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Originally published in ExPatLit.com
copyright (c) 2010 by Anjoli Roy
It would be the farthest I'd been from home. Minutes before I boarded the eighteen-hour flight, I reminded myself that I'd been away at college for two years already, that I'd be gone for only seven weeks of the summer, that I had traveled alone before, that I was brave.
"You'll have to get some sleep on the flight," Dad said over our last meal together before I officially left the country.
Across the sticky table, amid the clamor of the food court, I saw the worry wrinkle the skin around his eyes.
I'd woken up that morning in Pasadena feeling forgotten. My bags were in my mother's car, and as I'd looked back at our steel-frame house, I'd wondered why—when he'd left for his own early flight the week prior—Dad hadn't woken me up at least for a quick peck on my forehead as he'd always done when I was a girl. I'd peered at his room upstairs, watching the ceiling fan cut the dim morning light with each turn of its dark blades. He was nowhere.
He was gone a lot when my older sisters and I were small, but he would also take us out of school to go with him on his business trips whenever he could. Pharmaceutical companies that wanted him to endorse their drugs would send him a first-class ticket that he'd exchange for a few coach seats. He was a surgeon—a "women's physician," he said to say if anyone asked—and he taught at a university near our southern California home.
Between his traveling, being on call, teaching classes, and attending board meetings, we were only home together for occasional weeklong stints. After Mom moved out when I was seven, our parents shared custody. By the time Joya was in college, Maya and I had decided to stay at Dad's full time.
Dad's home is our home, I remember reasoning. It was Mom who decided to leave. She can come visit if she wants to see us.
Even when their divorce was fresh, I loved going on those business trips. I remember playing hide-and-seek with the other doctors' kids in convention centers and monstrous resorts in Kā'anapali, Miami, Palm Springs, Sydney. We'd spend entire weeks in bright, sparkling pools, each indistinguishable from the one before. In the evenings, we'd throw t-shirts over our burned shoulders and play elevator tag until one of the lifts broke. Then we'd hide in the rooms, order room service. We'd pour the contents of those miniature ketchup and mustard containers across a pile of pancakes, or drizzle maple syrup on a half-eaten hamburger that we'd sprinkled with artificial sweetener. We'd mix orange juice and milk in a glass with lots of salt and pepper, garnish the drink with a sprig of fresh parsley for visual interest, and watch the mess curdle. Then, we'd dare each other to eat—take a bite, swallow a swig—before pushing the mess out the door for someone else to clean. We'd suck on sugar packets, jump on the beds, then do it all again the next day. We were little nightmares.
When we were bored, we'd ask Dad if we could come to his dinner talks. I'd put on one of the flower-print dresses Mom had sewn for my older sisters that I was then big enough to wear. We'd slick back our hair, bleached from chlorine and the sun, into tight ponytails. We'd sit quietly in the back of a packed hall with napkins on our laps, giggling behind tall glasses of ice water.
All the while, Dad would be running around, attending or delivering lectures. Five-feet, six-inches tall, he'd be neat in his tailored suits, his chest perpetually puffed out, his chin tilted slightly up, like a person accustomed to speaking with giants. His large ears protruded from the sides of his head, and his smooth brown face broke into easy smiles, revealing slightly crooked teeth. A plastic nametag was permanently clipped to his breast pocket. His eyes were mischievous; I remember thinking I never really knew what he was up to.
He was a good speaker. I knew that then, not just because of how often he was invited away, but because it seemed there was a perpetual crowd of groupies hovering near our table, fawning over my sisters and me and saying, just loudly enough for us to hear, that "Dr. Roy was such a good speaker," before someone would shush them (loudly), saying that his daughters were right there, and they should keep their voices down. We would roll our eyes at each other—those suck-ups—then smile into our napkins. We'd marvel at how the man who couldn't finish a sentence at home—whose limp attempt at communicating was more often than not, "Give me the-uh-the…"—could conjure up thirteen-letter scientific terms without faltering.
We saw our dad as the most important person in the world. Other people's adoration of him only confirmed this.
It wasn't until we grew invested in the complex customs of pre-adolescent social hierarchies, wanted to be more like the pack, were more keen on staying in one place than tagging along on our dad's trips, that we lost interest in having our father's singularity recognized.
Once, when I was in the fourth grade, I was having a sleepover and Dad was home during an unusually long stint in town. He was on the phone with an intern, and we were all eating dinner. Dad wasn't on call, but the attending physician at the hospital was overbooked, and the shaky voice that we could hear through the phone was doing what I recognized was a hysterectomy without supervision.
"No! No!" Dad was saying, sucking the dahl from the tips of his fingers. "Yes, that's the bladder, just move that to the side!"
Darcy, one of the popular girls from school, froze beside me. I looked over to see her pale face gone pink. Before this phone call, she had been staring at the plate of food before her, presumably trying to figure out how to eat without silverware, which I'd mistakenly thought was going to be the biggest challenge of this sleepover. I got up from the table and brought her a fork from the kitchen.
Because we were getting older and it was harder to miss school, we spent more time at home. Every few days, it seemed, we'd wake up to our dad's illegible doctor's scrawl scribbled across a strip of paper. In close, he'd remind us to "wow 'em." That was his motto. "Make them say, 'Wow!'" he'd say on those few instances he could drop us off at school. I remember feeling embarrassed at his enthusiasm, but I still felt his words. On those handwritten notes, next to where he signed "Baba," there would be a hurried smiley face sandwiched between two sticky-outie ears, almost as big as his real ones. I collected dozens of these notes in a folder somewhere.
In 1995, during the summer between sixth and seventh grades, he was away for two full months. He was going to Saudi Arabia, and our contact with him would be limited, he'd told us across the dining-room table. Though Joya was away at college in San Diego by then, both she and Maya had objected, said they'd miss him too much, and I'd joined the choir too, a bit. I was twelve, and mad at him for going away again. Didn't he want to be with us? I wondered. I told myself I didn't care that he was gone, and half- believed it.
I didn't know it then, but he'd been invited to teach in Saudi Arabia. Allegedly, a member of the royal family had gotten sick and found the quality of care to be subpar in the local hospitals. One of the princes, an ambassador to the United States, mentioned while golfing with an American that the royal family was interested in flying in U.S. faculty to Riyadh to get the quality of care "up to snuff." They were willing to pay $1,000 per day to qualified doctors. With Joya in college, Maya and me in private schools, and Mom on alimony, Dad jumped at the offer.
In later years, he told me about the locked walled compound where he stayed with the twenty-five or so other American physicians. "The apartments were very nice," he said. "Just like in the U.S."
When I pressed him for details, he recounted what he thought would interest me: the calls for prayer, the heads and hands that were rumored to roll in a square nearby to deter crime. He told me stories of a Westerner adventuring in an exotic Middle East. I searched these words for clues that might tell me how much he missed us.
When he returned that summer, Dad brought back mirrored jewelry boxes and 22-carat gold necklaces he'd had made with our names in Arabic, along with some joke t- shirts he'd secured. One had three cartoon women standing on different-sized platforms, with only their eyes showing. Below them were the words, "Saudi Arabian beauty contest." At his welcome-home party, everyone had a good laugh at that. I locked myself in my room and listened to them toasting their wine glasses, wondering when he was going to leave again. I wondered when, if ever, I was going to get my turn with him.
Soon after that, Joya's psychology-major friend, Adina, came over to the house and looked around in wonder. "It's amazing!" she said as she burst out laughing. Her arms stretched open to take in the space of our living room, cluttered with dusty knickknacks from around the world. "Everything you have in your whole life is because of vaginas! Everywhere you look, everything you have: Vaginas!"
We laughed too, but wondered at the cost of these things. We knew what we had to give up in return.
Now, I was on my way to South Africa for a summer program, and he wasn't there. He hadn't come home in time to say goodbye to me, as his East Coast conference had kept him longer than expected. Though I'd be back in seven weeks, I'd only have a handful of days with the family before heading back to New York to start my junior year.
When he called to say goodbye, Joya answered the phone. Eight months pregnant, she stood with one hand resting on her quickly growing belly and held out the phone to me with the other, pleading with her eyes. I pretended to have a headache and closed my bedroom door behind me, nursing my hurt. Still, while my hands were busy folding clothes, my ear angled to the door as I heard her tell him about how our middle sister, Maya, was settled in at her internship in Washington DC; that, yes, I was old enough to travel halfway across the world. I was smart enough to handle the post-apartheid climate. I could do it on my own. I puffed up my chest a little at Joya's faith in me.
Our home, now wrapped in gauzy morning light, looked distinctly empty. Joya hugged me tight, and her husband and my two little nephews, Rab and Momo, gave me squeezes before backing off to let me dip into Mom's car. I held onto Joya's belly, stared back at the house, didn't make a move toward the car door.
"Come on, darlin'," Mom said gently, standing beside her Prius. She was wearing a loose-fitting gray sweatshirt and pants—the kind that cinch at the ankles. Small red fingerlings broke up the whites of her brown eyes. Her hair, usually an even poof around her handsome face, was still smashed on one side from the pillow she'd evidently jumped up from at her house in Altadena just a few minutes away. She waved at me dramatically to hurry up. "Don't want you to miss your plane."
On the way to the airport, I stole glimpses of Mom's death grip on the wheel, her knuckles as white as paper. She wove in and out of morning traffic. I wondered if she'd always been like this—quiet, impassive—during all those years of driving my father to the airport when they were still a couple. I almost reached over to loosen her fingers from the wheel a bit to help her relax, to touch her heavily creamed skin, which was beginning to blush with sun spots.
Instead, I poked at the wooden knitting needles that I'd brought along to keep my hands busy during the flight. Their knobby ends protruded from my bloated purse, which I hugged on my lap. I touched my passport for the hundredth time.
As we passed through downtown Los Angeles, I looked out the car window at the onslaught of houses and concrete that carpeted the city. I wondered what this trip would be like. A part of me wondered if I was heading out into the world, this time in the name of education, to repent for those years of mindless travel when we were kids. I touched the necklace that Dad had given me and felt a surge of strength.
I said goodbye to Mom at LAX. She gave me a squeeze, said to call her right when I got in, then turned and walked back to her car, double-parked at the curb, with an efficiency that comes from years of practice at being left behind. I bit my cheek, wondering if we weren't all just punishing each other for those years of leavings; maybe that was why we kept leaving one another, again and again. I dragged my suitcases, heavily, from the curb.
At my layover in Atlanta, I scurried around the airport with my carry-ons. My phone rang from somewhere deep in my bag. I hesitated, just for a moment, then picked up.
"Well hello, Anjoli dearest."
"Hey, Dad." I refolded the map of Cape Town I'd been fiddling with moments before and clasped my hands in my lap, waiting for his words. I took a breath, tried not to sound too excited to hear from him.
"So, where are you?"
"I'm in Atlanta. I have a two-and-a-half-hour layover," I complained. I shredded the edges of the map and balled up the torn paper like flint hungry for a fire. A cigarette ad with a trim of colorful plastic lighters glinted at me from the souvenir shop across the hallway. I wanted to tell him that I was hurt he didn't say goodbye, that he didn't seem to care that I'd just gotten back from my second year of college and was heading out again for most of the summer, that I was sad to leave when Joya was due so soon, that I was scared to go and wasn't sure I knew what I was doing, running all the way to the other side of the world. But I didn't say anything. He'd have to hang up any second.
"Yes, but where are you in the airport?" he asked.
"I'm sitting in the food court by some greasy fast-food noodle spot," I huffed, picked at my jeans, rested my chin on my free hand.
"Anjoli, since you left for school in New York, I've been thinking. You and I haven't spent more than just a few minutes together, just the two of us, have we?"
I held my breath, leaned back into my seat. "Yeah. That's kind of true."
"Do you have a few minutes to talk to me?"
"Sure," I said, glancing at the face of my phone. "My battery's charged."
"Good. Look up."
Striding over to me with a bright white rose under his broad smile, he was neat in a black tailored business suit and a compact carry-on that he rolled casually behind him. His crisp, sky-blue shirt set off the earthen color of his skin. Even with his sleight frame, he towered over the travelers hustling around him.
"But, Dad, how—?" I stammered, still speaking into the phone, the corners of my eyes welling up.
"Do you really think I'd let my youngest daughter go so far away without saying a proper goodbye?" He smiled, ended the call, and sat down across from me.
"Um, no? I mean, I was hoping not," I said. I leaned over the gray Formica table and gave him an awkward hug. He held onto me, and the familiar stubble on his face grazed my cheek. "But I didn't think you'd coordinate our layovers either. Wow, Dad."
He winked at me, shrugged. "It's the least I could do. Besides," he said, leaning back into his seat and smiling broadly, "what are babas for?"


text: | 6/6/2014 7:14:55 PM A good quality food that is easy to digest by Olivia Foster An excellent quality food, very digestable and a well balanced diet. I would have given it five stars but old girl finds it boring sometimes which is to be expected at her age but she's a Labrador!!!! I would like to be able to change the flavour occasionally but I don't think you can with bottomless bowl subscription deal. It would relieve her boredom.

subset: commoncrawl


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Brisbane Makes Makercamp
Yesterday was the Brisbane Makes Makercamp at Hackerspace Brisbane and the culmination of the Make Anything competition I had entered. It was a very full day - the number of interesting people and interesting projects was incredible. The chance to talk with such a large group of like minded people was amazing - by the end of the day my voice was a bit croaky from talking so much but it was price worth paying though for such a great experience. It was also an opportunity for the Hackerspace to show itself at it's best and it did it great job of it - the number of people who turned up to look ar…Read more »


text: Chiah Chyun Machinery Co., Ltd. is one of the leading lathe manufactures in Taiwan. Our wide range of products includes CNC turning milling center, CNC lathes, auto lathes and bench lathes. CCM Lathes have been sold to a number of countries around the world. Thanks to the excellent quality, CCM lathes have been long-term supported and recognized by foreign agents and distributors. Based on the modern enterprise operation concept, CCM not only constantly strive hard for the company's steady growth, but also continuously develop higher performance, more advanced machines to meet the market trends.


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Over the summer, as I was recovering from major bile duct cancer surgery in which I had 3/4 of my liver removed, I got a beautiful message from MJ Mufano, the Artistic Director at The Vineyard Playhouse, telling me that her husband Paul had undergone a liver transplant a few years ago and was now thriving and that I would get through this. Those words of support and encouragement were exactly what I needed to hear, as I was in pretty rough shape at the time. She also casually mentioned the possibility of me bringing my monologue From Ship to Shape to the Playhouse for a weekend in the Spring. The thought of that also buoyed my spirit and gave me something else concrete that I could focus on, as opposed to wallowing in a state of physical and mental agony and exhaustion. After all, I had wanted to go back to the Playhouse since I did my first show there in 2001 but couldn't forsee how it would transpire. When I was 21, I got my Actors' Equity Card at The Vineyard Playhouse, originating the role of Arthur in the first musical adaptation of Arthur's Christmas, based on the children's book and PBS cartoon by Marc Brown.
Well, this past weekend, I overpacked and headed up to Martha's Vineyard for the first time in 17 years. As MJ and I drove off the ferry, all I could think about was how grateful I am to be alive:
On Friday afternoon, Nacho arrived for the weekend, and I was so glad to have him there. We always have a good time when we go away together and he's a hell of a press agent. No matter where he goes, nothing can stop Nacho from spreading the word about From Ship to Shape in his own distinct style. Bless his heart.
The show went great. However, there were unexpected lessons in store. The day I arrived on the island I had a small cold, but nothing I couldn't work with. But the next day, the cold was worse and by Saturday's performance the cold had moved into my chest and there was so much mucus on my vocal chords, the entire upper register of my singing voice was gone. This, I thought, could potentially be a problem. So I did what I always do when undergoing a vocal emergency: I called Alix Korey. Alix was my voice teacher for years after coming out of NYU and is one of the great dames of Broadway. A powerhouse singer and actress, I've always been a huge fan. I'm lucky to have been able to work with her (we did a crazy movie together in 2003) and to call her a friend and mentor. Anyway, Alix told me exactly what to do to decrease the shit on my chords, how to warm up, how to hit the notes, how NOT to hit the notes, and how I should approach singing with a cold psychologically. I did everything she told me to, and then right before the show, I basically said a prayer. I said: listen God. I've done all I can for my voice. If you make sure it's there for me, I promise that I will walk onto that stage tonight and have as MUCH FUN AS I POSSIBLY CAN. And that's what I did. It was a completely new show with new choices and vocal adjustments but it was honest and connected, and at the end of the day, that's what really matters to me. Not whether I hit the notes or whether I sounded like a great singer. Mostly though, I'm glad this happened because now I can say I've done the show with a horrific cold. Now, not only do I know that I can get through it in that condition, but I have the tools to work around it. (Thank you Alix Korey!!!)
It's funny the kind of people From Ship to Shape show attracts. Dr. Gerry Yukevich came to the show on Saturday and gave me a copy of his book: Cruise Ship Doctor, all about his years working as a doctor for Norwegian Cruise Lines and how HE lost his mind (more or less) while aboard the ship too! I guess it's more of a universal experience than I thought and it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one who got pushed overboard by the boat itself.
I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to bring my story to this island that I love so much and I can't wait to see what's next.
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Walker Vreeland is an award-winning radio personality, producer, writer, actor, singer and voice over artist. His autobiographical monologue From Ship to Shape is the subject of this blog.
September 2017


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Story submitted by Joselyn W.
Four years ago I was going through a really hard time in my life. I made a decision without thinking it through but thought it was for the best.
That decision landed me behind bars for almost a year.
I was lost, confused and just didn't know where to look. I was not going to church like I used to and I felt like God just gave up on me. The day of my sentencing I was able to go home and I had 3 months to surrender. I remember getting in my car and just yelling, crying wondering why! I knew that I did this to myself and didn't think about anybody. I didn't want to live anymore. I wanted to just go to a bridge and just jump. Nobody knew or understood the demon that I was fighting within.
One night I started to drive with no destination in mind and the devil was really attacking my spirit. I started to drive to the nearest bridge, thinking it would be the best thing to do. As I get closer to the bridge my phone rings it was my best friend. She just wanted to talk and I held every tear that I needed to so I wouldn't give it away. She knew that I was going thru an emotional rollercoaster but she never knew how bad the thoughts that were going thru my mind were. As she was talking to me she started to tell me that everybody makes mistakes and we all learn from them. She said more words but she never knew or understood how she saved my life that day. It was God!
As my sentencing got closer, I remember hugging my son and just crying letting him know that mommy will be gone for a little while but that I will be back and he will be able to see me soon. We cried, hugged and said our I love you!
The day that I surrendered, I remember asking God to protect me. As I walked in and sat down I was surrounded by 4 walls. As I did my time God spoke to my heart and all I felt was peace. He let me see that some decisions in my life were not perfect but he was going to help me get thru them. He allowed me to see that the relationship that I was in at the time was not for me, and I let it go once I got home.
We all make mistakes. Some may be larger than others, but no matter what God will always be by our side. There are times when we feel like He stopped listening to us or that He doesn't care, but He does. He will never leave our side no matter the disappointments that we provide to Him, He will always be there. He may allow us to fall at times but He will be by our side to pick us up. Lord knows that without the strength that He provided to me I may not be here today. He allows you to see the toxic people in your life and is up to you to let them go and learn from them!
Contact us if you want to submit your story.


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In May I announced that I was assembling a series for the blog covering topics related to creating and presenting analyses including: the ingredients of a well-constructed analysis, data visualization, and practical guides to using tools like Rmarkdown and Jupyter notebooks. The internet is host to innumerable tutorials on every aspect of machine learning from simple linear regression to cutting edge algorithms in deep learning. However, it's often acknowledged that a career in data science typically requires more time and effort spent on data analysis and understanding than on intense computation. What more does it take to translate Kaggle ranking points into tangible job prospects?
Soon after, I came across an excellent write-up by Tyler Byers, Data Science: Beyond the Kaggle, and I knew I was in good fortune. Tyler, a data scientist and software developer with Comverge, deftly discusses the ways in which excelling in Kaggle competitions is representative of only some of the multi-faceted responsibilities belonging to someone with a career in the field. Seeing the alignment in our perspectives, I asked Tyler if he would be willing to share more thoughts on what aspiring data scientists can learn that's not found in a textbook or online tutorial.
To kick off this series on communicating data science, I interview Tyler about how he uses his skills in data visualization and effective reporting to collaborate and influence in his career. His advice to those who are talented at rising to the top of Kaggle's leaderboard, but need help finding their voice when it comes to communicating the insights in their ensemble? Read extensively outside of your domain and listen to stand-up comedy!
Let's set the scene
Can you tell us about your education and background?
I earned my Bachelor's degree in Engineering Mathematics from the University of Arizona, which I had attended largely for athletics – they had a wheelchair racing team and recruited me to race for them. The Engineering Mathematics degree was mostly a mix of applied math, computer science, and mechanical engineering. During summertimes, I had internships with three different companies where I was doing data work, which in the early 2000's meant I was writing thousand-line Excel macros!
After University, I worked in government for nearly a decade, doing data analysis with aerospace engineering applications. This was mostly classic data analysis, including a lot of writing reports and giving presentations, and unfortunately less coding than I would have liked. In 2013, I found the MOOCs, and took as many as possible over the next two years to update my skill set for the modern world, including the Coursera Data Science specialization and several Udacity data analysis and data science courses. In 2015 I moved to the private sector, and now work as a Data Scientist/Machine Learning Software Developer for a company in the clean energy business in Denver, Colorado. And finally, 11 years after getting my BS degree, I have begun working on a Master's degree, in Data Science from Regis University here in Denver.
Describe what you do in your job? What does collaboration look like and how do you interface with other teams?
My title is "Software Developer, Machine Learning," but my manager and I see what I do as more of a core Data Science role, with software development being the last-mile effort after I've done a large analysis project. I basically spend my time getting dirty with our data, and figuring out what we can do to provide energy forecasting capabilities for our customers. After I acquire my data (mostly via SQL, web scraping, and unzipping customer CSVs) and doing a lot of exploratory analysis, I develop machine learning models. Like a Kaggle competition, I'll iterate on my models, improving them against a metric, until I or my manager says "that's good enough for now." Then I'll write production-level code to integrate with the application our Data Engineers are developing.
... one of my big focuses is keeping up a blog, telling the story of my data as I'm analyzing it, and making sure to have lots of great visualizations to refer to later.
Collaboration with the team, and especially my manager, is extremely important throughout all phases of my project. I usually find that what I'm working on is several months in front of what the developers are working on. We're a small company, and I'm the only Data Scientist integrated with our team. In real-time collaboration, I participate in the morning stand-up meeting, am active in Slack chat, and of course answer any questions from developers if they are having difficulty integrating the data pipes with my models. But because I am months out in front of our team, it can be hard to remember what I worked on, and why it was important, when I get those questions. So one of my big focuses is keeping up a blog, telling the story of my data as I'm analyzing it, and making sure to have lots of great visualizations to refer to later.
In addition to collaboration with my peers on my team, I make sure to collaborate with higher-ups in the company. Either via informal conversations in the break room, or scheduled meetings, I keep them up-to-date about what's being done with the data we're collecting, and what I think is possible. This is where I really have to work on my storytelling skills and try to influence. The data are powerful, but we need to find business pain to cure, especially our customer's pain. Rather than just chasing down a problem because I think it is interesting, I'll ask managers "is this a business need," or "which project do you think is higher priority for our customers at this time." The higher managers know the business better than I do (but I'm trying to learn!), so I work to get confirmation that my projects address our business needs.
What has been your experience with Kaggle? How has it helped you in your career?
I first learned about Kaggle in 2014 while taking the Intro to Data Science course from Udacity. Like many people, my first taste of competition was with the Titanic data set.
I loved it. Working on a model, improving it, and watching my place on the leaderboard climb as my score improved was intoxicating. I learned much more about Machine Learning in a short time from Kaggle than I could have from any course. I couldn't believe how much help people gave out – for free! – in the Kaggle forums. I did a few competitions in 2014 and 2015; unfortunately with a full-time job, growing family, and a full MOOC load my time was limited, and Kaggle was left for those few weekends when I wasn't enjoying the Colorado outdoors or working on a course assignment, so I never finished particularly high on the leaderboard (I did have one top 10% – in the 2015 Analytics Edge course competition).
But even though my participation was limited, I still think about the lessons I learned in Kaggle competitions, and apply those to my job. In particular, learning about cross-validation techniques, feature engineering, and model ensembling, which I mostly learned about from Kaggle, have proven to be valuable as I improve my models at work. As I've written about elsewhere, I've tried to devote much of my time to learning a broader spectrum of Data Science than what can be learned from Kaggle competitions; however, I greatly value the time that I
The plot thickens
Can you tell us more about the importance of storytelling in data science?
Humans are story-telling animals. We love a good story. Stories, whether in the form of movies, epics, songs, or myths: they interest us, they bind together generations, get us in touch with deeper messages. Everyone knows how to tell stories. But, certainly some of us seem to have more story-telling talent than others. That group of five or six friends you hung out with in college: there was probably one person in that group that everyone loved to listen to. They could tell stories for hours on end – funny stories, stories that made you think, stories that made you cry, stories that changed your life. This person, they didn't necessarily know more about the world than you. But they knew how to craft their message in an interesting manner, and likely had an outsized influence on you and your circle of friends.
"You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do so. It's hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it's true." — Stephen King
As Data Scientists, we need to be able to influence. We have data and insights that can shape the direction of a business. But all our insights are for naught if we can't convince the leaders in our business to
So, as Data Scientists, how can we influence? How can we convince our company leadership to act our insights? I struggled with this when I began my current job. The five-minute morning standup meeting and occasional ggplot visualizations dropped into Slack chat weren't enough. I was doing (what I thought was) cool work, but it wasn't affecting the direction of our product. So I found my voice. I began telling my data's stories, and writing them down. Working hard on visualizations. Thinking about my audience's needs. Asking questions – finding out what my business needs were, not just what I found interesting in the data. I began focusing on how I was
How do you communicate results of your work in your career?
It starts with the blog. Last September, I spent several days figuring out how to start a Jekyll-driven blog on our company's GitHub Enterprise install. At first I was worried that my time setting it up would be wasted – this was a few days when I wasn't doing data work, after all. But this has been one of my best decisions I have made. I blog about two to three times a month, at various "stopping points" in whatever project I'm working on. I love the blog because the words are mine, and I don't have to worry about sounding too formal. I can easily cross-reference previous blog posts. Writing helps me organize my thoughts, helps me record additional questions, and provides a repository of ready visualizations if I need to have a presentation ready quickly. I forget what I worked on just two months ago. I forget what ideas I had two months ago. If I go to my blog, I get that refresher much better than I would had I left the results in an R Markdown file in a random directory on GitHub. And I can easily share my blog links with company leadership. In fact, I've been shocked how many times I've been asked a question by company leadership, and I can say "oh yeah, I think I did a project on that 4 months ago...yep, here's the link!"
On a short-term basis, I still share day-to-day findings with my team in the morning standup meeting, but I try to limit what I share to about 15 seconds. I might still drop a ggplot visualization or two in our Slack chat every couple weeks. These are nice to keep a conversation going, or to maybe get a question answered, but are easily forgotten and not very influential.
... since I frequently write on my blog, I find delivering the content of the presentations to be rather easy. I know the material, have done my best to explain it in my blog, and rarely do I get very technical questions that I can't answer.
Finally, I'll occasionally give presentations to customers or potential customers, usually with leaders from my business in attendance. These can be high-stress, because business and dollars rely on the outcomes! But, since I frequently write on my blog, I find delivering the content of the presentations to be rather easy. I know the material, have done my best to explain it in my blog, and rarely do I get very technical questions that I can't answer. The presentations are more about showing pretty pictures and telling how our way is an improvement on the old way (and it's not very hard showing that Machine Learning is an improvement compared to analysis from Excel spreadsheets!).
How does effective reporting, analysis, & visualization add value to your work?
Effective reporting, detailed analysis, and visualization are what give my "core" work value. My core work is developing machine learning software. So it's similar to a Kaggle competition, where I develop a model, test it against a metric, and iterate to improve the model. Once I get to a good "stopping point" with my model, I'll write production-level code to integrate with the rest of our application.
Effective reporting, detailed analysis, and visualization are what give my "core" work value.
But, as any good Kaggler knows, in the course of creating my model, I've created a beast! In particular, I've come up with several new features that must be engineered. I don't do the engineering for the production systems! I write code in R! My team writes code in Ruby on Rails! Their engineering pipelines feed my models.
I've just spent two months creating this new, better model. Now comes the real work. The work of influence. The work of convincing my team lead that it's worth his effort to write new Pivotal stories, point them up, and assign them to team members. Maybe push our product deadline back by a few weeks to accommodate the new work I've created. Why and how is my new model better?
If I've been smart, I've been blogging about my new model all along. Creating visualizations showing the improvements against the test metric. Admitting in my blog when a new feature that I thought would improve the model actually made it worse.
My analysis must be extremely detailed. I need to anticipate questions. I need to have had conversations with my team lead all along, to try to figure out what changes might be feasible, and which ones I should leave until the next version of our app.
I've found that visualizations are even more effective than my words. I can write for five pages trying to explain my argument. But a good visualization or two captures the mind, captures the imagination, and I've found can ultimately be the influencing factor in convincing my team to take a new route.
Supplementary reading
Do you have any advice for someone with the technical chops to be a data scientist, but who struggles with crafting a story?
Every person has the ability to tell a story. Clearly, some people are more talented than others, but storytelling is ultimately a
- Read as much as possible. Fiction, non-fiction, technical books, blog posts, magazines, newspapers. If you're only reading material in Data Science, or in technology, most people will find you boring. You won't be able to connect with many people. Human connection is critical to effective storytelling. Writers who get paid to write are essentially paid storytellers. Learn from them! I love reading National Geographic magazine in particular. The photographs are the story, and the essays surrounding the photographs add in the color and context. If you must read data-related stories (and you should!), I think FiveThirtyEight sets the standard. Take inspiration!
- Write as much as you possible. Writing provides clarity to your thoughts. You will ask better questions. You will be able to provide better answers when asked about your work. A well-written blog post or report can give you significantly more influence than you may think! But you must practice. Do the Work.
- Find your voice. You won't be influential if your reports are boring or overly academic. Leave the academic work for academia. That's its place, and it works there. You are in business now! Find your voice. Don't be afraid of saying "I" in your blog posts. Make people want to read your work. Make people want to act on what you say. This may be especially hard for people with PhDs, who have written academically for years. But once you get past this, it is extremely freeing.
- Visualizations First: When writing or giving a presentation in Data Science, before you write a word, add in your visualizations. Your visualizations should be your story. The words you write or say should be meant to add context to your visualizations.
- Listen to Stand-up Comedy. Comedians have a special gift for noticing absurdities in the world around us. But listen to the best stand-up comedians. Are they standing up there telling one-liners? Knock-knock jokes? No! They are communicating the absurd via stories, often very elaborate stories. Listen to how they craft these stories. You don't want to necessarily emulate a stand-up comedian when you are giving a Data Science presentation (I highly recommend against it), but you can learn a lot through their use of story as a communication tool, and can take cues from their cadence and inflection.
- Know your Audience: This is key to connecting, and thus influencing. If your audience is the decision-makers of a potential client, they aren't going to care about the details of your five-model ensemble, or what features you had to create. They have business pain; how is your model solving it? Who do you expect to read your reports? Target their needs. Sure, you might need to write up a technical document for your future self or future teammates (or your replacement when you leave). But then write another version of that report that your third-line manager can understand and act on. If you don't know your audience's needs, you won't connect with them; if you don't connect, you won't influence; if you can't influence, then hopefully your work has been interesting to you, because it's likely useless to your business.
What tools do you use for analysis and reporting?
For analysis, I spend almost all of my time using R in RStudio. I love the ease of data manipulation and visualization that R provides, and of course the Hadleyverse has made using R an absolute joy. I've had to do a few things in Python, in particular data acquistion from a (terrible) municiple government SOAP API. But, I try to keep my analysis in a single language to cut down on the cognitive cost of switching back and forth.
For reporting, as I mentioned before, I mostly do blogging, on our GitHub Enterprise with a Jekyll-powered blog. I love using Jekyll, because writing in Markdown is so easy that I can focus on the content, and not try to fight with a UI.
I'm also working on some automated reports for customers, and R Markdown helps make beautiful PDF reports relatively simple (I had to learn a little bit of LaTeX too!). Finally, I'm working on a making an energy analytics dashboard for internal company use, and am very excited to be experimenting with the brand-new "flexdashboards" package, which combines R, R Markdown, and Shiny to create a reactive dashboard that's pretty easy to put together – again, it puts the focus on the content, not fighting with your tools!
Thanks for reading the first entry in this series on communicating data science. Stay tuned for a guide to presenting a well-constructed analysis!


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Every once in a while, starting in Jr. high school, I would get the opportunity to do an open subject research paper. Just to set the time period, this was in the early 1980s. We could write it on anything we wanted. Back then I had just discovered computer programming, and I was really into it. I was also beginning to see that computers were historically significant, so I chose that. I already knew about the big mainframes, and I figured that's where the story would probably start. However, when I looked up my research materials, the earliest reference I found to the invention of the automatic computer was Charles Babbage, who began his work in 1821. I use the word "automatic" here, because I found out that the term "computer" had been around since before Babbage came along. It used to refer to a person who manually calculated numbers for mathematical tables. In fact the term was used this way up through WW II. Babbage looked for a way to make calculations more reliable. Human computers made mistakes, and depending on the mathematical formulation of the tables, this could invalidate everything after the point the mistake was made. Babbage tried to increase reliability by bringing redundancy to the process. He would have two computers working on the same set of numbers, and they would compare each calculation. If one made a mistake it was likely that the other would find it, and the mistake could be corrected before the problem was compounded. Even so, Babbage was frustrated.
His first attempt at solving the problem was to design what he called Difference Engine #1, which would use the method of finite differences to compute polynomials. This technique had been used for years. A mathematician would calculate and "set up" some initial values, and after that less skilled computers could do the rest, since all that was required for using the method was the ability to add, based on a prior set of calculated values. Babbage wanted to automate this process (though the mathematician's "priming" of the process would still be required).
He built a prototype model in 1831. It was 1/7th of the actual machine he wanted to build. It was very expensive to develop. Apparently this was due in no small part to Babbage's ineffective management of the project, though from what I read at the time, the main factor was the lack of precise manufacturing of mechanical parts. It was very difficult for anyone to manufacture them at the tolerances Babbage's design required. The idea of standardized mechanical parts hadn't been developed yet, and all parts were hand made. What I remember reading is that Babbage is considered the father of modern mechanical engineering. He had to invent his own design techniques.
Babbage showed his prototype to a lot of people, and they were amazed, but he never got wide acceptance for his idea.
In 1834 Babbage had the revolutionary idea of building a programmable calculating machine, which has been called the "Analytical Engine". The difference engine that Babbage conceived of was a computer, but it had a program "hard wired" into it (I'm using a modern term here). The inputs, and some operating parameters to the program could be changed, to set up different calculations to do, but the machine could only use the method of finite differences. The Analytical Engine concept was more in line with what we'd call a modern computer. It was what I'd now call a "meta-calculator". The machine would only know how to calculate numbers, but a programmer could program the machine in the steps required to carry out any calculation methodology.
Lady Ada of Lovelace came into the picture at this time. Her role in Babbage's work was unclear to me from what I read. My memory is that she was an avid supporter of his work, and there has been speculation that she may have been the world's first computer programmer. This was based on the idea that even though she didn't have a computer to work on, she helped Babbage develop a programming language for it. Doron Swade of the London Science Museum filled in this picture more and has corrected the record about her involvement. I have video of him talking about her work as part of a talk on Babbage below.
The Analytical Engine was designed to be programmable via. punch cards. Babbage got this idea from a French maker of textiles, named Joseph Jacquard, who used punch cards to drive the parts of a loom to produce designs on his textiles automatically. The Analytical Engine was designed with a printing unit, so it could output results in a permanent format. Babbage never had the chance to build it, though a piece of it was built by his son, which exists in a museum today.
Babbage then created another design, called Difference Engine #2, around 1847. Like the Analytical Engine, he designed it to have a printing unit. And like the Analytical Engine he never got funding to build it.
The ending to Babbage's life always read, "He died a disappointed, bitter old man." My memory is the word "penniless" was thrown in as well, though I could be wrong about that. As Swade explained, part of his frustration was that most people in his society never understood his idea of using a machine to calculate numbers. They thought of machines as only being useful for doing manual labor. The idea of creating a "mechanical brain" was a bridge too far. Babbage was one of probably only a handful of people thinking of machines in this way, and his bad management habits discredited his ideas in the eyes of potential funders. His Difference Engine prototype (from his first design) was judged to be a super-expensive flop. In fact Swade says he's found evidence that Babbage's mishandling of this project led the British government to not fund another computing machine inventor. So he probably killed the idea of funding computer development for decades.
Bringing Difference Engine #2 to life
In 1985 Doron Swade had the idea to build a working replica of Difference Engine #2. He wanted it to be as authentic as possible, because the idea was to say, "Babbage could've built this, and it would've worked," if only he had been able to manage a complex project of that size. Swade gathered a team to build it, going off of Babbage's original design drawings, which the Babbage family had donated to the museum. They used authentic metallurgy, with modern machining techniques, though they used the same tolerances that Babbage would've been able to achieve. So they wanted to work with the same level of engineering difficulty that he would've had to deal with, but manufacture the parts more quickly.
The first Difference Engine replica was partly finished in 1991. The drive train and the calculation section were finished, but it did not have a printing unit. Swade went looking for sponsors so that he could build the printing unit, and found Nathan Myhrvold in 1996. Myhrvold agreed to fund the printing unit on the condition that Swade would build him another Difference Engine #2 replica. The printing unit for the first difference engine (in London) was finished in 2002. The second replica was finished in 2008, and was put on display at the Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View, CA. for one year.
I had the opportunity to see the Difference Engine in operation at the CHM when I went out to Mountain View for the Rebooting Computing Summit in January 2009. What I was told was that after the year was up the engine was going to be moved to Myhrvold's home, though the people at the museum hoped he would allow them to keep it longer. The CHM website still has a page for the Babbage Engine display, so it may still be there.
The reason I'm talking about this now is I finally found some online videos on the Difference Engine that I can show here. The first couple videos are from the unveiling of the 2nd Difference Engine #2 replica at the Computer History Museum in 2008. That's followed by video of the opening ceremony for the exhibit, featuring Doron Swade and Nathan Myhrvold. Embedding was disabled on the first two of these videos, so follow the links.
What I was also told was that the Engine had been damaged in transit. It was not ready to go when they got it unwrapped. They had engineers working on it for about two weeks before they could run it.
Doron Swade & Nathan Myrhvold introduce Babbage Difference Engine #2
at the Computer History Museum in May 2008
One funny anecdote I could relate to is Swade said that Babbage thought God was a programmer. I thought, "Yeah, and he wrote his code in Lisp." 🙂
There were many interesting details in the CHM presentation, but the part that stuck out for me the most is Swade revealed that according to the historical record he's been able to review, Ada Lovelace did not have the kind of role in Babbage's Analytical Engine project that many think she had. Her ideas were no less significant, however.
Swade said flat out that Ada was not the world's first programmer, as has been speculated, and sometimes stated as fact in the computer science community for decades. He explained that while she did get an algorithm published, it was all based on Babbage's examples. So Babbage was the first programmer. Swade said that Ada was not a brilliant mathematician, as she is sometimes portrayed. She was a novice. Again, he surmised this from the historical evidence.
What she did contribute that was significant was the idea that numbers could represent symbols, or anything really. This is a surprisingly modern concept of computing for someone coming from the 19th century. She had this vision of computing about 90 years before Alan Turing had the same idea. It's an idea that is so pervasive in computing now we don't even think about it. The very text that's displayed on your screen right now, all of the graphics; all of the audio you hear when you listen to a podcast, or to music; all of the video you see online or on a DVD is just a bunch of numbers to the computer, or more accurately, a series of electrical pulses. Each is represented in a way that we recognize, and it doesn't seem numeric to us. Instead it's a collage of sensory elements that help us make sense of what's inside the machine. This is the vision she had, though in a 19th century context. She didn't imagine the electronic technology we have, nor the visual displays, but she did imagine some things akin to computer graphics and MIDI music files (Swade mentioned "musical notes" as one of the representations she thought of). Swade said that she didn't merely put this forward as a suggestion. She was "banging on the table," saying, "This is what's important about the Analytical Engine!" How right she was! So her idea is a big deal, and she deserves to be regarded as a thought pioneer in the history of computing.
Babbage listened to her notions, but he didn't understand them. He designed the Analytical Engine only as a calculating machine, nothing more, though I don't mean to diminish the power of that vision for its time. However, it's now undeniable that her vision was greater.
Interestingly, Swade said that Babbage also had some ideas which Turing would flesh out more later. For example, Babbage's Difference Engine prototype had a column of numbers which would all turn to zeros when a solution to a polynomial had been found. Babbage said if this special column never turned to zeros, there was no solution. This has shades of Turing's "halting problem" in computational mathematics. I don't know this for sure, but it sounds like Babbage only applied this idea to polynomials. Turing applied it to all of mathematics.
Swade talked a bit about the Analytical Engine. The scale of it was immense. I had no idea! He said if it were built, the "entry level" model would be as large as a locomotive. A larger design that Babbage conceived of would've been half the size of an auditorium. Both would've required a steam engine to run them.
Swade said that there were bugs in Babbage's design of Difference Engine #2 that needed to be worked out. I thought, "Well of course." Since Babbage never had the chance to build his machine, he didn't have the reality of trying to build it to force him to look at things he had neglected, and to realize that certain ideas were not going to work. Swade's team tried to work out these bugs using parts and techniques that Babbage had devised for other devices, or which were available to him at the time the machine was designed. Again, they tried to maintain authenticity.
The following video is another presentation Doron Swade gave on Babbage at Google about a week after the CHM event. I include it here, because while he says some of the same things he said in his CHM presentation, he adds more detail, including demonstrations of how Difference Engine #2 works.
The Difference Engine is something to behold. If you get a chance to see it, either at the CHM, or at the London Science Museum (where it's on permanent display), I really encourage you to do so. The idea that kind of floored me as I was watching it being run was that this era is the first time in history that people have had the opportunity to see this thing really work! I felt privileged to have the opportunity. My thanks go to Doron Swade and Nathan Myhrvold! Before this, all I knew about it was what I had read in history books. To see it right before me "in the flesh", as it were, was kind of breathtaking.
The video below was running in a continuous loop near the Difference Engine display. It gives you some sense of what it's like to watch the Engine run. What I remember is it sounded like a "heavy loom". The way I've described it to others is "It sounded like no computer I've heard before." The "clack" sounds you hear were more like thuds when I heard them. The technology used to record the sound does not pick this up well.
Here are a couple photos I took of it.
Here are a few books that were mentioned in the presentations above:
The Cogwheel Brain, by Doron Swade – This is the UK edition of the book Swade wrote on the history of Babbage's work, and his own work to build the Difference Engine #2 replica.
The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer, by Doron Swade – This is the American edition of the same book
The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling – This is a science fiction novel set in the 19th century, attempting to imagine how things would have been different if Babbage had succeeded in building his models. It speculates on the creation of a thriving computer industry in Victorian England.


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Subscribe To Friday Night Lights Movie Coming Via Kickstarter, Says Adrianne Palicki Updates
I've already subscribed
Despite lasting on television for five seasons, Friday Night Lights is a show fans can't get enough of. It's understandable of course. The story of Coach Taylor and his family—both bonded by biology and football—proved gripping and dynamic week after week whether or not you had any interest in the sport. (Cough cough.) The idea of a movie spin-off of the TV show that was a spin-off of a movie that was based on a non-fiction book began bouncing around just months after the series' finale aired back in 2011.
Since then little headway has been made. But with the rebirth of Veronica Mars thanks to a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, it seems Friday Night Lights has found a new path to the end zone of movie production. Speaking with Screen Rant about her latest project, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, FNL's Adrianne Palicki, who memorably played Tyra on the series, revealed:
"I think they're starting the Kickstarter, which is insane. It's crazy. I have multiple feelings on it. I love it so much and I'm afraid that a movie might ruin it and I don't want that to happen. We went out on top. At the same time, to get to be on that show again, I would die for it. I would love to do it. I'm right there in the middle."
I have to admit, I share Palicki's conflicted feelings. Friday Night Lights was one of the rare series that felt like it earned its ending. And while I'd be interested to see what the Taylor clan is up to now, I also take comfort that they've ridden off into a future where presumably there's not enough drama to pack a new movie.
Of course, crucial to getting a Friday Night Lights movie based on the show back on track would be securing Coach Taylor's return. But last time the Kyle Chandler was asked about this possibility, he seemed less than enthusiastic, saying, "It was a great show. I really enjoy it. I still like watching the show again. Because it was so creative - the process. But they ended it at just the right time and exactly the right way, as well."
Is he right? Do you want a FNL movie anyway? Sound off in comments.


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The Dow Jones industrial average hit a new all-time intraday of 18,873.6, and closed more than 200 points higher Thursday, as Wall Street fears related to Donald Trump's election win gave way to hopes that the president-elect's policies could boost the economy, CNBC reported.
The S&P 500 gyrated between gains and losses, holding about 0.4 percent higher, with financials rising 4 percent to lead advancers.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency's performance against a basket of currencies, rose 0.29 percent Thursday, with the euro near $1.089 percent. The safe-haven yen fell more than 1 percent versus the greenback, trading around 106.80.
U.S. & World
It marked the second day of what investors have dubbed the "Trump Bounce."


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Jesus, I cannot imagine.
And here I am with one 7 month old thinking about the adventures our family will have years and years into the future (as in, DELAYING major plans).
Very impressed with that family for pulling that off. Seems like the kids learned a good degree of responsibility and communication / problem solving (and a lot more I'm sure) along the way.
Inspiring especially for those of us slightly less ambitious!
2019/2020 season [*powder day]
Mount Snow [11/14, 11/21, 12/2*]
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25 April (Part 3) - Building bridges. I think not!
The biggest item of the night was councillor Craske's Motion that "The London Borough of Bexley supports the proposal for a tunnel at Silvertown" which is no surprise because he has been trumpeting his special line in spin for quite a while and filling the local paper with it. In the event Craske marshalled an impressive range of old platitudes and presented them in a convincing manner. The only suggestion of Misconduct in Public Office was his assertion that all the people of Bexley are against a Gallions Reach crossing when every single bit of real evidence suggests otherwise. But as it is Craske we are dealing with you have to forgive the occasional lie, he knows no other way.
Despite that he correctly said the issue "should have been resolved decades ago" and that the issue now is "what sort of crossing and where". It was a great night for statements of the obvious.
He reminded us of the recent transport improvements and gave Ken Livingstone due credit. "The DLR now goes to Woolwich and it would be great if it could be extended to Bexley. Boris Johnson has given us the cable car too (surely he jests?) but what we need is more vehicle crossings". Tell us something new Peter.
Ah, here he goes, sort of…
"Silvertown has all the infrastructure in place, north and south, for a new tunnel. The same is true for a [Gallions Reach] bridge except in the south." Aah, so it's not quite true then, Craske must be getting back on form. After a brief interlude for political name calling over the original proposals, Craske said he was against tolls on any new crossing.
Councillor Colin Tandy seconded Craske's Motion. He wanted a Silvertown tunnel "as soon as possible, if not sooner. Blackwall is an absolute nightmare and the tunnel is a totally viable solution. We must have it."
At this point councillor Munir Malik stood up to make a point of order. Unfortunately he wasn't standing up straight enough and incurred the wrath of the pen-jabbing mayor. Maybe he should try a salute or a curtsey. Malik stood to attention and said he was "happy to be standing" which is apparently sarcastic. The mayor's criticisms might be justified if they were applied consistently but they are not. Later on Conservatives were laughing and jeering at one of Malik's proposals but not a word of admonition came their way. Eventually Munir was able to make his point of order. He wanted to move an Amendment the most important section of which is featured below.
The Labour amendment took no issue with the Silvertown proposals but had gone in for some serious blue sky thinking. "Bexley," councillor Malik said, "is a forgotten outpost of greater London. Ten years ago the only proposal on the table was the bridge but today we have opportunities to mitigate the Gallions Reach site".
He suggested tunnelling under the river and extending it to the A2 (four miles by my reckoning) with a slip road or two into the North of the Borough and perhaps the middle. That way only local traffic would spill on to Bexley's roads.
The tunnelling technology and skills are already here thanks to Crossrail, he said. He wanted the Underground to come to Bexley as well as the DLR via Gallions. Ambitious stuff.
Munir said he had made a formal submission to the Mayor's office and offered to give councillor Bacon a copy which he declined. Bacon said such submissions are considered confidential but a copy fell into my hands and in case Bacon changes his mind about reading it he may click here.
Councillor Borella seconded the Amendment. "Boris has not ruled out a bridge at Gallions Reach" and he reminded everybody of the public put down councillor Bacon received at his hands for being an old stick in the mud. Like everyone else he labelled the proposals for tolls as a South London jobs tax.
"Residents are in favour of a tunnel as may be seen from the local press. If your Mayor can support a [Gallions Reach] crossing, why can't Bexley Conservatives?"
Next to stand up straight and raise his hand was Labour councillor Seán Newman. His concerns were tolling and the fact that Bexley residents had already suffered a long list of stealth taxes and a host of crossing related scare stories from Bexley council. Their real motives were political, to stop Bexley Conservatives in the central borough wards "haemorrhaging votes to UKIP".
Bexley Conservatives however do not like original thoughts so councillor John Waters stood up to say that he would be "delighted to oppose this amendment". He aimed sarcasm at councillor Malik accusing him of being a bad accountant and bad engineer and feared that the Thames Bridge might "rise like a zombie. Like all Labour governments Malik could not make up his mind. Bexley would gain few benefits from their scheme". (Surely more benefits than the preferred tunnel sited eight miles away in another borough though?)
The debate had run out of time but the mayor offered an extension. The Conservatives shouted out they wanted a vote right then, so one was taken with the obvious result. (100% party unity.)
Then councillor Gareth Bacon belatedly decided he wanted to sum up the Motion, so the mayor grudgingly gave him five minutes. Such a momentous decision for the future of the borough, but Conservatives did not want to extend the debate and mayor Downing allowed just five minutes for a Tory to have the last word.
Bacon began by referring to Ken Livingstone's decision to ban the contra-flow in Blackwall tunnel, Ken blaming it on police advice but Bacon assuring us that that excuse was a lie. He then went on about "partisan rants from Newman and Borella" and that was about it. All very relevant stuff I am sure you will agree. The vote was taken again and no one had changed their minds. Conservatives are unwilling to debate sensibly, they have all made up their minds and road block Teresa has spoken. End of story.
News Shopper report.
Note: Labour's submission to the Mayor of London was provided by a councillor. A clear indication it was intended for publication.


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It looks like I've discovered a new favorite author this year. In January I read Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo, a humorous novel that builds bridges between people of different faiths. The guru, Rinpoche, who answers questions about the meaning of life while sharing breakfast with the protagonist, Otto Ringling, is not actually Buddhist, and encourages his students to embrace a more inclusive, universal spirituality.
The second book I have read by Merullo is Vatican Waltz, which I like even better than Breakfast. In this novel the protagonist is a young Catholic woman, Cynthia Piantedosi, whose deep spiritual life leads her to the understanding that one does not need to adhere to any particular religion in order to know God. As she says at the outset of her story: "The God I imagine and worship, the Being I give thanks to for every breath and pulse, doesn't care as much about labels as about love; and my style of prayer isn't so much about asking for things (though I sometimes ask) as it is about searching, in an interior silence, for my truest self, my reason for being here, in this place, in this body, at this particular point in the endless sweep of time. I was born and raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, and to this day I hold a good deal of reverence for those rituals and beliefs, but my story is really about what happened as that label fell away, as I found the courage to un-name God, as I came, so slowly, to understand who I really am."
From there, the story of Cynthia's life unfolds. Most of the novels I read involve romance, but there is no romance in this young woman's life. Her deep love is for God, with whom she spends hours of devotion every day. For her adoration she receives the visions that send her on a journey of danger, intrigue, and discovery. I won't give away the plot, which will keep you turning the pages, but for the purpose of our building bridges theme, I will say that Cynthias' story testifies to the common bond of truly spiritual people who see beyond the rules of particular churches and religions. She echos my feelings about leaving the Christian Church when she thinks: "Why be a Catholic or Protestant or Jew or anything else with a label and rules? Why not . . . just lead a simple life of prayer and work, try to love, try to give, and not do anything at all that separated me from other people?"
I used to have a deep longing to find the one church or spiritual organization where I would feel completely at home and totally in sync with its teachings and practices. After a lifetime of exploring different paths, I came to the realization that there is no system of belief that I can claim as the ONE I want to follow. And I have decided that I prefer it this way, because I agree with Cynthia that labels separate us from one another, and separation creates misunderstanding and discord. Of course I realize that it's not Cynthia, but her creator, Roland Merullo, with whom I feel a deep connection. I highly recommend his books for bridge building inspiration.


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"Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy." /1 Corinthians 14,1/
There was a referendum about a presidential system in Turkey this year. We have received a word about president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 25. 3. 2017.
Politicians, activists and religious leaders who calm down others with words about moderate Islam and do not see the coming danger and its source. They don´t recognise either the cause nor the upcoming consequences.
"I have not sent them, declares the Lord" /18 October 2015/
"Deceptive words that I have not commanded them" /18 October 2015/
The Russian military intervention in Syria was a crucial point of a conflict in Syria between the Syrian president Bashar Assad´s regime and an opposition against him supported by some Arab and western countries.
In February and March of 2011 God spoke to us about Arab spring and a fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
In April of 2011 we received other prophetic words regarding Libya. In one of these words God spoke to us about problems of Libya which will come. The word of the Lord was: "their land will be devastated". This word was showing a result of a conflict and a situation after the fall of Gaddafi.
President of Ukraine, Petro Porošenko promised in 2015 to Ukraine people to fight for united Ukraine. But God said that Ukraine will not be united in the terms of a recent territory more and also said a year before to Ukraine army, politicians and nation not to go to a war against the East regions.
Hello, I am Jiří Joel Krupa. This webside is currently new and under a construction. In last years we had received some prophetic words regarding some countries and some people in the world. Some links here are still without articles but we hope to make everything gradually ready to be here for reading. Please be patient and help us to share these words to countries and people whom they were sent to. Thank you.
August 2017


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By Ron Richter on Fri 07/08/2011 10:55am
Posted in
Per the request of the Sheridan County Commissioners, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved amendments to the County rules and regulations pertaining to quarry permits. Sheridan County Land Development Coordinator Robin DeBolt explains what the amendments will accomplish.
While the proposed amendments were approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission, there were some changes to the regulations that were recommended.
The item will now go before the Sheridan County Commissioners at their first meeting in August, which is scheduled for Tuesday, August 2nd.


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On Being
Scott-Martin Kosofsky — Legends to Live By
Could a Yiddish text from the Middle Ages serve as a guide to living now? Book composer and typographer Scott-Martin Kosofsky revives unlikely sources of "customs" for leading a modern life and marking sacred time. For Hanukkah and all the seasons upon us.


text: Heating and cooling your home uses more energy and drains more energy dollars than any other system in your home. Typically, 43% of your utility bill goes for heating and cooling. Let us give your furnace or air conditioner a check up today! Call us at 303-993-9060 / Check us out at www.premieraircolorado.com


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Looking at the work of textile artist Hiroko Takeda, one might admire what appears to be an ancient craft: exquisite natural and synthetic fibers woven into 3-D honeycomb patterns or ethereal veils. But to Takeda—who studied textiles at the Royal College of Art after training in the Mingei arts and crafts tradition in her native Japan—her designs are a radical departure. Takeda's work often includes metallic accents or colorful flourishes, contemporary elements of which her early teachers disapproved. "I didn't like the traditional technique," she says. "I thought it was 'old lady.'"
Takeda's two decades of work certainly doesn't read as geriatric. Peter Marino, a regular client, doesn't think so; he's commissioned her to design silver draperies and wall tapestries for couture fashion boutiques in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Neither does Calvin Klein Home, for which she designs throw blankets. Nor does Jack Lenor Larsen, who hired her as a designer in New York after she won his student competition. Takeda worked at Larsen's company for eight years, absorbing qualities of the designer she'd long admired, such as how he sourced ethnic craft techniques while also minding practical concerns like durability. Having a network of specialized artisans who could reproduce her handmade creations helped immensely when she struck out on her own. In 2010, she set up a studio in downtown Brooklyn, within walking distance of her home.
"I have always thought of myself as a student," she says, though she's open to teaching should the opportunity arise. Currently, she's aiming to exhibit some art pieces, like a blue honeycomb wall hanging she brushed with a gel bleach. The bottom line is "to keep making something that has soul," she says. "I want to keep intimacy in all my designs." hirokotakeda.com


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Pumpkin Pancakes ~ Gluten, dairy and nut free
Tis the season for pumpkin! Start your day with these delicious wheat free, dairy free and nut free pancakes!
Make sure the oats are certified gluten-free if you have celiac disease, this way you will know there is no cross contamination in the milling process. I recommend Bob's Red Mill gluten free oats, which can be found in any natural food store. To make oat flour, simply blend regular rolled oats in a high speed blender until a flour forms.
Pumpkin Pancakes ~ Gluten, dairy and nut free
Pumpkin Pancakes
Yields 6 pancakes
- 1 cup oat flour (I ground up gluten free oats into flour in my high speed blender, use a gluten free flour blend if you dont have any oats)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
Combine oat flour, arrowroot powder, coconut sugar, spices, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
Whisk egg with applesauce pumpkin puree and coconut milk.
Combine wet mixture with flour mixture. Stir until mixed.
Heat a pan on medium with a little coconut oil to prevent sticking.
Add 1/3 cup of batter to the pan. Flip when bubbles show through. Cook evenly on the other side.
Top with hemp seeds and syrup of choice. I added some coconut milk yogurt inbetween the layered pancakes.


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There is a new place to get gluten free and vegan desserts on the North Fork. Gluten Free Sweets 'n' Treats opened last week in the Shoppes at East Wind in Wading River.
All of the small batch treats are gluten free and handmade by owner Laura Bilello, who launched the business four years ago after she and her son, Louis, were diagnosed with celiac disease. (more…)


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Indiana pizzeria owner on Fox News: It's OK to serve gays in restaurant, but a sin 'if we cater their wedding'
Appearing on the Fox Business Network, the co-owner of a small Indiana pizzeria that is at the center of anti-gay 'religious freedom" debate, attempted to explain their policy of refusing to cater gay weddings, saying to do so would be "a sin."
Crystal O'Connor, co-owner of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana, became an unwitting national celebrity earlier this week when she gave an interview with a local news station, saying she supported Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R) and the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allows businesses to discriminate against the LGBT community.
"If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no," O'Connor told reporter Alyssa Marino of ABC57.
After the story went national, the pizzeria was deluged with attacks, including threats, having their Yelp page swamped with criticism and offensive pictures, and calls for a boycott of the restaurant on social media. Concerns about safety led the owners to temporarily shut the restaurant down, as conservatives rallied to their side, raising over $500,000 through a crowd-sourcing website.
Speaking with host Neil Cavuto, co-owner O'Connor explained how the initial interview came about before detailing the philosophy behind their decision to not cater gay weddings.
"They are welcome in the store, anyone is welcome in the store, but it's against our belief to condone, to cater to their wedding. We're condoning that if we do that, and that is against our religion. That is against our faith," she said.
Asked how serving gays in the restaurant was different than catering a wedding, O'Connor was at first confused, before explaining that it isn't a sin to serve gays in the restaurant.
"It is not a sin that we bring gays into our establishment, and to serve them" she said. "It is a sin, though, if we condone — if we cater their wedding. We feel we are participating. We're putting a stamp of approval on their wedding, and we cannot do that."
Pressed by Cavuto to explain how that is not discrimination, O'Connor said that it wasn't "hateful."
"It's not all hateful, we show no hatred towards them," she said. "We just — we ask that they respect as we have to allow the way they believe — we just ask that they respect the way we believe."
O'Connor stated that the restaurant will open again but was unsure exactly when, saying, "I'm the one who will serving the customers and answering the phone, and I'm not ready to face that yet."
Watch the video below, uploaded to YouTube by Fox Business;


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Headline writing is an imperative aspect of marketing your business. Think of headlines as the bait that hooks the fish: the flashier the lure or the tastier the worm, the more fish you'll catch. You want your readers to take the bait, because once they do, they'll be led down a path to your content where they can find useful information about your business. Without the bait, how are you to attract readers to your content?
We can all agree that great headlines are essential in the marketing process, but even the best of us struggles with writer's block from time to time when trying to think up a title that is both relevant and captivating. Because of the importance we place of writing quality headlines, we tend to occasionally freeze up when confronted with the task of doing so. Watch the video clip below from Kopy Writing Kourse to better understand the dos and don'ts of headline writing.
Why Headlines?
Why are headlines so important? Most readers use headlines to decide whether or not to read your article, and on average, about eight out of ten people will only read headline copy, while only two out of ten will read the rest. When you're marketing your MLM business, a great headline may be your only chance at gaining readership and engaging people in your business venture.
Another reason why headlines are important is that they can direct how people on how to interact with your content. A reader can be persuaded one way or the other within the context of just the headline, and they can view the material of the marketing piece differently depending on how influential a role it had on the reader.
The Three Types of Audiences in Headline Writing
There are three different types of audiences that you can market your headlines to: the competitive, the benefit driven, and the those seeking inspiration. Just remember these three factors (abbreviated CBI) when you're stuck trying to turn a good headline into a great one.
C. The Competitive Audience
The competitive audience is made up of those that favor competition and are generally more aggressive when it comes to business. This audience is interested in how your product is better than the competition, and why they should purchase your product over any other. Think superlatives when writing these headlines: highest, best, most, etc.
B. The Benefit Driven
This audience wants to know what's in it for them. They are usually swayed by not only the ease and convenience that the product offers, but how purchasing the product will improve their quality of life or increase the output of their own business.
I. Inspiration
This is the type of audience that favors inspiration, or favors a "you-can-do-it-too" type of attitude. They want to know that the product isn't just for industry leaders or innovators who have previous knowledge of the equipment; it can be used by anyone, no matter what amount of experience or skill level they possess. Think second person narrative when writing these headlines and use "you" to personalize your message.
What Not to Write
The video from Kopy Writing Kourse offers some words of caution when writing headlines. The first is to avoid "trick" headlines that are meant to get people to enter your content page, but have little or no relevance to your message or product. Essentially, all you're doing is tricking people into thinking they're opening a page about one topic (i.e. pop culture, fashionable news stories), but instead they're brought to a page that is completely different. These may seem creative and fun at first, but they are generally considered unprofessional and you risk losing credibility with your market base. You could be left switching target markets often because you've lost the trust of the ones you've already hit.
The second word of caution is to not talk about your product in your headline. This is because people don't care what your product is, all they care about is what your product can do for them. Unfortunately, the limited space of a headline doesn't allow you to write all of the benefits your product has to offer, so you can save that for the content. But do remember to keep your headlines relevant to your content.
Headlines, Headlines, Headlines!
When stuck trying to think of great headlines for your content, remember these words of advice to get the gears shifting. In this ever-changing world where technological advances are rapidly growing but our attention spans are shrinking, remember that a headline writing is a chance to captivate and inspire in just a few short words. For more tips on writing headlines, click here!


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Cardiff's Sherratt lands Wales role
Wales have added Cardiff Blues' Matt Sherratt to their coaching staff for the November internationals.
Sherratt, who arrived at the Pro12 club after leaving Premiership new boys Bristol at the end of last season, will continue to perform his duties as attack and backs coach with the region while working under Wales' interim head coach Rob Howley.
Howley will take the reins while Warren Gatland focuses on his role as British and Irish Lions coach and has brought in Englishman Sherratt to work with the Wales backs ahead of the Tests against Australia, Argentina, Japan and South Africa.
Sherratt said: "It's a huge privilege to have the opportunity to join the Wales coaching team and to work alongside the management and the squad for the forthcoming campaign. It is an opportunity I am very excited about and I'm really looking forward to getting involved this autumn."
Howley said: "I'm delighted to bring Matt on board to the coaching team. We have a very experienced international coaching team and I believe Matt will compliment what we have in place really well.
"He is young in age but an experienced coach and has earned the respect of players and coaches wherever he has been and he will be a big asset to us. I know he is a highly regarded coach here in Wales and England and will add to our coaching environment."


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Amazing miracle!
These wipes were intended for use with my NuFace Trinity device as a preparation for the treatments. However, to my surprise they're more than just a prep, they're a necessity to my entire skincare regimen! I use those bad boys whenever I get a touch or Dry'n'Shape skin weather it be on my lips or on my forehead, they remove it all! I've previously used exfoliating creams with the beads and they have never worked for me, but these are fabulous! They're hydrating, cleansing, exfoliating and amazing! As well as being good for dry skin, they're also good for occasional breakouts because it really clears out the pore area allowing your skin to breath and be cleaned properly and heal faster without the added irritation or nasty chemicals and environmentally harmful beaded creams. All in all, I recommend the pack of 20 because you'll never have enough of these - weather you have a Nuface or not, it's something worth investing into!


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Here's the last post from my shopping spree earlier this month. These are all Ulta brand polishes which I find to have a great formula. I also really like the colors I've come across. I've never tried their cremes, but all the shimmer polishes I've tried have been fabulous!
Ulta For Bitten is a crelly formula with purple shimmers. I love how it catches the light but can also look plain black. It's very vampy and very pretty.
Ulta Ruby Slipper is a stunning red shimmer. It doesn't quite have the oompf of China Glaze Ruby Pumps, but it really is quite pretty.
Ulta Little Black Dress is a creamy gloss black with tiny silver shimmers in it. I love how goth it looks with a little girly flair.
Ulta Grin & Berry It is a hot pink with tiny shimmers. It's super pretty!


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A 2 DAY FIELD RECORDING WORKSHOP with Jez Riley French
Saturday 14 – Sunday 15 January 2017
In Newhaven Fort and the surrounding locale.
TICKETS: £35 http://www.wegottickets.com/event/383665
Field recording', in all its expansive forms, has been through incredible creative growth in the last few decades & yet its essential power to engage us in the act & art of listening remains inextricably linked to its subtle simplicity, its ability to make us listen ever more closely to the world in which we move by making us stop for a time. Its use, as a tool for listening and the experience of place continues to inform all areas of the sonic arts, from the incorporation of spatial acoustics in performance, composition and installation to sound-walking and durational work in the environment.
Using Newhaven fort as our base we'll spend the weekend exploring the site-specific sounds of the location, from the fort spaces themselves to the nearby harbour, beach and liminal places.
The focus for this unique workshop will be the use of extended techniques (contact microphones, hydrophones, ultrasonics, infrasonics, electromagnetics) and an open approach to interacting with and adding to located sound. There will be opportunity to discuss and explore various aspects of site-specific sound including diffusion, improvised and intuitive response, durational listening and psychogeography. We'll be able to work in small groups, spread out to work on ones own or collaborate with other participants. The aim is that you will all come away with new ideas and new material to continue working with.
It's envisaged that participants will perhaps have some recording equipment of their own, though, of course, the definition of 'field recording' also embraces text based work, walking, photography and film.
Jez will be bringing with him a range of equipment that participants are welcome to try:
. different pairs of small omni-directional microphones
. hydrophones
. contact microphones
. coil pick ups
. parabolic dish / microphone systems
. vlr receiver
. ultransonic detector
. morning: introductory talk, with sound examples and explanation of various techniques.
. afternoon: exploration of the fort and taking recordings.
. some discussion on theory / wider application of listening.
. morning: further exploration of the locale outside the fort. taking recordings.
. afternoon: playback session (participants will have time over lunch to select a recording / piece from the weekend to playback). Listening back to ones recordings, in a group setting, can be a valuable way to assess ones work and share insights with the rest of the group.
Participants should bring with them:
. any sound equipment you already have and want to use (recorder, microphones etc)
. memory cards
. batteries
. camera (if required)
. warm clothing, inc. waterproof jacket etc.
. head torch
. notebook and pen
. laptop (for downloading and editing your recordings – if you prefer not to bring one we it will still be
possible to play your recordings back through our laptop)
nb. IF YOU DONT HAVE YOUR OWN RECORDING DEVICE, PLEASE LET US KNOW UPON BOOKING YOUR SPACE.
£35 for the two days (food included).
Jez Riley French
Using intuitive composition, field recording, improvisation and photography, Jez has been exploring his enjoyment of detail, simplicity and his emotive response to places and situations for over 3 decades.
Alongside performances, exhibitions, installations, Jez lectures and runs workshops on field recording and the act and art of listening. He also curates the 'engraved glass' label and the 'a quiet position' series of online releases / forums exploring the broad ideas surrounding field recording as a primary art of sound / sound art.
Recent work includes commissions for Tate Modern (UK), Artisphere (USA) and for organisations in Italy, Iceland, Japan, Spain and the UK. A section of his piece for Tate Modern was also chosen to be part of the '500 years of British Art' series at Tate Britain.
In recent years Jez has been working extensively on recordings of surfaces and spaces (natural and man made) and has also been developing the concept of photographic scores. He is particularly associated with the development of extended recording techniques, including the recording of structural vibrations, contact microphone recording, ultrasonics, infrasonics, internal electronic signals via coil pick-up's and recordings made with hydrophones.
Amongst his works are pieces capturing the sound of the dolomites dissolving, ants consuming fallen fruit, the Tate Modern building vibrating, the infrasound of domestic spaces around the world, glaciers melting in Iceland and the tonal resonances of natural and human objects in the landscape. "