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Kat Hennessey
Broadway Knows Ariana DeBose Is a Star. Now the World Will Too
Sylviane Gold
In one of the most beguiling numbers in The Prom, the 2018 Broadway hit in which a bevy of theater has-beens invade a straitlaced Indiana town, a well-worn chorus girl tries to imbue a timid teenager with "zazz," that elusive, magical combination of gumption and allure she learned from Bob Fosse.
Sergio Trujillo describes zazz as "the X factor." To Joe Lanteri, it's "a special movement quality and strong sense of self." Andy Blankenbuehler talks about knocking "one thing out of the park, and then knocking the next thing out of the park." They could also just say "star quality," and they agree that Ariana DeBose has it. They expect her zazz to take her far.
It already has. In the space of six years, DeBose's fairy-tale Broadway career took her from ensemble work, understudy roles and second-tier parts to a lead in A Bronx Tale and then a Tony nomination and Chita Rivera Award for her radiant Disco Donna, dancing Trujillo's sexy choreography in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.
Blankenbuehler, who'd first spotted her years earlier at dance conventions like Lanteri's New York City Dance Alliance, gave her her first Broadway role, Nautica in Bring It On: The Musical. In Hamilton, she was the crucial but wordless Bullet. Trujillo heard about her from her mentor, Charlotte d'Amboise, though he was overruled when he wanted to cast her in Flashdance: The Musical. But he finally got to choreograph on her in A Bronx Tale and Summer. And despite the sparkle and dance chops that informed every performance, that's where the string ended, even before the pandemic locked down Broadway. Because when Summer closed, in December 2018, "Anita came along."
DeBose means the worldly-wise Anita of West Side Story, created on Broadway by Chita Rivera and on film by Rita Moreno, and reimagined by playwright Tony Kushner for the Steven Spielberg movie that's now been pushed back to next year.
After that shoot ended, last fall, DeBose left New York City for Los Angeles and her second feature film: Ryan Murphy's adaptation of The Prom, in which she plays Alyssa, the closeted girlfriend of the girl getting the zazz tutorial—in the film, it's from Nicole Kidman, part of a star-studded cast that also includes Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington and James Corden. Interrupted by the pandemic, the movie completed filming with COVID-19 protocols in place—luckily, Casey Nicholaw's dance numbers were already in the can—and arrives on Netflix December 11.
And when we Zoomed in on DeBose a few months back, she was in Vancouver, again before the cameras in "a very fun new job": shooting Apple TV+'s upcoming musical comedy project based on Brigadoon.
DeBose in The Prom with Jo Ellen Pellman
Courtesy Netflix
This gilt-edged resumé was in no way inevitable. DeBose's first brush with the big time was making it onto Season 6 of "So You Think You Can Dance" at 18 years old. She was voted off the show by the judges in a special episode, and she admits she took it hard. But now, about to turn 30, DeBose sees it not as a rejection but "a redirection, so I could pursue what I had said I wanted all those years before."
She habitually identifies herself as a dancer who loves storytelling, and she says with utter seriousness, "I speak dance better than I speak English." But being booted from "SYTYCD" gave her the space to play with other languages, to become a true triple threat. There aren't that many, says Trujillo, and "she's the real deal." Blankenbuehler points out that lots of Broadway triple threats actually aren't. "With Ari, you have the chance to do a piece of theater with a principal dancer. And a principal singer. And a principal actor."
He remembers her audition for the workshop of Bring It On, when that wasn't so. "She was insanely talented—but at the same time, she was so raw."
The transformation was no accident, with roots going all the way back to when DeBose was 10, visiting New York City. Already something of a dance veteran, with five years of ballet, jazz and tap under her belt, she went with her mother and her aunt to Rent and Aida. She says now, "I don't know if a 10-year-old had any business seeing Rent, but I loved it. They explained it to me. I especially loved Mimi's leather coat."
She also fell hard for the excitement of the city, and for the revelation that dancing could someday be her job—no, she didn't have to stay in North Carolina and teach eighth-grade social studies like her mom. And there was something else. Leaving the Palace Theatre, she saw a giant billboard of Bebe Neuwirth as Velma Kelly in Chicago. Bebe Neuwirth, whom she knew from the sitcom "Frasier."
"That was the second lightbulb moment," she recalls. "I said, 'Wait—she's a dancer? And she acts on TV?' I told myself, 'You're gonna do this. You're gonna train real hard. You're gonna learn to act eventually."
The learning—first at conventions and competitions and then in high school musicals—is still going on. "I comb YouTube for answers," she says. "I did not go to college. I chose to start working very early, and I essentially learned on the job." Blankenbuehler says, "She's a sponge." What she says she absorbed from him was "how to make a musical" and a "first lesson in dance comedy." Working with Trujillo taught her "how to build a leading lady through dance, which has served me well now that I've transitioned to onscreen work."
Ariana DeBose as Anita in West Side Story
Niko Tavernise, Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
DeBose credits the title role in an all-county high school production of Aida with giving her "a crash course in acting and singing in front of people, and in leading—what it means to be a leader." She worked on her singing and acting, determined to be like the women she cited when she accepted her Chita Rivera Award—Rivera, Carmen de Lavallade, Donna McKechnie and others—all of whom were "more than one thing." And when she arrived in New York, she went to school on Playbill, finding out which choreographers were doing what shows and immersing herself in the business when she wasn't auditioning. But she knows it wasn't just all her hard work: "Luck is a thing," she says.
Now movies are offering her a wider range of questions to ask and answer, though Justin Peck, who choreographed the West Side Story film, seems to feel that there wasn't much missing to begin with. "She was always thrilling to work with in the studio," he says in an email. "But I was most blown away by her ability to exceed even my own expectations when the cameras were rolling."
DeBose says that while her experiences working with Spielberg and Murphy were in no way similar, the directors had one thing in common: "They're both very clear on their vision." Streep, Washington and the other stars in The Prom surprised her with their collaborative spirit. "They're legends," she says, "and I didn't necessarily expect them to give me the time of day. But their humanity comes first. It was so refreshing to see that you can survive and thrive in Hollywood for decades and decades and still be nice people."
Although her two movie roles are vastly different, DeBose managed to find a way into both. Born to a white mother and a Puerto Rican father, she was raised by her mom in rural North Carolina and knows what it's like to feel like an outsider, whether a secret lesbian in small-town Indiana like Alyssa or a Latin immigrant in white New York like Anita. She didn't grow up in a Hispanic community, but she had no trouble tapping into the leader of the Shark women. "Being Latina is much more than speaking Spanish," she says. "It's how you live your life, it's your attitude, it's your passion, it's the food that you eat."
And although she didn't dance as much as she wanted to in The Prom, she loved being able to tell Alyssa's story through body language. "When you're a young teen wrestling with your identity, you physically do not express yourself as clearly as you'd like. When she's finally able to express herself physically, you can see the difference."
DeBose is ready for her next adventure, whatever and wherever it may be. "I have no idea what the future holds," she says. (Who does?) "I loved filmmaking. But I also love theater. And I think they go hand in hand." Whatever she does, she wants it to mean something. "I've been blessed with a seat at the table," she says, "and I want to make the most of it."
Ariana DeBose Dances Her Way Onto the A-List With 'The Prom ... ›
How Ariana DeBose Became Her Generation's Greatest Triple Threat ›
Ariana DeBose (@arianadebose) • Instagram photos and videos ›
cover story netflix the prom west side story ariana debose
Theresa Ruth Howard
Tokenism vs. Representation: How Can We Tell Them Apart?
Last year's Black Lives Matter protests jolted the ballet world into action. All of a sudden, things that once "took time" instantaneously became easy fixes, like it was an episode of Oprah's favorite things for Black people: "You get an opportunity, and you get an opportunity!" Much of this sudden, reactionary change has elicited high levels of skepticism, prompting the query: Is this true representation or is it merely tokenism?

There is empirical data that white people seldom keep word when it comes to BIPOC individuals. Social justice (especially when it comes to Black people) has almost always been a trend, a tool wielded to benefit white people more in the end, and there usually is an end marked by a lull and a slow, silent rolling back of the majority of what has been accomplished.

In the early stages of addressing systemic racism, until companies have a proven track record, it will always be a "damned when you do, damned if you don't" situation. Trust must be earned. Nothing done will be enough because it feels like trying to make an ocean out of a desert with an eye dropper.

That is not to say that there isn't meaningful progress being made. We are in the midst of a global shift. Power is being redistributed, rules and criteria are being altered. The standards of what was once acceptable, or enough, no longer suffice. People are no longer just "grateful" to have a seat at the table—not only do they expect to eat, they want to help plan the menu. The truth is, we lack a suitable metric to measure this progress because we have never been here before.

What is "representation"? What exactly is "tokenism"?

The Oxford Dictionary defines "tokenism" as "the practice or policy of making merely a token effort or granting only minimal concessions, especially to minority or suppressed groups."

The complexity of the question "What qualifies as tokenism and what as representation?" rivals that of Blackness itself. There is often a conflation perhaps because representation is part and parcel of tokenism, making it difficult to discern one from the other, or at what point it shifts. What it looks like for the bystander may not be how it is experienced by the person in the situation.

It is important to note that the act of being the "only" or one of a few does not in and of itself amount to tokenism. Too often that assumption is made by the public and it is unfair, reductive and wounding to those holding those spaces. What determines tokenism depends more on why and how someone occupies the space.

This is where the process of diversification gets slippery, manufacturing conflicts of confidence for Black dancers who, like sacrificial lambs, may question the reasons they were hired, cast or promoted. Were they given an opportunity for their talent, or because they are Black, and in what measure? These are often the speculative whispers from colleagues, classmates, parents and patrons. It is a psychological head trip to which one will rarely get a satisfactory answer.

The way diversification is approached says everything. When the motivations are authentic, there will be respect, sensitivity and mindfulness; an effort to cultivate cultural competence will be made. This requires a great deal of humility. In order to be able to interact effectively with people of different cultures, racial and ethnic backgrounds, you have to admit that you have blind spots, and are ignorant of things and, more importantly, are desirous to learn. This requires engaging them as human beings, not just tools as a means to an end.

Faculty additions

The recent hiring of full-time Black faculty members at Boston Ballet School (Andrea Long-Naidu), Pacific Northwest Ballet School (Ikolo Griffin), San Francisco Ballet School (Jason Ambrose) and School of American Ballet (Aesha Ash) all came to fruition during the COVID-19 crisis and the BLM reckonings. All four schools were part of the Equity Project's 21-ballet-organization learning cohort—the three-year partnership between Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dance/USA and the International Association of Blacks in Dance that aimed to increase the presence of Blacks in ballet, onstage and off. (Full disclosure, I was a member of the design and facilitation team.) There were a number of school directors in the room, including BBS director Margaret Tracey, PNB's Peter Boal (artistic director of both school and company), SFBS's former administrator Andrea Yannone and director Patrick Armand, and SAB's chairman of faculty Kay Mazzo.

One of the constant discussions was the importance of having representation on school faculties; it was drilled into their psyches. There were multiple conversations, and eventually the ball started rolling downhill. Unfortunately, the news of these faculty additions was only made public after last summer's social media protests by Black ballet dancers, making them appear reactionary.

The announcements began with a cacophony of press about Ash's appointment at SAB, which was met with underground backlash. Much like the overwhelming coverage about New York City Ballet's first Black Marie in 2019, which other companies had been quietly and consistently doing for years (without fanfare), the jump over contrition and bolt towards heroism for many soured representation into tokenism. In contrast, when Balanchine took Arthur Mitchell into NYCB as its first Black principal dancer, Mitchell asked that there not be a press release heralding the advancement. Instead, he wanted simply to appear onstage as a matter of fact.

When you wave a flag too hard late in the game, and are overly pleased with the little you have done over decades, you get no pat on the back. Though pleased for Sister Ash, inherent distrust has the Black community sitting with its arms folded, watching and waiting to be served the pudding that holds the proof of change.

This is the flip side of the representation coin. Organizations can dust their hands off and feel good about the progress they have made, while the actual burden and responsibility of "representing" gets laid squarely on these new Black hires. Ironically, these Black instructors return to the space of racial isolation they inhabited as dancers, with one major difference: Now they are expected to be an agent of change.

With the media blitz around her being SAB's first full-time Black faculty member, Ash is very clear when I ask her what her role is. "I am a teacher," she says. "I am not there to transform the entire structure. I was hired to be a teacher and I am hyper-focused on being the best darn teacher that I can be."

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Aesha Ash teaching at SAB
Rosalie O'Connor, courtesy SAB

Her refrain sounds exactly like most Black ballet dancers who just want to dance, but whose very presence is a statement of silent resistance to a centuries-old system of whiteness. With this lack of representation, coupled with the increased visibility via social media—whether intended or not—they are instantaneously branded as "role models," and saddled with the pressure of expectations from the public at large, the Black community specifically, as well as their organization.

For these new faculty members, if and when their institutions make a faux pas, you can be certain the first question will be "Where were they?" When presented with this reality, Ash resolutely replies, "Let's make it very clear that I'm not the executive director or the artistic director of the School of American Ballet. But if I see things that don't look right to me, I'm absolutely going to feel very comfortable going in there and saying 'This does not look right.' " She sees her role as a long-time member of the Alumni Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion as the space to do that.

Conversely, when asked what Ash's role is, Mazzo replies—along with giving glowing compliments about Ash's teaching abilities—"We feel that we hired an activist who wants to make more change," referring to her creation of her Swan Dreams Project. "We'll look to her for her perspective, her opinions or insights or feedback. It'll carry an enormous amount of weight as we continue to evolve and learn. I think she might not even realize what that means."

It could well be within this sliver of obfuscation that genuine representation can curdle into tokenism—the space where boundaries are unclear and assumptions are made. There has to be an agreement and clear boundaries with veto power enabling a person to control the way their Blackness, gender, sexual orientation or identity (in body and voice) are utilized both internally and externally for it not to wander into the realm of tokenism.

A person's desire to participate (and to what degree) should not be assumed because they represent a particular demographic. Having your thoughts, feelings, experience and emotional labor taken into consideration is something that is often not afforded to marginalized people. Being granted the power of choice with regards to participation, though not the norm, would be equitable. In this way the truest measure of whether something is tokenizing lies with the person in the experience: If they have agency and are empowered, it matters little how things appear.

In extending the invitation to Andrea Long-Naidu to join the Boston Ballet School, director Margaret Tracey was clear: "I need someone like this to hold me accountable. Knowing Andrea's commitment to supporting the Black student in the white ballet world made me think this is the kind of person I need on my team." The discussions between the two solidified what feels like a developing partnership.

Long-Naidu is looking for a space that will allow her to stretch into her desire to be a part of the change, and influence the field's push towards diversification. "I want to be at a high-level ballet institution where I am working with dancers, where I can make a difference," she says. Over the past five years she has been stepping into her power, both as an educator and as an advocate. "I am finding my voice in this work. I want to be a part of helping predominantly white institutions be more welcoming for Black bodies."

It helps that the two share history as former NYCB dancers, allowing for the uncomfortable dialogue necessary both for the learning curve and the strengthening of the new allyship. They align in their growth journeys: Tracey is prepared to receive radical feedback and Long-Naidu is ready to share. "Andrea is my first hire where I have shifted my focus from whether this outside person is a good fit for us to making sure that our environment is not stuck in a place that may not allow someone like her to fit in," says Tracey.

Casting and marketing

We all want to see Black and brown dancers rise through the ranks. What we don't want is Black dancers being cast when they are not ready, or prepared for a role just for a company to showcase it has them. This is the epitome of tokenism and sets dancers up to fail, a luxury, by virtue of their Blackness, they do not have. Blackness is held to a different standard so unlike their white peers, whose failings are their own, the "representation" Black dancers carry comes with the heavy burden of the entire race.

Artistic directors might not view it this way when casting, but being culturally competent would mean taking this into consideration. When fast-tracking a Black dancer, true equity would mean providing the extra support (technical and emotional) they might need to have them succeed. Hence, it's not about what is normally done; it is about what is necessary in this instance.

Tokenism in casting can stigmatize the dancer amongst their peers and the artistic staff, setting off the cascade of whispering echoes of "They only got it because they are Black." Even though white people have been getting opportunities because they are white for eons, it creates yet another level of isolation, stress and vulnerability in a Black dancer, potentially crippling both their confidence and their career.

Ballet organizations that have been actively working to educate and examine themselves, and are successfully expanding recruitment, increasing diversity in training pipelines, company rosters, faculties and administration, are grappling with how to best communicate progress without tooting their own horns too loudly. This is the space between a rock and a hard place; if they quietly go about their work, no one will know, and if they promote too heavily it could be perceived as pandering.

This culture shift demands transparency. Gone are the days of blind acceptance; the people demand receipts. Ballet has seldom had to explain itself, aloft at the pinnacle of the dance hierarchy, supported by centuries of tradition, the very act of "showing" deemed beneath it. Those days are on the wane.

The majority of ballet companies use the traditional rankings system. Star power is real, ballet lovers are loyalist, and marketing campaigns often follow suit by using images of principal artists or those performing lead roles. Hence, when most of your diversity (specifically Black dancers) resides in the corps de ballet, purposefully diverting from the marketing norms to telegraph the presence of nonwhite artists is by definition tokenism.

That is, of course, if marketing followed that hierarchy to begin with. When Tamara Rojo took the helm of English National Ballet in 2012, the company underwent a rebrand, highlighting ENB as a company that tells stories. Together with Heather Clark Charrington (director of marketing and communications since 2014), she transformed the promotional black-and-white backstage images into evocative art pieces capturing a moment, feeling or mood of a work. Together, Rojo and Charrington identify the dancer who can best capture it, regardless of rank or role. Many times there isn't correlation between the dancer on the poster and the principals on the stage.

Ironically, this nonhierarchical norm had gone unnoticed until 2018, when the breathtakingly stunning poster of Swan Lake featuring Precious Adams was released, and comments about casting and tokenism were raised. This is a prime example of when righteous indignation based on assumptions and lack of knowledge results in possible collateral damage to the very person you are advocating for. If companies are expected to do better by their artists, then the public needs to check itself, as well.

We need new procedures and practices to check our work. If your whole marketing department is white, perhaps consider enlisting the eyes of nonwhite members of the organization or cultivating external critical friends to look through a different lens to vet images and copy. The trick is you have to trust and listen to their feedback.

COVID commissions

The call to give Black choreographers opportunities was right up there with the call for ballet teachers, and the excuse was the same: "We can't find them." It seems that the glow from the world being on fire illuminated the field such that suddenly Black choreographers could be seen raining from the sky like extraterrestrial squids in Watchmen.

Black folk have been in the game long enough to know that the majority of recent commissions are purely reactionary. "Of course when I received multiple commissions, it crossed my mind that it was in alignment with the Black Lives Matter movement…and being a Black woman I tick two boxes," says Francesca Harper, who has eight commissions on deck. "I have been creating films since the beginning of my career—two of the companies came to me specifically because I can create something for film."

However, the nagging question of Blackness versus talent conjures uncertainty. "You wonder, Are they really looking at me?" asks Harper. "Are they looking at my work? That, for me, is always a painful moment."

Darrell Grand Moultrie is another of the numerous Black choreographers the ballet world is now inviting to take center stage, albeit virtually. While he has choreographed repeatedly on Atlanta Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Cincinnati Ballet, BalletMet, Ailey II, Milwaukee Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, when American Ballet Theatre's Kevin McKenzie called to extend an invitation, according to Moultire, McKenzie apologetically said, "Unfortunately, I have not been exposed to your work."

Before Moultrie accepted the commission to choreograph in a bubble for ABT's virtual gala in November, he made three things clear: "First of all, I wanted this to be on the Met stage," Moultrie says. The second was a commitment to make that happen post-COVID. The third was he wanted to up McKenzie's "exposure" to Black choreographers in the game. McKenzie agreed.

<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTUwMTIxOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjUxMTIxOH0.ftaxn6paQXB1Q8jwP86bccIJWu1l9DsYlbvQTstw5bI/img.jpg?width=980" id="d8705" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="34cc9a12a009ced96cf88205cae2463a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Black and white close-up of Moultrie, with his hands clasped beneath his chin." data-width="800" data-height="640" />
Darrell Grand Moultrie
Franklin Thompson, Courtesy Moultrie

"I think my commission with ABT is Kevin opening up to see who is out here," Moultrie says. However, that work should have already happened: Over the term of the Equity Project (which ABT was a part of), names of Black choreographers were often bandied about, including veterans Donald Byrd, Robert Garland, the overlooked Christopher Huggins, and Jennifer Archibald, who deserves a bump up, and Amy Hall Garner, who is on the come up.

The "it takes time" and "we can't find" mantras are to some degree the by-product of a lackadaisical attitude. One can believe that these recent gestures are earnest attempts to right a wrong. But the ease with which it could have been done before (and was not) is insulting, and makes it look and feel like tokenism.

It always feels like when Black people's houses are on fire, white folk can't seem to find a cup of water to fill it, yet when their houses are ablaze, here we come with buckets and hoses, always in service. At this critical time when the world is operating in crisis mode and on the learning curve of working remotely and presenting digitally, it feels like Blackness is used as a convenient tool to get out of the diversity doghouse. The fact that these opportunities are being given with anemic budgets cannot be overlooked and one has to wonder if these commissions offer parity.

Black people are too familiar with this type of post-woke euphoria, white guilt and shame married to a need to save face, creating just enough access and opportunity to smother the flames. Then, slowly, things begin to settle pretty much where they were before.

That being said, this time feels different (though we say that every time) because the landscape and the rules have changed. Increased exposure, transparency, the power of influencers' individual platforms and call-out culture all make it possible for anyone to write or contribute to the narrative. This collaborative quilt of divergent perspectives, which in time will become history, will now include more voices and experiences, forming a mosaic revealing a more comprehensive picture.

The work that ballet is attempting is a process, not a project. As to whether or not this is sustainable representation or mere tokenism, Moultrie sums it up this way: "We know what is happening right now is just a reaction. A good reaction, but only time will tell."

black choreographers black dancers diversity in ballet
diversity in ballet


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As South African's we're often asked some sometimes strange, sometimes amusing and sometimes downright WEIRD questions! One frequently asked question is whether or not we have wildlife strolling around on our streets. And while this is mostly a simple, 'no', there ARE a few rare occasions when even WE can get contradicted!
Seen recently in St Lucia… A hippopotamus taking a casual stroll into the local fuel station!
Actually, St Lucia is one of the few places in South Africa where seeing wildlife roaming the streets is fairly common place. Locals and visitors know about the hippos and keep a safe distance. Its estimated that there are around 800 hippos in the area and seeing them in the streets or even in your back yard is not uncommon.
In the past few years, the town of St Lucia has developed into a centre of action and adventure. Visitors set out to sea to watch the dolphins at play, they brave the surf with jet-boats, go snorkelling, scuba-diving, horse-riding or quad-biking. Near at hand is the sub-continent's only breeding ground for the giant leatherback turtles, which can be seen at night.
If you have guests who would prefer a more 'traditional' means of viewing hippos, book them on our St Lucia Boat Cruise day tour experience.
ST LUCIA BOAT CRUISE
Departs Daily from St Lucia • Duration 2 Hours
All aboard the comfortable Santa Lucia, a spacious double-decker boat on St Lucia Estuary, with ample room for everybody to have the best view possible. We're off on a two-hour relaxed interpretative cruise from the smartest vantage point – the water. We'll get up close to the sight and sounds of hippo, crocodiles and other game species, and if we're lucky, we'll be serenaded by the haunting cry of the fish eagle…perhaps even watch one catch a fish. The boat has a coffee, snack and full bar on board, so relaxation is the order of the day.
Your experience highlights:
Boat Cruise on St Lucia Estuary
2 hour interpretative cruise
Animal and bird sightings
Coffee, snack and full bar (own account)
And while you're there, you absolutely HAVE to take advantage the opportunity for this once in a lifetime experience! A St Lucia Turtle Tour (only operates between November and February during the egg laying and hatching season).
ST LUCIA TURTLE TOURS
Departs Daily from St Lucia on request from 17h30
Duration 6-7 Hours (Operates Nov – Feb only)
In all likelihood, it's once in a lifetime, so don't even consider missing it. As the evening begins to fall, we set out on a quiet night drive on the beach to seek out, but never disturb, the leatherback and loggerhead turtles returning to their birthplace to lay their eggs; later in the season, we're able to see the hatchlings making their desperate and dangerous dash for the ocean. Our evening expedition includes a night drive through the Eastern Shores Game Reserve, on to the beach, and – if all possible – a stealthy walk on the sand. We've packed our own refreshments and snacks, so it promises to be as convivial an evening as it's likely to be thrilling.
Evening beach drive and walk
Leatherback and Loggerhead viewing
Evening game drive through Eastern Shores Game Reserve
Snacks and refreshments
As experts in our field, we are here to guide and advise. A consultant is just a call or email away.
Contact a Thompsons Africa consultant today.
Email: info@thompsonsafrica.co.za
Main image credit: St Lucia South Africa Facebook page

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Golden color is favorite to most of the peoples. I also like golden color. Also you may hear about the pride of Bangladesh which is named golden fibers. Yes I say about jute, which is so called.
Once upon a time it was the principle exporting goods of Bangladesh, most of foreign currency was earned from this sector before liberation, and it was sold as raw and finished goods. Not only it's golden color but also its currency earning gives it's so name. The environment of Bangladesh is suitable for cultivating it. Bangladeshi farmer cultivated jute with happiness but what is the present situation?
After liberation war of Bangladesh this sector starts to lose its past position. Day by day it was denied from different government. Different government took different policy for which this sector becomes unstable. For the lack of good policy it is now in such worst position.
A good governmental policy can bring this sector in its glorious position. I hope all the political party will give emphasis on this sector when they elected by the vote of peoples.
We know that jute is a natural fiber for this reason it is not harmful like others synthetic fiber for the environment. Once time peoples have been used jute goods for their daily uses. But when synthetic goods come to the people's hand, they started to use it instead of natural fiber made goods.
Different jute goods are available in the market such as bag, sack, cvc etc. Also different types of Geo textiles are made by this jute. In China, they blend jute with cotton fiber to produce yarn which is used 4 making different cloth which is chief in price. I will discuss about this in my next blog.
Jute product is produce in jute mills. Two types of jute mill is available one is called twine mills which produce only yarn and export it other one is called jute composite mills where both yarn and finished goods are produce.
In here most of the jute mills are powered by private sector. There is a government corporation called Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC). There are about 18 jute mills which are now running by BJMC. Millions people is involved with this sector. So government should consider it before take any harmful decision. I will elaborate it in my next post.
However, this sector has a great future.
Jute products manufacturing business is one of the profitable business all over the world. If anyone have not enough idea about this business then he should not engaged with this business. Every time we should remember that better plan and knowledge can bring success of life.
Buying of raw jute not in perfect time that means jute does not buy in right seasons (July-November).
Lack of honesty of top management.
Buying of low grade raw jute with comparing of jute batch.
Money not in hand in right time (Jute buying seasons).
Over employment of local labor in an industry.
Lack of qualify mechanical instrument supply.
Too much load shadings during production period.
Lack of over hauling system of the machineries.
Miss communication among officers, stuff, and labor.
Too much corruption in purchase and export department.
Lack of planning to increase production of the mills.
Uncontrolled CBA in an industry.
Political handling on the planning of industry.
Fixation of jute purchasing rate lately.
Lack of training of the employs.
Unwanted behave from different bank for loan sanction.
Lack of decision making capability of the higher authority.
Lack of latest product production.
Lack of responsibility of labor.
Stay behind from modern technology.
Political decision regarding this sector.
Above reasons can be found in most of the government industry also it can be found in some private mills. Any how to get target production management should take steps to remove all the problems.
This composition is not universal it can be changed by the technician. After applying emulsion on jute it keeps in pile for some days. This time period is depend on the grade of jute.
Jute fiber is use to produce twine yarn, bag, sack, hessian, sacking, cvc, carpet yarn, etc. This product has international market demand. For this reason different county produce it to fulfill this demand.
We know that jute is composed of carbon, hydrogen & oxygen in its chemical composition. It has no component which is harmful for the environment. For that it does not pollute environment. Other hand jute fiber and its products are biodegradable. It takes only three to five months to decompose with soil. For this jute fiber is called friend of environment.
So, all of my friends let take steps to use natural jute products and keep this world out of synthetic products.


text:
Tech News Center
Foxconn pulls back on its $10 billion factory commitment – TechCrunch
Francisco Peguero
Well that didn't last long.
In 2017, Foxconn announced the largest investment of a foreign company in the United States when it selected Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin for a new manufacturing facility. Buttressed by huge economic development grants from Wisconsin, an endorsement from President Trump, and Foxconn CEO Terry Gou's vision of a maker America, the plant was designed to turn a small town and its environs into the futuristic "Wisconn Valley."
Now, those dreams are coming apart faster than you can say "Made in America."
In an interview with Reuters, a special assistant to Gou says that those plans are being remarkably scaled back. Originally designed to be an advanced LCD factory, the new Foxconn facility will instead be a much more modest (but still needed!) research center for engineers.
It's a huge loss for Wisconsin, but the greater shock may be just how obvious all of this was. I wrote about the boondoggle just a few weeks ago, as had Bruce Murphy at The Verge a few weeks before that. Sruthi Pinnamaneni produced an excellent podcast on Reply All about how much the economic development of Mount Pleasant tore the small town asunder.
The story in short: the economics of the factory never made sense, and economics was always going to win over the hopes and dreams of politicians like Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who championed the deal. Despite bells and whistles, televisions are a commodity product (unlike, say, airfoils), and thus the cost structure is much more compatible with efficient Asian supply chains than with American expensive labor.
Yet, that wasn't the only part of the project that never made any sense. Foxconn was building in what was essentially the middle of nowhere, without the sort of dense ecosystem of suppliers and sub-suppliers required for making a major factory hum. (Plus, as a native of Minnesota, I can also attest that Wisconsin is a pile of garbage).
Those suppliers are everything for manufacturers. Just this past weekend, Jack Nicas at the New York Times observed that Apple's advanced manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas struggled to find the right parts it needed to assemble its top-of-the-line computer, the Mac Pro:
But when Apple began making the $3,000 computer in Austin, Tex., it struggled to find enough screws, according to three people who worked on the project and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements.
In China, Apple relied on factories that can produce vast quantities of custom screws on short notice. In Texas, where they say everything is bigger, it turned out the screw suppliers were not.
There are of course huge manufacturing ecosystems in the United States — everything from cars in Detroit, to planes in Washington, to advanced medical devices in several major bio-hubs. But consumer electronics is one that has for the most part been lost to Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, and of course, China.
Geopolitically, Foxconn's factory made a modicum of sense. With the increasing protectionism emanating from Western capitals, Foxconn could have used some geographical diversity in the event of a tariff fight. The company is Taiwanese, but manufacturers many of its products on the mainland.
And of course, a research center is still an enormous gain for a region of Wisconsin that could absolutely use high-income, professional jobs. Maybe the process of rolling out a next-generation manufacturing ecosystem will take more time than originally anticipated, but nothing is stopping further expansion in the future.
Yet, one can't help but gaze at the remarkable naïveté of Wisconsin politicians who offered billions only to find that even massive subsidies aren't enough. It's a competitive world out there, and the United States has little experience in these fights.
India may put friction on foreign firms to protect domestic startups
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (MONEY SHARMA/AFP/Getty Images)
One of the major battles for tech supremacy is over the future of the Indian IT market, which is rapidly bringing more than a billion people onto the internet and giving them robust software services. I've talked a bit about data sovereignty, which mandates that Indian data be stored in Indian data centers by Indian companies, pushing out foreign companies like Amazon, Google, and Alibaba.
Now, it looks like India is taking a page from the Asian tiger-school of development, and is going to increasingly favor domestic firms over foreign ones in key industries. Newley Purnell and Rajesh Roy report in the WSJ:
The secretary of India's Telecommunications Department, Aruna Sundararajan, last week told a gathering of Indian startups in a closed-door meeting in the tech hub of Bangalore that the government will introduce a "national champion" policy "very soon" to encourage the rise of Indian companies, according to a person familiar with the matter. She said Indian policy makers had noted the success of China's internet giants, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. , the person said. She didn't immediately respond to a request for more details on the program or its timing.
The idea of national champions is simple. Unlike the innovation world of Silicon Valley, there are obvious sectors in an economy that need to be fulfilled. Food and clothes have to be sold, deliveries made, all kinds of industrial goods need to be built. Rather than creating a competitive market that requires high levels of duplicate capital investment, the government can designate a few companies to take the lead in each market to ensure that they can invest for growth rather than in, say, marketing costs.
If done well, such policies can rapidly industrialize a country's economic base. When done poorly, the lack of competition can create lethargy among entrepreneurs, who have already won their markets without even trying.
The linchpin is whether the government pushes companies to excel and sets aggressive growth targets. In Korea and China, the central governments actively monitored corporate growth during their catch-up years, and transferred businesses to new entrepreneurs if business leaders failed to perform. Can India push its companies as hard without market forces?
As the technology industry matures in the West, entrepreneurs will look for overseas as their future growth hubs. The challenge is whether they will be let in at all.
Video game geopolitics
Nexon's MapleStory2 game is one of its most profitable (Screenshot from Nexon) .
Korea and Japan are two of the epicenters of the video game industry, and now one of its top companies is on the auction block, raising tough questions about media ownership.
Nexon founder Kim Jung Ju announced a few weeks ago that he was intending to sell all of his controlling $9 billion stake in the leading video game company. The company has since executed something of a multi-stage auction process to determine who should buy those shares. One leading candidate we've learned is Kakao, the leading internet portal and chatting app in Korea.
The other leading candidate is China-based Tencent, which owns exclusive distribution rights in China of some of Nexon's most important titles.
Tencent has been increasingly under the sway of China's government, which froze video game licensing last year as it worked to increase content regulation over the industry. Now the question is whether it will be politically palatable to sell a leading star of Korea's video game industry to its economic rival.
From the Financial Times:
Mr Wi added that Nexon would be an attractive target for Tencent, which pays about Won1tn in annual royalties to the South Korean game developer. But selling the company to Tencent would be "politically burdensome" for Mr Kim, given unfavourable public opinion in South Korea towards such a sale, he cautioned.
"Political risks are high for the deal. Being criticised for selling the company to a foreign rival, especially a Chinese one, would be the last thing that Mr Kim wants," said Mr Wi.
Such concerns around Chinese media ownership have become acute throughout the world, but we haven't seen these concerns as much in the video game industry. Clearly, times have changed.
TechCrunch is experimenting with new content forms. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the author (Danny at danny@techcrunch.com) if you like or hate something here.
Share your feedback on your startup's attorney
My colleague Eric Eldon and I are reaching out to startup founders and execs about their experiences with their attorneys. Our goal is to identify the leading lights of the industry and help spark discussions around best practices. If you have an attorney you thought did a fantastic job for your startup, let us know using this short Google Forms survey and also spread the word. We will share the results and more in the coming weeks.
More work on societal resilience
This newsletter is written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York
Nintendo is making Dr. Mario for iOS and Android – TechCrunch
Unity acquires Vivox, which powers voice chat in Fortnite and League of Legends – TechCrunch
Lunar war brews and NASA gets militarized in For All Mankind S2 trailer
The space race in an alternate timeline continues in the second season of For All Mankind, returning to Apple TV+ in February.
Apple TV+ has dropped the trailer for the second season of For All Mankind, its science fiction drama about an alternate history where the space race never ended. The series was the linchpin of the Apple TV+ launch in 2019, and proved popular enough with viewers to warrant a second season.
(Some spoilers for the first season below.)
Series creator Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) has made a point of trying to keep the show reasonably close to reality, despite the science fiction concept, often consulting the original NASA plans for guidance, and incorporating archival footage throughout the season. Moore said the following during a 2019 panel Q&A after an IMAX screening of the first two S1 episodes at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC:
Our production designer, Dan Fisher, who designed all the sets of the show, recreated Mission Control in such exacting detail that even the ceiling tiles [are] the same as the ceiling tiles in the original mission control. When we were on set, we had technical consultants and former astronauts who were actually there, who would walk the cast through how to operate the command module and the lunar module. We had people that would talk to the background players in Mission Control, so that people weren't just randomly pushing buttons—they knew exactly what the console did and who they were talking to on those headsets, and that permeated the entire production.
The first season centered on an astronaut named Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman), standing in for Thomas Stafford, the Apollo 10 commander in our real-world timeline. His foil is fellow astronaut Gordo Stevens (Michael Dorman), the stereotypical hard-drinking, womanizing fighter pilot to Baldwin's All-American "right stuff" persona. As Ars Tech Policy reporter Kate Cox noted in her S1 review, Apollo 10 was the "dress rehearsal" for the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, when American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.
But in this alternate timeline, the decision not to land on the moon with Apollo 10 meant the USSR beat America to the punch. Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made history instead. (The real Leonov made his own mark in our timeline: he was part of the Voskhod 2 mission, and was the first man to perform a 12-minute spacewalk on March 18, 1965.) The US must then work to catch up in the space race, with an eye toward establishing a lunar base.
With the Soviets now the world leaders in space, America struggles to catch up, even recruiting a team of female astronauts after the first female cosmonaut lands on the moon. Over the course of the season, both countries find water on the moon and America sets up the first moon base in 1974, followed shortly thereafter by a Soviet lunar base eight miles away. There was a lot of interpersonal drama on both Earth and the Moon in S1, and a couple of tragic losses. The season ended with a complicated two-part episode involving a desperate launch of Apollo 25 to conduct an Apollo 24 relief and rescue mission. A post-credits scene et in 1983 featured a sea launch of large rocket with a plutonium payload for the US Jamestown colony on the moon.
The second season picks up that same year. Per the official premise:
It's the height of the Cold War and tensions between the United States and the USSR are at their peak. Ronald Reagan is president and the greater ambitions of science and space exploration are at threat of being squandered as the US and Soviets go head-to-head to control sites rich in resources on the moon. The Department of Defense has moved into Mission Control, and the militarization of NASA becomes central to several characters' stories: some fight it, some use it as an opportunity to advance their own interests, and some find themselves at the height of a conflict that may lead to nuclear war.
The trailer opens with the ominous news that the Soviets might be trying to develop a new weapon as a fresh class of candidate astronauts is introduced. The US can't let that slide, because "it would set a dangerous precedent." Also, that weapon would be able to drop munitions pretty much anywhere on Earth, so it's a big threat to national security. As the Eurythmics play in the background, we meet Pathfinder, a new, more powerful space shuttle, and it looks like Kinnaman's Ed Baldwin will be tapped for its first mission. Will war break out on the moon, or will the US live up to its declaration that it came in peace, "for all mankind"?
For All Mankind returns to Apple TV+ on February 19, 2021.
The US has established the Jamestown lunar colony.
YouTube/Apple TV+
The USSR has its own lunar base just eight miles away.
Lunar rovers for the win!
Mining the rich resources on the Moon.
Looks like a decent haul.
Back on Earth, Ronald Reagan is president.
NASA's Mission Control braces for a space shuttle launch.
We have liftoff!
Americans watch the launch on TV.
An astronaut left behind.
Women have a big role to play in the space race in this timeline.
The shadow of the shuttle passing over the lunar surface.
One giant leap….
Space Force has boots on the moon!
Listing image by Apple TV+
Review: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ends run with disappointing finale
Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) is a half-human, half-witch teenager facing the coming of the Eldritch Terrors.
Then there's Sabrina Morningstar (red headband), a version of Sabrina from an alternate timeline who becomes the Queen of Hell.
Lucifer Morningstar (Luke Cook) is Sabrina's father. His former lover Lilith (Michelle Gomez) is pregnant with his child.
Sabrina Morningstar falls for Caliban (Sam Corlett), a prince of Hell born of clay, which might explain his amazing abs.
Faustus Blackwood (Richard Coyle), ousted high priest of the witch contingent, has gone mad and called forth the Eldritch Terrors.
Aunt Hilda (Lucy Davis) hears a bump in the night.
Aunt Zelda (Miranda Otto) is now high priestess of the coven.
Prudence Blackwood (Tati Gabrielle) leads the Weird Sisters and seeks revenge on her father, Faustus Blackwood.
Harbingers of the first Eldritch Terror, The Darkness.
Begone, Eldritch Terror!
Theo (Lachlan Watson) and Robin Goodfellow (Jonathan Whitesell) are excited about attending Aunt Hilda's wedding to Dr. Cerberus (Alessandro Juliani).
The next Eldritch Terror, The Uninvited, arrives.
The wedding guests are nonplussed.
Nick Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood) offers himself as tribute.
A double wedding in Hell to trick The Uninvited.
Roz (Jaz Sinclair) realizes she has the gift of sight and joins the Weird Sisters.
Sabrina develops a nasty tongue condition with the arrival of the third Terror, The Weird.
Fortunately the witches can help.
One of Robin's fellow hobgoblins puts Theo to sleep.
Lilith takes refuge with the coven to give brith.
Zelda and Hilda mount a strong defense.
Our favorite half-human/half witch teenager took on eight timeless menacing entities to avert the apocalypse (again) in the final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I've championed this weirdly captivating supernatural horror show from the beginning, and for three seasons the strengths have always outshone the occasional weakness. Unfortunately, S4 turned out to be the weakest of all, despite including one of the best episodes of the entire Netflix series, and what should have been a strong unifying narrative arc. It's still pretty entertaining, but there was just a little too much pointless fan service and sloppy plotting this time around for S4 to really work.
(Spoilers for prior seasons below. Major spoilers for the series finale are below the second gallery. We'll give you a heads up before we get there.)
As we've reported previously, the show was originally intended as a companion series to the CW's Riverdale—a gleefully Gothic take on the original Archie comic books—but Sabrina ended up on Netflix instead. The show retains some of the primetime soap opera elements of Riverdale, but it incorporates more full-blown horror without bowing to the niceties imposed by network television. As I wrote last year, "Ultimately, the best thing about The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is how gleefully and unapologetically the show leans into its melting pot of the macabre. It's quite the high-wire act, exploring serious themes while never, ever taking itself too seriously—and never descending into outright camp."
In the S3 finale, Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) transformed a trio of unholy artifacts into a medieval spiked ball and chain known, appropriately enough, as a morning star. She used this to create a time loop, enabling her to go back and correct the grievous errors she made over the course of the season. So there are now two Sabrinas. The original Sabrina Spellman returned to her life in Greendale, while her alternate self, Sabrina Morningstar, took up her rightful throne as Queen of Hell. They're supposed to always stay within their respective realms, but, well, what are the odds of that happening with such a headstrong heroine? Meanwhile, in the final scene, a now-mad Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) performed a summoning ritual to call forth the "Eldritch Terrors" and told his loyal acolyte Agatha (Adeline Rudolph) that they will bring about "the end of all things."
Showrunner Roberto Aguirra-Sacasa hinted that S4 would go full-blown Lovecraft. It's really more of a fun Lovecraftian-influenced homage, starting with the title of the first episode: "The Eldritch Dark." That's an allusion to sci-fi/horror writer and H.P. Lovecraft contemporary Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote a 1912 poem with that title, although Lovecraft himself included a similar entity in his group of Outer Gods. Sabrina's version is a strange darkness (and accompanying sense of despair) called The Darkness that descends on Greendale and begins to spread—the first of eight Terrors called forth by Blackwood, each the focus of a separate episode. It takes both Sabrinas, plus the full coven, to defeat The Darkness.
Next up is The Uninvited, an entity that emerged during the creation of all things when he was turned away from a warm fire. Now he wanders through Greendale, knocking on doors, and ripping out the hearts of anyone who doesn't invite him into their homes (because they're heartless, get it?). It seems to be loosely based on Lovecraft's short story, "The Outsider." When The Uninvited crashes Aunt Hilda's wedding to Dr. Cerberus after being excluded from the festivities, the two Sabrinas defeat the entity through trickery. I honestly felt a little sorry for this Eldritch Terror, but you can't have a zombie-like figure ripping people's hearts out all over the place just because they failed to show a bit of hospitality.
The rest of the Terrors make their appearance one by one: The Weird—an octopus-like entity likely inspired by Lovecraft's most famous creation, Cthulhu—who is a parasite with a collective consciousness that takes over Sabrina's body; The Perverse, whose reality-warping powers are called forth by a gold imp statue (a nod to the Edgar Allan Poe short story, "The Imp of the Perverse"); The Cosmic, in which the various realms start to merge, with disastrous consequences; The Returned, in which departed loved ones return from the dead; The Endless, possibly inspired by the Lovecraftian deity Thasaidon; and finally, The Void, which existed at creation and will bring about the end of all things.
(Warning: major spoilers below the gallery. Stop now if you haven't finished the season.)
A traveling salesman of occult trinkets (James Urbaniak) arrives in Greendale.
Blackwood steals the Imp of the Perverse (Terror #4) and uses it to alter reality.
There's a strong Third Reich tone to this new alternate reality.
Even cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) is caught in the dark alternate reality.
As public enemy #1, Sabrina takes on a disguise.
Former Weird Sister Dorcas (Abigail Cowen) comes back from the dead thanks to the fifth Terror, The Returned.
Prudence comforts Agatha (Adeline Rudolph), a former Weird Sister driven mad by the pagan god Pan's flute last season.
Also back from the dead: a murderous 80s punk rock band called Satanic Panic.
The Fright Club might not fare well in a demonic battle of the bands
A prom queen murdered by Satanic Panic comes back to take revenge.
Blackwood bears the mark of Cain and can't be killed, but Prudence reduces him to a head on a plate.
Metratron, an angel from the Celestial Realm, warns that two Sabrinas is causing havoc as realms begin to collide—but we should also blame the Cosmic.
An attempt to merge the two Sabrinas is aborted.
Sabrina Spellman reunites with Nick.
Meanwhile, Sabrina Morningstar finds herself in an alternate reality where she is a supporting character on a sitcom.
Her familiar, Salem, is the "star"—and also the next Eldritch Terror, The Endless.
Aunt Zelda and Aunt Hilda are played here by Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick, who played the roles in the 1996 TV series.
Blackwood is the director on this nightmarish set.
Caliban relishes working in props, but still has time to flash those abs,
Ambrose does the dirty work of the Green Room, where fired cast members are sent.
Agatha and Prudence? Or harbingers of The Void?
Sabrina Morningstar demands to speak to the head writer.
Let's start with what worked this final season. The cast remains phenomenal, with everyone turning in exceptional performances despite being given some very silly material to work with at times. In particular, Michelle Gomez as Lilith/MadamSatan, and Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis as Aunt Zelda and Aunt Hilda, respectively, have long anchored the show, and continue to do so in S4. The aunts even get to play opposite their counterparts from the 1996 TV series, Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick, in the penultimate episode, "The Endless"—the aforementioned standout in the series,
In order to keep the realms from colliding, the two Sabrinas agree to inhabit separate realms. Sabrina Spellman remains in Greendale, while Sabrina Morrningstar goes through a mirror portal to a parallel universe, and finds herself on the set of a popular TV sitcom. The entire realm is comprised of the set, and everyone is in service to the star: Sabrina's feline familiar, Salem, aka The Endless. Sabrina's aunts are played by Rhea and Broderick, with Otto and Davis playing their understudies, reduced to sleeping under the beds of their counterparts at night.
The set is a nightmare realm of the longest-running sitcom in the universe, where people can be fired after three slight missteps, and sent to the "green room," never to return. The entire episode is deliciously meta and very clever about weaving in industry in-jokes and poking fun at the Netflix series' more ludicrous elements. Case in point: Sabrina Morningstar's former consort, Caliban (Sam Corlett), prefers to work backstage in props where he won't be so gratuitously objectified—and then proceeds to remove his shirt, because it's "his choice." But even The Endless will be wiped out by The Void, which soon arrives and consumes this alternate world. Sabrina Morningstar barely manages to escape, plunging through the mirror back to Greendale to warn Sabrina Spellman of the imminent threat. The effort costs her life. At least there's now only one Sabrina again.
As for the cons, did we really need a hellish "battle of the bands" where every cast member has to perform a pop song? That reeks of fan service and a rather crass marketing ploy. Some plot developments just seem like lazy writing: Mambo Marie (Skye Marshall), the Haitian voodoo witch who's romantically involved with Aunt Zelda, is actually Baron Samedi; Roz doesn't just have the Sight, she's been a witch all along; and Robin Goodfellow (Jonathan Whitesell) abandons Theo (Lachlan Watson) to return to the faerie realm, but then changes his mind and comes back. Don't even get me started on Lilith's baby. None of these developments seem to serve any real purpose, other than give the relevant characters something to do.
Furthermore, most of the Eldritch Terrors don't come off as particularly terrifying, perhaps because they are so easily defeated. These are supposed to be incredibly powerful, timeless entities. Yet we're supposed to believe that Sabrina and her pals can drum up sufficiently powerful spells and magical objects to counter each Terror, like they're some paltry second-tier demon. I mean, The Uninvited gets tricked into being imprisoned in Sabrina's enchanted childhood dollhouse. An Eldritch Terror should really be a little more savvy than that.
Sabrina finds herself in The Void.
Sabrina unleashes Pandora's Box in The Void.
Something is still not quite right as Sabrina Spellman (her soul now in Sabrina Morningside's body) turns 17.
Retrieving Sabrina Spellman's body and Pandora's Box from… somewhere.
Sabrina must expel The Void within her to save the day.
Theo and Robin man the ropes as Nick and Harvey rescue those sucked into The Void.
Alas, Sabrina does not survive the ritual.
Meanwhile, Lilith takes out Lucifer and becomes Queen of Hell, just like she's always wanted.
Two Sabrinas, two graves. Hilda and Zelda mourn their loss.
Nick joins Sabrina in the Sweet Hereafter. He did say they were "end game."
"The Endless" set up what should have been an equally sharply focused and emotionally powerful finale, particularly in light of Sabrina Morningstar's demise. Instead, the plotting flounders, reeling from one implausible moment to another and never quite meshing in a satisfying way. Unlike some fans, I have no issue with the controversial decision to kill off Sabrina Spellman as well; the character has been associated with reverse Christ-like imagery from the beginning, so of course Sabrina would end up sacrificing herself to save the world. A similar plot line worked spectacularly well in the S5 finale ("The Gift") of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Buffy sacrifices herself to save her sister (and the world).
But Sabrina's sacrifice just doesn't pack the same emotional punch. It feels rushed, like the writers were in a hurry to wrap things up, so we never really get to linger on the enormity of the loss and its impact on Sabrina's friends and family. There's a perfunctory funeral, and then we cut to Sabrina in the Sweet Hereafter, where she is soon joined by her boyfriend, Nick Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood), who went swimming in the "Sea of Sorrows" so he could be with her for eternity. Translation: he committed suicide because his girlfriend died. That's an oddly distasteful note on which to end.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has been a wild and crazy (if uneven) ride. As I've noted before, the show's strategy of throwing every mythological figure and literary trope into the mix and seeing what sticks, works more often than not—in large part because of the gifted cast. It's too bad that even such an amazing cast couldn't rescue the series finale.
The final season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is currently streaming on Netflix (along with all the preceding seasons).
Listing image by Netflix
The local politics of AirBNB's ban on DC rentals
Enlarge / Airbnb said it will refund guests who had booked stays in Washington next week and reimburse hosts for lost income.
Bonnie Jo Mount | Washington Post | Getty Images
On January 9—three days after supporters of President Trump started a riot at the US Capitol—Sean Evans decided it was time for action. Evans had seen a post on Nextdoor about neighbors running into hostile Trump supporters the night of the riot, leading to a verbal altercation that had left residents of his corner of Northwest DC on edge. Now, rumors flew online that the upcoming inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden would bring more protesters and more armed violence to the streets of his city. "I don't want them in my neighborhood," Evans thought to himself. In fact, he didn't want insurrectionists in the city at all.
So on Nextdoor, Evans asked his neighbors to stop renting out their properties via Airbnband VRBO. A few hours later, another neighbor devised a hashtag: #DontRentDC.
Separately, a group called ShutDownDC gathered 500 volunteers to message DC area Airbnb hosts. The group sent messages to the managers of 3,400 properties in the region—polite ones, according to ShutDownDC organizer Alex Dodd. The messages alerted the Airbnb hosts to an upcoming threat and asked them to please refrain from booking anyone in their homes in the days surrounding the inauguration.
It worked. On Wednesday, Airbnb said it would cancel and block all Washington area reservations next week. Guests who had booked reservations would be refunded; if hosts had reservations or had canceled them recently, they would be reimbursed for the lost income. Airbnb spokesperson Ben Breit said the company "came to this decision following dialog with Washington, DC, officials, the Metro police department, and members of Congress." (Earlier in the week, DC's mayor had asked people not to travel to the inauguration; many customary inaugural events will happen online.)
For Airbnb, the incident is a reminder that all its politics is local. The company, now publicly traded with a value of more than $100 billion, has made its reputation on selling visitors on neighborhood authenticity. But its business model has at times made it a lightning rod for local affairs, and left it scrambling to solve social ills. Airbnb has battled with local governments to allow short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods. It has tussled with local officials over taxes and data sharing. It has reshaped the economies of tiny vacation towns. It has tried to prevent big parties in rentals, which have sometimes led to violence. More recently, it has met with the ire of neighbors who don't want virus-stricken out-of-towners filling up their overloaded ICUs.
In DC this month, residents first tried to respond to insurrectionist violence themselves. Evans, the NextDoor organizer, believed it was easier that way. "I thought it would probably be more difficult for me to get Airbnb management to look at any email we sent them. So I thought, 'Let's try to do this from the ground up and contact neighbors within our vicinity.'" Most property owners he contacted were nice about it, he says. Some didn't know about the security threats surrounding the inauguration. Others asked, Why don't you get in touch with Airbnb about this?
On the other side of the equation, some Airbnb hosts were frustrated by the company's inaction in the days immediately following the insurrection. They had received messages from neighbors; they wanted to help. But they also didn't want to lose income during a recession. On Monday, Airbnb released a Capitol Safety Plan outlining additional reviews and booking requirements for guests in the DC area. Beyond that, renters were left to decide about letting out their properties themselves.
One Airbnb host, who asked not to be identified, has been renting the top floors of his home through Airbnb for a year. (DC regulations require homeowners to live on the property of their short-term rentals, though hosts say those rules often are ignored.) Right before Christmas, he approved a reservation for a group to stay in his apartment for what the renter called a "history sightseeing trip." On the morning of January 6, he noticed the group filing out the front door in Trump gear. When he saw what was happening at the Capitol, he was freaked out. He called the Airbnb emergency support line to seek advice, and the service agent promised to call him back. He left for a friend's because he didn't feel comfortable sticking around to find out who or what the renters would bring back.
Then, a 2021 twist: As the renters returned to his house ahead of the city's emergency 6 pm curfew, they gathered on the porch, activating the man's Ring camera. "I stormed the Capitol!" he could hear them brag to each other. Airbnb support didn't call back.
"Each host was basically on their own," the host says. After a potential renter canceled for inauguration week, he decided to pull the dates from Airbnb himself. Breit, the Airbnb spokesperson, says the company "apologizes that this case was not urgently escalated as it should have been when [the host] contacted our Community Support team." The host sent the Ring footage to the FBI, and Airbnb says the renter has been suspended pending an investigation.
This story originally appeared on wired.com.
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p0112 and p0237 same time bad ecm??
My son has a 2002 Ram 2500 HO 6 speed manual. About a week ago, the codes p0112 and p0237 showed up.We took off the Edge EZ otherwise the truck is stock.Cleaned the IAT sensor. Did not look that dirty.The MAC Scan tool (determinator) was unable to read the IAT or MAP voltages.Not sure if this is a limitation of the scan tool or an ECM problem.We cleared the codes but they return immediately when the ignition is on. We checked all the grounds and cleaned the battery terminals.The batteries were both at 12.7 volts.Measured resistance from the IAT gnd terminal on the connecter to engine block and got 0-0.1 ohms.So I think the grounds are ok. Measured the voltage of the IAT signal return wire while running and it was 1.6 volts. (1.35 not running).So I think the IAT sensor is ok. We did step 4 of the p0112 error code trouble shooting. 4. Using DVOM, measure resistance between IAT sensor harness connector terminals. If resistance is less than 100 ohms, repair short to sensor ground in IAT sensor signal circuit. If resistance is 100 ohms or greater, replace and program the ECM. See appropriate REMOVAL, OVERHAUL & INSTALLATION article.We got 6.8 kOhms. We removed the ECM and measured the resistance between pins 7 and 11 and got the same value. So we think the ECM is bad.Is there any other DVOM tests that can be done to ECM to determine if it is bad?Can Cummins test an ECM on the bench (removed from truck)?If it is the ECM, where is a good place to get another one?
The IAT sensor seems ok. Can a failed MAP sensor cause the ECM to report a low voltage on the IAT? We poked a straight pin into the signal wire on the IAT and measured the voltage while running.The voltage was 1.35 with engine not running and 1.6 to 1.7 idling.So we assumed that the sensor is working correctly. We measured the resistance from the IAT gnd to negative terminal on the driver battery and got virtually 0 ohms. Is this an adequate check? We have access to a shop (heated) on Saturdays. Currently the truck is in the parking lot without the ECM. I work near the St. Paul MN Cummins service center. Can Cummins verify the ECM is good or not? I was going to take it there and ask.Based on the step 4 test and that it appears that the IAT is working, we assumed that the ECM is bad. The p0237 test involve using a scan tool to view the MAP voltage. Which scan tool should be able to do this? We used a Fancy Snap-on one (Verus?) with a LCD display. It showed 0 volts for Intake Air and Boost (assuming that is the MAP). But we were not sure if the data was real or the scanner can not read it.
Do not deal with ECM Outlet he is a scam artist he screwed me out of 555.00 about5 months ago. He is still in bussiness it looks like. If you type in ecm outlet you will see this number 1-248-289-6063 tell everyone you know. I called the cops and they know all about him, why they dont bust him I have no clue.Call and ask for Jeff and see what he says, he could be going by Jeff or some other. Sometimes his girl friend answers.
Update Got new IAT and MAP sensor from Cummins.The new IAT sensor did not clear the P0112 code.The Map sensor was the wrong one. The one on the truck has a wider black connector and the one from cummins has a smaller gray connector. Was there a change in sensors? Cummins used the engine serial number to look up the parts.Going back to cummins to get the right sensor. Cleaned all the grounds. Checked all the wiring from the IAT and Map sensors to the ECM. No shorts or opens. So all the wiring is good. We did disconnected the coolant temp sensor to verify that the ECM would throw a code and that the scan tool could clear it. All that worked fine. We left the batteries disconnected over the weekend. Measured the voltage on them and they were both 12.6v. So the batteries seem good. We connected the new IAT sensor with the MAP sensor disconnected. Could not clear the IAT code.Would a bad or missing MAP sensor also throw a P0112 IAT low voltage code?What else could it be?
We measured the voltage on the IAT connector and it was 5 volts.So there is no short to ground. So the P0113 IAT sensor voltage high code should have been set. All the times we scaned and cleared codes, it has always been P0112 and P0237. The only other code we saw was the Coolant temp voltage high when we disconnected the coolant temp sensor. So it is looking like it is the ECM.Any recommedations on a ECM rebuilder? Or ones to avoid?


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Have you Heard? Online Dating Is Your Greatest Wager To Grow
That is off the back of Land Rover confirming that a few of its new models are actually topic to ready lists dating back over a yr. Moves upmarket – is it nonetheless good value? We additionally consider it's because there is still extra demand for brand spanking new electric autos than used ones. I have a few of her pants which I still wear. And even more, what is the suitable reward for the time period you've got been dating? Even the eliminations are insipid. It's awfully addicting for one thing that's not even that enjoyable, however there is tendency to get in your own head about it. Derren Martin, head of valuations at cap hpi told us: 'Everything has gone up in value in recent weeks. Each are what cap hpi discuss with as 'aspirational' vehicles with smaller production outputs, that means a second-hand premium tends to be more frequent.
Cap hpi says used values for a six-month outdated version is £12,908, whereas a brand new instance ordered will – on average – cost simply £11,843. Whereas his lockdown workouts were free to view, they clearly encouraged hundreds of followers to pay for his £14.99-a-month fitness app and splash out on his books. But Selena Gomez was seen having fun with a informal and comfortable moment with a pal whereas out and about in Los Angeles this Friday. Within the trio of photographs the Bajan singer wears a hunter inexperienced asymmetrical lace catsuit as she poses sprawled out in entrance of a flooring-to-ceiling window. If you aren't able to embrace the lace, you'll be able to head to our carousel for a method savvy selection of lower-out creations and green galore. The sociocultural context of dating violence and implications for apply and analysis are mentioned. Martin tells us that 12 months-outdated examples of aspirational models, just like the Porsches, Ford Mustang and Lamborghini Urus, are 'usually bubbling round' new automobile prices. When are used automobile prices more likely to drop?
Selena, Steve and Martin all play individuals who all stay in the same apartment constructing and are all very into true-crime. The musician began dating the reality star earlier this year, and he revealed how Kourtney satisfied him to overcome his concern of flying. The agency had appeared reluctant to regulate the new expertise for concern of hampering adoption of the probably life-saving programs. As Tesla is aware, the Safety Act imposes an obligation on manufacturers of motor vehicles and motorcar tools to initiate a recall by notifying NHTSA once they determine vehicles or tools they produced comprise defects related to motorized vehicle security,' the company said in its letter. The company stated the screens had been a safety defect as a result of backup cameras. These are thought-about 'over-the-air' (or 'over-the-web') updates that mitigate safety defects, the NHTSA said in its letter. In a separate special order despatched to Tesla, NHTSA says that the company may be taking steps to hinder the company's entry to security info by requiring drivers who are testing 'Full Self-Driving' software program to sign non-disclosure agreements.
The duo – whose birthdays are mere days other than each other in July- had each publicly celebrated collectively and penned tributes. With a nationwide scarcity leading to supermarket shelves being naked and petrol stations working dry, drivers with an HGV licence can earn as much as £70,000 for other organisations. With the Covid-19 outbreak forcing car factories to close down for at the least six weeks from March 2020 – and a subsequent scarcity of laptop chips ever since – order books are bursting on the seams and delivery schedules, in some cases, have prolonged to over 12 months. A by no means before seen spike in used values in current months is the result of an ongoing laptop chip scarcity which has limited new automobile production and significantly pushed again delivery schedules for some of the latest fashions. She has advised hungry customers that manufacturing of bespoke celebration cakes has stalled and she will sell only smaller items, such as cupcakes. Just 1,315 F40s had been constructed during a four-year production run from 1988 to 1992, all of which have been left-hand drive and finished in the same red paint scheme when they left the manufacturing unit.
Dating Site Guide To Communicating Value
The most effective 5 Examples Of Dating


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Adrienne Cutway, Web Editor
Lauren Cervantes, Reporter
Published: September 26, 2019, 6:52 pm
Tags: Local, Orange County, News, Education, Editors Pick
Orlando police can't release video of 6-year-old girl's arrest
School, arrest report provide conflicting information
ORLANDO, Fla. – Although there is bodycam video showing a 6-year-old girl being arrested after a temper tantrum at school, Orlando Police Department officials said they can't release it to the public.
Wanda Miglio, a spokeswoman for Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon, said student privacy issues prevent the department from releasing video showing Kaia Rolle's arrest at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy on Sept. 19.
Miglio wouldn't comment on whether the department reviewed the video before firing school resource officer Dennis Turner or to determine whether school officials wanted the child to be handcuffed.
Turner wrote in Kaia's arrest report that Beverly Stoute, whom he identified as an assistant principal, was the victim in the case and she wanted to press charges because Kaia kicked her on the legs and punched her arms several times.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Orlando charter school clarified that Stoute is actually a support staffer. A statement attributed to her and kindergarten teacher, LaTrice Smith, claims that they did not want to see Kaia taken into custody.
"We care about the well-being of our students. The officer's statements are inaccurate. We did not ask for either student to be arrested neither did we want to pursue criminal charges," the statement read.
Kaia was one of two students arrested at the school that day on unrelated misdemeanor battery charges. Details of the circumstances of the 6-year-old boy's arrest have not been released.
Meralyn Kirkland said her granddaughter's temper tantrum was a result of a sleep disorder. She was shocked when she heard about the arrest.
[READ: Grandmother outraged over child's arrest | Video shows officer who arrested children repeatedly tasing man]
"How do you do that to a 6-year-old child and because she kicked somebody?" Kirkland asked.
Although Kaia was fingerprinted and had her mugshot taken, State Attorney Aramis Ayala announced Monday that neither child would be prosecuted and she'd do everything in her power to get the arrests removed from their records in a timely fashion.
Hours later, Rolon said Turner had been fired for violating department policy, which requires an officer to get permission from a watch commander before arresting anyone under 12.
Adrienne Cutway
Adrienne Cutway joined News 6's digital team in October 2016 to cover breaking news, crime and community interest stories. She graduated from the University of Central Florida and began her journalism career at the Orlando Sentinel.
Lauren Cervantes
Lauren Cervantes was born and raised in the Midwest but calls Florida her second home. She joined News 6 in August 2019 as a reporter.


Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ): 200 pcs per style for a maximum of 3 colours, without modifications. As for custom made or modified styles, 600 pcs per style is required. MOQ per order is 4,500 pcs.
Prices: FOB HK on full container basis. LCL charges have to be imposed on top of the quotation in cases when order are less then a full container load. Quotations are valid for 30 days and may subsequently subject to changes without prior notice. An additional 3% discount is only possible for quantities above 600 pcs per style.
Payment: confirmation deposit is 30% of the total value by T/T. Balance 70% is payable 7 days before shipment.
Samples: all ready samples are chargeable 100% of the retailing prices. Pre-production samples, salesman samples and new samples can be arranged at US$20 each.
However, the sampling charges will be refunded in full when order is placed for the particular styles.
Delivery: 60 days upon receipt of confirmation deposit. Earlier delivery may be arranged with additional charges.
Other charges: unless otherwise stated, prices quoted include standard export packaging but exclude setup charges for logo, hang tag printing and special packing requirements.


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Q: Manually registering other microservices in Eureka from a Spring Boot Application I'd like to build a Spring Boot application to register several microservices with Eureka, so my app would act as an external register. I can find tons of examples about self-registration (with application.yml config + @EnableEurekaClient) but nothing specifically about 3rd party registration and spring boot. I'm wondering if I could use @EnableEurekaClient and eureka.client.registerWithEureka=false and then injecting some spring bean to access Eureka Registry (maybe an instance of org.springframework.cloud.netflix.eureka.serviceregistry.EurekaServiceRegistry).
Any help with this? Thanks in advance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This paper analyzes the effect of market transparency on firm value and social surplus.
I investigate the incentives of large investors to publicly disclose their economic interests, as well as to monitor management. I find that when markets are sufficiently liquid, large investors will tend to forgo share ownership in favor of "hidden ownership" - alternative forms of economic exposure not subject to disclosure regulations. The resulting uncertainty regarding the extent of investor exposure to firm performance can better align management's incentives with shareholder interests, thereby increasing firm value and social surplus, even when management displays risk neutral preferences. A transparent market may therefore become a liability from both the shareholder and social planner perspectives.
Shashua, Roy, "Hidden Ownership, Monitoring, and the Value of the Firm" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 798.


http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The other morning my family and I ogled a beautiful one-day-old infant girl featured on Fox News as the 300 millionth American. She was so cute that we were prompted to dig out pictures of our own kids as babies.
"[T]he nation's population will reach the historic milestone of 300 million on Oct. 17 at about 7:46 a.m. (EDT) . . . "
The estimate is based on the expectation that the United States will register one birth every seven seconds and one death every 13 seconds, while net international migration is expected to add one person every 31 seconds. The result is an increase in the total population of one person every 11 seconds.
In other words, we have no idea who the magic 300 millionth person may be. It could be a new immigrant, or it might be the blinking, yawning little wonder we watched on the news. Statistics can be misleading. Recall the politician who, when told that overpopulation in Mexico was so extreme because "every 60 seconds, a woman gives birth," declared, "We've got to find that woman and stop her!"
Some news outlets greeted the advent of the 300 millionth American with anxiety. There were worried references to pollution and scarce resources, sprawl and crowded classrooms. The same headlines could have greeted the 200 million milestone passed in 1967 — and that's about how up to date those analyses are.
In fact, there are many more reasons to celebrate our fecundity than to lament it. Let's step back and look at the rest of the developed world.
In the 1980s, we were instructed that Japan's economic juggernaut would overwhelm us in short order. But today, Japan, like so many wealthy, developed nations, is failing to reproduce. Japan's birth rate is among the lowest in the industrialized world, and its rate of decline is the fastest. The graying sumo, now weighing in at 127.7 million (Asia Times), is expected to shrink in half in 70 years. Absent immigration (and the Japanese have never been keen on that), younger workers will face punishing tax rates to support the swollen ranks of retirees.
In Europe, fertility rates are similar. A replacement birth rate is 2.1 children per woman. As Mark Steyn points out in his droll but devastating book "America Alone" (Chapter One: "The Gelded Age"), a number of countries in Europe (Greece: 1.3, Italy: 1.2, Spain: 1.1, Russia: 1.14, United Kingdom: 1.6) have fertility rates "from which no human society has ever recovered."
"[N]o fewer than 26 percent of British Muslims feel no loyalty to Britain, 13 percent defended terrorism and up to 1 percent were 'actively engaged' in terrorist activity. . . . This last number . . . added up to at least 16 thousand terrorists or terrorist supporters among British Muslims."
The average fertility rate for Muslim women in Europe is 3.5 children. For non-Muslims, the rate is 1.4. If present fertility rates among ethnic Europeans and Muslim immigrants continue for another decade or so, Europe as we have known it will be gone by mid-century. This time, Muamar Gaddafi got it right: "There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe — without swords, without guns, without conquests. The 50 million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades."
America's growth is a sign of economic, spiritual and psychic vigor. Sure we have immigration problems to sort out, but the alternative to expansion, as we are witnessing elsewhere in the world, is oblivion — or worse.


time sipping my dripping eyes from Lucas Swick on Vimeo.
My amazing wife was out of town for a few days, so I decided to put the time to good use and make my first video. I recorded the song on Monday, filmed it Tuesday, and edited it Wednesday and Thursday, with final color grading on Inspiration Friday, a generous day we have at work to play with non-client-related goodness like video. Or egg-bots.
The song is a remix of something I wrote more than ten years ago. Now that I've started using Logic in my workflow, I'm able to more closely attain the sound that I hear in my head, especially when combined with Audio Damage plugins and drum loops from Standard Beat Company. Much of what you hear percussively would not have been possible without those two. That, and the sort of glee that one encounters at 3:00 in the morning when a song comes together.
Visually, the trickiest part of making the video was that I had roughly storyboarded the shot list without realizing I'd have no one to move the camera for any of the panned shots. Instead, I set up cineskates on my table. Because it's not quite level, I was able to sort of tap the cineskates to start the motion before quickly positioning myself for the shots. I 'built' a braking system by stacking pieces of paper on top of each other - enough to slowly decelerate the camera. I hoped, especially with the shots where my eyes are closed, that the camera didn't roll off the table. It took a while before I had the right focus on the lens and path for the camera to follow, but I was immensely pleased with the shots that did work out.
Once I had the shots filmed, I used Lightroom to correct for exposure. I was a little disappointed that even while using my lights on full blast, I had to stop pretty low while shooting at 30fps. It made getting the focus right a little challenging while shooting at f2.0 or lower with my 50mm prime, but fortunately Lightroom is super good at boosting exposure, and footage that I would normally consider barely usable because of how dimm it is turned out to be quite salvageable.
I then used Premiere to bring in the shots. I haven't used Premiere since a class in 2001, and was pleased that the learning curve was not steep at all. In really no time at all I had a rough edit, but did spend a few more nights tweaking the footage, rearranging clips, and filming an extra shot or two.
I've been very pleased with the feedback and had a lot of fun doing it. I have a few ideas for some other videos, and a new confidence that, indeed, I can make these. It's pretty amazing to think about the technology that we have available to us, how a single person can now record a song and produce a video for it. I have a long way to go and a lot to learn still, but it feels really good to be doing something.
What should I shoot next Inspiration Friday?
Watch the video on Vimeo, and download the track from SoundCloud.


Join us for an exclusive pre-release of "Bridge Of Spies" starring Tom Hanks!
– BRIDGE OF SPIES brings to life the remarkable story of one man who risked it all in an effort to save the world from the brink of destruction.
– BRIDGE OF SPIES is a thrilling untold story inspired by real events and real life hero James B Donovan.
Join us for this exclusive release BEFORE the official release to the public & help raise funds for Rotary's "End Polio" campaign.
Tom Hanks stars in Steven Spielberg's BRIDGE OF SPIES, which is the story of James Donovan, an attorney who finds himself thrust into the centre of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible mission to renegotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.
Directed by multiple Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg, written by multiple Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen and starring multiple Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, BRIDGE OF SPIES is a must see thrilled inspired by true historical events.
Come join us and help Camden Rotary Club raise funds for the End Polio campaign.


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10 Death Tax Myths
by Matt Cunningham
I should simply spend all of my estate rather than giving it to my heirs, since the death tax will take it all
There's no need to spend every bit of your estate -- leave what you can for the next generation!
Goodshoot/Thinkstock
This is a self-defeating myth for two reasons.
First, the 2010 Tax Act limited the maximum estate tax, which is imposed on the largest estates, to 35 percent. That can be a sizeable amount of wealth to pay to the government, but it's far less than the 55 percent maximum that the new tax law prevented [source: Herpe].
Second, the entirety of a granter's estate doesn't necessarily have to be taxed through the estate tax. If the estate is small enough (equal to or less than $5 million per taxpayer in 2011), it receives an exemption from the IRS. This allows many taxpayers to avoid the estate tax. Furthermore, gifts to charitable organizations, retirement accounts left to spouses and wealth transferred to family as a gift all fall under individual nuances of the tax code. They may be taxed differently and at different times. By planning the divestment of your estate to include these items, you may be able to reduce significantly the burden on your heirs [source: Mayerhoff].
For more information on the death tax and related taxes, check out the links below.
How Inheritance Tax Works
How Real Estate Property Taxes Work
How Personal Property Taxes Work
How Tax Deductions Work
How Federal Taxes Work
American Family and Business Institute. "What is the Death Tax?" 2009. (Jan. 20, 2011)http://www.nodeathtax.org/deathtax
Combs, Susan. "Texas Taxes: Inheritance Tax." Window on State Government. (Jan. 22, 2011) http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/inherit/
Herpe, David A. et al. "Wealth Transfer Planning Considerations for 2011 and 2012." McDermott Will & Emery. Jan. 20, 2011. (Jan. 22, 2011) http://www.mwe.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/publications.nldetail/object_id/9e8952ff-a1f5-4fa8-99bb-f5e9a9b9f266.cfm
IRS. "Estate and Gift Taxes." June 22, 2010. (Jan. 11, 2011) http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98968,00.html
IRS. "Forms and Publications." Jan. 21, 2011. (Jan. 22, 2011) http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html
IRS. "Introduction to Estate and Gift Taxes." Dec. 14, 2009. (Jan 22, 2011)http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p950.pdf
Jacobson, Darien B. et al. "The Estate Tax: Ninety Years and Counting." IRS. June 18, 2008. (Jan. 11, 2011)www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/ninetyestate.pdf
Mayerhoff, Gerald L. "Giving Foundation: Minimizing the Inherited Income Tax." Baptist Health South Florida. Feb. 6, 2004. (Jan. 22, 2011)http://www.baptisthealth.net/en/giving/Pages/Minimizing-the-Inherited-IncomeTax.aspx
Money-Zine.com. "Federal Inheritance Tax." (Jan. 22, 2011) http://www.money-zine.com/Financial-Planning/Tax-Shelter/Federal-Inheritance-Tax/
Oregon Department of Revenue. "Inheritance Tax." Oregon.gov. Aug. 31, 2010. (Jan. 22, 2011)http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/inher-general.shtml
Pacific Life. "Estate Tax Exemption Amount." December 2010. (Jan. 22, 2010) http://www.pacificlife.com/Channel/Educational+Information/Estate+Planning+Concepts/Estate+Tax+Exemption+Amount.htm
Policy and Taxation Group. "Horror Stories & Articles." 2009. (Jan. 20, 2011)http://www.policyandtaxationgroup.com/html/stories.html
Retirement Living Information Center. "Taxes by State." January 2011. (Jan. 22, 2011)
http://retirementliving.com/RLtaxes.html
Schwab, Carol A. "Planning Your Estate: Estate and Gift Taxes." North Carolina Bar Association. October 2001. (Jan. 19, 2011) http://www.ncbar.org/download/planningYourEstate/taxes.html
How the IRS Works
The IRS or Internal Revenue Service handles taxes. Learn about the history of the IRS and how it enforces taxes.
10 Tips for Getting the Biggest Tax Refund
What Happened to the Income Tax Personal Exemption?
What You Can Do Now to Get the Most from the New Tax Law


Data Analyst, SQL programming, dashboard development, Python programming, C programming, real-time programming, speech recognition software development, instructional design reporting development. Linux, Mac and Windows environments. Cybersecurity consulting.
Del Rey Analytics provides consulting services in health informatics and health cyber security. In addition, we are developing an integrated medical simulation environment to capture specific training events (such as using an ultrasound wand) and integrate it with a learning record store (LRS). We are also developing a speech recognition service that allows emergency medical technicians (EMT) to use hands free cell phone services en route to the emergency room. This product uses the Attention Word concept to allow the EMT to stop and start the communications without touching the mobile device.