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Meghan Markle reveals her pet peeve
March 22, 2017 - 09:57 GMT Gemma Strong Meghan Markle – girlfriend of Prince Harry – has revealed her 'pet peeve' is having her skin tone lightened and her freckles airbrushed out of photos
Prince Harry's girlfriend Meghan Markle has revealed that being airbrushed in photographs is her "pet peeve". In a new interview with Allure magazine, the Suits actress said she gets especially annoyed when her skin tone is changed and her freckles are removed in pictures. Meghan, who has a white father and a black mother, also stated that her bi-racial identity causes "quite a conundrum" for casting agents.
STORY: Six reasons why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are perfect for each other
"For castings, I was labelled 'ethnically ambiguous'," she said. "Was I Latina? Sephardic? Exotic Caucasian?' Add the freckles to the mix and it created quite the conundrum. To this day my pet peeve is when my skin tone is changed and my freckles are airbrushed out of a photoshoot." The 35-year-old also said that her father had once told her that "a face without freckles is a night without stars", and that those words had stuck with her to this day.
Meghan Markle has said being airbrushed in photos is her 'pet peeve'
Meghan has spoken out in the past about the challenges of growing up mixed race. She told the magazine she had "vivid memories" of being seven years old and her mum picking her up from her grandmother's house. "There were the three of us, a family tree in an ombre of mocha next to the caramel complexion of my mum and light-skinned, freckled me," she said. "I remember the sense of belonging, having nothing to do with the colour of my skin. It was only outside the comforts of home that the world began to challenge those ideals."
GALLERY: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle - A timeline of their romance
Meghan and Prince Harry recently enjoyed a secret date at the Natural History Museum
The American actress, who started dating Prince Harry in June, was in London this week to spend time with the 32-year-old royal. The couple enjoyed a secret date at the Natural History Museum after the attraction closed its doors to the public on Sunday. A source told the Sun: "Meg had always wanted to go so Harry arranged a private visit. It's quite romantic after dark as all the exhibits, including the dinosaurs, are all still lit up. And, of course, they had it to themselves."
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Stonefields School: E Book - Where is Mel?
E Book - Where is Mel?
Mel Tours Melbourne from Stonefields School on Vimeo.
Here is a wee story we created as an exemplar for our own students. The team went to Melbourne to view some wonderful Schools. We had a superb two days looking at how three schools had worked through a process to purposefully design space. We saw over 100 students working within one learning centre. The engaged learning hum was exceptional, it was wonderful to see students using various e learning tools and being encouraged to pursue areas of interest. Many thanks to all the schools that hosted us.
Mel then took us on a tour of the city on Saturday. We had a great time exploring some of the sights of Melbourne. We are keen for Stonefields School learners to take Mel with them when they go on trips around NZ and further afield. Maybe we will be able to start blog on Where in the world is Mel off to now?
Can you find Mel in each picture?


Chael Sonnen is looking to do what no other person has done since 2009, defeat Jon "Bones" Jones in a UFC fight.
Sonnen, 36, will get that chance this Saturday as the headlining fight at UFC 159 with Jones' light heavyweight world title on the line.
But the crowning moment was when he asked to touch Steele's curly hair, telling the SportsCenter anchor that he loved it.


Zeiss Zeiss has introduced its first premium lens designed specifically for high-end, high-resolution DSLRs, the Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4. Zeiss has decades of experience designing lenses for both 35mm and medium-format cameras, and with the Otus, they've pulled out all the f/Stops.
First, a bit of background: Over the last 10 years, most medium-format film camera users who migrated to digital adapted the 35mm sensor format. As the resolution of these cameras has increased, many lenses simply haven't kept up. High resolution revealed that edge sharpness was not as crisp as the center, and image quality changed based on the aperture used.
Zeiss set about to create a new line of lenses that take full advantage of high-resolution DSLRs, with no design restrictions based on weight or size, using the best possible material. The result would be a line of premium-priced lenses capable of delivering the best possible images with little or no optical distortion. The Otus line was born, and the 55mm f/1.4 is the first product.
The Zeiss Otus uses the APO Distagon design, which is a more complex design using more elements and Apochromatic design for sharper and contrastier images with fewer chromatic aberrations. Lower-end lenses have the Planar designation.
Zeiss makes the bold claim, based on its internal MTF optical bench tests results, that the Otus 55mm f/1.4 is the best standard lens ever made by Zeiss and is the best standard lens currently available. Let's take a closer look at these claims.
First, while most lens image quality varies based on the chosen aperture, the Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 is said to offer the same high quality and maximum sharpness and contrast at f/1.4 as it does at f/5.6 or f/8. So, this lens can be used wide open and still show maximu image quality.
The lens has 12 elements in 10 groups, with a modern floating element design and T* Anti-reflex multi-layer coating. Overall, Zeiss says the lens's performance is comparable to medium format lenses.
The lens barrel is made of high-quality metal alloy and has a rubber focus ring (the lens is manual focus only) that rotates 248 degrees-that's a good amount of rotation that will make a difference when focusing at maximum aperture where depth of field is super shallow. There's a 9-blade iris and Zeiss says it produces pleasing, "organic" bokeh. The lens accomodates 77mm filters.
The Otus 55mm f/1.4 is a pro tool that Zeiss believes will be embraced by studio, wedding, commercial and even architecture photographers.


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Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay in Switzerland
Bülach, 28 January 2018: Today TCSL had the honour of receiving the President of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Switzerland. Dr. Lobsang Sangay gave a public speech for the local Tibetans in Bülach.
On his trip through Europe, Dr. Lobsang Sangay visited Switzerland after France and Belgium. On his arrival this morning in front of the Bülach town hall, he was greeted by a frenetic crowd waiving Tibetan and Swiss flags. The atmosphere was festive and cheerful, although on the other side of the street a small group of demonstrators protested peacefully with posters against the president's policies.
In their introductory speeches, the TCSL President, the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Switzerland and a member of the Tibetan exile parliament welcomed Dr. Lobsang Sangay and thanked him for his participation in this event. The upcoming TCSL elections were addressed as well and all those present were called upon to take an active part in these elections.
Dr. Lobsang Sangay also stressed the importance of Tibetans in exile exercising their democratic rights and duties. A high turnout in regional and supra-regional elections is crucial for the legitimacy of the CTA and thus for the Tibetan cause, so Dr. Lobsang Sangay. Regarding the protests against him, Dr. Lobsang Sangay made it clear that in a democracy, freedom of opinion must be respected. He accepts that not all Tibetans agree with his policies and decisions, even though he himself disagrees with the concerns of the demonstrators.
The political situation in Tibet remains tense, as the case of Tashi Wangchuk shows. For two years now, he has been in Chinese custody on charges of "incitement to separatism". In addition, the self-immolations in Tibet continue. Since 2009, more than 150 Tibetans have taken their own lives in protest against the Chinese occupation of Tibet in this way. Dr. Lobsang Sangay explained how his administration intends to react to the problem with a mix of short- and long-term planning. The so-called "5/50 Programme" is based on the advise of His Holiness the Dalai Lama: "Hope for the best and preparation for the worst". It provides for efforts to resolve the Tibet issue in five years' time on the basis of the "middle way approach" and at the same time to ensure the resilience of the CTA in order to maintain the Tibetan struggle for freedom and, if necessary, to preserve Tibetan culture for the next fifty years.
The regional affiliation of political officials in Tibetan exile continues to be a hotly debated topic. For certain groups, it seems to be particularly important whether a person comes from their original region in Tibet, i. e. one of the three provinces (Amdo, Kham or Ü-Tsang). «I believe that people should be chosen according to their skills, not their origin. Moreover, we live in exile and it is not relevant here from which province you come. The crucial thing is that we are all Tibetans," said Dr. Lobsang Sangay. He called for more unity and warned that focusing on regional affiliation would act as a poison to the Tibetan community which is more likely to benefit opponents of the Tibetan cause.
Dr. Lobsang Sangay proudly mentioned that the official websites of the CTA (www.tibet.net and www.tibetonline.tv) have been revamped and that thousands of visitors are registered every day. He called on the audience to visit these platforms regularly: "We Tibetans are now scattered all over the world. I hope that with these websites we can contribute to maintaining a sense of community despite this unfortunate circumstance."
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Alter Bridge to Release 'Walk the Sky 2.0' EP with New Song, 'Last Rites'
Mark Tremonti and Scott Phillips of Alter Bridge – Story by Cat Badra, photo by Anne Erickson
"Walk the Sky 2.0," the new EP from Alter Bridge, will feature a handful of live cuts, as well as a new song, "Last Rites," recorded in quarantine
Alter Bridge have kept busy in lock down working on various projects and new music, and now, the Florida-based rock band has announced a new EP called "Walk the Sky 2.0."
The EP will feature seven tracks and feature live versions of six songs from Alter Bridge's 2019 album "Walk the Sky," such as the popular singles "Wouldn't You Rather," "Native Son" and "Godspeed." The set will also include a new track called "Last Rites," which was written and recorded during the coronavirus (COVID-19) quarantine.
"Walk the Sky 2.0" will arrive on Nov. 6. It will be available in a variety of configurations and formats, including CD, vinyl and digital. Bundles will also be available with T-shirts, limited-edition vinyl and more. For more information and to pre-order the set, visit the band's official website.
In addition to the new EP, Alter Bridge has also debuted a music video for the studio version of "Native Son." Watch the animated music video for the song via YouTube below.
Alter Bridge features frontman Myles Kennedy, drummer Scott Phillips, guitarist Mark Tremonti and bass player Brian Marshall.
Alter Bridge's "Walk the Sky 2.0" Track List:
"Wouldn't You Rather (Live)"
"Pay No Mind (Live)"
"Native Son (Live)"
"Godspeed (Live)"
"In the Deep (Live)"
"Dying Light (Live)"
Posted by Cat Badra | Music, Rock, Rock News
Alter Bridge, Review – 'Walk the Sky 2.0' Captures Charisma of Live Shows
Alter Bridge, Scott Phillips Interview – 'Walk the Sky 2.0,' New Music + More
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Alter Bridge Debuts No. 1 on Top Current Albums Chart with 'Walk the Sky'
Michael Schenker, Interview – 'Immortal' + Falling in Love with Guitar


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Lo Shell sort (o Shellsort) è uno dei più vecchi algoritmi di ordinamento. È stato ideato nel 1959 da Donald L. Shell.
L'algoritmo è veloce, facile da comprendere e da implementare, ma è difficile analizzarne il tempo di esecuzione.

Lo Shell sort viene a volte chiamato "Shell-Metzner sort" in onore di Marlene Metzner che ne scrisse una primissima implementazione in FORTRAN. Venne per la prima volta chiamato Shell-Metzner in un articolo su Creative Computing nel 1976, ma Marlene Metzner disse di non volere che l'algoritmo portasse il suo nome.

Concetto base
Lo Shell sort è una estensione dell'insertion sort, tenendo presenti due osservazioni:
 L'Insertion sort è efficiente se l'input è già abbastanza ordinato.
 L'Insertion sort è inefficiente, generalmente, in quanto muove i valori di una sola posizione per volta.

Lo Shell sort è simile all'insertion sort, ma funziona spostando i valori di più posizioni per volta man mano che risistema i valori, diminuendo gradualmente la dimensione del passo sino ad arrivare ad uno.
Alla fine, lo Shell sort esegue un insertion sort, ma per allora i dati saranno già piuttosto ordinati.

Consideriamo un valore piccolo posizionato inizialmente all'estremità errata di un array dati di lunghezza n. Usando l'insertion sort, ci vorranno circa n confronti e scambi per spostare questo valore lungo tutto l'array fino all'altra estremità. Con lo Shell sort, si muoveranno i valori usando passi di grosse dimensioni, cosicché un valore piccolo andrà velocemente nella sua posizione finale con pochi confronti e scambi.

L'idea dietro lo Shell sort può essere illustrata nel seguente modo:
 sistema la sequenza dei dati in un array bidimensionale (con un numero h di colonne)
 ordina i valori presenti all'interno di ciascuna colonna dell'array
 ripeti dal punto 1 con un diverso numero h (minore del precedente) fino a portare h ad 1

L'effetto finale è che la sequenza dei dati viene parzialmente ordinata. La procedura viene eseguita ripetutamente, ogni volta con un array più piccolo, cioè, con un numero di colonne h più basso. Nell'ultima passata, l'array è composto da una singola colonna(h=1) trasformando di fatto quest'ultimo giro in un insertion sort puro e semplice.
Ad ogni passata i dati diventano sempre più ordinati, finché, durante l'ultima lo diventano del tutto. Comunque, il numero di operazioni di ordinamento necessarie in ciascuna passata è limitato, a causa dell'ordinamento parziale ottenuto nelle passate precedenti.

Esempio
Poniamo che
3 7 9 0 5 1 6 8 4 2 0 6 1 5 7 3 4 9 8 2
sia la sequenza da ordinare. Prima, viene organizzata in un array con 7 colonne (sinistra), poi le colonne vengono ordinate (destra):
3 7 9 0 5 1 6          3 3 2 0 5 1 5
8 4 2 0 6 1 5    ->    7 4 4 0 6 1 6
7 3 4 9 8 2            8 7 9 9 8 2
Gli elementi 8 e 9 sono ora arrivati in fondo alla sequenza, ma lì c'è anche un elemento piccolo (2) che non dovrebbe esserci. Nella prossima passata, la sequenza viene organizzata su tre colonne, che vengono nuovamente ordinate:
3 3 2          0 0 1
0 5 1          1 2 2
5 7 4          3 3 4
4 0 6    ->    4 5 6
1 6 8          5 6 8
7 9 9          7 7 9
8 2            8 9
Ora la sequenza è quasi completamente ordinata. Una volta organizzata su una sola colonna durante l'ultima passata, sono solamente un 6, un 8 ed un 9 che devono essere spostati leggermente per arrivare a destinazione.

In realtà, i dati non vengono inseriti in un array bidimensionale, ma vengono tenuti in un array monodimensionale indirizzato opportunamente. Per esempio, i dati alle posizioni 0, 5, 10, 15, etc. formerebbero la prima colonna di un array a cinque colonne. Le "colonne" ottenute con questo indirizzamento vengono ordinate tramite l'Insertion sort, dal momento che questo metodo è piuttosto veloce con sequenze abbastanza ordinate.

Analisi
La correttezza dell'algoritmo viene dal fatto che durante l'ultima passata (cioè per h = 1) un normale insertion sort viene eseguito sull'intero array.
Ma, visto che i dati vengono preordinati dalle passate precedenti (h = 3, 7, 31, ...), una manciata di operazioni dell'insertion sort sono sufficienti. Il numero esatto dipende dalla sequenza dei valori h (noti come sequenze h). La sequenza h sopracitata è solo una delle molte possibili.

(Pratt) Con la sequenza h 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 16, ..., 2p3q, ... Shellsort esegue O(n·log(n)2) passi per ordinare una sequenza di lunghezza n.

(Hibbard) Con la sequenza h 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127, ..., 2k - 1, ... Shellsort esegue O(n3/2) passi per ordinare una sequenza di lunghezza n.

(Knuth) Con la sequenza h 1, 4, 13, 40, 121, ..., 3hs-1 + 1 = (3s - 1)/2, ... Shellsort esegue O(n3/2) passi per ordinare una sequenza di lunghezza n.

(sequenza non definita) con la sequenza h 1, 8, 23, ..., 4i+1 + 3*2i +1, ... Shellsort esegue O (n4/3) passi per ordinare una sequenza di lunghezza n.

(Sedgewick) Con la sequenza h 1, 5, 19, 41, 109, 209, ... (descritta qui sotto), Shellsort esegue O(n4/3) passi per ordinare una sequenza di lunghezza n.

(Insertion sort) Il caso peggiore dello Shell sort è l'insertion sort base (usando un passo h = 1), che richiede O(n²) confronti e scambi.

Una sequenza h facilmente computabile per lo Shell sort è la sequenza di Fibonacci (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ... ) o il suo quadrato (1, 4, 9, 25, 64, ...).

Note

Bibliografia
 D.L.Shell: A high-speed sorting procedure. Communications of the ACM 2 (7), 30-32 (1959)
 D.E.Knuth: Sorting and Searching, vol. 3 of The Art of Computer Programming. Addison-Wesley (1973)
 R.Sedgewick: Algorithms. Addison-Wesley (1988)

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Algoritmi di ordinamento

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Living Donor Portrait: Charles Uzzell
by Stephen Rice | Feb 18, 2016 | blog
"Why operate on a healthy person? Having been there, and seeing the improvement in my sister's life, I think it was worth the risk. How often do we see a loved one suffering, and can actually do something about it?" — Charles Uzzell
Charles Uzzell is the youngest of five siblings. His older sister Monet's kidneys had been failing for a while. The cause was a bit unclear. She'd had strep throat years earlier and doctors deduced that the streptococcal bacteria had caused damage to her kidneys. The cause, however wasn't really the issue at hand for Charles, Monet, and the rest of their family. Monet needed a kidney and family members had spares.
Charles was the first to volunteer. "I had no trouble deciding," said Charles. "But I appreciate the mixed feelings one has when deciding whether or not to give an organ. I am after all scared of needles and hesitant even to give blood." He owned a Montessori school at the time and felt that he had the flexibility and good health needed to step up for the family. After being pre-screened as healthy enough to donate, he had blood drawn to see if he would be a compatible donor for his sister. Then he waited.
Charles was with his mom when the results came back. He was a perfect match! "This moment was the most emotional one of the whole thing. My mom and I both cried," remembers Charles.
His sister was in California and he was across the country in North Carolina. He flew out to the west coast prior to surgery for evaluation testing including a procedure that, when described, scared him. The plan was to inject fluid into a leg and put a camera onto the kidney. "It turned out to be completely painless. I worried for nothing. This fact calmed me for the surgery."
Pre-surgery, Charles felt "kind of goofy. Possibly too happy for the circumstances." There was a woman in the bed next to him who was being prepped for a different sort of surgery, and was in a panic. "I was able to comfort her a bit and calm her down. This was a distraction for me."
After surgery, he awoke to find his mom and another sibling in the recovery room with him. "I often sympathize with Mom because she had two kids in surgery on the same day," said Charles.
This was May, 1994. Living kidney donation surgery was still being done using the open nephrectomy procedure. The less-invasive laparoscopic procedure used today was still being pioneered, making his recovery period longer and more painful. But, on the second day after surgery, he was able to walk down the hall and visit his sister. "She was doing great! My big fear was not that I would die, but that the transplant might fail or the kidney would be rejected," said Charles. Despite some drug dosage issues that were still being sorted out, Monet had few surgery-related difficulties.
Charles' total recovery time was about six weeks. After being discharged from the hospital, he spent two weeks at his sister's house recovering before flying home. "Something that was very touching was that a volunteer drove me from the hospital," remember Charles. "She continued to be involved in this small way."
Twenty-two years after surgery, both Charles and Monet are doing well. "My sister is alive and happy. This was the best part of donating my kidney. Does that need to be said?" They celebrate the anniversary of the transplant every year. "My sister sends me music. It's a little thing, but it means a lot to me and a lot to her."
His advice to people like his sister considering a transplant it is, "be grateful, take your medicine, and stay healthy. Take care of your gift."
His advice to others considering becoming a living donor is to "definitely do it. The kidney is fresher. That sounds weird, but this will be the best possible option for the recipient. It will make a huge impact in their lives. It takes them off of life support."
Charles adds one last thing. It's a complete miracle that humanity can do this. It's just remarkable. To the medical profession – keep up the good work, I appreciate it."
We appreciate you too, Charles.
Living Donor Tribute 4 Awareness
WaitList Zero occasionally publishes guest blog posts written by members of our community in the hopes of sharing viewpoints from various perspectives.
THE LIVING KIDNEY DONOR – TRIBUTE 4 AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
By: Risa Simon
Risa Simon, Founder and CEO TransplantFirst Academy
As a recipient whose life was profoundly changed by a living kidney donor, I'm deeply baffled by the absence of recognition for living kidney donors. I've spent countless hours trying to reconcile the magnitude of what I and many others have received. And though I know this has never been about a fair exchange—even if that were possible, my heart (and new kidney) are constantly seeking moral balance.
Last year, my creative mind conjured up a unique and simple way to deliver a small, but recognizable, improvement. The notion was to shed new light on our life-saving heroes who save lives by choice, not by death or medical necessity. The idea was to respectfully recognize their act as one of the highest levels of service humanity has to offer.
As the founder of the TransplantFirst Academy, I set out to seek input from other organizations in this space and received an overwhelmingly positive response. This prompted our organization to become the foundational force behind what is now known as: The Living Kidney Donor – Tribute 4 Awareness Campaign.
Our first target was to establish recognition for living kidney donors in the city of Phoenix. We achieved this status after the Mayor of our city signed a proclamation formally honoring living kidney donors for their brave life-saving acts. Our next target was to expand message visibility. We did this by launching a community outreach billboard campaign.
Our goal became two-fold.
Our main objective was to showcase the proud faces of living kidney donors and thank them for their life-saving service. Yet we didn't stop there. We had a bigger plan, which was to inspire communities to join our movement to increase awareness in living kidney donation and inspire admirers and potential followers. Soon our standalone "Thank you for your service" initiative blossomed into a campaign that increased awareness and desire for others to personally contemplate this brave act for themselves.
Since living kidney donors don't wear a Medal of Honor or a superhero's cape, it's hard to admire or emulate what they've done. Their decoration of a few scars is their only discreet distinction of lifetime achievement. Surely, we can give these brave champions more recognition for the role they played in saving lives.
Our nation's organ shortage supports this campaign as a great call to action. Currently, nearly 10,000 people die prematurely or become medically disqualified for a kidney transplant every year. To add insult to injury, the number of people waiting on the list grows by 30% each year, as more sick patients face the same reality of need. The grim fact is that every year only 16 percent of the 100,000-plus waiting will receive their much needed replacement kidney.
Those who are fortunate enough to receive the gift from a deceased donor typically wait 5 years. Though there are some patients who are lucky enough to receive a kidney in a shorter amount of time, there are many more who wait much longer. Age also matters now. Many patients over the age of 50, who were approaching the top of the list after years of waiting, have lost their place in line due to new deceased-organ allocation.
This is just one of the many reasons living kidney donor transplants hold unparalleled value. Yet, until we can increase awareness and the numbers of living kidney donors (which has dropped significantly, including a 33% drop in 2015), we won't be able to positively impact the futures of those in need.
This Campaign begins to address our moral obligation to do more. It starts by saluting those who courageously saved lives – and it keeps on giving by inspiring potential donors who might otherwise be unaware of this opportunity. Of course, living kidney donation is not for everyone. It takes a very special person to lean in this direction and a person in good health to medically qualify. To date, over 133,000 people have
been able to save an equal number of lives. These remarkable individuals give new meaning to the expression "Giving of self." Let's recognize these heroes and inspire a "heart-string" of potential followers.
If you are moved to join this campaign by expanding this project in your own city, we applaud your interest and welcome you aboard. If you are a recipient who has received the gift of life from a living
kidney donor, or a person who knows someone who has; or you are someone who believes in this initiative, take the first step now. You can do that by requesting a Living Kidney Donor Tribute 4 Awareness proclamation from your Mayor or Governor's office. Often times a simple online search can lead you to that process.
You can also start to form a committee to help you explore billboard opportunities. Know that you don't have to go it alone. Campaign art and special rates may be available. Check with the TransplantFirst Academy to learn more. Together we can achieve more, so let's not let another day go by without taking action. It time to recognize those who courageously save lives and inspire others to become more caring and compassionate people.
The infographic provides a 9 step snapshot to help steer your campaign. You can also visit this link for more information: www.TransplantFirst.org/campaigns-projects. For those who believe in this movement and would like to make a financial contribution to keep this campaign alive—please visit this link: www.TransplantFirst.org/contribute.
Living Donor Portrait: Raegan Johnson
by Stephen Rice | Feb 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
While in college, Raegan Johnson's mom started dialysis, but Raegan didn't really know what it all meant. She knew her mom had lost a lot of weight, and that she was receiving treatment, but Raegan didn't make the connection that her kidneys were failing. Her mom was very reluctant to ask a loved one to become her donor and had refused an offer from Raegan's aunt. At age 24, Raegan's older brother learned from his doctor that excess proteins had been found in his urine. He had been diagnosed with the disease too.
Fast forward six years. Raegan was preparing for graduate school when her brother, Reggie broke the news. His kidneys were failing. Reggie relayed his options: dialysis, transplant from a diseased donor, or the possibility of finding a living donor. His doctor had encouraged him to try to find a donor before resorting to dialysis, but it was tough for a big brother to ask his little sister to do something so selfless. Reggie's mom helped broach the subject and Raegan agreed to be his donor – but she had to first consider her own health. "In college, I was very overweight. The first question was whether I'd be healthy enough to do it," said Raegan.
She had work to do. She needed to get her blood pressure down and lose some weight. She lost 5 lbs., got her blood pressure into the acceptable range, and was declared eligible to donate. Some of those around her were apprehensive, and expressed concerns about the potential outcome of the surgery. "Maybe I was naïve, but I wasn't too worried because I knew I was doing the right thing. Once I'd made up my mind, I was focused." Raegan adds that her Christian faith also increased her confidence in her decision – in turn reducing her fears of the worst. "If this is how I was meant to go, then I would go having done the right thing," she concluded.
Asked about how she felt post-surgery, Raegan's response was immediate. "It was painful. I hadn't had children, not even a broken bone. I'd never experienced major pain. It was more shocking than anything." Her recovery time lasted 6-8 weeks.
Despite the discomfort and initial pain of surgery, her experience continues to be satisfying. "It's the gift that keeps on giving, seeing my brother thrive and being the husband, the father, and the Christian man that he is. It's a gift to see him do so well."
Raegan's donation also kicked off a journey for her to become a healthier person. "Because I didn't have much of an appetite, I lost 10 lbs right after surgery. But it was such a blessing for me. I started exercising, making better food choices, and I began to see results." Her journey has also involved becoming an advocate for kidney disease prevention, especially within the African-American community. She serves as a peer mentor for the National Kidney Foundation and her advice always includes a message to get tested. "We focus on breast cancer, which is important, but kidney disease primarily affects African Americans. Nearly 1 in 3 kidney failure patients living in the United States is African American. My message encourages individuals to get their kidneys tested and watch their diets." Her advice to potential donors is to focus on making sure that each is in a good position to be a donor. "It's not just about the recipient's health. As a donor, your health should also be a priority."
Twelve years after her surgery, her family is doing great. She's lost a total of 60 lbs, and continues to lead a healthy lifestyle. Reggie is healthy and is off most of his medications. As for Mom? "After our surgery, my Mom reconsidered my aunt's offer and was transplanted in 2006."
This story just keeps getting better.
Living Donor Portrait: Rori Block
Rori Block donated a kidney to her Dad in 2012. When asked what motivated her to do it, her answer was pretty straightforward: "He's my Dad!" His kidneys had been declining for over twelve years. A handful of family and friends, including Rori and her brother were tested and she was the match.
She had a lot of questions for the transplant team during the first couple of meetings. She asked about life expectancy, whether she'd need to change her lifestyle, and whether she'd be able to have kids. "My fiancée and I love craft beer – would I still be able to drink beer?" she said laughing. The only deal breaker was the ability to start a family later on. "Once I found out that I would have the ability to have kids, I was relieved."
Leading up to the surgery, Rori was nervous – not so much for herself, but that the transplant wouldn't be successful. "That would have been devastating," she said. The lead up to surgery was unique in the case of Rori and her dad. She'd been evaluated and approved to donate in 2010, but her Dad's kidney function stabilized for a couple years and she felt a bit on-call for about two years. In early 2012, his kidney function started a sudden decline, and around April, his nephrologist said it was transplant time. In an effort to avoid dialysis, surgery was scheduled for June.
Post-surgery, Rori was up and walking around later the same day. She was super happy to see her dad. "The color in his face had changed," she recalls. The next day was harder. She doesn't do well on pain medication and she was in pain, especially around her stomach muscles where the incision has been made. Her operation took place on a Wednesday and she checked out of the hospital on Friday. She stayed with her Mom until she could take care of herself. Then she moved in with her Dad so that they could recover together. "Within a couple of weeks we were out to lunch, running errands and out doing things."
Rori was off of work for 6-8 weeks. She felt tired her first week back and decided to take a break from her normal exercise routine for a while. Now, she feels normal. "Many days I forget. But I'm more careful now about certain things. I drink more water and if I'm not feeling well, I get to the doctor faster – just more careful."
Her advice to potential donors? "You should do it! It's seriously the best gift that you can give somebody. It's so rewarding to see them so much better with so much more life in them because of you. It's an amazing feeling." She adds some advice for patients. "Patients should be open to accepting a donated kidney. I've heard stories that parents wouldn't let their kids be their donors, but they should! You aren't ruining your kid's life. Plus, living donor kidneys last longer for the recipient. That alone should be a deciding factor!"
Living Donor Portrait: Kelly Gatlin
by Stephen Rice | Feb 5, 2016 | blog
Kelly Gatlin's husband Joe has Alport Syndrome, a genetic disease that he has had his entire life. They both knew that he would eventually need a new kidney. Joe had seen other family members with the disease languish on dialysis and he knew that he wanted to avoid it by getting a transplant as soon as his kidneys began to fail. He came home from an appointment one day and told Kelly, "it's time." Many family members also had the same disease, but Kelly was healthy. With the universal blood type 'O', she knew she would probably be a good candidate and started the process to save her husband's life.
Evaluation results confirmed that she was eligible, but not a perfect match. In order to give her husband the best kidney possible, they decided to do a paired exchange, choosing a well-respected center in the nearby state of California.
Logistics and finances were a challenge. The coordinator at her local hospital lacked transplant expertise as did Joe's local kidney doctor, which meant Kelly had to be a very determined self-advocate to get the process going. They traveled to California at different times for testing. Her travel costs were not covered by insurance and a 15-month old baby at home added to the stress. "I dealt with the situation by "making things happen," said Kelly. "It was a huge task to take on. I had to be super persistent."
Six months after starting the process, transplant day arrived in the summer of 2012. Joe's kidney came from a 20-something male in Ohio. Kelly's went to a 2-year old girl in New York. Joe was in the hospital for 5 days. "I was out in one," said Kelly. "I guess I was showing off a bit. I got up out of bed the morning after surgery. I'd previously had a C-section and they used that incision to take the kidney out. The surgery pain was about the same as the childbirth. I felt a bit tired and the tiredness lingered for 3-4 weeks."
Despite some discomfort, the most satisfying aspect of donating has been seeing that her husband is healthy. "We have a normal life. He didn't have to deteriorate. I also found my recipient's parents online and now I get to see pictures of the little girl as she grows. They moved to the U.S. from Singapore to save their child. We do what we need to do to take care of the people we love."
Her advice to potential donors is three-fold:
"Don't be afraid. If you feel moved to do it, then do it; surround yourself with positive people who are supportive of your decision; and find someone who's been through it who can provide support."
And her advice to patients?
"You need to reach out to people. There are people in this world that have a burning desire to do something big. Give them the opportunity to give you a gift. Most people know the joy of having a child, but this was better. It's a gift that someone can't buy. It's a gift that they can't give themselves."
Death of the Innocent (guest post)
Giving a Kidney Was Good for My Heart
Living Donor Portrait: Josh Morrison
Selfie Challenge to Protect Living Donors
Living Donor Portrait: David Reid
Khizar on Living Donor Portrait: Josh Morrison
Cordelia Robb on Living Donor Portrait: David Reid
Alan C. Sax on Living Donor Portrait: David Reid
Teresa on Living Donor Portrait: David Reid
Diane Brockington on Giving a Kidney Was Good for My Heart


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AHA About AHA & Membership AHA History and Archives GI Roundtable Series Pamphlets EM 2: What Is Propaganda? (1944) Defining Propaganda I
Defining Propaganda I
Democratic vs. Enemy Propaganda
War Propaganda
The Story of Propaganda
What Are the Tools of Propaganda?
Some Limitations of Propaganda
News and Propaganda
Defining Propaganda II
How to Size Up Propaganda
To the Leader
A Few Suggestions for Further Reading about Propaganda
An attempt to define propaganda is made near the end of this pamphlet after we have examined its main characteristics. In order to avoid mistaken ideas, however, it may be useful to point out at once what some of these characteristics are.
Propaganda isn't an easy thing to define, but most students agree that it has to do with any ideas or beliefs that are intentionally propagated.
It uses words and word substitutes in trying to reach a goal—pictures, drawings, graphs, exhibits, parades, songs, and other devices.
Of course propaganda is used in controversial matters, but it is also used to promote things that are generally acceptable and noncontroversial.
So there are different kinds of propaganda. They run all the way from selfish, deceitful, and subversive effort to honest and aboveboard promotion of things that are good.
Propaganda can be concealed or open, emotional or containing appeals to reason, or a combination of emotional and logical appeals.
See the section on "Defining Propaganda" for a fuller discussion.
It is the spring of 1940. Allied armies face the German columns, but there is little action at the front, and a group of French soldiers find time to listen to an enemy broadcast.
"Where are the English?" asks the radio voice. The enemy broadcaster is speaking in French. The soldiers listen uneasily. "I'll tell you where your English comrades are," continues the voice. "They lounge about Paris and fill the night clubs. Have you seen a Tommy in the Maginot Line? Of course not. French soldiers, you will find the Tommies behind the lines—with your wives."
Propaganda. Of course. The German propaganda strategy of division, intended to sow suspicion and doubt about the fidelity of an ally. The propaganda preparatory to the blitz.
A handful of Londoners are drinking ale in their neighborhood pub. The time is July 1940. The French have signed Hitler's armistice terms, but Britain is still holding out. The pub keeper turns the dials of the tavern radio to tune in on "Lord Haw-Haw," the Berlin broadcaster, and the voice booms out:
"England is ripe for invasion. ... You might as well expect help from an army of mastodons as from the United States. ... You are on a doomed ship. ... Whether or not the people of Britain want to see their fields turned into graveyards and their cities into tombs is a matter for themselves and Mr. Churchill. Perhaps if the British people could speak, they would ask for peace. But since the official voice of England asks not for peace but for destruction, it is destruction we must provide."
The propaganda of fear. The voice of defeatism.
It is the autumn of 1941. The United States is still neutral, but an American Army is in training, a Navy is being strengthened, and Lend-Lease supplies are crossing the Atlantic.
An American sits at home tinkering with his short-wave set and he picks up an English-language broadcast beamed to North America from Germany.
"The German government and the German people have only the friendliest of feelings for the United States, the home of so. many American citizens of German descent." The words of the radio speaker are honeyed words. "Let it be said for once and all," the broadcaster continues, "that a German victory in this war is no threat to English democracy—and certainly not to American democracy."
The propaganda voice of appeasement. Here is the strategy of attempting to hypnotize a people with an assertion of the "peaceful intentions" of the Nazi war machine.
In a few brief months the Japs strike at Pearl Harbor, and the Germans declare war against those for whom they said they cherished "only the friendliest of feelings."
From EM 2: What Is Propaganda? (1944)
Primary source documents from 1944–46


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Pelosi: Trump Is 'The Most Dangerous Person In The History Of Our Country'
Screengrab/CNN/YouTube
"We have the most dangerous person in the history of our country sitting in the White House."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urged Americans to get out and vote in the upcoming election, saying President Donald Trump is "the most dangerous person in the history of our country," according to The Hill.
Pelosi's comment came during an interview with Variety magazine.
"We have the most dangerous person in the history of our country sitting in the White House," she said. "That's different from what happened in 2016."
"People thought Hillary [Clinton] would win so they didn't all turn out," the Speaker added. "Nobody could possibly think that somebody like Donald Trump could be elected president of the United States. But if you don't turn out, those who do turn out will call the shots."
Pelosi said she has "real problems" with the president, because he "doesn't tell the truth, he doesn't honor the Constitution and he's harming children," adding: "My whole message is about children. Anybody who hurts children — I'm a lioness. Watch out."
But the California lawmaker said she also has hope for America's future, telling Variety: "The greatness of America is such that we will withstand what [Trump] has done and move on from that. I feel confident about our ability to do that."
Sort: Oldest
No. 1-10
Blk Ryder
I voted n still a damn shame
DONTYOUKNOW
3 and a half years of, SATAN'S child, and you want some more?
I was undecided, but now I see all damages(Trump )Satan hand has done. Only way out is with the All Mighty God.
No Trump supporter. Dose not RESPECT the CONSTITUTIONS makes his own rules.
ANG321
I really wish that BIDEN/BERNIE would take this clown down together and show us unity. We are going to need both to fix this.
If Pelosi had done her job at any point during the past three years, he might not be in office right now. But, you know.... fundraising.
Agostinho
Come on! Is Pelosi serious? Why is Trump the most dangerous person to ever sit in the White House? What possible lies has has he said that honestly speaking made America a worse country? How in the world did he hurt children? Did he rape a child or something?
Back up your statement on how someone who improved your economy so much and given back many jobs in the hands of Americans is the most dangerous person to ever sit in the White House.
Everyone can try all they want. CNN can keep garbage talking about Trump all they want. People are not stupid! Your attempt to manipulate storiesand what is really happening to minimize and disadvantage Trump can be easily seen, and trust me it will show on the polls because everything is telling me that Trump will win for a second term presidency.
Just wait and watch. Biden has no chance!
Agostinho Domingos
CEO and Director
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Msclass1077
Agostinho, or whatever your name is, I wish you and Trump could be on some island together and he was your president all alone, if you got any sense at all maybe you would wake up, I think you are already awake, you are just predijust, and green, and dumb, where ever he go you go with him forever dumb guy
donnaree8888
Everytime his hands go up I just wait for the next lie.
I can't even watch it/ him anymore!!!!!
Lord help us
Because it's only going to get worse.
The demon seed signs off on everything
Without even reading the fine print.
Does anybody know if he can even read?????
One more and I'm done.
The KKK backer can't even grow hair and is anti social
"She touched me"
And they still put him in a presidential position.
What we're all the cleaning jobs taken?
Even his own Mother hoped he wouldn't go into politics 😂
That's sad!
My Aunt says maybe he'll surprise us
Don't hold your breath


All MurMurs dream about different kinds of environments.
Mur dreams of windy days and stormy nights.
Mus dreams of green forests and clean streams.
Muh dreams of dark and starry nights.
Mut dreams of endless meadows and sea of flowers.
Mum dreams of blue ocean and the roar of the waves.


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Frank's Place
Guerrilla gardener Frank Graves remakes the space he moves through.
by Ruth Levine November 1st, 1996 August 29th, 2020
At about 8:30 on a cool, pristine Sunday morning, Frank Graves appears at the southeast corner of Kalorama Park, ready to clean the untidy strip of grass that runs parallel to Columbia Road. He begins work at the very edge of the corner, as if it's the start of the world and he can get the whole shebang clean by noon if he just works hard enough. His tools are simple: rake, shovel, broom, wheelbarrow, and cardboard box.
Graves is a fastidious sweeper, hands wide apart gripping the broom handle, movements short, furious. He wears a short-sleeved white undershirt and anklet socks, looking more like the male half of a Baltimore mom-and-pop-store team than a rebel horticulturist. People pass Graves and say good morning, part of that intimate, friendly feeling of being the few up at this hour. Graves tersely replies. For the rest of the morning, people silently stare at him as they walk by.
He is a hard worker, the only hard worker around. For the rest of the morning, Graves alternates raking and sweeping the grass clippings and loose soil, making sure to include the short bank at the edge of the park, and venturing out into the street, slipping the broom underneath the cars and a lone pickup truck.
People like Graves; they admire his intellect, his persistence, his bringing public space in Kalorama back to life, but they are hogtied by his mouth. Carolyn Covington, who has been working for the last 20 years at the Altamont Apartments, a towering, grand apartment building on Wyoming Avenue, warmly praises Graves' work but utters the same cautionary refrain heard throughout the neighborhood. "When you get started talking with him, it's over. Your life is over. Mr. Graves is going to marry you in conversation," Covington says.
He is impossible to rein in when talking, a quarter horse gone roll-eyed wild at the race track. And it's not just empty chatter. Graves, semiretired from his work as an economist for technology-related institutes and the inventor of a method for remotely recharging postage meters, easily describes the physics of a rainbow or the theory behind scientific management, or elaborates on zephyr winds and classical music. The exacting talk, the precise slide of words from one free-associated topic to another, is the bane of his existence, the heart of his genius, and maybe the reason so many find fault with his do-goodism.
Graves' episodic stories usually take root in his four or five most dramatic gardening experiences. But it is the details, the endless sea of details, that makes each rendition a mosaic. His cleanup in 1983 of the area behind the Gen. McClellan monument, where California Street crosses Connecticut Avenue, provides a handy launching pad for a story:
"While I was doing this then, these people [from the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation on California Street] would send a lady out to watch me. Do you know Picasso's blue period, 1900 to 1904? At the National Gallery there is a startling painting of his called The Tragedy, showing a woman and two men, a man and a younger boy, with apparently the Mediterranean Sea behind them, and a drowning has occurred. And they look very, very forlorn. She was standing like this, and she looked just like the lady in the picture. She did. She evoked that portrait. She had a gabardine coat on, which originally I guess had been green, but it was so old now that the lower part of it had turned to a kind of purply color. It wasn't worn out or shredded, but the dye had collapsed from age the way it will. Certain dyes are not light-stable, as you know, and over a period of time they will decay in a way. So she had a very old garment on, and she had a forlorn face, a very skinny face, [she was] a tall angular lady, and so she looked very, very unhappy. And she was standing this way and watching. With her head straight up and just watching."
And that's just the beginning of a story. Graves has been living in the District since 1971, almost all of it in the Gelmarc Towers on Columbia Road, a tall apartment building with a Soviet-style façade, grim and a little dirty. In 1982, Graves noticed a wooden sign in the triangular park in front of the Shawmut Apartments, a block up the street, inviting the public to adopt the park. Graves examined the work required—including new benches and a $10,000 price tag—and decided instead to begin with a more modest effort at triangle No. 304 at Columbia Road and Wyoming Avenue, across the street from his building. Volunteers like Graves were part of a desperate effort by the bereft District to find someone, anyone, to nurse public spaces back to a friendly temperament.
Graves got the park's blueprint from the National Park Service, and in the same year began work on the tiny space, with its two magnolia trees. He pulled out weeds from the brick walk and the lawn, designed a red-eyed whale out of zinnias, tilled the soil and seeded it with grass, all with a borrowed spade and his own money. But as nice as it all sounds, Graves evoked the wrath of some neighbors, from verbal complaints to death threats. It's hard to tell if Graves, an eccentric 68-year-old, suffers from an edge of paranoia or if he just keeps rubbing people the wrong way with his civic-oriented gardening.
His first disagreement was with Jackie, a Gelmarc neighbor who used No. 304, as did others in the neighborhood, as a giant litter box for her two dogs. Graves said he asked her to use the tree at the end of the park for the dogs. Graves, in that way of talking he has—low tone, all urgency—makes it clear that an epic conflict ensued.
"She came across the bit of green grass to where I was in the middle of that brick patch," Graves says as we sit in the lobby of his building. He points across the street in a way that makes it clear he hasn't forgotten any of it.
"She bent way over, picked up a handful of dirt with her right hand, she put the two leashes in her left hand, and she looked at me up and down. Then she turned it over and threw it right on my little shoes, except they were so worn at the time the laces were undone. And she dropped it on my foot and knocked my shoe off.
"She was very stocky but not too tall. She picked up the other shoe and now went skittering out into the roadway between the two parked cars to throw my shoe away. As I said at the time, it was not a new shoe but it was my shoe, and I had two feet, and I needed my other shoe. I grabbed her by the arm, and I wrestled her. She was very strong, her arms were three times the size of yours and twice the size of mine. A very powerfully built lady. She looked maybe as if she were a power swimmer. God in heaven, she started to scream bloody Mary. The windows all around were filled with faces. It was just like the movies. 'What's Frankie doing with the lady in red?'"
Over the last 14 years, Graves has remade much of the space he moves through. He has rehabilitated three small triangle parks, sliverlike orphans of grass and trees spawned by Pierre L'Enfant's placement of diagonal grand avenues over a grid of city streets. In all, Graves has cared for 70 tree boxes as far down as the Washington Hilton, put in a side garden and Victorian bench at the 7-Eleven on Wyoming Avenue, transformed Kalorama Park, lobbied for upkeep at the McClellan monument, and planted flowers on California Street. He does it with occasional checks from neighbors; he does it with his own money and against all odds, despite the ugly medusa of the Department of Public Works and well-meaning ANC groups who put everything into slow-motion. He knows the city laws and ordinances inside out, and with information gleaned from a horticulture class at UDC, and his watching to see how people use public space, he has methodically dismantled and rebuilt the parks. Over time, what the city wouldn't do and what neighbors never thought to do, Graves has done.
"If you have a head on your shoulder, you love Graves," says Bob Laughlin, an employee at Manoukian Brothers, a business that has been selling rugs for 26 years on Columbia Road. Laughlin admires Graves' transformation of Kalorama Park, once a home to homeless alcoholics, into a place for the entire neighborhood. "He is one of the unsung heroes—a little eccentric, but he's earned it," Loughlin says.
Paul Manoukian, the store's owner, remembers Graves' escapade with the Russian Federation during the Cold War years. While working in front of the building housing their trade mission, Graves says that he was frequently hassled by the Secret Service. He was working on his 189 zinnias when he was arrested on Aug. 20, 1984, for cutting flowers in a public space, his arresting officer said. The trip downtown only served to steel his resolve to remake the area around the building.
"He's an outstanding community activist who lets his hands and body do the talking," Manoukian says. "They should clone him and do the same things for the next blocks."
The yew and Japanese maple trees near the 7-Eleven are his work, and the bench came out of his own pocket. In the same year he did those deeds, Graves began on No. 305, the triangle park across from the 7-Eleven, a popular spot for late-night taxi drivers to have a coffee. He removed most of the bricks, hauled in rich new topsoil, and planted daffodils and a cherry tree. Graves is more of a fix-up man, a jack-of-it-all, than a pure gardener.
The sense of prerogative that drove Graves' decision to remove the bricks irritated Lawrence, a neighbor in his building. There was a year of tension and threats, Graves says. Then, one afternoon in 1984, when Graves was returning from a jog, he saw Lawrence dressed in a lumberjack shirt, rushing furiously up the slope of the driveway. "He was going to attack me when my irises were shrunk from the brilliant sunshine," Graves says. "He was going to kill me in the dark of the garage, where there were no witnesses. I know he raised cats. Cats follow anything moving."
The two men talked outside the building, and Lawrence held open the door for Graves, all the while making what Graves called "a grand mal set of facial gestures." Lawrence followed Graves, who was carrying two garden hoses, up the stairway of the building. They continued debating. On the second-floor landing, Graves turned to go into the hallway. He says Lawrence hit him in the back of the head with a paper bag containing a hamburger and onions. The stairwell was strewn with fried onions, pieces of meat, and bun.
Graves' innumerable collection of stories are all good-guy-vs.-the-forces-of-banality, many filled with references to police and legal codes.
"He is an eccentric type of person who loves a good fight," says Tom Mabon, an ex-Shawmut resident. "Frank looks at things kind of negatively, a living Murphy's law—anything that can go wrong will."
Mabon lived in the Shawmut from 1985 to 1993. He and his partner began working on the park across 19th Street, donating plants paid for with their own money. Graves had worked on the triangle, No. 305A, in 1985. He helped get benches and new concrete uprights put in, did some gardening, and turned the fountain back on. By the time Mabon began, drinkers and drug-users were regular evening guests, and the park had fallen into disarray. Mabon says that when he and his partner first began tending the park, Graves would cross the street to avoid talking with them. But eventually Graves opened up, even giving them a two-page list of all the city institutions they should contact.
"I got a big kick from Frank. I wound him up sometimes just to see him go off," Mabon says.
But for all his talking, Graves is likable enough. He's got a good sense of humor, an ear for the story, and has had a domino effect on the neighborhood. The Shawmut officially adopted the park, and some residents from the Altamont work on the other triangle, planting flowers and picking up the trash. Neighbors have organized the "Friends of Kalorama Park."
William Scheirer, secretary for the Adams Morgan ANC and a neighborhood activist since 1967, says Graves was the guru of the community gardens in Kalorama Park, a vastly successful initiative that transformed a marginal hedged-in space into a community resource.
The legacy of the man with the long stories and even longer track record becomes apparent the more time you spend in the neighborhood. Sandra Reischel, who has lived in Graves' building for more than 25 years, began gardening over two years ago, rehabilitating a small corner of Kalorama Park. "He's done so much," Reischel says. "I've been indirectly influenced by him." Reischel thinks Graves, like herself, became as much invested in the social activity of gardening as in the work itself.
Graves leads the conflicted life of a lone ranger who secretly wants to ride with the other cowboys. Peter Schott, president of the Kalorama Citizens Association, says that Graves was sensational in helping the association come up with dollar figures for a transportation project they were working on, but that it's difficult to get him to work within a set of guidelines.
Graves tends to be critical of the other, informally organized, neighborhood gardeners. He cut off relations with some of the Altamont gardeners after they wouldn't lend him equipment, and although he praises the upkeep done by the Shawmut adopters of triangle No. 305A and the beauty of the flowers, he chides them for their inability to keep the area free of weeds.
He has a sharp-edged confidence about his own work. "People are not as qualified as me," Graves says. "I'm different."
Graves grw up in Wellesley Hills, Mass., the youngest of six children, his father an educator and mother a pianist. "I grew up in a house where we had to do everything," Graves says. "I grew up with a family which was enormously competent. I have to say that it was a privilege, it was a real privilege. If everybody could grow up in a family such as mine—they have a bad side, but they have a wonderful, good side, too. Here was a family where the world was just a great big oyster to be dealt with, all kinds of wonderful things."
Neighborhood residents recall a time years ago when Graves was putting in the big hours. "For years he knocked himself out six or seven days a week," says Malen Leonard, one of the Altamont gardeners. In the early '90s Graves went back to consulting work to help fund his patent filings for his postage-meter invention. His latest project has left him with less time for gardening. What was a streetlong vengeance has been reduced to two spots, sweeping and tending his rose shrubs
in front of the Russian Federation.
Graves has always plowed ahead when the ANC or some other bureaucratic organization asked for just a little more time. "Nature doesn't wait," Graves frequently says. And he isn't saying this phrase gently. There is an underlying, disturbing quality to the phrase, a militancy born of experience.
Graves has two theories about nature: 1.) If there is a vacuum, nature will fill it; 2.) Nature's pure state is chaos. Neither bodes well for his work. The triangle across from the Altamont looks a little under the weather. The side yard at the 7-Eleven is overgrown. Five pounds of roofing cement fell on the bench, and then a car mowed it down. The 7-Eleven triangle is the worst of all. Cups and trash are heaped under the shrubs, and there are big bare patches with no grass or plants. But Graves looks at his work—everything that has collapsed or become overgrown—forgivingly. It's tough for one guy to triumph over the forces of entropy.CP


text:
Posts by Topic: Your Choice Colorado RSS feed
Colorado beer ballot fight won't include liquor sales
The coalition behind the push to rewrite Colorado's alcohol laws says it will not seek to expand liquor sales as part of the 2016 ballot campaign.
Your Choice Colorado, the organization pursing sales of full-strength beer and wine in convenience stores and supermarkets, will not author any measure tied to liquor sales, a spokesman told The Denver Post.
Robert Arrington, liquor manager for the Safeway store at 181 W. Mineral Ave. in Littleton, stocks shelves with bottles of wine. Grocery chains are allowed to designate just one store to sell full-strength beer, wine and liquor. Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post
"Having spoken with Coloradans around the state, Your Choice Colorado will only seek to allow the sale of full-strength beer and wine in neighborhood markets when we go to the ballot in November," said the group's Matt Chandler.
Categories: 2016 Election, Ballot Measures, Colorado Legislature, Colorado Politics, Elections, Uncategorized
New beer ballot language filed, original initiatives withdrawn
The campaign to revamp Colorado's beer laws is shifting its tack.
UPDATED: The campaign pushing to overhaul the Colorado's 3.2 beer law withdrew its much-watched initiatives Monday.
The reversal came a month after the Secretary of State's office approved the final language for Initiative 51 and Initiative 52 — two slightly different efforts to create a new license to allow sales of full-strength beer in Colorado grocery and convenience stores.
Instead, Your Choice Colorado will move forward with two initiatives filed Dec. 1. The new language is essentially identical to the original initiatives with one major change — it prohibits supermarkets and convenience stores within 500 feet of a school or college campus from receiving a beer and wine license.
The distance rule currently applies to liquor stores, but the first initiatives exempted the new beer and wine license from the restriction in a little-noticed provision.
Categories: 2016 Election, Ballot Measures, Colorado Government, Colorado Politics, Uncategorized
Campaign files ballot initiatives to end Colorado's 3.2 beer law
Kristy Hosman from King Soopers is part of the group pushing to end the state's 3.2 beer law. The Your Choice Coolorado organization made its campaign debut in October. (Photo by John Frank, Denver Post)
The ballot battle on beer is beginning to brew.
The organization pushing to get full-strength beer and wine sales into grocery and convenience stores filed documents Wednesday that offer the first glimpse at how the 2016 ballot initiative may look.
The language for the two initiatives submitted to the Legislative Council for legal review — the first step in getting a citizen-led measure on the ballot — hold true to what Your Choice Colorado outlined in its October campaign debut: the creation of a new license that will allow supermarkets and some convenience stores to sell "real" beer and wine.
The language does not include liquor sales at this point. But campaign organizers acknowledged that they may submit additional initiatives in coming months before deciding on which to take to voters.
Categories: 2016 Election, 2016 Election, Colorado Legislature, Colorado Politics, Uncategorized
Hickenlooper says push to expand alcohol sales "sounds like a threat"
Gov. John Hickenlooper at a 2011 event that celebrated allowing restaurants to sell 3.2 beer.
Gov. John Hickenlooper said a new effort to expand beer and wine sales to supermarkets and convenience stores amounts to "a threat."
The Democrat — a former brewpub owner and craft beer industry advocate — made his first comments on the new campaign after he returned to Colorado from a two-week international trip to find a renewed "beer war."
Your Choice Colorado launched its campaign Wednesday to repeal the state's Prohibition-era liquor laws at a King Soopers in Glendale, saying it would push legislation at the statehouse or appeal directly to voters in a 2016 ballot initiative. The effort may expand liquor sales, too.
"It sounds like a threat, to be honest," Hickenlooper said Wednesday after an education event in Denver.
Categories: 2015 Legislative Session, 2016 Election, 2016 Election, Colorado Legislature, Colorado Politics, Economy and Business, Elections, Gov. John Hickenlooper, Uncategorized


The General Public is Welcome!
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The Can Man is open to the public Monday-Saturday for walk-in service. From small items such as aluminum cans, to cars, and commercial scrape, we will accept any size object that fits within our recyclable guidelines. Our goal at The Can Man is to offer quick, same-day service to our public customers. We offer five public scales for quick weigh-ins, and we pay cash on the spot for all unregulated metal items. No appointment is necessary; visit us at our location in Jackson on Valley St., Monday-Friday from 8:30-4:00, or Saturday from 8:00-11:00 and our Canton/Yandell Avenue location is open Monday-Friday from 9:00-3:30.
At The Can Man®, we work hand in hand with local and state law enforcement to prevent metals theft in Mississippi. We are a registered metals scrap processor with the Mississippi Secretary of State, comply with all state and local laws governing the sale of metals, we report purchases electronically to the appropriate authorities and we are members of and abide by the code of ethics of The Metals Recyclers Association of Mississippi.


Anna-Lena Werner: Sebastian, in the last years you created dozens of 'Puppy Paintings', which usually portray the silhouette of a long-eared dog, while they could also be interpreted as a women's torso. These works have become your strongest trademark. What made you start this series and do you still enjoy painting the same motif?
Sebastian Black: I can't remember why I started. I needed something to paint. Puppy seemed good. Still does. When it doesn't i'll stop.
"Trademark" isn't so interesting to me, but motif is. Or rather, maybe the system of values, norms, etc that the term "trademark" implies trying to usurp or expropriate those of "motif" is a better question. And come to think of it, what is it that "motif" attempts to regulate? I like "motif", because it's just a pictorial device. It can be either overflowing with signifcance or totally empty. Depends on the angle. Kind of holographic in that way. Like a special edition trading card.
Anna: You once mentioned a sort of 'recipe' for the 'Puppy Paintings'. How does it look like?
There was once a man with no arms (nose, mouth). Bees were chasing him (dots) so he hid in a cave (muzzle). He died and was buried at a graveyard (eyes). There were holes in the gravestones (pupils) and all of the man's family attended the funeral (head). They cried a river of tears (ears).
Anna: Lately you have increased the deconstruction of the dogs' faces almost into an abstract painting, reminding of cubism – are you planning to deconstruct it even further in the future?
Anna: In both, your paintings and your texts, you seem to employ the particular medium to express a humorous self-doubt towards its own genres. Is there a sincere critique linked to the humorous level – and if so: What motivates you to express this criticism?
Sebastian: Imagine there is an object – this can be a network, a city, an idea, ideology, etc. Besides the litany of ironies, there are two sincere poses to adopt in relation to it. Imitation, which we know is the sincerest form of flattery, and humor, which is the sincerest form of criticism. I prefer the latter.
Anna: In your recent exhibitions you have included a number of sculptural works, such as "Parable of the wearable", a minimalist translation of the puppy face on top of a pastel silk top, or "Placeholder" a bag-in-box wine, covered by white painted cardboard. How does the process of creating an object differ from the process of creating a painting for you?
Sebastian: The box wine are basically paintings, but their content is the wine and their good taste is the wine. The clothes are collaborative works made with India Donaldson. The idea is very basic, and expressly NOT a critique of fashion – whatever that would mean.... Someone said, that when social relations are reified, humans beings begin impersonating the inert. I think these were like costumes for that impersonation.


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I made these out of Sculpey Bake and Bend, and by golly, I baked and they bent. They bend like mad. This is now my clay of choice, because kids will be able to play with my minis. As opposed to regular polymer, which snaps in half when handled with any vigor at all. You can't hand a 2 inch-tall lulav to a kid and ask her to hold it flat in her palm and simply gaze upon it with reverence. These things were meant to be played with, and now, they can be.
P.S. The etrog pitom is a piece of broom straw colored with a Sharpie.
* Kid-built mini sukkahs (LEGO, Lincoln Log, etc.).
This entry was posted in Crafts, Sukkot and tagged etrog, Lego, lulav, polymer clay, sukkah. Bookmark the permalink.
You MADE THAT!? WOW, great job! You should sell them because I'm not sure how many of us have your skill at creating that tiny masterpiece.
I did make the teeny lulav/etrog, and thank you!


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South Nation Conservation and community groups help clean up local communities
Posted by Submitted | Jun 27, 2022 | Life
Volunteers with South Nation Conservation pose with collected waste at the High Falls Conservation Area cleanup. Photo: SNC
Community groups across the South Nation Watershed united throughout April and May to make the area where they live, work and play a little cleaner.
Through a partnership with the City of Ottawa's Clean Up the Capital Initiative, Unsmoke Canada and the Findlay Creek and Greely Community Associations, South Nation Conservation (SNC) also helped provide free trees and shrubs to volunteers who helped clean up local communities and the Leitrim Wetland. Clean-ups at High Falls Conservation Area in Casselman and the W.E. Burton Conservation Area in Russell were also highly successful, with many families coming out to help clean up their favourite community spaces.
Clean-up activities helped tackle waste that was revealed in the spring melt. Residents are encouraged to check social media and websites of their local community groups annually to participate in a nearby cleanup.
Funding for community clean-ups is available through SNC's Community Environmental Grants Program which has awarded over $50,000 to community groups and non-profit organizations since 2015. Applications are currently being accepted and funding is made available through partnerships with municipalities and SNC fundraising initiatives. The program has traditionally supported community events across SNC's Eastern Ontario watershed jurisdiction that promote recreational use of rivers, protect the environment, or celebrate natural heritage.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program has also supported public tree and shrub plantings and community gardens.
South Nation Conservation staff member Kelsey Smith delivers free shrubs for volunteers at the Greely community cleanup. Photo: SNC
"We're proud to support projects that the whole community can both learn and benefit from while protecting our local environment," said Kelsey Smith, SNC's Stewardship and Outreach Assistant. "Trees add infinite value to urban areas and community spaces, and people continue to visit municipal parks and Conservation Areas in record numbers, demonstrating the need for investments in these natural spaces."
More information on SNC's Community Environmental Grants Program can be found at www.nation.on.ca/grants, or by calling 1-877-984-2948.
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October, 2014 - A ramble through Surrey - Surrey Life - Archant Community
BBC drama Professor Branestawm proves a Shere delight - Harry Hill, Ben Miller, David Mitchell and co head to Surrey village
No stranger to film stars and movie cameras, the village of Shere has been transformed this week by the BBC, which is filming for their latest drama based on Norman Hunter's 1930s books about Professor Branestawm. "Set in a quintessential English...


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Emerging Markets Asia
Asia: State Bank of India sets global strategy
Published on: Wednesday, June 07, 2017
Bedding down a six-sided merger domestically; international activity to be 20% of total book in three years.
State Bank of India serves 500 million Indians and manages 194 offices overseas
State Bank of India is its country in microcosm. Every challenge and diversity of India – its impoverished millions, its tech-savvy educated middle class, its hundreds of recognized languages – is reflected and served by an institution whose mandate requires their inclusion. It is a banker to 500 million people in India.
What is less well known is that it also maintains 194 overseas offices in 36 different countries. And, even as it digests a merger with five state bank subsidiaries and a bank directed at women, Bharatiya Mahila Bank, it is prioritizing further global expansion.
"We are the largest bank in India and most, if not all, of the corporate groups bank with us," says B Sriram, managing director of the corporate banking group at SBI. "We have followed the Indian trade as it diversifies into the global economy.
"The other part is that we are, as the slogan goes, 'a banker to every Indian'. And a large number of them are in the Indian diaspora settled across the globe."
Now, however, SBI wants to do more than simply follow its people and companies overseas. "We are trying to reposition ourselves," Sriram says. "Not only are we supporting Indian corporates and trade across jurisdictions and geographies, we are trying to diversify our portfolio in most of those countries by looking after the local business."
That seems a big ask, putting it in competition with the likes of HSBC and Citi. But Sriram argues the bank has been there so long and its clients have localized themselves so intensively that it is achievable.
"We are today recognized much more as a local bank than an Indian bank," he says. "We have the benefit of 30, 40, 50 years of experience in running banks in these countries. We want to leverage our position to do more local business as well."
Sriram says the bank's international portfolio today is worth about $40 billion, the biggest components of which are trade finance and loan credit, worth $16 billion to $17 billion apiece. In the loan business, 60% now goes to local rather than India-based businesses. "So the mix has changed," he says.
The overall ambition is to push international banking from 15% of the total book, where it is today, to 20% over the next three years.
Doing so requires bringing all international businesses up to a common standard. "Instead of saying that you'll get 10% return on equity across the board internationally, where some deliver 18% and others get 5% or 6%, we are trying to make sure that each one lives up to its potential," he says.
Additionally the bank hopes to use its correspondent banking relationships – "something we have nurtured over the years" – as a source of leverage into local markets.
Internationally the bank operates out of regional hubs in Hong Kong, Dubai, Frankfurt, the UK and US, and has what it calls 'neighbourhood' operations, meaning Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and others in the immediate area around India.
But growth is coming in newer areas. Sriram highlights Australia: "A recent addition to our portfolio. We are starting to understand the market more, and I am sure in the next three to five years you will find Australia will add a significant portion to us."
It has opened new branches in Seoul to serve India-Korea trade, and in Myanmar, as well as re-opening one in Brazil. For the moment, however, most business comes out of the UK, the Middle East and the countries served from Hong Kong.
SBI is run on commercial terms by a largely independent board, but is nevertheless state backed and perceived as an instrument of India Inc. Is that good or bad when growing internationally?
"There are more advantages than I can think of disadvantages," says Sriram. Being synonymous with India is very handy for governmental relationships, for example, and at a more micro level makes it a first port of call for remittance business from overseas Indians.
It is a surprise to many, but SBI is a tech-savvy institution in a country that is rapidly embracing digital banking. Sriram believes technology will be a differentiator internationally, not a disadvantage, with trade finance particularly ripe for change.
"We would like to leverage technology to help us deliver trade transactions more effectively," he says, with an emphasis on removing physical intermediation wherever possible. "The trade finance back-office software is in place across the 36 offices, and we are trying to push the front office now."
As for the domestic merger, chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya says it is going well, although it will take 12 months before the benefits will start to be reflected in the bank's numbers. "We are gaining some very high-quality people," she says.
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Bhattacharya stakes her reputation on transforming State Bank of India
State Bank of India: communicating to the masses and turning to tech
Financial inclusion: Biometric banking and the $600 billion opportunity
Understanding India's push into biometrics
India: special focus
Fintech and innovation: special focus


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1st Chicago Architecture Biennial
Impressive exhibitions, like abhorrent oil spills, can really stick: The impact is permanent. Still, I wasn't the only one surprised to see the budding Chicago Architecture Biennial get in bed with Big Oil the first time around. Perhaps there was some kind of misunderstanding.
"What the heck is an architecture biennale?" asked the president of BP America, John Mingé, at last Thursday's press conference for "The State of the Art of Architecture," on view at the Chicago Cultural Center and other sympathetic institutions through January 3. He was recalling his reaction when organizers approached the beleaguered company about a sponsorship a few years back—before it paid record environmental fines for letting obscene amounts of oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico for eighty-seven days in 2010. "But we actually looked into it. We said, 'What a fantastic thing to do in this city.' "
Chicago, elevation 595 feet, certainly stands a better chance against creeping sea levels than Venice. And Chicago—home of the first modern high-rises, world's fairs, Frank Lloyd Wright, and whatnot—makes architectural heritage a central part of its identity as no other major American city does. Surprised the city wasn't in the biennial game, Mayor Rahm Emanuel hatched one as part of his 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan, a policy framework dense with phrases like "cultural assets," "innovation," and "global destination." As the mayor, braggart, said: "If it's my vision, I want to thank you all for realizing it." We applauded him telling us to applaud ourselves.
But, really, what the heck is an architecture biennale? With over one hundred participants from more than thirty countries—architects, mostly midcareer, plus artists like Tomás Saraceno and Pedro Reyes—the inaugural exhibition played the long game. It was, organizers took pains to note, the largest exhibition ever of its kind in North America. The artistic directors, Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima, thought it better to be open, to avoid the all-time-high didacticism of Rem Koolhaas's epic one-person group show in Venice last year. "We didn't pick architects to illustrate our themes," explained Herda while touring press around the principal exhibition site, a block-long, turn-of-the-twentieth-century building facing Millennium Park. The smarts and seriousness I've seen Grima, a peripatetic curator and writer, and Herda, head of the Chicago grant-making organization Graham Foundation, reveal elsewhere did not come through as much as some of us would have liked. The catchall title and soft curatorial hand perpetuated a degree of consensus not typical of these types of affairs: The show lacked focus. When I asked Herda whether the director would change with each iteration, she said that remained to be determined, but she expressed excitement for less conventional models, specifically Sally Tallant's idea of a continuous Liverpool Biennial.
This much was certain: A biennial is not a biennial without Hans Ulrich Obrist. HUO was flown in to moderate "What is Urgent? 99 Telegraphic Manifestos on the State of the Art of Architecture," an afternoon event that subjected most of the biennial participants to a torturous two-hour experiment in technodeterminism. One by one they mounted the stage, faced a camera, and tried as hard as possible to respond to the titular question within fifteen seconds (the maximum permitted length of video clips on Instagram). The long-winded were castigated, forced to do it over. Andreas Angelidakis admitted his work wasn't very urgent, but he managed in a quarter-minute to sound pretty sage: Instead of making refugee housing, architects should design legislation that permits refugees to inhabit the glut of vacant buildings in his hometown of Athens. I fidgeted near the door for twenty minutes, then left, finding a few invitees playing hooky. "I don't know what this word 'urgent' means," said an outspoken Belgian in flawless English.
Absent too was Turner Prize nominee Assemble—both work and members. The DIY architecture collaborative—the first of that disciplinary orientation ever to be considered for the eminent art award—was busy installing its exhibition in Glasgow, letting the gallery space assigned to it in Chicago accumulate with other participants' tools and castoffs. It was just one of a number of signs of an awkward dynamic between art and architecture. Art—whatever that is—seemed to act the suture here, called upon to mend the gap between architecture as such and the exhibition of architecture.
In truly desperate moments, middling digital renderings were ink-jetted on stretched FedEx Office canvas. "Artist and architect" Didier Faustino's BUILTHEFIGHT—a ring of tangled steel tubes and pretty plywood supporting hollow declaratives (Protest, Resist, Occupy) scrawled in Tracey Emin–esque neon—reeked of antiseptic art-fair trade well past its sell-by date. Elsewhere, on a long table the width of a marble foyer, an agglomeration of cut-up printouts related to development in the Indo-Pacific region were affixed to wooden sticks à la Leaves of Grass, artist Geoffrey Farmer's Documenta 13 diorama. Was it a copy? I asked its artificer, Urtzi Grau, one half of Fake Industries Architectural Agonism. "I'm happy someone got it," he replied.
Two biennial partners, in different ways and on opposite ends of the city, did the art-architecture thing better. And they showed that traffic between these arts moves in both directions. On Thursday night, Barbara Kasten opened her retrospective at the Graham Foundation's Gold Coast mansion, her fluorescent photos of mirrored constructs and Troll Doll–hued buildings more ecstatic than ever within the Prairie-style chambers. On Friday morning, press took a junket to the South Shore to see Stony Island Arts Bank, a financial institution converted into an art center, archive, and music venue by Theaster Gates's Rebuild Foundation. Its official opening, the following day, was timed to coincide with the biennial, but Gates refused the veneer of good mood. "As much as I'm excited about the history of Chicago architecture," began the artist-entrepreneur, rattling off the superlatives the biennial rides the coattails of, "we also have a major history of racism and segregation, a history of redlining and housing policies that work against the poor, against black and brown people."
Getting at both sides is probably Gates's greatest talent—and for his detractors the biggest problem. Back in the Loop that evening for the formal vernissage, I thought about how well architects know this mess of global finance, urban development, and community advocacy Gates is mixed up in, and yet how rarely they negotiate it with as much justice, poetics, and self-reflection.
Late night, lots of us were back down on the South Side, where we were promised a party but got something more like an alumni meetup, cordial and restrained. Lesson learned: The art of architecture—in this case the glorious Mies van der Rohe–designed Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology—isn't much without life, or attitude.


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Surnames of my 16 paternal great great great grandparents:
Bishop (Morris and Essex Counties, New Jersey)
Cook (Morris and Essex Counties, New Jersey)
Cummins (Greene County, New York)
Dunlop (Monmouth County, New Jersey)
Dunn (Mercer and Monmouth Counties, New Jersey)
Duryea (Queens, New York City, and Westchester County, New York)
Eilenbauer (Thuringia)
Evenshirer (New York City)
Heiser/Hyser (Greene County, New York)
Lutter (Thuringia/Germnay and Essex County, New Jersey)
Marsh (Union and Essex Counties, New Jersey)
Neil (Morris and Essex Counties, New Jersey)
Patschke (Sachsen/Essex County, New Jersey)
Uhl (Hesse/Essex County, New Jersey)
Walling (Monmouth County, New Jersey)
Winterton (Orange County and New York City, New York/Monmouth County, New Jersey)
Surnames of eight maternal great great great grandparents:
Campbell (Ireland/Dutchess County, New York)
Donnell(y) (Ireland/Dutchess County, New York)
Frawley (Ireland/Dutchess County, New York)
Gallagher (Ireland)
Joyce (Ireland/Dutchess County, New York)
ODonnell (Ireland/Hudson County, New Jersey)
Preston (Ireland/Dutchess County, New York)
Sheehy (Ireland/Dutchess County, New York)
And let's go one more generation back on the paternal side to GGGG Grandparents. Take the surnames from above and look for sixteen more. I can identify eleven twelve of them:
Adams (Mercer County, New Jersey)
Bell (Morris County, New Jersey)
Brewer (New York City and Westchester County, New York; Massachusetts)
Brougham (Ireland? Morris County, New Jersey?)
Combs (Monmouth County, New Jersey)
Cornell (Queens County, New York)
Eckler (Greene County, New York)
Imlay (Monmouth County, New Jersey)
Johnson (New York City and Orange County, New York)
Long (Union County, New Jersey)
Schmidt (Hessen/Germany)
Vanderhoof (Morris County, New Jersey)
Additional (American Colonial) ancestral surnames:
Bockoven
DeMouth
Hopler
Leete
Nivison