(Queen’s Park): Big companies are ripping off the province under the Liberal government, according to today’s report from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario.
“It’s wrong for the Liberals to subsidize companies to bottle our water,” says GPO leader Mike Schreiner. “The Liberal government is giving away our water to companies that bottle it and sell it back to us. This is outrageous.”
Most industries pay nothing to take water. This means the province recovers only 1.2% of the $16.2 million it spends on water quality management programs. Those who are required to pay for water are only charged $3.71 per million litres according to acting Environmental Commissioner Ellen Schwartzel.
“It’s irresponsible that the Liberals give most industries a total free ride,” says Schreiner. “And charge such a paltry amount for those they do charge.”
The provincial government needs to implement full cost recovery for water taking in Ontario. Companies that profit off our water should pay for the full cost of taking that water. The GPO is also calling on the government to reform the water taking permit process. Ontario must strengthen water protection, which the ECO report also cited as a concern.
“The Dolime quarry, which threatens 25% of Guelph’s drinking water, is only one example of the flawed water taking process,” says Schreiner. “Water taking permits need to include long term management and monitoring programs. Municipal water use and agriculture should be prioritized over industrial use of water.”
The GPO is on a mission to bring honesty, integrity and good public policy to Queen’s Park.
In the era of social media, it only takes a few seconds for a picture to change the world. Photographs shared on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest can shape public opinion in seconds, which has huge implications for politics, marketing, and social campaigning.
Last week, amongst the many iconic images doing the rounds on people’s timelines and newsfeeds, one from the world of sport stood out: the shots of Jose Bautista tossing his bat after hitting a game-winning home run in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 6-3 win over Texas Rangers.
The image at the top of this article summed up the passion and emotion that are hallmarks of Bautista’s style of play, and drew attention to the fantastic entertainment that the Blue Jays’ campaign in the American League Championship Series has provided for millions of loyal fans.
Anyone who glimpsed the photos and dug a little deeper into the backstory would have learned of Bautista’s brilliant performance in a do-or-die game for the Jays. The contest was full of drama and controversy, disputed calls, crucial errors, and brilliant baseball.
In countries like the UK, where baseball barely registers on the radar of most sports fans, moments like this can be pivotal. All of a sudden, legions of sports fans sit up and take notice of what’s happening overseas, and some of them fall head over heels in love.
image: tsn.ca
All it takes is a performance like Bautista’s to send sports fans into action. Some of them will be slow burners, taking note of the Blue Jays’ progress over the years before gradually developing into full-blown fans. Some will use their newfound interest in baseball as part of their sports betting strategy. Sports betting is huge in Europe, and many avid gamblers relish the opportunity to gain an advantage over bookmakers and place bets on the less-talked-about sports at online destinations like Bet365 and others.
Then, there are the sports fans who will take drastic action when they discover a new sport that they enjoy. These are the superfans who will go straight to the Blue Jays’ online store, immediately buy themselves a jersey, and then book themselves on the next available flight to Toronto in time to catch the very next game taking place at Rogers Centre.
Sports clubs and franchises have cottoned on to this, and are employing marketing managers who are wise to the power of social media to gain new fans overseas and bring them flocking to the stadiums and stores where they will spend their money and contribute to the club’s coffers.
Baseball is some way behind sports like football, which have been successfully exported to Europe through initiatives like the International Series, which sees a number of NFL games played in London each season.
Europe lacks the stadiums and infrastructure to support a similar export of baseball, but that certainly won’t stop clubs like the Blue Jays from reaping the benefits of the new fans who will support the club from afar if they continue to send powerful messages around the world via the web. For the Silo, Keith Allison
[See Comments at the end of this article for updates Ed.] “All my pension goes to pay my electricity” – constituent. With Ontario boasting the highest energy prices in North America, quite honestly I don’t know how some people get by. When people bring their electricity bills into my office, it provides a line-by-line window on just how difficult it has become to pay the bills.
Recently I met with a couple who live in a modest 790 square foot house – they heat with one electric space heater, have been wearing heavy sweaters all winter and are doing absolutely everything they can to keep costs down. But their hydro bill for January was $641.67 — $233.89 of which was delivery charge. During the meeting I was told: “All my pension goes to pay my electricity.”
Nowadays if you can’t afford your electricity, in many cases, you don’t have the option of paying interest or getting caught up later – your service is simply shut off. To have service reconnected is often hundreds of dollars. If someone can’t afford their bills in the first place how will they ever be able to pay exorbitant fees for reconnection? Apart from closing down cheap coal generation, there are many reasons why hydro has skyrocketed.
For example, the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) Program pays out massive subsidies for wind and solar contracts to produce power we don’t need. This continues to drive up the cost of electricity which rose by 26 per cent between 2008 and 2010 – projected to rise another 46 per cent by the end of this year. The FIT Program, with its overly-generous payments, will cost taxpayers $4.4 billion more than the previous Standard Offer Program. Wind generators operate at 28 per cent capacity and their output is out of phase with electricity demand during certain times of the day.
You can’t store electricity, so we pay the U.S. and Quebec to take the surplus power off our hands. We’ve paid them $1.8 billion over the past six years. Their industries use this cheap power to compete even harder with our manufacturers, and so the downward spiral continues.
If you’re a large user, look for the words ‘Global Adjustment’ on your hydro bill. Simply put, Global Adjustment covers the spread between market price and guaranteed price paid to generators, plus the cost of paying standby natural gas plants not to produce electricity, as well as paying for conservation programs. One North Bay manufacturer had a Global Adjustment — nonexistent on their 2009 hydro bills — of $1,700 on their electricity charge of $1,400 for that month. The Global Adjustment is expected to increase tenfold, from $700 million in 2006 to $8.1 billion in 2014. This will certainly cause more Ontario manufacturers to close up shop and move to cheaper locales.
Also, watch for the Smart Meter charges to hit home. The computer system cost $250 million, and the bill is now due.
Let’s not forget the cancellation of the Oakville power plant and cancelling, demolishing and relocating the Mississauga power plant. These cancellations were nothing more than political ‘seat savers’ for the last election and will cost taxpayers $1.1 billion.
Click Me!
In many ways the Green Energy Act put the desires of the renewable power industry ahead of the needs of people and Ontario businesses – a perfect formula for killing jobs and crippling consumers. For the Silo, MPP Toby Barrett
DID YOU KNOW?- Norfolk Power (and in fact all Ontario Municipal power companies to the best of our knowledge-CP) has a 13 days past due policy for Service Termination Proceedings. Even small “ma and pa” businesses provide 30 day terms and even 60-90day terms before sending out Collection Letters or Warning Letters. We contacted Norfolk Power and were told that “it’s standard policy- set by Ontario’s Energy Board”. Hmmm- that sounded like a standard “sub-standard” explanation to us, so a bit of research showed that the Ontario Energy Board is a self-regulated, internally filled board that sounds impartial but is anything but- in fact we were unable to determine exactly who or how board positions are filled, never a good sign for impartiality. If you decide to call them at 416 481 1967 be ready for one of the most confusing answering services you will ever find. Messages prompt you with a never ending supply of websites and telephone numbers- finally if you are persistent enough you will be asked to “press 9” to consent for your personal information to be gathered, recorded and used by the Ontario Energy Board- not exactly consumer friendly. I suppose you could always speak with one of the Public Information Officer but then they will refer you to media relations. You won’t be transferred (we were told they aren’t allowed to) so keep a document open and handy- 416 544 5171 and then the process begins again only this time you are immediately connected with an answering machine asking for your credentials. *sigh Fifteen minutes later from when we started our initial inquiry we realized we might as well be prospecting for dare we say it “oil”. [Update- Many Municipal aka “County” Hydro companies including Norfolk Power have sold their electricity services to Hydro One but have held onto their Water services. Ontarians will now receive a separate bill for Water and a separate bill for electricity. Perhaps more confusing, in Spring of 2015 Ontario announced that it would sell 15% of its Hydro One holdings in an IPO plan that will eventually sell off another 45% in order to raise money for debt repayment, transportation and infrastructure programs. Targeted buyers would be Canada’s largest pension plans. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-16/ontario-to-sell-15-of-hydro-one-one-of-biggest-iposEd. ]
If you have the brain power – take a look at this excerpt from the Energy Board’s website- listing (in broad terms) changes to Ontario’s energy act- which ultimately affects consumers in Ontario and their payment and use of energy:
1907-1959
The Natural Gas and Oil Wells Act marked the Province’s early concern for the proper management of its energy resources – a concern that evolved through the Natural Gas Act of 1918, the Natural Gas Conservation Act of 1921 and the Ontario Fuel Board Act of 1954.
1960-1998
The Ontario Energy Board Act, 1960 created the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) as a successor to the Ontario Fuel Board. The OEB was authorized to set just and reasonable rates for the sale and storage of gas and to make orders granting leave to construct pipelines for the transmission of oil or gas to expropriate land for oil or gas pipes.The Ontario Energy Act, 1964 clarified certain powers of the OEB and strengthened the sections dealing with gas storage. An amendment to this Act in 1965 set out the ground rules for the OEB in determining the rate base of gas utilities and giving the OEB power to make regulations prescribing a uniform system of accounts for gas companies.On June 7, 1973, the Premier announced the establishment of the Ministry of Energy which would include the OEB. Further amendments were made to the Ontario Energy Board Act which included provisions for the appointment of additional board members and making the OEB responsible for annual reviews of rate and rate-related matters of Ontario Hydro.In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the oil crisis developed in the Middle East, causing natural gas prices to soar. Ontario Hydro turned to nuclear generation and the public became conservation conscious. During that time, the Board decided on hundreds of natural gas applications and conducted major reviews of Ontario Hydro rates.
1998
The mandate of the Board changed significantly with the passage of the Energy Competition Act, 1998 (ECA) The ultimate goal of the ECA was the creation of a competitive market in the electricity and natural gas industries.To achieve the goal of creating a competitive market in the electricity industry, the former Ontario Hydro monopoly was replaced by several business entities including two distinct commercial companies, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and Hydro One Inc., and one Crown corporation, the Independent Electricity Market Operator, now known as the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). OPG has taken responsibility for the generation of electricity while Hydro One owns and maintains transmission and distribution wires. The IESO manages the province’s electricity system and operates the wholesale electricity market. The OEB had varying degrees of regulatory authority over all three corporations as well as the province’s municipal electric utilities.The OEB became responsible for regulating local distribution companies and for ensuring that the distribution companies fulfill their obligations to connect and serve their customers. The OEB also became responsible for licensing certain participants in the market. The OEB regulated all market participants in the province’s natural gas and electricity industries and it provided advice on energy matters referred to it by the Minister of Energy and/or the Minister of Natural Resources.
2002
On May 1, 2002, Ontario’s new electricity market opened. The new market was the culmination of over five years of work by the electricity industry, government, the OEB, the IESO and many other market participants. The generation of electricity became a competitive activity, with electricity bought and sold on the new spot market at competitive prices. The IESO successfully began operating the wholesale market.Over the summer of 2002, record-high temperatures drove up the demand for electricity as well as the market price, which resulted in considerable consumer concern. In response, the government introduced the Electricity Pricing, Conservation and Supply Act, 2002. This legislation, which received Royal Assent on December 9, 2002, capped the price of electricity at 4.3 cents per kilowatt hour for residential, small-business and other designated low-volume consumers, effective May 1, 2002 to May 1, 2006. This legislation also provided refunds, retroactive to May 1, 2002, to compensate those consumers for any costs in excess of the 4.3-cent cap.All transmission and distribution rates were frozen at existing levels until at least May 1, 2006. Utilities were required to receive written approval from the Minister of Energy before any application for rate changes could be submitted to the OEB. This legislation also deemed any interim rate order to be final. In addition, the new legislation modified the OEB’s objectives in the areas of energy efficiency and conservation with respect to both natural gas and electricity from “facilitating” to “promoting.”
2003
Proclaimed on August 1, 2003, the Ontario Energy Board Consumer Protection and Governance Act, 2003, established the new OEB as a self-financing crown corporation and gave the OEB the opportunity to do its work more efficiently and effectively. In particular, the legislation provided for a management committee to manage the activities of the OEB. The legislation further enhanced the OEB’s role in protecting and educating energy consumers.In December 2003, the government introduced the Ontario Energy Board Amendment Act (Electricity Pricing), 2003, which put in place a new interim electricity pricing structure, replacing the 4.3 cent per kilowatt hour (kWh) price cap as of April 1, 2004. Under the interim structure, residential, low-volume and other designated consumers paid 4.7 cents per kWh for the first 750 kWh consumed per month, and 5.5 cents per kWh for consumption above that level.The Act called on the OEB to develop a new electricity pricing mechanism. It also charged the OEB with the responsibility to protect and renew Ontario’s electricity grid by ensuring reasonable charges for the delivery of electricity.The legislation also required the OEB to allow local distribution companies to recoup costs (called “regulatory assets”), the recovery of which had been put on hold in 2002 by the Electricity Pricing, Conservation and Supply Act, 2002. These recoveries would be spread over a four-year period so that they would have only a modest impact on the final price to consumers.
2004
In June 2004, the Government of Ontario proposed a restructuring of the province’s electricity sector in order to encourage new electricity supply, energy conservation and stable prices at a level reflecting the true cost of electricity.The Electricity Restructuring Act, 2004, received Royal Assent on December 9, 2004. The new legislation amended the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998, and the Electricity Act, 1998.The OEB became responsible for developing a transparent mechanism for establishing electricity commodity prices for eligible consumers who have not signed contracts with electricity retailers. The Regulated Price Plan, which took effect May 1, 2005, replaced the interim two-tier pricing of 4.7 cents per kilowatt hour (¢/kWh) and 5.5 ¢/kWh hour that had been in place since April 2004.The OEB also assumed responsibility for the Market Surveillance Panel, previously the responsibility of the IESO.A new agency, the Ontario Power Authority (OPA), was established to ensure an adequate, reliable and secure supply of electricity in Ontario for the medium and long term. The OEB was given the duty of approving the OPA’s fees and its integrated power system plan and procurement process. The OEB is also responsible for licensing the OPA.
2009
The Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 received Royal Assent on May 14, 2009. Among other things, the legislation amended the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998 and the Electricity Act, 1998. It established important responsibilities for the OEB and other entities in achieving the objectives of conservation, promotion of renewable generation, and technological innovation through the smart grid.The OEB’s three new objectives are:
The promotion of renewable energy, including the timely connection of renewable energy projects to transmission and distribution systems;
The promotion of conservation and demand management; and
The facilitation of the implementation of a smart grid.
The OEB has an important role to play in ensuring the government’s objectives in the legislation are achieved. That includes ensuring that electricity distributors meet the requirements for renewable generation connection, smart grid implementation and conservation and demand management.
2010
In 2010, Ontario passed the Energy Consumer Protection Act, that would ensure Ontarians have the information they need about electricity contracts and bills, as well as the comfort of knowing they can rely on fair business practices. The new rules come into effect in January 2011.
Silo reader “Jack” sent us this scan of his hydro bill- over 500$ for two months of service for a small 2 Bedroom basement apartment. Notice that he was unable to pay his bill on time due to the fact that his bill accounted for almost 50% of his rent.
The first bill was $237 and the next month was even higher at almost 300$ for a single month of hydro.
Ontario First to Test Automated Vehicles on Roads in Canada
Province Supports Innovation in Transportation Technology
You should take auto-driving cars seriously- every major Auto manufacturer is venturing forward with concepts such as this one from General Motors- the GM EN-V
Ontario is launching a new pilot to allow for the testing of automated vehicles on Ontario roads.
Automated vehicles are driverless or self-driving vehicles that are capable of detecting the surrounding environment using artificial intelligence, sensors and global positioning system coordinates. Automated and connected vehicle technologies have the potential to help improve fuel efficiency as well as reduce traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and driver distraction.
Beginning on January 1, 2016, Ontario will lead Canada as the first province to test automated vehicles and related technology on-road. Currently there are nearly 100 companies and institutions involved in the connected vehicle and automated vehicle industry in the province. The pilot will enable those companies to conduct research and development in Ontario rather than in competing jurisdictions, as well as support opportunities to bring automated vehicles to market.
The province is also pledging an additional $500,000 in funding to the Ontario Centres of Excellence Connected Vehicle/Automated Vehicle Program, in addition to the $2.45 million in funding recently provided. The program brings academic institutions and business together to promote and encourage innovative transportation technology.
Ensuring Ontario’s place as a world leader in the auto, transportation, information and communications technology sectors are part of the government’s plan to build Ontario up. The four-part plan includes investing in people’s talents and skills, making the largest investment in public infrastructure in Ontario’s history, creating a dynamic, innovative environment where business thrives, and building a secure retirement savings plan.
Not all concepts are futuristic looking such as Google’s modded Prius. We’re betting Ontario will test more conservatively styled auto-drivers such as this one. CP image: New York Times
QUOTE
“In the world of transportation, Ontario has the opportunity to show leadership on automated technology. Today, Ontario is making its claim in the global marketplace by taking the next steps in automated vehicle innovation. The automated vehicle pilot will ensure that the province’s roads remain safe without creating burdens that stifle investment and innovation in Ontario’s dynamic business environment.”
— Steven Del Duca, Minister of Transportation
“Ontario is a global leader in developing and manufacturing the next generation of vehicles.
This new pilot program will build on our success, and help Ontario lead the development of automated and connected car technologies. In this highly competitive global economy, investing in people’s talents and skills to create the next generation of innovative technologies is good for business, and can help lead to the easier movement of goods and services across the province.”
— Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure
QUICK FACTS
Information about applying for the pilot will be available online from the Ministry of Transportation in late November.
Who wouldn’t want to ride/drive Chevrolet’s FNR concept car?
Disponible en français: L’Ontario est la première province à mettre à l’essai les véhicules automatisés La province encourage l’innovation dans les technologies des transports
L’Ontario lance un projet pilote en vue de la mise à l’essai de véhicules automatisés sur ses routes.
Les véhicules automatisés sont des véhicules sans chauffeur ou autoconduits qui peuvent détecter l’environnement avoisinant grâce à l’intelligence artificielle, aux capteurs et aux coordonnées fournies par le système de positionnement global. Les technologies relatives aux véhicules automatisés et connectés ont le potentiel d’améliorer le rendement du carburant et de réduire la congestion routière, les émissions de gaz à effet de serre et la distraction au volant.
Dès le 1er janvier 2016, l’Ontario sera le premier lieu au Canada à mettre à l’essai les véhicules automatisés et les technologies connexes sur la route. Près d’une centaine d’entreprises et d’établissements œuvrent actuellement dans le secteur des véhicules connectés et automatisés dans la province. Le projet pilote permettra à ces entreprises de mener des activités de recherche et de développement en Ontario plutôt que dans les territoires concurrents, en plus de créer des possibilités qui favoriseront l’introduction des véhicules automatisés sur le marché.
La province s’engage aussi à injecter 500 000 $ de plus dans le Programme de recherche sur les véhicules connectés et autonomes par l’intermédiaire des Centres d’excellence de l’Ontario, outre le financement de 2,45 millions de dollars récemment alloué. Ce programme réunit des établissements universitaires et des entreprises en vue de promouvoir les technologies de transport novatrices et d’encourager leur utilisation.
S’assurer de faire de l’Ontario un chef de file mondial dans les secteurs de l’automobile, du transport et des technologies de l’information et des communications s’inscrit dans le plan du gouvernement visant à renforcer la province. Ce plan comprend quatre volets : investir dans les talents et les compétences de la population, faire le plus important investissement dans l’infrastructure publique de l’histoire de l’Ontario, créer un environnement dynamique et novateur où les entreprises prospèrent, et établir un régime d’épargne-retraite sûr. CITATIONS
« L’Ontario a l’occasion de montrer l’exemple par le recours à la technologie automatisée dans le domaine des transports. L’Ontario marque aujourd’hui le marché mondial de son empreinte en franchissant une nouvelle étape pour stimuler l’innovation dans l’automatisation des véhicules. Le projet pilote sur les véhicules automatisés sera mis en œuvre de façon à s’assurer que les routes de la province restent sûres sans créer des fardeaux qui étoufferaient l’investissement et l’innovation dans le dynamique environnement commercial de l’Ontario. »— Steven Del Duca, ministre des Transports
« L’Ontario est un chef de file mondial dans la conception et la fabrication de la prochaine génération de véhicules. Ce nouveau projet pilote misera sur notre succès et aidera la province à prendre les devants dans le développement des technologies des véhicules automatisés et connectés. Dans cette économie mondiale hautement concurrentielle, le fait d’investir dans les talents et les compétences de la population afin de créer la prochaine génération de technologies innovatrices est bon pour les affaires et peut faciliter un mouvement plus fluide des biens et des services dans l’ensemble de la province. »— Brad Duguid, ministre du Développement économique, de l’Emploi et de l’Infrastructure FAITS EN BREF
Le ministère des Transports offrira de l’information en ligne sur la présentation de demandes dans le cadre du projet pilote à la fin novembre.
Article from March , 2013 – In 1981, the World Health Organization introduced Code of Marketing for Breast-milk Substitutes. To date, 84 countries have enacted legislation making the labeling Code law in their countries. While Canada agreed and signed onto The Code and the amendments, to date it has not created any law, which would uphold this International document.
The WHO Code says, among many other items, that breast milk substitutes (including formula and infant foods) should not be directly advertised to consumers because they are sub-optimal foods to feed to babies and infants. Advertising includes newspapers, ads on Google or other websites, texting, and free samples through the mail.
Formula companies in Canada say they abide by the WHO Code by including a preamble in every commercial: “while breast milk is best…” Ask your average consumer today what they think about breast milk and formula and specifically if there is any difference. I have posed this question while working at numerous health fairs in the past 5 years. It is staggering the number of people who view breast milk and formula as having the same nutritional value. In case you do not know already, this has scientifically been proven false.
Over the past 5 years, I have written MPs and MPPs about why Canada does not uphold the WHO Code. What I heard from Health Canada directly is:
The Food Directorate of Health Canada is responsible for the development of policies, regulations and standards for all foods. The Food Directorate is also responsible for the premarket notification process for infant formulas…Manufacturers are responsible for the accuracy of information on the labels and advertisements for food and for compliance…”
This is akin to letting prisoners run the jail.
While writing my monthly (and at times weekly) concerns to government officials, I found an MP who said that, “If we were signatories to it, we should live up to it.” This was Justin Trudeau.
I am saying be politically involved. I have a stack of letters and many emails from all parties in their response to the WHO Code. It has been 30 years since Canada signed The Code. Why is it taking so long to actually do something to enforce it? Enforcing the Code would not result in taking formula off the market at all. The Code’s aim is to make healthier babies and our babies are entitled to the highest degree of health. For the Silo, Stephanie MacDonald.
“Las Vegas Primm Ranch”…….Michael Jackson called it “Wonderland” and his daughter said it was “Candyland.” The 10-acre compound in a Las Vegas neighborhood of casino owners, entertainers and royalty (Wayne Newton lives nearby and the Sultan of Brunei was a neighbor) was designed to be a secure and safe haven for a family, a memorable experience for their guests and a place to safely enjoy their expensive hobbies. This was its appeal to Michael Jackson, who had sights on a Las Vegas residency show and, according to Las Vegas media, had toured the home several times. Jackson was planning on making an offer on the home when he returned from his “This Is It” London residency show scheduled to run through early 2010. However, Michael died just three weeks before the start of the tour.
Completed in 1994 for Nevada casino and resort developer Gary Primm, the compound was designed for luxury, but security was Primm’s biggest concern. Primm is a big-game hunter and car collector including the “Bonnie and Clyde Death Car” that he has displayed at several of his casinos. The home was completed soon after Las Vegas casino developer Steve Wynn’s daughter was kidnapped from the kitchen of their Las Vegas home. Primm was worried about the safety of his own two children and designed the home with a 10-foot wall surrounding the property and three gates that can be controlled by the owner, eliminating the need for round-the-clock guards who might be bought off by a rival. Throughout are security tunnels, bulletproof doors, secret rooms with entries disguised as walls or cabinets and a panic room with an oxygen supply and separate underground phone lines.
The Primm Ranch includes a main estate house with 15,000 square feet, a guest villa, grotto villa, staff quarters, horse trainer quarters, equestrian barn, arena, pens and pastures, a dog villa, grotto pool with spa, waterfall and slide, all surrounded by lush lawns and palms. There is also a garage/car showroom that will house 20 cars with its own gas station for diesel and unleaded fuels, a car wash with deionized water and mechanic’s lift. With a total living area of over 21,000 square feet, there are 10 bedrooms and 19 baths. Highlights include a beauty salon, trophy room with recorded animal sounds, driving range, 5,000-bottle wine cellar, theater, casino room, gym and sauna. The grounds include a greenhouse, outdoor kitchen adjacent to the pool with a bar and guest suite accessed under the waterfall, and a tennis court. Equestrian facilities include stalls for ten horses with training and riding areas. According to the estate’s listing agent, Jackson planned on converting the home’s underground shooting range into a recording studio.
Currently listed at $14.5 million USD, Primm Ranch will go up for auction on October 10th with no reserve. The auction company handling the sale is Concierge Auctions of New York City.
Real estate is never boring at TopTenRealEstateDeals. Check out today’s most entertaining, important and unusual real estate news stories of the week. News such as “Florida Foreclosure King Losing Home,” “Burt Reynolds Finally Sells Florida Home,” and “Exotic Islands For Sale.”
From http://www.thelooploft.com/blogs/ryans-corner/41775169-the-most-recorded-drum-set-in-history-hal-blaines-monster-kit : “Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame drummer Hal Blaine played on more Top 10 hits than any other musician. In fact, he played on 40 #1 singles, 150 Top Ten singles and 8 Grammy Records of the Year. If you don’t know his name, you certainly know his drumming. As a pivotal member of the loose group of crack session musicians known as “The Wrecking Crew”, Hal played the iconic beats on such diverse hits as “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes, “Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys, “Strangers In The Night” by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley’s “Return To Sender”, and literally thousands of other songs from the 60’s and 70’s. The Monster Kit was developed by Hal along with his drum tech Rick Faucher and builder Howie Oliver can be seen [along with a video] at the link above.”
Dinner For Two – You And Your Dog Homemade Meals Provide A Special Treat For Pets,
Says Host Of Doggy Cooking Network
Dinnertime for many dogs involves the owner ripping open a bag, pouring kibbles into a bowl and walking away.
Not the stuff of a meaningful relationship.
Kris Rotonda likes to take an occasional break from that routine and give his four dogs – Rocky, Coco, Kobe and Jordan – a special treat.
Rotonda and his fiancée, Denise Fernandez, prepare the canine quartet cooked meals using recipes they share on their Doggy Cooking Network on Youtube.
Rotonda sees it as a way to occasionally give his pets what he refers to as the “Royal ‘Treat’-Ment.”
“I started cooking for my dogs because it’s a healthier way to go for meals,” Rotonda says. “Plus, it’s just fun and my dogs are an important part of my life.”
His doggie devotion now has inspired him to develop a creation he calls the PupPot (www.puppot.com), a cooking, serving and storage system for preparing those homemade meals for dogs.
The PupPot consists of a 3.8-quart stainless steel cooking pot, a paw-shaped serving base and two serving and storage bowls. Rotonda and Fernandez also put together an e-book with recipes.
For Rotonda, the PupPot just seemed like the “logical next step.”
“I figured that if Denise and I were teaching people to cook for their dogs, it just made sense to provide them with the right tool,” he says.
Dr. Jena Questen, a holistic veterinarian, says taking that extra time for preparing those meals can be worthwhile. The benefits of feeding a dog homemade dog food include reducing the risk of skin allergies, boosting their immune system, improving their digestive system, as well as giving them renewed energy.
“It’s no different from humans,” Questen says. “We couldn’t eat the same processed food every day and maintain optimum health, and neither can our pets.”
Rotonda shares a few recipes for giving your canine pals the “Royal ‘Treat’-Ment” as well:
Bacon Rice Cakes
Ingredients 1 cup brown rice, cooked
2 slices lean bacon, cooked, finely chopped (Retain bacon fat)
1 large egg
½ cup dried bread crumbs
Directions 1. Mix chopped bacon and rice.
2. Add egg and breadcrumbs to rice and bacon mixture. Combine thoroughly. Wet hands to prevent sticking, and then form the egg-rice mixture into 4 thin patties.
3. Reheat the bacon fat in a skillet over medium heat. Add the rice cakes and cook, turning once until golden brown. About 4 minutes on each side.
St. Puppy’s Day Hash
Ingredients 2 baking potatoes (1-1 ½ lbs.), peeled and shredded
Sea salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
½ cup shredded carrots
¾ cup chopped corned beef
½ cup of half-and-half
¼ cup grated cheese
Ground pepper
4 large eggs, scrambled
Directions
1. Place the potatoes in a colander, lightly salt and set aside.
2. Melt butter in the PupPot over medium heat. Mix in the potatoes, carrots, and corned beef. Increase the heat to medium-high. Cover pot. Stir every 5 minutes. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
3. Stir in half-and-half and turn off hear. Season with pepper and cheese.
4. Top hash with the cooked eggs.
Chicken Cakes
Ingredients ½ cup cooked brown rice
¼ cup of peas, thawed
1/3 cup of rotisserie chicken, meat shredded
1 egg
2 Tbsp. plain breadcrumbs
½ tsp of dried parsley
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Directions 1. In a medium bowl, stir together the rice, peas, chicken, egg, breadcrumbs and parsley. Form into 4 equally sized patties.
2. In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken patties and cook, turning once, until golden-brown for approximately 7-8 minutes. Remove from the skillet and let cool slightly.
About Kris Rotonda
Kris Rotonda, an entrepreneur and creator of the PupPot (www.puppot.com), owns four dogs. He and his fiancée, Denise Fernandez, host the Puppy Cooking Network on Youtube. Rotonda also created YouMustLoveDogsDating.com, a niche dating website that matches dog owners with other dog owners.
Way back in August, 2015 the world’s first “intelligent selfie app” was released by Anthropics Technology.
Combining artificial intelligence and image enhancement, Mira understands what makes people look good and lets users airbrush faces automatically.
Chief Mira Scientist Tony Polichroniadis comments:
“By understanding what makes people look beautiful, Mira can improve all aspects of a selfie with just one tap. Users do not need to use any special tools: the app understands what to do and does it for you. This is the culmination of over ten years of research, and we are thrilled to be releasing this technology to smartphone users everywhere.”
PERFECT YOUR SELFIES
Mira’s unique cutting-edge features include:
Relighting – change the light source to flatter your face. World first
Lens correction – fix unflattering cameraphone distortion. World first
Skin perfection – remove spots, wrinkles and blemishes.
Best in class skin enhancer.
Face refining – slim the face and de-emphasize prominent features. Intelligently moves face towards beauty.
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About Mira:
Mira has been developed by the makers of PortraitPro, the world’s best-selling portrait enhancement software. Used by over half a million professional photographers and retouchers, PortraitPro is the best reviewed and most advanced software for automatic face enhancement.
About Anthropics Technology:
Anthropics Technology has been the overwhelming world leader in professional face beautification since 2005. We are now bringing our unique intelligent technology to mobiles.
Partnering with innovative businesses to attract talent and spur growth is making Brampton a powerhouse in the fast-growing health and life sciences sector.
Since 2005, the City of Brampton has seen a 50 per cent growth in health and life sciences and is now home to more than 250 companies in the sector.
Mayor Jeffrey
“This is a priority growth area for Brampton. In order to bring the best businesses here, we’re committed to creating strong partnerships with innovative companies that will attract knowledge-based jobs to grow the city and the sector,” said Mayor Linda Jeffrey. “From our young, diverse, educated and highly skilled workforce to our ranking as one of the best places to do business, to the incredible lifestyle that employees can enjoy, Brampton is the best choice for innovative health and life sciences businesses looking to start up or re-locate.”
Leading health and life science companies have proven that Brampton is the best city to work with to grow their business, with the sector currently employing more than 11,700 highly skilled workers in the city. Brampton is a significant contributor in Ontario’s life sciences sector and is located within the province’s biotechnology cluster, currently the third largest in North America.
Innovative and successful health and life sciences companies and headquarters are quickly becoming the norm in Canada’s second-fastest growing city, such as:
Brampton’s William Osler Health System is an emerging leader in health care research and development and plays a critical role in the education of hundreds of future health professionals each year. Its strong clinician-based, formalized research program focuses on improving patient care; shifting to preventative, proactive care; and treating diverse populations – the goal of its Global Health Program. Osler offers world-class technology and innovative, cutting-edge surgical techniques, including hybrid vascular and endovascular surgery – a minimally invasive way to treat diseases of the blood vessels while minimizing the overall risks to patients and reducing hospital stays. Osler inspires a culture of innovation through its annual national student app competition, fusing health care and technology by challenging students to design and develop mobile digital health care applications for the benefit of patients and their families.
The NeuroArm’s first surgical use: Brain Surgery
MDA Space Missions developed the NeuroArm, a cutting-edge device for neurosurgery. The result of close collaboration between MDA space robotic engineers (of CanadArm fame), the University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services physicians, nurses and scientists, the group is creating an image-guided robotic arm for microsurgery. Controlled by the surgeon, the device allows for more precise surgery with a near real time view of the area being worked on and the location of the surgical tools – truly changing the way that life-saving surgery will be performed in the future.
Taro Pharmaceuticals Inc., a global leader in pharmaceutical manufacturing, refers to its Brampton operation as its worldwide centre of excellence for dermatology, liquid manufacturing and research. Ontario is helping Taro Pharmaceuticals Inc. invest in new manufacturing and R&D equipment to expand research and production at its Brampton facility, with a $7 million investment creating up to 140 new jobs and retaining 395 positions in the city.
Dynacare Medical Laboratories’ main testing facility in Brampton is one of the largest, most state-of-the-art laboratories in North America. Dynacare is at the forefront of researching, developing and validating innovative new screening and diagnostic tests for introduction into the Canadian marketplace. Dynacare has been instrumental in the early delivery of new tests in the areas of allergy, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, paternity, ulcers, and other problems of the stomach and intestines and more.
Click to learn about ErinoakKids’ innovative Music Therapy
ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development has broken ground on a new 122,000 square foot treatment facility in Brampton for children with disabilities and special needs. The facility, set to open in 2017, will house Ontario’s largest respite centre for children who are medically fragile/technology dependent, have complex care requirements, behavioural challenges, or autism. The centre will offer a range of services from day to overnight stays and, for the first time, 24/7 service. Specially trained staff will care for the children and youth,providing programmed activities and interactions while offering a period of respite for their parents and caregivers.
CEO Bridget Fewtrell
“We are most fortunate to be part of, and to serve, the growing Brampton community,” said ErinoakKids President and CEO Bridget Fewtrell. “When we open our new facility in 2017, children and youth with disabilities and special needs in Brampton will have more access to better coordinated services to help them reach their true potential. We are truly excited to continue expanding service to this thriving city and its growing population.”
About Brampton: The ninth-largest city in Canada, Brampton celebrates a diverse population that represents people from 209 distinct ethnic backgrounds who speak 89 different languages. Brampton residents and visitors have access to state-of- the-art recreation facilities and one of the fastest-growing transit systems in Canada. Opened in 2007, Brampton Civic Hospital is part of the William Osler Health System, which is one of the largest community hospitals in Canada. For more information, visit www.brampton.ca or follow @CityBrampton on Twitter.
Donald Trump’s former Connecticut mansion that he bought at age 35 is for sale and featured this week at TopTenRealEstateDeals.com.
Donald Trump was born into the real estate business in 1946 in New York City where his father, Fred Trump, was a developer. Donald got a jump-start in the business while he was still in college in the 1960s working menial jobs at his father’s lower middle-class apartment complex in Cincinnati. In 1971, he moved back to New York City where he took over his father’s company changing the name to The Trump Organization and earned a reputation as a fast-rising real estate tycoon on hotel, condominium and casino projects. In 1986, he made a deal with New York City Mayor Ed Koch to renovate Central Park’s Wollman Rink. The ice skating rink was going on its seventh year of renovations when Trump volunteered to finish and finance the restoration with his own money. He completed the job in just three months.
With his business success and wealth, Trump owns a roster of mansions. His main home is a posh three-level penthouse at Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue where he also runs his vast business operations. Also in the Gotham area, in 1996 Trump purchased a 60-room mansion in Bedford, New York with three pools and a bowling alley. He later bought Albemarle, a 23,000-square-foot mansion, vineyard and winery on 2,000 acres in Virginia for $12.7 million, a fraction of the original asking price of $100 million. Trump also keeps a large home on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
One of the interior sitting rooms in Trump’s first mansion.
When he isn’t running for president, firing someone or saying something controversial, Trump relaxes at his Mar-A-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida that he purchased in 1985 for $10 million. The 1920’s mansion with 62,000 square feet and over 100 rooms was originally built for Post Cereal heiress, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Trump upgraded it to a private resort with initiation fees of $100,000, annual dues of $12,000 and nightly rates up to $3,000. Mar-A-Lago guests have included Bill Clinton, Regis Philbin, Tony Bennett and Barbara Walters.
Trump was only 35 in 1982 when he and wife, Ivana, purchased their first mansion, a 5.8 acre home on a peninsula in Greenwich, Connecticut for $4 million. Always a family-oriented business, Ivana was also remodeling the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in the early 1980s and was able to incorporate many of the same materials in the decoration of their new home creating a residence dripping in gold leaf, elegant chandeliers and crown moldings. When they divorced in 1991 after 15 years of marriage, Ivana won the mansion in the property settlement. She sold the Greenwich home for $15 million in 1998, and the mansion’s new owners immediately began a renovation to tone it down to more livable neutrals and added tennis courts as well as a 4,000-square-foot addition which includes guest suites, a lap pool and a sauna. It is currently for sale at $54 million.
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Originally built in 1939, the 19,773-square-foot Georgian Colonial-style main house and a guest house have eight bedrooms, thirteen baths, a three-story rotunda foyer with double grand staircase, formal rooms overlooking views of the pool, grounds and Long Island Sound, home theater, a putting green, multiple terraces and patios, tennis courts and three fully-equipped staff apartments.
Awaiting a new Greenwich billionaire resident, Donald Trump’s former Connecticut mansion with major additions, six waterfront acres and private boat dock. The listing agent is Tamar Lurie of Coldwell Banker in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Real estate is never boring at TopTenRealEstateDeals. Check out today’s most entertaining, important and unusual real estate news stories of the week. News such as “Obama Vacation Home For Sale,” “Bacall’s Dakota Apartment Sells At Big Profit” and “New York’s First Penthouse.”
COSTA MESA, Calif. — BenQ America Corp., an internationally renowned digital lifestyle solutions provider and professional gaming monitor pioneer, today introduced the company’s all-new XR3501 curved gaming display. Designed to provide a more immersive gaming experience, the 35-inch panel brings gamers a dramatic 2,000R curvature — the highest of any LCD monitor — as well as a lightning-fast 144-Hz refresh rate, ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio, and BenQ’s RevolutionEyes™ technology — allowing gamers to experience enhanced visual comfort, a larger viewing area, and seamless peripheral views for a more authentic sense of engagement with today’s dynamic content.
35-Inch PC Display Featuring 2,000R Curvature and 144-Hz Refresh Rate Adds a New Level of Entertainment.
“BenQ’s new XR3501 monitor is set to transform gaming into a faster, wider, and more engaging all-around experience,” said J.Y. Hu, Vice President, Business Line Management at BenQ America Corp. “Featuring a 2-meter curvature, a fast-action refresh rate, and a 2560×1080 resolution, the panel provides breathtaking visuals that surround users with edge-to-edge excitement. Players will experience their favorite games in an entirely new way while features such as Black eQualizer, RevolutionEyes technology, and PIP will definitely put them ahead of the pack.”
BenQ’s XR3501 monitor has been designed for casual gamers looking for a more enveloping gaming experience. With over 20 options for color vibrance, the VA panel provides higher color reproduction with better viewing angles, which proves vital when using such a large curved screen by adding an extra layer of color optimization. Users can also adjust color levels directly via OSD or DisplayPilot for complete color control. Using Black eQualizer, the panel brightens darker scenes within games without over-exposing white levels — giving gamers the advantage of seeing details more clearly than their competitors, while picture in picture allows multiple sources to be connected and viewed on the monitor. With a focus on “Eye-Care” and visual comfort, the XR3501 is equipped with BenQ’s RevolutionEyes technology. Featuring ZeroFlicker™, the monitor eliminates flickering at all brightness levels, reducing visual strain to provide a more comfortable viewing experience. When combined with the device’s built-in Low Blue Light modes, the monitor also successfully filters the exposure of emitted blue spectrum light — effectively reducing eye fatigue and elevating gaming performance to provide exceptional visual comfort, even during long hours of gaming or dynamic content viewing.
BenQ’s curved XR3501 monitor is now shipping across North America at an MSRP of USD$999. Details on BenQ’s full line of gaming monitors can be found at http://gaming.benq.com.
About BenQ America Corp.
The BenQ digital lifestyle brand stands for “Bringing Enjoyment ‘N’ Quality to Life,” fusing lifestyle with technology, enjoyment with productivity, and aesthetic design with purpose-built engineering. It is this mantra that has made BenQ the No. 1-selling projector brand powered by TI DLP® technology in The Americas(1). BenQ America Corp. offers an extensive line of visual display and presentation solutions that incorporate the very latest technologies. The company delivers a broad range of Colorific™ projectors, RevolutionEyes™ monitors, interactive large-format displays, mobile audio products, cloud consumer products, and lifestyle lighting for any application and market — education, home, gaming, enterprise, government, house of worship, digital signage, A/V, and IT — with cutting-edge models that lead the industry in performance, reliability, environmental sustainability, and aesthetics. Whether it’s interactive digital whiteboards for classrooms, full HD 3D projectors for home theaters, short-throw projectors for boardrooms, interactive flat-panel displays for digital signage, or LED-backlight monitors for professional gaming, BenQ continues to defy the limits of digital displays. The company’s products are available across North America through leading value-added distributors, resellers, and retailers.
(1) Based upon Q1’15 Quarterly Projector Shipment and Forecast Report from PMA Research
About BenQ Corporation
Founded on the corporate vision of “Bringing Enjoyment ‘N’ Quality to Life”, BenQ Corporation is a world-leading human technology and solutions provider aiming to elevate and enrich every aspect of consumers’ lives. To realize this vision, the company focuses on the aspects that matter most to people today — lifestyle, business, healthcare, and education — with the hope of providing people with the means to live better, increase efficiency, feel healthier, and enhance learning.
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Such means include a delightful broad portfolio of people-driven products and embedded technologies spanning digital projectors, monitors, interactive large-format displays, audio products, cloud consumer products, mobile communications, and lifestyle lighting. Because it matters.
About BenQ Group
The BenQ Group is a $22+ billion powerhouse comprised of nearly 20 independent companies operating in over 30 countries across numerous industries with a combined workforce of over 100,000 employees. Each Group member is a recognized leader in its own field, contributing to the BenQ Group’s vast resources, broad R&D, and distinct strategic strengths. By leveraging each company’s vertical specialization to create true scale across horizontal markets, the BenQ Group controls a highly efficient value chain with the unrivaled ability to deliver critical components and world-class solutions in the following industries: TFT-LCD, green energy, fine chemicals and advanced materials, lighting, IC design, precision components, system integration, branded business, and service. The Group is committed to profitable and sustainable businesses that share its long-standing vision of Bringing Enjoyment ‘N’ Quality to Life. The BenQ Group companies are: BenQ Corporation, AU Optronics Corporation (world’s top manufacturer of large-size TFT-LCD panels), Qisda Corporation, Darfon Electronics Corporation, BenQ ESCO Corp., BenQ Materials Corp., BenQ Guru Corp., BenQ Medical Center, BenQ Medical Technology Corp., BenQ AB DentCare Corp., Daxin Materials Corp., Dazzo Technology Corp., Forhouse Corp., Lextar Electronics Corp., LILY Medical Corp., and Raydium Semiconductor Corp.
All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
The Jewish High Holidays are a time when family and friends come together to share a meal and celebrate the new year. Paris-trained pastry chef, Paula Shoyer created the essential baking book for that provides desserts and breads perfect for any Jewish holiday or dinner. THE HOLIDAY KOSHER BAKER has desserts that follow the latest trends but also recipes that remind us of those our grandmothers used to make – but with Paula’s distinctively modern and healthier twist.
Even modern Jewish bakers gravitate towards traditional Jewish recipes when they bake for Rosh Hashanah. Maybe it is because Rosh Hashanah, one of the most significant holidays of the Jewish calendar, deserves baked goods that are central to the rich Jewish culinary tradition. These classics include rugelach, strudel, babka, honey and apple cakes, and, of course, round challahs.
“I have always tried to honor tradition, because I want my children to grow up appreciating classic Jewish food, but I have tried to vary the recipes to make them more interesting to a modern audience,” Paula explains. Paula’s take on babka are mini babka bites, she turned honey cake into crunchy biscotti and below recipes for a strudel that combines fresh and dried fruit, and challah rolls filled with the classics: apples and honey.
This New Year, sweeten up your dinner table with two of Paula’s delicious recipes:
(Recipes from The Holiday Kosher Baker by Paula Shoyer Sterling / November 2013)
Apricot and Berry Strudel
Makes 2 rolls, serves 10
For this recipe, I took apple strudel, a delicious dessert that has been absent from holiday tables since my childhood, and instead substituted berries and dried fruit for the apples. You could also make this dessert with plums, or substitute dates or dried figs for the apricots. You will have enough filo to double the recipe and can easily double the filling to serve more people. I always thought the filo came in large boxes and needed trimming, but recently learned that it also comes in smaller, about 8 X 12-inch, sheets. They are easy to work with and were used to make the cute rolls pictured here.
1 cup dried apricots, chopped into 1/3- inch pieces
1 ½ cups (6 ounces) blackberries or blueberries
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 pound filo dough (8 X 12-inch sheets), thawed according to package directions
Spray oil
Preheat oven 350°F. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment. Set aside. Place the chopped apricots and berries into a medium bowl. Add the sugar and cornstarch and toss lightly. Set aside.
Have ready a clean, damp dish towel. Place a large piece of parchment paper on the counter. Take the filo out of its package and unroll. Separate one sheet and place on top of the parchment. Spray with the oil. Place a second sheet on top and spray again. Repeat with two more sheets. Cover the remaining filo with the damp towel.
Place ½ of the filling along the long end of the filo, two inches from the edge. Fold the right and left sides (the short sides) in one inch. Starting from the side with the filling, roll up tightly until you have a long log. Place on the baking sheet. Repeat to make another log.
Bake for 40 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Let cool and cut into two-inch slices. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store covered at room temperature for up to two days. Reheat to serve.
Apple and Honey Challah Rolls
Makes 24 rolls
I filled these delicious rolls with cooked apples and honey, which we eat at the beginning of the meal and wish everyone a sweet new year. Almost every year on Rosh Hashanah I host at least 25 people in my home. I give each guest their own small plate with a challah roll, apple slices and small bowl of honey to save some of the time that slips away when passing these essential holiday elements around the table. Perhaps I invented these challah rolls that are filled with sautéed apples and honey to further streamline the entire beginning of the meal?
Dough
1/2 ounce (2 envelopes) dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup boiling water
½ cup cold water
½ cup plus 1 teaspoon canola oil, divided
1 tablespoon salt
2/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar, divided
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
6 ¼ to 6 ½ cups bread flour
Apples
5 Gala or Fuji apples
2 tablespoons oil
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
2 pinches nutmeg
Glaze
Reserved egg plus 2 teaspoons water
1 tablespoon honey
Place 1/3 cup warm water into a liquid measuring cup. Add the yeast and teaspoon sugar and mix. Let sit five minutes, or until thick. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, place 1/2 cup of the oil, salt and 2/3 cup sugar. Whisk well. Add the boiling water and whisk to dissolve the salt and sugar. Add the cold water and mix again.
Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add to oil mixture, reserving one tablespoon to brush on the loaves. Cover the reserved egg and place in the fridge. Add the vanilla and cinnamon to the bowl and whisk in. Do not worry that the cinnamon does not dissolve; it will mix in later. When the yeast bubbles, add the yeast mixture to the bowl and stir.
Add 6 cups of the flour, one cup at a time, mixing the flour in completely after each addition. You can use the dough hook in a stand mixer. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead until smooth, adding flour a little at a time from the remaining ½ cup. The dough is done when you rub your palm across the dough and it feels soft. Shape the dough into a ball. Lift up the dough and add the remaining one teaspoon oil to the bowl and rub all around the bowl and on top of the dough. Place the dough into the oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise one hour.
Meanwhile, prepare the apples. Peel and core the apples and cut into 1/4-inch cubes. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add the brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg and apples. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until fork tender. You do not want them to be too soft. Add the remaining teaspoon cinnamon and honey and stir. Scoop into another bowl and let cool. If any liquid remains in the bowl, strain out before filling the rolls.
Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
When the dough has risen, divide into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and then roll between your hands into an 8-inch strand. Place horizontally in front of you and use a rolling pin to roll the dough until it is about 4 inches wide. Add one heaping tablespoon of apple filling and use your fingers to spread along the dough the long way. Fold one long side of dough over the filling and then roll up to close. Pinch the edges closed, tucking in any apples that try to escape. Tie each strand into a knot, pulling an end through the top to look like a button, or shape into a spiral by coiling the strand around and tucking in the end. Place on the prepared baking sheets and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Take the reserved egg, add two teaspoons water and one tablespoon honey and stir. Brush the tops of the rolls.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Store covered at room temperature for up to three days or freeze for up to three months.
ABOUT PAULA SHOYER
Paula Shoyer is the leading authority on Jewish baking. This busy mother of four believes that a healthy diet can include desserts . . . if they are homemade. A former attorney, she graduated from the Ritz Escoffier pastry program in Paris, and now teaches cooking and baking classes across the country and around the world. Paula is the author of the best-selling The Kosher Baker: Over 160 Dairy-Free Recipes from Traditional to Trendy, The Holiday Kosher Baker, and her first savory cookbook, The New Passover Menu released February 2015. Her books are carried in Williams Sonoma, Crate & Barrel and Costco. She is a contributing editor to several kosher websites such as kosherscoop.com and jewishfoodexperience.com, and magazines such as Joy of Kosher, Whisk, and Hadassah as well as the Washington Post. Paula has appeared on TV 22 times: Food Network’s Sweet Genius, twice on Home & Family on Hallmark Channel, Good Day New York on FOX, San Diego Living, Daytime, and is a frequent guest on several Washington DC news shows. Paula also serves as a consultant for kosher food companies and bakeries. Paula lives in Chevy Chase, MD.
The Phragmites invasion was identified as the number one concern facing the Long Point area at this summer’s Long Point Biosphere symposium on ecosystem stresses.
Phragmites growing along the Chesapeake Bay shoreline. image: chesapeakebay.net
In the pond adjacent to my house, a few Phragmites plants appeared about 20 years ago. Those few stalks then turned into a patch covering 15 per cent of the pond. It took 20 years but I’ve now eliminated it – although it has cropped up elsewhere on our farm. I realize what I’ve seen for an increase is small in comparison to what has occurred in some areas, for example, Phragmites dominates the ditches along Highway 402.
More than 10 years ago, Dr. Scott Petrie and Long Point Waterfowl were one of the first to research the expansion of Phragmites in the Long Point area. At that time, the potential threat was just beginning to be realized. Its threat wasn’t widely known outside Long Point except amongst waterfowlers and naturalists.
The last session of the legislature debated Phragmites as a part of the Invasive Species Act. This bill has currently had its second reading.
My concern as a landowner is to have the tools to deal with Phragmites. The Invasive Species Act doesn’t provide this kind of help. Ideally, the Act should contain an education plan, funding and ways to prevent spread. The Act puts an emphasis on landowners to control invasive species, but doesn’t provide the wherewithal to make it happen.
This is not to say the Invasive Species Act is all bad legislation, it’s just big on stick and small on carrot.
Now in talking about tools, we realize the challenges of controlling Phragmites. It spreads through both seeds and rhizomes and is just about impossible to control without herbicide.
I recently attended a St. Williams meeting on Phragmites, hosted by the Ontario Phragmites Working Group and Long Point Ratepayers’ Association, that focused on methods of control. Control alternatives varied from manual extraction, to discing it under, to experimentation with herbicides, to prescribed burns. Herbicides are the best alternative for large areas, but the issue is approval needs to be granted for application over water.
When Phragmites colonizes an area, it spreads quickly and prevents the new growth of other plants. It’s also poor habitat for wildlife. It impacts humans as well through loss of recreational opportunities, negative tourism impacts, decline in property values and blocked sightlines.
When Purple Loosestrife was the hot invasive plant, I was Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Natural Resources. In conjunction with the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, hit squads went into areas where Loosestrife was rampant and manually removed it. It’s not that simple with Phragmites, and we have yet to see this kind of commitment from government.
During the St. Williams symposium, we learned the City of Thomas has tackled Phragmites with minimal expenditure. The goal is to have the city Phragmites-free by 2020. Lambton Shores has also been aggressive and the plant is now 99 per cent under control in the municipality.
When Purple Loosestrife was first identified as an issue, it was thought to be the worst invasive plant in the province’s history – Phragmites now has that dubious honour. It will take a concerted effort by government, communities and individuals to take it on. It’s time to get serious! For the Silo, MPP Toby Barrett
This article focuses on the challenges for authors of dealing with an editor’s and reviewers’ comments within the manuscript publication process. The paper commences with an overview of the peer review process. The nature and style of comments from editors and reviewers is outlined and the inherent meaning demystified. Using a wide range of anonymised examples, sample comments are categorised according to their ease of being addressed and whether or not the author agrees with them and the need to respond highlighted. Advice is offered regarding the construction of a response document, outlining how editor and reviewer comments have been addressed in the revised manuscript and an example comprising both editor and reviewer comments and author responses provided.
The importance of this document in providing a clear audit trail of associated amendments to the manuscript and their justifications in response to the editor’s and reviewers’ comments is emphasised. Céline Rojon and Mark NK Saunders
Levallois lithic technology in the USA? The cores tell the story by Richard Doninger EDS. DISCLAIMER- We reproduce here a portion of our disclaimer from Doninger’s PCN Part1 article. Doninger’s collection is controversial and may indeed be a mix of genuine artifacts and geofacts.
One of the primary reasons to look at his material is the story he tells. It is one that the founders, members, and many readers of PCN (click here)are very familiar with. It involves a mainstream science community that is so dogmatic in its beliefs that it is willing to both block evidence or not even look at evidence that might challenge those beliefs. These beliefs include that there were no genuinely ancient people in the Americas and that early people throughout the world were less intelligent than us.
The idea that Lower, Middle, or Early Upper Paleolithic-style tools (in the European archaeology sense) are present in the Americas and mainstream resistance to the possibility is something that founding members geologist Virginia Steen-McIntyre (volcanic ash specialist), archaeologist Chris Hardaker, and geologist, the late Sam L. VanLandingham (diatomist) are/were all too familiar with as are also copy editors Tom Baldwin and David Campbell. This is not to mention the layout editor’s experience of censorship regarding evidence disproving cognitive evolution.
So, in a field where censorship of challenging evidence is routine—anthropology—virtually every proclamation the field makes needs to be questioned. One thing that we can be certain of is that once someone becomes “professional” in this field, in all likelihood, they will already be strongly opinionated regarding what is possible.
Dr. Steen-McIntyre, who started this regular feature section of PCN make it as a means to encourage avocational archaeologists and to help them raise the bar above the mere collecting of artifacts (the easy part) to adopting as many professional practices as possible especially in the recording and presenting of their finds. While Doninger’s artifacts are all surface collected, with few specific details of their discoveries recorded he does, nonetheless, present an interesting case that Levallois technology was established and varied in the southwest Indiana (c. Evansville) region.
Our publishing of Rick’s series is not an endorsement of his collection per se, but a reminder that we in the U.S. need to hold our anthropologists accountable as objective scientists, and, like in the field of astronomy, take the contributions of its amateur enthusiasts with a degree of interest.
In Part 1, I shared the story of my initial experience in trying to get input from the mainstream American archaeology community regarding Levallois artifacts including cores I have found in southwest Indiana (e.g., Fig.1) They repeatedly told me that such lithic technology wasn’t present in this country. After many years of research and communication with many professionals, I came to realize a few things that I wasn’t aware of. The first thing is that just because someone is an archaeologist by profession it does not mean that they have any expertise in lithic technology from prehistoric times.
The second is that just because an archaeologist has expertise in Native American lithic technology, does not mean they have any knowledge about lithic technology of early man such as that found abroad, e.g., “Levallois.” This leads to the third and most disappointing which is that many mainstream archaeologists will pretend to know a great deal more about the subject than they actually do and, often, rather than admit that they don’t will fall into simply towing the party line and coming back with a standard mainstream answer should you offer them any kind of evidence that challenges their long held beliefs such as about our origins or how old were the “first Americans” or who might they have been.
I guess one lesson I have learned well is that PhD B.S. is still discernible as B.S. even to a window cleaner such as myself and even though the attempt to camouflage it in scholarly data is present.
After almost two decades of inquiry and research on early lithic technology it seems to me that there is still very little known by American archaeologists about what is considered late Lower or Middle Paleolithic technology such as that found in sites abroad which are “usually” associated with Neanderthal occupations. The terms “Acheulian,” “Mousterian,” or “Levallois” all seem to produce perplexed looks when mentioned in most archaeologist circles and among those who are considered experts in the area of ancient flint tools and flint knapping.
Having said all of these things, I would like to share a bit from an amateur perspective on the subject. I mentioned in my last PCN article that I was told by lithic experts abroad that the only way to identify Levallois lithic reduction was to have some of the cores from which the proposed Levallois flake tools were struck.
Levallois cores are very distinct in appearance and are rarely mistaken for later type technologies such as those blade cores from what is considered the Upper Paleolithic.
There are at least four known core preps which I have found to be considered Levallois which yield several different flake types used in producing a fairly wide variety of tools found from what is considered the late Lower and Middle Paleolithic. All of these are unmistakably different from the American Clovis and later technologies commonly found in the USA.
Those four include the most commonly described “tortoise” (refer to Fig. 1, above), the “centripetal or discoidal” (refer to Fig.2, above),“triangular or chapeau de gendarme,” and the “blocky” core (see Fig.3 below)- all of which yield a very specific type of tool which are similar in morphology and are mostly made on flakes rather than blades (which are the hallmark of most known Native American technologies).
When archaeologists or collectors discover lithic scatters or “debitage” left from Clovis or later archaic tool production it is very recognizable to the trained eye familiar with Native American tool industries. The same applies with Levallois technology and the debitage produced from it. It is unmistakable to the trained eye but can remain virtually invisible to the eye programmed to see Clovis and later evidence, which seems to have been the case for decades now among American archaeologists. They have been recognizing only the evidence that they have been trained to see. That can now change as there is sufficient evidence in enough quantity to recognize what has been considered late Lower and Middle Paleolithic technology all over the world and is now available for analysis here in the USA.
If “the cores tell the story” it can now be told because we have the cores! For this article I have included an example of each core preparation as well as an example point tool (see Fig.4 below) made on Levallois flakes from such cores. A close look at the cores will reveal the negative triangular scars from where triangular flakes were struck revealing the method of reduction.
Levallois lithic reduction has been shown to be a more productive method of tool making in general than the later blade technologies as a wider range of tools can be produced by making the tools on flakes rather than blades. Contrary to the most commonly held belief that later blade technologies such as Clovis or Solutrean were more advanced, I personally believe the Levallois reduction resulted in a much wider range of tools from the same basic core preps which leave one to conclude that it is actually more advanced and complex than those who are assumed to have come later in history.
Over the last several years I have witnessed many who claim expertise in flint knapping who are able to produce virtually every kind of Native American “arrowhead” or bifacial blade tool commonly seen within the known Clovis or later tool industries. Some talented knappers can produce a very fine Clovis point in a matter of minutes and other arrowheads present little challenge in reproduction; but rare are the ones who can reproduce Levallois tools. How the flakes are struck so systematically and consistently from the same core preparation remains a mystery to most. One simply cannot appreciate the complexity of the industry without having such an industry to observe and most American archaeologists have never seen much less handled tools from an actual Levallois assemblage.
We have in recent years witnessed various claims of alleged “pre-Clovis” tools having been found. There are the tools from Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, Buttermilk Creek, Paisley Cave, Cactus Hill, Topper and others, each producing artifacts believed by the finders to represent cultures living here prior to those which produced the famed Clovis industry.
Unlike Clovis technology which has been found in sufficient quantity to establish an identifiable industry, none of the alleged pre-Clovis artifacts have been proven to be of an identifiable technology which has been seen anywhere else in the world in contexts believed to be older than Clovis, leaving only speculation and theory in regard to an actual identifiable “industry” to accompany the claims of a “pre-Clovis” origin.
This is not the case in regard to the assemblages of Levallois artifacts such as the ones being found in as many as eight different states now. These collections clearly display a specific identifiable technology commonly found in sites around the world which are always believed to be from contexts thousands of years older than any yet recorded in the USA. The scholarly critics of “pre-Clovis” claims often use the reasoning that none of the sites have produced a “coherent set of lithic artifacts” to justify the claims.
Having seen much of the lithic evidence from the sites such as Buttermilk Creek and Meadowcroft, I can understand the reluctance to welcome such scant evidence to support the claims because of the absence of a recognizable technology.
Levallois technology is not ambiguous when it is found, regardless of the location. The name is the first indicator in the process of identification…”prepared core.” When such cores are found, identification of the “industry” can begin and an understanding of the actual “technology” becomes comprehensive.
Although I am only showing a few cores and point tools in this article, there are hundreds more in my possession to support my claims of an actual “industry” based on Levallois reduction.
As I have stated previously, I am making no claims regarding the age of these artifacts but rather the “technology” of the tools which is clearly paralleled in the later Acheulian and Middle Paleolithic Mousterian industries of the Old World.
Although the images shown are some of the basic cores and points of the industry, there are also dozens of other tool types present in our assemblages such as burins, blades, hand axes, bolas, scrapers, planes, awls, ochers and effigies. Tools made on the cores themselves are also common, displaying the life of the core and its utilization as different tools during the reduction process of extracting flakes for points, blades and other utensils.
Although considered and labeled as “primitive man” technology when found abroad to support the proposed “out of Africa” human migration theory, I disagree with such labels and assumptions in regard to this technology. Levallois reduction obviously requires both planning and skillful execution to produce such an industry in such an efficient use of available lithic material resources.
The presence of what has been called “old world” technology here in the USA clearly shows that what is being taught in regard to our origins as a nation is wrong and needs to be acknowledged by those who are promoting such error. The evidence is as solid as the rock from which it is hewn. For the Silo (from PCN Vol7 Issue3)- Richard Doninger, a surface-artifact collector living in Evansville southwest Indiana.
Eds. Comment- Rick makes a very interesting case for a lithic technology that appears to be little-known to archaeologists in the U.S. There is still the problem that the artifacts are not documented as to the exact context of each, which, unfortunately, limits the value of the specimens.
However, if the technology is as abundant as Rick’s collection suggests, we simply recommend that he “re-collect” duplicate examples from specific locations with an exacting record of what he has found and where.
Avocational archaeology is a special section of Pleistocene Coalition News started by PC founding member, Dr. Virginia Steen-McIntyre, to encourage amateur archaeologists.
Have you been playing hashtag games on Twitter? Hashtag games are fun and free word games where Twitter users contribute funny or clever responses around a common theme, like #RejectedPrezCampaignSlogans or like #Things20SomethingsSay.
Hashtag games can often be found in the “what’s trending” area of Twitter but to discover all of them there’s a new app called Hashtag Roundup (www.hashtagroundup.com) that creates and hosts its own creative games, recruits comedians and Twitter celebrities to host live games, and aggregates the best trending games, making Twitter easy and accesible for everyone.
The Hashtag Roundup app, now available for Apple and Android, provides game alerts, peer-to-peer awards, and exclusive leader boards to serve the rapidly expanding global hashtag gaming community. Hashtag Roundup is the leading creator, promoter, and aggregator of hashtag games in the US, Canada, and UK, with a cumulative weekly reach now exceeding 100 million Twitter users.
We ( @thesiloteam) had fun with a recent game called #MakeAFilmSkeptical
Hashtag games are word games where Twitter users contribute often clever or funny responses to a common theme. For example, a recent game promoted by Hashtag Roundup was #4BestWordsEver, and contributions included tweets like “Open bar, free food” (@2p2TrollCat), “School is finally out” (@trjx1d), “Mom got us pizza” (@Broganza16), and “You’re the best mommy” @darksidedeb).
Brands get in the game as well, with submissions like “We’re going to Universal” @UniversalORL), “No soup for you!” @Seinfeldtv) and “a dozen original glazed” @krispykreme). The “winners” are the ones with the most retweets and favorites. Hashtag games provide a fun diversion and creative outlet for individuals and a marketing channel for big brands.
Hashtag Roundup recruits comedians and Twitter celebrities to host and create games. Users download the app in order to see what games are running and what the best responses are. Hashtag Roundup shares both original games and trending games on Twitter.
Hashtag Roundup is a joint venture of @TheHashtagGame and @absrdNEWS. In February 2012, @theHashtagGame was launched by Scott Fischler (@fastlaugh) and quickly established itself as the leading 24/7 hub of hashtag gaming. Meanwhile, @absrdNEWS and absrdCOMEDY.com were launched in February 2014 by Jeff Dwoskin (@bigmacher), immediately gaining recognition and followers for its sharp news parody and frequent, funny Top Ten Lists. Fischler and Dwoskin, both comedians, joined forces in 2014 to jointly develop the Hashtag Roundup app for iOS and Android. Hashtag Roundup delivers a consistently great Twitter experience, with engaging hashtag games and hosts.
“We love watching the hilarious and creative answers our fellow Twitter users come up with in hashtag games, but as hashtag addicts ourselves, we struggled to keep track of all the games, and all the responses,” said Jeff Dwoskin, founder of absrdCOMEDY.com.
“Hashtag gaming is rapidly becoming a significant marketing vehicle for brands, celebrities, major league sports teams… even political candidates. All are now frequently playing our games, and recognizing the massive positive exposure to new audiences that hashtag gaming provides,” said Scott Fischler, founder of @TheHashtagGame.
Skulls & Bones: Skulling the heights of perfection
The skull motif made popular in watchmaking by ArtyA has long been copied, resulting in a whole range of derivatives. Now, the fully independent brand has taken the helm once again. The Skulls & Bones is an extreme timepiece that pushes the creative concept to the limit.
Word has it that if you really can’t compare a Swiss watch to any other, it really is original. By that standard the Skulls & Bones is one original watch.
ArtyA’s latest creation doesn’t do things by halves, and it certainly isn’t a mass-market kind of timepiece. Critics might say that it’s rather extreme – and they wouldn’t be entirely wrong. But more objective minds will first and foremost note its wholly coherent style.
Back in the day, the Skull universe, popularized many years ago by Yvan Arpa, was decried in the world of watchmaking as being in frightfully bad taste. Since then, it’s become trendy and fashionable, as people started wearing this style of timepiece to try and stand out from the crowd – with varying degrees of success. But in most cases, the relevant styling doesn’t go much further than a dial illustration, some sort of ‘skull’ motif on the hands, and little else. Until now, that is.
Skull-tural!
With the Skulls & Bones, ArtyA has embarked once again on the style trajectory it was the first to pioneer (with many following in its wake), as ArtyA’s CEO and designer Yvan Arpa guides the concept to what must surely be its ultimate destination. The skull is much more than a simple drawing: sculpted and engraved, it’s been released from the two-dimensional representations to which it’s been confined elsewhere. As is its wont, ArtyA has suffused the Skulls & Bones symbols with new meaning, taking concepts through to their logical conclusion, and once again placing the artistic dimension at the heart of its work. The dial is fully hand-made.
Crypt- price: 6,900 CHF
Every one of the new 47 mm models is unique, featuring hand-crafted engravings and sculptures. Each includes the brand’s own movement, frequently used in its Son of a Gun collections. This results in a reliable, high-performance caliber, the heart of which is incorporated within a small central space. Its surface is covered by a rough, seemingly unfinished steel plate surface, featuring a twitchy drawing of a skull, rather like a hastily spray-painted tag.
Full Skull- price: 19,000 CHF
This is surrounded by six hand-engraved skulls in polished steel outlined in black. The style is at once tribal and urban, modern and ancestral. ArtyA leaves the interpretation of this universal symbol to each individual’s imagination. By definition, each timepiece will be unique, with each person free to have their own take on the skull universe.
Gangs of skulls
The Skulls & Bones bezel sports another dazzling spectacle, exploring both “skulls” and “bones”. Here, ArtyA extends the core theme to encompass other graphic elements such as crosses, totems, barbed wire, guitars, and guns, expressing the whole gamut of the world of rock. Here too, ArtyA has not gone for simple cookie-cutter drawings, instead favouring genuine steel engravings. The shapes of the movement are seemingly drawn inexorably towards the bezel, each feature setting off the other.
SipSup is a new beverage drinking glass that communicates with smart phones via app technology to become an interactive media display and storage unit. When you have finished drinking your beverage of choice, digital photos and videos you have dropped into your glass via the SipSup app are left behind. The SipSup app enables you to keep your special moments only for yourself (private) or to make them visible to every person who happens to tap their phone to your glass (public). The social interaction possibilities are endless- many of us already spend a lot of time at coffeehouses or pubs, consider bringing your glass along- it would be a great way to meet new people and discover new forms of interaction- all via your hi-tech SipSup glassware. If that wasn’t enough, another feature called “post-it”, allows your guests to leave photos or videos on your glass and even write on a fun message. Hydration will never again be boring. A Slovenian start-up that prides itself on ‘out of the box’ thinking, the SipSup team have taken an object we all use on a daily basis and given it new functions. SipSup will stand out from the other glasses in your kitchen because of it’s distinct curved shape designed to naturally fit your hand. It’s base resembles the ripple effect of a drop falling into water and was inspired by the notion of “dropping moments into a glass”. You can get this great looking piece of smart glassware on Kickstarter. For more information email: marketingdirector@thesilo.ca
Truth and Reconciliation Report – One Oneida Woman’s Perspective
Indian Residential Schools are a large part of Canadian History. I use the present tense. Every Canadian lives with the fallout of these schools which were to, “Kill the Indian in the Child.” Cultural Genocide the TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission CP] says in its opening paragraph.
In Canada, we think it a right and obligation for our children to come home safe. We kiss them on the first day of school, knowing that we will see them again when school is finished. How would you feel if your child never came home?
Rather than empathy or acknowledgement of the past, we are told to, “Just get over it.”
Before colonization, we had no abuse, no addictions. We had no poor. Our needs were met- meaning we were one of the richest people on earth (thank you, Professor John Milloy for pointing that out to me).
I have been told that, “Since the Jews got over the Holocaust that we should just get over it.” That is insulting to both me and those who are Jewish.
Get over it.
First Nations communities suffer from the effects of the Residential Schools by having Intergenerational Trauma. We alone are not the only people who have this. Those with a family history of addictions, or abuse, or neglect feel the same effects. We had a generation or two of people who did not see parenting. They saw institutionalized abuse. How could they possibly know how to parent when they left school?
Without proper healing sources in place, and without feeling stuck in the anger, hurt, and pain which comes from Trauma, no one recovers from it.
I can only speak for myself. My grandfather went to the Mush Hole in Brantford, Ontario. He was a bright student, plus when home, he spoke a couple of the Native Languages on our Six Nations Reserve. I am very proud of that.
However, while he says he (personally) was not sexually abused, he had friends who were. He was not allowed to speak his languages at school. He was denied medical care while at school, which caused permanent damage to his brain. My bright and intelligent grandfather became stuck in the poverty cycle. And, the addictions cycle. He couldn’t cope without the structure which was forced on him at school. He couldn’t function well on the reserve. What the school taught his was agriculture. He worked the tobacco fields when he could. Then, he was on welfare.
On top of his mental capabilities, the alcohol killed him inside. Because of him, my mother was raised in a non-Native foster home, not knowing she was Oneida until she was 18. Her foster home denied her access to knowledge of her family on the reserve which was 10 minutes away.
My mom’s foster family did the best they could according to the times. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, it was best to be seen bringing up a little Indian girl in a good Christian family, a family which included a foster father who also had an addictions issue.
Her upbringing effected how I was raised. She also did the best she could. She tried her best to be a good mom, a mom who loved and cared for her own biological children. But also kept them at bay emotionally. She did not know how to really bond as a mom.
Because of the Residential School, my mom did not learn how to properly parent. As for me, I looked for parents I could follow. I am doing the best I can. I hope I my kids do better.
I hope my kids see that while I am Oneida, that does not make me less-than a full person. I hope they see that the Oneida blood that we share is a privilege, something to be honoured and respected. I hope they see it as something that bonds us to other First Nations people around Turtle Island. We are a strong people. We didn’t die. We learned how to survive. Now, we are striving to learn how to live in peace again.
For, you see, the Residential Schools did not kill the Indian in the child. Even with the horrific events which happened, we did not die. We are blossoming as a rose. We will overcome and heal.
Anger needs to be let go. Treaties need to be upheld. If the Canadian government did not want to fulfill the treaties, why were they included in the Canadian Constitution? They are a matter of law. Deal with it, Harper. We don’t expect handouts. We need the highest levels of Canadian law respected and enforced. The government needs to honour their obligations which they proposed, agreed to, and reinforced in the Constitution in 1982.
There is Truth – they tried to kill us off. Now, please, let there be Reconciliation. We all need to acknowledge the past and present to make a future which honours the laws of Our Lands. We agreed to share our land for the benefit of all, not to be killed off. Let us all honour our agreements. For the Silo, Stephanie MacDonald
Apocalypse, Timothy deVries (2015) Acrylic on Panel, 30 x 30 inchesClick to buy
What is a corner? The corner represents a symbolic value. Children are told to stand in the corner when they are disobedient. The corner is a place where one meditates on one’s shortcomings. One can be ‘backed into a corner’ and left with few options or one can retreat into a corner for safety. Animals corner their prey. Corners are places where things get lost and are found. Corners are neglected and swept in the spring. Unfortunate artists can paint themselves into a corner if they are not aware of the space around them and the area beneath their feet. Corners are forgotten with the bustle of activity in the centre of the room.
Gilles Deleuze’s book on Francis Bacon contains a short chapter in which he describes some of the possible reasons for why Bacon consistently displayed his figures against a “round area or ring.”1 Deleuze asserts that the main reason for utilizing this “simple technique” is to create a “place” and to isolate the Figure.2 There is a progression and fatefulness in assigning the Figure to this place. Deleuze claims that the round area or ring relates the Figure to the setting and, in so doing, posits the Figure or painting as a kind of fact or isolated reality.3
Bird on a Wire, Timothy deVries (2015) Acrylic on Panel, 18 x 18 inches
The horizon, ring, corner or wall is a painterly convention frequently revisited by contemporary artists. Although many painters have excluded these settings in favour of fields (e.g. a field of pure colour, or a field of refuse), such settings are useful constructs for displaying objects of value or inducing value within objects. Fields are distinct from settings in that they form a systematic or total (rather than operative or local) context for objects. Conversely, settings function by separating the object from its context so that the viewer can have an unmediated experience of that object. The setting recedes ‘into the background’ as a decorative relief or incidental support.
Corners are specific settings that feature the intersection of three planes (i.e. two walls and a floor). The intersection forms a point. The corner can function simply as the intersection of three planes or as a construct that creates depth and dimensionality. This bivalent nature hints at its duplicity as a setting. It creates a false depth. In this respect, the play of surfaces conspires to become a point of convergence or vanishing point. As a convergence of three surfaces it is a point of ‘agreement’, or perhaps a type of foreclosure; three colours and three lines converge to form a dimensional whole. The duplicity of the corner consists of its character as both a play of surfaces and as a convergence of three lines. The duplicity consists in the fact that the corner realizes both the idea of form and the Form itself through both a convergence (of surface and line) and a construction (of dimensionality).
Two of the most significant questions a painter may ask is, “What must I paint?” and “What is the painting about?” The idea of form contained in a painting is inevitably ‘about’ a sensation or perception. The painter’s nervous system is trained not only to recognize particular sensations and perceptions but to actualize them in the materiality of paint.4Painters practice their art as a way of learning to live with a given set of perceptions and sensations. The act of representation in painting is therefore second to the sensations and perceptions which inaugurate it.
Black Cat and the Jawbone of an Ass, Timothy deVries (2007) Acrylic on Canvas, 46 x 59 inches
The critic’s judgment (i.e. the critique) is the genesis of painterly sensations and perceptions. Critique is the limit of art and limits art to what it alone can do. It functions as a form of violence that is inflicted, observed or endured and occurs when one form overcomes another or when a form is ‘deformed’ by a superior consciousness. The deformation heralds a new and hitherto unappreciated beauty. It is the beauty of a projection or displacement of the painter’s subjective point of view into the materiality of paint. The transformation of sensations and perceptions through the pure and practical reason of the painter reflects the painter’s critique of power. What power? The power of judgment. The critique is therefore absorbed into the very colour of the picture.
Ludwig Wittgenstein’s picture theory holds great explanatory appeal in these cases because it contains propositions regarding the logic and structure of a picture. The painter labels the painting with a title because it represents a state of affairs. There is a close correspondence between the fact represented by the title and the pictorial content of the painting. It is in this sense that the picture functions as a relation between the physical or material world and the thoughts of the painter. Within this context, pictures are criticological constructs. Their titles are statements or propositions that are endowed with sense. As a function of these statements the painting’s pictorial components correspond almost identically with a set of defined elementary forces.
The corner can therefore play several conscious roles within a painting. They are the place of an encounter between a convergence and a defined space. These corners embody a perception. Moreover, corners function as a limit. As the limit of pictorial space they set up a picture plane that functions as a limit to logical thought. By using corners in this way, painters can represent unusual objects with a degree of normative ‘factuality’ – even if they are only representations. Finally, corners function as a place or setting. These corners are settings in which something can take place as well as a destination for various ideas. They instantiate and materialize Form in unanticipated ways. For the Silo, Timothy deVries http://www.timothydevries.ca/
Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation (New York: Continuum, 2003), 1
COOPY is a small, hand-held tool which provides users with a solution to complete multiple functions by simply clicking a button.
With the simple action of clicking one of three buttons included on this smart device, COOPY uses its own application to complete designated functions as set by the user. This includes, but is not limited to, sending predefined texts, alerting someone of your geographic location in the case of an emergency, locating objects and turning on home or office appliances, etc.
CLICK ME to watch HD VIDEO
Aleksander Preglej, Chief Technology Officer of Pentasens: “COOPY is perfect for any type of user: a business professional, athlete, parent, young adult or even a child. We also designed this device to include time and location awareness, so the functions automatically change based on where you are and when. This is one of the major features that sets us apart from our competition.
With the ever-growing demands of our day-to-day schedules and the potential danger of multi-tasking at inopportune times, our company wanted to create COOPY as an easy-to-handle gadget that allows you to be as productive as possible without jeopardizing your safety or the safety of those around you. We know that everyone’s time is valuable and sometimes it could pose as a risk when you’re trying to do too much at one time.”
Pentasens rolled out its first product, SensMesh, a wireless sensor system (www.sensmesh.com) in 2014, which evolved into a smart modular solution for boats, BoatEye (boateye.io). Keeping up with the latest trends in technology, Pentasens strives to provide consumers with state-of-the-art products, safe to use and modern and sleek in design.
Kickstarter campaign for COOPY runs until July3rd and can be accessed here.
Selfies—an act in which the photographer is also the subject of the photograph—are hugely popular in today’s world. Selfie sticks, selfie apps and even selfie songs are taking the world by storm. If you’re on a hike or at the dentist and feel the need to let your associates know, take a selfie!
PicPal combines social media, real-time collages, and the ever important selfie into one App. Want to share what you’re doing right now with a close group of friends? Simply open PicPal, choose the friends you want in that collage and take a selfie. The app simultaneously sends a request to your friends to take a selfie too. PicPal will automatically create a selfie collage of all users and send it to each person’s phone.
Yes, there are already an enormous amount of apps that make collages; but the process is tedious and always after the fact. PicPal has social collage creation built into the app, effectively turning a lengthy process into instant creativity. Picpal isn’t always about the end result – it’s about the immediate moment. Friends who are across the country can meet in an instant through a Picpal photo. Whether they want to see what’s up or simply miss being in pictures together, Picpal lets them do it. All you have to do is invite your friends and watch the Picpal develop into an amazingly spontaneous shared experience.
PicPal is designed so that users can have fun with collages that are both “in the moment” and hassle-free. Want to show your friends what you are doing as well as see what they are doing and create a collage of it? PicPal makes this quick and enjoyable.
– Sign up! Sign in with one simple click using your Facebook account. The app automatically finds your Facebook contacts that are on Picpal.
– Invite! Pick up to 3 (you can add more friends to a Picpal in future releases) Picpal friends to participate in a Picpal selfie collage.
– Snap! Take your selfie while your friends take theirs.
– Watch! See your selfies transform into a shared experience – a Picpal selfies collage – right before your eyes!
Whether you’re missing your friends or just want to see what’s up, Picpal allows you to connect, create, and share in real time.
– Share! Skim through your gallery to see what Picpals your friends have shared with you.
– Interact! “Heart” or comment on Picpals that you love! OR Upload to Instagram or Facebook straight from the app
Whether you’re wishing someone Happy Birthday, playing a game, or just interacting with your friends, PicPal allows you to be with your friends – even when you’re not.
Twenty-seven thousand athletes ran the last Boston Marathon. However, one man ran it four times … four times in one day. David Clark is a former 320-pound alcoholic who was also addicted to painkillers. He’s been sober for nearly a decade and credits extreme endurance sports for his path to recovery in his bestselling autobiography, Out There: A Story of Ultra Recovery.
Clark runs with purpose and his 24 hour, 17 minute Quad Boston (104.8 miles) was no exception. He began his quad marathon in downtown Boston where he ran for people struggling to overcome addiction. Then he ran to the finish line for people who have conquered addiction. Then he ran back to the start line for the families of addicts and finally he ran his official race in memory of a Boston girl who died last year of a drug overdose.
While Clark’s life story is about his addiction, his lessons learned easily transfer to others, providing inspiration to never give up despite life’s challenges. “Healthy mind and body is where I found peace,” says Clark. “My hope is that people are able to see, through my story, that there are no boundaries to what we can achieve.”
David Clark is a running coach, sponsored runner, inspirational speaker, and gym owner. Prior to running his Quad Boston, he has competed in some of the most difficult endurance races on the planet. David is considered an elite athlete and is well respected in the national running community.
Marshall Ulrich, extreme endurance athlete, speaker, and author of Running on Empty: “[The book] …is as jarring and intense as it is motivating and uplifting.”
Ross Harrington: “…raw and riveting—a real-life “Rocky” story about a guy who just refused to give up. David Clark pulls no punches in telling us what he’s been through, and it will be a long, long time before I get this book out of my head.”
Marlin Keesler “The Reluctant Runner”: “To say David Clark’s story is inspiring would be an understatement. His personal narrative is so captivating, gripping, and energizing it compels one to revisit abandoned aspirations and to get out and achieve them…”
Dean Karnazes, endurance athlete and NY Times bestselling author: “David Clark has overcome adversities most of us can’t even begin to fathom. Morbidly obese, hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol, he not only turned his life around but went on to complete the world’s toughest footrace, the 135-mile Badwater ultramarathon. Inspiring and engaging, [the book] is a dramatic story about dealing with profound difficulties and having the strength and courage to persist, endure and prevail no matter how badly the odds are stacked against you.”
Justin McCune: “If nothing else David tells his story with an air of honesty not often seen! His story will take you to rock bottom of alcohol addiction, and lift you back up to the essence of living for the moment!”
Charlie Engle, athlete and author: “David has an undeniable energy as both a runner and a sober man. He sets a stellar example for anyone who wants to take charge of their own life and make a difference in others’ lives. He is all out, all the time. I love this book.”
The Chopra Center has just announced that the 2015 Global Meditation for Compassion will be held on Saturday, July 11 at 9 a.m. PT In Carlsbad, CA at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa and meditation will be accessible worldwide for free via livestream in both English and Spanish [see link below DE]. Gabrielle Bernstein, best-selling author and motivational speaker, will lead a conversation around meditation and compassion with Deepak Chopra, M.D., founder of The Chopra Center and best-selling author, and Ismael Cala, acclaimed CNN en Español anchor, best-selling author and speaker.
A 15-minute guided meditation led by Chopra will follow the discussion. In addition, the event will include videos and questions contributed from the global livestreamed audience along with inspiring musical performances and special guest appearances. The Chopra Center 2014 Global Meditation for Peace currently holds the Guinness Book of World Record title for the largest global meditation worldwide with 140,000 in attendance from nearly every country. This will be their second annual global meditation and they are expecting to unite more than 500,000 people worldwide – breaking 2014’s record by nearly four times.
The second annual global movement will also host 1,500 guests at the live event and unite individuals, families and groups across the world for the largest meditation gathering in history. In addition, the event will include videos and questions contributed from the global livestreamed audience along with inspiring musical performances and special guest appearances.
“The Chopra Center’s mission is to serve as the global source for balance, healing, transformation and the expansion of awareness. By creating an opportunity for the world to be a part of the largest guided meditation, we hope to create a more compassionate world,” said Chopra. “It is time to rediscover our common truth – that we are all one.” This year’s meditation aims to increase compassion worldwide, creating a movement towards a kinder, more connected culture. For more information on how to sign up or to learn more, please visit: http://www.chopra.com/globalmeditation.html or email: marketingdirector@thesilo.ca Tickets to the live event are currently available for purchase for 49$USD+service fee at: https://tickets.brightstarevents.com/event/GlobalMeditation