When historians look back on 2012, one Briton will define the year’s momentous and joyous events more than any other. The Queen not only celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, giving us all a reason to remind ourselves what is best about Britain, but also played a starring role in the opening ceremony of London 2012.
Who will ever forget the delicious moment when Her Majesty greeted James Bond at Buckingham Palace, before appearing to parachute out of a helicopter into the Olympic Park? Our Olympians and Paralympians may have given us a month’s worth of unashamed patriotism, but the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee was the culmination of a lifetime of service to the country.
At the centre of the celebrations were four remarkable days in June, during which the Queen defied age and the elements to attend the Thames Pageant, the splendidly over-the-top Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace and a Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s, followed by a Carriage Procession and Balcony appearance. She had already taken on a daunting schedule of travel at the beginning of the year, as she set out to visit every corner of the United Kingdom, determined that as many of us as possible should see her in her landmark year; and she ended 2012 in the same spirit, shaking off a cold to lead her family to church on Christmas Day. Her Majesty has not only defined a year, but has helped shape an entire era, and for that she is our Greatest Briton.
The architect of Britain’s finest sporting year, Coe was the magician who made our summer. After an undistinguished second career in politics, he proved he was as world class a sports administrator as he had been a middle-distance runner. London’s Olympics was everything he promised and more: uplifting, exhilarating, inspiring; a unifying experience around which the entire nation could gather in patriotic delight. Coe did it by the simple leadership technique of delegation and trust, ceding responsibility to those he knew would produce. He did it so well that if, in mid August, there had been a popular vote for prime minister, he would have stormed to Number 10.
Loud, defiant, above all gloriously, tumultuously, spine-tinglingly British, Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony was 90 minutes of dazzling theatre, dance, film and music, a mash-up of our nation’s cultural history delivered at breakneck speed. Warm, witty and full of surprises, it spun the head, brought a tear to the eye and made everyone lucky enough to witness it smile hard and long. Never mind that many of the cultural references went way over the heads of those watching in Milwaukee (who is this Michael Fish guy?), Boyle’s was precisely the vision of Britain we wanted projected to the world.
What a year it has been for the Mayor of London. His second-term victory over Ken Livingstone in the spring proved he is the Conservative best able to reach parts closed to other Tories. In doing so, he scared the life out of David Cameron, who regards Boris as his greatest rival in the party — and a steady stream of robust views emanating from City Hall on Europe, infrastructure planning and the economy did nothing to shake that perception. Most of all, Boris was the international face of London throughout one of the city’s most memorable years. His contribution to the capital’s annus mirabilis has guaranteed his place in the pantheon of the capital’s great figures, the Dick Whittington of his day.
Not content with giving birth to her fourth child and dressing every A-lister with a red carpet-worthy body, Stella McCartney designed the kit for the whole of Team GB. Well, almost all the team. The equestrians stuck to their traditional jackets and jodhpurs, although McCartney, a keen horsewoman, was permitted to tinker with their horses’ rugs. After the Olympics, she snagged two gongs for herself at the British Fashion Awards in November, including the biggie, Designer of the Year. “When I resigned from Chloé more than a decade ago, the boss told me that no woman had ever built a successful British fashion brand. That only made me more determined,“ she said, in the best girl-power acceptance speech of the year.
The defining genius behind Britain’s rise to the top of the cycling world, Brailsford is the master of micro-management. Nothing was left to chance as he co-ordinated a double assault on the roads of France and the Olympic velodrome. His brilliant stewardship seeks out advantage in the smallest detail: when his riders hit the start line they know they are better prepared, better trained, better equipped than any of their rivals. Then they know it is up to them to deliver. And deliver they did – to the point where Wiggins, Hoy, Pendleton and Trott have become household names. But all of them acknowledge the chief reason behind their success.
The woman who based television’s most hapless heroine on herself – in her sitcom Miranda – has had an amazing 2012. She was one of the most-loved stars of Call the Midwife, the BBC’s most successful new drama in a decade, playing upper-class fish-out-of-water “Chummy” Browne in London’s deprived East End in the Fifties. She wrote a bestseller, Is It Just Me?, which offered her thoughts on subjects as diverse as how to sit elegantly on a bar stool and mothers who call their children names like Bruschetta, Vinaigrette and Focaccia. And on Boxing Day, her sitcom, which has reminded millions of viewers just how much they prefer slapstick and silliness to cruel comedy, began its third series on BBC One. For Miranda Hart, this has unarguably been a – what I call – great year.
Just occasionally, critics get it disastrously wrong. And the best example this year was David Hockney’s exhibition at the Royal Academy, in which he returned to his native county of Yorkshire to work in that most old-fashioned of genres, landscape. Art critic Brian Sewell threw up his hands in horror at Hockney’s colourful, joyful paintings and deplored their “ghastly gaudiness”. But the public adored them and flocked there in droves – with 650,000 visitors, it looks likely to have been the RA’s best attended show of the year. Later there was an outcry when one of the trees featured in the paintings was vandalised. Hockney has always defiantly gone his own way (not least in his defence of smoking). This year he showed, at the age of 75, that he still has the power to confound expectations.
“Why build a massive project around an ugly Tudor politician, condemned by posterity as a corrupt torturer?” This was the rhetorical question Hilary Mantel posed as she looked back over her immersion in the life of Thomas Cromwell. Having partly answered the question with Wolf Hall, which won the Booker Prize in 2009, she closed the discussion with the sequel Bring Up the Bodies, which won this year’s Booker, making her the first Briton – and the first woman – to win the prize twice. The great news for her devoted readers was that since the second book covered the events of only nine months, there must be a third, dealing with Cromwell’s demise. Bring on The Mirror and the Light.
Seven months ago, Martha Payne was an ordinary nine-year-old from a tiny Scottish village – Lochgilphead in Argyll and Bute – who started a blog about her unhealthy school meals. When the local council banned Martha from taking photographs in her canteen, she made headlines across the world and gained millions of fans, including Jamie Oliver, who campaigned to get her blog back online. To date, it has been read nine million times, raising ￡125,500 for the charity Mary’s Meals. In October, Martha visited the school kitchen in Blantyre, Malawi, which was built with money donated by her fans. “Bad things can sometimes turn into good things,” she says. “I am glad I didn’t give up.”
2012年12月27日星期四
2012年12月16日星期日
Skylight installer can see brighter future
Lower Hutt businessman Paul Nielsen has been lighting up Kiwi homes with SolaTubes, skylights and roof windows for 20 years.
The SolaTube daylighting system captures sunlight in domes on the rooftop then transfers it down through reflective tubes that can be up to 15 metres long. It is then diffused into rooms in the house through 25-centimetre diameter lenses that can be dimmed.
He first started importing the Australian developed SolaTube system in 1992 after buying a $25,000 exclusive licence for the product with his then business partners, Malcolm Hughes and Bill Wilcox, whom he bought out in 1996, changing the business name to HomeTech.
"When I was first told about this skylight from Australia, I thought it was quite boring really.
"I said it was not of interest but when I found out the details, it was quite revolutionary at the time. It had been on Beyond 2000 [inventions television show] and taken Australia by storm."
He found the first customer in Waikanae, set up a branch in Auckland in March 1993, and by the end of 1993 had a nationwide network of installers.
SolaTube was promoted through word of mouth, advertising on television, and in local newspapers and the Yellow Pages.
The parts for the SolaTube and its other items come from several international sources, including Australia, America and Poland, and are then assembled at HomeTech's Alicetown head office and warehouse. The firm books all appointments nationwide from its call centre based there.
In 1995, it started installing SolaTube in commercial properties. It is becoming more popular in industrial and office buildings as companies look to be as sustainable as possible.
Cadbury, the National Bank and Air New Zealand are among its clients. "There is huge potential in retrofitting," Nielsen said.
SolaTube, which Nielsen said was the only Branz-approved (Building Research Association of NZ) skylight, launched a range of decorative fixtures in July with "good" uptake so far.
While SolaTube continues to make up about 50 per cent of its business, HomeTech is growing to become a broader installer, to include ventilation products and heat pumps. It recently bought a heat pump installation business in Christchurch and has a website - HomeImprovement.co.nz - that sells a range of installed residential products.
HomeTech tried forays into solar water heating and burglar alarms in the past but ultimately has kept the business more focused. It gives a portion of SolaTube sales to the Skylight charity, having donated close to $100,000 so far.
Nielsen said business had been weaker in recent years with the downturn in building but was on track to pick up in 2014.
"Margins are certainly not what they used to be, with higher compliance costs," he said.
Turnover, at about $12 million a year, was down from several years ago but he imagined the business would become a "bigger player" in heating installation.
"This recession has just gone on and on. The Christchurch rebuild will make a big difference to a lot of companies. I think 2014 is going to be a golden year for building, it's all going to happen."
Holiday Decorations: If you have a real tree, water it daily. Do not combine more than three light strings unless the product directions say you can. Do not overload electrical outlets. Keep wiring for lights hidden from children - it poses an injury risk, and may also contain lead.
Candles: Place candles on a solid base, away from decorations and other flammable materials. Do not leave burning candles unattended, and keep them away from children. Consider using flameless (battery-powered) candles; they're attractive, safe - even scented - and priced much like their wax counterparts.
Heating and Fireplaces: Make sure your central heating system is clean and working properly. Use space heaters carefully - follow directions and keep them away from combustible materials. If you have a fireplace, keep the chimney clean and free of creosote. NEVER burn wrapping paper in your fireplace.
Cooking: Stay on top of things when you cook! Never leave the stove unattended. Don't try to cook if you're sleepy, taking medications, using alcohol or otherwise impaired. Keep pressurized containers and flammable materials - including cleaning products - away from the stove. Keep your stovetop clean and free of grease. If you have a grease fire, DO NOT try to put it out with water; water will spread the flames. Don't move the cooking vessel. Instead, smother the fire with a lid or cookie sheet and turn off the burner.
Smoking: Quitting now will reduce long-term health risks and eliminate a serious fire hazard. Don't smoke when you're tired, on medication, using alcohol or otherwise impaired. When you finish a cigarette, put it out completely in an appropriate, stable container. Remember that the peat material in planters is flammable, and cigarettes deposited there may smolder until they start a fire.
Last year, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) issued 30 recalls of unsafe toys, and 15 have been issued to-date in 2012. In most cases, the potential risks were burns, choking or injuries, but exposure to lead or lead paint continues to be a possibility.
"It can be difficult to determine whether a toy poses a lead hazard," said Randi Callahan, State Lead Case Monitor. "Older toys, home-made toys and toys with red or yellow paint are more likely to contain lead; having toys tested is the best protection."
Callahan encouraged people to take advantage of lead screening from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 18 at Fond du Lac Early Head Start, 41 University Road, Cloquet. The Sustainable Resources Center, Minneapolis, will be offering free testing of toys and other consumer products at both locations.
The SolaTube daylighting system captures sunlight in domes on the rooftop then transfers it down through reflective tubes that can be up to 15 metres long. It is then diffused into rooms in the house through 25-centimetre diameter lenses that can be dimmed.
He first started importing the Australian developed SolaTube system in 1992 after buying a $25,000 exclusive licence for the product with his then business partners, Malcolm Hughes and Bill Wilcox, whom he bought out in 1996, changing the business name to HomeTech.
"When I was first told about this skylight from Australia, I thought it was quite boring really.
"I said it was not of interest but when I found out the details, it was quite revolutionary at the time. It had been on Beyond 2000 [inventions television show] and taken Australia by storm."
He found the first customer in Waikanae, set up a branch in Auckland in March 1993, and by the end of 1993 had a nationwide network of installers.
SolaTube was promoted through word of mouth, advertising on television, and in local newspapers and the Yellow Pages.
The parts for the SolaTube and its other items come from several international sources, including Australia, America and Poland, and are then assembled at HomeTech's Alicetown head office and warehouse. The firm books all appointments nationwide from its call centre based there.
In 1995, it started installing SolaTube in commercial properties. It is becoming more popular in industrial and office buildings as companies look to be as sustainable as possible.
Cadbury, the National Bank and Air New Zealand are among its clients. "There is huge potential in retrofitting," Nielsen said.
SolaTube, which Nielsen said was the only Branz-approved (Building Research Association of NZ) skylight, launched a range of decorative fixtures in July with "good" uptake so far.
While SolaTube continues to make up about 50 per cent of its business, HomeTech is growing to become a broader installer, to include ventilation products and heat pumps. It recently bought a heat pump installation business in Christchurch and has a website - HomeImprovement.co.nz - that sells a range of installed residential products.
HomeTech tried forays into solar water heating and burglar alarms in the past but ultimately has kept the business more focused. It gives a portion of SolaTube sales to the Skylight charity, having donated close to $100,000 so far.
Nielsen said business had been weaker in recent years with the downturn in building but was on track to pick up in 2014.
"Margins are certainly not what they used to be, with higher compliance costs," he said.
Turnover, at about $12 million a year, was down from several years ago but he imagined the business would become a "bigger player" in heating installation.
"This recession has just gone on and on. The Christchurch rebuild will make a big difference to a lot of companies. I think 2014 is going to be a golden year for building, it's all going to happen."
Holiday Decorations: If you have a real tree, water it daily. Do not combine more than three light strings unless the product directions say you can. Do not overload electrical outlets. Keep wiring for lights hidden from children - it poses an injury risk, and may also contain lead.
Candles: Place candles on a solid base, away from decorations and other flammable materials. Do not leave burning candles unattended, and keep them away from children. Consider using flameless (battery-powered) candles; they're attractive, safe - even scented - and priced much like their wax counterparts.
Heating and Fireplaces: Make sure your central heating system is clean and working properly. Use space heaters carefully - follow directions and keep them away from combustible materials. If you have a fireplace, keep the chimney clean and free of creosote. NEVER burn wrapping paper in your fireplace.
Cooking: Stay on top of things when you cook! Never leave the stove unattended. Don't try to cook if you're sleepy, taking medications, using alcohol or otherwise impaired. Keep pressurized containers and flammable materials - including cleaning products - away from the stove. Keep your stovetop clean and free of grease. If you have a grease fire, DO NOT try to put it out with water; water will spread the flames. Don't move the cooking vessel. Instead, smother the fire with a lid or cookie sheet and turn off the burner.
Smoking: Quitting now will reduce long-term health risks and eliminate a serious fire hazard. Don't smoke when you're tired, on medication, using alcohol or otherwise impaired. When you finish a cigarette, put it out completely in an appropriate, stable container. Remember that the peat material in planters is flammable, and cigarettes deposited there may smolder until they start a fire.
Last year, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) issued 30 recalls of unsafe toys, and 15 have been issued to-date in 2012. In most cases, the potential risks were burns, choking or injuries, but exposure to lead or lead paint continues to be a possibility.
"It can be difficult to determine whether a toy poses a lead hazard," said Randi Callahan, State Lead Case Monitor. "Older toys, home-made toys and toys with red or yellow paint are more likely to contain lead; having toys tested is the best protection."
Callahan encouraged people to take advantage of lead screening from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 18 at Fond du Lac Early Head Start, 41 University Road, Cloquet. The Sustainable Resources Center, Minneapolis, will be offering free testing of toys and other consumer products at both locations.
2012年11月26日星期一
Google Street View Set for Launch in Indonesia
The latest fleet of cars to hit Indonesia’s roads will carry an unusual logo, but one that the country’s wired population is more than familiar with: that of Google, as the Internet giant prepares to introduce Google Street View to the sprawling archipelago.
The project, launched Friday by Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy and Google Inc., will be one of the tech giant’s largest initiatives in Asia. Custom Google cars fitted with cameras have already been deployed across the country with the end goal of allowing anyone with an Internet connection a panoramic view of key cities through street-level images, not expected to be ready for a few years.
Indonesia will be the third Southeast Asian country to get Google’s Street View service, after Singapore and more recently Thailand, where Google also partnered with the country’s tourism authority. Like many other Street View initiatives, the primary target audience is tourists and other visitors, allowing them to check out hotels and other attractions before planning itineraries, as well as serve the potential market within Indonesia’s 250 million people.
This could be especially useful in Indonesia where infrastructure bottlenecks have hidden some of the most beautiful tourist destinations – including secluded beaches, pristine dive sites and legendary temples – away from keen visitors. Businessmen, too, are now flocking to Jakarta and other key cities in the hope of tapping into Indonesia’s strong growth, but often need to strategically plan meetings close to hotels and offices to avoid Jakarta’s notorious traffic jams.
“With these digital tools, hotels, tourism sites and businesses can be more creative in making it easier for visitors to find their stores, location and websites,” said Mari E. Pangestu, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, at the sidelines of an exhibition where the service was launched.
Google said in a press statement that the project will be a “long-term investment,” without giving a specific date for the introduction of Street View, though it expects some images to be online in the next few years.
The company has run into privacy issues elsewhere when capturing Street View data, which involves real-time panoramic images, allowing anyone to scope out various locales without leaving their screens. Though some find the service convenient, others have expressed strong sentiments against having their faces, car license plate numbers and the like potentially exposed to millions.
Her daughter arrived in 2009, and when Lori returned from maternity leave, even more leadership changes had occurred. She found the company was taking her lab in a completely new direction. She was also being asked to report to a colleague who she felt was not the right resource to lead the business unit. Lori reached out to leadership at the larger parent company where she had great relationships and explained her frustration. They created a new role for Lori: chief technology catalyst at a different business unit.
The big change for Lori was that travel used to be mainly for industry trade shows, speaking at events and meeting clients. But with this newly created position, Lori had to work with leadership and senior resources who were on the east coast while she was living on the west coast. For the better part of the next two years, her job focused on constant travel, and it was overwhelming.
The job was interesting, and Lori still desired to be the self described "powerful innovation girl," so she traveled with her nanny and her young daughter. She found this at least gave her more time together with her daughter, and she felt like she was balancing both worlds that she enjoyed. But the company wasn't funding her daughter's travel or the nanny's, so it became very expensive.
She says that she really felt the need to have the nanny in tow unless she traveled to a location where she had family.
Lori was exhausted after each trip and frustration was mounting. Then, after two years of non-stop travel, her role at the company was changing yet again and becoming very undesirable. Her mentor at the parent company who created the job left the company, and she could see her role's focus dissipating.
During 2011, her daughter started school at age two and Lori couldn't take her on trips anymore. The balance had shifted. She missed her daughter when she was traveling, even for just two or three nights. Lori says "It was a strong chemical reaction that I couldn't ignore."
The tipping point was in January/February 2011 when all of the tech conferences take place between Las Vegas, Florida and Barcelona. Lori says "While it sounds romantic and exciting and I was enjoying the intellectual stimulation during the day, I was miserable underneath. I was this strong business woman during the day and I cried at night."
Neither happy in her personal nor business life, Lori knew it was time to make the transition to something more balanced with motherhood. "This New York based role was definitely not working, and I had come to the tough realization that the job I signed up for was no longer there. So I began discussions with HR. I had a severance package that would give me some time to figure things out on my own."
In June 2012, Lori become a Mompreneur. She wanted this balance desperately, and she was determined to find a way. During her tenure at McCann, Lori was very active in her industry; she sat on boards, did many speaking engagements and moderated panels, making terrific contacts along the way. She believed she could find opportunity, but there was no guarantee of income and only six months of severance pay.
The first two months of being her own boss were a major adjustment. She bought a new computer, set up her home office, dealt with insurance and got a new phone plan. All the things that corporate had always taken care of for so long were now her responsibility. She struggled with being at home and learning how to balance being relaxed and enjoying her daughter while being productive and starting a business.
The project, launched Friday by Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy and Google Inc., will be one of the tech giant’s largest initiatives in Asia. Custom Google cars fitted with cameras have already been deployed across the country with the end goal of allowing anyone with an Internet connection a panoramic view of key cities through street-level images, not expected to be ready for a few years.
Indonesia will be the third Southeast Asian country to get Google’s Street View service, after Singapore and more recently Thailand, where Google also partnered with the country’s tourism authority. Like many other Street View initiatives, the primary target audience is tourists and other visitors, allowing them to check out hotels and other attractions before planning itineraries, as well as serve the potential market within Indonesia’s 250 million people.
This could be especially useful in Indonesia where infrastructure bottlenecks have hidden some of the most beautiful tourist destinations – including secluded beaches, pristine dive sites and legendary temples – away from keen visitors. Businessmen, too, are now flocking to Jakarta and other key cities in the hope of tapping into Indonesia’s strong growth, but often need to strategically plan meetings close to hotels and offices to avoid Jakarta’s notorious traffic jams.
“With these digital tools, hotels, tourism sites and businesses can be more creative in making it easier for visitors to find their stores, location and websites,” said Mari E. Pangestu, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, at the sidelines of an exhibition where the service was launched.
Google said in a press statement that the project will be a “long-term investment,” without giving a specific date for the introduction of Street View, though it expects some images to be online in the next few years.
The company has run into privacy issues elsewhere when capturing Street View data, which involves real-time panoramic images, allowing anyone to scope out various locales without leaving their screens. Though some find the service convenient, others have expressed strong sentiments against having their faces, car license plate numbers and the like potentially exposed to millions.
Her daughter arrived in 2009, and when Lori returned from maternity leave, even more leadership changes had occurred. She found the company was taking her lab in a completely new direction. She was also being asked to report to a colleague who she felt was not the right resource to lead the business unit. Lori reached out to leadership at the larger parent company where she had great relationships and explained her frustration. They created a new role for Lori: chief technology catalyst at a different business unit.
The big change for Lori was that travel used to be mainly for industry trade shows, speaking at events and meeting clients. But with this newly created position, Lori had to work with leadership and senior resources who were on the east coast while she was living on the west coast. For the better part of the next two years, her job focused on constant travel, and it was overwhelming.
The job was interesting, and Lori still desired to be the self described "powerful innovation girl," so she traveled with her nanny and her young daughter. She found this at least gave her more time together with her daughter, and she felt like she was balancing both worlds that she enjoyed. But the company wasn't funding her daughter's travel or the nanny's, so it became very expensive.
She says that she really felt the need to have the nanny in tow unless she traveled to a location where she had family.
Lori was exhausted after each trip and frustration was mounting. Then, after two years of non-stop travel, her role at the company was changing yet again and becoming very undesirable. Her mentor at the parent company who created the job left the company, and she could see her role's focus dissipating.
During 2011, her daughter started school at age two and Lori couldn't take her on trips anymore. The balance had shifted. She missed her daughter when she was traveling, even for just two or three nights. Lori says "It was a strong chemical reaction that I couldn't ignore."
The tipping point was in January/February 2011 when all of the tech conferences take place between Las Vegas, Florida and Barcelona. Lori says "While it sounds romantic and exciting and I was enjoying the intellectual stimulation during the day, I was miserable underneath. I was this strong business woman during the day and I cried at night."
Neither happy in her personal nor business life, Lori knew it was time to make the transition to something more balanced with motherhood. "This New York based role was definitely not working, and I had come to the tough realization that the job I signed up for was no longer there. So I began discussions with HR. I had a severance package that would give me some time to figure things out on my own."
In June 2012, Lori become a Mompreneur. She wanted this balance desperately, and she was determined to find a way. During her tenure at McCann, Lori was very active in her industry; she sat on boards, did many speaking engagements and moderated panels, making terrific contacts along the way. She believed she could find opportunity, but there was no guarantee of income and only six months of severance pay.
The first two months of being her own boss were a major adjustment. She bought a new computer, set up her home office, dealt with insurance and got a new phone plan. All the things that corporate had always taken care of for so long were now her responsibility. She struggled with being at home and learning how to balance being relaxed and enjoying her daughter while being productive and starting a business.
2012年8月23日星期四
Farmville, for real
In the next few months, San Francisco will lose some of its a lot of admired burghal farms.
The City-limits Hall achievement garden is now bargain to dirt. The grants that kept afloat Quesada Area Initiative, which creates association area in Bayview, were acting and are now dehydration up. Kezar Gardens, adjourned by the Haight Asbury Neighborhood Council recycling center, is adverse boot by the city.
Time is up for Hayes Valley Farm, on the old freeway ramp, area developers are now accessible to body condos.
St. Paulus Lutheran Church has aswell appear that it wants to advertise the acreage that the Free Farm uses at Eddy and Gough.
"There's the old antic about developers," said Antonio Roman-Alcalá, co-founder of Alemany Farm and the San Francisco Burghal Agronomics Alliance. "God accept to be a developer, because they consistently assume to get their way."
At the aforementioned time, new burghal agronomics projects accept sprung up beyond San Francisco. Legislation authored by Sup. David Chiu will actualize a city-limits Burghal Agronomics Program, with the ambition of analogous efforts throughout the city.
So is the movement to abound aliment in the city-limits progressing? It's a catchy catechism that gets down to one of the oldest conflicts in San Francisco: The best use of scarce, big-ticket land.
The San Francisco Planning and Burghal Research Association lauds the amount of association gardens. An April 2012 SPUR address addendum that burghal agronomics connects humans "to the broader aliment system, offers accessible amplitude and recreation, provides hands-on education, presents new and abstinent business opportunities, and builds community."
According to the report, the city-limits had "nearly 100 area and farms on both accessible and clandestine acreage (not including academy gardens)," two dozen of which started in the accomplished four years.
But that's boilerplate abreast abundant for the demand. "The endure time cat-and-mouse lists were surveyed, there were over 550 humans waiting," Eli Zigas, Aliment Systems and Burghal Agronomics Affairs Manager at SPUR, told us. "That acceptable underrepresents appeal because some humans who are absorbed haven't put their name down."
Changes in zoning endure year, and the contempo authorization to actualize the Burghal Agronomics Program, appearance a admeasurement of city-limits abutment for burghal agronomics and gardening.
"We accept one of the a lot of acquiescent zoning codes for burghal agronomics that I apperceive of in the country," said Zigas.
One zoning change from 2011 makes it absolute that association area and farms beneath than one acre in admeasurement are acceptable anywhere in the city, and that projects on beyond plots of acreage are accustomed in assertive non-residential districts.
More contempo legislation is meant to accumulate the action of starting to abound aliment in the city. Applying to use abandoned accessible acreage for a garden can be an backbreaking process, and every accessible bureau has a altered approach. The hoops to jump through for acreage endemic by the Police Department, for example, are absolutely altered than what the Accessible Utilities Commission requires. A new Burghal Agronomics Affairs would alike efforts.
"The abstraction is to actualize a new affairs that will serve as the capital point of entry. Whether it will be managed by absolute bureau or nonprofit is to be determined," said Zigas.
If the timeline laid out in the authorization is followed, the plan will be implemented by Jan.1, 2014.
By then, if all goes according to plan, no San Franciscan searching to garden will delay added than a year for admission to a association garden plot.
The City-limits Hall achievement garden is now bargain to dirt. The grants that kept afloat Quesada Area Initiative, which creates association area in Bayview, were acting and are now dehydration up. Kezar Gardens, adjourned by the Haight Asbury Neighborhood Council recycling center, is adverse boot by the city.
Time is up for Hayes Valley Farm, on the old freeway ramp, area developers are now accessible to body condos.
St. Paulus Lutheran Church has aswell appear that it wants to advertise the acreage that the Free Farm uses at Eddy and Gough.
"There's the old antic about developers," said Antonio Roman-Alcalá, co-founder of Alemany Farm and the San Francisco Burghal Agronomics Alliance. "God accept to be a developer, because they consistently assume to get their way."
At the aforementioned time, new burghal agronomics projects accept sprung up beyond San Francisco. Legislation authored by Sup. David Chiu will actualize a city-limits Burghal Agronomics Program, with the ambition of analogous efforts throughout the city.
So is the movement to abound aliment in the city-limits progressing? It's a catchy catechism that gets down to one of the oldest conflicts in San Francisco: The best use of scarce, big-ticket land.
The San Francisco Planning and Burghal Research Association lauds the amount of association gardens. An April 2012 SPUR address addendum that burghal agronomics connects humans "to the broader aliment system, offers accessible amplitude and recreation, provides hands-on education, presents new and abstinent business opportunities, and builds community."
According to the report, the city-limits had "nearly 100 area and farms on both accessible and clandestine acreage (not including academy gardens)," two dozen of which started in the accomplished four years.
But that's boilerplate abreast abundant for the demand. "The endure time cat-and-mouse lists were surveyed, there were over 550 humans waiting," Eli Zigas, Aliment Systems and Burghal Agronomics Affairs Manager at SPUR, told us. "That acceptable underrepresents appeal because some humans who are absorbed haven't put their name down."
Changes in zoning endure year, and the contempo authorization to actualize the Burghal Agronomics Program, appearance a admeasurement of city-limits abutment for burghal agronomics and gardening.
"We accept one of the a lot of acquiescent zoning codes for burghal agronomics that I apperceive of in the country," said Zigas.
One zoning change from 2011 makes it absolute that association area and farms beneath than one acre in admeasurement are acceptable anywhere in the city, and that projects on beyond plots of acreage are accustomed in assertive non-residential districts.
More contempo legislation is meant to accumulate the action of starting to abound aliment in the city. Applying to use abandoned accessible acreage for a garden can be an backbreaking process, and every accessible bureau has a altered approach. The hoops to jump through for acreage endemic by the Police Department, for example, are absolutely altered than what the Accessible Utilities Commission requires. A new Burghal Agronomics Affairs would alike efforts.
"The abstraction is to actualize a new affairs that will serve as the capital point of entry. Whether it will be managed by absolute bureau or nonprofit is to be determined," said Zigas.
If the timeline laid out in the authorization is followed, the plan will be implemented by Jan.1, 2014.
By then, if all goes according to plan, no San Franciscan searching to garden will delay added than a year for admission to a association garden plot.
2012年8月5日星期日
Spare us the swoons over the Boss
David Remnick's 75,000-word profile of Bruce Springsteen is another of his contributions to the literature of fandom. Once again there is a derecho of detail and the conventional view of his protagonist, the official legend, is left undisturbed. It could have been written by the record company.
The interminable thing is an inventory of Springsteen (and rock) platitudes, punctuated by the fleeting acknowledgment of a dissent about the deity, but much more interested in access than in judgment. "Springsteen Survives", the cover of the magazine triumphantly proclaims.
Survives what? When Remnick turns from reporting to commentary, the earnestness becomes embarrassing, which is to say, fully the match of the earnestness of his subject. Springsteen's new album, he patiently explains, is "shot through with a liberal insistence that American patriotism has less to do with the primacy of markets than with a Rooseveltian sense of fairness and a communal sense of belonging." Just wrap your legs round these paperbacks.
And Remnick is not alone in his articulate swoon. In The Atlantic, in another of his exercises in stenographic journalism, Jeffrey Goldberg accompanied New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to a Springsteen concert and recorded the boorish governor's frenzy and its repercussions for contemporary conservatism.
"We are in a luxury suite at the Prudential Centre - the Rock - in downtown Newark, the sort of suite accessible only to the American plutocracy." The lucky Jew! Then Christie "loses himself". "The fist-pumping governor seems uncontainable . . . Bringing him to a Springsteen concert is an exercise in volcano management." It is an unpleasant thought, as Christie's ass is not at all finely sausaged. Goldberg wishes also to establish his own demotic credentials.
"I've spent much of my life as a pro-Springsteen extremist," he boasts. "If the E Street Band at full throttle doesn't fill you with joy, you're probably dead."
Goldberg is alive. And so, apparently, is David Brooks, who recently began a column with this tasteless remark: "They say you've never really seen a Bruce Springsteen concert until you've seen one in Europe, so some friends and I threw financial sanity to the winds and went to follow him around Spain and France."
The lesson that Brooks learns from the popularity of New Jersey's Asbury Park so far away from Asbury Park is "Don't try to be everyman . . . Don't try to be citizens of some artificial global community. Go deeper into your own tradition."
It is an ancient point, often made about Joyce and Faulkner and Sholem Aleichem, but a fine point. The problem is that nobody tries harder, and less persuasively, to be everyman than Bruce Springsteen.
Do these men have ears? The musical decline of Springsteen has been obvious for decades. The sanctimony, the grandiosity, the utterly formulaic monumentality; the witlessness; the tiresome recycling of those anthemic figures, each time more preposterously distended; the disappearance of intimacy and the rejection of softness.
And the sexlessness: Remnick adores Springsteen for his "flagrant exertion", which he finds deeply sensual, comparing him with James Brown. But Brown's shocking intensity, his gaudy stamina, his sea of sweat, was about, well, f . . king, whereas Springsteen "wants his audience to leave the arena, as he commands them, 'with your hands hurting, your feet hurting, your back hurting, your voice sore, and your sexual organs stimulated!' ", which is how you talk dirty at Whole Foods.
Remnick lauds him also for his "exuberance", which is indeed preternatural. I was twice at The Bottom Line in August 1975 and I have never been in a happier room. But there is nothing daft or insouciant, nothing crazy free, about Springsteen's exuberance any more.
The joy is programmatic; it is mere uplift, another expression of social responsibility, a further statement of an idealism that borders on illusion. The rising? Not quite yet. We take care of our own? No, we do not.
Nothing has damaged Springsteen's once-magnificent music more than his decision to become a spokesman for America. The wounded workers in his songs do not have the authenticity of acquaintance; they are pious hackneyed tropes, class martyrs from Guthrie and Steinbeck.
Springsteen's sympathy is genuine but his people are not. His 9/11 and recession songs are bloated editorials: "Where's the promise from sea to shining sea?" His anger that "the banker man grows fat" is too holy: "If I had a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight" is not a "liberal insistence".
A few minutes with one of Johnny Cash's last records and it is impossible to take Springsteen's vernacular seriously.
When was the last time Springsteen wrote a song as moving and true as Alejandro Escovedo's Down in the Bowery?
Springsteen worship is a cry against the clock. But rock 'n' roll has played another role in American life, which is to prove that Herbert Marcuse was right. There will be no revolution in the US. This society will contain
its contradictions without resolving them; it will absorb opposition and reward it; it will transform dissent into culture and commerce.
Marcuse's mistake was in believing that this is bad news. It is good news, because we will be spared the agonies of political purifications. It is also comic, as protest songs become entertainment for the rich, and Springsteen the idol of the elite. The New Yorker clinches it: he is the least dangerous man in America.
The interminable thing is an inventory of Springsteen (and rock) platitudes, punctuated by the fleeting acknowledgment of a dissent about the deity, but much more interested in access than in judgment. "Springsteen Survives", the cover of the magazine triumphantly proclaims.
Survives what? When Remnick turns from reporting to commentary, the earnestness becomes embarrassing, which is to say, fully the match of the earnestness of his subject. Springsteen's new album, he patiently explains, is "shot through with a liberal insistence that American patriotism has less to do with the primacy of markets than with a Rooseveltian sense of fairness and a communal sense of belonging." Just wrap your legs round these paperbacks.
And Remnick is not alone in his articulate swoon. In The Atlantic, in another of his exercises in stenographic journalism, Jeffrey Goldberg accompanied New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to a Springsteen concert and recorded the boorish governor's frenzy and its repercussions for contemporary conservatism.
"We are in a luxury suite at the Prudential Centre - the Rock - in downtown Newark, the sort of suite accessible only to the American plutocracy." The lucky Jew! Then Christie "loses himself". "The fist-pumping governor seems uncontainable . . . Bringing him to a Springsteen concert is an exercise in volcano management." It is an unpleasant thought, as Christie's ass is not at all finely sausaged. Goldberg wishes also to establish his own demotic credentials.
"I've spent much of my life as a pro-Springsteen extremist," he boasts. "If the E Street Band at full throttle doesn't fill you with joy, you're probably dead."
Goldberg is alive. And so, apparently, is David Brooks, who recently began a column with this tasteless remark: "They say you've never really seen a Bruce Springsteen concert until you've seen one in Europe, so some friends and I threw financial sanity to the winds and went to follow him around Spain and France."
The lesson that Brooks learns from the popularity of New Jersey's Asbury Park so far away from Asbury Park is "Don't try to be everyman . . . Don't try to be citizens of some artificial global community. Go deeper into your own tradition."
It is an ancient point, often made about Joyce and Faulkner and Sholem Aleichem, but a fine point. The problem is that nobody tries harder, and less persuasively, to be everyman than Bruce Springsteen.
Do these men have ears? The musical decline of Springsteen has been obvious for decades. The sanctimony, the grandiosity, the utterly formulaic monumentality; the witlessness; the tiresome recycling of those anthemic figures, each time more preposterously distended; the disappearance of intimacy and the rejection of softness.
And the sexlessness: Remnick adores Springsteen for his "flagrant exertion", which he finds deeply sensual, comparing him with James Brown. But Brown's shocking intensity, his gaudy stamina, his sea of sweat, was about, well, f . . king, whereas Springsteen "wants his audience to leave the arena, as he commands them, 'with your hands hurting, your feet hurting, your back hurting, your voice sore, and your sexual organs stimulated!' ", which is how you talk dirty at Whole Foods.
Remnick lauds him also for his "exuberance", which is indeed preternatural. I was twice at The Bottom Line in August 1975 and I have never been in a happier room. But there is nothing daft or insouciant, nothing crazy free, about Springsteen's exuberance any more.
The joy is programmatic; it is mere uplift, another expression of social responsibility, a further statement of an idealism that borders on illusion. The rising? Not quite yet. We take care of our own? No, we do not.
Nothing has damaged Springsteen's once-magnificent music more than his decision to become a spokesman for America. The wounded workers in his songs do not have the authenticity of acquaintance; they are pious hackneyed tropes, class martyrs from Guthrie and Steinbeck.
Springsteen's sympathy is genuine but his people are not. His 9/11 and recession songs are bloated editorials: "Where's the promise from sea to shining sea?" His anger that "the banker man grows fat" is too holy: "If I had a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight" is not a "liberal insistence".
A few minutes with one of Johnny Cash's last records and it is impossible to take Springsteen's vernacular seriously.
When was the last time Springsteen wrote a song as moving and true as Alejandro Escovedo's Down in the Bowery?
Springsteen worship is a cry against the clock. But rock 'n' roll has played another role in American life, which is to prove that Herbert Marcuse was right. There will be no revolution in the US. This society will contain
its contradictions without resolving them; it will absorb opposition and reward it; it will transform dissent into culture and commerce.
Marcuse's mistake was in believing that this is bad news. It is good news, because we will be spared the agonies of political purifications. It is also comic, as protest songs become entertainment for the rich, and Springsteen the idol of the elite. The New Yorker clinches it: he is the least dangerous man in America.
2012年5月2日星期三
Long Line of Cars? Not Anymore
In the aftermath of last summer’s Las Conchas wildfire—the largest in New Mexico history—a wall of black, muddy, log-choked water came roaring down Bandelier National Monument’s Frijoles Canyon. The National Park Service had prepared for the Aug. 21 flood, wrapping the historic visitor center in heavy plastic and erecting concrete barriers to deflect the waters.
But when the flood was over, the area where some of the park’s 230,000 yearly visitors park their cars was filled with debris, and the access bridge was gone. Already facing parking shortages, NPS managers had a big problem on their hands—and Albuquerque’s annual Balloon Fiesta, which brings a surge of visitors to Bandelier, was just around the corner.
To their relief, Los Alamos County stepped in, providing buses to shuttle people into the park for the remainder of the season. Around 9,000 people rode the county shuttle, and for the rest of the year, Frijoles Canyon was car-free.
This was the fire’s unlikely upside: allowing NPS managers to achieve the elusive and long-sought goal of limiting park traffic to a public shuttle.
For the past decade, NPS had advocated a shuttle tthat would eliminate noise, fumes and overcrowding from Bandelier’s historic headquarters area. Until the fire, that idea had never moved.
But last summer, out of necessity, it finally became a reality. Los Alamos County built a new parking area outside Bandelier, in White Rock, where visitors could meet a NPS ranger and hop on the shuttle for the 10-mile ride to the park.
“Los Alamos County has turned out to be a model partner for us,” Bandelier Superintendent Jason Lott says, adding that he hopes the shuttle will be “the most economically efficient shuttle system in the national park system” since NPS is working with a local government partner rather than a commercial contractor.
“This shuttle will only cost the Park Service around $150,000 per year,” Lott explains. “No other NPS shuttle system comes close to this cost.“
The National Park Service currently runs shuttle systems to alleviate congestion at Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks.
Another advantage of the Bandelier shuttle, Los Alamos County Public Relations Administrator Julie Habiger says, is its potential to increase tourism and diversify the local economy. Habiger says the shuttle will cost the county around $600,000 per year, with most of the funding coming from federal grants and some help from NPS visitor fees.
But not everyone agrees that a carless Bandelier is a good thing. Todd Nichols, who owns the lease on the Bandelier Trading Co., which runs the gift shop and food service at Bandelier, says his business has dropped dramatically since the shuttle came.
“People will see the shuttle coming and throw $60 worth of food away and run to the bus, even though it comes every half hour,” Nichols says. “Also, my local customers have stopped coming when the shuttle is running. We may have to restructure our business because of this.”
While Nichols praises NPS’ handling of the fire and flooding, he worries that the shuttle may diminish some visitors’ experiences.
But Lott argues just the opposite, maintaining that fewer cars in the canyon will mean less noise, fumes and traffic jams. “People are attached to their cars, so it may take some retraining for some visitors,” he admits.
On a recent Saturday, as spring visitors arrived at Bandelier, a ranger warned them of a 20-minute wait for parking. In Frijoles Canyon, a line of cars parked on the road, with drivers waiting while Bandelier staff busily managing the overfull parking lot. With a fraction of summer visitation already frustrating visitors, Bandelier rangers are looking to the June shuttle for relief.
But when the flood was over, the area where some of the park’s 230,000 yearly visitors park their cars was filled with debris, and the access bridge was gone. Already facing parking shortages, NPS managers had a big problem on their hands—and Albuquerque’s annual Balloon Fiesta, which brings a surge of visitors to Bandelier, was just around the corner.
To their relief, Los Alamos County stepped in, providing buses to shuttle people into the park for the remainder of the season. Around 9,000 people rode the county shuttle, and for the rest of the year, Frijoles Canyon was car-free.
This was the fire’s unlikely upside: allowing NPS managers to achieve the elusive and long-sought goal of limiting park traffic to a public shuttle.
For the past decade, NPS had advocated a shuttle tthat would eliminate noise, fumes and overcrowding from Bandelier’s historic headquarters area. Until the fire, that idea had never moved.
But last summer, out of necessity, it finally became a reality. Los Alamos County built a new parking area outside Bandelier, in White Rock, where visitors could meet a NPS ranger and hop on the shuttle for the 10-mile ride to the park.
“Los Alamos County has turned out to be a model partner for us,” Bandelier Superintendent Jason Lott says, adding that he hopes the shuttle will be “the most economically efficient shuttle system in the national park system” since NPS is working with a local government partner rather than a commercial contractor.
“This shuttle will only cost the Park Service around $150,000 per year,” Lott explains. “No other NPS shuttle system comes close to this cost.“
The National Park Service currently runs shuttle systems to alleviate congestion at Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks.
Another advantage of the Bandelier shuttle, Los Alamos County Public Relations Administrator Julie Habiger says, is its potential to increase tourism and diversify the local economy. Habiger says the shuttle will cost the county around $600,000 per year, with most of the funding coming from federal grants and some help from NPS visitor fees.
But not everyone agrees that a carless Bandelier is a good thing. Todd Nichols, who owns the lease on the Bandelier Trading Co., which runs the gift shop and food service at Bandelier, says his business has dropped dramatically since the shuttle came.
“People will see the shuttle coming and throw $60 worth of food away and run to the bus, even though it comes every half hour,” Nichols says. “Also, my local customers have stopped coming when the shuttle is running. We may have to restructure our business because of this.”
While Nichols praises NPS’ handling of the fire and flooding, he worries that the shuttle may diminish some visitors’ experiences.
But Lott argues just the opposite, maintaining that fewer cars in the canyon will mean less noise, fumes and traffic jams. “People are attached to their cars, so it may take some retraining for some visitors,” he admits.
On a recent Saturday, as spring visitors arrived at Bandelier, a ranger warned them of a 20-minute wait for parking. In Frijoles Canyon, a line of cars parked on the road, with drivers waiting while Bandelier staff busily managing the overfull parking lot. With a fraction of summer visitation already frustrating visitors, Bandelier rangers are looking to the June shuttle for relief.
2011年9月27日星期二
Pupils set Rubik’s cube record
The pupils at Sutherland High School in Pretoria believe all that stands between them and the Guinness World Record for the most people solving a Rubik’s cube at once is paperwork.
This is after they more than doubled the existing record of 300 in an hour, held by a team in India.
The record attempt was the highlight of Friday’s family fun day, said the schools public relations officer Carol Riddick.
Of the 715 pupils and staff who participated in the event, 711 completed the challenge.
The brain behind the attempt was maths teacher Lisa Marie Harrison who was taught the secret of the cube two years ago by ex-pupils.
Harrison was hooked and could not leave the cube alone. Some of her students started calling her a freak, said Riddick.
It was Harrison who found out about the record and suggested the school participate.
About 50 staff members – excluding Harrison who was busy with arrangements – joined the pupils in the record attempt.
“It was all done strictly to the rules, as soon as a cube was complete the person had to leave the demarcated area,” said Riddick.
Team members had to buy their own cubes and had practised at home. “Some pupils are so good now they can complete the cube in a minute,” said Riddick.
It would take about three months for all the paperwork and to have their name on the record, she said.
According to Wikipedia, the Rubik’s Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik. Originally called the “Magic Cube”, by January 2009 more than 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide.
In a classic Rubik’s cube, each of the six faces is made up of nine colours – traditionally white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be a solid colour.
This is after they more than doubled the existing record of 300 in an hour, held by a team in India.
The record attempt was the highlight of Friday’s family fun day, said the schools public relations officer Carol Riddick.
Of the 715 pupils and staff who participated in the event, 711 completed the challenge.
The brain behind the attempt was maths teacher Lisa Marie Harrison who was taught the secret of the cube two years ago by ex-pupils.
Harrison was hooked and could not leave the cube alone. Some of her students started calling her a freak, said Riddick.
It was Harrison who found out about the record and suggested the school participate.
About 50 staff members – excluding Harrison who was busy with arrangements – joined the pupils in the record attempt.
“It was all done strictly to the rules, as soon as a cube was complete the person had to leave the demarcated area,” said Riddick.
Team members had to buy their own cubes and had practised at home. “Some pupils are so good now they can complete the cube in a minute,” said Riddick.
It would take about three months for all the paperwork and to have their name on the record, she said.
According to Wikipedia, the Rubik’s Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik. Originally called the “Magic Cube”, by January 2009 more than 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide.
In a classic Rubik’s cube, each of the six faces is made up of nine colours – traditionally white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be a solid colour.
2011年6月22日星期三
“The End of the Line” by Robert Silverberg
Stiamot is eager to learn more of the shapechangers and has sought out a local guide, a Dr Mundiveen. But Mundiveen turns out to have a past association with the Coronal – not a happy one.
These events are presented as long-past history, and there is a strong sense of inevitability about them – a tragic sense. We see no real agency on the part of the characters; it is not that they wouldn’t act, but that events overwhelm them. What we see is their reaction, and how they are affected. The reasons and motives driving events are concealed from them, as well, and thus to the readers. Just as matters reach a climax, the action fades into the ink of historical archive.
“Corn Teeth” by Melanie Tem
Sonya is an abandoned child in the process of being adopted by resident aliens on Earth. She is rather unclear about what this entails, but she wants it desperately, to belong and be loved. But her misunderstanding has consequences.
“We’re gonna go talk to a judge and Yoolie and Ib and Zama are gonna say they want us forever and the judge is gonna say we’re their kids forever and there’s this big hammer and the judge’ll pound on the table with the hammer and then we’ll turn into Alayayxans.”
One of those stories in which the first-person narrator talks in a childish voice in run-on sentences, supposedly to engage reader sympathy, but I only find it irritating. The xenophobia is not original; the bureaucracy of social service agencies rings true.
“Paradise as a Walled Garden” by Lisa Goldstein
Alternate history: an Elizabethan age of steam. Tip works in a manufactory staffed largely by robots [here called homunculi] made in Al-Andulus, which tries to keep secret the advanced technology it sells to backwards Christian nations like England. One day the homunculi malfunction [rebel] and try to wreck their workplace. The foreman, along with Tip, is sent by Queen Elizabeth to Al-Andulus to make an official inquiry, Tip being a clever girl working as a boy who knows how to read the Arabic numerals on the steam dials – a perfect cover for an industrial spy.
So no one in England knew how the homunculi worked, Tip thought. She had always wondered about that. And she saw immediately what Elizabeth was doing, that she was blackmailing the Arabs, making them share their precious knowledge to keep news of the homunculi’s rebellion from spreading to other countries. Many people had called Elizabeth a clever queen in Tip’s hearing, or a cunning one if they disliked women, but Tip had never understood why before.
I liked this alternate history scenario, the power games, espionage and sabotage among the various kingdoms and states of the age. I would have liked the story much better if it hadn’t emptied the box labeled STEAMPUNK of all its brass gears, steam cars, airships and automatons. Spunky girl disguised as a boy? Disaffected labor replaced by mechanicals? None of this is new. And at some point, the Caliph’s court seems to have gotten its hand on one of the Star Trek universal translators. That would be new.
“Watch Bees” by Philip Brewer
Post apocalypse. Farms are growing self-sufficiency and protecting themselves from bandits and raiders with GM watch bees, programmed to recognize strangers. David has come to the Ware farm in Illinois to steal some of the bees to protect his family’s orchard, because in Michigan, profit-seeking corporations have engineered bees that can’t reproduce a new queen. But the genetic engineering has made this more complicated than he’d supposed, and besides, he’s falling for the Ware’s daughter Naomi.
The nature of the apocalypse that has so altered life is not specified, but I would guess it had something to do with oil. This and many of the other issues that make up this interesting scenario are quite timely: agribusiness has increasingly replaced crops with patented varieties that don’t produce fertile seed, and colony collapse disorder has made us realize how very much we depend on bees [although I understand that native orchard mason bees are in fact more efficient as pollinators for tree fruit than honeybees]. But where I don’t follow the author is in his claim that the GM watch bees would be so expensive that fruit growers in Michigan couldn’t afford them, would instead take such extreme measures as we see in David’s case. Simply put – you don’t make a profit by pricing yourself out of the market, and Sayes Law, that demand creates its own supply, would seem to be contradict the premise in this case.
These events are presented as long-past history, and there is a strong sense of inevitability about them – a tragic sense. We see no real agency on the part of the characters; it is not that they wouldn’t act, but that events overwhelm them. What we see is their reaction, and how they are affected. The reasons and motives driving events are concealed from them, as well, and thus to the readers. Just as matters reach a climax, the action fades into the ink of historical archive.
“Corn Teeth” by Melanie Tem
Sonya is an abandoned child in the process of being adopted by resident aliens on Earth. She is rather unclear about what this entails, but she wants it desperately, to belong and be loved. But her misunderstanding has consequences.
“We’re gonna go talk to a judge and Yoolie and Ib and Zama are gonna say they want us forever and the judge is gonna say we’re their kids forever and there’s this big hammer and the judge’ll pound on the table with the hammer and then we’ll turn into Alayayxans.”
One of those stories in which the first-person narrator talks in a childish voice in run-on sentences, supposedly to engage reader sympathy, but I only find it irritating. The xenophobia is not original; the bureaucracy of social service agencies rings true.
“Paradise as a Walled Garden” by Lisa Goldstein
Alternate history: an Elizabethan age of steam. Tip works in a manufactory staffed largely by robots [here called homunculi] made in Al-Andulus, which tries to keep secret the advanced technology it sells to backwards Christian nations like England. One day the homunculi malfunction [rebel] and try to wreck their workplace. The foreman, along with Tip, is sent by Queen Elizabeth to Al-Andulus to make an official inquiry, Tip being a clever girl working as a boy who knows how to read the Arabic numerals on the steam dials – a perfect cover for an industrial spy.
So no one in England knew how the homunculi worked, Tip thought. She had always wondered about that. And she saw immediately what Elizabeth was doing, that she was blackmailing the Arabs, making them share their precious knowledge to keep news of the homunculi’s rebellion from spreading to other countries. Many people had called Elizabeth a clever queen in Tip’s hearing, or a cunning one if they disliked women, but Tip had never understood why before.
I liked this alternate history scenario, the power games, espionage and sabotage among the various kingdoms and states of the age. I would have liked the story much better if it hadn’t emptied the box labeled STEAMPUNK of all its brass gears, steam cars, airships and automatons. Spunky girl disguised as a boy? Disaffected labor replaced by mechanicals? None of this is new. And at some point, the Caliph’s court seems to have gotten its hand on one of the Star Trek universal translators. That would be new.
“Watch Bees” by Philip Brewer
Post apocalypse. Farms are growing self-sufficiency and protecting themselves from bandits and raiders with GM watch bees, programmed to recognize strangers. David has come to the Ware farm in Illinois to steal some of the bees to protect his family’s orchard, because in Michigan, profit-seeking corporations have engineered bees that can’t reproduce a new queen. But the genetic engineering has made this more complicated than he’d supposed, and besides, he’s falling for the Ware’s daughter Naomi.
The nature of the apocalypse that has so altered life is not specified, but I would guess it had something to do with oil. This and many of the other issues that make up this interesting scenario are quite timely: agribusiness has increasingly replaced crops with patented varieties that don’t produce fertile seed, and colony collapse disorder has made us realize how very much we depend on bees [although I understand that native orchard mason bees are in fact more efficient as pollinators for tree fruit than honeybees]. But where I don’t follow the author is in his claim that the GM watch bees would be so expensive that fruit growers in Michigan couldn’t afford them, would instead take such extreme measures as we see in David’s case. Simply put – you don’t make a profit by pricing yourself out of the market, and Sayes Law, that demand creates its own supply, would seem to be contradict the premise in this case.
2011年5月18日星期三
Cum se rezolva cubul Rubik in doar cateva secunde
What for others is a real headache for them is just a matter of speed. Citynews.ro talked with the best speedcuberi Cluj, who manage to "solve" the Rubik's cube 10 to 14 seconds.
"I started speedcubing of pure chance. I found a video on YouTube where someone solved the cube in seven seconds, and I thought it was fake. Then I found the tutorials and I bought a cube and tried to solve myself. It seems to me a very nice thing as a hobby, I caught the bug, say so. Actually, you're in constant competition with you, you want to improve and pull stroke as good to beat your record, "Tudor told us Pogacean, class XII student of Lucian Blaga High School.
"Most people ask me to teach them, too"
He says he managed to solve Rubik's cube in just 20 seconds in approximately 4-5 months of training. Young's turn to spread the "bug" speedcubingului and his friends. "Some say I'm crazy, tell all your friends as, some say I have nothing to do, but most are asking me to teach them too," he told the boy.
He says he is just a myth that only very smart people can solve Rubik's cube. "Anyone can learn, you only need to do. There are all sorts of methods and algorithms that can be taught. It is a myth that only someone really smart can solve. Be aware that addictive, you can not leave, "Tudor said laughing.
I use professional cubes
Rubik's Cubes Cuberii professional use, which bows and can be rotated easily and do not stick. Such a 3x3 cube cost about 50-60 lei and can be purchased from specialty sites. Official record in a competition Tudor Pogacean is 23.78 seconds, the performance placing it first among cuberilor in Cluj-Napoca.
The fastest cuber in the county is but Andrei Pirvu, Dej, who has an official record of 15 seconds. It works in the MND, but do not let the passion for the Rubik's cube. It all started in the third year of the Academy, when he asked her to teach his sister loved to solve puzzles. Following some tutorials, Andrew managed to learn beginner's method in a few days after that and started looking for a professional cube.
"Exercising every day a few hours we reached an average of 16 to 17 seconds. Official record in the competition last year in Bucharest was 15 seconds, and informally, at home 10-11 seconds. It takes a lot of motivation, patience and passion. You lot of imagination and memory, not necessarily logical, "said Andrew.
"I started speedcubing of pure chance. I found a video on YouTube where someone solved the cube in seven seconds, and I thought it was fake. Then I found the tutorials and I bought a cube and tried to solve myself. It seems to me a very nice thing as a hobby, I caught the bug, say so. Actually, you're in constant competition with you, you want to improve and pull stroke as good to beat your record, "Tudor told us Pogacean, class XII student of Lucian Blaga High School.
"Most people ask me to teach them, too"
He says he managed to solve Rubik's cube in just 20 seconds in approximately 4-5 months of training. Young's turn to spread the "bug" speedcubingului and his friends. "Some say I'm crazy, tell all your friends as, some say I have nothing to do, but most are asking me to teach them too," he told the boy.
He says he is just a myth that only very smart people can solve Rubik's cube. "Anyone can learn, you only need to do. There are all sorts of methods and algorithms that can be taught. It is a myth that only someone really smart can solve. Be aware that addictive, you can not leave, "Tudor said laughing.
I use professional cubes
Rubik's Cubes Cuberii professional use, which bows and can be rotated easily and do not stick. Such a 3x3 cube cost about 50-60 lei and can be purchased from specialty sites. Official record in a competition Tudor Pogacean is 23.78 seconds, the performance placing it first among cuberilor in Cluj-Napoca.
The fastest cuber in the county is but Andrei Pirvu, Dej, who has an official record of 15 seconds. It works in the MND, but do not let the passion for the Rubik's cube. It all started in the third year of the Academy, when he asked her to teach his sister loved to solve puzzles. Following some tutorials, Andrew managed to learn beginner's method in a few days after that and started looking for a professional cube.
"Exercising every day a few hours we reached an average of 16 to 17 seconds. Official record in the competition last year in Bucharest was 15 seconds, and informally, at home 10-11 seconds. It takes a lot of motivation, patience and passion. You lot of imagination and memory, not necessarily logical, "said Andrew.
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