Great employee benefit packages can entice employees to remain at their employers or encourage new hires to come aboard. The problem is, these benefits are oftentimes overlooked during the enrollment period every year. Large benefits such as ESPP (employee stock purchase plans), life and disability insurance or access to an HSA (health savings account) may be available, yet their complexity makes it hard for the average employee with little financial planning experience to maximize their potential. "Smaller" benefits such as pre-tax commuter funds, employee discounts, wellness benefits, or even tuition assistance for furthering education related to your field of work can also make a major difference when it comes to managing your finances. This article will explore money moves to make during employee benefits enrollment to ensure you maximize your decisions!
In the tech industry, it's common to receive additional compensation outside your baseline salary. This can be done in a variety of forms. In most cases, it's important to ensure you're taking full advantage of this additional compensation or benefit.
RSU's are an increasingly popular way companies compensate their employees. Employees receive X amount of shares in the company over a particular vesting schedule. Over time, as these shares vest, the employee can determine whether to hold onto or sell the company shares. What's important to understand with RSU's, is that once the shares vest, they're counted as ordinary income for tax purposes.
For example, if you receive 100 shares of XYZ stock at $2,000 a share, the current market value on the date of vesting counts as your "compensation" and ordinary income. Meaning for tax purposes your income has increased by $200,000 this year.
RSU's are typically determined during the hiring period, however, if you're up for a promotion, or negotiating your compensation, benefits enrollment can be a great time to review your current RSU schedule and potentially vie for more.
Similar to RSU's, stock options are an additional form of compensation above and beyond what you might earn on a salary basis. They typically have a vesting schedule associated with them as well. Once vested, employees have the option to "exercise" the right to buy the underlying stock at a predetermined price. Because stock options allow the employee to purchase the stock at the pre-determined price, they can be extremely lucrative for employees working at quickly growing companies.
Again, the caveat with planning around stock options is the tax consequence upon exercising. There are two types of stock options, incentive stock options (ISO's) and non-qualified stock options (NSO's). Each is treated differently when it comes to taxes. The bottom line with stock options is to review your current and future vested options and determine whether you can make a case for vying for more during your benefits enrollment period.
The ESPP is considered a traditional benefit on top of compensation, compared to RSU's or stock options, which technically are added compensation, not an added "benefit".
The ESPP allows employees to set aside cash each paycheck to purchase company stock at the end of the predetermined period. At the purchase date, the company stock is bought at either a 15% discount from the current market price OR the market price at the beginning of the purchase period (when you started setting aside cash), whichever is lesser. Because the employee is able to purchase the stock at the lower price, they're immediately able to recognize a gain of a minimum of 15%. A 15% gain over the course of 6 months (a common time period for ESPP's) isn't too shabby!
If your company offers an ESPP and you have extra cash flow you're looking to put to work, ensure you take advantage.
When it comes to choosing the best health care plan, there are a variety of things to consider. However, if you're in a stable financial situation, and looking to make smart money moves to reduce taxes and set aside additional retirement funds, keep an eye out for the ability to contribute to a health savings account (HSA) through your employer's high deductible health insurance plan.
The HSA is the premier investment vehicle available today. It's the only "triple" tax-advantaged account available. When you contribute to an HSA, you're making pre-tax contributions, thereby reducing your taxable income. The contributions can be invested in the HSA, and grow-tax free. When you need to pay for medical expenses, the funds can be withdrawn tax-free. Not to mention, the HSA essentially morphs into an IRA when you turn 65 and can be used for ANY withdrawal, not just medical expenses, without incurring a penalty.
The less flexible cousin of the HSA is the "flexible savings account" or FSA (ironically, it's relatively not flexible). The FSA allows employees to contribute pre-tax dollars and use them tax-free for medical expenses, similar to an HSA. However, the key difference is if you don't use all the funds in the FSA within the year, they're lost. The use-it-or-lose-it designation of FSA's make them less attractive than an HSA, however, they are typically associated with the lower deductible plans. If you do choose a lower deductible plan and have access to an FSA, ensure you're only contributing up to what you expect to spend on medical expenses, so you're not leaving cash behind at the end of the year.
I encourage anyone who might have access to an HSA or FSA to explore during their employee benefits enrollment period whether it fits into their current financial situation.
Many large employers will offer free access to group life and disability insurance. This may require the employee to "opt-in", in which case you want to be sure you do so!
Life insurance, while a boring and morbid topic, is an essential part of any strong financial plan. If you have dependents or a family that relies on your income for their current lifestyle and future expenses, life insurance is a necessity. Losing a loved one is hard enough, losing a loved one and being financially in ruin, makes it even worse.
Group life insurance policies offered through employers typically cover a stated percentage of your compensation. For example, if you earn $200,000 a year, your employer might cover 2.5x your compensation up to $500,000. Meaning, you'd have $500,000 in life insurance coverage through your employer for free!
Some employers even allow you to purchase additional insurance at low rates above what they offer for free. The downside to purchasing additional insurance through your employer is if you leave employment at a later date, you may be required to provide "evidence of insurability" which would increase your premiums since you're older and in the eyes of the insurance company, a greater risk. The alternative is looking for additional insurance through the private marketplace and "locking-in" premiums for the stated term of the insurance policy (up to 30 years!).
Secondly, disability insurance may be provided by your employer for free as an added benefit. Surprisingly, 1 in 4 millennials can expect to be disabled at some point in their career. Being disabled negates your ability to earn an income and make progress towards financial goals, let alone pay for everyday living expenses. Taking advantage of the free coverage through an employe is a great starting point. However, is it enough?
If you're in need of additional disability insurance outside what your employer might provide, consider browsing the private marketplace to receive tax-free benefits and ensure you're financial situation isn't dramatically impacted if you're disabled.
Adjustments can be made throughout the year regarding your 401(k), but while you're reviewing your benefits package, you might as well review your 401(k) as well.
A few questions to ask yourself. Did I get a pay raise this year? If so, how much should I increase my contributions to my 401(k)? Do I have access to a Roth 401(k), if so, should I be contributing to that? Am I correctly allocated with my investments?
Each year as your compensation increases, it's important to increase your savings/investments/ or debt paydown. If you don't, you're likely going to spend that additional compensation. And spending more without increasing your savings is a losing strategy long-term.
Secondly, if you're in a relatively lower tax bracket (anything at or lower than 24%) you should consider contributing to a Roth 401(k). The idea of contributing to the after-tax account is that you'd rather pay taxes today at a lower rate than you would at retirement when you're making distributions from the retirement accounts. It's a guessing game, but what we know is that we're in a relatively low tax environment right now and for younger individuals, we haven't hit our peak earning years.
Lastly, reviewing your 401(k) investments is always a good idea. Over time, if you don't "rebalance" particular asset classes will become a larger or lesser part of the overall portfolio. For example, if you have a U.S small-cap fund that historically over long periods of time has greater returns than a bond fund, the small-cap fund will overtake the bond fund for a larger percentage of the portfolio because its returns have been greater. By "rebalancing" back to the original asset allocation or newly determined allocation, you can systematically sell higher performing assets at a gain and purchase lesser performing assets at a lower price point. Not to mention, maintaining your original risk parameters.
Employers oftentimes have intangible benefits they'll provide to entice new hires or keep employees around. However, from a personal finance standpoint, they can be quite significant. It could range from offering pre-tax commuter funds, free parking passes, employee discounts, or even wellness benefits such as gym memberships. Whatever these might be, utilizing these free benefits can save you money!
Reviewing your benefits package on an annual basis in its entirety is a good habit to ensure you're not missing anything valuable! The strategies surrounding each decision can be variable depending on each person's unique situation. Helping you solve the puzzle and maximize your choices is where Millennial Wealth comes in!
If you dread reading through the nuances of the benefits package or are unsure how to maximize your decisions as they pertain to your individual financial situation, schedule a free consultation to see how we can help.
This entry was posted in Financial Wellness, Insurance and tagged employee benefits, life insurance, stock options. Bookmark the permalink.
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For the first time EV is offering Base Horse Registration for non-competing horses, at $40 per horse for life.This will allow members to register young or breeding horses, secure their name and have their details registered for bio-security and theft security purposes. A microchip number will be required for all Base Horse Registrations.
If you wish to compete on a base registered horse you must upgrade the Base horse registration to a full Horse registration. You cannot purchase competition licence for a Base horse registration. If you wish to upgrade this horse to a full competitive horse registration, please contact your branch to obtain the upgrade fee.
Only current financial EA members are able to register horses and all horses must have a microchip number, meeting the AS5018/5019.
If Registration forms are not filled in correctly and completely - this includes ALL whorls, scars, markings and coat colouration) the form will be returned to you without being processed. It is in your best interest to make sure you are identifying your horse correctly.
Please ensure, before you send in the form, that the following information is complete. Incomplete or incorrect work will be returned.
All owners MUST be financial Competitor Senior, Competitor Junior, Participant Senior, Show Horse Competitor, Preliminary Dressage, Participant Junior, Commercial or Supporter.
All horses MUST be Microchipped to Australian Standard.
A copy of the Microchip Certificate is attached or the Declaration & Signature of Vet be completed on the horse registration application form. If submitting online, please upload this document or email/post the document.
All owners MUST sign the declaration form.
Please ensure that there is a contact telephone number on the form in case we have any queries.
Horse names must be unique. You cannot use the same name as another horse nor can you change the spelling slightly or use a variation of the same name e.g. Black Beauty and Blak Beauty.
Do not leave it until the day before your competition to register your horse. Please allow 1-2 weeks to receive your horse papers back.
You can now register horses online, please see the link below. You must have Java to complete this application.


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CA Sri Lanka: Excellence through the Years
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, better known as CA Sri Lanka, is a brand of unique professionals. They spread better accountancy education over the country. Chairmen, Partners, Managing Directors, Vice Presidents, CEOs and CFOs govern CA Sri Lanka. They serve in top corporations locally and internationally.
CA Sri Lanka is the ultimate destination for accountancy education in the country. CA Sri Lanka has 6,000 members and over 40,000 students. Professional integrity, technical and perception skills and financial discipline are its core values.
CA Sri Lanka increases professional skills of its members. They focus on playing a significant role in partnering businesses and strengthening the national economy.
Being renowned for the highest standards in business is the vision of CA Sri Lanka. As a result, they are the most sought after qualification for business leaders. They uphold standards in the public interest, providing dynamic and proactive service and through ideas and influence.
Its core values are integrity, wisdom, innovation and service.Its past pupils cover across 42 countries in all continents. The Institute is the only accredited authority for Accounting and Auditing Standards in Sri Lanka.
What are the duties of CA Sri Lanka?
The Institute provides knowledge and guidance to its members. This is based on the highest professional, ethical and technical standards.They formulate national policies in the accountancy profession. Additionally, they contribute to the national development efforts.
As a professional organisation, CA Sri Lanka is committed to the highest ethical and professional standards. They develop the knowledge and skills of current and future business leaders. Additionally, they support businesses to deliver long-term economic value. They also organise regular briefings and forums on economic development activities.
CA Sri Lanka works closely with the government, respective regulators, the corporate world, individuals and communities. Over the years they have strived to build long term beneficial relationships with organizations.
CA Sri Lanka enjoys a strong working relationship with leading accounting bodies across the globe. It is a member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), Confederation of Asian & Pacific Accountants (CAPA) and a founder member of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) as well as an associate member of the Chartered Accountants Worldwide (CAW).
The qualifications are recognized by leading international accounting bodies. As a result, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka today enjoys agreements with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) and CPA Australia.
Why become a Chartered Accountant?
In this day and age with increased competition, the Chartered Accountant qualification provides you knowledge that covers the subject of business, finance and management. Additionally, it covers a broader spectrum to enhance your professional career.
The Chartered Accountant
The chartered accountant is a professional in the field of Accountancy. They are experts in accountancy, auditing, management accountancy, information technology, taxation, corporate and commercial law, financial management, management, economics and other connected subjects.
Moreover, Chartered Accountants today hold top management positions and in both the private and public sectors. They practise as chartered accountants and management consultants. Most chartered accountants in Sri Lanka are members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka.
The demand for the services of chartered accountants has been growing rapidly in the recent past. They are much sought after by an ever increasing number of organizations in the private and public sectors of Sri Lanka, that are engaged in a wide range of activities. The skills and expertise of the chartered accountants of Sri Lanka is also recognized all over the world. Of the total membership, more than 27percent serve with distinction abroad.
It is therefore very evident that the prospects of those choosing chartered accountancy as a career are excellent.
Due to the increasing demand for their services, the average earnings/remuneration packages of chartered accountants have also steadily increased in the recent past. Hence a student, on successful completion of his/her examinations and training, could look forward to a comfortable compensation package.
Chartered Accountants in Sri Lanka
Members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka today play a pivotal role in Sri Lanka's boardrooms; where nearly 60 percent of the top 50 companies listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange has a CA Sri Lanka member either as chairman, CEO or finance director.
The School of Accounting and Business was established by CA Sri Lanka for the purpose of conducting the B.Sc. (Applied Accounting) Degree programme, which is approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC). It consists of two academic departments: the Department of Accounting and Finance and the Department of Business Studies. Students also have the option of studying one year in Colombo and completing the second and third years abroad. They can complete the degree with La Trobe or Deakin University in Australia.
Find out more about the institute here.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Audit & Risk Recruitment Company (ARRC) has been asked by a FTSE 100 Retailer to recruit a Technology Audit Manager.
The business is currently going through a number of significant transformations across technology so this role offers exposure to exciting levels of change not often experienced, and fantastic career potential with this FTSE 100 household name.
This role operates within a flat-structured team so no has no line management responsibilities.
This is a low travel role and is based just north of London.
Please get in touch with your latest CV to hear more about this fantastic opportunity.


The test file is set to play at 900 fps, so the results you are getting will be the maximum of what your browser is capable of. If you have the time write a comment with the results you are getting and I'll add it to the table below. Make sure you specify your CPU speed and that you don't have other software running that'll steal CPU time (such as Spotify). Here is the test file and for those in need of an image scrolling class, here's the AS3 class and the class to create the test as well. (The image is a neat graffiti I found just up the street from Bill's in Brighton).
8fps Thomas? Well, the bitmap is 800x600 pix so I think that's pretty decent for a small device?
Is there any difference between debug and non-debug player?
o_O Why in 9.26 Faster x2 ?


You and I have been happy; we haven't been happy just once, we've been happy a thousand times. The chances that the spring, that's for everyone, like in the popular songs, may belong to us too -- the chances are pretty bright at this time because as usual, I can carry most of contemporary literary opinion, liquidated, in the hollow of my hand -- and when I do, I see the swan floating on it and -- I find it to be you and you only. But swan, float lightly because you are a swan, because by the exquisite curve of your neck the gods gave you some special favor, and even though you fractured it running against some man-made bridge, it healed and you sailed onward. Forget the past -- what you can of it, and turn about and swim back home to me, to your haven forever and ever -- even though it may seem like a dark cave at times and lit with torches of fury; it is the best refuge for you -- turn gently in the waters through which you move and sail back.


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BLOCKER KICKS OFF 2018 WITH A WIN IN RETRO SERIES OPENER
Once again, the combination of the Lotus 79, a high-banked oval and some of the best open-wheel fixed setup drivers using the iRacing.com simulator delivered a fantastic finish.
Adam Blocker firmly planted his seed in the field of championship contenders, holding off Dustin Wardlow over the final seven laps to win the season opening ButtKicker 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The win was the fifth of Blocker's career in the Lionheart Retro Series presented by HPP Simulation. No other driver has won more than three races in the series.
"I found something on the bottom, a little past halfway in the race," Blocker said. "It just worked. In general you wanted to be where clean air was...but Andrew (Kinsella) was telling me how good the bottom was, and when I got to the lead in the middle of the race, I was able to practice my line with no pressure, and that was a big key at the end."
Wardlow looked poised to earn his second-career Retro victory before a caution with 14 laps remaining closed up the field.
On the restart with 10 laps remaining, 2017 series runner-up Ryan Otis used the draft to take the lead. Wardlow quickly took it back, but Blocker used the tow off the dueling cars to slip past and hold on for the win.
Wardlow - who was battling a damaged car from an incident early in the race - spent the final five laps on the outside of Blocker, but couldn't draw even in the final corner, settling for second in his debut for the new Raven Motorsports team.
"Anytime you finish up front, you need to have some breaks," Wardlow said. "We had that tonight...I realized I could have also made the bottom work earlier in the race, but on the last stint, I didn't have tires and I felt the car wanting to come around, so I left the bottom open trying not to spin it."
Andrew Kinsella worked his way around Otis in the closing laps to earn the final spot on the podium, and complete a strong day for Adrenaline Motorsports, with all four cars finishing in the top eleven.
"I knew that Adam and I had the right tire and fuel strategy, and our tires were peaking at the right time," Kinsella said. "He managed to get that little bit of a lead and broke the draft so I couldn't catch him, and that was the difference at the end."
The 133-lap race was slowed by five cautions for 18 laps. Nine leaders swapped the lead 23 times. Otis lead a race-high 64 laps from the pole. Blocker led 23, with Wardlow pacing 21 laps.
The most impactful wreck occurred on lap 66, when an upstart Brian Greenlee shot to the lead for the first time, only to lose control 600 feet later as he entered turn one. As Greenlee spun, Bob Mikes - running in fifth at the time - was catapulted over the front of Greenlee's car, ending the race for both drivers.
Beyond the podium, the top ten was littered with potential championship contenders. Otis came home fourth, with former Lionheart IndyCar Series champion Jesse Vincent racing from 38th starting position to fifth.
Woody Mahan finished sixth, followed by Lionheart IndyCar Series All-Star winner Pierre Daigle, defending Retro and IndyCar champion Jake Wright, James Krahula and Joe Branch, all of whom figure to be in the mix all season.
The Lionheart Retro Series presented by HPP Simulation heads to the road for its next event, the Clipping the Apex Grand Prix at The Glen. In holding true to its core value of paying homage to the glory days of open-wheel racing in America, the race will take place on the Classic Boot layout, without the bus stop section.
You can catch all the action from the historic Watkins Glen International live on the Global SimRacing Channel at 10:35 p.m. EST, Thursday, April 5.
The Lionheart IndyCar Series presented by First Medical Equipment will host its season opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Wednesday, March 28. The First Medical Equipment 200 can also be seen live on the Global SimRacing Channel at 10:35 p.m. EST.


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J: Wow, I mean really wow. Maybe really wow just doesn't say enough on how nice Itami Sushi looks. They spent roughly one million on the interior alone. The Japanese garden at the front entrance should've more care and attention paid to it. And that chandelier above the serving desk, yes I thought that was excessive but there was very little else I could find wrong. I just have to wonder what their washrooms look like. But with all of this eye candy, the restaurant was barely populated on a Friday night. I asked myself why.
E: I have an answer to that. Victoria is officially now over-saturated with Japanese restaurants. People can't walk two or three blocks in any direction without encountering some type of Japanese fast food offering. And not many people can make them right. Can I say I was unimpressed? My mom can make better rice than Itami during our visit.
J: The service was exceptional, our every need was seen to. It's just a shame that the package couldn't be complete. The food was lacking and I'm sure Ed will explain further. Personally I couldn't get comfortable in Itami. As nice as it is, I found the interior of nearby Shiki more inviting. I tried hard to ask our server "Alan" if the sushi chef's were properly trained in Japan but sadly there was a language barrier and my Japanese was not up to snuff.
E: The portion and presentation looked nice but that hid a horrible fact that I did not find any of the raw slices of nigiri all that tasty. The Kaz had pizazz and Sen had zen. Itami? they need to work on keeping the fish deliciately preserved to maintain each fish's unique flavour. There were ten chances to get it right in the deluxe platter I had (tuna rolls included), and only two stood out for me. Not even the sea urchin tasted spectacular. They were all tastes I'm used to finding at Fujiya, and they pump the food out by the bucketload. I still felt hungry for good ahi afterwards. Maybe I have to pay more to find it, and I wasn't prepared to that night, especially when this place is still new to the Victoria scene.
Fortunately there was a spot of flavour to be found. It came with a free dessert that was offered by the end of the meal.
J: The best part of my meal was the Clam Miso Soup ($3.95). It came with six whole clams. But one has to wonder if they were cooked live. The dish had potential. With a little experimenting I found the taste was stronger after I schuked the clams into the miso broth. Perhaps this is something they need to reconsider.
The worst of the meal had to be the Tempura Udon ($8.50). It was such an anticlimax to have a basket of 5 tempura (2 shrimp, 3 veg) and a simple bowl of cooked udon placed before me. Not in a long while had I seen a meal that appeared so boring. The udon's taste was average (the broth didn't help either)and the tempura batter was off. But the desert was beautiful!
E: Yeah, it saved an impromptu visit from being a disaster. The cococnut glazed tofu with red bean paste may well be a teaser to what Itami can do very well in. The jelly was sweet and the bean paste made for a good contrast. As for sushi, ask me again at the end of the year, when the management can find a proper fish monger to deal with.
This entry was posted in Food, Reviews and tagged British Columbia, Downtown Victoria, Japanese, Sushi, Vancouver Island, Victoria. Bookmark the permalink.


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Women's Running 10K Race Series
My favourite race distance has always been 10K.
It's absolutely an achievable distance for beginners and enough of a challenge if you have been running for a while and want to improve your PB, its also a friendly race distance for spectators because it doesn't take all day for people to get round, so basically it really is a fun day out for everyone involved.
So I am delighter to announce a new Too Fat to Run partnership with the Women's Running 10K Race Series which is also supported by Sport England's This Girl Can campaign with additional 5K distances too for our community to take part in.
Last year thousands of women joined in across 10 locations around the UK and this year Women's Running are excited to see it's numbers grow even more with our help.
For Too Fat to Run this is perfect timing as we are about to start recruiting coaches around the UK so that we can roll our programmes for women in areas other than London where I am based. So for each of the locations we are planning Too Fat to Run meet ups where you can get to meet each other, show off your Too Fat to Run uniforms and collectively show the running world that larger ladies run too.
So when and where are the events?
29th May Cardiff 5th June Southampton (My birthday)
26th June Exeter 3rd July Milton Keynes 10th July Nottingham 17th July Liverpool 28th Aug Glasgow 11th September Manchester 18th September Birmingham 25th September London (Can we get a team of at least 250 women at this one?).
2nd October Leeds
You can get a cool £2 discount on each entry by using code TFGGTR16 at the checkout, and some of our Clubhouse Members are competing to see who can do the most from the series, so why not sign up to more than one?
All entrants will receive a goody bag worth £40, performance t-shirt, and finishers medal included in the entry price.
There really is something unique about running a race where all the participants are women, the atmosphere is electric and you will find runners of all levels, so even if you have never run this distance before why not commit to it and use it as motivation to train…thats how I did my first ever 10K.
Look out in our Facebook Community Page for more details about the Too Fat to Run meet ups closer to the time, I can't wait to see my army of women out there doing their thing!!!


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Wingate University Academic Transfer Scholarship
merit based
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Awarded By:
Wingate University
Number of Awards & Eligibility: The number of awards varies annually based on the number of eligible students.
In order to qualify, students must meet the following criteria:
Must attend Wingate University.
Must be a U.S. citizen.
Must enroll as a full-time undergraduate student.
This award is for U.S. students.
Must have a grade point average of 2.5 or higher from previous colleges.
Must have a minimum of 24 transferable credits.
Description: This award is for U.S. students who are accepted to Wingate University as full-time transfers. The student must have a minimum of 24 transferable credits and a grade point average of 2.5 or higher.
Application requirements for the Wingate University Academic Transfer Scholarship are:
Official Transcript
Confidential Inquiry Form
Official test scores
Additional Information: Academic Scholarships are awarded to qualified undergraduate applicants who have been admitted to Wingate University's Main Campus. After admission to the University, the academic credentials of each student are reviewed to determine scholarship eligibility. Students are notified of their scholarship award by the Office of Admissions.
Award Amount: Awards range from $10,000 to $15,000 annually and are renewable for a maximum of four years of undergraduate study. Recipients must maintain satisfactory progress standards as outlined by the individual scholarship criteria. The total dollars awarded for this scholarship is $70,000.
Sign Up To Start Applying
Contact: Liz Nowry
Address: 220 N. Camden St. Wingate, North Carolina 28174
Unigo $10,000 Scholarship
Unigo Monthly Scholarship
Niche $2,000 No Essay Scholarship
Easy No Brainer Scholarships


The province is boosting rates for Alberta's Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped program in an effort to reflect the rising cost of living, said Premier Rachel Notley.
Legislation tabled Thursday ties AISH, income support and seniors benefits to the consumer price index, matching a policy in Quebec, Yukon and Manitoba. AISH is among the province's largest social assistance programs and supports adult Albertans who have a permanent disability that curtails their ability to earn a livelihood.
The bill also bumps the maximum monthly core benefit rate for a single person covered by AISH to $1,685 from $1,588. The several other programs receiving small boosts include income support for people facing barriers to full employment and disposable income for seniors in the lodge program.
If passed, Bill 26 would take effect Jan. 1. The changes will cost an estimated $194 million annually.
The last increase to AISH benefit rates and income support happened in 2012, with seniors benefits receiving the last bump in 2009.
Ian Young, who started receiving AISH benefits in 2004 after suffering an injury, said it's gratifying to have his concerns addressed.
"All recipients of AISH and their families are well aware that we live in poverty year after year," he said. "Individuals have to rely on family, use the food bank, go without transportation.
"Indexing (the rates) will take away a bit of the frustration," he said.
Community and Social Services Minister Irfan Sabir said the government consulted with a range of people and groups over the summer.
Other changes under the new rules will include increasing the asset limit to access the AISH child allowance to $100,000 from $3,000.
About eight per cent of AISH recipients have children, said the province.
Nearly 250,000 Albertans receive support through the three programs targeted Thursday — 160,000 people receive seniors' benefits, 63,000 receive income support and about 60,000 qualify for AISH.
The bill also makes legislative amendments that will allow both AISH and income support clients to appeal directly to the ministry if they are found to have received overpayments. Previously the appeals from income support clients solely went to a citizen-led appeal panel.
Earlier this year, the province passed legislation that aimed to help parents set aside financial support for children with disabilities without risking their access to AISH benefits.
Previously, Albertans with assets totalling more than $100,000 weren't eligible to receive AISH, which made it difficult to set up savings such as a family trust. The legislation closed the gap to allow trusts to be set up worth more than the asset threshold.


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text:
Abu-l-Abbàs Abd-Al·lah ibn al-Mútazz (n. 861 la Samarra – d. 908 la Bagdad) a fost un poet și critic literar arab.

În politică joacă un rol episodic, fiind calif în perioada dinastiri Abbasizilor, dar numai pentru o zi, fiind nevoit să se refugieze de teama adversarilor.

A scris o poezie de tip "diwan", erotică, elegiacă, bahică, ce se remarcă prin stil simplu, dar bogat în imagini alese, colorate, adresându-se sensibilității vizuale.

Scrierile sale teoretice (Tabaqāt ash-shu`ara'al-muhdatīn - "Clasele poeziei noi" și Kitāb al-Badī` - "Cartea stilului nou") constituie unele dintre cele mai vechi scrieri lucrări din domeniul criticii literare și teoriei literaturii.

Nașteri în 861
Decese în 908
Poeți arabi
Califate
Scriitori asasinați

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Okay so I upped my carb intake because of the nausea, IBS like flare ups with pain, diarrhea, shivers, heartburn, gas pains and just a general sense of unease all accompanied by anxiety that I was getting before and after and during my menstrual cycle, that and I am only 95lbs and 5 ft, I find I tend to do better on more carbs 35-80g a day.
It has helped with most of the symptoms but the heartburn like pain suddenly got worse and more acute. Nothing specific triggers it the only pattern that I notice is if I am hungry and don't realize it or I don't eat a hearty meal and just something like a butternut squash soup i start getting pain. Also sometimes after I eat I get the pain. It feels like gas or just sometimes burning between the breastbone, sometimes stomach area and right under the left breast. Some days lots of pain, some days a little and some days none, if I do nothing for it, it does eventually ease up in a few minutes or a couple of hours. Oh and the other day for the first time I got this sort of almost unnoticeable bitter taste at the back of my throat after a round of pain and I had not eaten anything yet.
I eat plenty of lacto-fermented vegetables, have 4oz of kefir a day, eat yogurt, drink kombucha and when I eat dairy it is raw, unpasteurized and non-homogenized. I take a digestive enzyme and and enzyme to help support stomach acid and promote your body to start producing its own digestive enzymes.
One thing I found that helps a bit is sipping on a bit of raw milk.
I know that there are a lot of post on heartburn, but like I said mine has no set pattern, it came on to this degree suddenly and I seem to be doing everything right any thoughts?
Also does anyone find once you get rid of one major symptom or problem a new one pops up?
I'm actually with melissa on the white rice idea- whenever I feel nauseous/bloated/heartburn/indigestion, all it takes is a meal of rice and broth. If I have any variety of "stomach ache" when I wake up, I have a broth-rice-egg scramble, and it seems to do the trick.
Heartburn is usually caused by to little stomach acid but it is entirely possible to have to much usually because of bacterial infection I think...?
Oh I didn't know that. I know to much oxalates aren't always a good thing and I didn't even think about that. Almonds are high in oxalates aren't they?
Thanks for the thought, I might try removing the fermented veggies since that does require work to digestion and maybe just stick to fermented juices.
someone with IBS will have a hard time digesting rice, its one of the foods they tell you not to eat if you suffer, causing more bloating and discomfort because of the effort it takes to digest it....they told me this after eating it for 30 days to try and settle my stomach..big mistake!
I am not an expert by any stretch- but I think its quite common..people with acid reflux/gerd/chronic heartburn. I only have those symptoms if I drink super acidy stuff like straight apple cider vinegar, take betaine hcl, or kombucha stuff.
I was wondering if I have to much but isnt that supposed to be really rare?
Not often expensive right now.
Maybe you're having too much high oxalate veggies and its tearing up your stomach. Fermentation doesn't break it down in cruciferous veggies like sauerkraut. Only boiling for a long time and throwing out the water. Not too appetizing.
Eating the same amount of eggs as before all this started. Actually I remember before this all started one week before my cycle a couple of months ago all I wanted to eat was eggs, ended up going through 18 plus eggs a week all by myself with no issues then. I am upping carbs in the way of more sweet potato, some plantains here and there and a bit more fruit.
I have ditched dairy, same problem, also I start to crave fats like mad when I do.
have you thought about ditching the dairy? it's possible you have an allergy.
Are you replacing carbs with more eggs? That's what I did when I went low carb and I started having issues, came to find out k had an egg white allergy that I never noticed before.
You know, sometimes fermented foods make things worse. Maybe you are like Peggy @ The Primal Parent and you can't tolerate them. I went through a period where I really couldn't, so did Chris. Maybe it's the histamines? Either way, I would try removing them. And I would try discontinuing all supplements for awhile and then adding them back in to see if they might contribute to the problem. That's what I always do when I start having a weird symptom.
I would also trial some white rice. Honestly, nothing really calms my stomach the way rice cooked in broth does.
Kombucha, just like apple cider vinegar, gives me heartburn from hell. I know its often said that if you have tummy troubles, that you have low stomach acid, but maybe yours is a tiny bit too high -so when you add acid, it gives you heartburn.
Diner= Meatloaf w. sauerkraut, beet salad and carrots in butter and garlic w, 3 blocks 80% chocolate.
No pain today and the only thing I can think that I did differently is that I had about 2 oz banana chips fried in palmolein oil last night.
Just an update. I did not know hormones can cause a slew of screwy symptoms and heartburn, indigestion and reflux is one of them. If I am on the computer late at night or around to much artificial light I realized I start to get really bad attacks but as soon as I go into my newly completely dark room it suddenly just stops.
We have new black out curtains that make it completely dark and I also no longer cramp through the night when on cycle. I and the hubby are going to start properly practicing night lighting.
Also a final note, plantain chips worked to calm stomach problems or prevent them because I was told any form of a banana acts as an antacid, go figure right?
Thanks again for all your help and I hope me figuring this out helps someone else.
Do you eat tomatoes? I always have a reaction like this if I eat them.


text:
\section{Introduction}
Low-luminosity ($M_B>-18$~mag) quiescent galaxies are ubiquitous in galaxy clusters and groups \citep{SB84,FS88} but their origin and evolution still remains a matter of debate. Environmental phenomena such as ram pressure stripping by hot intracluster gas \citep{1972ApJ...176....1G} or frequent tidal interactions with neighbors \citep{1996Natur.379..613M} and internal processes \citep[e.g. supernovae feedback][]{1986ApJ...303...39D} can expel gas from a star-forming dwarf galaxy and turn it into a dwarf elliptical (dE). A sub-class of dwarf quiescent galaxies having enormous spatial extent up-to 10~kpc but low total stellar masses was identified by \citet{SB84} and then re-discovered 2 decades later by \citet{2015ApJ...804L..26V} and re-branded as ``ultra-diffuse galaxies'' (UDGs). It is still unclear whether UDGs and dEs as well as fainter dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies belong to the same class of a galaxy \citep{2018RNAAS...2a..43C} and share similar evolutionary paths or whether they represent different types with different formation scenarios.

Faint surface brightness levels severely limit our ability to study dwarf early-type galaxies. UDGs are the most extreme case: unlike dSphs they do not exist in the Local Group so we do not have the luxury of resolved stellar population studies. At the same time, we will be able to conclude the dE/UDG/dSph formation debate if we are able to: (i) probe the dark matter content along the luminosity and size range covering these galaxy types; (ii) probe stellar dynamics and measure the degree of rotational support; (iii) assess their stellar population properties and/or star formation histories.

To complement known dE/UDG samples, one can potentially identify ``future dEs/UDGs'' while their stars are still young and the surface brightness is high despite low stellar surface density and total stellar mass. We found 13 such spatially extended, young (stellar age $t<1.5$~Gyr) low-mass galaxies with no current star formation using the Reference Catalog of Spectral Energy Distributions of galaxies \citep[\url{http://rcsed.sai.msu.ru/};][]{RCSED}, 12 of which turned to be members of the massive galaxy clusters Coma and Abell~2147.

Here we describe our observational campaign aimed at studying the links between different classes of low-mass galaxies, present the data analysis approach and first results.

\section{Observational campaign and complementary archival data}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
 \includegraphics[width=0.8\textwidth]{coma_out_f_labels.pdf}
 \caption{The layout of Binospec slitmasks observed as of May/2019 in the Coma cluster region. The 4 masks shown in red were observed during commissioning and first months of operations in Dec/2017 -- Jun/2018. The 2 masks shown in blue are located in the area covered by archival HST observations; they were observed in May/2019.}
  \label{fig1_chil}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

To study the UDG--dE--dSph evolutionary connection one needs detailed information on internal dynamics (including dark matter) and stellar content of representative samples of objects of every galaxy type. While for dSphs there is a wealth of literature data presenting resolved stellar population studies of Local Group galaxies \citep[see e.g.][]{McConnachie12}, the situation with UDGs and dEs is far from ideal.

For our deep spectroscopic follow-up we use Binospec \citep{2019PASP..131g5004F}, a new dual-channel high-throughput multi-object spectrograph operated at the Cassegrain f/5 focus of the 6.5-m converted MMT at Mt.~Hopkins, Arizona. Binospec masks cover two 15$\times$7~arcmin fields of view (450$\times$210~kpc in the Coma cluster) separated by a 1.5~arcmin wide gap and can contain up-to 300 targets on every side of the mask. We modified the slitmask design procedure to allow for tilted slits so that we could obtain major and/or minor axis kinematics for many galaxies at once.

Our original observing program was a part of the commissioning and science verification of Binospec. It targeted 11 diffuse post-starburst ``future UDGs'' in the Coma and Abell~2147 clusters (5 slitsmasks) as primary targets to obtain their spatially resolved major axis kinematics. UDGs and dEs were filler targets and we did not align slits along their major axes. Then we started a dedicated follow-up program in May/2019 by specifically targeting dEs and UDGs in the central part of the Coma cluster \citep{Koda15} where archival Hubble Telescope Images are available. We placed slits along major and minor axes for several dozens of objects. The exposure times were between 2 and 4~h per pointing; we used the 1000~gpm grating providing a spectral resolving power $R=4800$ in the wavelength range between 3800 and 5400~\AA\ with a 0.37~\AA/pix sampling.

In total, we observed 8 slitmasks: six in the Coma cluster, one in Abell~2147, and one in the M~81 group, where we targeted the dwarf spheroidal galaxy KDG~64 (UGC~5442). It is spatially extended and quite luminous, which makes it the best UDG analog we can find in the very nearby Universe. In Figure~\ref{fig1_chil} we show the layout of Binospec slitmasks in the Coma cluster. In total, we targeted about 150 low-luminosity ($-18.0<M_B<-13.5$~mag) early-type galaxies in Coma and Abell~2147 including about 30 UDGs.

To complement our spectroscopic observations we use imaging in up-to 13 bands that cover ultraviolet (\emph{GALEX FUV}/\emph{NUV}), optical (SDSS/CFHT MegaPrime \emph{ugriz}), and near-infrared (CFHT WIRCAM \emph{J/Ks}; MMT MMIRS \emph{J/Ks}; Magellan FourStar \emph{JHKs}; Spitzer \emph{IRAC 3.6/4.5~$\mu$m}) spectral domains.  \emph{GALEX}, \emph{Spitzer}, \emph{CFHT}, and \emph{SDSS} datasets were retrieved from archives, while
FourStar \citep{Persson+13} and MMIRS \citep{McLeod+12} imaging was a part of our own observational program. With FourStar and MMIRS we used on-source exposure times of 8--12~min per filter split into short 10--30~sec dithered exposures. We reduced FourStar and MMIRS imaging using the {\sc fsred} and MMIRS data reduction pipelines \citep{Chilingarian+15} respectively.

\section{Data analysis}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
 \includegraphics[width=1.0\textwidth]{sp_plt_psg_110.pdf}\\
 \includegraphics[width=0.8\hsize]{110_params.pdf}
 \caption{Results of our data analysis applied to one of the ``future UDGs'' in the Coma cluster. Top row: the results of the {\sc NBursts+phot} spectrophotometric analysis (data and models are shown in black and red; Binospec spectrum on the left and SED on the right); middle row: an optical color image of a galaxy on the left; the stellar velocity dispersion profile (red) and its best-fitting Jeans model (black) on the right; bottom row: a map of confidence levels for the determination of the dynamical mass-to-light ratio and orbital anisotropy on the left and the stellar radial velocity profile (red) and its best-fitting Jeans model (black) on the right.}
  \label{fig2_chil}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

For every galaxy we need to obtain the following two key characteristics: (i) star formation history (SFH) and stellar mass-to-light ratio; (ii) internal kinematics and dynamical mass-to-light ratio. Then we will be able to measure the dark matter content and the degree of rotational support that will allow us to see which formation scenario agrees best with observations for that particular object.

Our data analysis includes three main components. (i) We fit science-ready Binospec spectra produced by the data reduction pipeline \citep{2019PASP..131g5005K} simultaneously with multi-wavelength broad-band $k$-corrected \citep{CMZ10,CZ12} photometric measurements against several grids of stellar population models using the {\sc NBursts+phot} spectrophotometric fitting technique \citep{Nburstsphot}, which recovers a parametric SFH and internal kinematics. We use {\sc miles} \citep{2015MNRAS.449.1177V} and {\sc pegase.hr} \citep{LeBorgne+04} simple stellar populations and more advanced models described in a companion paper \citep{PSGM_IAU355}. We use adaptive binning along the slit to reach sufficient signal-to-noise ratios for the analysis of kinematics (3--5 per bin per pixel) and stellar populations (7--12 per bin per pixel) (ii) We fit optical and near-infrared images using the {\sc galfit} code \citep{Peng10} with one or two S\'ersic components and then run their parameters through an {\sc idl} script described in \citet{Afanasiev+18} to perform a multiple Gaussian expansion (MGE). (iii) Then we feed the internal kinematics and MGE of a brightness profile to the Jeans Anisotropic Modelling (JAM) code \citep{Cappellari08} and derive the dynamical mass-to-light ratio and the radial anisotropy of stellar orbits in a galaxy.

In Figure~\ref{fig2_chil} we present an example of our data analysis approach applied to one of the 10 ``future UDGs'' in the Coma cluster. Thanks to deep observations and high surface brightness of the galaxy, we can reach as far as 3--4~kpc (2--2.5 half-light radii) in radial velocity and velocity dispersion profiles. That allows us to break the degeneracy between the mass-to-light ratio $(M/L)_{R,\mathrm{dyn}}=2.4\pm0.1$ and orbital anisotropy $\beta=0.22\pm0.08$. Combined with the stellar mass-to-light ratio $(M/L)_{R*}=0.39\pm0.06$ it yields the dark matter fraction within 2~$r_e$ of about 83$\pm$6~\%.

\section{First results}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\hsize]{udg_spectra_fjr.pdf}
    \caption{Top panels: examples of 3 spectra of Coma cluster UDGs collected with Binospec, their best-fitting templates and fitting residuals. Bottom panels: Faber--Jackson (left) and mass--metallicity (right) relations for early-type galaxies and compact stellar systems, the updated version of figure~3 from \citep{Chilingarian+19} where we included measurements for KDG~64.}
    \label{fig3_chil}
\end{figure}

The first results that we obtained from our observational campaign are stellar population and internal dynamics of 9 UDGs in the Coma cluster which prove their link to dwarf early-type galaxies \citep{Chilingarian+19}. This sample includes 7 UDGs from the \citet{Koda15} UDG catalog and 2 younger ``future UDG'' galaxies identified photometrically, which resemble UDGs in terms of stellar surface density but are not as young and bright as the 13 galaxies selected from RCSED mentioned earlier. Despite relatively low signal-to-noise ratios (see spectra in the top part of Figure~\ref{fig3_chil}), the data quality allowed us to detect radial velocity gradients using 4--7 measurements along the slit and obtain integrated velocity dispersion measurements and mean stellar population characteristics for 6 galaxies, while for the remaining 3 we obtained spatially resolved velocity dispersion profiles.

Even in this limited sample of only 9 galaxies we see a great diversity of observed properties: three of them exhibit major axis rotation, two others have highly anisotropic stellar orbits, and one either has a triaxial intrinsic shape or is currently undergoing a tidal interaction with a neighbor (it also hosts a luminous metal-rich intermediate-age nuclear star cluster). This situation resembles the sub-classes of dwarf elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster identified by \citet{2007ApJ...660.1186L} and, in fact, every one of the 9 UDGs can be assigned to one of the dE sub-classes. The estimated dark matter fractions lay in the range between 50 and 90~\%\ slightly exceeding the typical values in brighter cluster dEs.

We placed these 9 UDGs on the \citet{1976ApJ...204..668F} and mass--metallicity relations shown in the bottom part of Figure~\ref{fig3_chil} and compared them to the available literature data for giant and dwarf early-type and dSph galaxies \citep{1992ApJ...399..462B,Chilingarian+08,Chilingarian09,Mateo98}, compact stellar systems \citep{Chilingarian+09,Price+09,CCB08,CMHI11} and a few UDGs \citep{2018ApJ...859...37G,2018MNRAS.478.2034R,Danieli+19}. The 7 UDGs and 2 ``future UDGs'', if we predict their positions on the plots after 5~Gyr of passive evolution (see black arrows in Figure~\ref{fig3_chil}), fill the gap between dSph and dE galaxies, thus providing an additional argument for the evolutionary link between these classes. On the other hand, compact stellar systems (ultra-compact dwarf galaxies and more luminous compact ellipticals), which are known to form differently via tidal stripping of massive progenitors form a parallel sequence on the Faber--Jackson relation at 2.5 higher values of velocity dispersions. The compact nucleus of one of the UDGs (end of the red arrow in Figure~\ref{fig3_chil}) is located in the middle of the UCD loci on both relations, which might suggest that this galaxy is not a UDG but rather an ``under-stripped'' UCD.

In Figure~\ref{fig3_chil} we also display KDG~64 (Afanasiev et al. in prep.), a luminous dSph in the M~81 group, which exceeds by its size and luminosity all dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy and is almost as large as the Local Group dwarf ellipticals NGC~185 and NGC~147. It follows the same trends on both relations established by dwarf and giant early-type galaxies.

Our early results, therefore, suggest that the standard evolutionary paths of dEs (ram pressure stripping, galaxy harassment, supernovae feedback) can and probably should be applied to UDGs to explain their observed properties.

\acknowledgements
IC, KG, and AA acknowledge the Russian Science Foundation grant 19-12-00281.

\bibliographystyle{aasjournal}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
In which I receive a postcard
Cardinal Cox, the Poet Laureate of Peterborough, sent me a nice (i.e. terrifying yet oddly sexy) postcard thanking me for reviewing his excellent poetry pamphlet, Carrion Crimson. This will be formally launched at (or among) the World Horror Convention in Brighton next month. The Cardinal also kindly asks if he can help distribute flyers at the con. Not necessary, I reply, for my trusty leather-clad sidekick colleague, Kate Haynes, will be there, and will have a sheaf of flyers to distribute. These flyers are what we experts call 'commercial suicide' as they offer anyone who can simply fill in their name and address a free sample copy of ST. I must be mad. Mad, I tell you.
Oh, here's the postcard.
The writer David Surface (hello!) sends me a link to his excellent website, which is chock-full of stories, essays and much other stuff. There's a wonderful bit of nostalgia about the old black and white 'horror' films that, by modern standards, don't seem so much horrific as weirdly stylised - as if they've somehow been translated from some forgotten cinematic language. Which I suppose they have.
To this day I wonder who was the person at our local TV station who decided that 5:30 AM on Saturday was the perfect time to show every horror movie from the Universal Studios vault. The ungodly hour and the darkness contributed to my vague feeling that there was something subversive, almost indecent about these films. It did not occur to me that they'd been ghettoized, that these movies were (at the time) considered not classics, but garbage, filler between fishing shows and the morning news. But to me, the hour was holy.
Laying on that scratchy old living room rug in the pre-dawn dark, I saw for the first time not only classics like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman and The Mummy, but also lesser-known treasures like The Black Cat, The Raven, The Body Snatchers, The Son of Dracula, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Haunted Strangler, White Zombie.
Ah, yes, a few familiar names there. Cheap DVDs lying around in supermarkets these days (in the UK, anyhow) often seem to include a few of these. You can watch quite a few on YouTube, which is like an old-time TV set, only slightly worse. White Zombie is here. Bwahahahaha, and so on.
Moggy Mayhem
For Thornavis, and others - Susan Penhaligon, and everyone else who was ever in a British film in the Seventies. Plus a lorryload of pussy...
Lizard People?
Not, strictly speaking, half-lizard half people, but still pretty damn Fortean. Have a gander at this, on the excellent Strange Maps blog.
(LA Times, 29 Jan 1934)
By Jean Bosquet
Busy Los Angeles, although little realizing it in the hustle and bustle of modern existence, stands above a lost city of catacombs filled with incalculable treasure and imperishable records of a race of humans further advanced intellectually and scientifically than even the highest type of present day peoples, in the belief of G. Warren Shufelt, geophysical engineer now engaged in an attempt to wrest from the lost city deep in the earth below Fort Moore Hill the secrets of the Lizard People of legendary fame in the medicine lodges of the American Indian.
So firmly does Shufelt and a little staff of assistants believe that a maze of catacombs and priceless golden tablets are to be found beneath downtown Los Angeles that the engineer and his aides have already driven a shaft 250 feet into the ground, the mouth of the shaft being on the old Banning property on North Hill street overlooking Sunset Boulevard, Spring street and North Broadway.
Anyone read TED Klein's story 'Children of the Kingdom', collected in Dark Gods? A superb novella, all about blackouts, folklore and weird subterranean beings.
I love this underground stuff. Rather like airships and dinosaurs surviving up the jungle somewhere, the idea of strange subterranean cultures - living or dead - fascinates me. Ever since I read Journey to the Centre of the Earth, I've harboured the sneaking suspicion that something other than geophysics is going on Down There.
Of course, in an ideal world - or inside it - one would find a lost civilisation,Mesozoic flora and fauna, half-naked young tribal ladies and some actors.
Look! It's Peter Cushing and Trampas out of The Virginian!
A good Ronald Frame dramatisation of Daphne Du Maurier's original short story can be heard here.
Having just watched the 1972 movie, I was impressed by how well it was adapted for the screen. The strange events that take place in Venice are genuinely disturbing because there's none of the usual horror movie stuff. Instead there's the odd attitude of the bishop, the church restoration, the apparently dotty old ladies, confusion with Italian hotel staff etc. The climax is still insanely troubling.
Drag Met To Hell
It's not a drag! Gosh, what a witty opener. Sam Raimi's 2009 horror movie sort of passed me by at the time, but I've found a window in my immensely busy schedule to view that the young folk call a DVD of this cinematic offering. And I enjoyed it.
The basic structure of the movie bears a surely-not-accidental resemblance to that of Curse/Night of the Demon. We begin in 1969 by seeing someone literally dragged to hell by a demon, then we jump forward to find modern day bank worker Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) having a tough day. She is told by her boss that, if she wants to get that vital promotion, she needs to show she can be tough as well as smart and efficient. So - you guessed it - Miss Brown is tough with an old gypsy woman whose house is being repossesed. And wackiness ensues.
The basic conceit of M.R. James' 'Casting the Runes' is adhered to here, as in Jacques Tourneur's post-war classic. But in style and mood DMTH couldn't be more different. There's much OTT 'gross out' humour, for a start. Quite a few of the gorier, yuckier scenes depend on the very old gimmick of 'is it just a dream?' But there's enough going on to always keep your interest, and even surprise you. And the ending is a superb homage to the railway scene in C/NOTD.
Along the way we get plenty of thrills and spills, and more than a few good idea. For instance, Raimi underines the importance of blood sacrifice in traditional magic. Fresh blood pleases the demons/gods, as any classical fule kno. Secondly, the actual behaviour of the demon zeroing in on Christine is refreshingly old-fashioned, in that it behaves like the entities in medieval legends. It knocks her about and smashes her place up, basically.
Other good ingredients include an Indian mystic who takes credit cards, an ageing medium determined to beat the demon in a rematch, and Christine's boyfriend Clay (Justin Long), the rational academic who has to take this crazy stuff seriously. Another splendid performance comes from Lorna Raver as the sinister Mrs Ganush.
My only reservation is rather recondite, I suppose. It's made clear that the demon attacking Christine is called Lamia. Now we know that Lamia, or the Lamia, is not the conventional horned and hoofed demon of Christian fantasy. Lamia is traditionally represented as a snake-woman, and often rather beautiful when in non-ophidian mode. So why did Raimi, a reasonably bright chap, make such a mistake? Did something go wrong at the script-development stage? Was the demon originally supposed to be a snake woman?
Ah well. Here's a nudie picture. Of Lamia, I hasten to add.
This mini-series, helmed by critically-rated writer-director Joe Ahearne was shown on Channel 4 in 1998 and set an unusually high standard for a British horror-fantasy-thriller. As my terminology suggests, Ultraviolet is one of those genre-spanning jobs, and - having just watched it again after a good few years - seems all the better for it.
The plot is of a fairly familiar type. Honest London cop Mike Coleman (Jack Davenport) is at his best friend's stag night when he receives a call from an informer who claims his life is in danger. Mike reluctantly decides to help, but the informer is already dead by the time he finds him. The assailant - who has gunned his victim down in a busy amusement arcade - disappears. This is strange, as the killer apparently went into a Tube station, but doesn't appear on any CCTV footage.
Stranger still are events the following day, when Mike's friend Jack doesn't turn up to his wedding, putting a bit of a crimp in the day of the bride, Kirsty. Mike, the best man, is somewhat conflicted as he is carrying a torch for her. This will have consequences later on... Then a mysterious investigative unit takes over the case, and Mike finds himself investigating them, as they are not regular police.
By the end of episode one it's clear that Jack has become a vampire, though the term is never used in the series. Instead the special unit refers to them as Code Fives, from the Latin V. Geddit? The vampire-hunters are government-funded and equipped with interesting gizmos to tackle the undead. For instance, because vampires can't produce an image of any kind, they are not only invisible in mirrors but also can't be photographed. So the hunters have video cameras fixed to their guns, which fire special carbon bullets to provide a more effective 'stake' in the heart.
Ultraviolet, which ran to only six episodes, is refreshingly strong on both plotting and characterisation. Each of the vampire killers has his or her reason to fight the 'leeches', as they're dubbed. Thus Dr Angie March (Susannah Harker) was forced to kill her husband and one of her children because they were 'taken'. Ex-soldier Vaughan Rice (Idris Elba) saw his comrades taken in the first Gulf War. And the head of the special unit, Pearce Harman (Philip Quast), is a former(?) priest for whom the existence of supernatural evil seems to confirm the existence of God.
For their part, the vampires have a more interesting agenda than the usual freelance bitey/lurkey stuff. Indeed, as the series developes it becomes clear that a number of projects undertaken by the vamps are all part of a very dark and grand design. Some of the best plot twists relate to questions of how vampires might handle the pesky human habit of reproducing, getting awful diseases, and wrecking the ecosystem. Vampires, after all, have to take a very long view.
Sometimes the series is a bit too clever for its own good. The vampire not casting an image thing is smartly handled at first, and it makes sense that they also can't be heard on the phone (so they must use voice synthesiers). But then we're told you can't even take their fingerprints because that's an 'image' too. So does this mean I can't see a vampire because I wear glasses? Lenses form an image after all.
Such minor quibbles aside, though, Ultraviolet is one of the best UK horror-fantasy series of all time. If you enjoy clever stories and a rather grimly realistic approach to the vampire question, you might give it a try. You can watch it on Channel 4's YouTube thingy here.
Carrion Crimson
Right, I've read it now. As always, Cardinal Cox delights me with his erudition. Had you heard of the Vinca people, or the Dacian sage Zalmoxis? Playful, witty, and often moving, these poems are really not so much about vampires - though there's a full set of teeth here, never fear - but about our own strangely inhuman humanity. We are the monsters; creatures who cannot see ourselves in the mirror of the world. Monsters who subsist on the lifeblood of others, yet remain bloodless and heartless, and shrink from the sun.
God I'm morbid sometimes.
Anyway, here's a little extract from an atmospheric Wells tribute, 'Strange Orchids':
In the yellow of the evening light
Hothouse reveals a tumescent sight
Heady scent which invites to drowse
She fumbles buttons on her blouse
Warning: disturbing words like 'blouse' appear throughout these poems.
Apparently the Cardinal can now be found on Facebook, too. He's getting out there.
Pink?
Some of the usual US nutcases are up in arms over a ouija board. Not because it's pink - which seems to me very questionable - but because it might endanger the souls of children. This is reminiscent of poor, dead Dennis Wheatley's earnest admonitions to stay away from Satanism, because it can do you terrible damage. Your head spins round, green stuff flies out of your gob, and you are very rude to clergmen.
Which is why you should not buy your niece one of these to go with her Disney Occultist outfit...
Wow, that is pink. Here's what some bleating imbecile has to say about this piece of pretty pink nonsense.
"There's a spiritual reality to it and Hasbro is treating it as if it's just a game," said Stephen Phelan, communications director for Human Life International, which bills itself as the largest international pro-life organization and missionary worldwide. "It's not Monopoly. It really is a dangerous spiritual game and for [Hasbro] to treat it as just another game is quite dishonest."
Phelan, who has never played the game, said the Bible explicitly states "not to mess with spirits" and that using a Ouija board will leave a person's soul vulnerable to attack.
"All Christians should know, well everyone should, that it's opening up a person to attack, spiritually," he said. "Christians shouldn't use it."
Empty vessels maketh the most noise.
But I was slightly annoyed by all this for a different reason. I mean, until this story popped up I didn't even realise Hasbro made kiddy ouija boards. How feeble is that? I can't even keep up with the stuff that corrupts the young and hands their souls to Satan on a silver salver. Next thing you know I'll find that, in publishing ST, I'm not really doing the devil's work at all.
Oh well, let's have a seance. Note the young Patricia Routledge.
Vampire Poetry Pamphlet
Cardinal Cox has produced another pamphlet of poems, this time for the World Horror Convention, which is being held in Brighton next month.
This is me, holding up the review copy of Carrion Crimson.
Yeah, holding it up like a doofus. What's it to ya?
More on this later, because I just got in from work and I'll have to read the poems and stuff.
Thanks to the Cardinal for keeping me in the loop.
Cheap Books for Cheapskates Like Me
There's nothing nicer than dipping into books of short stories, is there? Well, nothing I can writre about here without being put behind one of those content warning thingies. And one undeniably good thing about modern publishing is there are firms that specialise in putting out cheap editions of ye olde stories that otherwise might be hard to obtain.
Which brings me to Wordsworth's nice series of Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural. I bought three paperbacks in the series for considerably less than a tenner. I employed an internet vendor which, as I must avoid advertising, I will call Orinoco.co.uk.
Two of the books are edited by Mark Valentine. Mark is also editor of the excellent journal Wormwood, which you can buy via Tartarus Press here. An erudite and very knowledgeable connoisseur of the supernatural tale, he's also an original and insightful author. The two books in question are The Werewolf Pack, and The Black Veil & Other Tales of Supernatural Sleuths. So far I'm enjoying both. In the werewolf book I was pleasantly surprised to come across a new tale by Steve Duffy, 'The Clay Party', which is one of those historical stories that actually works by making you forget that it's set in days of yore. It's fairly grisly, too - suffice to say it was inspired by the Donner Party, and leave it at that.
The third book is a collectiion of Robert E. Howard horror/thrillers entitled The Haunter of the Ring & other Tales. Now I would say that title is a tad unfortunate, but then I have a vulgar mind. Suffice to say that among the other stories in the book are less gigglesome titles such as 'The Black Stone', 'Skull-Face' or 'People of the Dark'. But there you go. I'm not familiar with Howard's work in the Lovecraft tradition, so this should be interesting.
There is one oddity about these Wordsworth jobs, though. The covers of the two books edited by Mark Valentine would, to the uninitiated, suggest that he is the author - there is 'edited by' above his name. I wonder why that is? Are they afraid they'll scare off people by even implying such a high-falutin', intellectual concept as editorship? Or is it simply cheaper not to bother? Have I failed to notice a significant new trend in publishing?
A Lovecraft Dream
With guest appearances by Creatures of Cosmic Nightmare and Eldritch Malarkey.


Team EVS riders were pumped up and ready to ride at this years Ponca City Grand National Championship, July 22nd – July 28th, 2007, in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Through hard work, determination, skill and endurance, our riders represented well as they brought home 16 championships and 16 podium positions. EVS is very proud of their athletes and the time and dedication they put in to achieve such success. Keep it up!


Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I hope all of you enjoyed whatever it is that makes you happy and allowed you to reflect on all the things for which you are thankful.
During this time of year, you can have your turkey, family squabbles, football, more football, and more turkey, but for me this is the time of the year I make my annual pilgrimage to the greatest show on earth—The Texas Renaissance Festival! In one place you'll find all the costumes, role playing, music, fire, food, ale, mead, turkey legs, and more than one could ever imagine (only if such an imagination is great and creative)!
Since I can't completely "turn it off" regarding work, and after regaling my new medieval brothers and sisters from yonder worlds of yore, I realized they have it figured out re happiness, and believe it or not, success to whatever extent one judges success. Simply put, they are "All In" and as such, there are things we can learn and apply to our daily lives at the castle or the place of plunder (work).
Dress to Impress – Each person dresses the part in a manner that makes you believe they are completely "in" regarding the characters they portray.
Happy – Yes, the ale and mead may help but show me a person at a Renaissance Fair who isn't smiling, and I'll show you someone who will be sent to the gallows.
Knowledgeable – Yes, sometimes the depths they go regarding what they know about the role and world they play can be disturbing to us mere mortals, but you discover when talking to them that very few could top these people in their chosen area or in many cases realms.
Money – I smite Disney Land/World for no place can fleece thou of your hard-earned silver. You'll find overpriced ale/mead, trinkets, tattoos that go away in 24 hours, and tips for everything as well at the Renaissance Festival, but it's presented in a manner where you really do not feel fleeced and are glad to oblige.
Do you see how some of these traits can apply to your daily lives at home or work? I am not saying you should change into a Pirate/Barbarian/Warlock/Alien Doctor and go to the office, but the commitment to the Renaissance role these people convey can be applied to your own wonderful lives. With that, I bid thee farewell!


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4 Years Ago This Week We Decided to Launch the SaaStr Annual. What We've Learned.
by Jason Lemkin | Blog Posts, Growth, Marketing, SaaStr Events
As we gear up for the 5th SaaStr Annual, with an expected 12,000+ attendees, 100+ top tier sponsors, and 3+ days of content across 5+1 stages (phew!), I was looking back for our team meeting and trying to assemble what we've learned, and found this first tweet from almost exactly 4 years ago:
Waaay back in 2014, the type of content at SaaStr.com, on Quora, and at our events was still novel. Fast forward to today, and there is an amazing amount of B2B-centric content out there, and many others have put together amazing events around the hard-learned lessons of scaling revenue and scaling SaaS companies. But all this was pretty novel back in 2014. No one in the "next generation" had IPO'd yet (Aaron Levie came to the first SaaStr Annual a little more than a week after Box's IPO), Unicorn rounds were close to unheard of (Atlassian had raised $60m at $400m valuation!! woah!! everyone couldn't believe it), and Slack was a cool little app some of us had just fallen in love with.
But we decided it was a good idea, and a few weeks later, planned the first-ever full day, non-vendor SaaS event. It was awesome, with Aaron Levie, Stewart Butterfield, David Sacks (fresh off Yammer's acquisition for $1b+, which seemed so high at the time), Leyla Seka from Salesforce, David Ulevitch from OpenDNS (who sold to Cisco just a few months later for $800m, which again seemed enormous at the time), etc.
Fast forward to today, 4 years later and half-way to our 5th SaaStr Annual and everything is just so much bigger. Dozens of IPOs. 200+ Unicorn rounds, 50+ in B2B. Cloud companies like Hubspot, Zendesk, New Relic and more are worth $5b+. Atlassian is worth almost $20b. Salesforce $100b.
SaaStr as an organization has scaled along with it, and had its own growing pains. Our first two years we outsourced the event to a great partner (thank you Max!!), and didn't have to worry too much about operations. So we had a net budget — and revenues — of $0. Today, we're managing a $10,000,000+ budget with a $14,000,000+ plan and a model for $24,000,000 in 2019. All with a very lean team. That's a lot of change in 4 years.
Some meta-lessons from the journey so far:
Your Super Fans Carry You for A Long, Long Time. The Annual this year will be big enough (12,000+) that we really do need to attract attendees outside of the core, long-time SaaStr.com readers. But until this year, we've sold tickets to our events almost entirely through our list. And our list is tiny — it's only about 40,000 names. But the names we do have, are of very high quality. They come. So my learning here is, triple down on your happy customers, your most engaged users, your super fans. They scale farther, and carry you further, than you might imagine.
Build On Top of Your Strengths. Then — Add Layers. We will close 100+ sponsors this year for Annual and Europa, but until Q4 of 2017, all of it was from inbound. We just started to add outbound to sponsor sales in the fall of 2017. But it did work — we closed $400k of outbound in just a few months. This year, probably $1.5m-$2m will come from outbound. But it took us time. We were much better at inbound. So building on our strengths (and not beating ourselves up where we were weaker) was key once again.
You Need To Materially Improve Every Year, And Probably Re-Boot Every 4-5 Years. When we started doing content at meet-ups in 2014 and then the Annual in 2015, no one had ever done content and events like this. But that was a long time ago. Our 4th SaaStr Annual in 2018 represented the perfection of that formula — 5 amazing stages, 3+ days, with all the best speakers we wanted, tons of unicorns (CEOs of Slack, Atlassian, Box, Coupa, Blackline, Intercom, you name it) — and 60%+ women and multicultural speakers. Now though, it's time to reboot it. We've moving on to mentorship as a key next frontier. Now that there is so much amazing content out there (vs a dearth back in 2012-2014), we've more and more focused on enabling very high quality connections between attendees. This is hard at scale, but it's time to reboot things for the next 5 years. Once you've finally perfected your initial goal and formula … that's probably the time to be rolling out the new one.
Bootstrapping Really is Different — At Least Until You Are At Scale. In many ways, SaaStr is a bootstrapped business. No outside capital, no salary taken by founder, etc. In Year 5, we're big enough now that the differences between bootstrapped and non-bootstrapped start to fade. But you really do underinvest in a bootstrapped business, it really does take longer, and importantly, you tend to write off negative-margin and low margin revenue. This is my first bootstrapping experience. I have even more respect for it now. It takes longer.
It Never Gets Easier. But — You Get Better. We wrote this SaaStr post a few years back on how it never really gets easier, and now I'm reliving it again. Putting on the Annual actually isn't easier this year than the last one. It's even harder each year in fact. But now at least, we know. We know what to do. We know what works, what doesn't, what the schedule should be, what resources we need. We know how to make a great experience, what impacts that, what sponsors want, what speakers want, etc. Going on Year 5, we have become experts in our little niche. It's no less work. But we sweat strategy and execution more, and mysteries less.
And for the subset of you in events, a few key lessons in this micro-niche:
All that matters is the attendees, in the end. If you have great attendees, the rest comes together. Speakers will want to speak. Sponsors will want to sponsor. Etc. etc. Those parts are hard, too. But there are so, so many events in the world and in the Bay Area in particular. The special part is getting a sizeable community to come together. Figure that part out, and the rest will follow.
Dis-economies of scale are tough lessons to learn. As events scale, they get more expensive per attendee. This was a tough lesson to learn. Multi-day events are far more expensive than single day events. So stay single day as long as you can. And beyond that, the bigger the venue, the more expensive everything gets, which is non-obvious. Food + Beverage costs per attendee go way up — not down. A/V costs go way up in bigger venues. We spent $1,200,000 all-in on A/V for the 2018 Annual alone!! Very few events get big enough to escape this valley of pain from low-cost 250-1,000 person events to larger events where you can get some scale (7,000+). The valley in between is full of much higher costs without enough revenue to offset them.
NPS everything. NPS your attendees, sponsors, speakers, everything. Like any NPS, you will be surprised. Easier events are easier to do well on. Our first SaaStr Europa this year in Paris had our highest NPS ever. But it was a relatively easy 1-day event to pull off for 1,600.
Domain experts are really hard to find in super-niches. It's hard enough to find domain expertise in general, but how many senior folks have experience running 10,000+ person, non-vendor events that can't lose millions of dollars? Not that many. You have to give more here, in a super nichey space. Events at scale are super-nichey.
Community first. That's your recurring revenue stream. Attendees are all that matters, but it's your community that drives it. We don't sell speaking slots (almost everyone does). We don't slot manels or boring sessions or vendor commercials. We won't put on anything we wouldn't truly want to attend. This is hard. It's much easier to do a cut-and-paste event. But don't. Stay authentic. And put community first. If you do, you'll actually have a recurring revenue stream. For real. We'll have 750+ attendees this year that are on their 4th Annual, and probably 2,500+ returning from last year, maybe more. And 70% of our sponsors renew year-after-year. That's not SaaS. But it is revenue that nurtured and cared for, does renew. In Year 5, and beyond.
See you in February at the biggest, best-est SaaStr Annual ever! It's just getting good in Year 5!! And we're already planning Years 6-10!
Founder SaaStr
The Way to Go VIP to the SaaStr Annual: Subscribe to SaaStr Pro
4 Booths Left at 2018 SaaStr Annual
Veterans Come to SaaStr Europa and SaaStr Annual at No Cost


text:
The Scuderia Toro Rosso STR13 is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by Scuderia Toro Rosso to compete in the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley, both of whom were retained by the team after contesting selected events in 2017. The STR13 made its competitive début at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix and is the first car built by Scuderia Toro Rosso to use a Honda engine after the team agreed to end its engine partnership deal with Renault to allow the French manufacturer to partner McLaren.

Design and development

Engine partnership
In September 2017, McLaren Honda announced they were terminating their partnership with effect from the close of the 2017 season. During negotiations to secure a new supplier, Renault disclosed that they did not have the capacity to supply McLaren whilst meeting their commitments to customer teams Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso. As part of a discussion between Renault, McLaren, Toro Rosso and Red Bull, Toro Rosso announced it would end their customer relationship with Renault and instead form a factory works partnership with Honda in a deal lasting through to 2021.

Engine development
In a departure from the last three seasons with McLaren, at pre-season testing in Barcelona, Honda showed significant progress with its power unit completing the second highest lap tally of 93 in the first day without any issue with Brendon Hartley at the helm. The second day of testing went just as well, with STR completing 82 laps, the third highest tally again with no issue, this time with Pierre Gasly in the driver's seat. At the close of the first test, Toro Rosso topped the total mileage charts finishing off with Pierre Gasly completing 147 laps on the final day, this showed that Honda with Toro Rosso, had completed more laps in week one than Honda had completed with McLaren in the entire test fortnight in 2017. Following the close of testing, driver Brendon Hartley claimed the Honda PU was easier to drive and felt more powerful than the units supplied by Renault at the end of last season.

Following a PU failure in Pierre Gasly's car during the Australian GP following a hit from a curb, Honda revealed he had suffered from an MGU-H failure, an issue which was well known to be Honda's achilles heel for the last few years. Honda responded with a fix to the issue making note that both drivers were still using the flawed 2017 MGU-H as the brand new system they had developed for the 2018 power unit was not going to be ready in time for the first round, from Bahrain both drivers took the new MGU-H specification, however Gasly required an entire new PU due to collateral damage caused from the MGU-H failure in Australia.
After making significant progress with the PU mapping during the practice sessions at Bahrain, Pierre Gasly managed a 6th place during qualifying which he was able to turn into a 4th-place result during the race. This was the highest finishing position for Honda since returning to F1 in 2015.

At the Canadian GP, Honda debuted its Spec 2 PU which they revealed was focused on developments to the ICE with the aim of improving power without compromising reliability, it is believed the area of improvement was around the cylinder head, specifically the combustion chamber design. The update was praised by driver Pierre Gasly who noted it was immediately more driveable and punchier than the previous iteration. Comparisons in lap times during practice between the previous unit and the updated unit were showing a near 0.5-second improvement at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Honda claimed the unit should only improve with further analysis and adjustments made to the mapping as the season progresses, however after an initially strong debut for the upgrade, reliability issues appeared on Pierre Gasly's PU which Honda remarked seemed to be isolated issues not related to the upgrade and would investigate further.

After several lacklustre performances at a variety of track layouts, Toro Rosso said they were trying to figure out their entire package with correlation issues on the aero updates and even Honda's upgraded unit and what its actual potential could be as it seemed to run reliably but was sensitive to conditions and track layout. Red Bull's race director Christian Horner, who announced that Red Bull Racing had signed a 2-year engine supply deal with Honda starting from 2019 to replace Renault, citing Honda's enormous improvement in Canada showing great potential in their development pace, claimed the Honda and Renault PU were within 1% of each other in race trim.

Honda's F1 Technical Director, Toyoharu Tanabe, made mention that Honda's PU upgrade plan for 2018 was on track and going well and that with the introduction of Spec 2 in Canada and its subsequent improvements in the following races they were focused sharply on the Spec 3 upgrade which has since been revealed to be a brand new combustion process in which Honda plans to patent (further details Honda refuses to divulge), a redesigned MGU-K and battery, with a tentative debut around the Russian Grand Prix.

After showing promising pace amongst the midfield with strong finishes at both the Belgian and Hungarian Grand Prix, while also demonstrating relative strength at power sensitive circuits such as Spa and Monza where the team believed they may struggle, following the Italian GP at Monza, German publication Auto Motor und Sport released a report claiming they had calculated an estimate for the power figures of each manufacturer using the latest GPS data gathered from Monza. The data revealed Honda's Spec 2 PU, which debuted in Canada, to produce 715 hp without electrical assistance, which put it ahead of Renault's Spec B used by the Renault works team and McLaren, however behind by a margin of 15 hp to Renault's newly introduced Spec C PU (Italian GP) which is only utilised by Red Bull Racing. However AMuS also reported that Honda had made great strides with the development of their Spec 3 PU with initial tests suggesting a power output of around 750 hp and that it may be ready for introduction at the Russian GP in Sochi, two race weekends earlier than planned.

At the Russian GP, Honda debuted their much anticipated Spec 3 PU in the practice sessions. Initial comments from the drivers were highly promising, both describing a noticeable jump in outright power. As the practice sessions progressed, Honda kept improving the mapping, finding more power each outing. Towards the end, the drivers noted that there was some fairly prominent vibrations on upshift with the new unit and despite the power increase, was disconcerting to continue driving it. Post practice, Honda told media representatives the engine had provided more power than originally expected so early on, however this had a knock on effect when paired to the STR gearbox in the car. Honda then opted to revert to the Spec 2 units for the rest of the Russian GP while engineers from Toro Rosso and Honda made further refinements to the Spec 3 at Milton Keynes in order to have the engine competition ready by next round in Japan (Honda's home race).

At the Japanese GP, STR made the competitive debut with the brand new Spec 3 unit. Honda claimed to of made even further improvements since the last GP after spending much of the time between refining the unit on the dyno. The results on track reflected the claims, with qualifying proving to be one of Honda's best results since returning to F1, both cars making it to Q3 to place 6th and 7th respectively.

Toro Rosso finished ninth in the Constructors' Championship, scoring just 33 points throughout the whole season - the team's worst season since 2012.

Personnel
In January 2018, the team announced that their Head of Aerodynamics, Brendon Gilhorne, would be leaving the team.

Complete Formula One results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

 Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed over 90% of the winner's race distance.

Notes

References

External links

Toro Rosso Formula One cars
2018 Formula One season cars


Villagers are to evaluate ways of running Gislingham's only pub.
Six Bells in High Street is on the market and its owners have offered it to the village to run.
A public meeting on April 10 was attended by 120, who voiced approval of the proposal. A board will be set-up to find ways of making the project viable.
There is no danger of the pub closing and it may continue under the current set-up.