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How Sustainability Strengthens Your Organization
Takes On Tech Podcast
Episode 43 How Sustainability Strengthens Your Organization
Organizations have long paid lip service to sustainability…
But these days, people are paying attention and it's no longer enough to talk the talk.
If you can't walk the walk on sustainability, you are putting your business at risk.
In this episode, I'm joined by Joel Makower, Chairman and Co-Founder of GreenBiz Group, who shares why sustainability matters more than ever and how you can start sustaining your business for the long-haul by becoming more sustainable.
Listen as we discuss:
How sustainability mitigates risk
The evolution of the sustainability role in business
3 steps for making sustainability a priority in your business
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Joel Makower
Chairman and Co-Founder of GreenBiz Group
You're listening to the fresh takes on tech podcast, a show from the International fresh produce Association. This is a show for people interested in the intersection between technology and the produce and floral industries. Every week we explore the problems, solutions, people and ideas that are shaping the industry. If you are interested in the innovations that create change, this is the place for you. Let's dive in.
Vonnie Estes, IFPA
Well, welcome to fresh takes on tech. I'm your host, Vonnie Estes. And this is our first podcast of this season and the relaunch of the podcast. And we have a great guest that I can't wait to talk to today, Joel Makower, he's the founder of GreenBiz group. And Joel and I have known each other, I think, close to 27 years. So it's really great to have him on the show and to talk about his work in sustainability. Welcome, and good to have you, Joel.
Joel Makower, GreenBiz Group
Thanks, Vonnie. That's been that long. It's amazing. I'm only 29. So I don't know how that worked out.
Okay, so let's start with an introduction of yourself, your work and the GreenBiz group?
Sure, well, I am a journalist and an entrepreneur. And I've spent my whole career 40 plus years starting companies, this is my third company in the mostly in the event information and media and events space. And for the past 37 years, I've been focusing at the intersection of business sustainability, and technology and innovation and corporate practice and strategy, how the world's largest companies and lots of small mid-sized ones as well are thinking about and integrating sustainability into their operations and aligning that with their core strategy, and all of that, and my company, GreenBiz group, I'm the co founder and chairman, we're about 50 people here in Oakland, California, we produce a daily news and daily, we have seven weekly free newsletters we put on for big in person events, I think thankfully back in person, as well as some virtual events throughout the year. And then we have a membership group of sustainability executives from large companies, billion dollar plus revenue companies, that we again, post COVID bring together multiple times a year for what we call peer to peer learning and what they tend to call group therapy. But this is a broad range of companies from food and ag to railroads, airlines, banks, tech companies, and so on. And so, so it's been really interesting to sit at that middle intersection and being able to listen to the conversations that companies are having.
So you do focus a lot on the companies and what they're doing, they have tools and capabilities to solve a lot of the issues that we have around sustainability. Why do you think we don't have 100% of companies on board and practicing to the fullest extent?
Well, in a word change we all have, we like the idea of change, doing it is actually harder, I like to say that when it comes to change, we love the noun and hate the verb. And so this is, you know, companies have other priorities, particularly these days, your supply chain and talent acquisition and retention, and all the usual things around products and services and quality and delivery, and you know, finance and cash flow, all the things that companies deal with. And sustainability is still you know, on the list of the top five things that a CEO wants to think about on a given day, this falls to number seven or eight. And so it just doesn't rise to the top for enough companies. Having said that, there are many companies for which it does that are that see this as a as a huge risk factor, frankly, and are dealing with that and in ways that go well beyond what most the public generally sees. We can talk about this maybe but you know, most people out there assume that any company that's doing anything is ipso facto greenwashing, when in fact that actually the opposite is true that companies tend to be walking more than they're talking they actually doing more than they're actually saying and we can talk about why that's the case. But you know, this the idea of sustainability is compelling. You know, who wouldn't want to do the right thing for people on the planet while also aligning with profits and productivity? But it's not so simple and I know you know, this honor you've been in this field for a long time, but this is a these are very challenging things to do. Because there are simple things that companies do and you know, you can change out your light bulbs and tune your H fac and things like that. Sort of no brainers because they pencil out financially pretty quickly. But the harder things the higher hanging fruit if you will, is inordinately difficult to pick and so companies are struggling with that and because both change can be difficult Even when it's driven from the top, and the, as I said, the priorities don't always line up with what's going on. I mean, think about what's happening right now in the world, you know, particularly supply chains and caring about employees, customers and suppliers in Eastern Europe and you know, still dealing with the pandemic and everything else. Unfortunately, this gets shunted to the side.
I have a couple questions from that one. You mentioned about the perception of greenwashing. And then a lot of times the public doesn't think that companies are really doing anything, and they just assume anything they say, isn't true. How did that public perception happen? And why is it happening? Because I certainly see that as well.
Well, I think early on, it was it was the activist community, the green pieces and others that that saw companies taking, you know, saying they were taking action and realizing that what they were doing either they either weren't doing what they were saying they were doing, or they were just making sort of generally gauzie kinds of commitments and statements, but nothing, not so much to back it up. Or they were dealing with some superficial things, you know, it's changing out light bulbs, but not the real problems that were there, their biggest impacts are more recently, it's, you know, became political. And I think that's factored in, in terms of company's willingness to do these things. But that's changing a lot now, because now a lot of this has been driven by Wall Street, at least for big publicly traded companies and large companies that are owned by private equity firms.
There's real metrics that you that people are measuring. So you have to show that what you're doing, right?
Yeah, the metrics, and those are difficult, because they're not always consistent. Companies are being held accountable and being asked to provide more disclosure and transparency about their performance and their impacts. But still, even still, it gets harder to change in companies. You know, as I said, a minute ago, it's, this doesn't always rise to the top. And so companies know, they need to be able to talk the talk. And some of them, you know, genuinely want to do the right thing. But they haven't, they may not even know what the right thing is, they may think that, okay, we buy, we're buying green energy from our local utility, we've cut our waste significantly at our factory or headquarters, you know, we donate a nickel per widget sold to Ducks Unlimited, every third week in April, or whatever the you know, we're the good guys. And ignoring the fact that probably 80, or 90% of their impacts are in their supply chain, which you know, presents any number of challenges. And so, you know, there's still a lot of, despite decades of this, and so many of us, beating the drum and trying to educate the business community, there's still a lot of myths and misunderstanding about what you even need to be doing. And again, that's changing a lot, there's a whole new generation of employees coming in who are who do get it. So it's all really exciting, but it's just not changing at this scale, scope and speed we need. And we we saw recently, the latest IPCC report, and we, you know, get a little numb to those because they come out in there, I'll have these dire warnings and Code Red for the planet and all of this, but, you know, they become increasingly dire and, and still, we all sort of become numb to this. And it's sort of paralyzing for a lot of companies about what they really need to be doing, and how much of a difference they can make. One of the
Things that I have seen in my career, and this is definitely improving as well, but certainly early on, people would hire a sustainability officer. And that person would be mid-level in the organization, you know, not report to the CEO would be kind of mid level. And they're like, Okay, check. You know, we hired our sustainability officer, now we're doing sustainability stuff, and it just didn't work very well, you know, and that person wasn't empowered and it didn't go through the whole organization. How are you seeing that, that change? Are those people getting more power and more influence? Is sustainability starting to really be a part of what everyone does? What's happening with that now?
Yeah, you're right. I mean, for a long time, it was, you know, the sustainability person was seen as a, you know, off to the side that the tree hugger, the person who's gonna come up and, you know, come along and make things differently. It was like, oh, here comes Vonnie look busy, you know, and so that's changing a lot because there's still somebody in more and more people who have that sustainability title, sort of the quarterback, if you will, inside a company, but now it's being pushed out to facilities and operations and supply chain and finance and marketing and communications and government relations, Investor Relations and CFO and many other parts of the operation. And so it's less seen as a distraction or something off to the side again, because you know, employees get this employees realize you can't just sort of talk the talk and have a little window dressing here. You really need to be doing things and they want their employees employers to be doing these things and to be part of the solution and they're proud of Have them when they are. And again, that doesn't happen just by creating, you know, the, you know, as I said, the glossy reported to a nephew superficial kinds of things.
I've heard you talk about the return on investment for climate and the risk of inaction. Can you define this and explain why it's important?
Sure, I think you're referring to a piece I wrote earlier this year called the new ROI for climate, the risk of inaction. And you know, for a long time, how can we risk the economy or risk our business by investing in these kinds of changes that we're being asked to do to reduce our carbon or environmental footprint? And increasingly, we're seeing that it's actually we're flipping the script on that, that what's the risk of not doing these things? So we learned during the pandemic, that you know, this whole idea of flattening the curve, that the earlier you take action, the better your odds of mitigating the risks and minimizing the damage, but then we're starting to see, you know, these risks that can be found at pretty much every level company, community, national, global and catastrophic damage from extreme weather, the disruption of supply chains, the displacement of workforces, the increased burdens on the already reeling healthcare establishment a, you know, and you can measure these in monetary terms as well as just in lives and livelihoods. And so we're starting to see, you know, what is how does this filter down at the company level, what's the risk of inaction? How much more is it's going to cost later, to harden the targets, if you will, to make sure that we are less susceptible to extreme weather, for example, or the disruptions caused by extreme weather, because that's going to be increasing. So a lot of these things are is, as we learned, during the pandemic, that our supply chains are pretty fragile and brittle. And, and so you know, taking earlier action and making sure you're ready for what's coming, and it is coming. There's no no dispute about that is really what companies need to be doing. You know, we, every year in January, around the time of Davos, the World Economic Forum, big event, the World Economic Forum, and Marshall McLennan put out an annual Global Risks report where they, the 17th edition came out in January this year, they asked more than 1000 global experts to rank 37 global risks as their as to their potential to cause significant negative impact over the next decade. And the top ones were all climate related and biodiversity loss, extreme weather. And so these things are coming. And so what is the risk of waiting too long?
Yeah, I think this idea of flipping this, the script is really applicable to the produce industry and to agriculture, because we're not only trying to mitigate climate change, but we're also hugely at the effect of climate change. And so I'm already seeing places where it's too hot to grow the way that they were growing, or it's too cold, or the temperature swings are too up and down, or it's too wet, it's too dry, you know, so there really is a lot of changes that that we have to make, to be able to continue to grow the way that we grow, you know, people are looking at growing indoors as a way to mitigate that, you know, there's a big issue with water, we're not, you know, especially here in California, you know, we're not going to have the water that we need. So have you looked at that and thought about like with food? How do we work with this where we know climate change is coming?
Yeah. I mean, you're right about flipping the script for a long time. Certainly, when it came to climate change, or even things like biodiversity, the question was just, you know, what's the impact of business on the climate? And that's still a question. But increasingly, the question is, what's the impact of changing climate on business, you know, to my earlier point around supply chains around being able to grow things? And so yeah, I mean, this whole push towards regenerative agriculture and, you know, how do you raise beef in a way that aligns with with being able to improve this soil health? And how can that then affect other crops, including, you know, fresh fruit and other produce and flowers and all of those things, you know, you're starting to understand that there that we have to sort of look at new ways of it's not just a matter of conducting business the same way, you know, with climate in mind, in some ways, business is going to have to change the way they do things. And agriculture, farmers, at least, traditionally have been stewards of the land. But you know, over the past 50 or 70 years, you know, really, the inputs have really started to take a toll and we're one of our biggest national security threats or global security threats really is soil health, and we're just not taking care of that. As I say, We're biting the land that feeds us. And there are agricultural techniques that are well known and established but sort of had been set aside for years around how do you farm in a way that improves enhances the soil and by the way, also sequestered carbon and may create some new revenue streams as there's a price on carbon. So those are still you know, back to my main word here change those things, those changes are hard, but they're starting to see movement, there were much more mainstream operations or end users, the McDonald's of the worlds or the Cargill is not the end users. But the main buyers of these crops and commodities are basically asking if not demanding these kinds of changes, because they understand that the continuity of their own business is dependent upon being able to ensure that that we have, you know, healthy soil and abundant crops, despite the new changes that are happening in the climate.
Driscoll is the global market leader of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. With more than 100 years of farming heritage. Driscoll is a pioneer of berry flavor, innovation, and the trusted consumer brand of only the finest berries. Yeah, I mean, I may be a little close to it. So I'd love to hear your perspective of in the industry, we're kind of scrambling and figuring out what you know, everybody wants for gender tobacco, and everybody's talking about like, what does that mean? And how do we supply it? And how do we make money doing it? How do we not lose money doing it? And so I'd love to hear some of your thoughts from I mean, you have a broader worldview on how people are talking about regenerative ag and what the expectations are, can you give us a little window into that?
Well, first of all, I'm not sure we have clear definitions of what regenerative ag even means. And so it's, it is sort of this, you know, this vague term that sounds good and probably is good. But what does that mean? And how regenerative is regenerative? I know, that's a funny sentence. But those are the kinds of questions that it ultimately gets down to. And then there's also an assumption that you have to flip a switch and stop doing this and start doing that. And and that's, you know, may may be ideal, maybe actually, what's needed is, you know, make change at the level that we need to be making change. But it's not pragmatic from a real world view of companies and supply chains, and all of that. So I think what we're really encouraging progress, or is even just with companies that are starting to do some pilot projects, and not just how do you work with landowners and smallholders and others in terms of changing their operations? But how do you measure that? How do you measure soil carbon? And how do you measure carbon? You know, soil health, and then looking obviously, at the, at the, at the quantity and quality of the crops? Is those better or worse, the same? And so this is a slow, unfortunately, to slow, but transition. But again, I think the the idea that we need to make big changes quickly, can be paralyzing to a lot of companies. And so it's, you know, it's easier to just do what you always do, because first of all, you have to be in business. And second of all, it ain't broke, at least right now. And so making those kinds of changes, it doesn't have to be in a big way. But I think you know, my two word advice here, just start somewhere. Vonnie Ests, IFPA Yeah, no, I think that's definitely true. Because people I do see a lot of people get paralyzed, just saying, I can't do all that, you know, I can't do all that. And so, you know, a lot of times, it's just like, pick two things, you know, to do differently, and to think about soil health, and how you might do something differently. Because as you said, you know, the luck, a lot of the technology that's been developed over the last century, it has was good, we were able to feed more people and create more calories. And but now, you know, we've kind of done a lot of damage along the way. And so what do we need to do to kind of use technology and use information to wind that back and start regenerating the soil? It's, it's a huge issue. And I think as we're talking about greenwashing earlier, there's a lot of grower groups that feel like oh, now you're going to put something else on me that I have to lose money on. So that's a lot of the conversation is, you know, the risk ends up being taken by the grower, which is not where the risk should live, because he or she is not getting the advantage of changing these practices, you know, so there needs to be some sort of way where they don't have to take all the risk and spend all the money to do practices that really are best for the planet, to produce food for people. So it's a it's an interesting process. And I think, you know, it isn't a flip of the switch. And that's what a lot of people would like to see is just that the switches were all regenerative now, but I think it's a slow process and just increasingly using technology and not using technology, you know, to grow more sustainably and in a regenerative way.
And you brought up I think, an interesting point that where this stuff happens much more quickly is when it is a partnership when it is a collaboration between maybe multiple players, sometimes different parts of the value chain. Sometimes it's multiple companies that are that basically share the same suppliers or the same country suppliers, you know, how do we work with a specific country to help their farmers for this crop improve their the sustainability profile and so those these things don't just happen? because you ask your supplier to make a change, and then they say, Well, I don't know, you know, or sorry, no, you're just not in. And there's nothing you can do about it. Because you're not that big of a buyer. You know, it does require partnerships. Sometimes it requires third parties who bring folks together, whether those are public agencies, or sometimes environmental groups on the ground NGOs, or trade associations. And that's really how this stuff works. It just doesn't work by issuing new orders.
So what role do you think policy and regulation plays? Can it play a positive role? Or is it always just make more trouble? Or how do you see that?
No, AI policy is important. I mean, we need to set the floor, we need to provide incentives we need. And those are things that that that government can do? Well, sometimes we need subsidies, discounted loans, or loan guarantees, or any number of other things, which the agricultural community is very familiar with it, they just maybe for the wrong kinds of things, or at least the kinds of things that, frankly, may be causing some of these problems rather than addressing them. And so you know, government can absolutely play a role here. What's also fascinating is how much change has taken place in at least in the United States, in the absence of policy leadership, where, you know, we certainly over the past, you know, let's say five years, there hasn't been the kind of leadership or whether even if when there has been the right kind of leadership, there may be other forces on the lobbying front, and, you know, legislative fronts. Again, this could be at the national or the state and local levels that thwarts the kinds of changes that need to be made. But what's fascinating, as I said, is how much is happening. Because this is ultimately about business risk, regulatory risk, financial risk, reputational risk, technology risk, right to operate risk, if you're the largest water user in a water stressed area, you may not be able to do business, or if your supplier is, you know, they may not be able to operate. And so you know, these are increasing risks. And so companies need to be doing these things for risk mitigation purposes. And government can help and could accelerate a lot of these things and could stimulate even more change. But as I said, it's really impressive how much is taking place?
Was involved in the ethanol and second generation ethanol industry for a while. And you look at that industry and how that was a lot of that was driven by legislation. And it was this really, you know, he talked about how it all ended up. But at the time, you know, a lot of money got put in, and a lot of people started paying attention to ethanol, and there was a lot of legislation, and it really got people going in. And we may be getting close to that around carbon, you know, where people are thinking, you know, from a risk mitigation, and from a legislation point of view is that it might help to put some things in place to to get people start developing more technologies and support technologies to be developed to really understand what's going on in the soil, measuring carbon and being able to do something to sequester it. So I think, you know, we may, I'm hoping, you know, we may be headed toward some sort of Nexus like that, where regulation can actually help.
Well, I hope it doesn't happen the way that ethanol happened, because that to me, was just was too prescriptive and incentivize things. And again, I believe that a lot of that was the result of lobbying by certain interests. I think it's better when government can set some broad goals or some broad, yeah, broad goals around carbon emissions reduction, or maybe soil health or water use, and let the free market figure out how to do that and create the incentives, both the carrots and the sticks for doing the right thing and, you know, penalize those who are the cheaters, and the laggards and who aren't doing it. But I think that the ethanol thing, you know, said, All right, we're all going to march down this direction. And here's billions of dollars to help, you know, pave the way and then turned out to not be the right direction. And I think if that had been a broader goal of how do we reduce petroleum use overall, which I think was what the ethanol thing was getting to and carbon emissions, then there are other ways to do that. And then all of a sudden, there, maybe it's a price on carbon. I'm not an advocate for any particular remedy there. Because there's lots of men, I'm not a policy geek. But I think that there are a lot of ways you can incentivize the market and provide the financial stimulus. And again, the regulatory penalties for not hitting in those directions. That's what we need to see and let let technology let competition and let all of that soar.
We've talked a little bit about supply chain and one of the things that I'm certainly seeing is when large companies like Walmart or McDonald's or cardio like you've mentioned before, when they have the market power to say look, this is What we want from our suppliers and this is what our expectations are. And that that changes everything. It sounds like they have an awful lot of power. But it also that's a ways without regulation. And that's a way to make big changes where they make demands, they need to meet their goals, and for them to meet their goals, they need to reach down their supply chain and have the supply chain help them meet those goals. Have you seen some case studies around that of how the larger companies have kind of forced change down the supply chain?
Well, you name two of them. And I think, you know, McDonald's and Walmart. It cuts both ways. I mean, I think, you know, a lot of suppliers to Walmart, and even those that are, you know, so deeply engaged with sustainability efforts don't really like the heavy hand that Walmart can have. And Walmart can force you know, the suppliers to absorb all of the costs of change and still deliver the product at the same price or less. And, look, Walmart is a hugely positive force in sustainability. And the commitments they've made project gigaton, and in particular, I think you're having a big impact, including in agriculture, you know, some of the sometimes the big companies have big, heavy hammers, and it's one way of doing it, and it may work. And sometimes it does, if you're the 900 pound gorilla, you kind of you can kind of call those shots. But there's lots and lots of other smaller, you know, you know, companies that even they're big, but they're nowhere near the size of a McDonald's or Walmart, who are also working with their suppliers and may not have the market clout to affect the kind of change but you know, there's strength in numbers here, where you start to see multiple brands, you know, really lean into this because they're driven by their customers, whether they're in grocery stores, or that are actual shoppers, demanding these kinds of things, or whether they're, you know, being revealed under the klieg lights of disclosure by activist groups or government agencies that that, you know, or investors that are ranking and rating these companies for there's unsustainability issues, you know, there's lots of different ways to affect change. But yeah, I mean, look, supply chains is, first of all, were overwhelmingly for, you know, most sectors where anywhere from 80 to 95%, of environmental, and particularly climate impacts lie. And so that is how change happens, you know, you ask your supplier who asked their supplier, and it can go down, you know, sometimes three or five or more different levels, with all the the middleman and aggregators and everything else it takes place that ultimately is how it has to happen. And again, as sort of as I was talking about on the government side, are these characteristics. And there are good examples of both.
So wrapping up, I have one last question for you, if companies in food and produce are interested in being better in creating a more equitable future for themselves through sustainable practices, what are the three actionable steps in doing so?
Wow, I'm going to give you a higher level answer maybe than the one you want. But I think the first thing is to what's your impact? Do you really understand your impacts and not just yours, but the impacts as they go down through your supply chain, and even in this is less relevant in the produce sector? But you know, what happens after you sell something? What are the impacts there? And that could go to food waste, and some other issues. But do you understand those things? Because I don't know that most companies do. And now that you do, that's one number two is well, what's the plan? Do you have a plan in place? Is it a bold plan, hopefully, that aligns maybe with science based targets that have been established by independent organizations? There's specific targets and timetables that you're going to be doing things? And is their disclosure, interim disclosure, saying, Okay, I have a 2040 or 2050, or even 2030 goal. But what am I doing next year or the year after that? How do I track my progress? And then number three is, how are you talking about this stuff, both internally and externally, upstream and downstream to your various communities? And is that aligned with what you're actually doing? Obviously, companies get in trouble when they get too far ahead of their skis on these things. That's where the word greenwashing often comes in. But it's also about aligning actual company policies and strategies and commitments with the, with their memberships in organizations and trade associations, perhaps, but also their lobbying activities, because there's a lot of cases of some of the most proactive companies, the leaders, if you will, in sustainability, that are either members of groups that are lobbying against all of everything that I think you and I want to see happen or are things that we know just need to happen or where and that's that used to be sort of in the back behind the scenes. Now it's becoming much more visible and it used to be safe for companies to keep, you know, keep quiet on some of these issues because they were controversial. And now you know, Being on the sidelines is becoming a less and less safe space. So companies are being asked to, you know, take a position on some of these things. Are you for price on carbon or against it? You know what it is don't just sit quietly and hope that it sorts itself out. So what do you know? What are you doing? And what are you saying are the three things that I go? I mean, I can, you know, we get deeper into some specific things that, you know, companies must be doing, but it really all stems from those three things.
Well, I think that's the end of our time for our listeners out there who would love to get in touch with you? What is the best way for them to contact you?
Well, first of all, I encourage them to check out greenbiz.com It's FREE Daily News, seven different newsletters, including one called Food weekly looking at food sustainability issues. That's fresh every Wednesday and in general, you know, on LinkedIn, I'm there on LinkedIn, it's just Macau hour. We'd love to be in touch and I look forward to hearing from people
As always love talking to you, and thanks for the work that you do and your thoughts on this. The International fresh produce association is bringing new technology to solve industries big challenges through the new fresh field catalyst accelerator. The six-month immersive program works with technology companies outside of produce and floral to experience the challenges in our industry, and develop innovative solutions for a healthier world. Applications are due April 4. Find out more at fresh produce.com You've been listening to fresh takes on tech a podcast from the International fresh produce Association. Keep connected with us by subscribing to the show and your favorite podcast player. If you like what you've heard, please rate the show that helps us keep delivering the latest on produce technology. Thank you for listening. Until next time.


text:
Q: Form sometimes won't hide despite being in finally block In my winform application I have a form for displaying the 'Please wait...' message along with a progress bar or some text. For performance reasons the Form is a singleton which is opened using BringToFront(), Show() and Refresh() and it is closed with Hide().
I'm using try...finally pattern to display this form and hide it.
try
{
WaitForm.Display();
// Some code
}
finally
{
WaitForm.Hide();
}

In some rare cases, the users reported that the form didn't close. Can you think of any reason why the form wouldn't close? The user interface is responsive when this happens.

A: Typically, in windows application, for any UI refresh, its main message loop needs to be run. So in your case, if there is any tight loop/processing happening after this code block then form may not get hidden immediately.
Perhaps, you can yield the UI thread after the code-block so that UI can get refreshed. For example,
try
{
  WaitForm.Display();
  // Some code
}
finally
{
  WaitForm.Hide();
  Application.DoEvents();
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Music is an important aspect of any child's education. At Marlborough College Malaysia we believe that through providing a rich and varied co-curricular programme of musical ensembles and events, we are able to inspire our pupils to be creative through performing and creating music. The co-curricular music programme is one that is fully inclusive of all ages and abilities. There is a host of ensembles running throughout the Prep School and Senior School, some of which are led by our specialist music beaks, and others which are formed by the pupils themselves giving them the freedom to explore their own creativity.
Instrumental music tuition runs with the academic curriculum, with in excess of 280 lessons taking place each week. Our dedicated music professionals help to nurture the talents of our pupils, encouraging a disciplined, yet enjoyable approach to instrumental learning.
With such a busy department, we are able to provide a great number of events throughout the College year. There is a regular programme of weekly lunchtime concerts, and performances in assemblies, as well as the termly Prep School recital. Larger scale performances happen within the Senior School several times a year, and there is a healthy amount of competitive music-making throughout both areas of the school. Musicals and nativity plays add a focus to the Prep School co-curricular programme on a yearly basis, with the Senior School musical taking place every two years. Music is of course a fundamental part of the College Outreach programme in both schools, more of which can be seen on the Outreach pages.


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Audio CD Bellini: LA SONNAMBULA: Anderson- R. Gimenez- Scandiuzzi; Ventura. 1989 Rome. Picture: close-ups are good, far-away shots are hard to see. Sound: good. Multicamera perspective, no subtitles.
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Yes, folks! That's right. I'm now doing a weekly snippet with Paranormal Loves Wednesdays.
The stranger's presence shook Olivia to her very core. Her treacherous body began trembling and she moaned when a flood of delicious desire shot through her coupled with shock when she realized that this man was truly flesh and blood real. Suddenly, the world was fading around her and she saw something scandalous hovering in the depth of his fiery gaze. He had come for her.
He didn't answer, but moved closer still, until his body was so near, Olivia could feel the steam rise from his skin. The urge to touch him overwhelmed her and for a moment she raised her hand and let it linger just inches from his chest. "I want you," he said simply.


I'm glad to see this thread! I started learning piano about 7 months ago as an adult beginner and just finished my ABRSM grade 2 theory exams last September and waiting for the results! I was originally planning on taking up grade 2 exams next February / March 2016 however my teacher has moved me up a grade and now I am planning to take grade 4 theory next April 2016 followed by ABRSM grade 3 practical next July / August 2016. I just started practicing grade 3 scales from this week! I have quite a bit of time to go, but will be following this thread for motivation!
Thank you very much, 8 Octaves.
I am doing ABRSM and have all the Grade 1 books, I practice the site reading from the book and clap the rhythm sometimes. But it is when I come to listen when my music tutor plays a piece that I can get the pulse wrong. Weird I know.
I haven't heard of 'Time Travel' it sounds very good.
I was also wondering about if I don't get all the dynamics exactly right in my exam, will I lose points?
I'm in RCM Level 1 now, and I do well on pretty much everything except being able to tell if a melody is in 3/4 or 4/4 time. Sometimes they play 2 measures, sometimes 3, and in that short time I can't get a sense of the pulse. If you buy Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests for Level 1, you can use the code in the back of the book to go to RCM website and use their free Aural tools. It's starting to help.
My mom died two weeks ago and although I've played the piano in the mornings as a way of coping with the process and the loss, I haven't attended to preparing for my RCM level 6. Time to start anew.
Question for you. On the broken chords (I chord), should those be played as a triplet at 80 or as 1/8 notes? If it is triplets I'm worried that I can't move at that speed.
WiseBuff, so sorry to hear of your loss. I hope you're able to find solace in your piano, and heal over time, perhaps even dedicate the RCM 6 achievement to her.
Yes, you should play the broken chord and its inversions as triplets at 80, legato without break/rest to the end where you play the perfect cadence (V-I).
Thank you 8 Octaves. I appreciate the info.
My condolences for the passing of your mom. May she rest in peace.
With regards to arpeggios (I assume that's what you're having issues), Edna Golansky has a really good video for it.
1. Your hand shape maintains (fingers never stretched of curved). Look at Edna's hand. They almost always look in one shape! It's the forearm that gets your where you want to go. Not your fingers.
2. Your wrist never drop too low. If it does, the shape of your hand would "break".
3. a lot of the movements come from the forearm, especially when you practice slow. All the techniques (rotation, in and out, shaping comes from the forearm). Only when you start to speed it up that you make your fingers come more alive.
4. I find it very helpful that when you start to practise these techniques, forget about joining the thumb. Once you get the hang of your forearm doing all the things correctly and you can play arpeggios relatively fast, then start to gradually join the notes with the thumb. As you join more of the thumb, check that all your other techniques are in place.
When you practise without joining the thumb in the beginning, it will look like this (not at this speed of course), and it's ok! It frees your hand to do and feel all the other techniques correctly. See video of Valentina's thumb, hardly bent inward to try to join the notes.
Once you get it right, playing arpeggios fast feels incredible! Your arm, hand and fingers feel such unity and flow it's effortless (not relaxed but not tensed).
All the best with your exam preparation!
I have not reported in a while, so I thought I would bring things up to date. There have been some changes in my life that have thrown the ABRSM grade 6 out the window for me. I decided in August to make some major changes in my life, and my piano goals will have to wait. I am relocating to another Kanton (region) of Switzerland, and have been spending a couple of days each week in southern Switzerland, evaluating potential house choices and making sure I want to live there. I have given notice on our apartment, and will move to the Italian region of Switzerland in the next couple of months. My first focus once I am there will be learning yet another language! So piano will be there when I get back to it. In the meantime I am playing when I can and just enjoying my time at the piano without pressure. At this point it really is about enjoying the journey!
Good luck with your life changes!
SwissMS, what an adventure! It will be great to have piano as a "celebration" activity, there to sit down and play at the end of another day of new things/places/activities conquered. Have wonderful time!
Big news SwissMs! I wish you the very best with your move, and I think you are 100% right to put the exam on hold until circumstances are right. Much better to have piano as a relaxing and fulfilling refuge for the moment.
SwissMS good luck to your move. It will definitely be a new adventure. Sounds exciting!
Best of luck to you SwissMS. Send us pictures when you have them and you will be in my mind.
That's all right. My German teacher was Italian.
Thanks for the good wishes everyone. Once I get settled, I will post pictures. The house we are looking at has a nice study that just screams "make me a piano studio!".
Last edited by SwissMS; 11/06/15 11:58 AM.
Well, my ABRSM grade 5 exam is approaching after Thanksgiving holidays. The exam will be on December 4th. I had three mock exam with my teacher. She thinks I am well prepared. I should pass with no issue. As far as whether I can get merit or distinction, that is another story. Originally, I plan on trying grade 6 in the summer of 2016 since I am more like at grade 6 level now. But, my work will be somewhat busy after December so I will have less time practing. Thus, I plan on taking my grade 6 on December 2016, after that I plan on taking a year break from exam but continue practice and skip grade 7 and take grade 8 in 2018. Wish me luck!
I hear a lot of people skip grade seven. Do a lot of people do that. What's the reason?
Good luck on your exams. I am jealous that you learn so quickly and could blast through one grade level a year. It seems it takes me at least two years to finish learning the materials for one grade level.
Two years is standard for me too. Wish I had more talent but I'll accept that I have a love and passion for improving my piano ability. Perseverance is a good trait too. I do wish I'd have done more of the technical exercises when I started playing many years ago. I'm finding it challenging to move the four note chords at the requisite speed. I am better than I was a month ago so I'll be ready when I'm ready...maybe end of next year for level 6.
One year ago my teacher asked me if I was interested in taking exams (ABRSM); I said no, I play for my own enjoyment and I don't need the stressful process of preparing for exams.
One year later, I'm kind of reconsidering my position: an exam path give a structured approach not only to technique and repertoire, but also to other aspect of musicianship, like sight reading and ear training. One year ago my sight reading was awful, and my aural capacity close to non-existent.
So I reconsidered my teacher's proposal and I'm thinking of taking exams. Not immediately, because I need to work on my weaknesses for a while. ABRSM 5 could be my target: I have no problem with the technical stuff and the pieces are within my grasp, BUT I need a lot of time before I'm ready for the other parts of the exam.
My ear-training ability are still zero, and I'm not able to sing a single note, but I have not started yet to work on it; practice time is scarce, and I don't want stopping learning pieces because I'm doing both sight reading and ear training, so i choose to work in series and not in parallel.
In the meantime, I just started preparing ABRSM Theory 5, as a good foundation in theory and a also a mean to approach exams in a less stressful way.
The date in in March, and I have time till the begin of January to enroll... Not really much time to decide, but at the moment I'm confident I can do it.
For sight singing, since they are going to play the chord first and give you the tonic note. Just think of each tonic note as Do. Then look at the other note whether it is Mi or Re or Fa. This way, it will be much easier to sing out with less mistake of the pitch. At least this is how I am approaching it.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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by Sherry F. Colb
In my Verdict column this week, I discuss the case of Collins v. Virginia. In it, the Supreme Court recently held that if police want to search a vehicle located within the curtilage of a home, the Fourth Amendment requires them to get a search warrant. This answered an open question about the scope of the "automobile exception" to the warrant requirement, which generally allows police to search a car based on probable cause alone. What made this case different was the fact that a police officer had had to walk across a driveway to reach the vehicle and that walk included an area that he would not have had to cross to get to the front door.
In this post, I want to focus on a different sort of property that police sometimes disturb in the course of carrying out searches and seizures in and around a person's home. That property is canis lupus familiaris, or the dog.
Many police officers actually have deep and profound relationships with dogs, because dogs can help detect drugs and other substances in the field. They are also prepared to protect their handlers with their lives. Although African Americans and members of other groups that have endured and continue to endure persecution by police can be frightened of dogs, the reason for dogs' aggression towards innocent people virtually always stems from training and orders by police themselves. I remember hearing about a dog, a Saint Bernard, who lived in a Nazi death camp and was ordered to bite the Jewish inmates there. He did as he was ordered to do, but when the Nazi "master" left the area, the dog would snuggle up with the Jews, let them pat him, and kiss them. The problem is rarely the dog.
Not all police, however, have any kind of a relationship with a dog. To many police, dogs are unfamiliar creatures who could hurt them. Furthermore, lacking an understanding of dog behavior, police will sometimes mistake barking for threatening aggression. Why does any of this matter? Police do not run an animal shelter, so why should they have to cultivate a passing familiarity with dog behavior? The answer is that the people whose homes the police enter, to search or to arrest a suspect, often house not only humans but dogs as well.
When police enter a home for the purpose of executing a search warrant or arresting somebody, they may encounter one or more dogs. Close to ninety million dogs lived in American households as of 2017. Having no idea how to distinguish between an actual threat and ordinary, mundane dog behavior will regularly lead police to take out a gun and shoot the dog. The documentary Of Dogs and Men provides a disturbing account of the many such shootings.
From high-profile cases in the last few years, we know that police also shoot people, disproportionately black people. If someone cares more about people than about dogs, doesn't it make sense for them to ignore what the police are doing to canines? No, it does not. The willingness of some police officers to use deadly force when there is no need for it endangers both people and dogs. The problem is a combination of ignorance, prejudice, and indifference, a problem that harms everyone who fails to do exactly what police want or expect them to do when police are attempting to carry out their duties.
Police must sometimes question, stop, arrest, and search suspects who have a mental illness. When this happens, one would hope and expect that police would be in a position to use their training to deal with the situation. One would be disappointed, however, because many police officers seem to have no idea how to handle a person with mental illness other than by trying to kill him or her. Police also sometimes encounter someone who speaks no English. One would hope and expect police to rely on training in how to communicate with someone who does not speak English. But again, one would be disappointed, as at least some police just act as though everyone speaks English and therefore, someone who does not follow orders must be dangerous.
Looked at through this lens, police officers' decisions to slaughter dogs who posed no harm to them becomes comprehensible. A woman is trying to get her dog, who has escaped from the house, to come back in. An officer approaches the dog while the woman assures him that the dog is harmless. The officer then aims his gun and shoots the dog dead. Officers are in a house executing a search warrant, while several dogs just hang around. When the officers decide to search the basement, they shoot and kill the dogs in the basement. And the list goes on and on, just as the list of human fatalities does. What they all share, again, is ignorance--a complete lack of understanding regarding a situation that recurs--and indifference--a lack of any empathy for the human or animal to be killed and for the other humans and animals who will grieve the loss for the rest of their lives.
The reason you need both ignorance and indifference to explain it is that police sometimes shoot humans and dogs in circumstances when it should be quite obvious to anyone that he confronts no danger. Yet the officer, perhaps figuring that he can just lie about what happened, proceeds to deploy lethal violence because he simply does not care. Taking lives and ruining other lives does not feel like a big deal to him. Frighteningly, this sort of indifference characterizes psychopaths, another group of people who victimize animals and humans both. It's a mistake to think that compassion and empathy are a zero sum game.
What does this have to do with the Fourth Amendment? The Supreme Court has held that killing someone constitutes a seizure for constitutional purposes, and destroying someone's property qualifies as a seizure as well. Under the law, a living being who is a dog is property. Therefore, when police kill a civilian's dog, they are engaging in a seizure.
Some seizures are legal, and some are not. Only when a seizure is "unreasonable" does it violate the Fourth Amendment. So the question becomes this: When police officers shoot a family's dogs to death despite the dogs' posing no threat to the officers, do the killings qualify as "unreasonable seizures"? In one case that posed this question, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a jury could find that the shootings were reasonable.
The problem might be that judges (and juries) are as ignorant about dogs as many police officers are. In a state of ignorance, they might believe that whether a dog is a threat is just a mystery. If they bark, then they are threatening; if they walk over to you, then they are threatening. Since it is allegedly so hard to tell, it follows that police are acting properly when they err on the side of safety. The question of whether police have killed a dog unnecessarily morphs into the question of whether police may simply assume that a dog is dangerous because she makes them nervous. How, after all, are they really supposed to know that a set of dog behaviors are nonthreatening?
In truth, there are psychopaths among the police. One officer, for example, found an escaped dog, brought the dog to a shooting range, and then shot the dog to death there. It is going to be difficult to stop psychopaths from killing dogs, because they affirmatively enjoy inflicting suffering and ruining lives.
Most police officers, however, are teachable. They could receive mandatory training in all of the sorts of situations that they might routinely encounter in carrying out a search or seizure. To learn about dogs, perhaps they could spend time in an animal shelter.
By the end of 2018, the average American will reportedly have consumed 222 pounds of flesh from land animals. In consuming the flesh and secretions of animals, Americans rarely think about the fact that they are paying people to inflict pain and slaughter on living beings. But dogs enjoy a somewhat different status.
Dogs are quite similar to the animals who scream and die in slaughterhouses and fishing nets, but people think of them as family members. Perhaps that will motivate people to pass laws holding police accountable for unnecessarily gunning down an innocent canine who was a "good girl," a precious being, and was loved by her family. And maybe, at the same time, police will learn threat assessment in humans as well, so that no one has to lose a family member because a person sworn to "serve and protect" felt uncomfortable and frightened in the absence of any reason to feel that way.
Posted by Sherry F. Colb at 7:00 AM
There have been various discussions on the status of animals, in particular companion animals, in the context of Fourth Amendment law. One law article said seven federal court of appeals held them as protected while there is a limited recognition they are particularly special given current social understandings.
Note that the 4A doesn't literally protect all "property," but it is applied broadly. Moving past them as "effects," I might argue that they are in effect family and fit in a wide view of the special place set for the home. Consider, e.g., Justice Harlan (II) broadly arguing in Poe v. Ullman that family life is protected.
Past discussions on this blog also dealt with the issue, including one piece by the author on a case involving taking blood from a dog. There also might be a Fifth Amendment argument involving takings or due process. Anyway, simply treating Simon (to state the name of a family pet) as mere property does seem problematic.
https://verdict.justia.com/2016/08/17/taking-blood-dog-search-dogs-owner


text:
Match Preview: Crystal Palace vs Cardiff City
By Matt Woosnam - Friday 6th December, 2013
With results gradually improving for Palace, Matt Woosnam previews another big game, against fellow promoted side Cardiff City
Championship champions: Palace face a stern test. Photo by Simon Williams, used under Creative Commons. http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonw92/8685914145/
It's the hope that kills you.
Palace produced a sterling defensive performance on Tuesday night after Marouane Chamakh headed them in front against West Ham, to earn a desperately needed victory. In truth, it was a poor match but the commitment and dedication shown by the players in the second half was tremendous and resulted in a victory which lifted the Eagles off the bottom of the Premier League once again. With two clean sheets from three matches, Palace have begun to find their rigidity that was so lacking under Ian Holloway.
Now to Saturday's game against Cardiff City and the battle of the birds. The Eagles face the Bluebirds, or is it the Red Dragons? Regardless of Cardiff's identity crisis, on the pitch they are a difficult team to beat, taking a point from Manchester United at the Cardiff City Stadium last month, and all three points from United's fierce rivals Manchester City back in August. However, the Bluebirds have stumbled recently with only one victory since September. Nonetheless, with the multi-million pound talents of Gary Medel and Steven Caulker, alongside stalwart Craig Bellamy, Cardiff will be no easy proposition.
The last time the two sides met was almost a year ago in South Wales, as on Boxing Day 2012 Palace fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat despite dominating the first half of the match, but goals from the two Craigs – Bellamy and Noone – condemned the Eagles to a defeat against the league leaders. Earlier in the season, under the management of Dougie Freedman, Palace performed an outstanding comeback to win 3-2 having suffered a sucker punch of two early goals.
You just never know what to expect from Palace
Tony Pulis is unlikely to make any changes from the side which beat West Ham on Tuesday, with Marouane Chamakh and Cameron Jerome almost certainly continuing their partnership up front. There are no new injury concerns for Palace, and they will be looking to Barry Bannan to produce another man of the match performance as they entertain Cardiff. Danny Gabbidon and Damien Delaney will have to be on the top of their game to deal with Cardiff's attacking threat, with Frazier Campbell in particular one to watch out for.
Declan John looks set to continue at right-back for Cardiff, whilst Kevin Théophile-Catherine has impressed on the other side of defence since joining in the summer. Ben Turner and Steven Caulker have been Malky Mackay's preferred pairing in the centre of defence, with club captain Mark Hudson relegated to the bench for much of Cardiff's maiden Premier League campaign.
Cardiff have a plethora of attacking options, with £8m striker Andreas Cornelius finally able to show what he is capable of following injury, whilst Palace summer transfer target Peter Odemwingie has put in a number of excellent cameos . Peter Whittingham has been a tremendous player for Cardiff over the years, and his set piece deliveries will no doubt be cause for concern for Tony Pulis as Palace have been poor at defending from dead ball situations this season.
You just never know what to expect from Palace, they'll give you the most tremendous highs, only to bring you straight back down again with a crushing blow and a poor performance to boot. This time, maybe, just maybe, things might be a bit different and the Eagles can continue their fine form with another victory. Where the goals will come from, I have no idea, but this will be an open game with two teams cautious not to lose but desperate to earn a victory and pull clear of the teams below them.
Crystal Palace 2-1 Cardiff City
Matt Woosnam
Matt Woosnam is a Kingston University student in his final year as a Politics & International Relations undergraduate. A campaigner on mental health he is the founder of @Talk_Out, as well as part of the TalkEasyTrust, and seeks to break down stigma by encouraging talking out. Matt is also an avid Crystal Palace fan and the online editor of Five Year Plan Fanzine, as well as a regular contributor to the Croydon Guardian.
Cardiff City FC Crystal Palace FC Premier League
Roy Hodgson: The former Croydon teacher who led two footballing nations to a World Cup
Croydon College students reach the top with jobs at Crystal Palace FC
Season Review: Crystal Palace's remarkable turnaround
Sentiment aside, Julian Speroni deserves a new contract as Palace's number one goalkeeper
A better place to play: Oasis Academy supporting Crystal Palace FC
April 2018 in brief
What does it mean to be a Crystal Palace fan in 2017?
Crystal Palace's burning problem
Restless Crystal Palace fans must rally around their team
Allardyce needs to motivate his Crystal Palace players


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Q: SharePoint 3 tier Service Application with EF I'm looking for some best practices on how to setup a three tier application design with a SharePoint Service Applications.
A case example: suppose I have customers, each customer has a set of addresses and contacts. Those aren't stored in SharePoint, but there stored in a seperate database which is only accessible via my CustomerService custom service application. I need some basic functionality like CRUD and it will have some detail forms, nothing out of the ordinary.

*

*Should I use EF of Linq? I find EF more appealing, but I think the 4.x versions are out of the question since SharePoint doesn't support Framework 4.

*Suppose I consider my EF/Linq model to be my data layer. The Service Application will be the business layer and the interface will consist of webparts or application pages. If I keep my entities in the EF/Linq class and return those from the BLL, I need to also reference that data layer in my interface layer, which seems tricky. The app is to be multi tenant, so I cannot risk any data getting passed the business layer without being properly filtered first. So I'd rather not incude the data layer at all to prevent trouble.

*I've seen some nice examples in which a t4 script creates POCO objects for an EF layer. I could make those live in a seperate assembly and only reference that assembly in my GUI. That way I wouldn't have to create a second entity object and mappers and stuff, and still be safe about my database data.

*How about related stuff? Suppose I want to show the customers addresses on one screen and the contacts on another. With a more direct reference to the EF layer, I could just use the lazy loading to fetch the related records on binding / loading. When I don't have that; I need seperate methods for literally anything I need to get out of or put into the database. That's a lot of extra work. Any other options I'm missing?
I'm hoping you guys can provide me with some pointers in the right direction on these design issues. Thanks.

A: Have you considered just using the OOTB Business Connectivity Services? If you have enterprise,  you can simply set up connections to these databases and create some very rich applications. If you only have Standard, then you can still do a great deal with connecting to these external sources and creating them like lists in your environment, then you can work with these lists like you would regular SharePoint lists, creating pages and mashups using this data. If the data is in a database that is using SQL, then you have all of the tools OOTB with no need to build application definitions or write any code.


A recent video contest hosted by the VOCES Oral History Project through the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin highlighted several powerful stories from Latinos and Latinas who served in WWII and the Korean and Vietnam Wars with Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium (IE) participant Rosa Pruneda receiving first-place.
Pruneda's work was her project for the IE pre-graduate school internship, designed to connect undergraduates with faculty and seasoned graduate students to explore what makes graduate school unique to that of an undergraduate education in areas such as research. Each year, IE helps approximately 300 students from nearly every academic discipline on campus to find educational and career direction.


text:
Stick It To'em
When syringe inventor Thomas Shaw took on the hospital-supply industry, he won $150 million. So why is his product still shut out?
By Patricia B. Gray
(FORTUNE Small Business) – For Thomas Shaw, the call to action came as he watched the news one night at his home in Little Elm, Texas. A much-beloved local doctor was dying of AIDS; he had been infected by an accidental needle prick while caring for a patient who had the disease. Shaw was horrified, not just by the talking skeleton on television but also by the primitive design of the hypodermic syringe that had sent that doctor--and apparently so many other health-care workers over the years--to an early death. As an engineer and inventor, Shaw knew he could create a safer syringe. For four years he tinkered with designs. A dartboard in his office bristled with the rejects he'd hurled across the room.
He came up with the answer: a syringe with a needle that snapped back into the barrel after the medicine had been dispensed. Hoping to license his invention for a small sum, Shaw in 1991 shipped off a prototype to hospital-supply giant Becton Dickinson. He considered himself more a tinkerer than a businessman. "I was willing to let it go for the price of a bass boat," Shaw recalls. "I thought the design was worth maybe $50,000." A year or so later he got a note back from Becton Dickinson. Thanks, but no thanks, it said, adding that the company was developing its own safety syringes. Short and briskly polite, that note nonetheless sparked a war that drew attention to how a billion-dollar industry can foil an entrepreneur--even one with a superior product.
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From the start, Shaw was convinced that his invention was a safety breakthrough--and that he had a moral obligation to make it available--so he decided to sell it himself. Reluctantly, he formed a company, but he found himself barred from the market at every turn. One after another, hospitals spurned him, saying that they were locked into contracts that required them to buy their supplies from certain giant consortiums. Many doctors and nurses who saw the syringe demonstrated at trade shows pressed hospitals to buy it, but were unsuccessful.
Finally, in 1998, Shaw took his years of frustration to court, filing a lawsuit accusing two of the largest buying consortiums and two big syringe suppliers of antitrust violations, specifically restraint of trade. In one aspect of his case, Shaw argued that Becton Dickinson, a major syringe maker based in Franklin Lakes, N.J., signed many long-term contracts with Premier, a huge medical buying consortium, that prohibited its members, mainly hospitals, from purchasing syringes from small suppliers. After six years of litigation, he won a stunning victory. Becton Dickinson paid Shaw $100 million last year--only hours before the case was scheduled to go to trial--to settle claims that it had illegally manipulated the market. Three other defendants had paid a total of $50 million to settle several months earlier. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but the two consortiums, Premier and Novation, agreed to change their business practices.
Shaw is not the only entrepreneur to find himself locked out of the lucrative hospital market. For decades innovators have complained that the market is dominated unfairly by giants. In the wake of Shaw's action, the U.S. Senate antitrust subcommittee has been holding hearings on whether hospitals' buying practices are stifling competition. The U.S. Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation of hospital purchasing last year. New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer's office is investigating Becton Dickinson's sales practices.
None of that is any comfort to the gaunt and weary Shaw, 54, who regards the settlements as an empty victory. Hospitals still won't buy his syringes--or even allow him to demonstrate them to nurses, doctors, and other clinicians. But Shaw is using the $150 million he has wrung out of the hospital-supply giants to finance his revenge. He recently outsourced manufacturing to China, reducing his costs and, he says, enabling him to undercut his competitors on syringe pricing. After that he hopes the forces of capitalism will prevail, and the billion-dollar syringe market will crack open and let him in. "Ironic, isn't it?" he muses. "My competitors are financing their worst nightmare."
An idealistic bumpkin? no, just an engineer who thinks the stuff of physics--force and friction--might yield results in the world of capitalism. Shaw is making some headway. Retractable Technologies, his firm, recently won a federal contract to provide syringes to five African nations trying to prevent the spread of AIDS. The contract is worth less than $1 million, but the company hopes it will give it a foothold in the federal program. Even so, Retractable has only a fraction of the $1-billion-a-year syringe market, which is dominated by Becton Dickinson. Last year Retractable Technologies' revenue for the first nine months was $16 million, with a net profit of $55 million, reflecting the one-time gain from the settlements. Retractable lost money on operations for the period. Becton Dickinson posted 2004 revenues of nearly $5 billion, with a net profit of $467 million--down 14% from 2003, in part because of its settlement with Shaw. "I never wanted the money," Shaw says. "I just want to get into the hospitals. Doctors and nurses are dying."
Accidental needle-stick injuries are a quiet crisis in the nation's health-care system. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 800,000 are reported annually in hospitals, though the agency says the actual number is probably far higher. Nurses and lab technicians who draw blood are the most common victims, and they are often reluctant to report accidents for fear of being reprimanded for being careless. Each year about 1,000 workers will contract hepatitis C, a deadly liver infection, from an accidental needle stick. Some 35 nurses will be infected each year with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, because of accidental needle sticks.
Manufacturers have developed safety syringes over the years, but many nurses found them awkward to use, according to Dr. June Fisher, a specialist in occupational health medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. Cost was a factor, too, for financially strapped hospitals, because so-called safety syringes made by Becton Dickinson and others are about three times more expensive than the standard versions, which typically run to about 10 cents each. But pressure is mounting on hospitals to reduce needle-stick injuries. Health-care workers' unions are fighting for safer equipment; some injured workers have sued hospitals for negligence, winning settlements. In 1998, California became the first state to pass a law requiring the use of safety needles. "Hospitals are not safe workplaces," says Dr. Fisher.
Into this fray stepped a man who has always been a maverick. Shaw studied engineering at the University of Arizona, where he scraped by with C's. His first company, launched in 1984, was a job-placement agency started in a corner of a bicycle shop in Little Elm. The profits paid for him to get his engineering certifications, and he opened an engineering firm in 1988. His first customer: an amputee with a broken artificial leg. The man's insurance company had refused to cover the cost of a new leg because it insisted he had intentionally damaged the original one; he wanted an independent engineering study to prove that the limb had a design flaw that caused it to crack. Shaw's analysis prevailed, and the amputee got a new limb.
Most of the work Shaw's firm undertook involved small-town civil projects such as roads and buildings. But Shaw was fascinated by medical devices. After a colleague complained that she was having trouble getting her elderly grandmother to take her medication regularly, Shaw won a federal grant to develop a pill machine that would dispense--and monitor--medication. Eventually he came up with an electronic device that measures and dispenses medication accurately and alerts caregivers by phone if the medication isn't taken. (The device is tucked away in a closet until he has established his safety syringe on the market.)
Shaw began work on the syringe in the early 1990s with $650,000 in research funding from the National Institutes of Health. By the mid-1990s he was testing his device at three major hospitals in Texas. Doctors and nurses at those institutions endorsed it enthusiastically. "I was immediately impressed when I saw the prototype," recalls Dr. Lawrence Mills, former chief of thoracic surgery at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. "I thought the biggest problem was the company wouldn't be able to make them fast enough to keep up with the demand." (Now retired, Dr. Mills is a shareholder in Retractable.)
Shaw's first inkling that he would have problems breaking into the hospital market came at the very hospital where he had tested the syringe and gotten his strongest support: Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. In a letter to hospital administrators, Dr. Edward L. Goodman, then Presbyterian's director of infection control, wrote that the new syringe was "essential to the safety and health of our employees, staff, and patients" and urged management to buy it. (Goodman was an early shareholder too.) But Shaw says he was told by hospital officials the institution couldn't buy the product because it was barred from doing so under a contract with Premier, a purchasing organization based in San Diego. "I grew up in the desert, and I know a scorpion when I see one," Shaw says bitterly. "At that moment, I knew the health-care system was rotten to the core."
Shaw plunged into the business of manufacturing and marketing his syringes, only to hit another barricade. He needed money to build a factory and hire workers. Many Wall Street firms were intrigued--investment bankers from Goldman Sachs made six trips to visit Shaw in Little Elm--about an hour north of Dallas--but every one of them backed out, spooked by the impenetrable hospital market. Shaw sold $42 million of stock at $1 a share--many buyers were local doctors--and he got the company listed on the American Stock Exchange. (Shaw owns more than 50% of Retractable.)
Meanwhile, sales stalled. Kathryn Duesman, Retractable's director of clinical development, remembers a meeting with a purchasing officer at another major hospital in Texas in the late 1990s. "He told me, 'Do not show this product to our nurses because then they'll want it, and they can't have it. I just can't buy from you,'" she recalls. The man explained that by contract the hospital could buy only from a consortium.
Shaw did manage to scratch out some small victories in those years. He found customers in markets too small or too poor for the giants to even consider serving: federal prisons, Indian reservations, the Mississippi health department, South Africa. Desperate, Shaw enlisted the help of the Service Employees International Union, the largest union of health-care workers in the U.S., which was concerned about the large number of accidental needle-stick injuries, particularly in California, hit hard by the AIDS crisis. With the union's help, Retractable won a contract in 1999, supplying safety syringes to managed-care giant Kaiser Permanente in California.
From the start the relationship was troubled. When he sent staffers to show nurses how to use the new syringe, Shaw discovered that his product was missing from hospital supply rooms; he claims shipments were locked up in distribution centers so that doctors and nurses wouldn't learn about the new device. Kaiser disputes that charge. Laura Marshall, a Kaiser spokeswoman, says Retractable was unreliable, and specifically that shipments of syringes arrived irregularly. In the contract's first year, 1999, Marshall says, Kaiser ordered 2,329 boxes of syringes and received 343. Shaw calls the charges "ridiculous," adding, "We shipped millions of syringes to them, and they sat in the warehouse."
Of even more concern to Kaiser, Marshall says, were several instances of product failure, including one in which the needle detached from the syringe, remaining in the thigh of a 7-month-old baby. Shaw says the charges of product failure are "bogus." In early 2000, Kaiser ended its relationship with Retractable. In any case, Kaiser was forging an even closer relationship with its longtime syringe supplier, Becton Dickinson. In mid-1999 the two announced a partnership--a three-year, $30 million product-development program to evaluate and develop safety devices including syringes.
Frustrated, Shaw filed a lawsuit in state court against the big hospital-supply companies and the buying consortiums. Shaw's first deposition lasted two days; Becton Dickinson was represented at the meeting by more than a dozen attorneys from firms in New York City and Dallas. Among subjects they grilled Shaw about were his religion and his health, including what prescription drugs he was taking. Pretrial proceedings dragged along for six years, leaving Shaw's factory half-idle all the while.
Then came a stroke of luck. Mark Lanier, a fast-rising star of the plaintiffs bar, offered to take on the case on a contingency basis. That meant his Houston-based firm would invest the money to bring the case to trial, a relief for cash-strapped Retractable. Lanier also would get one-third of any winnings. Lanier's first move was to immediately refile the case in federal court in Texarkana, Texas. Under federal antitrust law, any damages would be tripled.
In 2003, as the trial date neared and the judge prodded the combatants toward settlement, Lanier met an unlikely foe: his client, Shaw. Becton Dickinson, Tyco International, and the other defendants were offering to shower Shaw with money. But he wanted access to the hospital market. Ultimately the buying consortiums agreed to change their business practices, although what they promised exactly remains confidential. Premier and Novation both bowed out, as did manufacturer Tyco, paying about $50 million to settle the case. Becton Dickinson offered money but balked at changing the way it did business. Finally, under pressure from his lawyers and his shareholders, Shaw accepted the settlement offer: $100 million. Lanier's firm, which had spent $6 million, got about $50 million, plus expenses.
But the richest citizen in Little Elm, Texas, is not a happy man. What Shaw still wants is what he has sought for more than a decade: the opportunity to sell his syringe in an open market. Despite the promises that the consortiums have made, Shaw sees little evidence that they have changed their practices. He'll continue to peck at any opportunities he can scare up. Lowering prices--outsourcing some of the manufacturing cut his costs 60%, he says--has not sparked demand so far. Through the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, a trade group based in Washington, D.C., Shaw is pressing for market-reform legislation in Congress. Staring down at the slow-moving machinery of production from a catwalk high above the factory floor, Shaw gets lost in thought for a moment; then he pulls himself back to the present. "If it's going to be business as usual in the hospital market," he says, "then we have no hope."
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Brooklyn, NY (9/30/18) – DiBella Entertainment celebrated its 15-Year Anniversary of Broadway Boxing on Saturday night by teaming up with fellow New York based promoters The Real Deal Boxing and Uprising Promotions for a stacked card of New York City's most promising prospects at the legendary Kings Theatre in Brooklyn in front of an energetic and near capacity crowd.
The bouts were shown live at DBE's streaming home, LIVE.DBE1.com. Saturday'sBroadway Boxing was presented by Nissan of Queens, Azad Watches, OPTYX, Christos Steak House, Gagliardi Insurance, Venum and Medical Arts Radiology.
The evening concluded with 2016 Uzbekistan Olympian Bakhodir Jalolov making his New York debut. Trained by Joel Diaz, Jalolov, now 2-0 (2 KOs), blasted Mexico's Eduardo Vitela (3-3, 1 KO) with a single straight left hand 30 seconds into the first round that dropped Vitela hard and unable to rise from the canvas, resulting in a TKO victory. The 6'6″ southpaw Jalolov is co-promoted by DiBella Entertainment and Fight Promotions Inc. Born in Sariosiyo, Uzbekistan, Jalolov was a highly accomplished amateur compiling a record of 84-13. A four-time National champion from 2013 to 2016, Jalolov represented his homeland at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, and had the distinguished honor of being the country's flagbearer at the Opening Ceremonies. As an amateur, Jalolov won gold medals at the Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in 2017, World Cup Tournament, Liventsev Memorial Tournament, Great Silk Way Tournament, and Duisenkul Shopokov Memorial Tournament in 2015, and at the World Cup of Petroleum Countries Tournament in 2014. During his amateur career, Jalolov also focused on his education, earning a Master's Degree in Sports Science.
Arthur Mercante Jr.called a stop to the action in the final frame of the six-round fight despite a game effort from the rugged Mexican veteran Danny Flores (15-14-1, 8 KOs). Franklin looked sharp relentlessly attacking the body throughout and ultimately overwhelming Flores.
Brooklyn's own Melissa St. Vil, 11-3-4 (1 KO), handed Mayra Hernandez, now 6-1 (4 KOs), her first defeat, winning a unanimous decision. Known as "Little Miss Tyson", St. Vil, who lost a close majority decision against Eva Wahlstrom for the WBC Super Featherweight World Title back in April, looked excellent in picking up the decision against Oklahoma's Hernandez.
In his Kings Theatre debut, Brooklynite Khalid "Pure Gold" Twaiti (4-0, 2 KOs) looked impressive winning a four-round unanimous decision against Carlos Ramirez (1-3, 1 KO), of Ensenada, Mexico, in a junior featherweight contest. Trained by Don Saxby out of Gleason's Gym, Twaiti turned pro in February 2017 after compiling a 74-15 amateur record.
Undefeated middleweight prospect Edgar Berlanga (9-0, 9 KOs) continued his unprecedented first round knockout streak by scoring three knockdowns in the opening stanza against Washington, DC.'s Gregory Clark (3-3-1, 1 KOs). Despite Clark's movement, Berlanga stalked his opponent, landing an overhand right for the first knockdown then a flurry that literally sent Clark under the ropes for the second knockdown and finally a left hook to the body for the final knockdown.
In a show stealing scrap, despite being dropped at the very end of the first round, Pablo Valdez (2-0, 2 KOs) stormed back to drop Alexander Serna (1-3, 1 KO) in the second round only to be dropped again himself at the end of the third round. Valdez answered back again decking Serna twice in the fourth and with the second knockdown, the referee waved off the fight thus saving the judges a serious mathematical headache. In just his second fight, Valdez brought hundreds of enthusiastic supporters who erupted over the result of the back-and-forth war.
Undefeated junior middleweight Matthew Gonzalez (7-0, 4 KOs) kept his perfect record winning an unanimous decision against Jordan Morales (3-5, 2 KOs) in a six-round bout. In his fifth fight of the year, 'Lefty', at only 23 years old, is starting to stand out in the crowded field of New York prospects due to his activity and dominant performances.
Junior Younan (14-0-1, 10 KOs) scored an easy first-round stoppage in just under a minute against Evert Bravo (24-9-1, 18 KOs).
Italy's Giovanni Scuderi (1-0), now fighting out of Brooklyn, won a close but unanimous decision in his professional debut versus Maryland's Charles Johnson (1-2, 1 KO) in a four-round cruiserweight bout.
Justin Biggs (5-0, 5 KOs), a multiple Golden Gloves winner, looked sensational in front of his hometown fans stopping Florida's Noe Lozano (2-4) in the final round of a scheduled six-round junior middleweight round bout. Despite a heated weigh-in that almost erupted into an altercation, Lozano could not back up the tough talk.
Broadway Boxing is presented by Nissan of Queens, OPTYX, Azad Watches, Christos Steak House, Gagliardi Insurance, Venum and Medical Arts Radiology.


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Kurkovo () is a rural locality (a village) in Chertkovskoye Rural Settlement, Selivanovsky District, Vladimir Oblast, Russia. The population was 16 as of 2010.

Geography
Kurkovo is located 26 km east of Krasnaya Gorbatka (the district's administrative centre) by road. Chertkovo is the nearest rural locality.

References

Rural localities in Selivanovsky District

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Going to work each day, taking care of kids, and maintaining a home can take up the majority of an adult's time. Instead of getting overwhelmed by these daily tasks, a person will need to find a way to squeeze in things they enjoy to break up the monotony. For some people, buying a new outfit is something they love to do.
If a person does not have the time to go into a brick-and-mortar clothing supplier, shopping online is a great alternative. The world of online shopping is filled with great clothing options. Here are some of the things a person needs to consider when trying to have a successful online clothes shopping experience.


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Arsenal Match Centre
Predicted lineup
Unai Emery set to make 3 changes: Predicted Arsenal lineup vs Chelsea
Arsenal face Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, after heaping pressure on themselves with defeat to West Ham United last time out.
Had Arsenal managed a victory at the London Stadium last weekend, they would've come into this match with the chance to catch up with Chelsea and the top four, at least on points.
As it is, Unai Emery's side need a win just to stay in touch, whilst defeat would likely leave them nine points off the Champions League places (depending on Spurs' result). What's more, a game against Manchester City at the Etihad in two weeks time will cause even further trouble. It's suddenly crucial that Arsenal win against Chelsea.
After a week of rest and with another six days before the following game against Manchester United, there's no need to rotate. Emery needs to pick his strongest team and try and get a result.
Let's have a look at our predicted lineup for the fixture:
1Goalkeeper and Centre-Backs
Bernd Leno and Petr Cech
Unai Emery seems set on playing three at the back when Laurent Koscielny, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi are all available. That's how he started the match against West Ham, and that's unlikely to change for the game against Chelsea.
Konstantinos Mavropanos is back and available after his injury, and the Greek defender played 70 minutes against Manchester City's u23s on Monday. However, this probably isn't the best game to throw him back into the first team's starting eleven. The following league match against Cardiff would be a better option.
Meanwhile, Petr Cech announced his imminent retirement from football earlier this week. The goalkeeper's contract comes to an end this summer, and he's clearly decided it'll be his last in professional football.
However, we doubt Emery is going to let sentimentality get the best of him by starting the former Chelsea man against his old club. Instead, Bernd Leno will keep his place.
Click 'Next' for Midfield, Wing-Backs, Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI
Arsenal vs Chelsea Betting Tips
Arsenal haven't lost to Chelsea at home since the 2015/16 season, with three wins and one draw since then. Bet on Arsenal to win with 138 UK at 2/1.
Arsenal have scored at least two goals in each of their last four home games against Chelsea. Bet on Arsenal to score over 1.5 goals with 138 UK at 5/4.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the Premier League's joint top scorer, with four goals in his last five league games. Bet on Aubameyang to score anytime with 138 UK at 11/10.
Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea (9/1 with 138 UK).
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