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Thursday and Thrilled: Overly Enthusiastic

Thursday and Thrilled: Overly Enthusiastic

Anyone ever tell you you’re overly enthusiastic? I openly admit it. I often refer to myself as someone who is overly enthusiastic about a lot of thing all at once. While some could see that as a bad thing, I choose to see it as a good thing.

When I see/read/watch/experience something I like, I tend to like to repeat it. Over. And over. and over again. This is a list of things I am “overly enthusiastic” about this week: (chances are, it’ll change next week) Read More

Thursday and Thrilled: A Dragon Whispering in my Ear

With my birthday on Saturday I’ve been consciously not buying anything for myself. Of course without the distraction of new TV shows and movies, I keep skipping over to Etsy or ModCloth and falling into the black-hole that has now become my wishlist! Alas, I will hold strong until all the festivities are over.

These are the things that I have discovered this weekend and now I want to own! Read More


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Ascension Health Behavioral Health Technician - Adult Psychiatry Nursing Unit in Kokomo, Indiana

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Technician-Behavioral Health - Adlt Psychiatry Nrsng Unit 001 - Full-Time,Night - Kokomo-1907 W. Sycamore - Kokomo,IN

7PM - 7:30AM weekdays and holidays vary; every other weekend.

Why Join Ascension?

St. Vincent, part of Ascension, is a nonprofit, faith-based health system that is guided by our mission to provide compassionate, personalized care, especially for those who are vulnerable. St. Vincent is one of Indiana’s largest employers with 22 ministries serving 57 counties in central and southern Indiana. Our 134-year-old health system includes a wide range of services including cardiovascular care, women’s and children’s health, neurosciences, cancer care, orthopedics, bariatrics, primary care, emergency medicine, imaging, general surgery and long-term acute care.

What You Will Do

As an Associate with St. Vincent Health-IN, you will have the opportunity to providedirect behavioral health patient care.

  • Assists patients with performing activities of daily living.

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Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray

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For more than thirty years, Patience Gray--author of the celebrated cookbook Honey from a Weed--lived in a remote area of Puglia in southernmost Italy. She lived without electricity, modern plumbing, or a telephone, grew much of her own food, and gathered and ate wild plants alongside her neighbors in this economically impoverished region. She was fond of saying that she wrote only for herself and her friends, yet her growing reputation brought a steady stream of international visitors to her door. This simple and isolated life she chose for herself may help explain her relative obscurity when...


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Man on Fire: the Art of Tim Storrier and Other Desert Masters

Man on Fire: the Art of Tim Storrier and Other Desert Masters

Tim Storrier in what he refers to as 'Neolithic TV' - the Australian Outback. The photographer is Hari Ho. Used with permission.

Frannie Hopkirk | 20.05.14

Author: Frannie Hopkirk

Polarities between Australia’s artists and painters, black or white, achieve compatibility and oneness of intent when they collectively embrace the one big thing about this country – THE DESERT. Storrier, Nolan, Drysdale etc. ‘white’ painters; Paddy Bedford, Tommy Watson, Emily Kngwarreye etc., ‘black’ painters, are all united by this same unduckable reality.

It could be said that the desert is how Australians of all kinds define themselves. If The First Australians lived and thrived in, mapped and understood the desert, white ‘‘European’ Australians, fearful of the enigma and terror of space, ran from it or made art out of it. They did not base sacred belief systems on it. You need centuries to do that.

If you have ever flown over the Centre you will have experienced what ‘space’ really looks like. And where Sidney Nolan was coming from. Hour after hour after hour of desert in all its colour, texture, formation, mystery, leaves one feeling like a Space Cadet impatient to land. And it IS scary.

Comparisons based on whether or not art-works are in narrative form. Whether artists are exploring in the personal sense, their own imaginations or emotions and ideas. The important unifying element, black or white, whatever the stories or human dramas, no matter the terror, beauty and fear, (from Papunya or The National Art School,) all express the same thing: relationships to Land and Country. Earth, fire, wind, water.

All forms of Aboriginal Dreaming relate to aspects of nature, from Kangaroos, Lizards, Dingoes to Fire and Water. Storrier’s original yet eternally ancient choice of subject matter is a personal interpretation of Fire Dreaming. He is the white master who has taken or borrowed Fire as his power symbol.

Born the son of a grazier in Central West NSW Storrier has country in his DNA. From birth he has known the turgid, agonizing torment, as well as the visual poetry, of extended drought. He is hard-wired for DRY. As Peter Kingston has made Sydney Harbour his own, Tim Storrier has taken the desert deep into his psyche. His famous fire pictures are an account of one man’s emotional as well as graphic engagement with the Red Centre.

Unlike Aboriginal desert masters who as a rule only begin painting as senior elders, when their age in traditional law has deemed them sufficiently qualified and experienced. Storrier, now 65 would be considered morally ready for the responsibility of representing his culture in paint.

He, however, has a very different story. Winning the Sulman Prize for Genre when he was barely out of school, thereby having celebrity thrust upon him before he had time to find out what kind of a painter he really was or what he would become has himself become a senior artist, an elder. He stands now as one of the all time greats of Australian art. Before he could claim this, 35 years of hard work, travel, reading, taking photographs, a passionate private life, an interest in politics and love of music, winner of prizes and awards, a international reputation, have confirmed and enhanced the celebrity which began at 18.

His nomadic spirit has taken him on repeated trips to the desert, both here and in Egypt and the US. It is his soul place. Here he expands. Something happens - what Nicolas Rothwell calls the “quicksilver youthful skies”, and importantly, also from Rothwell – the ability to “think magically”. Both Storrier and Rothwell are familiar with the absorbing silence ‘out there’.

Packing a couple of bottles of good red, steaks and his Directors chair, he absorbs to cellular level the great lonely fantasy of the Outback. What he calls Neolithic TV. One can see him there – smoke rising from his campfire, the tents, the chair, the glass of red, the companions, his romance with the horizon, his essential aloneness, and the ‘magical thinking’ which alchemizes his vision into vast vibrating canvases.

The single Big Idea stemming from Storrier’s desert ponderings have been his Fire pictures. Carefully setting up and arranging his materials: stretching a thick rope between two wide-apart points, drenching the rope in boat oil, then with camera loaded, waiting for dusk. In the moment before dark when the horizon glows, he sets the rope alight.

Like many ideas of genius this gesture has marked Storrier. The paintings and lithographs stemming from what is titled “Point to Point” are profound, graphically stunning, dramatic, enigmatic as the desert itself. Again, playing with fire, he has arranged huge camp- fires where he conflagates what appears to be symbols from his life and imagination. These are visceral, intensely detailed, vaguely nihilistic canvases with a peculiar emotion one can never quite get a handle on. “Thinking magically?”

Complex pictures like this can be called narrative but not in the sense that Aboriginal Art is narrative. Tim is not telling stories of history, food gathering, sex, ceremonies, Corroborees, who can paint and who cannot.

From where the hunting is good, the food is plentiful, the water pure, to initiation rites, the white onlooker cannot decipher the coded surfaces because they not literal. This is the art of elitism and abstraction. The secrets hidden beneath flowing lines, dots, ravishing paint and a God-like design- sense, holds truths even scholars will never know. The pleasing graphics do not give up their secrets, nor should they.

Is there a danger of the old masters of the desert dying out and taking their secrets with them? Have the last forty years of the dramatic emergence of Indigenous art been a phenomena and a warning, where the true mysteries have found their way into the mainstream of galleries and collections, never to be reproduced, or buried so deep they may never fully understood?

Who will paint the masterpieces of the future? Who will replace the Kngwarreyes, Tommy Bedford, Tommy Watson, Rover Thomas, Bill Whiskey, Kitty Kantilla, Queenie Kemarre, Ada Bird, Angelina Pwerle, Lena Nyadbi, Minnie Pwerle, Patsy Marfura, Eubena Nampitjin and all the others? Is this a threatened world? Notions like this do indeed make the spear quiver.

With a command of paint and brush grounded in traditional techniques: Storrier layers glaze over glaze, some opaque, achieving what has been called ‘the Leonardo effect’, a rich deepening of colour. Through skill he expresses the secrets of his hidden self. Both cerebral and emotional, strange and beautiful. As masterpieces from the desert artists define what great art is, Storrier masterpieces stand among them. Black art and white art seems not so polarized after all.

Tim Storrier’s paintings are as dry as his wit, which can be savagely funny. BW (Brett Whiteley) once said that Tim’s pictures gave him “scurvy” for lack of green; what Shakespeare referred to as the “livery of wanton green”. He was my brother’s great friend. If you were lucky you could hang-in on some of their arguments. He is my great friend also. I always see him in his studio, standing in front of one of his enormous canvases, one leg cocked, one hand on his hip, the other holding a brush, music playing and sometimes a fire in the grate.

Watch an interview with Tim Storrier (with Stuart Purves from Australian Galleries) produced as part of the Fairfax Media Australia Day Project. Purchase Blaze Line

View our Six Masters Exhibition

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Man on Fire: the Art of Tim Storrier and Other Desert Masters

The art of Tim Storrier honours fire as a constant in the Australian landscape, here with Blaze Line (2014), commission by the Age and featured in the Fairfax Media Australia Day Project 2014.

Man on Fire: the Art of Tim Storrier and Other Desert Masters

A young Tim Storrier photographed here in the Outback. Brett Whiteley once said that Tim’s pictures gave him “scurvy” for lack of green.

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Fitzrovia gallery explosion – The Frieze Generation

Blonde woman standing behind wooden fence.

Stefanie Schneider “Max at Fence” (1999) Analog C-Print on aluminium (Rollo)

There are now 37 galleries in Fitzrovia. The trickle of new commercial galleries that Fitzrovia News and Time Out wrote about in summer 2008 has become a tidal wave. At that time, we mentioned eight new galleries that are still around. Added to the eight or so galleries that were already here in 2008, this makes an impressive 21 new galleries that have opened in the last three years.  During the research for this article, in early August, two large new galleries have opened: Different in Percy Street and Twist in Great Titchfield Street.

Around 10 per cent of all London galleries are now located in Fitzrovia, and Eastcastle Street and its environs are being heralded as the new Cork Street. This  is like the art boom of Mayfair in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, Portobello in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, and the East End since the ‘90’s. No doubt there will be more in the months to come and it is likely that property developers are monitoring the situation, as “money always follows art”, as seen recently in Hoxton and Shoreditch. Also, many new art establishments have popped up in the immediate hinterland of Soho, Marylebone, Kings Cross and Bloomsbury

Fitzrovia has many attractions for art galleries. Commercial property is relatively cheap, given its central location, and the exodus of the rag trade has left many desirable showroom spaces.  The rich mix of companies specialising in advertising, architecture and design provide an existing arts hub and an appropriate and stimulating context for art.  Many are also attracted by the impressive list of artists that lived or worked here: from Hogarth and Constable through Whistler and Sickert  to John and The Bloomsbury Group, not forgetting the English Surrealists who met weekly at the Horseshoe Hotel on Tottenham Court Road, and more recently conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans.

Several galleries, including Different (Percy Street), Modern Art (Eastcastle Street), Mummery+Schnelle (Great Titchfield Street), Paradise Row (Newman Street) and Woolf (Charlotte Street) moved to Fitzrovia from the East End.   These are often operations that started quite modestly in Shoreditch or Bethnal Green and quickly built an international clientele.  They discovered that these influential collectors were not prepared to traipse around vast expanses of East London, from their bases in West End hotels. The solution was to take the art to the collectors.

Other art dealers, seeing the proliferation of art in the area, have opened a second gallery here.  Lazarides, now in Rathbone Place, known for Street Art and famously the first gallery to sell Banksy also trades in Soho; and Whisper, now in Eastcastle Street, a contemporary print specialist owned by Ronnie Wood’s son Tyrone, has a sister gallery, Scream, in Mayfair. Rebecca Hossack, one of Fitzrovia’s first gallerists in the 1980’s now has two galleries here, in Charlotte Street and Conway Street, and has recently expanded to New York. Increasingly, overseas galleries are choosing Fitzrovia to mount their bid for a slice of London’s art action. The last six months has seen Regina, also in Moscow, open in Eastcastle Street and Rosenfeld Porcini, also in Naples, open in Rathbone Street. Hanmi Gallery who have a project space in Seoul, have been organising shows with local Fitzrovia Noir artists at their Maple Street space, prior to its renovation and official opening in 2012.

A major Fitzrovia factor with all the local galleries that I spoke to was proximity to Frieze Art Fair, and the opportunity to seduce collectors into visiting their spaces. The importance of Frieze Art Fair as a showcase for international excellence in contemporary art is enormous, and it is held on Fitzrovia’s doorstep, in Regents Park for four days every October. Since it began in 2003, it has become one of the most respected art fairs in the world, attracting over 60,000 visitors. Galleries from Mexico to Hong Kong clamour to get in, as acceptance is seen as an acknowledgement of the quality of art on offer. 500 galleries from around the world have the temerity to apply for a booth at Frieze each year and around 150 are accepted. Of these only 26 are from the UK, and four are based in Fitzrovia, Alison Jacques, Modern Art, Pilar Corrias and Regina.

Art fairs have become an essential platform for galleries, especially at a time when galleries are openly competing with auction houses, that now account for around 50 per cent of art sales. Collectors love the convenience of the ‘art mall’ and go there for ‘one stop shopping’. Fairs can account for a third of a gallery’s business, often more, and some art dealers no longer consider a ‘shop’ necessary, leaving them free to concentrate on art fairs around the world. They range from small local affairs, such as The Affordable Art Fair, to major international showcases in New York, Dubai and Hong Kong. The right fairs give galleries and their artists credibility at a time when powers of personal connoisseurship are often wanting. Fairs open up new markets for artists, raise a gallery’s profile and draw new collectors to the gallery. Every gallery that I spoke to in Fitzrovia considered art fairs an essential part of their marketing strategy.

An exciting development on the Fitzrovia art scene is the number of new, often young, gallery owners showing work by talented artists, sometimes only a few years out of college. As artists “jump ship” to the next gallery up the food chain (or are sometimes poached) at increasingly early stages in their careers, it’s become important to get in first. These galleries tend to be relatively modest spaces compared with large architect designed galleries such as Modern Art and Rosenfeld Porcini, but there are treasures to be found. Tom Cole, who set up shop in Little Portland Street in May 2010, visits degree shows, and most of his artists are aged 25 to 35. Having been an intern at Mummery+Schnelle and worked as a curator at Lisson Gallery for four years, he was attracted to the mix of existing galleries in Fitzrovia. He complements gallery exhibitions with art fairs as far afield as Rotterdam and Hong Kong.

Josh Lilley, who managed the now defunct Cass Sculpture Foundation Gallery on Percy Street in 2004 , explained that,  “I realised that the East End’s time had been and gone, and that the centrality and charm of the location of Fitzrovia made it ideal. My grandfather was a successful wine merchant based in Fitzrovia since the ‘60’s, and was the lover of Paula Rego for 15 years, so the area was familiar to me.” His gallery in Riding House Street shows emerging to mid career artists with a conceptual basis and a rigorous approach to medium, and has taken part in art fairs in Brussels, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and New York.

Rollo in Charlotte Street is the brainchild of curator Philippa Found and picture restorer Simon Gillespie, who operates from adjacent premises.  Their focus is on women artists and they have a driving concern to redress the under-representation of women artists. Many of their artists are under 30. In contrast, they also represent Frank Bowling, Silver medalist to David Hockney’s Gold at the Royal College of Art in 1962, and in 1987, the first living black artist to be purchased by the Tate Gallery. Rollo also find art fairs a useful platform, taking part in Pinta in New York and London.

Inevitably, in such a fluid business as art, several Fitzrovia galleries have gone, and I have counted eight that have either moved out or closed down since 2008. This has always been the case: Karsten Schubert who famously traded from Charlotte Street and later Riding House Street from 1986 to 1996, and was responsible for launching the careers of many YBA’s including Gary Hume, Michael Landy and Rachel Whiteread, traded privately until his reappearance in Golden Square, Soho in 2007. Curwen Gallery moved to Windmill Street in February 1987, and is still going strong, making it the longest surviving gallery in Fitzrovia.  (They occupy premises that were previously the home of the Ozzy Osbourne and Led Zeppelin Fan Clubs.) They still shows vibrant young art in their annual Northern Graduates exhibition and, given her seniority, director Jill Hutchings should have the last word:  “I didn’t follow Frieze, Frieze followed me!”

A full list of Fitzrovia galleries appears on the back page of the printed autumn edition of Fitzrovia News.

2 Comments on Fitzrovia gallery explosion – The Frieze Generation

  1. A brilliant comprehensive piece,Clive.
    Perhaps important to add that Frank
    Bowling the painter from Gyana-
    represented by the Rollo Gallery in
    Cleveland Street – is also the first
    black Royal Academician,elected in
    2005 after 400 years of that esteemed
    establishment’s existence.

  2. Thank you for your kind words, Fiona, for reminding readers about Frank Bowling’s status as a Royal Academician. The RA has never been particularly “progressive”. Wasn’t it female painter Angelica Kauffman who was represented by a portrait hanging on the wall behind the other male artists, in the famous group painting of the RA’s founder members, as they couldn’t bring themselves to include her in the flesh.

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A history of every street in Fitzrovia West

A comprehensive history of every street in western Fitzrovia is included in the recently published Survey of London for South East Marylebone (Volume 52, Part 2).

Two volumes cover an area bounded by Marylebone High Street to the west, Marylebone Road to the north, Cleveland Street and Tottenham Court Road to the east, and Oxford Street to the south.

It includes archive pictures of many pubs, concert halls, places of worship, historic restaurants, art schools, and a fire station… all long demolished.

Among the pubs are: The Colosseum at 198 Great Portland Street (there from at least 1826 to at least 1890), the City of Hereford at 1 Cleveland Street on the corner of Riding House Street (at least 1809 until the 1920s), and the Castle at 28 Great Castle Street (at least 1826 until at least 1898).

Concert halls include Queens Hall at 4 Langham Place (there from 1893 to 1941), and the Philharmonic Hall (previously St James’s Hall from 1905) at 97 Great Portland Street (from 1913 to 1929).

Many musicians (and singers such as Caruso) performing at these venues dined at Pagani’s restaurant at 40-48 Great Portland Street from 1884 to 1941 when most of it was bombed, but No 40 continued as a buffet until 1955.

St Paul’s Chapel on the north west corner of Great Portland Street and Riding House Street, was built privately in 1760 as the Portland Chapel and demolished in 1906 according to the text, but pictured in 1908 according to the caption.

The West London School of Art was at 153-155 Great Titchfield Street from 1879 (having previously been in Wells Street from 1862) until 1889. It also hosted the Artists Rifle Volunteer Corps in the 1880s.

Art students from here in its Wells Street days may well have used Fuller’s Temple of Fancy which was at 34 Rathbone Place from 1809 until 1862, as a printer and seller of artists’ materials.

Also pictured is a fire station which was at 171 Great Portland Street from 1866 until at least 1902; and the Radium Institute which was at 1-3 Riding House Street from 1910 until 1947 when it was taken over by the NSPCA.
As well as modern pictures there are maps of the whole area from 1870 and 2010.

The bad news is that the book (published by the Yale University Press) can only be bought with Volume 51 for a combined price of £150. But the draft chapters can be visited online.

This article was originally published in the printed issue of Fitzrovia New in December 2017.

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Pump Repair Service replaces seals with magnetic couplings.

Press Release Summary:

Rexroth polyurethane and metering pump repair services covers RHL Rotary Power Pumps, Viking, and MHR pumps. Magnetic coupling conversion is provided for RHL and Rexroth pumps, low-pressure gear and feed pumps, and day tank agitators. Conversion involves replacing pump drive shaft seal with outer (driver) magnet assembly and inner (driven) magnet assembly. Outer assembly is connected to motor, and inner assembly is directly attached to pump input drive shaft.

Original Press Release:

Linden Industries Expands Their Polyurethane & Rexroth Metering Pump Repair Services

February 2004, Linden Industries announced the expansion of their Rexroth polyurethane pump repair services to include RHL (Rotary Power Pumps), Viking & MHR pumps. They have also increased their range of pumps to which they provide magnetic coupling conversion to include RHL & Rexroth pumps, low-pressure gear pumps, low-pressure feed pumps and day tank agitators.

Linden has seen a surge in the demand for magnetic coupling conversions, often termed "mag drives". The traditional seals used in pumps and agitators often deteriorate leading to leakage of polyol and isocyanate. Depending upon the system and the additives, seals can breakdown frequently leading to excessive downtime for seal replacement. By converting to magnetic couplings, the inner magnet is isolated within the pump case, seals and therefore leaks are eliminated.

The conversion involves replacing the pump drive shaft seal with two magnet assemblies and is performed by Linden's Rexroth trained pump repair staff. One is the outer assembly (the driver magnet) and the other is the inner assembly (the driven magnet). The outer assembly is connected to a motor and the inner assembly is directly attached to the pump input drive shaft. When load (torque) is applied, the coupling deflects angularly and the magnets create a force of simultaneous attraction and repulsion. This force is used to transfer torque from the motor to the drive shaft.

Linden Industries maintains the largest inventory of Rexroth pumps in North America with A2VK12, A2VK28, and A2VK55 pumps in stock and ready to ship. They also offer a pump core exchange program, providing a rebuilt replacement pump, while the existing pump is out for service. All pumps, new and rebuilt, are pressure and flow tested prior to shipment to Rexroth specifications.

Linden's Optimizing Polyurethane Processing training course features a hands-on demonstration of magnetic couplings, the benefits and how they work. The training course is scheduled for February 24-26, March 30-April 1, and May 4-5, 2004. For additional information, readers should contact Mr. Theron Sherman, Sales Manager or Linden Industries Repair Department, 137 Ascot Parkway, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 44223, p. (330) 928-4064 f. (330) 928-1854. www.lindenindustries.com

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The Faculty Senate Teaching Enhancement Committee and the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) announced the 2015-16 UNM Teaching awards recently, honoring educators from around UNM. Every year the Faculty Senate Teaching Enhancement Committee selects the recipients based on their outstanding work in education.The awardwinners included three members eaqch from the English and Sociology Departments who were recognized for their teaching excellence at the Center for Teaching Excellence awards ceremony.

In the English Department, Zoe Speidel garnered a Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding Teaching Assistant award, for her teaching of Core Writing courses. Speidel is graduating this May with her MA in Rhetoric and Writing. Her research interests include developmental composition, college-level reading, and online composition pedagogies, as well as teacher preparation and curriculum alignment between K-12 and college. She will be teaching Integrated Reading and Writing for CNM’s School of Adult and General Education in the fall.

Cristyn Elder earned the New Teacher of the Year Award, which recognizes the teaching excellence of pre-tenure faculty. The award values Elder’s excellence in teaching of undergraduate students, her preparation of graduate students teaching in the Core Writing Program, and her work with faculty across the disciplines on integrating writing as a tool for learning.

Elder has previously been recognized by the Center for Teaching Excellence with a 2014 Teaching Fellowship and by Student Affairs with the 2015 Golden Louie Award for Outstanding Student Service Provider by Faculty. Elder, with her colleague Dr. Beth Davila, is also a recipient of the Council on Basic Writing’s 2016 Award for Innovation for the creation of UNM’s Stretch/Studio Composition Program.

Jesse Alemán received the university’s highest recognition for effective teaching—the Presidential Teaching Fellow Award. Fellows carry the special responsibility for ensuring teaching excellence by sharing their expertise with the UNM community. The English Department’s Director of Literature, Alemán teaches courses in 19th-century American literature, Chicana/o literature and culture, and classes on literary theory.

He has directed almost a dozen doctoral ALS students to matriculation and currently directs half a dozen more. The Presidential Teaching award caps his list of teaching recognitions, which include a STARS award from American Indian Student Services, the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence, and the Peer Mentoring for Graduate Students of Color award for outstanding faculty member.

In the Sociology Department, Maria Velez was one of the recipients of the 2015-16 Outstanding Teacher of the Year, while Ryan Goodman and Colin Olson were recognized with the 2015-16 Lecturer or Affiliated Teachers of the Year.

For a complete list of winners, visit Teaching Awards.


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Although Amazon door has closed, another Apple is ripe for the picking

Jan 19, 2018

If at first you don't succeed.... Erie County Legislature Minority Leader Joseph Lorigo says Apple may a better fit for Western New York than Amazon.

Credit Apple

He is trying again to attract a major tech giant to the region, after a joint proposal from Buffalo-Rochester failed to make the cut of Amazon's top 20 choices announced Thursday. Just in time, however, was Apple's announcement that it is conducting a nationwide search for a location to build a new campus.

Lorigo now has his eye on that prize, as Amazon was probably a long shot anyway.

"Amazon clearly was looking for a large metropolitan area. If you look at the 20 cities that are left, that was definitely what they were looking for," he says. "Apple's a smaller-scale project than Amazon was, but still a game gamer for any area where they decide to go and it seems to fit Western New York a little bit better than the scope of what was going on with Amazon."

Lorigo says he has invited Apple CEO Tim Cook to tour Western New York and has reached out to other elected and regional economic development officials to put together a proposal. If it makes sense to submit a joint proposal with Rochester again, he says Buffalo will.

The West Seneca Republican says New York's high taxes may have scared away Amazon, even though New York City is still in the running, as is Toronto. Amazon's $5 billion HQ2 would have brought 50,000 new high-tech jobs to the region.

Apple's new campus would create 20,000 jobs over the next five years.

"They definitely seem to have longevity. People either are Apple fans or they're not and they ones that are are certainly rabid about it," the West Seneca Republican says. "You know, Apple's not going anywhere. If they do decide to build a second headquarters and bring these jobs to a place like Western New York, they'd be here for decades to come and would have a huge impact on our local economy."

Credit Apple


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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez refuses to back Bernie Sanders for 2020 election run against Trump

Tom Embury-Dennis

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has refused to endorse Bernie Sanders for the 2020 Democratic nomination, despite working on the senator’s first presidential campaign.

A spokesperson for Ms Ocasio-Cortez, like Mr Sanders a self-described democratic socialist, refused to comment directly on the 77-year-old’s Tuesday announcement he is running for a second time.

“We’re excited to see so many progressives in the race,” spokesperson Corbin Trent said. “We’re not thinking at all about the next election.”

Any endorsement by Ms Ocasio-Cortez is likely to be influential on the outcome of the race, thanks to her massive support among the grassroots of the party.

But the 29-year-old, a congresswoman for New York, is unlikely to offer an endorsement before her state's Democratic primary next year, and may even permanently withhold any explicit support for a single candidate.

But even without Ms Ocasio-Cortez's support, Mr Sanders’ team is setting the bar for victory in the crowded 2020 Democratic field will be relatively low.

Along with an extraordinary small-dollar fundraising operation, it suggests Mr Sanders is poised to maintain his status as a political force in 2020 whether most of his party wants him to or not.

He is showing no desire to change his approach to broaden his appeal, as is sometimes the case with ambitious second-time candidates.

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, the political arm of Sanders’ expansive network, said the 2020 campaign “is really about him finishing what he started”.

In a sign of the scale of the support, Mr Sanders raised more than $4m (£3.1m) from nearly 150,000 individual donors in the first 12 hours after launching his bid, his campaign said.

Previously, the biggest first-day fundraiser in the race had been Kamala Harris, who raised $1.5m (£1.2m) in the first 24 hours of her campaign.

Even before Tuesday’s fundraising haul, however, Mr Sanders had more cash in the bank than any of his competitors. He entered the contest with roughly $15m (£11.5m) to devote to his 2020 campaign, a combination of his senate campaign fund and what is left over from his 2016 presidential bid.

“Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner,” tweeted former Hillary Clinton staffer Zac Petkanas. “Let’s see how he likes it.”

Additional reporting by AP


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American expects flights to return to normal

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Passengers gather at the American Airlines check-in for flights at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Computer problems forced American Airlines to ground flights across the country Tuesday after the airline was unable to check passengers in and book passengers. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines is promising to run a near-normal operation on Wednesday, and that would be just fine for the tens of thousands of passengers who were stranded by a mammoth technology meltdown at the nation's third-biggest airline.

On Tuesday, American and sister airline American Eagle canceled about 1,000 flights and delayed at least 1,100 more, according to flight-tracking services.

That means American and Eagle canceled or delayed nearly two-thirds of their scheduled flights after they lost access to a computer system that's used for everything from issuing boarding passes to determining how much fuel to pump into the plane.

It was a public-relations nightmare for American, which is preparing to merge with US Airways and become the world's biggest carrier. Passengers took to social media sites to criticize the airline, which for hours could only apologize and say that it was trying to fix the problem.

American posted a video apology from CEO Tom Horton that provided the airline's most detailed explanation of the outage.

"As you'd imagine, we do have redundancies in our system," Horton said, standing in front of employees and banks of computer monitors in the airline's control center in Texas, "but unfortunately in this case we had a software issue that impacted both our primary and backup systems."

The man who will lead American in a few months, US Airways CEO Doug Parker, has said he would prefer to convert his planes and employees to American's computer system rather than the other way around.

US Airways declined to comment on whether Tuesday's breakdown would cause Parker to rethink his plans.

The computer outage began snarling operations around midmorning. Eventually the Federal Aviation Administration issued a so-called ground stop for American Airlines jets around the country.

Flights already in the air were allowed to continue to their destinations, but planes on the ground from coast to coast could not take off. And travelers could do little to get back in the air until the computer system was restored.

By late afternoon, American resumed international flights and those from its major hub airports. It scrambled during the evening to put planes and crews in position to get off to a good start on Wednesday morning.

"Despite the magnitude of today's disruption, we are pleased to report that we expect our operation to run normally with only a small number of flight cancellations" on Wednesday, said Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for American. She said American would add flights to accommodate stranded passengers.

American blamed the outage on a loss of access to computer networks that are used for flight reservations and many other functions. Airlines commonly rely on such systems to track passengers and bags, monitor who boards planes, and update flight schedules and gate assignments. The computers are also used to file flight plans and tell employees which seats should be filled to ensure that the plane is properly balanced.

American's system is hosted by Sabre Holdings, a one-time division of American that was spun off into a separate travel-reservations technology company. American said the outage wasn't Sabre's fault, and other airlines that use Sabre didn't experience problems.

At airports, customers whose flights were canceled couldn't rebook on a later flight. Passengers already at the airport were stuck in long lines or killed time in gate areas.

"Tensions are high. A lot of people are getting mad. I've seen several yelling at the American agents," said Julie Burch, a business-meeting speaker who was stuck at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport waiting for a flight to Denver. "Nobody can tell us anything."

Terry Anzur, a TV news consultant from Los Angeles who was also stranded in Dallas, said American Airlines gate employees were doing everything the old-fashioned, manual way because their computers were useless.

"No one at the counter can do anything. They can't check people in," Anzur said. "The airline is at a dead halt."

Theoretically, an airline could do the same work as the reservation system manually for any one flight. But doing it for hundreds of flights isn't practical. American and Eagle operate about 3,300 flights a day.

Now, if the reservations systems go down, "most airlines would be pretty much without the ability to fly more than a very limited number of flights," said Scott Nason, American's former technology chief and now a consultant.

Nason said airlines find and fix the problem, but the next time something else causes an outage. One time, a possum chewed through a cable in Tulsa, Okla., bringing down the whole system. Another time, a worker in the airline's data center used a metal tool instead of an insulated, rubber-coated one — a short-circuit crashed much of the system, he said.

Brent Bowen, a professor of aviation technology at Purdue University, said massive system failures are inevitable as airlines grow increasingly reliant on technology.

"As those systems get bigger and more complex, at some point you're going to have a systemic failure," Bowen said. He added that financially strapped airlines may have underinvested in technology during the past decade, making the computer systems more vulnerable. AMR has lost more than $10 billion since 2001 and filed for bankruptcy protection in late 2011.

American's problems on Tuesday were reminiscent of what United Airlines passengers endured for several days last year. After merging with Continental, United experienced computer glitches in the combined reservation system. On one day in August, 580 United flights were delayed, and its website was shut down for two hours. Another outage in November delayed 636 flights.

The problems prompted an apology from United Continental Holdings Inc. CEO Jeff Smisek, who acknowledged that his airline had frustrated customers and would need to work to win them back.

American began making amends by offering to book people who needed to travel Tuesday on other airlines and pay for the fare difference. For those who wanted to delay their trips, American offered refunds or waivers from the usual fee for changing a reservation.

But for several hours, the airline wasn't able to process those changes and refunds — because the computers were down.

Associated Press Airlines Writers Scott Mayerowitz in New York and Joshua Freed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

David Koenig can be reached at


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UK's May urges lawmakers to back her Brexit deal now

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May listens in Parliament, in London, Britain March 20, 2019, in this screen grab taken from video. Reuters TV via REUTERS

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday she deeply regretted her decision to seek a Brexit extension from the European Union and she urged lawmakers, who have twice previously rejected her plan, to back her now.

"This delay is a matter of great personal regret for me," May said in a statement delivered in her Downing Street residence.

"I passionately hope that (lawmakers) will find a way to back the deal I have negotiated with the EU, a deal that delivers on the referendum and is the very best deal negotiable, and I will continue to work night and day to secure the support" for the deal.

"But I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than the 30th of June," she said.

Earlier on Wednesday, May asked the EU to allow Britain to delay its departure date by three months to June 30, and EU leaders are expected to discuss the matter at a summit on Thursday.

(Reporting by William Schomberg, Andrew MacAskill in London; editing by Elisabeth O'Leary)


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"The Issues" - a Demo Realtime Application in AngularJS (github.com)
5 points by embwbam on Sept 7, 2012 | hide | past | web | favorite | 2 comments

I made this for a local user's group. It demonstrates how to do some "custom" stuff in Angular. It includes two custom directives, one of them is bound to a jQuery plugin. I also made it poll the server for realtime updates.

I'm hoping it can help show how Angular helps you dive below the hood when you need to, while giving you a great place to put the under-the-hood stuff without cluttering your code or breaking the abstraction.

It's live here: http://the-issues.herokuapp.com/

This is really cool. Was it difficult to deploy on Heroku?

Guidelines | FAQ | Support | API | Security | Lists | Bookmarklet | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact


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Home / US / Return of the Trump Asylum Directive blocked by the 9th Federal Court

Return of the Trump Asylum Directive blocked by the 9th Federal Court

The Trump government's offer to immediately reintroduce asylum rejection for those entering the US illegally was rejected on Friday by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

The San Francisco-based court ruled in a 2: 1 ruling that the policy was likely "incompatible" with the existing law.

This was the final setback for the Trump administration in a court that "shamed" President Trump last month over a series of decisions against his policy. [19659003] "Because you can not win if you tell us, a case in the ninth circuit," Trump told reporters on November 20 outside the White House. "Every case is filed in the ninth circuit … we'll be beaten, and then we'll have to go to the Supreme Court."

In Friday's ruling, the 9th Circle was described attempt by the Trump administration to restore the asylum pole icy as an attempt to bypass Congress.

"As we often recall "Legislative of the Bank," as well as the executive law of the Oval Office, "the 9th Circuit Judge wrote in the majority opinion," Bybee was appointed to his seat by his former President George W. Bush.

We are often reminded, "Legislative of the Bank," this may not even the executive of the Oval Office. "[19659009] – Judge Jay Bybee, 9th US Court of Appeals

It was about Trump on 9. November anyone who is the border between the US and Mexico Asylum seekers' asylum claims had been ruled out when the caravans emigrated closer to the US through Mexico.

However, a lower court judge temporarily blocked the ban and later refused to reinstate the ban. The government appealed to the 9th State Circuit to stop the Judge Jon Tigar's order of November 19

trumpet for major rulers of the Liberal 9th District Court

in a dissenting opinion from Friday, The 9th Circuit Judge Edward Leavy, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan, said the government had "adopted legal methods to deal with the current problem at the southern border rampant."

In his verdict of November 19, Tigar concluded the legal groups arguing that the federal law is clear that immigrants can apply for asylum in the US, regardless of whether or not they have entered legally.

The verdict led to a public dispute between Trump and the colonel's Supreme Court Justice John Roberts after Trump dismissed Tigar as an "Obama judge."

Roberts replied that the Federal Jus tiz "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges do not have. "

Gregg Re and the Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.

Source link


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BREAKING: NFL Player Arrested

Washington Redskins safety Montae Nicholson and his girlfriend have been reportedly arrested after a fight.

Nicholson and his girlfriend, Sydney A. Maggiore, reportedly got into an argument that escalated into a physical altercation. Both of them were taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Nicholson was charged with assault and battery and being drunk in public. He was held at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center on a $2,500 secured bond.

Maggiore was charged with malicious wounding and assault and battery. She remains at the detention center on no bond.

Source: Redskins safety Montae Nicholson, girlfriend arrested, officials say |

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Blog Archives

Everyone Should Cook

Everyone Should Cook

Cooking is not easy. Trust me, I’ve been doing it thrice a day, everyday for a while now. It involves planning, knowing what you have in the fridge and what you need to buy. It requires you to stand in the hot, stuffy kitchen, stirring that pot even as sweat runs down your spine. Sometimes, it isn’t even rewarding because things don’t always rise up or fall through as you had expected them to and you end up with unpalatable, bad smelling mush on a plate. That is bloody frustrating! Cooking is tough. And I’m not even talking about the Master Chef variety of cooking; That’s a whole different ball of wax! I’m talking about the everyday, three meals on the table kinda cooking. It’s tougher than most people think it is. Yet, I think everyone should cook.

Why, do you ask? It’s simple. I have a feeling that the world would be a better place if everyone cooked. It is character building. It makes you respect so many things about life. And teaches you so much more. First of all, It makes you respect the people who put food on your plate when you were little. It is humbling to say the least. You remember all those times where your mom slaved in the kitchen for hours to serve you dinner (And you hate yourself for having scrunched up your nose at the food back then because now you know just how much effort she took to feed you good food! When this happens, Go hug her if you can… or call her…) Cooking teaches you preparing, multitasking, thinking on your feet, patience and the beauty of symphony. It makes you a better person.

But beyond all that, I think cooking relaxes you in ways that most other things don’t. I know.. I just said it is very difficult… yet, it is relaxing. It is soothing. Quoting from Julie and Julia: “I love that after a day when nothing is sure – and when I say ‘nothing’ I mean nothing – you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It’s such a comfort”

Don’t you ever have those days when nothing is going as per plan? Trains get delayed. Unseasonal rain drenches your precious charts. Crappy meetings are followed by crappy meetings and you meet absolutely no sweet strangers on your way home. In short, nothing happens the way you had wanted it to. When I have such days, I just put on my apron and step into my kitchen. I have a small kitchen but it is my little piece of heaven. I get in there and pull out my mixing bowls. For the record, I ALWAYS have baking supplies because baking is my comfort cooking. I mix my cake batter and even before I beat the eggs into it, I find myself humming. By the time the cake is in the oven, I have a smile on my face and when the timer dings to announce the rising of a fabulous cake, I am practically euphoric again! I planed to make a cake and I made it! My world is the right side up again! There is very little in the universe that comforts me like that does.

Trust me, learn to cook. The first few times will not be easy. There will be charred pans and burns on your arms. But eventually, if you keep at it, you will find your comfort recipe; the one thing that you find so comforting to make that it becomes a part of your muscle memory. Despite the craziness of it, I like my everyday cooking a lot. In a life so unsure and unstable, it gives me great joy in knowing that I hold the reigns. I am in charge. It gives me a sense of power and confidence even when I am making the simplest of things. But baking…. That’s my me-time. Some people like to chill with a drink… or read a book while drinking hot chocolate… I bake. And i am pretty good at it! You will never find me in a bad mood when I am baking. It makes me a better person!

So that is why I think everyone should cook because in the kitchen, once you find your comfort, you become a better person. And God knows, this world needs better people. Imagine this; the leaders of our nations, tired after a day of running the country, head to their respective kitchens and bake their way into relaxation. Then, sitting with each other at the end of the day, stress free, they’d make good decisions while eating their creations and making yummy noises… wouldn’t that be a good world to live in..?


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Maybe our modern day heroes are simply “weird”

Who are our modern day heroes, the folks whose words and deeds inspire us to do meaningful, important, and joyous things with our lives?

I’ve been watching a 1981 interview with mythologist Joseph Campbell, conducted by Bill Moyers. It’s a bonus add-on to the 25th anniversary edition of “The Power of Myth,” a celebrated PBS series featuring Moyers’s extended interviews with Campbell later in the decade, right before Campbell’s passing.

During the interview, Moyers asks Campbell whether our modern age (circa 1981, of course) is capable of generating true heroes. Campbell demurs, observing that the fast pace of modern life and our worship of fame and celebrity have made it very difficult for our culture to produce genuine heroic figures.

Campbell made that observation over 20 years before the Internet became a staple of our lives. Hmm…

Privatizing the “hero,” worshiping the celebrity

Moving to today, it’s clear that we have “privatized” many of our most notable “heroes.”

For example, take the high tech guys. Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. Mark Zuckerberg. And gals, like Sheryl Sandberg. Or perhaps Donald Trump for wannabe moguls.

We also conflate the hero with the celebrity, such as entertainers. The Kardashians. Justin Bieber. Miley Cyrus. (Oops.)

And then there’s the sporting world. You know, the “warriors.” LeBron James. Aaron HernandezAlex Rodriguez. Lance Armstrong. (Never mind.)

Maybe our genuine heroes are, well, weird

But perhaps all is not lost. Possibly our more contemporary personal heroes are weird, to borrow from the title of a book by author and entrepreneur Seth Godin.

Godin’s 2011 book, We All Are Weird, centers on a culture shift. He suggests that the vast array of choices we have leads us to find niches of interest that may not be shared by everyone. Music, food, reading, you name it. It means that we’re all a little bit weird in our tastes and preferences.

So let’s apply Godin’s ideas to our search for modern day heroes. Maybe we don’t have as many mega-heroes as in days gone by. Instead, we may find our heroes in our respective niches.

Speaking personally

For example, my biggest hero in the law is Anthony Amsterdam, a professor at NYU’s law school. You may not have heard of him, but Tony enjoys legendary status among many public interest lawyers for his civil rights work. Tales of his prodigious intelligence and work ethic have taken on mythic (and mostly true) proportions. Tony also is a very influential legal educator and legal scholar. You can read a wonderful profile of him by Nadya Labi here.

I have other heroes, too, and it’s likely that you’ve never heard of them. Here are three in my elder category:

  • My late mom, Betty Yamada, was a kindergarten teacher at a low-income school in Indiana. To some of those kids, she was the most stable and caring adult presence in their lives. After she retired, she volunteered for Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, and a local hospice. She did it all without fanfare, and she was a great mom too.
  • My dear friend Brian McCrane is a retired Navy officer who served on destroyers during the Cold War and was skipper on two of them. I doubt that we’ve ever voted for the same presidential candidate in a November election(!), but to me he epitomizes the term “an officer and a gentleman.”
  • My late friend John Ohliger was a pioneering adult educator, writer, and activist who continually challenged the educational status quo and was a devoted lifelong learner. John tilted at windmills. His work cut across traditional boundaries and disciplines. I don’t know if I would be writing this blog if I hadn’t met him.

From these heroes and others, I continually draw lessons and inspiration, and I am a better person today as a result. Isn’t the power of example one of the most special long-term gifts provided by any real hero?

So here’s to our search for heroes extending well beyond the obvious and iconic figures known to many. Instead, let’s identify the extraordinary folks who have had a more direct and special influence in our lives.

Related posts and materials

“Follow your bliss”? Parsing Joseph Campbell’s famous advice (2012)

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962: Cooler heads prevailed on and under the sea, as well (2012)

A better way to live, work, and prosper? (2010)

Kind hearts, not angry ones, are needed now to help others (2009)

I explored John Ohliger’s unique public intellectual role in this book chapter, The Adult Educator as Public Intellectual — published in Andre P. Grace, Tonette S. Rocco, and Assocs., Challenging the Professionalization of Adult Education: John Ohliger and Contradictions in Modern Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009)

This is my 1,000th blog post. Thanks for reading so far!

Are “empathy” and “workplace” compatible concepts?

Dr. Roman Krznaric, writing for the Greater Good Science Center at UC-Berkeley, marshals the latest research on empathy to identify the “Six Habits of Highly Empathic People.” Here’s the list, and the full article explains what’s behind each:

  • “Habit 1: Cultivate curiosity about strangers”
  • “Habit 2: Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities”
  • “Habit 3: Try another person’s life”
  • “Habit 4: Listen hard — and open up”
  • “Habit 5: Inspire mass action and social change”
  • “Habit 6: Develop an ambitious imagination”

Application to the workplace

Do these habits lend themselves easily to the typical workplace? Many readers who found this blog because of unpleasant or abusive experiences at work might lean toward the negative, and I have to say that I share some of that pessimism.

Furthermore, there’s empirical data to support those negative impressions of the emotional state of the workplace. A recent Gallup Poll indicated that 70 percent of American workers “have ‘checked out’ at work or are ‘actively disengaged,'” as Ricardo Lopez reports for the Los Angeles Times. These high percentages of emotional disengagement have been pretty consistent since 2000.

Granted, empathy does not necessarily equate to engagement in one’s job, and vice versa, but I’d be surprised if there’s not a strong correlation. It follows that fostering a workplace full of people who cultivate those habits is a worthy ideal. While I can imagine even the best of employers getting a little nervous about Habit 5(!), the other five seem completely compatible with a productive and high-morale workforce.

And what about those employers who don’t get it? Well then, maybe some of that “mass action and social change” is exactly what the doctor ordered. Surely that is a fitting thought as we approach Labor Day 2013.

Related post

Roman Krznaric is the author of How to Find Fulfilling Work (2012), which I reviewed earlier this year.

Insiders, outsiders, and change agents

It’s an ongoing, never settled debate: To create positive social change, is it better to work from within the established system, or to challenge the status quo from the outside? I think about this often, and here are a few quick thoughts, with a gentle warning that I will engage in some abstract, academic-type reflection:

Advantages & disadvantages

The insider role, ideally, allows one to have some concrete say in how things are done. You’re inside the room, so to speak, and you have direct input. But it’s also easy to mistake incremental change for systemic change and to get caught up in conventional perks of power.

The outsider role, ideally, allows one to advocate for change in a more visionary way, unfettered by internal politics. You’re able to say this is how it should be, without apologies. But one also can fall prey to lobbing grenades from the sidelines rather than engaging the real world.

At times, individuals have wrestled with both roles. In this context I think often of Mark Satin, a political author, lawyer, and one-time 60s anti-war activist whose writings over the last 15 years have been defining what he calls the “radical middle.” Mark went to law school in his 40s, desirous of having more of an impact within the mainstream. (We met when he was a student in my lawyering skills course at NYU.) You can infer some of his internal dialogue on the insider vs. outsider question, and see how he came out on it, in this 2002 essay, Professional Schools Are Our Social Change Incubators Now.

It takes both

Both insider and outsider roles are necessary to make a difference. And over the courses of our lives, we may find ourselves alternating between those roles. One day you’re working for the grassroots non-profit organization advocating for policy change, the next you’re moving to the public sector to implement it.

Of course, it’s not always a matter of individual choice. Insider status requires the ability to enter the halls of power. If entrance is blocked, then one’s options boil down.

It’s also worth noting that self-perceptions and perceptions of others may vary greatly. Someone who regards herself as a perennial outsider may be regarded as a consummate insider by others, or vice versa.

A third option?

Over the years I’ve had many conversations about the insider vs. outsider paradigm with Dr. John Bilorusky, a UC-Berkeley Ph.D. whose career in alternative higher education has included long service as co-founder and president of the Western Institute for Social Research. Some of those long chats have centered on the idea of operating at the fault lines between insider and outsider status.

I traditionally have defined myself as an outsider advocating for change. But in recent years I’ve started to understand the wisdom of aiming for those fault lines.

Above all, however, I have come to value, from a systems analysis perspective, the roles of well-meaning insider and outsider stakeholders in making positive change a reality. Accordingly, my best advice for prospective change agents is simple: Strive to find the role that feels right for you, understand its inherent strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and temptations, and go from there.

Study: Childhood bullying has long-term negative impacts

The experience of bullying in childhood can have negative long-term social and health impacts, concludes a new study published in Psychological Science.

Researchers Dieter Wolke (Warwick, UK), William E. Copeland (Duke), Adrian Angold (Duke), and E. Jane Costello (Duke) knew that “(b)ullying creates risks of health and social problems in childhood,” but they wanted to examine whether “such risks extend into adulthood.” Here’s the summary of their study:

A large cohort of children was assessed for bullying involvement in childhood and then followed up in young adulthood in an assessment of health, risky or illegal behavior, wealth, and social relationships. Victims of childhood bullying, including those that bullied others (bully-victims), were at increased risk of poor health, wealth, and social-relationship outcomes in adulthood even after we controlled for family hardship and childhood psychiatric disorders. In contrast, pure bullies were not at increased risk of poor outcomes in adulthood once other family and childhood risk factors were taken into account. Being bullied is not a harmless rite of passage but throws a long shadow over affected people’s lives. Interventions in childhood are likely to reduce long-term health and social costs.

Lots of takeaway points

The takeaway points from this study are important and many:

  • Being a bullying target is associated negative long-term impacts;
  • Being both a target and a bully is associated with negative long-term impacts;
  • Being a “pure bully” is not associated with negative long-term impacts;
  • Failure to prevent and respond to childhood bullying has a short-term and long-term societal impact;
  • Positive interventions can make a difference.

Implications for schools, parents, mental health counselors, and policy makers

The implications for stakeholders involved with the care and education of kids are significant. Childhood bullying is not, to borrow from the study abstract, “a harmless rite of passage,” but rather a form of mistreatment that “throws a long shadow over affected people’s lives.”

Educators, parents, and mental health counselors should not treat reports of bullying lightly or dismissively. And school systems and policy makers must regard anti-bullying measures as integral parts of a safe and healthy educational environment.

The long-term impacts of bullying on members of groups more likely to be bullied, such as LGBT and disabled youth, merit special attention.

In public service ads and commercials, bullied kids are being told that “it gets better.” Hopefully that is the case, but this study illustrates how the baggage is carried forward into adulthood.

Neglected blog posts seeking more love

At times I will toil away at a blog post that I really think has something to say, only to find that it’s a dud with my readers. The WordPress platform that I use for this blog enables me to check how many “hits” a given article has attracted, and I can see which ones aren’t exactly lighting up the Internet. (In truth, a niche blog like this one rarely “lights up” the online world, but I’m cool with that.)

Anyway, as I close in on 1,000 posts for this blog, here are 10 articles that I believe fall within the “good-but-neglected” category:

Our avocations and hobbies: The third pillar of work-life balance? (2012) — On the importance of finding non-work activities that engage us.

I wish our political leaders would send us to the moon (2012) — A call for public leaders to inspire us, linking two nifty videos of JFK.

Professional schools as incubators for workplace bullying (2012) — Consider the seeds planted by law schools and med schools.

Loyalty, “betrayal,” and workplace bullying: Does insider status matter? (2011) — As a denizen of Boston, loyalty and betrayal are key concepts to me!

Dignity amidst horrific indignity: A job shoveling s**t in the Łódź Ghetto (2011) — A WWII story that helps to illustrate how almost any job has inherent dignity.

What’s the plot line of your life story? (2011) — Is it about overcoming the monster, comedy, rebirth, or something else???

What if we paid less attention to advertising? (2010) — Instead of “them” telling us what to buy…

The moral obscenity of a “jobless recovery” (2010) — Read this and compare to where we are three years later.

On hiring consultants (2010) — I would underscore what I wrote here.

Work and the middle-aged brain (2010) — Some things we do not as well, some things actually better.

Workplace bullying: Human rights, public health, and mental health

Among the many disciplines that need to put workplace bullying more squarely on their respective agendas are human rights, public health, and mental health. Here’s why:

When an academic or professional discipline acknowledges the relevance of a topic and includes it in university courses, scholarly literature, and continuing education programs, generations of new practitioners and graduate students will bring that knowledge to their work.

With workplace bullying, it means that human rights activists will regard it as a profound violation of human dignity. It means that public health advocates will grasp how bullying at work impacts the health of workers and their families. It means that therapists will “get it” when clients share stories of abusive treatment at work.

Human rights

Human rights are often framed in a global context, putting a focus on nations with unstable governments and/or severe poverty. This emphasis is understandable and vitally important. In addition, we need to consider dignity violations at work. On this note, I was so pleased when the blog of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation recently published a piece on workplace bullying. Here’s how Rebecca Popham concluded the post:

There are some actions employees who are victims of bullying can pursue.  Depending on the situation and the extent of the bullying, these include coaching, working with a therapist, and seeking legal counsel.  Ultimately, though, workplace bullying needs to be addressed in the same manner that racial and other forms of workplace discrimination were tackled, resulting in legal protections.   The problem of workplace bullying has many causes and won’t be easily solved.  A good starting place, however, is greater awareness of the problem and making sure that its victims are heard.

Public health

Workplace bullying rarely appears in the public health literature, but a hardy few are making the case. For example, in 2010 Drs. Jorge Srabstein and Bennett Leventhal published a paper in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization on the public health implications of bullying across the lifespan, including the workplace:

Bullying is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of health-care providers, policy-makers and families. Evolving awareness about the morbidity and mortality associated with bullying has helped give this psychosocial hazard a modest level of worldwide public health attention. . . . However, it is not enough.

Bullying is a multifaceted form of mistreatment, mostly seen in schools and the workplace. It is characterized by the repeated exposure of one person to physical and/or emotional aggression including teasing, name calling, mockery, threats, harassment, taunting, hazing, social exclusion or rumours. . . . A wide range of bullying prevalence has been documented among students and in labour forces worldwide.

Mental health

While subfields such as industrial/organizational psychology, occupational health psychology, and consulting psychology devote increasing attention to workplace bullying, clinical psychology and counseling continue to fall short. That’s why this March 2013 Counseling Today piece on adult bullying by Lynne Shallcross is most welcomed. It features counselor and coach Jessi Eden Brown, who is associated with the Workplace Bullying Institute and also maintains a private practice:

Unfortunately, graduating from college still doesn’t guarantee an end to bullying. A 2010 survey commissioned by the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) found that 35 percent of the U.S. workforce — an estimated 53.5 million Americans — report being bullied at work. An additional 15 percent said they had witnessed co-workers being bullied.

These statistics are all too familiar to Jessi Eden Brown, who serves as WBI’s administrator and also runs a private counseling practice in the Seattle area. About half of her clients deal with issues related to workplace bullying.

Framing it globally and individually

Together, the human rights, public health, and mental health perspectives help to frame workplace bullying as a fundamental issue of human dignity and as an important health concern. I hope there are enterprising practitioners, advocates, scholars, and graduate students in these disciplines who will help to fill in these gaps.

Bookends of a coming mega-meltdown

Twenty or so years from now, Americans will look back and ask: Why didn’t we do more? Why didn’t we accept some modest sacrifice to avoid the extreme suffering of today? Why did we ignore what was so perfectly clear back then?

No, I’m not talking about climate change, though you can add that one too. Rather, I’m looking at the scary, jolting confluence of sky high student loan repayment burdens concentrated on one end of the adult age spectrum, and woeful shortfalls in retirement funding for a majority of Americans on the other. I’ve written on both of these topics before (especially America’s retirement readiness), but let me add one excellent investigative piece and one important study to the mix.

Student loan debt

If you’re in college or grad school, or you’re a parent of someone who is, you likely know the score. Gone are the days when a few thousand dollars saved from the family budget covered a big chunk of a child’s tuition and expenses. Income levels have stagnated for most in the U.S., but tuition costs have soared. And the lion’s share of people seeking post-secondary education must borrow money, often gobs of it, to pay those bills.

If you want more detail, the Rolling Stone‘s Matt Taibbi has written a superb investigative article — Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal — that is must reading for anyone affected by the financing of higher education. Here’s a snippet:

How is this happening? It’s complicated. But throw off the mystery and what you’ll uncover is a shameful and oppressive outrage that for years now has been systematically perpetrated against a generation of young adults. For this story, I interviewed people who developed crippling mental and physical conditions, who considered suicide, who had to give up hope of having children, who were forced to leave the country, or who even entered a life of crime because of their student debts.

…[T]he underlying cause of all that later-life distress and heartache – the reason they carry such crushing, life-alteringly huge college debt – is that our university-tuition system really is exploitative and unfair, designed primarily to benefit two major actors.

First in line are the colleges and universities, and the contractors who build their extravagant athletic complexes, hotel-like dormitories and God knows what other campus embellishments….

…Next up is the government itself. While it’s not commonly discussed on the Hill, the government actually stands to make an enormous profit on the president’s new federal student-loan system….

The crisis is compounded by a horrible entry-level job market for recent graduates. It’s hard to pay off those loans and save a bit of money when you’re doing your 5th or 6th unpaid internship.

Retirement funding

In the meantime, at the older end of the population, the nation’s largest generation is hurtling towards the traditional retirement years. The only problem is that many Boomers will be in no position to retire, even if Social Security remains intact. Their numbers just don’t add up.

Recent confirmation of the dire situation comes from the National Institute on Retirement Security, a non-profit, non-partisan research and education center. Its 28-page study, The Retirement Savings Crisis: Is It Worse Than We Think?, by labor economist Nari Rhee, is clearly laid out and alarming to read. Here are the major findings:

New NIRS research finds retirement savings are dangerously low, and the U.S. retirement savings deficit is between $6.8 and $14.0 trillion.

…The average working household has virtually no retirement savings. When all households are included— not just households with retirement accounts—the median retirement account balance is $3,000 for all working-age households and $12,000 for near-retirement households.

The findings confirm that the American Dream of retiring comfortably after a lifetime of work will be impossible for many. Based on 401(k)–type account and IRA balances alone, some 92 percent of working households do not meet conservative retirement savings targets for their age and income. Even when counting their entire net worth, 65 percent still fall short.

Where the twain meet

Let us fast forward 20 years and assume we’ve done nothing besides making some minor tweaks to Social Security and lowering the interest rate a tad on student loans.

It’s 2033, and millions of Boomers are working into their 70s and 80s, not by choice, but rather by necessity. The Social Security Trust Fund is running dry, and older Americans who didn’t have, or already burned through, retirement savings are faced with a 25 percent cut to Social Security benefits, funded now on a pay-as-we-go basis by payroll taxes on aging Gen Xers and Millennials.

These younger folks, by the way, are struggling to pay off student loans that are not dischargeable in a bankruptcy proceeding. For many, their finances have required them to make some hard decisions, such as having fewer or no kids.

Of course, this means they’re less likely to be in the market to buy the big suburban houses put on sale by older Boomers looking to downsize their living spaces and reduce living expenses. (It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, as their credit ratings are blown from their student loans and the credit card debt they’ve taken on to make ends meet.)

In the year 2033, many of the Gen Xers and Millennials are hoping to pay off their student loans and modest mortgages (that’s all the house they could afford) by their late 50s. Some of their retirement prospects, by the way, are even dimmer than that of the average Boomer.

In 2033, what we could’ve done now will seem so obvious…

Obvious, but not easy. It will require belt-tightening by institutions and individuals who can afford it, higher taxes on some (including raising the payroll tax cap to beef up Social Security), creative public policies to recreate the retirement system, an all-out war on the student loan racket, more emphasis on community needs, and less tolerance for extravagance, waste, and corruption. Some kindness will go a long way, too.

It may sound like I’m preaching the meme of austerity. No, to the contrary. I’m suggesting that we strive to live comfortable, healthy, safe, and enriching lives rather than be in a state of want. But we’ll need a values adjustment to get there.

(By the way, much of this will help to address global climate change. Less mad, privatized consumption will have a cooling effect on our planet, literally and figuratively.)

Call me Chicken Little, Cassandra, whatever

The sky is falling. But this begs the philosophical question: If the sky falls on Washington D.C. and Wall Street, but no one there heard or felt it, did it really fall?

Seriously, at a time when dramatic measures are needed to avoid terrible societal and individual pain later, our leaders in the private, public, and non-profit sectors aren’t exactly sounding the alarm bells. And much of America is oblivious to, or willfully ignoring, this coming mega-meltdown.

We do have choices, but time is running out.

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PHOENIX ( PRWeb.com ) OCTOBER 29, 2018   Next Generation Living Homes, Inc.’s CEO-Founder, Mr. DZahr, has signed agreements with BIX Real Corporation BixReal.io and has become an advisor for the tokenization of the Bitcoin House to raise capital for the NextGen Bitcoin Blockchain homes. BIX Real payment system will allow the Buyers of Bitcoin Homes to purchase a home and make secure monthly mortgage payments in Bitcoins or any other currencies. NextGen is also exclusively represented by Real Estates Market www.realestatesmarket.com, Florida based luxury real estate brokerage firm, which works with over 4,000 real estate companies in the United State and internationally with 12 countries, including Monaco, Mexico, Bermuda, Malaysia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. NextGen unveils the First SELF-PAYING Home Mortgage to the World, with the release of the Bitcoin Home, styling in a Crypto-Crib! There is a paradigm shift coming to home ownership with the First

PHOENIX, Arizona, July 5, 2018 (Nextgenlivinghomes.com) - The days of paying a mortgage from making a living as in having a job, a credit score, credit history and a banking approval is going away. Next Generation Living Homes is bringing this paradigm shift in home ownership by making the self-paying home available to everyone. What if you can pay off your home mortgage in just 4-5 years and have complete ownership? What if you can have the freedom to do anything you want in life as a career or just be a home owner? What if your home can pay you a salary to live there for the rest of your life? What if you could build your life around your home and live anywhere in the world you want. Let's apply this technology advancement for the freedom you seek. Mr. DZahr, CEO of Next Generation Living Homes, states; “We are

There Is A Paradigm Shift Coming to Home Ownership: The Self-Paying Home Can One Day Be Available To Everyone, and Next Generation Living Homes Wants to Build it for You!   Next Generation Living Homes wants to be the first to introduce the Self-Paying Home with its NEW Design--The Circular Crypto-Crib Home, a 19,100 sq. ft. home at $25M. What became an immediate Paradigm Shift happened in 2009 with the birth of Bitcoin and the blockchain. This has revolutionized the money industry with a limited crypto currency like Bitcoin. If you think Bitcoin is too volatile then…… check out the HEADLINES below: • We Could See 26 Million New Bitcoin Investors by the End of 2017 Abigail Johnson, CEO and President of Fidelity Investments, says Fidelity recently opened a bitcoin mining operation. And it’s turning a profit. Johnson’s own words, per the online magazine Quartz: I’m one of the few standing before you today from a large

This is a modern day green data center design using two kinds of green energy approaches, first using 300 solar panels placed on the roof of the data mining center providing initial 15% of the energy for 10,000 Bitcoin ASIC miners and a fuel cell manufacturing facility on the first level. The low cost of fuels cells would be capable of providing an additional 85% to 100% of the energy for 10,000 or even 20,000+ ASIC miners. The fuel cell technology is a green energy source and provides a green by product creating distilled water. The water production is a commercial by product that can be repurposed and commercially sold, creating a zero cost to energy cost making this a 100% green data center. The facility is split into 3 sections, at 10,000 sq ft two level, one the front office with 24/7 staffing living quarters, plus conference rooms, an exercise


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KENYA Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development (RAPID) PROGRAM

Kenya RAPID is a five-year development program bringing together public and private institutions to increase access to water and sanitation for people and water for livestock, and to rebuild a healthy rangeland-management ecosystem. It seeks to increase the average water access coverage in the five counties from 37% to more than 50%. The program is designed to create a model that can be adapted for use by other counties.

Training of community water committees on life-cycle cost approach and connecting them with commercial banks and government institutions to enhance Application of “3-R” – Retention, Recharge, and Reuse – strategy to increase water long-term system management storage for use in dry times Promoting multiple uses of water for income generation Promoting Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage techniques (HWTSS) Building water supply using low-cost, resilient technologies (br> Application of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Continuous Collaboration with USAID’s AHADI program on governance, policy development at the county level Stimulating the local market for WASH and Livelihoods and the emergence of private sector entrepreneurship by linking them to multinational private sector partners such as Acacia and SweetSense. Utilizing multiple avenues for hygiene promotion including radio and participatory education theater Use of collective, real-time monitoring system supported through online FLOW and RSR, Water Management as a Service Platform (WaMaSP) and sensors Systematizing learning opportunities to replicate successful innovations between implementing partners

Additional information

Kenya RAPID strongly supports the Ending Drought Emergencies Common Program Framework launched by the Government of Kenya in November 2015, recognizing that “sustainable management of rangelands, water, crops, and increasing the contribution of livestock to the pastoral economy are critical to resilient livelihoods in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs)"

  • Kenya>Garissa
  • Kenya>Isiolo
  • Kenya>Marsabit
  • Kenya>Turkana
  • Kenya>Wajir

  • Water Sanitation and Hygiene


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dcsimg Paget's Disease of Bone Diagnosis

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Paget's Disease of Bone Diagnosis

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This fact sheet contains information about the diagnosis of Paget's Disease of Bone. It describes the common tests used to discover and monitor the disease. It also contains information about additional resources.

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Monthly Archives: December 2016

2016 Goals – How it went

Time for the recap of my 2016. The current opinion is that (unless you are Donald Trump or Nigel Farrage) 2016 has not been a good year for the world. Honestly, I think that there have been worse years and … Continue reading

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The Night Before Christmas

If you’ve been around for a couple of years, you’ll know that this goes up on Christmas Eve. I’ll add my wishes for a happy Christmas to all the boys and girls from Satchmo..

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Friday Links

Happy Friday! and Happy Christmas Eve Eve! I’m so glad to finally get to Christmas and a couple of days off work and routine! There probably won’t be links next week, unless something else truly dreadful happens, so I’m going … Continue reading

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Ginvent Pop Up

Every year for the last 5 the Gin Foundry has put together a ginvent calendar. 24 different gins to taste from the 1st to the 24th December. It’s a marvellous idea, one year I’m going to get one for December. … Continue reading

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Food and Budget Update: 10/12 to 16/12/2016

This is the penultimate food and budget update for the year, I’m not going to monitor the last week of the year which includes Christmas because rules relax for Christmas! SHOPPING Shopping was mostly all done at Lidl with a … Continue reading

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Life Happened:

I’m feeling that the Monday posts are dull, less ‘Life Happened’ than, life is exactly the same every week and Nic has another cold. Last week wasn’t all that different. I got up, I went to work, I focused on … Continue reading

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Sunday Music: What Christmas Means to Me

Stevie Wonder – What Christmas Means to Me Even Christmas needs some Stevie!

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Invisible Man

“Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison (U.S.)

One of Nicola’s 100 best books for inspiration in the 21st century!

This book left no reader indifferent, with some loving it and others not. Most readers found the first few chapters very powerful and vivid, such as the scenes of the terrifying battle royal and the chaotic Golden Day. They found the narrator’s journey at times confusing, especially the scene in the paint factory’s hospital, though they enjoyed the expectation of discovering how he would extricate himself from the different situations he finds himself in. Some readers did not warm to the narrator describing him as unsympathetic and unbelievably naïve. Others were able to feel his alienation as he tries to discover his true self. Most readers liked the rich language and the cadence of the dialogues, whereas some found the writing uneven and felt it needed more editing. One reader didn’t like the story at all because of the fact that everything went wrong for the protagonist. Overall, everyone agreed that it is a book that needs to be read a few times in order to appreciate fully the depth and scope of the story. It averaged an 8.1 out of 10.

Ralph Ellison’s impassioned first novel, winner of the prestigious National Book Award, tells the extraordinary story of a man invisible ‘simply because people refuse to see me’. Published in 1952 when American society was on the cusp of immense change, the powerfully depicted adventures of Ellison’s invisible man go far beyond the story of one individual… Read more

Season 10 – “First Novels” (Sep 2009 – Jan 2010)

“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga (India) *
“The Blood of Flowers” by Anita Amirrezvani (Iran)
“Lost City Radio” by Daniel Alarcon (Peru)
“Nervous Conditions” by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe) *
“Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison (U.S.)

Extra book:
“The Vagrants” by Yiyun Li (China)

* The book club favourites
In italics, Nicola’s Coup de Cœur

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Monday, October 28, 2013

Ab Rollouts: Differences Between Using the Barbell and Wheel

You're going to need a strong set
of abs to use this wheel

It's likely you've seen an ab wheel in one form or another in the gym or on TV. While it's a fairly known piece of equipment, it's not always a standard item in a gym setting. At times, it can be in use, broken, or missing altogether.

Recently, I purchased the two-handed model through Amazon for the sole purpose of qualifying for free shipping. Aside from that reason, I was somewhat compelled to buy it since I see so many people rave about them. For the price, I figured why not try it.

Prior to this I performed ab rollouts using a barbell in this fashion:

Ross has more great videos you can view here

As ignorant as it may be, I never knew my previous gym had a wheel and its availability was random. Since I first began rollouts, I performed them with a barbell and opted for that method. It was simple to take the already loaded barbell from my workout and start a set.

Now that I've used both implements for the same exercise, it's clear each achieves the same effect, but while still having a few key details that set them apart from one another.

This is the most obvious difference between the wheel and barbell. An Olympic barbell is 7 feet long whereas the wheel measures 8.5 inches wide. If floor space is an issue during this exercise, the wheel will prove more convenient to use over the barbell. I should mention that I have seen some gyms that carry shorter barbells that can be substituted in place of the full length bar. A bonus for the wheel is that its small size makes it easy to pack and take along on travels.

Progressions / Height Adjustments
To improve on rollouts, building up volume shouldn't be the only progression method. A very easy way to modify the intensity is by executing the movement on an incline (easier) or decline (harder). With a wheel, a ramp is necessary to achieve this modification. Ross covers this in another excellent video as well:

With a barbell it won't be the same as a rolling out on a ramp, but height can be changed by switching the plates on each side. Assuming you're using round plates, the 45's provide the easiest variation. The smaller the plates, the harder the exercise will become.

Hand Placement
This luxury isn't available on the wheel. Because the handles are short to begin with, once you grip the handles, there's little room for adjustments. On the other hand, the barbell is unique in that its shaft spans a greater distance. As such, you can place your hands as close together or wide apart on the bar as you find comfortable. In the case of upper body aches and injuries, this is where barbell rollouts offer more flexibility.

Build, Stability, & Sturdiness
The wheel's constructed of two plastic wheels slid on to the center of a hollow metal rod with a plastic grooved handle slipped on to each side. The barbell is a barbell: a long metal shaft with a spinning sleeve on each end plus the weight plates secured by collars. As trivial as the build might appear, it's worth a mention. The wheel's one point of contact is between the two hands. A small tilt towards either side can throw off the balance altogether mid-repetition. Since the plates are located on the ends of the barbell, this solid base of support won't allow for any mistakes due to the equipment.
Another point I'll make is that while both are sturdy, the barbell is more durable than the wheel. It's made of steel and can take a beating if used by multiple people. The ab wheel has a metal rod in the middle but the actual wheels are plastic. If for some reason the wheel is dropped or incurs any type of damage, it may be rendered useless.

From my experience with both, I haven't been able to make a clear cut decision on this. Whether it's carpet, rubber flooring, or hardwood flooring, both have shown they provide less friction than the other. The other distinction is that the wheel has tread on it and weight plates have a smooth surface. Does it make a difference? Maybe a small one, but it never became apparent to me. If I had to guess, the wheel's tread most likely works better on carpet.

Extra Weight and Attachments
With a weight vest or loaded backpack, adding additional weight is not a challenge whether using a wheel or barbell. If you plan to attach resistance bands for assistance or increasing intensity, the band's placement varies.
To increase resistance for a barbell, put the bar through the band or loop the band around the middle of the barbell shaft. Anchor the free end either by looping it around a post or with a carabiner. With the wheel, the band has to to be put on the handles. Loop one end on a handle, pass the band around a post or anchor it via a carabiner, and then take the other end and put it on the remaining handle. Since your hands and the band share the handles, the band might rub on your skin during a set.

For personal home use, the ab wheel's price of $15 can't be beat. You can really minimize the cost by making your own (instructions here). A barbell isn't cheap. To do barbell rollouts, you need the bar and the plates. Buying both new from a sporting goods store can cost around $300. You might be able to find a used set for less on Ebay or Craig's List.

Both the ab wheel or barbell do an excellent job at training the abs. Choosing between the two comes down to the lifter's setting and their personal preference. If your gym doesn't carry the ab wheel, you can always use the barbell for rollouts. If space is an issue in your home gym, the wheel is a good investment. Review your needs and proceed accordingly.

Finally, I couldn't discuss all this and end it here without describing how to do a rollout. As simple as it may seem, if you go in unprepared, you might fall flat on your face. Here are quick instructions to get started for the kneeling version.

How to do a Kneeling Ab Rollout
1) Set up on your hands and knees. Place your hands on the barbell/wheel and your knees on a padded surface.
2) Begin by pushing your knees into the floor with your hands following the barbell/wheel's movement.
3) Continue pushing your knees down into the floor with your hands proceeding ahead of your head.
4) When you've reached the most extended position you can maintain without collapsing to the floor, dig your knees into the floor to pull yourself to the start position.
That's one rep. Have fun.

Related articles,

  1. Nice article. I think it is useful and unique article. I love this kind
    of article and this kind of blog. I have enjoyed it very much. Thanks
    for your website.
    TLR Carbon wheels

  2. I made my own ab wheel. After having tried the commercial ones first, which weren't bad, but the selfmade is a nice piece to have.
    Buy the wheels at a hardware store. Those that can carry a couple of hundred lbs per wheel. Buy two of them, to place them side by side.
    Then get/buy a solid stainless steel bar 20 inch length, or whatever length you prefer.
    And for the handles, I slide bicycle handles over the stainless steel bar. If you want a really long bar, you can cut out/off the closed ends of the handles and slide them over the whole length of the bar. The nice thing of bicycle handles is, that they are available in all kinds of shapes/forms, and materials. Choose the ones you like best.
    That ab wheel, will last more than a life time.
    Guaranteed !

    You will like it a lot...

  3. Btw,
    20 mm, 2cm is the thickness of the stainless bar I have used. This fits the bicycle handles perfectly, and also the wheels I got..

    All the best.

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