text:
Reunited and it feels so good!
Favorite part of going away is picking up this sweet face!
Always miss her so much, though it is good to get away, her and home are where the heart is 💕
Reunited and it feels so good!
Favorite part of going away is picking up this sweet face!
Always miss her so much, though it is good to get away, her and home are where the heart is 💕
I have a confession to make, and it's not one of those silly cutesy confessions, sadly.
Sara snapped this pic of me in Arizona while I was shell hunting with the kids, and while my first thought should have been "oh so fun, a pic of awesome memories with her kiddos!", my thoughts instead jumped right to holy. fucking. shit… my thighs are NOT carrying pregnancy well AT ALL.
And they aren't, that much is true. But it bothers me that instead of focusing on the beauty of pregnancy and ALL the parts that come with it – the good, the bad, and the seemingly ugly – I zeroed in on a massive flaw.
Pregnancy has changed my body a LOT, and I have struggled with this change a little more than I'd like to admit, because for 36+ years my weight has never fluctuated much if at all; I've always been proportionate and petite.
That's just what I know.
But I'm here experiencing the. very. best. reason to gain weight.
I'm here experiencing the. very. best. reason for body changes.
I'm here experiencing the. very. best. reason for growth, and fatigue, and perhaps even some discomfort.
And so I checked myself and I thanked her for this picture. And I hope someday I'll look back on this and remember all the adventures I took my baby on in utero, and smile instead of focusing on any flaws.
Because again, while I have fleeting moments that challenge me, I am SO VERY grateful to be able to experience pregnancy, and I will do better with giving my body a break as it continues with the hardest, yet most rewarding thing it has ever experienced.
Were you critical of your body during pregnancy?
Never in my life have I been so scared for someone I don't even know…
Yesterday, during my 5 hour flight from Vegas back towards the East coast, there was a medical emergency on board, barely halfway through the flight.
And before we found out what was happening, I was a little freaked out because tons of flight attendants rushing around on a plane, when you cannot hear everything, tends to incite a tiny bit of panic, and luckily the woman next to me picked up on my nerves and was helping me understand what was going on.
I'll be honest – a medical emergency wasn't my first thought.
The flight attendant made a call for any medical personnel and luckily there was a physicians assistant on board!
A woman three rows away from me was having a heart attack, while we were over "flyover" states. She was complaining of chest pains, upper arm pain, dizziness, an upset stomach and was sweaty and lethargic. (Before we knew what was actually happening, I did ask the PA if she needed insulin, as long a shot as it was.)
I'm sure at first, some people suspected she was hungover… an early morning flight out of a party locale like Vegas, it's not a stretch, sadly.
But it quickly became apparent this was WAY more than a hangover.
They administered something intravenously and she regained consciousness – she had been drifting in and out.
Luckily our plane had an AED on board, and flight attendants were on the headset being advised what to do – it was determined it was in this woman's best interests for us to continue towards Baltimore, as medical personnel getting to us based on our flight path if we had to divert was a longer shot (I'm paraphrasing this), so she was monitored steadily and the second we landed she was whisked away by the waiting EMT's.
I hope that lady is okay – I thought of her a LOT last night, she looked so panicked and terrified (as would any of us!), and I was so scared for her – a heart attack anywhere is never ideal but I would imagine on a plane in the air is definitely a lot scarier.
AED's save lives, bottom line. That lady was blessed this was a domestic flight, as they are not mandated on international flights, though I CANNOT imagine why.
It made me want to get trained to use one, should the need ever arise (is that just the mom-in-training kickin' in?)
I hope she is okay and feeling better today. It freaked me out because I think we all have a conception as to what we think a heart attack looks like, and they DON'T always look like what we imagine. Silent heart attacks are a real concept!
Have you ever been on a flight with a medical emergency?
(Years ago, a plane pulling up to a fire truck would have sent me into a heavy panic attack – my fear of fire trucks, as silly as it sounds, was real. as. fuck.)
Yep, I totally brought one of my sweet dog's blankets on my trip with me – it smells so good and so her! (what, I'm pregnant and hormonal, don't judge haha) and YES I totally cannot wait to get home to my pup and my husband today!
I looooove going on vacation, but I am always so happy to get home – I love my home, y husband, my dog, my creature comforts… traveling is often, but there is no place like home!
Do you like to travel?
So peaceful and pretty here 💕
My soul has really enjoyed the various scenic views out this way!
Have you been out West?
It is an entirely different climate than I am used to, being from New England… but the weather at this current period of time is intoxicatingly refreshing!
The sun feels sooooo good.
Babes first trip to the beach, and I think baby liked it!
18 weeks, I am still feeling good, but definitely feeling bigger.
Embracing it to the best of my ability because it's all a part of this beautiful journey!
Friday does not suck!
Babies first trip to the beach (bump pic to follow later 😉)
On vacation!
Just what we needed…
We are in Lake Havasu Arizona for spring break, and I am excited for some sunshine, fun, and fun memories!
Up at 0300 to get a workout and shower in before a 0530 flight…
Followed by a 3.5 mile run here in Michigan, in shoes I haven't broken in, on hilly, dirt roads (only ran on pavement before) soooooo you can imagine how humbling a run THAT was (almost cried AND almost got sick, haha)
*note to self: no runs on dirt roads everrrrrr*
Followed by chin-ups and monkey bars on the playground… I'm tired, haha. I still struggle with chin-ups, but practice makes me better – I am working on it!
It's been quite a day but I've loved every second!


text:
A Guide to Selecting the Best Sunscreen for your Face
One of the most important steps of your daily skincare routine should be to apply sun protection to your face. Irrespective of the weather, sunscreen is a crucial method of preventing sun damage, protecting against environmental aggressors and minimising the effects of using active skincare ingredients such as AHA. With an incredible selection of high-performance skincare hybrids available, it's time to invest in protecting your skin and complete your summer skincare routine.
What types of Sunscreen are there?
The Three types of Sunscreen
- Chemical sunscreens are a more traditional thin fluid formula. They absorb the rays, convert them to heat and dissipate this heat from the skin. These SPFs require twenty minutes before they come into effect, and often have a variety of skincare benefits such as anti-ageing and gentle exfoliation.
- Physical mineral sunscreens tend to be a thicker consistency and physically block and reflect the suns rays using the ingredients titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. This type of sunscreen is more suitable for those with rosacea as well as sensitive and acne-prone skin types. However, mineral sunscreens often require more frequent reapplication.
- The third type of sunscreen is a combination of chemical and physical filters, which aims to achieve the best of both worlds.
What are the biggest myths surrounding SPF?
- "All SPFs provide full protection from the sun". The most important words to look for are 'broad-spectrum' which means it protects against both UVA and UVB rays.
- "SPF is waterproof". In reality, it can only be 'water resistant'.
- "SPF comes into effect as soon as you apply it". When applying chemical sunscreen, you should leave around 15 to 20 minutes after application.
- "Sunscreen lasts all day". You should reapply after contact with water, and top up throughout the day (ideally every two hours).
- "SPF isn't that important after using active skincare ingredients". Active ingredients such as AHA acid toner increases the skin's sensitivity to the sun which means the skin's natural barrier needs an extra layer of protection.
10 of the Best Sunscreens for Face
- Omorovicza Mineral UV Shield SPF30
- Lancaster Sun Beauty Comfort Touch Face Cream SPF50
- Philosophy Renewed Hope in a Jar SPF25 Moisturiser
- La Roche-Posay Anthelios Invisible Face Mist SPF50
- La Roche-Posay Anthelios Ultra Light Fluid SPF50
- UltraSun Face Anti-Ageing Lotion SPF 50+
- Bioderma Photoderm Mineral SPF50+ Spray
- Zelens Daily Defence Sunscreen SPF30
- Sarah Chapman Skinesis Skin Insurance SPF30
- Ecooking Sunscreen SPF30
Omorovicza Mineral UV Shield SPF30Buy now with free delivery
The Omorovicza Mineral UV Shield SPF30 is a broad spectrum mineral SPF that many consider as the best sunscreen for face because it is both effective and easy to apply. The mineral ingredients zinc and titanium oxide are proven to provide sun protection without causing irritation or blocking the pores. It layers well on top of your moisturiser and actively blocks the suns rays in a gentle but effective way.
Learn more about mineral SPF in our dedicated guide.
Lancaster Sun Beauty Comfort Touch Face Cream SPF50Buy now with free delivery
Lancaster covers a wide selection of sunscreen for face and body. The Lancaster Sun Beauty Comfort Touch is a lightweight face cream with broad spectrum SPF, that uses a combination of chemical and physical filters. It protects against all four types of sun rays: UVA, UVB, Visible Light and Infrared. The lightweight texture means it sinks quickly into the skin and is easy to apply makeup on top.
Philosophy Renewed Hope in a Jar SPF25 MoisturiserBuy now with free delivery
With an incredible selection of skincare, Philosophy is the brand that covers all bases. The Philosophy Renewed Hope in a Jar SPF25 Moisturiser is a broad spectrum daily moisturiser and sunscreen for face that sinks beautifully into the skin, provides a layer of protection against the sun's harmful rays, and prevents the signs of visible ageing.
Explore our edit of the Best Philosophy products.
La Roche-Posay Anthelios Invisible Face Mist SPF50Buy now with free delivery
One of the newest beauty innovations this year is SPF face mists. These handbag-size products are easy to apply, travel-friendly and perfect for beach lovers and city dwellers alike. The La Roche-Posay Anthelious Invisible Face Mist is suitable for fair and sensitive skin, refreshing to spritz and provides sun protection at any point in the day, before or after makeup.
La Roche-Posay Anthelios Ultra Light Fluid SPF50Buy now with free delivery
The La Roche-Posay Anthelios Ultra Light Fluid broad spectrum SPF50 is one of the best sunscreens for face and a highly popular product in the beauty world because it is a mid price point, hypoallergenic, suitable for the most sensitive skin, and has a water resistant formula that uses chemical filters to block the sun's rays. Caroline Hirons is a fan.
UltraSun Face Anti-Ageing Lotion SPF 50+Buy now with free delivery
UltraSun are one of the most trusted international sunscreen brands due to the high quality, easy application and hydrating properties of their formulas. The UltraSun Face Anti-Ageing Lotion SPF 50+ is a daily broad spectrum SPF that is also free of perfumes, mineral oil, silicones and preservatives, making it ideal for sensitive skin types.
Bioderma Photoderm Mineral SPF50+ SprayBuy now with free delivery
Bioderma Photoderm Mineral SPF50+ Spray is a non-comedogenic broad spectrum mineral sun protection spray that is suitable for both the face and the body, and a skincare solution for those with sensitive skin conditions. Ingredients include the antioxidant Vitamin E to add moisture to the skin and prevent the signs of premature ageing.
Zelens Daily Defence Sunscreen SPF30Buy now with free delivery
The Zelens Daily Defence Sunscreen broad spectrum SPF30 is the perfect pick for those living in a city. The formula is so lightweight that it feels like a day moisturiser, making it easy to slot into your existing daily skincare routine. Enriched with powerful natural antioxidants such as Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Acid, this multi-tasking formula does it all. It protects against the sun, prevents the visible signs of ageing and even minimises the formation of free radicals. Apply as the last step of your morning skincare routine.
Sarah Chapman Skinesis Skin Insurance SPF30Buy now with free delivery
As one of Meghan Markle's alleged favourite skincare brands, all eyes are on Sarah Chapman. The Skinesis Skin Insurance broad spectrum SPF30 is an award-winning hydrating sunscreen for face that glides onto the skin, offering a veil of of sun protection and a blurring flawless finish. The formula acts against not only sun damage, but also thermal ageing and infrared ageing.
To read more about Sarah Chapman, read our dedicated post 5 Products from the skincare brand Meghan Markle loves.
Ecooking Sunscreen SPF30Buy now with free delivery
The Ecooking Sunscreen SPF30 is a lightweight sunscreen enriched with Cucumber Extract and Aloe Vera to protect and hydrate the complexion in one simple step. This waterproof, quick-absorbing formula uses chemical filters, however, it utilises organic, vegan ingredients and is free of parabens.
Shop Sunscreen at Beauty Expert

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Hey Awesome ones…In this video I will show you how to transition your Summer looks to Fall using mostly clothing from your own closet. In this lookbook style video I will show styles in dresses, tee shirts, jackets, scarves, hats, shoes, boots, skirts & more. Although many of my viewers are over 50 & over 60, this Youtube video could be of interest to a woman in her thirties or forties too! Enjoy! (for similar styles to what I'm wearing in this video scroll down this page under the description to find the pieces)
**By the way… We were accepted by Amazon and opened our new Awesome over 50 Storefront with my *makeup, *fashion, *kitchen & comfy *home goods *Gifts for Her *Gifts for Him & more (here's the link…) https://amzn.to/2DzxRwC or www.Amazon.com/shop/awesomeover50 (new items added to it weekly)**Note: You still pay the same as what Amazon always charges, but we make a bit of commission, so THANKS for that!
Floral Summer Dresses Floral Summer Dresses (Amazon)
Boho Hats for Women Boho Hats for Women (Amazon)
White Stretchy Capris White Stretchy Capris (Amazon)
Blue Striped Long Sleeve Top Blue Striped Long Sleeve Top (Amazon)
Black Pencil Skirt Black Pencil Skirt (Amazon)
Jean Jacket Jean Jacket (Amazon)
Jockey Brand Camis Jockey Camisoles (Amazon)
Gaucho Pant Selections Gaucho Pants (Amazon)
Jack Smith Knee Length Skort Jack Smith Knee Length SKORT (Amazon)
Jack Smith Tennis Style Skort Jack Smith Tennis Style Skort (Amazon)
Fitbit Alta Activity Wrist Monitor Fitbit Alta Wrist Activity Monitor (Amazon)
Animal Print Skirt Animal Print Skirt (Amazon)
Leopard Print Lightweight Scarf Leopard Print Lightweight Scarf (Amazon)
Runners Track Jacket Runners Track Jacket (Amazon)
Black Yoga Pants Black Yoga Pants (Amazon)
White Sneakers White Sneakers (Amazon)
Brooke Necklace from CarolilyFinery.com …use promocode Awesomeover50 for 10% discount (not to be used with other promos)
** and don't forget to check out our new 2nd Youtube channel… Awesome over 50 Inspiration for Travel, Fun, Food & Lifestyle videos at https://www.youtube.com/awesomeover50inspiration
MAKE-UP Heather recently has worn in videos (list) https://awesomeover50.com/my-favorite-make-up-list/
And now… if you want even more awesome ideas we have our new once-a-month edition of the AWESOME TIMES Newsletter with inspiration, fashion, travel, health tips, fun, make-up & more for the over 50's. Don't forget to follow the link and sign up for the next edition! https://awesomeover50.com/newsletter/
… and one more thing … We recently discovered a way to have a "Tip Jar" ($5. per month) to support & help with the costs of our videos. Our heartfelt gratitude if you help, we really appreciate your support to keep our videos going.
We also have included some perks too for anyone supporting us including bloopers. We call it the AWESOME OVER 50 CLUB so a big THANK YOU if you do join, You're Awesome! -from Myself (Heather), Bill & little Hurricane XXOO . You can join & support us at https://www.patreon.com/awesomeover50


text:
True to earlier promises to limit Microsoft's clout in the emerging market for next-generation TV set-top cable boxes, Tele-Communications Incorporated is expected to use operating system software from Sun Microsystems and possibly Sony.
In what was seen as a surprise development, in January TCI reached an agreement to use Microsoft's Windows CE operating system in up to 5 million interactive TV set-top boxes. But TCI is not playing favorites with the software giant: The cable TV operator has told analysts that it intends to use other OS software technology as part of a plan to offer a variety of digital set-top boxes with different levels of features.
"TCI is increasingly interested in a real-time operating system [from Sun and Sony]. They are better for telephony and gaming because of latency issues," said Michael Harris, president of Kinetic Strategies, making an observation confirmed by others who attended a recent meeting at company headquarters in Englewood, Colorado. A "real time" system differs from that used in typical desktop PCs because the operating system tasks are handled within strict time constraints.
High-tech heavyweights such as Microsoft and Sun are interested in getting their products into the boxes that sit atop tens of millions of TV sets because they provide a valuable growth opportunity as demand in traditional PC desktop and server markets levels off.
TCI executives did not return phone calls today, but the company has already indicated that some of its boxes will use PersonalJava--which is not an OS but a middle layer of software. In the meantime, there is a protracted, deafening silence as TCI and Microsoft continue to negotiate over financing the deployment of Windows CE-based set-top boxes, as CNET's NEWS.COM first reported in February.
Contemporary cable set-top boxes now do little more than change TV channels, but in the future they will be able to offer services such as electronic programming guides, video on demand, email service, Internet browsing, telephony, and more.
The Sun operating system that TCI is considering is called JavaOS for Consumers, a hybrid of PersonalJava and Chorus, a real-time operating system that Sun purchased last year. JavaOS for Consumers is designed to take up less memory, and technology acquired from Diba allows for the support of different display resolutions and fonts without using a separate graphics chip like other technologies require, said Troy Toman, group marketing manager for embedded systems with the SunSoft unit at Sun.
While avoiding talk of possible deals with TCI, Toman coyly noted that "announcements are interesting, but what is most interesting is what's in the box when TCI starts shipping," referring to TCI's intention to favor the most practical OS and not perpetuate the Microsoft-centric paradigm of the PC world.
Sun isn't the only option to Microsoft's Windows CE that TCI is exploring. Sony has an operating system called "Perios" that the cable company is looking at, according to analysts. Separately, Sony has been working with set-top box maker General Instrument, the company which is manufacturing TCI's set-top boxes, to develop devices that would serve as a hub for PC and consumer electronics devices in the home, all linked together by FireWire technology.
"There is a predilection on the part of TCI and many others to [use] many operating systems in addition to or in lieu of Windows CE but with Java running on top," says Cynthia Brumfield, an analyst with Paul Kagan Associates. "I don't think cable has it all parsed out on how everything will fit together," she cautions. "This is the last critical step in forming how these boxes will look."
But focusing on the operating system could be missing the point, according to Brumfield. "To some extent, the OS is irrelevant. In terms of what developers will write to, [the application programming interfaces (APIs)] will create the incentive for people to create applications," she said.
APIs go hand-in-hand with the OS in the PC world, she said, but cable industry executives are trying to ensure that this isn't the case with regard to set-top boxes, so as to not give any one company too much power.
An API helps separate the application and the OS to make it easier for programs to be reused on other platforms. A formal industry initiative called the OpenCable project is also going to address the issue of defining this middle layer of software. The project is being headed by the CableLabs, a research and development consortium of cable television system operators.
As part of its attempt to develop a set of hardware and software standards for digital set-top boxes, CableLabs is expected to publish a specification for APIs by May which will include a mixture of technologies from Microsoft and Sun, among others.


text:
Editor, The Times:
It must have taken a small army to ensure the success of Wells Gray World Heritage Year. We do not know who you all are.
We wrote our recent thank you letter to the editor of this newspaper (published Oct. 24) simply as grateful residents of this lovely part of the world. So we apologize to all not mentioned, including the District of Clearwater for its generous financial support of this wonderful event.
Kay and John Knox
Clearwater, B.C.


text:
Democrat Candidates Unanimously Agree Illegals Should Get Free Healthcare
June 28, 2019
During last nights pander fest, the Democrat candidates unanimously agreed that illegals should get free healthcare, no questions asked.
Yes indeed, they all raised their hands and put illegals first and American citizens …dead last. The Democrats did agree that there is some kind of crisis on the border, but it's not their fault! I mean hey! They finally passed a bill that will do SOMETHING about those problems on the border!
Yet what they fail to understand, or are willfully ignoring is that last night's open borders stance and the decision to offer free healthcare for illegals will create MORE problems, not fewer.
"Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders previously said that his "Medicare for All" plan would cover the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States."
As those of us who are rational beings who refuse to embrace Bernie's crazy old man brand of socialists are aware, SOMEONE will have to pay for all of that free healthcare the Democrat candidates are advocating for. Who will pay?
"The first three Democratic candidates who spoke at the second night of the Democratic debates on Thursday night admitted that they would raise taxes on Americans to pay for their government proposals."
Oh. Well. That's a surprise. NOT.
Resources are already stretched razor thin at the border. The facilities used to detain adults and children can't handle the hundreds of thousands who are arriving every month. There aren't enough people at DHS to handle the influx.
Yet those Democrats vying to be President think free healthcare for illegals is the answer! So, they will wave their magic wand and suddenly doctors, nurses, PA's, dentists, optometrists and the like will appear? It doesn't work that way!
Furthermore, the candidates last night and the night before are part of the problem, not the solution. I bet if we'd asked them, they would've all agreed that the House blocking votes to help fix the border crisis was a good thing.
You forgot the part where R's asked for a vote on humanitarian aid 17 times before today.
17 times.
Stop misleading people. https://t.co/TDQqyAr3nM
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) June 27, 2019
Furthermore, providing healthcare for all at the border doesn't solve a myriad of other problems. Such as this one.
Our current shortage of immigration judges delays justice for individuals who have valid immigration claims while preserving years of illegal presence for others who do not. Unfortunately today my Democratic colleagues turned down more funding to our immigration court system. pic.twitter.com/u1QD8I9YOY
— Rep. Will Hurd (@HurdOnTheHill) June 25, 2019
The signal the Democrat candidates sent last night was clear.
All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!? That's the end of that race!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2019
It seems the Democrats are eager and willing to pander to those coming here illegally in hopes of winning their vote down the line.
Feature Photo Credit: YouTube Screen shot via NBC News, cropped and modified
This was a debate for Democrats who want to be President of the United States. Why are they pandering for the illegal alien vote?
Tip Us!
Become a Victory Girl!
Follow Us On Twitter!
Recent Comments
VG Vids!
Rovin' Redhead


text:
Skiing on hot air: Lessons learned finally add up
"Do I ski? Well, of course," I've dismissed such questions with a pretentious chuckle. "I
grew up
skiing," I'd say, hoping my haughty response conjured up images of me slaloming between moguls, skidding to snow-spraying stops, and mingling in Nordic sweaters around cozy lodge fireplaces.
They don't need to know that my first skiing experiences were behind the YMCA in my rural Pennsylvania hometown. Two dollars provided my brother and I with mercilessly gouged rental equipment and unlimited rides on the slope's only lift, a rudimentary rope tow with a sputtering motor that sounded as if it had been pirated from a lawn mower.
My 100 percent acrylic mittens not only failed to keep out the cold, but they made it nearly impossible to grip the ice-glazed rope tow. When I managed to clamp down hard enough, my body lurched forward unexpectedly, sometimes loosening my precarious grip and causing annoyed kids to stack up behind me like dominoes.
Eventually, our parents took my brother and I to the various local ski resorts: Hidden Valley, Seven Springs, Blue Knob, Laurel Valley. Having never heard of brand names such as Rossignol and K2, our Family of four rented equipment and wore whatever we had in our closets, much of which was fluorescent orange or emblazoned with Pittsburgh Steelers insignia.
If we made it out of the slushy, clattering equipment rental rigmarole intact, we still had to get our skis on without making complete fools out of ourselves. Despite witnessing the experienced skiers pop their boots into bindings with minimal effort, I always seemed to find myself doing the splits right there in front of all the cool people.
It wasn't pretty, but I persevered, getting up and falling down over and over again, putting on skis, getting on and off lifts, snow plowing, and sometimes, just standing there doing nothing. Besides knocking strangers over and forcing lift operators to stop the motors to clear my sprawled body off the exits and entrances, all that falling served to desensitize me to embarrassment over time.
One Christmas, my father outfitted our entire Family in new ski paraphernalia. At first I couldn't wait to finally be "legit," but with the proper equipment and apparel came something I hadn't anticipated: expectations.
In my brother's old parka, no one batted an eye when I plowed into someone in the T-bar line. However, in my white Obermeyer jacket with the powder blue chevron and new Atomic Skis, people would actually expect me to know what I was doing.
In high school, my best friend, Patti and I joined the Ski Club, boarding a coach bus to the ski resorts every Friday night. Other than rumors of who was making out with whom on the bus, Patti and I concerned ourselves only with the fake personas we would use to meet cute boys on the slopes. Even then, we understood the snobbery to which skiing lent itself. I became Brooke Taylor from a snooty town in Connecticut, and she, Claire Townsend, my rich cousin visiting from some stuck up prep school.
We never got to use our alter egos, but in the process of trying to reinvent ourselves, we finally learned to ski.
Recently, a friend asked me to go skiing with her in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. A middle-aged Navy wife who has moved nine times in 20 years, I had gotten rid of my ski equipment many moves ago, and had not skied in years. "Do you ski?" she asked. Swallowing my panic, I chuckled my pat response, "But of course, I
grew up
Adorned with hopelessly scratched equipment I rented from the base's Outdoor Recreation Center, I tried to quell my performance anxiety as the quad lift reached the summit. I felt out of place amongst the well-to-do resort Families decked to the nines, even though I knew that, based on my appearance, onlookers were surprised to see that I could ski at all.
Later at the lodge, while nonchalantly sipping a plastic cup of Hefeweizen and trying to look like a regular, I had a minor epiphany. Down deep beneath my faux-Nordic sweater, I knew that none of it — YMCA rope tow humiliations, borrowed parkas, high school insecurities, rental equipment — really mattered.
Just like everyone else in the lodge telling tall tales and walking like idiots in ski boots, I could ski. Snobbery was optional.
(Editor's note: Lisa Smith Molinari is a 20-year Navy spouse. She can be reached at www.themeatandpotatoesoflife.com.)


text:
High school seniors Jenny Fang and Farmaan Judge have earned one of the East Bay's highest honors by improving their communities and helping those in need.
The students, both 18, will be inducted with 10 others this weekend into the Alameda County Women's Hall of Fame. Fang and Judge will be recognized for turning their idealism into action, as each has started programs that could help others for years to come. Both students said they were surprised to learn that they would join the county Women's Hall of Fame, which has honored East Bay women for the past 22 years.
"As a teenager, I didn't realize that my voice could be heard like this," Judge said. "I realize now … the impact that I can have."
Fang is being recognized for her environmental work at San Leandro High School, where she started "GreenWay," a student club that advocates using eco-friendly practices on campus. She founded the club when she noticed that the high school needed a recycling program.
"The club's goal is to promote sustainability," she said. "We can make the campus more eco-friendly if students and faculty make more environmentally friendly decisions."
Fang also founded a composting program on campus and won a grant to pay for planting an organic garden that she hopes will provide fresh produce to the school cafeteria.
Fang will be honored in the Hall of Fame's Environment category. "It's important to be eco-friendly," she said, "Because if our homes are polluted, our habitats are deteriorating and our food is unhealthy, then how are we supposed to live?"
The Hall of Fame's inductees will be honored at a luncheon that begins at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Oakland.
Farmaan Judge, a Newark Memorial High School student, is this year's winner of the youth category.
Judge started the "Junior Interact Club," which aims to inspire elementary school students to work for social change. She also founded "Education 2 Future" after learning from a teacher that children near La Paz, Mexico, live in extreme poverty. Her program first focused on helping a high-achieving La Paz student, awarding her scholarship money to pay for school supplies, clothing and transportation.
Judge raised cash by placing change boxes in classrooms on campus, and organized a "Change for Change" rally that drew 2,000 students. The campaign raised $500, all of which went to the La Paz student, Judge said.
"She has an amazing GPA — a 9.3 out of 10 in her educational system," Judge said. "It struck me that she needs help and I should do what I can to help her."
Judge said she wants to continue sponsoring at least one student overseas each year.
First, though, she and Fang will take a break from their work to attend the Women's Hall of Fame ceremony.
"I'm really flattered," Fang said. "It's a really big honor."
Contact Chris De Benedetti at 510-293-2480. Follow him at Twitter.com/cdebenedetti.
Join the Conversation
We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.


text:
Francis Fullbright waded into the water with the rest of the children, but Aurora paused and turned to Kane.
"You're not swimming. Do you know how? I'll teach you if you don't."
He stiffened. "Of course I know how."
"Then why are you here by yourself?"
"Because I choose the shadows."


text:
In today's contest we've got copies of top-down shooter Nom Nom Apocalypse up for grabs!
Remember when your mom told you not to play with your food? Well, she was right — you should never make merry with your nourishment. It's just rude. But yo when that shit grows 50 feet tall and starts throwing meatballs at you, it's perfectly acceptable to fight with your food.
Don't let your food eat you! Win a Steam copy of top-down shooter Nom Nom Apocalypse to make sure the food chain stays the way it is.
Nom Nom Apocalypse
A catastrophic explosion in a diner led to a real-life kitchen nightmare. Now, all the food within has grown big, mean, and sentient, hellbent on biting back. Control one of the diner employees in this top-down, twin-stick shooter to put that food where it belongs — in our bellies! Each character has their own job-specific skills that help them quell the gastronomic uprising. And of course, all of your weapons are food-based: Grab your Ketchup Squirter, Mustard Blaster, and Microwave Laser Beam to finish your dinner once and for all.
Never, EVER neglect to wear a condiment, folks.
How To Win
To enter to win your copy, use the widget below to leave your name and email address. You can enter daily. There are also ways to gain bonus entries, so click around and have some fun!
We have five Steam keys to give away; winners will be drawn Tuesday, February 18.
Nom Nom Apocalypse is available now on Steam. Check out Destructoid for more chances to win!
PCI Contest: Fight your food with a Steam copy of Nom Nom Apocalypse


text:
Exclusive First Look: Ink Master Finalists
In anticipation of tonight's Live Ink Master Finale. Inked has the first look from the finalists Ryan Ashley, Kelly Doty and Gian. The Super Bowl of tattooing is just hours away. Tune into Spike TV tonight 10PM EST to watch the drama and coronation of tattoo's most coveted title.


text:
Topics & Subjects
favorite 0
quote 1
there is one year in which heather bresch's payout was $25 llion. pay has gone up and up even while there has been this steady drumbeat of scandals as well as regulatory run-ins with the fda. her tenure at mylan began with this scandal in which it turned out that she had been given -- awarded an mba from west virginia university on the basis of doctored transcripts. she didn't do the course work. that mba had to be revoked. it was awarded right after manchin became governor, before he was a senator. there was the scandal around the epipen pricing in which the price was jacked up 400% . under bresch's management, it was handled disastrously. she pulled a marie antoinette on national television, saying nobody is more upset about this than i am, but everybody rightly noted that her compensation has just skyrocketed as mylan ceo. once the morgantown plant got into regulatory trouble with the fda, based on the kinds of data manipulation that some of the executive team had been notably involved in, in their previous employment, they looked to wind down th
Fetching more results


text:
Oracle announces Austin layoffs
The California-based software company says it will lay off 71 workers.
Software company Oracle Corp. told state officials it is laying off 71 workers in Austin.
In a letter sent to the Texas Workforce Commission, as required by federal law when a company does a mass layoff, Oracle said it is laying off employees who worked on "Project RAPID" at its Riata Park facility in Northwest Austin.
The Riata Park facility is not closing, Oracle said in its letter.
"Rather, Oracle is discontinuing work on Project RAPID at the Riata Park facility, and for that reason, must lay off the employees at the Riata Park facility who are assigned to Project RAPID and have not found alternate positions at Oracle."
According to Oracle's website, Project RAPID is a hardware and software project that targets large-scale data management and analysis.
Affected workers have already been notified, Oracle said. The laid-off employees will receive 60 days of pay, two months of employer-paid health insurance and an employer match based on their current 401(k) contribution, the company reported.
An Oracle spokeswoman declined to comment further about the company's layoffs.
It wasn't immediately clear if this decision has any impact on Oracle's plans to build a new corporate campus in East Austin. A year ago, Oracle announced it was building a new 560,000 square foot campus on 27 acres near Lady Bird Lake. Construction work has already begun on the project.
Jobs at the new campus will be primarily sales-oriented, Oracle said last year, and the new campus meant adding "50 percent" to its Austin workforce in the next few years. Oracle did not disclose the size of its current workforce at the time the new campus was announced.
The deal to buy the land also includes a 295-unit luxury apartment complex called Azul Lakeshore.
The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce estimates that they employ between 1,000 and 2,000 people in Austin.
The new corporate campus was controversial because it meant demolishing an older apartment complex on that land, and tenants claimed they weren't given enough notice to move out by their landlord, Cypress Real Estate Advisors.
In August of 2015, the tenants were asked to move out by Sept. 30. Later, the tenants learned that Cypress asked them to leave so their building could be demolished to make room for the new Oracle campus.
The tenants later sued Cypress Real Estate Advisors in June of this year for terminating their leases early and failing to make repairs. Oracle is not a party to this lawsuit.
The Lakeview incident helped convince the Austin City Council to pass additional regulations that require better notification to tenants and financial assistance if an apartment is being demolished or substantially renovated.
Three years ago, Oracle received a seven-year tax abatement from Williamson County, and additional funds from the state, worth over $1 million. The agreement, which affected its facility on W. Parmer Lane, required Oracle to spend $5.4 million on office improvements and add 200 sales and marketing jobs by 2017.
Founded in 1977 and headquartered in Redwood City, Calif,, Oracle is one of the biggest software companies in the world, with revenue of $38 billion in fiscal 2015.


text:
Usher Booed Off Stage In Germany
Usher had a not-so-Usher moment at his show in Berlin, Germany. He was forced to cancel his Wednesday concert at Berlin's 02 Arena because of illness, so he rescheduled the show for the next night and promised his fans "the show that you all properly deserve." That didn't happen.
Unfortunately, his illness didn't clear up and Usher lip-synched his first two songs and couldn't really dance to them. Fans on the edge of the stage started complaining and booing. That's when Usher lowered his head and stood on the stage in silence for about four minutes before leaving. The stage lights came on and fans were told he was too sick to continue.
A statement by Usher's rep said:
"He's suffering from upper respiratory illness which is currently preventing him from performing a proper show. After consultation with doctors, he has been advised to reschedule the upcoming dates in order to get the rest he needs to ensure a complete recovery."
Usher himself said:
"I deeply regret having to reschedule the shows. I am truly sorry for any inconvenience I have caused my fans. My fans are the best in the world and I am looking forward to getting better so that I can give them the show they deserve."


text:
Cisco has announced the appointment of Janesh Moorjani as President – Enterprise and Public Sector for the India & SAARC region. In this role, Moorjani will lead Cisco's direct sales organisation across all Enterprise verticals and also the Public Sector segment. He will be based out of Mumbai and will report to Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager for Cisco in India. As the leader for Cisco's Enterprise and Public Sector business, Janesh will aim to deepen Cisco's customer relationships and strengthen Cisco's market and technology leadership across these key segments.
"We're very pleased to have Janesh join the Cisco India team. His diverse experience across roles and geographies, strong execution skills and proven ability to lead top performing teams, will play a critical role in taking our customer engagement to the next level and we welcome him into the role," said Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager, Cisco India & SAARC.
"For our customers, technology has evolved from merely enabling the business to becoming a cornerstone of business strategy for competitive advantage. Our customers are looking to use technology to accelerate revenue, reduce costs, reduce business risk and leapfrog competitors in a dynamic business environment. With Cisco's innovations across a broad portfolio in technology and a history of demonstrated business relevance to our customers, we can help them meet their business goals effectively," said Janesh Moorjani. "India is a strategically important market for Cisco and it's an exciting time to be back in India. I look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead," he added.
Janesh joined Cisco in 2004 in San Jose and worked with the worldwide sales organization leadership team to drive Cisco's global sales investment strategies. He moved to the APAC region in 2007, and was most recently leading Cisco's sales growth in new and emerging areas, including Smart+Connected Communities.


text:
2020 has been an incredibly tough year but the world of late-night has been both a constant source of entertainment for viewers and a shining case study for how to make television during a global pandemic.
The genre has proved tenacious, resilient and funny in the face of a devastating health crisis, adapting to shooting from home, while also preparing for a hotly contested Presidential election.
Deadline has taken a look at the highlights of the year below, exploring the main themes and subjects of the past twelve months, and spoken to the showrunners, as well as a few of the hosts, about how they coped this year and what they're looking forward to in 2021.
"2020 wasn't short on challenges: We had a global pandemic, a batshit election season, and story after story of racial injustice in this country," The Daily Show with Trevor Noah showrunner Jen Flanz told Deadline. "I'm in constant awe of our team for pulling together and figuring out how to make a show in a way we'd never done before and never in our wildest dreams imagined doing."
Desus Nice, otherwise known as Daniel Baker, co-host of Desus & Mero, told Deadline, "To say 2020 has been a wild year is a understatement but having our show be one of the voices narrating this time has been so fulfilling. Knowing that we brought some laughs to people going through just one of weirdest times in history, I'm proud of that."
His partner The Kid Mero, otherwise known as Joel Martinez, added that making the show in the pandemic was initially hard from a tech standpoint and praised the show's crew. "Once we hit the groove, though, we were off to the races and it felt great to have some kind of structure to the day. Also, knowing that you are bring people a brief moment of respite in the garbage fire inside a shit storm that was 2020 is wild satisfying, not gonna lie," he told Deadline.
Late Night host Seth Meyers, similarly, praised his writing staff for managing to "maintain the quality of their work remotely".
Rob Crabbe, Executive Producer of The Late Late Show with James Corden, highlighted the "resilience" of his staff. "In a tumultuous year on so many levels, we're proudest of the resiliency of our staff and crew to continue to push through and make a broad variety show, from HomeFest in James' garage, then back to the studio, with most people still working from home," he told Deadline.
Jamie Granet-Bederman was promoted to co-showrunner of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month, having worked with the host for 11 years. "I couldn't be prouder of The Tonight Show team for making some great comedy during a very difficult and challenging time in the world. It is not lost on us how lucky we are. So, if making our show has helped anyone's day become a little bit better, then that's enough for us," she said.
Even in the middle of the pandemic, it's been an eventful year behind the scenes. Conan O'Brien decided to step back from the nightly game after 28 years and The Daily Show expanded to 45 minutes, with plans to lengthen it even further. There's new entrants planned for 2021 including show from Sam Jay, on HBO, Desus & Mero writer Ziwe, on Showtime, and Charlamagne Tha God, on Comedy Central, and new faces in charge of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show and A Little Late with Lilly Singh.
There's still an interesting battle on the ratings front. The Late Show once again comfortably won the year in total viewers from September 2019 to September 2020, according to Nielsen, but in viewers aged 18-49, competition was much closer. The Late Show and The Tonight Show were essentially tied with a 0.4 rating, while Jimmy Kimmel Live! was only narrowly behind with a 0.3.
What's next? With a vaccine starting to be rolled out, there's a hope that at some point during 2021, audiences will be able to return. The election of Joe Biden will also have an impact on late-night, in particular room for silliness and non-Trump content.
Seth Meyers told Deadline, "The most fun I had was the Pee-Wee Hermaning of the show this summer when a talking sea captain painting, voiced by Will Forte, became my defacto sidekick. It was a reminder what a tonic silliness and stupidity can be. It would be nice if 2021 would have more space for that," he told Deadline.
"For 2021, I hope for a semblance of normalcy," said The Kid Mero. "My hope for the show is that we continue to prove we're the number one show in late night, innovating in the space and pushing sh*t forward."
"As far as 2021, I'm looking forward to taking everything we learned during the pandemic and using those tools to keep growing the show. Continuing to have illustrious guests, more on-location shoots, once it's safe, but mostly, I can't wait to have a live studio audience again. I miss our fans," added Desus Nice.
"I'm looking forward to having more time to cover the stories that speak to our staff and our audience instead of just chasing the news cycle," added The Daily Show's Flanz. "If we can manage to touch on criminal justice reform, gun control, reproductive rights… the list is endless. But whatever we cover, as long as we bring comfort, joy and laughs to our audience and have fun while we're doing it, there's a glimmer of hope for 2021."
The Late Late Show's Crabbe said, "We're hopeful to get back to some semblance of normalcy in 2021, or at the very least seeing everyone's masked faces in person, from six feet away."
Do you remember the time before Covid-19? The first two months of the year started with such optimism.
The Late Late Show with James Corden was certainly one of the shows that was in the swing of things before the virus. The CBS show, which along with The Tonight Show is arguably more of a variety show than the other nightly shows, had a number of breakout moments in January and February. In fact, eight of its top ten most-watch clips on YouTube are from the start of the year. This includes Carpool Karaoke segments featuring K-Pop stars BTS, which has had nearly 70M online views and Justin Bieber, which has over 50M views, as well as a faux apology after 'revelations' that the Brit wasn't always driving the car.
In terms of before times, CBS sister show The Late Show had Jim Carrey leading a New Orleans-style parade through the crowd before sitting down to talk Trump and Sonic The Hedgehog, The Tonight Show's Fallon rapped the history of Will Smith with Will Smith, Seth Meyers went day drinking with the Jonas brothers, and The Daily Show's Desi Lydic went to Arizona to explain the state's rejection of daylight-saving time.
Then in March, the late-night felt the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The shows first started shooting without audiences before moving to completely virtual operations, beginning online before transitioning back to linear TV. It was a novelty at first, with the viewers musing about Trevor Noah's hoodies on The Daily Show, Stephen Colbert opening his show from his bathtub and Jimmy Fallon's children becoming the breakout stars of The Tonight Show.
But it soon became a 'normal' part of late-night television. There was the informative with the likes of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Governor Andrew Cuomo giving interviews, where on The Daily Show they have recorded nearly 50M online views, and Samuel L. Jackson reading a curse-laden poem designed to encourage people to "stay the f**k at home" on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Then there was the entertaining and the sweet. Colbert breaking down in tears when Dolly Parton sang Bury Me Beneath the Willow, Kimmel's sweet tribute to Fred Willard and John Mulaney talking ghosts with Meyers before joining Late Night's writing staff.
On the weekly side, TBS' Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver similarly left their studios. Bee took her show to the woods outside of her house, while Oliver transitioned to a "blank white void full of sad facts". Bee spent much of the summer campaigning to help save the United States Postal Service, while Oliver became obsessed with Adam Driver and started a feud with the city of Danbury in Connecticut over a sewage plant.
The Brit, who won the late-night Emmy for the fifth time in a row, said all variety shows were very "fortunate" to be able to work during the pandemic. "I don't take that lightly, we're incredibly lucky to be able to do that and it's only because of our staff and how hard they have worked. None of us are technically gifted, when my staff set up our studio had to lean across Zoom as if I was a passenger on a plane with a pilot that has just passed out," he added.
By late summer most of the hosts were back in the studio; The Tonight Show was back first on July 13 with Fallon returning to 30 Rock with sketches such as a fake ad for Masculine Man Masks and an '80s throwback called I Like Your Style, that he was unable to perform at home. CBS' The Late Show and The Late Late Show followed in August, Late Night with Seth Meyers returned September 8 and Jimmy Kimmel, fresh from a summer off, headed back to the El Capitan on September 21 after hosting the Emmys.
It's clear that despite the current situation, which prevents studio audiences and limits in-studio guests and sketches, the hosts are happy to be back and they are figuring out new ways to entertain. Case in point, was Corden's week of drive-in concerts from Alicia Keys, who also returned to the studio for a particularly gruesome segment of Spill Your Guts.
The murder of George Floyd in May was a pivotal moment for America and his death, the subsequent protests and the widespread calls for change were all treated with the importance they deserved by the late-night hosts. The Daily Show's Trevor Noah delivered a powerful commentary in an 18-minute monologue, where he addressed the killing and the protests, calling out the police in America for "looting Black bodies."
The Daily Show's Flanz said that Comedy Central show, which has raised over $3M to support racial justice as well as those affected by the pandemic, didn't shy away from tough subjects. "Trevor and the show took it on with passion that was infectious throughout our now-virtual office. The conversations we had with each other became the ones we ended up having with our audience," she said.
Stephen Colbert asked "what kind of nation do we want to live in", Jimmy Kimmel highlighted the "loop we get stuck in" and called out Trump for his threat to shoot protestors, James Corden eschewed his Three Things To Cheer You Up segment for a call for change at the highest level, Seth Meyers said Trump's response was "like a cross between a brutal military dictator and a racist grandpa shuffling around the nursing home with his robe on backwards" and Conan O'Brien said he was "sickened by the needless killing of a Black man named George Floyd, but it doesn't feel right to talk about my feelings of sadness and anger".
Jimmy Fallon began his first Tonight Show episode after the murder addressing a clip of him appearing in Black face to play Chris Rock on a 2000 SNL sketch. He apologized and said he was "horrified" but that despite being advised to stay quiet, said that "the silence is the biggest crime that white guys like me and the rest of us are doing" before discussing race with NAACP boss Derrick Johnson.
The predominantly white (and male) late-night hosts leant heavily on their colleagues during these times.
Amber Ruffin, a writer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and now host of her own Peacock show, was arguably one of the breakout stars of the summer for her frank discussions of race. Following Floyd's killing, she took over the top of the NBC to detail her own run ins with police. "The cops have pulled a gun on me. The cops have followed me to my own home. Every black person I know has a few stories like that," she said in June.
The Late Show with James Corden bandleader Reggie Watts similarly told emotional stories of experiencing racism on the CBS show. "I feel like there's a pressure, if you're of color, you've got to represent your whole crew," he said. Late Show writer Olivia Harewood also helped Corden through his feelings of guilt about white privilege. "What white privilege means is that your skin color didn't make your life more challenging. Having that privilege means you don't need to deal with things like being racially profiled or getting unfairly turned down for a mortgage loan because of your skin color or being a minority at your workplace so you have to explain privilege to people you work with," she said.
Late-night has become intensely political over the last four years and none more so than this year, with a particularly virulent election cycle. The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University found that in September around 97% of the jokes on The Tonight Show and The Late Show were about Trump, his family or administration. This amounted to 455 jokes about Trump compared to 14 about Joe Biden.
From his handling of Covid-19, to his absurd claims and the behaviour of those around him, such as Rudy Guilani, late-night writers have been kept busy by the former host of the Celebrity Apprentice.
Colbert has gone hard at Trump since 2016 and admitted that he cried when he was defeated by Joe Biden. "During the last four years, we've occasionally talked about this administration – when it was appropriate," Colbert said earlier this month. "But now that it's about to be over, the president's team is leaving it all out on the field after they burned down the stadium. I'm just in awe at the sheer majesty of their stupidity."
It would be quicker to the list the late-night episodes where the hosts didn't take Trump to task for one thing or another; Meyers' A Closer Look segment has been on fire over the last nine months, Kimmel has been viciously funny, Noah has dissected his misogyny and racism and Fallon, generally not one to insult, has been aggressively political (and has improved his Trump impression).
But, for me, the standout late-night Trump moment of 2020 was Corden's parody of Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed (above) after the President contracted Covid-19.
President Barack Obama was the first sitting President to appear on late-night television when he went on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He's also shown himself to be a fan of sillier end of the medium with previous skits such as Slow Jamming The News. Towards the end of the year, he became almost a constant presence on late-night as he promoted his memoir A Promised Land. The former Commander-in-Chief was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he revealed what he missed about the job while failing at wastepaper basketball, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he was asked whether he made love to his wife Michelle after the raid on Osama Bin Laden, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, revealing how he handled flirtations from Madonna, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, where he expanded on recent comments on the Defund the Police movement.
But it was his appearance on Showtime's Desus & Mero that stood out to me. He was serious when he needed to be, but he also appeared to enjoy the gregarious nature of the hosts with sports slams (particularly about the Knicks) and talking up his own hoops ability. He also talked about the controversy surrounding him wearing a tan suit, a topic that led to the best line of the night with The Kid Mero dubbing Obama the "illest Remax realty salesman in Carbondale, Michigan".
Roll on 2021.


text:
The plane trees on both sides of the street bow towards each other high above me, as if to shelter us beneath. They are still green, although October is coming to its end. A bit further, a whitebeam's autumn leaves flame in the morning sun. A beggar sits on a blanket underneath a streetlight, her face is expressionless as the face of a Romanian woman can be. I don't carry cash with me and I mumble good morning, but the words are lost in the drum rolls of an awakening city. She sits there day in day out, from early morning to evening, when I leave for home.
What enables us to look the other way, I wonder during a lecture on malaria. Four hundred and fifty thousand deaths a year, mainly children, and completely unnecessarily. The disease is preventable and very well treatable. Four hundred and fifty thousand, that's more than a thousand children every day.
How did we learn to look the other way, I wonder again in the evening, when I listen to Verónica's voice by a campfire. Her words are like shards, sharpened by her Mexican accent. While the flames are licking the branches, she talks about a man somewhere in Africa who didn't let his sons go when the army came to recruit them. He was shot dead in front of his boys, and they were taken away. Murdering and robbing became the only way for them to survive. At the age of eighteen one of them was able to leave the army due to a gunshot wound. Supported by a charity he was able to go to school and years later he graduated as a medical doctor. Presently he works with Médicins sans Frontières, as a colleague of Verónica's.
She speaks of a mission in South Sudan, where she'd seen more misery and injustice than she could believe. While she talks, her fingers touch my arm, as if seeking comfort. She's not the same person she used to be. According to her friends, her views on the world and her place in it have changed radically. After the mission in South Sudan, she felt depressed for several months. And still she cannot freely enjoy life; it upsets her to see people dump bread into the bin, the careless life in London is unreal to her. Verónica may be traumatised, but she's also determined to continue her work.
What remains of our humanity after we've seen children die of hunger or malaria, problems that should have been solved by now? Is it less painful for an African mother than it is for a European mother? Is their problem also ours?
It gets cold. The branches in the fire have turned to little glowing bricks, the flames have faded. Is it justified to look the other way, I wonder, is it justified to pretend that misery doesn't exist? How can I walk by a homeless woman in the street? It's so tempting to believe in progression that stands alone, to think that we have no influence on misery and injustice, and that it will all just simply sort itself out. How else can we spend a few pounds in the pub, aware that a child's life somewhere in Africa may cost the same. But when you're out there, there's no way to deny it.
For most of the people the black reality doesn't even exist, I tell Verónica. People look away, or they think that it happens in a different world, a parallel universe. Only a small minority feels connected to it, still fewer are willing to give up something in order to reduce the misery of others. How can we ever make a difference?
Look, says Verónica, and she points up into the October night, what is it you see?
I follow her finger and there is nothing but darkness.
But then I become aware of a star, glittering somewhere to the north. And there's another one!
Almost all of it is dark matter, she whispers. All the stars together don't even make up a single percent of it. But still… the stars are all we see.


text:
Van and truck manufacturers and their dealer networks are fond of arguing that it makes no sense for operators with their own workshops to continue to service their fleets in-house.
With the advent of Euro 6 and the greater use of on-board electronics, vehicles have become more complicated, they contend. That means more investment in diagnostics tools and technician training.
Why spend all that money when the franchised dealer just up the road has already done so?
Demolishing the workshop creates more opportunities for a transport fleet too, they add. It could give the business space to expand its warehouse or extend a factory production line. Alternatively, the land the workshop occupies could be sold off, giving the fleet a useful cash injection.
There is a strong counter-argument, however, and it is one espoused by Arthur Spriggs & Sons. Celebrating its centenary in 2018, the Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire-based transport company is busy setting up a chain of big, all-makes workshops under the Spriggs & Sons Commercials banner that will maintain third-party vehicles as well as the firm's 180 trucks.
"We have one at Tewkesbury, we're opening one at Hailsham, East Sussex, we aim to have one in West Sussex and we'll have another in Rushden, Northamptonshire, as well," says Perry Reeves, who runs the workshop operation. "I reckon we'll have all of them in operation by the end of this year."
Reeves spent many years working for Mercedes-Benz van and truck dealership Rossetts, which has outlets in Sussex and Hampshire.
There is no denying the scale of the 4.5-acre Tewkesbury set-up. It has 17 full-length bays, five inspection pits and two ATF (authorised testing facility) lanes.
Two MOT bays are used by the company's own technicians to carry out Class 4, 5 and 7 tests, including tests on vans grossing at up to 3.5 tonnes. The site is open from 6am to midnight Monday to Friday – 24-hour opening is not far away says Reeves – and from 6am to mid-day on Saturdays and it holds a £360,000 stock of parts.
"We always have two technicians on call 24/7 to deal with emergencies and we're willing to work at weekends and at customer premises by arrangement," he says.
Newly-acquired site
Other facilities include a tachograph calibration centre and Reeves was planning to have two new 28-tonne-capacity lifts installed at the time of writing. Until recently some 75% of the Spriggs fleet was based at the same premises but has now been transferred to another, newly-acquired, site nearby.
Arthur Spriggs developed its in-house service and repair operation some years ago because it wanted greater control over how its vehicles were maintained and because it was by not happy with the quality of the work of some dealers.
The move has been a success, with a consistent 100% MOT pass rate achieved.
"What we do is put all the trucks due for an MOT through the ATF bays ourselves first and identify and deal with any faults," Reeves says. "Then when the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) tester arrives and puts the truck through the same process, it passes."
However, taking this route has not been without its challenges, especially on recruiting technicians.
"At times it has been a nightmare, but it's the commercial vehicle industry's fault and we're paying the price for it," Reeves says. "For years we didn't bother to train technicians and the result is that we've got guys in their twenties, guys in their fifties and a big gap in between."
When it comes to attracting technicians the answer is to provide good working conditions, says Reeves, and a decent hourly rate of pay. "We concentrate on that rather than paying bonuses because I've yet to see a truck workshop bonus scheme that actually works," he says.
"The difficulty with such schemes is that the guys who do inspection work benefit because they can carry out lots of inspections during the working day and are therefore viewed as productive," he continues. "However, the more highly-skilled diagnosticians don't because they may have to spend an entire day diagnosing a single, complex, fault."
So far as diagnostics are concerned, the 18 technicians at Spriggs rely heavily on all-makes tools and data sourced from independent supplier Texa.
In addition the firm has become an authorised repairer for Mercedes-Benz, Fuso and Isuzu trucks so it can easily obtain the necessary diagnostics tools and information for all three makes. It also makes use of the Mercedes-Benz apprenticeship scheme.
Access is tricky
Commercial vehicle manufacturers are obliged to make service and repair information available to third-party repairers although it can sometimes be a little tricky to access. Technicians can go to their training courses, too, but there is a charge and then there's the question of lost hours of work while in attendance.
Returning to diagnostics, the only areas on a truck that you cannot fully access if you are not a franchised dealer are those involving safety and security, Reeves observes. "You can't do anything major to the ABS or ESP."
Workshop loading is planned up to three months ahead, with MOT test dates and statutory inspections all factored in.
Occasionally prospective customers will say they do not want Spriggs & Sons Commercials to handle their service and repair work because they view the Arthur Spriggs & Sons transport fleet as a competitor. It is rarely an issue, however, says Reeves, and the Spriggs vehicles are not prioritised over third parties. "They have to take their turn," he observes. "No one gets bumped."
Clancy Docwra also does almost all its own maintenance, according to transport manager John Blakeley.
Located at Harefield, Middlesex (its head office), Dartford in Kent, Sunderland and Livingston in West Lothian, the construction company's in-house workshops look after 135 trucks and more than 800 vans. The former are all Ivecos, the latter all Fords, and standardising on just the two clearly makes servicing a lot easier.
"We do servicing in-house so we can monitor the quality of the work closely and make sure we comply with everything the DVSA requires," says Blakeley.
Plans for the near future include bringing in the Freight Transport Association (FTA) to audit workshop activities and getting all drivers to report defects using an app on their smartphones during daily walk-around checks.
Clancy Docwra's vehicles and construction plant are maintained separately. "However, we have a team of 30 mobile technicians who can work on both and deal with faults when vehicles are away from base," he says.
Both Spriggs and Clancy Docwra are firm believers in irtec accreditation for their technicians. "It's something the DVSA looks for so we went for it in 2016," Blakeley observes.
Established by the IRTE (Institute of Road Transport Engineers) professional sector of the SOE (Society of Operations Engineers), irtec is a renewable, voluntary accreditation scheme that assesses the competence and safety of technicians who maintain and repair commercial vehicles.
Once an irtec licence is issued the technician is listed on a national register and bound by a code of conduct. The licence is valid for five years and the technician must be reassessed in order to renew it.
The reassuring presence of irtec technicians is likely to make third parties more willing to subcontract maintenance to the workshop concerned; always assuming, of course, the price is right. They may be even happier to do so if it has undergone IRTE workshop accreditation.
Lasting for three years, such accreditation involves a day-long audit by FTA inspectors who examine everything from staff training records to equipment calibration certificates.
An approach some operators have pursued is to ask a franchised dealer to run their in-house workshop on their behalf while keeping a keen eye on the standards the dealer's technicians are achieving.
No regrets
With 62 trucks, all of which are Mercedes-Benz, Somerset transport company Massey Wilcox embarked on such an arrangement back in the 1990s, says managing director, Robert Wilcox. He has never regretted it.
The Chilcompton, Radstock, company's workshop is rented by Mercedes-Benz dealership Rygor. Wilcox commits to buying new Mercedes-Benz trucks with repair and maintenance contracts and Rygor technicians service and repair them on site. They look after the fleet's older Mercedes-Benz too – "we keep our trucks for seven years from new," says Wilcox – and Rygor it allowed to take on third-party work as part of the deal.
It means Wilcox does not need to worry about recruiting technicians, paying them, getting them trained or investing in the equipment they need. Nor does he need to concern himself with the legislation governing workshop operations.
He has the assurance that his trucks are serviced by Mercedes-Benz-trained technicians who fit genuine Mercedes-Benz parts. "Rygor keeps a big stock of spares on site and I'm hoping it will install an ATF eventually," he says.
Wilcox doubts he is paying any more to keep his fleet on the road than rival hauliers who run their own workshops, and enjoys peace-of-mind into the bargain.
One potential drawback is that it would be difficult to switch from the Mercedes-Benz should Wilcox have a mind to. He doesn't; he's more than satisfied with the trucks he runs.
With 6,500 vehicles on its books, Salford Van Hire runs its own workshops at its sites in Manchester and Leeds. It does so to ensure quality standards are maintained and to keep costs under control, says operations director Nick Evers.
"If you want a dealer to come out and re-set a truck's ignition switch then it will cost you at least £175 and some dealers will charge you as much as £250," he points out. "Your own technicians can do the job and save you money."
They can also react promptly when an amber warning light illuminates on the dashboard. All that may be required to clear the fault is for a technician to plug in his or her laptop.
"Some of the work, including diagnostics work, is still put out to dealers but we send guys out to audit their activities," he continues. "On one occasion a dealer technician had signed off a body as okay when there was a severe crack in it." The matter was immediately drawn to the dealer's attention.
"Even when maintenance is outsourced, we still like to look at the vehicles ourselves when MOT test time comes round," Evers says.
Third parties for brake testing
Clancy Docwra takes the same approach. Most fleets with in-house workshops need to sub-contract some tasks from time to time. "Although we've got three roller brake testers of our own plus Tapley meters we sometimes go to third parties for brake testing," says Blakeley.
Over the years manufacturers have from time to time supplied trucks with a two-year repair and maintenance package as part of the deal, with dealer workshops handling the work. Sounds like an attractive offer. Unfortunately it does not always work out that way, according to Evers.
"The difficulty is the dealer may be tempted to do the minimum amount of work required to comply with the agreement," he says. "What you then find when the agreement expires is that items such as gear linkages, kingpins and shackles are noticeably worn and will soon need replacing."
When they are changed, the operator will get a bill from the dealership.
Fortunately Salford can use its buying power to obtain competitive workshop rates. "We enjoy a good relationship with manufacturers and their dealers," says Evers.
"Trucks do not cost as much money to maintain as they used to but, when things do go wrong, they cost you big style," he adds. "AdBlue systems, for example, are not foolproof and can be expensive to put right."
Salford pays its technicians a slightly better hourly rate than local franchised dealers and there is scope to earn more by working extra hours and shifts.
"In our experience there are plenty of technicians out there, but quality can be a problem," Evers says.
Salford runs its own apprenticeship scheme and retains six or seven of the 10 apprentices it puts through a four-year cycle. Those that leave often want to return.
Run a large in-house service and repair operation and you will need the right software package to manage it. A good example is Key2 from Jaama.
Web-based, it can be used to manage drivers and vehicles and is available with a workshop management module. Its touchscreen functionality does away with manual input and makes it easier to book in jobs, load the workshop and keep control of work-in-progress.
That has been the experience of Perth and Kinross Council which has saved 1.5 employees by deploying it.
"Detailed management reports enable staff to view each vehicle's history at the touch of a button," says fleet manager Bill Morton. "That not only provides a complete audit trail but gives us a focus on whole-life cost control enabling vehicle replacement cycles to be more tightly managed."
The council uses Key2 to manage 90 vehicles covered by O-licence obligations as well as 330 light commercials and 120 cars across 14 sites. It allows Perth and Kinross to schedule six-weekly statutory inspections of trucks along with servicing and MOTs for all of its vehicles and to ensure compliance with LOLER (Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations), so far as tail-lifts and other handling aids are concerned.
Nearby Stirling Council and Falkirk Council have also introduced Key2 following Perth and Kinross's lead.
Jaama is by no means the only supplier of workshop management packages, with r2c Online making progress in the sector with its r2c Online service network platform.
Users include Cumbria-based Tyson H Burridge which runs 36 trucks. It maintains them itself and also looks after vehicles belonging to third parties.
"About 70% of what we do is for third parties and we wanted something that would improve productivity and efficiency while creating tangible benefits that we could pass on to our customers," says director Neil Robinson.
The r2c Online solution sees the company's nine-strong team of technicians complete inspections using a touchscreen computer. The on-screen inspection sheet covers all legally-required service items and Tyson H Burridge can add other items as and when required.
An inspection is not completed until it has been authorised by the shift foreman. Once that happens it is immediately uploaded to the online system and third-party clients are told that this has happened by email. They can then log in and view the completed sheet which is filed in a digital archive.
"Our technicians are completing inspections quicker than they did with our previous paper-based set-up," says Robinson. "The system has completely removed the need to file hard-copy inspection sheets which has massively reduced administration time and printing costs."
Manage daily checks
Other r2c Online users include Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire-based Mick George, which runs some 260 trucks. It has used r2c Online to enable it to move away from the paper-based approach it used to rely on to manage maintenance and the daily checks completed by drivers.
"Not only did that mean an unsustainable amount of time spent on administration but it opened the doors to spotting errors such as incorrectly-completed inspection sheets and missing documentation," says transport manager Joe Gossage. "The time we've saved is now being spent on a more proactive approach to fleet maintenance."
Another supplier of management packages is Freeway Fleet Systems. Fleets with workshops that handle both internal and external work can hold all the details of third-party vehicles as well as details of their own with Freeway.
The package automatically emails customers to remind them when their vehicles are due for a statutory inspection or routine maintenance.
Once the job is finished it produces an invoice using information from the job card and automatically updates the accounting software. There is no need for manual data input.
While having suitable management software is vital, even more vital is machinery, which does not come cheap.
A roller brake tester alone can set you back up to £30,000. Invest in an ATF lane and you could be looking at an invoice for well in excess of £100,000.
It can be a valuable tool to attract third-party work but you are still reliant on the DVSA providing a tester; and some ATF operators say so many ATFs have now been appointed that making money out of one can be a challenge.


text:
Sujok Therapy is a healing methodology based on Acupressure, and is a simple method that produces highly effective results. In Sujok therapy, palm and foot represent the all the active points in the body corresponding to all the organs/ parts of the human body. By providing stimulation for these points, a curative effect is produced and illnesses are cured.
Material Provided
Timings:11am to 6pm
4 days Course
*Lunch & Refreshment will be provided
Course Outline
Seed Therapy:
Seeds are natural stimulators to the acupressure points and are also part of Sujok therapy.
Seed therapy is complementary to sujok therapy. After acupressure treatment one can tie seeds, pulses and legumes at the treated point to supply
extra life force to facilitate quick healing.
Greengrams, kidney beans and peas are frequently used for treatment. Infact, suitable shape, size and color seeds or beans are picked, for example,
for kidney treatment the same shape bean is selected. The selected ones are tied to the pain point with an adhesive plaster.
It is believed that many people from Korea and other countries have benefited by the use of this therapy. A common man can use it as self cure
method to heal simple ailments like cold, sorethroat or back pain.
Almost all the ailments that are healed by acupressure method, can be cured by Sujok . In fact the diseases can be healed faster and effectively.
Magnet Therapy:
Magnet therapy is a type of "alternative" medicine which claims that magnetic fields have healing powers. Some claim that magnets can help
broken bones heal faster, Many civilizations throughout history have used magnets to treat illness.
Magnet therapy may improve circulation, increase blood oxygen, alkalinize bodily fluids, decrease deposition of toxic materials in blood vessel
walls (such as cholesterol plaques) or relax blood vessels through effects on cellular calcium channels. Other theories describe altered nerve
impulses, reduced edema or fluid retention, increased endorphins, muscle relaxation, cell membrane effects or stimulation of acupoints.
Some traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners suggest that magnets may affect patterns of flow of the body's life force, known as chi (qi).
Colour Therapy:
Colour relates to 'Vibration' and in the recent years physicists have established that all matters including our organs is really an energy which
works by and under influence of vibrations. Colours have their own vibrations, or energy fields, it follows quite logically that colours can influence
our bodies and its functioning, by using colours on proper correspondence points.
Seven colours of the spectrum consist of the colours – VIBGYOR -Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. These seven cosmic rays and their mixtures are responsible for creation, maintenance,
and destruction of the universe. They impart life, health, young, old age and death and thus regulate all beginnings and ends.
Colour therapy affects the mind more than it affects the body.
What is moxibustion?
Moxibustion is a form of heat therapy in which dried plant materials called "moxa" are burned on or very near the surface of the skin. The intention is to warm and invigorate the flow of Qi in the body and dispel certain pathogenic influences.
Moxa is usually made from the dried leafy material of Chinese mugwort (Artemesia argyi or A.vlugaris), but it can be made of other substances as well.
The moxa material is compressed into a stick or pole, looking not unlike an oversized cigar that can be lit and allowed to smolder, producing a
unique form of very penetrating heat.
The smoldering moxa stick is held over specific areas, often, though not always, corresponding to certain acupuncture points.
The glowing end of the moxa stick is held about an inch or two above the surface of the skin until the area reddens and becomes suffused with warmth.
Moxibustion is used for:
- Pain due to injury orarthritis, especially in "cold" patterns where the pain naturally feels better with the application of heat
- Digestive problems and irregular elimination
- Protection against cold and flu strains
Practitioners often do both acupuncture and moxibustion in the same clinic session when appropriate to the diagnosis and treatment strategy.
Practitioners believe that the therapies increase each other's effectiveness when used together.
Unlike acupuncture, which is almost always done by a trained practitioner in a clinic setting, moxibustion can be easily used at home.
It is not uncommon for Chinese medical practitioners to train their patients to use moxa on themselves to strengthen the effect of the clinical sessions between appointments.


text:
/// NOTE: Talks are 60 min long(including questions) with 15 min breaks between sessions.
Registration, Coffee
Introduction and Keynote
Sponsors, Organisers
Web Usability Metrics
Stefan Ivanovhttp://www.jstalks.net
Usability can be measured but we rarely do so. There are two main approaches that will be discussed. First is the approach of UX practitioners focused around surveys for collection subjectively perceived usability of the website. Second comes the automated process of using telemetry or analytic tools to monitor user behavior beyond what marketers usually do.
new JavaScript(6)"
Boris Simandoffhttp://www.jstalks.net
Boris will focus on the new features of ES6, generators used in concurrent programming, iterators, proxies, let operator etc. He'll address the improvements of the code structure and will provide valuable advice how to write a new generation JavaScript code.
React.js - A JavaScript library for building highly efficient user interfaces
Hajan Selmanihttp://www.jstalks.net
There are many ways how we build great UIs today. In this session we will see how and why to use Facebook's React.js when building highly efficient, component-based UI and how it gets fit with any other popular SPA frameworks today. Facebook, Instagram, Khan Academy, New York Times and many other known companies use React.js for building their UI - there must be reason behind it? Lets find out.
Coffee Break
Project Nashorn, why should we care
Michal Grucahttp://www.jstalks.net
We're living in a fast moving world. Javascript is everywhere and can do anything, from adding widgets to your desktop to controlling your TV, however some developers still don't treat it seriously. Number of frameworks grows, there is node.js, languages compiling to Javascript, but despite all of that we still struggle with weird superstitions. During the course of the session I'll try to give very brief overview of Nashorn and explain why in my eyes it can be a game changer that will allow us to add .js to "enterprise languages", and that opens whole new world :) We'll also dive a bit into architecture of applications, talk about testability and polyglot programming to finish with real world example of application built using Nashorn, just to prove that highly specialized, mission critical software can benefit a lot from using .js.
Azure websites – Agile development and internet scale
Galin Ilievhttp://www.jstalks.net
In this demo heavy session we will explore the tools Azure Websites provides for fast development lifecycle, diagnostics as well as what is needed to change in application design to achieve Internet scale. We will see how cloud technologies and Azure cloud PAAS offering can enable developers be the multiplier for success by freeing developers' mind from tedious administrative tasks so they can focus purely on application design and implementation. During the demos we will see how with Azure websites we can utilize continuous deployment, traffic rerouting for testing in production, new version rollout without cold start for the users, auto scale and many more. By starting with a simple template application it will be transformed to be able to scale and how this can be done with the power of the cloud by deploying it in multiple geographic regions.
The Organisers
The { Call for speakers } is not yet open.top


text:
Current Properties
First Street Napa | Napa
The Gordon Building | Napa
Beckstoffer Building | Napa
North Carolina
Asheville Market | Asheville
City Place | Durham
306 West Franklin | Chapel Hill
College Station | Brevard
1330 St. Mary's Street | Raleigh
Devon Center | Morrisville
University Plaza | Pembroke
Lyerly Mill | Hickory
Market of Wake Forest | Wake Forest
South Carolina
Lyerly Mill | Hickory
Originally constructed in 1930 in the Art Moderne style, Lyerly Mill is Hickory's only remaining two-story hosiery mill from this era. The mill ceased operations as a hosiery manufacturing facility in 1957 and was used as a warehouse afterwards. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The building was restored to its original state with hardwood floors and ceilings as part of a renovation to create an 11-acre downtown campus for Transportation Insight, an Enterprise Logistics Solutions company. Every effort was made to keep or match original materials in the building, including more than 90 percent of the wood that was reclaimed and refinished to its original state. The campus now features more than 70,000 square feet of office space, anchored by the Global Building inside the historic hosiery mill.
Transportation Insight's corporate campus at the Olde Hickory Mill Park also includes the company's transactional division BirdDog in the adjacent Americas Building. It also underwent significant renovation to accommodate up to 250 employees and house a full-service cafeteria. Like the Global Building, the Americas Building features an open floorplan concept that facilitates advanced teamwork and creates an atmosphere that fuels creativity.
Property Highlights
- 2016 N.C Main Street Award of Merit for Best Historic Rehabilitation
- National Register of Historic Places in 2007


text:
Sicarios: Latin American Assassins by Javier Arcenillas
Photographs by Javier Arcenillas
Text by Juan Luis Font
Sicarios: Latin American Assassins was the winner of the 2011 FotoEvidence Book Award. This documentary study takes the viewer into the underworld of the young assassin in Guatemala, where society has been savaged by a culture of murder for hire. Javier Arcenillas comes face to face with several young assassins, the bodies they leave in their wake and the people who have to contend with the consequences. The book is bilingual in English and Spanish and contains an interview with the photographer and a forward by Jorge Luis Font, editor in chief of El Periódico de Guatemala, the country's largest newspaper.


text:
A vast plume trailed out of Halema'uma'u Crater within a Kilauea volcano limit caldera during a Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Thursday morning.
Volcanoes are full of tricks. They can build to a vital tear in a crescendo of shudders and spatters or raze with roughly no warning. They can distortion in wait underneath a pretentious snowcap, a centerpiece of a landscape of beauty that they could erase tomorrow, or in 10,000 years, or never again.
And there are some-more of them in some-more tools of America than we competence think.
The U.S. Geological Survey depends 169 potentially active volcanoes in a nation — some of them straight-from-the-textbook conical plateau surfaced with craters, and others that frequency demeanour a partial during all. About 50 of them in 6 states are rated high priority or top priority for monitoring. A few have been active in complicated times; others final erupted hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
Here's a outline of where they are.
The state's land mass owes a really existence to volcanoes: Each island is a product of during slightest one. The Big Island has five, including Mauna Loa, a largest active volcano anywhere on earth.
Kilauea, a one that has newly been opening new fissures, spewing lava and forcing evacuations, has been erupting in one approach or another invariably given a early 1980s. Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times in a past 175 years, and Loihi, a submarine volcano about 20 miles offshore, erupted in 1996. Farther north and west, a islands are comparison and quieter geologically; Maui's usually active volcano, Haleakala, is believed to have erupted many recently during slightest 400 years ago.
Though it has captivated many a caller to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park over a years, Kilauea's long-running tear has taken a poignant toll. The Hawaii Center for Volcanology records that over one nine-month period, it broken some-more than 100 houses.
Hawaii mostly gets a headlines, yet Alaska has a numbers: At slightest 50 volcanoes have been active in a state given 1760, attracting estimable courtesy from volcano watchers and researchers. Many are strong along a arc of a Aleutian Islands, partial of a "Ring of Fire" around a Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and eruptions are many common.
One of them is some-more worrisome than common right now. Scientists during a Alaska Volcano Observatory have a yellow warning in outcome for Mount Cleveland, where they have been detecting seismic and thermal activity and occasional charcoal clouds.
Like many of Alaska's volcanoes, Mount Cleveland is in a strikingly remote, unpopulated area. But 4 of them are tighten adequate to Anchorage, a state's largest city, to be a intensity worry.
The gravest problem that Alaskan volcanoes frequently pose, though, is not on a belligerent yet thousands of feet in a air. Researchers guess that 80,000 vast aircraft fly over or nearby Alaska's volcanoes any year, creation them exposed to volcanic ash. When a blurb jetliner flew by charcoal in 1989, all 4 engines quickly close down, and a aircraft forsaken 13,000 feet in only 8 minutes. It managed to land safely in Anchorage.
From Canada to Mexico, a American West is dotted with volcanoes. Some are in a Sierra Nevada, like a Long Valley Caldera, believed to have final erupted about 16,000 years ago. Others assistance make adult a Cascade Range in farming Oregon and Washington.
One is Mount St. Helens, about 50 miles from a Portland, Oregon, area, that erupted explosively in 1980, causing an avalanche of waste and wiping out forests and wildlife for miles. U.S. officials contend it is "the many expected of a constant U.S. volcanoes to explode in a future." Another is Mount Rainier, a tallest of a Cascades, mountainous scenically nearby Seattle and Tacoma; it final erupted about 1,000 years ago. Lassen Peak, reduction than 60 miles from Redding, California, erupted many recently in 1917, formulating a scary landscape of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Mount Hood and Mount Shasta have any erupted in a final few hundred years.
Volcanoes are not always particular mountains. There are volcanic fields sparse opposite a West where scientists have found cones, lava flows and signs of comparatively new eruptions.
One of America's many renouned inhabitant parks, Yellowstone, is home to volcanic activity that has been personification out for about 2 million years. Indeed, it is obliged for some of a park's many fantastic sights.
The park was profoundly made by a "supereruption" about 640,000 years ago. An eventuality like that currently would bury tools of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming in several feet of ash, and charcoal could finish adult as distant divided as Chicago, Los Angeles and St. Louis.
But such an eventuality — or even a milder one that would miscarry a Yellowstone vacation — is rarely doubtful to occur though a lot of allege warning, according to a Geological Survey: "Yellowstone hasn't erupted for 70,000 years, so it's going to take some considerable earthquakes and belligerent uplift to get things started."
Scientists watch Yellowstone for signs of action, yet a other volcanoes sprinkled by a towering states are seen as so low risk that they are not monitored.
Most volcanoes are where geologists would design them to be — along a severe edges, cracks and prohibited spots in a earth's membrane — and have been around a prolonged time. But it is not unheard-of for a new one to seem totally by surprise. Consider Paricutín, that rose from a Mexican cornfield starting in 1943. The New York Times remarkable in 1952 that it had given scientists "a singular event for study, as it is a initial volcano they have been means to inspect daily from a impulse of a 'birth.'" Paricutín is now dormant, yet a story stays executive to bargain a scholarship of volcano development.
Does that meant a 1997 film "Volcano," about lava unexpected welling adult underneath Los Angeles, competence come true? Well, substantially not. Though there are active trembler faults in a city, a earth's membrane is not relocating there in a approach that tends to furnish volcanic activity.
Article source: http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/05/14/nyt/not-just-hawaii-the-u-s-has-169-volcanoes-that-could-erupt/


text:
I'm reading Martha Nussbaum's Frontiers of Justice, which is an expanded version of her 2003 Tanner Lectures. In it, Nussbaum develops and applies her "capability approach" to social and political justice in three areas that traditional moral theories have often ignored: duties toward the disabled, foreigners, and nonhuman animals.
A major part of Nussbaum's project is criticizing the social contract tradition, which, she argues, is incapable of dealing with these three issues. In her view, this is because most social contract theories (including that of John Rawls, whom Nussbaum considers to be the best exemplar of this tradition) are built in such a way as to exclude the claims of the disabled, the foreigner, and the nonhuman animal by definition.
In a typical social contract theory, principles of justice are derived by stripping away irrelevant features of actually existing human societies and asking what principles would be agreed to in a hypothetical contract arrived at by rational, self-interested persons of roughly equal bargaining power, physical strength, intellectual ability, etc. Nussbaum notes that some earlier forms of social contract theory (e.g., Locke) are impure or hybrid varieties because they incorporate elements of an earlier natural law tradition–for instance, the idea that each person has an innate moral dignity that entitles them to certain treatment. But as we get further away from that tradition, the features of the social contract more closely approximate an agreement between rational, self-interested agents without any prior moral constraints.
The reason social contract theories can't adequately account for her three anomalous cases, Nussbaum thinks, is that the principles of justice they come up with are, by definition, those that would be appropriate for "normal" adults–i.e., people who are roughly equal in physical and intellectual capability. This is for the very simple reason that the parties to the social contract are assumed to be such normal adults (even in Rawls's rarefied "original position") and the principles they agree on are those they would choose to protect their own interests. Thus, the principles of the social contract can't adequately account for or protect the interests of those who fall short of this kind of rough equality (e.g., the disabled or nonhuman animals). In fact, many social contract theorists explicitly deny that we have direct duties of justice to such "marginal cases." We may care for them, out of sentiment or a sense of benevolence, but they are not owed anything as a strict matter of justice. (Although it's not one of Nussbaum's focuses, it seems that children would also fall beyond the pale for similar reasons.)
Most of Nussbaum's book is aimed at showing how her capability approach–which, as I understand it, is kind of an updated Aristotelianism–can more adequately deal with these borderline cases than traditional theories, particularly social contract ones. I'm especially interested to see how she applies it to the case of nonhuman animals.


text:
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government's AAHAAR initiative to provide affordable meals to needy in urban areas has received a major boost as CM Naveen Patnaik dedicated 38 new AAHAAR Kendras. Now covering all 114 ULBs of the state, 157 Kendras will ensure one lakh people are served every day.
Started in April 2015, AAHAAR has till date served 7.2 Cr cooked meals, powered by 65 vehicles and 2,000 dedicated personnel. CM Naveen Patnaik launched its web-portal where people will be able to donate & sponsor an AAHAAR Kendra for a day.