If you're looking for a go-to toy shop for gorgeous wooden, heirloom quality toys, then Tiny Fox Hole has got your back. This Etsy shop is packed with sweet, safe toys made for babies and toddlers, most with an educational slant and all undeniably cute. Tiny Fox Hole is a mama-run, handmade cornucopia of enchanting wooden treasures made with safe materials such as solid beechwood and finishes of non-toxic, child safe paints and linseed oil. These toys integrate aspects of Montessori and Waldorf education, and all are one-of-a-kind due to the nature of the wood, so your child will get a toy that's fun but also unique with individual peculiarities. Plus, given their inherent design aspects, Tiny Fox Hole toys will encourage your child's love for nature.
The offering of toys at Tiny Fox Hole ranges from wonderfully colorful stacking snails to awesome tree puzzles with an adorable hoot owl hiding within, to unique geometric shaped wooden rattles filled with peas, to a wooden mushroom that meets your child's desire to screw and unscrew elements (plus doubles as a nutcracker)! From simple baby toys, teethers and clip-ons to more intricate learning toys for toddlers, this is the toy store to check out! Plus, you won't pay an arm and a leg for these safe toys — all are extremely reasonably priced when compared to other toys on the eco-friendly toy market. Visit Tiny Fox Hole's shop to see all their delightful goodies.
If you're looking for a go-to toy shop for gorgeous wooden, heirloom quality toys, then Tiny Fox Hole has got your back. This Etsy shop is packed with sweet, safe toys made for babies and toddlers, most with an educational slant and all undeniably cute. Tiny Fox Hole is a mama-run, handmade cornucopia of enchanting wooden treasures made with safe materials such as solid beechwood and finishes of non-toxic, child safe paints and linseed oil. These toys integrate aspects of Montessori and Waldorf education, and all are one-of-a-kind due to the nature of the wood, so your child will get a toy that's fun but also unique with individual peculiarities. Plus, given their inherent design aspects, Tiny Fox Hole toys will encourage your child's love for nature.


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Article Number 3 :Exposing the Luciferian/Illuminati Ephraimite-Judah Deception
Please ONLY read this article AFTER reading Article #1: The False and True Temples and Article #2: Exalting the True Eprhaim/Judah Regathering
In the previous two articles, we have seen the absolute importance of staying away from the False Temple that is soon to be built, and to understand when the TRUE regathering of Ephraim and Judah occurs.
But what I am about to share in this article will show that 99% of the Messianic Jewish/Hebrew Roots movement as of 2010, is playing into the hands of those controlled by satan -- Yah rebuke him!
I need to stress, that as with King Saul in the Tanakh, and Judas Iscariot in the Brit Chadasha -- many of the leaders in the above movements I just described STARTED OFF RIGHTEOUS. We read how King Saul was A ZEALOUS RIGHTEOUS KING before giving in to the fear of man and following a path to the dark side. We read how all the disciples -- including Judas Iscariot -- "walked in one accord with YahShua", before Judas began to slowly give in to a nasty habit of theft, and the grosser pride of believing he could force YahShua into a corner so that YahShua would kick Roman Empire butt and became King of the earth -- a good 2000 years before YahShua was supposed to.
King Saul also "jumped the gun" when he refused to wait for Samuel, but instead took it upon himself to offer up a sacrifice, in direct violation of the Torah.
This pride of "jumping the gun" -- not waiting on Yah -- but instead taking matters into ones own hands -- bringing about events through "the arm of the flesh" -- is what has caused the movements I am going to discuss in this article -- to go from righteous beacons of light, to peeping shadows of darkness.
Numerous scriptures throughout the Bible talk of the joining of the House of Judah and the House of Ephraim. One of the most prominent passages can be found in Ezekiel 37:15-28. It is upon these beautiful passages of scripture, that the Ephraimite-Judah doctrine (Two House Doctrine) has emerged. There is much truth in this doctrine. The House of Judah (Jews) will be merged together with the House of Ephraim/Joseph and will dwell in the land of Israel under the King of Kings.
If we continue reading Ezekiel 37, we see that, "And David my servant shall be king over them . . ." and we see "My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people. And the heathen shall know that I, YHVH, do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of THEM FOREVERMORE." The reference to David is of course, the seed of David -- YahShua ha Mashiach Himself. And we see that, when Judah and Ephraim are joined together in the physical land of Israel, YahShua will be ruling as King over them, and that YHVH's Tabernacle will be there FOREVERMORE.
Now contrast this with what Eddie Chumney, from Hebraic Heritage Ministries, believes:
"JUDAH AND EPHRAIM FLEE BABYLON AND RETURN TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL
During the tribulation period/Jacob's trouble, the house of Judah (Judaism) and the house of Israel (Christianity) will be fleeing from the land of Babylon (America) and returning to the land of Israel. When both houses of Israel return to the land of their forefathers, the centuries of exile will be over. The house of Judah (Judaism) and the house of Israel (Christianity) will be one nation when they return to the land of Israel. They will be redeemed, restored, reconciled and unified in the land of Israel (Ezekiel [Yechezekel] 37:15-28). After this event happens, the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) [yeshu] will set His feet on the mount of Olives and be King over all the earth (Zechariah [Zecharyah] 14:4, 9) and usher in the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo) teaching the Torah to the nations from the city of Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) (Isaiah [Yeshayahu] 2:2-3)."
Does anyone notice that Chumney has COMPLETELY OMITTED ANY REFERENCE to the resurrection?
Whereas YahShua Himself will descend from the sky and GATHER THE ELECT from the four corners of the earth unto Himself, before bringing them down to earth to rule over them FOREVERMORE -- Chumney takes matters into his own hands, and believes he (and others like him) must spearhead a movement in which both houses of Israel return to the Land of Israel, and once they have done this, the Jewish Messiah will set His Feet on the mount of Olives and be King. In other words -- YAHSHUA CANNOT LAND ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES AND RULE -- until we flee from our respective lands and gather together in the land of Israel. What arrogance!
Through the "arm of the flesh", this doctrine teaches that we must, whether through tribulation or "return to the land programs", gather together in Israel so we can be ready for the Jewish Messiah to rule and reign.
Don Esposito of the Congregation of Yahweh states a very similar belief in a December 2008 letter:
" . . . in order for Yahshua to return to the Mount of Olives, and to take the sticks of Judah and Ephraim in His hands and to make them one in the land, it stands to reason that both Judah and at least a remnant of Ephraim would have to be here in the land for that event to take place . . ."
Again, we see, YahShua CANNOT rule and reign as King until we ensure that Judah and Ephraim are gathered together in the land. Excuse me? How arrogant do we think we are?
YahShua Himself will gather His People at the First Resurrection at the Last Trumpet (Ezekiel 37, I Thess 4, I Cor 15, Revelation 11:15-19). This will include both Jews who love YahShua (Judah) and non-Jews who love YahShua (Ephraim). He will save ALL Israel, and will then descend to Mount Olives with His Resurrected Saints (House of Judah and House of Ephraim). He will gather us. He will send His angels to bring us together to meet Him in the air. YahShua will do it -- toward the end of the tribulation at the 7th Trumpet -- and to try and bring it about BEFORE then is the impetuous arrogance of King Saul offering that sacrifice by the arm of his flesh, refusing to wait for Samuel, the High Priest and Judge, to offer it.
The Luciferian/Illuminati plan to bring about the Third World War requires 3 strategies: 1. A false armageddon so that a false peace can emerge 2. A temple to be built in Jerusalem 3. And for all Judah and Ephraim to be gathered in the land of Israel.
Interconnected Web of Deceit
A few years ago, a man named Joel Bell, a Christian who avidly supports the nation of Israel, wanted to start an organization called the World Biblical Zionists. This organization would be for the specific purpose of linking the House of Judah with the House of Ephraim, by establishing political and economic ties that would allow believers to join with the Jews in the land of Israel.
Joel Bell became the campaign manager for Sagiv Assulin, a Jew running for the right wing Likud party to become part of the Knesset. Bell, wanting to launch the World Biblical Zionist organization, and finding a Jew who not only had the political savvy to possibly win a seat in the Knesset but also showed intense sympathy for Christians like himself, saw an opportunity to link Ephraim and Judah in a very real way. But Joel Bell needed money. So Mr. Bell began to court Eddie Chumney of Hebraic Heritage Ministries and Monte Judah of Lion and Lamb Ministries. Because both Chumney and Judah whole-heartedly support this heresy of trying to bring Ephraim and Judah together by the arm of their own flesh, they were easily persuaded by Bell to begin pouring funds into Bell's ministry in order to establish the World Biblical Zionist organization. The fact that the charismatic Sagiv Assulin could also likely win a seat in the Knesset, also helped to show Chumney and Judah that this could really turn into something huge.
But things turned sour on Chumney and Judah. Joel Bell refused to disclose what kind of money was being poured into his ministry to establish WBZ, and dodged a number of meetings that Chumney and Judah wanted to have with Bell. Finally, Bell declared that only Israeli citizens living in the land could be on the Board of WBZ. It became clear to Chumney and Judah, that Bell had merely used their Messianic reputations to siphon money into his coffers.
Though Chumney and Judah officially and loudly cut off ties with Bell, they still believed Sagiv Assulin was a pure man with a pure heart and hoped he would win his election bid.
Sagiv Assulin did win a seat in the Knesset, and even gave a speech to many of his Christian Zionist supporters. In the speech, which you can see here:
http://jewishisrael.ning.com/video/likuds-sagiv-assulin-embraces
Assulin asks the question -- why do you Christians have such a love for me and my people? A few from the audience shout out -- Ha Shem! -- Assulin smiles and nods in agreement, saying Ha Shem before declaring -- "because we all follow the same Book! This is why. We are both people of the book!" And the crowd goes wild, cheering, as Assulin lifts a Bible over his head. Of course Ha Shem is the Rabbinic "cover up" to avoid using the TRUE name of Yahweh and/or YahShua! When Messianics and Christians start using "Ha Shem" to not offend Jews, they head down a very dark and dangerous path of total compromise -- at complete odds with Apostle Shaul who refused to stop preaching the OFFENSE of the cross!
Assulin is a politician, and he knows exactly how to solicit funds from Messianics. But does Assulin actually believe in the Blood Atonement of YahShua? Of course not. If he did -- he would NEVER be allowed on Israel's Knesset. Period. With deft political charm, Assulin, while denying YahShua, is able to win the Messianics and Christian Zionists to support him.
Here is what Don Esposito says of Assulin in a December 2008 letter:
"But Sagiv Assulin went even one step further and publicly stated that we are even more than allies with them for this great land that Yahweh has promised to the 12 tribes of Israel, and that we are not only allies, but brothers with them in this cause. This got a standing ovation from the some odd 300 people in attendance of both Judah and Ephraim."
Brothers? Excuse me? Jews who DENY the Blood Atonement of YahShua are NOT -- I repeat -- they are NOT my brothers any more than a Muslim who denies the Blood Atonement of YahShua! It is clear that Esposito is caught up in the flatteries of this sly politician to bring about his own personal visions of returning people to the land of Israel.
Esposito continues in the same letter: "In the last week, I have been blessed to go with Joel Bell to meetings and to personally meet and speak with just about every top player that will be forming the next government here in Israel. I have met the men who may be the next minister of defense, foreign minister, minister of finance among other cabinet positions. I met such honored men as Gideon Saar, Yuval Steinitz, Silvan Shalom, and even Benny Begin, the son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin. All these men are on board with the Likud government in the plan to bring Ephraim back to help rebuild Zion."
Excuse me? Where in all of Holy Writ -- does YHVH give us a "plan" to help rebuild Zion? No where. There is not a single verse. This is all a delusion in Esposito's head.
Chumney and Monte Judah still avidly support Assulin and the whole concept ofbringing Ephraim back to the land of Israel to rejoin with Judah. However, they completely oppose Bell's specific method of doing this. No problem. Bell found a new protege in Esposito. And Chumney and Judah will continue with their own respective ministries to bring about the same goal.
Monte Judah rejects the Book of Hebrews, and was taken to task by the First Fruits of Zion for this utter heresy. So Monte Judah is no stranger to heretical lies.
Unfortunately, First Fruits of Zion has recently become Laodicean, no longer believing Christians really do need to return to the Torah. The heresy of these ends times is spreading like a black cancer through every Messianic/Hebrew Roots organization.
The ministries that are friendly and well connected to both Chumney and Judah abound: Brad Scott from Wildbranch Ministries, Rico Cortes, Bill Cloud and Avi Ben Mordechai (who once AVIDLY peddled Kabbalistic materials but has become much more discreet about this in recent years). Many of Rico Cortes' teachings seem to have a kabbalistic shadow upon them. But in any case -- ALL of these ministries have absolutely no problem with the Ephraim and Judah regathering in Israel. How do I know this? Because all of these ministries are recommended as teachers on Eddie Chumney's website at www.Hebroots.org
In early 2002, when I first discovered the black evils of kabbalah and that Avi Ben Mordechai openly promoted this in his 3rd Messiah book, a friend of mine shared a vivid dream with me.
In this dream, a huge ball of fire fell from the outer reaches of space and hit the earth. When this ball of fire hit the earth, it transformed into this terrible, hopping monster, frog-like, as it began to jump onto one Messianic ministry after another. Every time this monster leaped on one ministry after another, it shouted out the words -- CABAL -- which is a root word for Kabbalah.
Indeed, a cabal of wicked spiritual forces are beginning to link together in these end times, and will result in bringing millions of Messianics and Christian Zionists to the Land of Israel, linking hands with Jews who deny the Blood Atonement of Messiah. They will all bow in adoration to a most beautiful Messianic Savior that will shine with glory on the top of Mount Olives. This will be the anti-christ himself, sheathed in power from a newly fallen Satan that has just been shoved out of Heaven.
Michael Rood has many times been at odds with Monte Judah and most of the other ministries out there in his lone ranger, rough and tumble style. But even Michael Rood has been rendered spiritually impotent. In early 2010, as a participant on his forum, I began to see all manner of anti-Paul drivel promoted. It was Michael Rood's Obama supporting daughter who allowed this strange fire to continue unchecked. Eventually Rood shut down the forum, but recently Glenn McWilliams has announced that Rood was granted a personal sabbatical to attend to personal family matters. Glenn McWilliams continues to use Rood's name and continues to uphold Rood's ministry, even though Rood has taken a sabbatical. And Rood himself doesn't seem to have a problem with this at all. Now Rood is in the land of Israel, making such edifying "ministering" videos such as demanding that Israel nuke Syria in order to bring about divine prophecy. Oh, really? Since when are we called to demand nations to nuke each other in order to bring about Biblical prophecy?
When I first heard Michael Rood in person years ago, as edifying as I found him, there was one thing he said which troubles me to this day. In talking of the Temple which will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, he said it will be a wonderful thing and we should avidly support if not participate in the sacrifices/oblations performed at the Temple. (please see Article Number One)
The problem is -- this Temple will become the very seat of the anti-christ. Not only is Holy Writ clear on this -- but the Luciferians and Illuminati cannot wait for this event to take place!
The book of Daniel and Revelation not only speaks of the anti-christ taking his seat at this newly built Temple, but Jerusalem itself is described as "Sodom and Egypt" and will be the place where the 2 witnesses are murdered.
Israel and Jerusalem will become more and more evil, flooded with spiritual darkness, as we approach the time of the 7th Trumpet. Notice how almost EVERY SINGLE Messianic and Hebrew Roots ministry emphasizes how much we need to support the Jews and support Israel against the evil Palestinian and Muslim thugs. While I in no way support the Muslims and their hellish religion, I won't blindly support Jews who DESPISE the blood of YahShua just to make myself feel good.
YahShua Himself will purge Judah and Ephraim. He, by the intense fire of His Ruach, is perfecting and purifying both Christians and Jews, (and Muslims for that matter), causing them to return to Torah and love YahShua with all their hearts. Why do we need to blindly support Jews who refuse to bow the knee to the Messiah? Does this somehow give us bonus points with YHVH? Absolutely not.
These Hebrew Roots ministries, Messianics and Ephraimites need to call the Jews (as with every other race in the world) to repentance! We don't need to pat them on their backs, supporting their political campaigns, overjoyed that they are paving ways for us to bring about a prophecy that only the Messiah YahShua will bring about by the ARM OF HIS OWN STRENGTH when that last great shofar blasts throughout the earth!
As I said in an article from a few years ago -- the Messianic Jewish movement is dead. Now, I will go further. The entire Hebrew-Roots movement is dead. It is covered in a gross darkness that will enthrone the very anti-Messiah.
I, Daniel John Lee, will expose these wicked ministries, declaring that only through continued obedience to the Torah of Moshe and complete submission to the Blood of YahShua, will one inherit eternal life!
Links for the other two articles of First trilogy:
Article Number 1: The False and True Temples
Article Number 2: Exalting the true Ephraim/Judah Regathering
www.SpiritandTorah.com

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Mugabe isn't the only politician to fuel the medical tourism discussion.
Early in November, South African deputy president David Mabuza raised eyebrows by going to Russia on sick leave.
According to Sunday Times, Mabuza's spokesperson, Thami Ngwenya, said although the deputy president had taken sick leave, he was not "ill".
"It would be mischievous to ask how ill is the deputy president when no such inference was made," said Ngwenya.
In 2015, former president Jacob Zuma also allegedly sought the expertise of medical professionals in Russia, stated a Sunday Times report.
Claims implicated Zuma's wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, in a plot to poison the former president.
Zuma allegedly found out while on a visit to the US that he had been poisoned. It is believed he then flew to Russia, where the diagnosis was confirmed and he was treated for poisoning.
Ntuli-Zuma denied involvement in any attempt to harm her husband.
Zuma was grateful to Russian doctors for the treatment he believed had saved his life.


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package fr.elongeau.bank.account.usecases.configuration;

import fr.elongeau.bank.account.core.eventstore.EventStore;
import fr.elongeau.bank.account.usecases.UserCreation;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

@Configuration
public class UseCaseConfiguration {
    @Bean
    @Autowired
    public UserCreation userCreation(final EventStore eventStore) {
        return new UserCreation(eventStore);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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TransPerfect Launches StudioNEXT 2.0 Enabling Cloud Streaming for Dubbing and Voiceover Projects
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TransPerfect, the world's largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business, today announced the release of version 2.0 of its StudioNEXT cloud-streaming dubbing and voiceover platform as the company continues to launch products aimed at bringing a new level of efficiencies to the audio recording industry.
StudioNEXT is part of the company's MediaNEXT suite of AI-powered tools that automate and simplify workflows for creating and adapting media for audiences in any language using both virtual recording and traditional studio setups.
With StudioNEXT 2.0, organizations can:
Enable voice actors and directors to benefit from cloud-streaming technology, which will facilitate professional-quality dubbing and voiceover from distributed locations.
Increase productivity with a redesigned user interface that improves the navigation experience for actors and directors.
Improve quality with a newly designed rythmo band that gives talent better readability and accessibility by providing customization of viewing preferences for each user.
Interactively record in a remote environment as voice actors can now review recordings and listen to other character recordings.
Collaborate from anywhere with integrated video talkback features that give actors, directors, and clients the ability to communicate and offer feedback in real time. Authorized users can securely enter and exit recording sessions from anywhere in the world.
Utilize multitrack recording with dedicated tracks per character that are now available through the recording session life cycle.
Synchronize easily with editing and mixing platforms with Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) export to digital audio workstations, including Pro Tools, Logic Pro, and REAPER, while keeping the metadata and supporting time-code information.
Edit more efficiently with an expanded post-recording suite that now allows trimming, moving, splitting, and snapping audio chunks with minimal clicks.
All upgrades to StudioNEXT are part of TransPerfect's strategy to promote hybrid models for recording that combine cloud recording from home studios with the company's global network of owned-and-operated studios for recording, editing, and mixing. The combination of these services gives clients the options and flexibility to meet timing and budgetary requirements, particularly during a time when the availability of traditional studios is reduced.
TransPerfect President and CEO Phil Shawe commented, "StudioNEXT enables clients and voice talent to produce professional quality recordings, outside the confines of the traditional studio environment. Given the importance of web-based collaboration and remote working in today's world, these advancements could not have come at a more crucial time."
About TransPerfect
TransPerfect is the world's largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business. From offices in over 100+ cities on six continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in 170+ languages to clients worldwide. More than 5,000 global organizations employ TransPerfect's GlobalLink® Product Suite to simplify the management of multilingual content. With an unparalleled commitment to quality and client service, TransPerfect is fully ISO 9001 and ISO 17100 certified. TransPerfect has global headquarters in New York, with regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com.
Ryan Simper +1 212.689.5555
mediainquiry@transperfect.com
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When we give our legal opinion letters in connection with the enforceability of commercial real estate loans, we would like to assume that "all signatures are genuine" and focus on the actual language of the various loan documents. However, lenders will occasionally request that such assumption not apply to signatures on behalf of our clients (the borrower or the guarantor). After all, the lender wants assurance from someone that the signatures be delivered are not forgeries and that the individuals signing are in fact the persons they purport to be.
Loan agreements are contracts, and contracts need to be signed to be enforceable – seems innocuous enough.
But, this is when we get down to brass tacks: this assumption can create an issue for us as the opinion giver because such an assurance is not an opinion of law, but rather a statement of fact outside of our knowledge. Either the party signed the document or it did not.
This issue also received national legal focus with the notorious case that Fortress Investment Group brought against the law firm Deckert LLP for $50 million in damages arising from a legal opinion letter issued in connection with fraudulent financing arranged by Marc S. Dreier, who forged borrower's signatures on the various loan documents. Fortress Credit Corp. v. Dechert LLP, 2011 WL 5922969 (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept.).
As counsel, how can we say for sure that the signatures are genuine – as we are usually not with our clients when they sign (although on more than one occasion, we have had lender's counsel suggest that we fly cross-country to our client's out of state office to watch them execute the loan agreements).
Indeed, even if we personally know the signor and have become familiar with them over the course of our representation, we still cannot give a factual determination that, as a legal certainty, the signature on the document is who the person purports to be. And usually we cannot rely on a notary to do this for us – because very few of the loan documents are actually notarized (usually it's only on those documents being recorded in the public records).
Assuming we are not going to hop on a flight or require an in-office "signing party" every time a loan gets signed up, we have found effective solutions to this challenging catch-22, which has worked for most lenders – whether on agency, life company, CMBS, or traditional, portfolio loans.
And so, on a practical level, in some instances, we have had separate certificates executed affirming that the signor in fact personally signed the documents. We have also set up standalone protocols, witnessed by other parties who attest to the genuineness of the signatures.
To date, we have not had a loan fail to fund because of this modern day quirk. And, it goes without saying that electronic signatures can create separate issues – as one can never really know who pressed the button to apply a signature. However, for now, this is usually less of an issue because most lenders are still requiring wet signatures on loan documents.
Stein Law routinely issues legal opinions both as part of a larger representation or a standalone engagement for clients that do not require assistance negotiating the related loan agreements. For more information visit http://www.arizonalegalopinions.com. Sign here!


JTC# 402401 N Scale 1:160, MAERSK 40' RIB-STYLE corrugated sides, Canvas/Open top Magnetic container. Has removable canvas top. FIRST TIME OFFERED in N Scale. Features IBC(connecting pins), AND Magnets connecting system. Models come in packages of TWO, unless noted otherwise. Decorated for MAERSK #402401, this container has blue corner post.
The ISO Type & Size code 4351, marked on this Maersk container was used between 1984 and 1995. So, the initial in-service date can be said to be in that timeframe(1984-1995), however, the code was not changed on these in 1995 -they just continued in service with the old code (or until repainted). From 1995 forward, NEW markings use 42U1(new ISO code), for this type open top. So far, we've only seen photos of this MAERSK scheme on open top containers (Vertical MAERSK on sides).
The IBC pins Mate with JTC 40' HC containers with Magnets, JTC 20' containers with Magnets; JTC Open/Canvas top containers with Magnets, Atlas 40' container, and future JACKSONVILLE TERMINAL COMPANY 1:160 scale containers. NOW IN STOCK.


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Modern ArtMan: DeKooning at MOMA
He was a handsome guy, no doubt about it. Even with the 27 cents or whatever it was he had in his pocket when he arrived in New York in 1926, he was going to do something and be somebody - you can see it in the pictures. He paid the requisite art dues for about10 years, working as a sign painter and for the WPA, but by 1935 he was pretty much launched on his career. I doubt, though, if even he knew how important a career that would be. The big retrospective of his work at MOMA - astonishingly, the first major retrospective for him EVER - has been knocking everybody's socks off since it opened on September 18. I certainly concur. It's a fabulous, comprehensive, exhaustive, show, with plenty of 'I never saw that' and 'I didn't know he did that' moments. The first of these comes right at the beginning, with the uncannily accomplished still life he painted when he was a teenage apprentice in his native Rotterdam - it's a 'life's not fair' moment, in a category with the portrait Picasso did at a similar age and young Leonardo da Vinci's angel, so beautifully painted that ever after his master Verrochio (allegedly) devoted himself exclusively to sculpture. The de Kooning of the iconic Woman series is present almost immediately by the fierce sense of energy that pervades his work in all mediums, though he worked his way through several influences and experiments with style. I found the first true 'de Kooning' appearing around 1939 with 'Figure,' a small framed study that looks backward to the elegance and form of Renaissance portraits while also sounding a loud call to the colorful, fractured expression of mid-20th century America art. Arshile Gorky was clearly important for de Kooning; they were exact contemporaries and shared a studio for a while, probably finding comfort in their common status as uprooted Europeans as well as support for their brave adventures in modern art. I saw a lot of Gorky in de Kooning, even in later paintings, no doubt helped along by the recent Gorky exhibition at the Pennsylvania Museum of Art. Both of them had a way with color that was distinctive, aggressively appealing, even jarring, with a kind of exaggerated sweet palette of pinks, greens, and blues. Cezanne's mastery of color came to mind too; de Kooning had as sure a touch with his particular combinations as Cezanne had with his, though de Kooning's are atonal, minor chords compared to Cezanne's deep resonant harmonies. Having said that, I loved his black and white drawings from the 1940's where line and form, splashed and swirled with the same dashing, confident energy, took precedence over color. Gallery after gallery is full of exciting, pulsing shapes and movement; it's like he had a big stew of shapes and ideas constantly on the boil, and he kept stirring it up and pulling out new ways to use the ingredients. The bulbous, throbbing shapes of recognizable limbs and bodies morph into abstract shapes in the drawings, then into more figures, and into his iconic women with their sharp little grinning mouths. One wall is hung with 5 of the Women series, a wonderful intellectual and aesthetic gauntlet. So much has been written about these blowsy, powerful females, much of it stuck on descriptions involving 'angry' or 'frightening.' In my opinion they're rich, somewhat comical, strong, assertive, and assured - they may be aggressive, but why shouldn't they be? De Kooning was looking squarely forward by that time - it's not the old days anymore. At least that's what I like to think, despite knowing that he wasn't always so nice to his flesh and blood wife and fellow painter, Elaine de Kooning. Her portrait in the show is a counterpoint to the Women series on several levels. Calm, subdued, done with virtuoso drawing skill and carefully focused on every detail of her face, it could be an 18th century portrait by Jean-Dominique Ingres. The exhibit continues through the last phases of de Kooning's life and career, encompassing a period of pure abstraction and on, into the years when he suffered from Alzheimer's before his death in 1997. Somewhere in the 70's, although the energy and pure panache with paint and surface never flagged, as evidenced by a gallery full of bravura abstractions, the center started to disappear. In the last years it finally slipped away completely, leaving only the untethered ribbons of those sad late paintings. De Kooning is the acknowledged start to 'Abstract Expressionism,' the movement that dominated art during the middle years of the 20th century and changed everything that came after - the MOMA retrospective is the celebration of one of the greatest contributors to the story of Modern Art.
Exhibition images courtesy of www.moma.org
More about De Kooning: A Retrospective
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/dekooning/
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/05/143134807/at-moma-a-look-at-de-koonings-shifts-in-style
Posted by Marilyn at 7:52 PM 0 comments


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Tag Archives: Ban Ki-moon
Entries tagged with "Ban Ki-moon"
Burundi: UN: Burundi on Brink Again | VoA News
BurundiBy admin July 10, 2015
A senior U.N. official is warning progress in Burundi is in danger of slipping away as President Pierre Nkurunziza presses ahead with controversial plans to seek a third term. U.N. Deputy Political Chief Taye-Brook Zerihoun told the Security Council the security situation in Burundi has been tense and volatile since legislative and communal elections were held on June 29. Opposition parties boycotted that vote and are calling for Nkurunziza not to run for a third term, which they say is unconstitutional. "Burundi is on the brink again.The grave danger the country faces should not be underestimated, given the increasing polarization and the apparent choice of Burundian leaders to put personal interests before those of the country," he said.
Sri Lanka: UN chief calls for 'peaceful and credible' election in Sri Lanka | Colombo Page
Sri LankaBy admin December 30, 2014
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has conveyed his "strong expectation" that the Government of Sri Lanka will ensure "the peaceful and credible conduct" of its upcoming Presidential election. The Secretary-General spoke on the phone with Sri Lanka's Minister of External Affairs Prof. GL Peiris on 24 December and reaffirmed the UN's continuous support for reconciliation, political dialogue and accountability as the country heads towards the election on 8 January 2015.
Libya: U.N. chief urges Libya to hold June 25 elections as planned | Reuters
LibyaBy admin June 13, 2014
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged Libya to stick to its plan to hold parliamentary elections on June 25 and defended the United Nations' goal of organizing a meeting to promote reconciliation among the North African country's competing factions. "The secretary-general continues to follow closely the situation in Libya and stresses the importance of the peaceful and timely holding of elections on 25 June," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. "He also commends UNSMIL's (U.N. Support Mission in Libya) work in the areas of good offices and facilitation of dialogue, which it carries out with impartiality and openness to all national parties concerned," he added.
Guinea-Bissau: Presidential hopefuls condemn coup | Africasia.com
Guinea-BissauBy admin April 18, 2012
Five candidates in Guinea Bissau's aborted presidential election united to condemn last week's coup, as West African delegates arrived for overnight talks with military and political figures. The April 12 military coup tipped the restive impoverished west African country into fresh chaos and interrupted a second-round presidential vote on April 29. UN leader Ban Ki-moon said Monday that a move by the coup leaders to declare a transitional government would only worsen the crisis in the African nation. Ban will "intensify cooperation" with international governments and bodies to deal with the situation following last Thursday's coup, said deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey. For its part the junta insisted that it was in control of the situation in the west African nation and urged the population not to panic.
Guinea-Bissau: UN Mission Pleased With Peaceful Election in Guinea Bissau | VoA News
Guinea-BissauBy admin March 19, 2012
The United Nations Integrated Peace-Building Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) said it's pleased with the peaceful conduct of Sunday's presidential election in the West African nation. Citizens voted to elect a new president, who will succeed Malam Bacai Sanha who died in January.
UNIOGBIS spokesman Vladimir Monteiro said the electoral commission is constitutionally mandated to announce the final outcome of the vote within 10 days of the election. "The election was held in a very peaceful manner," said Monteiro. "In the morning, participation was relatively weak but, all day long, leaders of the electoral body encouraged the people to go and vote, and it seems that people listened and went to vote because the participation finally increased." Several international organizations, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, called Bissau Guineans to peacefully vote in Sunday's presidential election.
Liberia: Upcoming elections must be peaceful, free and fair – Ban Ki Moon | UN News Centre
LiberiaBy admin August 16, 2011
With preparations for the upcoming general elections in full swing,Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the people of Liberia to do everything possible to ensure the polls are free, fair and peaceful.
The presidential and legislative polls, scheduled for 11 October, will be second round of democratic elections since the end of the decade-long conflict in Liberia that killed nearly 150,000 people, mostly civilians, and sent 850,000 others fleeing to neighbouring countries.
"The success of these elections, and the peaceful inauguration of a new administration, will be critical to the consolidation of the tremendous progress the country has made over the past eight years," Mr. Ban writes in his latest report to the Security Council on the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).


text:
Scotland 'cannot escape cuts' says Jim Murphy
Labour MP and Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy was today embroiled in a squabble with Conservative shadow chancellor George Osborne over cuts to the Scottish block grant.
Murphy called Osborne's claims that the Scottish grant could somehow escape Westminster cuts as "bizarre and confused" and showed that "Osborne was not up to the job".
The Conservative change in approach is seen as a reaction to demands by SNP leader Alex Salmond that Scotland's funding for next year be safeguarded against any cuts from whichever party formed the UK Government. The First Minister has repeatedly said that the SNP will use whatever influence it has in order to protect Scottish funding.
Murphy responded to suggestions of 'ring fencing' by saying:
"The Tories are in effect saying that the only part of the UK that will be safe from cuts is Scotland.
"It is bizarre and confused and shows that he [Osborne] does not know what he is doing."
The Conservatives accused the Labour MP of resorting to personal attacks.
Labour have thus far refused to confirm whether they will safeguard the Scottish grant should they win the general election.
The SNP insist that the only way to ensure that Scotland's voice is heard is by sending SNP MP's to Westminster.
MP Stewart Hosie said:
"Now, more than ever, Scotland's communities need local and national champions who will put their interests first.
"The SNP's Westminster team have a strong track record of delivering on both local and national campaign. With the support of Scotland's voters at this election we can see more local champions join the SNP group in Westminster, campaigning for local issues and arguing for Scotland's best interests.
"The London parties have announced their intention to slash Scotland's budget hard and fast with cuts which COSLA have said will be 'disastrous' for Scotland's public services.
"At this election, it is not about who gets the keys to Downing Street but about electing strong local champions who will speak up for Scotland."
Meanwhile, it is being reported in The Telegraph that ex Labour First Minister Jack McConnell has been accused of offering electoral advice to the Conservative party in a recent meeting with a member of David Cameron's shadow cabinet.
Mr McConnell is alleged to have suggested that the Tories could win up to six seats if they allowed Cameron to visit Scotland as often as he could.
McConnell responded to the claims by admitting attending the meeting but insisted they only discussed his work as an unofficial ambassador on international development and conflict resolution.
Mr McConnell said of the allegations: " It is plain ludicrous to suggest that I am or would advise the Tories on how to win seats in Scotland."
Previous articleWhy 'Arry got more space
Next articleQuestion for Jim Murphy


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PM Netanyahu meets with German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin in February. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Israel and Germany Sign Agreement on Nanotechnology and Cybersecurity R&D
Amit Lang
Israeli cyber technology
Israeli innovation
Director General of Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry Amit Lang. (Ministry of Economy)
Israel has established itself as a world leader in cyber technology innovation and many countries, including Germany, are seeking Israel's expertise and partnership.
Director General of Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry Amit Lang and Germany's Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research Thomas Rachel signed on Wednesday a Joint Declaration of Intent to cooperate on nanotechnology and cyber-security.
In the declaration of intent, the two officials expressed interest in "strengthening bilateral cooperation on research and development and technological innovation," Israel's Ministry of Economy and Industry said in a statement.
Such cooperation includes joint programs to support small and medium-sized companies active in the field of nanotechnology, as well as cooperation between research institutes from both countries.
The agencies tasked with implementing the declaration are the Israel Innovation Authority under the Office of the Chief Scientist, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany.
The two parties will also issue a joint call for applications in cyber-Security, which is expected to become a platform for relevant industries and entrepreneurs in both countries for cooperation in cyber-security, through funding assistance for joint R&D projects in the field, based on the R&D agreement previously signed by the two ministries.
"The decision to publish a joint call for applications is an expression of the vast economic and research cooperation between Israel and Germany and of Germany's position as one of Israel's key trade partners," the statement said.
The signing of the agreement was part of a visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with other ministers and directors of government ministries to Berlin this week for the sixth G2G meeting with the German government.
I found a very interesting article on Americans United with Israel! Click to read this: --> https://americaunitedwithisrael.org/israel-and-germany-sign-agreement-on-nanotechnology-and-cybersecurity-rd/


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Titan Industries Is Now Titan Company Limited
OREANDA-NEWS. Titan Industries unveiled its new corporate identity by rechristening itself as Titan Company Limited.
It will also make foray into helmet and fragrances sector this year. The city-based company that manufactures and retails watches, jewellery and eyewear, also unveiled its new logo 'Titan Star'.
"We have 120 million customers, whose life we have touched with our products; ...From a watch maker to a watch maker and jeweller, now to a lifestyle company which has largest specialty retail footprint in this country- Titan watches became Titan Industries and now Titan Company Limited," Titan Company Limited MD Bhaskar Bhat told reporters here.
"We wanted to create a strong platform and identity for the company to help us communicate effectively with our many stakeholders. To achieve this objective and more closely reflect the lifestyle segment we operate in, we have changed the name to Titan Company," he added.
Speaking on the product portfolio that the company has to offer, he said, "accessories that include belt, bag, wallet is going to be a big business as we go forward."
Bhat said: "With an intention to bring in expertise of transparency, quality and organisational professionalism to un-organised, under-served and under-penetrated categories, we are exploring helmet and fragrance category."
"There are many we are exploring, only those we find we can create value through the core-competence that company has, we will enter," he added.
Stating that it will take couple of quarters from now to foray into new categories, he said, "In categories that has been mentioned, we don't necessarily manufacture it but we will bring in our engineering expertise to each category to ensure quality is maintained to our standards."
Explaining that capex for the year on the order of magnitude is about Rs 400 crore, Bhat said: "New products don't occupy too much in this; most of it will be manufacturing of our existing categories."
Answering a question about the impact that Titan's jewellery business had to face due to fluctuation in gold prices he said "we are hedged; ...We are a retailer, we don't play on the price of gold, therefore even if there is a cost to hedging we will incur that cost, we will not make money on a rising market nor loose money."
Titan Company Limited (earlier known as Titan Industries Limited), a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) commenced operations in 1987 under the name Titan Watches Limited.
In 1994, Titan Industries diversified into Jewellery and later into eyewear with Titan Eyeplus.
Titan's sales income for the year 2012-13 was Rs 10,009.05 crore, registering a growth of 14.5 per cent over the previous year.
Есмантович: "ЦСКА не может препятствовать встрече Капризова с генменеджером "Миннесоты"Sport.ru | 04.01.2018 19:36:15


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Q: Laravel - Using controller multiple times I'm converting a page to Laravel.
I used to have a PHP script (GET) that handled select queries from any table. All I had to do was sent the table parameter, and it would return the result.
The idea was to have a controller like this:
<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

use App\Http\Requests;
use DB;

class Projects extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Get projects based on the table
     *
     * @return Response
     */
    public function index($table)
    {
        $result = DB::select("SELECT projectid FROM `" . $table . "` WHERE isClass=1 LIMIT 10");

        return view('pages.allviews', ['results' => $result]);
    }
}

The problem is that page will execute this query three times.
Happens that, the controller will create the View right after executing, and the only solution would be to repeat the query three times in the controller.
I want to avoid doing that, I want to separate the controller from what the page needs, and be able to execute it the times the page needs. Generalizing is the key.
Is there a way to do this, and keep this abstraction without having to create a new controller?

A: There are many ways to do this but the most important thing is here that, you should extract your query logic from the controller to a separate class so you can re-use the object. Basically, a repository class would be good for this but it would be possible to create a query object as well. Anyways, let's keep it simple. So, as I mentioned that, you have many options and depending on your project, you may decide the strategy.
In your case, you may simply use the DB::table() method and cache it for a while so for the next subsequent calls, the cached result will be returned. See the examle now:
$limit = 10;
$table = 'users';
$select = ['id', 'name'];
$result = \Cache::remember($table, 60, function() use ($table, $select, $limit) {
    return \DB::table($table)->limit($limit)->get($select);
});

Then to access the cached query, you may use this:
if(\Cache::has('users')) {
    $users = \Cache::get('users');
}

So, while this may solve your problem but I suggest you to create a separate class and keep that query logic (with caching) in that class, for example:
namespace Some\Namespace;

use DB, Cache;

class CachedQuery {

    public function getResult($table, $select = '*', $limit = 10, $timeout = 60)
    {
        return Cache::remember($table, $timeout, function() use ($table, $select, $limit) {
            return DB::table($table)->limit($limit)->get($select);
        });
    }
}

Then use it like:
use Some\Namespace\CachedQuery;

class SomeController extends Controller {
    public function index(CachedQuery $cachedQuery, $table)
    {
        // The $table parameter is required, rest are optional
        $result = $cachedQuery->getResult($table, ['projectid']);
    }
}

Also, you can use IoC/Service Container object to store data temporarily. Also, it's possible to create an interface and bind the interface to a class to get it from Service Container but I kept it as simple as I can. Hope you got the idea. Also, check the Cache component.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Ministry for Foreign Relations gives support to Exponor: "Our 54 offices abroad are available to promote the event internationally"
Through the General Office for International Economic Relations (DIRECON), the Ministry gave its full support to the most important international mining exhibition of next year. The Ministry for Foreign Relations and the Antofagasta Industrial Association (AIA) confirmed their cooperation, which will allow Exponor 2019 to count on the support of the 54 overseas offices of ProChile, strengthening the international promotion of 2019's most important international mining and industrial show. This support, which will build on the work that has led to the presence of over 30 countries at recent editions of the event, materialized through a series of multilateral meetings between the AIA and Asia Reps, Chancellor Roberto Ampuero, DIRECON andProChile. "After meeting with the Antofagasta Industrial Association, we have expressedour support from ProChilefor the international promotion of Exponor, which will take place through our 54 overseas offices", explainedRodrigo Yáñez, Director of Economic Relations. In this respect, the General Manager of the AIA, Fernando Cortez, highlighted that "the support provided by the Chancellery, DIRECON and ProChile means a lot to Exponor, particularly in terms of the major effort that we at the AIA make to brink over 30 countries and their delegations to the Region of Antofagasta for our international exhibition". The Director of DIRECON also praised the event forthe opportunities that it generates, and, in particular, for the impact of China as special guest nation at the event to be held in May next year. "Exponor is a show that has always been a pole for the generation of value and new business in the region, thanks to the international delegations that it attracts, and it is something that we need to continue to strengthen. The choice of China as guest nation for the event strikes us as a wise one from all points of view. This is a country that is seeing major growth as a foreign investor in Chile, much more than in previous years and the Chilean mining industry needs to know how to take advantage of this. Today, the development of the Chinese economy generates opportunities for technology transfer that we can channel in order to become not just an exporter of raw material but also a supplier of high-tech services intensive in human capital surrounding the mining industry. China has to be a strategic ally in this process", Mr. Yáñez continued. The official launch of Exponor with China as guest nation has been confirmed by the Antofagasta Industrial Association, together with Asia Reps and the Manufacturing Development Society (SOFOFA), for the first week of September, to be marked by the seminar "Chile-China: Opportunities and Challenges, Exponor 2019" at the SOFOFA Auditorium in Santiago.


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In the U.S. May 16-18 to visit with American business leaders in Boston and New York, Justin Trudeau received an honorary doctorate from New York University, where he gave the commencement address.
In his Yankee Stadium speech to the assembled families and friends of the 2018 NYU graduating class, Trudeau first invoked the benefits of a trip around the world he had taken with some friends after his own graduation, which brought him into contact with beliefs and ideas that he had previously not explored.
In what amounted to a mild liberal rebuke to postmodernism, Trudeau warned of the danger in taking on the outlook of the "tribe" as the way of looking at the world.
Without making a direct appeal to the universal or to global solidarity, Trudeau urged the graduates to eschew aggressive nationalism, which he likened to dividing the world on a tribal basis.
Speaking directly to graduates about their possibilities and responsibilities for the future, Justin Trudeau pointed to the pressing need to break outside the usual circle of the likeminded, and to seek out people with different views and divergent experiences.
At a time of high partisan tensions in U.S. politics, with an American president dividing his nation over basic issues of right and wrong, Trudeau was unafraid to suggest that mutual respect was possible, and desirable, when dealing with others.
Trudeau observed tellingly that a commitment to diversity meant more than practicing tolerance with respect to others. Recognition of differences required that graduates reach out to people, whatever their origins, culture or ideas.
A proponent of pluralism, the self-described admirer of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (his second-favourite Canadian PM, he said with a wink) suggested students should learn to test their ideas against those that differ from their own. People should not be afraid to correct views that are proven wrong, and should be quick to recognize that others could have better ideas.
Certainly no one is going to confuse the Trudeau speech with the appeal to peace made by Pope Paul VI at the old Yankee Stadium in October 1965. Indeed, Trudeau said nothing about issues of war and peace, though they are at the top of the American political agenda.
The soft appeal to liberal pluralism from second base on the celebrated baseball diamond made no mention of poverty, unemployment or social distress.
As 2018 president of the G7, Trudeau will be at the centre of debate over economic issues this coming July at the Charlevoix summit; however, the prime minister did not share his thoughts on the direction of the world economy with his audience.
Unlike French President Emmanuel Macron who did not hold back in criticizing American policies in his well-received address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Trudeau pointed to no divergences of views between his government and the U.S. government.
Despite the university setting, Trudeau did not address issues of student debt or educational opportunities or research possibilities.
Certainly Trudeau could have called attention to the work of Canadian scholars well known at NYU, such as Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka, to strengthen his arguments in favour of liberal pluralism and deepen his appeal to a well-educated audience.
Since one purpose of a university education is to allow students to challenge views received from their families and those widely held in societies, much of the Trudeau address to the 2018 NYU graduates applied as much to high school seniors as to those receiving first or advanced university degrees.
A university curriculum of study allows students to go back and examine how ideas about important subjects such as scientific advance, aesthetics, justice, or prosperity have been debated and decided in the past and to reflect on how those should be changed or renewed today.
A university education should help someone look out at the world and analyze what they see. It is of less help in knowing what to do next, which is the daunting task facing the class of 2018.
Getting a liberal narrative from the Canadian prime minister will do no harm, but as graduates decide on what to draw upon as the future looms, they will need more than the resources of liberalism lite can provide to help them deal with the major issues of our times.


It has been a rather hectic week, so other than a few pithy statements on Facebook, I've been pretty quiet here. Let me make that up with a bunch of stuff that is of fair import, complete with linkness.
First off, and the most day-job related, is that Guild Wars has been celebrating its 5th birthday with a LOT of data about Guild Wars 2. We start off with a design manifesto from our studio head, Mike O'Brien, then reveal the first of the new classes, the Elementalist, and Eric Flannum presents a two part article on the nature of combat. And that's just the first week, with more to come (and yeah, I've been wrapped up for the week as we all work very hard to make everything just as cool as it looks).
Secondly, I received my copy of Family Games, The 100 Best, which I've mentioned before here a couple times. It is now available, and contains a lot of cool essays from a lot of cool people about a lot of cool games, edited by James Lowder.
And speaking of group projects, there is a review up for A Peculiar Pentad, a Call of Cthulhu project from Super Genius Games. It is a small project, but meaty with contributions from myself, Thomas Reid, John Rateliff, Gwen Kestrel, and Jeff Quick, all of them old hands from Wizards of the Coast. Remember what I said about "scratch a designer, find a cultist"? I stand by the statement.
And, other friends have put together a marvelous video - Dqniel Kaufman (not a typo) has created a wonderful short film about Lex Luthor and Clark Kent as roomies. Guest starring Miranda Horner as Lois Lane and Mike Selinker, who offers the final definitive proof that he is an imp from the 5th Dimension. Well worth the watch.
And speaking of comics, tomorrow is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY at your local comic book shop. My local is Spy Comics. Go check out yours.
And that is it for now. More later.
I will confess, I am a goo-goo. That's Chicago-speak for a Good Government type, who believes in transparency and involvement and checks and balances and feedback and keeping an eye on those in charge.
But, sitting here and looking at yet another ballot, I fear I am reaching the end of my tether.
Yes, it is April, and the end of April of all things, and here I am again faced by a ballot? And not for a slew of important candidates and issues, but just one very, very local one - namely, should King County Fire Protection District No. 37 and the City of Kent create a Kent Fire Department Regional Authority funded by a property tax that would replace (and generally reduce) the existing property taxes for the current authorities.
OK, it makes sense - we're merging our chunk of unincorporated King (which is the 37th) with the rest of the City of Kent. It feels like a no-brainer, or the stuff of a panel and an open house rather than a full-fledged ballot line. But, here we are. And if you live in the area, you probably still have your ballot sitting on the kitchen table as well (they are due in Tuesday, to get to it).
Interestingly, there is opposition - depicting the measure as a complicated tax increase strategy that would be (wait for it) bad for business. The pros and cons are to be found here, along with measures in Black Diamond and Skykomish.
The pro forces, though, are serious beyond all belief in passage of this, such that we've received numerous mailers encouraging that you vote "Yes", along with breakdowns of how the numbers should run, which indicate it would be a break for the homeowners and combine two chunks of government into one.
Update: The measure was one of those that had to pass by 20% in order to work (another pet peeve - supervotes that require 60% majorities). It passed with a 27% yes vote, and about 25% of the eligible population voted.
Which pretty much makes sense for me. So I recommend voting Yes on his measure (for the three people who live in Kent AND read this blog). But I have to confess my reaction to this is "You need us to tell you to do this? Really?"
This weekend I had the chance to watch the Frag Dolls in action. Said Frag Dolls (Valkyrie and Fidget) did lay down the smack upon the local heroes in the Undead Labs.
Perhaps I should back up and start again.
A while ago, former ArenaNet head honcho and current master of zombilicious madness Jeff Strain bid on the Frag Dolls. To be more specific, he made a bid at the auction at the Penny Arcade Expo auction for the chance to fight (and probably get beaten into the pavement by) a group of female video gamers notable for the ability to game hard and talk smack harder. Rather than keep this opportunity for himself, he held a contest among our local luminaries to see who could go up against two of the lethal ladies.
The end result played out Saturday Night at Undead Labs Home Office, located in the Pioneer Square area, above a derelict bookstore. Our side put up two of our finest – Mike Z and Nichole, while the Frag Dolls offered their best (and videotaped the proceedings). The game of choice was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Our side held their own admirably, in that it was not a total pummeling, but alas, the Frag Dolls emerged victorious. Mike Z and Nichole were bloodied but not bowed, and kicked, if not to the curb, at least away from the doors.
In any event, between the initial bid, the art auction, and the raffle, the Undead ended up with some three grand raised for the Child's Play, and a good time was had by all, including those who had been pummeled.
Wrapped up with a lot of work all of a sudden, both in the day job and in the rest of my life, including, but not limited to, Norwescon this weekend.
I almost gave you a picture of a cat with a pithy saying beneath it that would make you Laugh Out Loud, but I restrained myself.
Update: The amazing Stan! posted a link to this, and despite all of the April Fish swimming about, I like this one the best. Heck, I would write this comic.


text:
from __future__ import unicode_literals

import django_filters
from stackdio.api.volumes import models
from stackdio.core.filters import OrFieldsFilter

class VolumeFilter(django_filters.FilterSet):
    stack = django_filters.CharFilter(name='stack__title', lookup_type='icontains')
    q = OrFieldsFilter(field_names=('stack__title', 'hostname', 'snapshot__title'),
                       lookup_type='icontains')

    class Meta:
        model = models.Volume
        fields = (
            'stack',
            'q',
        )


text:
Miss Mundo Brasil 2016 foi a 2ª edição de um concurso de beleza feminino sob a gestão da CNB - Concurso Nacional de Beleza (representada pelos empresários Henrique & Marina Fontes), a 27ª edição de realização de uma disputa específica para a eleição da brasileira ao concurso de Miss Mundo e o 57º ano de participação do Brasil na disputa internacional. Esta edição ocorreu novamente na cidade de Florianópolis,  tendo sua final realizada no "Resort Il Campanario",  com transmissão da Record News.  Disputaram o título quarenta e uma (41) candidatas, sagrando-se vencedora a representante de Goiás,  Beatrice Fontoura.

Resultados

Colocações

Premiações Especiais
O concurso distribuiu os seguintes prêmios este ano:

Moda Noite
A candidata que mais agradou no traje de gala:

      A menor nota é descartada.

Candidatas
Abaixo encontra-se a lista completa de candidatas deste ano:

Estaduais

Insulares & Regiões Geográficas

Histórico

Visão geral
 Desde que a organização assumiu o evento, o recorde de candidatas inscritas se igualou, 41.
 O recorde anterior foi em 2006 com 41 candidatas reunidas em Curitiba.
 O maior número de aspirantes ao título foi em 1981 com 60 candidatas.

 Esta edição foi comemorativa, pois fez 10 anos de coordenação de Henrique Fontes.

 Pela terceira vez consecutiva o Estado de Santa Catarina abrigou o certame.
 E a segunda vez consecutiva de Jurerê Internacional como anfitrião.

 Um total de 6 Estados do Brasil não participaram desta edição.

 Apenas 6 das 21 candidatas estaduais vieram da capital do Estado que representaram.

 Renata Sena (Mato Grosso do Sul) não é nascida no País, ela nasceu em Lisboa, Portugal.

 Com exceção de Rondônia e Mato Grosso do Sul, todas as misses estaduais são nascidas nos estados que representam.

 Raíra Cendi (Ceará), Carolina Ermel (Rio de Janeiro) e Laís Gava (Cerrado Goiano) foram as mais altas, cada uma tem 1.82m de altura.

 Por sua vez a candidata mais baixa foi Jhaddy Hayra (Ilhas do Araguaia) com 1.65m. Seguida de Isabele Pandini (São Paulo) com 1.68m.

 Seis candidatas estavam nos limites da idade, 26 anos: Amapá, Amazonas, Goiás, Paraná, Pernambuco, Ilha do Mel e Jurerê Internacional.

 Duas estavam abaixo da idade mínima de participação (17 anos) e por isso foram as mais novas: Lavínia Calumby (Bahia) e Vitória Félix (Búzios).

 Quatorze candidatas das 41 desta edição, passaram pelas competições estaduais do Miss Brasil versão Universo.

 Cerca de 16 das 41 candidatas vieram da região Sul. Estatisticamente falando, elas representaram 40% do total de candidatas.

 O Estado de Santa Catarina, anfitrião desta edição, dominou o concurso com 7 candidatas.

 Foi a 5ª vez consecutiva que a jornalista Chris Barth apresentou o concurso.

Substituição
  Mato Grosso - Jéssica Duarte ► Amanda Barbacena

Desistências
  Grande Oeste - Kimberly Maciel

  Ilhabela - Alice Silva

  Ilha do Bananal - Marcela Castro

  Roraima - Mariana Andrade

  Vale do Araguaia - Mikaela Freitas

Designações
Candidatas designadas para representar o Brasil em concursos internacionais à convite da organização:

 Legenda
   A representante do Brasil venceu a disputa.
   A representante do Brasil parou na 2ª colocação.
   A representante do Brasil parou na 3ª colocação.

Referências

Ligações externas
 Sites
 Site do Miss Mundo

 Site do Miss Mundo Brasil (CNB)

2016
Concursos de beleza de 2016 no Brasil

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Rent the Runway is a business that's dressed as a fashion company but has the bones of a tech startup. Their service allows customers to rent clothes for special occasions or everyday wear. Rent the Runway aspires to give customers the freedom to create a 'closet in the cloud' — receiving a rotating wardrobe of outfits that suit their style.
Why Rent the Runway made its first C-Suite hire in analytics.
How Vijay has baked data into the DNA of Rent the Runway.
What you can do to take your company to the next level of being data-driven.
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Lauren Feiner: You're listening to Deciding by Data, the podcast that brings you into the C-Suite to learn how data drives successful businesses.
Today on the show, we'll give you a look inside Rent the Runway — a business that's dressed as a fashion company, but has the bones of a tech startup.
Rent the Runway makes designer styles accessible to a wide array of customers. It does this by renting out clothing and accessories from its enormous inventory. Customers can choose from different subscription levels based on their needs.
While some choose to rent a single dress for a special occasion, others opt for the unlimited subscription, which lets them rotate their wardrobe every time they send back a rented item.
We talked to the guy who laid the foundation for Rent the Runway's massive logistics operation — Chief Analytics Officer Vijay Subramanian.
What's really unusual about Vijay's role is that when he was hired in 2010, it was the first C-Suite hire the founders made in the company's history. That's how serious the founders were about making data a central pillar in the company's culture.
We asked Vijay how data influences every part of Rent the Runway's operations — from cleaning clothes to making the perfect recommendations for customers.
This is your host, Jeremy Levy.
Jeremy Levy: If you've heard of Rent the Runway, you probably think of it as a fashion company. But what you probably don't realize, is that the company is grounded in tech. Vijay explained how Rent the Runway's infrastructure has rapidly advanced to keep up with growing demand.
Vijay Subramanian: … when we started, we were outsourcing the cleaning operation, right? So, we had a website. Consumers could come, and they could try inventory, they would drop it back. But we would send it to a cleaner down the street and we would go to that cleaner and have to sort through all the inventory that's ours, make sure it's actually really good condition, and then get it back to us, and then ship it out.
You know, when I joined and then sort of six months in, nine months in, we looked at the actual behavior of how inventory was moving in and out and the timing of all of this stuff, there was two things that sort of dawned us, right? Which is, the rental economics is predicated on, obviously, how frequently you can turn it because the more the inventory is sitting with us it's not good. And B), how long can you keep this going effectively. And those are the two important variables.
And it became sort of- Now again, it's obvious but it was not all that obvious then, is that the way to make it happen is to basically control the whole process. So, if you buy the inventory, you control how you take care of it, you control the timing of it. Not only can we make the back-end economics work because we can turn the inventory as fast as we can. We also can fulfill the customer promise better.
Jeremy Levy: That promise — to give women the flexibility to rent their clothes, rather than own them — was a promise that had never been made before.
The idea of renting DVDs wasn't new when Netflix started, but, as Vijay pointed out, renting clothes meant gambling on an entirely new model.
Vijay Subramanian: The way I think about it is that the rental economics, and how you actually build a business, how do you acquire customers, how do you make money, none of this was known. You can argue even Netflix, when they built it, they were kind of leveraging off of a history of people renting movies. Renting movies was not a new thing when Netflix launched.
Jeremy Levy: This entire model is new for fashion, yeah.
Vijay Subramanian: Exactly. So, Blockbuster existed. So like, we had companies before that where people were used to the idea of renting versus owning. So, we were creating a completely new category where the customer itself is changing their behavior while we're figuring out how to make the back-end logistics and the equations actually work. Like how do you actually make money in this model?
And you're dealing with highly capital-intensive inventory, right? So, we have inventory that is not a DVD. It's actually a beautiful gown. It's not as cheap as a DVD is. It needs a lot more care. When the inventory gets back to us, before we give you somebody else, we have to make sure it actually, it's like new. So, there is a lot of elements to it that … kind of implied that we need to A) be incredibly good at building a brand so consumers would try it and be proud of it. And B) we had to be really good at making the economics and the back-end infrastructure work. And that's where tech and data really came into play.
Jeremy Levy: That's why Rent the Runway's co-founders, Jennifer Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman, decided to bring Vijay on as their first C-Suite hire. At the time, Vijay was working for the retail analytics startup ProfitLogic, which was later acquired by Oracle.
ProfitLogic's co-founder Scott Friend made the introduction to Rent the Runway's founders.
Rent the Runway's decision to make their first executive hire in analytics was a deliberate one, and spoke to the core values of the company — to make data-driven decisions.
Vijay Subramanian: … I mean, if you look back, it seems like an obvious decision to make but it was definitely not obvious. So, it really took, I think both Scott and Jen, who made the hire- who actually made the introduction to me and then made the hire, it was a very bold move on their part.
I think they saw something that, this company is doing something completely new, first of all. Like rental didn't exist in any kind of scale. So we had to figure out a lot of stuff.
Jeremy Levy: Vijay's introduction to data science was not an obvious decision either. Before ProfitLogic, Vijay had landed a prestigious role at Proctor and Gamble.
After a year, he couldn't shake the feeling that this was not what he had been searching for.
Vijay Subramanian: I knew I wanted to get into data and computing, and I was building these models for Proctor and Gamble's production facilities. I mean they have all these facilities around the world making shampoo and dog food, and all of this stuff. It's pretty exciting stuff, actually. And there my job was to model those plans and see if we can drive better throughput and optimize the flow of the inventory through the facility. And there, I mean, I learned a lot, but I felt like a very small, sort of isolated cell in this giant organism and I didn't feel like I had the impact I wanted to have, I felt restless, I mean you can call it ambition — like I felt like I could do a lot more. And that's when I actually, for the first time, dug into this world of startups. There actually is a concept where you can go work in a company that is smaller and is like a small group of people who are really motivated to work together and build something from scratch.
Which was, by the way, an alien concept because I grew up in India in the 80's, and there if you're growing up in India, if you're growing up lower to lower middle class. The middle class in India, the pinnacle of success is to get a stable job at a large company.
Vijay Subramanian: That was, your- you made it, right? So, when I came to the U.S. for grad school and I got my master's and my Ph.D, and I took a job at Procter and Gamble, my parents thought I had made it. I have like finally arrived, and now I have this job with this incredible company- which is all good is all true and all good- except I still felt very restless and anxious about whether I'm actually fulfilling my potential.
Jeremy Levy: Did you study data or math back in college and university? When did, sort of, data become the focal point of your career?
Vijay Subramanian: That is a very interesting question actually. So my undergrad is in chemical engineering which is nothing really to do with data per se. But when I came to the grad school I started to think about what kind of work do I want to do … within chemical engineering.
There were a handful of schools, it's very small by the way, Carnegie Mellon, Purdue… schools where they had programs where they were really focused on math programming, statistics, computing to chemical engineering problems, they were applying these methods, to chemical engineering problems like manufacturing facilities and that kind of stuff. And the rest of chemical engineering was like this broad swath of experimental work, like how fluids flow, how solids reacts to like chemical reactions and like it's pretty heavy duty experimental stuff.
And when I saw the 95 percent and the five percent, I wanted to do the five percent. I really wanted to get into computing and I can't explain why, necessarily, but I wanted to be able to model things and understand things through the lens of like computers and numbers much more so than sitting in a lab and running experiments.
Jeremy Levy: Even as data scientist roles have expanded, the role of Chief Analytics Officer is still pretty new. I wanted to get a sense of how Vijay has carved out a space for himself in this role, and understand the significance of the position at a company like Rent the Runway.
Vijay Subramanian: I don't know if I'm the average sort of representation of a chief data officer or a chief analytics officer, right?
Jeremy Levy: That's my point, I don't think there is a template.
Vijay Subramanian: I say it only because I think I've been there since the very beginning and you have to wear so many different hats in order to build a company. I mean, you can't just be focused on the data alone. You have to think about how the data marries with the software you're building. So, I played a very big role in building a lot of the software that drove the logistics.
So, when inventory shows up from a customer, we scan it, we need a triaging system to figure out which units do you push through in what sequence? Like a ER if you will, a system for the, like in the hospital, right? Because certain units more demand, they have to go faster, some need more cleaning time. So, you have to build an algorithm just to like sequence the inventory through the facility, right? You cannot do it just through thinking about data, you have to build software and you have to build a product.
… To answer your question, though, because I'm not trying to get out of that question which is, I think when you get to scale, there are functional domains that need functional leaders who run that domain. There is a reason why we have CTOs, right? If you wind the clock back ten, maybe 20 years or so, you will find companies where engineers are working under finance. I know it sounds crazy. Engineers will work under marketing and their job was to build software products for marketing, for something else.
But at some point, we realized that that function is a unique function. It has tremendous leverage and value, and there's benefits for the function to be centralized under a leader who can drive not just the day-to-day of the function, but the strategy of the function and have a voice in the C-suite. Right? So, that's where the CTO role came into play. Right? Even the CFO role, by the way, is not like that ancient. It's actually a fairly recent evolution over time.
And then, most importantly, run experiments. Have a culture of experimentation. That only trumps all of the stuff. You have to be able to say, "Okay, here's the data I've look at. Here's my hypothesis. Okay. What do I need to know in order to prove the hypothesis?" Go run the experiment, look at the data, prove this hypothesis, rinse and repeat. It's the good old scientific method that's led to the glory of all of our civilization. So like, let's use that process in building companies. And to do that, I think you need, at this point, if you are at scale, if you have a CTO, if you have a CFO, if you have a CPO, head of product, or a COO of operations, you better have a head of data analytics.
Jeremy Levy: Vijay talked me through all of the tedious and logistically challenging steps that make up a garment's journey. His team analyzes each and every one of these steps to ensure that their inventory smoothly arrives at its destination. Vijay explained how the logistics engine got started.
So, to do that, we needed to own the logistics, we needed on own the cleaning, we needed to own the sourcing, we need to own the control of inventory, the timing and the technology of all of this stuff. … [E]very unit of inventory that you as a customer may consume, when you get it back, it goes through giant fulfillment center.
Honestly, it's kind of a wrong thing to call ours a fulfillment center. It's actually a manufacturing facility. Because the units actually come back. These are like tens and thousands of units that come back every day, that we have to go through a process where we have to sort it. We have to figure out what needs to be processed how, because different fabrics have different needs, right? So, the eight years of knowledge really where data's played a very critical role is figuring out how to take these units of inventory with different fabrications and different uses and figure out the optimal way to take care of them. That makes sense. So, by doing that, we're able to prolong how long again actually it can last and then we're able to get more value out of the unit of inventory.
Jeremy Levy: So, what do you mean by take care of them? Does that mean using some level of data in terms of the maintenance of those dresses? The ideal chemicals for stain removal? Or is that figuring out the optimal time that address can be used in terms of how many times can it be rented? Help me understand sort of what you mean by that.
Vijay Subramanian: It's the full life-cycle. It start with even how you buy upfront. Right? You figure out overtime what kind of units of inventory are better for long-term use, basically. And you can over time figure out what kind of fabrics are more amenable to cleaning and processing over time… [F]or example, we have 60 odd fabrication codes for a unit of inventory and we can look at the data and say what- and depending on how it went through each turn, what happened to it, controlling for those factors, which fabrics had what kind of longevity and what kind of care?
And then it comes down to what care are you actually doing? We can test different types of cleaning methods. Right? So how do you how do you clean this? In what kind of machine with what kind of chemicals? And then you can test when something happens to it, how do you take, how do you like repair it? … [I]t goes all the way through the whole life-cycle till the end of it. Now, to do that you, you can't do that if you don't control the whole technology and the process in the data collection around it and that's really what we did.
Jeremy Levy: When it comes to the data that Rent the Runway collects and the data that traditional retail stores own, he drew a sharp distinction.
Vijay Subramanian: The two elements that I think are really interesting for us, that very few companies actually work on and invest in, is let's go one way in this direction which is the signal for what is true demand. So, we know what you're getting, but what you're getting is often a function of what is also available at that point in time. How do you really figure out what do you truly want? So, we track a lot of that data from a user perspective to understand what are you searching for, what are you filtering on?
And then, we have this feature where you can like something, and you may like something even when you don't even have open slots, right? So, I have four slots at home, it's fully booked. I don't really need to pick anything, but I could still like something. So that when next time when you come to pick, you actually may want to select that item to get it to your home, right? So, those signals are orthogonal, or independent of true availability at that point in time. What do you like and what are you filtering on, and all stuff. So, we use that to understand how miscued are we, by looking at customer segments, in terms of what people want and what the true demand is?
So, that really affects and corrects our buying process upfront, and that data is a very rich data set because we're doing it at user level, and we're then asking the question, for every user, what's actually- what does she like in sort of the abstract sense, in terms of the ideal sense. What do we have in our catalog? How much in our catalog is relevant to her? How much is available at a point in time? There's a whole funnel, right? Then, we then ask, how do we correct it at every user, and then we aggregate it to go do the buy.
Jeremy Levy: So if I understand that, you essentially are measuring what people are interested in from a fashion, maybe size, perspective, and then that's influencing the buying decisions and also the recommendation decisions independent of what's currently in the inventory?
Vijay Subramanian: Exactly. Of course, those are somewhat correlated but able to control for that factor, and we control for the factor by getting signals of what she likes that are independent of availability.
Jeremy Levy: On an individual basis.
Vijay Subramanian: Exactly. So, you know what you get. We have our signals on what do you want, and we try and adjust what we buy to get you what you want. And then, there's another thing which is even more interesting and more rare in commerce. Which is, once we ship the item to you, we get a feedback on every single unit that you actually got… How many people- how many commerce companies have that data, right?
… The reality is, unlike other companies, we get feedback from you on every single unit, which is a very rich tapestry of data. Did you wear it or not, right, first of all? If you did wear it, did you like it, did you love it, or it was just okay? If it was just okay, why was it just okay?
So, we do that and then we get this rich data point on what actually is being, not only consumed, but what actually people genuinely wearing and not wearing, and for what reasons. And that actually also feeds back into the buying process, right? Because we can start looking for signals on, okay, this thing is popular but it has certain issues with fit with certain types of people. So, maybe we should do something, we should get something else that is like this item that probably has a better fit profile. So, we can do the same calculation that we did for true demand.
So, true demand is like what do you like in terms of style and what is your work aesthetic? Like when you go to work, how do you want to dress up for work, essentially. And then, there is the actual consumption data and what do you wear, and why, and did you like it or not. So, both of these go into this machinery to figure out what you're buying in the first place.
Lauren Feiner: We're going to take a short break, but when we return, Vijay will explain Rent the Runway's vision of a 'Closet in the Cloud.' Stay tuned.
Vijay Subramanian: Look, ideally, what's the holy grail of recommendations? You show up on the homepage, I literally could show you the next two items that you want to get. Let's say I'm returning two items and I want two more items. You literally want to get to the next two items and you literally show that and I'm like, "That's what I want, press the button." I get it.
Jeremy Levy: No need to browse.
Vijay Subramanian: That's the holy grail. So, I was giving you a metric of like, if I show you 10 items. You are on the app, right? So, you open the app and you scroll through it. If I can get to the two items out of the 10 that I show you, that would be fantastic. Are we there today? No. Because today people are looking at it, they may select one and then they may browse, they may apply other filters and they may still get to it, right?
So, but that, as our catalog expands and as we get more and more data, right? Because this program is about a couple of years old. So, we have now millions of data points on the feedback right now. But as we get better and better at figuring out the customer segments more and more granular, and then we start to figure it out to fit and all of those elements of it, I do think you're going to see higher and higher selection rates from the very first 10 items.
… And not only is it a selection thing, we want you to wear all of the items, actually, and have a feedback that actually says you loved it. Right? Because that's ultimately is the holy grail. It's not just saying, "I can show you things that you like." That is somewhat of a solved problem, right? I mean, we've done that with music, we've done that with movies. So, we will apply similar techniques to figure out what styles you like, like what things you like in terms of your style DNA, if you will. But the thing that is definitely not solved in fashion is being able to maximize your wear rate of that item and being able to make sure that actually fits you. Because fit is an incredibly hard problem.
Jeremy Levy: I wanted to take a step back for a second to something you mentioned a moment ago which is sort of the holy grail of that recommendation engine …Correct me if I'm wrong, the holy grail would be really that I have almost nothing in my closet or I have like the basic essentials in my closet. That my entire inventory or my entire inventory as an individual, my closet, is essentially something I can rent on an ongoing basis. Is that the way you think about that recommendation algorithm? Is that go far that to say, "I don't even need to browse 10 items to get to, you know, to find those two." How far does that go?
Vijay Subramanian: … I think the holy grail for our company, for the market is that your closet is predominantly stuff that's on rotation. Look, you will still buy your basics. You're going to buy your jeans, you could still buy your T-shirts and stuff that you need to live your daily basic life. But I think for anything else, for any kind of dress you're wearing to work, for any outfit you are wearing for an event, for a wedding, for whatever. Our hope is that for all consumers in the U.S., or in the world eventually, you are rotating it through a closet in the cloud. That really is the vision for us.
Jeremy Levy: Hm, I like that, closet in the cloud.
Vijay Subramanian: So, we do think of it very much of it as just inventory that's out there, and just shows up magically and you wear it, and it goes back, and it's perfectly aligned with your life.
Jeremy Levy: … [G]etting back to this notion of 'closet in the cloud,' it's fascinating, right? The idea that some system can take not just my fit but my calendar, where I'm going, what I'm doing, integrate that with my fashion sensibilities and essentially pick for me what I'm going to wear on any given day. How far away are we from something like that?
Vijay Subramanian: We're seeing signals already, where we see in certain markets and certain companies, even, where one person tries it and she becomes obsessed with it and you monitor her behavior or a while and you find out that she's spending less and less money owning things. Her closet has basically been transformed. So, what we're seeing now in the last couple of years is, we're seeing these pockets and we're seeing these network effects emerge in these markets and these companies. That said, I do think we're probably like, in the next decade, we're going to be much more of a mass market product. I mean, we're growing, we're very happy with our growth rates. I mean, we're crushing it in terms of how this is growing, but we're not Amazon scale, right? So, I mean, our hope is that we can be sort of a scale where mass market consumers around the world will be able to do this.
Jeremy Levy: I love this idea, though, that I don't have to care about what I wear anymore. It makes me think about the way Steve Jobs had his turtleneck uniform, right? And Mark Zuckerberg always wears, you know, a hoodie. And they describe it as well, look, I have a certain amount of brain cycles that I can allocate to things in the day and choosing what I'm going to wear is not at the top of their list. I wonder what are the other implications of this in someone's life if I no longer have to think about what I have to wear? Would people be that much more productive every day?
Vijay Subramanian: For sure, yeah. Well, except they're not wearing the same thing in this model. You're also getting the variety of it and you're getting the diversity of it without you having to do the heavy mental lift you actually need to get.
Vijay Subramanian: So, right now, the price point for the product for the one that's unlimited is $159 a month. And you look at that and, for sure, I would definitely not claim that every single consumer in the US can afford that product on a monthly basis. But you look at what people spend on clothing today and look at what they spend on cleaning it and maintaining it, you'd be surprised how much it adds up. I think we're at the beginning of a revolution. And it's really a question of scale and how fast we get to scale.
Jeremy Levy: The influence of data extends far beyond Vijay's desk. The company is structured so that data is an integral part of every job function.
Vijay Subramanian: So, you have these functional teams: you have technology, you have product, you have data, you have marketing, you have operations, you have finance, let's say, right? I'm just being like simplistic here. We have those functional leadership and they all report up to somebody who's got a voice in the C-suite. But the way we operate is cross-functional. We actually have a matrixed organization where we carve out these initiatives. This team is going to work on growth. Go acquire new users. This team works on, once users are in the program, work on retention, work on making them happy, work on improving satisfaction, basically. These units work on operational excellence. Build the software to make their operations more efficient, better throughput, higher quality. This team works on inventory sourcing, better inventory segmentation, right?
All of these teams are all cross-functional. They have engineers and data and products. They're all embedded together. Data is like woven into the DNA of all of these teams.
Jeremy Levy: Many companies like to think they are data-driven, but Vijay sees many levels along the spectrum. We closed out our conversation by outlining what these different levels look like.
Vijay Subramanian: … which I think most companies are, hopefully, by now, where they do look at data. They make decisions, but they're largely reactive… There's this data floating, everyone looks at it. They think about it, and then they move on. Right? A lot of these are very reactive conversations.
Then you have the data-driven, the term that you used, the data-driven companies. But it's much more proactive, where you have healthy debates about not just like- the numbers are table stakes, everyone knows we have numbers. Right? We are data rich. But we're discussing a lot about what it means. What's the interpretation of the data? Was the data collected properly? Is there a bias in the way you're looking at the numbers? And then, you're thinking about experiments. Is this the most important thing. You're thinking about, "Okay, I know this much. What do I need to know in order to make this or do that?" So, you're running tests all the time. With customers internally, you're running true scientific tests, like AB tests, and you're saying, "Okay, are you done experiment and see what happens." And then, you're drawing conclusions again. So, it's a constantly- it's an iterative process where you're figuring out the business together in this cross-functional team, and the data team is the one who's helping build that culture. But it's not just one person. If the entire team doesn't think that way, it's going to fail. So, the job of the data person is to imbue that culture in the way of thinking across product, across the engineers, across a marketer so that they're all thinking the same language and same lengths.
And then, the pinnacle to me, which is a special case of data-driven company, is you're just data native. Like you're born that way. It's woven into your DNA, it's how you're organized. No one even thinks of data as a secondary thing. It's just part of how you operate. And when you do that, something special happens, which is again you're building the company by applying the scientific method. It's just like second nature to you.
Like any time you talk about things that that's happening, you always ask about what do I not know? How do I collect that data? These are all native phrases you are using day in and day out. What experiment do I need to run to prove or disprove a hypothesis? When you hear people are talking like that, that is a data native company, right? And that's really the holy grail, I think, of like a culture that it's just part of how you think and how you operate.


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