text:
SAQ Christmas transmission 2012

Oh, was I looking forward to last year’s final SAQ transmission. While some of my „normal“ friends might argue that it’s always the same, it is still exciting to listen to VLF every time. Not only are there notable differences in propagation and atmospheric noise, especially when comparing summer and winter, it is also interesting to build new equipment or try out different locations. And since, at least when it comes to SAQ, there are not that many occasions for testing during the year, it is something to look forward to every time.

So, this was my setup: 20m loudspeaker cable (also used as an universal short-wave antenna, being fed through an 1:9 UnUn), homebrew VLF converter (following the „MRK-20“ schematic), Icom IC-728 transceiver for reception – all setup at my QTH in Barsinghausen.
While the equipment itself proved to work quite well, all I received below 30 kHz was strong humming and hissing, reaching peaks between S7 and S9. I did get up early on Christmas morning, hoping that I would receive something, anyway, but had no luck.
I have to add that the man-made noise level seems to have vastly increased since the year before, when I used virtually the same setup. The 80m band was also heavily affected – while it worked quite okay the year before, it now was hard to use even in digital modes, not to speak of phone (which also explains why I only got 32 QSOs (55 in 2011) in the DARC Christmas Contest, even though I was now allowed to use both 80m and 40m instead of only 80m – but that’s a different story).
Since I’m pretty sure that it is none of our gadgets (I tried shutting off about anything in the house), I guess all our neighbours bought themselves new plasma TVs. 🙁

I’ll spare you with a recording of that noise (not sure I even made one), but because some befriended OMs already requested it, here’s a recording of what SAQ can sound like, made by Manfred, DL6OBJ: grimetondez2012_dl6obj.ogg

So, what can we do to cope with the situation? Several possibilities come to mind:

  • Sue all those manufacturers of „noisy“ equipment (no chance of real success)
  • Move to a very rural area (not planning on doing so, soon)
  • Hack into the local power grid, causing a power outage for the time SAQ transmits (actually I like that idea, but it’s not only illegal, but also not as easy in reality as it looks like in Matrix)
  • Make your equipment portable and go outside (I’ll go with that one)

It has shown that it’s often sufficient to move a few kilometers away from any settlements. Also, getting up a hill or something like that might not be a bad idea, even though height is said to have little influence on VLF.
Most people would just take their stuff, get into their car and so exactly so, but since I have neither a car nor a driver’s license, it has to be even more portable for me. Wilfried, DJ1WF, has published a building description for a handheld VLF receiver I’m looking forward to solder myself:

The results he’s achieving with such a small and simple device sound quite promising:

Hope I’ll be writing a more successful report after this year’s Alexanderson day!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone!

It’s winter time and I have to concentrate on my study, but there’ll hopefully be some new articles in February or March (semester break).

When I just logged in I was shocked to find over 800 new comments – mostly, if not all spam, of course. I can’t possibly look through those amounts of comments regularly, and I’m not sure whether just activating a badword-filter will do the job sufficiently. Therefore, I disabled all comments until further notice.
If you have questions or additions to any article, you are however welcome to write me an e-Mail!


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
People of Rome : Trastevere and the new beginning after coronavirus in Italy

Do you think that neighborhoods can’t talk?  I always thought they could!

If neighborhoods could talk . They would, each one in its own language…just like people. Each neighborhood is able to tell its own story: maybe through a glimpse, through a stone, or even the balcony of a house. Particularly churches, for example, are as  full of stories as an alley, where life goes on as usual.

I crisscrossed Rome after 67 days of lockdown. It was the reopening of phase 2 and, after walking for a long time, I found myself in the middle of Trastevere. One of the most fascinating neighborhoods in Rome, it represents Romanity in the collective imagery.

if neighbourhoods could talk
Springtime sets in Trastevere

I thought that it would be nice to hear the noise of the artisan shops, the heels hitting the cobblestone streets . Lovely chats outside, children running through the medieval alleys of Trastevere. From the restaurants reopening, to the tourists wandering around a neighborhood that finally regains its own identity. Especially here in Trastevere, I understood how long is the road to go back to what we all call normal.

I’m close to Santa Maria in Trastevere, where I enjoy a coffee in a trasteverino bar.

if neighbourhoods could talk

Well, I look around and, after a while, I perceive an unusual silence. I keep listening to this silence that I actually like and that speaks to me…“Enjoy the Silence”, as the Depeche Mode song goes.

Silence embraces me and I take a look to every single detail of this wonderful square. I notice a woman who, with great dignity and tenderness, is sitting on the floor asking for a few coins to buy a sandwich.

if neighbourhoods could talk

In her gaze and through her gestures I can perceive all the difficulties of this moment. Suddenly, I remember that today is the anniversary of the birth of Pope Woytjla, always concerned with the needs of the poor.

if neighbourhoods could talk

I ask for the check and I go to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere: one of the Medieval jewels of the city. The light invades the interior of the temple and highlights the wonderful marble floor and the frescoes, inside the many chapels. Here, in the house of the Lord, the chairs reserved for the believers are positioned far from each other, to allow social distancing. At this time, I stop for a minute in order to admire the beauty of this church .If neighborhoods could talk, they would tell me how beautiful Rome is, maybe too much…Caput Mundi.

if neighbourhoods could talk

I’m late and I decide to return home, but not before the sunset.  That is the perfect time to fully enjoy the lighting on the mosaic of the facade of the Basilica.

While I am still paying attention to the colorful decorations, I realize that the silence is gradually fading. The sound of the tables of the cafès outisde are now taking possession of their space once again. Young waiters yelling, the smell of food and the lime and mint flavors of a mojito will follow me home.

I bring this perfume with me. The perfume of hope, of economic recovery, the scent of awareness and the certainty that everything has come full circle.

Share this

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Events & Curiosities

Have you ever seen the snow in August?
We have! Every year on August 5th, the snow will cover the Basilica of St. Maria Maggiore during a special ceremony.

Don’t miss it!

Recent Posts

EcoArt’s Twitter

Tag Cloud

Recent Comments

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-45
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2020
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-128.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Color Friday is: African Violet!

29 Oct

Yesterday was a historic day for my color consultation business, as it marked the day that I have recommended Benjamin Moore’s “African Violet” (2116-50) to THREE clients over the past six months!

From L to R: Bedroom via DecorPad; Living Room via CocoCozy; Bedroom Vignette via Traditional Home.

I know that designers typically have their favorites, and I suppose that this is one of mine.  It’s such a rich and subtle shade of purple-gray that’s not too dark and not too light: cool and calm, but still earthy and inviting.  It’s really gotten such that when I go to do a color consult, I will often stop at African Violet while flipping through the fan deck and hold it up to the client just to say, “Look at this. It’s not for you, but isn’t it such a great color?”  So far no one has told me I’m wrong…or crazy.

Cool, vibrant violets and bright yellow inspire a beautiful room! (image via DecorPad)

One of the best things about this color is its versatility.  Purple is almost always a distinctly feminine hue, but this particular version is subdued and actually kind of masculine.  With African Violet walls you can go in so many directions. Maybe you decide to match the tone with your accessories and fabrics to create an elegant decor, or perhaps you want to incorporate plums, mauve, violets, and lavenders for a cheery and energetic vibe: anything goes…even a bright yellow accent.

…and on that note, here’s your Color Friday collage!  This week’s collage focuses on items that are in the African Violet color family, and purples that will mesh well with the shade.  Enjoy!

Clockwise from top swatch: Benjamin Moore "African Violet;" Rug by Fandango; Candle by Claus Porto; Chair by Windsor Smith Home; China by William Yeoward; Pillow by Thomas Paul; Swarovski Crystal Chandelier, special edition.

Design consultations for all styles and budgets: JGB Interiors.

3 Responses to “Color Friday is: African Violet!”

  1. Eleni November 1, 2010 at 12:52 AM #

    Love love love this color! And that pillow…

  2. Candace February 2, 2014 at 7:11 AM #

    Have you any idea whether its easy to find a round dining
    table that can seat twelve people? Ive been surfing
    on the internet but I can’t seem to come across much
    more than very small tables

  1. Color Week: Lemon Zest and African Violet | Design Bright - January 16, 2013

    […] / flowers / nails / bag / sofa / wall / pillow / […]

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
A Blog for the Tech Savvy Roofer

Step Up Your Roofing Skills

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin

Roofing is an industry with a low bar to enter, but a high bar for success. If you have a profitable business and a list of completed roofs under your belt, you’ve definitely acquired some skills along the way. Keeping those roofing skills sharp is important, so this week we’re offering some advice to help you step up your roofing skills and stay on top of trends in the industry.

Research New Tools

Pneumatic palm nailer in action.

While you and your crews can install a roof with a claw hammer and a box of nails, there is an ever-increasing list of tools that can speed up your installs while making the process safer and easier. Tradeshows and conferences are great ways to stay up to date on new tools. If you’re looking for an online solution, search out roofing forums and blogs like ours! You never know when you’ll find out something like the pneumatic palm nailer that allows you to get shingles installed in tight spaces or low overhangs.

Stay On Top of Suppliers

One of our favorite parts of the roofing industry is that material providers are constantly improving their products. Better adhesives, stronger underlayments, and even pollution absorbing granules have made it to the market in the last ten years, and staying on top of new materials is important for servicing your customers. For example, if your community is concerned about the environment, or if your city has green roofing standards, it’s important you’re aware of the smog reducing shingles and other environmentally friendly products available in the market today.

Additionally, being the first to offer new products in your market can give you a competitive edge. Being the first in the area to offer synthetic slate or one of the new solar tiles allows you to capitalize on an untapped market and carve out a niche. If you aren’t the first in a market, keeping up on available products will at least ensure you don’t fall behind. Keep an eye on suppliers’ websites and join their mailing lists to stay on top of their latest offerings.

Embrace Available Technology

Staying informed on the latest business technologies, as well as how to use them, is an important skill in 2020. The rapid change in what technology can do and the rise and fall of tech companies means that the landscape is always changing. If your company has yet to adopt technology beyond excel and a printer, you may be falling victim to slower business processes and dealing with more work than necessary.

A Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) like MarketSharp, can help manage every part of your customer experience from streamlining appointment scheduling to managing post-job communications. RoofSnap’s technology is focused on the roof sales process specifically, speeding up your measurement process with easy-to-use tools that allow you to measure remotely on your own or through SketchOS, our report ordering service. There’s a technology solution for almost every part of your business, just take the time to look!

RoofSnap’s software brings roofing specific tools to your devices!

With any company, it often seems easier to maintain your current course than to change with the times. Many aspects of the roofing industry haven’t changed much in decades–we’re still climbing ladders and nailing down shingles. However, there are always new solutions coming out that are designed to help you conduct business faster and more efficiently so you can grow your business. If you’re interested in what RoofSnap’s measurement and estimation software can do for your operations, explore our software today! Our team is always ready to help you keep your roofing skills sharp.

Thanks for reading and as always,

Happy Snapping!


text:
Saturday, July 01, 2017

SitcomsOnline Digest: The Carmichael Show Cancelled; Animated Comedies Renewed at Adult Swim and Netflix

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! This week, we're hearing about the surprising (but at the same time, not so surprising) cancellation of The Carmichael Show, news of some renewals of some animated comedies, and more. Let's get going!

  • The Carmichael Show has had a rocky three seasons at NBC, with airing only in the summer and always getting renewed at the latest possible moment, but now the series has been cancelled for good. (Variety
  • It's clear that the article was written before The Carmichael Show was cancelled (one day before it, actually), but an article on Vox insists that the classic American multicamera sitcom with a laugh track is not only still relevant, but necessary in the current era. (Vox)
  • Greta Van Susteren is unique in that she has had her own primetime (or at least primetime-ish) news program on all three of the major cable news networks for about the past two decades, but as it turns out, she was only successful on two (CNN and Fox News), as her MSNBC series was cancelled this week after less than six months. (NY Times)
  • The popular Adult Swim series Rick and Morty will be returning for a third season later this month. (Deadline)
  • Another animated series, F Is for Family, has been renewed by Netflix. (Variety)
  • We've known for a while that Fuller House would be returning for a third season on Netflix, but we're now learning it will be a "fuller" season with 18 episodes instead of 13, and it'll debut earlier than expected, in September. (SitcomsOnline)

  Superstore - Season Two
  • Superstore - Season Two (DVD, $29.99): This release was literally just announced a few days ago, but the second season of the NBC sitcom that some are calling the new The Office (although to be fair, it has a long way to go before being as pervasive as The Office was in pop-culture, but it's definitely a great show) arrives in this MOD release.

Who to Follow: Eric Stonestreet (Twitter), "I play Cam on Modern Family. If you're mean to fellow followers, I'll block you. If you're a dick, I'll block you. If you correct my spelling, I'll block you."
Claim to Fame: Eric Stonestreet got his start in television on various comedies and drama series (leaning more toward dramas), and had his first recurring role on the series CSI. But his first big role, and the one that he is still best known for (and for that matter, continues to play, since the series isn't done yet) is that of Cam on the ABC sitcom Modern Family. He has been nominated for several awards on the series, and won some of them. Cam, of course, is the husband of Jesse Tyler Ferguson's character Mitchell, although Stonestreet is actually heterosexual in real life. Stonestreet also has a side project going now, as host of the ABC competition series, The Toy Box. That series was recently renewed for a second season.
Pick of the Tweets: "RT if you follow me on twitter or if you've ever flicked a booger across a room and heard it land." (August 24, 2012)

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Thursday, October 22

none scheduled

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of October 19)

Thursday, October 22

  • Jay Pharoah (White Famous) - Catch Jay on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Patton Oswalt (A.P. Bio/The Goldbergs/The King of Queens) - Patton appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
  • Michael Keaton (Report to Murphy/Working Stiffs/All's Fair) - Michael is a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • Josh Gad (1600 Penn/Back to You) - Josh appears on The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
  • D'Arcy Carden (Barry/The Good Place) - D'Arcy is a guest on a repeat of A Little Late with Lilly Singh at 1:35am on NBC.
  • Jane Lynch (Angel from Hell) - Jane will be on a repeat of Conan at 11pm on TBS.
  • Marlon Wayans (Marlon/The Wayans Bros.) - Marlon appears on Watch What Happens: Live at 10:30pm on Bravo.
  • Kristin Chenoweth (Trial & Error/Kristin) - Kristin is a guest on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
  • Chelsea Handler (Are You There, Chelsea?) - Chelsea will be on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
  • Kim Coles (Living Single) - Kim appears on The Real, so check your local listings.
  • Parvesh Cheena (Connecting.../A to Z/Outsourced) - Parvesh is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
  • Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family/The Class) - Jesse will be on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
  • William Shatner ($h*! My Dad Says) - William appears on NBC's Today in the 9am hour.
  • Kevin Hart (The Big House/Undeclared) - Kevin talks about hosting The MDA Kevin Hart Kids Telethon on E!'s Daily Pop at 11am.

New on DVD/Blu-ray (July/August/September/October)

Will & Grace - The Revival -Season Three - The Farewell Season Young Sheldon - The Complete Third Season Mom - The Complete Seventh Season The Flintstones - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Head of the Class - The Complete Second Season

07/07 - Will & Grace - The Revival - Season Three - The Farewell Season
07/21 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Tenth Season
07/21 - The Thundermans - Season 1 / Season 2 / Season 3 / Season 4
07/21 - The Unicorn - Season One
07/28 - The Thundermans - Season 1-4 Bundle
08/04 - Last Man Standing - The Complete Eighth Season
08/04 - The Neighborhood - Season One
08/11 - Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens - Season 1
08/11 - Final Space - The First and Second Seasons (Blu-ray)
09/01 - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Season 14
09/01 - What We Do in the Shadows - The Complete Second Season
09/01 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray)
09/15 - Mom - The Complete Seventh Season
09/15 - South Side - Season 1
09/22 - Brockmire - The Complete Second Season
09/22 - Brockmire - The Complete Third Season
09/22 - Brockmire - The Complete Fourth Season
09/22 - Man with a Plan - Season Three
09/29 - The Bob Newhart Show - The Complete Series (2020 Release)
10/13 - The Jetsons - The Complete Series (Diamond Collection)
10/13 - Our Cartoon President - Season Two
10/27 - The Flintstones - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
10/27 - Head of the Class - The Complete Second Season (
More TV DVD Releases / DVD Reviews Archive / SitcomsOnline Digest

Recent News Blog Posts

10/21 - MeTV Network Acquires Looney Tunes and More Classic Cartoons; Kaley Cuoco HBO Max Series Announces Nov. 26 Premiere
10/20 - Antenna TV Officially Announces Returns of The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time; Holiday Movie Reunites Family Matters Siblings
10/19 - Disney+ Says "Simpsons Forever"; TBS Orders 4th Season of The Last O.G.
10/18 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of October 19, 2020)
10/17 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Fried Green Tomatoes Series Starring Reba McEntire in the Works at NBC; Last Man Standing to End After Nine Seasons
10/16 - Fri-Yay: COVID-19 Storylines on TV, Will Viewers Watch?; Antenna TV's 70 Episode Jack Benny Marathon for 70th Anniversary
10/15 - Last Man Standing to Conclude After Season 9 in 2021; CBS Announces Fall 2020 Premiere Dates
10/14 - TBS Brings Out Halloween Sitcom Episodes on Halloween; Remembering Conchata Ferrell of Two and a Half Men
10/13 - Freeform's 'Kickoff to Christmas' Schedule; Celebrate 20 Years of Curb on HBO Max
10/12 - TNT Airing The West Wing Reruns on Fridays; Kate Mulgrew Joins Star Trek Animated Comedy
10/11 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of October 12, 2020)
10/10 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Seinfeld's Newman Returns in PSA to Encourage Mail-In Voting; Showtime Cancels On Becoming a God in Central Florida
10/09 - Fri-Yay: One Day at a Time Makes Broadcast Debut As a Continuation of the Series' Unlikely Journey; Dickinson Season 2 Premiere Date and Renewal for Season 3
10/08 - Hallmark Drama Adding Cheers, Happy Days and The Brady Bunch; Chelsea Handler HBO Max Special Gets Date
10/07 - NBC Fall Pilot Review: Connecting... - Premieres Thursday (Oct. 8); Supernatural Gets Marathons on TNT as Series Finale Airs Nov. 19 on The CW
10/06 - Cobra Kai Season 3 Premiere Date, 4th Season Renewal; Busy Philipps Joins Peacock Comedy Girls5eva
10/05 - Apple TV+ Launches The Snoopy Show in 2021; Antenna TV Celebrates 70th Anniversary of The Burns and Allen Show
10/04 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of October 5, 2020)
10/03 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Saved by the Bell Reboot Debut Date Set; South Park Pandemic Special a Ratings Hit
10/02 - Fri-Yay: The Return of Sitcoms: black-ish & Superstore; Bounce Acquires Everybody Hates Chris & Greenleaf
10/01 - NBC's Young Rock Announces Cast; OWN Gets Digital Comedy
09/30 - Saved by the Bell Reboot Launching November 25; HBO Orders Weekly Talk Show with Sam Jay
09/29 - The Addams Family Coming to FETV; Netflix Developing Korean Sitcom
09/28 - 2002-2007 Sitcom George Lopez Coming to TBS; Guests Announced for black-ish Election Special
09/27 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of September 28, 2020)
09/26 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Peacock to Launch All 45 Seasons of Saturday Night Live; Renewal for Family Guy and Bob's Burgers
09/25 - Fri-Yay: Schitt's Creek Emmy Sweep; HBO Max Orders New Pretty Little Liars
09/24 - NBC Moves This Is Us, Connecting Premieres; Fox Orders 2 More Seasons for Bob's Burgers & Family Guy
09/23 - Schitt's Creek Heads to Syndication on Stations and Comedy Central; Apple Orders Patricia Arquette Comedy
09/22 - Decades Fall 2020 Schedule; CMT Acquires American Housewife
09/21 - Antenna TV Fall 2020 Schedule, with 2021 Teases; 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards Winners


text:
@voyou Broke: Sexual mutual aid Woke: Amorous nobility: https://archive.org/details/TheUtopianVisionOfCharlesFourierSelectedTextsOnWorkLoveAndPassionateAttraction/page/n383/mode/2up 12 Oct 20 Reply Retweet Favorite

Saw something on Wikipedia just now

Paris Hilton has reached the attention of the Indian film industry. She has been invited to play Nobel Peace prize recipient Mother Theresa in a film partly written by Pope John Paul II. The film will include the talents of other notables of her stature such as Pandit Ravi Shankar. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to give his blessing to this film.

Actually, I’d already heard about this. Astonishingly, I’d managed to forget all about it.

Meanwhile, Ian Penman channels Julie Burchill , and is of course entirely right.

At least they know where their priorities are

The Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist Pleased to see that cigar cutters and corkscrews are allowed on planes.


text:
Offshore Outsourcing & Scammer

Blog about offshore outsourcing and scammer in the outsourcing industry

Documents and contracts confirmed by a notary (powers-of-attorney)

I see my posting are getting read and my recommendations are not getting ignored. Some people like make themselves more important, than they are. They use some ideas, which they have read from my blog or postings and try to use it.

One of them is "leading"  a "big" call center with more than 1000 seats. By chatting with such a person, you get it immediately that have only a basic education (they are not guilty for it) and try to copy the ideas of other without trying to get the full knowledge.

They are calling themselves business man or business woman, but they even not know the requirements and the law situation in their own business. They have been even too lazy, to inform themselves about the requirements and result of such an idea. For this it has been coming to the following funny situation:

This is a part of a communication by using Skype:

He/she: we always notarize every document to be secure.

Me:  I'll search here notary office and let it certify

He/she: no need Rudolf. We will do it as one of my partners in our Firm is a Lawyer.

Me: I don't know how they can certify there my signature. A notary confirmed signature has to be given in front of a notary. There you need to show a valid ID too. Otherwise you don't get a certification.

He/she: let me consult that with my partner and let you know about it.

Together with the schedule of the meeting, which should be 2 days later, I got the message:

He/she: Please send back the signed NDA that I have sent you as the document to be notarized and Client will not approve the meeting without the signed NDA. This is to meet the expectation. Thank you.

There are a lot of mistakes and misunderstandings:

  • A notary’s office is not a law firm.

  • Compare it by yourself. The definition of a public notary is found at The definition of a lawyer is found at

  • A notary can only confirm in such a case a given signature. The signature has to  be done in front of the notary and the signer needs to authenticate himself. For this the signer has to go to the notary’s office by himself. A document or contract will even get registered from the notary including his confirmation in the public register, which makes it viewable to all, which are interested in it.

  • A document, which should be kept secret, cannot get confirmed by a notary, because the notary needs to publish it for the case that someone needs to verify it. For this it does not make any sense to sign a NDA in front of a notary. The content of the NDA and the maybe possible contract will get published by the notary and lose by doing this his secret!

  • Such a document has to get transmitted in original. A copy sent by email does not help. I think a lot of people know how to use Photoshop. The snail mail (traditional post) will not be so fast transmitted from one province to another in 2 days. So the appointment of the given date cannot get fulfilled, because the recipient will not receive it in time.

  • In this case are companies from other countries involved. Documents, which need to get the power of attorney need to get legalized too. The legalizing process needs a lot of time, especially if the contractor is not living in the capital of his country. You need to go through all instances of your country for confirming the previous instance until you have reached the ministry of foreign affairs of your country. After this you have to go to the embassy of the country where the document should be valid. This embassy confirms the signature of the ministry of foreign affairs. After this you can send the document to your business partner. Your business partner has to take this document to the ministry of foreign affairs of his country. There he gets the confirmation of the signature of the embassy in your country. The document is not valid before all this steps are done. The document will be valid only for these countries, for which it got legalized. Don’t forget that each confirmation will cost you some money and a lot of time.

A full description of legalizing documents will get found here:

The best is coming at the end, where I said NO to the project:

I asked: Maybe you tell us the promotion for the project before everybody needs to run to a notary office. I think the country, the kind of sale, commission, payment terms, inbound/outbound and if data, scripts, etc will get provided or not will not be top secret.

The answer has been: Hi Rudolf, all info is in the SOW. NDA's purpose is to make sure that you will not disclose any information to other parties that might mislead. We protect the interest of the Client and the information it self. Hope you understand. Just sign the NDA and send it to me. See you later. Thank you.

I dropped the call center campaign as I don't waste time for any unknown business, where I even don't know the surroundings like inbound or outbound work, payment terms, data and scripts provided by client, kind of product, etc. With other words, everything what you get on information from a broker.

if such an information is already top secret, then can it be only a crime.

Comments are closed


text:
Patience & Budgeting + Artsy Couture Review

If there is one thing I am not, it is patient. For example, I cannot stand the fact that today is the 14th and not the 15th. If it were the 15th, Justin would be getting paid today and receiving his check by Wednesday. But no. Tomorrow, Saturday, is the 15th. This means that Justin won't get paid until Thursday since his paycheck will go out on Monday (the 17th) and be in the bank Thursday (three days later, the 19th).

On the one hand, I LOVE the fact that it is Friday. I think I look forward to that every week. BUT I also look forward to pay day. Not my pay day, but instead Justin's. My pay day hardly makes a difference to our finances. I slowly but surely add money to savings like The Little Engine That Could (the children's book). Unfortunately, that's all my money really does. Sit there in savings until we have some crazy bill we can't afford, weren't thinking about or planning for, or ... something. There always seems to be something.

Justin's paycheck, on the other hand, means we get to pay off bills and pay down debt! I LOVE paying down debt! (And bills.) It's like I have this mental check list in my head and the sooner I can get things taken care of, the happier I am. I get super excited when I am able to make money appear out of nowhere. I like saving money on budgeted items or getting a super great deal at the store ... or even when I'm able to convince a service provider to charge us just a wee bit less. It's like Christmas! I can't stand the fact that we have to spread our bills and budgeting out over the course of the month. Oh well. I guess being patient is a necessary and important part of life.

In other news, I'm currently reformatting my iphoto library! Maybe it will start working well enough for me to share my pizza making tutorial! (It will be fun! I promise!)

I received my trial order from Artsy Couture yesterday. At first I was super excited. I had heard such great things about them, and I was expecting to be impressed and/or amazed. To be blunt, I prefer my Costco order. Depressing, right? :-/

My Artsy Couture order came in a typical postal box which I loved. I loved knowing that any images inside that box would be in pristine condition. The box itself was easy enough to open up. The images on the other hand were a tad difficult. Protected by two layers of plastic wrap and some cardboard on either side, I was crazy worried I was going to accidentally cut into the pictures. Luckily that second bit of plastic wrap was just enough to protect my images.

Artsy Couture prides itself in including wrapping for your images, so that they look beautiful when you give them to your clients. This was one of the things I was most excited about seeing. Unfortunately this wrapping was a flower on top of cardboard. Really Artsy Couture?! I was expecting, at the very least, a beautifully designed manilla style folder with a flower. I can't exactly stuff my images into a piece of cardboard, can I? I'm not sure why I would ever want to present a floral cardboard on top of images when providing them to a client. It just makes no sense. And even if the cardboard floral thing was just an example ... why? Why wouldn't you provide the real thing as an example? How am I suppose to base my opinion of the product off of a piece of cardboard?

Moving on...

I understand that a photo printing company can have excellent work and bad packaging. Obviously they are in the "printing of beautiful images" career and not the "designing beautiful packages for the images" career. You cannot necessarily provide both aspects, and that is reasonable. I don't expect a chef to have a fantastic personal website; that's not what s/he does best.

When reading reviews of Artsy Couture I had heard that they had amazing, beautifully saturated printing capabilities. I LOVE saturation. I LOVE color. I LOVE when my images pop. And I was expecting to LOVE Artsy Couture. But truth be told, my images did not pop.Yes, they were saturated well enough, and the color was decent, but they just didn't POP. I expect that I don't get everything right all of the time. Maybe I didn't have the contrast cranked up enough or the saturation wasn't just right. I get that. I was just disappointed that my images were low contrast and much brighter than the images I receive from Costco. Not to mention one image in particular had way too much red. And another image was a bit blurry in comparison to Costco.

I do have to say that I was all for the nice thick paper Artsy Couture printed on. Costco paper just felt flimsy and weightless in your hands compared to Artsy Couture.

The one thing I was hoping to try was to print a canvas print with Artsy Couture. I've heard the canvas prints are AMAZING! But for now I may stick with Costco, AdoromaPix, and WHCC. I still haven't found a printer I am head-over-heels in love with, but the search must continue!

**Sidenote: I had pictures, but iphoto is still hating on me after reformatting. Since Google is of no help, this problem may need to be taken up with Apple or Justin, whoever will help me first, assuming of course I don't delete everything in iphoto out of frustration. (I might!)

1 comment:

  1. I have found that Millers Lab is well worth the extra money. I was satisfied with Artsy's prints well enough, but EVERY order has had an error--miscut, wrinkled when mounted, bent edges, spots on the prints. It is a waste of time & money to have to request remakes after each order. I love their gallery wraps though. They are a great product. ProDPI has pretty good quality prints, but I still prefer Millers (and their overnight shipping, because I too am impatient).

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...


text:
Upcoming Stuff’n’Things: Derby Dolls, Speakeasies, The Rapture on the Decks, and More

The Pernice Brothers’ brilliantly morose pop gems, this month’s Smart Gals Speakeasy gets all sutainable-like (arrive on two wheels for 2-for-1 admission!), ass-whooping chicks on wheels beat the crap out of each other at 15 mph, Trail of Dead’s record release party with The Rapture, Tom Morello at the…Hotel Cafe?…and more, behind the cut. And you thought the only thing to do these next few weeks was flop around in a tryptophan-induced haze. Ha! Wrong, my fat little friend!

Derby Dolls image courtesy Kittyfight Productions

The Rapture DJ’ing + Trail of Dead Record Release Party
Trail of Dead is one of the best things to come out of Texas since toast. Bombastic, high-concept art-rock done right is as rare as gold in both LA and Tejas, so these folks are real gems, and I’m salivating at the opportunity to drop my hard-earned money at Amoeba for this one. Plus DFA‘s export The Rapture will be DJ’ing, and anyone who’s spent any time on James Murphy‘s imprint–and who can get the entire sold-out sullen hipster crowd of the El Rey disco-dancing (at their show two years ago–I missed last night’s show, sob)–will definitely rock the dance floor. These guys’ record collections are to die for. I know, I know: it’s Tuesday, you whine. Go anyway. You can sleepwalk through work tomorrow–if you have to work at all. Hello?! It’s Thanksgiving, people. Work, schmerk.
Check Yo Ponytail at Safari Sam’s
Tues. Nov. 21, 9pm; free vodka between 10-11. Woo wee!
5214 Sunset Blvd., East Hollywood. $5 for 21+; $10 for 18-.

Pernice Brothers at Spaceland
Squeeeee! Really excited about this one. Coming out of Northampton, originally as the Scud Mountain Boys, brothers Joe and Bob (hereafter to be referred to as JoenBob) put together the Pernice Brothers outfit with a few really accomplished musician pals and turned out mournful, heartwrenchingly gorgeous alt-pop in the vein of Brian Wilson. Should be a really brilliant night with consummate pros close-up on the Spaceland stage.
Pernice Brothers with Elvis Perkins
1717 Silver Lake Blvd., Silver Lake.
21+. No clue as to the cost but it should be ten bucks or less.

Speakeasy at Mt. Hollywood Underground
The last Smart Gals Speakeasy of 2006 is titled Sustainable Los Angeles: What Can I Do Today for a Green L.A.? Smart Gals is an organization (not just for gals, mind you) that curates monthly speakeasies focusing on arts and letters in L.A. Plus they have cookies. Speakers include social and environmental activists who are making a real contribution to the future of the city: Colin Bogart of the Los Angeles Bike Coalition, Anna Cummins of Bring Your Own (awesome org, check ’em out), Jose Angel Orozco of The Coffee Cellar, James Rojas of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Katura Reynolds of Tree People. Ride your bike to the event and get two-for-one admission. Admission is seven bucks, but if you spring for their $10 artist-designed bookmark (a new one is created each month), it acts as your pass for their super-secret cocktails. Hey, I said it was a speakeasy: the password this month is “What can I do?” Seriously. There’ll also be live music and tasty coffee served.
Sun., Nov. 26, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Mt. Hollywood Underground: 4607 Prospect Avenue, Los Feliz
Admission: $7.00 (general), $5.00 (members); Bookmarks $10, purchased separately
Information and passwords: 323.302.2257 or www.smartgals.org

Axis of Justice Benefit at Hotel Cafe
Axis of Justice is the bitchen’ nonprofit org helmed by Tom Morello (ex-Rage Against the Machine, currently in Audioslave) and Serj Tankian (System of a Down). As much as I think SOAD’s lyrics are absolute nonsensical crap, the cause to which Tankian contributes his star power is pretty awesome. All proceeds will go to the Axis of Justice/Food Not Bombs program to provide food for the hungry and homeless in the Los Angeles area. This week’s special guests include Perry Farrell and Nuno Bettencourt, Alexi Murdoch and Low Stars (featuring Jude Christodal, Jeff Russo of Tonic, Dave Gibbs of Gigolo Aunts and Chris Seefriend).
Tues. Nov. 28, 10pm.
Hotel Cafe,1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood.

Derby Dolls Babydoll Brawl
The Dolls‘ two newbie teams in an exhibition bout, duking it out at their track in Little Tokyo. Hint: The VIP tix are cheaper this time, and you get a much shorter line for booze and actual bleachers to sit in. However, general admission tix are still good–just remember to get there early so you can stake out a good spot to stand while you watch the game. The Dolls themselves built a number of standing risers for people to watch the game from, so that short folks aren’t screwed. Which is nice for 5’1″ little me.
Babydoll Brawl
Sat. Dec 2, doors at 5 pm, game at 6:30 pm
Mitsuwa Plaza, 3rd floor
Admission $12 / $20 VIP
(Derby Dolls Website)

Derby Dolls image courtesy Kittyfight Productions


text:
Food Meet 2011

On Sept. 26, the George Fox community was invited to Food Meet 2011 at Bauman Auditorium. Dozens of tables were set up where people could meet local farmers and chefs and sample their wares. The event featured inspiring talks by local experts, as well as an exhibition of the film Food Inc. See some photos from the event below.

Clyde Thomas, the director of Plant Services here on campus, has worms. Lots of them. In fact, he’s got about 80 pounds of the creepy-crawlers right now, and his goal is to amass 3,000 pounds of these garbage-eating creatures.

The new vermicomposting program will serve two main purposes: First, food waste from Bon Appetit, the food service company at George Fox, will go into compost bins where the worms live. They feed on the leftover food, digest it and leave behind nutrient-rich castings (worm manure). Second, the castings will help fertilize the athletic fields, which will reduce the amount of synthetic chemicals, which will in turn reduce the university’s carbon footprint.

The worms get to feast, waste gets reduced and the fields get fertilized naturally. Win-win-win.

Thomas enlisted the help of George Fox students to help with the worm herding. About 20 compost bins will be placed around campus, each with about three pounds of worms. Every three months, worm populations can double. As the compost colony grows, Thomas will place them in larger bins until he reaches his desired 3,000 pounds, which should take about 18 months.

Thomas empties a bucket of compost and worms to separate them into smaller containers for students to place in bins located around campus.

Read More


text:
X Close

The Bartlett Development Planning Unit

Collective reflections about development practice and cities

How friendships and networks matter for urban economic development

Naji P Makarem23 June 2016

Why do some cities perform so much better than others? According to new research from, Naji P. Makarem, it’s not just down to their resources – both human and physical – but also how people and organisations interact and work together. In studying social relations in business communities, he finds that while San Francisco’s diverse and connected social structure has allowed the Bay Area to withstand new economic challenges, Los Angeles’ comparable regional network has not been able to maintain its connectivity, which has led to relatively poorer economic outcomes for the city.

“If I’ve learned anything in the last seven years, it’s that ideas live

less in the minds of individuals than in the interaction of communities”

(Fred Turner, 2006-p.VII)

Economists attribute economic performance – growth in output, employment and wages – to initial factor endowments, such as educated workers, patented inventions, lucrative industries, good infrastructure, property rights and excellent public services. This makes sense to the extent that cities with higher levels of these factors are undoubtedly better equipped to grow their economies and incomes. But if we stop to think how these factor endowments produce economic growth and respond to technological, market and political shocks, challenges and opportunities, the picture becomes more complex, dynamic and social.

A closer look reveals the diversity of individual and organisational actors in economic development processes. Such a sociological perspective focusses on individuals and their ideas, knowledge, cultures, world views, interactions and social relations; firms and their practices, strategies, cultures, structures, technologies, capabilities, networks and social responsibility; financial institutions and their lending practices and risk strategies; formal institutions and their laws, regulations, policies, public services, bureaucracy, infrastructure investments, incentives and power relations; and civic organisations such as charities, community-benefit organizations, private foundations, unions and business associations.

A dynamic perspective reveals how individuals and organisations interact to combine and re-combine ideas, knowledge, capabilities, assets and resources into novel combinations in pursuit of lucrative opportunities. Such interaction and re-combination in response to market challenges and opportunities is enabled and constrained by two intrinsically-linked aspects of institutions: The social networks in which actors are embedded, and their formal and informal ‘rules of the game’. Entrepreneurship and investments in a region emerge from this interaction and re-combination in the face of challenges and opportunities, steering urban industrial structures down specific industrial pathways, with its consequent impact on employment, wages and public revenues.

In a new study, I focus on one of these two institutional aspects of urban economies: The structure of social relations in high-end business communities. The economic sociology literature investigates how entrepreneurial and innovative contexts are associated with more connected, diverse and central social structures. While this has been researched using network analysis techniques at the scale of sub-regional industrial clusters, entrepreneurial communities and small cities, it has never been tested at the scale of large metropolitan regions.

To fill this gap in the literature, directorate research was used as a proxy for the social structure of the business community in two large metropolitan regions, the Bay Area and Southern California, whose per capita incomes diverged significantly between 1980 and 2010 (Table 1). This case selection within the State of California to a great extent controls for differences in formal government institutions, broad-stroke cultural and linguistic attributes, climate and geographic location, infrastructure, amenities and distance from the technological frontier.

Table 1 – Per Capita Incomes in the LA and Bay Area CMSAs, 1980 and 2010

Source: Author’s calculations using BRR data.

My analysis reveals that both networks were almost identical and highly connected back in 1982. Figure 1 below shows that the largest component (a fully connected network of nodes, whereby each node is linked to at least one other node) in both networks included over 50 percent of the 70 sampled firms.

Figure 1 – LA and SF networks of board interlocks, 1980.

Source: Author’s calculations using UCINET and NET-Draw.

Source: Author’s calculations using UCINET and NET-Draw.

Over the subsequent three decades of economic divergence however, their network structures also diverged. While the Bay Area’s maintained and even increased its level of connectivity, the LA region’s network fragmented by 2010, with a mere 20 percent of firms in its largest component (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Percentage of sampled firms in largest component, by year, LA Vs SF

Source: Author‘s calculation, number of interlocked firms in each network‘s largest component as a percentage of all firms in the sample.

Source: Author‘s calculation, number of interlocked firms in each network‘s largest component as a percentage of all firms in the sample.

Figure 3 shows the two networks in 2010, clearly highlighting the connectivity in the Bay Area (SF) and the fragmentation in Southern California (LA).

Figure 3 – LA and SF networks of board interlock, 2010

Source: Author’s calculations using UCINET and NET-Draw.

Source: Author’s calculations using UCINET and NET-Draw.

Turning to the degree of diversity, the two networks were found to be equally diverse in 1982, however by 2010 while the Bay Area network had maintained its high level of diversity, LA’s had declined substantially, despite having more industries represented in its 2010 network. While the Bay Area’s high-end corporate social structure maintained its high level of connectivity and diversity over the three decades of economic divergence, LA’s became less connected and less diverse.

The analysis of centrality of business-civic associations, whose role it is to represent the needs of the business community, is equally revealing. The results on a broadened network (which included the 50 largest Private Foundations in each region) shows the Bay Area Council in the Bay Area to be the most central organization in the network, with an nBetweeness score of 18 percent (i.e. The Bay Area Council lies on 18 percent of the shortest paths between all node pairs in the largest component). This is three times greater than the LA Chamber of Commerce, the most central business-civic organisation in the LA network with an nBetweeness score of 5.86 percent. The Bay Area Council arguably plays the role of an ‘anchor tenant’ within the region’s industrial social structure, connecting business leaders across industrial categories. No comparable business-civic organisation exists in LA.

The Bay Area’s connected and diverse social structure withstood the tumultuous challenges brought about by the New Economy, and successfully combined and re-combined its ideas, knowledge, capabilities, assets and resources in response to these challenges and opportunities. It successfully produced new firms and technologies that carved new industrial pathways in IT, biotechnology and supporting services such as venture capital and specialized legal services. The interactions behind such productive recombination were embedded in a connected, diverse and central high-end corporate social structure. LA’s comparable regional network on the other hand was unable to maintain its connectivity and diversity, and failed to productively combine and re-combine regional endowments in the face of a rapidly changing economic reality.

While my study sheds light on the network dimension of regional business institutions, our co-authored book investigates perceptions and world views of various public, private and civic actors, revealing further notable differences. Policy makers and business and civic leaders may draw from this research by focusing attention on the social architecture behind their industrial structures. Business-civic associations in particular may play a central role in bringing influential business leaders from across industries to interact and think about their regional economies and their collective challenges and opportunities.

This article is based on the paper, ‘Social networks and regional economic development: the Los Angeles and Bay Area metropolitan regions, 1980–2010’ in Environment and Planning C Government and Policy.

Disclaimer: This blog was also posted in USAPP (An LSE Blog)

Naji P. Makarem is co-director of the Msc. Urban Economic Development at the Bartlett School’s Development Planning Unit (DPU) at UCL, and a lecturer in Political Economy of Development.

Citywide upgrading strategies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia: three years of engagement

ucfuast23 May 2016

In a famous picture of Phnom Penh in 1979, two children stand in the foreground looking steadily at the camera, while behind them the city, once the ‘pearl of Asia’, is nothing but a desolated and spectral bunch of abandoned buildings. The urban history of the capital of Cambodia is demarcated by iterative evacuations and expulsions of its population. Although there is no agreement on numbers and scale of the phenomenon, the first evacuation took place in Phnom Penh during the Pol Pot regime. The vast majority of the urban population was forcibly deported to the countryside, in order to fulfil the utopia of a rural Kampuchea and a classless agrarian society; while public buildings, cultural and institutional symbols, were emptied, abandoned and eventually destroyed in what can be referred to as urbicide, an act of extreme violence towards the city and what it represents for its people.

At the end of the war, people returned to Phnom Penh. As refugees in their own city, they occupied abandoned buildings or settled in unregulated land. When, two decades later, Cambodia opened to the global market, and new foreign investments flew into the city, that land became attractive to the appetite of new developers. As a consequence, entire communities were brutally evicted and forcibly moved to peripheral areas. Relocations took place from the 90s to ‐ officially ‐ the early 2010s. Over this period, with more than 50 relocation sites around Phnom Penh, the relocation process has become the main way to produce the city.

Today, urban planning is still not high in the national agenda (there is a city strategy plan which level of implementation is hard to grasp and local investment plans which consider private development only), while the housing policy (released in 2014) is poorly articulated and not yet implemented. Although a social housing policy (programme) for low income people is under study, the housing needs of the poor are not addressed. In general terms, local government is not much interfering in the land market; such a laissez faire approach is favouring private-sector development, with no alternative for the poor. As the land on the market is not accessible to them, poor communities keep occupying public or private interstitial land along canals and unused infrastructure, mostly vulnerable and prone to flooding, while gated communities and satellite cities are growing in number. Given that 50% of the urban population are below the poverty line, who can afford these houses? Gated communities are probably aimed at a middle class that still does not exists or better to foreigners and officials that are part of a highly corrupted political system.

Looking inward: challenges at site level. Smor San community, Chbar Ampov district, Phnom Penh, settled since the 1970s on a graveyard. Pictures by Catalina Ortiz.

Looking inward: challenges at site level. Smor San community, Chbar Ampov district, Phnom Penh, settled since the 1970s on a graveyard. Pictures by Catalina Ortiz.

Most of the sites selected for the MSc BUDD fieldtrip – taking place in Phnom Penh for the third consecutive year – reveal aspects and nuances of these urban processes. Particularly, Pong Ro Senchey and Steung Kombot communities are informal settlements on narrow strips of public land stretched between private properties waiting for redevelopment; while Smor San settlement is located on a graveyard. By learning from the unique approach of our partners, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), Community Architects Cambodia (CAN-CAM), and Community Development Foundation (CDF), and from the people in each community, BUDD students, divided into three groups and joined by local students of architecture and urbanism, by UN intern and representative of the housing department, worked for five days in the three sites. Five days of emotionally intense engagement with the people and the context, trying to identify needs and aspirations, while unpacking the complex power relations within the government, digging into the legal and normative frameworks to understand how to ‘break the vertical’ and to disclose the potential for change.

After working with the communities to develop site upgrading strategies, the students were asked to produce an ulterior effort, that of looking across the different sites (and for this purpose the original groups have been reshuffled into new groups each one including at least two members from each site group) to address what we call ‘citywide upgrading’. This is a difficult and ambitious task, as it encompasses the multidimensionality of urban issues at the political, social, spatial and economic levels. Particularly, it calls for a multi-scalar reasoning and strategising that takes into consideration the community singularity and agency as well as the national policy framework in which community action needs to be framed. The scaling up of site upgrading strategies does not happen in a merely quantitative manner (i.e. iteration of a similar strategy), but rather considering the city as a wider community, where spatial proximity is replaced by shared practices and interests. Citywide upgrading is at the core of the BUDD pedagogy, and although this is not a new theory, BUDD students are currently contributing to its redefinition as a development theory for the poor, deeply embedded into the practice of ACHR and CAN.

Engaging the community to identify priorities for upgrading in Steung Kombot, Russey Keo district. Pictures by Giorgio Talocci

Engaging the community to identify priorities for upgrading in Steung Kombot, Russey Keo district. Pictures by Giorgio Talocci

Amongst the principles for citywide upgrading, three seem to be crucial.

First, to include the urban poor in the ongoing development. While Phnom Penh is witnessing fast urbanisation and growth, poor people are still uninscribed in such growth. How to capture and redistribute the profits and benefits? How to dismantle the hierarchical system that is at the basis of unequal development?

Secondly, to question the regulatory role of state authority. Although the government is merely indulging in highly corrupted laissez faire, legal and policy frameworks exist (for instance, art. 5 of the housing policy includes onsite upgrading). The question is how to implement them? How to monitor the implementation through accountable mechanisms?

Third, to address the aid dependency and foster self determination of the communities. This stems from the acknowledgement of existing potential: the people knowledge, skills, technology and capital. How to achieve political recognition? How to increase the visibility of people processes?

BUDD and Khmer students @work learning from each other. Pictures by Giorgio Talocci/Giovanna Astolfo

BUDD and Khmer students @work learning from each other. Pictures by Giorgio Talocci/Giovanna Astolfo

The above questions have been addressed through small, short or long term, concrete actions such as: environmental upgrading particularly related to flooding risk (households repeatedly affected by seasonal flooding or flooding related to climate change and land development, can access to new grants for upgrading); online knowledge platforms (as people are increasingly connected, online platforms can ensure easy and fast access to knowledge, and data collection and sharing; such platforms can be accessible also to NGOs and local authority); network upgrading fund (as private development is happening, social responsibility can be strengthen, for instance through new funding schemes sourced from the private sector and led by people); social ombudsman (in order to ensure the inclusion of the community as well as the transparency of the decision making process, the implementation of policy and scrutiny of the process).

As in the previous two years, strategies have been publicly presented by students and representatives of the communities, serving as a platform to advocate ‘the cause’ with national and local authorities. As political recognition remains one of the main challenges that the communities in Phnom Penh face, after three years of engagement, the ‘cumulative impacts’ of the work developed by BUDD with local partners has inspired a young and strong generation of architects equipped to take up the challenge of a more just future for our cities

Presentations to the local authorities in Khan (district of) Por Senchey and Russey Keo. Pictures by Giorgio Talocci/Giovanna Astolfo

Presentations to the local authorities in Khan (district of) Por Senchey and Russey Keo. Pictures by Giorgio Talocci/Giovanna Astolfo

Giovanna Astolfo is a teaching fellow at the MSc Building and Urban Design for Development, she recently joined students on overseas fieldwork in Cambodia. This is the third year that the MSc BUDD has visited Cambodia, continuing a collaboration with the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights and Community Architects Network Cambodia

If Habitat III wants to uphold the right to housing, it needs to address financialization

ucfurli11 May 2016

At the start of April, a number of civil society groups, members of NGOs and activists from across Europe met in Barcelona for the European meeting of the Global Platform for the Right to the City. This was in part to complement the Habitat III meeting on Public Space that was to take place later that week. Habitat III will be the third installment of the UN conference on human settlements, held every 20 years. At this Global Platform meeting in Barcelona, priorities relating to the ‘Right to the City’ in Europe and strategic aims for Habitat III, to take place in Quito this October, were discussed.

Global Platform for the Right to the City meeting in Barcelona

Global Platform of the Right to the City meeting in Barcelona

One of the main issues that emerged in the Global Platform meeting was the financialization of real estate. Financialization can be defined as a “pattern of accumulation in which profit-making occurs increasingly through financial channels rather than through trade and commodity production” (Aalbers 2009, p. 284). The financialization of housing refers specifically to the linking of housing markets with finance markets, where housing is viewed primarily as a financial good. This is what allows banks to speculate on land and housing, which causes house prices to rise far beyond what most people can afford. The linking of mortgages with financial products, especially in the United States, was a central factor in the 2008 economic crisis that had catastrophic effects across the globe.

In a working group on the topic, participants exchanged experiences of how financialization has manifested in their respective countries. A member of the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (Platform for people affected by mortgages) in Barcelona summarized the particularly dire situation in Spain, where over 400,000 evictions have taken place since 2008. While each European country has its own unique context, many common themes emerged, such as speculation, inflated housing prices, empty homes, the selling off of social housing, and an increase in evictions and displacement. These phenomena were linked to a systematic eroding of regulations that have allowed the financial sector to exploit housing for profit.

An open letter to the Habitat III Secretariat signed by members of the Global Platform points to the connection between the 2008 financial crisis and its context of housing financialization, a topic which it says is strikingly absent from Habitat III documents thus far. The letter asserts that land and housing must be treated as goods for people and not for profit. In this vein, the signatories call for a new Habitat III policy unit to be set up that focuses on the global financialization of real estate, to provide recommendations for the social and political regulation of real estate markets and actors.

But at the moment, as the letter states, Habitat III documents do not seem to be dealing with the issue. The Policy Paper on Housing Policies, an official input into Habitat III, states that “Housing stands at the center of the New Urban Agenda”. It re-affirms UN Member states’ commitment to the right to housing, which it says must be adequate and affordable, with security of tenure. Yet in the 74 pages of the document, financialization is not once mentioned. In a section on affordable housing, there is reference to the financial crisis, and to the increase in mortgage debt and repossession of homes, especially in Europe (p.10). The global estimate that 330 million households are currently financially stretched by housing costs is also provided. But this section concludes with “Nearly half of the housing deficit in urban areas is attributable to the high cost of homes, and to the lack of access to financing” (p. 10).

In this sense, rising house prices are presented as a natural and uncontestable process, with the core problem simply being that many people do not have access to housing finance. There is no questioning of why house prices are allowed to rise at such a rate in the first place, nor is there acknowledgement of the role of the financial sector in inflating real estate values. The report mentions how vulnerable groups are traditionally excluded from home ownership and rental markets, implying that the solution to the housing deficit is to get more people in on this market. (The paper seems to ignore the phenomenon of sub-prime or predatory lending integral to the 2008 crisis, where vulnerable groups were not excluded, but explicitly targeted for mortgage loans.) Overall, the focus is on the individual requirements needed to access housing, and not on structural factors and the institutions responsible for shaping access to housing.

Given the very limited diagnosis analysis of the situation, the paper’s proposed policy solutions largely miss the point. The report states that to “To provide affordable housing, the private sector requires incentives (adequate capital and financial returns) and an enabling environment (development process and public policy)” (pp. 22-23). In other words, the financial institutions and private developers who are largely responsible for the massive housing crisis do not need to re-examine any of their practices; rather, the public needs to provide incentives for them to build “affordable” housing because the relentless profit motive of private developers and financial institutions cannot be challenged. In addition, the public sector must provide an “enabling environment” for the private sector to do its work, as if it has not already been doing so by implementing neoliberal policies to slash regulation of lending and speculation.

To address the assumed core problem of people with limited or no access to credit for housing, the policy paper states “housing finance and microfinance should be integrated into the broader financial system in order to mobilize more resources, both domestically and internationally”(p. 21). This statement ignores the extent to which housing finance has already been integrated into the financial system, and what disastrous effects this has had. If anything, the paper seems to be suggesting an increase in financialization, rather than a re-thinking of this phenomenon that has been a major factor in the housing deficit.

The housing paper does mention that policies are needed to reduce property speculation and even mentions the “social regulation of real estate”, and that these can be strengthened if “municipalities adopt inclusive housing ordinances and appropriate property taxation policies” (p. 17). This is a start, but it is not enough for a global urban agenda. The details of these policy proposals are not explored in any meaningful way in the current policy paper, nor are they linked to address the current embedding of real estate within the financial sector. Furthermore, this is not just a local problem for municipalities to deal with; both national and international institutions hold responsibility for our current situation, and need to be targeted as entry points for intervention.

There are many forms of regulation that would at the very least be a step in the right direction in terms of housing affordability. But we need to address the now assumed linkage between real estate and the financial sector if we want to get to the root of the problem. For a conference aiming to come up with a “new urban agenda”, and that has previously agreed on such rights such as the right to adequate housing, the issue of financialization, which has put housing that much more out of reach for millions of people, needs to be addressed at Habitat III.

Aalbers, M. B. (2009) “The sociology and geography of mortgage markets: Reflections on the financial crisis”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33(2), 281–290.

Habitat III Policy Paper 10 – Housing Policies, 29 February 2016, available at: https://www.habitat3.org/bitcache/3fa49d554e10b9ea6391b6e3980d2a32ce979ce9?vid=572979&disposition=inline&op=view

Possible tags: Habitat III, Financialization, Housing policy, Right to the City, Right to Adequate Housing, Barcelona, Europe

Rafaella Lima is an alumna of the the DPU and currently works as a graduate teaching assistant for the MSc Urban Development Planning. She has been involved in research looking at civil society engagement with Habitat III processes in various countries.


text:
TRIAL AND ERROR (1937) by Anthony Berkeley

It’s time for a guest post from my blogging buddy Livius, who writes about movies at his marvellous blog, Riding the High Country. And now it’s over to the man himself:

The inverted crime story is one where the perpetrator is known from the outset, or close enough to it, and the thrust of the story is carried forward by our interest in seeing law or its representatives piece together the clues and evidence that will bring the criminal to book. In short, if you’ve ever seen an episode of Columbo, then you know exactly what I mean.

We submit this review for Bev’s Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt; and Friday’s Forgotten Books meme, hosted today by Todd Mason at his Sweet Freedom blog

“Yes,” said Mr Todhunter. “Then what it all amounts to is that the man with only a few months to live can’t do anything better than commit a murder, of the type defined. You really believe that?”

That quotation is the premise upon which Anthony Berkeley’s Trial and Error (1937) is based, a scenario that I’d be inclined to term a variation, in more ways than one, on the inverted crime formula. Right from the beginning we learn that Lawrence Todhunter is a man living on borrowed time, that an aneurysm will surely claim his life in a relatively short space of time.  Under the circumstances, I imagine few people would then proceed to arrange a meeting of friends and acquaintances of various spiritual and philosophical points of view for the purpose of surreptitiously picking their brains on how best to utilize the time remaining.

Todhunter is a bit of an oddity though. A middle-aged bachelor and comfortably upper middle class, he lives in the suburbs and has no close dependents. Such a man might be expected to look for the most pleasurable ways of passing his soon to be curtailed life. But not Todhunter, his thoughts run to how he might do something of use, something that would make the world  better place. And so he consults friends, and comes to the conclusion that he should seek out someone who deserves to die, and then set about ensuring that indeed happens. Yet, as with many things in life, the results don’t always come out the way you hope.

Trial and Error is as much a black comedy as a crime story, the inherent absurdity of the ever growing complexity becomes something of a dark farce, and the character of Todhunter moves from a kind of initial pitiable pomposity towards the arch and sly as complications spin off to meet and mate with further difficulties, producing even more pitfalls, stumbling blocks and so on. There is, of course, a twist in the tale, several of them if we’re to be honest. However, I found the last (the one I guess we are supposed to find the biggest shock) to be something of a letdown. Perhaps it’s just me but I saw it coming a mile off and it left the final section of the book, while still solidly suspenseful at heart, a tad disappointing.

“It’s women of that kind – women and men – who are responsible for nine tenths of human suffering. Evil is rare. I’m inclined to think it’s a pathological phenomenon. Indifference, that’s what is terrible…”

I’ll confess that I don’t know a great deal about Anthony Berkeley, beyond the fact he was an influential crime writer and later a critic, but I have come across comments that suggest he was something of a misogynist, and that this characteristic can be discerned in Trial and Error. To tell the truth, I can’t say I was especially aware of this

– mild spoiler alert

I guess this is as a result of the choice and depiction of Todhunter’s victim. While I do feel the reasoning behind the pick was pretty weak and just barely convincing, I don’t buy the notion that it’s driven by this particular prejudice

– end of mild spoiler alert

This was my first Berkeley novel and I’ve got another half dozen titles by him on my shelf still to be read, including two written under his Francis Iles pseudonym. I’ve been led to believe he’s generally regarded highly for his innovative touches and  pushing at the boundaries of crime and detective fiction and I think this novel offers some strong arguments in favor of that assessment. Is it a good introduction to the author? Under the circumstances, I’ll have to leave that to others to say, at least until I’ve dipped a little deeper into his oeuvre myself.

Riding the High Country

We submit this review for Bev’s Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt in the ‘cigarette’ category:

This entry was posted in 2017 Golden Age Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt, Anthony Berkeley, Columbo, Courtroom, England. Bookmark the permalink.

29 Responses to TRIAL AND ERROR (1937) by Anthony Berkeley

  1. Colin says:

    Reblogged this on Riding the High Country and commented:
    This is another of those occasions when my friend Sergio has been kind enough to allow me a platform to put my thoughts on a piece of classic mystery/crime fiction. Follow the link here to read them in full, and have a good look around Sergio’s ever excellent site while you’re there.

  2. tracybham says:

    Very nice review, Colin, and this sounds like a very good book. The premise sounds good anyway, but I love a Columbo-type story.

  3. I’ve acquired a few Berkeley books, though I’ve yet to read them. He’s an author that I’m really looking forward to tackling. It sounds like this is another to seek out.

    Colin, you really should spin off another site devoted to GAD. You always have great comments to make, and I’d love to see some Best Of lists by you. Hats off to Sergio for hosting you, but you have an audience looking for more.

  4. TomCat says:

    I very much liked Trial and Error and loved one particular scene towards the end, but yeah, not the best place to start with when you’re new to Berkeley. You might have appreciated the book more had you been more familiar with his writing.

    Personally, I would recommend the marvelous Jumping Jenny, which is my favorite and a better play on the Fallible Detective gambit than The Poisoned Chocolates Case.

  5. Great review! I love everything I’ve read by Berkeley – I think he tends to play with the genre which is always satisfying.

  6. I agree with your characterization of Anthony Berkeley as innovative and clever. When he was at the top of his game, Berkeley was as good as Agatha Christie.

    • JJ says:

      I’m gonna upset some folks here and say that when he was at the top of his game, Berkeley was better than Christie…I consider Berkeley’s best three novels (Poisoned Chocolates, Malice Afore, Piccadilly Murder) to be better than Christie’s top 3 (And Then, Peril, Evil Under).

      Of course, Christie was waaaay more consistent and far easier to read, and produced far more far better books just below her best than Berkeley, who spins and dives and climbs and dives again all over the place in terms of quality. No doubt Chrisite had the essentials of this type of writing firm entrenched in her soul, but so did Berkeley — he just chose to challenge them more, and the result would tend to be something of a slave to the intent.

    • Thanks for that George – what with so many great authors in the genre from the 20s and 30s, great thst Betkeley is still remembered .

  7. JJ says:

    Also, great work, Colin — you don’t even need another blog, you could just put these on RtHC…many other people have far less focussed bogs, and I reckon people could cope with you talking about two whole separate things.

    • Well, I certainly agree that Fedora is not really worthy 😀 On thr other hand, have you seen how high the average number of comments per post is at Riding? Purity has its virtues!!!

  8. Pingback: 2017 Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt Wrap-up | Tipping My Fedora

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Social Account Setup

Not sure where to start with social media? By purchasing this product, a member of the BloomSocial team will create your account, upload a profile picture, write a custom bio about your business, and optimize your account for SEO.

Accounts for this service include:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Setup includes:

  • Creation of account, including login and password
  • Profile Picture
  • Custom Bio
  • Messenger setup (if applicable)
  • SEO Optimization
  • Custom Hashtags


text:
Alba Long Wellington

Step out for countryside adventures, muddy dog walks and festival days with a pair of our Alba wellington boots. Inspired by traditional designs with a calf-high silhouette and adjustable straps at each side to help with pulling them on and off, our designers have also given these wellies a signature Radley touch in the form of a logo tab to the front. Looking for something more colourful to brighten up those rainy days? Find Alba wellies in multiple colours, with a choice of glossy and matte fi

Compare Similar Products

More Matches

Style Journal

Everything you need to know about fashion and lifestyle now

View all


text:
Forums in 'Community Grounds'
  Forum Threads Posts Last Post
Forum Contains New Posts Reverse Engineering
For all about reverse engineering, cracking tools, programming languages... NO PHP DECODING REQUESTS IN THIS FORUM. They will be deleted.
283 1,265 How to Decode ioncube php...
10-08-2020 02:40 PM
by fafoji61
Forum Contains New Posts WinTalk
For any other windows stuff that doesn't necessarly have anything to do with the antiwpa.
36 287 Anti-MSOPA [For Office 20...
04-30-2020 08:03 PM
by soneigrr
Forum Contains New Posts Off-Topic
For everything that don't fit into the categories above - you wanted ask or you found important to tell to the others.
64 482 connectify 5.0.1 cracked?
07-25-2019 11:17 AM
by login40

Contact Us | Homepage | Return to Top | Return to Content | Lite (Archive) Mode | RSS Syndication


text:
Anachrony: Classic Expansion

Sold out
$ 35.00
$ 28.00

The Classic Expansion combines three popular gameplay modules from earlier editions and expansions of Anachrony.

This module features Experiment cards that allow players to change the time of the cataclysm, to the point of avoiding it completely. It adds a semi-cooperative element to the game: two of the Paths would like to see the Capital fall in the wake of the cataclysm, while the other two are striving to avoid it - but the game is still won individually, so be careful with the cooperation!

Pioneers of New Earth
In this module, players can spend resources to improve their Exosuit technology, equipping them with powerful augments and sensors. On a new Action spot, players can push their luck and use their Exosuits to take on risky but rewarding adventures in the wastelands of New Earth, with various ways to mitigate the luck of the draw.

Guardians of the Council
This module features six independent, high-tech Exosuits owned by the World Council. Players may earn the Council’s favour to obtain these Exosuits and improve their arsenal. The Guardian Exosuits do not need Workers to operate, and have a placement slot at the Council reserved just for them. This module features six highly detailed, 55 mm tall Guardian miniatures.

You recently viewed

Clear recently viewed


text:
Cart 0

NEW Imoogination Poster

  • $2200

Enter a world of Imoogination with this psychedelic 11 x 14 poster celebrating Moog Music's first company newspaper published in 1976. This was the original cover of the publication which asked What is a Synthesizer? featuring rare photos, musician articles, as well as an interview with Bob. It was created specifically by Moog Music for its employees and synth distributors.

We are offering this Imoogination poster in two variations: the original yellow and a reprint with a blue background.

The poster design is printed on 14 pt. cardstock.

Any questions? Email us at

All profits from the sales of our t-shirts benefit our hallmark projects, Dr. Bob's SoundSchool, the Moogseum and the preservation of the Bob Moog Foundation Archives.

The Bob Moog Foundation is an independent 501 (c)(3)  non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of Bob Moog by inspiring others through science, music, and innovation.

We are not associated with the manufacturing company Moog Music, Inc. in any way.

Be sure to check out our clearance section for some great deals

We Also Recommend


text:
Shirley and Barnett C. Helzberg, Jr.

We are always reminded of the words of Avraham Infeld, President and CEO of Melitz Institute for Jewish Zionist Education as heard on a Mission to Israel in 1994, “Jews are first and foremost a family with a religious culture. We must tell our children that first we are family. You cannot have continuity unless you know what you want to continue.”

If we are going to transfer our history or memory to the next generation, then we must preserve it with Jewish education. This is central to our survival. By giving to Jewish philanthropy, we are fulfilling our covenant with our Jewish religious obligation, and we are acting according to the Talmud.

Through philanthropy and education, future generations of our Jewish community and our children and our children’s children will carry forth our teachings critical to our mission to repair the world.


text:
La mediatización del atentado a través de tres ejemplos del siglo XX: 1914, 1944 y 1963

Calvo Salgado, Luís Manuel; Prieto, Moisés (2017). La mediatización del atentado a través de tres ejemplos del siglo XX: 1914, 1944 y 1963. In: Ferreira, Ana Sofia; Madeira, João; Casanellas, Pau (eds.) Violência política no século XX: Um balanço (pp. 137-164). Lisboa: Instituto de História Contemporânea

[img] Text
Seiten aus Violência política no século XX Um balanço.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (7MB) | Request a copy

During the past decades, the assassination attempt has been treated from different disciplines. Nevertheless, the mediatization of the assassination attempt or its treatment in images and audiovisual media has been widely neglected. Starting from a triptych applicable to 19th century tyrannicides and articulated by the assassination performance, the perpetrator’s arrest and finally his punishment, we aim at verifying to what extent this model fits in 20th century assassination attempts. For this reason, three key assassinations will be considered. First, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, perpetrated by Serbian nationalists, and which would lead to WWI. Second, the failed attempt on 20 July 1944 against Adolf Hitler in the Wolfsschanze; a plot in which many high rank officers of the Wehrmacht were involved. As third example, we will focus on John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, on 22 November 1963, reputed to Lee H. Oswald.

Item Type:

Book Section (Book Chapter)

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of History

UniBE Contributor:

Prieto, Moisés

900 History
900 History > 940 History of Europe

Instituto de História Contemporânea

Moisés Prieto

Date Deposited:

18 Jun 2020 09:01

Last Modified:

18 Jun 2020 09:10

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Attentate 19. Jahrhundert 20. Jahrhundert Mediendarstellung Hitlerattentat Kennedy Sarajevo 1914

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback


text:
The 2018 Boston Music Awards will take place at House of Blues in early December.

Our mission is to unite and celebrate the music scene in Massachusetts. In today’s fast paced environment, The Boston Music Awards are the one time of the year that we hope the music scene takes a moment to celebrate, and appreciate, the talent within our State.

Please visit our FAQ (coming soon) or Contact page for more info

Past Winners.

Since 1987, the Boston Music Awards has celebrated the finest musical talent in the Massachusetts area.

View Winners

Hall of Fame.

The Boston Music Awards Hall of Fame is the home of Boston music royalty.

Hall of Fame - Coming Soon


text:
Assistant Design Engineer (Fixed Telecoms)

Date Added

7th July 2020

Vacancy Description

Boston Rail are looking for candidates for initial entry level opportunities in the UK Rail sector. We are looking for those with NVQ level 3 in an electrical or mechanical skill set.

This is an Assistant Design Engineer (Fixed Telecoms) opportunity, based in York (working from home initially).

For the right candidate Boston Rail will invest in your PTS Training, provide sponsorship and a relevant Telecoms course. The role will be an initial 4-6 weeks but could be extended for 12 months and beyond.

If you’re interested and would like more information, please apply below or email railenquiries@bostonrail.co.uk

Return To Listings

If you'd like to apply for a vacancy listed by Boston Rail then please complete the short form and attach your CV as well as relevant certificates which will help with your application.

First Name*

Email Address*

Are You Currently...*

Are You Eligible To Work in The EU?*

Upload Your CV*

Please upload your CV and other rail industry related certificates when applying for vacancies.

Covering Letter*


text:
Bespoke Solutions

Brickstone Solutions are focused incubation and acceleration programmes aimed at the providing Appraisal , Advisory and Project Development for large scale industrial and infrastructure projects in Africa. We look for the most promising middle market infra or industrial companies (“with traction”) and then put them through our 100 day programmes.
These 100 day programmes are developed based on Brickstone’s transaction advisory and project development competences with the objective of ensuring the bank-ability, corporate restructuring and to protect the long-term asset value for sponsors.  Our proactive and hands on approach  has made us develop these specific programmes to address certain needs of our clients (” African Entrepreneurs”) involved with Greenfield Infrastructure Project, Growth Companies needing Capitalization or Large Scale Companies with Debt that needs to be restructured

Brickstone Solution programmes are intensive business development program which supports a small team of founders, usually with a large scale business idea of their own. The support comes in a form of mentorship, affordable transaction support, and some starting capital.

In a nutshell, these Brickstone Solution programme consists of the following core elements:

  • An application process that is open to all, yet highly competitive. Open on a rolling basis
  • These programmes are self-paid for by the Application or sponsored by Corporate or DFIs
  • Entry to one or more Dealcamp Trainings/events based on the needs of the company
  • A provision of pre-seed investment option to invest in the business
  • A focus on small developer teams, not individual founders.
  • Time-limited Transaction Support Services up to 6 months – 18 months comprising ( Procurement Management, Financial Model Auditing, Interim Management and Compliance Services) and intensive mentoring of the opportunity

At the same time, it is important to note that Brickstone Bespoke Solution are ultimately investment focused. The newly established companies “graduate” at the end of the program would have better ability to “own” their infra-pitch decks and financial models with much better knowledge of their deal structure as well as the ability to receive their first serious investment from investors.