text:
Inspiring Quality Through Innovation: The Pearson Quality Quest 2018

How can one be innovative and maintain a high standard of quality in whatever is being developed? Answering this question was Sanjeewa Senarath – Head of Quality Engineering at Pearson Lanka welcoming everyone to the Pearson Quality Quest 2018.

Sanjeewa explained that the Pearson Quality Quest 2018 is not just a conference. Rather, It’s an opportunity for Pearson to collaborate with university students. Further, it’s also an opportunity for Pearson to build their team, and bring a lot of capabilities to the surface.

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
Sanjeewa Senarat addressing the audience at the Pearson Quality Quest 2018

To be an engineer, one must have knowledge in Science and Mathematics. To be innovative, you need to use the knowledge of science and mathematics to solve problems around you. Trends such as AI, IoT, serverless architectures all challenge developers to have shorter testing cycles. So rather than testing the product separately, the goal is to develop a solution and test it all in one, giving the end user a fully functioning problem free product.

Why Quality Engineering?

Following Sanjeewa’s session, we had Dennis Stetzel – Vice President, Global Hosting and Cloud Operations at Pearson on stage. In order to change the world through education, Pearson has embarked on a journey of digital transformation. Dennis emphasized that “We take responsibility for changing the world.”

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
Dennis Stetzel addressing the audience

So Why quality engineering? Well at its core, it’s up to everyone at Pearson to make sure that those with barriers to education have access to education and also access to the right materials to high-quality education as well.

“This is the best event I’ve ever seen”

This was the opening line of Anura De Alwis – General Manager of Pearson Lanka. Anura expressed his gratitude to those organizing the Pearson Quality Quest 2018. He emphasized that this was all made possible with a limited budget.

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
Anura De Alwis addressing the audience

Anura then went on to talk about service. “Our bread and butter is service”, Anura explained. We have to market our brand and do so in an innovative manner. We have to be innovative in whatever that we do. Anura explained that even if you have a chance of failing, it’s still better to go ahead and do the innovation than hold back because of fear. Even if you fail, take it up as a learning experience and be better the next time.

How one man revolutionized the transportation system

This was a prime example of innovation that Rohan Jayaweera – Country General Manager – Sri Lanka and Maldives at Palo Alto Networks was here to talk about for his keynote address. Remember Henry Ford? Rohan started off by talking about the New York in the 1800s and how Henry Ford revolutionized the transportation system.

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
Henry Ford and the Model T which was the firs affordable automobile (Image Credits: Germanamur

Back then, New York was slated to only be in operation for about 40-50 years. This was because transport then relied on animals. Ford, in case you didn’t already know, developed and manufactured the first automobile that was affordable to middle-class Americans. This, in turn, caused an uproar in terms of traditional transportation methods.

So what is Innovation?

Well, to answer that, Rohan explained the difference between invention, improvement, and innovation. Whilst invention is creating something new, improvement is streamlining that process. In contrast, innovation is something that you can articulate a commercial value to a product.

For example, if a company streamlines their software by optimizing their code lines, the client won’t really care about it unless he/she can gain a benefit from it. But, if the company can create a new method to help out a client, with better results or the same results in a faster time, that would be an innovation.

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
Rohan Jayaweera addressing the audience

Rohan went on to explain that a challenge for innovation in organizations is their culture. Certain companies might show an adverse reaction to doing things differently to the way they have been doing it.  Drawing from his experience at Google, Rohan spoke about Google’s 9 Notions of innovation. These are 9 points that showcase how Google retains their innovative edge over their competition.

Consequently, Rohan also emphasized that just because it worked for Google, it doesn’t mean it will work for you. You need to get something that works for you. Rohan listed down a number of examples of how innovation has disrupted traditional methods of performing tasks. These included buying music (traditional CDs vs Apple Music and Spotify), buying video content (DVDs vs watching content on Netflix etc.). and even booking accommodation (booking a room at Hilton vs finding accommodation via Airbnb). “Basically “Innovation is everywhere.

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
Buying music CDs vs streaming it online is a good example of how innovation has taken place (Image Credits: Windows Central)

How does innovation change the world? “Very slowly”, Rohan explained. He went on to say that at its initial stages, an innovative trend will be slow at first. Then as more and more people discover and use it, it will pick up really fast.

So what is quality, really?

For starters, Rohan explained that that quality is a very subjective area. What one person defines as being of high quality might not tick all the boxes in. So how can you define quality? Well, one way you can define it is to expand your reference points. This would give you a better understanding of what exactly is out there and how and what you can learn from it.

Rohan also explained that Iteration is everything. The more you do something, the more familiar you get with it and the more you see how you can improve yourself. In addition to improving yourself, you should also reward your achievements to stay motivated. In conclusion, Rohan emphasized that “If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission”.

Learning about Quality Assurance and Quality Testing

Following Rohan’s keynote address, we had Teresa Jacobs – Vice President of Global Software Quality Engineering at Pearson on stage. Teresa’s session revolved around the difference between quality assurance and quality testing. She started off by explaining that her department deals with testing apps to make sure that they work as they are supposed to with no hiccups.

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
Teresa Jacobs addressing the audience

Teresa then went on to talk about the differences between Quality Assurance and Quality Engineering. Whilst the former deals with the overall process of ensuring a final product meets specified requirements, the latter deals with defining, maintaining and improving that system.

From there, Teresa went on to explain some of the methods they carry out to find bugs in apps and products that they have developed. In order to help the team, a number of bots have also been developed to carry out automatic testing. In fact, Teresa emphasized that you can save almost 50% of your testing time if you automate your testing procedure.

Fostering Innovation with Quality

The next session at the Pearson Quality Quest 2018 was a panel discussion. The panel consisted of Malik Ahamadeen – Director/CEO of MAS Linea NXT, Subuki Shihabdeen – Head of Enterprise Architecture at Pearson Lanka along with Rohan Jayaweera and Teresa Jacobs. Rohan recalled his earlier points about the differences between invention, innovation, and improvement. Malik added to this that even though Innovation is frequently used, funding for innovation is the issue.

Most often, when someone has an innovative idea, they lack the funding to see it through. So they resort to taking their ideas abroad and selling it off to another company. Malik emphasized that if local innovators can be funded, they would be a great asset to the country’s economy. Malik also added that with regard to the brain drain in Sri Lanka, if we can incentivize the thinkers in SL, we can get them to stick around as well.

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
The Panel discussion at the Pearson Quality Quest 2018

Just how important is quality in the entire process of innovation? According to Teresa, it is very important. Rohan added to this by explaining that “Innovation makes you believe that you can change the world”.

Malik explained that one of the biggest struggles that MAS faces is getting students from universities and starting from scratch in building their confidence in building a product. The students are so accustomed to following instructions, that when they are given the freedom to do their own thing, they are unable to carry it out.

A question asked by a member of the audience was how to measure how innovative a person is. Answering this was Rohan by saying that “it’s subjective”. An innovation idea or solution will only be recognized only after its done. Similarly, innovation means you will fail more than you succeed. With a few more questions directed towards the panelists, the panel discussion at the Pearson Quality Quest 2018 came to an end.

Why do people fail?

The last speech at the Pearson Quality Quest 2018 was by Dr. Dushar Dayarathna – Senior lecturer at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Dr. Dushar started off by talking about the current trends in millennials and how they work.

For example, if you want to encourage baby boomers to work harder, you have to motivate them. This is achieved by giving them job security. Further, you also need to financially incentivize them.

Pearson Quality Quest 2018
Dr. Dushar Dayarathna addressing the audience

Dr. Dushar then went on to talk about a number of examples of innovation. One example was Nick Vujicic. In case you didn’t know, Nick Vujicic was born with a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all 4 limbs. Despite the disorder, Nick lives a very positive life, is married and has 4 children as well.

Similarly, Dr. Dushar used examples of both humans such as Dr. Tererai Trent and also nature, such as a bird who catches fish in the water using a piece of bread and also wild crows in Japan who use the movement of traffic to break open the shells of nuts. Dr. Dushar also spoke about the Icarus paradox. Using the tale of Icarus, he explained how an individual can be blinded by success and not see the danger in front of you.

That wrapped up the Pearson Quality Quest 2018

With awards being handed out for the winners of the contests organized for the preliminary events of the Pearson Quality Quest 2018 and the vote of thanks, the Pearson Quality Quest 2018 came to an end.

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Razed Glory, The Red Team Series, Book 7

By: Elaine Levine

For Barry—for bringing me the thousand cups of tea and hundreds of cups of coffee that every book requires; for knowing when I need a stack of chocolate bars; and for always having the tissues ready when my characters break my heart.

You’re my best friend ever!

This book would have been many more months in the works without the Ace and Val survival packs from my good friend, Rihaneh. The pictures, notes, coffees, props, scents, and the double flame candle always put me in the perfect mind-space to write the romance between Val Parker and the love of his life, Ace Myers.

And thank you to all of my readers.

You’ve become good friends who are always ready to cheer me on no matter whose story I’m working on. Much love to all of you!

A Note from the Author:

We begin Razed Glory at the point where Rocco and Mandy: A Red Team Wedding Novella left off. To maximize your enjoyment of this serialized story, I highly recommend reading the series in order, starting with The Edge of Courage and including the Red Team wedding novellas, before beginning this book!

And make sure you never miss a book from me by signing up for my new release announcements at http://geni.us/GAlUjx.

When we last visited the Red Team…

Here’s a refresher for those of you who have read the previous Red Team books (skip this and go read them if you haven’t yet!).

* * * * * SPOILERS! * * * * *

It’s the middle of October, and the team is in their fourth month of investigation.

Mandy and Ivy are both pregnant.

Kelan and Fiona have shared their claiming ceremony.

The Friendship Community is still under quarantine for the smallpox outbreak there.

Rocco and Mandy have gotten married.

Rocco has made big strides toward his recovery from the devastating effects of PTSD.

Ace was a photographer at Rocco and Mandy’s wedding, where she dropped a bombshell on the team regarding Owen’s past love.

And now, we continue with Razed Glory…

Ace Myers kept herself in as small and tight a ball as she could. For warmth. For cover. It was a pose she’d held for hours through the night in the shrubs outside Val’s home, just outside the reach of its cameras. Her leather jacket provided little warmth. The dry stalks of rough grass poked her legs. She faced the wind to keep the smell of blood from searing her nostrils, even though it was dried now on her clothes, in her fingernails, in her hair.

“There will come a time when you’ll have to kill,” Santo had warned her almost a decade ago.

“I don’t want to kill,” she’d told him.

“What you want and what you’ll do will rarely be the same. Not in your life. You’re a warrior.”

“How will I handle the killing? How will I recover?”

Santo shut his eyes. His skin was thin and wrinkled, like stretchy crepe paper. But his body’s wrapper didn’t define him; she never doubted that inside him lay coiled the honed reflexes of a man who’d spent his entire life walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

“You won’t judge yourself. Others will do that for you. God will do that. You’ll do what you have to, and move on.”

Santo, her teacher, had drilled that lesson into her over the long years she’d trained with him. No remorse…no regrets, no fear, no confusion, no doubt. No fucking emotion whatsoever.

Tears slipped down her cheeks in warm, wet tracks that quickly turned cold. She didn’t want to be this thing she’d become anymore. She craved the transformation that the butterfly tattooed on her back promised. Her kills were becoming increasingly violent. The guy last night had needed a body bag to keep all of his friend together when he’d carried him out of her apartment. Still, the message wasn’t getting through to King. He kept sending men after her. And she kept sending them back in body bags.

Everyone was expendable to him. Every one of his associates, the people in his army, his social circle, his family…their deaths were simply their tribute to him.

When she found Adelaide’s son, when she could consider her purpose in this fucked-up world completed, she’d make her own tribute to King.

She set her head on her knees and closed her eyes. Breathing through her mouth, she shut her senses to the taste of blood that still lingered.

Sleep came instantly.

Chapter One

Valentino Parker stared at the blood spatter on the walls of Ace’s living room. Hard to believe that just yesterday, Ace had been at the team headquarters, photographing Rocco and Mandy’s wedding, looking hot in her dark green silk dress.

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Shop 6, 776 Beaufort Street Mount Lawley, WA 6050

Shop 6, 776 Beaufort Street,
Mount Lawley, WA 6050

Shop & Retail

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$24,000 pa + GST

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Map of Shop 6, 776 Beaufort Street

  • Open plan retail space
  • Ample common parking directly in front o
  • Suit many different retail uses
Shop 6 at Beaufort Square, Mount Lawley is currently available for lease. This 75.6sqm retail tenancy is predominantly open plan with a single private room at the rear and has previously been used as a hairdressers & salon.
For further information or to arrange an inspection, please contact Cameron Porter or Terry Nicolaidis on (08) 9470 9700.

Property ID: 502704814Last Updated: 4 May 2020

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Shop 6, 776 Beaufort Street
Mount Lawley, WA 6050

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205 Warren St, 2H
New York, NY 11201
Cobble Hill

Off Market

Property Type
Estimated Size
Price per ft²
2 Bedrooms
2 Bathrooms
Home Style
Maint. Charges
Tax Deduction
Financing Allowed
New Development
205 Warren St
Building Year
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3 floors
Building Units
26 units
Elementary School
PS 29
Days on RealDirect

Live on Cobble Hill's best tree-lined block in a unique converted late 1800s school house. Spacious duplex loft living in a 2 bedroom (sleeping loft can convert to additional bedroom), den and 2 huge private renovated terraces and possible parking (first come first serve basis). Open living room has double sized windows, 16 ft. ceilings with dining area and open designer cook's kitchen plus door to a large private terrace. The renovated kitchen has tons of oak custom cabinets with easy roll out drawers, stainless steel appliances and backsplash, granite counters with eating area, custom lighting and extra pantry storage. Above the kitchen is a den/home office connected by a staircase and an open sleeping chamber with wonderful storage space. On the main level is the well designed 2nd bedroom with huge windows and across the hall a bathroom where there is a washer/dryer. Down the hall is a serene master suite with staircase up to a walk-in closet with the best custom built-ins. The en suite bath has a separate glass shower and deep soaking tub, granite double sink vanity and custom tile floor. There is additional storage built in under the staircase. Off the master is another private large terrace. Pets on approval. Common roof deck. The common halls have recently been renovated.

  • Renovated
  • Storage
  • Pets
  • Home office
  • Loft
  • Outdoor common
  • Multilevel
  • Livework
  • Outdoor private
  • Era: Prewar
  • Outdoor roofgarden
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Jan. 29, 2015 Sold $1,350,000

RealDirect may or may not be the exclusive listing agent of the properties being displayed on All data displayed on is presented for informational purposes only and should be independently confirmed. All Information is compiled from both public and private sources including, but not limited to REBNY, MLS and ACRIS data; each of which is presumed to be reliable. No representation is made as to the accuracy of any description (ie: listing data, close sale data, and/or building description) of any building or individual unit. All measurements and square footage are approximate and all information herein should be confirmed. RealDirect, its members, affiliates, and contributors adhere to all local and federal Fair Housing Laws.

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These well-meaning comments make a bad situation worse.

By Didi Gluck
Updated March 28, 2013
Brian Rea

“Have You Thought of Going to Mexico for Coffee Enemas?”

You may find it comforting to research therapies for your friend’s illness, but questioning her chosen course of treatment is one of the most undermining things you can do, says Ginny Callaway, the author of A Friend in Grief: Simple Ways to Help ($11,

“My Aunt Hilda Had That, and…”

Everyone has different variables, says psychotherapist Anna Rhodes—age, medical history, lifestyle: “Just because someone else has the same disease doesn’t mean she will have the same experience.”

“Any of Us Could Get Hit by a Bus Tomorrow”

Says writer Kris Carr, who is living with cancer and who produced the documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer, “Every time someone said this after my diagnosis, I felt like saying, ‘Yeah, but you probably won’t. And you also don’t have cancer, pal.’ ”

“How Long Do You Have?”

“This is number one on the offensive list,” says Carr. A better question: “How do you feel today?” This lets the person talk about the here and now rather than the potentially scary future.

“You Need to Tell the Kids”

No therapist worth her salt would advocate lying to children about an illness, especially once symptoms are visible. But it’s the sole domain of the sick person and her spouse, if she has one, to decide whom she tells and when.

“You Have to Be Positive”

“After surgeon Bernie Siegel wrote Love, Medicine, and Miracles, about the power of positive thinking vis-à-vis health,” says Rhodes, “people kept telling me they thought they were going to die because they had negative thoughts.” The reality is that some people just get sick.

Find more ways to help a sick friend.


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  1. If it's supposed to be SE against water types, I'd suggest the move name be Boil.
  2. Are you no longer the muffin man because you can't take the kitchen heat?
  3. i've only seen the trailer, but it looks kinda interesting. Can you give me a rundown of who it's about and what they're trying to accomplish, without going into spoiler territory? Sell it to me.
  4. How much German have you learned thus far? What do you find appealing about the ice element? Where do you keep your duck at night? What hopes, if any, do you have for halo 6? Should halo stop at 6? what games are you looking forward to? what games or series need a reboot, remake, or new sequel? what was the worst part of any job you've ever had? what were your favorite books that you had to read for school?
  5. A Nintendo stan, huh? do you have any of the current systems? 3ds? etc?
  6. Can't say I know or listen to a lot of k-pop. Everyone knows PSY and gangnam style. That second video i can't get into at all. but have a couple I can.
  7. Maelstrom

    recently tried the demo for a while cuz I thought a couple of the starters looked cool as well and enjoyed some of the other mon designs. I should probably through the demo more.
  8. Just something quick and fun I made when Azzie mentioned making a New Horizons journal. I may or may not add more, or flesh it out a lot more. ---- Day 1- I escaped prison only to be caught and stranded on a remote island with a bunch of strangers. I feel sorry for the others, but I’m gonna win this death game. Day2- crafted a shovel first and started planting pitfalls along the river. Everyone's gotta drink sometime… Day3- Stuck in the dirt, poor Cherry never knew what hit her. I put my shovel down. I took the axe from her unconscious hands and finished the job. 9 more to go. Day4- Apollo almost had me with that first headshot from behind an apple tree. He really does have eagle eyes, doesn’t he? I blocked a few shots with my shovel, dove behind a tree, and dug myself a foxhole. He gave up eventually, unwilling to close the distance, but most of the daylight is already gone. Too late to do much but dig my foxhole deeper and plan out my revenge… Day5- The wild bamboo near the river has finally grown long enough to suit me. I spent some time upgrading my pitfalls and fortifying my foxhole. Luckily, there’s a mango orchard and a river on two sides to provide protection and sustenance. I was fishing with a bamboo pole when I heard the snap, the yelp, and the shrieking. The glorious shrieking. It was a long lullaby that worked its charm quickly, after my productive day. I decided to give ‘em till morning to regret the life decisions that put 'em in my way… ------ To Be Continued..
  9. Happy Birthday 😄, i hope that you will have a fun day 😉🍰

  10. You know, when something decides to try to kill me out of nowhere, I take Varik's advice and I "kill them back". well i was gonna and then that first frog begged for its life. and I was like... ok. and then I interrogated it...
  11. You are 22 ancient now. =3

    1. Zumi

      ya....... am old............... 😔😔

  12. tfw you've dreamed about being security forces for an ark ship holding everyone from the planet fleeing a dying one and heading out for a new one to colonize. twice.
  13. where's the mayo? what are your feelings about peanut butter? what exotic animal would you most like to have as a pet? How do you like your steaks cooked? in designing your dream home, what kind of stuff would you include? pool, bowling lane, man cave, etc?
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17 April 2019

Guest post

This is a guest post from Phil Factor. Phil Factor (real name withheld to protect the guilty), aka Database Mole, has 30 years of experience with database-intensive applications.

Despite having once been shouted at by a furious Bill Gates at an exhibition in the early 1980s, he has remained resolutely anonymous throughout his career.

He is a regular contributor to Simple Talk and SQLServerCentral.

17 April 2019

The Sins of SELECT * (BP005)

If Prompt warns you of use of the asterisk, or 'star' (*), in SELECT statements, consider replacing it with an explicit column list. It will prevent unnecessary network load and query performance problems, and avoid problems if the column order changes, when inserting into a table.

Guest post

This is a guest post from Phil Factor. Phil Factor (real name withheld to protect the guilty), aka Database Mole, has 30 years of experience with database-intensive applications.

Despite having once been shouted at by a furious Bill Gates at an exhibition in the early 1980s, he has remained resolutely anonymous throughout his career.

He is a regular contributor to Simple Talk and SQLServerCentral.

This is an update of an article first published in June 2018.

The first thing I ought to say about SELECT * is that we all use it. I use it every day for development work but hopefully it seldom escapes into production unless there is a good reason for it. Outside of development, SELECT * has only a few valid uses within a batch. Using SELECT * FROM within IF EXISTS statements is fine, as are SELECT COUNT(*), SELECT * FROM…FOR XML or SELECT * FROM…FOR JSON.

Elsewhere, a query using an asterisk as a column specifier will work fine for a while but can introduce vulnerabilities and performance problems. If you assume the column order is ‘set in stone’, by transferring data using INSERT INTOSELECT * FROM statements, then when that order changes your best hope is that it is causes errors, but at worst you’ll see the dire consequences of assigning the wrong data to a column. Also, queries that select all the columns in a table, even when the application doesn’t need them all, can cause unnecessary network load and query performance problems. It also makes queries very hard to index, leading to inefficient execution plans.

Finally, SELECT * will also make your code less readable, and harder to maintain. All of this explains why SQL Prompt implements a ‘best practice’ code analysis rule (BP005), which will prompt you to replace the asterisk(*) with an explicit list of columns, in SELECT statements.

Using SELECT * for development work

SELECT * is ideal for ad-hoc work, seeing exactly what is in a result at the point of starting to refine a query, or for debugging, but it is a development device that was intended for interactive use. Without SELECT *, development work in SQL Server would be more painful, because there is no quicker way of finding out about the data and metadata that is being returned from a table source, meaning anything that can go into a FROM clause. This will include base tables, views, TABLESAMPLE, derived tables, joined tables and table functions.

In short, SELECT * is still indispensable for eye-balling the data. Sure, sp_help will give you information about tables and other objects, and you have SSMSs browser and, hopefully, SQL Prompt, but nothing beats seeing that SSMS data grid when you’re investigating the result of a query, table-valued function or procedure.

It is still a popular way of getting a list of column names from tables, views or TVFs. However, if all you need is a column list for a table or view (but not a TVF), you can just drag the Columns subfolder of the table from SSMS object explorer into the query pane. Alternatively, within the context of the target database, in this case Adventureworks2016, you could investigate tables using:

The advantage of SELECT * is that you can copy and paste the column names of any result, regardless of its source. However, nowadays it’s better to use sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set for a statement or sp_describe_first_result_set for a batch. If, for example, we want to see what columns are there in the Person.Address table in AdventureWorks, we could use:

Why is SELECT * bad in production code?

Once you’re beyond the investigation phase, SELECT * should be replaced by an explicit column list, otherwise it can cause problems:

  • Indigestion: There is a cost for every column of data you request, within both the database and the application. When you want a glass of water, you don’t turn on every tap in the house. When, in an application, you specify all the columns rather than just the columns you need, you will initially know, and maybe accept, the extent of the wastage. If someone subsequently extends the width of the table with more columns you get a whole lot more columns that aren’t needed, and your application will slow down with the increased memory management task.
  • Torpidity. A query that retrieves information will probably use an index, especially if your query uses a filter. SQL Server’s query optimizer will want to get the data from the covering index, if possible, rather than having to rummage around in the clustered index. If you use SELECT *, then the chances are high that no index won’t be covering. Even if you were wacky enough to cover the entire table with a non-clustered index, this will be rendered entirely useless if the table gets increased still further in size.
  • Misinterpretation: If you reference the columns by order rather than name, using INSERT INTOSELECT *, then you must hope the column order never changes. If it does, and it is possible to coerce the values into the datatype you are anticipating, then data can end up in the wrong columns without triggering an error.
  • Binding Problems. When you SELECT…INTO with a query that has been sprinkled with the asterisk fairy-dust, you can easily hit the problem of a duplicate name for a column. If you specify the columns, you will know up-front of duplicates and can alias them. If, instead, you pass such a query to an application, it has no easy way of knowing which column is the one with the correct value.
  • Maintainability: Anyone reading your code, and seeing SELECT *, will have to search the metadata to fine the names of the columns being referenced by the query. If you list them, and they are meaningful names, it will be clearer what is going on and the purpose of the query will be more obvious.

In applications, the worst habit I’ve seen is probably that of specifying data that isn’t needed. There is a misapprehension amongst some developers that databases are slow, but every query takes around the same amount of time. By this false logic, it makes sense to grab all you can in the one query and SELECT * means just that: ‘give me all you’ve got’. It is like a sales shopper who has had to queue and grabs more bargains off the shelf than they could possibly need or afford.

Ironically, a lot of the apparent slowness in queries turns out not to be “the database being slow” but the local memory management crumbling under the weight of unnecessary data being pulled across the network and having to be squirreled away in large objects. If you want to load data into an object from a database, it is usually better to use lazy loading, especially if the object is large. Passing data across a network is surprisingly expensive in terms of the time taken, and so it is much better to request just what you immediately need in a query. Several fast queries are faster than a single vast super-query.

Even within SQL Server, though, SELECT * will bite you. It cuts across the general principle that, for performance reasons, you reduce the result as soon as possible when you are filtering and projecting data. This means that you cut down both the columns and rows to what is needed first, before you do the fancy stuff such as aggregation. The use of SELECT * in derived tables within a query is now less harmful to performance than it was because the optimizer can now generally restrict the columns to what is necessary, but it is still wrong, especially in the outer query. Results should always consist of just the columns you need.

To demonstrate the impact, here I create in a timing harness two temporary tables, by using SELECT…INTO with a temporary table, and fill them with two million rows of data from a Directory table. In one I specify just the columns I need, and in the other one I shrug and just type * instead.

The version where we specified the columns took only 20% of the time of the other one, even though we only reduced the amount of data by 30%.

Putting it slightly differently, for this test, using a wildcard SELECT…INTO takes five times longer than a SELECT…INTO that returns only the required columns.

It is almost impossible to provide a covering index for SELECT * queries, and even if you were to try, it would be far harder than if your queries simply spelled out the required columns, explicitly.

If you are just retrieving information, SQL Server will generally use an index. For your frequent, important and expensive queries, you probably want it to have an index available from which it can retrieve all the columns requested by the query. If it doesn’t have one, it may get the available columns from the index and then lookup the other column values in the clustered index, or it may simply resort to scanning the clustered index. If the tables are big and the queries return many rows, you’ll start to notice a performance hit.

Say we wanted to search the Directory table to find all the pubs called the ‘something’ arms, in a given city. We could, do this

Or we could do this…

The first query might have a covering index like this:

However, no sensible indexing strategy can help much if the queries are SELECT *. The second version would only be covered by an index that included every column!

Using the same test harness as before, you’ll see that even though most of the work was searching for the word ‘arms’ within the name of all the businesses in Cambridge, it was faster to specify the columns. In the first case, the index is a covering index for this query, whereas with the SELECT * version, it is not. The execution plan still uses it, since the query returns only 19 rows in this case, but SQL Server must perform additional key lookups for each row, to return the column values that aren’t included in this index.

With more general queries on this database, the queries specifying the columns ran, on average, in two thirds of the time of those that used the same index but required additional key lookups.

With SELECT *, you aren’t ensuring that your code always returns the the same columns in the same order, which means it isn’t resilient to database refactoring. Upstream modifications to the table source can change the order or number of columns. If you’re transferring that data using an INSERT INTO…SELECT * then the best result would be an error, for the consequences of data being assigned the wrong destination column can be dreadful

I’ll demonstrate just how dangerous this can be, if you use it in production code and then need to do some database refactoring. Here, we will make a mistake in copying sensitive information. It is frighteningly easy to do and could cause financial irregularities without any errors being triggered. If you are of a nervous disposition, please look away now.

Here are the ‘before’ and ‘after’ results….

As you can see, we have ‘unintentionally’ corrupted the data by switching the ‘to’ and ‘from’ columns. Quoting the column list is extra bulk in your code. However, it performs as quickly, or even quicker than if you just airily specified all the columns with an asterisk, assuming that they remain in a particular order.

Binding Problems

When we use SELECT * with lots of joined tables we can, and probably will, have column names that are duplicated. Here is a simple query from AdventureWorks:

And this code will reveal the column names that are duplicated:

This will cause problems to an application trying to make sense of such a result when selecting a named column. If you try to create a temporary table from the result, using SELECT…INTO, it goes bang.

Again, this means that your SELECT * code is fragile. If someone changes a name in one table, it could create a duplicate column in a SELECT * INTO, somewhere else, and you are left scratching your head and wondering why a working routine suddenly crashes

There is one place where SELECT * has a special meaning and can’t be replaced. This is when converting a result into JSON and you want a result that has the joined tables embedded as objects.

This will give you… (I’m showing only the first document in the array)

There is no clash here because the ModifiedDate column, for example, is encapsulated inside an object representing the source table

The equivalent FOR XML gives this:

When laying out code, the columns you specify not only avoid mistakes in assigning values to the correct columns or variables, but they also make the code more readable. Wherever you can, it is worth spelling out the name of the columns involved just for the sake of you-in-the-future, or the poor soul who is one day tasked with maintaining your code. Sure, the code looks a bit bulkier but if a fairy appeared at your shoulder and said that your code would be more intelligible and reliable if you typed it out twice, you’d do that wouldn’t you?

SELECT * in the application

Sometimes you’ll see long-running queries that request all columns and that originate from an application, often one that uses LINQ. Usually, it isn’t deliberate, but the developer has made a mistake, leaving out the specification of the columns, and an innocent-looking LINQ query translates into a SELECT *, or a column list that includes every column. If the WHERE clause is too general, or is even left out altogether, then this compounds the consequences, because the network is always the slowest component, and all that unnecessary data is being heaved across the network.

For example, using Adventureworks and LinqPad, you can do this in LINQ:

… which LINQ translates to this query that is what is actually executed. You’ll see that it selects all the columns…

Likewise, this expression…

…will deliver every column from every row in the entire table.

By contrast, this…

…translates to the more sensible:

A general code smell is to ask for more data than you need. It is almost always better, and quicker, to allow the source of the data to do the filtering for you. The use of SELECT *, which is perfectly legitimate in some circumstances, is often a sign of this more general problem. It is tempting for a developer who is competent in C# or VB, but not SQL, to download a whole row, or even an entire table, and do the filtering in more familiar territory. The extra network load and latency should, by itself, be enough to deter such a practice, but this is often mistaken for a ‘slow database’. A long column list, often listing all columns, is almost as pernicious as a SELECT *, though SELECT * has the extra risk when there is any refactoring.

  • Tom

    Judging by recent articles, this is not the same “Phil Factor” whose articles I have long enjoyed. I confess that I have not read this particular article – the “smells” headline turned me off before I even got started. If, in fact, this is not the same actual author, I would suggest using a different byline just for “truth in advertising” sake.

    • Phil Factor

      Thank you. I’m very pleased that you have ‘long enjoyed’ my articles. I hastily looked in the mirror when I read this, but I can confirm that it is indeed still me. The ‘SQL Code Smells’ byline is to indicate that this is intended to amplify the code smells in my booklet ‘SQL Code Smells’, published in Simple Talk. I would like to explain in more detail why certain patterns in SQL tend to raise eyebrows amongst experienced developers. This seems to be the best place to do it because SQL Prompt is using what I write to explain in its documentation why it underlines certain code in SSMS. I’m sorry if it seems different to what I’ve written in the past, but it is still me, being edited by the same person who has been patient enough to do so in the past.

      • Tom

        Terrific! I will continue to look forward to new articles and do appreciate the body of work you have produced to this point. Your articles are real bright points in the tech lit. Thank you!

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all 14 comments

[–]andytubaWhooshing Things[S] 8 points9 points  (3 children)

[–]locomojis -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for reporting it. That's where I found this reddit thread. See my detailed response below (as a separate post).

[–]locomojis -1 points0 points  (1 child)

I've talked to about 5 users who all confirmed that this issue is now fixed after the rewrite. e.g.: http://www.reddit.com/r/RESissues/comments/1wokvz/bug_inline_image_viewer_not_working_on_frontpage/cf41cy1 http://www.reddit.com/r/RESissues/comments/1wv3ny/sticky_chromoji_is_breaking_redditres_on_windows/cffl7c7

You may want to to verify it as well, then I'll consider this resolved. Thanks!

[–]andytubaWhooshing Things[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hey, sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet, it's been a busy few days.

i'll double check on this tomorrow but i'll take your word for it right now

[–]DirtyDurham 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Thank you for stickying this! I came here to see if anyone else was having weird issues with RES lately and sure enough, I have Chromoji installed. I definitely don't use it, so it was a waste of resources anyway.

Thanks for all that you do!

+/u/dogetipbot 200 doge verify

[–]dogetipbot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[wow so verify]: /u/DirtyDurham -> /u/andytuba Ð200.000000 Dogecoin(s) ($0.265132) [help]

[–]andytubaWhooshing Things[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, thanks! I'm glad to help people keep things running.

[–]phinar 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I observed this same problem on OSX, so it's not just Winders having issues.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! This was my issue as well - probably been happening for more than just a couple of days. Recently upgraded to Windows 8.1, so I thought that could have been the issue.

[–]locomojis -1 points0 points  (2 children)

Hey guys! Chromoji dev here.

Can you check the new version?

The whole extension has been rewritten from scratch and is now 8x faster and more compatible.

Previous conflicts with instagram, statigram, vine, gmail have all been resolved.

I'd like to get a confirmation about this RES issue. But I'm not a heavy reddit user so please help me debug this.

Here is the official issue tracker where you can also comment: https://github.com/locomojis/Chromoji/issues/49

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Haven't done a ton yet but so far so good

[–]locomojis -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Cool. Thanks for checking it!


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After treating the excited iOS developer community to iOS 7 beta 2 yesterday, Apple has now afforded the same gift to those involved in the Mac OS X developer program, by seeding the second Developer Preview of OS X Mavericks 10.9. OS X Mavericks 10.9 Developer Preview 2 will be available as an update to those who already have the first release installed, or as a new download from the Mac Member Center and comes with the build number 13A497d.

Those who took the opportunity to download the initial beta release of OS X Mavericks 10.9 will be able to update to the newly released preview through the Software Update menu or the Mac App Store. One of the great things about this particular beta rollout of OS X is that the process is handed off to the Mac App Store for installation once the original install package has been downloaded from the relevant developer account. All future updates will be handled by the store thereafter, making it extremely easy for developers to get up and running immediately with what’s new.

OS X Mavericks logo

Although the Mac is now an extremely profitable line of products for the Cupertino company, it wasn’t that long ago when Steve Jobs was discussing the potential demise of the system. Fortunes have obviously been turned around with Apple taking the opportunity at WWDC to announce that they have a plan in place for the next ten years of OS X naming. For those who missed the keynote, Mavericks is the latest OS X build and includes a number of important improvements, such as tabbed Finder support, the ability to add tags to files for easier indexing and dramatic improvements to the Safari web browser.

Apple is boasting that OS X Mavericks is their greatest step forward yet when it comes to OS X, with over 200 new features supposedly being added to the OS. The implementation of advanced full-screen dual monitor support managed to draw a cheer from the eager WWDC crowd, as did the introduction of the enhanced power functionality that should see users running MacBooks squeezing additional battery life out of their machines. In addition to Mavericks Developer Preview 2 being available for immediate downloaded there are also updates waiting for Xcode 5 and OS X Server.

Mavericks OS X DP2

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Your mind really does get blown if you take the time to take a step back and actually consider some of the technical challenges and hurdles that individuals and companies overcome to produce cutting-edge products and accessories.

You may remember that just last month, a well-known developer Nick Lee teased a DIY hardware project that wrapped an iPhone in a hacked together case that allowed the device to dual-boot into Android. Impressive it most definitely was, but sophisticated in its build it was not. Now, a Chinese company Haimawan has taken things that one step further by releasing the MESUIT case that essentially does exactly the same thing achieved by Lee.

iPhone MESUIT Android case

If we take a step back to Nick Lee’s attempt to home-based hackery, then we find ourselves looking at a home-made case that contained an enclosed circuit board with a modified version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow on it. That circuitry and underlying software was then combined with a custom iOS app running on the iPhone that allowed the user to boot into Android Marshmallow should they wish to do so. Haimawan’s solution is kind of identical, with the MESUIT containing special hardware running a custom MESUIT-skinned version of Android.

As with Lee’s rudimentary solution, the MESUIT case also comes with a dedicated iOS app that works in conjunction with the hardware to get Android up and running on the iPhone.

Unlike Lee’s project, the MESUIT also goes one step further by shipping with a built-in external battery available in either 1,700 (for 6/6s) or 2,500mAh (for 6 Plus/6s Plus) capacities with an additional 16GB of storage. It would seem that running Android on an iOS device is particular power hungry, making the built-in battery a god send.

iPhone Android OS case

Lee’s creation may have been a feat of technical genius, and made even more impressive by the fact that it was done at home on limited resources, but the MESUIT is a commercial offering that will be sold through a company subsidiary for around the $150 mark in China for iPhone 6/6s and iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus. There’s no word yet on when will it be available in the United States.

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The Hair-Color Commandments Every Redhead Needs To Know

Red can, unfairly, get a pretty bad rap. But, we can probably chalk up all this gingerphobia to jealousy. "The eye is drawn more to the color red than blond or brunette, and that's what makes it special," says Roxie Darling, a colorist at Hairstory Studio in New York City. "If a natural redhead ever comes to my chair and asks to change her shade, I will usually talk her out of it."
Celebrity colorist Rita Hazan, who's taken Emma Stone red, calls it the ultimate statement color. "If I see someone and she says she wants to go red, then I know she's really ready to make a change. She's willing to make that visual statement."
That's probably why we fall so hard for famous redheads — Emma Stone (though a natural blonde) being one of them, but also Molly Ringwald, Julianne Moore, Jessica Chastain, and, of course, the iconic, fresh-faced Julia Roberts. Their talent is obvious, but we're forever obsessed with their hair.
The thought of going red may have crossed your mind. It can seem daunting though, considering the wide range of options. "There are so many shades of red," explains Aura Friedman, a colorist at Sally Hershberger Downtown. "There's warm and cool, apricot and copper, fiery and crimson. It can be such a gorgeous color."
In celebration of the shade — and in commencement of a weekly series where we'll be documenting inspiring colors, plus the at-home care you need to keep them intact — we've created the ultimate guide to going red. Ahead, find some inspiration to Pin or take to your colorist. Because, isn't it time you finally made that big change?

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• By

Intro to HTML, CSS, and Javascript

  • Feb 12 - AT 6:51 pm

• What we’ll do
Most of what you see online is build with HTML, CSS, and Javascript (otherwise knows as the “Front End” stack) These three programming languages are easy to learn and build upon each other. It has been compared to the human body with HTML as the skeleton, then CSS is the face and skin, and JS (javascript) is the body’s movement.

In this module we will learn the basics of HTML5 like valid document structure, which elements can be included inside other elements and which can not, discuss the meaning and usefulness of HTML5 semantic tags, and go over essential HTML5 tags.

A lot of people “tinker” with CSS in this class you will learn some fairly advanced concepts like floating and CSS rule conflict resolution. We’ll go over the ‘box model’, background property, etc. We’ll finish off the module with learning about Responsive Design using our own CSS code as well as start introducing Twitter Bootstrap with its essential Grid System.

What fun would a web site be if there was no functionality to it? In the Javascript module, you will learn the basics of common language constructs and Javascript types to objects, functions, arrays, closures, and scope isolation.

• What to bring
Please bring a laptop and a text editor if you are able. We won’t spend excessive time waiting for you to download software so if you need to download stuff please do so prior to arrival. (Good text editors to consider are: Sublime Text, Atom, Notepad ++, etc…… (just google “best text editor”)

• Important to know


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Bearing One Another’s Burdens

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Sermon Notes

Today’s passage is Galatians 6:1-5 where we will find Paul’s call to “bear one anther’s burdens”. We’ll see from the our study today, however, that this may not mean what you expect.  Essentially the call is for the body to be active in the work of restoring fallen brothers and sisters.  Listen here and be encouraged!


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March 9, 2010, LLC Receives 2009 Best of Business Award

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Korea, Russia, Stans To East Europe (page 4)

Busan South To Sinjeon

The rain came to fruition, about 130 mm in 12 hours, I stood there looking at 45 as the carpark erupted with muddy water and she stood there with a river running underneath.

The wind had picked up too and water was flying everywhere, the hotel owners sandbagged the rear door which slowed the water down but it still came into reception.

Hoping the wind wouldn’t get much stronger as I didn’t want 45 to drop into the drink, luckily she was behind the hotel which blocked the worst of the wind.

With airplugs in I could hear the rain hammering down and the wind swirling around angrily so it was slightly disconcerting.

The following morning I woke to steady rain but the high volume stuff had left, the temperature some 20 degrees cooler than the previous day although still stickie.

I had an invite to meet Galen who was only 30km away from where I was staying so I hightailed to his place, had a coffee and a banana (thanks mate) and he gave me some pointers on where to go so I had a bloody good look around local stuff I would not otherwise have known about.

Highlight of the day meeting Matthew from Café Matthews, a Kiwi who has set up a café in Hallyeohaesang National Park. I supported him with a coffee and he was stoked to talked Kiwi..win win.

Matthews Cafe

Unfortunately with the weather system the cloud/fog stole my views of surrounding sea and islands, can win em all, was a great riding day exploring so no complaints.

As I made my way back to civilization I found a camping place so was going to put up the tent, all the sites have raised platforms made of timber, apparently you have to book the sites online and the weekends well ahead…never mind.

Finally settling at Tongyeong at a small place I set too and caught up with the paperwork and trip recording, it has to be done daily or it has gone into the abyss of memory dark lands.

Few pics of today.

Nice roads to boot
First official bit of gravel
A small back road completely made of concrete and this small rock abutment towering over 45
My "view" ...you can just see a boat on the water

Tongyeong to Jirisan National Park

Another good riding day, fine weather this time and view not to bad, still a haze in the air but that seems to be the norm.

Starting in Tongyeong this was my last day cruising the small islands around the sea edges before heading inland.

Today was totally paved (not bad to relax too) and site seeing, being a Saturday the traffic was heavy given it is a leisure/tourist area.

The roads being not big meant that one road maggot out the front doing 35 ended up with a train being them, I did sit in the queue but after a while I picked them off one by one or it will be winter before I leave Korea.

Land reclamation and yes that is a bed of bamboo with shells binding it
Dinosaur entry gates
Large bridges down this part, bigger ones on the Toll roads which motos are not allowed on
Cool tin dude at a bus stop.

The roads being not big meant that one road maggot out the front doing 35 ended up with a train being them, I did sit in the queue but after a while I picked them off one by one or it will be winter before I leave Korea.

I had a nice thing happen, I stopped at a lookout to take a pic, after getting off the bike there was a grey bag right in front of where I stopped, I didn’t even see it being it was the same colour as the concrete.

There where two people having some fud and drinks so I picked up the bag which was full of woman's makeup etc so I took it to them, they said it wasn’t theirs so I put it back beside the wall in a viewable place and the people said don’t worry about it the owners will be long gone, they liked my honesty and offered me a coffee which I accepted.

A chat via Translate and pictures on maps etc a white van then pulls up, a young fello dressed to the nines hops out looking REALLY stressed, he walked along the concrete wall and it became apparent pretty quickly he knew of the bag, the fello who gave me the coffee yelled out to him and showed him the bag, the young fello B-lined it too us and it was explained to him that I found the bag and bought it over to them, the young fello shook my hand with gusto and gave me two bows so a sign of double respect.

They chatted for 30 seconds and he was gone with bag in hand, turns out it was his wedding day and it was a bag from one of the wedding party so it ended well.

Finishing my coffee and packing my superman suit back under my riding gear I headed back to the mainland, now being unaware of how things work here there are camping spots all around the coast, one by one I went passed and they were full because it was Saturday, knowing I was still in the touristy part I headed inland with  two more camps on my list and both were full. I finally stopped in a small town and asked a shop owner, he called the Police who turned up within a minute.

The Police man, very polite and could speak a little English, so he took me to the ONLY hotel within a bulls roar, it is a dump, spendie and the lady who runs it really should find a job that does not involve people.

Anyway, kinda cornered and tired I sucked it up but not all was lost, I was given a gem ....I got the room with a pink bedhead and mirror to watch myself….ok….will stop it there.

I reckon the pink totally clashes with my orange shirt LOL
Author of this article: Twomotokiwis


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And here we are…

“Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.” – Ram Dass

Last Sunday, I stepped into an unknown world, full of fears and concerns, media cycles constantly crashing into another, and people hurting and scared. I’d been sequestered on a yoga/meditation retreat, without knowing all that had happened in a week, until we left the retreat center heading for Denver.

Jumping back into the world was anticipated to be difficult after this journey; but coming back into our current reality was….Hard. Difficult. Emotional. My heart raced, tears flooded my eyes, and I was anxious to be home. Yet I was in a shuttle bus with my new friends, heading towards a long day of travels with 2 flights through major airports. Walking into the Denver International Airport was a shock. The masses of folks trying to get home, the masks and gloves, warnings and precautions…the extra security, all was overwhelming.

Yet at that same time, I witnessed beauty.  I saw folks smiling and waving at babies and small children, others allowing those needing extra time to go ahead, no pushing, shoving, or yelling.  I had a young man pull out a chair for me when I sat at the counter for a glass of wine. An older lady held open the restroom stall door for me so I could get my backpack in without knocking it around. Folks were social distancing without asking. Everyone took an extra moment or two to be gentle with those around them…cause we’re all in this together.

I’ve seen the social media memes on resetting, on the rebounding of nature, on how families are coming closer together. I also realize the impact of the isolation on many, the frustrations at the lack of Wi-Fi connections or household drag on resources, the search for toilet paper or other goods/food, and the realness of that much togetherness. There is a yin for every yang, a shadow for every brightness.

I also realize that this is cumulative, as the longer we live under these constraints the impact on mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. This is not free will, rather this is imposed for the good of us all, and depending on the location you are in reading this, there could be additional constraints.

As the days go on, as the impacts wear on us all…know we have choices. Choices to stew in the drama, for which most of it is out of your control, or to choose to live/react differently, as that is what we can control. Knowing that you can positively impact your life or others, by reaching out, learning a new skill, taking time to breath or meditate, or simple be. Actively choosing nonattachment to the situation at hand, to lessen the impact upon our nervous systems and overall body systems. Knowing that you are not the situation, rather the situation is happening around you. Electing to have a beginner’s mind, to do something different – and seeing how that choice, the new action, impacts you to perhaps continue on after we emerge into our new world.

Republished with permission, see the original and more at Melissa’s website here.

May we continue to stay present to the realities unfolding around us, nurturing to the emotions and reactions within us, and intentional in the choices and responses we make on behalf of our future Selves.


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Homes with a VIEW!

Lot 48.

The homes at the new Barbee Mill development in north Renton command sweeping views of Lake Washington and Mercer Island. Here

Luxury living

at Barbee Mill

Lot 48.

Talk about a prime piece of real estate.

It’s the point at Barbee Mill, the new upscale community on the shores of Lake Washington where the homes will run up to roughly $3 million.

That lot with its 220 feet of waterfront juts into the lake, commanding views of Renton, Mercer Island, and, best of all, the lake itself.

Now, it’s an expanse of dirt and rock, where eventually two families will live. Already there’s a list of those who want to live in one of what developer Charlie Conner calls “paired homes.”

In a development filled with superlatives, Lot 48 is known as the “most valuable” piece of land, according to Conner. The wait could last awhile; Conner says it’s the last lot he’ll sell. Buildout of the 114 homes will take about four years.

Construction has been under way for about nine months at Barbee Mill. The luxury community draws its name from the mill the Cugini family of Renton owned for about 60 years.

The sales office in what will become the private clubhouse is now open daily by appointment. A grand opening with furnished model homes is planned for June.

By then, Conner will have the new entry to Barbee Mill done, too.

Already, Conner, 52, who lives nearby on the lake and is president of Bellevue-based Conner Homes, has sold about 10 homes. He has met all but one of the buyers, who have come from the Eastside, South King County and out of the area.

Conner has met with prospective buyers in small groups to show them his plans.

Barbee Mill

Information about the Barbee Mill community is available online at

The sales office is open 12 – 5 p.m. daily, by appointment. Walking tours of Barbee Mill homes and community amenities are also available by appointment by calling 425-687-5849 or emailing

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As inequality and environmental degradation worsen, the search is on not only for alternative development models but also for alternatives to development itself. Leading post-development theorist Arturo Escobar, co-editor of The Post-Development Dictionary and author of Design for the Pluriverse, discusses the fight for pluralism and justice in Latin America with Allen White, Senior Fellow at the Tellus Institute.

Tell us about your personal journey. What inspired you to become a critic of mainstream development theory and a pioneer of a new paradigm?

I grew up in Cali, Colombia, a city of a half million people, in the 1960s, in many ways a typical member of a generation seeking modernization and development, in the mainstream sense of the words. Both of my parents came from the countryside—my father from a very poor peasant family and my mother from a middle-class family in a small town. They migrated to Cali to improve their lives and secure opportunities for their children. We attended good elementary and high schools, which required substantial sacrifice on the part of my parents. Upon graduation, I attended Cali’s public university, Universidad del Valle (the only affordable option), where I majored in chemical engineering.

As I was nearing completion of my undergraduate degree (1975), I realized two things. First, I didn’t want to work as a chemical engineer because that probably meant working for a large, multinational company. Second, I was becoming very interested in questions of food and hunger. Through acquaintances in Colombia, and with knowledge obtained through study of UN documents about the hunger crisis of the early 1970s, I was awarded a fellowship to begin a Master’s Degree in international nutrition and food science at Cornell University in the late 1970s. The program approached food as a scientific matter and malnutrition as a political matter, cultivating my interest in the political economy of hunger and malnutrition in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Upon completing my Master’s, I returned to Colombia to work for a year with the National Planning Department, then went to the University of California, Berkeley, for a PhD in Nutrition. At Berkeley, as everywhere else, discussions of nutrition and public health were framed within the conventional paradigm: the “Third World” (still the prevailing category at the time) should pursue “development,” as defined by the US and other Western nations, to improve the health of their populations.

You have argued that the conventional understanding of development in the Global North—individualism, competition, industrialism, market primacy—is at odds with the core tenets of alternative models in the Global South. Explain this tension.

Beginning in my youth, I reacted adversely to the notion that Latin America (and what today we would have called the South) must follow the North’s development pathway, particularly that of the US. I became involved in the student movement as an undergraduate, a time when many young people were reading neo-Marxist Latin American dependency theory and searching for a Latin American identity through the work of authors such as Gabriel García Márquez. Writers from the North such as Herbert Marcuse and Jean-Paul Sartre, who were deeply critical of industrialized societies, were part of our education as well.

This exposure laid the groundwork for my resistance to the prevailing definition of modernization along the lines of the US experience. I found myself at odds with the notion that capitalist industrialization was the only alternative. Over time, I connected with many colleagues who shared my radical critique of the dominant, capitalist development model. This led to publication of The Development Dictionary in 1992 and now, twenty-five years later, the forthcoming Post-Development Dictionary.

What are the core attributes of the “post-development” framework?

Two key elements define the concept of “post-development.” The first questions the central premises of development, including economic growth and material progress. Post-development challenges the idea that all countries must develop along Western capitalist lines according to these dictates.

The second, which emerged in the mid-1990s, is that African, Asian, and Latin American nations can and should put forward alternatives to development that incorporate non-Western concepts of what constitutes a thriving society. Those of us who subscribed to this view believed that other ways of theorizing—of liberating the imagination to enable other definitions of possible futures—were critical to changing the discourse in the Global South.

These debates continue. Why? Because seven decades after World War II, certain fundamentals have not changed. Global inequality remains severe, both between and within nations. Environmental devastation and human dislocation, driven by political as well as ecological factors, continues to worsen. These are symptoms of the failure of “development,” indicators that the intellectual and political post-development project remains an urgent task.

Is there a danger in retaining the word “development” in any form, even with the prefix “post”?

Yes, the old term muddies the debate. We clarify by making a strong distinction between development alternatives on the one hand, and alternatives TO development on the other.

Over the course of the last few decades, “development” has undergone multiple modifications, such as sustainable development, participatory development, development with gender equity, integrated rural development, and so forth. All these approaches stay within the conventional understanding of development: they don’t constitute a radical departure from the prevailing paradigm.

So, how do we shift from development alternatives to alternatives TO development? This requires a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of the development concept and an unbundling and redefining of its core assumptions. For example, conventional development locates the individual as the central agent and beneficiary of development. Gustavo Esteva, a radical Mexican critic of development close to the Zapatista movement, argues that the idea of the individual was the Trojan Horse by which Western nations infused their ideology of development—including private property, secularism, and anthropocentrism—into traditional, communitarian ways of being.

About a year ago, I attended a meeting in Bogotá with the Minister of the Environment about the Pacific Coast, a rainforest region rich in biodiversity and populated largely by black and indigenous peoples. For thirty years, research and strategies to “develop” the area have centered on large-scale development interventions, such as the expansion of oil palm plantations, mining, and large port development. Against this backdrop, poverty, inequality, and violence have deepened. To say the problem facing the region—and other parts of Latin America—is lack of development is fundamentally flawed. At that meeting, I argued that we should dare to reverse the picture: to entertain the idea that the problem of this region, is not underdevelopment but, in fact, excessive development. Recognizing this opens possibilities for new thinking based on alternative notions of human and ecological well-being.

One such alternative is Buen Vivir, which, with its roots in indigenous cultures, has influenced social movements and politics in Latin America. What do you see as the essence of Buen Vivir?

Buen Vivir, in a literal sense, means good life or good living. It stresses living in ways that promote the collective well-being of both humans and nature.

Eduardo Gudynas, Maristela Svampa, Alberto Acosta, and Pablo Solón are leading voices on Buen Vivir. The concept originated in the Andes, especially Ecuador and Bolivia, but also in Peru and Colombia. With a firm footing in the worldviews of indigenous peoples, Buen Vivir embraces the inseparability and interdependence of humans and nature. In the current development debates, Buen Vivir has informed critiques of the prevailing development model, confronting basic assumptions about progress, competition, consumerism, and materialism. It rejects anthropocentricism and critiques capitalist and socialist forms of development because both, albeit in different ways and to different degrees, are destructive of both humans and ecological systems. The ethos of Buen Vivir centers on fostering harmony between humans and nature, quality of life, and conviviality.

Buen Vivir manifests itself in diverse forms. It remains a dynamic, evolving concept rooted in the interdependence between human and non-human species while rejecting the separateness and anthropocentrism embedded in Western belief systems. Despite its superficial appropriation by governments in the region, it continues to be an important inspiration to struggle and debate in the arena of post-development.

Some fear that Latin America is at a critical crossroads and that recent gains in democracy and social stability are at risk. Could this be a moment for the advancement of such alternatives to development—or their suppression?

This is a very difficult question. The election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 1998 marked the beginning of what has been called “the pink tide,” the emergence of the left-leaning governments of Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, and Néstor and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina, among others. It was a moment of hope. Finally, it seemed, Latin America would end its dependence on the US and global capitalism by redesigning its economies and societies. Indeed, for fifteen years, the region made significant progress toward economic justice and reduced inequality.

Other shifts, however, militated against such an alternative path. The Washington Consensus of the 1990s—the agenda of privatization, deregulation, and trade liberalization promoted by the US, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank—was replaced in the next decade by the “Commodities Consensus,” a focus on export-driven growth in the agricultural and extractive sectors embraced by governments ranging from neoliberal Colombia and Mexico to ostensibly progressive Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil. Then, as commodity prices declined, the drop in export earnings left fewer resources for sustaining popular social programs. One result of the situation was political instability. A second was the return after 2015 of right-wing and/or neoliberal regimes in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, as well as the current destabilization of Venezuela. Paradoxically, the increasing difficulty in maintaining the extractivist model has spurred a surge of authoritarianism in an effort to keep failed extractivist policies going, taking a toll on hard-won democratic reforms. In response, social movements have gained traction, in their defense of land and territory, food sovereignty, ecological preservation, and women’s rights, among other issues.

Is there tension between grassroots movements focused on local concerns and global movements engaged with issues such as climate change, nuclear proliferation, and human trafficking—or are they compatible?

In general, I see these issues as not only compatible, but inextricably linked to each other. Consider the case of the defense against incursion into indigenous territories, big dam construction, land grabbing, and the commodifiction of seeds and use of GMOs in agriculture. The link between local conditions and impacts, on the one hand, and global corporate and financial interests, on the other, is clear. In this sense, the raison d’être of many local movements are found in the larger, global relations in which neoliberal, extractivist forces that transcend national borders affect local communities. This dynamic has given rise to La Via Campesina, a large coalition of peasant movements representing more than 200 million peasants throughout Latin America. La Via Campesina reflects a new way of thinking about scale advocated by geographers such as Doreen Massey, a view that emphasizes horizontal rather than vertical linkages through networks among diverse places, thus transcending geographical boundaries to connect via shared narratives and beliefs.

However, putting such potential compatibilities into motion across movements critically depends on the activation and pursuit of three principles. First is the relocalization of many activities, with an eye toward devolving the production of food, energy, and other basic human needs to the most local level possible. Second is the recommunalization of social life. If we agree that excessive individualism is at the root of much social, cultural, and economic deprivation, we must start reconnecting with each other in alignment with our basic social propensities as communal and collective beings. Resisting the dominant ethos of separation and acting on the basis of radical interdependence instead would go a long way toward recommunalizing our societies, reweaving the fabric of life in ways that comport with the interdependencies of the modern world.

Third is the reinvigoration of collective decision-making and direct democracy. The corrosion of representative democracy through capture by the wealthy and privileged is a universal phenomenon enabled by the existing social and political order that inherently concentrates power. This is as true in the US as in Latin America, where governments increasingly fall under the control of plutocrats through campaign finance systems that incentivize corruption and policies that favor the privileged.

You have put forward a “Pluriversal” framework—“a world where many worlds fit”—to foster common ground in oppositional movements. What does such a framework entail?

The Zapatistas years ago talked about a world in which many worlds fit, an antidote to the idea of a single civilized world built along hegemonic patriarchal Western capitalist lines. Such a Pluriverse is built on the concept of diversity within a whole Earth system, a multiplicity of worlds and peoples coexisting within the Planet. This is the first meaning of the Pluriverse. The Pluriverse also connotes life’s ceaselessness, always flowing, constantly changing owing to interdependence of all aspects of living systems. Akin to the works of Dutch painter M. C. Escher, the Pluriverse has no beginning or end but only constant ebbs and flows. This is the natural way. Human intervention that obstructs or destroys this self-organizing dynamic is the source of much suffering and instability. The concept of the Pluriverse pushes us to think in terms of many possible worlds as well as the circularity of life, a perpetual flow and “radical interdependency” of all living things.

The patriarchal capitalist world is built on domination; historically, its modus operandi precludes other forms of human organization. Should capitalism have the right to exist within the Pluriverse? In theory, yes, but only if it is constrained to become one among many coexisting systems. It must acknowledge the destruction it has foisted upon the planet and people. Of course, if it does, then it will cease to be capitalism as we know it.

As you know, the Great Transition seeks to foster a global citizens movement. What strategies might encourage individuals, organizations, and movements in the South to participate in such a movement?

Such participation is both plausible and necessary. Transition initiatives, in the sense of citizen action to create a new social paradigm, exist in both the Global North and the Global South. I have devoted considerable time to mapping such meta-movements and visions, which I refer to as Narratives of Transition. Some are well-known, such as those inspired by the work of Thomas Berry and Joanna Macy, who speak of transitions in the North such as The Great Work (towards a new, Ecozoic Era) and the Great Turning (from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization). Another important transition narrative is the degrowth movement and, of course, the GTI and, at a local scale, the Transition Town Initiative. In the South, we find analogs in the form of Buen Vivir, post-development, and civilizational transitions. Plans for connecting the conversations in the North and South are in process, including the First North-South Conference on Degrowth in Mexico City in September 2018.

For such collaboration to succeed, we must acknowledge the contrasts and tensions owing to widely varied geopolitical and cultural conditions, e.g., the North’s inclination to individualism vs. the South’s emphasis on the communal. This makes frontal challenges to capitalism more difficult in the North than in the South. And conversations about degrowth and voluntary simplicity in the relatively poor South can be difficult owing to the belief, including by some on the political Left, that traditional forms of growth are essential to raising the life prospects of millions.

In discussing a global citizens movement, terminology and definitions merit careful consideration. If the backdrop and inspiration is a planetary civilization, why not talk about a planetary movement? This may better communicate the idea that the movement is supranational and exists at scales from the local to the planetary.

Further, we should clarify that when we speak of “global citizens,” we refer to people across the range of diverse identities. In fact, we must ponder how the term “citizen” might apply to all people on Earth.

The term “peoples,” for example might be preferable to “citizens,” as it has special cachet in the Global South. “Citizen” in many countries in the South is a very fragile category amidst the tumultuous contemporary geopolitics, and it is commonly tied to the idea of the state. One might argue that it has little relevance to many places in the Global South, where even the right to have rights is at stake. Using a word that conveys a deeper communal identification would be preferable because language should reflect the movement we wish to catalyze and the world we seek to create.

Teaser photo credit: La Via Campesina


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Childcare Professional

  • Job Location

    Zakynthos, Greece

  • Start date

  • Duration

  • Job Benefits

    Competitive seasonal salary inclusive of seasonal benefits package

We are looking for an experienced team of Childcare Professionals willing to go the extra mile to ensure our younger guests have an unforgettable holiday.

The Peligoni Creche is designed to be a safe haven where parents can leave their little ones in the care of our fully-qualified childcare team whilst they relax and enjoy the club.  Our creche is located on-site in a secure walled off section with a large grassy area for children to play safely. Children aged 4+ are encouraged to join our daily programme of activities. Typically this will involve up to 4 activities each day which will take place in different areas of the club and children can join in as and when they want to.

Our aim is to ensure that children have the opportunity to play with others their own age with appropriate activities but to also provide the flexibility to allow children to hang out with older siblings if they are more comfortable with this.

This is a fantastic opportunity for Childcare Professionals who are looking for a job they love, in a stunning environment. We need a team who are flexible and always willing to go the extra mile to ensure that our younger guests have an unforgettable holiday. In your spare time, as well as being able to explore the island and experience the local food and culture, you will have access to the club’s watersports facilities, allowing you to hone your existing skills or learn new ones in sailing and windsurfing.

Key Responsibilities

  • Ensure our young guests receive the highest level of care
  • Create and develop a happy, safe and stimulating environment
  • Plan a variety of age appropriate indoor and outdoor activities each week
  • Record keeping, where necessary
  • Maintain a high level standard of health and safety
  • Carry out detailed risk assessments and ensure all necessary safety measures are in place
  • Ensure high levels of cleanliness and hygiene are met at all times
  • Be responsible for daily cleaning and regular deep clean of the creche
  • Report any maintenance issues within the creche in a timely manner
  • Communicate effectively with other departments who assist with the childcare operation
  • Communicate effectively with parents
  • Provide support to the Sharky & George team
  • Host evening activities
  • Prepare healthy and nutritious snacks and lunches for children
  • Work a minimum of 2 nights babysitting (for which you will be paid extra, on an hourly basis)
  • Deliver a high level of service at all times
  • Build and maintain friendly relationships with guests
  • Be able to talk to guests effectively about the club and what is on offer
  • From time to time you will be required to take on additional tasks and duties relating to the smooth running of the club

Simply click "Apply Now" to start your online application!

Abilities & Expectations

  • Creative and energetic
  • Fun and outgoing
  • Confident and assertive
  • Safety conscious
  • Patient and sympathetic by nature
  • Outstanding work ethic
  • Excellent guest relations and interpersonal skills
  • Ability to work well on your own, as well as part of a team
  • Self-motivated and proactive
  • Flexible and willing to help others
  • Be able to communicate effectively
  • Excellent timekeeping and reliability
  • Present a ‘can do’ attitude

Essential Requirements

  • Level 3 CACHE Diploma in Childcare and Education, or equivalent qualification
  • Proven experience working with babies and young children
  • Full Paediatric First Aid Certificate
  • Basic Food Hygiene Certificate is desirable
  • DBS Certificate
  • Good swimmer
  • Available for the whole season (May-September)
  • UK/EU Passport holder and/or valid visa
  • A full UK/EU Driving License is desirable

About us

Work at The Peligoni Club this Summer!

The Peligoni Club is a family-run beach club in Greece. It’s a members-only retreat for a fun-loving bohemian crowd who want delicious food, creative cocktails,

Read more..

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Copyright ©2006 - 2020. 247 Media Ltd.
Copyright ©2006 - 2020. 247 Media Ltd.


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Home » Shop » Irish Brand - Holos Skincare 'Love Your Skin'

Irish Brand - Holos Skincare 'Love Your Skin'

The range is suitable for all skin types but is highly recommended for mature or dry skin and is showing great results when treating redness, imbalanced pigmentation and rosacea.

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Reveal Makeup StudiosOffice 1, O'Moore St, Tullamore, Offaly, Ireland    E-mail: info@reveal.ie
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Budget Unlocked Smartphone Buying Guide

Don't need all those bells and whistles? Read on for great deals.

The Motorola Moto X (2014) smartphone Credit: / Chris Thomas

Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission.

Smash your phone? Simply want to save a few bucks? If you're looking for a sensibly priced device, a budget unlocked phone is the perfect choice.

These phones aren't usually as powerful as the flagship models you'll see advertised everywhere—the Galaxies and iPhones of the world—but they'll still get the job done on a day-to-day basis, and might even have enough oomph for some games. They may not be flashy, but phones specifically designed to be sold off-contract offer some of the best values on the market.

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Strength in numbers: small practices

Four small Hampshire practices hope to gain the muscle to take on the big boys by joining forces in an alliance, says Hugh Pearman

Re-Format’s Langley  Green Centre, Crawley.
Re-Format’s Langley Green Centre, Crawley.

It’s the old problem: you’re a lively, experienced and well-regarded smaller practice, you  want to bid for a particular project, but you fall at the first or second  hurdle because you are deemed to be  too small, or not to have enough experience in the sector. So too often (from your point of view), projects on your patch go to big firms from elsewhere. What to do?

Well, you could do what four Hampshire practices are planning right now: join forces. Alton-based Re-Format, Winchester’s Design Engine and ArchitecturePLB, plus Perkins Ogden of Alresford, intend to market themselves jointly as The Southern Architects Alliance, though among themselves they are already calling themselves simply ‘The Alliance’. Unlike other looser practice umbrella groups such as the traditionally-minded Acanthus, this is a tight little regional grouping – all four offices are within a 15-mile radius – that can, they reckon, effectively operate as a single organisation. Not for all their work – the individual practices remain as separate entities – but for larger bids, especially in the South of England region. All together, they can field a workforce of around 100, many decades of experience, and a strong back catalogue across all sectors but especially in education, from primary schools to universities.

  • Design Engine’s new library and teaching building at Oxford Brookes University.
    Design Engine’s new library and teaching building at Oxford Brookes University.
  • Architecture PLB’s RVC Camden cafe.
    Architecture PLB’s RVC Camden cafe.
  • Perkins Ogden’s Barnfield College foyer, Bedford.
    Perkins Ogden’s Barnfield College foyer, Bedford.

Stephen Lampard, a founder director of Re-Format which he first set up under another name some 20 years ago, says:  ‘We’re all like-minded in terms of the architecture we do, which has a strong contemporary edge to it. We respect each other’s work, we meet a lot, sometimes we find ourselves in competition with each other – so why not join forces?’

Richard Jobson of Design Engine remarks that  ‘a lot of European architects join up collaboratively on projects,’  but agrees it’s rare in the UK.  This is confirmed by RIBA practice director Adrian Dobson, who says single-project partnerships between two practices are well enough known, but not greater numbers.  For Dobson the sticking-point may well be PI cover. Can an alliance offer the same level of cover as a single large practice? There’s no getting round the need for this.

Genuine alliance

Lampard continues: ‘There’s no point in offering an alliance if you’re not really an alliance.’  The devil will be in the detail but the intention is that the combined operation will operate like a micro European Union, with the chair switching between the four constituent members on a project-by-project basis.  However the work is divided up, all the practices will have a say, operating an inter-practice crit system. A tithe of the fees earned will go to the running costs of the joint operation – for instance the chair at any given moment would be expected to have an increased workload, and there would be a joint marketing budget for the grouping.  However, it should be possible to offset such added costs with shared overheads.
The intention goes beyond merely offering a bigger design resource. The members of the fledgling Southern Architects Alliance know that design framework projects are often given to large engineering firms who then need architects. The Alliance would provide architecture within a greater team, effectively being employed by the consultancy.

It’s all very well to talk the talk about this and shake hands on the idea but now, as Lampard and Jobson both acknowledge, it’s time to knuckle down to the detail, to get the mechanism in place.  A potential bid – confidential for now – is concentrating their minds. They aim to get themselves a constitution by the start of the summer.  This would not be a merger as the practices would remain independent, but together they would offer much greater firepower.  It’s an idea well worth exploring.

Internal Management
Internal Management


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In Loving Memory
Mrs Annie Leigh Crutchfield Mundy
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