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Digitise or Die – A Personal Reflection

chairsAs I entered the empty auditorium (I was the first there) I paused and took in my surroundings: padded leatherette seats for the audience, modern, sleek white armchairs for the panel, a bottle of water next to each long-necked microphone, dimmed lights, shining stage, and a background image centered behind the panel announcing the speakers and the title of the talk. I then settled in, ready for "compelling arguments" which, I read, would "leave [me] with a renewed enthusiasm for books and vowing to spend less time online."
Well…that didn't happen.

I suppose activating my prior knowledge (hearing an Atwood interview on Start the Week earlier in the day) and noting the bold “or” in the title of the talk should have dampened my enthusiasm. But it didn’t. I was eager to hear what contemporary authors and a publisher might have to say about current developments in technology very firmly vis-a-vis books.
From Left: Atwood, Page, O'Hagan, WagnerRather than tackle issues arising from the evolution and expansion of digital lit. (things like multimodality, transliteracy, deep learning vs. surface learning, changing roles of the author and reader) all four speakers seemed to focus on the materiality of the book (almost always referred to in its singular form). Atwood and Wagner seemed to find it especially important that we find a book sensual, we can touch it (Stephen Page added that we could smell books…including the glue used for binding…) and, of course, read it in a bath. However, won’t printed pages soak or at least dampen, blurring the font and wrinkling the pages? Why might bringing a book into the bath be the test for “good” reading?

Besides, more people take showers these days than baths.”
O’Hagan began the discussion with a story of how he “mispent his use” hunting for books and winding his way through the rows of books his local library had to offer – something impossible with e-books.

For O’Hagan the joy came from the difficulty of finding the books, they were “old” he says, “very often dusty and a little bit exclusive.” “Democratization brings to an end that [notion] of exclusivity.” Now, this seems to be the key and in fact the notion of exclusivity kept making an appearence throughout the remainder of the presentation. O’Hagan also made sure to equate exclusivity of reading with a eduction, taste, judgement – all serious qualities that the “democratization” of books (I think he means Austen’s availablity on Project Gutenberg) threatens to “demolish” the world of books. “Throwing everything out there” is a “terrible” thing because all readers (not sure whether he means the educated or uneducated ones…) only get a “terrible mishmash” of “unedited…unjudged, uncontrolled material…” This is where O’Hagan brings in the idea of copyright but, not in terms of money (as Atwood said, authors don’t do numbers, their agents do) but in terms of being recognised for “serious” ideas. Copyright O’Hagan says is to “select, edit and present material in a way that actually has meaning and umm virtue.”
On that note Page begins his segment of the talk by admitting that publishers, writers, all those print-folk, have been “softened-up” as “luddites” who are “sentimentally attached to cracking a book open and sniffing the pages..loving the glue.” He says the “technophiles” would love this to be the case but, Page explains, “it’s not the truth.” He does go on to make a pertinent point in relation to copyright (but I think it can be extended to all digital development) that it is constantly under revision and changes and “makes itself appropriate for the market, gets relegislated…and is adapting very successfully to the modern environment” (however he does not mention Creative Commons et al.). Copyright “must be protected.” Those technophiles mustn’t think of copyright as something “rather inconvenient.” Enter blogger jibe but thank goodness “we don’t have to read that stuff anymore.” In fact, with the plethora of stuff on the internet, Page admits it’s “getting harder to attract people” (those educated readers?). He goes on to insert a quote here but wait, he’s forgotten where he’s read it, “one reads so many”

Interestingly, putting a positive spin on abundance (unlike O’Hagan), Page explains that intention becomes increasingly important as does finding something “good” and having “trusted recommendations” (sounds like he’s been buying books on Amazon…)
Atwood then takes up the talk by suggesting a temporal change: had lastnight’s discussion occurred 2000 years ago we would have been talking about “the death of the scroll.” Well, that’s what the title of the talk refers to then, digitise and authors and books die. At least Atwood exhibited a sense of humor, joking that if we stop publishing books we’ll save trees – that’s “the positive bit.” Well, at least she mentioned a positive. What about access, what about empowerment, what about appealing to different kinds of learners, what about creativity, and why does digital lit. seem to be synonymous with supplanting “the book?” Sadly, it was Atwood’s talk that left me the most disheartened. For her, a book is “having a voice with you” “even if that person is dead…” Does Atwood mean the author? So only dead people write books? The people in my row were certainly confused. Moving along, why would digital lit. be any different? Especially in the way the speakers were talking about online reading. For them it was exactly like a book, just text, appearing on a screen. No one mentioned the addition of images, sounds, and, most importantly especially from a pedagogical sense, interaction! This was not a discussion about the future of the book, this was a rant calling for the demise of reading text on a glaring computer screen. In fact Atwood explains, “We’re supposed to be talking about computers and whether everybody is going to read your book on a computer…not yet.” So that’s digital lit.; a print novel not published on paper and left in it’s “native” environment…hrm. Atwood goes on to say “it’s very hard for one thing to read 500 consecutive pages of Anna Karina on a computer without having something go really wrong with your eyes.” I think it would be difficult to read 500 pages straight of anything (nevermind the medium, I’d need a coffee break). How would you actually absorb that and then critically assess what was being said, by whom, and why? Fortuitously Atwood points out that “another thing with computers, you don’t neurologically assimilate the information to the same extent that you do with the page…they’ve done tests of this and that’s why when you send somebody a memo you have to itemise all the things you want them to do and number them otherwise they won’t see those things.”

Who are the “they” who have done such tests. Where were they conducted…what other tests share the same findings? I did some research and found Jakob Nielson explain how people read “web pages” (not memos, not digital lit…): “People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.” Thus “we should teach students how to write hypertext and not how just to write printed documents.” Exactly, and, we can teach students how to read online (see my lesson plan on Inanimate Alice). Even more crucially, I think, how are memos like novels or like digital lit.? How can these different objects which are crafted to perform different functions and employ different media, and (often) appeal to different audiences, be compared? Atwood sums up the inadequacy of this analogy when she responds to Page’s call for “good” e-books by saying “what you mean by a good e-book is one that is really like a book” (not even a “good” book mind you, just a book.)
And so the talk continued until question time. Sadly Wagner didn’t seem to moderate the question period and encourage either the panel to stop talking once questions had been (more or less) answered or more discussion from the floor. This resulted in only four questions being broached because certain participants felt it their duty to offer lengthy eulogies on the merits of the book (which no one really doubts). The first question was very good and raised my hopes and was asked by the director of accessiblity at a digital design agency concerning the accessibility of a digitised book (the font size can be easily changed, it can be turned into braille, and it can be transformed into audio) however “digital rights management threatens to slam the door shut…if copyright [drm] means there are such secure locks on digital books.” Page answers: “I’m not quite sure how digital rights management would prevent that.” Really, like this: “The impact of compatibility limitations can be especially serious for users with special needs. For example, visually impaired users may not be able to access digital content effectively if DRM renders the content incompatible with specialized text-to-speech devices or software. See All Party Parliamentary Internet Group, supra note 3, at 13-14 (noting that DRM can “prevent the disabled from accessing digital content . . . because the specialist hardware and software that
is used to convert the content into speech, Braille, or large type, fails to interwork with the protected material
After the first question (emanating from the second row), Wagner made a tactical decision and seemed to prefer taking questions from the back (I was in the first row) and from more seasoned looking people, preferably those with pens and paper (I had a digital camera). The second question was directed at O’Hagan: “is there no quality in digital text” to which he responded that “it’s true” that to read “literary” work (previously referred to as high-culture) one should be smart or educated but “fact is, education and a serious literary culture have a partnership.” By ignoring the merits digital literature offers and the different and wider audience it might reach, nevermind it’s still neophyte state, O’Hagan made a call for the “reinstating of that connection” (between “serious books” and education). And he doesn’t mean students using google to write term papers…

Favourite Quotes: “What they mean by content, we mean books.” “One reason you haven’t heard much of the longtail is because it’s become a boardroom cliche.”
Key Words: serious, literature, bath, paper, glue, book, education, intelligence, exclusivity, high-culture
Personal Aside: just because readers enjoy digital literature or art does not mean that by fiat they just will not appreciate or understand print lit. Why does the anxiety that one will eclipse the other remain? And, how different might this presentation have been had a digital writer or artist been involved?
From Left: Page, Wagner, Atwood signing books after the presentation

17 thoughts on “Digitise or Die – A Personal Reflection

  1. Jess this is a great entry. I would love to see the panellists read it and respond. Not going to happen I know.
    One interesting little snippet I came across a couple of weeks ago:
    Surprise: Study Finds Online Users Finish More Stories Than Print Readers
    By Joe Strupp
    Published: March 28, 2007 12:10 PM ET
    WASHINGTON In a surprise finding, online readers finish news stories more often than those who read in print, according to the Poynter Institute’s Eyetrack study released Wednesday at the American Society of Newspaper Editors conference here.
    When readers chose to read an online story, they usually read an average of 77% of the story, compared to 62% in broadsheets and 57% in tabloids. (http://www.poynter.org/)

  2. Bruce,
    It would be interesting to hear the panelists responded. I did wonder, while I was writing it, if my judgement of the presentation was clouded by my enthusiastic optimism for the future of digital literacy…but I don’t think so. I mean, the videos are there for your perusal. The positive point is that people are talking about the issue of digital lit…but as Atwood did note, people are often afraid of new things (she shared a hilarious story of “bike face”) so maybe that’s just the stage at which we are?

  3. I wonder whether this is more of an issue for event programmers to address? After all, they are the people who choose who to invite and how to promote them. I would be interested to hear from them why they believe that asking print-based authors to comment on digital writing is of any use at all? Would you ask a vegetarian to comment on meat cookery? The way these events are programmed exposes the inability of the literature world itself to get to grips with what is happening and the depressing silo mentality in which much of it resides. Indeed, those who are willing to embrace a wider remit than print are often surprised and shocked by the level of resistance they encounter.

  4. I wonder if it is and issue…maybe that’s just the idea, that these talks are there to satisfy a certain audience and ally specific anxieties.
    Also, (back to optimism) I wouldn’t think that this presentation should stand in for “the literature world.” There must be other authors and pubishers out there interested in the positive and pedagogical applications of digitalia. For example, Random House, in 2005, decided to offer books on a page-per-view basis (much like Google now).

  5. Great post Jess, and no surprise on the one-dimensionality of the arguments put forth on the night. Sue’s analogy of vegetarians commenting on meat cookery is a nice one… and these particular vegetarians have been vegetarian from birth, and apparently have never even sniffed a nice leg of lamb.
    I don’t understand why the organisers didn’t invite at least a token digital writer to respond to some of the points raised. The omission of any discussion about images, sounds, interactivity… shocking (yet not, as we all know this is a common mistake).
    In essence this seems to have been all about digitized writing, rather than digital writing, and for me the two are completely different forms. I might even agree that I prefer reading linear print texts in a book (but no, not in the bath!) – but let’s ask them all to read a few electronic lit novels in print form…

  6. Ummm…roast lamb…. Yeah, I think it’s like comparing apples and oranges and by people who don’t like apples…
    I do wonder why not one digital-optimist was invited to speak. Maybe someone was invited but refrained from appearing, assuming the crowd would lean more towards ludditism?
    Exactly Chris! That people say they’re having discussions about digital lit. or web writing or narrative or story (Atwood employed those last two terms) and then not bring in multimodality really floors me. If digital lit. is only reading lines and lines of text through which one must incessently scroll (this was an argument in the talk actually) I can see why a print book would be preferred. But, if we’re talking about a different reading experience and we don’t including some of that excellent writing out there, then that just isn’t a conversation, anymore, it’s more of a monologue.

  7. Re: analogies, I’ve just remembered that Atwood (very humorously) compared book reviews to literary crit. when she explained that reviews are more like gossiping around the well (I loved her dress but did you see her shoes…) [don’t get me started on the gender thing…] and that lit. crit. is more “biblical” and all about analysis with pages explaining the whys and hows.
    There was also a funny point when she told Page that publishers didn’t do much other than (something like) sell books out of their dingy little shops.

  8. Jess – I was there too and bumped into Chris Meade – wish I’d known you were there!!
    Generally, I found the entire discussion crusty and extremely ‘closed’ – they were talking about books as if they were all the one thing, and I believe that to digitise ‘books’ means to split them by genre – to completely fragment the industry and publish across a variety of platforms. Literary fiction will possibly only ever work between the sleeves of a book cover, but there is an army of genre out there that will flourish and grow online – whether through blogs, interactive games or even downloadable bite size chunks. Margaret Atwood was the only one who really challenged old ideas! I have lots to say here – and will do so!
    But one of my main points of interest was the way that Atwood opened her talk with an explanation of how the scroll was once used as a platform for reading and writing – and that nobody would have believed the impending ‘future of the scroll’ to the smaller printed pages, stitched and bound as what we now know as a ‘book’. Then, at the close of the session she mentioned how she found ‘scrolling’ irritating – in that she disliked reading on screen and scrolling the sidebar to navigate up and down the screen! A movement from the ‘scroll’ to ‘scrolling’ perhaps? And still not happy!
    One thing though – as a reader and a writer, I do both differently dependent on whether I’m using a page and pen or a keyboard and screen. Atwood commented on how she instructs her students to edit with a ruler, to go through their text line by line as an editing exercise. She remarked at how it simply wasn’t the same, editing on screen – with the red/green wiggly lines beneath the spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. And I was desperate to say this – reading and writing from a page to a screen requires a different/new way of reading and writing. So to simply assume that to digitise books means to load them to e-readers, is to completely miss the point! Parades of text on e-reader is like reading a word document – digitising fiction means so much more than that. But I’m writing this all up in my research project, so will share more with you next week!

  9. Looking forward to reading more of your thoughts Alison!
    I don’t think anyone would deny that reading on a screen is currently unpleasant to do for any period of time. But technologies are changing very quickly… within 10-15 years these slow-refresh monitors we use now will seem very outdated. Portable E-readers like Sony’s recent hardware are already a step beyond.
    The scrolling thing is interesting. I’m tempted to say that it is a matter of not using the correct tool: if you have a mouse with a scrollwheel, scrolling is extraordinarily easy and pleasant. If you don’t, it’s a rather clumsy affair. But then I wouldn’t want to read a print book with chopsticks, either.

  10. Alison – such a shame I missed you and Chris (am sure there will be future londinium digi. events). 🙂
    I too was struck by Atwood’s reference to the scroll and the ensuing complaints of reading online and scrolling through pages of text is so much more uncomfortable than turning pages…I agree with Chris, with a scroll wheel it’s super easy and comfortable, too comfortable in fact as it helps me stay at the desk far tooooooo long.
    And, you’ve said it again and it just seems to keep needing to be said: reading and writing online and reading and writing offline are very difference processes requiring different skills. I do believe online literacy builds upon the foundations of print literacy but it also expands it (especially if we think of the inclusion of sound, image, video, etc…).
    How about this quote: “Books are not fundamentally better than bytes, but to dismiss the analogue world as inadequate to the demands of a modern society is to lose much of our ability to move through different literacies and to access multiple resources. Revolution and revelation come in many guises and are activated through contradictory literacies. Education at its best allows access – not to technology, a screen or a program – but to ideas and a critical consciousness.” From here.

  11. Digitise or Die – What is the future of the book?

    One of the (many) things you may not know about us is that over the last few months we have been helping develop the content delivery systems for a brand new eBook proposition, so it was interesting to go along to this talk during this London Book Fair we

  12. Either/Or

    In relation to the recent discussion about the either/or mentality regarding the future of the book (for an example read this account of the recent Digitise or Die event), I thought it worth noting some comments taken from a video…

  13. …online literacy builds upon the foundations of print literacy but it also expands it (especially if we think of the inclusion of sound, image, video, etc…)
    Actually, one thing I’ve been thinking about recently is how images (static images) might need to be considered differently from the other media when talking about the differences between digital and print lit. Moving images, sound, interactivity, generativity etc. are all absent in print lit., but static images are not, at least back to the time of illuminated manuscripts. So the literacy to read images online or as part of an narrative may not have developed much at all?
    Like that endquote a lot, particularly the final sentence.

  14. I was at this event (with Alison Norrington from the DMU MA) and felt it was totally lacking in vision. Imagine a session on the future of the fridge where everyone reminisced about old frigidaires and had no predictions about improved freezers to come! I was embarassed on behalf of the book world I inhabit. Actually it increased my missionary zeal to help page authors get over their fears and explore digital possibilities creatively.

  15. Hi Chris,
    Great comment about fridges and freezers!
    I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with regards to many discussions about new media (or probably any new *things*) – the lack of vision. Of course digital lit. right now can’t be compared to Joyce, Beckett, Woolf, Angelou in terms of it’s narrative offerings (nor should it). It is still very *new.* I agree, we should look to the future – to how these works might change and what possibilities they offer.
    As a personal aside, the panel made a point of saying that digital lit. isn’t nearly as good as print because we can’t read it in the bath…why not? E-Book readers, mobiles, laptops, mp3 players with text, etc…don’t need to be plugged in (and neither new or old media do well when in contact with water!).

  16. I once dropped a copy of Proust in the bath. I tried to dry it out but it congealed into a solid brick. I should have kept it as an art object.
    What a shame we didn’t meet up at the South Bank. Thanks for your thorough documentation – better than it deserved tho!

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Building Agile Learners in Today’s Environment

March 15, 2011

Today’s learning environments have changed. Years ago, you could learn a skill or craft and have that knowledge serve you for most of your career. Case in point…last week my husband had a plumber over to take a look at why our water flow levels were so low that we are unable to get hot water in two of our sinks. We have a tank-less system that boasts “endless” hot water…but we couldn’t get the water hot to begin with.

This guy was highly recommended by one of our neighbors as honest and dependable. He had been in the plumbing business for over 30 years. The plumber and his helper followed my husband around as he demonstrated the low flow problem we had been plagued with for the last few months. He lifted his cap and scratched his head as Don showed him the tank-less water system and the computerized panel used to adjust flow and temperature. He said he had heard about the tank-less systems before, but he didn’t know much about them. He said he would need to talk with his plumbing buddies and see if they have any ideas.

I smiled at the guy and asked if he was going to pose the question to the “twitterverse” which brought a chuckle to his helper and a blank stare from him. I said, “you know…tweet the question to your plumbing buddies.” His face lit up and he smiled at me. “I don’t have a computer, wouldn’t want one. Wouldn’t know where to start with that. I’m too old to learn that kind of stuff.”

I imagined a barber shop or hardware store with a checker board on a barrel around which the plumbers would gather and ponder over plumbing questions and come up with solutions. And, although I love the idea of those types of social connections for learning and sharing of information, it wasn’t going to get our water flow problems resolved…at least not with this guy.

In today’s business climate, you’ve got to be an agile learner. Learning agility is your ability to respond to adaptive challenges through the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills. At the organizational level, agility is the ability to grow and innovate at or above the speed of change.  At the learner level, agile learners are adaptive, collaborative and self-directed in their learning. Today’s learning organizations must be able to cultivate and support these dynamic learners.

What are you doing in your firm to build agile learners? Are you looking at social networking tools to serve up and share learning content and organizational knowledge? What are you doing during formal learning events to get your learners to commit to learn more and connect with each other to keep the learning process going? How do learners share discovered best practices and improved processes?

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Look what the Storm blew in…

Anza Borrego Desert experiences incredible windstorms whenever there is storm inland, and I have never experienced wind like I do in the desert.  These storms blow in with very little advance notice and I can only imagine the havoc it plays on the wildlife. Coyotes don’t have the luxury of saying, “Eh, it is too windy today to hunt, let’s take the day off and eat tomorrow!” The wind blows so hard that animals cannot eat nor can they hunt or even rest properly. The sand is everywhere and it gets in your eyes and nose and mouth and there is no escape for those that live outdoors. We humans at least have the luxury of seeking shelter indoors. I have given up caring about the sand in the house, but with animals, it is an everyday occurrence and acceptance must be the norm. One day, while the wind blew so hard that it kept me indoors, I watched this beautiful great white egret make a landing in our backyard. What a graceful bird… It took the power of its large wingspan to make a safe landing. It sought shelter from the storm and I was careful not to bother it while it rested. When the winds died down, this beautiful bird that in 1953, became the symbol of the National Audubon Society, in part, to prevent the killing of birds for their feathers, flew off in search of new territory. It left me feeling awed at the beauty of this bird and that we could be for once, a part of the solution instead of being the problem. This egret sought a safe haven in the middle of a sand and windstorm and I was able for a change, to provide a safe place for it to ride out the storm.

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Get Your Youth to This Event if You Live Close to Salt Lake City!

August 5th | 3:00p-9:30p
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Hero. Warrior. Champion.If any of those words resonate, this message is for you.Lionheart is taking its next big leap towards uniting the hero generation! We believe that Great Heroes are born to change the world. We’re looking for the next 1,000.Will YOU be one of them?Our goal is simple: win the greatest battles of our time by uniting and supporting a generation of heroes, the likes of which the world has never seen.We believe that you have potential to impact the lives of others, and that it can be used for good.
We believe that your priceless purpose is begging you to live beyond your wildest dreams.
We believe that your power to choose victory in the battles of your life can never be taken from you.The Lionheart movement is designed to champion heroes across the world as they strive to embody their divine identities. The movement’s next major leap will happen August 5th , 2017, when 1,000 heroes, warriors, champions, and friends of Lionheart rally at the South Towne Expo Center to create the event that will unite and equip the leaders of our generation with the power to live with purpose, triumph over obstacles, manifest virtue, love unconditionally, cultivate unconquerable souls, and ultimately, choose to be free.It’s time for you to rise to your very real, very unique destiny – and to do so now.We need you because YOU are a HERO.

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Home / Podcast / Balancing Matches and Practice

Balancing Matches and Practice

What’s the right balance between practice and matches? I’m not exactly sure what the right balance is, but in an ideal world, I think my practice schedule would look like this:

  • Dryfire every day
  • Livefire weekly
  • 2 Matches a month

I like this for two reasons:

  • It’s fairly realistic with a little planning and dedication.
  • It’s enough practice to really see decent improvement if you’re actually doing it.

Gear that Doesn’t Suck:

If you’re reloading your own ammo, and you’re shooting matches that are above the level of a club match, you should really have a chronograph so you KNOW how fast your bullets are going, and what your power-factor is.

I’ve got one of these Caldwell Precision Chronographs, and I love it. It’s inexpensive, and works great.

If you want to support what I’m doing here at Triangle Tactical, head over to the Patreon and get access to the NewsBlast Podcast, as well as bonus content.

About Lucas

Editor/Head Honcho at Triangle Tactical. Lucas is a life long shooter and outdoorsman, avid concealed carrier and competitive shooter, and a lover of pork fat.

One comment

  1. I try to dry fire 5 days a week, livefire two times a week and participate in one match a month.

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One day David went to an auction. While he was there, he bid for a parrot. David really wanted this bird, so he got caught up and thoroughly involved in the bidding. He kept on bidding, but kept getting outbid, so he bid higher and higher and higher.

Finally, after he had bid much more than he had intended, David won the bid; the parrot was his at last.

As he was paying for the parrot, he said to the auctioneer, “I hope this parrot can talk. I would hate to have paid this much for it, only to find out that he can’t talk!”

“Don’t worry.” said the auctioneer, “He can talk. Who do you think kept bidding against you?”

“Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.” – Mark Twain


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PETTEWAY, TEXAS. Petteway is located three miles east of Twin Oaks Reservoir on Farm Road 2293 in north central Robertson County. The town developed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century as settlers moved to the prairies. The village was named for Mike Petteway, who operated the general store. By 1900 the community had three churches, two schools, three stores, a cotton gin, and a gristmill. The gin was owned by Stanley Barkowiak. A post office operated from 1887 until the mid 1930s. After World War II the production of cotton diminished, and the area turned to ranching. Subsequently, Aluminum Company of America purchased much of the land to mine coal. The population remained constant at 150 from 1915 through 1967, and in 1990 through 2000 it was twenty-five.

J. W. Baker, History of Robertson County, Texas (Franklin, Texas: Robertson County Historical Survey Committee, 1970).
James L. Hailey

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Tanabata Festival

August 3, 2011

Hello everybody!
Please come to our Tanabata Festival event this Saturday!
We have been planning and working for this event for months.
Looking forward seeing you!

Tanabata Festival in New York

The TSURU Project brings a Japanese star festival to New York City to send wishes to people in Japan

August 6th, Saturday
3 pm – 7 pm
at Tenri Cultural Institute,
43A West 13th Street,
New York, NY 10011

A very special one day event showcasing more than 3,000 colorful origami cranes in large ornaments, participatory workshops for origami cranes and tanzaku, thin paper strips for writing wishes to decorate bamboo branches, and live music performances by Japanese musicians.

The large ornaments will be on view and each string will be sold at suggested donation from $20 during a festival. Donation box will also be available. All the proceeds will go to Ashinaga’s “Rainbow House Fund,” Mazenda Fukushima Children’s Fund, and Tenri Cultural Institute’s “Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.” Only cash can be accepted.

**This is a free event and open to public.

2 Comments leave one →
  1. August 3, 2011 10:34 pm

    Awesome! Congratulations to you!

  2. August 9, 2011 4:56 pm

    What a wonderful show. I met many new people including Yuri and Ian. The piece I purchased is now in my office. To see some pics of the event go to my fb page, enter mark sehl, and friend me saying you are from Tsuru NYC.

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Posted: January 24, 2017 in Donald Trump, President Tweet, psychomania
Tags: ,

tube-heading-friends“ALTERNATIVE FACT ONE”

Tube Sig.red

  1. swo8 says:

    OH dear, I’m not used to having a gun pointed at me like that.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Lara/Trace says:

    It feels like hell to me.

    Liked by 2 people

    • tubularsock says:

      Oh my. Let Tubularsock cheer you up LT. Didn’t you see the sign? “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate”(“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”)

      Remember according to Dante’s Inferno there are nine concentric circles of suffering to proceed through in this travel through Trump Hell. But you know Italians, everything is in a shape of a pizza!

      And golly LT we have just started and this first circle is called LIMBO. Kinda fits.

      Yeah, Tubularsock is always cheerier when he see the whole pizza. Pass the ketchup, please.

      Liked by 2 people

  3. Michael Fuhrig says:

    Let’s see…alternate fact #1–Trump is a lier..NO that’s a truth! Let’s take a Trump fact–he’s for the little guy. But no.. he cancelled mortgage breaks and abortion coverage around the world-so that’s an alternate fact. Trump fact–he’s divesting from his financial empire. No wait..he’s leaving the running of it to his children. That’s another alternate fact. He lost the popular vote to voter fraud. Wait a minute again.. there’s no proof of that so that’s another alternate fact. My God this guy’s integrity is based on quicksand. Well at least his hair is real…oops! Another alternate fact. Let’s face it…we’re screwed for the next 4 years–and that’s the real McCoy, not an alternate fact.

    Liked by 3 people

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Big Sis Takes Vermont

As mentioned on Friday, my big sister did the US Triathlon Nationals in Burlington, VT over the weekend. She came out 37th out of ~180-ish qualifiers in her age group. I am super proud and very happy that our mom was able to be there, which just happened by chance as mom was already coming out when Beth found out she qualified.

I love this picture. The two most influential people in shaping who I grew up to be, and so beautiful!

So, big sis has been doing her tris on a road bike with clip-on’s. No aero helmet, no aero wheels… I think it’s time I helped her upgrade equipment a bit!

3 thoughts on “Big Sis Takes Vermont

  1. Ryan, this post made my day! And I’m having a pretty great day, so that’s saying something. And not just because you are going to pimp my ride, but that is deeply, truly appreciated, too. Love you!

  2. waitaminute!!?? You go to Vermont and nothing?? Ok, so I got your VM last week, but you coulda told me you were in town…granted I”m in CT now and hating it…but regardless, that’s my hometown! I hear the race was a huge success and congrats to Sister Beth! Awesome result!

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Freebie: 4 Wonderful JavaScript Option Menus

Demo Download

In this iteration of your freebie giveaway, we've prepared for you 4 awesome option menus! They are made entirely our of vanilla HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and don't require any libraries or frameworks (except for some jQuery).

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All you have to do, to include any of these menus in your project, is to copy the HTML from the demo examples and place the code anywhere on your page. There are also a few lines of JavaScript, and a specific CSS file for each menu. Both the JavaScript and CSS are self contained and shouldn't cause any side effects to your existing content.

We've also added event handlers that call alerts when a option in the menus is selected. You can use this to effortlessly add your own functionality to all the links and buttons.

Side Option Menu

Free for Commercial Use

The menus can be downloaded from the button on the top of the page. You have all rights to customize them and use them however you want, in both personal and commercial projects (our license page). Enjoy!

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This discussion is closed.

great work!

cool stuff! Thanks Danny!

This is awesome. I wonder if you could include the SASS or SCSS files on the download?

Thanks :)

Tang Hoong

Thanks Danny, I've been learning lots from your tutorials!


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To all the Ford lovers!

Isnt this CRAZY!!!
Oh yeah!!!! Aint she purty!

This is my DREAM TRUCK!!!

Four wheeler time!

I had so much fun riding with this crazy girl.  Scary…. but fun!  I taught her to drive the four wheeler and her favorite thing to do was to scare me.

She had way to much fun, I mean who wouldn’t???
I love four wheelers!!!


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かあ (@0126Ogawa) Twitter

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長坂27th→星陵65th→香川大農学部 TAKE-V(Gt.Vo)/ASUS

  • Worldwide Rank #51,272,863
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かあ, also known as @0126Ogawa has a reasonably significant presence on Twitter and is ranked by us in the 30% percentile for account strength. Active on Twitter since March 2014, かあ made it to having a respectable 221 Twitter followers and to being ranked 51,272,863 for number of followers among all Twitter users.

Uh-oh... seems like someone has fallen asleep while on duty and is dropping in social relevance. The plot thickens when considering かあ's follower-to-following ratio, which is 0.99. This means that this account basically has the same amount of followers as it follows other accounts. It kind of makes one wonder about tactics...

Tweeting is apparently one of @0126Ogawa's favorite pastimes, with an average of 0 tweet(s) per day in the past 30 days. That's pretty consistent with a total of 3,772 since @0126Ogawa joined Twitter.

This account is tracked by us Only September 2015. As of October 22 2017 we track 282184853 Twitter accounts, so feel free to search for other accounts you're interested in and reveal their Twitter story!

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@0126Ogawa has posted 0 tweets in the last 6 days, which translates to an average of 0 tweets per day.

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@0126Ogawa has 221 followers on Twitter.
This account is #51,272,863 in the worldwide rank of the most popular Twitter users.

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@0126Ogawa is following 224 Twitter accounts.
Last month this account followed 49 users.

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Twitter Counter is the #1 Twitter stats site powered by Twitter. It all started in June 12, 2008 and we grew rather rapidly because of our Twitter Counter badge. The button is a nice small image that shows your visitors how many followers you have on Twitter. Within a year the button was on many many blogs around the world and we displayed more than 100 million buttons in one month. We track follower stats for over 282.184.853 users now.


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EDWARD MALPICA (@01Malpica) Twitter

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Estudiante de derecho UNISIMON ext Cucuta

Cúcuta, Norte de Santander

  • Worldwide Rank #178,824,925
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EDWARD MALPICA, also known as @01Malpica has a reasonably significant presence on Twitter and is ranked by us in the 30% percentile for account strength. Active on Twitter since August 2011, EDWARD MALPICA made it to having a respectable 18 Twitter followers and to being ranked 178,824,925 for number of followers among all Twitter users.

The plot thickens when considering EDWARD MALPICA's follower-to-following ratio, which is 0.16. Which is not surprising given this account's audience size.

@01Malpica doesn't tweet all that much, with an average of 0 tweet(s) per day in the past 30 days. That's pretty consistent with a total of 112 since @01Malpica joined Twitter.

This account is tracked by us Only September 2015. As of October 22 2017 we track 282184853 Twitter accounts, so feel free to search for other accounts you're interested in and reveal their Twitter story!

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@01Malpica has posted 0 tweets in the last 5 days, which translates to an average of 0 tweets per day.

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@01Malpica has 18 followers on Twitter.
This account is #178,824,925 in the worldwide rank of the most popular Twitter users.

EDWARD MALPICA Following on Twitter

@01Malpica is following 114 Twitter accounts.
Last month this account followed 6 users.

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Why don't you give it a try and compare EDWARD MALPICA to yourself ? Or if you are EDWARD MALPICA get even more feature rich & up-to-date stats with our premium Twitter Stats.

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Posts Tagged ‘Business’

How can Social Media Help my Company?

February 17, 2011

When looking at how social media is going to help a company the first thing most would ask is how much money will it make my company? Social Media is not going to directly show you huge increases in sales, but its effects are shown much more indirectly.

Back to Basic Business

Social Media is going to help large companies connect and get to know their customers. This ability to connect has been something only small local businesses have been able to achieve in the past, but social media has changed this dramatically. Social media gets back to the core goals of what businesses want to do, connect to customers and gain their brand loyalty so they will continue to buy your product.

All social media comes down to is connections. It gives people a chance to connect that would never have been able to. Businesses have been trying to connect to prospective customers for years by doing things like trade shows and sponsoring community events. Social Media offers this same connection accept it is 24 hours a day 7 days a week. What business leaders need to realize is what an amazing opportunity social media is for them. People that engage with corporations through social media aren’t always current customers, but usually potential ones.

In 2006 CareOne Debt Relief opened a community based site in which people could write in questions they had about things like debt and budgeting and get a response. Today there are more than 1.4 million people signed up to interact with CareOne’s debt experts due to the ease and trust in this credible company. It was not CareOne’s goal at first to gain revenue from this site, but they quickly realized the people writing in to the site were not already customers these were all prospective customers that were seeking help. The company opened themselves up to a huge population of people they never would have reached before and showed them the services they can provide.

This brings us back to my original answer to how companies benefit from social media. They are not going to see direct revenue increases from social media, but are going to see it pay off in connecting to customers they never would have.

Do you think companies benefit from the use of social media? Are there any companies you know of that are connecting effectively to prospective customers through social media?


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This category contains 8 posts

Forest People, Forest Elephants, and Forest Citizen Science in Cameroon

Since its initial development, Sapelli has been closely interlinked with conservation aims, ranging from resource monitoring in the Congo and CAR to surveillance groups in Brazil. Partnering with indigenous and local communities (ILCs) enables Sapelli to bring traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) to the forefront of conservation efforts, empowering marginalised communities in the process. I’m new to ExCiteS, … Continue reading

Ndima-Kali – A Different Kind of Context

It sometimes feels like every blog post I’ve written for ExCiteS has come from a different fieldsite, and to a large extent that’s true. Over the past three years I’ve engaged with maybe seven or eight different organisations and project ideas across the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with … Continue reading

Building Community Protocols with the Ashaninka from Apiwtxa

The community protocol meeting for the Ashaninka Land Monitoring Project happened on September 5, in Apiwtxa village, with the participation of the community, of the anthropologist Carolina Comandulli representing the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group, and of the partner organization Comissão Pró-Índio do Acre (CPI-AC). In the morning, the anthropologist presented to everyone what … Continue reading

Engaging Local Communities in Conservation Research

The sun is getting low on the horizon, and after five long hours of hiking up and down the hilly landscape of the Lefini Reserve in the heat of the day, Maximain, our guide, decides it is time to set-up camp for the night. However, we’ve been following a path made by a group of … Continue reading

Getting closer to the field: development for whom?

I am finally back to London, after spending two months in South America. In December, I went to the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties, in Lima, Peru, where I had the opportunity to meet a number of project partners who were around to discuss climate-related issues. In this COP, there was a specific Pavilion … Continue reading

Back to the Field – interdisciplinary research in the Congo

Take one computer scientist, one geographer, one anthropologist, two quadcopter drones and eight Android smartphones to the Congo for a month and what do you get? That was the key research question for the latest ExCiteS expedition to Congo-Brazzaville, which got off the ground (quite literally, given the drones) in January 2015. It’s been a … Continue reading

The Amazon in focus: development challenges and participatory monitoring tools for the rainforest

The past two weeks were extremely busy. Between August 22nd and 24th I attended the Brazilian Studies Association Conference, which was held in London. The Conference gathered more than two hundred international scholars and students from different fields who carry out research about Brazil. There were three panels dedicated to studies on the Amazon region … Continue reading

Problematic Porcupines and Elephantine Issues

I’ve never yet seen an elephant in the Congo rainforest, and to be honest it’s a little difficult at times to imagine that animals so large can a) hide themselves so effectively or b) even fit at all in amongst the dense mess of trees and brush and leaves that make up the forest’s ground … Continue reading

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Forums: Discussion:

 Drywall Screws Fastening

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Thursday 2nd of March 2017, 01:35 - 1
Drywall screws are the most common fastener used to install drywall. There are basically two types of screws used for drywall, coarse thread and fine thread drywall screws. Fine thread drywall screws are made specifically for use with galvanize steel stud profiles. Fine thread screws can be used when installing drywall on wood studs. However, coarse thread screws are better suited for wood stud framing. Coarse thread screws drive into wood slightly faster than fine-thread and bite stronger in the wood below. Coarse thread drywall screws should never be used with steel stud framing. Self-tapping fine-thread drywall screws are useful for installing drywall on steel stud framing, particularly when installing drywall over heavy gauge steel studs.

The second main consideration with drywall screws is the length. Drywall screws come in a variety of lengths. The most commonly used length is 1-¼ and 1-⅝ inch long drywall screws. The shorter the screw, the easier it is to install. Long screws have a tendency to lean over so you have to be extremely careful to keep them strait when pushing them in with the screw-gun. Even the slightest pressure off-center will tip them over. When installing either ½ or ⅝ inch drywall, 1-¼ inch drywall screws are the length of choice. Double layer drywall requires longer screws, usually at least 1-⅝ or even 2 inch drywall screws. When choosing screw length it is best to go with the shortest possible length that allows the shank to sink at least ½ inches into the stud below.
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Editor's Pick

Editor’s Pick: The Petty Thief And The Armed Robber

I recently got into a debate with my sister about fornication vs homosexuality.  It’s an argument that I’ve had before, and I had in mind to write a post about it, but put it off.   Well, today’s passionate discussion rekindled that flame in me.  I think this is something we really need to explore and get right, so that people do not remain confused and on the fence about the whole issue of sexual immorality.  I would really appreciate your thoughts too, so please read and comment below.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what sexual immorality has to do with petty thieves and armed robbers!  Well my point is that both the petty thief and the armed robber are THIEVES and they are both heading to the same place, if they do not repent.  In the same way, both fornication and homosexuality are sexual immorality and will face the same judgment from God!

I’m sure many of you would like to object, and emphasis that homosexuality is much worse.  The way I see it, the difference is but a speck.  The homosexual fornicates the same as the heterosexual.  However, the heterosexual feels superior to the homosexual…in the same way that the petty thief thinks he’s a better person than the armed robber.

Read more at https://ufuomaee.blog/the-petty-thief-and-the-armed-robber/

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Tuesday, 17 January 2012
11:55 AM

Currently have Sky + HD which we can't afford to keep. We want to swap to Freeview but want the record/pause/rewind functions of the Sky box. Can you recommend a Freeview HD+ box that is like for like with the Sky box. I've been trawling through all the info online but my head is spinning, there are so many conflicting views on capabilities/reliability.

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Tina's 1 post GB
1:41 PM

Tina: Although you will no doubt see quite a few being advertised with varying price levels, if you want a good quality box with excellent backup facilities then you cant go wrong with a Humax brand "Freesat" box, I highlight Freesat as it simply connects into the same two "F" connectors as is used by the Sky box, nothing else requires to be done.

Model referred to being a Humax FOXSAT-HDR which does exactly the same as your Skybox, this available via web sources with various sizes of hard drive, the standard being 320Gb.

If though there is any particular reason for wanting a Freeview recorder then Humax also has Freeview versions, these obviously working though a normal aerial, the model being a Humax HDR FOX-T2.

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Rwanda and Haiti: Breaking Out of the Survival Trap–An Economic Transformation from the Heart of Africa

By Rob Henning[1]

Telling people you received an offer for your dream job out of business school is usually an easy task. For me, it was more difficult; “….Mom and Dad, I’ve accepted a job in Africa to continue my career in economic development. Rwanda to be specific…” After a long pause, the typical litany starting with “genocide” and continuing with death, violence, and disease ensued. Not an auspicious start to a new and exciting career.

Rwanda’s transformation over the course of the intervening decade has been extraordinary. The country has recorded near 8% annual GDP growth. The tourism industry has grown from less than $5 million in revenues in 2002 to nearly $300 million in 2010 based on high value experiences. Firms from the largest mobile telecoms to small dynamic coffee exporters have identified and exploited profitable niches in domestic, regional and global markets. Rwanda seems to have found the recipe for success.

From Basket Case to Role Model
“How did Rwanda do it?” This was a question posed to me in 2008 at a gathering of more than 300 senior Haitian leaders from the public and private sectors. Although the plight of Haiti is de rigueur because of the catastrophic earthquake in January 2010, it was only the latest shock to Haiti’s economy. Even before the earthquake, the economic situation was grim, with per capita GDP at US $405 in 2006, representing a drop of nearly 50% from 1981 levels. The country was gripped in the Survival Trap, a vicious cycle of poverty and dependency.

In essence, the question the Haitians were asking was: “How did Rwanda manage to escape the Survival Trap?” Achieving this dramatic economic success requires addressing three major challenges:

  1. “Anti-business” operating environment: Foreign aid and remittances are typically 10 to 15 times higher than foreign direct investment in Haiti. Haiti is also the second worst economy in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” indicators.
  2. Culture of dependency: After decades of living off foreign aid and remittances, Haiti is optimized to maneuver for the next handout instead of engaging in productive activities.
  3. Survival business strategies: Because of imbalances caused by aid, there is little incentive to invest in productive sectors. Instead, distribution systems are optimized to distribute imported products.

The combination of these factors creates a Survival Trap where a country merely runs in place, highly dependent on the billions of dollars infused by the international community to stay afloat. The challenge for Haiti is to break this vicious cycle and move towards an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem built on a foundation of trust, innovation and strong leadership.

Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Haiti
Although the potential list of interventions required to foster an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Haiti would be extensive, five high priority opportunities will energize the process:

  1. Cultivate Leaders
    Every society faces a central or “adaptive” challenge that requires its leaders to re-examine their values, attitudes and actions. Rwandans from President Kagame down to the average citizen have embraced a new paradigm of leadership that embraces moral purpose, entrepreneurship and trust. Given the extremely low levels of trust In Haiti, and massive divide between the elite and majority of Haitians, this type of leadership must be carefully cultivated by the senior leaders of the public and private sectors and reinforced by targeted development programs for young emerging leaders from all walks of life.
  2. Transform the Business Environment
    Haiti needs a transformative approach to improving its economic infrastructure. Luckily, a role model exists in the form of Rwanda. In one year alone, the country improved its Doing Business ranking from 143 to 67, a jump of 76 places. Rwanda accomplished this through a combination of political leadership, concrete technical improvements and marketing of the initiatives to the IFC. The signals from the Martelly Administration are excellent in this regard, with a goal of cutting the country’s Doing Business ranking from 163 to 80 in one year.
  3. Reset the Relationship with the International Community
    President Kagame has become Africa’s spokesperson for the effective use of aid to foster development. His methods include aligning donor programs with national priorities, channeling more money through government institutions and investing in productive economic infrastructure. In comparison, Haiti is dependent on the infusion of money from abroad to sustain its economy with Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) and remittances equaling 30 to 40% of GDP over the past decade and at least 10 times the amount of FDI.
  4. Celebrate Entrepreneurs Throughout Society
    In Haiti, “private sector” has become associated with predatory behavior that tends to benefit a few at the expense of the majority. Improvements in the overall business environment will only benefit a few, not society as a whole. To mainstream entrepreneurship in Haitian society, the idea of “every fisherman or farmer is an entrepreneur” must take root. Even beyond the private sector, people from all walks of life must embrace a solutions mindset instead of being paralyzed by challenges.
  5. Implement a Shared Vision of Economic Growth & Entrepreneurship
    Rwanda’s economic transformation is the result of a tight focus on a small number of priority sectors such as coffee, tea, and tourism that have generated growth and acted as role models for the economy. This type of focus is important in countries where institutional, human and financial resources are scarce. The good news is that Haiti has already started down this path. Over the course of 2009, the Presidential Commission on Competitiveness developed a “Shared Vision for a Competitive and Prosperous Haiti,” a proposal for improving the competitiveness of the Haitian economy anchored around five priority sectors. Five-year investment costs will be US $1.5 billion, generating an incremental US $3.6 billion in revenues for the economy.

Rwanda as a Role Model for Haiti’s Transformation
Since my first conversation with my family about Rwanda, they have cautiously embraced my passion to tackle the challenge of global poverty in some of the world’s toughest environments. Moving beyond fear and skepticism, they have visited me in Rwanda, Afghanistan, and Haiti to understand these nations in a way that is impossible to do from just watching CNN.

Until recently, pointing to concrete outcomes from my work in these countries has been difficult. An approach focused on transforming the business environment, fostering productive mindsets, and articulating competitive strategies to leaders of fragile economies could have been dismissed as the musings of another first-world development practitioner. Rwanda’s transformation has made my job as an advisor easier by showing that following this process can lead to prosperity and concrete improvements for people at all levels of society.

The next chapter in my journey is to work with Haiti’s leaders to unlock the latent potential of this fiercely independent country. Given the constant inquiries from all levels of society about the continuing success of Rwanda, I am confident that Haiti will finally escape the Survival Trap and realize the 200 year old dream of its founders.

[1] Rob Henning has worked in Rwanda, Afghanistan and Haiti. He is one of the most experienced people in the world in post-conflict economies. This MBA has his shots up to date, a thick passport and a network of Presidents and Cabinet members around the world who rely upon him for advice only he can give.

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Unique DIY Gift Baskets

For the past few years, homemade gifts have been on my radar. Pinterest usually spurs that because so many ideas are posted just before the holidays. Last year there were a lot of wreathes so I decided to make my sisters each one for their homes. I had them pick a color scheme from Design Seeds and I went shopping for the goods. I’m an awful gift giver because I am only half way done on the first wreath and it’s already Christmas again! This year I am determined to finish them along with their homemade gifts for this year, which are already about halfway done.

One of my favorite homemade gifts to give (and get!) are gift baskets. I got thinking this year about baskets I could make for various occasions but kept getting stuck on the classics: movie night, spa day, baked goods, etc. After some research, I picked out a few more that can be tailored to specific friends and family members, whole families or couples. These were my favorites:

  • Herb Garden basket
  • Beer / Wine tasting
  • Ice Cream Sundae kit
  • Garden Starter kit
  • Grilling kit
  • Breakfast basket especially this cute Sweet and Savory basket from Country Living
  • Specialty cooking / baking basket
  • A Movie Night Basket with food tailored to the specific movie (Here are some food ideas for a movie basket for “The Help“.)

Do you have any unique gifts you bundle together?

(image via Country Living)

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Your Negatives of a One Dimension Meets Just about all Education

Posted: November 18, 2011 in Technology
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The public universities that a lot of youngsters attend get a number of disadvantages compared to homeschools. The primary notion of 1 curriculum for all your students and something teacher to have an whole class delivers the possibility of personal awareness of every single college student to be able to EX0-105near actually zero. Several youngsters who require particular consideration in these lessons will finish way up faltering due to ‘one dimension matches all’ schooling method. Below are a few from the major disadvantages

of this kind of training system. • EX0-109Bigger course sizes: The majority of community university systems possess large type sizes. In these classes many students don’t obtain the focus they want.

Most research shows in which homeschooled children often outscore public college pupils. One more examine implies that lessons together with less college students credit score much better than instructional classes with increased college students. This specific reveals that more personalized interest leads to much better outcomes, and homeschooling offers students using far more one-on-one focus as compared to is possible in public universities. • Express determined principles: In public places school systems, the state of hawaii typically can determine the policies for the institution. This does not think about it in which a few youngsters are completely different from other individuals. A few kids undergo within this method making them carry out a lot more badly compared to what they have the capability. • Identical program for those: Public educational institutions have similar course load for all you students. Typically a number of pupils are usually more robust throughout numbers although some are great from materials. The same course load sometimes will cause problems to a university student whose merely options are to go into a Exin Certificationsfield of literature as he needs to take up math that he discovers ineffective pertaining to his or her cause. • Typical grading program: The population schools certifying product is very much divided through the individuals. Each pupil should be won independently, remembering their own expertise and weak points. Several grading methods can be extremely hard around the comfort regarding several individuals. • Widespread rate coaching: In a type regarding 30 college students, each is coached a similar thing at the same time and so are because of the very same time for you to absorb along with comprehend the break through. Every pupil has a exclusive curve of mastering that can take distinct programs of time to be able to capture a brand new principle. When the necessary period of time isn’t presented to trainees, he then or perhaps she’ll be unable to discover the subject matter nicely. • Common technique of instructing: Amongst all the students, a few discover much better through books, some find out greater by hearing talks while some understand far better through performing activities about the subject. Whenever a teacher instructs in the same rate, several college students could find it hard to discover as the teacher’s approach to instructing differs from the kids method of learning.Exin

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Statement by Unite on premises at 15 Merrion Square

unite-white-out-of-redJanuary 16th: Unite is seeking to sell the former Amicus offices at 15 Merrion Square, which are in poor condition, with the benefit of planning permission for apartments.  In so doing, our aim is to maximise the value of this property for our members throughout Ireland and ensure that we have the resources to support and defend them.

It is Unite’s understanding that, following legislative changes introduced by the previous Government, the planning permission applicant (Unite the Union Trustee Company), had no legal option but to seek a social housing exemption.   If it should transpire that this was not appropriate in the case of 15 Merrion Square, the application will be withdrawn.

Unite regards attempts to draw a parallel between 15 Merrion Square and Apollo House as, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, mischievous.  As a NAMA property, Apollo House belongs to the people of Ireland.

Unite remains fully committed to the aims of the Home Sweet Home campaign, and we are proud of the campaign’s achievements in not only highlighting the scandal of homelessness in Ireland but also in securing six-month beds for 84 people.

Unite will not be issuing any further comment on this matter.

This entry was posted in Press Releases, Republic of Ireland news, Uncategorized and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

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AJ Odneal: the ukulele folk artist on a mission to create more diversity in Phoenix

AJ Odneal is the only voice I wanted to hear after the chaos of graduation (which Raina, Jaye, and myself all endured this month… WHOOO!!).

Instantly Raina and I were relaxed by AJ’s beautiful-neo-folk voice and then blown away by the fact that she pay$$$ her rent through her music and live performances – IN THIS DESERT WE CALL ARIZONA.

Btw—this podcast episode begins with an original song by AJ, “Growing Old.” Watch her video below and then listen to Episode 7 here.

AJ is a VIP member of that small group of talented people that make their living off of their talent (that’s not really a club don’t @ me) — and she’s only 22. Her weekly shows have given her financial stability, with her first paycheck coming to her during her freshman year of high school.

Plug: You can check out some of her music here, or listen to a sample during Episode 7 of Up in Smoke here.

Despite her God-sent talent, the creative control that AJ currently has over her music has kept her from signing a label or even wanting anything to do with that side of the music industry. She spoke specifically about the downsides of being attached to a major label during the show.

“They own you– what you look like, what you represent, what you’re allowed to say, what you’re allowed to do, and they can change it all on you,” she said before further going into how she has seen it effect similar people in her position.

“As a woman of color I run the risk of either being forced into a stereotype or being changed in a way of like, straightening my hair. I have a lot of friends who are in businesses where they try to be on film and they tell you, ‘Well, don’t go out in the sun because the darker you are the harder you are to cast,’” she said.

The anti-stereotype stand that AJ has taken with her music career correlates with her bigger goal: to see more women that look like her in the entertainment and music industry.

“That’s very important to me as someone who didn’t have representation growing up as being like, this little mixed brown girl. I didn’t get to see myself a lot on film, so whenever I’m making videos I’m always trying to become more diverse with each one,” she said.

And her music videos are awesome — so if you have not already watched the one linked to the top of this page then you should reconsider your life choices.

AJ also talked about her pen pal (listen to hear more on that) and spoke about a few specific instances of “well-intentioned” racism that she has faced from some of her Arizona audience members in the Valley this past year.

And AJ’s advice for similar ukulele playing artists? Know what your end goal is and reach out to older musicians and learn from their mistakes, she said.

(side note :she plays a lot of other instruments besides the ukulele)

Raina’s band stories also made their way back to the podcast, as she knew AJ in high school — so keep your ears open for that and then ask Raina to do a band reunion show.

Also, may I suggest that you follow/ stalk/ tweetlisten to AJ Odneal if you want to add some Zen to your day or if you need another reason to get a pen pal.

AJ Odneal: the ukulele folk artist on a mission to create more diversity in Phoenix

Advice for Arizona Photographers: Up in Smoke presents Natalie Allen

With her charming laugh and almost 80,000 Instagram followers, Natalie Allen helped Raina and I kick off the first official episode of Up in Smoke.

Highlights of the very first Up in Smoke podcast include Natalie’s awesome advice for other Arizona photographers: The Arizona native discusses her growth in photography as well as how much her success has depended on being able to collaborate with other Valley artists, putting her art out there, handling mental break downs like a champ, and learning how to schedule downtime as a freelancer.

Screen Shot 2017-04-09 at 12.08.24 AM

Listen to the podcast here or continue to read about Day 1 of Up in Smoke Episode 1 below:

On a rather busy Saturday morning Raina and I scurried to the third floor of ASU’s Walter Cronkite Building. One of the (few) perks of still being a college student is that I can take advantage of the free podcast studio equipment that my college tuition is funding.

As first-time podcasters, we expected to face a few obstacles. For this first episode, the morning began with locked doors and a lost guest…..

Luckily, everyone in our group had enough caffeine and optimism to overlook these WTF-R-WE-DOING moments, so we continued on our mission to make Up in Smoke a reality.

Both of these issues were fixed in about five seconds (more like 20 minutes) and we were able to escort out guest, Natalie, away from the ASU parking lot and towards the ASU Blaze studio (Thank you Blaze & J!), and get the first episode going.

The talented photographer had been in Hawaii only 24 hours before our show, and I still have no idea why she agreed to be our first guest (WE ❤ U NATALIE) but I am beyond grateful that we are starting this podcast off right with Natalie Allen.

If Hawaiian jet lag is a thing then I will never know because Natalie was just as excited and goddess-like on the morning of our show as she was in this photo of her on a surfboard in Hawaii.

(Sidebar: Is Hawaiian jet lag a thing and if so can I go to Hawaii and then come back and cancel all of my plans because of said island jet lag or nah?)

As stated above, Natalie was more than willing to share her story about how she got started in photography, as well as advice that she has for those getting started in the business in Arizona.

If her amazing photography (which you can see on her Instagram here or on her blog here) isn’t enough, Natalie’s whole lifestyle revolves around the concept of sustainability. (Read: and she only wears sustainable clothing items).

WHICH IS AWESOME AND EVEN MORE OF A REASON TO FANGIRL HER (but be cool about it… don’t tell her I sent you).

Again, I can’t capture all of what Raina and I found out about Natalie and her crazy behind-the-lens talents in this blog post alone ——so go listen to our first episode and find out why Natalie is one of Arizona’s magical photographing unicorns in a sea of cacti and sand.

P.S. If you want to know what type of food that unicorns eat then you should know that Natalie’s favorite cereal is “multigrain cinnamon honey-something from Trader Joe’s” and once you find that you should ship 1000 boxes to her house.

But don’t take my word for it, listen to the Up in Smoke podcast and find out for yourself!

Advice for Arizona Photographers: Up in Smoke presents Natalie Allen


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URGH! A Music Blog

Stonebridge and Therese

Posted in Dance,Digital Dog,Stonebridge,Therese by M on May 18, 2007

Pardon my absence. I have spent the last few weeks pitting two of my most prized musicians against each other in a battle for my soul.

The two artists? Swedish all-stars Stonebridge and Therese. Once partners on phenomenally hot songs like “Put ‘Em High” and “Time”, they are now going head to head with two separate singles: “S.O.S.” and “Feelin’ Me”.

Both songs feature deliciously high female vocals, nonsense exclamations, and artery-bursting beats. Top-shelf efforts by both! However, “Feelin’ Me” grew on me more and more, until I couldn’t go anywhere without purring to myself: “Driven by your love, I just wanna—UH!”

The people to thank for Therese’s success this outing are the boys of Digital Dog. I’ve enjoyed their past work, but this is their first stratospheric success. Keep up the good work!

Also check out the official “Feelin’ Me” music video on YouTube, where her record label calls her “Queen of the Swedish Dance Mafia.”

So if Therese is the de-facto Michael Corleone, does that make Stonebridge Sonny? Or Fredo?

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather

Don’t ask Therese about her business!


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The Lure of Oil and the Drug War: Why Washington Has Joined the Battle For West Africa

The U.S. is turning its sights to West Africa, where the Obama administration is building up a vast array of military resources.

With the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington is turning its sights elsewhere. Quietly, the Obama administration is building up a vast array of military resources in West Africa, and specifically in Portuguese-speaking Lusophone countries. Reportedly, the Pentagon wants to establish a monitoring station in the Cape Verde islands, while further south in the Gulf of Guinea U.S. ships and personnel are patrolling local waters. Concerned lest it draw too much attention to itself, the Pentagon has avoided constructing large military installations and focused instead on a so-called “lily pad” strategy of smaller bases. In São Tomé and Príncipe, an island chain in the Gulf of Guinea and former Portuguese colony, the Pentagon may install one such “under the radar” base, and U.S. Navy Seabees are already engaged in construction work at the local airport.Just why has the Obama administration invested so much time and effort in this corner of the globe? To be sure, controlling remote “lily pads” may come in handy in the battle against Islamist militants operating farther inland in such countries as Mali and Niger. Washington also wants to counteract drug smuggling emanating from West Africa, a volatile and politically unstable region. Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, has in recent years turned into a cocaine hub, and the United Nations has called the country a “narco-state.” Guinea-Bissau is geographically situated at Africa’s most westerly point, and South American smugglers are thought to transport drug shipments from here on to Cape Verde and then to Europe. Reportedly, Brazil has become South America’s largest net exporter of drugs to Africa. However, in recent years African traffickers have begun to produce methamphetamines and have muscled in on their Latin counterparts, wresting an increasingly large portion over the drug smuggling business. The Africans ship cocaine by sea and have assumed international control over cocaine exports as far away as the Brazilian city of São Paulo. Brazilian drug traffickers, meanwhile, are left with the domestic side of the business and are forced to sell coke to locals.Oil Intrigue in the Gulf of GuineaTo be sure then, the U.S. is interested in patrolling West African waters in an effort to stem the tide of drug traffic. There may be other, less public reasons for the U.S. military buildup in the region, however. In an effort to ease its dependence on the volatile Middle East, the U.S. is looking elsewhere for its oil and is likely to receive a whopping 25 percent of its imported petroleum from Africa by 2015. Former American Vice Admiral and Deputy Commander of the U.S. Africa Command Robert Moeller has stated that protecting “the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market” is highly important, as well as forestalling oil disruption. What is more, the U.S. must now confront a rising China, a nation which is also interested in securing oil deposits in West Africa. In its drive to acquire natural resources, China has been pursuing offshore oil exploration contracts in the politically unstable nation of São Tomé and Príncipe. In 2009, Chinese petroleum corporation Sinopec acquired Swiss company Addax which gave Beijing control over four oil blocs in the São Tomé and Príncipe-Nigeria joint development zone. The Sinopec purchase in the Gulf of Guinea made China the leading player in the São Tomé and Príncipe oil sector. Whether the islands will actually take off as a major oil producer is still unclear, though drilling is under way and commercial production is expected to begin within a few years.If São Tomé and Príncipe take off as a major oil supplier, China will certainly be well positioned to reap maximum reward from the petroleum bonanza. However, Beijing will also have to reckon with a growing U.S. military profile on the islands. Recently, U.S. Navy Seabees have been renovating a boat ramp on São Tomé’s coast guard base and building a guard house on the premises. Meanwhile, the Pentagon and State Department have installed a new surface surveillance system on the islands. São Tomé and Príncipe is the first African nation to install the program and to integrate such technology into its overall maritime safety program.A Growing Role for São Tomé and PríncipeMeanwhile, politicians on the island have broached the idea of deepening security ties, and Washington is reportedly receptive to the notion. U.S. officials see the island chain as a lily pad or forward operating base staffed by several hundred troops. São Tomé and Príncipe could be a promising site, the Americans believe, since the islands are heavily Catholic and have no history of Islamic militancy. Recently, American Coast Guard cutters have been patrolling local waters in an effort to assess threats to oil access. Coming ashore, the crewmen then fix door hinges no less in a blatant public relations maneuver. Needless to say, not everyone is thrilled about the contingency plans. Speaking to the Associated Press, one local legislator was under no illusions about the growing American presence. Unfortunately,” he remarked, “Americans are interested in São Tomé because of oil, but São Tomé existed before that.” Former Prime Minister Guilherme Posser, meanwhile, says there should be greater transparency when it comes to military discussions. The notion of a base should be submitted to a national referendum, he argues.The China-Macau ConnectionFaced with a growing U.S. profile in West Africa, the Chinese have busily sought to counteract such influence. According to a sensitive U.S. diplomatic cable, Chinese immigrants advance the Asian Tiger’s business interests in the region by forming joint ventures with African firms. The influx of new Chinese entrepreneurs has been accompanied by “organized crime elements, which are involved in trafficking, smuggling, and other illegal activities.” Moreover, in a specific effort to counteract the U.S. in African Lusophone countries, Beijing has appealed to its own business community in Macau, a peninsula connected to the southern Chinese mainland. A former Portuguese colony, Macau reverted to Chinese rule in 1999.Speaking with American diplomats, local contacts told the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong that Macau could be useful to China due to the former colony’s ties to the Catholic Church. To be sure, “more than a few” of Macau’s ethnically Portuguese residents had relocated to Portugal after the colony’s handover to Beijing, and only a very small percentage of local residents spoke Portuguese. Nevertheless, diplomats reported that “a comparatively high 7.6 percent of civil servants in the Macau government claim that Portuguese is their primary language [and] this has helped maintain the Macau government’s capacity to interface with Lusophone counterparts on behalf of Beijing.” According to diplomatic cables, China hopes to take advantage of such cultural links and believes that Macau should “expand its economic and trade links with overseas Chinese communities” while also providing “a stable platform for China’s trade ties and linkages” with such Lusophone countries as São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Beijing also hopes that Macau will extend ties to the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony located in the Gulf of Guinea and Africa’s only Spanish-speaking nation. Though American diplomats report that overall volume of trade between China and the Lusophone countries remains low, Macau could prove quite useful for Beijing in the coming struggle for West African resources.Enter BrazilOverstretched and facing budgetary constraints, the Pentagon may have difficulties containing China in far-flung corners of the globe. In an effort to overcome such disadvantages, the Obama administration has been turning to Brazil, a nation which has common cultural and historical ties to former Portuguese colonies in West Africa [for a longer discussion about the politics surrounding Brazil’s rising role see my earlier al-Jazeera column here]. Though Brazil has not been able to rival China’s economic presence, the South American newcomer has been deploying its corporations to Africa in the hope of cashing in on Africa’s oil boom and deepwater petroleum exploration. Establishing cordial ties to Brasilia may be a shrewd move for Washington. Under former President Lula, Brazil did its utmost to establish links with São Tomé and Príncipe and recently the South American powerhouse wrote off the impoverished island’s debt. During his tenure, Lula traveled to Cape Verde to attend a summit meeting of the so-called Portuguese speaking countries, otherwise known as Comunidades dos Paises de Lingua Portuguesa [or CPLP]. While in Cape Verde, Lula sought to highlight Brazil’s long-standing social and economic ties and assistance programs with the island. In a further effort to extend its cultural influence, Brazil is backing Equatorial Guinea’s desire to join the CPLP. Washington seems to hope that Brazil will act as an assistant policeman in West Africa so the Obama administration can avoid unnecessary political entanglements. There are some signs that Brazil, which seeks to guarantee its investments and the free flow of commerce, might just oblige. According to a recent article in the New York Times, Brazil has been training elite African forces at a remote military base in the Amazon. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, which wants to halt the spread of piracy, has pledged to donate aircraft to Cape Verde for maritime patrol duties. Washington’s Wary Ally?In West Africa, the Pentagon needs all the help it can get. The U.S. Coast Guard has been paying visits to Cape Verde and Equatorial Guinea, but oil facilities are considered vulnerable. In politically unstable Equatorial Guinea, some American oil platforms are protected not by the local government’s insignificant Navy but by private unarmed guards. Interviewed by the Associated Press, one U.S. military officer described Equatorial Guinea’s military authorities as “distant and standoffish,” speculating that the estrangement had to do with increasing Chinese influence in the troubled West African nation.Coming to the aid of an ally, Brazil has trained U.S. military personnel at its own jungle warfare center. Meanwhile, U.S. ships perform joint exercises with the Brazilian Navy and both countries patrol the waters stretching from Rio de Janeiro to the Gulf of Guinea. Presumably, Brazil carries out such collaboration because it is concerned with maritime security and drug trafficking, though perhaps this South American newcomer also shares Washington’s concern over rising Chinese influence. Whatever the case, Brazil seems perfectly happy for the time being to act in concert with the Obama administration. The question, however, is whether Brazil will view such collaboration as desirable in the long-term. Already, there have been strains in the U.S.-Brazilian relationship, and there may come a time when this up and coming South American nation may wish to carve out its own sphere of influence in the Lusophone world without any interference from outside powers.

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Week 2 – Relational Aesthetics – Instagram Day

This week’s project was a fun and interesting one! Having a big class instagram four pictures each in one day, really showed a typical day in the day of a CSULB student. It was really fun to see what other students eat, study, and enjoy as hobbies. It was also fun to see the way they communicated that through photography and text. Although we are several individuals, I feel as if these pictures represent an entity. Although we all come from different cultures, beliefs, and majors, we are all Long Beach State college students, which puts us in some type of category, even though we’re all different people. It was fun to see the other perspectives on things I also encounter as a college student; for example, the horrible parking, unhealthy eating habits, and fun with friends! Here were a couple of cool pictures that I enjoyed from this project.

Image 1 Image 2 Image

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