Today we're going to take a look at the only goaltender on our list of current Living Legends. He's right up there with the greatest goaltenders of all time and he owns a majority of the goaltending records. Even at the age of 40 he's still at the top of his game. Let's take a look at the skills of New Jersey Devils' goaltender, Martin Brodeur.
On Thursday, March 22nd, I took a trip out to PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina to watch Brodeur make his first start since a pinched nerve held him out of the lineup for a month. Boy did I get a treat. Not only was Brodeur spectacular in making 17 saves in a 4-1 victory, he also scored a goal, the 3rd of his career. The saves were few and far between, but some of them were absolutely spectacular. Brodeur showcased all of the different things that make him so special over the course of that 60 minute game. I'm going to try and put those things into words for you in the following paragraphs. Let's get started.
One of my buddies, a relatively new fan of hockey, was at the game with me and he was pointing out how Carolina Hurricanes' netminder Dan Ellis was struggling with his puckhandling but Brodeur was having far more success. That led me to pay even closer attention to Brodeur's "playmaking". Sure, I had heard stories of his abilities and I had heard how he was probably the best puckhandling goalie in the history of the game. I mean just this past postseason, Brodeur set the NHL record for most assists by a goaltender in a single postseason with 4 assists. But when you see his "playmaking" live, boy is it something. Most goaltenders will come out of the net without a particular play in mind. They will wait for the incoming forechecker to press them one way or another and then they will make a play in the opposite direction. Not Brodeur. Brodeur was coming out of his net, meeting the puck before the goal line and was making one touch passes to his defensemen. Instead of stopping the puck and assessing the play, Brodeur was reading the play on the fly and making quick and accurate breakout passes. He was catching the Hurricanes in the middle of line changes with his accurate passes up to center ice. This is such a useful skill for a team because it's almost as if you have a 3rd defenseman. I'll try and showcase a few of his better puckhandling videos.
Take a look at this video here. 99% of the goaltenders will freeze the puck in this situation and just take the faceoff. That's exactly what every Boston Bruins player thinks is going to happen. Instead, Brodeur gloves it, and in one motion drops it to his stick and fires a laser pass out to center ice to spring his teammate for a breakaway. Are you kidding me? There are only a handful of defensemen that could make that pass, let alone a goaltender making it. You can see at the 7 second mark that's he's caught every single Boston player out of position because they thought he was going to take the faceoff. Having a goaltender that can do this is simply unbelievable.
Check out this one. This is another play when most goaltenders are just going to freeze the puck and take the faceoff. Just like the Bruins in the previous video, the Philadelphia Flyers think the same thing is going to happen. If you freeze the video at the 0:02 second mark, you can see that Brodeur catches all three forwards and one defenseman on the wrong side of center ice. This sets up a great scoring chance that is finished off by Alexei Ponikarovsky. The thing that makes these passes so special is that Brodeur can quickly change the flow of a play before the defense can recover. Like I said earlier, this skill is unbelievable to have in a goaltender.
Probably the most impressive thing about this goal is that the puck does not touch the ice until it is on the other side of center ice. A lot of goalies get their attempts snuffed out because they don't have the wrist strength to get the puck elevated and keep it elevated. Brodeur now has 3 goals to his name, and is the only goaltender to ever score a game-winning goal.
We've all seen them. We've all seen the goalies perform grand larceny on unfortunate shooters. These desperation saves are often predicated on a significant amount of luck as the goalie makes an all-out, last-ditch effort in the direction of the oncoming shot. However, I don't know of a goaltender that's made more miraculous saves than Brodeur. That made me think…has Marty got this down to a science? After reviewing the tape, I think Brodeur has figured out several key elements to making a desperation save and has combined them to become a human highlight reel. Watch the video below and I'll try and explain how these saves are more than just luck.
Wow, what a save. Is this save luck or is there a little bit of intelligence behind Brodeur's movement? I'm going to break this save down for you frame-by-frame.
Notice how Brodeur's right skate is hugging the right post and he's standing straight up with his knees slightly bent. At this point, Brodeur is anticipating the pass across and he's bracing his skate against the post in order to give himself a big push across the crease.
At this point, Brodeur has dropped down to his right knee and has pushed across to square himself up to Sabres' forward Jason Pominville. This is where Brodeur vastly differs from your average goaltender. Most goaltenders will push straight across the crease. If you do that, you allow an extra 3-4 feet of space to the shooter, space enough for the shooter to elevate the puck. Brodeur instead pushes straight out towards Pominville, taking away time and space from him.
Here we see Brodeur dropping into his trademark two-pad stack to make the save. This is what separates Brodeur from all the other goaltenders. Most goaltenders will push out at Pominville in the buttefly position, which involves the goaltender being on their knees with their elbows tucked in and their shoulders straight up. However, that butterfly position leaves a lot of room available to the shooter on both the glove and blocker side. Brodeur instead drops to his side, taking away the entire bottom of the net, and by pushing out directly at the shooter, makes it nearly impossible for the shooter to get the necessary elevation to get it up and over him. That's why the two-pad stack has been so successful over the years.
I'll throw in a little bit of math for you. Each goalie pad is 11 inches wide. Stack two on top of each other in a two-pad stack and you have about 2 feet of coverage. A hockey net is only 4 feet (48 inches) tall. With his two pad stack, Brodeur can take away half of the net. Then, Brodeur places his glove which is 18 inches wide, on top of the pads, giving the shooter about 8 inches at the top of the net to shoot at. That's a pretty tough target to hit without having time to line it up. Brodeur has calculated this maneuver and has figured out that by taking away the easiest shot (the bottom of the net) and making it difficult for a shooter to elevate the puck (by pushing towards the player, taking away time and space), he can make most of these desperation saves. It also helps that he has an uncanny ability to track the puck and is one of the quickest goaltenders I've ever seen in recovering his position. Watch some of his other remarkable saves in the clip below.
This is such a crucial advantage for a goaltender to have. You often hear that a goaltender should wait for a shooter to make the first move and then they can react accordingly. However, most goaltenders have tells and already have a move in mind. The shooter can anticipate that move and then make the necessary move. It's basically a mental chess match that often results with the goalie being at a major disadvantage. Not the case with Brodeur. Brodeur has all the tricks, all the saves, all the maneuvers, and most importantly, has the patience to out-wait the shooter. The shooter is forced to make a move and Brodeur can then do any one of his moves to make the save. That's why he has always been one of the toughest goalies to score on.
New Jersey Devils goaltender, Martin Brodeur, showcasing his phenomenal puck-handling skills.
Seriously? Who thinks of making a "scorpion" save? I can see why shooters have no idea what Brodeur is going to do. I can't even imagine having the flexibility to make that kind of save, let alone actually doing it. Simply remarkable.
I'll break this save down for you as well.
Watch how Marty squares up to Washington Capitals' forward Alexander Ovechkin on this penalty shot. This is textbook preparation as Brodeur's glove is high, and he is backing in as Ovechkin approaches him.
In this frame you can see Ovechkin bearing down on his stick as he is preparing to shoot. To the naked eye this may not look like much, but what I want you to take note of is Brodeur's glove position. Notice how Brodeur's glove is no longer high, but is actually now very low, resting on his pad. Having your glove resting on your pad is a cardinal sin for a goaltender as that leaves you very vulnerable to getting beat high glove-side. However, Marty is doing this intentionally, trying to bait Ovechkin into shooting the puck there.
Marty wins. Ovechkin takes the bait and fires it high glove. See how quickly Marty gets his glove back up to rob Ovechkin. He simply outsmarted one of the best goal scorers of this generation.
These are just a few of Brodeur's skills. I could probably write an entire book discussing his workout regimen, agility training, flexibility training, intelligence, etc. etc. The three skills/qualities I pointed out for you to see here are things that I believe truly separate Brodeur from all other goaltenders. This is only a small sample of all the skills he possesses, skills he has used to become the NHL's all-time leader in regular season games played, wins (career and single season), saves, regular season shutouts, and playoff shutouts (career and single season). He is an absolutely remarkable goaltender and I for one will be sad to see him hang up his skates in the next couple of years.


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Poets Corner Exam Pathos
Photograph reproduced courtesy of Si Barbar
This article is reproduced courtesy of Warwick Mansell and The Times Educational Supplement and was published on Friday May 19, 2006
Warwick Mansell compares and contrasts two writers' verses on the season of GCSEs and A-levels
Examination papers blowing through doorways like seafront litter.
Pupils racking their brains for ideas "like a grim crowd at Norwich
City". Oh, and a pile of warm vomit.
Such is exam invigilation for poet Gareth Calway, an English teacher, brought to you in the week GCSE and A-levels began.
As hundreds of thousands of teenagers embark on weeks of hand-ache and, for some, heartache, the works of Mr Calway and Ian McMillan, the Barnsley bard, illustrate the potential pathos of the subject.
Mr McMillan, a regular television and radio guest, has penned a special poem for The TES this week (see box). More seriously, though, he said exams were a malign influence in classrooms and should be banned.
For Mr McMillan, host of BBC Radio 3's The Verb programme, which considers the spoken word around the world, and a regular on Newsnight Review, exams are a blot on the education landscape.
He has visited more than 1,000 primary and secondary schools, and said:
"Every school I go to is obsessed with exams."
He visits schools to read his poetry. But because his poems have been in GCSE and A-level syllabuses, he said he was often asked to give the "answers" to the meanings behind his words.
"Schools are teaching kids how to answer the exam questions, which seems to me to be amazing," said Mr McMillan. "I always had the idea that education should be about teaching someone to be a better human being, not to pass exams."
In his poems Mr Calway, who has taught at Smithdon high, Hunstanton, Norfolk, for 12 years, reminisces on tests in a new collection which also provides a sideways look at school inspections and parents' evenings.
In Mocks (see box below), he writes of teenagers "stoned on cold and boredom/ With fifty-two minutes still to go/ And nothing left to write about or remember".
Things have heated up for Exam Invigilation, based on his experiences of pupils struggling with their real GCSEs the following sweltering summer.
"Today in Norfolk, a boy has thrown up/ Over intermediate science paper 1 and the era/ Of caretakers with buckets arriving within the hour/ Is history."
The poem continues: "The June heat is on... it's beginning/ To cook the boy's dinner a second time./ Our caretakers -Godot and son plc -/ Send a memo to say they will arrive asap.
"Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot."
Mr Calway seems to have a problem with janitors, to judge from On Being Locked Inside a Tiny Room by a Well-Meaning Caretaker, a cry for help from the poet as an appointment with a cover class looms.
In another poem, he writes wryly of an assembly on "healthy Norfolk" having to be cancelled "because both members of staff concerned are ill".
In Ofsted, our narrator finds himself being judged by an Inspector Clouseau lookalike. The school's inspection is two days old before his class is visited, he writes, with the result that he's "climbing the walls", yelling at his pupils for talking.
Parents' Evening offers a portrait of a world-weary mother challenging the teacher's view that her child's "Promise and beauty... has gone/ Even before it's in bloom."
But Mr Calway's vision of education is not entirely jaundiced. Star Teacher, which he said sets out his ideals, simply asks a child to "look at the sky... (and) reach".
warwick.mansell@tes.co.uk
More information on the poets from www.garethcalway.co.uk and
www.ian-mcmillan.co.uk
Exile: Tour Report
May 19 2006 Abersychan Comprehensive School, Torfaen.
Dad dropped me off in exactly the same way he had done in 1968 when I was 12. I walked down the same steeply-sloped playground feeling pretty much as nervous as I had then. What the hell was I doing, bringing Bristol City football poetry into a Welsh Rugby heartland? A polite kid opened the door and a couple of others greeted me, without being prompted, in the corridor. Then the Secretary greeted me wearing full Bristol City regalia. It was going to be ok! I found that I had been given the old gym for the whole day. Quite a coincidence. It was the actual setting for several of the poems – notably Welsh Rugby, with its description of Cobner's beating of yours truly in 1969 – and it retained almost entirely the infrastructure of my youth. The vaulting horse brought before the public in my play "Getting On" and my comic novel "River Deep Mountain High" was as prominent in the actual room as it is in my writing. The lectern I was lectured from for six years by my old Headmaster and his deputy was also still there and I delivered my comic version of their assemblies later that day from it. (It is also now accompanying me on tour as a key piece of stage furniture). When I asked the Year 8 boys what football team they supported – ready with a quip about how few seemed to follow Bristol City – I was given the usual litany 'Man United', 'Arsenal', 'Tottenham Hotspurs' only in that same valley sing song that had first set my ears ringing in December 1968. Of course, the Rugby Only heartland idea is a myth: Rugby is the official school sport, yes, and rightly so, and the locals are very good at it: but just as we did, the kids play and follow the round-balled variety at every opportunity. All the same, when TES Cymru took photographs at the end of a long day , it still felt peculiarly evocative of the 'Exile in his own country' themes of my book, that these valley kids should be chanting Bristol City slogans in Bristol City shirts in a Welsh playground. Even more fittingly peculiar, when I performed a schooldays section to the whole of Year 9 in the afternoon, two of my own teachers from the 60s (and very briefly colleagues in 1980) came out of retirement and were watching me at the back. The Head of English gave me a tour of the old Main Block at the end of the day and promised to erect a blue plaque over the Victorian radiator in the form room where I had my First Real Kiss. The radiator that day was blisteringly hot but the girl was even hotter. I'm not sure what kind of plaque about us could be raised in the Old Geography Room next door, which like all this floor was now the English suite, making me feel even more like I was still there. The Old Head's office where I was regularly caned now houses voluntary SATs papers. The punishment goes on in different forms. Though (like me) everything in the old block was 35 years older, little had changed or grown less solid. It was just about half as big.
May 20 Congress Theatre, Cwmbran
Ah! The smell of the dressing room. I had a long mobile phone call with my old dramaturg David in the dressing room. He is the subject of the poem "Memorial"; in the book and he is younger and more foolish than me and he also rescued me from early middle age with theatre and a leather jacket in my mid thirties. I said I was very nervous. He said it was better than being bored. I wandered backstage with about fifteen minutes to go and saw Okker at the bar - I was at Abersychan with him and I'd forgotten how close we were 35 years ago. I'd not seen or heard him since I was 15. We exchanged a wondering smile. I recognised him before I even knew who he was. I went back up to the dressing room thinking how you can't bullshit people you've grown up with and what the hell was I doing putting on this 'show'!? What an arrogant act it all is really, charging people to come and see you tell your own story, especially when some of the audience are actually in it. There were in fact about six characters both in the show and in the audience this evening, in particular my parents, who were repeatedly featured in the poems and who were in the front row. Still, it kept me honest. There were 32 people in all and I was doing the show in the lounge with the audience seated around bar tables. So it felt pleasantly full and my little stage set of trellis downstage left and easy chair upstage right felt right - like an exile's home. When I bounded onstage to the clunking rock'n'roll of Bill Halley circa 1956 (the year of my birth) my mother was jiving in the corner of the performance space with another woman of similar age. How appropriate that my mother should be jiving at the edge of a poem I was presenting about my first memory. How ludicrous also. And how unique she is! (I've got to the age where I finally see her as a – genuine - character in her own right, though very glad she was my mother.) Anyway, I got on with it and got some laughs for my mime of infancy. I was doing some of the poems without the book and this was the very first time the show had appeared before the public so it was both thrilling and nerve-wracking at once. Another schooldays friend had said he might be bringing Chris Garland, the 1970s City, Cardiff City and Chelsea star and so I assumed the bloke next to him was my old hero. Later on, I thought he doesn't seem to be enjoying the Bristol City stuff much. I found out afterwards he wasn't Chris Garland (though the old legend had sent me a signed programme and good luck wishes for the tour) and that he was deaf. In the interval, I listened to the Eurovision Song Contest on the radio and felt much better about the 'musical' opening of my second half. It's great coming on to a changed set – I've never done this before – and especially so when it's that totemic microphone on a stand. Oh yes. The world jazz rap went down well and then my Beatle prose poem, complete with wig and guitar mime, was finally revealed. As so often, the riskier it feels, the better it goes. And as always, the magical love people still have for the Beatles made this the favourite section for several children of the sixties but also for some of the actual children they'd brought with them. (After all, theirs is a sort of fairy story.) If I'm not absolutely sure if I'm writing about Beatlemania or actually displaying its lifelong symptoms ("I need HELP") then at least I'm not basking in their reflected limelight while trying to shoot them out of it as is the case with so many Beatle-debunking 'exposés'. And it's a childhood fantasy come true getting applause as I do my deep Beatle bow at the end. The final section ushers in a third set – schooldays, including my old school lectern – and the comical reality of having to earn a living in 'exile' from my artistic vocation. My old French teacher from the late 60s queued up for a signed book at the end and his deadpan vocal delivery hadn't changed for 35 years. My younger sister (with whom I'd drunk too much the night before) said she'd wanted to applaud after every poem but wondered if you should. Anyone reading this, please note I (in common with I suspect most performers outside of the classical music circuit, if there) have no philosophical objection to applause between numbers! Outside the stage door I tried unsuccessfully to arrange an Indian meal out with some younger members of the audience before driving the set back to Pontypool, where I stopped off at Omar Simpson's to get a doner kebab and a 'small' portion fof chips for one person - ie enough for three hungry Weshmen - on my way home to a comfortable supper in with my parents. I have rarely felt so content.
Posted by Gareth Calway at 11:51 am No comments:
Poet Who's On The Ball
This article is reproduced courtesy of John Hudson, Western Daily Press
An avid Bristol City fan and a literary talent, Gareth Calway's seventh book has just been published. John Hudson reports
A FEW people in the West are sitting up and taking notice of Gareth Calway's literary credentials this spring.
Many round here know him only as Bristol City's official poet laureate, and he's happy to project himself in that role as a 50-year-old footie nut, an anorak who goes right back to the days of John Atyeo and Chrissie Garland.
But there's a great deal more to him than that, and a substantial collection of his best poems, spanning a quarter of a century or more, has just been published by Portishead's cutting-edge poetry imprint blue chrome.
Exile In His Own Country is his seventh book, and admirers say it sums up all the qualities the late poet laureate Ted Hughes once praised in his work - strength, wholesomeness and the best kind of simplicity.
It also positions Calway that little bit nearer to the literary mainstream, no easy task for a provincial poet without a comfortable university post to fall back on.
In fact he's head of English at a high school in Norfolk. And if you think that's where the "exile" bit in the book's title comes from, you haven't heard the half of it.
He feels as if he's never been anything but one.
His parents met on a train going to watch Bristol City, his dad was Bristolian born and bred, and his mum, Welsh, but living there.
A "Severn Beach honeymoon baby", he was born in Usk but spent his early childhood in Bristol before his family moved on to Frome and then the South Wales valleys, fromwhich he escaped back to Ashton Gate whenever he could. But his sense of living in exile goes beyond geographical boundaries.
Earlier on, there was the alienation from working-class roots imposed by grammar school and university, and now, while being deeply entrenched in the life and culture of East Anglia he still identifies closely with our part of the world, the land of his childhood
.He is known in Norfolk as "a bald head of English" and lively promoter of poetry, yet he will sit for hours in his car to enjoy or endure 90 minutes of what's on offer at Ashton Gate, roaring with the rest of the lads yet, in some ways, removed from them.
This, in part, seems to be a generation gap thing and, if so, it will only get worse.
He grumbles about the young men around him shouting stuff he would never dream of shouting and spotting things on the field that mean nothing to him:
Standing in my team red before a game, yelling the chants - in and out of sync, The main feeling is of being a complete fraud.
It's not that the team doesn't matter to me:
It matters enough to give me a heart attack.
It's just that, with only different memories of 2-3-5 to fall back on, I never really understand what's going on. . .
But then again, this is the kind of work many round here recognise in Gareth Calway.
What they will be less aware of is his sophistication as a writer who draws on everything from Eastern mysticism to myth, pre-Conquest English history and the East Anglia countryside to inform his poems.
That rather earnest list sells short the sheer sense of fun with which he makes serious points - and a rueful way of looking back, in which his childhood in Frome seems to fare particularly badly.
Of the school canteen, he recalls that:...
the smell Of boiled cabbage - as surely served in hell Would gas the stairwells, pied with potatoes Even pig swillers had sent back...
While his impression of Sunday school culture is summed up in a poem that ends:
Dear God, 'elp us to feel totally and completely useless, that human love is a sham that divine love is beyond us, 'elp us to deny every living moment of our actual experience, 'elp us to feel that we're better off dead...
Then there's the poet's first memory - of being attacked by a toucan at Bristol Zoo in 1958, which is recalled in infant Brizzle l ingo.
Gareth is at present in the midst of a spasmodic book tour that takes him to all the places that mean most to him - the West Country, South Wales and East Anglia.
The best day to catch him around here is July 22, when you can meet him (rather improbably) at Bristol Lord Mayor's Chapel on College Green in the afternoon (details tel 0117 929 4350) and at the Chepstow Festival's Drill Hall venue in the evening (01291 624836).
Gareth's Bristol City poetry, Sheer Paltry was recently published by the club at £5, with all profits going to Ashton Gate. Exile In His Own Country, just out through blue chrome, is a £7.99 paperback.
May Poem Of The Month
Exam Invigilation,
Dis-Next-the-Sea Comprehensive
Today in Norfolk, a boy has thrown up
Over Intermediate Science Paper 1 and the era
Of caretakers with buckets arriving within the hour
Is history. The June heat is on and, despite
Open doorways blowing papers like seafront litter
Between deckchair assembly desks, it's beginning
To cook the boy's dinner a second time. And the clock
-A candidate has just informed me - stopped on the hour
Ten minutes before I gave them their final time-check:
My shirt has melted from emerald green
To Monsoon purple.....
I haven't felt heat like this since Christmas
When, in response to parental complaints
About conditions unconducive to exam performance,
We hired four blast-heaters from a building site
To roar like rockets in the breezeblock corners
Of our neo-brutalist Sports-cum-Exam Barn
(Put out of commission shortly afterwards
By a Sixth Former trying to drive through it)
Which still failed to thaw its December heart of concrete.
Good to recall our cornered wellards though,
Microwaved to a turn, hair frazzle-permed at 100 degrees F,
Dysfunctional faces sedated for the first time in four years...
The rising smell of sick retunes me to the present.
Our caretakers - Godot and Son plc -
Send a memo to say they will arrive a.s.a.p.
-Let's go
-We can't.
-Why not?
-We're waiting for Godot.
It's like trying to make a silk purse out of a haystack
Like trying to tune a pitchfork in a sow's ear.
Very busy with the tour but just time to post this before May is out. It was featured in the TES on May 19, the day I went back to my old school to run a poetry workshop in the room I sat my O and A levels in. The TES photo pictures the room in my own Norfolk school where my pupils sit their exams and where all the events in this poem really did happen in the 90s. I wish everybody sitting exams over the next few weeks the best of luck and commend them to Warwick Mansell's TES article in which he gives two poets' views of the process. Any readers in Sheringham or Norwich, you can come and see me perform these and other poems from the book in your local theatre over the next two weeks. If first reactions are true, it's a lot more lively and exciting than expected!
Exile In His Own Country: TES Photo Shoot
EDP Article
Gareth Calway's poetic career spans being official poet for Bristol City FC through to being head of English at Smithdon High School in Hunstanton.
And he will be performing his work next weekend in a one-man show at Sheringham Little Theatre.
Calway, 50, has just launched his seventh collection of verse, Exile in his Own Country, which is described as "a harvest of his best work and an extensive selection of new poems".
His work uses his roots in the West Country and Wales as a foil to his adult life in East Anglia as a way of examining what 'home' really is.
In 2004 the EDP called his work "imaginative, evocative", saying "this sell-out show must be repeated", and now it is.
* Exile in his Own Country is published by bluechrome priced £7.99. Tickets for Saturday's show cost £7. Call Sheringham Little Theatre box office on 01263 822347.
This article is reproduced courtesy of Kieron Pim and the Eastern Daily Press
Exile On Tour: Press Release
Gareth Calway: Exile In his Own Country.
To mark his 50th year and seventh book, Gareth Calway will be playing truant from his job as a teacher in Norfolk to attend the school in Abersychan, South Wales that he attended as a pupil from 1968-1974 and which provides the setting and themes of a whole section of his book, Exile In His Own Country. It is his first visit there since he returned to teach in its last term as a Grammar School in 1980.
The book was launched at King's Lynn Ottakar's last month as the start of a long combination of shows, readings and school workshops exploring the central theme of Exile.
The first leg of his tour is to lead a number of writing workshops at Abersychan comprehensive school before performing extracts from the next day's show, Exile in his Own Country. This performance will take place in the very hall he attended school assembly for six years as a pupil of Abersychan Grammar Technical School.
The new book adds to the literature of the Eastern valley and is surely the first to combine a sequence under the title Torfaen Monologues, wry and bitter-sweet accounts of teenage valley life in the 70s.
The book also records his Somerset childhood and his lifelong attachment to Bristol City FC, whose official poet laureate he is. His parents met on their way to a Bristol City football match and later honeymooned at Severn Beach, roughly half way between the Welsh and West country places that have shaped his writing ever since.
After his old school'homecoming', and another homecoming in Bristol and Chepstow, Gareth will return for a summer long tour of Norfolk venues, beginning with Sheringham Little Theatre (May 27) and the Norwich Puppet Theatre (June 2) and ending with a National Poetry Day harvest at the Cley Little Festival of poetry in October and the River studios at West Acre in November.
The book includes poetic accounts of his life as a teacher in the very different setting of Norfolk and a celebration of the East Anglian countryside. The music of Sinatra and the Beatles and the search for fulfilment in family, fatherhood, work, history, heroes/heroines, poetry and mystical searching all take turns as the sections of the book unravel.
All of these themes and settings bear on the central concern of the book which is an examination of home and exile and the position of the artist in modern life.
At 150 pages, the book is a harvest of 50 years of 20th century living and - in the 'Harvest' section - of the best of Calway's previous six books, "City Zen", "Coming Home", "Britain's Dreaming,"The Merchant of Bristol", "The House on the River" and the Bristol City-published "Sheer Paltry."
So Gareth Calway returns to school at Abersychan secondary school on May 19 2006, 35 years late but with all his homework done.
The book will be reviewed in the Western Mail on 17 June and featured in TES and TES Cymru in the last weeks of May. Reviews in poetry magazines, The Western Daily Press and The Eastern Daily Press are also scheduled.
Contact/ reviews/ further details: 01485 571828
Reviews: www.bluechrome.co.uk (new releases)
Exile book launch in Lynn News
This article is published here courtesy of the Lynn News
Discover yourself through poetry, says Gareth
A WEST Norfolk poet is on a mission to encourage people to discover themselves through poetry as he promotes his newly published collection.
Prolific poet and head of English at Smithdon High School, in Hunstanton, Gareth Calway (50), launched his seventh poetry collection, Exile In His Own Country, at Ottakar's book shop in Lynn's Norfolk Street last Tuesday (11).
And he will now be kept busy touring and giving readings of his poems, both in Bristol and Wales where he spent his early years and around his current home in Norfolk.
A mixture of new work, plus the best of his back catalogue, the collection covers everything from autobiographical poems about going to school and later becoming a teacher himself, to pieces about the Norfolk landscape.
Unusually it also features poems about football, including one on the 1966 World Cup final, drawing on Mr Calway's experience as the official poet laureate for Bristol City Football Club.
While poetry and football might seem an odd pairing Mr Calway said football chants were similar to poems and hoped by showing the link he could help make poetry less daunting.
"I think sometimes people are a bit frightened of poetry and I've spent most of my career trying to make it not so frightening.
"It's a great way of expressing what you feel and if you teach it properly almost without realising it students can get in touch with aspects of themselves they didn't know about.
"A lot of education today is about literacy rather than thought and feeling and I think poetry relocates that. Poetry should be a voyage of discovery. It should move you or make you laugh," he added.
Mr Calway will be holding a poetry workshop at Smithdon High School on Thursday, July 20, at at Wells' Granary Theatre the following Friday (28), before a reading at Westacre River Studios at a date to be set in November.
He is also hoping to encourage students at Lynn's King Edward VII High School - where he worked previously - to write more poetry by sponsoring the school's sixth form poetry prize.
Copies of Exile In His Own Country, priced £7.99, are on sale at the Lynn and Norwich branches of Ottakar's, or available by emailing Gareth via this website purchase page or via publisher, Blue Chrome's website at www.bluechrome.co.uk.
Copyright Lynn News, Friday April 28 2006

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
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Pollock Gallery
Form Follows Color→
Form Follows Color
study by Barnaby Fitzgerald
Golden Mouse→
Golden Mouse
Pixy Liao, 2018, risograph print, 11x17
Riso Bar Flyer
Sofia Bastidas
Pollock Gallery Curatorial Fellow
abastidas@smu.edu
The Pollock Gallery of the Division of Art at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts will open two exhibitions on January 25: Form Follows Color, which explores the union of painting and ceramics, and Riso Bar, an interactive show dedicated to the creativity of risograph printing technology. Form Follows Color runs through February 29, 2020, and Riso Bar continues through December 15, 2020. The opening reception for both exhibits is January 25 from 1 to 5 p.m.
Form Follows Color:
In the 2019 fall semester, SMU Division of Art professors Barnaby Fitzgerald (painting) and Brian Molanphy (ceramics) brought their separate courses together for a collaboration to combine painting and ceramics in bas-relief. Form Follows Color focuses on the pedagogical thinking behind the task of making an image with clay, firing it into a bisque and painting it. While two- and three-dimensional works are typically seen as separate, Molanphy says, "Bas-relief, and ceramics in general, are the happy confluence of dimensions. To cut and to build clay in order to draw reveals a profound sense of line, tone, volume, shape and color." The works exhibited in Form Follows Color are a mix of bas-relief pieces as well as paintings, studies, tests and experiments from B.F.A and M.F.A. students, teaching assistants and professors who participated in both classes.
Riso Bar:
The risograph is a printing technology defined by its relative simplicity and possibilities for experimentation. Invented in Japan in the 1940s, the technology was imagined as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to photocopy machines. In subsequent decades, riso has become a definitive creative tool for a global network of users including artists, designers, publishers and universities. Riso Bar is a collaborative exhibition that engages with the vast riso network, exploring the risograph's potential as a tool for learning and experimentation. Over the course of the exhibition, a risograph machine will be available for public use while the Pollock Gallery is open. The machine forms the core of the exhibition: "It is what we learn with, practice with, and make with," says curator Sofia Bastidas. Visitors to the Pollock Gallery are invited to use the risograph to create works of their own. A series of free, public workshops led by riso producers from Texas and elsewhere will allow visitors to develop and expand both their skills and knowledge of riso history and practices. In collaboration with SMU's Hamon Arts Library, Riso Bar will include a curated collection of riso books and zines from all over the world, as well as fresh juices for purchase from Recipe Oak Cliff, playing off the ideas of the riso "bar."
"Riso Bar is a long-term exhibition for collective learning and skill building," says Bastidas. "Our hope is that it will be a launching pad for a new riso press in Dallas after the exhibit concludes."
The exhibition is a collaborative initiative between Strange Powers Press, May Makki, Finn Jubak, Recipe Oak Cliff and the SMU Hamon Arts Library.
Strange Powers Press is a letterpress and risograph studio operating out of Dallas. Powered by a Riso GR 3770 and a Vandercook Proof Press, founders Mylan Nguyen and Taro Waggoner make it their mission to promote and publish interesting zines and prints as well as hold workshops on various forms of printmaking and making small publications.
Finn Jubakwas born and raised in New York City and received a B.A. in film from the University of Chicago in 2018. His work in photography and film engages the materiality of landscape and expressiveness of everyday objects. His images have been published in Hamburger Eyes and Aint-Bad. He currently lives in Dallas.
May Makkiis interested in collaborative systems and practices. She received her B.A. in art history from the University of Chicago, where she focused on the relationship between art, technology, media and politics. She is the curator of a private collection in Dallas.
Recipe Oak Cliff is a food venture of The Susu Cultural Business Incubator, dedicated to addressing food security issues and supporting health food entrepreneurs in South Oak Cliff.
The Hamon Arts Library serves SMU's Meadows School of the Arts and the arts community. Its circulation and reference collections contain more than 180,000 items relating to the visual and performing arts. In addition, the library has some 300 subscriptions to arts periodicals and provides access to more than 40 online resources that are specific to the arts. The purchase of the risograph books and zines in conjunction with the Riso Bar exhibition is possible thanks to the Gail Turner Fund, Hamon Arts Library, SMU.
About the Pollock Gallery:
The Pollock Gallery has recently moved to the east campus of SMU and is now located in Suite 101 in Expressway Tower, 6116 North Central Expressway, Dallas 75206. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. The gallery is closed Sunday and Monday. Parking and admission are free. For more information, call 214-768-4439 or visit the Meadows School calendar.
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Anyone have a clever name for this drink?[/caption] In fact, my wife-to-be "hates videogames" (per her blog here) and she's obsessed with it. It does have some of the key motivators many modern videogames have though: customization, always-on gameplay, cooperative competition, and the "I have to get one more!" feeling. Beyond that, despite news reports that Pokemon Go will lead your kids into strip clubs, Pokemon Go is one of the most powerful examples in years of the positive social power of interactive entertainment!
"I just wandered over here because my claw looks like his beak!"[/caption] Complaining about people going to museums for Pokemon is like people who whine about people going to the Symphony to hear film soundtracks. Similar to how we run Games Done Legit videogaming programs at Northeast Ohio libraries, these institutions are smart to find creative ways to attract kids, teens, and younger adults to their facility.
In just a week, I've heard story after story of how many miles friends have walked for Pokemon Go. 6 miles, 7 miles … it's a long-dead stereotype that gamers are lazy, but Pokemon proves above anything how motivating games are to us! If you gamify something and it's just fun — anything — people are more willing to do it, right? Gamifying exercise is by far the most motivating way to stay in shape, as you know by anyone who uses their fitbit to keep track of friends' steps. This is just taking it the extra mile! The most intensely I've ever worked out is through playing competitive Dance Dance Revolution — I was super movitated to get scores, and the physically draining exercise is just an awesome by-product. The more games we can leverage for positive outcomes, the better off our lives (and education system) will be!


text:
Viasat Broadcasting
Viasat changing sports line-up for Baltics
Viasat Broadcasting is to launch a new sports service for the Baltic states and has ceased broadcasting its Viasat Golf and Viasat Motor channels in the region ahead of the change. Viasat said the move came after a review of and evaluation of its current line-up of sports channels. Viasat currently provides coverage of the […]
Finland's MTV hires Discovery and Viasat execs in management restructure
Bonnier Broadcasting-owned Finnish commercial broadcaster MTV's CEO Jarkko Nordlund has named a new management team, with Discovery's Sami Vikback taking charge of the group's advertising business and Viasat's Johannes Leppännen becoming head of pay TV. Nordlund has hired Vikback from Discovery Networks Sweden, where he had the role of revenue director, to take charge of […]
MTG completes sale of CTC stake
Modern Times Group (MTG) has completed the sale of its 38% stake in Russian broadcasters CTC Media. The Swedish-based free and pay TV group received a total of US$123 million (€110 million) for the stake, and the deal leaves MTG with no further interest in CTC or any of its operations. The sale will result […]
MTG World channels rebranded
The MTG World portfolio of channels has been rebranded Viasat World. The Viasat World bouquet comprises 27 pay TV channels across 47 territories. The channels group was a subsidiary of Sweden-listed broadcaster Modern Times Group before being sold late last year for US$45.5 million amid regulatory changes that forced MTG to offload some assets. Russian […]
UPC Poland adds Viasat Explore
Liberty Global-owned cable operator UPC Poland has added Viasat Explore to its TV offering. The Modern Times Group-owned channel, which caters to a primarily male audience and includes coverage of 'e-sports', will be available as part of UPC Poland's Select package for no extra charge for a limited period.
Viasat Broadcasting channels launch on Megogo.net
Ukrainian OTT TV provider Megogo.net is to make all of Modern Times Group (MTG)-owned Viasat Broadcasting's Ukrainian linear channels available on its platform. Eight Viasat channels will initially be made available as part of Megogo.net's basic package. The channels will be provided on a pay basis from next year. Viasat's presence on the platform will […]
MTG wins one, loses one in Russia
Russian pay TV provider Orion Express has added 10 channels from Modern Times Group's Viasat Broadcasting to its line-up. Orion Express is offering Viasat channels in two new packages – a Viasat premium HD offering and a Viasat offering – with the addition of channels TV1000 Russian Kino, TV1000 Premium HD, TV1000 Megahit HD, TV1000 […]
MTG appoints Liberty exec for emerging pay TV markets role
Modern Times Group (MTG) has appointed Liberty Global executive Rotem Hakim as its director of business development for pay TV emerging markets. Hakim will take the role in MTG-owned Viasat Broadcasting's pay TV emerging markets team as of May 26. He joins from Liberty Global, where he has worked for 10 years, most recently as […]
Latvia's Baltcom strikes deal with TV3
Latvian cable operator Baltcom has struck a deal to continue carrying Viasat Broadcasting-owned channel TV3 on its platform. Baltcom chairman Vojko Rovere said that the company was "pleased to have been able to reach a mutually acceptable agreement on TV3's retransmission". The deal will enable Baltcom subscribers to continue watching TV3, carriage deals for which […]
MTG extends Disney agreement
Modern Times Group (MTG) has extended its content licensing agreement with Disney for first-run and library move rights in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. The deal brings exclusive first-run rights to movies including Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Disney's Wreck-it-Ralph, Disney/Pixar's Brave and Monsters University to MTG. The agreement also includes exclusive linear […]


No. 5 Janruwa Street, Narayi New Extension, Kaduna South, Kaduna State, Nigeria.
Alessandra CANNIZZO, GFF Program Director for Italy.
Oluwatobi OSOBUKOLA-ABUBU – Founder, GFF.
Golden Faith Foundation is committed to the goal of achieving its plan and sustainability of its projects.


If you suffered a back or neck injury in a car accident, you may find it impossible to work or do the things you normally do without debilitating pain. Unfortunately, it often takes a lawyer's help to prove that your injury is real and that you deserve compensation.
From our Mount Laurel office, Ginsberg & O'Connor, P.C., represents car accident victims in Burlington County and throughout central and southern New Jersey. Our attorneys have more than 50 combined years of experience in personal injury cases of all types, including those involving severe back and spinal cord injuries.
Most doctors treat back and neck injuries conservatively. In the days after your motor vehicle accident, your doctor may prescribe muscle relaxants and pain relievers, followed by physical therapy. If your condition does not improve, your doctor may explore other options. One of those options may be surgery down the road.
While most back and neck injuries get better with time, some result in chronic conditions that can affect you for the rest of your life. For this reason, it's important to treat these injuries seriously and to follow through with your doctor's treatment plan. It's also important to discuss your legal case with an experienced attorney.
If you accept an insurance company settlement before you know how the injury will heal, you may find yourself with less money than you will need to cover future needs such as medical care, chiropractic care, lost wages, ongoing therapy, surgery, emotional distress, and pain and suffering. Our goal is to recover the full compensation you deserve for your life going forward.
To talk to an experienced, skilled neck and back injury attorney, please call 856-437-0969, or contact us online. Your initial consultation is free, and we would be happy to meet you in your home or another convenient location if you cannot come to our office in Mount Laurel.


text:
Kershaw works on trio of contracts for the University of Cambridge
Kershaw Mechanical Services has completed two high-profile building-services contracts for local client Cambridge University, and is currently working on another for the same client. One of the completed projects is the Alison Richard Building (pictured), the new homes for humanities, social sciences and arts. With a total M&E value of £2.5 million, Kershaw installed the full range of building services into its three floors.
Services included basement plant rooms, radiator and chilled-water systems designed to control humidity in the basement where paper and film archives are stored, and cool the server rooms — ventilation systems and combined fire/smoke system. The first and second floors contain offices, meeting and seminar rooms, and support services.
At Harvey Court for Gonville & Caius College, Kershaw was responsible for the mechanical installation of new student accommodation, comprising full heating and ventilation and solar PV panels to parts of the roof.
The Jesus College project is also for student accommodation, and Kershaw is installing full M&E services into the Carpenter and Morley Horder buildings. Works in these Grade 1 listed buildings include new heating and domestic service plant, extraction system using in-house-manufactured ductwork, and a ground-source heat pump.
www.kershawmechanical.co.uk
Kershaw wins Harborough Council maintenance contract
5 star challenge
SPIE completes office refurbishment for BT
JS Wright wins east-London regeneration contract


text:
Q: Error C2280 in C++ I'm writing this code and for some reason I get error C2280 saying I'm trying to reference a deleted function. Don't exactly know what that means. Also every time I try to reference using the ampersand sign for in it keeps saying it expects a ")" then it doesn't let me pass menuList[] so it says it's undefined and that getData() has too many arguments. Any clues on what is going on? Currently running VS 13
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

struct menuItemType
{
string ItemName;
double ItemPrice;
};

void getData(ifstream in&, menuItemType menuList[]); \\ doesn't let me pass in here
void showMenu();
void printCheck();

int main()
  {
     menuItemType menuList[8];
   menuList[8].ItemName;
   menuList[8].ItemPrice;

   ifstream in;
   in.open("Menu.txt");

   getData(in,menuList); \\ states that it has too many arguments

   return 0;
}

void getData(ifstream in&, menuItemType menuList[])
{
    int i = 0;
    while (!in.eof())
    {
        in >> menuList[i].ItemName >> menuList[i].ItemPrice; \\ this is where menuList is undefined
    }

}

A: void getData(ifstream in&, menuItemType menuList[]);

The correct pass-by-reference syntax should be:
void getData(ifstream &in, menuItemType menuList[]);
//                    ^^^

Also the array menuList has only 8 elements, so it's illegal to access menuList[8] because  the array index starts from 0 in C++.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Just a few drips of water is all that's needed to spike your water bill.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Just a few drips of water is all that's needed to spike your water bill.
That's why now is a good time to take action.
Next weekend is National Fix a Leak Week.
Indiana American Water Suggests you take the time to check your faucets, toilet, and water softeners for leaks.
Indiana American Water can give you kits to check for leaks yourself.
To get one, give them a call at 1-800-492-8373.


The landscape of Asian trade finance is undergoing a seismic shift that is reshaping the way the region does business.
Fallout from the ongoing financial problems in Europe and the US has amplified longer-term evolutionary pressures exerted by the increasing complexity of supply chains, leading to a new trade geography, and new winners and losers.
Asian manufacturers are coming under unaccustomed pressure from the knock-on effects of the slowdown in developed markets, particularly Europe. In September, the World Trade Organization cut its 2012 trade growth forecast from 3.7 per cent to 2.5 per cent and, although they predicted growth would bounce back to 4.5 per cent this year, they warned that there are still significant downside risks.
Against this background, Asia's manufacturers are looking for greater efficiency in their supply chain management, and financial services can be both a potential source of savings itself and a promoter of cost benefits elsewhere in the chain.
For consumers, trade finance costs are falling. Lower global interest rates are playing their part, but the biggest driver has been increased competition. Although European banks have been pulling out of trade finance in Asia, the void has been more than filled by hungry regional and local banks keen to open up new business lines.
But the combination of increased competition and slowing trade growth has led to lower margins within the finance sector, and some of the newer entrants are struggling in an environment where businesses are demanding a more comprehensive service from their finance suppliers.
The new local and regional players may have made the trade finance pool wider, but they are entering the fray just as clients are looking for more depth. Manufacturers intent on eliminating financial friction in the supply chain are increasingly looking to banks that can provide a streamlined service across a broad range of geographies and products.
The key is connectivity. Supply chains today are exponentially more complex than they were even five years ago. The components that go into an iPhone come from many different countries: there are banks supplying trade finance that might be able to cover two or three of those but very few can supply all of them.
Even something as simple as an Indonesian soft drink to be sold to Chinese consumers might involve packaging supplies from India, sugar from Thailand and flavourings from the United States.
When exports were growing strongly, Asian businesses could afford to allow some slack in their supply chains, but as trading conditions have become tougher, they are becoming increasingly aware of the advantages of being able to exert influence both up and down the chain.
The search for increased efficiency has prompted a re-examination of the supply process from first principles. Manufacturers are becoming increasingly "vertically aware" as they examine all aspects of the chain in order to understand where costs are accruing.
They are clearing up their balance sheets; shifting inventory holding up or down the chain; cutting out unnecessary steps in logistics handling; and negotiating contracts between tier three and tier two suppliers.
And they are looking at maximizing the efficiency of their finance models. We are seeing a clear trend, especially among our biggest Asian customers, towards extending and modifying off-the-shelf products to create coherent full-service packages that combine traditional trade and foreign exchange products with new solutions to manage risks and maximize opportunities in the extended supply chain.
Asia's biggest manufacturers are no longer satisfied to be merely a link in a long value-added supply chain. As the global trade environment has deteriorated, they are increasingly taking control of the process, searching for cost efficiencies both up and down the chain, and presenting new challenges and opportunities for trade finance banks.
This publication does not constitute personalised financial advice. No consideration has been given to the particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any recipient. Readers should seek independent legal/financial advice prior to acting in relation to any of the matters discussed in this publication. No guarantees are given in relation to the accuracy or completeness of this information. No member of the HSBC Group is liable for damages arising out of reliance upon this publication. Any opinions in this document constitute the authors present judgment, which is subject to change without notice.


Hurricane Harvey is a disaster of monumental proportions that will destroy vast amounts of property and upend millions of lives. But it also appears that the overall economic toll, at least for the United States as a whole, will be modest. And that surprising fact offers important lessons about how the modern economy works.
That benign view of the economic impact of the storm is the immediate verdict of financial markets Monday, which showed no signs of expectations that there will be broad ripple effects.
The stock market was essentially flat at midday. Bond prices are also little changed; if investors expected lasting damage, they would most likely would have bid up bond prices, seeking safety and anticipating a slower pace of interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve.
And despite the Texas Gulf Coast's central role in American energy production, oil prices are not exhibiting the kind of spike they did after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; the price of West Texas intermediate crude fell Friday and Monday.
Gasoline prices are a different story, having risen because refining capacity was shut down amid the storm. But the 9 percent rise in the price of gasoline futures in the last week is the kind of swing that happens routinely, and has brought prices back only to around their late-July level.
This subdued reaction from Wall Street may seem surprising. After all, Houston is the fourth-largest American city and is at the center of a metropolitan area with economic output of half a trillion dollars a year. The New Orleans metro area economy, devastated by Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago, is one-sixth as large. And the economic consequences for Texas indeed look likely to be severe, as Houston and the Gulf Coast face years of rebuilding.
But when you pick apart the ways a disaster — even a huge one — can affect the overall economy, it becomes clearer why financial markets and economic forecasters are so sanguine.
Disruption to production and supply lines. The Gulf Coast is a center of oil drilling, refining and chemicals manufacturing. The details of how those industries will be affected are not yet clear, and the possibility of damage to production and distribution facilities is real.
There are likely to be power outages, and there is already severe flooding of roads and other transportation infrastructure. Industrial facilities themselves may be damaged by floods. But one thing that the Hurricane Katrina experience, among other disasters, has showed is how effective modern corporations are at overcoming those kinds of logistical challenges.
In the early days after that disaster, there were fears about disruptions to incoming supplies of coffee and bananas and to Midwest grain normally exported via barges down the Mississippi River. If you look at the overall data from that year for those and other affected commodities, though, there's not much evidence of any lasting problems, reflecting the ability of corporate supply chain and logistics managers to find other ways to get products to market.
Financial losses. In theory, a natural disaster could deliver such severe losses to insurers, banks or other financial institutions as to cause broader economic problems.
There's not much evidence of that happening because of Harvey for a few reasons. Home insurance policies generally do not cover flooding, which means the severe flood damage should have less impact on insurers' payouts than you might expect. For many individuals, the financial losses from flooding can be devastating. But the possibility of the kinds of systemic problems that ripple across global financial markets appears remote.
Insurers' balance sheets are relatively strong after years without mega-catastrophes demanding particularly enormous payouts.
Rebuilding costs. One of the paradoxes of disaster economics is that they can actually be good for economic growth, at least the way "growth" is commonly measured.
The need to rebuild or repair flooded buildings in Texas could create a surge in economic output in the state in the months ahead, generating higher growth in gross domestic product. This is a macabre artifact of economic accounting — no one would suggest that people are actually better off when billions of dollars' worth of capital is destroyed. But it is how the math works.
If this disaster had happened in a period like 2009 or 2010, when the housing bust had left millions of people — especially construction workers — unemployed, the need to rebuild homes and businesses in Houston might have worked like stimulus spending.
But it's not 2010 anymore. The unemployment rate among construction workers peaked at 27.1 percent in February 2010, but is now down to 4.9 percent. There aren't a lot of qualified, idle construction workers. Perhaps the availability of well-paying jobs in rebuilding homes in Texas and in doing mold remediation work and other tasks that will be in high demand could even coax people into the labor force who have been on the sidelines. In that case, the effort that goes into rebuilding Houston may create a bit of a boost to G.D.P., even if much of it comes at the cost of economic activity elsewhere.
The storm continues to wallop the Gulf Coast, and it's premature to declare that the economy is in the clear. But the initial evidence suggests that the human damage is far greater than the economic damage.


To ensure a fair test and healthy mix of students from all backgrounds, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have changed the pattern of the Common Admission Test (CAT) — the entrance criteria to the 13 IIMs and 150 other B-schools.
To ensure a fair test and healthy mix of students from all backgrounds, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have changed the pattern of the Common Admission Test (CAT) — the entrance criteria to the 13 IIMs and 150 other B-schools. The test will be held over a 20-day period from October 22 to November 18.
This year, the CAT will have two sections instead of three. The first section will focus on quantitative ability and data interpretation and the second on verbal ability and logical reasoning. Candidates will get 70 minutes to solve 30 questions in each section. Once the 70-minute time lapses, candidates cannot return to the section.
"Students often spend more time on some sections and give less time to the others. The aim is to quickly finish the section they are confident in and focus more on sections they are weaker at. We want students who are equally good in both aspects — quantitative as well as verbal," said professor Janakiraman Moorthy, convenor, CAT 2011.
Usually 90% of students who make it to the IIMs are engineers who do better in the quantitative section than the verbal section. The CAT group was discussing ways to ensure that students who come into IIMs are not just mathematics wizards but are good at humanities too for over a year. "This change will give candidates from other backgrounds a fair chance and also engineers who make it will be equally good in both the sections," said Moorthy.
Earlier the test was divided into three sections — quantitative ability, data interpretation and logical reasoning, and the third section was verbal ability with 20 questions each that had to be completed in 135 minutes.
After reviewing the process and candidate's punctuality, the check-in time at centres has been made one-and-half hours prior to the exam instead of two hours. This will ensure the afternoon session begins at 3.15pm.
"Considerable effort has been invested in maintaining similar level of difficulty across papers. A small number of statistically and psychometrically validated questions are randomly inserted in each question paper as equating blocks.
These will be used for establishing post-test equality across the days," said Moorthy.


text:
Appeal to the Federal Office for Civil Rights, Asking The OCR to Open an Investigation at Yale
sarahbraasch Civil Rights, Defamation, Disability Rights, Discrimination, Due Process, Federal OCR, Hate Crime, Hate Crime Hoax, Living While Black, Moral Outrage Industry, Moral Outrage Warriors, Napping While Black, Race Hoax, Racism, Sarah Braasch, Social Media, Title IX, Title VI, Uncategorized, Viral Videos, Yale May 6, 2019 13 Minutes
Below please find the primary text of my appeal to the Federal Office for Civil Rights, asking them to open an investigation into Yale University's gross violations of civil rights law during the Living or Napping While Black Hate Crime Hoax:
The OCR's letter dismissing the complaint only indicates that I am alleging that University Officials harassed me and retaliated against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age, AFTER May 8th, 2018. This is incorrect. I am alleging that University Officials and the Campus Police harassed me and retaliated against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age, BETWEEN AND ON the dates of February 24th, 2018, and May 8th, 2018.
I am explicitly alleging that University Officials and the Yale Campus Police participated in the harassment and retaliation against me on and between these dates, and that University Officials and the Campus Police assisted my attackers, Lolade Siyonbola and Jean Louis Reneson, and others, in harassing me and retaliating against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age between and on these dates.
This is made clear in the illegal video recording of me, made on May 8th, 2018, which was widely distributed around the world to shame me for my mental health disabilty, when my attacker, Lolade Siyonbola, repeatedly states that I'm psychotic and crazy and that I should be put in a mental institution, and repeatedly states that Yale knows that I'm psychotic and crazy and that I should be put in a mental institution. I was being targeted as the victim of harassment and retaliation on the basis of my mental health disability by both my student and Resident Coordinator attackers AND University Officials AND the Campus Police. The illegal video recording of me makes more than clear that my attacker was intimately familiar with who I was. She knew all of these personal details of my life, even though she had never met me, because Yale was illegally feeding her my personal information, including my mental health history, a fact which she also makes clear in the illegally recorded and distributed video. Additionally, Provost Stephanie Spangler accidentally revealed to me when I met with her in March & April, 2018, that Yale was illegally feeding my personal information to my attackers, including my name and my mental health history.
I am alleging that, as told to me by Housing Director George Longyear on March 2nd, 2018, Yale Deans, including Grad School Dean Lynn Cooley and Grad School Diversity Dean Michelle Nearon, and others, harassed and retaliated against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age, between the dates of February 24th, and March 2nd, 2018, and that this harassment and retaliation continued thereafter and continues to this day.
By March 2nd, 2018, I had been fully exonerated by the Housing Managers for the February 24th, 2018 incident. The Housing Managers told me that not only had I done absolutely nothing wrong, but that I was the only person involved who had done nothing wrong. Moreover, I was the person who was terrorized in my isolated dorm room on the evening of February 24th, 2018. The Deans who harassed and retaliated against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age thereafter knew that I was entirely innocent of racial harassment. They were not harassing me and retaliating against me, because they believed that I had been accused of or had perpetrated racial harassment. They were harassing me and retaliating against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age. This harassment and retaliation took the form of them determining that I should participate in a town hall, during which I was supposed to publicly declare myself a racist, as well as undergo implicit bias training. This harassment and retaliation also took the form of them spreading across campus that I was guilty of racial harassment, as was told me by the Housing Director, when he told me that the allegations against me were "going around" and "gaining traction," including by a group of Deans. I experienced walking across campus on multiple occasions and overhearing myself being discussed as a racist who should be kicked off campus and thrown out of school. I am alleging that these Deans desired to publicly brand me a racist to destroy my lifelong career as a human and civil rights licensed attorney activist to harass and retaliate against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age.
I am alleging that when Grad School Diversity Dean Michelle Nearon told me, via email, that not only did she have no interest in addressing the fact that I had been and was still being harassed and stalked on campus on the basis of race, disability, sex, and age, but also that if I had any concerns for my personal safety on campus that I should move out of my home and leave campus, that this was harassment and retaliation against me on the basis of race, disability, sex, and age. I told Dean Nearon as much via email. I am alleging that after I threatened to take civil legal action to protect my rights and interests, Dean Michelle Nearon's refusal to meet with me on the record and refusal to work with me in writing and refusal to help me restore my good name and reputation on campus, while I was being defamed across campus as guilty of racial harassment, was harassment and retaliation against me on the basis of race, disability, sex, and age. I told Dean Nearon as much via email.
I am alleging that the Administration's and the Campus Police's refusals to do anything to protect me and to make me safe in my isolated dorm room and on campus BETWEEN February 24th, 2018, and May 8th, 2018, was harassment and retaliation on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age. They knew who my attackers were, and they not only did nothing to stop them, but they also assisted my attackers in harassing me and retaliating against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age.
Yale's recent farcical Title VI Review Report, which further defames me and is a further instance of retaliation and harassment against me on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age does clarify the follow: "Race-based D&H falls under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . . . universities receiving federal funds cannot discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, color or national origin, either directly or indirectly." This means that the Administration's and the Campus Police's outright refusals to do anything about the harassment and stalking that I was enduring in my dorm room in on campus housing and as I walked across campus was itself harassment and retaliation on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age.
I am alleging that after I threatened to take civil legal action to protect my rights and interests, Yale General Counsel Attorney Caroline Hendel's refusal to help me in any way, and her insistence that I deal with Dean Nearon, after I told Attorney Hendel that I believed Dean Nearon was in gross violation of Title IX and ADA regulations, and after I told her that Dean Nearon had expressed callous disregard for my personal safety on campus, was harassment and retaliation against me on the basis of race, disability, sex, and age. I told Attorney Hendel as much via email. This occurred in March, 2018.
I also wish to make clear that the Yale Campus Police Department considers itself a private force hired by Yale University, and they often attempt to circumvent their obligations to the general public by claiming such, including FOIA requests. They are agents of Yale University. As such, given that Yale University receives federal funding, the Campus Police cannot discriminate on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age. I am alleging that the Campus Police grossly discriminated and harassed and retaliated against me on the basis of race, age, disability, and sex, as I detailed in my original complaint to the OCR. The OCR should open an investigation into the illegal acts of the Campus Police. The OCR's letter dismissing the complaint failed to address any of these gross violations.
The OCR's letter dismissing the complaint claims that the harassment and stalking and retaliation and discrimination that I have endured from students, Resident Coordinators, University Officials, and the Campus Police, cannot be taken to have been on the basis of race, sex, disability, or age, because this is too speculative. Frankly, I find this claim to be preposterous. First and foremost, as I made clear above, the harassment, discrimination, and retaliation need not be direct; it may be indirect as well. I am alleging both direct and indirect harassment, stalking, discrimination, and retaliation on the part of students, Resident Coordinators, University Officials, and the Campus Police.
It could not be clearer that I was being harassed and stalked, in my dorm room and as I walked across campus, on the basis of my mental health disability. As I mention above, the illegal video recording of me on May 8th, 2018, makes this more than clear. Additionally, my attackers made it more than clear in their global defamation campaign that they waged against me immediately following the May 8th, 2018 incident, that they had always been targeting me due to my mental health disability, and that Yale was not only aware of this fact, but that the Yale Administration also assisted them in their efforts. For the OCR to state that it's too speculative to infer that I was being targeted on the basis of my mental health disability by students, Resident Coordinators, University Officials, and the Yale Campus Police, both directly and indirectly, is ludicrous.
On February 24th, 2018, I made clear to my attacker, Jean Louis Reneson, that I was asking him to leave, because I was a woman, alone, and he had followed me up to my isolated dorm room to gain unauthorized access to the 12thfloor of the tower of the Hall of Graduate Studies. I could not have made this clearer. It was out of concern for my personal safety, as a woman living alone in an isolated dorm room, that I called the non-emergency helpline of the Yale Campus Police on February 24th, 2018. I could not have made this fact clearer to everyone involved, including the Yale Administration, Yale Housing, and the Yale Campus Police. This fact is reiterated in my Yale Campus Police report dated March 9th, 2018, and filed with Yale Campus Police Officer Grace Schenkle. Again, the Housing Managers investigated the February 24th, 2018 incident and fully exonerated me. They told me that they would discipline the Resident Coordinators for not having handled the situation properly. I am repeating these facts, because I want to make clear that the students involved, the Resident Coordinators, the University Officials, and the Yale Campus Police Department harassed and stalked me, discriminated against me, and retaliated against me, not because they believed that I had been accused of or had perpetrated racial harassment, but due to my race, sex, disability, and age. Everyone knew that I had NOT perpetrated racial harassment. I was being harassed and stalked and attacked, discriminated and retaliated against, because I had dared to assert my rights to be safe on Yale's campus, as an older, disabled woman, by telling a man who had followed me up to my isolated dorm room, and who had clearly gained unauthorized access thereto, to leave, and because I had called the non emergency helpline of the Yale Campus Police, and because I had taken reasonable precautions to enter my dorm room safely. And, moreover, I was being discriminated and retaliated against, by University Officials, when I asserted that they were in gross violation of Federal Civil Rights Laws by engaging in such discrimination and retaliation and direct and indirect harassment and stalking and attacks. (As I made clear in my complaint to the OCR, the Yale Administration jumped at the chance to expel me again, as they had tried to do in Spring, 2015.)
I made clear to Yale Housing, the Yale Administration, and the Yale Campus Police Department that I had grave concerns that Yale was taking the position that an older, disabled woman who lives alone in an isolated dorm room in Yale's on campus graduate student housing does not have the right to take reasonable precautions to ensure that she can enter her isolated dorm room safely; that she does not have the right to tell a man who followed her up to her isolated dorm room to gain unauthorized access thereto to leave; that she does not have the right to call the non emergency helpline of the Yale Campus Police when she is followed by a man up to her isolated dorm room, a man who had clearly gained unauthorized access thereto. The notion that it is too speculative to infer that I was being discriminated against, harassed and stalked, and retaliated against on the basis of sex is preposterous.
I made clear to Dean Nearon via email that I took her refusals to address the harassment and stalking and attacks against me as gross violations of Title IX and the ADA. I made clear to Attorney Hendel that I took her refusals to address the harassment and stalking and attacks against me as gross violations of Title IX and the ADA, as well as her insistence that I deal with Dean Nearon, after I had made clear that I believed Dean Nearon to be in gross violation of Title IX and the ADA. I made clear to Provost Spangler and Associate Provost Cynthia Smith and Yale Campus Police Chief Ronnell Higgins that I took Dean Nearon and Attorney Hendel and Sergeant Robbins-Hoffman and Yale Housing and the Yale Campus Police Department to be in gross violation of Title IX and the ADA. The notion that it is too speculative to infer that I was being discriminated against, harassed and stalked and attacked, and retaliated against on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age is preposterous.
Moreover, the May 8th, 2018 incident and subsequent global defamation campaign against me took place at the apex of the Living While Black movement. It is more than clear from the statements of my attackers subsequent to the May 8th, 2018 incident, as well as the statements of University Officials, that they had every intention of taking full advantage of the Living While Black narrative to destroy my life and career, as well as drive me to suicide and incite my murder. They, including University Officials, had every intention of globally and publicly branding me a racist, not because they knew that I had been accused of or had perpetrated racial harassment, but to target me for my race, sex, diability, and age. For the OCR to suggest that it is too speculative to infer that I was harassed and stalked and attacked, and discriminated and retaliated against, including by University Officials and the Yale Campus Police department, on the basis of race, sex, disability, and age, is, quite frankly, preposterous. Quite frankly, I was the victim of a hate crime hoax, and the Yale Administration and the Yale Campus Police were complicit.
Finally, the OCR's statement that I was not engaged in a protected activity is preposterous. I was very clearly engaged in a protected activity, was a member of multiple protected classes, was being targeted because of my membership in those protected classes, and suffered adverse actions by Yale University, which adversely affected my ability to participate in those protected activities. The OCR claims that being accused of having perpetrated racial harassment is not a protected activity. The notion that this was the protected activity in which I was engaged is ludicrous. Clearly, I was engaged in the protected activity of studying, living, and working on Yale's campus, as an older, disabled white woman. Clearly, the protected activity I was engaged in was walking across campus while being free from discrimination and harassment and stalking and attacks on the basis of my race, sex, disability, and age. Clearly, I was engaged in the protected activity of living in Yale's on campus housing while being free from discrimination and harassment and stalking and attacks and retaliation on the basis of my race, sex, disability, and age. Clearly, I was engaged in the protected activity of having the right to tell a man who had followed me up to my isolated dorm room and gained unauthorized access thereto to leave. Clearly, I was engaged in the protected activity of having the right to call the non emergency helpline of the Yale Campus Police after having been followed up to my isolated dorm room by a man who had clearly gained unauthorized access thereto. Clearly, I was engaged in the protected activity of pursuing my academic and occupational goals as a graduate student at Yale University without being attacked and harassed and discriminated against and retaliated against by University Officials and the Yale Campus Police department on the basis of race, age, disability, and sex.
I suffered untold adverse actions by University Officials and the Yale Campus Police Department. They destroyed my life and career. They ruined my reputation and livelihood. They almost drove me to suicide and almost incited my murder. They made grossly false and wrongful and defamatory public statements about me. They wrongfully charged me with racial harassment, even though they knew I was entirely innocent, and they did this due to my race, sex, disability, and age. They wrongfully banned me from campus. They wrongfully banned me from teaching at Yale. I will not now be able to complete a crucial component of my dissertation – the empirical social psychological study on the nature of authority and the nature of the relationship between authority and legitimacy. These bans remain in effect to this day. I almost died, because of what they did to me. I will never be able to secure gainful employment. I will never be able to support myself. My human and civil rights and legal and academic careers are over, through no fault of my own. My life has been completely and utterly devastated, because of what they did to me, and I am asking the Federal Office for Civil Rights to open an investigation at Yale University for these reasons. Please do the right thing and help me.
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/sarah-braasch-legal-fund
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I have been using an Ironkey for a little over a year now. I have been very happy with it so far.
I was recently given a Knox-IT to try out. After using both of them for a while now, I wanted to write down some thoughts I have on both of them.
When I first received my Ironkey, the first thing I noticed about it was it's overall design–The packaging (no photos sorry!) made it seem like I was unwrapping prized jewelry. The smooth, finished feel to the flash drive itself, and the (surprisely) heavy weight gave me the impression that this was a quality product.
When you plug the Ironkey in the first time, a proprietary autorun application launches and runs you through a wizard that sets up the Ironkey. Easy to use, no qualms here. A nice touch is that I can specify contact information that will display on every autorun, in case the Ironkey is lost.
Normal use is pretty straightforward–Plug in the flash drive, type in your password in the autorun app, and you get access to your sensitive data.
I have kept it in my pocket for the last year, and the only wear and tear that I see is some nicks here and there.
My first impression with the Knox-IT was quite the opposite of Ironkey. The packaging was the cheap plastic that is really hard to open. The grey lightweight (plastic) material that makes up the Knox-IT screams Chinese knockoff all over it. Fortunately, it gets better from here.
The key differential between the Ironkey & Knox-IT is that Knox-IT uses 5 hardware buttons for your passcode, instead of a autorun app (software solution) from Ironkey. So you put in your passcode, the green light illuminates, and you plugin the flash drive and you use it like any other flash drive. It will automatically lock/encrypt the flash drive when you disconnect it.
Using the included docs, it was a very simple process to setup the passcode. Testing it out, I didn't run into any issues unlocking and locking it back again.
According to their website, a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 compliant Lock-IT is slated to be released Q2 2011.
I really like the build quality of Ironkey better than Knox-IT, but I really like the concept of KnoxIT–Using hardware buttons to unlock the flash drive means that the Knox-IT is completely invulnerable to one of Ironkey's primary weaknesses: Keystroke Logging. Yes, Ironkey does have an on-screen keyboard that can be used to mitigate this threat, but it is clumsy to use, and do you really know anybody that is actually using the on-screen keyboard? I don't.
The only other issue that I would point out about Knox-IT is that with only 5 hardware buttons, the attack space for guessing the passcode is quite small, but the mitigating control for that is that you only have 10 tries to unlock it before it self-destructs. As a side note, the new version of Knox-IT (Lok-IT) now has a full complement of 10 hardware buttons–This fact plus the 10 tries & self destruct mechanism effectively disables a passcode guessing attack.
One final note that I have to mention. As I was researching for this post, when I went to Knox-IT's website, I got soft-blocked by my organization's content filter, because the site was categorize as "Malicious." I thought that the content filter must have miscategorized the website, and so I continued anyway.
Josh, you definitely need to do a follow-up post after looking at the new Lock-IT. The new device is much more rugged and "professional" in its appearance and offers 10 passcode buttons.
However, having now used both, here are some additional benefits to Lock-IT.
1) If you enter 10 wrong attempts on IronKey, you now own an $70, shiny, paper weight. Lock-IT comes equipped with 6 encryption keys. 10 wrong attempts simply wipes the current encryption key. What this means is that, although you have still lost any data that was on there, you can start over and still use the device! VERY NICE! (That from someone who accidentally forgot a password on an IronKey).
2) We had a couple of IronKeys where, when the user yanked the IK out of the USB port without first "locking" the device, it hosed up the IK — no longer useable.
3) When you plug an IK into your machine, it is assigned a drive letter. Once you enter the passcode and "unlock" the device, a second drive letter is assigned that maps to the "secure" part of the device. Lock-IT won't even register on your machine unless its unlocked and when it does, it simply maps as one drive letter. Not a big deal unless, like us, you have an app that requires a static mapping. Trying to walk users through setting up specific drive mappings is a pain … especially if you have to do it to two drive letters instead of one.
Just some additional thoughts that moved me from IK to Lock-IT.
P.S. On item 2, I meant to add that with Lock-IT, yanking the device out of the USB port is the intended design for locking the device. So, the user doesn't have to conciously remember to do some "shutdown" procedure on the device to avoid losing data.
I can't honestly say that IK requires the "shutdown", but having lost 2 IK to the user yanking them out without locking, I'd say it's a safer bet.
I have just bought the new Lok-it 10 PIN device in the uk from http://www.lok-it.co.uk (think it is on Amazon (UK) as well. It is made of aluminium (not plastic) and is very robust.
I Agree with all the positive comments about Lok-it above and yes you should review the latest version.
What was not mentioned is that this device can be used on any device that has a USB port (because Lok-it is unlocked before you put the device into your chosen machine). This cannot be said about other secure USB's as they all need to be put into a PC and a password input via keyboard and screen .
So can be used on PC's / MACs (obviously) and scanners, printers, TVs and DVRs etc.. I read somewhere that the Lok-it will also work with the new breed of Smartphones.
All the best from the UK.
Hi there, just wanted to let all UK users of Secure Flash drives know that LOK-IT is now available in the UK.
The product is now a 10 Key device in Black, with a hardened aluminium shell and epoxy filed. The LOK-IT Secure Flash drive is also FIPS 140-2 Level 3 Certified (the highest level a flash drive can be).
If you want to have a look at the site visit – http://www.lok-it.co.uk – also we are running a Monthly FREE Prize draw to win one of these little beauties.
This article is a year old now- guess the discussion is cold. For lurkers/visitors though, I guess it might be worth chipping in with a few positive aspects of Ironkeys to counterbalance the abundance of pro-LokIT opinions.
For context, what I write comes from a fairly security-layman perspective, basic technology competence (Science educated, experience with millitary systems, amateur programmer) but nothing fantastic.
Long time user of Ironkeys and have briefly experimented with a LokIT (admittedly for *very* short time).
(i) I run portable apps off my Ironkey (secure apps) which involves intensive writes/reads. "S" model Ironkeys ('D' models don't) use SLC flash memory- which has greatly higher longevity/durability (often quoted 10 times the number of read/writes and superior long term data retention especially in harsh conditions) compared to the MLC flash memory used in the vast majority of common USB flash devices. Practically, MLC flash devices are not approved for mission critical applications, whilst SLC is. SLC is much more expensive and at consumer pricing confines SLC devices to lower capacities, so I'm almost certain that LOK-IT uses MLC memory. That might be an issue for users given that applications run off a drive can be a vital backbone of security when using the drive on less than trustworthy computers.
(ii) On account of specific built in software, Ironkeys do have more specific system/OS requirements than LokIT, but this also seems to trade off with more built in hardware/software integrated functionality (to the best of my knowledge- I might be wrong). Ironkeys for instance can be logged in using a "read only mode" to prevent and writing of malware to the drive. Not for everyone, but there are also built in secure backup features that seem to be well reviewed as robust in terms of security.
(iii) The general durability of Ironkey seems to live reasonably up to advertising claims. I've used several in a millitary environment with heavy 'dust/bumps/bangs/liquids/heat' with no issue. With my limited experience I can't comment on Lok-IT's newest iteration in long term usage and review data seems inconclusive on fail rates. An Ironkey at least seems to guarantee a pedigree of durability. Whilst a "play it safe" approach can definately be unfair to emerging companies, if you have only so much to spend- it's fair to say that as of writing: Paying for an Ironkey gets you a product with a generally positive customer tested track record.
I don't want to sound like an Ironkey fangirl here !. It doesn't live up to it's claims of being "the world most secure flash drive". No single product takes that mantle. As far as I gather, LokIT is a great new product with definate advantages over Ironkey where security where susceptability to software keyloggers/screen-capture is paramount. Above all, it's a great thing that consumers have choice and that there is competition in the market.
It is in this spirit to note that there seems to be in the LokIT vs Ironkey debate: A degree of "underdog syndrome" surrounding the mainstream success of Ironkey products. Script-kiddie "H4ck3rs" sneer baselessly at anything mainstream on (antisocial) principle and competing companies are obviously not exactly unwilling to capitalize upon misconceptions this sentiment spreads. By choosing LokIT over an Ironkey- customers may well be turned away from a legimately strong product that may be better for their usage needs than LokIT is.


text:
TECO Supplies E-Bus Powertrain to RAC
TECO Electric & Machinery Co., Ltd. and RAC Electric Vehicles Inc., a major local electric-bus manufacturer, signed a letter of intent today (March 17) for the supply of 500 e-bus powertrains within two years, with delivery of 30 powertrains as the first batch scheduled in the second quarter this year.
The powertrains, consisting of TECO's proprietary motors and drivertrains, will combine with RAC's chassis and car bodies, representing a stride in the development of indigenous electric bus.
In the letter of intent, the two parties highlight their goal in pushing the development of indigenous electric buses, without excluding the possibility of tapping overseas markets together. The cooperation will contribute to the upgrading of local technologies for electric bus and key components and parts, fostering the development of the supply chain.
TECO chairman Sophia Chiu points out that TECO forayed into Taiwan's e-bus supply chain in 2018, with the Chungli plant now turning out products conforming to the IATF-16949 quality standards, at amount surpassing domestic peers. The company will further expand its smart production lines in Taiwan this year.
Tsai Yu-ching, RAC chairman, notes that RAC will join hands with excellent partners in spearheading the development of indigenous e-bus, which will enter mass production this year. In line with the government's policy, RAC will push popularization of e-bus in Taiwan and even make inroads into overseas markets in coming years.
As Taiwan's first company for the development and production of powertrain, TECO was granted golden award of the Taiwan Excellence Awards for its powertrain T Power 90 last year. The company will roll out next-generation compact model "T Power +," a high-power and -voltage model boasting electric control for 250 kW electric machinery, scheduled for road test in the scone half this year. As Taiwan's first e-bus manufacturer with self-design capability and local contents rate exceeding 60%, RAC is one of the two local qualified e-bus manufacturers for the government's e-bus pilot program, with a climbing capability which is among the most powerful worldwide.


On this particular dive in Marsa Egla, I saw no less than 5 scorpionfish, all of which had different colours. This one was spotted towards the end of the dive, in less than 10 metres of water. What I really like with scorpionfish is the skin growth around the mouth, making them even harder to detect. Although their camouflage is not as good as the stonefish's, it still requires good eyes to spot them. But once spotted, they are an easy subject to photograph as they completely rely on their camouflage and do not move even if you get very close.
Nikon D700, Nikon 28-105 mm macro at 105mm, F9, 1/60th, ISO 200, Ikelite Housing and Ikelite DS160 strobe set on TTL +0.3EV.
Marsa Egla, about 8 metres down, Marsa Alam, Egypt.