil-plant promoting plant contamination, (iii) identify the edaphic conditions of potential contamination of Pb and Cd respectively, and (iv) characterize the potential for import of cultures studied. In the long term, this study will need to suggest methods of effective and sustainable management of the pollution in the periurban agroecosystems to arouse the public conscience on the dangers of pollution and save the quality of the environment as well as the public health in urban areas. Materials and Methods The study site The city of Abidjan is the economic capital of Ivory coast (West Africa), at the edge of the Gulf of Guinea between latitudes 5°00 and 5°30 North and longitudes 3°50 and 4°10 west. It is composed of ten (10) commons and contains the main industrial activities and administrative provisions of the country (Ahoussi, 2013). The climate is of type equatorial, with a strong annual rainfall between 1637 and 2048 mm, unevenly distributed in time and space. This area characterized by a precipitation regime bimodal with four seasons including, two rainy seasons (April – July and October – November). Temperatures average between 24°C to 30°C with a relative humidity between 75 and 88% (81% in spatial average). The vegetation varies from the clear forest on the south coast to the forest dense evergreen rain and toward the north of the region. This forest is largely degraded following the thrust of the anthropogenic activities intense and urbanization. The geology of the area of study is composed of sedimentary rocks mainly located in the sedimentary basin Coastal and the Ivory Coast. This sedimentary basin extends over 400 km long and 40 km wide and represents only 2.5% of the area of the country (Ahoussi, 2013). The soil coverage is essentially composed of Ferralsols sandy-clayey, to Acrisol facies or pseudogleyic developed on sand tertiary or quaternary. In the framework of this study, the work has been carried out on sites to maraicher in the communes of Port-Bouet (5°25 N – 3°94 W), Bingerville (5°31 N- 3°87 W) and Yopougon (5°35 N- 4°04 W) (Figure1). Figure 1. Location Map of the studied sites. Two vegetable species characterized by edible leaf as local dietary habits (Kouakou, 2009) were concerned: Hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdaroufa) locally named “Dah” and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). While hibiscus is matured about 2 -3 months of cropping duration sweet potato does so in a longer period of 3 – 6 months depending to the cultivars and the roots are also edible as tubers. Both are characterized by shallow rhizosphere (0 – 30 cm) receiving manual daily irrigation using perched ground water of well (2 – 3 m in depth). Sampling Soil, plants and water Multi-sites (Bingerville, Yopougon and Port-Bouët) survey was conducted in 2013 in the district of Abidjan around the localities of (i) Port-Bouet and (ii) Yopougon characterized by higher industrial and commercial activity intensities while prevailing agricultural activity accounts for (iii) Bingerville, used as a control site in the framework of our study. In 600 m2 of vegetables cultivated area in each of these locations, 12 soil composite samples resulting from 5 soil samples were randomly taken in 0 – 20 cm and 20 – 40 cm depth using hand augur respectively. Between four (4) points of soil sample l, each type of plants was also sampled. Approximately 5 g of plant organs (fresh leaves, stems and roots) were collected respectively for each crop and by site during the maturity period. The samples of soil and plants were keept in plastic bags for laboratory analysis. A sampling of water has been collected in the well used to the watering of plants on each site. These samples of water collected in Plastic Bottles HDPE, were also transported to the laboratory to undergo treatment before analysis of the levels of MTE. Processing and Analysis of the soil The soil samples collected were dried in air temperature until constant weight before slightly prounding and sieved by 2mm. The resulting fine earth was splited in two (2) aliquots. The first was used for the determination of particle size (sand, silt, clay) according to the method of the eyedropper using Robinson pipette (Gee and Boder, 1986). The second aliquot for the determination of the pH-water, using a pH meter VWR in a soil/solution ratio of 1/2.5. The electrical conductivity (EC) of the ground water was measured with a multi-meter as the pH.. Finally, the last aliquot was finely crushed to 150 µm and homogenized. Approximately 300 mg of this powder were digested and mineralized in the aqua regia [3 ml of HNO3 (65% v/v) + 1 ml of HCl (37%; v/v)] in vial of 50 ml. The solution of metals by the aqua regia is qualified of pseudo-total (Baize et al., 2005, Laurent 2003). The solution obtained after mineralization has been analyzed by an atomic absorption spectrometer of Mark PerkinElmer., for the determination of concentrations of metals (Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn). For each sample, 3 measures were done and the average was repported. This value is compared to that of the existing standard (Table 1) (Barneaud, 2006; Godin, 2010). The Fractionation operational is carried out by the method of sequential extractions according to the Protocol of Tessier et al. (1979). This extraction was done for Cd and Pb (Figure 2). Figure 2. Protocol of sequential extraction (Tessier et al., 1979). Processing and Analysis of plants The samples of plants collected are washed with distilled water, and then weighed and dried in an oven at 60°C up to the obtaining of a constant weight. After drying, the crop samples were crushed Table 1. Maximum Concentration standard of the Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in the soil, the plant and water and sieved (50 Micron). Approximately 0.5 g of each sample was mixed in 6 ml of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and 6 ml of nitric acid (HNO3) in a DigiPrep, at a 95°C during 3 hours. Mineralized were analyzed for the determination of metal concentrations by mass spectrometer with inductively coupled plasma (ICP/MS). The digestion of the samples as well as the treatment of mineralized were made in the same manner for soil and plant as described previously. Treatment and analysis of the water The samples of water collected wells was been filtered to 0.45 μm by using filters to acetate and a vacuum filtration system of brand. The resulting filtrate solution was splited into two aliquots. One was used for physic and chemical mesurements (temperature, conductivity, the content of dissolved oxygen, the potential for oxidation and the potential of hydrogen). The second was used for the measurement of MTE concentrations (Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb) using an atomic absorption spectrometer of Mark PerkinElmer. Table 2.The characteristics of the soil of the sites of studies simply put a medium-sized and écartypes as well as data from treatments stat (significant difference or not) Cd (mg kg-1) Pb (mg kg-1) Cu (mg kg-1) Zn (mg kg-1) P (mg kg-1) CEC (cmol kg-1) Ca (cmol kg-1) OM (g kg-1) For the statistical analysis, we used two (02) Software: SAS (version 9) and SPSS 16. A descriptive analysis of the data was realized by using SAS fixing α = 0.05. The average, the minimum and maximum values of Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb as well as the pH were determined for soil sample (0 – 20 cm depth) of each site. Similarly the average values of the concentrations of Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in the different organs of the plants were determined for each site. By analysis of variance (ANOVA), the average values of the properties of the irrigation water (T˚C, EC, Eh, pH, O2, Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd) were determined according to the test of Student-Newman-Keul likewise for testing difference between mean values of fractions of Cd and Pb in the soil depths of 0 – 20 cm and 20 – 40 cm for each site. A Pearson correlation was processed evaluate the relationship between the total levels of Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in the soil and their concentrations in the different organs of the plants. The different speciations of metals (F1, F2, F3, F4 and F5) were used for the Pearson correlation with equivalent concentrations in plant organs. The sites studied (Bingerville (1), Port-Bouët (2) and Yopougon (3)) were futher discriminated according to the speciations of Cd and Pb (F1, F2, F3, F4 and F5) using SPSS 16. Soils and waters Characteristics in studied sites Table 2 reports the results of the characteristics of different samples of subsoils collected in respective studied sites. The pH reveales acidic soil in Bingerville (pH = 5.6), neutral for Port-Bouet (pH = 7) and alkalinic for Yopougon (pH = 8.7). The soils of Bingerville and Yopougon have strong contents in organic matter (OM). Sites have a strong content in sand. As for pseudototale contents of metal in soil, the sites of Port-Bouët (1.5 mgkg-1) and Yopougon (1.45 mgkg-1) record of strong content in Cd, contrasting with the low contents recorded in soil of witness site of Bingerville (0. 65 mgkg-1). Moreover, Pb concentration is regularly observed in the soils of the studied sites in the range of 11.65 mgkg-1 and 20.67 mgkg-1 out standing about 57.21 mgkg-1. The average value of Pb in the soil is almost twice greater for the site of Yopougon in comparison to that of Bingerville which is 1/3 lower than the value observed for the site of Port-Bouët. No significant difference was observed between the sites in relation to the concentration in Pb of groundwater and the electrical conductivity (EC) (Table 3). Significant low values of temperature (27°3c), oxygen concentration (2.03 mgL-1) and redox potential (-7.03 mV) are determined for the groundwater collected in Yopougon contrasting with Bingerville site. The perched ground water collected at Port-Bouët site is particularly characterized by high value of temperature (30°C) while no concentration of Cd was determined in the ground water collected at Yopougon site. Specific metals fractions in studied soils Figure 3 shows the ratios of Cd speciation in 0 – 20 cm and 20 – 40 cm horizons for each studied sites: The total Cd is abundant in the fractions F3 and F5 regardless of the horizon of soil, except for horizon 0 – 20 cm at Yopougon site. Figure 3. Speciation of Cd in the horizons of the soil on the various study sites (fractions: Redeemable (F1); the carbonates (F2); oxides (F3); organic matter (F4); residual (F5)). The Figure 4 shows the ratio of speciation for Pb. We are noting abundance in the fractions F4, F3 and F5. Figure 4. Speciation of Pb in the horizons of the soil on the various study sites (fractions: Redeemable (F1); the carbonates (F2); oxides (F3); organic matter (F4); residual (F5)). The Figure 5 and 6 present the discrimination of the sites studied respectively of the Cd and Pb. There was no influence of the fraction F5 with regard to the Cd. Bingerville (2) and Yopougon (3) are diametrically opposed according to the fraction F1, F2 and F3 which are characterizing Yopougon site. The F4 fraction has a negative impact despite a limited influence for all the sites studied. For what is the problem, there is no influence of the fraction F3. There is a positive influence of F5 and F2 characterized by the site of Bingerville (2) in opposition to the site of Port-Bouet (1) linked withF1 and F4 concentrations. Figure 5. Discrimination of sites according to the speciations of Cd (1: Port-Bouët; 2: Bingerville; 3: Yopougon). Fractions: Redeemable (F1); the carbonates (F2); oxides (F3); organic matter (F4); residual (F5). Figure 6. Discrimination of sites according to the speciations of Pb (1: Port-Bouët; 2: Bingerville; 3: Yopougon) fractions: Redeemable (F1); the carbonates (F2); oxides (F3); organic matter (F4); residual (F5). Table 4 indicates the factors of mobility of Cd and Pb. We note a greater mobility of Cd in the Horizon 0 – 20 cm of the soil to Yopougon. No significant difference is observed between the sites compared to the mobility of metals in the Horizon 20 – 40 cm. The Table 5 shows the relationship between the characteristics of the water and the fractions of Cd and Pb. There is a positive correlation between the pH and the fractions F2 and F5, while negative correlations are observed with the redox potential for Cd. As concern Pb, apart from the residual fraction F5 which has a contrasting correlations with the pH and Eh, and a correlation between F2 and the O2, there are limited relations between the content of the soil in Pb and the characteristics of the groundwater. Metals Concentrations in plants Figures 7 and 8 present the average concentrations of metals in sweet potato and Hibiscus. The Cu and Zn are more concentrated in the leaves of sweet potato and Hibiscus in Bingerville, while the site of Yopougon shows low levels of Zn and Cu regardless of the type of organs. Figure 7. Concentrations of Cu and Zn in the leaves, stems and roots of sweet potato and Hibiscus in Bingerville, Port-Bouët and Yopougon Figure 8. Levels of Pb and Cd in the leaves, stems and roots of sweet potato and Hibiscus in Bingerville, Port-Bouët and Yopougon. The site of Port-Bouet is remarkable with high concentration of Pb interchangeably of the organs of the plant. High concentrations of Cd are observed for the Roots interchangeably of plants. Table 6 shows the relationship between the metals in the soil and those in the leaves of Hibiscus. We note a correlation (r = 0.75) between Zn and Cu, and between Cu and Pb (r = 0.61) as well as for Zn and Pb (r = 0.71). For the sweet potato, we are noticing correlations between the Pb (r = 0.76) and Cd (r = 0.91) of leaves and the Zn of soil, even between the Cu of the soil and the Pb (r = 0.63) and Cd (r = 0.77) of the leaves. Table 7 shows the Pearson correlation coefficients (R), and the probability (P) observed in the leaf, stem, and root of the cultures studied (Potato and Hibiscus) as a function of different fractions of Pb and Cd in the ground, regardless of the sites studied. We note significantly (p< 0.05) of positive correlations between the fraction F2 (0.69; 0.43; 0.51) of Pb and concentrations of Pb in the leaves, stems and roots of the cultures studied. However, those of fractions F3 Pb (-0.48; -0.34) and F5 (-0.52; -0.38) are negative with the concentrations in the leaves and roots. These latest show no significant correlation with the rod. The fraction F1 (0.51), and the F3 fraction (0.38) of the Cd are significantly and positively correlated with the concentration of Cd of leaves, while the fractions F2 (0.46) and F5 (0.41) are, for this which is the concentration in Cd of the roots. Only the fraction F5 (-0.31) of the Cd is negatively correlated to concentrations in the rod of cultures. Potential contaminant in soil and plants Soils have a relative richness in organic matter (7 to 22%), and this organic matter is more abundant in the surface horizons, on the three sites studied. It could be due to the contribution repeated of animal waste (droppings of chicken, feces of pork and other), but its presence may also be explained by the refund of crop residues and by the inputs of nutrients (Naman et al. 2002; Touré and al. 2010). According to these results, the availability of metals is important in the soils analyzed, in particular thanks to the anthropogenic activities (Alloway, 1990 and Adriano, 2001), which could facilitate the mobility of these elements. The levels of soil Cd and Pb have been strong in Port-Bouët Yopougon and according to the norms of the Alloway (1990), contrasting sharply with the site witness of Bingerville. There is therefore an obvious pollution of these soils, probably under the action of the man (agriculture and industry), helped by the waters of runoff and those of the lagoon that affect the quality of the groundwater (Coulibaly et al. 2008; Soro et al. 2009) used for the watering of cultures. There is a potential contamination of crops in Cd and Pb of the soil which could reduce, depending on the remoteness from the Ebrié lagoon already stigmatized by Koné et al. (2010) as a catalyst of the pollution in the coastal zone of Côte d’Ivoire. This finding is reinforced by the low content of the soil in Zn (35.6 mgkg-1) in Bingerville, whereas the highest concentrations (> 50 mgkg-1) of this metal (Zn) is y observe, regardless of vegetative organs (root, stem and leaf) and of cultures (potato and sorrel). Also, the concentrations of Pb are-they high in the vegetative organs harvested at Port-Bouët (33.6 mgPbkg-1 soil) and Yopougon (39.8 mgPbkg-1soil). The taking into account of the respective speciations of these metals, remains very variables (Mäkäla-kurto, 2000), and the known interactions (Foy et al. 1978) would explain this: Pb2+, and Pb+ are organic forms of Pb assimilated by plants according to the conditions of the middle, then some forms of Cd (polysaccharide) are not extractable. In these conditions, the total levels of these metals are not enough to apprehend the contaminating character of cultures by the soil. On the other hand, it is established a synergism between Cd and Pb and, the ratios of Cu/Cd and Cd/Zn which would be characteristic of the phytodisponibilité Cd of soil according to the criteria of De Vries and Bakker (1998). Therefore, there would be a synergy between the nutrition of the plants in Cu and Pb as shown by the results of correlated during the present study. In the light of the results obtained and in the light of this analysis, problem would be the metal pollutant of cultures in agroecosystems in periurban areas of Abidjan, with concentrations greater than the standard (> 8 mgkg-1) defined by Godin (2010). The conditions of Port-Bouët (pH-neutral, sandy, rich in organic matter, high conductivity, zinc content in high and content in Cu moderate) would be more favorable to the availability of Pb, causing the contamination of plants. According Heinrichs et al. (1980), the concentration world average cadmium in the lithosphere reached 0.098 mgkg-1 and the average values in the soils of most of the industrialized countries (for example the United States of America), function of soil types and sites, and are below 1.5 mgkg-1 (Burau et al., 1973; Lund et al., 1981; Logan and Miller, 1983; Holmgren et al., 1993). Table 3.Characteristics of the water on the studied sites <LD : less than the detection limit; Cu=200µg/kg; Zn =100 µg/kg; Cd=15 µg/kg Table 4.Factor of mobility of Cd and Pb in the Horizon 0 – 20 cm and 20 – 40 cm on the various study sites 0 – 20 cm 20 – 40 cm A, B, C indicates the average values significantly different in the column. Table 5.The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and probability (P) observed for the properties of the water as a function of different fractions of Cd and Pb in the soil (whatever the sites) In contrasting with the level of industrialization of the Ivory Coast (Cherniwchan, 2012), this value is close to the average values of the Cd observed in the superficial layers of the site of Port-Bouët (1.5 mgkg-1) and of Yopougon (1.4 mgkg-1) and the maximum values recorded through the sites are included between 2 mgkg-1 and 5.7 mgkg-1 (Table 2), above the critical threshold of 0.7 mgkg-1.This is a major result of this study for a consciousness denouncing a low control of sources of urban pollution as indicated earlier by Innes and Haron (2000), as a culpable behavior in countries with rapid urbanization. In addition to the microbial conversion of the total Cd of the soil (Czaban and WróBlewska, 2005), the characteristics of the soil solution such as the pH, Eh, and the temperature and the oxygen content, may have contributed significantly to the occurrence of speciations of Cd in the soil. The residual fraction of the Cd (F5) in the soil was quasi-predominant in the Horizons, 0 – 20 cm (0.40 mgkg-1) and 20 – 40 cm (0.95 mgkg-1), on the sites studied, while the fractions related to carbonates (0.30 mgkg-1) and oxides (1.08 mgkg-1) are respectively in the Horizon 0 – 20 cm and 20 – 40 cm. The site of Yopougon offers residual fractions and exchangeable into high Cd, as well as the concentration of Cd in the root, regardless of the plants studied. A great attention should be given on the sweet potato, which is characterized by a concentration in Cd 0.94 mgkg-1 in the tuber, closely near the threshold value of 1 mgkg-1. The difference in pH of the soil and the low capacity of secretion of organic acid of the plant in the soil (Krishnamuri et al., 1997; Mann and Ritchie, 1993) may have contributed to this increase in the concentration of the Cd, with a combination of F1, F2 and F3 characterizing the site of Yopougon, which contrast with the site of Port-Bouët, despite the total content of Cd almost similar. In addition, the content of Cd in the root probably increases with the total content of the Cd in the soil (Table 7). Therefore, the harmfulness of the Cd on the site of Yopougon for sweet potato would be due to the total proportion of F1, F2 and F3, while F4 is representative of the site of Port-Bouët, instead of F3, with a limited potential for contamination. Contrast in the pollution linked to Pb The total content of Pb of the soil is heterogeneous on the sites, and the higher content was observed in Yopougon (40 mgkg-1), followed by that of Port-Bouët (33.6 mgkg-1), although below the threshold of 60 mgkg-1. In addition, the low concentrations similar to the Pb (10 mgL-1) are characterized by water from the water which seems to be concerned by the enrichment of the fractions related to carbonates and the fraction lithogénique when the pH and the concentration of oxygen increase. In fact, trace metals do not exist under soluble forms for a long time in the waters (Dossis and Warren, 1980): They are mainly present in the form of colloids in suspension or fixed on the organic substances and minerals. Therefore, the contamination of the plant such as observed by the elevated (> 8 mgkg-1) of Pb, respectively, in the sheet, rod and the root on the site of Yopougon (Figure 6) was related to the sum of F1 and F4 in the topsoil layer, as well as to that of F1+F2 in the deep layer of the soil, unlike the only effects of each of the fractions taken separately, especially in the topsoil. On the basis of the negative correlations found between the concentrations of Pb in the organs of the plant (leaf, stem, and root), and of the soil (Table 7), we attribute the reduction of concentrations of these harmful fractions of Pb, probably to the transformation of the residual fraction (F5), when the total content of Pb in the soil increases. This assertion is supported by the Figure 4, which indicates the fractions The most important of the prob as F1, F2, F4 and F5 on the sites, and the Table 6.The Pearson correlation coefficient (R) between the concentrations of the metals from the soil and those in the leaves of Hibiscus sorrel and Sweet Potato *** Refers to significant levels at P < 0.001, ( ): indicates the origin Table 7. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and probability (P) observed for concentrations of Pb in the leaf, stem, and root in function of the different fractions of Pb in the soil (whatever the sites and the plant) carbonate fraction (F2) coupled to the residual form (F5), opposite to the characteristics of the Pb (F1 and F4) on the site of Port-Bouët, thus illustrating the sensitivity of F2 to be transformed into F5 in particular, reducing the harmfulness of Pb. Such a transformation has been reported as the mechanism governing the migration and the fixing of the Pb, as well as its bioavailability (Bolan et al., 2003) involving the availability of phosphorus in the soil and leading to the formation of the pyromorphite (Cao et al., 2002; Scheckel and Ryan, 2004). The content of available P in the soil can be high at Port-Bouët, compared to that of other sites, to cause the neutral pH predominant (Koné et al., 2011; 2014) and the agricultural practice requiring the contribution of the dung of poultry, may be at the origin of the increase in the content of the Pb in the soil (Amadji et al., 2013). There is therefore need to check the harmfulness of Pb of the soil pH neutral; this differs with the case described by Cotter-Howells and Caporn, (1996) relative to the effect of phosphate mineral in the polluted soil by the Pb. Attempts of the management of the pollution of the Pb and Cd Although the content of the soil in Pb (21 mgkg-1) is moderate in Bingerville, it can be assumed a synergy of low level with the other metals (Cd, Cu and Zn) that had low levels in the soil. Similarly, the low levels of Cu (18.2 mgkg-1) and Zn (69.6 mgkg-1) in the ground, of Yopougon have probably inhibited the availability of the Pb (39.8 mgkg-1), in spite of a higher content. These findings, coupled with the contamination of crops observed at Port-Bouët, allow to outlaw the application of fertilizers sources of Zn and Cu in agroecosystems likely to induce a pollution in Pb, in periurban agriculture. Similar recommendations have already been made for Ca and S whose presence may reduce the bioavailability of Pb (Jones et al. 1973; Kabata-Pendias, 2011). In any case, these practices do not improve the quality of the soil, which will remain inadequate for the microbial activity (Brookes and McGrath, 1984), indispensable for ensuring a sustainable service of the agricultural ecosystem, in addition to the cost factor (McGrath et al. 1996). This is why, the phytoremediation of Polluted Soils is considered to be a more effective strategy for the restoration of the soil: the bioextraction of metals is estimated by the capacity to accumulate a high concentration in the plant (Adriano and al. 1999), reducing the level of pollution of the soil. Concentrations of Pb in the plant organs of the sweet potato are generally more low in the sheet that in the stem and the root. However, at Port-Bouët where the toxicity threshold has been crossed (> 8 mgkg-1), it is the rod which has displayed the concentration (10.5 mgkg-1) the more strong, contrasting with the idea of a low mobility (translocation) of this metal in the plant. An average harvest of 10 kg/ha of the rod would result in a reduction of 105 mg Pb/ha, a significant magnitude compared to the standard of 100 mg Pb/kg of land indicated by Godin (2010), given the actual density of the soil in Africa (Barrios and al. 1996). This denotes a potential of remediation of soil by the sweet potato vis-a-vis the Pb, with a reduced risk of toxicity in the man because, what are the leaves and roots which are consumed. This ability is strengthened among the Hibiscus, whose roots and stems, non-consumables, concentrate approximately 20 mgPbkg-1, either double the concentration in the rod of sweet potato. In addition, the leaves the supplies for the sorrel displayed a concentration in Pb to the critical limit (8 mgPbkg-1), Port-Bouët, with an overall average of 6.3 mgPbkg-1, therefore, less toxic. All this contributes to argue the use of the culture of the Hibiscus for human consumption and the Remediation of Polluted Soils in Pb by report to the sweet potato. The consumption of the root of this last being a drawback in spite of a higher total concentration in the root and the rod, then Port-Bouët, that the tubers are assumed to have a moderate concentration compared to other vegetables (Alexander et al. 2006); the genotypic differences and ecological that can contribute to this, it is appropriate to explore these aspects, subsequently, in tropical ecosystems. The follow-up to the harmfulness of Pb in the agricultural system can be relevant for the anionic forms of Pb (Pb(OH) 3–, PbCl3–, Pb(CO3)22-) because of the different forms of the P (H2PO4–and HPO42-) in the soil solution, excluding other forms of Pb (PbOH+ ; Pb(OH) 2, PbNO3+, PbCl+, PbCl2). Therefore, this management strategy of the pollution of the Pb, advocated by a few experts whose Melamed et al. (2003), may have a partial effectiveness. On the other hand, the form exchangeable and bound fraction carbonate constitute the skeletal forms required for the Cd and the harmfulness of Pb in the ecology studied, although their ability to effective pollution implies more far the fraction related to oxides, for the Cd, and the organic form, for the problem with a contrast on the sites (Figures 5 and 6): In the light of this analysis, a polluted soil, amended with the Synthetic inorganic or enriched in divalent cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, , or even Al3+, Fe3+, Si4+), may be able to attach (immobilize) both Cd2+ that Pb2+, and reduce their bioavailability, such F1 and F2, when the levels of the residual form will increase. The properties of the bentonite may be explored at this end, referring to the successful test led by Schütz et al. (2013) for the immobilization of trace metals. In addition, the solidification of the bentonite has improved this potential, by dividing the base layers of the montmorillonite, providing more space for the adsorption of cations of cadmium and lead (Galambos et al., 2010). The periurban agrosystems of Abidjan present real risks of pollution in Pb and Cd, particularly for the underground body, the tuber of the sweet potato and the proximity of the Continental Waters seems more favorable to this that the properties of the soil in the same conditions geo-climatic. In contrast, at least moderate levels of the soil in Cu and Zn are necessary for a high accumulation of Pb in the plant tissues regardless of the total content in the soil in which the effect would be attributable to speciations. The harmfulness was more related to the combined effect of exchangeable fractions carbonate, and those related to the oxides that can be mitigated by the increase of the organic form of the Cd as observed at Port-Bouët. Similarly, the pollution of the Pb was observed at Port-Bouët in the sheet, rod and the Root Regardless of the plant and the fractions the more harmful included also the exchangeable forms and organic matter apart from the carbonate fraction which can be transformed into the residual fraction as buffer mechanism governing the decontamination of the soil in Pb which can be limited to the anionic forms however. Therefore, the amendment with the absorbent material such as the bentonite has been suggested for the cleaning of the soil reducing the harmful effects of Cd and Pb. However, the potential of specific remediation of the plants examined was recommended to clean the periurban agrosystems around Abidjan. However, this study raises issues of ecological order genotypic and with regard to the nutrition of the plants in Pb, in particular, the interaction with the Zn and the ability of tubers in the accumulation of Pb. 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7 August 2018 The Conference on Disarmament this morning held the first public plenary meeting of the third and last part of its 2018 session, hearing from Michael Møller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva and Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, and listening to statements on the United Nations Secretary-General’s Agenda for Disarmament, Securing our Common Future, as well as other issues. Walid Doudech, Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that the Conference would discuss the Disarmament Agenda that the United Nations Secretary-General had presented on 24 May 2018 in Geneva. This was a good opportunity for Member States to expand and enrich the debate, look for ways and means to address the issues on the agenda of the Conference, and have a dialogue in order to reach agreement on a programme of work. Mr. Møller said in his introductory remarks that the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Disarmament aimed to reinvigorate dialogue, stimulate new ideas and create new momentum. It focused on practical measures aimed at integrating disarmament into the priorities of the whole United Nations system, laying the foundation for new partnerships and greater collaboration. The implementation plan for the Agenda, which would lay out specific steps and activities to be undertaken, would be released in September, and also serve as a basis for monitoring the progress. Speaking in the discussion today were representatives of Pakistan, Chile, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Austria on behalf of the European Union, China, Morocco, New Zealand, Turkey, Argentina, Belgium, United States, Egypt, India, Switzerland, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Republic of Korea, Austria, Syria, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The third and last part of the Conference on Disarmament’s 2018 session, which started on 30 July, will conclude on 14 September. The Conference on Disarmament will hold its next public plenary meeting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 14 August. Opening Remarks by the President of the Conference WALID DOUDECH, Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that the Conference would discuss the Disarmament Agenda that the United Nations Secretary-General had presented on 24 May 2018 in Geneva. This was a good opportunity for Member States to expand and enrich the debate, look for ways and means to address the issues on the agenda of the Conference, and have a dialogue in order to reach agreement on a programme of work. Opening Remarks by the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva MICHAEL MØLLER, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, and Personal Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to the Conference on Disarmament, recalled that “Securing our common future”, the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Disarmament, contained three priorities: disarmament to save humanity, disarmament that saved lives, and disarmament for future generations. The Secretary-General had specifically underlined the importance of partnerships and had called for the reinvigoration of the principal multilateral forums - the Conference on Disarmament and the Disarmament Commission. His Agenda, said the Director-General, aimed to be comprehensive but not exhaustive; it proposed solutions and raised questions; and was not intended to replace responsibilities of Member States, nor to impose any specific measures on them. It aimed to reinvigorate dialogue, stimulate new ideas and create new momentum, and it was therefore very timely that the Conference on Disarmament engaged in this important dialogue, noted Mr. Møller. The Agenda was not simply a food for thought paper; it made suggestions for concrete actions linked to the broader international agenda - particularly the Sustainable Development Goals, “our global roadmap for action”. They focused on practical measures and aimed at integrating disarmament into the priorities of the whole United Nations system, laying the foundation for new partnerships and greater collaboration. The implementation plan for the Agenda, which would lay out specific steps and activities to be undertaken, would be released in September, and would also serve as a basis for monitoring progress. Stressing the critical importance of engaging with civil society, Mr. Møller welcomed initiatives aimed at building stronger partnership across disciplines and institutions, noting as an example the “Geneva Dialogues”, where the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research teamed up with other non-United Nations disarmament platforms in Geneva to organize dialogues on the Agenda itself, and to contribute to shaping how the actions in the Agenda were taken forward. The forthcoming sessions would take place on 15 August on “Disarmament that saves lives”; 29 August on “Disarmament for future generations”; and 5 September on “Strengthening partnerships for disarmament”. Mr. Møller commended the President of the Conference for his personal commitment to broadening and deepening the dialogue between the Conference and with civil society, and announced the holding on 17 August of the Third Civil Society Forum, a dialogue between the Conference on Disarmament and civil society hosted by the Director-General. It would be an opportunity for exchanges on scientific advancements, technological developments and disarmament, with a particular focus on the convergence of the Sustainable Development Goal 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure; Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions; and Sustainable Development Goal 17 on partnerships. The dialogue would also be an important additional venue to continue the discussions on the Secretary-General’s Disarmament Agenda and inform implementation efforts, said Mr. Møller, noting that he was “looking forward to a lively discussion on some of these cutting-edge issues that are squarely in front of this august assembly”. Regarding the Conference on Disarmament, as the Secretary-General had underlined, reinvigorating it required “improved coordination, an end to duplication, better use of expertise, and above all, the political courage to shift positions”. The Secretary-General had committed to work with Member States and investigate possible ways to achieve this, said the Director-General, and concluded by reiterating support to the Conference as it moved forward on all crucial issues that urgently required its attention. Pakistan shared the Secretary-General’s hope that his Agenda for Disarmament would reinvigorate dialogue and negotiations on international disarmament, stimulate new ideas and create a new momentum, and was pleased that the highest priority was attached to the disarmament of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, as well as to the “over-accumulation of all other types of arms”, and the need to “prevent the weaponization of new technologies”. Pakistan stressed the importance of the total elimination of nuclear weapons within a re-energized collective security system, and emphasised that the key motives that drove States like Pakistan to possess nuclear weapons must be recognized and addressed: threats from larger military forces, both nuclear and conventional, and from new types of destabilizing weapon systems; the existence of disputes with more powerful States; and discrimination in the application of international laws and norms, including the failure of the United Nations collective security system to guarantee the peaceful coexistence of all States. Those motivations, said Pakistan, were different from those States that retained nuclear weapons as a matter of prestige, either to maintain or to attain the status of a global power. Any arms control, non-proliferation or disarmament treaty that diminished the security of any State would be a non-starter, as evidenced by the failure to kick off the negotiations on a treaty cutting off the production of fissile material. Real progress on disarmament could only be achieved by addressing the security concerns of all States, while it was imperative to reconsider the negative effects generated by misguided policies of discrimination and double standards driven by strategic commercial considerations. Noting that the threat to regional and international peace and security, and the mistrust between States, were on the rise, Pakistan urged the Secretary-General to call upon Member States to, inter alia, prevent the emergence of new domains of strategic competition and conflict; ensure the security and sustainability of outer space activities; rein in the new types of destabilizing strategic weapons; address the excessive accumulation and illicit trade in conventional arms; rethink unconstrained military spending; and prevent malicious activity in cyberspace. “Ultimately, the responsibility for taking cognizance of all these urgent and important issue falls upon us, the Member States. The Secretary-General can only help us in pointing risks and challenges, and make us aware of the grave consequences associated with them. We have to take charge of addressing these matters ourselves,” concluded Pakistan. Chile shared the frustration of many at the continued stalemate that the Conference on Disarmament continued to experience, and was “prudently optimistic” about the adoption of the decision CD/2119 earlier this year which had created subsidiary bodies. Chile did not believe that the work of those bodies replaced the obligations of the Conference to agree on a programme of work with a negotiating mandate, but appreciated the symbolic value of a step in the right direction and harboured the hope that this mechanism would contribute, through its discussions, to the achievement of a necessary basic agreement which would allow to build confidence and progress towards total and complete disarmament. Chile was concerned about the status of the main items on the Conference’s standing agenda, and lamented that the only way to negotiate an international nuclear weapons ban treaty was to do so outside of this body. This regrettable situation had been caused by a lack of will of a small number of countries that continued to deny the increasingly irrefutable evidence that there were no lawful weapons of mass destruction and that no country or organization would be able to cope with humanitarian consequence of such weapons. That was why Chile had taken an active role in the negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which it hoped would come into force in the near future. Another issue of concern was the lack of agreement on negative security assurances which were a vital step in reducing the threat of nuclear weapons on a path to their total elimination, while the continued high levels of alert maintained by key nuclear powers considerably increased the risk of the use of nuclear weapons, with catastrophic and irreversible consequences for the people and the planet. Chile valued and shared the priorities that the Secretary-General had outlined in his new Agenda for Disarmament, which was broad-ranging and holistic. Chile underscored the humanist approach needed to realign the international security priorities, recalling that in 2017, the global military expenditure was 80 times higher than global expenditure on humanitarian aid, whilst efforts to eradicate poverty and make progress on education, health, and the fight against climate change faced the shortage of resources. The Agenda for Disarmament brought back the focus on individuals’ humanity and future generations; in order to tackle today’s challenges, disarmament, security and sustainable development must be addressed holistically and through collective action at all levels. This action was vital for the fulfilment of the commitments under the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, which would not be achieved without a steadfast commitment of all countries and effective cooperation though existing international mechanisms. Ecuador was aware of the difficulties faced by the Conference on Disarmament to adopt a programme of work in recent years, negotiate substantive issues, and to find political will and a common ground. Ecuador commended every effort of the Secretary-General in the area of disarmament, including his new agenda, and fully agreed with his evaluation about the delicate situation in the world which required new and innovative solutions. The existence of the weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, continued to be the greatest threat, with potentially devastating effects for the planet. With this in mind, Ecuador welcomed the deployment of the Secretary-General’s personal efforts and the greater involvement of the United Nations bodies in disarmament, and supported the strategies which strove to find various mechanisms for confidence-building and risk reduction, consolidate the principle of the non-use of nuclear weapons, strengthen the nuclear weapons free zones, and to improve technical standards for nuclear weapons verification. Those were not new strategies, said Ecuador, and stressed that they had to complement the efforts to negotiate a legally binding treaty for the elimination of nuclear weapons, for which the political will of all States – and in particular the nuclear weapons States – was needed. The second pillar of the Agenda referred to the need to reduce the number of conventional weapons in the world, which caused the largest number of civilian casualties, and stressed the obligation of suppliers of such weapons to do more to prevent the catastrophes that the world was currently witnessing. The control of the flow of small weapons should be better funded to prevent their falling into the wrong hands, and there should be international standards to stop the sale of such weapons to non-State actors and to actors committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The weapons-producing countries should be bound by those standards, stressed Ecuador. It was also important to further the understanding of new technologies and develop strategies to deal with new challenges that they posed. United Kingdom reiterated the commitment to creating the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons and said that, as a Nuclear Weapon State under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the United Kingdom would retain an independent nuclear deterrent for as long as the global security situation demanded. However, the United Kingdom retained only the minimum nuclear forces necessary to deter any aggressor and had cut its nuclear stockpiles by over half since their peak in the late 1970s. An assurance has been given that the United Kingdom would not use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons against any Non-Nuclear Weapons State party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons which complied under its obligations under this Treaty, while by ratifying protocols to the relevant treaties establishing nuclear-weapons-free-zones, the United Kingdom had made legally binding assurances to States in Africa, South and Central America, the South Pacific, and Central Asia. The actions taken at a national level were an important signal of the commitment to disarmament, said the United Kingdom, but it was clear that the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons could only be achieved through a multilateral process. As the Conference on Disarmament and the Non-Proliferation Treaty remained the cornerstones of that process, the United Kingdom would continue to play an active role in the step-by-step process of multilateral disarmament, including promoting the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the commencement of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty. Nuclear disarmament, however, could not be discussed in a vacuum, and all States had a responsibility to comply with their international commitments, whether on nuclear, chemical, biological or conventional weapons, and to support the rules-based international system. All Member States of the Conference on Disarmament had subscribed to the objective of general and complete disarmament under effective international control; in this process, the essential security interests of all States must be respected and that was why the Conference worked by consensus. Making progress towards that goal required courage and imagination to bridge the divides that existed, concluded the United Kingdom. Austria, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said that in his new Disarmament Agenda, the United Nations Secretary-General encouraged the Conference on Disarmament to live up to its potential as the world’s single multilateral disarmament negotiating body and stressed that the ongoing substantive discussions in the five subsidiary bodies should lead to concrete and much-needed outcomes. The European Union shared the Secretary-General’s concern over the current security environment and concurred that dialogue, transparency and confidence-building measures and disarmament education were necessary. The European Union believed that the continued non-compliance by some States with their non-proliferation obligations was a source of concern, and there was a need for accountability and ending impunity for such violations. Strongly condemning the use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anyone, the European Union warmly welcomed the decision of the Special Session of the Conference of States parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention on addressing the threat posed by the increasing use of chemical weapons by reinforcing international verification and attribution capacities and looked forward to the implementation of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons attribution arrangements on Syria. In the same vein, the European Union strongly supported the Secretary-General’s Mechanism for investigation of alleged use of chemical and biological weapons and looked forward to his proposal to develop a stronger international capacity. The European Union had repeatedly stressed the need for concrete progress towards the full implementation of Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, with the ultimate goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons; continued to actively promote universalisation and prompt entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and advocate immediate negotiations in this Conference on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty; and supported international efforts on nuclear disarmament verification and the establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Also, the European Union supported efforts towards the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and underlined the importance of maintaining pressure through sanctions, while keeping channels of communication open, and continued to encourage the two nuclear weapon States with the largest arsenals to extend the new START treaty. With regard to activities in outer space and in cyber space, the European Union supported the implementation of the consensus recommendations of the United Nations Group of Government Experts on Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures in Outer Space Activities, which had concluded, inter alia, that voluntary political measures could form the basis for the consideration of concepts and proposals for legally binding obligations. The European Union welcomed the outcome of the Review Conference of the United Nations programme of work against illicit small arms and light weapons in June 2018 in New York, and highlighting its importance for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, welcomed the Secretary-General’s proposal to establish a dedicated funding facility to support small arms and light weapons control, and also stressed the need to step up national, regional and international efforts against illicit small arms and light weapons which fuelled terrorism and organized crime, triggered conflict and hampered development in many parts of the world. The European Union was finalizing the review of its 2005 small arms and light weapons strategy which would cover illicit manufacture and diversion of firearms, small arms, light weapons and their ammunitions, with the focus of joint efforts on prevention and reduction of illicit small arms and ammunitions trafficking, in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 16.4. The European Union remained a storing and reliable partner of the United Nations, which would contribute to the implementation of the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Disarmament in line with its priorities. China welcomed the discussion on the Secretary-General’s new disarmament agenda which China believed would help build consensus among all delegations and would bring fresh vigour to the work of the Conference. Improvements on the international security scene during the last century had helped move forward the process of arms control and disarmament, which in turn contributed to international peace and stability. Advancing disarmament was one of the major goals for which the United Nations had been created, recalled China, noting that the current global security situation was fraught with complicated challenges. Major powers were experiencing greater tension in their relations, while competition for geopolitical gains was heating up against the backdrop of mounting regional conflicts. Inadequate or non-existent rules in outer space and cyber space were causing greater concerns. Those events had thrown into sharper focus the importance of the international disarmament process. Against this background, the Secretary-General’s disarmament agenda had a positive significance in many respects, and had brought disarmament back to the centre of the United Nations’ efforts. It was an agenda firmly oriented towards peace and development, in line with the “people first” concept, and had listed opportunities and challenges for arms control in such a shifting international environment. This systematic and comprehensive document must be analysed in depth by each delegation, stressed China, and then offered its preliminary reactions. A world free of nuclear weapons remained an aspiration of the international community; this complex goal could not be achieved overnight. The Agenda’s action plan on nuclear disarmament was guided by a gradual approach, stressing the importance of nuclear weapons free zones and reducing risks, an approach that China valued. Concerned about a major power’s efforts to go ahead with creating a space force, China said that the negotiations to conclude a legal instrument to prevent the weaponization of and an arms race in outer space were of utmost priority. In the context of conventional weapons, China expressed appreciation for the concept of saving lives and relevant measures contained in the Secretary-General’s agenda, and reiterated the importance of conventional arms control, and resolving the humanitarian concerns caused by illicit transfer and misuse of conventional weapons. This required addressing the root causes and manifestations of the problems, resolving disputes through diplomatic means, upholding the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, and refraining from transferring weapons to countries and regions in turmoil and non-State entities. The Secretary-General’s Agenda contained constructive suggestions such as dialogue among all States on new weapon technologies, the formulation of norms for responsible behaviour in cyberspace, and good offices to prevent conflicts in cyberspace, and those suggestions should be fully recognized. It was necessary to keep up with the time and discuss the expansion of the Conference’s membership to reduce politicization and reinvigorate it. As a personal initiative from the Secretary-General, continued China, the Agenda for Disarmament naturally did not tally with the views and suggestions of States, but it showed the great importance that the Secretary-General attached to disarmament. The international community should seize this opportunity to push for the early convening of the Fourth Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly devoted to disarmament, and work out a new blueprint for the cause of disarmament in the new century. Morocco informed the Conference on Disarmament of the sixteenth Regional Meeting of the national authorities of States parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention which had taken place from 19 to 21 June 2018 in Marrakech. The meeting had focused on the national implementation of the Convention and consolidating the coordination between governmental services in charge of its implementation, and it had ended in a number of recommendations, including on strengthening the cooperation between national authorities and customs services for an effective trans-border control of toxic chemical weapons, and the establishment of a regional training centre, training of first responders to chemical incidents and developing a training guide for the training centres. For African States, stressed Morocco, the priorities were the effective assistance and protection from chemical weapons, at national and regional levels. As the African Group coordinator, Morocco underlined the critical importance of the regional approach taken by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which was an important asset to entrench the principle of universality of the Convention, and an important tool to be in closer touch with reality, identify the challenges facing States parties and help them to identify their needs in terms of assistance and cooperation, which were specific to each region and sub regions. New Zealand thanked the President for a very constructive suggestion for the Conference on Disarmament to hold a debate on the Agenda for Disarmament, which the Secretary-General had launched recently in Geneva. New Zealand shared the Secretary-General’s view that the new reality of the dangerous times in which we lived required “disarmament and non-proliferation to be put at the centre of the work of the United Nations”. It was the view of New Zealand that each United Nations Member State had the moral, if not legal, responsibility to move forward with strengthening the rules that gave protection to civilians in situations of conflict became all the more urgent during times, as at present, of heightened danger. Noting that in his Agenda the Secretary-General had decided to address the international humanitarian law-related implications of weapons of mass destruction and all the humanitarian consequences underlying them as a rather abstract comment in part I, New Zealand emphasised that, as for so many members of the international community, a key factor in the abhorrence and rejection of all three weapons of mass destruction was anchored in the view that their use was incompatible with the fundamental precepts of international humanitarian law. The Agenda for Disarmament included eight action points on nuclear disarmament, in which the Secretary-General had made the case for renewed dialogue to help Member States “return to a common vision and path leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons” and appealed for the preservation of the norm against the use of nuclear weapons and for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty finally to enter into force. New Zealand strongly supported the Secretary-General’s objectives in this regard and fully shared his view that “it is in the interest of national, collective and human security, as well as the survival of humanity, that nuclear weapons are never used again under any circumstances”. New Zealand further endorsed the Secretary-General’s observations in his Agenda regarding chemical weapons, and welcomed his action point regarding the need for the United Nations Security Council to provide for attribution and accountability for the horrific use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Conference on Disarmament must take a lion’s share of responsibility for the decades of paralysis. New Zealand did not see any basis for optimism that the decision the Conference had taken earlier this year to establish a number of subsidiary bodies would prove instrumental in enabling it to meet its mandate, any more than similar bodies had done so in previous years. New Zealand echoed the Secretary-General’s wish that the Agenda for Disarmament would be able to serve as a catalyst for new ideas and new ways of working together, so that disarmament would be restored to the centre of the international community’s common efforts for peace and security. Turkey recalled that in the second half of August, with the beginning of the Turkish Presidency, the Conference on Disarmament would work on the preparation and adoption of its annual report to the United Nations General Assembly. As the sixth and last President of the Conference on Disarmament in 2018, Turkey expected to distribute the first draft of the annual report in the week starting on 20 August, and, with a view to producing a factual and balanced annual report, invited all interested Member States to hold informal consultations during which they could express their preliminary views. Turkey thanked the Secretary-General for his Disarmament Agenda, which was important, critical and timely, and taken out of necessity, given the stalemate at the Conference on Disarmament and the slow pace in other disarmament fora. In this vein, Turkey fully welcomed the putting of disarmament and non-proliferation efforts at the centre of the United Nations and assigning new roles to disarmament, such as maintaining peace and security, protecting civilians and promoting sustainable development. Noting that of the 40 distinct actions in the Agenda, 16 had been assigned to United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and 10 to the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Turkey stressed the importance of strengthening their institutional capacities to enable them to assume those important responsibilities. Turkey urged more focus on weapons of mass destruction and new technologies in the Agenda’s implementation plan, supported efforts to strengthen the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention, and stressed that there was a vast space for public diplomacy in strengthening the norm against all kinds of weapons of mass destruction. Maximum protection of civilians in all conflicts should be a priority for all, said Turkey, and urged that in various platforms, ways to strengthen international humanitarian law should be explored. A grave concern was the use of armed unmanned aerial vehicles by terrorist organizations, said Turkey, which noted the exploring of common standards for the transfer, use and holding of drones. The suggestions in the Secretary-General’s Agenda on tackling small arms and light weapons, maintenance of excessive stockpiles, promotion of regional dialogue and confidence building, were other strong points of the initiative. Argentina stressed that it was absolutely vital for the Conference on Disarmament to have a sustainable approach towards adopting a programme of work and avoiding stagnation which undermined the credibility of the Conference and its members. The valuable work undertaken by the Way Ahead Working Group in 2017 had led to the establishment of the five subsidiary bodies this year, allowing for a more in-depth dialogue. Argentina hoped that the reports by subsidiary bodies would help identify the common issues and thus be a solid argument for extending the mandate of the subsidiary bodies to the 2019 session. The debate on some of the Conference’s traditional issues, such as fissile materials or the prevention of an arms race in outer space, had been tackled on a more technical level on other fora. In this context, Argentina agreed with the Secretary-General who in his agenda had raised the need to improve coordination and synergy between the main disarmament bodies. Resolution 71/259 establishing the high level preparatory group for the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty paved the way for this kind of exchange, as it required the Secretary-General to transmit the Group’s report to the Conference on Disarmament before its 2019 session. The upcoming presidencies of the Conference should envisage holding a public debate on this, and other reports. Belgium welcomed the Secretary-General’s will to breathe new life in the debate on disarmament, including by identifying a number of points for concrete action. Belgium joined the appeal to all States to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and so enable its entry into force and remarked that the irreversible and legally-binding end to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s nuclear testing programme could be rendered through the signature and the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty by this State. Belgium also welcomed the Secretary-General’s support to the commencement and early conclusion of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty which was an indispensable step on the way towards a nuclear weapons free world. On the use of chemical weapons, Belgium welcomed the Secretary-General’s commitment to building new leadership and unity in restoring respect for the global norm against chemical weapons and his support for new and impartial mechanisms to identify perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic. Belgium called for the swift implementation of the decision of the Fourth Special Session of the Conference of the States parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention that should lead to an operational attribution mechanism. Belgium welcomed the Secretary-General’s announced actions to address armed violence and the diversion of weapons, stressed the importance of mainstreaming the fight against illicit small arms and light weapons and their ammunition in post-conflict and reconstruction operations, and called for the universalisation of the Arms Trade Treaty as an essential instrument to regulate the international trade in conventional arms. Belgium welcomed the whole-of-system approach promoted by the Secretary-General on improvised explosive devices, and – also in the context of mine action - urged the Secretary-General to place victim assistance at the top of the United Nations mine action priorities. United States noted that the United States had submitted a written response to the letter by China and Russia regarding the United States’ analysis on the draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, and which would soon be circulated as a Conference on Disarmament document. As for the outcomes of the July 16 Helsinki meeting between President Trump and Russian President Putin, the United States said that the aim had been to have a conversation about the United States-Russia relations, which were at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War, and to explore Moscow’s willingness to address the very real issues that had led to this very place. Better relations between those two countries was in the interest of the entire world, and the United States was clear-eyed about the challenges Russia presented to its national interests and those of its allies and partners. No agreements had been reached in Helsinki, beyond for the two sides to keep talking on the entire range of issues that the Presidents had discussed. As the two preponderant nuclear powers, the two States had a duty to manage their relationship responsibly, said the United States and added that another round of strategic stability talks would take place in the future. President Putin had suggested a working group of academics and former officials from both countries to work on the political issues, and had reiterated interest in working groups on cyber and counterterrorism, on which the United States had not yet made a decision. The Presidents had reviewed key international issues, including the situation in Syria, the concerns about Iranian activities in the region, denuclearization of “North Korea” and the situation in Ukraine. United Kingdom said that the decision of the Secretary-General to launch the Disarmament Agenda in Geneva was a recognition of the importance of Geneva in the disarmament world and its added value in being able to link the disarmament community to the humanitarian, human rights and development work that was taking place here. The area ripest for the progress was part III of the Agenda titled “Disarmament that saves lives”, said the United Kingdom, which welcomed in particular the call for disarmament and arms control to be better integrated into the United Nations’ wider peace and security agenda, and agreed on the need to further study how arms control instruments could be best applied in the conflict cycle to prevent conflict or the return to conflict. The United Kingdom welcomed the recognition that norms against chemical weapons use had been challenged in recent years by their repeated use – so far with impunity – in Syria, as well as in Malaysia and the United Kingdom, and strongly supported the commitment to building the capacity of the Secretary-General’s Investigative Mechanism into the alleged use of biological weapons. The section dealing with nuclear issues appeared to offer no new ideas beyond the use of the Secretary-General’s good offices to explore new approaches and measures to reduce risks and build confidence. “Unsurprisingly”, said the United Kingdom”, “we do not support the sections on the Ban Treaty, which will never become a multilateral norm and never constitute customary international law”. On the issue of increased automation of weapons, the United Kingdom welcomed the Secretary-General’s insistence that humans must remain in control of the use of force at all times, and echoed the call for the equal, full and effective participation of women in disarmament processes. Egypt said that in the current security landscape, disarmament measures assumed an indispensable role in preventing the international community from drifting into a new arms race that could extend conflict into other domains such as in outer space. It was unfortunate that the Conference on Disarmament had been stagnating for more than two decades, said Egypt, which fully shared the Secretary-General’s view that nuclear disarmament and the total elimination of nuclear weapons remained among the highest priorities for the United Nations. The step-by-step approach essentially promoted by nuclear weapons States had failed to produce systematic and concrete results towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, Egypt said, stressing that the commencement and early conclusion of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty could significantly contribute to the goal of nuclear disarmament, provided that it encompassed within its scope the existing stocks of fissile materials. By establishing a norm against nuclear weapons, non-nuclear weapons States had practically contributed to the implementation of the Secretary-General’s Agenda, by adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Outer space must be preserved as a domain to be used solely for peaceful purposes, and any use of force in this fragile environment would likely bring lasting and devastating impacts, emphasised Egypt, which welcomed the readiness of the United Nations Secretariat to deepen engagement with Member States on the elaboration of effective measures to prevent an arms race in outer space. Egypt welcomed the engagement of the United Nations with Member States to foster the practical implementation of transparency and confidence-building measures, with the understanding that there were no substitutes to legally binding instruments. Egypt urged the Secretary-General to work with States in the Middle East to establish a zone free of nuclear and any other weapons of mass destruction, on the basis of the resolutions adopted by the Review and Extension Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which remained valid until fully implemented. India was pleased that the President had chosen to dedicate today’s plenary meeting to a discussion on the United Nations Secretary-General’s Disarmament Agenda, which was a timely and relevant initiative. The Agenda was comprehensive, broad-ranging and balanced, addressing weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons, and India welcomed the Secretary-General’s willingness to work directly with Member States to facilitate dialogue among governments, including through the creation of informal platforms to explore new approaches and measures to reduce risks and build confidence. “In a changing world, finding new forums and formats to discuss and move forward in disarmament will be as important as leveraging existing forums”, said India. As a responsible State that possessed nuclear weapons, India had on several occasions reiterated the need for meaningful dialogue among all nuclear armed States to build trust and confidence and to reduce the salience of nuclear weapons in their security doctrines. There was also a need to bridge the growing divide on disarmament through dialogue and a renewed commitment to multilateralism, in line with the Secretary-General’s call that “all States, nuclear and non-nuclear, must work together to bridge the gulf that divides them”. India also agreed with the Secretary-General when he had referred to the negotiation of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty as the oldest outstanding priority on the nuclear disarmament agenda. Switzerland said that the Secretary-General’s Agenda was a vital document, and that no other Secretary-General in the past had looked into the definition of disarmament in such a detailed way and explored how disarmament efforts contributed to achieving the United Nations goals. A significant development was the role of disarmament in prevention, not only of conflicts waged using weapons of mass destruction but of regional or intra-State conflicts as well. This preventive dimension was a part and parcel of the Secretary-General’s call to reflect on rapid science and technology development, and Switzerland welcomed the view of disarmament as an important measure to reduce the effects of conflict that could not be prevented, and as such played a vital role in civilian protection. Disarmament activities played an important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, stressed Switzerland. The Secretary-General’s Agenda dealt with disarmament in a holistic way and reminded of the importance and potential impact of disarmament activities for the realization of common goals shared by many States, and it was important for States to take full ownership of this document. The Agenda had highlighted the importance of the Conference on Disarmament as the main multilateral forum for disarmament and the importance it had in surmounting the challenges identified in the Agenda. Partnerships must be strengthened to make progress on disarmament, concluded Switzerland. Japan welcomed the Secretary-General’s Disarmament Agenda and his trip to Nagasaki this week, a testament to his commitment to engage more actively in disarmament fora. Japan appreciated the attempt to view disarmament in a comprehensive manner and said that Japan would continue to work hard with other stakeholders in the area of conventional weapons, including small arms and light weapons. In this vein, the Fourth Conference of States parties to the Arms Trade Treaty would start on 20 August in Tokyo. Japan emphasised the importance of the role of young people in disarmament and recalled that it had been promoting, since 2013, an effort to transmit the realities of atomic bombings to future generations and foster youth’s critical thinking. Japan wondered to what extent today’s discussion was relevant to the Conference on Disarmament, without talking about the Conference. The Conference on Disarmament would require improved coordination, an end to duplication, and above all, political courage to shift positions. Japan had actively participated in all sessions of the five subsidiary bodies and said that reasonable ambition and a certain level of formality should be sought as those bodies entered their final phase of agreeing on reports. Russia recalled that any delegation – as well as the President - had the right to submit in a plenary session any issue concerning the work of the Conference on Disarmament, and wondered why delegations were never asked for their opinion on the President’s proposal to dedicate a plenary meeting to a discussion on the Secretary-General’s Disarmament Agenda. Russia also recalled that, according to the practice, the introduction of any new initiative should be preceded by informal consultations, during which participants could freely share their thoughts that would be constrained in a public meeting, in which everyone spoke on record. Russia further noted that there was a need to define what the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Disarmament was, noting that, since it had not been adopted by the General Assembly, it reflected the Secretary-General’s personal views on disarmament issues. The Conference on Disarmament was not a part of the United Nations Secretariat, which would “immediately salute and start implementing the instructions of the Secretariat’s highest official”. The discussion should had been on how the Secretary-General’s document should help the Conference on Disarmament to restore its efficiently. Instead of dealing with its main priority - the development of a balanced programme of work – the Conference was “wasting its time on a scholastic exercise of a dubious practical application”. Without relaunching the negotiations, the Conference on Disarmament would not be able to make a contribution to anything. WALID DOUDECH, Permanent Representative of Tunisia and President of the Conference, responding to the comments made by Russia concerning the holding of this debate, said that he had not imposed the topic of the Secretary-General’s Disarmament Agenda, rather, he had proposed a debate, with a view to facilitating the work of the Conference and the adoption of a programme of work, which was the responsibility of the President. The President further clarified that delegations were free to engage, or not, in this discussion, and added that each delegation also had an opportunity to express their views in informal consultations which the President had been carrying out since the beginning of his mandate. Brazil said it had already hailed the United Nations Secretary-General’s Agenda as it provided a sober and comprehensive narrative on current and future challenges and opportunities, and a solid basis for responding to them. It was a pivotal document to be considered in this body, said Brazil, as the Conference on Disarmament remained instrumental in moving the Secretary-General’s vision forward. The Agenda could help provide the push and momentum to shift gears and further deepen the work already underway on the different agenda items, towards the return to negotiations. It explicitly recognized that it was up to international, and particularly multilateral, action to shape and change international conditions, not the other way around, and it also stepped away from the artificial opposition proposed by some between the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and so helped frame the current discussion on nuclear disarmament on the real issues and threats posed by the existence of nuclear weapons. The Agenda could be seen as a roadmap for the constellation of disarmament fora and institutions, from which the Conference on Disarmament could and should profit. Republic of Korea would be able to share its concrete views on the Secretary-General’s Agenda later, when its implementation plan would be unveiled, and stressed that today’s exercise was timely and valuable, especially as the initiative served to reinvigorate stalled disarmament processes, in particular, this body’s two-decade stalemate. The Republic of Korea appreciated the Secretary-General’s noble endeavours to facilitate dialogue among States, provide intellectual resources to the disarmament community and strengthen coordination within the United Nations, and hoped that all political, intellectual and administrative courses of action would contribute to enhancing trust and confidence. His good offices and mediation based on impartiality and balanced views could prime a disarmament pump by creating conditions conductive to disarmament. Disarmament could not take place in a vacuum but in the context of security, development and human rights as a whole, and the Republic of Korea welcomed the strong commitment to incorporate a gender perspective in the field of disarmament, as the equal and genuine participation of women in the work of disarmament would make a meaningful impact on disarmament itself. Austria said that in times of heightened tensions, stepping up disarmament efforts became all the more important, adding that the Secretary-General’s personal commitment underlined the necessity of global disarmament for the benefit of global stability, as well as national and collective security. Austria also welcomed the action oriented approach of the Agenda and hoped that the Conference on Disarmament could contribute to the implementation of the actions relevant to its own agenda. Austria remained fully committed to effective multilateralism with the United Nations at its core, and efforts to enhance mutual trust and confidence, and noted that the multilateral system needed to keep pace with the evolution of the global environment. To uphold the international disarmament and non-proliferation regime, everyone should engage in making it ready for the twenty-first century challenges and needs. In terms of the Secretary-General’s Agenda, Austria outlined the three main areas of focus in which it would continue its substantive engagement, and outlining the unacceptable catastrophic humanitarian harm, stressed that the prohibition of nuclear weapons was a humanitarian imperative. In this context, Austria welcomed the Secretary-General’s call on Member States to revitalize their pursuit of the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and his announcement to redouble his efforts to re-energize nuclear disarmament discussions. Syria remarked that many States and regional groups were still considering the Secretary-General’s Agenda and developing a position on its many aspects and welcomed the renewed priority given to disarmament. The Secretary-General’s Agenda covered a wide range of issues beyond the agenda of the Conference on Disarmament and its mandate as a negotiating forum, thus it was necessary to have a deep discussion to reach an agreement among Member States. Syria welcomed the fact that disarmament had been again put at the heart of the United Nations and the agenda for collective security, as stated by the United Nations Charter, and stressed the importance of abiding by priorities in this field, set by the First Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on disarmament. With regards to the issues on the agenda of the Conference on Disarmament, Syria supported the adoption of a treaty on the total elimination of nuclear weapons and a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, on condition that it included the existing stockpiles of fissile materials. Syria shared the Secretary-General’s concern about the unilateral use of force by some States in a manner that violated the principles of the United Nations Charter, and stressed that the possession and use of military force alone, without the wisdom of international cooperation, could not provide security. Syria welcomed the proposal by the Agenda for the creation of a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East, which was also a legal commitment, on the basis of the resolutions adopted by the Review and Extension Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Syria hoped that there would be calls to the only nuclear weapon State in the Middle East to join the treaty and place its nuclear installations under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea recalled that the Joint Statement signed by the United States and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in Singapore in June had underlined the commitments of both countries in establishing new bilateral relations and building a lasting peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. Pressure through sanctions was not an absolute solution to problems, and diplomacy accompanied by pressure never worked. Confidence-building was the key to the full implementation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-United States Joint Statement; both parties had to take simultaneous actions and phased steps. Giving priority to confidence building was the only practical way forward. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea stood firm in its determination and commitment to the implementation of the Joint Statement in a responsible and good faith manner. For use of the information media; not an official record

I love trying new things, especially when those new things are not only healthy but delicious, too! Here, I'm trying and reviewing two popular and well-known convenience snacks—Synergy Kombucha (Cosmic Cranberry) and LÄRABAR Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Vegan Bar! Are you trying to lose weight or just live a more generally healthy lifestyle? Are you also pinching pennies together? Either way, I've got the list for you. When it comes to losing weight or eating healthier, we need to buy certain foods, because we are more likely to reach for those foods we have in stock, and thus, we are more likely to stick to our diets. Unfortunately, this is the part where a lot of us suffer, especially if money is tight or we are sticking to a tight grocery budget. What to buy? What to eat? Where to even start? Regret is a very tough emotion to deal with. It's one of those negative feelings that makes you second guess every one of your decisions. At the end of the day, we have to trust ourselves in our choices and forgive ourselves for our mistakes. There's a huge difference between letting go and looking back. We need to focus our time, energy, and heart into the things that make us happy, healthy, and whole. Need a sweet treat that is healthy, filling, cheap, easy to make, only 3 ingredients, and is as delicious for breakfast as it is for dessert? Look no further than my recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Cookies! 4 of the best budget lip products and my personal favorite shades. Outdoor workouts really remind me of being a kid again—getting dirty, the feel of the sun on your skin, the smell of the grass and the wind in the air, the sound of traffic and birds...While it can be nice, there are also some downsides to working out while outside. So which is better, working out outside or indoors, like in your home or a gym? Well, I'm going to weigh the pros and cons of doing your workout outside, and you can judge for yourself! Mario Badescu is by far one of my absolute favorite brands for skin care, and I know that’s a sentiment a lot of people share with me. With its high-end quality and affordable price tag, this line of products gives serious results without having to break the bank. Here, I review the Cleansing Milk with Carnation & Rice Oil, Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs, and Rosewater, and the Glycolic Foaming Cleanser! There are some colors that are cultural mainstays in modern fashion and life. I've listed some of the most popular trendy colors of our time, and what your favorites say about you, your personality, and your sense of style. Plus, I give you a few ideas about how to incorporate these particular colors in to your wardrobe and life...ways that you may not have even considered before! June is here, and that means summer is, too! 2017 is halfway over and that feels strange...Doesn't it?

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Revolutionary RSO Reaches Recreational On July 1, 2016, Washington state officially closed hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries. What was once a more affordable, independent market for sincere medical consumers, became a recreational sub-market overnight, subject to recreational pricing and inventory. This transition understandably caused turmoil within the state’s medical cannabis community, which now must renew the struggle to get medical patients easy access to reasonably priced treatments. One small positive for the larger cannabis community may be that there will now be broader education about medical cannabis. Recreational users will be more exposed to medical products and advancements. Likewise, sellers and producers should be more prepared to discuss the medical advantages and efficacy of their products. Knowledge is power, friends, and this power can open new frontiers. During Washington’s transition, one cannabis product has seen notable crossover appeal on the heels of better production methods. RSO oil was heralded as a cancer cure and championed by marijuana and cancer activist Rick Simpson so it had an established medical following. But the alcohol-extracted cannabis oil didn’t find wider appeal until Washington’s medical demand forced recreational stores to put it on the shelves. As RSO gained retail visibility, crossover demand grew quickly as consumers learned about RSO’s fuller spectrum of active cannabis compounds, promising more holistic therapeutic effects and a better overall experience. At the same time, as Northwest consumers discovered these synergistic benefits, a breakthrough in RSO’s alcohol extraction process, not to be confused with alcohol distillation, produced the first RSO oil that could be vaped and dabbed as well as ingested. The new RSO resembled other cannabis oils and was suddenly available in more recognizable forms inspiring organic demand. How is RSO different from other oils? RSO is the most complete cannabis oil in terms of delivering a chemical structure that is most similar to the natural cannabis plant. Ethanol (or grain) alcohol extraction draws the most active compounds from cannabis plant matter, including a broader scope of cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids which work together for a more pleasant experience. Ethanol, which is safe for human consumption, is both a polar and non-polar extracting solvent, so it preserves a more complete spectrum of compounds than other common solvents. CO2 or butane, by comparison, are solely non-polar and only draw select compounds to their polarity. Even alcohol distillation, in which plant compounds are extracted and then separated or fractioned, can only provide select parts of what the plant has to offer. The bottom line is that ethanol-extracted RSO contains more compounds than any other oil. Not all RSO is created equal though. RSO was long known as being a black, bad tasting, and un-smokable product. It was basically reserved for severe medical cases, patients who tolerated the aesthetic drawbacks because of RSO’s effectiveness. Because smoking was not an option, oral ingestion was the easiest method for consumption and people learned to tolerate or hide the taste in creative ways. The next generation of RSO oil promises a better experience and more convenient consumption methods for both medical and recreational consumers. Why is RSO so medically effective? You may have heard about “Whole Plant Medicine” or “The Entourage Effect.” These theories promote the use of all (or more of) the therapeutic compounds in cannabis, as opposed to chasing singular benefits like THC or CBD levels. The thought is that by focusing on individual elements, we miss out on the plant’s other notable qualities and, more importantly, the group effect of different compounds that makes cannabis such a miracle plant. With the current lack of thorough scientific data, it’s not hard to believe that there is a world of undiscovered or overlooked properties in cannabis. In fact, there is a burgeoning scientific movement aimed at studying and understanding the vast array of terpenes, cannabinoids, even flavonoids in cannabis and how they react together and individually with the human body. People acknowledge varying experiences from different cannabis strains, but we have yet to reach a scientific research-based consensus on how the complex elements of cannabis affect us in combination. As High Times cultivation editor-at-large Nico Escondido described recently in the Letters section (HT, September 2016), “Independent research being conducted at universities and government agencies around the world is now providing us with evidence that the “entourage effect” is more fact than myth, meaning that THC (or even CBD) is no longer considered the key factor in how cannabis flowers effect users. Additionally, scientific research has discovered that a person’s individual chemotype is also a major factor… There’s a reason we call cannabis the ‘miracle plant’— because taken as a whole, she’s simply miraculous! But broken down into her individual components, she’s just like the rest of us— not the best that she could be.” If you would like to read more about “The Entourage Effect” and potential cannabinoid synergy, we recommend Ethan Russo’s scientific paper “Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects,” which was published in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Read: Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects So, will RSO oil take off in the larger cannabis market? At this time the only known version of this new complete oil is RSO+GO produced using Essential Innovations extractors. Essential Innovations, a Seattle company, claims that their cutting-edge system produces “an absolute clean and pure oil, extracted in a closed system that eliminates contaminates from the outside world while maintaining all of the precious unaltered compounds. It is virtually unrecognizable from the primitive, dirty RSO that people used to know.” This product appears to live up to this description and the company has made it their mission to spread the word about the potential of RSO oil for both established medical benefits and a more enjoyable recreational experience. “Our RSO oil still maintains all of the compounds of the well-known medical RSO,” says Essential Innovations co-founder Casey Steele, “but we’ve taken it to a new level by treating it the same as any other product you would allow in your body. Free of contaminants from the outside world. We don’t think dirt and other human contamination that occurs during the growing process and material prep should enter into the concentrated oil you ingest. For the first time smokers can experience and enjoy the true flavor of the cannabis flower and its effects in the purest form as nature intended. Our bodies absorb differently through oral ingestion versus smoking, therefore creating a different experience.” It’s been awhile since cannabis enthusiasts have seen a groundbreaking advancement that produces a truly superior new product. RSO’s growing popularity with recreational users in Washington state should provide an adequate test-group from which to draw strong opinions and analysis. Let the RSO discussion begin.

I was sparked into arranging this discussion by a question that Stuart Clarke asked at the joint SCI/RSC Colloids / FSTG Meeting in January and a subsequent discussion with Paul and Stuart Clarke. Then Colin Bain suggested that such a topic would resonate with Tom McLeish, so Simon managed to persuade Paul, Stuart and Tom, as acdemics to be futurologist what has traditionally been the very industrial led topic, very much feeding them to the lions. They were all suitably provocative largely painting a picture of revolutionary formulation needing to go back to first principle to rebuild formulation, with one of the challenges being to retain the vast pragmatic experience which exists within different industries. Tom McLeish gave us a verbal view of revolutionary formulation based on experience from the past, where the formulation / design of long chain polymer melts has gone from an entirely empirical process to one that is now driven by precise understanding of the role of topology and structure in generating desired rheological behaviours. Tom explained has this had taken an act of faith on the part of all concerned, industry allowing academics to work on understanding pure materials which appeared to have little industrial relevance and academia faith that if they delivered new understanding industry would be willing to validate this new science. After 25 years industry has robust reliable product design process and academia has a new understanding of polymer melt rheology. To make this happen industry had to fund research not just do work / supply materials in kind and funding bodies had to provide at least matching funding. Tom had a nice analogy that instead of going through the industrial forest of polymeric complexity, he was able to climb up the in-silico knowledge mountain and hence was able to see the way through the forest from above. So for formulation science Tom feels that first we need to belive there is a theory of formulation or set of theories and go mountain climbing to start looking for the big rules, big structure, high dimensional spaces of mixing, know what is linear and what is non-linear, is there something that looks like thermodynamics, can we find the short cuts / empirical strategies. Tom fully acknowledged that his example is trivial compared to much of the formulation discussed during FF, we will need to keep the academic / industrial collaboration together for 25 years at least. So Tom wondered how his friends at EPSRC would cope with this, but there is already a great example in the UK Quantum Technologies Plan under which BEIS has has brought together Innovate UK and the Research Councils for a 25 year programme. So can formulation bring together communities that cross between academia and industry which will sustain a 25 year engagement that ensure that an employment rich innovation based industry grows in the UK and doesn't depart for global shores. I guess my unhelpful immediate reaction was along the lines of "its formulation science Tom, but not as we know it", which I now regret as the more I think about Tom's vision the more it resonates with my experiences. Paul Bartlett took an apparently different approach, with a couple of generic questions to which he posed some answers. The first question is one of unity / focus. EPSRC managed to engage a very diverse set of scientist and engineers in the FFCP grants, so are they all doing formulation science or even do we know what formulation science is. Once we are sure we are doing formulation science then it by definition spans many industries, where formulation is often the key IP which companies hold, so how do we achieve the degree of openness to spot what are the generic questions and what are the generic knowledge bases. The FFCP projects focus on highly specific to address these specific future formulation challenges, but are we missing the generic. The second question is are we focussing too much on making things. Making things is obviously important, but in fact we need to understand things across time, from raw materials to long term product stability. So essentialy are there way to produce a theory which tells us how important parameters evolve over time - so we can measure things and make predictions of for example long term stability - our 1 day stability test to predict many year performance. Paul felt that in order for the computer simulations discussed during the meeting to start to fill some of our gaps in understanding then they will need to at a more coarse grained level, where we can cope not only with the time evolution of a formulation, but also the stocahstic variability across different batches. The future vision is that we go from shelf reaching to predictive science, all sorts of pressures are making this imperative - need to remove materials of concern, need to improve robustness of products so they can cope with varability and then as described for biopharmaceuticals where formulation is no longer the last step in the drug development process, drastically increasing the cost of getting it wrong. We have accepted that formulation science has to deal with complexity, formulations with 20 or 30 components, no one gets sacked for adding a new ingredient into a formulation, to achieve a robust predictive science simpler more effective formulations are both needed and will be a byproduct of this predictive formulation science. Biology works with a very small set of components but links them together in very sophisticated / adaptive ways to produce the correct properties for the environment. Our formulations are crude they do something at time 0 and ideally still do that same thing at time 1 year. Paul is not convinved that high throughout will get us a revolution in formulation, reach bottle faster. For discovery we need a new synthetic chemistry which will connect molecules across length scales to give us additional control to produce the properties required. Generic feature not addressed to-date? Free energy pathways for shelf-life predictions Long-time predictability from short-time lab experiments Novel coarse-grained simulation techniques Data analytics for formulation variability / design Slide 2 - Future demands on formulation science "Bucket" chemistry -> Predictive science Formulation "environment" expanding Complexity - is it necessary - Adaptive? Stuart Clarke described himself as a very surprised aademic from Cambridge to find himself on a formulation panel. However, experience of formulation issues through the 90's DTI-Link programme, day to day academic surface scientist understanding how molecules absorb. Stuart felt that formulation science being built on a reductive model where models of formulations are built from understanding pure components, has meant that the generic models are rarely found or used. Similarities to the situation in the 90's but with lots of nice advances, highlight how as Tom said this is a 25 year challenge even to address some of the simpler systems, so there is an ongoing need to involve funding bodies, as it can be a challenge to get industries' sight beyond the next 6 months to the next product, but industry engagement is key to keep the academics "honest" focused on the big industrial challenge, and not get side-tracked into nice science. Only with these generic models would we be able to effectively screen materials / optimise formulations in-silico to drive true predictive formulation, these models will need to incorporate the formulation expertise that already exsits in industrialist minds. Nice things have happened over time, our capability to understand these complex system is definitely improving - electron microscopy, synchroton, afm-ir. Differnt length / time scales, chemical complexity, temperature pressure shear. Huge parameter space 20 / 30 components - synergies / antagonisms, is it ever going to be realistic to understand these complex systems. Clever Characterisation for Smarter Formulation meeting is very relevant. In-silico very attractive, but commercial system very complex - is it feasible, need to keep chemistry but go across time / length scales - will it ever going to be accurate enough to avoid screening. Theory plus modelling from multi-disciplinary - hunt as a pack - need around same table to understand these problems. Different approach systems formulation - never deal with complexities - single components are often complex differnt molecular weights etc.. So step back and concentrate on parameters which determine properties of interest, won't know what a specific component does, but know about the group / class of molecules which do things - not a molecular approach but an effective approach. Slide 1 - Reductive Approach Understand components -> build models ('generic understanding') -> predict materials / screen / optimise Basic problems similar in many ways to those of 20 years ago (some nice advances!!) -> Need longer term vision / structure EPSRC / Industry / Academia -> maintain know-how / experience How to keep on agenda (if important but not 'sexy')? -> Advances for the future Exp: growth in capability (Electron microscopy/synchrotons/AFM-IR etc.) Lengthscales / timescales / chemical insight / in-situ P, T, gamma Huge parameter space and synergistic etc.. Clever Characterisation for Smarter Formulation II - 6th November, RSC Modelling: very attractive but complex commercial systems challenging Include chemistry/many components/bug systems/shear etc. When will this be accurate enough to make screening unecessary? Chemistry/Chemical Engineering / Applied Maths / Physics / Materials Science Slide 2 - Alternative Approaches E.g. 'System Biology' -> 'Systems formulation' Will never be able to deal with full chemical and physical complexity (sovle a sub-set of 'easy' problems) Forget details- localise on the parameters that matter (effect physics properties we care about). High throughput studies -> key parameter analysis (Robin's talk today) 'understanding' but not 'molecules'...('effective' components?) I can see a lot of commonality between 3 visions: negative formulations / removing components (what did the other 15 components do?); using the big theory for formulation to drive simplification; need for UK formulation community. in terms of the formulation network then there is the possibility to apply for a network grant from the EPSRC - mainly to support network building. Other countries treat formulation differently - larger academic base in France, UK its "chemists in industry", Germany more elaborate approach across the different Max Plancks / Frauenhofers / Universities. UK formulation science is strongly routed in industrial expertise, need to move to wider base with more talking across the community - would a stronger academic community help this? However, it is important we don't just have the conversation, but also capture the knowledge. In general we don't do the analysis of accidents - i.e. when a formulation fails you don't get the Hazop type capturing of what went wrong in the way it is in chemical process safety. To allow this process to occur with the inherent knowledge capture, then industry has to give up a bit of space (secrecy) to give academia some space to synthesis. CPI is getting industry together, which is starting to give a mechanism for translation of formulation science (knowledge / expertise) between industries. The UK has an active professional formulation community (FSTG / Joint Colloid Group / IChemE manufacturing etc.), and a developing corporate community, how do we bridge across the professional formulation discussions into the corporate formulation discussions. The discussion could be seen to imply that industry doesn't know what it is doing, in fact a lot of industries do understand what they are selling, so not starting from a zero knowledge state and any revolution will need to take this knowledge forward. The huge opportunity is to go to predictive design. In pharmacy you need to get the experimental data in order to get regulatory approval, so in-silico design does not help - so academia needs to engage with regulation to allow innovation. Regulation could be seen as stifling innovation, but in fact COSHH / REACH drive innovation by forcing removal of components. Regulation / specification tests are often used in the development process and while this obviously aids final acceptance / approval, they are often inappropriate in that they are either too complex, too slow or require a completely formulated product and as such increase resource needed for formulation development or slow the process. There is a need for development tests which guide formulation develoment, these could be physical tests, indications from sophiticated analytical equipment or even in-silico simulations. Effectively screening formulations so that fewer formulations are put through the regulation / specification tests. Many of the examples both in the presentations / the discussions were around performance properties which could be easily measured, i.e. rheology, allowing measurement to drive optimisation and give the opportunity for acceleration. The performance of many formulations are complex not easily measured, i.e. mouth feel / skin feel and so make it difficult to drive formulation. Many raw materials are also not constant, very vary batch to batch / season to season, any revolutionary formulation science will need to be able to deal with these variations. Formulators are looking for unexpected synergy, how will you ever get this from in-silico - won't see the surprises - never replace laboratory formulation - guidance / picture of how things interact. Physical science will find synergies, but won't connect to the full formulation performance. Surprising that there has been no mention of sustainability in the presentations or discussions - surely the biggest challenge that formulation faces is the need to change the palette of materials to drive formulation towards a circular economy. Formulation community will need to be interdisciplinary, but also across different industries. Different industries don't have the same language so how do one industry spot their solution from another industry. Aerospace does it well, but perhaps easier with common performance criteria. In general while processing has been mentioned today, processing aspects have been understated and they are absolutely key to successful formulation, a need not only for revolutionary formulation science, but also revolutionary formulation engineering. The end of the discussions we were left with a lot to think about and some a big open question - perhaps formulation is always going to be evolutionary. Personally I believe that there is the potential for a new approach, for example I suspect that many formulations are more complex in terms of number of components because the processing is in fact too simple. So to take a simple example a processing aid is often added to enable efficient manufacture, I suspect if the time / temperature shear behaviour of the major components and their interactions was better understood then it would be possible to find a set of manufacturing conditions which allow this component to be eliminated from the formulation. So the revolution will be that a component is only added once it has been shown that it is either essential for performance or no manufacturing conditions exist in which the product could be manufactured without it. This sounds obvious / what we do now, but in fact it will only be possible once we can combine the theory to direct our formulation, with high throughput techniques that allow us to explore complex parameter spaces fully and use the advance in characterisation to understand the structure of our formulations.

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The 18th annual Webby Awards were announced yesterday, and among the big winners were the Guardian for their coverage of the NSA surveillance story, the BBC, The New York Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, and Jimmy Kimmel. The talk show host took home the top honor for viral video of the year for his "Worst Twerk Fail EVER - Girl Catches Fire" from September, which you may remember as the Gabriel's Trumpet of the impending internet hoax apocalypse. You can check out the rest of the winners here, presented by the Webby's chief sponsor, Internet Explorer. (That's a particularly ironic bit of sponsorship there, by the way, coming as the Department of Homeland Security is warning people against using the Microsoft browser due to a significant security breach. Internet Explorer is broken, in other words, and, as we've been saying for a while now, so is the internet itself. Synergy!) Recognizing Kimmel's hoax for excellence in anything other than mendaciousness seems confounding. But it's actually the ideal choice. No, the Webby Awards aren't quite the Pulitzer Prize, but they are widely regarded as "the internet's highest honor," as the New York Times has described them, and by and large they do a good job of accurately reflecting the state of the online union. In that sense, the widely shared hoax is the perfect symbol of a year that was defined by our loose allegiance to the truth. This video may not be the standard-bearer of internet excellence we want, but he's the one we deserve in the year-round April Fools Day culture we've stumbled into. It's interesting to compare where we stand today to another bit of viral content that emerged online this week, a look into the early days of the internet. NPR shared a memo from April of 1994 that outlined their wide-eyed enthusiasm for its impending arrival. "A code of 'netiquette' exists among users and within user groups, but otherwise, you pay your money, find your niche and take your chances," the memo explained. In order to use the internet, employees would have to take a one hour training course, including instruction on appropriate standards and guidelines. It's a pity more of us aren't required to take those sorts of courses today, awash as we are in a slew of hoaxes, phony satire sites, poorly fact-checked stories, regurgitated nonsense, bad-actors online, and deceitful clickbait. What's worse, as the Webby's nomination of Kimmel as the standard-bearer for how things are shared online plays up, we seem to be delighting in it. Ho ho ho, fooled us again old boy. We do so enjoy being made to look stupid. Perhaps hearteningly, the tide does seem to be shifting somewhat when it comes to outright lies being peddled online. Aretha Franklin was reported to be contemplating a law suit against the woefully unfunny "satire" site News Nerd earlier this month, after they shared a made up story about her getting into a fight with Patti LaBelle. Nearly everyone who's seen these types of sites, The Daily Currant et al, who share vaguely-plausible stories designed specifically into tricking readers who don't see the satirical fine print, considers them as worthless garbage. But how is what they do any different than that video's lies? This thing happened! Haha no it didn't, just hoaxing you. All of this comes as the Supreme Court has been considering Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, otherwise known as the "right to lie" case, governing whether or not it's ok for political groups to state outright lies in ads. Elsewhere, in Peoria, Ill, Mayor Jim Ardis recently personified the collected frustration with so-called parody online when he instructed police to raid the home of a Twitter user who he believed had been operating a fake "Jim Ardis" account. It was correctly derided as a huge overreach of his authority, and a gross misuse of the police force. Ardis is taking plenty of heat for his inability to understand how the internet works, but one can't help but sympathize with the way he felt, even while thinking he reacted horribly. "Are there no boundaries on what you can say, when you can say it, who you can say it to?" he asked. "You can't say (those tweets) on behalf of me. That's my problem. This guy took away my freedom of speech." I'm not suggesting that arresting or suing internet liars for millions of dollars is an appropriate response, but isn't a limit on the proliferation of deliberate lies something at least worth talking about? It reminds me of another Webby winner that was particular apt, their selection of FactCheck.org as the best politics site of the year. FactCheck, in case you're unfamiliar, is site dedicated to "reducing the level of deception and confusion" in the media about politics. We could use more of that across the board.

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CSIS会見【The U.S.-Japan Alliance: More Important Than Ever 】(スクリプト全文掲載) 2018年10月3日に「The U.S.-Japan Alliance: More Important Than Ever（第4次アーミテージ・ナイ・レポート「２１世紀における日米同盟の刷新」）」が発表されました。 レポートの発表時に、アーミテージ氏やナイ氏含めアメリカのシンクタンク「Center for Strategic and International Studies（CSIS:戦略国際研究所）」が会見を開きました。 The U.S.-Japan Alliance: More Important Than Ever Good morning. Thank you all for being here. I’ve got an announcement, first of all, that CSIS wants to put out. I think you’ve probably seen a video streaming, in addition to welcoming you to the rollout of this report. Before we get started I want to let you know that Mike Green and I are your ‘responsible officers’ noted in the safety video that played before we walked in, so please look to us for direction in case of an emergency and I’ll be the guy running out back. Thanks of course to CSIS for being our landlords here and giving us this great time and I must say I’m delighted to be in the presence of my colleagues here and what turned out to be our fourth Armitage-Nye Report. Never did Joe Nye and I think we were going to be seated here again, doing yet another report. We were finished with that. We were going out the back door of our report writing days. But I think it’s fair to say that as we started to think about the future, Joe and I, we had a conversation. We decided our future was a little unclear. It was unclear for several reasons. One is the transactional America First attitude and orientation of this administration. It’s the protectionist policies combined with the questioning about the value of forward basing and alliances. So, that began to unsettle Joe and I, and this is all happening at the same time, that there seems to be a spreading of what we call ‘authoritarian capitalism’. And the fact that there are only two Asia experts – Randi Schriver and Matt Pottinger, who are at high levels in this administration. So there are plenty of reasons for us to have that unsettled feeling. So we thought it appropriate to indicate that there is a future for our Alliance, we do want to demonstrate to the world and to the region that Japan and the United State share values, we share the responsibilities, we share interest. We look at trade and defense alliances, these things that add to us, that bring value to us, they’re not something that makes us seem like chumps on the world stage. So we’ve developed ten specific recommendations and they’re in four different baskets: economic, military, technology, cooperation and regional issues. And we do this not because the eight of us love Japan, I think we all have a great affection for Japan, for the people and for the nation, but we do it, because we love our country and we feel this is so much in our interest. Japan is the most capable US ally in the world and Japan is in the most important area of the world, of the most important region and we make the point that unless we’re moving forward we’re falling behind, because standing still is falling behind. So with that I’ll ask my good friend, distinguished co-chair Dr. Joseph Nye. If you’d like to make a few remarks and then we’re going to work our way down the panel, five minutes max for each of us and then we’ll throw it open to you for Q&A. So Dr. Nye. Thank you very much, Rich. It’s interesting to start with the title of our report, ‘More Important Than Ever’, and the reason that’s interesting is that, when Rich and I first started cooperating on this issue way back in the 90s, a quarter of a century ago, you could see the beginning of the rise of Chinese power. But in terms of the global balance of power, in America’s position in the world and in East Asia, this has continued and it’s probably as important a strategic change as you can see. When we design policy at that time we decided we would try to engage China, but the critical point was to reaffirm the US-Japan security treaty. And Mike Green and others helped as we worked on that and I think that meant that we could shape the environment, in which Chinese power grew, and that’s more important than ever, no, in that sense the title of this is as relevant as ever. Rich and I did our other three reports basically to show that there was a bipartisan American support to this, that this was a very broad and deep based national interest and I think that has been borne out over time through many administrations. But there has been concern in the in the last year or two about whether we are seeing a situation, where the Alliance is called into question. There’s particular president Trump, who is particularly focused on this issue of burden-sharing and allies doing their bit and even during the campaign of 2016 raised the question of whether we should be involved in this. I think what’s intriguing here is that despite all that, this Alliance is in remarkably good shape. But it could be in danger, both by the economic friction that we’re seeing growing out of trade wars, and also by failure to realize that in terms of burden-sharing Japan does an extraordinary amount. We have a phrase in the report pointing out that Japan provides about three-quarters of the costs of American troops in Japan, through host nation support. That is very impressive. If it’s in our interest to be present in East Asia, to manage the rise of Chinese power, having a significant ally like Japan, that is willing to pay 3/4 of the costs of our forward presence is more important than ever. So I would argue before we get into the detailed recommendations in the report, which we will now hear, about the things we can do to strengthen the report, some of the problems we face, some of the things we do strengthen. So it’s worth remembering the truth that is embodied in the title of the report – ‘More important than ever’. Michael Green will give us a next position of regional issues Thank you. A number of us who worked on the report with Rich and Joe are going to provide some strategic context and Zack Cooper will give some of the specific recommendations and I’m going to say something about the broader balance of power, strategic setting in Asia, before turning to Victor to talk about the Korean Peninsula specifically. I’ve been on the nine Armitage reports since the first one in 2000 and looking at the strategic environment, it’s interesting to look back at how things have evolved. In 2000, when we issued the first report, the US was able to operate in the South China Sea with impunity. The East China Sea saw virtually no Chinese Coast Guard or PLA Navy activity. North Korea had launched a Taepodong, but the debate about the North Korean threat was more about American commitment and intentions. There was not a substantial missile threat to Japan like we see today with hundreds of missiles and nuclear weapons. Japan was the second largest economy in the world, the US Air Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Forces enjoyed dominance in the tactical air over the region around Japan. All of those have changed, the South China Sea is contested, there are regular, almost daily, if not weekly, Chinese Coast Guard and increasingly PLA Navy activities around the East China Sea that North Korea threatens, as I said Japan’s the number three economy and the PLA Air Force is positioned to possibly have more fifth-generation stealth aircraft operating in East China Sea than the U.S. and Japan have combined, over the next 10 years. There are some good developments though. In 2000, when we wrote the report it was very much a bilateral report. Japan’s relationship with Australia was 99% a trading relationship. Since then, we’ve had a trilateral and bilateral security relationship between Japan and Australia that’s quite advanced, with more to come but quite advanced. Japan’s relationship with India and the U.S. relationship with India was stuck on the nuclear test. India had tests conducted in 1998. Today Japan-India relations are on a steady upward trajectory, the Quad has been mobilized, content to be defined, but on a trilateral basis the US, Japan and India now do more, far more than before. And maybe most importantly in 2000 the Armitage-Nye report was in some ways a plea or really a pledge to bipartisan support for the Alliance before a major election, at a time, when there was debate within both parties, not between the parties and there I think is very robust consensus in public opinion polls in the Congress and among policy experts about the Alliance. The balance of power challenges we face have also shifted in some important ways. As Joe said, the original impulse of the Nye Initiative in the Pentagon and the Armitage-Nye Report was positioning the US and Japan better to shape China’s choices, China’s role in Asia. In some ways, we’re well positioned to do that today because of the relationships we have with Australia and India and all the major powers in the region. In some ways, we’re worse off because the smaller powers in Southeast Asia are not as resilient, and need, as Matt will discuss, Chinese infrastructure help. We’re in a much more challenging environment in a second area, I would briefly mention. You know, we were focused in the earlier reports on shaping Chinese choices, which is, in the military parlance, ‘Phase Zero’, peacetime. We increasingly have to worry about contingencies and China’s ability to pull off success in military contingencies because of the trends I described in PLA military capabilities. So you’ll find in our report, we emphasize the strength of the Alliance, but also the need to move faster in terms of jointness, efficiency, getting more efficiencies from jointness, shared intelligence, shared capabilities, in part to shore up our ability to shape Chinese choices in Phase Zero and peacetime, by working with other major powers, but also because we won’t be able to encourage China to move in a positive direction, if the PLA can go into Zhongnanhai and say: ‘We can win in a fight’, and so the military dimension is important not just for contingencies, but because that’s what backstops the peaceful intentions of the Alliance that Joe and I articulated and Rich articulated almost twenty years ago. Thank you Dr. Green. I’d like to ask Dr. Victor Cha to give us some context on the peninsula, if you would. Thanks, Rich. So again, it was a pleasure to be part of this report, the second time I’ve had a privilege to work on this report. With regard to Korea, as you all know since 1969, but even before 1969, when Nixon and Sato signed a joint communique that has something called the Korea clause in it, Korea has always been connected to Japan’s security and the security of the US-Japan Alliance. Today I think the United States, Japan and South Korea share the goals of diplomatic resolution of the North Korea issue, as well as the complete verifiable, whatever we call it now, complete, verifiable, permanent denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But we are clearly diplomatically moving into uncharted territory. Nuclear threats but also love letters that are being sent back and forth. But the threats are very real and, as Mike said, these threats are very real to not just South Korea, but to the second and third largest economies in the world, the United States and Japan. So it’s important, as we move forward in terms of this uncharted diplomacy, that trilateral cooperation and coordination among the US Japan and South Korea increase, not decrease, it has kind of dropped off frankly, quite a bit, over the past couple of years. And this is not just trilateral coordination for the sake of trilateral coordination, but really trying to align expectations and views on things like verification and what we seek as the United States and South Korea enter these negotiations with North Korea. It’s also important that there be coordination among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, but that there be better coordination between Seoul and Tokyo. The Japan-Korea leg of this triangular relationship, if the other two lines are solid lines, this has always been the dotted line and the more that we can do to fill in that dotted line with better information sharing, a better coordination in terms of our militaries, would be something that would not just be good for Japan and Korea, but would be good for the overall state of both US-Japan and US-South Korea bilateral Alliance relationships. Again, even as the diplomacy moves forward, the threats are still very real. From the North in terms of the ballistic missile, nuclear artillery threats, and for this reason, trilateral coordination should not just be on diplomacy about what should be the line going into the next set of negotiations better to take place, but it should also be about better trilateral exercising in terms of enhancing nuclear deterrence, extended deterrence, better trilateral coordination on missile defense, as well as better coordination on counter proliferation of North Korean capabilities. But I think probably the most important recommendation – going forward, because we don’t know where all this is going to go, but based on what we’ve seen thus far is that it is incumbent indeed, imperative that the Allies agree that as we move forward with negotiations with North Korea, that we do not prematurely sacrifice any core alliance equities, which you know, I think some would argue, was one of the things that happened in the last meeting, the Singapore Summit, with this decision to suspend exercises. So, going forward, there are of course, things that we can look for in terms of verification, of any denuclearization that takes place, but there should be really no premature surrendering of core Alliance capabilities, either between the US and Japan, the US-ROK, or trilaterally. Thank you, Dr. Cha. I’ve asked Dr. Sheila Smith to make some comments about the politics in both Japan and here. So, Sheila. Kevin’s helping me with my microphone, thank you. I’m delighted to be here, this is my first time to participate and that in five minutes I’ll tell you all about the politics that surround this relationship. Not to be serious here, obviously. How our citizens view the value of this alliance is the foundational piece of the puzzle and we have had some unsettling politics in Japan over the last decade, as well as here in the United States and we, I would say, both of our democracies have questions about some of the principles of our Alliance, they have questioned the way we implement alliance cooperation, but I have pretty strong faith that we have the ability to speak to new leaders, to speak to those, who don’t have expertise in the region, to advocate on behalf of this partnership, which I think we all here believe in strongly. The DPJ came into power in 2009 and many of you are here and know it rattled Washington pretty significantly. Now we are seeing the same kind of reaction in Tokyo to our presidential election. Some of my friends said to me: ‘Japan is never in American politics, Japan has never discussed any more. Does this mean Japan is not important to the United States?’ Well, in 2016 our Alliance with Japan was back in the spotlight in a rather uncomfortable way, but I think since we have the new administration events have largely shaped public perceptions of the value of this partnership. Again, North Korea, the behavior also of China, both in the economic and strategic realm have shaped American perceptions of how important these Alliances are to our security and our well-being. The Chicago Council just put out a poll, just this week in fact, and it is the highest number of Americans who have responded that the United States should be engaged in world affairs, since they began polling in the mid-1970s. So I think, just to reassure you here, I think our public has a very high regard both for Japan, but also for our Alliance with Japan and our Alliances more broadly. I think when we were having this discussion that led to the report, which I hope you will read more carefully, we all understood that one of the pieces of the puzzle that has bothered us is the lack of the emphasis of our shared values, the lack of the emphasis of the foundational aspects of our democracy, rule of law, our commitment to the global institutions that have we have led, Japan and the United States, over the last half century or more, but also that basically inform our collaboration across the Asia Pacific and indeed across the globe. And I think that’s one of the pieces of the puzzle that we want to emphasize in this report. that regardless of how our elections may go, one year or the next, that this partnership is based on profound belief in some of the underpinnings of democracy and the rule of law. I think the regard that many of us around the region and around the globe have for Prime Minister Abe, in fact has been based on his continued behavior on the global stage as well as in the Asia Pacific to make sure that these shared values continue to be at the forefront of the way we would look at the world, but also the way we define our partnership. Let me just say a couple comments about elections, we have had a couple in Japan, we are about to have a big one here in the United States. In Japan, the LDP leadership election, the LDP vote for continuity and stability. Prime Minister Abe now, it will be probably the longest-serving Japanese Prime Minister in post-war history, he obviously continues to make the Japanese people feel that the Japanese foreign policy is one of the primary movers of their future security and stability. In Okinawa too, however, voters also opted for continuity. The death of a governor in Okinawa, Mr. Onaga, created a special election, the All-Okinawa Social Movement candidate, his successor in some ways, was voted into office overwhelmingly on September 30th. So again, I think our Alliance has to take care that we understand the sentiments in Okinawa and that we continue to work on this particular focal point for our relationship. We are going to have a midterm election in November, I don’t think anybody in the audience doesn’t know that fact. It is not necessarily a referendum on our foreign policy, least of all our relationship with Japan, but I do think it will be a referendum by the American people and the ideas and the decisions that have been made by President Trump. I think it’s a complex time in our politics, I wouldn’t want to try to predict the outcome here or even to tell you how the outcome might shape the Alliance, but I think it’s important and in efforts like this that we continue to make sure that this conversation about the value of our partnership with Japan continues to be part of the way that the American people understand the decision-making here in Washington. We have in the polling, I’ve noted earlier, a a pretty broad consensus in this country that we must remain engaged in the world, we have in the Pew poll that was released and discussed here yesterday I believe, also a suggestion that the Japanese people are increasingly worried about our long term commitment and our long term influence in the region, although they overwhelmingly support the Japanese partnership with the United States. So these elections matter, these efforts to speak more broadly to the American people and to the Japanese people about the value of our partnership also matter. And so, I’m delighted to be part of this effort. Thank you, Rich. Thank you very much, Dr. Smith. With the first and third largest economies in the world, it’s clear that economics and finance have to take a big spot in our report, so we’ve decided to have two experts do the heavy, so I’ll ask Kevin Nealer, first of all, to start and then we’ll go on to Matt Goodman. Kevin. Thanks so much and thank you, Dr. Nye for your leadership once again and Dr.Cooper, for the discipline he brought to this whole process and exercise without which it would not be possible. Those of us, who had the privilege of participating since 2000 in the incipient stage of this report on the economic and trade policy side, I think we’ve achieved a kind of rough justice and appropriate modesty about our role and the role of those themes. We get that security diplomacy are the bones and muscle of the relationship, but Matt and I, I think are prideful that economics and the financial architecture is the skin that covers it and that presents the face to the world that everybody in Asia and indeed globally sees of US-Japan relationship on a day-to-day basis. It’s sustained by American corporations, Japanese corporations and again by the financial architecture that we share and have put together as a matter of self-interest. You know, among the things that everybody knows is that we both lost ground to China’s ambitions in the region. I’d remind you that the United States invests roughly three times in Southeast Asia what China does, Japan has a similar lead. And so, we set out to look at, as Sheila just said, look at some of the advantages, to assess them and see what they mean for our shared interest in advancing those interests, mindful of the fact that we’ve been chasing by the loss of two foundational pieces of energy in the trade liberalization processes, both the Doha Round and the TPP. So what comes next, how should we think about amplifying our interest and, protectively, how should we think about making sure that we prepare for the inevitable next crisis? We’re looking at unacceptable mountains of debt in both countries, that’s a risk we share and we’ve actually seen trade growth level off in the last couple of months, which is, I need math to explain that, I can’t but I just posed you the question. What a different world that would have been if the US and Japan weren’t playing the role that they played in 1987 and again in 2008 to put a floor underneath risk in the world markets. So with that as a predicate and, I should be very clear, Matt provided the intellectual leadership for this effort and a lot of and a lot of the language, so over to you, Rich. Thanks. Thank you. Honored to be part of this, my first time actually participating in this, although I’ve been an avid reader of it for the last 18 years, so delighted to be part of it now. I was told that my role was to explain what Kevin really meant, so. But seriously, I just want to make two points. One. Economics is at the heart of the US-Japan Alliance. I have a little parlor game that I play with my National Security-oriented friends and ask them: ‘What does Article 2 of the US-Japan Security Treaty talk about?’ and most of them think it has to do with military affairs or peace related issues and in fact, it’s about economics. In addition to talking about strengthening free institutions, it says: ‘The parties will seek to eliminate conflict in their international economic policies and will encourage economic collaboration between them’. So that’s Article 2, not Article 22. So it’s very much at the heart of what we’re supposed to be working together on and both of those points, eliminating conflict and working together and collaboration is really what has inspired our work here and what we’ve said in the report. So I think it’s significant, the very first recommendation I want to steal, Zach’s thunder, because he’s going to go through the specific recommendations, but the very first recommendation is about economics and it’s really about this point that we need to, in fact, the headline is, we need to recommit to an open trade and investment regime and I think that’s really fundamental to making the Alliance strong and on the back of that, we have other specific ideas but really what they’re about is extending our shared interests, values and our complementary skills in the now-named Indo-Pacific region in particular, on economic rulemaking and norm setting and standards setting. And so, a lot of our recommendations have to do first and foremost with finding a way back to, for the United States, back to TPP. That’s not going to happen in the short term, but I think getting back to TPP is a critical issue. In the meantime, Japan can work to advance the unpronounceable new version of TPP, the Comprehensive Partnership, which was a showed leadership in actually producing and getting other partners to sign on to. So there’s a lot of work to be done bilaterally, regionally, through APEC, with other partners like Australia and Korea, and globally through institutions, like the G20 and the WTO and other organizations, where we are important, critical players. And we talk about really the core substantive issues that we think we have particular stake in, together, and those relate to things like the digital economy and establishing the rules and standards in that space is critically important to both countries, in disciplines on state-owned enterprises and the role of the state in the marketplace is another critical interest for us, intellectual property standards market opening. These are all things that we have views on and we should be working more actively together to advance those things through all of those different forums. Then, on infrastructure, we have a separate recommendation, this is obviously something where both the United States and Japan have a strong interest in – promoting high quality infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific region and beyond and so we have thoughts on that as well. Bottom line: though I think we need to avoid distractions like trade frictions that are not based on true underlying interests and certainly not on false relations to national security issues, which a lot of these issues have been linked to, and we need to move on away from those issues towards actually working together cooperatively in third countries on Economic Cooperation as Article 2 mandates. Thanks. Thank you, Matt. Can I ask Dr. Zack Cooper to give us an expose of the recommendations that we have in our report, very briefly. You can read about them, but I think a little explanation from Zack will be extraordinarily helpful. Great, I’ll be as quick as possible. At first, I want to just say that I appreciate so much the opportunity to be in this group of mentors and role models, it’s fantastic to get to work with people such as those on the stage, and many of these recommendations come from people not only on the stage, but also some in the audience and others who have worked on the Alliance over many years. In the pursuit of an ambitious agenda for the Alliance, we prioritized three imperatives and you can see these in the report. The first is strategic effectiveness, particularly in terms of warfighting and deterrence capabilities. The second is long-term political sustainability, and the third is resource efficiency, because we know that just spending more isn’t enough, we have to spend smartly. And with that in mind we came up with four broad buckets of ideas and ten specific recommendations, which you can read about in the report. And they seek to strengthen bilateral economic ties, to deepen operational coordination, to advance joint technology development and to expand cooperation with regional partners. So I’ll walk through just each one of those briefly and you can see much more detail on the report. I’m sure it’ll come up in the Q&A as well. So first, as Matt mentioned, to strengthen bilateral economic ties, we recommend that the Allies recommit to an open trade and investment regime, and in particular, we suggest that the two governments establish a business and government dialogue, bringing together American and Japanese CEOs with senior officials from both capitals to set a practical agenda, to address remaining structural issues between the two economies. In addition, to deepen operational cooperation, we recommend that the Allies operate from combined bases. This is something that’s been talked about in previous reports and we believe that this would minimize the impact on host populations, whilst maximizing deterrence and warfighting capabilities. We also recommend that the United States establish a standing Combined Joint Task Force, which would focus primarily on the Western Pacific, and it would decrease the burden that’s currently on the Commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, and it would help give Japanese commanders more clear lines for them to exchange information and operational details with their counterparts. We also recommend that Japan should create a Joint Operations Command and this would decrease the burden on the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, the Chief of Staff and help its commanders to better manage crises and the strain of increasingly high-tempo operations. And then, finally, within the deepening operational coordination bucket, we recommend that the Allies conduct combined contingency planning to respond quickly to acts of aggression by improving the speed and coordination of allied decision-making. In our third bucket, to advance joint technology development, we recommend that the Allies build on the success of SM-3 block IIA by co-developing defense equipment. Potentially in areas, such as advanced radars, anti-ship missiles, maritime domain awareness, undersea systems, future surface combatants and amphibious vehicles. We also recommend that the allies should expand high technology cooperation, particularly by working more closely on intelligence-sharing, cyberspace and artificial intelligence, which should help both of our countries to lead eventually towards the world, in which we could imagine Japan being included in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing arrangement. And then, finally, to expand cooperation with regional partners, we have three recommendations. First, we recommend that the Allies reinvigorate the trilateral security cooperation and Victor talked about this in some detail. We focus in particular on information sharing and the servicing of military equipment across all three countries, but also that we should look to expand trilateral exercises, where that’s possible. We also recommend that the Allies should work together to launch a regional infrastructure fund, to provide investment options that emphasize high standards, employment of local labor, social and environmental safeguards, open procurement practices and reliable returns on investment. And our final recommendation is that we forge a broader regional economic strategy by leveraging existing leadership in trade, investment, development and financial services to enhance rules on things like digital commerce, state enterprises and intellectual property protections. So that’s a very quick overview, but we think that put together, this isn’t certainly an ambitious agenda that will take a certain amount of time, but we think it’s necessary to prepare the Alliance for the challenges that it will face in the years ahead. Thank you, Dr.Cooper. Now hitting cleanup. We have on a second Nye- Armitage report to Kara Bue. Thank you. What Zack just outlined is a tall order by any standard and as with most things, however, real change happens in a step-by-step process. So, in that vein, we wanted to highlight some potential specific next steps that should be considered. The first has to do with, as Japan moves forward with its Mid-Term Defense Program and its National Defense Program Guidelines, we encourage the US and Japan to coordinate closely during the process as a means to improve our joint ability to fight and defend. In connection with our recommendation on combined bases, we suggest that the US and Japan should study the lessons from existing combined bases, such as Misawa, to identify and learn how to overcome legal, operational and cultural challenges. To expand high technology cooperation, we encourage Pentagon acquisition officials, including officials at DARPA, to work with Japan to quickly identify a new project or even set of projects for joint development and acquisition. With regard to bilateral contingency planning, we encourage elevating the level and expanding the number of Japanese officers from the Self-Defense Forces, embedded within relevant US units, including the planning staff at the Indo-Pacific Command. And finally, while many of our recommendations require action from the US and Japanese governments, the onus of Alliance maintenance does not fall only on them. The private sector also has an important role to play and we encourage its full consideration of the recommendations raised in the report, particularly with regard to strengthening bilateral economic ties and joint technology development. As an example of how the private sector can work together to better the Alliance, one of the recommendations in the report that Zack outlined, had to do with a business government dialogue and we’d encourage the US and Japan to move forward on that score. So with those specific ideas I’d like to shift the discussion back to ambassador Armitage and Dr. Nye and then to the audience for any questions. Thank you very much, Kara and two final comments and then we’ll turn it over to you. First, I want to acknowledge that we have here today our good friend, my good friend, best career ambassador we’ve ever had as a nation, Marc Grossman, who’s here and I welcome you, Marc, and thank you very much for your presence here. I think you by your presence bestow on the US-Japan relationship an idea of the importance of that relationship force, so thank you. Look, we’re not naïve, we’re not foolish, we know what we’ve done with these recommendations. These are hard, these are farsighted. Some are just aspirational right now, like the adding to Five Eyes and having Japan, that will be Six Eyes. It means Japan has to do a lot more. What they’ve already done in the protection of their technology. But we are about to determine as far as we can make humanly possible to push the boundaries. Look, in our Defense Department, except for the two officials Pottinger and Schriver, whom I’ve mentioned, we don’t have officers, who have served their careers in Asia, like we had in the past. We have officers, who know a lot about the Middle East, about Afghanistan, about Iraq, about Syria, but they’ve not served in Asia. So this is why we’ve made it so bold – to give them what we think is kind of a farsighted outline, realizing that they’re going to have to really stretch themselves and our Japanese allies are going to have to really stretch themselves to reach these. But if we do, we’ll be much better able to, as Joseph and Mike suggests, to deter, and to shape, but if necessary to fight, to protect our interests, so I’m going to turn it over to you. As usual, we’ll have folks with microphones, I think. And there’s first and I’ll fill the questions and sort them out to our staff. I’m Peter Humphrey [phonetic], Intel analyst and a former diplomat. I see nothing that would stop China from loading up an expeditionary force with 50 barges, full of concrete, going out to the Senkakus and creating a base by next weekend. And I don’t see under any circumstances the United States is going to war to defend Japan’s ownership of those islands. So this, you know, this, we keep ignoring this, but what’s the bottom line here, when Japan goes by itself to defend its territory calls the US and then the US says: ‘I don’t think so’. Thank you. Dr. Green. It’s a more complicated problem today than it was three years ago and the East China Sea will be more complicated three years from now, but I see a lot of things that stop the PLA from loading up barges, starting with the Seventh Fleet, the Maritime Self-Defense Forces and the geopolitical and economic consequences to China of taking on the1st and 3rd largest economies in the world, at a time, when China has no shortage of internal challenges of its own. So I think the cost to China would be enormous and that will be the case for a long time and if there’s any doubt about US intentions, the fact that every administration since Bill Clinton, including President Obama himself, has stated that Article 5 of our Treaty applies to the Senkakus, that’s a pretty clear message. That’s why I think, you see, China maintaining a high level of operations but careful, and where Beijing is probing more is in the sort of soft underbelly of the first island chain, which is in the South China Sea, that’s where I’d be more worried. But I think in the East China Sea, there’s a pretty robust series of military, political and economic obstacles to Chinese ambitions. Thank you, Mike. Could you identify yourself. We’ve got one down front. Please, lady. Thank you very much for an informative forum. China’s power play in Asia. They’ve chosen the One Belt One Road as one of their major vehicles for international viability and visibility, and a number of us believe, in the West and the South Asia and Europe, that these are the trade that’s going to lead to country dependence, then that means that China is going to move to protect their investments and invariably, this leading to expansion in their influence and domestic policies, related to these countries. And then eventually an increase in the presence in those particular countries. How do we restrict Chinese imperialism, if we will, and promote economic and international development in the world by US-Japan Alliances. One has to be careful to take One Belt One Road and separate the advertising function and the slogan from the reality. When you look at One Belt One Road, people sometimes say it’s like the Marshall Plan: trillion dollars of investment, and so forth. That’s nonsense. The Marshall Plan in fact had the Europeans come together on a coherent program and the Chinese don’t want that at all. The Marshall Plan was grants. Chinese program is loans. The net effect of this is you have a hodgepodge of different projects, which lead to indebtedness on the number of countries, which leads to local reactions. Look at Sri Lanka, look at the you know, the airport where nobody flies in, the port where nobody sends ships. This has created a reaction, You’re even getting a reaction from Pakistan as well. So you have to, you have to separate the sloganeering of One Belt One Road from the reality. Will China have influence through spending money on infrastructure in a lot of countries, not just in the Belt Road countries? Yes. Can we do something about that? Yes, we can expose what it is and second, as we recommend in the report, the more we, the US-Japan and allies, provide help with infrastructure in these countries, the more you can provide an alternative. So, my first point is that discount One Belt One Road for all the hot air that’s in it and you’ll find there’s a lot less there than meets the eye. Matt did you want to [crosstalk] and extend your remark. Sure. Joe has said it well and I would just say, I think that’s a big misunderstanding about Belt and Road is that Xi Jinping put this banner, this headline on top of something that was really a bottom-up phenomenon of Chinese state-owned enterprises and construction and steel and concrete and things that needed outlets for their excess capacity and so they were pushing projects and trying to get funding from Beijing, from the China Development Bank and China Export Import Bank and going out and doing these projects really initially for that reason. And I think Xi Jinping saw an opportunity to brand this as something that was a big Chinese contribution to the world, to create a community of common destiny, I think that is the slogan that’s attached to it. What was missing was in between – a lot of coordination and you know, real planning, as Joe implied. And they’ve gotten themselves into some real problems in terms of projects that aren’t generating return and they say they want to get a return on their investments that are creating these various forms of blowback. And so, it’s going to be a lot smaller and more troubled. Infrastructure investments are difficult everywhere, if you’ve rode the metro to get here, I think you have some understanding of that. But imagine, in that part of the world, how much additionally difficult it is. So it’s a tough business. But you know, China’s going to continue doing it, it’s a legacy item for Xi Jinping and I think they will continue to do it and we have to have a response and pushing back and stopping them is not going to be the answer, because the recipient countries want infrastructure. But we can bring things to the table. We bring great companies with great products and services that are embedded in that, the rule of law and we bring capacity, training, we bring high standards of social and environmental safeguards, debt sustainability, approaches and norms, open procurement practices and various organizations that we lead and drive that promote those things. So I think there’s a lot we can bring to the table and if we can liberate pension monies and insurance monies that are looking for long-term investments, that’ll far trump what China is doing in terms of, you know, the supposed trillion dollars. Your question has provoked quite a response. Kevin, if you want to reply [inaudible]. I do, but I’m mindful of our time. Thank you for the question. With just two quick footnotes to Joe and Matt’s views. One is that the country that is reacting very badly to a lot of the packaging of and where antibodies are being generated to Belt and Road notions is China. This is a country where in no major city can you drink the water from the tap. You might be surprised to know Chinese citizens have noticed this. So and not completely unknown in our political culture, there’s starting to be in the netizens world a real conversation about what if you want to improve the quality of life. I can’t breathe the air, I can’t drink the water and so forth. Those of you who do work and then travel there a lot know exactly what this is about. The other thing is, as our firm does a lot of deal-based work in emerging markets and I’ve got to tell you, the list that Matt just ran through, it’s tempting in the policy community to say: ‘Yeah, there’s all that financial architecture stuff”, that matters enormously, as does branding, predictability and those notions like rule of law, to whether or not you can get a deal done. And to how, Rich and I were just out in Indonesia together, to how people perceive Japanese and American companies and what they bring to the game. It would be a serious mistake as a practical matter to undervalue that. Right here, a second row, please. We’ve got time, we’ll get to you. Would you identify yourself please Good morning, my name is Gerald Han [phonetic]. I’ve come from Boston, of New England. Uncle Sam has always been dispassionate about anything, about foreign policy, about public affairs, domestic policy until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and then we know we got Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When General MacArthur laid down the peaceful Constitution for Japan, he preserved the Emperor so that they can continue to worship the Emperor and build their Japanese society as is and not as in the past. So finally what happened was, now at this time, Premier Shinzo Abe has got what we called the Rearmament Acts of the Japanese Diet or Parliament. Strangely but paradoxically, in Okinawa we have an Uncle Sam marine son, who ran for election and following a page of speaker Tip O’Neill: ‘All politics is local’, he won the election. He won the election in Okinawa Island on a single principle: ‘Remove the military base! Remove Uncle Sam’s military base!’. So my question is, would all of this position, Shinzo Abe’s position and this young marine sons’ position, would it enhance the Alliance between the USA and Japan in relationship with the ASEAN countries, who suffered terribly during the Japanese war? Thank you, thank you. The troop presence in Okinawa has been difficult for a long time now. More broadly, in Japan our troops are fairly welcomed. If you look carefully at the recommendations we have, we are looking for ways to relieve burdens on places, which are crowded. I noticed that the new governor has now said he’s willing to talk to the government in Tokyo. We don’t want to be, that is the United States, the meat and the sandwich between Tokyo and a prefecture, which happens to be the poorest in Japan. And I suspect we’ll avoid that, but Sheila, would you like to… So, there’s a lot I could talk about in your comment, but let me just focus in on two pieces. One is the Constitution and the LDP proposal, which was passed by the party this summer. It has four elements, one of which you’ve pointed to, it was Article 9 and Prime Minister Abe, as we all know, has suggested adding a third paragraph to Article 9, with a sentence that would simply say: ‘The Self-Defense Forces are constitutional’. I suspect this came out of the 2015 experience of his party and him, when the new legislation was passed, that he felt that it needed to be said straight and to the point, in the constitution. But you will also be aware that there are many people in the LDP and outside, who actually think that more ‘wholesale’ rewriting of Article 9 would be a better idea. So, I think we’re going to watch this Diet session into the spring and then obviously in next summer’s Upper House election, how that conversation unfolds. I don’t think we should assume that Mr. Abe is the only driver of the debate on constitutional revision in Japan. If you look at the public opinion polling on this, you will see that there’s a pretty broad appetite in Japan for this debate. Now, not everybody endorses the LDP’s four suggestions, other parties have other ideas. Privacy protections for example, environmental protections, what I would call more 21st century ideas about what needs to be added to the Constitution. But I think you’re about to see the Japanese people have a very serious conversation about the document. And they want the imprimatur of a Japanese voice on that conversation. Now, whether it ends up being a referendum, I don’t know. Whether it gets out of the Diet, who knows, and I don’t think we’ll actually know what the Japanese people think until and if we see a national referendum in Japan. But I think it’s important, whether we’re sitting in Washington or we’re sitting in Beijing or we’re sitting anywhere around the world, that we understand that the Japanese Constitution is the Japanese Constitution and our policymakers here may have opinions on what they’d like to see the Self-Defense Forces do, but ultimately, it’s a debate that will happen across Japan and will be resolved by the people of Japan. I think it’s a fascinating time to be watching Japanese politics, but I don’t think we should be fearful of the process. [To Dr.Armitage] Did you want me to speak about Okinawa? No? Very briefly, I can. I’ll just, very briefly, on Mr. Tamaki. You know, he was a member of the Liberal Party, for those of you who don’t know, this is the new governor of Okinawa. He was elected to the Lower House in 2009, he is the son of a US marine and an Okinawan mother. He is bicultural in every way. It’s he’s a very interesting man. I’m sure that when he comes to Washington, which all Okinawan governors do, we will all enjoy meeting him and getting to know him better. I do think though that the conversation between Tokyo and Naha is an important one and I agree actually with Rich that we shouldn’t insert ourselves in the middle of it, but I think we should respect it and we should understand that he didn’t win by a narrow margin. He won by a significant electoral margin. And for me, leaving the base issue aside, he’s an important new next generation face in Okinawan politics. And it’s not just on the main islands of Japan, where you’re seeing new people come into politics, a new generation of leaders in Japan, you’re also seeing it in Okinawa and we need to learn a little bit more about what they think. Thank you. Mike. The question also raised Japan’s relationship with Southeast Asia and I wanted to briefly point out one more change, important change from the 2000 report to today. And that is, in virtually every poll you look at, Japan is listed as the most trusted country in Southeast Asia, ahead of Australia, the US, China, which is a remarkable change, an asset for the US, frankly, and for Japan. There was a Lowy Institute poll in Australia recently that asked: ‘What leader do you trust to do the right thing?’ and they had our president and many other leaders. After Malcolm Turnbull, who was Prime Minister at the time, Australians said they trusted Shinzo Abe the most, to do the right thing. So that’s quite a transformation, it doesn’t mean history’s over, doesn’t mean there are sensitive issues, they are not there. But that’s an asset for Japan and therefore for the US. By the way, Malcolm Turnbull is speaking here tomorrow at CSIS, for those of you who like Australian politics. We have two here and then I’ll get back over to the middle. Chris Nelson. Thanks so much, Chris Nelson, Nelson Report. As usual, fantastic report, so many possible questions. However, I found myself worried increasingly about the trilateral aspects of it, with our Korean friends especially. I would like to hear more, especially from Mike and Victor, who have been on this kind of thing. What are the potential disconnects you’re worried about, with the next set of things, with the North, of the North and between the North and the South and how can we fit the management of those potential disconnects into what we’re talking about here, because you know you can’t get there if you fall into a hole there. And I worry about domestic political will. You know, we’re all the pros, we do all the trade and all the military and all this stuff, so you don’t have to sell us on the Alliance and we don’t sell each other, but look at the absurdities, like, you know Osaka, you know ‘defriending’ San Francisco, right? What the hell is going on here? Are there any adults in charge? And our South Korean friends, similarly. Do they really actually want to be tight with Japan, you know, you worry about that, it isn’t just us elites, it’s actual real people. So two separate questions. How do we compensate for, and what do you see as potential disconnects that have to be managed. Thanks. Thank you very much, my name is Natividad Fernandes, Georgetown University, and my question is related to the situation in Korea, so I wonder how far or how close is there unification of Korea, because according to some political statements, someday it seems that is very close. So my question is, how this reunification will impact on the relationship, on the US-Japan Alliance and also on the trilateral relationship, thank you. Dr.Chan, would you like to field the first and then Dr. Green. So I think that it’s important to remember that for the three, for Washington, Seoul and Tokyo we have to look at this problem in terms of the full spectrum of threats that are presented. I mean, this is not simply an issue of some recently tested missiles that are not even in the production phase yet. And it’s not only about artillery. It’s about everything in between those things and, presumably, if these negotiations move forward, as people talk about them moving forward, any sort of settlement would be addressing not just one aspect of the threat, but multiple aspects of the threat. Now, is there a chance for delinking or decoupling? Certainly, there is. You know, there is that chance. But that is why trilateral coordination is so important. That is why this has to be not simply something that is on to-do list that you just checkoff, like mowing the lawn, but it’s something that becomes a normal part of practice of doing diplomacy, doing this nuclear diplomacy in Asia. There are benefits to it, it’s not just the negative side of avoiding decoupling. Japan, if there is any solution that includes the lifting of sanctions on North Korea and the provision of assistance, Japan would be an integral part of that, Japan and South Korea would be an integral part of that, it would be hard to imagine that they wouldn’t be in an integral part. on the notion of a peace declaration, you know. Again, I think this is something, where we could potentially see delinking, but then it’s also in none of the countries’ interest to see a peace declaration for a bad deal. You know, a peace declaration in return for something that does not meet minimum standards of verification, minimum standards of whether it’s on the nuclear side or conventional force threat reduction, on the conventional side. So there, I think, there’s a lot more in common among the three countries, than we normally think of, because everybody’s focused on one party moving very quickly, while the other party, the United States, is sort of trailing behind except for the president, who says we’ve achieved everything we haven’t yet negotiated. And then there’s Japan that seems to be very far back. I think actually if you look at this, if you lay out sort of what the interests are, there’s a lot more commonality than it’s generally appreciated. And then, finally, in terms of the domestic will of a progressive government, the first progressive government in South Korea in terms of Japan-Korea relations. As Rich said at the end of the initial remarks. You know, we’re not naïve, we know some of the things that we look for in this report are not easy, but in the long term, whether you’re talking about a united Korea or a Korea that is trying to reconcile with North Korea, the relationship, backstopping any of that flux with strong trilateral Alliance coordination, there is no downside to that that I can think of. And while progressive governments are generally less willing to engage in sort of bilateral and trilateral coordination, they also understand it’s a necessity. Whether we’re talking about security agreements or we’re talking about economic agreements going into the future. The atmospherics and the pageantry around South Korean president Moon Jae-In’s Pyongyang declaration and summit with Kim Jong-un evokes all of the Korean people’s natural desire for unification, singing Arirang, the flag with the Korean Peninsula. But the reality is, the South Korean Constitution says: ‘there will be one Korea and South Korea’s in charge’ and the North Korean Constitution says: ‘there will be one Korea and North Korea’s in charge’ and the possibility of this leading to a peaceful unification or even confederation is, in my view and I think Victor would agree, very remote. But changes can come very quickly to the Korean Peninsula and when they do, they will likely not be controlled, they’ll likely be very quickly. And when that happens, there’s a scenario, where it leads to cooperation among the big powers, to peacefully unify the peninsula and make sure it’s denuclearized and make sure that there’s a multilateral framework for confidence-building and trade and everything else. But there’s also a scenario where the sudden change on the Korean Peninsula brings out all the worst geopolitical rivalries of three millennia between Japan, Russia, China and the US. So one more reason that the trilateral US-Japan-Korea is relationship is so important, is because, I think, it stabilizes that, it makes it less likely there will be the geopolitical rivalry. Polls pretty consistently show most Koreans want a US-Korea Alliance after unification. China’s position is that unification should be what Beijing calls ‘independent unification’, which means the Korean Peninsula is independent from the US, there no Alliance. So that is going to be the crux of the matter. And if there is not a relationship between Japan and Korea that’s positive, between the US-Japan Alliance and US-Korea Alliance that’s positive, that’s going to leave open a kind of wedge or an opening, where Beijing will be tempted to try to push for independent unification. So I think it’s in Korea’s interest ultimately to demonstrate not containment of China, but a solidarity with Japan, just to dissuade China from thinking it can push for what it appears most Koreans don’t want, which is a separation from the US after unification. So in the long run, all of this trilateral stuff matters a lot. Just a quick, I mean just a quick data point. One of our projects here at CSIS, something called beyond parallel looks at the question of unification, where we’ve interviewed a whole bunch of experts in government affairs, maybe some of you in the audience have filled out our surveys, if you have, thank you very much, if you haven’t, shame on you. But one of the things that we found from that, when we asked experts and officials from all the countries in the region how they felt about unification, the alignment of US Japan and South Korean views on all sorts of questions, ranging from denuclearization to health conditions, to infrastructure, there was more alignment among those three countries, than any others in the region. Chris, let me just go to your second point quickly. On public opinion, the thing that strikes me is that how much more resilient it’s been than we might have expected. A lot of people interpreted the 2016 election as a populist reaction against American Alliances, where we’ve been taken advantage of. And what’s intriguing and, remember, this is in the context of candidate Trump telling David Sanger that maybe Japan and Korea should get their own nuclear weapons, that is totally vanished. There’s no public opinion in support of that and what’s more, when you look at public opinion in support of the us-japan Alliance, it’s proven substantially resilient. And I think a lot of us are going to be in Tokyo next week for the Mount Fuji Dialogue and the Nikkei events. But when Rich and I did this a year ago, I was amazed at how strong the support was for the Alliance. I don’t think that’s changed. So, in a sense of the most intriguing thing about public opinion might be the old Sherlock Holmes saying the dog that didn’t bark. We go to the middle here, someone in the fourth row. One two three four. You’ve been very patient. And then we’ll go to Keio University. Thank you very much, my name is Satoru Nagao, Hudson Institute. This recommendation mentioned the conduct combined. I don’t think we can hear you Thank you very much that I will speak from [inaudible]. My name is Satoru Nagao, this recommendation mentioned the conduct combined contingency planning. This recommendation is very important I think, but at the same time with all respects, it looks like this recommendation only applies in the Northeast Asia, so if dogram type incident in the Indochina border area was a crisis, happening in the Maldives [phonetic], what kind of combined contingency planning the United States and Japan can conduct? It’s my question, thank you very much. A great question and Dr. Nagao, thanks for your work on Japan-India relations. And I would say we do think combined contingency planning is important, but we have to understand that there are legal restrictions in Japan to the scope of that kind of contingency planning. And we want to be very respectful, as Sheila said, to Japan deciding where and how it wants to interpret its own rules and legislation. And so, we have not been specific about where the combined contingency planning should occur, I would say, I think as a first step that the East China Sea is the place to begin simply because that’s where we’re under the most pressure and that’s the most important place for the Alliance to be particularly strong. There’s no question that we’ve been doing more outside this China Sea, you know, we’ve been talking a lot about South China Sea and we’ve seen Japan operate there into the Indian Ocean as well. But I think as a beginning point, what we would say is, let’s begin in the East China Sea and be able to respond quickly to any kind of Chinese escalation there and then we can see where things go, depending on how Tokyo and Washington believe the matter should be settled. Thanks. My name is Toshi Nakayama, from Keio University. I am now at the Wilson Center until next summer. One short comment and one short question. Despite what professor Nye said in the first and the second and third report, which came out, we were quite confident that it was an all-American voice. But this time, I think there’s doubts. And yes, I do agree that most of the Japanese people support the Alliance. But there’s this sense, I call it ‘Shyou ga nai’ realism, it’s there’s no other option realism, so I have I think you have to sort of you know take into account the Japanese doubts, to a certain degree. and I’m sure all my friends are watching this event, back home on the website, I hope you can address… on this specific point, you recommended including Japan into the five eyes and in the first report you said the Japanese intelligence community has to do more. So are you now confident that you could sort of propose, you know, including Japan into the Five Eyes. Because we don’t see the intelligence cooperation, when we’re outside. Is there a sort of common feeling that intelligence cooperation, at least between the US, has sort of you know, been improved and you’re comfortable that you, now you can propose including Japan to the five eyes. So that would be my question thank you very much. Dr. Nakayama, as I understand it, you want to know how serious we are about Five Eyes, adding to it, and what is the realistic possibilities. Let me be clear. It is our view that just doing what we’ve been doing for the past several years is not sufficient. We make the point that if you’re standing still, you’re falling behind. and I made the comment that part of what we talked about like Five Eyes is aspirational. There has to be a lot of change on the Japanese side. But from my point of view and knowing what I know about the intelligence sharing between the United States and Japan, we’re pretty far along, we’re pretty far along. Now, I think, some of the other members of the Five Eyes would have some questions, not everybody would immediately come along, but I don’t think anybody would question what we say in the report that Japan is our most important ally in the most important region of the world. Therefore, I think policymakers in the United States and intelligence officials in the United States could make a very good case, if Japan has all the protections necessary in place to really make a good argument for Six Eyes for Japan. Thank you. My name is Mitsuo Nakai, Reagan Foundation. This one is for you, Rich. I want to talk about the balance of power in the Asia Pacific. I’m talking about China now. The security treaty that was signed between the two countries helped protect Japan, as you know. However, Japan was up here but now China is up here, spending military budget like something like 7.9% of their GDP. And now because of North Korea Japan is beginning to spend more money in the military to protect themselves, I know that. This is for you, Rich, can you talk about China and balance of power. I’m probably not the best suited but I can talk to it. First of all, it is right that Japan is spending more on defense, as you suggest. But the Abe Administration for the past several years has been adding the defense budget, not just about North Korea, more generally. And when we look at Japan, when we think about it, we don’t look at Japan standing alone, we’ve seen Japan with the United States and the combination is able to deter, we have been able to deter. And that is the view of all of our friends. Mike talked about the view in Southeast Asia, they all have that view. And that doesn’t mean that we should slack in the efforts or anything like that. We have to also not see China I think as 10 feet tall. My personal view is, Xi Jinping is powerful, he’s secure in his position, he’s brittle. There are questions in this society about how he’s spending his money, there are questions in society about OBOR, which has been spoken about up here. There are questions about why the people’s armed police are growing a pace, why do you need so many for domestic enforcement. So we have to do the best we can with our relationship, not see our possible adversary and I’m not right yet calling China an adversary, if we do our job and if great diplomats like Marc Grossman do their job, we will prevent a China from becoming an adversary. But it’s not for sure it’s not for sure. Mike or anybody wants to add? Henry Newsom. This people can hear me? Central Gulf Lines are CJL’s partners, NYK, Japanese based global shipping giant, also, Seventh Fleet veteran. Japan has a chronic energy thirst and it’s particularly acute post-Fukushima. The US is experienced in energy renaissance, blessed with shale and we’re on route to becoming a dominant global natural gas exporter and also a strong oil exporter. Why was energy cooperation not addressed in the report, in addition to energy and economic implications, energy agreement might be linked to strengthening American Sealift, which is critical to our lives, and it’s been in long-term decline? In the previous report, I think the previous two reports, we emphasized energy, in particular LNG and recommended, in effect, an LNG Alliance. The way the rules work in the US, as you know, you have to have a free trade agreement to get the permits to, you know, import LNG from the US and we recommended moving ahead with agreement that would be something like what you’re describing, with the benefits you described, secure sources for Japan, the basis for cooperating on merchant marine transportation and security through the MSDF and the Navy. Helping Japan wean from its own dependence on less secure areas of the world for natural gas. You know, we try to keep the port brief, I think, it’s fair to say but all of us, who participated, last time made that a key point and I think you’re right to raise it. It’s an area we should be cooperating on. I’d like to make a point here, if I may. Let’s talk about the aspirational nature of at least one of our recommendations and the difficult nature of a lot of them. But if you were to look at all three of our reports and look at all the different recommendations, at the time people were saying: ‘oh it’s too difficult, can’t be done’. And I don’t think any of them have failed to be accomplished. And I’m looking forward to the same happening over time to this. We’ve got about three more questions. Steve Lintures [phonetic], the independent consultant and the formerly foreign researcher at Kyoto University. The US military doctrine has evolved towards an emphasis on joint force operations. I’ve seen the comment made many times that in terms of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, they don’t have that level of integration and in their operations that the US forces do. So when you’re proposing joint commands and so forth and so on, have you addressed the issue that the actual military doctrines would need to be reconciled more than they are now? Yeah, I think that’s an absolutely critical point, you know, over the last 20 years the United States has done an immense amount of work to make the US military much more joint. And Japan has been working on jointness for the last decade as well, but has a lot farther to go. And we certainly recognize that and I think that’s part of the idea behind the Joint Operations Command. Part of what’s been so valuable in, say, Australia, where they actually have a Joint Operations Command, is that they’ve been able to deal not only with some of the challenges relating to actual day-to-day operations, but also to training, to readiness issues, by having more innovative command structures. So part of our recommendation for the Joint Operations Command isn’t just to, you know, many people often think of this as something like the INDOPACOM Command. That’s not what we’re talking about, we’re talking about something that combines both operations and training and exercise to get at the underlying jointness that we need to see from Japan. And that also will help them be able to work more easily with US forces, which are extremely joint and still working to get more so. And there is no real doctrinal or legal barrier to jointness among the three Japanese Self-Defense Forces, and in fact in recent years there’s been a joint base in Djibouti, there’s been a Joint Missile Defense command, and the Joint Staff in Japan has actually put forward for the first time joint requirements, Global Hawk, that are not service-specific. So within Japan it’s really more of a cultural issue, which you know is understandable. We have not since Goldwater-Nichols completely gone ‘purple’ ourselves. Bilateral jointness, the biggest obstacle is probably the ban on collective self-defense and the change in interpretation a few years ago has helped to remove that. So I’d say it’s mainly cultural and to some extent budgetary. That’s why we’re pushing this Joint Operational Command idea a little bit, because there are supporters within Japan but the obstacles are more budget and culture. We have a paper we did here at CSIS, put out by an Australian Kurnelon [phonetic], their experience with their JOC and they had cultural and budgetary issues too. It’s doable this is not the most ambitious of our recommendations, I think. Thank You. Phyllis Yoshida, Sasakawa USA, a retired US Department of Energy. More probably [inaudible]. CNI have spent many years of our career negotiating bilateral trade agreements and technology cooperation agreements. if you could speak a little bit more I think than the panel has, to the recent announcement of renewed bilateral trade negotiations, pros/cons, outcomes. and then second, given that that will probably be a time of a little bit more escalating bilateral tension, as those of us who worked in the 80s saw, what are some of the good merging, good news, issues that perhaps the panel sees to offset some of that, sort of likely signs of the 90s. Thank you. Well, I think in the current environment, here, in Washington it strikes me that we’re always looking kind of through a second-best lens at these issues and so I’d say, first best is the US shouldn’t have pulled out of TPP and we should have been working with Japan on these issues in that context. But given that we did do that and we’re where we are, I think this agreement with Japan is not bad. At least it protects against some of the things that we were all worried about, at least it seems to for now, like the prospect of applying tariffs on automobiles from Japan and elsewhere, for supposed national security reasons, which is going to be interesting to see how the Commerce Department, where you used to work, how they’re going to justify that. But it seems like Japan’s dodged that bullet, Japan’s also protected some of its red lines on agriculture and so forth. But the US has gotten what it wanted, which was a bilateral discussion. And so we’ll see where that leads and we do mention it, it was the last thing we added to the report. We had to stop the presses to make reference to this deal and we said we’re not sure where it’s going to go, but it’s not a bad thing. And then I don’t know whether your question was about other irritants that are beyond economics, just other good news opportunities like science, medicine, other things? I mean, I think there’s lots of good stuff there and that’s the kind of thing we ought to be promoting, but I don’t know whether… Yeah, I mean if we haven’t emphasized this enough, I would just add Japan’s leadership in picking up the broken shards and pieces of TPP and moving forward. That was not inevitable, was it? We’re grateful, hopefully you can leave part of the door open. One cautionary note on both the Japan agreement and the Europe agreement. I would just note with concern, this is the trade lawyer in me, that February of next year is the deadline, the notional deadline on the ‘232 process’. I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this. I thought it was interesting that in whatever we’re calling NAFTA 2.0, it included protective language for Mexico and Canada in the event of auto trade limits. Well, you’re a trade negotiator, why do you put those kind of things in the belief, if not certainty, that the risk persists? Two more, you sir and then over there and then we’ll call it a day. Hi, terrific panel, Vago Muradian from Defense and Aerospace Report. Rich, I want to pick up on a point that you made about the use of language, right? It is not an adversary, whereas this administration looks like it’s leaned a lot further to label China as a potential adversary, which then colors everything, the economic conflict now, the Chinese feel like they can’t back down because that’s still a proxy confrontation with the United States. What is the role of language in this and more broadly, what do you think the strategy has to be, because all of you have addressed different elements of this from the economic to the strategic perspective, not to invoke Graham Allison in the Thucydides Trap here a little bit, but you know there’s a little bit of a concern about that. But you can address that anyway, I know what your thoughts on that are, but I do that was just to give you a chance to address that. But more broadly, what does the language need to be here, do we need to be a little bit less strident on the language in order to be able to get all the lines of national power aligned, what’s the role of rhetoric here? Well, to me language does matter. I won’t say that China will never be an adversary, but I think my colleagues have all dedicated ourselves to do what’s reasonable, logical and supportive of our alliances to keep them from becoming an adversary, so I do use terms as a competitor, sometimes we can cooperate. But just if we see them as an adversary, we do tend to put them in a box, we tend to see, for instance, this tariff regime, which I’m not opposed to, correcting the economic playing field or leveling the playing field and certainly I’m not opposed to protection of our intellectual property rights, there’s no question about it. But there’s an irony in my view, my colleagues may not share this, in our tariff approach to China. If China were to do everything that we asked China to do economically, China would be much stronger. China would be economically more powerful. China would be able to put more money into security. So, it’s a matter of emphasis, it seems to me, rather than just blanket approaches…Joe, you look like you’ve going to jump on. I take your point that language is important. We’ve got to learn to walk and chew gum at the same time as a country, and we seem to always have to have a pendulum, either it’s a total adversary or very close partner. That’s ridiculous, they’re going to be both and what we have to learn is that we’re going to have areas, where we need to cooperate with them, areas, where we’re going to compete. You’re going to have fall outs and cooperation on climate at the same time, because those are both things that are important and we should in principle be able to do both. The danger I see is we get too hung upon language or metaphors, like the Thucydides Trap. We get ourselves into a trap. Thucydides Trap is often used to say: ‘Well this is going to be like the way Germany caused a threat to Britain at the turn of the last century, which created anxiety in Britain, which led to World War I’. Well, there are two things to note about what the Thucydides said: one was the rise of a new power, the other is the fear it created. And if we let ourselves overstimulate the fear, we can have a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s worth remembering that Germany had already passed Britain in industrial strength by1900, 14 years before World War I. China has not passed the United States. You know, purchasing power parity, you don’t import jet engines at purchasing power parity, and if you look instead at exchange rates we’re still a twenty trillion dollar economy, they’re about a 12 trillion dollar economy. It doesn’t mean Chinese power isn’t growing and won’t continue to grow, but if we get ourselves into you know, a deezer [phonetic] about ‘China’s passed us!’ and ‘The threat is here!’ so forth. We can talk ourselves into something we don’t want. What we’re saying in this report is working with Japan and Australia and India and others, we can shape the environment, where China has to moderate some of its power ambitions. That’s perfectly doable. This is not like World War I, it’s not a Thucydides Trap. People say they’re going to drive us past the first island chain. Excuse, me, Japan is part of the first island chain. I mean, the language we use can get us into deeper trouble than we need, as I said we’re going to have to learn to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have one last question. Jun [inaudible], a visiting scholar at the George Washington University. I’m from the Korean Exim Bank and well, we are witnessing the negative side effects of China money invading small and poor states with no further consideration of the synergy effects after investments. Well, the small and poor states need to stop this at least for the development of their domestic consumption market and trading partners relations. How can you make your infrastructure investment fund or regional economic cooperation plan more attractive than China money plan over those small states? Well, I mean I think you know, money isn’t everything. Money is important I mean, we do need to spend more money and I think some of the things that the Trump administration is doing, working with Congress and encouraging it in this regard, there’s a piece of legislation called the ‘Build Act’, which is basically doubling the size of the OPIC, where Kevin used to sit on the board, he can talk about that if he wants, and allowing them to take more active positions in some of these projects. So we’re doing little things, we have a USAID, Japan has JICA that does a lot of work, that isn’t that expensive [in terms of] capacity building and training. If you go to Myanmar as I did in last spring, and you go to the Development Ministry there, and you visit this Former General, who’s the guy everybody tells you to go and see, because he’s the smart guy, who’s kind of figuring all this out for Myanmar, a really impressive guy. You walk past the JICA office, where there’s a Japanese man I think, his name is Mr. Ueda [phonetic], who’s wearing a sarong and he gives you his card and he’s embedded in this Ministry, trying to help Myanmar plan and execute its development strategy. this is something China doesn’t do. We do this well and I think we can do more of that together without spending huge amounts of money, so I think there’s a lot we can do. Yeah, indeed, Matt’s right money isn’t everything, but as my favorite economist Madonna [phonetic] says: ‘Money changes everything’ and everything that Matt talked about in response to your question, it’s yes, but we, and I mean US and Japan, have to adequately resource these efforts, it’s not just about financial architecture and technology. The money does have to be there in the end in order to create the energy in the interest and to sustain the way we want to be doing business. I think we have a tremendous advantage, it would be up to us to lose it by the indifference, and that’s part of what this report is about, I think indifference or inattention could create that problem. Well, it remains to me – first of all along with Dr. Nye – to thank our panelists for their activities. Great to work with you and I can’t promise you we won’t have a fifth person. But some of us are getting a little longer in the tooth, so I think it’s unlikely. Second, I’d like to thank CSIS for their stewardship of this, they’re putting together this excellent report and for their general housekeeping for the last hour and a half. But most of all I want to thank all of you who had enough interest and of kindness to stay here for an hour and a half and listen to us. And hopefully if you agree, disagree, that’s all fine as long as we’ve all thought a little bit about this issue. So thank you very much. See you in Tokyo.

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A new years message to Globalvillagers "We are the ones who still seem to be figuring out... ....how to be the ones we've been waiting for." Tom Atlee, http://tom-atlee.posterous.com/are-we-the-ones A happy new year 2011 to everybody, be it via the mailinglist or other channels ! I have not written to the communit(ies) for quite a long time and want to give an update on many points concerning GlobalVillages. I try to be short so you can read it - but also authentic and clear so it is worth the read. I try to talk to the experienced "members" and the casual "lurkers" alike. This goes to the [email protected] Yahoogroup, to the members of our NING community http://globalvillages.ning.com/ and to other friends. Bear with me if I start with the basics and then go to some actual details. If you are not interested please consider cancelling your membership or drop me a mail and I will do it for you. I promise that will be the only long letter for a few months. 1. Why Global Villages? - Definition number 349 or so 2. A movement in the making 3. A year of standstill ? 4. Finetuning the goals 5. What is needed next ? 5.1. Building Global Villages Network as an online community 5.2. Defining projects and products that will have us leap forward. 5.3. Try to come to Berlin anyway!1. Why Global Villages? - Definition number 349 or so: Global Villages is a network of people that think something called Global Villages is desireable and possible and they want to work for it. Global Villages stems from the idea of a positive exchange of energy between the city and the village, the idea of a dyadic world where each side profits enormously from the counterpart. The core idea is promoting a new economic logic of extending or creating kinds of "household economies" to whole villages - and have those empowered villages cooperate globally. The purpose of this global cooperation is primarily the improvement of a local cooperative lifebase. The cities (=business worlds) role is to become support centers by providing tools and technologies of many kinds. Thus they thrive, although people have now the real option to emigrate from the cities. Other than the current unilateral race for economic success on the world market that increasingly destroys the beauty and success of the human endavour as a whole, its a bilateral system of checks and balances. Its a choice, a real choice: between speed and slowness. between big and small. between aggressive and symbiotic. Slowly it will also mitigate the cities role. But overall, its one logical system of synergy that could work and transform the existing one. No revolution needed, just an effort of a foreseeing minority plus a clever deal with the powers to be to create extensions and adaptions to what we have now. And we can start building these extensions today. We have tools and technology to make village life equivalent to cities, despite their big conceptual differences. Very little effort goes to the conceptualisation of this new cooperative village. We want to change that. Thew change starts with the perception of possibilities, with education. Connecting villages to each other means establishing a new educational backbone. Everything starts by the perception of the potential which comes out of knowledge and its implantation in design. This is of course targeted knowledge, the knowledge to combine and weave our abilities into a beautiful local cycle of support, fueled by the worlds best answers to all the questions we have. We have all the *tools* to make this happen, in particular deep ecological insight, flexible automation, new materials and incredible communication technology that allows for the sharing of any new discovery out of research and experimentation, thus making the villages a living global university of life. We have all the *need* to make it happen, a global crisis of resources and procedures, a common feeling of an imminent collapse of the capital/power system that is simply deepened by procrastination and denial, by illusions, allegations and agressions, by spectacle and sensation, maybe also by intentional strategies of power elites, we simply dont know. And we have the *scale* to make it happen: the village scale, the neighborhood scale, the community scale. We feel that a massive convergence of knowledge can allow us to transform microcosms of life into unprecedented completeness, wholeness, richness. My intention is to build a movement.2. A movement in the making Yet I cant help but starting this report with mixed feelings; not only my personal situation, but also the situation of many friends - who are ready and willing to work towards a real solution along the principles outlined above - is far away from a state where we can reallize our dreams and show the potential of our ideas - even in a situation where path-dependence of mainstream economy, technology and habitat leads to more and more painful experiences. Neither do we see much success on the village scale compared to the possibilities we sense, anywhere in the world. On the positive side, although still far from the mainstream, there has been a lot of convergence and coming together in this year: a new sense of belonging together resulted in the formation of broader movements, like the Commons movement and the Transition movement. They all share the same basic rationale that is also the lifeblood of the GlobalVillages idea: that we need to foster economic localisation and the better use of resources, reflecting on the multilateral, participative way of using and circulating and replenishing resources in the local arena - and building on cooperation rather than competition. And then there are other movements that focus on the overcoming of the old economic structures: the New Work movement, the Zeitgeist movement, the ecovillage movement and so on. But what about "Global Villages" in particular - as that very necessary "movement within the movements"? What about the fervent zeal to make the local environment aka villages more self-reliant, bright, intelligent, liveable by special emphasis on themes, networks, communication centres, experimentation, innovation, design? Going beyond all that existed and create really self-feeding, organic habitat? Showing that we can have the full life in an incredibly small place, making the planet a million times bigger just by that perspective? What about the potential to become a global brotherhood/sisterhood of true citizens of the world, simply seing a potential ultra - productive localisation as the ultimate global agenda - with new codes of global cooperation that do away with obsolete forms of "intellectual property" and therefore unfold an unforeseen productivity for all? "We" - and that we *does* exist somehow - are convinced very much that this - and mostly this - is the true, peaceful and successful way to "outcooperate" the currently dominating mode of production. But: can "we" find an "entry door to reality" that gives us the leverage to create strong centers and start a real movement? Will we finally find ourselves together via practical goals and a shared agenda, and when will that finally be? There are some tiny sign of success, like the fact that Marcin Jakubowskis "Gobal Village Construction Set" has just made it to the top of MAKE magazines green products contest (http://makezine.com/tagyourgreen/?o=popular ) and there is some feeling in the air about the exciting interplay between global communication and increasing local abilities. I was surprised how at the recent commons conference in Berlin, a spontaneous session about Global Villages attracted many visitors. Academic works are written about the idea. The term 'Global Village' has begun to shift its meaning (maybe also due to this continous work). and so on. But nowhere, neither in media nor in politics, is this option yet visible nor taken really serious. People like Steward Brand can still call for the abolition of the village in the name of progress and be celebrated by TED; the mainstream still assumes a progressive 75%+ urbanisation in the next decades, while industrial land grabbing aggravates the situation in a deadly speed and leads to an ultimate enclosure of planetary dimension. A self fulfilling prophecy of enormous destructive dynamics is the challenge to be met; and the civil societies of the world have not even grasped what their cooperative power could create, if there was really a grassroots globalisation of the right kind going on, one that creates a cycle of empowerment around centers of self-reliance.3. A year of standstill ? My main concern has been bringing the alternative option to public recognition and support, considering Global Villages the "salt of the earth" in the perspective of a progressive "villegiatura" (village building era) of planetary dimensions that would allow us to unfold a myriad of cultures, lifestyles, human possibilities in truly autonomous circumstances and spaces - a big program for peace by directing energies towards constructive goals including really everybody willing to reflect on their true desires. Getting practical again, one idea that started the year 2010 for me was that the intentional establishment of "Global Villages" as service centers to many communities in a given region, thus the scheme would become part of regional politics and its initiation fundeable. At the end of 2009, I had a dinner in Vienna with the governor of the Polish region of Opole who is also a leader in the European village renewal alliance, and it was very interesting that we shared for a short moment a very clear image that helped facilitate the meetings of our minds: A particular village, outstanding in its nature, that would serve not only its inhabitants, but a whole region as connecting point to the world, a learning and meeting center. Thus, a global village might be easier to implement even in present circumstances, funded even by conventional regional development. It all seems so easy and logical, but we did not make very much headway in particular. I have not heard back a long time from them. The promising vision of a European network of learning centers, discovering and developing together - that might have been an outcome of the Grundtvig Workshop (http://www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi?VideoBridge/GrundtvigWorkshop ), - the vision of diverse localities experimenting with form and content in a holistic way that includes real local needs, is still a remote dream. The Grundtvig Workshop was nice, but not as sustainable and effective as I hoped for. The idea of combining a new content of education with telepresence did not really catch up. (a tiny footnote on "telepresence": We are made much aware of the great obstacles present in this domain, for example in this important report we received recently about the ElectroSmog festival: http://www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi?VideoBridge/Forum/TelepresenceCont... . The idea that this challenge could spark an inventive community working on improvement of working patterns that transcend the undeniable obstacles is still far away and we could not even set up a project proposal together.) In the opposite, on a personal level, it seems the buerocratic necessities to finalize the existing workshop procedures have exhausted me and had a negative impact on many other works in this year. We did have some other promising activities, like one on the village of St. Martin and environments in Austrias Waldviertel. This community is implementing a communal Open Access Network based on fiberoptics with 100MB bandwidth to each house - a rare dream setting even here in Austria. We did a workshop on possible content there, also giving videobridging a prominent place (with people from many other places taking part). Yet it seems the possibilities of follow-up projects have not materialized yet. A quick fix for profitability is hard to achieve, thats not the path we can provide. Or the - definitely *very* interesting - May 2010 meeting at RealCorp Vienna, where I did a common workshop with Clear Village people Karsten Stampa and Chris Garvin and others who were interested in the issue of the impact of communication on human settlement and/or the renaissance of the village scale in our time. In the aftermath we went down to the exhibition floor of Real Vienna, a trade show which brought many investment - hungry regions from Eastern Europe together in Vienna to show their real estate opportunities to investors. The floor was pretty empty, the investors for all these dreamy mega - projects simply lacked, so we had an easy time getting in talks with regional representatives, mostly from countries neighboring to Austria. Some of them really embraced our innovative ideas and wanted to learn more. Later on, some of us spend a lot of time in developing a concept for a Village Forum with the Austrian real estate magazine, an event that would bring all stakeholders of the village building process including the real estate industry together. The proposal was applauded and lauded as a truly breakthrough scheme of giving a saturated industry a new direction - but eventually our prospective partners said no because of work overload. so it goes.4. Finetuning the goals So this year did not really provide a base from which we can easily continue work in the next year. In November at the First International Commons Conference I tried to conceptualise a Global Villages Meeting in Berlin for next may in conjunction with the upcoming First European Conference of Village Movements in May 2011, which would be the perfect occassion to meet and work on our agenda. The setting seems almost perfect, and I repeat the call for everybody to join this conference: http://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Themen/GK_Ländlich... But then, for me the recognition came, that for the months and maybe years to come I will largely be absorbed in local business here in Vienna which means the hotel. Its really clear now it will fall on my shoulders. Besides preparing a good speech for Berlin about Global Villages which is a challenge in itself, there is not very much I can do on the side reflecting the agenda here in the next months. It seems nobody among my many, many friends in Berlin believes they can organize something bigger, even though we got a great response from Franz Reinhard Habbel of the German association of towns and villages. So it might simply not happen in an organized fashion. So .... I became aware of the challenges but also the opportunities that result in having more responsibility for the hotel after the imminent retirement of my sister in March 2011. It started with the sudden realization of many unfinished local issues here, starting with basic technical and safety issues but also with the necessity to develop a business plan when the "business hotels" will spring up in masses in our district (a Ramada just started preopening sales). I need to reinvent the Karolinenhof if it shall survive. One very exciting option is this: To do everything possible to create a good physical meetingspace here in Vienna for the meeting of communities and the business world, for the years to come this might be our hotels company mission. If I get consensus, I will even try to extend, to create a true small "community hotel", that makes it fun to convene in Vienna. A coworking-cohousing hotel. Very ambitious plan, but not allowing me to spend too much time researching and communicating in the networks. Maybe some of you have specific circumstances that would allow us to explore deeper what this kind of hospitality needs, or if some of you would consider even taking part in that endavour here. This is ther first invitation, athough I have not very much to offer. And here comes the second invitation: there is a real danger that I will not be able any at least for the next years to pursue the ambitious dream of a Global Villages Network ..... unless some of you step forward and really share the task with me. This is the purpose of this message and of shorter messages to come, creating a very clear agenda which could be shared by many. Our Russian friend Gleb Tyurin is just one of the examples of how important it would be to many people to have a strong support structure at hand to support the most visionary "localizers" all around the world. So again and -maybe more precise than ever - I present you my personal vision or fantasy of the network, in the hope that it truly resonates with your fantasy or vision, and we could do something about it. Global Villages Network should be: * a distinct community of maximum 500 people that know each other to some degree and collaborate on a network of locations all around the world which want to be at the forefront of community design and liveability, * so not only thinking how beautiful a village can be, but really believing in the possibility and working for it * having or seeking positions in local community education, foreign relations, planning, administration * staying in close touch and establish working groups and project groups for all aspects of local community building (with the goal of freely distributed "products" that can be useful and applied) * but also develop a theoretical common understanding, like conceptualising a flexible general model or pattern language of a "minimum critical mass" local community (500? 5000?) that thrives on empowerment of each of its members by global networks * collecting successful examples (observatory) and essential patterns (repository) * intervene not only in support of each other (as a "phyle"), but also vis a vis partners in the business and political world to facilitate growth and development of Global Villages. I like the idea that the virtual community is also in itself not much bigger than a village, and the amount of its workload can be dealt with by those relatively few individuals, which allows for a certain non - buerocratic structure. Maybe eventually the network will dissolve into a political entity of much bigger size, but thats beyond the foreseable and purely speculative. What we currently need is a catalyzer for effective localisation, an interface between local development and global communication that has a clear focus which is not too narrow and not too wide. If you want to be part of it please stay. If not, please unsubscribe.5. What is needed next ?5.1. Building Global Villages Network as an online community The coming together of this whole network has been started by events in the nineties mostly in Vienna ("Global Village", "Cultural Heritage in the Global Village"), but only recently re-actualized with the assumed potential of social networking and community building. I met hundreds of people in the course of the last 20 years with whom I felt deep resonance about the idea, but had no way of keeping in touch phyiscally or physically bringing them together after the Global Village conferences were over. This period of dispersed past seemed to end with the advent of social networking tools ... but: In mid 2010 NING terminated its free networks, and I began to think about a new networking strategy. Global Villages Online Groups were established in various locations, in the hope that to all these venues there would be a vibrant center to connect to; from LinkedIn via XING via Wiser Earth and Facebook - there is a plethora of venues where you can find different kinds and attitudes of people that are all needed - to one convergence point. Like Global Villages as a movement should draw their strength and idea base from the wealth of cultural diversity around their globe, so the Global Villagers should be a rich blend of many backgrounds: business, science, humanities, engineering, vision, emotion, art, practical experience and actually living it - everything should play a role in the "grand small" design. But that diversity would have to be held together by a strong center of exchange and inspiration, which was envisioned as a set of online venues like globalvillages.org, globalvillages.info and globalvillages.tv. It became increasingly clear that the formation of such a center and also the maintainance of all the precious peripheries required external energies to be brought into the game. Much more than I can master or manage. Without some help, everything is gone. One option was and is to especially cooperate with Clear Village on an economically successful endavour of village building events and activities, which would then call for a "observatory" and a network of people who would also have a chance to take part in such events and activities. This has not happened yet; and my best idea so far for the time being was to provisionally embed the Global Villages movements core structures as a subset of the very successful online communities around the Transition network. Transition is a wonderful umbrella structure with a wider appeal, practical and ambitious at the same time, which serves as a meeting ground for many strands of economic localisation and ecological inventiveness. The two groups in the Austrian and in the international system seem to be the venues of the moment:http://transitionaustria.ning.com/group/netzwerkglobaledoerferhttp://transitioninaction.com/group/globalvillagesintransition And I spent most of my available time to help build and grow the Transition movement here in Austria as a mothersoil from which a Global Villages movement will naturally emerge. The importance of localisation is fuly recognized in this movement, as R.K. Moore describes: "The localization movement focuses on economics and resources, but in a broader sense it is aimed at enabling a community to solve its own problems, to take charge of its own destiny. Besides an economic premise – localization makes economic sense – there are certain political premises that are implicit in the movement: * We can’t count on government to solve all our problems. * We have the capacity to improve our own circumstances by working together. And there are cultural premises as well: * Community is a valuable social entity. * Stronger community can be a source of local empowerment. So thats Transition. A good base to establish contacts. But also the other venues are alive: even without my "gardening", Global Villages group (LinkedIn, XING, Wiser Earth, Facebook etc..) constantly find new members. Even our old NING gets new members every day, but its limited to 150 and a NING mini, therefore its more a temporary storehouse than a good center. We (Ralf Schlatterbeck and I ) established www.globalvillages.org as the future central domain, but no decision has been made yet what system to use. The server that we rented is fast and powerful enough to even run voice communication, webinars etc. I received several offers of support, from Raffael Reinehr from Brasil who is ELGG - literate to Urs Riggenbach from the US who runs Drupal Systems for a Human Ecology College. Also the Estonian "Community Tools" group has offered help. But I feel before we build a system we should have a board of editors who really are commited to maintain the communication flow, keep it simple and effective. There are a few people like Jeff Buderer or Markus Petz who are very active networkers, but what is needed here is a steady focus around the vision. I do not really know if the vision of Global Villages is really so important, but I feel its a beautiful node in the fabric of the new world that is woven now, the marriage between the physical place, the appreciation of the natural, the appreciation of culture and technology all flowing into one convergence point. I feel in contrary to Andrius Kulikauskas that this network should not be woven around people, but "people resonating through an idea". Otherwise, I felt Andrius had a lot of sensational ideas, using the virtual network almost like a life support system and a creative tool for constant rekindling our inner fire and recallibrating our inner direction that is often lost in our crushing environments. A spirit of appreciation, respect and support, a feeling of being alive and close to the breakthrough is what this network should deliver. Thank you Andrius for all that, although we might be too different to work closely together in future.5.2. Defining projects and products that will have us leap forward. So Global Villages should not only be a community, but maybe also a phyle. A community that develops its business backbone.http://p2pfoundation.net/Phyles A few days ago I received a message from our dear Indian friend Anil Chawla, who together with his wife Suman runs a leather factory in India, and who has the revolutionary idea to place this factory near a village instead having people travel thousands of miles. Everybody calls him crazy but I encouraged him to strike a deal with vilagers that could mean that he helps them videobridging in the nearby school for better subsistence and lower living costs. This is just one example of the many exciting possibilities that everyone of us has in his or her hands and the might fit together like the pieces of a mosaic. If Anils villagers implement Marcins Global Village construction set or something similar, that is a possible realisation of our networks strength and internal cooperation logic. Our friend Gleb Tyurin produces a video that shows to the general public in Russia the potential of localisation. Maybe there is footage for him to implement, I encouraged him to think of a collaborative video production like the beautiful "Coalition of the Willing" animation that was done by a coalition of professional media producers, showing the potential of collaborative production. http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk/ So it is very important to see the Global Villages Network as a network of people who have some living connection to the ground, DOING SOMETHING TOGETHER. The connections might be of different nature, our diversity and our different backgrounds will help us realize better our common visions. Its good that Anil is a businessman and uses his abilities as a businessperson to bring the realisation of global villages forward. It is very important that each of us discovers the general aspect of what they are doing and we group around practical outcomes. At the same time I feel its important to still be connected by the strong tie of a common vision. lets have these two things combined better, so we will survive and thrive. Again, please consider your membership in our venues if you dont think thats interesting.5.3. Try to come to Berlin anyway! So as I said I will not be able to fulfill my own expectations to orderly organize a gathering in Berlin around May 14th. Too much is on the plate right now here in Vienna. My hope is that something spontaneous will emerge nevertheless. We might be able to travel to very interesting examples of successful localisation after the conference in Brandenburg. I will issue a call for who might invite us. Everybody will be on their own financially for the time being. But I hope we do something important to meet the challenge of changing our situation as individuals, too. if we meet and before that, we can discuss: a) whats the meaning of all these social networking activities b) how we make them fruitful for each other and keep coherence c) what are the momentary priorities in terms of attention and projects d) how this fits in a strategic picture please use the globalvillages mailing list for your contributions!http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalvillages/ -> "Join this group" if you are not subscribed yet. All the best

Blumenthal, Bysiewicz tour Cromwell’s thriving GKN Aerospace CROMWELL — A manufacturing company that launched in 2005 as a “great idea” centered in a former dice-making facility employing five people now boasts 280 workers. GKN Aerospace Service, at 1000 Corporate Row, is the world’s leading multi-technology tier 1 aerospace supplier. It’s technology is on board 1,000 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II flights a day, according to the firm. In honor of Manufacturing Month, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Committee on Armed Services, and lieutenant governor candidate Susan Bysiewicz visited the facility Wednesday. They discussed the company’s tuition reimbursement program, which allows employees to pursue training and higher education, got up close to the parts-making process, and witnessed the action on the manufacturing floor firsthand. Security is very tight at GKN, as much of what it creates involve top-secret components for the U.S. defense industry. GKN recruits its engineers, operators, technicians and other skilled workers from Central Connecticut State University, UConn and Goodwin College. “The aerospace industry in Connecticut is thriving, and all we need to do is get them more trained people. (When that happens,) they will continue to hire and thrive. It’s very exciting,” Bysiewicz said. Sergio Morean, vice president and general manager, conducted a walk through, which included a glimpse at the window frame and fan inlet case of the F-35. Company founder and former General Manager Tony Cacace, who now consults for GKN, joined the tour. Morean pointed out a sign indicating the company has gone 1,000 days without lost time due to accidents on the job, a point of pride for those working at GKN. Blumenthal and Bysiewicz were shown the F-35 window frame, and talked to the team that conducts the demolding process for the F-35 fan inlet case. “What’s most impressive is the extraordinary workmanship and precision of these parts, going into an engine that is going to power an aircraft that gives the United States air superiority for the next four or five decades,” Blumenthal said. “The F-35 is our guarantee of air superiority for this century, and this engine will make it possible. These composite parts are like the ‘secret sauce.’ The composition of the composite is what makes it so strong and durable,” he said following the tour. GKN works closely with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, which is charged with, among other things, advancing context-based STEM education and promoting careers to build a future workforce, according to the agency. GKN has 50 manufacturing locations in 14 countries. It serves more than 90 percent of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers, Morean said. “We design and manufacture innovative smart aerospace systems and components. Our technologies are used in aircraft, ranging from the most used single-aisle aircraft and the largest passenger planes in the world, to business jets and the world’s advanced 5th-generation fighter aircraft,” according to the GKN website. Bysiewicz was impressed to learn that, early in the formation of his company, Cacace realized defense parts manufacturing companies like his should band together and stop trying to compete. “They realize the synergy of working together, and the real adversaries are companies from outside of our country. The great story about this company is there are other companies working together to make the F-35,” she said. Cacace spoke on behalf of the Aerospace Component Manufacturers, comprising 120 companies that meet once a month. “The senator loves the state, and he’s done a lot of good. As a collective group of people, we’ve got to perpetuate that, and get our kids trained, and make sure we get the universities (on board). “Ask for what we need. I tell ACM, I hammer them as an old guy — 73 years old. I say, ‘I don’t have a long runway, but you guys have a requirement to get to those people, and make sure the school is giving you what you need, and be part of it, because that’s our future,’” Cacace said. Matthew Hollman, lead technician, came to the company in an unusual way — one that demonstrates how GKN rewards those who work very hard at their posts. One day, at a time when Hollman was working three jobs, Cacace was buying coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts. He saw Hollman behind the counter working “very energetically,” he said. Later on, he spied Hollman working his second job at a pizza place. “‘You’re working that hard, you should be going to school for engineering,’” Cacace recalled saying, talking as Hollman filed a window framing, which, when assembled, carries the autoview capability on the F-35. “I gave him the most sophisticated part to work on and he started to flourish. He’s the lead man on this already,” Cacace said. “Stop talking, give me a raise,” Hollman quipped. The part enables a pilot to see the area below him. “He has to see the enemy before the enemy sees him,” Cacace said. Blumenthal is going to bring his observances to Washington, D.C. “When I go back to the Senate, I have very powerful and convincing evidence the investment (in companies such as these) is well worth it. There are a lot of dollars involved and a lot of jobs, but it’s an investment we have to make,” he said. He praised GKN workers, many of whom are women. “These guys on the factory floor are as important as many of our men and women in uniform. They are part of our defense industrial base. They are producing the planes and subs and helicopters that make sure our troops will never have a fair fight. The whole idea is they shouldn’t have a fair fight, they should be superior,” Blumenthal said. “They’re out there and they need air support. The F-35 has to be the master of disguise, and has to be able to not only knock out the aircraft that’s coming against it, but provide support that’s needed on the ground,” he said. “The strength in aerospace is in Connecticut. We can make boring, predictable parts all the time, as long as they’re good,” Cacade said. Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day

Worldwide Media Expands Digital Content Portfolio With ‘Intern Diaries’ Worldwide Media has announced the launch of ‘Intern Diaries’; a scripted reality web series by Grazia in association with Ponds BB+ cream. The new offering to be launched on 15th Maywill expand the group’s video content portfolio, thereby fortifying its digital first strategy. The concept of the web series set at the backdrop of leading global fashion media platform Grazia’sworkplace; will seamlessly integrate elements of fashion and entertainment forming synergy with the younger audience. Speaking about the web series, Mr. Deepak Lamba, CEO Worldwide Media said, “Each of our brands caters to a certain industry segment and its respective audiences. By leveraging each brand’s expertise to create reality basedlong form content, we have extended our reach on other platforms like television and digital. With Intern Diarieswe will amplify our long form content offering on the digital medium and reinforce our platform agnostic and digital first strategy.” Speaking about the concept, Mehernaaz Dhondy, Editor in Chief, Grazia India said, “Intern Diaries is WWM’s first foray into fictional video content with a reality setting. The viewers will get a sneak peek into the inner workings of a fashion magazine. Each year many young girls intern at Grazia. The web series has been inspired by many real-life instances that have taken place. Each episode is entertaining and shows a real sense of camaraderie among the two interns and the fashion community.” Intern Diaries is a unique series with a story that will revolve around two young girls interning with Grazia and aspiring to make a mark in the world of high fashion, style and Bollywood. The interns will be seen working their way towards delivering as per the magazine’s merit. The web series will take the audience through a journey of real situations, fashion emergencies and challenges from a millennial’s point-of-view. The engaging 8 episode web-series will feature on Youtube and social media platforms of Grazia and a dedicated micro-site – https://www.grazia.co.in/intern-diaries/ The young artists Hira Ashar and Shivani Singh will be playing the lead roles in the series. Talented actress Sonakshi Sinha and celebrity designers such as Manish Malhotra, Anita Dongre, Masaba Gupta and Payal Singhal’s special appearances will add value to the fashion and glamour driven theme of the web series. Worldwide Media group in a short span of time has launched various quality content properties, on digital and television, such as Famoulsy Filmfare, The Secret Ingredient, Nexa Journeys on Asian Highway1 and The GoodHomes show. The success of these properties bears testimony to the group’s strength of delivering shows that can sit across different platforms, propelling it into the direction of achieving its transformational goal.

09:49 - 2018/10/07 33rd National Conference on Artificial Intelligence AAAI 2019 33rd National Conference on Artificial Intelligence AAAI 2019 welcomes submissions reporting research that advances artificial intelligence, broadly conceived. The conference scope includes all subareas of AI and machine learning. These include (but are not limited to) traditional topics such as search, planning, knowledge representation, reasoning, natural language processing, robotics and perception, multiagent systems, statistical learning, and deep learning. 09:15 - 2018/10/06 2nd International Conference on Applications of Intelligent Systems APPIS 2019 The 2nd International Conference on Applications of Intelligent Systems APPIS 2019, with tutorials will be held on 7-12 January 2019 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. APPIS 2019 is organized by the University of Groningen and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. APPIS 2019 aims at bringing together scientists who develop or apply intelligent systems, machine learning, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, and related methods. 09:37 - 2018/10/03 International Conference on Information Management and Computer Science IMCS 2018 International Conference on Information Management and Computer Science IMCS 2018 is organized by Institute of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDSAI) and Zibeline International Publishing (ZIP). It will be held in Hong Kong from December 29-30, 2018. All accepted papers will be published by journals (Information Management and Computer Science, Malaysian E Commerce Journal), which will be submitted to Google Scholar, CNKI for indexing. 09:58 - 2018/10/02 The 3rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Robots AIR 2018 The 3rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Robots AIR 2018 will cover issues on Artificial Intelligence and Robots. AIR 2018 is sponsored by Engineering Information Institute, Open Access Library, Scientific Research Publishing, and 1000thinktank. It dedicates to creating a stage for exchanging the latest research results and sharing the advanced research methods. 09:47 - 2018/10/01 3rd International Conference on Signal, Image Processing SIPO 2019 3rd International Conference on Signal, Image Processing SIPO 2019 is a forum for presenting new advances and research results in the fields of Signal and Image Processing. The conference will bring together leading researchers, engineers and scientists in the domain of interest from around the world. 10:24 - 2018/09/30 Third IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing IRC 2019 Third IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing IRC 2019 addresses the synergetic interaction of computing technologies and robotic technologies. The synergy between Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Computer Science is both realistic and strategic. Their mutual benefit is to make it possible to build and evolve new robotic systems, to reduce their development cost, and to enhance their quality. 10:01 - 2018/09/29 3rd International Conference on Software Engineering and Applications SOEA 2019 3rd International Conference on Software Engineering and Applications SOEA-2019 will provide an excellent international forum for sharing knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of Software Engineering and Applications. Authors are solicited to contribute to the conference by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, surveying works and industrial experiences that describe significant advances in the areas of software engineering & applications. 09:48 - 2018/09/27 International Workshop on Optimization and Learning OLA 2019 International Workshop on Optimization and Learning OLA 2019 is a workshop focusing on the future challenges of optimization and learning methods and their applications. The workshop OLA'2019 will provide an opportunity to the international research community in optimization and learning to discuss recent research results and to develop new ideas and collaborations in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. 09:46 - 2018/09/26 The Artificial Intelligence Conference AINY 2019 The Artificial Intelligence Conference AINY 2019 attracts the brightest minds in AI: algorithm and perception engineers, research and machine learning scientists, data scientists and data engineers, program and product managers, innovation officers and business leaders who come together to share ideas and to explore the most essential—and intriguing—topics in applied AI. 09:49 - 2018/09/25 The 13th IEEE International Conference on semantic computing ICSC 2019 Semantic Computing (SC) addresses the derivation, description, integration, and use of semantics (“meaning”, "context", “intention”) for all types of resource including data, document, tool, device, process and people. The scope of SC includes, but is not limited to, analytics, semantics description languages and integration (of data and services), interfaces, and applications including biomed, IoT, cloud computing, SDN, wearable computing, context awareness, mobile computing, search engines, question answering, big data, multimedia, and services.

After you've selected your Leader for your Crew, what remains is filling out the rest of the team. With the exception of Avatars, which will be forthcoming in the next round of the beta (we hope!), the remainder of the models in the game fall into the three lesser stations: Peons, Minions and Enforcers. While different in power-level and cost, each of these stations fills a much needed role within a Malifaux Crew. PeonsPeons are the lowest of the low in the game, with point costs generally staying at around four or under. The station trait Peon doesn't itself carry any mechanical weight, although all Peons released so far are also saddled with being Insignificant, meaning that they are not able to take Interact actions. They are also unable to take Upgrades and are often barred from scoring for Scheme and Strategy purposes. Any discussion of Peons must also touch on Totems because, although the groups do not overlap completely, nearly all Peons are Totems (and conversely nearly all Totems are Peons). In fact, of the first wave Beta models there are only three Peons that are not also Totems: Electrical Creation, Mindless Zombie and the Pigapult. The first two are disposable and the third is more a form of equipment than an ally. Totems on the other hand are infused with a good deal more individuality. Representing their Leader's will on the battlefield, Totems can be thought of strategically as living (or unliving) Upgrade cards. They usually emphasize one part of their associated Master's play-style, or help cover up a weakness. The unassociated Totems do the same thing but may be hired by anyone in faction, following the usual limit of one per Crew. Getting rid of the Totem is generally doable with the expenditure of a few Action points, but their low Soulstone price-tag makes it a quandary for the enemy - Do you spend the resources to take out such a small part of your opponent's force? MinionsThe majority of the non-leader models in a crew are generally Minions. A step above Peons, Minions are characterized by their ability to interact with the table and help set up Scheme markers. Most Minions can be taken in multiples, filling out the Leader's ranks and providing some insurance for when your opponent eventually kills a few of them off. Within each faction, Minions are generally themed in concert with one of the Masters or Henchmen but can be taken for any crew with ease. One of the themes of Malifaux 2e is opening up the restrictions on which models can be played when, instead rewarding themed play through synergy bonuses. This way its still clear which pieces 'go' with which others, but allowing the player to over-ride this system for a specific Scenario, Scheme or for their own personal style. EnforcersLast of all are the Enforcers, the game changers of your Crew. Enforcers tend to be between seven to 11 Soulstones in cost, plus they have the ability to take a single Upgrade, meaning that they are an expensive investment. A Rail Golem with the Imbued Protection Upgrade will end up costing 13 Soulstones, more than a quarter of your entire Crew in a 50ss game. Thankfully, you tend to get a lot of game effect for your stones. Most of the Enforcers have a primary attack stat of 6 or 7, usually with at least one Trigger. The majority of them also usually have at least one defensive ability, such as Armour or Hard to Kill, or a load of Wounds available. Perhaps most characteristically, the Enforcer group is where we see the majority of the 40mm and 50mm base-sized models, giving your Crew an option to exert greater control on the table. The line between low-end Enforcers and high-end Minions can be a little blurry, with models such as the Ten Thunders' Samurai seeming like good candidates for the Minion Station and the Razorspine Rattler being easily confused with an Enforcer. The big difference is the access to Upgrade cards. Now at this point in development the number of cards available to each Enforcer is relatively limited, with some having access to only one or two viable options, but this will change as the game continues to roll out. Presently a handful of lucky Enforcers have custom Upgrades built specifically for them - Lenny has I'll Love It And Pet It, as an example. This is a glimpse of the potential that Enforcers have for the future as the story continues to develop and the meta game evolves. Putting It TogetherFor every rule there is an exception and Malifaux 2e has its fair share. Lots of models break the rules, and the rules were built with this in mind. Totems who are Minions, or even Enforcers. Models which act as Scheme markers or Corpse markers. Totems that are hired in pairs or even triples. Non-Leaders with Use Soulstones. In a future article we will discuss the biggest example of this: the new prevalence of Dual-Faction models and their interactions with the Upgrade system. Thanks for reading.

Space and European Security In a January 2003 Resolution, the European Parliament asked the European Commission to deliver a White Paper on European Space Policy. The Green Paper that followed laid out a number of relevant issues and called for a comprehensive consultation on the subject. The subsequent series of workshops included a joint Greek Presidency/EU event in May 2003 specifically dedicated to the security and defence issue. Based on the results of the Space Green Paper consultation, the European Commission adopted the White Paper on European Space Policy in November 2003. In Chapter 3.4, entitled “Space as a contribution to the CFSP (Common Foreign and Security Policy), the ESDP (European Security and Defence Policy) and to the anticipation and monitoring of humanitarian crises”, the Commission urges the reinforcement of space technologies in support of security and defence policy requirements. This is to be done by both boosting existing space-based security capabilities and developing new ones. A new EU Security Research initiative Security is an evolving concept, representing challenges for the enlarged EU of25 Members in a wide range of policy areas. The European security strategy ‘A secure Europe in a better world,’ endorsed by the European Council in December 2003 outlines global challenges and key threats. Among these are terrorism, organized crime, natural disasters and fighting diseases. The EU Communication, entitled ‘Towards a programme to advance European security through research and technology’, explains why security research needs to be co-ordinated at the EU level. Significantly, it earmarks 65 million euros for the Preparatory Action on Security Research (PASR) (2004-2006), which will lead to a full European Security Research Programme starting in 2007. The PASR Information Day, held in Brussels on 25 March 2004, attracted more than 400 participants from research and academic institutions and industry. Many of the attendees represented groups from the space and aeronautics sectors. Space and Security interlinked The interest in Security Research among the aerospace community comes as no surprise. The ‘Group of Personalities in the field of Security Research’, whose Report ‘Research for a Secure Europe’, argues for the establishment of a major European Security Research Programme (ESRP), and includes members representing a number of important space interests. Space technologies and infrastructures are undoubtedly crucial to any credible and effective security policy. Today, most security-related information comes from satellites operated within national or bilateral or intergovernmental frameworks. Any security policy will require permanent access to suitable space-based systems and services because of their strategic capabilities. The distinction between defence-related and civil research no longer makes sense. Earth observation (EO) satellites, for instance, have obvious applications in both areas. The Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security (GMES) programme, developing EO technologies, will be of great importance in both the civil and security realms. GALILEO is another space technology with a great potential security impact. Most programmes now on the way promise multiple-use capabilities. The objectives of the “Panel of Experts on Space and Security” are to: --Review the role of Space in meeting the objectives of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European Security and Defence Policy (CFSP)/ (ESDP). --Consider options for identifying, maintaining and updating the operational requirements for pan-European space and security capabilities. --Identify and call for input from the main groups actively looking at operational requirements across Europe. --Assess the available information on the capability gap that exists in Europe today for Space-based security services. --Identify priority areas and options for a preparatory action plan for a future European Space-based capabilities programme. --Make recommendations about the institutional options necessary for long- term management of such programmes. --Assess the potential funding scenarios necessary to ensure that the appropriate level of resources is available to meet primary programme needs. --Identify the required space technological, legal and institutional requirements to be in place among the relevant European players. --Determine how to contribute to the EU global response to security issues: fight against international terrorist groups and criminal organizations, control of EU external borders, fight against drug trafficking. The EC/ESA Framework Agreement The European Community (EC) and ESA signed a co-operation agreement, which entered into force on 28 May 2004. The EC and ESA now have a legal basis to launch and fund joint projects, participate in each other’s schemes, create common management agencies, carry out studies and jointly organise conferences and training for scientists, exchange and share experts, equipment and materials and access to facilities. EC/ESA co-operation will focus on: --Securing Europe’s independent and cost-effective access to space for the use and application of space technologies; --Ensuring that Space contributes to implementing EU policies, in particular as a support for sustainable development, economic growth and employment; --Combining the currently dispersed know-how available in achieving greater coherence and synergy, namely through a network of technical centres. Specifically, the Framework Agreement identifies eight fields of co-operation: --communication by satellite --human space flight and micro-gravity --spectrum policy related to space The Agreement also sets out the principles for EC/ESA co-operation, and provides guidelines for joint initiatives, co-operation with non-European countries, exchange of personnel, settlement of disputes, and means for addressing other issues relating to joint activities.