Mr. Rodriguez recently retired as a Managing Director-Investments and Senior Portfolio Manager-PIA with Merrill Lynch. Rod's love and respect for conservation and the outdoors was molded by his time spent hunting and fishing while growing up in Louisiana and he continues to be an avid hunter and fisherman. He graduated with a degree in Finance from Louisiana State University in 1971.
Rod began his long career as a Private Wealth Advisor in 1971 and was with Merrill Lynch for 37 years. In 2008, Barron's Magazine selected Rod to its "Top 100 Wealth Managers" which represents the top 100 Private Wealth Managers in America. For the last 9 consecutive years, he has been recognized by Barron's Magazine as the Number One Financial Advisor in Louisiana. In 2006, Research Magazine selected Rod to its "Winner's Circle" which represents the top 100 Wealth Advisors in America.
Rod is active within the New Orleans and Tampa communities in many business, civic and charitable organizations. These include E. McIlhenny's Sons, Inc. (makers of Tabasco pepper sauce), Children's Hospital, Tampa Bay History Center, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, The Chartwell Foundation, The Greater New Orleans Foundation, the National World War II Museum, and United Way Tocqueville Society. He is also the President of the Gustaf W. McIlhenny Family Foundation. Rod was recently awarded Merrill Lynch's Robert E. Young Award for selfless work throughout the community.
Mr. Rodriguez was appointed to the Board in February 2013.
Jeff Trandahl joined NFWF in November 2005 after serving on Capitol Hill for 23 years. As Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, a post he held from 1998 to 2005, he was the second-highest constitutional official in the House of Representatives and served as the chief legislative official. He led a highly specialized staff of 300 and oversaw an operating budget of more than $20 million. Prior to his election as Clerk, he served various members of the House and Senate and held numerous committee staff assignments.
Mr. Trandahl earned a B.A. in Government/Politics from the University of Maryland in 1987 and holds a Certificate in Management from the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. He currently serves on the boards of the Gill Action Fund, Jones Group, Arise Corporation, and The Arcus Foundation. Raised in Spearfish, South Dakota, Mr. Trandahl is the son of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. An avid outdoorsman, he has a life-long commitment to conservation.
Lila Helms comes to NFWF from the United States Senate, where she served for more than 20 years. As Clerk for the Legislative Branch subcommittee, which funds Congress and the agencies that serve Congress, she managed legislation involving multiple federal agencies. She previously served as Clerk of the Commerce, Justice, and State Appropriations subcommittee and worked for the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Oceans and Fisheries Subcommittee and the Subcommittee for Science and Technology. Ms. Helms began her career as a Legislative Assistant for Senator Ernest F. Hollings and holds a B.A. from the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Bamford is responsible for advancing the Foundation's mission through the creation and implementation of a comprehensive conservation vision, strategy and a metrics-based evaluation system for NFWF's grant-making programs. She serves an important role in creating and leading NFWF's conservation strategy by setting national and regional cross-cutting strategies, and by leading design, development and fundraising planning for the conservation strategy, as well as guiding the conservation policies and practices of the Foundation. Prior to joining NFWF, Dr. Bamford was acting assistant secretary for conservation and management for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In that role, she drove administration policy, programming, and investments for NOAA's ocean, coastal and fisheries management. Her responsibilities spanned coastal resilience, marine protected areas, protected species, sustainable fisheries and coastal services. Dr. Bamford worked closely with members of Congress, other agency leaders, partner organizations, and local communities to develop policies and take conservation actions to ensure coastal and ocean stewardship. Dr. Bamford earned her doctorate in Organic Environmental Chemistry from the University of Maryland.
Tokunbo Falayi serves as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the Foundation. In this role, Mr. Falayi provides leadership and oversight for the Finance, Accounting, Budgeting and Investment functions. In addition, Mr. Falayi serves as Treasurer for the Foundation. Mr. Falayi joined NFWF in 2003, and has worked in multiple roles and capacities in the Finance and Accounting function over the past 12 years. Prior to joining NFWF, Mr. Falayi was the Senior Accounting Manager at Special Olympics. Before Special Olympics, Mr. Falayi worked in public accounting with Arthur Andersen as a Senior Consultant on multiple business and financial consulting engagements. Mr. Falayi is a CPA and a Chartered Accountant. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and obtained his Master's degree in Business Administration from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Daniel Strodel oversees and manages the Foundation's legal matters. Before joining NFWF, Mr. Strodel was an attorney in private practice focusing on administrative law including federal government contracting and procurement. Prior to that, he served as Chief Administrative Officer for the U.S. House of Representatives and as general counsel for the Sergeants at Arms of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. He received his J.D. from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law and his B.A. from Hobart College in Geneva, New York.
Tom Kelsch joined NFWF in 1998 and has served the Foundation as Vice President, Conservation Programs, Director of the Eastern Partnership Office, and Director of Conservation Education. He spent eight years as an environmental scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds and was Chief of the Wetlands Regulatory Policy Section from 1995 to 1998. He also has extensive experience as an environmental planner for a private consulting firm. Mr. Kelsch holds a B.L.A. in Landscape Architecture from Michigan State University and earned an M.E.S. in Environmental Studies from Yale University.
Timothy DiCintio directs NFWF's IDEA department, which receives, manages, and disburses funds designated for specific conservation purposes. Most often these funds originate from court orders, settlements of legal or administrative cases, regulatory permits, licenses, or conservation/mitigation plans, although they may also arise from voluntary activities focused on proactive conservation. Prior to joining NFWF, Mr. DiCintio was an attorney-advisor in the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, where he served as EPA's national expert on Superfund financial assurance issues. He focused on corporate, financial, and insurance issues arising within EPA's cleanup enforcement programs. As an attorney in private practice at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, he split his time between the firm's environmental and, subsequently, corporate and finance practice groups. Mr. DiCintio received his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Dr. Chatwin leads NFWF's Science and Evaluation team, which works closely with the Conservation Programs team to optimize the impact of the Foundation's programs and projects. Dr. Chatwin joined NFWF in 2008. Prior to NFWF, he worked for more than 10 years at The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Law Foundation. At NFWF, Dr. Chatwin led the Marine and Coastal Conservation initiative before assuming his current responsibilities. During that time, Dr. Chatwin established the Fisheries Innovation Fund, a public-private partnership that supports effective participation of fishermen and fishing communities in the implementation of sustainable fisheries in the United States.
Dr. Chatwin has served on several advisory committees to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including the U.S. Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee and the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee. In 2012, he was appointed Chairman of the Maryland Oyster Advisory Committee. Dr. Chatwin is a zoologist and earned his doctorate in Biological Oceanography from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Amanda Bassow, director of NFWF's Northeastern Regional Office in Washington, D.C., managed the Foundation's Chesapeake Bay restoration programs from 2006-2013. She joined NFWF after nine years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, serving in the Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation and as a community watershed coordinator in EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program office. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Washington.
Jonathan Birdsong, director of NFWF's Western Regional Office in San Francisco, California, brings more than 15 years of experience in brokering strategic, non-traditional initiatives in the public and private sectors that benefit natural resources. Prior to joining NFWF, Mr. Birdsong worked for BlueWater Strategies, a boutique consulting firm in Washington, D.C. where he focused on natural resources, agriculture, energy and irrigation efficiency policies. From 2002 to 2010, he worked for U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson of California, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Birdsong handled energy, natural resources, western water and agriculture policy for the Congressman and, for the last seven years of that time, was the Congressman's legislative director, responsible for managing legislative strategy and staff. He has a B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an M.B.A. from The George Washington University.
Todd Hogrefe directs NFWF's Central Regional Office in Bloomington, Minnesota. Previously he served as the Foundation's Great Lakes Program Director and its Central Region Assistant Director from 2008 to 2016. In those roles, he led programs and built partnerships focused on the Great Lakes region, the Upper Mississippi River, and important bird habitats across the United States. Prior to joining the Foundation, Todd spent more than seven years as the endangered species specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and a wildlife biologist for the Utah Department of Natural Resources. In those positions, he worked on a broad spectrum of conservation issues, ranging from desert fishes recovery in the Colorado River basin to wolf management in the Upper Midwest. He holds a B.S. in Biology from Pennsylvania State University and an M.S. in Fisheries & Wildlife from Utah State University.
Jay Jensen, director of NFWF's Southern Regional Office in Washington, D.C., brings more than 15 years of public policy and executive management experience in conservation efforts to his role. Prior to joining NFWF, Jensen served as the associate director for land and water ecosystems for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), where he had land- and water-policy responsibility for the U.S. Departments of Interior and Agriculture, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Prior to his service at CEQ, Mr. Jensen served as the Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he had oversight responsibility for the U.S. Forest Service. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of the Council of Western State Foresters/Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, and was Senior Policy Advisor for the Western Governors Association. Mr. Jensen also worked on lead up to the 2002 Farm Bill as lead forestry advisor for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture. Mr. Jensen holds a degree in Biology and Geography from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master's degree in Forest Science from Colorado State University.
Chris West, director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Denver, Colorado, brings more than two decades of conservation experience to his new position. Prior to joining NFWF, Mr. West served as the executive director of the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT), one of the nation's leading land conservation organizations that now protects more than 450,000 acres on 300 working ranch properties statewide. Prior to his work with CCALT, he served as the first executive director of the Douglas Land Conservancy in Castle Rock, Colo. At that time, Douglas County was the fastest growing county in the nation and a national example of how conservation can succeed at the same time as rapid growth. Mr. West served on the board of directors of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts from 1998 to 2005 and was the president of that board from 2001 to 2003. He also serves on the Land Trust Alliance National Leadership Council and chairs the governor-appointed Colorado Easement Oversight Commission. Mr. West has an undergraduate degree in Geology from Colby College and a master's degree in Natural Resource Policy and Economics from Duke University.
Edwin R. "Rod" Rodriguez, Jr.


Desktop 2.0 and a new advisor client portal.
whole new level," said Mr. Swenson.
aggregation, reporting, rebalancing, operations, CRM and compliance.
Stanley and in Emerging Markets Institutional Sales at Lehman Brothers.
He received his BA from Harvard University.
will be staying on as a consultant to Dynasty.
next generation of Dynasty's innovative platform," said Mr. Castillo.


"Both sides are making encouraging comments that they are on the right track," Jasper Lawler, the head of research at London Capital Group, said.
Sentiment was also helped by a further easing of monetary policy from China's central bank. The People's Bank of China made substantial efforts to ease lending conditions Friday with a 1% cut in banks' reserve requirements ratios (the first of four possible cuts in 2019).
"Traders are adopting a wait and see approach before deciding whether the latest round of US-Sino trade talks will be productive," Jasper Lawler, the head of research at London Capital Group, said in an email.
Not all Asian indexes fell, however, with Japan's Nikkei up 0.8% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong climbing 0.1%.


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La Bezole (; ) is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.

Population

See also
Communes of the Aude department

References

External links

 Photos of La Bezole

Communes of Aude
Aude communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


HONOLULU — For political and emotional drama, it's hard to top this: U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, the most beloved and respected figure in Hawaii state history, makes a death-bed request to name his successor in Washington.
But the governor, a fellow Democrat who has clashed with Inouye, spurns the dying senator's plea and appoints his own lieutenant governor to the seat.
The result, playing out more than a year later, is a closely fought and emotionally wrought primary battle between the novice senator, Brian Schatz, and Inouye's choice, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa: a Democrat-on-Democrat fight tinged with ethnic and generational tension and haunted, inevitably, by the ghost of Inouye and his last wish.
But now Gov. Neil Abercrombie has challenged that much-told narrative, implying that it had been manufactured to pressure him into choosing Hanabusa. He questioned whether Inouye even wrote the letter, marked "personal" and dispatched just before he died, seeking Hanabusa's appointment. And he said that, in more than one conversation, the late senator stated his preference for Hanabusa but made it clear that the decision ultimately was Abercrombie's.
Later he elaborated, saying the circumstances were "far from the drama … with which it's been characterized."
"I think it was kind of created," Abercrombie said. " I don't dispute for a second it represented his thinking, but it's far from being a dying wish, sent from Washington and signed and sealed … by Sen. Inouye in Washington."
A spokesman for Hanabusa said the letter reflected Inouye's unequivocal sentiments, written in his own words.
"Obviously he didn't sit at the computer and type it up, but he dictated the contents of that letter in the week leading up" to his death, said Peter Boylan, communications director for Hanabusa's campaign and deputy chief of staff to Inouye at the time of his death.
Though not privy to any private conversations between the governor and the senator, Boylan said, he never heard Inouye express anything but abundant praise and a strong desire to have Hanabusa succeed him. Conveying those feelings, Boylan said, was one of the few things Inouye made a priority in his final days.
The two men had a long and not always agreeable history. Inouye, who was active in politics from statehood and helped turn Hawaii into today's overwhelmingly Democratic bastion, sometimes backed Abercrombie opponents in earlier races. He was not happy with Abercrombie's decision to give up his long-held House seat and run for governor in 2010.
But during the interview at his campaign headquarters, Abercrombie spoke of Inouye with admiration and said both men were professional enough as politicians to look past their differences.
"We worked together hand in glove for 20 years," he said, his voice rising. "To have others characterize our relationship on the basis of their perception of politics, it's not just inaccurate, it completely misses the actual nature of this relationship."
Abercrombie said the question of succession actually come up after another Hawaii senator, Daniel Akaka, announced plans to retire in 2012. At one point, Abercrombie said, there was talk of Akaka stepping down early, so his successor could be named immediately and gain seniority over others elected in November.
It was then, Abercrombie said, that Inouye stated his preference for Hanabusa. But, the governor said, he also told him, "In the end, as governor, you have to make the decision you think is best for the people of Hawaii. It's up to you. … And of course he'd say that because he was the person he was, which is to say a consummate politician in the best sense of that word."
Inouye's death in December 2012 came suddenly, even before Akaka — who ended up finishing his term — had left the Senate. It was then Abercrombie received the letter from Washington describing Inouye's dying wish that Hanabusa succeed him. Although it was marked "personal," the governor noted acidly, it was also released to the media.
"I don't argue a bit that represented his sentiments," Abercrombie said, even as he questioned the letter's authorship. "I say with equal certainty that I also know he admonished me to do what I thought was best for the people of Hawaii."
Under state law, Abercrombie was given a list of three possible successors, provided by the Hawaii Democratic Party: Hanabusa, Schatz and Esther Kiaaina, deputy head of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Abercrombie chose Schatz, in part, he said, because of his youth. He is 41 and Hanabusa is 62 and that gives him the potential, Abercrombie said, to serve longer in the Senate and accrue more power.
The Democratic primary is Aug. 9 and the Senate contest, all sides agree, is too close to call.


A father of two who transitioned to be a woman after eight years of marriage is transitioning back to being a man after just seven months.
James Cohen, 36, told his wife, Eirian, 36, that he wanted to become a woman after claiming he'd hidden his gender secret since he was a child.
But James, who is now known as Jim by family and friends after ditching his female name, Kara, has thrown out his blonde wig, dresses and high heels.
Despite the couple's marriage ending as a result of Jimmy's first transition, Eirian has stood by him every step of the way and claims the pair are now best friends.
Jim, who now has short brown hair and a beard, has recently moved to Portugal with Eirian and now lives with his two daughters and her new partner.
The pair, from Leeds, who have been subjected to online bullies are now trying to educate those who do not understand gender identity issues.
Eirian said: "It was a huge shock when James told me he wanted to be known as Kara.
"We'd forked out privately for him to have hormone treatment straight away so it was a shock when, seven months later, he told me that he no longer wanted to look like a woman.
"He decided in July last year that he didn't want to appear female any longer. He stopped wearing his blonde wig, dresses and heels and instead grew a beard.
"But I did my best to support him; after all, we had eight happy years of marriage and two daughters, Electra, seven, and Seren, eight, together.
"Our girls had accepted that their daddy was turning a woman, we've explained everything to them in a way they understand. They don't mind if he had a beard or wears a dress, kids aren't born with prejudices, that's something they learn.
"I have done nothing but support Jim from the start and despite being confused myself at first, I have accepted his recent transition and have started calling him Jim.
"Jim is now the happiest he has ever been, he has no regrets about transitioning into a woman and feels lighter for having explored his feminine side after keeping it repressed for all those years.
The pair have recently moved back in together at their home in Portugal and are bringing the girls up together.


The Internal Revenue Service says a venture capital business of billionaire Carl E. Berg, the unassuming, low-key New Mexico native who made his fortune in the Silicon Valley, understated its income by $110 million and owes $44 million in back taxes and penalties. ... Over the past two decades, Berg has spent more than $100 million for a 52% stake in Valence Technology, an Austin, Tex. company trying to develop batteries that will power cars. So far, there's been no payoff. "This is a very tough business, but it has enormous potential," Berg told Forbes earlier this year.


Samantha is at the heart of our office and administrative function, and leads our team providing crucial support. She is often the first point of contact and is well-known to many of our clients. Samantha is a key member of our team who organises hundreds of appointments per year.


If you or a loved one has suffered a broken leg injury in an accident, you will need an experienced Louisville broken leg injury lawyer to help you with your claim. Matt Troutman of the Troutman Law Office has been a Louisville broken leg injury lawyer since 1986. Mr. Troutman has prosecuted many broken leg claims and he will handle your claim personally from start to finish.
If you have sustained a broken leg injury due to the negligence of another in or near Louisville Kentucky, you have legal rights and Mr. Troutman is a Louisville broken leg injury lawyer that can help you recover compensation for your losses. In order to contact Mr. Troutman, you can complete the contact form on this website and submit it to Mr. Troutman or you can call him directly. Call today and win against the insurance companies.


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Chris Renzema At The Ice House
800 North Main Street Bryan, TX 77803
Admission: $18 Online | $22 Door
Website Buy Tickets
Chris Renzema appearing at Ice House on Main!
About Chris Renzema: Chris Renzema received more than 36 million audio streams of his independent project, I'll Be The Branches, which was a personal, but less autobiographical, worship album. His follow-up sophomore album and Centricity Music debut Let The Ground Rest sparked more than 90 million streams and began to reveal more of his life story weaved into the songs. Receiving well-over one million Spotify track saves over the last year, a 2020 Pandora "Artist to Watch" nod and a GMA Dove Award nomination for "New Artist of the Year," Get Out of the Way of Your Own Heart continues Renzema's more personal trajectory. The album features lyrics that cut to the bone while singing about hope and echoing the universality of both pain and praise.
Doors open at 7:30PM & Music starts at 8:00PM.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
david.lang@secnewgate.com.au
David is a public affairs and communications consultant with diverse expertise in areas including foreign policy, finance and technology.
After a decade of work with and for government, David now provides strategic advice and support to help clients navigate issues that span policy, politics, business and the media. He has worked on briefs in sectors including technology, government, legal, finance, education and defence.
Before joining SEC Newgate, David was based in London where he led UK public policy for Square, an NYSE-listed payments company. He previously worked as an adviser to former Australian Foreign Minister the Hon Julie Bishop MP, and spent four years as an analyst and managing editor at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. David established and led the Australia-Japan Youth Dialogue between 2016 and 2020.
He holds a Bachelor of Business Management from The University of Queensland and a Master of International Relations from Griffith University.
Active in Canberra


This 300 + 240 mm medical arm with gas cylinder height adjustment allows you to fix, orient and adjust your keyboard and mouse perfectly.
rail and adjusts to the desired height.
stay in the chosen position for a better typing comfort on the keyboard.
* The weight supported is 1 - 3 kg.
* Keyboard support rotation: 360°.
* Arm rotation: 105° right, 105° left.
Note: This arm can also be installed on one of our columns or medical trolleys.


Nuclear Engineers deal with all systems which utilise nuclear energy. Nuclear Engineering combines the practical applications of Engineering with nuclear physics in order to develop safe and reliable power systems and methods to implement nuclear power.
Nuclear Engineers can be involved in power plant design, weapons development, reactor design and radiation research are some of the tasks that Nuclear Engineers are involved with. The theoretical side of this discipline involves extensive lab work, where Nuclear Engineers often work with nuclear physicists. Nuclear Engineering students must have a strong knowledge base in both chemistry and physics to become accredited as Nuclear Engineers.
A large portion of Nuclear Engineers end up working for large power companies and may be stationed on-site to supervise the daily operation, maintenance and improvement of power plants. Other popular fields for Nuclear Engineers include medicine and radiation as well as the military.


text:
Only top-level descriptions Morse Department of Special Collections
The Manuscript Cookbook collection includes 125 cookbooks with culinary recipes and home remedies dating from the early 16th century to the late 20th century. The cookbooks originate from various countries, such as Austria (1), Denmark (1), England (25), France (1), Germany (7), Ireland (3), Mexico (5), Palestine (1), Slovakia (1), Switzerland (2), and the United States (42). The books vary in size and shape and are almost exclusively handwritten. Although most are written in English, other languages include German (10), French (2), Danish (1), and Hebrew (1).
Stereograph collection
This collection combines from many sources stereographs from people connected to Kansas State University, as well as one record box of stereoscopes with miscellaneous parts in various conditions. The Morse Department of Special Collections created the alphabetical arrangement and storage of this collection.
These photograph albums generally document the history of Kansas State University and Manhattan, Kansas.


According to research published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, when UV rays reach the skin, a compound that helps lower blood pressure is released into our blood vessels. The Researchers At The University Of Edinburgh In The Uk Postulate That The Cardiovascular Benefits Of Vitamin D May Outweigh The Risks Of Skin Cancer.
The researchers recruited 24 volunteers to sit under sunlamps for two 20 minute sessions while the scientists observed their blood pressure. In the first session, the participants were exposed to UV rays and the heat of the lamp. In the second session the UV was blocked so only the heat was affecting the skin.
The researchers found that the participants' blood pressure decreased and their heart rate rose in the UV exposure session, but not when they were exposed to the heat only. The reduction in blood pressure lasted for 50 minutes. Vitamin D levels were unaffected in both sessions.


If you're looking for something different to do in Sydney, then look no further. At 11am every day at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium you can have the fantastic opportunity to feed a variety of sharks, rays and different tropical fish all from our behind the scenes Glass Bottom Boat ride.
There are only 8 spots available daily for this memorable ride - so make sure you book your place at our admissions desk when you arrive on the day. And at only $15 per person - it is a very affordable unique experience.
Once a day we feed our sharks and fish a mixture of mussels, prawns, squid, whiting, mackerel and whitebait. We do often get asked why our sharks don't eat the other fish. Well there are a couple of different explanations... one is we make sure we don't put the sharks favourite live fish food in with them and two we feed them every day.
You can also watch the 11am daily feed from the Reef Theatre's floor to ceiling window that looks into the exhibit - both of these experiences are a must for your list of things to do in Sydney.


The Wilson A800 Baseball Gloves are the progression from Wilsons A500 series. Players looking to move up in quality and durability should consider the A800 series. These gloves have an old school look and feel. The soft full leather shell makes the glove practically game ready out of the wrapper. The models are designed with the older youth player in mind. Therefore, the hand sizing is for the ages of 8-14 years of age.
The Wilson A800 glove is the perfect youth baseball glove for someone needing to replace theirs in a hurry. Break-in time is miniscule. This is even true for the catchers mitt and the first base mitt. The first base mitt is the most popular from this series. That is because the youth hand can actually handle and control this mitt. It is very rare in the baseball glove industry to find a glove that is not heavy or cumbersome at first base. So, make sure to consider the A800 series baseball gloves.


text:
Leora Smith
Leora Smith is a writer and a lawyer living in Toronto.
The God Phone
Posted by Leora Smith
Illustration by Tim Peacock
Leora Smith | Longreads | January 2020 | 18 minutes (4,961 words)
CW: This story discusses a suicide that occurred at the Burning Man festival in 2017, and also thoughts of suicide.
In between the fabric folds of towering red and white tents, a small, gray push-button phone sat on a dusty cushion, shaking with a high-pitched ring.
Outside, the air throbbed with music. Deep bass notes crisscrossed the landscape, merged with the voices and footsteps of Burning Man's tens of thousands of attendees, and flooded the desert with sound.
But inside, there was only the phone, its ring echoing off the tent walls.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Hi," said the voice on the other end. "Is this god?"
A well-worn phone booth stood off a busy thoroughfare in Black Rock City, the temporary metropolis that Burning Man's participants build together every year in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. During frequent dust storms, a sign above it reading
Talk to God beamed through the thick, whitewashed air like a desert marquee.
Below the booth a buried phone line ran about 100 feet to a secret location. There, it connected to the God Phone. Anyone who found it got to play god.
When I discovered the God Phone in 2017, the first few calls I fielded were silly, easy. Callers asked me, "What should I do tonight?" Or, "What's god's favorite thing out here?" Over and over they expressed glee at my gender. "I knew god was a woman," people said, or sometimes, "I'd hoped you were."
But about 30 minutes in, a man called, and a hesitation in his voice drew me in so closely that I felt like we were meeting in an ethereal space deep inside the phone cord.
"There's something I want to do," he said, "and I want you to tell me if I should or not." The otherworldly room we inhabited shrunk around me. "What's the thing?" I asked, already knowing he wouldn't tell me. "I've tried it in the past," he said, "and it didn't work. But this weekend I might try it again."
I can't say why I thought the man might harm himself. But in the moment I felt that threat as solidly as the receiver in my hand. And I wish I'd been motivated otherwise, but all I wanted to do was drop it and run.
I asked if the thing would make him happy, and he said he thought it would. "You should do the things that make you happy," I told him, my tongue pushing out the words while the knots in my stomach tightened, trying to rope them back in. He whispered a thank you and hung up.
A few nights later, during Burning Man's culminating event — the burning of a giant effigy called The Man — a man died by suicide. Before he died, he was sitting just 20 feet away from me.
In a crowd that big, I know it's unlikely he was the same person who called. But for two years I haven't been able to shake the thought from my head.
Almost a year after my night on the God Phone, the legal services organization where I worked held a training on recognizing when clients are thinking of suicide and making space for conversations about it.
Our teacher was Karen Grant-Simba, a trainer with the suicide prevention organization LivingWorks and a former case manager at a hospital's mental health department. She wore her hair in thick locs and spoke in a voice so soft I felt I could crawl right up and fall asleep inside it.
Karen's training focused on "invitations," the hints people drop that they are struggling. An invitation might be something a person said, the way they looked, or just a feeling you got in your gut around them. She described the fear we feel acknowledging these invitations. The way our voices catch in our throats. The way our better instincts bubble up like heartburn and how we push them down, back, and anywhere but out.
When someone seems like they are hurting, Karen encouraged us, take a risk and tell them you noticed. Then, she had us practice. She told us to turn to a partner and say these words out loud: "Are you thinking of suicide?" The question quickly filled the room; it pinged between partners and off the walls and my mind traveled on it, back to the man in the phone booth.
"Are you thinking of suicide?" I imagined asking, curled up by the God Phone. "Are you thinking of suicide?" I thought, and I walked to the phone booth to see him face-to-face. "Are you thinking of suicide?" I asked as I led him back to the God Phone so we could sit and talk through it. "Are you thinking of suicide?" I said and we shared a long conversation that ended in a hug.
The words began slipping off my tongue, easier and easier each time. I wished someone had painted them on the phone, had given me a warning that I might need them.
A common refrain at Burning Man is "safety third." Every year, artwork at the event is physically dangerous.
Dance Dance Immolation, a famed installation set up a few times between 2005 and 2013 by the artist collective Interpretive Arson, had participants play a game inspired by Dance Dance Revolution in fire proximity suits that protected against flames shot directly at dancers with every missed step.
In 2018, artist Dustin Weatherford stacked seven old cars, one on top of the other, in a piece called Night at the Climb-In. People scaled the structure, navigating the rickety mirrors and rusted doors to the top where they could sip drinks in a canned-ham trailer 34 feet in the air. (Officials from the Bureau of Land Management and Burning Man closed the installation to climbers a few days into the event after someone fell and got hurt.)
But the God Phone's risks felt different from Burning Man's usual danger. There was no purposeful climb to a precarious lookout, no donning of fireproof gear in preparation for something that was obviously a bad idea. What sort of responsibility did the artists have for this other kind of art, I wondered, the kind where the risks were more hidden?
I never thought I'd go back to Burning Man after my God Phone experience, and I definitely didn't think I'd go back to the phone. But in 2019, I did. I sat there for 24 hours, because I wanted to know if other conversations like mine were happening there. Was the God Phone safe? If someone got hurt, how would we know?
At 10 a.m. on the day I visited the Talk to God phone booth, a line of people already stretched from it. Would-be callers formed an impromptu catalogue of Burning Man fashion: tutus, bedazzled military hats, leather fanny packs, and dusty combat boots on every foot.
I passed the queue and traced ever-widening circles searching for the gods' lair until I found it, just a few hundred paces away, kitty-corner from the booth, obscured only half-heartedly by a gauzy curtain.
Inside, 10-foot-tall black light paintings of a dragon and the Buddhist deity Quan Yin loomed over a man in a weathered white armchair, holding the receiver to his ear. By his feet, a speaker quietly projected both sides of the conversation, and onlookers gathered around it, sitting on large cushions draped in green faux fur.
The whole setup sat atop a plush black carpet patterned with geometric shapes in bright, elementary-school colors. Taken together, the space had the feeling of a 20-year-old's first grown-up living room, or the basement hangout from a grainy sitcom.
I walked in and joined the group huddled around the speaker. From there, we had a clear sightline to the phone booth, and everyone who approached it.
The calls came in quickly, with barely any break between them. Lighter questions (What do you think about Christmas?) and universal ones (Why do you let natural disasters happen?) were peppered with confessions (I'm in love with someone but I'm married to someone else) and personal requests (Can you watch over my son in rehab? I'm worried this might be his last shot).
The speaker muffled everyone's voices slightly, insulating us in the sound. We were voyeurs floating in a secret room wallpapered with worries.
What sort of responsibility did the artists have for this other kind of art, I wondered, the kind where the risks were more hidden?
A 30-something named Benji sat beside me in the huddle, his plain gray T-shirt and khaki shorts the most nonconformist outfit in a sea of eccentrics. He smiled while he talked and told me he was raised ultra orthodox Jewish just outside New York City ("Black hat, the real deal," he said), but declared himself an atheist about five years ago. Around that time, he attended Burning Man and found the God Phone.
"The conversations we have on the God Phone are very similar to the conversations I used to have with my god," Benji said. "There's just one difference," he added, laughing. "The Burning Man variation of god has it so when you pick up the phone to speak, god actually responds." He said it with such positivity, but I couldn't relate. My own flawed, too-mortal response had been the very thing that made me worry about this whole experiment.
More calls came: Can you tell me why my mom left? What is my purpose here? Why do children get sick?
The next time it rang, the man in the god chair looked at me. "You're god," he said, holding out the receiver. I shook my head, no.
The Talk to God phone booth first appeared at Burning Man in 2003, the brainchild of a group of artists from Ojai, California, who camped together under the banner OBOP, short for "Ojai Bureau of Pleasure." While many installations only make the difficult trek to the Nevada desert once, the booth has been there, in different iterations, every year since.
OBOP member Michael Shevchuk remembered four muses merging in his brain to form the concept: Burning Man's 2003 art theme "Beyond Belief"; a line from a U2 song ("God has got his phone off the hook, babe, would he even pick up if he could?"); an exchange between a fictionalized Andy Warhol and Jim Morrison in the film The Doors ("Somebody gave me this telephone. … And she said that I could talk to God with it, but I don't have anything to say"); and an old telephone booth that Shevchuk walked past daily in his neighbor's yard.
When campmates and artists Steven Jeffre and Scott Siedman heard the idea, they rushed to make it real. Within days they found an abandoned booth already missing its phone by a highway, and mined it for parts: hinges, handles, a ceiling unit that housed its lights, and the shelf where the phone rested. Using these parts and some plywood, they built a slightly enlarged replica of a classic Ma Bell booth, and the first Talk to God phone was born.
I understood that, as an artist, Miles celebrated the varied, sometimes difficult experiences people had on the phone. But as someone who lived one, I didn't.
In the vast expanse of Burning Man, a small phone booth could get lost, but instead it made a mark. Over 16 years, thousands of people have interacted with the installation, placing a call or answering one. Reddit and Facebook threads overflow with accounts of phone calls that left an impact.
In early 2018, the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery hosted an exhibit of Burning Man art. That year, Smithsonian curator Nora Atkinson gave a TED Talk, positioning Burning Man as a new art movement, one where a piece's value is determined by the emotional connection it creates between people. As she spoke, a picture of the Talk to God phone booth appeared over her left shoulder, an example of an iconic piece in a bizarro pantheon.
In 2007, OBOP disbanded and, in a ceremony common at Burning Man when a piece of art has run its course, some camp members decided to burn the phone booth. When word spread of its destruction, a community swooped in to ensure its return and continued presence. A member of a neighboring camp scavenged a new booth in a Seattle junkyard. A retired phone enthusiast in Boston recreated its technical parts, boxed them up, and mailed them to California.
Since then, two people — Jaye Hersh and Miles Eastman — have each brought the booth in different years. They call themselves its shepherds. I talked to both Jaye and Miles, and to Scott who helped build the first booth, about my unnerving God Phone experience before going back this year, and none were surprised.
"I've heard so many stories of people having those kinds of conversations," Miles told me.
"Does that worry you?" I asked. On the contrary, he said, "I think that you stumbled on the purpose and the beauty of the piece."
His answer worried me.
This year, a clipboard holding a bright orange piece of paper rested by the God Phone. Be Kind! the page read in big, rounded purple letters across the top.
Jaye — who goes by "Yay" at Burning Man — was shepherding the phone booth. On the first day I met her she wore flowers in her hair and electric blue lipstick that somehow stayed perfectly applied for the entire week of dry, lip-cracking desert heat.
As a shepherd, she had two rules. The first: Encourage "a kinder, gentler god." The second: God always answers. Her campmates took shifts, acting as standby gods in the lair when the chair sat empty. On two nights, nobody signed up for the 4 a.m.–6 a.m. shift, so Jaye slept by the phone.
Her instructions provided a kind of lightness. When the questions got hard, kindness was easy. Sitting with experienced gods, newer gods got support and even a bit of a script. Many gods mimicked Jaye's signature "I love you" signoff, though I couldn't always tell if they meant it, or if they just liked hearing it back. Either way, I was unreasonably moved listening to adult men exchange unabashed, tender "I love you"s at the end of their calls.
It was a very different God Phone from the one I found two years prior.
From the God Phone's first day at Burning Man, members of OBOP disagreed on how to run it. Scott's approach was "get out of the way and trust people." He said he was chasing honesty and intimacy between strangers. For him, those moments of feeling stuck, unscripted, or unsettled but forced to engage — those were the whole point.
Miles, who shepherded the booth the year I first found the phone, shared Scott's ethos: no instructions, no supervising gods. They described their hands-off approach as an act of faith. "I trust in the love and compassion of our fellow human beings to show up for each other," Miles said. "It's worth the risk," he added, "to allow that natural sort of serendipity."
By 2 p.m. on my day at the God Phone, there was still a line at the phone booth. By 3 p.m. the gods had answered nearly 30 calls.
God, can you watch over my house in Florida? I just heard about the hurricane and I didn't close the shutters.
Can you check on my brother in New York? He's depressed and I'm worried about him.
Can you send a message to my mom and dad? One of them has been there a while, but the other is a newer arrival.
Do people who die by suicide get into heaven?
Do you know who stole my bike?
Some of the calls felt serendipitous in their timing: One caller talked about a partner leaving her and connected to a god who'd just finalized a divorce. A caller struggling in an open relationship talked to a god who had just opened up her marriage. And a person in need of a bike tire somehow reached a god who had a spare that was just the right size.
Around 3 p.m., Courtney, a woman in big rhinestone sunglasses and exuding a mama bear energy, sat beside me. She seemed like someone who, if she passed a broken-down car on the side of the road, would both stop to fix it and feed the driver home-baked muffins while they waited. Laughter danced at the edges of her words, a warm South Carolina accent curling them like a mischievous smile.
As we listened together, Courtney told me about the town where she grew up, how she learned about Burning Man online, and that the God Phone's camp adopted her when she sought advice about the event on an online forum. "I don't have much family," she said, and arriving in the camp felt like coming home.
After eyeing the phone for a few calls, she decided to take one.
Hello, this is god.
I'm freaking out a little, the caller jumped right in. How do I let go of trying to control everything?
I'm god, she said, laughing. I get it.
I need to know I'm gonna be OK, he said.
Yeah. You're wonderful, and I love you unconditionally and you can do anything you want to do.
The caller burst out in relieved laughter.
I love this, he said, with a new energy in his voice. Thank you so much.
The call hardly lasted two minutes. But as I watched that man walk out of the booth in the distance, I saw him transformed. Something lifted just by speaking his worries out loud.
So many people shared God Phone stories with me in the months leading up to Burning Man. You're writing about the Talk to God booth? they'd say excitedly. I just have to tell you the most amazing thing that happened there.
More often than not, the conversations they described were short. To me, they often sounded almost inconsequential. But I learned that this simple opportunity to pause, to share a hurt, to hear someone acknowledge it stuck with people for years.
What stuck with them was that someone answered at all, that they had a space to say, 'I'm in the middle of the biggest party in the world, and something inside me hurts.'
As the afternoon went on, more calls came in. Most weren't about thoughts of self-harm or big life decisions. For the most part, they were the kind of everyday sadnesses we carry around quietly all the time.
Sometimes, I followed the callers to learn more about them. Nearly every one shooed away their friends before we talked about their experiences, not wanting to share the topic of their calls. "I don't want to be a burden on them," one woman told me.
Talking with them I realized how many people, like me, had run away from hard conversations. How we did it on purpose, and sometimes without realizing. How people who needed to talk waited for invitations to spit out the hard stuff, and how good it felt when they did.
In between calls, Courtney asked why I was writing about the God Phone, and for the first time that week, I told someone the whole story.
When I finished, she said, "You did the best you could that day." And I almost believed her.
Before heading to Burning Man this year I had lunch with Karen, my teacher from the suicide training, to ask her thoughts on the booth. Was it safe to have untrained people fielding calls? Did she agree with Miles that it was worth the risk?
"There is power in just being able to verbalize how you are feeling," Karen said, explaining that talking about thoughts of suicide was better than keeping them in. "People live their lives with thoughts of suicide in the background," she told me. "The more we can normalize the experience the better we'll be for it."
Listening to Karen, I realized what she was saying wasn't just true about thoughts of suicide, but about all kinds of sad thoughts. Still, her answer surprised me. The phone felt so risky — for the callers and the gods.
I reached out to Dan Reidenberg, the executive director of the advocacy group Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), for a second opinion.
Shortly before the premiere of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, the streaming giant reached out to "Dr. Dan" for advice on a scene that depicted a teenager dying by suicide. When Netflix released the scene, to widespread criticism, SAVE partnered with another nonprofit to release a guide to help parents and teachers discuss the series with young people watching it, and to help prevent a possible copycat effect — that vulnerable people watching the scene might try to harm themselves. I imagined he'd given a lot of thought to art that engaged with issues of self-harm.
"I've talked to people who used that phone," he said, shocking me. And he echoed everything Karen said.
"Obviously," he explained, "it would be best if the people hearing these things were trained." But faced with the option of having the phone booth as is, or not having it, he said he'd pick having it. "It doesn't take any training to be a good person," he added. "You just have to be compassionate, caring, empathetic, and willing to listen."
Dr. Dan did have a word of caution. "You have to hope," he said, "that whoever is answering isn't going to support someone toward self-harm." I'd planned on asking him about my conversation, but shame sank it like concrete in my throat. I managed to push it out and ask Karen directly.
"That was not a bad conversation," Karen assured me. "A bad conversation is saying, 'Just do it.' A bad conversation is hanging up the phone and walking away." Then, she added something that hit me hard: "Sometimes the fear that people have is that once they become aware of something that serious, there is an expectation to do something they are not skilled to do. But, she added, "We don't need to be able to fix things for people."
I thought back to the course I took with her. The way I imagined saying the right words and inviting the caller to the God Phone, imagined us talking, imagined us hugging and walking away. The way I wished I could have fixed the ache I thought I heard.
I realized that of all the people who talked to me about their God Phone experience, not one of them said god actually solved their problem. Most didn't even remember exactly what the person who answered the phone said.
What stuck with them was that someone answered at all, that they had a space to say, "I'm in the middle of the biggest party in the world, and something inside me hurts."
In the early evening, two women approached the phone booth. One, in a neon-orange mesh bodysuit, lifted the phone and posed while the other snapped a photograph.
In the gods' lair, the phone rang.
This is god, Courtney said. How may I help you?
The woman in the bodysuit, unaware the phone actually connected, startled at the sound of Courtney's voice.
Is this god? She turned around, moving as far into the booth as she could. Do you answer prayers? Then she whispered, Can you help my boyfriend to be faithful?
I watched the conversation and I thought, it's really not very hard to ask someone if they are struggling with something. On just a moment's notice, almost anyone could tell you that they are.
It's easy to be cynical about Burning Man. At its worst, the event is capitalist escapism. A party where the wealthy run away from, and disdain, the most toxic elements of a system that, for 356 days of the year, many of them sustain, advance, and profit from.
But sitting at the God Phone reminded me that, at its best, Burning Man is an immersive art project. One based on values of communalism, kindness, and generosity.
Many of the people I met at the God Phone had attended Burning Man three, four, even 15 times. Some of them were wealthy, but many weren't. I learned that a lot of people first went to Burning Man for the parties, but almost no one went back just because of them.
People went back because it was a place where they felt they could be their fullest selves, which meant wearing a tutu, taking on a new name, or just telling a stranger that sometimes they found themselves on a dance floor and all they wanted to do was cry. Then trusting that someone would say, "You're wonderful, and I love you unconditionally."
Just after 11 p.m. I stepped away from the phone for a nap and to change into warmer clothes. As I stood up, a new god plonked himself in the chair. When I got back at 3 a.m., he was still there, nodding off between calls.
I sat down by the speaker, untangling myself from a long string of lights woven through my shoelaces to keep me visible at night. When I was settled, the tired man in the chair handed me the phone. "You're god," he said, standing up before I could decline. When the phone rang and I answered it, the receiver weighed heavily in my hand.
God, what do you know about shame?
The man calling wore a gray steampunk jacket and large goggles to protect against the dust. He explained how hard he'd worked to get to Burning Man, but once he arrived, he just felt lonely. Then he felt ashamed for being lonely. A lot of people feel that way, I told him. They all call me.
He laughed, then got quiet. I thought of Karen's advice, and instead of pulling back, I stepped in further. Do you want to come sit with me? I asked. He said he'd think about it, then ended the call. Twenty minutes later he called back, and I guided him to the God Phone.
Over the next few hours we sat together. We talked a bit, but not very much, and we listened to the calls come in. By morning I was still carrying shame inside me, and I think he was too. Neither of us had fixed anything, but it was cozy at the God Phone, and I was grateful for the company.
In the early hours of the morning, the sky lit up, its pastel colors forming a rainbow. A woman stopped in to take a few calls and explained it was her nightly ritual before going to sleep. Later, a man wearing a captain's jacket and a top hat joined us. He said he was part of the original camp that brought the Talk to God phone booth, and he'd been taking calls at sunrise for years.
They were just two of a handful of people I met who, once they found the phone, visited it again and again.
'I trust in the love and compassion of our fellow human beings to show up for each other,' Miles said. 'It's worth the risk,' he added, 'to allow that natural sort of serendipity.'
When I got home, I reached out to Benji to ask why he returned so often. "It's therapeutic," he told me. "It reminds you that we are all struggling with things, we are all insecure, and we're all lonely." He added, "It's not nice to know that other people are suffering, but it's comforting to know that not everyone is having the best time all day long. … It feels not alone."
Unexpectedly, 24 hours at the Talk to God phone booth reminded me of my first year of law school, when I felt so sad and overwhelmed that I sought out counseling for the first time.
In the counselor's office at the school, she asked my field of study and I told her. She responded, Oh, I'm seeing all of your classmates. Before she said that, I'd thought I was the only one struggling. But afterward, a warm feeling washed over me. It was the same one that Benji described at the God Phone, and the same one that Karen tried to foster in her courses: normalcy.
I still wish the God Phone had some referrals or instructions for really hard moments, but my time there won me over to Karen and Dr. Dan's perspective: Given the choice of having the phone as is, or not having it at all, I'd pick having it every time.
Because the God Phone bathed everyone — callers and gods — in that feeling of normalcy. In a place where, most of the time, everyone and everything was striving to be extraordinary, it provided an oasis of ordinary. And people gravitated to it. At every hour of the day they gathered around speakers, they lined up, they came back again and again just to feel it.
Surely, that was worth the risk.
At the end of the week, after most people had packed up and gone home, Jaye's partner John walked out to the phone booth to disassemble it. Jaye always left it standing to the last possible minute, tearing down all the tents and rolling up the wall hangings until the booth and the God Phone lay out in the dust alone, just in case someone needed to make a call.
Finally, when everything else was done, John unplugged the God Phone. Then, they dug up the phone line, carefully refilling the trench where it lay, erasing the mark it left in the sand. They hauled the heavy booth to their pickup truck and lay it upside down for the drive home. Plonked there, legs in the air, the booth didn't look like much, just a blue metal box with some stickers on it.
"We took it out there having no idea what would happen with it," Jaye remembered about the booth's first year at Burning Man. But people gravitated to it immediately. "It was clear that people needed that," she said, "and we could give that to them."
Jaye wrapped the God Phone's dangling cord around it, tucked it carefully into the dusty nightstand, and packed it away for next year.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or self-harm, there are resources for you. Reach someone for immediate support, 24/7/365, at these numbers:
U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-TALK (8255)
Crisis Services Canada: 833-456-4566 (In Quebec: 866-277-3553)
List of International Suicide Hotlines
Editor: Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Fact-checker: Matt Giles
Copy-editor: Jacob Z. Gross
Categories: Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Tags: art, Black Rock City, Burning Man, communication, conversation, essay, festival, festivals, God, Leora Smith, mental health, music, performance art, phone, phone booth, relationships, Reported Essay, self-harm, suicide, Wellness


text:
Robin Cook facts for kids
Leader of the House of Commons
Lord President of the Council
8 June 2001 – 17 March 2003
Margaret Beckett
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
2 May 1997 – 8 June 2001
Malcolm Rifkind
Jack Straw
for Edinburgh Central
28 February 1974 – 9 June 1983
Thomas Oswald
Alexander Fletcher
for Livingston
9 June 1983 – 6 August 2005
(new constituency)
Jim Devine
(1946-02-28)28 February 1946
Bellshill, Scotland
6 August 2005(2005-08-06) (aged 59)
Inverness, Scotland
Robin Cook (28 February 1946 – 6 August 2005) was a politician in the British Labour Party. He was Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2001. He resigned from the cabinet in 2003 in protest after the Invasion of Iraq.
Shortly after becoming Foreign Secretary, he left his wife, Margaret, to live with Gaynor Regan, his secretary.
He died of heart disease whilst on a walking holiday in the Highlands.
Cook was an atheist.
Robin Cook Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.
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Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources of Information in the Sciences
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Internet Rights in Ecuador : the possible triumph of activists?
by Digital Rights LAC on December 21, 2013
The appearance of the "Free Internet" coalition was crucial in raising the alarm on one of the most controversial articles of the new criminal code, that would allow the monitoring of Internet. But is the possible end of Article 474 sufficient enough for the government to respect fundamental rights in communications?
By Analia Lavin and Valeria Betancourt, APC
After the revelations of Edward Snowden in June this year, the Assembly of Ecuador passed a resolution rejecting the "illegal and indiscriminate use of espionage" carried out by the United States, and considered it an attack against the "right to privacy and the privacy of all the inhabitants of the planet". A few months later, the Ecuadorian representative in his speech at the UN General Assembly, criticized how these practices ignore "the right to privacy and freedom of expression of all citizens ."
During the same period, however, the Assembly of Ecuador discussed and approved a new penal code that legalized the systematic surveillance of communications, jeopardizing the exercise of these rights that it zealously defended in the case of U.S. practices.
Civil society organizations, user groups and Internet users closely followed the discussions on the law and got access to drafts which put them on alert. Together, they formed the "Free Internet" coalition and launched a campaign that included digital activism, along with meetings with Assembly members from all the political parties and reports sent to the president. Although at the time of writing this note, there is still no official confirmation, it appears that the most problematic aspects will be eliminated from the final text.
Article 474, the most controversial aspect of the new penal code, requires Internet service providers to store user data "in order to carry out the corresponding investigations". This article, however, goes far beyond mass state surveillance, extending the same storage requirements to "subscribers of telecommunications services that share or distribute their voice or data interconnection to third parties" and seeks to bring these policing functions to the citizens themselves, promoting a culture of permanent distrust where everyone could potentially end up spying on each other.
Besides contradicting rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this item violates the Constitution of Ecuador, which recognizes the right to personal and family privacy. It also establishes that both privacy and interference of virtual correspondence, require minimum guarantees as authorized by the owner or judicial intervention. The alertness raised by Article 474 would be generalizing the limitations of a law which, on the contrary, should be the exception. As stressed by Ecuador's representative to the UN General Assembly, and mentioned above, privacy is closely related to freedom of expression, and practices such as censorship affect the quality of democracy in the nation.
But Article 474 not only legitimizes the systematic violation of fundamental rights of citizens, it also presents serious problems in its implementation. Storage of "data integrity" of people's communications for at least six months that are required by law, would force service providers to exponentially multiply their storage capacity, to update their physical and virtual infrastructure, and strengthen their security protocols.
The very high costs of these measures, which will probably end up being transferred to the end user, will also have an impact on the investment priorities of companies, who would have fewer resources to extend their services to less profitable areas.
Finally, the volume of information and data which the law requires to be preserved (basically all Internet traffic and telecommunications in a country of fifteen million people) multiplies the risks of interception, analysis and non-consented use for commercial or political purposes as well as compromising the security of electronic economic transactions of the governement, among other things. If this article is approved, the criminal code, instead of protecting internet users would actually expose them to conditions of extreme vulnerability. Such legal content, ultimately limits the deployment of network usage for social, economic, political and cultural development.
These were some of the arguments used by the "Free Internet" coalition. Activists involved in the campaign, however, think that the decisive factor was the decision on privacy in the digital era, recently approved by a committee of the UN General Assembly. The resolution, pushed forth by Germany and Brazil, states that the "monitoring and/or interference of illegal or arbitrary telecommunications, as well as the illegal or arbitrary collection of personal data, are highly invasive acts that violate the rights to privacy and freedom of expression and may contradict the principles of a democratic society" Ecuador is among the 23 countries that signed the resolution.
The assemblywoman who announced the annulment of Article 474 on Twitter (an announcement that, again, has not yet been made official), referred to "political and ideological coherence" as the reason behind this decision. While Ecuador supports such resolutions at the UN and offers political asylum to Julian Assange, to position itself as a world leader in human rights, the situation within the country is worrying. This year, for example, an organic law of communications was approved which, among other problematic aspects, demands electronic media to register the identity of those who publish comments. If it seeks political coherence, Ecuador must renew its commitment to the fundamental rights of its own citizens.
Analia Lavin is part of the communications team of APC
E – mail: Analia@apc.org
Valeria Betancourt is Director of the Policy Program of Information and Communication APC
E – mail: valeriab@ apc.org
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Nº30 Cuba Edition
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N°2 08/2013
A new Internet geography for Cuba
From the Cassette to 'The Package,' or How to Do Streaming Without Internet in Cuba
My Experience with the Internet
Comic: None the Wiser
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Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will be on her big bike as she rides to Tagbilaran City for the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HnP) rally at the Holy Name University (HNU) Oval on Wednesday.
Duterte and her regional party HnP will be campaigning for 13 senatorial candidates which is supportive of the administration of her father President Rodrigo Duterte.
She will be on board a boat from Maasin, Leyte to Ubay town. She is expected to be on her big bike as she drives to Tagbilaran. Like the President, Sara is a big bike enthusiast.
The Bohol rally is part of the Visayas leg of the HnP campaign sorties that began March 18, 2019 in Catarman followed by Tacloban and Maasin in Leyte on Tuesday.
Former Cabinet Secretary and gubernatorial candidate Leoncio "Jun" Evasco Jr. is set to host the rally at 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the HNU Oval.
The Alyansang Bol-anon alang sa Kausaban (ABAKA), which is headed by Evasco and an ally of HnP, is among organizers of the HnP rally.
Sara is expected to endorse the candidacies of Evasco and his running mate Tommy Abapo.
The Davao mayor knew Evasco during the years that he served her father who was then Davao City mayor.
Sara is also expected to pitch for the HnP's 13-member senatorial ticket in the Bohol leg of the group's campaign.
The slate is composed of Senate reelectionists and returnees Sonny Angara, Pia Cayetano, JV Ejercito, Jinggoy Estrada, Koko Pimentel, Bong Revilla and Cynthia Villar.
New names in the line-up are former Philippine National Police director Ronald dela Rosa, former Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, Rep. Zajid Mangudadatu (Maguindanao), former reporter Jiggy Manicad, Gov. Imee Marcos, and former MMDA chair Francis Tolentino.
It was gathered from ABAKA insiders that dela Rosa, Mangudadatu, Angara, Villar and a representative of Bong Go are arriving in Tagbilaran for the rally.


tami sanders * paper crafter shows you how to use Artits-Tac from Grafix to make a collage on canvas. Artist-Tac makes the process quick and easy without the mess of liquid glue.
ARTIST-TAC by Grafix is a permanent dry adhesive that is neat, clean and easy to use. it comes in sheets that can be cut to size or punched or diecut for shapes.
the Inking Palette from Grafix has 25 disposable plastic sheets, separated by white paper. the sheets are anchored at each end of the stack keeping the palette stable during use.
use the palettes for staging your ink. the white paper separators make your colors appear true and make them easy to see.
once you are done, tear your used palette off the stack to reveal the next clean palette.
apply and work with Izink Inks on Inking Palette... paint 3-4 book pages with different colors of Izink, varying intensity of colors on pages.
painted pages. the thin book pages may curl, just reroll the other way to flatten. pages don't need to be perfectly flat - they will smooth when adhesive is added to back.
for sample, pages were painted using: Mango mixed with some Citronella, Safran, Orchid, Topaz, Cactus with some streaks of Bamboo and Ambre with some Caviar.
for some added variety in colors to help with shading, repaint 1 of each color of pages using Jasmine - which is an opaque white and 1 page using Opaline - which is sheer with shimmer.
for background and accents, paint a few pages using Caviar, then lighten 1 page with Opaline and 1 using Jasmine.
sketch design onto canvas using pencil. no need to erase corrections completely, they'll be covered.
cut page of color you want to start with in half - in this case a yellow page for the "moon". then cut a piece of Artist-Tac a little bit larger.
remove white backing from adhesive.
carefully position and place paper over adhesive. work CAREFULLY - once paper touches adhesive it's STUCK!
smooth paper using your fingers to transfer adhesive to paper.
apply adhesive to several "shades" of yellow to use to fill in "moon" section of collage. i started with the "moon" as i prefer to fill in the background designs first.
tear adhesive backed paper into strips, then tear strips into small pieces.
small pieces make it easier to fit them into the sections of your collage. use a mixture of the painted and whitened sheets to add shading.
peel backing off pieces - bending a corner makes it easier to remove - and begin to fill in "moon". don't worry if small bits go over lines, you'll be adding more collage bits on top and can define.
you can trim away any portions that extend past board with scissors or a kraft knife.
canvas with moon area added.
next, i repeated the process using the black and gray pages to begin to fill in the "night" portion of the background.
once the "night" background was finished, the branch and leaves were added. doing the background first makes it easier to define the areas of the main design and makes it stand out from the canvas.
begin to fill in the detail areas of the main design. i decided to add triangular pieces just below the head.
to make the triangular pieces show up, they were outlined with narrow strips of black and gray leftover from the background. you can tear the adhesive backed sheets VERY thinly. or cut if you prefer.
the face and eyes are almost finished and another set of triangle shapes was added and defined. all that's left it to tear out ovals from black for centers of eyes.


The Bible Class has now begun and meets in Grounded each Sunday at 10.30 AM. The Class is for anyone from Year 12 and Lower Sixth (or equivalent College year). Any young person considering Communion must attend Bible Class. Please speak to Alan Rowan for further information.
The ROCK is for children of primary school age to come together to learn about Jesus and how to become his special friend.


Insurance claims loom large in personal injury claims. If you have been injured in a car or truck accident or any other accident, the negligent party's insurance provider may try to delay, limit or outright deny your claim. To successfully navigate these waters, it is important to have an experienced personal injury lawyer on your side.
I have been handling insurance claims for injury victims since 1996. Helping you pursue monetary compensation for your losses is my highest priority.
If you have suffered a serious accident, the last thing on your mind is negotiating with an insurance company. Yet, that is what many victims of these accidents try to do — often to their own detriment. In pursuing a successful result, it is important to have an advocate who knows this legal area and knows how to talk to insurance companies in their own language.
I have handled numerous insurance claims arising from car accidents as well as those involving workplace accidents and other serious accidents. Having handled these cases since 1996, I know how to package personal injury claims and present my clients' cases in a compelling light. I know how to negotiate with insurance companies to seek favorable results for my clients. But when results cannot be achieved through negotiation, I am always prepared to go to trial.
If you are facing an insurance dispute arising from a personal injury claim, I am here to answer your questions and help you explore your legal options.


SAFARI Montage 2.3.13 was a bug-fix and compatibility release.
Behaves like a plug-in. No application to install.
This release supports the following content packages. All packages listed are available in QuickTime and Windows Media formats.
SAFARI Montage 2.3.12 was a bug-fix-only release.
"Activate All Content" button is now labeled "Active All Content and Add-ons" to better indicate its function.
Corrections to error messaging to increase accuracy.
Fixed communication bug in expansion server whereby the first School in the database would be lost.
Playback would hang when playing the "Loci" title on OS X.
SAFARI Montage 2.3.11 was a bug-fix-only release.
Expansion Setup Enhancement - More efficient (faster) communication between the Expansion Servers and the Expansion Controller. The system now only transfers what has changed since last sync.
SVS was rejecting some valid streaming URLs.
Fixed Add-ons not being listed after running the software update - Applies to SAFARI Montage running on Apple OSX servers (Xserves) only.
APC UPS Monitor tab removed - Applies to SAFARI Montage running on Apple OSX servers (Xserves) only.
Logged-in user's full name shows in upper navigation area rather than username.
SAFARI Montage can be set to automatically power down after UPS batteries fall below a certain percentage.
Auto-Power-Down features are currently supported only on older SAFARI Montage models, T-400, RM-400, RM-800, and WAN-1000. Auto-Power-Down support for new hardware, T-420, RM-640, and WAN-1240 will be arriving in a future version.
Link Portability Improvements - Permanent Links are no longer tied to the subnet of your child server. They may now be utilized by users on other subnets. Additional subnets must be configured on the Admin > WAN Manager > Child Servers page.
Fixed fullscreen image playback on SAFARI Montage running on the Apple Xserve server platform.
Schlessinger K-8 Additional 2007 NEW!
Schlessinger K-8 Additional 2007 Upgrade NEW!
Schlessinger K-8 Additional Rev. A NEW!
Junior High Supplement 2007 NEW!
Schlessinger Image Library 1 NEW!
Fixed a "No Volume" error that appeared when attempting to download content from a WAN Manager Child server. This only occured on items in packages that where active locally and were assigned from the Parent server.
Download button has more intelligence in WAN scenarios. On schools with mixed-format packages where one format is remote and one is local, it will now download the local format regardless of the user's player preference.
Enhanced Permanent Links - Permanent Links in WAN Manager environments will now play from the nearest server on your subnet.
Middle School / Junior High Supplement NEW!
Errors sometimes appeared when attempting to perform certain functions on the search page while having no active playlist. These errors have been fixed.
SVS functions remain available even when all content packages are expired.
Deactivating SVS add-on leaves school streaming settings intact.
When forcing settings to a WAN Manager Child Server and the SVS add-on is inactive on the Parent Server, the admin may continue to enable/disable SVS for Child Schools.
When adding a new stream, all Child Schools with an active SVS add-on now appear in Schools drop-down list on the Schools page.
Fixed issue where all playlist items were being converted to bookmarks when a secondary, matching-runtime video format was uploaded. Items are still converted to bookmarks when runtimes do not match.
Stabilized and accelerated the sync process.
Occasionally, a thumbnail image will not generate for your uploaded image on Expansion Server. Once you upload an image file to a server in the Expansion Server cluster, verify that the image thumbnail shows on the search page. If there is no thumbnail for your image, delete the item and upload the image again.
The Playlist and Recent Media Dashboard panels will not appear when you are logged as an LDAP user to a server with packaged content only (no CreationStation add-on) with Selective Video Streaming active. This will be attended to in the next release.
To increase performance, the SAFARI Montage Dashboard now uses a technology called "AJAX". Apple Safari 1.0 does not support this technology so this browser version can no longer be used to operate SAFARI Montage. Apple began supporting this technology with the release of Safari 1.2. If you use the Safari web browser, we recommend using version 1.2 or greater. Another alternative is to use Firefox 1.0 or higher.
SAFARI Montage now supports videos containing alternate language tracks. Certain future content package offerings will take advantage of this feature and offer Spanish and English audio tracks.
Live video streams from compatible remote sources can be played directly within Montage.
Playlists have a new manual, fullscreen-playback mode whereby titles on the playlist can be advanced or reversed in sequence by using "Next" and "Previous" buttons.
Tabbed Search Interface - Search results are now grouped into tabs that represent media type, Videos, Images, and Audio.
Image Thumbnails - Image thumbnails are shown for your newly uploaded images as well as Library Video Company / Schlessinger Media image libraries.
Uploaded content may be marked as downloadable. This will cause a "Download" icon to appear on the title's details page and next to the title in search results. Clicking the "Download" icon will launch the browser's download window so the user may save the media file to their PC.
Certain forthcoming content packages from Library Video Company will be downloadable as well. At the time of this release, the "Video Encyclopedia of the 20th Century" and "Almanac Newsreel" packages are downloadable.
Reporting - There are two new reports in the Reporting area of the Admin section: Download Popularity and Downloads by User.
The usability of the subjects assignment interface has been enhanced when creating or editing your CreationStation content. Subjects are now alphabetical rather than hierarchical to speed finding a particular subject.
Windows Media Player 11 running in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 is now supported for playback of SAFARI Montage Windows Media content.
State Curriculum Standards correlations where updated.
Admin Menu Reorganization - Menus within the Admin section have been reorganized for usability.
Schools Page Improvement - Schools page now shows content packages that exist on remote servers.
Network Settings - Network settings have been merged onto a single page.
Time Settings - Time settings have been merged onto a single page.
The SAFARI Montage Help system has been updated to reflect recent changes in the product.
Due to the addition of new search criteria and recent usability features, the performance of the Search page has suffered somewhat. Some searches take can as long as five or six seconds - longer if the server is under load. There are plans in place to improve the search performance in a forthcoming Montage version. In the meantime, please be patient with the Search page.
Windows Media Player 11 is not supported for playback in non-Internet Explorer browsers such as Firefox and Netscape. There is a known issue with the Windows Media Player 11 plug-in running in those browsers. This issue makes the videos in SAFARI Montage extend beyond the boundaries of the embedded player. This causes the playback controls to push beyond the lower boundaries of the player, effectively hiding them, and leaves only the upper-left quadrant of the video visible.
Microsoft is aware of the issue but has not published an estimated date of resolution. According to many reports online, it is likely that they will not resolve the issue because the Windows Media plug-in in non-IE browsers has not been developed in the last six years, aside from security patches and cosmetic changes. Microsoft only develops the Windows Media Player ActiveX control ("plug-in") for the Internet Explorer browser.
If you are a Firefox or Netscape user, we recommend you use the QuickTime player for SAFARI Montage playback, or use Internet Explorer for Windows Media playback.
Image thumbnails will not show for your existing CreationStation uploads.
Firefox 1.0-2.0 - Bookmarking available with QuickTime 6.5 or greater. Not compatible with CreationStation add-on.
Firefox 1.0-2.0 - Bookmarking available with QuickTime 6.5 or greater.
SAFARI Montage WAN Expansion Server not supported.
* Windows Media Player 11 only supported in Internet Explorer 6 and 7. There is a known bug in the Windows Media Player 11 plug-in in non-Microsoft browsers.
** Windows Media Player 9 does not support closed captioning in Full-Screen mode.


text:
Edgar Chew
Induction Year: 1993
Ed Chew (1928-2020) began his tennis career in El Paso by winning the 12-and-under City Championship. At El Paso High School, Chew won the Texas UIL doubles title in 1944 and 1945.
Chew was a four-year letterman at the University of Texas from 1946 to 1949. In 1946 at the Erie, Pennsylvania Open, he won both the men's doubles and the 18 doubles championships. In 1946 he was ranked 3rd in the nation in doubles. Also in 1946, Chew and his father were ranked 3rd nationally in father and son doubles. He continued to play tennis after college and won many doubles tournaments.
Chew served tennis in numerous volunteer positions in El Paso and Texas. He was the president of the USTA Southwest section and went on to be president of the Texas Tennis Association (now USTA Texas) from 1979 to 1980. Chew worked hard to help establish the Texas Tennis Museum and Hall of Fame and served on its earliest advisory committee.
In 1980 Chew received the W.T. Caswell Service Award by the Texas Tennis Association, given to the Texas resident who has made valuable contributions to the growth and development of tennis in Texas.


text:
PICS: Exquisite 6-bed Victorian home in Dublin restored to former glory on sale for €6.45m
Diana Bunici
When it comes to the property hunt, there's something incredibly appealing about a beautiful building that holds a lot of history, and Hatherton in Darty, Dublin 6 has plenty of stories to tell.
This grand Victorian Dublin home was built more than 150 years ago and has had many reincarnations since.
Once upon a time, this impressive residence was converted into flats, and at another point, it also functioned as the headquarters of the National Building Agency; today it presents as a show-stopping six-bedroom home spread over 7,491 square feet.
The Irish Times reports the building was purchased by its current owners back in 2011 for €2.95million and it's only in the past two years that they converted the space into a private residence, something it had not been since the 1950s.
Pic: Myhome.ie
The restoration and renovation has been extensive, and the current kitchen, for example, was once 'a dark poky office' with men's urinals at the back - pretty hard to imagine looking at the bright and airy space that is heart of the home.
Especially charming are the original features throughout the property, the intricate coving, polished limestone floors and Corinthian columns which you would struggle to find in more modern homes.
It's a house that was built with entertaining in mind, the hall, for example, can hold up to 50 guests and leads to a number of impressive reception rooms ideal for hosting elegant soirees and drinks receptions.
There's a formal dining room too, complete with a butler's pantry. While the rest of the home has been decorated in more subtle hues, this room transports you back in time with its rich red walls and ornate paintings.
The on-site bar is a delight too with an inviting open fire that we can imagine spending many a winter night around.
Downstairs you'll find the family living quarters - two sitting rooms, a more casual dining room, that bright kitchen complete with an Aga and two of the six bedrooms.
One of the bedrooms is self-contained (it has its own kitchen and bathroom) and would be ideal for an elderly relative, a loved one who has had to move back home, an au pair or guests flying into town for the holidays; upstairs are the remaining sleeping quarters, each with their own en suites.
There's also an office on the upper floor which, as we know, is a precious luxury in the working-from-home times we live in.
Need more space? Well, there's also a contemporary mews on the acre site which is currently laid out as a two-bedroom apartment with a separate gym and storage area.
This overlooks some impressively contemporary manicured gardens with a sunken area for entertaining al fresco.
There's much to say about this luxurious property which is on the market with Sherry FitzGerald for €6.45million but the pictures say it all. Check out more photos from inside this beautiful Dublin Victorian home below.
Also if you want to take a peek inside Daniel O Donnell's former mansion, now on sale see here. Or perhaps buying the home of a former Home of the Year finalist tickles your fancy more - see here.
PICS: Steve McQueen's Malibu mansion up for sale for a cool $17m
Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave 'buys Donegal mansion for €1.8 million'
PICS: Michelle Keegan's luxe £3.5m mansion has a bed with a twist
Buying your first home? Find out everything you need to know straight from the experts
'Selling drizzle': Ireland's version of Selling Sunset starts
Postmortem required as Dr Cassidy gets the bullet
Fashion to the rescue: Is a €220 bodysuit the way to end period pain?


West Nile virus: is there a message for Australia?
Whither the World Health Organization?
Ethics review and use of reminder letters in postal surveys: are current practices compromising an evidence-based approach?


text:
Kwikspace helps LDE meet Limpopo's classroom demand; upskills & temporarily employs Limpopo locals
Written by CubicICE (PTY) Ltd
Africa's largest manufacturer of prefabricated, modular buildings, Kwikspace, was a pivotal cog in the wheel that saw the Limpopo Department of Education (LDE) receive 6 000 new prefabricated modular classrooms over three years. The contractual period began in January 2019 and runs to January 2022. Although the period under review is not yet complete, the bulk of the classrooms have been delivered, with the remainder scheduled for delivery before the contractual period lapses on 02 January.
The LDE had determined that approximately 6 000 new primary and high school classrooms were required to get the educational improvement rollout in the province to the standard it had set. To expedite delivery across the 125 754 km² province, it was divided into four provincial regions with each region allocated to a different solutions provider. Kwikspace was allotted the Sekhukhune region, which has 630 schools servicing a population of almost 1.1 million across 13 528 km². Of these 630 schools, 102 of them were earmarked to receive approximately 2 000 new classrooms.
"We were not the only company vying for a portion of this contract, and we attribute our success to numerous factors," says, Phatlane Kgakgamatso, Kwikspace's Government Sector Sales Manager. "Among these are sufficient capacity and volume to meet the required deliverables, and a pricing structure that fell within the LDE's budget."
Classroom rollout staggered
The first tranche of the order was for 303 classroom units, to be concluded by the LDE's financial year-end on 31 March 2019. Kwikspace met this target by producing, erecting and levelling 101 classrooms each month for the first quarter in 2019. The second tranche of the order coincided with the Department's 2020 enrolment plans late in 2019, with rollout and delivery beginning in January 2020, shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic hit South Africa.
"The arrival of the pandemic in our country along with social restrictions prompted the Department to procure a number of additional classrooms, but with different specifications," Kgakgamatso explains. "The extra classrooms were needed to facilitate adherence to social distancing precautions at a number of schools."
Most classrooms supplied were standard sizes of 56m2 and included typical fittings like blackboards, plug points and lighting, for example. Each is designed to accommodate 40 learners except the Covid-designed units which, although the same size, accommodate a maximum of 25 learners. All Kwikspace classrooms included air conditioning and 1.5 metres wide veranda's which run the length of each classroom. Eight classrooms were specifically designed and manufactured to cater to the needs of disabled learners at special needs schools, and included non-standard equipment like ramps, for example.
Local contractors' benefit
Electrical connections, water reticulation and paving are required for projects of this nature. To this end, Kwikspace partners with local contractors to execute these aspects, and provide training and any upskilling that enables them to carry out these projects to Kwikspace's standards. "This way we deliver the entire package to the LDE, providing a safe learning environment for the children, while upskilling and employing locals from the surrounding communities," Kgakgamatso points out.
Although classrooms form the bulk of the order for this particular contract, it includes several other applications like administration blocks, storage facilities and ablutions. This resulted in sufficient plumbing and electrical ancillary services that were outsourced to local contractors.
Unit relocation further benefits contractors
Kgakgamatso explains that part of the contract involved relocating existing classrooms from one school to another, and that these classroom units are often not of the manufacturers' brand. "In these instances," he discloses, "we use upskilled locals to refurbish these units prior to relocation. This, and using local SMEs, is another way we drive employment in the surrounding communities."
Kgakgamatso emphasises that the LDE should be commended for its handling of the project. "The Department's representatives conducted themselves with the utmost professionalism in all aspects, which has been beneficial to the average Limpopo citizen," he points out. "Their competence allowed us to deliver our rapid services even more rapidly and they, in turn, delivered these education services to their citizens in very KWIK turnaround times. It also had the advantage of temporarily increasing the combined income of the local communities with the temporary employment afforded to them by Kwikspace."
"We are enjoying the symbiotic relationship we have with the Limpopo Department of Education," he concludes. "As a result of this relationship we, and the local sub-contractors, go the extra mile for the Department. It really is a win-win situation."
CubicICE
CubicICE (PTY) Ltd
CubicICE offers you the full range of digital marketing, public relations and creative design services to execute marketing strategies tailored to your business requirements. Our speciality is in producing content that engages engineers, manufacturers, procurement officials and distributors through effective marketing channels; in transforming the unique technical details of your products and services into compelling, powerful marketing campaigns. Our team combines innovation, creativity, knowledge and production skill with a strong customer focus to ensure maximum ROI from your marketing spend. Automotive, mining, construction, manufacturing, energy, plant and factory automation, material handling, petrochemical, oil and gas, ICT, warehousing and logistics, packaging, electronics, engineering and water treatment - these are just some of the many industries we've been involved in over a marketing legacy that spans more than 30 years and over 200 clients. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help you grow your business!
Recent submissions CubicICE
WorldsView delivers cyber-protection with Terranova Security solutions
Steinmüller Africa's specialised explosive welding benefits industries across South Africa
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Cranachan is a traditional Scottish dessert made from raspberries, honey, toasted oats and cream.
We love it so we made an oatmeal pale ale and smashed it with enough local berries and honey to feed a clan of Highlanders. You can take our Cranachan, but you'll never take our Fierce Beer!