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Hours / Location
The Black Echo (A Harry Bosch Novel #1) (Mass Market)
Backordered or Out of Print
This is book number 1 in the A Harry Bosch Novel series.
#2: The Black Ice (A Harry Bosch Novel #2) (Hardcover): $28.00
#3: The Dark Hours (A Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel #3) (Mass Market): $9.99
#4: The Last Coyote (A Harry Bosch Novel #4) (Mass Market): $10.00
#5: Trunk Music (A Harry Bosch Novel #5) (Mass Market): $10.00
#6: Angels Flight (A Harry Bosch Novel #6) (Mass Market): $9.99
#7: A Darkness More Than Night (A Harry Bosch Novel #7) (Mass Market): $7.99
#8: City of Bones (A Harry Bosch Novel #8) (Mass Market): $10.00
#9: Lost Light (A Harry Bosch Novel #9) (Mass Market): $10.00
#10: The Narrows (A Harry Bosch Novel #10) (Mass Market): $10.00
#11: The Closers (A Harry Bosch Novel #11) (Mass Market): $10.00
#12: Echo Park (A Harry Bosch Novel #12) (Mass Market): $10.00
#13: The Overlook (A Harry Bosch Novel #13) (Mass Market): $10.00
#14: Nine Dragons (A Harry Bosch Novel #14) (Mass Market): $10.00
#15: The Drop (A Harry Bosch Novel #15) (Mass Market): $9.99
#16: The Black Box (A Harry Bosch Novel #16) (Mass Market): $10.00
#17: The Burning Room (A Harry Bosch Novel #17) (Mass Market): $9.99
#18: The Crossing (A Harry Bosch Novel #18) (Mass Market): $9.99
#19: The Wrong Side of Goodbye (A Harry Bosch Novel #19) (Mass Market): $9.99
#20: Two Kinds of Truth (A Harry Bosch Novel #20) (Mass Market): $9.99
#21: Dark Sacred Night (A Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel #21) (Mass Market): $9.99
#22: The Night Fire (A Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel #22) (Mass Market): $9.99
START HERE: The first book in the Bosch series!
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.
Michael Connelly is the author of thirty-six previous novels, including #1 New York Times bestsellers The Dark Hours andThe Law of Innocence. His books, which include the Harry Bosch series, the Lincoln Lawyer series, and the Renée Ballard series, have sold more than eighty million copies worldwide. Connelly is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. He is the executive producer of three television series: Bosch,Bosch: Legacy, and The Lincoln Lawyer. He spends his time in California and Florida.
"One of those books you read with your knuckles - just hanging on until it's over...good and thrilling."
—New York Times Book Review
"Connelly...transcends the standard L.A. police procedural with this original and eminently authentic first novel."
Series: A Harry Bosch Novel
Fiction / Thrillers / Crime
Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural
Fiction / Literary
Paperback (April 25th, 2017): $18.99
Mass Market (April 25th, 2017): $10.00
Compact Disc (April 18th, 2017): $19.99
MP3 CD (April 18th, 2017): $9.99
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Genre For Japan
For all its insular quirks, for all its internecine disagreements and flamewars and fragmented subschisms, I'm proud to be part of the online genre fiction scene, because every now and again it gets together to do good things for the world beyond its borders. Point in case: the Genre For Japan auctions. Originally conceived by Amanda Rutter, review blogger of Floor-to-Ceiling Books, and joined by an impressive roster of writers, editors and publishers from across the UK (and beyond), it's all about auctioning off rare books and other literary prizes – such as Tuckerizations or detailed one-on-one writing critiques – to collect money to give to the Red Cross Japanese Tsunami Appeal. The complete list of 137 lots (!) can be seen here; you have until the end of the week to make your bids.
Of course, if the bids are already too high (or if there's nothing there that takes your fancy) you could just donate directly, if you haven't already. Given these troubled times, there are hundreds of good causes in need of support, and in an ideal world such causes would be flooded with money while the missile silos of the world echoed emptily with the footfalls of carefree and complacent spiders… but they don't and they aren't, and pockets are empty everywhere, so if all you've got is a moment to reflect on the misfortunes of others, that's better than nothing at all.
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Tags: auction, charity, Genre For Japan, Japan, tsunami
FUDushima continued
I appear to have lost my original source for the tweet that pointed me to this piece at Talking Points Memo, so my apologies for the lack of attribution; I think it's been doing the rounds, and – if there's any justice on the intertubes – it should continue doing so (preferably at high volume), in the hope that it might counteract even a small part of the underinformed lipflapping about the Fukushima reactor. So: excerpts from a letter to TPM from a Japanese student who was in the country for the quake and its aftermath:
… the Japanese news coverage has been largely calm, rational, informed, and critical. Some of this is naturally to avoid creating panic, but it has been able to do that because as a whole it has answered many of the questions people have and thus gained a certain level of trust. As a media scholar, I can pick this coverage apart for its problems, and of course point to information that is still not getting out there, but on the whole it is functioning as journalism should.
It also just looks good because there is something so ugly beside it: the non-Japanese coverage. That, I am afraid, has been full of factual errors and other problems. This has not been just Fox News, but also CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and even the New York Times to differing degrees. They get the reactors mixed up or report information that is simply wrong (e.g., writing that the TEPCO workers had fully abandoned the effort to control the plant because of radiation levels when TEPCO had only withdrawn some non-essential personnel). They are perpetually late, continuing to report things the Japanese media had shown to be wrong or different the day before.
There are results to this irresponsible journalism. Many foreigners in Japan who do not have the language capabilities to access Japanese media or who are used to foreign media are in a state of panic, when around them Japanese are largely calm. People in California start searching for iodide pills on the internet and there are already people voicing worries about whether Japanese cars are now all going to be radioactive. But worst of all, the inordinate and sensationalist attention given to the reactors by American and other media has taken attention away from where it should be: on the likely nearly 20,000 people who died in the quake and tsunamis, on the nearly 400,000 homeless people, and on the immense suffering this has caused for Japan as a whole.
Japanese people and government officials will have to spend many years investigating all that went wrong in this accident. I feel it is likely that many at TEPCO and in the government will be found at fault for inadequate preparation, overly optimistic projections, willful ignorance, and just plain lying to the public. This will be an investigation in which the Japanese media will play an important part. But the non-Japanese media should also look at itself and see where it went wrong―so that it can better prepare for a similar accident which, unfortunately, is not altogether impossible in the United States as well.
I don't think I need to add anything to that, really. But as a side-dish, here's Tim Maly on the half-life of information in the 24-hour newschurn:
At this moment, the current status of the nuclear plants in Japan matters for about 200,000 people in the world. This is the number of people who can do anything about it. Most of those 200,000 people can only decide whether or not to flee further away. They need information at the 15-minute scale probably. A very tiny minority of the people need information at the moment to moment scale. This is the team of people tasked with bringing the reactors under control. For the rest of us, we need information at the daily scale or less. Because the ramifications of Japan reactor situation IF THEY MATTER AT ALL matter in regard to decisions made at the scale of decades and centuries.
It is completely insane that countries are announcing that they are scaling back or cancelling nuclear programs based on Japan's troubles. If those programs were a good idea two weeks ago they are still a good idea now. And if they might have been converted from a good idea to a bad idea based on evidence coming out of Japan then smart decision makers need to wait until the information has the stability and solidity of data that will support a decade/century scale decision.
As a number of people have said to me over the last week or so, there surely needs to be new debate and research into nuclear safety.However, it needs to be done by experts in the field in question, with as much verifiable information as possible, as opposed to being done by uninformed television anchors with a five-minute Physics 101 briefing tucked in their suit pocket.
We have access to an utterly unprecedented volume and rate of information flow. Unless we learn to filter for the truth, we'll drown in lies.
[ And yeah, I make mistakes from time to time; I'm making no claims to perfection here, and I learn a lot from sharp people in the comment threads, for which I'm grateful. It's a collaborative effort, really… which is another thing we'd do well to remember as we look at problems overseas and worry about how they'll effect us. ]
Tags: curation, earthquake, FUD, Fukushima, Japan, journalism, nuclear-power
Moar liek FUDushima, AMIRITES?
I've assiduously avoided talking about the nuclear situation in Japan at the moment, partly because I know little more about nuclear reactors than the average layman-with-a-science-education, and partly because there's more than enough opinion and information – informed or otherwise – floating around the intertubes already without me adding more. (Plus I'm finding the what-about-meeeeee flavour of much of the opinion pieces a bit galling; yeah, you might get some fallout drifting over your neighbourhood if things go badly, but hey – you still have a neighbourhood, so suck it up.)
However, I feel fairly safe talking about the reaction to the nuclear situation, because I'm just about old enough to remember the Chernobyl panic here in the UK and Europe. The Chernobyl disaster (coupled with the last gasps of Cold War existentialism and my unhealthy interest in science text books from the grown-up section of the local library) contributed to making me stridently anti-nuclear for most of my life. Over the last five years or so, however, I found myself making peace with nuclear power (though I'm still totally opposed to nuclear weapons); sure, it has its downsides, but when measured against the downsides of fossil fuels as our primary energy source, nuclear look like a pretty decent option… especially when considered as the central support pole of a renewable energy wigwam.
I suspect others have reached a similar rapprochement in recent times, but the Fukushima flap is about the worst sort of PR that nuclear power could get, and plenty of folk have seen the sun shining and set out for the fields with their hay-making equipment; at this crucial time in global energy policy development, the last thing we need are distortions of the truth. (There are enough of those floating around already, after all, and the nuclear FUD-flood has already started in comment threads worldwide; when you've got an ideology to peddle, everything looks like a sales-pitch factoid.) But as Brian Wang points out at Next Big Future, if you're going to suggest banning nuclear power for killing people, you should suggest the same for fossil fuels first… and even solar has a higher fatality rate per terawatt-hour.
Yes, this is a tragedy for the people of Japan and for the world as a whole, but tragedies are opportunities to learn and develop. To turn our backs on the lessons we're learning here would be a far greater tragedy, and the greatest disservice to the hard work and sacrifice going on in Japan right now. As I said the other day, seeing Fukushima as someone else's problem that might just blow back on you is not just myopic, it's symptomatic of the biggest barrier to progress we face. Nothing that happens on this planet is someone else's problem. Japan's tragedy is a human tragedy. Whether we like it or not, we all stand shoulder to shoulder; the sooner we face up to that, the sooner we can start fixing things properly.
I don't know that one more person's best wishes and hopes for a successful fix will make any difference, but the folk trying to forestall disaster at Fukushima have mine nonetheless – they're pretty much the epitome of bravery in the modern age, so far as I'm concerned.. I hope they have yours, too.
Tags: FUD, Fukushima, Japan, nuclear-power
Robots: unpopular in the home, increasingly popular on the front
We've made mention previously of Japan's strategy to help its rapidly greying population with robot home-help, which is a wonderful idea on paper… but there are a few problems: for a start, effective useful robots aren't cheap, and the care recipients aren't actually that keen on the idea.
"Robotic support of the infirm and elderly has got to be aimed at improving quality of life," says Geoff Pegman, managing director of one of the UK's few robot manufacturers R.U.Robots. "It should not just be for governments to save money in caring for them."
Robot guides have been removed from hospitals because they "put patients off"
The Japanese government and care industry now seems to agree after robots have turned out to be too expensive, impracticable and sometimes unwelcome, even in "robot friendly" Japan.
The country's biggest robot maker Tmsuk created a life-like one-metre tall robot six years ago, but has struggled to find interested clients.
Costing a cool $100,000 (£62,000) a piece, a rental programme was scrapped recently because of "failing to meet demands of consumers" and putting off patients at hospitals.
"We want humans caring for us, not machines," was one response.
That said, one look at the institutional care system in the UK should be enough to tell you that human-provided care isn't de facto better; the underlying problem seems to be the way we're increasingly viewing the elderly and infirm as a sort of toxic asset on the social balance sheet, something to be stored away out of sight, "managed" with minimal resource expenditure. "Grannyfarming" – especially in light of of a new ConDem policy of withdrawing most regulatory oversight from an already deeply corrupt and greedy industry – is a shocking business; when pictures of animals being neglected on a similar scale are broadcast, there's a national uproar. A sad state of affairs.
But there's a definite pattern emerging, wherein we're turning to machines to do the sort of jobs that meatfolk aren't so keen on. According to Wired, one in fifty soldiers in Afghanistan is a robot. One assumes they've been programmed carefully so as not to get disillusioned with the task of exporting democracy and deciding to leak sensitive documents to whistleblower websites…
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Tags: Afghanistan, care, elderly, Japan, robots
Huis ten Bosch: Japan's nigh-deserted Little Holland themepark
I'm sure someone has a snappy neologism for things like this, but I'm damned if I can recall (or otherwsie invent) one. Nonetheless, and offered largely just for the WTF? factor, here's oddball collapse-fetish travelogue-blog Spike Japan describing Huis ten Bosch, a vast Holland-themed amusement park on the shores of Omura Bay, Nagasaki Prefecture:
On a busman's holiday in the Mediterranean in 1979, so the legend goes, Kamichika and his businessman travelling companion, the president of the real estate division of ball-bearing maker Minebea (slogan: Passion is POWER, Passion is SPEED, Passion is the FUTURE), are surveying a shimmering seascape when his companion turns to him and asks:
"Is there a sea like this in all Japan?"
So many consequences were to flow from such a simple question.
"Yes," Kamichika is reported to have replied vehemently, "the marvelous sea of Omura Bay in Nagasaki, where I was born and raised. It's every bit as good as the Mediterranean. Why can't we get people to visit it, just like the Mediterranean?"
Emboldened by success—at its 1990 peak, Nagasaki Holland Village attracted 2mn visitors—in 1988 Kamichika began planning something a tad more ambitious: Huis ten Bosch. It was the Bubble; anything was possible. Six kilometers of canals, 3.2km of underground tunnels for the communications, energy, and water infrastructure, 400,000 trees, and 300,000 flowers and shrubs—sure, why not? Kamichika took his plans to the bankers and the bankers liked what they saw.
A strange story; almost a Doctorowian fable for the modern age.
Beware Spike Japan, by the way – if you have any interest in Japan (or simply other places in general), collapsonomics, good storytelling or all three, you could get lost for hours wandering the archives. Though there are far worse ways to spend an afternoon… [image is presumably copyright Spike Japan's author, and hence is reproduced under Fair Use terms; contact for immediate takedown if required]
Tags: collapsonomics, Huis ten Bosch, Japan, theme park

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Organisation in Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council since 2015
PRC in the news
Palestinians of Syria
Palestinians of Lebanon
Palestinians of Jordan
Palestinians of Iraq
Pal Refugees in Gaza
Pal Refugees in West Bank
Palestinians Abroad
Right of Return
JPRS
Search Field Post Title Post Content Post Title and Content
Side event on Palestinian Refugees in Syria at 32nd Human Rights Council in Geneva
Category : Workshops
Published Date: 28 Jun 2016
On June 16 the Palestinian Return Centre hosted a side event at the 32nd Human Rights Council in Geneva on the unique vulnerability of Palestinian Refugees from Syria.
The event focused on the anomaly that is the Palestinian Refugee status and how it affects Palestinians fleeing the Syrian civil war. At the same time it was discussed the human rights violations on those Palestinian still trapped in Syria.
The first speaker, Nawras Ali, Palestinian activist form Syria living in the Netherlands, talked about his experience in Syria throughout the Syrian uprising and on the immigration route to Europe. He began his speech by saying that his grandfather had to escape Palestine in 1948 to Syria because of the Zionist attacks on his village and other villages and cities of Palestine.
He moved to Damascus where he lived, and had his father who lived all of his life in Syria and married a Syrian woman, and then he was born and lived all of his life in Syria and he married a Syrian woman but yet still he is without an identity or a country. So for all of his life he has been a refugee.
Nawras Ali describes his trip to escape Syria: "You can imagine my death journey at sea for 10 days in a small fishing boat with 250 other people including children, women, pregnant women, and even a paralyzed man. And without pure luck or as we say it "the will of God" we wouldn't made it to the shore, and after that smuggling journey until we reached Amsterdam and then I became a refugee for the second time."
The next speaker was Pietro Stefanini, Researcher and Advocacy Coordinator at the PRC. He talked about how statelessness affects Palestinian refugees from Syria. Stefanini talked about its been 5 years since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, and that we know too well there are millions of how Syrian refugees fleeing the country, and millions displaced inside Syria
Stefanini stated that what we've heard quite a lot less is the plight of the Palestinians who are also fleeing Syria in very large numbers and who are becoming twice displaced, sometimes even three times displaced.
These Palestinian refugees from Syria are suffering from further persecution simply because they are Palestinian. At the core of their plight obviously is the fact that Palestinians are stateless. They have no other home than Syria but do not have Syrian citizenship and have therefore been denied even the basic rights secured for other refugees.
According to Stefanini this makes them inherently vulnerable for the obvious reason that they lack the protection of a state. But in the case of Palestinian refugees from Syria, they're additionally vulnerable because they are also lacking protection from all kinds of other international organizations and bodies that are responding to the Syrian crisis by focusing only on Syrian refugees rather than all refugees from Syria.
Lastly Ahmad Hosain @Ahmadhosain1, CEO of Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS), discussed the work his organisation does on monitoring human rights violations on Palestinian refugees form Syria. Hosain talked about the conditions of Palestinian refugees before the uprising in 2011 and he described their situation as being relatively good. They did not have citizenship but were afforded most benefits afforded to Syrians. Since 2011 the AGPS has reported 3254 victims, of which 445 died of torture, 1078 as shelling and 293 as sniper shots. In regards to the targeting civilian facilities and civilian houses, 70% of the Deraa Camp and 80% of Sabina camp has been destructed.
Short Link : http://bit.ly/2A65Bye
Home Demolitions: The Destruction of Palestinian Living Space
Written Statement to HRC32 on the Gaza Strip
UNHRC Side-event: Accountability for the on-going annexation and colonisation of Palestine
Document: Lebanon's new labor law discriminates against Palestinian Refugees (September 2019)
PRC to Host an International Conference on UNRWA
PRC Concludes Successful Conference on UNRWA
PRC UNHRC-event: Diplomats Point Up UNRWA's Decisive Role for Palestine Refugees
PRC's UNGA Event Calls for Urgent Action to Work out Palestine Refugee Crisis
PRC Holds a Seminar at UNHRC to Discuss Israel's Attacks on Gaza's Great March of Return
PRC Holds Parliamentary Meeting on Nakba Day
The Palestinian Return Centre is an independent consultancy focusing on the historical, political and legal aspects of the Palestinian Refugees. The organization offers expert advice to various actors and agencies on the question of Palestinian Refugees within the context of the Nakba - The catastrophe following the forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948 - and serves as an information repository on other related aspects of the Palestine question and the Arab-Israeli conflict. It specializes in the research, analysis, and monitoring of issues pertaining to the dispersed Palestinians and their internationally recognized legal right to return.
100H Crown House
North Circular Road, Ealing, NW10 7PN
info@prc.org.uk
Copyright © 2020 The Palestinian Return Centre.


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'SKARN LIEUTENANT PACK'
Expansion for 'Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2nd Edition)'
Posted by ICv2 on June 19, 2014 @ 10:56 am CT
Fantasy Flight Games has announced the latest Lieutenant Pack for its Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) semi-cooperative fantasy board game. The Lieutenant Packs for Descent: Journeys in the Dark bring new life to the Overlord's most powerful agents, while also providing an additional level of strategic depth to the gameplay. The Skarn Lieutenant Pack (MSRP $14.95), which is not a stand-alone game, requires a copy of Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2nd Edition) to play, but in the context of the game, it unleashes massive new powers. The Skarn is a magical construct infused with life by the death of a high mage, and it possesses the ability to increase its size and strength endlessly by incorporating pieces of its environment. If left unchecked, The Skarn has the potential to threaten all of Terrinoth with its enormity.
The new Skarn Lieutenant Pack brings one of the Overlord's most feared minions to life with a detailed and dramatically sculpted figure that players can use to replace the lieutenant taken from the Manor of Ravens expansion (see "'Descent: Manor of Ravens Expansion'").
Click on Image for a Better View
The Skarn Lieutenant Pack also contains a ten-card plot deck, "Twisted Soul," which can impart some of Skarn's potent defenses to a player's other monsters. The Plot Deck also invites overlords to harness the Skarn's brute power and regenerative nature in any campaign.
The Skarn Lieutenant Pack includes one highly detailed plastic Skarn figure, 2 Agent Cards, 10 Plot Cards, 16 Threat & Fortune Tokens, and a rulesheet.


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Herdsman's House
(Klippenstein House)
Neubergthal
Designation Date: February 27, 2002
Designation Authority: R.M. of Rhineland
The traditional Mennonite farming village of Neubergthal, one of dozens that once dotted the prairie landscape of southeastern Manitoba, is special, having been designated as a National Historic Site. That honour recognizes the fact that it still boasts so many of its original housebarns. This building is an excellent example of the type. It was originally used by the village herdsman in Gnadenfeld, until it was moved to its present site and occupied by the Klippenstein family beginning in 1912. The house is virtually unchanged, complete with beamed ceiling and stenciled floor boards, and will be completely restored under the direction of the Neubergthal Heritage Foundation.


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Church folds in love with every load of laundry
By Scott Luxor
Sun Sentinel Correspondent
Resident Neil Bruteig is one of the regular beneficiaries of the All Saints Episcopal Church Laundry Love service. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale is helping those with low or no income meet one of their most basic needs — clean clothes.
The Rev. Leslie Hague, also known as Mother Leslie, and Richard Markiewicz, the church's senior warden, created a new ministry called Laundry Love South Florida in 2019. They were inspired by the national organization that was created 20 years ago to help people in need get their clothes and linens washed for free.
The Rev. Leslie Hague helped start the Laundry Love South Florida program. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
All Saints Episcopal now has events once a month at The Laundry Spot at 1410 N. Federal Highway in Hollywood. The laundromat has become the main venue for the church's outreach. During the first two months of 2022, volunteers helped over 50 individuals and families wash and dry over 1.5 tons of bedding and clothing.
Based on recent national statistics gathered by Laundry Love, people who don't have laundry appliances can spend around $100 per month on washing clothing and bedding. Another caution is that dirty clothing and bedding can have adverse effects on children in school. Unclean clothes as well as lead to health and mental wellness issues in adults.
The congregation at All Saints has shown great support for the laundry initiative. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
According to the organization, they have helped people with over 2 million loads of laundry and served over 1.5 million people since 2003. They also have worked with an estimated 100,000 people every year through their efforts.
Formed from a partnership
Laundry Love not only helps the homeless, but it also helps people of limited income, including the working poor.
Markiewicz initiated the idea for the church to get involved with the effort. It all started with a working relationship that had already been going on with a Broward shelter.
"We had been giving money to the Jubilee Center for the Homeless in Hollywood for years to assist their efforts," Markiewicz said. "In 2019, I happened to ask the leader of the center if there was anything they were missing from their services for the homeless. She quickly told us she was trying to figure out how to do laundry for her clients."
Richard Markiewicz, the senior warden for the church, is the leader of the Laundry Love ministry. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
The accounts of how the center's clients were dealing with their situation kept him up that night as he thought about what the church could do to help.
"It bothered me so much to hear the stories of what homeless people were doing to get their laundry done," he said. "They were going to a swimming pool to get their clothes clean, or they were simply not even bothering to clean them at all."
Markiewicz's reflections brought back a memory of an Episcopal priest from Massachusetts who had started a laundry program several years before.
"I called her up and she told me that there is a national program called Laundry Love," he said. "So I decided to travel to Massachusetts for a vacation. While I was there, I went to see the program in action. I was just blown away by what they had been doing."
The Laundry Spot in Hollywood is the main partner with All Saints for the ministry. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
After Markiewicz's visit to the organization's efforts up north, he took notes and brought his experience back to Fort Lauderdale to share with his church.
"When I came back, I talked with Rev. Hague and she was very supportive of the idea," he said. "I told her I would figure it out, including funding, the laundry facility and so on. People at the church were also very supportive. There were a lot of practical questions about how to fund it and so on, but everybody was happy at the end, which was great. The church then granted a small amount of seed money and we went forward from there."
Markiewicz said within a couple of days after he announced it to the parish, the money started flowing in from the congregation and they embraced the project. He also said he realized that, to make this effort successful, he would have to bring in a partner.
One of the beneficiaries of the program packs up her bicycle with clothes that got cleaned because of the program. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
"We started working with the Jubilee Center in Hollywood," he said. "They have their own clients and community. We talked with people there. We also had large posters made and we started out by handing out flyers there."
The national movement
Hague said the national Laundry Love organization started in Ventura, California.
"It was really a man known as 'T-Bone', a houseless person, who was asked by a church how they could walk this life journey with him," she said. "He said quite simply that he felt like if he had clean clothes, that people would treat him more like a human being."
The Rev. Leslie Hague of All Saints Church talks wtih one of the beneficiaries of the program at The Laundry Spot in Hollywood. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
She said the church in California ended up developing their own ministry to address the need. They decided to partner, along with secular organizations, with a laundromat to make it happen. She said that is what All Saints decided to do here in Broward.
"Rather than getting expensive appliances for a homeless shelter like the Jubilee Center, we went out and found a laundromat who would collaborate with us in our effort," she said. "In this case, we have been incredibly blessed to partner with the Laundry Spot in Hollywood."
The monthly event
Hague said that once a month, they have volunteers at the laundromat along with supplies and money for the loads.
"We don't do the laundry for the clients," she said. "They have to do that themselves. But volunteers help them choose what size machines they need, then we handle the payments. A part of the empowerment is that they get to do their own laundry. We will help with seniors or people who are impaired, but generally they do their own loads."
Volunteers at a recent event have pizza provided by the church. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
Hague said the church and volunteers don't have questionnaires or prerequisites for those who come to the monthly event.
"For three hours once a month, people walk in the door," she said. "We don't ask them anything other than their first name. We don't ask if they are working, or whether they have a home. It's not just the homeless who are often treated badly because they smell... Often, it's the working poor who have uniforms, or their kids need clean clothes for school and they're trying to budget laundry in with everything else."
Grant Einhorn owns The Laundry Spot in Hollywood.
"The Laundry Spot Hollywood is proud to support the Laundry Love initiative. Our customers are working class and many struggle to make ends meet. With rising costs everywhere, we understand that it might be hard to stay afloat, but it's terrible to think families have to worry about whether or not they can afford to have clean clothes for work and school," he said. "We want to help alleviate that burden for local families and do our part to make the community a better place."
Laundry supplies are in abundance at the church, ready to be used at the next monthly event. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
Hague's wife, Katie Casteel, has been volunteering with Laundry Love since it was started three years ago.
"There was a time in my own life when I was younger and my parents either didn't have a washer and dryer in our house, or sometimes something broke and then you couldn't get it fixed, because it's expensive to do laundry," she said. "Since everybody needs clean clothes, it's a great way to give back to the community."
Residents Neil Bruteig and Vivan Toro are beneficiaries of the Laundry Love program.
"I live in this area. This has been a godsend, with what they've done for the last three years. It's very helpful having this once a month," Bruteig said. "It's helped me so much, especially after I lost my job during the pandemic. Thank God for them. I appreciate what they're doing for others. I've gotten to know these people very well."
The church also provides socks and shoes as part of the ministry for those in need. (Scott Luxor / Contributor)
Toro is "grateful for these guys coming in here, because like they say, a clean home is a happy home. When you've got clean clothes, that's a happy body and person. Nobody else in Hollywood really does something like this. It's just a great program that everybody needs."
Help from Laundry Love is available from 4 to 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at The Laundry Spot, 1410 N. Federal Highway, in Hollywood.
Visit allsaintsfl.org/laundry-of-love and laundrylove.org/donate.


The Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium held their annual event on Feb. 5 at the Rachel Carson building in Harrisburg. According to a statement by PERC, the purpose of the meeting was to gather relevant information regarding a partnership between Pennsylvania colleges that are PERC members and Pennsylvania State government that will encourage other local and county governments to develop and implement climate change and greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategies and programs that will enhance the resilience and adaptation to climate change impacts.
PERC founder Donald Brown talked about the benefit of having a meeting where all the members come together.
"It allows us to form partnerships between universities and state agencies," Brown said.
The meeting began with a short welcome followed by the first panel which covered the topic of current PERC school activities on climate change and community change. There were two speakers in the first panel, John Dernbach from Widener University Law School and Brandi Robinson from Penn State University. Dernbach talked about how he had approached the city of Harrisburg about teaching a class on sustainability and about a program that would take the legal skills of his students and apply them to the real world of local governments. Robinson focused her presentation on whether Penn State's new Bachelor of Arts degree led to jobs in science policy and the Penn State Park Inventory program.
The second panel had to do with local government leadership on climate change issues in Pennsylvania local governments. There were three people who spoke during the panel, Richard Freeh, the City Energy Project Manager from Philadelphia, Alan Sam from the State College Borough, and Dan Zimmerman from Warwick Township. Freeh spoke about what Philadelphia was doing regarding greenhouse gases and how colleges were helping out by conducting municipal and city wide greenhouse gas inventories and creating the Green Works Sustainability Plan. When Sam spoke he focused on some of the work State College Borough had done in the past and talked about two current programs, Sustainability Community Collaborative and Sustainable Pennsylvania, both of which created connections between Penn State and the surrounding community. Zimmermann discussed Warwick Township's Climate Change Initiative that included two methods reducing energy use and planting trees.


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text:
All CDC Search NCHS
National Center for Health Statistics
Survey of Adult Transition and Health
This nationwide survey looks at the health of young people who were 19 to 23 years old in 2007, whose parents were originally interviewed in 2001 when the subjects were 14 to 17 years old. The primary goals of this follow-up survey are to examine their current health care needs and transition from pediatric health care providers to adult health care providers.
Sponsor(s): Department of Health and Human Services, Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)External
Period of Data Collection: June 12 – August 26, 2007
Strengths and Limitations of the 2007 SATH Data
Sample Size: Number of completed interviews with young adults in the public use file (PUF): 1,865
Sampling Frame: Young adults in 2007, identified in a previous SLAITS health survey
Data Collection: Data were collected over the telephone or the Internet using a secure web server.
Survey Instrument
Questionnaire (English)Cdc-pdf [PDF – 319 KB]
[Please read the analytic guidelines on SATH data strengths and limitations before you use this data file.]
List of VariablesCdc-pdf [PDF – 493 KB]
Sample SAS Program Files
SAS Variable Format Files
Data collection was conducted under contract with the University of Chicago. Strict confidentiality and privacy regulations apply to all contract and federal project staff for all data. For more information, visit confidentiality policy.
The 2007 SLAITS Survey of Adult Transition and Health (SATH) data have a number of strengths and limitations that analysts be aware of as they may impact use of the data. The 2007 SATH used a follow-back survey design in an attempt to locate and contact 10,933 eligible cases originally included in the 2001 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN). In 2001 these children were 14 to 17 years of age and lived in English-speaking households; in 2007, the same subjects were young adults 19 to 23 years of age. The primary goals of the SATH are to examine the current health care needs of the original survey subjects and to better understand their transition from pediatric health care providers to adult health care providers.
Largest survey to date conducted with this subgroup
To our knowledge, this file contains the largest publicly available sample to study this transition period for children with special health care needs at the national level. The topics covered in this survey are important and policy-relevant, and yield a rich source of information on a rare population.
Identical variables assessed at two points in time, six years apart
Because of the follow-back design feature, we were able to include many variables from the 2001 NS-CSHCN public use file (PUF) in the 2007 SATH PUF for each case.
Single data file
The 2001 and 2007 variables are included in a single PUF to make the file easier to use.
Self-reported data from the young adults
In 2001, the survey respondent was the parent or guardian who was most knowledgeable about the health and health care of the sampled child with special health care needs. In 2007, data were collected directly from this subject.
Cooperation and refusal rates
Although this survey has a low response rate (17.5% using standards of the American Association of Public Opinion ResearchExternal), this rate is primarily driven by the inability to contact original households and not due to a high refusal rate. We were unable to contact approximately 7,409 (68%) of the original 2001 parents or guardians. Once were able to contact the 2001 respondent to gather current contact information on the young adult, many eligible subjects chose to participate. Of the young adults we were able to contact, almost all of them cooperated; the AAPOR cooperation rate was just over 98%.
There were 10,933 cases originally identified in the 2001 NS-CSHCN as eligible for follow-up. The 2001 survey was a cross-sectional random-digit-dial (RDD) telephone survey, and was not originally designed as a longitudinal survey. Very limited six-year-old contact information was initially available to locate the 2001 households. Telephone numbers sampled in 2001 were first dialed to locate the 2001 respondent. If this person could be located, current contact information was requested for the SATH-eligible young adult so he/she could be contacted directly. If the telephone number was not useful, the case was researched using commercial means to try to find the original respondent. Many of these attempts were not fruitful.
We located and completed interviews with 1,916 young adults, of which 1,865 cases are included in the SATH data file. The unweighted SATH interview completion rate was 17.5%.
Non-response bias
Sampling weights for the 2007 SATH dataset were derived from the original 2001 NS-CSHCN sampling weights. These SATH weights were then adjusted for non-response to the SATH interview, using demographic information from the 2001 NS-CSHCN. However, no analysis of non-response bias has been completed. Young adults from households that did not move between 2001 and 2007 may be overrepresented in the dataset, and these young adults may differ in important ways from young adults living in households that did move between 2001 and 2007.
Sample design variables in the 2007 SATH public use file (PUF) are STATE (strata), IDNUMR (primary sampling unit or PSU), and WEIGHT_SATH (final SATH interview weight).
Because of the sample design, response rate, and the possibility of non-response bias, analysts may wish to consider the SATH sample as a purposive or convenience sample rather than a random sample. Data from a purposive or convenience sample should not be used to conclusively test hypotheses. However, these data are worthwhile for:
hypothesis generation, or develop ideas to be substantiated in data analyses with other most robust datasets (e.g., those drawn from random samples)
exploratory analysis of relationships between variables, recognizing that results may only be narrowly extrapolated and may not be generalizable to the national population of young adults with special health care needs.
Analysts should include a disclaimer that credits any analyses, interpretations, or conclusions reached to the author(s) (i.e., recipient of the data file) and not to NCHS, which is responsible only for the initial data.
Page last reviewed: November 6, 2015
Content source: CDC/National Center for Health Statistics
home State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey
About SLAITS expand
FAQ for Potential Sponsors
FAQ for Data Users
National Survey of Children's Health
National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs
Other Survey Modules expand
Health Module
Child Well-Being and Welfare
National Survey of Early Childhood Health
National Asthma Survey
National Survey of Adoptive Parents
National Survey of Adoptive Parents of Children with Special Health Care Needs
Influenza Vaccination Module for Children
Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services
National Survey of Children in Nonparental Care
National Survey of the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD and Tourette Syndrome
Imputed Data
Publications and Selected Presentations
SLAITS Survey Participants
Surveys and Data Collection Systems
Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent HealthExternal file_external
National Opinion Research CenterExternal file_external
PDF file_external


text:
"""Tests for disco_config utilities."""

from unittest import TestCase
from copy import deepcopy
from ConfigParser import NoOptionError
from mock import patch, Mock

from disco_aws_automation import disco_config, exceptions
from tests.helpers.patch_disco_aws import MockAsiaqConfig

@patch("disco_aws_automation.disco_config.ASIAQ_CONFIG", "FAKE_CONFIG_DIR")
class TestNormalizePath(TestCase):
    """Tests for the normalize_path utility function."""

    @patch('os.path.exists')
    def test__no_such_path__exception(self, path_exists):
        "Normalize path finds no such path - exception."
        path_exists.return_value = False
        self.assertRaises(exceptions.AsiaqConfigError, disco_config.normalize_path, "yabba", "dabba")
        path_exists.assert_called_once_with("FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/yabba/dabba")

    @patch('os.path.exists')
    def test__path_exists__path_returned(self, path_exists):
        "Normalize path thinks the path exists - path is returned"
        path_exists.return_value = True
        found = disco_config.normalize_path("yabba", "dabba")
        self.assertEqual(found, "FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/yabba/dabba")
        path_exists.assert_called_once_with(found)

    @patch('os.path.exists')
    def test__list_arg__correct_path_returned(self, path_exists):
        "Normalize path works with a single list-typed argument"
        path_exists.return_value = True
        found = disco_config.normalize_path(["yabba", "dabba"])
        self.assertEqual(found, "FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/yabba/dabba")
        path_exists.assert_called_once_with(found)

    @patch('os.path.exists')
    def test__tuple_arg__correct_path_returned(self, path_exists):
        "Normalize path with a single tuple-typed argument"
        path_exists.return_value = True
        found = disco_config.normalize_path(("yabba", "dabba"))
        self.assertEqual(found, "FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/yabba/dabba")
        path_exists.assert_called_once_with(found)

@patch("disco_aws_automation.disco_config.ASIAQ_CONFIG", "FAKE_CONFIG_DIR")
@patch('disco_aws_automation.disco_config.AsiaqConfig')
class TestReadConfig(TestCase):
    """Tests for the read_config utility function."""

    @patch('os.path.exists', Mock(return_value=True))
    def test__no_arg__default_behavior(self, configparser_constructor):
        "Default argument for read_config works"
        parser = Mock()
        configparser_constructor.return_value = parser
        parsed = disco_config.read_config()
        self.assertIs(parsed, parser)
        parser.read.assert_called_once_with("FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/disco_aws.ini")

    @patch('os.path.exists', Mock(return_value=True))
    def test__named_arg__expected_behavior(self, configparser_constructor):
        "Keyword argument for read_config works"
        parser = Mock()
        configparser_constructor.return_value = parser
        parsed = disco_config.read_config(config_file="Foobar")
        self.assertIs(parsed, parser)
        parser.read.assert_called_once_with("FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/Foobar")

    @patch('os.path.exists', Mock(return_value=True))
    def test__arglist__expected_behavior(self, configparser_constructor):
        "Unnamed argument list for read_config works"
        parser = Mock()
        configparser_constructor.return_value = parser
        parsed = disco_config.read_config("foo", "bar")
        self.assertIs(parsed, parser)
        parser.read.assert_called_once_with("FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/foo/bar")

    @patch('os.path.exists', Mock(return_value=True))
    def test__arg_combo__named_arg_last(self, configparser_constructor):
        "Combined keyword and listed args for read_config work"
        parser = Mock()
        configparser_constructor.return_value = parser
        parsed = disco_config.read_config("foo", "bar", config_file="baz.ini")
        self.assertIs(parsed, parser)
        parser.read.assert_called_once_with("FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/foo/bar/baz.ini")

@patch("disco_aws_automation.disco_config.ASIAQ_CONFIG", "FAKE_CONFIG_DIR")
class TestOpenNormalized(TestCase):
    """Tests for the open_normalized utility function."""

    @patch('os.path.exists', Mock(return_value=True))
    @patch('disco_aws_automation.disco_config.open')
    def test__path_exists__passthrough_successful(self, open_mock):
        "Valid path for open_normalized - 'open' called"
        expected = Mock()
        open_mock.return_value = expected
        found = disco_config.open_normalized("path", "to", "file", mode="moody")
        self.assertIs(expected, found)
        open_mock.assert_called_once_with("FAKE_CONFIG_DIR/path/to/file", mode="moody")

class TestAsiaqConfig(TestCase):
    """Tests for the AsiaqConfig object."""
    # allow long method names
    # pylint: disable=invalid-name
    BASE_CONFIG_DICT = {
        disco_config.DEFAULT_CONFIG_SECTION: {
            'default_environment': 'fake-build',
            'default_unused_option': 'fall-all-the-way-back',
        },
        'mhcfoobar': {
            'easy_option': 'easy_answer',
            'envy_option': 'fallback_answer',
            'envy_option@fake-build': 'default_env_answer',
            'envy_option@ci': 'ci_answer'
        }
    }

    S3_BUCKET_CONFIG = {
        's3_bucket_base': 'bucket-base',
        's3_bucket_suffix': 'blah',
        's3_bucket_suffix@production': 'danger'
    }

    def test__get_asiaq_option__no_env_options(self):
        "Option exists in desired section: found it"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertEqual('easy_answer', config.get_asiaq_option(option='easy_option', section='mhcfoobar'))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__default_env(self):
        "Env-specific option with default environment"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertEqual('default_env_answer',
                         config.get_asiaq_option(option='envy_option', section='mhcfoobar'))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__env_in_constructor(self):
        "Env-specific option with environment passed in at construction time"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT), environment='ci')
        self.assertEqual('ci_answer',
                         config.get_asiaq_option('envy_option', section='mhcfoobar'))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__env_in_call(self):
        "Env-specific option with environment passed in at call time"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertEqual('ci_answer',
                         config.get_asiaq_option('envy_option', section='mhcfoobar', environment='ci'))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__env_in_constructor_and_call(self):
        "Env-specific option with environment passed in at call time"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT), environment="bad_env")
        self.assertEqual('ci_answer',
                         config.get_asiaq_option('envy_option', section='mhcfoobar', environment='ci'))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__bad_env_in_call(self):
        "Env-specific option with unused environment passed in at call time"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertEqual('fallback_answer',
                         config.get_asiaq_option('envy_option', section='mhcfoobar', environment='nope'))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__default_section(self):
        "Option found in defaults as fallback"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertEqual('fall-all-the-way-back', config.get_asiaq_option('unused_option'))
        self.assertEqual('fall-all-the-way-back',
                         config.get_asiaq_option('unused_option', section='mhcfoobar'))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__missing__exception(self):
        "Missing option with required=True"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertRaises(NoOptionError,
                          config.get_asiaq_option, 'nobody-cares-about-this', section='mhcfoobar')

    def test__get_asiaq_option__missing_not_required__default(self):
        "Missing option with required=False and default"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertEqual("passed-in-default",
                         config.get_asiaq_option('nobody-cares-about-this', section='mhcfoobar',
                                                 required=False, default="passed-in-default"))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__missing_not_required_no_default__none(self):
        "Missing option with required=False and default"
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertIsNone(config.get_asiaq_option('nobody-cares-about-this',
                                                  section='mhcfoobar', required=False))

    def test__get_asiaq_option__nonsense_args__error(self):
        "Invalid arguments to get_asiaq_option produce an error."
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertRaises(exceptions.ProgrammerError, config.get_asiaq_option, 'immaterial',
                          required=True, default=12345)

    def test__get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name__no_prefix__error(self):
        "Missing bucket prefix should make bucket-name method raise an exception."
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT))
        self.assertRaises(NoOptionError, config.get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name, 'foobar')

    def test__get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name__no_suffix(self):
        "Missing suffix should not produce a problem for the bucket-name method."
        config_dict = deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT)
        config_dict[disco_config.DEFAULT_CONFIG_SECTION]['s3_bucket_base'] = 'bucket-base'
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(config_dict)
        self.assertEqual("bucket-base--foobar", config.get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name('foobar'))

    def test__get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name__defaults(self):
        "Base behavior of get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name works as expected."
        config_dict = deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT)
        config_dict[disco_config.DEFAULT_CONFIG_SECTION].update(self.S3_BUCKET_CONFIG)
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(config_dict)
        self.assertEqual("bucket-base--foobar--blah", config.get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name('foobar'))

    def test__get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name__real_env_specified(self):
        "Environment-specific behavior of get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name with a configured env works as expected"
        config_dict = deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT)
        config_dict[disco_config.DEFAULT_CONFIG_SECTION].update(self.S3_BUCKET_CONFIG)
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(config_dict, environment="production")
        self.assertEqual("bucket-base--foobar--danger", config.get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name('foobar'))

    def test__get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name__bad_env_specified(self):
        "Environment-specific behavior of get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name with a nonsense env works as expected"
        config_dict = deepcopy(self.BASE_CONFIG_DICT)
        config_dict[disco_config.DEFAULT_CONFIG_SECTION].update(self.S3_BUCKET_CONFIG)
        config = MockAsiaqConfig(config_dict, environment="nope")
        self.assertEqual("bucket-base--foobar--blah", config.get_asiaq_s3_bucket_name('foobar'))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


If we refuse to be manipulated by perceptions of Semiramis and Nebuchadnezzar as inculcated by the Bible and by sloppy references on the web, the weight of evidence tends to favour Semiramis as builder of the gardens.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon begin to look quite credible. In the previous section we resolved the worst conflicts between the written sources and determined the most reliable description. And in this section we identified the most likely builder.


text:
Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Juno McEnroe
Daniel McConnell
Elaine Loughlin
Gerard Howlin
Fergus Finlay
Terry Prone
Suzanne Harrington
Colm O'Regan
Michael Clifford
Alison O'Connor
Shaun Connolly
Roja Fazaeli
Joyce Fegan
Slawomir Sierakowski
David Davin-Power
Comment / Analysis
Cork on the Rise is a hub in which we will be debating and exploring the city's transformation and future both from a national and international perspective. Join the conversation via our readers blog here
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Sarah Thatt-Foley: Things are looking up for Cork's sustainable future
The iconic 1932 image shows workers above New York, building the Rockefeller Center during the global economic Depression.
Building upward is an important part of the drive to make Irish cities livable, writes Sarah Thatt-Foley
We all know the image. In 1932, amid the Great Depression, 11 construction workers sit with dangling legs high above Manhattan's skyline, enjoying lunch atop a skyscraper.
Staged to promote the construction of the Rockefeller Center, the photo has since become synonymous with Irish immigrant workers and the development of downtown New York.
Some 90 years later, if recent planning applications are anything to go by, it appears that construction workers will soon be working on tall buildings across our own evolving skyline.
Encouraged by new planning guidelines in which the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy called for councils to "lift overly restrictive maximum heights" and actively pursue tall buildings in city centres, exciting applications have been submitted for new types of developments which boldly reimagine the look of Cork City.
Following in the century-old footsteps of cities across the USA and recently those in emerging economies, high-rise buildings are experiencing a resurgence across Europe in places as diverse as Manchester, Rotterdam, Milan, and Barcelona.
Back in Cork, in the past six months, planning has been granted for the Prism, a 15-story elegant office development inspired by New York's Flatiron building, directly behind Parnell Place bus station.
Across the from the Elysian (currently Cork's tallest building), Railway Gardens — a 17-story apartment block centred around sustainable transport — has been given the green light.
In Cork's docklands, JCD Group's application to develop a state-of-the-art 25-floor apartment scheme awaits a decision from An Bord Pleanála, while Tower Holdings' proposal for a landmark 34-story hotel, warehouses, and public plaza on Custom House Quay is also pending go-ahead.
Similar changes are happening in Dublin. A landmark ruling in April by the planning authority paved the way for high-rise construction on Tara Street, while Project Waterfront in the North Docklands includes a new 44-story tower.
To have this scale of transformational development in Ireland within immediate proximity to existing city centres is incredibly exciting. Building up instead of out has long been advocated to optimise our urban footprint. As an example, better spatial planning and delivery of high density can play an important part in reducing traffic congestion and avoiding sprawl. In fact, improving core density is the first and foremost principle championed by City Regions Ireland, an urban voice representing the five cities of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford.
Compact development is also supported by national planning policy and endorsed by both Cork City Council and Cork County Council in a joint strategy for future growth.
Under the Government's Project Ireland 2040, a key focus is that 50% of all future urban population growth takes place in brownfield locations.
Looking ahead to 2031, the Cork metropolitan area's workforce will grow by 65,000 people. To facilitate this employment growth, we will need 27,300 new housing units, investment in our transport network, additional social infrastructure, places to play, and spaces to ride a bike.
In this context, it is welcome that Cork's proposed tall buildings are all planned right next to public transport hubs to minimise the need for additional car-based commuting or investment in the road network.
Equally important is the engagement of world-leading tall buildings experts to ensure proper placemaking and appropriate design. The more people that live, work and socialise in an area, the more vibrant a place will be.
The UN's 2019 Human Development Index places Ireland third globally for quality of life. Marrying our future economic growth and opportunity with delivery of high-density, proper placemaking, well-designed communities, and integration of sustainable transport is essential to maintaining Cork as an attractive place to live.
Quality of life is an increasingly growing priority for anyone deciding where to invest. As a city and country, we need to plan for, and continually improve, quality of place; forever keeping an eye to the world, and attuned to the evolving preferences of people.
We are at a pivotal point in Cork with development at a larger scale than ever seen before. However, high-density does not exclusively mean high-rise. Whereas well-designed and appropriately located tall buildings can become game-changers for Cork, and further identify our docklands as a vibrant international location, we must also value and invest in our historic core.
Within our current city centre, the goal of high density could simply mean a return of vacant units to city centre homes, above the shop living, or construction of six- to eight-story apartment buildings that blend well with the architectural style of the immediate surrounds.
Already the construction activity on Horgan's Quay, Penrose Quay, and Albert Quay provides a sneak peek of what's to come. Cork's Docklands will become a focal point for commercial activity.
We must ensure that high-quality public places, sustainable and public transport, as well as the integration of tall buildings at street level are incorporated into the docklands rejuvenation from the outset.
Public realm upgrades such as the €6.5m Albert Quay investment — passed by Cork City Council in September, and now subject to a legal challenge — must be developed without delay, or we may undermine the advancement of our city. No one wants to retrofit neighbourhoods in the future when the opportunity is there now, to do this right.
A city rising is, indeed, a beautiful thing. Who knows? Maybe the next iconic photo will be of 11 ironworkers eating lunch atop a skyscraper high above the River Lee.
Sarah Thatt-Foley, Senior Public Affairs Executive, Cork Chamber
Kevin O'Neill: Developments in Cork City centre promise to transform city image
Kevin O'Neill: The only way is up as Cork skyline set to change beyond recognition in years ahead
CIF: Delays in the south's infrastructure projects threaten Irish economy
Special report: Cork City on the rise, but crumbling to the point of collapse in places
TOPIC: Cork on the Rise
Tweet #CorkOnTheRise


Are you tired of spending your valuable time at a job that you aren't fond of? According to a study done by CBS News, 51% of full-time employees aren't engaged at work. It can be frustrating to go to work every day thinking about your dream career as a cosmetologist while waiting for "the right moment" to switch careers. The truth is, that moment is now! Stop settling for temporary job matches, and swipe right on a career that you want to last.
If you're stuck in a cycle of hating jobs and not enjoying the work you are doing, then it might be time to take the plunge and un-match. Looking to start your journey towards a career that encourages creativity and is consistently rewarding? The answer is Cosmetology! The qualifications to become a licensed cosmetologist are straight-forward -- requiring training that prepares you to take your Cosmetology License exam as well. It might sound like a tedious process, but the end-goal you are working towards makes it all worthwhile.
Do you have an idea of a salon that you dream of working at? The staff is creative, and they are good listeners. They seem to have the best advice and have always taken care of you. That's not just a coincidence: there is a consistency in the qualities because that is how they excel at their job. Cosmetologists have an important job that focuses on enhancing the lives of their clients. Being customer oriented, a good listener, and having the stamina to deliver quality service are vital traits in the cosmetology world. If these traits describe you, or these are skills you would be interested in learning, then you are on the right track!
Making the first move can be scary, but if you don't make a move then there is no guarantee that your new career will develop. Take control of your situation! Learn more about the Nuvani Institute admissions process and financial aid options to get started working towards your future. When it comes to your education, it's up to you to make the first move.


A debate on how to find a fair system of investigation of small firms' complaints against banks.
The fourth debate this year on the subject of banks' treatment of businesses in distress (or not) is to be held on 9th October 2018.
Previous debates have focussed on the specific case of firms caught up in RBS's Global Recovery Group and their campaign to get compensation and, more lately, a broader campaign to establish as system of complaint and restitution outside of formal legal action. This might be thought of as being something akin to a commercial Financial Services Ombudsman. An All Party Action Group exists to promote this idea and it has both sympathy and support of the financial regulator the FCA.
A response to this consultation is expected shortly.
The APPG on Fair Business Banking has produced its own briefing for the debate. A previous Library briefing produced in July 2018 can be found here.


This comfortable bar height arm chair is ideal for taking in the beautiful view of your garden. POLYWOOD furniture is constructed of solid POLYWOOD lumber that's available in a variety of attractive, fade-resistant colors.
This comfortable bar height arm chair is ideal for taking in the beautiful view of your garden. POLYWOOD furniture is constructed of solid POLYWOOD lumber that's available in a variety of attractive, fade-resistant colors. It won't splinter, crack, chip, peel or rot and it never needs to be painted, stained or waterproofed. It's also designed to withstand nature's elements as well as to resist stains, corrosive substances, salt spray and other environmental stresses. Best of all, POLYWOOD furniture is made in the USA and backed by a 20-year warranty.


text:
Dutch PM Rutte Meets Kazakh President, Prime Minister in Astana
By Malika Orazgaliyeva in International on 4 December 2015
ASTANA – Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte arrived in Astana Dec. 2 for an official visit which was intended to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries and which included the signing of an official agreement on the Netherlands' participation in EXPO 2017.
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte meets with the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. Photo: ortcom.kz
Rutte held meetings with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Prime Minister Karim Massimov, Chairman of the Senate Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Chairman of the Mazhilis (lower chamber of Parliament) Kabibulla Dzhakupov.
Nazarbayev and Rutte discussed the status of bilateral economic relations, issues in the oil and gas industry, agriculture, transport and space development and exchanged views on international issues.
Nazarbayev noted that the Netherlands is an important partner for Kazakhstan.
"This is our fourth meeting. My visit to your country last year was very fruitful and its results were important. … The Netherlands is one of the largest investors into the economy of Kazakhstan and one of our most important trade partners. We see your visit as an indication of your will to bring our bilateral relations to a new level," he said.
Nazarbayev also stressed the importance of the business delegation accompanying Rutte, which represented seven major Dutch companies working successfully in Kazakhstan.
In turn, Rutte noted the broad opportunities that exist for cooperation, in particular in light of Kazakhstan's ongoing process of economic diversification.
He also highlighted the opening ceremony of Astana Square ("Astanaplein" in Dutch) in Rotterdam in November as clear evidence of strengthening and friendly relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte (L) with Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov (R). Photo: primeminister.kz
With Massimov, Rutte discussed trade, economy, cooperation in the oil and gas industry, agricultural innovations and interaction within the EU.
"The agricultural sector is well developed in the Netherlands. Even though your country is 65 times smaller than Kazakhstan, it is the second largest agricultural producer in the EU. This offers a great opportunity to increase Kazakhstan's potential productivity. Your visit will be very important and useful for future development," Massimov said.
Rutte noted that Kazakhstan is the first country in Central Asia to sign an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the EU (to be effected at the end of December in Astana).
"I believe that this agreement will set a completely new qualitative basis for political and economic ties between our countries," he said.
Following the meeting of the nations' leaders, Chairman of the Astana EXPO 2017 National Company Akhmetzhan Yessimov and Ambassador of the Netherlands to Kazakhstan Hans Driesser signed an agreement on the Netherlands' participation in the upcoming international specialised exhibition EXPO 2017 in Astana, the Astana EXPO 2017 company website reported.