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Building renovations are about taking an old structure and making it new again, either by returning it to its original glory or by instilling new life in aging architecture. This jaw-dropping renovation project is a little of both, as an expansive London church was converted into a glorious home with a wide open floor plan on the ground level. The enormous single family home is a combination of the best of both worlds - a celebration of the church's history and architectural elements intermingled with the trappings of a modern luxury residence.
One might assume that a building this size, converted into a residence, would have a gazillion sprawling bedrooms but that's not the case here. In this renovated church home, there are just four bedrooms – one on the main floor and three upstairs, all with en suite bathrooms. The 6,167-square-foot residence now also includes a private patio with a waterfall and a gym.
From the street, the building still looks unassuming and, well, church-like. The original red brick is in good condition and wasn't dramatically altered during the reno. Although the interior can no longer be mistaken for a house of worship, some of the architectural elements of the church were kept intact, which is a cool thing to do when you turn a church into a home. The pillars of the full-height sanctuary remain in the space that is now the main living area, with plentiful lounge space, a piano, an open kitchen and an enormous dine-in island.
Related: A church in the Netherlands has been converted into a house of coffee worship
The open floor plan of the common areas emphasizes the building's intended purpose, with its original floor-to-ceiling arched windows surrounding the very modern furnishings. Elsewhere, the church's original colorful stained glass windows now overlook a spiral stairway leading to the mezzanine.
Located in the Kenmont Gardens neighborhood of London's prestiguous Kensington area, the home is situated near a variety of amenities, including restaurants, shops, and bars. And it's currently for sale for £10 million, which is just over $15.5 million USD. The listing is held by Foxtons and features dozens of additional photos of the building's interior.
Via Uncrate
Images via Foxtons


text: Home » Stay » Bed and Breakfast Bed and Breakfast There are plenty of historic B&Bs surrounded by cobbled streets and Tudor buildings in Shrewsbury. If you're treating yourself then look out for four-poster beds and unbeatable breakfasts. There are also plenty of cosy rooms for the price conscious. Looking for something in particular? Search Filter results Looking for a particular type of place? Filter your results using the box below. Bars and Pubs Bed and Breakfast Hotels Restaurants Empty (2124) Features Require somewhere with disabled access, a child-friendly spot or vegetarian options? Filter by features. 18+ only Customer parking Customer toilets Disabled access Dog-friendly Free wifi Independent Outdoor space Shrewsbury original Suitable for children Vegan options Vegetarian options Open on Any dayMondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday Open now Clear filters + view all results View Station Hotel Castle Quarter Stay Bed and Breakfast The Station Hotel in Castle Foregate is a chic and bijou hotel that dares to be different. View Old Post Office High Street & Milk Street Stay Bed and Breakfast The Old Post Office on Milk Street is a traditional family pub & hotel, serving an excellent menu throughout the day. View Darwin's Kitchen Dogpole and St Mary's Stay Bed and Breakfast Darwin's Kitchen is the newest addition to Shrewsbury based company The Ditella Group also comprising of The Loopy Shrew and View Darwin's Townhouse Wyle Cop Stay Bed and Breakfast Darwin's Townhouse has undergone a lovingly and sympathetical renovation to restore the wonderful grade II* property to its former glory, whilst creating warmth, character and s View Cromwell's Inn Dogpole and St Mary's Stay Bed and Breakfast Cromwell's Hotel, Restaurant and Bar offers high quality, en-suite accommodation in Shrewsbury town centre, as well as contemporary food, fine wines and real ales in traditional View The Albion Vaults Castle Quarter Stay Bed and Breakfast The Albion Vaults is a traditional inn, conveniently situated a stone's throw from the railway station. View Bull Inn Butcher Row and Fish Street Stay Bed and Breakfast The Bull Inn is located on Butcher Row, right in the heart of Shrewsbury town centre. View Abbots Mead Hotel Wyle Cop Stay Bed and Breakfast Abbots Mead Hotel is a Grade II listed Georgian Town House situated next to The River Severn, with riverside walks starting right outside the hotel which almost circles the town Getting to Shrewsbury Plan Your Visit Shrewsbury Map Browse by Area Abbey Foregate Bellstone and Barker Street Butcher Row and Fish Street Castle Quarter Darwin and Pride Hill Shopping Centres Dogpole and St Mary's High Street & Milk Street Mardol, Roushill, and Claremont Market Hall Pride Hill Riverside Shopping Centre Shoplatch and Mardol Head Smithfield Road The Quarry, Victoria Quay and Frankwell The Square, Princess Street and Market Street Town Walls, Claremont Bank and Claremont Hill Wyle Cop Share This emailfacebooklinkedintwittergoogle+pinterest

subset: commoncrawl


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|Cairo, Egypt
|High School:
|Modern Education Schools
|House Affiliation:
2011-12 (Sophomore):
Finished the season undefeated with a 16-0 overall record ... Tabbed Academic All-Ivy ... Won the 2012 CSA individual national championship with five consecutive sweeps ... Named to CSA All-America first team ... Went 11-0 during the team's dual season at the No. 1 position ... Named first team Ivy League Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and first team All-Ivy League ... Opened the season with a sweep of Thomas Mattson of Penn Jan. 14 ... Downed Trinity's three-time All-American Vikram Malhotra, 3-1, Jan. 21 ... Stormed past Benjamin Fischer of No. 5 Rochester, 3-0 (11-6,11-5,11-9), in the CSA team quarterfinals for his ninth win in 2012 ... Swept Nicholas Sachvie of Cornell, 3-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-4) to clinch third-place for Harvard at the CSA Men's Team Championships Feb. 19 ... Beat Ramit Tandon of Columbia, 3-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-4) in the CSA individual national championship match March 4.
Before Harvard:
Ranked No. 1 junior player in the world … Ranked No. 79 in world in the Professional Squash Association's ranking among senior players … Won 2010 Junior World Championship … Spent his freshman season at American University in Cairo … Captained Egypt Junior squash team to world title in Quito, Ecuador in 2010 … Served as captain of Heliopolis squash team … Won British Junior Open … Other interests include soccer, tennis and music.


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Keeneland is unique to the Thoroughbred industry. Only at Keeneland are world-class racing and industry-leading sales united under one mission-driven entity.
Today, Keeneland continues to be guided by its original mission, taking a leadership role in the industry to improve safety, promote integrity and strengthen the sport of racing.
Learn more about Keeneland here.


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Should you compensate losses due to mental stress and harassment?
A recent decision of the Ontario Grievance Settlement Board ("GSB") has provided some much needed clarity as to under what circumstances losses to an employee resulting from mental stress stemming from workplace harassment and discrimination are compensable under Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Act ("WSIA").
In this case, OPSEU v. Ontario [2018] O.G.S.B.A. No. 7, a grievance was filed alleging discrimination and harassment on the part of the employer. The Grievor asserted she experienced various medical symptoms as a result of the mental stress caused by the employer's actions, ultimately forcing her to take time off work. The Grievor sought, among other things, compensation for lost time and medical expenses incurred. The Grievor was seeking the same remedies under the WSIA.
The employer took the position that if the injury or illness alleged by the grievor was compensable under the WSIA, that the arbitrator had no jurisdiction to grant those same remedies at the GSB. The arbitrator agreed with the employer, leaving only the issue of whether the Grievor's illness was compensable under the WSIA.
Of note, on January 1, 2018, significant amendments to the WSIA came into force. Those amendments included changes to subsection 13(5) of the WSIA. Subsection 13(5) was directly applicable to this case and reads as follows:
A worker is not entitled to benefits for mental stress caused by decisions or actions of the worker's employer relating to the worker's employment, including a decision to change the work to be performed or the working conditions, to discipline the worker or to terminate the employment. [Emphasis added].
The union argued that subsection 13(5) should be interpreted to mean that losses resulting from mental stress caused by any action of an employer are excluded from compensation under the WSIA. Based on that interpretation of Section 13, the union argued further that since the majority of the harassing and discriminatory events which gave rise to the Grievor's mental stress were actions of the Employer, that the Grievor's claim under the WSIA would be barred on that basis.
The Arbitrator disagreed with the union's interpretation and held instead that while harassment and discrimination may arise in the course of a worker's employment, they do not relate to the worker's employment. The Arbitrator explained that harassing and discriminating actions are not the kinds of actions which a worker can reasonably expect an employer to take throughout their employment relationship, adding that they are strictly prohibited acts.
Given the Arbitrator's finding that harassing and discriminatory actions do not relate to employment, the Arbitrator held that the Grievor's claim for remedies under the WSIA was not excluded by subsection 13(5) and could be compensable under the WSIA. Accordingly, the Arbitrator concluded that he did not have the jurisdiction to grant those same remedies at the GSB.
Takeaway for Employers:
Employers should undergo a review of any ongoing cases of this nature, especially those involving allegations of mental stress. Given the findings of this decision, employers may be able to have parts of those cases dismissed outright on a preliminary basis given such claims ought to have instead been brought under the WSIA.
The lawyers of CCPartners are pleased to assist clients in the understanding of the recent WSIA amendments, and in preparation for investigation, reporting and managing cases of occupational mental stress. Click here for our team members who can assist you with your WSIB questions.
Click here to access CCP podcasts on important workplace issues and developments in labour and employment law.


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Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) is a method of funding where an individual leases a vehicle for a set period at a fixed monthly charge. It is a perfect product for those who do not want the financial and logistical risks involved in acquiring and disposing of a vehicle.
At the end of the contract, there is an optional balloon payment which the individual can pay to buy the vehicle, otherwise they can choose to return the vehicle with nothing further to pay. The monthly charge is governed by the initial cost of the vehicle, the mileage covered, the period of the agreement and the estimated value of the vehicle at the end of the contract.
In addition, features ranging from basic servicing to total vehicle management packages can be included if required. PCP being an alternative to Hire Purchase, the traditional method of financing, is covered by the protections as set out in the Consumer Credit Act.
* All vehicle images and car descriptions on this site are for illustration and reference purposes only and are not necessarily an accurate representation of the vehicle on offer.
E: firstname.lastname@example.com
First Car Leasing
Croxton House
North Lincolnshire
First Car Leasing are a credit broker and not a lender, we are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered No : 620033
Registered in England & Wales with company number : 03960237 | Data Protection No : Z5980241 | VAT No :
Registered Office : 19 Prospect Road, Ossett, West Yorkshire, WF5 8AE
Copyright © 2020 First Car Leasing, All rights reserved.


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Thanks for registering for a DTI course! In preparation for your upcoming class, we recommend that you set aside some time to get acquainted with the information on this page.
- Upon receiving a Class deposit, Defense Training International sends each student a detailed handout. The handout includes information regarding types of firearms that are recommended and the modifications that are allowed.
- Also included is a student check-list of items to bring. It is important to us that students are as well prepared as possible so they are able to focus on learning.
- After signing in, the course begins with a classroom session where students introduce themselves and John S Farnam presents an overview of the course activities. When students move to the range, each firearm is carefully inspected. Instructors will also inspect each student's accessories. During the next section, students will go through "administrative" gun-handling drills, loading and unloading, as well as charging magazines and speed loaders. Once John is satisfied that students have mastered these tasks, we move on to live-fire.
- Students begin with drills that allow them to become familiar with a correct grip and stance. As the day continues, students will learn to draw from concealment, reload, and reduce stoppages, all on the move. Training is conducted in a realistic manner, stressing movement, use of cover, verbal challenges, and other important individual tactics.
- Later in the course, there will be another classroom session concerning levels of influence and the use of lethal force in self-defense. Other classroom subjects include situation awareness, threat/risk evaluation.
- The second day of the class will include cover and movement, performing under stress, and precision shooting, combined with shoot/no-shoot drills. The low light shooting session is designed to allow students to practice all skills with and without a flashlight.
- The class ends with the DTI Proficiency Test. A student achieves a passing score when he hits with all shots, does not commit any safety errors, and does not commit any procedural errors. Students qualify at one-hundred percent. Even one miss yields a failed attempt.
- Students who attend Defense Training International courses find that they are physically exhausted at the end of the two days, but that they have mastered a set of psycho/motor skills and have adopted a personal philosophy that will serve them well in their next lethal encounter.
Our friends at Check Six Defense produce and manage our DTI Operator Series of videos. They have also created a Pro Shop specifically for DTI students, where you can buy bulk ammo (free UPS Ground shipping) for your upcoming course. Go to: SHOP.DTIOPERATOR.COM.
Click for more free videos.
The DTI Operator Series is a paid subscription intended for those familiar with serious firearms training. But there are topics that we think are important for everyone, and we've made them available for free. These include:
- Range Conduct & Firearms Safety (1 & 2)
- Use of Deadly Force
- How to Talk to Kids About School Shootings
Watch these videos at:
"Like" DTI on Facebook.
Social media isn't for everyone. For those who use it wisely, we hope you'll follow us on Facebook and share our posts with your friends and family. We encourage you to run a Privacy Check-Up:
- Log in to your Facebook account
- In the upper right, click the pad lock icon
- Click "Privacy Check-Up" and follow the prompts
"Like" our page at:
Below, you'll find a list and description of the primary equipment required for all DTI courses. Please become acquainted with this list prior to attending any DTI course.
Note: As the cost and availability of ammunition varies based on the ever-changing economic and political climate, the amount of ammunition required for each class may vary. Contact DTI with questions about required ammunition.
Each student needs to show up to class with at least one semi-automatic pistol or revolver in an appropriate caliber for our purposes with defensive shooting.
Appropriate calibers include:
- 9mm NATO (a.k.a. "Parabellum," "Luger")
- .38 Special, .380 AUTO
Any calibers smaller than those listed above are not appropriate for use in DTI courses unless special arrangements have been made prior to the course date.
The student's handgun should be of modern manufacture, and must function as designed to factory specifications. Low-profile, fixed, night sights are preferred. Adjustable, target sights should be avoided. If possible, your handgun should be test fired and sighted-in with the ammunition you intend to use.
Handguns must be clean and properly lubricated. Sharp edges should be removed (if needed, this should be done by an experienced, competent gunsmith).
Contact DTI for handgun questions and/or recommendations.
Competition guns or related equipment are not recommended. For our purposes with defensive shooting, all firearms and gear should be practical and concealable/low-profile. Duty gear may be appropriate for Mil/LE and other security professionals.
Further Recommendations:
- When you bring a pistol with a manual decocking-lever, either two-stage or single-stage, we'll show you how to use it. However, for most serious shooters, self-decocking, autoloading pistols represent the best choice. Manual decocking levers are virtually obsolete, although they still do have a following, albeit ever-dwindling.
- Colt/Browning, 1911-style pistols also have a fierce following, but their popularity with new shooters is low. The 1911 is really an expert's gun; a self-decocking autoloader is a much better choice for the vast majority of serious shooters.
- The "Continuous Motion System" (H&K P7M8) autoloading pistol is perfectly functional, but not recommended. These pistols were popular at one time, but are long-since out of production, as incorrect operation of the squeeze-cocker has led to many accidents. In fact, there has been so many accidents with this pistol, that we no longer recommend it for general use, although it may be a good choice for certain individuals.
- S&W, Beretta, Springfield Armory, and now even Glock offer "variable grip geometry" on many of their pistols. This permits the user to make the grip bigger, or smaller, at his option. Changing from one size to another is easily done, at the user-level, and takes less than a minute. Pistols with this feature are recommended.
- Use OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) magazines. Avoid after-market and surplus ones, when possible.
- When you decide to modify your new handgun, you are particularly cautioned to avoid trendy, novelty, and gimmicky add-on's, like trigger shoes, after-market grip adapters, buffers, compensators, target grips, sight ribs, grip weights, etc. That kind of rubbish has no place on a serious pistol.
All students attending rifle or shotgun courses are required to bring one rifle/shotgun in an appropriate caliber.
Students attending rifle courses should bring a serviceable rifle chambered in a centerfire caliber (preferably 5.56 NATO or larger, although pistol caliber carbines will suffice in 9mm PARA or larger). All rifles MUST have iron sites, even if such sights are used as a back-up for "red dot" sights or other optics.
Students attending shotgun courses should bring a serviceable shotgun chambered in 12 gauge or 20 gauge. The front sight bead on most shotguns should be sufficient, but shotguns with rifle sights or red dot optics may be appropriate as well.
All rifles and shotguns must be equipped with sturdy slings. Appropriate sling-styles include:
- 2-point (one end of the sling attaches to the front of the firearm, the other end to the rear)
- Single-point (both ends attach to a single point on the stock)
Three-point slings are often cumbersome and not recommended.
All rifles must be equipped with fixed "iron sights." Mounted optics like "red dots" and other scopes should still be equipped with back-up iron sights (or "BUIs"). Flip-up style BUIs are fine.
A durable red dot/holographic sight is highly recommended! The reticle of such a site should "co-witness" with the BUIs.
Magnified scopes may be appropriate, but magnification should be limited to 1.5-3x. Such scopes should be durable and made for serious purposes.
Quick-release mounts are recommended for all optics, so that the operator might easily jettison the optic in exigent circumstances when the optics become unserviceable, reverting to BUIs.
Although we will take time to assure that each weapon is properly sighted in on the first day of class, it is highly recommended that all Red dots, scopes, and iron sites are sighted in BEFORE coming to class.
All students should bring a hand-held flashlight to class. Weapon-mounted lights may be appropriate.
It is recommended that all operators carry a flashlight on their person.
Hand-held flashlights should be rugged, durable, and bright! These days, a flashlight with an LED lamp of 120+ lumens is fairly easy to find. There's little reason to carry anything less than that. Tail-cap activation is recommended.
Weapon lights can be very beneficial. They should be mounted well forward, and activation should be easily achieved by use of the shooter's support-side hand, without radical changes to how he/she holds the rifle.
A "constant on" feature is recommended but not required.
Many hand-held and weapon lights come with a "strobe" feature, which isn't a bad option. However, operators should understand the limitations of such a feature, and recognize that a quickly strobing, blindingly-bright light is exceptionally disorienting–for ALL parties present!
Each student is expected to provide and manage their own ammunition.
MAGAZINES / SPEED-LOADERS & POUCHES Students must bring a minimum of three reloading devices (magazines or speedloaders) for his/her primary handgun. Low-profile, belt-mounted magazine pouches/carriers are highly recommended. AMMUNITION Standard, full metal jacket (or "ball") ammunition is recommended for training. High performance service ammo need not be used. The best ammunition is from major, domestic manufacturers. NOTE: Reloaded/hand loaded ammunition is not recommended, and will not be allowed for use in DTI courses without DTI approval prior to the course date. Foreign ammunition may be acceptable, but much of it is trash. Steel-case ammunition is not recommended, as it has proven to greatly increase wear and tear on extractors. The lacquer coating on such ammunition creates a gummy mess inside hot, dirty receivers and may begin to affect normal feeding. Further, most steel-case ammunition uses bullets with steel jackets (with a copper wash); steel jacketed bullets have been shown to erode the bore, dramatically decreasing the lifetime of the barrel.
A belt mounted holster, either inside or outside waistband design, is generally accepted for all courses.
All handguns must be holstered!
We prefer hip holsters, worn strong-side, appendix-carry, or cross-draw. Holsters with retention devices are not required. Mil/LE and other security professionals may wear their duty gear.
Cheap, nylon, "one size fits all" holsters are NOT recommended.
A sturdy belt is highly recommended. Students should ensure that their holsters and magazine/speed-loader pouches fit their belt!
Several law enforcement agencies, including FLETC, have experienced incidents where students
and field agents/officers using Blackhawk SERPA holsters have had accidental discharges
resulting in personal injury and or property damage.
Many well-trained operators have used this holster for years without incident. The SERPA holster is a functional holster system, but it has its limitations.
For our purposes with defensive shooting, students are encouraged to wear some type of concealment garment, e.g. vest, jacket, over-shirt. We believe that individual operators benefit from practicing a low-profile appearance. With few exceptions, "range gear" and "day-to-day gear" should be one and the same!
Be prepared for changes and extremes in the weather. Long pants and comfortable, sturdy shoes are highly recommended. Absolutely NO open-toed shoes are allowed. Students will be on their feet for most of the day. Gloves for colder weather are highly recommended. During cooler temperatures, some students find that wearing several layers (which can be added or taken off throughout the day) is more convenient and beneficial than an bringing a single, heavy coat.
Coats/jackets with elastic drawstrings have been proven unsafe, when used in conjunction with firearms carry, because of their tendency to catch on nearly everything. Such drawstrings should be removed before being worn on the range (or, indeed, anywhere!).
High-necked t-shirts/undershirts are highly recommended to be worn under blouses or other tops that expose cleavage. Most (if not all) firearms used during training courses will eject empty brass cases into the air; those brass cases are extremely hot–hot enough to scald/burn/blister when they come in contact with skin. Such an unwelcome surprise is not only unnecessarily painful, but dangerous while handling firearms.
No student, instructor, nor observer is allowed on the range without the following safety equipment:
- Clear and/or tinted shooting/safety glasses. Clear for low-light/night training. Glasses should fully wrap around the face. [Plastic side-shields will be provided for students whose glasses do not satisfactorily protect from the sides]
- Hearing protection. Muff-style and/or ear plugs. Electronic muff-style hearing protectors are very advantageous.
- Baseball cap or other hat with visor/brim. Such a hat prevents hot ejected brass from falling behind the shooter's glasses and burning the eyes/face.
One or more meals may be provided. However, depending on the venue and other considerations, students may be required to provide their own meals.
Contact DTI if you have questions about meals during your course.
DTI hosts will typically provide plenty of water, but students are encouraged to bring their own water bottles, backpack-style hydration units, sodas, sports drinks, as needed. Any time spent on the range requires regular liquid intake. NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES!
Among other obvious reasons and uses, we recommend that students bring moistened hand wipes to clean up after handling led-based ammunition prior to eating.
Sun, wind, and bugs can make your life harder than it already is!


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Judge Jon Blue denied the motion Steven Hayes' lawyers filed to aquit the man in the brutal slayings of a mother and her two daughters in Cheshire.
However, Blue will hear the motion for a new trial, the Hartford Courant reports.
Public defenders Thomas Ullman and Patrick Culligan filed an 11- page motion shortly after Hayes was sentenced to death, claiming the court made several errors that ultimately violated Hayes' rights.
Hayes, 47, was found guilty in the brutal slayings of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, in their Cheshire home in 2007.
The women died as their family home burned to the ground after a night of horrors. Jennifer and Michaela had been sexually assaulted and Dr. William Petit had been beaten. He was the only victim to survive.
Ullman said it is clear by the interviews members of the jury gave after sentencing that their decisions were based on emotion rather than the law. Prosecutors disagree.
The defense also claims that Hayes' rights were violated when a juror was replaced by an alternate during the sentencing phase of the trial.
Ullman argued that the 12 people who convicted Hayes should be the same people who sentenced him, so Hayes should be given the lesser punishment of life in prison or a new trial.
Blue will not decide on the motion today, but will decide before Hayes is sentenced, the Courant reports.
Blue previously denied a motion to delay the sentencing, which is scheduled for early December.


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Blue Nile
We deliver only the highest quality code on the planet. See examples of sites we have created for our clients.See More
We can take any common design format and produce high quality, cross-browser compatible W3C Valid HTML / CSS markup.
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Presented by Bet Phoenix
Bet Phoenix has been Kind enough to Sponsor a $1,000 Guaranteed Sweet 16 Contest for March Madness this year!!!! Bet Phoenix has been very gracious in doing this, so please take the time to Check them out. This is the Perfect Opportunity to Save yourself and have a 2nd chance in the NCAA Tournament if all your other Brackets are in the Trash and you are out of it.
How To Enter:
- Go To Bet Phoenix and Open an account
- Email firstname.lastname@example.com with your Account number or Real Name so I can get you on the approved list for quick and easy depositing
- Post in this thread once you email me so I can be sure I got it. Some go to junk so I may not see them
- Once I email you back (after the approval) Fund your Account with at least $50 for the Entry Fee. If you deposit $200 they will Give you a $200 Match Free play bonus with a 8X rollover. The Money you deposit is yours to play with.
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- One Entry per IP address. Strictly Enforced
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- We will make Selections for Each round of the tournament (16, 8, 4, 2)
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- All Games will be ATS It can be Sides or Totals
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- The Thread will be on Post Review so no one will see your Selections before the games start. Once the First game of each round starts then I will approve all picks and the thread will be taken off Post Review
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About Chart
CHART metalworks is the creation of a long time sailor, with a nautical Maine background. One day in 2006, surrounded by scrolls of nautical charts in her home, Charlotte Guptill was inspired to incorporate the medium into her designs. In 2008 CHART metalworks was formally launched. Soon after husband John joined to assist with the growing orders in their studio on Custom House Wharf, Portland, Maine. They handcraft custom nautical chart and map adornments allowing you to capture your most treasured spots across the globe. CHART metalworks is the original custom nautical chart and map jewelry.
Create vessels for you to tell your own custom story – where you grew up, site of your engagement or marriage, favorite vacation spot or current residence. Our one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories are adornments that allow you to wear your world.
With US made hand-cast pieces, handcrafted in our studio on Portland, Maine's working waterfront. With a quality that can only be achieved by Maine goods, made by Maine people.
Chart Metalworks from Links Web Design on Vimeo.


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The Second World War
Hardcover, 863 pages, Little Brown & Co, List Price: $35 |purchase
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Book Summary
The British historian and author presents a single volume history of the world's largest conflict, from Manchuria in 1939 to the Soviet invasion of northern China six years later, describing the human drama of soldiers, civilians and political leaders.
NPR stories about The Second World War
Lessons For Europe From 'The Second World War'
Note: Book excerpts are provided by the publisher and may contain language some find offensive.
Read an Excerpt: The Second World War
In June 1944, a young soldier surrendered to American paratroopers in the Allied invasion of Normandy. At first his captors thought that he was Japanese, but he was in fact Korean. His name was Yang Kyoungjong.
In 1938, at the age of eighteen, Yang had been forcibly conscripted by the Japanese into their Kwantung Army in Manchuria. A year later, he was captured by the Red Army after the Battle of Khalkhin Gol and sent to a labour camp. The Soviet military authorities, at a moment of crisis in 1942, drafted him along with thousands of other prisoners into their forces. Then, early in 1943 he was taken prisoner by the German army at the Battle of Kharkov in Ukraine. In 1944, now in German uniform, he was sent to France to serve with an Ostbataillon supposedly boosting the strength of the Atlantic Wall at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula inland from Utah Beach. After time in a prison camp in Britain, he went to the United States where he said nothing of his past. He settled there and finally died in Illinois in 1992.
In a war which killed over sixty million people and had stretched around the globe, this reluctant veteran of the Japanese, Soviet and German armies had been comparatively fortunate. Yet Yang remains perhaps the most striking illustration of the helplessness of most ordinary mortals in the face of what appeared to be overwhelming historical forces.
Europe did not stumble into war on 1 September 1939. Some historians talk of a 'thirty years' war' from 1914 to 1945, with the First World War as 'the original catastrophe'. Others maintain that the 'long war', which began with the Bolshevik coup d'etat of 1917, continued as a 'European Civil War' until 1945, or even lasted until the fall of Communism in 1989.
History, however, is never tidy. Sir Michael Howard argues persuasively that Hitler's onslaught in the west against France and Britain in 1940 was in many ways an extension of the First World War. Gerhard Weinberg also insists that the war which began with the invasion of Poland in 1939 was the start of Hitler's drive for Lebensraum (living space) in the east, his key objective. This is indeed true, yet the revolutions and civil wars between 1917 and 1939 are bound to complicate the pattern. For example, the left has always believed passionately that the Spanish Civil War marked the beginning of the Second World War, while the right claims that it represented the opening round of a Third World War between Communism and 'western civilization.' At the same time, western historians have usually overlooked the Sino Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, and the way that it merged into the world war. Some Asian historians, on the other hand, argue that the Second World War began in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
Arguments on the subject can go round and round, but the Second World War was clearly an amalgamation of conflicts. Most consisted of nation against nation, yet the international civil war between left and right permeated and even dominated many of them. It is therefore important to look back at some of the circumstances which led to this, the cruellest and most destructive conflict which the world has ever known.
The terrible effects of the First World War had left France and Britain, the principal European victors, exhausted and determined at any price not to repeat the experience. Americans, after their vital contribution to the defeat of Imperial Germany, wanted to wash their hands of what they saw as a corrupt and vicious Old World. Central Europe, fragmented by new frontiers drawn at Versailles, faced the humiliation and penury of defeat. Their pride shattered, officers of the Kaiserlich und Koeniglich Austro-Hungarian army experienced a reversal of the Cinderella story, with their fairytale uniforms replaced by the threadbare clothes of the unemployed. The bitterness of most German officers and soldiers at their defeat was intensified by the fact that until July 1918 their armies had been unbeaten, and that made the sudden collapse at home appear all the more inexplicable and sinister. In their view, the mutinies and revolts within Germany during the autumn of 1918 which precipitated the abdication of the Kaiser had been caused entirely by Jewish Bolsheviks. Left
wing agitators had indeed played a part and the most prominent German revolutionary leaders in 1918-19 had been Jewish, but the main causes behind the unrest had been war-weariness and hunger. The German right's pernicious conspiracy theory — the stab in the back legend — was part of its inherent compulsion to confuse cause and effect.
The hyper-inflation of 1923-4 undermined both the certainties and the rectitude of the Germanic bourgeoisie. The bitterness of national and personal shame produced an incoherent anger. German nationalists dreamed of the day when the humiliation of the Versailles Diktat could be reversed. Life improved in Germany during the second half of the 1920s, mainly due to massive American loans. But the world depression, which began after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, hit Germany even harder once Britain and other countries left the gold standard in September 1931. Fear of another round of hyper-inflation persuaded Chancellor Bruening's government to maintain the Reichsmark's link to the price of gold, making it over-valued. American loans had ceased, and protectionism cut off German export markets. This led to mass unemployment, which dramatically increased the opportunity for demagogues promising radical solutions.
The crisis of capitalism had accelerated the crisis of liberal democracy, which was rendered ineffective in many European countries by the fragmentary effect of voting by proportional representation. Most of the parliamentary systems which had sprung up following the collapse of three continental empires in 1918 were swept away, unable to cope with civil strife. And ethnic minorities, which had existed in comparative peace under the old imperial regimes, were now threatened by doctrines of national purity.
Recent memories of the Russian Revolution and the violent destruction of other civil wars in Hungary, Finland, the Baltic states and indeed Germany itself, greatly increased the process of political polarization. The cycle of fear and hatred risked turning inflammatory rhetoric into a self-fulfilling prophecy, as events in Spain soon showed. Manichaean alternatives are bound to break up a democratic centrism based on compromise. In this new collectivist age, violent solutions appeared supremely heroic to intellectuals of both left and right, as well as to embittered ex-soldiers from the First World War. In the face of financial disaster, the authoritarian state suddenly seemed to be the natural modern order throughout most of Europe, and an answer to the chaos of factional strife.
In September 1930, the National Socialist Party's share of the vote jumped from 2.5 per cent to 18.3. The conservative right in Germany, which had little respect for democracy, effectively destroyed the Weimar Republic, and thus opened the door for Hitler. Gravely underestimating Hitler's ruthlessness, they thought that they could use him as a populist puppet to defend their idea of Germany. But he knew exactly what he wanted, while they did not. On 30 January 1933, Hitler became chancellor and moved rapidly to eliminate all potential opposition.
The tragedy for Germany's subsequent victims was that a critical mass of the population, desperate for order and respect, was eager to follow the most reckless criminal in history. Hitler managed to appeal to their worst instincts: resentment, intolerance, arrogance and, most dangerous of all, a sense of racial superiority. Any remaining belief in a Rechtsstaat, a nation based on respect for the rule of law, crumpled in the face of Hitler's insistence that the judicial system must be the servant of the new order. Public institutions — the courts, the universities, the general staff and the press — kowtowed to the new regime. Opponents found themselves helplessly isolated and insulted as traitors to the new definition of the Fatherland, not only by the regime itself, but also by all those who supported it. The Gestapo, unlike Stalin's own secret police, the NKVD, was surprisingly idle. Most of its arrests were purely in response to denunciations of people by their fellow Germans.
The officer corps, which had prided itself on an apolitical tradition, also allowed itself to be wooed by the promise of increased forces and massive rearmament, even though it despised such a vulgar, ill-dressed suitor. Opportunism went hand in hand with cowardice in the face of authority. The nineteenth-century chancellor Otto von Bismarck himself once remarked that moral courage was a rare virtue in Germany, but it deserted a German completely the moment he put on a uniform. The Nazis, not surprisingly, wanted to get almost everyone into uniform, not least the children.
Hitler's greatest talent lay in spotting and exploiting the weakness of his opponents. The left in Germany, bitterly divided between the German Communist Party and the Social Democrats, had presented no real threat. Hitler easily out-manoeuvred the conservatives who thought, with naive arrogance, that they could control him. As soon as he had consolidated his power at home with sweeping decrees and mass imprisonment, he turned his attention to breaking the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription was re introduced in 1935, the British agreed to an increase in the German navy and the Luftwaffe was openly constituted. Britain and France made no serious protest at the accelerated programme of rearmament.
In March 1936, German troops reoccupied the Rhineland in the first overt breach of the Versailles and Locarno treaties. This slap in the face to the French, who had occupied the region over a decade earlier, ensured widespread adulation of the Fuehrer in Germany, even among many who had not voted for him. Their support and the supine Anglo-French reaction gave Hitler the nerve to continue on his course. Single-handed, he had restored German pride, while rearmament, far more than his vaunted public works programme, halted the rise in unemployment. The brutality of the Nazis and the loss of freedom seemed to most Germans a small price to pay.
Hitler's forceful seduction of the German people began to strip the country of human values, step by step. Nowhere was the effect more evident than in the persecution of the Jews, which progressed in fits and starts. Yet contrary to general belief, this was often driven more from within the Nazi Party than from above. Hitler's apocalyptic rants against Jews did not necessarily mean that he had already decided on a 'Final Solution' of physical annihilation. He was content to allow SA (Sturmabteilung) stormtroopers to attack Jews and their businesses and steal their possessions to satisfy an incoherent mixture of greed, envy and imagined resentment. At that stage Nazi policy aimed at stripping Jews of civil rights and everything they owned, and then through humiliation and harassment to force them to leave Germany. 'The Jews must get out of Germany, yes out of the whole of Europe,' Hitler told his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels on 30 November 1937. 'That will take some time yet, but will and must happen.'
Hitler's programme to make Germany the dominant power in Europe had been made quite clear in Mein Kampf, a combination of autobiography and political manifesto first published in 1925. First he would unite Germany and Austria, then he would bring Germans outside the borders of the Reich back under its control. 'People of the same blood should be in the same Reich', he declared. Only when this had been achieved would the German people have the 'moral right' to 'acquire foreign territory. The plough is then the sword; and the tears of war will produce the daily bread for the generations to come.'
His policy of aggression was stated clearly on the very first page. Yet even though every German couple had to purchase a copy on marriage, few seem to have taken his bellicose predictions seriously. They preferred to believe his more recent and oft-repeated assertions that he did not desire war. And Hitler's daring coups in the face of British and French weakness confirmed them in their hopes that he could achieve all he wanted without a major conflict. They did not see that the overheated German economy and Hitler's determination to make use of the country's head start in armaments made the invasion of neighbouring countries a virtual certainty.
Hitler was not interested merely in reoccupying the territory lost by Germany after the Versailles Treaty. He despised such a half-hearted step. He seethed with impatience, convinced that he would not live long enough to achieve his dream of Germanic supremacy. He wanted the whole of central Europe and all of Russia up to the Volga for German Lebensraum to secure Germany's self-sufficiency and status as a great power. His dream of subjugated eastern territories had been greatly encouraged by the brief German occupation in 1918 of the Baltic states, part of Belorussia, Ukraine and southern Russia as far as Rostov on the Don. This followed the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Germany's own Diktat to the nascent Soviet regime. The 'bread-basket' of Ukraine especially attracted German interest, after the near starvation caused largely by the British blockade during the First World War. Hitler was determined to avoid the demoralization suffered by Germans in 1918, which had led to revolution and collapse. This time others would be made to starve. But one of the main purposes of his Lebensraum plan was to seize oil production in the east. Some 85 per cent of the Reich's oil supplies, even in peacetime, had to be imported, and that would be Germany's Achilles heel in war.
Eastern colonies appeared the best means to establish self-sufficiency, yet Hitler's ambition was far greater than that of other nationalists. In line with his social-Darwinist belief that the life of nations was a struggle for racial mastery, he wanted to reduce the Slav population dramatically in numbers through deliberate starvation and to enslave the survivors as a helot class.
His decision to intervene in the Spanish Civil War in the summer of 1936 was not as opportunistic as has often been portrayed. He was convinced that a Bolshevik Spain, combined with a left-wing government in France, presented a strategic threat to Germany from the west, at a time when he faced Stalin's Soviet Union in the east. Once again he was able to exploit the democracies' abhorrence of war. The British feared that the conflict in Spain might provoke another European conflict, while the new Popular Front government in France was afraid to act alone. This allowed Germany's flagrant military support of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's Nationalists to ensure their ultimate victory while Hermann Goering's Luftwaffe experimented with new aircraft and tactics. The Spanish Civil War also brought Hitler and Benito Mussolini closer together, with the Italian Fascist government sending a corps of 'volunteers' to fight alongside the Nationalists. But Mussolini, for all his bombast and ambitions in the Mediterranean, was nervous about Hitler's determination to overturn the status quo. The Italian people were not ready, either militarily or psychologically, for a European war.
Eager to obtain another ally in the coming war with the Soviet Union, Hitler established the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan in November 1936. Japan had begun its colonial expansion in the Far East during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Profiting from the decay of the Chinese imperial regime, Japan established a presence in Manchuria, seized Formosa (Taiwan) and occupied Korea. Its defeat of Tsarist Russia in the war of 1904-5 made it the major military power in the region. Anti-western feeling grew in Japan with the effects of the Wall Street Crash and the worldwide depression. And an increasingly nationalistic officer class viewed Manchuria and China in a similar way to the Nazis' designs on the Soviet Union: as a landmass and a population to be subjugated to feed the home islands of Japan.
The Sino-Japanese conflict has long been like a missing section in the jigsaw of the Second World War. Having begun well before the outbreak of fighting in Europe, the conflict in China has often been treated as a completely separate affair, even though it saw the largest deployment of Japanese ground forces in the Far East, as well as the involvement of both the Americans and the Soviet Union.
In September 1931, the Japanese military created the Mukden Incident, in which they blew up a railway to justify their seizure of the whole of Manchuria. They hoped to turn the region into a major food-producing region as their own domestic agriculture had declined disastrously. They called it Manchukuo and set up a puppet regime, with the deposed emperor Henry Pu Yi as figurehead. The civilian government in Tokyo, although despised by officers, felt obliged to support the army. And the League of Nations in Geneva refused Chinese calls for sanctions against Japan. Japanese colonists, mainly peasants, poured in to seize land for themselves with the government's encouragement. It wanted 'one million households' established as colonial farmers over the next twenty years. Japan's actions left it isolated diplomatically, but the country exulted in its triumph. This marked the start of a fateful progression, both in foreign expansion and in military influence over the government in Tokyo.
A more hawkish administration took over and the Kwantung Army in Manchuria extended its control almost to the gates of Peking. Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government in Nanking was forced to withdraw its forces. Chiang claimed to be the heir of Sun Yat-sen, who had wanted to introduce a western-style democracy, but he was really a generalissimo of warlords.
The Japanese military began to eye their Soviet neighbour to the north and cast glances south into the Pacific. Their targets were the Far Eastern colonies of Britain, France and the Netherlands, with the oilfields of the Dutch East Indies. The uneasy stand-off in China was then suddenly broken on 7 July 1937 by a Japanese provocation at the Marco Polo Bridge outside the former capital of Peking. The Imperial Army in Tokyo assured Emperor Hirohito that China could be defeated in a few months. Reinforcements were sent across to the mainland and a horrific campaign ensued, fired partly by a Chinese massacre of Japanese civilians. The Imperial Army was unleashed. But the Sino-Japanese War did not end in a rapid triumph as the generals in Tokyo had predicted. The appalling violence of the attacker stimulated a bitter resistance. Hitler failed to recognise the lesson for his own onslaught against the Soviet Union four years later.
Some westerners began to see the Sino-Japanese War as a counterpart to the Spanish Civil War. Robert Capa, Ernest Hemingway, W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, the film
maker Joris Ivens and many journalists all visited and expressed their sympathy and support for the Chinese in general. Left-wingers, a few of whom visited the Chinese Communist headquarters in Yenan, supported Mao Tsetung, even though Stalin backed Chiang Kaishek and his party, the Kuomintang. But neither the British nor the American government was prepared to take any practical steps.
Neville Chamberlain's government, like most of the British population, was still prepared to live with a rearmed and revived Germany. Many conservatives saw the Nazis as a bulwark against Bolshevism. Chamberlain, a former lord mayor of Birmingham of old-fashioned rectitude, made the great mistake of expecting other statesmen to share similar values and a horror of war. He had been a highly skilled minister and a very effective chancellor of the Exchequer, but he knew nothing of foreign policy or defence matters. With his wing-collar, Edwardian moustache and rolled umbrella, he proved to be totally out of his depth when confronted by the gleaming ruthlessness of the Nazi regime.
Others, even those of left-wing sympathies, were also reluctant to confront Hitler's regime, for they were still convinced that Germany had been treated most unfairly at the Versailles conference. They also found it hard to object to Hitler's professed desire to bring adjacent German minorities, such as those in Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, within the Reich. Above all, the British and French were horrified by the idea of another European war. To allow Nazi Germany to annex Austria in March 1938 appeared a small price to pay for world peace, especially when the majority of Austrians had voted in 1918 for Anschluss, or union, with Germany and twenty years later welcomed the Nazi takeover. Austrian claims at the end of the war to have been Hitler's first victim were completely bogus.
Hitler then decided that he wanted to invade Czechoslovakia in October. This was timed to be well after German farmers had brought in the harvest because Nazi ministers were afraid of a crisis in the national food supply. But to Hitler's exasperation Chamberlain and his French counterpart Edouard Daladier, during the Munich negotiations in September, offered him the Sudetenland in the hope of preserving peace. This deprived Hitler of his war, but allowed him eventually to take over the whole country without a fight. Chamberlain also made a fundamental error in refusing to consult Stalin. This influenced the Soviet dictator's decision the following August to agree to a pact with Nazi Germany. Chamberlain, rather like Franklin D. Roosevelt later with Stalin, believed with misplaced complacency that he alone could convince Hitler that good relations with the western Allies were in his own interest.
Some historians have argued that, if Britain and France had been prepared to fight in the autumn of 1938, events might have turned out very differently. That is certainly possible from a German point of view. The fact remains that neither the British nor the French people were psychologically prepared for war, mainly because they had been misinformed by politicians, diplomats and the press. Anyone who had tried to warn of Hitler's plans, such as Winston Churchill, was simply regarded as a warmonger.
Only in November were eyes opened to the real nature of Hitler's regime.
Following the assassination of a German embassy official in Paris by a young Polish Jew, Nazi stormtroopers unleashed the German pogrom known as Kristallnacht from all the broken shop windows. With the warclouds over Czechoslovakia that autumn, a 'violent energy' had brewed up within the Nazi Party. The SA stormtroopers burned synagogues, attacked and murdered Jews, and smashed their shop windows, prompting Goering to complain about the cost in foreign exchange of replacing all the plate glass which came from Belgium. Many ordinary Germans were shocked, but the Nazis' policy of isolating the Jews soon succeeded in persuading the vast majority of their fellow citizens to be indifferent to their fate. And all too many were later tempted by the easy pickings of looted possessions, expropriated apartments and the 'Aryanization' of Jewish businesses. The Nazis were exceptionally clever in the way they drew more and more fellow citizens into their circle of crime.
Hitler's seizure of the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 — a flagrant contravention of the Munich Agreement – finally proved that his claim of bringing ethnic Germans back into the Reich was little more than a pretext to increase his territory. British outrage forced Chamberlain to offer guarantees to Poland as a warning to Hitler against further expansion.
Hitler complained later that he had been thwarted from having a war in 1938 because 'the British and French accepted all my demands at Munich'. In the spring of 1939 he explained his impatience to the Romanian foreign minister: 'I am now fifty,' he said. 'I would rather have the war now than when I am fifty-five or sixty.'
Hitler thus revealed that he intended to achieve his goal of European domination during a single lifetime, which he expected to be short. With his manic vanity, he could not trust anyone else to carry on his mission. He regarded himself as literally irreplaceable and told his generals that the fate of the Reich depended on him alone. The Nazi Party and his whole chaotic form of governance were never designed to produce stability and continuity. And Hitler's rhetoric of the 'Thousand Year Reich' revealed a significant psychological contradiction, coming as it did from a determined bachelor who took a perverse pride in being a genetic dead-end while harbouring an unhealthy fascination with suicide.
On 30 January 1939, the sixth anniversary of his taking power, Hitler made an important speech to the parliamentary deputies of the Reichstag. In it he included his fatal 'prophecy', one to which he and his followers in the Final Solution would compulsively hark back. He claimed that the Jews had laughed at his predictions that he would lead Germany and 'also bring the Jewish problem to its solution'. He then declaimed: 'I want today to be a prophet again: if international Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will be not the Bolshevization of the earth and therefore the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.' This breathtaking confusion of cause and effect lay at the heart of Hitler's obsessive network of lies and self-deception.
Although Hitler had prepared for war and had wanted war with Czechoslovakia, he still could not understand why the British attitude should now switch so suddenly from appeasement to resistance. He still intended to attack France and Britain later, but that was to be at a time of his own choosing. The Nazi plan, following the bitter lesson of the First World War, was designed to compartmentalize conflicts to avoid fighting on more than one front at the same moment.
Hitler's surprise at the British reaction revealed this autodidact's very imperfect grasp of world history. The pattern of Britain's involvement in almost every European crisis since the eighteenth century should have explained the Chamberlain government's new policy. The change had nothing to do with ideology or idealism. Britain was not setting out to make a stand against fascism or anti-semitism, even if the moral aspect later became useful for national propaganda. Its motives lay in a traditional strategy. Germany's hostile occupation of Czechoslovakia clearly revealed Hitler's determination to dominate Europe. That was a threat to the status quo, which even a weakened and unbellicose Britain could never countenance. Hitler also underestimated Chamberlain's anger at having been so comprehensively deceived at Munich. Duff Cooper, who had resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty over the betrayal of the Czechs, wrote that Chamberlain 'had never met anyone in Birmingham who in the least resembled Adolf Hitler ... Nobody in Birmingham had ever broken his promise to the mayor.'
Hitler's intentions were now chillingly clear. And the shock of his pact with Stalin in August 1939 confirmed that Poland would be his next victim. 'State boundaries', he had written in Mein Kampf, 'are made by man and are changed by man.' In retrospect, the cycle of resentment since the Treaty of Versailles may appear to have made the outbreak of another world war inevitable, but nothing in history is predestined. The aftermath of the First World War had certainly created unstable frontiers and tensions across much of Europe. But there can be no doubt that Adolf Hitler was the chief architect of this new and far more terrible conflagration, which spread across the world to consume millions, including eventually himself. And yet, in an intriguing paradox, the first clash of the Second World War — the one in which Yang Kyoungjong was first captured — began in the Far East.


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If you believe launching an advertising campaign is enough to beat your competitors, we have bad news for you then: those days are far behind us. And here's the truth: most customers opt for skipping an ad, as they are fed up with the overly polished professional pictures that seem too good to be true.
As Forbes has revealed, customers crave authenticity. Thus, marketers are seeking out ways to deliver the genuine messages that align with their brand principles. For this reason, the collaboration with influencers has been booming over the past few years.
The numbers speak for themselves: 92% of consumers worldwide say they trust word-of-mouth more than advertising, 84% of people claim user-generated content on a company website has some influence on making purchase decisions, and 46% of Internet users rely on online reviews posted by other customers.
Yes, spending $1,000 on Instagram influencer marketing is worth it.
So, wouldn't it be great if you could enter an already-established community to share your message?
In fact, 84% of marketers judge the collaboration with influencers to be effective as it allows creating authentic stories instead of ads.
When it comes to choosing an opinion leader for your marketing campaign, you must want to collaborate with top-notch influencers who have the significant mass of followers, right?
It makes sense at first blush, but more and more proficient marketers believe that working with micro-influencers is more effective.
- 82% of consumers reported that they were highly likely to follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer.
- Influencers with 1000 fans show an 85% higher lift than influencers with 100k followers.
- Non-celebrity bloggers are 10x more likely to influence an in-store purchase than celebrities.
Micro-influencers can be an amazing alternative to costly agencies, and a big dog Unilever made the most out of it when its margarine brand Stork ran an ad campaign last summer.
Showing results is not optional, and micro-influencers prove it. After posting images to their Instagram accounts, around 436,000 followers saw the images over the campaign period, generating 11,900 likes and comments with the cost 21 cents per engagement.
Still not convinced you're ready to consider collaborating with micro-influencers?
Here's the list of reasons why you'd better lay a bet on micro-influencers in 2018.
1. Get Your Voice Heard
If you have tried to reach a social influencer at least once, you probably know it takes a lot of time and effort to get his response.
The thing is, macro-influencers just don't have enough time in the day to reply to all people. Neil Patel once proved it:
The more followers an opinion leader has, the more businesses want to reach out. Macro-influencers get many inquiries, and it's more likely your request will get buried in their Direct Messages.
What makes you any different from the millions of other marketers hoping for attention?
Obviously, you may know some tricks and tips to implement a successful influencer campaign. You may even know that the success of any outreach campaign depends on the offer, the urgency, creativity, and the number of your competitors.
When you keep an eye on niche-focused opinion leaders, you work in a less-competitive environment as their audiences can't suit every brand needs. Thus, micro-influencers get fewer inquiries, and it's easier to convince them to work with you.
But wait, there's more. Collaborating with micro-influencers, you can connect with other opinion leaders if you can provide a social proof.
For example:
It's proven that micro-influencers seek out support, so they often hang out with other opinion leaders. Kimberly Price, senior social media strategist at Merkley + Partners, says: "A technique that I've found successful is to find a network of connected micro-influencers. They tend to support each other by sharing each other's posts and leaving comments on each other's content."
Laying a bet on micro-influencers, you can gain their attention (as they are not overwhelmed with the number of inquires) and you get your voice heard.
2. Spend Less Money
First things first:
Looking for the most cost-effective online customer-acquisition channels, marketers put influencer and email marketing in the first place, according to Tomoson Blog archives:
Moreover, statistics prove that customers rely on influencers. Thus, around 48% of U.S. marketers have planned to increase their influencer marketing budgets:
However, most brands can't still afford celebrity influencers like Selena Gomez who charges $550,000 per post.
Whilst top celebs are earning the big bucks on Instagram, it can be also difficult for brands to work with other macro-influencers with the high follower count (around 100k) as they can earn close to $800 per post.
Don't have much money to afford influencer shoutouts? Turn to micro-influencers!
No matter how many followers a micro-influencer has, he or she should be compensated to feel rewarded. Depending on the follower count, influencers expect different offers, and it's logical to offer something more generous to a person with 10k followers. However, it doesn't have to be financial compensation.
How can you motivate micro-influencers for the collaboration?
- Pay for the collaboration. Although there's no one-size-fits-all solution on how to define the price, the overall average fee is $271 per post.
- Publish their posts and tag them on your social media. Shoutouts can help micro-influencers attract new followers.
- Send branded freebies. If you want an influencer to talk about you, let him love your product, and there's no better way than giving an opportunity to get a branded freebie.
Some opinion leaders may mention your product in their photos for free, but you'd better do not hasten to post this user-generated content without permission.
Here's the deal:
A professional photographer, Max Dubler, had wrote a blog post "No, You Can't Use My Photos on Your Brand's Instagram for Free" where he explained that Instagram users like him want to be asked for a permission to post their photos and/or be compensated properly. His story got 2,200 upvotes and around 400 supportive comments on Reddit.
The moral of the story: all for-profit businesses use social media advertising to help them boost sales and make more money, so influencers expect compensation.
The bottom line? Collaborating with micro-influencers is underpriced, so working with them is a proven way to build your brand loyalty without spending much.
3. Connect with More Influencers
It comes as no surprise that influencer marketing is booming.
According to a Tomoson study, companies that use influencer marketing are making $6.50 for every $1 they invest in it. Thus, more and more businesses start increasing their budgets on influencer marketing.
The Altimeter Group has revealed that half of the marketers allocate less than $100,000 annually, spending just 10% of the budget on the influencer cost:
And here's the deal:
It's up to you to choose whether you want to pay $10,000 to a top-notch macro-influencer to get one post or spend the same sum to collaborate with 20 micro-influencers and reach a wider audience.
There's no need to do crazy math calculations to understand: when you're on a budget, making appropriate decisions is a must. You need to get the best results, and you can't wait to see whether one macro-influencer will work well for you.
You must have heard the following proverb: don't put all your eggs in one basket.
The solution? Spread your investments over several different investment areas in order to reduce your risk of failure.
Collaborating with micro-influencers is cost-effective, so you're able to connect with more opinion leaders and see what works best for you.
4. Save Time
No matter what business goals you have, you must want to achieve them faster, as you don't have time to waste.
Obviously, any marketing tactic requires time to see results but influencer marketing allows you to drive sales without sitting around for 3-6 months.
If you want to reach more customers with the help of macro-influencers, get ready to spend some time to get published on their accounts. It's not a secret that influencers make money online, so they can't afford to make mistakes on Instagram, and spamming isn't an option.
According to Coschedule research, it's better to publish 1-2 Instagram posts per day:
The more popular influencer is, the longer it takes to go live on the feed. As the competition is higher, your request gets into the publishing queue, and you have to wait.
Can you speed it up? Sure! Turn to micro-influencers.
Accounts with smaller audiences are less popular among marketers, which means it's easier to grab their attention and agree on the collaboration. Don't underestimate their influence power and save your time.
5. Attract More Loyal Customers
There's no secret that opinion leaders have an influence on their audiences, so they start earning money by promoting various products on their social networks. It takes several minutes to point out paid spokespeople on social media, and the trust level falls.
Authenticity comes under the question when one in two posts includes the #ad hashtag. Nothing kills credibility like sponsored posts.
When it comes to micro-influencers, they have fewer fans, so they are able to create a stronger bond with their followers. Moreover, a significant part of their following count includes friends and family, and 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations over advertising.
And the best part is… you gain loyal customers!
Collaborating with micro-influencers is a proven way to attract more loyal customers, and therefore fuel sales.
6. Maximize Instagram Sales
It goes without saying that macro-influencers can reach more costumers, as they have enormous fan bases. However, the follower count isn't the only one thing marketers should pay attention to when assessing an influencer collaboration.
What should be high on your list? An average engagement rate.
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub 2017 Study, micro-influencers have a higher engagement rate, as they are able to build more personal relationships with their fans. Moreover, their following usually consists of friends and family, so their posts are much more trustworthy and engaging.
Look: the social media engagement rate is the percentage of people who have seen your content and interact by liking or commenting. Thus, it's so important to increase Instagram visibility, and therefore get noticed by more users.
In plain English, when the number of followers goes up, the engagement rate goes down. Thus, larger influencers get fewer engagements per follower.
Micro-influencers win out in attracting intensely engaged audiences, and they drive more sales. Their recommendations are more valued and trusted, especially if you've optimized Instagram for ecommerce.
7. Get Better Results Over the Long Haul
So your brand mention has just gone live on a micro-influencer's profile. It even generates followers, likes, and comments. The only thing left now is to wrap up your collaboration by sending a thank-you message to an opinion leader, right? Well, you'd better think again.
Influencer marketing means the stuff like reaching out, establishing a contact, discussing the details and much more. Obviously, it takes a lot of time and effort. If you want to make the most out of it, don't think of partnerships one-offs.
Keep nurturing your relationships with micro-influencers to invest in the future!
Most micro-influencers are just starting up, so gaining experience in blogging, their number of their follower count is growing. For example, the same influencer can go from 4000 to 10k followers within 6 months, which means gaining even more loyal followers soon.
What does it mean to a brand? If you're able to establish and maintain a good relationship with a micro-influencer, you may be able to collaborate with him in the future again, driving even better results.
A great example is MyBookMark, a young brand that designs unique handmade bookmarks. On its IG account, you can find a lot of UGC posts, and they collaborate with niche-focused bloggers worldwide. One example is their collaboration with Eunice a.k.a. @nerdytalksbooksblog who has been mentioning the shop in her posts from time to time.
Let's take a look at the results she had with two posts taken on Jan 2016 and May 2017, respectively. Eunice has built a more loyal following for just over a year with 3.5x higher engagement rate!
What can we learn from MyBookMark? If you keep on maintaining a good relationship with a micro-influencer, it's more likely you will be able to collaborate again in the future, leaving your competitors behind. Over the long haul, the payoff is huge.
Wrapping it Up
When it comes to influencer marketing, less is more.
Although micro-influencers have fewer followers on their social media accounts, you can expect higher engagement rates without spending much on the collaboration. It appears that not only small businesses turn to micro influencers, but also big dogs like Sephora, Unilever, and Gillette run such campaigns in order to reach a wider audience.
So, have you already implemented a micro-influencer marketing strategy?
Hugh Beaulac is a content manager who seeks out ways to promote his business, and he gives Instagram influencer marketing a try. If you want to learn more about the digital marketing trends, follow Hugh on Twitter to find his latest works.


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Ajax announced the hiring on Tuesday, with Jol replacing Marco van Basten, who resigned three weeks ago.
Jol led Hamburg to the Uefa Cup and German Cup semifinals in his first season in charge and the team ended fifth in the Bundesliga.
Jol, who previously managed Tottenham, signed a three-year contract with Ajax. The club ended third in the Dutch league this season, behind AZ Alkmaar and FC Twente, after inconsistent performances.
The 53-year-old Dutchman said he was looking forward to returning to work in Holland after his spells in England and Germany.
"Ajax is a fantastic club and I'm really looking forward to starting work," Jol said. "I have really enjoyed my time at Hamburg. It's a big club and Hamburg is a great city to work and live in."
As well as coaching Ajax's first team, Jol has been given control over the buying and selling of players, scouting and the club's renowned youth development program.
A former player with clubs including Bayern Munich, West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City, Jol coached Dutch teams Roda JC Kerkrade and RKC Waalwijk before moving to Spurs.
Ajax director Rik van den Boog said Jol fitted the club's profile for a coach to replace Van Basten – whose name has been linked with the AC Milan coaching job if Carlo Ancelotti leaves the Italian powerhouse in the summer.
Jol "has experience here and overseas," Van den Boog said. "He has worked at big and small clubs and shown he can get the most out of players. He also has shown he is prepared to give talented youth players a chance, which is critically important to us."


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Jamal Munshi: The United Nations: An Unconstrained BureaucracyPosted: August 3, 2016 Filed under: BIG Government, Climate Alarmism, Climate Fraud, Dud predictions, Eco-Activists, Environmentalists, Fact Check, Government Grants/Funding, Govt Climate Agenda, Green Agenda, ICLEI, IPCC, Pseudo-Science, Scientific Fraud, Taxpayer waste, UN, UNEP, UNFCCC, Warmism, Wealth Redistribution, WHO | Tags: Climate alarmism, Climate Change Scam, Global Warming Scam, Green Agenda, Ozone scare, UN, UNEP, UNFCCC, United Nations Leave a comment
The United Nations is financed mostly by taxpayers from a few donor countries but the large and growing bureaucracy is too far removed from those taxpayers to be directly accountable to them. It is run by unelected, unaccountable, undisciplined, and incompetent bureaucrats. The organization's size, budget, and scope are unconstrained. The budget funding process provides perverse incentives for these bureaucrats to increase the size and scope of their organization simply by creating multitudes of agencies and programs, and by inventing problems and environmental crises set on a global scale.
An article about the failings of the UN highlights a paper by our friend Jamal Munshi -Professor Emeritus at Sonoma State University:
The situation has become so bad that some academics have concluded that it is time to shut down the UN's out-of-control bureaucracies. A paper by Sonoma State University Professor Emeritus Jamal Munshi published by the Social Science Research Network, for example, makes a solid case for ditching the UN environmental bureaucracy. Under the headline "The United Nations: An Unconstrained Bureaucracy," the June 2016 paper concludes that "unconstrained and undisciplined public sector bureaucracies do not serve the interest of the public" and that "such UN bureaucracies can safely be dismantled without any harm to the public interest."
In a note to The New American, Professor Munshi said that "the case study is specific to the UNEP, however, the broader conclusion that we can draw from the UNEP…
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WHO Forecast Exaggerates Climate DeathsPosted: December 2, 2014 Filed under: Climate Alarmism, Climate Refugees, UN, WHO | Tags: Climate alarmism, climate refugees, UN, WHO Leave a comment
Brings back fond memories of that other climate alarmist story when "The UN "disappears" 50 million climate refugees, then botches the disappearing attempt" !
New paper faults World Health Organisation's wilful exaggeration
A new briefing paper from the Global Warming Policy Foundation examines the World Health Organisation's recent report on climate change and finds that its estimates of future mortality from global warming are grossly exaggerated.
The WHO report predicted that climate change would bring about 250,000 extra deaths annually between 2030 and 2050, but relied upon absurd assumptions to reach this conclusion. For example, the report assumes that the people affected by climate change will forgo commonsense steps to protect themselves, including several that are already in the works in some developing countries.
Briefing paper author Dr Indur Goklany said:
"The idea that people would not, for example, react to higher sea levels by building higher sea defences or even moving away from the coast is preposterous, so for the WHO to suggest such a high death toll from climate change completely misleads…
View original post 165 more words


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If you are a school or property custodian, a resort manager, a development engineer or from similar industries, chances are you would require map illustrations for the area that you handle. To realize a useful illustration map, look for an expert who will design and deliver an illustrated map for you. You can find a number of map illustrators online. With a few clicks, you can easily get some background information about the illustrator including the services it offers and expertise. To hire the right illustrator, take a look at these tips.
Search the internet
The internet holds a lot of information and that includes map makers and illustrators. Visit the website of different professionals who create map illustrations and create a shortlist of viable illustrators. When you visit the website, look for the sample works found on the portfolio tab of the illustrator. This will give you an idea on the quality and results of the projects including the applicable rates and charges for each project. Find out if the illustrator specializes on a specific field or if she can perform different kinds of illustration techniques. Read customer feedback or product review from previous customers including the professionalism of the illustrator and how timely she can deliver the outputs.
Ask your network
You can also find an illustrator from industries that are related to map illustration. If you have recently sought the services of graphic artists, designers, graphic illustrators, architects and professional service provides, ask them if they know of an illustrator that they can refer. People in similar industries usually know each other and would recommend those they know can deliver your requirements.
Ask for recommendations
If you know a friend or somebody who recently sought the services of an expert creator for map illustrations, ask for the illustrator's contact detailsto see how you can get in touch with her. Check the portfolio of the map illustrator including where he obtained his trainings or the number of years he has been in the business creating illustrated maps for customers like you.


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Disclaimer: This post contains gratuitous amounts of detail that may be of no interest to the average reader.
On Tuesday, January 10th, Dave and I hit the sack around 11:15 pm. Before we said goodnight, my sweet husband prayed for me, as I was suddenly feeling extra nervous about labor. Then we exchanged a kiss and rolled over. (And if you know my husband, you know that, for him, "rolled over" is almost always the same as "instantly fell deeply asleep.")
At 11:42, if I recall correctly, I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. I was getting very drowsy and had almost been asleep, but now I needed to use the bathroom. I pushed back the covers and walked across the room. About one step away from the tiled bathroom floor, I felt that strange pop and warm gush that meant my water had just broken. Well, praise the Lord I wasn't in the bed, I thought.
I proceeded to the toilet to get cleaned up. A few moments later, as I rummaged through our closet in search of pads, Dave popped his head up out of the bed. "Is everything ok?"
"Well, my water just broke," I replied.
"Okay then," said Dave. And I could tell that there would be no more deep sleep for him that night.
I went downstairs and called the midwives. This was the first time my water broke before the onset of serious contractions, so I wasn't quite sure of the protocol. The midwife on call, Tara, said that I had 12 hours from the time my water broke to start contracting naturally. So I headed back upstairs, gave Dave the update, put some towels on my half of the bed, and lay down.
Within 10 minutes, contractions began. I lay there timing them from 12:15 to 1:00. By that time, they were about four minutes apart. I decided we should probably call my mom so she could come up to stay with the kids. Once she was on her way, I hit the shower, and Dave got up to dress, call the midwife back, and pack the car.
By the time I was out of the shower and dressed, contractions were strong enough that I had to stop and just breathe through each one. Ouch. Using the bathroom a final time before we left the house took forever because I had to keep stopping. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out. Big sigh. OK.
At exactly 2:00 am, we were in the van pulling away from our house. The great thing about being in labor in the middle of the night is that you can breeze straight to the hospital with no traffic and hardly any stop lights. The not-so-great thing? Deer on the road. Fortunately, we missed hitting the ones that were in our path. (I had my eyes closed for much of the trip and didn't realize at the time why we suddenly slowed down in the middle of a deserted Rt. 27.)
We made it to the hospital, and I noticed as we parked that there was frost on the windshield of the car in front of us. It was strange to make the slow trudge from parking lot to entrance--the air around us was so cold, yet there was this steady seep of warmth down my leg as a fresh flow of amniotic fluid began.
In through the automatic doors, then a right turn. The doorman asked if we needed a wheelchair. No, please. Anything but sitting down again. Down a desolate hallway. Into the elevator. Up to the third floor where the warmth and quiet bustle of the mother/baby floor enveloped us. Papers, signatures, and then... a nurse appeared to lead us to Labor and Delivery.
We entered our room, and the midwife and a nurse were waiting. "Hi, Cara, I'm Tara," said the midwife, standing (her "ar" the ar in star, so that her name did not rhyme with mine). "I'm the only one you haven't met yet, unfortunately," she said.
"That's ok," I replied. It was true that I never had a prenatal appointment with Midwife Tara, but I didn't care. She was calm, quiet, and attentive without being over-familiar. I could tell I was in good hands.
In a few minutes, I was sitting on the bed with a monitor strapped to my belly and a blood-pressure cuff on my arm. Tara pronounced me already 8 or 9 cm. dilated, which was heavenly music to me. Baby Boy's heartbeat sounded good. He was behaving much like I remembered Matthew behaving during labor--every contraction resulted in wild flailing and kicking, as if he was protesting being pushed out of his snug, dark home. Or maybe he was trying to help remove himself?
After the initial 20 minutes of monitoring, I was allowed to get off the bed and move around at will. Tara asked if I wanted to use a birthing ball (one of those large exercise balls that you can sit on). I replied that I had never used one before but wouldn't mind trying it. So for about the next hour, I sat on this enormous ball, leaning my head on the edge of the bed, breathing through contractions. Dave sat beside me, occasionally rubbing my back, holding my hand, whispering encouragement and being the quiet, mostly hands-off labor coach I need and love.
At some point, Tara encouraged me to try and "empty my bladder" if possible, to free up that space for Baby to move on down. I obediently went to the bathroom, even though I was about 99% certain that my bladder was empty, based on the fact that I had drunk almost nothing since labor began. While I was sitting in there, the contractions/abdominal pressure suddenly became so intense that I wondered if I should begin pushing... or if I was, in fact, pushing already. I'm always a little fuzzy on what's really going on in this phase. I think it's my version of transition.
At any rate, I made it back to the birthing ball and continued to breathe through strong contractions. At this point, Tara needed to go triage another laboring woman who had recently arrived at the hospital. I think Dave and I both could have told her that this probably wasn't the best time for her to leave, but... well, neither of us is very aggressive in situations like this. So Tara stepped out for a few minutes.
The nurse was now at the side of the bed with me and Dave, trying to get an updated read on the baby's heartbeat. I remember her placing the monitor way up high on my belly, near my belly button. "I think he's down here," I told her, moving her hand WAY down to where Tara had last monitored him.
As I recall, it was only a moment later that I knew it was really time to push. Like, right now. I don't know whether I was already standing up or not, but I know that when I started to push, I was standing. I thought of my friend Kia, who recently gave birth to her sixth baby, at home, while standing beside her dining room table. I reached down to see if I could feel the baby's head. I wasn't sure, but another contraction was on its way.
Then I was yelling like an Amazon woman and pushing for all I was worth, and the baby was coming out fast. I reached for his head, not sure who else might be prepared to catch him. Tara, having heard my hollering from the hallway, slipped back into the room, saw what was happening, and urgently called out to me, "Slow down!" I relaxed my pushing just a little bit, and I guess that Tara made it over to me in time to turn the baby and help ease him out. I felt an enormous release of pressure... and there, upside-down and purply-red and bloody and beautiful, was my baby. The nurse called it at 4:08 a.m., a short four (plus) hours after my water broke.
The baby wasn't crying or breathing very well at first, so they spent a moment suctioning fluid out of him. Once it became clear that he was OK, I made a somewhat awkward transition onto the bed. (Awkward because I had an umbilical cord attached to a baby hanging out of me as I tried to maneuver upward. Also there was a large puddle of blood and stuff on the floor and all over my feet.) But I made it. And then I got to hold my little man for the first time.
And I held him.
And I held him.
And I held him.
And he was wonderful and perfect and sweet and whole, and, holy cow, did I just push a NINE POUND, SIX OUNCE BABY out of my body while standing straddle legged and sounding my barbaric yawp?! Talk about feeling like a natural woman!
And I still can't help marveling, whenever I think about it, about the strange and awesome way God made a woman's body to work--and a baby's body to grow within her. No doubt--it's a process riddled with all of the inconveniences and agonies of the Genesis 3 curse--but strange and awesome it remains. And I'm very grateful--and humbled--to have had the privilege of experiencing it four times. And to have four beautiful babes to show for it. Thank you, Lord.


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Brand Development
Your business brand is more than just a logo! Your brand is is the essence of your business. Understanding and defining your brand is key to the successful marketing of your small business.
A clearly defined business brand means you will be able to express your business or offering to your target market(s) in a way that will connect with them, that they will identify with and be more likely to respond to.
When we help you with you business brand, we look at all aspects of your business, from you product or service list, pricing, target markets, marketing (or business) goals, features and benefits, key messages, creating a clear and consistent brand identity that makes your marketing easy!
What you get:
- Personal attention and guidance to help you understand your business and how to implement your small business marketing
- A-ha moments about your business and what it is really all about
- A clear understanding of how you are positioning your business and how you want it to be perceived by your target markets
- A comprehensive brand document that sets out your brand, marketing messaging and positioning, develops the key customer benefits of your business, defines your target markets, creates your point of difference and strap line (your business name too if you don't have one), sets your creative direction and more…
Your brand document becomes the living, guiding principle behind any marketing you do and makes it more successful. Clear branding is as important to a small businesses today, as a mobile phone is to a teenager!


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Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day I thought a little blog about hearts would be nice. No, I'm not talking about human hearts here, I'm talking chicken, beef, lamb and pig hearts; that
little consumed organ that is really quite delectable. Here on the farm when we make a chicken stock we often throw twenty or so hearts into the pot. They never last long
though! Both of our kids love them and can't get enough.
Organ meats are not your everyday fare but they are becoming increasingly more popular due to their outstanding nutrient density and their attractive price.
Catherine Ebeling and Mike Geary, authors of The Fat Burning Kitchen Program point out that most predatory animals instinctively eat the organ meats of their kill before moving on to the more muscular meats. These animals instincively know that these organs are the most nutrient dense. The authors go on to explain that even vitamin C and D can be found in organ meats. Dr. Weston A. Price also has written about the many health benefits of offal (liver, heart, tongue, brain, kidneys). Dr. Price's research found that organ meats can be from 10 to 100 times richer in vitamins and minerals than muscle meats!
I must say that I wasn't always a heart-eater but once I tried one, I won't turn one down. In fact, I like pretty much all of the offal that I have tried and it certainly has helped to have known the origin of the meat. Organ meats are not for everyone but for those of you who are willing to give it a whirl, you may be pleasantly surprised.
If you are feeling daring or feel like you could use an extra boost of nutrients try these two yummy and simple recipes for cooking chicken and beef hearts. Enjoy!
Sauteed Chicken Hearts
1-2 lbs chicken hearts
1 leek or onion
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil or butter (I love to use ghee)
salt and pepper to taste
Saute the leeks or onion in butter or oil for five minutes or so
add chicken hearts and sautee until firm and brown.
Beef Heart Skewers
1 3 lb. beef heart cut into chunks
1 tablespoon of butter or olive oil
Brown the chunks of beef heart in oil for a moment
turn off heat let cool and put onto wooden or metal skewers
Grill outside or on a grill pan until cooked thoroughly
If you're ready to take the leap and try some organ meats we always have them available at the farm store.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Have to vouch for your reference to Dr Price. His work, "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" is a monumental and foundational piece of work largely ignored by mainstream health care. And it's over 80 years old! I believe he states in his book that North American Indians ate the organ meats of their game and treated them as valuable as gold, before turning to cuts of meat we consider as "normal". This would prevent Vit C deficiencies. And, they would give those pieces to the members of the tribe that most needed it, such as pregnant women or women of child bearing age. Interesting huh? Great blog post Cate!
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