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Age of the World
Age of the World
From: Michael. in Los Angeles, CA
Dear Rabbi,
It is hard for me to understand the fact that many relics such as dinosaur bones, cave art, and rock formations are thought to exist for millions of years. I asked this to a local Rabbi. He told me that dinosaur bones were planted by G-d to test our faith. I do not really understand this answer. How can you explain this apparent contradiction with the Jewish calendar?
Dear Michael,
The resolution of the apparent contradiction between the "scientific" age of the universe and the Jewish date of 5763 years since Creation has two standard approaches:
- The scientific estimate is true, and the text of Genesis can be reconciled: For example, saying that the six "days" are not really days, but rather six "time periods."
- The Jewish date is true, and the scientific estimate must be explained (away).
Several satisfactory explanations following the first approach can be found in the book Challenge and I recommend that you look there. Since you asked about the second approach, I will address it.
It's definitely possible for G-d to create a world that looks older than it is. Adam was created as an adult. Observing him a few minutes after he was created, you would assume him to be at least twenty years old. The Garden of Eden had full-grown trees laden with fruit. According to the Torah text, these trees were no more than three days old.
Let's take this idea a step further: A star 10 million light-years from the earth could have been created with its light already reaching the earth. The star would appear 10 million years old, even though it was just created.
Now you're probably thinking, "But why would G-d do that? Why create bones, artifacts, partially decayed radium, potassium-argon, uranium, red-shifted light from space, etc., all pointing to an age which is not true?"
Strictly speaking, this isn't a problem. Not knowing why G-d did something doesn't prove that He didn't do it. But I'll try to answer this anyway:
The purpose of this world is to hide G-d's presence. This allows us to exercise free will. In fact, the Hebrew word for world is olam which means hiding. Evidence which "hides" the age of the universe could be part of G-d's general "policy" of hiding.
Now you might say "According to this we can never rely on our observations. Doesn't this approach negate all scientific findings?"
No. This approach merely questions evidence that contradicts other reliable evidence.
Let me give you an analogy: Suppose George is accused of murder. We find his fingerprints at the scene of the crime, the murder weapon on his premises, and he has a motive. The defense argues that George was framed. Will anyone take that seriously? But suppose that reliable witnesses testify that they saw George 100 miles from the scene at the time of the murder. Suddenly it becomes appropriate to take the "frame-up" defense seriously.
Here too, scientific observations have to be understood in light of the other available evidence - i.e., the Torah. The Jewish People were eyewitness at Sinai who observed the giving of the Torah (hence the term "observant Jews?"). For us the Torah's account of events is first-hand testimony.
Therefore, the idea that scientific observations might be misleading should be taken seriously.
Speaking of archeological finds that ought not be taken too seriously, did you hear this one?
Caveman 1: Ugh!
Caveman 2: Ugh! Ugh!
Caveman 1: Stop changing the subject!
Carmell and Domb, 1978, Association of
Orthodox Jewish Scientists, pp. 124-41, 142-49, 164-75.


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Foot traffic is a key factor of any retail store's success. And increasing customer traffic to your physical store is a constant struggle.
The more customers who visit your store, the more sales you stand to make. Plus, connecting with shoppers in person is a unique opportunity to build rapport and earn their loyalty. But how do you get more passersby to actually enter your store?
The first step to increasing foot traffic is measuring it. Only by counting and tracking foot traffic over time can you identify how factors like seasonality or your latest marketing activations impact store foot traffic.
Keep reading to learn how to count, track, and analyze foot traffic levels over a given time period, and discover tools you can use to get the job done, without resorting to using a counter and spreadsheet.
What is foot traffic in retail?
Foot traffic in retail is the number of customers who enter your store. Generally, higher foot traffic leads to higher revenue.
Foot traffic numbers can either be monitored manually by using counters, or digitally using cameras and retail tracking software. There are several factors that can impact your store's foot traffic, most notably where it's located.
Is your store in an area where your target customer lives or frequently visits? Are there other nearby businesses or restaurants that attract customers who are also part of your target market? Carefully research a store location and its neighborhood when looking for a commercial space to lease. Where you choose to set up shop can greatly impact store traffic.
💡 PRO TIP: If you want to test foot traffic before committing to leasing a commercial space, consider opening a pop-up shop first to test the area. To open a pop-up shop and start selling with Shopify, go to your Shopify Admin, click the plus icon next to "Sales channels," and select Point of Sale.
The benefits of tracking foot traffic
- Gain customer insight
- Optimize store staffing
- Improve store layout and product assortment
- Better inventory planning
- Measure marketing performance
- Uncover growth opportunities
- Maximize sales and discounting strategies
- Better understand external factors
Tracking foot traffic equips you with more data to inform the decisions you make as you run your store. For instance, you can determine what your store's busiest days are based on both total sales and foot traffic and plan your staff schedule accordingly. You can also get more insight into how external factors (like seasonality or the weather) or your latest marketing activations and promotions impact foot traffic.
But perhaps most importantly, you can measure foot traffic levels next to the total number of orders you processed to see if your staff are turning opportunities into sales.
The more data you have to interpret, the better equipped you are to spot patterns, measure your store's performance (did that promotion really help us make more sales?), and be more cost-effective with your labor planning and marketing.
Let's look at all the benefits of tracking foot traffic:
Gain customer insight
By tracking foot traffic you'll get a better understanding of who your customers are and their buying patterns.
Depending on how you track foot traffic, some of the data you can analyze includes:
- Where the majority of your customers are located. Are they local or out of towners?
- The days and hours they visit your retail store.
- How long they usually visit for, and how long it takes before they make a purchase.
- The types of products they like the most, and in what quantities they purchase.
- Your in-store conversion rate (i.e., the total number of sales in a given period divided by the total foot traffic).
Optimize store staffing
By tracking foot traffic, you can make sure you have more staff on the sales floor during peak shopping times. And avoid over-staffing during slow periods. Doing this will help reduce unnecessary operational costs.
Improve store layout and product assortment
Some foot traffic tracking software, like Aislelabs, have heat-map features that help you understand how customers move around your store. This way you can optimize space, improve your store layout, and increase sales with strategic product placement. It's also a good idea to refresh merchandise assortments regularly in high-traffic areas.
Better inventory planning
Measuring foot traffic will help you project sales and predict the amount of stock needed to avoid lost sales and stockouts. It will also help you prevent over-stocking products.
Measure marketing performance
Let's say you send out an email campaign for an upcoming event or sale. By tracking foot traffic on the day, you'll be able to measure the success of your marketing efforts. And then you can use the data to improve future marketing strategies.
Uncover growth opportunities
If your sales goals include opening up new stores to increase revenue, tracking foot traffic will give you a clear picture of how you can replicate your success at a second or third location. Use information you gain about your customers and their shopping behavior to inform your expansion plans.
Maximize sales and discounting strategies
If you know the peak shopping hours or days for your retail store, you can plan flash sales or special offers during periods of high foot traffic. This way, you'll reach more customers and ideally sell through more inventory.
📚 FURTHER READING: Learn how to use point-of-sale (POS) data to quantify your retail store's impact on customer acquisition costs, online sales, and lifetime value.
Better understand external factors
Overall foot traffic trends in the retail industry will naturally affect your foot traffic.
For example, investment banking company UBS projects that 80,000 retail stores will close by 2026 (9% of the current total). This is based on the assumption that ecommerce sales (as a percentage of total retail sales) will continue to grow at a rapid rate, from 18% to 27% in the same period.
The growth of ecommerce is partially due to factors like the pandemic, but this doesn't mean retail is dead. It means understanding external factors that contribute to in-store foot traffic will help you succeed.
More external factors are:
- Seasonality and weather conditions
- Traffic patterns in the area, including rush hour and the distance from your store to local customers' homes or workplace
- Local events happening in the area that bring in more foot traffic
Evaluating how these factors affect your retail foot traffic will help you plan for ebbs and flows in customer traffic.
How to measure foot traffic
Don't worry—you don't need to stand at the door and manually count everyone who enters to measure foot traffic. Thankfully, there are plenty of great tools to help calculate foot traffic and collect information about the customers who visit your brick-and-mortar location(s).
This information can help you schedule the right number of sales associates for your busy and slow times, track conversion rates when used with sales data, and ensure that your store is designed in a way that facilitates customer engagement. Now, let's take a look at a few ways to gauge the foot traffic your retail store is getting.
Traffic tracking software
Thanks to traffic tracking software, you can automate gathering in-store foot traffic intel. How advanced you go with your customer-traffic-tracking software depends on your budget.
Here are a few examples of traffic-tracking software:
Dor's thermal-sensing people-counter is battery operated and lets you track your in-store conversion rate, optimize staff scheduling, and improve the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. All you have to do is stick it above the entrance of your store and it anonymously counts foot traffic. No customer data is captured and setup doesn't require IT.
The value of data allows you to measure the impact of the changes you make to your store.
"The value of data allows you to measure the impact of the changes you make to your store," says Michael Brand, CEO of Dor. "There are a whole bunch of different experiments and tactics that stores are using to boost their foot traffic and increase the satisfaction of customers. But there is no way to pinpoint which hypotheses and experiments are working unless you have the data that can back it up. So, where Dor comes into play is it can actually tell you what's working and what's not in your store."
Kepler Analytics
Kepler's Property Toolkit lets you evaluate historical foot traffic trends before you even lease a retail space. With this tool, you can forecast sales at new locations, calculate rent per passerby, and compare store traffic over time.
Sensormatic product ShopperTrak is a people-counting and conversion-tracking system. Its features include retail analytics, benchmarks to compare your in-store foot traffic to similar retailers, visitor counting, and insights into the shopper journey so you know how to improve the customer experience.
Aiselabs lets you leverage your Wi-Fi system to enable heat maps, Wi-Fi counting, and automated marketing (among many other features).
Heat maps help you visualize visitor flow to optimize floor space, and Wi-Fi counting lets you track foot traffic as well as get real-time occupancy counts. This way, you can make sure you're keeping customers and staff safe during the pandemic.
You can use Aislelabs' marketing automation tool to encourage customer reviews, create personalized campaigns, and run targeted social media ads.
Surveillance camera
If you're looking for a fairly simple way to monitor retail foot traffic, then you can always install a surveillance camera and comb through footage to identify the busy times of day. With this solution, you can make note of the common routes that customers take through the store, and estimate the demographic of your customers. Although this is a fairly cost effective method of loosely measuring foot traffic, it still requires manual counting on your end and isn't 100% accurate.
If you're able to spend more, you may want to consider software that helps make use of your existing in-store cameras to detect and count customer traffic with more accuracy. Companies like WingArc have technology that runs a video analytics algorithm over the feed from your security system to measure and track in-store activity. This way, you'll have a detailed overview of store activity, and the software also generates heat maps so you can view customer flow and low- and high-traffic areas of the store during different days and times.
Sales data
While sales data gives insight into how many shoppers made a purchase, it doesn't tell you the total number of people who visited your store. What about shoppers who browsed but didn't buy?
Where sales data comes in handy is measuring the percentage of shoppers who convert into a sale. Cross-reference the total number of shoppers who entered your store that you measured with traffic tracking software to the total number of orders processed by your store's point-of-sale (POS) system.
As you grow your in-store foot traffic, be sure to closely monitor your conversion rates to get a sense of whether your store associates are effective at turning sales opportunities into actual sales.
Tally or clicker counting
The most traditional method of tracking foot traffic is tally or clicker counting. If you're not quite ready to invest in software, you can start by keeping a tally of the number of people who enter your retail store each day. You can do this by manually jotting down the numbers in a notebook or using a tally or click counter. This method won't give you the most accurate results, but it's still a great place to start.
Social engagement
Another way to measure foot traffic and gain customer insight is through social engagement. You can encourage customers to check in at in-store demos, or hold an in-store event that requires attendees to RSVP and/or fill out a survey that provides you with invaluable data.
If your brand already has a solid online presence through your website or social media profiles, you can make your brick-and-mortar store a check-in location or require customers to provide information when they log in to the free store Wi-Fi. Apps like Foursquare are a great way for your customers to engage with your brand while providing you with consumer data.
How to increase foot traffic
You may think there are only offline strategies to increase foot traffic, but more and more retailers are blurring the lines between physical and digital shopping experiences to boost sales and foot traffic.
Here are a few ways to increase foot traffic using online and offline tactics:
Leverage online presence
These days, most retailers opt for an omnichannel approach and also set up an ecommerce website to supplement their brick-and-mortar store(s). But creating an online store is just the tip of the iceberg. Here are more ways to make the most of your online presence to increase foot traffic:
- Invest in local SEO. Building a local SEO strategy will help local shoppers find your retail store in search results. Seventy-eight percent of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase. So once prospective customers find your business online, you're more likely to experience an increase in foot traffic.
- Optimize local search listings. Online business listings such as Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Apple Maps also help improve organic search results for retailers. Local search listings tend to be free and let you display store information, including a link to your website, store hours, contact details, a map, reviews, and photos of your products. This way, shoppers can easily find your store and plan a visit.
- Improve social engagement. Creating a strong social media presence will help build brand awareness, trust, and community for your business. By improving engagement, you'll interact with more potential customers, as well as existing customers, and the more connected your local audience feels to your business, the more likely they are to shop in-store. You can also promote special offers on social media to drive foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar store. For example, a one-day sale that's in-store only.
💡 PRO TIP: With Shopify, you can get your products found by more nearby shoppers looking for what you sell on Google. List your products on Google for free, show pickup availability, increase store visits, and measure how your listings impact store sales in Shopify.
Host in-store events
An effective way to shore up foot traffic in the short term is through special events. Hold in-store events to introduce new products and demos, as well as celebrate anniversaries, holidays, or customer loyalty to bring customers in for a day. It can also increase engagement with your customer base, as it gives you the chance to interact with them face to face in a social setting.
You can also host events with other local businesses to increase your reach and bring customers in-store. Let's say you invite three to five other brands that target a similar audience to participate in a pop-up shop at your store. Those businesses will also promote the event via social media, email marketing, and word of mouth, which will result in increased foot traffic at your store.
Lastly, special one-day promotions and door-buster sales are other ways to use in-store events to increase foot traffic during slow periods or when you need to liquidate inventory. Even if customers don't make it out to your event, any marketing ventures for it will also be beneficial for brand awareness.
Improve store layout and design
The layout and design of your retail store—the way you set up fixtures, product displays, and merchandise—is an important factor in the volume of foot traffic you see.
There are many different retail store layouts to consider, including grid, free-flow, and loop layout, to name a few. And developing a retail merchandising strategy in tandem with your plans for store design will help you make the most of floor space to improve traffic flow. It will also help you implement cross-merchandising strategies to increase cross-selling and upselling opportunities, and plan new product drops. When done right, it can ultimately lead to higher sales.
Another key component of retail merchandising is visual merchandising. This is how you display items around the store, including product displays, mannequins, and window displays. For example, placing bestselling products at the front of the store can help lure in passersby who see them from the street, and investing in window displays is a surefire way to turn heads and drive foot traffic.
Here are some additional tips for store layout and design:
- Consider seasons, special occasions, and holidays when creating your merchandising plan and window display design.
- Use innovative displays to make the in-store experience compelling, engaging, and unique.
- Focus on themes or group products by brand so it's easy for shoppers to understand.
- Constantly refresh product displays and fixtures, either with new products or by shifting merchandise to attract customers back into your store more often.
Differentiate products
Opening a retail store in a high-traffic shopping area means you'll be one of many retail stores in a popular location. To stay competitive it's important to differentiate your product assortment from other local shops. Just because you're in a high foot traffic area it doesn't mean you're set. You'll need to find ways to win over foot traffic and make enough sales to justify the higher rent you're likely paying to set up shop in a high traffic zone.
And while you're looking for a commercial space, take note of the types of retailers that are already in the area. If you sell activewear and there's already a boutique that sells fitness clothing, it could be an indication that you will reach your target audience. But if your products are too similar, you run the risk of losing business to the store that already has a loyal customer base.
Mix up signage
From sidewalk signs to Instagrammable artwork, creative and sometimes humorous signage can help draw in more foot traffic. And if customers take photos and share them on social media, it's win-win. You'll have enticed them to come in, and received more online exposure for your retail store.
Offer in-store pickup
Modern order fulfillment options such as buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup let you create a seamless online to offline shopping experience that also boosts customer satisfaction. But these omnichannel shopping options, specifically BOPIS, can also increase foot traffic and sales.
In fact, according to NewStore's 2023 Omnichannel Leadership Report, more than half of retailers (54%) are now offering BOPIS services. And per Insider Intelligence, US shoppers spent more than $95 billion via BOPIS in 2022, making up 9% of all ecommerce sales, and the BOPIS market is expected to exceed $150 billion by 2025.
The growth of BOPIS is good news for in-stores sales too. When a customer comes to your store to pick up their order, they will likely take a quick look around and could wind up buying more products. Or they might remember something they wanted and pick it up in-store, also leading to more sales.
💡 PRO TIP: Offering in-store pickup as a delivery method at checkout is a great way to get more online shoppers to visit your store. To get started, enable in-store pickup availability in Shopify admin to show online shoppers whether a product is available for pickup at one of your stores.
Monitoring foot traffic for your retail store
Now that you know the importance of tracking foot traffic and how to do it, it's time to put your learnings into action. Whether you start small by reviewing surveillance recordings or dive right into using advanced tracking software, understanding what brings customers in-store and how they move through your shop will help you make the most of this crucial metric that ultimately affects the success of your retail business.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tool tabs give access to a specific tool within Blackboard Learn. Multiple tool tabs can be created to allow specific institution roles access to specific tools. For example, users with an institution role of Student could be given access to a tab that displayed the My Grades tool. This tab would most likely not be made available to users with an institution role of Alumni.
Create a tool tab
- On the Administrator Panel, under Communities, select Tabs and Modules.
- Select Tabs.
- Select Create Tool Tab. The following table describes the available fields.
Create Tool Tab Available Fields Field Description General Properties Title [r] Provide a title for the Tool tab. The title will appear as the tab name in the header frame. Reference Name Provide a name for the tab that can be easily referenced. Tool [r] Select a tool from the drop-down list. The tool selected will be available through the tab. Availability System Availability Select Yes to make the tab available to users. - Select Submit.


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John Deere Machine Sync , the system that allows data to be exchanged on the move has been updated. Up until now it allowed combine operators to guide a tractor and trailer alongside the harvester. Now it is available for forage harvesters and tractors to take control during other crop unloading operations.
Machine Sync was introduced in 2012 and John Deere remains the only supplier of an integrated system. The technology is especially useful during night-time operations and long working days.
The global navigation satellite system (GNNS) based synchronisation allows combines to automatically control the speed and travel direction of tractors and trailers relative to the combine. Machine Sync therefore makes harvesting safer and reduces stress for the operators. It also eliminates waste during unloading and avoids damage to both machines and crops, even at higher driving speeds.
The technology is not just applicable to combine harvesters but also to all harvesting processes where crops are continuously loaded into trailers. As a result, John Deere is now offering Machine Sync for use on self-propelled forage harvesters and tractors.
In particular, customers working with trailed elevator machinery harvesting potatoes, carrots and vegetables will benefit from this advanced technology. The system also delivers significant assistance and productivity gains to vegetable growers during planting applications.
For operation, Machine Sync requires JDLink telematics, a StarFire satellite receiver and a Gen4 Premium display with automation activation. Most customers would select all these components ex-factory when ordering a new tractor and/or self-propelled machine, although retrofitting is also possible.


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About The ArtALPR Circuit The fabric on this garment is designed to trigger Automated License Plate Readers, adding unhelpful data to the systems used to surveil our communities. For the pattern to have a maximum effect, it's ideal for the fabric to hang straight so that the text is not excessively warped. For this reason, you may want to consider sizing up if you intend for it to read in to ALPRs effectively. In an effort to keep our jacket and hoodie options affordable, this particular vendor is located overseas and your orders are printed, packed, and shipped within an average of 3 days and delivers within 7-10 business days. Product DetailsHand-cut and crafted with care, your custom designed Unisex Bomber Jacket is great for casual or sportswear. Its lightweight, airy fabric is lined with the perfect amount of insulation for the chillier months making this a great year round go-to.
Size & Fit


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In the world of competitive shooting there are few people—men or women—who can match what Julie Goloski Golob has accomplished in the last two decades. Though she's just 35, Golob has already won more than 120 championship titles in seven different action shooting disciplines. Her wins include 13 Ladies National Champion titles with the U.S. Practical Shooting Association (USPSA), three times NRA Bianchi Cup Ladies Open Champion and two Ladies Division International Revolver Championship wins. She's an avid hunter who currently serves as captain of Team Smith & Wesson and is a member of Team Benelli 3-Gun. She's also a wife and mother of one, with another child due soon. You got it—Golob is one busy young woman.
Over the course of a year, what does your calendar look like?
I shoot between 10 and 15 matches a year. Plus, I attend a number of special events and do some seminars and speaking engagements. If I'm asked to do television, that goes in there somewhere. When I'm preparing for a match, I'm at the range every day working on some skill set to make me better. I like to hunt, too, and I'm a pro-staffer for Prios Hunting Apparel.
Plus, you're a mother and wife, a writer and a businesswoman?
It's a big challenge. And it's hard being away from home so much. Another difficult part is juggling all the opportunities. I'm asked to do a lot of speaking gigs and special events, things I'd love to do. But they conflict with a match or I just don't have the time. Or, you're going to, but you get the call and a child's at home sick. If I was single, I could literally be on the road every day of the year.
So your main job is Captain of Team Smith & Wesson. What does that entail?
First and foremost, it's to train for and compete in shooting matches, and to be a spokesperson for Smith & Wesson, at competitions and other events. I do some television and shooting demonstrations to promote the company, too. It's a very broad job description.
How did you become a shooter?
My father was (and still is) a hunter and a competitive shooter. I basically grew up as "Daddy's Girl," and followed him around whenever he was at the shooting range. We used to work some of our range's shooting events together as a father-daughter team. So, really, I grew up around it. By the time I was 14, I was big enough, and experienced enough, that I started competing in local matches.
What was your first firearm?
It was a Remington 870, 20-gauge. That's what I shot my first deer with growing up. Dad's still got it at home.
You went from high school right to the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU)?
I was competing through high school, a lot of run-and-gun kind of matches and events. I went to my first national championship match in 1994, the USPSA Nationals in Barry, Ill., and the Army recruited me there. I joined right out of high school in 1995, and was assigned to the USAMU. They were expanding the Army Action Shooting program at the time, and they were looking for women to be a part of it. There weren't a lot of young female shooters at the time, so I think I kind of stood out.
What did your eight years with the USAMU do for you?
Oh, my goodness, that's the foundation I rely on today, all the things I learned at USAMU! When you're a member of the USAMU, your "job" is to compete and win. And you have such tremendous resources there to help you compete. Some years, I shot 50,000 to 60,000 rounds practicing. There's a lot of discipline there, too. Resources plus guidance. In some cases, forced guidance!
Was it always your plan to be a professional shooter?
Not really. Being around shooting growing up, and getting to know professionals like Rob Leatham and Doug Koenig, I guess it was always in the back of my mind. Like, Wouldn't that be cool? But it wasn't a plan.
How did you end up on Team Smith & Wesson?
After I got out of the Army, I worked for the Glock Shooting Sports Foundation for a few years, in an administrative position. But I was still shooting competitively. I went to the Smith & Wesson IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) Indoor National Championship in 2006. There, I had a chance to shoot the M&P handgun, and I was pretty impressed with it.
A lot of the top people from Smith & Wesson were there, too, and we started talking. By the end of the event, they made me one of those offers I just could not refuse. It's pretty much my dream job. I get to represent a great company, shoot some of the top firearms in the world, and work with some of the best people I know. And I get paid for it!
Any advice for a young person who wants a career as a pro shooter?
What you have to have is a dream and goals and be willing to work hard. If you really want it, you can make a career out of the shooting sports. You can be a part of this great industry. It's going to take some work and a willingness to stick it out when things get hard. But you can make it happen. But in today's society, with this focus on instant gratification, instant everything; hard work and the need for it is probably the hardest thing for kids to understand.
The Second Amendment has been under attack of late. Your thoughts?
I don't speak for anyone but myself on this issue. But as a professional shooter, I think it's absolutely essential that my fellow shooters and I be responsible role models as gun owners and people who use guns. There are so many negatives out there in the media about the Second Amendment, guns and gun owners. We have to focus on the positives. The shooters I know, professionals or others, are amazingly kind and generous people. And the shooting sports have very positive influences on peoples' lives. That message needs to get out as much as possible. I think that people like myself, who work in this industry, have a responsibility to promote these positives, and to give them a face and a voice.
This article appeared in the May 6, 2013 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Want to learn more about competitions? Check out the Complete Guide to 3-Gun Competition.


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Estate taxes. It's not enough to simply know they exist and to know strategies to minimize them. When it comes down to it, you need to plan how you and your family will eventually pay them.
Estate taxes are generally due nine months after the date of death. And they are due in cash. In addition to estate taxes, there may be final expenses, probate costs, administrative fees, and a variety of other costs. How can you be sure the money will be there when it's needed?
There are four main sources of funds to pay estate taxes. First, your current savings and investments. You or your survivors can use savings and investments to cover the costs of estate taxes, probate fees, and other expenses. This is often a sound alternative. However, sometimes savings and investments may not be sufficient. And if those savings were earmarked for other financial goals, you may need to rethink how you will achieve those goals.
Another option would be to borrow the money. Unfortunately, with this option you not only have to pay the estate taxes, but you or your survivors will be forced to pay interest on the amount borrowed to pay estate taxes. Remember to consider how your family's credit standing will be affected by a death in the family.
The third option involves liquidation. If estate taxes are larger than the cash available to pay them, you or your heirs may have to sell valuable assets such as the family home, the family business, or other assets. Hopefully, they will sell for what they're worth. In many cases, however, they don't.
The fourth option — one that is often a prudent way to pay estate taxes — is life insurance.
Life insurance can provide a timely death benefit, in cash, that can be used to pay estate taxes and other costs. And it will be paid directly to the beneficiary of the policy, without being subject to the time and expense of probate.
Granted, life insurance does require premium payments. However, if appropriate to your situation, life insurance premiums can be looked at as a systematic way of funding future estate taxes. You get guaranteed liquidity and a death benefit that is generally free of federal income taxes. Indeed, the financial protection provided by life insurance can be invaluable to those who have the burden of paying estate taxes — your loved ones.
The cost and availability of life insurance depend on factors such as age, health, and the type and amount of insurance purchased. Before implementing a strategy involving insurance, it would be prudent to make sure you are insurable. As with most financial decisions, there are expenses associated with the purchase of life insurance. Policies commonly have mortality and expense charges. In addition, if a policy is surrendered prematurely, there may be surrender charges and income tax implications. Any guarantees are contingent on the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing company. Before you take any specific action, be sure to seek professional advice.
Coping with estate taxes may be a difficult proposition for you or your survivors. When it comes to paying them, life insurance may be a strategy worth considering, and overlooking it could be costly.
An irrevocable life insurance trust can be used to keep the insurance proceeds from being subject to estate tax at your death. There are costs and expenses associated with the creation and operation of a trust.
The information in this newsletter is not intended as tax, legal, investment, or retirement advice or recommendations, and it may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any federal tax penalties. You are encouraged to seek guidance from an independent tax or legal professional. The content is derived from sources believed to be accurate. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. This material was written and prepared by Broadridge Advisor Solutions. © 2024 Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.


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Note: Please see correction below.
At the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in October, presenters from the Orlando Police Department issued a stern warning for fellow local law enforcement officials eager to start a small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS or drones) program.
"We don't want to use them when people are exercising freedom of speech," Orlando Police Sgt. Jeffrey Blye told the audience during the best practices portion of his talk. "Because that will destroy your program quickly."
That is excellent advice for police departments, but sheriffs in the San Francisco Bay Area have chosen not to follow it.
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office had drones at the ready on the scene for many high-profile protests in Berkeley and on the University of California Berkeley campus throughout 2017. Just to the north, the Contra Costa County Sheriff deployed drones over immigrant rights rallies outside the West County Detention Facility in Richmond, California, which houses detainees for ICE.
Records obtained by EFF and the Center for Human Rights and Privacy answer some questions, and raise many more about when, how, and if these agencies should deploy drones at peaceful protests. The same goes for drone deployment at mostly peaceful protests that are interrupted by a small portion of the participants engaging in civil disobedience, violence, or property damage.
Review the public records at DocumentCloud (DocumentCloud's privacy policy applies).
Pilots vs. Protesters in Alameda County
Correction: This section has been edited to reflect that all of the Alameda County reports occurred in 2017. We regret the error and oversight.
On the final day at the same IACP conference, where Orlando Police spoke about drone best practices, the Anti-Defamation League hosted a panel titled "Handling Extremist Events: Balancing Freedom of Speech, Peaceful Assembly, and Public Safety." It focused largely on clashes between protesters and counterprotesters, such as events where alt-right and nationalist demonstrators have faced off with Antifa-affiliated groups.
A police chief in the audience asked the panelists whether they had used drones to surveil these protests. Assistant Chief Jeffery Carroll, who heads the Homeland Security Bureau in Washington, D.C's Metropolitan Police Department, said no, because the jurisdiction is a "No Drone Zone." Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham from Virginia explained that in his state, drones generally require a warrant, except in exigent circumstances, such as an active shooter. Instead, the agencies generally relied on helicopters.
UC Berkeley's Chief of Police Margo Bennett described a very different approach. She publicly confirmed, for the first time to our knowledge, that the Alameda County Sheriff's Office had deployed drones at protests.
Chief Bennett disclosed that she requested air support ahead of protests against campus speakers, such as Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos. According to the county's policy, the sheriff is allowed to put them up in the air once they have reason to believe a felony—such as physical violence or property destruction—is occurring.
With that tip, we compared the dates of a series of high profile protests against a bare-bones Alameda County Sheriff drone mission log obtained earlier by the Center for Human Rights and Privacy through a California Public Records Act request. Then we used that information to request the formal "Mission Report Forms" from those protests.
Prior to the IACP conference, the Alameda County Sheriff had refused to hand over these mission reports, claiming that as investigative records they were exempt. This time, they turned over the documents for 10 separate mission logs related to six days of protests, although on some days the drones never left the ground. In addition to UC Berkeley, the Alameda County Sheriff also responded to air support requests from the City of Berkeley Police Chief.
Read the mission reports and associated emails.
August 27, 2017 - "Say No To Marxism"/"Rally Against Hate"
At the request of the Berkeley Police Department, two separate Alameda County drone teams were on hand. They flew DJI Phantom 4 drones over the zone after receiving reports of alleged assault.
September 19, 2017 - Guest Speaker Ben Shapiro at UC Berkeley
The UC Berkeley Police Chief requested drone surveillance for the planned protest against the speaker. While Alameda County deputies authorized DJI Inspire and DJI Phantom 4 drones, no flights were conducted.
September 24-27, 2017 - Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley/"Free Speech Week"
As was the case with the Shapiro event, the UC Berkeley Police Chief requested drone surveillance, and the Alameda County Sheriff logged missions for the DJI Inspire and DJI Phantom 4 drones. On the first two days, the drones never left the ground. On September 26, the drones flew after violence allegedly occurred. On September 27, the drones were on standby, but did not deploy.
(Emails indicate Berkeley Police further requested drone support on April 27, 2017, to monitor protests following the cancellation of a talk by Ann Coulter. However, there is no log or mission report corresponding to this date.)
Interestingly, the mission logs show an exclusive focus on protesters associated with left-wing, anti-racist, anti-fascist, or other groups opposing the Trump presidency. There is little mention of the alt-right, nationalist, or pro-Trump groups also involved in the altercations. The drone pilots used boiler plate language at the beginning of each mission report:
By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) and ANTIFA members were expected to take part in the protest and these groups are notoriously violent and encourage civil disobedience, property destruction and physical violence. BAMN states the following on their web page, "BAMN will employ whatever means are necessary to oppose and defeat these attacks on the democratic and egalitarian aspirations and struggles of our people." ANTIFA is described as a movement that engages in varied protest tactics, which included property damage and physical violence.
At the IACP conference, UC Berkeley Police Chief Bennett explained that the drones were most helpful in "situational awareness." She also said the department later confronted the protest organizers with the captured footage.
Chief Bennett described how faith leaders and non-violent protesters at one event ("people I know as activists that I know and respect") were peacefully escorting rally participants away from the scene:
But Antifa was able to get into their leaving process, and me being able to see that from the drone perspective, seeing it from the air allowed me to have really candid conversations [over] the following days with some accountability. 'You cannot have these people with what you're doing, delegitimizing yourselves and creating major issues for our community.' It was a perspective we only got from the freedom of being in the air.
Chief Bennett did not say whether she had similar conversations with conservative groups whose members were also involved in altercations.
While police are increasingly challenged with providing safe space for dissent, flying drones over protests threatens the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters, even if a small minority may allegedly engage in criminal activities. The Alameda County Sheriff's policy for the operation of drones offers no guidance on how to balance freedom of expression and assembly against situational awareness and evidence gathering.
In fact, the procedures do not address protests at all. Instead, deputies seem to rely on parts of the policy that say missions are authorized if there is probable cause it will capture footage relevant to a felony. While probable cause is a better requirement than no standard at all, it is a significantly lower threshold than the warrant requirements in states like Florida, Virginia, and North Dakota. Also, the policy encompasses an extremely broad variety of offenses, but in our view, police should only be allowed to aim drones at protests when the most serious crimes are suspected.
Following each drone mission, deputies are supposed to review and evaluate the evidentiary value of the footage, then purge footage of "identifiable individuals" unless there is reasonable suspicion that a crime occurred. The Alameda County Sheriff refused to release records reflecting the evaluations conducted for protest footage, claiming they were exempt as investigative records.
We also requested a copy of the annual audit of the drone program required by the general orders. The sheriff's response: it does not have "any audits pertaining to our sUAS program." It is alarming that the sheriff is not keeping a close eye on this intrusive program.
The Alameda County Sheriff has spent more than $120,000 on six drones, according to documents obtained by the Center for Human Rights and Privacy. These costs include more than $90,000 on two drones that are rarely deployed.
Drones Over the ICE Protests in Contra Costa County
On June 30, researchers for the Center for Human Rights and Privacy witnessed first hand a drone monitoring peaceful immigrant rights protests outside the Contra Costa County Sheriff's West County Detention Facility in Richmond, California. This jail houses undocumented immigrants through a deal with ICE (Sheriff David Livingston announced on July 10, 2018, that he would terminate the ICE contract). A subsequent public records request of mission logs confirmed that the sheriff authorized drone flights for rallies on June 26 and June 30, 2018, at the detention facility. The fact that the drone was monitoring First Amendment activities was not documented in the log, although it was noted that the drones were used for "facility safety and security."
The use of a DJI drone at the June 30 Abolish ICE protest was previously reported by Darwin BondGraham of the East Bay Express. He noted that an internal ICE memo released in 2017 claimed with "moderate confidence" that the drone manufacturer was "providing U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government." The company disputed the claim. The U.S. Army grounded its DJI drones in 2017 over security vulnerability concerns. Contra Costa County operates three of these drones, purchased at a cost of more than $19,000.
The Center for Human Rights and Privacy filed a public records request for photos and videos captured by the drones, but the agency rejected the request, citing the investigative record exemption under the California Public Records Act.
Contra Costa County's policy is almost identical to Alameda County's, particularly in failing to address the privacy and free speech implications of flying drones over demonstrations and political gatherings.
Community Control
This police use of drones to spy on First Amendment activity is just one reason why many community members oppose drone programs. This is why city councils and the public as a whole, and not law enforcement officials, must have the ultimate power to decide whether or not police agencies acquire drones. And if city councils approve drone programs, they must insist on robust policies to limit how police use drones.
This year, cities in San Francisco's East Bay area have taken up policies to ensure that law enforcement doesn't acquire surveillance technology without such a public process. In Berkeley and Oakland, city councils passed a measure sometimes referred to as "Community Control Over Police Surveillance" (CCOPS) ordinances or "Surveillance Equipment Regulation Ordinances" (SERO). In Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County adopted such a law, too, which applies to that county's sheriff.
It's time for East Bay county governments to follow suit. Sheriffs should not be allowed to fly drones over protests—or at all—without an accountable process approved by the communities they serve. Otherwise, like the Orlando Police Department cautioned, these programs ought to be destroyed.
This report was co-authored with Mike Katz-Lacabe, director of research for the Center for Human Rights and Privacy.


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The Author! Author! community is seldom far from my thoughts, but at moments when I pass a sign like this, I must confess, I find it difficult to think of anyone else. Especially of those of you brave souls that regularly put yourselves — and your manuscripts — through the literary contest-entry wringer.
Why contest entrants in particular? Because in recent years, contest judges have found themselves doing double-takes at the type of punctuation currently blaring at you from that otherwise rather straightforward piece of advertising above in ever-increasing numbers. So, too, has the frequency with which our old pal, Millicent the agency screener, found herself shaking her head over manuscript submissions, murmuring, "I wonder if this is what the writer here actually meant, or if this is yet another instance of the sad decline in punctuation plaguing our society in these decadent days."
Millie's mutter was a mighty big hint, by the way, to those of you who did not erupt in merriment the instant you first clapped eye on today's guest image. See it now?
Chances are, if you were a contest entrant frantic to get your entry postmarked by a deadline, you would not see it; it's the type of typo that writers in a rush often overlook. And that's a real shame, if the entry's well written: I've never encountered a writing contest that allowed its judges to assess an entry by what its writer probably wanted to say, rather than what's actually on the page.
Nor does your garden-variety agency typically permit its screeners to correct punctuation, even mentally, while reading submissions. That, too, is a shame, for many a successful querier or pitcher aglow with the first burst of adrenaline that comes with hearing that a real, live agent or editor wants to see MY WORK has simply glossed over this kind of punctuation as well. Strategically, that's a mistake: even if it ever were desirable to leave Millie guessing at your intended meaning — and it isn't, ever — it's fairly standard for screeners to be told to stop reading at the second or third typo.
And what's the best preventative medicine for skirting that dreadful fate, campers? That's right: taking the time to read every syllable of your contest entry, requested pages, and/or book proposal IN ITS ENTIRETY, IN HARD COPY, and OUT LOUD.
Does that chorus of groans mean I've poked some of you in a sore spot? Or merely that you wish the Submission Fairy would wave her magic wand and grant six extra hours to writers on deadlines, purely for proofreading purposes? "But Anne," the time-strapped moan, "I see typos in published books all the time! Surely, that must mean that little punctuation gaffes, misspellings, misplaced quotation marks and the like are no longer taken as seriously as in days of yore, when mistake-free writing was considered the mark of the literate person?"
In some contexts, you're quite right about this, proofreading-avoiders: thanks in part to a decline in hard-copy proofreading (it's much, much harder to catch small gaffes on a backlit screen than on a printed page), we do all see more faux pas in print than even ten years ago. Spelling- and grammar-checkers have caused a general decline in proofreading, and not only amongst published writers. E-mails are notoriously typo-prone, as are texts, and Twitter practically demands leaving out otherwise essential words, letters, and punctuation. Given the choice between speed and graceful presentation, most opt for the former.
Then, too, most of us also scan a heck of a lot more unedited writing than would have been imaginable to those whose primary reading experience was before the rise of the Internet. And don't even get a professional reader started on how much more frequently advertising copy — like, for instance, the sign depicted above — contains typos.
All of which means, in practice, that pretty much all of us have gotten almost as accustomed to seeing writing presented badly as we have to seeing it done well. So often do signs shout things like BOBS' LIQUORS at us (spot it yet?) that even the most grammar-savvy writer might be forgiven for occasionally placing an apostrophe in the wrong place when she's in a hurry.
Driving past ads like this all day, it might not even look problematic at first glance. So why, as our short-on-time discussants above asked, should a deadline-facing contest entrant or excited submitter lose any sleep over a questionable apostrophe or two? Won't it be some copyeditor's job to catch such problems before the book is published, anyway?
Yes, but that doesn't mean that a typo like this won't jump off your pages at Millicent, if she's been properly trained — and if she works at an agency you would want to represent you, she has. It would also look odd to Mehitabel, the veteran contest judge. And, frankly, it would drive me nuts to spot on the page.
Or, as in this case, the sign. To any of us, and almost certainly to the agent of your dreams, the very sight of BOBS' LIQUORS immediately begs the question: just how many Bobs are there in that liquid-filled emporium?
Shall I take the resounding splat of eyebrows against hairlines as an indicator that this particular question has not been dogging some or all of you since this post began? I'm not entirely astonished: although it would make Millicent, Mehitabel, and their confreres choke to hear it, a stunningly high proportion of talented aspiring writers seem never to have learned the rules about creating possessives — or plurals, for that matter. Or at least to have been schooled in them so long ago that misuse of one or the other no longer causes their eyebrows to twitch at all.
So let's embark on a quick refresher course, not only to revivify those complacent eyebrows, but so you have some guidelines on hand during any future moments of doubt. And if that means alerting everyone within the range of my keyboard to the genuinely puzzling nature of that provocative sign, well, so be it.
To form a possessive for singular nouns that do not end in -s or -z — which is to say: most nouns — just add 's. If Ambrose happened to own a leopard, then, Millicent would expect the text to refer to Ambrose's leopard; by the same token, the spots decorating Ambrose's pet would be the leopard's spots.
To form a possessive for singular nouns that do end in -s or -z — Gladys, a spaz, a passing ibis — the apostrophe goes after the s or z. So if Gladys' pet ibis happened to become friends with Gladys' brother Glenn, whose business partner happens to be a spaz, the ibis' buddy's business' interests might be endangered by the spaz' annoying ways.
I was expecting a certain amount of resistance to that one — and already, a forest of hands have sprouted out there in the ether. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that most of you hand-wavers are fond of the ways of journalism. Yes, newspaper-huggers? "I can go along with Rule #1, Anne, and I remember when Rule #2 used to be common, but I see #1 applied all the time to nouns ending in -s and -z. Doesn't that mean that Rule #2 is obsolete, and I may simply form possessives by adding 's to any old singular noun?"
I take your point, journalism-lovers: rarely do I pick up a magazine these days without having some well-meaning reporter inform me that the ibis's buddy's business's interests might be endangered by the spaz's annoying ways, and quite firmly, too. There's a reason for that: in recent years, A.P. style, the style favored by newspapers and magazines, has indeed reverted entirely to Rule #1 for singular possessives. So you may expect those sources, along with online media, to slap 's indiscriminately on any noun. It has also become quite common for publishers of books by journalists to throw literary tradition to the winds in this respect.
And, to be fair, Millicent probably would not stop reading if you did the same: she, like the rest of us, has seen the ibis's and similarly ungraceful possessives running amok across newspaper pages for years now. That does not necessarily mean, however, that the language in its most polished form — American English as it might appear in literary fiction, for instance — must drop one of the nicest punctuation rules we have.
To quote your mother: if everyone else jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, would you? And if half the people you knew evidently thought — at least strongly enough to put the theory into practice — that it was correct to form a plural in English by adding 's, instead of just an s, would you throw the rules that say otherwise off the aforementioned bridge, simply because you'd seen plurals formed incorrectly so often?
Many, many aspiring writers would, as Mehitabel and Millicent could tell you to their sorrow; judging by what's submitted, they either do not know the rules well enough to apply them consistently or have been rendered unsure enough by the sight of rule variation that they don't notice when their texts lapse. Even if a contest entrant or submitter is made of stronger stuff and is familiar with the rules for constructing plurals and possessives, if she does not proofread closely, she might as well be unsure of the rules.
Why? Think about it: an agency screener or contest judge can only assess a writer's talent and skill based upon what's on the page, right? If none of the possessive usages on page 1 are correct, obviously, Millicent is likely to conclude that the writer needs a crash course in punctuation, which is not any agency's job to provide its clients. Fair enough. That being the case, though, if two of the six possessive uses on page 1 are incorrect, in addition to the plural of fence being printed as fence's instead of fences, could you really blame her for drawing the same conclusion?
While you're still shuddering over the implications of that one, let me add hastily that the logic also tends to hold true in reverse. If your punctuation and grammar are impeccable, not only will the effort win your manuscript or entry Brownie points — always good in a competitive situation — but your pages will also enjoy the not inconsiderable advantage of novelty. To be blunt about it, so many contest entries and submissions contain incorrect possessives and plurals that those that don't shine by comparison.
If, in addition to the virtues of solid grammar, the pages also manage to apply the elegant, old-fashioned rule of possessive formation in nouns ending in -s or -z, professional readers will usually like the writing even better. Seriously, literate old-schoolers just love seeing this old-fashioned punctuation used correctly. Indeed, amongst ourselves, we tend to complain that the only benefit of adding the extra s to words that do not logically require it is that those who have difficulty with complexity need memorize only one rule.
Hey, I didn't say we were funny; I said we were literate. But seriously, folks, does it come as a great surprise that contest judges, especially in the early rounds, tend to be culled from the ranks of the conspicuously literate?
So your rhinoceros favors a particular pond, you might want to consider making Mehitabel happy by referring to the rhinoceros' watering hole. (If there was more than one rhino, it would be the rhinoceri's watering hole, but that's a horn of a different color.) If Chaz were the rhinos' keeper, they would be Chaz' rhinos.
If you preferred A.P. style, however, you could also render it as Chaz's rhinos. They would sound the same spoken out loud.
Getting the picture? This one is legitimately up to you, as long as you don't mind causing Mehitabel to sigh nostalgically. Just make sure that the text is 100% consistent about whether a -z noun takes an apostrophe in the possessive or not.
Even if you decide to get modern on the -z question, I would urge clinging to tradition on the -s front. If the creatures that frequented that pond were flamingos, you would say that it was the flamingos' favorite place to drink. I feel a rule coming on:
To form a possessive for a plural noun, the apostrophe goes after the s. Thus, the spots belonging to more than one leopard would be the leopards' spots. Contrary to popular belief, the Thus, if the entire Anderson family owned a leopard ranch, it would be the Andersons' leopard ranch.
Let me state that another way, because Millicent and Mehitabel see family names and possessives mismatched all the time, for some reason. If the leopard in question belonged to just one person — let's call him Ambrose Anderson — both Ambrose's leopard and Anderson's leopard would leave M & M's eyebrows mercifully unraised. However, if the leopard were so lucky to belong to both Ambrose and Antoinette Anderson, it would be the Andersons' leopard.
Is the BOBS' LIQUORS conundrum starting to make more sense now? Let's take a gander at why: if it belonged to just one guy named Bob, it should be BOB'S LIQUORS, right? While it would be gracious to give the sign-painter the benefit of the doubt, neither of the two remaining possibilities seems particularly likely. The place could belong to a person named not Bob, but Bobs, in which case BOBS' LIQUORS would be perfectly correct. It's also not entirely beyond the realm of possibility that the store's owners may well have intended the literal meaning here; we may well be looking at a two-Bob situation.
But if either of these turns out to be the case, I feel the inhabitants of Lake City are entitled to a full explanation, don't you? The vast majority of passersby would read this sign as it was probably meant to read: as BOB'S LIQUORS.
Good old Bob may well be counting upon that; he may well believe, and with some reason, that it doesn't really matter whether his potential customers walk in expecting one Bob or several. It's not wise, though, for an aspiring writer to play similarly fast and loose with Millicent or Mehitabel's sense of what's going on.
Oh, you don't think Mehitabel will dock your entry points if your punctuation choices imply that there are more Bobs running around your short story than there actually are? Or that Millicent might stop reading if the text seems to indicate a lack of familiarity with the rules governing apostrophes — if, say, a manuscript falls into the pervasive habit of forming plurals by adding 's, instead of just s?
To calm the nerves of those of you currently clutching your hearts and hyperventilating: possessive misuse all by itself is not necessarily an instant-rejection offense all by itself (although it can be, if Millicent is in a bad mood). It's not uncommon, though, for it to combine with one or two other small gaffes to add up to rejection. Heck, I've known Millicents to reject a manuscript after the first malformed plural, if it fell within the opening page or two. Contest judges seldom have that luxury, thank goodness, but you'd be astonished at how often an otherwise well-written entry will knock itself out of serious finalist consideration by a typo or two on the first page. Or even — sacre bleu! — the first paragraph.
Why? Well, are you sitting down? I hope so: professional readers are paid to presume that everything on the manuscript page is there because the writer intended it to be. If the text consistently misapplies a rule, then, or simply does not apply it consistently, they tend to assume that the writer simply does not know the rule at all.
Well might you turn pale, time-strapped submitters and contest entrants. What might have started life as a typo actually can transmogrify at entry time into a reason to consider a submission less than literate — and to send the message to an agency that this talented writer would be more work to represent than someone whose work did not include such gaffes.
Why? Well, tease out the reasoning: either the writer is not aware of the rule (and thus the agency would have to invest time in teaching him something any professional writer would be expected to know), the writer is not sure enough of the rule to apply it consistently (so the agency would have to waste time proofreading his work before submitting it to publishers), or the writer knows the rule, but was simply too lazy (or, more likely, too rushed) to reread his own writing before submitting it. Whichever turns out to be the case, it means that it would be inadvisable to trust him to submit clean manuscripts, especially on a short deadline — and short deadlines crop up in the publishing world all the time. The agent of his dreams wants his work to sell, after all: it's really in no one's interest for her to submit his work to a publishing house if it's peppered with typos.
She wouldn't want to run the risk of the acquiring editor's assuming he just didn't know the rules. Or that he wasn't serious enough about his own writing to proofread.
With those imperatives in mind, let's try applying the theory to one of the great American apparent exceptions to the possessive formation rules: why is the Oakland A's correctly punctuated?
If you immediately leapt to your dainty feet, shouting, "Because that's what the team calls itself — and proper names are spelled the way the people bearing them say they are," give yourself partial credit. The team does in fact use the apostrophe in referring to itself. And grammar, I'm pleased to say, is on its side in that respect.
But not, I'm even more delighted to report, because the A is rendered plural by that 's. It couldn't be, right? Adding an apostrophe is not how plurals are formed. That is, however, how contractions indicate that some letters are missing. In this instance, seven of 'em: thletic. Thus, it's perfectly acceptable to abbreviate the Oakland Athletics to the Oakland A's.
Yet another cosmic mystery solved. Now if only we could crack the case of The Possibly Multiple Bobs. Keep up the good work!


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I read over the response given here: Is it possible to re-insert a LaTeX equation by label? which says such a thing is possible only with a macro. I would like to do this.
I have a bajillion equations, some labelled and some not. Of those that are labelled, some I would like to display again, say, at the end of the document as a quick summary. Wome equations I want to show twice at different places identically.
The problem is I can't decide on notation and I keep changing small things and it is a bit of a pain to remember which equations I want to display again and if I've updated them or not.
Would there be a obvious/better way to do this?
I have to admit I haven't ever bothered with macros for latex before today so apologies if the following is horrible, but, (to the best of my understanding) is that it would be something like
\expandafter\newcommand\csname #2\endcsname{#1}%
\acommand{someequation}{equationassociated} \\
So then \acommand{someequation}{labelassociated}
will display someequation and define the macro \labelassociated
But then, what if I want to display someequation along with the label entered as the second argument?


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For over 250 years the heartwood of Brazil's pernambuco tree has been crafted into the finest bows used by violinists, violists, cellists, and bassists for the creation of glorious music.
The survival of pernambuco is now threatened by continuing encroachment on its fragile habitat in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. To raise funds for replanting programs, research, and educational outreach, and to better preserve our cultural heritage, IPCI-Canada and Archetype Publications (UK) have published the world's most extensive book on the restoration of instruments and bows. IPCI-Canada, a non-profit organization, is an affiliate of the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative.
The Conservation, Restoration, and Repair of Stringed Instruments and Their Bows
Edited by Tom Wilder- 150 articles
- 120 contributors
- 1,600 pages
- 8.5 x 11 inches
- cloth-bound
- over 900 b&w and 100 colour photographs
- 300 technical drawings
- cross-referencing
- bibliography and index
- Documentation CD-ROM
At over 1600 pages, including 1000 photographs, 300 technical drawings, and a CD ROM, this publication is "simply a must," say Joseph Grubaugh & Sigrun Seifert.
More praise for the publication:
Support IPCI Conservation Projects
All profits will support the research, reforestation, and educational activities of the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative.
Procedures are broken down into generously illustrated steps. All materials and tools are listed and systems of measurement are standardized for clarity.
Theoretical, scientific, and historical articles on materials, environment, conservation, restoration, and connoisseurship
Comprehensive schemas
Detailed instrument and bow schemas provide the most complete and standardized system available for examination, description, and documentation.
Create, print, and store reports
Includes a Documentation CD-ROM with editable forms for computerized documentation and condition reporting and digital storage.


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Blog Zimmatic
Center Pivot Irrigation Helps New Zealand Grower Improve Sustainability
7 févr. 2020
A love of the land and the ability to be his own boss led New Zealander Gary Wilson to a life of farming.
"Sure, there are long hours and the weather can be a real pain, but what motivates me is the hope we can achieve top yields each season," he said. "And, hey, if not, there's always next year."
Wilson grew up on his family's sheep and crop farm on the Canterbury Plains – leaving in the early 1980s to take advantage of educational opportunities. He and his wife Rae returned to work on the family's 158-hectare (390-acre) block at Winslow in 1988 before moving to their own operation, Glenmorganvale Farm, in 1999.
"We grow crops ranging from carrots for seed production, to ryegrass for seed maize, radish and anything else that's profitable," he said.
Because his fields are flat, inland and prone to unpredictable weather, Wilson said the only way they've been able to maintain the operation is by getting smarter in the way they operate. They use center pivots with Zimmatic Precision Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) technology to apply the right amount of water precisely where they need it – with a simple touch on their smartphones.
"Before we purchased the farm, it simply had border dyke flood irrigation and lateral spray irrigation with hand shift pipes," he said. "Now, with the help of technology, we're not necessarily reducing our water or fertilizer inputs but we're optimizing them, so the crops we grow utilize everything that we put in – be it water, fertilizer or chemicals we spray."
In addition to watering more accurately, Wilson said center pivot irrigation also requires less labor and lowers costs in the long run. It's an investment, he says, in the future of farming.
"As an irrigated farmer, we're always under the microscope, so we have to utilize our scarce resources the best way we possibly can. We're trying to do that," he said. "Irrigation allows us to grow the seed crops – like carrots, radish and ryegrass – that are exported to the world. Without irrigation systems, our crops simply wouldn't be reliable – we wouldn't get the yields."


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Anthony Freda Art |
Jon Rappoport
Activist Post
In no particular order:
One: Give the appearance of unifying the country behind the President, who "did his job the right way," by going to Congress for approval. This elevates Obama's ratings and, by inference, suggests that his other programs should be accorded more merit. A wartime president always gains more support.
Two: Give the people an adrenaline rush. The effect should never be underestimated. Cleanses the pores, cleans the slate, and relieves frustration by proxy, temporarily…if you have very little access to your cerebral functions.
Three: In this case, winning Congressional approval reinstates the illusion, for a few moments, that we are a Constitutional Republic, with a government dedicated to justice.
Four: Help fulfill the long-planned US-Israeli agenda of destabilizing Syria and causing it to partition into warring and chaotic ethnic factions.
Five: Stop the construction of a natural gas pipeline across Syria, which would boost Iran's economy by sending Iranian gas to Europe. Iran's economy must be torpedoed.
Six: Send a message throughout the Middle East that the US is all-powerful and the dollar must remain the reserve currency in all oil transactions.
Seven: Feed the US military-industrial complex, which demands wars.
Eight: Aid the long-term goal of Globalism/Free Trade, which involves putting the entire Middle East into unresolvable debt and suffering…and then coming in with outside elite bankster financing, to rebuild the entire region and own it, lock, stock, and barrel.
Nine: Distract Americans from a number of scandals, including: Benghazi, Fast&Furious, IRS non-profit division crimes, NSA spying, the continuing failed war in Afghanistan, and a tanking domestic economy with more and more people living below the poverty line.
None of these reasons has anything to do with "punishing Assad for using chemical weapons." In any case, that whole scenario has been thrown into extreme doubt.
Your government at work.
6 Important Stories Silenced by Syria War Drums
Jon Rappoport is the author of two explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed and Exit From the Matrix, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com


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Animal Patterns
Looking for some patterns, lettering or illustrations for your brand? Here is a small snippet of surface designs by Sazerelli Designs.
Hello, and thanks for stopping by to view my animal patterns! My name is Sarah and I am a surface designer based in Sydney, Australia. I love creating prints and patterns with bags full of colour, with the intention of helping you sell more of your fab products. I've seen my designs in over 1800 stores in Australia – in our major supermarkets. I've worked with small independent makers and global companies and I am truly passionate about creating designs to make people smile.
With a portfolio of over 250 patterns and designs there is plenty to choose from. From Christmas to Conversational, Florals to Geometrics, there are lots of options. Alternatively, if you have something specific in mind, I am happy to curate a selection of designs that would be suitable or create a custom design. All designs can be adjusted in scale and colour to suit your product needs.
If you aren't quite ready for designs, but would like to keep in the loop of new available designs, join the mailing list to get fresh new designs straight to your inbox.
I love my designs to have a hand drawn feel, and often start with pen or pencil and paper. I then move my designs digitally, often designing on my iPad, before digitising in Illustrator to make the repeating pattern and add vibrant colours to my designs. Want to see some behind the scenes and recent collabs? Follow Sazerelli Designs on Instagram.