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HomeSocial mediaThe 9 Most Important Social Media Trends for 2022
The 9 Most Important Social Media Trends for 2022
VANESSA CLARK 8/12/2022 04:25:00 PM
Working in an industry that morphs faster than a Power Ranger can be tough — the social media landscape is always changing. If you're wondering what's hot, what's not, and how to fit social media trends into your strategy… you're definitely not alone. But, don't worry, we have answers.
We looked at the 5 key trends outlined in Hootsuite's global Social Trends 2022 report, along with data from our survey of over 18,000 marketers to bring you this list of 9 social media trends that are dominating the industry in 2022 — and might even change the way you do your job.
1. TikTok will become the most important social network for marketing (??!)
2. You will start spending big ad dollars on smaller networks
3. Shoppers will want to expect to buy your products directly on social media
4. No one will want to talk to your brand on the phone
5. Long-form video is bust, except on YouTube
6. You will outsource (at least some of) your engagement tactics to a Creator
7. You need to learn paid advertising (even if you don't do ads yet)
8. You won't post anything without a social listening strategy
9. Your VP will ask you to develop a social audio strategy
Download the full Social Trends report to get an in-depth analysis of the data you need to prioritize and plan your social strategy in 2022.
Instagram has held the #1 spot in most social marketers' hearts for the past few years. It was growing the fastest, had the highest returns on investment (depending on your industry), and (bonus) was pretty fun to hang out on. But that's changing now.
TikTok surpassed the 1 billion user mark in September 2021. That made it the 7th most popular social network in the world.
If you exclude messaging networks, TikTok is the 4th most popular social media network after Instagram.
Why is this a big deal? Well, in January 2021, it only had 689 million users. That's a 45% increase in less than a year.
And this comes after its largest growth spurt of all: a global user base increase of 1,157% between 2018 and 2020.
To put this into perspective, Instagram's monthly active users grew at a rate of 6% in 2020.
Even more interesting? Google Search Trends shows that TikTok completely dominates Instagram's short-form video content.
Over the last year, search demand for TikTok has grown by 173%. But search demand for Instagram Reels has only grown by 22%. And it has decreased by 33% for Instagram Stories.
But despite TikTok's rapid growth, most businesses are hesitant to invest in the network. Take the results from Hootsuite's Social Media Trends report.
Only 35% of respondents said they planned on increasing their investment in TikTok in the next year. Most businesses continue to place big bets on reliable networks like Instagram and Facebook.
But that's not the whole story. When asked which social platforms they considered most effective for reaching their business goals, 24% said TikTok. This is a 700% increase over 2020.
TikTok introduced several helpful business tools in 2020 and 2021, including business profiles, ads, and a creator marketplace. This could be why businesses are feeling more optimistic about it this year.
To-Do List: If brands aren't flocking to TikTok yet, they will be soon. We recommend being at the front of the wave rather than behind it.
Grab an account handle for your brand
Explore TikTok so you can start feeling fluent on the platform and find some ideas
Sketch out the basics of your TikTok marketing strategy
Use a social media management tool like Hootsuite to easily schedule your TikToks, moderate comments, and measure your success on the platform from one handy dashboard.
Of all the social media trends on this list, this one is perhaps the most surprising.
New research shows that consumers may be more receptive to advertising on smaller channels like TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest than the bigger social networks.
A study by Kantar, commissioned by TikTok, found that consumers ranked TikTok ads as more inspiring and enjoyable than ads on other platforms.
A Nielson study commissioned by Snapchat found that ads on Snapchat had more reach than TV ads and led to greater awareness and purchase intent.
A Pinterest Business study showed that ads on Pinterest had higher ROI and cheaper conversion rates than ads on other social networks.
Google Search Trends also show increasing search demand over the last two years for ads on these networks. TikTok is leading the charge.
This chart shows that rumors of good results are spreading. And curiosity about advertising on the smaller networks goes beyond self-funded studies.
Our hypothesis? The smaller networks aren't as saturated with ads as Facebook and Instagram, so users may suffer less from ad fatigue.
Many social pros also had to diversify their ads strategy in early 2021 in response to the Apple iOS 14 update. This was when Apple announced an "opt into ads tracking" option for all Apple users, blocking Facebook's ability to target a vast chunk of its audience.
Most importantly though, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat all encourage advertisers to make their ads "fit in" with organic content that is already being posted by regular users.
The result is ads that are more entertaining and less disruptive, increasing conversions and all-around good vibes for businesses.
French beauty brand MAKE UP FOREVER ran an in-feed TikTok ad as part of a larger brand awareness campaign. It features a creator testing and reviewing a new foundation as they would on their own channel.
The campaign generated more than 11 million impressions and 10 million video views for the brand across France.
To-Do List:
Take a closer look at your engagement across all platforms. Have you been underestimating Pinterest users? Neglecting the potential of your Snapchat audience?
Study the content people post on that network. See if you can improve your brand's tone to fit in with the vibe there.
Experiment with creating ads on that network. Or test a new network, especially if you've discounted it as too much effort for organic content in the past.
Before the pandemic, social commerce was a flashy opportunity for the most innovative businesses (mattress disruptors, eyeglass disruptors—basically you had to call yourself a disruptor before you'd let your customers shop on social).
But increased social media consumption combined with stay-at-home mandates created the perfect conditions for a social shopping explosion. Which is not going away.
eMarketer predicts social commerce will be an $80 billion industry by 2025. It's riding the coattails of equally massive e-commerce growth (an increase of 18% in 2020 alone).
81% of shoppers were already using social media to discover new brands and research products before the pandemic. Many businesses have figured out that letting these users checkout in the same app just makes sense.
After all, navigating to a website is an extra step, which is an extra potential leak in your conversion funnel. Especially on mobile, where cart abandonment rates are high.
Most social networks have in-app shopping solutions now, including live video, and are working to provide new features to meet rising demand. But Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest are the most popular. And TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube aren't far behind.
Instagram added a "Shop" tab to the Explore page in 2020
Social commerce likely won't replace e-commerce soon. But, depending on your business, you shouldn't be designing a retail experience without thinking about it.
If you sell products to people, set up a Facebook Shop and/or an Instagram Shop. Or, test out Product Pins on Pinterest.
There's some design flexibility in these shops, so make the customer experience as visually seamless with your brand as you can.
Don't worry about getting your whole inventory up. Focus on curating the items you think your Instagram followers will like best.
Experiment with shoppable posts, or even ads! This will allow customers to see your products in context—and then place an order in just a few taps.
Between lockdowns, halting global supply chains, and labor shortages, consumers have had more urgent questions for businesses than ever before. And they've discovered they can get answers to those questions more conveniently using social media.
In a Nielsen survey commissioned by Facebook, 64% of people said they would prefer to message rather than call a business. And according to Gartner, 60% of all customer service requests will be managed via digital channels by 2023.
Despite the rise in demand, many organizations aren't ready to deliver effective customer support over social media yet.
Hootsuite's 2022 Customer Care Survey shows that 71% of organizations have either not started investing in social customer care yet, or they don't plan to invest at all.
But our more recent Social Media Trends survey data suggests that the tide may be turning. 59% of respondents agreed that social customer care has increased in value for their organization.
Start thinking about a social media customer service strategy.
Create network-specific response templates for frequently asked questions.
If you haven't already, try using a chatbot to improve your response time.
Merge your customer service conversations in one tool. (Naturally, we suggest Sparkcentral or Hootsuite Inbox.)
Train your social media marketing team in customer support best practices. Better yet, hire dedicated customer service agents for your social channels.
According to video hosting software company Vidyard, 60% of all videos published on the internet in 2020 were under 2 minutes long.
Source: Vidyard
This stat puts video length on social media platforms into perspective.
Two years ago, with the advent of IGTV and Facebook Watch (not to mention the supposed demise of Snapchat), there was a moment when we all thought the long-form video was the future.
YouTube, known for its long-form educational videos, was rewarding videos that passed the 10-minute mark. And Facebook wanted to compete in the same arena.
Businesses rushed to make "tv series" for their social platforms. Will Smith even narrated an IGTV show for National Geographic. It seemed like Facebook might not only be taking on YouTube but cable TV networks as well.
But then TikTok arrived in North America. In response, Instagram launched Reels in late 2020, and the rest is history.
Fast forward to fall 2021.
Instagram has deprecated IGTV. No one talks about Facebook Watch anymore. And even YouTube, the last bastion of long-form video on social media, has introduced a new format. You guessed it: YouTube Shorts.
The success of Reels and TikTok follows the success of Stories (another short-form video format), which saw rapid user uptake from 2018 to 2020.
Unfortunately, Facebook hasn't updated the 500 million user count for Stories since the release of Reels in 2020, so we can't really tell if it has grown. But attempts to copy the disappearing short-form video format on Twitter and LinkedIn failed in 2021. RIP Fleets and LinkedIn Stories.
This suggests that social media users won't watch just any short-form videos. They have to be entertaining and engaging too. Also, perhaps disappearing content isn't as big a draw as it used to be.
Whatever the reason, Hootsuite's 2022 Social Media Trends survey shows that businesses prefer short-form videos too.
Nearly 40% of respondents said that they use short-form videos to sell products/services.
If your goal is to reach new followers, experiment with TikTok videos.
If your goal is to re-engage your existing Instagram audience, experiment with Reels.
If you have success with short-form videos on one platform, try it on others. And take note of the results. As always, you'll want to translate videos for each channel. No TikTok watermarks on Reels, please!
The creator economy has been around for about a decade. But it boomed during the pandemic as people looked for ways to diversify their income (due to unemployment, a sudden influx of spare time, or both).
But we're not just talking about millionaire YouTube stars. It's now considered common for regular folks to monetize their hobbies, create a second income stream, or find freelance work through social media too.
Hence the rise of the term "Creator."
"Creator" encompasses both professional influencer marketers and amateur content creators — basically anyone who writes, edits, designs, and films content to publish on social media with an entrepreneurial motivation.
As of 2021, 50 million people consider themselves to be creators on social networks. And businesses are set to spend $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022.
In the U.S. alone, 72.5% of marketers are projected to make use of influencer marketing by 2022.
Source: eMarketer
Social networks are both driving and responding to this boom by adding many new native monetization tools, such as:
TikTok's Creator Marketplace
Instagram's Collabs
Instagram's Branded Content Ads
Facebook's Brand Collabs Manager
YouTube Brand Connect
Twitter's paid, Super Follows
These tools are all geared to get content creators paid, so they can keep adding value for brands and users on their chosen platforms.
Plus, they help the networks hang on to their slice of that $15 billion pie. That is until one of the thousands of third-party "creator monetization" apps that have sprung up in the last few years finally cracks the code.
To-Do List: Whatever your niche (plant fanatics, goth Harry Potter fans, ASMR receptionists, etc.), there is a creator with an already established fan base waiting to partner with you. And they'll do a better job of creating authentic, long-term customer relationships than any brand account could ever hope to!
Define your target audience (a.k.a. the people you want to reach) — and which platform they're on.
Browse creator marketplaces to make a shortlist of people who have clout with that audience.
Get ready to pay fair rates. Even the most micro of creators know their worth and won't be willing to work for free.
Honestly, this social media trend has been around for a few years. But it's still worth mentioning, especially given what we found in Hootsuite's 2022 Social Media Trends survey.
43% of respondents said "the decline of organic reach and the need to increase paid advertising budgets" was their biggest challenge on social media. This is second only to consistently coming up with ideas for content.
But that was for respondents overall. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) listed the decline of organic reach as their #1 challenge.
This makes sense. The decline of organic reach has been well-documented for years, especially on Facebook and Instagram. And most SMBs have limited funds to put towards "pay-to-play" tactics.
The pandemic caused some ups and downs for social advertising. Businesses reduced their spending on ads. And the ones that continued to spend complained about low returns on over-saturated networks.
Plus, Apple allowed users to opt-out of Facebook tracking. This caused Facebook advertisers to reinvent how they did their ad targeting.
But the fact remains that the average organic reach for a Facebook post is 5.2%.
That means only 5% of your followers may ever see your posts if you don't put any paid budget behind them.
Sure, you can expand your social media strategy to other networks where it's still possible to go viral without spending a dime. (*Ahem* TikTok.) But chances are you're not going to leave the audiences you worked so hard to grow.
No matter what your budget, someone on your social marketing team is going to have to at least learn how to boost. And everyone is going to have to learn the basics of audience targeting.
Keep using organic social media content to increase brand awareness, deliver customer service, and encourage audience engagement, charming people along the buying journey. Refer to the handy Venn diagram below for more information.
Experiment with promoting your top posts to reach new potential customers.
If you're ready to level up your ads game, consider investing in a solution like Hootsuite Social Advertising. It allows you to publish ads to Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and track their performance in the same dashboard.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses jumped on board the social listening train for the first time. They liked being able to respond in real-time to questions and conversations with their customers during a health crisis.
But as the pandemic progressed (and was buffeted by ongoing political upheaval, labor shortages, and increased resentment towards corporations), even more businesses learned that social listening could help them understand their customers' changing preferences and avoid PR mishaps.
This trend is backed by data from Hootsuite's 2022 Social Media Trends survey. Most respondents said that they either somewhat or strongly agree that social listening has increased in value for their organization over the past 12 months.
We also see that Google search demand for keywords like "social listening" and "social listening tools" is up 22% year-over-year. This means that more people are on the hunt to either find out what social listening is or buy a tool for their business.
Set up three search streams in your preferred social media management tool (if you don't have one yet, try Hootsuite for free for 30 days) for the following:
Your brand mentions, branded hashtags, products, and spokespeople
Your competitors' brand mentions, branded hashtags, products, and spokespeople
Keywords and hashtags important to your industry as a whole
Watch our super-informative intro to the social listening video:
Make sure that the people who make decisions have access to what you learn. Whether you're running a one-woman flower shop or have a team of two hundred marketers, social listening will surface issues and opportunities that can affect the whole business.
Try Streams in Hootsuite
Clubhouse launched in April 2020 but grew steeply in popularity in early 2021.
Twitter launched its social audio platform, Spaces, quickly after. And Facebook is also reportedly trying to enter the ephemeral live audio format.
These events had many social marketing teams, including Hootsuite's, scrambling to decide whether it was worth investing in a social audio strategy. And as our 2022 Social Media Trends survey shows, the majority of businesses seem to think it is worth it.
When asked specifically how they were planning to invest, results were fairly mixed across the board. But the most popular option was "hosting/leading audio live streams as thought leaders."
(Side note: props to everyone who's been assigned the job of creating a company podcast. Blink twice if you want us to send help.)
Let's break down the data even further.
Our survey found that it was most often VPs and mid- to large-size companies who planned to invest in social audio and thought leadership, as well as companies that were already very confident about proving social media's return on investment (i.e., companies that use highly sophisticated social marketing tactics).
This makes sense. Thought leadership is seen as a great opportunity for social audio content because it enables one or two people to speak to a large crowd. For those who have the boldness and the budget, it's a big opportunity to build trust in your brand and directly connect with potential customers.
That said, because of the skill and time involved, social audio is not a particularly cheap form of content marketing. This is one of the reasons we predict small businesses will be slower to adopt it. You've got to have the cash to make an investment upfront on a format that hasn't proved ROI for anyone yet.
Lastly, Clubhouse has stated that ads won't ever be a part of its business model.
This is either a pro or a con for businesses, depending on how you look at it. Either way, the lack of ads means integrating your brand into Clubhouse will take some imagination.
And the path to ROI will be a long and winding one, which may often include redirecting listeners to your other social media channels.
You don't have to choose one particular social audio platform over another. But you should start thinking about how your business can take advantage of social audio in general, now.
Once you've got an idea of the value you could bring to listeners, start thinking about specific platforms. For example, try using Spaces to engage your existing community on Twitter. Try Clubhouse to connect with new followers.
Tap the thought leaders (hopefully good, charismatic humans with plenty of improv experience) in your company to host a talk on behalf of your brand. And make sure you hire a pro moderator who can help minimize the risk of trolls and unwelcome questions.
If no one fits the thought leader bill in your company, consider partnering with an influencer who matches your brand values to host a talk on your behalf.
That's it! These are the 9 social media trends we think you need to know to stay on top of your game in 2022. Which ones did you see coming? And which ones surprised you? Leave us a comment below to let us know.
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Posted by VANESSA CLARK
Vanessa Clark is a professional accountant with expertise in film productioon, screenwriting and directing. Vanessa Clark has enormous leadership and creative skills. she's currently a PA to CEO and magazine content developer at Dadyminds LTD
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Category: new york city
January 13, 2022 Cassidy Hall new york city, podcast, social justice
The Fierce Call of Love | A Conversation with Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Love is the call on our lives. And it's a fierce call, a fierce love. And I believe that if we could speak more about that we could build a revolution that included people of faith and people of no faith.
The Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis is an author, activist and public theologian. She is the first female and first Black senior minister to serve in the progressive Collegiate Church, which dates back to 1628. She's a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Lewis and her activism work, have been featured by the Today Show, MSNBC, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among others. She's the creator of the MSNBC online show, Just Faith and a PBS show Faith and Justice, in which she has led important conversations about culture and current events. Her new podcast Love Period. It's produced by the Center for Action and Contemplation. Her most recent book, Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World, was just released this month, November 2021. Raised mostly in Chicago, she now lives with her husband in Manhattan.
Reverend Dr. Jacqui, thank you so much for joining me today.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Cassidy, it's my honor to be here.
Cassidy Hall: So one of the ways I love to begin is asking for your definition of the words contemplation or mysticism. What they mean to you and how you see them lived out in the world today.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Yeah, thank you so much. I think I'm a new convert to contemplation and mysticism. I have said so many times in my sermons, Cassidy, that I'm not the girl of mindfulness, or I'm not the girl sitting on a mat. But I think my work with Father Richard Rohr, and with the Center for Action and Contemplation, has just really helped me to broaden my definition of what that means. To be mindful of what it's like to have a grape break in your mouth, you know, to be mindful of the feel of your granddaughter's weight on your lap or on your belly, which she likes to climb on. That's your favorite thing to do. Or to be mindful of the way that air feels on your body and sort of in this non-dualistic way I was thinking, I'm an extrovert, out loud, worshipping person, therefore I'm not contemplative. But actually, I am contemplative. And I think my definition would be the slowing down of our mind and our heart and our breath, to be in touch with the ineffable to encounter the things that we would rush through and to turn our awareness to them. And let that guide not only the way we, you know, meditate, pray, get on a yoga mat, but the way we encounter our relationships, the way we encounter the world.
Cassidy Hall: I'm so amazed at how much I felt myself slow down in my head and my body when you said, "the way of grape breaks in your mouth." That one in particular really got me.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: I am a woman of a certain age, I'm 60-ish and I've lived my whole life sprinting. I'm honest to say, I've sprint through my life. And just these days of feel, touch, smell, being, honestly it's urgent for me to downshift and so I'm really working on it. And that grape, those big, black seedless grapes… When your teeth pierce that grape you feel like there is a God. It's so delicious. Yeah, I'm glad that one slowed you down.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah, I needed that, I needed that. And in your work as a public theologian, and this going, going, going, do you find that this slowing down this contemplation this mindfulness, informs or enhances your work in activism and your work as a public theologian?
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: It does. And I'm an extrovert, off the charts, ENFJ. Everyone is a big letter, it's not like little… And yet, what I'm noticing is, I'm a little slower to jump into the Twitter world right now, a little slower to make my comments about a world event, or a little slower in the way I write, to allow myself to be with the thing, with the words, with the thought. And this conversation is helping me too, Cassidy, just to think like: so what's shifted? And I think, writing the book last year, was such a slow contemplative meditative process, even though we had deadlines, every day to set an intention, write outside as often as I could, or sit in my really big chair… So there is a new awareness of how much the Spirit is moving in the slower space. Does that make sense, what I'm saying there? So it's not hurry up, it's what is the insight? What is the inspiration? What is the breath saying? And it's changing the way I feel like I need to be first out.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah. How have you found yourself holding that in this world full of urgency, in this world full of injustices at every turn? And this deep desire to speak to it now, to show up to it now, to do something now? How do we hold that tension of urgency and there's also that care of self, and there's also that care of community… it's tension. How do you hold that?
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: It is it is tension. And I think just being honest about it, you know, being honest with yourself about the tension. And even I think, Cassidy, I feel like the word vocation is coming in my brain more. What am I called to do? To say? My friend, who media trained me a million times before I ever got it , is always asking, like, his prompt for me is what's your core message? So I'm asking, what do I uniquely have to offer into the conversation right now. And in a way, if somebody already said that, I could just park that, I could just love that, I could just kind of thank them for that. I don't have to have a comment for everything. But I'm asking myself, how do I talk about love in relation to that? And honestly, Cassidy a year ago, maybe even six months ago, I felt very much called to sort of them, around the people, the anti-vaxxers, the insurrectionists on the sixth. And in fact, my therapist one time said something to me, like, has that got to do with the love you're preaching? I was like oh my goodness, that's a really good question. So is there a loving way to describe the vision of a preferred reality? Is there a loving way to call people in not out? Is there a loving way to say, we can do better, we can do better? And just that question makes me go slower. Not be as tangy, not be as — you might get more retweets or something if you're tangy, but I really am asking what does love have to do with it? Still progressive, still thinking these are injustices, still thinking that we need to do better, still disagreeing with all of that over there, racism and heterosexism and sexism and transphobia… All of that. No, I'm not that girl. But can I talk about it in the context of the frame of love, a love revolution, fierce love. That slows down what I write because I'm committed to write it through the lens of love.
Cassidy Hall: So I'm really struck by the fact and the way in which this focus on love has such a enduring quality to it, and really, like love is the urgent thing.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Isn't it? It's the most important thing.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah. Could you share a little bit more maybe about the origin story of your new book – Fierce Love: A Bold path to Ferocious Courage and Rule Breaking Kindness that can Heal the World?
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Yeah, thank you, Cassidy. Honestly, I've been working on this book for nine years. It came to me the other day that it's been a nine year gestation. And then a nine year write, you know, and nine years to write. No, nine months I'm sorry, Cassidy. Nine years to gestate, nine months to write. My first questions were, I think, you know, as an African American woman living in this country and just watching the Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Sandy Bland, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, that whole trajectory of not new behaviors, but the ability to see Freddie Gray encounter. To see, just right, the seeing of it just, I think, traumatized, so many of us, and my brain is always connecting dots. So it's like the violence here that's around race is the same kind of violence in Palestine, Israel, around religion and ethnicity, the same kind of violence in Ethiopia. All of these things are connected to something and that they were also based on religion just broke my heart wide open. How does religion which we litigate to bind us together to connect us, how does religion become such a weapon? Causing, you know other things? So I started asking: What would it look like to have a grown up God? Grown up faith and grown up God? And I did a lot of writing on that, I did a lot of work on that, I went down that path. And what I realized was that my ambition was beyond God to love. Like, if you're not religious, can you do love? If you are agnostic, can you do love? No matter what your faith is can we talk about love as the ground of our being? Not namby-pamby love, not co-dependent love, not love songs, rom-coms love, like really the kind of love that made Harriet Tubman go back and forth to free people, that made Frederick Douglass a liberator, that made abolition movements happen, the kind of love that made those South African women sit in the street … The kind of love that made Jonathan jump in front of Ruby Sales and save her life. This is fierce love, right? It's courageous love. It's bold love, it's risk taking love. And I think it's at the heart of all the world's major religions. And that's what I want to convert people to, love. Fierce love as a way to order our lives. I'm convinced that this fierce call to love and Ubuntu, this Zulu concept: I am who I am, because you are who you are. Almost like that's our natural religion, we know that. We crawled out of the cave knowing that we had to make a fire together, we had to raise the kids together, we had a hunt and gather together, we had to stand for our tribe together. So can we increase our tribe, can we increase our feeling of connection? Can we understand that is not just my kin, you're my kin, we're all kin… that's the key to a kind of solidarity that can make a difference.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah. And in that book, you speak into the ways that that stories shaped us. The stories were told by others, including our nation, and you write the birth order, gender, religion, sexuality, racial identity, these are just some of the stories that are woven together to make itself. And you know that sometimes these stories are inaccurate or incongruent with our inner lives. And this deep self-love that we also need in order to move through the stories towards the truth. And with what you just said, I'm thinking about how, you know, one of the stories we're often told the beginning of our lives is that we're on our own, and that this individualistic society that we live in tells us that we don't need each other and we don't, we don't need in community or communal care and how that really moves us away from what love really is.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Yes. Yeah Cassie, that's right. And, you know, that's a predominant story in our culture. But it's not the predominant story in lots of cultures. So I think about Nelson Mandela, 28 years in prison, and he leaned on Ubuntu and says, I came to understand the humanity of my captors. I came to understand the humanity of the jailers. And if he didn't have that, I mean, he was a lion, right? If he had this kind of re-connection with that origin story and was able to grow a movement that led to the end of apartheid, which required black and white people and colored people and Indian people to collaborate to break down those walls. Dr. King would say we're bound together woven together in a garment of humanity and that's kind of got bought Gandhi at base. So I'm just thinking about how basic it is this reliance upon each other's story. And then, you know, Western thought European thought comes to America thought and we suddenly think of success is how fast can you go up and move away from your house? My friend Shanta is a South Indian woman. And like her family of you know, I don't know, 90 people, I'm exaggerating slightly, but when they come visit her New York, everybody camps out in the same place on the couch. There'll be offended if they were all staying in hotels. So in that culture, community. Think about Vietnamese families who immigrated to America. And then I bought a store, and then you bought a store, we all lived in the apartment and we spread out. Hispanic cultures, African cultures, so we could unlearn that individual story. And be thinking instead about who are my people and how can we together heal the world. Womanists, Alice Walker, my cousins are yellow and pink and black and brown, and we are all each other's people Cassie.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah. And in that way, do you see I mean, this fierce love, you know, while it's a returning and uncovering to the truth of who we are into what we already know, what's in us, do you also see it in a way that it's kind of cultural in some aspects? Now, do you also see it as a form of activism?
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Absolutely. I think this fierce love, this new story is activism, and can see proof of that. We all watched in horror as George Floyd was murdered. And that critical mass of people around the globe spawned it. Because we understood that George's death is our death, his baby's grief is our grief. And we also understood that we weren't going to get to the promised land of a peaceful nation, without each other. So is it is perhaps evolution, maybe, in the human spirit, to lean back into what we knew as infants, that we need each other, we need somebody to raise to raise a world together.
Cassidy Hall: And how do you see or experience… You know, I like the way that you're using love as this clear connecting point, because oftentimes, it seems like when we get into religious jargon and language, whether it's of any religion, it seems like we can lose a lot of people, we can lose touch with what connects us, it can really turn off people. And so wonder how have you found a way to talk about this as a connecting piece rather than a separation piece, when obviously, you experience God in this kind of love that you speak of?
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: If I'm honest, I would say that I've been on that journey, that grownup God journey for a long time, almost 10 years. My faith community demands, insists, allows depending on what it is that I speak about God in ways that are Universalist. There's Jews that join the church, Buddhists in the church, so I've had to translate a lot for a long time. You better translate. There are young people who care less about some of these stories, especially when they're saying you can't be part of my family, you can't be on my team. And so love, agape, we would say, you and I. Agape, this ubiquitous, powerful, unconditional love, directed at ourselves, directed at our people, our neighbors, our strangers, directed to the origin, especially the holy is committed by Jesus for us Christians. He tells a story of a Samaritan who's outsider, when he's trying to say this is what love looks like. So he's kind of breaking the code, breaking the rules, breaking the norms. The outsider is in. The first is last. Young people count women count. Actors can come in here and kick it. You know, love is the call on our lives. And it's a fierce call, a fierce love. And I believe that if we could speak more about that, we could build a revolution that included people of faith and people of no faith.
Cassidy Hall: You reminded me of this in with head and heart when Howard Thurman talks about his vision for the church. And he says it was my conviction and determination that the church would be a resource for activists. To me, it was important that the individual who was in the thick of the struggle for social change would be able to find renewal and fresh courage, and the spiritual resources of the church, there must be provided a place, a moment, when a person could declare, I choose. And I love the way he's talking about community. It's not about Jesus specific language or anything like that.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: It's just about community. And, you know, Jesus was not a Christian, let's all take a breath on that. He was not a Christian, he wasn't trying to start a new religion called Christian. He just was trying to invite people on a path. And so as my job as a pastor is to invite people on a path where Jesus is a rabbi, or itinerant rabbi. And also, Cassie, there are other teachings that augment that from Alice Walker's 0 The Color Purple, which I think should be in the cannon, to Let it have a Birmingham Jail, to some Octavia Butler, story, to James Baldwin to the — so many good words about how to be good in the world that are not explicitly Christian, but that I think, belong in the canon called love.
Cassidy Hall: The Canon called Love, I like that. Another important thing that I really love that you spoke into, in your book, Fierce Love, is the importance of space, what's in a space, what's of a space, and I appreciate the way you pointed to this and all areas of life when you wrote, if we don't take care of the space, we all share, if we allow it to be filled with the objects of violence and hatred. There will be millions of human beings who don't love themselves sitting together in classrooms or board meetings, standing in line at the grocery store, or competing with one another a job interviews. So how does this notion of space impact the way that we pursue change or engage in these movements, maybe now outside of church walls as community?
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: That's a good passage you picked there Cassie, thank you. The space there is both, you know, physical space because that matters. And also container or world. So there psychologically I'm talking about object relations. I'm talking about the school of object relations. Donald Winnicott being my favorite, but the idea that we are raised in a container, the first container is the womb, your mother's arms, the playpen, the classroom, the church, but also the streets. What are the ingredients? What is the characteristic? What's the nature of that space? Children grow in the context of loving space where if you cry, someone's going to come and feed you. If you're wet, someone's going to come and change you. And that almost leads to a sense of magic. I look at me, I'm crying about the battle. Whoo! This is great, you know, and you wish every child would have that sense of magic and omnipotence. Like I can conjure up food when I'm hungry. I can conjure up comfort. So that space is transitional space, that space is a space of growing and development. And I'm saying in the streets, police officers and community members and parents and teachers could create a safe space for children and adults to play and go. Zechariah in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, in the city, they were old people hanging out with canes and they were children, shooting hoops. I'm paraphrasing, but like the streets are safe. Jon's vision, at Patmos, the streets are so safe you don't even need streetlights. Because we make it that way. We are responsible, we can do that. We can make it that all the children have enough food. All the adults don't have to choose medication or rent. Everyone has enough. We can make it so that waste is a pastime paradigm and all of our children grow to love each other. That's what I mean by space. And I mean, you and I, and all the people listening, have a contribution to make to make good enough space for all of us. Classrooms, streets, subways, you know, highways, good enough space that all of us can thrive.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah. As you were writing this book, and you were in those contemplative moments, writing and thinking and creating this work, what was the hardest part to write? What were the parts of you that stuck maybe in that contemplative space and really had to, you know, push something out, I guess, which is appropriate, given the timeline, I guess, the nine months.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Yeah, I had to push it out I really did. I think it was the hardest chapter to write, was the Chapter on truth. Like to tell the truth on truth. My mom's death is prominently in that chapter. And I felt like she was with me as I was writing. She's been gone for four years, but I felt she visited by, but it was hard. Like, I was sad, you know, it was hard to write, to take myself back to the hospital room, to take myself back to blue lights, you know, the blue cast on her face at night and the [inaudible 26:26] hey, what are you staring at mom? I'm looking at you. You're so beautiful. You're so beautiful. I love you. I love you more, you know, like, those were both beautiful memories, but also, you know, teary making memories. And how hard it was sometimes Cassidy to believe what I'm supposed to believe in preach. The truth I didn't have a resurrection sermon that year. It was hard to get that out. But my congregation really responded to my wrestling. Which just proof texts for me how much people yearn for the truth. Not the platitudes, but the truth. I'm struggling [inaudible 27:12] our time, people yearn for that.
Cassidy Hall: You remind me of this story, I don't know if it's marked eight or nine, when Jesus asked the father to believe to heal his son, and the father says, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief. And the ways in which God honors honesty, and that we can honor each other's honesty too that we're actually closer to the truth through our honesty.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: And just imagine the world we make if we do not have to mobilize all the false self, all the persona, all the pretend, it's risky, to be honest, but it's so right and good to be honest, feels good to get the truth told in love, you know? Yeah.
Cassidy Hall: Do you experience or do you see anyone today in your life as a mystic, whether it's a public mystic or someone who is a contemplative mystic that's kind of under girding a movement or something like this? Do you experience mysticism in the world today?
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Yeah. I think Richard Rohr, Father Rohr is really and I'm going to say, you know, the new school and… helping with that, and two young women I know and love Ashley and Lauren, you know, who did the new school and then to this thing called widen, so there's like a pulse of beautiful CAC folks who I find to be Barbara Holmes, you know, find to be doing a really great piece of work. And then somebody like Angel Kyodo Williams, she's so deeply connected to source and her radical Dharma deeply moves me. And I think she's just a unique voice, an African American, Buddhist sensei voice in the world of contemplation and mysticism. Those are two places that come to mind right away.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah. Yeah. And you are the first African American and first woman to serve a senior minister in the Collegiate Church, which was founded in New York City in 1628.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: That's right. That was a long time to break that ceiling.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah, yeah. What is your hope for the next 100, next 500 years? I wouldn't say of the Collegiate Church, but really the church at large.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: Yep. That the church would really get back to Jesus. Not to white blond created European Jesus, not to Constantine Jesus, but to from that to Empire Jesus, but to Mary's boy, Joseph's child, marginalized person, poor, itinerant handyman, Jesus who had the most incredible sermons from which we can learn. And to get to that. I know the Red Letter Christians kind of get to that, But like all of us to get to what did Jesus say? What did Jesus do? What would Jesus have me do? WWJD. What would Jesus do? And to be like liberated to do that? Which would be less about the institution of church, less about the boundaries, and the rules, and the who can't, and the don't know no mores. Oh we've been transformed. We don't smoke no more, we don't cuss no more. Just what is it? Love your neighbor as you love yourself, love you God with everything you have. Now, what love period, let's get to that, and see what kind of world we can build and who could be included in that? That's my hope. Yeah.
Cassidy Hall: And what advice would you give to people who feel like they're in that mode of love, and yet, are tired, because not everyone else is there yet?
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: I'd say tired is a part of our journey. I write this, I write one chapter about joy. And that really quote, right, if you do something from your soul, it's a river. It's a joy. So in that chapter I'm saying, you get to tag out, I'm tired, I need a break, I need a rest. I need some Sabbath. And let somebody else do it. We can do it, Cassidy, and I got you, we'll do it. We'll do this. Then you come back in and I get to take a break. And there's just breathing in and out. We're not going to get to the promised land tomorrow, it's going to take time for us to make the world better. Our faith is about both our individual transformation and the healing of the world. We have what C.S. Lewis would call "God's unbounded now." God's unbounded now to do it. It Kairos time, so take a breath.
Cassidy Hall: Yeah. We need each other.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: And we got all day. We have all day to recreate the world.
Cassidy Hall: Well, thank you so much. I'm so glad you're able to make the time and and be able to join me.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis: yeah, thank you so much. I hope to see you soon. Thank you, Cassidy, for great questions and great conversation.
July 30, 2019 June 5, 2020 Cassidy Hall new york city, pilgrim, social justice, Writing
Killing White Lies: Abraham Lincoln
I grew up nearby a street named Lincoln Way. This transcontinental highway runs all the way from Lincoln Park in California to Times Square in New York. And, it ran through the town I grew up in, giving me a kind of landmark for directions, much like I was taught to treat the street's namesake when it came to history. I grew up being told to admire Abraham Lincoln––the 16th president of the United States, a man of the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), one who fought for the Union and to end slavery… or did he?
While it's not surprising, our history books lied to us and Lincoln got it wrong.
Recently, I've been reading a number of books by theologian James H. Cone including Black Theology & Black Power, The Cross and The Lynching Tree, and God of the Oppressed. Struck by his words and my growing understanding of truth as clearly laid out before me, I couldn't help but fumble around when I read about this "great" president. I've come to realize that when we see the history we've been told is a lie, it's not only our responsibility to listen, learn it, and apologize; It's our responsibility to not look away. This writing is my apology. This writing is my refusal to look away.
"There is no place in this war of liberation," Cone writes in 1969, "for nice white people who want to avoid taking sides and remain friends with both the racists and the Negro."
While reading Black Theology & Black Power, I came across Cone's notes on Abraham Lincoln and the frequent lies told about him as a man who longed for the freedom of slaves. Cone writes, "Whatever may have been the motives of Abraham Lincoln and other white Americans for launching the war, it certainly was not on behalf of black people. Lincoln was clear on this:
"My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." (Abraham Lincoln)
Cone goes on, "If that quotation still leaves his motives unclear, here is another one which should remove all doubts regarding his thoughts about black people:
"I will say then that I am not, nor have I ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races––that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and interior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." (Abraham Lincoln)
With a whitewashed history, what does the future hold? Years from now, will the 45th president be portrayed with the light of racism and white supremacy under which he stands? Or will we––yes, we––continue to add layers and layers to the facts and perpetuate a world of hatred and injustice, a world comfortable enough for the nice white person who wants (and thinks under these severe circumstances that there is) progress without any conflict or discomfort?
"A man is free when he accepts the responsibility for his own acts and knows that they involve not merely himself but all men." ––James H. Cone
If the truth no longer propels us to care, what will? If we can look upon the suffering of our fellow human and remain neutral because we are comfortable, we have lost our humanity. There is no time for neutrality when humans are suffering. Or as Cone says, "There is no time for talk when men are suffering."
Cone's words in Black Theology & Black Power were written 50 years ago this year. His preface contains his own newfound truths including a recognition and apology for the sexism within the book (both in his gendered language and leaving out the leadership notes and significance of black women) as well as a new clarity that "we need to develop a struggle for freedom that moves beyond race to include all oppressed peoples of the world," in accordance with some of the lessons he heeded from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Some may say, "The history books didn't lie, they only didn't share the whole truth." Some may say, "Often times our imperfections are used for ultimate good and slaves were freed, weren't they?" I, for one, refuse to bow my body or tip my cap to a man whose blatant racism was left out of history so that he might be elevated as some kind of white savior. Lincoln did not free slaves, he did not believe in the equality of our black brothers and sisters. To "free" a human from the labor and life of a slave in language yet to continue to treat them as less-than in any way is to keep slavery alive.
I am not a history expert. I claim no in-depth knowledge about slavery or presidential history. That being said, I do know my history books got it wrong. I do know there is a sitting president who is an undisguised racist and I do not want my nephews reading anything less than the truth in their history books. I do know that I am sorry for my ignorance. I do know we have a long, long, long way to go and we must bind ourselves together so that we can all stand on equal ground or we will continue to fall deeper alone.
And, some may say "How can the Republican party go from the 16th president of the United States to the blatant racism of the 45th president of the United States?" Relearning history makes it not only obvious but abundantly clear. Patterns are being repeated. History covers up racism, sexism, homophobia, islamophobia––by rewriting history through erasure, by perpetuating lies and therefore perpetuating hatred.
Next time I visit my hometown, I will remember the truth about the namesake of the street which runs through my town. The inevitable thought will make me consider just how many daily reminders we have of unabashed racism. The result will be a reminder to be louder against hatred, bolder against falsities, and clearer about the truth. Because I want my fellow human's value in this world to be clear, known, and not just a pretty phrase. Because we can't keep lying about our history. Because I want my nephews reading truth. Because I'm done being another nice neutral white face in the crowd.
"The liberal, then, is one who sees 'both sides' of the issue and shies away from 'extremism' in any form. He wants to change the heart of the racist without ceasing to be his friend; he wants progress without conflict. Therefore, when he sees blacks engaging in civil disobedience and demanding 'Freedom Now,' he is disturbed. Black people know who the enemy is, and they are forcing the liberal to take sides. But the liberal wants to be a friend, that is, enjoy all the rights and privileges pertaining to whiteness and also work for the 'Negro.' He wants change without risk, victory without blood." ––James H. Cone
Text from: Black Theology and Black Power by James H. Cone, 1969.
Cone's references for Lincoln quotes:
First quote by Lincoln: "Reply to Horace Greeley," 1862, in The American Tradition in Literature, Vol. 1; revised, S. Bradley, R.C. Beatty, and E.H. Long, eds. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962), p. 1567.
Second quote by Lincoln: Quoted in Charles Silberman, Crisis in Black and White (New York: Random House, 1964), pp. 92-93.
(***Image from Audre Lorde's Sister Outsider, "Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving" 1978.)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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By Helene Lindbergh / December 26, 2022
Hemp.im » Lifestyle » Planet Sex Investigates Link between Sex and Cannabinoids
Planet Sex Investigates Link between Sex and Cannabinoids
In Planet Sex, Cara Delevingne goes on a journey to discover what is known as "lack of orgasm" by being the "guinea pig" of some unorthodox experiments. So much so that she can be seen walking into a university hospital in Berlin and telling the camera that she is about to donate an orgasm to science. The purpose is to show the chemical changes that occur in our bodies when we have an orgasm.
British model and actress Cara Delevingne explores "gender, sexuality and our deepest desires," in Planet Sex, a new documentary series airing on Britain's BBC Three.
Planet Sex, a Documentary Starring Cara Delevingne
In Planet Sex, a six-part series starring Cara Delevingne, the model goes on a journey to discover what is known as "lack of orgasm" by being the "guinea pig" of some unorthodox experiments. So much so that she can be seen walking into a university hospital in Berlin, Germany, telling the camera that she is about to donate an orgasm to science.
The purpose of this study is to show the public, through this documentary, the chemical changes that occur in our bodies when we have an orgasm.
Planet Sex Investigates the Link between Cannabis and Cannabinoids
Before the experiment began, a blood sample was taken from Cara's arm, which was then compared to a second sample taken after the orgasm to find out the neurological and biological effects of her orgasm.
According to researchers Johannes Fuss and Sarah Biedermann, Cara's second blood sample contained endocannabinoids. Endocannabinoids are molecules the body naturally produces that share their effects with phytocannabinoids, the molecules found in cannabis.
"Endocannabinoids are powerful chemicals. They are important for reducing anxiety, increasing euphoria, and having pleasurable sex. So endocannabinoids are sort of your body's version of cannabis," says Dr. Fuss.
According to the research, during sex, endocannabinoids increase by up to 44 percent and peak during orgasm.
The Science behind the High
We've looked at the relationship between sex and cannabis before, revealing some surprising connections. So far, it's been established that our endocannabinoid system can be activated in a number of ways, from exposure to external products, such as cannabis, to sexual stimulation – as Fuss and Bidermann's work in this area has demonstrated. But this is not the only experiment these researchers have conducted to assess the link between endocannabinoids and sex.
A 2017 study co-authored by Fuss and Biedermann recognized for the first time the association between sex and orgasm and an increase in endocannabinoids, specifically 2-AG.
"The endocannabinoid 2-AG is involved in the human sexual response cycle, and we hypothesized that 2-AG release plays a role in the rewarding consequences of sexual arousal and orgasm," the researchers concluded.
Another study published in 2019 found that participants who used cannabis were more likely to report increased sexual desire, more satisfying orgasms, and reduced pain than women who did not use cannabis.
While further research is certainly needed to fully understand the role of cannabinoids (both endo and phyto) in sexual pleasure, the current evidence suggests that cannabis and sex can often be a perfect match.
(Featured image by Dainis Graveris via Pexels)
First published in Newsweed, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.
Categories: Lifestyle Tags: cannabinoids, cannabis, documentary, featured, sexual pleasure


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JBE: Gov. John Bel Edwards, fresh off of his own Washington Mardi Gras fundraiser, dropped the first digital commercials of the 2019 governor's campaign Monday, a pair of 15- and 30-second spots touting the state's economic status during his time in office. "We're moving in the right direction," the governor says in the video, "but we've still got work to do." A campaign spokesperson said that the "statewide" spot is the first in a series dubbed "Better Off." The goal is to compare the governor's record to his predecessor, Bobby Jindal.
DOC: Congressman Ralph Abraham took a break from his Monday campaign schedule and stopped in Franklin for an hour-long visit with former Gov. Mike Foster. "We had a great visit," Foster told LaPolitics. "I was a very impressed with Dr. Abraham. He is a doctor, a veterinarian and a pilot. He certainly seems to be in it for the right reasons." Contacted for comment, Abraham added, "I went there to bend his ear and get his counsel. He is certainly very knowledgeable about all things political." The candidate said he discussed the ins and outs of campaigning as well as some policy issues with the former governor. Foster added that he doesn't plan to offer an endorsement, but will be closely following the race.
FAST EDDIE: Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone has waded into the growing battle over the state's industrial tax exemption program. Over the weekend, Rispone penned an op-ed in The Hayride, taking issue with Edwards' 2016 executive order that gave greater control over ITEP to local bodies. "You see, with a stroke of his pen back in 2016, Governor Edwards issued a politically-motivated executive order that threw our state's economy into chaos," Rispone wrote.
THE OTHERS: Insiders close to former Congressman John Fleming say that he will be making a final decision on the race "very soon." Sen. Sharon Hewitt, meanwhile, is still on our list of maybe-candidates.
In an entertaining and revealing discussion, Mann spoke about his early political experiences (as a Republican, no less, for Dave Treen) and the path that eventually took him through the offices of Russell Long, John Breaux and Kathleen Blanco.
HDA client Louisiana Chemical Association recently released a video about SOWELA Technical Community College graduate Jeremie Fontenot. Fontenot talks about the education he received at SOWELA, his new job at Sasol and the wealth of opportunity for him and others thanks to the chemical industry in Lake Charles. Click here to view the video.
LaPolitics: One of the most talked about races this fall will be the one for Jefferson Parish's presidency. How has Cynthia Lee-Sheng's entry altered this campaign's landscape?
Clancy DuBos: Cynthia Lee Sheng is a game changer. She proved that when she won her first race for council in a special election in 2008. When you combine her personal popularity with the fact that women are winning more and more elections nowadays, plus the Yenni scandal, it's easy to see how she starts out as a co-favorite with former Parish President John Young. Speaking of Young, he insists he's running — and he polls well — but rumors persist that he will drop down to an at-large council race. We'll see. Meanwhile, two other factors loom large in that race: (1) whether Mike Yenni runs; and (2) which candidate will capture the large bloc of votes in Kenner. I'm told Kenner officials plan to coalesce behind a candidate who they think will serve the interests of Louisiana's eighth largest city. This race is going to be very interesting to watch.
LaPolitics: New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has been pushing for the city to start receiving more revenue from the hospitality industry despite some opposition in Baton Rouge. Do you believe that she will ultimately be able to get the funding?
DuBos: I don't see the Legislature changing the present distribution formula for sales taxes on the New Orleans hospitality industry. The biggest players in New Orleans are state entities — the Morial Convention Center, and the Superdome and Arena. The big players in the Capitol oppose taking money from those entities. Leaders of the local hospitality industry have proposed a compromise — increasing the tax and giving that to the city. The mayor initially rejected that idea as insufficient, but the dialogue continues. I think it's possible some compromise may pass, but it likely won't involve redirecting significant sums of money that presently go to the hospitality industry.
LaPolitics: You are somebody who has covered both state and city politics for a long time. Do you believe that both sides will be able to come to an agreement or that we will see more of the city vs. the state arguments that have marked these types of negotiations in the past?
DuBos: I think every issue is unique. The old rural-vs-urban dynamic, which sometimes boils down to everyone-vs-New Orleans, is not as prevalent as it was 50 or 60 years ago, but it occasionally crops back up when an issue presents itself that pits the interests of cities (or New Orleans) against the interests of suburban and rural lawmakers. We saw this when the Harrah's bill almost passed on the final day of the session last year. It died and got revived several times; in the end, it died because there was not enough money to satisfy everyone — and everyone wanted a piece of that pie. I think when there's money to be divvied up, you'll see those old tensions — and when there's not enough money to divvy up, it's worse.
LaPolitics: How would you rate the first year in office for Mayor Cantrell and the new City Council?
DuBos: The mayor has not made any major mistakes, and she has been fortunate in that she has not had to deal with any major crises other than the ones she inherited. New Orleans has had no major hurricanes, no floods and no tornadoes. That could change at almost any time, however. She's focused on the Sewerage and Water Board fiasco, but she did well in appointing Ghassan Korban as the agency's director. He's an engineer, and he has quickly gained the respect of the council and the business community. She not overly political in her decision-making, and she engages well with voters. I think we have an excellent City Council. They are diverse yet united in how they approach tough decisions. They face a major challenge in the next few weeks regarding the new power plant in New Orleans East. The previous council approved the $210-million plant, but Entergy New Orleans really screwed up by paying actors to attend public hearings and feign support for the plant — which the council was going to approve anyway. Now there's pressure to undo that approval, but that opens a can of ugly legal worms. Entergy has already spent more than $96 million on the new plant, which taxpayers could be stuck with paying if the council kills the plant now. This mess is entirely Entergy's fault, but the stress has caused some pain among council members, two of whom were on the previous council and voted for the plant. The grassroots organization Alliance for Affordable Energy is putting lots of pressure on council members to overturn approval of the plant, and we'll see in the next two weeks if that happens. This is a major test of the council members' individual and collective ability to navigate some turbulent political waters. By the way, Mayor Cantrell was on the previous council and voted for the plant during her transition period.
The 1980 presidential election will always be remembered for the epic campaign that pitted incumbent President Jimmy Carter of Georgia against then-Governor Ronald Reagan of California.
That presidential race was significant for Louisiana because it marked one of the few times in history that the Bayou State was a political battleground in a national election. Both campaigns spent considerable time, money and resources in the state, while the two candidates made sure to carve out time for personal appearances, rallies and fundraisers.
According to press reports, by the time October came around, Reagan's conservative message appeared to resonate with many voters, even though Carter had easily won Louisiana's 10 electoral votes four years earlier.
Seeing the shift, then-Rep. Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge decided to make an orthodox political play. Jenkins, then a Democrat, had challenged incumbent U.S. Sen. Russell Long earlier in the year. While his candidacy forced Long to take up his first active campaign in years, Jenkins was handily defeated in the primary.
With his own political advancement on hold, Jenkins called a press conference and announced that he was resigning his post as a Democratic National Committeeman, because he would be supporting Reagan in the presidential election. The announcement was surprising because despite some misgivings about Carter, the Louisiana Democrats, led by Long and former Gov. Edwin Edwards, were firmly in the Georgian's camp.
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy was seen visiting with members of the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Joe Marino was seen sharing a laugh with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Sen. Karen Carter Peterson and Rep. Royce Duplessis at WMG.
New Orleans City Councilwoman Helena Moreno was seen hanging out with rapper Choppa at the Big Easy's 'Boycott Bowl' party Sunday.
Gov. John Bel Edwards is joining with other Democrats calling on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to resign over a scandal involving an offensive costume and photograph featured in his medical school yearbook.
Gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone visited the Shreveport-Bossier area Tuesday and landed support (via Twitter) from Sen. Barrow Peacock.
MSNBC's Kasie DC show is out with another edition of their "Sen. John Kennedy Said What?" segment.
Kennedy has invited Senate custodian Justina Pettway as his guest for President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech.
DOTD officials say that tolls would only finance 17 percent of a new bridge across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.
The Advocate is doubling the size of their Lafayette-based Acadiana newsroom.
Rep. Julie Stokes says that she will introduce a resolution in the regular session asking the Legislature to formally send a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell over the outcome of the Saints-Rams game.
LDH Secretary Rebekah Gee will be speaking to the Baton Rouge Press Club at their weekly luncheon Monday.
Baton Rouge's annual Gridiron Show is set for the weekend of March 22-23. For the first time ever, tickets can be purchased online through their new website.
Speaker Taylor Barras and Senate President John Alario have scheduled their joint fundraiser for Feb. 11.
Newly-elected Rep. Mary DuBuisson will be having a fundraiser on Feb. 12. It will be her first event since she won election to former Rep. Greg Cromer's seat in December.
Hire Local. Live Local. Buy Local.
Click here to view a video on HDA client Shintech's chemical complex in Iberville Parish. This video is about Shintech's philosophy, which is "hire local, live local and buy local." Shintech prides itself on being a good neighbor and a good citizen in Louisiana. Watch the video and you'll see what we mean.


The Polar Kit by Vaporesso is a dual 18650 Battery mod with a maximum wattage of 220 Watts. The Vaporesso Polar Kit features the new OMNI Board 4.0 allowing for instant-firing, multiple protections, and quick 2.5A pass-through charging. The Polar Mod also features a vibrant 2.0" OLED display, bypass mode for RDAs, and is completed with the Cascade Baby SE Tank. The Cascade Baby SE Tank features a locking top-fill method, adjustable bottom airflow, large 6.5mL tank capacity, and utilizes the GT coil series for optimal flavor and vapor production.


A troubling trend of construction firms illegally hiding workers in shell companies to avoid paying state-required workers-compensation coverage began emerging in Florida in the early 2000s.
Historically, dishonest contractors lowballed large amounts of their payroll, undetected. The goal was to under-report employees and salaries, and lie that employees worked safer jobs than they really did.
The shell-company schemes allow this deception and illicit savings on a much larger scale. Those Florida shell companies were a visible warning of a national trend in workers compensation premium fraud. Exact fraud losses are in short supply, yet shell-related schemes likely steal billions of workers-compensation insurance dollars a year, skew honest market competition and contribute to higher workers-compensation premiums.
Shell schemes often were discovered only when employees started making claims for often-tragic work injuries such as falls from scaffolding. Hidden in shell companies, insurers had no idea of the number of employees creating potential injury exposures.
The result: Workers-compensation insurers in Florida collectively were liable for millions of dollars in benefits, payable to injured employees they knew nothing about until receiving claims for work injuries.
The trend today: Shell schemes in construction have risen to new levels of scope and sophistication in the last 10 years. Networks of dishonest specialty contractors, labor brokers, facilitators, paid straw shell owners and check-cashing stores can avoid far more workers-comp premiums and taxes than the traditional premium scams. Shell schemes also have spread to other states, especially states with large construction activity.
• Allow construction contractors and sub-contractors to under-bid honest competitors.
Construction projects are managed by owners or general contractors. Gone are the days when general contractors' own employees built housing subdivisions, office complexes and other buildings. Specialty subcontractors now are typically hired to do work such as excavation, plumbing, electrical work, concrete work, framing and drywall.
Then there are "facilitators." They know construction and statutory requirements for insurance coverage, and recruit someone as straw owner of the shell company where workers will be hidden. Shell owners usually create false identities for themselves using bogus yet official-looking government identification. In Florida, for example, the ID might be a fraudulent Florida driver license.
False identities allow the shell-company owners and facilitators to simply walk away from or "burn" a shell company if an employee is injured, or if regulators or law enforcement start investigating. Investigators have nobody to contact about the activities, and subsequent worker injuries, involving the shell company. Even if the facilitators are identified, they can easily deflect attention to the straw shell owner as the supposed culprit, except the "owner" now is untraceable. In fact, the shell's address usually is just a post-office box or rental apartment.
Working together, the facilitator and shell company owner create a corporation, generically named something like XYZ General Services, Inc. A vague name lets the shell work in multiple construction trades, thus increasing usability and profits. Many states also let persons easily create corporations online, without meeting or verifying identification in person.
The shell owner has an insurance agent provide a minimal workers-compensation policy for the new shell company. The facilitator usually accompanies the "owner" to the agent meeting, and is identified as a "friend helping set up the business." The shell owner usually is described as being new to construction, and often new to the U.S. The facilitator thus requests and receives approval to call the agent and request insurance certificates for labor brokers.
Some insurance agents are involved in the scheme, while others are duped by the facilitator. Either way, a shell owner buys a minimal workers-comp policy, falsely describing the business as a small, two to four-person company doing work such as drywall installation, concrete, brick paving or carpentry.
The insurer sets the premium without realizing the deception. A small premium downpayment lets the facilitator embed the shell company into the scheme.
The labor brokers are complicit in the scheme. They need to prove their labor force is covered by workers-compensation in order to perform the work with the specialty contractors as if they are legitimate subcontractors.
Facilitators thus provide (rent) the name and paperwork of the new shell company for the labor broker to use. This protects them if state regulators inquire or the insurer audits the specialty contractor. Specialty contractors usually are aware of the scheme. Yet they are insulated from civil or criminal liability most of the time, unless they begin performing shell company functions such as payroll.
The small workers-compensation policy gives the labor broker the "golden ticket" for a work crew to do construction work, what appears to be a valid certificate of insurance. However, they use many more workers than were reported at the time of application. The straw shell owner likely will disappear, or maybe be hired to "own" other shells.
The shell owners collect $500-$1000 per week merely for allowing their name to be used as owner. The shell now is ready to funnel large amounts of undeclared payroll to cash-paid workers.
The facilitators effectively rent out their shell company's name. More important, the facilitators rent their valuable certificate of insurance to uninsured labor crews who work as if they are affiliated with the shell. In fact, they are independent and uninsured, though may believe in good faith they are covered.
General and specialty subcontractors can be directly involved. When contractors request an insurance certificate from uninsured labor brokers looking for work for their crew, they are directed to the facilitator. The facilitator contacts the agent, and has the insurance certificate in the name of the shell company falsely presented as the uninsured labor broker's company. The number of employees covered under a workers-compensation policy are almost never listed on the insurance certificate, so the massive deception is not evident at this point.
State-required proof of insurance is met, minimally. The contractor contracts with the shell owner so the uninsured labor crew can go to the work site. The labor broker bills the contractor, who pays for the work from their operating account. That usually is by one check each week, payable in the name of the shell company.
The checks are taken to a local check-cashing store. A pre-arranged deal was made with the proprietor, who is complicit. All checks made payable to the shell company are cashed, no matter who presents them. The check-cashing store and facilitator split a 5-10 percent fee for each check. The balance goes to the uninsured construction crew for wages. The 5-10 percent cut is much cheaper than buying workers-comp coverage and paying taxes.
Insurers and agents normally do not track insurance certificates. Thus they often discover schemes only when employees have a serious injury and a workers-compensation claim is made by an employee who was never reported to the insurer. Insurer audits occasionally uncover shell cons as well.
The facilitator instructs the shell owner to write a check from the shell company account, to be cashed at the check-cashing store. In some cases, the owners simply withdraw the cash and deliver it to the facilitator, who hands over the check casher's cut. Electronic transfers are a relatively new payment nuance.
The shell's bank account was created under the same false identification used to set up the shell. Currency transactions at the check-cashing store are falsified for checks of at least $10,000. The transactions also are documented to appear the shell owner made the transactions, even though the person cashing the checks represents dozens of uninsured labor brokers using the shell-company name and insurance certificate to obtain work.
Millions of dollars in wages can be quickly funneled through a shell company. No year-end workers-compensation premium audit will be conducted because the shell company owner will be un-traceable. Nor does the shell pay any payroll taxes. The facilitator also routinely burns the shell and forms a new one once or twice a year to throw off investigators. The shell may be burned sooner if an employee has a catastrophic injury.
Workers-compensation insurers collectively lose billions of dollars in premiums annually by some estimates. Just 10 labor brokers negotiated $1 billion of checks in less than three years in Florida.5 Phantom workers-comp injuries also add to the fraudulent losses, and potential damage to the commercial general liability industry.
Insurer searches of the Insurance Services Office claims database now are locating duplicate injury claims for the same date of loss. The related impact: Injured workers involved in shell schemes are suing insurers under commercial general liability policies that aren't intended for what should be workers-compensation claims — hence, duplicate claims . The losses incurred by these schemes are tangentially imposing a cost burden on general liability insurers.
Because such large amounts of cash are involved, premium scams attract organized crime syndicates that use the same shells to launder other criminal proceeds.
• Insurers and agents must look tighten their application, underwriting and auditing to spot the signals of shell cons.
Urgent action is needed to reverse the spread of shell schemes, protect the integrity of the construction industry, and stem draining losses for workers-compensation insurers.
About the authors: David M. Borum, CFE, CFIC, CIFI, is Assistant Vice President-Special Investigations Unit, at Swiss Re America. Geoffrey R. Branch, M.S., CFE is Senior Investigator-Special Investigations Unit, Group Risk Management, at Swiss Re America.


Toddler's cups are the next stage essential for parenting. Baby Brands Direct always follows the latest trends, but we also often create them. Together with our top rated suppliers, we have been promoting a growing trend of colourful and interactive toddler's cups. Our catalogue showcases a broad variety of innovative designs in a wide array of shapes, colours and sizes to suit different ages and preferences. You can pick from spouts or straws, handle or open cup, free-flow or valve, cups with a rim valve or angled child-friendly cups with a weighted base. If your target is to sell the extremely popular you have just landed in the right place.
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Take a break out of your busy day and indulge in some time that's just for you. Relax and treat yourself to the deliciously scented, indulgent French patisserie inspired luxury bath & body collection from Café De Bain.
This range, inspired by gourmand sweet treats, comes in the almost-good-enough-to-eat fragrances of Coconut Macaroon, Raspberry & Rose Crème Tarte, Sweet Vanilla Madeleine, Cherry & Almond Frangipane and Tarte au Citron. Choose between the Softening Shower Crème and the Indulgent Bath Crème.
All Café De Bain products were developed and made in England.


My name is Mary12632 this is the first minecraft server I ever got on, and I usually don't play many others! If I do I usually don't get on many others!
My name is Gadvac and I've just recently joined the server with my friend BitterlyKawaii!


text:
Age- and Activity-Related Differences in the Mechanisms Underlying Maximal Power Production in Young and Older Adults
in Journal of Applied Biomechanics
Thomas Korff
Thomas KorffBrunel University
Search for other papers by Thomas Korff in
Ann H. Newstead
Ann H. NewsteadWest Coast University, Irvine
Search for other papers by Ann H. Newstead in
Renate van Zandwijk
Renate van ZandwijkUniversity of Texas at Austin
Search for other papers by Renate van Zandwijk in
Jody L. Jensen
Jody L. JensenUniversity of Texas at Austin
Search for other papers by Jody L. Jensen in
https://doi.org/10.1123/jab.2013-0037
joint powers; elderly; cycling
The purpose of this study was to examine the interactions between aging, activity levels and maximal power production during cycling. Participants were divided into younger adults (YA), older active adults (OA,) and older sedentary adults (OS). Absolute maximum power was significantly greater in YA compared with OS and OA; no differences were found between OA and OS. The age-related difference in maximum power was accompanied by greater absolute peak knee extension and knee flexion powers. Relative joint power contributions revealed both age- and activity-related differences. YA produced less relative hip extension power than older adults, regardless of activity level. The OS participants produced less relative knee flexion power than active adults, regardless of age. The results show the age-related decline in muscular power production is joint specific and that activity level can be a modifier of intersegmental coordination, which has implications for designing interventions for the aging population.
* Thomas Korff is with the Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance, Brunel University, UK. Ann H. Newstead is with the Department of Physical Therapy, West Coast University, Irvine, CA, and with the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. Renate van Zandwijk is with the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. Jody L. Jensen (Corresponding Author) is with the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
https://journals.humankinetics.com/abstract/journals/jab/30/1/article-p12.xml
Journal of Applied Biomechanics


Unique and tastefully done. Love the flush look with the spacers. Curious to know if you notice a change in handling with the spacers due to the wider track? Different feel on turn-in?
the pictures with the style 67 M3 wheels are not using spacers. its a square setup of 18x9 et27 with 245/35/18 tires.
with the ZHp wheels I ran 20mm spacers i the rear and 15mm spacers up front. i didnt notice any funky driving on the street but on the track i cant say since i dont race or track the car.
I saw you put this up for sale?
Yeah wasn't super serious it was more of a feeler. I may start a for sale post on the forums if the 2 people I'm talking to fall through.
I can't imagine it'll be hard to sell.
Did you end up putting the alcantara seats in?
No I'm saving the alcantara seats for another wagon project... if I had those in this wagon I would probably be asking a lot more.. I still feel like I'm leaving a little money on the table. I have to find the right buyer because the chassis has 261000 miles and even though the car drives like a 50000 mile car wonderfully people can't get over that number bring a trailer has set this mentality that low mileage is the way to go unfortunately but I'll find the right buyer there out there.
Yeah, the way BaT has altered the enthusiast car market is wild. Good luck!


text:
<?php

namespace FastFeed\Tests\Parser;

use FastFeed\Parser\RSSParser;

/**
 * AbstractRSSParserTest
 */
abstract class AbstractRSSParserTest extends AbstractParserTest
{
    /**
     * @var RSSParser
     */
    protected $parser;

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $path = '/../data/rss20/';

    /**
     * @var array
     */
    protected $xmls = array(
        'banen.bol.com.xml',
        'desarrolla2.com.xml',
        'jhosman.com.xml',
        'libuntu.com.xml',
        'nytimes.com.xml',
        'slashdot.com.xml',
        'ubuntu-espana.org.xml',
        'ubuntuleon.com.xml',
    );

    public function setUp()
    {
        $this->parser = new RSSParser();
    }

    /**
     * @param $content
     * @param $query
     *
     * @return string
     */
    protected function getFirstValueFromXpath($content, $query)
    {
        try {
            $dom = new \DOMDocument();
            $dom->loadXML(trim($content));

            $xpath  = new \DOMXPath($dom);
            $result = $xpath->query($query);

            if ($result->length) {
                return $result->item(0)->nodeValue;
            }
        } catch (\Exception $e) {
        }

        return false;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub