Lessons Abound for Businesses in the Wake of Civil Unrest

With the number of major world events happening over the last 6 months, I have to believe that people are starting to take notice and ask why. In many cases perhaps there is no reason to ask why, such as the overturn of the Tunisian government, or the similar situation in Egypt. Even as we speak the unrest in Libya is building to a crescendo, with people around the globe starting to feel the impact at the gas pump and in the stock market. Not to mention there are plenty of people, myself included, that are waiting to see the outcome, and what it means for not only the Middle East and African countries, but for all peoples and countries around the world. Business should take lessons from these situations as well, not only of the impact to them, but for what it means in the country of “YourBusinessToday”.

We often look at situations in foreign countries and think that it could never happen to us, and what we certainly don’t think about are the similarities between a country and a business. Any time you have a population of people being governed by a body who has greater and greater power and control in the eyes of those people, you really walk a fine line. It is the responsibility of those in power to take a step back, listen to their people, and ensure that not only do they understand them but are working on their behalf to make things better for them. Without people to lead, and people who want to follow you, you have no authority and can and will lose much. Whether that much is a company or a country is based on your situation, but the result is generally still the same.

In tribes such as the Trobriander and others around the world they have this concept correct. There are even companies such as Gore that get it right. You have to keep groups small, allow the people to have a voice, base authority on merit, and truly have your people’s best interest at heart because your people are you and you are your people. When you create a hierarchical system, giving greater and greater authority while separating the leaders and people from each other, you often end up playing a huge game of telephone to understand what is really going on with the people. Authority and respect needs to be earned by leaders, and voluntarily given by followers. When you try to force it, or demand it, you degrade the entire structure of trust and communication. We see this when we look at world leaders who are killing their citizens to maintain control, or taking money out of their pockets in one form or another to fill their own, or even in the case of working over their people’s heads and behind their backs on “diplomatic policies” that are really about making the leaders power and money greater (sometimes at the expense of the people they serve).

Unfortunately we fail to notice, or do anything about, the actions of business leaders that are equally egregious. We as human beings tend to view it as a greater tragedy when bad things happen to a people of a country, but accept it more when it comes from a business. While business leaders may not be mowing down their employees (and who knows, perhaps some do!) there are certainly cases where they are making deals for their own benefit, and lining their own pockets because “they earned it”. I’m sure that many of the world leaders out there being overturned and ousted believed the same thing at one time or another.

The time may not have come yet, but I believe that if current events are any indication, the time will come when people around the world will begin to become infected with the pandemic virus of “we won’t take it any more”. As this day draws near businesses better take heed and make changes, because as the global economy changes, the global environment changes, and one only knows how many governments change there will certainly be the possibility of a target being painted on the front and back of every business leader. Again, we’re not there yet, but that day may not be too far in the future.

Do you see yourself?

Although I keep intending to get much more written and posted here, I admit that my time is simply at an absolute premium and committed in large part to my new job as a federal contractor and my school work.   Not to mention spending time with my wonderful family.  With that being said, I still want to do the best that I can to add new content here as much as possible.

For a project in my Cultural Anthropology class, I conducted an ethnographic research project.  I chose to conduct my research in a suburban shopping mall and found some extremely interesting patterns and behaviors.  I’ve attached my paper to this posting, and hopefully as you look at it you will find it to be as interesting as I did, and perhaps you will even see yourself  in some of the observations recorded.

As always, I appreciate any feedback and comments and hope you enjoy.  Look for more to come soon!

Ethnographic Research Project

Transitions Are An Important Part

Again, it has been longer than I would like since my last blog entry; this is primarily due to my underestimating the amount of time that I would be committing to working on my degree.  Hopefully that will change once I complete the shortened winter semester, and get into the regular spring semester.  I will certainly be trying to get at least one entry a week here, and more if I can.  Thanks to those that continue to stop in!

One of the major school projects I just finished was an essay for my cultural anthropology class on the state of transition, or “liminality”, as shown through the comparison of burial rituals between three different cultures (I chose the Mongols, Kiribati, and Khasi).  While my paper was focused on the concept of transition as related to death and burial ceremonies, I think there are some very important conclusions that we can draw.

Overall, the concept of liminality is the transition phase just before a change.  This is true in coming of age ceremonies, weddings, birthdays, graduations, etc.  The purpose of these events is to show a definite change from what once was, to what will be.  Knowing that this happens in so many situations, I have to wonder why we don’t pay more attention to the transition phase in business.  It is a natural process that needs to happen, and can be seen around the world in many cultures and many forms, but for whatever reason when we get into business we tend to go against what is natural instead of using it to help us and our people be more successful.

The next time you are working to figure out how to motivate and engage your employees, ask yourself what natural transitions you have built-in to your processes.  Do you have levels of employment at each level to create goals and small wins, and do you celebrate those transitions?  (Both of these steps are necessary for a truly successful process.)  What lets people know that a project is at the end, or has completed?  How do you transition people from individual contributor to leader/manager?  If you have these processes, how do you celebrate these transitions?  Do you make it special and recognized?  People thrive on natural processes like this, and I truly believe that if you make these changes you will see improvements in the excitement, enthusiasm, and success of your business.

It may not be the first thing that we think of but we need to be aware of the natural tendencies of the crazy creature that is Homo sapien, and utilize those natural tendencies instead of fighting them.

The “Someone Else Will Do It” Effect

Very close to home!

As an article came up on Twitter today from @Reuters, the title struck out at me: “Jobless Americans wary of losing their edge.”  I couldn’t resist reading it, especially since I can relate.  The article, written by Kristina Cooke, is very well written and extremely familiar.  After losing my job in February 2010, I wasn’t sure what my next steps would be.  It was something that I had really never planned for and didn’t expect.  But somehow once it happened I started to think about what to do next, where was I going, how was I going to keep myself sharp and improve myself; I also had to think about how recruiters would be seeing me going forward.

In my own situation, I was fortunate to have the financial means to take a chance at starting my own business and furthering my education (thankfully my amazing wife has stood behind me through it all!).   Also, to continue to improve my knowledge and skills, I continued to read the periodicals that I receive through my membership in the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) and American Society of Training & Development (ASTD).  I also continued to read books, and write blogs, and join in on conversations around the web.  I believe that all of these things have helped me in keeping myself up-to-date and relevant.  Needless to say, I was still unsure of how much of an impact these events would have on my marketability.

I think this article really speaks to the fear that most people would never think of while they have a job, but I’m sure that going forward those of us who have experienced this event will never forget.  The idea that what you know and your experience could become irrelevant because of the amount of time you have been out of a job, or the fact that you might lose your ability to do your job effectively because of not using your skills regularly can be deeply frightening.  Even worse, finding a way to continue to stay sharp is not always as easy as it may seem either.  As a father to an almost-two-year-old, my wife and I have found that financially it doesn’t make sense for me to “just take a job.”  Neither would it be very likely that I could take a volunteer position due to the cost of child care.  With all of these factors in play, it can really become daunting to meet the expectations of recruiters and hiring managers, and to continue to catch their eyes.

It will be interesting to see what the long-term effects will be on society and the culture of both our country and corporate America.  Is this the event that changes the job market as we know it?  Is this the thing that will open senior positions and change the way we do business?  What will be the trickle down effect?  Perhaps there will be some new studies on this and more, and I for one will be reading them to make sure to keep my skills sharp, and my knowledge relevant.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…both sides of the coin?

The topic of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) is, needless to say, quite an emotionally charged and strongly opinionated one and has been since its inception.  As it is in the process of being repealed there are multiple articles on news channels, Twitter, and across the Blogosphere.  As someone who served, who is heterosexual (metro-sexual if you ask anyone that knows me, but that’s a whole other story), and who was close friends with plenty of other service members who were homosexual I tend to have my own perspective.

I believe that everyone has the right to believe what they choose, and to live in whatever fashion that they choose.  This includes sexual preference.  One of the things that the United States military defends is that very right, so it would seem nonsensical to expect that people that this right is there to support would not want to defend that right for themselves and others.  It should also be understood that sexual preference does not make you weak, and does not make you any less of a patriot.  Unfortunately, this is in many cases the same type of thought process that abounded when it came to females serving their country.  As we know, history repeats itself.  The biggest question is whether or not we learn from the past and continue to grow, develop, and move forward?

So what is the other side of the coin?  As I think back to my time in the military, I can take a look at the perspective of some of the hesitation, and potentially some of the thought process from an objective viewpoint.  There will always be those people, male and female, who will attempt to use their race, sex, age, religion, etc., et al. to benefit themselves, while asking for equality.  I experienced this as I saw females that voluntarily joined the US Navy and would demand equality while refusing to do the same work simply because they were female (yes, it really does happen), or who truly could not do the job because of physical limitations.  Of course, this was not the case across the board but was certainly evident in a minority of the population on the ship.  I have to believe that this is a potential setback for the thinking about DADT as well.

Another thing that could potentially cause some hesitation for acceptance could be due to the living situation.  I can’t necessarily speak for the Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force but in the Navy you live together in extremely close quarters and for many the thought of having someone of the same sex look at you in a sexual manner could be uncomfortable.  Most people consider their living space an area for decompressing, where they should be able to be (as much as possible) comfortable, especially in a place where you have very little comfortable, personal space.  This isn’t to imply that homosexual members of the service don’t look at heterosexual members now, but for many ignorance is perhaps bliss.  Unfortunately it would seem that there are those that have the misconception that because someone is homosexual they can’t control themselves, their attraction, and sexual urges and therefore will attack someone they find attractive like a wild cat on an injured baby gazelle.  As most of us know, this is no more true than the fact that the average heterosexual male can’t control his sexual attraction in the same manner.

From a purely logical stand point, the only thing that should ultimately change with the repeal of DADT is the open knowledge of sexual preference of those who are comfortable enough to share that information.  In my own experience, those that were comfortable in their sexuality would generally share that with those that they were close with, even with DADT in effect.  For those that are in the proverbial closet, I don’t believe that DADT being removed will necessarily change anything.  This act may make some heterosexual service members uncomfortable if perhaps they are uncomfortable confronting what was already unsaid but known, but if that is the case I’m not sure that DADT is the real issue.

How many role models does it take?


Alabama Gazette - The people's voice of reason

Raccoon dogs or Tanuki

The Raccoon dog, also known as Magnut or Tanuki, is a type of Asian wild dog it is very much a member of the dog family. It is considered to be one of the earliest species that other dog species have evolved from. Neither a raccoon nor a dog, but it does belong to the canid family, which is a lineage that includes dogs, wolves, and foxes.

There are 5 subspecies of raccoon dogs that can be found in the eastern Asia and Europe. These animals inhabit dense forests and live close to the water. Number of raccoon dogs in Asia is decreased as a result of excessive hunting (because of their fur).

European raccoon dogs are numerous and even classified as invasive species due to ability to easily conquer new habitats and spread various diseases. Raccoon dog is not on the list of endangered species.

Raccoon dogs can reach 18 to 28 inches in length and 14 to 15 pounds of weight they are covered with thick, long fur. Density and color of the fur depends on the season. Thick, brown or brownish-grey fur is characteristic for the winter. Reddish fur is typically seen during the summer. Black stripe on the back side of the body stretches toward the shoulders where it widens and forms cross-like shape. Belly is yellowish-brown colored. They have pointed snout, short ears, elongated torso and short legs. They have curved claws and dexterous front paws which facilitate climbing on the trees and holding of the slippery prey.

Raccoon dogs, like raccoons, sometimes wash the food. They are not genetically related with raccoons despite the name and similarities in behavior. They are nocturnal creatures (active during the night), and are omnivores (eat plants and meat). Their diet consists of fish, frogs, birds and their eggs, amphibians, reptiles, small invertebrates, fruit, seeds, nuts and berries. Unlike other species of dogs, raccoon dogs have small canine teeth, flat molars and elongated intestines. These features are typical for animals that eat large quantities of plant food.

The main predators of raccoon dogs are wolves, wild cats, foxes and birds of prey. Raccoon dogs live in pairs or small family groups. They produce yelps, growls and whining sounds for communications.

Raccoon dog (Canid) is the only species of wild dogs that hibernate during the winter. Reserves of fat collected during the summer are used as main source of energy during hibernation.

Mating season of raccoon dogs takes place from February to April. Pregnancy in females lasts 61 to 70 days and ends with 6 to 7 puppies (rarely 15). Both parents participate in rearing of young raccoon dogs. Young animals depend on the mother's milk during the first 2 months of their life. At the age of one month, they enrich their milk-based diet with meat. Independent life starts few months later, at the age of 4 to 5 months. Raccoon dogs reach sexual maturity at the age of 8 to 10 months.

Raccoon dogs can survive 6 to 7 years in the wild and up to 11 years in the captivity.

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What Are Adjustment Layers in Photoshop?

What Are Layers and Masks in Photoshop?

Photoshop can be confusing. It’s a massive program with countless tools and techniques. However, it’s not the advanced stuff that throws most people, but the very basics. As soon as you start using Photoshop, you’ll probably need to use Layers and Layer Masks. If you don’t wrap your head around them, you’ll never be able to get much further.

How to Change Someone’s Eye Color in Photoshop

How to Fix Red Eye in Photoshop

If you’ve ever used the flash on your camera to take a picture of someone in a dark room, you’ve probably seen the red eye effect. It’s where the person’s pupils appear a bright red rather than their natural black.


19/08/2014 09:17 BST | Updated 19/10/2014 06:59 BST

Some Families Shouldn't be Kept Together 'No Matter What'

David Cameron told us yesterday why, for him, "nothing matters more than family". And he told us what he plans to do about it. But while many commentators, including some from his own party, made it all about the institution of marriage and couples staying together no matter what, the Prime Minister said in the same speech that in cases of domestic violence, "what matters is making sure people are safe, rather than keeping the family together".

If only we could be confident that those implementing the changes announced today, at both national and local level, will share his understanding of domestic violence, as well as his belief in the importance of family relationships.

Will the health visitors who will now be offering "relationship support" to new parents be able to spot the signs of a dangerously controlling relationship? Will those leading antenatal classes, who will now be giving "relationship advice", understand the terrible fear and isolation faced by pregnant women who experience domestic violence? And if they do, will they know the signs, what to ask, and what to do with the answer?

What about the counsellors, funded by government at £7.5 million a year to provide "support for couple relationships". Will they know when making sure people are safe, in the Prime Minister's own words, is more important than supporting the relationship: the purpose for which they've been funded?

At the event where Cameron made his speech, Ruth Sutherland, chief executive of Relate, spoke of society as a "giant web" of relationships, and of the terrible isolation and disadvantage experienced by those without supportive relationships in their lives. This is precisely the horror lived by victims of dangerous coercive control. They are cut off from family and friends, living in constant fear and under threat, disoriented and feeling as lost as an isolated older person might be.

Cameron's new relationship support army might be a huge opportunity to break into the fortress of coercive control and start to free its thousands of victims. This will only happen if the government takes a strong and highly visible stand against domestic violence. Not only does coercive control, which is at the heart of all abusive relationships, need to be made a crime, but we need to ensure that everyone offering relationship advice fully understands it.

This means in-depth domestic violence awareness training for all the health visitors, counsellors, and all of the other professionals Cameron mentioned today. And it means sustaining the life-saving network of specialist support services for victims and survivors of domestic violence.

Without this, the "relationship support" promised today could be deeply dangerous for victims of domestic violence. It could add to the pressures tying them to a dangerous partner. It could reinforce the message that they are in some way to blame. It could say to them: "keeping the family together" is more important than keeping you safe.


Canadian Roster: Larin and Orlando

semester example: Chu has a degree in psychology from Bryn Mawr College, as well as graduate degrees from the University of California, Davis, and Harvard, according to Globe and Mail. In a response to the publication of her reviews, Chu wrote that she had learned a lot this semester about the power of words and about the accountability that we owe one another. June Chu, who resigned as a dean at Yale in June because of controversy over Yelp reviews, including one in which she labelled a Japanese restaurant as perfect for white trash. My question is, just this semester Example two, from Canadian Twitter The May debacle of several senior media leaders chortling about kicking in money to fund a cultural appropriation prize. Let's not argue whether the media moguls were meaner and more immature than the online mob that told them their conduct was gross, but rather focus on what other, savvier users of the service wondered Do they not know we can see them It was rather bewildering that long-time journalists devoted to the written word didn't realize they were creating a shameful, very permanent record. In the aftermath, some of these powerful figures found their careers derailed, while others scrambled to distribute apologies, both inside and outside their organizations. ( As reported in the news.


Adventures in Photography by Moses Farrow

Based on Long Island, New York, USA

There's always more to learn

What I love about this journey into photography is I'm constantly finding more to learn.  It's an active, vibrant industry filled with creativity, technology and new ways to see and explore our world.  I've decided to start a blog series in which I share more of what I've learned as a photographer and how I've developed my unique eye for taking photos.  I hope the readers of this blog will take something away that's positive and informative on their own journeys into photography and perhaps, life.

I finally took the leap from admiring photos and the photographers who produced them to believing that I could create beautiful photos as well.  My studies took me through the history of photography, the iconic photographers through time, and the mechanics of taking a photograph. Photography fits well with my style of learning, which is basically watching then doing.  I enjoyed learning about aperture and how it affects bokeh, or the blurred background you see photos, especially outdoor portraits.  The camera I had at the time didn't allow me to adjust the aperture, so I learned about compressing the image.  That meant zooming in on the subject, which naturally blurred everything else out.  I was on my way, excited at the thought of learning each new skill and going out practicing and seeing the results with my own eyes...

In this photo, I used the method of zooming in all the way and focusing on the subject, which was a hummingbird coming by for a drink.

In this photo, I stayed focused on the subject, while keeping the aperture as low as I could with the lens I was using, a Tamron 18-270mm 3.5-6.3 lens.  The squirrel is nice and sharp, but unlike the photo above, you can make more sense of the background.

It all depends on how you want your photo to look.  The main thing is to go out and take photos!  Whatever camera you're using, it's all about practicing by keeping your aperture (f/stop number) low and focusing on your subject.  Or if you have the room, zoom in on your subject, step back and watch how the background changes.

Moses FarrowComment


MYO6 Regulates Spatial Organization of Signaling Endosomes Driving AKT Activation and Actin Dynamics

APPL1- and RAB5-positive signaling endosomes play a crucial role in the activation of AKT in response to extracellular stimuli. Myosin VI (MYO6) and two of its cargo adaptor proteins, GIPC and TOM1/TOM1L2, localize to these peripheral endosomes and mediate endosome association with cortical actin filaments. Loss of MYO6 leads to the displacement of these… CONTINUE READING


Molecular mechanism of extreme mechanostability in a pathogen adhesin

High resilience to mechanical stress is key when pathogens adhere to their target and initiate infection. Using atomic force microscopy–based single-molecule force spectroscopy, we explored the mechanical stability of the prototypical staphylococcal adhesin SdrG, which targets a short peptide from human fibrinogen β. Steered molecular dynamics simulations… CONTINUE READING


Nerve pathways involved in adrenergic regulation of electrical and mechanical activities in the chicken rectum.

Peripheral nerve pathways responsible for adrenergic inhibition of mechanical and electrical activities in the chicken rectum and receptors mediating the adrenergic inhibition were investigated in isolated extrinsically-innervated rectum of the chicken. Electrical stimulation of the anal end (Ra) or the ileal cut end (Ri) of Remak's nerve, or perivascular… CONTINUE READING


Ningbo 14 Paralympic swimmer Xu Jialing Zhaijin in the China delegation of the youngest-segotep

Ningbo 14 year old swimmer Xu Jialing Zhaijin in China on behalf of the Zhejiang Paralympic swimmer Xu Jia Ling group at least 14 years of age (in) on the highest podium. "No matter, four years after the Tokyo Paralympics, my dream is to stand on the highest podium." This is Xu Jialing, a 14 year old swimmer of Zhejiang, who gave himself encouragement and comfort when he finished his first two games in Rio Paralympic Games. But without 4 years, only 4 days later, the youngest girl in the Chinese delegation of the Rio Paralympic Games has realized his dream. She won a precious Paralympic gold medal, which was the eighth gold medal of the Zhejiang Legion at this Paralympic Games. Beijing time yesterday morning, the Rio Paralympic Games eighth competitions day swimming competition, Xu Jialing in the female S9 100 meter butterfly stroke, 1 points 07 seconds 90 wins the gold medal, and has broken the Asian record. Xu Jialing in the first preliminary results in the final, was arranged in the fourth lane. Although the future is backward, but after 50 meters to let Xu Jialing narrowly spare no effort to catch up, 0. seconds to defeat the opponent, do stand to the highest podium. "Very happy, the first few things are a bit regrettable, did not get the gold medal, today finally grasp the opportunity. The game is about to come back, take a piece of card. I will do my best to match the game behind. " Xu Jialing was very happy after the match. He went to the first time to have a good news with his family, but Xu Jialing’s elder sister and parents were also happy for her. After all, this is her dream, and it is swimming that changed her life. Xu Jialing was born in the five joint village of Tzu town in Jiangbei District, Ningbo. At the age of 5, he lost his left arm in a car accident. Xu Jialing, a young man, became silent and did not like to go out and wear short sleeves to let others see his arm. 1 years later, Xu Jialing, 6 years old, began to practise swimming. She really began to release her energy in the swimming pool, and constantly gained remarkable achievements, making her a small star. She was interviewed and asked for a picture. Xu Jialing became more cheerful and lively. Ningbo River primary school headmaster has retained a precious photo, it was shot by Xu Jialing in the school skipping competition at the age of 7, Xu Jialing in the photo wearing a cute pigtails, right to hold one end of the rope, the other end of the line in the left arm sleeve, and a smile from Xu Jialing attention the face can be seen, this time is not the same as Xu Jialing. In addition to this gold medal, yesterday, Xu Jialing also worked with Zhejiang swimmer Chen Yi and two other teammates to win a bronze medal for the Chinese team in the women’s 34 points 4×100 meter freestyle relay race. Before, Xu Jialing had won the bronze medal in the S9 400 meter freestyle and fourth in the 200 meter individual medley at the S9 level. All of these achievements made Xu Jialing more and more confident: "in addition to one left hand, I feel that I am not a bit worse than my healthy peers." I can do what others can do! " In addition, in the last China goalball team and the host team in Brazil, the team of two athletes from Zhejiang Chen Fengqing and Zhao Kaimei, performance is quite good. At the end of the 3 – 3 draw, the team broke into the final with the golden ball of Brazil in the overtime. At this point, the Zhejiang player has won 8 gold, 7 silver and 6 copper in the Rio Paralympic Games.

宁波14岁游泳运动员徐佳玲残奥会摘金 在中国代表团年龄最小 14岁的浙江游泳选手徐佳玲（中）登上最高领奖台。 　　“没关系的，四年后还有东京残奥会，我的梦想就是要站在最高领奖台。” 　　这是14岁的浙江游泳选手徐佳玲在里约残奥会结束自己的前两项比赛后，面对不太满意的成绩，给自己的鼓励和安慰。 　　但是，不用4年，仅仅4天后，这个本届里约残奥会中国代表团中年龄最小的小姑娘，就实现了自己的梦想。她拿到了一枚宝贵的残奥会金牌，这也是本届残奥会上浙江军团的第8块金牌。 　　北京时间昨天早上，里约残奥会第8个比赛日的游泳比赛中，徐佳玲在女子S9级100米蝶泳中，以1分07秒90夺得金牌，并打破了亚洲纪录。 　　徐佳玲以预赛第一的成绩闯入决赛，被安排在第4泳道。前程虽然落后，但是后50米的奋起直追，让徐佳玲以0.1秒的微弱优势战胜对手，如愿站到了最高领奖台。 　　“挺开心的，前面几项有点可惜，没有拿到金牌，今天终于把握住机会了。比赛后程就想着追回来，去拿块牌。我也会尽力去比好后面的比赛。” 　　赛后的徐佳玲十分开心，第一时间和家人报去了喜讯，而徐佳玲的姐姐和父母也都为她感到开心，毕竟这是她的梦想，也正是游泳改变了她的人生。 　　徐佳玲出生在宁波市江北区慈城镇五联村。5岁时因车祸失去左臂，年幼的徐佳玲变得沉默寡言，不爱出门，也不愿意穿短袖让别人看到自己的胳膊。 　　1年后，6岁的徐佳玲开始练习游泳，泳池里的她真正开始释放自己的能量，不断获得骄人的成绩让她变成了一个小明星，接受采访、被人求合影，徐佳玲渐渐变得开朗活泼起来。 　　宁波江花小学的校长至今还保留着一张珍贵的照片，那是徐佳玲在7岁时参加学校跳绳比赛时所拍，照片中的徐佳玲扎着可爱的辫子，右握着绳子的一端，另一端则系在左臂的袖子上，从徐佳玲专注而又微笑的脸上可以看出，这个时候的徐佳玲已经不一样了。 　　除了这枚金牌，昨天，徐佳玲还和浙江游泳选手陈懿以及另外两名队友一起，合力在女子34分4×100米自由泳接力赛中，为中国队获得了一枚铜牌。而此前，徐佳玲已经拿到了S9级400米自由泳的铜牌和S9级200米个人混合泳的第四名。 　　这些成绩都让徐佳玲越来越自信：“除了少一只左手，我感觉我一点不比身体健全的同龄人差！别人能做到的，我也一定可以！” 　　此外，在昨天盲人门球中国女队与东道主巴西队的比赛中，队中的两位浙江籍运动员陈凤青和赵开美，表现也相当出色。最后全队在3比3战平的情况下，凭借加时赛的金球力克巴西队，闯进决赛。 　　至此，浙江选手已在里约残奥会上获得8金7银6铜。相关的主题文章：


My Take on Art

I once did an art project about vertibrae. They look like little pterodactyls.
I'm an artist.
"Everyone is an artist."
What other profession is so inclusive?
Do people say "Everyone is a doctor"?
(Well, actually, in a way we often do act as our own doctors, but that's a whole 'nother blog post!)

     I've been drawing since the age of 1, according to my mother, and according to an evolutionary astrologer who looked at my horoscope chart, I have been an artist in many past lives. She even said that I've died as a result of being an artist, whether through persecution for my art, or as the result of the backbreaking labor involved, such as being a stone mason.
 Being an artist in any lifetime is not easy but it seems to be especially confusing nowadays. An artist is not guaranteed a steady income, so I pay my rent by working at my "day job," as a security guard in an art museum. I enjoy being around the art and interacting with visitors. Inevitably, though, I hear disparaging comments, such as ever popular, "my child could do that."
     The thing is, it's entirely possible that their child could have created something similar to some of the art that is on display in our modern and contemporary collections. Art stopped being concerned with technical accomplishment somewhere during the industrial revolution about 100 years ago when it became apparent that cameras and other machines could do the work as well or better than we mere mortals.
     To appreciate today's conceptual art usually requires that the viewer read something about the artist's intent to fully appreciate it. Unfortunately many people consider art that requires reading and thinking to some sort of elitist scam. The same people would not question having to read an instruction manual to understand their latest gadget, so I can only assume that it's the ultimate result of living in a society that still holds technology and technique over humanity. Maybe we need to refund arts education.

Yesterday I visited an art show where the exhibition design itself was the medium. The name of the exhibit was "horizon" and it was put together by curator Scott Lawrimore, who simply took about 20 of the museum's landscape paintings and lined them up the length of the gallery so that the horizons were at the same height, roughly at eye level. On the opposite wall was projected a video of the fiery ball of the sun dropping into the sea. While in that room, you could either face one wall or the other, peering into the "windows" of landscape paintings or the looking at the electric video sunset.

 The premise of the exhibit, as stated in the wall text, included this concept:
Recent psychological studies suggest that the absence of a literal horizon, or “long view,” in our increasingly dense urban landscape, as well as our fixation on computer screens and smart phones as means to acquire and share knowledge, is contributing to new pathologies of depression. The future health of our landscape is likewise threatened by the lack of a metaphorical long view of our relationship with the environment."

    This struck me since I often wonder how modern civilization's hell bent hurry to grasp the next dollar has left us blinded to our destruction of the natural world and even our own souls. What will be the result from this disconnect, as we willingly prefer to stare at a glowing screen instead of into each other's eyes? I doubt that I would have pondered these ideas if I hadn't read that text panel. but there was definitely something about physically being in this gallery that gave me an overarching desire for the space for new ideas and a need to feel open to new horizons.


San Francisco

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Where is San Francisco located

Welcome! This page contains comprehensive information about San Francisco, including: the map where San Francisco is located, it's geographical coordinates, places where banks and ATMs, offices, schools, hospitals, museums, markets, monuments, salons, central park, metro station (if they are), reviews, and more. Detailed information includes data about where the country, city, region, district, street, and even house is located. This data can be useful for the tourists exploring the area, because they can compare detailed maps of San Francisco from different mapping services to create the route. One map may include an object that has not been added to other maps yet. All schemes and routes are updated with a certain periodicity. Today is 22 july 2018 year, saturday

Several maps of San Francisco

In this section, you can see where San Francisco is located on one of the most popular mapping services, among which OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Bing, Yandex, OVI are. An up to date detailed maps of San Francisco include layers with location of lakes and mountains in this area and any other objects. A map of the districts of San Francisco is visible only on an appropriate scale. The maps are not available to download, it is forbidden by maps terms of use. To view the map of San Francisco from another service – click to the necessary tab.

Geographic coordinates of San Francisco

To determine geographic coordinates of San Francisco (latitude and longitude) is not as trivial task as it may first appear. Usually these coordinates are attached to the point where the center of San Francisco is located. But note that the coordinates of the center point may vary from map services. Used coordinate system - latitude from - 90º to + 90º, longitude from -180º to + 180º, in degrees (º), decimal.

9° 59' 34''
9.99299 in decimal degrees
-84° -8' 14''
-84.12934 in decimal degrees

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Burundi Burundi: Mortality rate, per 1000 people, total

The data set "Mortality rate, per 1000 people, total" for Burundi contains data from the year 1955 until 2100.
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In our database there are 16,089 data sets for Burundi. Here is a selection of some more data for Burundi.

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Data set Value
Deaths, total 552,294
Deaths, female 257,600
Deaths, male 294,694
selected data set
Mortality rate, per 1000 people, total
Mortality rate, adult, female, per 1000 female adults 265.2
Mortality rate, adult, male, per 1000 male adults 323.2
Mortality rate by cause, cancer, per 100.000 people (ages 30-70) 161
Mortality rate by cause, cardiovascular, per 100.000 people (ages 30-70) 391
Mortality rate by cause, injuries, per 100.000 people 124
Mortality rate by cause, noncommunicable, per 100.000 people 839

General data

Data set Value
Population, total 11,216,450
Area (sq. km) 27,830.0
Gross domestic product in exchange rates (US $) 3,007,029,030
Gross domestic product per capita (US $) 286


robot photography

6. The use of smaller words and shorter sentences 8. Their relationship towards the person which they are trying to persuade The EGR system routes a number of the exhaust gases (6 ? 10%) from the EGR valve, last on the Intake System, and ultimately within the combustion chamber. The exhaust gases are inert i.e. they cannot burn in the combustion chamber; also, the exhaust gases take up a number of the space which would preferably be taken with the intake air. This reduces the volume of intake air readily available for the combustion process during each Power Stroke; which in turn decreases the peak combustion temperatures. This brings about lower NOx emissions.


Medical 199

c. Classification of CLL

i. B-CLL (95% of cases) have B-cell markers, such as CD 19 and CD20 ■ One T-cell marker is also present: CD5

• Also important is that the cells are CD23 positive and CD 10 negative ii. T-CLL (5% of cases) have T-cell markers d. Histology of affected lymph nodes reveals only diffuse pattern (not nodular), but proliferation centers are also present e. Peripheral blood findings i. Increased numbers of normal-appearing lymphocytes ii. Numerous smudge cells ("parachute cells") are present; smudge cells result from the feet that the neoplastic lymphocytes are unusually fragile f. Bone marrow findings: numerous normal-appearing neoplastic lymphocytes g. Clinical characteristics of CLL

i. CLL is the most indolent of all of the leukemias ii. Mean age at time of diagnosis is 60

iii. The malignant cells are nonfunctional —> patients develop hypogammaglobulinemia —» increased risk of infections iv. CLL is associated with warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) (10% of cases), which will cause spherocytes to be observed in peripheral blood v. CLL rarely transforms into a worse disease, such as prolymphocytic leukemia or large cell lymphoma (Richter syndrome)

Hairy cell leukemia a. Indolent disease of older men b. Lymphocytes have "hairlike" cytoplasmic projections ("dry tap" with bone marrow aspiration)

c. Diagnostic stain: positive tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)

d. Physical exam: a markedly enlarged spleen (splenomegaly) due to infiltrate of red pulp by malignant cells e. Treatment with 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine (2CDA), which inhibits adenosine deaminase (ADA) and increases levels of toxic deoxyadenosine

Follicular lymphomas a. The most common form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in the United States b. All follicular lymphomas are derived from B-lymphocytes c. Characteristic translocation is t(14;18)

i. Chromosome 14 has immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes ii. Chromosome 18 has bcl-2 (activation of bcl-2 inhibits apoptosis by blocking the bax channel)

d. Clinical features i. Commonly present with disseminated disease (more advanced stage)

ii. Has a better prognosis than diffuse lymphomas iii. Doesn't respond to therapy (unlike the more aggressive diffuse lymphomas)

iv. Up to half of cases will progress to a diffuse large-cell NHL

e. Classification i. Follicular small cleaved (<20% large cells in follicles)

ii. Small cleaved cells are also called centrocytes iii. Small cleaved cells in peripheral smear are called "buttock cells"

iv. Follicular mixed small and large cells (20-50% large cells, which are also called centroblasts, in the follicles)

v. Follicular large cell (>50% large cells in the follicles)

4. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma a. The Working Formulation divides the diffuse lymphomas into diffuse small cleaved, diffuse mixed small cleaved and large cell, and diffuse large cell b. Common features i. Composed of large cells with a diffuse growth pattern ii. May present at extranodal sites: CNS, stomach, etc.

iii. Aggressive, rapidly proliferating tumor iv. May respond to therapy c. Special subtypes i. I mm uno deficiency-associated B-cell lymphomas (these are often infected with EBV)

ii. Body-cavity large B-cell lymphomas (some of these are associated wjth human herpes virus (HHV]-8)

5. Small noncleaved lymphoma (Burlatt lymphoma)

a. Micro i. Medium-sized lymphocytes with a high mitotic rate ii. "Starry-sky" appearance is due to numerous reactive tingible-body macrophages (phagocytosis of apoptotic tumor cells)

b. Characteristic t(8;14) translocation i. Chromosome 14 has immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes ii. Chromosome 8 has oncogene c-myc c. African type is the endemic form i. Involvement of mandible or maxilla is characteristic ii. Associated with EBV

d. American type is nonendemic form i. Commonly involves the abdomen (such as bowel, retroperitoneum, or ovaries)

ii. High incidence in AIDS patients

6. Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL)

a. Synonym: intermediate differentiated lymphocytic lymphoma b. MCL is not in the original working classification c. Most cases of small-cleaved NHL in die Working Formulation are, in feet, mande cell lymphoma d. The tumor cells arise from mande zone B-lymphocytes (positive for CD 19, CD20, and CD5; negative for CD23)

e. Characteristic translocation t(ll;14)

i. Chromosome 11 has bcl-1 (cyclin D)

ii. Chromosome 14 has immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes

7. Marginal zone lymphoma (MALToma)

a. May arise inside or outside lymph nodes (extranodal)

b. Associated with mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue: MALTomas c. Begins as reactive polyclonal reaction and may be associated with previous autoimmune disorders d. Remains localized for long periods of time Plasma cell neoplasms (multiple myeloma)

a. Multiple myeloma is the most common primary tumor arising in bone of adults b. Lab i. Increased serum protein with normal serum albumin ii. M spike: monoclonal immunoglobulin spike

iii. Twenty percent express Bence-Jones proteins, which are light chains that are small and can be filtered into urine c. Histology i. Bone marrow has increased numbers of plasma cells (>20% is characteristic)

ii. Peripheral blood may show rouleaux ("stack of coins")

d. Multiple lytic bone lesions due to the osteoclastic activating factor (OAF)

i. OAF is IL-6 (increased amounts of IL-6 are associated with a poorer prognosis because survival of myeloma cells is dependent on IL-6).

ii. Lytic bone lesions cause hypercalcemia, bone pain, and increased risk of fracture e. Complications i. Increased risk of infection, the most common cause of death ii. Renal disease, such as myeloma nephrosis iii. Amyloidosis (10% of patients) due to amyloid light (AL) chains f. Plasmacytoma: solitary aggregates —> plasma cells, which may be located i. Within bone: precursor lesions to later develop into myeloma ii. Outside bone (extramedullary): usually found within the upper respiratory tract and are not precursor lesions for myeloma g. Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS)

i. Old name was benign monoclonal gammopathy ii. M protein is found in 1-3% of asymptomatic individuals over the age of 50 (the incidence increases with increasing age)

iii. About 20% of these individuals will develop a plasma cell dyscrasia in 10-15 years Lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (Waldenstrom macro globulin emia)

a. Synonym: small lymphocytic lymphoma with plasmacytic differentiation b. Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM) is a cross between multiple myeloma and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL)

i. Like myeloma, WM has an M spike (IgM)

ii. Like SLL (unlike myeloma), the neoplastic cells infiltrate many organs, such as lymph nodes, spleen, and bone marrow iii. Unlike multiple myeloma (MM), there are no lytic bone lesions, and serum calcium levels do not increase c. Russell bodies (cytoplasmic immunoglobulin) and Dutcher bodies (intranuclear immunoglobulin) may be present d. May have hyperviscosity syndrome (because IgM is a large pentamer)

i. Visual abnormalities due to vascular dilatations and hemorrhages in the retina ii. Neurologic symptoms include headaches and confusion iii. Bleeding and cryoglobulinemia due to abnormal globulins, which precipitate at low temperature and may cause Raynaud phenomenon

Peripheral T-Cell and Natural Killer Cell Neoplasms

1. Peripheral T-cell lymphoma, unspecified a. This is a "wastebasket" diagnostic category

2. Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL)

a. ATLL is a malignant T-cell disorder (CD4-T cells) due to HTLV-1 infection that is found in Japan and the Caribbean b. Clinical symptoms: skin lesions, hypercalcemia, enlarged lymph nodes, liver, and spleen c. Micro: hyperlobated "4-leaf clover" lymphocytes in the peripheral blood

3. Mycosis fungoides (MF) and Sezary syndrome (SS)

a. MF is a malignant T-cell disorder (post-thymic CD4 cells) but has a better prognosis than ATLL

b. Clinical: generalized pruritic erythematous rash (no hypercalcemia)

c. Sequence of skin changes (stages): inflammatory eczematous —» plaque stage -h> tumor nodule stage d. Micro reveals atypical PAS-positive lymphs in epidermis (epidermotropism); aggregates of these cells are called Pautrier microabscesses e. Cerebriform Sezary cells in peripheral blood: Sezary syndrome (which is also associated with a generalized exfoliative skin rash)

Hodgkin Disease (HD)

1. Hodgkin versus non-Hodgkin lymphomas a. Characteristics of HD that are different from NHL

i. Clinically, HD may present similar to infection (with fever)

ii. Spread is contiguous to adjacent node groups (unlike non-Hodgkin's lymphomas)

iii. Classification is based on inflammatory response and not malignant cell iv. No leukemic staLe v. Extranodal spread uncommon

2. Hodgkin disease a. The malignant cell is the Reed-Sternberg (RS) cell i. "Owl-eye" appearance: symmetric (mirror image) bilobed nucleus with prominent central nucleoli surrounded by clear space ii. RS cells are positive for CD15 (Leu-Ml) and CD30 (Ki-1)

iii. Except for lymphocyte predominate HD in which the malignant cells stain for B-cell markers and have negative CD15 and CD30

b. Classification of HD

i. LP (lymphocyte predominant) type; has L-H cells (popcorn cells) and are negative for CD15 and CD30

ii. Mixed cellularity; has eosinophils and plasma cells (increased number of eosinophils is related to IL-5 secretion)

iii. Lymphocyte depleted (LD); has few lymphocytes, and there are many RS cells iv. Nodular sclerosis (NS)

■ This is the most common subtype

• The only type more common in females

■ Lymph node has broad collagen bands

■ RS variant: Lacunar cells (clear space surrounding cell) c. Clinical characteristics i. Bimodal age group distribution (late 20s and >50)

ii. Usually patients present with painless enlargement of lymph nodes.

iii. B-cell symptoms: fever (that comes and goes = Pel-Ebstein fever), weight loss, night sweats iv. Bad prognosis is direcdy proportional to the number of RS cells present and inversely proportional to the number of lymphocytes v. Survivors of chemotherapy and radiotherapy have increased risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma or acute leukemia

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Jolie immortalised in comic book

Los Angeles: Actress Angelina Jolie has been immortalised in a comic book that talks about her rise to fame and life with actor and partner Brad Pitt.

The book, which is a part of the "Female Force" comic series, is written by Brent Sprecher and has illustrations by Nuno Nobre.

It will talk about Jolie`s diverse range of movie roles, including her roles in "Gia" and "Girl, Interrupted", and her charity work.

"I learned a great deal about her struggles and triumphs as an actress, mother and humanitarian. Often painted as an edgy, slightly dangerous movie star, what is often not revealed about Ms. Jolie is her tireless commitment to charity work and her dedication to the plight of refugees around the world as a Goodwill Ambassador with the United Nations," quoted Brent as saying.

The "Female Force" series was first published in 2008 to showcase strong and influential women who are shaping modern history and culture.

Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Thatcher, J.K. Rowling and Sarah Palin were among those who have been featured in previous issues.


In modern times this laidback city is particularly famous for its huge colony of monkeys that have overrun the old part of the city. It is also one of the oldest cities in Thailand with a significant place in Thai history. The city was first established in 1350 when it was a former capital of Thailand, and of particular interest are the Khmer and Hindu influences in the design of the ancient monuments, which later became Buddhist. There’s an interesting 'soupcon' of French architectural influence, as many Frenchmen were living in the region back in the mid-15th Century. But the main attraction is the many hundreds of macaque "Old world monkeys", which can be seen throughout the old town and is especially prevalent in the Phra Prang Sam Yot area. But be careful, as the monkeys have some very unpleasant habits, such as defecating on you or jumping down and grabbing your food or belongings. For this reason, it is not a recommended destination for anyone who feels a little uncomfortable around free-roaming animals such monkeys. From your base in the city, you can take tours to outlying historic ruins, such as Wat Phra Phutthabat, or you can go on organised rock climbing, mountaineering, trekking and caving activities.

Map of Central Thailand

Central Thailand-Map


Hammer Projects: Lily van der Stokker

Hammer Projects: Lily van der Stokker

Dutch artist Lily van der Stokker has been making bold, colorful large-scale wall paintings for more than twenty years. The artist applies colors ranging from soft pastels to bright fluorescents—sometimes in playful and visually arresting plaid patterns or all-over flower motifs—to amorphous soft-edged forms that inhabit the space like friendly oversized visitors. Witty texts added alongside van der Stokker’s forms complicate their first impression as the cartoony doodles of an adolescent or mere decorative ornamentation. Invoking the platitudes of polite society with expressions like “Best regards” or “Wonderful” or touching upon the realities that impact all our lives, from love to money to aging, with phrases like “Transfer the money to me” or “Only yelling older women in here, nothing to sell,” van der Stokker makes evident the power dynamics at work within seemingly innocuous spaces. Van der Stokker argues for the role of pleasure in aesthetic experience, finding alliances between beauty and intellect, playfulness and criticality.

Hammer Projects: Lily van der Stokker is organized by senior curator, Anne Ellegood with MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial assistant.

Hammer Projects: Lily van der Stokker
Hammer Projects: Lily van der Stokker

Lily van der Stokker (b. 1954, Den Bosch, Netherlands) lives and works in Amsterdam and New York City. She earned a degree in drawing and textiles from R.K. Scholengemeenschap St. Dionysus, Tilburg, and a second degree in monumental design and painting from the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost, Breda. A practicing artist for several decades, Van der Stokker has had solo exhibitions at Galerie Air de Paris, Paris (2014, 2005, 2000); Koenig & Clinton, New York (2014); New Museum, New York (2013); kaufmann repetto, Milan (2012, 2010, 2005, 2002); Tate St. Ives, Cornwall (2012); Leo Koenig, New York (2010); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2005–7); and Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2003). Her work has been presented in numerous group exhibitions at international venues, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2011); Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Netherlands (2011); South London Gallery (2010); Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France (2009), and De Appel, Amsterdam (2008). Van der Stokker has undertaken two large-scale public commissions. In 2000 she created The Pink Building, for which she painted the entire exterior and roof of a building for the World’s Fair in Hannover, Germany, and she designed a large ceramic teapot, Celestial Teapot, for the roof of a high-rise shopping center in Utrecht, Netherlands, in 2013.

By Anne Ellegood

Unless you happened to be outside the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1973, when Mierle Laderman Ukeles spent four hours scrubbing the stairs leading to the museum’s main entrance, or you attended the opening of Janine Antoni’s exhibition at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London in 1993, when the artist got on her hands and knees and mopped the floor with her hair, it is unlikely that you’ve entered a museum or gallery to be confronted by the quotidian subject of cleaning and maintaining the spaces in which we live and work. Far from spectacular or glamorous, the predictably dull, and at times unseemly, demands of everyday life that continually require our time and attention are still largely considered separate from art. To make them the subject of  art is to challenge the traditional separation between intellectual endeavors and the body, between the sacrosanct realm of art and culture and the ultimately equalizing domain of daily life. Efforts to collapse the barrier between art and life during the past half century are often associated with the material innovations of artists such as Robert Rauschenberg—with his rejection of notions of mastery and craftsmanship and insistence on bringing everyday materials into his work, like his bed, the morning newspaper, or an old tire—and the enactment of ordinary daily rituals like eating and drinking in the “happenings” of Allan Kaprow and others. But feminist artists have played the largest role in pushing back against the idea that subject matter related to domestic space, personal life, or emotional vulnerability is too frivolous and banal for the purview of art. In groundbreaking works from the 1970s like Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document (1973–79) and Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975), the tenets of conceptual art—with its integration of language and image, its embrace of photography and the video camera, and its unfolding over time and space—are enmeshed with questions of subjectivity, the body, and indeed, emotional affect, subjects generally avoided by an earlier generation of conceptual artists.

Since the late 1980s the Dutch artist Lily van der Stokker has been making large-scale wall paintings that unashamedly and exuberantly bring just such “inappropriate” topics into the public realm of art, often combining short, aphoristic texts with colorful, cheerful, soft forms and repeated patterns. Van der Stokker is fully committed to the liberating potential of integrating “high” art with commonplace and familiar aspects of our private lives. It was a radical gesture for her to carve out this niche for herself at a time when many women artists in the United States were adopting strategies of appropriation, producing works that were critical yet often cool in tone and intellectually rigorous, and when popinfluenced painting rooted in graphic languages and bright colors was typically associated with male painters like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Although Van der Stokker moved to New York City in 1983, she was raised and received her art education in the Netherlands (she continues to split her time between New York and Amsterdam), and in the early years of her career, women artists had little visibility in her home country, and questions of gender and feminism were essentially absent from works of art. She was well aware of the wall drawings of artists like Mel Bochner, Sol LeWitt, and Lawrence Weiner and adopted elements of their practices, like the interface with architecture and the use of language, while rejecting many of the imperatives they established for making their work in favor of creating her own highly original language and precise working methodologies. Van der Stokker embraced ideas of the decorative that underscored her interest in domestic space at a time when deconstructing institutional space was at its height. And she chose to paint her own wall drawings by hand—working from small colored pencil drawings that she faithfully follows and translates to a larger scale—rather than endorse the conceptualists’ argument that the essence of the work resides in the idea so that others can be enlisted to realize it.

Within this context, Van der Stokker deliberately chose to address emotional content in her drawings and wall paintings. And she found the use of text to be the most direct and powerful way to do so. One of her first drawing with language, which included simply the word sweetwas quickly followed by one that read, “I love you.” With humor and a sharp wit alongside a genuine fascination with that which has been deemed “feminine” both by the culture at large and by her personally, she has created wall paintings incorporating phrases such as “Women are very good at crying and I think they should be getting paid for it”; “I am so sorry I hurt you”; and “How sad for you,” insisting that emotions can be central to an art practice. Over the years she has taken up a number of additional subjects that she realized would be perceived suspiciously as not weighty enough for art, among them relationships, friendship, gossip, money, children, education, and housework (toilet paper even figured in a recent installation). As she has stated, “I choose my subject matter from topics apparently ‘forbidden’ in contemporary conceptual art, like family life, optimism and sweetness, and, by taking this radical position, I make my art approachable and controversial at the same time.”1

The duality articulated by Van der Stokker as “approachable and controversial” speaks to the core of what gives her work its tension, its energy, and ultimately its transgressiveness. Her incessant curlicues, cute flowers, and undeniably beguiling patterns, rendered in pastels and fluorescents that many would find cloying and vulgar, are at once totally sincere—she has repeatedly proclaimed her commitment to beauty and happiness—and willfully provocative. Her feminism resides in her awareness that, as she put it, “There’s no such thing as gender-neutral art.”2 And she insists that we recognize these ingrained biases through her bold approach to form and content, producing work that she knows will be judged by some as “girlie” and thus lacking in seriousness, intellect, and rigor. She has not backed down from her commitment to this position and has played the long game, as it were, and over time her aesthetic—often likened by critics to teenage doodles or the “decorative” realm of textile design—has come to feel incredibly radical. Indeed, with her adeptness at luring viewers with captivating (and seemingly innocuous) hand-painted illustrations, humorous texts, and sheer scale and then surprising them with content that is remarkably honest—by turns subversively friendly or bitingly critical and addressing such fraught  subjects as power dynamics, social marginalization, and even the machinations of the art world—she has smartly aligned herself with the enduring and boundary-pushing strategies of satire, parody, and caricature. Like others who embrace these strategies, she is refreshingly unafraid to laugh at herself. Yet her work is far from cynical or ironic; on the contrary, she is dedicated to providing immense visual pleasure and communicating with the broadest public possible by touching on subjects and feelings that we have all experienced.

For her exhibition at the Hammer Museum, titled The Tidy KitchenVan der Stokker may have created her most political work to date. Eschewing imagery and pattern in favor of a heavily text-based approach, she brings the subject of housework and cleaning into the domain of the museum with an intensity and integrity on par with that of Ukeles, Kelly, and Rosler in the 1970s. The phrases “Washing and Cleaning” and “Organized and Tidy,” writ large across the expansive walls of the museum’s lobby, are surrounded by descriptions of objects and actions from the domestic sphere that are modestly charming or innocuous—“sticky honey bear” and “smooth the wrinkles”—or disgusting—“mildew on the shower curtain” and “dead mouse behind the fridge.” There is a humor to the sort of leveling that comes with an awareness that we all, at one time or another, have to remove hair from our shower drains. But this sense of shared experience is complicated by phrases that are more crassly commercial, like “oven clean in 2 hours 45 minutes,” reminding us of how we are constantly bombarded with ads for products claiming to make our lives easier and better. The space of domestic labor has long trafficked in the unacknowledged and unpaid labor of women, and van der Stokker takes the argument that women should be compensated for their skills and contributions one step further with the text “Crying Crying for $320 p day 8 hours a day,” which proposes women should be paid for expressing their emotions. Labor and gender issues quickly come to the fore, and a contemplation of domestic space extends into a consideration of public space, indeed the site in which visitors find themselves standing. Public institutions like museums, of course, require constant and diligent cleaning and safeguarding, and the efforts of those who maintain the physical integrity of these places often remains invisible and underacknowledged. As Van der Stokker describes it, the work “is almost a political demonstration for housecleaners. For me, it touches upon taboos in the art-world and celebrates domestic life.”3 In this work, we see her exceptional ability to finesse the complexities of her subjects with insight and simplicity. With a calming palette of pink, blue, green, and yellow, Van der Stokker both honors and celebrates cleaning as part of our daily lives and insists that art examine those things that we may prefer to keep hidden from view.

1. Lily van der Stokker, artist's statement sent to the author, November 9, 2014

2. Steel Stillman, “Lily van der Stokker: In the Studio” (interview), Art in America 102 (September 2014): 139.

3. Van der Stokker, email correspondence with the author, December 15, 2014.

Hammer Projects: Lily van der Stokker is organized by senior curator Anne Ellegood with MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial assistant.

Hammer Projects: Lily van der Stokker is generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund.


MarketSnacks Makes Wall Street News Fun

MarketSnacks is a daily finance newsletter for millennials, by millennials. It seeks to make Wall Street news brief, clear, and entertaining.

Co-founders and best friends Nick Martell, a first year MBA at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jack Kramer, a first year MBA at the University of Michigan, were recently featured in Forbes 30 under 30 (hey, sliding in at 29 is the way to go)!

In light of the buzz, I sat down with the co-founders to hear their story and their vision for MarketSnacks.

Let’s face it — financial news can be pretty freaking boring.

That’s what Nick Martell realized in July 2011 when he started his first job as an asset manager at UBS (#financebro). Part of Nick’s job was to keep up with the happenings on the Street, which included staying on top of what was reported in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other publications.

Even though Martell, a history major at Brown, worked in finance and loved to read and write, he found himself bored reading this type of news.

The compelling story on, say, the Microsoft acquisition of Yammer was buried within dozens of stories that — quite frankly — he found difficult to engage with as a millennial.

Martell noted that “even topics that I found fascinating, like the European Debt Crisis that was ongoing at the time, were written about in such a dry, traditional tone that they lost my attention before I could finish the articles.”

When he complained about this to his best friend Jack over a beer, it struck a chord. The duo then decided to launch MarketSnacks.

How It Works

In a newsletter format, MarketSnacks covers 2–3 engaging stories each day.

“As a media company in a fragmented media landscape, we make Wall Street headlines and concepts accessible in a fun and simple way,” says Kramer.

The title of last Tuesday’s newsletter? Earth’s Most Expensive Chicken Wing (accompanied by the photo below)…

Screenshot from last Tuesday’s newsletter

That was enough to grab my attention (perhaps because I love chicken wings!) — and it was certainly different than the headline on the Wall Street Journal.

Both stories were covering Roark Capital’s $2.3 billion bid for Buffalo Wild Wings.

How Do They Make Money?

MarketSnacks makes money two ways.

First, they syndicate content. “Just a year after launching, Motley Fool reached out because they were having trouble reaching the millennial audience that we were so effectively engaging with,” says Martell.

That’s when they began syndicating their content to bigger media brands like Yahoo Finance, Motley Fool, and Fidelity.

They also sponsor brands that are relevant to their millenial, young professional audience in their newsletter content.

Challenges Ahead

MarketSnacks is first and foremost a newsletter. But what’s next?

Today’s consumers of digital news are increasingly preferring video content. While tech titans Facebook and LinkedIn encourage their users to push out video content, digital media publications will need to catch up to this too.

Like the true millennials they are, the MarketSnacks founders are on top of this innovation. They have begun doing monthly TV appearances on CBS, Nasdaq, and Cheddar.

MarketSnacks co-founders Jack Kramer (left) and Nick Martell (right) on Nasdaq

While video creates new opportunities for MarketSnacks, it also brings challenges.

As news consumption continues to shift to video, MarketSnacks will need to maintain a unique, fresh voice and perspective amidst all of the noise. Additionally, a shift to video will impact the revenue model, as the channels for sponsored content and syndication will change.

Side Hustle Entrepreneurs

US-based print news is a $30 billion industry — which includes revenue from both paper and digital consumption. Revenues from digital channels are projected to grow by 9.8% through 2020.

However, financial news comprises only a small portion of that overall industry size and — perhaps most importantly — MarketSnacks is more of a supplement (rather than a replacement) for existing news sources like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

That may be why the MarketSnacks founders dubbed themselves “side hustle entrpreneurs.”

Despite having full-time jobs, Martell and Kramer have been running MarketSnacks for 6 years. They haven’t hired anyone to help — and they haven’t missed a single day of market action since launching in 2011.

Now that’s side hustle committment.

Since it began syndicating its content, the company has been fully profitable — unlike most VC-backed startups that often focus on growth over profitability. As the MarketSnacks founders see it, a stable, profitable business is a solid outcome too.

Yet that doesn’t mean the team doesn’t hope to scale.

“Testimonials from readers who ‘finally understand what’s up with Chipotle’s stock’ or ‘got the Morgan Stanley internship because of MarketSnacks’ made us realize this was a media company we could grow big — and they’re what power us daily,” says Kramer.

As long as these entrepreneurs keep their side hustle up, I know I’ll keep on reading.

Feel free to check out MarketSnacks and subscribe here.

Like what you read? Give Kyle Robertson a round of applause.


Coupling to Electromagnetic Fields

  • Rainer Dick
Part of the Graduate Texts in Physics book series (GTP)

Electromagnetism is the most important interaction for the study of atoms, molecules and materials. It determines most of the potentials or perturbation operators V which are studied in practical applications of quantum mechanics, and it also serves as a basic example for the implementation of other, more complicated interactions in quantum mechanics. Therefore the primary objective of the current chapter is to understand how electromagnetic fields are introduced in the Schrödinger equation.

Oscillator Strength Polarizability Tensor Order Perturbation Theory Electromagnetic Potential Induce Dipole Moment

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Authors and Affiliations

There are no affiliations available

Personalised recommendations


Non-Lethal Weapon: How Lessons Learned in War Can Make Peace at Home

A US Army Sergeant speaks with a civilian in Al Madinah, Iraq (photo by Sergeant Bobby J. Segovia)

We’ve all heard of a “win-win” situation before. When it comes to a conflict, people on all sides tend to better flourish when they embrace the idea of a nonzero—that is, a situation where all parties are better off. Sometimes this happens through cooperative dialogue, and from people expanding their empathy circle to include others outside their “tribe” or in-group.

This seems more relevant than ever these days, in light of police reform, social justice activism, national protests, riots, and Black Lives Matter debates. As we see social unrest flare up across communities, it appears that no one is being served by the status quo of failed conversation, nor of strained police-community relationships. Can science and cooperative dialogue get us to a nonzero, in which all of the above groups are better off? I argue that it can—and that our war veterans coming back home can help.

Legendary urban planners like Jane Jacobs advocated a bottom-up approach to respecting the human pulse of communities. This means listening to and respecting the local population—empower them and let them take the lead. Soldiers practicing counterinsurgency or civil affairs in Afghanistan or Iraq while working with the local village also understand this. When we respect and empower local communities—and understand how to do this as well as teach it to others—we are all more likely to win. This is perhaps the focal point where Black Lives Matter, members of law enforcement, and community residents have an opportunity to embrace an active dialogue with one another, as well as with many in the wider science and skepticism community.

Non-Lethal Lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan: The People Are the Center of Gravity

A key takeaway from my time in Afghanistan is echoed by a main principle of Counterinsurgency (COIN): The ability to understand and work with this human layer—the human terrain, so to speak—is at the forefront. A similar ethos was echoed by what were known as the “Special Operations Forces’ Truths” at Camp Mackall and Fort Bragg’s JFK Special Warfare Center and School: Humans are more important than hardware.

Consider how this works in a rugged war zone and how it could work in our communities back home. From 2011 to 2012 I was embedded in Nangarhar and Kunar Provinces in Northern Afghanistan, near and sometimes right along the Pakistan border, working as a member of a Human Terrain Team (HTT). HTTs were essentially designed to apply human behavioral understanding to the battlefield in a way that helped both the coalition forces (especially the soldiers out on patrol, risking themselves working in an often confounding and complex cultural environment) as well as the local population. When telling people what we do, I would often explain with a side of light humor that we were supposed to be the “Oprah Winfreys of the warzone,” using cultural expertise and applied social science to mitigate misunderstanding and prevent violence. Essentially, our job was to be a like a marriage counselor between the brigade combat teams and the Afghan population. Often, we would wear local Pashtun attire and sit down over chai with the Afghans and elders of the village.

Scientific, skeptical thinking and analysis were indispensable for helping us understand the deeper picture of why people were upset and how to resolve different ongoing or potential conflicts with respect and trust. Building a relationship through culturally skilled conversation could prevent unnecessary hostilities. Our team, as well as the soldiers and the Afghan elders, would come together to find a way to avoid conflict, and this often turned out to be best for everyone.

Imagine now, for a moment, if this was applied in Ferguson, Missouri, by citizen teams working with the local community and its residents, well in advance of the 2014 riots.

Imagine if the local police and local authorities decided to prioritize how citizen teams consulted the community, how residents could be engaged in meaningful dialogue through active listening and local immersion. Even a small mapping team could have done this—a team comprised of a few experienced participatory mappers and skilled veterans working cooperatively alongside the neighborhood’s population.

Participatory mapping is the ultimate form of listening. From youth to senior citizen, across race, gender, and income, participatory mapping looks at the people of a community as primary stakeholders in their own backyard. It is an inclusive, bottom-up, locally driven approach to engaging communities through open-ended discussion and ethnography. It is a true window into how locals see things. It looks, for example, at how residents view foreign aid, NGOs, governance, and local police or security forces. It maps out current and historical perceptions across groups (such as age, race, demographic location). Equally important, it looks at the intangible, often “hidden” layer of grievances and frustrations.

Essentially, it is a tool for respectfully listening to a community by allowing it to “map out” its own problems and concerns, as well as solutions and aspirations. This map (described in detail by links at the end of this article) is built and owned by the people of the community  and can even be represented by geospatial software, as with Participatory Geospatial Information Systems (PGIS). What is perhaps most remarkable — aside from being truly ground-up —is that the process  works across a wide range of cultures and levels of literacy. BBC ran a report on “The Akassa Approach” in 1998, and there is much to learn from studying it.

Why Social Science, Law Enforcement, and Local Communities Should Start Working Together

Social unrest within neighborhoods and communities can be described to an extent by common features: failed relationships, deeper grievances, and information gaps, leading to potentially dangerous misunderstanding or even violence, riots, and social breakdown. These cases, in short, often involve a failure to adequately understand the human terrain. Civil and effective policing must understand how best to approach the local community it is operating in. It should understand how to engage its residents and leaders. To listen and learn, to become aware and attuned. As with science, it is not just about having answers, but about how to ask the right questions.

Community mapping can work as a bridge between police and communities by meaningfully embedding itself in the local areas. Teaching people this approach can be a huge asset. As many of our war vets understand, demonstrating a willingness to merely sit down with people, and listen with sincerity and open-mindedness can be quite powerful. Giving people a genuine sense of being listened to, by having a voice and a stake in their own future, can itself be a major pivot point in mitigating social breakdown, as well as rebuilding, healing, and restoring social relations. Many have done this in warzones. Now we must do it in our own backyards. Our veterans, in partnership with science and skepticism, can help.


Just observing the heritage in the streets and in the towns is enough to form an idea of the importance down the ages of the capital and province of Seville. Since the times when the city of Italica was one of the main centres of production in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica to the Seville of the Golden Age, when it became the “Great Babylon of Spain” after the discovery of America, by way of the Muslim Isbilia, a small, independent taifa kingdom, this region has always enjoyed great prestige, thanks to a unique climate, a privileged environment and the singular personality of its people.

The Roman city of Italica, located on the Lower Guadalquivir, between Seville (Hispalis) and Alcalá del Río (Ilipa), very close to the routes that communicated with the mining zones in the Sierra Norte mountains of Seville and in Huelva, played a very important role in both politico-military and economic terms during the early Roman Empire, as evidenced by the growth of the city, which eventually covered an area of some 52 hectares.


5IIG: Structure Of The Spx-ttm Domain Fragment Of The Yeast Inorganic Polyphophate Polymerase Vtc4 (form A)

Phosphorus is a macronutrient taken up by cells as inorganic phosphate (P(i)). How cells sense cellular P(i) levels is poorly characterized. Here, we report that SPX domains--which are found in eukaryotic phosphate transporters, signaling proteins, and inorganic polyphosphate polymerases--provide a basic binding surface for inositol polyphosphate signaling molecules (InsPs), the concentrations of which change in response to P(i) availability. Substitutions of critical binding surface residues impair InsP binding in vitro, inorganic polyphosphate synthesis in yeast, and P(i) transport in Arabidopsis In plants, InsPs trigger the association of SPX proteins with transcription factors to regulate P(i) starvation responses. We propose that InsPs communicate cytosolic P(i) levels to SPX domains and enable them to interact with a multitude of proteins to regulate P(i) uptake, transport, and storage in fungi, plants, and animals.
PDB ID: 5IIGDownload
MMDB ID: 138612
PDB Deposition Date: 2016/3/1
Updated in MMDB: 2016/09
Experimental Method:
x-ray diffraction
Resolution: 2.99  Å
Source Organism:
Similar Structures:
Biological Unit for 5IIG: monomeric; determined by author and by software (PISA)
Molecular Components in 5IIG
Label Count Molecule
Protein (1 molecule)
Vacuolar Transporter Chaperone 4(Gene symbol: VTC4)
Molecule annotation
Chemicals (4 molecules)
* Click molecule labels to explore molecular sequence information.

Citing MMDB


Living Conditions

Letters take a minimum of two weeks to arrive in Uganda if sent by airmail; packages will take longer. If family and friends send letters within the first five weeks after your departure, you can use the following address:

“Your Name,” Peace Corps Trainee
P.O. Box 29348
Kampala, Uganda

You are responsible to provide your address to those who will send letters and packages.

Email Access and Telephones

Email access is limited. Volunteers often purchase portable Internet connection modems and/ or travel to an urban area for access at Internet cafes. This may mean access as little as once or twice a month depending on the Volunteer’s location. Volunteers typically purchase mobile phones and secure local phone services through a “pay as you go” plan. This means they pay for every minute when they place a call. Unlike the U.S., received calls are free to the receiver. Most Volunteers bring a laptop computer with them for work, maintaining social connections and leisure. While many have full size laptops, netbook computers are lighter and more packable. The possibility of solar charging is a bonus.

Housing and Site Location

Volunteers live in urban, semi-urban, and rural areas in village and town neighborhoods, at school campuses, and in clinic compounds. Living conditions vary widely. The host organization is required to provide you with two rooms, access to good water, bathing, and toilet facilities. One room typically serves as a bedroom and the other room a kitchen and sitting room. These rooms can be standalone small houses or attached to a row of houses. You may have some basic furnishings provided and you also receive a modest settling-in allowance provided by the Peace Corps to help you with additional basics for setting up a household. Most houses do not have running water or electricity. You should expect to use a pit latrine and a kerosene lantern and stove. Although the Peace Corps staff makes every effort to collaborate with communities and organizations to see that housing is ready for Volunteers when they arrive at their sites, because of limited resources, sometimes there are delays. At nearly all sites, privacy will be extremely limited. Children may be around constantly, demonstrating their curiosity about you. You will have to adapt to a more public life.

Living Allowance and Money Management

Food and Diet

You will generally buy your food from outdoor markets or small shops. Most Volunteers cook for themselves. The local diet is basic but healthy, including a variety of plant protein foods (beans, peanuts, soybeans) and there are a lot of vegetables, greens, and starches. Fish and meats are easily sourced. There are likely to be some local restaurants at or near your site. Imported foods, while expensive, can be found in larger towns and serve as a great treat. During training, there will be sessions on safe food preparation and proper nutrition. There is a Peace Corps/Uganda cookbook that demonstrates how to use local ingredients. A vegetarian diet is relatively easy to follow in Uganda after one becomes familiar with the local food. Vegetarians should be prepared to explain to home stay families and others the concept of vegetarianism.

Volunteers travel primarily by foot, bicycle, or public transport. Public transportation to and from the nearest urban or trading center is available near every site—in most cases several times a day. Public transport is likely to be crowded and uncomfortable. Sometimes transport is infrequent and unreliable. . To facilitate fieldwork, Volunteers are given an allowance to purchase a bike. Still, many of the communities and jobsites Volunteers visit may entail a long and challenging ride. Some Volunteers must be able to ride a bicycle in order to do their jobs. When riding a bicycle, Volunteers must wear helmets (provided by the Peace Corps). Please come to Uganda with this as an expectation. When traveling to and from major cities, there are large, comfortable buses that operate on schedules. Tickets that designate specific seat numbers are purchased in advance or near the time of departure. To move about among specific places within a city, Volunteers often use taxis known locally as “private hires.” The Peace Corps/Uganda prohibits the use of motorcycles by Volunteers as drivers or passengers because of the extreme safety risks they pose. In some cases, special permission is granted to use motorcycle transportation for work-related reasons. There is a detailed process with strict guidelines to secure the permission.

Social Activities

The most common form of entertainment is socializing among friends and neighbors. You will find it easy to make friends in your community by participating in weddings, funerals, birthday celebrations, and other social events. Volunteers also visit other Volunteers at their sites or other locations on weekends or holidays. Some Volunteers run while others hike and bike. Playing games, local and otherwise, are also options. Football (soccer) is a passion as is cricket. Basketball can be found in certain locations. Billiard tables are commonly seen in semi-outdoor locations. Some larger towns have cinemas as well. It cannot be overemphasized the rewards of establishing rapport with one’s supervisors, co-workers, and other community members. A sincere effort to learn the local language will greatly facilitate these interactions. The Peace Corps encourages Volunteers to remain at their sites as much as possible to develop relationships with community members. There are opportunities for eco-tourism—birding, wildlife viewing, and hiking. River rafting is also popular. Local rafting companies assert that exposure to fast-moving white water during rafting and kayaking presents a low risk for “schisto,” a parasitic infection caused by schistosome flukes. The risks related to “schisto” are permanent as there is no absolute cure.

Professionalism, Dress, and Behavior

Ugandans view dressing appropriately as a sign of respect for others. Dressing in neat, clean, and conservative clothes can assist integration into your community and enhance your professional credibility and effectiveness. For male Volunteers, clothing should include smart casual pants and a dress shirt. Ties typically are worn for work in urban environments and for major functions. For female Volunteers, slips, skirts, and dresses below the knees are appropriate in most professional environments; short skirts and low-cut or sleeveless tops are highly inappropriate. Blue jeans, T-shirts, and casual sandals are not considered appropriate during training, in the workplace, or during visits to the Peace Corps office. Shorts are not worn outside one’s house. Facial piercings are not generally accepted in professional settings, and may make it more difficult to integrate into your community. Discreet studs are likely your best option as hoops could present a safety issue. If you have tattoos, please be prepared to cover them whenever possible, especially when you are in your community. For men, beards are acceptable as long as they are neat and trimmed. Norms for dress are conservative.


ReynoldsRZR 92 Carbon Road Wheelset - Tubular

The fastest wheels on earth.

If you've been looking for the fastest wheel on the planet, you've found it. The Reynolds RZR 92 boasts the lowest drag values, the highest levels of stability and handling, and the lowest weight of any 80+mm wheel on the market. In fact, compared to its closest 80mm rival, paired with a rear disc wheel, the RZR 92 saves 20 watts -- translating to a roughly 23 second advantage over the length of an Ironman course.

Now, we're going to be forward -- the complexity of the RZR design is deep, but we'll walk through it together. To start, we need to understand the prevalent ideology in aerodynamic wheel design, and to do so, we need to understand drag. What is it? Simply put, it's the restraining force that acts on the wheel when its direction of motion is counter to the free stream of airflow. Now, airflow near the surface of a wheel is turbulent by nature, and when it comes close to the rim surface, it becomes a turbulent boundary layer. This is the start of two kinds of drag, skin friction and pressure drag. Currently, wheel makers are attempting to harness the turbulent layer, reattaching it at the rear section of the rim. The reasoning behind this is that the system reduces pressure drag, but in return, the wheel sees gains in skin friction. However, this is viewed as a positive trade-off, as skin friction has around a ten-fold lower drag value than pressure drag.

Starting at the rim bed, the RZR 92 features an ultra-wide maximum width of 28.0mm. As a tubular, this eliminates the drag-increasing balloon effect caused by a tire being wider than a rim. Now, the tire width matches the leading edge of the rim, creating less turbulence at the airflow's introduction to the wheel. The benefits to this design are four-fold -- it delivers an aerodynamic benefit, it increases lateral rigidity, it increases comfort, and it decreases rolling resistance. Moving down to the spoke face, the RZR 92 rim and carbon fiber spokes are shaped in a NACA-profiled, tapered V-shape that ends with a sharp trailing edge. This is where Reynolds starts to challenge the status quo. Basically, the RZR's shape actually smooths airflow over the wheel, and when that air passes the spoke face, it's easily reattached at the rear of the rim. So, the RZR places a focus on mitigating turbulence, not accepting it. In fact, testing performed at the A2 Wind Tunnel shoes the RZR experiencing less drag in watts at 30.75mph, at every conceivable yaw angle (0-18 degrees), then any offerings from its most popular competitors.

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Reynolds RZR92 wheelset


Interview: Sad Grrrls Fest in conversation with Camp Cope

What happens when you sit two musos together to talk about gender equality in the industry?

Photograph: Graham DenholmL-R: Rachel Maria Cox with Camp Cope's Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich and Georgia Maq

Sad Grrrls Fest is a music festival hell-bent on celebrating gender diversity and some of the best non-male music talent in Melbourne. The one-day music festival is being held at Footscray's Reverence Hotel this year and will be an inclusive environment for musicians and music fans alike. We got Sad Grrrls founder and musician Rachel Maria Cox to sit down for a chat with Camp Cope bass player Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich about gender equality in Australia’s music industry.

Let’s start with what you think is missing from Australia's mainstream music channels?

Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich: I’d like to see more Indigenous artists, and music from other places other than big cities. We live in a very diverse and complicated country and while we have art to reflect that, I think mainstream media can really branch out to reflect how diverse we are. Right now it feels like they’re just looking at what’s popular and successful and they keep bringing out similar versions of that to keep the ball rolling. We need to look for new, more diverse voices to get the ball rolling on new sounds.

Rachel Maria Cox: Even though Australia has this amazing cultural heritage from our Indigenous people and the huge amount of voices who’s come from all over the world, we’re not hearing that in mainstream music.

How much of the gender disparity in the music industry is brought on by what media outlets cover/what listeners are buying or seeing/ or something else?

RMC: One of the things I’m really interested in is seeing more trans and non-binary artists come through. I would like to see artists and repertoire reps from major labels [scout new artists] with the aim to diversify their line-ups. People don’t like the idea of setting quotas for diversity but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad idea because there are some really talented voices out there, and if a quota is what gets them across the line, then so be it.

KH: I don’t know if there needs to be that push for a quota, or if we can start by getting rid of the language that is constantly talking about gender. Would a quota be helping or making the divide greater? I think this is a very complex, multi-faceted issue. I think a positive step forward could be if people stopped saying female like it’s a genre of music. I feel like it contributes to the gender divide and it may alienate people because they don’t feel like they connect to the term being used: whether it’s girl band, or queer band, or something else.

What can media outlets do better to help balance out this gender disparity?

KH: They should look closely at the language they use. Often gender is used to categorise music when it doesn’t need to be.

RMC: That’s true, labelling can have the effect of ‘othering’ bands that not straight, white and male. It distances anyone who doesn’t fit in the majority from the mainstream. I’ve heard people say “I don't care about gender, I just listen to the music”. But I find that’s often an excuse to ignore music that isn’t made by straight white men.

KH: Yeah, it’s like when people say “I don’t see race”, and this is where it gets complicated. There are times when there is a need to recognise the lack of gender diversity in the industry, but there are also times when music journalists are reviewing something or talking about a band and there’s no need to say.

RMC: I think if it’s important to the art that’s being created, it’s important to bring up. In the Two Steps on the Wateralbum, God Forbid Anyone Look Me in the Eye, deal with the reality of being trans-feminine on certain songs and to ignore that would be to dismiss the significance that [that experience] has on the creation of art. At the same time, to call Two Steps on the Water a trans-band would be to ignore two-thirds of the band. Self-awareness is key. Always questioning yourself and questioning the media is always a healthy thing to do.

KH: Isn’t that being tokenistic? There’s was one time when Camp Cope was put on a bill where we felt like we didn't fit the line-up, and we were told outright that we were being included because they needed more women. Did they even care about the music that we play? This is where quotas can be problematic.

What can musicians do?

KH: Take into account the privilege you have in being a person with a platform. Send a clear message of what you stand for, and constantly reflect on everything you put out there. If we can start with making every in the audience feel included and comfortable, then that’s a step in the right direction.

RMC: Exactly. At the end of the day if you’re a musician and you’re given this platform to speak to a large group of people, then those people are the most important people in the room. One of the things that kept me from making my own music for ages is not feeling comfortable at the shows I was going to. I work as a music teacher and I think one of the most important things I try to do with all my students is to encourage them to start performing and to start thinking of music as something you can show to other people from an early stage.

KH: Yeah, growing up music has always been a big part of my life and I never got involved in music to make statement, it was just this natural thing. Somewhere along the way, I lost the confidence to play and it took seeing an all-women band from Western Sydney where I was from to make me think if they can do it, why can’t I do this?

This is Sad Grrrls Fest's second year running, what do you think the popularity of the collective and the events say about what music fans want?

RMC: The conversation around gender diversity means that if a festival comes out with a line-up that’s very male-centric, people won’t hold back with calling that out. So [when I was starting Sad Grrrls] I thought if I’m getting frustrated by this, why don’t I create something to counter it? The popularity of the festival probably says that people are ready to support more diverse line-ups, but ideally the music industry will get to the point where Sad Grrrls Club isn’t necessary anymore.

KH: There’s seems to be genuine excitement and support not just from fans but also from the artists involved. There’s also been lots of buzz on social media, which is getting the topic of gender diversity in music being discuss really openly. The attention the festival’s gotten from mainstream media reflects with how many people it speaks to.

RMC: This conversation about gender inequality isn’t a new thing, it’s been around for forever and a day! But it takes people laying the groundwork for it at an underground level for something like Sad Grrrls to work.

Do you consider Sad Grrrls the evolution of the original Riot Grrrls movement?

KH: There’s a push for things to change at an industry level now and hopefully what we've got now is more complex than what Riot Grrrl originally embodied.

RMC: Riot Grrrl was a product of is time, like any cultural movement. It was definitely flawed in its understanding of women, and I want to build on that now and make it more trans-inclusive and work on making it culturally diverse.

KH: It’s important to acknowledge that whatever we do is going to be flawed and, again, reflecting on whether you’re making the most of your opportunity to create change.

Sad Grrrls Fest is on Saturday October 1 at The Reverence Hotel, Footscray.

Where to listen to music any day of the week

Where to see live music every night of the week

By: Delima Shanti


The Creative Process, in a Nutshell

You need creative inspiration. You strain and stress. You Google the competition. You look through old notes. You feverishly pray. None of these methods work all that well. How do you find inspiration? Here’s what I have learned after years of thinking on creativity.