text:
David Fitzpatrick, 31, stands on the patio he built in front of his small home at Lot42 in Kitchener.
Residents move from tents into cabins at Kitchener's newest settlement for the homeless
'I don't have to worry about getting robbed,' says one resident at the site, which has been named 'A Better Tent City'
By Laura BoothRecord Reporter
Sun., June 14, 2020timer3 min. read
updateArticle was updated Jun. 15, 2020
KITCHENER — Behind the industrial Lot42 event space on Ardelt Place, tucked away from sight of the street, is the newest settlement for the homeless.
Until recently it was just tents. But now, one-room cabins are arranged in a semicircle in the gravel courtyard.
David Fitzpatrick, 31, has moved into one of them.
He's already added some homey touches including a stone patio he built at his front entrance.
"I've done a lot of trades," he explained.
Inside, he has a guitar hanging on a wall next to an old, framed painting of a ship. He has furniture to sit and sleep on, a TV and other personal items.
"I like that it has a lock on the door," he said of his cabin. "It's safer. (I) don't have to worry about getting robbed in the middle of the night."
That's a welcome relief after living on and off the street for the past year, he said.
Fitzpatrick is one of about 20 who are staying at the site.
"A better tent city" is the name for a new kind of settlement for the homeless. It caters to people who live unsheltered and can't or won't access the formal shelter system. It was inspired by Ron Doyle, who owns the property where the cabins are sitting.
Also behind the project is Jeff Willmer, a former city planner and former chief administrative officer of the City of Kitchener, and Udanapher (Nadine) Green.
Green used to operate a convenience store in downtown Kitchener where she also offered people living homeless a place to sleep and eat. She was evicted earlier this year and now has a cabin at the settlement.
Green has become the informal leader of the community. She brings people to the site who need shelter, she ushers people to appointments and has set the general rules and tone for the community.
"Whenever I'm not here ... I miss it here; it's home," she said.
The group has been able to raise $45,000 through community fundraising for the project and has also secured a grant, said Willmer.
Part of the funds went to purchase 12 cabins, which were delivered over the past several weeks.
"Each one has a lockable door and two windows and it really gives each person, or each couple, a safe place to sleep and store their belongings," said Willmer.
The cabins don't have electricity or plumbing, but will soon be finished with vinyl flooring, beds, insulation and wall boards.
Residents can access Lot42's internet and can charge electronics in the building as well as use washrooms and kitchen facilities.
"The first thing that strikes everybody is how tranquil it is," Willmer said of the community. "It's neat and orderly and people are sort of going about their business and doing their laundry and cleaning."
Businesses and individuals have offered donations and discounts. New mattresses were donated, a washer and dryer, toothbrushes, and more.
Doyle is planning more improvements to the site: a fence around the community to create a formal entrance, flower pots and an art project that would involve painting the laundry room trailer.
"We have what used to be a mobile home — a house trailer — that was completely stripped down and refurbished as a laundry room with a washer and dryer and two showers," said Willmer.
"Those are up and running now and the people feel great about it because they can take a nice hot shower."
Willmer expects the cabins to remain at the property at least through next winter, but the community could relocate if a better site becomes available.
Laura Booth is a Waterloo Region-based general assignment reporter for the Record. Reach her via email: lbooth@therecord.com


About a month ago I signed up for Susie Burrell's Shape Me weight loss meal planning service. I was hoping to find a program that I could recommend to my clients (they had been asking long enough).
I kept it quiet because I am a natural sceptic and I wanted to completely check it out first. My plan was that if I didn't love any part of the program, I would just keep silent about the whole thing and keep on with my search.
To be totally honest that is exactly what I thought would happen. I have tried and failed many times before to find a great service to recommend and I believed this would be the same old thing.
I think you can tell (due to the fact that you are reading this now) that I LOVE the program. It is everything I was hoping it would be and more.
Very user friendly. I am not techy at all and I had no problem navigating my way around.
A Swap this meal function. Don't feel like the beef stir-fry for dinner tonight? No problem, you can swap it with 100's of other choices at the click of a button.
I love this so much. No need to be absolutely perfect in order to achieve realistic weight loss results. Having some quick and convenient take away options is priceless. My lunch today was 2 chicken skewers and a greek salad from my local take way shop. Sweeeeet.
Dietary preferences. You can customise the plan for Gluten free, vegetarian, insulin resistance, egg free, dairy free, nut free, vegan, low FODMAPS. I ticked the plan for insulin resistance. I believe that we should all be eating to manage our blood sugar levels whether we have IR or not.
You can ask Susie a question at any time. I did this a couple of times and received a personal answer back within 24 hours.
Daily emails to keep the plan front of mind. I loved these, they were short and simple with some fit tips and advice too. But if daily emails are not your thing, you can change that too.
Easy to print out meal plans and individual recipes.
Normal family meals like cheesy lamb cutlets (to die for), sausages with mash, fish and chips, just to name a few.
Simple and easy to make recipes. No weird ingredients that you have never heard of.
You can print off shopping lists. I never got around to being that organised, but the option is there for those of you who are.
You can pick your start date. If you sign up but you are not quite ready to start, you can choose a date in the future so that you have some time to get organised prior.
Those of you who know me, know that I am big on teaching the WHY of fitness and fat loss, not just the HOW. There could have been a few more lessons on the WHY in my personal opinion. But as stated above I am being very picky. Susie has 100's of blog posts on her site, it could have been helpful if some of those were included in the daily email prompts. Of course you could always check out any number of my free articles too.
Maybe starting with THIS ONE – How to lose weight. A step by step guide.
There is a community forum aspect included in the program. However, as previously mentioned, I am not techy at all and I didn't love or use this forum. I like a Facebook group personally, but each to their own. Just my personal opinion.
Shape Me, a weight loss meal planning service that can be tailored just for you.
Did I mention the discount?
Susie has been kind enough to offer my clients a $10 discount on the service. Normally $99 for 30 days of meal plans, but $89 for us (YAY).
Honestly this is a bargain in my opinion. If you struggle with what foods and meals to include in your weight loss plan, then this is just what you need and more.
What are you waiting for? Join the meal planning service and start losing weight today.
She quickly went on to become qualified and registered as a Master Trainer with Fitness Australia. Chriss has now helped 1000's of people transform their bodies and lives.
She now runs regular face to face and online fat loss coaching programs.


Sriracha (pronounced SIR-rotch-ah) bitters by Brooklyn Hemispherical Bitters. A bit spendy, at $12.95 for 4 oz., the flavor is true to the beloved "rooster sauce".
I opted for the recipe printed on the back label of the bottle: Srirazerac. Step 1 is to coat a rocks glass with Absinthe.
In a stirring glass with ice, I added 2 1/2 oz. rye (I used McKenzie). This is 1 teaspoon of simple syrup going in. Next was 2 dashes Peychaud's, followed by 2 dashes Sriracha Bitters. The dropper in the bottle yields less than a dash would, so that, combined with how spicy you'd like your drink, should dictate how much you add.
The finished cocktail, garnished with a lemon peel and a few additional drops of Sriracha Bitters. It's not terribly complex, but I really like rye, so I'm not the best judge in this instance. The best part is the finish - an intense, yet pleasant heat creeps up on you. These bitters are definitely worth experimenting with. Stay tuned.


Recreational/commuter bike with a comfortable, upright riding position. 700c wheels and a lightweight aluminum frame. 21 speeds with a Shimano Tourney rear derailleur.
Recreational/commuter bike with a comfortable, upright riding position. 700c wheels and a lightweight aluminum frame. 21 speeds with a Shimano Tourney rear derailleur. Alloy rims; alloy quick release seat clamp; linear pull brakes. Rear rack and fenders.


text:
Abdullah bin Bijad Al Otaibi / AlHashishi (Arabic: عبد الله بن بجاد العتيبي    ) is a Saudi writer and researcher, is a member of the board of advisors at Al Mesbar Studies and Research Centre. Al Otaibi has written for many Arabic and Saudi newspapers such as Al Ittihad, Okaz, and Al Hayat (London). He currently contributes a weekly article to Asharq Al-Awsat, Al Ittihad, and Al Majalla. He has published several research papers for Al Mesbara's monthly publication including "Loyalty and Enmity: the Ideology of the Political Opposition in Islam" and "Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood". Al Otibi works as a consultant at The Middle East Broadcasting Center Group and has also worked on and supervised various media documentaries and programs for Al Arabia Channel.

On 9 March 2008, Wahhabi cleric Sheikh Abdurrahman Al-Baraak issued a fatwa calling for his prosecution or for him to be "killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam".

References

Living people
Saudi Arabian journalists
Saudi Arabian writers
Year of birth missing (living people)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Aberdeen City, Featured, Opinion 3 Responses »
As seen in our earlier article https://aberdeenvoice.com/2021/02/acc-taxi-driver-grant-handling-to-be-investigated/ , central government is giving £1500 one-off grants to eligible taxi drivers who have lost trade during lockdowns.
Edinburgh, Glasgow and other cities are distributing the funds to drivers who answer a series of questions online, submit ID, and supply bank account and sort code details.
In Aberdeen, things are not quite so straightforward.
Aberdeen City Council's handling of the grant is being reviewed by central government and data protection agencies following Aberdeen Voice's investigations.
Drivers here are told they can only apply electronically, must open a user account on the city's website to access the application, and must submit a bank's official statement showing a month's worth of transactions.
A central government spokeswoman said:
"The requirement for the bank details is an SG condition but that is just literally account number and sort code so people can be paid into their account. Our guidance states that drivers must provide bank account details and local authorities can request appropriate additional evidence to determine eligibility."
As a Glasgow city council spokesman we contacted added:
"The webpage doesn't say that transactions within the account have to be shown, only the name, address, account number and sort code. A bank statement with redacted transactions is therefore acceptable."
A spokeswoman from the Information Commissioner's office said unofficially that she would redact transactions if asked for a statement.
ACC will neither back down from nor explain its position. The type of statement an account holder can print off themselves is not accepted; the bank must issue an official statement to satisfy ACC.
Should anyone think it is not a big deal to hand a month's worth of financial transactions over to ACC, AV is pleased to remind readers that in 2018 ACC was investigated for a massive data breach when it sent personal details such as salary and NI numbers to third parties.
In 2019, it was reported by Jon Hebditch of the Press & Journal that the city's computers were hacked no fewer than 15 MILLION TIMES.
Why does ACC need to see what a driver is buying and where they are spending their money?
A driver approached us who sent in their unredacted bank details and they advise they have had two attempted identity thefts following their application. Of course, this may be wholly coincidental, but it highlights the need for privacy.
Many banks, mobile companies, credit card companies will sometimes ask for details of a previous transaction in order to verify the identity of a phone caller. Anyone who gets hold of a bank statement can make an identity theft bid.
Data protection laws say personal data must not be collected unless it is required for a specific transaction, and must be destroyed once it is no longer needed. Once a driver proves who they are, their eligibility and their bank name, account number and sort code, there is no need for that driver's financial transactions to be seen by anyone.
The question is, why does Aberdeen City Council think knowing a driver's bank transactions is any of their business or relevant for issuing a grant once the driver establishes identity and eligibility?
Many drivers are understandably unhappy then that ACC wants sight of the applicant's individual bank transactions. Derek Davidson told AV:
"I wasn't aware transactions could be redacted. My understanding was that if you did this it could affect your claim being processed."
Who in ACC will see this data and whether or not it will be destroyed as soon as it is no longer needed are unclear.
What is clear is that ACC does not need to see any personal transaction details to pay people money they are due. AV is trying to get the council to remove this intrusive, potentially illegal invasion of privacy.
After several attempts by AV to get ACC to explain its invasive requirement, we have received a list of rules and regulations, and an assertion that central government did not specify how to handle the roll out.
The city was asked if it will now follow Glasgow's example (other councils allow redaction too, we understand) and let drivers conceal their individual bank transactions. No answer to this simple question was offered.
If the city does reverse its policy, we will advise. However, as ACC is dragging its feet since it was first approached, and we know drivers are in great need of the money, it may well come too late.
An Information Commission Office spokeswoman commented:
"As mentioned we can't give a judgement before knowing the full facts and being able to establish formally what information the council wants, how it is being used, what their privacy policy states etc. If someone complains to us then we would look at the detail and possibly make further enquiries if necessary.
"As per our statement, if people are concerned about how their personal data is used they can raise it with ACC and then the ICO."
We urge anyone with data protection issues to issue a complaint both to ACC and the Information Commissioner – here is the link again to their complaints procedure: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/, and here is ACC's chief executive's email address: chiefexecutive@aberdeencity.gov.uk
AV will be happy to hear from anyone impacted by the issues arising.
Aberdeen Voice maintains that the city's press office has the ability to check with every department, and could have learned more about the issue if it needed to.
We will try to find out why it chose not to do so and why it is choosing to doubt AV's story.
Posted by Suzanne at Aberdeen Voice at 11:05	Tagged with: Aberdeen, Central, City, Council, Delay, Driver, Government, Grant, Payment, Public, Scottish, Taxi, Transport
Many area taxi drivers are suffering.
Not only has lock down stopped most of the journeys people would have made, but the city's draconian and Byzantine laws, which stopped city businesses making and receiving deliveries and which created arcane one-way traffic systems, prevented people from making swift in-and-out taxi journeys to buy essentials.
Now the city seems to be fumbling on a new front.
The Scottish Government recently announced a scheme to help with £1500 one-off grants.
The central government website says:
"If you are eligible for a grant your local authority will get in touch with you, starting from week commencing 18 January 2021. You do not need to contact them."
Derek Davidson, 57, of Bridge of Don, has been a driver for 21 years. Mr Davidson told Aberdeen Voice:
"The grant will help drivers pay fixed costs such as car loans and insurance which were not included in the grants given by the U.K. government. The Scottish government were clear that these grants would be administered by the council and paid out by the 31st January."
Three key points from the Scottish government website are: that an applicant's council will need your bank details, that the scheme started week commencing 18 January, and that correspondence can be by phone, email or letter.
An Aberdeen City Council told Aberdeen Voice otherwise, claiming:
* the scheme only started on 26 January.
* an official bank statement be supplied – despite a driver's private financial transactions having nothing to do with their eligibility. A print out from logging into your account is not acceptable.
Applicants should not need to supply more than their bank name, sort code and account number once they have proved they are eligible and submitted ID.
This official bank statement requirement will also delay payments while applicants write to their bank to get an official statement (many banks convinced customers to opt out of paper statements long ago for environmental and cost-saving reasons).
ACC demands that all correspondence be handled electronically.
As Mr Davidson points out – not everyone has email and not everyone has a home computer.
Once an applicant gets the official statement from their bank, they apparently need to scan it to comply with ACC's email only directive.
ACC seems to require drivers to open an account on the city's website before they can even access the application form.
(NB The Scottish Information Commissioner is looking into ACC's attempts to make FOI requesters sign up – those who want to make requests should insist on the freedom not to sign up, and/or use the website whatdotheyknow.com to lodge FOI requests.)
This extra layer of unnecessary bureaucracy will mean every time a user is logged in, a trail of what they have accessed on the ACC website will come to exist.
Not everyone who does FOI requests or who wants to apply for a grant they deserve wants ACC to be able to know what they are looking at for instance. There is no legal requirement on those who want to correspond and do business by letter to fall in line with ACC.
If, as some correspondence sent to drivers indicates, avoiding paper, letters is somehow a Covid-19 safety measure, then surely school teachers and staff must not touch any paper either.
Mr Davidson said:
"I'm not sure why the council would need to see the drivers' bank statements as it is an invasion of privacy in my opinion. All they needed was our sort codes an account numbers. It is also wrong that people are excluded if they don't have an email address.
"The council undertook to administer the grants and should have had adequate procedures in place to ensure every driver was included. I'd be interested to know what happens to any unclaimed money.
In terms of eligibility, our tax records show we have been paying our way as taxi drivers and that should have been all the proof they needed for distribution of the grants."
Central government advises it will look at how ACC is handling the administration of this grant.
ACC doubled-down when AV requested clarification on why they seem to diverge from the central government's information on the grant. A spokesman said:
"The terms agreed through Cosla and SLAED is for all Local Authorities to administer the funds through an online application process – every local authority has done so.
"The application form was published on the council website on 26 January [2021] and we contacted drivers the same day.
"Local authorities are required to be assured of the validity of any supporting information requested in determining eligibility for a grant.
"Every local authority requires details of the applicant's bank statements to verify this is a legitimate applicant and not a third party using the licence and name of a driver. The Council has a privacy notice for the data handling process in respect to the scheme which is published on the website."
AV will update further once central government advises. We will be happy to hear from any drivers who are impacted.
Classic Cars Return For Jaguar Showcase
Aberdeenshire, Information No Responses »
With thanks to Eoin Smith, Senior Account Executive, Tricker PR
The Jaguar Classic Show returns to Drum Castle on 30 July.
The annual Jaguar Classic Show returns to the National Trust for Scotland's Drum Castle for the eighteenth time this July, and is sure to delight motoring enthusiasts across the north east of Scotland. The castle's expansive south lawn will become home to some of the finest examples of Jaguar engineering and design in the country, courtesy of the Grampian arm of the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club.
This year the JEC will also be showcasing classic Daimler vehicles, which became part of the Jaguar family after the brand was bought in the early 1960s.
The motoring showcase will also feature performances by Inverurie Pipe Band and a raffle, with every penny raised going towards charity Friends of Anchor.
Entry to this popular event costs £4 for adults or £2 for concessions. Booking is not required, and National Trust for Scotland and National Trust members go free.
Visit www.nts.org.uk/Event/20013516345/jaguarclassicshow for more information.
For more information about summer events at Drum Castle, Garden & Estate – and other National Trust for Scotland properties – visit www.nts.org.uk
Event: Jaguar Classic Show at Drum Castle
Date: Sunday 30 July 2017
Time: 12noon-4.00pm
Venue: Drum Castle, Garden & Estate,
Drumoak, By Banchory,
Aberdeenshire,
AB31 5EY
Posted by Editor at 22:47	Tagged with: Car, Castle, Classic, Drum, Jagual, National, Scotland, Transport, Trust, Vehicles
Uk Enduro/Trails Champion Hits Technology Trail
With thanks to Karen Stewart.
Ex Scottish and UK Enduro/Trails Champion Gavin Johnston is gearing up to expand his innovative digital tourism solution UrPal into Glasgow and Edinburgh this April.
UrPal is a unique mobile application to Scotland having already been successful in Inverness with 7,000 users and recently launched in Aberdeen.
The app fills a gap in the market for both tourists and locals alike, giving them comprehensive up to the minute information at their fingertips on everything happening in an area including entertainment, eating out and in, tours, attractions, fitness, accommodation, activities, shops, health, transport and current news.
As well as being valued by users who access the app for free, UrPal is also a valuable source of promotion to local businesses and organisations, statistics say that 70% of online users now use mobile devices to access the web so it's crucial that businesses are visible on such platforms. Visitors to Scotland are reported to have increased to 15 million annually and UrPal is ideally positioned to serve the growing digital tourism marketplace.
Gavin along with his partner Caren the founders of UrPal met almost 4 years ago in Romania, Gavin had been competing in the Redbull Romaniacs World Extreme Enduro Championship and Caren at the time was travelling for her work in architecture. The couple have now given up these roles to focus solely on UrPal and their other business Aberdeen and Inverness Taxis.
Gavin said
"working on UrPal couldn't be more different to riding bikes and running a taxi company; I identified the need in the market from hearing taxi passengers deliberate how to source information they required; Caren and I then put our heads together and planned and launched UrPal in Inverness and Aberdeen in 2016."
He continued:
"with 7,000 users in Inverness UrPal is proving successful and as well as expanding by location we begin physical tours in April this year, 4 in Aberdeen and 8 in Inverness are already planned to destinations such as Peterhead Prison, Brewdog, Dunnottar and Crathes Castles, Glengarioch Distillery and Castle Fraser; we are really pleased that UrPal is fast becoming the go to place for people looking for things to do, and that it's having a positive impact on the local economy."
Posted by Editor at 00:32	Tagged with: Accommodation, Activities, Attractions, Brewdog, Business, Castle Fraser, Crathes Castle, Distillery, Dunnottar, Facebook, Fitness, Glengarioch, Grampian, Health, Marketing, Peterhead, Prison, Recruitment, Shops, Tours, Transport
Blackett Hails Start Of Old Royal Station Redevelopment
With thanks to Aberdeenshire SNP.
Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside SNP councillor Geva Blackett (pictured) has hailed the start of the project to reinstate Ballater's popular Old Royal Station, destroyed by fire nearly two years ago.
The B-listed building, owned by the council, was historically used by the Royal Family travelling to nearby Balmoral Castle and was hit by a fire which broke out in May 2015.
The building had been leased to VisitScotland for the last 15 years and housed a Visitor Information Centre, restaurant, museum, clothes shop and photography business.
Although much of the building was severely damaged by the fire, a replica Royal carriage survived, as well as various undamaged display cases.
Aberdeenshire Council committed to rebuilding the station and subsequently submitted a successful planning application to the Cairngorms National Park Authority.
There will be changes to how the internal space will be used – both the Visitor Information Centre and the restaurant will return and these will be joined by a library and an enhanced exhibition space. The Royal Carriage will be reinstalled as one of the main attractions.
The project, expected to cost in the region of £3million, is expected to be completed in December of this year, all being well.
The principle elevations of the original building will be reinstated matching the Victorian architecture and detailing, including Queen Victoria's Waiting Room.
Commenting, Cllr Geva Blackett said:
"This marks the start of the restoration of this iconic building that plays such an important role in Ballater and indeed the whole of Royal Deeside. Watching the first turf being dug makes me hugely optimistic that the fortunes of this beautiful village have turned a corner."
Aberdeenshire Provost Hamish Vernal marked the start of the project by cutting the first turf with a ceremonial spade and wheelbarrow used to start the construction of Ballater Railway Station by the Great North of Scotland Railway Company in 1865.
"Ballater has had a tough time lately. The fire was a terrible tragedy along with the devastation suffered as a consequence of Storm Frank.
"However, I can see real progress with many shops open for business again and more and more residents returned to their homes. Therefore, it is great to see another milestone achieved through the start of the construction work to redevelop the Old Royal Station."
Morgan Sindall area director, Mark McBride, said:
"Morgan Sindall has a successful track record of delivering public sector projects and we're proud to have been selected for one that has such significance to people not only in the local area, but across Scotland as a whole.
"It's our first contract awarded through Aberdeenshire Council's main contractor framework and we're pleased to get work underway.
"Ballater Old Royal Station has a rich cultural history and is integral to the region's tourism industry. We're mindful of the need to retain as many of the original heritage features as possible during the restoration process and confident that the finished building will be well received."
The station was opened in October 1866 by the Great North of Scotland Railway and was the nearest station to Balmoral Castle. It closed in February 1966.
Posted by Editor at 01:59	Tagged with: Ballater, Balmoral, Deeside, Development, History, Infrastructure, Politics, Railway, Royal, Scotland, SNP, Station, Transport
Disability Mind-Set
Articles, Featured, Opinion No Responses »
This driver stopped in the marked disabled bay while he loaded a Christmas tree while two cars with disabled badges had to move on.
By Mark MC.
"I'll just be two ticks!" A not uncommon response to someone parking where they shouldn't, but what if that is a disabled parking bay?
The Court has recently ruled on wheelchairs over prams on buses; but is this the right way to go?
Has it gone far enough?
Even now the media and people appear to have different views on what the ruling stated so what is going on?
What has happened to the old-fashioned courtesy, of giving up a seat for someone in more need than yourself….is chivalry dead?
Most of us will get old, some will become disabled, some of us are already there; so should we expect 'special treatment', preferential treatment?
This important issue covers far more than just buses or parking bays; there appears to be a basic disregard for people that require more, even if that doesn't actually cost anything just, simply taking up space that could be used by someone else: the selfish gene?
Unfair appraisal? While it is true that many people would happily give up their seat, how many of those people would take a disabled parking space? The concept behind the aging Goofy cartoon behind the wheel springs to mind; where the perfect gentleman Goofy changes like Jekyll and Hyde.
Whatever your viewpoint there is sufficient concern to raise the question, what is going on? Why do so many feel that it is OK to keep a marked disabled seat or park in a disabled parking space without authority?
These actions can have severe effects on those that need them.
A tent display, clearly far more important than disabled people.
There are too may conditions to list here but lets just look at one, a more generic situation of chronic pain. Chronic pain affects hundreds of thousands of people; that is a pain that is constant over time, it might effect standing, walking, even sitting.
Many sufferers still try to maintain what is as near 'normal' lifestyle as they can but in order to do so they need just a little extra help, and that might be in the form of a specialised seat or parking space near to a shop, chemist or doctors. Is that really too much to ask?
A seat and/or a parking space, reserved for someone that needs it, in order for them to be part of the community without being an extra burden?
In the case of the bus court case it should never have gone that far, the bus driver already had the ability to sort it out; the current situation does little to help, the driver can simply wait for others on the bus to get angry about being held up; causing further animosity to either the disabled, elderly or pram pusher.
In the case of the selfish driver taking a disabled bay, even if just for a short time may have caused someone that needs that space to drive on; perhaps even to return home unable to get their shopping or prescription, because their pain to just too much for them to wait or to keep driving around looking for what is often far too few disabled parking spaces close to where they need to be.
Tackle these people at your peril; as even a 'nice' approach can be taken as an affront on their liberty, or at least that can be the impression assumed by the verbal abuse or even violent response.
Some countries don't suffer from the same issues.
Some countries carry real fines, big fines if people disobey, plus they have law enforcers willing to issue fines. In a few countries the locals would never even dream of taking a disabled space. How have they done it?
It would be nice if legislation was not required, but in our current modern selfish age, the situation is unlikely to improve without a big stick….lets hope those people wont need it to get around!
Posted by Editor at 22:34	Tagged with: Access, Court, Disability, Driver, Legal, Parking, Social, Transport
Councillor Ford Welcomes Progress On Cycle Route
Aberdeenshire, Environment, Featured No Responses »
East Garioch councillor Martin Ford has welcomed progress being made towards a cycle route between Inverurie, Kintore, Blackburn and Aberdeen.
"I'm keen to see a cycle route in place all the way between Inverurie and Aberdeen," said Cllr Ford.
Aberdeen City Council is working towards provision of a cycle route between Bucksburn and its boundary at Blackburn.
Councillor Ford has been pressing Aberdeenshire Council for a cycle route between Inverurie and Kintore so cyclists do not have to cross or use the A96 dual carriageway.
More recently, he has called on the Council to identify then deliver a cycle route between Kintore and Blackburn. And Cllr Ford along with Cllr Paul Johnston (as the Democratic Independent and Green Group of Aberdeenshire councillors) secured an extra £250,000 per year for active travel (cycling and walking) in Aberdeenshire Council's revenue budget from 2016/17.
Between Port Elphinstone and Kintore, a good cycle route was put in place some years ago between Port Elphinstone and the Thainstone roundabout.
Last year (2016), a new cycle path was constructed between Kintore and Kintore Business Park. Cllr Ford has been pressing for the 'missing link' section of cycle path (between the Thainstone roundabout and Kintore Business Park) to be constructed as soon as possible, thus providing a cycle route all the way between Kintore and Port Elphinstone which does not involve using or crossing the A96.
In response to enquiries from Cllr Ford, Council officers have advised the construction of the Thainstone roundabout to Kintore Business Park section of cycle path should go out to tender this month, with the new length of path due to be complete by May 2017 at the latest.
Commenting, Cllr Ford said:
"I will be delighted to finally see cycling provision in place all the way between Kintore and Port Elphinstone. Certainly, cycling on the A96 itself is not a good experience, so having a cycle route available instead will be a significant improvement for cyclists wanting to travel between Kintore and Inverurie."
Council officers have also confirmed to Cllr Ford that Aberdeenshire Council has appointed infrastructure consultancy firm AECOM to progress delivering a cycle route between Kintore and Blackburn.
AECOM will look at feasible options for the route, from the site of the planned railway station in Kintore to the south end of Blackburn at the boundary between Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City. They have been asked to consider cyclists of all abilities when looking at the options. A report on the feasibility of possible routes, their respective advantages and disadvantages and indicative costs will be prepared by 31 March 2017.
Council officers anticipate a report to the Garioch Area Committee will follow on 18 April 2017 for councillors to take a decision on the preferred route. Detailed design will then proceed during financial year 2017/18 so bids for funding for construction can be made in financial year 2018/19.
Cllr Martin Ford said:
"I'm very pleased to see progress on a cycle route between Kintore and Blackburn. I look forward to engaging with the consultants working on the project over the choice of route, and agreeing a preferred option in the spring. I certainly want to see a route put in place as soon as possible."
Posted by Editor at 00:46	Tagged with: Cycling, Green, Infrastructure, Politics, Roads, Transport
Whytes Coaches Makes Return Trip To Tours Market
Leading north-east transport operator Whytes Coaches will celebrate 50 years in business next year as it makes a long-awaited return to the tours market.
Staff at the Newmachar-based company are putting the finishing touches to a new tour brochure which will be rolled out in the New Year when bookings open for 2017.
The company came under new management earlier this year and is getting its tours business back on the road after a three-year break from the market.
The management team comprising Andrew Urquhart, David Campbell and Jason Carrison, who have between them have been with the company for 30 years, took control of the company in April and were keen to get back in to the tours sector to further diversify the business from coach hire and driver training.
The new tour guide will offer trips across the UK in 2017 and will run from the end of March to the first week of October. Thereafter, a winter programme of Christmas market visits and New Year tours will be available.
Mr Urquhart, who is a grandson of company founders Bill and Nora Whyte, is the driving force behind the company's decision to re-enter the tours market.
"We're very keen to get back in to the coach tours market and are looking forward to an exciting year as the company celebrates 50 years in business.
"The current economic climate and the value of the pound following the Brexit vote are making foreign holidays less attractive to people so we hope to tap in to what should be a buoyant 'staycation' market for 2017 as people opt for UK holidays.
"Coach tours have always been popular with north-east residents and we anticipate significant interest from across the region in our exciting tour programme."
Customers from across the north-east will be able to take advantage of Whytes' feeder service which provides collection from across the region as the coaches leave from Newmachar.
Once the coaches are on the road south bound pickups will also be available from Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth.
For more information about Whytes Coaches, please visit: www.whytes.co.uk
Posted by Editor at 00:31	Tagged with: Bus, Business, Coach, Commerce, Newmachar, North East, Public, Service, Tour, Transport
Extra Funding But Delayed Opening For Kintore Station
Aberdeenshire, News No Responses »
East Garioch councillor and member of the Nestrans board, Martin Ford.
East Garioch councillor, Martin Ford is continuing to press the case for the proposed rail halt at Kintore as funding is promised for the project but the planned opening date is pushed back.
The latest funding contribution was agreed at the North East of Scotland Transport Partnership (Nestrans) board meeting on Friday (2 December). The Nestrans board was advised the Scottish Government had increased its agreed funding contribution towards constructing a station in Kintore to £7.32 million (60 per cent of the estimated cost) while Aberdeenshire Council had now committed up to £1.898 million.
By agreeing to an increased allocation of £2.974 million for Kintore station from Nestrans' budgets, the Nestrans board closed the remaining funding gap – meaning the entire £12.2 million estimated construction cost is now pledged to the project.
Councillor Martin Ford is a member of the Nestrans board. He said:
"Clearly, funding is one of the essentials for getting a station built in Kintore. I was pleased to support an increased contribution from Nestrans towards the estimated construction cost. On top of the extra funding now put in place by Aberdeenshire Council and the Scottish Government, this means all the money expected to be required to build the station is now committed to the project. I'm delighted that's been achieved."
Friday's Nestrans board meeting was also advised that the expected cost of the Aberdeen–Inverness rail line upgrade had increased from £170 million to £330 million. The board was told that consequently completion of the upgrading works would have to be delayed so some work could take place in financial year 2019/2020, instead of all work being undertaken before March 2019.
The new planned completion date for the Aberdeen–Inverness rail line upgrade is December 2019, with Kintore station now intended to open in July 2019.
At Councillor Ford's suggestion, the Nestrans board asked Nestrans director Derick Murray to write to the Office of Rail and Road seeking an explanation for the huge cost increase for the Aberdeen–Inverness rail line upgrade.
Said Cllr Martin Ford:
"The scale of the increase in the projected cost of the Aberdeen–Inverness rail line upgrade is astonishing, especially since the work has already started. What has changed? Or was the previous estimate wrongly calculated? Or why have anticipated prices risen so drastically? We need to have an explanation."
The original planned opening date for Kintore Station was March 2019. This was brought forward to December 2018 so the new station would be available for passengers when the line between Kintore and Inverurie was due to be closed for several weeks in early 2019 to allow renewal of the viaduct over the River Don. Now, with the upgrading works for the whole line on an extended timescale, the opening date for Kintore station is being pushed back to July 2019.
"Apart from the alarming overall cost increase for the Aberdeen–Inverness rail line upgrade, the delay in the expected opening date for Kintore station is also very disappointing."
Posted by Editor at 23:27	Tagged with: Council, Green, Infrastructure, NESTRANS, Network, Politics, Rail, Railway, Transport
Increased Parking Charges Could Fund Safer Roads
Aberdeenshire'sDemocratic Independent and Green Group of councillors (DIGG) has identified extra funding for road safety as one of its 2017/18 budget priorities.
This is despite Aberdeenshire Council being expected to have to make significant savings in its revenue budget for 2017/18. At this stage, before the Scottish Government grant settlement is known, there is considerable uncertainty about the amount the Council will have to save to balance its budget for next year.
However, based on reasonable assumptions, additional spending cuts or other savings totalling over £10 million are expected to be required, over and above the savings already identified in the draft 2017/18 revenue budget published last February.
"Speeding on local roads, and the road safety issues it causes, is a recurring issue," said Cllr Paul Johnston.
"Although the Council is facing severe financial pressures, the DIGG believes the Council needs to look at increasing the resources put into traffic calming and other road safety provision," said Cllr Martin Ford. "The DIGG is keen to include an increased allocation of up to £250,000 per annum in Aberdeenshire Council's revenue budget for 'traffic calming and speeding reduction' to keep up with the need to put additional measures in place in communities across Aberdeenshire.
"A new budget line for 'traffic calming and speeding reduction' would, under current policy, enable more traffic calming measures to be introduced in more places where there is an identified need. It would also open up the possibility for the Council to change its policy, for example on provision of 20 mph limits, so these could be introduced more widely in Aberdeenshire than under present policy."
"With further significant savings required in next year's budget, there's going to be no new or spare money for anything,
"Current projections show a forecast deficit for car parks of £167,000 in the current year. Effectively, the Council – and ultimately the tax payer – is subsidising the provision of car parking by Aberdeenshire Council by this amount. This at a time when our cash-strapped Council is having to choose which cuts it will be forced to make to public services."
Cllr Martin Ford added:
"With budget cuts unavoidable, what the Council has to do is decide on priorities. Should subsidising car parking be a priority? In my view, certainly not, compared with, say, funding for schools.
"So the DIGG is keen for the Council's budget consultation to include seeking views on the option of additional funding for traffic calming and speeding reduction measures, this to be paid for by ending the tax-payer subsidy for car parking. That would generate £167,000 for enhanced traffic calming provision, or more if parking charges were increased by more than required to eliminate the deficit in the car parks budget.
"Other options for increasing funding for traffic calming all mean the Council reducing spending on some other activity."
Under the Road Traffic Act (1984), the Council provides car parking for the purpose of relieving or preventing the congestion of traffic. The Council could put up the car parking charges used to manage that car parking, sufficient to generate a surplus, and use the income to pay for additional traffic calming.
Aberdeenshire Council's car parks did generate a surplus of income over expenditure until the introduction of a free period in paying car parks in 2014. The current budget provision is for a surplus from car parks of £88,000 for this year, but the year-end forecast is a deficit of £167,000.
"The DIGG favours putting up to £250,000 extra towards traffic calming and speeding reduction in next year's budget, and is keen to hear views on that, with the funding coming from increased car parking charges," said Cllr Martin Ford.
Posted by Editor at 00:11	Tagged with: Council, DIGG, Green, Independent, Politics, Transport

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The education leaders who will guide Charlotte Teachers Institute's 2013 seminar season represent the inclusive and creative focus that distinguishes this unique professional development initiative.
CTI is a partnership of UNC Charlotte, Davidson College and CMS working to cultivate content knowledge, creativity, leadership skills and collaboration within and among CMS teachers.
Two local educators will join committees at the Yale National Initiative, of which CTI is an affiliate. Yale named Torrieann Dooley, David Cox Road Elementary School second-grade teacher, to its National Steering Committee and named Ann Fox, English professor at Davidson College to its National University Advisory Council for a fourth time.
New members of the steering committee are: Tiffany DiMatteo, English, Myers Park High School; Nicole Fraser, fifth grade, Davidson Elementary; and Jashonai Payne, fifth grade, David Cox Road Elementary.
Returning Local Steering Committee members are: Intisar Hamidullah, language arts, Whitewater Middle School; Matthew Kelly, Spanish, Independence High; Beth Lasure, art, Mallard Creek High; Michael Pillsbury, math, Randolph IB Middle; Deb Semmler, physics, East Mecklenburg High; Barbara Wesselman, apparel/costume design, Northwest School of the Arts; Cindy Woolery, science, Elizabeth Traditional Elementary; Torrieann Dooley, second grade, David Cox Road Elementary.
"Urban Encounters: Hispanic and African American Literature" – Davidson College Brenda Flanagan, professor of English; Stefanie Carter-Dodson, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle language arts teacher.
CTI also introduced a full cadre of school contacts. These school contacts are essential to the success of the initiative, as they act as advocates and liaisons within each of the schools, Gartlan said.
CTI will host an open house on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 5:30 p.m. at UNC Charlotte Center City at 320 E. 9th Street to introduce its 2013 educator leaders and its seminars. Details and registration information are available on the CTI website at www.charlotteteachers.org. Teacher applications to participate in the seminars are online and are due March 13.
Posted on February 25, 2013 by Scott Gartlan.	This entry was posted in CTI News, News. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
HOGS FACE GRIFFINS ON APRIL FOOLS JERSEY AUCTION NIGHT
Rockford, Ill. – The Rockford IceHogs square off with the Grand Rapids Griffins for the 10th meeting of the 2016-17 season tonight on Jersey Auction Night at the BMO Harris Bank Center.
Puck drop is 7 p.m. and doors open at 6 p.m. The IceHogs have partnered with Special Olympics, Illinois, for the team's 18th Annual Jersey Auction game compliments of Insurance King. The 2017 jersey theme features Hammy in motley, a court-jester theme associated with the spirit of April Fools' Day. The specialty jersey is checkered with the team's colors of red and black, and has one red sleeve and one black sleeve.
Following the game and prior to the auction, comedian Marcos Lara will perform a set to warm up the crowd. Fans in attendance can then bid on the specialty game-worn sweaters via live auction, with proceeds benefiting the IceHogs Charitable Foundation, Special Olympics, Illinois, and other local charities.
Tickets can be purchased at the BMO Harris Bank Center Box Office or any Ticketmaster location, by phone at (815) 968-5222 or online at www.icehogs.com and www.ticketmaster.com.
Fans are reminded that the BMO Harris Bank Center has a clear-bag policy that can be reviewed at icehogs.com/rmc/bag-policies.
Fans unable to make the game can tune in to all the action on The Justice Network 23.3, Dish Network channel 252, Comcast Cable channel 434 and Charter Cable channel 194, beginning with IceHogs Warmup at 6:30 p.m. IceHogs fans can also listen to the game at WXRX.com or sportsfanradio1330.com, or watch live at AHLlive.com.
Matchup: Rockford enters tonight's matchup following a 3-1 win over Texas on Friday night at the BMO Harris Bank Center.
In his first pro game and after starring for two seasons at Western Michigan University, 22-year-old forward Matheson Iacopelli netted the game-winner in his AHL debut midway through the final period to seal the victory. Iacopelli slammed home a pass from Michael Latta for his first career AHL goal. Brandon Mashinter tied the contest at 1-1 with a snipe early in the second period and Jake Dowell added an empty-net goal towards the end of regulation.
Lars Johansson was strong in net, making 29 saves on 30 shots for his first victory since Feb. 22 at Manitoba.
Grand Rapids currently ranks first in the Central Division and holds a 7-2-0-0 edge in the season series on the IceHogs. The Griffins also lead the AHL on the power play with a 25.7 percent conversion rate, and are 8-for-38 on the man advantage against Rockford.
Matt Lorito leads Grand Rapids in scoring with 53 points (20-g-33a) and ranks as one of nine skaters with over 30 points on the Griffins.
Next Home Game: Wednesday, April 12 vs. Milwaukee Admirals at 7 p.m. The IceHogs host the Admirals in the 10th and final Winning Weekday game, presented by Fas Fuel. Wednesday is also a WXRX Dollar Day where fans can take advantage of $2 beers, soft drinks, hot dogs and companion tickets.


Many houses in the UK are safely heated by gas however the potential for disaster always needs to be taken into account and it is important for the health and safety of your family that you know what to should an emergency arise.
The main way you can tell if you have a gas leak will be if you can smell gas. Gas has a distinctive smell and if you smell gas you need to call National Grid Gas Emergencies (0800 111 999 24 hours) immediately.
Next you need to aerate the room by opening all of the windows and making sure that all gas appliances are switched off. You can also turn the gas off at the mains if you know where that is.
Be very wary of using any electrical appliances including your light switches as this could cause an explosion and definitely do not smoke or light a match for any reason at all.
It is always unwise to try to fix any broken appliance yourself unless you are a registered gas fitter. Not only is this a false economy but you can also be fined and may actually be breaking the law. For your own safety you must always use a company who is gas registered.
At times the National Grid will be doing maintenance or repairs and may have to disconnect your gas supply. In this case they must notify you and keep any disruption to a minimum. If the cut is unplanned the National Grid must restore the gas supply as soon as possible and if they do not consumers are entitled to compensation.
If an appliance has been installed incorrectly there is a possibility that you might get carbon monoxide poisoning. This can also be caused through poor maintenance and inadequate ventilation. Carbon monoxide gas is odourless, tasteless and colourless and so it is very difficult to detect. Being exposed to the gas can cause brain damage and death.
It is a legal requirement that all gas appliances are checked and in particular in rental properties to ensure the safety of the occupants. Tenants may also protect themselves by purchasing a carbon monoxide detector which sets off an alarm and changes colour if any CO is detected. You should test your alarm each month and change the batteries when necessary.
The pilot light continuously going out.
An orange and yellow flame rather than a blue one.
Musty smells or signs of soot.
A black, brown or scorched area on appliances.
More condensation than normal on windows.
Be careful if you find your symptoms get batter when you are away from the house and if they worsen when you are at home.
At any sign of CO evacuate the house immediately.


Marmoleum is Forbo's main brand for its core Linoleum collections. Ranging from subtle marbled designs, to modern concrete and intriguing striped patterns, Marmoleum offers a floor design to suit every taste or application Marmoleum's inherent anti-static properties repel dust and dirt, making it easy to clean, reducing exposure to allergens, and contributing to better indoor air quality. Marmoleum also features inherent antimicrobial properties that halt the breeding of harmful micro-organisms, including MRSA and C-difficile.
Please review the following link for information about the shipping/delivery of flooring. Please contact us with any questions or special delivery needs.


This is a placeholder page for David Combe, which means this person is not currently on this site. We do suggest using the tools below to find David Combe.
You are visiting the placeholder page for David Combe. This page is here because someone used our placeholder utility to look for David Combe. We created this page automatically in hopes David Combe would find it. If you are not David Combe, but are an alumni of Bonneville High School Ogden, UT, register on this site for free now.


text:
Lynda Gratton & Andrew J Scott talk to Guto Harri
The New Long Life: A Framework for Flourishing in a Changing World
Hay Digital 2020 , Friday 29 May 2020
Smart new technologies. Longer, healthier lives. Human progress has risen to great heights, but at the same time it has prompted anxiety about where we're heading. Are our jobs under threat? If we live to 100, will we ever really stop working? And how will this change the way we love, manage and learn from others?
Andrew J Scott is Professor of Economics at the London Business School and consulting scholar at Stanford University's Center on Longevity. Through his multi-award-winning research, writing and teaching, his ideas inform a global understanding of the profound shifts reshaping our world and the actions needed for us to flourish individually and as a society.
Lynda Gratton is Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School where she teaches an elective on the Future of Work and directs an executive program on Human Resource Strategy. Lynda is a fellow of the World Economic Forum, is ranked by Business Thinkers in the top 15 in the world, and was named the best teacher at London Business School in 2015.
Ruth Coker Burks talks to Philippe Sands
Noreena Hertz talks to Hugh Muir


9 May every year: Celebrating the creation of the European Union.
Visit the European Commission website to find out more and to check on the annual theme. You could use Europe Day at school to explore the theme in more depth, or find out more about the European Union.


text:
Q: Unable to build .class file through Runtime class compilation public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
    {
        String sout;
        try
          {
            if(e.getSource()==compile)
            {
            sout=input.getText();
            Runtime rt=Runtime.getRuntime();
Process p=rt.exec("javac sout.java",null,new     File("C:/c/compile assign"));
            }

I am storing the class name in String sout(through TextField) then calling sout.java (i.e classname.java) but it was unable to build a class file.
            if(e.getSource()==run)
            {
InputStream is = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("java input.getText()",null,new             File("C:/c/compile assign")).getInputStream();
            //BufferedInputStream b=new BufferedInputStream(is);
         BufferedReader br= new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
            output.setText(br.readLine()+"hello");
            }
        }
        catch(Exception e1)
        {
        e1.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

A: If you're keeping the classname in a string sout as supplied in the input textfield then your output compile command should be:
Process p=rt.exec("javac " + sout + ".java", null, new File("C:/c/compile assign"));

Also your run command should be:
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("java " + input.getText(), null, new File("C:/c/compile assign")).getInputStream();

You will probably want to add further validation before using the raw value (e.g. class exists) from this field before launching the java command.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Who you gonna call? Not the plumber.
You are here: Home / Personal / topics / stories / Who you gonna call? Not the plumber.
EV being an oddball while not dancing on any graves on a walk through the cemetery three months ago.
What I didn't mention when I described my uneventful call to the plumber on Friday is that it occurred in the midst of a walk with EV through our local cemetery, and that during the call I saw what E has now convinced me was a ghost.
I didn't think they were a ghosts at the time. As I was talking to our plumber, the first appeared sort of out of nowhere and began walking very briskly toward me. He was older, but not as old as my parents, and in a neon colored t-shirt shirt that seemed to indicate that in some capacity he was trying not to be hit by a car.
And then… I don't especially recall what happened. He never walked up to me or said anything. I think he smiled? EV and I were standing towards the middle of the drive walking north but I don't remember him circling to either side to move past us to the south. But, who knows? I was trying to overcome my renters' mentality by making arrangements for home repairs while ensuring that toddler didn't literally dance on anyone's grave. I'm sure I just wasn't paying attention.
Except, then we saw him again and he was with another ghost.
I ended the call with the plumber and EV and and I swung west around the disused greenhouse attached to one of the cottages on the property. She wanted to "sneak up on the house" (which involves her running up a walk to try to jump off a step or touch the siding), but I saw that some of the basement windows were broken through and was trying to wrangle her back to the curbside.
"Oh, hello," the older man said as he approached us from the road to the north. I think it was the same man. He was the same age with the same leathery-skin tanned look about him, although I was sure that his neon shirt had been a different color a moment before. There was also the fact that he had been headed south at least 500 feet behind us and hadn't passed us.
Maybe, but not with the child he now had in tow. The boy was just stepping away from a low headstone he had been examining closely. He was wiry and a few inches taller than EV, with an equine nose upon which rested a very unchildlike pair of square-framed, polarized glasses. He was staring at me from over their rims.
"Ah," I said brightly, tugging EV away from her act of trespassing. "It's such beautiful weather." I decided that this was vague enough that it couldn't possible offend them if they had been visiting the grave of a loved one.
"It is!" the man replied cheerily as the boy moved to idle by his side. "My grandson is showing his ol' pops around the place." Which immediately made no sense to me because pops had just been wandering around by himself without the grandson a moment ago. How did he have enough time to circle back, retrieve the boy, circle ahead of us, and examine tombstones? But, I have a certain way that I talk to children like little people adopted from my own years of precocity, and I already launched into it.
He gestured and I followed his finger while he continued to chatter. The house he was pointing to seemed like another one of the dilapidated cottages on the grounds – not one I'd expect a young boy to live, although I supposed a groundskeeper could live there with a little family. As I listened to him speak I noticed that EV had taken leave of me and was continuing to walk a few steps past where we had stopped to chat with each other.
The boy was still speaking, but the man interrupted him.
I took my customary pause to see if EV would respond, but she made no motion to turn around. "A few weeks shy of three," I answered, drifting slightly in her direction. "How old are you?" I said, indicating the boy with my chin.
"Oh, he's three, too," the man answered. I squinted down at the boy. He did not look or sound three. He was articulate and self-possessed. He was dressed like a slightly miniature seven or eight year old who had just discovered he could stand out from his peers with a slight sartorial tweak. He continued to watch me over the rims of his tinted square glasses in a distinctly un-three-year-old like way.
EV was now three body-lengths from me along the road. There had been no cars in sight so far, I knew that distance to be the point where I cannot wind sprint to scoop her up in less than a second, so I hurried to catch up with her. Maybe I called out, "sorry," over my shoulder.
I caught up with EV and put my arm around her shoulders. She giggled up at me. "EV, you were running away from our new friends," I glanced back at the man, waving jauntily at EV, and the boy, as still as a portrait. "That little boy lives here." She paid me no mind and kept walking up the road.
It wasn't until much later, in describing our encounter to E over dinner, that I realized EV never once acknowledged the pair of them – not with a glance or with her typical shy toddler routine of standing slightly behind my leg.
I don't think she ever saw them.


Search all Q-Tech products using the search bar and/or sorting functions below. Use keywords to narrow the search results and click on the headers to sort the results. Click on "View" to see detailed outline dimensions.
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text:
Reviewed: Last Bank Holiday By Christina Delmonte
I love a good thriller, the sort of book that you can't put down, racing to turn the pages and get to the end. The sort of book that makes you check your windows and doors are closed at night, sees you looking over your shoulder when you are out alone, and generally gives you a feeling of uneasiness and yet still leaves you wanting to read on. 'Last Bank Holiday', the debut novel by writer Christina Delmonte, is just such a book, a claustrophobic tale that twists and turns so much you may start to feel dizzy.
The lead character Karen has a charmed life with her handsome husband Will and two beautiful daughters. They are successful, have a beautiful show home, cars, holidays, designer clothes and jewellery. They seem to have it all. But one Bank Holiday changes all that, when they are brutally robbed and attacked as they spend what should be an idyllic weekend in a forest log cabin. In an instance, their life as they know it is destroyed, all by this seemingly random attack. But is it as random as it seems, or as actions of the past caught up with them?
The writing is taut and paints its pictures well, ensuring that you can see, hear and even smell the scenes, actions and characters vividly as your progress through the tale. Karen is a great lead character, strong even though her life is being torn apart, and your sympathies are always with her, especially as you discover, first through flashbacks, and then in the present, the situation with her mother, who is suffering in the throes of Alzheimer's, with increasingly heartbreaking events occurring both before and after the attack. Christina Delmonte based much of this side of the tale on her own mother, and that is why it resonates so much, feeling so devastatingly real.
The format of the story, being told from different viewpoints, and in the past and present, could be jarring. Instead it keeps the story flowing and also helps the twists and turns to occur throughout the story, rather than at the end. That said, the final reveal is still shocking, and adds a real poignancy to the story.
Last Bank Holiday is a fine debut, one that you should add to your Summer reading list.
By fashion-mommy 1 Comment
Halloween – a feast of dark and gothic looks
Pearl Lowe continues to bring that Vintage feel to Peacocks.
Christine Allen
I've just seen this on the internet, gain a huge thank you for you support xx


Funeral service for Charles Freddy Langley, age 71, of Hartselle, will be Saturday, September 8, 2018, 2:00 p.m. at Central Park Baptist Church with Rev. Harold Brown and Bro. Ryan Childers officiating, and Shelton Funeral Home directing. The family will receive friends for two hours prior to service. Interment will be in Decatur City Cemetery.
Mr. Langley, who died Wednesday, September 5, 2018, in Vinemont, was born November 12, 1946, in Decatur, to Charles F. Langley and Helen Irons Langley. He was preceded in death by one son, Charles F. "Chuck" Langley, III, his parents, and one sister, Ann Parker.
He is survived by his loving wife, Peggy White Langley of Hartselle; three daughters, Malaina Truss of Hartselle, Karen Merriman (Toney) of Vinemont, and Tina Childers (Ryan) of Falkville; 11 grandchildren, Michael Truss, Brandon Truss, Nicholas Langley, Joshua Brown, Katharine Riddle, Kimber Lindsey, Zachary Merriman, Jacob Merriman, Savannah Smith, Rebekkah Childers, and Scarlett Richard; and 10 great-grandchildren.


One of the world's greatest experts on Italian Renaissance Theater, Italy's Maestro Antonio Fava—actor, director, teacher, practitioner, mask-maker, and author of one of the most comprehensive works on the famous Commedia dell'Arte—has taught quite a few Philadelphia-area actors and directors, including Cubby Altobelli, John Bellomo, Aaron Cromie, Dave Jadico, Rick Kemp, Benjamin Lloyd, Charles McMahon, Karen Saillant, Craig Tavani, and Blanka Zizka.
Henrik Eger: How do you feel about one of the most famous masters of Italian Renaissance theater flying in from Italy?
Eger: Could you give an example of how you introduced Commedia plays into an American environment?


Mumbai: Rishabh Pant enhanced his credentials with an unbeaten 78 off 27 balls to power Delhi Capitals to a 37-run win over Mumbai Indians at Wankhede stadium here on Sunday.
For the revamped Delhi Capitals it was just the kind of start coach Ricky Ponting would have asked for after a disappointing IPL campaign last season.
Mumbai Indians who have won the title thrice since 2013 continued their unwanted reputation of being poor starters.
Their bowlers went for plenty and top order batsmen failed to respond. Yuvraj Singh (53 in 35 balls) though made half century on debut for MI. Jasprit Bumrah had injury scare towards the end of first innings and he didn't come out to bat later.
Coming in 14th over, Pant played first four dot balls before unleashing his exquisite shots to raise his fifty in just 18 balls. He finished with a flourish not even showing respect for yorker specialist Bumrah. His knock included seven sixes and as many boundaries utilising chips and flicks effectively. Last six overs yielded 99 runs as Delhi posted a huge total of 213/6.
Pant's blitzkrieg came after Colin Ingram's 47 in 32 balls.


Internet Explorer . Go to Tools, Internet Options. Click the Connections tab, select Local Area Network (LAN) Settings and unselect everything, then click OK.
Now select category view, and click on Uninstall a program under the Programs.
My Fix? Save bookmarks, etc. Trash ALL extensions, Remove Chrome, reinstall Chrome. Its been good for over a month now.
Once the victims open their browser they will be redirected to the Speedomizer redirect page. It looks like any normal Yahoo search engine which makes it easy to fool the users into thinking that the hijacker provides a legitimate service.
The list of Windows 10 new security features is both long and significant but unfortunately this OS is still vulnerable to various threats, including adware. You might not be particularly worried about adware that can infect Windows 10 and display annoying web browser ads and I admit that it is probably not the worst type of malicious software out there, especially when compared to real internet nasties such as Trojan Horses. spyware or ransomware for example. But that doesn't mean you should write it off completely as something that won't do you any harm, and you would definitely be advised to look into the ways that you can protect yourself from an adware infection even if you're using the latest Windows 10 and fully updated web browser.
When a user performs a search from the trotux.com search engine, it will first log the query to their own system and then redirect the user so the search results come from Google. It is unknown why they do this, but it is possible they are doing it for search query statistical information.
Read the license agreement, and click Accept .
Download and install one of the recommended anti-malware tools to automatically remove Att.net Toolbar and other malware threats from your PC.
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The Cinderella Myth We Can't Quit
Margaret Qualley has attained mega-celebrity of late, in two very disparate roles: She is the star of "Maid," a bingeable Netflix series (based on Stephanie Land's namesake memoir) about a young single mother's struggle with grinding poverty, homelessness and hunger. And she is a "brand ambassador" for Chanel, representing one of the world's most exclusive luxury labels.
How do we make sense of these two gigs, which feel light-years apart?
In "Maid," Ms. Qualley's character, Alex, flees an abusive partner, takes refuge in a women's shelter and winds up scrubbing toilets for a living, barely able to feed herself and her young daughter — all while looking after her troubled mother (movingly played by Ms. Qualley's actual mother, Andie MacDowell).
Though the series has an uplifting end, the overall message remains bleak: It's a story about America's inadequate social safety net, generational cycles of poverty and addiction, and hard-working people always just a few dollars away from extreme hunger or eviction. As Alex, Ms. Qualley downplays her striking beauty, with minimal makeup, a haphazard ponytail and a wardrobe of shapeless, used clothes, including her drab maid's uniform.
An accomplished actress with ballet training, Ms. Qualley is highly adept at creating compelling expressions and evoking strong emotion with her voice, face and body. It takes nothing away from these talents to acknowledge that they do not exist independently of her beauty. Knowing how to use one's physical instrument is a sine qua non of both modeling and acting. Ms. Qualley has a fashion physique — tall and slim — with a cinema face: mobile with sharply defined features; wide, almost childlike blue eyes; and a wide, charismatic smile to match.
In "Maid," we root for Alex, admiring her grit and determination. And part of our attachment to her is undeniably visual: It's pleasurable to watch Ms. Qualley, and that pleasure encourages us to follow — to consume — her story and hence the series.
Hollywood has been pegging narrative to women's beauty for over a century now. It's a process integral to the star system; and Ms. Qualley is a star. The way she wears her beauty is woven into the experience of "Maid" — inextricable from the story. In a sense, Ms. Qualley is also wearing the story; the narrative is draped on her shoulders, like clothes upon on a fashion model. And even as we follow Alex's near-constant crises and catastrophes, we are sustained by the expectation of her salvation and uplift in the end, in part because of her beauty.
Centuries of fairy tales, novels and films have conditioned us to expect that the beautiful, downtrodden young woman will be saved — revealed as a secret princess, plucked from obscurity, rescued by a prince or, with the more contemporary twist in "Maid" (spoiler alert): recognized for her writing talent and granted a college scholarship.
It's still the ancient Cinderella narrative baked into virtually all of women's popular culture. (In a tragic, thwarted-Cinderella subplot, Alex's mother, Paula, a beautiful artist, tries and fails repeatedly to find a decent man to save her from poverty.)
Planet Chanel feels light-years away from the world of "Maid." As the brand's ambassador, Ms. Qualley uses her face and figure to conjure the classic Chanel fantasy landscape of ultra-French luxury and elegance — a place where no one worries about gas money or food stamps. Here, Ms. Qualley's beauty is more overt, her glam quotient dialed up to "stun." As the literal "face" of Chanel, Ms. Qualley is on offer as another consumable commodity, positioned against backdrops designed to convey global sophistication, refinement and indulgence.
Last July, for example, Chanel showed its fall 2021 collection at the Palais Galliera, the neo-Renaissance mansion and fashion museum in Paris's ultraposh 16th Arrondissement. There, Ms. Qualley glided out for the finale, resplendent in a showstopper bridal gown: a white silk confection whose silhouette — fitted waist, flaring voluminous skirt and slightly puffed shoulders — telegraphed "storybook princess." Beaming beneath a sequined mesh veil, Ms. Qualley made a radiant, if fictional, bride.
Concluding a runway show with a bride is an old-fashioned tradition, which Chanel has practiced throughout the years. Presenting a wedding dress as the finale confirms its status as the most powerful and transformational element of a woman's wardrobe, the signal of her social elevation to wifedom. And the creative director Virginie Viard's spectacular princess-style gown only amplified this, punctuating her collection with a happily-ever-after grace note. Here again, Ms. Qualley was anointed a modern-day Cinderella.
Sometimes, the fantasy power of fashion doesn't even require clothes. Two weeks ago, Ms. Qualley posted a photograph of herself on Instagram, rising from the ocean, nude but for five strategically placed Chanel handbags. Had Botticelli's Venus stopped by Rodeo Drive? Was this a holiday selfie taken by a lady of leisure? (Who else would risk these bags in saltwater? Prices start at about $4,000 and go up to $10,000.)
The photo was taken by Cass Bird for Hommegirls magazine, and as with most luxury fashion images, the point was not to make sense but to associate the desirability of the celebrity with the desirability — and buyability — of the commodity. The objects are placed next to, or directly on, the beautiful feminine body, to indicate that consuming them — buying the bags — will somehow transfer the pleasure of that scene to viewers, inducting them into that carefree vista of sea, sex, beauty and wealth.
No brand understands this process better than the Maison Chanel, a corporation whose founder, Coco Chanel, used fashion to elevate herself from poverty to global-billionaire status. And here is where we begin to see that Ms. Qualley's two — apparently discordant — professional roles are actually intimately related: Like Alex the maid, Coco Chanel spent her youth struggling to survive utter destitution and miserable low-wage jobs.
But she designed her way out of it. She created an entire luxury signaling system: the CC logo, the tweeds, the pearls, the perfume, meant to lend an aura of charmed belonging to herself, which she then marketed to her millions of customers. And rather than reject her working-class past, Chanel mined it for design inspiration, basing many of her most successful fashions on workers' clothing. Most famously, her little black dress recalls the typical uniform worn by French housemaids at the time.
As an avatar of the Maison Chanel, Ms. Qualley turns out to be the perfect casting choice for the star of "Maid," for just beneath the luxury of the Chanel brand lies a story not unlike that of "Maid," a story of extreme deprivation and ambition — which spurred the creation of the entire company. In other words, there's an Alex-the-maid hovering just out of sight in every Chanel ad.
The reverse can be true, too. Sometimes, that is, Ms. Qualley helps us see the Chanel-esque luxury element hiding within Alex the maid. In one episode for example, Alex "borrows" an expensive cashmere sweater from Regina (played by Anika Noni Rose), a wealthy housecleaning client, and wears it to entertain a date in Regina's home, which she pretends is her own.
Wrapped in beige cashmere, fully made up, seated on expensive furniture with wineglass in hand, Ms. Qualley looks like she belongs there. She looks, that is, as if she might be the kind of woman who can afford many Chanel bags.
"Maid" uses such moments to prepare us for Alex's eventual escape from poverty. "See?" it seems to reassure us, "Alex belongs to this other, finer world. That world you've seen her (or this actress) representing in magazine ads." In the series' last episode, a college-bound Alex tries to return the cashmere sweater, but Regina insists she keep it, noting it cost $1,400. Alex gives in and accepts the gift, and with it, her own inevitable upward mobility. She is accepting princess status from a queen — the aptly named Regina.
From opposite sides of the pop-culture continuum, "Maid" and the Maison Chanel contemplate different strata of women's lives, social class, aspiration, the desire for escape and indulgence, and the way society commodifies images of femininity and inserts them perpetually into fairly narrow, even predictable narratives. In her unique position representing simultaneously the extreme "rags" and "riches" poles of the classic princess story line, Ms. Qualley reminds us of just how close those two sides remain.
Rhonda Garelick is the dean of the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons/The New School and the author of "Mademoiselle: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History."
source: nytimes.com
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SYNDRAW
SYNDRAW Trademark Information
Trademark by Fuchs Lubricants Co.
SYNTHETIC COMPOUNDS AND PREPARATIONS FOR USE IN METALWORKING OPERATIONS, NAMELY, BLANKING, PERFORATING, DRAWING, EXTRUDING, FORMING, PIERCING, SWAGING AND OTHER METALWORKING OPERATIONS
synthetic compounds preparations use metalworking operations blanking perforating drawing extruding forming piercing swaging metalworking operations
This is a brand page for the SYNDRAW trademark by Fuchs Lubricants Co. in *********, **********, ***** ****.
Write a review about a product or service associated with this SYNDRAW trademark. Or, contact the owner Fuchs Lubricants Co. of the SYNDRAW trademark by filing a request to communicate with the Legal Correspondent for licensing, use, and/or questions related to the SYNDRAW trademark.
On Monday, July 2, 1984, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for SYNDRAW. The USPTO has given the SYNDRAW trademark serial number of 73488021. The current federal status of this trademark filing is REGISTERED AND RENEWED. The correspondent listed for SYNDRAW is Richard J. McKenna of ********,********, ***** **** . The SYNDRAW trademark is filed in the category of Chemical Products . The description provided to the USPTO for SYNDRAW is SYNTHETIC COMPOUNDS AND PREPARATIONS FOR USE IN METALWORKING OPERATIONS, NAMELY, BLANKING, PERFORATING, DRAWING, EXTRUDING, FORMING, PIERCING, SWAGING AND OTHER METALWORKING OPERATIONS.
Chemicals used in industry, science and photography, as well as in agriculture, horticulture and forestry; unprocessed artificial resins; unprocessed plastics; manures; fire extinguishing compositions; tempering and soldering preparations; chemical substances for preserving foodstuffs; tanning substances; adhesives used in industry.
First Use Anywhere:: 7/1/1981
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Word mark: SYNDRAW
REGISTERED AND RENEWED
Filing Date: 7/2/1984
Goods and Services: SYNTHETIC COMPOUNDS AND PREPARATIONS FOR USE IN METALWORKING OPERATIONS, NAMELY, BLANKING, PERFORATING, DRAWING, EXTRUDING, FORMING, PIERCING, SWAGING AND OTHER METALWORKING OPERATIONS
Published For Opposition Date: 9/3/1985
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Watch all the action from the Tokyo Olympics live on NBC
Poland Wins First 4x400m Mixed Relay Gold of Olympics
By Reuters • Published July 31, 2021 • Updated on July 31, 2021 at 6:34 pm
TOKYO - Poland scored an upset win in the inaugural Olympic 4x400 meters mixed relay on Saturday, with Dominican Republic picking up silver and the United States taking bronze.
The Polish team, comprised of Karol Zalewski, Natalia Kaczmarek, Justyna Swiety-Ersetic and Kajetan Duszynski, put on a gutsy performance inside the fan-free Olympic Stadium after posting the fastest time in Friday's heats.
It was the first Olympic medal for all four team mates, who cheered and embraced as anchor leg runner Duszynski crossed the finish line in a time of three minutes and 9.87 seconds.
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"I can't believe it. It is a dream since childhood. It has come true," Duszynski, 26, said after picking up Poland's first gold medal of the Tokyo Games.
The U.S. were the favorites after winning the event at the 2019 World Championships. But they almost did not make the final after they were disqualified for exchanging the baton outside the changeover zone in Friday's first round. Organizers later reinstated them, citing an official's error.
SEE MORE: U.S. mixed 4x400m relay initially DQs in prelims
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Notably absent from the U.S. relay roster was six-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix, who was a part of the Americans' winning relay team in 2019 and is set to compete in the women's individual 400 meters on Tuesday in her fifth and final Games.
SEE MORE: U.S. mixed 4x400m team reinstated after prelims DQ
The event, which features two men and two women per team and made its World Championships debut in 2019, contains a certain level of unpredictability as there are no gender rules governing the order in which athletes choose to race.
Poland had experimented with its lineup in the Doha title race, placing men in the first two legs, but they finished fifth. The team opted to place its two women competitors in the middle legs of Saturday's race, as did the other eight teams.
Copyright NBC Olympics – Tokyo


Kevin Fagan and Erin Allday Oct. 3, 2018 Updated: Oct. 4, 2018 9:40 p.m.
Two years after voters approved billions of dollars to fund low-income homes around California, affordable-housing advocates are upping the ante big-time — with two statewide bond measures on the Nov. 6 ballot to raise a record-breaking $6 billion for housing for struggling families, veterans and severely mentally ill people.
If they pass, the two measures would generate the most money ever approved by statewide voters for affordable and supportive housing in California.
So far, no organized opposition has emerged for Proposition 1, which would create a $4 billion bond for loans, construction and preservation of rental housing for families and loans to veterans for the purchase of homes and farms.
Neither is there any organized campaign against Proposition 2, which would divert $2 billion from the state's 14-year-old Mental Health Services Act — the 1 percent tax on millionaires created by Proposition 63 — toward building supportive housing for people with severe mental illness who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.
Proponents are so optimistic about the two bonds, plus six similar local measures in the Bay Area that would raise an additional $1 billion total, that they are calling this "The Year of Affordable Housing." Both need just over 50 percent approval to pass — and the same advocates were key to 2016's passage of $3 billion in local affordable housing taxes and bonds throughout the state.
Proponents so far have raised about $3.4 million for campaigns for both measures.
He said that 10 years ago, the state spent $1.7 billion more annually than it does now for the type of funding Proposition 1 would generate — but that was erased by the recession, the expiration of several multi-billion-dollar state housing bonds and the elimination of billions of dollars in yearly statewide redevelopment money.
"The failure of the state to fund this type of housing has really made this necessary," Chiu said.
Amie Fishman, head of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, said the 2016 measures passed in Alameda and Santa Clara counties alone are already funding more than 2,000 affordable housing units, but that was just a start that needs to be capitalized upon. Studies show that more than half of all Californians spend more than the recommended 30 percent of their income on rent — and San Francisco, according to the financial advice site Walletwyse, has the highest average rent in the nation, at about $3,500 a month.
Fishman said Proposition 1 would pay for 50,000 low-cost homes for several categories of people including those with incomes of 60 percent or below of the area median income, and Proposition 2 would build 20,000 supportive housing units, which means housing with counseling on-site to help people with mental, drug or other challenges.
About one-third of all those homes are expected to be built in the Bay Area, and one of the more enthusiastic supporters of that prospect is San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
Mental health and homelessness are so intertwined that it is only logical that state money earmarked for treating people with mental illness also go toward housing those same people, say proponents of Proposition 2 — even though housing was not included in the Mental Health Services Act's goals when it passed in 2004.
A major supporter of Proposition 2 is Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who co-authored the actwhen he served in the Assembly and told The Chronicle back in 2004 before it passed that he wanted it to fund housing in addition to services. This new measure is meant to rectify the failure of that intent to be adequately articulated, he said.
All told, the Mental Health Services Act tax raises roughly $2 billion a year. But in some years, counties have had trouble spending all of that money. Proposition 2 would allow the sale of bonds to go toward supportive-housing construction, and use unspent Mental Health Services funds to pay off the bonds. About $130 million a year would go toward repaying the bonds.
National studies estimate that one-fourth of homeless people are mentally ill. The rate is closer to one in three in San Francisco. Many of those people have severe illnesses like schizophrenia, serious post-traumatic stress disorder or bipolar disorder. Services that help people with mental illness access health care are critical, but for many people safe, stable housing is a more important first step, say experts in public health and homelessness.
This isn't the first effort to use the act's money in this way: In 2016, state legislators passed a bill to put $2 billion from the Mental Health Services Act toward supportive housing. But a Sacramento lawyer sued, arguing that the state needed voter approval to use that money for housing instead of services. That lawsuit has not yet been decided.
The backers of Proposition 2 opted not to wait on the outcome of the suit and to bring the matter to voters instead.
Proposition 2 opponents argue that money raised by the Mental Health Services Act needs to go not toward buildings, but to exactly what the name implies: services.
Housing is incredibly important, said Douglas Dunn with National Alliance on Mental Illness Contra Costa, a patient- and family-advocacy group. But housing for people with serious mental illness must come with supportive services, and Proposition 2 would cut into funding for such services, Dunn said.
However, Linda Mandolini, president of Eden Housing in Hayward, says Proposition 2 does, in fact, pay for not just construction of housing, but services for people who need them. Supportive housing by definition, she said, must include on-site programs like counseling and case management.


Most executives will hear the Agile buzzword and ask their teams to "do this agile thing." For many executives, Agile only means: Do it even faster than before. Deliver whenever I want it. Don't question when I want to change it.
True "Agility" is a much deeper change and most enterprises will underestimate the amount of change they will experience when they adopt Agile. There are several deep-rooted habits that have to be kicked and some new ones have to be embraced.
While there are many organizations that claim to be an Agile enterprise, very few actually behave like one. But what exactly goes into making an Agile enterprise? An Internet search reveals a lot of marketing pitches, but not a lot of guidance about how to become one.
In our observation, there are a number of characteristics that go into the successful making of an Agile enterprise. So here are some views about what an Agile enterprise looks like.
It all starts at the top. The senior executives understand what Agility means and lead by example.
They will not hesitate to make strategic decisions whenever the time is right and not just in "strategy summits" where a chosen few executives make plans for the rest of the organization for a year or more.
They make clear priority calls whenever required. They do not start several initiatives all at once, keeping the amount of work in the system at a reasonable level.
Prioritization is always based on potential to create customer value. Other considerations (like preferences of the team, opinions and political pulls) play second fiddle.
They understand that nothing is delivered perfectly the first time. They encourage teams to experiment. Rather than bully teams into building the perfect product with ridiculous deadlines, they encourage them to unlock value quickly by delivering incrementally.
They realize the final solution and product can only be arrived at through a process of experimentation and use of iterative methods. They encourage their teams to take risks and make it safe to fail sometimes.
The organization focuses on products rather than projects.
They don't try to optimize for project delivery. Instead, they focus on the product-related business case (because products will last several years, whereas projects are ephemeral).
They frequently question the business case of the product even during the projects that occur during its life-cycle. They will gracefully exit products which no longer make business sense.
The organization embraces a Lean culture. They apply Lean principles and embody the philosophy of continuous improvement.
They frequently stop to fix problems, rather than quickly apply band-aid fixes.
They encourage the teams to look for improvement opportunities to reduce "waste". Most of the incremental improvements come from the team, rather than top-down.
They work on a few things at a time and complete them, rather than leave too much work on the table.
Their teams are cross-functional, able to cut across silos and truly collaborate to unlock value for their customers through high quality products and services.
Disagreements and conflicts are always resolved by focusing on "how does this increase customer value?" rather than political positioning.
Before demanding something from other departments, each department first focuses inwards and comes up with constructive suggestions.
Everybody's incentives are governed more by their contribution to overall customer value rather than their individual output.
They are completely transparent with their stakeholders, especially their employees who feel empowered and valued.
Across the organization, everybody is aware of what "customer value" really means and they strive to maximize it.
Their plans are realistic rather than aggressive. They know that keeping everybody busy is less important than ensuring that they all contribute to building value.
They do not lull the customer into false sense of security. They willingly share information about potential risk factors. They offer a high-level roadmap and a detailed, short-term plan to recognize the uncertain nature of the business.
They never hide bad news from their customers. They willingly admit mistakes or slippages and always offer a plan to make it better rather than blame others or the environment.
Many of the above might seem to be platitudes – "motherhood and apple pie" statements. To ensure that they do not just remain in policy documents or on the walls, it is important to develop indicators and measures for each statement that will prove that either you are meeting the requirements or that you are not.
What we are talking about is a "balanced scorecard" for an Agile enterprise. Of course, each organization is unique and the scorecards will be different for each organization.
For more information about how to build one for your organization, do get in touch with us.
Sandeep Shouche (PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSP, [ASM.EN], ITIL Expert, PRINCE2) is an expert in the areas of project, program management, Agile methodologies and IT Service Management. He has over 24 years of project management experience in different industries and geographies. Sandeep has been on the Board of the Project Management Institute – Pune Chapter. He has authored and been featured in several articles and conferences related to project and program Management. Outside of work, Sandeep is deeply committed to voluntary work for social causes and has a profound love of the mountains.
One of the best articles to shape agile mindeset for Organizational Agility.
Thank you for sharing it Mr. Sandeep.
Too good article to understand Agile concept organization and ledership views towards the continuous imporvements.
Sandeep, Thanks for sharing. You outline the key items related for organizations to transforming to Agile development. I agree that it requires a change in the cultural mindset that starts with top executives. I also found it is easier to start transforming in phases with certain products and their successes will help fuel adoption.