One of the many ways the Internet is driving the global economy is through digital payments, making it easy for consumers to buy just about anything from anywhere. VisaNet is the largest payment processing network in the world, connecting 2.4 billion credit cards at 36 million locations across 200 countries.
Canada Passes Bill Ending Captivity Of Whales & Dolphins
OTTAWA, CANADA (June, 2019) – In Defense of Animals applauds Canada’s passing of Bill S-203, the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, which passed through the House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada on Monday, June 10, 2019.
First introduced by Senator Wilfrid Moore in 2015, the legislation will officially make it illegal to hold any cetacean in captivity, for reasons other than rehabilitation and scientific research. Breeding or trading reproductive materials of whales and dolphins will also be prohibited. Any breach of this ban carries fines of up to $200,000.
“We applaud Canada for passing this progressive legislation, since whales and dolphins suffer greatly in captivity, no matter the size of the tank,” said Marilyn Kroplick M.D., President of In Defense of Animals. “The overwhelming support for this ban demonstrates how many Canadians are opposed to the inherent cruelty of keeping and breeding cetaceans.”
Two facilities currently hold cetaceans captive within Canada.
Vancouver Aquarium holds one dolphin captive. The ‘beluga breeding mill’ was shamed in #9th place on In Defense of Animals’ Ten Worst Tanks list, and faced significant public pressure regarding its cruel activities from many concerned citizens including world-famous Dr. Jane Goodall and thousands of In Defense of Animals supporters. The Vancouver Parks Board passed a captive cetacean ban in 2017, prompting the Aquarium to announce its plans to phase out its cetacean exhibit.
Marineland in Ontario is placed as #2 Worst Tank and continues to hold captive more than 50 belugas, five bottlenose dolphins, and Canada’s last captive orca. All of these animals will be grandfathered in, so the passing of the Ending the Captivity of Whale and Dolphin Act will not directly impact them. However, Marineland will be required to halt all captive breeding at its facility, ultimately putting an end to the cetacean captivity industry throughout Canada.
Over 10,000 members of In Defense of Animals contacted Canadian decision-makers to support this historic bill, demonstrating significant public support for this important animal protection legislation.
Keeping dolphins and whales in captivity, forcing them to perform degrading tricks and being placed on perpetual display, is archaic and not in line with scientific discoveries about their significant cognitive and emotional sophistication.
The time has come for the unethical captive animal industry to dissolve–and Canada has taken steps to ensure this will happen. We urge Marineland to abide by the spirit of the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, and the wishes of the Canadian people who stand by this landmark legislation, and release the dolphins and whales it holds captive to seaside sanctuaries.
For the Silo, Laura Bridgeman/IDA In Defense of Animals.
Rising Cost Of European Airline Snacks And Drinks
German budget carrier Eurowings will now charge economy passengers for snacks and drinks on board its flights, the travel platform fromAtoB conducted research into the costs of food and drinks on different airlines.
• Ryanair charges more than other airlines for soft drinks and chocolate
• Ryanair and EasyJet menus relatively expensive
• German airlines offer the cheapest beer and best overall value for money
• Eurowings joins the majority of low-cost airlines, which now charge for snacks and beverages
Berlin, June 2019. None of us are keen to fork out for snacks and drinks on budget airlines, but since we are forced to dispose of liquids before going through security, we are often left with no choice. Travel platform fromAtoB compared the current prices for drinks and snacks in ten European low-cost airlines to see which are the worst offenders.
Water is often the first thing passengers need, and the price of this basic necessity can vary widely. EasyJet, TUIfly, and Wizzair all charge €2.50 for a 500ml bottle of water, while Ryanair and Pegasus charge €3. [One euro at time of publishing = $1.50 Canadian dollar]
Soft drinks also cost anywhere between €2.50 and €3 for varying sizes. The price per litre varies significantly between airlines. While TUIfly charges €6, Ryanair and Eurowings ask for €10.
German airlines offer the cheapest beer
As is fitting for a country known for its beer, flights to and from Germany offer the best value, with a 330ml can costing just €3 with Eurowings and TUIfly. EasyJet makes passengers dig a little deeper into their pockets, charging twice as much, while a beer on a Ryanair flight will set passengers back €5.50.
Food for thought
The cost of a sandwich also varies significantly. The East European carrier Wizzair offers the cheapest options for just €4, while Eurowings passengers can expect to pay €5 for a chicken roll. Both Norwegian and Spanish airline Vueling charge €6.50 for a club sandwich.
TUIfly: best value overall
Almost all airlines offer a combined menu that often includes a sandwich, drink, and snack. A Wizzair meal deal costs between €6 and €8.50, while a meal alone with Norwegian costs €8.
TUIfly offers the best overall value for money, with all items on the menu totalling €35.84, compared the Norwegian menu which totals €52.09, and Easyjet at €50.
The full data can be seen here.
For the Silo, Carmen Cracknell.
Supplemental- The 10 Best US Airlines Ranked by Free Snacks https://mashable.com/article/best-airline-free-snacks/
Autonomous Vehicles Now Able To Stop Safely
Mendon, Utah – Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI) has received Phase I funding from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicles Systems Center (formerly TARDEC) to improve the way heavy vehicles stop while operating autonomously.
“Bringing large autonomous vehicles to a safe stop in varying environments can be challenging,” said Jeff Ferrin, CTO of ASI. “Having additional funding from the Army to further develop this technology will help us make autonomous vehicles safer, which is always our number-one priority.”
The objective of the Army in awarding this grant is to develop and demonstrate a system that can be operated remotely and considers both the dynamics of the vehicle, as well as the environment, to optimally and safely bring a large ground vehicle to a complete stop despite the terrain.
“ASI has been working on terrain characterization with the Army since 2014,” said Ferrin. “This project will use similar technology to make sure the vehicle is aware of the terrain around it. This model of the terrain will then be used by the vehicle to ensure a safer stop is completed.”
A significant focus of this intelligent urgent stop initiative is machine learning. This improved technology will continuously monitor the interaction between a vehicle and its surroundings and update the internal model that is used to properly halt the vehicle. This process will allow the vehicle to learn and adapt as the terrain and environment change.
As the advanced solution is developed, tested and proven, it can be used by ASI’s autonomous vehicles across all the company’s multiple industries, including agriculture, automotive, construction haulage, mining, facility robotics and more.
According to Ferrin, “The system can be used with any drive-by-wire vehicle. It will interface with the brakes and steering to bring the vehicle to a safe, controlled stop.”
Details of the Phase I stage awarded to ASI include development of a concept design using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors to perform safe deceleration of a large ground vehicle. A concept design report and performance analysis report are required deliverables before Phase II can be awarded. For the Silo, Brandon Taylor.
About ASI
Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI) is a world leader in industrial vehicle automation. ASI serves clients across the world in the mining, agriculture, automotive, government, and manufacturing industries with remote control, teleoperation, and fully automated solutions from its headquarters and 100-acre proving ground in northern Utah.
Luxury Villas Offering Guests Oil Paintings of Themselves
Nobilified and Villa de Campo have partnered up to offer their customers a unique art and hospitality experience. A selection of luxurious villas offered by Villa de Campo for rent come with hand-painted portraits of each guest, which are hung throughout the Villa during their stay.
Located in La Romana, Dominican Republic; Casa de Campo is no stranger to luxury. This prestigious Resort spreads over 7,000 acres, featuring three award-winning golf courses, a clay pigeon shooting center, an equestrian center, tennis courts, pools, and restaurants, as well as 1,700 private villas populating the resort, some of which are available for rent. Villa de Campo specializes in giving customers prompt and personalized service for vacation rentals in the resort. Whether it’s understanding your needs and recommending homes to stay in or helping you book a personal chef or schedule your activities, Villa de Campo is stepping up the meaning of the saying “the customer is king”.
With this partnership with Nobilified, Villa de Campo adds an extra touch of personalization to one’s holiday—and we aren’t talking about personal chefs or yacht rentals. Nobilified, which creates hand-painted oil portraits of its customers as royalty will be using its inspiration to paint memories of holidays for guests to keep. The paintings will be inspired by the nature of the trip, whether a romantic couple retreat, a golf trip with boys, or a family holiday; Nobilified’s classically trained artists will paint the guests prior to their arrival, according a certain theme, and have the pieces hung throughout the villa during their stay. Guest then get to take the pieces home after their stay.
The Nobilified special aims capture memories in the world of art. Chris Jensen, the founder of Nobilified, says, “Our aim is to capture one’s memories in art. We want guests of the villas to remember all the small things that made their holiday one to remember. When they get home, they will hang the piece, and each time they look at the piece, they will remember their holiday. We think that is special.”
Villa de Campo
Villa de Campo offers a selection of luxury villas in which to spend your next activity-filled holiday in the Dominican Republic. Spread over 7000 acres, the Casa de Campo resort is home to over 1700 private villas of which around 100 are available for rent on villadecampo.com.
Booking a Villa has become the perfect way to spend a holiday whether with family, friends or as a couple. Our selection of luxury villas are located throughout the entire resort and cater to various tastes and needs. Villa de Campo also includes additional amenities such as complimentary golf carts, private chefs and a holiday concierge to help you book and plan your dream stay. Casa de Campo possesses a variety of restaurants, private beach clubs, a Marina, 3 golf courses, a tennis center, an equestrian center, a spa, and much more.
Nobilified
Nobilified is dedicated to revolutionizing the art world. Nobilified believes that while not everyone may have the artistic skills required to paint a masterpiece, everyone possesses an intuitively creative mind. At Nobilified, customer dreams and fantasies are transformed into actual works of art, which can proudly displayed in any home, dorm, office, cabin, yacht, or even a swanky Chateau. Everyone has an artistic side, and everyone sees the world in their own unique way. Nobilified wants this diversity to make an imprint on the course of art history by immortalizing customers’ wildest dreams.
In addition to providing high quality oil paintings, Nobilified wants to change the way people perceive art, by making it fun and accessible, thus giving customers the opportunity to share or gift a unique custom made oil painting with friends and family. No longer will having an oil painting of oneself hanging above the chimney be out-of-reach. This privilege used to be reserved for the upper tiers of society, but, now, it is shared with everyone, even if they are not knighted. A unique, hand-painted, oil-on-canvas work of art can add a touch of grandeur to any living quarters.
Featured image: Cupid and Psyche by Jacques Louis David
How Award Winning Math Professor Inspires Students And Family
RAPID CITY, SD- Professor Travis Kowalski starts most days with a squiggle.
For the past eight years, the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology math professor has carried on a family tradition started by his father, who would ask the young Travis to make a squiggle on a piece of paper. From that squiggle, his father would create a drawing. Often, Kowalski’s father would give him a squiggle and the two would sit together drawing.
Nowadays, Kowalski uses a napkin and markers in his “squiggle game,” and the recipients are his two daughters – Liliana, 13, and Maia, 9. Kowalski says he started the tradition when Liliana was entering kindergarten, hoping the lunch napkin art would make her transition to school easier.
Each evening or early in the morning, Kowalski encouraged his oldest to draw a squiggle on a napkin. The next morning, he turned the squiggle into colorful drawings and slipped it into her lunch box. Once Maia arrived, Kowalski began doing the same for her. “She expected it,” he says.
It’s not exactly what most people expect from a math professor at an engineering and science university. But Kowalski, a Ph.D. who currently serves as the interim head of the Department of Mathematics at SD Mines, says math and art co-mingle perfectly.
His drawings range from a buffalo against a bright pink sky (drawn May 6, 2019) to an astronaut in space (Jan. 24, 2019), to Kermit the Frog (Dec. 7, 2018), to the composer Bach at his harpsichord (May 14, 2018). Kowalski posts both the starting squiggle and the finished product on his Facebook and Instagram pages.
The two social media platforms are filled with vibrant, colorful drawings often accompanied by clever taglines – a bear holding up a paw and asking, “I would like some salmon, please” and a praying mantis playing a video game under the title, “Playing Mantis.”
Known on campus for his colorful Hawaiian shirts and clever math-related ties, Kowalski is the professor whose office walls are covered with unique visual art. He’s the kind of professor who sneaks his labradoodle Cauchy, named after French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy, into class the last day of the semester to play out an obscure (to the general audience at least) mathematics joke. He’s the math teacher who so passionately talks about the subject that even the least math-minded people can’t help but get excited.
And he’s good at what he does in the classroom. So good that Kowalski was recently awarded the 2019 Burton W. Jones Award by the Mathematical Association of America. The award recognizes post-secondary level math instructors nationally who “foster student excitement about mathematics.”
“It’s cool and humbling to be part of that group,” he admits.
Donald Teets, a Ph.D. professor in the SD Mines math department, is a previous winner of the award and the person who nominated Kowalski. In his nomination, Teets writes, “He is, (in this writer’s opinion) the best teacher in a department devoted to teaching excellence.”
This is hardly the first recognition for Kowalski, Teets says. In 2014, Kowalski was awarded the Benard Ennenga Award, which honors one SD Mines faculty member each year for teaching excellence; and in 2017, he won the George Polya Award from the Math Association of America for his College Mathematics Journal article, “The Sine of a Single Degree.”
“His lecture based on ‘The Sine of a Single Degree’ is as good a mathematics lecture as you will ever see!” Teets wrote in his nomination.
Teets says the thing that makes Kowalski so good at this job is his enthusiasm, noting that students consistently rate him on classroom surveys as “the best math teacher I’ve ever had.” He’s “innovative,” constantly striving to engage his students and utilize technology into his teaching, Teets says. “Like Superman wears the big ‘S’ on his chest, Dr. Kowalski deserves a big ‘I’ for Innovator.”
As for Kowalski’s artistic talents, Teets is equally as effusive. “As a person who can barely draw recognizable stick figures, I am in awe of Travis’s artistic abilities. It’s a great complement to his extraordinary skills in mathematics!” he says.
Kowalski grew up in California, raised by a draftsman father and a “crafty” stepmother. “My dad drew all of the time,” Kowalski says. “That was the home I grew up in. You drew.”
In college at University of California, Riverside, Kowalski majored in art. To finish off an academic requirement, he enrolled in Calculus 2. A good student in high school, he had already taken an advanced placement Calculus 1 class. He was class valedictorian, but “I worked hard at it. I was not a prodigy,” he says with a laugh.
He still remembers the Riverside professor’s name who taught his first college math course – Albert Stralka. He “taught in a way I hadn’t seen before,” Kowalski says. “There were ideas behind the math.”
When he got an A in that class, the professor convinced him to take Calculus 3.
Next, the professor suggested he take topology, which is the study of geometric properties and spatial relations which are unaffected by the change of shape or size of figures. “It’s the geometry of shapes under change,” Kolwaski says. “That class blew my mind.”
The rest is history – after topology Kolwaski changed his major and embraced a love of mathematics. But he never left his art behind, and it’s important to understand that the two subjects go hand-in-hand, he says. “Half of mathematicians do what they do because they think it’s pretty,” he says of the geometry of math.
As a math professor at SD Mines, Kolwaski admits that “I still like to sit and draw things, but I don’t have as much time anymore,” he says.
That’s where his morning squiggle drawings come in.
Each one of Kowalski’s squiggles for his daughters takes about 15 to 30 minutes from start to finish. “The first part is to see something,” he says. He spins the napkin around, looking at the squiggle until he “sees” the picture that will emerge.
Mia tends to draw extremely elaborate squiggles, sometimes lobbying for a specific outcome – for instance a unicorn. Other times, his daughters will bring home requests from friends for specific drawings.
Liliana has saved all her napkins over the years, storing them in a plastic container in her room. That made it a little easier for Kowalski when she came to him recently to say, “What with my school schedule being so busy and my lunch break so short and closet so full of the ones you’ve already made me – which I love, thank you – I just don’t think you need to make me lunch napkins anymore.” Kowalski playfully posted her words on social media with an image from Boromir’s death from “Fellowship of the Rings” with arrows sticking from his heart.
Kowalski says his older daughter relented, most likely after an intervention from his wife, and is continuing to play the squiggle game. He’s glad, hoping that both of his daughters will always remember the squiggle game and maybe even carry it on with their own families one day.
“It’s definitely a great memory about my dad,” he says. “Hopefully it will be the same for them.” For the Silo, Lynn Taylor Rick.
Texas NRCS Accepting Conservation Applications From Rice Producers
TEMPLE, Texas – Rice producers wanting to enhance current conservation efforts are encouraged to apply for a special Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) sign-up. Led by the USA Rice-Ducks Unlimited Rice Stewardship Partnership, the Gulf Coast Water and Wetlands Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) and the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), the RCPP provide an opportunity to enhance conservation on rice lands in 12 Texas counties. Applications for RCPP-CSP are accepted on a continuous basis, but to be considered for this funding period applications must be received by June 28, 2019.
The special sign-ups assists landowners and rice producers who voluntarily implement conservation and management practices that aim to provide waterfowl habitat on rice production lands. Nutrient management and integrated pest management (IPM) to address water quality concerns are also a priority. Although enhancements are limited, irrigation efficiencies are also a focus.
“NRCS is pleased to partner with USA Rice and Ducks Unlimited and others in these RCPP efforts. said State Conservationist Salvador Salinas. “RCPP-CSP provides an opportunity for rice producers to build their businesses while implementing conservation practices that help ensure the sustainability of their operations and improve the environment for Texas’ citizens.”
These special RCPP CSP sign-ups are targeted for rice production acreage in Brazoria, Calhoun, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Jackson, Jefferson, Lavaca, Liberty, Matagorda, Waller and Wharton counties. These projects will provide a special CSP allotment of approximately 110,000 acres in 2019 to Texas rice growers, 80,000 acres under Gulf Coast Water and Wildlife RCPP and 30,000 acres under the LCRA RCPP respectively.
“NRCS has updated the program to help producers better evaluate their conservation options and the benefits to their operations and natural resources,” said Rice Stewardship Coordinator Kyle Soileau. “Partnership staff can help producers see up front why they are or are not meeting stewardship thresholds and allow them to pick practices and enhancements that work for their conservation objectives. These tools also enable producers to see potential payment scenarios for conservation early in the process.”
For additional information producers interested in CSP or other conservation planning, technical and financial assistance can contact their local USDA service center or visit www.tx.nrcs.usda.gov.
Vancouver Company Producing Anxiety Fighting Play Tents For Children
Vancouver-based maker of play tents for children, Domestic Objects, has made it easier for parents and children to ‘unplug’ from the digital world with their Play Tent Canopy. Designed and manufactured to fit securely over a mattress on the floor, the Play Tent Canopy offer parents a clearly delineated space for family time and imagination-based play, shutting out the digital distractions that can be harmful to early child development and lead to developmental problems such as anxiety.
Launched by Sarah Jagger in 2014, Domestic Objects has built a solid reputation in Canada, the U.S.A. and abroad for handmade, customizable play tents designed to stimulate a child’s natural curiosity and sense of play.
The Play Tent Canopy was initially created at the request of a mother with a very active toddler who was consistently climbing out of their crib. Now Domestic Objects’ best-selling product, it’s now available in four standard mattress sizes in a variety of fabrics, and as a custom order for non-standard mattresses.
“Part of the attraction of the Play Tent Canopy, I think, is practical. You can have a play area that doesn’t take up extra space in a child’s bedroom,” says Jagger. “Plus, being both a restful sleeping space and an imagination-fuelled play space, a canopy helps with the transition from a crib to a “real” bed.”
But, most important to Jagger, is how Domestic Objects play tents can bring parents and children together in play and spark a child’s innate imagination and creativity. A play tent can help a family unplug from the digital world and facilitate more natural and self-driven playtime.
A recent study by the Canadian Paediatric Society states that “[high] exposure to background TV has been found to negatively affect language use and acquisition, attention, cognitive development and executive function in children under 5 years old. It also reduces the amount and quality of parent-child interaction and distracts from play.”
Dr. Shimi Kang agrees. The award-winning, Harvard-trained doctor, researcher, bestselling author and speaker says research shows that children are less creative now than they were before the advent of the parental “helpers” like iPads and online educational games.
“We are living in an era of paradox,” says Dr. Kang. “Our society is technologically advanced, yet our children are becoming increasingly unhealthy with rising rates of anxiety, depression, and addiction. The Play Tent Canopy provides a space where children will receive the brain-boosting benefits of imaginary play, family bonding and precious downtime.”
Domestic Objects Play Tent Canopy (starting at $238 CAD) and its other products are available and ship worldwide through the Domestic Objects website and the company’s Etsy store.
ABOUT DOMESTIC OBJECTS
Domestic Objects offers eight different imaginative play products, including customizable teepees and canopy beds in an array of stylish fabrics, matching floor pillows, whimsical accessories and even and a children’s book, The Play Tent of Imagination, which Jagger wrote in collaboration with illustrator Lenny Wen.
UNESCO Seeks To Open Markets For Global South Cultural Goods
Paris, 30 May – Experts, stakeholders and government representatives will examine ways to improve exports of cultural products from the Global South, reinforce cultural entrepreneurship and improve the status of artists during the biennial meeting of the signatories to UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, at the Organization’s Headquarters from 5 to 7 June.
Government officials and cultural professionals will address these and other issues at three Create|2030 debates during the session:
Rebalancing trade flows: making the case for preferential treatment in culture, will examine ways to open markets to cultural goods and services from the Global South, in line with the Convention’s binding provision to grant them preferential treatment in international trade. Cultural goods and services from developing countries currently only account for 26.5% of the global trade in this rapidly growing sector. Panelists will also examine how the concentration of creative content on large online platforms is impacting the distribution of cultural products and expressions. (7 June, 10 am—1 pm, Room II)
Strengthening cultural entrepreneurship: The International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) will discuss investments in vocational training andbring together beneficiaries of UNESCO’s IFCD from Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia and Senegal. The Fund, which aims to address the gap between developed and developing countries in the creative economy, has provided more than 10,000 artists and cultural professionals with new skills in project management, business and career development to date. (6 June, 10 am—1 pm, Room II)
Rethinking the status of the artist will explore ways to enhance the professional, social and economic conditions of artists through policies concerning training, social security, employment, income, taxation, mobility and freedom of expression. (6 June, 2—5 pm, Room II)
During the meeting, participants will also examine an Open Roadmap designed to strengthen the Parties’ capacities to promote the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital age, as well as other innovative policy practices. Priorities in line with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will be set for the next two years, with particular attention to gender equality, fundamental freedoms, quality education, economic growth, decent jobs, and equality between countries.
The 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions provides a framework for the design of policies and measures that support the emergence of dynamic cultural and creative industries around the world. The 146 Parties (145 States and the European Union) that have ratified the Convention meet at UNESCO every two years to examine its impact and determine future action. Twelve new Members will be elected to the Convention’s Intergovernmental Committee during the session.
Hypnotherapy
So many of my clients bring interesting cases to me, everyone is different and so therefore interesting in their own way. But one case that stands out was a client who had “misophonia” – which meant that she experienced a heightened feeling of anxiety or “fight or flight response” in response to certain sounds – mainly that of other people eating. It was becoming difficult even eating around her family. This was a case for hypnotherapy.
With just two sessions we completely solved the problem, We went back in time to her childhood where the problem began – with just a very innocent situation (she didn’t really remember this consciously) but her subconscious mind had held onto it and certain sounds still triggered anxiety. And rather than getting better over time, it was getting worse. Going back to that event, in a safe and controlled way, meant that the problem was resolved almost immediately.
What I described above is known as regression hypnotherapy. It’s all about going back in time to where the problem was first triggered. When people have problematic emotions which are being repeatedly triggered, such as panic, anxiety, depression, etc. , it is usually because something happened which wasn’t fully processed at the time and then the subconscious mind holds onto that feeling, thinking that it’s protecting you.
Once you go back to it, and process the “memory” properly (I say memory in inverted commas because often we don’t remember the event consciously, but it’s stored away in our subconscious which is like a giant library). So once we go back to the original event the subconscious is able to understand that it’s over now and releases the emotion. It is extremely powerful and cathartic. There is more information about regression hypnotherapy in my blog post here: http://www.synergy-wellbeing.com/category/regression/
Are there any preparations required before embarking on hypnotherapy?
Not really. I often recommend that people don’t drink a lot of caffeine before a session because this triggers the fight / flight response – which is the opposite to the relaxation response – so it can interfere with the session a little and make it harder to relax. But other than that, no. Someone who meditates or is good at visualization will generally find they go into hypnosis a lot more quickly, but everyone can be hypnotized. We’re in a state of hypnosis when we watch the television!
I would love to help someone who feels that they are “over–sensitive” – and I would prefer to call it “highly sensitive” myself – because their sensitivities could relate back to childhood and things they are subconsciously holding onto which distressed them. Regression hypnotherapy can help to release the memories trapped in the subconscious so that those emotions are not triggered so readily or inappropriately in the future. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is also an excellent technique which I teach my clients a lot – and this can used as a self help tool whenever needed too, on a daily basis even!
How can we enable our subconscious to let go of bad feelings?
There is a technique which I use myself a lot, and also teach people about. It’s called mindfulness. The sad thing is that we are often told “don’t get upset / don’t cry, etc.” so we learn to push our feelings down – we suppress them. Another word for suppression is depression. So we can easily become depressed when we suppress our true feelings. One of the beautiful things that mindfulness teaches us is to be present as much as possible to our experience. So if you’re feeling angry, or hurt, for example, it’s much better to allow yourself to “feel” that feeling.
Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t make it feel worse, it actually really helps! So, next time you’re feeling bad – ask yourself “how am I feeling? What does that feel like? Where do I feel that in my body?” – really acknowledge it. And – hey presto! The feeling seriously diminishes or disappears altogether! Our feelings just want to be listened to, to be heard. So once we do this, they are satisfied and they settle back down.
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is something else I practice, and this is wonderful for allowing us to let go of negative emotions. It is also known as the “tapping technique” and more information can be found on my website. For the Silo, Liz Davies Clinical Hypnotherapist and EFT Practitioner.
Peter Robinson On Job Obsolescence- Government Should Not Protect Jobs
A recent OECD report finds that low and middle income earners have seen their wages stagnate and that the income share of middle-skilled jobs has fallen. Rising inequality has led to concerns that top earners are getting a disproportionate share of the gains from global “openness and interconnection”. During a Summer 2017 meeting of OECD, employment outlook revealed that job polarization has been “driven by pervasive and skill-biased technological changes.
Founded in 1945, the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) builds awareness among business executives, educators and policy makers around issues related to employment, workforce training and skills enhancement. CMRubinWorld spoke with USCIB President and CEO Peter M. Robinson, who serves as a co-chair of the B20 Employment and Education Task Force, through which he helped develop recommendations to the G20 leaders on training for the jobs of the future. Robinson also serves on the board of the International Organization of Employers, which represents the views of the business community in the International Labor Organization.
“I think the guiding principle for government should be to protect and enable/retrain the worker, not protect the job. Policy makers and educators should focus on making sure that workers are as equipped as possible to transition to new opportunities” Peter Robinson.
Peter, welcome. How severe do you believe jobsolescence will be over the next 20 years? How big will the challenge be to offset it and maintain a growing workforce?
I really don’t think the overall effect will be as dramatic as some people fear, at least for the medium-term as far as we can tell. There is an over-hype factor at play, but the consequences still deserve serious attention. For one thing, so many of the jobs in the United States, Canada and other advanced economies are in the service sector, and involve interacting with other people. Despite all the advances in AI, we are still a long way off from robotic nurses or home health aides. Overall, history tells us that at least as many new jobs are created as are displaced by technological innovation, even though transitions can be difficult in some sectors and localities, and as long as upskilling takes place.
“The biggest threat is that our educational institutions won’t be able to keep pace with new skills demands.” — Peter Robinson
What do you think are the biggest obstacles facing college grads today trying to enter the workforce?
I actually think the greatest obstacles are faced by those who don’t make it to university or some form of higher education beyond high school (a four-year degree is not the right path for everyone). A 2014 Pew survey found that among workers age 25 to 32, median annual earnings of those with a college degree were $17,500 greater than for those with high school diplomas only. Obviously, everyone at whatever educational level needs to keep their skills sharp, and governments should join with employers and educators to instill better life-long learning. But there are far fewer established paths toward long-term employment at a middle-class level of income for those who don’t graduate from college. A greater emphasis on vocational education and apprenticeships would help. We strongly support the work being done by United States Secretary of Labor Acosta to promote apprenticeships.
Given that machines are in the process of stripping white collar workers from their jobs, what kind of skills are key manufacturing and service industries going to need from new employees?
I think the premise of your question is overstated. We’re all being told that our jobs are doomed by robots and automation. But the OECD estimates that only nine percent of jobs across the 35 OECD nations are at high risk of being automated, although of course even 9% can be generative of social difficulties. But there is an established track record across history of new technologies creating at least as many new jobs as they displace. Usually these new jobs demand higher skills and provide higher pay. The biggest threat is that our educational institutions won’t be able to keep pace with new skills demands.
“It is becoming clear that Versatility matters, in a constantly changing world, so Jim Spohrer’s IBM model of a “T-shaped” person holds true: broad and deep individuals capable of adapting and going where the demand lies.” — Peter Robinson
In an economy with a significant on-demand labor force, what competencies will these workers need to compete?
There are two types of competencies that will be needed: “technical” – or in other words, related to deep knowledge of a specific domain, whether welding or optogenetics; and “transversal,” which applies to all occupations. Those are described by the Center for Curriculum Redesign as skills (creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration), character (mindfulness, curiosity, courage, resilience, ethics, leadership) and meta-learning (growth mindset, metacognition).
How will managerial skill requirements change as a result of major structural changes that are likely, including human replacement by machines and growth of the on-demand economy?
OECD’s BIAC surveys of 50 employer organizations worldwide has shown that employers value not just Skills as described above, but also Character qualities as well. Further, it is becoming clear that Versatility matters, in a constantly changing world, so Jim Spohrer’s IBM model of a “T-shaped” person holds true: broad and deep individuals capable of adapting and going where the demand lies.
“We often hear about the need for more STEM education. But I think there is an equal need for a greater emphasis on the humanities and the arts, for their intrinsic value as well as for developing skills and character qualities.” — Peter Robinson
What central changes in school curricula do you envision, both at the secondary school and college levels?
We often hear about the need for more STEM education. But I think there is an equal need for a greater emphasis on the humanities and the arts for their intrinsic value as well as for developing skills and character qualities as described above. As David Barnes of IBM wrote recently, these skills are more durable and are also a very good indicator of long-term success in employment.
How can the evolving changes in competencies required for employment be effectively translated into school curricula? Where are the main opportunities to enable this? e.g. Assessment systems? Business/Education collaboration? Curriculum change?
I’d go back to something else David Barnes said: We need much stronger connections between education and the job market, in the form of more partnerships among employers, governments and education institutions. Everyone needs to step up and create true partnerships. No one sector of society can address this alone. OECD’s BIAC has also documented employers’ wishes for deep curricular reforms to modernize content and embed competencies in order to meet today’s market needs.
What role should government play in ensuring citizens receive a quality and relevant education given the challenges that lie ahead?
I think the guiding principle for government should be to protect and enable/retrain the worker, not protect the job. Policy makers and educators should focus on making sure that workers are as equipped as possible to transition to new opportunities as these develop, and on ensuring that businesses have the freedom to pivot and adopt new technologies and business processes.
For the Silo, C.M. Rubin. C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland, is the publisher of CMRubinWorld and is a Disruptor Foundation Fellow.
The Consolidation Of North American Food
Adam Jacob sent in this tell-all graphic that is pretty shocking. If these statistics are true then ‘it’s clear the small food producer is an endangered species. Unless of course, they start supplying the big chain corporate grocery store chains. And that will likely spell the end of family farm gate-retail…and that will spell the end of the family farm. It is so important to support local farm to table initiatives and preserve food that is not only grown for profit, but grown for quality and healthy consumption.
To learn more about the consolidation of (North) American food and the implications for Ontarians, visit Silo Direct Link to Frugaldad.com
A Cooking Journal With A Unique Interface- Not Connected to Smartphone
Here’s a cooking journal with a unique platform that helps you create signature recipes and becomes your personal cookbook. It’s a perfect booklet for all people who enjoy cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. The project first launched a couple of years ago on Kickstarter under the name Project Cookbook.
If you want to get more creative with your cooking, but still make sure your ideas don’t melt away as fast as the food from your plates, Cookbook is the perfect fit for your kitchen. Old Skool – This cooking journal with a unique interface helps you develop signature recipes and create a culinary heritage. And what’s the best part? It’s not connected to your smartphone. It is a physical booklet that will become your trusted cooking companion and is destined to become your personal cookbook.
If other similar booklets are meant to simply copy and gather recipes of others, Cookbook’s idea and purpose is much different: after you equip the Cookbook with recipes of your choice, they simply serve as a starting point of your future cooking experiments. It features a development platform for every recipe where you can keep track of all the changes to the original recipe – whether it’s tinkering with your cooking process or changing the ingredients.
After each try you can use the scoreboard to evaluate your dish, write down important notes for next time and keep a tab on who loves it the most.
The aim is to remind people that cooking is more than just following recipes. As the team puts it: ‘’We are hoping Cookbook will motivate people to develop their own recipes and create a culinary heritage, which they will be able to share with their friends, family and future generations.
Something like the notebooks our grandmothers used to have, but with a modern twist.
Cookbook also holds an encyclopedia which helps you with everyday pickles like finding the appropriate wine pairing or quickly converting cups into grams. A minimalist design of the book gives you a sense of coziness and at the same time allows you to personalize the final outlook of your Cookbook. For the Silo, Hana Gaber.
Toronto Is Home To Proud History And Great Architecture
Well before the construction of Ontario’s present Queen’s Park Legislative Building, Ontario was governed as the British colony of Upper Canada.
After its formation in 1791, Upper Canada’s elected Legislature first met on September 17th, 1792. As no permanent structure was built to house the Legislature in Newark, now Niagara-on-the Lake, meetings took place in a variety of locations including Navy Hall—which also served as a residence for our first Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe. The first legislators were also reputed to have met in Butler’s Barracks, and also under a large oak tree.
In 1793, a site at York, now Toronto, was chosen as the new location for Upper Canada’s capital. Lieutenant Governor Simcoe initiated plans for the construction of the colony’s first purpose-built Legislative Building. Completed in 1797, the “Palace of Government,” as it was known, was located near the present-day intersection of Front and Parliament Streets. Consisting of two small structures connected by a covered walkway, they were the first in York to be made of brick.
The Legislature met there until 1813, when the building was burned to the ground in the aftermath of the Battle of York during the War of 1812-14. During this American raid, the first Mace of Ontario—made for the Legislature of Upper Canada in 1792—was seized by the American soldiers. It was later returned in 1934 by President Roosevelt as a gesture of friendship. While waiting for construction of a new building, Upper Canada’s Legislature met in several temporary locations.
The next structure, completed in 1820 on the same site, was destroyed by an accidental fire in 1824. As before, sessions of parliament were held in temporary locations, including the court house and the general hospital.
In 1832, another structure at Front and Simcoe Streets served the province well, but by the 1870s, it was in poor condition. This prompted the Department of Public Works to formulate plans for a modern facility. The legislature continued to meet in the rapidly declining structure until the opening of the present Legislative Building at Queen’s Park in 1893.
The Legislature, which has become one of my places of business and almost a second home, was proudly opened on April 4th, 1893 by Ontario Premier Sir Oliver Mowat. It took six years to complete (1886-1892). People were thrilled by its beauty, expanse and grandeur—not to mention its electric lights and a new and exciting invention, electric elevators.
The beautiful building was designed by Architect Richard A. Waite in the Richardson Romanesque style, featuring heavy stonework, majestic rounded arches, and fanciful carvings. The exterior walls are pink sandstone and the roof was covered in slate. Oak floors and cast iron pillars lined the halls. Intricate details were added to every inch of the building’s interior and exterior.
The structure is divided into the East Wing, West Wing, and the North Wing, which was constructed later and opened in 1913.
All in all, the building is a large home-like meeting place where I work for my constituents and the people of Ontario.
When in Toronto, I would urge any lover of great architecture, history, and good government to come for a visit and learn more about our provincial parliament.
(Acknowledgement to Parliamentary Protocol and Public Relations “History and Heritage” brochure). For the Silo, Toby Barrett MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk.
Featured image-
Historical Maps of Toronto: 1834 Alpheus Todd Engraved Plan of the City
Can Another Ottawa Residence Win Canada’s Best Garden Street?
neighbourhood is the winner of the Canada’s Best Garden Street contest.
Toronto, ON Garden Days – The month of June hosts Canada’s three-day celebration of gardens and gardening. There are loads of Garden Days official activities scheduled across the country, and almost every province has a Flagship Event for you to enjoy. It’s the perfect time to get dirty in one’s own garden, visit a nearby public garden or spend some time in a local garden center.
You’ll be in great company
If you’re planning travelling around the province or across Canada this Summer, be sure to visit a few of the many public gardens that we’re becoming world renowned for. Dr. Richard Benfield, author of ‘Garden Tourism’ estimates that annually there are 6 million garden tourists in Canada.
And the winner is . . .
On the occasion of our upcoming National Garden Day, Friday, June 13, the Canadian Garden Council is pleased to announce the winner of the Garden Days’ ‘Best Garden Street’ Contest which celebrates the contribution that public and/or private gardens have made to the quality of life on individual streets and neighbourhoods. The winner of $1000 worth of Marks’ Choice Lawn and Garden products from Home Hardware, and the bragging rights to be named ‘Canada’s Best Garden Street’ is: Mary Moreland, Russell Avenue, Ottawa.
Garden Days spokesperson, Mark Cullen, recently said, “The partnership between the hand of man and Mother Nature has produced some of the highest quality green spaces and gardens in Canada and on earth. Garden Days, a new idea that’s all about this successful collaboration, has been sown on fertile soil. I have no doubt that the ideas and principles behind the concept will sprout and grow into national significance. And the sooner the better.”
This coming weekend join in the national celebration of everything that the Garden contributes the quality of all our lives.
Organized by the Canadian Garden Council, and kicked off with National Garden Day, always the Friday before Father’s Day, Garden Days is a three-day celebration of gardens and gardening. The program’s objective is to draw attention to Canada’s garden culture, history and innovations and to underscore the importance of public and private gardens, the values of home gardening and the promotion of environmental stewardship. For the Silo, Courtney Charette.
Plastic Surgeons See Increase In Injectables Procedure For Under 30 Year Olds
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Ontario’s Five Year Path To Balance The Books
With Budget 2019, Ontario is committed to balancing the books in a responsible manner – restoring accountability, sustainability and trust. The previous government left behind a $15 billion structural deficit.
The government’s plan will prioritize investments that generate the greatest returns for people in Ontario and protect what matters most. Programs will be continually reviewed to ensure they are efficient, effective and modern, while relying on best practices from around the world.
Over the course of this five-year path to balance, total revenue is projected to grow at an average annual rate of three per cent. Comparatively, program expense over the same period is budgeted to grow at an average annual rate of one per cent.
In order to achieve a balanced budget while protecting what matters most, it is important to transform programs, not only to find efficiencies and savings, but also to make services more modern and accessible.
Several programs have been streamlined to centralize administrative functions.
Ontario is combining six existing provincial health agencies and the Local Health Integration Networks into one new agency – Ontario Health. The goal is to streamline oversight, reduce bureaucracy and reduce the silos – leading to annualized savings of more than $350 million.
An integrated supply chain is being created to consolidate procurement practices across sectors, resulting in reduced government expenditures and reduced red tape for vendors. This initiative is expected to result in annualized savings of $1 billion.
Ontario’s social assistance system will be reformed, simplifying the rate structure, reducing administration, cutting unnecessary rules, and providing greater opportunities to achieve better employment outcomes, resulting in estimated annual savings of over $1 billion at maturity.
Drug benefits under OHIP+ will be focused on those who need them the most – children and young people under the age of 25 who are not covered by private insurance plans – generating annualized savings of $250 million.
The government is restoring the Ontario Student Assistance Program to a needs-based program. OSAP will be reformed so future generations of Ontario students can access financial support for postsecondary education while providing a 10 per cent reduction in tuition for domestic students.
There are important strides toward building a modern and more efficient workforce while ensuring front-line services and workers are protected. As an example, the size of the Ontario Public Service has already been reduced by 3.5 per cent through attrition alone. Additional measures, such as voluntary exit initiatives, will bring further reductions and efficiencies.
All ministries have identified four per cent in administrative efficiencies resulting in cumulative savings of $1.7 billion by 2023-24.
By containing costs and prioritizing spending, the Ontario government is providing a projected $26 billion in much needed relief to Ontario individuals, families and businesses over six years, while continuing to eliminate the deficit. For example, the government is proposing a new refundable tax credit for child care costs.
Restraining spending and finding savings has to be responsible and pragmatic.
While balancing the budget requires difficult decisions and trade-offs, it is also an opportunity to rethink how government works and how the entire broader public sector delivers programs and services. This is why the government will continue to review programs on an ongoing basis.
We all need to feel confident that our government is a careful steward of our tax dollars.
Toby Barrett is MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk
The Many Cultural Charms Of Buenos Aires Argentina
Feel Cooler Than You Really Are. If you want to learn to dance the tango the place to be is Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is a city that expresses its passion and national pride through their music, soccer, dancing, horses, and writing earning it the title of “City of Cool”.
Buenos Aires, (English meaning Fair Winds) Argentina.
With a population of 2.7 million people this capital city of Argentina is a place oozing with charm and things to do. From the moment you begin wandering downtown streets you know it’s going to be interesting. It’s a place to be cool even if you aren’t. Okay, let’s make it clear, I’m not cool, but for some unknown reason I started to feel this way when I mingled with the Argentineans. They spoke, what sounded like to me, an exotic language (Castilian Spanish), and looked and dressed like they were right out of the pages of Vogue magazine. It’s a city that never sleeps, populated by residents obsessed with fashion and image. Slim is beautiful is an established and largely uncontested fact.
Architecture
The downtown architecture is quite different from the rest of Latin America. It is strongly influenced by European styles with more than the half of the city buildings being French style. Countless museums, historical buildings, shopping centres, and hotels are yours to discover. And if you do get the urge to learn to tango there are plenty of tango-dancing schools (known as academias) throughout the city.
The Tango
Tango music was born in the suburbs, notably in the brothels of poorer suburbs. Its raw sensual dance moves were not seen as respectable until adopted by the Parisian high society in the 1920’s and then all over the world. There are loads of places with free tango shows in restaurant-bars such as Gitanos, where you can also try the national drink. I found it more like herbal tea than anything and its drunk out of a pot-like container through a metal straw. Even though it was foul-tasting, Argentineans say, it’s more addictive than coffee. To each their own.
Walking and Safety
When you walk in any largely populated area don’t be silly and carry an expensive camera slung over your shoulder and don’t ever wear an expensive watch that sets you apart from the crowd. It’s like saying rob-me, rob-me. Use common senses; err on the side of caution. I hid my camera in a plastic shopping bag. Always cross street at crosswalk. I’ll say it one more time to be sure it sinks in…Always walk at crosswalks and don’t begin until all vehicles have come to a stop.
Recoleta Cemetery
Don’t pass up the chance to visit to the Recoleta Cemetery established in 1822. It’s the final resting place for Argentina’s wealthiest and most famous families and people. The mausoleums are fairly small, befitting the size of the cemetery in an urban setting, and it’s common for many members, and generations even, of the same family occupying one mausoleum. One grave that I did seek out was that of Eva Peron who was the wife of Juan Peron, 3 time president of Argentina. Both are idolized for their efforts to eliminate poverty and to bring dignity to the labour movement. Because of this they were despised by the oligarchy of Argentina’s wealthy and powerful. I found it strange and a bit sad that her neighbours in death are those that despised her in life. Her husband is buried in another cemetery in the city.
Art and Craft Museums
These museums are all the rage here, with the top attraction being the Malba, which is dedicated to Latin American modern art, the Museo National de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) and Recoleta’s Cultural Centre. You’ll find the general atmosphere in most of these places is more snooty than sincere. If art and crafts is not your thing, you’ll want to bypass all of these places and scout out somewhere to eat or sit on the grass in Plaza Francia. It’s easy to while away a few hours people-watching. I did both.
The Obelisk
Another must see is to join the gaggle of tourists (and pigeons) that flock to the Plaza de Mayo. This is the site for some of the country’s most important historical occasions, including the revolution in 1810 which led Argentina gaining independence from Spain .If your legs are willing, take a stroll along Avenida Corrientes. When you get to the junction with Avenida 9 de Julio, which claims to be the world’s widest road where you can’t miss the famous Obelisk monument. For goodness’ sake use the pedestrian crossing if you don’t want to die! It’s the cities icon and the place the very spot where the Argentina flag was raised for the first time. For the Silo, George Bailey.
Artificial Stimulants In Energy Drinks Hurt Kids
Why Your Kid Shouldn’t Be Guzzling ‘Energy’ Drinks
Vitamins & Minerals are Safer and More Effective than
Artificial Stimulants, Says Food Science Expert
Anxiety, hypertension, elevated heart rates, interrupted sleep patterns and headaches are just some of the side effects commonly associated with energy drinks, and those problems are more pronounced in children, according to a recent University of Miami study.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. These drinks have also been linked to heart palpitations, strokes and sudden death.
The term “energy” drink is an unfortunate misnomer, says food science expert Budge Collinson. They don’t give your body energy; they stimulate you with brief jolts of caffeine and unregulated herbal stimulants, he says.
“Soccer moms and dads buy these ‘stimulant’ drinks for their kids before matches because both kids and parents want that competitive advantage,” says Collinson, founder of Infusion Sciences and creator of Youth Infusion, (www.drinkyouthinfusion.com), an effervescent, natural multivitamin beverage that helps people maintain consistent and healthy higher energy levels.
“For a few moments, you’ll get that spike, but it’s a short-term experience with a heavy long-term toll.”
So, what are some ways kids can get a healthy energy boost? Collinson offers the following tips.
• Go for a speedy bike ride together, take a brisk walk or hold foot-races in the yard. Numerous studies demonstrate the power of vigorous exercise in boosting energy. Exercise pumps more oxygen – pure, healthy fuel — into the bloodstream and to the brain and muscles for a short-term energy boost. Exercising regularly will increase lung capacity, so the body will gets more oxygen on a sustained level for the long term. Exercise also releases endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemical, which makes us feel happy. And happy people are energized people.
• Seek nutrition from a variety of sources. As humans, we need more than 40 different vitamins and minerals to keep our bodies functioning optimally. Since there is no single food that contains them all, it is important for children and adults to eat a variety, including as many different vegetables and fruits as possible. Adding a daily multivitamin supplement with essentials such as CoQ10, arginine, theanine, resveratrol and magnesium can help ensure bodies young and old are running at top speed.
• Drink plenty of water – the natural energy drink. Even mild dehydration can leave children (and adults) feeling listless, so encourage children to make a habit of drinking plenty of water. Kids need more water than adults because they expend more energy, and they may not recognize when they’re slightly thirsty. Parents, too, often don’t recognize the signs of dehydration; a national survey of more than 800 parents of kids ages of one month to 10 years found that more than half feel they don’t know enough about dehydration. A quick, light pinch of the skin on the child’s hand or arm is an easy check. If the skin is slow to resume a smooth appearance, the child is likely at least mildly dehydrated.
About Budge Collinson
Budge Collinson was the beneficiary of his mother’s natural health formula as a sick baby, which led to a deep interest in health and wellness at a young age. After years of research and seeing the growing demand for natural products with clinical support, he founded Infusion Sciences, www.infusionsciences.com. Collinson earned a bachelor’s degree in food and resource economics from the University of Florida and certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Recently, he became a member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and consistently attends the Natural Products Expo, where he learns the latest science and news about nutritious ingredients. Collinson is also a go-to source for media outlets across the country for healthy lifestyle and food source discussions.
Selling An American Comedy Icon’s UFO House
It took awhile, but eventually, Bob Hope’s UFO house sold for $13 million USD, after first being listed in early 2013 with a price tag of $50 million USD. Having gone through a couple of price cuts over the years, the most recent cut lowered the ask to $25 million USD. But with no comparable homes available, how does one actually price a concrete space ship? Seems that when $25 million was thrown at the wall, $13 million stuck.
The Palm Springs spaceship/volcano house, designed for Bob and Dolores Hope by John Lautner in 1973, needed a buyer with deep pockets who would appreciate its futuristic leanings, had appreciation for architects who think outside the box and are young at heart enough to enjoy a bit of whimsy. The buyer, California billionaire Ron Burkle, co-founder and managing partner of a private equity and venture capital firm, is well known in the Los Angeles area for his connections with the Clintons. Sporting as interesting a persona as the house, Burkle is a prominent Democratic activist and fundraiser.
At 23,000 square feet under the dramatic high undulating roof, the unique house has open spaces in the walls and ceiling which allow daylight or stars to shine through casting shapely shadows into the interior. These curved openings also allow for stunning views across the landscape and mountains while appearing to be nestled comfortably into its well-designed desert landscaping and outdoor living areas. The house also has a spa with greenhouse wall, 6 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, indoor and outdoor pools, a pond, putting greens and a tennis court.
Burkle collects other historic architecture and purchased the Frank Lloyd Wright Ennis House in 2011 and also owns Greenacres that was originally built for silent comedy film actor Harold Lloyd. Patrick Jordan and Stewart Smith of Bennion and Deville Homes were the listing agents and Ron de Salvo of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage represented Mr. Burkle. Even at the greatly reduced closing price of $13 million, the sale has set a record for the highest sale price in Palm Springs beating Lautner’s Elrod House that sold for $7.7 million two months earlier. For the Silo, Terry Walsh.
Keno Online Means Worldwide Lottos At Your Fingertips
Many of us enjoy playing the lottery. Whether it’s regularly as a group at work or as part of a bunch of friends or perhaps as an occasional indulgence at the corner store- there is always the chance that you will win. And unlike most betting games, the lottery is simple to understand and simple to play. By choosing a series of numbers often ranging from between 1 and 80, players hope that they have correctly predicted the outcome of numbered ‘ping pong’ balls that are randomly drawn by a machine. This machine uses air pressure to float a large number of balls about until all the receiving baskets are filled up by the no longer floating balls. Beautiful randomness.
Keno takes this idea a step further.
The basic rules and playing instructions are the same but allow for more variety. Modern day casinos have offered keno for decades and it continues to be a highly popular choice for gamers. The casino is able to modify the general lotto rules in order to make their version more attractive and fun. For example, they may decide to increase or decrease the amount of balls used or design their own type of keno betting slips making your odds of winning higher than a state or provincial lottery.
The move towards random number generators.
Not every casino or lottery uses a ball machine. Today, digital technology holds the lead in many areas and computers are able to quickly and efficiently generate a series of random numbers. In 1946 John von Neumann, an early computer programming pioneer, developed a mathematical way of generating random numbers using a computer.
After almost 75 years, the random number generator has proven to be reliable. That’s great news for gamers since this method is used by digital casinos ensuring keno draws are now available online 24/7.
It can now happen.
Even more exciting is the way that digital Keno is played. Instead of being restricted to your local lottery, you can now play lotteries all over the world from anywhere you are connected to the internet. Online sites offering keno payout by matching the official lottery rules and results.
This is an exciting change that leads to all kinds of fun and new ways of playing. For example, if you have family in another part of the world you can now join them and play together. Or perhaps you have always wanted to play the National lottery in England but live here in Canada- it can now happen.
For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.
Space Themed T-shirts For Sale
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How Societies Become Consumer Cultures Through Housing
Alfred Marshall’s (Principles of Economics, 1891) view of housing still goes right to the heart of what makes housing and built environment an important anthropological topic. No artifact is so clearly multi-functional, simultaneously a utilitarian object of absolute necessity, and an item of symbolic material culture, a text of almost unending complexity.
In every house the economic, social and symbolic dimensions of behavior come together. This may be why the analysis of housing has had such a wide appeal in disciplines as diverse as social psychology, folklore, economics and engineering. Anthropologists themselves have shown a new willingness to consider the house as a key artifact in understanding the articulation of economic and social change during economic development.
From the perspective of our own contemporary society, surrounded by houses of all shapes and sizes, where wealth and luxury are synonymous with housing, this seems obvious and commonplace. The 1980’s television show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and journals like “Architectural Review” are odes to the home as a shrine and symbol of wealth. But just as clearly, there are societies where all the houses look alike, even though all the people are not alike. Perhaps then, the assumption that there is something natural and obvious about spending on the house and home market as a marker of prestige is ethnocentric. Why the house instead of something else?
A number of anthropological approaches attempt to place the house in a theoretical context which answer this question by relating housing to social, economic, and psychological variation and change. For example, a utilitarian approach that views the house partially as a workspace links changes in the elaboration of houses to changes in the kinds of work done in the household (Braudel 1973:201). Or if the house is seen as a reflection of how all household activities are organized and divided, then the shape of the house will change as activities are modified, differentiated, or recombined (Kent 1983, 1984).
An even more utilitarian perspective relates the form of the house to climate, technology and the kinds of building materials that are available (Duly 1979). For the Silo, Richard R. Wilk.
Read on..click here and read the full PDF document on your device.
Supplemental- Complete Text Principles of Economics (London: Macmillan and Co. 8th ed. 1920).
Author: Alfred Marshall
About This Title: This is the 8th edition of what is regarded to be the first “modern” economics textbook, leading in various editions from the 19th into the 20th century. The final 8th edition was Marshall’s most-used and most-cited.
Places To Pick Provincial White Trillium In Ontario
The white trillium is a spring wildflower with 3 distinct leaves and petals. It has been the provincial flower of Ontario since 1937 and is also the logo of the Ontario Government. It’s white flower is seen as a symbol of peace and hope.
While it is a popular belief that it’s illegal to pick the White Trillium in Ontario, in reality they are only protected in provincial parks and land owned by conservation authorities. However, if the leaves as well as the flower are picked, the plant could die as it no longer has any means to produce the energy it needs to take it through the winter into another spring.
Sometimes mutant plants with green striped petals are found in White Trilliums. These plants are diseased — infected with parasitic mycoplasmas that cause the greening. Over time, the mycoplasmas will cause deformity in the petals and eventually the death of the plant. For the Silo, Dixie Greenwood.
‘Frail Absolute’ Book Not For Faint Hearted
Plato’s The Republic challenged the way humankind thought. Now, a immigrant from then-Communist Hungary is posing a similar challenge: Is perception reality, why can one individual’s experience of reality differ so radically from another’s, and how can humankind’s search for a deity be what ultimately separates us from each other and from Nature?
Heady stuff, and Istvan Deak’s book, Frail Absolute, is not for the faint-hearted.
Neither is the author, who fled Hungary illegally with his wife and lived in an Italian refugee camp for six months before being allowed into Montreal, Canada. There, Deak secured a job using brooms and mops in an expert way cleaning hospital corridors, and eventually writing commercial business software programs. A short time later, he moved to Toronto, where he and his wife live now.
A philosophy is born. As this self-described analytical introvert began revisiting the philosophers he had read as a teenager, long-quiet questions began to surface about religion, about matter and energy, about how humans interact with one another. And he began writing Frail Absolute.
“I understood that the Force of Reality blew up in the Big Bang and created our universe,” Deak says.
“That Force, that Absolute, has been and must be present in everything in a most profound manner. Otherwise, everything would cease to exist.”
As he wrote and thought and questioned, his epiphany came.
“I asked this Force of Reality, ‘Where can I find you?’ And the reply came back, ‘Who is it who stirs your mind so that you want to know this?'” the author says.
As in The Republic, where Socrates and others discuss the meaning of justice, happiness, soul and the roles of the philosopher in society, characters in Frail Absolute discuss the meaning of reality, perception and harmony. Where Socrates vision culminates in a city ruled by philosopher-kings, Frail Absolute ultimately creates a way to exist in what Deak dubs “the Continuum (All That Is).”
“I have always sought a way to transcend what separates us from one another and from the force that exists everywhere. No matter what one believes in “science, a strict or a benevolent deity, even a non-existent god such as atheists do“ searching for this concept keeps humans apart. All reality is relative to the individual experiencing it,” he says. “Since there can be no single, absolute truth, I imagine how we can instead pursue the shareable values of love, compassion and harmonious collaboration in our daily existence.”
Istvan Deak grew up in Hungary, reading the works of ancient and modern philosophers. As a young adult, he taught math and physics before fleeing Communist Hungary for a refugee camp in Italy with his wife. They emigrated to Canada, where he eventually joined a railway company and then began writing software applications as a freelancer. He plans for Frail Absolute to be just the first of many philosophical books.
Yoga Legend Offers 7 Ways To Make Morning Time Your Favorite
Most people dread the moment the alarm clock goes off having to fight their way out of bed to start the day. But what if you could turn morning time into your favorite time of the day, where waking up is actually easy and more enjoyable?
Yoga legend Aadil Palkhivala, known across the world as the “Godfather of yoga in the west,” and author of Fire of Love: For Students of Life and Teachers of Yoga, offers these tips that will make it easier to get going in the morning:
1. Wake up to something pleasant: The very first thing most people think about when they wake up are all the things they have to get done that day. It quickly makes them feel overwhelmed, frustrated and stressed out. Instead, start your day thinking about the things you are grateful for, and focus on the fun activities you have planned for the day. Do some Heartfull TM Meditation that focuses on deep breathing that will wake you up peacefully and put you in the mood to create throughout the day.
- Lose the traditional alarm clock: Jarring the body from a deep sleep is unhealthy for the nervous system. Waking up to a softer noise that gradually increases in volume is a much better choice. Sounds from nature are soothing and naturally awake the body.
- Drink a glass of warm water right away: Before you head for the coffee, drink a glass of warm water. Warm water will open up the circulation in the throat and stomach. It helps the body naturally hydrate and feel awake and alive. It also helps enhance circulation and removes toxins from the night and day before. People who drink water right before bed and when waking up are also less prone to heart attacks.
- Have an organic smoothie: They say garbage in equals garbage out, so start your day with a powerful organic smoothie. Anything that contains green fruits/veggies is a good choice, along with plant-based proteins. Avoid animal-based proteins which are more difficult to digest.
- Stretches: Just like you would warmup your car on a cold winter day, you need to break up the tension from the night before and get the body ready for action. Do some simple stretches that focus on the neck, shoulders, hips and spine.
6. Take a warm shower: It’s as common as the chicken and egg debate: should you shower in the morning or at night? The answer is actually both, but especially in the morning because a warm to hot shower will increase circulation in the skin, and help awake the nervous system.
- Clean air: When you sleep in a room that has clean air, you’re going to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. Use an air ionizer and purifier with HEPA filter that removes odors and fumes from cleaners, aerosols, carpet and paint. HEPA filters remove more than 99 percent of airborne irritants.
For nearly thirty years, Aadil has been regarded as a “teacher of teachers,” and many of the world’s top yoga instructors have studied with him. He has a unique teaching style, mixing melodious instructions with recitations of poetry, philosophical insights, and in-the-moment humor.
Aadil and his wife, Savitri, are the founders of Purna Yoga, a holistic synthesis of yogic traditions based on the work of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Discover more about Aadil and the Alive and Shine Center. For the Silo, Alex Smith.
Supplemental- A short history of Yoga http://swamij.com/history-yoga.htm
Sony’s Nature Sounds Alarm Clock- now discontinued but still available via Amazon and Ebay.
It’s A New Era Of Smaller House Living
With an increasing demand for housing in the UK and strict planning restrictions, developers are attempting to fit as much “house real estate” as possible within smaller and smaller areas.
This means that most new builds are half the size of the homes being constructed at the start of the 20th century.
Despite this eye-opening reality, there are plenty of people who are happy to sacrifice space for location – especially moving closer to the capital.
We’ve looked at this trend, determined the main pros and cons of smaller house living and even looked around the world for extreme examples of homes which push the limits of square footage. Want to weigh up the pros and cons of small house living? This graphic from our friends at storageworld.co.uk provides a great start point for your research.
Read on to find out whether you’re cut out to thrive in this new era of space-efficient living. For the Silo, Georgia Davies.
Supplemental- The Story Behind Toronto’s Little House
Fast Track To The Future With Virtual Reality
The implications of what Virtual Reality can achieve are vast, and it is predicted that VR will seep into every area of our lives in the very near future. VR is not just a concept that excites the entertainment business, but has a very real presence in some of the world’s most essential industries. However, many people remain skeptical about the impact virtual reality will actually have and suggest that it is only an attractive concept for gamers. Although it is true that VR is a fantastic way to improve online gaming, it has already been used in the medical and manufacturing industries, proving that virtual reality is not just a tool for play. Others fear VR could replace physical social interaction and they are therefore reluctant to consider the many benefits it actually presents. By taking a selection of real-life situations in which virtual reality is already used, we can assess its impact and perhaps decide whether it is to be embraced or discarded.
Surgery
It may not surprise you to know that the health sector is one of the biggest users and advocates of virtual reality. VR is of exceptional benefit in surgical training, improving student skills whilst minimizing risk to potential patients. This type of training can improve confidence and allow students to explore surgical procedures and options that would otherwise be inaccessible to them during the initial stages of their training. Virtual reality is already used by surgical staff, trainee nurses, dentists, and in numerous other health settings, world wide, allowing students to quickly gain skills without putting themselves or other individuals at risk.
Therapy
The authentic nature of VR allows therapists to assist patients with certain phobias. VR promotes controlled environments which can quickly be changed or eradicated during a course of therapy. For example, a person suffering from arachnophobia would perhaps find it more helpful and less daunting to experience holding a spider via VR rather than in a real life situation, and of course, a virtual reality headset can be turned off immediately should the situation require it. Other phobias and aversions could be tackled through the use of VR, including water aversion, acrophobia (fear of extreme heights) or aviophobia (fear of flying).
Entertainment
For some people, the online world is their only connection to society and if virtual reality gaming can help them continue to connect, then this can only be perceived as a positive thing. There is no denying that virtual reality is an amazingly entertaining concept and, when done well, is an excellent way to experience online gaming. Being fully immersed in a game is a highly attractive idea: whether it be one that takes you to a battlefield, or a game that allows you to feel as if you are actually being dealt cards at a plush casino in Vegas. Currently, gamers can connect with people from all over the world, or play slots in the comfort of their own home by visiting a site such as www.luckynuggetcasino.com yet imagine the thrill of full immersion through the power of virtual reality.
Transport and Training
Again, we touch upon the benefits virtual reality provides to many aspects of training and, in this particular situation, to the world of transport. For years the aviation industry has been using simulations to help train pilots and virtual reality is a welcome advance in such training. VR flight training presents minimal risk to both the pilot and passengers whilst allowing pilots to experience the difficulties that may arise whilst being in control of the aircraft. The most spectacular example of virtual reality based vehicle training is perhaps that used by NASA to train its astronauts. The training includes various simulations including that of an astronaut having to perform repairs during zero-gravity conditions, as well as a simulated detachment from the shuttle with the astronaut having to use a powered backpack to return. NASA has even managed to use VR in space, keeping astronauts up to date with training whilst on a mission and it has been suggested that VR will be used to entertain astronauts in space in the future. Just imagine, you could soon be sharing your virtual poker table with the astronauts of tomorrow!
Supplemental- Gamers are talking about the Oculus Rift and the Playstation VR but the HTC Vive looks pretty sweet too!