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No product will be dispatched without receipt of full payment. Should the product for any reason be unavailable, or currently out of stock, you will be notified on the website. The purchase price may alter over time, but the current price will always be displayed on the website. Some countries apply tax and import duties to incoming goods. Unfortunately, these are the responsibility of the purchaser to meet. Please check with your own country's incoming post regulations to determine if these apply.
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We use Australia Post Express Post International or Express Courier International to ship our products, both of which can be tracked via the Australia Post website. Deliveries to Asia can take up to 5 days, and the rest of the world, up to 10 days from dispatch. All orders are dispatched by our team twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Fridays. To simplify complicated international postal costs, we have applied a set fee of $25 for Asia and $40 for the rest of the world. It is our desire that each parcel is delivered on time, in perfect condition. We take deliberate care to box each order for its robust journey. Please ensure your address details are clear and let us know via email if you have any special delivery requests. Please ensure someone is available to sign for the parcel when it arrives.
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Every body is beautiful in its natural package, but you can make yours look flawless with special thigh shaper garments that are designed to target your hips and thighs. Redefine your lower half with targeted sculpting from compression garments, as well as luxurious hip shapewear accessories that will smoothen your skin. You'll find various levels of compression and coverage and discover the perfect thigh and hip shapers to make you feel more confident in your own skin.
You can finally say goodbye to even your peskiest target areas with garments and products designed to target the hips and thighs. Having a curvy lower half is so sexy—you're lucky if you've got one! Now all you have to do is control it. Celebrities like the Kardashians are loud and proud about their shapewear; now you can experience their secrets! Check out a variety of butt and thigh shapers with varying levels of compression so you can get just the right amount of shaping where you need it most.
Some of our favorite hip and thigh shaping options include shaping shorts like these Thigh Trainers by Amia and Bio-Ceramic Shorts by Delfin. Many of our thigh shapers are designed with high waist so you can get all-over smoothness from beneath the bust to your mid thighs. For the most powerful shaping results you'll want to check out our compression body suits like the Stephanie Bodysuit by Vedette and the Amazing Shape Open Bust Mid-Thigh Compression Bodysuit by Leonisa. And don't forget to check out our popular shaping leggings. Whatever you're shaping needs are below the waist, we've got you covered.

subset: commoncrawl


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Evgeny Morozov, author of the recently-published The Net Delusion, tweeted the other day that he felt sick having to restart discussions for Egypt about whether the country was starting a Twitter or Facebook revolt.
I know how he feels and social networks aren't the same as the courage required to get onto the streets in these countries. So I just mention quietly that Twitter stopped working in Egypt yesterday; both Twitter and Facebook seem to be blocked today. It's worth noting what the authorities think is a threat: the enhanced ability to connect and mobilise. (Readers new to this theme start here or here).
While on the subject of Morozov, if you are looking for a single piece which sums up his contra-suggestive thinking, I'd recommend this. Coming from a quite different, and more constructive, direction on the same theme are two pieces which both examine how journalism needs to adapt to verify the information that flies at us on the web. The first is from the Online Journalism Blog of my City University colleague Paul Bradshaw and lays out basic methods of verification on the web. The second is by the BBC journalist Matthew Eltringham (via Charlie Beckett) and reflects on the practical problems of sifting the truth in new circumstances and something called the "line of validation". These are both creative ways of extending the idea of "verification" which I listed when trying to pin down the definition of journalism in the digital age.
Tags: Egypt, Evgeny Morozov, Facebook, Matthew Eltringham, Paul Bradshaw, Twitter


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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Four research projects with high potential for technology commercialization have received grants through a Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences program designed to spur innovation.
The college's Research Applications for Innovation Grants — known as RAIN Grants — provide financial support that enables researchers in the college to realize the commercial potential of ongoing research projects. The ultimate aim is to stimulate economic development through transfer of technologies to the marketplace, according to Gary Thompson, associate dean for research and graduate education.
"The college is committed to fostering technology development and bringing research to the marketplace by transferring this technology to existing and startup companies," he said. "As part of the college's Entrepreneurship and Innovation initiative, the RAIN Grant program is a new source of competitive funds for researchers in the college who are prepared to take the next steps in commercializing technologies generated through their research."
To receive a grant under the program, applicants must demonstrate that funding will significantly advance research projects toward a commercial product or service. Proposals are evaluated on their scientific merit and commercialization potential. The one-year grants can be as much as $50,000.
The following projects were funded for the 2013-14 cycle:
— Cyanobacterial Biofertilizers. A project led by Mary Ann Bruns, associate professor of soil science and microbial ecology, aims to culture cyanobacteria and monitor their growth on soils. Bruns and her team will work with a company that plans to produce low-carbon liquid fuels by capturing carbon dioxide to grow cyanobacteria.
Applied to soils as a biofertilizer, cyanobacteria are expected to fix additional atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The project's goal is to quantify and validate nitrogen fixation by cyanobacterial biofertilizers following soil application under field conditions. Bruns said these data could be used to develop approved protocols for assessing carbon sequestration and nitrogen fertilizer reduction credits.
Other researchers on the project are Xin Peng, graduate student in the Intercollege Program in Ecology, and Mark Signs, director of the Shared Fermentation Facility in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
— Biopesticide for Long-term Control and Prevention of Bed Bug Infestations. Nina Jenkins, senior research associate in entomology, leads a research group that developed a biopesticide that exploits bed bugs' trait of gathering in harborages. Studies have shown that the team's novel formulations of a fungal isolate can be applied as a long-lasting barrier treatment. Bed bugs that cross the barrier acquire fungal spores and go on to spread these among insects that remain in their harborages, resulting indebilitating morbidity within two days and greater than 95 percent mortality within a week.
Jenkins has filed patent applications for the technology, which has garnered strong interest from the hotel industry. The grant will support efforts to collect additional data needed to secure Environmental Protection Agency registration of the product for in-home use.
Also on the grant are Matthew Smith, senior technology licensing officer in the Office of Technology Management at Penn State, and doctoral student Deepti Jain, a volunteer intern in the Office of Technology Management.
— Commercialization of Penn State Interseeder. With cover crops gaining favor for their ability to reduce soil erosion, take up excess nutrients, suppress weeds and provide forage and biofuel feedstock, researchers are seeking ways to improve cover-crop establishment before harvest of the primary crop. A group led by Chris Houser, research technologist in plant science, developed equipment that can seed a cover crop into no-till corn, while also applying fertilizer and post-emergent herbicide.
Seeding into an early growth stage of corn gives the cover crop time to become established before late-season harvest of the corn. In addition, accomplishing three tasks in one pass of the field can save growers time and money, making cover crops more economically feasible. The RAIN Grant will be used to market the interseeder for licensing to potential suppliers and manufacturers. The team has applied for a patent on the technology.
Corey Dillon, farm machinery operator/mechanic and master's degree candidate in agronomy, and Greg Roth, professor of agronomy, are collaborators on the project.
— From Wastes to Fuels. Nicole Brown, associate professor of wood chemistry, is the principal investigator for a project that will provide a value-added use for lignin and silica-rich rice hull ash, which are wastes from bioenergy, and pulp and paper production. Brown's team has applied for a patent for technology that incorporates these low-value products in bricks that substitute for coke, the fuel source in the metalcasting industry.
Industry trials have shown that these innovative solid-fuel bricks can reduce the energy and carbon dioxide footprints of steel and iron foundries by about 20 to 25 percent, while providing additional value for several waste or low-value materials. The group's RAIN Grant will fund research to optimize brick composition as it relates to economics and product properties.
Co-principal investigators on the research are Sridhar Komarneni, distinguished professor of clay mineralogy, and Fred Cannon, professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering.


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Physiotherapy in Richmond for Viral Arthritis
Welcome to Cambie Physiotherapy and Health Clinic's patient resource about Viral Arthritis.
We know that some viruses cause joint pain and inflammation (swelling, redness, and heat). Researchers have wondered for a long time whether some kinds of arthritis with unexplained causes may be the result of a virus. So far no one knows, partly because the virus itself may be long gone before a patient ever develops the pain and inflammation of arthritis.
This guide will help you understand:
- how viral arthritis develops
- how doctors diagnose viral arthritis
- what can be done for the condition
Where does viral arthritis develop?
Most viral infections in the body cause a limited illness. Then the body's immune system destroys the virus, and the symptoms of the illness go away.
In viral arthritis, the immune system's response to the virus causes inflammation in the joints. Even after the virus is eliminated from the body, the changes in the joint can continue to cause pain and swelling. The joint may even become permanently damaged.
Causes and Symptoms
Which viruses cause viral arthritis?
Several viruses are known to cause problems with joint inflammation and pain. Some of the most common are listed below.
Parvovirus B-19
Parvovirus B-19 is a common virus. About 60 percent of adults have been infected with it at some point in their lives. Parvovirus B-19 causes the illness called fifth disease, which causes a rash on the face and body. People usually get fifth disease as children. About 15 percent of children with fifth disease have some kind of joint pain, which usually goes away quickly. Almost 80 percent of adults who get fifth disease report sore joints within three weeks of the infection. Any joint can be involved, but usually it affects the foot, hand, knee, wrist, and ankle joints on both sides of the body. Most of the time the joint pain clears up in about two weeks, but it has been known to come and go for as long as ten years.
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B infection, which causes severe inflammation of the liver, can cause a severe and sudden form of arthritis that affects many joints on both sides of the body. The hands and knees are the most common sites, but the wrists, ankles, elbows, shoulders, and other large joints are also affected. The arthritis often starts before the jaundice (yellowness of the skin) of hepatitis, and it may last for several weeks after the jaundice is gone. For patients with chronic (meaning long-lasting) hepatitis, joint pain may come and go.
Rubella, a mild but highly infectious viral disease, causes joint pain in many adults, especially women. Joint symptoms tend to appear within a week of the rash common with this disease. The joints are usually not inflamed, but they are stiff and painful. The hands, knees, wrists, ankles, and elbows are most commonly affected. The joint pain of rubella usually goes away within two weeks, but in some cases it can last for several years.
The rubella vaccine also causes joint pain in about 15 percent of people. Joint stiffness occurs about two weeks after the shot and lasts for about a week. The vaccine has been known to cause more severe joint stiffness in some people, however, which can last for more than a year.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS. It is connected to several different forms of arthritis. When people are newly infected with HIV, they often have flu-like symptoms and joint pain. About 10 percent of HIV patients have severe joint pain that comes and goes, mostly in the shoulders, elbows, and knees. Patients with HIV are much more likely to develop reactive arthritis, Reiter's syndrome, and psoriatic arthritis. In these cases, doctors aren't sure whether HIV actually causes these forms of arthritis, or whether the arthritis occurs separately. Up to 30 percent of HIV patients also suffer from fibromyalgia.
In some cases, viruses that cause arthritis type symptoms can be carried by insects. Alphaviruses, one such family of viruses, are carried by mosquitoes in Africa, Australia, Europe, and Latin America. All can cause arthritis symptoms.
How do doctors identify viral arthritis?
There is no specific test for any type of viral arthritis. Your doctor will make the diagnosis based on other symptoms. Usually blood work and X-rays don't help. In many cases the diagnosis of viral arthritis is made after a search for other causes turns up negative and your symptoms or history suggest a virus as the cause.
What can be done for the condition?
In most cases, viral arthritis runs its course fairly quickly. Your doctor may recommend a medication to help with the discomfort. Most of the time this will be an over-the-counter pain reducer like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), such as aspirin or ibuprofen. Your doctor may also recommend use of hot or cold packs on the inflamed joints and rest.
Portions of this document copyright MMG, LLC.


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Organize your
financial life
Connect your financial data in one place, from checking accounts to credit cards to auto loans and even investment accounts.
FinLocker allows you to view your credit score and report, monitor credit, and provides a "borrower readiness" assessment, letting you know when you're likely to be approved for a mortgage.
Connect your financial data in one place, from checking accounts to credit cards to auto loans and even investment accounts.
You control what is shared and when; all data is encrypted with bank level security.
Establish goals for saving and track your progress with real-time budgets to better understand your spending.
Educational videos (over 140+) to learn more about homeownership, credit and borrowing, including mortgage terms, process and products.
Track the value of your property and recently sold homes in your area.
Your mortgage broker has partnered with FinLocker to provide this to you at no cost.
Lund Mortgage Team would like to provide you with this secure financial application to help guide your through the mortgage process and beyond.
Your FinLocker dashboard summarizes important financial information such as: account balances, transactions, net worth, budgeting, credit score and credit report, cash flow analysis, estimated home value, offers and promotions from a financial institution, all in one place.


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Linux networking is rich in features. A Linux box can be configured so it can act as a router, bridge, etc... Some of the available options are described below.
The Linux kernel has built-in support for routing functions. A Linux box can act either as an IP or IPX router for a fraction of the cost of a commercial router. Recent kernels include special options for machines acting primarily as routers:
There are some related projects which include one aiming at building a complete, running Linux router on a floppy disk: Linux router project
The Linux kernel has built-in support for acting as an Ethernet bridge, which means that the different Ethernet segments it is connected to will appear as one Ethernet to the participants. Several bridges can work together to create even larger networks of Ethernets using the IEEE802.1 spanning tree algorithm. As this is a standard, Linux bridges will interoperate properly with other third party bridge products. Additional packages allow filtering based on IP, IPX or MAC addresses.
Related HOWTOs:
IP Masquerade is a developing networking function in Linux. If a Linux host is connected to the Internet with IP Masquerade enabled, then computers connecting to it (either on the same LAN or connected with modems) can reach the Internet as well, even though they have no officially assigned IP addresses. This allows for reduction of costs, since many people may be able to access the Internet using a single modem connection as well as contributes to increased security (in some way the machine is acting as a firewall, since unofficially assigned addresses cannot be accessed outside of that network).
IP masquerade related pages and documents:
This option of the Linux kernel keeps track of IP network traffic, performs packet logging and produces some statistics. A series of rules may be defined so when a packet matches a given pattern, some action is performed: a counter is increased, it is accepted/rejected, etc.
This feature of the Linux kernel provides the possibility of setting multiple network addresses on the same low-level network device driver (e.g two IP addresses in one Ethernet card). It is typically used for services that act differently based on the address they listen on (e.g. "multihosting" or "virtual domains" or "virtual hosting services".
Related HOWTO:
The traffic shaper is a virtual network device that makes it possible to limit the rate of outgoing data flow over another network device. This is especially useful in scenarios such as ISPs, where it is desirable to control and enforce policies regarding how much bandwidth is used by each client. Another alternative (for web services only) may be certain Apache modules which restrict the number of IP connections by client or the bandwidth used.
A firewall is a device that protects a private network from the public part (the internet as a whole). It is designed to control the flow of packets based on the source, destination, port and packet type information contained in each packet.
Different firewall toolkits exist for Linux as well as built-in support in the kernel. Other firewalls are TIS and SOCKS. These firewall toolkits are very complete and combined with other tools allow blocking/redirection of all kinds of traffic and protocols. Different policies can be implemented via configuration files or GUI programs.
An increasing number of web sites are becoming interactive by having cgi-bins or Java applets that access some database or other service. Since this access may pose a security problem, the machine containing the database should not be directly connected to the Internet.
Port Forwarding can provide an almost ideal solution to this access problem. On the firewall, IP packets that come in to a specific port number can be re-written and forwarded to the internal server providing the actual service. The reply packets from the internal server are re-written to make it appear that they came from the firewall.
Port forwarding information may be found here
Demand for load balancing usually arises in database/web access when many clients make simultaneous requests to a server. It would be desirable to have multiple identical servers and redirect requests to the less loaded server. This can be achieved through Network Address Translation techniques (NAT) of which IP masquerading is a subset. Network administrators can replace a single server providing Web services - or any other application - with a logical pool of servers sharing a common IP address. Incoming connections are directed to a particular server using one load-balancing algorithm. The virtual server rewrites incoming and outgoing packets to give clients the appearance that only one server exists.
Linux IP-NAT information may be found here
EQL is integrated into the Linux kernel. If two serial connections exist to some other computer (this usually requires two modems and two telephone lines) and SLIP or PPP (protocols for sending Internet traffic over telephone lines) are used on them, it is possible to make them behave like one double speed connection using this driver. Naturally, this has to be supported at the other end as well.
The term proxy means "to do something on behalf of someone else." In networking terms, a proxy server computer can act on the behalf of several clients. An HTTP proxy is a machine that receives requests for web pages from another machine (Machine A). The proxy gets the page requested and returns the result to Machine A. The proxy may have a cache with the requested pages, so if another machine asks for the same page the copy in the cache will be returned instead. This allows efficient use of bandwidth resources and less response time. As a side effect, as client machines are not directly connected to the outside world this is a way of securing the internal network. A well-configured proxy can be as effective as a good firewall.
Several proxy servers exist for Linux. One popular solution is the Apache proxy module. A more complete and robust implementation of an HTTP proxy is SQUID.
The purpose of dial on demand is to make it transparently appear that the users have a permanent connection to a remote site. Usually, there is a daemon who monitors the traffic of packets and where an interesting packet (interesting is defined usually by a set of rules/priorities/permissions) arrives it establishes a connection with the remote end. When the channel is idle for a certain period of time, it drops the connection.
The Linux kernel allows the tunnelling (encapsulation) of protocols. It can do IPX tunnelling through IP, allowing the connection of two IPX networks through an IP only link. It can also do IP-IP tunnelling, which it is essential for mobile IP support, multicast support and amateur radio. (see http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/NET3-4-HOWTO-6.html#ss6.8)
Mobile IP specifies enhancements that allow transparent routing of IP datagrams to mobile nodes in the Internet. Each mobile node is always identified by its home address, regardless of its current point of attachment to the Internet. While situated away from its home, a mobile node is also associated with a care-of address, which provides information about its current point of attachment to the Internet. The protocol provides for registering the care-of address with a home agent. The home agent sends datagrams destined for the mobile node through a tunnel to the care-of address. After arriving at the end of the tunnel, each datagram is then delivered to the mobile node.
Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is a networking technology that allows the use of the Internet as a secure virtual private network (VPN). PPTP is integrated with the Remote Access Services (RAS) server which is built into Windows NT Server. With PPTP, users can dial into a local ISP, or connect directly to the Internet, and access their network as if they were at their desks. PPTP is a closed protocol and its security has recently being compromised. It is highly recomendable to use other Linux based alternatives, since they rely on open standards which have been carefully examined and tested.
Hosting by: Hurra Communications Ltd.
Generated: 2007-01-26 17:58:22


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"Hold on to what is good, even if it's a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe, even if it's a tree that stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do, even if it's a long way from here.
Hold on to your life, even if it's easier to let go.
Hold on to my hand, even if someday I'll be gone away from you."
~ A Pueblo Indian Prayer


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Five Important Considerations to Make with Looking for a Mental Health Institution
Finding the perfect mental health institution can be a challenge to anybody that hasn't had to work with this type of service previously. But, as long as you have guidelines that can help you make the right decision you shouldn't have anything to worry about. The following are tips that you can use to help you find the perfect health institution for your mental health.
Look for Competent Services
The first thing that you will need to spend time talking about that when it comes to identifying a good mental Health institution is the competency of the service. It is not enough to find a service that claims to provide mental health services. But, you must investigate to find out whether you are going to be getting any special services in terms of competency because mental health isn't something that any random person can help you acquire.
Look at Variety
There are mini mental health institutions that are available out there and this means that you will definitely need to spend your time making comparisons before you can arrive at the decision that works perfectly for you. If you take the time to do your research and compile a list of different mental health service providers you will easily be able to narrow them down one step at a time until you have arrived at the one mental health institution that works perfectly for you.
Look for Cost
The next important thing that you need to spend in order to get the service that you would want from the mental Health institution is another important consideration that you need to be looking into. If you haven't worked with this type of service before then you are likely not to know how much you are working with here. But, asking for quotations and doing your research is the best way to get to know how much you need to put aside for this. Also, you might want to do some research to find out whether the Health Insurance you have will cover this cost as well.
Get Recommendations
You might also want to consider asking for recommendations from people in your circles or possibly even people online who have interacted with this type of institution before. If you want to shorten the time it takes to find the perfect institution then you need to consider talking to different people because this will help you find precisely what you were looking for much faster. But, when asking for recommendations you must be certain that you are getting the information from a source that trustworthy so that you don't end up regretting the choice you made.
Look for Reviews
Finally, in order for you to make the right decision, it is important that you take a look at the feedback that comes from people who have already experienced services from this particular mental health institution. That means you should probably take a look at all my reviews to help you make this choice.


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Victorian-American Headaches: Part 2
Part 2 of 11 in a Blog Article Series; May be read in any order. Links between each are provided for ease in reading.
Victorian-era American doctors faced the challenge of diagnosing headaches, relying upon intellect, experience, and deductive reasoning. After all, physicians couldn't order a blood panel and read the results to assist in diagnostic work. This 1890 newspaper article contains a variety of types of headaches in 1890 language. I've provided translations where possible.


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In the 1800s, the man known as the father of gynecology advanced the field through painful experiments on enslaved women. Now three of those women - known by the names Anarcha, Lucy and Betsy - are being celebrated as the mothers of gynecology. Recently, women's health professionals gathered at an art installation made in their honor. Cristela Guerra has more from Montgomery, Ala.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Are you ready?
MICHELLE BROWDER: Are y'all ready to walk?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Let's go.
BROWDER: (Singing) Ain't going to let nobody...
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Turn me round.
BROWDER: See; I can sing, too.
CRISTELA GUERRA, BYLINE: Artist Michelle Browder leads the women in a song as they walk to the park, gathering in a circle around these towering mothers. On their bodies are names like Angela Davis, Serena Williams. Words like beauty and resilience are welded to their sides while African beads adorn their necks.
BROWDER: All of these women are bigger than life for me, right? So Anarcha's 15 feet tall. Betsy is about - I think she's 12. And Lucy is nine feet tall.
GUERRA: Anarcha's hips are crafted from the spades of shovels. She faces the sky, defiant and hopeful. At the center of her body, her womb is a chasm for the world to see. Visitors place flowers at the feet of the sculptures. This is, after all, what doulas and midwives do. They protect mothers.
DENISE BOLDS: We see our clients in this art, and we see the losses. We see the victories. We see the ones that make it just by the skin of their teeth. And we see the fear.
RAVAE SINCLAIR: The fear of dying.
BOLDS: It's all here. It's all here. It's all here.
GUERRA: Denise Bolds, president of Doulas of North America, or DONA International, and former president Ravae Sinclair want to empower families, to provide comfort, to see problems others might ignore, to call out the truth, which is that Black mothers die in childbirth at disproportionate rates and are three to four times more likely to suffer complications during pregnancy.
SINCLAIR: I had a mother message me this morning. She says, I have seven days to my expected due date. And I said, you made it, and you will continue to make it. She's with us because she's afraid to die. And that's it - not on our watch.
GUERRA: Browder's thought about Anarcha, Lucy and Betsy since she was 18. That's when she learned about how a white doctor named J. Marion Sims experimented on the bodies of enslaved Black women without anesthesia. He claimed to have cured them of ailments that arose from pregnancy. So Browder took the tool he invented, the speculum, and created a tiara for Betsy's head.
BROWDER: They were birthed out of pain but also because I wanted to change the narrative. I wanted to change the conversation about Black women in this country and what we have to contribute and the infant mortality rate and reproductive justice and maternal health.
GUERRA: Conversations happened over two days inside Old Ship A.M.E. Zion Church. The conference was called the Day of Reckoning. They listened to Deirdre Cooper Owens, a historian of U.S. slavery medicine, describe how this legacy of medical racism persists.
DEIRDRE COOPER OWENS: And so the embodied experiences of the legacy of medical racism is that we're not believed. We are thought to be able to withstand pain more. And class doesn't protect you. Education doesn't protect you. Your relationship status doesn't protect you.
GUERRA: One of the last speakers was Charles Johnson, an Atlanta-based father who began the nonprofit 4Kira4Moms after the loss of his wife from hemorrhage following the birth of their second son. In 2018, Johnson worked with lawmakers to pass the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, which provides funding to better investigate and review incidents of maternal mortality.
CHARLES JOHNSON: As we work to protect women and babies and put an end to the maternal mortality crisis, it's also equally as important, if not more as important, that we protect our history and that these stories are told.
GUERRA: There's a line Michelle Browder uses for the mothers of gynecology. It's from the playwright Ntozake Shange's work "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When The Rainbow Is Enuf." It reads, let her be born. Let her be born and handled warmly. For NPR News, I'm Cristela Guerra.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHROMATICS SONG, "MOVE A MOUNTAIN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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As an events organizer, your mind is conditioned to think of every worst case scenario and plan accordingly. We can honestly say that a global pandemic did not make our list of potential worst case scenarios—but here we are. Given this new reality, virtual events have become more important than ever.
Events around the world are being cancelled or postponed. It's every event organizer's worst nightmare. But we see an opportunity here: it's time to get back to basics. Let's find creative ways to continue to build community and connection in a world without the limitations of travel or cost.
In this article, you'll learn tips from Shopify's Experiential Marketing team (behind events like Shopify Unite and Pursuit) on how to plan, host, and run successful virtual events.
Virtual events: bringing offline to online
Many conferences planned for the first half of 2020 have opted to go virtual, digital, or remote, and attendees who planned to join in-person can now experience the talks and conversations from the comfort of their own homes.
With humans' ever-shortening attention spans, it's a struggle to engage attendees in this new world, but it's also an opportunity to connect in new and exciting ways. Virtual events can be quite powerful and scalable, as they allow people from around the world to gather in a virtual space, connect, and share ideas.
How to start planning your event
Just like any other event, think about the purpose of your gathering. You'll want to brainstorm and think about the following questions:
- How do you want attendees to feel?
- What format do you think would work best?
- How can you keep people feeling engaged?
- Is this a smaller, more intimate gathering limited to a certain number of people?
- Is this a larger scale event dedicated to sharing information more widely?
Aren't virtual events just webinars?
A webinar is typically one-to-many and sometimes pre-recorded, with little to no opportunity for attendees to interact with each other. Challenge yourself to think beyond a 'webinar' format—what makes your event something people wouldn't want to miss?
Decide on roles for your team during your virtual event
Similar to an in-person event, you'll want to make sure everyone on your team knows their specific role and responsibilities. Examples of virtual event roles include:
- Registration/greeter: Welcomes attendees as they join the space and is in charge of collecting attendance data after the online event.
- Chat moderator: Posts the rules/code of conduct into the chat, encourages attendee participation, and removes anyone who breaks the rules.
- Host: Makes sure that the event stays on time and follows the pre-planned agenda. This is especially helpful when there are multiple speakers.
- Technical admin: Remains on standby in case of technical issues or troubleshooting required during the virtual event. If your chosen technology fails, this person would be in charge of emailing all attendees to ask them to reboot, or provide information about Plan B technology if you need to switch tools mid-event.
You might also like: Building Partnerships: Shopify Partners Share How They're Creating Long-Term Value.
Find the right tools
Instead of a venue, you will need a platform to connect you and your attendees together. Your choice should tie back to the goals of your event, your ideal audience size, the experience you're looking to create, and the type of programming you'll offer. Here are some recommendations worth exploring:
"Instead of a venue, you will need a platform to connect you and your attendees together."
- Zoom Webinars and Zoom Rooms: For content sharing and breakout sessions. The Zoom Rooms feature allows you to break out into smaller sessions for networking, and the Zoom Webinar feature allows you to create a webinar space. Note: Zoom has received bad press from security holes in its platform recently, so don't choose this tool for confidential meetings.
- Google Meet & Hangouts: Virtual space for 1:1s and meetings that can be recorded.
- WebinarJam: Creates a recording and replay of your webinar that attendees can join anytime.
- Crowdcast: Host live video Q&As, interviews, summits, webinars, and more.
- Hopin: An online events platform built for broadcasting content and attendee collaboration.
- HeySummit: Host and manage your online summits, webinars, video content, and more.
- Livestorm: A video communication platform, offering meeting, event, and webinar functionality.
- Whereby: A flexible tool that provides you with video meetings in your browser—no downloads or logins required for guests.
Our checklist for running perfect virtual events
Now that you know who your event is for and the tools you can use to run it, here is our checklist of what to do from setup to going live, and following up after your event:
1. Practice makes perfect—test everything in advance of your event
- Test the software and your internet connection. Get your speakers and colleagues in the virtual space together to test out how it will look and feel when you get to the main event. Do this at least one day before your event.
- Plan ahead. Is there any content you can pre-record and share during the event? Perhaps a wrap-up video of some recent updates or highlights from members of your community? Your future self will thank you for anything you do to lighten your load during the actual event.
2. Set up your space
- Set up your laptop on a solid surface. Make sure there is no risk of it tipping or falling. Imagine if that happened during your event!
- Place your computer at eye level. You don't want to be looking down at your webcam.
- Connect to the power and internet. Make sure you have a solid connection so you won't freeze, lag, or drop off during your event.
- Avoid choosing a spot with a window in your shot. This will cause the background to be overexposed and you to be underexposed.
- Wear headphones with a microphone attached. Standard Apple headphones work well for this, but you can use any set of quality headphones.
- Find a quiet room. Make sure you're in a silent place without any background noise or distractions. Your audience wants to be able to hear you, and not what's going on around you.
3. Go live!
- Email your attendees. Do this the day of the event, an hour before, as well as a few minutes in advance of your start time to remind them to log in and join the session.
- Record your event. If possible, record your virtual events through a screen capture video or through the tool you are using (Google Hangouts, Zoom, etc.). This allows you to share your content afterwards with your internal team, and with attendees who couldn't make it or want to rewatch.
- Make sure your team members are aware of their roles. Everyone should feel confident that they can deliver on their responsibilities.
4. Keep your audience engaged
Think about some ways to engage your audience during the event that will discourage them from tuning out. Be aware that online and remote content is very different from on-stage content. Try to avoid long-form talks, keep content simple, and consider live Q&A or panel sessions as engaging ways to keep your audience entertained. Here are some ideas:
"Be aware that online and remote content is very different from on-stage content."
- Show your face. This may seem like a strange suggestion, but people are more likely to stay engaged if they can see the presenter. It's also a good idea to encourage audience members to keep their camera on as well. You can even have fun with it and download SnapChat filters for your camera.
- Have live music. Sound can create very powerful experiences. Think about ways you can play with sound by having a live performer kick things off or close things down. You could also assign someone as the DJ to play music from their laptop while people enter the space, setting the stage.
- Show them your pet. At the beginning of your event or while in breakout groups, have attendees get comfortable showing their space and any of their furry fellow inhabitants.
- Hold a contest. Perhaps the attendee with the best question as selected by the speaker gets a prize shipped to them or a gift card in their inbox. Contests help break up the format of speaker after speaker, and can be a fun way to keep your audience's attention.
- Use breakout groups. Some solutions like Zoom offer the opportunity to break out into smaller groups for discussion. Be sure to have questions prepared as conversation starters for these sessions.
- Don't forget to use the chat. This is a great way to encourage participants to talk amongst each other throughout your virtual events, and can also be used to share reminders or even activity prompts with the group.
- Find spontaneous ways to surprise and delight your audience. Perhaps an unannounced speaker, an icebreaker activity, a community standup time (where people can share updates, pitches, or job postings), or a giveaway. Throwing in a few random items that aren't scheduled can bring your audience's attention back.
You might also like: 5 Things You Should Know About Forming Strategic Partnerships.
5. Stay connected and follow up after the event
Once you've gone through all the work of planning, creating, and running the perfect virtual event, make sure to follow up afterwards with the following action steps:
- Create a Slack channel or Facebook group to continue the conversation. This is a space you should monitor for any questions around the content, and encourage your event speakers and community moderators to engage with attendees.
- Send a post-event email. Include a recording of the event (if possible), photos you'd like to share, highlights and key resources, a date for your next event, and a survey for attendees to share their experience and suggestions for improvement for your next event.
- Collect data. How many people joined the session? What are the most important insights from your survey results? What anecdotal stories came out of this experience? Use this data to improve and build out your next event!
Your community is here
You've made it! You've read through all the tools and tips you need to get started, but we know it's not easy.
It's common to feel anxious, nervous, and lonely during this time. Know that you're not alone in this, and that Shopify is here to support you and our community during these trying times. We're curating a wide range of upcoming events to help connect you with communities in your virtual backyard as well as around the world. Shopify Partners are also stepping up to support one another—it's been incredible to watch.
This is a new world, and we're facing it together as a community. Let's share ideas and overcome challenges as a team.
COVID-19 Response for Shopify Partners
Solidarity and community bring us together. Learn how you can stay connected to the Shopify Partner ecosystem, adjust to these complicated times, and help your clients and users along the way.
Read more


text: American Institute of Biological Sciences 1995 ANNUAL MEETING INFORMATION The 46th Annual AIBS Meeting of Scientific Societies August 6-10, 1995 Town and Country Hotel San Diego, California "Science and Ethics" As biological issues such as the preservation of endangered species, implementation of ecosystem management, and development and use of extensive human genome databases, present challenging scientific opportunities, they also present myriad ethical considerations: What is the responsibility of biologists to ensure that their data is used in an ethical manner? What safeguards are in place to prevent the misuse of data in land management decision making? Is the research community capable of effectively regulating scientific misconduct such as fraud and plagiarism? These and other questions will be addressed during the Sunday evening and Monday morning AIBS plenary sessions. Noted ethicists and scientists will present their ethical concerns along with possible solutions. Please plan to attend, and help us set the stage for a thoughtful and exciting annual meeting. San Diego, California is the site of this year's meeting. San Diego is the sixth largest city in the United States and has over 70 miles of beaches. San Diego is considered a leading center in biotechnology, biological research, and engineering and is home to such world-renowned attractions as Sea World, the San Diego Zoo (with its award-winning botanical garden) the Quail Botanical Garden, the San Diego Wild Animal Park and University of California at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, among others. ABOUT AIBS: The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) is chartered to: "further the advancement of the biological sciences and their application to human welfare, and to foster and encourage research and education in the biological, medical, environmental, and agriculture sciences." AIBS was established in 1947 by the National Academy of Sciences under federal charter. In 1955, AIBS became an independent, member-governed nonprofit (501)(c)(3) organization. AIBS currently has 5,000 individual members and has 45 affiliated societies whose combined membership totals over 80,000. For more information about AIBS, you can contact us at 730 11th St, NW, Washington, DC 20001. Or, you can visit the AIBS gopher at gopher.aibs.org or point your browser at gopher://aibs.org PARTICIPATING SOCIETIES: American Fern Society American Society for Plant Taxonomists Association for Tropical Biology Botanical Society of America International Society for Ecological Modeling Mycological Society of America Torrey Botanical Club GENERAL INFORMATION: For further information about this meeting, you can contact the AIBS Meetings Office at: Voice: 800-992-2427 FAX: 202-628-1509 email: meetings at aibs.org MEETING PROGRAM Meeting Facilities The Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center serves as the headquarters hotel and meeting facilities for the AIBS Annual Meeting. Some workshops, however, will be held at the University of San Diego and San Diego State University. Opening Plenary Session The 46th AIBS Annual Meeting of Scientific Societies will officially open on Sunday, August 6, 1995, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town and Country Hotel. W. Hardy Eshbaugh, President of AIBS will preside. Harold A. Mooney, Past-President of AIBS will receive an award and the AIBS Distinguished Service Award will be presented. The keynote speaker for the Plenary Session will be Dr. Francisco Ayala of the University of California at Irvine. Following the Plenary Session all participants are cordially invited to attend an AIBS-sponsored, all-society mixer. Scientific Program The program will consist of 8 tracks of sessions, presented by the 8 participating societies. More than 100 concurrent sessions will take place each day: poster sessions, contributed paper sessions, major symposia, workshops and special lectures. About 23 scientific field trips before and after the meeting are planned. In addition, each society sponsors an array of social events. The meeting will close on Thursday, August 10 at 5:00 p.m. The General Program, published by the AIBS Meetings Department, will be sent in advance to each person who registers by June 30, 1995. The program contains all events and information for the meeting, but does not contain abstracts. Abstracts Abstracts of most presentations will be available in the journals of the participating societies, and some can be purchased on site. Proceedings of certain sessions may be published individually following the meeting. Poster Sessions The poster size is 4' X 8' horizontal. The boards are blue or white and will stand 3 feet off the ground. Push pins may be used on the boards. Velcro is available upon request. Posters will be on display in the Atlas Ballroom of the Town and Country Hotel. Exhibits Visit the outstanding array of commercial and scientific exhibits offered in the Atlas Ballroom of the Town and Country Hotel. Representatives from publishing, software and biological equipment companies will be present. The hall will be open Monday, August 7 through Wednesday, August 9. Exhibit hall hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. A Treasure Chest Drawing will take place on Wednesday at noon, with raffled items donated by exhibitors. MEETING REGISTRATION Pre registration Avoid standing in registration lines at the meeting! Persons in the continental U.S. and Canada who register by June 30, 1995 will have the General Program, receipts, name badges and other meeting materials mailed to them before the meeting. Foreign registrants and those who register after June 30, must pick up their meeting materials at the on- site Pre registration Desk. To request a registration brochure, please call AIBS at 800-992-2427, send a fax to: 202-628-1509, or send an email message to: meetings at aibs.org Registrations are also accepted by phone ONLY using Visa or Mastercard. DO NOT SEND CREDIT CARD INFORMATION VIA EMAIL! The registration fee must be paid to obtain a name badge, which will be needed for admittance to the scientific sessions. Pre registration ends July 14, 1995. After this date you must register on-site. Early Bird Registration Fee Register by June 1, 1995 and take advantage of discounted registration fees. On-Site Registration On-site registration and distribution of name badges, programs, and tickets to those who did not receive them by mail before the meeting will take place in the Atlas Foyer of the Town and Country Convention Center. One-Day Registration One-day registration is available on-site. HOUSING INFORMATION Rooms have been reserved on behalf of meeting participants at the following locations: Town and Country Hotel: Headquarters hotel and site of all scientific sessions. Handlery Hotel: Adjacent to the Town and Country Hotel. University of San Diego: One mile from the Town and Country Hotel. Continuous shuttle service will be available to and from the Town and Country Hotel. San Diego State University: About 10 miles from the Town and Country. Those staying at this campus are responsible for their own transportation to and from the Town and Country Hotel. FURTHER INFORMATION For more information on housing or to request housing forms, please call AIBS at 800-992-2427, send a fax to: 202-628-1509, or send an email message to: meetings at aibs.org


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The Minimo Plus 4 has 4 wheels but the front two are spaced further apart. So its configuration is the same as a normal 4 wheeled scooter giving more stability.
Pneumatic tyres provide a much smoother, more comfortable ride whilst also contributing to extra range and ground clearance. The battery pack can still be lifted with one finger but a larger capacity gives greater range and durability. A more powerful control unit with up-rated electronics improves ability over more challenging terrain.
Integrated high visibility LED lights seemingly round off an impressive list of extra features but the Minimo Plus 4 goes further. Clever use of incredibly strong but lightweight carbon fibre means the overall weight is kept to a minimum. A simple quick release seat means all of these extra features can be had without making Minimo Plus any more difficult to transport or handle. Proof that you can have your cake and eat it!
The same great functionality with more features, more range and more comfort, when you upgrade to the Minimo Plus 4 this all means one thing – more independence.
- Part of the award winning Minimo family with extra features and even easier to manage
- Standard 4 wheel configuration with wide front axel for more stability
- Folds in a single simple movement
- Adjustable tiller and foldable armrests as standard
- Pneumatic tyres for enhanced comfort, range and ground clearance
- Safety sensor to control cornering speeds
- Lightweight lithium battery weighing just 6.5lbs (3kg)
- Carbon fibre and aluminium frame for lightweight strength
- Range with 11.5Ah battery pack approx 16km (10miles)
- User weight of up to 18 stone (115kg)


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Posted by adminafsalts in on October 19, 2014
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text: Loading Content... Share a Link to this Message The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it. Close - Browse Series - ------------- View Series Archives View All Messages ------------- Daniel Success Syndrome: Rethinking What Matters Most and Why 4 Days Like No Other A Compassionate Life Christians and Chaos Advent 2023 Romans You Asked For It! Malachi: Prophetic Words Habakkuk The Book of James War in the Wilderness The Gospel of John Devoted Praying Together: A Collective Cry of Dependence Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus Advent 2022 Giving Jesus Celebrates! The Unexplainable Life Jewish Roots Weekend #Blessed? Galatians Jonah Saturation Easter 2022 Revelation: Restoration of All Things Revelation: The New Exodus Revelation: A Message to the Churches Advent 2021 Living Christ for Real Protect This House Return Life Together The Gospel of Mark Jesus at the Table Better Than Learning to Lament Ancient Truth For American Christians Today Straight to the Heart Veterans Day 2020: A Story of Hope Kingdom First God on Race 10 Days of Repentance Discerning Truth Trust & Obey Leading Well in Distressing Times Racism and the Kingdom of God What Am I Doing with My Life Mother's Day Certain Future 21 Days of Prayer My Last Message Ever Origins Advent Thanksgiving The Gospel & Exodus: Coming out of Bondage into Promise Awkward! Do This Father's Day Proof Positive: A Study in 1 John Making Kingdom Choices Vision Message Holy Week Drink Made to Make a Difference Issues We Face Better Than You Imagine Fear Not New City Catechism Walk in Him - A Study of Colossians The Art of Neighboring Sermon on the Mount Horizon story line In response to Santa Fe Ruth: Under His Wings Crisis Clarity Easter 2018 Ephesians 5 Habits Living It Demo Series - Browse Speakers - Zac Ashley Brian Haynes Gabe Morocoima Dr. Philip Nation Kade Pierce Charles Pulliam Chad Strange Darrell Whitenberg - Browse Topics - Christian Living Crisis Easter Ephesians Habits Restoration - Browse Books - Genesis Exodus Deuteronomy Ruth 2 Samuel 2 Chronicles Ezra Psalms Isaiah Daniel Joel Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Ephesians Colossians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians Hebrews James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John Revelation Zac Ashley - November 11, 2018 What Do I Believe and Why? Download Watch Listen Details Share From Series: "New City Catechism" Scripture References: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 More Messages from Zac Ashley Facebook Tweet Link Share Link Send Email More Messages from Zac Ashley... Pursue Community Zac Ashley January 28, 2018 Watch Listen Who Am I, Really? Zac Ashley February 11, 2018 Watch Listen A Redeeming Love Zac Ashley June 10, 2018 Watch Listen A Deeper Righteousness Zac Ashley July 1, 2018 Watch Listen The Danger of a Judgmental Heart Zac Ashley July 22, 2018 Watch Listen Powerful Prayers Zac Ashley July 29, 2018 Watch Listen Christ is Enough Zac Ashley October 7, 2018 Watch Listen Principles for Christian Households Zac Ashley October 28, 2018 Watch Listen Part of the Mission Zac Ashley November 4, 2018 Watch Listen What Do I Believe and Why? Zac Ashley November 11, 2018 Watch Listen Displaying 1-10 of 511 2 3 4 5 6 More » Powered by Series Engine


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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Donte Poole likely broke his nose and still called it the best experience in the world. Isaiah Canaan kept smiling so wide that he never even heard a question directed his way.
The mid-major darlings are making the most of their do-over.
Two years after Canaan fumbled away Murray State's chance at a long run in the NCAA tournament, he scored 15 points and Poole added 13 to make sure the Racers will stick around for a while following a 58-41 victory over Colorado State on Thursday.
"It's just great," said Poole, who struggled to breathe after taking an inadvertent elbow early in the second half. "Now you want to move onto game two and get that win as well."
Murray State failed to do that the last time. As a freshman, Canaan was crushed after he mishandled the ball in the closing seconds of a two-point loss to Butler in the second round.
A leader of this group now, he and the rest of the sixth-seeded Racers (31-1) shook off an 11-day wait to return to the tournament as the mid-major team expected to make a long run.
So far, so good.
Poole scored Murray State's first eight points when the Racers needed a lift. Colorado State (20-12) hung around for a half until Poole was popped in the nose by Wes Eikmeier's elbow. Poole stuffed gauze in his nose to halt the bleeding and soon returned. He was scheduled to have X-rays to confirm he'd broken his nose.
"It is," said Poole, who originally committed to Colorado State but failed to qualify academically by half a credit. "As long as we won, I'm fine."
The Racers rallied around him in an 18-2 run that broke the game open.
"In the timeout, I forgot who it was but they said, 'Let's do it for Donte,'" Racers guard Jewuan Long said. "We definitely wanted to help him out when he was down and I think we did a good job with that."
Colorado State's self-proclaimed ankle-biters started the second half by missing nine of their first 10 shots. CSU finished shooting 33 percent for the game and was held to its lowest point total of the season.
By the time the offense finally got going, the 11th-seeded Rams were trailing by double digits and on their way out of their first NCAA tournament since 2003.
"We shot poorly because of Murray's intensity. We just never matched that," said Colorado State coach Tim Miles, who had a staff member tweet at halftime that the Rams would win the game if they could win the second half.
They couldn't.
Pierce Hornung scored 12 points before fouling out late and matched a career high with 17 rebounds, the most for the Rams in a tournament game since Dale Schlueter grabbed 19 in the first round in 1966.
"It didn't turn out like we wanted but still feel like we accomplished a lot," Hornung said. "We definitely have goals next year that exceed where this year ended."
Murray State moves on to play third-seeded Marquette in the West Regional on Saturday, thanks to an impressive display of both offense and defense for a team that's been in the spotlight all season.
First, the Racers ran off 23 straight wins as the nation's last unbeaten team, then had to weather the expectations of winning the Ohio Valley Conference crown and a long layoff until this game under first-year coach Steve Prohm.
Each time, they've responded, with their lone letdown coming in one poorly played half on Feb. 9 when they squandered a 13-point lead in their only loss to Tennessee State.
"I thought our toughness level was tremendous," said Prohm, who coached for the first time with his mentor and former boss, Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy, watching in person from the stands.
Rams guard Jesse Carr, who proudly claims he's from Ainsworth, Neb., the town that's so anonymous there's a sign that lets you know you're in the "Middle of Nowhere," hit a 3-pointer that gave the Rams a 24-23 lead with 1:52 left in the first half.
Colorado State held that one-point advantage at halftime before faltering. Eikmeier scored 10 points and Carr added 11 points and eight rebounds for Colorado State.
Canaan missed his first 3-pointer to start the second half and clapped his hands in disgust. On the ensuing possession, Long stripped Dorian Green, and Canaan sprinted away for a one-handed dunk that energized the Racers.
Ed Daniel followed with a basket, and the Racers made three of their next four free throws before play stopped when Eikmeier's elbow left a puddle of Poole's blood on the floor.
Poole, who had time to receive medical attention and return, made a layup to cap the spurt with 11:23 left that put Murray State comfortably ahead 41-26.
"Even though we're a six seed, if we play someone higher or lower, it doesn't matter," Poole said. "We still play like underdogs. We still feel like we have a lot to prove to our fans and to people who have never seen us."
Canaan lifts Murray St. over Colorado St 58-41
West Region


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View the Infographic
Each fall, the American Camp Association (ACA) requests enrollment information from camps across the country. The statistics and information allow us to chart industry trends and identify enrollment issues that camps are facing on an annual basis.
This year's overall enrollment findings were very similar regardless of region, day or overnight camp, or camp affiliation. The overall results are considered representative of the experience of all camps participating in the survey. If a specific comparison between camp affiliations or regions is not discussed, it is because no real differences existed in the way the different groups of camps reported their answers.
Findings at a Glance
Camper enrollment continued on an upward trend in 2013.
- 76 percent of camps reported that the overall enrollment at their camp was either the same as last year or higher.
- One out of three camps reported that 2013 summer enrollment was the highest in the last five years.
- 45 percent of camps reported enrollment was at 90–100 percent of actual capacity.
- One out of four camps that reported higher overall enrollments were higher by more than 10 percent compared to last year.
Age and Gender Highlights
Enrollment for campers age nine and younger increased more than any other age group.
- 61 percent of camps that had higher enrollment in general also reported higher enrollment of campers age nine and younger.
- One in five camps that reported lower overall enrollment still had increased enrollment for campers age nine and younger. Enrollment of girls at for-profit camps increased significantly in 2013.
- One out of two for-profit camps reported higher enrollment for girls this past summer, compared to one out of three nonprofit camps. The five-year trend for enrollment of boys is holding steady.
- The percentage of camps reporting higher enrollment of boys compared to the previous year was slightly lower in 2013 (34 percent) than in 2012 (39 percent), while the number of camps having the same enrollment has increased.
Top Enrollment Issues
Camps were asked in an open-ended question to report the top two enrollment issues that they faced this past summer. The order of the most frequently mentioned issues was:
- School calendars impacted by weather-related events like Superstorm Sandy or snow days that pushed school further into the summer. This required a change in camp schedules.
- Competition from other youth programs and lower-priced camps in their area affecting recruitment and enrollment.
- Parents enrolling their children later in the year and requesting last-minute registrations.
- The affordability of camp.
- Recruiting and reaching out to new campers.
- Not having enough sessions available or facility capacity to accommodate the demand for specific groups. Young campers were listed several times in particular.
Other Interesting Findings
In general, camps had similar enrollment patterns; however, some unique differences were found.
- Camps that reported their most popular session length as being either two weeks or four weeks were more likely to be affected by changes to the school calendar. Seven-to-eight-week (or more) sessions were mostly unaffected by these changes.
- Eight out of ten nonprofit camps indicated that they were able to provide camp scholarships to campers that requested them.
- For-profit camps reported the highest percentages of returning campers, with the majority retaining over 75 percent of their campers from year to year.
- More day camps had higher enrollments for five-to-six-week sessions. Contrary to popular perception, day camps also reported the highest percentage of returning staff.
- In terms of diversity, there has been minimal change, with 76 percent of campers being Caucasian and 76 percent from middle- and upper-income families.
Key Takeaways
- While there are many different types of camps throughout the country, the majority of the enrollment patterns were similar for all camps.
- Enrollments are up. It was a good summer for the majority of camps.
- We continue to see some interesting trends around age and gender that could potentially have an impact on recruiting and planning.
This article highlighted a few of the most compelling enrollment findings from 2013. Please visit www.ACAcamps.org/research/research-reports-summaries-and-data for a full report complete with additional charts, tables, percentages, and staff recruitment information.
Enrollment highlights prepared by Troy Bennett. Troy is the ACA research assistant at the University of Utah.
Originally published in the March/April 2014 Camping Magazine.


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WP4 Gender in Marine Science and Technology
WP4 aims to develop methodologies for the enactment of gender-sensitive marine research and to build competence and skills in gender sensitive teaching methods.
Tasks | ||
Task 4.1: Methods of gender analysis for marine research (Task leader: SYKE) Gender issues relevant for the design and practicing of marine research vary between research topics and research contexts. The identification of the gender questions in need of acknowledgement and response may not be easy. This creates call for tools that can enhance reflexivity of research projects and programmes. The existing methods (e.g. Gendered Innovations; PROTEE, NUSAP) either lack a specific focus on gender or are not tailored to fit marine research contexts. This task aims to develop a new method protocol for the identification of gender questions in marine research. Task 4.2: Gender sensitive teaching methods (Task leader: Kiel UAS) Gender sensitive teaching aims at supporting equally the learning of male and female students. Gender sensitive teaching considers and recognizes the impact of gender aspects in interactions between teachers and students and among students, diverse life circumstances of students, different preconditions of students for learning, and counteracts the so-called hidden curricula that transmit (gender) bias. This task aims to compile information on gender and diversity sensitive teaching methods and provide trainings for building the gender competence of teaching staff in marine science. Tasks 4.3 & 4.4: Setting targets and monitoring progress via gender-sensitive indicators on Marine Science and Technology (Task leader: SYKE) Aggregated gender segregated data on marine research could comprise, e.g., gender of research cruise PIs, project PIs and coordinators. This task aims to develop indicators from such data and analyse the resultant trends, enabling the consortium to recommend possible targets and innovative strategies toward Gender Equality Plans of the partner institutions. | |


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Sea Yacht Overview
Modern use of the term designates two different classes of watercraft, sailing and power boats. Yachts differ from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose, and it was not until the rise of the steamboat and other types of powerboat that sailing vessels in general came to be perceived as luxury, or recreational vessels. Later the term came to encompass motor boats for primarily private pleasure purposes as well.
A few countries have a special flag worn by recreational boats or ships, which indicates the nationality of the ship. Although inspired by the national flag, the yacht ensign does not always correspond with the civil or merchant ensign of the state in question.


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test page
What People are Saying about Us
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Irwin 5/8 In. Black Oxide Silver & Deming Drill Bit
Available Inventory: 2
135 deg. split point for no slip starting on hard materials. Parabolic flute design for improved heat dissipation and increased life. Industrial M7 grade steel for high-performance drilling in metal, wood, and plastic. Black oxide coated for longer life and greater resistance to wear. Jobbers length. For drilling through metal, wood, fiberglass, stainless steel.


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§Handling asynchronous results
§Make controllers asynchronous
Internally, Play Framework is asynchronous from the bottom up. Play handles every request in an asynchronous, non-blocking way.
The default configuration is tuned for asynchronous controllers. In other words, the application code should avoid blocking in controllers, i.e., having the controller code wait for an operation. Common examples of such blocking operations are JDBC calls, streaming API, HTTP requests and long computations.
Although it's possible to increase the number of threads in the default execution context to allow more concurrent requests to be processed by blocking controllers, following the recommended approach of keeping the controllers asynchronous makes it easier to scale and to keep the system responsive under load.
§Creating non-blocking actions
Because of the way Play works, action code must be as fast as possible, i.e., non-blocking. So what should we return from our action if we are not yet able to compute the result? We should return the promise of a result!
Java 8 and newer provides a generic promise API called CompletionStage
. A CompletionStage<Result>
will eventually be redeemed with a value of type Result
. By using a CompletionStage<Result>
instead of a normal Result
, we are able to return from our action quickly without blocking anything. Play will then serve the result as soon as the promise is redeemed.
§How to create a CompletionStage<Result>
To create a CompletionStage<Result>
we need another promise first: the promise that will give us the actual value we need to compute the result:
CompletionStage<Double> promiseOfPIValue = computePIAsynchronously();
// Runs in same thread
CompletionStage<Result> promiseOfResult =
promiseOfPIValue.thenApply(pi -> ok("PI value computed: " + pi));
Play asynchronous API methods give you a CompletionStage
. This is the case when you are calling an external web service using the play.libs.WS
API, or if you are using Akka to schedule asynchronous tasks or to communicate with Actors using play.libs.Akka
In this case, using CompletionStage.thenApply
will execute the completion stage in the same calling thread as the previous task. This is fine when you have a small amount of CPU bound logic with no blocking.
A simple way to execute a block of code asynchronously and to get a CompletionStage
is to use the CompletableFuture.supplyAsync()
// creates new task
CompletionStage<Integer> promiseOfInt =
CompletableFuture.supplyAsync(() -> intensiveComputation());
Using supplyAsync
creates a new task which will be placed on the fork join pool, and may be called from a different thread – although, here it's using the default executor, and in practice you will specify an executor explicitly.
Only the "*Async" methods from
provide asynchronous execution.
§Using ClassLoaderExecutionContext
You must supply the classloader execution context explicitly as an executor when using a Java CompletionStage
inside an Action, to ensure that the classloader remains in scope.
You can supply the play.libs.concurrent.ClassLoaderExecutionContext
instance through dependency injection:
import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
import java.util.concurrent.CompletionStage;
import javax.inject.Inject;
import play.libs.concurrent.ClassLoaderExecutionContext;
import play.mvc.*;
public class MyController extends Controller {
private ClassLoaderExecutionContext clExecutionContext;
public MyController(ClassLoaderExecutionContext ec) {
this.clExecutionContext = ec;
public CompletionStage<Result> index() {
// Use a different task with explicit EC
return calculateResponse()
answer -> {
return ok("answer was " + answer).flashing("info", "Response updated!");
private static CompletionStage<String> calculateResponse() {
return CompletableFuture.completedFuture("42");
Please see Class loaders for more information on using ClassLoaderExecutionContext
§Using CustomExecutionContext and ClassLoaderExecution
Using a CompletionStage
or an ClassLoaderExecutionContext
is only half of the picture though! At this point you are still on Play's default ExecutionContext. If you are calling out to a blocking API such as JDBC, then you still will need to have your ExecutionStage run with a different executor, to move it off Play's rendering thread pool. You can do this by creating a subclass of play.libs.concurrent.CustomExecutionContext
with a reference to the custom dispatcher.
Add the following imports:
import play.libs.concurrent.ClassLoaderExecution;
import javax.inject.Inject;
import java.util.concurrent.Executor;
import java.util.concurrent.CompletionStage;
import static java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture.supplyAsync;
Define a custom execution context:
public class MyExecutionContext extends CustomExecutionContext {
public MyExecutionContext(ActorSystem actorSystem) {
// uses a custom thread pool defined in application.conf
super(actorSystem, "my.dispatcher");
You will need to define a custom dispatcher in application.conf
, which is done through Akka dispatcher configuration.
Once you have the custom dispatcher, add in the explicit executor and wrap it with ClassLoaderExecution.fromThread
public class Application extends Controller {
private MyExecutionContext myExecutionContext;
public Application(MyExecutionContext myExecutionContext) {
this.myExecutionContext = myExecutionContext;
public CompletionStage<Result> index() {
// Wrap an existing thread pool, using the context from the current thread
Executor myEc = ClassLoaderExecution.fromThread(myExecutionContext);
return supplyAsync(() -> intensiveComputation(), myEc)
.thenApplyAsync(i -> ok("Got result: " + i), myEc);
public int intensiveComputation() {
return 2;
You can't magically turn synchronous IO into asynchronous by wrapping it in a
. If you can't change the application's architecture to avoid blocking operations, at some point that operation will have to be executed, and that thread is going to block. So in addition to enclosing the operation in aCompletionStage
, it's necessary to configure it to run in a separate execution context that has been configured with enough threads to deal with the expected concurrency. See Understanding Play thread pools for more information, and download the play example templates that show database integration.
§Actions are asynchronous by default
Play actions are asynchronous by default. For instance, in the controller code below, the returned Result
is internally enclosed in a promise:
public Result index(Http.Request request) {
return ok("Got request " + request + "!");
Note: Whether the action code returns a
or aCompletionStage<Result>
, both kinds of returned object are handled internally in the same way. There is a single kind ofAction
, which is asynchronous, and not two kinds (a synchronous one and an asynchronous one). Returning aCompletionStage
is a technique for writing non-blocking code.
§Handling time-outs
It is often useful to handle time-outs properly, to avoid having the web browser block and wait if something goes wrong. You can use the play.libs.concurrent.Futures.timeout
method to wrap a CompletionStage
in a non-blocking timeout.
class MyClass {
private final Futures futures;
private final Executor customExecutor = ForkJoinPool.commonPool();
public MyClass(Futures futures) {
this.futures = futures;
CompletionStage<Double> callWithOneSecondTimeout() {
return futures.timeout(computePIAsynchronously(), Duration.ofSeconds(1));
public CompletionStage<String> delayedResult() {
long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
return futures.delayed(
() ->
() -> {
long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
long seconds = end - start;
return "rendered after " + seconds + " seconds";
Duration.of(3, SECONDS));
Note: Timeout is not the same as cancellation – even in case of timeout, the given future will still complete, even though that completed value is not returned.
Next: Streaming HTTP responses


text:
Chinese property - a paradigm shift
Sunny Tam, CFA
Over the past decade, Chinese property and related industries contributed ~15-20% of China's GDP. Over the same period, the market value of the housing stock ballooned from 92% of GDP in 2009 to 178% of GDP in 2019. The Chinese government appears to be very determined to prevent further rapid growth in property prices and has further tightened credit availability to the sector this year. The operating environment could likely get more challenging in 2020, and we expect more divergence in developers' performance going forward. Chinese property is one of the largest sectors in the Asia high yield bond universe, and is often considered as one of the "safer" sectors by investors, given limited default cases so far (only two defaults in the USD bond space in the past 10 years) and generally good asset coverage for most companies; however, the perception could change if defaults start to pick up. Some issuers may grow stronger as they consolidate the market, while the weaker ones get eliminated.
Policies now targeting demand side and financing side
Historically we have gone through many policy cycles for the Chinese property sector, but we think the key difference this time is that the government clearly stated that they will no longer use the property sector as a short term economic tool; and credit tightening is across the board, from construction loans, to bond issuance, and even mortgage loans. It is less likely that we would see policy easing anytime soon, and new regulations are virtually capping the total debt available to the sector. The operating environment has changed materially. Overall property sales appears to have reached its peak and is plateauing, if not gradually declining (volume growth is flat, price growth is being curbed).
Operational performance would likely diverge going forward
When markets perform well, developers can use higher growth to offset impacts of higher leverage or higher funding costs. As long as property sales do well, a lot of the weaker/smaller companies can still survive. However with the tighter mortgage loan availability, cash collection rate from property sales will likely be lower than before. As a result, the construction loans required to support the same scale will be higher yet at the same time construction loans are now harder to get. Also, with more stringent rules on bond issuances (basically only refinancing is allowed), developers would have less cash available to buy land too. Some developers may start to focus more on margins, and gradually deleverage during this period, yet others may struggle to survive. Current land bank quality and execution capability of management are also important factors determining how they would perform in the coming years, and this is not always fully captured in credit ratings.
Bond market gradually pricing in the diverging operating performances – more adjustments to come
The bond market is already starting to price-in more differentiation between issuers, but this is possibly just the beginning. Some names are already trading at relatively distressed levels, yet if some of them actually default, it could still affect the overall sentiment towards the sector.
On the other hand there seems to be relatively less differentiation between some stronger B+ names vs BB- names, possibly due to the expectation that they would eventually improve their credit metrics and later get upgraded to BB-, yet it could also be due to complacency of investors on certain names, and valuations could adjust materially if their performances do not meet expectations.
All in all, there are still good investment opportunities within the sector; but we need to be vigilant in monitoring the company's operational performances and make suitable credit rotations along the way, given that the competitive landscape is constantly evolving. The ability of issuers in adapting to the industry changes should play a much bigger role in credit selection going forward.
Yield charts for various issuers with different ratings