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Jane Heller
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
TV Tie-In
Press Materials/Three Blonde Mice
Best Enemies
Publisher: Diversion Books
Available in: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook
Barnes & NobleAmazonKobo
By Martha Liebrum
Jane Heller polishes Chick Lit formula
If you are a reader of Chick Lit, you know what it is. It comes in books by Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones's Diary) or Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City) or Plum Sykes (Bergdorf Blondes).
And now comes the less heralded but extremely successful Jane Heller, who is the Stephen King of Chick Lit and exults on her Web site JaneHeller.com, "Another spring, another new book!"
In case you are not so familiar with Chick Lit, we will go down the checklist for same:
Heroine is 22-40ish, spunky and smart.
She works in publishing.
She is New York City stylish and either wears, or is very close to people who wear, $500 Jimmy Choo shoes.
She is carried along by forces for both good and evil by her buoyant spirit and oddball group of friends and co-workers.
The book jacket features women's legs.
I did not make up these criteria, mind you, they were prepared by a correspondent for National Public Radio who in April discussed Chick Lit and the much tinier subspecies Lad Lit. Heller's Best Enemies meets all the criteria for this currently very hot-selling form of fiction, and you should definitely add it to your carryall this summer when you head for the beach.
Do not think this will insult Heller. On her Web site she announces her joy at having one of her books included among 150 in a contest promotion called "Get Caught Reading at Sea," which honors the "joys of reading by the pool." Heller's site says, "The six-month campaign will culminate in a seven-day cruise on the Carnival Elation, October 17-24, during which authors and readers will sail out of Galveston, Texas, to the Western Caribbean." (This may confirm what was recently suggested by an anti-Chick Lit reviewer who said haughtily that actual Chick Lit sells best in America's "flyover regions.")
While NPR credits Fielding with being the godmother of Chick Lit, I must insist that Heller get her due. A former book publicist, Heller figured out the magic formula and has produced a novel a year since Cha Cha Cha in 1994. Best Enemies is her 11th, and she already has her 12th ready for next year.
Three of her previous books have been optioned for movies, and a fourth has a TV deal. Heller invites her fans to participate in cybercasting the upcoming movies. So … hmmmm … who would play the two leads in Best Enemies?
In this outing we have a spunky brunette book publicist named Amy Sherman who has lived in the shadow of her former best friend Tara Messer, a tall, gorgeous blonde. They were very tight until Amy found Tara in bed with her fiance, the feckless Stuart. The friendship is so over. Tara marries Stuart because he's handsome and very rich.
Amy has moved on in her career, and though she's jealous when she hears that Stuart and Tara live in "an enormous Tudor in Mamaroneck … on the water … with a guest house … and a pool and cabana," she's working on that. As her shrink reminds her: "Focus on you, Amy, on what you want out of life."
Amy's doing pretty well with that until she accidentally runs into Tara on a New York street (accidents are the things that move this book along). Amy can't resist dressing up her current situation by telling Tara she has a fiance, which she doesn't, of course. Tara asks who's the lucky guy?
" `No one you know,' " I said, not bothering to mention that he was no one I knew, either."
This is the sort of smart-alecky humor that appears on every page of Heller's book.
Amy feels a little guilty about the lie, but not as guilty as she will come to feel after another amazing coincidence. She is called in for a very important assignment: handling publicity for a new lifestyle book by "the next Martha Stewart." The book is about how to create a beautiful life with inner peace and appropriately expensive candles. And the author is the beautiful and happily rich Tara Messer.
Let the games begin: Amy has to arrange TV interviews for and listen to the philosophy of her old nemesis, who has been paid a mid-six-figure advance. Worse, Tara won't rest until Amy brings her fiance to her house for dinner.
Naturally, the truth won't do. So Amy rounds up a fake fiance. This one turns out to be a handsome (what else?) if grumpy Famous Writer for whom she pretends an interest in cars, sports and wine. She drags him to Tara's, having first primed Tara and Stuart not to mention the engagement, which they agree to. And that's important, because she hasn't told the Famous Writer about the fake engagement, either.
Of course, outrageous activities ensue. Tara's beautiful life turns out not to be quite as advertised. Stuart makes some disastrous business decisions, then disappears. Tara and Amy unite to drag him back so they can fake the beautiful life long enough for the book's publicity campaign. And the pretend fiance falls for Amy.
OK, who should play them in the movie? Small handsome brunette — how about Janeane Garofalo? Tall gorgeous blonde. Uma Thurman? Oh, wait, they already made that movie, The Truth about Cats and Dogs. Oh, well, I'm sure the fans will come up with something.
Cosmopolitan Magazine
Red Hot Summer Read
When PR whiz Amy Sherman runs into Tara Messer, the wench who ran off with her fiance, she puts a happy spin on her life and claims she's getting married. Amy's bogus story bites her in the ass when she's hired to promote Tara's book. Watching her wiggle out of her lie makes for a flat-out funny read.
Reviewed by Jocelyn Kelley
What do you do if you find your fiance and your best friend/maid of honor in a "compromising" position just days before your wedding? If you are Amy Sherman, the star of Jane Heller's most recent novel BEST ENEMIES, you throw them both out of your life and vow never to look back. Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try to forget your past, life has a funny way of forcing it back into your present.
Best friends Amy Sherman and Tara Messer are now the worst of enemies after Amy catches her fiance, Stuart Lasher, in bed with Tara. While Amy had always been the thoughtful, hardworking plain Jane, Tara was the beautiful, confident, homecoming queen. Losing her fiance to the one woman whose shadow she had always lived in was devastating to Amy. She decided that focusing on her career in publishing and pushing the betrayal out of her mind would help her move on in life and in love.
However, years later, Amy, now a publicist for the large publishing house Lowery and Trammel, is unexpectedly reunited with Tara when she learns she has to publicize her new book, SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL. The theme of Tara's book is her perfect life with her perfect husband Stuart. Things could not get any worse for Amy until she lies to Tara about having moved on from the heartbreak with Stuart straight into the arms of a loving man who has now become her fiance. Now, Amy not only has to willingly parade Tara around and turn SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL into a bestseller, but she also has to make a fiance appear magically before Tara's perfectly beautiful, flawless face.
Amy tries to turn one of America's most reclusive mystery authors into her stand-in fiance without him knowing of her complicated plan. The twists and turns that Amy must face in trying to keep up the facade are hilarious and unpredictable. Amy is one of the most likable, intelligent and honest characters in women's fiction. The majority of the novel is from Amy's point of view, but three quarters of the way through the book we are introduced to Tara's thoughts and feelings and no longer see her as the villain. We begin to see that no matter how perfect a life looks from the outside, everyone has secrets that they try to keep hidden from others. Tara may be beautiful and live a "simply beautiful" life, but sadness and betrayal lurk beneath her perfect surface.
BEST ENEMIES explores the complex relationship between female friends. Heller allows us to see that there are always two sides of a story and when it comes to matters of the heart, no one is ever completely innocent. In rediscovering their discarded friendship, Tara and Amy learn that the dramas of life affect everyone equally, and it is all about how you handle what is thrown your way that defines your character and turns you into the person you are meant to be. Throw in an unexpected romance, a missing person and some members of the Russian mob, and you have a great novel by a great author. BEST ENEMIES is impossible to put down and is the best addition to your summer reading list.
What if your best friend turned into your worst enemy?
Is it legal to kill someone who has sex with your fiance right before your wedding? Is it a little bit legal? Amy Sherman would like to know. She walked in on Tara Messer, naked and straddling an equally naked Stuart (admittedly an unimpressive sight – hunkalicious he is not) just as Tara shouted, "Take me home!" Four years later, Amy's still sulking, while Tara and Stuart decorate a Mamaroneck mansion with tchotchkes bright and beautiful when not rolling around in the millions he makes running the family chain of gourmet grocery stores. Moving right along, Amy, a publicist for Lowry & Trammel, a New York publishing company, is not exactly thrilled with her new assignment: drumming up interest in Tara's book of self-help advice for miserable women everywhere. Simply Beautiful is a shoo-in for the bestseller lists, even if it's mostly recycled stuff swiped from others – hey, just like the way Tara swiped Stuart, Amy muses. In a fit of pique, Amy makes up an imaginery fiance just so her life won't seem utterly pathetic compared to that of her former friend. But then – yikes! – Tara, disgustingly gracious, invites her and the nonexistent fiance to dinner, so she's going to need a real one. One quick look at the self-appointed office studs and Amy's ready to look elsewhere. How about mystery author Tony Stiles? He's tall, sexy, and breathing – he'll do. Segue to Tara's POV and deep, dark secret: Stuart is a prize jerk and compulsive womanizer who's mixed up with the Russian mob in a caviar-importing scheme. She's far from happy and her life is far from perfect, but she's determined to do something good for Amy. Another trip down the aisle awaits them both, but the roles – and the rules – are about to be reversed.
Funny, clear-eyed look at female friendship from the prolific Heller.
Amy Sherman, a 30-year-old publicity director, has always played second fiddle to her best friend from high school, Tara Messer. The blond prom queen who always got what she wanted, Tara stole Amy's fiance, but that was four years ago. Amy is finally getting over it, thanks in part to her expensive therapist. It isn't until Amy runs into Tara on the street that things start to fall apart. When Tara inquires into Amy's love life, Amy lies, telling her that she is getting married in six months. Unfortunately for Amy, Tara has just written a "lifestyle" book that Amy's publishing house has acquired. Since they will be working closely together for the foreseeable future, Amy must come up with a pseudo-fiance to save face. In the end, neither Amy nor Tara is leading the life that she would have the other believe. Although the novel is told mostly from Amy's perspective, Tara gets a few chapters, too. Heller's latest takes an interesting look at what can happen when honesty takes a backseat to appearances and how true friendship can be born of animosity. Recommended.
Amy Sherman is pretty; Tara Messer is a beauty. Amy has a nice Manhattan apartment; Tara's suburban Tudor castle boasts an actual turret. Amy was engaged to Stuart Lasher, who took maid of honor Tara to bed and then to the altar. Now Tara has chronicled her perfect lifestyle in a book called Simply Beautiful, about to be published by Lowry and Trammell where her editor plans to make her the next Martha Stewart, without the baggage, and where Amy is publicity director. Can you spell delicious conflict? Heller (Lucky Stars) goes for the laughs and gets them, but there's more here than meets the funny bone. Just when the reader is ready to kill the perfidious Tara (perhaps by beating her to death with accessories and garnishes), Heller switches out of Amy's point of view and into Tara's. It turns out Tara's a real person, too. And she's in trouble. It seems she did Amy a favor by stealing Stuart, who grabs every passing ass and may bring down the family business with a fake caviar scheme. And it isn't Tara who's pregnant with Stuart's baby. Meanwhile, in another switcheroo, Amy's got a great romance budding with Tony Stiles, the gorgeous mystery author. Of course, they're only pretending to pretend to be in love — Amy to save face (she told Tara she was engaged) and Tony to research relationships — and things are going swimmingly. Though the happy ending is a sure thing, getting there is fabulous fun. Heller makes a familiar story read as brand new, thanks to a rich humanity abetted by smart dialogue, zippy pacing and all-around craft.
Forecast: With three movie deals last year alone (for Name Dropping, The Secret Ingredient and Lucky Stars), bestseller Heller is big and looks only to get bigger.
Show Inspiration
It was my editor at St. Martin's, Jennifer Enderlin, who said during one of our brainstorming sessions, "You've covered sisters in Sis Boom Bah and married couples in The Secret Ingredient and mothers and daughters in Lucky Stars. How about writing about best friends this time?" She went on to describe how she had always played the role of second fiddle to her more beautiful and popular best friend when they were growing up, and how that feeling of being "less than" really stays with you, no matter how much you achieve in your adult life. I started thinking about that – about how we revert back to the roles we played in our youth; how we can't help wanting to show people how well we turned out when we go to our high school and college reunions; how the insecurities we carried around as kids seem to rear their heads when we're confronted by people we perceive as "better." And so I came up with Amy Sherman, a publicist in New York City, who is a success by anyone's standards – until she's forced to measure herself against her gorgeous former best friend, Tara Messer. She was betrayed by Tara once, and now all she can think about is payback. But when she falls in love with the very man she's using as the key to her payback, she leaves herself vulnerable to Tara's betrayal yet again. What Best Enemies is about, then, is overcoming the difficulties of the past, and trying to make peace with them. In the end, that's what all my books are about: making peace with the past and accepting people as they are.
Show the First Chapter
Two weeks before I was to be married in front of a hundred and fifty guests on the lawn of a precious little country inn in Connecticut, I caught my fiance in bed with another woman. To add insult to injury, the woman was my best friend. To add further insult to injury, she was the one on top when I walked in on them midcoitus. She was crying out, "Take me home, Hondo!" even though my fiance's name was the far less studly-sounding Stuart, and she was riding him as if he were a horse, even though he is hung like a very small dog.
They were both horrified when they discovered me standing in the doorway of the bedroom Stuart and I had shared — they must have assumed it would take longer for the dentist to tame the inflammation I'd developed in my lower left gum, a condition brought about by the stress of the wedding, according to Dr. Ronald Glick, D.D.S. Stuart tried to say something to me but could only stammer, being the gutless wonder that he is, and I tried to say something to him but could only lisp, thanks to Dr. Glick's liberal use of novocaine. My best friend, on the other hand, though clearly upset (she was the one who burst out crying, while I was too catatonic to shed even a single tear), was able to speak for the two of them. She climbed off of Stuart, covered herself modestly with the bed-sheet (never mind that I had seen her naked in countless department store dressing rooms over the years), and went on and on about how much they both cared about me and respected me and thought I was special, but that, in the end, they couldn't deny that they had fallen in love. "I swear we never meant to hurt you, Amy," she added between sobs. "These things happen."
Well, she was right, as it turns out; these things do happen. Statistics show that when a man strays, the person he most often strays with is the best friend of the person he strays from. I don't know why this is, other than that men are lazy. Why should they go out of their way to hunt for someone to cheat with when their beloved's gal pal is right there in plain sight? The more puzzling question is: Why does the gal pal go for it? Are women really so desperate to find a guy that they can't just say no in sticky situations? Can't summon up some good old-fashioned willpower? Can't tell him, "Look, big boy, I'm lonely and I'm horny and, if you must know, I'm a little envious that my best friend has a man and I don't, but I take the friendship seriously, so get lost? Is that really asking too much?
"Stuart was planning to talk to you tonight," she continued as I leaned against the wall so I wouldn't fall down. "He was going to tell you that he was having doubts, that he couldn't marry you knowing he had feelings for me, that he had to call off the wedding. It wasn't supposed to be like this. You weren't supposed to walk in and find us together. Oh, please, please try to understand, Amy. I know you must be dying inside-how could you not be?-but hopefully, after some time and distance, you'll come to accept the situation and forgive us."
I looked at Stuart, who had forgotten to cover himself with the sheet and whose privates had shriveled to giblets. I hated him for his treachery; hated him because he was jilting me at the altar, give or take a few days; hated him because he was forcing me to rethink every minute we'd ever spent together. But in time, I did forgive him-well, not forgive him, exactly, but I did stop fantasizing about his death. I realized that he had done me a favor by dumping me; that I'd never really loved him, either.
It was my best friend I couldn't forgive, she who became the object of my enmity. How could she have done it? How could this seemingly decent, although self-absorbed, human being have done this dirty rotten thing to me?
As I staggered out of the bedroom that day, my mind ran a little black- and-white montage of the highlights of our friendship, sort of a quickie golden oldies reel. There we were as ten-year-olds, comparing the haircuts our mothers made us get for summer camp. There we were as thirteen- year-olds, discussing braces and pimples and whether tongue-kissing a boy was great or gross. There we were as sixteen-year-olds, comforting each other over our mutual failure to pass our driving test the first time around. There we were as eighteen-year-olds, graduating from high school and promising to stay friends, even though our colleges were three thousand miles apart.
We did stay friends through our twenties, although not with the same intensity. As we moved into adulthood, we got jobs, made new friends, and discovered we didn't have as much in common as we did when we were kids, but we continued to get together on a regular basis because, no matter what, we shared a history. You can't just write off the person who taught you how to inhale cigarette smoke up your nose, after all.
And so, while there were other women I saw more often, it was she whom I'd considered my best friend, she whom I'd asked to be my maid of honor at my wedding, she whom I'd trusted above all others. It was she whose betrayal sent me careening into therapy, which I paid for by selling my diamond engagement ring.
For three years, I spent Tuesdays at noon on the cracked leather sofa of Marianne Ettlinger, a Manhattan psychologist who is not of the old school, where the shrink just sits there and nods, but of the new school, where the shrink tells you so much about her own problems that you're tempted to remind her it's your dime. Her chattiness aside, Marianne is wise and smart and extremely compassionate. She helped me conquer my demons. She helped me let go of my feelings of rage. She helped me understand that there had always lurked a pattern in my relationship with my best friend, a pattern of my giving and her taking, but that I couldn't get on with my life unless I abandoned my obsession with exacting revenge. I pledged that I would do just that-stop obsessing about paying my best friend back-even after I'd heard from various high school classmates that she and Stuart had gotten married and moved into an enormous Tudor in Mamaroneck … on the water . . . with a guest house . . . and a pool and cabana. Talk about hard to stomach. Part of me still wanted her to suffer, not prosper, but Marianne and I worked on that. "Focus on you, Amy, on what you want out of life, not on how your life compares to hers," she said during a break in her anecdote about her ongoing rivalry with her sister. "It doesn't matter how she and Stuart are faring. What matters is how you're faring and whether you feel centered." Marianne was big on the notion of feeling centered. When I left her office after our final session, I did feel centered-but only temporarily.
What happened to throw me off center was this: On a prematurely warm Saturday afternoon in April, the very weekend after I'd ended my therapy, I ran into my best friend. I hadn't seen her in nearly four years, not since the day she was straddling Stuart, and I was undone, absolutely caught off guard. For one thing, Marianne and I hadn't rehearsed what I would do or say if such an occasion arose. For another, my hair was filthy, since I'd just come from a strenuous workout at the gym, I wasn't wearing makeup, and I was in midbite of the bagel and cream cheese I'd picked up at Starbucks, the cream cheese, no doubt, smeared across my front teeth. And so when my best friend approached me, looking incredible (perfect clothes, perfect jewelry, perfect everything), there was good news and bad news about my behavior. The good news was that, thanks to my therapy, I did not feel the urge to slap her across the face or hit her over the head with my backpack or stomp on her five-hundred-dollar Jimmy Choo shoes, nor was I moved to give her the silent treatment or hurl obscenities at her. The bad news was that, although physical and verbal abuse were out of the question, I felt compelled to do something to her. I'm embarrassed about what I did, sure, but it felt right at the time. Well, not "right," of course, but satisfying, like an itch that got scratched.
"Amy, how are you?" my best friend said in that way people say it when what they mean is: How do you manage to get up in the morning, you poor, pitiful person?
"I'm great," I said, gulping down the mouthful of bagel and standing up straight. I wasn't great, but, up to that point, I'd been pretty good. I had a career and people to hang out with and enough money to take vacations in the Caribbean every now and then. There was only one thing missing: I wasn't in love with anybody, didn't have a steady, wasn't involved-a fact I had come to terms with but was suddenly, as I stood there facing down the woman who'd stolen my man, regarding as a spectacular source of shame.
"I'm happy to hear that," she said. "You know, I thought about calling you a thousand times, but I didn't have your number, didn't even know where you lived." I told her that I lived in a two-bedroom apartment in a doorman building on East Seventeenth Street between Third Avenue and Irving Place. I also told her I was the publicity director at Lowry and Trammell, the publishing company that had just released the autobiography of Ozzy Osbourne's wife.
"You work at Lowry and Trammell?" she repeated. "That's an amazing coincidence, because-" She stopped herself. Perhaps she was about to brag about having slept with Ozzy Osbourne before deciding to sleep with my fiance instead. "So you're doing okay, Amy? You really are?"
Well, now she was pissing me off, because it was obvious she still felt sorry for me, still viewed me as this pathetic creature who couldn't hold on to a prize like Stuart.
"I'm doing more than okay," I said, trying not to sound defensive, even though I could hear the slight edge in my voice.
"I'm glad. So am I," she said, and out came the gory details: the waterfront estate, the famous interior designer she'd hired to "do" the house, Stuart's fabulous job as chief operating officer of his family's chain of gourmet food markets, her fabulous job as the host of some obscure local radio show in Westchester County, and-this was the worst-their recent decision to "get us pregnant." I was puking, mentally.
"But enough about me," she said with a hearty laugh, as if she honestly thought I would laugh, too. "How's your love life? Are you seeing anyone?"
I couldn't say no. I just couldn't. Not only did I not want her to rush back to Stuart with the headline that I was still pining for him but, as I indicated, I felt the need to do something to her, to punch her without punching her, scream at her without screaming at her, hurt her the way she'd hurt me. And so I answered her question by telling her a big fat lie. Marianne would have termed what I did passive-aggressive and ordered me back into therapy for another three years, but, therapy or no therapy, I had to show my best enemy that I was doing just as well as she was, that I had rebounded courageously in the romance department, despite the vicious blow she'd dealt me.
"You bet I'm seeing somebody," I said with a smile and a jaunty toss of my head. "I'm engaged." Oh, why not, I figured. I'll never see her again after today, so the lie can't come back to haunt me.
"That's wonderful," she said in a tone that felt patronizing, even if it wasn't intended to be. "When's the wedding?"
"In six months," I announced. "I'm very excited."
"Of course you are," she said. "Who's the lucky guy?"
"No one you know," I said, not bothering to mention that he was no one I knew, either.
We made a few more attempts at chitchat-she actually suggested we have lunch sometime, if you can imagine it-but no phone numbers were exchanged, and after an awkward beat or two, we went our separate ways.
It occurs to me that I've neglected to tell you the name of my former best friend. It's Tara. Tara Messer. As I walked away from her that day, I smiled to myself, replaying her look of surprise when I'd told her I was getting married. She'd lied to me and now I'd lied to her, and it felt like justice, the kind women understand. Tit for tit, if you will. But justice implies an ending, and I don't want to mislead you: The story of my tortured relationship with Tara is just beginning.
Jane's 11th novel, Best Enemies, is the story of two former best friends who run into each other after a long estrangement. It's a very funny tale that proves there are two sides to every friendship…
Amy Sherman is doing just fine – nice apartment in Manhattan, good job as publicity director at a publisher, decent social life – until she runs into Tara Messer, the beautiful blonde prom queen who was once her best friend. It's been four years since Tara stole Stuart Lasher, Amy's fiance – four years since Amy swore she'd stop playing second fiddle to spotlight-hog Tara. But when Tara, who is now blissfully married to Stuart, asks whether she's dating anyone, Amy can't bear to admit there's no man in her life. Instead, she claims she's getting married in six months, figuring the lie will never come back to haunt her. The next day, Amy learns that her publishing house has just acquired Tara's lifestyle book. Now, she not only has to promote her nemesis to the media, she also has to dig up a temporary Mr. Right to show off in front of Tara and Stuart. In desperation, she turns to bestselling mystery writer Tony Stiles, who has no idea what he's in for. And in the course of playing a game of payback, Amy finds herself vulnerable to yet another betrayal. As hilarious as it is romantic, Best Enemies is a cautionary tale about trying to keep up appearances, even with the person who knows you best.
Series: Romantic Comedy
I'd love to hear from you! Contact me!
About Jane Heller
Jane Heller is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her fourteen breezy, witty novels of romantic comedy and suspense are now entertaining millions of readers around the world, along with her two books of nonfiction.
Copyright © 2023 Jane Heller


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International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) had its price objective raised by equities research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $140.00 to $150.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, The Fly reports. The firm presently has an "overweight" rating on the specialty chemicals company's stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s price target points to a potential upside of 5.81% from the company's current price.
IFF has been the subject of several other reports. Berenberg Bank downgraded International Flavors & Fragrances from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $133.00 in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Co upped their price target on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $160.00 to $150.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays reiterated a "sell" rating on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $171.00 to $163.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. International Flavors & Fragrances currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $144.80.
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Shares of IFF stock opened at $141.77 on Friday. The stock's 50-day moving average is $130.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $130.94. The firm has a market cap of $15.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.57 and a beta of 0.88. International Flavors & Fragrances has a 1 year low of $104.86 and a 1 year high of $152.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 2.05.
International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.54 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.29 billion. International Flavors & Fragrances had a net margin of 7.59% and a return on equity of 10.39%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 39.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.64 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that International Flavors & Fragrances will post 6.18 EPS for the current year.
In other news, insider Nicolas Mirzayantz sold 929 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.96, for a total value of $110,513.84. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,536 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,989,442.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,781 shares of company stock valued at $350,815. Company insiders own 0.39% of the company's stock.
Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dundas Partners LLP increased its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dundas Partners LLP now owns 77,775 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $11,283,000 after acquiring an additional 1,025 shares in the last quarter. Hikari Power Ltd purchased a new position in International Flavors & Fragrances in the second quarter valued at approximately $474,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 24.6% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 4,096 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $594,000 after buying an additional 809 shares during the period. Voya Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 9.9% during the third quarter. Voya Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 2,942 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $355,000 after buying an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC lifted its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 4.3% during the second quarter. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC now owns 25,284 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $3,668,000 after buying an additional 1,044 shares in the last quarter. 94.24% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
International Flavors & Fragrances Company Profile
International Flavors & Fragrances Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures flavors and fragrances for use in various consumer products. It operates through three segments: Taste, Scent, and Frutarom. The Taste segment offers flavor compounds primarily to the food and beverage industries for use in consumer products, such as prepared foods, beverages, dairy, food, and sweet products.
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Slack (NYSE:WORK) Forecasted to Earn FY2022 Earnings of ($0.18) Per Share
Yext (NYSE:YEXT) Price Target Cut to $20.00
Occidental Petroleum Co. Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts
FedEx Co. Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages
Analysts Set GrubHub Inc Target Price at $48.94
Carnival Corp Receives $49.60 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages
Hecla Mining Receives $2.37 Consensus PT from Brokerages
Sabra Health Care REIT Inc Receives $22.25 Consensus Target Price from Analysts
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Jeremiah Campbell is new to the Boys and Girls Club organization, but certainly not new to service work within the community. Jeremiah's desire to see youth reach their full potential began at an early age helping run his mother's daycare. Later in life Jeremiah continued impacting young lives through his work with youth groups, substance abuse counseling, and speaking on the dangers of substance abuse in schools. Most recently Jeremiah was the director of the Lufkin Dream Center where he ran the substance abuse treatment facility which impacted the community through drug and alcohol abuse awareness and service projects.


text:
Home » Politics » Tory says 'I'd want to kill myself if I suffered a terminal illness'
Tory says 'I'd want to kill myself if I suffered a terminal illness'
Kit Malthouse, who served as Education Secretary under former Prime Minister Liz Truss, said he wants the law changed after watching relatives suffer. In an interview with GB News to be broadcast tonight, he said: "There was a member of my extended family, who died many years ago of multiple sclerosis, in horrible circumstances.
More closely, there was a death in my wife's family from breast cancer.
"Both of which reinforced in me the idea that, you know, if I were to face – if anyone were to face – those horrible circumstances, I'd at least like the choice."
A change in the law would probably involve allowing doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs for terminally ill people, which the patient would then take themselves.
Supporters of assisted dying also argue that there would be legal safeguards in place, to ensure the patient was mentally competent to make their own decisions.
Mr Malthouse said making assisted dying legal would provide peace of mind for people with terminal diseases even if they chose not to take up the option, because it would reduce the fear of suffering in the final stages of their life.
He said: "The vast majority of people who have a right to assisted dying don't actually use it."
Mr Malthouse also spoke about his "brutal" sacking by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after just 49 days in the education role, and said he refused to take an alternative government job partly because of his opposition to Mr Sunak's tax-raising plans.
He said: "It is a brutal game. I mean, look, he was very polite about it, and I was offered another position, but it wasn't something that I wanted to do.
"And I don't think it's any secret that over the previous year there had been a kind of divergence of view, should we say, about economic policy."
He said Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's recent Autumn statement was a "difficult budget for somebody like me, who spent their entire political existence dedicated to low tax."
The MP said: "My total philosophy was about leaving as much money as possible in the pockets of the people that we served, so they can make their own choices."
"Gloria Meets…" is on GB News from 6pm on Sundays
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Lic Bima Kiran plan was INTRODUCED ON – 15/07/1994 and WITHDRAWN ON- 18/02/2002.
Bima Kiran policy is a Term assurance plan which is especially designed to fulfill the need of young men and women.
Bima Kiran policy introduces, built in accident benefit, free insurance cover after maturity and loyalty addition along with low premium with high risk cover. As it is a Term assurance plan, only sum assured is paid as death claim, if policy kept in force as on death date.
MODE OF PAYMENTS: Yearly, Half-yearly,Quarterly, SSS except Monthly.
Sum assured rebate is not available in Lic Bima kiran policy.
Death cover is not repaid as maturity claim, because maturity claim differs from death cover.
If policy is lapsed and if death occurs with in 5 years then, nothing is payable.
If death of life insured occurs after giving free insurance cover, but within 10 years of maturity date then, only free insurance cover is paid as death claim.
Loyalty addition is paid along with maturity claim based on completed policy term or premiums paid fully for ppt.
In Bima Kiran plan Double Accident Benefit/EPDB is available . It is inbuilt in instalment premium and exclusive of the maximum limit of DAB. PDB is not included in Accident benefit.
Lic Bima Kiran plan do not acquire Guaranteed Surrender Value ( GSV ).
As per policy conditions and being term assurance plan Paid up value is not available.
Lic Bima Kiran plan will not acquire any SSV during first 5 years of policy.
In Lic Bima Kiran plan if policies are lapsed due to discontinuity of premiums with in days of grace, policies can be revived with in 6 months from the due date of FUP by paying dues of premiums with interest. Health evidence is not required.
On survival, sum equivalent to premiums paid including accident premiums except other extras are payable on surviving the term.
On unfortunate death during the policy term, payment of Rs. 1000 along with loyalty addition(35% of premiums paid for 20 years policy term) and if any is done.
Kindly confirm the Total maturity amount.
Kinly confirm the Total maturity amount.
Policy No. 433680787 Dt.11.08.2000 , Table No.111-20 ,policy Qtrly -Rs.334/-. Maturity dtd. 11/08/2020 Kinly confirm the Total maturity amt.
sum assured 50000. how much maturity amount.


Xiaomi is first and foremost a smartphone manufacturer, and quite a successful one at that. This company was introduced back in 2010, and they've managed to become the number one smartphone manufacturer at the beginning of last year, which is quite an achievement for a company that is less than 5 years old, especially considering China was, and is, the largest smartphone market in the world. That being said, Xiaomi is not only a smartphone manufacturer, they're also a software developing company, and they manufacture all kinds of other smart gadgets, such as tablets, security tech, air purifiers, smart scales... etc.
This company has introduced the Xiaoyi Ants Smart camera for surveillance last year, a camera that was quite affordable, though it was manufactured for the Chinese market. Anyhow, we were wondering when will Xiaomi introduces its successor, and that has just happened. The company has unveiled the XIaoyi Small Ants 2 smart camera in China. This camera can capture a fullHD (1920 x 1080) video at 25FPS, which is an improvement over original, considering the fact the original camera was limited to shooting 720p video. This camera ships with a 130-degree wide angle lens with f/2.0 aperture, and it uses a CMOS sensor from Panasonic, along with a new-gen S2LM image processing chip. Xiaomi has included the LDC distortion correction tech here, along with smartHDR technology. The Xiaoyi small ants 2 ships with 'Human Detection' feature, which is kind of self-explanatory, if a camera sports a human being in the room, it will alarm you. Now, this camera can perform all sorts of other actions, it can detect if someone raises a fist, for example. You can also use it as a baby monitor considering it has 'Baby Crying' feature as well, which will basically alarm you if a baby starts crying.
These are just some of the features built into this camera, it can also detect various other gestures, and has some extra features as well. On top of all this, Xiaomi is offering Ali cloud storage to those of you who purchase this cam, though keep in mind this model is also manufactured for the Chinese smartphone market, even though you'll be able to use it outside of China, of course. This camera will be available in China soon, and it will cost 399 Yuan ($61), in case you're interested.


text:
RADP / Pulse Kenya > News > metro
Video of man feeding whiskey to 3-year-old child lands 2 behind bars
Denis Mwangi
The video shared by Mike Sonko prompted the DCI to launch an investigation using specialized software to track online child offenders.
Screenshots from a video which circulated online showing an adult giving whiskey to a 3-year-old child.
The Child Protection Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Kenya has arrested two men, Edward Ndirangu Muhuka and Abdulmajid Hassan Arafat, after a video circulated online showing one of them giving whiskey to a 3-year-old child.
The video, shared by former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, prompted the DCI to launch an investigation using specialized software to track online child offenders.
"The detectives based at the DCI Academy in South B conducted a comprehensive analysis using their state of the art softwares for tracking online child offenders and unmasked the identity of the suspects," the DCI said in a statement.
Muhuka and Arafat were arrested in Thindigua and Pangani estates, respectively, in the early hours of the morning.
Edward Ndirangu Muhuka in court after he was arrested after a video circulated online showing him giving whiskey to a 3-year-old child Pulse Live Kenya
According to detectives, the two men had attended a Christmas party uninvited and behaved inappropriately after being shown kindness by the host.
The child's mother, who had retired to bed earlier in the evening, was awoken by concerned friends who had seen the video and alerted her.
Muhuka pleaded guilty to charges of failing to protect a child from drugs and substance abuse, while Arafat has pleaded not guilty.
The case will be mentioned on January 18, 2023, with the hearing date to be set at that time.
Arafat has been granted a bond of 200,000 Kenyan shillings and a surety of a similar amount.
The DCI thanked the public for their assistance in the case and praised the detectives for their work.
Abdulmajid Hassan Arafat was arrested and taken to court after a video circulated online showing an adult giving whiskey to a 3-year-old child. Pulse Live Kenya
In Kenya, it is illegal for minors to consume alcohol. According to the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act 2010, it is an offense for a person to sell, give, or supply alcoholic drinks to a person under the age of 18. It is also an offense for a person under the age of 18 to purchase, attempt to purchase, or consume alcoholic drinks.
Additionally, it is an offense for a person to allow a minor to consume alcohol on their premises, or to allow a minor to be in a licensed premises (such as a bar or nightclub) during the hours when alcoholic drinks are sold or consumed.
In addition the law also prohibits the abuse or neglect of children, including the abuse or neglect of children through the use of drugs or alcohol.
It is a criminal offense to expose a child to drugs or alcohol, or to fail to protect a child from drugs or alcohol.
DCIKenya
Denis Mwangi Denis is a highly professional and talented multimedia journalist with a solid experience in creating compelling news as well as distributing or delivering it using multiple digital platforms to engage readers.
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ERAF was established in 1996 as a manufacturing services provider attending to the needs of the military, commercial and industrial sectors. Currently, we can develop and supply a broad portfolio of land, naval and power systems, defense products, security and commercial applications. Our systems and products are installed on new and old platforms, and we also perform comprehensive platform modernization and upgrade programs. In addition, we provide a range of support services.
Many of these major activities have several common and related elements. Therefore, certain of our subsidiaries, divisions or other operating units often jointly conduct marketing, research and development, manufacturing, performance of programs, sales and after sales support among these major activities.
We believe that ERAF has the qualifications and experience that support the current vision of the kingdom. Our alliances with reputable international companies have been at the core of our operation allowing the flow of competitive knowledge through technology transfer. This warrant global competitive advances in the local defense industry. Saudization program in the company has been steadily progressing over the decades by ensuring that local engineers and technical staff are given the proper training and positions in the operations of the company.
We firmly believe in this vision and in do so, we are proud to affirm our support and dedication to continue striving in excellence for the benefit of all-party concern. The basic philosophy of ERAF is to react promptly to the specific request of the user, being strictly focused to meet the technical, tactical and operational requirements set by the user. The full satisfaction of the user by exploitation of our products is our permanent task.


Recommended Action: Approve the minutes of the November 20, 2012 meetings.
Recommended Action: It is recommended that the Planning Commission review the Draft Historic Context Statement and adopt a Resolution recommending that the City Council adopt the Draft Historic Context Statement.
Planning Commissioner 2013 schedule for ARC and HRC meetings.
Finding of substantial conformance for Planned Sign Program 12-003.


Big is not a precise word - it depends on perspective. You can hide an army of vagueness behind the word 'big.' With the amount of attention the term "big data" has been getting lately, the challenge is trying to add something of value to the subject and stay away from the ambiguous, fluffy marketing speak that often dominates conversations on the topic.
Big data is not new, but it is in the spotlight because we are generating more data than ever before on our tablets, smartphones and all the apps that power them. We are also generating data in new ways in a variety of structured and unstructured formats. Highly transactional GPS feeds, stock market information, and social media posts might be stored in the same database with large image and video files for instant analysis.
As we learn to extract information from these data sets, big data will soon become the new normal. Until then, having the speed to process these data sets at a pace that makes the information relevant is one of the biggest challenges or drivers around big data.
The variable of what constitutes 'big' could cover data set size, rate of change or growth, or complexity of relationship and structure, to name but a few metrics. Examining rate of change or speed in particular gives insight into some of the challenges around big data. While CPU performance follows Moore's law, data storage system transaction performance has stagnated in comparison which leaves CPUs data processing potential sadly underutilised.
If you can't get data to and from the CPU at a fast enough rate, then the data to be analysed can back up, which could in turn lead to system failure. This is a common form of big data problem, and this problem can exist on numerous scales depending on the size of an organisation's infrastructure.
The main approach to solving this challenge has been to scale out hardware and software. Scale out has been very effective at solving the problem at a relatively affordable price point. Software has grown and developed around the assumption that the scale out building block is a server of some form that has CPU, RAM and some storage, and that storage is comparatively slow to the CPU. Due to the relatively inexpensive cost of servers, it has long been more affordable to buy another server than to try and increase the CPU efficiency by solving the data supply problem.
However, by using NAND flash as a memory tier and not restricting it behind disk protocols, CPU workloads can often increase by more than 10 times. By implementing flash as a memory tier, companies can host terabytes more data on high-performance memory in each server than would be possible (or affordable) with DRAM alone. Whilst some scale out may still be necessary, enterprises won't need to scale out on such a grand scale to accommodate the processing demands of big data.
This application acceleration approach allows many companies to scale current architectures beyond their originally intended workloads by a considerable amount, but eventually there is a limit. The next step in making the CPU to data store transaction more efficient in supporting big data would be to utilise NAND flash directly, bypassing redundant elements of the architecture using software designed interfaces.
A number of very innovative companies are now entering this brave new world, as they see the impressive benefits in both performance and efficiency. For example, block protocols are in simplistic terms, read a block, write a block of data, with very little or often no application awareness. By using NAND flash natively, application programmers can not only read or persist data in an application transaction (series of blocks) manner, but also do it faster and with much less code. NAND flash has only just started to deliver on its true potential after being wasted behind disk-based protocols for so long.
The benefit of these improvements in efficiencies is that companies can now perform up to 10 times the big data workload on the same system, meaning the need to scale out is dramatically reduced and performance improved. As companies' data sets continue to grow, the benefits will grow accordingly, as big data gets bigger and bigger.
Big data is really about big questions. To ask a big question, and get an answer in a useable timeframe in which there is a high degree of confidence, usually takes a very large data set and a complex model to run that set though.
This is very evident in the academic, financial and retail fields, where big questions are asked every day. Achieving this requires harnessing a balance between the power and potential efficiency of the CPU and persistent storage memory. To keep up with big data and go beyond what we have today will require us to rethink what is possible. Luckily, many innovative enterprises are already making great strides with data centre solutions architected to address the big data needs of business today.


text:
Are You Afraid Of The Dark? (1991) DVD
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A group of kids calling themselves "The Midnight Society" spends each episode sitting around a campfire swapping scary stories. Creepy, but never gory or excessively frightening, common subjects included haunted houses, what goes on behind the neighbor's walls, and other things that go bump in the night.
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The Geological Society
The Geological Society of London was founded in 1807. It is the UK national society for geoscience, and the oldest geological society in the world. The Society provides a wide range of professional and scientific support to around 10,000 members, and is a global leader in Earth science publishing. Its journals, Special Publications and books are internationally renowned and are available electronically via the Society's own Lyell Collection, and also via GeoScienceWorld.
Mid-crustal deformation in a continental margin orogen: structural evolution and timing of the Famatinian Orogeny, NW Argentina
Larrovere,Mariano A. et al.
Journal of the Geological Society(2019),:jgs2018-230
http://dx.doi.org/10.1144/jgs2018-230
This article is available from multiple sources. Please click on the service to which you have a subscription to obtain access. If you don't have a subscription, clicking will allow you to obtain pay-per-view access.
The Lyell Collection


] on peut s' attendre a voir 2 ou 3 caracteristiques qu' un programme multimedia est cense proposer convertisseur de musique outils de montage avec macsome audio splitter for mac eptisoft vous offre un programme oriente « utilitaires audio. # 3 Choice: Adobe Photoshop Score: 7.
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text:
Q: Oracle Instant Client failing on Ubuntu-based agent despite correct TNS_ADMIN path I am attempting to perform an SQL query using oracle-instantclient-basic-21.5 through an Ubuntu 20.04.3 agent hosted by Azure Devops. The query itself (which reads: python query_data) works when I am running it on my own machine with specs:

*

*Windows 10

*Path=C:\oracle\product\11.2.0.4\client_x64\bin;...;...

*TNS_ADMIN=C:\oracle\product\tns

*Python 3.8.5 using sqlalchemy with driver="oracle" and dialect = "cx_oracle"

I am running the following:
pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
 - script: |
    sudo apt install alien
  displayName: 'Install alien'

 - script: |
    sudo alien -i oracle-instantclient-basic-21.5.0.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm
  displayName: 'Install oracle-instantclient-basic'

 - script: |
    sudo sh -c 'echo /usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/ > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle-instantclient.conf'
    sudo ldconfig
  displayName: 'Update the runtime link path'

 - script: |
    sudo cp tns/TNSNAMES.ORA /usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/lib/network/admin
    sudo cp tns/ldap.ORA /usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/lib/network/admin
    sudo cp tns/SQLNET.ORA /usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/lib/network/admin
    sudo cp tns/krb5.conf /usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/lib/network/admin
  displayName: 'Copy and paste correct TNS content'

 - task: UsePythonVersion@0
  inputs:
    versionSpec: '3.8'

 - script: |
    export ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/21/client64
    export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
    export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/lib/network/admin
    python query_data
  displayName: 'Attempt to run python script with locally valid environment variables'

with the error TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified. What I have done:

*

*Checked that the locations I am referring to match the actual oracle-instantclient-basic installation

*Copied the TNSNAMES.ORA, ldap.ORA etc. that I am using on my own machine and verified that they are present in the desired location (/usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/lib/network/admin)

*Checked that TNS_ADMIN points to the correct path (/usr/lib/oracle/21/client64/lib/network/admin)
The sql query does not complain about a missing client, so it is aware of the installation. Why doesn't it read the TNS_ADMIN path or its contents correctly?

A: *

*On Linux change the file names to lowercase tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora and ldap.ora.  If you run, say, strace sqlplus a/b@c you can see that is looks for the lowercase names.

*With Instant Client, don't set ORACLE_HOME.

*There's no need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH since ldconfig is used

*There's no need to set TNS_ADMIN since you have moved the configuration files to the default location.

*You can simplify your install by using alien -i --scripts oracle-instantclient-basic-21.5.0.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm  This will automatically do the ldconfig step for you.
Hopefully you have installed the Python cx_Oracle module somehow.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Scott K. Andrews
The Timebomb Trilogy
Second Lives
The School's Out Trilogy
Operation Motherland
Children's Crusade
A Life in Doctor Who magazines
by Scott K. Andrews | Oct 14, 2019 | Doctor Who
It's mid-afternoon on Saturday 13 October 1979. I'm seven years old and I'm in the living room of my grandparent's house at 85 Kenilworth Road, Aston, Birmingham. Out the window I can hear the crowds at the Aston Villa ground roaring in appreciation of another goal. When I hear the unmistakeable final roar that signifies the end of the game, I will turn on the telly for the football results and Grandad and I will sit there as he fills in the pools coupon and finds, yet again, that he's not won a penny. Once that ritual is complete it will be time for the exciting third episode of the current Doctor Who story, City of Death. Earlier that morning Grandad and I spent a happy hour recording an improvised radio play on audio tape. He played Long John Silver and I was Jim Hawkins. We battled pirates and brigands, survived the curse of The Black Spot, fought swashbuckling cutlass fights, and retired to the Admiral Benbow Inn for ale after our exertions. Grandad is now tending his homebrew, which bubbles and belches under the kitchen counter where he hides it from my Gran, who tolerates it but disapproves. Left to my own devices, I've taken the eiderdown from my bed upstairs – no duvets yet – laid it on the floor and put the sheepskin rug on top of it. I'm lying there on my tummy, reading. The gas fire warms the soles of my feet. Next to me lies a pile of Doctor Who stuff. Patrick Troughton stares seriously over the top of his 900 year diary... read more
Doctor Who and The Massacre (of St Bartholomew('s Eve))
by Scott K. Andrews | Aug 30, 2019 | Doctor Who
Occasionally I lose my tiny mind and I pick a lost Doctor Who story, grab up everything about it that I can and devote a week to deep diving into it. This week it was the third season historical The Massacre, produced under the aegis of script editor Donald Tosh (who Loose Cannon interviewed about the story) and producer John Wiles. I have read the shooting scripts, watched the Loose cannon reconstruction, listened to the narrated soundtrack, listened to Peter Purves' reliably brilliant reading of the novel, read the Pixleyana entry in the Complete History, read James Cooray Smith's excellent and illuminating Black Archive book on the serial, read Rob Shearman and Toby Hadoke's take on it in Running Through Corridors, moaned that there isn't a Fact of Fiction feature on it yet, and rummaged through all the existing photographs. I'm not sure I have anything new to add, but these are the things that occurred to me, noted down as much for the benefit of my memory as your edification. For those who don't know the story, here's a précis. The script was substantially (totally?) rewritten by Donald Tosh because he felt John Lucarotti's scripts were historically inaccurate – so all the historical inaccuracies in the script are Tosh's own. In the process of rewriting, possibly due to time pressures, large parts of the storyline, particularly the Doctor's role, become completely incoherent. In episode one I think it's most clear what Lucarotti intended. When the Doctor is leaving Steven alone in the Inn, he is noticed by Roger, a Catholic. From what we can gather from the script, Roger... read more
The DCMS rebrand (and me)
by Scott K. Andrews | Jul 4, 2017 | Uncategorized
Yesterday the Department for Culture, Media and Sport renamed itself the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. I ran digital comms for the DCMS for about a year 2009/10 (honest, I did), a period which covered the last six months of the Labour government and the first six months of the coalition. During the first half of my time there, we redesigned & rewrote the website, but we couldn't launch our shiny new digital efforts (long since replaced by the much better gov.uk) till after the election. As the extended purdah negotiations ended, and the new government was announced, we launched the new site and rebranded our Twitter account, which at that point had a few thousand followers. Despite my presence, I often had a hard time convincing some of my colleagues in the Press Office about the importance of digital communications. This scepticism was reflected upstairs after the election. Upon being shown the department's new digital presence, one newly minted Tory minister, who will remain nameless, asked me, incredulous, why we even had a website, let alone social media accounts, and wanted to know why we needed to 'communicate to the public' at all – he thought digital communications was completely irrelevant to his job or his Dept. One of the few times in my life I've been genuinely left speechless. Anyway, as the new ministers were appointed that first day, I monitored Twitter and saw a rumour beginning to spread. According to sources, the Dept was going to take responsibility for the Olympics (true) and was going to rebrand as the DOCMS, requiring an expensive rebranding... read more
Return to the Afterblight
by Scott K. Andrews | Jun 10, 2016 | Uncategorized
My first trilogy of novels, collected in School's Out Forever, were set within the shared world of Abaddon's Afterblight Chronicles. They're pretty good, and you should totally pick up a copy (hint! hint!) Ahem, anyway… this August a new Afterblight omnibus is released containing three novellas: Fall Out by Simon Guerrier, which is a sequel to my trilogy, and picks up with the St Mark's gang a few years after Children's Crusade – we spoke about the book in this interview Children of the Cull by Cavan Scott, which is a sequel to the two books that kicked off the series, The Cull by Simon Spurrier and Kill of Cure by Rebecca Levene Flaming Arrows by Paul Kane, which is the fourth story in his Hooded Man series (which crossed over with my books a bit) Check out the cover, and pre-order it now, if you fancy checking in on a world I had a whale of a time playing... read more
A load of old cobblers
by Scott K. Andrews | Jun 8, 2016 | Uncategorized
Twenty five years ago I visited a town in Poland called Starachowice. Since WW2 it had been a town that produced trucks – Star Trucks – and almost nothing else. When I visited, in the early 90s, the factory had closed and unemployment was through the roof. The town felt lost, abandoned, the populace shocked and confused. Even today, the town receives special economic privileges, still reeling from the loss of its industrial heart. It's not just in planned economies that towns specialise, and ultimately pay the price. Northampton, which I visited this week, was a town of cobblers, and something about it put me in mind of Starachowice. How or why a town organically comes to specialise in a particular industry without Communist central control, I don't know, but Northampton made shoes and boots, enjoying a boom that lasted from the Napoleonic Wars until demand died away between the world wars. And even though its main industry pretty much died away decades ago, there is a feeling about some parts of the town – not all, but definitely some – that it's still a bit lost to itself, somehow not entirely sure what it's for now, like an old soldier sat in the corner of the pub, ignored because nobody wants to hear his stories anymore. Echoes of Northampton's past as a town of shoemakers abound in the tangle of streets where I'm staying this week, from the abandoned factories, like Waukerz Boot Factory- an oddly punk name in 19th century stonework… …to the house names… …to this tile, randomly stuck halfway up a wall – a small, oddly formal piece of... read more
Timebomb – Second Lives
by Scott K. Andrews | Aug 4, 2015 | Uncategorized
It began when three people from three different moments in history discovered that they could travel through time when they clasped hands. But the mysteries surrounding them have only deepened.
Timebomb – Introducing Lord Sweetclover
by Scott K. Andrews | Oct 9, 2014 | TimeBomb
Cornwall, England, 1645 Lord Henry Sweetclover was woken by Sarah's cries. There was a dull ache in his head, his bones felt heavy and old, his mouth gummy and foul. He reached over to the other side of the bed, but found it cold. This wasn't unusual. His wife was an early riser and normally left him to sleep away the morning. Last night's revelries had been particularly drunken and energetic, so he had expected that she would break her habit and lie in with him as she sometimes did on those occasions when the wine flowed freely. She had proved herself immune to most things, but a hangover was not one of them. He rubbed his forehead, which made bright flashing lines appear behind his eyes, so he stopped that, groaned and rolled over, burying his face in the pillow, trying to blot out the noise. He wondered what could have made his wife rise early after such a night. He thought back, trying to recall whether she had given any indication as to her intended business this day, but he could bring nothing to mind. Except, now he thought about it, she had seemed slightly out of sorts earlier the previous day. Her demeanour had worsened throughout the afternoon such that he was sure he was due a long evening of silent reproach and frosty disregard. He was pleasantly surprised when she produced the cards and the wine as the sun was setting, and even more pleased at what followed after. But on reflection there had been an edge to her revelry. A hint of determination, recklessness,... read more
Timebomb – Introducing Kaz
by Scott K. Andrews | Oct 9, 2014 | TimeBomb, Uncategorized
Cornwall, England, 2014 Kazik Cecka was cold, wet, tired and hungry when he finally decided to stop running and find somewhere to rest. The cloudless night was full-moon bright, the raindrops picked out in flashes of silver, and the air was fresh with the first chill of autumn. Kaz pulled his tattered jacket tight and considered his options. He was miles from the nearest town, in open countryside. He could see a copse of trees on the other side of the field, a dark interruption in a horizon which stretched away as far as the eye could see; undulations of ploughed fields and pasture. He had hoped that by now he would see the welcoming orange glow of a small town or village, but there was nothing; if there was a town nearby, the clear skies and full moon were swamping its light pollution and keeping its location a secret. Sighing, he decided that the copse offered his best chance of shelter. He trudged across the field, avoiding the sleeping cows. At least he was wearing the new Gore-Tex boots his father had bought for him before their fight, so his feet were warm and dry. Unlike the rest of him. This was not the adventure he had been hoping for when he'd run away from home. Not for the first time he replayed the afternoon's events in his head, questioning his actions, wishing that just this once he'd managed to keep his cool and not shoot his mouth off. But even as he chided himself for his temper he found his pulse quickening and the sense of injustice... read more
Timebomb – Introducing Dora
Cornwall, England, 1640 Theodora Predennick failed to stifle a yawn. She wasn't accustomed to rising so early. Being dressed and busy in the pre-dawn gloom felt unnatural. All her life, summer and winter, she had been woken by the first rays of the rising sun, and had retired to bed as the skies above her village turned black. Her grandmother had warned her about the things that walked abroad after dark: goblins, werewolves, fair folk, and girls with wickedness in their hearts. Good girls were safely tucked up behind stout wooden doors come sunset. Dora had always been a good girl. Her new dress pinched at her ribs. She adjusted the wretched thing to try and reduce the chafing as she worked the lump of dough on the table before her, kneading and pounding the mixture into submission. The logs on the huge kitchen hearthstones crackled and spat as the damp bark was scorched away. The newly dried wood began to catch alight, billowing fresh smoke up the chimney and casting a warm glow that lightened the gloom. When Dora was satisfied that the dough was ready she set it by the fireplace in a cloth-lined wicker basket so it could rise in the spreading warmth. It was time to light the fire beneath the baking oven. She had just lifted the iron tongs, intending to prise a log from the main fire and use it to spark the smaller one, when she paused. Had she heard something? No. Not at this hour. The master was still abed and cook wasn't likely to rise for some time. She'd only... read more


On January 16, 2014, a federal grand jury in San Jose returned a 12-count indictment charging two antique dealers with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud relating to a multi-million-dollar investment scheme, announced United States Attorney Melinda Haag, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson, and United States Postal Inspection Service Acting Inspector In Charge Rafael Nunez.
According to the indictment, Anthony Barreiro, 64, and Ernest Ray Parker, also known as Ray Parker Gaylord, 50, both residents of San Francisco and Dallas, founded and operated a business known at various times as ARTLoan Financial LLC, ARTLoan Financial Services Inc., and ARTLoan Financial Service LLC ("ARTLoan"). Barreiro, who represented himself as ARTLoan's chairman and CEO, and Gaylord, who represented himself as its president, operated ARTLoan as a specialty finance company, whereby investors were invited to entrust funds to ARTLoan for the sole, stated purpose of providing lending capital to borrowers seeking to finance the acquisition of high-value art work. ARTLoan promised its investors regular interest payments over the term of each loan.
As further security, Barreiro and Gaylord promised investors that ARTLoan would retain possession of a borrower's artwork as collateral against the loan, and, in the event of default, the tendered artwork would be forfeited to ARTLoan for the benefit of the investors.
The indictment alleges that based on these promises, Barreiro and Gaylord obtained from investors a total of approximately $3.4 million. By June 2010, as a result of their fraudulent scheme, the defendants allegedly had made approximately $1.8 million in Ponzi payments intended to lull investors while diverting approximately $1.5 million dollars to their own personal benefit.
According to the indictment, Barreiro and Gaylord explained to investors that ARTLoan was a licensed pawn broker that owned valuable pieces of artwork worth millions of dollars. Barreiro and Gaylord further advised investors that ARTLoan helped collectors finance the purchase of valuable pieces of artwork, many of which were purchased through public auctions, and in the process, allowed ARTLoan to cultivate business relationships with high-profile auction houses, such as Sotheby's and Christie's, among others. Barreiro and Gaylord allegedly explained that ARTLoan's financing options would help collectors finance up to 50 percent of the value of the piece while requiring the collectors to transfer ownership of the subject artwork to ARTLoan as collateral until the conclusion of the debt obligation. Alternatively, if a collector already owned outright a particular piece of artwork, ARTLoan would provide the collector with financing of up to 50 percent of the appraised value of that particular piece of artwork while requiring the collector to transfer ownership of the subject artwork to ARTLoan as collateral until the conclusion of the debt obligation.
Barreiro and Gaylord allegedly explained to investors that an investment took the form of a loan agreement with ARTLoan. Barreiro and Gaylord memorialized the investments in documents that they provided to investors at the time of the investors' initial and subsequent investments in ARTLoan. These documents provided, among other things, that the investor would deposit with ARTLoan a specific investment amount and that ARTLoan would pay the investor a certain regular rate of interest. Thereafter, Barreiro and Gaylord mailed periodic account statements to the investors reflecting principal and accrued interest, and, on certain occasions, a check payable to the investor purporting to represent an interest payment. The defendants also transmitted, via mail, e-mail, and hand delivery, updates to investors about the business operations of ARTLoan generally.
The defendants allegedly represented to investors that, among other things, the funds deposited with ARTLoan would be used only as lending capital and would not be used to fund the business operations of ARTLoan. Instead, defendants advised investors that the money generated from the loans to third-party collectors provided ARTLoan with sufficient capital for operations, including but not limited to salaries for Barreiro and Gaylord.
The indictment alleges that through written and oral communications, Barreiro and Gaylord created the false and misleading appearance that ARTLoan was successfully engaging in debt financing agreements with third-party borrowers, generating regular monthly interest payments, and increasing the overall value of each investor's funds with ARTLoan. In truth, according to the indictment, ARTLoan had not entered into any debt financing agreements, the money obtained from investors had not been utilized to fund such debt financing agreements, ARTLoan had not secured artwork as collateral in connection with such debt financing agreements, and the money provided to investors as purported "interest payments" were, in fact, Ponzi payments designed to lull current investors, as well as induce other potential investors to enter into loan agreements with ARTLoan.


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Florida Priorities Summit
Reporting on the summit
About The Influencers Project
About The Reporters
Posted on November 19, 2019 November 19, 2019 by Dylan Hart
A need for weed? Influencers weigh in on future of cannabis in Florida
Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried, senior counsel at the Cannabis Law Practice Group of law firm Greenspoon Marder Matt Ginder and medical marijuana physician Dr. Ann-Marie Wong speak at the Florida Priorities Summit Nov. 19. Photo by Jonah Hinebaugh
By Dylan Hart
University of South Florida – St. Petersburg
Florida Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried predicted that hemp could be a $30 billion industry in Florida. But obstacles to hemp and cannabis production still stand in the way.
Fried made her prognostication Tuesday at the Florida Priorities Summit, joining lawyer Matt Ginder and Dr. Ann-Marie Wong, a physician who specializes in medical marijuana, in a discussion of the future of cannabis in the state.
Florida voters legalized cannabis for medicinal purposes in 2016. But restrictions are still in place that keep the industry from flourishing, the panelists said.
"You can break it down to issues of getting into the market," said Ginder, senior counsel at the Cannabis Law Practice Group of law firm Greenspoon Marder. "Once you have the relevant licenses, there's still a tremendous amount of issues operating your company."
The cost of entering the business — from growing supply to processing facilities to retail stores — ranges from $20 to $30 million, Fried estimated.
On top of that, the competition is heavy, she said. There are already over a dozen businesses in Florida competing for a spot, and many already have connections with patients and doctors.
St. Petersburg has seven retail dispensaries, one less than a mile away from USF St. Petersburg.
Fried, who was a medical marijuana lobbyist before being elected to her position in 2018, promoted medical marijuana as a key campaign plank. She said that patient access is still limited due to fiscal concerns.
"It's still a cash-only business," and patients often have to "pay additionally out-of-pocket" to see a licensed physician, Fried said. "It's a huge undertaking [for the industry], so there are no opportunities to lower the cost of medicine."
But public opinion on dispensaries is turning around, Fried said. At first, many cities restricted them to warehouse or industrial areas. But as more have opened dispensaries — Fried compared their appearance to Starbucks, IKEA and Apple stores in terms of presentation — some strip malls have started to view them as attractions that bring foot traffic and new customers.
Regarding dispensaries near college campuses, Fried said that it was a positive to have access nearby for students, but made it clear that education was key to prevent abuse.
Although the panelists agreed that the regulations may be too strict in some areas, the state lacks the means to independently test medical pot for consistency, instead relying on the producers to self-test and report their findings. That needs to change, and requires action from the state Department of Health, Fried said.
But the panelists agreed that medical marijuana, hemp and eventually recreational pot have significant economic potential for Florida.
Fried said that the industrial hemp — used for everything from paper to packing material — is just as much of a potential boon to the economy as its medicinal or recreational byproducts.
The Department of Agriculture is "working hard" to push hemp as a new industry for the state, Fried said and that the program created by the department is intended to be a "completely open marketplace" for business owners to apply for a license. In the past, Fried has said that she wants Florida to be a leader in the country for hemp.
As for recreational marijuana, in Ginder's view, the economic positives mean that expansion in Florida is inevitable.
"Tax it, don't tax it too much or you push it into the black market," Ginder said. "I think that's the way to go. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."
Still, the panelists identified public apprehension surrounding cannabis.
"One of the biggest misconceptions is really fear of the unknown," Ginder said. "I heard it a lot early on in Florida that we don't want to look like Colorado. Colorado's really not that bad."
Wong said that, despite growing public support, there are still a lot of misconceptions surrounding medical marijuana's physical effects, even among medical patients. She said that only about 280,000 of Florida's roughly 400,000 registered medical marijuana patients are active users.
Because of that, she raised concerns about limiting access to particular kinds of cannabis. She said that different patients prefer different methods: for example, patients over 55, who make up the majority of medical marijuana patients, prefer smokable cannabis because of its familiarity.
She added that cannabis is not strictly psychoactive as many people perceive, either.
"A lot of patients are able to work and go to school without getting high while at the same time preventing their symptoms," Wong said. "That's probably the biggest misconception — that if you use medical marijuana, you're going to get high."
The panel agreed that the state has a lot of work to do to ramp up production, as sufficient supply of varied types of cannabis is a major concern for the industry.
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In this important election year, the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and Bradenton Herald want to drive a discussion on the important issues facing the Sunshine State. We've assembled a panel of influential Floridians who will offer their views through the November elections. Meet our Influencers here.
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Fifty-Year-Old Mark Martin Wins NASCAR Race
On this day in 2009, driver Mark Martin wins the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at the Phoenix International Speedway in Avondale, Arizona, and becomes the first 50-year-old to claim victory at a National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Sprint Cup race since Morgan Shepherd did so at a race in Atlanta in 1993. Besides Martin and Shepherd, only two other drivers age 50 or older have won Sprint Cup events.
Mark Martin was born on January 9, 1959, in Batesville, Arkansas, and starting racing cars as a teenager. After winning the American Speed Association (ASA) championship in 1978, 1979 and 1980, Martin began his NASCAR Winston Cup (later known as the Sprint Cup) career in 1981. He had several seasons of moderate success then returned to ASA racing, winning another championship in 1986. In 1989, at the North Carolina Motor Speedway, Martin collected his first Winston Cup victory. He would go on to win more than 35 Cup races in the decades ahead and come in second in the overall Sprint Cup Series point standings four times, in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002. Martin also collected five International Race of Champions (IROC) titles, in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2005. (IROC, which went out of business in 2008, was meant to be a pure test of a driver's ability, as competitors drove identical stock cars prepped by a single crew of mechanics.) Among Martin's other accomplishments are the most victories (47) in NASCAR's secondary Busch series.
Standing beside Martin in the 50-and-up winner's circle is Bobby Allison, who in 1988 won his fourth Daytona 500 at the age of 50 (his son Davey finished the 200-lap, 500-mile race in second place). Bobby Allison, who was born on December 3, 1937, in Florida, drove in his first Daytona 500 in 1961 and went on to win the race in 1978 and 1982, in addition to his 1988 victory. (The youngest driver to claim victory at the Daytona 500 is Jeff Gordon, who did so in 1997 at the age of 25.) The oldest driver to win a Cup race is Harry Gant, who was born on January 10, 1940, and in 1992, at the age of 52, won the Champion Spark Plug 400 at the Michigan International Speedway.
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Aerotech is launching a new 560mm wide ball screw-driven positioning stage as part of its PRO range of hard top/side sealed precision tables. Available in standard and high-speed versions, the extra-wide cross-section the new PRO560 and PRO560 HS stages provides support for long-travel upper axes or large-footprint loads. With travels of up to 1500mm and load capacities of 150kg, the new stages enhance the PRO ball screw-driven range that covers stage widths of 115, 165, 225, 280mm and now 560mm.
The PRO ball screw range is characterised by its innovative and fully protected side-sealed/hard top design and includes heavy-duty linear bearings for arduous yet high-precision industrial positioning applications such as laser welding or electro-discharge machining (EDM). The aluminium hard top cover and vertical side seal deflect debris and fully protect the internal stage components. Optional tabletops are also available that can include a brush assembly to remove machining debris from the cover. This stage sealing system is said to be much preferred to conventionally sealed stages that use bellows or slide plates that can ingest debris, resulting in eventual sealing failure and replacement.
Through the PRO560 range, six models are available with travels from 300-1000mm with maximum speeds of 220mm/s for the 300mm travel stage (140mm/s for the 1000mm version). For the PRO560HS, eight models provide travels from 300-1500mm with speeds to 1050mm/s for the 300mm version (300mm/s for the 1500mm version). Both types offer a horizontal load capacity of up to 150kg.
The PRO560 is equipped with a precision ground 5mm pitch ball screw and a 2500-line motor-mounted encoder for a positioning resolution of 0.5um and bidirectional repeatability of +/-1um. The 25mm pitch ball screw and 2500-line encoder on the PRO560 HS yields a resolution of 2.5um and repeatability to +/-2.5um. Nominal straight line accuracy for both stage types is +/-17.5um for the 300mm travel versions.
Motor mounting is via a NEMA 34 compatible flange that accepts Aerotech high-performance brushless servo motors or third-party brushed DC and stepper motors. Motors can be mounted in-line with the ball screw or side-mounted on the right or left side of the stage with the 'foldback motor' option to save space. A motor-mounted brake is available as an option for vertical mounting or for applications requiring a higher level of safety. End-of-travel limit switches are available in 5V and 24V options.
Further options include a wide choice of tabletops with metric or imperial threaded hole patterns to suit the various widths of matching PRO series stages or other Aerotech linear and/or rotary stages. Alternative accuracy levels for orthogonal alignment are available for X-Y mounted systems and toe clamps are available for base-mounting the stages. As with all Aerotech positioning mechanics, customised interfacing plates and brackets are offered, together with complete machine base/frames, and provision can be made for air or hydraulic services, or any other customer equipment.