I met Paul and Rose's daughter, Collette and now son-n-law, David on a SCUBA diving trip 4 years ago. During that trip, David and Collette got engaged. I had taken a camera on the vacation with me so was able to offer them an engagement portrait session while on the island! Now, 4 years later, Collette's parents, Paul and Rose, are celebrating their 69th wedding anniversary and I was Collette reached out to me about a portrait session for them.
To call this portrait session a joy would be an understatement. Paul is one heck of a storyteller and Rose has a one for each one of his! When I put them together in front of the camera, they both lit up in the most beautiful way. I could try to describe it for you but the images will explain it far better than I ever can.
Your talent is clear, but what subjects, you lucky guy!


text:
Enterprise Investment
The Quantum Computing Summit
Big Tech News
Transforming How We View And Navigate The World: What Are The First Applications Of Quantum Computers?
Engineers have been talking about quantum computing—the ability to do computing on bits that show quantum entanglement and thus can potentially be on and off at the same time—for decades. In recent years, that promise has gotten closer to reality as a result of the development of quantum annealing systems like those manufactured by D-Wave, the general purpose quantum processors being developed by companies such as IBM and Intel, and attempts to create new programming languages designed for quantum computing.
At CES earlier this month, Intel announced it had a system with 49 qubits—or bits that have existed in a quantum state—in a partnership with Netherlands-based Qutech. This new system, called Tangle Lake, is a big step up from just two months ago, when the company announced a 17-qubit system.
But some were more interested to see IBM's display of its quantum computing progress, as the company had recently announced a 50-qubit system, and perhaps more importantly, has some general quantum computing devices that its customers can actually use.
IBM Research Labs
IBM Research's Jeff Welser who helped design this 50 Qubit prototype describes how it works. Source PC Magazine.
What's actually available to developers and researchers right now is a 16-qubit version of the machine that is accessible through a website, as well as a 20-qubit version that specific customers can use, including partners such as JSR and Hitachi Metals. These systems are actually housed at IBM's research facility in Yorktown Heights, NY. The 50-qubit version is expected to be available to partners later this year.
It's not only the number of qubits that matters, Welser said, but the amount of time the system is in "coherence" to generate results. In practice, he said, you run the same calculations multiple times and average the results. The combination of the number of qubits, the number of simultaneous entanglements, and the error rate creates the "quantum volume" that is really important for solving problems.
Welser claimed that with a 50-100 qubit system, users will be able to do things that aren't possible with conventional computers.
Quantum computing is not the kind of thing that will impact most organizations for another few years, but the presentation at CES offered a fascinating glimpse into some specific applications that will shortly be possible, as well as a possible future for more general computing.
Welser said the first real application is likely to be material analysis using quantum chemistry, and in particular the simulation of different kinds of polymers and new alloys. That's because you can simulate weight, strength, and other properties, which was previously an effort that involved a lot of trial and error. Quantum computers excel in this area because they can untangle the complexities of molecular and chemical interactions.
Other possible applications for systems with limited numbers of qubits include deep learning, because error correction isn't as important.
You often hear about how quantum computing can break many of today's encryption algorithms. Welser acknowledges that may be the case, but said you'd need a million-qubit system to do so, meaning this won't be a real problem for many years. (In the meantime, lots of organizations are working on deploying algorithms that won't be affected; the hope is that these new algorithms will be in place before the quantum computers are ready.)
Ultimately, as was demonstrated at CES 2018, quantum computing won't replace our everyday laptops and smart phones but it's capacity to solve complex problems will open up a whole universe of information, transforming our view on the world and the way we navigate it.
IBMQ is Global
IBM's Q Research has gone global: 12 labs on six continents are collaboration hubs where more than 3,000 researchers cross-pollinate ideas that lead to major breakthroughs in quantum computing.
Welcome to Quantum Business.org! The first and largest news portal covering the quantum computing revolution. We are on the pulse for all things quantum! We want to find out what the technology could offer your organisation and what the short term investment opportunities are. For more information on content creation and the opportunity to contribute, please contact Hal Briggs, Chief Editor of Quantum Business – henry@aibusiness.com
Reference: PC Magazine
Quantum Applications
Quantum Computing Cloud Platform Released In China
Quantum Bitesize: 15 Things You Should Know About Quantum Computing
Accenture Labs and 1QBit Work To Accelerate Drug Discovery
A Quantum Leap in Cryptography: Interview with Grégoire Ribordy From ID Quantique
UK Announces Plan To Lead Second Revolution In Quantum Technologies
A Vibrant UK Ecosystem Is Fertile Ground For Quantum Commercialisation
Quantum Simulation Is Pushing Forward Rapidly. "It's Fun To Watch"
Big Tech News (40)
Enterprise Investment (20)
Quantum Computing Summit (1)
The IBM Quantum Community Is Taking Us Towards A New Era Of Computing
Quantum Technology Flagship: Europe Commits To A Quantum Future
Intel Unveils 49-Qubit Quantum Computing Chip at CES 2018
Sydney University 'Hack' Could Unleash Quantum Computing
What Are The Business Opportunities Of Quantum Computing? Google Researchers Explore More
D-Wave Systems Are Tackling The Hardest Computational Problems Today: Interview With Alan Baratz, SVP Of Software Applications
The Quantum Era Is Set to Trigger a Computing Revolution
Harnessing Nature: The Future Of Quantum Computing With Vasil Denchev From Google
Intel's Rich History Puts Them In Poll Position To Advance Quantum Computing Toward Commercialisation
Quantum Over The Cloud: You May Never Own A Quantum Computer, But IBM Will Let You Use One
A New Physics Discovery Could Change The Game For Quantum Computing
Cyber Security For The Quantum Era: Interview With Jaya Baloo From KPN Telecom
© 2016 Futurum Media. All Rights Reserved.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package com.redditme.fontawesome;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Typeface;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.util.LruCache;
import android.widget.TextView;

/**
 * Created by Johannes on 03-12-2015.
 */
public class TextAwesome extends TextView {

    private final static String NAME = "FONTAWESOME";
    private static LruCache<String, Typeface> sTypefaceCache = new LruCache<String, Typeface>(12);

    public TextAwesome(Context context) {
        super(context);
        init();

    }

    public TextAwesome(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        init();
    }

    public void init() {

        Typeface typeface = sTypefaceCache.get(NAME);

        if (typeface == null) {

            typeface = Typeface.createFromAsset(getContext().getAssets(), "fontawesome-webfont.ttf");
            sTypefaceCache.put(NAME, typeface);

        }

        setTypeface(typeface);

    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Bariatric surgery is a medical intervention modifying the stomach and sometimes, portions of the alimentary canal to help individuals struggling with extreme obesity to lose weight. Bariatric surgery is usually recommended to people who possess a body mass index (BMI) of 40 and above. Surgery is also an option for patients with lower BMI (less than 40) but who have associated health problems like type-2 diabetes or High blood pressure.
There are two types of Bariatric surgery, restrictive and malabsorptive/restrictive surgeries. Restrictive surgeries involve physically restricting the size of the stomach. Malabsorptive/restrictive surgeries, on the other hand, are more invasive and entail not only the restriction of the stomach but also the rerouting of the intestine to bypass parts of the digestive tract. This greatly affects the body's ability to absorb calories, resulting in weight loss.
After bariatric surgery, the amount of food your body ingests diminishes. Therefore, the doctors will recommend dietary changes to ensure appropriate nutrition intake to stay healthy while losing weight and reach your set goals. Essentially, your diet should include a variety of foods in the proper ratios to help you obtain sufficient protein, while limiting fats and carbohydrates, and be rich in vitamins, and minerals.
It is important that bariatric patients adhere to all stipulations regarding protein, fat, sugar and overall calories for weight-loss success. In addition, the success of a bariatric surgery revolves around eating correctly, right after surgery and for the rest of your life.
As you begin post-surgery life, it is important you keep focused on meeting the additional nutritional requirements required due to your reduced stomach and limited absorption of nutrients for those having a malabsorptive procedure. Also, it is important to avoid snacking or 'grazing' between meals.
Since the body cannot store protein, it is important to ensure you consume a sufficient supply to help repair and replace worn-out or damaged tissues. The daily recommended amount is 60 grams of protein per day.
With a reduced stomach, it may be difficult to ingest sufficient amounts of Vitamins and minerals for the wellbeing of your body. Take daily doses of a high potency multivitamin/mineral supplement with iron, in addition to calcium and vitamin B12.
After bariatric surgery, it is important to cut down on the fats and sugars consumed, to avoid experiencing 'Dumping Syndrome'. Dumping syndrome causes symptoms like profound nausea, abdominal cramping, profuse sweating and rapid heartbeats. Foods to avoid are sugar rich foods such as candies, fruit juice, and soda, as well as high fat meats and fried foods.
Some of these recipes can be modified to suit individual tastes and preferences. They contain the high levels of protein needed by the body after a bariatric surgery and moderate amounts of fats and carbohydrates.
This supercharged meal contains 1 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt, ½ cup protein fortified oats, ½ cup protein fortified skim milk, and 1 cup fresh mixed berries. Blend the milk and yogurt and pour into popsicle molds, divide berries and oats evenly into each mold. Place wooden ice cream stick into each mold and place in the freezer for 4 hours. Makes 6 servings with all the right mixture of nutrients your body needs.
Chicken Caprese is a delicious meal that packs just the right of protein and calories for you. Savor the taste of a combination of one pound boneless and skinless chicken breasts, a tablespoon of olive oil, 4 thick slices of ripe tomato, 4 one ounce slices of mozzarella cheese, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons thinly sliced basil. To prepare, drizzle olive oil over the chicken and sprinkle Italian seasoning over the chicken. Place chicken on grill and cook 3-5 minutes on each side until done. Top each breast with a slice of mozzarella cheese and cook until cheese melts. Remove from heat and place chicken breast on pate then top with tomato slice, basil, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.
Let this meal combination of 1 cup tasty corn, 2 16oz cans of black beans (rinsed and drained), 2 tablespoons minced red onions, ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons Olive oil, 1 teaspoon honey and 1 teaspoon garlic keep you healthy and, on the path, to achieving your weight goals. To prepare mix corn, black beans, red onion, parsley together in a large mixing bowl. Whisk balsamic vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, honey, salt and pepper together, then pour over black bean and corn mixture and let marinade for 30 minutes before serving.


text:
Love in the Big City
by Sang Young Park Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
A funny, transporting, surprising, and poignant novel that was one of the highest selling debuts of recent years in Korea, Love in the Big City tells the story of a young gay man searching for happiness in the lonely city of Seoul
Imprint Grove Hardcover
Page Count 240
ISBN-13 978-0-8021-5878-9
Dimensions 5.5" x 8.25"
US List Price $26.00
Sang Young Park was born in 1988 and studied French at Sungkyunkwan University. He worked as a magazine editor, copywriter, and consultant for seven years before debuting as a novelist. The title story of his bestselling short story collection, The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta, was one of Words Without Borders' most read pieces ever. He lives in Seoul.
Read More About Sang Young Park
Love in the Big City is the English-language debut of Sang Young Park, one of Korea's most exciting young writers. A runaway bestseller, the novel hit the top five lists of all the major bookstores and went into nine printings. Both award-winning for its unique literary voice and perspective, and particularly resonant with young readers, it has been a phenomenon in Korea and is poised to capture a worldwide readership.
Love in the Big City is an energetic, joyful, and moving novel that depicts both the glittering nighttime world of Seoul and the bleary-eyed morning-after. Young is a cynical yet fun-loving Korean student who pinballs from home to class to the beds of recent Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female best friend and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their anxieties about their love lives, families, and money with rounds of soju and ice-cold Marlboro Reds that they keep in their freezer. Yet over time, even Jaehee leaves Young to settle down, leaving him alone to care for his ailing mother and to find companionship in his relationships with a series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness, and another who might end up being the great love of his life.
A brilliantly written novel filled with powerful sensory descriptions and both humor and emotion, Love in the Big City is an exploration of millennial loneliness as well as the joys of queer life, that should appeal to readers of Sayaka Murata, Han Kang, and Cho Nam-Joo.
Watch Sang Young Park presenting the novel at the Korea Society:
Tags Literary Gay Coming of Age Urban
Praise for Love in the Big City:
Named a Best LGBTQ+ Book of the Year by BuzzFeed
"Intoxicating . . . In Park's hands, Young is loud and obnoxious, insufferable and magnetic, messy and wise. The prose, translated by Anton Hur, reads like an iPhone screen, vibrant and addictive. What a joy it is to see such a profound exploration of contemporary queer life — its traumas and its ecstasies throbbing in harmony. It's a shimmering addition to the recent genre of novels chronicling queer millennial malaise . . . Dazzling."—Bobby Finger, New York Times Book Review
"An exuberant hunger drives the characters of Love in the Big City, people who are young, broke and eager to indulge in the many pleasures of Seoul, be they carnal or culinary . . . There's a generosity and biting humor that imbues his stories, with glittering descriptions that render our food-and-drink-obsessed culture in liquid-crystal high definition . . . Hur, the book's translator, manages to preserve that rhythm in English through a flawless, breezy millennial vernacular that veers artfully between slang like 'dickmatized' and poetic ruminations on 'the taste of the universe' within the span of a single chapter. The delicious, unbridled joy in Park's depiction of queer Korean life is revolutionary and fun as hell to read."—Hannah Bae, Eater
"Translated by Anton Hur with startling immediacy, Park's English language debut—as framed by this unforgettable scene—captures the ambiguous landscape inhabited by South Korean gays, of being both visible and unacknowledged . . . While reading Love in the Big City, I would use Google Maps to follow Young and Gyu-ho's meandering walks through Seoul—their favorite city—where the names of various neighborhoods take on the quality of hypnotic prayer . . . By invoking these specific locations, Park—who calls himself a 'citizen-writer'—has poetically mapped out a normalizing zone for his gay protagonists so they can overcome the dichotomy between safety and exposure, public and private."—Thúy Đinh, NPR
"A vibrant and emotional breath of fresh air that tackles queer relationships, living with HIV, and coming of age in Seoul across four sections that follow the narrator through different stages of early adulthood. It's hard to think of a more beautiful and earnest reflection on identity, growth, and pain through a queer lens than this book."—Queerty
"A novel, told through relationships, about navigating life as a young gay man in Korea . . . The novel skips freely around in time, lending it a sense of propulsion and instability that feels entirely intentional. It's anchored, however, by the narrator's irresistible voice, which alternates between earnest, heartfelt emotion, and likable wryness . . . This book will sweep readers up in its sheer longing. An addictive, profound novel."—Kirkus Reviews (starred reviews)
"Park's stunning English-language debut takes readers through the wild highs and lows of young adulthood . . . The strength of the narrator, notably his flexibility of voice and expansiveness, caries the narrative to great heights, making this a standout among queer literature. Brilliant, glowing, and fun, Hur's translation succeeds in bringing Park's effervescent voice to English-reading audiences."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A lightly comical and insightful tale . . . Offers readers honest characterizations of flawed individuals from different walks of life who are all looking to find contentment regardless of their circumstances. Park's writing is introspective and relatable, and the broad-ranging themes make this a good candidate for book group discussions."—Library Journal
"A bestseller in Korea for being a significant (and rare!) gay novel, Park's lost-love(s) narrative is also a universal literary beacon for readers of all backgrounds."—Terry Hong, Booklist
"As Young grows, yearns, and makes messy mistakes, readers will find themselves rooting for him all the way until the brilliant end."—The Millions ("Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2021 Book Preview")
"A surprise bestseller in Korea, Sang Young Park's electric English-language debut perfectly captures the neon-lit potential of youthful nights."—Michelle Hart, Oprah Daily
"Sang Young Park is my new favorite writer, as in his work we see life in modern Korea in what I think of as a fuller way, due to the inclusion of queer lives there. This novel is bawdy, hilarious, heartbreaking, fearless."—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
"Love in the Big City is a light-streaked and dazzling novel about all the messy riots of young life. This novel made me want to dance all night and fall in love. Sang Young Park writes honestly, tenderly, and with irresistible humor and charm. I miss his characters already."—Brandon Taylor, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Real Life
"I am completely smitten with Young, the brutally honest protagonist of Sang Young Park's exciting new novel, Love in the Big City. This is a book that reveals its depths slowly, carefully offering details which resonate throughout the entire work. I loved growing older with Young, and I was continually surprised by his capacity for love and disappointment. This is rich, brilliant territory that will move queer literature forward."—Garrard Conley, New York Times-bestselling author of Boy Erased
"I love this book. I couldn't stop talking about it with my friends while I was reading it. My friends are smart, queer, long suffering, badly loved even when they are in relationships, economically oppressed, urban, have straight best friends, get fat, are overly attached to their mothers, nursed their dying mother, have lots of sex, have no sex. Got a job and hated it, got more education, met someone in class, are obsessed with that person even though they are not interested in my friend at all. This writer, Sang Young Park, is one of my friends and everyone wants to read this book. We're happy, we're suffering, the condition is global."—Eileen Myles, author of Afterglow
"A wickedly funny and unforgettable meditation on love and loss and the struggle to feel and ultimately find ourselves, Love in the Big City is a delicious exploration of both the bitchiness and banalities of surviving modern life. Park has crafted one of the most fervent and entertaining novels I've read in a long time. I couldn't put this book down."—Nancy Jooyoun Kim, author of The Last Story of Mina Lee
"Sang Young Park's sharp, funny picaresque follows Young, our charming hero, through his rakish college days and into his still-insouciant thirties, as he drifts through boyfriends, jobs, friends, and most of all, through Seoul. Among the many pleasures of this wonderful novel are Young's running commentaries about work, class, sex, queer domestic life, contemporary Korean family dynamics, and the literary world he finds himself in. I'm obsessed with this book."—Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
"How could a story be as intense as this, as fresh as this? Page after page, we discover contradictory emotions that are both surprising and beautiful. I was so eager to read on that my fingers turned each new page before I'd finished the last. I hope he writes another novel that inspires such hard and fast intimacy."—Kyung-Sook Shin, author of Please Look After Mom
"Sang Young Park's English-language debut about a young gay man in Seoul is devastating, but in the warmest way possible. Throughout the four sections of the book, you can't help but wish for happiness for Young as he's growing and yearning. He's messy, intelligent, and relatable, and Love in the Big City feels like a story being shared with a close confidant. Although Park's been likened to Han Kang and Nam-Joo Cho, he's really his own voice, and we can only hope to have more writers compared to him in the future."—Elaine Cho, Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle, WA)
"A leading author of Korean queer literature and the hottest name of the moment."—The Hankyoreh
"I cried when I got to the end. As cliched as it sounds, reading this book made me feel that 'this summer night, this big city, because of you' I could believe in love again."—Brunch.co.kr
"Love in the Big City is a compelling novel that deserves to be widely read. It expands our expectations and assumptions about what contemporary Korean literature is and can be."—Yoo Jun, Professor of Korean Literature at Yonsei University
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The Veins of the Ocean
by Patricia Engel
by Jeanette Winterson
Bream Gives Me Hiccups
by Jesse Eisenberg
The Blood of Heaven
by Kent Wascom
The Big Seven
by Jim Harrison


text:
package bundle

import "github.com/sigstore/rekor/pkg/generated/models"

// RekorBundle holds metadata about recording a Signature's ephemeral key to
// a Rekor transparency log.
type RekorBundle struct {
	SignedEntryTimestamp []byte
	Payload              RekorPayload
}

type RekorPayload struct {
	Body           interface{} `json:"body"`
	IntegratedTime int64       `json:"integratedTime"`
	LogIndex       int64       `json:"logIndex"`
	LogID          string      `json:"logID"`
}

func EntryToBundle(entry *models.LogEntryAnon) *RekorBundle {
	if entry.Verification == nil {
		return nil
	}
	return &RekorBundle{
		SignedEntryTimestamp: entry.Verification.SignedEntryTimestamp,
		Payload: RekorPayload{
			Body:           entry.Body,
			IntegratedTime: *entry.IntegratedTime,
			LogIndex:       *entry.LogIndex,
			LogID:          *entry.LogID,
		},
	}
}


In a blender combine all ingredients except salt and blend on a medium speed until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired. If more smoke is desired add more smoked paprika. Place in an air tight container and keep in the fridge until needed. Will keep for 2 weeks when properly stored and sealed.
Cut the bun in half and toast on the char broiler. Assemble the sandwich using the dip as you would butter. Serve with Crinkle Cut Sweet Potato Fries and a side dish of the Smoked Honey Mustard Dip. The sweet and smokey flavour is a perfect compliment for the sweet potato fries.


text:
New Freedom Farm, Inc.
New Freedom Farm, Inc. "Healing Humans through Horses" A Safe Place for Veterans suffering from PTSD/TBI, Depression, Anxiety, Subtance Abuse and Secondary Trauma.
raised $3,927.00
Pathfinders for Greenways, Inc.
We are the volunteer organization that helps build greenways and trails by raising money and organizing skilled volunteers for trail and bridge building. Let's get to Carvins Cove! This year please help us connect greenways to an amazing destination!
Roanoke Valley Horse Rescue Inc.
Roanoke Valley Horse Rescue has helped save the lives of 332 Horses since we opened our facility in 2002. Placing over 198 horses into new forever homes.
raised $11,045.00
Roanoke Valley SPCA
Roanoke Valley SPCA relies on the generosity of individuals, corporations, and community foundations to create a community where there are no homeless dogs and cats through the power of adoption, prevention and intervention.
Roanoke Wildlife Rescue
Our mission is to show respect and compassion for all wildlife through the rescue, rehabilitation and release of orphaned, injured, and displaced animals and to provide our community with wildlife education services and conservation information.
Saint Francis Service Dogs
Saint Francis Service Dogs is an internationally accredited non-profit organization whose purpose is to assist children and adults with disabilities to become more independent and self-sufficient through partnership with a professionally trained service dog.
Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke
Our goal: Saving injured and orphaned wildlife in the Roanoke Valley and beyond. Currently we are seeking funding to help eagles and hawks with Roanoke's first flight aviary.


Information published on 15 January 2019 in the UIC electronic newsletter "UIC eNews" Nr 629.
Brussels, 7 January 2019. The Board of Directors at Thalys has announced the appointment of Bertrand Gosselin as the company's new CEO. Mr Gosselin is currently Director of the Paris Rive Gauche region at SNCF Mobilités, with responsibility, in particular, for the RER C commuter line. He will replace Agnès Ogier, who will rejoin the SNCF Group - a shareholder in Thalys - as Director General of Brand and Communications for the group.
Bertrand Gosselin's move to Thalys marks a resumption of his international career. Between 1992 and 1994, he worked at Rail Europe España, helping to create a direct distribution subsidiary of SNCF in Madrid. Then, between 1997 and 1999, he worked for SNCF TGV mainline services, where he led pricing for high-speed trains between Brussels and the provinces.


U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday will call the families of four soldiers killed this month in Niger, the White House says, as Trump again casts doubt on whether his predecessor appropriately consoled the families of military personnel who died in war.
Trump suggested Tuesday that in 2010 President Barack Obama did not call John Kelly, a former marine general who is now White House chief of staff, when his son, marine 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan.
A White House official later said that Obama did not call Kelly, but did not immediately respond to questions about whether the former president reached out in some other fashion.
In fact, White House visitor records show Kelly attended a breakfast Obama hosted for Gold Star families six months after his son died. A person familiar with the breakfast — speaking on condition of anonymity because the event was private — said the Kelly family sat at Michelle Obama's table.
The record is plain that presidents reached out to families of the dead and to the wounded, often with their presence as well as by letter and phone. The path to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other military hospitals, as well as to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the remains of fallen soldiers are often brought, was a familiar one to Obama, George W. Bush and others.
Bush, even at the height of two wars, "wrote all the families of the fallen," said Freddy Ford, spokesperson for the former president. Ford said Bush also called or met "hundreds, if not thousands" of family members of the war dead.
Judy Parker lost a son, army Specialist William Evans, 22, in a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005 and said the first time she saw her younger son cry over his brother's death was in Bush's arms.
The soldier was from Hallstead, Pa. Bush came to the Fort Indiantown Gap Army post in northeastern Pennsylvania shortly after her son's death, to meet her family and the families of the other guard members killed that month.
The White House said letters would go out and calls would be made to the families of the slain soldiers in Niger on Tuesday. The family of Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, one of the soldiers, was told by an army casualty assistance officer to expect a phone call from Trump by Tuesday evening, said Will Wright, the soldier's brother.
The soldier's family in rural southeast Georgia has received "immeasurable support from the administration" and the military since he was killed Oct. 4, Will Wright said. He added that it would be "a great honour" to hear from Trump personally.
Trump addressed the matter when asked why he had not spoken about the four soldiers killed in Niger. They died when militants thought to be affiliated with ISIS ambushed them while they were patrolling in unarmoured trucks with Nigerien troops.
"I actually wrote letters individually to the soldiers we're talking about, and they're going to be going out either today or tomorrow," he said, meaning he wrote to the families of the fallen soldiers.
Bush's commitment to writing to all military families of the dead and to reaching out by phone or meeting with many others came despite the size of the task. In the Iraq war alone, U.S. combat deaths were highest during his presidency, exceeding 800 each year from 2004 through 2007. Bush once said he felt the appropriate way to show his respect was to meet family members in private.
Obama declared an end to combat operations in Iraq in August 2010, and the last U.S. troops were withdrawn in December 2011. As Obama wound down that war, he sent tens of thousands more troops into Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010, and the death count mounted. From a total of 155 Americans killed in Afghanistan in 2008, which was Bush's last full year in office, the number jumped to 311 in 2009 and peaked the next year at 498. In all, more than 1,700 died in Afghanistan on Obama's watch.
Trump visited Dover early in his presidency, going in February with his daughter Ivanka for the return of the remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, William (Ryan) Owens.
"No doubt in my mind that President Obama suffered when people died on his watch," he said.


text:
Thursday, February 2News That Matters
NEWS SAHRA
Tag: Breaking News: Business
Jan312023 by Waqas-ChNo Comments
General Motors (GM) earnings Q4 2022
Mary Barra, CEO, GM at the NYSE, November 17, 2022.Source: NYSEDETROIT — General Motors is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings before the bell Tuesday. Here's what Wall Street is expecting, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates:Adjusted earnings per share: $1.69Revenue: $40.65 billionGM in November tightened its projected range for 2022 adjusted earnings to between $13.5 billion and $14.5 billion, compared with previous guidance of between $13 billion and $15 billion. It also increased its cash flow guidance to between $10 billion and $11 billion, up from $7 billion to $9 billion.While investors will be watching the fourth-quarter results for signs of any waning consumer demand or profit dilution, the automaker's 2023 guidance is expected to be in the spotlight.Goldman Sachs ...
Obamacare special enrollment for people who lose Medicaid
An Obamacare sign is seen outside of the Leading Insurance Agency, which offers plans under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) on January 28, 2021 in Miami, Florida.Joe Raedle | Getty ImagesMillions of people in the U.S. are at risk of losing Medicaid this year when coverage protections put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic come to an end in April.To make it easier for these individuals to transition to other coverage, the Health and Human Services Department has announced a special enrollment period for Obamacare.People who lose Medicaid coverage from March 31 through July 31, 2024 can apply for Obamacare outside of the normal enrollment period at healthcare.gov if they live in a state served by the federal marketplace, according to new guidance from HHS.A majority o...
Customers wearing protective masks looks at the interior of a vehicle for sale at a Ford Motor Co. dealership in Colma, California, Feb. 1, 2021.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesDETROIT — As automakers chase Tesla-like profits on new electric vehicles, they face an existential question: how best to bring franchised auto dealers along with them as they transition to EVs.Some, such as General Motors, are asking luxury dealers to go all-in on EVs or get out of the business. Others like Ford Motor are offering dealers different "EV-certification" levels, while most other carmakers, or OEMs, know they need to change the sales process to fit the evolving industry, but are still trying to figure out how to do it."I think we're all building this airplane as we fly," Michael Alford, p...
Rupert Murdoch calls off proposed Fox-News Corp merger
Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp and co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, arrives at the Sun Valley Resort of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 10, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho.Drew Angerer | Getty ImagesRupert Murdoch has withdrawn the proposal to re-combine Fox Corp and News Corp.Fox said Tuesday its board received a letter from Murdoch, its chairman, and his son and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch that "determined that a combination is not optimal for the shareholders" of either of the companies at the time.related investing newsThe potential merger had faced opposition from shareholders in recent months, who didn't believe a merger would show the true value of News Corp. if it merged with Fox.News Corp CEO Robert Thomson told employees Tuesday the decision to call off...
Oscar nominations announced: Read the list
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text:
Are You Gardening, or Are You Managing Waste?
Earlier this month, blogging pioneer Jason Kottke tweeted that "social media would be a better place to connect with people if the folks building and using these services had spent formative time on and taken inspiration from Flickr and MetaFilter instead of 4chan and Reddit. Gardening vs. waste management."
That tweet spoke to Patrick who retweeted it, and that retweet elicited a reply from Lydia Fiedler, community manager for Splitcoaststampers, leading to this episode of the podcast.
What do your community members want out of their community? Are you tending a garden that is actively growing toward those goals? Or are you tolerating noise and managing waste that gets in the way? Having a clear sense of what brings the community together helps Lydia Fiedler keep conversations on track, set expectations for community members, and come up with inspiring challenges.
If you're planning programming for the coming year or just in a creative rut with your own work, this conversation with Patrick and Lydia offers some great inspiration that can help you create great experiences that will bring your members together and enable them reach their own goals.
Lydia and Patrick also discuss:
Operating in the "gray areas" of community management
Features that people clamor for on social media platforms that hosted online communities offer routinely
How challenges align with the Splitcoaststampers community's goal of becoming better artists and crafters
Being comfortable with making judgement calls for your community (5:15): "If you have a community that you're taking care of, and there's something that maybe doesn't exactly violate the letter of one of your guidelines, you have to be able to make the judgment call that you still don't want it in your community. Then you have to be able to communicate that, 'I'm a human being, and I make judgment calls. I do it to preserve the culture of this community.'" –@understandblue
Fostering Splitcoaststampers' spirit of creativity (9:28): "The most important thing that you have is the definition of what you want out of your community. That's your little seed that you're going to protect. I'm in a creative industry, and so the cultural little seed that I have to protect with everything in my online communities is people's ability to feel creative." –@understandblue
Cultivating a community of gardeners (13:05): "When you have a really good, strong community culture, … the people that love what you're building, they help you take out the trash. They don't want it there anymore than you do, and you know you have a good thing going when you have people helping you with the trash." –@understandblue
About Lydia Fiedler
Lydia Fiedler is the community manager of Splitcoaststampers, where she has been for 11 years. Lydia has been creating art for nearly 40 years and creating online content for about 20. Crafting spaces that feel friendly and welcoming is her mission, whether at work teaching online, or engaging in social media. She also spent 20 years in the construction industry as an HR director and marketing director, and has worked in software development and at great startups in the Austin, Texas area, but the art industry has been her home for more than a decade. Lydia lives in Austin with her husband and two feline overlords, Maddie and Splotchy.
Carol Benovic-Bradley, Community Signal's editorial lead, who has been working on the show for four years now! (added by Patrick)
Understand Blue, Lydia's website
Twitter Blue
Jason Kottke's tweet about "gardening vs. waste management"
Derek Powazek on Community Signal
Heather Champ on Community Signal
Matthew Haughey on Community Signal
Splitcoaststampers gallery
Falliday Fest Challenge Forum
Lydia on YouTube
Lydia on Instagram
[00:00:25] Patrick O'Keefe: Hello and welcome to the show. Our guest is Lydia Fiedler, who has been the community manager for Splitcoaststampers for over a decade. If you're into paper crafting, there's a great chance that you've heard of this community. Our topics include splitting up your community's activity, gardening versus waste management, and the power of a good challenge.
Rachel Medanic, Paul Bradley, and Jules Standen, those are three of our supporters on Patreon, and we're really grateful for them. If you're interested in becoming one of our supporters, please visit communitysignal.com/innercircle for more info.
Before we get started, I wanted to mention that November 25th, we'll mark four years that Carol Benovic-Bradley has been our editorial lead at Community Signal. Carol, congrats on four years, and thank you for making the show better.
Lydia, welcome to the show.
[00:01:43] Lydia Fiedler: Thank you. Happy to be here.
[00:01:21] Patrick O'Keefe: As I was putting together this podcast, I realized just how long we've been randomly talking on the internet, more than a decade now, mostly on Twitter. I used to be @iFroggy on Twitter. I changed my name to @PatrickOKeefe. I was looking back at the history of our conversation and I was like, I had to go back and change it to be your Twitter handle, and then @iFroggy to really see the depth of the length of time we've been talking without meeting a person speaking in this forum. It's great to finally get to chat with you a little more deeply.
[00:02:15] Lydia Fiedler: I love that. Twitter is great for that kind of connection, I think, where you just absorbed people's content over the years and you feel like you know them. It's fun. It's been a quick 10 years.
[00:02:28] Patrick O'Keefe: It has been. Before the show, you told me that you believe you "have a gift for diffusing difficult situations that you didn't really hone in on until I started community management, and I feel like that was really the beginning of my understanding of what keeps communities alive and what threatens them." Talk about that.
[00:02:46] Lydia Fiedler: In a former life, I was an HR director, and I think part of the reason I was good at it, and I didn't know it at the time, was that I was the person who could work with difficult people. People that nobody else wanted to work with, I could get through to those people. After I left that work, I realized that that skill translated into community basically, so which ended up becoming my career. But easy people to work with are easy to work with. The time that you spend on the people with the rough edges is time very well spent if you can pull it off successfully.
[00:03:30] Patrick O'Keefe: I like to think of that in two ways. I think first is that our guidelines apply to people we like and people we don't. You're always tested when your guidelines are defending people who maybe aren't that great, aren't the easiest people to get along with. In one context, I manage a martial arts community. Within the martial arts, there are lots of different arts. Some arts are viewed more legitimately than others, and yet we want people to be able to talk about those other arts without it becoming a series of personal attacks or, without being able to stick to the facts of the matter.
What happens in a lot of people's eyes is we almost, in some cases, defend the arts that maybe are being criticized, but really it's not that we're defending them. It's just that we don't want you to say the F word or say, "Everyone who uses that art is an idiot," because you can't have a conversation if that's the foundation of what you're doing.
Then the other part is that there's a lot of community members, in my experience, who have violated our guidelines many times, but then because of our patience and understanding, and time spent talking to them privately around how the guidelines work and how they should be contributing, they turn it around and they become just amazing incredible members.
[00:04:49] Lydia Fiedler: I think what's hard about that, first of all, fairness has to be at the center of everything you do. Treating people the same way for the same types of infractions is really important because there's a lot of persecution complex on the internet that you're going to run into in communities. Also, and this is the hardest thing to communicate, is judgment calls. If you have a community that you're taking care of, and there's something that maybe doesn't exactly violate the letter of one of your guidelines, you have to be able to make the judgment call that you still don't want it in your community. Then you have to be able to communicate that, "I'm a human being and I make judgment calls and I do it to preserve the culture of this community."
That gray area is a place where a lot of really bad actors like to live. They like to say, "Well, it's not in the rules." But you have to feel super confident about your purpose and say, "I know it doesn't fit. Even if I can explain to you why it doesn't fit, it doesn't belong here." You've got to be able to move past that sometimes with people. I find that those gray areas are where a lot of conflict lives.
[00:06:05] Patrick O'Keefe: Yes. I think that that area of judgment is where you can do things like say that, "The benefit of the doubt is something that is earned." When you enter an existing, active community of people, we want people to feel welcome, but there are areas, and a very easy, low-hanging fruit area is like links. Showing up, posting a link that it doesn't look like they're affiliated with, but it's still their first post.
They haven't necessarily earned the benefit of the doubt that they can make that post the same way that someone who's made a thousand posts, and who we know that they're operating in good faith because they've done demonstrated it to us over a long period of time, they can post a random link and we'll be like, "Oh, okay. Well, they know the community. They know the guidelines. We can give them that benefit of the doubt."
Someone who shows up, brand new, it's no different than getting a phone call from a friend asking you about this service, than getting a phone call from someone you've never talked to before asking about this service. That's an area that I think the large social networks obviously, obviously struggle with. But at the ground level, for most online communities that are hosted on their own platforms and managed by either a team of volunteers or one person in a team or a full paid team, you do have that knowledge of the community and its members where you can say, "Frankly, you could be okay. You might not be, but because we don't know you, you really need to participate in a different way until we can get to know you a little bit better."
[00:07:36] Lydia Fiedler: Right. That person's reaction to that first test at the relationship will tell you a lot about where that's going. If you find that somebody just completely freaks out and melts down at that first hint that they've rubbed up against a guideline, that's usually an indicator of how things are going to go. Whereas you have the people who are like, "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. I'm new here. I didn't know." That kind of thing. Then, you've got a good egg versus somebody who might be trouble in the long term.
[00:14:35] Patrick O'Keefe: Let's pause right here to talk about our generous sponsor, Vanilla.
We reconnected over a tweet from Jason Kottke that I found through Derek Powazek and then retweeted in Kottke's tweet, "social media would be a better place to connect with people if the folks building it and using these services had spent formative time on and taken inspiration from Flickr and MetaFilter instead of 4chan and Reddit. Gardening versus waste management."
Both Heather Champ, formerly of Flickr, who is married to Derek, and Matthew Haughey, who founded MetaFilter have been on the show before. What caught your attention about that tweet?
[00:09:12] Lydia Fiedler: That really resonated with me. That was like the tweet of that week, I felt like. I think because, well, one, I am a gardener, so I get the metaphor but the other thing is, I figured out just reading that, that the most important thing that you have is the definition of what you want out of your community. That's your little seed that you're going to protect.
For me, for example, I'm in a creative industry, and so the cultural little seed that I have to protect with everything in my online communities is people's ability to feel creative. Just creativity at its most basic. Once you know that, then the threat assessment, what threatens people's creativity well, harsh comments obviously, or people not interacting with their art. That kind of a thing. Once, you know what you're protecting, then you can better protect it. You know what's bad for it, and what's good for it. You can attract the good things to your community like Flickr did.
Flickr was a really supportive community. It was about creativity, and people encouraging other people in their art. That can go astray really quickly if you don't have all the cultural defenses built-in, where the behavior that hurts an artist's creativity is just never allowed in the community. I just really felt that. That was so well stated.
[00:10:45] Patrick O'Keefe: Yes.
[00:10:45] Lydia Fiedler: On the other hand, when he was talking about waste management, the example that I thought of was, I saw this guy making ramen noodles on YouTube, and it was one of the most beautiful videos I'd ever seen in my life and he said he had a Discord server.
[00:10:59] Lydia Fiedler: I joined the Discord server. [laugh] I joined at exactly the wrong time. It melted down in just this volcano of just hateful behavior in just a couple of days. The guy finally said, "I have to close the server. We were here to talk about making ramen noodles," and like "What went wrong?"
[00:11:18] Lydia Fiedler: That's instantly what I thought of when I read that tweet, when he was talking about waste management because those things get out of hand so fast if you're not on top of them, and then you lose that little treasure that was at the center of your community.
[00:11:31] Patrick O'Keefe: It's funny, this wasn't planned. I didn't know that I still had this here, but my mom bought me and my wife a daily motivational thing, or like a daily quote. I think that we'd look at it each day, and then there was this quote that we pulled a while back. It's from May, 13th so that tells you how long it's been here because I was like, "I'm going to write a tweet about this, and I'm going to add in the word community, but it's this quote."
I'm going to hold it up for Lydia's benefit. I'll read it out on the podcast here, but it says, "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. Audrey Hepburn." What I'm going to tweet out, I'm going to give away a tweet now, but I'll still tweet this out because I took a photo of this and that's why it's here. It's literally here as a reminder to build a community, yes, to believe in tomorrow.
[00:12:07] Lydia Fiedler: Yes.
[00:12:08] Patrick O'Keefe: I think that the really loaded phrase here, is "gardening versus waste management." That's really interesting because, as you said, gardening is about creating a place where things can grow usually specific seeds or crops that you are actively interested in growing, where waste management assumes the waste, right? It's about accepting the existence of the waste and simply managing it as effectively as you can. "We have this pile of trash, we will always have this pile of trash. [laugh] We can do nothing about this pile of trash. We're not going to get rid of this pile of trash, so how can we divide this pile of trash up in a more effective or attractive way perhaps?"
[00:12:44] Lydia Fiedler: Right.
[00:12:45] Patrick O'Keefe: To me, that speaks to platforms that accept or allow toxic voices to exist, and then trying to work around them, limit their reach, take temporary actions instead of just actively rooting them out.
[00:12:57] Lydia Fiedler: Yes, absolutely. Then from the inside of the community, what happens just like what happens in the garden is, when you have a really good, strong community culture, those people take the trash out on their way out. The people that love what you're building, they help you take out the trash. [laugh] They don't want it there anymore or than you do, and you know you have a good thing going when you have people helping you with the trash.
[00:13:24] Patrick O'Keefe: Yes, it's very true. It's one of those things that comes with time and work and investment, but when you have it, it's beautiful. Like I have a martial arts community, KarateForums.com. I'm sure people are tired of me referencing it on the show, but it turned 20 this year in May and I've managed it-
[00:13:38] Lydia Fiedler: Wow.
[00:13:38] Patrick O'Keefe: -the whole time. To most people, you look at it, it's a simple martial arts community, probably how a lot of people who live on big social media platforms look at Splitcoaststampers like, "What is this?" It's just like, "Look at this old forum, look at this group of people talking about paper crafting." You get beneath the hood, I don't have any real fear of anything bad happening to that community. That doesn't mean I'm not active there, it doesn't mean we don't have moderators who are there watching it. It doesn't mean we don't have active processes around moderation and managing reports and removing content and banning people.
This community is so good at self-rejecting where, if you come in there and you do something, they are going to either say something about it or hopefully through us talking over the years report it and then ignore it, and just let it die on the vine there to use more gardening vernacular accidentally. Just let it die on the vine, that you just won't get the rise out of it.
[00:14:33] Patrick O'Keefe: It won't really matter. They're just so good at that. I see it so often, that they just self-reject, and it's such a great powerful thing. I think part of that is also expectation setting. I've set an expectation with people where there's like a few emergencies in the world, in my view, when it comes to community. One of those, and the main one, is anything that impacts life, a threat to life, someone that might become a victim of suicide, that is an emergency. The F-word, not an emergency, spam, not an emergency. Report it, forget it, move on, go to something else. We'll get it. When someone sees it next, when the queue's next viewed, it'll be cleaned out. No problem.
We actively talk to people who come into the community new, who might freak out about something, we have a specific template we'll send them and say, "Hey, just report it. Don't worry about it. It's not that big a deal. Move on to something else." People learn over time.
[00:15:24] Lydia Fiedler: Well, and you might be onto something. My approach is the same kind of approach. I like a calm response to a perceived emergency. What I always tell people is no one has ever died in paper crafting. Just to keep it in perspective, it's going to be fine. It could very well be that, that is the secret to calmer, more peaceful communities, is people know they don't have to wig out over a spammer because that is a very, self-fulfilling culture.
You've seen it on Facebook and Twitter and everywhere else. That ratcheting up of that type of freak out, people feed off that kind of energy, but they also feed off the calmer energy, and a calmer presence in your community will lead to a calmer community overall. That kind of thing won't get this sort of play, won't get pumped up. Honestly, I'm assuming yours is a forum too, similar to Splitcoast. You got to be okay with just, "That doesn't belong here. I'm removing it."
There's that huge confusion on forums where they think their rights are being violated if a forum post gets deleted like, "I'm being censored." No, you're not. That's not what's happening at all. Your approach, a community manager's approach, for sure, but even just the members of the community being calm and not easily having their tails stepped on and getting them all wound up is a good culture to build, I think, in any online community,
[00:17:02] Patrick O'Keefe: For sure. Speaking of larger social networks, in our pre-show questionnaire, you said something that I found fascinating, which was that, you were dealing with fractured attention, that "Our community has definitely suffered with the proliferation of social media sites, but we still have so many advantages in our 'old school community' that, things that people pine for on social media."
You mentioned a couple of things that are funny, but also it's true, which is that– you mentioned chronological order and editing. Just the other day, Twitter opened their subscription service, Twitter Blue to the US and New Zealand following earlier availability in Australia and Canada, and among the features is an undo tweet option that essentially holds your tweet for 30 seconds in case you have any regrets. That's not a true editing feature. Online communities have allowed editing for a very long time.
[00:17:50] Lydia Fiedler: What is going on, Twitter? I want answers. I want answers on the edit button. Even Facebook, to even say that Facebook is doing that better than Twitter is so shocking to me because Twitter had so many great features, in my opinion, long before Facebook did. But Facebook's edit history, if the idea is transparency, just put the edit history out there. It's no big deal. It's not like they're really counting on super-accurate content from every tweet, so they just need to be super practical about that and give people the edit button.
The algorithm is everybody's number one complaint about Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I want to see the people that I follow. I want to see their tweets in chronological order or their Facebook posts or their Instagram posts. That's all they want. It's such a simple ask. I know all the reasons behind it, but old-school forums are great for that. "Come to a place where time makes sense." That's what I always say.
[00:18:54] Patrick O'Keefe: Yes. It's such a funny thing, but it's true. There's even things that forums, recognizing issues that I think can sometimes create, have done, there's timed edits, right? Starting off editing after a certain amount of time, which then you can provisionally allow if you choose to on a smaller scale, but like, whatever, you earn the ability to edit your posts for a longer period of time. Things like that. Chronological order is obviously there.
There is this great accessibility that exists within most text-based online forums where that content is digestible by a screen reader. It's simply there. These things that Twitter has tied to Blue, I saw something about making texts larger in some views. It's like, what does that even mean? That's an accessibility thing. You shouldn't tie the size of text to anything. You should be able to make that big, small, whatever, no matter what you want to do.
It's interesting because, in a lot of ways, online forums and communities were developed essentially to be sandboxes where people have taken them in all sorts of directions, whether it be the obvious ones like conversation and collaboration over work or creative projects, or actually, this is the same thing, other creative projects like literature, or collaborating on stories, or creating these worlds of RPG's. There are these large, large RPG forums that are just people in character, building out worlds and talking to one another, like a tech space RPG of the past, but it's interactive and it's with the people who are active on it, building up these personas. They were just that flexible sandbox and they weren't built with an eye for limiting those types of creative features.
[00:20:00] Lydia Fiedler: Right. They were also born in an era before we had such an overwhelming amount of information available to us. The way that you can see that in the bones of these forums, is they were designed to get information in an organized way to as many people as possible, without a lot of bells and whistles. The search features are very robust. You can go back and search our site from the time that it existed until now you can get information from that long ago.
If you try the search feature on any current social media outlet, it's a nightmare, one, because there's the algorithm fighting you. The other thing is that they are not optimized to deliver information because they're part of this information assault that we all have. They're designed to stop your scrolling, instead of curated content that is meant to inform people about one particular topic. It's just, "What can I catch your eye with on the way by?" That's a big difference just in philosophy and in the purpose of those two types of websites, I think.
[00:21:15] Patrick O'Keefe: Speaking of fractured attention on the Splitcoaststampers community, you have several areas where people can interact. I realized when I spent some time on the community, that if you only look at the forums, you are really only getting a part of the picture, maybe even a small-ish part. Speaking especially towards your galleries, they are just exceptionally active. I don't know if they're more active in the forums or not, but there is a ton happening there. I could refresh the page and see a new gallery post that had 13 new views in 30 seconds.
[00:21:50] Patrick O'Keefe: It's like, there's just constant posts, comments, views, and we're very used to a single feed experience these days. I wanted to ask you about the pros and cons, in your eyes, of splitting up activity like that.
[00:22:03] Lydia Fiedler: Splitting it up on our site?
[00:22:05] Lydia Fiedler: Yes. Initially, the site was really started with the forums. It was a place for a specific group of people to gather, and then it just got bigger until there were hundreds of thousands of members. Initially, the forum started it all, but we are a visual community. It's a visual art community. When the gallery was put in and you've probably seen this, in both sections of our site, there are going to be people who are too afraid to share. You're going to have the people who just read the forums and they get the information and they never say a word, and those are people that are looking for specific skills, specific tools, information about tools.
Then there are the extroverts, the people like us who are talking all the time, who are in the forums, but gallery is a place that connects not just the members of our community with their art and their techniques and their beautiful cards and scrapbook pages, whatever they're doing, but it also connects designers with the manufacturers in our industry. We were one of the first sites to have a really robust, big gallery like that where company owners could come and find examples that designers had made with their brands.
Those are really two fundamentally different activities. It's the same group of people, but the designers and the people who are working for manufacturers directly having their artwork out there and tied to that manufacturer, that gallery serves an incredible function there. Like I said, there are going to be people who are too scared to share a card or two, but we also tie the gallery back to the forum because we have daily challenges. We'll say, "Here is a color challenge." You might have seen some keywords at the front of different gallery entries. Those are from our daily challenges. That is the bridge between the gallery and the forums, but you can happily exist in either, or both on the site.
[00:24:07] Patrick O'Keefe: That makes it sound like to me that you've seen a different type of member sometimes, who's more comfortable participating in the gallery versus the forum?
[00:24:14] Lydia Fiedler: For sure. I would say that's more of like a social media type feel. "Here's this pretty thing I made. Now, people are going to interact with it in a positive way," versus the people who wanna have a conversation or learn a skill in the forums. Those can be two very different personality types.
[00:24:33] Patrick O'Keefe: You mentioned the challenge forums, and I wanted to talk about them because that was another thing that jumped out to me as I looked deeper at the community is just how active the challenge forums were. For example, the Falliday Fest Challenge Forum was one that I spent some time looking through. I feel like there are things there that other communities can learn from when it comes to this idea of challenges in a forum, daily challenges, posting challenges in that format. I wanted to ask you to talk about that. What do you think other communities can learn from your challenge forums?
[00:25:03] Lydia Fiedler: Well, here's the little seed that I protect with regard to the forums. This is really, really important to me. With very few exceptions, our challenges have no prizes, nothing associated with them. They are purely for inspiration and education, and that's very hard to find in our industry across the internet. Most of the time, if manufacturers or websites want to have a challenge to get people to participate in the challenge, they have to offer a prize.
We've always, really, really stayed away from that because the community exists to serve the creative needs of these people. We wanted them to be free of any kind of outside influence. In my opinion, that makes the people who are creating the challenges that much more creative. We have some really cool challenges and ideas. Falliday is a fun one because we also, in addition to the daily challenges, we do six tutorials in a week, which, that might not sound like a lot, but it's a lot of work. [chuckles] We put those all together in one week, whereas normally, we just have one tutorial a week. We're giving them all the inspiration they can take headed into the holiday season.
[00:26:19] Patrick O'Keefe: When I hear that, one thing that I take away from it is that, by limiting the amount of challenges tied to some prize or monetary gain, you tend to attract people who are there for the reason of participating in the community, and because they enjoy paper crafting probably as a hobby and something that's fun for them, that they really have a passion for, as opposed to participating for the act of winning something, or receiving some form of compensation, or because they see it as their job to win this competition and beat everyone else. It encourages the type of spirit that you're looking for.
[00:27:08] Lydia Fiedler: That is a good point. I hadn't even thought of that. You'll have to rerecord this is if I were saying that. The competitive spirit there just doesn't exist. You're just playing along in a challenge that a bunch of other people are doing. You're looking at their work, they're looking at yours. You're right. There's no dog-eat-dog aspect to that at all. Everybody can appreciate everybody else's work while losing nothing basically.
The only thing I would add to your list is skill-building. There are a lot of people who are really trying to build their skills. We have a watercolor challenge that we just started last year, and that is real skill-building. Once a week, you were going to learn a very specific skill in watercolor. There are a lot of people who are at that phase where they're just trying to get better.
[00:27:55] Patrick O'Keefe: It's interesting. This is a model that I think can apply to a lot of different communities. If I applied it to the martial arts, for example, I think there is room for a daily, weekly challenge around each particular technique within a specific art. Film yourself, photograph yourself in that stance as a progression through that move, share how other people are doing it, compare how you all look at that move. What did you do different? Is it better? Is it worse? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it's just a flavor, a taste of that particular martial arts move or stance, but you're looking at it more collaboratively.
"Here is how we all train in this similar art around the world. Here's how we look when we do it. The challenge is to complete the move today. There's not going to be a winner. We don't even allow discussions on what the best martial artist is." You can't ask, like "What's the best martial art? We learned long ago. Don't do that stuff." You can look at how everyone else is expressing themselves to this move and get something out of that and feel a sense of kinship with other martial artists just by seeing them doing the same kind of thing.
That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure that people listening with more time and more creative energy than I have, could probably come with a lot of fun things to do within a community that is based around this model of challenges.
[00:29:04] Lydia Fiedler: Yes, it's very inspiring. A lot of people will tell me whenever they get stuck, if they get in a rut, all they have to do is head to the challenge forum. There are hundreds of thousands of challenges in there for them to pick from. That's the other advantage of a forum, too. They can go back to a color challenge from 2004. It doesn't have to be something that was posted yesterday and they can use that for inspiration.
[00:29:28] Patrick O'Keefe: Hopefully, if you're a community builder stuck in a rut, this podcast, once in a while, helps you to get through that. Lydia, thank you for spending some time with us. I really enjoyed the conversation and it was great to have you on the show.
[00:29:39] Lydia Fiedler: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
[00:29:42] Patrick O'Keefe: We've been talking with Lydia Fiedler community manager for Splitcoaststampers at splitcoaststampers.com. You can visit her website understandblue.com her YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/understandblue and follow her on Instagram @understandblue.
For the transcript from this episode, plus highlights and links that we mentioned, please visit communitysignal.com. Community Signal is produced by Karn Broad and Carol Benovic-Bradley is our editorial lead. Until next time.
Cohort-Based Online Communities: Exploitation or Real Connection?
Embodying Work-Life Balance as a Community Professional and Manager


In one of our recent project, we need to implement jQuery draggable with keyboard control.
jQuery draggable is a good option to move element using mouse in users interface. But it lacks the functionality of keyboard control.
But it can be easily achieved using keyup & keydown events.
//Perfome the same operatin which you on stop of draggable.


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Home / Fashion
These Are the Defining Street Style Trends From New York Fashion Week
Christian Vierig/Getty Images
This fashion week, it's all about the pop of something unexpected.
By Kendall Cornish on February 12, 2019
Fashion week is here in New York City, and statements are being made with the ensembles seen outside the shows. As menswear and women's wear continue to exchange ideas and stray from tradition, the street styles of fashion week in New York City are becoming increasingly experimental. We are seeing celebrities, models, and fashion moguls engaging with scale more than ever before––think supremely oversized puffer coats meeting skin-tight sock heels and micro-bags.
Traditional fashion "rules" are being broken: layers and layers of the same hue, navy and black together, etc. Clashing––from patterns to colors and shapes––has become an art form in fashion. While classic street style MOs, like sneakers, nylon, and neon, are still making their much-revered appearances, new riffs on anything unexpected are definitely at play. Here, we take note of some of these unconventional trends and the looks that have best displayed them during New York Fashion Week.
Related: How to Pack for Fashion Week
Camel and White
The warmth and freshness of this color combination have caught on, making it a popular look this fashion week. Its subtlety makes it perfect on its own or as a chic way to tone down an otherwise bright ensemble.
Black-and-White Stripe Outerwear
Black-and-white begs to be worn with a pop of color, and we're especially loving teal for this stripe-and-color collaboration.
Color is the move this season as head-to-toe lilac, crimson, and even forest green looks adorn the streets of fashion week. We're seeing the articles and accessories of these outfits either the same hue or temperature.
This vibrant orangey-yellow hue is surprisingly flattering on a multitude of hair and skin tones. This fashion week, we're seeing it used to accent elegant ensembles and even carry entire outfits altogether.
If there was one print to represent the trends of 2019, it would be python. Snake-effect, in all its conceivable colors and treatments, has become a staple in the wardrobes of fashion's top influencers.
Matching sets of uniquely shaped or patterned suits––belted, of course––are prevalent this season. They're the ideal work-to-drinks outfit and can be experimented with by adding a baseball cap or even sneakers.
Pantone Releases List of "Empowering" Colors Inspired by Fashion Week Trends
Everything You Need to Know About Preparing for New York Fashion Week
Where Olivia Palermo Eats, Stays, and Explores During Paris Fashion Week
Explore More in Fashion


and kept the postcard like ad stating it will air April 30, and STILL forgot! Not only for the special price and free ship, but the FLEX PAY! I wish it could still be bought w/ flex pay..I LOVED the sample.
nancy… I'm sorry you missed your Korres show… it's so dang frustrating when that happens! One thing you can do is to go into your 'Account' here, click on 'My Preferences', and choose the 'Korres' brand. HSN will send you email reminders when their shows are about to air.
As for Flex-Pay… I couldn't agree with you more. Most of us would be dead-in-the-water without it, *lol*. WE LOVE FLEX-PAY!!!
Ok , at first I thought…what the H**L????
Then I thought about it a minute…I think cityyear is right!
And Would you make a Puffin Pin…that's a bird, people…sort of looks like a Penguin…In colors?


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The Taoist temple, Wong Tai Sin at Chuk Yuen Village in Kowloon is Hong Kong's busiest and probably best known temple with over 10,000 visitors each day. The temple god, Wong Tai Sin, also known as Huang Chu-ping, heals the wounded, saves the dying and punishes evil and is worshipped by not only the sick but by people with business problems. The temple, which is adorned with ornate Chinese architecture, provides a tranquil environment amongst the surrounding high-rise buildings.
Worshippers at the Main Altar of Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple
According to legend, the temple is named after Master Wong Cho Ping, a shepherd boy born in 328AD during the Tsun Dynasty to a poor family from Lan Xi City of Jin Hua County in Zhejiang Province on the eastern coast of mainland China, who at the age of 15 was taught by a fairy how to refine cinnabar into a medicine believed to cure all ills. After living in seclusion for 40 years learning this art he was found by his brother, Wong Cho Hei, following guidance from a Taoist master and from then on was called Wong Tai Sin. When his brother asked the whereabouts of the herds of sheep, Wong Tai Sin took him to a mountain, pointed into the distance and shouted at white rocks which immediately turned into herds of sheep. Wong Cho Hei was so impressed by this miracle that he joined Wong Tai Sin in practising Tao and both later became deities.
In 1915, father and son Taoist priests Liang Renan and Liang Junzhuan brought a portrait of Wong Tai Sin to Hong Kong from a local temple called Sik Sik Yuen in Xiqiao in Guangdong Province and the portrait was displayed at a small temple in Wan Chai, where the Sik Sik Yuen charitable organisation which runs the Wong Tai Sin Temple was established. In 1921, following divine guidance from Wong Tai Sin, the portrait was moved to a temple on the site of the current temple which is considered to have good fung shui with the backdrop of Lion Rock and the temple facing the sea. The temple was a private shrine for Pu Yi Tan Taoists until 1934 when it was opened to the public at Lunar New Year. The temple survived the wide destruction of Hong Kong which took place during the Japanese Occupation in World War II, an achievement attributed to Wong Tai Sin's powers and in 1956, with government approval, it was opened to the public all year round after the government had initially indicated its intention to reclaim the temple and surrounding area for public housing development. A small admission fee was charged and donated to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals which still maintains its connections with Sik Sik Yuen.
The present main worship hall was built between 1969 and 1973 and substantially rebuilt between 2008 and 2011 at the same time as the Tai Sui Yuenchen Hall, an underground palace, was built at the temple.
The first "Sik" of "Sik Sik" represents thriftiness, whilst the second means colourful things or human desire. Together the words represent Spirituality, Tranquility, Intuition and Purification and the Sik Sik Yuen religious charitable organisation promotes the worshipping of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism with the guiding principle of "To Act Benevolently and To Teach Benevolence". Whilst primarily a Taoist temple, Wong Tai Sin also has Buddhist and Confucian worshipping halls. The Sik Sik Yuen is dedicated to medical, education and elderly services and operates clinics and schools as well as providing social services.
The temple complex is entered through a large memorial arch and covers an area of about 18,000 square metres. It is the only temple in Hong Kong which is permitted to conduct Taoist wedding ceremonies and issue mariage certificates.
Visitors to the temple are encouraged to follow a one-way system around the complex which is made compulsory at busy times such as Lunar New Year and Wong Tai Sin's birthday on the 23rd day of the 8th Lunar Month. On Lunar New Year's Eve the temple closes at 5-30pm then reopens at 9pm by which time thousands of worshippers are queuing to rush to the Main Altar at midnight with burning incense sticks since tradition dictates that the earlier the offering is made the better the chance of good luck in the coming year.
HALLS AND SHRINES
THE MAIN ALTAR - the splendid main altar of worship to Wong Tai Sin was rebuilt between 1969 and 1973 and renovated between 2008 and 2010. A portrait of Wong Tai Sin stands in the middle of the main altar and wooden sculptures behind the altar depict the story of how Wong Tai Sin became a god. Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian scriptures and images are engraved on the temple walls.The architecture is traditional Chinese in style with large red pillars with gold calligraphy, multi-coloured carvings and a yellow tiled roof. The altar is protected by a statue of the Monkey King which stands outside, to the right of the altar.
MAIN ALTAR PLATFORM - the large open space in front of the main altar is the main worshipping place where worshippers hold bundles of burning incense and bow to Wong Tai Sin three times before going inside to kneel and shake fortune sticks until one fall out. The stick is exchanged for a piece of paper with the corresponding number for interpretaion by a soothsayer and can be taken to one of the 161 fortune telling stalls, run by Tung Wan Group of Hospitals, in the two-storey Fortune Telling and Oblation Arcade at the temple. The main altar platform was renovated and extended at the same time as the main altar between 2008 and 2010.
SECONDARY WORSHIPPING PLATFORM is located at a lower level and connected by a Pai-fong (gateway) and steps to the main platform. The secondary platform contains bronze statues of the 12 Zodiac Animals and was co-designed by specialists in ancient architecture from Sik Sik Yuen and Beijing.
Zodiac Animal Statues at the Secondary Worshipping Platform
To the left side of the Main Altar Platform (facing the Main Altar) are located;
CAICHEN SHRINE - worshipping General Chiu Kung Ming, the God of Prosperity, one of the four guarding Gods of Taoism, said to bring prosperity to wealth chasers.
YAO WANG SHRINE - dedicated to Suen Sze Miu the King of Medicine of Taoism, a famous medical practicioner and Taoist master in the Tang Dynasty. He was named Master Miu Ying posthumously during the Sung Dynasty.
FUK TAK SHRINE - dedicated to To Ti, who are two celestial gods protecting the earth, and according to Taoist scriptures, are the Gods blessings and virtues.
Located underground beneath the Main Altar and Main Altar Platform;
TAI SUI YUENCHEN HALL - opened in 2011, this "hi-tech" underground palace of about 10,000 square feet cost HK$100 million and took three years to construct. It worships the Goddess of Great Dipper, 60 Tai Sui (Protectors for each year of the 60-year Calendral Cycle) and Yuenchen (Gods of the 60-year Calendral Cycle). An entry fee of HK$100 applies. No incense sticks are allowed and worshipping is made "electronically". For a further HK$300 fee worshippers drop written prayers into a small box. An electronic statute related to the worshippers birth cycle lights up and puffs artificial smoke to acknowledge acceptance of the offering. The hall is emblazoned with gold, marble, LED lights and motion detectors. It has a vaulted ceiling with a spectacular dome which digitally replicates the Hong Kong sky and rotates in accordance with the seasons. Two HK$3 million floor-to-ceiling marble and rare gemstone wall hangings adorn the entrance.
Tai Sui Yuenchen Hall, the underground palace, opened in 2011
Tai Sui Protectors in the Tai Sui Yuenchen Hall
Entrance to the underground Tai Sui Yuenchen Hall
Located beside the Main Altar;
THREE SAINTS HALL - is where three Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian deities are worshipped. Master Lui is the deity of Taoism, Guan Yin is the bodisattava of Buddhism and Guan Di is commonly worshipped by believers of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism.
Three Saints Hall
To the right side of the Main Altar Platform (facing the Main Altar) are;
YUELAO AND COUPLES - statue of Yue Lao, the matchmaker and God of Marriages, and male and female statues.
Yuelao and Couples
To the right of the Main Altar Platform in front of the Three Saint Hall and also at lower level are five buildings and structures, arranged in a row, representing the "Five Geomatic Elements" in Fung Shui;
BRONZE PAVILION - built in 1924 and the resting place of Wong Tai Sin and females are forbidden. The exterior of the pavilion is covered in bronze tiles which represent "Metal" in the Five Elements. Only Taoist masters of the Yuen are allowed to enter the pavilion.
ARCHIVES HALL - built in 1924 as a place for storing religious scriptures but now used as the temple's general office. The building and furniture are mainly of timber construction and represent "Wood" in the Five Elements.
YUK YIK FOUNTAIN - a circular stone fountain comprising seven lotus flowers spouting water, built in 1936 but recently renovated. Represents "Water" in the Five Elements.
Yuk Yik Fountain
YUE HUNG SHRINE - built in 1933, it worships the Buddha of Lighting the Lamp and, painted red, represents "Fire" in the Five Elements and by promoting Buddhism embraces the three religions (with Taoism and Confucianism), having the same roots.
EARTH WALL - built 1938, is a 3-metre structure roofed with blue-green glass tiles. The wall contains scriptures "Ching Ling Po Cave" and "Ji Fu". It represents "Earth" in the Five Elements.
Located just inside the main entrance;
WANG LING-GUAN SHRINE - originally the Po Chai Pavilion, this 2.6 metre tall shrine worships the Taoist God of gate-keeping, Officer Wong Ling. The statue is bronze with stone dragon pillars and sculptures.
Next to the Wang Ling-guan Shrine is a monument marking the collaboration between the Sik Sik Yuen and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals which transferred ownership of the Po Chai Pavilion to the Yuen in 2009.
At the upper part of the complex, to the right of the General Office (Archives Hall) are located;
YEE MUT HALL (MEMORIAL HALL) - rebuilt in 1982 it contains memorial tablets of deceased Pu Yi Tan Taoists.
CONFUCIAN HALL (UNICORN HALL) - is where Confucious, Master K'ung, the grand master of education and thinker of China and his 72 disciples are worshipped. It is said that when Master K'ung was born, a unicorn carrying a Jade passed by led to unicorns becoming known as a metaphor for Confucious.
Confucian Hall
To the right of the Yee Mut Hall and Confucian Hall at the far right of the complex lies;
FUNG MING HALL (HALL OF THE PHOENIX SONG) - opened in 1981 this is a two-storey hall in traditional Chinese palace design with green glass tiled roof. It is used for holding local community activities. During renovation of the Main Altar between 2008 and 2010 it was used as the main worshipping hall.
Below the Fung Ming Hall and just inside the main entrance;
PO CHAI HALL - Opened in 1981 and previously known as the Medical Block, the two-storey Po Chai Hall contains a herbal clinic on the lower floor which provides free Chinese medical consulation and medicine distribution to the general public. The upper floor serves as offices. The hall was temporarily used as the main worshipping hall during renovation of the Main Altar during 2008 - 2010.
Located at the rear of the complex;
GOOD WISH GARDEN - Opened 1991 is an exotic 5,600 square-metre Chinese-style garden with architectural features resembling a miniature replica of the Summer Palace in Beijing. Pavilions, bridges, pagodas, streams, rocks, ponds and gardens are linked by a long corridor. Within the Good Wish Garden is the STATUE OF SHEEP, donated by the city government of Lan Xi, Zhejiang Province, Wong Tai Sin's birthplace, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Sik Sik Yuen in 1996. The statue is made from white jade and depicts the miracle of Wong Tai Sin transforming piles of white boulders into sheep.
Moon Gate entrance to the Good Wish Garden
Good Wish Garden, a miniature replica of the Summer Palace in Beijing
To the rear of the Main Altar is located;
NINE DRAGON WALL - a replica of the famous Nine Dragon mural in Pei Hai Park in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Behind the wall are sculpted the Chinese characters of "Nine Dragon Wall" and an extract from a poem written by the former President of the Chinese Buddhist Association, Mr Zhao Pu Chu.
Nine Dragon Wall, a replica of the Nine Dragon mural in the Forbidden City
Adjacent to the Secondary Worshipping Platform;
BENEVOLENCE PREACHING GALLERY - opened in 1996, built in traditional Chinese style, contains modern multi-media installations describing Taoist culture, education and medical services of the Yuen.
FORTUNE-TELLING AND OBLATION ARCADE - a two-storey covered arcade containing 161 soothsayer booths, run by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, and 41 temple goods stalls selling incense sticks, paper offerings, souvenirs etc. Many of the fortune tellers speak English. Expect to pay from HK$100 up for a fortune telling session.
During Lunar New Year 2017, the temple introduced a "soft launch" of automatic fortune-telling booths enabling worshippers to swipe a divination stick embedded with radio-frequency identification tag on an electronic scanner to acquire a print out of their fortunes. Three booths were available at the launch and the service was free of charge for the initial phase.
The two-storey Fortune Telling Arcade has 161 booths
Many of the fortune tellers offer English speaking consultations
Temple Goods Stalls
WORSHIPPING "RULES"
Worshippers are advised to bring only nine incense sticks into the temple and proceed first to the designated incense burning area which is adjacent to the Secondary Worshipping Platform next to the Benevolence Preaching Gallery. Three sticks can be offered at each of the three offering areas in front of the Main Altar, Three Saints Hall and Yue Hung Shrine.
There is a suggested one-way route around the complex for visitors. This is, however, only strictly enforced at very busy times such as Lunar New Year.
OPENING HOURS - The Temple, Good Wish Garden and Tai Sui Yuenchen Hall are open from 8am to 5pm daily*. The General Office is open from 7am to 5pm daily.
* at Chinese New Year's Eve Wong Tai Sin Temple closes at 5pm and .reopens at 9pm and stays through the night and until 6-30pm on the First Day of Chinese New Year, The Tai Sui Yuenchen Hall is closed on Chinese New Year's Eve and Chinese New Year's Day.
ADMISSION - there are no formal admission charges for visitors for entry to Wong Tai Sin Temple, except fot the Tai Sui Yuenchen Hall, but donation boxes are located throughout the complex. The admission fee for entry to the Tai Sui Yuenchen Hall is HK$100.
GETTING THERE;
MTR - Wong Tai Sin Station (Kwun Tong Line), exit B3 leads directly to the temple.
BUS -
The following bus routes stop on Lung Cheung Road, close to the temple;
A29 Airport - Po Lam
E22 AsiaWorld-Expo - Lam Tin
E22A Asia World-Expo - Tseung Kwan O (Hong Sing Garden)
2F Cheung Sha Wan - Tsz Wan Shan (North)
3C China Ferry Terminal - Tsz Wan Shan (North)
80 Kwun Tong Ferry - Mei Lam Estate
84M Chevalier Garden - Lok Fu
89 Kwun Tong MTR Station - Lek Yuen
89B Kwun Tong MTR Station - Sha Tin Wai
258D Lam Tin MTR Station - Po Tin
259D Yau Tong MTR Station - Lung Mun Oasis
268C Kwun Tong Ferry - Long Pin MTR Station (North)
269C Kwun Tong Ferry - Tin Shui Wai Town Centre
The following bus route serves Lung Wai House (close to Wong Tai Sin MTR Station), opposite side of Lung Cheung Road to Wong Tai Sin Temple;
9 Tsim Sha Tsui East (Mody Road) - Choi Fook
The following bus routes serve Wong Tai Sin Bus Station, about 5 mins walk from Wong Tai Sin Temple;
11 Kowloon MTR Station - Diamond Hill MTR Station
82X Ravana Garden (Sha Tin) - Wong Tai Sin
85M Kam Ying Court (Ma On Shan) - Wong Tai Sin
WEBSITE;
http://www.siksikyuen.org.hk/public/contents/article?ha=&wc=0&hb=&hc=&revision_id=3791&item_id=2075


Don't get me wrong… I love eating pizza and need to get my fix every once in a while. However, if I have to go to another birthday party where they serve pizza, I think I'm going to explode. I know that it makes life easy, is relatively inexpensive, is readily available, is easy to clean up, and is usually fun for kids to eat. However, where has the creativity and diversity gone? Yes, there is a time and place for it…just not all the time!
Alright all you parents out there. I know you're busy and strapped for cash but don't forget we kids can help out too. Not that I'm trying to tell you what to do, but please change it up every once in a while. It makes for a nice surprise and your guests will appreciate it. Believe me, having three younger siblings, I've gone to my share of parties, so I'm pretty confident I can give you some idea of what works and what doesn't — what might save you money and what's just a flat out flop that you won't be able to give away at the end of the party.
So the last thing we want is to sit down at the table for a formal meal, unless of course it's birthday cake and dessert time.
First of all, kids want things that are bite sized and simple. We want things that we can just grab and eat on the move. Our focus is to have a good time and chat with our friends. We might even forget to eat for that matter. So the last thing we want is to sit down at the table for a formal meal, unless of course it's birthday cake and dessert time. That's the only time you'll see us gathered at the table in an orderly and civilized manner. Keep in mind some factors to consider when you are preparing: Is this party for adults, kids, or both? Will the guests have certain dietary restrictions such as those for religious and/or health purposes?
Depending on the occasion the web is filled with suggestions of dishes you can make, whether you're health conscious or on a tight budget. With the diversity of cultures that co-exist in our schools and general society today, parties are a great opportunity to celebrate our differences and teach your guests about your culture. My suggestion is to serve dishes that are specific to your heritage. Food can create that fun environment, which promotes discussion, curiosity, and learning. Your guests will appreciate your extra efforts and for sharing a part of your culture with them.


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Why do People Migrate? Theories
Explore theories about migration in greater depth and learn how migration is a constant phenomenon throughout human history.
Move beyond the headlines about migration
In the second course in this two-part series, you will learn about different theoretical models that seek to explain why migration starts and why it continues. You will explore migration as a structural feature of our societies and examine individual's choices to migrate. You will consider the role networks and institutions play in the movement of people. You will also hear from international experts about how migration theories can help us understand cases of labour migration in different world regions.
Understanding migration as a global phenomenon
Why does migration start?
How does migration continue?
Theoretical approaches in practice
Identify the fundamental terminology used in theoretical debates on migration
Explain the motivations for people to move and settle outside their home countries
Explore the main theoretical approaches
Apply main theories to the interpretation of real case-studies
This course is for anyone interested in learning about migration. It would be useful if you had completed the first course in this series Why do People Migrate? Facts.
Anna Triandafyllidou is Professor at the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, where she directs the Cultural Pluralism Area in the Global Governance Programme.
Nick Dines is research fellow at the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
Moreinfo: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/migration-theories
Cambodia Jobs: Why do People Migrate? Theories
https://www.cambodiajobs.biz/2017/11/why-do-people-migrate-theories.html