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NLU’s Professor James O’Meara, Ed.D., recently spoke on education in London at the House of Lords, which forms part of the United Kingdom’s Parliament. O’Meara, who is president of the International Council on Education for Teaching, stressed the need to increase the numbers of quality teachers to end the current worldwide shortage.
He was taking part in a high-level international education summit aimed at improving the lives of young people globally through education.
Teachers, researchers, academics and policy makers from around the world attended the conference, titled the Teacher Education Knowledge Mobilisation Summit.
The United Nations has developed Sustainable Development goals for the planet, and goal number four is to ensure inclusive quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. They assigned the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to carry out the goal, and UNESCO subsequently formed the 2030 Framework for Action to do so.
Those at the conference were trying to explore practical, cost-effective ways to grow the number of teachers and increase the quality and accessibility of learning worldwide.
As one of the few speakers actively involved in developing aspects of the new global education goal, O’Meara asked the audience how they are working to advance the global education goal of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all in their countries.
O’Meara and ICET strongly advocate for qualified teachers so that learners of all ages have access to learning opportunities. O’Meara drew on examples from the United States, where a half a million teachers either move or leave the profession annually, to highlight the significant effect of attrition. That dramatizes the gap, he said, between the number of qualified teachers we have and the number of qualified teachers we need to ensure quality learning for all.
“Teacher retention figures could improve if we increased the percentage of teachers who actively engaged in quality professional learning opportunities annually,” he said.
Professor Angela McFarlane, chief executive of the College of Teachers (the United Kingdom’s institute for continuing professional development and promoting the teaching profession) and her board extended an invitation to O’Meara to join the College’s advisory board. O’Meara is the first international adviser to receive such an invitation.
O’Meara plans to attend the second Knowledge Mobilisation Summit, planned for 2017.

industry_corpus2: Subject Education


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We are so excited to have shipped off our first Tennessee boutique order! This shipment of necklaces and earrings is headed to Style of Civilization in Knoxville, TN.
At the end of Summer Danani made our debut not only at Karma Boutique but our debut on TV as well! Karma sold out of the first order of earrings so I just restocked a new set of designs to them last week! Check out the previous segment and a couple of new photos of Kristi sporting finds from her shop with a few of the newest Danani designs!
My lovely sister just tied the knot! Of course all of the adornments were complements of me. Here is a sneak peek of her bridal hairpiece and his boutonniere, more to come! These beautiful photos were taken by the talented Rick Garza of Bright & Early Productions.

industry_corpus2: Others


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1. The chance to see a 35mm film print of “The Silence of the Lambs.” – As part of a Friday night Halloween Double Feature, you can see the only horror film to win the best picture Oscar on the big screen once more – Is there a better way to watch Buffalo Bill’s chilling dance scene? We think not.
You won’t believe your eyes when you see this film print – definitely better than a digital projection.
2. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” – The other half of the Friday night double feature, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, set a new standard for horror cinema when it hit the scene in 1974.
It remains one of the most influential and unforgettable horror films ever made and cult film enthusiasts shouldn’t miss this opportunity to see the film in a midnight movie atmosphere.
3. You can see the world’s first fully painted animated film – To give you an idea of the creative scope of “Loving Vincent,” all 65,000 frames of the film are oil paintings on canvas.
The biographical drama about the life of painter Vincent Van Gogh was crafted by a team of over 100 animators who used the same techniques as Van Gogh himself.
4. Support Canadian Cinema – “Una,” the highly acclaimed and harrowing film about a young woman tracking down the older man who abused her as a child is a British, American, and Canadian co-production.
The film which stars Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last Fall.
The crowd-pleasing film boasts an impressive 84% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and even though it’s set in 1973, it feels particularly timely considering the current political climate.

industry_corpus2: Film & Entertainment


text: Check out this cool collectible Funko POP! Vinyl figure of Joey from Friends. This highly detailed miniature looks like the character from the television series, just with a larger head and a few cartoon-like flourishes that these iconic collectibles are known for. Standing at almost 10cm tall it makes a brilliant buddy for your desk, shelf or mantle.


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It is well known that year 2018 was dismally awful for the cryptocurrency market. Several projects that were centered round Bitcoin collapsed. Several Altcoins fell off their cliffs. Despite all of these happenings, crypto enthusiasts and analysts are claiming that 2019 is going to be a great year for the crypto.
Thought leaders have expressed their views about the cryptocurrency sector moving forward. In a recent crypto event at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, Shrem stated that lot of phoenixes arise from the ashes.
Shrem was optimistic when asked about the year 2018/2019 bear market. He, however, acknowledged that this is one of the worse bear markets ever. He even recalled about how investors invested in fiat money and lost their money to the mass Fear of Missing Out behavior.
Ethereum and EOS were explained by many as scientific experiments. There were questions about whether Bitcoin would exist in a year. Some are even wondering if there is enough security in the Bitcoin market and if Bitcoin will survive. There are frequent discussions and analyst opinion about for how long this bear market last.
Mining continues to be a big problem for most cryptocurrencies. Ethereum relies on POW to secure transactions and to add them to the distributed ledger of the blockchain. Therefore, winning requires more computational power. More computational power means more profit. Application Specific ICs (ASICs) are used to accelerate mining.
Ethereum is planning to substitute POW with POS. Rather than million processors working on the same transaction, the POS will pick one processor to take over the task. Thus, honesty is sustained, and when the validator is found to be cheating, they lose a lot. Thus spends on computational power and energy is reduced in turn preventing the dilution of the value of the currency.
POS will boost security because the location of every validator is known. In cases, when the validator breaks the rules, their account can be destroyed. Thus, Ethereum retains the power to destroy abusive validators.
A short-term consolidation was seen above $116.00. If buyers succeed to push the price in the $120.00 to 122.00 range, then a bullish momentum will set in.
The decline in the price of Ethereum has left the rest of the market tokens to follow the trend. This is not abnormal; however, it is interesting to see that XRP is ahead of Ethereum by market cap. We need to watch if there will be a renewal in price anytime soon for ETH.

industry_corpus2: Finance & Economics


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Welcome to “Pretty Much Screwed,” our 2012-13 guide to the upcoming NBA season, in which we identify the reasons why your favorite team might have to start looking forward to 2013-2014 — and highlight at least one reason for you to be hopeful. Today: the Brooklyn Nets, the Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov-owned and Brooklyn upstarts that cost more than the entirety of Brooklyn's DIY craft breweries.
The Brooklyn Nets have been one of the most talked about teams this offseason, primarily because of the new first part of their name: Brooklyn. They've moved across both the Hudson and the East River and now they're sharing real estate with dive bars galore, mustache-waxed dads pushing babies rocking Velvet Underground tees in strollers, kids in jeans that hug the crotch an uncomfortable amount, and [insert Brooklyn trope of your choice]. They're also the first professional sports team to claim the borough as their own since the Dodgers took off for Southern Cali in 1957. That means there's been a dearth of professional sports in Brooklyn for 55 years, so it's too bad they're stuck with this: an expensive, motley group that'll be nearly worthless on defense.
Even their prepubescent-voiced head coach, Avery Johnson, admits as much: the Nets need to get tougher on defense. We're sorry, but Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries are about as terrifying a defensive low-post tandem as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.
Reggie Evans is an upgrade at the 4 on defense, but he's obviously not the starter and he's limited on offense. Lopez is a legit 7-footer, but he's coming off a broken right foot that limited him to just 5 games last season, and he makes Lou Amundson look svelte on defensive rotations. And Humphries, when he wasn't busy in his blink-and-you-missed it marriage to Kanye's current amour, was befuddled by opposing power forwards. Joe Johnson is a big 2 that can match up against most small forwards and Gerald Wallace is a big 3 that can match up against a most power forwards, but they'll still have to hide Humphries or Lopez on defense. Deron Williams is an all-world point, but that's primarily on the offensive end.
Last season Nets opponents had an effective field goal percentage of .513, good for second to last in the league. They weren't much better on the boards either, finishing 28th out of 30 teams in defensive rebounding percentage (via basketball-reference). This wasn't a coincidence, as they finished second to last (only better than the historically bad Charlotte Bobcats) in points allowed, giving up 106.9 points per 100 possessions (via Hoopdata). I'm pretty sure I could drop 20 points on this defense, and I haven't played organized ball in more than a decade.
They can't rebound; specifically, Brook Lopez can't rebound.
Sure, Joe Johnson can pick up some boards with his size, but since there's a component of hustle involved in collecting any rebound, Johnson leaves you wanting. He ranked 31st among all shooting guards in Offensive Rebounding Rate and 58th (tied with Ray Allen, for comparison's sake) in Defensive Rebounding Rate (via ESPN). So it's obvious his height is negated by his hustle (just ask Hawks fans, who are nodding eagerly).
But Johnson, the most significant addition to this year's team in Brooklyn, isn't the real reason this team will be so horrible rebounding the basketball. That distinction belongs to one Brook Lopez, possibly the worst rebounding 7-footer in the history of basketball. Just read this piece from Grantland's Zach Lowe: Lopez finished 70 (out of 73) among centers in Defensive Rebounding Rate (via ESPN). If you talk to any NBA stats geek, they'll tell you he rebounds like a particularly undersized off-guard - except, you know, he's FREAKIN' SEVEN FEET TALL!
Recently, Rembert Browne wrote an excellent piece about the new Brooklyn Nets franchise. Yes, the Nets front office has done a good job emphasizing Jay-Z's involvement (while downplaying the diaspora of displaced homeowners that resulted when developer Bruce Ratner broke ground on the Barclays Center) and the fact they're in Brooklyn now, while also downplaying the actual name of the franchise: Nets. The Nets are synonymous with New Jersey and its second class status in the mind of just about every person that's lived in New York for longer than a week. A friend that just moved here exclaimed recently when I said I was going to Jersey, "Ewww, why?" So the Nets are still the Nets. Nothing can change the fact that this franchise came from New Jersey.
There's simply no accounting for the stank of the Nets on this franchise. Yes, they're trying to re-imagine themselves as a Brooklyn entity, and they are - they should be commended for this - but they're still second class citizens in New York, and no amount of PR and Jay-Z/Beyonce love fests at the Barclays Center can change that.
They've spent a fortune, and now they're locked up financially for the foreseeable future.
Russian oligarch owner Mikhail Prokhorov looks really awesome on a jet ski, but he's spending money like it grows on trees (though actually, for him, it might). They're currently paying $85 million in salaries this year, and that jumps to $89 million next year when the new CBA luxury taxes take prior years into account, which means the luxury tax will be even higher. They took on Joe Johnson's salary that will pay him a little under $20 million this year, $21.5 million next year, over $23 million the year after, and an astronomical $24,894,863 for the 2015-16 season. We're pretty sure the Hawks ownership group threw GM Danny Ferry a party when he unloaded Johnson's outlandish salary. Is it even worth getting into Gerald Wallace's, Kris Humphries' and Brook Lopez's deals? Nope. Prokhorov might have oodles of money from his time in the wasteland of post-Communist Russia, but they're spending a fortune for less ROI than fans would hope.
One reason you might not be screwed: OOOO SCORING BIG OFFENSE.
This team will score, and score often. The backcourt of Joe Johnson and Deron Williams, while expensive, will be one of the best in the league and a matchup nightmare for any team starting a small set of guards. Kris Humphries is a decent power forward with the ball in his hands, and Gerald Wallace can put together some big games without being the offense's primary target, even if he's far from his heyday with the Bobcats. Trading for Joe Johnson and re-signing Deron Williams (thanks Mark Cuban!) means they'll be in playoff contention every year. Some even have the Nets getting a top 4 seed in this year's weak Eastern Conference. They're also in Brooklyn, which, if you read the New York Times Style section, is very hip. I actually live in Brooklyn, and I'm not hip at all, but I've already seen roughly 324 Napoleon Dynamite-looking dudes rocking a Brooklyn Nets hat and jersey. They're here, and people are excited.
Actual prediction: 44-38, 3rd in the Atlantic Division and 6th in the Eastern Conference. And yes, I'm biased, but only because my Walt Frazier jersey is un-ironically cooler than anything my fellow Brooklyn denizens are rocking.
Read more of our NBA Previews here.

industry_corpus2: Sports


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industry_corpus2: Real Estate & Construction


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The far-right One Nation party’s re-entry to the Australian parliament after 20 years is likely to entrench already harsh asylum policies that enjoy bipartisan support. These include the mandatory detention of children, writes Greek-Australian journalist Kia Mistilis.
Australia’s recent national elections, which returned the conservative Liberal-National party coalition to power by the slimmest of margins, will not alter the country’s harsh asylum seeker policies. They are likely to entrench the government’s position against longstanding calls for immigration policy reform. But it is equally important to note that policies such as mandatory detention of children have enjoyed bipartisan support for a while now.
This dark chapter in Australia’s treatment of refugees can be traced back to August 26, 2001, in the lead-up to another national election, when Prime Minister John Howard refused the Norwegian cargo ship MV Tampa entry into Australian waters after it had rescued 438 mainly Afghan asylum seekers of Hazara ethnicity from a distressed Indonesian fishing boat.
Stating that they would never be allowed to set foot in Australia, Howard deployed Special Forces to board the Tampa. “We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come,” he declared.
This infamous episode laid the foundation of the past 15 years of asylum policies rooted in xenophobia towards refugees and systemic barriers against future reform, especially mandatory detention of all asylum seekers, including minors.
Although mandatory detention laws stipulating that “unlawful non-citizens” must be detained until granted a visa or removed had already been introduced by the Labor government in 1992, the Tampa incident marked a turning point in Australian immigration policies. It catalyzed the Pacific Solution, which established Nauru as the first regional detention center in 2001, followed by Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, which was established by the Labor-led government in 2007.
Howard’s actions were criticized internationally, but received widespread public support in Australia, contributing to a landslide election victory for the conservative Liberal-National Party (LNP).
Prompted by Howard’s 2001 election-winning strategy, politicians began using rhetoric about protecting Australia’s borders from “illegal boat people” and “Muslim terrorists” to justify incarcerating asylum seekers outside Australian territory under a veil of secrecy. These highly fortified detention centers prohibit media and thereby public scrutiny.
Regardless of the government in power, Australia continues to follow a strict detention policy, where asylum seekers are detained without formal charges or a trial even after they are officially recognized as refugees.
Despite 94 percent of the asylum seekers processed in Australia and 80 percent processed offshore being granted refugee status since 2001, the LNP insists that the 1,500 refugees currently held on Manus and Nauru will never be resettled in Australia.
In recent years, the LNP government has justified the policy under the pretext of saving lives at sea and combating people smugglers. What makes this claim incredibly dubious is that the same government now stands accused of paying people-smugglers $30,000 to turn asylum seeker boats back to Indonesia.
The costs of Australia’s deterrence policies have been inordinate.
unofficial estimates are closer to $3.7 billion. Meanwhile, human rights advocates point to the immeasurable ethical consequences.
This legal lapse in protection has created an increasing gulf between Australia’s national laws and its international obligations. Australia is in breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights specifically Article 14, the Refugee Convention, which grants every human the right to seek asylum in any country, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Ironically, the country played a significant role in formulating the declaration.
“For Australia to ignore the agreements it freely signed up [to] shows a stunning hypocrisy” says Burnside.
As the only country in the world that mandates closed and indefinite detention of asylum seeker children, Australia’s offshore detention regime was recently categorized as an “atrocity” by trauma expert Paul Stevenson.
In 2014, the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention: The Forgotten Children, concluded that the numerous reported incidents of violence, sexual assault and self harm involving children in detention centers proved beyond doubt that it constitutes a dangerous environment for minors.
“The overarching finding of the Inquiry is that the prolonged, mandatory detention of asylum-seeker children causes them significant mental and physical illness and developmental delays, in breach of Australia’s international obligations,” the report concluded.
There have been recent signs that Australia’s refugee policy is unsustainable. The High Court of Papua New Guinea recently ruled Manus island detention center illegal and recommended it be shut down. Some human rights advocates are also seeing a positive shift occurring in public opinion with an expanding Australian movement for refugee rights. While Burnside considers that attitudes on asylum seekers are hardening, he also points out that Australians would not support the policy if they had not been misled into believing that arriving by boat to seek asylum in Australia is illegal.
Either way, it remains a highly politicized and polarizing issue.
Presently, Australia‘s refugee intake, ranked 67th overall in the world, is woefully inadequate for such a wealthy country, and hypocritical considering that, apart from its indigenous peoples, it is a nation built on immigration.
My own family history attests to this foundation. All four of my grandparents arrived in Australia by boat from Greece – one was an unaccompanied child refugee, while the other three were immigrants. Their experiences are amongst millions of similar stories woven into the fabric of Australia’s diverse multicultural society.
Australia has the social and institutional framework and labor market space to absorb new migration and welcome, not criminalize, refugees.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Refugees Deeply.
Kia Mistilis is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Athens, Greece.

industry_corpus2: Politics & Administration


text: For kids perhaps over age 3 or 4, these polished surgical steel heart children's earrings with the sparkle of cz, offer the highest degree of hypoallergenic safety for the most sensitive of skin. Measuring 7mm x 7mm, she will love these. Want two pairs? Purchase two pairs of these heart earrings in surgical steel and enjoy our Sister Special and get 10% off both pairs.

industry_corpus2: Health & Medicine


text: Did you lose a ring in Louisiana? Whether you lost a ring, another piece of jewelry or any other metallic item, we are here to help. Browse our list of Louisiana State ring recovery members below.


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industry_corpus2: Manufacturing


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For the second time in 4 days Everton found the net three times to pile on misery against a very disappointing Bolton side who were on the back end of a good result against group â€˜Dâ€™ leaders Newcastle United last weekend.
2 minutes into the second Connor Grant struck to put the blues ahead then followed by an Adam Thomas header from a Ryan Higgins cross with Anton Forrester adding the third to complete the rout.
A very cold morning at Lostock Lane as this game was rearranged from last month due to a postponement. Everton fielded the same team as they did at Derby last Saturday with the exception of Sam Kelly being absent and his position being filled by Gethin Jones.
Bolton kicked off but the opening stages offered very little apart from a couple of free kicks to both sides and a Forrester effort that forced Bolton Keeper Fielding into a save to his right.
Everton settled the better of the two at this stage but failed to create, Thomas had the goal in sight only to see his shot blocked by a defender.
Boltonâ€™s Matthews received a yellow card early in the game for a late challenge on Barrow in the half way line and under the refereeâ€™s nose.
The teams were cancelling each other out with the defences breaking down the attacks and Roberts Evertonâ€™s keeper virtually a pedestrian.
Pennington foiled a Bolton attack to set Thomas away on the left who delivered a ball but unfortunately his team mates could not react to it.
Roberts was called upon when a cross from full back Thirkell was travelling towards the goal, Roberts reacted well sensing the danger to palm the ball over the bar.
Bolton pressed but centre back Pennington was standing strong to deny the â€œTrottersâ€ the opportunity by foiling Kellett inside the box.
The first half was not a great spectacle as chances were minimal, only long range shots were all Everton could muster, Everton were showing good attacking skills with both full backs Higgins and Johns supporting Jones and Orenuga.
The game was crying out for a goal and it came two minutes into the second half as Everton built up down the left, Grant received the ball and his left foot did the rest sending Fielding sprawling to his left. Thomas only minutes later failed to score as he hit a half volley just past the right hand stick.
When Bolton responded going forward, the visitors got back in numbers, even front man Forrester was tracking back to support his colleagues.
Thomas went close with a header before Johns linked well with Forrester who held the ball up to lay it off to Barrow who then tried his luck from distance and was not afraid to shoot especially after the opener he had scored at Derby four days previously.
Higgins raced with speed down the right to cross for Thomas to finish with a lovely flicked header again to the Keepers left and give the blues a 2 goal cushion.
There was only one team in this game now with Everton really working well as a unit even Fielding the Bolton keeper could be heard saying that â€It was too easyâ€ to his defenders which was complimentary towards the opposition.
Everton took advantage of Boltonâ€™s frustration Gethin Jones picked the ball up inside his own half and ran forward in acres of space unchallenged who then felt time to unleash a shot that wasnâ€™t far away.
63 minutes arrived and game over, Jasper Johns made an encouraging spirited tackle to send Forrester away who walked the ball into the net only for the scoreline to show a true reflection of the visitors dominance in the second period.
Everton saw out the remainder of the game without any problems, Pennington and Heneghan soaked up any danger Bolton posed and a very much needed three points was well earned today.
Everton were really the better side and deserved the points, i commented to Kevin Sheedy at the end what pleasure it was to witness such a great team effort.
Man of the match award goes to them all, it would be difficult to pick one out from that performance.
Coaches David Lee &Tony Kelly.


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An important decision of the Paris Court of Appeal was rendered yesterday in a litigation between Google and a French Collective Society for Visual Works (SAIF). The Collective Society claimed that Google was infringing on the copyright of its authors members by reproducing and displaying their works in the form of thumbnails on the pages of Google Image service and also by reproducing their works through Google caching system. Before the Court of First Instance, the Judge considered the applicable law to be the U.S. Copyright Act, and consequently, the court applied the fair use defense in line with the Arriba and Perfect 10 decisions.
The Court of Appeal disagreed and applied French law. Nevertheless, it too rejected plaintiff’s claim and decided that Google benefited from the “safe harbor” provisions of the Loi sur la Confiance dans l’Economie Numérique [the relevant French statute]. It considered Google as being a “neutral” actor and the reproduction of the photos necessary to provide the service. It also refused to consider a sort of contributory infringement liability when Google refers to works available on the Internet without the consent of the rights holder.
A little later than promised, here are some thoughts that occurred to me at the recent seminar on Promoting innovation – Reshaping the Law for the Digital Economy (which I blogged here and here). In the same way that browsers have a constant battle between features and speed, so the modern law of copyright is faced with a similar dilemma between encouraging and rewarding innovation. It is becoming increasingly clear that it has not solved this dilemma in a particularly satisfactory way. More than that, the most popular emerging solution – the introduction of a fair use defence to EU law – may not be sufficient for current needs, let alone for future developments.
At the seminar, Johnny Ryan argued that with the rise of the internet, where everything is in perpetual beta, we are in effect are reverting back to the pre-Gutenberg plasticity of information. In historical terms, this is the norm. It is the post-Gutenberg era of fixed information which is the anomaly. Copyright is a feature of this period: in the 1500s, it developed to protect the publishers; in the second half of the 1600s it came under increasing pressure to protect authors, and this was codified in the Statute of Anne, 1710; thereafter, the statutory protections were slowly expanded to other creators of other original works. The fundamental (even if increasingly questioned) justification for this development is that the copyright monopoly encourages the creation of original works.
As I said my first post yesterday, last Friday morning I attended a seminar on Promoting innovation – Reshaping the Law for the Digital Economy, hosted by Google Ireland, co-sponsored by the Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA), and chaired by TJ McIntyre. In that post, I summarized the presentations by Johnny Ryan (the internet has created a hinge in history when information is plastic and copyright law is a block upon total commerce) and Niall O’Riordan (for Google, a fair use doctrine in Ireland and Europe is an idea whose time has come). In this post, I’ll look at last Friday’s other presentations; and in tomorrow’s post, I’ll add a few comments of my own on some of the issues raised by the seminar.
Kate O’Sullivan (Director of Regulation and Public Policy, UPC Ireland) pointed out that intermediaries (such as Google, Facebook, and ISPs) are caught in the middle between content producers seeking to enforce their rights as against users, and it is not appropriate that ISPs should be judge and jury in such a cause. Section 40(3) of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000 (also here) provides that the mere provision of facilities by an ISP, for example, which enable the making available to the public of copies of a work “shall not of itself constitute an act of making available to the public of copies of the work” and therefore shall not for that reason amount to a copyright infringement.
Last Friday morning, I attended a seminar on Promoting innovation – Reshaping the Law for the Digital Economy (Irish Times | SiliconRepublic here and here). It was hosted by Google Ireland and co-sponsored the by Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA); and the morning was very ably chaired by TJ McIntyre (blog | Chair, Digital Rights Ireland | Consultant, Merrion Legal | UCD). There were five presentations; in this post, I’ll deal with the first two; in the next tomorrow’s post, I’ll deal with the remaining three; and in a third post, I’ll add a few comments of my own on some of the issues raised by the seminar.
First up was Johnny Ryan (IIEA | author A History of the Internet and the Digital Future) speaking on “A hinge in history: the conditions of the digital future and the need of rights reform”, and setting the scene for the debates that would follow. (Update: Johnny comments below that video of his presentation is now available). For him, we live in the age of the perpetual beta. Before Gutenberg‘s printing press, hand-transcribed manuscripts made information fluid. By contrast, after Gutenberg, the printed book fixed information in static form. But now, online, information is very flexible and plastic, again. Consider a wikipedia page: everything is open to challenge and experimentation – and perpetually beta. We are reverting back to the pre-Gutenberg plasticity of information. In historical terms, this is the norm. It is the post-Gutenberg era of fixed information which is the anomaly. Because of the internet, we have moved from a read-only (RO) culture to a read-write (RW) culture, a remix culture, where we can all adapt and re-invent, and this participation can be anywhere: anyone can be Andy Warhol, and the internet can be your Factory. This is the hinge in history of his title.

industry_corpus2: Law & Justice


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St Helena can claim further success in the Cambridge International Certificate in Educational Leadership course as Head Teacher of St Paul's Primary School, Pat Williams, has passed with a 'Distinction' grade.
St Helena Government's (SHG) Public Opinion Survey will close at 4pm tomorrow, Thursday 21 March 2019. This is your last opportunity to tell us what you think about SHG information.


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Dabel means 'devil' in Czech. It is produced in the same distillery as the famous Green Fairy, which dates back to 1518. Absinthe made from wormwood and containing thujone has never been banned in the Czech Republic.
Dabel is an alcohol distillate of herbs and spices and contains colour and flavour E133, E102. It contains thujone in considerably higher quantities than most absinth and is high in alcohol so please serve responsibly by adding water and sugar or try it with apple juice and mint over ice. Dabel is also a superb base for exciting cocktails.


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Debut novelist Helen Hemphill grew up in (Bridgeport, then Wichita Falls) Texas and now lives with her family in Nashville and Austin. She is a graduate of the Vermont College M.F.A. program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Her first book is Long Gone Daddy (Front Street, 2006). Read Helen’s blog.
Two unrelated things steered me into writing for young readers. Early on, I toyed with writing adult short fiction, but I found a lot of stories being published were pretty grim in terms of subject and tone. It was depressing.
I read a lot of Tony Earley and Pam Houston because I found humor and hope present in their work, even when the subject matter was difficult, and I tried to model that tone in my own writing.
At the same time, I was teaching sixth grade. Every day, kids would come in with funny, quirky perspectives that really grabbed me. There was just so much sheer optimism in them, even when the realities of their lives weren’t always so sunny.
Somewhere in there, I started writing short fiction for a younger audience and sort of found my groove. I write about difficult situations and relationships, but I also try to leave readers with something positive. There is hope for all of us.
I was doing a Harcourt post-graduate semester at Vermont College, working on two separate manuscripts. One had been my creative thesis for my MFA and was a somewhat finished manuscript and the other was a new novel–very green.
Just as a kind of networking opportunity, I attended the One-on-One Conference put on by Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature and met an agent who offered to take a look at my work. At the same time, a dear friend offered an introduction to another agent, and both were interested. The situation was a catalyst for my getting Stephen Roxburgh‘s attention. Front Street had rejected an earlier manuscript of mine, so it was all a little bit serendipitous. I sold my second novel, which became Long Gone Daddy, to Front Street right after the semester ended and did extensive revisions on the text—cutting 100 pages, reworking the chronology, revamping characters.
In the course of the semester, I ended up ditching the finished manuscript of my first novel for a total rewrite. Harcourt had a first right of refusal on that book. Jeannette Larson at Harcourt was very supportive and gracious to me, but ultimately passed on the story. Some weeks later, Stephen bought it with the awareness that the book needed more work–I think our revisions on Long Gone Daddy convinced him I could do what he wanted. That book, called Runaround, will be out with Front Street next year.
Rita Mae Brown says “Don’t hope more than you’re willing to work.” I have that quote on my screensaver.
Congratulations on the release of your debut novel, Long Gone Daddy (Front Street, 2006)! Could you tell us a bit about the story?
Long Gone Daddy is a road trip with dark comedy around every turn.
Grandfather’s will stipulates he must be buried in Las Vegas to get a chunk of money and a Cadillac, so 14-year-old Harlan Q is ready to make the trip from north Texas to Las Vegas in order to get away from Paps, his bible-thumping father. Paps and Harlan Q transport the ripening body of the grandfather in their station wagon, and along the way, pick up Warrior, a Zen-minded actor-in-training. The heart of the book is the relationship between the father and the son, and Warrior is both the foil to the father’s rigid beliefs and the confident who helps Harlan Q understand his father.
Actually, the novel is based on a true story. Late one night, some friends sat around swapping stories about adolescence, and someone began telling a wild tale about living in a funeral home the night his grandfather died.
His dad and uncle drove the body from Florida up the east coast in the back of the family station wagon rather than pay for the funeral home’s services. It was hilarious. When he finished, I asked him if I could use the idea, and Long Gone Daddy is dedicated to him. The book took three years from start to finish, but many times during the first draft, I felt I was just the typist because the story was so clear in my mind.
Some of the logistics were very specific. Would a casket fit into the back of a Chervolet station wagon? Was it legal for Paps and Harlan Q to just drive a dead body across country? Obviously, I did research like any other writer of historical fiction, contacting a funeral home director and a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership, both of whom were great in tracking down details.
I also used original source newspapers. I went to the Dallas Public Library and made copies of newspaper microfilm, all from the first two weeks of August, 1972. I did the same thing in Las Vegas. Newspaper research really helped with context, and gave me some fun ideas. Elvis was opening at the Hilton, and Watergate was very much in the headlines, although no one seemed to understand its implications. Both of those details are referenced in the book.
I also did quite a lot of reading on the psychology of adolescent boys since I was writing across gender. The plot came pretty quickly to me, but the emotional depth of the book was harder. I wanted to explore father and son relationships as authentically as I could, so I had to reopen some of my old wounds about my own family. That was difficult.
The flap copy notes that you drove from Dallas to Las Vegas to research the novel; what can you tell us about that?
It was a blast of a trip. A girlfriend and I drove a convertible on the same route that Harlan, Warrior and Paps drive in the book, plus a lot of side trips. It was June, but it was already hot—113 degrees in Tuba City, Arizona.
It was also beautiful. We drove a stretch of countryside from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Las Vegas that was one of the most beautiful places on earth. My girlfriend did lots of the driving, so I took pictures and notes and met lots of wonderful people.
You did such a powerful job with the varied father-son relationships in the novel. Did this focus evolve in the writing, or was it something that you wanted to explore going in? What about it called to you?
As I said, I did a lot of research on male adolescence, plus I have a son and stepson of my own. I used my own relationship with my father as a jumping off point for the story, but I would say most of the focus evolved as I began going deeper with the emotional aspects of the characters. I think we all have some unfinished business with our parents, and that helped me, but I wrote a lot of the story as Jane Resh Thomas says, “behind my back.” I didn’t know really where I was going at the time, I only knew I had to go there.
I’m fascinated with religion, faith, the quest for answers–all of which is touched upon in this book as Harlan Q tangles with Paps (a hard-driving preacher), Paps rails against the “sins” of his own father, and a stranger named Warren/Warrior appears on the scene with gentle questions. What does this novel say about these forces within us and our society? Or perhaps I should say, what does it ask?
I wrote the book more concerned about the issue of doubt than that of faith.
As human beings in a post modern world, I think we all struggle with doubt at one point or another in some form or another. How we struggle may be very different. Warrior gives in to doubt, without dismissing his own spirituality. Paps can’t leave room for doubt, yet his “sure” vision is often incorrect. Harlan Q is all over the road. We are all searching for the right answer, the meaning of life, the theory of everything, but it’s in the doubt that we move forward. There’s the irony: it’s the doubt that pushes us to discern what we really think. I would hope that the book would encourage readers to be a bit more skeptical and to be more tolerant of one another’s questioning.
Your publisher is Front Street, a small, high-quality literary trade publisher. For those less familiar with the house, could you tell us about it and your experiences as one of its authors?
Front Street had been in business about ten years under the guidance and ownership of Stephen Roxburgh when it merged with Boyds Mills Press about two years ago.
Now Front Street is the young adult imprint of Boyds Mills and is part of a bigger organization, but there is the same focus on quality and literary merit that has always been part of its reputation. When I signed my first contract, I went to Honesdale to do my own due diligence–I wanted to know the organization behind Stephen. I was impressed with the commitment to children’s literature from everyone at Boyds Mills, and I think the two companies have tremendous strengths that complement one another. As an author, I feel very fortunate to work with Stephen as my editor, but I also feel really lucky to have the whole team at both Front Street and Boyds Mills behind me.
You’re a graduate of the Vermont College M.F.A. program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Could you describe your experience as a student? Looking back, what did you gain as a writer?
It was hard work. There was a component of the program that required extensive reading, research, and scholarly writing, in addition to the creative writing packets each month. I also came to the program wanting more depth in my knowledge of children’s literature so I worked hard on that as well, reading everything I could. Maybe I could have done less, but I was so ready to do it all. I didn’t get much sleep the week before a packet was due.
As a writer, I was transformed. I don’t even know if I can accurately describe the metamorphosis because it wasn’t overnight or immediate. I just started seeing things differently. I started reading like a writer. I paid attention in a different way. And I began to have confidence and courage that I could write–that was huge!
What would you tell other writers considering an M.F.A. program? What should they consider?
I would never hesitate to say go for it, but I would suggest that a writer consider his or her own goals carefully. Are you willing to spend the money and the time to learn to write as an end in itself? Learning the craft and networking with a writing community are really what make an M.F.A. program worth doing. Publishing is icing on the cake.
In raving about your writing this week, I said, “Think: Kimberly Willis Holt-meets-Joan Bauer.” That was the closest I could come without just handing over the book so your own unique talent could shine through (and I wasn’t done with it yet!). How would you describe your style?
First off, let me say that I’m thrilled with the comparisons. I don’t know that I can describe my style just yet. I can say I use humor as a way to express myself. I have deep feelings about the fragile nature of families in our complex world, and I enjoy a good story, with heroes and villains and surprises along the way. Does all that combine to make a style? Maybe…we’ll see.
As a reader, what are your favorite recent children’s and YA books? Your favorite authors?
Texas writer Kathi Appelt (author interview) because she does it all so well—from picture books to memoir to young adult fiction. I love Deb Wiles‘s Southern voice and humor, but then even her emails make me laugh. As for recent YA books, I’m reading Markus Zusak‘s The Book Thief (Knopf, 2006) (excerpt), like everyone else on the planet, and I enjoyed Ronald Kidd’s Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial (Simon & Schuster, 2006)(excerpt) very much. No surprise ending, but Kidd does a seamless job of weaving history into the text. I also loved Jan Cheripko‘s Sun Moon Stars Rain (Front Street, 2005). The writing is spare with beautiful imagery.
I iron really well–it’s my mother’s fault. I also play golf, although not so well. I hang out with my husband and children, read, knit, and I like to cook and have people over to the house. I make a really nice pear tart.
I have a novel out next year with Front Street called Runaround. It takes place in Falls of Rough, Kentucky in 1964 and is a story of romance magazines and sister sibling rivalry. I’m also drafting a wild-west story and having too much fun with that.
See more author/illustrator interviews and more Texas authors.

industry_corpus2: Literature & Emotions


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Negan Is Everywhere In The Latest 'The Walking Dead' Season 7 Promo!
The latest promotion for the seventh season of ‘The Walking Dead‘ has Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Negan front and center throughout the entire teaser. Of course, with the show keeping who survived Negan’s brutal attack at the end of last season a secret, it should be no surprise that the main cast members are mainly being overlooked right now. There are a couple which they could focus on but with Negan being the biggest player in the upcoming season it should really come as no surprise that they would focus on him.
What is interesting about Negan is they really show off a bit more about the world that he has created for himself and what exactly our survivors are going to be up against when they recover from whoever dies at the barbed wire covered blunt end of Lucille. Personally, I’m glad they’re switching up the direction of the promo material a bit because as much as we all would like to know who died it really is how Negan will be going forward that will make or break the character for fans.
With how weak The Governor was compared to his comic version as well as the rest of the Rick Grimes’ enemies so far it is great to see someone that is outsmarting our heroes. We’ll have some real challenged ahead and finally an actor and character that seems to add some gravitas to the situation while not being someone you expect to be such a problem by his personality alone.
Are you looking forward to an expanded presence of Negan in the upcoming seventh season of ‘The Walking Dead’? Who do you think he killed with Lucille at the end of the last season? Share your thoughts below!
‘The Walking Dead’ returns to AMC on Sunday, October 23rd, 2016!
Netflix Is Bringing Back The ‘Mythbusters’ Build Team In ‘The White Rabbit Project’!


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Here’s my list of family-friendly events happening in the next three months. Happy summer!
Alamo Drafthouse Kids Club. Most days in summer, find a different kids’ movie around 10 a.m. at area Alamo Drafthouse locations. New this year, you can reserve your tickets online for $1-$3 (you pick). It’s a donation to Creative Action. This summer’s movies are “The Land Before Time,” “Night at the Museum,” “Mary Poppins,” “Despicable Me,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Chicken Run,” “Muppets Most Wanted,” “Matilda,” “The Parent Trap,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” and “Follow That Bird.” Find the movies and schedule at http://drafthouse.com/packages/2015-summer-kids-camp/austin.
Wildstyle (voiced by Elizabeth Banks), Emmet (Chris Pratt) and Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) are three of the key characters in “The LEGO Movie.” It will be showing at kids movie events around town. Credit: Warner Bros.
Regal Summer Movie Express. Regal theaters the Arbor and Westgate will be showing kids movies at 10 a.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This year’s movies are “Nut Job,” “Annie,” “Earth to Echo,” “Paddington,” “Turbo,” “Rio 2,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” “The Book of Life,” “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” “Penguins of Madagascar,” “Madagascar 3,” “Dolphin Tale 2,” Muppets Most Wanted,” “Alexander and the Very Bad Day,” “The Lego Movie,” and “The Sponge Bob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.” Find the schedule at www.regmovies.com/movies/summer-movie-express.
Cinemark Summer Clubhouse. Find movies family movies for $1 or $5 for $10 at Cinemark Tinseltown Austin, Cinemark Cedar Park, Cinemark Movies 8 in Round Rock and Cinemark Hill Country Galleria. This year’s movies are “The Lego Movie,” “Penguins of Madagascar,” “Dolphin Tale 2,” “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” “Rio 2,” “Nut Job,” “Diary of a Wimpy Kids: Dog Days,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.” Movies are 10 a.m. various days. Find the schedule at www.cinemark.com/summer-movie-clubhouse.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Nature Nights. Find many fun, hands-on learning opportunities at this free event. 6-9 p.m. Thursdays, June 11-July 23. Topics are June 11: Plants; June 18: Pollinators; June 25: Snakes; July 9: Springs, Streams and Ponds Ecology; July 16 Fire Prevention; and July 23: Birds of Prey. At International Mud Day dress for a mess and make mud balls, mud pies, play in a giant mud mound and learn about mud-loving organisms. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. June 27. Make Wildflower Center, 4801 LaCrosse Ave. www.wildflower.org.
Thinkery events. June workshops include June 6: Judo Bots; June 13: Paleontological Adventure: June 14: 3-D Printing; June 19: Dry Ice Cream, June 20: Animation and June 28: Making Preserves. July and August workshops have not been announced yet. Bricks & Blocks Bonanza Family Night offers many Lego and building activities, 6:30-8:30 p.m. June 12. $15-$13. Color — An Evening with Roy G. Biv Family Night features activities around the science of color. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Aug. 21. $15-$13. Thinkery, 1830 Simond Ave. thinkeryaustin.org.
Bullock Museum events. Free First Sundays. June 7, it’s Travel Across Texas; July 5, it’s Story Telling; Aug. 2, it’s Texas Artists . Mondays enjoy Family Story Time at 11:30 a.m. Wednesdays it’s Exploration Stations from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. with activities around a theme such as Texas pioneer writings, Roller Derby Names and Flint Knapping. On Fridays from 11-11:45 a.m. it’s Create Your Own hands-on art activities including mini quilts and writing journals. Bullock Texas State History Museum, 1800 Congress Ave. thestoryoftexas.com.
Blanton Museum of Art. WorkLab drop-in open studio will be available 10 a.m.-12:30 a.m. Wednesdays and Fridays. June 10-Aug. 7. At Storytime Tours for kids 3-7, hear a story while looking at art, 10:30-11 a.m. Wednesday-Friday June 10-Aug. 7. Deeper Dives for kids ages 8-13, offers a conversation about art and then making art,1-2:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays June 24-Aug. 7. Blanton Museum of Art, 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. www.blantonmuseum.org.
Contemporary Austin. Make art and other activities at Second Saturdays are for Families. June 13 it’s Stringy Monsters inspired by John Grade’s sculptures. July 11, make Pinhole Cameras. Aug. 8 do Ice Paintings using watercolor and ice cubes. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Laguna Gloria, 3809 W. 35th St. www.thecontemporaryaustin.org.
Pioneer Farms. Wild West Father’s Day. See special reenactments, a Tonkawa Indian village, a stagecoach and horse-drawn carriages and the home of an Austin gunslinger. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. June 21. $8 adults, $6 children, free younger than 2. Pioneer Farms, 10621 Pioneer Farms Drive.
Blanton docent Gary Kattner, right, reads a book for (left to right) Mandy Kutz, and daughter Effie, 3, Cate Bowman, 3, and mother Jillian Bontke Bowman during a Storytime tour in the Blanton Museum of Art.
The Long Center events. “Bubblepalooza” celebrates all things bubbles in this free event, June 6. “Chuggington Live! The Great Rescue Adventure” rolls onto the stage 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. June 14. $19-$39. Pollyanna Theatre Co. presents “Sarah and the Dinosaur.” Sarah learns that roaring and stomping might not be the best way to get attention. 2 p.m. July 11-12, 18-19, 4 p.m. July 11, 18. $11-$15.50. ArcAttack science musical group performs with electricity, magnets, robotics and more. 7:30 p.m. July 24. $17-$23. “Tortoise v. Hare” from Summer Stock Austin presents this legendary battle. 10 a.m. July 25, Aug. 1, Aug. 5 and Aug. 8. 2 p.m. July 26 and Aug. 2. The Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. thelongcenter.org.
Zilker Summer Musical. This year it’s “Hairspray,” which will be great for middle- and high-schoolers to see. Use your judgment for younger kids. 8:30 p.m. Thursday-Sundays, July 10-Aug. 15. Free, but donations encouraged. Zilker Hillside Theater, 2301 Barton Springs Road. zilker.org.
Austin Symphony. Hartman Foundation “Concerts in the Park.” Bring a picnic dinner and a blanket and come to the Long Center’s City Terrace for 7:30 p.m. Sunday concerts from May 31-Aug. 23. The schedule is strings, brass, woodwinds, Big Band, which repeats twice. The Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. Children’s Day Art Park. Explore music with a concert and art activities. 9-11:30 a.m. Wednesdays June 10-July 29, except July 1. The schedule of performers is June 10: Beto y Los Fairlanes; June 17: The Biscuit Brothers; June 24: Joe McDermott; July 8: The Hey Lollies; July 15: Lehman High School Mariachi Band; July 22: Sara Hickman; and July 29: Mr. Johnny and Sharon. 50 cents a child, free for adults. Symphony Square, 1101 Red River St. www.austinsymphony.org.


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In proper Apple fashion, the company waited about an hour before they got to the announcement everyone had been waiting for during its anticipated keynote event on Monday: Its streaming service. When Tim Cook and the rotating cast of execs finally got to talking about its vision for packaging channels and original television programming, they brought the star power. Steven Spielberg. J.J. Abrams. Reese Witherspoon. Oprah, who announced she was partnering with the company to make two documentaries and a bigger, better book club. It's all part of Apple TV+, the new subscription service that's officially coming sometime in the fall.
The event didn't tell us much we didn't already know about company's upcoming programming slate. It did trot out the likes of Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell to awkwardly banter about their morning news drama The Morning Show. Aquaman himself Jason Momoa led the crowd in a sensory exercise for his new post-apocalyptic drama about blindness called See, created by Taboo's Steven Knight. Sara Bareilles sang the theme song for Little Voice, the new show based on her life as a singer-songwriter she's making with Abrams, seemingly heading back to his Felicity roots. And yet, after all of that, Apple still didn't mention how much Apple TV+ is going to cost. Here's what we do know.
Where will you be able to find Apple TV+?
Subscription access to Apple's new package of original content will be available for purchase on the revamped Apple TV app, also unveiled Monday, and available in May. This updated version of Apple TV claims to be a one-stop shop for basically any programming you could possibly want, without ads and totally downloadable. (That is, everything you could want with one notable exception -- more on that in a second.) Unlike the old days when you needed to buy a physical Apple TV, the new app moves entirely away from the necessity of owning that hardware. The app itself is going to be available for download on smart TVs and devices like the Roku, the Amazon Fire Stick, and Playstation Vue, in addition to Apple's suite of devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac).
What is Apple TV Channels, and how is it different from TV+?
OK, so: TV+ is specifically the service for Apple's original content that you can access through the revamped Apple TV app. Similarly, Channels is a host of streaming content from other subscription services like Amazon Prime and Hulu, offer a la carte access to networks like CBS All Access, HBO, and Showtime, and house movies for purchase, like the iTunes store. If you already have a cable subscription with a provider like Spectrum or Optimum, you can connect those through Channels as well. The platform is leaning on machine leaning capabilities to filter content that you, specifically, would want to watch from across all of your connected channels.
The glaring omission here: Netflix, which will not be integrated with the new Apple app -- a pointed choice on the part of the reigning content behemoth, which consciously opted out of joining TV+. The shadow of Netflix loomed heavily over the presentation, given that the fresh user experience of Apple TV+, what with its autoplaying trailers and "skip intro" function, is awfully reminiscent of a very familiar platform.
What else did we learn about the new TV shows?
When it came time for the TV+ reveal, executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg boasted that they would offer the "best stories ever told," before cutting to a dramatic, black and white film in which a group of successful storytellers -- including Spielberg, Abrams, Sofia Coppola, M. Night Shyamalan, Ron Howard, and Octavia Spencer -- discuss their process. It summed up what Apple was selling here: Major Hollywood players leaving the old establishment for a new creative platform. Spielberg's inclusion once again appeared to be a rebuke to Netflix, given his contentious relationship with them.
That was followed by the parade of stars, getting the crowd amped up for the aforementioned series. Other Apple shows that got presentations included Spielberg's Amazing Stories, a sci-fi anthology that's reviving his NBC series from the '80s; Kumail Nanjiani's Little America, a different anthology about the immigrant experience in America based on true stories; and a new Sesame Street program focused on teaching kids to code called Helpsters. Big Bird took the stage for that presentation, along with a Muppet named, appropriately, Cody. What the event did not offer was much in the way of actual footage, instead relegating what they had t a minute-and-a-half reel. In that it was possible to catch brief glimpses of the The Morning Show and See, along with blips of Hailee Steinfeld's spin on Emily Dickinson, the mystery starring The Florida Project's Brooklynn Prince, and Sundance acquisition Hala.
Winfrey made for the grand finale. She spoke about her nonfiction projects -- Toxic Labor, about sexual assault and harassment in the workplace, and an untitled series looking at mental health -- and teased that she and Apple are working on "building the biggest, the most vibrant, the most stimulating book club on the planet." Part of that would include live streamed conversations between Winfrey and authors, but, as for the rest, it's unclear how it will manifest.
Notable names were spread throughout the Steve Jobs Auditorium, even if they didn't get the mic. On the livestream, the camera caught Chris Evans, Aaron Paul, and Jada Pinkett Smith, among others. And indeed, those famous faces appear to be key to Apple's strategy: Hook customers with both brand loyalty and celebrity appeal, touting premium cable (or better) quality. But Apple still needs to actually debut something to argue the case that it's producing must-stream TV. For that, we'll still have to wait until fall, when it starts releasing its original programming.
The TV section was just one of a slew of "service"-based announcements that Apple trotted out. (Seriously, Tim Cook opened with the dictionary definition of "service.") Among them, Apple News+, which is immediately available, costs $9.99 a month, and features magazines. The splashier debut was the new-and-improved Apple Pay, which includes partnerships with major cities to integrate transit expenses, and Apple's very own credit card, in partnership with Goldman Sachs (eyyy) and Mastercard. Using the Apple Card with Apple Pay gets you 2% cash back; if used to purchase Apple products, you get 3% back. There's also a sleek-looking titanium card for physical use, which offers 1% cash back.
In the entertainment space, it also announced Apple Arcade, a curated subscription-based home for more than 100 iOS exclusive games that will be out in the fall with its pricing yet to be revealed. The company made it clear that this would be games of all stripes, not just shoot-em-ups tailored to mobile gaming. Offerings, which can be played across Apple devices, will include Lifelike, described as a calming game that makes use of swarm behavior, and Where Cards Fall, a puzzle game that doubles as a coming-of-age story. The timing of Arcade is interesting, given that last week, Google announced that it also was breaking into subscription-based gaming with its new platform, Stadia. (Both resemble Playstation Now and Xbox Game Pass.) Like most things Apple announced today, we'll have to wait and see if they can deliver.


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Our client is a high profile organisation with over 500 employees based in the inner Western suburbs of Melbourne, delivering multidisciplinary capital works projects across civil, building, landscaping, recreation, sporting and coastal management. You will be joining an enthusiastic and professional team that takes pride in delivering quality services to customer base. This progressive organisation is open to flexible working arrangements and encourages people from a diversity of backgrounds to apply.
With an annual capital works budget of approximately $45m you will have the opportunity to work on a variety of projects for the organisation up to $15m in value. Reporting to the Capital Works Manager and being a critical part of the project delivery team, you will represent the organisation’s interests on a range of projects and provide advisory support on others. Being involved from initial concept through to hand-over, you will ensure projects are effectively managed and are delivered on time, within budget and to a high quality. Working closely with customers, you will ensure that internal and external customers have been engaged and consulted with and that their expectations have been met through the delivery of the project.
Project Management experience with relevant qualifications in project management, engineering, architecture, construction, quantity surveying, building surveying or equivalent.
Ability to gain credibility with technical professionals and bring diverse teams of people together in a cohesive unit.


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An issue has been resolved which could affect performance in editor supporting DITA conrefs.
An issue has been resolved which could cause tables to display incorrectly after merging cells.
An issue has been resolved which could cause table column widths to be displayed incorrectly after inserting or removing columns.
FontoXML now more aggressively reuses HTML when updating a document, resulting in faster visual updates.
When performing expensive operations, we now allow some visual updates to be skipped in order to increase responsiveness.
Markings from change tracking, comments or spelling suggestions are no longer recomputed if the sheet frame containing them is not visible, improving performance.

industry_corpus2: Computing & Telecommunications


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On July 26, 2016, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, the Chairwoman of the Article 29 Working Party of data protection regulators, announced that EU data protection regulators will not challenge the adequacy of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (“Privacy Shield”) for at least one year (i.e., until after summer 2017). The European Commission is scheduled to conduct a mandatory review of the adequacy of the Privacy Shield by May 2017.
As we recently reported, on July 12, 2016, the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the formal adoption of the Privacy Shield framework, composed of an Adequacy Decision and accompanying Annexes.
The Privacy Shield is designed to protect the fundamental rights of individuals whose personal data is transferred to the U.S. and ensure legal certainty for businesses with respect to transatlantic transfers of personal data.


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Focus Editorial What is it for?
Being disinclined to look in mirrors, not only to avoid evidences of aging, but also because of an autobiographical deficit, I have recently started to question the vectors of my motivation. Not to raise doubts but to seek some understanding of ‘for what?’ I am especially wondering the reasons behind my solidarity with the struggles of distant strangers, why such solidarity is not more widely shared with likeminded friends, and why the inevitable priorities as to what is emphasized and what is ignored have the shape they do.
Most pointedly, why am I giving the Palestinians so much more attention and psychic energy than the Kurds, Tibetans, or Kashmiris, and a host of other worthy causes? And how do I explain to myself a preoccupation with the unlawful, immoral, and imprudent foreign policy of the U.S. Government, the sovereign state of my residence upon whose governmental resources I depend upon for security and a range of rights?
And with this modest kind of engagement came pressures to do more by way of public identification and witnessing, which led to a somewhat deeper awareness, greater familiarity, and of course, a dumpster full of harsh criticism. After many years of speaking and writing, the opportunity and challenge to do more in relation to Palestine/Israel conflict came my way unexpectedly in the form of an unsolicited invitation in 2008 to become the next Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council.
I never sought such a position, and realized that it would expose me to an escalating onslaught of vicious personal attacks and threats, an expectation that has been amply fulfilled. It is always uncomfortable to be the target of toxic language, and it is even more scary and disturbing to expose my closest partner in life and love to such calumny. Besides the hotly contested terrain that exists whenever Israeli policies are subject to objective scrutiny and criticism, a position within the UN hierarchy is both burdensome and often frustrating. True, being a Special Rapporteur is essentially a voluntary post, without salary or civil service affiliations, although ‘compensated’ to some degree by institutional independence within the UN, which I have discovered in my four years, can be a considerable blessing. There is little doubt in my mind that if I had been a paid employee I would long ago have been handed a pink slip. As it is I have merely endured a barrage of slanderous insults, including from the Secretary General and Susan Rice, the American ambassador to the UN in New York.
Lest I protest and complain too much, I hasten to add that there are also deep and moving satisfactions. I find particularly satisfying the extent to which my two reports each year on the Israeli occupation of Palestine provides a truthful witnessing to the unspeakable ordeal of this prolonged and harsh occupation. Actually, it is less and less an occupation and more and more an apartheid style form of annexation, aggravated by continuous land grabs, various instruments of ethnic cleansing, and a range of gratuitous cruelties most recently dramatized by a series of heroic hunger strikes by Palestinians protesting those aspects of their plight resulting from violent arrest procedures, administrative detention, and deplorable prison conditions falling far below accepted international standards. Bearing witness, giving the Palestinians an authentic voice with which to formulate their grievances, and having the means to issue press releases calling attention to particular incidents of abuse, makes me feel as though my time is well spent even if the bodies keep piling up on the Palestinian side of the border. Part of the challenge in such a role is to realize the discouraging constraints on what can be achieved. Governments mainly don’t listen, and even when they do, their actions and policies are rarely informed by moral imperatives, and so nothing changes however much the evidence is present.
The devastating impact of the Gaza blockade has been known and lamented for years by political leaders, and yet the costs of doing anything about it have seemed so great that even those who complain most loudly in the chambers of the UN are silent or worse when it comes to doing something. Someone at my level is shouting to be heard amid the clamor that prevails in the diplomatic discotheques of New York and Geneva, and even when heard, must learn to expect nothing to be done or else despair, even madness, will soon follow.
Beyond this rational balance sheet of gains and losses, is a deeper less accessible convergence of feelings and impulses, which cannot be explained, but only acknowledged. I am not sure why direct exposure to victimization has such a powerful animating effect on my behavior, but it does. I do feel that a sense of responsibility emerges with such knowledge, especially that derived from direct contact with the suffering of victims caught in some historical trap not of their own making. Also, whether visiting North Vietnam as a peace activist during the Vietnam War or seeking to understand the Iranian Revolution by talking with its leaders as the extraordinary process was unfolding in Tehran, I felt a meta-professional obligation to share this privileged exposure by talking and writing about it, however inadequately, particularly, as seemed generally to be the case, that the mainstream media distorted and manipulated their presentations of such historic happenings as misleadingly seen through their Western optic of (mis)perception.
Somewhere in this agonizingly slow formation of my character there was being constructed a self that took the shape of ‘engaged scholar’ and ‘citizen pilgrim.’ In retrospect, I think I was reacting somewhat dialectically to my academic colleagues who mostly felt it inappropriate to speak out on controversial issues although they viewed it as entirely professional to consult with the government and quite all right to avoid the public sphere altogether by packaging themselves as experts who should not be expected to take public stands on partisan issues that divided the polity. I felt, increasingly with age, the opposite. I came to believe that it was an organic part of my integrity as teacher/scholar to create a seamless interface between classroom and sites of political struggle. In truth, not entirely seamless as the classroom must always be treated as a sacred space by a faculty member. It should be maintained as a sanctuary for the uninhibited exchange of views however diverse and antagonistic in an atmosphere of disciplined civility. I have always felt that it is a primary duty of a teacher is to establish sufficient trust with students, that is, permission and encouragement of openness of expression with a clear understanding that performance will be objectively assessed, and not affected by agreement or disagreement with what the teacher happens to believe. This is a delicate balance yet far more conducive to learning than a sterile and journeyman insistence that what people beyond the campus are dying for can be usefully addressed with sanitary dispassion.
In the end, this vital domain of conscious pedagogy and unconscious morality, is spiritually validated by an unmediated and uninterrogated sense that this or that is ‘the right thing to do.’ It certainly helps to remain as free as possible of vested interests and career ambitions that tend to crush an implicit pledge of truthfulness that authentic witnessing depends upon. And beyond witnessing there exists an iron wall of moral obligation: caring about the future, doing what I can to make the world a better place for human habitation and co-evolution with nature, which I have understood as a species obligation that has been made historically urgent ever since an atomic bomb was exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and is now also deeply connected with protecting the planet from the multiple hazards of global warming hopelessly embedded in our carbon-dependent life styles as promiscuously promoted in disastrous directions by the greed of superrich fossil fuel billionaires and their far too powerful corporate allies.
I have not rested these life commitments on the teachings of any particular religious tradition or institution, although I have long found the great world religions, East and West, despite their menacing contradictions and multiple readings, as providing me with the most profound sources of wisdom and guidance. It is the basis of my ecumenical longing for human solidarity, along with my feelings of awe produced by contact with cosmic and natural wonders, and deeply informs my sense of the spiritual ground of the human adventure. These sentiments are reinforced in my case by a commitment to an emergent form of cosmopolitan citizenship that owes allegiance to the ethics and praxis of human sustainability, the individual and collective dignity of all human beings, and a respectful kinship with and love of our non-human co-inhabitants of the planet. Such perspectives, I believe, respond to our historically precarious situation as a species, and here in America, this concern is accentuated. For this is a country with a surfeit of moral and political pretensions. It exhibits hubris to an alarming degree, and in extravagant ways, and is endangering itself along with the rest of the world by a refusal to heed what the geopolitical mirror of reflection warns about.


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2001-12-30 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- In the next few days, the Wall Street Journal will announce the results of its Investment Dartboard contest for the second half of 2001.
In the competition, Journal editors ask four market professionals each to choose a single stock for the six months ahead. Their results are compared with the choices of four readers band stocks "chosen at random by flinging darks at the stock tables."
The winner this time will be Jim Roumell, who heads Roumell Asset Management, an advisory firm based in Chevy Chase, Md. Patterson-UTI Energy Inc., Roumell's selection, has risen 40 percent since the contest began.
Of course, winning any six-month, single-stock contest might be simply a matter of luck, but when I interviewed Roumell and looked at his long-term record closely, I found he had an important story to tell. Investors should not necessarily emulate him, but they can certainly learn from him.
Roumell calls himself a deep-value investor -- that is, he looks for significant gains among unloved stocks.
There's nothing new in that, but Roumell has a specific strategy that is both unusual and logical. Most value mavens concentrate on the price-to- earnings (P/E) ratio, the number of dollars that investors are paying for a dollar of a company's profits, but Roumell is not obsessed with earnings.
"To be perfectly honest," he said, "I look at earnings only out of the corner of my eye."
Instead, he focuses on assets -- what a company owns. For most investors, that can be tricky since the assets of different businesses tend to be valued differently by investors, and those valuations often rise and fall with economic conditions.
Roumell has a solution: He looks at actual transactions to determine what a company's assets are worth. It's a simple process that nearly every home buyer understands.
"you ask what other houses on the block have been going for. I do the same. I look at comparables."
Last year, for example, he bought shares in a modest company called J&J Snack Foods Corp., which, he wrote at the time, "dominates the market for giant pretzels."
Roumell's comparable in this case was Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, which had recently been purchased by Unilever PLC, the British-Dutch packaged-goods giant, for $265 million. At the time, Ben & Jerry's had annual revenue of $240 million, so Unilever paid a price that was 110 percent of the ice cream company's sales.
J&J had about $300 million in sales. If a company like Unilever were to pay a comparable price for J&J, it would sell for 110 percent of $300 million, or $330 million.
J&J has 8.8 million shares of stock outstanding. Divide $330 million by 8.8 million, and you get a price of $37.50 per share -- again, assuming J&J is valued the same as Ben & Jerry's.
Actually, J&J should probably be worth more: It has a much larger share of its own market, and its pretax profit is 7 percent of sales, compared with 3 percent for the ice cream company. But $37.50 was the target price that Roumell used in August 2000.
At the time, J&J was trading at $14.50. No wonder Roumell told clients that the stock was significantly undervalued and, at a discount of more than 50 percent, it seemed to be a safe investment.
He was right. On Christmas Eve, J&J was trading at $24 a share -- still less than 70 percent of sales.
As for Patterson UTI-Energy, Roumell's Wall Street Journal pick: The company owns 302 drilling rigs that are used to get oil and gas out of the ground.
Patterson works on a contract basis for big producers, and the rate it charges each day is determined mainly by energy prices, which fluctuate wildly.
Oil and gas have lately been cheap, and in July, when Roumell entered the Journal contest, Patterson stock was trading at $15 a share, down from $41 in March.
To find a reasonable price for Patterson's stock, Roumell looked to the rigs. In a recent letter to clients, he noted that Patterson had merged with UTI in a deal that valued UTI's 150 rigs at about $10 million each. Patterson's current stock price is about $22, so with 71 million shares outstanding, its market capitalization is about $1.5 billion. With 302 rigs, that comes to about $5 million per rig -- quite a discount.
In addition, a check of Patterson's balance sheet shows little debt and a lot of cash. Judging from the UTI deal and other transactions, Roumell figures that, conservatively, the rigs are worth $7 million each. So, "independent of commodity prices, we value the assets themselves in a way an industry insider might to determine if we are in fact buying a value."
Most analysts, on the other hand, try to predict earnings for a few years ahead -- a process that "is always impossible," Roumell says. But his system has its drawbacks, too. It works only when there are adequate comparables, and it requires investors to sell when a stock reaches its target.
For most investors, a simple buy-and-hold strategy works better.
Still, it is hard to argue with Roumell's success. The stock accounts that he manages for clients returned 30 percent this year (through Dec. 19) and 8 percent last year, while the market as a whole was averaging a loss of about 10 percent.
Roumell manages only the money of private clients, but in the past, he has worked with Marty Whitman, a legend of deep-value investing and manager of the Third Avenue Value Fund, which has long been one of my favorites.
For the past three years, Third Avenue has returned an annual average of 13 percent while the Standard & Poor's 500 benchmark has just broken even. The fund has also whipped the S&P over the past decade, with far lower risk than the average fund. Morningstar gives the fund its highest rating, five stars.
My advice is to own both value (defined as low P/B or low P/E) and growth and to use the Roumell's brand of analysis as a way to find great companies that are temporarily underpriced. It's surprising how many there are. Yes, the market makes mistakes, and smart investors can capitalize on them.


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Beloved brother, father and friend. He will be missed!
Born on October 13, 1928 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Passed away on April 26, 2016 in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
This memorial website was created in memory of our loved one, Arnold Alpert 87 years old , born on October 13, 1928 and passed away on April 26, 2016. We will remember him forever.
Arnie was my former spouse. Together we made a beautiful, intelligent and in all ways wonderful daughter, Rachel. He was always there for her and loved her very much. He also accepted and adopted the daughter I had when we met, Cheryl. Arnie had a great sense of humor and always tried to do his best in any endeavor. He was intelligent and open minded. Arnie was interested in the state of the world and approached many things scientifically. He liked to travel and explore. He was loved and will be missed by everyone he was close to.
I’ve known Arnie for roughly 17 years. I met him for the first time when I was dating his daughter, Rachel, early on in the relationship. He wanted to take us out to dinner at the Seventh Inn, a 5 star restaurant in west St. Louis county. I was incredibly nervous because it was such a fancy place. I remember I wore a suit and tie when I met them. Arnie laughed disarmingly and made me feel at ease – and told me to lose the tie. It made things much less formal and stressful and I was so grateful for that. I married Rachel in the summer of 2001 and had the pleasure of having Arnie as my father-in-law for 14 years. While I can’t say that he and I had a lot in common in what we do/did for a living, we shared a love of the finer things – ice cold martinis (he liked gin and I liked vodka…but I’ve come over to the gin side of late, for which I give him credit), decaffeinated espresso, a nice cigar – some of my finest memories with him were out on my patio smoking cigars after dinner, watching MSNBC (for hours….and hours), and we both enjoyed eating out in interesting and at sometimes expensive restaurants for special occasions. He was often generous enough to pick up the check. But he had expectations of the wait staff, which was at times (for me) a bit humorous. One time he informed our waiter that “the fish was flavorless and the sauce was a cover-up.” Granted, he said this after having a chocolate martini before dinner – never a good idea – but that was Arnie. He had no filter to his opinion so you always knew where you stood. It subsequently also went a long way when he gave you a compliment. Please give the angels my love, dear Arnie. You’ll always hold a special place in my heart.
He was the best Dad. I love you!


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Discussion in 'Stock 2011 - 2019 Ford Explorer Discussion' started by 2FST4U, August 7, 2011.
Without going into too many details, my wife has decided that the Ex is not working for her and wants to go back to a mini-van. So off to the dealer we go.
After driving a new mini-van, she was convinced that was what she wanted (we traded in a mini-van when we bought the Ex). I wanted her to get what she wanted.
So we have a 2011 Ex Limited with a MSRP of $44,800 (no, I did not pay retail), 7,600 miles, and titled in late February. We went to two dealers. Dealer one offered me $31,000 and the second one offered me $30,000. Needless to say, very disapointed. Yes I did expect to take a hit but that seems like a lot.
Both dealers had a hard time coming up with a value because as one dealer described, there have not been any through the auctions yet and of course none of the usual guides have the 2011's yet (KBB, NADA, Blackbook, etc.).
The vehicle we were looking at is irrevelant because we never got to the point of discussing their vehicle.
MSRP of $44,800 is $5k+ short of a fully loaded Limited.
You probably paid around $39k - $40k out the door after discount off MSRP and rebate/brochure offer?
7,600 miles is low but still over 1,000 miles per month since late February.
Dealer needs to turn a profit so $31,000 - $33,000 seems like a trade number. As always, you can get more if you sell it yourself.
Try Carmax, they usually offer more than the dealers.
I'm not sure of the laws in your state, but also consider tax liabilities, which maybe affected by trade-ins vs. selling it yourself.

industry_corpus2: Automobiles


text: Tracking the evolution of research in waste recycling science (WRS) can be valuable for environmental agencies, as well as for recycling businesses. Maps of science are visual, easily readable representations of the cognitive structure of a branch of science, a particular area of research or the global spectrum of scientific production. They are generally built upon evidence collected from reliable sources of information, such as patent and scientific publication databases. This study uses the methodology developed by Rafols et al. (2010) to make a “double overlay map” of WRS upon a basemap reflecting the cognitive structure of all journal-published science, for the years 2005 and 2010. The analysis has taken into account the cognitive areas where WRS articles are published and the areas from where it takes its intellectual nourishing, paying special attention to the growing trends of the key areas. Interpretation of results lead to the conclusion that extraction of energy from waste will probably be an important research topic in the future, along with developments in general chemistry and chemical engineering oriented to the recovery of valuable materials from waste. Agricultural and material sciences, together with the combined economics, politics and geography field, are areas with which WRS shows a relevant and ever increasing cognitive relationship.

industry_corpus2: Power & Energy


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Periphery Collection from Need Supply Co.
As we dive into Fall new collections are slowly and steadily filling the racks of our favorite stores. One of the most anticipated is the Periphery collection at Need Supply. A great blend of utility dressing and athletic features this collection is kind of hipster and contemporary at the same time. That is quite hard to achieve but they’ve done it perfectly at Need Supply. As the name of the collection says, these clothes have an edge to them, a sharpness that creates a well though-out look. Mixing button-downs and slim fit cardigans with oversized parkas and rolled up denim, this might as well be your neighbour kid’s wardrobe. With one slight distinction – it’s all precisely constructed and made to last.
Shop for Periphery Collection at Need Supply Co.


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The swirl of discussion generated by the recent Boston Magazine article suggesting that Sam Adams and its creator, Jim Koch, have been bypassed by a burgeoning movement within the beer world has been interesting to observe. While there has been more than an element of hipster-bashing (not always unwarranted, but certainly overstated), I’m firmly on the side of Pete Brown in finding the snobbery distasteful. But while it was ever thus – more on that in a moment – we’ve reached something of a tipping point, in that the sheer number of people on the looking for ‘good’ beer is finally making a real impact in the market.
Back in the 1970s, Coors (yes, Coors) was the beer that American beer snobs wanted desperately. Unpasteurized, it was only available in the West, and its relative scarcity made it a hot commodity. Washington, DC’s Brickskeller (now reborn as The Bier Baron) first began to make waves as a ‘beer bar’ by serving Coors when it was still largely unavailable east of Oklahoma. But its rapid rise to ubiquity – not to mention its similarity to the other light lagers on the market – meant that it quickly lost its shiny unicorn status. While I would argue that Boston Lager, the Sam Adams flagship, is still a perfectly fine beer, it has likewise lost its own shiny unicorn status as the market has changed and evolved – but it won’t be the last.
As the number of breweries has grown, and choice of beer styles has greatly expanded – again, both very good things – an irksome mirror of snobbery that has developed alongside those trends. As a former resident of the Silicon Valley town, I can recall attending the Mountain View Smaller Brewers’ Festival from the late 1990s up through about 2001, and it was not at all difficult to find those attitudes. A casual visitor to the festival favorably compared a (nameless for our purposes) tiny brewery’s very pleasant pale ale to the local ‘big’ craft beer, Sierra Nevada, only to be smirked at and informed that they were entirely wrong to find any similarities between the two – one was made by a large brewery, and therefore simply Not Interesting, while the other was lovingly handcrafted (in this case, by someone just beyond the homebrewing stage – having sampled their other beer on offer, I can attest that they hadn’t quite nailed sanitizing everything), and therefore, Better. Several Comic Book Guy lookalikes (remember, this was Silicon Valley pre-dot-com crash) tittered their agreement with the brewer. You’d see a similar scene replicated throughout the tent, and the same thing is happening across the industry, at least in the social media echo chamber. Now, at least to a certain stripe of drinker, lagers are boring, pale ales are boring, and soon enough, IPAs will also be boring, just because everyone makes one (or, at this point, a double IPA).
Consumer demand for novelty has not been a bad thing; there are a lot of fantastic brewers who are able to push the envelope and deliver consistently wonderful, weird beers; I’m lucky to live a short walk from one of them. But it’s not a model that can be easily replicated, especially on a production scale, and when ‘everyone’ tries to do it, but delivers a product that simply isn’t as good, it drives away potential new ‘converts’ – let’s recall that while ‘our’ numbers are growing, they are still a fraction of the whole.
But the pursuit of novelty often overlooks the achievements of great brewers of ‘normal’ beers, and that’s what I find annoying – I’d love to have more great lagers, especially like Urban Chestnut’s Zwickelbier, or another really excellent English-style stout like Good English, recently enjoyed at the Barren Hill Tavern. Yes, I want more ‘weird stuff’ – but I don’t want ‘normal’ beers to become so rarely-brewed that they become the shiny unicorns in turn.
Witches can be right, Giants can be good. You decide what’s right. You decide what’s good.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, you should go do that – but the point stands. There are huge brewers making good beer – Carlsberg is doing really fun things with their Jacobsen line, and if you’re ever in Copenhagen, you should certainly take their tour; it’s a great beer history lesson, their horses are just as personable as the Clydesdales, and you can try some really good beers at the end, even if their namesake lager isn’t one you’d reach for. There are small brewers I won’t name (we already know the big ones) making some truly appalling beers. There are a lot of big and small brewers making mediocre beers. But the fact that we now have ‘Big Craft’ and can complain about it is a wonderful thing – it means we have a goodly number of small, medium and (relatively) large brewers making excellent beer. It’s driving the even bigger ones to innovate and improve the scope of their offerings. You can get decent beer on many airlines now. It means even your local dive bar will usually have a reasonable IPA on tap, even if you’ve ‘moved on’ (See? More Sondheim!) from IPAs – just hang in there, you may come back to them.
Market maturity, even if recently powered by what seems to be a puerile search for a malted barley cryptoid (I should probably trademark Ittan-momen White Sake-aged Imperial Smoked Gose before someone else does), is exciting. If your favorite local brewery one day joins the ranks of Big Craft Beer, enjoy it. If you saw REM play for 30 people in a bar before they got a lot of airplay, you can trot that story out now, but you had less fun if you began ignoring them after Green, simply because everyone else had joined the party. Yes, there were some terrible also-rans when indie went mainstream, but it also meant your favorite formerly-obscure band could afford to tour more often, and produce more records. Success doesn’t have to be inauthentic, nor do corporate trappings negate quality. Like what you like.
Absolutely terrific article and I agree completely. Sam Adams Boston Lager, for example, is a terrific beer and remains my “go to” beer when I just want a beer. I don’t always want some 15% a.b.v. Russian Imperial Stout checking in at 400 calories. Sometimes, I just want to enjoy a beer. And hey, sometimes, I want to enjoy more than one and at 4.9%, I can enjoy more than one Boston Lager. And, last but not least, when I’m hanging out in a place that advertises lots of taps which means they have every version of Budweiser and Miller on the planet, I can still get a decent beer by ordering a Sam Adams.
Excellent! BTW- as one who has craft beer choices at Laurel Racetrack limited to Sam Adams Lager and Sam Adam’s Seasonal, I never knock Sam Adams. BTW- I am convinced that Natty Bo, though not brewed in Baltimore, has a certain regional feel about it.


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LAGRANGE - Candy A. LaRock, 35, passed away suddenly Dec. 28, 2012. She served in the Air Force as a dental hygienist. She was born June 23, 1977, in Norwood, Mass.
She attended school in Foxboro, Mass.; Milo; and Tri County, Dexter; and graduated from Brown Mackie College with a paralegal degree. Candy enjoyed writing poems and stories, animals, working with her hands creating many different crafts, and going places with her family and friends. She volunteered weekly at Crossroads Ministries, Old Town, helping those in need. Candy was always cheerful and happy, in spite of her many health issues.
Candy is survived by her loving husband, Dennis; and daughter, Jennifer, 12; her loving father, Joseph E. Comeau Jr. and loving mother, Carol A. Comeau of LaGrange; her loving sister, Crystal D.M. Comeau of Milford; her loving sister, Cassandra K. Rice and her husband, Scott, and their two daughters, Olivia and Elizabeth, of Carmel; her loving sister, Catrina M. Comeau of LaGrange; her loving uncle and aunt, Tim and Gail Comeau of Massachusetts and their two children, Kerri and Joshua; her loving aunt, Ruth Knapp of New York and her two children, Amy and Cody; her loving uncle and aunt, David and Jonalie Comeau of Lovell and their seven children, Anna, Adia, Rachel, Naomie, Andrea, Johnathan and Nathan; and her loving aunt, Rebecca Hansen of New York and her two children, Benth and Devon.
Friends may call 3-6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, at Clay Funeral Home, 7 Lee Road, Lincoln, where services will be held 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, that you make a donation in Candy LaRock's name to Crossroads Ministries, 2 Wood St., Old Town, ME 04468, which is where Candy volunteered. Those who wish may sign an online register and leave written condolences at www.clayfuneralhome.com.


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A survey of more than 430,000 people in Britain found that night owl had a 10-percent higher risk of dying in the 6.5-year study period than "larks".
The higher risk may be because "people who up late have an internal biological clock that doesn't match their external environment," Knutson said.
"They shouldn't be forced to get up for an 8.00 am a shift."


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2 Coat Propretary Nonstick Interior cooks with little to no oils or fats. Effortless food release. Nonreactive with foods and oven safe to 400 degrees F.
Hard-Anodized Exterior will not chip or crack. Heats fast and evenly.
Riveted Silicone and Stainless Steel handles. Low heat transfer contoured handles.
Perfect for hash-browns and other pan-frying tasks.
Calphalon AccuCore Stainless Steel cookware is professional grade top-of-the-line cookware to rival the quality of All-Clad.