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heartstrings kids logo (1).PNG

Heartstrings Kids is an epic neo-folk music & mindfulness series offering a sense of peace, community, and fun for children and parents alike, created by The Heartstrings Project. During this cozy class and concert series, families will journey together to a new music festival each week, featuring original music and family favorites. So hop on our tour bus, don’t forget your backstage passes, and we’ll see you at the show!

Luke Wygodny is a multi instrumentalist singer-songwriter, professional actor & lifetime educator. Born and raised in Chicago, Luke grew up living & breathing music. At a very young age, Wygodny found peace through his cello where he trained in classical music through the Suzuki method. As he got older he found himself jamming on his dads beat up old Yamaha guitar and he’s been writing songs ever since.  Luke has toured the country as both an actor in Broadway shows as well as with his folk band The Heartstrings Project. As a teacher, Luke was one of the founding members of the Musical Tots program at New York Kids Club. He has led songwriting workshops at multiple Montessori schools, Breathe Festival in Indiana, Kerrville Music Festival in Texas & an ongoing Heartstrings Kids Songwriting retreat in Costa Rica. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Syracuse University & is a co-founder of Heartstrings Kids. It’s Luke’s greatest responsibility to honor each student's individual journey, and gift the next generation with the tools needed to be open enough to love themselves & find confidence within.

Marina Pires is a trilingual singer-songwriter from Brazil, Broadway’s latest newcomer, and a proud co-founder of Heartstrings Kids. She learned to read music playing the violin and through her early-childhood arts education and fell deeply in love with the collaborative aspects of theatre, creative storytelling through song, and the physical freedom of dance. Her passion and desire to educate come from her own experiences bridging her cultural and language barriers through music. She believes children from all walks of life can connect with one another and learn empathy and acceptance through sharing song. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre and has been acting professionally since 2012. She has taught improv, musical improv, songwriting, vocal performance, and music in several after-school outreach programs in NYC, as well as professional workshops nationally and abroad. She credits the universal language of music with her passion for human connectivity and global community. She is set to play “Jasmine” in Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway in 2021 and can’t wait to bring together her love of music education and performance with Heartstrings Kids.

Elias Wygodny is a certified Mindful Educator, Yoga Teacher, Master Energy Healer, and Lucid Body Acting Instructor. Elias has taught Mindfulness-Based practices to students, teachers, psychologists, and families in cities around the world. In 2014 Elias began teaching in Private/Public Education, in corporate and governmental spaces, in Fitness & Recovery Centers, and at The University of Michigan, where he graduated as a Bachelor in Fine Arts. His mindfulness practice has completely changed how he works as a professional actor, sculptor, teacher and musician. Growing up, Elias faced many challenges in education. He was always ‘outside of the box’ and struggled with emotional regulation difficulties at a young age. At that time, mindfulness and music education were not shared as modes for social-emotional wellbeing. As a co-founder of The Heartstrings Project and Heartstrings Kids, Elias is determined to bring compassionate education to young minds and hearts, especially for those who may be a little ‘out of the box’.


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Direct: (202) 237-1340

Listing Details

Property Description

* Under contract in three days *

Beautiful light-filled two-bedroom condominium at The Brighton with PARKING!  Measuring over 1,100 square feet (per public records), this spacious apartment boasts gleaming hardwood floors and high ceilings, loads of windows, and comfortable living spaces with generous proportions.  Enter this unit via the classic entrance foyer with walk-in closet.  The dining space off of the kitchen opens up to the living space with a wonderful wood-burning fireplace.  The generous kitchen has been completely renovated by the current owner and boasts quartz countertops, KitchenAid stainless steel appliances (refrigerator, electric range, built-in convection oven/microwave, & dishwasher), plenty of cabinets and storage, an inviting breakfast area with room for a table, and a breakfast bar.  The primary bedroom has a large closet with built-ins and a private en suite bath.  The large second bedroom (or home office) also has a large closet with built-ins, and you’ll find the second full bath in the hall.  #E4 comes with off-street assigned parking (#14), as well as extra storage on the lower level.

The condo fee includes ALL UTILITIES, plus cable TV and internet, and free laundry on each floor, plus commercial-sized laundry in the storage room!  Enjoy sweeping city and sunset views from the newly upgraded roof deck.  Two pets welcome per unit!

Year built: 1911

Subdivision: Kalorama

Tax ID: 2528//2035

Block: 2528

Lot: 2035

Taxes: $5,140 (2020)

Condo fee: $1,028 per month, includes ALL utilities, cable TV and internet, laundry, extra storage, parking fee, management, master insurance, common area maintenance, exterior building maintenance

Pet policy: Two pets welcome

Parking: Assigned (#14)

: Heat Pump
: Central
: Allowed
: 1
Address Map
United States
District Of Columbia
California Street
The Brighton
W78° 57' 7.4''
N38° 55' 0.2''
10 Minutes
10 Minutes
10 Minutes
2 Minutes
5 Minutes
5 Minutes
5 Minutes

2123 California Street NW #E4 - Sale Pending

2123 California Street NW, Washington, District Of Columbia 20008

2 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
1,150 Sqft
Listing ID #1073
Basic Details
Property Type : Condominium
Listing Type : Active Listings
Listing ID : 1073
Price : $750,000
Bedrooms : 2
Bathrooms : 2
Half Bathrooms : 0
Square Feet : 1,150 Sqft
Year Built : 1911
Lot Size : 0 Sqft
Agent info
The Hersh Group at Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.
4400 Jenifer Street NW
Property Rooms
  • Bedroom
  • Bedroom
  • Living Room
  • Dining Room
  • Kitchen
  • Bathroom
  • Bathroom
Contact Agent

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Sheila came to us as she was approaching retirement. A mutual friend had recommended us to her.

Her finances where somewhat chaotic, and she also had a large life assurance pay out to manage. She didn’t know where to begin.

What we did

We reviewed Sheila’s assets, liabilities, income and expenditure; providing her with a holistic financial plan that enabled her to envision her financial future more clearly.

Over the course of a decade, Sheila’s situation has been transformed. She has a financial plan that is robust; giving her a clear path to take as she enters the next chapter of her life.

Sheila today

Sheila was able to retire two years earlier than anticipated.

She’s enjoying retirement to the full. Her passion for gardening and spending time with her daughter are her favourite pastimes. What’s more, Sheila has enough spare resources to support her daughter’s fledgling clothing design business.


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Tuesday, May 17, 2016

When The Ocean Level Rises; South Beach, Miami

Posted By: ZiLe Ohai - May 17, 2016

This is a computer generated animation of ocean level rise for Ocean Drive in South Beach Miami created from pictures by Nickolay Lamm of

High water level in Miami is rising at a rate of 1 inch a year. The gif shows water levels at 5, 12 and 25 feet.

About ZiLe Ohai

Hi, yes it is really me, ZiLe!

Tag Cloud

Copyright © 2015

Distributed By Blogger Template | Designed By Templatezy


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7 Ways to Prevent Back Pain

Like many people, it was acute back pain that first sent me to a chiropractor. I’d been living with a sore back for years, thinking it was a normal consequence of my desk job. Then a sudden turn of my head led to excruciating pain that radiated down from my neck to my back, and I was promptly dispatched to my mother-in-law’s chiropractor, who fixed the problem with a single adjustment. According to the American Chiropractic Association, approximately 31 million Americans are experiencing back pain at any given moment, which is a shame because most back pain and injuries are preventable. If you want to learn how to prevent back pain, follow these simple tips:

Pay attention to your posture

This is perhaps the easiest thing you can do for your back, but one of the most powerful. Look for ergonomic furniture for your office and home to help you maintain good posture while sitting or lying down.

Lift with your legs

Instead of bending at the hips to pick something up, bend down with your knees and use your leg muscles to lift.

Maintain a healthy weight

Obese individuals are four times more likely to suffer from back pain than a person who is at a healthy weight (with a BMI of 25 or less.)

Quit smoking

Research from Northwestern University revealed that people who smoke are three times more likely to suffer from chronic back pain than those who never light up. Quitting reduces your risk, and your back - not to mention your lungs - will thank you for it.

Exercise regularly

Build the muscles in your core (your abdomen and back) to ensure they will be strong enough to support your posture while you engage in your favorite activities.

Sleep on a good mattress

Look for a mattress that feels most comfortable for you, and spend as much time lying on it as you can before you buy. The ideal mattress will support the normal curves of your body. If there are gaps between your body and the mattress (at your waist, for example) you’re not getting the full support that you need.

See a chiropractor

Most people only schedule an appointment with a chiropractor after they begin experiencing pain, but seeing a chiropractor regularly is important for preventing back pain. Preventative care can stop you from ever experiencing back pain in the first place - now wouldn’t that be nice?

Story link

Download your offer today and save!

$29 New Patient Special, Consultation | Exam | Adjustment

Offer valued at $39. Valid for new patients only. See clinic for chiropractor(s)' name and license info. Clinics managed and/or owned by franchisee or Prof. Corps. Restrictions may apply to Medicare eligible patients. Individual results may vary.


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Ways to Make Your To Do Lists More Effective

If your daily to do list is looking a little ragged around the edges it may be time for an upgrade. I know I am in trouble when one to do list forms the core for the next one, and the first one has been hardly touched.

Everybody has little tricks for getting back on track but Care2 has some good tips. They suggest we relinquish a little control and delegate routine tasks giving us time to do everything else.

Delegating tasks is difficult for me, but when I do I am amazed how much better everything flows. Normal low key tasks that do not demand your complete focus really could happen quickly if you hand them off. Then you have time and energy to focus on the ones that really need your attention.

They also suggest we figure out what we really want.

Figuring out what we really want and need may be the key way to make our to do lists really work. When you start focusing on your real wishes and thoughts, a lot of the unimportant stuff just drops away.

Our to do lists sometimes tend to be ‘should do’ lists like this: Shop for fresh produce. Prep for the afternoon meeting. Set up new exercise times that actually work. Meet with clients to review better strategies. Some of these things actually have to happen and will. But looking deeper at what’s behind them could be even better.

Client strategy discussions will happen, but maybe we really feel we need to get to know the client better in order to help shape his campaigns. Fresh produce and new gym schedules may actually happen, but we may really need to know what the best time is to exercise, and what would make that fresh produce more appealing. Flipping back and forth through your to do lists might show you what you really want and even suggest good ways to make it happen.

A tip from The Artist’s Way could help too. Start each morning with a write everything down mind dump that gets it off your mind and onto paper. If you are the type who wakes up worrying this can lower the stress levels a little and reassure you that you have not missed anything. From there you can pull out a few key reminders and move ahead with your day. I know a few people who do these mind dumps whenever they come up, late in the afternoon or right before bed.

Making your to do list more effective could take a few trys, but will definitely be worth the effort.

Story Link

Used under Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of AppySew

Download your offer today and save!

$29 New Patient Special, Consultation | Exam | Adjustment

Offer valued at $39. Valid for new patients only. See clinic for chiropractor(s)' name and license info. Clinics managed and/or owned by franchisee or Prof. Corps. Restrictions may apply to Medicare eligible patients. Individual results may vary.


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Fortified Wine Tawny Port

Medium to deep tawny colour; aromas of dried flowers, dried figs,...

A young Tawny Port of immense complexity of ripe red fruit notes...

This is a fine 10 year old tawny with classic, mature dried dates,...

Amber colour; aromas of chocolate, fig, dried flowers, honey and...

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Austria’s debt rises with new EU rules

Austria's debt rises with new EU rules
Bills and calculator. Photo: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER
A tightened EU statistics office rulebook for government accounting swelled Austria’s debt to 81.2 percent of GDP in 2013, Statistik Austria announced on Tuesday.

The EU’s statistics office Eurostat told Austria to change the classification of KA Finanz, the wind-down unit for failed Kommunalkredit Austria AG, and revise government statistics for the past five years.

Austria has had to add about €8 billion ($11 billion) liabilities of state-owned KA Finanz AG to its accounts. The new rules also force Austria to add bigger parts of the state railway and other state-owned companies like broadcaster ORF and Vienna’s public transport operator to its debt.

Prior to the revision, public debt stood at 74.5 percent. However it does not have such an influence on Austria’s deficit, which is 1.5 percent of GDP.

The biggest increase in debt is due to the breakup of Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG.

Hypo Alpe’s bad bank will add as much as 18 billion euros, or 6 percent of GDP, to its debt level in 2014, Statistik Austria’s director Konrad Pesendorfer said.

Finance Minister Hans Jörg Schelling (ÖVP) said that the recalculation would not affect the government’s tax reform plans as “debt has not risen, it’s just been calculated differently”.

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Sweden set to break wind farm record

Sweden set to break wind farm record
Sweden looks likely to play host to Europe's largest wind farm after a northern county gave its seal of approval to a major new energy project.

If the Swedish government gives its green light as well, a total of 1,101 wind turbines will be built in northern Sweden at an estimated cost of 55 billion kronor ($6.9 billion), the Norrbotten county administrative board said in a statement.

Its environmental assessment delegation recommended that the government give the Swedish company Markbygden Vind AB a permit for the project. Stockholm is expected to announce its decision within the next 12 months.

“This would be Europe’s, if not the world’s, biggest wind farm,” Caj Noren, a spokesman for the board, told AFP.

Construction could begin in two-and-a-half years and would be completed after about a decade, Noren said.

The wind farm would be located in Markbygden, west of the northern town of Piteå, in an area measuring about 450 square kilometres (175 square miles).

If and when the wind farm is fully operational, it would produce a total of eight to 12 terawatt hours per year.

The Markbygden project alone could thereby generate enough energy to meet Sweden’s 2015 national wind power target of 10 terawatt hours per year. A terawatt is equal to one trillion watts.

The turbines would have a maximum height of 200 metres (650 feet), according to the plans.

Markbygden Vind AB is owned 75 percent by the Swedish group Svevind Holding and 25 percent by German group Enercon, one of the world’s biggest wind turbine makers.

No contract has been signed yet for the construction of the turbines.


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Part 2 of My Interview with Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer (& Creative Director), David Miner

585 words – approximately a 3 minute read

Today’s blog features Part 2 of my interview with David Miner, Creative Director for Marketing Symphony. In this part, David shares some lessons he learned from his days as a record producer and Minnesota Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame bass player. And, how those lessons can be applied to the creative process for marketing. My favorite? Use examples rather than descriptions to get your point across. To read part 2 of 3, click here.

AS: Welcome back, David. Last time, you were saying that communication was the crucial foundation to creating an end-product that your client is thrilled with. Can you recap that for us?

DM: Sure, Andrew. Basically, it all boils down to the fact that words mean different things to different people. The classic example is the word trunk: If a client describes an ad where a guy’s leaning on an old trunk, maybe you’re thinking of steamer luggage, I’m thinking of the back of a ’59 Chevy and he’s expecting a picture of a guy next to a large tree. You can’t be too confident of words.

AS: So what do you do, then? How do you communicate ideas so your advertisement or video or direct mail meets the client’s expectations?

DM: Well, as you know, I came up through the musical side. As a producer,

I started using CDs to show a group of musicians what I was after for certain songs.  Sometimes it would be a combination of things that I wanted to meld, so I would bring two CDs and show them rather than try to explain.

It worked so well that I started using it to as a safety check to make sure everybody understood the words we used in the same way.

AS: Like “trunk.”

DM: Exactly. Periodically, we’d listen to an example to make sure. And of course, whenever we came across a breakdown with words, I would ask the person, “Can you play that for me on the piano?”  or “Do you have a CD that illustrates what you’re talking about?”

AS: And this saves time?

DM: It saves time, money-it’s even saved projects. I remember one film score that was on the brink. I’d wasted an entire week on a complicated music piece that was several minutes long and needed to convey some very stark & deep emotion. The director listened to my third attempt and told me that I was even further from what he wanted with this version. Nothing he said to me made any sense. He said-and I quote:

“It needs more ‘ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum.'”

So I said, “You mean like percussion?”

“No, like ‘ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum'”

“I don’t understand-what kind of instrument is making that sound?” I asked.

His response: “Well I’m not a musician, I don’t know how you make the sound, I just need more ba-bum, ba-bum!”

Luckily, I remembered the CD trick and asked him to bring me some tracks. When he did, it took me about 5 minutes to know exactly what he wanted. I went back to the drawing board, and returned to him with a “rough sketch” for the scene.  His response: “Perfect!  That’s exactly what I was after.” We ended up doing 3 more films together, and he got very good at using CDs to help steer the process, and I got very good at creating ba-bum ba-bum.

AS: One of our maxims at Marketing Symphony is that “creativity is birthed out of strategy,” but without good communication and syntax for community ideas. There will be no ba-bum in your creative!

So that’s part two of our interview and more to follow.


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What I Learned the Other Day

By Daniel Boyko:

It started the other day. Or really, it started many other days ago. But I just found out about it the other day. I’ve had my suspicions for a while, checking his phone and search engine when possible, but the other day I knew for sure. How? Well, my husband told me as much.

“We’re getting a divorce.” His voice was flat, nonchalant, as if he was telling me to go to the market to pick up milk. I just stared at him, the gears in my head not yet trudging along, the lights still off.

“I want a divorce,” he said, as if that would clarify. My eyes drew back. My lower lip lowered just a smidge. But still, I didn’t say anything.

“I think we should get a divorce.” His voice was still flat, even calm, but for some reason, the third divorce lit a fire under the pants of whoever’s in charge upstairs in my mind. Maybe a Managing Director or an Executive Producer. I don’t know. All I know is that the lights flickered on and the gears started pounding. In about thirty seconds, everything snapped back into place, like a slinky condensing.

“You want what?” I asked, voice rising.

“I would like a divorce.” His eyes blinked a few times as he gazed at me, waiting for me to take the keys and Volkswagen and grab some milk.

“I don’t understand.”

“I think we should get a divorce,” he repeated. Silence followed, except for the sound of saliva being tossed around in my mouth as my patient tongue waited for the precise moment to strike. “It’s not you. It’s me.”

That was the zinger. He loaded a cannon, lit a match, and fired. The iron ball struck me in the chest and gut. Ouch. “We’ve been married for twenty-six years and this is the shit you give me?” My face blossomed into a bug-bite red, really red hue. But not as red as his face was about to be when I strangled him with ten sweaty fingers if he didn’t provide an adequate response.

Silence. “You give me some junior-prom, cop-out response of why you want to end the marriage we’ve shared for almost three decades? And then not give a response?”

Silence. I glared at him, burning holes in his lower ribs, too large forehead, and some more sensitive regions, too. I even fried his puffy eyebrows for good measure. “Look.” He paused. “It’s the truth. It’s not you. It’s me.”

If words don’t leave that ignorant tongue in the next three, no, two seconds (I’m done being generous), he’s going to have a set of black nails crawling at his throat. One. His mouth opened. One-point-five. He better start speaking. Two—

“I should explain.” You think? “I’m in love with Scarlett Johansson.” What? “It’s just that Scarlett and I are meant for each other. Her quirks match my quirks, y’know? It was just meant to be.” Ouch. My heart sank. His eyes blossomed when he spoke of her. Scarlett? Scarlett? Scarlett? He uttered the name as if he had gone on eight dates with her and already gotten to third base.

“Have you even met her?”

“No, but I just know it was meant to be. Her strengths balance my strengths and she understands me in a way you never could.” A freshly washed knife shoved into my ribs, twisting. I wasn’t sure (and still am not) if this was because of Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit, or Avengers: Endgame (for God’s sake, she’s nothing like the Black Widow in the comics—a real B-list hero at best). I’m not sure it really matters. I sat there. Frozen. The Executive Producer upstairs was just as still.

But it gets worse. He followed, as if the blade in my ribs wasn’t enough. “I’m serious about this. I already have the paperwork.” He grabbed a mountain of paper. If he brought a cannon before, he was now gathering the armada.

“I’m really in love with her. I really am, Emma.” I glanced at the very real papers now dropped onto the kitchen table. The realization that my husband was willing to end our life together for a woman he had never met before washed over me. My heart anchored to the sea floor. Ouch.

Did I mention our anniversary is Saturday? Yep. Yikes. My husband, always the charmer. A real Prince Charming.


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History Spotlight: Building flooded in 1959

Larry Michaels and Krista Michaels
During the 1959 flood in Fremont, the livestock exchange was also flooded.

Old Stockyards Building, 1959

Known as the livestock exchange in Fremont, the old stockyard is seen here during the 1959 flood, as animals are being removed from the building because of the high water. It stood near the river between Hayes Avenue and Ewing Street. All traces of the building disappeared with the construction of the floodwall and the Miles Newton Bridge in the early 1970s. (Submitted by Larry Michaels and Krista Michaels)


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I got that gigolo style

I got that gigolo swagger

I got that gigolo smile

I got that gigolo flavor

I'm a gigolo and you know I don't care

I'm not afraid to let it all hang out there

I'm a gigolo baby and I go by Nick Hawk

I stun what I got and I don't need a stunt cock

I get paid, I like to get bought

Wait until you tell your friends about what you got

I'm a guilty pleasure nobody gets the ladies wetter

I'm heating up already hotter than the Las Vegas weather

Stepping on eggshells light as a feather

I'm a start off to a night that you'll remember forever

I make a big entrance, I like to be naked

I break hearts everytime I exit

I'm a hustler baby, but I'm not playin'

You get what you pay for and believe me I'm worth payin'

If you don't have a problem let's get down to it

Money before clothes, pleasure after business

You ask what a gigolo is, Garren knows

Get low for me baby, get low, get low

I'm a giga giga giga, giga gigalow

Get it get it get it get get low

I'm a giga giga giga, giga gigalow

Get it get it get it get get low

Get low baby, get low for me

Get low baby, get low for me

I run with my Vegas entourage

We got a Lambo, Ferrari, Bentley parked in the garage

A big ass billboard above the Mirage

Cameras flash, girls scream, guys us me applause

Pick who you want to get with and what whip you want to get in

Who you want to trip with, tonight you gonna be winnin'

Get with me baby, I'll get you escorted

It's real in these sheets not some scripted bullshit

I'm the main attraction, escorted by cops

Me VIP and I always get comped

Almost too many bottle tops to get popped

So many clubs, so many stops

Strippers hit me up when they get off the get off

Someone's gotta do it another day in the life of

I can never get enough, man I love my job

I guarantee a good time but I'm here for the payoff

The girls I get with are the ones you don't

The girls I get with are the ones who won't

Look at you a second time but for me they hope

I let em give me money to hang em with this skin rope

I'm just a gigolo everywhere I go

People know the part I'm playing and it's my time to show

It's Showtime, time to let the cameras roll

It's way too late, I made a deal and sold my soul

How can, I be sad and lonely?

Cause, nowadays it gets these girls so horny

It ain't got nobody but I got plenty of bodies on me

I'm worth every penny, a high class luxury

Exclusive shit, I'm a top priority

Now I'm famous and probably your favorite celebrity

Not just for the money I don't play the lottery

I don't believe in luck but I get paid to get lucky

I'm blowing up they say I'm self destructing

Bitch, I'm the bomb you better grab ahold of something


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'I Love You To Death'- Kaffy's Hubby Goes All Romantic To Celebrate His Woman

Source: Mary Jane/Nigeriafilms.com
Click for Full Image Size

In the midst of celebrity marriage crisis, the young and handsome husband of famous dancer, Kaffy, has decided to let the world know he loves his wife so much and not ready to share her with anyone.

?Papii Ameh, the drummer and instrumentalist has been showering his wife and mother of his two lovely kids with sweet words, every woman craves to hear all the time.

"When you talk about a virtues woman this is exactly who you are referring to. Words cannot explain how much you mean to me, the only woman in the world that can tolerate all my BS and still call me baby with all the love in your eyes. I won't be where I am if you didn't kill yourself to make sure my dreams come to life. I celebrate you, I thank YHVH for giving you to me because you are a gift from above. Look at the two adorable Lil J and Lil hoodie k that you gave me. The way they are growing up fast and beautiful is just a reflection of how you are. Like I said before, words have failed me at this point... I love you to death and I appreciate every day that you bear my name- Kaffy Dancey." he wrote.

The excited husband and proud dad, also added that his haters should go on hating, while he would continue to love his wife, like no other

"Dam look at that body... Hi haters I'm sorry but she's mine, if you got it flaunt it and this woman right here is worth more than a G6 or a Bugatti so why not flaunt her... If you don't have love in your life all I can do is pray that you find it else you are totally ignorant to my knowledge of its power... He that findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor from the Lord... Keep hating, it makes us stronger, keep wishing us evil, YHVH is our protection, I said I do in public, so what do you think? Because i'm going to sing to the world how much I love you babiii initial, kaffy Dance you rock jare.."


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Politicians Needs Cooperation In Niger State!!!

By Usman Mohammed

There is no doubt politicians are expected to have spirit of sportsmanship by cooperating with another irrespective of one's party of affiliation. The first political era witnessed a high level of political tolerance especially among the party leaders, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, Nmandi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Mallam Aminu Kano, their striking differences were on party ideology which each of them pursued with vigorous exercise.

The political relationship of these great men is highly commendable, especially when you considered the fact that at their time people were politically less aware and civilized. These highly placed and remembered politicians were lovers. Thus, one could say that they have translated the good virtues of political life.

In Niger State, we need salvation from the hands unpatriotic people, more especially Niger South Senatorial Zone, Agaie/Lapai Federal Constituency and Lapai Constituency. With present civilization and political awareness, more cooperation and tolerance is expected from politicians, supporters and electorates rather than trying to see to the down fail of the government in power by crippling the economy, causing confusion.

People's of Niger-North, Niger-West, Niger-South and Niger state in general are faced with challenged of insecurity, lack of social amenities, absence of electricity, lack of Qualitative education for our youths. So, we are calling attention for our great politicians to cooperate with each others to fight the criminal legal acts, looters and corrupted people's.

Usman Mohammed
Department of Mass Communication,
IBB University, Lapai-Niger State.


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News of Late

News of Late

Ok. So we were a little quiet on the news side of things over Summer. We were like duck feet under water peddling away under the surface while all remained calm and silent up above! It's time to put the last six months into words and let you know what cogs have been turning. (If you fancy a read, cool. If not, skip through and enjoy some photos.)

Tying the Knot: Founders, Indigo Greenlaw & Wills Rowe 'tied the knot' literally in a Scottish hand-fastening ceremony for their Festival style Wedding in October. Fun & chaotic times! Hannah followed suit with her partner, James, in Christchurch just a month ago.Amy, Fin, Scottish Music, Wedding, Festival, RoweWedding, Rowe, The Paper Rain Project

The new store, & oh, the Earthquake: The previous Summer, we'd had a pop up in Picton High Street for four months and LOVED having somewhere local to showcase our products as well as the chance to have face to face interactions with our customers. We were lucky enough to be able to lease the same shop space late last year and opened our doors on November 4th. Earthquake, Picton, The Paper Rain Project

 Just 10 days later, our home, our business, our community and our country were shaken up by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake which (according to Wikipedia) was one of the world's three largest Earthquake's in 2016. Our hearts went out to those in Kaikoura & Seddon, areas so close to home it's hard to imagine the landslides, cracks, isolation and devastation the quake caused without seeing it ourselves. The main road down to Christchurch is still closed now in May and freight is all-over-the show-nation wide. What did that mean for us? Mostly, we're just incredibly thankful that the quake's effects weren't devastating even closer to home. We did lose the facade of our brand new store, but had incredible helping hands from our community (a special thanks to Marni and a huge thanks to the locals who supported everyone in this event.)

Our People:  While the lovely Darelle, Hannah and Linzee took care of a very busy Christmas period at our Tannery Store in Christchurch, we had several hands on board up here in Picton. Our help included the happy-go-lucky face of long time friend Marni, the lovely Liza from Nantucket/USA, Amy (a childhood friend from Scotland) and the awesome Swiss born and trained Gabriela. This International crew helped us through a Summer of changes, through the Earthquake, the Christmas rush, the closure of the Tannery Store in January and the refit of our Picton HQ. Thank you Thank you Thank you - you are amazing.

Marni headed back home to Como, Italy in December, Liza to the USA, Linzee to Mother her two gorgeous boys, Darelle to be a full-time artist (Go Darelle!). Gabriela remains with us part-time in Picton, while Hannah stepped up to be our Assistant Manager and works remotely from Christchurch. She's also making some wicked art, as featured on one of our latest Cause Tees.

The Paper Rain Project Tannery Store, ChristchurchWe closed the doors to our Christchurch Store.

'Guiana' wine-barrel longboard for The Paper Rain Project (artwork by Indigo Greenlaw, built by William Rowe)We FINALLY finished the Kickstarter. This means our hand-built recycled wine-barrel art boards are available for sale online again - YES. These are the new and improved versions and we are so happy to be producing them for the store again.

Kete by Hannah Batty, The Paper Rain ProjectCONSERVATION & CAUSES: We're doing a lot of work with Causes at the moment. This means that every new t-shirt design & many of our boards are linked to a specific cause that we donate some profits too. These causes are generally environmental or socially based and we love giving back to our community/land. Cause products currently include our new 'Kete' (for Satisfy Food Rescue) and 'Tuiana' (for Kaipupu Point Wildlife Reserve) tees as well as the Woodsman Board series (Para Wetlands) and the almost-sold-out 'Black Dog' t-shirt (Live More Awesome Foundation). This years Causes will also include Project Jonah, Conservation Kids NZ, Black Stilt/Kaki Birds (DOC) and another for Live More Awesome. Watch the space for our Conservation Exhibition later in the year. We love this stuff. Get involved.

The Paper Rain Project, screen-printing ethical organic fairtrade clothingScreen-printing: YES! We finally have our 'Still in Print' tees ALL BACK IN STOCK. Had your eye on a Lion, Bison, Mushroom, Waxeye or It's a Tribe Thing? All sizes are now back in store and online.

Waxeye by Faunesque for The Paper Rain ProjectWINTER SALE: Yep - this is happening. As our apparel is limited edition in design, we are rolling over to the next series of artworks. All of our END OF LINE designs will be on sale throughout Winter.

1 tee? $40 (save $25) 2 tees? Use offer code 'TWOTEES' $75 (save $55)  or 3 tees?  Use offer code 'THREETEES' $95 (save $100).

Skateboard Art with The Paper Rain ProjectEVENTS: We're having quite a few exhibitions, pop-ups and events this year! With our newly developed recycled barrel boards, we are seeking to build relationships with businesses and individuals to create customised and commercial fleets of barrel artworks for cellar doors, foyers and homes across the country. We have several exciting exhibitions coming up including a skateboard show in Framingham wines' underground cellar, a pop up store at Lawson's Dry Hills cellar door and a conservation-based exhibition in Picton later in the year. We are looking forward to working with new board artist, Michel Tuffery, who is hand-carving the surface of three barrel boards for our next exhibition as well as guest artists old and new.

Sign up to our Newsletter to find out where we are when. We'd love to see you there :)


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Linda Cooper

Jul 31, 2021

March 14, 1945-July 14, 2021

Linda Cooper, age 76,

went to be with the Lord

at Luther Manor in Sioux

Falls, SD on Wednesday,

July 14, 2021.

Linda Lou Orth was

born to Orlan and Esther

(Johnson) Orth in Rolette,

ND on March 14, 1945.

She was raised in Rugby

where she attended Rugby

High School. She married

Roger Cooper on July

30th, 1961. They made

their home in Westhope,

ND where they raised

their 3 children.

She and Roger owned

and operated the Red

Rooster drive-in for many

years. She also worked at

Baumann’s Jack and Jill in

Westhope for a time. Lin-

da later moved to Minot,

ND where she was a

salesperson for Minot

Chrysler and she earned

several Salesperson of the

Year awards. Linda spent

a few years in Fargo be-

fore moving to Sioux

Falls, SD.

Linda was a member of

the Trinity Lutheran

Church in Westhope. She

enjoyed watching her

children and grandchil-

dren at all sporting

events. Linda was always

ready with a pot of coffee

and a listening ear.

So grateful for having

shared her life are her

daughter, Tammy

Cooper-Mosser (Ken),

Sioux Falls, SD; sons: Jef-

frey Cooper (Tanya),

Westhope, ND and Kelly

Cooper, Fargo, ND; and

Sheri Cooper, Pelican Ra-

pids, MN; sisters: Eunice

Peters (Richard),

Chanhassen, MN and

Marge Orth, Minot, ND;

sister-in-law, Cheryl Orth,

Plymouth, MN; aunt

Delores Johnson, Rugby,

ND; 11 grandchildren, 14

great grandchildren and

many other family

members and friends.

Linda was preceded in

death by her parents and

two brothers, Jerald and

Larry Orth.

A graveside memorial

service was planned for

July 30th at 2:00 pm at the

Westhope Cemetery with

a celebration of life gath-

ering to follow at the

Westhope Country Club.

In lieu of flowers the

family requests that

memorial be given to the

Alzheimer’s Association.

We would like to thank

everyone for all of the

love and support we have

experienced during this

difficult time. Thank you

for all of your acts of

kindness, comforting

words, sharing memories

of our mom with us and

for all of the hugs! A spe-

cial thanks to all who

have traveled to share this

special time to celebrate

mom’s life! We deeply ap-

preciate it! Thank you for

keeping us in your

thoughts and prayers!

May God bless you!

Linda’s Family

Arrangements were

with Nero Funeral Home

in Bottineau. Friends

may sign the online regis-

ter book at

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The Printed Pens Site - Braned Pens & Pencils - Set up & Delivery included (UK Mainland) - No Hidden Extra's - All Excluding VAT
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Sarah McClelland HS

HOUTZDALE — Moshannon Valley’s Sarah McClelland scored a hat trick Tuesday at CNB Bank Stadium, leading the Damsels to a 3-2 double overtime win over Curwensville.

McClelland scored the game-winner off an Emily Davis assist at 94:54 after providing an unassisted goal with just 4:40 left in regulation to tie things up.

Curwensville took a 1-0 lead at 32:59 of the first half on a Haylee Mullins goal, but McClelland tied it with her first tally at 36:15.

The Lady Tide regained the advantage late in the second half on an Abby Rebar goal at 73:33.

Mo Valley keeper Kate Fox had four saves in the win.

Curwensville’s Mackenzie Wall made 14 stops for the Lady Tide.

The Damsels improved to 2-1 with the win, while Curwensville slipped to 1-2.

Mo Valley is back in action Thursday at West Branch. Curwensville hosts Brockway Monday.

Moshannon Valley 3,

Curwensville 2,

2 OT

Scoring Summary

First Half

1. Haylee Mullins, C, (unassisted), 32:59.

2. Sarah McClelland, MV, (unassisted), 36:15.

Second Half

3. Abby Rebar, C, (unassisted), 73:33.

4. McClelland, MV, (unassisted), 75:20.

5. McClelland, MV, (Emily Davis), 94:54.

Shots: Moshannon Valley 26, Curwensville 7.

Saves: Moshannon Valley (Kate Fox) 4, Curwensville (Mackenzie Wall) 14.

Corner kicks: Moshannon Valley 2, Curwensville 1.

Trending Food Videos


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#3932: Single Grain Chongqing Noodles – China

#3932: Simple Grain Chongqing Noodles - China

Another one found at the nearby 99 Ranch Market in Edmonds, Washington. That place really holds a dear place in m heart – that’s where my interest in the instant noodle really was rekindled back in 2010 when we moved about five minutes away. There should be a plaque. Anyways, let’s check out this spicy Chinese variety.

Single Grain Chongqing Style Noodles – China

Detail of a distributor sticker (click to enlarge).

Detail of the side panels (click to enlarge). Looks to be meat free but check for yourself. To prepare, Add everything in and boiling water to line for 5~6 minutes. Finally, stir and enjoy!

#3932: Simple Grain Chongqing Noodles - China

Detail of the lid (click to enlarge).

The noodle block.

A dry sachet.

A wet sachet.

Finished (click to enlarge). Added marinated egg, spring onion, Chinese sausage, crushed red pepper, and sesame seed. Noodles are light and plentiful an hydrated nicely. The broth is thick with Sichuan pepper spiciness and a nic richness. Absolutely bowled over on how good this one was. 5.0 out of 5.0 stars.  EAN bar code 6971860060456.

Watch me cook on Instant Noodle Recipe Time!

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Never has a name of a place been more appropriate, “The Great Wall, was certainly that.  4,000 miles long and built almost 2,000 years ago, it was a stunner.  Just like Machu Picchu, no matter how much you read about it or how many pictures you see, the real thing is just mind-boggling.  We got there late on a clear, crisp November day and just stood around and tried to take in the view.  Steep enough that parts of it are tough to climb, how the heck did they build it?  Just one of the many wonders of China.

This is the story of our run through five Asian cities in 14 days that we just did.  It’s a story of two distinct, yet ever connected, experiences as I spent the majority of time in meetings (23 to be exact) and KR got an appetizer-sized taste of each city we visited: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, and a suburb of Tokyo. I suspect this format will serve as the template for future travels as we continue to combine business and pleasure in fast paced trips hunting for partners.

The trip’s purpose was to continue building LACI’s Global Innovation Network (GIN) linking innovation centers in key markets around the world. We’re attempting to knit together key cleantech markets in order to create a global ecosystem in which companies, technologies, mentors, capital and best practices can easily flow from one to another.  After this trip we have over 16 GIN members in the U.S., Mexico, Germany, Italy, Finland, China and Japan.

We were part of an official government delegation as LA’s Mayor and 85 Los Angeles business, academic and government leaders paraded through Asia. While we had our own itinerary, we intersected with the official group at each city and stayed at the same hotels. All in all, it’s a good thing to be part of the Mayor of the Second Largest City in the U.S.  The timing couldn’t have been better as the week before we were in China the President and the Chinese leader signed an historic green house gas agreement that put clean technology and their commercial opportunities front and center of attention.

KR has never been to Asia and I’d only been to Shanghai and Beijing this summer, so we were newbies. KR had the same lack of interest before visiting as I, but that quickly dissolved as we got closer and closer to take-off time.  By the time we boarded for the 14-hour trip to Hong Kong, KR had four guide books with lots of pages earmarked.  I was looking forward to the 14 hour no-interruptions keyboard time.

Here’s the trip’s itinerary:

  • November 14th:  LAX to Hong Kong. Fourteen-hour flight and a lost day means we spend November 15th in the air.  Get into Hong Kong late the 15th.
  • November 16/17/18: Hong Kong. FW does five meetings, KR checks out the Occupy Hong Kong protest site.
  • November 18: Late night flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Spend 30 minutes trying to explain the address of the hotel in English to Chinese-only speaking taxi drivers at the airport. We get lost and arrive at the hotel late.  But its worth the wait.
  • November 19:  Shanghai. By far and away the best hotel. FW has a slow day of only two meetings. We go to our first official reception that night.
  • November 20: Early morning flight from Shanghai to Beijing, then six meetings that afternoon and dinner with a Beijing friend that night.
  • November 21/22/23:  Beijing. This is the Big Day for GIN as we have an official MOU signing ceremony and five meetings. KR gets a guide to see the Forbidden City and we see the Great Wall on the 22nd.  Wow!
  • November 23: Beijing to Seoul in the afternoon and a long ride from the airport to our hotel in downtown Seoul. KR and I notice immediately there’s a good vibe to Seoul.  This is by far and away the most expensive hotel we’ve stayed.  I make the mistake of having a coffee in the lobby and almost choke on the $14.00 cost.
  • November 24/25:  Seoul. FW meets with big Korean companies and for the first time doesn’t come away with a GIN partner. We have a great night out in Seoul.  We wander the streets in a neighborhood we don’t know, nor do we know where it is.  Our kind of experience.
  • November 25:  Late night flight to Tokyo and a 1 ½ hr drive to a technology park in a Tokyo suburb.  Get there really late, but just before the bar closes.  FW has three beers before dinner:)
  • November 26: Tokyo. Meetings and tours in the morning, catch a taxi to the airport late that day. We never make Tokyo proper.
  • November 26: Tokyo to Honk Kong to LA. Arrive LA the night of the 26th.

By the end of the trip, KR and I are a well-oiled, well-used travel machine.  We got our hop, skip and jump groove-on. We didn’t lose one thing (although FW came close, leaving his computer in a hotel in Hong Kong) and never had any real problems beyond occasionally not knowing what airport we were in and not being able to remember the previous day’s activities.

There is no quick way to show some pictures, so here’s the long photographic journal of our trip.

There is only one Cathay Pacific. American, Korea Air, China Eastern, Dragon Air and Shanghai Air don’t compare. We went on the black market to buy frequent flyer miles to afford business class tickets.

International trade is the reason EVERYONE is interested in China.

Despite the recent slowdown in China’s GDP growth, its still a bullet train compared to the US and Europe’s growth.

First night in Hong Kong and there’s a party going on at dockside.   This is on the Kow Loon side, looking towards Hong Kong island.

All girl band was pretty good despite their lack of stage presence

Overlooking the city from Hong Kong Island.  Hong Kong is the most vertically dense city on earth and on this day was beautiful.   Our hotel was across the water toward the right side.  This view point is called The Peak, for good reason.

Karen went in search of the real Hong Kong while I took in some real meetings.  Here, a potential customer looks over what bird he wants on a street that only sells birds.

This is what the birds are fed — with chop sticks one worm at a time.

Fish are considered good luck in Hong Kong, hence another street sells only fish.

We braved the subway, which was very easy to use.  Trains feel very long partly because there are no doors between cars.

You’d be pissed off too if all you did all day was pound metal into flat trays.

One of the protest barriers in Hong Kong.  During the day the barriers are largely empty as kids go to school:)  One week after this picture and the Occupy group at this Mong Kok area was taken down and 180+ people were arrested.

Protesting ANYTHING in China, even in the “One State, Two Systems,”  Hong Kong is risky business.  The students are protesting that the Mainland government essentially wants to pre-screen all election candidates for Hong Kong elections, thus voiding the one man, one vote principle that was part of the 1997 deal to hand over HK to the Chinese.  As with any deal, the devil is in the small print as China is now saying that sovereignty trumps democracy.

Street in Kow Loon part of the City.

One of two technology parks I visited in HK, this one is called Cyberport.  All the buildings in the foreground house technology companies.  The park is funded by renting the apartments in the background.

A larger park on the other side of the city, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park was amazing in scale, design, facilities and vision.  The football shaped building is a conference center.

I think the Park employs 10,000 people in five technology clusters.  It’s a beautiful, if a bit sterile, place.  They’ve recently started to focus on clean technology, thus will become a GIN member as will Cyberport.

HKSTP still isn’t big enough. This is the Fourth Phase under construction.

Jeff Hoffman

Jeff Hoffman, founder of Priceline among others, flies around the world giving his “how to be an entrepreneur” talk.  He kicked off the Hong Kong Entrepreneur Week event.

On the ferry, exactly like the one pictured, as we crossed the Bay.  Building in the background is the tallest in HK.

One of the many good thing about being part of the Mayor’s Asian Delegation is that they have bargaining power to get great rates at places we can’t normally afford.  The Four Seasons Shanghai was a fabulous hotel and the best of the trip.  This is a shot out the window of the private dining room on the 23rd floor.  I had breakfast with Bob Iger, Disney CEO.  Well, at least we were having breakfast at the same time in the same place:)

KR in our suite before one of the evening events.  She loved the room. I loved the

desk:)  Now this was a hotel room desk fit for the CEO of Disney.

Shanghai skyline from the 35th floor hotel spa.

Slightly more ground level view in the French Concession part of Shanghai.  When Shanghai and much of China was ruled by European colonists, each country had a self-contained “Concession,” which is why much of the older center of Shanghai looks like a traditional European city.  Colonialism, even decades later, leaves its scars.  China will never again be conquered by outsiders.

Shanghai Fire Engine.  Good luck with that.

Karen took lots of pictures of bars and cafes.  This one has an impressive display of beers.

Main building of the Fudan University campus in the Pudang district of Shanghai.

Taking pictures with visitors is a tradition.  The two gentlemen on each end run the Shanghai government agency that operates 10 incubators with 5000 companies.  Expression on the guy on the left says it all — not too impressed with an American incubator that has 30 companies:)

This is called “hot space,”  which is desk space that is open for temporary usage.

When you’re building the tallest skyscraper west of the Miss in LA, you get an official visit from the Deputy Mayor (center).  Greenland is a huge Chinese development company whose stated goal is to own the tallest building in every Chinese city.  They’re well on their way.

There is an evening “Discover LA” reception at each city.  Format is pretty much the same.  Mayor invites the attending Councilmembers up to the stage to share the spotlight, then gives pretty much the same speech tuned to each City.  He does a great job each time.

International Man of Mystery.  KR says I look like I’m a prisoner of war, but better dressed.

At the Adults Table, but barely.  My big event was in Beijing in which we held an MOU signing ceremony.  This is the head table in a room of about 200 people.  Mayor is in the center, yours truly is way on the left.

Guy sitting next to me on the left is the Chairman of a very large Chinese business association, guy on the right is another partner.  What you can’t see in this picture is what we’re facing —  a wall of 50 photographers.  Now I know how Kim and Kahne must feel.

Another city, another university, this one Peking University, where we went to the

Stanford Center (yes, that Stanford) to hear the US Ambassador assess the current relationship.  Very interesting talk.

Perhaps the most productive and certainly the most unique meeting of the trip was with Don Ye, a Chinese venture capitalist/private equity guy, in his tea room.    Room was furnished with yellow benches in the shape of a square and a very large table in the center teas.

While I was taking meetings, Karen was going to the  traditional neighborhoods of Beijing called hutongs.  This is the house that the street sweepers live in.

Taking in the sun

Looks like Mexican construction, no?

Afternoon meal in the street.  KR was invited to sit down for lunch, but chickened out.

My favorite past time in Beijing;  going to a hidden-in-the-basement shop that sells really high quality fake merchandise.  Here the proprietress and I haggle over the price of a watch.  She keeps telling me that I’m getting the “friends” price and I’m telling her to give me the “non friends” price.

Architecture in China is really interesting and experimental, if not all that tasteful. This is my favorite building, in Beijing, which houses a media company. Not sure the picture captures its size, but its pretty massive.

No visit to Beijing would be complete without a visit to the Forbidden City, which KR did with the help of our guide, Wang.

The Great Walls was ....great

The Great Walls was ….great!  Frankly, the trip to China was worth it to just see the GW.  We lucked out again weather wise as it was sunny (a rarity anywhere close to Beijing) and not freezing…

But nippy none the less.  This was the Full Boat of clothing that I brought along.

Way off in the background are more wall towers, which stretches for 4000 miles.  Truly spectacular.

This part of the Wall was in great shape, having been rebuilt and maintained really well.  Still, I’m not sure the pictures capture how steep the wall is.

This is the story of how a dinner party can go awry.  After visiting the wall, a group from the Mayor’s Delegation had dinner in a converted school house in the little village at the base of the mountain.  This is a “before” shot.  Before, say…

Karen and friends go Commie with the hats

And before the stories start flowing.  I can’t remember the last time I laughed this much and this hard.  The funniest story was from one of LACI’s portfolio company’s management team, who got lost on the way to the wall.  Well, you had to be there.

Everyone was jealous of our MOU Signing Ceremony, so we created a new MOU on the restaurant’s dinner mat.

A food fight ensued while making noodles, of course.  Now, this would be interesting enough as we were part of the official delegation and one would hope that we should show some degree of decorum.  The most interesting part of this shot is that these two guys are the heads of the largest real estate company in the Western US and the head of the largest architectural firm.

Another city and another business lunch, this one hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Seoul.  This how-to-understand-the-Korean-culture montage was pretty interesting.  I responded to the mice type in the lower left corner.  My kind of country.

We made the most of our one night in Seoul by taking a taxi to somewhere in downtown Seoul to a Korean BBQ restaurant recommended by a guy I met earlier in the day.   Getting into taxis with the intended destination written in the native language was the only way to get around in most Asian cities.  One result is that you never know where you are, so we couldn’t find this restaurant again for all the tea in….

Afterwards, we just walked the streets till late at night.   We like Seoul  a lot.  There’s a something good about its vibe that both KR and I recognized, but couldn’t quite figure out why.  Maybe it was because it reminded us of New York.  Or maybe it felt more lively because South Korea is a free country vs.  China where there’s always a feeling of Big Brother lurking about.

Here I’m shopping for some new roosters to replace the ones in our neighborhood in PV.  I’m thinking they look great and they’re quiet too.

While i was in meetings, KR went looking for the “real” Seoul.

My kind of art, entitled “Kiss my ass”

KR about to go into a Buddhist temple in Seoul.

This was a strange sight outside the LG building… its a bunch of guys taking a cigarette break.  No girls allowed.

KR looking her normal beautiful self before going to our last official event in Seoul

Fall has hit Seoul too.

KR insisted on getting a picture with the Mayor.    We traveled 5000+ miles to stand in front of the Hollywood sign:)

We visited a technology park outside Tokyo for a 1/2 day.  This is the model of the development, which is about 1 hour outside Tokyo by train.

The future, today in Kashiwa no ha.  Here one of my hosts is rushing to turn off the displays before I can get a picture. No pictures allowed:)  This is the command center for this Smart City, which monitors and manages the production and consumption of energy across the community.  Very very cool.

A makers lab in their incubator.

The model apartment in this high end development. You’re looking at the kitchen, living room and bedroom combo.  My hosts said this is a typical Japanese apartment…

After a coffee-fueled white board session with my hosts on where GIN is now and where its going.

Not surprisingly, we started with two bags and have accumulated a few more:)

The morning after getting back, KR is packing up everything we bought in Asia to take down to Puerto Vallarta. No rest for the weary.

Fitting end to this saga is catching the train to pick up the Bullet, which has been at the Jaguar doctor for two weeks. The patient lived, but it was an expensive operation.

Flying west, high over the Pacific, on my to the East.  Rarely have I felt as much trepidation about a trip as this one.  I suppose having to turn back three hours over the ocean because of mechanical problems didn’t help.  But that wasn’t really it.  No, I was worried because China was going to be so…. foreign.  And somehow I needed to figure it out quickly as I wasn’t flying half way around the world for the fun of it.

China has never been high on my list of places to visit.  Crazy perhaps, but if I can’t ride my bike there it’s not a priority.  Not a particularly helpful attitude, however,  if one’s building an international network of cleantech organizations given that China is a huge  market. We’d already found Global Innovation Network (GIN) partners in Finland, Germany, Italy, and Mexico; now it was time to look toward China.   So I flew to China for a week to expand GIN’s small footprint on to Asia.

Our usual approach to a trip wasn’t going to cut it for this trip.  KR and I never plan where we’re going, leaving most of the specifics to the wind and chance.  Planning for this trip was different;  I spent a month trying to pack as many meetings into five days as possible.  I was fortunate enough to make contact with some folks in China (thank you Diane , Tony and John!) that took pity on me and helped arrange 12 meetings in both cities. Preparations included getting a Visa (China wins the contest for easiest and fastest visa ever – three days for a six month visa), getting GIN documents translated to Mandarin, reading every “How to do business in China” article I could find, and arranging the logistics of a schedule that had me arriving in Shanghai on a Sunday night and leaving Beijing the following Saturday night.

I was actually looking forward to the 11 hour flight there, chilling out while hitting the keyboard is a real treat (no comments, please).  I could read and get some work done in peace and quiet.  I might even find the time to read a book, something I can never seem to finish.  So, I settled into my seat at 3PM on a Saturday, waved goodbye to LA, and got to work, expecting to land in Shanghai the next night 11 hours later.

Three hours over the Pacific the plane icon on the flight path tracker started heading in the wrong direction — back to LA, not China.   Must be a glitch in the system, it was a 777 after all.  Wrong. Long story short, the pilot finally informed us that we had an electrical issue and we were going back to LA.  This started a series of events that included rebooting the trip for the following day, cutting my stay in Shanghai a day short while lengthening my stay in Beijing an extra day.

One of the results of the one day delay was that I was switched from American Airlines to Cathay Pacific.   For those of you thinking about going to China, write this down:  Cathay Pacific is one great airline experience.  It makes you wonder what the f__ happened to US carriers?

It’s impossible to get an accurate impression of a 1.2 billion person country in just six days, but its also impossible not have lots of impressions from such a different experience, whether accurate or not.  So, here are my net takeaways, which I reserve the right to change after more investigation:

  • Shanghai and Beijing, huge cities of 20+MM people each, are both very similar to other large cities and very different.  Different language, style of dress, cultural heritage, history, race, forms of transportation, and of course a totally different system of governing.   Yet, they’re full of people just like you and me, hustling to get somewhere, stuck in mega traffic, everyone reading their smart phones, lots of stores we’d recognize, and more people willing to smile than scowl.
  • China isn’t as “foreign” a culture as say, Nepal, or some parts of South America.  Everyone pretty much stays in their lanes while driving in China, except using the right or left shoulder is a congestion-beating technique widely practiced.  Try driving in Kathmandu or Arequipa, Peru to experience the thrill of anything-goes-anywhere-cut-and-thrust traffic.  Shanghai and Beijing may be in a developing nation, but these cities look and feel prosperous and grooving.  Pretty much everything works like electrical grids, subways, etc.
  • China has a huge middle class (by number of people, not by % of the total population) that seem pretty happy.  While business customs are a bit different, business is business.  Kids wear weird outfits.  Commutes, kid’s education, electronic toys are all subjects of conversation.  Things seem pretty normal.
  • The presence of a controlling government is everywhere, but subtle, and its a “given” to the Chinese.  Want to get on Google or Facebook?  Nope.  Lots and lots and lots of security check points in public places.  Pretty much only good news reported in the newspapers.  Government is business in China.  Freedom of speech, thought and protest are only missed when you realize that most other folks in the world don’t have them.
  • What’s not normal is the scale of things.  Massive office and government buildings for as far as you can see or as long as you drive.  Parks are big and jammed with people.  Roads are six lanes.  Beijing has 24M people, 6 million cars, and 15 subway lines.  No one lives in houses so there are high rise apartment buildings everywhere.
  • International airports, no matter where, are all the same.  Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing airports are all modern and pretty well run.   Most signage is in Mandarin, but there’s enough English to get by.  Starbucks, Apple, Armani, McDonalds, et. al are all there, pretty much recognizable.  Chinese airports are also remarkably fast in the security and immigration processing department.  In fact, one pretty quickly  realizes that China has systems that move lots of people very efficiently (not counting street traffic) in most areas.
  • Waiting in line is a contact sport.  Don’t take offense, its just part of everyday life as  you’re as likely to be elbowed aside by a 70 year old grand mother as a 16 year old.
  • To state the obvious, air quality is appalling, affecting everyone, everywhere, all the time.   It’s just always grey and overcast unless it rains, in which case its only overcast.  Everyone knows this and the Chinese will I’m sure attack this problem with the force and scale that they’ve build a new industrial economy.

I’m going back to China in November with the Mayor so I’m going to get a second chance to experience China.  It should be interesting to see the place after the initial shock has worn off.

Here’s what the trip looked like in pictures.

If you’re going to spend 14 hours on a plane, this is will you want to do it:  Cathay Pacific Business Class.  First Class “seats” are bigger than many hotel rooms I’ve stayed in.

Command Center.  Dozens and dozens of movies, a Barko lounger seat, always-on-call room service…

I flew to Hong Kong, then Shanghai, then Beijing on the way there.  We’re taxing on the Hong Kong runway here.

All big international airports are pretty much the same.  This is Hong Kong and notice  what the lady is doing while on the moving sidewalk:  reading her phone.

Bullet train from Shanghai airport to downtown Shanghai.  301 kph = 180mph

I was in Shanghai for about 24 hours.  This is the view of the skyscrapers along the Huang River at night between rain storms.

Same area from my hotel .  No sun was seen during my 24 h0urs.

This is the “Knowledge Community” technology park in Shanghai.  Very cool.

CEO Richard Tan and I pose in front of a map of their nearby properties.  Each of those little green squares to the right of my head represent huge buildings — commercial, residential, academic and retail.

Room at the Waldorf in Shanghai.  Nice, very nice.

There’s something comforting about being greeted when you walk into the bathroom:  light automatically comes on and the toilet seat raises, beckoning one to the throne.

Settle into the heated seat and peruse the cleansing options.  Seat’s heated, newspaper is delivered.  This is good.  Wait!  What’s that red “emergency button”?  What kind of emergency are we talking about here?  Less than confidence building…

Starbucks are the same, except outlet is different and you need a local cell phone to get on the wi-fi.

This is the biggest rent-a-bike stand I’ve seen so far.   Scale baby, scale.

Parks are in fact used by everyone as central community gathering places with all kinds of groups activities; here its  Tai Chi.

John Zane from the American Chamber of Commerce/Beijing took care of me and accompanied me to various meetings.

My kind of conference room — the offices of Azure International are in a converted Chinese restaurant in the middle of a public park.

Lobby of the Waldorf/Beijing.   I got the feeling that she was always watching me…

Across the street from the hotel is the world’s largest Apple store.  Three+ floors.

Because the Waldorf is located in the very center of Beijing, close to all  the tourist attractions, there were lots of malls and stores for Chinese and foreign tourists.  Best deal I found?  $32,000 U S Dollars for a pair of green shoes.  And no, they don’t come with a Hyundai.

Shopping malls look pretty familiar, no matter where one is.  Jurassic Park anyone?

Not far away from Tourist Central, one comes across an outdoor Chinese food court …

With a full range of delicacies.   I wasn’t brave or hungry enough to sample the local fare.

I did eat in a non-tourist restaurant a couple blocks away.  I know they don’t get many white guys dressed in a suit as everyone kept looking at me and then laughing.  I wonder at what?

Menu had this popular dish.  Picture really helps.  No, I didn’t get this one, but did order something that I didn’t recognize and was pretty good.  Took me a while to eat, though, as only chop sticks were provided:)

I literally only had a couple of hours to try and find the “real” Beijing.  This a narrow lane/alley called a Hutong.  Crossing guard was obviously on his lunch hour.

And another

Lots and lots of small electric bikes and motorcycles.  This one seems to have the optional luxurious passenger seat option.

This is a typical traffic sign/signal in Beijing.  Go figure.

Chinese division of Walmart

Boulevard in Beijing.

On the way into Tienanmen Square.  South Entrance to the Forbidden City is on the right.  This shot was on a Thursday afternoon.

Tienanmen Square is the largest public square in China.  The world?  Lots of security at all entry points.

One of the exquisite statues depicting the People’s struggle.

This is a typical building in downtown Shanghai built by various European colonials. Inspiring, no?

If I were an architect, I’d want to design buildings in China.  Every possible weird, wild and wonderful shape populates Beijing and Shanghai’s skyline.  Bold. Big, Outrageous.  This is just a one example.  Makes one wonder how come our skylines are so damn dull?

Beijing Convention Center is located across from the Olympic Park.

I attended a two day conference, “The 5th Global Green Economy Prosperity Forum” in Beijing.

How often do you go to a conference and you have a seat at the front with your name on it?

Literally band starts playing when the VIP speakers march in. While their style of delivery was forehead-on-the-table dull, the content of their speeches were pretty impressive. Some of these guys could get elected in California with their environmental policies.

The park surrounding the Temple of Heaven was filled with group activities this Sunday morning.  Square dancing anyone?

Or perhaps listening to traditional Chinese opera, which sounded wonderful.

Dozens of domino or card games took every available space on the temple railings

In front of the Temple of Heaven. It rained the night before and the day’s sky was pretty clear and actually a color of blue rather than its normal gray.

Despite it being 7AM on a Sunday morning, there’s still a crowd just out of sight of the previous picture.

A couple of hundred year old painted ceiling, just for KR.

Leaning against the outside wall of the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City was built to house the royalty of numerous dynasties hundreds of years ago.  Once again, the scale of the place is hard to grasp.  This is one of numerous squares in front of another palace.

ONE MILLION men worked on the Forbidden City over a 14 year time frame.  There are 9,999 1/2 rooms.

One of the inner palaces.  Keep moving or you’ll be swept away.  Despite the crowds, the place was pretty interesting and I’d like to go back when I have more time than an hour.

This was my shopping highlight.   Best store I visited is in this underground parking lot, through that unmarked door across this parking lot.

Walk in and there are famous brands of watches, gold flubs, purses, luggage, shoes — whatever.  I was in the mood for a watch, so I bought a $50,000 watch for $400.  Looks pretty good from 5 feet away and is “guaranteed” to run for a whole year.  Comes with the highest quality battery too 🙂

Flying back was another all day affair.  Spent over 16 hours in the air plus endless hours waiting in airports.  Flew into Shanghai for a connection just in time to experience an airport-closing thunderstorm.  At least I was able to have dinner on the plane while waiting on the runway.  It was good to be home, but I’m ready for China Two Dot Ohh in November.


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Published On: Thu, May 18th, 2017

Robbery and destruction of Mayan sites reported in Campeche

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CAMPECHE — Five complaints for looting and destruction of Mayan sites in Campeche were filed last year by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

Jorge Alberto Aguilar Montero, head of the Department of Procedures and Legal Services, said that two robberies were reported in the south of the state, in the Mayan city of Xpujil. He mentioned that the robbery was presumed to be in a Mayan burial mound that contained ancient vessels, stones and vases. The other happened in the archaeological zone of Becán, where in a room, thieves tried to dig to see if they found anything.

(Photo: Yucatán a la Mano)

(Photo: Yucatán a la Mano)

In addition, the INAH reported the destruction of three mounds in Silvituc, during work on roads to harvest. He mentioned that this happens frequently, because the farmworkers themselves ignore these vestiges and with the machinery, they destroy them.

In many case also, the owners of the lands where these ancient ruins are located prefer to destroy them because they fear losing their lands.

Legal Services of the INAH said that all these allegations are being followed up, but so far there is no responsible person or indications of who carried out these acts of destruction and robberies.

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Published On: Wed, Jul 19th, 2017

Volaris diversifies US operation with new routes from Mexico City and beach destinations

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Mexico’s Volaris is continuing to pursue expansion in the US market, despite an unfavourable geopolitical environment. The Trump Administration has impacted demand in the northbound VFR segment of the Mexico-US market, Volaris’ traditional focus, leading to a rare quarterly loss for Volaris in 1Q2017.

Volaris launched nine routes to the US in 1H2017 and plans to launch at least four more US routes in 2H2017. The company is also already committed to launching another five US routes in 2018 – extending its US operation to more than 60 routes.

However, Volaris is diversifying its US operation away from the VFR segment, which should make it easier to absorb the additional capacity.

The airline is launching new routes connecting the US with Mexican beach destinations, catering to southbound US leisure passengers, a sector of the market now dominated by US airlines.

Volaris is also doubling its Mexico City-US operation, which typically attracts a different mix of traffic and generates higher yields, using slots that have been divested by Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines as part of their new joint venture.

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Hemmroid Miracle that will Purchase Hemorrhoidal inflammation At bay

Hemorrhoid is a medical term used to spell it out an illness wherein the anus or rectum is swollen and inflamed. This may cause bleeding from the anus. Hemorrhoid may be caused by eating an excessive amount of spicy foods, constipation, pregnancy, diarrhea, aging, anal intercourse, and other factors.

It can be hereditary. It might either be inside the anus, which would therefore be called as an internal hemorrhoid, or underneath the skin around the anus. An additional hemorrhoid is extremely painful, and oftentimes the only solution for it is surgery. Well not anymore! As a result of Hemorrhoid Miracle, removing hemorrhoids could be virtually pain free.

Before Hemorrhoid Miracle, medicines, ointments, suppositories, and surgery are the only cure for hemorrhoids. However the process of the treatment is painful and the medicine could only do so much. Oftentimes people would opt to have surgery, but that’s risky and almost pointless, because recurrence rate in hemorrhoid is quite high.

Now, with Hemorrhoid Miracle, hemorrhoids could be treated without any pain. H Miracle therapy, was invented by Holly Hayden, a columnist and independent researcher. Unlike medicine and other treatments, Hemorrhoid Miracle can head to the main of the situation, therefore eradicating hemorrhoids once and for all. It treats the illness in numerous angles, in order that likelihood of recurrence are extremely low.

Hemorrhoid Miracle is a paid online program. It’s been utilized by hundreds of 1000s of patients who walked away hemorrhoid free because of the treatment. Holly will inform you which materials to buy, which you will get in supermarkets and the public market. You may have utilized these items before, but it’s possible that you haven’t used them in the right combination to have the ability to cure hemorrhoids free acim lessons. These materials don’t have any negative effects on your wellbeing, therefore providing you an atmosphere of security that you will not disappear with hemorrhoids or perhaps a new disease.

For just thirty-seven dollars ($37), you will have the ability to download the H Miracle course. You will soon be given different ways of curing hemorrhoid, and you will select which treatment is ideal for you. With HM, the hemorrhoid will shrink within forty-eight hours, and the symptoms will give you forever. It will show you how to remove your illness and how to eradicate constipation, improve workout routine, your diet, and your lifestyle to be able to live a wholesome life.

You’ve nothing to lose when you avail of Hemorrhoid Miracle. If you are fed up with living your lifetime painfully due to hemorrhoid, now is the chance to remove it once and for all. There are guaranteed to be no negative effects, and you can find no hidden charges. You’ll just pay thirty-seven dollars, and the course could be yours. If you are fed up with the pain, and you intend to have a chance and change your lifetime forever, now is enough time to accomplish so. Avail of the Hemorrhoid Miracle and witness its miracle firsthand. Join how many satisfied consumers while they grow day after day. Take the Hemorrhoid Miracle therapy, and be hemorrhoid free right now.

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How to save up to £11,000 on brand new BMWs, Volkswagens and Nissans ahead of the new 21 registration

Friday, 12th February 2021, 10:00 am
Updated Friday, 12th February 2021, 10:01 am

Car dealers are offering up to 20 per cent off some brand new models as they try to shift stock ahead of next month’s registration mark change.

Major brands including BMW, Volkswagen, Vauxhall, Renault and Nissan are offering between £2,000 and £11,000 off popular models as they try to boost sales during a difficult trading period.

New car registrations were down almost 40 per cent in January 2021 as dealers were once again hit hard by lockdown restrictions which forced them to close their showrooms. Due to the limitations, dealers are increasingly using online sales methods and click and collect deliveries to continue operating but they are still struggling to drum up business.

Ahead of the new “21” plate roll out in March, What Car?’s target price service has identified some of the biggest cash savings available to customers through its buying service.

Among the biggest savings are £11,385 off a BMW 5 Series, equivalent to a saving of 21 per cent. Buyers can save a similar 20 per cent on the price of a new Volkswagen Passat, with the German brand willing to knock £6,000 off the list price of its large saloon.

Reductions of more than 19 per cent on the Renault Kadjar and Nissan Qashqai mean buyers can save more than £4,000 on the cost of the popular SUVs ahead of the arrival of the new “21” plate.

Data gathered by What Car?’s mystery shoppers show that manufacturers are offering an average discount of 6.78 per cent - £2,773. Seat is offering the biggest reductions across its whole range, with an average discount of 13.78 per cent but premium brands including Volvo and Audi are both also offering above average discounts.

Steve Huntingford, editor of What Car?, said: “With showrooms closed, online retail is helping drive sales at the moment. Our latest analysis shows 45 per cent of new car buyers say they would be comfortable buying their next car entirely online, and retailers are clearly looking to attract buyers through generous discounts. There are great deals to be had on new cars, even if buyers can’t head to the showrooms just yet.”

Top 12 Target Price cash savings

MakeModelTrimOTR% Cash SavingTP Cash Saving
BMW5 Series530d MHT xDrive M Sport 4dr Auto£54,26021.42%£11,385
VolkswagenPassat1.5 TSI R Line 4dr£30,51520.51%£6,073
RenaultKadjar1.3 TCE Iconic 5dr£24,69519.50%£4,637
NissanQashqai1.3 DiG-T N-Connecta [Glass Roof Pack] 5dr£25,42519.18%£4,824
CitroënC11.0 VTi 72 Sense 3dr£12,09517.25%£1,923
SeatIbiza1.0 SE [EZ] 5dr£16,44516.58%£2,689
CitroënGrand C4 Spacetourer1.2 PureTech 130 Live 5dr EAT8£28,10516.50%£4,417
VolkswagenGolf Estate1.5 TSI Life 5dr£25,17516.01%£3,891
CitroënC3 Aircross1.2 PureTech 110 Rip Curl 5dr£20,55015.75%£3,078
VauxhallGrandland X1.6 Hybrid4 300 Elite Nav 5dr Auto£44,37015.32%£6,681
SuzukiSx4 S-Cross Hatchback1.4 Boosterjet 48V Hybrid SZ-T 5dr£24,24913.80%£3,250
RenaultClio1.0 TCe 90 Play 5dr£16,59513.50%£2,122


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Kia issues recall over emergency call fault

Tuesday, 2nd February 2021, 2:00 pm
Updated Tuesday, 2nd February 2021, 2:02 pm

Kia has announced a recall of its Sorento large SUV after identifying a potential fault with the car’s eCall system.

The eCall function is designed to operate in the event of a collision and transmit data to the emergency call centre. This usually includes the vehicle identification number (VIN). However, in affected models, if an airbag is deployed the VIN would not be transmitted.

Kia said it was not aware of any injuries or accidents caused by the fault but it is recalling all affected models in order to have the eCall system reset.

The recall affects around 1,000 of the latest Sorento models built between 1 September and 14 December 2020.

Owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by Kia to arrange an appointment for the work to be carried out free of charge at their local dealer. The work should take around 30 minutes.

Customers with questions can contact Kia Customer Services on 08000 158757 or by emailing [email protected]


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Clinics & Services

We offer a range of different services here at The Spires Health Centre.

Listed below are the names of people we work alongside and the services they offer.

Dr Ajay Ramachandran

As well as his appointments, Dr Ajay also offers:

  • Medication Reviews 10 minutes
  • Joint injections 20 minutes
  • Medical Reports 30-45 minutes
  • Telephone consultations every day

Dr Divya Chikkaveeraiah

As well as her appointments, Dr Divya also offers:

  • Medication Reviews 10 minutes
  • Post natal & baby check 30 minutes
  • Medical Reports 30-45 minutes
  • She also works alongside Secondary Care Consultants and a Specialist Diabetes Nurse
  • Telephone consultations every day

Sue Lewis

Our practice nurse Sue offers a number of clinics as listed below:

  • Asthma clinic 20 minutes
  • Diabetic clinic 20 minutes
  • COPD clinic 20 minutes
  • Spirometry 15-30 minutes
  • Dressing changes 10-20 minutes
  • Child immunisations 10 minutes
  • Removal of stitches 10-20 minutes
  • Flu injections 5 minutes
  • Child nasal flu 10 minutes
  • Contraception clinic 10-20 minutes
  • Blood pressure check 10 minutes
  • CHD check 20 minutes
  • Learning disability clinic 30 minutes
  • Well man/woman clinic 15 minutes
  • Sexual health advice 10-15 minutes
  • Life style counselling 10-20 minutes

Antenatal Care

We have a midwife who is part of the Sandwell Community Midwifery team hold a clinic at the surgery every Friday morning. Her appointments are 20 minutes

Phlebotomy Service

Due to the Current Coronavirus Pandemic we have had to suspend our Phlebotomy Services. This service usually takes place every Tuesday & Friday between 8.30am and 12.30pm.  This service is available to non- registered patients as well as registered patients. Appointments are 10 minutes.  We will re-instate these clinics as soon as we are able.

Anti-Coagulant Services on site

Due to the current Coronavirus Pandemic this service has been suspended and operates direct from the Hospital.  Spires Health Centre staff DO NOT send these appointments and any queries should be directed to them on 0121 507 5947.

Stop Smoking Clinic

The Practice normally provides a Stop Smoking Clinic on Thursday mornings.  Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic the service is currently on hold.  As soon as we are able we will restart these sessions.

Counselling & Wellbeing Courses

Here at The Spires we provide rooms for counselling services for registered and non-registered patients. The counselling teams work alongside the Wellbeing Hub. Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic this service is operated by Black Country Mental Health Foundation all appointments are now via telephone.

Alcohol & Drug Support

We also provide rooms for alcohol and drug support workers for registered and no-registered patients.  Due to the Covod Pandemic this service is telephone appointments only.

Call 111 when you need medical help fast but it’s not a 999 emergencyNHS ChoicesThis site is brought to you by My Surgery Website


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Urban sprawl is destroying Ontario’s farmland

Despite its huge area, Canada has relatively little dependable farmland. Good soil and a friendly climate are hard to find. So it seems like good news that on a clear day you can see about half the best agricultural land in Canada from the top of Toronto’s CN Tower. If we’re to feed our growing urban populations, having food lands close to where people live will be critical to sustaining local food security.

Some regions of the country, like the Golden Horseshoe surrounding Toronto, have been blessed with an abundance of Class 1 soils. But an increasing proportion of the best soils in the Golden Horseshoe and in most urbanized regions of Canada now lie beneath sprawling housing developments, highways, strip malls and other infrastructure. As urban communities have grown over the years, agricultural lands and natural areas have far too often been drained, dug up and paved over.

According to a study by Statistics Canada, our growing cities sprawl over what once was mostly farmland. Only 5 per cent of Canada’s entire land base is suitable for growing food. At the same time, urban uses have consumed more than 7,400 square kilometres of dependable farmland in recent decades. That’s an area almost three times the size of Prince Edward Island.

Almost half of Canada’s urban base now occupies land that only a few generations ago was being farmed. For the most part, this land can’t be used for agriculture again, despite efforts of city people to use community gardens, green roofs and even guerrilla gardening to grow food.

Though there are strong sprawl-busting policies in provinces such as Ontario, with its internationally renowned Greenbelt Act and Greater Golden Horseshoe Growth Plan, prime farmland and rare ecosystems in the region, like wetlands, remain at risk from further urban development.

A recent study by the David Suzuki Foundation examined threats to farmland in a 94,000-hectare patchwork of farms, forests and wetlands circling Toronto and its surrounding suburbs, called the Whitebelt Study Area. The report warns that this productive mosaic of green space and rich farmland is at risk from the blistering pace of urban expansion in the Golden Horseshoe.

Municipalities there have proposed developing more than 10,000 hectares of the Whitebelt over the next three decades. This is in addition to 52,000 hectares of land the province had already approved for development before new policies to curb urban sprawl came into effect. Together, these lands are more than twice the area of the city of Mississauga.

Paving over remaining prime farmland and natural assets like wetlands is foolhardy. Studies show that near-urban croplands and farms in the Golden Horseshoe contribute billions of dollars in revenue to local economies each year, from a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, dairy and award-winning wines.

And as the Foundation report shows, near-urban farmland and green space also represents a Fort Knox of additional natural benefits that we typically take for granted: trees clean the air, wetlands filter water and rich productive farmland soils store greenhouse gases.

Today, Ontario’s towns and cities are at a crossroads. Down one path is continued low-density, creeping urban expansion. We know how this well-worn route looks: endless pavement, long commutes and traffic jams, not to mention the high social and ecological costs associated with such a wasteful form of urban design. Simply put, continued sprawl threatens the health and well-being of our communities and the ecosystems that sustain us.

In the other direction is an extraordinary new path: ending sprawl using the principles of smart growth and creating compact, higher-density communities serviced by public transit, bike paths and walking trails, and surrounded by local greenbelts of protected farmland and green space.

Our political leaders should seize this opportunity. While industry and developers will continue to pressure us to sacrifice our cultural and ecological heritage, together we much embark on a visionary path. We must protect near-urban nature and farmland and ensure the health and well-being of all Ontarians.

If we value local food and want to maintain the critical benefits that nature provides, we must put food and water first. That’s why we’re calling on municipalities and provincial governments to redouble their efforts to protect our remaining farmland and green space from costly and polluting urban sprawl.

You can join the conversation on Twitter at #FoodAndWaterFirst.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Ontario Director Faisal Moola.

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Parliament: Over 2.7k Malaysians arrested abroad for various offences

Published on 9 Dec 2020 1:21:31 PM

A total of 2,742 Malaysians have been detained abroad for committing various offences as of December 2020.

Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar said the Malaysian diplomatic missions are responsible for providing consular assistance, in line with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963, to which Malaysia is a party.

He said this in reply to Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem (GPS-Serian) during Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (Dec 9).

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Home » Ordinary Time - Cycle A » Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Reflecting on Matt. 13:1-23

Our neighbors are the Master Gardeners behind the Urban Garden movement that has transformed long-neglected back yards like ours into fecund, flourishing farms. This is the eighth year they have labored in the spring chill and the summer heat to bring delicious food out of what was once our prickly lawn. Each week they load up the produce and take it to food banks around town. One hundred people eat out of our back yard every summer and fall.

The mortifying truth is that, ten years ago, I had no idea where food came from. I’d never planted a garden, and so had never had the grace that comes from digging in dirt, planting, watering, and—ugh—weeding a little plot of ground, “giving seed to the one who sows, and bread to the one who eats” (Is. 55:10). That, come to think of it, is exactly the method given to us throughout our lives—a little love, a little sun, a little careful pruning and planting of the Word in our hearts—that has brought us safe to this day, where we take the time to read commentaries like this on the scriptures that are such food for our souls.

What kind of seeds were planted in your heart that have borne fruit in you? I love asking people I admire—people who do generous, hard work in order to relieve suffering, or bring kindness, to anyone who asks—just exactly how they became who they are.

The seed, scattered and sown that was planted in you, or maybe was never directly planted but blew your way, will be producing fruit long after you have gone to God. Keep weeding.

How have you grown in wonder at the abundant goodness of God?

Kathy McGovern ©2020

Ordinary Time - Cycle A

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