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North Carolina’s ag-gag law is an affront to human decency

By Gene Baur, Farm Sanctuary President & Co-Founder

In 1986, while investigating Lancaster Stockyards in Pennsylvania, I found a living sheep collapsed among the carcasses of the stockyard’s “dead pile.” She was a “downer,” an animal too sick or weak to stand, and she had been left there to die. She was the first animal rescued by Farm Sanctuary, then a fledgling advocacy organization. We named her Hilda, and we shared her story, illustrated by a photograph of her lying on that dead pile.

Hilda inspired us to intensify our investigations of Lancaster Stockyards, where we discovered that the mistreatment and neglect of downers was business as usual. We organized a protest, which garnered media attention and exposed the stockyard’s disregard for animal welfare. The public was outraged, and Lancaster Stockyards was compelled to announce that it would humanely euthanize downed animals instead of leaving them to suffer on its premises. By documenting and publicizing conditions at this facility, we were able to bring about necessary reforms.

Were I to advocate in the same way for an animal like Hilda today in North Carolina, I would be committing a criminal act.

What You Need to Know about Avian Flu

By Susie Coston, National Shelter Director

Three states — Minnesota, Wisconsin and now Iowa– have proclaimed a state of emergency, with millions of commercial birds believed to be infected by avian influenza. The death count is multiplying by the day and it’s estimated we’ll see 20 million birds destroyed overall as a result of the worst bird flu outbreak to strike the U.S. since the 1980s. Here’s what you need to know about this disease.

Chickens raised for slaughter

What is avian influenza?
Avian influenza (AI), or bird flu, refers to a number of viruses that infect birds. The viruses are classified as either low pathogenicity (LPAI), which causes a relatively mild illness, or high pathogenicity (HPAI), and results in severe illness.

Beginning in December 2014, HPAI was found in ducks in the Pacific Northwest, marking the first time in years that it had been detected in the U.S. Since then, multiple HPAI strains have infected flocks of domestic birds in multiple states. Strains H5N8 and H5N1 infected flocks on the West Coast, where the disease now appears to be dying down somewhat due to hot, dry conditions. Strain H5N2 is currently raging through the Midwest and making its way east.

The CDC reports that the strains of AI currently active in the U.S. pose a very low risk to humans. Among birds, however, they are highly contagious and in most cases fatal.

Where has AI spread?

Note: Detected refers to non-commercial findings. Estimates as of May 1, 2015.

As NPR reports, Minnesota has been hit hardest, with close to 50 flocks affected, but the disease has struck many other states as well.

Wherever the virus is found, USDA and state officials kill the entire flock in order to contain the disease. The standard culling method is to fill the housing buildings with a water-based foam that suffocates the birds to death.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) designates this method as an appropriate means of “mass depopulation,” defined as “methods by which large numbers of animals must be destroyed quickly and efficiently with as much consideration given to the welfare of the animals as practicable, but where the circumstances and tasks facing those doing the depopulation are understood to be extenuating.” This endorsement tells you much less about the type of death delivered by the foam — which is undoubtedly horrid — than it does about the abysmal standards of welfare that pass as acceptable in an industry predicated on mass confinement and slaughter. By raising birds in groups of tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or millions, producers create conditions in which humane euthanasia, or humane treatment of any sort for that matter, is impossible. The circumstances are “extenuating” by design.

In the U.S., more than 15.1 million domestic birds have been killed due to AI detections since the beginning of March 2015. Here’s a state-by-state breakdown of reported detections and cullings:

Minnesota: As of April 27, the virus has been detected in at least 46 turkey farms, and at least 2.7 million turkeys have been killed. The virus also has been detected in a facility raising chickens for meat and a laying hen facility, resulting in a total of over 500,000 chickens in Minnesota being killed. Additionally 150 turkeys belonging to a backyard flock were killed.

Iowa: There have been eight detections resulting in a total of almost 10 million deaths. At two turkey farms, a total of 61,000 turkeys were killed. At each of two egg facilities, 3.8 million hens were killed, and at another three egg facilities and a pullet farm a total of 2.3 million chickens were killed.

Wisconsin: There have been eight detections. At two egg facilities, a total of 980,000 chickens were killed. At five turkey facilities, 467,500 turkeys were killed. In a backyard flock, 40 mixed-breed chickens were killed.

South Dakota: AI was detected at six turkey farms, and 285,000 turkeys were killed.

North Dakota: AI was detected at two turkey farms. At the two facilities, 109,000 turkeys were killed. An additional 2,000 chickens also were killed at one of the facilities.

Arkansas: AI was detected at one turkey farm, where 40,000 turkeys were killed.

Missouri: AI was detected at two turkey farms, where 52,000 turkeys were killed.

Kansas: A low pathogenic strain of AI was detected in a commercial poultry facility in Kansas. The species and total number of birds affected were not released. An unknown number of ducks and chickens in a backyard flock also were killed.

California: There have been five detections including two wild ducks. At two turkey farms, 206,000 turkeys were killed (at one of these facilities, only a low-pathogenicity strain was found; nonetheless all of the facilities’ turkeys were killed). At one “broiler” chicken and duck facility, 114,000 birds were killed.

In addition to the states listed above, AI has been detected in the following states in wild migratory waterfowl, captive wild birds (such as falcons), and/or backyard flocks:

New Mexico

AI has also been found in Ontario and in British Columbia, where it was first detected in December 2014, before we were tracking the spread of the disease. The total number of birds affected at turkey and chicken facilities in British Columbia is reported to have been 250,000. In Ontario, the virus has been found in two turkey facilities and one facility raising chickens for meat with a total of 52,800 turkeys killed and 27,000 chickens killed.

Please check our Farm Animal Adoption Network (FAAN) Facebook page for updates. We continue to track new outbreaks. The disease is still spreading. This is an epidemic.

How has AI spread?
AI is spread in two ways: 1) directly from bird to bird, and 2) through contact with the manure of an infected bird. AI can be spread by equipment, vehicles, clothing, and other materials that have come into contact with the manure of infected birds. This includes, for instance, the shoes of someone who has walked by a lake where infected ducks have left droppings. (Additionally, some researchers have speculated that strong winds blowing infected debris into animal housing may have contributed to the broad reach of HPAI in Minnesota; however, biosecurity failures are still believed to be the primary cause of the Minnesota outbreak.)

The spread of the virus has been linked to wild migratory birds, especially ducks and geese. Typically asymptomatic, these birds are able to carry the disease from area to area and shed it in their droppings. In domestic birds, especially turkeys, HPAI induces a ghastly and highly lethal disease.

Why have so many birds died?
While the migrations of wild birds help account for the broad geographical reach of this epidemic, it is industrial farming practices that account for the staggering mortality. The reason 3.8 million birds fell victim to AI in a single Iowa facility is because there were 3.8 million birds in a single facility.

Keeping large numbers of animals together, especially in the intensely crowded conditions characteristic of factory farms, leaves those animals highly vulnerable to disease. (In fact, these conditions may even create breeding grounds for new strains of diseases. Learn more about factory farming and disease.)

Battery Cages

Ironically, factory farm proponents have long cited biosecurity as a justification for keeping large numbers of animals confined in buildings with no outdoor access. As we’ve seen in this epidemic, biosecurity at these facilities is failing, and the confinement practices that ostensibly enable tight biosecurity are instead dooming millions of birds to disease and culling.

What is Farm Sanctuary doing to protect its shelter birds?
When HPAI appeared in California, we took immediate action to protect the birds at our shelters in Orland and Acton. We suspended visitor access to bird areas and instituted a “no birds in, no birds out” policy at both shelters. This means, unfortunately, that we cannot perform any bird rescues involving these locations while the HPAI risk remains high.

We have isolated our shelter birds from contaminants using tight-weave shade tarps, which keep wild fowl out of our bird areas and also prevent their feces from dropping into those areas as they fly over. We have also had to close off our ponds to the birds — ponds are the areas that pose the greatest risk of infection from wild waterfowl, who often land on open water to swim and eat.

All staff members at these shelters must now don special ISO gear and use foot baths when entering any bird area, and they are advised to change into different shoes upon entering the shelter in general from the outside, as an extra precaution. Additionally, all staff members are trained to identify signs of disease, both in our resident birds and in any wild birds in the area.

New York
As yet there have been no reported cases of HPAI east of Wisconsin, but it has reportedly been found in wild birds and/or backyard flocks. That said, the disease could spread further as waterfowl continue their spring migrations. We are following the movement of the disease closely and remain in constant contact with our vets. Currently, we are working with our avian vet at Cornell to review and update our AI protocols.

The Watkins Glen shelter has a large population of chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese belonging to many distinct flocks that must be kept separate. Implementing the strict biosecurity measures necessary to protect them all from AI would be a massive effort. We want to allow the birds to have a semblance of the life they enjoy at our sanctuaries while still being safe from this disease.

We are dedicated to maintaining the strictest biosecurity at all of our shelters in the path of HPAI. These measures are crucial not only to safeguard our birds from disease but also to avoid giving the USDA any grounds for demanding that our shelter birds be culled if the epidemic continues to spread, worsen, or spread to other species.

Farmers have a strong economic incentive to protect their flocks, but for us this is personal. We know each turkey, each chicken, each duck, and each goose at our shelters as an individual with a name and a personality. They are our friends. The millions of deaths resulting from HPAI, like the billions of deaths resulting from the consumption of meat and eggs each year, are catastrophic. But HPAI also represents a catastrophe for each individual bird: the ultimate devastation of losing one’s life. To us, the cause of each bird in our care is urgent and worthy of our very best efforts.

What Can I Do to Protect My Birds from AI?
We’ll say it again: This is an epidemic. Proper biosecurity is crucial for the protection of your own backyard flock and the birds in your area. If you care for any birds such as turkeys, chickens, ducks, or geese, please stay updated on the spread of the disease and be prepared to implement quarantine measures if it nears your area. You can check our FAAN Facebook page for the latest on AI outbreaks.

PreventativeMeasures_AI_IG_blog-01 (1)

Read more on AI from the USDA.

* According to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), birds infected with AI may exhibit one or more of the following symptoms:

  • sudden death without clinical signs
  • lack of energy and appetite
  • decreased egg production
  • soft-shelled or misshapen eggs
  • swelling of the head, eyelids, comb, wattles, and hocks
  • purple discoloration of wattles, combs, and legs
  • nasal discharge
  • coughing and sneezing
  • lack of coordination
  • diarrhea

How can I help?

Donate now-blogWe’ve already incurred costs from securing our California shelters against avian influenza. If the disease nears our New York Shelter, the expense of protecting our birds there will be much greater. With your help, we can keep them safe. Please donate now.

5 Ways Our Adoption Network Saves Animals

By Susie Coston, National Shelter Director

Farm Sanctuary operates the largest farm-animal rescue and refuge network in North America. The Farm Animal Adoption Network (FAAN) encompasses hundreds of individual adopters, as well as fellow rescue and shelter groups, and has a presence in nearly every U.S. state.

Providing wonderful, lifelong homes, the network allows us to make space at our shelters for new arrivals and also to undertake large-scale operations like last year’s rescue of more than 300 “spent” egg-laying hens. FAAN is an impressive example of what we can do when work together.

An animal rescued by Farm Sanctuary has sanctuary for life. Here’s are five things that set our Farm Animal Adoption Network apart:

1. We put farm animals first.

Because the animals we rescue are viewed by most people as food sources, we must be especially careful that they don’t fall into the wrong hands. We don’t advertise on sites like Craigslist or Petfinder. Nor do we advertise at feed stores or anywhere else where these animals might be associated with food production. We screen adopters thoroughly to be sure they are both committed to and capable of providing excellent, lifelong care.

We also never promote our animals by referring to qualities that could be exploited, like egg-laying for ducks, geese, and hens or “lawn-mowing” and brush removal for goats and sheep. Doing so might bring in more applicants, but they would be applicants who see these animals as a means to some end. These animals suffered in exploitative circumstances before their rescue, and they never will again. We insist that adopters treat their adopted animals as companions.

2. Health matters.

The FAAN application process involves a review of the housing and outdoor areas to be provided to the adopted animals, as well as personal and veterinary references.

Because the animals we rescue often face health complications due to industrial breeding and raising practices, we insist that adopters have access to appropriate veterinary services. Chickens bred for egg production, for instance, are prone to a slew of reproductive-tract ailments, from blockages to cancer. Though we adopt out only the healthiest of the chickens we rescue, access to expert care and treatment is still crucial for all the adoptees. Part of the process of adopting these special-needs animals into homes is teaching adopters how to care for them.

3. We go the distance.

We transport animals to their adoptive homes ourselves. This not only ensures that the journey is safe and comfortable for the animals but also allows us to evaluate their new homes in person.

We’ll bring animals to the homes that are best for them, even if those homes are hundreds of miles away. Take, for example, the four pigs we recently transported from our New York Shelter all the way to a shelter in Florida.

Our many long-distance and interstate adoptions require careful preparations. Out-of-state adoptions also require testing and health certificates for specific diseases, which vary by destination state. Following these laws is imperative for the safety of the animals, since animals transported illegally can be confiscated and destroyed for testing.

4. We follow up.

Though adopted animals are living outside our shelters, they’re still part of the Farm Sanctuary family. Placement Coordinator Alicia Pell checks in with new adopters to make sure everything is going smoothly, and with the help of National Shelter Director Susie Coston, she regularly fields questions from adopters new and old about healthcare, behavior, and resources.

Many adopters have come to the sanctuary to learn even more about basic healthcare for their new family members, and many have attended our Farm Animal Care Conference, offered every September.

National Shelter Director Susie Coston provides in-depth instruction at our Farm Animal Care Conference.

5. We realize not every animal should be adopted.

Our rescued animals are survivors of abuse and neglect, which can leave them with persistent health challenges, or even special emotional needs, for the rest of their lives. For some, these difficulties require the sort of accommodations, monitoring, and care that can be provided only at our shelters .

Samantha, who requires a prosthetic leg, will always live at our New York Shelter so she lives in close proximity to expert medical care.

No sanctuary can make a sizeable dent in the number of farm animals slaughtered in this country, which is now over nine billion per year. What we can do is give wonderful lives to the animals we are able to save and do so by treating them as we would our own companion animals- as an individual. Each is important in his or her own right, as an ambassador and a thinking, feeling individual.

Care to learn more about home adoption? Farm Sanctuary is always on the lookout for great adopters. We’re happy to help you figure out what sort of adoption is right for you and what you need to do to get ready. Visit our adoption page for more info or to fill out an application.

The Truth about Foie Gras: Part 1

An interview with Bruce Friedrich, Senior Policy Director
– Staff writer

On July 1, 2012, after an eight-year waiting period, California became the first U.S. state to outlaw the production of foie gras and the only place in the world where its sale is illegal. This development was a milestone for Farm Sanctuary and our allies; we have been fighting to draw attention to the horrible abuse involved in foie gras production for decades.

French for “fatty liver,” foie gras is the diseased, fat-engorged liver of a duck or goose. Foie gras producers force-feed their birds large quantities of corn and fat by thrusting a metal tube down their throats and pumping meal directly into their stomachs two to three times a day for several weeks. At the end of this period, with livers swollen eight to ten times the normal size, the birds who have not already died from collateral injuries or ailments are slaughtered.

We sat down with Senior Policy Director Bruce Friedrich and National Shelter Director Susie Coston to find out the essential information about the industry, its victims and survivors, and the progress we’re making to end this incredibly cruel practice. In Part 1, Bruce fills us in on the issues.

What are the main challenges facing opponents of foie gras production?
Relatively few ducks are raised for foie gras compared to the numbers of hens used for eggs and chickens for meat. Many people have never even heard of foie gras, and those who have heard of it often aren’t aware of the cruelty involved in production.

Inside a foie gras facility.

What are some of the arguments put forward by proponents of foie gras, and how do you respond to these?
The most common defense is to talk in general terms about “freedom” and the “choice” to eat whatever we please. The second most common argument is to point out the abuses that occur in other food industries and to claim that banning foie gras represents class discrimination in that it primarily affects the wealthy, who are its predominant consumers. Foie gras proponents also argue that ducks naturally gorge themselves and that force-feeding, therefore, mimics nature.

We reframe the “freedom” and “choice” argument from abstract language to specific. Everyone generally supports individual freedoms, but almost no one thinks that you should be able to choose to abuse dogs and cats. When we speak specifically about the abuse foie gras entails, most consumers agree with us that it should be illegal. Few people think it’s acceptable to cram pipes down animals’ throats and to induce a horribly painful disease — and that’s what foie gras does and is.

Regarding class discrimination, we point out that this rationale is simply an attempt to avoid the issue. People who are unwilling to discuss the reality of the actual practices of foie gras are in a pretty sorry rhetorical position. And, of course, supporters of foie gras bans oppose the worst abuses in all food industries, not just foie gras, including extreme confinement systems, inhumane methods of poultry slaughter, and many more.

Finally, on the issue of whether gorging is natural, we point to the overwhelming scientific evidence that indicates that it’s not natural for ducks and geese to eat so much that their livers swell to ten times their natural size. And, of course, in a natural environment, they don’t eat so much that their death rate rises, let alone skyrockets in the way it does during foie gras production. Force-fed ducks die at 10 to 20 times the rate of non-force-fed ducks, according to a European Union study — and that was in a controlled environment.

Canadian_foie_gras_486x280yScientific studies have found that foie gras birds suffer from impaired liver function, skeletal disorders, and other serious illnesses. Many becoming so sick they can barely move. See this article for more on the scientific indictment of the foie gras industry.
Foie gras proponents also argue that ducks do not react aversely to force-feeding. That claim is belied by a large body of undercover video collected by multiple groups over the past two decades, which provides ample footage of ducks clearly struggling in pain as the pipes are thrust down their throats.

Investigations have uncovered, among other horrors, cramped and filthy living conditions; ducks with gruesome, untreated injuries such as broken bills and neck wounds; ducks with organs damaged or ruptured by force-feeding; workers roughly handling and brutally killing ducks; and barrels full of dead ducks. This video, for example, was recorded by an investigator working undercover at one facility (be warned, it includes graphic footage of suffering and death).

Hudson_Valley_NY_foie_gras_486x280What is the current state of foie gras legislation and legal action nationally? Are there any bills pending?
Foie gras is banned in California, and we are working with our friends at the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Compassion Over Killing (COK) on a national solution by suing the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ban foie gras based on the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA). Under PPIA, the USDA is responsible for condemning products derived from diseased birds, which foie gras ducks and geese certainly are. Hepatic lipidosis, the condition purposefully induced by force-feeding, is a disease.

Has the California ban proved effective? Are chefs defying it or exploiting loopholes to a significant degree?
The ban has been very effective. Although a few chefs are having temper tantrums and attempting to skirt the law (for instance, by giving foie gras away instead of selling it), the vast majority of places that offered it before no longer do. And, the one foie gras producer in California — one of three in the nation — has ceased foie gras production altogether.

Does the implementation of the California ban pave the way for bans elsewhere?
We are hopeful that California’s move will be the end of foie gras in the United States. Our friends at the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Animal Protection and Rescue League, in particular, are doing some great work to relegate this product of torture to the dust bin of history. California was the number one market for foie gras in this country by far. The state has taken a powerful stance that will continue to resonate.

In Part 2, Susie Coston introduces some of the ducks of Farm Sanctuary who have found refuge from the foie gras industry, including Harper and Kohl, Monet and Matisse, and three of our newest residents: Ellen, Carrie, Emily, and Kristen. She describes the gentle care they receive to treat their sick and abused bodies and to overcome their tremendous fear of humans.

Wal-Mart Harms Animals, Ignores Science

By Bruce Friedrich

There is a battle going on between animal protection advocates and the pork industry over “gestation crates,” the 2-foot by 7-foot cages that confine about 80 percent of the United States’ 5.5 million breeding pigs. In these crates, pregnant pigs are unable to engage in most of their most important natural behaviors. They’re never able to turn around or even lie down comfortably, day and night, for their entire lives.

Honey, escaped life in a gestation crate during the flooding of the Mississippi River in 2008. She now lives at our New York Shelter.

Over the past decade, nine states have banned the crates — most recently, Rhode Island, after lobbying by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the ASPCA, and Farm Sanctuary. Building on our legislative success, HSUS has convinced a long list of corporate behemoths to phase out the systems, from Smithfield Foods, Oscar Mayer, and Hormel to Costco and Burger King.

When a practice is so cruel that Smithfield Foods agrees it has to go, you have to wonder who might be foolish enough to defend it. In fact, our campaign has been so successful that a former stalwart defender of crates, agricultural scientist Ted Friend from Texas A&M, has called on pork producers to stop their “kicking and screaming” and to recognize that a crate phase-out is simply “another inevitable change.”

Wal-Mart: Ignores the Science and Defends Cruelty to Animals.
Mercy for Animals documented their investigation into a Wal-Mart supplier. The following video shows in graphic detail just how bad these crates really are. Please watch.

I’ve attempted several times, without success, to secure a response from Wal-Mart concerning their continued use of gestation crates in their supply chain. In an online response to the allegations of abuse, the company calls crate use “a complicated issue” with tenable arguments “on both sides.” This statement simply isn’t true, and it ignores the findings of scientific studies on the effects of gestation crate confinement on pigs.

Julia was pregnant when she rescued from a life of confinement in a gestation crate, and cruel abuse, in a factory farm in New York. She now lives at our New York Shelter with her children.

The Scientific Consensus
The science is not in dispute: immobilization of pigs in crates is highly damaging for them, both mentally and physically.

There are a host of physical problems that result from crate confinement, each of which represents extreme suffering for pigs. First, the animals’ muscles and bones waste away so severely from lack of use that walking becomes excruciating; even standing up can be painful. Second, because the animals rub against the bars of their crates and lie in their own excrement all day and night, they suffer painful ammonia burns on their skin, and their lungs become raw from breathing putrid air. Third, the animals are in a constant state of starvation because they are fed about half of what they would normally consume. Fourth, due to lack of exercise and decreased water consumption, many sows suffer from urinary tract infections (UTIs), which are associated with a high mortality rate. For source information on each of these issues, check out this scientific report from the Humane Society of the United States.

The situation is no better in terms of the animals’ mental health: Pigs have cognitive and emotional capacities beyond those of dogs, and, in some areas, they outperform even chimpanzees. So it’s no surprise that they suffer mental and emotional anguish when they’re unable to move for most of their lives. Meat industry consultant Dr. Temple Grandin states unequivocally what the science proves — that animals need companionship every bit as much as humans do; they love to play, they experience joy, and more. Every one of these natural desires is impossible to experience when they are confined in tiny crates. The relentless stress and frustration routinely leads to mental instability in these animals, who chew maniacally on the bars in frustration causing their mouths to bleed from cuts and sores.

Nikki also had been confined in a gestation crate when she was pregnant. Like Honey, she escaped during floods and gave birth on a levee. She was rescued and now lives at our New York Shelter with her children.

At Farm Sanctuary, we spend our lives with farm animals, and we wouldn’t eat them regardless of their treatment prior to slaughter. There is no moral or rational difference between consuming a dog or a pig, a cat or a chicken.

But we also work to eliminate the worst abuses of farm animals, and it’s hard to imagine anything worse than gestation crates; immobilizing animals for their entire lives qualifies, without a touch of hyperbole, as torture.

Please take action now to pressure Wal-Mart to stop its support for cruelty to animals.

A Foul State of Affairs: The Hidden Harm of Factory Farms in North Carolina

By Gene

Factory farms have a lot to hide. We’ve all seen undercover footage exposing the horrendous treatment suffered by industry animals that a few brave individuals are able to bring light (as with the recent case involving dairy cow abuse by Central Valley Meat Co. in central California). Perhaps less obvious to the general public is the insidious environmental destruction that results from the massive amounts of waste produced by these operations. This waste degrades the surrounding land and surface waters in what most of us consider to be distant places. To local communities, however, the reality of factory farming is anything but hidden — the smell, the flies, the foul brown water all seep through the land they call home.

View from above: a factory farm and manure lagoons.

I recently had the opportunity to view firsthand the negative impact that factory farms have on the environment and their communities in eastern North Carolina. Farm Sanctuary’s Bruce Friedrich (senior director for strategic initiatives), Nick Ugliuzza (our photographer and videographer), and I were invited as guests of Robert F. Kennedy’s Waterkeeper Alliance, which provides support for communities standing up for their rights to clean water and for the wise and equitable use of water resources, both locally and globally. Among other laudable activities, Waterkeeper Alliance works to enforce Clean Water regulations by documenting water pollution and holding factory farms accountable.

Shocking Sites
Waterkeeper staff member Larry Baldwin and volunteers Rick Dove and Joanne Somerday were our guides to some shocking sites. North Carolina is second only to Iowa in the number of hogs raised for meat in the United States, and it ranks second to Minnesota in slaughter of turkeys for meat. The chicken industry is also significant and expanding there; in fact, another large scale chicken facility is slated to be built in the state. The waste produced by these Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) — more aptly described as animal factories — is overwhelming and destructive, and what we saw on our tour deeply saddened us.

We flew over expansive manure “lagoons” on the properties of pig farms; we saw these operations spewing liquid pig manure onto fields, which then flows into surface water and pollutes the environment. Near a road outside one animal factory, we witnessed a cow standing chest deep in water laden with pig manure. We also observed sprinklers spraying liquid manure away from a farm, murky brown water flowing into a ditch, and miserable turkeys crammed into sheds almost the size of a football field.

No Trespassing
When we tried to speak with several “farm” owners about their methods and expansion plans, we were rebuffed. The local city council members who were called to meet with concerned citizens were either poorly informed, claiming ignorance about the chicken farm expansion plans, or worse, trying their best to curb any community-wide discussion about the issues. Case in point: The “heads-up” information on plans for expansion of these operations that should have been the starting point of an open dialogue with citizens was posted on a sign declaring that a new slaughterhouse was coming soon and that a meeting would be held to approve it. It’s clear that agribusiness enjoys an imperious influence over town leaders and government policies wherever factory farming sets up shop.

So that’s the bad news.

Row after row of expansive buildings housing tens of thousands of animals.

See Something, Say Something
But the good news is that community activists are beginning to motivate their neighbors to take action. I was struck by how much courage the folks in one community had to speak up about the devastating effects of these animal factories. We spoke to two community activists who grew up in an area that includes factory farms, and they are fighting a chicken farm expansion. We also attended a town meeting with other members of the community who showed up to voice their opposition to a new factory farm. Big Agriculture is entrenched in North Carolina and in other states, and some people are clearly afraid to speak out. But these neighbors challenged the assumptions of local leaders that new (undesirable) jobs or perceived economic gains trump any concerns about the environment or quality of life. Not only are these folks noticing the problems and thinking for themselves, but they are taking the time and energy to voice their concerns to us and to local authorities.

Small Conversations, Big Results
We also met a charismatic former pig farmer named Don Webb, whose neighbors confronted him about the air pollution caused by his pig-farming operation. One person after another spoke to him about the flies, the stench, and the fact that they could no longer enjoy being outside their homes. He told us that he thought of his parents: If something like this were happening to them, he realized that he would absolutely do his best to protect them from the problem. His neighbors effectively educated him about the harm he was causing, and he decided to get out of the business. His story is a testament to the fact that one person can make a difference by starting a conversation.

Thousands of turkeys packed into one building.

Uplifting and Inspiring
This trip showed me that people in any community adversely affected by factory farming must gather their voices, stand up, and be heard! It takes courage and fortitude to challenge assumptions and educate your own neighbors, local business owners, and local government leaders. I was inspired to see people in North Carolina stepping up and taking a stand. This type of activism is never easy, but it’s the only way local governments may begin to understand that the factory farming devastation must stop.

A Wake-up Call: USDA Slaughterhouse Closing

By Gene

Over the past two weeks, news outlets across the country have reported on the USDA’s closure of a cattle slaughter facility in central California for “egregious inhumane handling and treatment of livestock.” The agency was alerted to misconduct at Hanford’s Central Valley Meat Co. by animal protection organization Compassion Over Killing, whose undercover investigator gathered footage of workers shooting cows in the head repeatedly with a captive-bolt gun after the first shot failed to stun them, of a conscious cow flailing as she hangs from her back leg on the chain that will carry her to the throat-slashing station, and of sick or injured cows struggling as workers roughly try to force them to stand.

The cruelty uncovered at Central Valley Meat sickens me, but it doesn’t surprise me. The company and the industry will allege that the recklessness and brutality brought to light there are an aberration, but after more than 25 years investigating the abuse of downed animals and advocating on their behalf, I can tell you that such conduct is all too common.

Central Valley Meat Co. is one of many operations that specialize in slaughtering dairy cows whom producers deem “spent.” To keep cows in constant milk production, dairies subject them to an unremitting cycle of impregnation, birth, and lactation. Producing more than twice as much milk they did 40 years ago, cows are impregnated every year and are milked during seven months of their nine-month pregnancies. They are pushed to their biological limits. After a few years of this, they are exhausted — their bodies depleted, their bones brittle, their udders often painfully infected with mastitis. When they are no longer profitable as milking cows, these poor animals are sent to slaughter.

It was at a stockyard that a Farm Sanctuary rescue team found Fanny. This “spent” cow, had clearly endured not only the ordeal of milk production but also the misery of neglect. Her horribly overgrown hooves made every step excruciating, and her legs buckled under the weight of her enormous udders. Instead of trying to help her, stockyard workers hit her with wooden poles to make her move, striking her every time she fell, attempting to force her to get up.

rescued cows at our farm animal sanctuary in new york

Fanny and Orlando

As soon as we could gain access to Fanny, we brought her to Cornell’s veterinary hospital where we assumed she would need to be euthanized. Despite her ailments, however, with the care she received, Fanny began to revive. Within hours, her eyes were brighter, and by the next day she was standing on her own and greeted us with a loud moo. Against the odds, Fanny still had plenty of life in her.

And even after years of seeing every calf she bore taken away within hours of delivery, Fanny also still had a strong desire to be a mother. At our New York Shelter, she met Orlando, Arnold, Tweed, Conrad, and Milbank, young male dairy calves sold at auction for cheap beef when they were newborns and later rescued after their buyer shot six others purchased with them. The mother who had never known her calves and the calves who had never known their mothers claimed each other at once and became a blissful family.

The devotion Fanny and her adopted sons have for each other underscores the tragedy of dairy production. These animals suffer not only physically but emotionally. The lives denied them are not ones of mere survival but ones of intimacy, loyalty, and joy.

The slaughter of animals too sick, injured, or weak to stand and walk on their own (“downers” as the industry calls them) at Central Valley Meats, a supplier for the USDA’s national school lunch program, has justly raised concerns about the safety of the U.S. meat supply, not least because the violations occurred under the noses of two USDA inspectors stationed at the plant. Under federal regulations instituted in 2009, in part at the urging of Farm Sanctuary, the slaughter of downed cattle for human consumption is prohibited. Without strict oversight, however, businesses will continue to push downed cattle onto the kill floor, squeezing profit out of every animal they can. They will also continue to slaughter downed pigs, sheep, and goats with impunity, since these animals are as yet exempt from the regulations that are supposed to apply to downed cows.

Every year, more than one million animals become so sick or injured that they are unable to walk to slaughter. We are still fighting against great resistance to keep even these extremely unwell animals from being killed for food. If our government demanded that all animals slaughtered for human consumption actually be healthy, by any sane definition of the word, and if that regulation was actually enforced, the slaughter industry would be brought to its knees.

The USDA has decided against a recall of Central Valley Meats beef. I hope this does not put the matter to rest for consumers. This investigation has given people across the country a glimpse into an industry that breeds, raises, transports, and slaughters animals with systematic disregard for their welfare and for the welfare of those who consume animal products. I hope this story will make people think about the history of the meat on their plates, and I hope it will inspire them to replace that meat with food that has not been created with such callousness.


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Showrunner, head writer and executive producer Suzan-Lori Parks shares what makes Aretha Franklin a 'Genius'

June 18, 2021
2 min read time

We know Aretha Franklin for her popular songs like “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” that soundtrack popular culture and important moments in history. Her voice echoes over the civil rights movement and even hums over today's movements. The sound of her voice reverberates off each record with strength — and with genius.

The third installment of National Geographic’s Genius series looks at the genius of the Queen of Soul through her artistry and activism. Showrunner, head writer, and executive producer Suzan-Lori Parks ensured that the series did just that by portraying how shy little Aretha became an influential artist.

“She created a body of work that was game-changing,” says Parks. “So many singers sing differently now because of the way she sang. She was also a brilliant pianist and she created material that is enduring long, long after her passing.”

Brain Grazer, one of the show's executive producers, invited Parks to be the showrunner and head writer of Aretha’s season in 2019, and she took the opportunity to craft an authentic representation of the iconic singer. Parks also wanted to take the opportunity to depict a Black woman as a genius, something that she believes some people still need to open their minds to.

“'Genius' was, back in the day, synonymous with 'white male',” she says.

Although Aretha Franklin couldn’t read music, Parks remarked that she still had “compositional skills in her head — in her bones.” Her desire, passion and phenomenal music skills are what highlight her genius; because music is about more than just being able to read the notes.

“To see that a black woman can also be a genius, it’s paradigm-shifting,” Parks says. “It opens your eyes. Even today in 2021, we need our eyes open and our heart opened.”

As portrayed in the season, Aretha was not only a talented musical artist, but also an activist. For Parks, Aretha's activism is also part of her genius. From her close work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to her public support of Angela Davis, who was then seen as a controversial figure, Aretha Franklin pushed the envelope of what artists were capable of.

“She didn't just shut up and play or shut up and sing,” Parks says. “And those are genius moves because they really give us as artists today a blueprint on how we might interface with the political climate.”

Writing the series began in the fall of 2019. Parks came in with a general idea of what would happen in each episode, and then arrived in the writers room ready to collaborate and “put meat on the bones of the episodes.”

“These writers were totally all-in every day for every episode, whether it was their episode or not,” she says. The combined passion of all the writers created a script that depicted Aretha Franklin in all her complexities. It was also important to the authenticity of the story that the room be filled with predominantly Black and female writers, which they accomplished.

The writing process even bled into the filming at times. During a particular moment in episode two when Cynthia Erivo (who plays Aretha), felt something was off about a scene, Parks stepped aside to rewrite it in a way that moved out of the historical lens and into a more down to earth moment between two sisters. The on-the-spot changes were something Parks wasn't foreign to, because of her experience in theatre.

“It's gonna be better if they just talk like sisters; like women,” she says. “And I rewrote the scene to make a very beautiful scene about just two women who are sisters talking about their respective careers.”

It was also important to Parks that she pulled out these complex moments in Aretha Franklin’s life. She didn’t want the series to be two-dimensional, depicting a single emotion or aspect of Aretha. Not only does it give the musical artist justice, but it also amplifies an authentic narrative of a Black woman that is often short-changed in media.

“I think it's a revolutionary act, to write and tell the story of authentic Black characters and put them on the screen, whether big screen or a little screen, and invite them into our homes — invite them into our lives. It's a revolutionary act. We don't get to see it often enough.”

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FLVPLayback component for Flex

Flex Icon

As most of my close friends know, I have a bit of a thing for components. So it will come as no surprise that I have a few new ones to release. The first of these is a video playback component that I have shamelessly called FLVPlayback after the similar component of the same name in Flash.

It is currently quite simple in its operation – it only has a play / pause and mute button, plus a set of progress bars for both playback and loading and a simple display showing the time elapsed (you can see it all in the image below, Tekzilla video shown to give a bit of context).

The control bar automatically fades out once the user rolls off of it, however, if you wanted to have it persist there is a flag to make it operate in that manner.

The component supports skinning and styling (there is a Flash based skin template available for download as well).

The original premise for this control came about from a conversation with Andrew Shorten and the Adobe UK marketing people in regards to providing a simple set of classes and examples that would allow people who were developers or designers not already using Flex to get to grips with Flex a little faster than just downloading the trial and figuring it out from there.

Plus as there seemed to be a bit of a gap in the Flex component set for a video component that actually had controls (as opposed to the VideoDisplay component that is just a box to load video into). So this component was created and formed part of the kit that was distributed on Monday 25th to conicide with the launch of Flex 3 and AIR.

This is just the initial release, I’m currently working on adding in more functionality and additional controls, so if you want to try it out, post a feature request or a bug. Or you would like to download the source to have a look, you can do it all here: FlashGen.Com Dev Server.

Mike Jones

  1. Hi, thanks for the component.
    Is there any way to get the archive with sources ?
    Also was looking for an SVN checkout link with no success.

  2. Can you please provide for me to get the archive file or the SVN for the FLVPlayback component. I looked thru the SVN details you had on the page, but when I went to get the files, it asks for a username/password. Would appreciate if you can mail me the archive or some other way to access the svn rep. Thanks

  3. Hi Ramesh, I’ve just check the repository and it is working as expected. You don’t need to provide a username/password for the public repository containing the FLVPlayback components source, as it allows anonymous read access. Are you sure you are trying to access the correct path (http://svn.flashgen.com/public/repository)?

    Let me know how you get on :)

  4. Hi Renan, I did test it and couldn’t reproduce it. However, I’ve recently moved the repo to a new server and redone the permissions so give it another go and if your still getting problems let me know and I’ll boot up my windows box and try it on that (I’ve never logged in to the repo from there so it couldn’t possibly have any latent permissions in cache :p

  5. Mike, I’m still getting in trouble. I’m using the TortoiseSVN program for downloading the FLVPlayback project from http://svn.flashgen.com/public/repository . But, when the program is downloading the folder, a dialog box appears asking for username and password. Could you put the FLVPlayback project available in a zipped file on another link? Thanks for all and Excuse-me for my poor English!

  6. Hi Mike,

    I found your video on Creating Custom Component Live Previews in Flex Builder 3, and am very grateful to you for making it! I’ve been making my own custom components for years now and it always bugged me that they didn’t appear properly in design mode.

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Audio Only Flashcards: Is It Safe Studying and Driving?

So…I drove to an appointment today and studied my Spanish flashcards without actually looking at my phone. Then I yelled something like “Holy crap it WORKS!” and rushed home to write about it. Now I’m writing about it. So strap in; you have an overly excited Gabe writing about a fairly straightforward, super cool idea with a somewhat complicated way to make it work.

First off, a little background:

When I was living in Europe, I had a 60 minute commute in the train every day, and it was glorious for language learning. Fixed daily amount of time, access to my phone, my hands, my eyes and my ears, and nothing better to do. I learned so much stuff on that train, and ever since I moved back to the US, I’ve missed my commute. It’s harder to get myself to study when I’m working from home all day, and while I do have regular time commuting to appointments and things, I don’t have access to my eyes in the car. Sadness. So I’ve been listening to podcasts and music in the car and pushing myself to study while I’m at home.

At the same time, I’ve fielded a lot of questions from you folks, asking about whether there’s anything that YOU can do while sitting in your own cars. And I’ve never had a great answer for that; the best audio-only tools out there for beginners are the Pimsleur recordings, and while they do a good job of using spaced repetition and exposing you to decent language input, they do it with translations. More sadness.

Target language music doesn’t give you a lot of high end input (you tend to listen to the music more than the words), and target language podcasts/radio stations are really challenging for beginners and intermediates.

But your questions and my experiences planted a seed: clearly a lot of us struggle with spending lots of time in our cars, and we’re bored, and many of us would like to learn stuff during that time. So what if there was a way to study our target languages without having to use our eyes?

Enter audio-only flashcards

I’ve been making little hints and references here and there to a language learning app we’re in the process of designing. We’re still a few weeks from giving all of you a sneak peak, so I won’t get into details about it yet, but one of the nice things about app design is that there’s a lot of room for creativity. You can just dream – if I could make an app do whatever I wanted, what would I want it to do?

In that environment of dreaming up possible features, I thought about this eyes-free study problem, and I realized that there were several options for creating high quality audio flashcard-like tests.

Specifically, you could do audio-only Cloze deletions (“Fill-in-the-BOOP”), audio-only comprehension flashcards (What’s “perro” mean?), and audio only definition flashcards (“Sustantivo. Mamífero carnívoro doméstico, de la familia de los cánidos, de tamaño, pelaje y color variable, según las razas” [Noun. Carnivorous domestic mammal, in the canid family, whose size, hair and color differ according to their breed]).

I got pretty excited about the idea, and filed it away under our future features list. Then last week I realized I could make Anki do most of it. It’d be a bit clunky, and Cloze deletions wouldn’t be a great fit, but I could make it work.

So without further ado, let me show you what on earth these flashcards look/sound like:

Audio-only flashcards within Anki: Two Examples

Our example:

  • Word: torre  (tower)
  • Example Sentence: Desde mi apartamento puedo ver uno de los mas grandes edificios en el mundo – la Torre de Sears.
    (From my apartment, I can see one of the largest buildings in the world – the Sear’s Tower)
  • Definition: Sustantivo. Construcción más alta que ancha, aislada o que sobresale de un edificio.
    (Noun. Construction that is taller than it is wide, isolated or protruding from a building.)

Audio-only Comprehension Flashcard:

Front side:

Card Behavior (Front Side):
When card loads: Speaks the word “torre” out loud.
If you swipe* right, then it will say “torre” again.
If you tap on the screen, it will show the back side.

*Important disclaimer and discussion about driving, swiping and tapping: Driving is dangerous. Swiping and tapping aren’t ideal choices for a car, naturally. Once I get to design stuff from the ground up, then simple speech commands for hands-free use are definitely the way to go. That said, for a proof of concept, I’ve found that these swipe/tap commands haven’t been particularly disturbing during these test runs, since they don’t require my eyes. It turns out that if you just need to swipe ANYWHERE on the screen to make it replay audio, you really don’t need to look down, ever.

That said, simply THINKING about flashcards is going to take up some of your attention (in much the same way that having a hands-free phone conversation or listening to a Spanish podcast is going to be distracting). There’s a reasonable argument that you shouldn’t do any of these things, podcasts included, while driving, and I personally look forward to the coming (safer) days of self-driving cars, since frequently people *are* listening to podcasts or audiobooks or chatting on the phone while driving. So please do consider risks here. Personally, I feel like this is an acceptable thing to do while on a daily nearly-automatic commute, and a bad idea when driving to a new place. Also, if you’re going to play around with the tap/swipe proof of concept described here, do it at home first, so that you can be sure that you’re comfortable with those commands and NEVER need to look down. You may find (as I have), that home use is actually really neat. It’s refreshing to LISTEN to your flashcards instead of looking at them; it engages a different part of your brain. /disclaimer

Back side:

Card Behavior (Back Side):
When the back side loads: Plays a recording of my example sentence.
If you swipe right, then it will play a recording of the example sentence again.
If you tap on the left side of the screen, it will mark the card as incorrect.
If you tap on the right side of the screen, it will mark the card as correct.

Audio only comprehension flashcards are roughly the same as normal comprehension cards in Fluent Forever. When I hear this card, my goal is to think of any possible use for the word “torre.” When I hear the example sentence on the backside, it reminds me about what that word can mean, and that gives me enough information to decide whether I was thinking about the right word.

Audio-only Definition Flashcard:

Front side:

Card Behavior (Front Side):
When card loads: Speaks the definition out loud.
If you swipe right, then it will say the definition again.
If you tap on the screen, it will show the back side.

Back side:

Card Behavior (Back Side):
When the back side loads: Plays a recording of the word, and then the example sentence.
If you swipe right, then it will play both recordings again.
If you tap on the left side of the screen, it will mark the card as incorrect.
If you tap on the right side of the screen, it will mark the card as correct.

For audio-only definition flashcards, your goal is to understand the definition well enough to produce the correct word. I’ve found that I need to play these a few times to understand enough words from the definition to remember the proper word. When I tap, I hear the word, so I can figure out if I got the answer correct or not. I also hear the example sentence, which – if I’m not super familiar with this word and I had trouble really understanding the definition – can help me remember what the word and the definition meant.

How they feel in practice

They feel neat. Basically, it was an experience of sitting in traffic, looking at the road, while I was getting audio reminders about flashcards I’d created earlier in the week/month/year. The words would bring to mind images and stories, which was fun to think about and super valuable from a learning standpoint. The definitions were often challenging to understand, but then I’d swipe right a few times to repeat it and they’d get easier. Ultimately, it was really refreshing encountering my old flashcards through my ears rather than my eyes. So if you’d like to try them out, let’s go playing around with Anki:

How to get Audio-only flashcards working within Anki

Disclaimer: Just to warn you ahead of time – this is not a particularly elegant way to accomplish this. It’s going to feel clunky. If you want an elegant solution here, then stay tuned and I hope to build something that’s elegant within the next 12 months.

Let’s talk about the necessary pieces:

  • Flashcard content that uses the Definition card model (article about these | model deck download link)
  • A way to get/add recordings to your cards for the words and the definitions
  • A way to select ONLY the audio only flashcards when you want to study in this way
  • Adding swipe/tap commands to your AnkiMobile app

Flashcard content

While you can try and pull this off with ONLY comprehension cards, I think this is only really worth doing if you’re getting two audio-only flashcards per word. So if you’re not ready for definitions yet, maybe wait until you are before you start playing with this. If you ARE ready for definitions but you haven’t played with that type of card yet, then go do that. They’re super neat. I’m going to pretend that you’ve already read about them, and you’re already using them.

A way to get and add recordings for words and definitions

We’ll be using AwesomeTTS, an excellent text-to-speech plugin for Anki. I’m generally not a fan of text to speech for audio content on flashcards; it’s just not the same as real audio in terms of subtle details of pronunciation. But if I just want to train an ability to recognize some words and comprehend the gist of a definition, text-to-speech is adequate, and it’s a huge time saver. [And a quick caveat – AwesomeTTS doesn’t yet work with the newest beta of Anki, so if you’re being all fancy and testing fancy new not-really-for-the-public Anki betas and things, switch back to the mainstream version for this.]

To get it installed into Anki, open up your desktop app for Anki (not on your phone/tablet) and select Tools -> Add-Ons -> Browse & Install

Now put this number – 301952613 – in the window that comes up and hit OK. It will download the plugin and tell you to quit and re-start Anki. Do that.

Now that Anki’s restarted, we’ll make an Anki deck to contain all of your audio-only flashcards. Go to the decks window and click ‘Create Deck’ on the bottom:

Name it..I used “Audio Flashcards”:

Now drag it INTO your main deck:

We’ll come back to this deck later. Now we want to add some recordings. In
my case, I only wanted to add recordings to all of my cards that already had Definition Tests. So I went to the browser and typed in the following: card:DefinitionTest. That gave me a list of all of the Definition Test flashcards in my deck:

Here’s an example card for the word “leer” (to read). We want recordings of the “Back(Word)” field and the “DefinitionTest?” field, since those fields contain the text for the word and the definition, respectively.

So in the browser, select the card(s) you want to change.

Then go to the “AwesomeTTS” menu on top and select “Add Audio to Selected”

Now you’ll hit this window:

The first time you do, you’ll want to choose a voice and a speed. Put in a sentence in your target language in the ‘Preview’ field on the top right of the window:

Now, on the left side, play around with different text to speech services. Click the “Preview” button to hear them.Some of them won’t work for a full sentence (they only work with single words/phrases). You may find that Google Translate does it pretty well, though I ended up going for OS X Speech Synthesis (Macs only), since that gave me speed controls and I liked Juan’s voice.

On the bottom right, for Fields and Handling, choose “Back (Word)” for both Source and Destination, select “Append” and don’t have ‘Remove Existing’ checked:

This will take the text from the Source Field, create a recording of it, and then put that recording at the end of the Destination Field.

If this is my Back (Word) field: torre
Then this will be my new Back (Word) field:  torre [sound:randomcharactersThisIsARecordingOfTheSpanishWordTorre.mp3]. Click ‘Generate’ and it will make lots of new sound files.

Now do it again for the “DefinitionTest?” field:

(Note, just in case you don’t like this:)
If you DON’T end up liking this, you can select the same cards in the browser, then go to the AwesomeTTS menu and select “Remove Audio from Selected Notes.” Check off the two fields you messed with and tell it to remove “only [sound] tags or paths generated by AwesomeTTS”:

That’ll delete all these extra sound files and bring you back to where you were before this article.

Now, before you deselect these cards, we need a way to study ONLY these cards when we so choose. So first let’s add a tag to label which ones we’ve messed with. On the top of the browser window, select ‘Add Tags’:

Add a tag. Use “audioflashcards”:

Now we need to select all DefinitionTest and Comprehension flashcards and put them in that Audio Flashcards deck we created wayyyy at the start of this process. In the browser, type the following:

card:Back tag:audioflashcards or card:Definitiontest tag:audioflashcards

(In English, “give me all the comprehension (“Back”) cards that have the tag ‘audioflashcards’…also give me all the Definition Test cards that have the tag ‘audioflashcards’ “)

Select all the cards in this list, and on the top, select ‘Change Deck’:

Select your ‘Audio Flashcards’ deck and click ‘Move Cards’

You’re done. Sync the deck with Ankiweb.

In the future, when you’re making flashcards, you can either make a bunch of flashcards normally and then repeat these same steps with them, or you can have AwesomeTTS create recordings on the fly. To do that, click once AFTER whatever text you’d like it to record:

and press Control-T (Command-T on a Mac), or click on the Speaker icon on the top right of the ‘Add cards’ window:

Then click “Record” on the bottom right and it will insert the sound file after that text:

While you’re at it, add an audioflashcards tag to the card you’re creating by typing that at the bottom of the window:

Then later on, when you want to move these cards into your audio only flashcard deck for future study, do the same steps as before, typing in “card:Back tag:audioflashcards or card:Definitiontest tag:audioflashcards” into the browser window, selecting “Change Deck” and moving those cards over. Remember my warning about it being a clunky solution? Yuuup. Clunky. But try it and I think you’ll find that it’s worth it. One more step left:

Adding swipe/tap commands to your AnkiMobile app

So now we need to add some new commands to AnkiMobile so that you can review cards and replay audio without looking at your phone. I’ll give picture instructions for the iOS Anki app; it should be pretty similar to the Android one:

Open up AnkiMobile:

Select the ‘Gear’ icon on the top right.

Now select ‘Review‘.

Go to ‘Taps‘, scroll to the bottom and change your settings so they look like this:

Now go back and select “Swipes.” Change ‘Swipe Right’ so that it will replay your audio:

Phew! You’re done. When you want to study your audio only flashcards, select that deck, turn up the volume, turn off mute, and then swipe/tap away!

I hope you enjoy playing around with these; I was kind of annoyed at the amount of clunkyness involved in setting this up until I actually used them, at which point I just got super excited. So let me know in the comments how it goes, and/or if you have questions or suggestions.

If you’d like to know as soon as we release any information about new apps and things, and if you’re not already on our mailing list, get on that thang! 🙂

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Think In Any New Language


text:
Gaming and Humanity

I put this under MtG, again, as it involves the special nature of high-level MtG, but – as always – I’d like to think I can capture bigger messages in these posts. In this case, we’re talking about this.

The gist of it: Last weekend, at Grand Prix Albuquerque, in the last round of swiss, Matt Sperling (the writer of the article) was playing against his best friend, Paul Rietzl. The players were tied 1-1 and we were in the third game. Sperling was about to win. It wasn’t like it was looking like he was going to win. Instead there was no question. He was going to win. We’re talking referee counting to ten, being on nine and the guy on the mat not even moving. Rietzl had no outs.

Then, Sperling stops the game and asks the judge whether he can look at the standings. He does a little math and decides to take a draw instead of a win. Now, he’s opponent, Rietzl tries to talk him out of it, but Sperling has made his decision. In the end, the Rietzl goes into the top 8 (a pretty big deal in competitive magic) and Sperling is left ninth.

All this was played out on camera.

So, Sperling is both a gamer and a lawyer, so his outlook on life is probably pretty unique. He is also a member of Team Star City Games, which is probably the best Magic team in the world right now. Granted, he’s probably the least accomplished member of the team, but still, you can’t get in without merit. After all, the team includes some of the all time best (Budde, Finkel, Nassif, even Maher was a member at least once), and some of the best current players (Sam Black, Owen Turtenwald, Reid Duke, and the aforementioned Rietzl), among renonwed deckbuilders (Chapin, Moshowitz, Black again). He isn’t unfamiliar with how things work.

Now, this happens in many professional sports. What’s different is that here’s its out in the open. We don’t often get to see these discussions on camera, but they happen and the rules allow it. In other sports, it happens, but its kept in the dark, because its against the rules. Of course, you can’t promise anything beforehand in MtG either, and doing so would probably be illegal bribery in many countries, but you can – and its often done – draw intentionally or concede a match.

Now, you should read the article to understand the Sperling’s thinking, because it outlines pretty well what it cost him and how he came to the conluclusions. Yes, it cost him, but it did help his friend.

Well, this is a sign of a true gamer, who probably has some economics and game theory background: He can make very rational decisions about things usually thought of as emotion based. He can place value on his friendship and understand that by helping his friend at cost to himself, he can benefit in the long run. Of course most people would think this is a really cold and calculating way of looking that things. Perhaps, but is it really wrong to understand these things?

I think Sperling’s views are very valuable to all of us. Because he is a lawyer, he can often bring unique points into the conversation. Granted, they are often very MtG-related, but I bet reading them would benefit a lot of people outside the game as well.

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Social Media Clubbing

Heading over now to an event in Falls Church (I'm going to be late, evidently) -- it's a meeting of the DC chapter of the Social Media Club.

Since we're in the penultimate day of NaBloPoMo, I wanted to get a quick entry in to make sure I didn't mess up so close to the finish line. I'll post more after.

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bookmark_borderTridactyl: a Vim-like interface for Firefox

Today I would like to talk about one of my favorite extensions for Firefox: Tridactyl.

The official website is here and the source code can be found on Github here.

Extracted from their Github repository:

Replace Firefox's default control mechanism with one modelled on the one true editor, Vim.

The main point being: it allows you to browse the internet with vim keybindings and workflows. For instance: j/k will move you through a web page or H/L will move you back and forward through the history.

We can also browse through our opened tabs as if they were buffers by pressing b:

The hint mode is the feature! Press f and you will see:

This will label all the hyperlinks (and other elements) and you will be able to follow the hyperlinks by typing the label.

I have a few custom settings for the extension though.

For instance, the default key-bindings to move through the tabs is a bit counter-intuitive (at least to me) so I have those re-mapped:

:bind J tabnext
:bind K tabprev

I like the way Vimperator used to do the hint mode so I have that enabled as well:

:set hintchars 543167890
:set hintfiltermode vimperator-reflow

With the above settings you will be able to type the text that you see in the hyperlinks and the extension will reduce the number of options that you have to follow links. For instance, on, enter into hint mode via f and then type update:

See? Now you only have two hyperlinks to follow (the ones that contain what you typed)

I also like using a different theme so I have

:colors shydactyl

Tridactyl is very powerful, make sure to go through the readme and :help to find all the options that it offers

bookmark_borderSelf-hosted Firefox Sync Server

A couple of months ago I started setting up several services on my own servers to get rid of many third party dependencies like Google. Even though Mozilla is nothing like a big Mega-Corp I still like the idea of not depending on third parties ( or even if you do, that you can migrate easily to another provider).

In this post I will explain how I have set-up my own Firefox Sync Server. Most of my information has been extracted from here and here.

I, obviously, did some research online before I started doing something like this from scratch. I found several posts like this one or this one but all of them look like people just want to make things work without digging too much into how things really function. Indicators for this were the usage of FF_SYNCSERVER_FORCE_WSGI_ENVIRON or SYNCSERVER_FORCE_WSGI_ENVIRON were I could see that they were not really understanding what was happening under the hood.

Here you can find my docker-compose:

version: '3.5'

    external: true

    image: mozilla/syncserver:latest
    container_name: syncserver
    restart: on-failure
      - world
      - /srv/syncserver:/data
      - "5000"
      - "SYNCSERVER_SQLURI=sqlite:////data/syncserver.db"
      - "PORT=5000"
      - ""
      - ""
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.frontend.passHostHeader=true"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.STSPreload=true"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.STSSeconds=31536000"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.ForceSTSHeader=true"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.STSIncludeSubdomains=true"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.contentTypeNosniff=true"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.frameDeny=true"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.customFrameOptionsValue=SAMEORIGIN"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.browserXSSFilter=true"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.referrerPolicy=no-referrer"
      - "traefik.frontend.headers.contentSecurityPolicy=default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'"

In this setup I run syncserver behind traefik configured automatically via labels. Notice SYNCSERVER_FORCE_WSGI_ENVIRON=false. We do not need to set this to true due to the usage of SYNCSERVER_FORWARDED_ALLOW_IPS=,, and the header X-Forwarded-For that we receive via trafik (configured to do so via the label traefik.frontend.passHostHeader=true).

The SYNCSERVER_SECRET environment variable has been generated with the command:

head -c 20 /dev/urandom | sha1sum
And inserted in a .env file containing:

# This file is used to define environment variables to be used
# for variable substitution in your docker compose file.

Now, in order for Firefox to attack our Sync Server, we need to set it up as follows (I blatantly copy from this blog post):

  1. Go to about:config and search for identity.sync.tokenserver.uri.
  2. Now change replace with https://yourawesomeurl.tld/token/1.0/sync/1.5. Don’t forget the token, because the self hosted Firefox sync server is exposing the token server in a subdicrectory.
  3. Just to make sure everything is set up correctly, log out of Firefox (if you logged in before) and restart the browser.
  4. Now go to the settings, login with your Firefox account and the synchronization can start.

As you might know already, we still need the Firefox Account service from Mozilla for all these to work. I am pretty sure I will be trying to set it up myself in a not too distant future… 🙂

bookmark_borderMacBook Air SuperDrive on Linux

It turns out that the `MacBook Air SuperDrive` doesn’t work by default on Linux even though the device is properly recognized.

After some research on the web, I found this and this to find out how to make it work.

I ended  up creating the file /etc/udev/rules.d/60-apple-superdrive.rules with the content:

# Apple's USB SuperDrive
ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1500", ATTRS{idVendor}=="05ac", DRIVERS=="usb", RUN+="/usr/bin/sg_raw /dev/$kernel EA 00 00 00 00 00 01"

And triggered the command:
udevadm trigger

Now the device accepts the insertion of CDs

bookmark_borderTizen SDK on Fedora 26

I recently bought a Samsung Gear S3 which uses Tizen as its operating system.

As I have been trying to improve my development skills, I would also like to develop some app for the watch ( my first thought was something related to Telegram ).

Let’s start with installing the SDK!

Get the SDK from here. Samsung doesn’t officially support anything other than Windows, Mac OS X or Ubuntu but I thought I could give a try to installing it on my Fedora Workstation.

Once I downloaded the installer and tried to run it:

chmod +x web-ide_Tizen_Studio_1.2_usa_ubuntu-64.bin

There is apparently something not right:
run installer

So some dependencies are missing? let’s install them:

dnf install libgnome qemu-user expect

install dependencies

Triggering again the installer brought me to this:
OpenJDK not supported

If you follow the link suggested:

java jdk webpage.

Trying to download the JDK will lead you to:

sdk rpm download

Download the 64 bits RPM (after agreeing to the license, of course…)

Now it’s time to install it:

dnf install jdk-8u144-linux-x64.rpm

oracle jdk installation

Now, to make the Oracle one the prefered JVM:

alternatives --config java
alternatives --config javac
alternatives --config javaws

java alternatives

Now time to check everything is as we want:

java -version
javac -version

java version

Now, running the installer again:

First thing it will ask you is to accept the Software License Agreement:
tizen license

Choose where to install the SDK:
tizen sdk location
And… et voilà:
tizen finish installation

Once the installation has finished, it will by default launch the package manager:
tizen package installation
Some of the packages, like the emulator, will need extra permissions:
tizen package sudo
Here is the list of the packages I installed:
tizen packages installed

Everything is ready…:
tizen first launch
Oh oh… seems that we need to fix something manually…

Quick investigation lead me to finding out there is a tool named sdb and apparently is missing a library:
sdb missing library
A quick research on-line lead me here. I don’t really like the solution of installing the Ubuntu library system wide, so I decided to do a small workaround:

mkdir -p /home/marc/Code/SDKs/tizen/ubuntu_libraries

And I copied from this package the files and into that folder.
Turn to create a file in /home/marc/.local/.bin/tizen with this content:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/marc/Code/SDKs/tizen/ubuntu_libraries

chmod +x /home/marc/.local/.bin/tizen

Now I simply need to type tizen and my Tizen Studio will launch:
tizen studio running

WARNING: if you launch the SDK from the menus this will not work. The menu entry will still launch /home/marc/Code/SDKs/tizen/tizen-studio/ide/ You can either modify the menu entry or start the IDE via my launcher

Happy hacking!!!

bookmark_borderSetting up a blog…

So I have been thinking for a while on getting back to blog and I figured that I could try to set something up on my home server.

My resources are really limited so, even though I actually hate the trend, I decided to run my blog on Ghost.

I also wanted to have some sort of isolation on the things that run on my server thus I had two realistic options: docker or running traditional Virtual Machines. Remember I mentioned that my resources were limited? Thus, docker was the chosen option.

I didn’t want to serve the blog straight from docker, so I opted for running a web server in front (although this one is not running on docker 😉 ).

server {
     listen 80;
     listen 443 ssl;
     ssl_certificate        /etc/letsencrypt/live/;
     ssl_certificate_key    /etc/letsencrypt/live/;

     root /var/www/blog;

     location /.well-known {
          alias /var/www/blog/.well-known;

     location / {
       proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
       proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
       proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
       proxy_pass http://localhost:2368;

This is not a very complex nginx configuration, essentially it’s just a proxy. The most relevant thing might be the use of Let’s Encrypt ( maybe I write something about it some other time).

Now let’s have a look at how to create the container to run ghost.
Why not use the official image? Well, I actually can’t as my home server is ARM based. I did a quick research on-line and found easypi/ghost-arm and kennethlimcp/armhf-ghost. Neither of them suited me properly as the first one doesn’t have much information regarding how it’s built and the second one, even though looks very nice, builds the images based on Debian and their alpine version seems a little bit outdated. Besides, I got to practice a little bit on how to emulate ARM on my workstation :-).

I followed this guide to set up a VM with ARM emulation so I could quickly build my docker images ( ‘quickly’ is really not the right word, the VM is slow ).

I heavily based my work on the official image with slight changes. You can find the end result here.

Right now I am running the blog on a development version of the docker image but I will try to upload the final one to my recently created docker hub repository.

One the image was built, I only needed to run the container:
docker run -d --restart always -v $blog:/var/lib/ghost -e NODE_ENV=production -p 2368:2368 marcdeop/ghost-arm:0-alpine

The first entry of the blog as it’s looking right now…

I haven’t yet found a theme that I really like, this needs further investigation but so far… I am quite happy with the status.


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Tribe Seeks Reinstatement of Lifeline Customers

The Oglala Sioux Tribe has filed a petition for reconsideration and emergency relief asking the FCC to reinstate cellular and data service to more than 1,700 residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The residents’ Lifeline service was shut off by AT&T, Inc., after the residents failed to recertify their eligibility.

Earlier this month, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau granted a prospective waiver of the recertification deadline, allowing an additional 150 days beyond the normal 60 days provided for recertification (TR Daily, March 14). In its petition filed last week in WC docket 11-42, the Oglala Sioux Tribe asked the Commission to amend its partial waiver order so it is retroactive.

Courtesy TRDaily


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Brain Health Fitness Lifestyle

7 Reasons Why You’re Tired All The Time!

It can be easy to blame our busy schedules for why we are exhausted. And we aren’t wrong to blame them. In the U.S., 85.8 % of males and 66.5 % of females work more than 40 hours per week. However, a busy work schedule isn’t the only factor behind our society’s growing levels of fatigue. Sometimes it is our body’s way of telling us that something is wrong.

If you have been working on reducing your workload and getting more sleep and you are still tired all the time, it may be time to consult your primary to explore other causes. Below we list the seven medical reasons why you might be tired all the time.

  1. Thyroid Problems – If you are having a decrease in energy, having persistently dry skin, and are constipated, you might have a thyroid problem. Every day activities can throw you completely off of your game due to the hormonal changes that are probably occuring in your body due to a wacky thyroid. A simple blood test can detect whether or not your thyroid is acting up.
  2. Anemia – The first thing physicians will check for if you are complaining about fatigue is anemia. Anemia-related fatigue is caused by a lack of red blood cells, which carry oxygen from the lungs to your tissues and cells. Without proper oxygen, we can feel exhausted. The most common cause of anemia is an iron deficiency. Most likely if your physician suspects anemia, they will order a comprehensive blood test and also do a physical examination.
  3. Depression – Do you feel tired all the time? Do you have no desire to get out of bed? Are you having issues sleeping? One of the hidden signs of depression is fatigue. Depression can cause decreased energy, changes in sleeping and eating patterns, problems with memory and concentration, and feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, and negativity. A primary physician, when asked about fatigue, will probably do a screening for depression due to fatigue being a symptom.
  4. Sleep Apnea – It is difficult to get rest when your sleep is being interrupted. Constantly waking up during the night? Sleep apnea may be the cause. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type and occurs when your upper airway actually closes or collapses for a few seconds, which, in turn, alerts your brain to wake you up to begin breathing again. If your physician suspects sleep apnea, they will probably order a sleep study to be done.
  5. Autoimmune Issues – One of the most frequent symptoms associated with autoimmune diseases is fatigue, especially in the case of rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and lupus. If you present fatigue as well as other symptoms, a rheumatologist will do a thorough physical exam and also order a blood panel to narrow down the problem.
  6. Poor Eating Habits – Our eating habits have a lot more to do with our energy levels than we think. Foods loaded with sugar and simple carbs that are commonly found in junk food have a direct correlation with how rapidly our blood sugar can increase. This rapid spike leads to a rapid drop in energy throughout the day, which is why it is imperative to make good dietary choices like adding lean protein and fruits and veggies to maintain blood sugar.
  7. Infection – When you have a chronic infection, it can easily influence your fatigue levels. When we are experiencing an infection, our immune system kicks into gear and inflammation occurs. The initial infection followed by chronic inflammation of the immune system could explain the cause of fatigue.

We would love to hear from you ...


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29 November 2009

61 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For - Thanksgiving - Lifehacker

Handbrake for buring DVDs

HandBrake Updates to 0.9.4 with Over 1,000 Changes, 64-Bit Support - Handbrake - Lifehacker
Windows/Mac/Linux: If you ever have to rip a DVD to your desktop or convert video, you know how awesome open-source encoder HandBrake is

Dilbert Capitalism

Architecting a system need a wide knowledge of technologies, COTS, projects, standards.... | Java.net

Architecting a system need a wide knowledge of technologies, COTS, projects, standards.... | Java.net
When we start working on a new project as an architect we are dealing basically with a set of requirement which our architecture should be able to act as a foundation for the design and implementation of those requirements in form of a software system. to let the customer fulfill its requirements in a better and more efficient way.

Preparing the architecture for a software system means not only the architect to be familiar with the domain but also he should well aware of new technologies, frameworks, COTS, and standards available not only for the domain he is working on but also for the development platform which will realize the architecture into a working piece of software.

Knowing a platform is the foundation for knowing the related technologies, standards and popular frameworks around that platform, but to know the COTS, or open source projects around the same domain we are going to work on we will need to have some experience in implementing some software in the similar fields or we should have some research in the similar domain.

Having enough experience in doing architecture, knowing the domain, the platform and the free or commercial enablers form the necessaries in creating a good architecture but it is not enough because of the advancement in deployment models which one can select to develop and deploy the system independent of the domain itself. Having knowledge and experience with component models, modularity frameworks, integration standards and solutions, and deployment model form the next set of necessities in creating a good architecture.

Finally, I think being passionate in doing something play a big role in being successful in it. So, being passionate is the most notable requirement for an architect and without it, the architect will not be able to achieve his goal which is nothing but preparing a good architecture and realizing it to a good software.

Testing Frameworks for Java with Code Samples | Javalobby

Example of parameterised JUnit tests

Data-driven tests with JUnit 4 and Excel | Java.net
Useful example of using parameterised JUnit tests, not sure I'd want to maintain test results in an Excel spreadsheet though, why not just export it to csv

Why do you run Centos

Why do you run CentOS ?
I've been running Centos for many years now and have been very happy with it. Its basically a copy of Redhat Enterprise Linux, provided for free. The benefits of this are having a stable OS environment that matches that used in most enterprises.

The Abuse of Utility Creational Methods | Javalobby

The Abuse of Utility Creational Methods | Javalobby
Here’s a quote from Martin Fowler’s Refactoring book: “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” I’m not saying that I’m a good (nor bad) programmer. All I am saying is that this phrase is in my mind whenever I write code. So, when I write code, I think about the person who will replace me some time in the future. A person that will probably be unfortunate to debug my code without me around to explain to him what’s going on.

Pingtest Assesses the Quality of Your Internet Connection - SpeedTest - Lifehacker

13 November 2009

Project of the day: YouDebug | Java.net
YouDebug is a debugger but it's not a debugger. Let's say you have the following program, which computes a String and then do substring.

public class SubStringTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s = someLengthComputationOfString();

private static String someLengthComputationOfString() {

One of your user is reporting that it's failing with the StringIndexOutOfRangeException:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1949)
at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1916)
at SubStringTest.main(SubStringTest.java:7)

So you know s.substring(5) isn't working, but you want to know the value of the variable 's'.

To do this, let's set the breakpoint at line 7 and see what 's' is:

breakpoint("com.acme.SubStringTest",7) {
println "s="+s;

Now, you send this script to the user and ask him to run the program as following:

$ java -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,address=5005 SubStringTest
Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 5005

And then the user executes YouDebug on a separate terminal. YouDebug attaches to your program, and your script will eventually produce the value of 's':

$ java -jar youdebug.jar -socket 5005 SubStringMonitor.ydb

09 November 2009

The (Positive) Effect of Adding New People to Project Teams

Xtreamer replaces my XBMC

Bought an Xtreamer media player to finally replace my trustworthy XBMC which has been running on a first gen Xbox for many years now.  The interface isn't very nice but it plays all formats I might ever want to play and can deal with HD formats including AVCHD from my camcorder and its only about £100.


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Social Media

Book of the Week: A Pick by Jon Evans

Book of the Week Book of the Week: A Pick by Jon Evans Jon Evans selects Evidence by Diana Matar as Book of the Week.
Evidence. By Diana Matar.
Schilt Publishing, 2015.
This week's Book of the Week pick comes from Jon Evans who has selected Evidence by Diana Matar from Schilt Publishing.

"I met Diana Matar at FotoFest in Houston in 2014. We sat at a table amidst the hubbub of reviewers and photographers in an expansive hotel lobby. She quietly yet deliberatively shared her limited edition book that has since been published in a trade edition by Schilt. It appeared less as a traditional book and more like a carefully crafted family album, though not one with photos of loved ones or full of nostalgic landscapes. Instead I found a work full of associative visual and textual markers representing the presence of a family member seen through the eyes of those who remain behind. As we talked further about her work, the book and her family, it became evident how intimate and painful this body of work has been and remains for her. Equal to the sense of loss was a resilience and strength that came through in the directness of the language and the lyricism of the images.

The text from the belly-band of the trade edition states that this is a book about her father-in-law, Jaballa Matar, a Libyan opposition leader during the Gaddafi regime. He was kidnapped in 1990 and has remained missing.

In viewing the trade edition today, I’m pleased to see that this version deviates little from the original limited edition — save the explanatory belly-band. It retains a self-effacing modesty about what lies within as if it is unseemly to speak of the missing or perhaps dangerous to give away too much in a world where information can lead to unintended consequences or both. Unsurprisingly, the narrative unfurls piecemeal — creating a simulacra of her own experience as she and her family gathered fragments about her missing father-in-law. Dated journal-like entries provide the only hints about Jaballa or the scars that his family developed in his absence.

As we plunge deeper into the visual and textual narrative, the more we understand that this is not about one individual, one family, or even one community but rather an entire country — and not just a country of dissidents but of loyalists and the horror and shame that unites them.

Before we parted ways I asked Matar when she had last seen her father-in-law. She replied that she had never met him. The scars of inhumanity run deep."—Jon Evans

Purchase Book

Evidence. By Diana Matar. Schilt Publishing, 2015.
Evidence. By Diana Matar. Schilt Publishing, 2015.

Jon Evans is the Chief Librarian at the Hirsch Library at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where he has worked for the past 24 years.

See more Book of the Week picks


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A name is a name… or not?

I really saw this mess coming when I read the announcement that Mozilla’s Phoenix will be called Firebird for now: Firebird is a spin off of the once open-sourced Interbase-Database Server by Borland existing for three years now and using the name “Firebird” since then.

As you can imagine, the Firebird (DB)-People were not too happy about this – Phoenix had to be renamed because of a naming conflict and the new solution still creates one – but this time it’s not a commercional product it’s conflicting with – its another Open Source project.

I can understand both sides:

The name Firebird has been checked by Netscapes/AOLs legal departement (why have they not noticed this? or is it maybe that they thought it would not matter?) and another name-change would again involve the legal departement which won’t please neither the BIOS vendor Phoenix not the Mozilla-Team as they will not release another milestone called phoenix.

Firebrid already suffers from not really be known in the public. The RDBMS it spun off is known mainly by delphi-developers and neither Interbase nor Firebird were often in the press these days. A more known product with the same name will further divert attention. And the psycological reason: The name Firebird was chosen based on the real political mess around open-sourcing Interbase and is, in my oppinion, a very well chosen name.

Why I can understand the arguments on both sides, I can neither offer a solution pleasing for both projects (besides the question why Phoenix is not to be called simply “Mozilla” – after all, the Browser-Component in the Mozilla Suite is to be replaced by Firebird (the browser) anyway) nor can I understand the way the folks around Firebird (the DB) react to the problem (and here – an entry in Dave Hyatts blog). War is never a solution – never!


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Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Eco-Friendly Salon Favorites

Becoming more aware of the impact we are all having on the planet is not a new trend, but it is an important one. We are seeing more and more manufacturers offering recycled, sustainable product options, and those offerings are only set to increase as time goes on!

Some of our newest eco-friendly options:

Colortrak Eco Collection Bamboo Brushes

Colortrak is committed to finding ways to reduce our impact on the environment so we designed the Eco Collection from sustainable resources and recycled materials. Both brushes are made from bamboo, a renewable, sustainable natural resource instead of plastic.

The 2 pack Bamboo Brush includes:

  • (1) Feather bristle brush (2.25 inches)
  • (1) Firm bristle brush (2.25 inches)

Wet Brush Pro Go Green Combs
Trendy, 100% plant-based wave tooth treatment comb. Specially designed for those who prefer detangling with combs. Infused for improving scalp health. Eco-friendly and cruelty-free.

Available in:
Tea Tree Oil
Coconut Oil

Eco-Friendly Flocked Doe Foot Lip Gloss Applicator with White Paper Handle
This disposable flocked doe foot lip gloss applicator is ideal for testing makeup in a retail setting while maintaining a hygienic environment. Now available with an eco-friendly FSC Certified paper handle!

  • Measurements: 3.43 inch (87 mm)
  • Material: Nylon, Hytrel, FSC Certified Paper
  • Packaging: 50 Pieces Per Bag X 16 Bags = Case of 800 Lip Gloss Applicators

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