Be sure to ‘like’ Johnny’s Facebook “Jam Page” (link at the end of this article)- you can find live videos, recordings and other trivia and info about Johnny Mac Slater.
For those in the country music scene, talented Johnny Mac has a song for you. Known first to family and friends as John McIntosh, he added ‘Slater’ as a surname, hence his stage name is Johnny Mac Slater. It is a handle that fits his style well. He writes stories from the heart and magically transforms the words into beautiful songs which he sings and plays. Johnny Mac Slater spent some time in Nashville, writing songs and developing his craft. Now living in Hamilton, and happy to be close to his roots, he is working on a new project. Johnny says “I’ve recently been recording at Westmoreland Recording Studios in Hamilton for awhile now, and a CD release will happen soon.”You can bet he will stick with his life’s stories and experiences. Typically his lyrics are centered around girls and love, both lost or found, and then performed with passion and filled with emotion. He also appreciates a good party and quirky story. All of which are found in his songs. It is easy to see, he feels that “nothing makes a better song than a good story.”Some of his early influences you’ll find varied, including Glen Campbell, Keith Urban, Eric Church, Micheal Martin Murphy, Elton John, Kris Kristofferson, and even Boston, Pete Townsend and Motley Crue.The musicians he has teamed up with for his soon to be released CD have added some great sound. From a strong drum beat, clean bass lines and some very sweet guitar licks. There is no doubt it will be a hit CD. Watch his You Tube home page for a sneak preview of a song or two that will be on the new CD.
Yeah this image is a little “Hollywood” but seriously, Europe DID have a Little Ice Age not that long ago……
The delicate balance of the planet’s biosphere is tipping — threatening all life on earth. Scientists are calling it our Holy Shit moment on climate change, and world leaders meet at the UN next month — we have until then for all of us, everywhere, to act, in the largest day of action on climate change in history, to call for action and fight for everything we love. Sign up to join in:
The last ice age happened in 6 months. 6 months for the planet to unleash a giant wall of ice across central Europe and the Northern Hemisphere. This is what happens when we hit a climate ‘tipping point’, and right now we’re rushing towards 3 more of these catastrophic reactions.
It’s our “holy shit” climate moment according to a leading NASA scientist, and only a holy shit massive coordinated day of action response, right now, can change the future we’re facing.
One agreement with common sense steps to end dirty energy can save us. That’s why the UN has called an urgent climate meeting next month with all major world leaders — if we greet them on September 21st with the largest ever global climate mobilisation in history, we can break through the walls of mega coal, oil, and business that prevent even the best politicians from doing what is right.
There’s no way to get around how big a task this is. But together, each small action will add up into a millions-strong movement that literally drowns out the opposition and gives our leaders the best reason to break free and build a hopeful, clean and green future. Click below to join in:
“Tipping points” are feedback loops, where climate change feeds back on itself and causes rapidly accelerating, catastrophic consequences. Right now, methane gas that is 25 times worse for global warming than CO2 is frozen into arctic ice. But as the ice melts, the gas escapes into the atmosphere, increasing global warming, melting more ice, and thus releasing more and more gas… everything starts to spin out of control. And that’s just one example. These tipping points are the reason why scientists are yelling from the rooftops that we have to act now.
We actually have the tools and the plan we need to make sure we don’t cross into a world where tipping points destroy us. And while it will take global cooperation on a bigger scale than ever before, our 38 million-strong movement already has real people power to help move leaders from every country to take the first steps. Recently, the United States and China announced serious new plans to curb their carbon pollution. Momentum is building ahead of next year’s critical Paris climate summit where a deal could be inked, and next month we can take it up a notch further.
Taking to the streets in a record setting show of power and coordination is one of the most effective ways to create change — from the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa to civil rights in the US, it’s sometimes been the only way. This is our chance to bring that power to the most important issue of our time: survival and a thriving future for our families, their families and the generations of people to come. Click below to be a part of it all:
We know we can do this… and do it big. When our community was just 3 million people we held 3,000 actions on the same day to protect our planet. We’re now 38 million strong, twelve times that size! Imagine what we can achieve together now…
With so much hope for our future,
Ricken, Emma, Iain, Lisa, Alice, Emily, Uilleam and the rest of the Avaaz team
The Benq 1075- a full 1080p HD image, with the promise of over 1 billion colors and options for 3D. We want! CP
COSTA MESA, Calif. — BenQ America Corp., an internationally renowned provider of visual display solutions and the No. 1-selling DLP® projector brand in The Americas(1), today introduced its next-generation Colorific™ home entertainment projectors: the HT1075 and HT1085ST. Building on the incredible success of the company’s top-selling W1070 and the short-throw W1080ST, the new home theater devices have been designed to take content to an entirely new level — combining the magic of over 1 billion colors, 3D-readiness, and the realism of full HD 1080p picture quality. What’s more, the new projectors add streaming and mirroring capabilities for devices equipped with Mobile High-definition Link (MHL) to allow the transfer of small-screen content from any portable device. When such an astounding feature set meets such a small price tag, enthusiasts can now easily bring home a full-on cinematic experience.
“BenQ has taken two enormously successful projectors and made them even better,” said Bob Wudeck, Associate Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at BenQ America Corp. “Sustaining our value promise to our customers, the all-new HT1075 and HT1085ST provide enhanced benefits such as Colorific image quality, SmartEco technology, and flexible setup options that allow users to install and easily integrate the projectors with their MHL devices. Available at an amazingly low price, the duo delivers more vibrant colors and richer contrast levels for the ultimate in big screen entertainment.”
Featuring BenQ’s Colorific image quality, the HT1075 and HT1085ST provide more vivid and accurate color reproduction, higher brightness levels, crisper contrast, and longer-lasting picture quality. Both units offer full HD 1080p and 3D support, while the short-throw HT1085ST allows users to fill screens measuring up to 100 inches by simply setting up the device at only 6 feet away — making it an ideal choice for urban environments or media room settings where installation space is limited. Adding to the projectors’ razor-sharp imaging are 2,200 ANSI lumens of brightness and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, which turn colors from TV shows, movies, or sporting events into more natural-looking, film-like content. The projectors are also ISFccc-certified by the Imaging Science Foundation® (ISF®), enabling viewers to enjoy a professionally calibrated picture with two optimized modes — ISF Day and ISF Night.
To create a household media hub, users can easily connect Blu-ray players and gaming consoles to the projectors via HDMI® as well as view cloud content using any MHL-ready streaming device, including Roku®, Chromecast®, and Apple® TV. As a result, viewers can bring their favorite content from popular services such as Netflix® or Hulu™ onto the screen using their streaming player of choice or even directly from their smart device. Rounding off the unparalleled convenience are the units’ new 10W chamber speakers, which offer rich audio to create a complete solution whenever a dedicated sound system is not practical, or in outdoor situations such as movie nights under the stars.
Further reducing installation and setup time is a new vertical lens shift option for the HT1075, allowing users to perfectly align the projected image to the center of the screen, thus eliminating any tedious tinkering. To ensure even more placement flexibility, both models offer horizontal and vertical keystone correction, which delivers picture-perfect projection at the push of a button. Saving money by lowering total cost of ownership (TCO), the projectors are equipped with BenQ’s SmartEco™ lamp-saving technology to prolong lamp life up to an amazing 6,000 hours while lasting three times as long as projectors sold just a few years ago. Additional cost-saving features include a filter-free design built around a sealed DLP chip that eliminates the need to clean or change messy filters; a unique lamp door design that enables lamp replacement down the road without needing to take down the projector; and a special sleep mode that reduces power consumption to under half a watt when connected but not in use.
To further simplify installations, a new optional wireless connectivity kit will be sold separately and is planned for release in Q4 2014. The fully wireless system will allow users to send content to the projectors from up to 100 feet away, giving homeowners the freedom to move the projectors throughout the house or even take them outdoors without the need to run cable.
Available in September 2014, BenQ’s all-new HT1075 and HT1085ST projectors retail at $1,199 (USD)and $1,299 (USD) respectively.
More information on BenQ’s full line of products is available at www.BenQ.us.
About BenQ America Corp. The BenQ digital lifestyle brand stands for “Bringing Enjoyment ‘N’ Quality to Life,” fusing lifestyle with technology, enjoyment with productivity, and aesthetic design with purpose-built engineering. It is this mantra that has made BenQ the No. 1-selling DLP® projector brand in The Americas(1). BenQ America Corp. offers an extensive line of visual display and presentation solutions that incorporate the very latest technologies. The company delivers a broad range of Colorific projectors, RevolutionEyes™ monitors, and flat-panel displays for any application and market — education, home, gaming, enterprise, government, house of worship, digital signage, A/V, and IT — with cutting-edge models that lead the industry in performance, reliability, environmental sustainability, and aesthetics. Whether it’s interactive digital whiteboards for classrooms, full HD 3D projectors for home theaters, short-throw projectors for boardrooms, interactive flat-panel displays for digital signage, or LED backlight monitors for professional gaming, BenQ continues to defy the limits of digital displays. The company’s products are available across North America through leading value-added distributors, resellers, and retailers.
The daisyrock debutante guitar, ready to break a few hearts
As a younger man, I was like a cat in a bag, probably not unlike most, scratching for meaning and adventure. So when I got the chance for a job teaching in the Bahamas, I decided to go for it. Before I went out to my post on the island of Andros, I stopped over in Nassau to meet with my cousin who lived there. She cooked me dinner, and afterward she showed me around her house. In the basement there was a sandy old guitar leaning against the wall. She didn’t play it anymore and suggested I take it out to the island. I told her I didn’t know how to play, didn’t know anything about music, and didn’t want to take it. But I took it anyway. That teaching job was a total washout, but that’s a story for another time. Six weeks later I was back in Canada, with no job for a year, living with my parents again as a 29 year-old. It was a difficult circumstance. For some reason, that old guitar made the trip back to Canada with me, and I remember it staring at me in my bedroom. I didn’t know E from G, but decided that for me to be in this situation, with this guitar, with the time to learn it, was some kind of important sign I needed to recognize. So I started taking lessons, once a week, at my local hometown music store. Like any beginner it was a struggle, but struggle I did, learning those Neil Young songs that all the kids start with. It was very liberating. A couple of years later I met a real nice girl—Lisa, a chiropractor. Definitely marriage material. I’d been seeing her for quite a while, and it was getting to that crux-time of commitment, where future plans need solidifying, lest a biological clock begin to ring too loudly.
I was keenly aware of my responsibilities and knew that I loved this girl, but I just wasn’t sure if I was ready or not. The soul-searching had been going on for weeks and the matter continued to be grey, and I’m certain she felt me creating a certain distance while I figured things through. It was at my house one day when decisiveness finally cleared a path through my tangled emotions. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you” came out of my mouth. Lisa wasn’t in the house when I said that. Nobody was. But my guitar was sitting snugly in its stand, and it heard those words, and that was it. I broke up with Lisa the next day.
Such an important part of that decision was knowing my guitar playing would essentially stop if I went to the next level with her, and I was just starting to make real leaps in my ability, and had so much further to go since I’d started so late in my life. I couldn’t leave it behind now. The chapter was still being written. As much as I loved Lisa, I had to let her move on. Since then I’ve probably written 100 songs (definitely a couple about that situation), released a CD, cut my teeth in Nashville…too many things to mention. I’ve met so many great people and had so many great opportunities because of that guitar. The spirit and the energy surrounding it all is unparalleled. None of it would have been realized if I had different words for my guitar that day. As tough as it was, I know I made the right decision. Lisa is married and has a child now, and I feel really good about that.
For the Silo by John McIntosh (Speaking of Nashville, it really is true that you’ve got to “know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ‘em.” It’s a key to life. I’m reminded as well of a cameo in the Canadian road movie One Week. Tragically Hip frontman Gordon Downie is questioned by the protagonist: “How do you know if you’re really in love.” His answer is uncommonly succinct: “If you have to ask, you’re not.” Maybe the real question is: who, or what, do you love enough to live by? ed.)
GregoryTaylor,Deputy DirectorofpublichealthatthehealthagencyofCanada,saidthat you between800and1000dosesofthevaccine,knownasVSV-EBOV,doctorswithoutbordersweresenttoahospitalinGenevaat the requestofthewho,andalsototheorganization.
He informedtheorganizationthathadinfectedbyhavingcontactwiththeAmericanAdvisor to theLiberianGovernment, whichflewinJulytoLagosandthereleddisease. Themanfaintedattheairportandwastreatedwithoutthatwereknownatthebeginningthatit wasebola.
Sincethen, theemployeeofEcowaswasquarantined.HiscaseraisesthreedeathsbythevirusinNigeria,wherethere aremorethan100peopleinobservation.Gambia,IvoryCoastandZambiahavesuspendedflightsfromthatcountryforfear of contagion. Doctorswithoutborders,whichhashundredsofpartnersinWestAfrica,welcomedthedecisionofthewhotouseexperimentaldrugs,butwarnedthattheyalone will notstoptheproblemandmakingitremains to increasemassivelythemedicalteam.
As of August9, 2014there wereabout1,800confirmedandsuspectedcasesofebolaintheregionandmorethan1,000deaths,according towhofigures.
Dear Silo, There is a contraband tobacco economy that has sprouted over the past two decades that rivals the volumes that the “Big Tobacco” companies produce for the legitimate market. That black market economy has spawned much criminal activity, false reporting and tax dodging to the point now where the majority of tobacco farmers are complicit in the black market and the marketing board that was set up to regulate the legitimate licensing of tobacco growers has shown itself to be nothing more than a cartel to keep tobacco money in the hands of a self-selected few.
The Federal Government has taken a pass on trying to deal with contraband tobacco except for offering truly stupid tobacco product tax increases that do nothing but drive smokers to the black market. We will hold judgment on the announcement that $90 million will be spent on the contraband tobacco file through the RCMP. To date, the RCMP have not been able to make an impact on the growth of the cigarette black market in Canada. What is certain at this point, however, is that the extra $4 levy on a carton of smokes will drive many current smokers to buy cigarettes that are unburdened by provincial or federal taxes. That will also spur on the commitment of biker gangs and other mobsters to supply the product. Why buy a pack of cigarettes at a gas station for $14 or $15 when you can get 10 packs for the same price under the table?
The TTP Program – A Transition to Chaos
The Canadian Government has much to answer for in the creation of the tobacco diversion schemes in the first place and recent budgetary moves just reinforce the culpability. In 2008 the Federal Government decided that it should spearhead a plan that would enable farmers to leave the tobacco business and migrate their businesses to other, less controversial lines – the Tobacco Transition Program (TTP). As it turns out, it was this TTP idea itself that created a bunch of cheaters out of a bunch of honest farmers.
On August 1, 2008 a press release issued by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced that, “The Government of Canada is providing more than $300 million to Ontario’s flue-cured tobacco producers, including $286 million for a Tobacco Transition Program to help them exit the tobacco industry, and $15 million for community development initiatives.” An average of $272,000 was paid to each participating farmer. By 2015, 133 recipients of over $30 million dollars in TTP money continued to be involved in tobacco growing.
The Ontario Government has been totally inept at dealing with the problem of contraband in the province. In 2012, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) took over responsibility for licensing tobacco growers so as to control the production, distribution, sale and purchase of raw leaf tobacco to help ensure the supply of tobacco stays in the legal market and serves the interests of all tobacco farmers equally. The idea at the time was to take the quota system and self-regulating elements out of the cartel environment and put tobacco sourcing regulation and control in the hands of the government to ensure fairness and transparency – and effective tax collection, one would assume.
We learned that just days after this transfer took effect the Ministry of Finance issued a news release announcing a temporary grace period that would permit growers the time to learn about their obligations and apply for the appropriate registration certificates for the upcoming growing season. That hiatus has now been extended until sometime in 2015 and some think it will be a couple of years after that before the MoF gets its act together.
While the MoF diddles, anarchy reigns. Farmers are under-reporting their yields and selling the overages to the black market for a 400% mark-up from their contracts with the legitimate manufacturers. They claim storm damage but actually siphon off vast amounts of tobacco to sell to the underworld. Sometimes they call the missing tonnage, “stolen”.
Last year, Frontline Security magazine published a series of articles on the contraband tobacco industry. Based on the reporting in that magazine about the involvement of Ontario farmers, FrontLine received a number of calls from farmers who were not involved in the skimming of tobacco yields to contraband but they expressed worry that if their neighbours were making big money selling tobacco at $8 to $10 per pound versus $2 to contracted legitimate manufacturers, why should they miss out?
With each passing season, the moral compass of the Canadian tobacco farmer gets tested and increasingly farmers are succumbing to the pressures of a big payout. The trend is very disturbing. In 2010, it was estimated by FrontLine that more than 60% of 241 farmers were diverting portions of their harvest to unlicensed buyers where the tobacco was heading for illicit markets. Today, it is estimated that 90% of farmers are now involved in siphoning leaf to the black market producers and most of those are producing thousands of pounds for crime based enterprises.
The impact of this moral degeneracy has ripples that go far beyond the rolling hills of tobacco country in Ontario. This past spring, we saw a massive bust in the Montreal area that netted 28 arrests and seizures of 40,000 kilograms of tobacco that were diverted from farms all over North America, including in the Tillsonburg area. A key outcome of that bust was the knowledge that the Italian Mafia have become involved which brings the entire contraband tobacco controversy into a new light and brings the Ontario Tobacco farmers to a new low in conspiring with organized crime.
As alluded to earlier, the farmers aren’t the only ones who have lost their moral compass. In an institutional way, so has the Ontario Ministry of Finance. When the Ministry took over from the chaos in regulation created by the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers’ Marketing Board, expectations were that meaningful change was on its way. However, as the Ministry continues to kick it’s responsibility for actual enforcement down the road, it has created a loophole that will inspire many more farmers to engage in producing tobacco that will be diverted to the black market.
Edward R. Myers– freelance journalist and Editor of FrontLine Security magazine.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination of smarts to understand that toxins can travel in water. Ohio and Southwestern Michigan which have notified the public of the water crisis are dangerously close to other Lake Erie shoreline communities. Some communities such as Norfolk County already have beaches posted with bacteria warnings and notices that the water is NOT tested by local health officials.
The Silo @thesiloteam · now
What are implications for #Oxford#NorfolkCounty#Haldimand County communities water supply? Bacteria/ Algae signs already posted on beaches
