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Achates Power remarks for NHTSA/EPS hearing on fuel economy standards. Dearborn, Michigan. September 25, 2018. John S. Major Jr., Vice President, Achates Power

In 2007, the US passed the first increase in fuel economy standards since their inception in 1975.  Targeting a fleet wide 35 mpg by 2020, Americans would save $22 billion and enjoy an emissions reduction equivalent to removing 28 million cars from the road.

In the 11 years since, the auto industry has boomed.  Record volumes and profits were common.  Some of the changes the industry experienced were more nuanced; suppliers that were traditionally bound to one OEM or to regional OEMs evolved and became global players in their own rite.  Their technology investments, in some cases, rivaled the OEMs that they served, and much of this investment hinged on a long term and stable understanding of fuel economy goals.  From electric vehicles, to plug in hybrids, to 48V, cylinder shutoff, waste heat recovery, to a plethora of advanced engines, the industry invested in American innovation, technology, and jobs, in the framework of standards that allowed them to carefully plan and deploy these technologies into market.

Achates Power knows because we are the world leader in the development of one such advanced engine technology, the Opposed-Piston Engine.  The Opposed-Piston Engine has been proven with measured, peer-reviewed results to meet the most demanding tailpipe emissions standards with very high efficiency.  Recent OP Gasoline Compression Ignition results demonstrate that the engine is capable of double-digit efficiency improvements over the state of the art engines.  And while the OP Engine itself sets a new baseline for efficiency and emissions, virtually everything being done to optimize and enhance four-stroke engine performance can also be applied to this superior architecture of IC Engine.  It is practical, and our light-duty engine has been packaged in a drivable F-150 demonstrator that will achieve a CAFE combined 37 mpg.  Our heavy-duty engine is destined for demonstration in a class 8 Peterbilt line haul truck in late 2019, and will achieve 0.02 ultra-low NOx in parallel with a 15% CO2 reduction from 2017 requirements, 10% lower than 2027 heavy duty CO2 requirements.  It can be designed to meet all industry durability requirements, and, at 30% fewer parts than a comparable four-stroke engine, it will have a cost advantage at scale.

Achates Power employs 100 people headquartered in San Diego with a customer application office in metro Detroit.  We’ve spent $200 million developing our technology over the last 15 years, and we are but one example.  A rollback of the standards threatens to disrupt the progress that has been made over the last decade, and will directly cause the loss of American jobs, investment, and technological leadership as the production revenue needed to recoup these investments will not be realized.

A chorus of industry voices shares this view.  The Alliance for Vehicle Efficiency, of which Achates Power is a member, is a group of major propulsion and after-treatment tier 1 automotive suppliers, who believe strongly that technology neutral efficiency standards drive innovation, investment, and American jobs.  Regulation shouldn’t seek to pick “winners and losers” in technology; it should highlight what climate, public health, and national security goals need to be achieved.  The market will select the technology to cost-effectively achieve those goals.  It is especially critical that technology pathways not be cut off due to an investment focus on any one technology.

Our engine is not a silver bullet for solving these complex problems.   There is no silver bullet.  There are only planks in the platform that is future mobility, and it will take meaningful, achievable, and technology neutral standards that are proven to drive American investment, technological leadership, and jobs to chart our path for a robust future.

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American Classical Orchestra Announces Season 35

American Classical Orchestra announces an expanded 2019-2020 35th Anniversary Season!

We return to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with three Beethoven symphonies, a cornucopia of concertos with world-class soloists, and masterworks with the ACO Chorus. We will present a rarely-heard choral-symphonic masterpiece, Jan Zelenka’s Missa Omnium Sanctorum, and offers intimate salon and chamber music concerts, including a program of elegant and festive music for the holiday season.

We continue our commitment to presenting the highest quality, historically-informed performances on period instruments, offering our audiences a richer, more personal experience of the music through concert previews, which Maestro Thomas Crawford leads at the start of our Lincoln Center Series performances. Of these lively talks, critic Jon Sobel of recently wrote:

“Hearing the orchestra play some of the music’s key themes and motifs in isolation is a boon to appreciation, whether you know the music well or have never heard it before. That’s especially so with a titanic piece like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, known as the Eroica (“heroic”). Often performed, but not so often on original instruments, and seldom explicated in concert, the symphony gained more meaning for me at this concert than it had in the past.” (May 2019)

Subscriptions available now!

Reflections on Season 32

Thank you all for coming to our season finale concert, ‘Italian Masters’. It was the last chapter of what turned out to be our most meaningful season to date. The concert was joyous.

Something seems to have changed this season. A tipping point?  Many, many people have commented on this. I reflect on the programs themselves:

Opening night introduced singer, Avery Amereau, who drew unprecedented vibrations from all of us. Avery’s is the most beautiful voice I have ever heard. Because we gave Avery her Lincoln Center debut, I was interviewed by The New York Times. I described the experience of feeling my knees shake when she sings. Vocal gifts at this level come rarely, and here our little ACO was first up. Something was in the air.

Early in the season, the Vivaldi Four Seasons concert showcased our community of violinists and their priceless antique instruments. Having the soloists rotate in and out of the regular ensemble also heightened our sense of community within the ACO. One of our bass players, who lives in Boston, commented on another unique advantage at ACO: our internationally superior confluence of valuable string instruments restored to their original period voice. For me, this was another first: concocting a soloist/section player format at this level. The players were open to playing ‘musical chairs’ and setting aside soloist ego.

At what has become our home church, St Ignatius of Antioch, an all-Bach program confirmed for me that the ACO Chorus may be the best choir in New York City. This collateral advantage is likely based on my own strong background in choral conducting. Bach’s music is of a stand-alone quality, and on this evening, the ACO performed at a historically high level.

The winter program of ‘early genius’ works was met with unforeseen circumstances. At the last minute, Jiayan Sun filled in for his teacher, Audrey Axinn, who was unable to appear. Jiayan had performed with us before, lives here in NYC, and regularly attends our Cadenza young professionals group on a social basis. The concert became an affirmation of the depth of the ACO’s relationships with our local musicians, including the most recent Juilliard graduates, along with the overall strengthening of the New York early music community. Here we had veteran players and Juilliard teachers as our principals, seated next to the first new generation of graduates. Roll over Beethoven.

The Orchestra’s 17th Season of Classical Music for Kids was also somehow richer than any of the previous programs. The thousands of children whose schools we visited — from Chinatown to the Bronx — were particularly attentive and asked probing questions that suggested meaningful engagement. We produced a professional video of a Vivaldi Four Seasons program, which featured interaction between musicians and the children, and interviews with the kids and their music teacher, whose comments speak to the impact of classical music on impressionable children. Many of these children otherwise have no access to these beautiful sounds.

In the thirty-two years of ACO, our Beethoven 9th at Geffen Hall was the single most applauded performance. The roaring ovation went on for nine minutes and the cheers were directed at each individual component: the orchestra, the choir, and the soloists. Many, many people onstage and in the audience said that it was by far the most meaningful Ninth they had ever experienced.

The next day, I was humbled to receive letters from a 9-year-old and a 90-year-old who both talked about the goose bumps they felt – each describing this as the most memorable performance of their lives. We’ve performed the Ninth before. Yet this one was different – it reached many of you, and our musicians, in a deeper way.

I imagine the 9-year-old describing this Ninth to her own grandchildren in the year 2100. That’s how certain I am certain that the Ninth will live on as a life-reference-marker: a moment in time that gives perspective on an ever-changing world. Here, too, we all felt the growing sense of community and delight in our New York based period instrument orchestra. Avery Amereau sat in the audience. Several new graduates of the Juilliard Historical Performance degree program were playing in our orchestra. Others were in the audience. The reception following the concert seemed more like a family reunion than a pro-forma post-concert gathering.

The ACO Benefit Gala at the Central Park Boathouse featured an in-the-round performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. Never before could I look around the room and see the black-tie crowd utterly rapt in silence while listening to the music. Benefit galas are about raising money to support the season concerts. This one stood alone as a musical event of its own merit.

At last Thursday’s season finale, Krista Bennion Feeney delivered a performance that could only have happened in NYC and only with the ACO. Krista is a working musician in NYC, concertmaster at the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, wife of our principal bassist John Feeney, and one of the very few violinists in the world who could perform the Paganini La Campanella on original gut strings just as Paganini did. The familiarity we all share was palpable. ACO musician colleagues were seated in the audience to hear and support Krista, take in the rarely played Clementi symphony, and delight in the ACO itself. I’ve never before known this great a sense of community and participation at the ACO.

We can all look forward to the next developments of the ACO story. But it is clear now that we have something kinetic, positive, and game changing going on. We are all so grateful for the turn of events in the ACO favor – and no one more so than me.

In each of these musical encounters of a deeper kind, it is the relationship with you, our audience, that provides the resonance. The audience fuels the environment for us to continue to grow in these artistic ways. Please subscribe to our 33rd Season and enjoy the sympathetic vibrations!

I’ll close by saying I’m humbled, as ever, by the power of music in our lives.

Tom Crawford
Artistic Director and Founder

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Dive Control Specialist Instructor

Dive Control Specialist Instructor

SSI Dive Control Specialist Instructor

Make the jump from training divers to training Dive Leaders. In doing so, you become a key player in the success of your dive facility and meet one requirement of becoming a Master Instructor.
Dive Control Specialists contribute significantly to the success of a dive business because they can assist in so many ways (see Dive Control Specialist page). In addition, DiveCons create a ready pool of candidates for Instructor programs. The Dive Control Specialist course can be rewarding, fun and profitable to teach.

DiveCon Specialist Instructor Course Details

Before applying to the DiveCon Instructor Training program, candidates must meet the following:

have an active SSI Advanced Open Water Instructor rating or equivalent
have logged at least 24 dives in the last 12 months
have personal scuba diving equipment
be at least 18 years old
have a current medical exam for diving signed by a physician

To receive their DCSI rating, candidates must have a minimum of 30 SSI certifications and current training in CPR and First Aid.

Training Program
The program consists of a seminar covering SSI Training Standards, training procedures, materials, skills sessions, classroom sessions and course administration.

Program Materials
The program requires the DCSI and DiveCon manuals, videos and the Dive Control Specialist Training Record.

After Graduation
Upon graduation, SSI DCSIs can train Dive Control Specialists.

Active Status
To maintain active status, DCSIs must be affiliated with an SSI Dealer and have current insurance.


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Social Action Sports

The worldwide leader in…

I’ve been a college sports fan my whole life. It’s safe to say there has never been a time like this.

Never. Ever. Ever.

One by one the most trusted names in college sports are having the skeletons removed from their closet and broadcast on national news.

  • Jim Tressel, the squeaky clean football coach in the sweater vest at Ohio State, was revealed to be the type of guy who rigs kids raffle contest so the best players prep players get free Ohio State gear. [Source]
  • Joe Paterno was absolutely kicked to the curb by Penn State when it was revealed that he knew about allegations of sexual assault in his football building but did nothing about it.
  • It looks like Syracuse’s longtime basketball coach Jim Boeheim is next. Yesterday his assistant Bernie Fine was fired when ESPN revealed tapes of Fine’s wife corroborating an accusers story. Boeheim issued a statement yesterday that he knew nothing of the allegations. All it’ll take is one email or voice mail with him talking about it before last week and he’s out.

The Witch Hunt is On

Once the witch hunt begins, in this latest case trying to determine who knew what and when about Bernie Fine’s sexual abuse of ball boys– it’s nearly impossible to know who is the hunter and who is the hunted.

I’m not saying these guys are innocent. I’m just wondering if there is more to this witch hunt than what is being presented. Maybe the hunter isn’t as innocent as they appear to be?

ESPN is the Common Denominator

As I listened to the news about Bernie Fine yesterday I couldn’t help but pick up on this detail… they’ve had this tape since 2003. Eight years! When you are talking about a man who uses his position to molest children eight years is exactly eight years too long to hold a story. Eight years where someone, probably a lot of people, chose to protect Syracuse basketball instead of protecting young boys.

That’s not acceptable. We simply cannot let them hide behind this little statement of journalistic “integrity:”

Davis first gave the tape to ESPN in 2003. At the time, ESPN did not report Davis’ accusations, or report the contents of the tape, because no one else would corroborate his story. [source]

Wait… did you catch that? Someone at ESPN decided not to air the tapes because THEY couldn’t corroborate the story. They aren’t the police… they are a sports news agency!

A man comes to them with proof that he was molested by a coach at Syracuse University, seeking help since local police wouldn’t do anything about it, and they sat on the story for eight years.

Eight years.

What kind of person doesn’t call the police when he knows a child has been molested? Do we really value sports above children in this country?

So why now?

In the three cases I mentioned  above ESPN had knowledge of these stories long before they broke. Lots of people around Penn State knew of a grand jury investigation of Jerry Sandusky. And no one said a thing while they knew Sandusky continued to have access to the football facilities.

Lots of people knew the Sports Illustrated article was going to expose Jim Tressel’s knowledge of player indiscretions. And they sat on hard evidence about Bernie Fine was molesting boys for eight years.

So why now? Why is ESPN holding stories and then subsequently releasing them? What makes 2011 special?

It’s always about the money…

I’m not presenting a conspiracy theory. I’m just starting to connect the dots. (And asking you, my fair reader, for your input.)

ESPN does what they do to make money, right? They tell the story that will make them the most money. And they cover the games and leagues that will make them the most money.

That’s fair. (While not always moral) It’s a free market system and we live in a country with freedom of the press.

But I wonder if this has anything to do with conference realignment and TV deals? On November 1st USA Today ran a story entitled, “Is ESPN the Force Behind Realignment?” It was almost a rhetorical question. Of course ESPN is the force behind realignment. As the article mentioned, every team or league will ask ESPN if added or removing a member school will increase or decrease their over all television worth. That automatically makes ESPN the linchpin in all of the realignment conversations as leagues will do whatever it takes to get a better TV deal from ESPN.

And ESPN would love to see teams play in conferences that worked better for their markets and allowed them to make more money. (Even decreasing travel or shipping by 10% would make them millions more!) Why else would the Big East want San Diego State if it weren’t for their location in the 9th largest TV viewing market in the country… and the only major market without a team covered by ESPN?

Conference realignment has everything to do with making more TV money for member institutions. Pure & simple.

Don’t even get me started about the college football bowls. Did you know ESPN owns more than half of the bowls? That’s why we can’t have a playoff, duh! It’s about them protecting their assets.

So here’s what I’m wondering. Could it be that they held and released these stories to devalue Big 10 football (Ohio State & Penn State) and Big East (Syracuse) basketball?

You could say… “These are ESPN products, why would they devalue them?” And I’d hypothesize… “Because they have a monopoly and if they can devalue the product they can negotiate cheaper deals with member institutions.

What do you think? Did ESPN have the responsibility to involve law enforcement when the Bernie Fine tapes were given to them in 2003? Do you think ESPN would have any reason to hold this (and other stories like it) until “the right time?

Or am I just a silly fan who had too much time in the car yesterday to think about all of this?

Sound off.


text:
When 01.09.2011

'Titanic' star Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Finding Neverland; Revolutionary Road) arrives for the screening of her film 'Carnage' at the 68th Venice Film Festival. The British actress gets off a gondola in a short black dress and matching heels and poses for a few photographs.

In the Roman Polanski directed comedy, Kate Winslet stars as a mother whose son is involved in a fight at school. The film also stars former child star Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly. Kate Winslet recently described how thrilled she was to be starring in the film

More Videos

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The Divergent Series: Insurgent

The Divergent Series: Insurgent


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Software Development Product Reviews

Amethyst and WebOrb Integrate Flash Development with Visual Studio

Well-integrated environment from SapphireSteel lets .NET developers create Flex applications for the Flash platform.

Tooling Around in Your Database

These products can help make your occasional forays into the world of databases much easier to take.

Optimal Trace Enterprise 5.0: Implement Project Requirements

Keep everyone working together with this comprehensive collaboration tool.

Product Review: Macromedia gives boost to RoboDemo

Macromedia Captivate enables virtually anyone to record on-screen activity to create software demonstrations and interactive simulations in Flash. It allows users to edit content, add media applications, and provide visual screen instructions. It’s based on eHelp’s RoboDemo desktop recording software.

Review: SmartOutline 2005

Everyone needs a place to store unstructured information. There are choices galore out there, from simple text files to Microsoft OneNote to OPML-based outlines. SmartOutline 2005 aims to shake up the outlining market with a flexible .NET plugin-based architecture.

Review: patterns & practices Enterprise Library

Microsoft used to just hand us compilers and tools, but somewhere along the way they realized that things had gotten too complex for many developers to know how best to use these tools. Enter the Enterprise Library, the latest set of useful code blocks packaged up as prescriptive guidance by Microsoft's Patterns & Practices group.

Review: DevPartner SecurityChecker

These days all developers need to be security experts - but it doesn't hurt to have some help. That's where DevPartner Security Checker comes in, helping you keep an eye on the security issues in an ASP.NET application from start to finish. With an extensive knowledge of secure coding practices, it can help almost any ASP.NET developer do a more secure job.

JBuilder: a powerful and special IDE

Borland’s JBuilder 2005 Enterprise is an all-Java IDE written by Java developers, for Java developers. This version targets enterprise developers with support for EJBs, Web services, XML, mobile, and database application development.

Review: VMware Workstation 5 beta

VMware has long been the leader in virtual machine technology for Windows and Linux developers. The recent acquisition of Virtual PC by Microsoft has brought new competitive pressures to bear, but a peek at the next version of VMware shows that they're not about to give up.

Review: Arcadia PowerButton

Sure, your IDE includes a button control. But isn't it sort of boring? If you're looking for an inexpensive way to make your applications look more exciting, Arcadia PowerButton may be the answer.

Omnicore tackles the IDE

Does the development world really need another IDE? Well, maybe not. But whether it's needed or not, Omnicore's X-develop (now in open beta) offers an interesting feature set with some worthwhile innovations.

Review: OurayCM

OurayCM is a relatively new cross-platform configuration management package that supplies fully ACID operations and complex branching in a solid package.

Unit testing for .NET gets even easier

Many developers have found themselves on the unit testing bandwagon, setting up tiny tests to check all of their code whenever they make a change. In the Visual Studio .NET world, this has required running an external tool to exercise the tests. With the advent of TestDriven.NET, that's no longer true.

Briefing: JMSL Numerical Library 3.0

Want a numeric, financial, charting, and statistical package written in 100% pure Java? Then JMSL ought to get your attention.

Review: AutoMate

Automation utilities are traditionally seen as tools for systems administrators. But why shouldn't developers use them too? Some time spent with AutoMate suggests interesting possibilities here.

Review: MyGeneration

MyGeneration is an object-relational mapper and code generator for .NET. It supports a great variety of databases, handles regeneration of existing code, and it's even free.

Review: SSW eXtreme Emails!

Instead of building e-mail into your bug-tracking system, why not build bug-tracking into your e-mail client? That's what SSW eXtreme Emails does, bringing an agile bug-tracking system to users of Microsoft Outlook and Exchange.

Review: ANTS Profiler

Now in its second major release, ANTS Profiler is a super-easy to use profiler for .NET applications, letting you track speed or memory usage and drill down to a very granular level.

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Process fortifies software projects against failure

For most developers, process is a bitter pill to swallow. But employing standard best practices in a repeatable way is critical to software organizations that want to build quality solutions delivered on time, within budget and to the requirements of the users.

The key to implementing process as an effective medicine against software project failure is determining the right dose for your organization. By customizing the process to fit the needs of your enterprise, you can effectively close the gap between stakeholders’ requirements and what developers produce. The next hurdle is to gain acceptance from developers, which requires modifying behavior across the organization.

Most developers consider process a bitter pill to swallow. In fact, many consider it a placebo that placates managers, but does nothing to help produce software. When we look at successful projects, however, process plays a critical role. Is there a magical, Mary Poppins-esque spoonful of sugar that helps the process medicine go down? Maybe, but let’s examine whether developers have some justifiable grounds for their distaste.

If we want to change developers’ attitudes, we need to understand their concerns about process. Developing software for more than 20 years, I’ve found that it’s common for developers to view their organization’s software development process as onerous, inefficient and unnecessary.

When speaking about process, developers conjure up the idea of three-ring binders containing volumes of required forms. I recently worked with a developer on filling out the required form that documented each software change for a quarterly release. The problem was the documentation’s level of detail: The form required a table with entries for every SQL statement that changed. It’s easy to see how a developer might call this onerous.

Sequential processes like the waterfall model can be inefficient. With it, the workflow can be understood and managed easily because each task follows in a certain, unchanging order. However, development is more efficient when it is collaborative and concurrent with other activities. For example, doing architectural tasks during requirements gathering raises technical issues early and avoids costly rework later.

Developers see some process tasks as unnecessary. For example, one organization required all technical artifacts be reviewed by the quality management (QM) team at the end of every phase. Unfortunately, the QM team did not understand the technologies involved. So instead of a review of the technical content, the meetings would focus on document formats. In one case, the significant review discussion debated whether a document’s section should use a table instead of a bulleted list. Developers walk away from these reviews frustrated and questioning their value.

Let’s be honest. Developers are notorious for only wanting to code. Most would be happy to skip planning, reviewing, talking to users and testing to sit at their computers and code. To many developers, everything else is a nuisance or doesn’t seem important to producing software.

Could they have a point?
To some extent, developers’ gripes are justified. Many organizations have outdated processes that don’t reflect current industry best practices. Viewed individually, each inefficiency in a process may not seem significant, but over the entire project life cycle they can become weighty baggage.

Worse, when official processes are viewed as too cumbersome or useless, developers and even project managers just don’t implement them. This presents a huge risk to the organization’s ability to produce quality software on time -- and those three-ring binders just become dusty and old. An unused process is worse than no process at all because it seems to prove that process adds no value.

Software production’s illness requires medicine
A common industry belief is that 70% of IT projects fail. This notion is a little dated and imprecise. The 2003 Standish CHAOS research suggests 15% of IT projects failed and 51% were “challenged.” These results show that IT is hobbled by low project success rates. Of the top 10 identified success factors, most are within the domain of process, including user involvement, project management, scoping, methodology and requirements management.

Sometimes, we view process as the collection of stuff in the three-ring binders. However, I’d like to explore another view of process -- one that thinks of it as not just the medicine, but the prescription.

In this view, the major goal of process within an organization is to apply best practices --those techniques and activities that have been proven to improve efficiency and quality in software production. By following a prescriptive process, an organization sees repeatable results. It’s hard to argue against using process this way -- employing best practices in day-to-day software production.

In fact, implementing best practices is critical to repeating project successes. Producing software with teams is an inherently complex task. To repeatedly produce software that is reliable, on time, within budget and that meets or exceeds users’ expectations requires dynamic workflows that foster collaboration, reveal risks and ensure consistent quality.

Unfortunately, many organizational processes aren’t designed this way. So what can be done?

Designing processes
Curing software project ailments is similar to visiting a doctor. In the same way a doctor prescribes the most effective medicine for a patient’s needs, companies need to design their prescriptive processes using best practices that match their organization’s unique needs.

There are four key practices that are critical in designing any software development process:

1. Develop iteratively. A process that uses iterative development will have a number of iterations through the life cycle. Unlike the waterfall methodology, each iteration will have a set of tasks involving the disciplines of requirements, analysis, design, coding, test and deployment. The amount of work within each discipline varies depending on where the iteration is within the life cycle. The main idea is to focus on addressing the highest project risks early. For example, early iterations focus on architecture. This is not the same as a design phase. Instead, the developers produce and test a software executable or release designed to address the architectural risks in the project. In a classic waterfall, the architecture is not tested until the test phase.

2. Manage requirements. It’s common wisdom that stating all requirements for a large-scale program is practically impossible. Yet many processes assume it can be done. A better approach is to have the process account for changes in requirements. This is not to say that anything goes until deployment. What we want is a systematic approach that not only captures requirements, but manages the agreement on requirement changes between the development team and project stakeholders.

Efficient processes leverage the iterative approach by focusing on risky requirement tasks early. For example, a common goal of the first iteration is to set the scope of the project, going deep enough to uncover significant requirements, but leaving less-significant requirement details for later iterations.

3. Manage change. Change management is critical for organizations building high-performance software teams. As tasking becomes more concurrent, and more releases and environment configurations are involved, the complexity of managing all these pieces increases dramatically. What may have worked in the past will not suffice. An effective process must include a well-defined approach to managing the changes in software, documents, environments, change requests and releases, as well as the ability to track these changes.

4. Continuously verify quality. Verifying quality becomes more difficult in an iterative framework. A non-iterative process usually has completed deliverables due at specific times. In iterative development, documents and functionality progressively mature through the life cycle, so quality must be verified at multiple points for some deliverables. This step-wise verification becomes critical to realizing the final goal.

This iterative attention to quality can also help to accelerate development times. A practice I’ve seen successfully employed on development projects is weekly quality builds. Each week, an integration build is created and tested, and defects are logged. This raises defects very early in the cycle. Developers can fix bugs before the next quality build, greatly reducing the time to do system testing and defect cycles.

Fitting organizational needs
The biggest key to designing an effective process is determining the correct dose of process medicine. It’s easy to make a comprehensively large process that blankets all risks, but that is terribly inefficient. The trick is to apply the smallest dose of medicine that is still efficacious. Albert Einstein put it another way: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

How do you know what must be done in your process? Unfortunately, there’s no quick answer. If we look at the goals of the organization, we’ll be able to identify the risks that might prevent us from successfully achieving those goals. The process should be fitted to address the significant risks.

Let’s look at an example. One organization was designing its process and asked the question, “What level of design work is needed for our organization?” The organization had been using Macromedia’s ColdFusion, a mature architecture framework, for some time and the application projects were similar to previously built projects. From an architectural perspective, the risk in new development was low vs. that of an organization tackling a complicated J2EE project for the first time. So their process required a lower level of design detail.

This example raises another point. One project can have very different risks than another based on the technologies used, the stakeholders involved and the scope of the system. So there must be a way for individual projects to customize the organization’s process to meet its needs.

Just as a doctor writes a prescription for each individual, we need to write a prescriptive process for each project -- one that accounts for the project’s risks and determines the practices and the minimum doses needed.

The challenge
Once an organization has the right process, how do you get developers (and the rest of the development team) to use it? What I’ve seen work repeatedly is a set of techniques for collaborative, incremental change.

Overcoming the existing momentum within an organization takes more than hiring a single process expert. A team experienced with implementing best practices on similar software development projects is most effective at this type of change. This team engages the organization in a couple of ways:

Lead by example. Developers will follow a new practice when they see it working. Driving change is impossible without showing developers how these new practices are beneficial. My firm uses player coaches, an expert within a discipline who is injected into a project to do heavy lifting and mentoring. We follow a teaching hospital method for training residents: “See it, do it, teach it.” This technique instructs the team, gives them confidence and evangelizes the new methods.

Pilot projects. Early in the adoption curve, the team uses pilot projects that serve a number of purposes. First, they are an example for future projects, proving that the process works and providing useful templates, examples and optimizations. Second, they provide a breeding ground for change agents. The project team trained during the pilot sees how well the process works. They are then inserted into other projects as zealots and experts, accelerating the rate of change.

Incremental change. Many efforts have failed because they’ve tried to change an entire organization’s behavior overnight. Changes should be made incrementally, with the highest risk and most significant issues addressed early. The priorities are worked out with the developers and other staff in a collaborative environment. This helps to create authorship within the development teams. It’s also important to have a plan for these changes across iterations. Developers like to know what changes are coming and when. Having a reliable plan builds confidence in the changes as they are implemented.

Results-driven with open reviews. To create buy-in, development teams should agree on the expected results of the new process. Then, at significant milestones, they should conduct open reviews of the results. At this point, they may readjust expectations for results for the next milestone. Open reviews increase process improvement and create a collaborative environment where everyone chooses to use the process.

Use tools where they add value. We’re talking process, but tools can be used to add value to process changes. For example, requirements management tools can enhance requirements analysis. Creating a requirements model rather than a set of documents enables traceability analysis that would be much more arduous without tools.

Tools are not silver bullets and they do not necessarily imply process change. I have seen many organizations that believe by simply using tools, they are using the process. Unfortunately, many are using the new tools in old ways.

Developers are pragmatic. They will gladly take their medicine, but they want to see it work. If the medicine is effective, and the prescription is appropriate for the task, developers will accept it. The techniques outlined here merely help to ease the medicine down.

A true high-performance software development organization requires more than just a good process and developers on board. Organizational change is needed to sustain consistent improvement.

Please see the following related stories: “What is a best practice?” by Buff Colchagoff

“Does my process need a face-lift?” by Buff Colchagoff

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Specializing in Products for Lymphatic/

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- Channels: Dual, isolated between channels.

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nominally 4.0 seconds.

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We can also Special Order different brands on request.

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© 2015 Advanced Rehab Technologies. All rights are reserved.


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Tag Archive | eggs

Baked Eggs Marinara-style

I was in the mood for eggs AND something that was easy to do, especially after a long day today. So, I found a recipe of Chef John’s on Allrecipes that fit the bill. I didn’t use the pepper flakes or the cream, but I used everything else. Most of the white you can see in the picture is the whites of the eggs, not all cheese. I only used about 2 TBl. of freshly grated cheese, and you can see where it browned. All I can say is yummy! The kids loved it, too. All I needed was

  • Marinara sauce
  • Eggs
  • Parmesan-Reggiano
  • Olive Oil
  • Parsley
  • Salt & Pepper

Here is the original recipe I used http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chef-Johns-Baked-Eggs/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=chef%20john%20baked%20eggs&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page&soid=sr_results_p1i1


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Solicita información request details

475,000 €

16 new build homes in a small town in Mallorca

Your new build home in Eneida is located in Puig de Ros, a residential area belonging to the municipality of Llucmajor, just 20 minutes from the city of Palma. This urbanization is close to the sea in a clifftop setting with spectacular views and wonderful natural landscapes. The area is well-known for its secluded beaches for example, Cala Maioris, quiet and calm, where you will enjoy Mallorca’s endless summer.

It is here when Eneida is born. The project is signed by Estudio Lamela, one of the most prestigious law firms in Spain awarded with a wide range of national and international awards. The Mediterranean light is the core of the project. A white clear light from the Mediterranean Sea runs through the house providing clarity in all rooms, warmth and harmony. All these new build homes are energy efficient.

Private pool

200m2 private garden each house

Private parking and storage Room

Just 5 minutes from the beach

Eneida is an exclusive project located in a small town in Mallorca, Puig den Ros, Llucmajor. AEDAS Homes will develop 16 semi-detached houses with 4 bedrooms. In 20 minutes, you can reach the center of Palma de Mallorca by public transport (L520) and by car (Ma-19), and it will take you around 15 minutes to reach Palma de Mallorca International Airport.

Next to your new house you will enjoy a wide range of sports activities such as those offered by the Maioris Golf Club, the Sitt Tennis & Sport or the El Arenal Nautical Club. You will also have shopping centers, pharmacies, fashion stores and a variety of bars and restaurants such as the Mhares Sea Club.

  • ENEIDA, new build homes for sale in Mallorca

Adapt your home to your requirements

AEDAS Homes dwellings are conceived to adapt to any family’s present and future needs. To this end, Eneida offers you three different ground floor layouts, thus you can choose between:

  • - Independent kitchen-office.
  •  - Kitchen-office opening out onto the lounge.
  •  - Spacious, independent kitchen with dining-room area.

Your home matches your lifestyle. Enjoy your personal space working from home or cooking as a family in a spacious independent kitchen with dining room

Available Homes

VAT at 10% not included.

  • Easy access to Ma-19
  • Close to Palma de Mallorca Airport
  • Golf courses nearby


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Association for Free Research and International Cooperation

After the electrical shutdown, now passports run short in Zimbabwe

Read the original article on :
Zimbabwe's passport-issuing service has ground to a halt, officials said Monday, leaving many citizens trapped in the country as its economic crisis worsens. Applicants for new or renewed passports face an indefinite wait as the government does not have the foreign currency to pay for special imported paper, ink and other raw materials.

Officials at the Registrar General Office said that even if citizens want to pay for an urgent application for a passport, they face a minimum wait of 18 months before they can even submit their papers. “Last month, the urgent applicants were being told to come back at the end of 2020,” said one official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

She added that non-urgent applicants were told that no date was available for when they can apply. Millions of Zimbabweans have fled abroad in the last 20 years seeking work as hyperinflation wiped out savings and the formal employment sector collapsed.

Many others are now seeking to leave as conditions worsen under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had promised an economic revival after he succeeding long-ruling Robert Mugabe in 2017. Official inflation is at nearly 100 percent — the highest since hyperinflation forced the government to abandon the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009 — while supplies of essentials such as bread, medicine and petrol regularly run short.

Isheanesu Mpofu, a 23-year-old unemployed university graduate, applied for a passport last November but is still waiting. “I went back early June to check on it, and was told to check again in August,” Mpofu said, adding he wanted to visit his family abroad. “Besides, it is my right to have a passport so I can travel whenever I want to,” he said.

Mnangagwa addressed the problem last month, saying a dispute with the printers over unpaid bills meant that a state-owned company would take over the job. “They said they will not print any more passports because of legacy debts,” he said, claiming the money had now been paid. A passport office official said that only ten passports were being printed each day despite a reported backlog of 280,000.

“We have the capacity to clear the backlog in a very short time but all the machinery is lying idle right now,” she said.

Read the original article here.

Credit image : google image/illustration

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Morehead Manor

914 Vickers Ave.

Durham, NC  27701

Monica & Daniel Edwards, Innkeepers

It is said that Morehead Manor is where elegance, excitement and hospitality meet! This 8,000 square foot colonial revival-style mansion is certainly elegant, excitement can be had at the nearby downtown Durham, North Carolina attractions, and a special brand of hospitality is exhibited in the scrumptious desserts and full breakfasts.

Sitting area

CD clock radio or iHome clock radio

Air conditioning

Luxurious linens and bedding

Plush microfiber robes

Soft bath towels

Iron & ironing board

Hair dryers

Bath amenities

Full breakfast

Complimentary snacks and beverages

24 hour coffee service

Daily newspaper in the library

Free wireless high-speed Internet

Copyright © 2020 African American Association of Innkeepers International


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Sign In or Register | Friday, August 7, 2020
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New Agreements To Expand Access to 20 Lifesaving Cancer Medicines For Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa And Asia

 Cancer Access Partnership is expected to result in a 59 percent savings on procured cancer medicines. ATLANTA, June 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) today announced agreements with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Novartis, and Mylan to expand access to 20 lifesaving cancer treatments in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Purchasers are expected to save an average of 59 percent for medicines procured through the agreements.

"With the rapidly growing burden of cancer in Africa, it is crucial that we improve and expand access to high-quality, affordable treatment. These agreements build on those announced in 2017 that have already delivered substantial savings and increased treatment availability in several countries, including Nigeria. By targeting the treatment needed for the cancers that cause the most deaths, these new agreements will help us to improve on quality of lives and close the mortality gap for Africans with cancer," said Professor Isaac Adewole, co-chair, African Cancer Coalition and former Health Minister of Nigeria.

Medications included in the agreements cover recommended regimens for 27 types of cancer and enable complete chemotherapy regimens for the three cancers that cause the most deaths in Africa—breast, cervical, and prostate. These cancers are highly treatable and account for 38 percent of cancers in the countries covered in the agreements. The new agreements include both chemotherapies and endocrine therapies aligned to evidence-based guidelines harmonized for sub-Saharan Africa, and expand access to additional formulations, including those essential for treating childhood cancer.

"With cancer cases increasing at such a rapid rate in sub-Saharan Africa, access to affordable cancer treatment that meets the quality standards set by a stringent regulatory authority is imperative," said William G. Cance, MD FACS, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, American Cancer Society. "This collaboration has the potential to drastically impact access to care and save countless lives."

Sub-Saharan Africa's cancer burden is significant and growing. In 2018, there were an estimated 811,000 new cases of cancer and 534,000 deaths from cancer in the region. Cancer patients in sub-Saharan Africa are twice as likely to die as those in the United States, often due to late diagnosis and lack of access to treatment. Based on population aging alone, annual cancer deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are projected to almost double by 2030. The new agreements reach 23 countries in Africa, covering 74 percent of the annual cancer cases.

The new initiative includes Pfizer, Novartis, and Mylan, and will expand access to the priority medications and formulations in the agreements to additional countries. All of the medications included in the agreements meet the quality standards set by a stringent regulatory authority such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA). These medicines will be available for purchase at newly and independently negotiated prices in the designated countries, and the companies have committed to monitoring the impact of their respective agreements with CHAI.

This new Cancer Access Partnership is an initiative of Allied Against Cancer and an expansion of the Chemotherapy Access Partnership. ACS and CHAI began working together in 2015 to improve care and treatment of cancer in sub-Saharan Africa, working with governments and cancer treatment institutions to address market inefficiencies, improve supply chains, and increase procurement to ensure quality medications were available at affordable prices. This collaboration has shown that access to high-quality cancer treatments can be expanded in a sustainable way.

Dr. Iain Barton, Chief Executive Officer of CHAI stated, "While we have made strides in increasing access to lifesaving cancer treatments in sub-Saharan Africa over the last several years, there is much more work to be done. This collaboration is a significant step in delivering high-quality cancer treatment to more patients, bringing us closer to equitable cancer treatment for all people."

In 2017, Allied Against Cancer members ACS and CHAI announced agreements with Pfizer and Cipla to expand access to 16 essential cancer treatment medications in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The market access agreements secured competitive prices, allowing these governments to realize substantial savings and improve the quality and quantity of treatment available. As a result of the agreements, several African governments and hospitals increased their commitment to procuring necessary cancer medicines by using the cost savings to increase the volumes of medicines procured, setting up innovative systems to supply high-quality cancer medications, and increasing budgets for cancer care and treatment. Countries that accessed products through the agreements saved an average of 56 percent. As a result, patients have new levels of access to quality chemotherapies in nearly all of the countries included in the original agreements. Three new countries were added in November 2019.

"Since entering into partnership with CHAI and ACS in 2017, we have seen the positive impact that sustainable access to quality, affordable cancer medicines can have on patients in vulnerable communities in Africa," said Rhulani Nhlaniki, Pfizer Cluster Lead for sub-Saharan Africa and Country Manager, South Africa. "We remain committed to this model that helps to reduce the overwhelming burden on patients and healthcare systems, and we are pleased to be able to expand our chemotherapy offerings under the program to better serve the needs of patients."

"Novartis is reimagining medicine and access to healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa with the patient at the center of everything we do," said Racey Muchilwa, Head of Novartis sub-Saharan Africa. "This agreement is an important step to provide lifesaving medicines to more cancer patients across Africa. Having personally seen the growing toll cancer takes on the patients and many affected families in Africa, I am very excited about this collaboration of multiple stakeholders to dramatically improve access to cancer medicines in many countries."

"Mylan is proud to join CHAI, ACS and this important group of industry stakeholders to help expand access to critical medicines for oncology patients. Mylan has a long-standing commitment to support those impacted by non-communicable diseases, including cancer, which significantly impact low- and middle-income countries. We look forward to continuing to do our part by expanding access to treatment through initiatives like the Cancer Access Partnership and working with all involved in the healthcare system to help serve the community," said Rakesh Bamzai, President, India and Emerging Markets, Mylan.

The market access agreements are part of a broader effort to improve access to quality cancer care in Africa. In 2019, ACS, CHAI, the African Cancer Coalition, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), and IBM joined to form Allied Against Cancer. This coalition is leveraging the strengths of each organization to connect with and empower the African oncology community to deliver high-quality cancer care and is working to pursue additional market-based collaborations to increase access to cancer medicines in the region.

NCCN, ACS, and CHAI are also working with the African Cancer Coalition, which comprises 110 leading oncologists from 13 African countries, to adapt the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) to create the NCCN Harmonized Guidelines™ for Sub-Saharan Africa. These NCCN Harmonized Guidelines™ for Sub-Saharan Africa outline pragmatic approaches that provide effective treatment options to improve the quality of care in resource-constrained settings and are available free of charge to health care providers on IBM and ACS also developed ChemoSafe, a suite of training resources for regional healthcare personnel to guide the safe transportation, storage, administration and disposal of hazardous drugs.

The countries included in the agreements are: Botswana, Cameroon, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, in Africa; and Vietnam, India, and Myanmar in Asia. Oncologists, government officials, and nonprofit organizations in many of these countries contributed to these agreements by sharing information and feedback to the CHAI team.

You can learn more about the Chemotherapy Access Partnership and see medicines available by country here:

About the Team

The American Cancer Society is a global grassroots force of 1.5 million volunteers dedicated to saving lives, celebrating lives, and leading the fight for a world without cancer. From breakthrough research, to free lodging near treatment, a 24/7/365 live helpline, free rides to treatment, and convening powerful activists to create awareness and impact, the Society is the only organization attacking cancer from every angle. The Society also works in low- and middle-income countries to expand access to high-quality chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and pain relief, as well as getting patients diagnosed and into treatment earlier. For more information go to ACS does not endorse any product or service nor any particular brand of cancer drugs. ACS is not a provider of medical services and is not responsible for any drugs, screening, diagnosis, or medical treatment.

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work with our partners to strengthen the capabilities of governments and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. Learn more at:

At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products, including innovative medicines and vaccines. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at In addition, to learn more, please visit us on and follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer News, LinkedIn, YouTube and like us on Facebook at

Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 800 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 109,000 people of more than 145 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at

Mylan is a global pharmaceutical company committed to setting new standards in healthcare. Working together around the world to provide 7 billion people access to high-quality medicine, we innovate to satisfy unmet needs; make reliability and service excellence a habit; do what's right, not what's easy; and impact the future through passionate global leadership. We offer a portfolio of more than 7,500 marketed products around the world, including antiretroviral therapies on which approximately 40% of people being treated for HIV/AIDS globally depend. We market our products in more than 165 countries and territories. We are one of the world's largest producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Every member of our approximately 35,000-strong workforce is dedicated to creating better health for a better world, one person at a time. Learn more at We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at

SOURCE American Cancer Society

CONTACT: ACS - Charaighn Sesock, Director, Media Relations, +1 559-972-4877,; CHAI - Regan Lachapelle, Director of Communications, +1 857-208-2788,; Pfizer - Lisa O'Neill, Global Media Relations Leader, +44 1737331536, Lisa.O'; Novartis - Antonio Ligi, Director External Communications, +41 61 324 13 74,; Mylan - Ritika Verma, Head of Communications - India and Emerging Markets, +91 96768 49944,

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Post date: May 11 2004

Court Orders Shut Down Of Former Erie County Company's Website

Attorney General Spitzer today announced his office has obtained a court order shutting down the web site of an online home furnishing business recently held in contempt for its persistent consumer fraud.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Christopher J. Burns of Erie County issued the order against, Inc., also known as, which is effective immediately. BeaverHome sold hardwood flooring over the Internet and accepted advance payments from consumers across the nation but failed to provide any merchandise in return. BeaverHome is owned and operated by Neal Martin and his son, Cole Martin.

"This case demonstrates that my office will not tolerate Internet scams," Spitzer said. "Even if the perpetrators leave New York, we will pursue them and enforce court orders to protect consumers."

After receiving numerous consumer complaints, Spitzer's office in July 2002 sued BeaverHome which then was located in Niagara Falls, New York. Pursuant to a court order, BeaverHome agreed to pay restitution to consumers and reform its business practices. Shortly after reaching the settlement, BeaverHome moved to Georgia and began violating the court order.

Although the Attorney General's office was successful in obtaining $269,000 in restitution for consumers, BeaverHome did not make all the court ordered restitution payments. Also, consumers from across the country continued to complain to the Attorney General's office that BeaverHome was taking payments but not providing the flooring.

In response to a motion filed by Spitzer's office, on April 7, 2004, Justice Burns found BeaverHome and Neal and Cole Martin in civil contempt of court. Justice Burns ordered that BeaverHome pay a fine of $285,000 and post to its web site a notice that it was not permitted to accept advance payments from consumers. Justice Burns also issued warrants of commitment for Neal and Cole Martin should they re-enter New York State until they come into compliance with court orders.

When BeaverHome failed to pay the fine or post the notice to its web site, Spitzer's office made a motion to shut down BeaverHome's website. Justice Burns signed the order on May 4 and the website was closed down by its California-based host pending further order of the court.

Individuals wishing to file a complaint against BeaverHome can do so by obtaining a complaint form on the Attorney General's website at or by calling the consumer help line at (800) 771-7755. Out-of-state consumers can contact the office at (716) 853-8400.

This case is being handled by Assistant Attorney General James Morrissey of the Buffalo Regional Office.


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Post date: November 4 2015

A.G. Schneiderman & NYPD Commissioner Bratton Announce the Indictment of 14 Individuals in Takedown of International Luxury-Vehicle Theft Ring

In ‘Operation Cruise Control’ More Than 70 Luxury Cars And Suvs Were Stolen From Streets And Rental Car Agencies; Shipped From The Bronx To West Africa

Schneiderman: We Will Not Tolerate The Theft And Trafficking Of Contraband Especially When It Threatens The Integrity Of Our Borders

NEW YORK - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton today announced the indictment of 14 individuals who operated a sophisticated international stolen vehicle theft ring that drove Mercedes, BMWs, Infinitis and other luxury vehicles right off rental car lots at Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, and loaded them into shipping containers in the Bronx, before sending them to buyers in West Africa.

The long-term investigation, called “Operation Cruise Control,” utilized wiretaps and other types of surveillance to gather evidence against the Bronx-based criminal ring that allegedly acquired a large volume of stolen vehicles from public streets and rental car companies.  The high end vehicles included BMW X5s, Mercedes GL450s, Porsche Cayennes, Range Rovers and Lexuses. Once in possession of the stolen vehicles, the defendants allegedly created fraudulent documentation for the vehicles, and loaded them into 17 different shipping containers at a lot at 380 Bruckner Boulevard in Bronx County.

The containers were destined for several countries in West Africa, including Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, disguising the containers’ contents by documenting false vehicle identification numbers (VINs) on the shipping documents, often using titles from junked or salvaged cars.

“This was no fly-by-night operation. For more than a year, investigators with my office and the NYPD tracked this crew using wiretaps and surveillance video,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “As our investigation shows, we recorded the defendants as they brought in stolen cars from our airports, put them into shipping containers, and shipped them out to buyers in West Africa. This was a sophisticated network of international thieves—but as our partnership with the NYPD shows, we will never allow New York to be used as a hub for global theft.”

"Once again, the NYPD has demonstrated its enforcement powers beyond the borders of New York City, thanks to our strong law enforcement partnerships. I applaud the dedication of the investigators and prosecutors involved in this investigation which resulted in holding these individuals responsible for this international vehicle theft ring, as alleged," said Police Commissioner William J. Bratton.

 “Auto crime is a problem that impacts us all either as victims or through higher insurance premiums,” said Thomas Belfiore, Chief Security Officer, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “It takes an integrated, multi-agency collaborative response from law enforcement to be effective in combating the problem. The Port Authority Police Department and its Detectives are proud partners in this team effort.”

Based on the investigation, it is alleged that Allen Robinson and Derek Edwards fraudulently rented the luxury vehicles from Avis, Hertz and National and sold them to a middle man or “broker,” who would then transport the vehicle to the Bronx to be loaded into a shipping container destined for Africa.  In this case, the American-based brokers allegedly included Dramane Doumbia, Cheik Diallo, Tyja Evans, Adama Fofana, Mohamed Samake, Alpha Jalloh, Amadou Souare, Eddie Lee and Lamine Bah.  Once these American-based brokers secured international buyers, they would then facilitate the delivery of the vehicles to 380 Bruckner Boulevard, Bronx, NY.  Once the vehicles arrived in the Bronx, they were loaded into 40-foot shipping containers bound for West Africa.

Lead defendant, Dramane Doumbia, operated the Bronx shipping hub with his team that included Mohamed Bangoura, Gbatta Doua and Pan Bakari Coulibaly.  They allegedly loaded the containers and arranged for the vehicles to be transported to West Africa through the use of false documentation.  Specifically, Dramane Doumbia and his team allegedly provided false VINs to shipping companies – thus disguising the containers’ true contents – in order to bypass U.S. Customs and Border Protection exportation requirements.

The Attorney General's indictment, which was unsealed today in Bronx County Supreme Court, charges 14 people with Conspiracy and Criminal possession of Stolen Property as well as other crimes including, but not limited to, Grand Larceny.  The top charges carry with them a penalty of up to 5 to 15 years in prison.

Those charged are:

  • Dramane Doumbia; 57, New York, New York (arraigned today)
  • Pan Bakari Coulibaly; 36, Bronx, New  York
  • Mohamed Bangoura; 47, Brooklyn, New York (arraigned today)
  • Alpha Jalloh; 26, Brooklyn, New York
  • Alseny Sow; 21, Bronx, New York
  • Mohamed Samake a/k/a “Ken”; 42, Newark, Delaware (arraigned today)
  • Tyja Evans; 39, Union, New Jersey
  • Adama Fofana; 53, Bronx, New York
  • Gbatta Jules Doua a/k/a “Marcel”; 39, Brooklyn, New York (arraigned today)
  • Derek Edwards; 32, Bronx, New York
  • Allen Robinson; 38, Bronx, New York (arraigned today)
  • Lamine Bah; 41, Bronx, New York (arraigned today)
  • Cheik Diallo, a/k/a “Omar”; 52, Bronx, New York (arraigned today)
  • Eddie Lee; 35, East Orange, New Jersey

The charges are the result of a long-term joint investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force and the New York City Police Department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau Auto Crime Division, with the assistance of the Office of Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, and the Port Authority Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Bureau.

The Attorney General thanks Hertz, Avis-Budget and Enterprise-Alamo-National for their cooperation in this matter.

The charges are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The investigation was jointly conducted by OCTF Senior Investigator Jose Rojas and Deputy Chief Investigator Chris Vasta, together with Detective Christopher Connolly, Officer Olivier Pasquet, Sergeant Kevin Gildea and Lieutenant Edward Donnelly of the New York City Police Department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau Auto Crime Division.  The Attorney General’s Investigations Bureau is led by Chief Investigator Dominick Zarella; The New York City Police Department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau Auto Crime Division is led by Captain Donald Boller.  Port Authority Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, Chief Matthew Wilson, Captain Hugh Johnson, and Detective Dave LeClaire assisted in this investigation.

The case is being prosecuted by Brandi S. Kligman and Deputy Bureau Chief Tarek Rahman. Deputy Attorney General Peri Alyse Kadanoff runs the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force and Kelly Donovan is the Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice.

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Statement of AGBU Central Board

July 18, 2020

AGBU is following with concern recent reports of a blatant violation of a ceasefire by the Azerbaijani armed forces in the direction of the Tavush region in Armenia.
With our worldwide membership and global network, AGBU stands behind the government and armed forces of Armenia and the people of Artsakh and calls upon the international community to condemn Azerbaijan’s unfounded military aggression, which threatens the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.


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See your GP for non-emergency conditions

A refreshed GPFirst public education campaign by CGH encourages the public to develop relationships with their GPs.

Changi General Hospital (CGH) has launched a refreshed GPFirst public education campaign to further encourage the public to visit their General Practitioners (GPs) for non-emergency medical conditions.

Started as a pilot in 2014, GPFirst is an initiative led by CGH to encourage patients to see a network of 205 GP partners as the primary physician to address the number of non-emergency self-referrals to the A&E department. The pilot project led to a reduction in non-emergency attendances at CGH.

“Since the launch of the GPFirst initiative in 2014, we are heartened to see a 10.5 percent reduction in non-emergency self-referrals at CGH’s A&E. However, for non-emergency conditions, there is a need to further engage the public to increase awareness of the types of medical conditions that can be treated by GPs. By reducing the number of non-emergency cases at our A&E, we can respond to emergency cases in a more timely manner,” said Adjunct Professor Lee Chien Earn, deputy group CEO, SingHealth Regional Health System and CEO, CGH.

Some of the non-emergency conditions include:
• Abdominal pain or indigestion.
• Cold and flu.
• Cuts and bruises.
• Fever.
• Headaches.
• Hives.
• Insect bites and stings.
• Mild burns and scalds.
• Nosebleeds.
• Sore eyes.
• Strains and sprains.

What is deemed as emergencies would include conditions that result in serious complications or death such as strokes, heart attacks and serious injuries.

While the GPFirst initiative aims to encourage patients to visit GPs for non-emergencies, patients who are initially assessed by partner GPs in the GPFirst programme to have more serious medical conditions and appropriately referred to CGH’s A&E Department, will have priority over those who present themselves directly to the A&E Department with minor conditions. Patients assessed by participating GPs as requiring emergency department care are also provided with a S$50 subsidy to offset their A&E bill, in recognition that they would have incurred charges at the GP clinic earlier.

Presently, CGH’s A&E still attends to many common medical conditions such as flu, sprains, acute tonsillitis, that GPs are well-qualified to treat. Adjunct Associate Professor Steven Lim, CGH’s chief of A&E said, “GPs are the recommended first line of care for those who are unwell in times of non-emergencies. We want to encourage more people to form and develop long-term relationships with their neighbourhood GPs. This will enable the GPs to have a more holistic understanding of the patient’s medical, social and care needs, and to better advise on the care required for the patient as an individual.”

For more information about the GPFirst initiative and information on the participating GPFirst clinics, go to: Updates are also provided via the Facebook page at

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Artisan Cheese
Artisan Cheese

Great news! There are three exciting wine and cheese events coming up this month, and I’ve got tickets to give away for one of them! Read on for more details.

On Wednesday, May 18th, Savvy Company is holding a Quebec Artisan Cheese Tasting at Thyme and Again in Westboro. Tickets are $60 each, and there are only a couple seats left, so you’ll need to act fast if you want to go.

On Wednesday, June 1st, Savvy Company is also holding a Taste and Buy event with the Wineries of Niagara-on-the-Lake. The event is taking place at the National Arts Centre’s Terrace Tent, with 26 wineries showcasing their latest releases of wine. Tickets are $45 when purchased before May 20th. Sounds like a great way to spend a Wednesday evening!

And finally, the Great Canadian Cheese Festival is being held in Prince Edward County from June 3rd-5th. From the festival’s website:

For the first time in Canada, The Great Canadian Cheese Festival brings together the country’s leading cheesemakers from coast-to-coast so cheese lovers can meet to learn, talk, taste and buy the best in artisan, farmstead and specialty cheese—and sample fine wine, craft beer and artisanal foods.

Last week I attended a media launch in Ottawa for this event, and got a preview of what attendees will be enjoying at the festival. Delicious samples included chutney from Major Craig’s (an Ottawa company), craft beer from Beau’s Brewery (in Vankleek Hill), cheese from Ontario and Quebec, and wine from Karlo Estates, one of Prince Edward County’s newest wineries. These are just a few of the vendors who will be at the event.

The Great Canadian Cheese Festival has events on all 3 days, but I’d like to highlight two in particular. The first is the All-Day Cheese Tour on Friday, June 3rd. Attendees will visit Black River Cheese and Fifth Town Artisan Cheese, with stops at cow and dairy goat farms along the way. Having spent the last year digging up almost every agritourism opportunity in the Ottawa region, I can tell you that working dairy farms are rarely open to the public, due to the need for a bio-secure environment. So this is a very special and rare type of tour, one that makes it worth it to take Friday off work to attend (and who doesn’t like taking Friday off anyway?)

The other event I want to highlight is the Cheese Fair and Artisan Food Market on Sunday, June 5th. This family-friendly event will feature over 100 cheeses, County wine and Ontario craft beer, and artisanal foods from Ontario producers. Tickets are $40 ($30 in advance), but one lucky reader of this blog will win 2 FREE tickets!

Here’s how to enter to win:

Leave a comment below, with the name of your favourite Canadian cheese, preferably with the company name, but even just the type of cheese is fine too. I will randomly select the winner from the entries. This is an $80 value, and you have a very good chance of winning!

The last day to enter will be Tuesday, May 17th. I will announce the winner on the 18th.

To reduce spam on this blog, I moderate all comments. So it may take up to a day for your comment to appear, but rest assured, you have been entered!

Special thanks to Odonata Marketing and The Great Canadian Cheese Festival for supplying the tickets for this giveaway!

And the winner is… Troy Stewart! Congratulations Troy! Odonata Marketing will be in touch with you to give you your tickets.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest. So many great cheese suggestions to check out! As for myself, I think my favourite is the smoked cheddar from Maple Dale Cheese. But it’s a close tie with the goat feta from Fromageries les Folies Bergères in Quebec.


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Profile: Braulio Mariscal

“Let’s grow safety together, because safety is all about our lives”
Email Braulio

Braulio Mariscal is one of AgSafeBC’s Safety Advisors. He works throughout the Lower Mainland, providing assistance to agricultural employers in English and Spanish.

Braulio Mariscal, a Spanish speaker with a degree in International Studies, worked in the Seasonal Agriculture Workers Program (SAWP) in the Consulate General of Mexico for more than four years. During this period, he visited many employers with different cultural backgrounds and regions in BC, liaised between workers, employers, Canadian and Mexican authorities, which allowed him to understand the challenges of this industry. He also participated in health and safety projects for thousands of SAWP workers. Braulio found a new passion with this experience, and decided to pursue a diploma in Occupational Health and Safety at BCIT.

He was determined to go back to agriculture, so his school projects were related to some of the most important concerns in this industry, such as confined spaces, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and pesticides. He also did a safety program review in a greenhouse company. Moreover, Braulio translated and got familiar with various AgSafe training programs, tools and resources as he worked for AgSafe in the summertime of 2017.

Braulio likes to think that safety is nurtured and taken care by everyone, just like the plants we grow. He would like to invite everybody: “Let’s grow safety together, because safety is all about our lives”.


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Note: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, all History courses in the Fall 2020 term will be delivered online. No History classes at VIU will have any on-campus components.

Message from the Chair

Why Study History?

In today’s technology-driven culture, ideas or items from earlier generations are often dismissed or denigrated, yet knowledge and understanding of the past remains as crucial as ever. As a wise First Nations elder recently put it, “We may think we’re through with the past, but is the past through with us?” The answer, of course, is an emphatic no!  We can have no real understanding of an individual, family, neighbourhood, or nation if we know nothing of their respective pasts. Without historical context, we live in perpetual ignorance, and the consequences of that are rarely positive.

With that in mind, students of history have an important and exciting task as they attempt to document the complexities of human existence. It is, in some respects, a daunting challenge, but, from ancient times, there have always been those who worked to preserve the ‘stories’ of their people. Those who study and write history are part of that legacy; and, while the human story is vast and complex, the immensity of the subject also creates opportunities. Today, more than ever, historians, both professional and amateur, are examining the human condition from an ever-growing variety of alternative perspectives. Each sheds new light on who we are as a people, generates debate and disagreement, and keeps History an interactive and ever-evolving discipline. Come share your perspective!

What the VIU History Department Can Offer You

Reflecting the embrace of new historical approaches, our department offers a wide array of courses that explore a gamut of diverse topics, ranging from politics, war and genocide to childhood, European film, and the place of hockey in Canadian culture. The VIU History department is also home to the nationally acclaimed Canadian Letters and Images Project (CLIP). Founded by our own Dr. Stephen Davies, CLIP is an online archive of the Canadian war experience, as told by the letters and images of many of those who fought for this nation, with the largest collections dating from the First and Second World Wars. We are particularly proud of the fact that CLIP provides significant numbers of our students, working as both volunteers and paid research assistants, with an unparalleled opportunity to have hands-on experience working with primary historical sources, experience that has helped many gain entry into graduate programs across the country.

Another exciting student work opportunity has arisen now that VIU History has become the North American editorial base for the internationally renowned journal Gender & History. Department members Dr. Cheryl Warsh, Dr. Cathryn Spence, and Dr. Katharine Rollwagen head the editorial team, and they employ two student editorial assistants each year. This provides a truly unique opportunity to learn about the world of academic publishing.

Our department also takes great pride in the superior quality of instruction we deliver. All our faculty members are excellent teachers who thrive within the small class setting VIU is known for; we truly enjoy engaging with students as individuals. You are never just a student number here; our first priority is allowing you to develop the academic and personal skills that can lead to success in a wide variety of careers such as education, law, heritage, journalism, marketing, public service, and the film and video game industries, to name just a few. Come make history with us!

Timothy D. Lewis, Ph.D

What Can You Do With A Degree in History?

The Canadian Historical Association has addressed this question. As the profiles on the website show, you can do more with a History Degree than you think, precisely because historical training teaches you how to think, analyze, communicate, write, organize and create. History nurtures our curiosity, our openness to new ways of understanding our world, both past and present. As we read, research and write about history, we question taken-for-granted ideas, assess the complexities of social change, dissect evidence and sources, and probe the why, when, and how of human evolution across temporal, spatial and global boundaries.

Like other Humanities and Social Sciences degrees, History is a passport to many opportunities and careers, especially those involving problem solving, creative intelligence and excellent communication and writing skills. Some students use their History degree as a pathway to further training (such as law), but others employ the skills and knowledge acquired with a BA to work in areas such as heritage and museums, business, government, policy, advocacy, politics, non-profits – to name only a few areas. Not only do studies show that a university degree in History/Humanities opens up employment opportunities, but historical knowledge, ever changing, ever debatable, ever fascinating, is also our invitation to lifelong curiosity, learning and reflection.

CLOSE X History


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Bryan Stovell

Bryan retired from a 35-year career as a music educator in Nanaimo. Since ‘retiring,’ he has taught Jazz Theory and Improvisation in the Vancouver Island University Music Department.  He directs the Nanaimo Musicians' Association Big Band.

Bryan’s school bands won many provincial and national awards; and his groups performed in Japan, the United States, various countries in Europe, and every major city in Canada. Many of his former students are professional musicians and music educators, the best known being international stars Diana Krall, Ingrid Jensen, and Christine Jensen.

Bryan is a Music Fest Canada Hall of Fame member and recipient of the Marshall McLuhan Distinguished Teacher Award for both BC and Canada; upon his retirement he was honoured by the BC Music Educators’ Association with its Professional Music Educator Award. He is former chairman of the Concert Band and Orchestra division of Music Fest Canada and sits on the Festival’s board of directors.

What Bryan enjoys most is working with music students of all ages.


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All items in category Project Articles. November 27, by Kirk Elliott. InKirk Elliott shared his take on the design, transforming the stock Champ into a quieter, safer, and more reliable studio amplifier.

Items about: Project Articles – p 3 | audioXpress

This article was originally published in Glass Audio Volume 4, Number 2, November 16, by Jack Walton. An ideal project for the DIY enthusiasts. The Audio Voice Newsletter. November 11, by Michael Rothacher. He wanted a versatile preamplifier that would work well in a variety of 20007, and which could fit conveniently in a suitcase.

Audio Express AudioXpress Magazine October 2007 Hobby Audio Technology

This article was originally published in audioXpress, April October 21, by Bruce W. Bruce Brown explains his successful method of rebuilding a vintage W-7 tube amplifier from Heathkit.

This article was originally published in audioXpress, May October 12, by George Ntanavaras. Here is a simple portable device from George Ntanavaras that can help answer the question about peak voltage and peak current requirements and whether or not your power amplifier is capable of driving your loudspeaker without clipping.

October 7, by Erno Borbely. Erno Borbely shares with us his all-FET audio amplifier design. This article was published in audioXpress, May September 2, by Tadaatsu Atarashi.

This article first appeared in the Japanese magazine Radio Technology, December It was published by audioXpress in March August 20, by Jenoe Keceli. When we connect audio components, interference may occur from various power and signal grounds.

This circuit enables the full galvanic isolation of sound frequency signals with optical transmission in excellent quality, eliminating interference. This article was originally published in audioXpress October July 15, by Joseph Norwood Still.

A ajdioxpress tube-based amplifier for phono and line sources, featuring a very subtle bass enhancement control using negative feedback to enhance only selected frequencies, below Hz.

As the author described, a great project for discriminating audiophiles. June 24, by Bjorn Johannesen. This article was published in audioXpress, March and the 22007 were simply spectacular, generating worldwide interest.


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Welcome to Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI)

The Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) was founded in 1970 through the initiative of the Norwegian and Swedish Save the Children organizations seconded by the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia. The Institute got its name from the Norwegian physician, Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen, who first described the leprosy bacillus (Mycobacterium leprae). AHRI was established as a biomedical research institute located next to the All Africa Leprosy Rehabilitation and Training Hospital (ALERT).

AHRI acknowledges receiving core-funding from Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation(Norad) in addition to Ethiopian Government contribution, which it uses to support among other things students' research within the scope of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) programme. These include epidemiological and social studies for characterisation of poverty-related and neglected diseases.

News & Updates

AHRI celebrated 2016 world TB day under the themes of ‘reach the missed’ & ‘Enough Death Due to TB: Access All.'
April 18, 2016 - 10:24

The Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) situated in ALERT Center Addis Ababa,Ethiopia on Saturday, March19, 2016 called upon the societal associations like Idir and high school outstanding students to be watchful and contribute in halting the possible transmission of a bacterial disease, Tuberculosis (TB) especially, the Drug Resistant TB (DR-TB).

Read more
AHRI has given a course on ‘Molecular Modeling’
August 20, 2015 - 14:46

The Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI)has given a course on ‘Molecular Modeling’ from 22-24 July 2014 in collaboration with Orebro University in Sweden.

Read more
Team members training the regional staff on Leishmania culture and smear microscopy
August 20, 2015 - 12:45

Leishmania Malaria and Neglected Tropical Disease teams provides free professional services: The team identified the need, established Leishmania culture capacity and trained staffs at the Bahir Dar, Amhara Regional laboratory.

Read more


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Aviation Attorney Arthur Wolk says a recent emergency airworthiness directive may explain what could have caused crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501.

The latest word from the Government of Indonesia is that the cause of the crash was entry into a thunderstorm that resulted in so much ice accumulations that one or more engines failed and the airplane stalled.

Any ice accumulation sufficient to shut down one of these engines would literally have to be so large that it covered the entire engine inlet. The aircraft is equipped with inlet heat to prevent just such an accumulation which has never happened even without inlet heat. The inlet is about 6 feet around.

Large ice accumulations if the heat was off could cause foreign object damage to an engine but it would take far more than one engine being damaged to cause the loss of this airplane.

Loss of an engine simply means the crew must descend to a lower altitude but this crew ascended so power was available and thus the engine didn’t fail.

An aerodynamic stall that apparently is misunderstood by the Government official is also virtually impossible due to a single engine failure.

The remaining engine  has more than enough power to maintain flight albeit at a lower altitude.

The Emergency Airworthiness Directive issued December 10th says that ice can prevent angle of attack sensors from operating, pitch the airplane nose down and prevent the sidestick controllers from allowing the crew to pull out of a dive. That scenario is far more likely as is a breakup due to turbulence.

If the pitot tubes used to provide airspeed data to the computers iced up, the aircraft can stall due to misinformation provided to the flight control system.

The current theory appears to be generated from industry representatives attempting to establish pilot error as the cause rather than airplane defect. That undue influence on investigators happens all the time.

If they don’t figure out or disclose or fix how the airplane’s computer architecture contributes to these accidents, they will continue to occur.

The weather was bad, and perhaps the crew should have refused to take the flight but Airbus needs to be transparent about how pilots need to have the last word how the airplane operates not the computers that interface with them.

Arthur Alan Wolk

January 4, 2015

Analyis of voice recorder reveals disagreement regarding procedures to be followed

PHILADELPHIA – (01/22/1999) According to Philadelphia aviation attorney, Arthur Alan Wolk, analysis of the cockpit voice recorder of Swissair 111 reveals a disagreement between the captain and first officer on the appropriate procedures to be followed when smoke began filling the cockpit.

The first officer recommended that the aircraft be landed immediately, and the captain declined that recommendation. That decision was fatal to the crew and all the passengers aboard.

Fire in an aircraft cabin is one of the most serious emergencies that can affect an aircraft in-flight. An emergency descent and landing is the only procedure that can save the aircraft. There was nothing to prevent Swissair 111 from making a safe landing within minutes of the first discovery of smoke, and nothing would have presented any danger to the passengers or crew by landing slightly overweight on a runway that was more than ample.

It is sad that so many lost their lives, but hopefully this will remove any doubt from any airline and from any flight crew that smoke in an aircraft is not a time for a majority vote; it’s the time for the fastest possible emergency landing at the nearest airport, regardless of the circumstances.

Although immediately following the crash Swissair denied that such a landing was possible, analysis of procedures in the MD-11 flight manual reveal that such a landing at Halifax could have been safely made within seven minutes of the discovery of smoke — about half the time the aircraft remained airborne after that discovery.

Other parts of the investigation may reveal that electronic engine controls need to be isolated from electrical faults so that loss of engine power does not complicate the emergency landing process. There is much more to be learned from the investigation of this crash, but one thing is certain — there is neither adequate means nor training currently available to fight a fire in an aircraft in-flight, in spite of the well-worn but true statement “where there’s smoke there’s fire.”


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Jada Star and Barry J
  • Payin' My Dues
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  • Payin' My Dues
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  • Cover Art For Our Debut Album
  • Performing for guests at the Dreammore Resort in Pigeon Forge, TN on October 11, 2018
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