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Authors: Juan Rulfo
Mexican novelist and short-story writer
Juan Rulfo (REWL-foh) has been recognized as one of the greatest modern Mexican novelists, one of the forerunners of the "boom" in Latin American fiction of the 1960's, and one of the initiators of Magical Realism. He was born to a landowner family impoverished by the Mexican Revolution. Both his parents died in his early childhood; his father and various other relatives were assassinated. The brutality of the countryside Cristeros uprising of 1926 to 1929 persisted in his memory. Rulfo was raised both in an orphanage and by relatives. He studied law in Guadalajara, but he soon moved to Mexico City to pursue his literary ambitions. He scraped a bare living working as an immigration officer, a salesman for a tire company, a movie scriptwriter and television producer, and, after 1962, as the director of the editorial department of the National Institute of Indian Affairs. As adviser to the Mexican Center of Writers, he helped to educate generations of Mexican literati. In 1970 Rulfo received the National Prize for Literature; in 1980 he became a member of the Mexican Academy of Language; and in 1985 he was awarded the prestigious Cervantes Prize in Spain.{$I[AN]9810000099}{$I[A]Rulfo, Juan}{$I[geo]MEXICO;Rulfo, Juan}{$I[tim]1918;Rulfo, Juan}
Rulfo's fame rests on two slim volumes, the collection of short stories The Burning Plain, and Other Stories and, especially, the novel Pedro Páramo, in which he distilled his stark vision of the Mexican countryside ravaged by the revolution, poverty, and violence. Páramo can be translated as "wasteland." His photographs in Inframundo are a powerful companion to his vision of Mexican barren landscapes. Although he began to write earlier, Rulfo found his characteristic voice in the mid-1940's when he began to craft, one by one, his masterpiece stories. Behind the deceptively simple facade of his rustic characters and their discourse stripped to "bare bones" hides a stunning virtuosity of narrative technique. Each story is narrated in a different way, yet the experiment is not showcased for the sake of experiment itself but blends with the other elements to convey the author's bleak view of modern, revolutionary, and postrevolutionary Mexico.
"Luvina," one of his best stories, adds a magic–almost fantastic–dimension, and through myth, modern and provincial Mexico stands for the universal condition of modern humankind.
Pedro Páramo appeared at a time when Mexico was consolidating its postrevolution and wartime gains and dreamed of participating, although belatedly, at the banquet of modernity. In his novel, Rulfo magnificently tied together the different threads from his stories and mixed them together in an anguished parable of the modern and yet ageless Mexico, violently torn between history and myth.
What makes Pedro Páramo a unique achievement is its masterful blend of the stark realities evoked, in which murder, death, rape, and incest destroy life; of modern experimental techniques, which turn the apparent chaos of fleeting narrative fragments into an artistic structure executed with a clockwork precision; and of Mexican folklore and traditional culture, which put familiar faces on any absurdity. As if in homage to the Day of the Dead (celebrated in Mexico on November 2), all the characters of the novel are long dead; their "souls in pain" cannot rest in peace; the monsoon rains resuscitate them, and the skeletons begin to remember and to replay their squalid lives. Black humor, absurdity of situations and dialogue, and an overall dreamlike character all bring the novel close to surrealism, a connection borne out in Rulfo's later film scripts.
Rulfo continued to work on the text of his novel for the next quarter of a century, sometimes augmenting, sometimes deleting. Thus in each edition, the textual sequence is broken up into different narrative fragments. In the 1980 edition, he strengthened the graphic markers and established seventy segments. With hindsight, it is relatively easy to identify the nuclear narratives; the hard part comes when the reader attempts to relate them to the historical chronology. Yet the degree to which the historical background can be reconstructed is surprising. What is even more interesting is that Rulfo, who had up to a point striven to establish the historical, chronological, and geographical points of reference for the story, started to demolish them with vengeance. In Pedro Páramo, realism and its conventions become but a pretext for their own subversion and parody.
Readers have recognized from early on that behind the father-son relation in the novel hides the Oedipus myth. Allegorical readings have sprung up based on everything from classical and Aztec myths to psychoanalysis. Yet the mythical layer of the novel relies more on the haunting Mexican realities than on the Greek, modern West European, or pre-Columbian myths. Pedro Páramo closes the cycle of Mexican postrevolutionary rural novel and has become a part of the Mexican national myth, one of the Mexico's founding fictions.
BibliographyBurton, Julianne. "A Drop of Rain in the Desert: Something and Nothingness in Juan Rulfo's 'Nos han dado la tierra' ['They've Given Us the Land']." Latin American Literary Review 2, no. 3 (Fall/Winter, 1973): 55-62. Analysis of Rulfo's use of absences ("nothingness") such as barrenness, poverty, isolation, in combination with the presence ("something") of elements like the buzzards that symbolize death and magnify the sterility of the locale and the people's lives.Ekstrom, Margaret V. "Frustrated Quest in the Narratives of Juan Rulfo." The American Hispanist 2, no. 12 (November, 1976): 13-16. Discusses "No Dogs Bark," "Talpa," "The Burning Plain," and "Macario" in relation to the actual journeys and symbolic quests undertaken by Rulfo's characters, who are "unsuccessful" heroes on frustrated quests.Janney, Frank, ed. and trans. Inframundo: The Mexico of Juan Rulfo. New York: Ediciones del Norte, 1983. Collection of critical articles by major Latin American authors like the Nobel-prize-winning Gabriel García Márquez, along with Rulfo's story "Luvina" and nearly a hundred of his stunning black and white photographs illustrating the Mexico described in his works.Jordan, Michael S. "Noise and Communication in Juan Rulfo." Latin American Literary Review 24, no. 27 (January-June, 1996): 115-130. Excellent analysis of several short stories and Pedro Páramo, investigating the presence of noise and abundance of "speech acts" in a narrative universe in which real communication is ultimately impossible.Leal, Luis. Juan Rulfo. Boston: Twayne, 1983. The first full-length study in English of Rulfo's work. Relates Rulfo's first unpublished novel, The Son of Affliction, to Rulfo's difficult childhood. Divides Rulfo's writing into the first prose work, the early stories, and the later stories, then focuses on the novel, Pedro Páramo, by examining "Context and Genesis" and "Structure and Imagery." Also a brief chapter on Rulfo's screenplays and the films made from them, as well as his public lectures. Excellent bibliography.Lyon, Ted. "Ontological Motifs in the Short Stories of Juan Rulfo." Journal of Spanish Studies: Twentieth Century 3 (Winter, 1973): 161-168. Examines all fifteen stories of The Burning Plain and Other Stories according to four motifs: walking, memory, futility of effort, and vision impeded by darkness.Ramírez, Arthur. "Juan Rulfo: Dialectics and the Despairing Optimist." Hispania 65 (December, 1982): 580-585. Claims that despite the tensions between the dualities of life and death, love and hate, hope and despair, heaven and hell, reality and unreality in Rulfo's fiction, the overall effect is cohesiveness rather than polarities. Further finds that Rulfo's pessimism contains a kind of affirmation: a preoccupation with death underscores the importance of life and love.Reinhardt-Childers, Ilva. "Sensuality, Brutality, and Violence in Two of Rulfo's Stories: An Analytical Study." Hispanic Journal 12, no.1 (Spring 1991): 69-73. Discusses "At Daybreak" and "The Burning Plain" from the perspective of extreme and unpredictable violence they contain, perhaps because Rulfo witnessed violence while growing up during the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.
Authors: Juan José Arreola
Authors: Juan Benet
Authors: Juan Carlos Onetti
Authors: Juan Valera


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Drug How the war on drugs has made drug traffickers more ruthless and efficient
How the war on drugs has made drug traffickers more ruthless and efficient
January 31, 2017 Sristy
Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images
For years, the war on drugs has been called a failure. Even the most recent White House drug czar, Michael Botticelli, used his post as the head of America's war on drugs to repeatedly decry the "old war on drugs" as a set of "failed policies and failed practices."
But to some drug policy experts, this was all too predictable. Sanho Tree, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies who focuses on the war on drugs, argues that the rules of evolution could have helped predict the drug war's failures — and how the drug war can in fact make our drug epidemics worse.
To understand why, Tree builds on the theory known as the "balloon effect": Since drugs are always in demand and highly profitable, dismantling one drug trafficking organization doesn't just extinguish the drug trade that group worked within. Instead, another drug trafficking organization replaces it, filling the same demand that the old group filled. This has happened time and time again throughout the war on drugs; it's why the drug trade simply moved from Colombia to Mexico after a US-sponsored anti-drug campaign in Colombia, and why the end of one drug trafficking organization in Mexico just seems to spawn another.
One reason for the balloon effect is what experts call the "profit paradox." One of the primary goals of the drug war is to make drugs more expensive by limiting their supply, the idea being that a drug habit is much more difficult to sustain if drugs are more expensive. But this also makes drugs immensely profitable: They still cost as little as pennies per dose to produce — drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin are just plants or based on plants, after all — while the final street value has to account for the risk of shipping the drug through an international supply chain that can be broken by government authorities at any border.
America can end its war on drugs. Here's how.
At the same time, the drug war and risk of capture for drug traffickers do have an insidious effect: It pushes drug trafficking groups to become smarter in how they smuggle drugs. So say a drug trafficking organization ships cocaine or pot through fishing boats, as many typically did in the 1970s and '80s, but gets caught by the US government. Eventually the government begins doing random checks on all of these boats to make sure none of them have drugs.
But because drugs are still massively profitable and in demand, the organizations that didn't get caught aren't just going to give up. They're instead going to find other ways to smuggle drugs — like cigarette boats and narco-submarines, which drug traffickers make a lot more use of today. The drug traffickers, then, became more efficient in response to drug war policies.
"You get this filtering effect decade after decade where you end up artificially selecting or breeding super-traffickers," Tree said.
This effect also applies to the kinds of drugs that traffickers trade in. So at first the current opioid epidemic — the deadliest drug crisis in US history — led traffickers to push heroin as a cheaper, more accessible alternative to opioid painkillers, which were increasingly blocked off to recreational users by government-restricted prescriptions.
But over time, drug traffickers have begun to trade more and more in an even more potent (and deadlier) opioid: fentanyl. For traffickers, it made financial sense: Since fentanyl is more potent but is also fairly cheap to produce, traffickers can promise a high at a lower dose, which means they have to smuggle less of the product (making it easier to conceal), for a similar or even greater profit. Concerns about getting caught only made traffickers much more efficient in the drug they trade in, even if it led to trafficking a more dangerous substance.
These types of unintended consequences are why Tree says we should totally rethink the drug war.
Not every drug policy expert agrees with Tree. (See my broader explainer on ending the drug war for some of the counterarguments.) But as someone who has worked on these issues for years, he offers a provocative, thoughtful perspective that challenges much of the federal government's conventional wisdom on the drug war — and looks for a better way forward.
What follows is my conversation with Tree, edited for length and clarity.
Mexican and US officials recently captured Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. But it could lead to more harm than good.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
What can we learn from Darwin and evolution about the war on drugs?
Sanho Tree
We've basically been thinning out the herd [of drug traffickers] for many decades now [by] going for relatively low-hanging fruit, which is the dynamic you get with bureaucracies and law enforcement. Even if they want to go for high-value targets, they often go for the low-hanging fruit because they can — it boosts their numbers, and it's much easier to win those kinds of cases, so the metrics all work in their favor.
You get this filtering effect decade after decade where you end up artificially selecting or breeding super-traffickers. The people we tend to capture tend to be the people who are dumb enough to get caught, or people who have violated their own operational security — they stayed on the phone too long, they bribed too much, they engaged in turf wars, they raised a profile, they spent too much money in flashy ways, they screwed up. Those are the people who tend to get captured.
And the people we tend to miss are the ones who are the most adaptable, the most innovative, the most cunning. But not necessarily the most violent. The more successful ones tend to deploy [violence] very strategically rather than an all-out policy of just "kill them all." If a cartel thinks it can get away with a bribe rather than a bullet, by all means they use the bribe — and I think that's one of the reasons for their longevity.
What are some good examples of the filtering effect that we've seen in recent times?
Well, we've forced this [drug] economy to evolve at a lightning pace. In some ways, the war on marijuana got [traffickers] to realize there's something that's easier to smuggle and more profitable and addictive to some people. That's why they switched to cocaine from Colombia, rather than marijuana that used to come from Colombia and Jamaica.
So we end up with cocaine very popular in the 1980s. And the war on cocaine helped popularize another substitute — a poor person's substitute — in crack. And in other ways, our war on crack helped repopularize an old drug — methamphetamines, the "poor person's crack."
Vials of crack cocaine.
New York Daily News via Getty Images
Each time we end up with a more evolved substance — easier to produce, harder to stop. In that sense, you're forcing the drug economy to evolve.
In terms of drug trafficking networks, we've seen this [filtering effect] at the local level but also at the international cartel levels of who tends to survive. We've targeted a lot of the easier-to-stop criminals rather than the ones who are more cunning and more adaptable. You could see that in the cartel wars in Mexico.
But at the end of the day, you're really shifting turf lines rather than reducing the number of drugs coming through. Turf wars are supposed to have a beginning, middle, and end, but the drug war has prolonged the middle indefinitely — much longer than it needed to last. And it caused a tremendous amount of death and violence that was completely unnecessary, given that the drugs are flowing again. So to what end have we done all of this?
This seems like an extension on the balloon effect. But it's not just that drug producers or traffickers will pop up when one is taken down, but that the ones that pop up are actually more ruthless and efficient than the producers and traffickers they're replacing.
Exactly. So we go after shrimp boats and fishing boats [used to smuggle drugs] and stop those, and they respond with cigarette boats. We respond with faster boats and helicopters to take out those boats, and then they switch to submersibles. And then we get better at detecting those with spotting towers now, and they go the fully submersible route. And if we do catch those, there are "narco-torpedoes" now; these can be bolted under the hull of a ship with release cables and homing devices.
So we're causing that economy to evolve at warp speed.
With the border wall, we built a fence, and the countermeasures immediately popped up — whether building a ramp that can drive right up to the fence or using catapults or using drones or tunnels.
We've basically set up an exercise for bad guys to find innovative ways to penetrate our borders. That's not a smart thing to do from the perspective of homeland security. But if you do it right, you can rake in billions.
Marijuana was pricier when it was illegal in more states.
Drug warriors' argument is that at least these anti-drug efforts make drugs more expensive, because it disrupts the drug trade, making drugs harder to produce and ship without a "tax" of sorts through the threat of governments taking your product at any moment. The benefit to that is more expensive drugs, which may make it harder for someone to form a drug habit. How would you respond to that?
We've never been able to price it out of the hands of consumers. Basically anyone who wants drugs can get drugs as long as they're willing to pay that final street price.
And we've never been able to push the price up through either the production side or the trafficking side, because it's a drop in the bucket of the real wealth that's built in. The drug snowballs in value as it gets to the actual consumer.
So it sounds like the argument is basically that the drug war might make drugs more expensive, but it doesn't make the drug expensive enough. Heroin, for example, is still way cheaper than opioid painkillers. And fentanyl is even cheaper than that.
Yeah. And you don't need a prescription. There's no red tape.
But you're spinning the roulette [wheel] real bad. You don't know what you're getting in that heroin. You don't know whether it's 10 percent or 70 percent pure. And now you don't know if it has fentanyl or other things that were not a problem in the past.
There's a downside to making drugs more expensive too: You make it more lucrative for people to take part in the drug trade.
One other element to this is that taking down big drug cartel bosses can also lead to more violence, because it creates a power void that other traffickers will fight to fill.
Absolutely. One of the reasons that, for instance, in the 1980s and '90s the crack wars were so violent in the United States is not because the crack itself was causing people to become violent. Crack is still out there today, but you never hear about the shootouts and other kinds of things that happened back then.
Part of the reason, instead, was that crack was a new drug, so the turf line hadn't been established yet. So the knee-jerk but not unreasonable demand by community members was, "Hey, there's an open-air market in my neighborhood. My daughter can't ride her bicycle in front of her own house because of stray bullets. I want you to shut it down." And [police] did that.
And they ended up creating then a vacuum — a job opportunity. If you take a dealer off the street corner, you basically open up a very valuable piece of real estate. I used to watch this in East Baltimore back in the late '90s when I worked there. You could see tourists coming in from the suburbs into these open-air markets in the city to buy drugs, because that's where everyone knew you could buy drugs.
You couldn't just move those types of markets. You can't put up a billboard or take an ad out in the Yellow Pages: "Go buy your drugs in this corner now." That doesn't happen.
So taking someone off that street corner creates a job opportunity, a vacuum, where rival gangs or crews will now come to fight for that void. And they can't go to a judge and say, "Your honor, I've been selling drugs in the city for 15 years, and this is my turf. Please kick them out." The only recourse is through violence, intimidation, or threats of violence.
A person prepares heroin.
What do you take as the lesson from this? What does it teach about the war on drugs in terms of its overall effectiveness?
We need to look at motivations. It's never a good idea to have a policy that amplifies the motivational feedback loop of the adversaries you're trying to stop. We do that with parts of drug prohibition, we do that with creating more evolved syndicates, we do that with beefing up technologically. All of these things come back to bite us in the end.
From a homeland security point of view, it's those damn tunnels that worry me the most. There's no motivation right now for cartels to be working with terrorists. But who's to say that someday in the future, there's some tunnel that's already operating, and there's a lieutenant who wants to get his beak wet and deliver some packages or people for some shady group, and it turns out that it's a WMD.
That could be really problematic. We have radiation sensors at checkpoints. But do they work 100 feet underground, in these tunnels? I don't know.
There is an incentive for them to not get involved in this. Once it's revealed that a cartel is involved in this, they'll get the full weight of the US government breathing down their necks. But once again, the technology is there, it's for sale.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Don't be surprised if a recruiter proposes an interview in a public place. He has his reasons (spaces in the company not available, confidentiality of hiring in relation to existing employees or just a desire to make the best use of his time), but you now have new apprehensions: a place to evaluate, what to wear, how to behave… Use your common sense, and recruitment should proceed normally.
Of course, you want this interview and this job, but you are nonetheless not going to accept just any old place. In other words, beware of a hotel room or a bar, but you can accept without difficulty a meeting in a café, a restaurant, a public garden, an airport lounge, a train station, a hotel bar. Don't hesitate to ask for details about the place where the recruiter is supposed to meet you (what table number in a restaurant, in front of which shops in a train station…?). You could also decide to arrive somewhat early and choose your location taking into account the noise, passers-by… If the recruiter has a photo of you, he is expected to make the first steps; otherwise, ask him how you will identify him to avoid accosting all the suit-and-tied people in the place. Finally, considering the unusual setting of this interview, it is quite likely it will be shorter than usual, so ask the recruiter how much time he thinks will be necessary to allow for this exercise. It would be too bad to keep your best shots for the end… which doesn't happen.
What a benefit for the recruiter, who will be able to assess not only your skills and experience, but also different elements of your personality that cannot be detected in a meeting room: your ability to concentrate – always maintain visual contact with the recruiter – despite noise and indiscreet ears; your professionalism – dress as for a conventional interview and sit straight on the couch or bench… – even if the setting invites relaxation; your relational ease at restarting the conversation if your counterpart is struggling with a piece of meat; your friendliness with the server; your decision-making ability when choosing the drink or menu. On this point, don't make a faux pas: accept when the recruiter offers a drink – of coffee, tea, water… but never alcohol even if he yields to it; choose an easily eaten dish (to avoid splashing or stains) and certainly not the most expensive; remember to take small bites so you can answer him in a reasonable time – remember not to speak with your mouth full. When the interview has ended, it's not the time to let down your guard: if you ate anything, remember to wipe your hands well on your serviette – the handshake to come requires it – and put it back on the table, not in a ball… but slightly folded. Finally, if the recruiter wants to pay the bill, accept politely – after refusing – but under no circumstances should the roles be reversed; at worst, each pays their own bill.
An interview in a public place doesn't need to stress you more nor turn you into an amateur. Now that you know the pitfalls to avoid and tips to follow, think about being well prepared for the fundamentals of a conventional interview.


A perfect expression of harmony, complexity and refinement, 18 Year Old combines honey sweetness with delicious hints of cherries wrapped in chocolate, and subtle top notes of aromatic peat smoke. FLAVOUR: Cherries, Dark chocolate, Toffee, Marzipan, Heather honey, Aromatic peat smoke. TRY WITH... Meaty fish like mahi mahi or swordfish cooked with Indian spices (think cardamom and ginger – surprisingly good!), cold meats with ginger chutney, and citrus fruit puddings.
The distillery was founded in 1798, presumably by Magnus Eunson. The name of this whisky does not refer to the area of Scotland known as The Highlands, but rather to the fact that the distillery was founded on an area called \'High Park\' distinguished from a lower area nearby. Within the malthouse at Highland Park Distillery. Highland Park is one of the few distilleries to malt its own barley, using locally cut peat from Hobbister Moor. The peat is then mixed with heather before being used as fuel. The malt is peated to a level of 20 parts per million phenol and then mixed with unpeated malt produced on the Scottish mainland. In 1984, Highland Park was the only whisky ever to have scored a rating of 100% by the regular tasting team of The Scotsman, a national newspaper of Scotland. Whisky reviewer and expert Michael Jackson has called it \"The greatest all-rounder in the world of malt whisky.\" Highland Park is available in various proprietary bottlings by year, as well as a special bottling known as Cappella, available only at the distillery. In addition, several independent bottlings of Highland Park are produced. Highland Park is also one of the ingredients of The Famous Grouse blend.


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by Silver Octave
Chapter 3: Divine Intervention
"Faster!" Yelled Celestia. "I call you my guard! How come you don't come when I summon you on time?"
The unicorn mare bowed in respects. "I'm sorry princess, but it was on such sort notice. Your summons could of been at a better time. If I could just expl-"
"Enough!" Celestia interrupted. "Your assignment on protecting your charge...um who was it?"
"Time Peace ma'am, it's Time Peace."
"Right, I just got a letter from my former student Twilight, and she told me that there's a new race here in Equestria." Celestia said walking down from her throne. A race that my mother has told me a thousand years ago that would come into this world by a red streaked earth pony. Don't you want to know what race this is?"
The mare nodded to Celestia's question.
"A pony/Phoenix hybrid!" She answered. "Twilight has so thankfully given me a whole list of questions, and answers of his diet, likes and dislikes, even his favorite color. Now, tell me, how important is one's favorite color?"
The mare shrugged. "I-I don't know princess, why?"
"Because, it isn't." Celestia said. A smile grew onto her face as she trotted up back to her throne. "You failed in protecting this earth pony called Time Peace, now..." She rubber her chin with her hoof for a moment. "Yes, you'll protect this colt, but keep your distance. He maybe a colt, but from what I read from Twilight's letter, he thinks as if he were a grown up. You'll start next week as I prepare transport..." Celestia stood up, and looked into the mate's eyes. "Don't fail me again Charm, I hate it when I need to send one of my favorites to become a simple servant."
"I won't princess!" Charm bowed, and ran out the doors.
Twilight rubbed her eyes as she woke up. She'd stayed up for a good deal of the night trying to scan Blaze. A strange force was keeping her from doing so. She knew this force from before, it was death. It was like he was dead, but he breathed, felt, saw, touched. It confused her greatly. The only other time she'd felt this force was wheel she was in the Crystal Kingdom. It was right after she disembarked the friendship train.
She looked over to see if Blaze was still sleeping, but he wasn't there. Without panicking she walked down stairs seeing the colt read a rather large book she'd owned. Twilight looked over his head, and found that he was reading a old spell booK she had as a filly. She smiled, and cleared her throat.
"Good morning Blaze," Twilight said. "How'd you sleep?"
The colt didn't answer, and after a moment she tried moving him. His body fell over sideways, revealing he was sleeping soundly. She rolled her eyes as she walked over to Spike who was cooking eggs for them.
"How'd he get down here? I thought I locked the door." Twilight asked.
"Oh, I did. He asked if we had any beginner's spell books that he could read. I showed him." Spike replied as he flipped the egg.
Twilight looked back at the Equininix then back at Spike. "How long has he been asleep there?"
Spike shrugged. "Heck if I know. It was close to three in the morning when he asked me to find him a book of spells."
Twilight walked over to Blaze trying to wake him up. "Blaze...Blaze...wake up Blaze." She said in a soft tone. The colt lifted his head up slowly, and looked around until he saw Twilight. "Hey, good morning sleepy head." Twilight gave a smile, and turned to Spike. "Spike's making eggs if you'd like some."
Blaze tried for a moment to remember who she was talking about, but nothing came up. His vision was hazy, and had trouble keeping his focus. For a moment he couldn't see at all, but things started to turn in his head and he could think once more. Spike was the dragon he'd talk to last night to find a spell book for him to read, and eggs started to sound good right now.
Blaze gave a slight nod before shutting the book up. He tried using a little bit of magic to lift the book back into the shelf, but it only went about four feet before it dropped. Twilight stood there amazed once more at the alicorn-phoenix that called him self an Equininix. The she picked the book up with her own magic, and placed it back in it's proper home.
"That was a good first try Blaze." Twilight said. "When I was your age all I could do was turn a page."
Blaze shook his head. "It's not my first time princess, but thanks for the complement. I've been at it for a few months now."
Twilight nodded. "Aside from that, you still did a good job. Just two more feet and you would've made it."
"So other than eggs, what else is to eat? I didn't get dinner last night."
"Do you like gems?!" Spike asked from the kitchen. "Rubies are my favorite!"
Blaze shook his head. "No, sorry my draconic friend." He replied.
Blaze took a moment to straighten his feathers on his wings, and walked over to the dining room. He promptly sat down and waited for his meal to arrive. Twilight sat next to him, sitting quietly.
"So," Twilight started. "What's your mom like?"
"She's cool, I guess." Blaze replied. "She has her faults like most do, but she makes it up by playing games with me. She's bad at chess, but don't ask her to play Marenopoly."
Twilight laughed a little bit. "So...so you have a good time with her?"
"Of course, but we moved a lot before we got here. Things shook up before I was born, and my mom hasn't told me much about my dad."
Twilight looked off to the side. "I wonder why..." She said in a rough voice. "My father died a couple of months ago, so I guess we're both bastards."
Blaze nodded. "The first time I heard the proper term of that word used in a sentence."
"I've read my medieval textbooks."
As they talked Spike passed out the plates each with a couple of eggs, and a hay-sausage. After that Blaze got his saddle bags, and walked to school.
Scootaloo sat back in her seat waiting for her friends to arrive in the class room. She'd wanted to talk to them about Blaze. Last night she over heard Twilight's conversation with Blaze, and had mixed feelings. They talked more after she left. Scootaloo spyed on them form more than an hour watching them talk.
She rested her head on the desk trying to get Blaze out of her mind. Blaze had wings, huge for his size, and had a horn. His fire-orange colored mane seemed to have life of it's own, and his coat was a brilliant color orange and yellow. His mismatched eyes mystified her, one eye reflecting life in the color of blue ruby, and the other gave her a clear definition of entropy as it shifted like burning embers in a blazing fire.
She didn't know why she went to school ten minutes before Cheerlee even arrived to greet waiting mothers to drop of the foals. Scootaloo didn't even like school. Blaze was the only pony aside from her friends that was on her mind, but she couldn't understand why he was. Yeah he could fly, do magic, and talk like grown stallion but he was different. His powers were special, but Scootaloo was a normal everyday pegasus. Nothing special about a pegasus but their wings.
Outside Twilight arrived with Blaze as there were about a dozen other ponies dropping off their foals. Blaze was less nervous now that he had a few friends, they were strange to him though. They talked about getting their cutie marks constantly as if they were obsessed over getting them. He too wanted to know what his cutie mark would look like, but it was something in store for the future.
Twilight looked at Blaze while he was in thought, and did another scan on him. With the same results as before, her head dropped, but shot back up when Blaze looked at her.
"You okay Twilight?" He asked with a concerned look on his face. "Tired?"
Twilight shook her head. "I'm fine, don't worry about me. Are you okay me leaving? I need to contact Princess Celestia."
Blaze shrugged with a nod. "Go ahead, I can take care of myself."
Twilight smiled. "Oh, and keep working on that spell. It'll get easier the more you use it. Start small!" Twilight yelled as she trotted off.
Blaze looked back to the school house, and noticed Scootaloo was inside. Without anypony looking he ran to the back, and flew through a nearby window. After clipping his wing he landed inside, and it wasn't long before Scootaloo saw him.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"I can ask the same thing." Blaze replied trying to fix his wing. "Why are you inside before everypony else?"
"I wanted to talk to the other crusaders." Scootaloo replied.
"About?" He drew closer, and sat in the desk next to her's. "I can keep a secret."
Scootaloo shook her head. "That's the problem, it's a secret."
"Ah...So, we can to a trade of secrets then?" He asked.
Blaze thought of a way to explain his words. He stood up, and got infront of her. "I tell you a secret, and you tell me a secret. So if I tell somepony your secret, you can tell ponies my secret." Blaze gave a hopeful smile as Scootaloo thought of his offer.
"I-I guess thats okay..." She said at last. "Tell me your's first."
Blaze nodded. "I don't have a father. Well I do, but he died before I was born. Oddly I sometimes hear a voice that sounds like it could be him. Tells me who's friend or foe, right from wrong, etcetera-etcetera."
Scootaloo didn't expect this coming from him. She thought he could transform into some big-scarry monster that could swollow the world in one bite, but it sounded like it was something he held deep down. "Did you tell your mom this?"
Blaze shook his head. "I don't want her to think I'm crazy, or cry." He replied. "Now you tell me a secret."
Scootaloo thought for a moment then her head dropped. "I was going to talk to the others about allowing you to join us. I was planning a party to celebrate if they said yes."
Blaze's ear dropped. He had felt like he pushed her into saying this. "Oh, sorry then. I'll try to act suprised when or if they say yes."
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "You WANT to join the CMC?" She asked.
"Why not? Sounds like fun to me." He replied. After a few moments other filles and colts started to enter the room. "I'll talk to you at lunch, yeah?"
She nodded. "Yeah..."
Twilight closed the door swiftly as she ran to Spike who was dusting an empty book shelf.
"Spike! I need you to take a letter for the princess! It's about Blaze."
Spike jumped down rom the latter, and picked up a sheet of paper and a quill pen. "Ready!"
"Princess Celestia, I have to inform you with more information on Blaze. He can use magic at a small scale for now, but I sense that it is growing at a steady pace. Further more I did a full body scan on his aura, magical maxim, body type, and his heart rate: at rest. And what I found was that he is dead, but alive at the same time. I request you send in a team of unicorns to help search for the cause of his abnormally. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
After quadruple checking for spelling errors, Spike sent the letter with his green flame. After a moment Spike looked at Twilight with a look of confusion.
"So he's a zombie?" He asked.
After giving a quick facehoof Twilight shook her head. "I dont even know..."


If you live in an area with a high water table, or near a river, or we simply just have a lot of rain in a short space of time, you might find your cellar flooding. When this happens you obviously need to remove the water quickly, and this is where a pump is the best solution.
Most people want to fit and forget their pump, and therefore the best option is to put an automatic pump in a sump (hole in the ground). For pumps with a float switch on a short cable, the sump will need to be at least 350mmx350mmx350mm. We can offer an alternative design with an internal float switch for those with smaller sumps.
Pumps usually come with 10 metres of power cable and are designed to function partially (or fully) submerged. These pumps are designed to pump several metres uphill, so you will just need to run the hose to your nearest ground-level drain. For their physical size they are very powerful – they can produce a flow-rate of around 100 litres (20 gallons) per minute which will empty a flooded cellar in just a few minutes. They are not tolerant of stones, lumps of mud, leaves or other solids so be careful to keep your cellar floor regularly swept. Larger, more powerful pumps are also available if required and many models are also available in 110v.
We can supply flexible hose by the metre to suit the outlet size of the pump, most commonly this is 1″ diameter.


text:
Give to the Zoo
We could not accomplish all that we do without the generosity and support from our donors.
With your support, we can ensure that each one of our one million annual guests leaves our park with the feeling they have gained something they can only access from a visit to our Zoo – knowledge, inspiration and connection. In addition, your contributions will directly support our conservation efforts both here at home and around the world.
Give to the Zoo or get involved. You can truly make a difference.
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium is proud to be a four star charity on Charity Navigator.
By Phone: 412-365-2503
Email: donate@pittsburghzoo.org
Attn: Development Department
Donor Membership
Zoo Fund Donors
Give a direct cash contribution towards ongoing operations and new projects and initiatives of the Zoo. You can make a donation online, or if you would prefer to make a donation by phone or by mail, see our contact information on the bottom of this page.
Make a donation in honor of a friend, family member, or someone important to you that shares your passion for wildlife and the wild places they live. The honoree will be notified of your generous gift contributed in their name.
Give a donation in memory of a friend, family member, or loved one. You and their family will receive an acklowdgement of the generous gift made on the loved one's behalf.
Grow Wild Society
A Donor Membership makes you a part of our exclusive Grow Wild Society, which includes:
A year long Zoo Membership
Private, behind-the-scenes tours guided by curators with special access not available to the general public
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Opportunities to invite your friends to join you at special events at the Zoo
Special, private events for you to enjoy with your family at the Zoo
Unique recognition for Grow Wild Society members
Donate Now Learn More
Adopting lets you play an important and direct role in promoting the well-being of your favorite Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium residents. Your gift helps provide for the care, feeding, and enrichment of the animals, while supporting the Zoo's commitment to wildlife conservation, both locally and around the world. All animal species at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium are available for adoption.
Individual giving to the Zoo Fund is vital to our successful operation. The Zoo Fund allows us to provide world-class care for our animals, support our educational programs, and underwrite our onsite and international conservation efforts. We offer our heartfelt gratitude to our Zoo Fund donors.
Other Ways of Giving
Please contact us about the many other ways of giving that are available, such as:
Recurring credit card contributions
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium is an APPROVED Educational Improvement Organization (EIO) through the PA Department of Community and Economic Development's Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program. Your EITC donation to the Zoo's educational programs can replace your tax liability to the state. The dollars your company would have paid in taxes will instead provide thousands of local students with life science enrichment, S.T.E.M. education opportunities, and up-close interaction with the Zoo's amazing wildlife. Visit the state's EITC website for more information or to apply for tax credits.
Mail your tax credit donation to:
ATTN: EITC Tax Credit Donations
Pittsburgh Zoo Credit Card
The Somerset Trust Company offers an exclusive Pittsburgh Zoo card that helps support the Zoo and the International Conservation Center (ICC). Each time you use your VISA Pittsburgh Zoo Credit Card, a portion of every purchase is donated back to the Zoo. Don't just make a purchase, make a difference by saving endangered species.


text:
Art and Antiques Dealer Gerry Bland's Secrets of Good Taste
In a world with a penchant for vulgarity, his erudition has made him a sought-after expert for decades.
By Guy Trebay
Christopher Sturman
It is as much a mystery to Gerald Bland as to anyone how he came to be a standard bearer for taste at a time when vulgarity is enshrined in the culture and every thumb-tapping boob with a social media account can be styled an instant expert. "Maybe I'm the last man standing," says the handsome and modest antiques dealer, whose gallery—a serenely curated Aladdin's cave on the top floor of the Fine Arts Building in Manhattan's Designer District—is a mandatory destination for the elite of society, design, and fashion, perhaps even more so during a year when the pandemic spooked many into fleeing the city for new homes in the suburbs.
"What frames Gerry Bland is that he has this unique natural sense of what is proper, what is boring, and what is de trop," says Louis Bofferding, who deals in rare examples of 20th-century high design. "I used to think I was disinterested in taste and only cared about what was important," he adds. "Now that any unwashed billionaire can buy a Leonardo, you begin to appreciate taste in a different way."
Among legendary antiques dealer Gerry Bland's treasures? A Christopher Flach bust on a faux porphyry pedestal of Bland's design, above.
Yet what is it? Is taste, as the design great Ward Bennett once argued, a set of responses and preferences developed over a lifetime? Or is it some mysterious quality innately possessed? Possibly it is a bit of both, Bland says one recent afternoon from his 3,000-square-foot loft, where the genial 69-year-old sits on a French Directoire armchair surrounded by an array of objects as disparate as an 18th-century mahogany Chippendale breakfront, a silver-mounted Edo-period lacquer and marquetry cabinet, a bronze-mounted Louis XV bureau plat, and a steel center table of his own design with a distinctly Dr. No flavor.
He is laying out for T&C the unlikely route he has followed over the course of four decades, from college dropout who began his career in the trade at Sotheby's, age 23, to auction house expert to private dealer, becoming in the process a reliable arbiter of taste during a period when the decorating, antiques, and auction businesses have been, counterintuitively, booming. If this seems implausible, given the current state of the economy, consider that while average Americans have spent their lockdowns scrolling the internet for novelty Crocs, apex feeders have been busy buying and furnishing houses. "Decorators I know say they've never been busier," Bland says.
In the market for an 18th-century lacquer screen and an Alexander von Eikh chandelier? Then you need to know Gerry Bland.
The best of them turn by reflex to a man who grew up in Wilmington, on the North Carolina coast, son of a homemaker mother and an engineer father whose obsession was automobiles. It was on childhood road trips to his grandparents' place that Bland first developed his knack for analyzing and diagramming the material world.
"My father would assign my older sister and me a car company," he says. "And we were supposed to identify them by design features—you know, domed headlights, tailfins, three exhaust vents in the fender. That was the beginning of my learning to look and categorize."
A visit to Bland's studio might yield a gilded ceramic mirror by Eve Kaplan, like the one above, a 16th-century Flemish tapestry, a rococo chair, or a modern granite table.
The lessons took. During summers in his college years, Bland worked as a waiter in Nantucket at, as he once said, "the type of restaurants where you went home with the guests." It was there that he made the serendipitous connections that eventually led him to Sotheby's, and then along a steadily upward trajectory through the rarefied spheres of English furniture, French decorators, Italian grandees, and the wealthiest of Americans.
All the while, Bland, a reluctant shopkeeper in his early days, has done trade with plutocrats and dukes, Tom Ford and Middle Eastern princes, and somehow maintained an easygoing pragmatism and wry Southern bonhomie. When decorating tastes in this country shifted, and the English antiques in which he long specialized were condemned as brown furniture, he moved along with the times. He expanded the scope of his eye so that in rooms arranged by him, objects of wildly divergent styles and periods are juxtaposed, a Baroque Sicilian table keeping company with a gilded ceramic rockpile by the artist Eve Kaplan.
Bland is on speed dial for design-conscious one percenters around the world, from Middle Eastern monarchs to fashion royalty like Tom Ford.
"You used to see a lot of men like Gerry" in the antiques and decorating businesses, says the eminent English decorator Veere Grenney. "People of elegance and refinement, like David Hicks and Mark Hampton, who had taste coming out of their fingertips."
Those professionals of another era, Grenney adds, not only possessed a knack for mixing the grand with the modest but managed to distill their tastes to a point where little remained that was inessential. Like Bland, such characters may have had "gifts from God," as Grenney puts it, referring to a genius for scale and proportion. They also put in Malcolm Gladwell's requisite 10,000 hours amassing impeccable bodies of knowledge.
"There is just a harmony in the way he mixes things that is so elegant and accessible," says the decorator Alex Papachristidis. "It all very much originates in the classical orders."
A post shared by Gerald Bland (@geraldblandinc)
Or, as Bland puts it, "It all starts with Palladio." In fact, on their honeymoon Bland and his wife, the Italian watercolorist and noblewoman Mita Corsini (whose family tree includes several cardinals, a pope, and a saint), embarked on a pilgrimage to see all the villas by the Renaissance genius scattered throughout Italy's Veneto region.
"The first and last thing you learn from looking at Andrea Palladio is to value strength and purity of form," he says.
There is something bracingly instructive in that offhand observation, even for those of us who cannot ever seem to figure where to place a fiddly fern or park the sofa, a shortcoming that months of peering into other people's lives on Zoom suggests is both widespread and chronic. That's because, while Bland's stock is likely beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, the lessons of his taste are accessible to all. How? Go to @geraldblandinc on Instagram. for the IRL experience: 232 East 59th Street, 6th Floor, 212-987-8505.
This story appears in the April 2021 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
More From In the Magazine
Are Peptide Injections the New Fountain of Youth?
How Hormones Are Part of Skincare Conversation
Inside David Adjaye's New Winter Park Library
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
100 Years of Sciontology
Julia Garner and the Golden Age of Grift
How the Hillcrest Country Club Has Kept Its Cool
Pavlova: A Beautiful Mess
Who Makes the Best Pastry in Paris?
Where Shall We Go? 16 Great New Hotels Worldwide
Art dealer Gerald Bland knows what taste is
Will Robots Be the New Arbiters of Culture?
Three Cities, Three Art Parties.
A Night at the Whitney Art Party
This Is the West Coast's Greatest Antiques Show
The King of Pop


Once again, here is the yearly "Native Language Essay Writing Contest" for women marriage immigrants and their husbands. This is an annual event sponsored by the Research Institute of Asian Women of Sookmyung Women's University in cooperation with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and KEB Hana Bank.
Share your experiences and join this contest. There is one for female marriage immigrants and another for their Korean husbands.


text:
package com.weather.forecast.util;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;

import com.google.gson.Gson;
import com.google.gson.GsonBuilder;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
import com.google.gson.JsonParser;

public class JsonHelper {

	/**
	 * Parses the json string and returns JsonObject.
	 *
	 * @param jsonString
	 *            json string
	 * @return JsonObject
	 */
	public static JsonObject parseJson(String jsonString) {
		JsonParser jsonParser = new JsonParser();
		return jsonParser.parse(jsonString).getAsJsonObject();
	}

	/**
	 * Parses the json file and returns JsonObject.
	 *
	 * @param jsonFile
	 *            json file
	 * @return JsonObject
	 */
	public static JsonObject parseJson(File jsonFile) throws FileNotFoundException {
		FileReader fileReader = null;
		try {
			JsonObject jsonObject = new JsonObject();
			Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().create();
			fileReader = new FileReader(jsonFile);
			jsonObject = gson.fromJson(fileReader, JsonObject.class);
			return jsonObject;
		} finally {
			if (fileReader != null) {
				try {
					fileReader.close();
				} catch (IOException e) {
					e.printStackTrace();
				}
			}
		}

	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
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    <title>futures::sync::oneshot::Sender - Rust</title>

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futures::<wbr>sync::<wbr>oneshot

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Struct futures::<wbr>sync::<wbr>oneshot::<wbr>Sender

                       [−]

               [src]

pub struct Sender<T> { /* fields omitted */ }

Represents the completion half of a oneshot through which the result of a
computation is signaled.

This is created by the oneshot::channel function.

Methods

impl<T> Sender<T>

[src]

fn send(self, t: T) -> Result<(), T>

Completes this oneshot with a successful result.

This function will consume self and indicate to the other end, the
Receiver, that the value provided is the result of the computation this
represents.

If the value is successfully enqueued for the remote end to receive,
then Ok(()) is returned. If the receiving end was deallocated before
this function was called, however, then Err is returned with the value
provided.

fn poll_cancel(&mut self) -> Poll<(), ()>

Polls this Sender half to detect whether the Receiver this has
paired with has gone away.

This function can be used to learn about when the Receiver (consumer)
half has gone away and nothing will be able to receive a message sent
from complete.

Like Future::poll, this function will panic if it's not called from
within the context of a task. In otherwords, this should only ever be
called from inside another future.

If Ready is returned then it means that the Receiver has disappeared
and the result this Sender would otherwise produce should no longer
be produced.

If NotReady is returned then the Receiver is still alive and may be
able to receive a message if sent. The current task, however, is
scheduled to receive a notification if the corresponding Receiver goes
away.

Trait Implementations

impl<T: Debug> Debug for Sender<T>

[src]

fn fmt(&self, __arg_0: &mut Formatter) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.

impl<T> Drop for Sender<T>

[src]

fn drop(&mut self)

A method called when the value goes out of scope. Read more

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text:
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Australia must boost humanitarian aid to help children trapped in Syrian conflict nightmare
The upcoming Brussels pledging conference is an opportunity for Australia to step up as an already dire humanitarian crisis worsens
Save the Children is calling on the Australian Government to increase its contribution to the humanitarian response in Syria and the region as the conflict approaches its eighth anniversary (15 March).
Australia will be represented at the third Supporting Syria and the Region conference in Brussels from March 12-14 which offers the ideal platform for a tangible and public commitment to the humanitarian effort.
Save the Children has written to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Marise Payne and the Shadow Minister, Senator Penny Wong calling for a commitment greater than and certainly no less than the last 3-year commitment.
CEO of Save the Children Australia, Paul Ronalds said the Syrian conflict had taken a devastating toll on the country's children.
"The Syrian war is among the most dangerous and drawn out conflicts of our times," he said.
"This regrettable anniversary means there is now a generation of Syrian children who, through no fault of their own, have known nothing but violence, uncertainty and displacement.
"I was recently in Jordan and Lebanon and saw first hand the difference Australian aid is making on the ground to the lives of Syrian children and their families impacted by this conflict."
Save the Children is calling on the Australian Government to use the platform of the Brussels pledging conference to:
Commit to funding levels greater than the last three-year aid package (AUD$220 million) for Syria and the neighboring countries shouldering the lion's share of the refugee crisis;
Prioritise investment in the recovery of children affected by the conflict access to quality education and mental health and psychosocial support;
Fund the humanitarian response in Syria in a principled, impartial and needs-based manner;
Commit to support durable solutions in the best interests of children caught up in the conflict whether be they refugees or children of foreign nationals;
Leverage influence on parties to the conflict to press for immediate and peaceful resolution and respect for international humanitarian law; and
Press for accountability to the international law for all parties to the conflict, to protect children at all times.
The need to step up humanitarian efforts has become even more urgent with the recent mass exodus of thousands, mainly women and children, from the last ISIS held enclave, Baghouz, which has seen three north-east Syrian refugee camps stretched to breaking point.
"Australians would expect their government to do all that it can in the face of human tragedy on such an epic scale," said Mr Ronalds.
"As an influential member of the international community, we urge the Australian Government to use this opportunity to do all it can to stop the suffering of Syria's children and provide safety, shelter and opportunity."
In this, our centenary year, Save the Children is calling on the Australian Government to do all it can to stop the war on children. Our report released in February, is a stark depiction of the extent to which children are the true victims of war.
For interviews, call Licardo Prince on 0401 777 917.
Stay up to date on how Save the Children is creating a world where every child has a safe and happy childhood
Where the money goes*
73% Program expenditure
8% Fundraising costs
11% Commercial activity
*Save the Children Australia's total expenditure for year ended 31 December 2019 expressed as a percentage.
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text:
Jung Ho Kang granted work visa to re-enter U.S.
By Bill BaerApr 26, 2018, 4:05 PM EDT
Dylan Buell/Getty Images
Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic reports that third baseman Jung Ho Kang has been granted a work visa and will soon rejoin the Pirates. Kang had previously not been allowed to enter the U.S. after he was arrested for his third DUI in Seoul in December 2016.
There was some thought that Kang wouldn't ever play for the Pirates again, but things have worked out in his favor. It will still likely be a while until he actually appears in a major league game, as he will need to get back into game shape and up to game speed.
Pirates president Frank Coonelly said, "After a lengthy process, we are pleased that Jung Ho has been allowed to re-enter the United States. We are encouraged by the steps that Jung Ho has taken to date and are hopeful that having the games he loves taken away from him for more than a year has driven home the reality that he must make better life decisions as we move forward together.
As we have communicated to him throughout this process, we will work to provide Jung Ho with the resources and support necessary for him to meet the high expectations that we have for him as a member of our organization and our community."
The Pirates signed Kang as an international free agent out of South Korea to a four-year, $11 million contract in January 2015. If he were to appear in the majors this season, he would earn a prorated $3 million. He has a club option for next season worth $5.5 million with a $250,000 buyout.


text:
Hormone Disrupting Ingredients
Shining light on hormone disruptors in skin care and how to avoid them
We love using cosmetics and skin care products to enhance our natural beauty. But did you know that the ingredients in the products you're using interact with your body in ways that go deeper than surface-level skin health? When topically applied, certain chemicals in conventional cosmetic formulas are absorbed into your body, where they can interact on a hormonal level, leading to endocrine disruption and imbalances. Hormonal imbalances are often the hard-to-spot culprit behind persistent conditions like adult acne or thinning hair. Unfortunately, conventional cosmetic packaging doesn't warn you about this. That's why it's important to be able to spot ingredients with hormone disrupting properties so that you can steer clear of products containing them! Here we've rounded up a mini lesson on these hormonal sabotagers, how to avoid them, and what some cleaner alternatives are.
Ingredients to Watch Out For
So what ingredients should set off alarm bells when you're shopping for new products? The first red-flag ingredient is a family of chemical compounds called Phthalates. They're commonly found in plastic packaging, and also in conventionally perfumed or fragranced body products like lotions and deodorants. They're used to plasticize products and give them a flexible texture that's able to hold on to color and scent. Often, the word "phthalates" won't even be mentioned in the ingredient list, and instead the general umbrella term "fragrance" will be used. It's a sneaky way for companies to avoid giving their entire ingredient breakdown, and should provoke the question, ok but what's in your fragrance? The issue is, Phthalates are widely known to function as endocrine disruptors when absorbed over time. They've been determined to mimic or replace hormones, and a study by the University of Maryland tied them to reproductive birth defects. They've also been linked to increased waist circumference and insulin resistance. So as much as we like our products to be "fragrant" and have a consistent texture, Phthalates are on our to-nix list.
Next on our watch-list is triclosan – a broad spectrum antimicrobial used as a preservative in water-based products like bath products, cleansing products, makeup, shaving products, skin care, and suntan products. As a preservative, it's effectively able to slow or halt bacteria growth, so it's added to products to give them a long shelf life. Fine, but do you want to be applying it to your face and body every day? Not so much. Studies have shown triclosan to be a hormone disruptor that accumulates in our bodies by entering our blood stream and storing in our fat cells. It's also being researched as potentially leading to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria – again, on our to-nix list.
Used as an ingredient in sunscreen, oxybenzone is another hormone disruptor that's often present in conventional skincare formulas. It's used in sunblock and sunscreens because of its ability to absorb UVA and UVB rays (sounds good, right?) and because of its emollient properties that allow it to easily dissolve into makeup foundations with an SPF component. Because of this, it's also found in lip balms, lipsticks and anti-aging creams, usually with flashy packaging that boasts the sunblock component in the product. This said, its potential health hazards are extremely concerning. Lab studies have shown oxybenzone to be a Photosensitizer, meaning that it produces DNA-damaging free radicals when exposed to light – this points in the direction of being carcinogenic, and more studies are currently being carried out around these concerns. Add to this the fact that oxybenzone disrupts hormonal balance, leading to weak estrogenic activity that can cause all kinds of adverse health effects, ranging from anxiety to reduced metabolic activity to cystic acne – all things we'd rather not dabble in.
Healthier Alternatives to Look For
So what about alternatives? Instead of using these conventional hormone disruptors, Puristry products use a variety of safe and plant-based preservatives, emulsifiers and active ingredients with equal or more effective properties, and sans the scary hormonally disrupting side effects.
As a thickening and emulsifying agent, we use locust bean gum, a naturally texturizing ingredient derived from the leguminous carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) that grows in Mediterranean countries. For enhanced consistency, we also use Vegetable glycerin, a natural triglyceride derived from plant sources such as soy, palm and coconut oils, with a versatile set of properties that render it the perfect thickening and texturizing agent.
Japanese Honeysuckle is one of our go-to fragrance ingredients, with its subtle and sweet scent that's easily layerable and blendable with other stronger scent presences. Moreover, Japanese honeysuckle is a natural preservative with an impressive resume that allows it to function as an antimicrobial and antibacterial agent. That means your organic plant-based cosmetics can stay stable on the shelf, without any of the adverse health effects of triclosan.
Armed with these natural substitutes, our skincare lines measure up to their conventional counterparts, but with ultimately more skin and body-loving effects that are sustainable for use in the long run. Mini lesson big picture? Read labels and get to know your alternatives! Keep up with us here for more ingredient deep dives and chemical watch-list roundups.


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/ Statistique Canada
Surveys and statistical programs
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Hours lost by reason of absence, monthly, unadjusted for seasonality (x 1,000)1
Table: 14-10-0121-01 (formerly CANSIM 282-0212)
Geography: Canada, Province or territory
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Hours lost :
From: January February March April May June July August September October November December start year 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 To: January February March April May June July August September October November December ca.statcan.tableviewer.web.hiddenlabel.timeframeRange.endYear 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
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How to cite: Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0121-01 Hours lost by reason of absence, monthly, unadjusted for seasonality (x 1,000)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/1410012101-eng
Source (Surveys and statistical programs)
Stats in brief: Labour Force Survey December 2022
Subjects and keywords
Workplace health and work absences
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In this new series, Eco-Business looks into the clean energy industry in Southeast Asia. We will delve into the latest trends, policy developments and pioneering case studies in the region.
Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant, has committed to producing as much clean energy as it consumes at its retail stores and factories. Eco-Business speaks to Ikea's chief sustainability officer Steve Howard about the company's renewable energy policy.


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Hepatic coagulopathy-intricacies and challenges; a cross-sectional descriptive study of 110 patients from a superspecialty institute in North India with review of literature.
Kar R, Kar SS, Sarin SK.
Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis. 2013 Mar;24(2):175-80. doi: 10.1097/MBC.0b013e32835b2483.
Department of Clinical Hematology, Institute of Liver and Biliary Science, New Delhi, India. rakhee_kar@rediffmail.com
Hemostatic defect in chronic liver disease (CLD) is complex involving opposing factors of primary hemostasis, coagulation, and fibrinolysis. The concept of causal relationship between abnormal tests and clinical bleeding is unclear. This study was undertaken to evaluate and correlate clinical bleeding and the commonly used laboratory tests for hemostasis in CLD patients including the subgroup of acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) patients and test the reproducibility of international normalized ratio (INR) using different reagents. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study wherein clinical records and laboratory data from 110 patients (95 CLD, 15 ACLF) over a 6-month period were analysed. Variceal bleeding (33.3%) was the commonest followed by mucosal/skin bleeds (5.4%). Thrombocytopenia seen in 70.9% patients was mostly mild (48.2%) to moderate (14.5%). Prothrombin time (PT) prolongation was seen in 81.8% with significant variation in PT/INR using different reagents. Adverse outcome in the form of disseminated intravascular coagulation, septic shock or death was seen in 13.6% patients (eight ACLF and seven CLD). There was no correlation of bleeding with prolonged PT/INR, decreased platelet count and adverse clinical outcome. However, individually, there was significant but weak correlation between variceal bleeding and lower platelet count and superficial bleeding and prolonged PT. Correction of PT/INR post-fresh frozen plasma was significant but platelet count postplatelet concentrate transfusion was not. ACLF patients compared with CLD patients had greater PT prolongation and adverse outcome but no increase in bleeding. Routine tests, although globally deranged inadequately reflect haemostatic imbalance in CLD and poorly predict bleeding risk.


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