text:
My friend Alysia is blessed with truly enviable genes—she's a lithe 5'8", 120 pounds, with long legs, a narrow rib cage, and swanlike neck. She also has beautiful, balanced features: a full mouth, large (but not googly) brown eyes, a patrician brow, and pale (but not pasty), wrinkle-free skin. She quite closely resembles a supermodel. In fact, it was only when I tried to figure out why, when she walks into a room, she hits the scene not as a bombshell (as her objective stats would suggest) but as an approachable, normal girl that I arrived at my ground-breaking socio-scientific theory. What stands between Alysia and instantly-sending-men-to-knees status? What makes her the hot librarian in the Hollywood stereotypebefore
she whips off her glasses? One very small but significant detail: her hair.
Don't get me wrong; Alysia's mane is in line with the rest of her genetics—glossy chestnut with natural ringlets. But "it has this tendency to, how can I explain it?" she moans. "...Triangulate."
Every six months or so, Alysia, like many of us, decides she needs to update. She takes herself to Heart, a one-name hipster hair-dresser in New York City who works out of her Chelsea apartment and has given our way coolest friends their layered, insouciant sexpot manes. She does the same for Alysia. It lasts about four days.
More From ELLE
One day I see her and she's intimidatingly chic, and the next day my dear, familiar Alysia is back, her shoulder-length hair like that of a 1950s mom in a television drama, a modified curly pageboy. I have to refrain from teasing her after each cycle, because I know it's the stringy-haired pot calling the curly-haired kettle black.
Alysia and I have the very same problem: We can't conquer our hair set point.
It's not you, it's not your too thin/too curly/too thick/too straight hair, it's not your lack of discipline (though those are factors)—you're fighting psychobiology: Human beings have a hair set point.
Most of you are probably aware of the weight set point. Biologists believe that bodies gravitate to a certain weight. It's why most diets fail. When you're 30 pounds over your set point, curb calories and your body easily sheds extra pounds. But when you near your set point, your body starts to cling to the weight, and your metabolism slows down. Some scientists say you can adjust your weight set point semipermanently, but that takes long-term discipline.
Here's the thing: I think that although it should be easier to change your hairstyle than your weight, to make any permanent adjustments requires the same deep commitment, mental battles, and discipline. The hair set point is the style your hair ends up assuming over and over, with such determination that it seems to have a mind of its own. This style is partly due to genetics: Whether your hair flips up on the ends or curls under, where it parts, or if it's beset with cowlicks, all -depends on your ancestry. Hair also has a limit to how long it will grow. "Each individual hair is predetermined to grow a certain amount per year and has a growing cycle that lasts a certain number of years, after which the hair falls out," explains Philip -Kingsley, a trichologist (hair scientist) who runs clinics in New York City and London. "The average is a four-year growing cycle, with six inches a year. So the average person can grow their hair 24 inches but no longer." That's midback! But we can't all be Crystal Gayle: "Metabolic factors can affect the cycle—for instance, anemic women's hair won't fulfill its predetermined length," Kingsley explains.
But after these physical limitations, the hair set point is psychological. People with short set points describe a kind of itchy feeling when their hair gets to a certain length. "I have to cut it," says Celia, an ethics professor at the London Business School and a confirmed pixie-capper. "Sometimes that very day." Women with long set points love the swingy, free feeling of a bob but after a week begin to go slightly insane if they can't pull it back in a ponytail.
"Oh, absolutely," confirms the Shah of the Shag, Sally Hershberger, when I tell her about my hair set point theory. Her own androgynous rock 'n' roll set point, worn since the 1970s, give or take a few detours, is so powerful it compels perfectly rational people to pay $800 to get the same one. "People come to me to change their set points," she explains. Hershberger takes credit for permanently adjusting Hillary Clinton. "Remember the bouffant? In 1998, I made it sleeker, more layered, and less poufy. She really hasn't gone back." Regardless of Clinton's career wins, in my book a positive hair set point adjustment counts as a major victory.
For as long as I can remember, my hair has been a bangless, stringy, shoulder-length nonentity. It requires no upkeep because there is nothing to keep up. It's simply as long as it grows. Every two or three years, I become determined to polish my image. I get a haircut, one that—everyone universally agrees—looks great on me: long bangs and a neck-length bob that swings forward à la Vidal. But despite my best intentions, I've never made it past two update cuts.
"Revert to saved?" the little inner automaton who rules me asks. Yes! I click, relieved, once again, to be myself.
Which is, of course, the key to the set point. All the women I interviewed uttered the same phrase: "It just feels like me." It follows that what feels most like you reveals truths about who you really are. There's an old chestnut floating around that people always go back to the haircut they had in high school. Paul Fussell, in his seminal humor book Class, about American hierarchies, claims that keeping college hair is a sign of old money. Both theories miss the root cause. Your hair set point is a reflection of your identity; sure, lots of people have their high school or college hair, but that's because it's a prime time for identity formation.
As with weight, people with bad hair set points often know they need to change. They never feel pulled together, they hate seeing pictures of themselves, their head looks too small (or big). But clinging can be a self-destructive behavior. My bad hair is the territory on which I can map my ambivalence about modern existence. I strut about the city in shoes that cost as much as a Chinese miner gets paid in a year, but I hate the world that pays the miner so little, and the world that needs what the miner tears from the earth; and thus, I hate myself. My hair, untouched by steel scissors, unheated by blow-dryer, washed in the mildest soap held in a recycled plastic bottle, says: Nature, I am not so very, very far from you.
But what for me is strangely life-affirming is a dead end for my best friend, Alison. She has a chunky, neo-'30s bob set point. The only time she let her hair grow out it "coincided with serious depression," she says. "It's the same as smoking, shoving ashes into your mouth. Fetishizing the dead bits of your body is just creepy to me." Although she claims she likes my hair, it's revealing when she tells me that long hair indicates narcissism. "It's the same way you instantly know guys with long hair are narcissistic monsters. If you like your dead bits, you are extra self-loving."
But if you are shaping your hair at all, short or long, aren't you still fetishizing your dead bits? It's unavoidable. Hair, that haunting peruke from the grave, is such a tangible reminder of the death in life, and our hair set point speaks volumes (or not) about how we deal with growth and inevitable decay. I suspect Alison resolves her relationship with death by taking action; this plays out via her hair by controlling it, whereas I, by avoiding mine, attempt to passively deny that ultimate scythe-wielding hairdresser's existence. Kingsley argues that it's actually all about sex: "Hair is a secondary sex characteristic, and the only one you can flaunt publicly." My friend Katrina can't stand the response she gets when her hair is longer. "I don't want to provide that obvious signifier of femininity," she says.
Hershberger has some practical suggestions for changing your set point. Start with an expensive, top-notch cut that suits your hair and face type (a person with thick hair can never maintain a thin-haired person's set point), then find a less expensive person for updates. All sage advice, but before you splurge, get square with yourself or your money's wasted. Are you ready to be a new you?


text:
Hollywood Knights
Phil Knight, the man who turned ordinary sneakers into a $160-a-pair branded footwear experience, is a businessman right down to his shiny black track shoes. By the way, Phil, what shoes are you wearing?
"These?" Knight says, incredulous that anyone would need to ask. "They're 360s."
OK, asking Phil Knight what kind of shoes he's got on is a bit like wondering what kind of computer Steve Jobs uses at home. The seventy-year-old billionaire cofounder of Nike is whooshing around his Beaverton office in a pair of Air Max 360s, the sneaker that, as anyone on the Nike campus can tell you, features an air-filled sole that cushions heel-to-toe transitions and offers a smooth overall ride—shoes that will set you back three figures unless your name happens to be Phil Knight.
No doubt about it: Phil knows footwear. But on February 5, Knight enters radically different territory as Laika, the Portland animation studio he owns, premieres its first feature-length movie, Coraline. For the supremely calculating Knight, breaking into the movie business is an unnerving journey into the unknown. "The footwear business is risky," he says with a rueful laugh. "But the movie business? That's gambling. At Nike, we launch new products, but every six months there's something different. With animated movies, it's more like a three-year cycle. So it's a bigger deal." Or as Laika CEO Dale Wahl puts it, "This is like taking three years to make one shoe, putting a ton of money into it, and hoping that somebody buys it."
Not since the days when Knight peddled sneakers out of his green Plymouth Valiant at track meets across the Northwest has he taken such a risk. With Coraline, the fledgling Laika—known as Will Vinton Studios before Knight took over the company in 2003 and ousted founder Will Vinton—enters the highly competitive animation arena alongside powerhouses like Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, and Sony. Pixar, the industry giant, has been nominated for twenty-five Academy Awards (winning nine) for such box-office smashes as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. (In 2006, Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion, an amount that's still a few billion shy of Phil Knight's total net worth.) " Coraline is a huge risk," concedes Henry Selick, the film's screenwriter and director, who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. "But these days in animation, the safest bet is to take a risk."
The choice of Coraline as Laika's first release makes the crapshoot even dicier. The movie employs a painstaking technique known as stop-motion animation—think of the old Gumby TV show, or Vinton's California Raisins, or The Nightmare Before Christmas_. For a stop-motion production, animators position malleable silicone puppets on miniature sets and then film them one frame at a time, moving the puppets incrementally to simulate motion. Stop-motion is notoriously labor-intensive—_Coraline took three years to make, about twice as long as a typical live-action feature. Adding another layer of complexity, the film was shot entirely in stereoscopic 3-D, a first for a stop-motion animated feature. Stereoscopic 3-D involves shooting the same frame twice, from slightly different perspectives. The dual images are then superimposed upon each other on the movie screen, creating the illusion of depth for viewers wearing 3-D glasses. By the time Coraline was in the can, the film had cost Phil Knight close to $70 million—roughly the equivalent of 437,500 pairs of Nike 360s.
The story line is also a gamble. A safe debut feature for Laika would have been, say, a story about an impish towheaded boy and his amazing adventures with various furry woodland creatures, all the while accompanied by a wisecracking parrot (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried) that makes timely pop-culture references. Instead, Coraline, based on a best-selling young-adult book by sci-fi and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, is the somewhat dark tale of a young girl named Coraline who stumbles into a parallel world. The Other World mimics her real life at first but soon begins to take on nightmarish qualities. (Coraline 's off-kilter look and sensibility can largely be traced to Selick, who brought the story to Laika.) Coraline is something of a misfit in an animated-movie business that lately has raked in millions by padding its features with fart jokes and whimsical toys that spring to life. "Some days I'm very confident about how Coraline will do," Phil Knight says. "Other days, not so much. It's a typical entrepreneurial thing. Every day, there are a lot of crises to deal with. We're just coming to the end of the first chapter with Laika now. I don't want to underplay that it's a big deal how well Coraline does. We'll get the first [box office] numbers on February 8. So keep me away from tall buildings that day."
Coraline is also a father-and-son story, of Phil and his son Travis, thirty-five. Travis was Coraline 's lead animator and, as a Laika board member, is being groomed to succeed his father and control the company. Phil and Travis have a curiously symbiotic relationship: Phil wouldn't have entered the movie business if it weren't for Travis's passion for animation, and Travis wouldn't be a budding studio executive if it weren't for Phil. Travis may be a billionaire's son, but he's roundly respected in his own right. Animation Magazine named him one of its Rising Stars of Animation in 2007, and Selick lauds him as "truly one of the best animators I've ever worked with," saying Travis possesses the coveted combination of technical chops and an innate artistic sensibility, something that cannot be taught.
Father and son are a study in similarities and contrasts. In public, Phil, who is shy, usually wears sunglasses for television interviews and photo sessions, and he seldom talks in paragraphs when a single sentence will do. The few words he does say are chosen carefully, and he values the same quality in others—he's famous for asking employees to explain their position "in twenty-five words or less." Travis is more easygoing and open but shares his father's reluctance to call attention to himself. Coworkers call Travis a regular guy, a description usually delivered with a sense of wonder that someone with his advantages has turned out so normal. Of their prominent shared qualities, the Knights both have piercing Windex-blue eyes and a commitment to work that borders on obsession. For Coraline, Travis put in sixteen-hour workdays; he was usually the first to arrive at the studio and the last to leave—the same sort of single-minded determination that his father showed in turning a tiny athletic-shoe company called Blue Ribbon Sports into a Fortune 500 Goliath named Nike.
"I want to see Laika be a huge success—for selfish reasons, of course—but also for Portland," Travis tells me. He's wearing beat-up boots that definitely aren't Nikes. "I've lived in the area most of my life, and it's a place I love. I think in some ways what Portland is as a city is reflected in what Laika is trying to be as a company. Portland is kind of this odd cross between a progressive urban center and a frontier watering hole. It's hippies and hillbillies commingling. I think having that dissonance as a backdrop to Laika is fertile ground for creativity."
If the Knights' movie gamble pays off, Portland stands to share in the profits. Just as Pixar has turned the San Francisco Bay Area into a viable animation outpost, Laika could well do the same for Portland, a town that already has given the animation world the California Raisins, animator Bill Plympton, Simpsons creator Matt Groening, and Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and scores of other cartoon characters).
Yet before the Knights can build their Hollywood-on-the-Willamette, a fickle public will have to pass judgment on Coraline. Building a successful independent animation studio to rival the likes of Pixar and DreamWorks is by no means an Air Jordan slam-dunk. In today's crushingly competitive movie business, it's still an open question whether a quirky independent animation studio can be built on a swoosh and a dream.
Every scene in Coraline was staged inside a crummy warehouse in Hillsboro. That's where Laika's animation studio is housed, in a sprawling 140,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by a company called Southern Plastic Mold. The old mission statement from the Southern Plastic days remains on one of the walls, exhorting workers to make the company the best darn manufacturer of plastic dies, tools, and jigs the industry has ever seen. In Hillsboro these days, animated movies are the new plastics.
The studio is studiously anonymous. There's no name on the front door—Laika's headquarters are located at NW 22nd Avenue and Pettygrove Street in Portland—and the modest reception area offers few clues to the company's identity besides an illuminated poster for Coraline that announces a 2008 opening. (Production delays pushed back the release to this month, which perhaps was just as well since an earlier opening would have competed with Disney's Bolt and Universal's The Tale of Despereaux.) Venture deeper inside the massive warehouse and the space takes on the look of Santa's workshop, with all the elves obsessively making hand-sculpted puppets and miniature scenery. One storage room is jammed with replacement body parts (under the strain of constant manipulation and hot studio lights, most of the puppets' body parts have to be replaced regularly): one sliding drawer holds nothing but replacement faces, a disturbing sight for the uninitiated. Metal shelves hold tiny shirts, dresses, and sweaters made of finely knitted cloth and yarn. (One Coraline crew member, Althea Crome, had the sole job of hand-knitting miniature sweaters and clothing for the puppet characters, using knitting needles as thin as human hairs.) During production, nearly 150 sets were spread out in the cavernous warehouse, each a meticulous miniature world in which the animators staged the action. One set was so intricate it featured a floor that collapsed into a spider web into which Coraline tumbles. The two-story set used computer-controlled winches to make the thin wire web collapse in just the right pattern.
At the height of production, about 450 animators, designers, modelers, sketch artists, carpenters, and camera people swarmed through the warehouse, building Coraline frame by frame. Each upraised eyebrow, painted fingernail, and blade of grass in the movie exists in real life, albeit in miniature. The real "actors" are the animators who manipulated the puppets. "It's exhausting work," says Travis. "It's a performance in slow motion that you act through the puppet. You're burning your fingers on hot glue, you're cutting your hands on bits of armature wire, you're crawling through sets and banging your head on pipes. You go home and you feel like you've been digging trenches for ten hours. The only reason stop-motion characters have life is because they take it out of someone else. They're little vampires that suck the life out of the people who work on them."
Coraline employed thirty-five animators in all, some recruited from Disney and DreamWorks, some lured from England; still others were local recruits. To shoot each scene, animators had to pose the puppets, shoot a single frame of film, stop the camera, carefully change the position of the puppets and scenery to imply motion, and then shoot another frame. To complete one second of finished film, this procedure had to be repeated twenty-four times. "I wouldn't do what Travis is doing for anything," says Phil, shaking his head. "I would say to him, 'How was your day?' and he would say, 'Oh, good, I got ten seconds in the can.' And I'd think, 'Ten seconds—for a whole day!' It would drive me crazy."
Laika is taking advantage of an incentive program offered by the Governor's Office of Film & Television, which gives studios a 20 percent rebate on Oregon-based goods and services such as set-construction materials, camera and audio equipment, art supplies, hotel rooms, and catering, plus a cash payment of up to 16.2 percent of production personnel wages. Unlike other states' film programs, the Oregon incentives are cash rebates as opposed to tax credits. For Laika, the Coraline incentives were ultimately worth about $250,000.
Oregon's one glaring handicap in attracting location shoots for live-action films is its weather. The winter grayness is why many of the films shot here—One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Drugstore Cowboy, The Ring—tend to be gloomy. Yet for an animation studio, the weather is irrelevant, making Portland friendly to animation experts from across the country and to the oddball geniuses already in the area. "Portland does have a history of nurturing unusual creative talent," Travis says. "The music that comes out of here is very distinctive, and filmmakers like Gus Van Sant are off the beaten path. I think we stand a chance to be a creative force in Portland that really does have its own point of view. The city naturally draws a certain kind of person, the sort of person we want as an employee at Laika. You can't chase Pixar or DreamWorks. We have to be our own thing."
Within Portland's animation scene, Laika is, at this point, the only big game in town, though there are smaller shops such as Happy Trails Animation, whose commercial clients have included MTV and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Between seventy-five and one hundred freelance animators live in the area, some of whom have worked for Will Vinton. Joanna Priestly is a local award-winning independent animator and teacher who worked on Sesame Street and on music videos for Joni Mitchell; she's also taught at the Art Institute of Portland. Portlander Marilyn Zornado produced animated commercials at Will Vinton Studios and later produced her own animated film, Insect Poetry. Local animator Laura Di Trapani also worked at Vinton and contributed to such music videos as "And She Was" by the Talking Heads and "Boy in the Bubble" by Paul Simon. The Portland chapter of the Association Internationale du Film d'Animation (International Animated Film Association) has sixty-seven members.
The city's animation community stands to get an even bigger boost if Laika goes through with its planned state-of-the-art feature film complex. Phil Knight already has purchased thirty acres in Tualatin near the I-5/I-205 interchange, about twelve miles south of the Nike campus. He plans to build a four-building animation campus designed by the same architects who laid out Nike's two-hundred-acre Beaverton headquarters. Knight originally planned to break ground in Tualatin late last year, but construction is on hold. Moving forward depends on whether Laika can secure a development deal with a distribution company to put out the animated films already on its drawing board.
There's one less project in the works now that Laika has pulled out of Jack and Ben's Animated Adventure, a long-planned computer-generated feature. After ditching the project in December, the company laid off sixty-five employees (nearly three hundred remain). Animation studios routinely expand and contract their staffs depending on which project goes into full production, but the cancellation may represent a costly false start for Laika. The film was scheduled to be the company's second film, and Travis was particularly fond of the story. Any new deal will depend, to a large extent, on how well Coraline does at the box office. "I think we're pretty confident we'll get some good reviews for the creative work we've put into Coraline," Phil says. "But it's still a very young company in terms of what it needs to do to become economically viable. We have nine animation projects in various stages of talks. It wouldn't hurt those talks at all if Coraline did well."
Judging from previews, the film will be a technical and aesthetic triumph. It's a candy-colored animated fantasy loaded with eye-popping visuals and featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning (as Coraline), Teri Hatcher (as Coraline's mother), and John Hodgman (as Coraline's father). There's a dreamy, almost trippy Alice in Wonderland quality to Coraline's world, packed with kaleidoscopic flower gardens and creepy lurking shadows. There's also an eccentric Russian acrobat who's secretly rehearsing a mouse circus, and an entire Other World where all the characters have buttons for eyes.
Still, the Hollywood graveyard is littered with films that looked amazing, broke new technical ground—and then tanked. The recession is only making it harder for an unproven studio to raise development money. Simply producing an animated feature film and getting it into general release puts a studio in a rather elite club. Last year, nearly twenty animated features went into nationwide release. Of those, only four or five were anything close to being major hits, including WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda, and Horton Hears a Who. "Building an animation studio is not an easy road," says Vinton, who has experienced both success and failure on that score, having built Vinton Studios only to see it go nearly bankrupt. "There are plenty of deep-pocket operations that haven't quite succeeded. Success is certainly not a foregone conclusion in animation like it is in some businesses where a deep enough pocket can take over the market."
Among Portland animators, Phil Knight's dream has stimulated both hope and skepticism. "There are a lot of people coming into Laika who have come from other high-quality studios," says Teresa Drilling, a Portland animator who worked on Coraline and who previously worked for Vinton Studios. "When I first came to Portland in 1987, everybody in the animation community knew everybody else. It's really grown up since then. Now, with Laika, even people in the animation community who aren't interested in mainstream work have a large, stable employer in town."
Andy Collen, producer and director at Happy Trails Animation, believes the hard work for Laika still lies ahead. "I'm really hoping that Laika works," he says. "But you can't run an animation studio like you do a shoe company. Laika's gone out and hired some big-name animators"—Dan Casey, who heads Laika's Digital Design Group, was a lead artist for Columbia Pictures' animated feature Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within; Dan Philips, a vice president and head of production, once headed computer-generated imagery for Walt Disney Feature Animation; Mary Sandell, a Laika producer, was a producer at DreamWorks Animation SKG; Helen Kalafatic, another producer, produced SpongeBob SquarePants for Nickelodeon—"but just because someone worked at Disney doesn't mean they know how to build a studio."
Laika isn't pinning all its hopes on feature films. A separate division, Laika/house, is already profitable, churning out slick animated TV commercials for M&M's, Ben & Jerry's, and Coca-Cola. Whether Laika's feature film studio is here to stay depends largely on how determined Phil Knight is to make it in the movie business.
Coraline brings the Knight family tale full circle. Back when Travis was a teenager, Phil had dreams of his son one day joining him at Nike. But Travis was never interested in the shoe business. New pursuits were a familiar pattern in the family: Phil's father, William W. Knight, a successful Southern Oregon lawyer and publisher, tried to interest his son in a traditional business career, but Phil chose the riskier path of becoming a sporting-goods entrepreneur.
For Travis, turning down a job at Nike wasn't so much rebelling against his father as it was a way to pursue his interest in other things. "From the time I was little, I always had a sketch pad and pencil," Travis recalls. "I was always drawing. I missed out on having a passion for sports like my father. My brother would be playing Little League, and I would be drawing."
Phil gently prodded Travis to join him at Nike, but backed off when he saw it wasn't going to happen. "It never got very far," Phil says. "It was maybe one conversation."
Travis, who grew up in Hillsboro, attended Jesuit High School near Beaverton and was a good student. In addition to drawing, he had a passion for music, and as a teenager he began to compose and perform his own rap songs. Improbably, when Travis was seventeen MCA Records offered him a record deal to cut an album to be produced by the Bomb Squad, the team behind the best-selling and influential Public Enemy records. It was unusual, to say the least, for an unknown teen rapper to land such a deal; the fact that this rapper was also a billionaire's son probably didn't hurt.
Under the name Chilly Tee, Travis released his first and only rap record, Get Off Mine, in 1993. It included a song called "Just Do It," a streetwise interpretation of the Nike slogan that described a world never seen before (or since) on a rap record, and another called "Snap Ya Neck to This":
See, they call me the Tee, in '86 it was Trav
If you need to get in touch you can catch me on the ave
I got the Nike wears, head to toe with the trim
The BMW I drive is the color of my skin
I'm in it to win it, I got the skills and the status
You wanna know why? My pockets are the fattest
Not takin' what's given cause see, I didn't fit in
Just gimme the mic and a rhythm, that's how I'm livin'
The market for privileged white rappers singing about the less-than-mean streets of suburban Portland turned out to be predictably small—the record vanished, and Chilly Tee was put on ice for good. Travis recalls his brief career as a playa with some reluctance. "Nobody bought that record," he says. "I liked making music, but I hated the performing part of it. I think there's a reason most animators are hidden behind giant curtains. They're not meant for the spotlight."
After graduating from Portland State University, Travis interned with Vinton Studios; Will Vinton, a Claymation whiz who grew up in McMinnville, had founded the animation house in the mid-1970s. Travis found a home at Vinton and quickly distinguished himself as an adept artist. "Travis is a good animator," says Vinton, who today runs a company called Freewill Entertainment that develops, produces, and directs animated productions for film and television. (He's also worked on TV pilots at Fox Broadcasting and at MTV and a movie script at ABC. Currently he's writing a movie adaptation of Jack Hightower, the graphic novel he created for Dark Horse Comics. He's also a teacher at the Art Institute of Portland, where he conducts a class on claymation and stop-motion photography.) "[Travis] kind of found himself when he came to Vinton Studios. He started at the bottom and proved himself to be quite good."
Pleased that Travis seemed to be thriving at Vinton, Phil Knight stepped in with a $5 million investment in 1998, which gave him 15 percent ownership of the company. Part of that original investment included an agreement that allowed him to assume control of the board of directors if the company began losing significant amounts of money. Four years later, Vinton was on the verge of bankruptcy. Phil put an additional $450,000 into the company and acted on the agreement to assume control in the event of heavy losses. Knight ousted Vinton from his own studio.
Vinton was outraged. In a parting memo, he called Phil's move "surreal" and "Machiavellian," and he eventually sued Phil and Vinton Studios' board of directors, saying he'd been forced out unfairly. (A judge dismissed the suit.) Phil, meanwhile, promoted Travis to a seat on the board even though his son, age twenty-nine, had never been a manager and had only four years' experience as an animator.
To stamp his own brand on the studio, Phil considered more than a hundred names for the company before settling on Laika. ("Phil likes Ks," one insider says.) Only later did Phil learn that Laika was the name of the Russian dog sent into orbit aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957, the first living mammal in space. As it turns out, Laika was also the first mammal to die in space—she died during the first hours of the mission, and her remains disintegrated, along with the rest of Sputnik 2, upon reentering Earth's atmosphere. It's a measure of Phil's just-do-it style of decision-making that his studio was named after a dog that crashed and burned.
Phil and Travis were getting their new company off the ground when they received some tragic news. Phil and Penny Knight's eldest son, Matthew, died of a heart attack at age thirty-four while scuba diving with colleagues in El Salvador. Matthew had been shooting a fundraising video for Christian Children of the World, a Portland nonprofit, and helping acquire two houses for orphanages. He suffered the heart attack while sixty-five feet underwater and died instantly. In December, four years after the accident, Knight and the University of Oregon announced that the university's new $227 million basketball arena (built with a $100 million contribution from the Knights) would be named Matthew Knight Arena. Beyond honoring their son publicly, the Knights have said little, if anything, about the painful subject of his death.
Several months after the funeral, Phil stepped down as Nike CEO and became chairman of the board, a title he retains. He increased his philanthropic giving, donating not only the $100 million to University of Oregon athletics but also $105 million to Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and $100 million to the Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). OHSU is renaming its research center the Knight Cancer Institute; Stanford's new business campus will be called the Knight Management Center.
Nearer to home, Matthew's death has brought Phil and Travis closer than they've ever been. Father and son work together on a shared dream: building an animation studio that produces distinctive, high-quality feature films. Travis's work on Coraline has given him a newfound appreciation for what his dad had to do to build an upstart athletic footwear business into the world's largest shoe company. In the end, Travis may prove that we often become our parents, hard as we may try to avoid it. He remembers that when he was a boy his father was "always working"; now Travis finds himself spending long nights and weekends manipulating plastic puppets in a Hillsboro warehouse before going home to his wife and two young children.
"It's sort of funny, watching Travis's evolution," Phil says with a sly smile. "He always felt that he would never let his work be as all-consuming as mine was when he was growing up. And I'm watching it slowly creep up on him." He laughs. Travis, looking slightly annoyed, says, "Well, you have to find a balance. And that's hard." After considering the point, Phil says, "It's very hard."
With so much riding on the success of Coraline, Phil briefly considered putting the Nike brand behind the movie, but then decided against it. "We don't see the tie-in," he says. "Not on Coraline." He shoots his son a guilty sideways look, as if to apologize for being so hardheaded. Travis's expression doesn't change. The old man isn't telling him anything he hasn't heard before.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Reporter's Note: President Obama has not yet invited me to a holiday party at the White House. But, you never know…
Dear Mr. President,
I certainly look forward to seeing you at the big concert tonight. I know that you don't always make it, so if you can't, I will certainly understand, but it is always a good time so I hope you are there. Speaking of good times, are you planning any big holiday parties this year?
I can't really imagine how you would fit them in, mind you. My wife and I have hosted a few holiday parties over the years, but not many and the fundamental reason has always been simple: It is hard to find the time.
This is not a great excuse, I realize, because certainly our friends who have hosted parties have had no more time for the task than we, but you take my point.
How our holidays became this crowded with events I can't really say. When we were a young couple, we seemed to have no end of time for parties, movies, shopping, decorating, baking…you name it. I suppose children are a big part of the equation. As soon as our girls came along we shifted our interests almost entirely to making the holidays memorable for them, and to that end we were much more willing to load up the calendar with events they might enjoy.
Also, as I have noted before, I think our whole society has just gone a little crazy with activities. And on top of all that, we didn't live in Washington when we were younger, so maybe the communities we knew then were just less busy…or perhaps easier in which to get around so we wasted less time in transit.
Anyway, I don't see much chance that we will decide to throw a party all of a sudden this year, so if you don't receive an invitation, please don't be offended. You won't be the only one not invited. Ha!
Call if you can.
Filed under: Letters to the President • Opinion • President Barack Obama • T1 • Tom Foreman
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


text:
Our Customers Say It Best ...
Resources and Tools to help you in the process.
Your new Ashton custom home can be built on your property or ours. We have lots available in several subdivisions. See what we have ready now!
We're a small company and proud of it. This gives us the advantages of spending more time with each customer .
When you work with Ashton, it's your tastes, wants, needs and style which dictate the home we build. The foundation that guides all of our custom home projects is simple... if the customer wants it, we build it... after all, that's what customize truly means.
Your new Ashton custom home can be built on your property or ours. We have a selection of lots in several subdivisions ...
Our primary focus is in Southern Tarrant, Johnson an Ellis Counties of Texas.
Oak Hills
New Home Community in Burleson
As a Texas Custom Home Builder we specialize in building premier custom homes. Build on YOUR land or on one of our lots.
Whatever your option we offer personalized service from start to finish to help you build your new dream home and make it an exciting and compelling experience.
Together we'll design and build your new, custom home that will be affordable and meet the very individual needs of your family.


text:
This is pure comedy. What did Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May expect when they drove through Alabama in the deep south of the United States, with the intention of antagonising the local populace? They'd welcome the stars of a car show from the UK with open arms? Watch the video, it's hilarious, and scary! (via Matt Thomas)
Youtube unsurprisingly took down the clip but you can still watch it on craveonline thanks to kiwibiker for the link.
PS. James May writes about the episode on the The Top Gear blog. Thanks again to Matt for the link.


text:
Warning: this little Lunchtime Video is NSFW. Warning: Even if you're not at work, you may want to go head somewhere secluded because you are guaranteed to get some stares when you start laughing like a hyena within the first 30 seconds of this clip. Bruno, AKA Sacha Baron Cohen, AKA the brain behind Borat, has finally arrived in all of his gay Austrian fashion critic glory. And he may make you pee your pants a little.
When Baron Cohen was gallivanting around Europe last fall, wreaking havoc everywhere from Stella McCartney to Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, I knew this film was going to be something special. But I wasn't quite prepared for this...
I mean. Wow. If this little preview is that NSFW, I can only imagine what's in store when the film hits theaters on May 15. What do you guys think...will you go see it? Were you fans of Borat? Are you as surprised as I am that this guy is still finding people to dupe? And are you looking forward to seeing fashion folks given the Borat treatment? Discuss.
More Cool Ways to Get Glamour.com Wherever You Go!
Add glamour.com to your Google homepage


text:
There are so many majors out there it can be really hard to figure out what's best for you. Many singers are interested in performing and thus are drawn towards the Vocal Performance degree programs. Here is what you should know and what to expect.
What does vocal performance prepare you for?
The vocal performance degree prepares you for two main career paths: Classical Music Vocal Performance and Professional Voice Teacher.
Classical Music Vocal Performance: Most singers who major in vocal performance are interested in careers in opera, oratorio, or as a professional recitalist. Although its not widely known, there are many singers who make all or a portion of their living singing classical music. There are numerous opera companies throughout the country that produce 2-4 opera per year. Each of these companies hire singers from around the world to fill the roles in each show. They usually rehearse for 3-4 weeks before performing and then present 3-4 performances. In bigger cities the opera companies often present more productions with more performances. The average singer probably performs in 3-5 opera productions a year with oratorio and recital appearances in between. Because opera singers perform so sporadically, they are paid very well per performance. Singer fees usually range from $1000 per night for the small roles to $15,000 per night for the leading roles at the leading houses. Although the high end of the scale seems very appealing, I would say less than 100 singers a year earn a fee of that size in the United States. There are no solid statistics of what the average singer makes per year, but from personal experience I can tell you that even singers who perform at the Metropolitan Opera or New York City Opera still have office jobs or teach voice lessons on the side.
Professional Singing Teacher: The popularity of American Idol, Taylor Swift, High School Musical, iCarly, Hannah Montana, and others have increased the demand for performing arts activities and singing lessons amongst tweens and teens. Many singers make a decent living teaching voice lessons and classes to these aspiring singers. Rates for lessons vary across the country from around $30-80 per hours with the best teachers in major cities commanding rates as high as $200 per hour (although most of those teachers have famous students or were famous themselves). Most teachers teach somewhere between 20 and 30 hours a week and can count on a fairly steady income for 42 weeks a year (summers are slow as are holidays) bringing yearly earnings somewhere between $25,200 and $100,800 per year. Most start out on the bottom end and work towards the upper end throughout their career. Teachers can also complete a masters degree in voice and teach adjunct at a university or complete a doctorate degree and teach full time at a university where the starting salaries can range from $29,500 – $52,000 per year.
Graduate School
Graduate School encompasses Masters and Doctorate degrees. Much like majors such as English and Psychology, a bachelors degree in vocal performance opens up very few career opportunities. Most students need to pursue a masters and or doctorate whether pursuing work as a performer or teacher. The good news is that there are often scholarships available for graduate school called assistantships which will often pay the entire amount of tuition AND pay a salary of somewhere between $6000 and 12,000 per year. In return you will work an office job, teach private lessons, teach group classes, or assist your professors in their work.
Non-Music options beyond undergrad
The good news is regardless of what you get your undergraduate degree in, there are several graduate programs that you can easily pursue in fields other than music. Business, Law, and Med School are all options for students with ANY undergraduate background. In fact, music students can hold a slight advantage since admissions counselors often respect the discipline that it takes to be a musician while also appreciating the fact that artistic people tend to think outside the box and can contribute new ideas to discussions and debates in class. There are also programs available for transitioning into nursing, education, and massage therapy.
Where to start
Start by looking at the top schools in the field: Juilliard, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, and Curtis Institute. Look at the classes they offer, the performance opportunities for students, and their alumni lists which will give you an idea of how various students' careers have progressed. Where you do your undergraduate is not nearly as important as where you do your graduate work. What is most important is to find a teacher who will help you reach your full vocal potential. Starting with the top schools may help give you an really clear understanding of what the top, most competitive schools demand, and help you find where you fit in to the overall picture.


text:
A day in the sun under a parasol of protective nostalgia
Would be pleasant, were it not for what actually happened
On any given yesterday.
I'm not sure if i would be better off with no memory of any given yesterday;this perhaps poses the question perfectly..
We once lived in a small town by the ocean, and when, one morning, a fellow turned up on the beach claiming not to be able to remember anything, including his name, people accepted this at face value, and his name became No Memory, and things went on much as before.
if it wasn't for my memory
i wouldn't have no sex
Now here I was halfway successful in my forgetting of my own private yesterday when you come and remind me that I probably remember more of your private Mondays, Tuesdays and holy days sex wise than you do yourself, just from the congenial sharings you've brought here over the years. In fact I can't exactly say I miss those, but at least I can honestly say that the iconic yellow sweater ranks high on my icon shelf of strange phantasmal presque-vu memories. Houston Street. Who will ever forget.
And with that, as in Prouxt -- or was it Proulx -- Proust?? -- it all comes flooding back, sprung by the smoke of the overcooked yellow sweater emanating from the broken dryer... yesterday, all of it, the trapeze artist dangling out the window, the nosy witness staring, the broken steps, the shipping news, the deer eating the hydrangea, and enclosing it all much as a large gas bubble, the traditional curious silence of the holiday, with its eerie lack of car crashes.
Let me get on with the forgetting of that, for soon enough there will be more work to be done, doubtless along much the same lines.


text:
Having appeared 254 times in film and television, Sherlock Holmes is, according to the Guinness World Records, the most frequently portrayed human literary character. But he's not the most frequently portrayed of all literary characters; the one who holds the top slot isn't human.
Sherlock wipes the floor with the next most prolific human character, Hamlet, who has appeared a mere 48 times on screen. The character who has appeared most frequently on screen, however, is Dracula, who has shown up 272 times. Will the recent Holmes-mania let Sherlock eventually edge out the vampiric count, or does Dracula securely hold his on-screen title?
Sherlock Holmes awarded title for most portrayed literary human character in film & TV [Guinness World Records via The Mary Sue]


text:
Topologies as Categories
Okay, so we've defined a topology on a set . But we also love categories, so we want to see this in terms of categories. And, indeed, every topology is a category!
First, remember that the collection of subsets of , like the collection of subobjects on an object in any category, is partially ordered by inclusion. And since every partially ordered set is a category, so is the collection of subsets of .
In fact, it's a lattice, since we can use union and intersection as our join and meet, respectively. When we say that a poset has pairwise least upper bounds it's the same as saying when we consider it as a category it has finite coproducts, and similarly pairwise greatest lower bounds are the same as finite products. But here we can actually take the union or intersection of any collection of subsets and get a subset, so we have all products and coproducts. In the language of posets, we have a "complete lattice".
So now we want to talk about topologies. A topology is just a collection of the subsets that's closed under finite intersections and arbitrary unions. We can use the same order (inclusion of subsets) to make a topology into a partially-ordered set. In the language of posets, the requirements are that we have a sublattice (finite meets and joins, along with the same top and bottom element) with arbitrary meets — the topology contains the least upper bound of any collection of its elements.
And now we translate the partial order language into category theory. A topology is a subcategory of the category of subsets of with finite products and all coproducts. That is, we have an arrow from the object to the object if and only if as subsets of . Given any finite collection of objects we have their product , and given any collection of objects we have their coproduct . In particular we have the empty product — the terminal object — and we have the empty coproduct — the initial object . And all the arrows in our category just tell us how various open sets sit inside other open sets. Neat!
8 Comments »
So – I assume you're doing this for some more intricate reason than just the sheer love for categories. This is the category we want functors from in order to define presheaves and sheaves, isn't it?
Comment by Mikael Johansson | November 9, 2007 |
John —
Look into the theory of locales for the answer to the relationship of the limits. A good source is the text "Categorical Foundations" in the Encyclopedia of Mathematics series.
— Marc
Comment by Marceau | November 10, 2007 |
John –
this being the first step on the road to topoi also means this is the first step on the road to sheaves? (just reraising that first question 😉
Comment by Mikael Johansson | November 10, 2007 |
Thanks for letting me reaffirm my lack of knowledge in some of the cool parts of modern mathematics! 😉
Comment by Mikael Johansson | November 10, 2007 |
[…] in Category Theory, Topology at 2:54 am by saij This is just cool! Okay, so we've defined a topology on a set . But we also love categories, so we want to see this […]
Pingback by Every Topology is a Category! « The Lyceum Mathematikoi | November 26, 2007 |
[…] course we also want to consider the categorical perspective. What does a continuous map give us in terms of the topology? It's a functor from the […]
Pingback by Continuous Maps « The Unapologetic Mathematician | February 22, 2011 |


text:
[Editor's note: Famous for his "groundbreaking studies of animal and human locomotion, 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge was also an innovative landscape artist and pioneer of documentary subjects." The exhibit looks at all aspects of the artist's work and is open at the Corcoran art gallery in Washington DC now thru July 18th. Cost is $10 per adult, open Weds – Sunday.]
Republished from the Corcoran.
Best known for his groundbreaking studies of animal and human locomotion, 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge was also an innovative landscape artist and pioneer of documentary subjects. Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change is the first retrospective exhibition to examine all aspects of Muybridge's art.
Structured in a series of thematic sections, the exhibition includes numerous vintage photographs, albums, stereographs, lantern slides, glass negatives and positives, camera equipment, patent models, Zoopraxiscope discs, proof prints, notes, books, and other ephemera. Over 300 objects created between 1858 and 1893 are brought together for the first time from numerous international collections. Muybridge's only surviving Zoopraxiscope—an apparatus he designed in 1879 to project motion pictures—will also be on view.
Organized by Corcoran chief curator and head of research Philip Brookman, the exhibition will also travel to Tate Britain in London from September 8, 2010 through January 16, 2011, and to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from February 26 through June 7, 2011. A catalogue of the exhibition, with new essays by Brookman, Marta Braun, Andy Grundberg, Corey Keller, and Rebecca Solnit, will be published Steidl.


text:
Aer Lingus has cancelled 12 flights between Ireland and Scotland tomorrow because of Iceland's volcanic ash cloud.
A number of flights to and from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen from Dublin, Shannon and Cork have been affected.
Passengers advised to check their website for details on how to change their flights or apply for a refund.
British Airways has also cancelled all planned services between London and Scotland tomorrow because of the threat.
The Irish Aviation Authority said that flights to and from Ireland could be disrupted later this week from an ash cloud billowing from the volcano.
The Irish Aviation Authority are continuing to say no disruptions to flights are expected in Irish airspace in the next 24 hours.
A spokesperson said they are still monitoring the situation and should it deteriorate updates will be made available on their website.
In the meantime, passengers are being advised to also check the website of their airline.
IAA's senior aviation executive Martin Towey has said that 'we do not believe that there will be any kind of disruption in the next 48 hours.'
Martin Towey has said that 'there could possibly be some disruption towards the end of the week.'
Met Éireann meteorologist Pat Clarke has said that the ash cloud is expected in Irish airspace by tonight.
A spokeswoman for EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas has suggested that the picture was less certain.
Siim Kallas has said that 'there is at the moment a possibility of volcanic ash affecting the European airspace starting with the northwestern areas like the UK and Ireland possibly today or tomorrow.'
The eruption by Iceland's most active volcano is set to keep the island's main airport closed.
Experts say there is little chance of a repeat of last year's six-day closure of airspace which also hit trans-Atlantic flights, although airlines have been warned the new ash cloud will drift.
So far Iceland, particularly the towns and villages to the south and east of the Grimsvotn volcano, have been hit worst as a thick cloud of ash descends on the area, smothering cars and buildings.
Last night, the cloud began to drift over the capital Reykjavik.
Iceland's meteorological office have said that the plume from Grimsvotn, which last exploded in 2004, has fallen to around 15km in height from a peak of 25km.
But the eruption is much stronger than the one at a volcano further south last year which closed European airspace and halted trans-Atlantic flights, due to worries that particles could get into aircraft engines and cause accidents.
The airline industry has said it lost €1.2bn in revenue last year.
Icelandair stopped flights yesterday and said on its website the halt could continue today. It said 6,000 passengers had been affected by cancellations so far.
Ryanair's deputy CEO Michael Cawley said he was certain there would be no disruption to flights this time and described last year's volcanic ash crisis as an 'overreaction'.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has moved forward his departure to fly out of Dublin to tonight at 7.30pm due to the threat to flights from the Icelandic ash cloud.
Earlier, the European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell held a meeting to bring together all the major players.
Further information: Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre|Irish Aviation Authority|Met Éireann|British Met Office


text:
Why New York City's Foodies Groan Every Time Restaurant Week Rolls Around
New York Restaurant Week officially kicks off today — much to the chagrin of NYC foodies.
For the uninitiated, Restaurant Week is when hundreds of establishments, from fine dining standbys to hip new eateries, offer special prix fixe lunches and dinners for $25 and $38, respectively. The event actually runs three Weeks, through March 7.
Restaurant Week was started in 1992 by Tim Zagat and Joe Baum, and has become a massive hit in the past 21 years. Nearly 300 restaurants across the city are participating this winter.
There are a few places out there where the special prix fixe is as good a deal as the regular menu. But by and large, foodies groan when the bi-annual event rolls around.
It's Bad For Customers
At first glance, Restaurant Week seems like a win-win for both restaurants and guests. Customers pay a fixed (and ostensibly lower) price while getting to try a new restaurant and its specialties.
But here's the thing: There are a ton of people who turn out for Restaurant Week. "Amateur eaters" are seduced by the seemingly low prices and a desire to experience a high-end or new NYC restaurant. Thanks to them, wait times can stretch on, and service may lag due to the sheer volume of orders and tables.
The quality of food often drops, too. Cheaper types of fish like salmon, or meats like chicken breast, that may not appear on the standard menu show up on the prix fixe as a way for owners to save money with the "special" Restaurant Week menus.
For example, none of the Restaurant Week entrées offered at Le Cirque this year — like Confit of Salmon and Lamb Navarin — are on either the regular lunch or dinner menus.
Portions are often smaller as well. A common complaint I've heard from friends who go out during Restaurant Week (and experienced myself) is that salads or entrées are reduced to half their size at their favorite spot.
Taking all of this into consideration, those $25 and $38 prix fixe costs suddenly don't seem like the best deal. Since drinks, tax, and tip aren't included in those "flat" fees either, diners looking for cheap eats would be better off turning to Groupon, LivingSocial, or OpenTable's Spotlight to get a better deal with items that are actually on the regular menu.
It's (Sometimes) Bad For Restaurants
Restaurant Week can certainly be great for restaurants — it amps up exposure and brings in new customers during winter and late summer, two of the slowest times of the year.
"NYC Restaurant Week is a good opportunity to showcase your restaurant to people who may have otherwise not dined with you," Chris Leahy of Midtown's Lexington Brass told us.
But it can also have the opposite affect. Crowds and long wait times annoy a restaurant's best customers, and those deal-seeking diners are not necessarily going to come back. Which is really bad, given that increasing repeat business for restaurants is one of the main goals of a publicity program such as Restaurant Week.
It can also be rough on the servers who schlep for unappreciative diners throughout the three-week event: "In some restaurants, servers aren't so happy," Anthony Mardach, the Director of Operations for Porter House (which offers a similarly-priced prix fixe year-round), told us. "It can lower the check average, and servers can make less money."
Once tax and drinks are factored in, guests realize they're spending as much as $50 for that "$25 lunch." With cheap eaters, it's the servers' tips that take the hit.
Ultimately, Restaurant Week can be a pain. But if you do decide to go, here are some tips for doing it right:
Do your research — some menus might be dumbed down, especially the ones that are usually $100+ a person. Try to find restaurants that stick as close to their main menu as possible (check out what this year's Restaurant Week menus look like here).
Make a reservation, especially at your favorite spot. Restaurant Week is always busy, and you might not be able to get in.
Don't be afraid to call if a restaurant is booked. Sometimes, restaurants will extend their promotions after Restaurant Week (or offer the prix fixe year round). Plus, it never hurts to make sure there are no cancellations!
See Also:
- Insane GoPro Video Shows Russian Daredevils Climbing The World's Second Tallest Building Without Equipment
- Take This Simple Test To Find Out If You're A Speed Reader
- Here's The Extravagant Banquet Being Prepared For Tonight's State Dinner
SEE ALSO: The Best New York City Restaurant For Every Kind Of Cuisine


text:
Lowest Price Guarantee!
If you find the same product for less anywhere else, give us a call at 1.800.522.1578. We'll match that price, plus, you'll get our Free Lifetime Warranty and unparalleled service. Details
Brand: Mayline
Collection(s): Bistro
Weight: 52 lbs.
Overall: 42 in H x 30 in DIA
Laminate, MDF
Mayline Hospitality Tables features low-pressure laminate tops with T-mold edging for exceptional beauty and durability.
Tops are 1-1/8" thick with furniture grade particle board core.
Top finishes include: Anthracite (Charcoal Gray) with Black T-mold, Folkstone (Gray) with Ice Gray T-mold or Regal Mahogany with Black T-mold.
Overall dimensions are 30" in diameter x 42"H.
Simply attach top to base.
Usually Ships Within: 1 Week
If ordered today, we estimate this item will arrive between 4/9/2023 and 4/16/2023.
Delivery Method: Small Package Plus
Depending on the size, shipments where any single package is less than 100 pounds will deliver by UPS, FedEx or DHL. These carriers bring the items right into your office or home and if for some reason you are not available, in most cases they will leave the product without a signature. If not, they will either automatically redeliver or leave specific instructions on how to arrange redelivery. The date range indicated on your order confirmation will allow up to 1 week for transit time from date of shipment.


text:
Pushback on Fox-NPR Pushback
I don't mean to make this an endlessly recursive loop, Escher-style, but some readers object to previous readers' objections to an earlier item about Fox News. The first item described a survey suggesting that Fox News viewers were flat-out worse-informed than people who relied on other news sources, especially NPR. The response questioned the survey's methods. Now, one more round from the readers.
1) The survey might be flawed, but the findings are still "true". A reader writes:
The pushback comments you published are quite correct about the shortcomings of the study and why it should be interpreted with caution. Nonetheless, there are good reasons to conclude that Fox News does a poor job of delivering "news," that is to say accurate information about important current topics.
As one reader whose comment you featured noted, this survey is consistent with the conclusion that Fox viewers are less knowledgeable (he or she used the term educated, but in a sense equivalent to knowledgeable) than NPR listeners. There can be no doubt about this conclusion.
If you polled large samples of regular Fox viewers and regular NPR listeners, which group would have the larger percentage of viewers/listeners accepting the existence of global warming, the validity of evolution, that we can't drill our way to energy independence, that that President Obama was born in Hawaii, or even that the Chevy Volt project was started by the very conservative Bob Lutz? These are not obscure topics but have been featured over and over in media like Fox and NPR for several years.
Given the strong human tendency to avoid cognitive dissonance, what would happen to its viewership if Fox actually pursued real accuracy in its reporting? Viewers would flee in droves. The Fox business model depends avoiding real information on a wide array of topics.
2) A 'tribal' world view. From another reader:
Think Progress often reports on the coverage density across the major news outlets for a given story. And apparently there ARE some stories that Fox tries to avoid covering in detail, apparently because they would challenge the "Fox Worldview"....
But in general, I don't think Fox News' overarching negative contribution to the American conversation can be specifically described as a lack of knowledge, or a less well-informed viewership. I think its bigger than that, and much, much worse.
The Fox news programming, taken as a whole, promotes not just a particular ideological viewpoint but a larger, generalized point of view that is often toxic and even dangerous. Part of it is the insistence that empirical evidence is wrong, or experts like scientists are corrupt and/or serving a particular ideological agenda. So you get beliefs like supply side economics and its handmaiden, so called "dynamic scoring" of fiscal policies, a blunt refusal to confront climate change and a gross misunderstanding of health care policy.
Even worse, the general worldview Fox promotes is deeply tribal, always casting doubts about and fostering fear of "the other". The Fox viewership is told that they are at risk, that they are victims, that everything they love and value is on the brink of destruction. Of course that's ridiculous, it's how we arrive at conclusions like white males are oppressed and the Catholic Church is under attack. But it's also dangerous, as it has created a powerful us vs. them dynamic in America that will almost certainly color everything we try to do for the next twenty years...
3) Not all Fox News programs are created equal:
The poll you cited is not the first one to show Fox viewers being uninformed. Here is a rundown of several such polls.
Granted, PolitiFact's final determination is that Stewart was wrong to say that "every poll" shows Fox viewers to be the most misinformed. However, every poll they linked shows NPR listeners to be significantly better informed than viewers of the generic "Fox News" category. That said, viewers of specific Fox programs -- such as the O'Reilly Factor -- tend to do significantly better than the generic "Fox News" category as well.
p.s. You'll probably appreciate that at least one poll shows readers of The Atlantic (subscribe!) to top the list of the most informed news consumers.
Points 2 through 4 [of the critique] are all more-or-less valid criticisms, and I'm in broad agreement with him there--Farleigh Dickinson should have released the full crosstabs (I used to work at a polling firm, so this isn't totally uninformed speculation).
But his first point would invalidate all phone-based polling, and that's a leap too far. It's true that response rates have been falling; but smart people have looked into this and found that so far, it doesn't seem to be affecting results.
Pew released a fascinating study of this just a few weeks ago that you might enjoy. The short version is that they did a normal survey and compared the results to a "high effort" survey (with frequent callbacks, financial incentives to participate, etc) that got a much higher response rate. Nevertheless, the results of the two surveys was mostly identical, with the exception that those who answered the normal survey were more likely to report civic engagement. For the moment, the polling edifice remains intact.
5) If it's the viewers' fault, it's also Fox's:
[The previous reader] is right that it may be premature to draw the conclusion that Fox News actually turns out uneducated viewers as a result of watching Fox's programs.
However, I would suggest that if Fox was doing a decent job providing information to its viewers, then - even if they were ignorant of certain events or uneducated - the viewers should be coming away better informed about the facts. This should be particularly true when Fox viewers are compared with people who watch no news at all.
6) The perils of amateurs writing about statistics:
It's great that you are trying to be fair-minded by presenting a critique of the NPR-FOX study, but as is often the case with journalists who don't understand statistics as well as they might, you are swayed by somewhat weak arguments.
The main response to the criticism of the study is that there's no argument suggested that there is any bias in the sampling method that would lower the fox scores and raise the npr scores. [JF summary: Maybe the survey was flawed, but there's no reason to think that it was flawed in a way that worked against Fox.]...
The bias of the critic is also evident in their question.. " For example, what if Fox News reported particularly poorly on one or more of the topics included in the survey, but reported much better on some other topics not included?".
Couldn't we just substitute 'NPR' for 'FOX News' and have an equally valid question?
The failure to report margins of errors is a weakness, but again people so often make the mistake that scores within the margin of error indicate that the scores are essentially "equal". This is just plain wrong. The margin of error applies to a specific confidence interval (95% usually), but scores that are different but within the margin of error are by no means "equal". Instead, if Sample A is higher than sample B, but the difference between A and B is less than the margin of error, Population A is still more likely to score higher than Population B, even if that probability is less tan 95%. If I told you something was 85% likely to be correct, you would be foolish to ignore it because it didn't reach the 95% level, which of course has been arbitrarily set by researchers in the first place.
Let me finish by agreeing with the critic when they say ...
" You note in your post "that NPR aspires actually to be a news organization and provide 'information', versus fitting a stream of facts into the desired political narrative" . While this could be true, it is also possible that even if the survey results were correct there may be a bit of self-selection when choosing news networks. In that case, ignorance could be the viewer's fault rather than the fault of Fox News."
The part about self-selection is almost certainly true and likely a huge factor in the effect. Also, your claim that NPR aspires to be a provider of information and FOX news aspires to fill a narrative is way too strong. I agree that there is more 'narrative filling' by FOX than NPR, but you can't wave away a whole group of journalists on Fox that way. Shep Smith and Bret Baier are two Fox news journalists who are obviously conservative, but can't be fairly accused as supporting a narrative.
For the record, I agree that some figures on Fox -- Shepard Smith most of all, often Bret Baier, plus others -- conceive of their job in "normal" journalistic terms. But overall, to imagine that Fox and NPR are doing the same thing, just from different perspectives, strikes me as classic false equivalence. There is more to say, but this is plenty on the topic for the foreseeable future! Thanks to all who have weighed in.


text:
'Friday Reflections' is brought to you by Corinne over at 'Write Tribe' and Sanch at 'Living My Imperfect Life.'
Prompts for September 23:
1. What if toys had feelings? Write a post and get creative!
2. Describe a dream or nightmare you've had3. 7 favourite movies and why
4. "We accept the love we think we deserve." – Stephen Chbosky Use this in a post or as an inspiration for one
5. Picture Prompt (courtesy of Corinne at 'Everyday Gyaan'.)
Good Morning Everyone! Happy 2nd day of Autumn!
For my 'Friday Reflections' writings today I've chosen prompt #4 from the list above.
Using the quote by Stephen Chbosky as a twisted sort of inspiration because, well, you know. It's me.
PROMPT #4 – "We accept the love we think we deserve." – Stephen Chbosky
We deserve the love we accept.
Sorry. Couldn't resist with all of the hooplah going on about these two. I didn't even know there was trouble in paradise until I saw something on a friend's page on Facebook, apparently days after the "breaking news." – Moving on.
IN OTHER NEWS – I'm getting super nervous about the upcoming election. For me, it truly is choosing the lesser of two evils. Either way, I think they're both loose cannons and we're in big trouble…
Meridian, Idaho's Farmstead Corn Maze opens today and this year's theme is Jimmy Fallon who actually gave a nice shout out on his show last night.
Here's an aerial view. Interestingly enough they don't have an aerial view when they're planning it or cutting it out. Which I find absolutely amazing.
This is definitely on my list of "To Do's" this fall.
It's another beautiful fall day here. I think we're done with rain for a while and tho we desperately need it I am grateful for the sunshine. It'll be dark n' gloomy soon enough.
What's happening out your way? Anything thrilling and spine chilling to report? Do you have any fall attractions you plan to visit this weekend or is yard work and winterizing in your future? I remember those days…
Here's to a beautiful fall weekend for one and all. Get out and do something fun!
Mimi's quote for the day –


text:
Educational Support
Understanding Megalodon's life history is critical to improving our knowledge of evolution and living shark conservation. Throughout the Megalodon Educator's Guide you will learn about Megalodon and gain ideas regarding how to integrate the Megalodon exhibit into your classroom activities.
A diverse array of activities is discussed in this guide, encompassing subjects within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines and in non-STEM fields. These STEM fields include: anatomy, chemistry, earth sciences, geology, life sciences, mathematics, marine biology, physics, and physiology. Non-STEM subjects covered include: anthropology, economics, English, geography, history, and the social sciences.
Numerous extension ideas are mentioned throughout the Educators Guide, providing opportunities for age appropriate adaptations and/or the further elaboration of key activities. All activities have been correlated to the National Science Education Standards at the K-4, 5-8, and 9-12 grade levels. A list of potentially helpful books and website references are included. Vocabulary covered in the Megalodon Educators Guide is listed with scientific definitions that are generally appropriate for K-12 grade levels.
Marketing Support


text:
Bobstar no Mzeekay – Moses ft. Drumboss SA
Fast Download Bobstar no Mzeekay – Moses ft. Drumboss SA Mp3 Audio here on Nagornet
Bobstar no Mzeekay has dropped a new single Entry dubbed titled "Moses" and is right here for your fast download.
NagorNet Is Popularly known as the best place for Latest 2022 Song, Video, Album Zip, EP, Gist, News, Dj Mix, Mixtape, Sport News, Naija Mp3, & Video Mp3, Throwback, Old School. It will be a go decision if you bookmark this website and subscribe to our push notification.
Get Audio Mp3, Stream, Share & Drop Your Thoughts below!


text:
Review by C.J. Bunce
If you've been looking for your next retro fix, this may be it. Archie Comics and DC Comics is bringing nostalgia into a new crossover arriving in comic book stores today with Archie Meets Batman '66. Two characters first seen in 1939–and never before have they appeared together! A battle in Gotham City extends its reach into Riverdale—with Mr. Lodge becoming Public Enemy #1 of the dynamic duo. And it's up to Veronica to recruit some help and place a call… to the Batcave. Written by Jeff Parker and Michael Moreci with art by Dan Parent, J. Bone, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Jack Morelli.
This new story is in the style of the opening title credits of the pop culture favorite 1960s live-action Batman series and the animated series Superfriends. And it's an even bigger series than you might think, with its first issue full of not only the Archie gang and Batman and Robin. You're going to find several of your favorite characters from the 1966 TV series make appearances. The artists have all emulated that over-the-top BAM! POW! variety of comic book goodness. Yes, we're talking the return of the Batusi. Check out a preview to Issue #1 below courtesy of Archie Comics. Keep an eye out for a host of covers for this issue from Michael and Laura Allred, Derek Charm, Francesco Francavilla, Sandy Jarrell and Kelly Fitzpatrick, Dan Parent, J. Bone, and Rosario "Tito" Peña, and Ty Templeton.
Archie Comics plans to have a big presence at San Diego Comic-Con this week, focused on the hit CW television series Riverdale. Fourteen cast members from the series will be pictured on hotel keycards across town. With more than 40,000 keys created for the week, visitors will find these unique collectibles at nearly 40 San Diego hotels. Check your keycards for Archie Andrews (K.J. Apa), Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), Alice Cooper (Mädchen Amick), Fred Andrews (Luke Perry), Hermione Lodge (Marisol Nichols), Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos), Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray), Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), F.P. Jones (Skeet Ulrich), Reggie Mantle (Charles Melton), and Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan).
As promised, here's your preview of Archie Meets Batman '66, Issue #1:
Look for Archie Meets Batman '66, Issue #1, at Elite Comics or your local comic book store today. Riverdale returns to the CW at 9 p.m. Central, October 10. San Diego Comic-Con begins tonight and runs through Sunday, July 22.


text:
The new developer's Snow Leopard build, build 10A394, is interesting in that you don't have to reinstall your entire OS to get it—you can just grab it via Software Update.
Is AI Moving Too Fast? | Future Tech
Dock Expose finally shows up as well. The OS is pretty stable for everyday use (minus plugins and some apps that don't quite work), so if you're adventurous and don't mind having incompatibilities for some stuff, you can probably find this online somewhere. [Gear Live]


text:
April 7th, 2014
Megachurch pastor resigns, citing 'moral failing'
Fort Lauderdale, Florida (WPLG Miami) The senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale has resigned after confessing to cheating on his wife, according to WPLG Miami.
Pastor Bob Coy, 58, reportedly confessed a "moral failing which disqualifies him from continuing his leadership role at the church" to Calvary leaders on Wednesday. A board meeting was called the next day, when he resigned.
Coy, who has led the church since its founding in 1985, said he will now focus his full attention on his personal relationship with God and his family. The radio, television and digital media that distributes Coy's teachings have also been suspended.
"The governing board of the church is providing counselors and ministers who will help guide him through the process of full repentance, cleansing and restoration," Calvary Chapel said in a statement.
Calvary is one of the largest churches in Florida, with some 20,000 members who worship in 10 locations across the state.
"Trusting in God's providence, protection, provision and direction, the staff of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale will continue our mission to 'make disciples' through regular services at all campuses and through myriad other ministries the church has established over the years," the statement said.
At an open service at the church Sunday, a letter was read to the congregation from Coy and the board.
Assistant pastors who are on staff will continue their usual rotating schedule as teaching pastors for all services, the statement said.
soundoff (1,760 Responses)
About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.


text:
CINCINNATI — A plane carrying University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who had been detained in North Korea for 17 months and was in a coma for most of it, touched down in Cincinnati on Tuesday night.
The 22-year-old's return marks an end to the ordeal that his family has been through, not knowing what had happened to Warmbier since he was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in March of last year. But the fact that he had been kept, comatose, in North Korea for more than a year could worsen the already tense relationship between Pyongyang and Washington.
Friends and well-wishers gathered outside Cincinnati's Lunken Airport Terminal ahead of the plane's arrival at 10:20 p.m. local time, and they cheered when the plane landed.
Otto's parents, Fred and Cindy, boarded the plane and came out again a few minutes later. Then medical personnel carried Otto Warmbier, who had a shaved head and a tube in his nose, off the plane and onto a stretcher. He was then placed in an ambulance and taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
Locals were waiting outside the airport fence, holding signs that read "WELCOME HOME OTTO" and "PRAYERS FOR OTTO."
Charlotte and David Simons, who said they have been friends of the family for more than 30 years, came to watch his flight come in, too. "We're just here to support Cindy and Fred and the family," Charlotte Simons said.
[What we know about Warmbier's medical condition]
She was feeling "sick to my stomach for them," she said, thinking of how their son should have been graduating from college this spring.
David Simons was marveling that another country could treat an American like this. "I can only feel for what the family is going through," he said, shaking his head.
After a senior State Department official flew to Pyongyang to demand Warmbier's release on humanitarian grounds, he was flown out in a medical evacuation.
"We get to see our son Otto tonight," Fred Warmbier said in an interview Tuesday morning after his son was evacuated. "We'll be relieved to have him home and are looking forward to surrounding him with people who love him."
Warmbier's parents hadn't heard from or seen him since he was sentenced in March 2016 for attempting to steal a propaganda poster at the end of a five-day tour of North Korea.
But amid the relief, there were also new questions about what happened to him: How did a healthy young man fall into such a deep coma? The North Korean government told his parents that food poisoning was to blame. And how does the Trump administration respond?
Three other American citizens are being detained in North Korea, at a time when Kim Jong Un has been firing missiles and threatening to strike the United States. President Trump has been vowing to exert "maximum pressure" on North Korea to make it abandon its nuclear weapons program but has also dangled the prospect of talks with Kim, whom he called a "smart cookie."
Warmbier was flown out of North Korea on the same day that Dennis Rodman, the controversial former basketball star, arrived for his fifth visit to Pyongyang.
Officials involved in securing Warmbier's release told The Washington Post that it had nothing to do with Rodman's trip to Pyongyang, calling it a "bizarre coincidence" that might have been a deliberate ploy from North Korea to distract from Warmbier's condition.
"Dennis Rodman had nothing to do with the release of Mr. Warmbier," said Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, adding that the government was "thankful" that he would soon be home in his parents' arms.
She also reiterated the State Department's travel advice against going to North Korea, with which the United States has no diplomatic relations.
"Let me reiterate this: We strongly, strongly suggest that Americans do not go to North Korea," Nauert said.
[North Korea is still holding 3 other Americans as prisoners]
At the time of his arrest, Warmbier had been on an organized New Year's tour in North Korea, a five-day stopover on his way to Hong Kong for a study-abroad trip.
But on his final night in Pyongyang — New Year's Eve — he apparently went to a staff-only floor of his hotel and attempted to take down a large propaganda sign lauding the regime. He was charged with "hostile acts against the state."
Surrounded by North Korean guards, Warmbier delivered a highly scripted "confession" that appeared to have been written for him, and after an hour-long sham trial in March 2016, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor.
He had not been seen in public since, and Swedish diplomats, representing U.S. interests, had been denied consular access to him. Officials involved in negotiations to free Warmbier and another American citizen being detained were told they were being treated as prisoners of war.
During a secret meeting in Oslo last month with Joseph Yun, the State Department's special representative for North Korea, high-level North Korean officials agreed that Swedish diplomats in Pyongyang would be allowed to visit the four Americans imprisoned by the North.
But in Pyongyang, the Swedes were allowed to see only one detainee, and it wasn't Warmbier.
As the Americans continued to push for the Swedish diplomats to see all four, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations urgently requested a meeting with Yun in New York, according to Trump administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the still-secret arrangements. There, North Korean officials told Yun about Warmbier's condition.
He informed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who consulted with the president, the officials said.
Yun was instructed to prepare to travel to Pyongyang with the intention of bringing Warmbier back to the United States. A medical team and aircraft were organized, and North Korea was informed that a delegation would travel there.
"It wasn't a situation where they asked," one official said of the U.S. representatives. The North Koreans "were informed that the airplane would land, American and medical officials would get out."
[Worried about North Korea? Spare a thought for Otto Warmbier's family.]
Yun was under orders, which the official said came directly from Trump, to demand to see Warmbier immediately, and, "if he was in bad shape," to demand his immediate release and evacuation on the plane's return flight to the United States.
Yun arrived in Pyongyang early Monday with two American physicians. They were immediately taken to Warmbier. Yun insisted on Warmbier's immediate release on humanitarian grounds, officials said, and the North Koreans agreed.
Tillerson called Trump at 8:35 a.m. Tuesday to inform him that Warmbier was on an airplane en route to the United States, an official said. The last instruction the president left Tillerson was: "Take care of Otto," the official said.
The Warmbier family said they were informed that North Korean officials had told American envoys that their son became ill with botulism soon after his show trial.
The North Korean account, the family said, claimed that Warmbier then fell into a coma after being given a sleeping pill. The Warmbiers said they were told their son has remained in a coma since then.
There was no immediate confirmation from U.S. officials of North Korea's description of his illness — including whether he was stricken with botulism, a potentially fatal disease that is caused by a toxin but is not usually associated with loss of consciousness. U.S. officials in touch with Yun and medical personnel declined to say whether Warmbier remains in a coma or to make any comment on his current medical condition.
North Korean representatives at the United Nations did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
North Korea has woefully inadequate medical care, and it is not clear how North Korean doctors had been caring for Warmbier for more than a year in an unconscious state.
[ North Korea sentences U-Va. student to 15 years of hard labor in prison ]
Warmbier was to have graduated last month had he not been detained.
"While the entire University of Virginia community is relieved to learn of Otto's release from North Korea, we are deeply concerned and saddened to learn from his family that he is in a coma," U-Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan said in a statement Tuesday.
Annabella Vagonis, a family friend from Reston, Va., whose daughter was close with Warmbier at U-Va., said: "We were at turns incredulous, shocked, surprised, joyful and sad, all kind of emotions within a nanosecond of each other when we got the news this morning.
"We are so incredibly joyful that he is finally coming home. We are concerned about his overall health and not knowing the details of his being in a coma. We're hopeful that with the excellent medical care that he'll receive that we'll receive some good news once they examine him. "
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) called Warmbier's arrest and trial "unnecessary and appalling," while lawmakers from Virginia also denounced North Korea's actions.
The three other Americans detained by North Korea remain there.
A former Virginia resident and naturalized American citizen, Kim Dong-chul, was arrested shortly after Warmbier on accusations of espionage and was sentenced to 10 years with hard labor.
In April and May, North Korea detained two other Korean Americans, both of them affiliated with the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, a private institution run by Korean American Christians.
Previous detainees have been released after visits from high-profile Americans, including former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. But efforts to persuade North Korea to release the men now held had not been successful until Warmbier's release Tuesday.
Fifield reported from Tokyo. Karen DeYoung, David Nakamura and Jenna Portnoy in Washington contributed to this report.
Read more
Dennis Rodman is back in North Korea. Did Trump send him?
North Korea's trading partners are linked, and that could make them vulnerable
Defiant North Korea launches another salvo of missile tests
Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news


text:
Spain's Unemployment Rate For First Quarter 2013 Highest Since 1976 At 27.2%; Premier Rajoy Set To Unveil New Policies Amid Austerity Protests
Spain's unemployment rate hit a record high 27.2 percent in the first quarter, a 1.1 percentage point increase from the same time last year, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics said Thursday.
This is the highest jobless rate for the country since 1976, and it's is more than three times higher than it was in 2007, just before Europe's economic downturn. The number of jobless Spaniards has surpassed six million for the first time ever, reaching more than 6.2 million people.
Unemployment has climbed more than 20 percentage points in five years, or since the beginning of the global economic downturn.
The number comes as anti-austerity protests are planned Thursday in Madrid and a day before Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is set to unveil a plan to try to pull the eurozone's fourth-largest economy out of its second recession in five years. Rajoy is expected to ask European Union states for more time to enact further austerity policies, according to Bloomberg.
The International Monetary Fund last week cut Spain's growth forecast to a 1.6 percent contraction from a 1.5 percent contraction. It also said Spain's unemployment would peak at 27 percent, but the latest numbers show the country's jobless rate is already above that estimate.
The crisis is leaving a profound mark on Spanish society, even in the relatively richer parts of the country such as Catalunya, where the real estate crisis has left many homeless and forced to move back with their parents.
Spain's El Pais daily cited the case of a couple from L'Hospitalet, near Barcelona, Juan and Cecilia Martín, whose only income is a 426 euro ($560) subsidy paid by the state after their unemployment benefits ran out. Before the crisis hit, he worked for a shipping company and she in a dentist's office. They lost their house to bank repossession, and are thinking of leaving Spain.
© Copyright IBTimes 2023. All rights reserved.