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The future of business is pure chaos. Here’s how you can survive–and perhaps even thrive.

This Is Generation Flux: Meet The Pioneers Of The New (And Chaotic) Frontier Of Business

DJ Patil pulls a 2-foot-long metalbar from his backpack. The contraption, which he calls a “double pendulum,” is hinged in the middle, so it can fold in on itself. Another hinge on one end is attached to a clamp he secures to the edge of a table. “Now,” he says, holding the bar vertically, at its top, “see if you can predict where this end will go.” Then he releases it, and the bar begins to swing wildly, circling the spot where it is attached to the table, while also circling in on itself. There is no pattern, no way to predict where it will end up. While it spins and twists with surprising velocity, Patil talks to me about chaos theory. “The important insight,” he notes, “is identifying when things are chaotic and when they’re not.”

In high school, Patil got kicked out of math class for being disruptive. He graduated only by persuading his school administrator to change his F grade in chemistry. He went to junior college because that’s where his girlfriend was going, and signed up for calculus because she had too. He took so long to do his homework, his girlfriend would complain. “It’s not like I’m going to become a mathematician,” he would tell her.

Patil, 37, is now an expert in chaos theory, among other mathematical disciplines. He has applied computational science to help the Defense Department with threat assessment and bioweapons containment; he worked for eBay on web security and payment fraud; he was chief scientist at LinkedIn, before joining venture-capital firm Greylock Partners. But Patil first made a name for himself as a researcher on weather patterns at the University of Maryland: “There are some times,” Patil explains, “when you can predict weather well for the next 15 days. Other times, you can only really forecast a couple of days. Sometimes you can’t predict the next two hours.”

The business climate, it turns out, is a lot like the weather. And we’ve entered a next-two-hours era. The pace of change in our economy and our culture is accelerating–fueled by global adoption of social, mobile, and other new technologies–and our visibility about the future is declining. From the rise of Facebook to the fall of Blockbuster, from the downgrading of U.S. government debt to the resurgence of Brazil, predicting what will happen next has gotten exponentially harder. Uncertainty has taken hold in boardrooms and cubicles, as executives and workers (employed and unemployed) struggle with core questions: Which competitive advantages have staying power? What skills matter most? How can you weigh risk and opportunity when the fundamentals of your business may change overnight?

Look at the global cell-phone business. Just five years ago, three companies controlled 64% of the smartphone market: Nokia, Research in Motion, and Motorola. Today, two different companies are at the top of the industry: Samsung and Apple. This sudden complete swap in the pecking order of a global multibillion-dollar industry is unprecedented. Consider the meteoric rise of Groupon and Zynga, the disruption in advertising and publishing, the advent of mobile ultrasound and other “mHealth” breakthroughs (see ‘Open Your Mouth And Say ‘Aah!’). Online-education efforts are eroding our assumptions about what schooling looks like. Cars are becoming rolling, talking, cloud-connected media hubs. In an age where Twitter and other social-media tools play key roles in recasting the political map in the Mideast; where impoverished residents of refugee camps would rather go without food than without their cell phones; where all types of media, from music to TV to movies, are being remade, redefined, defended, and attacked every day in novel ways–there is no question that we are in a new world.

Any business that ignores these transformations does so at its own peril. Despite recession, currency crises, and tremors of financial instability, the pace of disruption is roaring ahead. The frictionless spread of information and the expansion of personal, corporate, and global networks have plenty of room to run. And here’s the conundrum: When businesspeople search for the right forecast–the road map and model that will define the next era–no credible long-term picture emerges. There is one certainty, however. The next decade or two will be defined more by fluidity than by any new, settled paradigm; if there is a pattern to all this, it is that there is no pattern. The most valuable insight is that we are, in a critical sense, in a time of chaos.

To thrive in this climate requires a whole new approach, which we’ll outline in the pages that follow. Because some people will thrive. They are the members of Generation Flux. This is less a demographic designation than a psychographic one: What defines GenFlux is a mind-set that embraces instability, that tolerates–and even enjoys–recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions. Not everyone will join Generation Flux, but to be successful, businesses and individuals will have to work at it. This is no simple task. The vast bulk of our institutions–educational, corporate, political–are not built for flux. Few traditional career tactics train us for an era where the most important skill is the ability to acquire new skills.

DJ Patil is a GenFluxer. He has worked in academia, in government, in big public companies, and in startups; he is a technologist and a businessman; a teacher and a diplomat. He is none of those things and all of them, and who knows what he will be or do next? Certainly not him. “That doesn’t bother me,” he says. “I’ll find something.”

The New Economy Is For Real

More than 15 years ago, this magazine was launched with a cover that declared: “Work Is Personal. Computing Is Social. Knowledge Is Power.” Those words resonate today, but with a new, deeper meaning. Fast Company‘s covers during the dotcom boom of the 1990s described “Free Agent Nation” and “The Brand Called You.” We became associated with the “new economy,” with the belief that the world had changed irreparably, and that yesterday’s rules no longer applied. But then the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, and the idea of a new economy was discredited.

Now we know that what we saw in the 1990s was not a mirage. It was instead a shadow, a premonition of a new business reality that is emerging every day–and this time, perhaps chastened by that first go-round, we’re prepared to admit that we don’t fully understand it. This new economy currently revolves around social and mobile, but those may be only the latest manifestations of a global, connected world careening ahead at great velocity.

Some pundits deride the current era as just another bubble. They point out that new, heady tech companies are garnering massive valuations: Facebook, Groupon, LinkedIn. And beyond the alpha dogs, the list of startups with valuations above $200 million is long indeed: Airbnb, Dropbox, Flipboard, Foursquare, Gilt Groupe, Living Social, Rovio, Spotify–the roster goes on and on.

Setting aside the fact that the majority of these enterprises, unlike the darlings of the late-1990s, have significant revenue, so what if some companies are overvalued? That still doesn’t discount the way mobile, social, and other breakthroughs are changing our way of life, not just in America but around the globe. And in the process, these changes are remaking geopolitical and business assumptions that have been in place for decades. This was not true in 2000. But it is now. Chaotic disruption is rampant, not simply from the likes of Apple, Facebook, and Google. No one predicted that General Motors would go bankrupt–and come back from the abyss with greater momentum than Toyota. No one in the car-rental industry foresaw the popularity of auto-sharing Zipcar–and Zipcar didn’t foresee the rise of outfits like Uber and RelayRides, which are already trying to steal its market. Digital competition destroyed bookseller Borders, and yet the big, stodgy music labels–seemingly the ground zero for digital disruption–defy predictions of their demise. Walmart has given up trying to turn itself into a bank, but before retail bankers breathe a sigh of relief, they ought to look over their shoulders at Square and other mobile-wallet initiatives. Amid a reeling real-estate market, new players like Trulia and Zillow are gobbling up customers. Even the law business is under siege from companies like LegalZoom, an online DIY document service. “All these industries are being revolutionized,” observes Pete Cashmore, the 26-year-old founder of social-news site Mashable, which has exploded overnight to reach more than 20 million users a month. “It’s come to technology first, but it will reach every industry. You’re going to have businesses rise and fall faster than ever.”

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

“In a big company, you never feel you’re fast enough.” Beth Comstock, the chief marketing officer of GE, is talking to me by phone from the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park, California, where she’s visiting entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. She gets a charge out of the Valley, but her trips also remind her how perilous the business climate is right now. “Business-model innovation is constant in this economy,” she says. “You start with a vision of a platform. For a while, you think there’s a line of sight, and then it’s gone. There’s suddenly a new angle.”

Within GE, she says, “our traditional teams are too slow. We’re not innovating fast enough. We need to systematize change.” Comstock connected me with Susan Peters, who oversees GE’s executive-development effort. “The pace of change is pretty amazing,” Peters says. “There’s a need to be less hierarchical and to rely more on teams. This has all increased dramatically in the last couple of years.”

Executives at GE are bracing for a new future. The challenge they face is the same one staring down wide swaths of corporate America, not to mention government, schools, and other institutions that have defined how we’ve lived: These organizations have structures and processes built for an industrial age, where efficiency is paramount but adaptability is terribly difficult. We are finely tuned at taking a successful idea or product and replicating it on a large scale. But inside these legacy institutions, changing direction is rough. From classrooms arranged in rows of seats to tenured professors, from the assembly line to the way we promote executives, we have been trained to expect an orderly life. Yet the expectation that these systems provide safety and stability is a trap. This is what Comstock and Peters are battling.

“The business community focuses on managing uncertainty,” says Dev Patnaik, cofounder and CEO of strategy firm Jump Associates, which has advised GE, Target, and PepsiCo, among others. “That’s actually a bit of a canard.” The true challenge lies elsewhere, he explains: “In an increasingly turbulent and interconnected world, ambiguity is rising to unprecedented levels. That’s something our current systems can’t handle.

“There’s a difference between the kind of problems that companies, institutions, and governments are able to solve and the ones that they need to solve,” Patnaik continues. “Most big organizations are good at solving clear but complicated problems. They’re absolutely horrible at solving ambiguous problems–when you don’t know what you don’t know. Faced with ambiguity, their gears grind to a halt.

“Uncertainty is when you’ve defined the variable but don’t know its value. Like when you roll a die and you don’t know if it will be a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. But ambiguity is when you’re not even sure what the variables are. You don’t know how many dice are even being rolled or how many sides they have or which dice actually count for anything.” Businesses that focus on uncertainty, says Patnaik, “actually delude themselves into thinking that they have a handle on things. Ah, ambiguity; it can be such a bitch.”

Be Not Afraid

What’s “a bitch” for companies can be terror for individuals. The idea of taking risks, of branching out into this ambiguous future, is scary at a moment when the economy is in no hurry to emerge from the doldrums and when unemployment is a national crisis. The security of the 40-year career of the man in the gray-flannel suit may have been overstated, but at least he had a path, a ladder. The new reality is multiple gigs, some of them supershort (see “The Four-Year Career”), with constant pressure to learn new things and adapt to new work situations, and no guarantee that you’ll stay in a single industry. It can be daunting. It can be exhausting. It can also be exhilarating. “Fear holds a lot of people back,” says Raina Kumra, 34. “I’m skill hoarding. Every time I update my resume, I see the path that I didn’t know would be. You keep throwing things into your backpack, and eventually you’ll have everything in your tool kit.”

Kumra is sitting in a Dublin hotel, where earlier she spoke on a panel about the future of mobile before a group of top chief information officers. She is not technically in the mobile business; nor is she a software engineer or an academic. She actually works for a federal agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, as codirector of innovation for the group that oversees Voice of America and other government-run international media. How she got there is a classic journey of flux.

Kumra started out in film school. She made two documentaries, including one in South America and India, and then took a job as a video editor for Scientific American Frontiers. “After each trip to shoot footage,” she says, “I’d come back and find that the editing tools had all changed.” So she decided to learn computer programming. “I figured I had to get my tech on,” says Kumra, who signed up for New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. She then moved into the ad world, doing digital campaigns at BBH, R/GA, and Wieden+Kennedy before launching her own agency. Along the way she picked up a degree from Harvard’s design school, taught at the University of Amsterdam, and started a not-for-profit called Light Up Malawi.

“So many people tell me, ‘I don’t know what you do,'” Kumra says. It’s an admission echoed by many in Generation Flux, but it doesn’t bother her at all. “I’m a collection of many things. I’m not one thing.”

The point here is not that Kumra’s tool kit of skills allows her to cut through the ambiguity of this era. Rather, it is that the variety of her experiences–and her passion for new ones–leaves her well prepared for whatever the future brings. “I had to try something entrepreneurial. I had to try social enterprise. I needed to understand government,” she says of her various career moves. “I just needed to know all this.”

You do not have to be a jack-of-all-trades to flourish in the age of flux, but you do need to be open-minded. GE’s Comstock doesn’t have as eclectic a career path as Kumra–she has spent two decades within GE’s various divisions. But just because she can dress and act the part of a loyal corporate soldier doesn’t mean Comstock is not a GenFluxer. She’s got a sweet spot for creative types, especially those whose fresh thinking can spur the buttoned-up GE culture forward. She’s brought in folks like Benjamin Palmer, the groovy CEO of edgy ad firm Barbarian Group, to help inject new ideas and processes into GE’s marketing apparatus. “We’re creating digital challenge teams,” she explains. “We’re doing a lot more work with entrepreneurs. It’s part of our internal growth strategy. It creates tension. It makes people’s jobs frustrating. But it’s also energizing.”

Comstock, once president of digital media at NBC, is now one of CEO Jeff Immelt’s key confidants. “I’ve always gravitated to the new,” Comstock says, in trying to explain her comfort with change. “Part of it is who you are. I grew up in media, in news, and developed almost an addiction to go from deadline to deadline. It’s intoxicating.” And profitable. Comstock is the architect of Ecomagination and Healthymagination, GE initiatives that have helped reconfigure the company during this financial crisis. While it’s too early to tell what Healthymagination could produce, the Ecomagination group has to date accounted for $85 billion in revenue.

Nuke Nostalgia

If ambiguity is high and adaptability is required, then you simply can’t afford to be sentimental about the past. Future-focus is a signature trait of Generation Flux. It is also an imperative for businesses: Trying to replicate what worked yesterday only leaves you vulnerable.

Baratunde Thurston is a quintessential GenFluxer. When I met up with him recently, he had just pulled an all-nighter. At 1 a.m. that morning, the New York City police had descended on Zuccotti Park to roust the Occupy Wall Street crowd, and Thurston–who is digital director for satirical news outlet The Onion–was called on to help cover the event. He was at home, in Brooklyn, but he didn’t jump on the subway or into a taxi to hustle his way to lower Manhattan like a traditional journalist. Instead he fired up his computer. “I found the live streams of video from the site, so I could see what was going on. Then I monitored police scanners, to hear what they were saying. I looked at news feeds and Mayor Bloomberg’s statements, and then I accessed all my social-media feeds, screening by zip code what people down there were saying. Some people in the neighborhood were freaked out by helicopters overhead, shining floodlights into their windows. They had no idea what was going on, said it felt like a police action. Which it was, you know.”

For three hours, Thurston pieced together what he was seeing and hearing, and rebroadcasted it via digital channels. “I had a better sense of what was happening and where the crowds were moving than the people on the ground,” he says. By eschewing well-trod practices and creatively adjusting to a fluid situation, he built an authentic narrative in real time, one that reflected the true story far better than the nightly TV news.

Thurston calls himself “a politically active, technology-loving comedian from the future.” He works for The Onion, does stand-up comedy, and has a terrific book coming out this month called How to Be Black. “I was a computer programmer in high school, but I discovered I wasn’t very good at it–it was too tedious,” he says. “I was a philosophy major. I did management consulting right out of college. But then I started doing comedy, and I love it. People say to me all the time, ‘What are you? You need to focus.’ Maybe so. But for now, this smorgasbord of activities is working.”

Thurston is telling me all this over lunch at Delicatessen, a restaurant in SoHo on the corner of Prince and Lafayette. “I’m the mayor of this corner on Foursquare. Last night, the Occupy crowd walked right by here, and I tweeted them: ‘That’s my corner. Sorry I’m not there, I promise I’d be a better mayor for you than Bloomberg.'”

Thurston is not bashful. At 34, he’s not a kid (though he says, “I have the technological age of a 26-year-old”). And he’s cheering on the pace of change. “You can knock on the doors of power and make your case for access. That’s the way it’s usually done. Or you can be like Mark Zuckerberg and build your own system around it.” Thurston is utterly lacking in nostalgia. “I was talking to some documentary filmmakers at a conference, and they all just talk about loss, the loss of a model. I can empathize. But I’m not upset that the model is dying. The milkman is dead, but we drink more milk than ever. Do we really want to return to a world of just three broadcast channels?”

Nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before. It’s also about as useful as an appendix right now. When times seem uncertain, we instinctively become more conservative; we look to the past, to times that seem simpler, and we have the urge to re-create them. This impulse is as true for businesses as for people. But when the past has been blown away by new technology, by the ubiquitous and always-on global hypernetwork, beloved past practices may well be useless.

Nostalgia is of particular concern to GE’s Peters, keeper of the company’s vaunted leadership training. Since 2009, she has been aggressively rethinking the program; last January, she rolled out “a new contemporized view of expectations” for GE’s top 650 managers. That’s a mouthful, but basically it’s a revolution to the way execs are evaluated at the company known as America’s leadership factory. “We now recognize that external focus is more multifaceted than simply serving ‘the customer,'” says Peters, “that other stakeholders have to be considered. We talk about how to get and apply external knowledge, how to lead in ambiguous situations, how to listen actively, and the whole idea of collaboration.”

Not everyone at GE is excited about the shift. “Some people question changing our definitions,” Peters says. “When they do, I ask: How many of you use the same cell phone from five years ago? The world isn’t the same, so we need new parameters.” At GE’s Crotonville leadership center, in New York, “we are physically changing the buildings, to make it better for teams,” she says. A large kitchen has been installed, so teams can cook together “with all the messiness and egalitarian spirit involved.” Managers who are uncomfortable playing second fiddle to more culinary-inclined staffers “can sit on the side and have a glass of wine,” says Peters. “But usually, after a while, they realize they’re on the sidelines, and they get in the game.” And then there’s the building known around campus as the “White House,” which dates back to the 1950s. “It’s where executives would go after dinner to have a drink,” Peters explains. “We’re gutting it, replacing it with a university-like all-day coffeehouse. Some colleagues who’ve been here for 20, 30 years, they tell me, ‘This is terrible.’ I tell them, ‘You are not our target demographic.'”

So much for nostalgia. At this year’s meeting of GE’s top executives, presentation materials will be available only via iPads. “Some are scrambling to learn how to turn one on,” Peters says. “They just have to do it. There’s a natural tendency for some people to pull back when change comes. We’re not going to wave a magic wand and make everyone different. But with the right team, the right coaching, we can get them to see things differently.”

Thurston is less forgiving of the iPad-challenged. “It’s irresponsible not to use the tools of the day,” he charges. “People say, ‘Oh, if I master Twitter, I’ve got it figured out.’ That’s right, but it’s also so wrong. If you master those things and stop, you’re just going to get killed by the next thing. Flexibility of skills leads to flexibility of options. To see what you can’t see coming, you’ve got to embrace larger principles.”

There Are No Perfect Role Models

Bob Greenberg, chief executive of digital advertising agency R/GA, doesn’t do the comb-over. Nor does he crop his hair short or shave his scalp, in the way of so many modern admen. Instead, beyond the patch of baldness on top of his head, his hair is long and flowing and bushy. It’s as if he’s saying, Look, I am who I am. So deal with it.

I met with Greenberg several times this past fall to talk about how he’s managing a growing business in an industry experiencing total upheaval. The first time we sat down, in September, he dropped that his company had dozens of job openings. The agency, Greenberg explained, had grown 20% since the start of the year, from 1,000 staffers to 1,200. And to net those 200 additions, Greenberg had hired 500 new people. That math doesn’t exactly add up, I pointed out.

Here’s the rub: R/GA’s young GenFlux staffers are leaving at such a steady pace, sticking around for such short runs that Greenberg finds himself constantly replacing them, endlessly slotting one talented young person into another’s place. Many CEOs would react to this news with alarm: What are we doing wrong? Why can’t we keep our young talent? Greenberg talks about this intense transition with nonchalance. He’s not upset by it; he’s not fighting it; and he assumes this is the way life will be for the foreseeable future.

But that doesn’t mean he’s standing still. Despite strong business momentum, he’s pushing R/GA into a radical reorganization–the fifth time he’s hauled the firm into a new business model. “If we don’t change our structure, we’ll get less relevant,” Greenberg tells me. “We won’t be able to grow.” This time, he’s integrating 12 new capabilities, from live events to data visualization to product development, into R/GA’s platforms. “People talk about change and adaptation, but they don’t see how fast the competition is coming,” he says. “We have to move. We have no choice.”

R/GA’s flexibility is instructive for large firms and small. Many businesses are struggling to recast their strategies, with top execs hunting desperately for successful models that they can replicate. (Which might explain why you’ve probably heard the phrase, “We’re the Apple of . . .” once too often.) But there is no new model; you may well need to build one from scratch. “Command-and-control hierarchical structures are being disintegrated,” says danah boyd, a social-science researcher for Microsoft Research who also teaches at New York University. “There’s a difference between the old broadcast world and the networked world.”

In a world of flux, what succeeds for one industry or company doesn’t necessarily work for another; and even if it does, it may not work for long. One reason Facebook has thrived is that it is continually changing. Users and pundits routinely carp about new features or designs. But this is the way Facebook has been from its inception–including the critical decision in 2006 to open its doors to those not in college. Mark Zuckerberg knows that if he doesn’t keep Facebook moving, others will come after him. Steve Jobs applied a similar approach at Apple: He disrupted his own business in dozens of ways, from refusing to make new products compatible with old operating systems to dumping the iPod’s successful track wheel to embrace touch screens–ahead of everyone else.

Just because a specific tactic worked for Apple doesn’t mean it is right for your business. Maybe the world’s best marshmallow maker just needs to keep churning out the best marshmallow (even if it should have its own Facebook page and a Twitter feed). Every enterprise needs to find–and evolve–the structure, system, and culture that best allows it to stay competitive as its specific market shifts. Business leaders need to be creative, adaptive, and focused in their techniques, staffing, and philosophy.

An instructive analogy comes from the world of software. In a recent book called Building Data Science Teams, chaos expert Patil explained how software used to be developed: “One group defines the product, another builds visual mock-ups . . . and finally a set of engineers builds it to some specification document.” This is known as a “waterfall” process, which was practiced by large, successful enterprises like Microsoft that, on a designated schedule, issued large, finished releases of their products (Windows 95, Windows 2000, and so on). Today that process is giving way to “agile” development, to what Patil calls “the ability to adapt and iterate quickly throughout the product life cycle.” In software, such work follows the precepts of “The Agile Manifesto,” a 2001 document written by a group of developers who stated a preference for “individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over comprehensive documentation; [and] responding to change over following a plan.”

It’s not just the apps on your iPad: The entire world of business is now in a constant state of agile development. New releases are constant; tweaks, upgrades, and course corrections take place on the fly. There is no status quo; there is only a process of change.

But if your business is primed to be adaptable, flexible, and prepared for any shift in the economy, isn’t it also primed to be whipsawed by constant change?

I visited Nike CEO Mark Parker on the company’s campus outside of Portland, Oregon, and I asked if he had ever considered having Nike-branded hospitals, or Nike-branded doctors, or Nike-branded health food. After all, Nike is dedicated to improving its customers’ health. The health-care business is in tumult, and presumably an innovative new entrant could make a lot of money. Parker replied that, however tempting those business opportunities might be, they didn’t intersect with Nike’s core focus on sport.

That doesn’t mean Nike is avoiding new areas–including ones that touch on health. Spread across a couple of buildings on the west side of its campus are the employees of Nike’s digital sports operation. This burgeoning startup is focused on remaking how casual athletes train, stay motivated, and connect with one another. More than 5 million people interact on the Nike+ website, which connects to sensors in your shoes, phone, or watch to provide GPS-linked data about your exercise, as well as health facts such as heart rate and calories burned. By deploying new technologies and tools in the service of its long-term mission, Nike has deepened its customers’ brand experience–and reinforced, rather than fractured, its sense of identity.

The key is to be clear about your business mission. In a world of flux, this becomes more important than ever. Netflix’s recent troubles with its ill-fated Qwikster product is a telling example. Netflix’s core proposition has always been delivering a better, simpler, cheaper consumer experience. CEO Reed Hastings rattled video stores like Blockbuster with his no-late-fee DVD-by-mail model; he then obliterated them with his embrace of online streaming. But along the way, Netflix began to see itself as a first-mover technology leader more than a leader in consumer-focused experiences. That’s when the company stumbled, by forcing its customers to go somewhere they didn’t want, more because it made sense for Netflix’s business model than it did for them.

The twist to all this: Given the need for more frequent iteration in our age of flux, missteps like Netflix’s may become more prevalent. And over time, we’ll become more forgiving as a result. That will encourage even greater embrace of innovation by businesses, as the costs of failure decline. And in the process, flux will destabilize–and energize–our economy even more.

Lessons Of Flux

Our institutions are out of date; the long career is dead; any quest for solid rules is pointless, since we will be constantly rethinking them; you can’t rely on an established business model or a corporate ladder to point your way; silos between industries are breaking down; anything settled is vulnerable.

Put this way, the chaos ahead sounds pretty grim. But its corollary is profound: This is the moment for an explosion of opportunity, there for the taking by those prepared to embrace the change. We have been through a version of this before. At the turn of the 20th century, as cities grew to be the center of American culture, those accustomed to the agrarian clock of sunrise-sunset and the pace of the growing season were forced to learn the faster ways of the urban-manufacturing world. There was widespread uneasiness about the future, about what a job would be, about what a community would be. Fringe political groups and popular movements gave expression to that anxiety. Yet from those days of ambiguity emerged a century of tremendous progress.

Today we face a similar transition, this time born of technology and globalization–an unhinging of the expected, from employment to markets to corporate leadership. “There are all kinds of reasons to be afraid of this economy,” says Microsoft Research’s boyd. “Technology forces disruption, and not all of the change will be good. Optimists look to all the excitement. Pessimists look to all that gets lost. They’re both right. How you react depends on what you have to gain versus what you have to lose.”

Yet while pessimists may be emotionally calmed by their fretting, it will not aid them practically. The pragmatic course is not to hide from the change, but to approach it head-on. Thurston offers this vision: “Imagine a future where people are resistant to stasis, where they’re used to speed. A world that slows down if there are fewer options–that’s old thinking and frustrating. Stimulus becomes the new normal.”

To flourish requires a new kind of openness. More than 150 years ago, Charles Darwin foreshadowed this era in his description of natural selection: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” As we traverse this treacherous, exciting bridge to tomorrow, there is no clearer message than that.

Meet GenerationFlux

Read the full profiles.

[Photos by Brooke Nipar]

About the author

Robert Safian is editor and managing director of the award-winning monthly business magazine Fast Company. He oversees all editorial operations, in print and online, and plays a key role in guiding the magazine's advertising, marketing, and circulation efforts.


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Pursuant to section 10(d) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. Appendix 2), notice is hereby given of the following meeting.

The meeting will be closed to the public in accordance with the provisions set forth in sections 552b(c)(4) and 552b(c)(6), Title 5 U.S.C., as amended. The grant applications and the discussions could disclose confidential trade secrets or commercial property such as patentable material, and personal information concerning individuals associated with the grant applications, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

Name of Committee: National Institute of Mental Health Special Emphasis Panel.

Date: March 27, 2002.

Time: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Agenda: To review and evaluate grant applications.

Place: Bethesda Holiday Inn, 8120 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Contact Person: Peter J. Sheridan, PHD, Scientific Review Administrator, Division of Extramural Activities, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Neuroscience Center, 6001 Executive Blvd., Room 6142, MSC 9606, Bethesda, MD 20892-9606. 301-443-1513.

This notice is being published less than 15 days prior to the meeting due to the timing limitations imposed by the review and funding cycle.

(Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance Program Nos. 93.242, Mental Health Research Grants; 93.281, Scientist Development Award, Scientist Development Award for Clinicians, and Research Scientist Award; 93.282, Mental Health National Research Service Awards for Research Training, National Institutes of Health, HHS)

Start Signature

Dated: March 7, 2002.

LaVerne Y. Stringfield,

Director, Office of Federal Advisory Committee Policy.

End Signature End Preamble

[FR Doc. 02-6057 Filed 3-12-02; 8:45 am]


text:
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As a vintage lover, I’ve wanted to own a vintage cape for as long as I can remember.

Having a beautiful cape to twirl in, to feel luxurious and fabulous in… really, who wouldn’t want that?

Unfortunately, for years I convinced myself that buying a cape would be impractical. But then it hit me: why not just make one?

Sewing a cape, inspired by a vintage cape from the 40s or 50s  is totally within reach!

Purchasing a vintage cape sewing pattern on Etsy or eBay can be an eye opener. Prices may range from a cheap 7USD (5£) to a surprisingly expensive 50USD (32£.) Of course, if I you have the option to sew your garment from a vintage cape pattern, I say GO FOR IT!

BUT– using a modern sewing pattern with vintage sewing techniques can sometimes be more reasonable if you want a retro sewing fix and may not have access to a vintage sewing pattern.

Insert the Seamwork Camden Cape!

The cape is super traditional, with multiple gores to create a retro style that goes well with jeans, too.

I chose this pattern because I knew I wouldn’t have to try and enlarge a real vintage pattern and because it’s readily available online via PDF.

Plus, the projects I’ve made from Seamwork have all been reliable, which is extremely important when making a garment like this.

This Seamwork Magazine cape features lots of cute details!
  1. Comfortable arm holes openings that are placed at a natural place on the garment
  2. Pattern pieces include a full lining
  3. Simple, neckline for casual days– and ample space in case you want to throw a faux-fur collar to dress it up.

Before getting started…

Decide what upgrades you might want to make to the Seamwork Camden, to give it more of a vintage cape touch.

I went out of my way to pull in sewing techniques that would have been present in a vintage cape.

Never one to settle for a plain garment, I upgraded my pattern in the following ways:

  • Added bound buttonholes to the front, rather than plain machine made buttonholes
  • Drafted a new facing piece, to have a facing that went completely around the neck
  • Stitched in a pocket into the lining, to have an interior double welt pocket
  • Hand sewed my lining in place, using techniques from the 1940s
How To Sew Bound Buttonholes

Sewing a Bound Buttonhole through a Facing or Lining | Vintage on Tap - YouTube

How To Draft Your Own Facing to a Lining

Intro to Drafting a Facing and Lining Combination | Vintage on Tap - YouTube

How to Sew a Lining by Hand, Using Sewing Techniques from the 1940s

Lining a Coat with Vintage Techniques | Vintage on Tap - YouTube

The final technique comes with a free download, which you can get below:

FREE Vintage Linings Tutorial PDF

Get a FREE Printable PDF with all my vintage lining tips and instructions covered in my video tutorial, ready for your sewing table!

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Step One: Pick the Right Fabric for the Job

Picking the right fabric for a cape cannot be understated! I discuss this in my video tutorial at timestamp 4:21.

Ask yourself the following questions:

How do I intend to wear this cape? For casual use, or more as a workhorse, daily cape?

Depending on your answer, pick lighter or thicker fabrics. For example, if it’s a purely workhorse cape, perhaps a sturdy twill or trenchcoat-like fabric might be nice. If you’re wearing your piece more for the glitz and glam of it, perhaps a sequin fabric or a thinner, more fluttery fabric can be what you’re looking for.

This also extends to the lining!

What’s the weather more likely to be when you wear it?

In my case, San Francisco doesn’t get too terribly cold and I’ll be pairing this cape up with wool sweaters and long sleeve shirts. I did not underline this piece with a flannel or cotton for insulation and opted for a mid-to-light cotton brushed “wool.”

If temperatures in your area get extremely cold, definitely insulate your piece! If not, then you are probably ok to proceed as I did in the video tutorial, with no additional underlining.

Step Two: Notches notches notches

The importance of notches is always imperative to your sewing success! Covered at 2:15 in the video tutorial.

Remember, notches indicate where pattern pieces fit in relationship to one another– AS WELL AS where two pattern pieces meet. In pieces such as this Camden cape, you’ll be sewing on a curve for most panels, and the notches allow you to see where the two pieces match up to one another.

If you’ve had to do any fitting adjustments…

Please be sure to rewalk your pattern pieces to make sure your pieces and notches match. On this vintage style cape, keep an eye out on the following areas:

  • If you’ve shortened or lengthened the piece… That the front shell and lining pattern pieces match the facing
  • If you’ve done a full bust adjustment… That the front shell and lining pattern pieces match the bottom rectangular panel

Step Three: Identify at what point to incorporate vintage techniques into the sewing process

The process of upgrading your sewing patterns can seem overwhelming if you haven’t given it a shot before.

Taking the time before beginning the sewing process, to identify where to incorporate your new vintage elements can save you a lot of heartache down the road.

For the above listed upgrades, I added them in at the following points:

At the pattern drafting stage…

Complete any fitting adjustments you might like to do. Then, draft your new facing pieces.

For my Camden cape, I drafted a 2inch wide facing piece that extended from the original facing that ended at the neck, then brought the facing into a gentle curve around the neckline.

Watch the tutorial on this sewing technique by clicking here

Before attaching the front shell piece to anything else…

Sew your bound buttonholes. The pattern piece will be easier to handle if it’s not attached to the shell, and moving things around your sewing space will be a calmer experience.

For my Seamwork Camden cape, I opted for the following measurements based off the recommended 3/4″ button:

  • 4 x 4″ squares for the “lips” of the buttonhole
  • 1 1/8 x 3/8″ buttonhole opening

As noted in my buttonhole tutorial, sew the buttonholes onto the shell piece, and then complete the bound buttonholes later on when the facing has been sewn in place.

Click here to learn how to sew a bound buttonhole

Before attaching the lining to the shell…

Stitch in your inner double welt pocket. I eyeballed where on my cape I wanted my pocket to be, and then went for it.

I used the following measurements for my cape, which were large enough to fit an iPhone 7 (not PLUS):

  • 7 x 3″ welt, facing, and interfacing (cut 2 of interfacing)
  • 7 x 12″ pocket lining

The best tutorial for double welt pockets I found online (that wasn’t mine!) is on the Craftsy website.

After sewing the facing onto the shell…

At that point you can attach your lining in by hand. Attaching the lining by hand is a really calm experience and the process of it is extremely forgiving due to the hand sewing of the technique.

Click here to learn more about hand sewing in a lining

Sewing a vintage cape from a modern pattern is easy to do if you upgrade the pattern and make it more authentic to the time period.

A lot of modern sewing patterns draw direct inspiration and design from their older counterparts, and simply by including more intentional construction details, you can help merge the two styles seamlessly.

By incorporating bound buttonholes, hand sewing, and more fully thought out interior designs, you can sew your own vintage cape.

All the Places, All the Stuff!
Never miss a post by following me on Bloglovin’!
Or go mobile- I’m on Instagram and YouTube!

The post How to Sew a Vintage Cape, Tutorial with Video appeared first on Vintage on Tap.

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The time has come… for the 2017/2018 AMA!

I received so many amazing questions for this past AMA and this video was such a joy to shoot. I actually really love having a moment to shoot a video like this.

Questions included:

  • Where is my favorite place online to go fabric shopping?
  • How can we get more men sewing?
  • What’s the pattern I wish existed?
  • How big is my fabric stash?
  • …and more!

We also shouted out the lovely Joost from Freesewing.org , where he creates free menswear PDF patterns! Please check out his website when you get an opportunity!

Want to see more questions answered?

Check out our previous AMA by clicking here!

The post 2017/2018 AMA Answers! appeared first on Vintage on Tap.

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This New Year ReSEWlutions video is a two step reveal!

I go into two different topics as 2018 begins, discussing the fun questions that Cotton by Candy posed to me via a YouTube sewing tag as well as 2018 Vintage on Tap changes.

The questions Candy asked were fun and thought provoking and they definitely made me consider what the projects that might be the most intriguing for the new year:

1) What’s your favourite make of 2017? Why?
2) What did you attempt in 2017 that you won’t be doing next year? Why not?
3) What are you going to continue doing?
4) What are you going to try next year?
5) Where do you see your handmade wardrobe by the end of next year? What about in 5 years?

It’s super fun to think of new year reSEWlutions in this sort of way– reflecting on what worked, what didn’t work, and what direction you might want to go in in the future.

If you’re considering answering these questions via Instagram or YouTube, be sure to tag me so I can check them out!

Upcoming updates to Vintage on Tap are on the way!

Many fun changes are coming to Vintage on Tap as 2018 starts up. I’m actually prepping to start them and I think they’ll be a nice update to our process.

The biggest reason for this updated direction is that I wanted to be able to have a closer relationship with all the viewers around the world and have a more hands on experience that I hope my videos can provide.

Some of the new changes include:

  1. More intimate videos and LIVE features on the YouTube channel, Facebook, and Instagram!
  2. “Sew and Tell” journey videos!
  3. Formalized Sew Alongs!

If you’re not following me on All the Stuff, please do so! Each platform will have its own special content that differs from the rest and you won’t want to miss it!

Click the images below to follow:

Here’s to an amazing 2018! I can’t wait to share it with you and make even more amazing projects together!

The post 2018 New Year ReSEWlutions + Channel Updates! appeared first on Vintage on Tap.

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Bound buttonholes can seem intimidating, but they don’t have to be.

The fear of bound buttonholes seems to lay in the perceived amount of steps that go into the process.

To be honest, there aren’t as many steps as you might think.

Adding fuel to that fire is that there are multiple ways to sew bound buttonholes. With the sheer amount of ways to get the job done, anyone encountering the technique for the first time can be intimidated.

For me, I was put off from them for a long time because I kept using a tutorial that was making it harder for me to understand the concept, not easier.

At one point I had made over 20 buttonholes and they all kept coming out wrong.

I was using what I’m dubbing the “two lips” method. With that technique, you were instructed to cut out two tiny lips and then attach them to the buttonhole and in the process, becoming stressed out and angry.

Sewing bound buttonholes should not make you angry.

When getting started with bound buttonholes, expect to make multiple samples before tackling your fashion fabric.

Ultimately, practicing ANY new technique, it’s a good rule of thumb to go through at least four or five iterations. One or two iterations to mess up the technique entirely, but then by the time you get to version five+, the process looks and sews cleaner and more gorgeous.

Step One: Sew your bound buttonhole rectangles.

In my video tutorial, my rectangles were 2in x .5in (5.08cm x 1.27cm.)

Trace your rectangle onto both your fashion fabric and the fabric that I’m dubbing the “lips” of the buttonhole. Using a couple pins, line up both rectangles as closely as possible (timestamp 1:30) and then pin the two layers of fabric together.

Sew along the rectangle, all the way around. Start and end your stitches as exact on the corners as possible.

Step Two: Mark your cut lines, cut, and turn inside out.

Starting at timestamp 2:38, draw your cutting lines. You need one line directly down the middle of the buttonhole, then as you approach the corners, create Y-shape from the center line to the corners.

Using a pin, find the center of the bound buttonhole (timestamp 2:50) and then snip down the guidelines, careful not to cut through your previous stitch line.

Carefully turn inside out.

Step Three: Tack your Bound Buttonhole “lips” in place.

At your iron, press the buttonhole lips in place, taking care that the corner tabs are laying correctly (timestamp 4:53.) Also be sure that your buttonhole lips are straight and look correct from the right side.

When everything is pressed and pinned, stitch the short ends of your buttonhole, through all layers, stitching “in the ditch” (the crease.) This step will keep the buttonhole from pulling open and and will tack everything in place, timestamp 6:34.

Trim from the wrong side any excess buttonhole lip fabric, leaving roughly 3/4″in around the buttonhole.

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If you’re attaching a facing or lining to your bound buttonhole…

Be sure to complete the steps above before attaching the facing or lining. You want to be sure the shell is prepared with its buttonholes so you can focus entirely on the facing/lining.

  Step Four: Stabilize the facing or lining around the bound buttonhole.

After sewing your lining or facing to the garment as a whole, pin the facing/lining approximately 2in (5cm) around the buttonhole.

The exact amount of pins or the exact distance is not important, however, you’re aiming for the facing/lining to not wiggle or pull during the remaining process.

Using pins at the edges of the bound buttonhole, identify the center of the buttonhole, timestamp 7:34.

Step Five: Cut through facing/lining and handsew in place.

Carefully snip through the facing/lining, careful not to cut through the lips of the buttonhole. Cut all the way to the edges of the opening.

Fingerpress the facing/lining approximately 1/16in-1/8in (0.15cm – 0.32cm) under, pinning it carefully in place. Hand sew the facing to the lips of the buttonhole.

Press and admire your work!

Sewing bound buttonholes does not have to be a chore.

If anything, with this type of technique you can consistently make something small but beautiful. For me personally, because I tend to use older machines with considerably janky-er buttonhole attachments, this comes out more beautifully long term. It also gives my sewing more of that Intentional Vintage Sewing look, elevating it past the standard machine made buttonhole.

Have you made bound buttonholes before? What was your experience?

This post is part of the Vintage Vogue 9280 Video series! Check out the other installment of this series by clicking the image below:

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The post Bound Buttonholes Through a Lining or Facing, Video Tutorial appeared first on Vintage on Tap.

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Laurel Hill Cemetery

Photo added by Magda Morris

Laurel Hill Cemetery

Owned and operated by, The City of Thomasville.

The 3 entrances are, one near the stadium & practice fields at old Thomasville High School on E. Jackson Sr. and one at the interestion of Glenwood Drive @ E. Jackson St. The third entry, and the easiest to get in and out of, is on Remington Ave (Pavo Rd) next to the Mormon Church (807 Remington Ave).

At some point in time they moved Confederate Soldiers from a location on Broad Street to Laurel Hill. That area today is known as Soldiers Circle.

Search Laurel Hill Cemetery:

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GPS Coordinates: 30.8425, -83.9683

  • Added: 2 Jan 2000
  • Find A Grave Cemetery: #34925


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Welcome to FightLine’s live coverage of UFC on FOX 17.

Tonight’s card comes to us from the Amway Center in Orlando, with bouts airing on FOX, FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

In the main event, Donald Cerrone challenges Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title.

Dos Anjos (24-7) won the belt last March with a decision victory over Anthony Pettis and has won four in a row overall. He is 9-1 in his last 10, including a 2013 decision vs. Cerrone.

Cerrone (28-6) has not tasted defeat since that dos Anjos bout, reeling off eight in a row, including wins over Benson Henderson, Myles Jury, Eddie Alvarez and Jim Miller.

Also, heavyweight contenders Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem collide, along with lightweights Nate Diaz and Michael Johnson as part of the FOX main card that begins at 8 p.m. ET with Randa Markos vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz.

The televised prelims, which start at 5 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, include Charles Oliveira vs. Jury, C.B. Dollaway vs. Nate Marquardt, Sarah Kaufman vs. Valentina Shevchenko, Josh Samman vs. Tamdan McCrory, Nik Lentz vs. Danny Castillo and Cole Miller vs. Jim Alers.

Early UFC Fight Pass prelims feature Leon Edwards-Kamaru Usman, Hayder Hassan-Vicente Luque and Luiz Henrique-Francis Ngannou.

Francis Ngannou def. Luis Henrique via KO (strike) at 2:53 of Round 2

Vicente Luque def. Hayder Hassan via submission (anaconda choke) at 2:13 of Round 1

Kamaru Usman def. Leon Edwards via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)

Cole Miller vs. Jim Alers ruled a no-contest (accidental eye poke) at 1:34 of Round 2

Nik Lentz vs. Danny Castillo

We’ll head to the lightweight division for our next contest, as Nik Lentz (25-7) takes on Danny Castillo (17-9).

Round 1: Castillo trying to keep Lentz off balance by switching stances and moving constantly. Both fighters are good wrestlers with college backgrounds, so this might be a kickboxing affair. Castillo lands with a solid kick to the body, as he is really using that weapon. Lentz grabs hold of him and scores with a takedown, moving directly to side control and searching for a mounted crucifix or a potential choke. Lentz grabs hold of a guillotine standing and has Castillo locked up tight. He has great leverage and is trying to drag him down to the canvas. Castillo remains patient and escapes, moving now to the top position. Lentz again grabs the guillotine, but he’s unable to get it this time and they are back on the feet.

FightLine scores the round 10-9 for Lentz

Round 2: Castillo showing power with his striking, really landing with everything he is throwing here in the early stages. Lentz, though, continues to pepper him with kicks that are keeping him at a distance. Body kick followed by a second successful takedown for Lentz with two-plus minutes to go. Lentz remains the fresher fighter, fending off attacks by Castillo and hammering him with kicks.

FightLine scores the round 10-9 for Lentz

Round 3: Lentz fires out and lands with another takedown, but Castillo immediately gets back to his feet. Castillo letting his fingers get close to the eye of Lentz and he acknowledges it. A brief stoppage, but Lentz wants to continue. Lentz grabs for the neck and Castillo scores with a double-leg, but Lentz is right back up again. Not much left in the tank of either fighter as the final bell sounds.

FightLine scores the round 10-9 for Lentz

Nik Lentz def. Danny Castillo via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)

Tamdan McCrory vs. Josh Samman

We’ll bounce up to the middleweight ranks, as Tamdan McCrory (13-3) goes one-on-one with Josh Samman (12-2).

Round 1: McCrory tries to counter a kick with a huge right hand, losing his balance. However, he regains composure and has Samman against the fence. He lands with a knee to the body and just misses on a huge knee to the face. Samman reverses and is now on top, but in the guard of a strong jiu-jitsu fighter. McCrory tries for an armbar, switches to a triangle, but Samman survives both and winds up on top after a scramble.

FightLine scores the round 10-9 for McCrory

Round 2: Samman with a huge takedown, but McCrory is able to get full guard right away and avoid any damage. Excellent sweep from McCrory and he winds up on Samman’s back. He immediately gets a hook in, but loses it and is now pounding away with elbows from the top. Potential kimura for McCrory, but the round comes to a close.

FightLine scores the round 10-9 for McCrory

Round 3: Samman comes right out after McCrory, but he gets tripped and taken down once again. Big shots lead to full mount for McCrory with four minutes to work. McCrory all over him, unloading with strikes before jumping back into the guard. He’s working for a potential head-and-arm choke while also transitioning to the back. More strikes getting through the defense of Samman, who is denied standing up. Deep triangle in for McCrory, who is also attacking with sharp elbows as there is just a minute left.

Tamdan McCrory def. Josh Samman via submission (triangle choke) at 4:10 of Round 3


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A self-healing BLUE HAND-moment is -
a man with chronic back pain starts talking tenderly to his spine.

this day-energy combines
the potential

blue hand

focus on healing
other possible topics:
  • understanding illness instead of fighting it
  • mobilization of self-healing powers
but also:
  • mind babble
with the dynamic

13 – live!

THIRTEEN brings universal encounter and return. The old loses its weight. In this time of new orientation, recovery is especially effective.

A visionary BLUE EAGLE-moment is -
stepping back to perceive that the solution was always there just in front of you.

the 13th day
in the actual wave

blue eagle

The wave of BLUE EAGLE empowers you to hold positive visions in your heart. For overcoming the depths of collective hopelessness that is conveyed over news channels as well as the destructive helplessness surrounding us, will only vary, if there is a change within us. This may influence the great whole. In the Flow-Universe there is no space for this. Instead of grumbling and arranging yourself in victimhood, call into consciousness your "biggest mission" that you were born with (it doesn't have to immediately be the role of the world president). This potential helps you, to take a little distance from your daily routine or the world affairs transported on the media. In these days Mud-Wrestlers might tend to tendencies of escapism as well as impatience with less gifted people.

“Hey, I heard you were a wild one” VERSUS “Do penguins have knees?”
Your new birth year has following aims:
  • to support your individual visions
  • through the strength of action
  • challenged to be less egocentric.
  • Take care: to give one’s best attention can bring surprising awareness!
  • In these 365 days old things lose weight – new orientation is announced. It is not the best year to begin with a new big subject although you can feel something new standing in front of your door. At the end of your growth cycle, that began twelve years ago, there is transformation and therefore regeneration is very effective. This is the year of your quantum-jump.

I am
blue hand 13
Who are you?
Find it out now and start living
in the FLOW-Universe from today.
Go on a 260-day-long journey
to a more mindful and conscious life.
tell me more
In the FLOW-Universe
you carry a personal
birth signature
consisting out of
three parts:
— potential
— dynamic
— birth wave
To find out your signature,
just type in your first name
and birthdate:

show birth signature

welcome to the

Here we know you
born in the wave of
- what a
good choice!

dive deeper
= dynamic
= potential
= wave

your potential is
the main component
of your birth signature
and pictures your
central superpower –
either you already fully
embody it or you are
still hiding.
But it’s a fact, that it
is yours.
(sorry, that nobody
told you so far…)

learn more

the second component
of your birth signature
is your dynamic.
It gives your potential
a twist and influences
it into a certain
direction, similar to
the fact that
people differ in their

learn more

last but not least you
are connected to your
individual birth-wave.
This third component
gives information
about the central
issue in your life,
which you would like to achieve.

So, that is who you are
in the FLOW-Universe.

In the FLOW-universe all people are connected through unique partner energies.

The knowledge about this energetic bonds can improve your social life profoundly.
To learn more about this unique partner energy, simply type in the name of two persons and their birthdate:

please enter both names
show partner energy

This is the partner energy connecting
Be more aware of this potential and it's dynamic. Try to approach the people around you from a totally new point of view and feel the difference.

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Meet Our Members

Kingfisher Flowers

About My Business

Welcome to Kingfisher Flowers. My name is Sally and I grow flowers in the beautiful Calder Valley near Hebden Bridge. From scented narcissus, tulips and forget me nots in Spring, sweet Williams, sweet peas and snapdragons as the season goes into early summer, then dahlias, zinnias and sunflowers from late summer into Autumn. I love the variety of colour and scent through all the different seasons. The flowers are grown without using any chemicals. I'm happy to provide flowers for any occasion, from a single posy or bouquet to a large scale wedding, event or celebration and can be contacted by phone, email or my Facebook page Kingfisher Flowers. Also selling locally at farm shops, markets and events.

Contact Details

Sally Baker
Nest Estate
Hebden Bridge

What I offer

Bouquets and Buckets service
Bouquets delivered locally
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No. 1 - Seasonal Dinners Tumbler

$ 34.00

A fun new way to shake up your cooking routine, Foodie Dice provides inspiration for creating simple, seasonal meals. Simply place the five primary dice in the tumbler, add a seasonal veggie die and roll. Then shop, cook, and eat! Over 186,000 possible meal combinations to inspire creativity in the kitchen.

  • Includes 5 primary dice (protein, cooking method, grain/carb, herb, bonus ingredient) and 4 seasonal veggie dice
  • Vegetarian & vegan-friendly — the protein die includes both meat and vegetarian options on each side, so you can choose which to use
  • Packaged in a reclaimed wine bottle tumbler

Here's what you might be having for dinner if you rolled the dice:
sauté / pork OR eggs / potato / carrots / dill / bacon
grill / beef OR tempeh / rice / corn / cilantro / onions

Add on a Booster Set (seafood protein, spice, herbs, and wild card ingredients) for even more options. Dice come in their own pouch. To add the booster set, select "Tumbler Set with Booster set (+$12)" in the drop-down on this page.

Seasonal Dinners Booster Set
  • Dice measure 3/4" each
  • Tumbler with cork measures 3" wide x 4.5" tall
  • Birch wood dice are laser-engraved in the USA


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Season 7, Episode 4

Fast Fixes

Jeff Mauro makes an easy 15-minute weeknight dinner of Cold Noodle Salmon salad, and the hosts show time-saving food preparation hacks. Then, two complete meals cooked on sheet trays: Sunny Anderson's Rosemary and Thyme Chicken with Carrots and Potatoes, and Geoffrey Zakarian's One Sheet Tri-Tip Salad. Marcela Vallodolid shares her easy carnitas recipe and Food Network's Valerie Bertinelli stops by to make her Easy Chocolate Sauce, while Geoffrey prepares the perfect Gin and Tonic.
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Sunny's Roasted Rosemary and Thyme Chicken, Carrots and Potatoes

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Miso-Glazed Salmon Cold Noodle Salad

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Food Safety Magazine

REGULATORY REPORT | December 2008/January 2009

How FDA’s “Threshold of Regulation” Program Works

By Anna P. Shanklin, Ph.D., Edited by Susan Cahill

How FDA’s “Threshold of Regulation” Program Works

“Threshold of Regulation” refers to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) program that saves resources for both the Agency and the food industry, as the Agency meets its crucial mission to protect public health. The program exempts substances that come into contact with foods—substances in packaging or food processing equipment, for example—from being listed as food additives if they migrate into foods at levels that result in no appreciable risk to human health.

The program, which is administered by the FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, allows these substances to undergo an abbreviated review process, avoiding the more administratively burdensome food-additive petition process. Abbreviated review allowed by the FDA’s Threshold of Regulation (TOR) policy determines whether the specific use of a food-contact substance meets criteria ensuring that the intended use would pose no more than a negligible health risk. The process does not alter the safety standard applied to these substances.

To the contrary, the abbreviated process removes administrative burdens that contribute little or nothing to safety assurance, freeing resources so that they may be applied to more pressing public health issues. The development of this approach and related analytical tools has, in all likelihood, increased the level of safety assurance overall because it permits FDA reviewers to efficiently apply the sum of their collected data and information to each safety decision.

To date, the FDA’s TOR policy has saved the Agency an estimated 100 to 150 staff years of labor. It has also fostered important information exchanges between the FDA and the food-packaging industry. In addition, the TOR process has spurred innovations in packaging markets that offer consumers more convenience.

This article explains how and why the TOR policy developed and how to submit a TOR request to the FDA.

In 1958, Congress amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) to require premarket approval or review of food additives prior to their inclusion in food. The amendment provided the legal framework for ensuring the safe use of food additives or chemicals in food by (1) precisely defining “food additive” and (2) establishing the standards of review and safety for food-additive approvals.

The Act defined “food additive” to include components of food-contact articles (food packaging and food processing equipment) that migrate, or may reasonably be expected to migrate, into food, making them subject to premarket approval [Section 201(s) of the Act]. For premarket approval for use of food additives, the Act required that the safety of the proposed use be demonstrated by data submitted to the FDA in a food-additive petition.

In the wake of these events, the FDA began to routinely receive requests for exemptions. Initially, the Agency issued informal opinions that allowed the use of specific substances that it did not believe invoked the food-additive provisions of the Act. During this time, industry also approached the FDA to propose that the Agency handle the issue of minimal migration of these substances into food through a so-called “Threshold of Regulation” policy.

A 1967 proposal suggested a 100 parts-per-billion (ppb) dietary concentration for food-packaging materials, excluding pesticides and heavy metals, based on the results of two-year chronic oral feeding studies of 220 compounds. In 1969, FDA Associate Commissioner L.L. Ramsey proposed a threshold of 50 ppb for levels of migrants into food or food-simulating solvents. Finally, in 1977, the Society of the Plastics Industry petitioned the FDA to modify its regulations so that uses of substances that resulted in levels of migration into foods at levels no higher than 50 ppb would be exempt from food-additive regulation unless they raised safety concerns.

Why did it take so long for the FDA to establish a formal policy? Legal and scientific hurdles kept the FDA from reaching this milestone until 1995. Until a court case clarified the issue in 1979, it had been unclear whether or not the FDA had authority to exempt additives from the formal petition process. In addition, until the 1980s, large, homogenous collections of toxicity data on which to base a threshold level were not available. The scientific analysis necessary to establish a dietary concentration level below which an abbreviated review would be protective could not even be performed until then.

In establishing a TOR, the FDA had to determine a level and establish a review framework that would meet the “reasonable certainty of no harm” standard, including the prohibition against FDA authorization of known carcinogens under the Delaney Clause [Section 409(c)(3)(A) of the Act]. The FDA had to choose a TOR low enough to ensure that the public health would be protected even if an exempted substance was later found to be a carcinogen.

In 1986, the FDA proposed a probabilistic approach to the TOR to address overall safety and concerns about potential carcinogenicity of untested additives. In 1987, scientists outside of the FDA considered factors that suggested a practical threshold between 1 part per trillion (ppt) and 5 ppb in the diet. In 1990, the Canadian Center for Toxicology proposed a dietary concentration of 1 ppb as the TOR for components of food-contact articles for which no toxicology data had been developed. The FDA’s policy was proposed in 1993 and finalized in 1995.[1]

The Threshold of Regulation Program
When should a TOR request be submitted? Substances used in food-contact articles (food packaging or food processing equipment) that migrate, or that may be expected to migrate, into food at negligible levels may be reviewed under the TOR process outlined in Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 170.39, Threshold of Regulation for substances used in food-contact articles.

Submitting a TOR Request. Anyone may submit a TOR request to the FDA, and 21 CFR 170.39 outlines the criteria and process for submission.

How can you tell if your indirect food additive qualifies for exemption under the TOR process? A food-contact substance may be exempted from regulation as a food additive if the following general criteria apply:

•    Migration of a substance is not expected to result in dietary concentrations above the threshold.

•    The substance has not been shown to be a carcinogen in humans or animals, and there is no reason to suspect, based on its chemical structure or other criteria, that it is a carcinogen or a potent toxin.

•    The substance, under its intended conditions of use, must not produce a technical effect in food into which it migrates (for example, an antioxidant that resided in the packaging would not have an antioxidant effect in the food into which it migrated).

•    The substance use has no significant adverse impact on the environment.

To demonstrate that all the general criteria are met, submission of a data package is required, as outlined in Table 1 and in CFR 170.39. Generally, the data package does not have to be lengthy, and the request often can be submitted via a simple letter to the Agency, describing the substance and the details of how it is to be used. Submissions often can rely on information from product specification sheets or Material Safety Data Sheets, and submitters should consult with the Agency to avoid engaging in unnecessary testing.

Some examples of TOR submissions are for food-processing applications, polymerization-processing aids, colorants, alloys, and ceramics, and for cation or anion substitutions in chemicals. Typical TOR submissions involve uses in which there is little potential for migration into food, either because of the physical characteristics of the material or because the characteristics of the application or use make migration unlikely.

Examples include substances used in repeat-use, food-contact materials, such as conveyor belts, or components of food-processing machinery that may be in contact with large quantities of food during its lifetime. Such substances can be relatively insoluble compounds, such as inorganic colorants and materials like cross-linking agents used at relatively low levels in food-contact materials. Other examples include materials like ceramics that are highly resistant to corrosion and abrasion.

Figure 1 shows how a submitter can determine whether his or her food-contact substance (FCS) qualifies for TOR exemption.

The requestor should:

•    Identify the FCS that is the subject of the request
•    Estimate exposure
•    Evaluate 21 CFR 170.39 criteria (that is, chemistry, toxicology, and environmental data requirements)
•    Submit submission based on 21 CFR 170.39 criteria to FDA (four copies)

Review Process for a TOR Request. The TOR process is initiated when a TOR exemption request arrives at the FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety and is assigned to a Consumer Safety Officer (CSO). The TOR submission is distributed to the TOR Committee for assignment. The review team consists of a CSO, a chemist, a toxicologist, and an environmental scientist. The four-person committee reviews the exemption request using a team approach, and summarizes its review in a joint memorandum (Figure 2).

FDA Response. Usually within 60 to 90 days of receiving a TOR exemption request, the FDA will inform the request’s submitter, in writing, of the outcome of the review of the data package and whether the intended use of the food-contact substance qualifies for exemption under 21 CFR 170.39. It should be noted that, like food-additive regulations, exempted uses are generic. Therefore, any manufacturer/supplier can market an exempted substance, as long as the identity and intended use are the same as those for which the exemption was issued.

Find Out More
The TOR policy is a legally defensible, science-based exemption that results in significant savings in resources for both the FDA and the regulated industry while protecting public health. The FDA encourages individuals contemplating submission of a TOR request, or who are interested in knowing more about exemption under the TOR process, to review the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s Guidance for Industry ( torguid.html).

The Office of Food Additive Safety also lists exemptions that have been issued under 21 CFR 170.39. This list includes the name of the company that made the request, the chemical name of the substance, the specific use for which the substance received an exemption from regulation as a food additive, and any appropriate limitations on the substance’s use. As noted above, manufacturers and suppliers may wish to review this list of exemptions to determine whether an exempted substance they are interested in marketing is currently listed for the same proposed, intended use. Questions about this list should be directed to the Office of Food Additive Safety (

Anna P. Shanklin, Ph.D., is a chemist and consumer safety officer in the Division of Food Contact Notifications of the Office of Food Additive Safety, in FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). She has been with CFSAN for eight years.

Susan Cahill is a writer/editor in FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, in the Office of Food Defense and Center for Emergency Response.

1.    More detailed information about FDA’s TOR policy is available in the proposed rule published in the Federal Register on October 12, 1993 and the Final Rule published in the Federal Register on July 19, 1995.

Flamm, W.G., L. R. Lake, R. J. Lorentzen, A. M. Rulis, P. S. Schwartz, and T. C. Troxell. 1987. Carcinogenic potencies and establishment of a threshold of regulation for food contact substances, in De Minimis Risk, Vol. 2 of Contemporary Issues in Risk Assessment. Edited by D. Whipple. New York: Plenum Press.

Food and Drug Administration. Food Additives: Threshold of regulation of substances used in food-contact articles: Proposed Rule. Federal Register 58:52719-52729 (1993).

Food and Drug Administration. Food Additives: Threshold of regulation of substances used in food-contact articles: Final Rule. Federal Register 60:36582-36596 (1995).

Frawley, J. P. 1967. Scientific evidence and common sense as a basis for food-packaging regulations. Food. Cosmet. Toxicol. 5:293-30.

Munro, I. C. 1990. Safety assessment procedures for indirect food additives: an overview. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 12:2-12.

Ramsey, L. L. 1969. The food additive problem of plastics used in food packaging. Presented at the National Technical Conference of the Society of Plastics Engineers. Commonly referred to as the Ramsey Proposal.

Rulis, A. “De Minimis and the Threshold of Regulation.” In Food Protection Technology, edited by C. W. Felix, 29-37. Chelsea, MI: Lewis, 1986.

Society of the Plastics Industry, 1977. Citizen petition submitted to FDA to amend the food additive definition in 21 CFR 170.3(e), Docket No. 77-0122, March 30, 1977.

> Categories: Regulatory: FDA


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sensors | Footmarks

For the Footmarks Founders, it was Love at First Sight

For the co-founding team, it was love at first sight. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Footmarks co-founder team looks back at what brought them together at a Seattle Hackathon in December, 2012. Hear how Casey ditched his date to spend a night coding (“It was worth it”), and how Preston – after a 24 hr whirlwind courtship – knew Skylar was “the one.”


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The 400 Richest Americans

#56 Pauline MacMillan Keinath - The Forbes 400 Richest Americans 2009

09.30.09, 06:00 PM EDT

Contraction in world economy, falling fertilizer prices spoiling food family's fortune.

Complete Coverage:
The 400 Richest Americans

Sort List By:
Net Worth $4,300 million Source inheritance, Inherited
Age 75Hometown St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Marital Status Married, 4 childrenEducation

Contraction in world economy, falling fertilizer prices spoiling food family's fortune. Fiscal 2009 earnings down 15% to $3.3 billion despite revenues remaining steady at $117 billion. William Cargill, son of Scottish sea captain, founded Iowa grain storage business after Civil War. Will's son-in-law John MacMillan took control 1909. Low-profile family owns 88% of Cargill; hasn't run company since Whitney stepped down as chief executive 1995. Firm controls food from stable to table: animal feed, meat, crops. Also runs large commodity trading and risk management operations. Family owns majority of fertilizer maker Mosaic; shares down 50% since last August.

Steve Forbes
  Intelligent Investing | Data | Knowledge | Insight | Wisdom


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Big companies aren't on startup schedules. Your hours = their weeks. Learn to work within these constraints.

Any startup that’s worked or tried to work with big companies knows about the waiting game.  Big companies can take months to decide what kind of cereal should go in the snack room.

Startups have to move quickly.  We went from having no web app, no grocery chain partner and no manufacturer clients to fully live with 5,000 subscribers in five weeks.

We got lucky in that we found a couple of companies – including Chobani, who we like to call the Apple Inc. of yogurt – that were the most nimble marketers in their space.

But other than those early deals where serendipity rescued us, our successes have come from months of meetings, building relationships and bringing experienced people from the industry into our fold.

When it comes to big companies, David Levine, founder of Geostellar, told me, “Take however long you think it’s going to take and multiply that by five.”

We’ve seen that rule of thumb prove to be uncannily true.


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Making money shouldn’t be just for the rich. Catherine Berman, a serial entrepreneur and former managing director at Charles Schwab, wanted to create financial products for everyone, not just the  wealthy few. She teamed with Yuliya Tarasava, who had decades of experience creating financial products on Wall Street. Together, they founded CNote.

Mike Ivancie

Woman investing via CNote.

They particularly wanted to serve women and millennials, who tend to be “over-savers,” putting a higher proportion of their investment portfolio in savings rather than the stock market, Berman explained. She is CNote’s CEO. Women and millennials just don’t trust investing in the stock market. That distrust costs them dearly. The typical bank savings account earns a measly 0.06% interest. Believe it or not, that rate doesn’t even keep up with inflation so you’re losing money, not making money.Both groups share something else in common: They want to make the world a better place.

Now it might sound like a tall order to create a savings account that delivers higher interest than a bank plus makes a social impact. However, for people who think outside the box, the impossible is possible. Often, people like this come from diverse backgrounds and join forces to solve a particular problem. This diversity unlocks innovation and drives market growth, according to Center for Talent Innovation. There are two types of diversity:

  • Inherent, which includes traits that you’re born with, such as gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
  • Acquired, which includes traits you gain from experience, such as being from a different culture.
Mike Ivancie

Yuliya Tarasava and Catherine Berman cofounders of CNote

Berman and Tarasava have the technical background to understand the ins and outs of the financial system and to develop safe, high-yield products. They are women so they understand what appeals to women. Tarasava is a millennial. Berman is Hispanic and Tarasava is an immigrant so they understand diverse markets.

The result is an online financial product that provides a better place to invest your cash. It’s first product provides 2.5% interest versus that 0.06% of traditional banks. Banks are using your money to underwrite credit card debt and mortgages. CNote invests 100% of your dollars in Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), such as Excelsior Growth Fund, CDC Small Business Finance and  Main Street Launch Capital. In turn, these organizations lend to minorities, women, low income, or otherwise underserved entrepreneurs that may have difficulty getting money from a bank. “They also offer hands-on advising and technical assistance to borrowers to overcome barriers to accessing capital, which could include lower credit scores, limited or no collateral, limited experience and networks, etc.” said  Steven Cohen, President of Excelsior Growth Fund. “By providing these services, CDFIs help level the playing field and bring these businesses one step closer to accessing the traditional financing markets.”

“Hispanics, in particular immigrants, have a greater distrust of financial institutions, which means they are less likely to place their money in a bank,” said Susana Martinez Restrepo co-author of Hispanic Women Entrepreneurship: Understanding Diversity Among Hispanic Women Entrepreneurs. This research was commissioned by the National Women’s Business Council, a non-partisan federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and counsel to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues of importance to women business owners. “The flip side is that some Hispanic women fear they will be turned down or have been turned by a bank for a business loan so they do not seek financing. CDFIs are community-based and so they are less fearsome. They are a great alternative financing source.”

CDFI funding comes from the federal government, foundations, faith-based organizations, commercial banks and now, you. CNote is opening up the CDFI market to all investors, stated Jeff Salvo, vice president of operations of Triskeles Foundation, which manages philanthropic dollars for individuals and businesses. Triskeles is a distribution partner of CNote. Investing in CNote’s financial products is values aligned with Triskeles’ clients desire to use their money to make a social impact.

Investing in CDFIs through CNote is relatively risk free. The CDFIs that CNote invests in are certified by the U.S. Treasury and have a proven track record. CNote provides quarterly liquidity to ensure your dollars are accessible when you need them.

CDFIs tend to be local nonprofits so they don’t have big marketing budgets. As a result they’re one of the best kept secrets among small business owners and among impact investors. For entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to find a CDFI in their area use Opportunity Finance Network’s locator. Impact investors can also find out more about the sector.

“There’s an estimated $300 billion of cash that just sits on the sidelines collecting dust in our savings accounts,” said Berman. “Let’s put that money to good use working in our communities, while driving better returns for ourselves.”

Previously, CNote successfully raised $9 million from accredited investors (wealthy people) under Regulation D (Reg D) of the JOBS Act. Today, September 27, 2017, CNotes launches its Regulation A (Reg A) campaign. It is the first high-yield impact product to be qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), enabling the average Jane to receive 40 times the return of a typical savings account.

No surprise that last March the company was selected as Best Startup Pitch Company at SXSW, as well as the Fintech Category Winner.

How much will you invest in America’s small businesses?

Want to learn about crowdfinancing, signup for updates on training. In the meantime, read all my articles on online financing options.


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At the start of this year, it seemed like it was going to be a killer 2015 for Sony . As we saw at their winter “PlayStation Experience” event, the message was simple, a slow start for the PS4 was about to give away to a flood of great exclusives the following year. The most anticipated three Sony games of the year were The Order: 1886, Bloodborne and Uncharted 4.

Now in March, Sony’s prospects look significantly more dim on the exclusive games front. The Order has come and gone, and despite being crafted by those who turned God of War into a powerhouse franchise, the game was received poorly by fans and critics alike, who didn't appreciate the “interactive movie” nature of the game that was heavy on dry cover-based combat, unfail-able quick-time events, and an endless amount of cutscenes. Though it will surely spawn a sequel, The Order made a poor first impression when it was supposed to be the birth of a glorious new Sony-exclusive franchise.

The bad news didn’t end there, however, and Naughty Dog revealed that the most anticipated game for the PS4, Uncharted 4, was going to be delayed to 2016. The game has undergone tumultuous shifts in high level staff during development, but the message was simply that the studio needs more time to ensure it meets the high standards of the series to date. While in this age of disastrous launches, fans don’t mind waiting for a not-broken, bug-free game, the move is still a huge blow to the PS4, which will now enter the holiday season without a blockbuster exclusive in its corner, right around the time the Xbox One will supposedly release Rise of the Tomb Raider and Halo 5.

So we’re left with Bloodborne, and from the looks of it, the game has the potential to finally reverse this trend of bad news for Sony. Though the game has experienced some delays, it will indeed be released on March 24th, and will have to be exhibit A in Sony’s case as to why the PS4 is worth picking up over its rivals.

From what we’re seeing and hearing so far, the game looks like it will not be another repeat of The Order. There were grumblings about that game for months ahead of release, but from what the press has experienced of Bloodborne so far, Dark Souls mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki looks like he’s done it again.

An embargo lifted for a few sites who got access to a demo of the game ahead of the official review drop next week, and first impressions are, well, it’s certainly a Miyazaki game, which most will view as a compliment. Though Bloodborne shares the often punishing difficulty of the Souls games, the absence of a sword and shield will force players to rethink everything they know about their preferred style of gameplay. Bloodborne is said to be beautiful, grotesque and at least in these early impressions, just what the PS4 needs to stand out as they start to flounder in 2015 with the poor reception of The Order and the loss of Uncharted 4.

PlayStation landing a Miyazaki game as an exclusive once more is a big get, as Demon’s Souls was one of the most unique titles on the PS3 when it was released in 2009, but the two titles that followed Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, went multiplatform across PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Miyazaki wasn’t the director of Souls 2, which explains a somewhat more lukewarm reception from fans and critics, but now he’s back, and he’s all Sony’s.

But does acclaim translate into big sales? Not necessarily in the case of the Souls franchise. According to sales estimates, Demon’s Souls moved 1.7M copies on PS3, Dark Souls sold 1.9M, and Dark Souls 2 sold 1.1M on PlayStation. Respectable numbers, but how do they stack up to Sony’s other giants?

Well, God of Wars 1 through 3 sold 4.4M, 4M and 4.8M across the PS2 and PS3. The Uncharted series has sold 4.8M, 6.5M and 6.6M for its major three installments. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us has sold about 8.3M copies between its original release and its PS4 remastering.

Games like Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls are enormously popular among critics and a subset of fans who appreciate their enormous time investment and often maddening difficulty level, but what makes Miyazaki’s games special can also make them relatively inaccessible to the larger public. This isn’t to say Bloodborne or Souls games should be dumbed down in order to appeal to a wider audience, but the nature of the game may lead to lower sales than if The Order turned out to be the next God of War, or Uncharted 4 actually came out this year.

With that said, a win is still a win, and the PS4’s roster will be very much improved if Bloodborne turns out to be as good as it looks. To date, a year and a half after release, PS4’s best exclusive is probably the just-pretty-good Infamous: Second Son, and Bloodborne may very well take that crown by the end of the month. During a window when the Xbox One isn’t putting out anything terribly worthwhile, it could be a well-timed boost for Sony, which they’ll need if this fall pits Tomb Raider and Halo 5 up against their…nothing.

The PS4 isn’t exactly desperate for a win, because despite a lack of high quality exclusives so far, they’re destroying their competition in console sales regardless, and have become the “default” system for many multiplatform games. Nintendo and Microsoft ’s mistakes have allowed them to surge forward, but I do worry about Sony growing complacent with their market position, and a string of lackluster or outright absent exclusives isn’t doing anything to bolster their brand. Bloodborne looks to be the first title with the potential to refocus the conversation on PlayStation having the best exclusive games, even if it isn’t quite the sales monster that a God of War or an Uncharted would have been.

Follow me on Twitter, like my page on Facebook, and pick up a copy of my sci-fi novel, The Last Exodus, and its sequel, The Exiled Earthborn, along with my new Forbes book, Fanboy Wars.

Watch below to see when Call of Duty may return to World War II: