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New Features Available in FotoWare On-premise
November 8, 2018
The latest update of FotoWare on-premise adds features already seen in the SaaS offering, as well as a couple of new and exciting features that have been long awaited for on-premise customers and are introduced for them first.
Image Annotations
Create annotations on pictures in your collections. Add descriptions to them, send colleagues permalinks to specific annotations you've made and let them comment on them. Make prints that include the annotations you've made. All these features are available in both FotoWare and FotoWare Pro. Learn more:
A way to present this to customers:
We want to make collaboration smart and social! By introducing:
- Commenting on individual files or a collection of files
- Collaboration with no limits – engage on files internally or with any 3rd parties
- Highlight and add comments to specific areas in an image or graphics
So what are annotations? On a chosen file you can draw, highlight, pin and comment to collaborate on media files in new ways! You can also share your comments as a permalink with other members on your team!
If you need to print or save the annotations to a PDF we've covered that, too!
All these features are available in both FotoWeb and FotoWeb Pro!
See how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=MZS9QQXWpd0
Improved video playback
An updated video player has been made available in this release, adding new features such as the ability to control playback speed, reverse playback, and skip frames. It's also possible to download still frames and more! Learn all about it:
Documentation for the main FotoWare user interface
Site Branding
The improved site branding capabilities recently offered to SaaS customers are now also made available to customers running FotoWare on premises.
So it's now a simple operation to brand the site with your corporate logo, favicon and home page banners without having to write a single line of code.
Group Management in SAML integrations
When integrating FotoWeb with ADFS using the SAML protocol, group membership in the Active Directory can now be relayed through the ADFS server so groups can be kept in sync on the FotoWeb server. An increasing number of customers are now taking this approach even on-premises, and allows FotoWeb to easily integrate even with complex Active Directory configurations. As the former Active Directory / LDAP integration has been deprecated, you will want to see how to set this up!
A way to present this to customers:
Why is SAML great for your team?
- Employees can access FotoWare Digital Asset Management using the same authentication system that you use for other SSO-compliant applications.
- Administrators can control who has access, enforce password policies and add multifactor authentication for an additional layer of security.
- You can easily assign archives and workflow permissions based on the groups in your Identity Provider – giving you a single place to manage groups.
- Whenever a user logs in with SAML Single-Sign-On (SSO), that user will be added to one or more linked groups based on information from the Identity Provider.
- It's quick to set up and easy to understand for users.
Management of users and groups straight from the FotoWeb interface
With this update, you can manage users and groups straight from the FotoWeb UI in a web browser. That means there's no longer a need to access the Operations Center to add users or create additional groups. How cool is that? The user management documentation has been updated to reflect this central change to how FotoWeb works.
For a quick introduction, see a video that explains how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY62umXpswE
New FotoWare Features Available
June 28, 2018
We're happy to announce that new features have been rolled out to all SaaS instances and will be released on-premise in the coming week. Localized versions will be available in the final public release.
Below is an overview of new features, their use case, and links to documentation.
Add Custom Links to the FotoWare Top Menu
Add links to your corporate intranet or other resources of your choice in the top menu. What's more, you can add dynamic user tags to links, so that logged-in users can pass user info when querying the third-party system.
Permalinks in FotoWeb Pro
You can now extract an asset's permalink in FotoWeb Pro in the asset info panel.
Improved website branding
Easily brand the site with your company logos. Now you can also add a custom logo for mobile apps that access your site!
Want to demonstrate how sleek it looks to a customer or a prospect – use this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i3nj8UJkWo&t=1s
Persistent login ("Remember me")
Administrators can now configure the system to allow users to stay permanently signed in. This way, users who log on to FotoWare can choose to stay signed in. A permanent cookie is set in their browser so that they're automatically logged in the next time they access the site.
Improvements to Terms and Conditions
When users log in or download content, they can now be required to approve site terms and conditions before proceeding. This is another tool that can be useful in your GDPR compliance. For full flexibility, terms can be displayed on every login and download, or only if they've changed since last.
[Terms and Conditions at Login] Documentation available here.
[Terms and Conditions at Download] Documentation available here.
Download quick renditions of individual document pages
Need an extract of a certain page in a document (Word, PowerPoint or PDF)? Now you can preview the document, skip to the correct page and request a quick rendition of it!
Improved Searching
With the FotoWare API, you can now search in multiple collections, for example, all archives to ensure all results are displayed. Moreover, a search result can cover the entire site with global searches, ensuring all your files are at your fingertips at any point.
OAuth 2.0 Authentication
OAuth 2.0 is now made available across the entire FotoWare suite and offers a standardized way of authorizing apps that integrate with FotoWare.
The Opportunities: The FotoWare RESTful API makes it possible for you to create unique custom integrations for your customers. With OAuth you can now authorize custom-made web or native applications for use with FotoWare, enabling you to scale your integration and customization offering. Through OAuth authorization and integration with authentication providers such as Azure AD, SAML and Windows Active Directory, the user login experience is streamlined and makes for a secure, future-proof solution.
We encourage migrating existing third-party integrations to OAuth 2.0 for improved user experience and security.
Adobe InDesign Plugin
The new Adobe InDesign Plugin, compatible with the latest version of Adobe InDesign, is now available to all SaaS instances. In the next couple of days, we will market this to existing customer via an email campaign. The Adobe plugin works the way you know it and offers improved features, including the possibility to link to the master asset rather than embedding it in the layout. We encourage you to go ahead and test it out and then pitch and offer it to your prospects and customers.
Enjoy these new FotoWare features!
Index Manager and Color Factory x64 Release
64-bit version of Index Manager and Color Factory are now available to upgrade!
Why 64-bit?
More files and indexes can be hosted on the same server allowing you to optimize hardware/costs.
Full support for Unicode file names and file paths in Index Manager.
Larger files! With the new 64-bits versions, huge documents, such as Gigabyte-sized TIFF or PSD files, can be processed.
Activation of an additional sync license for Index Manager to push metadata to MongoDB is no longer required.
Considerations when upgrading from a 32-bit to a 64-bit
Color Factory (build 800 and newer)
ODBC connections will need to be re-setup
Earlier (i.e. 32-bit) versions of Color Factory used 32-bit ODBC drivers to connect to databases. With a 64-bit version of Color Factory you need to reconfigure any system DSNs to use 64-bit drivers.
Index Manager (build 800 and newer)
Starting with Index Manager 8.0 build 800, the software is 64-bit. This document outlines important things to remember when planning the upgrade.
The new Index Manager's configuration is compatible with your existing configuration
However, indexes will be built from scratch and stored in a new location. In a system with many assets, this requires you to plan a service window to give the indexes time to build.
The old indexes will remain in their folders, making it possible to uninstall the 64-bit version and reinstall an earlier 32-bit one if such a need should arise.
Future versions of Index Manager will be 64-bit only, so you will need to make the migration at one point or other. Bug fixes and security improvements will not be offered for the outgoing 32-bit version.
Index Manager Enterprise x64 supports "license stacking"
This means that several Index Manager Enterprise licenses (up to 4) can be activated on the same server to increase the number of assets that can be indexed. A single server can index 3 million assets (same as before), but by adding additional Index Manager Enterprise licenses a single server can now support up to 12 million assets. This will naturally have a bearing on the server's hardware requirements, but it also means you may be able to host your entire archive on fewer servers than was possible in the past.
Consider hardware requirements
As the new Index Manager will build indexes from scratch the first time it starts, you should consider whether the drives where the index data is stored have sufficient available size. Memory requirements have also been adjusted – check the updated Index Manager system requirements for pointers.
How to remove old index data folders
After updating to a 64-bit version of Index Manager, the old index data folders that were created by the 32-bit version will still remain in the file system. These can be safely removed after the update to free disk space.
The following folders created by a 32-bit Index Manager can be safely removed after updating to a 64-bit version:
IM x86 …\Indexes\[Index Name]\IM_DATA\IM2_INDEX
IM x64 …\Indexes\[Index Name]\IM_DATA2\IM_INDEX
New FotoStation Client Update
A FotoStation Client update has been made available for FotoWare partners and can be obtained using
"Check for updates" in the FotoStation help menu.
FotoWeb Upload Sub Action
The FotoWeb Upload sub action enables you to upload assets to a FotoWeb server directly from within FotoStation.
In addition, when setting up the action you can select the destination archive and folder on the server. Metadata requirements are also honored, so if files lack required metadata, you will be required to fill it in before the upload begins, ensuring consistent information for your assets.
Uploads tracking is in place to allow you to resume failed or aborted uploads, whether to FotoWeb using HTTP or via FTP.
A new transfer state marker visualizes which files have been uploaded. This marker is enabled by default but can be disabled in the archive's marker setup.
Documentation on FotoWeb Upload sub action
Faster Printing from FWP Archives
We understand that printing pictures from an FWP archive can take some time because the high-res has to be downloaded to the local FotoStation.
In this update, you can choose to print only a lower-resolution preview version when printing pictures in an FWP archive for faster processing.
Updated print documentation
Updated Security Settings
FotoStation Client now offers more fine-grained control over metadata editors. You can now
1) prevent users from modifying and selecting metadata editors other than the one configured by the system admin, or
2) let users choose from the available metadata editors but not modify them.
Documentation on Limiting access to program features
Natural Sorting of Macros
Metadata macros are now sorted in a natural order in the list views.
- This update is made available to partners only, through Auto Update. This requires a partner NFR key.
- This will not yet be communicated and/or released to customers
- This release is only available in English. The public release will include complete localization.
- See the Release notes for a complete list of bug fixes and changes/improvements
FotoWeb Feature Release 11
The next Feature Release of FotoWeb 8.0 is now available for download!
Dec 21, 2017
Crop & Download
We have combined two popular tools and created a new tool that simplifies the crop and download experience. Select your files, click Crop & Download, create a crop frame and then download. You can create and share presets to make the user experience even more streamlined, similar to the export tool. The cropping will not be applied to the original file stored in FotoWeb.
This is useful in situations where a tight integration towards FotoWeb is not yet in place and users are required to download files from FotoWeb at a given size and upload them to e.g. a third party CMS while matching the size requirements defined in that system.
Crop in Action
We have made the cropping tool available in workflow actions as well. This means that the actions can be configured to allow pro users to perform a crop before an asset is sent to a destination (FTP, File System or email) without affecting the original file stored in FotoWeb.
A potential use case for this feature is in an editorial workflow where an image editor suggests a crop of a subject in images and sends them directly to layout. Layout will then receive the cropped images and can place the ready-processed images directly into an InDesign article.
Show your customers how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qtT9D_GQ7w
User identities in Actions
Actions can now be configured to send assets that include information about the user who executed the action. The information will be stored in the metadata of the processed files when enabling this option in the Operations Center. The original asset will not be affected.
FotoWeb users with permission to change site appearance will now be able to customize even more, directly from the main interface. These customizations include site logo, login logo, and CSS. The custom site logo will also be used in emails sent from FotoWeb. Also new is the possibility to change the page title that is shown when accessing FotoWeb in your browser.
Show your customers how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i3nj8UJkWo
Re-design of Pro user interface
The Pro user interface has been through a thorough facelift in Feature Release 11, and new improvements have been made for pro users. Changes include the following:
- Recent searches are available when clicking the search bar
- Expandable pin bar
- Icons in action list
- Cover image in album list
- Fullscreen preview with next/previous controls and metadata preview.
We have added the possibility to print assets directly from our user interfaces. The configured built-in fields such as Title, Description, and Tags will be present together with the preview when a single asset is printed. It is also possible to print an album which would print all thumbnails and their corresponding filename.
Other improvements
- Different encryption secrets per site
- Support for PIWIK analytics
- API for metadata view is now public
- New fields in base metadata configuration
– Field 425: Publisher (Dublin Core)
– Field 426: Format (Dublin Core)
– Field 427: Type (Dublin Core)
– Field 428: Expiry Date (Dublin Core Terms)
– Field 429: Access Rights (Dublin Core Terms)
– Field 430: Audience (Dublin Core Terms)
– Field 431: Product Name (IPTC Extension)
– Field 432: Genre / Concept (IPTC Extension)
Connect 8.0 Has been released
Dec 12, 2017
- Connect 8.0 fully supports file transfers to and from Index Manager FWP 2.0 Servers. This gives you increased flexibility with Index and Workflow servers locations, allowing them to reach each other across the internet. The transfers can now be done completely without access to file shares, and with greater reliability and consistency than FTP transfers.This allows Connect to become a strategic solution for your customers' transition to cloud. Using Connect, you can now start building workflows that moves files to the cloud, or migrates archives to FotoWare's SaaS offerings. This version of Connect will be fully compatible with our Managed Index Service, POOL, when we launch it.
New! Index Manager as channel destination
The FWP 2.0 powered Index Manager destination allows you to transfer files directly to Index Manager servers anywhere in the world.HTTP Only Index Manager source with FWP 2.0
The Index Manager source is now improved with support for HTTP only connections using FWP 2.0Support for older versions of Index Manager is still maintained, but will require access to the file shares as before.
Announcing FotoWare 8.0
Never has digital asset management offered this many features to increase the value of your assets.
Jul 06, 2015
FotoWeb 8.0 – IT'S REORGANIZED
A Complete and Easy-to-Use Digital Asset Management System with new powerful features:
- Responsive
New responsive and touch-sensitive interface
- Albums
Create and manage individual collections with the new album feature
- Taxonomy
Browse your assets with powerful taxonomy structures
- Collaboration tools
Interact and discuss specific assets or entire collections of files with online comments
- Actions & Markers
Execute Webhook posts to any web server with Actions and Markers
- CMS integration (optional)
Publish pictures directly from EpiServer, WordPress, eZ Publish and other CMS systems.
- Audio & Video module (optional)
Supports virtually all containers and codecs in any browser, with flexible download options.
FotoWeb 8.0 Pro – WORKFLOW REINVENTED
A powerful workflow client & advanced Digital Asset Management system:
- Batch mode
Work in batch mode when you transfer or process assets, edit metadata or approve content
- Automation tools
Automate and schedule powerful custom workflows, actions and metadata ingestion
- Markers
Identify special attributes and asset groups with visual labels
- Search and filter
Intuitive search, filter and sorting options turn selection processes into fun
- Drag and drop
Organize files by drag and drop to albums, actions, the selection panel or the pin bar
- BookmarksSave your search status as a bookmark – all used search words, filters and archive selections are saved
Announcing FotoWare 7.0 Service Release 6
Apr 12, 2012
An easier route to great pictures
With the new CMS Export module for FotoWeb, any picture in your FotoWare Digital Asset Management system can be used on your website or intranet solution. Size, crop and improve your pictures to really make them stand out. Revoke pictures manually or set a date when the pictures should be automatically revoked. Go ahead and make your website shine with great pictures!
FotoWeb HD for iPad
Access your assets from anywhere with FotoWeb HD for iPad! Search or browse archives, and view the contents of individual folders in archives. Check the quality of pictures with the image zoom. Make selections and share them on a FotoWeb Screen to review your picks with your colleagues. Rate and prioritize pictures and send them to other users or systems in seconds. Create several upload jobs, each with different metadata requirements.
New mobile UI
Use any mobile phone or tablet to search, browse and preview content in FotoWeb archives. Browse individual folders in an archive. Scroll infinitely through your assets without having to navigate between pages. Check image quality with the image zoom, display image metadata and use the map view to see where the pictures were taken. There are also several different grid layouts to choose from.Improved navigation
Infinite scrolling has been introduced in the FotoWeb Classic interface. This means you can scroll through your assets without having to navigate between pages. When you reach the bottom of the grid, new thumbnails will be loaded automatically to let you keep on scrolling. The grid page also automatically adjusts to your browser size. This navigation method is now available in all FotoWeb user interfaces!
FotoWeb for Android
FotoWeb for Android lets you search and browse archives on the FotoWeb DAM server, preview and zoom in on high-resolution pictures and read file metadata. Upload files from your phone and add metadata to them in the process.
Announcing FotoWare 7.0 Service Release 5
Jun 4, 2012
We are very excited to announce the release of the FotoWare suite version 7.0,Service Release 5. The update contains a number of new and exciting features, which we are confident that you as a professional will appreciate
New template set for public sites in FotoWeb
FotoWeb gets a completely new set of templates that are designed specifically for public use. The templates will give the users a completely new experience. For those who publish images or other data to inexperienced FotoWeb users, the new templates are easy to use and understand. The templates can be set up to search in many archives simultaneously, and the user can monitor the number of hits in each archive (Enterprise version only).
We have also introduced infinite scroll, making browsing through large archives or hits much easier than jumping from one page to another. The new public templates also work seamlessly on handheld devices like iPad and iPhone (Responsive Design), and the enhanced zoom tool also works on iOS devices.
Read more about the FotoWeb public template set
Improved workflow control in FotoWeb
FotoWeb now boasts a new workflow module that lets you edit metadata before delivering files to a destination. Required metadata fields can also be set and work similarly to FotoStation. We have also made it easy to add the same metadata to several files when running them through a workflow. The new workflow module is also substantially faster than the previous version.
Automatic geotagging in Color Factory
Pictures that are processed in a Color Factory channel can now automatically receive geodata (GPS based coordinates) based on the Country/City information found in the metadata. If the image already contains GPS coordinates, Color Factory will insert Country/City and exact location.
SSL Support
With SR5, IP communications between all FotoWare applications support encryption. This implies that client-server communication is transferred in encrypted form, and the same applies to communications between e.g. Index Manager and FotoWeb servers. Connect also supports secure connections to FotoWeb and Index Manager archives.
Finally, server configuration in the Operations Center can also be SSL-enabled to add security throughout the system.
Instant access to your media bank provided by new iPhone App and Adobe Extensions
May 26, 2011
In the upcoming Service Release 4 of version 7.0 FotoWare introduces new features and functions that will facilitate the access to, and workflow capabilities of your preferred FotoWare media bank, FotoWeb. The web based Digital Asset Management solution is reaching out to all relevant users of a DAM system, and makes it quick and easy to search and retrieve images and graphics, and place them straight into your document.
New iPhone App for instant access to pictures and media files
With FotoWare's new iPhone App media professionals can access their archives from anywhere with their iPhone. They can search and browse archives, and professionals out in the field can add metadata to new pictures, and upload to the FotoWare server. Users can get alerts on their iPhone when new pictures from any source arrive, – thus articles can be updated up to the very last minute before deadline.
New integration with Adobe Creative Suite
FotoWare's new Extension for Adobe CS5 makes it quick and easy for Graphical Designers to search and retrieve pictures and graphics from the FotoWare archive inside the user interface of Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Adding pictures and graphics to an InDesign document has never been quicker and easier than this! Finding the correct picture for enhancement in Photoshop, and the corresponding graphic in Illustrator for editing, is just as easy.
Just like the FotoWare plug-in for Microsoft Word and PowerPoint that was introduced in Service Release 3, the new Extensions provide access to the FotoWare media bank inside the native application. Users with login can therefore take advantage of FotoWare's powerful search technology and find the desired file without leaving the well-known Adobe user interface.
Fotoware release integration with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
Sep 16, 2010
FotoWare offers a very specialized and complete solution for storing, processing, retrieving and distributing digital media files, including audio, video and images. Microsoft has opened the possibility for other providers to supplement the Office suite with additional functionality.
- You no longer need to leave PowerPoint or Word when searching for visual elements to support your presentation!
- Search in any internal or external FotoWeb archive inside the PowerPoint and Word interface!
- Resize, crop and rotate the file when dropping into PowerPoint and Word!
- Save even more time by quickly adding your most used files to a list of favorites.
"Office applications allow users to process media files, but our solution is more specialized for this, more complete and provides much better workflow. We enrich the Office suite by giving FotoWare users a professional tool available via the toolbar. With one click they get a task panel where they can search and find media files in both internal media databases and external photo agencies," says Mr. Syversen.
FotoWare Release Version 7
Nov 23, 2009
FotoWare presents version 7.0 of the FotoWare product suite containing new groundbreaking and high speed opportunities.
In the re-designed FotoWeb 7.0 the new image processing engine enables on-the-fly image processing and delivery. When a user requests to download a file or order it using the shopping cart, preset profiles control file format and color space conversion, resampling (useful if you don't want to download a 300-megabyte TIF file), custom watermarking and application of unsharp mask.
The new FotoWeb Upload Tool allows you to select any number of files to upload using a standard system dialog box and send them all off in a single operation.
Connect 7.0 is the new file transfer automation server from FotoWare. It monitors multiple inputs and distributes files from local or network folders, FTP sites, FotoWeb servers, and email servers.
New in FotoWare 7
- Bringing FotoWeb up-to-speed
- Focusing on usability
- Dynamic user experience
- Consistent appearance and behaviour
- Fewer interfaces/screens (pages)
- Adding important features
Custom File Delivery & Download
Deliver custom files to each user
- Subset of functionality found in Color Factory
- Processes files on-demand
- Integrates with download and shopping cart
- Supports resizing, color conversion, sharpening, watermark, and file format conversion
- Integrates with Color Factory for more advanced processing
Improved FotoWeb Interface
All the user need – in one window
- Direct access all system tools applied directly on the file selected
- Lightbox for quick selection and processing of multiple files
- Quick navigation and browsing of system archives
- Direct and fast fowarding, transfer and workflow
Improved PDF Support
Native built in PDF Support
- Adobe Acrobat not required on the server for PDF support
- Faster indexing and preview generation
- High quality thumbnails and previews
- Previews of every page in a document
- On-demand generation of previews
- Color conversion of all PDF elements
Improved Speed & Flexibility
TCP/IP Socket connection to Index Manager
- Improves speed in "slow" networks
- High-resolution files can be write protected
- Eliminates dependency on SFM for non-image file formats
- All access is traceable (security)
- Retains access to the high-resolution file for integration with other applications
Workpads – Work Faster With Projects
An entirely new way of organizing files
- Users can keep multiple windows open
- Drag'n'drop from main window to add to project/workpad
- Layout of workspace is saved
- Can be printed, shown through FotoWeb
Projects – Designed for Collaboration
Projects compatible between Mac/Win/Web
- Infinite number of projects
- Easily search to find projects
- Projects can be published as "Events" in FotoWeb
- Color Factory won't purge files that are in a project
Improved Video Support
Flash (FLV) & Windows Media file format support
- Add metadata to video files
- See thumbnails and previews
- Play video files in clients
Dynamic End-User Oriented Interface
End-user customizable web interface
- End-users can define the layout of the thumbnail grid
- End-users can define the information to be displayed for each file in the thumbnail grid
- End-users can define which information and metadata to be displayed in the preview
FotoWare Release Version 6.0
Dec 1c, 2007
FotoWare helps newspapers, public services and corporate customers to find, process and share their images and documents. With millions of licenses sold in ten different languages since 1994, FotoWare plays a pioneer role in the industry of Digital Asset Management (DAM).
Today FotoWare announces the transition to full XMP metadata support with the release of FotoWare version 6.0. XMP fits perfectly with FotoWare's philosophy and indexing technology platform, and is fully compatible with existing installations. The shift from IPTC to XMP metadata support in all FotoWare applications opens new opportunities to the users. Metadata can now be added to any kind of file type, making it fully searchable by a FotoWare system. The multi-lingual support of XMP allows users to write and search for metadata in any language, a function warmly welcomed by international media houses and global players in the corporate market.
What's all this talk about XMP?
Put simply, XMP is a standard for storing metadata in files. In the past, FotoWare systems have relied on IPTC for storing information with files, a standard which has proved to have many limitations, particularly because it has only been partly compatible with many new file formats. With XMP, however, metadata can be added to any type of file.
For FotoWare, XMP has proved an absolute treat. It has allowed us to retain backwards compatibility while incorporating native support for the new standard throughout our product range. From a user's point of view, the transition is completely transparent. When adding metadata to files that don't support XMP data written directly to the file, an XMP sidecar file containing the metadata will be created and follow the file wherever it goes in the FotoWare system.
But we have taken the benefits of XMP a step further: By taking advantage of the multilanguage support in XMP, businesses operating in several countries can effortlessly add metadata in several languages, and it is possible to choose between searching only within a certain language or across all languages.
- Extends IPTC
- Backwards compatible with IPTC
- Add metadata to any type of file
- Full multilanguage support – write and search for metadata in any language
- Fully compliant with the XMP implementation in Adobe products
- Future data exchange standard
- Stay compatible


text:
Nino Brown is no stranger to making dancefloors across the country sweat, grind, head nod, flash a lighter, or just plain old two-step.
Nino is a founder of Canada's premier inclusive dance party Yes Yes Y'all (Toronto) which has been voted one of the city's top jams since its birth in 2009. The YYY crew is known for their emphasis on diversity and inclusivity, and their event has become a Toronto institution, attracting both local and international talent. In 2012, Nino founded YYY's sister event in Montreal, the monthly Cousins Party.
In addition, Nino provides resident DJ/promoter duties all over some of Toronto's hottest events and spearheaded an underground urban music movement in the city that links music, style, politics and a proper bashment.
Performance date: Sunday July 1 – 5:30pm
Location: Trillium Park
Instagram: www.instagram.com/yesyesninobrown

subset: commoncrawl


text:
We work city-wide, but we meet young people where they are (rather than expecting them to come to us). This means we use local community centres for meetings and as pick up points, eg. Allendale Community Centre, Byker and Carnegie Building, Benwell.
The out-of-doors activities take place anywhere that is suitable - usually local parks, the beach, green space on the edge of the city, or further afield in Northumberland, the Lake District, etc. We will go wherever is appropriate for the groups'needs.
Where Tyneside Outside works
Try Tyneside Outdoors
As the name suggests, these programmes offer young people the chance to take part in taster sessions purposefully designed at having fun out of doors rather than reaching great heights, literally! The aim of these programmes is to introduce the outdoors in a fun and informal way, setting the scene for bigger and better things to come.
Whilst designed with TO youth groups in mind as the ideal progression route for young people to go on to develop their enjoyment of the outdoors, these programmes can be delivered as short term, stand alone projects for schools and youth groups wishing to bring a taste of the outdoors into their groups.


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Oct. 4, 2012
You might have a bad warehouse if...
If you have an example of a bad warehouse practice, send your story and photo(s) to Kate Vitasek at
Check it out here
WERCouncil events
Oct. 9,
Michigan WERCouncil Box on Demand Tour
, 5:30 to 8 p.m.
Oct. 10,
NorthTX WERCouncil 11th Annual Warehousing Resource Convention
, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Oct. 17,
Phil/Del Valley WERCouncil Autozone Tour
, 4 to 5:45 p.m.
Oct. 23,
N. Carolina WERCouncil Gildan Facility Tour
, 1 to 4:30 p.m.
Are you really running out of space?
Find out by registering for the two-day seminar Optimizing Warehouse Location and Design to Improve Supply Chain Performance, to take place Thursday, Oct. 25, and Friday, Oct. 26, at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. Presented by: Robert Silverman, senior vice president, Jones Lang LaSalle.
Sign up today for this world-class seminar
Study implies 3PLs underestimate clients' service demand
Material Handling & Logistics
Third-party logistics service providers believe their clients are more price driven than service driven — a belief that conflict with the findings of Eyefortransport's 2012 Global 3PL & Logistics Outsourcing Strategy study. The results of this study paint a picture of an industry in transition, still rocked by the economy of the past few years. 3PLs represented 41 percent of the survey respondents while shippers made up 29 percent. Of the shippers who responded to the survey, the largest proportion worked in either the retail or the high-tech/electronics/telecom industries.
Ensuring success with voice projects in distribution
Supply Chain Digest
Voice technology has enjoyed enormous success over the past decade, moving over that time from a not well understood alternative for picking applications, primarily in the grocery and food service industries, to mainstream technology used by virtually every sector and for many DC tasks beyond order picking. The reason is simple: the "hands-free" and "eyes-free" nature of voice provides many advantages to associates and distribution center operations.
Competition intensifying among inland ports
Material Handling & Logistics
Competition for market share of inbound shipping remains fierce among U.S. ports, especially as the east coast gears up for an expanded Panama Canal and trade flows continue to shift among developed and emerging countries, according to Jones Lang LaSalle's fourth annual seaport report. As reported in the firm's earlier studies, commercial real estate surrounding major U.S. seaports continues to outperform the broader industrial market.
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Can you take your strengths too far?
Harvard Business Review
For the past decade, leaders have been encouraged to focus on developing their strengths rather than always gravitating to working on a weakness. But is this too much of a good thing? Lately, a number of business thinkers have suggested so. It's tempting for those of us strongly committed to developing leadership strengths to ignore such dissent on the grounds that any new practice will attract critics. But the debate has practical significance to leaders.
Making your sustainability program sustainable
Environmental Leader
Depending on whom you ask in a company, the word "sustainability" can have different meanings. It can be used in relation to finances, long-term programs, or the environment. But when you're looking at a sustainability — or environmental — program, it has to be set up to endure. Put simply: your sustainability program has to be sustainable.
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Are block pallets back in vogue?
Modern Materials Handling
In January 2011, Costco became the first retailer to require its suppliers to ship product on block pallets similar to the pallets available from CHEP, PECO and iGPS. Is the Costco requirement having an impact on the pallet market? That's one of the questions Modern Materials Handling looked at in its annual pallet survey.
Doing the right thing: Interview with C. Randal Mullett
DC Velocity
You're not likely to find a logistics professional who's experienced the trucking industry from as many perspectives as C. Randal (Randy) Mullett has. Mullett literally learned the business from the ground up, serving in jobs ranging from terminal manager all the way up to roles in the executive suite. Today, he is the top policy executive in Washington, D.C., for Con-way Inc., a $5.3 billion freight transportation and global logistics services company based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
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Supply chain track and trace: How close are we?
Healthcare Packaging
Lack of federal or global guidelines on track and trace and e-pedigree leaves more questions than answers. Where does all the data go? That was just one of many questions raised on Day 2 of the Cold Chain and Temperature Management Global Forum in Chicago on Sept. 27. "We can create the data, we're just not sure what we are going to do with it" was the tone of the session.
America has a weight problem: We're not heavy enough
Material Flows
Next time you're stuck in traffic, take a look at those big 5-axle semi-trucks surrounding you. You know they could squash you like a bug — both you and your car. But when Tom Moore looks at those trucks, he thinks they should be heavier. In fact it's his job to try to make them gain weight. According to Moore, based on highway scale data from 16 locations in the U.S., trucks that are heavily loaded (total gross larger than 70,000 pounds), 8 percent have capacity for an extra 1,000 pounds, 11 percent could add 2,000 and 9 percent could squeeze on another 3,000. To him this is wasted capacity, but more importantly, to his customers, it's wasted money.
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If All These Countries Are So Outraged By Revelations Of US Spying On Them, Why Aren't They Offering Snowden Asylum?
Glenn Greenwald makes some really good points in a Guardian column (one of his last) discussing the reactions to the latest revelations about the NSA surveillance on citizens and (mainly) top politicians in other countries. The key one being, if these countries are really so outraged by these revelations, shouldn't they be offering Ed Snowden asylum, since they appear to be admitting that these revelations are important?
All of these governments keep saying how newsworthy these revelations are, how profound are the violations they expose, how happy they are to learn of all this, how devoted they are to reform. If that's true, why are they allowing the person who enabled all these disclosures – Edward Snowden – to be targeted for persecution by the US government for the "crime" of blowing the whistle on all of this?
If the German and French governments – and the German and French people – are so pleased to learn of how their privacy is being systematically assaulted by a foreign power over which they exert no influence, shouldn't they be offering asylum to the person who exposed it all, rather than ignoring or rejecting his pleas to have his basic political rights protected, and thus leaving him vulnerable to being imprisoned for decades by the US government?
Of course, when put in the context of how it's really just about cutting off the power of American hypocrisy, this situation makes more sense, even as it highlights the hypocrisy of those other countries.
The reality is that none of these leaders expressing outrage are actually shocked by this. Everyone knew this was going on. They're reacting this way because it's all part of the theater, in which they have to act shocked and to condemn the US, but it's really just about the information being revealed. When looked at under that light, of course they have no interest in offering Snowden asylum. He's the one who created the "shock" by revealing this information which all those officials almost certainly knew about, while pretending not to.


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Goodbye Mr. Williams
Two weeks have passed now since Robin Williams left us and with an 11hr flight ahead of me I finally feel like I've got the time necessary to write a blog post to do him justice.
I was heartbroken when I heard of Robins passing, I hoped that it was just a horrible hoax but as the news appeared on more and more reputable news outlets it sunk in.
Robin Williams was dead.
My first thought when I heard the news was one of utter confusion and surprise, how could a man responsible for brining so much happiness and love to the world have had so much darkness in his life that he chose to end it. I'll address this side of the story later and I do believe it's important to address and not ignore but first I'd like to talk a little about what Robin meant to me. Much has come to light since Robins death about his seemingly never ending generosity and compassion, his unrelenting drive to brighten the lives of everyone he met so you all know that already. What I'd like to share is just how Robin had a profound impact on my life, with never even meeting me.
I distinctly remember as a child running around my house talking to myself in a myriad of different characters, sometimes they'd just be talking, sometimes they'd be talking to each other and sometimes they'd just be in my head. When I first saw Aladdin and Robin Williams performance as the Genie I felt an immediate kinship. Hearing the speed with which he jumped from character to character and the depth each character had (even if we only saw it for a few seconds) was like hearing someone else perform the voices in my head. I immediately felt that there was another person on the planet who's brain worked like mine and of course a person who made me laugh and laugh until I was in tears.
That performance was the genesis of my passion for voiceover, I'd watched the Simpsons of course and thoroughly enjoyed that but Robin's performance as the Genie spoke to me and showed what may be possible with the crazy voices in my head. It was the start of my life long obsession with creating crazy characters in as many different voices as I could muster. Of course Robin was famed for the plethora of different accents he used, again being the inspiration for me to learn and perfect as many accents as I could.
I think this is why his death hit me so hard, Robin was like my father figure in the world of work. Without him here I feel like the light I was following through the mist of life has been extinguished and now I'm alone to try and follow the path without a lead. It would be easy to be daunted by that prospect and to flounder but Robin blazed such a trail that even without his light at the front the flames are left behind for others to follow. I now feel an even greater sense of responsibility to achieve my dreams in honour of the path he set me upon.
Now we turn to the more difficult topic, mental health but should it be a difficult topic? It is, but why is it? I suspect it's because no-one ever talks about it despite the fact that at some point in nearly all of our lives we've experienced a mental health issue be it big or small. I was having great difficulty deciding how much of life to share in this blog post but in the end I've decided to be as open and honest as I can to perhaps just slightly, in my own way nudge the conversation about mental health in the right direction. It's also important to be honest because it helps explain why Robin was a key figure in my life…
When I was at school during my teenage years I was bullied relentlessly, I was beaten up, had my hair set on fire and was chased on nights out by the same kids that tortured me during the day and around the age of 14 I was suicidal and I mean that in truest sense of the word. What is difficult for people who haven't experienced depression to understand is that it's not simply "being blue", there is no "snapping out of it". The best way I can describe it is like living under a thick cloud, everything feels "less", sound is muffled, vision is blurred and the cloud surrounds you 24/7 in every direction you look. Logic does not exist inside this cloud, reason does not exist inside this cloud, all that exists is an overriding sense of despair and loneliness that penetrates you right down to your bones…. it is not "being sad".
It was during this time that "little" things like Robins performance in Aladdin got me through, they provide a powerful piercing light that could penetrate the cloud and warm my heart. That is why I felt so close to Robin, his performances and his comedy had been with me during my darkest days and had provided some much needed relief.
I believe there is a reason though that depression seems to haunt those of us who may class ourselves as "creatives" and it's a heightened sensitivity to emotion. I don't see how it's possible for a person to fully commit themselves to becoming another character without being completely and totally in tune with their emotional states and how to manipulate them, this leaves them raw, exposed, perhaps often jumping into a character to shield themselves. For someone like Robin I think it's important to remember before we criticise his decision to take his own life that all of the characters we saw on the outside resided inside his mind and undoubtedly there were darker characters in there that we never saw.
Creative people can have the most persuasive of demons.
So to Robin I say thank you, thank you for leaving me a path to follow, thank you for sharing your gift with the world. You may not have been able to overcome the fight with your own demons but I shall be eternally grateful to you for helping me win the fight with mine.


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Scouting the Divine: My Search for God in Wine, Wool, and Wild Honey by Margaret Feinberg was a catalyst to a journey for me. I have always loved animals and I'd even owned a few sheep, but I was't serious about them. I was focused on my dairy goats and horses-both of which have completely different habits and personalities than sheep. They teach lessons too, but not the same I began to crave as I journeyed through this rich and tasty book.
After reading Scouting The Divine I had a new appreciation and wonderment for the valley I live in. There is an abundance of agriculture and the livelihoods of vey many people are centered on it. I am no stranger to farming. It's valued and important work here. I am not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been enamored with all things farm since I could walk.
Scouting The Divine focuses on the lessons and illumination of Bible passages through the eyes of a shepherd, bee keeper, farmers, and a vintner. I am surrounded by all of those and have been some of those myself. I came away with a lot from that book. I developed an urge to know God's shepherding heart better, and to understand His care for us through the stories of the Bible that describe Jesus as The Good Shepherd and through parables of sheep and shepherds. I began to pray for the understanding and felt I wanted a hands-on experience. I am blessed to live on a ranch where it's possible for me begin a journey like that; as simply as making a phone call and handing over some cash or making a few trades.
I began some research into sheep breeds, and learned about fleeces and that's an education in itself. I decided I'd like a dairy breed of sheep, since I've bred dairy goats for well over a decade now. I enjoy sheep's milk cheese and thought I could multi-task this project. (as I always do) I combed the online farming spots for sale adds and found a woman selling a flock of Icelandic sheep. I made arrangements to visit her and meet her sheep. It turned out she keeps several flocks of three different breeds of sheep.
Valerie was a willing educator and obviously loved her sheep. Her love of them was contagious and not only did I learn much more than I had anticipated, I made a new friend. But something else happened as well, something spectacular and unexpected. As a particularly friendly sheep was letting me pet and scratch her while she wagged her stubby tail wildly to let me know she liked me too, I dug my hands deeply into her fleece and examined the crimp of it. Then I had the irresistible urge to bury my face in her fleece and smell- it was intoxicating to me. I fell under the spell of sheep that day, and their fleeces. That sounds weird I know, but when you part the fleece there's a smell I can't describe. You are expecting it to be dirty and stink- I know! But a healthy sheep doesn't stink to me. Or any other sheep-loving shepherd. It smells divine.
Fast forward two years and now I have a pair of young East Friesian ewes for milking, and a small flock of rare and wonderful Gotlands for fleece. They are a Swedish sheep and not allowed to be imported here, so "bred up" through a program here in the states. They grow a lustrous fleece of spiral curls in locks, of various shades in gray mainly, although you will see blacks and creams because of the breeding up with other similar breeds.
I have since then joined a group of mostly farming and fiber artist ladies in town to learn to spin this gorgeous stuff into yarn. I don't crotchet or knit and really have no desire to learn, but I enjoy working with the fleece- it's texture and it's scent as it runs through my hands. The spinning is reward enough for me. It's a relaxing and therapeutic thing to do – taking the time to completely focus and quiet myself. Art is always like that. Good for the brain, I say.
I have learned so much, made new and interesting friends, and I am on a journey moving closer to the heart of God every day. All this began from a book? yes, of course. The artistry of words is also intoxicating to me. There is endless value in the written word and there's a reason so many of us love to crack open a book and take in a deep breath of the smell of ink and paper, the promise of what we hope to find there, is food for the soul.
Thank you Margaret Feinberg for your gift with words and sharing them with us. You meant to inspire and inspire you have.
*If you have read the book, or done the DVD driven study with it ( have not) and would like updates on Paiget check out Margaret Feinberg's posts on her website.
I have linked two posts in that last sentence.
Psalm 104:14-15 "He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the service of man,
That he may bring food forth from the earth,
And wine that makes glad the heart of man,
Oil to make his face shine,
And bread which strengthens man's


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Chinese Foot Binding – The Wūzhèn Foot-Binding Museum: Why did the practice start? What was the foot-binding process? Who tried to stop it? Is anything like it happening today?
Thus just the idea of Chinese foot binding has always left me feeling rather queasy. But when Barry and I got to tour another lovely recreated Chinese water town with our Maui College colleagues–and many other tourists, we came across the Wūzhèn Foot-Binding Museum. I was curious.
This year, we got to return with our Shanghai Normal University colleagues to take another look at what I think is the most interesting part of this Chinese water town: the Wūzhèn Foot- Binding Museum.
The museum is tucked away, and you aren't likely to discover it unless you go there looking for it or happen to find the sign in your wanderings off the main streets.
The Wūzhèn Foot-Binding Museum displays 825 pairs of foot-binding shoes from various places in China. The museum website notes, "Without looking at these shocking pictures and three-inch or even shorter shoes, you may never understand the laughs [my emphasis] and tears of Chinese women over the thousand years" [From: http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/wuzhen.eng/sightseeing/Footbinding_Museum.html].
It's unlikely that many laughs were ever involved for the perhaps two billion little girls [estimates vary] whose feet were bound [crippled really] so they would be considered attractive enough for a good marriage.
The museum's several large rooms showcase tiny slippers, boots, and sleeping shoes of Chinese women who had had their feet bound when they were children. Although there are guards to keep visitors from taking photographs, the "no photos" signs are in Chinese and English. The reason, said a guard, is to protect the privacy of the families who have given the shoes for display. Another tourist whose first language is neither Chinese nor English took a picture before the guards stopped him. Although I have mixed feelings about showing the photo, I asked for a copy. The photo is an example of the quality of the tiny, "beautiful" shoes you will see in the museum.
What was the process of foot-binding? According to the Wūzhèn Museum, "Starting when the child was five, the girl's feet were broken at the arch, their toes fractured and folded over toes to heels. The broken feet were bound tightly so the feet would remain in a tight small shape. It usually took three years to remold the feet into a shape and size that many males of the time admired."
An even more graphic description of the practice comes from Alan Bellow's Bound by Tradition, "[T]he earliest known written records of the practice [foot binding] date back to the Southern Tang dynasty around 937 AD. Some historians believe that the tradition arose when women started imitating the imperial concubine "Fragrant Girl" who was known for her diminutive wrapped feet; others attribute the tradition to a troupe of court dancers who pioneered the process around the same time. Regardless of its origins, these re-engineered feet became fashionable among upper-class Chinese families around a thousand years ago, and it was in practice until the Chinese Communists had enough power to stop it in 1949].
Generations of trial and error led practitioners of foot binding to master the craft of twisting and reshaping a young girl's sole. Foot binding was usually conducted in winter months so that the cold could be used to help numb the injuries and prevent infection. Sometime after a daughter of the well-to-do turned 2 years old, and generally before they turned 5, the young girl and her malleable skeleton were taken aside by an elder female family member or a professional foot binder to initiate the foot-altering process. Though there was an old saying that a mother couldn't love her daughter and her daughter's feet at the same time, the procedure was seldom carried out by the mother personally because she would likely find it difficult to ignore the child's considerable distress.
To begin the foot binding process, the foot binder would gently soak the child's feet in a solution of animal blood and herbs. Her toenails were trimmed and groomed, and her feet were thoroughly massaged. Once the skin was softened and the muscles were relaxed, the foot binder would curl the child's toes down towards the sole of the foot as far as the bones would allow. The binder would then curl the toes farther than the bones would allow, snapping the toddler's phalanges and forming a kind of twisted foot-fist. No manner of pain relief was employed during this process, so the binder was required to disregard any agonized screams. Next, the arch was broken.
The girl's foot–now a sack of bones–was suitable to be sculptured by wrapping with long bandages, which had been soaked in the secret recipe of herbs and bloods. With each winding, the bindings were pulled as tightly as possible, drawing the ball and the heel of the foot increasingly closer and tapering the end of the foot into a point. The wrappings were then thoroughly stitched and allowed to tighten as they dried. Then on to the other foot.
Afterwards, the girl's feet were periodically unwrapped to clean the crevasses, trim the oddly oblique toenails, and remove any dead flesh. The foot maintainer might opt to peel the toenails off altogether if they were becoming sites for infection. Sometimes a toe or two would fall off during this process, leaving even more room for reshaping. The girl's feet were then re-wrapped even tighter than before, causing her footprint to shrink further as the bones slowly fused into their new configuration. Occasionally girls' feet would fester, and blood poisoning from gangrene could be a cause for concern, but an estimated 90% survived the process.
Once the feet reached their target of 7.5 centimeters (about 3 inches), the unsightly bindings were adorned with embroidered silk slippers. When a perfectly lotus-footed lady was inserted into society, she became a sought-after mate. Her reconfigured feet were made obvious by her distinct manner of walking: a swaying shuffle which came to be known as the Lotus Gait. Bound feet were considered to be sexually exciting to men, and girls who had them were much more likely to land a prestigious marriage. Sex manuals described numerous erotic acts married couples could perform involving lotus feet, but men were warned never to look upon the feet without their shoes and bindings, lest the aesthetic be destroyed forever. Moreover, unwrapped lotus feet were said to have a powerful and disagreeable odor owing to the accumulation of bacteria among the unnatural folds of the deformed feet. 'Dainty is dandy, but necrotic is not erotic,'" says Alan Bellows.
If you go to the Wūzhèn Museum, look for a pair of shoes that has a drawer built into each heel. Fragrant powder was put into the drawer so that each time the woman stepped on her heel, a puff of powder was released (likely to mask the odor of decay—ugh!).
In Bound by Tradition, Alan Bellows continues, "Although the practice was initially limited to upper-crust families, people of lesser prestige soon began to conform with the tradition. A lotus-footed wife was not only coveted for her signature locomotion, but her injuries also tended to keep her from wandering far from home" [From: www.damninteresting.com/bound-by-tradition/]
From the late 10th century until the practice was effectively banned by the Chinese Communists in 1949, an estimated 2,000,000,000 (two billion) Chinese women had their feet bound (we now say broken and mutilated) to create tiny "Golden Lotus" feet, some only three inches long!
Although I'd heard about the practice, I hadn't know that the foot binding had impacted so many Chinese women and for so long. This means that if I were Chinese, my mom, grandmother, aunts, and my female relatives from about 1, 000 years ago until 1949 would have likely had their feet bound and would have suffered their whole lives.
How did foot binding start? Although the origin of the practice is disputed, the museum notes say that foot binding began in the court of the Southern Tang dynasty in Nanjing (937-75 AD) when a famous concubine danced with her feet wrapped to make them look more delicate. Small feet became synonymous with beauty.
At first, only girls from elite families in the wealthiest parts of China had their feet bound. Tiny feet were supposed to mean that the girl would never do physical work. Her husband needed to be wealthy enough to provide for her. Women were possessions. Few women could inherit wealth or hold jobs. These women "existed solely to serve their men and direct household servants while performing no labor themselves."
The desired look was a two inch crevice in the foot that "ideally" measured 3 to 3 ½ inches from toe to heel.
The process could lead to serious infections, even gangrene–about 10% of the girls died. It was "a time of tears" for the girls, symbolic of the "painful life of women." Usually the result was lifetime pain, and foot binding didn't guarantee that the women would lead a life without manual labor.
By the 17th century, Han Chinese [the majority ethnic group] women from the richest to the poorest had their feet bound although it was less prevalent among poorest families where the girls and women had to work to survive.
Chinese rulers at various times attempted to outlaw the practice. When the Manchu started their rule of China in 1644, for instance, Manchu women were forbidden to bind their feet.
The Manchu women, however, wore shoes that made them wobble when they walked in imitation of the crippled gait of the "Golden Lotus" women. Such toddling was considered very sexy.
By the 19th century, 40-50% of the Chinese women had their feet bound; for the wealthiest, the figure was practically 100%, especially in the north of China.
Why did the women acquiesce to foot-binding? The Wūzhèn Foot-Binding Museum information explains, "In the society governed by men, women were proud of foot binding, and bound their feet to serve their husbands; there were a lot of poems praising foot-binding in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. . .
"Her silk skirt flows like spring breeze,
Her lotus blossoms so light as if floating on autumn water.
Her shoe tips already hidden under the skirt,
She still looks around in fear that her tiny shoe embroideries/ be seen" — poem by Sa'dulla, born 1308.
[From <http://books.google.com/books?id=CdJKLd2jJq0C&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=poem+praising+foot+binding&source=bl&ots=uW0WVXpbJk&sig=Ys3PlfaIfY-nuqYDKfgZe-x9sa4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fFPBUZmeKImSiAKalYGABA&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=poem%20praising%20foot%20binding&f=false>.
Foot binding "reached its peak … in the Qing dynasty [1644-1912 + a short while in 1917), during which foot-binding was . . . canonized by Han women.
Who tried to stop foot-binding during its about 1,000 year practice? Chinese leadership at various times tried to stop the practice; some leaders didn't encourage it.
The museum focused on one important Chinese leader who did not encourage foot binding: Zhu Yuanzhang.
From a poor family, Zhu rose to power at a time when famine, peasant revolts, and plagues swept through China. He became a peasant revolt leader, conquered Southern China, pushed the Monguls north, and became the first emperor (1368-1389) of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). By most accounts a brutal, virtual dictator, Zhu established good economic policies, introduced crop rotation, had over a billion trees planted, and discouraged foot binding. His empress, Queen Ma, was a woman without bound feet. Some speculate that she may have been Muslim, and so had avoided the practice.
According to the information at the Wūzhèn Museum, Queen Ma was ridiculed by the Han Chinese for her unbound feet. And Zhu may not have been particularly concerned with the pain girls suffered since besides his wife, Queen Ma, Zhu also had 27 concubines including two Korean women. According to Wikipedia, Zhu forced ladies-in-waiting "to live in the palaces for life without freedom and behind cemented walls. He restricted the freedom of many concubines, killed several, and forced many to commit suicide. Zhu was also said to have ordered the massacre of several thousand people living in Nanjing, his capital city, after having heard one citizen talk about him without respect" [from People.com.cn]. So although the museum honors Zhu as a powerful man who didn't support foot binding, he was generally a ruthless leader–and he didn't stop the foot-binding practice.
One Chinese leader who did try to stop foot binding was the fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty, Kangxi. He was the first Qing emperor to be born on Chinese soil south of what is now Beijing, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722. Kangxi's reign of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning Chinese emperor in history, and during that time foot binding was banned three times—although not successfully.
The next Chinese leader who tried to stop foot binding was Daoguang, the 6th emperor of the Qing dynasty; he reigned from 1820-1850.
Emperor Daoguang implemented various reforms to strengthen China. He tried to stop the opium trade with Britain, and he practiced personal austerity to repair China's finances. In 1836, Doaguang banned foot binding, but like most of his other attempts at reform, it too failed.Guangxu, the ninth emperor (reigning from 1874/75–1908) of the Qing dynasty, came to "power" when he was only four years old; during his reign, the empress dowager Cixi (1835–1908) totally dominated the government. Guangxu attempted reforms including banning foot binding, (although some sources credit Cixi of symbolically banning foot binding to appease mounting European pressure to stop the practice). Although starting reforms, Guangxu was kept under house arrest for many years and mysteriously died of arsenic poisoning when he was 37–probably under the orders of Cixi . (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/324181/Guangxu
Another attempt to stop foot binding was in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, an opposition state in China from 1851 to 1864, established by Hong Xiuquan. A Christian convert who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus, Hong led an army that controlled some parts of southern China with about 30 million people. The rebel kingdom announced social reforms including a ban on foot binding.Also world pressure became an impetus for a final ban. "In 1874, 60 Christian women in Xiamen called for an end of the practice and it was championed by the Woman's Christian Temperance Movement in 1883, and advocated by missionaries including Timothy Richard, who thought that Christianity could promote equality between the sexes.[13] Educated Chinese began to realize that this aspect of their culture did not reflect well upon the progress of the modernizing world; Social Darwinists argued that it weakened the nation, since enfeebled women supposedly produced weak sons; and feminists attacked the practice because it caused women to suffer [14]. At the turn of the 20th century, well-born women such as Kwan Siew-Wah (known in the West as Brigitte Kwan), a pioneering feminist, advocated for the end of foot binding. . . .
How did foot binding end? In 1912, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the new Nationalist government of the Republic of China banned foot binding, though, like its predecessors, not always successfully. In Taiwan, foot binding was banned by the Japanese administration in 1915. Additionally, some families who opposed the practice made contractual agreements with each other, promising an infant son in marriage to an infant daughter who did not have bound feet [16][17].
When the Communists took power in 1949, they were able to enforce a strict prohibition on foot binding, including in isolated areas deep in the countryside where the Nationalist prohibition had been ignored. The ban remains in effect today."
[From:Wikipedia: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130501182852AAgAE57>.
Now, it's hard to understand how the families and the women themselves took great pride in their small feet. The Wūzhèn Foot Binding Museum notes say that a woman's most precious gift to her groom was a pair of her tiny hand- embroidered shoes.
Some women whose feet were bound such as the 89-year-old grandmother of my Zejiang Forestry and Agriculture University Chinese teacher are still alive.
China has had culture, philosophy, science, music, and literature for thousands of years. Opium addiction, introduced by British to ensure a balance in trade, and foot binding, an aesthetic of Chinese beauty at the time, are two blights on their culture.
One unintentionally ironic sign in the Wūzhèn Foot-Binding Museum notes, "This [meaning the use of oil on the tiny shoes to make them waterproof] is a reflection of the wisdom of the Chinese ancestors." The foot binding of the girls was actually torture, surely nothing of wisdom involved.
What troubled me the most about the Wūzhèn Foot-Binding Museum (besides the fact that two-billion girls were tortured) was that overall, the displays were meant to be admired–how tiny the women's feet, how beautiful their embroidery, how stylish their shoes.
And how about now? Have we learned? The Chinese now, of course, don't bind children's feet, but think about what many of us inflict on ourselves to fit the standards of beauty today.
Such shoes are neither practical nor usually comfortable. I too wore them until I slid off my slides one time too often and tore a ligament that took three years to heal. Now many men and women get tattoos that can be quite painful. There are also piercings, implants, plastic surgery . . . At some point in our lives, most of us suffer for style. However, at least foot binding that cripples little girls has stopped.
Today, children–even girls–are treasures in China. From what Barry and I have seen by living in China is that children are well-cared for, loved, and cherished. Perhaps the "one child policy" and planned parenthood make people recognize the gift they receive in the birth of each child. I wish it were so for every child in the world.
What's wrong with people? Is anything like foot binding happening today? Although foot binding is no longer an issue in China, another practice that causes suffering and sometimes death is going on today–Female Genital Mutilation; FGM has several similarities to foot binding.
According to Wikipedia, FGM is carried out in "28 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, particularly Egypt and Ethiopia, and in parts of Asia and the Middle East.[3] The WHO estimates that 140 million women and girls around the world have experienced it, including 101 million in Africa.[1]
FGM is typically carried out between four years old and puberty, although it may be conducted on younger infants and adults.[4] It may take place in a hospital, but is usually performed without anesthesia by a traditional circumciser using a knife, razor or scissors.[5] The practice is rooted in gender inequality, cultural identity, ideas about purity, modesty, aesthetics, status and honor, and attempts to control women's sexuality by reducing their sexual desire, thereby promoting chastity and fidelity. In communities that practice it, it is typically supported by both women and men" [From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation>.
And children aren't the only beings who suffer. A current photography exhibit at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center features, among others, the work of Bruna Stude. Her "Red Sea" piece grieves for the pods of pilot whales that are traditionally rounded up each summer when Faro Island Archipelago citizens (under the sovereignty of Denmark) use small motor boats to drive the whales to shore where the men knife and hook the beached whales. The sea turns red from the slaughter of whole families of these intelligent, gentle mammals that bleed to death. Traditionally, the whales have been hunted as food for these isolated islands. But now the Faro Islands enjoy a high standard of living, and –since 2008–the islanders have been warned not to consume the whale meat because of its high levels of mercury and PCB's. So the practice involves tradition and free meat, but who wants to fee their children mercury? Last summer, 2012, in five days, Faro islanders slaughtered 467 pilot whales!
Bruna Stude says her Red Sea, "refers to all acts of atrocity that value tradition, religion or politics above life and humanity."<http://www.brunastude.com/#!red-sea-@-macc>
From: https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.artslant.com/work/image/940978/slide/20150929021627-BrunaStudeALFSTADshrakYR02.jpg
Also, can sending its young people to war really be the best way for countries to handle differences?
What other practices that you know about could be changed and in doing so reduce suffering in the world today?
So wiggle your toes, take a run in the park, be thankful a woman's worth today isn't judged now by the smallness of her feet.
Be thankful too if you weren't born in a country that practices Female Genital Mutilation.
And although it is usually a good idea to respect other cultures, speak out, be aware, and take action to stop practices that cause children and other beings to suffer needlessly.
Let's be aware. Let's stop hurting others.
Zài Jiàn and Aloha, Renée
*Unless noted, photos by me.


text:
In Ixtli In Yollotl/A (Wise) Face A (Wise) Heart: Reclaiming Embodied Rhetorical Traditions of Anahuac and Tawantinsuyu
Ri?os, Gabriela Raquel
MetadataShow full item record
Theories of writing are one of the fundamental ways by which Indigenous peoples have been labeled as "uncivilized." In these discussions, writing becomes synonymous with history, literacy, and often times Truth. As such, scholars studying Nahua codices and Andean khipu sometimes juxtapose the two because together they present a break in an evolutionary theory of writing systems that links alphabetic script with the construction of "complex civilizations." Contemporary scholars tend to offer an "inclusive" approach to the study of Latin American histories through challenging exclusive definitions of writing. These definitions are always informed and limited by language-the extent to which these "writing" systems represent language. However, recentering discussions of writing and language on what Gregory Cajete has called Native Science shifts the discussion to matters of ecology in a way that intersects with current scholarship in bicocultural diversity studies regarding the link between language, culture, and biodiversity. Because of the ways in which language configures rhetoric and writing studies, a shift in understanding how language emerges bears great impact on how we understand not only the histories tied to codices and khipu but also how they function as epistemologies. In my dissertation, I build a model of relationality using Indigenous and decolonial methodologies alongside the Nahua concept of in ixtli in yollotl (a wise face/a wise heart) and embodied rhetorics. The model I construct here offers a path for understanding "traditional" knowledges as fluid and mobile. I specifically look at the relationship between land, bodies, language, and Native Science functions on the reciprocal relationship between those three components in making meaning. I then extend this argument to show how the complex web of relations that we might call biocultural diversity produces and is produced by "things" like images from codices and khipu that in turn help to (re)produce biocultural diversity. Thing theory, in emerging material culture studies, argues for the agency of cultural artifacts in the making of various realities. These "things" always-already bear a relationship to bodies and "nature." Thing theory, then, can challenge us to see artifacts like khipu and Nahua images as language artifacts and help us connect Nahua images and khipu to language outside of a text-based model. Ultimately, I argue that Native Science asks us to see language as a practice connected to biocultural diversity.


text:
Price: $4.00
Quantity: 1 available
Book Condition: Used - Good
Book is clean and tight. Has minor shelf wear. Some spine creasing. Small stain on the page edges. We put tracking on every shipment.
More Description
What image best describes your heart?
A water-drenched kid in front of an open fire hydrant?
Or a bristled, desert tumbleweed?
You're acquainted with physical thirst. Stop drinking and see what happens. Coherent thoughts vanish, skin grows clammy, and vital organs shut down. Deprive your body of necessary fluid, and it will tell you.
Deprive your sould of spiritual water, and it will tell you. Dehydrated hearts send desperate messages. Snarling tempers. Waves of worry. Growing guilt and fear. Hopelessness. Resentment. Loneliness. Insecurity.
But you don't have to live with a dehydrated heart. God invites you to tread your thirsty soul as you would treat your physical thirst. Just visit the WELL and drink deeply:
Recieve Christ's work on the cross, the energy of his Spirit, His lordship over your life, and his unending, unfailing love.
Come thirsty and drink the water of life.
Title: Come Thirsty: No Heart Too Dry for His Touch
Categories: IN,
Publisher: Thomas Nelson: October 2006
ISBN Number: 0849914043
ISBN Number 13: 9780849914041
Binding: Paper Back
Book Condition: Used - Good
Item: 0.45 item
Seller ID: 12680


text:
Election Poems is a listening project. The poems you will read in this series document and respond to the politicized non-dialogue that seems to have invaded all forms of conversation these days, and the gas balloon of portent that's escaping the seams. This is also a personal project. The content comes exclusively from my own listening experience, meaning conversations that people have had with me or things they have said in my presence, for better or worse, from the 2008 election cycle to the present. The results are not always easy to digest, and many of the poems deal with painful, disturbing, or incendiary ideas that have not gone away, as our current election season so aptly reminds us. But to be clear, the project is not about politicians, pundits, or campaigns, or the rhetorical moves they make in order to earn a vote, or tell the story of a given election. It is about everyone who is not running for office, and who/how we are to each other in an era where politics infuses everything.
For more information about this series and its concept, check out the introductory post. Previous poems can also be found on the series page. A new installment and image will appear every Tuesday from now through November 2016 (one week post-election), featuring poems from throughout the project, as well as a new one written specifically for the current week. The poems are titled by number, but will not appear in order.
That moment I live for
being overheard, quoted, referenced, alluded to
while I'm still in the room
rising up to sleep
isn't it adorable
the sound of those little breaths
and grown ups making plans
Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it
I and my kin and my kindling are happy to remind you
It's a public service we provide
at times when righteous vigilance
is the only response to tragedy we can muster
we are the clearer heads that prevail
making it about semantics, instead of about them
about what we might lose, instead of what they did lose
about the loathing I've nurtured like a child at my breast
about the fact that your caring is the real disaster
While you and your kind and your kindlings felt it, repeated it,
anguished for a solution, held out hope, struggled for unity,
we reminded
we cautioned
we admonished
we connected
we franklied
we kept the score
we stopped short
a deflection this glorious and clear and potent
cannot be disturbed by


text:
Weaved and Gemtek are plotting a conspiracy. They want to disrupt the Internet of Things supply chain.
Normally, it takes a lot of software layers and back-end server support to make connected devices interoperable, said Ryo Koyama, chief executive of Weaved, in an interview with VentureBeat. But Weaved makes software to lift that burden of interoperability and backend support, while Gemtek does a lot of hardware design. Together, they make it easier for others to dream up an application for an Internet of Things device, such as a connected security camera, and deploy it in a matter of weeks. Over time, the companies hope their solutions will connect billions of devices.
At the 2015 International CES show in Las Vegas this week, Weaved and Gemtek are demonstrating a series of smart devices that use the Weaved Internet of Things fabric, or software and services that make it easy to deploy apps on various hardware platforms.
"If you look at the smartphone industry, app developers like SnapChat and Instagram were able to focus on making an app and building their own ecosystems around that, rather than having to fully integrate hardware and services with the apps," Koyama said. "Android did a great job of democratizing hardware, so hardware makers and app makers could focus on the apps. That's exactly the right metaphor for us. Five years from now, you could walk into Home Depot and see a whole row of smart devices, each defined by the app."
"In the same way, apps will start defining the Internet of Things, once those companies are free from having to build their own hardware and services," he added.
By contrast, smart thermostat maker Nest built out its own infrastructure.
Weaved offers to save companies the time, expense, and engineering challenges of making hardware work together with Internet-connected software platforms.
Rivals could include companies that prefer to create their own infrastructure, or even the Android platform. But Koyama believes that Weaved will offload a lot of work and serve the same kind of role that Amazon does with its Amazon Web Services, which provides the server hardware needed to support apps with a lot of Internet traffic. It's akin to decoupling the task of building chips or operating systems — as Intel and Microsoft did — from the task of building a personal computer.
"There's this whole idea of a hardware fairy tale now," Koyama said. "You can crowdfund an idea and six months later launch a new product."
Koyama said both Palo Alto, Calif.-based Weaved and Gemtek will release hardware with the services. Developers can test their platforms now. Weaved works on platforms such as Raspberry Pi, the cheap Internet computer. Weaved and Gemtek can handle work that is normally done by hardware designers, networking and cloud companies, manufacturers, and more.
One of the practical results is a dramatic cut in the time it takes to create an Internet of Things hardware prototype or commercial product. Koyama envisions a day when app makers won't have to worry at all about making their hardware or cloud infrastructure. Weaved handles tasks such as giving every device a unique identifier and name.
"Weaved is redefining the economics, ecosystem, and pace of the Internet of Things market," said Howard Chen, chairman and president of Gemtek, in a statement. "By embedding the Weaved fabric, our products can fuel creativity and speed time to market as never before."
Developers can used Weaved and Gemtek to create a 360-degree Wi-Fi camera, which could be used in a photo booth application. Weaved is a member of the Qualcomm-led AllSeen Alliance for the Internet of Things, and it expects to make its platform interoperable with others.
Weaved raised a round of $2.3 million in funding from CrunchFund, Metamorphic Ventures (New York), Core Ventures Group, Haystack, Double M Partners, TMT Investments, Maxfield Capital, Alpine Meridian, Ironfire Capital, Big Basin, HB Rama, and others.
"We are the Internet of Things' plumbing on top of Linux," Koyama said.
Weaved can run in as little as 100,000 kilobytes of memory, or much smaller than other rival technologies.


text:
reduced; reducing
Definition of reduce
1a : to draw together or cause to converge : consolidate reduce all the questions to one
b(1) : to diminish in size, amount, extent, or number reduce taxes reduce the likelihood of war
(2) : to decrease the volume and concentrate the flavor of by boiling add the wine and reduce the sauce for two minutes
c : to narrow down : restrict the Indians were reduced to small reservations
d : to make shorter : abridge
2 archaic : to restore to righteousness : save
3 : to bring to a specified state or condition the impact of the movie reduced them to tears
5a : to bring to a systematic form or character reduce natural events to laws
b : to put down in written or printed form reduce an agreement to writing
6 : to correct (a fracture) by bringing displaced or broken parts back into their normal positions
8a : to diminish in strength or density
b : to diminish in value
9a(1) : to change the denominations or form of without changing the value
(2) : to construct a geometrical figure similar to but smaller than (a given figure)
b : to transpose from one form into another : convert
c : to change (an expression) to an equivalent but more fundamental expression reduce a fraction
10 : to break down (as by crushing or grinding) : pulverize
11a : to bring to the metallic state by removal of nonmetallic elements reduce an ore by heat
b : deoxidize
c : to combine with or subject to the action of hydrogen
d(1) : to change (an element or ion) from a higher to a lower oxidation state
(2) : to add one or more electrons to (an atom or ion or molecule)
12 : to change (a stressed vowel) to an unstressed vowel
1a(1) : to become diminished or lessened especially : to lose weight by dieting
(2) : to become reduced ferric iron reduces to ferrous iron
b : to become concentrated or consolidated
c : to undergo meiosis
2 : to become converted or equated
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text:
Aqua Lung Professional Sets
The Aqua Lung Professional Sets consist of of Aqua Lungs best selling most popular masks (Favola & Look 2 Midi) and Aqua Lungs best selling snorkel (Zephyr). For those who prefer the two lens diving mask with a comfortable snorkel then this is the package for you.
The Aqua Lung Professional Sets consist of of Aqua Lungs best selling most popular masks (Favola & Look 2 Midi) and Aqua Lungs best selling snorkel (Zephyr). For those who prefer the two lens diving mask with a comfortable snorkel then this is the package for you.
Aqua Lung Professional Sets
The Aqua Lung Professional Sets consist of of Aqua Lungs best selling most popular masks (Favola & Look 2 Midi) and Aqua Lungs best selling snorkel (Zephyr). For those who prefer the two lens diving mask with a comfortable snorkel then this is the package for you. With comfortable fit and heavy-duty construction, the diving gear is great for every day diving (for avid divers), and for the first timers too, who embark on an adventurous journey to explore the ocean world.
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Different Colours and Sets are available
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Who are Aqua Lung?
Aqua Lung introduced the world to Scuba diving equipment more than 60 years ago. Aqua Lung manufacture good quality Scuba diving equipment including regulators, masks and high performance torches. They pride themselves in making diving equipment which allows divers to explore the ocean safely and make memorable moments.
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