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Effective Startup Boards: What They Are and How to Build Them
Orinola Gbadebo-Smith
Ori an investor cum entrepreneur with experience across M&A, PE, VC and startup operations. He most recently founded a VC-backed startup.
A board is a group of individuals elected to represent the interests of the broader shareholder-base of any legally established business entity.
Its mandate is termed corporate governance—defined as the rules, processes, and procedures designed to guide the way corporates make decisions and operate.
In their roles as shareholder fiduciaries, boards have three levers through which they exert influence: (1) the internal rules, processes, and policies they designate to guide management's behavior; (2) their choice of management and especially the CEO; and (3) the major capital allocation decisions they approve/veto.
Irrespective of one's motivations for starting a company, it would be wise for every entrepreneur to acknowledge that proactively designed boards truly do represent some of the most transformative assets for an early-stage company, capable of dramatically accelerating growth and business success even in the immediate term.
Effective Board Compositions
According to Fred Wilson, partner at Union Square Ventures, "a perfect startup board is comprised of the startup's CEO (which may or may not be its founder), one financial investor (e.g., an influential Angel or VC), and two to three fellow CEOs (peers) who have built or are in the process of building successful companies."
Brad Feld, renowned serial entrepreneur, author, venture capitalist, and thought leader upon whom I lean heavily in this piece, takes this a step further in recommending that every startup board should also include at least one independent director and preferably also its legal counsel.
The ideal board size for early-stage companies ranges from three to five seats, with five being the the more optimal as recommended by veterans.
For early stage companies, board members are typically compensated with non-qualified incentive stock option grants, ranging from 0.5% to 2.0% of the startup's equity, profile of board member, and stage of company dependent.
Building Effective Startup Boards
Founders and/or startup CEOs should approach building their boards the same way they would in building their management team.
First, decide how many seats are needed/wanted; as mentioned, the recommended number of seats for young companies is three to five, with five being optimal.
Next, identify the skill gaps or skill requirements that are lacking but needed at the company, and source directors with experience in these arenas. The most common areas where board members supplement management are as follows: (1) product development, (2) customer/market development, (3) business model development, (4) team, and (5) fundraising.
Third, map these skills to your broader network's available pool of potential directors.
And finally, dimension the personality/character traits of each shortlisted director, diligence them, and ensure that they align with the values of your company and the personalities of your other prospective board members.
What's Your Perspective?
Depending on your perspective, type, ambitions, and reasons for starting your company, the idea of establishing a board of directors ("board") may either excite or intimidate you. And depending on whether you are a first-time founder or veteran, you may be one of the many with a slightly elevated view of what boardrooms look like.
To the question about personality types, if you are a king—an entrepreneurial persona coined by Noam Wasserstein of Harvard Business School which characterizes an entrepreneur that is principally motivated by control and independence—the idea of voluntarily establishing a group of wise-men responsible for managing, governing, and potentially firing you may seem ludicrous. If you are on the rich side of the spectrum, however, whose psychology is driven more by the opportunity for extreme financial gain than by the need for control, then you probably don't need much convincing of the value of a board.
Given the lack of tangible, referenceable information on startup-stage boards out there, this article seeks to shed light on boards as a construct, their workings and nuances, and strategies for building effective ones. It will begin with board basics and legal definitions before transitioning into a practical guide of do's and don'ts of building effective boards.
My own control biases aside for the moment, boards truly do represent some of the most effective arrows in every entrepreneur's quiver, capable of dramatically accelerating growth and business success, even in the immediate term.
Board of Directors: Abstract to Basics
What Is a Board?
A board is a group of individuals elected to represent the interests of the broader shareholder-base of any type of legally established business entity. These range from traditional limited liability, for-profit, and nonprofit organizations to agencies, government parastatals, and limited partnerships. A board's strict mandate is termed corporate governance, defined as the rules, processes, and procedures required to guide the way corporates behave/operate, all the while balancing the interests of all stakeholders (i.e., shareholders, management, employees, customers, suppliers, financiers, government, community, and others).
Beyond the definition detailed above, corporate governance is guided by four legal principles:
Duty of Care: A tort law concept that mandates a minimum standard of care that must be maintained while directors perform their duties. This involves remaining prudent in decision-making, acting in good faith, and conducting demonstrable logic/data-driven diligence ahead of any decision where negligence could result in foreseeable harm to stakeholders.
Duty of Loyalty: Referred to as the cardinal principle of fiduciary responsibility, this concept encapsulates the legal obligation of each director to operate solely in the interest of the party to whom they are obligated (i.e., the shareholder). Duty of loyalty prohibits even the appearance of conflict-of-interest, self-dealing, or even slight biases toward personal interests. The most common example of duty of loyalty infringements occurs with VC investors. VCs who sit on startup boards are principally fiduciaries to the startup's shareholders. They do, however, have a conflicting fiduciary responsibility; that is, to their limited partners, which often serves as powerful temptation/distraction. Their motivations and biases thus have to be carefully understood, closely observed, and managed attentively during the course of their board tenures.
Duty of Confidentiality: This is a sub-principle of duty of loyalty, requiring directors to maintain in the strictest confidence all and any nonpublic information about the organization.
Duty of Disclosure: This is the legal requirement of all directors to take every reasonable step to provide the company's shareholders with any material information that they may require to effect any company-related action for which they may be required.
Control Levers of Boards
As mentioned, the primary responsibility of a board is to serve as fiduciaries for the broader shareholder-base of a given company. Boards around the world perform this duty by focusing on three main control levers for exerting influence upon their companies:
Internal rules, processes, and policies: The controls that boards put in place and by which the company and management team must operate are the first of the three major levers. On the one hand, these policies and procedures protect the company by unifying and creating congruent frameworks for decision making—support the CEO in their daily execution capacity by simplifying what is permissible, when, and under what circumstances.
Choice in leadership: Management reports to the board, but management is responsible for the day-to-day resource allocations and strategy execution around everything from product and sales to marketing and HR. As such, who, and in what capacity, boards chooses to hire, fire and empower C-level executives, especially CEOs, are materially of consequence.
Capital allocation and fundraising decisions: Annual OpEx and CapEx budgets, special approvals, management, compensation and incentive plans, financings (debt, equity, hybrid securities), the creation of new classes of stock, dividend policies, and others—these are just a few of the capital allocation and fundraising decisions that come down to board approvals as they guide their companies into prosperity.
And while the above three reflect the more technical of every board's responsibilities, they also have softer duties equally critical to the success of their organization. These include:
Establishing and maintaining trust: Specifically, trust between and amongst fellow directors, the founders, the CEO, and broader management. Without the maturity and experience to maintain trust and congruence, even in spite of different temperaments, views, work-styles, and expectations, even the most experienced boards and talented teams will yield poor outcomes.
Judgement and emotional support for the CEO: Beyond evaluating the CEO and management team's performance, the best boards also serve as coaches and stabilizing factors during periods of tumult. Great boards have been there before and are thus able to strike a balance between the latitude required to let their younger, less experienced founder-teams try new things and learn, and a tight enough leach where no existential threats come of that learning process.
Transparency and driving alignment: Transparency and openness both represent the cornerstones that keep all issues, interest, and disputes open to discussion, which in turn goes a long way toward maintaining alignment between all stakeholders.
Founder-CEOs and Boards
Worthy of a quick aside is the unique relationship between founder-CEOs and boards. As you may have picked up, once established, the CEO—even if a founder-CEO—functionally works for the board. This is especially true once outside external/institutional capital is brought in. In such circumstances and irrespective of pre-money share allocations, the founder-CEO may lose control by: (1) either being diluted down to a minority shareholder (usually after multiple rounds of financing), or (2) through protective, restrictive, or other special control provisions agreed to and detailed in the company's shareholder agreement.
Given this reality, it would be wise for every entrepreneur to truly wrestle with whether they lie on the rich vs. king side of the spectrum and raise capital or expand their board accordingly. If you lean heavily toward control, bootstrap your company and keep your board lean or to an advisory board, thus avoiding the ideological warfare that will inevitably come with the alternative.
Board Structures and Governing Documents
By law, when a company is incorporated, it is statutorily required to establish a board of directors even if with just one director. This initial director is usually the founder/founders, but early boards do sometimes include initial angels or invested friends and family—a highly inadvisable practice that will be revisited later in this piece. Over time, the composition of most early boards change, either at the election of the founder(s) or upon the infusion of external capital, and come to include external investors, independent directors, board observers, and potentially even your legal counsel.
At founding, the state laws of the incorporation jurisdiction and the company's charter documents represent the totality of the company's governing guidelines, defining how the said company and board should conduct itself. Founding charter documents include:
Articles/Certificate of Incorporation: This is the charter document filed with the secretary of state confirming the legal establishment of your entity. It formalizes the corporation's name and address, the authorized outstanding share count, the terms of each class and/or series of capital stock, the baseline rights of all participating shareholders, and other opt-in or opt-out options for various matters relating to governance.
Bylaws/Constitution: This document outlines the rules and procedures that govern the internal management of your startup, such as how directors are elected, how board and shareholder meetings are to be conducted, what officers the organization will have, descriptions of their duties, how disputes are to be settled, and much more. Take the time to read the document carefully.
Upon the company's first external financing round, the startup's articles of Incorporation and bylaws are typically amended. This is done because, (1) the new investors typically receive preferred stock as opposed to common, the issuance of which requires an amendment; and (2) because the new investors will want their new economic and control rights legally reflected. As such, two more governing documents are typically added:
Shareholder Purchase Agreement (SPA): A legal document binding the relationship between the investor and company, which details the terms and conditions of the purchase/sale of shares in the business. SPAs set forth the most critical deal terms, including the share's purchase price, details about the counterparties, representations and warranties on both sides, indemnifications, and any other transaction terms agreed to by both parties.
Shareholder [Rights] Agreement (SHA): A legal agreement between the holders of shares in a given corporation that details the full scope of their rights. Most relevantly to the topic at hand, SHAs provide specifics around the election of the boards, their powers and privileges, special shareholder approval rights, and more.
Sample Governance Section of A Shareholder Rights Agreement
Most outside investors who invest quantums that they consider meaningful will insist on receiving a board seat or at least a board observer seat (to be discussed shortly) who will serve as stewards of their capital. So oftentimes, institutional investors with minority stakes in startups will negotiate disproportionate influence at the board level via the SHA. In lieu, it is worth every entrepreneur taking the time to understand each of the above four legal documents and the range of direct and indirect avenues of control that investors might exert to establish control.
The Business of Building Effective Boards
Board Compositions
A veteran board can bring 50-100x more experience to a room than a first-time founder. – Steve Blank (serial entrepreneur, Stanford professor, and author of The Startup Owner's Manual)
Fred Wilson, a partner at Union Square Ventures, stated that "a perfect startup board should be comprised of the startup's CEO (which may or may not be its founder), one financial investor (e.g., an experienced/influential Angel or VC), and two to three fellow CEOs (peers) who have built or are in the throes of building successful companies of scale." Brad Feld, serial entrepreneur, author, and venture capitalist, takes this a step further in recommending in his book, Startup Boards, that every startup board should also include at least one independent director and, where possible, the company's legal counsel.
How to Identify and Fill Your Board Seats
Boards evolve and change over time, as do their functions, requirements, and roles. In lieu, building an effective board is best approached as one would in building an effective management team: First, decide how many seats you need, want, or are appropriate for your company's stage. Most veteran directors recommend no more than five-person boards for young companies.
Next, identify the skill gaps or skill requirements your young company is/will most be in need of over the next 18 months to two years and solve for those. Third, map these skills to each prospective board seat and then to one's extended pool of potential directors (extend this pool to the furthest reaches of your network's network).
And finally, dimension each of your shortlisted directors' personality traits and characteristics and ensure that they are not only in sync with your company's values but also complementary to your other potential board members. If I may, I suggest beginning with the following:
Typical Skill Gaps or Skill Requirements for Early-stage Companies:
Product development: Though the best board members are "strategically engaged but operationally distant" and so won't be designing/coding themselves, they can be invaluable in bringing customer insights, technical expertise, a network, and coaching to this end, thus helping you iterate faster toward product-market fit.
Customer/market development: In the earliest days of your startup, cracking your go-to-market strategy and four Ps of Marketing as part of your marketing mix will be critical to achieving early traction. This process is nonlinear and fraught with challenges, pivots, and failures and as such, a board member with experience who is also fluent in established methodologies for getting to the right outcome will be invaluable in the early days.
Business model development: As you experiment with various revenue models, profit formulas, and monetization plans, the right board members can again bring experience, not just in helping define and refine these elements but also in introducing you to your first set of big-name clients to get you from zero to one.
Team: In addition to helping identify, recruit, and add credibility to bringing on the best talent, your board can also serve as a set of effective coaches, advising on best practices for hiring, firing, motivating, and culture building within fast-growing and generally unwieldy organizations.
Fundraising: "Helping define your funding strategy, identifying the right sort of potential investors, making introductions, and adding credibility to your fundraising process" should, at a minimum, be another core attribute to most of the elected directors on your board.
Beyond the technical skill requirements you would love to build your board around, you must also pay special attention to, as you would if you were diligencing a new management hire, the personality traits and character attributes of each potential board member. In this regard, I recommend seeking individuals with the following:
Early-stage mindset and entrepreneurial experience: An individual who understands the startup struggle, trajectory, psychology, and uncertainty—an individual comfortable making decisions with imperfect information, and above all, one that is emotionally balanced.
Domain expertise: An individual with extensive domain experience and a strong network within your chosen industry. This attribute will go a long way in helping you avoid unforced errors as you grow as a founder, will be useful in commenting on the market-readiness of your technology and product, and will be able to open doors to potential customers, employees, industry heavyweights, and capital sources.
Trustworthiness: An individual with whom you can be vulnerable, who can see you at your lowest/weakest and not weaponize that information against you, and who can be a non-judgemental sounding board for early ideas and pivots.
Understands that though you report to them, they've been appointed to work for you: An individual who is resource-rich in time, capital, and relationships, and one who is able and willing to extend them your way.
Personality, style, and perspective are diverse but complementary to the rest of the board: A critical attribute to establishing a healthy, engaged, and effective board whose vision and energies are singularly unified in the direction of your venture's success.
Board Compensation
For early-stage companies, little literature or go-to practice exists on the matter of board compensation, which often varies by venture-stage and renown of the personalities that agree to sit on it. Board members belonging to institutional funds (VCs) typically do not get compensated for their time. Independent board members with little economic interest in the company, however, often (but not always) do. Usually, early-stage companies, should they choose to compensate their directors, almost universally do so with non-qualified incentive stock options in the company, derived from the existing management equity pool. Grants to early-stage board members typically range from 0.5% to 2% of equity, rising and falling in lockstep with the maturity of the company at hand or profile of board member in question.
Other Quick Tips:
Most companies almost always reimburse the directors for out-of-pocket expenses, such as business-related travel costs.
Companies typically indemnify directors from any liabilities they incur in their capacity, though this can never be total and absolute.
Finally, and to the extent the startup can afford it, some directors will insist on their company taking out directors and officers (D&O) insurance of at least $1 million to supplement their indemnifications.
Parting Thoughts: Best Practices for Assembling and Negotiating for Effective Boards
Resist the temptation to stack your early board with folks you can control. Trust me, I understand. I've been there! It was you who was on the ramen diet for two years; you who sacrificed the friends, the family, the significant other, to get the venture to investment-ready. So, I totally understand your attempt at backdoor control. But trust me (and Katherine), so does everyone else. Your VC will negotiate all your lemmings away before investing a dime; and in the long run, it is a decision that ends up working against you emotionally.
At all times, solve for balance (not control), and leverage independents. As was best said by Scott Weiss of Andreessen Horowitz, "neither founders nor VCs should control any given board; always seek balance and give your company its best chance at survival." A great rule by the same is that "with every VC, financial investor, or any other individual with a vested interest, add one independent director who will maintain perspective even as founders and VCs pursue their agendas.
Be wary of granting board observer seats as concessions for not granting full board seats. Though they may seem harmless, board observers regularly contribute to and influence board discussions. In time, they actually often turn into full board members, so though they have fewer legal rights than full board members, there is often very little functional difference between the two, especially where smaller boards are concerned.
Be careful with big names, and pay attention to subconscious power alignments. It is fine to appoint high-profile individuals to your board, but do so carefully. Often, the lesser known or younger board personalities will subconsciously suck up to more powerful counterparts, sometimes out of hero-worship but also to further their agendas.
Take the time to pick a strong chairperson. A board's chair is its leader and tends to be one of the more important leverage points for founders/early CEOs. Your chairperson provides leadership to the company's board members, acts as the liaison between the board and the executive team, orchestrates meetings, coaches the CEO, teases out insights from the other directors, and encourages variety of opinion while avoiding conflict. Put your ego aside if you aren't the right person for the job and solve for the best persona for your startup's chair.
Avoid even-numbered boards (deadlocks are painful), avoid giving veto power as much as possible (everything slows down) and include a provision somewhere that, as CEO, a six-month remedy/improvement plan must be enacted before you can be terminated by your board (for obvious reasons).
Do your homework. Diligence each prospect methodologically. Just as you would scrutinize, diligence, and reference check every important management hire and teammate, extend the same discipline to your board selection process. This discipline becomes especially important for high profile personalities (fight the halo effect).
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. – Desiderius Erasmus (first editor of the Bible's New Testament)
The entrepreneur's journey is many things—tumultuous; psychologically, emotionally and economically trying; and characterized by periods of dizzying ambition and also crushed dreams. What is also unique to this journey, however, is that it is one almost entirely shrouded in uncertainty. You are iterating toward a new product not yet known to your audience, attempting to create new markets that may never come to exist, or navigating a fundraising terrain full of people who harbor almost as many doubts as you do about your prospects. In this land of the blind, please take my advice: Let your one eye be a carefully curated, five-person board of veterans who have each been there before and can bring capital and relationships to the table as well as the emotional fortitude required to help you navigate your way out of the turbulent early waters. Happy building!
Does a startup need a board of directors?
All legally incorporated for-profit businesses must establish a board of at least one individual at founding. It is recommended, though not required, that this board be expanded to include outside directors capable of governing the company's actions as it navigates toward success.
Do board members get equity?
Though not mandatory, most startups grant their board members between 0.5% and 2.0% worth of non-qualified incentive stock options for one to two years of service on the boards.
Can a CEO sit on the board of directors?
A CEO can, and usually does, sit on the board of the company that they run. The CEO is the authority when it comes to the day-to-day execution of the board-approved strategy. As such, it is advisable that they maintain close proximity to the rest of the board that they report to.
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Finance Blog Editor
A private equity investor turned entrepreneur, Ori comes with M&A, PE, VC and operating experience across the US, Europe, and Africa. Following his MBA from Harvard Business School, he most recently founded The Antilles Company—an eCommerce startup whose operations span five countries and three continents. Having transitioned out of day-to-day operations, Orinola advises growth companies on strategy, fundraising, GTM methods, and operations.
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← Book Review of William III and the Northern Crowns during the Nine Years War, 1689-1697
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Posted on December 11, 2012	by William Young
David Nicolle. The Great Chevauchée: John of Gaunt's Raid on France 1373. Illustrated by Peter Dennis. Raid series. Botley, England: Osprey, 2011. ISBN 978-1-84908-247-1. Illustrations. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 80. $18.95 (paperback).
The Caroline War (1369-1389/96) has received little attention outside of general studies of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). "This interesting conflict," so writes Dr David Nicolle, "has been largely ignored by English historians, and has been misunderstood by some of those who did refer to it" (p.12). As such, Nicolle's brief study The Great Chevauchée in the Osprey Raid series is a valuable contribution to the literature. The author is well-known for his many studies in the Osprey military history series, including French Armies of the Hundred Years War (2000), Crécy 1346: Triumph of the Longbow (2000), Poitiers 1356: The Capture of a King (2004), Orléans 1429: France Turns the Tide (2005), and The Fall of English France, 1449-53 (2012).
At the end of the first phase (Edwardian War) of the Hundred Years War in 1360, Edward III of England (ruled 1327-1377) ruled over about a third of France. However, Charles V of France (ruled 1364-1380) sought revenge for the humiliating Treaty of Brétigny (1360) without risking a full-scale war. The French monarch started by intervening in the Breton War of Succession (1341-1364) and coming to terms with the pro-English Jean V, Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort (1345-1399). Charles V and Edward III then fought a proxy war supporting rival claimants to the kingdom of Castile and Léon in the War of the Two Pedros (1356-1375). In the meantime, England's military occupation of French territory was draining financial resources. Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1363-1404), supported his brother Charles V.
In 1369, Charles V created a clash with Edward (the Black Prince), Prince of Wales and Duke of Aquitaine, over his rule of Aquitaine. The French monarch ordered the "confiscation" of Aquitaine, which resulted in the outbreak of the Caroline War. The English were caught unprepared for this conflict. The French army, under the command of Bertrand du Guesclin, was joined by Charles V's brothers the Duke of Anjou, Duke of Berry, and Duke of Burgundy. During the first six years of the conflict the French achieved several military successes along with a combined Franco-Castilian naval victory against the English at La Rochelle (1372). The Caroline War saw "the fall, one after another, of English-held fortresses that were supposed to guard Aquitaine" (p.13). Du Guesclin defeated an Anglo-Breton army at the battle of Chizé and took the English-held town, completing the reconquest Poitou in early 1373. The French next invaded Brittany.
England was on the defensive. English leaders believed that the only offensive strategy they could carry out was the traditional chevauchée. The hope was that a large-scale raid would reverse the course of the war. As such, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, and the Duke of Brittany assembled a large Anglo-Breton army at Calais. Lancaster led the so-called Great Chevauchée from Calais southeastward towards Reims in August 1373. The French army shadowed John of Gaunt very closely and avoided a major battle with the Anglo-Breton force. Frustrated, John of Gaunt decided to turn his Great Chevauchée towards the southwest and make the extremely difficult march across central France towards Bordeaux in October, reaching safety in late December. The Great Chevauchée had marched 900 kilometers across France, losing about a third of the army and most of the horses. The Anglo-Breton army carried out widespread destruction along its path, but there were no major battles. Most of the fighting was on foot in ambushes, skirmishes, and unsuccessful assaults on French towns and suburbs. The Great Chevauchée, according to Nicolle, raised English military prestige for a while but was "certainly no major victory" (p.69). The author stresses that the French contained, if not defeated, the Great Chevauchée. It "was just one more step in a military and political process that saw the English confined to a few small coastal enclaves by the time of the 1396 truce" (p.76).
Nicolle provides an interesting, useful study of the Great Chevauchée. The work is full of illustrations, including valuable maps. It adds to the rich literature on the Hundred Years War, including some related works such as Richard Vernier's The Flower of Chivalry: Bertrand du Guesclin and the Hundred Years War (2003) and Anthony Goodman's John of Gaunt: The Exercise of Princely Power in Fourteenth-Century Europe (1992).
This entry was posted in Anglo-French Wars, Book Reviews, English Foreign Policy, English Military History, French Foreign Policy, French Military History, Hundred Years War (1337-1453), Late Medieval Europe and tagged Bertrand du Guesclin, Book Review, Caroline War, David Nicolle, Hundred Years War, John of Gaunt, Military History, Philip the Bold, William Young. Bookmark the permalink.
1 Response to Book Review of The Great Chevauchée: John of Gaunt's Raid on France 1373

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KINGSPORT — Healthy snack producer Pure Foods has filed for Chapter 11 reorganizational bankruptcy protection.
Pure Foods President and CEO John Frostad said the company is seeking a buyer.
In court documents, the company estimated it has more than 100 creditors and noted its estimated liabilities are between $1 million-$10 million.
Pure Foods, in January last year, celebrated the opening of its global headquarters and primary manufacturing location with Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and other officials present.
The 88,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Gateway Commerce Park manufacturing facility was to produce nutrient-dense and reduced-fat snack foods for distribution in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
In a news release, Pure Foods said it had $22 million invested in the grounds, equipment and facility.
Several regional and state organizations collaborated to help secure the location, including the state of Tennessee, city of Kingsport, Kingsport Economic Development Board, NETWORKS — Sullivan Partnership and the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce.
Initial hiring projections were 50-75 employees in the first year working in management, production, and research and development. Over a five-year span, the company expected to hire to up to 275 employees.
Last October, however, Frostad announced a temporary shutdown of operations for Pure Foods to restructure its business.
The Chapter 11 filing, said Frostad, has to be completed so a buyer can purchase the assets of the business.
Still, Frostad admitted the situation is disappointing.
"There was certainly a lot of effort and time and energy put into that. ... Nobody likes where we ended up, but our hope is growing a business that gainfully employs people in the area like it was intended to do to begin with," he said.
In a notice sent to customers last fall, Frostad noted the company was founded on the simple principle of developing healthy snack foods for the North American market, and work at two facilities in Bristol, Va., were transitioned to the new Kingsport facility.
The bankruptcy petition was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.


I started Whole30 today for the first time and am so far very optimistic. I meal prepped 3 breakfast and lunches yesterday and am excited to keep going (even if I'm having first day nerves). I'm starting this challenge to feel better, hopefully help my migraines, help my sugar cravings, and to learn more about my body and what helps it thrive.
I look forward to contributing to this forum and learning more about all of your journeys!
Hi, what meals did you prep? I'm on day 10 and already looking for new things.


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Serbia: Stop attacks on human rights activists and on minorities
21 Feb 2008, 12:00am
Amnesty International is calling on the Serbian authorities and specifically Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and President Boris Tadic to urgently condemn attacks on human rights activists and on ethnic minorities in the country.
"If the authorities fail to act now people's lives may be put at risk as more protests against Kosovo's declaration of independence are being scheduled," warned Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.
"The Serbian authorities must strongly condemn any attempts to victimise members of Serbian society. They should ensure that any attacks on human rights activists and minorities are promptly and meaningfully investigated and those responsible are brought to justice."
Following the declaration of independence by Kosovo, a member the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), Ivica Daèic, spoke in the Serbian Parliament in support of a policy by the country's former president Slobodan Miloševic, saying he would advocate the banning of all political parties and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which recognized Kosovo as independent. He specifically singled out Nataša Kandic, a human rights activist and director of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade who attended the ceremony declaring independence at Kosovo's Parliamentary Assembly on 17 February 2008. According to media reports the SPS are filing a criminal complain against Nataša Kandic for inciting others to compromise the territorial integrity of Serbia.
In addition to this threat, Amnesty International is also concerned about the physical safety of Nataša Kandic. An interview with Borko Ilic – vice president of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) - in the daily Kurir, was headlined "Traitor". Another article in the daily Vecernje novosti was headlined "Nataša Kandic, the woman who does not exist", implying that as a non-person, her elimination would be without consequenes. Other human rights activists also have concerns for their security.
During protests on 19 February in all major cities in Serbia, attended by hundreds of people, demonstrators reportedly called for the murder of ethnic Albanians. In Kragujevac a fast food restaurant run by Gorani (a Bosnian speaking ethnic minority from Kosovo) was vandalized. In Bor, windows of a confectionery shop also run by a Gorani were smashed, as were those of cars.
"It is very important that the authorities take measures and are seen to do so in order to prevent any future human rights violations" Nicola Duckworth said.
On 17 February 2008 Kosovo, a province of Serbia which has been administered by the United Nations since 1999 under 1244 Security Council Resolution, declared unilateral independence from Serbia. Speaking in October 2007, following her visit to Serbia, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders expressed particular concern about the "hostile attitude against the core group of human rights NGOs and prominent defenders, mostly Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights, who are under constant attack, mainly in the media". She went on to report that the "stigmatization of defenders, which portrays them as enemies of the country is not countered by supportive statement of the State authorities".
Nataša Kandic and the HLC have been active in challenging impunity for war crimes in the Balkans, and in assisting victims of human rights violations on all sides to receive access to justice. During the war in Kosovo in 1999, Nataša Kandic was one of the few Serbs present in Kosovo during the conflict who succeeded in bringing to public attention the violations of international humanitarian law committed by all parties to the conflict.
Action for Individuals


Before his death Dec. 27, Overton, 112, was the nation�s oldest living World War II veteran and its oldest man.
While much has been said of Overton�s penchant for whiskey and cigars, it was his devotion to his country and to God and the humility with which he aged that resonated most often during his funeral service and burial, which included a helicopter flyover, a three-volley rifle salute and remarks by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The governor presented the Overton family with a Texas flag that was flown above the state Capitol in Overton�s honor, and shared stories of how the celebrated veteran, at 108 years old, had challenged him to a wheelchair race.
�We don�t celebrate Richard Overton because of how long he lived, we celebrate him because of how he lived his life,� Abbott said.
In his remarks, Mayor Steve Adler called Overton the city�s great-great-grandfather, a national treasure and an Austin institution who remained patient despite the thousands of people who crowded to see him over the years.
While Overton�s occupation was listed as truck driver, he also was trained for combat and was considered an expert rifleman.
After the service, pallbearers carried Overton�s casket out in a procession of bagpipers. He was escorted by a police motorcade down Interstate 35 to the Texas State Cemetery on Navasota Street in East Austin, where he was buried next to his cousin, Austin civil rights leader Volma Overton Sr. The cemetery is the final resting place of Texas dignitaries such as Stephen F. Austin, Gov. Ann Richards, Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan, and is about a half-mile from the Hamilton Avenue home where Richard Overton lived most of his life. The city gave the street the honorary name �Richard Overton Avenue� in 2017.
Members of the Texas Army National Guard Military Funeral and Honors Team lifted the American flag from Overton�s casket and folded it, then handed it to Volma Overton Jr. After taps was played by a lone bugler, four military helicopters flew overhead.
The funeral was something of a family reunion: About 350 members of Overton�s family were there, traveling from across the country to attend.
Martin Wilford, Richard Overton�s friend and caretaker for more than 40 years, said the high attendance was symbolic of how much love Overton gave and received.


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TideSports.com
Home Football Alabama continues trying new OL combos
Team Coverage
Alabama continues trying new OL combos
Aaron Suttles
During last Saturday's first scrimmage, the offensive line mixed and matched personnel in different positions as the coaching staff attempts to find the right combination of the right five guys.
That experimentation included trying Alex Leatherwood at right tackle and Jedrick Wills at right guard. Both of those guys were reserve offensive linemen a season ago although Leatherwood came in to play the second at left tackle in the national championship game. Both are also quite talented.
Saban said there have been short-term growing pains as the search for the best five plays out, but that both sophomores are finding their way.
"You know, again, it's a work in progress when you move guys to new positions but we think both of those young guys are really good players," Saban said. "We want to come out of the spring with as much knowledge and diversity for both of those players, and they've done a really good job all spring long. They have things that they need to work on and improve on I think we're all getting more and more confident in both of those guys so that we feel comfortable and confident that they can go in and have a role on the team next year.
"I'm kind of encouraged by the offensive line. We have a lot more experience, we have a lot more knowledge, we have a lot more leadership on offense right now, and I think it starts with the offensive line and I think that's going to have to be one of the strengths of our team this year."
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This coral has a white-ridged hard skeleton that can be seen when the polyps are deflated. When inflated, the large fleshy polyps will cover the entire skeleton, and are white or yellowish in colour, a more pinkish variant is available. Like many other LPS corals, they do posses sweeper tentacles that can harm other corals within reach.
This page was last edited on 8 August 2010, at 21:56.


Also Read: Clash of Clans PC and Laptop (Windows / Mac).
In addition, the Merge Dragons Collection is very interactive and fun to use and the users can enjoy it at any time and anywhere around the world. What are you waiting for? download now Merge Dragons Collection on your smart devices from link below. Enjoy the Merge Dragons Collection and go as far as you can. Have fun!
Recommended: Andromeda Dark for G7 V35 amp V40 PC (Mac OS – Windows 10, 8, 7).
To download and install Merge Dragons Collection on PC we will be needing Android Emulator or an Android OS as the developers have released it on Android platforms only. By using Android emulator we can easily use any App or play any game for Android on our PC or laptop computers. Below we have provided the link of an article which will guide you how can you download an Android Emulator of your choice and install it on your PC.
Now it's our turn to download and install Merge Dragons Collection on PC using the emulator we have downloaded and installed. All we need to do for that is simply open the Emulator we installed and configure it using our Google Email, as we normally do in Android Devices. when we are done with the Gmail configuration on Play Store simply Open the Play Store and Search 'Merge Dragons Collection' and Select the App to install. Then click on the Install button to start the installation or Pay the price to get the installation started if the App is Paid. Once installed, Click 'open' to run Merge Dragons Collection for PC. That's All.


ARABIC TITLE : ايات قريبة المعنى "AYAT QAREEBAT AL-MAANA".
It has around 1200 Verses from the HOLY QURAN with similar meaning, in groups of 2,3 or more verses.
A headings were introduced for those groups and sub-sections to facilitate the understanding of each group, bearing in mind that I have built the whole book sorted according to Chapter and Verse number.
This book shows examples of the Strength, Beauty, Diversity, and Importance of HOLY QURAN 6600 verses in keeping the Arabic language alive.
It is therefore of interest to both Scholars/Researchers, Schools as well as Arabic Language loving readers.
Based in the United Kingdom, ENGLISH HEADINGS ARE BEING USED, WHEREBY IT INCLUDES SAHEEH INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION of one Aya (verse) per group.
Therefore, the current ISBN cannot be used .
It will be printed in the UK before end of April 2019.
The content of this book is being added to a similar update having exactly same size (138 Page) to form a new book with total pages of 276.
A new ISBN number will be used.


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text:
Chi sarà la ragazza del Clan?/Quella donna è il nono singolo de I Ribelli, qui indicati come "Ribelli di Adriano", pubblicato in Italia nel 1964.

Tracce

Lato A

Lato B

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Our company currently uses Amazon S3 storage solution to archive large amounts of log file data. The data is in a win-zipped format and inside the zip file are comma separated files. I have been asked to research the potential capabilities that Hadoop could provide us. Many times we have the need to go back to this archive data and extract a particular set of data due to a device recall or trouble shooting purpose.
My question is, can someone confirm for me that it would be possible to query this huge data store considering the data is win-zipped.
Also assuming that this is possible am I on the right track by thinking that this would be achieved using the PIG query tool and/or the Hue user interface?
Thanks for the response. Sounds like unzipping the files is probably inevitable. What if we had a section of disk space where we extracted all the contents of the zipped files. That would basically result in a bunch of .csv files. Do yousee any problem with Hadoop and PIG working with that data?
Reading about Hadoop kind of makes me think that it is like a big "grep" tool that somehow formats the results into a dataset. What do you think of that analogy? Is that kind of how it works or is that way off base? Have you ever used Hadoop and PIG? If so what did you use it for?


text:
L'hôtel des Arcis de Chazourne est un monument situé dans la ville du Puy-en-Velay dans le département de la Haute-Loire.

Histoire

Les façades et les toitures sont inscrites au titre des monuments historiques par arrêté du .

Description

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Articles connexes

 Liste des monuments historiques du Puy-en-Velay

Liens externes

Monument historique au Puy-en-Velay
Monument historique inscrit en 1949


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2nd day of the statewide drive against dubious school buses not complying set norms-2680 vehicles challaned and 430 vehicles impounded in two days campaign
Chandigarh, February 18:
On the directives of Chief Minister Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh, the State Transport Department aggressively executed statewide crackdown against the school buses illegally plying in the state in gross violation of the Motor Vehicle Act and School Vahan Scheme.
Disclosing this here today Punjab Transport Minister Mrs. Razia Sultana said that the Department in close coordination with the district administrations and police has checked in total 7872 vehicles in two days, of which 2680 were challaned besides impounding 430 vehicles for not complying with the requisite parameters of Motor Vehicle Act and School Vahan Scheme. She said that she herself and STC closely monitored the entire drive. She said that this entire drive has executed by the teams comprising of Secretary RTAs, Assistant Transport Commissioners, Sub Divisional Magistrates (SDMs), whereas 100 police teams were also pressed into action for this drive
Divulging further, Mrs. Sultana said that this campaign will be continue in future against offenders from March onwards to ensure that all such school vehicles must adhere to the stipulated norms for the security and safety of the school children under the name of 'School Vahan Scheme'.
Recalling the tragic incident of fire in a school bus near Longowal on Saturday, the Transport Minister said that Schools are liable to follow the Vehicle Fitness Norms. She that District Education Officers DEOs have also been directed to make a inventory of all the vehicles registered with the schools for commuting children and share this list with Transport Department. Mrs. Sultana said that from March onwards the process of physical verification of the school vehicles for issuing fitness certificate would be videographed. She said that orders forsetting up infrastructure in this regard have already been issued.


Does TD offer a discount on TurboTax or any other tax preparation software?
TD no longer offers a discount on tax preparation software such as TurboTax.
Who can I pay or file taxes with?
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Will TD VoicePrint work if I have a cold?
What happens if I receive a property tax bill directly when I've arranged for TD to pay it on my behalf?
I can't find a day or time that works for me. Can I check date and time availability for other TD Canada Trust locations?


I was hesitant to rent this movie. I'm not really into Katy Perry, or most of the garbage I hear on the radio these days. To be completely honest, I had a free Redbox code and nothing else looked worthwhile. I figured I'd put it on as background noise and an excuse to eat popcorn. Katy is a quirky gal, but I've always known that. I remember first seeing her in the Gym Class Heroes' "Cupid's Chokehold" video and finding her strangely beautiful. I think she was dating Travie McCoy at the time (her taste in men has went way downhill since then), and I guess you could call me intrigued. Her earlier songs "Ur So Gay" and of course, "I Kissed a Girl" had me hooked - and totally gave Brit trash-talker Lily Allen a run for her money. But somewhere between her duet with Snoop Dogg and that one with Yeezy, I lost interest.
And then I watched "Part of Me".
Ms. Perry's resilience inspires me. From battles with studio execs early in her career, to dealing with divorce in the midst of a world tour, Katy never gives up. Although we hear about "poor little rich girls" all the time, and rarely feel sorry for them, Katy's story is somehow different.
Unlike most other music docs, "Part of Me" had a certain undeniable rawness. There was little fluff, and even Katy's action-packed concert scenes were cut down to instead focus on the personal issues, past and present, that affected Katy's heart, soul, and career. The most heart-wrenching scene shows a visibly exhausted Katy lying in a chair sobbing uncontrollably after a fight with her then-husband, only to get up for hair and makeup a few short minutes later.
Perry transformed herself from quirky cute chick who kissed a girl to international pop star in a few short years. It is shocking to see how physically and mentally draining superstardom can be, and even more shocking to see Perry's "the show must go on" mentality. Girl's got work ethic, and she seems to love the hell out of her fans.
Overall, I highly recommend this film. It is lots of fun and showcases a side of stardom we rarely get to see. Of course Russell's side of the story isn't given in the film, but this is Katy's stage, so get over it. She was always too good for him, anyway.


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Apple acquires Italian app backend startup Stamplay
By Vilija Simkiene March 26, 2019
Apple has recently acquired the Italian startup named Stamplay, a company offering an API-based backend development platform that aims to simplify the cloud-based development of apps for businesses. Stamplay specializes in building a "low code workflow automation" platform, and could assist the iPhone-maker in providing improved backend tools for iOS and macOS developers. In a press release, Italy's Roma Tre University confirmed that Apple had acquired its startup, although the tech giant itself has not yet issued the customary statement on this acquisition. According to Italian media reports, the deal was worth around five million euros, which equates to roughly $5.6 million. Stamplay, which was founded by Nicola Mattina and Giuliano Iacobelli of Roma Tre's computer engineering and business economics departments, provides a task automation platform geared toward enterprises. With a slogan "automate your business", the startup enables companies to create workflows for handling monotonous, labor-intensive chores such as…
Viber 10 delivers new features for Android and iOS
By Vilija Simkiene February 6, 2019
Viber has launched the latest revision of its mobile messaging application on iOS and Android – version 10, featuring an updated User Interface (UI) together with several other improvements. This is the first major update to the app in four years. The company stated that Viber Messenger 10 comes with a new look, has enhanced connectivity options, and includes additional privacy measures. Viber services have been improved with the ability to send messages twice as fast as before, and voice and video calls have been given "a quality boost to become crystal clear". There is a new, bright header across the app, and the main chat list is displayed with convenient access to all private and group chats, communities and favourite public content. The update includes a new "Calls" screen containing recent calls and phone contacts, with the Viber Out balance and subscriptions shown at the top of…
Yahoo releases an all-purpose Android app
Verizon Media Group has announced the launch of a new Yahoo app, available for iOS and Android. This multi-purpose app serves as a daily guide, providing breaking news, weather forecasts, the latest sport updates and much more. It creates a personalized information hub for the user, and is an effective amalgamation of the company's other products, such as Mail, Search, Newsroom, Finance. One can watch the latest and most popular videos from across the Yahoo network in the Watch tab, where Yahoo editors provide daily content. The app includes a flexible sign-in with a Yahoo Mail account or a non-Yahoo email address, including Gmail, Outlook and AOL. If the user location data is enabled on the mobile device, it is possible to take advantage of coupons for local retail outlets, cafes and restaurants. There's also a "Deal of the Day" from partners such as eBay, as well as the ability…
Apple finally acquires Shazam
By Rugile Bertule September 26, 2018
On Monday 24th September, Apple announced that it has finally completed the acquisition of Shazam, an application that helps users identify songs, TV shows, commercials and movies. The takeover of one of the highest rating music apps by the technology giant is said to be valued at 400 million US dollars. "Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a favorite app for music fans everywhere. With a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music," commented the vice president of Apple Music, Oliver Schusser. The application has already been downloaded more than 1 billion times, and remains one of the most popular places to interact with peers by discovering and sharing favorite songs,…
Group voice and video call features are now available on WhatsApp for Android
The Beta testers of WhatsApp for Android can now be the first to enjoy the long-awaited voice and video group calling on their mobile devices. These latest features are available on Android Beta versions 2.18.189 and 2.18.192, but first the user has to enroll in the WhatsApp Beta tester program via the Google Play store. Arranging a group voice or video call on WhatsApp is simple; start a call with one person and once the call gets connected, an icon "Add person" appears in top right corner of the screen. On selecting that icon, users will be redirected to a contact list where an additional participant may be selected. Currently, the voice and video group calls only support up to four participants, including the person who initiated the call. The Facebook-owned company's group calling features were officially announced during the F8 conference this May, and since then only a selected number…
OpenPhone, the VoIP-based app for small companies
By Jonathan Simon June 21, 2018
The city of Kitchener, in Canada, Ontario, is home of a new app called OpenPhone. Its ambition is to help small entrepreneurs stopping the blurred line between private and business phone calls. Many services already exist in this specific field, like Phone.com or Grasshopper, but OpenPhone's main feature is to simplify the process and focus and ease of use. As of today, the app let user share one phone number across several phone, using VoIP technology. Still in its beta version and available on the Appstore since January, the company expects to launch in a couple of months a final version. An Android version hit the Google platform in June. OpenPhone will allow customers to make concurrent calls on several devices, transcribed voicemail and call forwarding. This way, small businesses will have the opportunity to have a better communication between customers and entrepreneurs.
Telegram off the App Store and Google Play in Russia
The Russian News Agency TASS reported that Apple and Google have been asked by the Russian authorities to remove Telegram Messenger from their stores. The request has been made in April 17th after a court ordered four days earlier that Telegram be taken off, has the company issuing the app refused to comply with the FSB's request. The FSB asked Telegram to share its data, a demand the company refused to accept. The Russian telecom watchdog sent a notification to users concerning the use of Telegram and issued a statement saying: "In order to anticipate Roskomnadzor's likely response to the violations regarding the operation of the aforesaid Apple, Inc. services we are asking you to notify us within the tightest deadlines of the company's further actions regarding the solution of these issues."
VoIP tool off iPhone's app in China
Apple recently sent a message to all developers of apps on iOS that are available on the Chinese App Store. They informed them that they had to remove a tool called Callkit, that allows to implement VoIP calls into their app. Any app that uses Callkit is refused by apple for the Chinese market. The message stated: "Recently, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) requested that CallKit functionality be deactivated in all apps available on the China App Store." Despite this announcement, VoIP is still allowed in China, but the ease of use of Callkit seems to be the issue. Some Human Rights activists suggest that even though China doesn't want to officially ban VoIP, they want to make it more difficult to use. It is not the first time Apple had to comply with Chinese demands as they removed last year Microsoft's Skype among other VoIP…


text:
Backroads Acoustic Duo
Karen Collins & The Backroads Band
Maryland-based (D.C. area) country singer Karen Collins formed the Backroads Band in 2004. She had just released her solo project Backroads and Bayous and begun writing her own songs, and started the band so she could perform the kind of country music she'd heard while growing up in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. She drafted Ira Gitlin to play lead guitar, and with a succession of bass players and drummers the band has been going strong ever since, performing throughout the mid-Atlantic states and in Austin, Texas.
The group's two CDs, Tail Light Blues (2007) and No Yodeling on the Radio (2012), have earned critical acclaim for their retro country sound and for Karen's witty and heartfelt original songs. The band and its individual members have several shelves full of Wammie awards from the Washington Area Music Association, and three of their songs have been played on National Public Radio's popular program Car Talk.
Karen Collins - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Karen, a coal miner's daughter, grew up listening to country music in SW Virginia. After moving to the Washington, DC, area she founded the award-winning Cajun band Squeeze Bayou, the Blue Moon Cowgirls (an acoustic country quartet), and the honky tonk Backroads Band. Karen's early influences are evident in her original songs, which echo Loretta Lynn's no-nonsense sass, Hank Williams' down-to-earth lyricism, Ernest Tubb's wry humor, and more. As a singer and bandleader, Karen has received many "Wammie" awards from the Washington Area Music Association, and her originals have earned her awards from a half-dozen songwriting competitions.
Ira Gitlin - Lead Guitar, Vocals
Ira's guitar playing gets its down-to-earth drive from his long involvement in bluegrass, and its sophisticated rhythms and harmonies from his interest in western swing and jazz. Ira crafted the instrumental arrangements on the band's CDs as Karen's co-producer. A Wammie award winning multi-instrumentalist and former National Bluegrass Banjo Champion, Ira is in demand as a sideman and music instructor. In addition to the Backroads Band, you may find Ira playing western swing with the Oklahoma Twisters, acoustic country with the Blue Moon Cowgirls, and bluegrass with Big Howdy.
Pat Puglisi - Drums, Vocals
Since 2013, Pat has been laying down the beat for the Backroads Band. With his smooth radio-announcer voice, he also sings lead and harmony in the group. In addition to drums, Pat plays guitar, keyboards, and bass in other groups. His musical interests range from country and bluegrass to blues and rock.
James Key - Bass
As our newest band member, James adds a great attitude, a big smile and a slap bass to the group. In addition to being a rock solid bass player, he is also a fine guitar and mandolin player. Bluegrass, rockabilly, country, swing and jazz have all been major influences in his playing.
azaleacityrecordings.com


For Better - Or What?: What is Romance?
Romance is one of those ideas, like love, happiness, and enough, that mean different things to different people. For many people, romance is associated with a dramatic, high-fantasy version of relationships that may be very exciting in a paperback book or on a movie screen, but that is impossible to sustain in real life. Few of us have the time and energy to spend our days galloping along the beach on a jet-black stallion, dressing in elaborate costumes, meeting our lovers in exotic locations, and concocting secret identities, all the while letting our hair flow in the wind while our bosoms heave with passion. There is laundry to be done, the cat needs to be fed, and sooner or later someone has to go to work.
On a more realistic note, Wikipedia tells us that the word romance "implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person." That makes sense to me. The desire to express love, to feel loved in return, and to experience a deep connection with a partner is at the heart of a happy marriage.
Please join me in exploring married life, with an emphasis on what romance really means, what it takes to create it, to keep it alive, and to rediscover it after a difficult time.


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Posted on August 6, 2015 by Xenia Gazette
Judging skills put to the test
By Whitney Vickers - wvickers@civitasmedia.com
Whitney Vickers | Greene County News Participants in the General Livestock Judging competition had to judge show animals, including hogs, cows and goats, and answer questions.
Whitney Vickers | Greene County News Megan Mooreman judged the General Livestock Judging competition Monday.
XENIA – Individuals who participate in showmanship competitions are generally judged by someone else. However, in the General Livestock Judging competition, young fairgoers had the opportunity to practice the judging of show animals themselves.
Cows, goats and hogs were shown to participants, and they were able to judge each animal as if it were a show, then were given five questions to answer about the group of animals respectivly. Judging was worth 50 points, while the five questions were worth 10 points each. Top five winners were selected from the junior, intermediate and senior category.
General Livestock Judging Official Megan Mooreman said participating in such a contest can allow them to grasp a better understanding of the animal industry.
"I've already placed my officials, so now the kids are placing the animals how they think they should be placed … The winner is based on who places it correctly and there's questions to go along with it too. Whoever places it closest to mine and answers the most questions correctly wins," Mooreman said. "It's all about learning what good stock looks like. They've been raising their animals, but it's also important to know livestock selection."
Mooreman, a Greene County native, will work as high school agriculture teacher at Westfield in the upcoming school year, and is an familiar with the Greene County Fair. She graduated from the Ohio State University in 2013, and has experience on its livestock judging team.
"It goes around a lot," she said. "Also being able to interpret the questions. There's a lot of decision-making skills that go into it."
Junior winners, aged between 8 and 11 years old, included Luisa Christian of Prime Producers; Zanden Ivey of Fun Bunch; Gunner Gannon of Kreative Kids; Molly Moosing of Prime Producers and Ciara Horney of Greene Acres.
Intermediate Winners, aged between 12 and 14 years old, included Kayla Horney or Greene Acres; Grace Smith of Family Traditions; Audrey Waymire of Prime Producers; Nick Shaw of Buc-a-Roo and Eva Sheridan of Greene Acres.
Senior winners, aged between 15 and 18 years old, included Drew Waymire of Prime Producers; Brevin Henninger of Creative Christian Clovers; Dylan Evoniuk of Husky Hustlers; Brooke Anderson of Greene Acres and Emma Horney of Greene Acres.
"There's a lot that goes into it and they can become judges themselves," Mooreman said. "It also helps them to bring it back to their own farm because once they learn those skills, it helps them select better animals and help to expand their herds and make them better all around."
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2015/08/web1_judging.jpgWhitney Vickers | Greene County News Participants in the General Livestock Judging competition had to judge show animals, including hogs, cows and goats, and answer questions.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2015/08/web1_judgingg.jpgWhitney Vickers | Greene County News Participants in the General Livestock Judging competition had to judge show animals, including hogs, cows and goats, and answer questions.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2015/08/web1_megan.jpgWhitney Vickers | Greene County News Megan Mooreman judged the General Livestock Judging competition Monday.
By Whitney Vickers
wvickers@civitasmedia.com
Whitney Vickers can be reached by calling her directly at 937-502-4532.
Hi! A visitor to our site felt the following article might be of interest to you: Judging skills put to the test. Here is a link to that story: https://www.xeniagazette.com/features/community/1888/judging-skills-put-to-the-test


Recently, when using Elements to resize, autoenhance pictures, they end up very pixilated. When sent as email attachments, they are very pixilated and not clear at all. I wonder if I've mistakenly set something in Elements or is the camera just going bad? Seem to be able to view the pictures in the camera and full size in Elements. It's just when I size them to 4x6 that it happens. Any suggestions?
How are you resizing the images from your camera? Many download at only 72ppi, which is a very poor resolution, especially for printing. Also, most are downloaded as JPEGs, which is known as a "lossy" format. If you're working with 72ppi images and editing and saving the changes, you'll be losing image quality.
Briefly, the best workflow is to immediately do a Save As and convert to a non-lossy format, such as PSD or TIFF, and then to do resizing in the Image>Resize>Image Size dialog box. Experiment with increasing the resolution until you get a size close to the 4 X 6 you're after, and always work with the Resample Box unchecked. Many cameras, mine included, shoot images at an aspect ratio that will not equal a perfect 4 X 6 without some minor cropping.
If you'll post some additional information about the size, format, and resolution of the images as they come from your camera, someone will be able to give you some pointers on how to go about resizing without a loss of quality, e.g., getting pixeled pictures.
When I take a digital picture with my Nikon, the following properties are exhibited: usually 685 KB. They are in JPEG format. When viewed in Elements the show up very big- Pixil demensions: 2048 x 1536, and 28 in x 21 in.
I usually just autoenhance and resize the inches to 6x4 and save them as JPEGs somewhere around 20 to 25k size.
I notice the resolution is always listed at 72.
When sent via email, the size is right however the quality is very poor.
Alan... I think you might do better to take your images at a higher quality. With my Nikon I take shots at 4 megapixels (2200 x 1700) and the file space is about 1300kb. This is in "fine" quality which I believe is 300 dpi. Here's a photo that was reduced to 400x600 for my Web site at a medium quality jpeg.
jumps from 72 to about 330, which is very good for printing.
thanks Chuck. I tried leaving the resampling box UNchecked and even in Elements the display of the picture is larger and improved at 4x6. The emailed picture then is about 130k rather than 25k as I have been sending them. I guess that doesn't really matter so much.
I will keep playing with it, but unchecking the resample was a great tip.
Peter, thanks for your tip about image quality. Enjoyed the fishing pics.
compressed quality setting on any camera.
x 1700) and the file space is about 1300kb. This is in "fine"
reduced to 400x600 for my Web site at a medium quality jpeg.
Photos pixilated when printing photo packages!!


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Movie Review: Girl from Nowhere
October 4, 2017 August 11, 2021 Spling	christia visser, girl from nowhere
In the tradition of the recent spate of confrontational 'The Girl' films, comes Girl from Nowhere, an indie erotic thriller from writer-director Mark Jackson. Instead of a girl with a dragon tattoo, we are introduced to a troubled drifter by the name of Liza, who hitches a ride with a Cape Town couple on their way to their mountain getaway. Taking pity on the sassy desert flower, their decision to give her a ride takes a turn for the worse.
Girl from Nowhere stars a captivating trio made up of Tamryn Speirs, Scott Cooper, and Christia Visser in her debut performance. Filmed in a two week window on a shoestring budget and under some grueling weather conditions, you can forgive the cast for some of the rough edges to their performances. Visser is a diamond in the rough here, using her screen presence to unearth a sassy, devious and manipulative performance as Liza. Speirs tackles the role of the suspicious Katherine, a film producer, who develops a fascination with Liza despite her jealousy over her young hunk's infatuation. Cooper plays Hugh, a fairly affable, good-looking yet narcissistic lead actor trying to get ahead no matter the cost.
Set in the Cederberg Mountains, Girl from Nowhere features some majestic views of the Western Cape, showcasing South Africa as a world class film destination. From a desolate holiday home to rocky outcrops and meandering highways, the harsh yet versatile environment could have been used for anything from a dusty romantic comedy to a survival horror film. Using an intriguing premise to exact his gritty independent thriller, Jackson sets up an uneasy love triangle in which a hitchhiker becomes a temptress and siren.
The thriller could be described as a blend of Lolita and U-Turn. The eroticism and drama revolving around the young wily temptress echoes classic taboo themes from Kubrick's film, while it has a similar tendency toward the deadpan comedy and thriller of Oliver Stone's U-Turn in terms of tone. The strange tonal balancing act keep it intriguing and even entertaining in bursts, while its low budget, indie status keep it unpredictable. The characters are fairly haphazard, driven by their devil-may-care attitudes and teasing at a number of possible thriller scenarios. While there are some good moments, Girl from Nowhere struggles to establish a consistent tone, grounded characters and a clear vision.
"Like you said, I'm completely harmless."
It could have been more surreal and checked into the territory of Nocturnal Animals. While Jackson adds some nuance to the characters and composition, it's scattered in an attempt to be coherent as a narrative. The time constraints around getting the film together make some scenes rickety, muddled and unintentionally funny. The provocative themes around sexuality and patriarchy keep this madcap mystery thriller on the boil as we navigate through flirtatious, drug-fueled interludes. At times it seems like a Land Rover advert shifting down a few gears into the space of a Southern Comfort commercial. The free-ranging dialogue and titillation factor keep you guessing as Jackson moves from light escapist fare to some darker, more disturbing psychological thrills.
Girl from Nowhere is backed by an inventive South African soundtrack, which adds weight to the production, showcasing music from Nick Turner and Jonny Blundell, as well as tracks from some amazing local talents including: Ann Jangle, Fiona Hare, Simon van Gend, Original Swimming Party and Ashton Gardner. The music adds caliber and a western grindhouse edge in a similar fashion to Quentin Tarantino's films making them seem like a definite influence.
While Girl from Nowhere has heaps of potential, it's ultimately restrained by its low budget and time constraints, turning what should have been a brooding and desolate erotic thriller into a wacky and twisted detour into the countryside. As courageous as they are, the actors are pressured into makeshift performances, the choices are limited by speed of shooting and the loose film-making results in a curious, meandering yet messy feature film for Jackson. There's enough spit and polish to get this one through to the credits with a few glimpses of what it could have been. It's great to see Jackson going his own way, but it will be better to see what he's truly capable of with Girl from Nowhere ever-present in the rear view mirror.
The bottom line: Gritty
← Talking Movies – The Exception, I Am Bolt and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Movie Review: An Inconvenient Sequel – Truth to Power →
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Max Bemis loves a good story. The Say Anything frontman has written eight albums, the beginnings of a rock opera, and various comic books, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. With his eighth album, Bemis shows us yet again his passion for writing and storytelling.
Billed as the band's final album and a sequel to their 2005 pop punk classic …Is A Real Boy, Oliver Appropriate is a 34-minute tale of the album's namesake and supposed subject of …Is A Real Boy's career loss and realization of his sexuality, subsequently resulting in murder-suicide.
According to a nine-page statement written by Bemis explaining the new album and upcoming hiatus, the record was inspired by Museum Mouth's 2014 release Alex I Am Nothing. Museum Mouth singer Karl Keuhn is featured on this album both vocally as well as playing the character of the protagonist's unrequited love, referred to as "Story Karl" in Bemis's statement. "Story Karl" doesn't return Oliver's feelings, prompting him to tie "Story Karl" and himself to a gigantic stone, throwing themselves into the ocean.
Individually, most songs on this album are solid, but as a whole the story comes off as slightly juvenile. It is a generic tale of unrequited love with the twist that the main character, Oliver, realizes he is gay after a one-night-stand with a man, played by Keuhn. After admitting to himself and "Story Karl" he in fact is gay and is in love with him, "Story Karl" tells Oliver he is actually in love with someone else. Instead of coming to terms with his sexuality and moving on, he commits murder-suicide with the man that didn't return his affection.
This is a simplistically crass ending to a story that could have gone so much further, especially considering the broader context this story has in the realm of pop punk. There aren't a ton of pop punk albums that feature an obviously gay main character, and even fewer that discuss unrequited love with a straight person. With the conclusion of murder-suicide, one could make the case that Bemis is telling the listener that the only solution to this situation that many LGBTQ people find themselves in is to kill themselves and the person who didn't return their feelings. Though clearly this isn't Bemis's intention (this is a fictional story after all), I still find the conclusion of murder-suicide to be somewhat disappointing and wish it went further than just simply death.
The album ends with a spoken-word piece which Bemis describes as "Oliver's ascension after death and acceptance of what he has done with himself, Karl, and the world." Without Bemis' explanation, it's hard to reach that same conclusion as a listener. The spoken word piece describes the afterlife, but it doesn't seem like Oliver has reached acceptance; rather, it seems almost as if he is indifferent about what happened. He mentions "not deserving" the person he is speaking to, presumably "Story Karl," but fails to mention or even accept responsibility for murdering him. With Bemis' spoken word piece, "Story Karl" not only seems to be the one who wants the relationship, he also seems to be perfectly okay with being murdered, simply kissing Oliver on the cheek and leaving after being told that Oliver "doesn't deserve [him]." It just doesn't make sense in the broader context of the story.
As far as each individual track goes, they are written in Bemis' classic, angsty style, but his usual digs on the music industry are much more subtle, showing his progression as an artist and writer. "Greased" makes sarcastic digs at Coachella, and "Captive Audience" sardonically patronizes the listener. "Ew Jersey" makes a comment on being pigeonholed on a boutique label, clearly a subtle reference to his own experiences.
Still, some lines seem to be thrown into songs only to be edgy and relevant, without making sense to the story as a whole or even the song itself. In opener, "The Band Fuel," after referencing Julian Casablancas in relation to New York, he inexplicably throws in a line about "Amazon drones" that makes no sense. Certain songs come off short and slightly unfinished. Oliver Appropriate would have benefitted from some lyrical editing.
Aside from the overarching story, though, this album definitely turned out some solid tracks. "Days" is a catchy, pop punk anthem that grows on you with each listen, inevitably getting stuck in your head for days. Keuhn's vocals are like a breath of fresh air on "Your Father," a welcome break from the abrasiveness of Bemis' singing style.
Bemis' wife, Sherri Dupree-Bemis of Eisley, is also featured prominently on this album. Her vocals are also a welcome addition to "The Hardest," which even features an insanely cute vocal cameo from their daughter at the end. "Captive Audience" shows Bemis' musical prowess with classic Say Anything time signature changes and cinematic orchestration. "It's a Process" finally returns us back to …Is A Real Boy, one of the only songs on Oliver Appropriate that actually sounds like a continuation of the 2005 album.
Overall, this album is a respectable pop punk record, but as a sequel to …Is A Real Boy, it doesn't land. Bemis sells it as a story about the character he created in …Is A Real Boy, but sometimes it seems as if he is reaching. I appreciate the approach of using the album as a way to kill off a character critics continuously expect him to live up to, but I don't know if it was necessary. The album would have been more effective and interesting if it was written as a new story about a new character, instead of trying to harken it back to the character of …Is A Real Boy.
Oliver Appropriate's merits are overshadowed by the fact that it is supposed to be a sequel to one of Say Anything's most successful albums, thus forcing the listener and critics to treat it as such, instead of being able to listen to it as an independent creation by an artist who has grown phenomenally over the past 14 years. On its own, Oliver Appropriate is a solid final chapter in the book of Say Anything. However, as a sequel to the band's most popular album, it just doesn't seem appropriate.
I think you're incorrect in assuming Oliver is gay. The album chronicles him falling in love with a man, sure, but that doesn't mean the character has adopted a gay. And considering Max Bemis's recent letter where he opened up about his own queerness, I think it's more appropriate to view the album as a story about a man discovering there is more nuance to his own sexual orientation than he previously thought or considered, and him wresting with these new feelings. I think it's important that as a society we start to allow men to love other men without slapping a label on them as "gay" which keeps many queer men in the closet. Just my two cents. I agree with your point about the album's sort of third act going a bit off the rails with the whole murder suicide bit. It feels a bit rushed to me. But I loved the album overall, and I think it's a fantastic addition to the Say Anything discography.


But here we are! We actually have a tofu making machine, which can create tofu in just 10 minutes!
According to this article, there are only 4 processes you have to follow; pour soy milk, add bittern, turn the switch on and you will have soft tofu in 6-7 minutes! And while conventional tofu maker needed special soy milk, you can make tofu with any soy milk as long as its concentration is 13%.
FYI, the machine can make tofu of 500g at once, and you can also make sesame tofu and green tea flavoured if you have right ingredients!
I will be looking forward to hearing from those tofu lovers around the world!