text:
Telos was already familiar with remote working, central document storage, sharing email and calendars however the existing system was designed for a UK business rather than a growing international firm. As a result business processes and reporting were becoming more complex and the configuration and support of laptops where users were based overseas, was increasingly problematic. Consultants began using a variety of devices and platforms, different email applications and other software. In parallel Telos' existing servers, operating systems and communications network also needed upgrading.
Telos needed all their consultants, wherever they were based or working, to be able access the Telos system on any device (laptop, Mac, tablet or iPad) without any requirement for these devices to be configured by IT. They also required all consultants to be on the same email application and version of software so there was consistency in documentation and no incompatibility issues. They needed a flexible solution, one that would not only meet their existing requirements but could adapt to those of the future. The final challenge was more about social interaction and working together; consultants were required to work together closely despite being located in different countries and time zones.
Telos had considered several options including replacing their existing IBM Lotus Notes / Domino infrastructure and running a hybrid system. Polymorph suggested that if they moved their business processing and reporting onto SharePoint, they could use Microsoft Office 365 for email and instant messaging. This solution would enable Telos to make a substantial saving in hardware and operational costs too.
Through meeting various people within Telos, Polymorph was able to identify and scope the fundamental issues that would deliver these requirements and gain insight into how Telos liked to do business. Changes in IT over recent years meant Telos could reconsider 'cloud' based technologies and Polymorph recommended that a move to Office 365 would deliver the solution.
Polymorph IT specialists came highly recommended to Telos Partners offering the perfect solution of migration from IBM Lotus Notes / Domino to Microsoft Office 365. As Polymorph is both Microsoft and IBM accredited they could offer impartial advice on both technologies to Telos.
Telos' infrastructure included three IBM Lotus Notes / Domino servers, two internal and one external, serving both IBM Lotus Notes / Domino messaging and database applications. They had circa 65 x mailboxes with users spread globally, using a mixed environment of devices.
Telos decided to move to Microsoft Office 365. It offered a scalable 'cloud' based system allowing accessibility from all around the world. It was simple to use, easy to support, and through Lync and SharePoint Online would also improve productivity and enable collaborative and remote working.
Polymorph's approach was to install and configure the Microsoft Exchange and Lync Online platforms of Microsoft Office 365 for messaging and web conferencing services. Polymorph's "planning, preparation and testing was very thorough" said Jane Brett, Telos' IT Manager, "resulting in a good 'go live' process." Polymorph's strong account and project management ensured that any difficulties encountered during the email migration were resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Microsoft Office 365 has met Telos' expectations to date. Using Microsoft Exchange Online has eliminated the necessity of configuring email across all devices. Additionally, it has allowed for ease of remote email access. "Wherever our consultants are in the world, they all have the same technical experience and that's really important" says Jane Brett. Microsoft Lync Online Services have allowed users to work more closely together as a company. "The ability to see each other when working with people you have never met before helps to establish a good working relationship" said Jane.
The next phase of the project for Polymorph is the migration of Telos' Intellectual Capital and client documentation currently stored on its bespoke Lotus Notes / Domino applications and network drives to Microsoft SharePoint Online. This will enable dispersed teams to access, share and work together on centrally stored documents. The anticipated benefits include better document version control, secure document storage, improved risk management and enhanced collaboration between colleagues.
Telos Partners LLP is a professional consultancy established in 2000 with a core purpose to create sustainable success in business based on authentic relationships. Telos works with organisations across a wide range of sectors and international borders including global corporations, not-for-profit organisations and privately owned businesses. Based in the UK they have partners in Australia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, South Africa and the USA.


text: I played Spanish Bay golf course today with Chris Hofmann, Tom Paquin and Paul MacQuiddy. It is an absolutely beautiful and amazing golf course. I would rate the course as being very difficult. I lost nearly 12 golf balls due to the abundant plants and sand along side the fairly narrow fairways. Being an idiot, I didn't bring my camera to capture the amazing beauty of the course. I will have to play this course again simply to take pictures.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
LIVE! *Uses defibrillator*
Posted by TwilightReap on August 23, 2010
*Gasp for air*
I'm alive! 😀
SO! its been a month (?) since I last posted, like i said studies are killing me and time left for using the computer and building Gundams are really limited now~ >.<
A few of the pictures I took of the awesome Alteisen. Bought 2 pieces of vanguard sheet to serve as a backdrop and also a study lamp to replace an expensive spotlight. I think the overall result works out quite well~ 😀
Also I started work on the Zaku 2.0! Finally! A grunt suit in all of my collection! 😀
As some of you may have seen this over at Ngee Khiong. The missing GN Sword IV would be available with the special add on with the purchase of the Hobby Japan February issue.
D-A-M-N. That looks good~ too good to resist~ will have to get it through HLJ~ >.< Already pre-ordered my 00 Qan[T] a few weeks ago. Expect it to arrive here in a few weeks time. ( Hey I got it cheap via slow-shipping. No complains there.)
Also some of you might have seen this over at Ngee Khiong too!
PG Strike Freedom.
No one could have expected that! A lot of us were maybe thinking about PG 00 Qan[T] as it can share the(suckish) inner frame from PG 00 Qan[T]
Already some problems are imminent such as the Strike Freedom being back-heavy ( Obviously~) And also the gold inner frame will definitely be chromed in gold but that will also increase the the price tag by a lot and also the problem of the ugly nubmark when cutting a chromed part of the tree.
However, this particular perfect grade will be designed by Hajime Katoki. We all know how awesome his works are, also know as decal hell.
The strike freedom design is truly unique although some people despise it, although I kinda like it as well~ it was the 1st gundam model kit I ever purchase back in 2006 during the SEED fever going on~
I was 11. I didn't know how poorly made Gundam Seed Destiny was…
This one I just might.
Anyhow~ hoping this long post will somehow revive this almost dead blog~ 😀
Till next time~ 😀
6 Responses to "LIVE! *Uses defibrillator*"
August 24, 2010 at 2:46 am
Nice zaku 😀
and DAMN yeah! GN Sword IV is AWESOME and its also got extra 3 swords/daggers!!
PG Strike Freedom.. I think its just me, coz I didnt feel anything lol.. I thought it would be PG Unicorn ^^;;
August 24, 2010 at 9:54 am
haha moar add-ons for OOQ.OOQ is hitting stores here, but im waiting for the movie first XD
August 24, 2010 at 9:56 am
PG SF….will refer to the PG rendition if i am were to mod any SF in the future XD
- August 24, 2010 at 9:56 am
August 26, 2010 at 9:03 pm
how's the alt eisen? got reouble with loose parts?


text:
Managers who effectively harness their coaching skills reap multiple benefits. Their employees are more committed, willing to put in greater effort and are less likely to leave.
Coaching's impact significantly affects people and profits within organizations committed to training managers, guiding performance and developing employees.
Most managers have had some training in coaching people for high performance. Ten years ago, 73% of managers received some form of training, according to BlessingWhite, a global leadership-development firm. But the firm's 2015 report reveals that employees who receive regular feedback through coaching conversations are in the minority.
Why Don't More Managers Coach?
Managers usually cite lack of time as the main excuse for failing to coach employees, but the real reasons may be different, note John H. Zenger and Kathleen Stinnett in The Extraordinary Coach: How the Best Leaders Help Others Grow (McGraw-Hill Education, 2010).
Three common barriers stand in the way:
- Misconceptions of what coaching is
- A desire to avoid difficult conversations
- No clear game plan for initiating and framing coaching conversations
Once they return to the office after training, many managers revert to old habits. Instead of taking time to ask questions and find solutions, they find it easier to explain and provide instructions. Finding a quick fix and moving on is their default response.
This article explores the question, "Why don't more managers use coaching skills?" and reveals common misconceptions, and suggests three coaching models to initiate conversations for high performance and change.
This is a brief synopsis of a 1,550-word and a 950-word article and 6 Article Nuggets*, suitable for consultants' newsletters for executives and leaders in organizations. It is available for purchase with full reprint rights, which means you may put your name on it and use it in your newsletters, blogs or other marketing materials. You may also modify it and add your personal experiences and perspectives.
The complete article includes these important concepts:
- The Manager-Fixer
- The Manager-Coach
- Misconceptions of what coaching is
- A desire to avoid difficult conversations
- No game plan for coaching conversations
- GROW model
- FUEL model
- Face the coaching FACTS
- Powerful questions
Request This Content
Send us an email and let us know if you'd like to receive this article, Article Nuggets* or Newsletter (as applicable.) It is available in the following formats:
- The Need for Managing with Coaching Skills – 1,550-word Article with Full Reprint Rights, $79
- The Need for Managing with Coaching Skills – 950-word article with Full Reprint Rights, $57
- The Need for Managing with Coaching Skills – 6-Article Nuggets* with Full Reprint Rights, $89
*Article Nuggets: The same article broken up into 5 blog-style sections suitable for a series of blog posts or shorter newsletter articles.


text: This Colonial Elegance(TM) oak bullnose stair nosing is a stylish way to complete your interior stair project. The bullnose nosing is made of oak in a natural finish that can be stained or varnished to match your décor. Easy to install, it gives a finished look to your staircase and can be used with any interior staircase design or paired with other Colonial Elegance(TM) staircase components for a coordinated look.


text:
SAN ANTONIO – A teenager is nursing a gunshot wound in his foot that he told San Antonio police he suffered at the hands of robbers who wanted his iPad.
Police received a call about the shooting around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday and found the boy, believed to be about 13 or 14-years-old, at a home in the 400 block of Arthur Street.
They said he had suffered a gunshot wound that went clear through his foot, with the bullet entering through the bottom and exiting through the top.
Officers at the scene said the teen told them the men who shot him had demanded he hand over his iPad.
He told police that after he gave the electronic device to them, they fired several shots, one of which hit him in the foot as he ran away.
The boy was taken to a hospital for treatment. Officers did not release a description of the robbers and said the case would require further investigation.
For a list of recent stories Katrina Webber has done, click here.


text:
Yes it's copper again. It just shows how popular this warm and colourful material is and in this case tubing. Incredible how many designers use copper in one way or another. It's used mainly to create lamps, but it's also used for upcycle design furniture.
There's one thing I do want to mention, and I've said this several times, it's only pure upcycle design if one uses discarded/old materials or objects. And with these copper pipes that's not always the case. But it shows what can be done with this material and that's why it fits right in here on upcycleDZINE.
Copper tubing in fashionable colours
When I saw the designs you're seeing in this post I was immediately charmed by the form of the lamp and especially by the faucet knob. These upcycle design lamps are made out of copper tubing. Polish company Zapalgo, based in Warsaw, created this dimmable collection with a stylish, industrial look and feel. The company, founded by Maciek Papiński, Tomek Kudelski, Andrzej Ruszkowski, started out as small lighting company in 2013, and after 4 years extended there collection to furniture and accessories.
They love to play with styles, allusions and inspirations like quotes, borrowings and tributes. Every detail in their design is fully operational. And the best detail in my opinion is the faucet knob, a sort of trademark. It gives you as a customer the ability to set a mood in the room by dimming warm, retro incandescent bulbs. By turning the knob it's almost like pouring the light into the bulb just like you pour water from the tap. The colorful knob can be changed easily.
They also have another dimmable version that makes use of an inbuilt touch dimmer. All one has to do is touch the lamp and hold it for a second or two. A slight touch of your finger is enough to change the atmosphere of lamp and interior.
"As for lighting, we believe in one simple rule – where there's a pipe, there's a lamp."
Another interesting feature of the Zapalgo dimmable copper lamps collection is that it consists of several colors. They range from fashionable millennial pink copper, through warm, golden brass to pastel, modern turquoise blue. You would expect that they used paint. But no, because copper is a very reactive metal, it easily develops a patina in a process of oxidation and can be used as a base metal for many kinds of plating, like brass or nickel for instance.
Photos © Zapalgo
All in all Zapalgo created a recognizable style by mixing colors, materials and finishes. They want to balance evenly between being fairly functional and safely unconventional. Thereby bringing fun, joy and happiness to their customers and themselves.


text:
ScissorFebruary 8, 2010 at 7:42 am | Posted in Sharp-edge | Leave a comment
Tags: Bevel-edged Cutting Blade, Center Pivot, Cutting Ing Instrument, Scissor, Set Aside, Your Life
Scissor – Is a cutting instrument consisting of two bevel-edged cutting blade with handles that are movable past one another on a pivot in the center by which they are held together. It indicates that some things of your life should be set aside or should be thrown.
Photo courtesy: ccb.lis.illinois
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.


text:
Inside SQL Azure – Self-healing, Self-governing, Massively Scalable Database service in the Cloud.
This is a talk I did a few weeks ago that will take you under the hood of SQL Azure. I cover the gateway to SQL Azure that manager billing, connectivity and some parts of T-SQL as well as Engine and surrounding services like load balancing and node governance and the fabric of SQL Azure that manages node health, replication and failover. Why is this all important to know you may ask... Well understanding all this allows you to build apps that are better citizens in the new cloud world. At the end I tie it all together with what you need to think about in your own apps when working with the service and talk about differences in app characteristics between SQL Server and SQL Azure.Even if you are not building an app on SQL Azure, today, If you want to get a deep understanding of services we built around SQL Server that make SQL Azure so unique, this is the talk to watch:


text:
Holmes Report 26 Aug 2014 // 4:15AM GMT
BRUSSELS—The European Branded Clothing Alliance has chosen Hanover's Brussels team to run the organisation's secretariat and provide EU affairs support. Hanover will replace incumbent APCO which was EBCA's retained agency since the coalition's creation in 2007. Hanover's team will focus on supporting EBCA's members on international trade policy matters, and in particular in raising awareness about issues facing companies that operate global value chains. The firm will also be tasked to grow EBCA's membership and bring new brands to join the coalition.
LONDON—FTI Consulting has appointed Alex Deane as a managing director in the public affairs practice.
Deane joins from Weber Shandwick, where he served as head of public affairs. Prior to joining Weber Shandwick in 2011, he was David Cameron's first chief of staff and served as an adviser for the Australian Liberal Party's re-election campaign under John Howard.
LONDON—HIT Entertainment, one of the world's leading children's entertainment producers and rights owners, has appointed 3 Monkeys Communications to create and implement a UK social media strategy for three of its best loved pre-school properties: Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam and Mike the Knight. Working closely with internal teams and external agencies, 3 Monkeys will deliver an "always on" content strategy, supported with fully integrated campaigns and community support.
KOLN—Oliver Schrott Kommunikation is to acquire a majority shareholding in the digital agency compuccino of Berlin. Together, OSK and compuccino have five operations in Cologne, Berlin, Stuttgart, New York and Beijing, and more than 150 employees generate aggregate fees exceeding €18 million.
LONDON—GCI Health London has added 11 new team members, including director Hannah Morris and senior account director Claire Martin, both from Ketchum; senior account director Laura Starr from Hill+Knowlton Strategies; account manager Chris Bath and senior account executive Caroline Howley from Red Door Communications; account manager Jenny Glover from Edelman; and senior account executive Orlene Pereira from Tonic Life Communications.
WINCHESTER—Following the launch of its content-driven division Remarkable Content, marketing communications agency Remarkable Group has appointed Rhiannon Thompson as head of new business for the content team. Thompson spent two years as account director in Remarkable's PR division, which has now been combined with its creative offering to become Remarkable Content, before leaving to head the communications team at The Consumer Finance Association.
LONDON—Retail technology provider Shopatron has enlisted the help of Harvard PR, part of The Good Relations Group, to recruit UK-based retailers who need to tackle the increasing demands of their customers. Harvard will implement an audience-centric, campaign-led PR programme to help raise awareness of Shopatron's omni-channel solution, which offers retailers a cloud-based way of offering cross-channel services.
MANCHESTER—Chameleon has been selected by alldayPA, a provider of professional call answering services, to provide communications strategy and public relations support.
LONDON—Curzon PR has been signed to support Creative United with a strategic media relations campaign to support the launch of Creative Industry Finance, a business support and access-to-finance program for the creative industries. Backed by Arts Council England, Creative United provides a range of finance based products and services designed to enable the growth and development of the UK's cultural and creative industries.
LONDON—Nick Hamilton has been appointed head of sport at Grayling. The firm recently signed up golf PR specialist Landmark Media as an affiliate in 2013 as part of the agency's relationship with both The 2014 Ryder Cup and The European Tour, now represented in 12 separate international markets. Prior to joining Grayling, Hamilton worked for global agencies including Weber Shandwick and M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, supporting the Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup sponsorship, NatWest Cricket, The Football Association and Mobil 1 Racing.
MOSCOW—Buman Media has won a tender for EMC Corporation, a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Buman Media will provide a full spectrum of PR service including strategic planning, content development, organization of events, media relations and social media support for EMC in Russia.
LONDON—dunnhumby, a leading customer science company, has appointed W to handle its UK corporate PR brief. W will build on dunnhumby's reputation as a world-leader in customer insight, loyalty and personalised communications, as well as boosting the profile of its senior leaders.
LONDON—Olive Communications has appointed strategy and communications consultancy Man Bites Dog to handle its UK integrated communications brief, following a competitive three-way pitch.
The brief includes PR, digital and thought leadership and will see Man Bites Dog's STEM team reposition Olive as a leading provider of cloud-based applications and unified communications for SMEs and larger corporates.


text:
The Rainforest Alliance's own Marc Monsarrat tours a Rwandan tea factory and explores the benefits of our work. Today, the factory's once-polluted streams run clean, and wildlife are returning to the area.
This video was produced by Betty's and Taylor's of Harrogate with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), through the Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund (FRICH).


text:
Thank you to everyone who came out to the Grand America Hotel last week. We got to meet so many excited brides, grooms, moms, and soon-to-be bridesmaids! We also debuted the new look of our Retro Booth with its clean white curtain. We even gave out some samples of our freshly spun cotton candy.
Thanks to everyone who came to our booth and visited with us!


text:
The smooth-bored TBM tunnel at Glendoe is 8 km long by 5 m in diameter and will channel water from a new reservoir into an underground hydroelectric power station and then out into Loch Ness.
Its construction delivered an unrivalled research opportunity for our geologists to examine architecture of the Caledonian Orogen in the Grampian Highlands of Scotland.
In 2008, we recorded extraordinary examples of folding and shearing throughout these smooth-bored tunnels, including a complete transect through the 1.5 km thick Eilrig Shear Zone (ESZ). The ESZ is unique in the Grampian Terrane and may ultimately prove to be linked with the Moine Thrust Belt and thus represent a preserved fragment of the Caledonian orogenic front south-east of the Great Glen Fault.
The Glendoe tunnels have now delivered a unique structural baseline and provide an unrivalled opportunity for rigorous study of the geological evolution of this part of the Grampian Terrane. We have also have made observations, measurements and photographs recorded on site throughout the construction process from the dam foundations to the TBM and aqueduct tunnels.
The surface mapping in the region is relatively modern and detailed (BGS, 1993). Whilst building a new well-constrained 3-D model for the geology surrounding the ESZ which integrates all available data, we can attempt to accurately characterize:
If any robust linkage is possible across the Great Glen Fault, we can then seek to quantify net Caledonian displacement on this system and hence input to North Atlantic pre-Permian reconstructions.
This work will improve the understanding of the history and architecture of a major terrane boundary representing one of the most important tectonic structures in the UK; enhancing expertise and skills in the area of ductile to brittle-ductile thrust tectonics, characterization and dating of the processes involved
Thanks to Scottish and Southern Energy, their consultants Jacobs, and contractors Hochtief Glendoe JV for assistance and access to the tunnel.
More information about Scottish and Southern Energy's Glendoe Hydro Scheme


text:
Beijing authorities are reportedly considering allowing foreign tourists a 72-hour window to explore the Chinese capital without a visa.
Beijing public security director Fu Zhenghua, according to the China Daily, has confirmed that authorities are mulling over the move, saying it would represent a crucial sign that Beijing is open to the world.
Another official, Lin Song at the public security bureau's exit-entry administration, has said, "It's expected that the project will attract more tourists from abroad."
The Beijing Tourism Development Committee (BTDC) is said to have proposed the policy. However, neither the BTDC nor the Beijing public security bureau has given more details about the new policy. Tourism analysts in Beijing expect, however, that the visa-free policy is going to be similar to ones already being run in Shanghai (48 hours) and South China's Hainan province (21 days for tour groups).


text:
It always starts with an F-450, or a clone of it. Always.
Unless you're a pro willing to cough up a five digit figure just to get in the air, or you're going for the RTF1 stuff, you must have come across an F-450 in your multicopter ventures.
I think that DJI should be proud for this achievement alone though. A frame that is versatile, relatively light, sturdy and well-thought of regarding the placement of components, at least for simple setups. And all that for a very suitable pricing (especially for the clones).
Well that's the way it started for me as well. I got my hands on a new F-450 clone about one and a half years ago. In fact, since the frame was quite cheap I got an F-550 clone as well, to use for spare parts and trying out the silly idea of using a hexacopter as a quad (with two arms removed).
Long story short, quick visit to ecalc for the mandatory calculations, and the components were ordered a few hours later2.
So here it is:
- Motors: 4x iPower ipm2212, 920kv, 150w max
- Props: 1045 Noname, 1045 Gemfan Carbon, 1245 Noname and 1245 Gemfan Carbon Props (4 sets in total, all Slow-fly)
- ESC: Hobbywing QBrain 20A 4 in 1 ESC
- Flight Controller: CC3D nano
- Battery: Gens Ace 3300mah 3S25C LiPo
- Charger, Beeper, wires etc.
There is no radio control in this list because my original plan was to control this beast by WiFi, using an iPhone. In retrospect, I'm not sure how good of an idea this was, but more on that in another post.
Well there's not much more to it design-wise at this point. The original drone was subject to a few test flights indoors, and after some PID tweaking, it did have it's maiden flight. These flights were indoors and so there was little to no space for maneuvering, and a lot of noise! And the latter was a thing that I certainly wished to eliminate, so I started poking my nose on what the sources of noise are, and how it could be reduced.
I am not going to explain what are the reasons for the noise multicopters make, since I am not an expert on the topic and there are so many good writings on the topic out there. But there are a number of practical solutions that all people dealing with the topic seem to suggest:
- Use of larger, slower spinning props
- Reduce the angle of attack of props
- Reduce the weight of the craft
The last one doesn't do any good by itself. It's the effect of reducing weight on the load of the propellers that matters. Less weight means slower spinning, or less angle of attack at the same radial velocity (or a combination of both).
Now, I was already using the largest diameter prop that the F450 can carry (12 inch). My pitch was rather low at 4.5inch3, and have close to zero experience in prop design, so there's not much I could do regarding the props themselves at this point. Thus, from the options at hand, lowering the RPM by reducing weight seemed to be the most viable one.
The F450 weighs at around 280grams. For an AUW of about 1050 grams (2.31 pounds) and no easy way of shaving some weight from the components themselves, the frame became my main target. Also, the F450 is not the most spacious of airframes, and as such I thought of hitting two birds with one stone, by completely redesigning the frame.
And thus the W500 was born. The frame was designed with the following aims:
- Single-level mounting of components
- Light and stiff (who doesn't want that!)
- Relatively simple construction with hand tools and screws/zipties
I went for a hybrid between X and H configurations (could it be termed double-Y maybe?), using Fiberglass for the main body4, and pultruded 8mm square tubes for the arms. The motors were fixed directly on the pultruded carbon with two screws, and the carbon arms were fixed to the body with both screws and zipties.
The motor-arm connection, while quite elegant and very lightweight (practically no extra connection weight there), was not suitable for the pultruded carbon arms. The main reason is that pultruded carbon, lacking any lateral fibers, and with minimal epoxy to bind it, was subject to very easy splintering. This is what happened to a couple of tubes and I had to throw them away. I found out later on that if I wrap a ziptie tightly around the tube while processing it, the splintering is greatly reduced.
As for the arm-body connections, and contrary to my expectations, they turned out to be quite strong, and were not very harmful to the pultruded arms.
The frame turned out to be quite lightweight at 150 grams (0.33 pounds) 5, and reasonably stiff, except in torsion. Torsion was unfortunately too big for any real UAV use. In addition, there were terrible vibrations at some frequencies, which led the FC to go nuts from time to time and almost crashed the craft a couple times. This provided a hint that, even though the frame was indeed stiff, it was not stiff enough to prevent vibrations. Cabling turned out to be quite tidy as well, given the single-level mount of the components.
After a few short test flights I unfortunately had to declare the W500 experiment a failure, due to it's poor structural behavior, as explained above. With my lessons on structure learned, I went back to the drawing board to continue the quest.
- Ready To Fly; refers to drones that are, well, ready to fly out of the box. No additional components needed, including transmitter.
- Here I should note that where I am located there is not much of a choice regarding available components, especially for drones of the 400 or so class. So, in fact, the actual process was more like a constant back-and-forth between ecalc and suppliers. After "convergence" between design viability and part availability, the final part list for the drone was ordered from 4 different suppliers!
- Could also go to 3.8, but these props were nowhere to be found…
- As I said earlier, sourcing materials, and especially carbon fiber, is quite hard where I'm at. At that time, Fiberglass was the only material I could find in planar form.
- This can be reduced even more, by using carbon fiber plates for the body, instead of fiberglass


text:
Street Harassment: Ladies Just Can't Win
If you're a fan of Nice Girls on Facebook (and if you're not, then you should definitely go click "like" right now!), then you've probably already seen this post I shared yesterday. Trigger warning: there's an account of a pretty verbally violent situation.
A friend of mine had shared it, and I got pretty angry at the conversation in the comments on her page. I had never been witness to such oblivious "mansplaining" in my life. I'd like my readers' thoughts on this conversation (names have been intentionally omitted):
Person A (male): I can understand where she is coming from but telling someone "Leave me alone im reading" comes off as very rude. If it were a hot young girl or a fat old man who said this to me, I would take offense in both scenarios. Reaction is going to be based on delivery, and hers is terrible.
Original Poster (female): his reaction to her is still bullshit. It doesn't make it OK for him to respond that way. It doesn't justify his violent outbursts. Period.
Person B (male): That's the parallel. If you're too nice then it encourages the creepin'. Too mean and you get a violent overreaction.
Person A (male): No but if she said it in a more polite manor, it may have not blown up like that. A simple repackaging of the same message would lead to less angry reactions. I would also like to point out that getting approached by men, at least in SF, is not something that only women are subjected to.
Original Poster (female): when women have been polite, yet decline, we have still gotten advances. Sometimes they get more and more aggressive. I just mentioned in the comments that I was polite and declined someone AND GOT FOLLOWED HOME ANYWAY. Eventually at times we HAVE to rude to be very clear with people. After dealing with crap within the same night of course she is aggravated to have it happen again. I still call bullshit on "if she said it in a more polite manor," because that's exactly what it is. Bullshit.
Person C (female): Perhaps a different choice of words would have defused the situation. But it's just as likely the guy was so coocoo for cocoa puffs that no amount of tact would have satisfied his bruised ego. The problem wasn't that she reacted to him rudely. Maybe she did. But a touch of rudeness doesn't warrant a frothing rant.
Person A (male): Of course her reaction didn't warrant him going apeshit, but think about action/reaction in a different instance. You ask a store employee for help and they tell you "leave me alone im stocking this shelf" you are going to get pretty angry, maybe even say something back to them. Now that same thing but the employee says " Sorry I have to get this shelf stocked but Steve can help you" and you would walk away and go look for Steve instead of having an issue with the person stocking the shelf. With that said, crazy is going to be crazy, but doing whatever you can to minimize the chance for crazy to come out would seem like a good idea.
Original Poster (female): sure, but you responding with that to this post makes it seem like you are completely missing the point. The fact that this can be a regular thing that is dealt with on a regular basis and why it's scary for us is the point. Dealing with it constantly makes our patience run out and sometimes we are rude. That it's not OK no matter what the response is, polite or rude. That it's not justified nor is it OK. That making suggestions to what she "could have done better," all things considered, is not a valid argument.
Person A (male): The opening of the post highlights that men have no idea, when I can tell you quite to the contrary that at least some of us know how it feels. I treat people with courtesy, regardless of if they are talking to me at work, the gym, or the train. The only time I would not follow that, is if someone was being rude, like the blog post.
Nice Girl: Hey Person A, the problem with your scenario above (the employee stocking shelves) is that you are equating someone who is doing their job, who is specifically there to help you, with a woman who is just going about her daily business.
The woman is not there to entertain you, she is not there to talk or flirt with you, she is just trying to get home/finish her shopping/go to work/go to the gym/go see her boyfriend/go see her friends.
It is the store employee's job to help you. It is not my job to talk to a strange man.
Women deal with this shit on a DAILY basis. I've been polite, I've been nice, and all that does is get me harassed even more. I've been in a situation where I gave a very large and intimidating man my phone number because we were in a secluded area, and he wasn't taking no for an answer. It wasn't until three days later, when he wouldn't stop calling or texting me (I never once responded) that I told him I was terrified of him and that I never wanted him to contact me again.
It is not my job to protect some jerk's poor wittle fee-fees when he decides that he deserves my attention. I shouldn't have to put up with verbal abuse when he gets angry that I am not flattered by his attentions. I am firm in my responses to men when they approach me. If that makes me rude, then so be it. They are rude for assuming I want to talk to them.
Person A (male): My point is that in any scenario, work or personal life, if you act like a dick as a male OR female you are going to get treated accordingly. Its terrible that you are handling the situation politely and still getting harassed, but im pointing out that the poster being rude is only going to make things worse. Thats all im trying to convey.
Nice Girl: Have you considered that a man who approaches a strange woman is being a dick? Like Original Poster said, when you deal with this kind of stuff on a daily basis, your tolerance wears thin.
Person A (male): Kind of a sad society that we live in if you get mad at someone for making small talk.
Nice Girl: I'd argue that it's kind of a sad society when someone assumes that they have a right to my attention.
Person D (female): not to stir the pot too much, but honestly…my own experiences confrim what ever other woman here is saying being polite very OFTEN makes the situation worse. it made it worse wheni was in Jamaica and it makes it worse in the united states. I have felt most "safe" when taking a stand and telling someone to fuck off. sorry if that's not acceptable for some of you but it's REALITY.
Person A (male): Im not trying to detract from your personal experience Person D, its appalling that random people touch you or say the things they have. The ONLY thing that im trying to say here is that if a person A treats person B rudely, the likelihood of person B going crazy is going to increase.
I am NOT saying that if you treat someone with courtesy, they will 100% of the time be courteous back, but the chance of them going bananas on you is far less.
Person D (female): I don't know what to tell you Person A….but i guess the type of man that approaches women in this way is not "normal"…they are easily offended whenther you are polite or not…and if you give them any opening that they may have a chance..it's a snowball. The way i see it…you can try to out crazy them "oh yeah…well I'm just reading up on how to treat this wicked outbreak of herpes I have" and hope they atren't turned on by that…or you tell them to get lost. either way it's 50/50 that they will react poorly no matter what you do.
The only thing missing was Person A flouncing out of the conversation in a huff because us pretty little girls couldn't understand how to behave politely to strange men who are accosting us for our attention. I actually had to rage-quit the internet for a couple of hours after trying to get this guy to understand that he doesn't LIVE this everyday.
Later, yesterday evening, Fiance and I were having dinner at a local pub, and as soon as he walked away to purchase sodas for us, I was accosted by a strange guy who thrust his phone up to my ear and demanded I tell him what artist was playing. The strange guy was pleased when I looked at him, clearly scared, and answered (correctly) Stevie Wonder. Strange guy walked away to his friend when Fiance returned with our drinks, and started talking loudly about how I should be with a guy like him, instead of Fiance. I just smiled at Fiance, and said "this is what it's like, being a woman".
In a very timely fashion, a pretty famous porn actress wrote about something similar today on her tumblr.
I really think it is past time for guys to remove their heads from the sand. Come on guys, open your eyes. This stuff happens in front of you every day, but by and large, you're oblivious. If you witness your buddy acting this way, call him out on it. If you witness a lady looking uncomfortable as a man is trying to talk to her, walk up and ask if everything is okay.
Posted on September 5, 2012, in Feminism, Personal Stories and tagged abusive behavior, bad situations, LGBTQ, politics, rape culture, relationships, self confidence, society, street harassment, women. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
I'm sure you noticed, but at one point I just stopped responding to him. I was tired and it was like talking to a brick wall.
Meanwhile, there is the story about the woman that was assaulted at a party during PAX weekend: http://www.explodedsoda.com/2012/09/boundaries-and-penis-incident.html
Though some are supportive of her and revolted by the guys actions and the lack of the security guards actions, some are out in full force of "blame the victim."


text:
Explained by: Parveen Kaswan ( Author is an Aerospace Engineer and holds a Masters Degree in Engineering Designs from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore )
It is said that, Indians were first to talk about 'average fuel consumption' of even luxury cars like Mercedes when they were launched in the Indian market, which world followed subsequently. Now they took this race in sphere of interplanetary journey also. The testimony to this is latest 'Mars Mission' of India which just added a new orbiting buddy around Mars in its very maiden flight at record amount of $75 million.
The flight of Mars Mission, which put an Orbiter in its yearned orbit, was an unpleasant check for India. After this success, scientific aspirations and capabilities of India's space programme will boost immensely. India characteristics a long annals of technical accomplishment, whether it's the case of Moon Mission, a robust Atomic programme, development of Intercontinental Ballistic missiles and now Mars Mission. The borrowing for these achievements, in space and atomic field, goes to its home developed and talented scientific pool. The success of such programmes are very crucial in further boosting the confidence of younger generation, which is very important as India is now witnessing favorable demographic dividend.
India placed Rohini satellite in its orbit in 1980 by the first Indian-made launch vehicle, Space Launch Vehicle-3. In subsequent years Indian Space Research Organization has evolved two other major launch vehicles, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for launching satellites into polar orbits and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for placing satellites into geostationary orbits. For launching heavy satellite it had to look towards other space agencies which was costing it hugely. Now after mastering the cryogenic technology India is capable of launching heavy sattelites also. A landmark was achieved when PSLV, the workhorse of Indian space programme, launched five foreign satellites in June, 2014. It demonstrated the increasing capabilities and clout of India in arena of worldwide space programmes.
This insertion of Mars orbiter in its planned orbit is a foremost accomplishment by every standard, as it needs developing a very complex expertise. Though every project is with its own specific and set objectives which make it non-comparable with others, but if we look at major interplanetary missions this is quite an extra-ordinary feat. India accomplished it brilliantly and particularly on diminutive allowance (75 million dollar) as contrasted to such projects of other countries.
This mission has two set of objectives: a)Technological Objectives – to demonstrate the capabilities of India in terms of planning, designing and executing various cutting edge processes and technologies involved in a complex interplanetary mission like this, b)Scientific Objectives – exploration of Mars atmosphere with various on board instruments on the orbiter. Mars Orbiter Mission is a foremost technological accomplishment by every standard, as all required expertise are developed by ISRO in record time.
The significance of various communication, climate forecasting and spy satellites and the role performed by space programmes in socioeconomic and technological development is huge in present scenario. After the thriving success of Mars Mission, it will help India in projecting itself in worldwide market as a provider of viable and cost productive satellite launch facilities and space applications to other countries. The countries in East Asia, Central Asia and Africa will look toward India as a dependable partner for providing space launch amenities. This simply means now onwards India will be vying to have a larger share in this market which is currently projected at $300 billion. The propulsion, communication and management expertise utilised in this mission will further energise the future space programmes including Chandrayaan-2.
The achievements are not without contradictory significances, as it might outcomes in a space race in Asia where already two major powers – Japan & China – are investing very strongly in space programmes and associated research. China is currently tapping the potential Asian market by supplying discounted satellite services and furthermore planning for a Manned Moon Mission. China seems to have caught the plot and India let it go. A fracture in internal politics coupled with a non-functioning government has led to heavy losses on the foreign affairs front. China has taken complete advantage of the situation and outclassed India, which can be seen by its engagement with Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh etc in space applications through its state owned company China Great Wall Industrial Corporation (CGWIC). Now here is a new government at helm, with new energy, which seems to project India on all fronts. Recent Indian space missions are also glimpsed as competitive in nature by international analysts, which was denied by both the nations. There are broader significances of this position vis-a-vis other global space powers like US and Russia, which are taking a keen interest in these expansions.
India should not confine the "Lookeast Policy" to just trading but it should also allow the exchange of technology as well. It must also extend collaboration to countries in its 'extended neighbourhood'. A growth in space interests by the smaller countries must be seen as an opportunity for India to pledge its space resources. India Space Research Organisation(ISRO) must build cheap technology and provide professional training to the work force for further engagement. An aggressive initiative in this regard will really help India regain past relations with its neighbours. In return by providing high-end technical space services to these small countries ISRO will expand its arms to the new horizons and it can generate revenue for the organization for further expansion.
India must spear head groups such as the one China leads, i.e Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) ) to raise the standard of technology for its partnering nations as well as provide a stronger voice to its contention to being recognized as a military and economic super power. The main aim of extending the deals is not to be better than any other country but to be better ourselves and to expand ourselves worldwide.
India has come so far even when many crucial technologies were denied to it by advanced countries in the name of sanctions with possible strategic warfare applications. It displays the ineffectiveness of international sanctions against a country which invests its resources and scientific talent in innovation and development. International powers cannot monopolize these crucial technologies if countries with good economic base allocate resources in research and institution building. India now truly aiming the deep space – not only in terms of future space expeditions but also in terms of the fast emerging space market on Earth. As we have seen how electronics manufacturing & chip manufacturing has moved to east Asia because of its competitive advantages over Europe and US, it will not be a surprise if satellite launching market proceeds to East, particularly India.


text:
SharePoint 2010 Multiple Authentication prompts, then blank screen.
Recently I was asked to help with an issue where SharePoint kept asking for authentication and after three prompts would show a blank screen. Note: This was error was for loading the default home page not for opening up any type of document.
Typically this is caused by Kerberos and SPN's not being correctly configured for SharePoint, but we were not using Kerberos.
Looking at the IIS log we see the typical 401.2 (anonymous failed) followed by 401.1 (access denied). We quickly verified LoopBackCheck was disabled.
To ensure we are not using Kerberos we removed that authentication option. Authentication can be set at the global or web application level. In this case we will concentrate on the web application level.
Open up Internet Information Services Manager and double click on Authentication.
You will now see the authentication types listed and their status. Select Windows Authentication and then on the right click Providers.
Highlight Negotiate then select remove
We then reset IIS and tried to load our site. It continued to prompt.
Next we decided to ensure Kernel mode authentication was disabled. We went back to the authentication screen and click on Advanced Setting instead of providers.
If Kernel mode is enabled, please disable it as Kernel mode is not supported for SharePoint 2010 and by default SharePoint disables this when web applications are created..
Once again we reset IIS and tested. We continue to receive prompts.
Next we decided to ensure HTTP Keep-Alive was enabled.
In IIS manager double-click HTTP Response Headers.
On the right, click Set Common Headers
Ensure that Enable HTTP Keep-Alive is checked.
Reset IIS and test. Once again we are prompted for authentication.
We turned on FREB tracing. The error we received in the trace was "No credentials are available in the security package (0x8009030e)". An internet search on this did not turn up anything useful for our situation.
We decided to use the IE 8 feature Developer Tools (More info on developer tools). We opened IE and pressed F12 Then loaded the home page. Normally you would see the HTTP traffic, we saw nothing in the trace.
Next we tried using NETSH to capture network traffic. Again nothing useful was found.
I reviewed the web.config and ApplicationHost.config files. Looking these over nothing stuck out, so I decided to replace my web.config with the one from the broken site. My SharePoint Site loaded with no issues. I then started the slow painful process of making my ApplicationHost.config file look like the broken SharePoint site's. After this was complete my lab now showed the same symptoms.
I narrowed it down to recycling of the ApplicationPool. In the broken site recycling was turned on based on Virtual Memory, Private Memory, Fixed number of Requests, and Regular Time Interval. The ApplicationHost.Config looks like the snippet below. Removing the recycle setting one at a time allowed me to finally narrow it down to Fixed number of Requests, which was set at 4 billion.
<recycling logEventOnRecycle="Time, Requests, Schedule, Memory, IsapiUnhealthy, OnDemand, ConfigChange, PrivateMemory">
<periodicRestart memory="8097152" privateMemory="8097152" requests="4294967295" time="180.00:00:00">
<clear />
<add value="01:26:00" />
To avoid issues in the future I recommended that the default recycle settings not be modified. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298550(v=office.12).aspx


text:
Morning. Up early and drinking coffee down at the local Starbucks. Reading the NYT. Interesting piece on Svein Tuft in the sports section.
7:12 AM Feb. 8
Just getting up, drinking coffee in the room, reading the Beast, and listening to a little Pete Yorn. First day of camp today.
8:13 AM Feb. 2
81,082 followers
Lance is as relentless on Twitter as he is on the bike, but like watching the Tour de France, his feed is pretty monotonousheavy on name-checking, media consumption updates, product plugging and training recaps. He appears to thoroughly enjoy coffee.
Next Shaquille O'Neal


text:
Local Climate Governance and Policy Innovation in China: a Case Study of a Piloting Emission Trading Scheme in Guangdong Province
Chen, Bo
Shen, Wei
Newell, Peter
Wang, Yao
MetadataShow full item record
This paper investigates how piloting programmes in China can promote local policy innovations. By using one of the piloting emission trading schemes (ETS) in Guangdong province as a case study, it is argued that the main features of the piloting experiments, particularly in the climate change domain, are largely different from previous local marketization experiments that dominate the reform period of China. Whereas previous experiments are often characterized as bottom-up or indigenous initiatives with strong patronage relations to the pro-reform politicians at central level, the current piloting programmes are often crafted in a top-down fashion that is often misaligned with local market or corporate interests. Hence, local policy innovations are designed, developed and brokered by the local state officers, in order to bridge this central–local interest gap. As a result, successful implementation of these policy innovations largely depends on local political traditions, bureaucratic culture and perceptions of distinctive development needs.


text:
Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair
Director, UNC Center for Women's Mood Disorders
UNC Hospitals – Chapel Hill
UNC Mental Health Specialists – Chapel Hill
Education and Training:
B.S., Biology and Psychology, Simmons College
M.D., Northwestern University Medical School
Residency, Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center
Fellowship, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.P.H., Health Care and Prevention Program, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Summary Statement:
Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH, is the Assad Meymandi Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine. She also serves as the Director for the UNC Center for Women's Mood Disorders.
Her current research efforts are focused primarily on Perinatal Depression and she is currently funded by multiple NIH grants to investigate epidemiologic, genetic, and other biomarker models of perinatal depression. She established the international postpartum depression consortium (PACT) and is the co-I of the PPD ACT app, a smart phone study that is a large international genetic study of postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. Dr. Meltzer-Brody and colleagues also investigate novel treatment options for depression in perinatal women and she is the academic PI for the brexanolone clinical trials. She also collaborates with colleagues on global health efforts including perinatal mental health in Malawi, Africa. Dr. Meltzer-Brody has been named one of the "Top 10 Women in Medicine" from the Triangle Business Journal and is the 2016 recipient of the North Carolina Psychiatric Association Eugene Hargrove Award and the 2015 Arnold Kaluzny Distinguished Alumni Award, from Public Health Leadership Program of the UNC School of Public Health
She is also the founder of the Taking Care of Our Own Program, a resource for UNC School of Medicine and Health Care employees.


text:
My family LOVES both Zucchini Boats and Zucchini Lasagna. However, on hot summer days, I do not like spending a ton of time in the kitchen, prepping, chopping, and standing over the stove sautéing. A few weeks ago I decided to prepare 10 of these dinners ahead of time and put them in my freezer. This is how I did it! (This recipe is for 5 meals, you can double it for 10!).
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3 onions, chopped
- 30 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb mushrooms, chopped
- 5 lbs ground beef
- 5 lbs ground pork (or Italian Sausage is even better, if it doesn't have any questionable ingredients!)
- 2 cups fresh basil, chopped
- 3/4 cup dried oregano
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 40 oz tomato paste
- 140 oz crushed or diced tomatoes
- sea salt and black pepper (a generous amount)
- other ingredients
- extra 28 oz jar of crushed or diced tomatoes per Zucchini Lasagna Recipe
- 2 cups white cheddar cheese per Zucchini Lasagna or Zucchini Boat Recipe
- Saute the onions and garlic and mushrooms in 1/2 cup of butter until softened, set aside in a large bowl.
- Cook the beef and pork in batches (unless you have a giant sized pan that can fit all of it at once!) 🙂 Add the cooked meat to the large bowl.
- Add the basil, oregano, white wine, tomato paste and diced tomatoes.
- At this point, you can freeze the mixture in 5 bpa-free plastic bags and label them "Zucchini Boats or Zucchini Lasagna Filling".
- You will also want to freeze bags of 2 cups of white cheddar cheese per recipe (5 bags, total).
- For each Zucchini Lasagna recipe, you'll also want to have on hand (in the pantry) 1 extra jar of crushed or diced tomatoes (28 oz).
This is what the bags looked like. Just make sure they don't stick together when you freeze them! It might be best to freeze them on separate shelves and then stack them nicely like this. 😉
To make the Zucchini Boats:
- Â Start defrosting 1 bag of the meat mixture 1 or 2 days before you want to use it.
- The day you'll be eating Zucchini Boats, cut 3 or 4 medium Zucchini in half lengthwise, and then use a spoon to scoop out the middle to make a "boat". If the middle part isn't too seedy, you can save it for a later use (like to fry up in eggs the next morning! Yum!).
- Stuff the meat mixture into each boat. Top each boat with shredded white cheese (use the 2 cup baggies that you've already frozen).
- Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes to an hour, or until the zucchini is tender and the meat is heated through.
To make the Zucchini Lasagna:
- Start defrosting 1 bag of the meat mixture 1 or 2 days before you want to use it.
- The day you'll be eating Zucchini Lasagna, use a vegetable peeler to slice 2 or 3 zucchinis lengthwise to make long strips like lasagna noodles. Salt these "noodles" and set them aside in a colander to let them weep for about 30 minutes.
- Open a 28 oz jar of crushed or strained tomatoes (that you've saved just for this recipe!) and pour 1/3 of it into the bottom of a 9×13 pan.
- Layer zucchini "noodles" on top of it, and then meat mixture, and then some cheese (from the 2 cup baggies that you've frozen).
- Repeat this layering, with some of the crushed tomatoes, some of the meat, and finally, cheese over the top layer.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the zucchini is tender and the meat is heated through.
This recipe is a part of my Well Stocked Freezer series. I'll be sharing some more great freezer tips and recipes very soon!
Do you have any good summer-time freezer meal recipes? Share! 🙂


text:
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Starry-Eyed Surprise
It was suggested that we listen to the song "Starry-Eyed Surprise" and do a tile with the theme of stars. I really liked the blind string challenge from last week, and decided to do blind strings for these star tiles. In the first one I did blind star shapes one on top of the other. I like how Carole Ohl's tangle Hurakán looks like a distant galaxy!
In the second I did blind star shapes offset from the others. I seem to have opted for a lot of thin line striping, hatching and cross-hatching, in these.
Once I completed these two, I thought, "Who said a star has to have five points?" So I may try some others with more points.
What will next Monday bring?
18 comments:
I like them both...ReplyDelete
Love these stars interpenetrating their engergies!ReplyDelete
Margaret, these both are awesome. I especially like the little circles on the bottom one that look like little rivets fastening one star to another. Your use of Hurican is very cool, and has such a different effect than Maria's use of the same tangle on her star. It is amazing how tangles can be so versatile.ReplyDelete
really fun!!! The way you create layers is stunning!ReplyDelete
Loving the layered effect. I see more star tangles in my future...ReplyDelete
Love them both, great depth on each.ReplyDelete
These are fabulous Margaret! I love all the layers and overlap and I love all of it!!!ReplyDelete
Oooooo... These are lovely!ReplyDelete
★★★Star-dusting Whispers of Aloha★★★ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 13, 2011 at 7:55 PM
Oh, WOW! Especially love the second one.ReplyDelete
Love the second 'shuffled' stars. Very cool!ReplyDelete
Beautiful stars! And stars can have more (or less!) points then 5. My cookie cutter star has 8 points.ReplyDelete
I love them both! I always know I am in for a treat when I come here!ReplyDelete
Both are fantastic! My favorite is the second one.ReplyDelete
These are both great. Can't choose a favorite.ReplyDelete
I'm impressed at drawing the star shapes with your eyes closed - pretty cool and they turned out lovely - also love the layered look.ReplyDelete
Both wonderful!! Love the shading and the grayscale of the first one!!ReplyDelete
Many thanks!ReplyDelete
Suzanne, I hadn't thought about the shapes showing up so well with my eyes closed. I think perhaps I had enough overlapping shapes in the string that I could pick and choose which lines to use when I started with the pen (and then ignore other lines). In the first tile, you can see how the left line of the top left point doesn't match the line on the other side.


text:
Seattle does this. In the midst of a chilly, drab, damp gray winter, a few days burst out with sun and warmth, as if the Pacific Northwest has gotten as tired of the cold and dark as its inhabitants and decided to skip forward a few months. It will go back to being winter again before long. Gather ye sunshine while ye may, then.
I fled the house after some lounging about in a brilliant sunny bedroom with a cat lolling in sunbeams, and headed off on a ramble up over the drumlin to North Creek. I propose to take you with me. There's precious little geology to be found along this route, but there are a few points of mild interest, and birders may scream with joy.
One of the things I like about living here is the shy little glimpse of Mt. Rainier. You wouldn't expect it in Bothell, exactly, but over the shoulder of a drumlin, Mt. Rainier puts in an occasional appearance.
There were rather fewer clouds than it appears in this photo, lurking about on the horizons as if ashamed to be intruding. We're supposed to have more of the bastards tomorrow, but I put about as much stake in the predictions of the weather reports around here as I do in the prognostications of psychics and most economic forecasters. The weather seems to delight in proving them wrong on the fine details.
But I digress.
The road over the drumlin, alas, hadn't changed much over the winter. I'd been hoping a few intriguing rocks had washed out – this is where I found my outstanding chunk of garnet mica schist – but it was just the usual run of rounded random bits, all sorts of glacial outwash that used to confuse me before I discovered why it looked like there'd been streams running over the tops of the hills. A bit more than usual is visible this time of year, though, with the leaves off the trees and the blackberry brambles going bald. In fact, I discovered a cut in the drumlin I'd never seen before:
Granted, not the most exciting thing in the universe, but for those who like to look upon the innards of a drumlin, there you go.
Just down the street, I came across a lovely example of a Pacific Northwest glade.
The sorrel-colored leaves and the bare pale trees made a lovely contrast to the brilliant green sword ferns and firs. A couple of tiny streams ran through it. That's one of the things that still astonishes me about this area: the sheer profusion of tiny streams. And it's completely wild to stand on what seems like solid ground and discover you're standing atop the stream:
If you dug a hole where my foot is, you'd hit water. It's probably roots that did it. I've seen those places where some wood fell across, and roots followed, and then soil and leaf mold collected, and of course mosses and plants grow everywhere here. Before long, you have a bit of solid ground with a stream running under it. Quite fun for someone not used to such things.
I walked down the drumlin to the intersection and turned up toward my workplace. Along the straight road there's a place that dips, which nearly always floods during storms, and along the side a screen of vegetation. The reason for the extra-heavy vege and the flooding is because what we would, in Arizona, call a creek and get quite excited about flows right alongside. Here, it's more of an unnamed nuisance. There are parts where the water lies still in little sandy pools, and other places where it's reed-choked even in this late season, and others where woody debris and other vagaries of the bed cause a profusion of miniature waterfalls. It's quite wonderful, and nearly impossible to photograph. It wasn't my quarry anyway. Ahead, there's a lovely dry stone wall. Dry is a misnomer. Any number of minute streamlets drain off the hill and sometimes cause some pretty spectacular waterfalls to course down that wall. But they're great chunks of stone, and considering how little geology there is round here, I made a beeline for them. I'd not gotten my nose against them before.
I was not disappointed. I found something intriguing.
My field identification skills, never excellent, are somewhat rusty. But I believe this is sedimentary, and I seem to see some graded bedding here. Have a closer look and tell me what you think:
It put me in mind of turbidites, and I liked it. Even if I am completely wrong about it.
Alas, we've had a few nice days, so no waterfalls spilling over the wall. Just a few damp patches, and here and there a trickle of water. I crossed toward North Creek, and came across the first flowers I've had the pleasure to photograph this year, complete with bee.
I'm very pleased with this shot. I had my nose down amongst the bees, who were being buggers, refusing to hold still, but this gentlebee finally did strike a pose. I love shooting bees. They're always too immersed in what they're doing to notice me, and they turn out surprisingly well sometimes.
Just down the way, nearer the creek, some hawks were circling. I got lucky enough to catch one in mid-soar:
I think it's a hawk, anyway. It's possibly an eagle. I don't know my birds so well as I should. All I know is, the sun's shining behind it, and it's quite lovely, if a wee bit blurred. Have you ever tried to photograph a speck of a bird with a point-and-shoot camera against a featureless background at full zoom with no tripod? It's difficult.
Not much further on, the road intersects North Creek. There's a wonderful wide greenbelt here, with broad pea-gravel paths running along the tops of the levees. In between the commercial buildings, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. There's an abundance of wildlife and wetlands, where you suspect what you might see but are never quite sure. Sometimes, you get only crows. Other times, there are bald eagles. Today, the motif was blue herons. There was a gentleman on a bike stopped at a curve in the path, and he pointed out a particularly fine example hanging out by the creek looking for lunch.
Blue herons are a particular favorite of mine. They're among the first wild birds we saw when we moved up here, and they're lovely. Besides, any fan of Robert Jordan has got to have a soft spot for herons.
I took the left-hand path, which curves round toward the interstate along a fairly large pond. And in that pond were some magnificent cormorants, one drying itself in grand fashion. They made the whole walk worth it.
I don't know why the one bothered to dry itself off – it just dove back into the water and swam again. Wonderful, aren't they? I've never seen them up at North Creek before, nor so close, so it was a pleasure. I shared these photos with a group of walkers a little further up the trail, who'd gotten past the cormorants and were on to ducks. That's one thing you'll always find at North Creek on a sunny afternoon – people who like sharing bird sightings.
The trail pretty much ends just past the pond, but instead of doubling back, you can cut through a parking lot, head along the street, and come to a few items of interest. One is this incongruous building that looks a bit like a dairy barn, smack in the middle of prosaic rectangular commercial buildings. It looked particularly pastoral today.
And then, just beyond it, you intersect North Creek again at one of the best spots for seeing something of interest. This is where bald eagles come to roost, and salmon run, and blue herons lurk about. It's also a lovely view down the creek, with old snags and weeping willows.
No bald eagles about today, alas, but there was a blue heron on the bank. You can see him in the lower left of this photo, a dark curvy speck amongst the tan wetland grass. He was in an excellent spot for photographing, and obliged by not moving while I darted here and there looking for the best angles.
I'm quite pleased. Proper sun and everything. Now if only I can get the bald eagles to strike the same pose…
Going down the other side of North Creek, I ran short on birds. They'd all gone in for a siesta, it seemed. But I found a tiny spur trail down to the creek, and a bit of geology lurking there: a nice boulder with quartz (or possibly calcite) in:
I've been down that spur before, but never noticed the boulder. It's usually hidden by a screen of vegetation. I knelt down to make friends with it, and the sunlight filtering through the trees did wonderful things with the quartz (or possibly calcite) and moss:
Don't ask me why these things make me so happy. They just do. So do raccoon tracks in the sandy bank:
So, raccoons. I shouldn't be surprised.
That bank put me in mind of ichnology. Lots of traces, there: the raccoon, and birds, and crawling things. All it asked was for a nice flood to deposit a layer of sand over the top without wiping clean the traces, and then a few million undisturbed years to set it in stone, and then a few million more to lay the tableau bare again. And there you would have, frozen in time, one day in the life of North Creek.
Just down the trail, the trees clear out a bit, and there's a wide area of the North Creek wetlands where it's all reeds and grasses and just a few little trees. And here, there was a couple talking about beavers. Beavers, on North Creek. I'd never suspected such a thing, but I should have. The buggers were inside having a nap, but I snapped a photo of their lodge, which I'd never noticed until the couple pointed it out to me.
They have, they said, seen as many as nine beavers at that lodge before. Presumably, they're more industrious than the beaver that lived by us on Forbes Creek, back when I was in Kirkland. Laziest beaver ever. He'd begun a dam, and months later, as we moved out, had felled exactly one tree and added a stick or two. I miss that non-busy beaver. Beavers are cool.
North Creek takes a bend down by the pond near 195th St, and there you can find a quite nice bridge. It's even somewhat visible this time o' year:
In the summer, it's delightfully shady and cool. In winter, it turns out, it basks in plenty of sun on the days when the sun ventures out. And it turned out to be a good place to photograph flying geese from:
There's a field not far from here that's always full of them. The crows have the ballfields, the geese have a vacant lot, and everyone's happy.
The remaining geology is sparse, I'm afraid, and consists of some rocks causing rapids near a knot of trees with some truly outstanding roots:
The roots give a definite mangrove impression, even though these aren't by any means mangroves. The rocks aren't very visible from this side, and from the other bank, you'd have to brave blackberry brambles. I'm sorry, but I'm not that desperate.
There were trees along that side of the bank, however, that captivated me. They had a lovely coppery sheen. I'm not sure what they are – it's hard to identify without leaves when you're a rank amateur such as myself – but I'm thinking of them as copper beeches for the moment, and fell head-over-heels in love with them.
The camera couldn't do them justice, alas, but this last photo came out well enough:
From there, it was on down the creek past the ballfields and home for lunch with kitteh. In a few months, the fruit trees will flower spectacularly, and then the oaks and willows and various other deciduous trees will leaf out, and everything will be emphatically green. Things on display right now will retreat. North Creek will look like a somewhat different world. But in this spring preview, bare under brilliant sun, it's revealed a few surprises, and proved it rewards a ramble no matter what the season.


text:
Dollywood's new attraction for 2014 will be FireChaser Express, set to open in March. Located where the Adventure Mountain ropes course once stood, it will be the nation's first dual-launch family coaster.
Traveling forward and backward on a winding 2,427-foot track, three 14-passenger trains will catapult riders from zero to 16 mph in 1.1 seconds going forward and then launch backward from zero to 20 mph in two seconds. The 39-inch minimum height requirement will allow many four-year-olds to ride.
The family-friendly FireChaser Express is meant to celebrate the volunteer-based fire departments of the 1940s who protected the neighboring Great Smoky Mountains National Park.


text:
What's happening in Egypt?
If you've any interest in Egypt you will know today is pretty momentous. It is 1 year since President Morsi was elected to power and in the past few days leading up to today there have been huge demonstrations and protests both by pro-Morsi and pro-Tamarod (rebellion). What will enfold is not for me to say or guess. I hope the best outcome for Egypt in whatever form it will take.
On my OldbagofCairo facebook page, I am posting various live links and other information which may be useful for those of you living in Egypt or those of you worrying about friends or relatives in Egypt.
I have also added an administrator from outside Egypt (my friend One Fleeting Glimpse) in case the internet disappears so she can update the page if necessary. Posts I make to the FB page also go out via twitter automatically if that suits you better. @OldbagofCairo. There is also a panel on the right hand side of this page with snippets of the posts.
Please remember NO POLITICS and NO RELIGION. I am attempting to keep the page clean from taking sides and only posting things of relevant to you as foreigners in the country.
My biggest piece of advice - STAY WELL AWAY FROM ANY DEMONSTRATIONS AND PROTESTS - there have been nasty incidents already involving foreigners.


text:
Latest News
COVID-19 Loan Program
Small Business Training
Community Futures Sun Country is a partner of Small Business BC and are pleased to be one of their delivery locations.
You can register directly online with Small Business BC or contact us for more information.
Invest in Your Business: Make Time for Education
Business theory is one thing. Applying it is another. Small Business BC teaches practical skills and knowledge you can use in the real world.
Choose from over 40 subject areas, from marketing to accounting to sales and more. Many of their instructors are small business owners themselves, and all have real-life experiences to draw from. Whether you need help branding your business, hiring employees, managing operations or anything else, Small Business BC has a seminar to help.
Workshops will provide participants an overview of how and why a business plan needs to be completed. This is for someone who is starting a business or is operating a business. You will be given the tools on how to research and compile a business plan and cash flow. Mentorship will be provided to those who attend.
To register, contact Thompson Rivers University 250-256-4296 online registration


text:
It's the dog days of August and not only is the temperature high, but the humidity may also make it difficult to breath outdoors. One of the saving graces that people have to combat the hot weather is air conditioning. Whether you are at work, in your home, in at shopping center or in your car, a cold air conditioner can be a very welcome relief for all in August and throughout the year. However, despite the fact that air conditioners can offer temporary relief from the hot and humid weather, it also can potentially be a source health concerns to people of all ages.
- Risk Factors in Heating and Air Conditioning Systems (PDF) – Paper that lists many of the common risk factors that appear in heating and cooling systems.
- Overview of Indoor Air Quality in Buildings – Information on addressing building indoor air quality from the state of Massachusetts.
- Indoor Air Hazards – Informative page that looks at several of the common indoor air hazards that people face.
Positives of Air Conditioning
On a hot, humid day, one of the most refreshing moments is when you step into an air conditioned room or auto. This blast of cold can be extremely useful for people in helping them to improve breathing. In fact, for many people that suffer from chronic illnesses with breathing problems, air conditioning can be critical for patients to continue to breathe properly. Also, by using air conditioning or air purifiers, you can improve the quality of the air in your home or office; however, to ensure that it is beneficial, the air systems need to be cleaned and checked on a regular basis.
- Hot Weather and the Elderly – Information on why it is important for older people to be cautious during hot weather.
- Cutting Premature Deaths – Washington Post article that lists a study showing that premature deaths are cut on hot days.
- Heat is Hard on the Heart – Harvard University Health publication which explains why the heat is bad for people's hearts.
- Climate Effects on Human Health – Useful page which looks at the various changes in climate can have on people.
- Keeping Cool in Hot Weather – Informative page which provides information on how you can keep cool in the hot weather.
- Improving Air Quality in Your Home – This helpful page from Colorado State University offers a number of ideas on improving the quality of indoor air.
- Reducing Indoor Health Risks (PDF) – Comprehensive publication which looks at a number of helpful was to reduce indoor air health risks.
- Benefits of Improving Indoor Air – In this web page you will learn about the general benefits of improving indoor air health.
- Indoor Air Quality – This Florida Health article looks at the overview of improving indoor quality of the air.
- Tips to Improve Indoor Home Air Quality – Article that provides consumers with helpful tips on improving the quality of their home air.
Negatives of Air Conditioning
While air conditioning offers relief from oppressive heat and humidity, there are also some health concerns that people should be aware of. Unless systems are cleaned regularly, air conditioners can be a source of health issues. Air contamination can become a severe problem that contributes to respiratory ailments in people. Additionally, air conditioning at work and home can lead to problems, such as colds, fevers, headaches and fatigue.
- HVAC Systems and Contamination – This helpful article from the Center for Disease Control looks at possible dangers of HVAC systems.
- Indoor Pollutants – In this article you will learn about the various indoor pollutants and why they can be hazardous to your health.
- Indoor Air Quality Dangers – A useful page which looks at the various dangers that can be in the air of your home.
- Mold in the Workplace (PDF) – In this web page you will learn about the dangers of mold in air systems and how they can't be ignored.
- Indoor Air and Health – Medical information on how the air that we breathe can be dangerous.
- OSHA Indoor Air Guidelines – Informative government page which provides employers with needed information on indoor air quality.
- Preventing Illness and Injury in the Workplace (PDF) – This comprehensive guide for employers lists a wide range of potential danger areas in the workplace.
- Can Air Conditioning Make You Sick? – Article that looks at how colder air can make you sick.
- Sick Building Syndrome – In this page you will learn about the problem that can arise from faulty or dirty air conditioning systems.
- Infectious Diseases (PDF) – In this informative article you will find guidance on infectious diseases that can be spread environmentally.
- Biological Pollutants in the Home – Government information on the potential hazards that can be in your house.
Air conditioning has been a big part of our everyday life, especially during the summer months. There are both positives and negatives for regular usage. To determine whether air conditioning is useful for you, that decision is yours. We hope that this information has been useful in determining whether you should use air conditioning. Please feel free to share this information with others facing the same decision.


text:
So, I think I'm just about calming down after the announcement about the U.S. worlds team, which I got as a notification on my phone while sitting at the hair salon and basically screamed mid-snip when I saw first-year senior Morgan Hurd had earned a spot alongside expected nominative team athletes Ragan Smith, Ashton Locklear, and Jade Carey.
For the first time in the history of the world, USA Gymnastics posted selection camp videos highlighting some of the routines from the first verification at camp, and it was a little hard to gauge exactly how well everyone did because the videos would cut out at seemingly key moments. Locklear's entire bars set except for her dismount? Clearly she fell! Suspiciously cutting out in the middle of someone's beam routine? Obviously covering up something too dramatic for our eyes!
Naturally this is where most fans took things while speculating about the worlds team, but I was laser-focused on Hurd's video, which showed her looking freaking incredible, better than she has all season. Hurd got off to a shaky start in her debut senior season, with falls at the world cup in Stuttgart and at the team competition in Jesolo, and then when she showed up at classics and nationals this summer, she was dealing with recovering from an elbow injury that limited her on vault and bars.
But no national coordinator cares what you do in July or August. Camp is what counts, and camp is where Hurd was able to show that she was one of the top two all-arounders in the country on both days of competition, truly bringing it when she needed to in order to snag one of the four spots open on this year's team. It'll be interesting to see if she's been able to build up her bars difficulty once again, and where she could possibly fit into event finals, which at this point depend more on how the rest of the world competes than on what the U.S. ladies can do, but I'm super excited to see her land on the team, and if there's one thing the gymternet can agree on in its daily civil wars, it's that Hurd is the greatest human being alive and deserves to be on every team ever.
Personally, I'm also invested in seeing Hurd make this happen, as I took one look at her on bars during training for the Nastia Liukin Cup in 2014 and basically died because she was just so freaking good. Her routine there was pretty basic, but her skills were immaculate, and I begged the gym gods to get her into elite. I'm pretty sure I talked about Hurd for an hour straight on that week's episode of Gymcastic, because even though she didn't have huge skills at that point and was like five seconds into her level 10 career, she just had that something. Watching her go from a kid just starting out to now getting a spot on the worlds team three and a half years later is just surreal and incredible. We are blessed. Morgan Hurd for president.
The other three were kind of obvious, in that they were all on the nominative roster, and in that they just fit the team so perfectly. As the national champion, Smith was a shoo-in, and with some of the highest all-around, beam, and floor scores in the world, she's practically guaranteed a medal or two in Montreal. Yes, she'll have some competition on every event, but she's so super composed and together and on her game, her edge is that she'll be able hit under pressure, which is how the U.S. wins medals, while undoubtedly many of her peers will crumble, which is how other countries have lost medals in recent years.
In an individual worlds with four-person teams given three spots per event in qualifications, the best team format is two all-arounders and some combination of two specialists, and with Carey an early lock for this team due to her two vaults and one of the most difficult floor sets in the world, the second specialist was going to have to be someone who could medal on bars, or beam, or both.
The thing is, there really isn't anyone in the country right now already not on the team who can medal on either. Among the other five girls at this camp not named to the team were Jordan Chiles (who got the non-traveling alternate spot), Trinity Thomas, Marz Frazier, Emily Gaskins, and Alyona Shchennikova. None of these are beam workers, maxing out at D scores around a 5.5 when the best beamers in the world right now are working in the neighborhood of a 6.5, and when we look at bars, the only realistic option is Shchennikova, whose 6.3 D score at nationals puts her among some of the world's best, but her consistency and form haven't been great this year, and what good is a D score if you don't have the E to match it?
Thomas is the only one of these with a legitimate case, as she's lovely on both bars and beam and could also go up in the all-around to challenge for a medal if need be. But as I said at nationals, "she's gonna get Kytra Huntered so hard this year." Why? Because in 2009, Hunter was fourth all-around at nationals — just like Thomas was this year — and while she had strong work, especially on floor where she placed third at nationals, she wasn't in the top two on any event. Guess what? Thomas also wasn't top two on any event this year, placing — you guessed it — third on her best events.
It's that classic case of being a fabulous gymnast, probably even stronger than some of the other gymnasts going, but not really fitting the puzzle right now. If it was a team year, Thomas would be one of my first choices, just as Hunter would've been for me back in 2009, but if a gymnast can't finish in the top two anywhere at home, she's not competitive domestically on those events let alone internationally.
Fortunately for Thomas, I don't think she has come close to her potential. While it would've been cool to see her make the team happen this year, she's clearly held back in the all-around on vault, and you can't really call her a specialist when her D scores on her best events are a full point lower than the top specialists in the world. But her time will come. We haven't seen the last of her yet.
Speaking of "you can't really call her a specialist when her D scores on her best events are a full point lower than the top specialists in the world," if that's the case, then why the heck is Locklear on the team? Valid question. She's only at around a 5.5 D on bars, which doesn't make her anywhere near competitive enough for a medal. But…oh, right, as we discussed earlier, no one in the country up for that spot is anywhere near competitive enough for a medal, either there or on beam.
So this decision was more of a "whoever can get us the closest" kind of thing and not so much "she's guaranteed to get it." A couple of gymnasts up for this spot do have higher bars difficulty scores, like Frazier with her 5.9 or Shchennikova with her 6.3, but the thing is, Frazier's and Shchennikova's difficulty don't hold a candle to what Locklear can make up in execution, which is why Locklear beat Shchennikova at Jesolo, why Locklear beat them both at nationals, and why she beat them again at camp. It's like when Simone Biles could average the same scores as Maria Paseka on vault despite being a point back in difficulty — you need a lot more than a high D score to win an event, and even without her inbars (#ButHerInbars!) building her back up to a high start value, Locklear has proven multiple times to be more than capable of outscoring her teammates.
Even at an international level, while she won't come into worlds as a frontrunner for a medal, she's actually not that far back. The top contenders above Locklear are probably Anastasia Iliankova, Fan Yilin, Nina Derwael, and Elisabeth Seitz, with maybe Elena Eremina joining them if she hits all of her connections and isn't slammed for her execution as she has been internationally this year. Aside from Riley McCusker, who had to withdraw from the worlds selection process due to a stress fracture, Locklear has the highest international score on bars for any U.S. senior, and she consistently earned E scores in the high 8s at worlds in 2014, so having improved tremendously since then in her ability, it's fair to say that she will likely be rewarded by judges in Montreal as well.
I'm not the biggest fan of Locklear, and I do wish Valeri Liukin had paid more attention to the longterm. With no one really capable of medaling on bars this year without major mistakes from other gymnasts, why not just take a new kid like Thomas or Shchennikova or Chiles to see how they do? A similar opportunity worked wonders for Gabby Douglas in 2011, and I'm always a huge proponent of giving experience to those who show potential for longevity throughout the quad.
But at the same time, I don't understand the rampant hate or the utter shock and disbelief towards Locklear for getting one of the least surprising team bids I've ever seen. If anything, Liukin is likely betting on the fact that one of those top bars gymnasts like Fan (who has a hit rate of 60% this year) or Seitz (who is always heavily docked for her execution internationally despite getting high scores at home) will end up not doing as well in Montreal as they have elsewhere, leaving room for Locklear to creep in for a medal the way so many gymnasts have earned medals at every major international meet basically ever. She might not be a frontrunner, but she has a better chance at a bars medal than anyone else being left at home, so if there's even a slight chance they could get something out of her, they're obviously going to take it.
Locklear ended up somehow being the controversial decision this year, but I have a feeling it's more because everyone who cried about her not making it to Rio over Madison Kocian or Gabby Douglas in 2016 turned on her when she allegedly favorited a supportive tweet about Donald Trump than it is about her actual ability or lack thereof, as if a gymnast's physical ability or potential in the sport is affected by her questionable taste in humans (she also favorited Obama tweets, by the way, so I'm guessing she's politically confused at best). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But the least controversial decision was naming Carey to the team, the sole two-vault gymnast in the U.S., boasting an Amanar and a tsuk double — sorry, kas full — which gives her the highest combination of difficulty at worlds alongside China's Wang Yan. Though her vaults have been kind of hit-or-miss with form, they looked great at camp yesterday, and it's not like the vault field this year is full of Simone Biles clones. It's actually pretty weak, form-wise, and Carey — who only just qualified to elite this spring — could very well pull off the second "how to go from level 10 to world champion in six months" magic for the U.S. in the past eight years. She's also super powerful on floor, where a hit routine there could also get her a medal, so bam, easy decision for everyone.
The one big heartbreak for me this year was Chiles, who I thought at nationals showed she might actually pull off a worlds team bid despite coming back from the injury she sustained in her final year as a junior and then entering with a rocky start to her senior year, having to switch coaches, causing her to miss several crucial early-season competitions on top of the changes in her gym. She looked a little rough at classics, but managed to pull herself together to look mostly sharp at nationals, winning the silver medal in the all-around.
Her medal was mostly thanks to the score boost from her Amanar on day one, however, compared to the Yurchenko fulls performed by her biggest competition for silver, McCusker and Thomas. The rest of Chiles' events were slightly behind those of her teammates, with nothing really a standout except for vault, but obviously she'd need to have a second vault if she wanted that to factor into her worlds decision (Chiles said following the competition that she was working on a Lopez, but it wasn't ready by the time the selection camp came around).
I get why she didn't make it this year. As with Thomas, it's simply that she didn't fit either as a top-two all-arounder at camp or as a valid specialist on any one event. And like Thomas, I think she's one who hasn't yet hit her stride, but instead shows potential for the coming years, especially as her Amanar will be incredibly valuable in a team competition.
Don't sleep on these two yet just because they didn't happen to make the most selective worlds team of the quad on their first try. They'll be back, and so will many of those who didn't fit this particular team at this point in their careers. Trust that you don't know most of what's going on at camp to make these decisions the best possible decisions for the team, and know that no matter who ended up being named, most of the nine gymnasts up for the four team spots could've been justified for one reason or another, but in a program where depth is a bittersweet problem to have, someone capable of great things is always going to get left behind.
Article by Lauren Hopkins
This post was made possible thanks to our amazing patrons who help us fund things like travel and video production as we work to grow the site. This month's patrons: April, Daniel Bertolina, Emily Bischoff, Dodi Blumstein, Wendy Bruce, Katie Burrows, Kelly Byrd, Melissa Carwin, Jillian Cohen, Brittany Cook, Kat Cornetta, Kristyn Cozier, Anita Gjerde Davidsen, Holly Glymour, Hydrick Harden, Lauren Haslett, Inaya, Lauren Jade, Alexis Johnston, Katrina, Sarah Keegan, Ishita Kent, Alyssa King, Jenny Kreiss, Maria Layton, Rae Lemke Sprung, Leigh Linden, Annabelle McCombe, Stephanie McNemar, Bridget McNulty, Cindy McWilliams, M. Melcher, Alison Melko, Emily Minehart, Eyleen Mund, Rachel Myers, Melanie Oechsner, Jessica Olaiya, David F. Pendrys, Lauren Pickens, Cordelia Price, Abbey Richards, Christine Robins, Kaitlyn Schaefer, Lisa Schmidt, Brian Schwegman, Sam Smart, Stephanie, Karen Steward, Lucia Tang, Tipse_ee, Rachel Walsh, Laura Williams, and Jenny Zaidi. THANK YOU!
Want to help out and qualify for super fun rewards for as little as $1/month? Check us out on Patreon!


text:
Melania Fair
Oh Melania! Silent soulful Melania!
You speak six languages but your silence persists.
What are you thinking, my lovely?
Statuesque Melania! Tallest girl in Slovenia!
Tall as Michelle O or Eleanor R!
Beautiful secretive Melania!
Simon Cowell was a wedding guest.
So were Hil n Bill.
Your immobilizing wedding-gown was soon shed,
for its embroidery weighed a ton.
There's a tad of Morticia Adams 'bout you, Queen Melania,
you've cast your spell on me!
Oh that Inauguration smile of yours!
Thy rose hath no canker, Super-duper Melania,
Do you suspect how subject old men are to lying?
Is that what your silence is saying?
Daughter of far Novo Mesto,
Sibyl of the fashion and cosmetics world,
let me be the dust under your shoe.
No one in my hearing will dare call you
a hollow pampered jade,
or fie you from news both fake and true.
While your lord and master mammocks away
to the general weariness of the world,
how do you spend your days, sweet Melania,
what vistas of horror and regret
behold through those hand-crafted lashes?
Ah but you persist, my gorgeous Flotus,
as doth the raven o'er the infected house.
Is your heart a stone? If he should strike it,
will it hurt his hand? Let us hope.
I don't think you plan
to sing the sweetness out of that bear.
Instead you'll wait till your mockery king of snow
melts to a White House puddle.
Then you'll walk away, my Melania.
(with thanks to W.S. and J.M.)
Penelope Shuttle was born in 1947 in Middlesex, and has lived in Falmouth, Cornwall since 1970. Her first full-length poetry collection was The Orchard Upstairs (1980). This has been followed by several further collections, including: The Lion from Rio (1986); Taxing the Rain (1992); Building a City for Jamie (1996); and A Leaf Out of His Book (1999). A book of her Selected Poems: 1980-1996, was published in 1998. She has also written several novels and non-fiction books. Her eleventh collection of poetry, Will You Walk a Little Faster?, will appear from Bloodaxe Books in 2017.