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Startup Lessons I learned from Tesla Origin Story by Co-Founder Marc Tarpenning
Jina Kim
These days, when I think of Tesla the image of Elon and his gigafactory stretching for miles and miles in Reno, Nevada (soon to be replicated in Berlin) comes to mind. A month ago, I heard Marc Tarpenning's tech talk on Tesla origin story and it was refreshing to know that it too started as a scrappy startup just like Carta, a $1B+ fin-tech unicorn. I had worked for the company for five years. As employee number 4, I had seen all the ups and downs throughout its start-up journey.
Before they could afford fancy office buildings, Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard founded Tesla as a tenant in a no-nonsense office building decorated with fancy plumbing fixtures in conference rooms, owned by, not surprisingly, an eccentric plumber turned businessman in San Carlos.
In 2003, no one in their right mind would finance an auto company startup that "wanted" to produce electric vehicles. Martin had a master's degree in electrical engineering and tinkered with cars as a kid but that was about it. So how did they do it?
Use data as competitive advantage to disrupt industry
Did you know that people tried to make electric cars as far back as 1800's? It was pretty popular until Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 and killed electric cars. Why? Model T cars cost roughly $600 whereas electric cars cost 3 times more than that.
Time passed and car companies simply didn't feel the need to work on electric cars. For almost 100 years!!! Gas was cheap. The Big Three (Ford, GM, Chrysler) were happy. The only time they worked on electric cars was when California made it a mandate in the 90's but when the program ended, they stopped making EVs.
What truly became Tesla's competitive advantage was their focus on analytics. The Big Three had started using subcontractors for parts to save money — this made it impossible to get any data on the car as a whole and understand the details of the experience as a driver because the data was siloed. Tesla collected in-depth data on every Tesla car from the get-go allowing Tesla's engineers to constantly innovate and improve the car's performance.
image via http://www.kcstudio.com/riker.html
Start fundraising right after you hit a milestone
The Tesla co-founders knew investor psychology very well. Starting an automotive startup in 2003 was unheard of. Investors wanted to minimize their risk while not lose the opportunity to invest in a hot startup. They instilled strong confidence by strategically timing their fundraising activities.
Finding the right lead investor
As you can guess, Tesla had a hard time finding investors for their series A round. The seed round was funded by the co-founders and their friends and families. But when it came to the next round, the VCs on Sandhill road were reluctant to invest without a lead investor.
That's when serendipitously, Elon reached out and offered to underwrite the entire round himself. As part of "Paypal Mafia," Elon had celebrity status in Silicon Valley. In 2006, they launched in Santa Monica and the rest is history.
When Marc talked about this, I remembered how hard it was for Carta to raise their series A round. In 2014, the word "fintech" was still new. At the time, Silicon Valley VCs were more interested in B2C startups, not B2B. After 24 VCs said no, Henry, our CEO flew to New York to meet Fred Wilson from USV. We were all crossing our fingers. Finally, Fred decided to invest in Carta and we all cheered when we heard the news. Other investors followed and Carta became a unicorn in 2018.
Startup Lessons
Former investment banker turned Client Success Expert, Employee #4 @ Carta


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CIBT Reports Financial Results for First Quarter of Fiscal 2022
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 14, 2022 / CIBT Education Group Inc. (TSX:MBA)(OTCQX:MBAIF) ('CIBT' or the 'Company') is pleased to report that it has filed on SEDAR its consolidated financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis for its first quarter of fiscal 2022 ('F2022') ended November 30, 2021 (collectively, the 'Q1 Filing'). The following is selected financial information for the three months ended November 30, 2021 ('Q1 2022') and comparative results. Please refer to the Q1 Filing in its entirety, which is available under CIBT's profile at www.sedar.com.
All figures are in thousands of Canadian dollars except share and per share data unless otherwise noted.
(1) See below for reconciliation.
The following reconciles the net income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA (non-IFRS):
(1) Please refer to Non-IFRS Financial Measurements at the end of this news release.
'During Q1 F2022, we experienced significant recovery and growth in several areas of our business. We are pleased to report $17.07 million in total revenue, an increase of 19% over the first quarter of fiscal 2021 ('Q1 F2021') despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing economic challenges on companies worldwide,' commented Toby Chu, Chairman, President and CEO of CIBT. 'On the education front, SSCC educational revenue increased by 8% over Q1 F2021, from $9.17 million to $9.88 million, and after nearly two years of border lockdown, our international college, SSLC and VIC reported a 209% growth in revenue over Q1 F2021, increasing from $0.62 million to $1.91 million for the first three months of F2022. Correspondingly, our real estate rental revenue across all GEC® properties increased by 145% over Q1 F2021, from $1.59 million to $3.89 million for the first three months of F2022, while our international recruitment revenue also increased substantially by 196% over Q1 F2021. Overall, our EBITDA increased by 16% over Q1 F2021, from $5.05 million to $5.87 million.'
Toby added, 'Additionally, we continue to exhibit a healthy balance sheet at the end of the first quarter of F2022. Our total asset value has increased by $7.39 million from $519.04 million to $526.43 million, and our book value per share increased to $0.73 as of November 30, 2021, compared to $0.71 as of November 30, 2021. We are pleased with the progress and recovery we made over the last quarter and moving forward, we will focus mainly on increasing revenues from existing and new programs and services, streamlining operations by controlling cost and interest expenses, commencing construction of various GEC® projects, and evaluating potential exit transactions of certain operational and stabilized projects to gain new growth capital while reducing interest costs and increasing CIBT's ownership interests in our projects.'
About CIBT Education Group:
CIBT Education Group Inc. is one of the largest education and student housing investment companies in Canada, focused on the domestic and the global education market since 1994. CIBT owns business and language colleges, student-centric rental apartments, recruitment centres and corporate offices at 46 locations in Canada and abroad. Its education subsidiaries include Sprott Shaw College (established in 1903), Sprott Shaw Language College, Vancouver International College Career Campus and CIBT School of Business. CIBT offers over 150 educational programs in healthcare, business management, e-commerce, hotel management, and language training through these schools. In 2020, CIBT provided educational and housing services to over 11,000 students through its various subsidiaries.
CIBT owns Global Education City Holdings Inc. ('Global Holdings'), an investment holding and development company focused on education-related real-estate such as student-centric rental apartments, hotel and education super-centres. Under the GEC® brand, Global Holdings provides accommodation service to 72 schools in Metro Vancouver, serving 1,500 students from 77 countries. The total portfolio and development budget under the GEC® brand exceed $1.5 billion.
CIBT also owns Global Education Alliance Inc. ('GEA') and Irix Design Group Inc. ('Irix Design'). GEA recruits international students for many elite kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities in North America. Irix Design is a leading design and advertising company based in Vancouver, Canada. Visit us online and watch our corporate video at www.cibt.net.
Toby Chu
Chairman, President & CEO
CIBT Education Group Inc.
Investor Relations Contact: 1-604-871-9909 extension 318 or | Email: info@cibt.net
Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (the 'forward-looking statements') about CIBT and its plans. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements as to CIBT's plan to increase revenues, streamline operations, commence construction of various GEC® projects, evaluate potential exit transactions of certain operational and stabilized projects to gain new growth capital while reducing interest costs, and increase CIBT's ownership interests in its projects. The forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors (collectively, the 'Risks') that could cause CIBT's actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by forward-looking statements. The Risks include, without limitation those identified in CIBT's management's discussion and analysis forming part of the Q1 Filing and its annual information form for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2021 which is available under CIBT's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of CIBT's management at the time they are made, and CIBT does not assume any obligation to update its forward-looking statements if those beliefs, opinions or expectations, or other circumstances should change, except as may be required by law. If CIBT updates any forward-looking statement(s), no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.
NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASUREMENTS
The Company has included non-IFRS performance measures throughout this press release, including (a) Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization ('EBITDA'); (b) Adjusted EBITDA which is EBITDA adjusted for the gain (loss) on change in fair value of the Company's investment properties and the gain (loss) on change in fair value of derivative instruments; and (c) Book value per common share ('BVPS') which is calculated as equity attributable to CIBT Education Group Inc. shareholders divided by total common shares outstanding at the end of the reporting period. These non-IFRS financial measurements do not have any standardized meaning as prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRS') and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Accordingly, these performance measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. Management uses EBITDA metrics to measure the profit trends of the business units and segments in the consolidated group since it eliminates the effects of financing decisions. Certain investors, analysts and others utilize these non-IFRS financial metrics in assessing the Company's financial performance. These non-IFRS financial measurements have not been presented as an alternative to net income or any other financial measure of performance prescribed by IFRS. Reconciliation of non-IFRS measures has been provided in Company's MD&A, as applicable, filed under the Company's profile on www.SEDAR.com.
SOURCE: CIBT Education Group Inc.
https://www.accesswire.com/683480/CIBT-Reports-Financial-Results-for-First-Quarter-of-Fiscal-2022

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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War By Any Other Name
Posted on October 18, 2010 by Killian Bundy
China is at it again, waging a back door war against the West. Usually, they just try and steal our technology, now they're going to try and cripple our technology production.
China Signals Further Rare-Earth Cuts
Chinese officials are signaling plans to further reduce rare-earth exports next year, sustaining its controls of the metals—key ingredients in high-technology batteries and defense products—that have already severely frustrated foreign governments.
Reducing the export quotas is under consideration, but it's too early to talk about any reduction rate," Lin Donglu, secretary general of the Chinese Society of Rare Earths, told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday. The state-run English-language China Daily on Tuesday quoted an unnamed Commerce Ministry official suggesting that cuts of as much as 30% from already-trimmed 2010 levels are possible. A Commerce Ministry official declined to confirm the report and the ministry didn't reply to faxed questions Tuesday.
Speaking at a conference on rare-earth elements in southeastern China on Tuesday, Chinese officials, including a Commerce Ministry deputy director, Jiang Fan, highlighted their concern about aggressive development of the country's resources, attendees said. One official there suggested China, by far the world's largest producer and consumer, could even become an importer.
"Their main thrust was China needs to work to protect its rare-earth industry," said Nigel Tunna, managing director of Metals Pages Ltd., host of the conference.
China's decision in recent months to impose tougher quotas on rare-earth metal exports has sparked outcry from Tokyo to Washington.
China, which uses around half of its output of the elements and produces around 97% of world supply, says its limits—which this year aim to cut exports around 40% from 2009—reflect its growing environmental awareness, are perfectly legal and won't be used as a policy tool.
Yet, foreign importers worry reductions are designed to lift their metals import costs, undermine their high-technology industries and unnerve their defense departments. The metals, 17 chemically similar and expensive-to-mine elements, are critical to the manufacture of products from iPhones to smart bombs.
China reins in rare earth exports
China to Cut Rare Earth Export Quotas by Up to 30%, Daily Says
Report: China to Reduce Rare Earths Exports
China Halts Shipments to U.S. of Tech-Crucial Minerals
China Official Says No Plans to Cut Rare Earth Quotas
UPDATE 1-US checking if China halted rare earth shipments
China-Japan Rare Earth Fracas Continues
Japan Looks for Rare Earth Alternatives
Kan Says Japan Should Consider Stockpiling of Rare-Earth Metals
Decline in Rare-Earth Exports Rattles Germany
China's Rare Earths Gambit
More on Rare Earths: Looking for a Way out From Under a Monopoly
Obviously, this isn't a good development because there's not a hell of a lot we can do about it unless we want to start an all out trade war. They're got most of the rare earth metals and we're dependent on it.
/at a minimum, expect prices to rise for any technology that requires these metals
Filed under: Blog Entry | Tagged: Batteries, China, China Daily, Chinese Officials, Chinese Society Of Rare Earths, Commerce Ministry, Commerce Ministry Official, Consumer, Controls, Defense Departments, Defense Products, Deputy Director, Dow Jones Newswires, Elements, Environmental Awareness, Export Quotas, Exports, Foreign Governments, Foreign Importers, Frustrated, High Technology, High Technology Batteries, Import Costs, Importer, Imports, Industries, Industry, IPhones, Jiang Fan, Lin Donglu, Managing Director, Manufacture, Metals, Metals Pages Ltd., Nigel Tunna, Outcry, Policy Tool, Producer, Production, Quotas, Rare Earth, Rare Earth Exports, Reduction Rate, Resources, Secretary General, Smart Bombs, Southeastern China, Technology, The West, Tokyo, War, Washington DC |	Leave a comment »
Extra, Extra, Read All About It!
Just remember, there is no global war on terrorism.
Al-Qaeda magazine teaches how to kill Americans
The 74-page online, English-language magazine, titled Inspire, which has a foreword by Osama bin Laden, encourages "individual jihad" to kill Americans and westerners.
It is an indication that the terrorist network is signalling a move away from terror "spectaculars", which are easier for intelligence agencies to foil, towards one-man operations.
In a graphic feature called The Ultimate Mowing Machine, it gives ideas for one-man operations, such as attaching blades to the front of a pickup truck which can then be used to "mow down" passers-by.
"To achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control of your vehicle," it advises. "The ideal location is a place where there are a maximum number of pedestrians and the least number of vehicles."
Another option is the use of personal firearms. "A random hit at a crowded restaurant in Washington DC at lunch hour for example might end up knocking out a few government supporters," it says.
The magazine is the second high-quality edition of "Inspire", which is produced by Arab-Americans who have defected to the Yemeni base of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Their ideological figurehead is Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Yemeni cleric, who is said to be the mastermind behind the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas day, and who was in email contact with Major Nidal Hassan, the Fort Hood "shooter".
Inspire #2
Yemeni al-Qaida publishes second English magazine
Awlaki hails martyrdom in 2nd AQAP volume
Al Qaeda issues magazine on terror tactics, suggests DC eateries
Al Qaeda Magazine Goes On Line For Terrorist Wannabees (Link For Download)
Al-Qaeda affiliate calls for strikes on U.S. targets such as D.C. restaurants
Attack Washington restaurants: Qaeda
Terror threat to restaurants as Al Qaeda calls for attacks on government workers in D.C.
Is al Qaeda Planning D.C. Lunchtime Attacks?
Second edition of Yemeni Al Qaeda magazine released
American Editor Brings U.S. Savvy To Jihad Outreach
New Qaeda Mag Features "Proud" U.S. Traitor
'I Am Proud To Be A Traitor To America,' Boasts American Al Qaeda
Qaeda Pushes Snack Attacks, 'Ultimate Mowing Machine'
So, just because the Obama administration refuses to acknowledge that we're at war with Islamic terrorists worldwide, doesn't mean that Islamic terrorists worldwide aren't at war with us. And now it seems that al Qaeda wants to bring their Jihad to America's streets, into our neighborhoods.
/if the government is unable or unwilling to protect you, you'll just have to be ready to protect yourself, you've been warned
Filed under: Blog Entry | Tagged: Airliner, Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsula, American Born, Americans, Anwar Al-Awlaki, Arab-Americans, Attempted Bombing, Blades, Crowded Restaurant, Defected, English-Language Magazine, Firearms, Fort Hood, Global War On Terror, Government Supporters, Graphic Feature, High-Quality Edition, Ideal Location, Ideological Figurehead, Individual Jihad, Inspire, Inspire 2, Intelligence Agencies, Islam, Islamists, Jihad, Magazine, Maximum Carnage, Mow Down, Mujahideen Al Malahem Media, Muslims, Nidal Hassan, Obama Administration, One-Man Operations, Osama Bin Laden, Passers-By, Pedestrians, Personal Firearms, Pickup Truck, Random Hit, Spectaculars, Terrorism, Terrorist Network, The Ultimate Mowing Machine, Underwear Bomber, Vehicles, Washington DC, Westerners, Yemen, Yemeni Base, Yemeni Cleric |	Leave a comment »


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Plan for the Exhibition
Photo © Thukral and Tagra Studio
The Preparation Room
Photo © Archa Desai
Play - Pray shoes covers.
MATSYA, 2017, 46 X 61 X 2.5 INCHES, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, METAL, PLASTIC AND TABLE TENNIS NET
When Vishnu took the form of a fish in order to save Manu and reserved a place for himself on the boat to the new order, what he was doing had a deeper narrative history behind it. The fish can navigate all water bodies but it also responds to the water by evolving a jet stream of its own. As a fish slices and glides through water, it opens up a path for a brief window of time. Those who are not condiment of doing the same for themselves follow the fish around. This process facilitates the process of revolution. Evolution is the gradual movement and change of beings and the way they manifest their presence. When a ball is hit, it does not move in isolation. As it moves through the air, it creates a sharp current of speed and friction. All events in the world are synchronized and follow a similar rhythm. This rhythm is broken with the shot. The shot rings into the silence of cosmic space. It creates echoes, ripples and resonance. But after the shot we get to examine all the inter-connected elements. Like a comet has a tail, the ball flying through the air has a whole array of charged particles around it. The nature of a ball's charge determines where it will fall and how it will present itself to the other player. A wise player makes it his business to be sensitive to the entire flow of a ball's passage and not just the physical reflection of how and where the ball falls. (Photo © Thukral and Tagra Studio)
NARSIMHA, 2017, 80.5 X 66 X 2.5 INCHES, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, METAL, PLASTIC AND TABLE TENNIS NET
Red flags highlight a struggle for power. The ball is tossed around from player to player and no one is able to take a lead. When Hiranyakashyapa got a boon from Bramha that made him almost invincible – Vishnu has to take a hybrid from to rein him in. The form that Vishnu took had elements of the animal and human both. The oddness of the shape of this table speaks for the odd set of conditions that Narsimha (the man-beast avatar of Vishnu) needed to fulfill in order to defeat Hiranyakashyap. The ball as it bounces over the flags, gets animated with strange energies. These strange energies make the ball dance in odd patterns that it can do nothing about. The table is unpredictable, and it yields unpredictable results. The red flags also seem to be like claw marks that have drawn blood. (Photo © Thukral and Tagra Studio)
Rama, 2017, 84 X 54 X 2.5 inches, Acrylic on canvas, metal, plastic and table tennis net
An intensely mapped territory which looks like a dense mass of small territories. Every step could be technically trespassing. Ramayana is not just mythology; it is a symbolic representation of the backbone of the Indian cultural ethic. A ball would be in a state of constant spin as it would not be able to figure which is the surface of the table and which would be the boundary. All the events in the narrative of the Ramayana are connected through the belief that Rama was an avatar of Vishnu. The moment the ball become a part of the contested territory of this table it does not fellow rational rule sets anymore. It becomes a part of a charmed narrative and acts under a magical logic. Rama has become a role model of sorts for a certain Indian male. Although the basis for Rama to become this role is not contested, in the narrative of the Ramayana there is no deviation from him being represented as someone who can do no wrong. (Photo © Thukral and Tagra Studio)
Buddha, 2017, 72 X 72X 2.5 inches, Acrylic on canvas, metal, plastic and table tennis net
Buddha was a sage from an entirely different tradition and time than the lineage of other avatars of Vishnu. But the appearance of Buddha in this list speaks about the oneness of the divine being that is intrinsic to an understanding of Indian mythological texts. There is an all-encompassing thread and urge in our traditions to think in a non-denominational, spiritual sense which absorbs everything in its narrative. A ball bouncing on this table would not ever touch any surface. It would forever remain in flight and swish around like a bird facing a strong gust of wind. The only things which appear to be surfaces a strong gust of wind. The only things which appear to be surfaces in this airy landscape are the clouds. Clouds are matter and non-matter at the same time. They can be photographed but you cannot sit on them. (Photo © Thukral and Tagra Studio)
KRISHNA, 2017, 16 X 16 X 2.5 INCHES X 9 CANVASES, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, METAL, PLASTIC AND TABLE TENNIS NET
Krishna was a matter of disguise. And the ability to take different forms is useful in a game because the opponent can be tricked into doing things they would not do otherwise. The ball on this table is in the thrones of confusion. It is hit to land in a specific place but on the surface of Krishna's table, the ball gets enveloped in a flax and floats about like a landless refugee. Krishna is sometimes considered the source of all the other avatars and the point at which all the narratives begin. The nine circular islands are floating in the middle of nowhere to link to the historical narratives and spaces mentioned in the mythology but actually their link to a specific space is vague. We cannot study a mythology like we study history. From a fact-based eye we need to shift to an awe-struck and wonderful perspective. (Photo © Thukral and Tagra Studio)
KALKI, 2017, 24 X 12 FEET X 2.5 INCHES, WOOD, LAMINATE, IRON AND LED LIGHTS
The ball does not travel easily from one end of the world to the other because of the distance that it has to travel. But there are holes in the landscape and these holes' act as end-points of tunnels which expedite the travel. The environment is filled with primordial sounds from the beginning of time. The sounds resonate with the bodies of dancers who blend in and out of the scene. The bodies of the dancers come from darkness and go back into it. There are two screens which provide light through an animation that blurs the negative and positive. The positive and the negative forces balance each other. While the ball continues bouncing, the world unravels around it. The vastness of the table also signals the enormity of this epoch and undetermined of its beginning, end and continuance. (Photo © Thukral and Tagra Studio)
The ongoing act in
The space when the act is over.
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Trailing through Safomasi's Tiger Safari Collection
Sculpture by the Sea, at Cottesloe and Bondi, Australia – the annual outdoor sculpture exhibit celebrates its 20th year
Lab 06 Mar 2017
Sensory Experiences: Playful Prayers by Thukral & Tagra
Thukral and Tagra's latest show 'Play Pray' exhibited at the Bikaner House, Delhi, from January 31 to February 15, 2017 talked about how as new-age Indians we juggle our daily lives and work with an undertone of religious faith and rituals we indiscriminately follow, all the while ignoring the quest for 'truth' and the knowledge of how we are only a miniscule particle traversing through the universe. They take the viewers to the past with their quintessential style of surrealistic portrayal of mythological events and back into the present with a choreographed performance of how meditatively, playing can be praying.
Thukral & Tagra (T&T) – a collaborative working name for artists Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra – have always treaded on the fine line where art and design meet. Their shows stand out for their holistic qualities that go beyond the ocular. For them it is an opportunity to engage with a space, an idea and the viewer. Working jointly as T&T since 2004, their work is derived from the collective Indian subconscious, society and impetuosity that has accumulated over years of our perplexed sense of identity.
'Play Pray' was planned as an extension to their 2015 exhibition 'Games People Play' at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum. For the show, the artists turned the Museum into a gaming arena, where games were categorized into the physical, mental and spiritual, spanning the past, present and future. They reinvented known games and created experiences that challenged the viewer to think about life's many aspects as a game of chance and to reflect on the nature of their participation in both life and art. The work explored tradition through a contemporary sensibility.
'Play Pray' at Bikaner House underlines the vital question, "Where is God?" A commonly asked theological question, this stands as a pertinent inquiry today, with this part of the world finding it tough to break away from the long-established ritualistic notions of God, and the other part, watching lives being displaced due to strong preconceived religious biases. The show is assembled as a reflective passage of time, seeking an answer to the question, juxtaposing renditions of Dashavatara (ten mythological reincarnations of Lord Vishnu) with the vocabulary of a sport. The show is spread over three rooms in the newly renovated Bikaner House and in the order of circulation, divided into the Preparation Room, the Past Room (seen as the cover image of this article, and the first in order) and the Present Room.
As one walks into the Preparation Room, a pedestal full of various three-dimensional shapes made out of orange ping pong balls fills the vision. Only on a closer look can one observe one odd golden ball in each configuration, fit in seamlessly with the other orange balls. This orchestrated gesture – a reminder of how we make up only a tiny speck in the vastness of this universe – in the beginning, establishes the direction of dialogue that is to follow into the spaces.
On two walls to the left and the right of the pedestal, are two games: Walk of Life (1) & Walk of Life (2) Water, that the artists devised inspired by Lord Vishnu's Dashavatara, for their 2015 show 'Games People Play'. Some interpreters look at the Dashavataras of Vishnu- from simple life-forms to more complex as a Darwinian theory of evolution that the Vedas conveyed even before Darwin. But here the artists use it as a means to reiterate, how the perceptions of karma (deeds), blessings and curses are ingrained in our lives. The two games are displayed only to establish a visible association between the old and the new work. The wall opposite the entrance has a bench where one must sit and wear shoe covers that have 'Play' and 'Pray' written on them in an emblematic way. The board near the bench, instructs the viewers on how to go about the spaces and reasons out why they must wear the shoe covers before entering the spaces:
"When you walk through, you have to be conscious. The sequence of actions to be performed now are going to have significance in this space and time. To sense and sync with the rhythms and patterns here, you have to cover your shoes with the fabric.
Do this for couple of reasons -
First –- Walking produces a rhythm of its own, the sound of your footsteps needs to muffle and quieten so they don't argue with subtle rhythms which have been created in this space.
Second –- To be able to float in this space without leaving a mark behind.
This is a ceremonious void, because the depth of mythology has left a mark here.
You may now proceed."
Mythologically, Lord Vishnu looks after the preservation and balance of the universe and takes incarnations on earth time and again to restore cosmic order. Lord Vishnu has already appeared in four avatars (lives) of Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and Narasimha, in the Satya Yuga, three avatars of Vamana, Parashurama and Rama in the Treta Yuga and two avatars of Krishna and Buddha, in the Dwapara Yuga,making it a total of nine incarnations in the past. The tenth and the last of the Dashavataras, Kalki, is foretold to appear at the end of the ongoing Kali Yuga. For viewers not aware of the nature of Hindu mythology, the explanations to the nine avatars are noted down onto nine plaques and are accompanied by a representational image of each painting, right before entering the Past Room.
The Past Room, symbolically painted in grey displays the artists' visualization of nine of the avatars in their distinctive styles characterized by hallucinatory and surreal imagery of people, places and objects floating in mid-air. The organic shapes of canvases extracted from the artists' understanding of each incarnation are overlaid with deconstructed elements of the ping pong table. The paintings were ping pong tables, with two sides of the table interpreted by the artists as two opposing forces of negative and positive and the net, the threshold between the two. The floor, also painted grey, is laid with 84,000 orange ping pong balls – an element that loses its relevance after the game of ping pong – in a circular spiral, giving a restricted movement to the viewers and emphasizing on how we know of our pasts only in ways educated to us by our predecessors. This is also figurative of the ethereal nature of time, where the past can be revisited but never re-lived.
From here the viewers proceed to the Present Room: a space that is representative of today's age, the Kali Yuga, a space where the story of the times leading up to the appearance to Lord Vishnu's tenth avatar is showcased through a performance. This dark room is occupied by a giant ping pong table of 24x12 feet in an organic shape, that emits light from underneath. This table stages a game of ping pong between two opponents who struggle to continue the play. The play is seen as a game between two extreme forces that existed in all the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Whenever a player conceded a point to the opponent, four performers dressed in black and a self-reflective jacket, making them prominently visible in the dark, appear around the table performing a narrative on one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The performers interrupt the play by holding the ball, racket and sometimes the players, as the space oscillates from being a sports arena to a theatre. The performance, layered with modalities, was an introspective act that ruffled a few layers of perception. While the performance space was not used for the performance, it displayed a video of a ping pong ball being bounced at various locations in the city.
After the performance, thoughts of the question "Where is God?" asked by the artist in the beginning echoes in one's head. As Joseph Campbell said, "God is a metaphor for that, which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that." It is indeed as simple. God is everywhere. The mythology has no proven factuality associated with it but the core that defines it lies in the metaphors. When examined metaphorically, these narratives hold a fundamental value but when trickled down to us as facts, hold close to no meaning.
Location: Bikaner House, New Delhi, India
Exhibition: 31January-15 February 2017
Artists: Jiten Thukral & Sumir Tagra
Text explaining each of Dashavataras: Jiten Thukral, Sumir Tagra & Prayas Abhinav
Sensory Experiences
Thukral and Tagra
Bikaner House
Written By:Archa Desai
Photography By:Thukral and Tagra Studio & Archa Desai
Kochi's Pepper House – From dockside warehouses to country's cutting edge arts centre
CQ finds out more about Kochi Biennale's venue Pepper House through a conversation with its co-founder.
On cork, sustainability, footprints and consumption with Jhunjhun Jain of Outlin'd
CQ investigates some works of Outlin'd with cork in a candid conversation with Jhunjhun Jain.
Repurposed: Once a warehouse, meet the WhiteBalance Office overhauled by Studio Bipolar
Work a little, play a little and sleep a little at the WhiteBalance office in Okhla Industrial Estate, Delhi.
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Mass Effect Andromeda Multiplayer - How to play Co-op
March 16, 2017 by Ketchua
Home » Mass Effect Andromeda » Mass Effect Andromeda Multiplayer – How to play Co-op
Mass Effect Andromeda Multiplayer lets you tackle various missions with other players. You can call for help when you're stuck, or you can provide assistance to those in need. There are several requirements for playing coop in ME: Andromeda, however. In this guide, we're going to show you how to play co-op in Mass Effect Andromeda, how multiplayer works.
Mass Effect Andromeda Multiplayer
If you're playing on console, you'll need the premium subscription to access multiplayer. That means Playstation Plus or Xbox Live Gold, depending on the platform.
How to play Co-op in Mass Effect Andromeda
There are two way to go about this. The first is accessing it from the menu:
Open the menu, then select Game (if you're on PC, you can press H to do this).
Look for the option to Jump to Multiplayer, about halfway through the list.
On the other hand, you can access it through a certain terminal aboard the Tempest, your flying fortress. It's the one that lets you send AI controlled teams on missions. When you interact with it, it will allow you to choose between joining a Strike Team Mission, or starting your own.
The multiplayer will put you in the shoes of a nameless soldier on the battlefield, fending off waves of enemies – you won't be controlling the Ryders, sadly. You will be able to choose from a vast pool of races and classes, as well as customize your loadout to suit your style of play. The rewards you get in this horde mode will affect the singleplayer portion of the game as well. We don't know how important they are for getting the best possible outcome in the end, but they're definitely beneficial.
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What do you want to vote on?
Posing the right question to your voters is more important than you might think. "Which restaurant should we go to tonight?" is very different from "Which restaurant should we boycott?", though the two may have identical candidates. Your description will provide the context your election takes place within.
You need at least two candidates to proceed.
Need more than 81 candidates?
What type of ballots do you want to use?
Online ballots provide a quick and easy way of interacting with your voters, but are subject to potentially untenable limitations. Your voters' computers may be compromised making their votes vulnerable to eavesdropping or manipulation. Further, ballots reside on a server that you neither control nor have direct access to.
Alternatively, paper ballots can be used in more traditional voting contexts and be subjected to more transparent oversight. This rigor comes at the cost of convenience; ballots must be printed, distributed, guarded and manually counted. In casual contexts, the potential gains paper ballots provide aren't typically necessary.
I want to use online ballots.
I want to print new paper ballots to count later.
I have paper ballots I want to count.
Public elections allow any visitor to vote. This mode may be most useful when you don't know in advance who is going to participate in your elections. Consequently, anyone can vote any number of times, which may encourage vote flooding.
Private elections restrict access to a finite set of invitations, each of which may be used vote once and may be used to view the results indefinitely.
Public elections will also appear in the sitemap, which means they will be indexed by search engines like Google. Further, they will appear in the RSS feed of public elections.
I want my election to be open to the public.
I want my election restricted to the people that I explicitly invite.
Can anyone view the results?
Public elections allow any visitor to view the results.
Private elections restrict access to a finite set of invitations.
If purpose of an election is to make a collective decision and a conclusion is never reached, what function does the election serve? Keep your election open as necessary, but no longer. After the election closes, no further ballots will be admitted. The results will remain available until you delete the election.
Elections with no activity (no new ballots, comments or views for several months on end) may be periodically pruned from the database.
Should preliminary results be displayed?
Revealing the preliminary results of an election before all ballots are in provides a predicted winner and may foster interest in the results as they develop. However, this knowledge may encourage strategic voting on subsequent ballots.
Hide the results of this election until after it closes.
How many winners do you need?
If you only need one winner for one election, you're already set. However, if you need more than one winner we'll need to know a little more about what kind of multiple-winner scenario you're in to best pick your winners.
The winners are chosen to best match the clusters of preferences expressed by the voters. This option is only available in elections with 21 or fewer candidates.
Consider the scenario where you have one representative, but might need a second, or a third. Since the first representative is fixed, you choose your second proportional to the electorate and the current winners. We're looking at generating an ordered list of candidates. This option is only available in elections with 21 or fewer candidates.
Consider the scenario where you only need one winner, but you need a runner up in case the first winner is unavailable. Unlike proportional ordering, the previous winners aren't taken into account when determining the remaining ordering.
If you're not sure which option best matches your election scenario, this page has examples might help you to better understand your options.
Should candidate order be random?
Studies consistently show that candidate order affects voter preferences. Disable this option only when your candidates have an inherent order (e.g. days of the week).
My candidates have an inherent order I want to keep.
Can voters provide additional candidates?
The purpose of an election is to make a collective decision that best reflects the preferences of its voters. When a ballot's candidates are fixed, a voter's expression of their preferences is restricted. When write-ins are allowed, voters can provide additional candidates.
Voters can provide additional candidates.
The set of provided candidates is final.
Do you need more granularity than 5 stars?
By default, voters rate candidates out of 5 stars. People are exposed daily to this type of rating in reviews of restaurants and movies, hotels and phone apps. The familiarity helps voters understand how the ballot works without verbose explanation.
Unfortunately, elections with 6 or more candidates force the expression of indifference between 2 or more candidates; There simply aren't enough unique options to go around. In cases where your election has a large number of candidates, an unambiguous dropdown may be preferrable.
Be aware that voting out of 5 stars provides the benefit of familiarity. Your voters may well be confused if presented with more options.
Voters rate candidates out of 5 stars.
Voters rate candidates using an unambiguous dropdown.


text:
Q: Openlayers WMS layer not zooming properly I developed an script to display 2 layers ob base map.
but it is not zooming properlly.
I am using following code
can you please suggest me
<script type="text/javascript">
    var map, layer, select, hover, control;

    function init(){

        map = new OpenLayers.Map('map', {
            controls: [
                new OpenLayers.Control.PanZoom(),
                new OpenLayers.Control.Permalink(),
                new OpenLayers.Control.Navigation()
            ]
        });
             layer = new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS(
            "States WMS/WFS",
            "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/topp/wms",
            {layers: 'topp:india_road',transparent: true}

        );
        select = new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Selection", {styleMap:
            new OpenLayers.Style(OpenLayers.Feature.Vector.style["select"])
        });
        hover = new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Hover");
        map.addLayers([layer, hover, select]);
         var wmsLayer = new OpenLayers.Layer.Google('Google Layer',{} );
        map.addLayer(wmsLayer);

        map.setCenter(new OpenLayers.Bounds(143.83482400000003,-43.648056,148.47914100000003,-39.573891).getCenterLonLat(), 5);
    }
</script>

A: What do you mean by not zooming properly?
Are you finding that they are not matching up with the google maps when zooming in as far as you can go, or the zoom work until you try to pan and then the layers don't stay lined up with google maps? If this is the case then you are probably zooming in further than is supported by the Google map service. There is no easy way to fix this and I recommend you alter allowed scales and zoom with the following settings

*

*minScale - float -- the minimum scale value at which the layer should display

*maxScale - float -- the maximum scale value at which the layer should display

*numZoomLevels - int -- Total number of zoom levels
Also please see this link on more information about google zoom scales.

If you are finding that none of your layers match the google background. I.E. they look like they are zoomed in out or offset then it is likely that your data is in a different projection to the google maps layer. Google maps uses EPSG:900913 as their SRS. The eisiest way to do this is to let geoserver do the re projection for you. Go to your layer setting in geoserver make sure you have the native projection set correctly and set the declared SRS to EPSG:900913.
If that doesn't help then I think we need more information on exactly what the problem is.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to solve a simple problem today. I am developing a mobile app which has a list of clients. The requirement is that the clients are sorted by last name and has dividers separating alphabetically. When a user starts searching, the dividers should go away but they should come back when the search box is empty, which would display the entire list.
I was a little surprised there was no out of the box way to dynamically create dividers in Ionic, but I give it the benefit of the doubt that it's not officially released. I found a great ionic-ion-autoListDivider directive written by Andrew McGivery and set off to build on top of it.
As soon as I attached the search-box filter, it started doing strange things. Adding, moving and removing dividers willy-nilly. I tried removing the dividers from the DOM when someone is searching, calling the directive when they're not… just all sorts of bad ideas with equally bad results.
It took a day and a half to realize I was over thinking and over engineering the solution.
My colleague at work had asked why not just have two separate lists, and display each list accordingly. I subsequently inserted palm to face. That's just so simple… but a perfect solution to my troubles. View it in all it's gloriousness below.


Authoritarian Personality is a personality type in which an individual inhibits prejudice It is caused by a variety of certain circumstances, which were narrowed down by Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford during the year 1950. Through many tests and analysis of over 2,000 respondents from middle classes Whites to inmates of San Quentin State Prison, they were able to figure out the characteristics associated with authoritarian personality. The characteristics include compliance in beliefs of conventional values, not having criticism towards authority and complying to authority, and concern regarding power and toughness. Also, the intolerance of those with the authoritarian personality is related to aggression towards people that do not oblige to authority or conventional norms. Researchers believe that a rigid upbringing leads those who an authoritarian personality to treat others like how they were treated. Bogardus scale was created by Emory Bogardus in 1968 to measure social distance empirically. The scale determines the desire of people in associate with different racial and ethnic groups during certain social situations. After 70 years of administering the test, certain patterns have formed. White Americans and northern Europeans are on the top of the hierarchy. Eastern and southern Europeans are at a greater social distance and racial minorities are on the bottom.


text:
11:47: PM Friday January 27, 2023
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News Sonoma County Libraries
Debunking Supervisors' Six Excuses for Not Reopening Libraries Countering Our Supervisors' Spin About Why They Are Abandoning 100,000 Library Users
Posted on June 11, 2015 by Jonathan Greenberg
During the past month, as more than 1,200 Sonoma County Library supporters signed the Sonoma Independent's petition (on the right side of this page) urging our elected representatives to fund the reopening of library hours on Mondays, a list of six basic excuses from our Supervisors has emerged.
In letters to concerned taxpayers and responses to reporters, our Supervisors, probably with the support of the County Administrator's staff, have used six basic arguments for avoiding responsibility for allocating just $1.2 million from this year's anticipated $13.5 million surplus to fund the restoration of Monday hours.
It is understandable that citizens who express support for funding libraries feel powerless to press further when Supervisors respond with the arguments below. In keeping with the "Informing to Empower" mission of The Sonoma Independent, we debunk the arguments that are being provided to the public. And encourage readers to call their Supervisor at 565-2241, and urge them to take responsibility for restoring Monday hours this year.
Excuse #1: Citizens Do Not Support More Funding for Libraries So Why Should Our Supervisors?
Through his District Director Jenny Chamberlain, Supervisor James Gore responded to questions about funding Monday hours via email, stating, in part:
"Given the recent lack of public support to restore the libraries, and in light of other public service requests, it may be inconsistent for the Board of Supervisors to use limited unincorporated tax payers' dollars to restore city & county library services. Currently, the county has over $70 million of unmet needs, and not all of the Board of Supervisors' (BOS) priorities have a funding plan developed."
Counter argument: Three times as many people voted for library tax than road tax.
With 88,500 votes, last November's Measure M tax to support libraries narrowly missed the challenging 2/3 majority that State law requires for earmarked new taxes. But this library measure received 88,500 votes, more than three times as many YES votes as Measure A for a road repair tax just did. It even received thousands more votes than Measure H, the far more costly bond issue for the Santa Rosa Junior College, which passed (because, inexplicably, bonds require only 55% approval).
Libraries received nearly double the recent NO votes for Measure A. The percentage of No votes for measure A (62.7%) was less that the Yes votes for Measure M (63.3%). Yet pundits and Supervisors see that the recent defeat of Measure A as a voter mandate. Why, then, with three times as many votes, is Supervisor Gore and others unconvinced that citizens do not support funding libraries.
Why, with twice as many votes as the Measure A "No" mandate, and a higher percentage of votes, can't our Supervisors hear that taxpayers want to see our libraries reopened?
Libraries are the only existing countywide program serving tens of thousands of citizens that was severely cut back during the recent recession and not restored. Monday closings have impacted the lives of more than 100,000 regular library users, most of them toddlers, children, and seniors. More than 1,200 citizens signed the Sonoma Independent's petition urging Supervisors to spend just $1.2 million to restore Library hours. As reported in the Sonoma Independent, libraries had been open 70 hours per week in 1981 and are now open only 40 hours a week. Does this reflect the will of the public, or the unwillingness of our elected representatives to provide responsive government to taxpayers, and remedy the largest funding crisis in our County Library system's history?
Excuse #2: Supervisors Have More Important Priorities Than Restoring Cutback Library Hours
In telling taxpayers why they do not feel that our County's $1.4 billion budget, with its $13.5 million surplus this year, contains enough money to restore library hours, Supervisors provide citizens with a list of priorities that they have determined are more urgent. In this recent email to a constituent requesting support for library hours, Supervisor Carrillo's office wrote:
"As reference, the BOS (Board of Supervisors) 2015 priorities focus on: Increasing affordable housing; coordinate with community partners to provide access to preschool for all county children; addressing the safety, health, environmental and economic impacts of marijuana; coordinating sustainability initiatives; ensuring long term fiscal health of the county finances; completing planning for the Chanate campus; establish a Health Care Task force; furthering community outreach and engagement including the implementation of Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force recommendations; completing Fire Services delivery recommendations; and annexing Southwest Santa Rosa."
Counter argument: Really? Restoring Monday hours is a priority for 100,0000 library users and about the only problem that the County has the funds to fully solve.
Not a single one of the Board of Supervisor-prioritize needs is a County-provided public service that was cut back by 25% and has not been restored. Roads is also mentioned first by Supervisors in listing their priorities. But getting County roads up to par will cost hundreds of millions of dollars during the coming decade or two. During the past few years, Supervisors have added $8 million or so from the General Fund to augment the millions in dedicated funds already earmarked for roads through a state gasoline tax. Supervisors are likely to increase this$8 million contribution because a road tax failed. This road tax just received less than 1/3 the number of YES votes that November's support library tax received. If Supervisors simply earmark about 10% less for road repair to give to libraries, it would make a difference to far more people than it would if that $1.2 million extra was added to roads. Or if $1.2 million less was added to the County's $32 million rainy day reserve fund.
Supervisors are also spending more than $1.2 million on new programs for that are typically funded through the state or federal government. One is a $600,000 marketing program for senior advocacy programs pushed by Supervisor Shirlee Zane to help seniors, who are heavy users of the library as their community center, feel more connected to their communities.
Another $655,000 will be spent on a few hundred pre-school slots for low income toddlers. This is an initial investment in a laudable, but entirely unfunded program that is estimated to eventually cost the County $19 million a year and $50 million in construction costs for new preschools. Supervisor Gore, said of the $655,000 spent for the pre-school slots, that "There could be no more important investment than this."
Apparently, an investment in restoring a library system that has served our County for generations and will serve 40 times as many pre-schoolers as this allocation is not as important an investment to Supervisor Gore.
As reported here last month, when Susan Gorin, Chair of the Board of Supervisors, was asked whether any services provided by the County that served so many citizens had been as severely reduced by the recession and then not restored during the past few years, she replied, "So many things have not been restored. Staffing levels…the appropriate amount of staff in construction, code enforcement, you name it and it's had a cutback."
This was a surprising statement,.According to the Press Democrat, since the recession budget of 2011, the County has restored 500 County positions and added 400 new jobs, at a cost to taxpayers of an additional $86 million per year. Libraries, during this period, have had no additional positions created, but cut dozens of part time positions.
Excuse # 3: It's Not Their Job to Help Libraries
In an email to a library supporter, Supervisor David Rabbitt wrote: "The Sonoma County Library is a separate public agency, governed by the Sonoma County Library Commission through a Joint Powers Agreement- it is not a county department. The Library Commission is the governing and administrative body of the Sonoma County Library solely responsible for exercising the powers set forth in the Joint Powers Agreement including provision of structure and direction for operational, administrative and fiscal oversight of the library and establishing a budget. The Board of Supervisors is 1 of the 10 jurisdictions that govern the 8/1/15 revised Library Joint Powers Agreement."
Counter-argument: It is a County system and Supervisors need to take responsibility for fixing the largest cutback in service that our County offers the public.
Nobody suggests that our Board of Supervisors created the largest funding crisis in the history of Sonoma County's Library system. But it is called the Sonoma County Library system for a reason. Regardless of governance legalities, it is, at its core, a County system. Just because it is structured to have an independent Board of Commissioners does not mean that those commissioners have the power, or the resources, to alleviate the structural funding problem–a problem that translates into half the funding per capita for our libraries as in Napa County.
Our Supervisors, who are paid to oversee our tax revenue and fix challenging budgetary problems for County residents, have this power. And with a $13.5 million and funds earmarked for a rainy day reserve fund, they have both the funding, and the responsibility, to make this their job.
Excuse #4: Due to the Internet, Libraries Are Not Used As Much or Are Not As Important As They Once Were.
During her interview in late April with the Sonoma Independent, Supervisor Susan Gorin said, "It would be interesting to me if, rather than talking about the number of hours that it's open or shrunk, or whatever, I would love to hear you talk about how libraries are used, what's different now than 10 years ago, what should we be doing differently? Is it just a question of opening the doors, or rearranging the functions of the library? More people are accessing things online, and there's less need to physically go there, maybe they're needing different kinds of services?"
Counter-argument: Libraries are as popular as ever. They just need to be kept open.
This argument is typically made by people who have not set foot in a Sonoma County library in a while, and there, have not seen the high level of activity there. The statistics in the graph at the top of this page show that in the seven years prior to cutting back library hours, while online research has grown, library usage, as demonstrated by the number of visitor trips to the library, had grown by hundreds of thousands of visits. Libraries are the quintessential public commons at the heart of our cities. For toddlers, children, teens, parents, grandparents, seniors, readers, and low income citizens needing to access media of all kinds, nothing has replaced the experience of visiting libraries. It was not until hours were cut back by 25% that library usage dropped. This demonstrates that tens of thousands of library users have been unable to adapt their schedules to visit the libraries more often.
Excuse #5: Cities, Not the County, Should Fund Libraries
Both Supervisors Rabbit and Gore used the exact same wording in response emails about the libraries, indicating that they are relying upon County Administrator staff to crunch these numbers and come up with this argument.
"Three of the 13 library facilities are located in the unincorporated area. Per a December 2012 library summary, of the 2 million annual visitors in fiscal year 2011-2012 less than 100,000 or 5% were recorded as visits to the unincorporated area branches/stations."
Counter-argument: These are County libraries that, like all government facilities, are located in the County's cities. They are open to, used by, and valued by ALL County residents.
This seems to be the most deceptive, and deflective excuse that Supervisors tell the public. There are only a few small libraries outside Sonoma County's cities—so the 5% figure is basically those who use Guerneville's library. But the figure is meaningless, as anyone using a library can attest, visitors to the City Library come from all over the County. For instance, while just 7,400 live in Sebastopol, its library is used by many of the 50,000 people who also use Sebastopol for commerce, dining and entertainment.
Moreover, the implication that the library funding crisis is a problem that the cities ought to pay to fix is disingenuous. It ignores the reality that the Joint Powers Agreement governing the libraries makes it almost impossible for cities to contribute to an increase in library funding.
Excuse #6: The Library Has Enough Money to Restore Hours If Its Commissioners Wanted To.
This argument comes from Supervisor Gore. He wrote that with increased tax revenues, the library budget will increase this year, and that "There is a new $500,000.00 surplus identified in the budget."
Counter-argument: That is not enough money to reopen Mondays; real dollar spending has dropped, and the overall funding is woefully inadequate.
Perhaps Supervisors can simply offer $700,000 to reopen libraries on Mondays this year, on the condition that the Library Commissioners match this with its $500,000 surplus.
But try as our Supervisors may, there is no getting around the reality of the County's library spending compared to the counties around us. Sonoma County spends just $34 per capita on libraries, while Napa spends $68, Marin $79, and San Francisco $124.
This is not a matter of Library Commissioners mismanaging their funding. And it is not because taxpayers in Sonoma County value libraries and education less than our Napa or Marin County neighbors.
Sadly, it seems to be because our County Supervisors do.
Sonoma County Libraries
Supervisor James Gore
Supervisor Susan Gorin
Debunking Supervisors' Six Excuses for Not Reopening Libraries Countering Our Supervisors' Spin About Why They Are Abandoning 100,000 Library Users https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sonomaindependent.org%2Fdebunking-supervisors-six-excuses-for-not-taking-responsibility-to-restore-library-hours%2F">
Debunking Supervisors' Six Excuses for Not Reopening Libraries Countering Our Supervisors' Spin About Why They Are Abandoning 100,000 Library Users">
Jonathan Greenberg
Jonathan Greenberg is editor and owner of the award winning Sonoma Independent website, which serves the public interest with insight, solutions and advocacy. Jonathan is an investigative financial journalist with 40 years of experience with national publications, including Forbes, The Washington Post, The New York Times, New York, Town & Country. Mother Jones and The New Republic. During the past few years, Jonathan wrote four of the most widely-read exposes about Donald Trump's career published in the Washington Post. Jonathan was the notorious Forbes 400 reporter who taped two long calls in 1984 in which Trump pretended to be John Barron. Jonathan's Washington Post expose about this was the subject of monologues on Colbert, the Daily Show and Seth Meyers. Jonathan has appeared live on a dozen major news shows, including on CNN with Chris Cuomo, Erin Burnett and Don Lemon, on MSNBC with Ari Berber and Ali Velshi, and NPR's On the Media. A fuller bio and links to Jonathan's work can be found at JonathanGreenberg.com. Jonathan is a new media entrepreneur and was the founder of Gist.com, an acclaimed Web 1.0 company that won the first annual Webby Awards in 1997. In 2006, Jonathan founded Progressive Source Communications, the parent company of The Sonoma Independent. Progressive Source is a public interest communications company that creates multimedia websites, videos and digital advocacy campaigns that build public awareness of solutions that serve the common good.
Housing Groups Join 3,000 Petitioners Urging Supervisors to End Permit Sonoma's Eviction War on the Poor Housing rights campaign for renters of trailers & tiny homes now supported by Homeless Action, Legal Aid, Tenants Union & Rabbitt opponent Blake Hooper
Posted by Tim Ryan - February 4, 2022 0
122 Shares Facebook 122 Twitter LinkedIn Email On January 25, during a Sonoma County's Board of Supervisors meeting to set…
"Vote in Person" Was Biden's Most Important Debate Message The only way to stop Trump's plan to steal this election is for Biden voters to cancel plans to mail in ballots and show up in person to vote on polling place machines
Posted by Jonathan Greenberg - September 30, 2020 0
The only way to stop Trump's plan to steal this election is for Biden voters to cancel plans to mail-in…
Friends Group Launches Petition to Help Sonoma West Hospital's Cash Flow Crisis District Board bridge financing needed for shortfall caused by delayed insurance reimbursement; Congressmen Huffman and Thompson urge Medicare bureaucracy to speed up back payments
Posted by Jonathan Greenberg - January 27, 2016 0
176 Shares Facebook 176 Twitter LinkedIn Email A new grassroots Friends of Sonoma West Medical Center launched its first public…
Will the New Monsanto Doctrine Hijack Democracy in Epic Hawaii GMO Ruling? Federal and State agencies created to protect people's health and environmental safety have been reinvented as legal shields to protect the world's most toxic agrochemical companies from people
Posted by Jonathan Greenberg - June 14, 2016 0
The ominous Monsanto Doctrine is the right of agrochemical corporations to spray unlimited toxic pesticides regardless of any local law…
Proposed Urgency Ordinance to Protect People Living in Unpermitted Safe Alternative Housing from Government Eviction Grassroots affordable housing rights campaign pressures supervisors to take responsibility for shameful eviction of hundreds of low income renters
94 Shares Facebook 94 Twitter LinkedIn Email Next Tuesday, January 25, the Board of Supervisors will be meeting to set…
Stop All Sonoma County Government Evictions from Safe Affordable Housing
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SAGE Campaign to Stop Permit Sonoma Evictions Results in Historic Vote for Alternative Housing
Trailblazing Program at UC Davis Law & Enviro Science Brings Climate Solutions from Classroom to Legislature
Supervisors Face Historic Affordable Housing Vote to Permit Trailers & Tiny Homes
County Plan to Build Administrative Campus at Sears Site Falls Apart Under Public Pressure
Supervisors to Consider Historic Affordable Housing Vote to Protect RV's & Tiny Homes on April 5
UC Davis "Be the Media" Course Breaks New Ground for Climate Activism
Billion Dollar Boondoggle Plan Could Cripple County Services for Next 30 Years
Housing Groups Join 3,000 Petitioners Urging Supervisors to End Permit Sonoma's Eviction War on the Poor
Will Supervisors Vote to Stop Permit Sonoma's Cruel Eviction War on the Poor?
Proposed Urgency Ordinance to Protect People Living in Unpermitted Safe Alternative Housing from Government Eviction
How Permit Sonoma's code enforcement prevents safe and affordable housing
Investigation Reveals Permit Sonoma Ordered Eviction of 189 Low Income Renters Last Year
Homeless Action! Joins Effort to Stop Sonoma County Government Evictions
Campaign to Stop All Government Evictions Petitions Sonoma County Supervisors
How Composting Toilets can Help Solve our Affordable Housing Crisis
Sonoma Independent Wins Journalism Awards for 6th Straight Year
New Sebastopol Urgent Care Facility Opens at 555 Petaluma Ave
Turn Out to Vote NO on Recall to Prevent an Extremist Trumpster Governor
PG&E Bends to Grassroots Pressure Campaign to Bury Fire-Causing Power Lines
Historic CA-SAFE Trailer Bill Would Allocate $750 Million to Build Microgrids & Prevent Fires
Five Lessons InformYourVote.org Learned to Become NYC's Most Viewed Voter Literacy Resource
Burying 500 miles of Overhead Lines Would End the Plague of Power Shutdowns: Why Won't California Do It?
California Can Bury State's Fire-Causing Power Lines for Just 2% of Budget Surplus
Vote Yes on Measures A & B to Preserve Local High Schools
Uplifting Schwarzenegger Video Speaks from the Heart to the Heartland
Dystopian Novel Envisions Water Oligarchies Threatening Human Existence
ENDORSEMENT: Vote Yes on Prop 15 to End Obscene Tax Breaks for Real Estate Billionaires
Vote YES on Measure P to Support Sonoma County Police Reform
"Vote in Person" Was Biden's Most Important Debate Message
#Dumbkirk & the Benefits of Ridiculing Trumpsters
2020 Affordable Housing Annis Pratt Award winning Sonoma Independent Bernie Bernie Sanders Board of Supervisors Chris Coursey climate change Climate Solutions Dan Smith David Rabbitt Donald Trump Elizabeth Warren Evolutionary Media Advocacy feminism fire prevention Gail Thomas Greater Bay Journalism Awards Hillary Clinton Housing Rights James Gore Jim Horn Lynda Hopkins Monsanto Palm Drive Hospital Permit Sonoma political protest Press Democrat Rollie Atkinson SAGE Sanders second American Revolution Sonoma County Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Sonoma County Libraries Sonoma County Supervisors Sonoma West MEdical Center Stop All Government Evictions Supervisor James Gore Supervisor Susan Gorin Susan Gorin SWMC Tiny Homes Trump
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text:
Le GDD CUP International Challenger Guangzhou est un tournoi international de tennis masculin faisant partie de l'ATP Challenger Tour ayant lieu tous les ans au mois de mars à Guangzhou, en Chine. Il a été créé en 2008 et se joue sur dur. Cinq éditions se sont déroulées jusqu'en 2016.

Palmarès

Simple

Double

Notes et références

Lien externe
 Site de l'ATP

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Shares Of TSLA Rocket Up Even Though It Had A Q3 Loss, But WHY? Are You BUYING, SELLING Or HOLDING?
All eyes are on Tesla and its stock, once again.
Since the company had its initial public offering (IPO) it's been a wild ride. And it seems that the equity is not going to get any less volatile any time soon.
This is great news for traders. Investors, not so much.
Yesterday, shares of the electric automaker rocketed upwards of 11+ percent. For a one-day move that's pretty rare. Especially when you consider that this company just announced it had a Q3 loss.
According to a UBS analyst it's due to positive Q4 guidance on deliveries — you can thank the Model X for that.
Having said that, what's the move for YOU? Are you BUYING, SELLING or HOLDING?
Check out what an analyst on The Street has to say about shares of Tesla by clicking "Read Article" below!
Nov. 4 -- Colin Langan, UBS Securities analyst, explains why Tesla shares are surging despite the company's third-quarter loss. He speaks with Bloomberg's Betty Liu on "Bloomberg Markets."
**AutoSpies is not a registered financial advisor. Please consult a licensed financial professional before making any financial decisions.
TESLA IS A AUTOMOTIVE VERSION OF BERNIE MADOFF!
With the added problems at VW - maybe they think that the Audi that will be a competitor for the Tesla will be delayed.
Hold. But once the industry big guns get their act together and really lean in on the luxury electric market sell quickly or wait for Chinese or Korean buyout depending on your cost basis.
Personally, I took profits yesterday.
I reluctantly sold a big pile of RIM (Research In Motion, now Blackberry) at around $87 several years back. My financial advisor warned me about the risks of self-investing and trying to "time the market." Turns out her advice was sound.
I keep occasionally seeing Blackberry shares pushed upwards, too.
Yes, I know Blackberry and Tesla are worlds apart, but it does show you that stock price can take a significant upward jump even when a corporation is on life-support and dying a slow, slow death. Stock price reflects what a bunch of people *believe* about a company.
Oh Steve, you don't really believe Tesla is dying a slow, slow death - do you?
runninglogan1: I believe that lots of people playing the stock market are enamored with Tesla, and are buying Tesla stock. This drives the stock price up. I also believe what Tesla's financials reveal, and that is that they lose about $4000 for every vehicle they sell, and they depend on government grants and other incentives to *survive* (not just "do better"). This is not a sustainable model in the long run.
At this time, I don't believe Tesla is a viable long-term proposition, but until then, some people will do nicely trading their stocks (while others will hurt from the same activity).
What has Tesla done/not done to make you believe that it is not a viable long-term proposition? How do you see the automotive future and Tesla's role in it?
(1) Tesla loses about $4,000 per vehicle sold. They bleed red ink.
(2) Tesla depends upon government grants, subsidies and other benefits in order to survive; not just be more profitable (see point #1, above). This is not a sustainable business model.
(3) The vehicles have reliability issues. They're well publicized. Tesla merely increased the warranty period, which is great... assuming they're around to honor it.
(4) Tesla's financial statements give cause for concern. Their P&L (Income Statement, AKA "Profit & Loss statement", which details revenues and expenses) shows they can't make a profit. Their Balance Sheet (which details assets, liabilities, and equity) shows they're "renting" their lifestyle without hard assets to back up the company. Again, financial analysis shows their *current* business model is not sustainable.
(5) While analysts wonder when Tesla will start turning a profit, the company continues to miss its sales targets. Translated into Laymens' Lingo, Tesla's forecasts of profitability keep getting pushed back due to low sales, so they continue to run at a loss.
(6) Questionable business practices. In one example, Tesla got a fat grant from the US Government for creating vehicles with quick-battery-replacement technology. Conceptually, a Tesla owner can drive into a station and get their batteries replaced in a matter of minutes with ones that are fully charged, and then be on their way. Tesla got the grant money. Only 1 such station exists in the US. Tesla Motors met the requirements to receive the taxpayer dough, but virtually no Tesla owners see any benefit from it. (This is a very specific example of Point #2).
(7) Mr. Musk is a Spin Doctor. Whenever someone raises concerns about his company or his products, he deflects and spins. Examples include two different car reviewers who gave the product lackluster reviews. Both were met with Musk's packaged spin: an assertion that they wrote the review before the car arrived. He even reused the same spin. Weak.
(8) All of Tesla's products are high-priced, low-volume items. They're toys for the rich, not making any meaningful market penetration, and not affecting the economy or the environment in any meaningfully positive way. They do get a lot of press, though, as being "the way of the future." Yeah, if you're wealthy, and you're enamored with tech. Most rich folks buy conventional propulsion vehicles, so Tesla isn't even capturing a significant portion of this market. This in itself isn't a problem for a profitable company. But for a company that bleeds red ink, like Tesla, it's not a viable recipe for profitability.
"Are You BUYING, SELLING Or HOLDING?"
You need to separate out gross margin and net margin. If Tesla stopped investing in new infrastructure, they would be making a 25% profit off each car sold. Last quarter they invested a half billion dollars in new infrastructure related to the Gigafactory, Model X, and Model 3. The $4,000 figure is completely deceiving.
Its all about cash and cash flow. If Tesla is unable to generate consistent cash from operations, Telsa will eventually go out of business.
Once confidence in Tesla is lost (i.e. because people hate their Model X's with those stupid falcon doors and nobody buys them), the grim reaper will appear and it will all be over.
Investing in Tesla is like juggling some knives - sometimes the knives go up, sometimes they go down, sometimes they will slice off your hand if you are not paying attention.
A car company investing in its future instead of stuffing the pockets of its executives? GASP!
Tesla is not "investing in the future" - they are obtaining "OPM" (other people's money) to pursue a dream they have temporarily convinced other people who have money to share with them. When those people with money tire of or grow doubtful about the endeavor, the money will dry up, unless of course Tesla is generating its own money by then.
That's the notion of investing - raise some money with the promise to investors that an idea with eventually generate enough money to pay them back, big!
Not likely to happen with Tesla.
Tesla and the people investing in it believe that the company can do both, it has to do both since they are really one and the same. The "other" people are customers and beneficiaries of these investments. If Tesla fails it would not be because of too much investment in new technologies, it would be because of not enough.
We see examples over and over of other car companies that only care about the short term profit margin and are willing to do anything to keep it up. Look how they turn up.
Tesla crazies are just that.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Former footballer Stan Collymore has urged Chelsea to part ways with Eden Hazard because the forward is 'toxic' in the dressing room.
Belgium international Hazard is regarded as one of the best players in the Premier League and he took his goal tally to 12 this season when bagging a brace in Saturday's 5-0 win over Huddersfield Town.
However, manager Maurizio Sarri believes the 28-year-old, who has been linked with a move to Real Madrid over the past couple of years, should be producing more than he currently is.
And now, ex-Liverpool striker Collymore believes Hazard is having an adverse effect on the dressing room and a summer exit would be the right plan of action for both club and player.
Writing for the Mirror, he said: "Eden Hazard needs to leave Stamford Bridge – to rid Chelsea of its toxic dressing room. Nothing against the Belgian, who I rate one of the best in the world, but it's time for the club to cash in.
"He's a wonderful talent but I've got a nagging feeling he's part of the problems at the club. Jose Mourinho was lukewarm towards him, Antonio Conte wasn't overly keen, and now he is part of a crew whose bottle Maurizio Sarri has questioned in the last few weeks."


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Dynasty Court Owners to Sell Property for Redevelopment
The owners of Dynasty Court, the affordable rental development in the heart of Chinatown, have confirmed to PCDC that they intend to sell the property. They have said a condition of the sale is that it remains affordable.
PCDC's desire is to keep this development as affordable housing for the Chinatown community. While Chinatown has seen a great increase in new development, nearly all of those projects have been geared towards higher-income families. In turn, this has put pressure on all the other housing stock in the neighborhood, leaving low-income renters vulnerable to cost increases. We must preserve affordable housing so we can continue to offer opportunities for new immigrants.
PCDC developed Dynasty Court in 1983 to provide quality, affordable housing for Chinatown's families. At the time, the community had just won the fight against the Vine Street
Expressway, as the Mayor had announced the selection of a scaled-down version which would preserve Chinatown. We turned our focus to replacement housing for displaced families.
Today, Dynasty Court is the only family-friendly affordable rental development in Chinatown. It is one of just two Section 8 projects in Chinatown which are supported by federal funds. Generations of families have raised their children in these homes, which have supplied quality places to live for families which need access to bilingual services and schools.
As longtime resident Vanessa Xie testified at the Fair Housing Assessment hearing: "When my parents first got to Philadelphia, they lived in a very small apartment along with a few other family members. However, shortly after I was born in 1989, our family was fortunate enough to have become beneficiaries of the Dynasty Court Section 8 housing. My mom told me that when they came by to review their living conditions at the time, the official believed that it was no place to raise a child. Dynasty Court gave us a place to live where we had enough space, so that I would not have to share a room with my parents, or with other family members. We were able to invite friends to come over, so that we could build, and create communities in our home."
These families have built strong social and cultural networks in the community. It is important that Dynasty Court remains affordable for the long-term, otherwise low-income families will be forced out.
As Chinatown sees change and new investment, affordable housing developments like Dynasty Court play a large role in supporting our community and keeping Chinatown as a welcoming place for new immigrants. It is extremely difficult to build new affordable housing. We cannot afford to lose any of our existing affordable housing.
Currently, the project is a Section 8 project which provides subsidized rental rates to low-income households. This means the owners have a contract with HUD, a federal agency. The last day to renew this contract is October 12th.
← Affordable Rental Apartments Available In…
Sarah Yeung Appointed to Police… →


This exclusive 7 piece teak Sun Table and Armless Chair set with cushions makes the perfect patio dining set to accommodate a small intimate dinner or entertaining with friends.
Needless to say that our Teak Sun Table is a perfect example of real master craftsmanship. With all the round curves and eye catching table top this piece will be right in the middle of your conversations.
The Orleans side chairs combines a distinctive look with exceeding comfort. The unfinished look of the teak wood combines with the elegant design create a timeless piece of furniture that will only improve with age.
1 Teak Sun Table Easy assembly required. Dimensions of 30" h x 58" in diameter.
6 Teak Orleans Side Chairs (cushions included). Dimensions of 20" x 23" x 37"h.


This week features free fonts, icons and WordPress templates, along with insight into best practices for mobile design in 2017.
Are you tired of using the same old Font Awesome icons in your designs? Are you looking for a fresh set of icons to give your designs a unique look? Then we've got an amazing freebie you're going to love.
Are you planning an event or working on any other project related to the 1980s style? Let me share the best 80s graphics to decorate your settings with visual flashbacks to that decade.
Just like a wardrobe, your font collection should also contain various styles. Which is why this mix of the best modern fonts is going to be perfect for you. Check them out and start downloading.
Ok, so you have created a free ebook in order to generate more quality leads from the web or maybe just to build your first email list. Everyone says that you need to produce lead magnets and you wanted to join this bandwagon.
This is a tool that aggregates all the data on the various gestures used to interact with an app (taps, double-taps, swipes, pinches, etc.). This data is then presented visually, as a heatmap, on a layer placed over the actual app. That way it becomes easy to literally see where people are interacting with the app and in what frequency.
The UX design process is, in a word, complex. The discipline itself is a jam-packed intersection of contrasting fields, including art, engineering, experimental research, and interpersonal skills—a blend of technical and creative skillsets.
Mass appeal is a myth. I know that goes against what we'd all like to believe, and your eternal optimist inside probably shouts, "Hey! My product is actually for everyone." But honestly, it's true; mass appeal is a myth. Being niche does not mean fewer paying customers.
Building your own web design business into a success isn't easy. It can take years to build up a great reputation and a winning portfolio. You get there by doing great work along with being responsible and reliable.
Screen space is a precious resource on mobile. To meet the challenge of small screen space while still making navigation accessible, designers often rely on hiding navigation behind the hamburger icon, a prime example of hidden navigation.
Someone in a meeting just said that it would be cool if you started using memes on your company site, and you've gotta figure out how. We've got your back. We've. Got. Tips.
Here you'll find a list of 35 of awesome mobile apps when it comes to UI design. These apps really stood out because they went above and beyond to be visually appealing and useful.


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Search Engine Submission How to Get Listed on Google and Yahoo - After development- designing of a websites in order to get it ranked top on major search engines submission is a great tool to be applied.
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Keeping Your Kids Safe Online - Advice on how to make sure your kids are safe when they surf the internet.


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Tradition vs. Change. Shorten races vs. keeping them the same. Tandem drafting vs. pack racing. Members of the Backseat Drivers Fan Council faced many choices with this week's NASCAR survey.
There was more, including what has been the biggest surprise of the season to how they graded last weekend's Sprint Cup race at Daytona. The opinions vary — and in some cases are quite strong. Here's what the Backseat Drivers Fan Council had to say about these issues.
Tradition vs. Changes, which one matters most to you?
Former champion Jeff Gordon was asked during a media session last weekend at Daytona about possible changes for the sport. Part of Gordon's response included this statement: "What is more important — history and tradition or the most entertaining form of racing?" The Backseat Drivers Fan Council was asked that question — what means more to you? Tradition or changes to make the sport more exciting?
67.2 percent said traditions
32.8 percent said changes to make the sport more exciting
• Gimmicks are the road to ruin. This is a great sport, making changes to appease the fly-by-night fans will just alienate your most loyal fans while temporarily pleasing those who will leave you inevitably to follow some other trend.
• It's sad that some people need to be entertained. I prefer to keep the traditions. That said, I would understand if NASCAR was forced to make changes in order to compete. I just hope they realize they can keep the traditions while adding extra entertainment.
• I love the traditions, but I have to confess: If the entertainment value doesn't increase, I won't be watching much longer.
• I'm not an old fuddy-duddy veteran fan complaining all the time about these changes. I only started watching in 2005. I was confused by all the constant changing and thought it was strange. But isn't the racing better?? I think so.
• This one was easy for me. In my opinion, history and tradition are exciting. I understand the need to tweak things now and then because the cars have changed and the level of competition has become more level. But major overhauls, such as instituting a playoff system where one was not only unnecessary but doesn't fit the sport, don't work. They provide a temporary shot of interest among non- or casual fans but when that dissipates (as it has done), the sport is left with unhappy core fans that are less prone to instill a love of the sport in their kids, which in turn creates a void in the fan base in the next generation.
• I think NASCAR is one of the few sports that have changed to make it more exciting. Traditions and history only will get you by for so long.
• It's nice to know we have input to NASCAR. At some point, the line needs to be drawn. The show is the show. Not all races are awesome and not all are stinkers. Whining about every flaw leads to constant criticism of our sport. NASCAR seems to be in good shape compared to some other forms of motorsports (AMA). I don't know exactly what criteria NASCAR uses to make changes, but I'd like to think they use surveys like this one.
• I would rather stick to our roots. Trying to give the fans what they want, in my opinion, has made the racing worse. Look at the All-Star Race in May. That race turned into a race of strategy rather than a showdown for a million bucks. Also, look at Bristol.
• I'm all for keeping the traditions in the sport so long as the teams are allowed to innovate and compete to be the best. If that doesn't happen, then you have to go the route of the WWE and do tricks to make the races/racing more exciting. There has to be more excitement even in the long races. Drivers/teams are riding around in the first half to 3/4 of the races just logging laps and then the exciting racing starts. Sad.
• Get back to basics and the numbers will improve.
• Sometimes traditions hinder progress.
What races need to be shortened (if any)?
NASCAR Chairman Brian France said last weekend at Daytona that series officials would look to shorten races, noting it has "worked well" at Auto Club Speedway, Dover and Pocono. Fan Council members were asked what races, if any, needed to be shortened.
35.6 percent said the Atlanta race (500 miles ... last year's race was 4 hours, 0 minutes)
34.9 percent said Texas fall race (500 miles ... was 3 hours, 16 minutes last year)
34.2 percent said the Texas spring race (500 miles ... was 3 hours, 7 minutes in April)
29.5 percent said "None"
27.4 percent said Charlotte fall race (500 miles ... was 3 hours, 25 minutes last year)
26.0 percent said Talladega fall race (500 miles ... was 3 hours, 29 minutes last year)
18.8 percent said Talladega spring race (516 miles with GWC ... was 3 hours, 13 minutes in April)
(Every track received votes, but no other track received more than 15 percent of the votes)
• This makes no sense at all. Why would anyone want the races shortened? Are they going to reduce ticket prices by an equal ratio? Doubtful.
• Just about anything with a 500 after it should be shortened.
• Might as well shorten both 'Dega races if these guys are just gonna ride.
• The race I really think needs shortening is the Coke 600. I know it's traditionally been the one marathon race, but we saw this year that with the style of racing we're seeing the extra 100 miles is dreadfully boring.
• Stop catering to ADD Nation! The sport needs a few long races. The Coke 600 and Southern 500 should never be shortened.
• For me, the races don't need to be shortened because of the time of the race (with few exceptions). They need to be shortened to prevent drivers from riding around until the end of the race. The plate races are the prime example of this. But we see this at a lot of tracks. I think the road courses, Phoenix, NHMS and a few other have races that are about the right distance.
• I'm never in favor of cutting from any race. If you need to cut laps and miles from a track to make a race more interesting, maybe you should be taking a look at the product that's being put out there.
• I wouldn't mind the length of any race if they actually raced. I'm sick of them riding around for two to two-and-a-half hours and then racing the last 50 to 100 laps.
• No sir, no sir, no sir! Do not shorten any more races!
• I think the time from Atlanta is deceiving because there were so many cautions for the bad weather.
• I think there needs to be only three races longer than 400 miles: the Daytona 500, the Southern 500 (at Darlington over Labor Day weekend) and the 600-miler at Charlotte. These days the cars and drivers can handle the 500-mile length no problem, so it's no longer a matter of whether they will last the grueling length. Now it's drivers just logging laps in the middle, so let's cut that down some, especially at the cookie-cutter tracks.
What's been the biggest surprise of the Cup season?
36.9 percent said Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick among winless drivers this year
30.4 percent said Matt Kenseth leaving Roush Fenway Racing after the season
13.4 percent said lack of cautions this season
8.2 percent said Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s strength
7.2 percent said success of Michael Waltrip Racing
3.9 percent said "Other"
• The big names who are winless is a HUGE story, but things happen. The Kenseth story is UNBELIEVABLE and I never thought it would ever happen.
• I HATE Toyota, but MWR has been a huge surprise, I have to admit.
• I'm in total disbelief over Carl's season. Something's gotta give. And since when did he become Jack's red-headed stepson?
• There are a lot of mid-season surprises, but I am most surprised at the lack of wins and great performances from drivers like Edwards, Harvick and Gordon.
• Danica Patrick still running after both Darlington events. Anybody who understands the nature of that beast would have bet against it.
• I would have picked Junior's strength a couple of weeks ago, but I still can't believe that Kenseth is leaving Rousch Fenway after so many successful years there.
• Lack of cautions is really making this boring, but with the way the CoT has been, it's not a surprise when NASCAR isn't throwing cautions for water bottles. Dale Jr. is the big one for me. We all knew he had the equipment and was getting accustomed to Steve Letarte, but he is far more confident and focused than I've ever seen him. He's not just doing the best he can to get in the Chase as his main goal. He BELIEVES he can win
• AJ Allmendinger getting suspended for failing a drug test eclipsed my surprise at Matt Kenseth leaving Roush Fenway Racing. I initially ignored the mentions of Matt's contract because I fully expected him to re-sign with Roush. I was surprised when the rumor began that he was really a free agent. AJ's suspension 90 minutes before (Saturday night's) race came out of left field.
• The lack of cautions is by far the story this year. That long green run at Texas brought it to the forefront. When there are green flag pit stops at Martinsville, you have a problem.