text:
|Version 118 (modified by jtv, 9 years ago) (diff)
libpqxx is the official C++ client API for PostgreSQL, the enterprise-strength open-source database software. (If "PostgreSQL" is too verbose, call it by its shorter name, postgres).
If you are writing software in C++ that needs to access databases managed by postgres—on just about any platform—then libpqxx is the library you use. The source code is available from here, although in most cases you'd normally work with pre-built binary packages provided by a package maintainer for your specific platform, and distributed through your normal package management infrastructure.
2010-11-06: Dropping support for 7.3
We enjoyed supporting the obsolete 7.x libpq versions for as long as we could in libpqxx, but it's come to a point where that is no longer possible.
The reason is a combination of changes in the escaping format for binary strings. Even in the current development versions with its various fixes for this situation, we no longer see a way to keep a 7.3 libpq compatible with the new 9.1 alpha-release backends. We'll try to keep libpq 7.4 supported for a little while longer, but may have to give up on that too.
Unfortunately there are also no existing libpqxx releases that will make this work. Using a 7.4 libpq with a 9.x backend should still work, but you may need a development version of libpqxx. Run the test suite against your particular configuration to be sure.
2010-10-26: Performance Tips page
I presented some basic query optimization tips at Barcamp this weekend. To my horror, most of my audience had never heard of "EXPLAIN ANALYZE" and such. So much for my plan to zoom past the basics and get straight to some hard queries!
But since there seems to be an interest, we now have a PerformanceTips page to help users learn how to solve their database performance problems.
2010-10-26: New ticket classification
I just updated the bug tracker to replace the standard but unhelpful "severity" classifications (Critical, Blocker, Severe, and so on) with a different classification developed by Kirit Sælensminde: Fails to communicate failure, breaks, incomplete, unusable, ugly. We're running this as an experiment to help validate his ideas about reporting bug severity.
2010-10-12: another site fix
After fixing the worst of our site problems, we hit a rarer one. It looks solved now: it turns out Trac needs to write to its config file occasionally. Not something we expected, so obviously we had things set up without this privilege.
According to the Trac website, failure to allow writing to the configuration file will frustrate Trac's internal caching. We haven't seen this problem come back since we changed this, so fingers crossed…
Finding Everything
|Sales Pitch
|Why this library should interest you
|Using This Site
|The various services offered by this development site
|Download Page
|Source archives (no binaries; those depend on your individual platform)
|Frequently Asked Questions, and their answers
|Online Documentation
|Wiki and copies of packaged documentation
|Packagers Page
|Information for maintainers of libpqxx packages
|Where can I get professional development help?
|Bug Tracker
|Known bugs and requests (as in View Tickets option in top button bar)
|Bugs by Milestone
|Bugs and feature requests, but ordered by milestone
|Reporting Bugs
|How to report a problem or request a new feature
|Mailing Lists
|Hosted on pgFoundry site
|Performance Tips
|Figure out and solve performance problems
|Other Projects
|Other open-source development projects hosted here
|libpqxx Elsewhere
|Sites where libpqxx is registered as a project
|Author and Contributors
|Who made all this?
For issues not suitable for the mailing list or bug tickets, contact the author as jtv at xs4all.nl.
Also, you may want to have a look at the other open source projects hosted on this site.
Technical Overview
This library works on top of the C-level API library, libpq. You will need libpq in order to use libpqxx.
The first thing you need to know is that libpqxx revolves around transactions. Transactions are a central concept in database management systems, but they are widely underappreciated among application developers. In libpqxx, they're fundamental.
With conventional database APIs, you issue commands and queries to a database session or connection, and optionally create the occasional transaction. In libpqxx you start with a connection, but you do all your SQL work in transactions that you open in your connection. You commit each transaction when it's complete; if you don't, all changes made inside the transaction get rolled back.
There are several types of transactions with various "quality of service" properties; if you don't really want to use transactions at all, one of the available transaction types is called nontransaction. This transaction type provides basic nontransactional behaviour.
Every command or query returns a result. All result data is fetched immediately. The result object is really a smart pointer so it can be copied around without incurring much cost in terms of performance. Don't check these for errors; failures show up as regular C++ exceptions. Result objects can be kept around for as long as they are needed, completely separate from the connections and transactions that originated them.


text:
You are looking at european air quality forecast issued by Ensemble forecast in Europe
Dear Users:
The NRT analysis and forecast production have just been upgraded. The novelties are:
• The use of a new anthropogenic emission dataset, to enhance model results.
• An extended domain to the North. Domain covers now an area spreading to 72°N.
→ Note that the new extended domain will not be available for ONLINE PACKAGED DATA. It will be delivered through OGC Web services, for which you will have the choice between:
1- getting the new extended domain, 2- or defining a subset corresponding to the former domain [ subset=lat(30,70)&subset=long(-25,45) ] , if you wish your result file to remain unchanged.
• New species available on plots : DUST and SECONDARY INORGANIC AEROSOL. These new products are available for both analysis and forecast.
Access to these new plots :→ → →
• Changes in Grib Template
For the GRIB2 file, the changes will concern pollen codes (GRIB keyword "constituentType"). This is to ensure compliance with the WMO standards and table version (tablesVersionLatest).
|Pollen species
|Birch pollen
|62101 (instead of 64000)
|Grass pollen
|62300 (instead of 64001)
|Olive pollen
|64002 (no change yet because no standard code has been provided)
|Ragweed pollen
|62200 (instead of 64003)
|Table version
|21 (instead of 5)
Note : The numerical datasets corresponding to the other changes (provision of 2 new parameters or addition of 2 new models in the ENSEMBLE) will be available later through the Atmosphere Data Store.
AIR QUALITY in Europe: Ensemble modelling

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Carroll v. United States
|Carroll v. United States
|Argued March 14, 1924
Decided March 2, 1925
|Full case name
|George Carroll, John Kiro v. United States
|267 U.S. 132 (more)
|The warrantless search of a car does not violate the Constitution. The mobility of the automobile makes it impracticable to get a search warrant.
|Court membership
|Case opinions
|Taft, joined by Holmes, Van Devanter, Brandeis, Butler, Sanford
|McReynolds, joined by Sutherland
|Laws applied
|U.S. Const. amend. IV, National Prohibition Act
Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court that upheld the warrantless searches of an automobile, which is known as the automobile exception. The case has also been cited as widening the scope of warrantless search.
During prohibition, officers arranged an undercover purchase of liquor from George Carroll, an illicit dealer under investigation, but the transaction was not completed. They later saw Carroll and John Kiro driving on the highway from Detroit to Grand Rapids, Michigan, which they regularly patrolled. They pursued them, pulled them over, and searched the car, finding illegal liquor behind the rear seat.
The National Prohibition Act provided that officers could make warrantless searches of vehicles, boats, or airplanes when they had reason to believe illegal liquor was being transported and that law enforced the Eighteenth Amendment.[1]
The Court noted that Congress early observed the need for a search warrant in non-border search situations,[2] and Congress always recognized "a necessary difference" between searches of buildings and vehicles "for contraband goods, where it is not practical to secure a warrant, because the vehicle can be quickly moved out of the locality or jurisdiction in which the warrant must be sought."[3] The warrantless search was thus valid.
The Court held, however,
- It would be intolerable and unreasonable if a prohibition agent were authorized to stop every automobile on the chance of finding liquor, and thus subject all persons lawfully using the highways to the inconvenience and indignity of such a search.... [T]hose lawfully within the country, entitled to use the public highways, have a right to free passage without interruption or search unless there is known to a competent official, authorized to search, probable cause for believing that their vehicles are carrying contraband or illegal merchandise.[4]
The Court added that where the securing of a warrant is reasonably practicable, it must be used.[5]
That became known as the Carroll doctrine: a vehicle could be searched without a search warrant if there was probable cause to believe that evidence is present in the vehicle, coupled with exigent circumstances to believe that the vehicle could be removed from the area before a warrant could be obtained.[6]
Subsequent events[edit]
In 1927, the Florida Legislature enacted the Carroll decision into statute law in Florida, and the statute remains in effect.[7]
In United States v. Di Re,[8] the Court declined to extend Carroll to permit searches of passengers in a vehicle that had apparently been lawfully stopped. In Di Re there was no probable cause to believe that the passenger was holding any evidence.
The Court relied on Carroll in Cooper v. California[9] to observe that a search of a vehicle may be reasonable where the same search of a dwelling may not be reasonable.
Due to a 2009 decision rendered by the Supreme Court in Arizona v. Gant (2009), there may be new restrictions on warrantless searches of automobiles under certain limited circumstances. That ruling requires either that the vehicle's owner has a reasonable chance of moving the vehicle before police can get a warrant. In the case of Gant, the suspect was arrested while the vehicle was parked. Arizona v. Gant does not automatically preclude Carroll and does not overrule it.[10]
See also[edit]
- Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616 (1886)
- Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42 (1970)
- Exclusionary rule
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 267
- United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1 (1977)
- Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383 (1914)
- ^ Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 144 (1925). The National Prohibition Act required a search warrant for a search of a building. However, this law was revoked in 1933 when Prohibition ended.
- ^ 267 U.S. at 150-53
- ^ 267 U.S. at 153.
- ^ 267 U.S. at 153-54.
- ^ 267 U.S. at 156. Observation: This comment is no longer valid. See Pennsylvania v. Labron, 518 U.S. 938 (1996) ("If a car is readily mobile and probable cause exists to believe it contains contraband, the Fourth Amendment thus permits police to search the vehicle without more," citing California v. Carney, 471 U.S. 386, 393 (1985); Maryland v. Dyson, 527 U.S. 465 (1999).
- ^ In Husty v. United States, 282 U.S. 694 (1931), a vehicle search was sustained under Carroll where the officers had probable cause to believe a vehicle contained liquor, but they waited until the driver showed up to arrest him and search the car. The Court thus rejected Husty's contention that the search was invalid since the police could have obtained a warrant under the circumstances. Husty, 282 U.S. at 701.
- ^ Fla. Stat. s. 933.19
- ^ United States v. Di Re, 332 U.S. 581 (1948).
- ^ Cooper v. California, 386 U.S. 58 (1967).
- ^ Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009).
Further reading[edit]
- Black, Forrest R. (1929). "A Critique of the Carroll Case". Columbia Law Review. 29 (8): 1068–1098. JSTOR 1115229.
- Schrader, G. D. (1980). "Warrantless Vehicle Stop and Search". Alabama Lawyer. 41 (3): 365–386. ISSN 0002-4287.
- Whittlesey, John S. (1947). "Authority of Highway Patrol to Stop and Search Motor Vehicles without Warrant". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 38 (3): 239–244. JSTOR 1138298.
External links[edit]
- Works related to Carroll v. United States (267 U.S. 132) at Wikisource
- Text of Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925) is available from: Findlaw Justia Library of Congress
- United States Supreme Court cases
- United States Fourth Amendment case law
- 1925 in United States case law
- United States Eighteenth Amendment case law
- 1925 in Michigan
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Vehicle law
- Legal history of Michigan
- United States Supreme Court cases of the Taft Court
- Prohibition in the United States


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Tampa Bay & Company is excited to announce that National Sales Manager Dori Laack will assume her new role as Regional Account Executive based in the Washington, D.C. area beginning Oct. 1, 2011.
Dori Laack joined Tampa Bay & Company in January 2006, after relocating from Denver, Colo. In the past five years, she has transitioned to different roles and distinguished herself as a top producer.
"She is a master prospector and has successfully employed her creativity and imagination to open new markets, accounts and opportunities for our destination," said Vice President of Sales Norwood Smith. "Dori has forged close relationships with her hotel partners, and her clients are consistently impressed by Dori's knowledge of Tampa."
Dori, will be taking the reins from Senior Regional Account Executive Suz Cavanaugh. After 25 years with Tampa Bay & Company, Suz will retire at the end of this year.
In fall 1986, Suz Cavanaugh assumed the role of National Sales Manager for the Tampa/Hillsborough Convention & Visitors Association, now Tampa Bay & Company.
In 1995, she worked to further establish the Company's Washington, D.C. office, where she found her calling. Suz Cavanaugh has been the face of Tampa in its largest, most productive market for the past fifteen years.
"While today there's an impressive number of in-market D.C. representatives, none have remained in their position demonstrating steadfast loyalty to their cities like Suz," Norwood Smith said.
"We celebrate both Dori and Suz for their contributions as they begin exciting new chapters in their careers."
Be sure to stay tuned in for more updates on Tampa Bay Meetings News …
Until the next time … Think TAMPA!


text:
Poi Sang Long Festival
Date: April
During the school break between late March to early April, the Tai Yai ethnic group in Mae Hong Son province hold a special religious ceremony called 'Poi Sang Long'.
Poi Sang Long is a Buddhist novice ordination ceremony, but unlike any other ceremony of its type in the country. Young boys aged between 7 and 14 are ordained as novices to learn the Buddhist doctrines. It's believed that they will gain merit ordaining for their parents.
The origins of this festival lie in Buddhist legend. It is believed that the tradition is probably following in the footsteps of Prince Rahula, the Buddha's own son, who gave up his worldly life to follow his father's spiritual teachings. Prince Rahula became the youngest ordained monk and the first novice in Buddhism. Subsequently it became a tradition that young boys should ordain to learn Buddhist teachings.
With such high reverence to the Buddhist religion, the people here consider that the celebrations should be as grand as possible.
The festival lasts for three days. On the first day, the boys have their heads shaved. Then, they are bathed and anointed with special waters and dressed up elegantly and colorfully while their faces are superbly embellished. By this time, the boys are known locally as 'Sang Long' or 'Look Kaew' (jewel sons).
On the second day, a colorful procession is held displaying offerings for the monks. On the third day, the procession once again proceeds through the town and the boys are taken to the temples for the formal ordination ceremony.
The colorful festival is one of the most delightful in the north, attracting people from far and wide. The local authorities and the Tourism Authority of Thailand consider this festival to be unique to Mae Hong Son, the so-called 'Province of the Three Mists.'
Planning > Travel Info > Festivals >


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For financial services organizations, hosted desktops can make it easier to manage and support all of their users; maintain security and compliance; and allow employees to continue working in the event of an IT disaster.
Many financial services organizations have multiple branches in addition to their main headquarters—and some have dozens and even hundreds of them. Hosted desktops are an ideal IT solution for decentralized businesses like these, because they can be accessed from anywhere and with any network-connected computer, thin client, tablet, or smartphone. They ensure that all employees in the organization are provided with access to the same applications and databases regardless of their location.
A problem for financial companies with multiple branches and a centralized IT department that don't have hosted desktops is local IT support. The IT departments of such companies have to spend a large amount of their time and budget on traveling to each branch to repair and troubleshoot hardware and update applications. (Alternatively, the company can assign a dedicated, onsite IT department to each branch, though this will probably end up being even more expensive than an oft-traveling IT support team.) If they sign up for hosted desktops, however, they won't have to repair and troubleshoot the local hardware as often, since hosted desktops are processed and stored on the server and not locally (so the age or condition of the local hardware doesn't matter as much), and applications can be centrally managed and updated.
Hosted desktops can also increase IT security for financial services organizations. They can be set up to prevent users from being able to move data off of the server (for example, by saving documents to their local hard drive), ensuring that all of the company's data remains on the centralized VDI servers at all times. As a result, the IT department doesn't have to worry about branch employees stealing data electronically or storing it on insecure endpoints, and the centralized hosted desktop system is easier to defend than a decentralized one with localized processing and storage.
Business continuity, meanwhile, is important for financial services organizations like banks, since many consumers need, or at least expect, continual access to their financial resources. With hosted desktops, as long as the VDI systems and its backups aren't affected, employees can continue to access their files and applications even when their branch is unavailable due to an incident such as a natural disaster or localized power outage. A tax and accounting firm with an office in New York City highlighted in this case study was able to continue operating even after its location was flooded by Hurricane Sandy, for example, because it had hosted desktops that its employees could access from home or from a temporary office located outside of the flood zone.


text:
Upload to Cloud Service Action
The Upload to Cloud Service automation action provides the ability to automatically upload documents or images to a cloud service.
Choosing a Cloud Service
You can choose from any cloud service account that you have already used within Paperlogix, or tap Add Cloud Service to add a new one.
Tap the Destination Folder item to select the target folder on your cloud service where the documents or images should be uploaded.
Upload Type
You can choose between three upload types:
- PDF. Selecting PDF will cause the action to upload a standard PDF document containing all of the document pages. Tap PDF Settings to customize the PDF Page Size, Image DPI and Image Quality.
- JPEG. Selecting JPEG will cause the action to upload JPEG images for each document page. Tap JPEG Settings to customize the Image Size and Quality.
- Paperlogix. Selecting Paperlogix will cause the action to upload a Paperlogix document file. This format is a zip file with the .paperlogixdoc file extension.
Paperlogix document files contain the original full-resolution images captured from your camera, along with the metadata for your edits and text recognition. Paperlogix document files can be opened with Paperlogix on any device.


text:
No matter how crazy things are, this is an important time for us music teachers to get feedback from our studio families on what worked well and what areas could be improved upon next year. It will help when it comes time to plan for the upcoming year.
Training Students to Become Active Listeners
The Tickle Trunk of Textures
Using Waveforms in Music Lessons
Teaching Music Using VARK Learning Preferences
Skills and Attributes Needed to be a Private Music Teacher
Keyboard Geography Cheat Sheets
This year, I have seven students who have had a tough time with their keyboard geography at the piano. One of them is an ARK learner (aural, read/write, kinesthetic. Another one is a VR (visual, read/write. The others are VA (visual, aural) learners. We've tried landmark notes. We've tried colour-coding lines or notes (that worked pretty well, until I started to wean them from the colour-coding). We've tried the good old phrases that everyone knows (e.g., "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge"). No matter what, they look at me and ask "Where do my hands go?" or they'll look at Bass C and play me Treble C, as if any C will do.
This new idea came to me as another student and I were checking with DaTuner Lite to see how well my acoustic piano was holding its pitch.
I pulled out my Piano Teacher's Resource Kit and photocopied the reproducible Keynote Reader worksheets. Next, I had those students write in the letter names and draw a line connecting the note on the keyboard to the corresponding position on the staff.
Next, the pièce de résistance: I introduced the keyboard number system. For instance, the lowest C on the piano is C1, with the notes below being A0 to B0. I labelled the first one for them and had them finish the rest.
Next, I had them apply this new knowledge to the pieces they have been working on. It didn't take them long at all once they labelled their starting notes as "C4" instead of just any old "C".
Thank you DaTuner Lite and Piano Teacher's Resource Kit!
|look inside
|Piano Teacher's Resource Kit (Reproducible Worksheets, Games, Puzzles, and More!). For Piano/Keyboard. Educational Piano Library. Softcover. 88 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.296802)...more info


text:
I have never really been big on reading beauty blogs, but occasionally my favourite fashion and lifestyle bloggers will mention some favourite products at the moment, that I will then immediately start craving as well. In addition I have been watching a lot of beauty vloggers lately, who tempt me with their large collections of products that I can not wait to get my hands on. I started writing down a few of the products that looked the most amazing, and as we walked past a Sephora today I could not help but go in and buy some new beauties.
NEW IN: Even though the Sephora was quite small and did not have all of the products I was hoping for, I found a small Too Faced stand around the corner which was screaming my name. Trying to control myself, I figured out that two products were enough for now, so I went for the two I have been craving the most. The melted liquified long wear lipstick in the shade Melted Marshmallow and The little black book of bronzers. Ever since I managed to forget (!) my chocolate bronzer at a pre-drinks back in London I have been missing it so much, but as I have wanted to try out some other shades as well I thought this bronzer palette was the perfect product for me. I seriously can not wait to play around with it, and hopefully both of the products will live up to my expectations, after all of the Blogger Hype they have both gotten.


text:
The State Worker
California state government's soggy tower springs another leak
Here we go again.
A leak inside the Board of Equalization's Sacramento headquarters forced the agency to close restrooms on two floors Wednesday, according to a memo to the 2,200 employees who work in the building. It's not clear when the repairs will be completed.
Evidence of the leak was found Wednesday morning outside a men's restroom on the 17th floor. The Department of General Services, which acts as the 24-story tower's landlord, traced the trouble to a cracked drain pipe on the 18th floor.
"This leak caused water to stain ceiling tiles above the drinking fountain, as well as drip down to the surrounding carpet and wall areas," the Wednesday afternoon memo by Equalization Deputy Director Edna Murphy states. The men's restrooms on the 17th and 18th floors were closed and water was shut off to a breakroom sink served by the cracked pipe.
"At this time DGS is not able to determine when they will finish the repairs," the memo says.
The latest leak continues the ongoing drip of news about the tower's structural troubles dating back to its 1992 opening. Taxpayers have spent more than $60 million to repair everything from leaking windows to toxic mold to unreliable elevators in the tower at 450 N St. in Sacramento. Replacing hundreds of exterior glass panels at risk of falling off the building and repairing crumbling drain pipes that lace the tower's core will cost tens of millions of dollars more.
The Brown administration has said it's working on a plan to better manage the state's inventory of buildings in the capital region, including Equalization's headquarters.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit is pending that claims officials at the tax-collecting agency knew the building was a hazardous work site but told employees it is safe.
Call Jon Ortiz, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1043.


text:
The year is 2013, the world has all but been devastated by the apocalypse of 2012. Yet two bands survive. Two bands carry on.
Dates below. Join the Facebook event and share with your California friends here!
We can't wait to see you out there!
Thurs, Feb 7th - Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco
Picture Atlantic - Cash Pony - Dogcatcher - DJ Galine MoDmoiselle
1233 17th Street, San Francisco
Fri, Feb 8th - Kuppajoe, Fresno
Picture Atlantic - Dogcatcher - Sea of Sound - Indian School Rock
7 PM - All Ages - $8/door, $4/adv
3673 N 1st St, Fresno, CA
Sat, Feb 9th - The Turtle House, Davis
Picture Atlantic - Dogcatcher
217 2nd Street, Davis, CA
Fri, Feb 15th - Love At First Slice, Newark
Picture Atlantic - Dogcatcher - Girl Named T
8:00pm - All Ages - Free
36601 Newark Boulevard #58, Newark, CA
Sun, Feb 17th - The Crepe Place, Santa Cruz
Picture Atlantic - Dogcatcher - TBA
1134 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz
Sat, Feb 23rd - AMPLYFi, Hollywood
Picture Atlantic - Dogcatcher - Summer Leagues - Cat Who Will Eat Planets - TBA x2
7 PM - All Ages - $12/door, $10/adv
5601 Melrose (in alley behind Astroburger), Hollywood, CA
Sun, Feb 24th - Eleven, San Diego
Dogcatcher - Picture Atlantic - Opener TBA
Matinee Show w/ BBQ , 6pm
El Cajon Blvd, San Diego, CA, 92104, US


text:
After leaving Alberta last week we entered British Columbia through Yoho National Park. We had the amazing opportunity to raft the Kicking Horse River. On the recommendation of a visitor center employee, we turned south at Revelstoke and headed through the Western Kootenay region instead of going along the more popular Okanagan valley route. This route twisted through mountains that turned out to be filled with amazing mountain bike trails. Jay was in heaven, dropping down rock faces and traversing seven summits in a single day on an IMBA Epic. I got into it as well, biking five days in a row on both Rail Trails and singletrack.
One of the unique features of the Kootenay Bay route is that there are three free ferries that are part of the highway system. We rode one of the ferries on our way to Nelson. It was a great opportunity to sight see in Balfour Bay.
Hours volunteered: 0 – we hoped to volunteer in another one of the National Parks in Canada, but Yoho, Glacier, and Mount Revelstoke did not have any volunteer activities for us to get involved with.
States & Provinces: 2, British Columbia: Glacier National Park, Golden, Mount Revelstoke National Park, Revelstoke, Nelson, Rossland; Washington: Kettle Falls, Spokane
Budget: over
People Visited: Mary Lynn & Frank Hutchinson
Nights under the stars: 6 – Kootenay River Runners camp, Glacier National Park, Nelson city campground, Rossland Lions campground
Best meal: Burger and Panini at Flying Steamshovel in Rossland
Best beer: Smelter's Ash Imperial Stout from Northern Ales Brewery in Kettle Falls, Washington


text:
Hold onto your hats: Tomorrow's Spring Hat Luncheon, a key date on the annual old-school society calendar, will be targeted by opponents of mountaintop-removal coal-mining.
Why's that, you ask? Well, this year's Hat Luncheon is co-chaired by Debbie Demchak. She's married to newly appointed PNC Financial Services CEO William Demchak. And PNC has for years been the target of such protests because it invests in companies that blow the lids off Appalachian mountaintops for the coal inside.
Meanwhile, the Hat Luncheon benefits the city's parks system — which, as the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy web page for the event notes, is "a keystone in our city's status as both 'livable' and 'green.'"
But as the Philadelphia-based Earth Quaker Action Team, which is organizing the protest, puts it, "the Hobet mine in Boone County, W.V., has destroyed the equivalent … of 22 Schenley Parks. Water sources are polluted by mountaintop-removal practices which release heavy metals like arsenic and selenium."
EQAT, a peaceful, Quaker-led group, organized the April 23 protest at PNC's annual shareholders' meeting, held Downtown. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that protesters shut down that meeting by demanding that PNC get out of the mountaintop-removal business.
PNC is among the nation's largest financers of mountaintop-removal, according to the Rainforest Action Network.
The Spring Hat Luncheon is set for tomorrow morning, on the Overlook in Schenley Park. EQAT promises "protesters in hats" and more starting at 10:30 a.m.


text:
This was supposed to be a quiet week in Washington with Congress still on vacation and President Obama jetting off to Russia for the G-20 meetings. Well forget it. The threat of Syrian air-strikes—and Obama's surprise move to seek Congressional approval—changed all that.
The Senate Foreign Relations committee meets Tuesday afternoon in a special session to hear the case for strikes from Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Expect both to get peppered with questions on how limited any strikes will be, what the U.S. expects to accomplish and what the administration will do if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad escalates his attacks on his own people in the face of a U.S. attack.
There is a great deal riding on the answers.
Because if Obama loses votes in Congress on air strikes it would deal a sharp blow to his presidency and possibly weaken his hand in dealing with Republicans later this month on passing a resolution to keep the government open and raising the debt ceiling some time in October. There is also the question of whether failed votes would embolden Assad and further destabilize the Middle East possibly further boosting oil prices and denting economic growth around the world.
(Read more DC Money Insider: Obama rips GOP on health care as he heads to vacation)


text:
"When Andrea started the enzyme replacement therapy, which allows him to thrive and live a normal life, we realized that the road ahead is not so difficult, because we have the tools to deal with it. Early detection is the key tool to ensure a life full of energy and interests. Now every day is the most beautiful because we see him growing healthy and strong."
"Mare suffers from MTM1 which is a rare and very grave neuromuscular disease. But since we changed our attitude from -it is too much trouble/it is not worth it- to -we have little time and we need to make the most out of it-, we have experienced and achieved incredible things"
"I can live thanks to blood donation and scientific research. Having a chronic disease means being able to overcome your limits every day and enjoy every second of your life"
"I suffer from Pompe disease and every two weeks I have to come here to Meyer Hospital for therapy. But I do not get bored, now we become a family. I know patients who get the infusion with me and we talk or we exchange advices on how or when using the humidifier in the tracheobronchial"
"When you are diagnosed with a rare disease, they should explain to you that it will be a hard path.
But they should also explain that you will walk that way, every day, with all of yourself, with all your might without sparing you. This will change your outlook, your horizons, your world. This will give you a path dotted with overwhelming joy"
"When he was younger, Simone didn't accept so easily plaster casts used to realize specifically shaped braces for him, but growing up, it has become natural"
"Greta cannot move her body, but her mind goes at the speed of light. Thanks to advanced technology, Greta has an eye-pointer, a computer that she can control through her eyes and which let her to be more independent in the game, without any adult interactions"


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Worldwide increases in the incidences of asthma, allergies, infectious and cardiovascular diseases will result from a variety of impacts of global climate change, including rising temperatures, worsening ozone levels in urban areas, the spread of desertification, and expansions of the ranges of communicable diseases as the planet heats up, the professional organization representing respiratory and airway physicians stated in a new position paper.
Chagas disease, a parasite-borne illness carried by kissing bugs afflicts millions of people in Central and South America today.
As Asian countries develop, they are emitting more ozone precursors that pollute surface level air. Many studies have documented this pollution being carried by air currents to the western United States.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing not to change the greenhouse gas (GHG) permitting thresholds for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V Operating Permit programs.
In 2009, when the United States fell into economic recession, greenhouse gas emissions also fell, by 6.59 percent relative to 2008.
A new study led by the Georgia Institute of Technology provides further evidence of a relationship between melting ice in the Arctic regions and widespread cold outbreaks in the Northern Hemisphere. The study's findings could be used to improve seasonal forecasting of snow and temperature anomalies across northern continents.
National results indicate that tree cover in urban areas of the United States is declining at a rate of about four million trees per year, according to a U.S. Forest Service study published recently in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.
It's not a take on climate change we often hear about. However, one man believes the two are connected.
Indigenous people around the world are among the most vulnerable to climate change and are increasingly susceptible to the pathogen loads found in potable water after heavy rainfall or rapid snow melt.
Extreme summer temperatures are already occurring more frequently in the United States, and will become normal by mid-century if the world continues on a business as usual schedule of emitting greenhouse gases.
Anthropogenic climate warming is leading to consideration of options for geoengineering to offset rising carbon dioxide levels. One potential technique involves injecting artificial sea spray into the atmosphere. The sea salt particles would affect Earth's radiation budget directly, by scattering incoming solar radiation, and indirectly, by acting as cloud condensation nuclei, which could lead to whiter clouds that reflect more radiation.
Does it matter whether long periods of hot weather happen in June or July, August or September? Scientists studying the subtle effects of heat waves and droughts say that when such events happen makes a big difference.
Scientists are preparing to launch a 10-year project to study water resources, gas exchange and carbon cycling in three man-made landscapes built in a half-acre laboratory at the University of Arizona's Biosphere 2.
Climate change has impacts on forests, fields, rivers -- and thereby on humans that breathe, eat and drink. To assess these impacts more accurately, a comprehensive comparison of computer-based simulations from all over the world will start this week. For the first time, sectors ranging from ecosystems to agriculture to water supplies and health will be scrutinized in a common framework.
New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. Led by the Universities of Exeter and Oxford, the study is published in Nature Geoscience.
The effects of climate change could expose Australians to greater risks from toxic contamination, a leading scientist has warned.
Thirty-thousand-year-old bison bones discovered in permafrost at a Canadian goldmine are helping scientists unravel the mystery about how animals adapt to rapid environmental change.
Might a penguin's next meal be affected by the exhaust from your tailpipe? The answer may be yes, when you add your exhaust fumes to the total amount of carbon dioxide lofted into the atmosphere by humans since the industrial revolution. One-third of that carbon dioxide is absorbed by the world's oceans, making them more acidic and affecting marine life.
Preserving diverse plant life will be crucial to buffer the negative effects of climate change and desertification in in the world's drylands, according to a new landmark study.
No less than one third of a car's fuel consumption is spent in overcoming friction. This friction loss has a direct impact on both fuel consumption and emissions. However, new technology can reduce friction from 10 to 80 percent in various components of a car, according to a joint study by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Argonne National Laboratory in the United States.


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Why There Are Riots in Charlotte {WATCH}
"Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law." (Proverbs 29:18)
Until we truly admit and understand WHY these riots are happening, we cannot hope to contain them. An unjust government breeds injustice. Look to yourselves first to see if you are either directly or indirectly contributing to the problem before you condemn someone else.
Our nation and especially our government and the enforcers thereof have a responsibility to enforce righteousness and the promises stated in the Founding Documents of our nation - for EVERYONE.
Violence is NEVER the answer, yet it is still just a symptom. We have bigger problems, especially if we hope to stave future riots.
For more videos from me, see here!


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"The Ladies' Man" is apparently a bit of a baseball fan.
Longtime Saturday Night Live cast member Tim Meadows, who is in town filming Grown-Ups 2 alongside the likes of Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Kevin James, took in Tuesday's Red Sox-Angels game from some prime seats at Fenway Park.
While the star was a little distracted at the time cameras spotted him, here's hoping the Red Sox can capture his attention with some exciting play as the game goes on.
Check out a screenshot from the NESN cameras in the photo below.


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Reverse mortgages continue to be popular with seniors - the most recent data shows a record 11,261 reverse mortgages were made in March, up from 9,086 in February. The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association expects there to be about 150,000 reverse mortgage originations this year, up 30 percent over last year.
The only reverse mortgage program that is available for Seniors is the FHA HECM reverse mortgage program and these loans are being bought by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae is doing some things where it is trying to attract more money to the reverse mortgage market by increasing the amount of money that reverse mortgage lenders can make on selling the loans by raising fees and allowing the interest rates to change before closing.
But by raising fees and allowing the rates to change right up until closing may be shutting some seniors out of getting a reverse mortgage because it reduces the amount of money a senior homeowner can borrow - and possibly even means that some seniors may not be able to get a reverse mortgage any longer.
Without any warning, last month Fannie Mae made changes that allow for higher margins for reverse mortgage lenders. This means that the spread a lender makes on the loan can now be wider. So, the higher the margin, the higher the interest rate the borrower pays.
Under the new rules, the margin can now be up to 3.75% (it used to be 1.5%) and can change from the time a borrower submits an application and the loan is funded, which can be up to 120 days.
The reason for the move by Fannie Mae is that because they are virtually the only buyer of these loans, they are trying to lure in other investors. Now that they can make more money, Fannie Mae hopes that more investors will step in and buy them.
The only question in my mind is... will there be any seniors who still want to get a reverse mortgage if they become even more expensive than they already are?
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Use our FHA Guide to find answers to all questions related to FHA loan.


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NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights Welcomes President's Statement on Net Neutrality: Internet freedom expert applauds president's commitment, urges further action/
For Immediate Release: Monday, November 10, 2014
Contact: Meredith MacKenzie, West End Strategy Team, firstname.lastname@example.com, (202) 427-2007
NEW YORK - Following today's announcement that President Obama has put his full support behind maintaining an open and equal Internet, Katharine Kendrick, a policy associate at the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and expert on Internet freedom policy, released the following statement:
"President Obama's message about ensuring an open, interconnected Internet is the right one. The United States remains the global leader in information and communication technology, and maintaining that position will require leadership from the administration on net neutrality, as well as restoring confidence in the protection of personal privacy online. American companies also need rules of the road for the important role they play in protecting sensitive user data."
The NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights is the first center to focus on human rights at a business school and is currently conducting research into the human rights dimensions of Internet policy. To speak with Kendrick or learn more about the center learn more about the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights please contact Meredith MacKenzie, email@example.com


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Body Dysmorphia: Ugliness in the Eyes of the Beholder
This one's for planet earth. If you prefer to listen, here's the podcast version of this post:
We all have an internal self-portrait and that is created by the way we feel about who we are. There are SOOOOO many factors that control how we feel about ourselves and what we perceive as our flaws. And that's why body dysmorphia is such a big problem: it looks and acts like "normal" self-image concerns. It walks and talks like vanity. And, yet, it destroys the average person's happiness in so many ways across a lifetime, unchecked. Your self-image is a distorted hallucination – one heavily affected by your fears, vulnerabilities, your brain chemicals, and the way you integrate information from the world around you. AND when it comes to how you view your flaws, it has no connection to how the world views you or your actual physical appearance. That's one reason this is such a powerful and rising problem: it's a kind of suffering that's veiled as "normal" because it affects successful, healthy people. An every-growing percentage of the population is dissatisfied with some or many traits of their physical appearance. When everyone you know obeys the same standard and marketing and media reinforce the irrational bar – how would you ever know there was another option?
I have been trying to write this for almost a year now, because when I started it I realized it's impossible to give someone solutions if you're still battling the issues. As a part of my research process, I decided to drop any and all obsessive habits related to scrutinizing my looks. To cease any self-criticism – any measuring or quantifying or worry around physical appearance. As you probably know, it's pretty much impossible to "finish" that process. Especially if you think of yourself as a participant in pop culture. But it can become a work in progress goal – a process - that gets easier and easier, and a problem that's less powerful.
I can tell you that since beginning this process, I can see myself a lot more clearly, and as a result I am happier and more relaxed. I save a lot more time: I don't waste time measuring things or quantifying my value or what my appearance compares to related to others. I get to choose to skip all the feeling bad about what I'm not. I get to make bad skin and bad hair days and bikini diets not relevant to me. Not because it's not berating my eyeballs, constantly. Because, I made that decision. Now it's about staying the course. It's a constant practice to honor that decision and it all comes down to the initial awareness. That this focus is a problem – and I want none of it. That there is another option: to make your happiness and well being as a holistic person your focus. To make enjoying your life and all the important moments, your goal. Once you make that your dream, achieving it requires staying consistent through the ups and downs that are your fears and emotions.
So yeah, I am walking you through this topic well aware that it's really fucking hard. It's a problem that's extremely powerful because it's so intertwined with our emotions. So my hope is that me telling you this will help you feel empowered and we can all fight it together. Let's change the world one healthy attitude at a time.
You might be wondering – what does a person look like with body dysmorphia, when compared with someone who DOESN'T obsess with their physical appearance? They look the same. A person can be physically "perfect" or emaciated or overweight – they can be anything. There is no norm in appearance. The difference lies in happiness. In inner harmony. You can tell a sufferer by their identity and focus. It's a disease of perception that infects your personal enjoyment. So in short, a person with body dysmorphia looks like everyone else but they live inside a hallucination that shows them nothing but flaws.
This affliction makes me enraged and filled with sadness – because it robs people of their spirit! Of their truest gifts. And occupies brilliant and amazing people for a lifetime – wasting their time and happiness being a slave to a mirror. I am doing this because I know, one day we are all going to be old and wrinkled and we'll have to let go of this physical form. And I believe – I – and you, should be able – should be capable of appreciating that time, in your physical form – without suffering and self-harm.
So if you suffer pain and terror and obsession with something about your physical appearance - the kind of obsession that robs you of enjoyment and participation in some of your life's greater moments – this is for you. Because you don't have to feel bad at your own hand. That's not real beauty and it's definitely not helping you become happier OR more beautiful.
There are three parts: the what, why and how – the tools!
Part 1: The What
Body dysmorphic disorder is the diagnostic term for a specific level of obsession – when you can't stop thinking about one or more perceived flaws – and the badness of the flaws aren't seen by others outside of you. The form that your particular insecurity might come in could be anything – none is more logical or valid. There are many toxic beliefs that are extremely common and some that tend to exist within particular cultures, but they run the gamut as far as topic.
According to one book it's, "An obsessive fear of a deformity." When a perceived flaw is an obsession that gets in the way you complete your "role" or takes up your mental focus for 1 or more hours a day. So in other words – severe obsession that interferes with your functioning in life.
Many who suffer text-book BD get endless plastic surgery – and it's never enough. Many can't leave their home because they suffer severe anxiety around others due to their perceived deformity – it's all they think about, to a debilitating degree. This belief is so powerful, those who do continue to attend their job can get stuck in a bathroom mirror trying to fix or cover the flaw they feel everyone in the world is gawking at. In other words – it's powerful.
There are all sorts of lines drawn in the medical books as to what constitutes a "real" disorder – basically how damaged your functioning is or how truly miserable you make yourself. In this podcast, I'm using the term of "body dysmorphia" as a catchall term for a painful and disruptive obsession with our physical flaws, though that's not the technical definition. There are levels of severity that one needs to be "officially diagnosed" with BD. A psychologist would call me out on the use of the term– but in my opinion, it's all a vast area of grey – with terms that are meant to judge how "normal" a person's suffering is. When it comes to weight and dieting – obsessive and dysfunctional behaviors are either categorized as Anorexia or Almost Anorexia, or just plain old disordered eating / "Ed" for short. In my opinion, the lines between all of these disorders (body dysmorphia, eating disorders and almost-anorexia) are arbitrary when it comes to who is affected and how they are affected and there is a ton of overlap - so I am choosing to address them as a one big ugly topic – because a vast majority of us suffer a version of all of them at once. Suffering is suffering and whether or not your range is "normal" you deserve to heal and find relief.
What I am addressing is a disabling kind of focus that affects the way you live your life. It's the kind of pain that can occupy your soul for the majority of your life- in ways you might not even recognize as tragic until it is much too late, and you are finally forced to let go.
BD is your insecurities on crack: like you're hallucinating a horror movie that is shaped as yourself. And you feel everything in life – no matter how wonderful, as filtered through them. It's the pain that prevents you from attending an important function because your skin broke out. Or causes you to believe a spouse left you because you looked too old. Or when seeing a family photo, causes you to see "when I was 8 lbs overweight." It's a pain that robs millions of time and money – pushing them to pay for surgery and products that burn and sting – and they never feel like they're enough. It's the pain that makes many feel so disgusted with their body, they cannot tolerate intimacy with a person they love, who loves them and the way they look.
And if you're suffering, you likely know it hurts and you wish it would stop, but you probably don't think there's a solution other than YOU changing. That's what sucks most. And why I fucking HATE THIS FUCKER. This perception is a blindness that pits you against yourself. It robs and destroys lifetimes that SHOULD be happy and carefree and confident. It takes health and turns it to imbalance and sickness. And it likely affects the majority of the population! So fuck you body dysmorphia! I fucking hate you.
So who am I talking to? Everyone who suffers. Boys. Girls. Men. Women. No matter the degree. Maybe your affliction isn't clinical or described by the DSM – maybe it looks just like the average person – BUT if you are one of those out there who feels their physical body is the measure of how well they're doing in this world, and that causes you to suffer as a pervasive state in your life – YOU can and should halt this fucker dead in its tracks. You are MORE that this piece of shit disorder.
Part 2: The Why
Because this is a distortion related to how you FEEL that then dictates how you see yourself, it's a potent problem in how it guides your lifetime. It can change how your day is going or become the reason you believe you can't ever wear shorts for your entire life! There are quite a few causes being currently studied but I am going to list the majority of the sufferers who have been the subjects of research, so check yourself against the list and know it's not your fault. BD is the result of a "complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors" – basically it's not ONE of the below, it's likely a few. You have to have the type of brain and personality traits that set you up to be sensitive to specific environmental factors. The brain structures of body dysmorphia sufferers share a lot with depression, OCD and anxiety.
This is to give you your light bulb on the causes, but if you are suffering greatly I highly recommend you look further into yourself with a therapist. At the very least, become aware of the problem that exists so that you might be able to help yourself when you are experiencing effects that are not rational.
1. Neurochemical Abnormalities
To summarize: complicated brain chemicals gone awry. Loops of thinking that won't stop when they're meant to. In other words, a serotonin or dopamine disorder. There are lots of little chemical messengers in your brain that help you regulate mood, sleep, hunger, sex hormones, etc. and they are regulated by things like serotonin. So if they are off – you start to act weird and do things like obsess in a mirror. The reason this is a theory behind BD is that when you take something like LSD that messes with your serotonin, BD gets way worse.
2. Personality Traits
Specific kinds of personality traits increase your risk for BD. Common traits include perfectionism, shyness, sensitivity to criticism and rejection, and unusually high standards for oneself, introversion, socially avoidant, and low self-esteem. People that score high on the neuroticism scale are often sufferers of BD.
3. Maladaptive Body Image
When you can't change your view of yourself despite changing your physical body. For example, if you lost 100 lbs. you might never feel like you lost the weight. Your emotions would be still tied to a person 100 lbs. heavier.
4. A history of teasing
It's also often the catalyst for the particular flaw a person becomes obsessed with. A single painful emotional occurrence can legitimize a fear you have around a flaw – it can become the motivating reason you perceive behind everything negative in your life moving forward. No matter how random, a joke delivered from a child about your "weird elbows" can be life-cursingly powerful, creating a belief you hold throughout adulthood.
Trauma - including sexual trauma or abuse. Sexual trauma has a very strong tie to dislike of ones body. This one makes me the saddest.
6. Moving
Moving to a new place where you feel like an outsider. Feeling like you don't fit in to this new place starts a focus on how you are different. When you have a desperate need to fit in, this becomes a label for your pain: I don't look right. There's a lot of trauma experienced when moving but when you feel physically different it adds power to the shock.
7. Parents
Parental expectations of perfectionism: If you had a parent who was preoccupied by your appearance and gave negative OR positive feedback for attractiveness. They call this "BD by proxy." Also, if you felt unloved by a parent: Parents who were neglectful or who made you feel unloved. Kids externalize what must be wrong with them so that they might control the pain.
8. Mood disorders
BD often co-occurs with anxiety or depression. Sometimes it's a symptom of the depression and sometimes it's separate. A lot of people don't get treated for because the depression is the more obvious problem. So if you suffer both, I recco you see a professional!
9. Industry
This one's a biggie. Everything from film, TV, magazines, products, and even the news legitimizes the importance of "thinness and beauty." The imagery and language of media highly endorses looking abnormally perfect. As a concept, physical perfection is constantly reinvented and therefore it's an ever-expanding industry. Cosmetic surgery, diet products, cosmetics, hair products, skin treatments: new products are being invented everyday to solve for problems that are being invented everyday. Marketing creates the need for products. Entertainment confirms it. It's a multibillion dollar industry that reaches more and more of the population, targeting wider audiences of men and women, and it's reaching them younger and younger. I know! SO dire and scary. Which brings me to the most important part…
These are for moving in the right direction but if you're suffering in a bad way, I recommend you go see a specialist. Don't let this go unchecked. It's your life, and time is precious! I want to help you to empower yourself to take on this mission so I am putting all the information and resources that I have on this subject at the end of this blog.
1. Awareness and a Desire to Change
This is step one. BD comes with an over-identification and focus on the external as a definition of you– and that over focusing is what robs you of your balance and any accurate perception. A loss of sense of yourself as a whole person is what creates the problem. Like, you suddenly are looking for flaws instead of living and thinking and laughing and dancing! So truly, this is the most important tool I have to give you. Awareness of the fact that you have a choice. You probably never considered you had one, but you do. Become aware that you are a sufferer and CHOOSE to overcome this by beginning to fight in everyday. Once you begin with the awareness, work on separating from the problem, mentally - recalling you are not this voice. This is the voice of a sickness that steals your life away. The key is to stay aware of the problem and separate from it, so that you can choose the correct patterns to follow in your life in spite of it. Helping yourself soothe in the individual moments and, even when it hurts and you're afraid, going toward your truest, highest goal anyway.
2. Ugly-Voice Translator
The voice of your ugly can be extremely convincing. It will sound just like you – or come from sources outside of you and they will constantly try to use rational, sound reasoning as a secret pathway toward disordered behaviors. And sometimes the voice is sooo veiled that it helps to give them a specific name assigned by their motives. So, imagine I am handing you a tiny chip to install in your mind via this blog – and this chip will give you an Ugly-Voice translators. Right now you've got to set the preferences – so name the different sounding voices.
There are a few standard labels given to the voice of particular kinds of disorders: Ed is the name for eating disorder – the voice that tells you that you're on your heavy side after eating a calorie high meal – and suggests you not eat for a day to even out. There's also Social-Ed, which comes in the form of the fucked up cultural expectations and sickness spouted by the world around you.
Whatever it is, name your voice of ugly based on what it says. Learn to recognize it. Know that it lies. This self-blindness induced by emotional triggers never works in your favor. It's only creates a you that is unlovable and ugly. It's showing you a false manifestation of your mental sickness: what you see is not real.
Happily, I can tell you from personal experience that when you can see outside of your fucked up vision, as a more objective person – your looks and body become very "normal" and okay. Any perceived changes are not so distracting or terrifying and they don't wield the power to spank you. Like, the terror piece has been taken out it. You begin to understand that you look more like you do to other people who aren't a victim to your brain. It's like that experience of looking at an old photo of yourself and seeing that you were in fact much more beautiful than you felt– and realize how sad it is that you stole the moment from yourself.
You'll find that once you begin to curb the obsessing by intentionally not making it your priority, you will see yourself objectively and then you can truly comprehend how awful the hallucinations were before. How much time they stole from you and how much of a waste it really was. How stupid that it happens to us. Fuck it! Stupid shit! Fuck! THAT's how mad it makes me!
3. Ugly Goggles
A key experience of BD is the hallucinations of something that doesn't exist. It's like the trigger moment when you hear your weight and suddenly you feel you look 60 lbs heavier. The same goes for exaggerations of flaws – your brain will cause you to perceive the flaws to be a million times worse.
Imagine it's like your brain trigger has suddenly placed atop your eyes a pair of "ugly goggles" and you need to step away from the mirror and talk yourself down. Not real. Emotional blindness.
If you see a professional, some meds are known to help remove the ugly goggles permanently – like you stop hallucinating the physical flaw altogether.
4. Scare Away the Monsters
This is like the thing you do as a kid – when you're afraid of something lurking in the dark. You talk really loud and calmly about how not-scared you are. And in turn, you calm yourself down. So in short, don't isolate or hide your insecurities. Disarm them by owning them and talking about how you know you will overcome them. Joke about them. Over-share. Be social. Live your life and don't let them rob you of your joyful experiences. Never let the problem silence you.
When you feel triggered and in pain, talk to yourself in the voice of sanity – and always be kind and supportive – tell yourself what is happening in calm rational voice.
5. Don't pull the trigger!
Think of your trigger emotions like a loaded gun. And when you are scared, the instinct is to fire at something: your looks, your weight, something you've labeled as your pain. And yet, often the triggered emotions are mislabeled feelings that are OLD. They are coming from a different place inside. So before reacting to the trigger, stop and examine them and try to sense where it might be coming from. What age does it feel like? What voice is it speaking in?
Often the feelings we have tied to physical flaws or fatness are mislabeled emotions that we are unaware of. For example, with ED often its past emotional pain that is mislabeled as feeling fat, full, or empty. The emotion is much deeper.
Before reacting it also helps to soothe the emotion as a pure individual instance – so deep breathing exercises like book breathing or gimme-five breathing.
6. You-360
This is a journal entry. I want you to describe to yourself what you hope to be known for in your lifetime – what you would describe as your greatest assets as an individual. Describe to yourself: who are you? What qualities do you have as a person? What are you really great at? What is your greatest dream? This should be what defines you as a thinking, breathing soul – and not something tied to your physical form.
This is the You that you are going to cater to moving forward. Not your physical. Everything you focus on should serve this whole person – and reward and protect them. That is your value. This statement is your focus when coming from a healthy vantage point.
7. OCD Ugly
This means stop the rituals associated with your body dysmorphia. The compulsive obsessive checking and measuring behavior reinforces the obsession. I know this is hard but you need to deliberately stop the behaviors you have around your perceived flaws. For example – to write this piece I threw away my scale. It was terrifying! I used to weigh myself pretty regularly. Once you get past the terror part – like omg I don't know what I look like anymore – you begin to get a bit of clarity. I'm not going to lie it was really fucking hard and part of me wanted to run back to it – but I decided – for me, and you – that I was going to stop the measuring and instead just be whatever I am going to be based on my lifestyle.
So if you want to help yourself undo this mental jail, you need to deliberately steer yourself away from all practices physical and mental and verbal that reinforce your negative measuring. That includes allowing yourself to mentally label experiences as bad or sinful instead of just enjoying them. What the hell is the good of a cookie if you're going to allow yourself to beat yourself up about it all day? Let it go! Choose to let it go! Don't stop until the voices subside.
Redirect your energy toward something more important like how you're going to get the promotion you've been wanting! Get out of your self-obsessed head and assume no truth lies there. Regardless of whether or not you feel you are up to par with an unrealistic cultural ideal, right now you are trapped in a form of perception that adds a thick layer of ugly. You cannot see or even appreciate your beauty. You are seeing something much less beautiful than what exists in reality.
What if You Love to Groom Yourself?!
This is not at all about not loving your physical self. I am ALL ABOUT THAT. Joy up the wazoo. Savor every sensation! Care for thyself! Live to the max!
My point with all of this information is the pain and suffering is optional. Living as a victim on an emotional rollercoaster – is not necessary to looking your best. It all starts with awareness and then a goal you have for yourself and your life. I'm not talking you out of exercising or doing your hair or eating healthy so that you can be your best most beautiful self ever. I'm talking you out of the pain and obsession that causes the imbalance – that perpetuates problems and causes you to feel powerless.
When you stop the obsession, you get clarity. Once you have emotional balance and distance from this focus, physical self care and health is pretty straightforward. It's all dictated by your holistic happiness as a human. Health and fitness comes automatically with the enjoyment of your life and your physical body. It's inspired by you wanting to be healthy and happy and enjoy yourself. It's not the result of fear and penance or a backlash to the horror of a reflection.
If you want to dye your hair and get a tan and work out, go for it! It can be a passion and a lifestyle – something you love. I love exercise. It makes me feel amazing and like my truest self. I do it because I love how it makes me feel – I crave it for my happiness. It's for me, not to me. So this is really about checking where you're coming from – being aware of what's honest and good for you– and what's fearful and hurting. Making sure you're coming from the right place, and that the place is self-love, enjoyment of your life – and happiness. Check your head. OFTEN.
In closing…
I know this process is really fucking hard! It's hard by all measures! It's like walking around in hell and everyone's a demon and you are closing your eyes trying to find the door out of it. Keep grasping at the goal – there is a way out and once you find it – keep running with all your self-loving might! So you can share the path you took with others.
I challenge to choose YOU-360, over your body as the truest definition of who you are. I'm asking you to pursue a healthy, objective focus in your life that rewards your personality as a whole. Start by deciding you want that. Accept the fear of losing your obsession will happen intensely, causing you worse hallucinations and panic, and then it will subside. Decide to step outside of the blindness and say– "I want my mental health and happiness."
You can be everything you want to be and more but you must always come from self-love and tolerance. Commit to your own happiness and your right to enjoy every moment of your life. Commit to honoring the wishes of your soul and lifetime in its entirety – while you're on this planet. What do you want to do while you're here?! The real goal is to rebuild your life from THAT foundation. Please love yourself as much as I love you, even though I don't know you. Please want for yourself a life you enjoy as you are – which is what I want for you. I know you can obtain your balance again – and feel worthy and proud of the person you are now. I know you deserve love and affection as you are. From you!
Wouldn't it be awesome if you had the ability to savor each moment – to not feel worthless or disgusting because of the random measure that happened to make you see someone ugly in the mirror. Well, you can. And you will. For the rest of your very long and happy life! So start now toward that goal. It all starts with a desire to change and then a commitment to making the steps necessary.
In truth… It's when you're laughing that you look the most beautiful. When you walk around with comfort in your skin that you look the most sexy. You look the most strong when you're openly vulnerable. When you fully embrace who you are as a whole person- your spirit shows through - it's that light of joy that makes your face shape perfect.
Below is my reading list as well as links to more help and resources:
Almost Anorexic: Is My (or My Loved One's) Relationship with Food a Problem? (The Almost Effect) (More for medical studies) The Broken Mirror: Understanding and Treating Body Dysmorphic Disorder (For help) Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationship with Food Through Myths, Metaphors, and Storytelling For tolerance and self-love: Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
A brief podcast on the topic from All in The Mind.
BDD Conference for sufferers and their families (UK). A doctor who treats BDD successfully. (In the UK)
Resources for support (all included in the back of Almost Anorexic):
Academy for Eating Disorders Referral List
Beat Eating Disorders HelpFinder
International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals Foundation
ANAD (free help groups) and 12 step groups.
Sending you much love xoxo!


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Refreshments will be available from 09:30, with a prompt start at 10.00. A buffet lunch will also be provided. The meeting will conclude by 15.00 latest.
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8 Responses to Operating Costs
steve says:
sounds about right… oh wait!
Kehos says:
Another way to say: you're fired!
Ant says:
"You're fired." –Donald J. Trump.
willwot says:
tight economy
Wildbird says:
Employee loses job due to illness and fatigue THEY GOT SICK AND TIRED OF HIM
Alex says:
will I still be getting paid?
Tom says:
Gee, my company has been doing a lot of this kind of exploring lately. Must be all the cool companies are doing it. Yeah, that's it.
Roberto says:
I wish I had a "work stimulator" like that one, with nails on top. Thanks for the cartoon, I love it!
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via The Japan News / March 13, 2015
The transfer of soil, contaminated four years ago with radioactive materials from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, to an interim storage facility began in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Friday.
The Environment Ministry plans to move the contaminated soil — currently being kept at more than 75,000 locations in the prefecture's 43 villages, towns and cities — to the facility gradually. Work to remove the soil, seen as an impediment to reconstruction efforts, has finally been launched.
The construction of the facility is planned in a coastal area of about 1,600 hectares that straddles the line between the towns of Okuma and Futaba. The facility, which is designed to prevent leaks of radioactive substances, is capable of storing up to 22 million cubic meters of soil and other radioactive waste for a maximum of 30 years.


text: The first book to showcase the music video as an art form. Co-written and produced by Neil Feineman, Intro by Michael Stipe. Designed by Tolleson Design. Published by Abrams Books. Produced and packaged this book over the course of three years, helped to develop new upressing technology for video stills, researched and gathered all the materials, worked on rights and usage for the images, raised the money and put the team together to complete and deliver to Harry N. Abrams Publishing.


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Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Then, Now, Forever (Heartbeat #2) cover reveal sign up!
All bloggers who want to take part in the cover reveal for the second book of the Heartbeat series called Then, Now, Forever, can sign up with the google docs form below! It's scheduled for 12th August and the response so far has been great - thank you so much to everyone who already signed up! The cover is so pretty thanks to Arijana from Cover It Designs and I can't wait to show it to everyone!
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Alpaca Zip Around Wallet
Alpaca Zip Around Wallet
If you are ultra-organized, or just want to be ultra-organized this zip-around wallet will keep your cash, your receipts, your coupons and credit cards all in their rightful places. There are no less than 6 compartments in this wallet as well as a zippered coin pouch and a special window place for your identification. So, functionality is fantastic, but look at the alpacas! You will smile every time you reach for your wallet!
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Multidisciplinary artist Howardena Pindell, NA has reached an apex in her career. With the recent presentation of her work in major survey exhibitions, her art has become a phenomenon of its own. Pindell tenderly and painstakingly braids her formal artistic skills, political positioning, and personal reflections into sculptural canvases that at their most impactful seem to bloom in psychedelic colors that reach beyond the work's surface. Pindell's exacting rigor transforms her art into playful, eye-arresting fractals and procedural poetry. A retrospective of her work is currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago until May 20.
Jessica Lanay I read an anecdote in an interview in which you talk about beginning to number the circles in your work. I was wondering how much this is connected to your father being a mathematician.
Howardena Pindell He had a book, and it had graph paper. He also liked to drive, and when we went anywhere he would write down the numbers when we started, and he would write down the numbers when we got there. He was interested in science and math. For my birthday as a small child I was given a microscope, and I was looking at drinking water and seeing all the things swimming around in the water. When I started the numbering, I found it a relief and a meditation.
JL Does your artistic process help you work through outrage?
HP It is very hard for me now to get angry, maybe because I have worked it out in the art. I can remember before when I was pretty angry, but that was when I expressed myself in writing. I think it is a combination of both my art and my writing that help me touch base with my anger. Now, I am feeling that I want my anger back. I am not going to stop my work to make myself angry, but I want to feel that anger again. The thing that I am really angry about now is Trump. It is almost like living again in the 1940s—it's his rhetoric.
JL Speaking of math, has the idea of chaos as order ever influenced your work?
HP I love controlled chaos: I love the way it looks, the drama, the things juxtaposing with one another. Also, to hold the eye through beauty, to notice one thing next to another. I want to have a sense of inside and outside. When I was living in Japan I went to a place called Itsukushima Shrine, and they had a scroll called Heike-nyko. When you look at it, it looked like water. You look down into the water, and you saw things under the water. I am at the stage where I want a sense of going outside the picture plane.
JL People ask a lot about pre- and post-accident differences in your artwork. What I want to know is: What was your body's relationship to your work before and after the accident?
HP In 1979, there was the exhibition called Nigger Drawings. A number of us, including Lucy Lippard, protested. David Hammons came to my loft, and we were making banners. When we went there they called the police and shut down the gallery, and then the whole chatter in the art world was that we were censoring the artist. And I was thinking: But you are censoring White women artists, Black men and women artists; you are censoring Asian artists and Native American artists—everybody. There were also other things happening. For instance, I was friends with Ana Mendieta, and I associate my lying down on the canvas and tracing my body with a crime scene or what it would have been like when she fell down onto the roof when, I assume, Carl Andre killed her. My getting in touch with my body after the car accident is in it, too. One of those reviews said in error that I cracked my skull. I did not crack my skull; I had a concussion, and my skull is dented. Still, it brought on a form of amnesia: I couldn't read a watch or a clock.
JL Can you tell me about the process of getting a piece from your imagination to the canvas, and what the vehicle is for translating what you see through your body? Is it emotion?
HP I keep journals, and when I get an idea I write it down, because with the medication and my head injury, I have short-term memory loss. I am trying to resurrect the crusty, crunchy piece (Untitled #20 [Dutch Wives Circled and Squared])(1978). I want to try to reinvigorate this approach, and I have to keep looking at my own notes. I want to revive the way I used to work and combine it with how I am working now.
JL You speak often about moving from canonical figurative artwork to abstraction. Did how you see things as an artist change with that shift?
HP I don't know if you know the piece Scapegoat (1990); it's in the collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem. There is a little child, me, holding a ball—that is one of the paintings that came out of the accident, even though it is ten years after the accident. I felt there was a narrative that I wanted to put on canvas, but I didn't want it to be on a rational picture plane or a rational perspective. At the bottom of the painting there is a white foot on my head—that was my old boss at the Museum of Modern Art. She is why I left. Then there is the text. My mother and I had a very adversarial relationship, and it was confusing for her because she was born in 1903, and she had a White birth certificate, but she was darker than I am. For some reason in Ohio they let her go to White schools. You can imagine what they said to her. Some of the things that I think were done or said to her she did to me. One of the things she said to me, before she died—she was in the hospital—she said, "If you don't stop fighting racism someone is going to come along and destroy that little career of yours." I put that text in the painting.
JL Were there artists who were highly influential in your decision to become more experimental in your work?
HP Frankly the earliest artist that influenced me was Marcel Duchamp. I loved The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (1915–1923). There is one piece I adored that looked like sugar cubes covered in a cage. That opened my eyes. When I worked for the Museum of Modern Art, the department I was in was Prints and Illustrated Books. One of the things that I catalogued was Duchamp's Boîte-en-valise (1935–1941), where he had little miniatures of his readymade pieces. My two influential things are the texture of Vincent van Gogh and Duchamp's avant-garde thinking. Eva Hesse, I love her work. Vermeer, I love Vermeer.
JL Some of your work is about being gaslighted as a visual artist who is a Black woman. One example is your short filmFree, White and 21 (1980). Do you consider your work to be an affirmation of your experiences?
HP I would say, yes, especially with that film. I said: This had to be done; it has to be video; I have to play the two parts. I bought the blonde wig at Woolworths, and the sunglasses were my sunglasses from the 1950s. It was the first autobiographical piece that I did that set in motion the rest of the work. Everything felt like I was doing the right thing. It is weird because I had the idea, and someone showed up—her name was Maria Leno, and she was part of Downtown Community Television Center. Ana Mendieta, while she was still alive was a member of A.I.R. Gallery, and she did an exhibit called Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States, and that was my first showing of Free, White and 21. Then Franklin Furnace invited me to show it, and they were charging admission. I said: "Don't give me my honorarium; let people come for free."
JL Your work is made up of discrete parts that are layered and built into a highly detailed field. Can you talk about the relationship between the individual pieces in your art and the final product?
HP You know what I think it is related to? Fractured mind. Because I had a head injury. It was a concussion. All the pieces after that are an attempt to unite my mind again, to mend the rupture. I have had two head injuries. When I was a toddler I slipped and landed on the floor and ended up splitting open my head. When I was in the car accident…I took a terrible impact. The feeling was fractured in terms of face recognition, voice recognition. I still have memory lapses. I have an extreme memory for some things like me being in the crib and seeing my father come in and hand me a newspaper. I would say that the turning point was really that accident—that was when I started combining figuration and abstraction and started using text. It is almost like knitting different parts of myself together, trying to get back myself.
Screen Interactions: Howardenda Pindell's Video Drawings
Howardena Pindell's retrospective, What Remains To Be Seen, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) spans more than five decades. Pindell, who began as a figurative painter, turned to a process-oriented practice around 1967, the year she graduated from Yale, favoring abstraction and mixed-media materials, of which her hole punches are the best known. Her dot paintings, as they are often referred to, use the dots from a hole-puncher on large abstract canvases, adding texture and depth to the surface. However, as the exhibition makes evident, she has explored many materials and is a meticulous maker who also takes pleasure in repetition. She methodically repeats actions such as drawing vectors or punching holes, which in turn meditatively investigates order, calling into question the stability of systems that govern daily life and conceptions of reality. In repeating lines, numbers, etc., she calls attention to the relative trivialness of certain logics that are accepted as truth.
This deconstruction of structures of authority is specifically evident in her Video Drawing series, which she began in 1973 and has returned to throughout her career. At the MCA, the Video Drawings are presented in both the first and second half of the exhibition, which highlights Pindell's reengagement with this idiosyncratic method. The first iteration of the Video Drawings began in 1973 when she purchased a television for her studio at the suggestion of her eye doctor. At that point her studio had no natural light, so the television became an electronic illumination source and focal point for her to give her eyes a rest from the meticulous work she was making. In her downtime watching the television screen, Pindell became interested in the nuanced politics of the programming she was consuming. The television then became a conduit for a new artistic output. For some time Pindell had been drawing vectors and numbers on acetate, and soon noticed that because of the electric static of the television screen, the acetate naturally clung to the surface of the screen, which Pindell then photographed.
The resulting images are aesthetic and analytic forays into the motion of the screen, especially in the early versions, which are mainly of sporting events, such as Video Drawings: Baseball (1973–76). In this work, Pindell captured the momentum of a baseball player with arrows suggesting movements and numbers suggesting strategic calculations, both of which allude to a player's velocity and direction. However, as in her dot paintings, the numbers and arrows are also arbitrary marks. In these works, Pindell points toward the rapidity of media consumption as well as the materiality of televisions that send mass-media messages from the exterior world into our domestic lives. As such Pindell aims a critical lens on culture, politics, and leisure as developed in the postwar era.
Pindell's Video Drawings, as with her larger practice, became more pointedly political after a near-death experience in 1979. When she returned to the Video Drawings in 1988, she photographed images of political events captured from the news to make her War series. In War: The "L" Word (George Bush) (1988), she captured the soon-to-be-president during a speech given the year he was elected. Alongside the arrows and numbers, Pindell began to introduce text in this version of the Video Drawings, placing "LIAR" in all caps underneath Bush's chin. Also in this series are images of violence and atrocities from wars in Cambodia and Vietnam, particularly the use of poisonous gases. In her return to the Video Drawings, Pindell calls more direct attention to the complexities of technology as related to social and political conflict, subverting the ideal of television as a democratizing force.
The most recent Video Drawing presented in What Remains To Be Seen features news coverage of Hurricane Katrina. In Video Drawings: News (2007), she overlays acetate with arrows going in haphazard directions onto an image of a CNN weatherman describing the trajectory of the devastating hurricane in an attempt to engage critically with this cataclysmic event.
The Video Drawings are one of Pindell's methods of visually deconstructing information, in this case televisual information. Though it is now blatantly clear that television is not neutral, when Pindell began making these works, there was still a general optimism about television and its potential as a populist technology. Through her aesthetic investigation of the medium, Pindell solicits the viewer to look critically at mass media, and she warns against accepting the homogenizing aspects of television programming. In this series, as in the rest of her work, Pindell aims to break down power structures by calling attention to their construction while simultaneously challenging accepted forms and subject matter.


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Dalglish: Reds should have won
Brought to you by
Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish could not criticise the performance of his side after they were held to a frustrating goalless draw away at Wigan.
The focus on striker Luis Suarez, who received an eight-match ban on Tuesday after being found guilty of misconduct for using insulting words to Patrice Evra which included a reference to the Manchester United defender's colour, deflected from what was an entertaining game in which Charlie Adam missed a 50th-minute penalty.
"We were not disappointed with the performance but were disappointed with not coming away with three points," said Dalglish.
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2011, All Rights Reserved.News Now - Sport News


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Millennials don't exist!!! Amen
Brilliant execution for a perfect concept
Maybe it will be the ad of 2016. The light, the shots, the flow create a perfect emotional visual poetry where the music wrap you into delightful 1:30 seconds.
How to speak through your employees.... brilliant example from Volvo
The Music and The Tone set the pace of this great piece of storytelling. A powerful execution for a common brief mostly poorly executed.
#SmartAdswithaDarkSide - The Conspirancy of #NativeAdvertising
South Park again, always hilarious on bringing to life society tensions and trends. In this case, showing the pain points of digital advertising and native ads where looks like the ads have an artificial intelligence and a dark side.
#WholeFoods' #BehavioralEconomics style for #Donations, almost infallible..
Funny exaggeration on how Whole Foods tries to drive donations at the point of sale through a mix of Behavioral economics and basically the influence of public judgment. Effective approach but not this time.
Meet Jane st, the fempowerment agency
John St. did it again, after "prankvertising", "catvertising" and birthday "pink ponies", now they cater to the fempowerment trend in our industry about empowering women through advertising.... hilarious as usual
A Company approach for longterm brand building
"REI will be closed on Black Friday, and pay its 12,000 employees not to work that day",
no doubt it's a provocative press note that will generate a lot of positive buzz. Let's talk about the brilliant idea behind it:
- It's a Big communication idea that demonstrates a purpose beyond the brand but from the whole company.
- It takes a disruptive angle to standout in the category precisely by breaking the behavioral habit of the whole retail category in that big sales day. That path, helps to build a bridge that connects with several cultural tensions (less vs more consumerism, connected life vs unplugged mindful life,....) to leverage an aspirational company attitude for people to identify with.
- Reinforces a positive relationship and morale with the employees (not sure about the rest of stakeholders lol...)
- Most importantly and less common, this approach shows a company that embraces also a long term brand building not just short term sales. As REI prioritizes the demonstration of a POV and its brand purpose over the financial loss of closing all the stores in Black Friday, that's a real sacrifice where a CEO had the guts to be brave, well done dude. (it made me think of Patagonia with "Don't buy this jacket".
- On top of all said the execution is really funny
Good luck to REI, hopefully this bravery consumers reward REI with a well deserved increased of anticipated sales.
"I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice" Kareem Abdul- Jabbar
Surprising in the cosmetic category
"Gender Blending" has been in the pop culture conversation for many years specially in Japan. Now with the recent rise of it as a Global cultural trend, Shiseido Japan has been brave enough to launch this surprising production against the codes of the cosmetic category. A nice build on it would have been the use youtube influencers to expand reach. If the campaign had been promoting an unisex product then it will be totally perfect.
Matrix of Emotions through the characters of Inside Out
In our battle against indifference as planners our duty is to inspire and facilitate effective solutions that provoke an emotional response to our target that help to accomplish our objective. Despite a lot of people in agencies still associate "emotion" with "heart touching", this charming matrix based on the characters of the movie Inside Out can help to visualize the diversity of emotions necessary to define and improve the use of the word "emotional approach".
Charming insightful chain on how to age gracefully
A summary of my first #ComicCon
Digital Transform...what?
60 seconds of Indulgence manifesto, Bravo!!
Brave ad, Brave client!! amazing way to bring to life the timeless proposition about following what moves you with the "pleasure" twist from Magnum. A perfect fit for using the transgender cultural element (used before by Clean & Clear and H&M) to increase relevancy and amplify awareness and earned media.
Flic, The Wireless Smart Button #simplicity
Terrific simplicity to create physical one-push interactions anywhere. Just assign an interaction you do through your smartphone to a physical button and Voila!!
Feeling remotely #touch
The whole story here: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3040689/the-touchable-future-of-communication
Congrats to @Shackletongroup for the best idea for Xmas #SantApp
Technology at the service of children´s dreams, giving their innocence back.
App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/santapp/id944981884
A gret step for being empatethic
Drones + Art by Cirque du Soleil
Solving one of the biggest Airline's pain points
Losing your luggage is maybe the worst experience you can have with an airline company. Airlines invest on communications to reduce the negative impact of that experience in the brand and the business. Finally, Air France and KLM has behaved as companies of a digital world and worked together to develop what is an intuitive and effective solution to the Lost Luggage experience by jumping in the trackable products trend. The result a digital platform (connected product + service) that will allow you to track your luggage is nothing new (you already can track your packages and mail ) but it will be make a difference in travelers' lives. At the end tangible value is the best demonstration of a position and a compromise. I'm looking forward to see this implemented in any airline soon.