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Posts Tagged 'peace'
Mental Noise
My kids like to make noise. They like instruments, music, and they really seem to like their own voices. They love noise.
Apart from when they don't. When noises are too loud, or unexpected, or the wrong kind, they are too much, way too much for my kids. In our house we can't do fireworks and fire alarms, blenders and barking dogs, hand dryers and helicopters.
Pudding has been ill lately, and that means her tolerance threshold is at an all time low. The more you tune in to noise, the more you realize how relentless it is. How I would love to mute the world for her!
And for me.
Noise doesn't bother me in the same way. Not physically. I can stand it, even if I don't like it. Which is handy, because…well, read that first sentence again.
But I do love quiet.
Such a rare commodity, it is even more valuable to me these days. Lately there has been no quiet for me. With a very hectic workload and a busy home life, there isn't so much a rhythm as a drumming. Demands thudding on my brain all day long so that even when I get enough sleep I'm not refreshed.
Then the next day will be even louder. A dissonant racket that grows and grows. I can't write, because I can't turn my brain down to hear what I'm thinking. At times in the last month or so, I needed that mute button for myself just as much as Pudding.
And then, today, it came. Silence. I finished work early and then stopped thinking about it. I didn't check my Blackberry. I was at home. Alone. It was silent. It took me some time to realize that. I was so used to the noise, I'd forgotten what silence sounded like.
Because we live in Johannesburg, before long I heard sirens and helicopters and I let the noise disturb me. Then it died down again once more, and I could feel the silence once again. This time I appreciated it. I held on to the silence, and let the mental noise go away.
It was a gift. One I rarely had when the kids were younger, and one that seems just as elusive now. But I think now I realize that I can turn some of the noise down myself, if I just allow myself to enjoy the peace instead of making myself tackle another problem, make another plan, or frustrate myself with busyness.
The best thing though about getting a moment of tranquility? It makes everyday noises sound so much sweeter.
Two kids, one mummy and a swimming pool. Pudding has always loved the water, but has no fear of it. Cubby is brave enough in a kiddie pool where he can stand up, but terrified in the big pool. Usually he won't allow any part of his head to touch the water, and makes a sorry sobbing sound if I so much as transfer him to my other hip.
So going to the pool without Spectrummy Daddy in tow is a bold move. This is DC in August. It has been a scorcher, and the humidity factor can be unbearable. When we do brave the playground, the mosquitoes ravish my exotic English suck-me skin, the resulting wounds last for weeks. Yuck. Stuck indoors all the time, Pudding can't help but find trouble. At times I feel like I say nothing but "no" to her. I'm weighed down from being so negative. We'd been inside too long, it was time.
We'd had some problems before in getting her to wear her swim vest, but if she put it on back to front, she was fine. It kind of looked like I'd put my special needs child in a straight jacket, but she was happy, safe, and unable to reach the zipper to take it off. I'm getting used to odd glances coming our way. Luckily people tend to keep their small thoughts to themselves, which is just as it should be.
Cubby clung on to me the whole time, but there was no crying or screaming. At a few points, when he was splashing around and soaking his mama (which he says properly now!) quite thoroughly, he squealed with delight. Pudding just looked calm and serene, feeling all the lovely sensation of the water. The pair of them, who have stretched my heart in ways I could never have imagined, were at peace getting what they needed. I wanted to cherish the time. I didn't feel like the mother taking care of her high-needs children. I was the special guest at this party. I felt honoured to be in attendance.
After a while, she took to climbing out and jumping back in again, over and over. There didn't seem to be much purpose to it, but she had the most beatific smile on her face, it must just feel right to her. So often I've taken for granted that my senses and my body work just as they should, I'm so fortunate. I wish she could have that feeling more often. I wish everybody could. I'm just glad she gets to have her moments of it, and I get to share them with her.
One time as she took off, she looked at me and gleefully said, "I'm flying!". My heart soars along with her. For that one sweltering afternoon, my love, we both were.


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Edit plist files
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Pref Setter lets you access and edit preferences. Use it with caution though.

subset: commoncrawl


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Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Hello Margie
What's the difference between real time and obligatory time? If you are invited to a party by a friend and you go delighted to be there, to meet their friends and share some stories, laughs and good companionship, that's real time. If you go to meet someone you think will be there just to do make a contact and maybe do some business, even that is real time. If you go to put in an appearance just to make sure that you don't lose an acquaintance or insult the host, that's obligatory time.
If you take your kids to the playground and enjoy seeing them play and maybe pushing them on a swing or catching them as they come down the slide, laughing with them and listening to their chatter, that's real time. If you take them to the park just to sit and talk with another parent or do nothing but keep an eye on them while they do whatever they can find to do on their own, that's obligatory time and the average child knows the difference.
Now answer this, what is the difference between a real life and an obligatory life?
One of the advantages of growing older, going "over the hill," as Schopenhauer and others put it, is the realization of how much obligatory time one has logged on one's time sheet and how sparse the real time measurements are. Those vacations at the beach which were meant to be relaxing times were actually obligatory escapes from a difficult or time consuming job. Getting with the guys for horseshoes or the girls for your bridge club may seem to have been real time but as you look back it seems more like a waste of time, an obligatory waste of time. Time you could have spent doing what? Something real?
Some of those of us who are masquerading as senior citizens (for want of a better term) take on projects. We learn a foreign language as I am trying to do. We join a book club to read and discuss some of the world's great, or not so great, literature. We go on cruises to see what the Earth looks like in the Caribbean, or Mediterranean or in the Fjords of Norway or Alaska. We volunteer our services in hospitals, day care centers or other institutions where some senior wisdom will be useful. We take up painting or writing and produce works that will beautify and enhance other lives. We take up a new enterprise or a new business and go back to work. And why do we do it?
We do not do it because life is short and we had better do something with the little time we have left while we're waiting to die. No. We do it because we are alive and wish to live real lives and not obligatory ones any more. Let the magazines and the TV talk show hosts admire her for teaching a college course at the age of 80. She's not thinking about being 80. She's thinking about teaching.
Old fogies pick up speed because they no longer waste time on obligatory lives. Let pretence, guile, artificiality and acting-their-age go out with the trash along with the false eyelashes. They're out for the real stuff.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up


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The United States, famous for its Christian heritage, started celebrating Valentine's Day probably as early as the 1700s. The holiday gets its name from the early Christian saint Valentinus. Although not much is known about the actual person, his name became associated with love in the Middle Ages, when loving greeting cards called valentines became popular for expressing one's affections. Presently, this holiday has turned into a celebration of love, not only towards one's significant other or crush(es), but also towards friends, as young children are encouraged to participate as well! In South Korea, however, there isn't much information about when the country began celebrating Valentine's Day, but it is theorized that it, similarly to how it began in Japan, was started by chocolate companies around the 1960s as a mainly commercial holiday.
Giving chocolate
Korean men are lucky; Valentine's Day is especially focused on them! Much like the holiday in Japan, women make and buy chocolate to give to men, sometimes out of obligation. But don't fret! March 14, known as White Day, is when women can expect to receive their reciprocated chocolates. Valentine's Day recently has slowly become less focused on love and has slowly branched out to include one's friends and family. However, if one did not receive chocolates from an admirer on either of these days, there's at least one more holiday to look forward to: Black Day, celebrated on April 14. This singles holiday is usually "celebrated" by wearing black, eating jajangmyeon (a black-bean noodle dish), and complaining about single life with other singles. It seems like the United States consolidates all of these dates in one simple Valentine's Day, as everyone is free to give chocolates to whomever they desire and mope about it if they don't!
Types of candy
In America, as long as it's red or pink and heart-shaped, it's good for exchanging! Heart-shaped chalk-like candy known as Sweet Hearts are hugely popular for their random love sayings. There are plenty of gummy candies, lollipops, cookies, and even heart pizzas with heart pepperonis available for this day of love. On the other hand, Korea focuses more on chocolate. It's said that some confectionery stores account for nearly 20% of their annual sales from February 14 alone, and many do-it-yourself melting kits are available in grocery stores and convenience stores, to maximize the customization of one's heartfelt chocolates.
By Nicole Destura


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Kite buggy and kites
Rhys Patterson, in Buy & Sell
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By andy666
I had a zipper on my 16m venom 2 give up on me last week. Bloody frustrating, as it was the inflate zipper and I was about to launch 🤬. The slide was so worn out that it won't close the teeth anymore.
anyway, I have fitted new waterproof zips to an arc before, but they can be a bit expensive and hard to find. So I thought it was a good chance to test out a Velcro alternative.
its basically just a short sock and Velcro opening similar to the deflates in the flysurfer kites.
the Velcro valves work quite well. I inflated the kite and slowly opened the Velcro. No air was escaping until it opened far enough to for the end of the sock to open.
Sorry, no pictures before they got sewn in. But a few pointers I worked out for anyone wanting to do this mod.
-Make the sock width about 50mm more then the zipper opening in the kite.
- place sticky ripstop inside the kite where the zipper stitching was removed.
- measure from the opening in the kite to the cell wall, subtract 1cm. This is how long the sock needs to be.
-sew the sock in the direction you would use it to inflate the kite (pointing towards the centre)
- sew a deflate valve into the trailing edge to replace the deflate zipper.
By Jason
Late model PL Buggy with all the upgrades done.
Midi Wheels
Siderail Pads
Wide Axle
20mm rear axle bolts
Spray guard
$620 including Freight
By Cheezycheese
Oct.8-14th was the Wildwood buggy bash held in Wildwood NJ, Usa. What started as a weekend get together has evolved into a week long gathering of buggy, boarding, and blokart family. This year, those who arrived early were treated to some amazing onshore winds courtesy of Hurricane Michael. Wildwood beach is approximately 7 miles of amazing hardpack facing the Atlantic ocean. This year we had 4 GT buggies, a PTW and 2 MG Supras as well as the assortment of PL and Flexifoil buggies. Having upgraded my gear this year allowed me to set several PB's. I buggied more this bash than all my previous ones combined.


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And to see how both the boys still think of Bobby and hold him in such a special place in their hearts, Sam stating that of course Bobby can do it, he's Bobby. Dean referring to Bobby as wise, and passing on that wisdom to Crowley, it did my heart good and bad all in one. I dearly wished we'd had interaction between Bobby and the brothers, or at least Sam, as he was the one involved in the Bobby storyline. I wish Sam had been able to see Bobby, not just talk to him via the radio, not just read his words. Sam needs someone like Bobby right now to talk to, to bounce his fears and sadness off. *Sigh* I'm making myself sad!
Saturday, 4 April 2015
Review - Supernatural 10x17 "Inside Man" - And So It Begins
And to see how both the boys still think of Bobby and hold him in such a special place in their hearts, Sam stating that of course Bobby can do it, he's Bobby. Dean referring to Bobby as wise, and passing on that wisdom to Crowley, it did my heart good and bad all in one. I dearly wished we'd had interaction between Bobby and the brothers, or at least Sam, as he was the one involved in the Bobby storyline. I wish Sam had been able to see Bobby, not just talk to him via the radio, not just read his words. Sam needs someone like Bobby right now to talk to, to bounce his fears and sadness off. *Sigh* I'm making myself sad!
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Hey your reviews are awesome. Yes this was one of my favourite ep this season. Man all the characters with dialogue and acting was superb. Love Booby in this ep... Damn it was touching and great to see him... brings back all the amazing moments he had with Dean and Sam throughout the seasons. I also wish Sam or Dean could have seen him. That letter I cried as Sam was reading it... cant describe how much I love this show.ReplyDelete
As for Dean and the Mark Of Cain... I am scared for him and everyone around him. His change in clothes subtle movements of body language... indicate he is changing. Jared saying that this season finale is going to be more traumatic than season 5 finale... has me almost pulling my hair out so to speak.
This season is epic... and want to watch more but also scared to watch it. I love these two brothers have for each other is beyond anything... also I hope Crowley does not die
I pray we get to see Death again... oh man I love his character... It will be so cool to see Dean and Death eating pizza or pickles with a beer chatting. Just as we saw Dean and Crowley chatting... I hope Dean and Death have that moment. Has for the Lucifer possible man it has my brains working double time with the possibilities. Cannot wait the next ep as Charlie is in it and Cas. Please I hope finally Charlie and Cas meet. It will be the best.
This season has me in knots and this show is the best in my opinion... Been with it since it started never looked back... whatever happens these last ep's I am alongside these brothers "Fighting the hard fight"
- Anonymous4 April 2015 at 23:25
I thought this episode was fantastic, too - one of the best. The nightmare scenes were heart wrenching and perfectly done. Bobby...! I feared that his return might be cheesy or not feel right, but it was absolutely wonderful. One thing that I found really compelling but wouldn't have expected to was Hannah's reappearance. The guy that had one angel switch out so she could switch in is some actor. Her love and determination shone from his so very different, masculine face - so convincing!ReplyDelete
I, too, went "OMG!" at the mention of Lucifer. Do you think, maybe...? Oh, you're probably right that it's a misdirect, but...wow. It got my brain going, too. I loved your thought about the Winchester's humanity being so powerful, so beautiful, that it exerted influence on Meg, Crowley, and Castiel. I hadn't thought of that, but it actually rings so true now that you've said it.
Amy, your review said everything that was in my head. You can read my thoughts, but are so much better at putting them into words. It was an A++++ episode in an A++ season. I know some people have said it moved too slow, but the build up is fabulous. Such early spn feel. I think we forget how past seasons left us hanging for 10 or 15 episodes because we've watched them so many times now. But this season has been beautiful to watch.ReplyDelete
Bobby coming back was so perfect. He was such a grounding force for the boys. Calling them on their s.... and being a sounding board. Just love and miss him so much. The letter was a killer. Sam's tear. GAWWWD It was so powerful for me because I recalled Jared's recent answer to a question about feeling the emotions during filming and whether they are scripted to cry. His response that if it comes it comes just made that scene have so much impact for me. It made me think of Jared's recent shirt campaign, his pain and Bobby's comment to keep fighting. It was just so poignant. Although I lean Dean girl, Sam/Jared was at his peak this episode. Maybe I'm losing touch with reality that I sometimes feel Dean/Jensen and Jared/Sam are interchangeable. Am I the only one that catches glimpses of that? Yikes.
Again, thanks for the review. I could watch and analyze this ep for hours. It was perfections. This show never ceases to amaze me. Oh and surprise me.(Stealing Metatron's grace-wow)
Like you I adored this episode and how they brought Bobby to it. I have a bad feeling that he is now in heaven's jail or worse. It is Supernatural way. I actually jumped on the mention of Lucifer. It felt like it was meant to jump us but will they go there. It is 50/50 atm.ReplyDelete
Sam running to check on Dean while he was having nightmares gave me flashback from last season when Dean yelled his name when the bunker was haunted. (Captives) And Sam did it again here and with fast running. Actually it is quite a shock to be waken up from a nightmare and also Sam knew why Dean was having it and how Dean would react if Sam would wake him up. So, as it stopped Sam let it be. The important thing is Sam knows and Dean can't hide it.
When Rowena's spell backfired that you know should have blown Dean up I actually gasped. That is definitely not good. Ruth also talked about in an interview that the spell was very old and the paint was actually virgin blood. It is not first spell level but pretty powerful. So that, and the flash of demon eyes and the quite "ruthless" pool hustling made me shiver. The money was one thing but taking that watch... Like many I saw it not as a good thing. Afterbuzz review is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i7ZD2TgHzM
Loved Crowley and loved Bobby times billion. It was good to see that old man again.
Last mention actually goes to the actor that played Hannah renewed. It was short but like with young Dean it really felt like it was Hannah. And Cas reacting to "her" like he would the other vessel helped that. Anyway, male Hannah was great and so was Cas. It was good to see he in action again and Sam and him working together works.
I am glad also that Rowena and Metatron both got what they deserved and was coming to and most of all the characters that gave the punishment deserved that retribution.
So if Dean doesn't have to die to become a demon and Lucifer is now in play, what about the prior cures the boys had been chasing (and we had been discussing)?
Castiel: What about the tablets?
Metatron: No, there's nothing in them about the mark.
Sam: So when you said the river ends at the source…
Metatron: I was just making up crap. Trying to buy time until I could screw you over. What? It worked before!
Castiel: He's telling the truth.
Sam: What??
Well, those choices were busted but I think it was nice they made us think about them and also maybe guide us away from the real solution "dun-dun-duuun". We also got witchcraft and that the mark is a curse. The solution maybe that or also a trick from Rowena to get it worse or use that to hurt the Winchesters. I may even consider that Rowena said that to Crowley so that she knew he would say it to Dean. To what end I don't know. Maybe that she can kill Dean or she has other motives.
In one of our discussion groups actually all are slightly freaking out because we are thinking the solutions and what we will have in the final. Sugarhi is actually trying to calm me and others down with her own views and I hope it is like she says or next hellatus will be torture after this one. Like this episode and the rest of the season has made me think and ponder more because things have been subtle. My husband has also liked that and that the end actually will bind everything together and surprise us. It feels like that at least for me and well... Soon we will see is our predictions right. Totally wrong or half right.
PS. Your podcast was awesome as usual. Great work!
- Lilah
Yes, yes and yes. Everything you said!ReplyDelete
I loved this episode so much and thoroughly enjoyed reading your review :D


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Now, you didn't think that I bought bread from Backstube just for any old reason, did you?
Ever since Marketmanila turned me on to David Lebovitz, I've been following his blog to get ideas on what other foods that I have to try before leaving this earth.
A trip to the Swiss-French border last week, concentrated around Geneva, gave me an excuse to try out Mont d' Or, an unpasturized raw milk cheese made near that area. David made a blog post about Mont d' Or that piqued my curiosity. I was getting ready to hunt down fromageries in France for it, but all I needed to do was go down to the next Migros supermarket, which had the last seven boxes of this cheese in one of its refrigerated shelves. It was a bit pricey, € 6,99 for a wooden carton (I made sure the box was stapled and the cheese au lait cru, David, in case you are reading this. But that is wishful thinking).
Then I thought, why not try it side by side with German Ofenkäse? This is also basically fondue in a box. So off to the supermarket to get a wooden carton of Ofenkäse from Allgäu, and beat it to a friend's house to share the goodies, eat a cheese dinner and make the comparison.
Next to the Migros in Neydens in France is a wine store, and I was quite relieved that the young proprietor spoke English. I asked for a wine that went with the cheese, and recommended this bottle from Switzerland, since I am partial to sweet and fruity wines. Fendant only cost me € 11 a bottle, which is quite cheap for Swiss wine. I opened this bottle of wine and drank it with my friend while we prepared the cheese the same way, the way David described on his blog post.
After thinly slicing two cloves of garlic, and inserting a total of one clove in each cheese into slits cut into the top of both , I splashed a generous amount (half a cup) of wine into both cheeses. The Mont d' Or was then wrapped in aluminum foil with the top exposed, while the Ofenkäse was left to bake as it was.
At the halfway mark (15 minutes), I took the Ofenkäse out of the oven and sliced the top to expose the cheese inside, according to package instructions. At thirty minutes we took both the cheeses out and I made several photographs.
As one could see, the Ofenkäse on the right looked like melted cheese on pizza. The Mont d' Or on the left looked untouched.
Then we set sliced bread and the cheeses onto the table and had it with a salad of carrots and apples with creme fraiche dressing and cornichons. The French would gasp in horror, I know. But I made sure to eat all of the sour foods at the end and wash each bite of cheese with water so as to not spoil my taste buds.
It kind of felt wrong to have such a decadent dinner on a Friday. I was supposed to abstain from meat because of Lent, but it doesn't make sense to abstain from meat when these cheeses were just so fatty.
Mont d' Or is delightfully French. My first bite smelled and tasted like a smelly armpit. It was fatty, gooey, and funky. It left a fatty deposit on my palate and my lips, as if I ate a bowlful of Nilagang baka, a very fatty Filipino beef stew. However, I would like to also add my discovery that Mont d' Or is not my favorite cheese, as I am more partial to pungent goat cheeses. Not that Mont d' Or is not good. Au contraire.
After sampling Ofenkäse then Mont d' Or, in that sequence, my friend announced her regrets for not eating more of the Ofenkäse because "how can anybody go back to eating that stuff?"
At this point I had almost forgotten the German cheese and ate it. Yuck! It tasted like nothing! It seemed different to me in every bite. Where there was harmony in the fat and garlic taste of the Mont d' Or, there was only dissonance in Ofenkäse. It tasted in turns like air, then strongly of garlic, then like processed cheese food, a factory-like, completely manufactured flavor.
I'm sorry to say that when it comes to cheeses, the French just K.O'd the Germans.


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The start of a new academic year is a great time to set goals. And a lot of students set ambitious ones, like:
- Get a 4.0.
- Score higher than 1800 on my SATs.
- Become a starter on the varsity soccer team.
- Be the editor-in-chief of the school paper by the end of the year.
Those are admirable. But the problem is that while they define what you want to achieve, they don't help you with your steps to getting there. And that turns your ambitions into entirely pass or fail opportunities. You could work like crazy, but if you don't achieve your outcome, you'll feel like you failed.
Here are a few tips that will not only improve your chances of succeeding but will also make the process of getting there more valuable.
1. Identify the most important steps you need to take—and be specific.
What are the most important actions you need to take to actually achieve your goals? Figure those out first, and be specific. "Study more" isn't specific. "Shut off my cell and my email until I'm done with my homework/studying each day" is specific. It's easier to do the old "One day at a time" technique when you're focusing on small, specific actions. And you can hold yourself accountable along the way. You'll know exactly what you need to do, and whether or not you're actually doing it.
2. Focus on what's worked before.
When you've achieved goals similar to these, how did that happen? What did you do differently? For example, when you were named a starter for the first time on the soccer team, were you doing anything differently? Were you treating your practices like games? Were you setting up teammates for goals? Did you really kill it in the conditioning workouts? Eliminating things that didn't work is good. But doubling those things that did work is even better.
3. Learn from little victories.
Let's say you decide that for you to become editor-in-chief of the newspaper, you need to be recognized as one of the best writers. And in order to do that, you need to write at least two drafts of all your articles so you can have your journalism teacher critique them before you submit them to the current editor (good, specific action). When you actually do that for your first article, you should take the time to learn from it. How did you make the time to get those articles done early? How will you do it again? And don't reserve your celebration for the day that you actually become the editor. Start now. Learning from and celebrating little victories keeps you focused on the positive. And it will prevent you from getting discouraged about a goal that might occasionally seem unrealistic.
4. Tell people about your goals.
Sometimes peer pressure is a good thing. Tell your closest friends about your goals. Maybe invite them to make their own? Then resolve to help each other achieve them. Telling people what you're trying to do can help them be supportive, too. If you resolve not to be online until your homework is done every night, tell your friends so they won't get bent out of shape when you take longer than usual to respond to their emails and texts.
5. Recognize that the process is even more important than the outcome.
You should set high goals for yourself—that's what successful people do. But you should also remember that the efforts you make are just as important—if not more so—than whether or not you actually achieve the goals. If you resolve to do all the homework in your SAT class and to actually use every technique you learn, your score will almost certainly improve. But if you don't get the score you wanted, you won't have to blame yourself. You won't have to wonder if it could have been better if you'd just put in the effort. And you'll have the reward of knowing that you did all you could so you can confidently move on to something else now.


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For more details, and to register your attendance, please visit Eventbrite here.
Creating systemic, sustainable solutions to intractable problems like GB transitioning to Clean Energy requires cross-sector collaboration in the public, private, academic and third sectors.
It also requires the creation, sharing and use of geospatial data combined with other data, often in near real-time, to support cross sector decision making that improves efficiencies, reduces cost and benefits consumers. Application Programming Interfaces (API's) enable data to be readily accessed and combined with other required data sources to support those decisions.
Join members from Ordnance Survey's technical team and Geovation (more info below) for a two-part event that focuses on Clean Energy. (You can join us for Part 1; Part 2, or both!)
Part 1
Technical Workshop – OS API's; OS data and Clean Energy
From 4pm, we'll be hosting a 2-hour technical workshop focusing on an "Introduction to API's". The sessions will teach you how to access and use API's, including the OS Maps and OS Places API, along with other data sources, to provide analysis and insight into the "Clean Energy" opportunity.
Who is the workshop for, and what will you learn?
Whilst this is a technical workshop, the materials have been designed to be self-led i.e. we provide a step-by-step guide, to help you complete the exercise. This means we can cater to many levels of competency. There will be additional 'stretch' exercises for those that complete the self-led exercises quickly, and help on hand from OS's technical team for those that need support!
The workshop will teach you how to access and use OS Maps and OS Places API's, before we use additional geospatial datasets (OS MasterMap Topography, height and Imagery data) within an open source software application, to perform some analysis around "Clean Energy".
We'll provide the venue, WiFi and drinks – but you'll need to bring your own (fully charged) device to participate in the session.
Part 2
Meetup: Clean EnergyTech Accelerator
Directly after the workshop, from 6:30pm, Geovation (Ordnance Survey's open innovation network, accelerator and awarding winning Hub) will be hosting a 2-hour Clean EnergyTech Meetup where we'll have presentations from public, private and 3rd sector organisations – followed by discussion and networking, around the Clean Energy theme.
Food and Drinks to be provided


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This is an article about basic inheritance and polymorphism in Java Programming Language.
Let's start by creating a class hierarchy based on animals in a zoo.
First we create the Animal base class.
The central idea is that we have a group of animals living inside a zoo.
This group of animals consists of Lions, Tigers, Cats, Hippos, Wolfs and Dogs.
They can do certain things like sleeping, roaming, making noise or eating.
Along with the things that they can do they also carry specific characteristics like the kind of food they prefer (meat or grass), how much hungry they are at a specific moment and their location in the zoo.
Their image too, is a key characteristic of every animal.
To formulate in a java class all these common characteristics, we decide to create an abstract class called Animal.
The following image is a diagram of the Animal abstract class :
And here you can see the code of the Animal class:
Animal class is very general so we declare this class as abstract.
The fact that the animal class is abstract does not prevent us from writing some methods that can be used in another class or preferably to a number of classes that are positioned below the Animal class in the inheritance tree.
Notice the two highlighted lines (77 and 78).
These abstract methods must be implemented (overridden) by some class below the animal class at the hierarchy tree.
At this point we can see two more great categories of animals that introduces some more common behaviour.
For example Felines (Lions, Tigers, Cats) tend to avoid others of their own kind when they move and Canines (Wolfs, Dogs) tend to move in packs.
We can use this fact to create a couple more of abstract classes.
Let's see the application diagram and where is the position of these two new abstract classes:
And here is the code of the two abstract classes :
Feline class
Canine class
As you can see we override here the implementation we had provided in the parent Animal class.
Let's see how this theory behaves in action with real objects.
I have created a small application for this article and here is the code :
If you check this code, you'll see that at line 30 we create a new Hippo object.
You can see the Hippo class diagram and code right below :
As we see here the Hippo has its own implementations of makeNoise() and eat() methods, and thus it fulfils the obligation to provide concrete implementations of abstract methods that exist above him at the class hierarchy tree.
Now we can run a small application that I have been created for this article.
Here is the application code :
When we run this code we are getting the following result at the console window :
Inheritance in action
------------------------------------------------------
The wolf howls
The Canines move in packs
, and now that it is a wolf it is very dangerous for its prey
The wolf is eating MEAT
The animal sleeps

Polymorphism in action
------------------------------------------------------
The dog is eating GRASS
The Canines move in packs
The cat eats GRASS
The Felines avoid each other
The wolf is eating MEAT
The Canines move in packs
, and now that it is a wolf it is very dangerous for its prey
The hippo is eating GRASS
The animal is roaming
The lion is eating MEAT
The Felines avoid each other

Polymorphic arguments
------------------------------------------------------
The vet is giving a shot to Wolf
The wolf howls

Process finished with exit code 0
At line 18 the Hippo is using its own method but at the next line (19) the Hippo is using the generic roaming method from his parent Animal abstract class.
As you can see in my small program we can declare an object to be of any type above its class in the inheritance tree.
So with this array of Animal type we are getting very flexible because we can assign to the Animal variable any concrete object instance at runtime.
Now let's turn our attention at the wolf object.
The rule here is that when you are calling an object method, the most specific version of the method is get executed.
You can see that in App2.java, lines 14-17.
Another thing to point here is that wolf's own roam method is using its parent (Canine class) roam method by using the super keyword.
Check how this work by looking at the Wolf class diagram and code :
Let's see now the complete inheritance tree and the rest of the various class code.
Cat class
Dog class
Lion class
Tiger class
Finally we can use polymorphism to declare method arguments as a general type and then pass as an argument any concrete object that is of this type.
Check for example the Vet class.
We can send in any animal we want and as we saw at the console window posted before every animal reacts with a different noise!
That's all for today.
See you at my next article when we will talk about interfaces.
PS : A link with the whole project code — > Java inheritance and polymorphism Github Project


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Congressman Denny Heck calls on Chairman Devin Nunes to remove himself from the Russian active measures investigation in the House Intelligence Committee
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following the actions of Chairman Nunes that undermined the ongoing Russian active measures investigation underway in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee Member Congressman Denny Heck (WA-10) released the following statement:
"Due to the serious nature of the events of the past week, I join Ranking Member Schiff in stating Chairman Nunes should recuse himself from the House Intelligence Committee investigation. This whole debacle just goes to show that this investigation belongs in the hands of an independent commission. In order to get to the bottom of what happened, and to prevent it from happening again, Congress must remove this investigation from this partisan, political atmosphere. The American people deserve our serious attention to this urgent and immediate attack on our democracy."
On December 15, 2016, Congressman Heck called on Congress to establish an independent commission to further investigate Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. On January 6, 2017, Congressman Heck signed on to support H.R. 356, the Protecting Our Democracy Act which would establish a 12-member, bipartisan, independent commission to investigate Russia's attempts to interfere in and influence the 2016 elections, and to find a solution to prevent this from happening in the future. On January 10, 2017, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi selected Congressman Heck to serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.


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Zelenske, Sommer Owner
Capital Construction Services specializes in HardiePlank Siding, energy efficient replacement vinyl windows, decks, patio covers, screen rooms and bathrooms. We cover Austin to Dallas and the following surrounding towns: Austin, Georgetown, Cedar Park, Round Rock. Pflugerville, Belton, Taylor, Salado,
Cabinet Lady
The firm outgrew the original 3000-square-foot building after two short years, and outgrew its 2nd building a several years after that. In early 1994, Custom Cupboards built its present location at 3738 S. Norman, with over 200, 000 square feet and adjacent land for future planned expansions. There were
Change Development
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Celebrity/Senator Florence Ita Giwa turned 68 on Wednesday February 19th and friends, business partners and family gathered to celebrate her at the Pent House of the Eko Hotel in Lagos. Guests at the party included Ben Murray Bruce, Timi Alaibe, John Obayuwana, Chief Mrs Abbah Folawiyo, Monalisa Chinda, 2face Idibia, Ruth Osime, Fred Amata, Ene Maya, Ramsey Noah and many others. The roll call of guests that were present shows that The senator is a fan of the Nigerian entertainment sector.
More Photos Below:


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Art Gross is the CEO and co-founder of Secure Now! and an MSP called, Entegration Inc., founded in 2000 with a strong focus on healthcare clients. He is an Information Technology professional and entrepreneur who showcases a strong aptitude of technical, business, communication and leadership qualities.
Secure Now! provides security services to small and midsize businesses (SMBs). Secure Now! offers an unique combination of employee training, security assessments, policies and procedures - combined with financial protection and breach response services makes us a leader in the SMB security market. Their products, HIPAA Secure Now! and Breach Secure Now! help SMBs across multiple industries protect sensitive information and minimize the chance of data breaches.
In an age where businesses are moving their data from in-house servers to the cloud...
The complexity of how to appropriately care for that data is beginning to disappear. Although that may not sound like a bad problem to have for those organizations making the move, MSPs who were once extremely sought after to protect those businesses are starting to become a commodity. With so many MSPs out there and a diminishing number of prospects who see the value and need for their service, how do you ensure that your MSP is chosen to provide service to a potential client over the countless others competing for business?
Let's face it, MSPs are being judged on price. You can offer your services for what you feel to be a great deal, but if Joe's IT down the street is offering the same service for $10 cheaper per hour or $3 cheaper per employee per month, then Joe's IT is getting the contract.
Beat Commoditization Through Differentiation
It's not easy to acquire new clients or keep the clients you do have when you're competing with other MSPs solely based on price. To be successful in the cloud-era and beyond, MSPs must differentiate themselves from their competitors, but how? The answer is through security.
To differentiate your MSP from Joe's IT, you need to sell something that Joe isn't selling! Why not make security your differentiator?
The Cloud Doesn't Affect the Need for Security
Whether your client or prospect has their data stored locally on a server or sitting in the cloud, the need for security is present – and it's not going away!
Let's look at email security, for example. Regardless if emails are hosted on an email server or in Office 365, all employees should still be using strong passwords. The need for healthy password practices doesn't go away because the emails are stored in the cloud.
Security – the Tool to Grow Your Business
To differentiate your business, you need to prove that there is a need for what're you're selling. Unfortunately, many SMBs don't believe they need security because "breaches only happen to big corporations." False. According to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 58% of malware attack victims are categorized as small businesses.
To grow your business by using security as your differentiator, you need to prove to SMBs that security is their concern. Giving them statistics on data breaches happening to small businesses may scare them but proving to them that security is their concern is what will really get their attention.
Show SMBs Why They Need to Worry
Using the right tools, you can show a client or prospect what could potentially happen to their organization if an employee makes a mistake. Do this by running a Dark Web scan or a Simulated-Phishing attack. Show the SMB which of their employees have already been involved in a data breach and what information was compromised in that breach to help them get a better understanding of what risk that employee poses to their organization. Similarly, by running a Simulated-Phishing attack, you can show your client or prospect which of their employees took the bait and could have put their company at major risk of falling victim to an attack such as ransomware.
By using these types of tools, you are quantifying the risks to an SMB and proving they exist!
Every MSP is going to be speaking to potential clients about the services they provide. For you to stick out in a competition driven by prices, you must provide more value to your clients or prospects than your competitors.
By differentiating your MSP with security, you can sell a higher level of service than your competition and thus, grow your business the way you intended to. But remember, SMBs aren't likely to see the risk unless you SHOW them. Use the right prospecting tools to turn your MSP into the obvious choice.
Written by:
Art Gross, President & CEO, Secure Now!
Want to learn more? View the Passportal & Secure Now! Educational Webinar


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Our Strength is Measured in Relationships
Although we measure products sold and solutions structured for clients, these considerations are secondary to relationships we enjoy with our farmers, suppliers, and customers. Building strong relationships is the key indicator of our success. We believe in relationships where fair value is received by both parties; we believe in delivering winning-solutions that help our customers succeed; and we believe that today's transaction is secondary to our long-term dealings. Each day, we evaluate our effectiveness by the degree to which we deepened and strengthened a relationship.


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Are You Ready for Bank Earnings? NYSE Trader on What to Expect
Are you ready for earnings season?
The banks will kick it all off.
Citibank (C) - Get Report is set to announce earnings Monday, Jan. 14. Walls Fargo (WFC) - Get Report and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) - Get Report are announcing Tuesday, Jan. 15. Both Morgan Stanley (MS) - Get Report and Goldman Sachs (GS) - Get Report will be announcing later in the week.
Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, discussed the banking sector with TheStreet.
"You know historically over time earnings season has offered a bit of buoy for our markets. Kind of helps move it higher as it's moving higher when the markets have been selling off it kind of changes and reverses that type of movement there. I think bank earnings you know overall can help our markets. I just don't think they're going to be as strong as we've been expecting," said Corpina. "Interest rate conversations we continue with that you know mortgage, mortgage lending, small businesses. This whole big this whole big pot out there I think it's just been a difficult scenario for the financials and also moving forward, unknown about how tariffs are going to affect everybody. What's going to happen with the government shut down? There's so many unknowns out there that I think every sector out there can be affected by it."
Watch the full interview with Corpina here.
JP Morgan, Citibank and Goldman Sachs are all holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts Plus Portfolio.


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Pertaining to your activity, will you have to select the right type of stroller?
27/08/2015 10:22
The best present you can give to a friend who has a newborn can be a stroller. When you actually purchase one, you will have to become familiar with more about the friend's activities. Will she venture out more often such as visiting the supermarket daily, visiting the shopping malls window shopping, health conscious and has always been jogging before she conceived the child, etc. Push strollers are created and accessorised to satisfy various action needs. Consequently, after assessing your friend's schedule, you can gift a stroller that would be BestForParents.
Modern moms usually do not stay home for very long after the baby comes along but prefer shifting outdoors, taking the baby along in a baby stroller. Babies may of course not need the stroller for many years but only right up until they are Four years old. You would like to see that you've obtained highest benefits using the stroller which is put to the best of utilize while it lasts. Parents who'd love to run or hike and would not like to depart their baby back home however would like the infant to be a a part of their physical exercise should go set for a sprinting stroller. These strollers will always be favourites along with health-conscious parents and therefore jogging push strollers are known to be BestForParents.
There are about 6 types of push strollers that you may term as basic baby strollers. They are the standard-size push strollers, car seat child stroller frames, vacation system conventional strollers, lightweight strollers, jogging strollers and double, multiple strollers. The stroller that suits your baby and you would be the one to be looked at to be BestForParents stroller. Make sure the stroller you select offers ahandle that is at your waist level. Check if the handle can be adjusted to make it comfortable for you to press. It is vital you're taking a trial demonstration stroller outside. By doing so, you'll able to determine whether the stroller is suitable, and it will enable you to make the right option from the many strollers at the store.
To get more information through bestforparents.com.


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The Corps Conversation
Voices of Mile High Youth Corps
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World Gift Market
2019 World Gift Market:
Saturday, November 23, 9:00A – 4:00P
Sunday, November 24, 9:00A – 2:00P
Shopping at this annual event encourages purposeful giving by supporting artisans in extreme poverty around the world and many non-profit organizations in Denver. When purchasing gifts, consider being part of the global solution. Choose unique fair-trade and eco-friendly gifts that let you give twice.
Held each year the weekend before Thanksgiving, you won't want to miss this event! Sign up on our email list and we will remind you once in October and once in November – that's it! Your information is only used to send you reminders and updates of upcoming events. Shop responsibly year-round from the list of vendor websites below. You can also find us on Facebook. For more information please email the World Gift Market team.
Volunteer for a shift to help make our vendors feel welcome!
Continue your meaningful gift giving year-round by contacting World Gift Market Vendors via their websites:
2018 World Gift Market Vendors
2017 World Gift Market Vendors
2016 World Gift Market Vendors


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Alternatively, you can prepare your windshield repair by calling A.S.A.P. Simply tell us your location and automobile details, and you may receive an instant windshield repair quote with the option to have the work performed at a location of your preference. Whether you decide to drop off your automobile at one of our auto glass shop locations, or have our windshield repair technicians come to you, your auto glass repairs are guaranteed for as long as you own your automobile.
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If you want to automate the provisioning of your infrastructure in AWS you would use CloudFormation. You can code some or even all your infrastructure with the use of the CloudFormation template language, which is written in YAML or JSON. JSON and more so YAML are very human-readable, providing a way to document your Infrastructure as well. The disadvantage of JSON and YAML is that it lacks the abstraction and reuse of a general-purpose languages, such as C#, GO, PowerShell and such like. Many times, a few lines of code in one of these languages can much more in JSON or YAML!
Amazon have seemed to notice this, and with the emergence of Pulumi, have developed the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). The advantage to the CDK for AWS customers is that it's an open source project, so no further cost.
The AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) is a software framework allowing you to use a general-purpose language to write code which is then provisioned through CloudFormation. As of the release of version 0.33.0, you can use five different general-purpose languages in the CDK. They are TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, Python and the one I'll be demoing, C#.
I won't be going into details on how to get started with setting up your environment to use the CDK with the language of your choice as AWS do a pretty good job themselves, which is detailed here Getting Started With the AWS CDK.
I'm going to talk through creating an app, initializing, compiling and deploying. The App I will be demoing will create an S3 bucket, which will be versioned, named and encrypted. Also, I'll be adding a life cycle rule to expire any content within 30 days.
There are three parts to consider when using the CDK, they are Constructs, Stacks and Apps. Everything in the AWS CDK is a construct. A Construct is an AWS cloud component which we will use to create something, in this case an S3 bucket. The stack is your root construct. It will contain the constructs you have used to define your AWS environment. The main artifact of the CDK is the App, which is the wrapper to deploy your stack or stacks.
Getting started requires you to create a new folder and initialize empty Git repository. Once done, create the app by using the AWS Cloud Development Kit command line calling the command
cdk init --language csharp.
The main two files I will be working with is of course the program.cs and our own stack cs file. Compiling the app is done with .NET core's dotnet command line. Worth pointing out as well, this demo is performed using .NET Core 3 Preview 5.
Before defining the Program.cs file, lets create our stack. I'm going to show the completed MyStack.cs file and break down the main areas.
- The C# using directive is adding the namespace required to make use of the required constructs to build your environment. The AWS CDK has many namespaces available and are detailed here CDK .NET Reference. To add a namespace, the dotnet command line is used. This is done like so,
dotnet add package amazon.CDK.AWS.S3.
- Creating your own stack is done by inheriting the Stack class. In this example I've created the derived class called MyStack.
The stack constructor signature we have inherited with our derived class, MyStack, has three main parameters, which you will notice on all constructs:
scope - Parent of this stack, usually a Program instance.
name - The name of the CloudFormation stack.
props - Stack properties.
These are populated when we initialise our MyStack class, which we will come to.
- Bucket is also a construct which is a part of the amazon.cdk.aws.s3 namespace. The bucket construct is a child of the stack. MyFirstBucket is an id of the bucket construct. The bucket props class (BucketProps) gives us the option to name the bucket (line 17). For this bucket I've enabled versioning and encryption.
- Declaration of a Life cycle rule happens on line 21, in which the properties of Id (naming of the rule) and ExpirationInDays are defined.
- The method on the bucket class, AddLifecycleRule, is called to add our life cycle rule previously created in step 5.
Now that we have MyStack.cs file, we can setup the program.cs. Here is how it's done:
- A new object is created from the App class. This line of code already exists when creating a new project with the
cdk initcommand. This is a representation of a CDK program.
- We are now using the MyStack class we wrote to create our bucket. The StackProps class is used to allow us to define the AWS account Id and the region where the bucket will be created. By making use of the StackProps class in this way by setting up a new environment allows us to create buckets across multiple accounts and regions.
- Lastly, the run method is called to invoke the process of building our bucket.
To pull all of this together we are required to build the project and all of its dependencies. This is done by running the dotnet build command from the directory of our Csharp files, program.cs and MyStack.cs:
We now have a Build succeeded, so let's deploy our app!
Running from the root folder, run the
cdk deploy command:
The above screen gives us the details on the deployment and the steps. Notice that as well as the bucket being created, we have a CloudFormation stack also created. Checking from within the console, I can see that our work was successful:
The two arrows are pointing at the bucket name and the custom Lifecycle rule we attached.
Viewing the CloudFormation template that our code created can be done through the CDK command line by typing in
cdk synth:
I hope this article has shown the great potential in the AWS CDK. The documentation by AWS has greatly improved, with the CDK reference the standout. There is so much more you can do with the CDK, even down to creating your own constructs. So, take a look and get building!
Should you wish to try out this demo yourself, the code shown is up on my GitHub account. GitHub Link to project


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12 March 2018
Energy & Natural Resources Norway
Approval of petroleum licence transfers
An increased number of corporate transactions and mergers have been observed in the oil and gas sector on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in recent years. Several oil majors and traditional utilities and downstream companies have reduced their presence and, to some extent, been replaced by smaller companies, including start-ups backed by private equity. Broad portfolio sales and swaps of NCS licences, as well as transfers of licences as part of international deals, have also become increasingly common. These changes in trends are highly relevant for the Norwegian government, which aims to maintain a high level of activity on the NCS and thus must keep attracting and retaining strong and competent industrial players. The key ways in which the government maintains the high performance standards of petroleum activity on the NCS are by selectively awarding petroleum rights and controlling petroleum licence transfers.
This update looks at the applicable law and the government's practice regarding the approval of petroleum rights transfers, as well as the latest regulatory amendments and initiatives.
Approval of petroleum licence transfers
Approval requirement
Under Section 10-12(1) of the Petroleum Act (Act 72/1996), the transfer of a petroleum licence (or a participating interest in such a licence)(2) cannot occur without the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy's approval. The approval requirement applies to all types of petroleum licence transfer – irrespective of the amount or type of consideration (including swaps) or the title, structure or type of agreement – as long as it results in a transfer of any participating interest in the licence. The approval requirement applies to all types of petroleum licence, but transfers of production licences are the most common.(3) Without the ministry's approval, a licence transfer is not legally effective (contractually or otherwise) and the intended transferee does not become a licensee.
The approval requirement also applies to transfers of an indirectly held interest or participation in a licence (eg, the transfer of ownership of a licensee company). This update focuses on the rules and approval practice relating to such transfers.
Approval threshold for indirect transfers of production licences
Paragraph 1 of Section 10-12 of the Petroleum Act states that the approval requirement also applies to:
"other direct or indirect transfer of interest or participation in a petroleum licence, including, inter alia, assignment of shareholdings and other ownership shares which may provide decisive control of a licensee possessing a participating interest in a licence."
Such transfers of indirectly held or controlled petroleum rights are regularly referred to as 'indirect transfers'. The threshold for the ministry approval requirement in such transfers is thus whether the agreement in question results in the transferee obtaining "decisive control of a licensee". The rationale behind the provision is the government's objective of having full insight into and control over which parties are licensees and which parties control them.
Most NCS licensees are Norwegian private limited companies. For transfers involving such companies, the ministry applies the Public Limited Company Act to determine the levels of control. According to the act, an entity holding or controlling more than 50% of the shares or a shareholding representing a majority of voting rights in the company has what is referred to as 'positive control'. A transfer resulting in a change of positive control of the licensee will always constitute 'decisive control' pursuant to Section 10-12 of the Petroleum Act. However, the preparatory works to Section 10-12(4) and the ministry's May 19 1998 guidance letter determine that the term 'decisive control' will also include what is referred to as 'negative control'. Under the Public Limited Company Act, negative control of a private limited company is achieved by holding shares or controlling shareholdings representing more than one-third of the voting rights. If the licensee is not a private limited company, the ministry will consider the control thresholds based on the relevant governing rules applicable to such legal entity.
Indirect control of a petroleum licence may also be established through multiple companies in a group or corporation – for example, by ownership or control of:
Consequently, transfers of ownership interests in or control of a licensee's parent company or one or more companies controlling the licensee will frequently require ministry approval. Where a legal entity subject to a transfer is registered in a foreign jurisdiction, the assessment of whether such transfer will result in a change of control must be determined according to the applicable corporate law of said foreign jurisdiction.
The approval requirement is not limited to transfers of shareholder or ownership rights, but may also apply to transfers of individual rights in the licensee or controlling company in question (eg, special voting or veto rights). The approval requirement further applies to transfers resulting in a change to the level of control (eg, from negative to positive control). It will also apply to transfers with no immediate direct effect if circumstances show that the transfer is part of a strategy to achieve or increase the level of control of the licensee over time.
The ministry has traditionally been strict in applying the approval requirement in cases of indirect transfers to ensure complete transparency and control of which parties own and control the licences on the NCS. However, the ministry seldom commences a transfer approval procedure on its own initiative. As such, parties to a transfer agreement must consider the effect of the transfer and apply for necessary ministry approval pursuant to Section 10-12.
Approval assessment of indirect transfers of production licences
Ministry's mandate
The ministry has substantial administrative discretion with regard to approving transfers. In cases where the ministry has grounds to decline a transfer it may, at its discretion, approve the transfer subject to conditions. The requirement for approving a transfer is based on and closely related to the government's prerogative of awarding petroleum licences. The awarding of a petroleum licence is an administrative act (ie, a concession) by the government conferring an exclusive right to a specific legal person based on an individual assessment of qualifications and other specific factors. Thus, such awarded rights cannot be transferred to another party without the awarding party's approval. Further, the ministry's general objective of achieving efficient resource management of Norwegian petroleum resources is largely met through the selection of the right industry players. The assessment and decision of whether such objectives are achieved or influenced by an individual transfer is well within the ministry's mandate.
However, the ministry will always consider an application for the approval of a transfer based on the individual merits of the case and general administrative law principles (eg, predictability, transparency, accountability and reasonable treatment) apply to the procedure. The ministry's decision may be appealed to the Council of Ministers and ultimately, with some limitations, be subject to judicial review. Further, the assessment and decision must be reasonable, based on law and conducted in a non-discriminatory manner, as reflected in Section 3-5 of the Petroleum Act and Section 10 of the Petroleum Regulations.(5) Prior administrative practice sets out a system of precedents affecting future assessments with similar merits. Arguably, the ministry's strict practice regarding what constitutes reasons for approval is not reflected in its actual practice of approval. As far as is known, few indirect transfers have been denied over the years.
A fundamental characteristic of the Norwegian petroleum regulatory model is that production licences are almost always awarded to a group of licensees, which are compelled to form a joint venture governed by the standard mandatory petroleum agreement.(6) The petroleum agreement is prepared by the ministry and is not negotiated. The entering into of this agreement is a condition for the licence award and the agreement can be amended only with the ministry's approval. The key objective of awarding licences to groups of companies is to ensure that activity is conducted and decisions are made based on the sum of the participants' experience, capacity and competence. This is also reflected in the voting rules of the licence joint venture, which are stipulated by the authorities, and provides relatively strong protection for minority rights. The legal regime requires non-operating participants to take a more active role in decision making than in other petroleum provinces. This also has a bearing on the authorities' assessment of transfers, as transferees will normally be subject to more detailed scrutiny than is common for such transfers internationally.
Scope of ministry's assessment
According to Section 72 of the Petroleum Regulations, the specific conditions for an award of petroleum rights(7) will apply mutatis mutandis in the assessment of a transferee. This interpretation guidance is even more important when assessing a transferee in case of indirect transfers. The provision indicates that an overall assessment must be made in such cases, including with regard to the resource management objectives described in Section 1-2 of the Petroleum Act.(8)
For indirect transfers, the ministry's assessment will comprise not only the licensee and the transferee, but also the corporation or group of which the licensee will become a part. The robustness of the organisation and technical competence of the licensee being transferred will also affect the extent of the assessment of the transferee and its group and the impact of the findings of such assessment.
A licensee is often controlled by a company holding a majority ownership position in the licensee through one or more subsidiaries. In awarding licences, and when considering approvals of transfers, the ministry may consider and assess all relevant companies in the corporation up to and including the ultimate parent company. However, minority owners of an ultimate parent and shareholders of a parent company listed on a stock exchange will not be individually assessed unless special circumstances warrant.(9) Where a licensed company is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by a group or investment agreement structure which is not a legal person, such as equity funds or a similar legal structure, the ministry will consider the licensee's ownership structure and financial means, but not assess the individual participant in the investment set-up.
Technical competence, experience and capacity
Sections 10 and 11 of the Petroleum Regulations detail the main criteria for awarding production licences and approval of direct and indirect transfer of licences. Sections 10 and 11 were amended with effect from June 26 2017,(10) but the main assessment criteria reflected in Paragraph 1 of Section 10, which reads as follows, were not amended in substance:
"In the interest of furthering the best possible resource management, production licences are granted on the basis of the applicant's technical competence, financial capacity and the plan for exploration and production in the area for which a production licence is sought."
The competence, capacity and experience of the transferee and its group is of interest to the ministry when considering a transfer. It is considered normal and accepted that a licensee is subject to its parent company's decisions relating to matters of importance, such as exploration campaigns and development. Further, most licensees are subsidiaries dependent on their parent company's funding.
Although the authorities may accept that a licensee draws on the competence and experience of its corporate siblings, the licensee company must have the necessary delegated authority and available capacity in place with regard to all relevant functions to fulfil its obligations under the law and as party to the licence joint venture under the petroleum agreement.
The transferee and its group – together with the licensee – must, at a minimum, fulfil the requirement of the pre-qualification procedure for licensees. Additional requirements may apply where particular circumstances warrant it (eg, for the transfer of licensees which hold licences in particularly demanding areas, have large and complex work obligations or conduct complex or large developments or production activities). The ministry will evaluate:
The assessment of the transferee group also depends substantially on the licensee's capacities.
With indirect transfers resulting in less than positive control of the licensee, the comprehensiveness of the assessment of the transferee will be adjusted accordingly. In such situations, the capability and capacity of the company holding positive control of the licensee will be highly relevant for the approval process.
Applicant's record
When considering an award of licences, the ministry may, under Section 10 of the Petroleum Regulations, consider "any form of inadequate efficiency or inadequate responsibility that may have been demonstrated by the applicant as a licensee".
This provision also applies to approvals of indirect transfers of licences (Section 72 of the Petroleum Regulations). The provision focuses on the technical competence and experience requirement, but also includes relevant actions or omissions by the applicant (whether wilful or not). The ministry may decline an award or a transfer to a company which, for example, has insufficiently fulfilled its health and safety obligations in the past or shown other forms of inadequate responsibility. It is unclear whether the ministry may also consider an applicant or a transferee's record outside the NCS, given that the provision refers to such actions "as a licensee". Arguably, the generality of the wording and the rationale behind the provision indicate that relevant actions or inactions outside the NCS may be considered. Further, previous conduct of any part of the transferee's group or corporation relevant to the transfer approval decision may be considered in such an assessment.
Financial strength and security
A licensee's financial strength is a key element in the ministry's assessment – for both the award of licences and the approval of transfers. When the licensee is a local subsidiary of a corporation or group, the financial strength of its parent company and the corporation or group form part of the assessment. If the ministry considers that the transfer may result in the licensee's reduced financial strength, it may decline to approve the transfer or approve it on the condition of additional security being provided by the licensee or its parent.
Pursuant to Section 10-7 of the Petroleum Act, the ministry may, as a condition for award and at a later date, "decide that the licensee shall provide such security as approved by the Ministry for fulfilment of the obligations, which the licensee has undertaken, as well as for possible liability in connection with the petroleum activities".
The ministry may choose any type of security instrument or requirement as long as it is relevant, proportional and adequate for the purpose. The ministry will regularly oblige any licensee that has a parent company to provide an unlimited parent company guarantee (PCG) from its ultimate parent company. Such PCG must conform to the standard mandatory PCG (the general PCG) prepared by the ministry in Norwegian.
The ministry's practice on what constitutes a 'parent company' for PCG purposes is based on the determination of which company holds positive control of the licensee if assessed according to Norwegian law. Thus, a company is regarded as a parent company if it holds or controls, directly or through subsidiaries:
If an approved transfer results in a change of control over the licensee, the existing general PCG will be returned to the former parent and the new ultimate parent company will be required to issue to the ministry a similar general PCG based on the standard model. If a transfer does not result in a change of positive control over the licensee in question, the existing parent company will be liable for 100% of the licensee's obligations under the existing general PCG. If the licensee has no parent company or a corporate transaction results in no one owner having positive control over the licensee, no mandatory general PCG will be required and previously issued PCGs will be returned.
Some licensees on the NCS are owned or controlled by private equity funds or similar financial investor structures not constituting a legal person. In such cases, the ministry has accepted that the holding company owned or controlled by such fund, directly or indirectly controlling the licensee company, issues the general PCG.
Where the ultimate parent company is a fully state-owned company, there might be constitutional limitations to the company's ability to present a guarantee. The ministry has in some such cases accepted that the general PCG is presented by a parent company at a lower level than the ultimate parent company.
In its assessment of indirect transfers, the ministry will consider whether and to what extent the transfer may result in a reduction or lapse of the PCG security. If an indirect transfer results in a security reduction, the ministry may:
By law, the ministry has considerable discretionary power in individual cases with regard to determining what constitutes 'sufficient security'. The assessment must consider:
Thus, any reduction in security does not necessarily allow the ministry to decline or impose conditions for an approval. Nonetheless, in most cases, the general and substantial obligations and potential liability relating to petroleum activities will give the government grounds to require substantial security. Decisions on this matter will always closely relate to the facts of each case, such as the nature, level and complexity of activities covered by the licences and future licence obligations. However, practice indicates that the ministry will generally require as much relevant security as is available for the transferee from its group or corporation (through parent guarantee), but only require additional third-party guarantees where special circumstances warrant it.
National security
In the June 26 2017 amendment to the Petroleum Regulations, a new fourth paragraph relating to a national security interest was included in Section 10. The provision states that "the Ministry may refuse on grounds of national security to allow access to and exercise of petroleum activities if the applicant or licensee is controlled by a state outside the EEA or by nationals of such nation state" (unofficial translation).
A rule with similar content is included in Article 2.2 of the EU Licensing Directive (94/22/EC).(11) However, the directive's provisions were not introduced through a separate provision in the amended Petroleum Act 1985 as part of the European Economic Area (EEA) legislative implementation process. According to the preparatory works,(12) the rationale for introducing this provision at the later date was that most EEA members have implemented this rule through their national regulations.
National security is a core concern for any state and the relevance of national security is already included in Section 11 of the Petroleum Regulations with regard to decisions on licence awards or transfer approvals. The ministry also states that the new provision merely specifies an issue that might otherwise be included as a relevant component in the judicial assessment pursuant to the general principles set out in Section 3-5 of the Petroleum Act and the appurtenant Petroleum Regulations provisions. The question is therefore whether this provision entails anything new.
The wording of the new provision and the preparatory work does not clarify or provide guidance as to what type of national security reason may be considered or result in a refusal of transfer. Further, no available administrative practice concerns the provision. What constitutes 'national security' must be based on Norwegian law. Relevant national legislation other than petroleum law may be used to guide the interpretation and application of the term. EU law and practice relating to the EU Licensing Directive's provision may provide further guidance, as amendments to Norwegian law in this respect were intended to make Norwegian law EEA compliant. The wording "reasons of national security" indicates a high threshold before the provision may be invoked. Certainly, something more than what will follow from the general expression of 'national interests' is required. Thus, the assessment must be based on established national security objectives.
If the ministry refused an award or a transfer application on national security grounds, it would, under general administrative law, have to give grounds for its decision. At a minimum, the government would have to describe the nature of the national security interest or objectives and arguments for the relevant award or transfer involving a threat or risk of threat to such interests or objectives. That said, Norwegian law and the courts generally give the government wide administrative discretionary powers in individual cases and are unlikely to overrule its assessment of whether national security reasons exist and whether an award or transfer may be refused on such grounds.
The provision's wording indicates that the national security consideration may be different in cases where non-EEA states or nationals are involved. Even though it could be argued that national security issues may arise more frequently in individual cases where, for example, non-North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or non-Western companies or states are involved, it is difficult to see how and why this should apply in general. Further, Norway's obligations as a World Trade Organisation member and as party to several bilateral investment treaties may also limit the government's ability to apply the rule differently to non-EEA states or nationals.
Irrespective of how the new provision may be interpreted, its inclusion may indicate a heightening of the government's awareness of such challenges. This is underscored by:
Security requirement for secondary decommissioning liability
In 2009 Section 5-3 of the Petroleum Act was amended to establish secondary liability for sellers of petroleum licences in relation to future decommissioning costs. This mandatory secondary liability covers the direct transfer of petroleum licences or a participating interest in such licences, but does not apply to the transfer of a company holding petroleum licences.
In a November 8 2016 letter to the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, the ministry widened the scope of secondary liability for future decommissioning costs, stating that:
"The ministry will in its assessment of all future transfers of licensee companies with licence field(s) in operation on the NCS, consider stipulating conditions of secondary liability for the parent company for relevant cost of carrying out future decisions on decommissioning." (Advokatfirmaet Simonsen Vogt Wiig AS translation.)
The ministry has also developed a model parent company guarantee document to be issued by the transferor in a corporate transfer. The guarantee establishes a financial security for the licensee's future decommissioning obligations regarding facilities existing in the relevant production licences at the time of the transfer (for further details please see "Parent company guarantee requirement for future decommissioning cost in corporate transfers on NCS").
The government's general objective is achieving a high level of activity in all phases of petroleum activity on the NCS, while at the same time ensuring safe and efficient operations with a long-term perspective. To achieve this aim, the government, as resource owner, traditionally chose large, highly competent international oil companies. Most of these companies had a 'full-cycle' approach to the activity and a long-term perspective more similar to that of the state as resource owner. With a maturing province, and the subsequent exit of oil majors, the government has accepted other types of player on the NCS in order to maintain the activity level. Many of these new players lack the financial strength, technical competence and experience, project implementation capability and long-term activity and investment perspective which characterised the traditional players. Thus, in this new environment, the government must use regulatory and administrative means to a larger extent than before to ensure that the industry activity corresponds to its objectives as resource owner.
The ministry's latest initiative concerning the secondary liability for future decommissioning costs must be viewed from this perspective. This attempt to limit the risk of the substantial future decommissioning cost on the NCS falling out of cover is thus unsurprising. Further, the Petroleum Regulations amendments concerning non-EEA investors may be viewed as a signal of a more stringent practice relating to transfers of both negative and positive controlling interest in licensees on the NCS. The clarification of the regulations regarding the use of awarding requirements also in relation to the approval of transfers points in the same direction.
For further information on this topic please contact Frode Vareberg at Advokatfirmaet Simonsen Vogt Wiig AS by telephone (+47 21 95 55 00) or email (email@example.com). The Advokatfirmaet Simonsen Vogt Wiig AS website can be accessed at www.svw.no.
(1) An unofficial translation of Paragraph 1 of Section 10-12 reads as follows:
"Transfer of a licence or participating interest in a licence for petroleum activities may not take place without the approval of the Ministry. The same applies to other direct or indirect transfer of interest or participation in the licence, including, inter alia, assignment of shareholdings and other ownership shares which may provide decisive control of a licensee possessing a participating interest in a licence."
(2) Few production licences on the NCS are held by one licensee – thus, the practical situation is transfers of participating interests in such licences.
(3) Production licences are awarded pursuant to Section 3-3 of the Petroleum Act, while licences for the installation and operation of facilities (typically pipelines) are awarded pursuant to Section 4-3. Transfers are impractical for exploration licences (Section 3-1), which are short-term, non-exclusive rights.
(4) In Norway, preparatory works, such as comments on bills, are considered a source of interpretation.
(5) Regulations to the Petroleum Act (FOR 1997-06-14-653), as amended.
(6) This agreement consists of the Special Provisions and two annexes: the Joint Operating Agreement and the Accounting Agreement.
(7) In particular, Sections 8, 10, 11, 28 and 29.
(8) Section 1-2 of the Petroleum Act reads as follows:
"Resource management of petroleum resources shall be carried out in a long-term perspective for the benefit of the Norwegian society as a whole. In this regard the resource management shall provide revenues to the country and shall contribute to ensuring welfare, employment and an improved environment, as well as to the strengthening of Norwegian trade and industry and industrial development, and at the same time take due regard to regional and local policy considerations and other activities."
(9) However, these parties may be individually assessed if a mandatory UN sanction against financial interests is imposed.
(10) E26.06.2017 nr 980 – Regulation on the Amendment of the Regulations to the Petroleum Act.
(11) Article 2.2 of the EU Licensing Directive (94/22/EC) reads as follows:
"Whenever an area is made available for the exercise of the activities set out in paragraph 1, Member States shall ensure that there is no discrimination between entities as regards access to and exercise of these activities. However, Member States may refuse, on grounds of national security, to allow access to and exercise of these activities to any entity which is effectively controlled by third countries or third country nationals."
(12) See www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/horing---endringer-i-forskrift-27.-juni-1997-nr.-653-til-lov-om-petroleumsvirksomhet-petroleumsforskriften/id2551647.
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Frode Vareberg


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