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Elementary Robotics raises $12.7 million to automate industrial inspections – VentureBeat

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

Elementary Robotics, a robotics company developing tools to automate industrial tasks, today announced it has raised a $12.7 million round. The fresh capital will be used to deploy the Los Angeles-based startups automation products at scale, a spokesperson told VentureBeat.

McKinsey pegs the automation potential for production occupations at 79%, and the pandemic is likely to accelerate this shift. A report by the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte found that 4.6 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled over the next decade, and challenges brought on by physical distancing measures and a sustained uptick in ecommerce activity have stretched some logistics operations to the limit. The National Association of Manufacturers says 53.1% of manufacturers anticipate a change in operations due to the health crisis, with 35.5% saying theyre already facing supply chain disruptions.

Elementary asserts its prepared to address the industrys challenges. The company, which has kept a low profile since its founding in 2017, offers products that automate industrial inspections using a combination of hardware, software, machine learning, and computer vision to identify defects including those manufacturers might not be aware of. It enables manufacturers to set up inspections in the cloud so human inspectors can be kept in the loop and trace and train the systems over time.

Elementary offers a full stack robotic solution, with everything from motor controls to an API that enables machine learning from the ground up. The companys robots can learn to perform monotonous tasks and leverage RGB cameras, depth sensors, and AI to perceive the world, allowing them to learn from processes they observe.

CEO Arye Barnehama, who previously founded and sold wearable technology company Melon to Daqri, an industrial augmented reality startup that went on to raise $275 million, wasnt willing to reveal much beyond the basics about Elementarys solutions. But he believes the company is poised to become a world leader in assistive robotics, in part because of a proprietary vision stack with a lower bill of materials than many competing systems.

Elementary Robotics certainly has the talent to deliver on that vision. It counts graduates and employees from Qualcomm, Caltech, NASA JPL, SpaceX, and Art Center College of Design among its workforce, all of whom are working on cutting-edge robotic systems that will one day augment human workers by performing a range of complex tasks.

In a testament to its competitiveness, Elementary says it has inked deals with a number of manufacturing and logistics suppliers, including Toyota. Its customers have transitioned from sample-based inspection to 100% inspection and seen reduced scrap rates as workflows have become easier to standardize across factories and production lines.

Threshold Ventures led this weeks series A, with participation from existing backers Fika Ventures, Fathom Capital, and Toyota AI Ventures. The round brings Elementarys total raised to over $15 million.

With the warehouse robotics market alone anticipated to be worth $4.44 billion by 2022, according to Markets and Markets, theres no shortage of competition. Amazon acquired robotics company Kiva Systems for $775 million in March 2012, and last November DHL announced it would invest $300 million to modernize its warehouses in North America with internet of things sensors and robots. Elsewhere, Startups like Attabotics andCommonSense Robotics have raised tens of millions of dollars for compact automated fulfillment centers that can slot into tight spaces, like underground garages.

Horror on the High Seas: Animal Welfare & the Live Export Industry – The Yucatan Times

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

On May 21, the Neameh, a Panamanian ship exporting cattle from Colombia to Egypt, was intercepted by Spanish authorities near the Straits of Gibraltar to be raided for suspected cocaine smuggling.

The search, however, was never completed; called off when agents needed breathing devices and their sniffer dogs were useless due to the overpowering stench of neglected and suffering cows. As reported by Europa Sur, a news organization based in Algeciras where the port of interception was located, many of the animals lay dead on the ground for several days among urine, faeces and feed, in a state of decomposition.

Not only does this horrific finding re-emphasize the animal rights violations and malpractices of the live export industry, but it also highlights shortcomings of animal trade regulation when ships pass through the jurisdictions of different countries. Even though the state of the ship when intercepted in Spain clearly violated EU regulations, it was still allowed to continue on to Egypt.

The live export industry has been around for decades, and the growth of the global demand for meat has expanded it to transporting in excess of 5 million animals each day. The consolidation of the slaughterhouse industry has also necessitated animals traveling longer distances or into other countries to be processed.

Countries all over the world participate in the live trade of animals, and Europe dominates many of the lists for export numbers with most of their animals going to countries of the Middle East that are willing to pay a premium for freshly slaughtered meat.

However, it was Australia that initially made headlines after the Farid Fares disaster of 1980, when a transport ship caught fire and sank, drowning 40,605 of the sheep on board. The incident prompted a greater surveillance over the conditions of live export vessels, and precipitated the arrival of a powerful animal advocacy group called Animals Australia, which by 2012 had made live export a mainstream issue now recognized all over the world.

Other animal rights organizations like Animals Angels, Eyes on Animals, and the Animal Welfare Foundation have joined Animals Australia in conducting investigations and large-scale campaigns focused on the live export industry. Eyes on Animals has found abuses from cattle trapped in Russia in a snowed-in truck with a frozen water system, to chickens dying of heat stress while their trucks are stalled outside a slaughterhouse in the Netherlands.

They have uncovered legal violations of journey logs that claim the mandatory 24 hour rest at a fake control post, and water devices full of manure and straw that are either not cleaned or too inaccessible to be cleaned. More generally, they have documented the extreme overcrowding and poor ventilation for transported sheep, causing sick, injured, or dead animals to remain hidden within the masses, as well as pregnant sheep that were illegally brought on board and had given birth to lambs that will likely never step off the rancid ship.

Perhaps counterintuitively, animals are not the only victims of live export. According to livestock veterinarian Dr. Lynn Simpson, what shocked me most was the disregard for humanity and the poor conditions that many seafarers are forced to endure.

Some companies see seafarers as expendable, as confirmed by so many pirate hostages with no ransoms paid. Lesley Moffat, founder of Eyes on Animals, concurs with the mistreatment of workers, feeling sympathetic towards the drivers who are usually more than compliant during surprise inspections by her organization. Theyre not the bosses, she says, Theyre forced to drive really long hours, long distances alone, which is illegal, but saves the boss money.

The activist pushback is not without its successes: New Zealand banned live export in 2003; Austria and Germany followed the Netherlands recent example of suspending transports to non-EU countries that are at risk of violating EU regulations; and just this month the European Parliament voted to establish an inquiry committee to investigate live export.

Activism, however, comes with a paradox as well. As animal rights organizations gain more power and public support, many transport companies do not want their reputations stained, and are more likely to decline the shipment of live animals.

All too often, however, this simply puts the animals into the hands of cheaper and less reputable carriers, and they end up in even worse conditions that they would have previously. Whats more, some countries now ban traded animals to pass through their borders, forcing a need to circumvent existing routes and creating an even longer journey for the creatures.

Uncertainty and complication regarding legal responsibility is one of the greatest obstacles to improving or ending live export. Animal rights laws are different in each country, and transporting across borders confuses jurisdiction to the point where there doesnt seem to be any enforcement at all.

Although there is a World Organization for Animal Health that sets international standards, it has no power of enforcement, and up until fairly recently exporter countries have had no qualms in putting these animals at the mercy of destination countries in order to turn a profit.

This attitude continues even into the time of Covid-19, which becomes especially concerning given that research speculates animal consumption as the spark of the pandemic. According to the Ecologist, 75% of new infectious diseases in humans come from animals, and live animal export significantly increases the likelihood of these diseases arising and spreading.

Asia joins the Middle East in their status as common importers of live animals, and the notorious wet market in Wuhan, China is an example of where these suffering and sick animals often spend their last moments.

Unbeknownst to many consumers, the hamburgers and hot dogs grilled on hot summer days may very well come from a cow whose tongue was lolling and eyes were wide as it barely survived the heat exhaustion that claimed its decomposing neighbors, or a pig that had no choice but to lie in its own excrement for weeks at a time.

These realizations are at least enough for one to lose their appetite and at most enough for people to swear off eating meat for good. However, we do not all need to convert to vegetarianism in order to take a stand for both the welfare of these animals and our own. Something as simple as buying local or spreading awareness on various producers begins to cultivate the global responsibility necessary to impact, improve, or halt altogether the vast, unchecked industry that is live export.

For The Yucatan TimesRaquel Anais Smith

Raquel Anais Smith is a freelance writer specializing in environmental features, published across a variety of international online and print media.

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Horror on the High Seas: Animal Welfare & the Live Export Industry - The Yucatan Times

Lamborghini takes to the high seas – Paint and Panel

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

Automobili Lamborghini and The Italian Sea Group present the worldwide premiere of Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63, the Tecnomar fleets new motor yacht available in a limited edition in reference to Lamborghinis 1963 foundation.

Performance, driving pleasure, attention to quality and details, emotion: these are the emotive features combined within the Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63, thanks to innovative engineering solutions and a distinct design unique to shared Italian style and tradition.

This motor yacht project, developed by The Italian Sea Group, started with several collaborative sessions with the contribution of Lamborghinis Centro Stile and inspiration from the Lamborghini Sin FKP 37: the hybrid super sports car incorporating benchmarking new supercapacitor and materials science technologies, that anticipates the future with an unmistakable design and completely customizable colour and details.

The challenge of re-interpreting the common DNA traits of both brands has inspired all phases of the project, from the design principles to the definition of technical characteristics ensuring incredible performance, without neglecting the quality of materials and careful attention to detail.

Coronavirus fallout: Cruising into the unknown – DW (English)

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

My Australian uncle just spent close to a month locked in his cabin on what he described as his "last cruise ever." No one died or caught the coronavirus, like on so many other vessels. But instead of sailing from Singapore to London, the ship brought him all the way back to Australia without a single stop along the way. That was followed by two weeks of mandatory quarantine in a Perth hotel.

One week later, my uncle emailed me to say he had already booked his next cruise! I couldn't believe it. He wrote that the company had given him a full refund for his "trip to nowhere," along with a 50% discount for a Perth-to-Singapore cruise next year the opposite to what he'd just done, but with shore leaves this time. I wondered if that would be enough to repress those dreaded memories.

Not the cruise of a lifetime

Reports show the coronavirus broke out on at least 55 ships across the world's oceans. Some public health experts said the vessels helped carry the virus around the globe. Many sailed for weeks after the disease was first detected on a cruise liner. That was, until ports refused them entry, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and crew at sea some for months.

A study in March by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked cruise ships with 17% of coronavirus cases in the United States in the early weeks of the global spread of COVID-19. That included the Diamond Princess, the site of one of the world's biggest outbreaks. Prosecutors argued the Ruby Princess was the main importer of cases to Australia. A criminal investigation was launched.

DW Senior Business Editor Ben Fajzullin at Hamburg Port

'The problem stayed on board'

However, the industry said it took extraordinary measures to limit outbreaks. The German government's maritime coordinator Norbert Brackmann (CDU) agreed. "The problem stayed on board," he told me. "The cruise liners are built according to the latest standards."

On a boat tour of Hamburg Port, industry veteran Walter Krombach told me cruise ships were more susceptible to the coronavirus than other places. "Where you have big crowds of people: 4,000 up to 6,000, plus the crew on a narrow area together, mixed together, the risk is there," he said.

'Ships don't have laboratories'

Ukrainian cruise entertainer Ivan Lytvynenko was one of the thousands trapped aboard the German ship, MV Artania, off Australia, when the virus broke out. It led to evacuations and deaths. His main concern was the lack of medical equipment on board. "The ships don't have laboratories, to carry out tests. That's something they'll have to think about,' he told me.

Brackmann said "you can be certain, the cruise operators will be taking this experience from the pandemic and using it to ensure their vessels are even more secure in the future." But the big boats wouldhave to consider setting sail with only half the passengers, if they wanted to adhere to social distancing rules. There was also talk of fewer stops and going local: discouraging passengers from flying to their port of departure and taking a cruise closer to home.

At least the big cruise operators scored well when it cameto providing disinfectant on board to clean your hands. Whereas the rest of the world (except for parts of Asia)only just started installing disinfectant dispensers, they have been a mainstay in front of restaurants on cruise liners for years now. That is because they have had to deal with all sorts of outbreaks before: measles, chickenpox, salmonella, E. coli and the dreaded norovirus.

My holiday from hell

I caught the norovirus on my first and last cruise in 2016. I spent two whole days with severe chills, fever, diarrhea and vomiting, locked in my cabin. That turned me into a bit of a skeptic. Coincidentally, the Spanish operators of the cruise Pullmantur just went bankrupt. There were reports that its fleet of three ships (one just renovated in 2017) washeaded for the scrap heap.

COVID-19 took its toll. But like any health scare, consumers tend to forget quickly. And those who only watched the drama unfold on their flat-screen TVs from the comfort of their own homes wouldfeel even more disconnected from the horrors.

My parents were already planning their next cruise. My father has health issues and cannot fly. A cruise was a great solution to travel. But what if he were to catch something on board, stuck out at sea, with little access to medical equipment? It was something I worried about.

Ukrainian cruise ship entertainer Ivan Lytvynenko may enjoy this land excursion, but he's raring to return to work on the MV Artania

Smaller cruises set sail

He was happy to hear that some of the first cruise operators were already gearing up for business again. In the same week that I was in Hamburg, a smaller expedition boat was the very first to venture back out onto the high seas for German customers. Less than a third of the boat was booked. As passengers checked in, staff checked their temperatures. I read that shore leaves were off the cards.

Whether it meant significantly fewer passengers or higher costs to offer what some companies called a "gold standard in public health," operators would be desperate to get any sort of revenues flowing again, after billions of dollars in losses and lawsuits. And the vast majority of firms continued to burn through billions in cash, with their vessels stuck in dock. Their share prices continued to take on water, as I wrote this article.

Bookings are surging

But booking platforms reported that reservations were surging again. Operators were offering big discounts, like in my uncle's case. On the one hand, some analysts expected another boom even bigger than before the crisis. Krombach, on the other hand, told me the boom was well and truly over and that the industry would never be the same. "Everybody thought in that business that the boom would continue forever. Corona made a stop a full stop."

Skyping with Ivan Lytvynenko, I was surprised to hear from him as well, that his ship wasbooked out. "Our passengers all want to come back. We're booked out for the next two years and I'm certain many, many people will want to do the trip."

And what about the 31-year-old, after being trapped with all those passengers and the threat of a highly contagious virus on board? "I can't wait. It's been my life the last 11 years. I've always been on cruise ships. I just don't know when I'll be able to again."

Excerpt from:

Coronavirus fallout: Cruising into the unknown - DW (English)

Happy 4th of July from WLTX! – WLTX.com

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

We're wishing everyone a wonderful Independence Day celebrating America's founding.

COLUMBIA, S.C. Happy July 4th from News19!

The holiday, of course, commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which formally split the United States from Britain.

The legal separation of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain actually occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. (Founding father John Adams believed that it would be July 2nd that would forever be the day remembered by Americans with celebrations and fireworks. But alas...)

After voting for freedom, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence itself. Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the document, which Congress debated and revised, finally approving it on July 4.

We think perhaps way to pay tribute to the holiday is by reprinting the Declaration of Independence, that incredible document of freedom, which you can read below.

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Happy 4th of July from WLTX! - WLTX.com

NHV: Shaking up the offshore market – Vertical Magazine

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

Despite a relatively shallow seabed, oil production 120 miles (190 kilometers) from the coast in the infamously treacherous North Sea has always required a technological approach to make it profitable. Right from the beginning of production in the 1960s, helicopters were a part of making it possible.

By 1997, the rotary-wing industry that had developed in support of offshore production was mature and well established, but a small new operator, based in the Belgian coastal city of Oostende, was preparing to shake up the sector. That company was Noordzee Helikopters Vlaanderen (North Sea Helicopters, Flanders) or NHV, established by Eric Van Hal, his brother Jef De Kinder and another investor, with an Airbus Helicopters (then Eurocopter) AS365 N3.

The company grew rapidly over the following years, even as the regions oil production began to fall. NHVs operations spanned the coasts of Western Europe (both on- and offshore) and West Africa, but the jewel in the crown remained elusive.

The Scottish city of Aberdeen was transformed perhaps like no other by the oil-and-gas industry. It has the worlds busiest commercial heliport, with 37,000 rotary movements per year that almost exclusively serve offshore oil-and-gas. NHV had opened its U.K. base in the East English coastal town of Norwich in 2008, but without an operation in Aberdeen there was a risk of being overlooked as a serious offshore contender.

Getting into Aberdeen was difficult as real estate was very expensive, said Jamie John, NHVs base manager at Aberdeen. We couldnt win any work in Aberdeen without a base there, and we couldnt get a presence without a contract.

To get around this chicken and egg situation, NHV took a base in the far north of Scotland and embarked on an effort to build its reputation in the face of the more established names.

NHV was a player in Europe but little-known in the U.K., explained John. We started operating initially in Wick with a couple of aircraft and that basically got us our name.

After an 18-year career with the Royal Air Force in ground operations, John spent some time in the Middle East before returning to Europe with DanCopter in 2012, which was acquired by NHV along with the rest of the Blueway Group in 2014. At a stroke, this made the company one of the largest helicopter operators in Europe, with a presence in every oil producing country in the North Sea region.

John explained that things started to change in Aberdeen a year later. We won a contract with a large major [oil producer] and began gaining momentum, he said. In 2015, we were awarded a contract for two aircraft, and we flew our first contracted offshore flight from Aberdeen out of a temporary facility in January 2016 while our base was under construction.

That operation supported between 150 and 180 flying hours per month with a team of 20 personnel. Now Aberdeen is NHVs largest flying unit with a fleet of seven aircraft flying 7,000 to 8,000 hours per year and employing 120 staff.

NHV was the launch customer for the H175, and received its 12th of the type in 2019. The Aberdeen fleet would be entirely of that type, which was a departure from the trend.

The [Airbus Helicopters H] 225 and the [Sikorsky] S-92 were still flying, so there was nothing in the medium class flying at Aberdeen, Neil Christie, the bases chief pilot, explained.

John was a key part of the team setting up the Aberdeen base, and while contracts have accumulated and the company footprint expanded dramatically since, the nature of the task hasnt changed much.

We call them bus schedule contracts, he explained. We tend to fly very regular, scheduled runway-to-rig operations that allow predictable working routines.

It seems likely that oil-and-gas passenger transfers in this environment could only be described as routine and predictable by someone who has either spent a lot of time in that business, or none at all.

The North Sea spans lines of latitude that are roughly coincident with Alaska, and if the weather is predictable, then it is predictably terrible. High winds and high seas are only generally absent when the thick regional fog known as the Haar blankets the ocean and coast, sending the air temperature plummeting.

Certainly, most of the flights are similar in profile, but when at least one landing and takeoff must be made to a ship, or a platform hundreds of feet above the waves and surrounded by other vertical obstructions, describing them as routine is understated, to say the least.

It is a hazardous environment in which to undertake the already risky business of oil-and-gas production, and there have been several high-profile incidents and accidents that have well illustrated the dangers including those that led to the lengthy prohibition of EC225 LP and AS332 L2 helicopter operations in the U.K. and Norway.

Unsurprisingly then, safety is at the forefront of everyones mind, not just among the aviation community but also those who they transport to their place of work, miles out to sea. Their representatives in the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) take a keen interest in the operation of aircraft that support the industry, and put in place restrictions over and above those of the regional and national aviation regulators.

This emphasis is keenly felt in the cockpit, where responsibility for the safe conduct of flight ultimately rests.

We want to create the same perfect flight each time, where the passengers can have their nap and arent awoken, said Christie. How we deal with the weather and anything else needs to be standardized, but we train hard to have that peaceful flight.

In common with much else in aviation that involves carriage of passengers, that training and standardization revolves around procedure, but oil rigs are very different from international airports or in fact any airport. While performance-based navigation and even point-in-space approaches have been implemented in other industries, the preferred method to get a large helicopter onto an oil rig involves judicious use of radar. This is not only because of the challenges of the variability of wind direction and strength, but also to aid detection of boats or other obstacles that might have found their way into the path of the approaching aircraft.

Rig approaches typically start at 1,500 feet (460 meters) above the sea level at 6.5 nautical miles (12 kilometers) and an air speed of 90 knots, before a descent to 200 feet (60 meters) is initiated. A 10 degree turn away from the rig ensures separation before the aircraft continues to a missed approach point at mile.

Having flown the AS332 L previously and coming from the H155, Christie was familiar with Airbus Helicopters products and design philosophy.

The H175 came quite naturally; the aircraft simplifies a lot of things, he explained. The cockpit is a lot more automated and simplified, which lends to an easier CRM [crew resource management] environment for the crew. That all leads to reducing the risk of confusion or mistakes.

Christie reserved particular praise for the aircrafts Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS), native to the H175s Helionix avionics setup.

Ive worked on machines in the past where I had less trust in the AFCS, he said. But Ive heard it again and again from crews that theyve never had as much trust in another aircraft as they do in the 175.

At least part of this trust likely comes as a result of the vast array of experience with the aircraft that comes from within the company. NHV has not only been operating the machine for longer than anybody else, but also has the largest fleet anywhere in the world.

Despite having only joined the company in 2019, NHVs U.K. flight ops manager Chris Cooper is a convert to the type, both technically and ideologically.

Its a fantastic aircraft, he said. Weve become the authority on the H175 because weve been involved from the very beginning. A lot of the processes and procedures that have been introduced have come from NHV and the experience we have with the aircraft.

Cooper explained that the variety of landing platforms across the region influenced the companys fleet choices. The smaller decks off Norwich are well suited to the Leonardo AW139, while NHV has chosen the Leonardo AW169 for the even smaller decks off the coast of Blackpool in northwest England for a new contract with Spirit Energy.

With such a modern fleet, it is easy to see why pilots are attracted to NHV, but Christie and Cooper are equally adamant that the strength of NHV comes from its people.

We are good at selecting the right people, said Cooper. We place a big emphasis on that. Obviously, recruits have to have the right technical qualification but with small teams, they also need to have great team skills.

That experience is getting harder and harder to come by. The IOGP sets out rigorous minimum requirements even for first officers. In particular, the requirement for 500 hours in multi-engine aircraft narrows the field enormously.

NHV is taking some steps towards making the process of working in the sector more achievable for inexperienced pilots.

The mainstay of our hiring is experienced people, but weve also been able to bring on some inexperienced pilots that have just got their CPL(H), got their IR and theyve no experience, he said.

NHV has its own ATO to deliver type ratings and line training, but copilots arriving without the requisite hours each have to be approved by the IOGP on a case-by-case basis. This must add cost to the company, but Christie explained that the value went beyond simply filling a cockpit seat and gives the company additional choice in who it hires.

We need everyone to be able to work well together in the cockpit and in the office, he said. But its also fresh eyes; we like to see people coming in and asking why we do things a certain way, it gives us a chance to ask ourselves that.

The companys team spirit has undoubtedly been tested. No sooner had the operation at Aberdeen begun in earnest, it was decided that Britain would leave the European Union, and with it the European Aviation Safety Agency.

NHVs history is filled with examples of operating across national boundaries. For example, while its management of continuous airworthiness is U.K.-registered, the part 145 maintenance operation is Belgian. Until 2018 this was also the case for its Air Operators Certificate (AOC), but with Britain disentangling itself from the European Union, NHV decided to change the whole of the U.K. operation onto a U.K. AOC.

John explained that the planning and preparation took a year and depended not only on the talent that existed in the company, but on others that they needed to bring in.

In the end it was a complete shutdown of the existing AOC and a fresh start over a weekend. Aircraft were deregistered on the Friday and by Monday we were ready to go, he explained. We found the right people to manage the process. We even managed to continue to win contracts while we were doing it.

More recent challenges have had far broader reach. While the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic placed much of the world into lockdown, it was vital that the energy industry continued to be able to operate.

One of the biggest challenges that we had right at the start was gaining any kind of good advice because nobody was an expert in this, said Cooper.

While NHV needed to be able to transport symptomatic patients who didnt meet the threshold for search-and-rescue (SAR), they nevertheless had to be transported back to the mainland. However, adherence to regulation made it difficult to protect people.

We had a dedicated helicopter and a medic with oxygen, and I think that put us ahead of the curve initially, Cooper said. To start with we couldnt get a barrier in for the crew because you needed part 21 approval to do anything, so we had a spare 175 which we put into a cargo fit, which is three seats at the front and three at the back, so at least we had some distance.

Cooper said the companys small, experienced, teams not only enable rapid action in a crisis, but are also critically important to winning and keeping routine business.

The base managers look after the customers. They dont have to go through key account managers, he said. The customers like it because they can come straight to someone who has an answer and they are just dealing with one person.

The coronavirus crisis has undoubtedly injected a fresh and unwanted dose of uncertainty into an oil-and-gas market that was already suffering a downturn. While NHVs U.K. operation doesnt seem distracted from a job it is proud to have succeeded at as the underdog, the wider company has plenty of other experience, from SAR, helicopter emergency medical services and MRO services in Europe, to utility work in Norway. This makes diversification a possibility, in principle at least.

The focus in the U.K. is on our operations supporting oil-and-gas, said John. Were not shy about looking into other markets, but those markets are likely to be linked to offshore services.

NHV has already proved that it can adapt to challenging circumstances, and its likely that itll have plenty of time to adapt further.

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Saving workers from the hell of the fishing industry in Asia – Equal Times

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), in 2017, 40.1 million people worldwide worked on fishing vessels. These men and women are sometimes forcibly conscripted onto boats where their most basic rights are violated. Faced with this unacceptable situation, several associations and trade unions are pushing for the international community to better regulate the rapidly evolving industry.

Supreyanto was 47 years old. An Indonesian national, he worked on a Taiwanese vessel fishing tuna, a job which often requires several days of work without rest. It was a job for which Supreyanto gave his life. In 2015, after four months spent at sea, the fisher died on a boat that was employing him in what the captain and several sailors described as an accident. In reality, it was a murder.

Supreyanto suffered many abuses aboard the Taiwanese vessel, including humiliation and beatings. His story, all too common in the fishing industry, came to light thanks to the work of Allison Lee, founder of the Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union. Created in 2014, it is Taiwans first union dedicated to defending the rights of foreign sailors employed in the country.

For years, she has fought to protect these often-exploited workers. Its hard to know whats going on aboard the boats, she tells Equal Times.

Most of the time we have nothing but our suspicions. The sailors who die often disappear into the ocean.

As the economic stakes of the fishing industry continue to rise, stories like Supreyantos are increasingly commonplace on the worlds seas.

The fishing industry is one of the most dangerous and violent in the world. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 20,000 to 30,000 seafarers disappear every year while at sea. I think its due to the nature of the work, Kimberly Rogovin, senior seafood campaign coordinator at the International Labour Rights Forum (ILRF), tells Equal Times. On the boats, you dont have access to the most basic medical care.

According to Rogovin, fishing vessels are also under enormous economic pressure to reduce costs, so they hire the least trained and cheapest workers. This is particularly true in the countries of Asia, which are home to 75 per cent of the worlds active fishing vessels. The fishing industry in these countries relies on migrant workers from countries where employment is scarce who are willing to work for starvation wages.

In the Taiwanese fishing industry, which specialises in tuna, its mainly Indonesian and Filipino workers who work on the boats. In Thailand its workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. They catch all types of fish, both inside and outside of exclusive economic zones (EEZ) [editors note: areas within 200 nautical miles of a countrys coast where it is allowed to explore and use marine resources]. They are the ones that suffer the worst abuses. The same goes for workers in South Korea, explains Rogovin.

Over the years, associations have documented abuses in the industry. I think there are examples of abuse on many boats throughout the world. But this phenomenon has become extreme in recent years and certain regions are more affected than others, Thailand, for example, Steve Trent, founder and president of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), tells Equal Times. According to a United Nations report, 59 per cent of migrant workers employed on Thai boats have witnessed the killing of another sailor.

The entire system is designed to keep sailors dependent on the boats they are on. They cant leave or demand that their rights be respected. In this respect, working on a boat can be similar to slavery, Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watchs Asia division, tells Equal Times. Indeed, many of the migrant workers employed on fishing vessels incur significant debt well before going out to sea.

Recruitment agencies seek out the poorest workers they can find, offering them contracts and the possibility of work abroad. Documents are signed in exchange for a large sum of money and before they know it, workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia and Cambodia find themselves working on fishing vessels in deplorable conditions where they are forced to work for years to pay off their debts. The United Nations has called this practice a form of modern slavery.

Moreover, as Robertson explains: Deep-sea fishing operations are conducted outside of all national labour laws, and in fact outside of any law at all, since regulations on work at sea are almost non-existent. While fishing activities are regulated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in reality it is little respected.

In 2007, after two years of negotiations, the ILO adopted a new convention (Convention 188) aimed at ensuring decent working conditions for fishers aboard fishing vessels, specifically with regard to conditions of service, accommodation and food, occupational safety and health protection.

But the document lacks a base of support as no Asian country except for Thailand has agreed to sign it.

Moreover, the vastness of the worlds oceans and seas makes it difficult to carry out checks, which makes it difficult to ensure that conventions are being properly applied, even more so when the vessels employing exploited workers are ghost ships engaged in illegal fishing.

International institutions refer to fishing activities that take place outside of any international monitoring as IUU fishing (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing). This practice accounts for 20 to 30 per cent of activities in the sector, the equivalent of US$10 to US$20 million a year, according to the FAO. Many people are trying to regulate IUU fishing because they cant profit from it, says Rogovin.

However, the fight against illegal fishing and for better regulation of the oceans cannot be separated from the fight against forced labour. Climate change and overfishing are making it harder to catch fish close to the shore, says HRWs Robertson. When fishing vessels become fleets fishing on the high seas, the abuses against workers intensify and worsen significantly. Furthermore, as he explains, IUU fishing over long periods of time is really only possible if you have forcibly detained crews working indefinitely in horrible conditions.

Migrant workers are treated like disposable resources while vessel owners have only one objective: catching as many fish as possible to make the biggest profits.

This has become increasingly difficult due to the overfishing of the oceans. One in three species of fish is now overfished, Pearl Peiyu Chen, who works for Greenpeace in Asia, tells Equal Times. The boats have to travel farther and farther out into the ocean and stay at sea for longer periods of time to find the resources that they need.

Commercial fishing is part of a global chain and there is enormous pressure from buyers, whether its larger retailers like Walmart, Tesco or Carrefour, or distributors who buy seafood products, like Nestl, explains Rogovin. This enormous pressure on the industry to keep production costs low forces the boats to save money so they can continue to sell their fish.

Greenpeace points in particular to the involvement of industry giants in forced labour. Last March, the association revealed disturbing testimonies from sailors employed on two vessels linked to Fong Chong Formosa (FCF), one of the largest tuna traders in Tawain, which sells its products on Japanese, American and European markets. While Asian countries are particularly implicated in forced labour, the EJF has also documented cases of forced labour on British and Irish boats, as well as US-flagged vessels based in Hawaii.

However, solutions exist for putting an end to these degrading practices for workers around the world. Trent believes that there is a range of easily accessible and economically viable tools that could be put in place. For example, when you look out the window, wherever you are in the world, and see cars going by, they have license plates. This prevents serious problems. At sea, many fishing vessels dont have identification numbers. Were advocating for the introduction of license plates from the moment the vessels are built to the moment they are destroyed.

Another proposed solution is the installation of tracking systems and cameras on board ships. Associations are also calling for an end to transhipment at sea. The practice is simple: in order to avoid fishing vessels making too many return trips between the coast and the high sea, other vessels come to collect the fish caught and bring the goods back to port. This practice allows vessels to stay at sea without having to interrupt their fishing activities, but it is also often associated with forced labour a situation which has worsened with the coronavirus which has left tens of thousands of fishers and other seafarers stuck at sea due to containment measures. . However, the worlds countries are increasingly regulating transhipment as it is often associated with IUU fishing.

Faced with international pressure, but also with intergovernmental logistical and financial support, several countries have taken additional steps to improve working conditions on fishing vessels. Thailand, which has been particularly singled out for criticism in recent years, has been trying to better regulate its industry since 2015. Thanks in particular to improved working conditions on its vessels and an investment of more than 1.75 million bahts (US$56,700) to modernise fishing equipment, the country has successfully reduced the need for labour on Thai-flagged vessels by 37 per cent, thus lowering production costs while improving working conditions and wages for foreign workers.

The European Union also lifted the yellow card it had given to Taiwan in 2015 after significant improvements made over the last three and a half years to tracking and regulation of its fishing vessels.

International conventions appear to be bearing fruit. In 2018, the Taiwanese-flagged Fuh Sheng No.11 became the first vessel detained under the provisions of the ILOs Work in Fishing Convention (No. 188) after an inspection revealed cases of forced labour on board.

But governments are not the only actors capable of fighting against forced labour on fishing vessels. Several trade unions have been formed over the last few years to defend the rights of migrant fishers. These organisations are indispensable in the fight against these practices. In addition to the role of information and prevention they play with the workers they are able to reach, they have also played a major role in recent years in denouncing ship owners who fail to respect the most basic human rights.

One such organisation, the Fishers Rights Network (FRN), was launched in Songkhla, one of Thailands largest ports, in 2017. Since then, the union has been distributing first aid kits to fishers and has helped several of them to claim unpaid wages. Its actions have forced the government to raise the minimum wage for fishers. In January 2017, the Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN), also based in Thailand but working on behalf of workers from Myanmar, assisted more than 2,000 migrant workers in submitting a collective labour demand to their employer.

These worldwide struggles cannot be successful without the mobilisation of all of the actors in the channels of consumption, all the way to consumers.

Consumers need to ask questions in their supermarkets or in restaurants to ensure that seafood products are produced using sustainable practices that respect labour and human rights, explains Robertson.

For Trent, a better political vision, greater control by retailers of where their products come from and consumer mobilisation could make a difference. The challenges are immense, theres no doubt about it. But we have solutions at our disposal. The EJF founder is calling for global action to be taken: The seas and oceans cover more than 70 per cent of our planet and have no borders. These problems cannot be solved individually. If we dont work together, we will fail, he says.

This is a major challenge for the thousands of migrant workers who are abused by their captains on the worlds oceans every day. Climate change and dwindling fish resources combined with growing demand are making this issue increasingly urgent. According to the FAO, global per capita fish consumption in 2016 was more than 20 kilograms a year, double what it was 50 years ago.

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Saving workers from the hell of the fishing industry in Asia - Equal Times

Special weather alert: Snow, heavy rain and strong winds to lash Western and Northern Cape – News24

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

- Strong to gale north-westerly winds (60-75km/h) are expected in places over the Northern Cape and Western Cape on Thursday.

- Strong to gale north-westerly winds (60-75km/h) between Cape Columbine and Cape Agulhas of the Western Cape Thursday spreading to Plettenberg Bay by the evening.

- High seas with wave heights from 6m to 8m are expected between Hondeklip Bay and Cape Agulhas Thursday.

- Heavy rain is expected over the high lying areas of the Cape Metropole and Cape Winelands Thursday evening and Friday.

- A heavy rain leading to localised flooding is possible over the Cape Metropole, mountainous areas of Cape Winelands and Overberg from Friday until Saturday.

- Very cold conditions are expected over Western Cape and the southern high ground of the Northern Cape on Friday afternoon spreading eastwards by Saturday morning.

- Snowfalls are expected over the mountainous regions of the Western Cape and the southern high ground of the Northern Cape on Friday.

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Special weather alert: Snow, heavy rain and strong winds to lash Western and Northern Cape - News24

What Is The Missing Link For Evolution Of Technical Education? – FE News

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

How reflection can be embedded into the #TLevel course

In the first of the two articles in this series we looked at an overview of the upcoming T Level offering and then in the second we ran through the background and importance of reflective learning, a key skill young people need to develop whether they embark on the university or work route.

In this, the third in the trilogy, we are going to combine the two to look at how reflection can be embedded into the T level course; what is expected of T level students in terms of the content of their journals and how Kloodles digital platform presents the most user-friendly, efficient and fun option.

So, as you read this, 50 colleges up and down the country are gearing up to prepare candidates for 3 T levels from September.

And to provide oven-ready candidates for next year, a host of educational institutions are launching transition courses to extend the T conveyor belt downstream.

The work experience as part of the qualificationsgives the students real-life applications of communication, numeracy, literacy and employability skills.

Over the past year we have been contacted by numerous providers who are interested to use the Kloodle digital platform to cement their T level offering and this has inspired me to write this article to highlight how the platform can be used to support learner, provider and employer communities.

In the second in this trilogy of articles, we talked about how reflective practitioners promoted a written log or diary as an essential mechanism of developing reflective skills.

Back in the day when I was a lad, it was commonplace for young people, inspired no doubt by the exploits of Adrian Mole(he was 13 back then), to keep a diary.

It enabled us to delve into his mind and understand what made him tick.

Youngsters of today, the so-called Gen Z, are more used to posting Insta-stories or videos on TikTok instead of the traditional way of putting pen to paper to record events. Thats not a problem, as the digital process can embrace all of these approaches.

The concept of the logbook has been around a long time; the earliest known example was written in hieroglyphic letters on papyrus, detailing the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, 4,500 yearsago!!

Its author detailed a timetable of the work relating to transporting limestone from nearby quarries by boat to the site. Logbooks then rose to prominence on the high seas as a tool for recording the daily jaunts of the ships captain and crew, including distance travelled, places visited, weather and so on.

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While the economic impact of Covid-19 has been felt acutely across the

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It was the black box to help them trace the causes of problems. Its so useful and important on journeys that it will even be used into the future; as you see in Star Trek when Captain Kirk logs the events on the Starship Enterprise.

The Logbook, or journal, is an essential aspect of the T level qualification journey and the content of the log will be assessed in the exam. Students provide evidence of their reflections and ideas in the Logbook which acts as an interface for the teacher and mentor to assess progress.

However, on the digital platform, the format of the diary is not in a Samuel Pepys long form style (although that could be interesting!) but can be a colourful kaleidoscope of media such as blogs, videos and photos.

The proposal to use a logbook as part of the T level assessment is a great idea, however, the quality of the proforma T level Logbook suggested by the DfE leaves a lot to be desired; its a 1980s style fill-in-the-blanks, tick-the-box style booklet, prescriptive, pretty uninspirational and certainly not in keeping with the digital age and reflective practice.

In terms of content, the Logbook should set out the goals and expectations beforehand, then ongoing developments during the placement.

This is summarised in the diagram below and as you can see, reflecting regularly is a key aspect of the journey:

In the DfE proforma, there is a skills section of the Logbook, where students are asked to self-assess some skills on a five-point scale.

It appears that only a few skill areas are selected, namely around communication, preparation and social skills, but there isnt a clear framework which is applied. I expect, if left alone, most students will struggle with this.

The Logbook should also include basic standing data about the placement, regarding the student, the employer, the place of work and the role; as shown in this diagram.

The log should be in digital form. There are many benefits of using a digital platform for the diary.

Can you think of many?

To name a few:

Learners maintain a diary by uploading information to their personal profile on Kloodle. This profile is their personal professional brand in digital form. Its what you and your skills might look like to a potential employer. Effectively its a digital CV.

The software allows the student to support their skills and achievements by uploading evidence to their profile and the T level placement is a perfect scheme for this.

There are two specific aspects of the profile which are linked to T levels, namely:

One feeds into the other.

Over the 2 years of the course these features of the profile scaffold students development and help to build confidence in the workplace. Also, both the Logbook and Skills Wheel are useful for Transition Year students to get used to; this can build maturity and confidence which are often the reasons for not commencing the full T level.

On Kloodle, the student maintains their journal of what they have been accomplishing in the work environment linking back to the theory taught in the classroom.

As part of this they upload evidence of the skills developed supported by different media; this could be a blog about, say, problems with communication with children, a video about a construction site ready for development or a picture of a block of code youve written. This process captures reflections and also develops self-awareness.

The students are prompted to tag skills they feel are associated with this task. As they progress through the project and work placement these skills then feed through to the Skills Wheel which Ill explain shortly.

The work experience can be logged daily on their profile to leave a rich trail of evidence of the projects completed, which supervisors can easily review to give feedback. Most of this is very intuitive and can even be done through the app on the phone. The screenshots here show how this is done.

In order to help students to develop the habit of keeping a regular journal, they are prompted to answer a series of questions which have been inspired by the Gibbs Reflective Cycle, something we talked about in the second article. Its to get the students into the habit of reflecting on what they have done on each day of their placement. Without realising it, theyll be learning about learning!

Successful completion of the entries can be checked and reviewed by supervisors and mentors, either face-to-face or remotely; the latter being very important in the times we live in.

The diary can also act an audit trail, so that students can run back over their thought processes and see how they have arrived where they are. It is also a great way of assessing growth mindset and distance travelled!

The Skills Wheel has a number of spokes, pointing out from the centre in all directions of the compass, each one of which represents a specific skill. In the picture here, the skill at due North is Teamwork, a very highly valued trait.

As each student adds content to their profile, they are prompted to tag in the skills which the evidence supports; the Wheel is then updated for the personalised skills and is a pictorial representation of the strengths and areas for improvement of that individual student.

It becomes the focus for conversations with tutors and mentors about where to concentrate attention. This one here is empty. I know what Id want to do, fill it up!

The number and range of skills can be tailored for an organisation; typically, colleges will set 10 skills to focus on. However, we have a number of model frameworks which can be applied depending on the objectives and this is something that we help schools and colleges to develop.

Companies which build talent pipelines of students on Kloodle signpost the skills they value the most by utilising an awards system; this presents virtual skills badges for students who upload sufficient and appropriate evidence of demonstrating the skill.

Different careers require different combinations of skills and over time the employers build up a picture of what they are looking for in good-fit candidates and this can be used as a template for aspirant applicants. At the same time, it nudges the students to reflect on and develop their employability for a specific role.

I think would work really well with T level placements.

In this example below, the student has started to build up their skills profile during the first few weeks of the placement.

On the left you can see that the Wheel starts to take shape; they have shown strength in teamwork, leadership, creativity and entrepreneurship and some development in digital research and communication.

However, you can see at a glance that little support for commercial awareness has been demonstrated.

The assessor could be able to appraise the current status and then set some targets for the development of the Wheel for the next meeting. The kids like it because it feels more like a game than the serious topic of preparing for a life of work!

As the placement continues, skills are tagged, the Wheel grows and forms different shapes. Whats interesting is that you tend to find a polarised reaction; the students either want to keep pushing what theyre good at, the so-called star shape, OR aim for the perfect circle of the good all-rounder. As the confidence and skills develop the student can build whatever shape they want to achieve that fits in with their goals. This is the virtuous feedback loop. Activity, tag, grow, repeat.

Evidencing and reflecting on these experiences through Kloodle provides the school or college with data on the distance travelled for the learner.

Thats how it works. Now whats it all about in a nutshell, please.

The Skills Wheel is a valuable reflection tool to support self-evaluation. There is no right answer, its just a channel to help the student to critically reflect on what they have achieved and where they can improve.

In the initial stages, tutors and mentors will set expectations with the student which becomes something to aim towards. As the learner builds their own self-awareness, they can spot the gaps in the pattern and prioritise next steps to get to where they want to. That in itself is a great skill to learn!

So, those new shiny T levels waiting for ignition on the launchpad offer a great opportunity to level up; level up skills, level up prospects, level up economies. The focus is on taking off and leaving behind the just regurgitate culture in education and concentrating on linking the theory in the classroom with the practice on the placement.

Historically, this has been a missing link in technical education and the way to fix it successfully is by implementing reflective learning through the medium of the logbook. We suggest you use the intuitive Kloodle digital platform as it is efficient and students can build their profile, skills and confidence on the journey to becoming a highly skilled employee.

Good luck.

Neil Wolstenholme,Chairman,Kloodle

Please contact us at Kloodleif you would like to discuss further.

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What Is The Missing Link For Evolution Of Technical Education? - FE News

For injured turtles, a return to the sea – The Keene Sentinel

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

ASSATEAGUE STATE PARK, Md. Seven months after washing up on the shores of Cape Cod, Mass., No. 300 stoically scanned the powdery beach while being held aloft by Marylands second-highest elected official.

It was hardly the strangest thing to befall the young Kemps ridley sea turtle, a Gulf of Mexico native, since the animal found itself in cool northern waters in November. Its body temperature plunged, making it too lethargic to swim. It was scooped up by volunteers who found it near-dead on shore. It was trucked to Baltimore, then warmed by aquarium workers who named it Muenster and treated its pneumonia. The turtle swam in a pool with other injured turtles named for cheeses, and swam some more, not knowing that outside, pandemic-related shutdowns were delaying its return to the Atlantic waters now before it.

Soon, Republican Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, jeans rolled up to his knees, placed the turtle into breaking waves as beachgoers cheered this glint of hope at a time of tumult on land. And without a look back, Muenster became the first of 10 Kemps ridley and green sea turtles to paddle forth on this late June morning into an ocean that by some measures has become more hospitable to the seafaring reptiles and by others indicators warming seas, intensifying hurricanes may be turning more perilous.

Six of seven sea turtle species are threatened or endangered, their populations driven down by development of the beaches where they nest, pollution of the waters where they forage, fishing nets and lines that accidentally catch them, and hunting and trade. But even against that dim backdrop, the trends for those that swim U.S. waters look fairly positive, according to one recent study: Endangered species protections have helped six of eight populations rise.

Green sea turtles that nest in Florida had experienced such remarkable recovery, the study said, that their status was upgraded from endangered to threatened in 2016. But some experts worry that an increase in intense hurricanes, which may be worsening because of global warming, poses a growing threat to sea turtle beaches.

Kemps ridleys such as Muenster, the most endangered sea turtles of all, are a different story. Juveniles ages 2 to 5 or so commonly strand on Massachusetts beaches near where they spend summer months eating. While turtle stranding can be caused by entanglement, illness or boat-strikes, these turtles are usually cold-stunned: After having followed ocean currents up the Atlantic to the Gulf of Maine, those that stick around too long end up in water too cool for them to handle perhaps because they get stuck in the hook of Cape Cod.

I suspect these little guys have this innate sense that when temperatures drop, they need to swim south. For a lot that need to be in that area, its fine, said Kate Mansfield, a biologist who directs the University of Central Floridas Marine Turtle Research Group. But if youre in that Cape Cod area and try to go south, youre going to hit beach.

The number of cold-stunned turtles stranding on Cape Cod annually varies but is rising overall. Just over 200 stranded in 2010, according to the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. In 2014, a record 1,241 did; in 2018, more than 800. This past winter, 301 were swept ashore.

The New England Aquarium nurses some back to health, but the high numbers mean a network of facilities must take in others. Almost all the patients have pneumonia which produces raspy breathing in a sea turtle and many have gastrointestinal problems and external injuries, said Kate Shaffer, rehabilitation manager for the National Aquarium in Baltimore, which cared for the turtles released at Assateague. The most dire case to come into the National Aquarium this past season, Mascarpone, arrived with an eye so scabbed over the staff wasnt sure it was there, she said. (It was, and it recovered.)

The process of a turtle ending up on the beach against his or her will is definitely a rough one. Theyve probably been cartwheeled around in the surf, said the National Aquariums CEO, John Racanelli. A lot of them come back with eye injuries.

It isnt clear what is driving the surge in cold-stunning off Cape Cod Bay, although some experts think it may be a good sign more nests means more stranding. But researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst found in a study published last year that the increase is associated with rising sea surface temperatures caused by climate change, not with a rising number of hatchlings. The Gulf of Maine is warming particularly quickly, and that may be causing the turtles to expand farther north, the researchers wrote.

That same paper said that while rehabilitation efforts like the one that got Muenster back to the ocean probably save a minute percentage of Kemps ridleys, they are critical to continuing to bolster population resiliency.

Or as Racanelli, standing on the beach under gauzy clouds, put it: This is one place where we can intervene and actually do something good for a species... . They just need a chance to get back on their little flippers.

The aquarium chooses a theme each year when naming rescued wildlife it admits, which is how this seasons batch of 35 cold-stunned turtles came to be named for cheeses. Of the 10 released last week, four were Kemps ridleys and six were green sea turtles. The greens stranded off North Carolina, where cold-stunning occurs during unusual cold snaps. The aquariums first-ever cold-stunned sea turtle from Maryland, Cheddar, came in this season but did not survive.

This particular batch this year was a pretty rough group of turtles, Shaffer said, referring to their conditions.

Muenster, the star of the release because he was the aquariums 300th rehabilitated animal, was expected to head back to the ocean during a winter release in Florida but wasnt well enough. Then, a release planned for April was scuttled because of coronavirus shutdowns.

Now, it was June, and the beaches were open to humans and to turtles.

But the release last week was not typical. It was carried out at Assateague State Park, rather than a more crowded location such as Ocean City, in hopes of more social distancing for all present. Volunteers, the backbone of the aquariums rehab program, were not told about the event for the same reason. Aquarium staff greeted each other as if at a family reunion; most had not seen each other since March. All wore masks, and hand sanitizer was squirted liberally.

In normal times, Racanelli said, he would be in Baltimore running the aquarium and chasing donors. But the aquarium was closed.

Its good to be here to see it, he said. We need hope.

The turtles were pulled out of a white truck one by one, each resting on a towel in a cardboard Chiquita banana box donated by a supermarket.

As they walked toward the ocean, staff members carried Brie and Mascarpone, both Kemps ridleys, down a line of spectators standing behind yellow caution tape and orange cones. Tags akin to pet microchips were implanted in the animals so they can be identified if they strand again. It happens.

The turtles moved their flippers back and forth, as if already imagining being in the sea.

I hope you enjoy the ocean! one woman gushed.

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For injured turtles, a return to the sea - The Keene Sentinel

Sea vessels warned of higher and lower than normal tides – News24

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

National Sea Rescue Institute performs a life saving exercise during the learn to swim event at Monwabisi Beach.

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has appealed to beach goers and smaller vessels at sea to be cautious because of higher and lower tides, which will peak on Sunday.

In a statement, the NSRI said high seas, combined with a Spring tide and the cold front, are expected to reach the Western Cape on Saturday along the south and south-west coastline and persist into Monday morning.

"The concern is for smaller vessels at sea navigating through the conditions, as well as for beach goers and coastal hikers, who may be caught off-guard by large waves at Spring high tide that could potentially sweep them off the rocks along the shoreline," NSRI CEO Dr Cleeve Robertson said.

"We are appealing to boaters, paddlers, beach goers, surfers, coastal hikers, anglers and the public to be cautious around the coastline and to follow SA Weather Service (SAWS) forecasts."

- Compiled by Alex Mitchley

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Sea vessels warned of higher and lower than normal tides - News24

Chinese imports stalled at India’s ports and airports – The Straits Times

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

As tensions remain high along the India-China border, a fallout of the border row appears to be Chinese imports being stuck at ports and airports across India, where they go through intense checks.

Imports range from pulse oximeters to printed circuit boards, active pharmaceutical ingredients and chemicals for fertilisers.

It is understood that imports from China, valued at US$70.3 billion (S$98 billion) last year, have been subject to intense physical checks since tensions spiked following the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers in a border clash on June 15.

Associations representing different industries - from automobiles to phones, computers, electronics and agriculture - said they are getting distress calls from members. They have urged the Indian government to ensure faster clearances to prevent manufacturing disruptions.

"There are thousands of operators and thousands of importers who have been impacted. It's a very difficult situation," said Mr Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of the India Cellular and Electronics Association, which represents manufacturers like Taiwan's Foxconn.

The mobile and electronics industry - which includes manufacturers, brand owners and technology providers - receives US$1 billion worth of imports from China every week.

Mr Mohindroo said: "We were shut down for 60 days and we have reopened and restarted. Already we have lost 400 billion rupees (S$7.4 billion) of production in the lockdown. At the moment, recovery is not up to normal levels. We are at 40 per cent levels and a few raw materials have run out."

India imposed a shutdown for two months starting at the end of March, suspending economic activity to curb the spread of Covid-19.

"We have been assured by the government that there will be some action the next day or two," Mr Mohindroo added.

Those in the know said that checks of imported goods have been intensified.

"The official reason being given is they have some intelligence tip-off of contraband being imported into the country. But the objective is to make things difficult for Chinese imports," said a person with knowledge of the matter who did not want to be named.

A Customs official said on condition of anonymity that there was a security alert, leading to greater scrutiny of all paperwork against the goods being brought in.

"There is an alert in the system and we are checking what kind of goods are coming in and whether they conform to the laws of the land."

India and China had a strong economic relationship that was de-linked from border tensions. But their violent border clash has seen tensions impact economic ties. India on Monday banned 59 Chinese apps, citing security reasons. On Tuesday, a government minister announced that Chinese firms would not be allowed to bid for highway projects.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday exited Chinese social media website Weibo, five years after he debuted with "Hello China".

The economic measures have come even as India and China have held talks to reduce tensions along the Line of Actual Control, or the defacto border between the two countries. Yesterday, sources said that in military talks held the previous day, both sides "emphasised the need for an expeditious, phased and step-wise de-escalation as a priority" but noted resolution is a "complex process".

The managing director of Chakradhar Chemicals, Mr Neeraj Kedia, has been waiting to receive a shipment of chemicals used in the making of fertilisers since June 16.

Yesterday, he received news that the shipment is being released from Chennai port, two weeks after it landed there. Customs clearance usually takes three to four days.

"I am a little apprehensive of further imports. My next shipment is on the high seas," he said.

Correction note: This story has been updated to reflect the correctdesignation of Mr Pankaj Mohindroo. We are sorry for the error.

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Chinese imports stalled at India's ports and airports - The Straits Times

The Greens bear responsibility for capitulation to NZ First and Big Fish – Stuff.co.nz

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

OPINION: A little over two years ago Environment Minister Eugenie Sage was celebrating.

New Zealand had declared victory in a bid to eradicate mice from the Antipodes Islands, a remote sub-Antarctic archipelago 760km southeast of Dunedin. The invasive pest, probably introduced on a shipwreck, preyed on rare bird chicks and eggs, invertebrates, and plants and competed with seabirds for food.

The success of the Million Dollar Mouse project gave the majestic, but critically endangered, Antipodean wandering albatross a fighting chance.

High death rates and slow breeding mean the species could die out within 20 years. Mice were a threat but experts believe the birds were also at risk from fishing trawlers, the birds become entangled in longlines and drown.

READ MORE:* Lost at Sea: Labour and Greens split over Campbell Island sanctuary* Fishing industry under fire for killing endangered albatrosses* More than 10,000 seabirds caught by commercial fishermen since 2013* Greater observations and cameras on fishing vessels is needed, report finds

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Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.

But despite Sages best efforts to safeguard what is left of the dwindling population, the Greens were again forced to swallow a dead rodent.

Hook-shielding devices would help prevent the needless bycatch of seabirds. Around 90 per cent of our seabirds are threatened and last year commercial fishing boats killed an estimated 14,400.

But the Government failed to make use of the device mandatory in new fishing guidelines introduced in May.

Its just another surrender to NZ First, a party which is well compensated with campaign donations to champion the commercial fishing sector.

Silvia Scali

There are only an estimated 63 Maui dolphin left.

Since they joined the Government in 2017, the Greens have given up the fight for a marine sanctuary in the remote Kermadec Islands, and an extension to a reserve in the pristine Campbell Islands.

In 2018, Stuff revealed Foreign Minister Winston Peters caved into threats of legal action from the industry and hastily dumped a suite of conservation measures, six years in the making, to restrict bottom-trawling for orange roughy on the high seas.

The Government lobbied for a Talleys vessel to be taken off an international blacklist, after it was caught fishing in a Kaikura marine reserve. The skipper was later fined more than $15,000 for the breach.

In February, a report revealed the troubling state of the Hauraki Gulf. Despite being a marine park, the reported commercial catch of fish was 30 per cent greater than before it was established. Stocks of snapper, tarakihi are decimated. From this month, the catch will be reduced but experts agree the fishery needs a complete break to recover.

Scott Hammond/Stuff

Crayfish are functionally extinct in the Hauraki Gulf.

Most conspicuously, there has been glacial progress in a plan for compulsory cameras on commercial fishing vessels, due to be rolled out in 2018. The legislation was introduced after repeated scandals where the industry had illegally dumped nets of fish and dead dolphins.

The cameras would capture the haul and record any interaction with protected species. Industry heavyweights have successfully stalled the policy by arguing the transparency is too costly.

Blame for the delay has been laid at the door of NZ First a fact apparently confirmed (and then retracted) this week by Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash in a leaked telephone call.

Ross Giblin/Stuff

Stuart Nash referred to fishers as 'dodgy buggers' in a leaked phone call.

There have been a handful of wins for the Greens a plan to protect Hectors and Mui dolphins was slightly better than marine advocates expected. The Government will also create an enormous marine reserve off the east coast of the South Island, torpedoing fishing industry proposals for less-ambitious protection.

But it falls well short of international expectations to protect 30 per cent of marine areas only about 0.5 per cent of New Zealand's waters are in no take reserves.

It would be unrealistic for a party to join a coalition government without acknowledging the inevitability of compromise.

Stuff

Green Party co-leader James Shaw says NZ First are breaching its coalition agreement with Labour.

But the Greens must accept their share of responsibility for their capitulation and the weak progress on oceans and fisheries policy, both touchstones of the environmental movement.

Winston is as Winston does. His contumacy exploits James Shaws desire to appear constructive and collegial and undermines the Greens, who are less Government allies than rivals.

The 4000 species at risk of extinction in New Zealand will probably die out before Peters rewrites his playbook.

Its time for the Greens to draw a line in the sand. If they make bold environmental policies in their campaign, they must not be empty. Some must come with a guarantee of bottom lines.

Otherwise, there is little point in getting back into bed with NZ First, a party that stands for nothing but standing still.

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The Greens bear responsibility for capitulation to NZ First and Big Fish - Stuff.co.nz

Riding the waves: Rock River Safety Patrol sees swell in summertime traffic – HNGnews.com

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

With waves of heat come waves of boater traffic on Lake Koshkonong and the Rock River, and this year, perhaps due to increased interest in outdoor recreation resulting from COVID-19, boating traffic in on the increase, Rock River Safety Patrol (RRSP) Chief Ryan Peterson said.

Peterson, a member of the RRSP for 15 years and chief for three, said he shares leadership responsibilities with Capt. Henry Sautin, a retired Rock County deputy, whom he described as instrumental in maintaining the patrol while helping to develop its leadership. The patrol has been in service for over 40 years.

He described lake and river traffic as the busiest hed seen over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

While the traffic is increasing, the patrols commitment to safety remains constant, as does its practice of offering prevention over punishment: Peterson said the 12 sworn officers on the patrol, on average, hand out more boater safety pamphlets and warnings than they do tickets.

The practice is a kind of community policing focused on boater safety while building trust and communication through a sense of fairness, Peterson said.

Lake, river well-populated

The Milton Courier rode along with the patrol Sunday, June 28.

Peterson described the day as well-populated.

It is much busier then other years in June. June in general is always fairly slow. People have graduations and weddings. This year that has not been the case at all.

We are hearing from the marinas that they are having parts ordered for boats that havent been out for years, Peterson said, adding that he believed some of that interest was driven by COVID-19 and peoples interest in finding safe outdoor recreation.

There are a lot more people on the water. COVID has changed peoples mindset and gets them out, Peterson said.

The RRSP is responsible for law enforcement, water rescues and recoveries across the 10,500 acres of Lake Koshkonong and 26 miles of the Rock River, covering surface from Jefferson County to Indianford, in Rock County.

We like to say dam to dam, Peterson said.

RRSP also patrols Clear Lake in Milton, he said.

Members of the patrol operate part-time, working to cover high-traffic days, from two vehicles: a 21-foot Crestliner boat and a Sea-Doo personal watercraft (PWC).The boat is equipped with supplies similar to those used by fire departments, Peterson said.

While driving the boat, Peterson remained in contact through radio with patrol officer Mike Herman, who operated from the PWC. He also was in communication with Rock and Jefferson county dispatch units through a separate radio.

Describing boat traffic, Peterson said: Sunday is usually quieter that Saturday. A typical weekend two years ago, Saturday would be busy. Today (June 28), at its busiest point, would have been a typical busy Saturday.

Traffic is up dramatically, he said.

The nature of the lake, offering diverse appeal in a variety of activities, and its proximity to Illinois, contributes to its popularity, he said.

Over the course of the day, several PWC operators approached the patrol with questions about boater safety. Peterson and Herman were eager to share safety rules and tips, handing out boater safety pamphlets with frequency. Multiple verbal warnings and about five written warnings were issued to PWC operators.

In the afternoon, the patrol, along with members from area fire departments, responded to a dispatched call to help locate and rescue a distressed swimmer. The individual was found and taken to the Rock River Marina in Newville.

A group aboard a pontoon boat, describing trouble with the motor, was towed by the patrol back to its pier of origin.

Addressing concerns of safety and law enforcement, Peterson said: Weve had more stops in June then we typically have because more people are here. They are new people and they dont always know whats expected of them.

Many are new to boating and others are unsure of differences between their state of residency and Wisconsin laws, Peterson said, adding: Most people out here are here to have fun. We make sure other people wont put them in danger. We like to give them a DNR (Department of Natural Resources) pamphlet with a general overview of the rules while they are in Wisconsin.

Of the list of 25 citable infractions, Peterson said the infraction most violated revolves around watercraft and their proximity to shorelines and other vehicles while in the water.

The rule requires PWCs to be at least 100 feet away from other craft and 200 feet away from the shoreline when operating above slow-no wake speed. Violation of the rule carried a fine of $230.

One hundred feet is one-third the size of a football field. People are not always good at estimating that, Peterson said.

The patrol gives warnings, often verbal, with the goal of helping people understand the rule and promote safety.

If we give them a ticket, its a serious safety violation. We give a lot of warnings, Herman, a member of the RRSP since 2012, said.

Both Peterson and Herman said they are advocates of teaching people to be safe. On average, they said, they give 6 to 8 verbal or written warnings before writing a ticket.

Over the summer tourism season, the patrol typically writes between 0 and 8 tickets each weekend, Peterson said.

So we can expect kids to take off from shore and too close. Some have no life jackets on board and no throw rings.

They do not always have registrations. It makes me think they are new boaters. They make mistakes when we are right next to them and they have no idea what theyve done until we flag them over.

They are understanding when we explain it to them, Peterson said.

Peterson said he believes the community sees the patrol as helpful and fair.

Some people think the police are in need of a wake up or a shake up, but we dont get any of that feedback. We are well received.

I dont have to nitpick boats. There are plenty of violations happening right in front of us and they dont question us. They know they did something wrong. There is mutual respect. Were fair. When we write a ticket, it is a legitimate ticket, Peterson said, adding: We want the right balance of fairness.

Boating and alcohol

When giving warnings or tickets, Peterson said, alcohol is not usually involved.

I have yet to stop somebody for being under the influence. They are just usually using bad judgment, Herman said.

You can drink while driving a boat, you just cant be drunk, Peterson said, adding that the affects of alcohol are amplified by the waves and the heat.

Someone might appear more drunk after having very little to drink, he said.

Over the course of his 15 years with the patrol, Peterson said, he might have seen 12 people who were intoxicated. Four went to jail.

A motorboat driver can be cited for drunk driving if they have a BAC (blood alcohol content) of 0.1% or greater.

Drunk drivers are removed from their boats and taken by the patrol to shore where they are placed in the custody of county deputies.

The patrol uses GPS to determine which countys jurisdiction they are in.

The biggest portion the river they patrol is in Rock County. The biggest area including most of the lake is in Jefferson County, Peterson said.

About RRSP

The patrol operates on an annual budget of about $38,000, with about 70% of those funds coming through the Department of Natural Resources. The rest is funded through the five towns that make up the Rock Koshkonong Lake District (RKLD), including Milton, Fulton, Koshkonong, Albion and Sumner, although funding does not come through the RKLD, Peterson said.

The patrol is part of a multijurisdictional program, working and training alongside the Edgerton, Fort Atkinson, Lake Mills and Milton fire departments, the RKLD website notes.

A Boat Board, which has one representative from each of the five towns contributing funds, governs the patrol Peterson said.

RRSP Sgt. Jim Jelinek is a Milton Firefighter, an EMT, and a commissioner on the RKLD board, he added.

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Riding the waves: Rock River Safety Patrol sees swell in summertime traffic - HNGnews.com

Letter to the Editor: Tim Peterson – Thoroughbred Daily News

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

Letter to the Editor: Tim Peterson

Home Archive Shared News Letter to the Editor: Tim Peterson

Many of the pieces in the Diversity in Racing series recently in TDN reflect on the fact that backstretch workers at American racetracks were once predominately black. Now they are overwhelmingly Latino. Not one of them reflects on why this happened. At the same time in TDN, we are presented with unending pleas for additional H2B visas needed for the racing industry.

Here is my suggestionhow about the racing industry make a concerted effort to hire and train black Americans who live near racetracks to work on the backstretch by providing them a decent, living wage? But this idea is anathemic to an industry that worships at the altar of labor costs as cheap as possible. The incongruity and hypocrisy of this situation is astounding.

Tim Peterson, Edina, MN

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Letter to the Editor: Tim Peterson - Thoroughbred Daily News

Some Unexpected Survey Results – The New York Times

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

The symphony of power tools conducted by men in hard hats still echoed in the foothills of the Ramapo Mountains when Carol Ryan first arrived at the brand-new liberal arts college in Mahwah, N.J.

Though several classrooms on the leafy campus were still without hinges for windows and doors, Ms. Ryan, a 28-year-old freshman and married mother of three, was firmly in place on her first day of school at Ramapo College, and much like the fledgling institution, awash in promise and potential. That was September 1971.

No four years of my life had a greater impact on me than those at Ramapo College, Ms. Ryan, 78, wrote nearly a half-century later, in April 2019, as part of an answer to a survey given to her and other students in the class of 1975, Ramapos first group of graduates.

To catch-up on the lives of Ms. Ryan, by then a widow, and her former classmates, Ramapo officials sent each a seven-question survey, starting with: How did you hear about Ramapo College, and why did you decide to enroll? Was it what you expected?

Ms. Ryan, who grew up in Jersey City, N.J., and was raised in Bogota, N.J., said she very much enjoyed taking the survey, in which she mentioned that she graduated with honors from Ramapo before receiving a masters degree in international affairs from Columbia.

It brought back so many great memories, and stirred up so much emotion that was trapped inside of me, she said, like the memory of the places on campus she remembered best (Question No. 3). The library was one of my favorite places, she wrote. But attending a class, outside on a pretty spring day, sitting on the grass, under the sweeping lilac bushes, was memorable. I certainly will never forget the stirring words, as I sat on the pavement three feet in front of Jane Fonda, when she conducted a rousing anti-Vietnam War rally.

Ms. Ryans completed survey landed in the hands of Clifford Peterson, 79, who spent 40 years at Ramapo College as both a professor of international politics and chairman of its international studies program before retiring in 2012. He had a 52-year marriage, which produced two sons, before becoming a widower.

I was enchanted by her writing, by the incredible life she lived, simply enchanted, said Dr. Peterson, who also happened to be on a committee that was planning for Ramapos 50th anniversary celebration, to be held next year at the college.

Dr. Peterson, who was born in Newark and grew up in Nutley, N.J., graduated from Rutgers, where he played college basketball from 1961 to 1963. (He continues to play the game at the national level as a member of the North Jersey Senior League All-Stars, helping the team win two gold medals in the Senior Olympics in 2009 and 2015.) He later earned a Ph.D. in international politics from Johns Hopkins University.

He was responsible for helping a colleague at Ramapo examine the responses of the 65 surveys that had been returned to the school. Many of the other surveys I read were quite wonderful, he said, but every one of Ms. Ryans answers just blew me away.

Dr. Peterson, who began teaching at Ramapo in 1972, said that he personally knew most of the 1975 graduates he was helping to contact. But he had never met Ms. Ryan, whose answers to many of the survey questions painted a portrait of a dedicated mother and wife who somehow managed to find the time to be an outstanding student-athlete at Ramapo. She excelled on the tennis court, becoming the schools first captain in that sport, and in the classroom, where she was an honors student.

All the time that I was attending classes, I was also attending P.T.A. meetings, driving my kids to functions and generally running a household as a wife, mother and homemaker, baking bread, getting three meals a day on the table, holding an elected local county committee political office and leading a troop of Girl Scouts, she wrote, in part, as her answer to Question No. 6.

Thereafter, she continued, my professional career included working in New York City with the government of Hong Kong; with a division of the US Mission to the United Nations; with a nonprofit economic and policy conference organization; 17 years with an environmental organization and I also headed up a Hudson Valley business venture linked with Wuhan, China. I presently conduct guided tours at the Rockefeller estate, Kykuit.

Dr. Peterson was beyond impressed. Im reading this womans survey, and thinking to myself, My goodness, where was this woman hiding the past 50 years.

On June 11, 2019, Dr. Peterson dialed Ms. Ryans phone number, on behalf of Ramapo College, to first answer a few questions she had sent along regarding the schools sports hall of fame, then thanked her for filling out her survey in such great detail, as he put it. He then asked if she might be interested in visiting the campus to meet some of Ramapos faculty members, including those putting together the 50th anniversary program.

After that, Id like to take you to lunch, and maybe walk around the campus together, said Dr. Peterson, whose voice is reminiscent of the Hollywood film star Jimmy Stewart.

Ms. Ryan said she had practically sworn off dating after two, 25-year relationships the first with my husband, the second with my significant other, she said that both ended with the death of each man. But she went ahead and accepted Dr. Petersons invitation.

There was just something about him that put me at ease, she said, and oh boy was he smart, and could he make me laugh.

Dr. Peterson was soon walking with her, touring their old stamping grounds and hoping to become the next magical entry in her Ramapo survey.

I knew right then and there I wanted to marry her, he said. I honestly believe I was in love with Carol before I ever met her in person.

She was feeling much the same. It was like we were on the same wave length, finishing each others sentences, and we were honest with each other and compatible in every way possible, she said. I had never met a man quite like him.

They began dating immediately. Each helped the other become better people, even at this stage of our lives, Dr. Peterson said. I was a very private person when I met Carol, but she got me to open up. She just keeps bringing out the best in me.

Ms. Ryans only question, Would it fit?

It fit perfectly, Dr. Peterson said, just like Cinderellas slipper.

They were married May 30 in an early-morning ceremony at Louis Engel Waterfront Park in Ossining, N.Y. Their party of five, which gathered along the Hudson River on a day when thunderstorms were forecast, included their officiant, Sue Donnelly, town clerk of Ossining, as well as the couples good friends, Dr. Marsha Gordon and her husband, Eli Gordon, who served as witnesses.

Their ceremony was originally scheduled to take place May 31, followed by a reception on the Ramapo College campus with 150 guests, but the coronavirus changed those plans. Instead, about 400 family members and friends watched the couple exchange vows via Zoom.

We knew from that very first meeting last June that we filled a void in each others lives with love, so many common interests and experiences, a set of shared deeply held personal values and a profound respect for all human beings, the groom told his bride. From the perspective of these things and a lifetime of the full spectrum of human emotions and experiences, ours is a mature love based on mutual respect and a complete partnership in every sense.

Then the bride spoke, mostly through tears. The forecast that had called for rain had now surrendered to sunshine.

You entered my life and in an amazing, almost mystical way, you entered my heart, she said, I met you for the very first time that brilliant day, but as we strolled the campus, we could not help imagining how we certainly must have passed each other in the hallways of the college hundreds of times nearly 50 years ago.

I am truly grateful for our wonderful, welcoming families and every one of our great friends, for our good health and for all the exciting reasonable adventures that we have experienced during our long, long lives and are sharing together now.

And I must admit, she added, Im even grateful for the months and months of our 24/7 splendid Covid-19 isolation, which has established beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are beautifully, perfectly suited for each other it just gets better every day.

When May 30, 2020

Where Louis Engel Waterfront Park, Ossining, N.Y.

Old School Style The groom wore a top hat, morning coat with tails, striped pants, cravat and a wing-tipped shirt with monogrammed sterling silver cuff links, which the bride had given him for his 79th birthday just days before the wedding. The bride wore a multitiered, ivory chiffon dress designed by Nataya that had a 1920s look, topped off with a matching ivory colored fascinator.

Leaving the Treehouse The newlyweds are planning to stay this summer at what the bride called her treehouse condo, overlooking the Hudson River in Ossining. Starting in September, they will begin living together in Scotch Plains, N.J.

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Some Unexpected Survey Results - The New York Times

They recall the turmoil of ’68. Here’s what they think of Black Lives Matter. – PublicSource

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

In the days following the April 4, 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Pittsburghs streets filled with protesters and angry rioters. Seven days of riots were spurred by shock and disbelief that the man who utilized non-violence to fight for justice had become a victim of violence himself.

The pain and frustration was undergirded by the poor economic conditions and deep racism felt by Black residents across the country. In comparison to other cities, the destruction was less severe in Pittsburgh. Casualties included one death and 36 people injured, along with more than 1,000 arrests. After news of Kings death hit the airwaves, the impact was immediate. By 10:30 p.m., glass and debris from broken storefronts were strewn along Centre and Fifth avenues.

Fifty-two years later on May 25, 2020 police in Minneapolis responded to a call about a Black man allegedly attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Police pinned George Floyd to the ground, while a bystander filmed from the side. And there for the whole world to see, the life seeped out of Floyd as he repeated that he couldnt breath while officer Derek Chauvin calmly pressed his knee into his neck. All the while, three of his fellow officers stood around with their hands in the pockets.

Days of protests broke out across the country, and in Pittsburgh and like 1968, some of them included violence and significant property damage. Unlike 1968, social media also streamed the violent crackdown by police across the country including the controversial use of gas on protesters locally and while the riots lasted seven days in 1968, demonstrations have been going on for more than a month since Floyds death.

Carlos Peterson, 70, a local technical artist who notably is the designer of the Phoenix Rising sculpture at Freedom Corner in the Hill District, was 18 in 1968. He vividly recalls what he was doing when he learned of Kings assassination.

I was living with my brother Paul at that time. He was just home from Vietnam, and we had no TV, so it would be the next day before I found out. At school, a special assembly was called for us, and they brought in some folks from the NAACP to give us the news. Of course, the riots, looting and destruction started by that time.

When I think about that time, and how later we looked around and the neighborhood was so devastated after the riots, it took a while before realizing that we had literally destroyed our own communities I believe it was because we had no knowledge of who we were or what our history was.

Petersen designed the Phoenix Rising sculpture at Freedom Corner in the Hill District. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

Peterson felt that if youth had been taught Black history they would have had a greater respect for the community. And even though there were a few students who understood what was missing from school, he said, Black history wasnt being taught. "I was not taught in my home about myself as a African American," he said.

In 2020, Peterson points out that current protesters did not destroy one thing in the Black neighborhood they went Downtown, this was a big difference I believe it is because there has been more intense education around our Black History.

In Pittsburgh, a largely peaceful protest on May 30 escalated into a chaotic scene with police deploying gas and other crowd control agents on demonstrators. They made numerous arrests. Vandalism included the destruction of police cars and shattering of storefront windows. Police on June 1 again used gas during a demonstration that had been peaceful in East Liberty, an action now subject to a federal lawsuit filed by protesters. Demonstrations in the month since have been peaceful across the region.

Peterson notes that recent protests came after the loss of control felt by communities locked down for more than two months due to COVID-19, and after residents felt priced out of their neighborhoods after years of gentrification. And then theres the repeating deaths, not just of Floyd, but of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and others.

This rage had taken on an entirely different pallor than it did 52 years ago, he said. I see the depth of the rage as the biggest difference.

Tamanika Howze of the Hill District was 19 in April 1968. She was meeting with members of Black Sisters United in the home of one of the members. She was in disbelief when a young man entered telling them what happened, they were in disbelief.

We ran upstairs and turned on the televisionthere we saw it and we immediately hit the streets, Howze said. Things had already started.

Comparing 1968 to now, Howze notes that while there were many underlying issues around inequality, the trigger to the anger and rage and frustration was brought on by the assassination of King. Today, the protests stem from an ongoing broken system one that has shown us regularly that racism is real, its systemic, and that as African Americans we are expendable and essentially not valued. And this is made more abundantly clear each day.

During the 60s, organizing major demonstrations took time. In our current world of social media organizing is more instantaneous, she said, and getting the word out and the details of the planned protest can happen within hours.

Retired Pittsburgh police officer Brenda Tate, was also 19 at the time. She and her then-husband were coming home from an evening out at a local bar when they observed a flurry of activity out on the streets of the Hill District. They passed a Jewish meat market on Wylie Avenue whose windows had been smashed people were coming in and out of the broken windows with meat in their hands.

She approached the crowd to find out what was going on. It was then that she learned of Kings death.

It took till I got home for that news to sink in and just how devastating it was for Blacks in this country, Tate said.

Brenda Tate is holding a photo of herself as a teenager in her home in the Hill District. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

In her view, the most significant difference between todays demonstrations and 1968 is the brutality of Floyds death, and how readily it could be seen firsthand.

We were, of course, angry because of the death of Martin Luther King, but the inhuman way Floyd was killed and the power of cell phone videos that allowed us to see that murder over and over again, I feel, created greater pain than anything we know. Hearing him call out for his mother, and then watching as all the officers involved, stood around casually with their hands in their pockets.

Tate noted that it seemed white people viewed the death not just with sympathy, but actually empathized with what we have been experiencing with the continued killings of Black men and the brutality associated with it.

Tate also blames President Donald Trump as a catalyst for racism. She shares that she heard her mother and her aunt say theyd never return to the pain of deep racism and Jim Crow environment they endured while living in Birmingham but now it seems that Trumps behavior toward Black Americans has given a free ticket to racists to act with hatred beyond the level of the 60s.

Brenda Tate (right) and her aunt Margaret Watson, who turns 100 on July 6, at Brenda Tate's home in the Hill District (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

Todays protests have also spread across the world.

I believe that God has a plan that he was going to make manifest beyond the United States, Tate said. I believe his intent is that everyone all over was going to participate on some level.

Brenda Tate (right) and Margaret Watson, who is turning 100 on July 6, at Brenda Tate's home in the Hill District (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

Seventy-five year old George Moses had just returned from Vietnam and was working at J&L Steel Mill in April 1968. He got a call because the rioting broke out in the streets and his mother-in-law was stuck in Homewood at Holy Cross Church, unable to get home to the Hill.

I had to leave work, in Hazelwood, drive to Homewood, and return her to the Hill District, he said. The streets were already alive with angry folks as a result of the killing of Martin Luther King.

George Moses in front of his home in Point Breeze (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

Back then, he recalls protests being led by ministers and heads of organizations like the NAACP, along with civil rights champions like Alma Speed Fox. Today, he has seen a more diverse crowd, including people of different ages, more women and a far greater proportion of white people. Another major difference is that the news media is no longer in sole control of how a demonstration is seen. Cell phones and social media have taken local protests worldwide.

Other countries could see for themselves what was going on here, he said. And now more than ever all eyes are on Americaone way or the other, we set the pace for oppressed individuals all over all the anti-racist actions happening in this country are on full view before the world.

But the prevalence of violent images has caused even greater trauma than in the 60s.

When the word went out about the death of Martin Luther King it was shocking and bad enough, Moses said. Imagine how terrible it would have been if there was a video of him on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel and it kept playing over and over again.

George Moses in front of his home in Point Breeze (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)

And while local residents who recall the turmoil of the 60s are heartened by a long overdue awakening about racism across the country, those who remember the fallout from Kings death share a collective sadness that after 52 years, racism is still as prevalent, still pervasive, even more institutionalized, and results in the senseless killings of unarmed Black men all over this country.

"Unlike the 60s there are the images of the mistreatment of African American men that run so deep, that we can't keep ignoring them, Peterson said, referencing the video of an officer kneeling on Floyds neck as he struggled to breathe. It represents our lives being lost right before our eyes."

Renee P. Aldrich is an award-winning writer, a published author and a motivational speaker. She has been writing for more than 20 years and can be reached at writingthewriteword@gmail.com.

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They recall the turmoil of '68. Here's what they think of Black Lives Matter. - PublicSource

Peterson: This college football season will be different from broadcast, advertising perspective, too – Boone News-Republican

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

You know by now what to expect if youre planning to attend college football teams this fall. Wear a face mask. Dont expect to tailgate six hours, if at all. Get used to concession food fitting into a package. Stadiums wont be at 100 percent capacity. Prepare for digital ticket-taking and staggered entry.

Youve already read and heard most of that, though. So lets now switch to your experience while watching games on TV, where ratings could be as high as ever.

Its not so much what will be different with College Football 2020, but how networks keep those differences from being overly noticeable.

Game experiences, regardless if they are in the stadium or on the couch, wont be the same. The goal, though, continues to be making viewers feel as if theyre in the stadium, right along with the lucky reduced crowd who could actually be there.

That mind-set wont change. Aside from those less-than-full stadiums and players spaced about the sideline instead of between the 25-yard lines (and referees maybe wearing masks), viewers arent likely to see many differences.

Behind the scenes, however, things will be different.

Remote announcers? Probably.

Theyll likely work from a studio in another state, and not in press boxes at the games theyre describing. Thats the biggest difference, from a TV perspective, but its something viewers and broadcasters themselves eventually will adjust to.

The impact on fans, while minimal in my view, starts with how producers and announcers do their pregame preparation, said Des Moines resident Ray Cole, who was a past ABC board member and liaison to ESPN.

They typically show up at college football game days ahead of time. Pregame meetings with coaches and players of both teams are common.

Those meetings now will be via social media; informative one-on-ones are probably out this season.

I doubt that (announcers) Chris Fowler or Sean McDonough will find college football coaches being as warm, candid and straightforward as they have in the past, Cole said. But it can be done successfully.

Fran Fraschilla called basketball games during the 2016 Summer Olympics from an studio in Stamford, Conn. He pulled it off so well, that friends would call or text him to see how he was enjoying Rio.

More recently, ESPNs Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez called the networks coverage of Korean baseball from their homes.

Additional advertising revenue streams?

Fewer fans mean athletics departments are finding creative ways to help cushion the revenue losses. More company logos on fields? Company emblems on uniforms (Im not sure apparel contracts would allow that)? Advertising logos superimposed digitally at various places of the stadium?

Media outlets such as signage, TV, radio, digital and social channels will see higher demand, so finding ways to capitalize on that will be key, said Chris Wujcik, vice-president of client consulting services at GMR Marketing in New Berlin, Wis.

Traditionally, college and pro football have intentionally avoided signage that has a large TV presence, while trying to maintain a clean landscape and keep the game as the focal point.

Moving forward, with so many in-person limitations reducing the value of in-stadium elements, schools will need to focus on trying to shift assets to provide sponsors the impressions that they crave. (Thats) via broadcast, on what will likely be increased TV ratings, since people will not be able to attend events the same way.

Unique advertising opportunities

Iowa State is among the schools that sell advertising on the blinders that shield signal-waving sideline personnel from observant opponent coaches in the press box. The multicolored ribbon circling the inside of stadiums includes advertising, as do scoreboard video boards.

Anything that is going to get a considerable amount of high profile, on-air exposure should be considered as a possibility, Wujcik said.

An interesting backstage idea

While gameday, in-person access may be limited, schools have an opportunity to create and promote fresh online and social media content, Wujcik said. If fans cant get into the stadium, give them behind-the-scenes tours of the facility.

Show how things operate on gamedays in areas they cant see in person, such as the locker rooms and coaches offices. Bring them into a week of team prep for the upcoming opponent, or into the personalities of the players and coaches.

Now is the time to see how people have been living, and continuing to function in a socially distant world.

And remember this

The late, great Ronald Reagan was famous for calling Chicago Cubs baseball games remotely from the old WHO radio studio while ripping results off the wire, Cole said. Capturing the thrill of victory and agony of defeat in compelling ways that touch viewers on an emotional level has come a long way.

Viewers wont notice much of a difference, if any. At least thats the plan.

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Peterson: This college football season will be different from broadcast, advertising perspective, too - Boone News-Republican

Adrian Peterson Trusted ‘the Wrong People’ and Ended Up With a Negative $4 Million Net Worth – Sportscasting

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

If you played fantasy football in the early 2010s, youre definitely familiar with Adrian Peterson. During his time with the Minnesota Vikings, the running back established himself as one of the NFLs most dynamic offensive talents. As you might assume, that also helped him take home more than $100 million during his professional career.

For all of that on-field success, though, Peterson isnt sitting on a massive fortune. In fact, the running back trusted the wrong people and has ended up with a negative $4 million net worth.

RELATED: Adrian Peterson Eyeing Surpassing Barry Sanders in NFL Record BooksTerrell Owens Lost Almost $80 Million Following a String of Bad Decisions

In todays NFL, few offenses are built around a franchise running back. During his prime, however, Adrian Peterson seemed capable of putting an entire team on his back.

After a dominant high school career and three strong seasons at the University of Oklahoma, Peterson entered the 2007 NFL draft. The Minnesota Vikings snagged the running back with the seventh overall pick and immediately handed him the keys to the offense. Peterson promptly proved that the team made the right decision.

The running back posted 1,341 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns during his first year in the pros, cruising to Offensive Rookie of the Year honors; Peterson immediately followed that up with a 1,760-yard sophomore campaign. He peaked, however in 2012, rushing for 2,097 yards and 12 touchdowns en route to the Offensive Player of the Year and NFL MVP titles.

That season, however, proved to be Petersons peak. After a solid 2013 campaign, the running back missed most of 2014 afterhitting his son with a switch;he returned to action in 2015, but then spent the majority of 2016 on the sidelines with a torn meniscus. That injury proved to be the end of his time with the Vikings.

After splitting 2017 between Arizona and New Orleans, Peterson found a home with the Washington Redskins. While hes no longer an elite offensive threat, the running back is still capable of doing a job on Sundays.

During his prime, Adrian Peterson was one of the top offensive threats in the NFL. Understandably, that helped the running back take home a pretty sizable salary.

According toSpotracsfinancial data, the running back has earned almost $102 million during his time in the pros. The vast majority of that money came during All Days time with the Vikings; between entering the league as a first-round pick and posting league MVP-quality numbers, he took home almost $95 million during his time in Minnesota.

In recent years, however, Petersons status and, in turn, salary, has deceased. During the 2017 season, which he spent with the Saints and Cardinals organizations, he made $3.5 million. Hes earned approximately $2.5 million during his time with the Redskins; this season, hes playing on a club option with a base salary of $2.25 million before bonuses.

Despite that earning power, Adrian Peterson hasnt found himself in the best financial shape. In an all too familiar tale, the running back trusted the wrong people, landing himself in a tough spot.

As Daniel Kaplan reported for The Athletic in July 2019, the running backs massive salary hasnt been enough to keep him out of debt.

A Pennsylvania lender is suing Peterson for allegedly defaulting on a $5.2 million loan, the proceeds of which he used to pay back other debts he incurred, including millions from a pay-day lender, court documents in New York show, Kaplan wrote. The sum, which with interest and legal fees is now $6.6 million, is separate from the $2.4 million a Maryland state judge last week ordered Peterson to pay another creditor Democracy Capital Corp. In 2018, a Minnesota court ordered him to pay $600,000 left unpaid on a $2.4 million loan.

Shortly after the story broke, Petersons lawyer, Chase Carlson, issued a statement on Twitter. It seems like the running back, like many other pro athletes, found himself following bad financial advice from those in his inner circle.

The truth behind Adrian Petersons current financial situation is more than is being reported at this time,Carlson explained.Because of ongoing legal matters, I am unable to go into detail, but I will say this is yet another situation of an athlete trusting the wrong people and being taken advantage of by those he trusted. Adrian and his family look forward to sharing further details when appropriate.

Today, CelebrityNetWorth estimates Adrian Petersons fortune at negative $4 million. Unfortunately, hes another case on-field success failing to carry over to their finances.

Stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference

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Adrian Peterson Trusted 'the Wrong People' and Ended Up With a Negative $4 Million Net Worth - Sportscasting

What Is the Real Deal at Jordan Peterson’s Thinkspot? – Merion West

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Danzig

(Jordan Peterson)

However, in this piece, I will explain precisely why Thinkspot was created. The story starts shortly after the turn of the millennium, with crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.

I have a problem: My interests are esoteric, and most people are simply not very interested in the things that get me going. I do not often have an opportunity to discuss deeply the ideas that I am passionately interested in. So I was excited when Jordan Peterson announced his backing of the social networking website Thinkspot in June of 2019. I hoped that Petersons involvement would attract enough people who were Maps of Meaning (Petersons earlier and more involved book) readers, as opposed to say 12 Rules for Life(his more recent and popular work) fans. I hoped this would be a place where I might find the types of discussions I was looking for. However, satisfying my personal desire for stimulating conversation was not exactly why Thinkspot was created in the first place. All of the articles that I have read about Thinkspot make many assumptions and usually start with an ill-defined, sweeping gesture towards free speech. However, in this piece, I will explain precisely why Thinkspot was created. The story starts shortly after the turn of the millennium, with crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.

The In Crowd

In 2006, crowdsourced user-generated content was the rage. Times Person of the Year was You, alluding to those individuals creating the content for Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube, and countless other sites that would be empty, uninteresting deserts were it not for the content created by users themselves. Around that same time, a group of art lovers was creating a website called Indiegogo to crowdsource fundraisingor, as it soon became known, crowdfunding.

By 2013, seven years after Googles $1.65 billion acquisition of Youtube, user-generated content was becoming nothing short of big business. And Youtube was accounting for $3.5 billion in advertising dollars being collected by Google. So, for some creators on Youtube, things were getting increasingly serious. Youtube was no longer about a teenager sitting in his or her bedroom talking to the camera; creators such as Jack Conte were raising the bar on production values, creating full-fledged short films. At this point, Indiegogo (and other crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter) was becoming aviable option for well-known artists to seek funding for specific projects, such as the $5.7 million raised to create the 2014 film Veronica Mars or the $3.1 million Zach Braff raised for a film sequel to Garden State, the 2014 film Wish I Was Here. However, there was still no platform for artists to seek an ongoing stream of revenue: basically a salary. So Cone created one, Patreon, and he announced its creation in one of his Youtube videos.

The idea behind Patreon was a modern take on one of the oldest business models in the world: patronage for artists. For centuries, great artists, who were not independently wealthy, survived by securing the patronage of someone who was. Essentially, they were given an allowance by their patron (a salary, if you will) to ensure that they continued to create, and, in turn, the whole world benefited from the art they created. Patreon gained users and subscribers rapidlynot least because in 2016, Youtube began, in the words of Peter Kafka, demonetizingsome videos because its software thought the content was unfriendly for advertisers. So thanks to the demonetization trend, more and more creators needed to find alternative sources of revenue for businesses they had spent significant effort building, businesses that in some cases disappeared nearly overnight due to demonetization.

Release the Hounds

On December 17, 2014,Slatedeclared 2014 The Year of Outrage, and, six days later, Bloomberg published a response: an opinion piece entitled Sadism and the Online Mob: The Internet and social media make it easier for people to engage in vicious behavior toward one another.

The outrage mob was already a well-established phenomenon at that time, with Justine Sacco, a media publicist, making headlines as the poster child for Twitter mobs delighting in ruining lives over moral transgressions. The Twitter mob came to realize that it had significant influence, given that large corporations were willing to fire people just to placate these mobs. After Adria Richards, a developer evangelist for SendGrid, caused a stranger to be fired from his job with just one tweet, the mob turned on her, and she was soon fired herself. Once companies started caving to that kind of pressure, no one was safe.

Over the next couple of years, as Youtube demonetization became more aggressive, more creators sought relief with Patreon. By 2017 the service processed$150 million worth of payments to content creators. Some of the biggest recipients of these payments were Youtube content creators who had been demonetized because of the outage mobs reaction to their political views. However, Patreon eventually started showing signs of being co-opted by the trend towards censorious behavior, and it began to make decisions about who could (or could not) use the platform based on moral judgments. The consequence was the defection of a few of its highest-profile creator members: Sam Harris, Dave Rubin, and Jordan Peterson.

Yelling Fire in a Crowded Theater

There had been a few controversies at Patreon since the censorship began in 2017; however, the tipping point for Harris, Rubin, and Peterson was the banning of British social commentator Carl Benjamin. Harris had already come close to leaving the year before over Patreons first high-profile banning: of Canadian filmmaker and journalist Lauren Southern based on the view that she was raising funds in order to take part in activities that are likely to cause loss of life.

With Benjamin, Patreon went a step further, however, by banning him because of words he used in a discussion on somebody elses Youtube videoin other words, for an opinion expressed on someone elses creative work. Bearing in mind that Patreon had up until that point been perceived as a neutral safe haven for creators, the banning of Benjamin was widely viewed as a betrayal of the long-standing Western value of free speech. Only social justice true believers felt that Benjamins speech rose to the level of clear and present danger (the doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court of the United States to determine under which circumstances limits can be placed on First Amendment guarantees). Most others felt thatas unfortunate and offensive as Benjamins speech wasbanning him from the platform was overreaching.

So this was the proximate cause for establishing Thinkspot: looking to create a free marketplace for ideas, where content creators could seek financial remuneration for their content without fear of having their business pulled out from under them because of the whims of the platform provider. Thinkspots answer to this was to combine the content presentation platform with the funding mechanism. Thus, Thinkspot was poised not just to be a Patreon Killer but also a Patreon, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter Killer.

Of course, the Killer characterization is hyperbole. I do not really think that Thinkspots founders sought to displace Youtube as the worlds premier purveyor of cat videosor to unseat Twitter as the worlds premier home for inchoate rage. The idea was to rely upon the reputations of Peterson and Rubinnoted free speech advocatesto assure creators that the platform would remain ideologically neutral, while ensuring that the voices of controversial content creators would not be financially starved-out of the marketplace of ideas. Simply put: Thinkspots original and primary objective was to provide content creators with a reliable revenue stream.

Jordan Peterson and the News

Much has been made of Petersons involvement with Thinkspot, and why not? He is the visible face of Thinkspot and a figure of international acclaim. As such, googling Jordan Peterson launches Thinkspot returns just over 30,000 results. However, in reality,there has been little visible evidence of Petersons involvement. It is difficult to say what would have happened were it not for Peterson and his wife, Tammys, recent serious health issues. So we can only know what actually is. Anyone joining Thinkspot with the hope of interacting directly with Peterson is likely to be seriously disappointed.

As for those 30,000 Google hits, many are articles expressing varying degrees of skepticism and condemnation of Peterson and/or Thinkspot, as well as misapprehensions regarding Thinkspots primary purpose. Perhaps I am reading something into them that is not there, but they do seemon the wholerather eager for Thinkspot to be a failure. I will simply remark that very few of these reviews or articles bear any relation at all to my actual experiences on the platform.

The Nuts and Bolts of Thinkspot

I submitted my email address to the waiting list for the Thinkspots beta edition on July 13, 2019 and received my invitation about five months later on December 11th. I believe I was one of the very early members, having signed up just two months after the very first Welcome post was made by the Thinkspots administrators on October 17th.

The platform was advertised as being in beta, but little further information was available. New users were left to explore on their own. The user interface takes some getting used to, which is a polite way of saying that it leaves much to be desired. The interface is somewhat complicated and definitely unpolished. The biggest problem is nested comments. They are not easy to keep track of, and I cannot count the number of times I have received a comment intended for someone else.

Every member of Thinkspot is called a Contributor, in Thinkspeak. All contributors are equal, however, some are just a little bit more equal than others. Featured Contributors get to set pricing and charge for access to their content, and they can create Events, Media, and eBooks. It is not that there is really anything wrong with this; it is entirely in keeping with the original mission of Thinkspot. I have heard mentions in various conversations that eventually all contributors will have this option once the website is out of beta testing, but I suspect that only a small percentage of contributors will end up taking advantage of this. One has to build up a fairly large, devoted audience before one can successfully charge admission, and it is not easy to build that audience.

There is definitely an eeriealmost neglectedatmosphere at Thinkspot. It makes me think of Lord of the Flies. I feel like we, Thinkspot users, are abandoned on a deserted island to fend for ourselves.

But, enough about the container, what about the content?

Personally, I am drawn to only about four or five of the Featured Contributors out of the 44, so no more than 10% of the content on Thinkspot interests me much. My perspective on the other 90% is that of a tourist, someone who visits but does not stay. I have no idea how well my experience in my little patch of Thinkspot translates to the restat least no subjective idea.

What I can do, instead, is provide some objective statistic on the contributors and how they interact with the subscribers. For example, half of the Featured Contributors have listed Culture as an interest, and almost half have also listed Society, Philosophy, and Politics. I believe, though, that these choices actually say very little about the authors. After all, we all agree that taking candy from babies is bad and helping little old ladies across the street is good. What self-respecting intellectual would not be interested in those things? So it is much more revealing when a contributor lists an interest that nobody else does. Then, we know something interesting about that contributor. Gratifyingly, there are 33 Featured Contributors with unique interests.

Readers might be interested to note that from a political point of view, there is only one Featured Contributor listing Conservatism as an interest and just one other listing Progressivism. It would appear that Thinkspot is not quite the hotbed of extreme political partisanship that many articles would have you believe. In fact, the distribution of interests is fairly evensomething for which the mysterious curators of Thinkspot must be commended. Here is the full list of interests showing how many contributors have selected each one:

I can also provide some more quantitative data:

The top contributor in terms of content creation is philosopher Stephen Hicks who postson average nine times per week for the past 45 weeks he has been on Thinkspot.The leader in terms of average number of views per post isquite predictablyJordan Peterson. The runner-up is less obvious: Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Rated third and fourth, respectively, are the publications Merion West and The Post Millennial. Now, let us take a look at which users receive the most recommendation tags (Think: Facebook likes). The content creator whose posts most motivate readers to leave a tag (Recommend, Like, Agree, Insightful, Provocative, or Disagree) is Carl Benjamin, the source of the aforementioned Patreon controversy. He is followed by PragerU, the contributor who listed Conservatism as an interest, and then by Jordan Peterson.

The posts that generate the most user commentson averageare written by Marshall Herskovitz, the contributor who listed Progressivism as an interest. (Herskovitz is a writer, film producer, and director, who is committed to the cause of fighting climate change.) Herskovitz is followed by Jonathan Pageau, a Canadian artist and carver focused on Christian iconography, and then by Carl Benjamin.

Thus, the picture that emerges is very different from what most articles about Thinkspot would have one believe. The Featured Contributors are, for the most part, surprisingly heterogeneous, representing an eclectic mix of interests. Some are political, some apolitical, some theistic, some atheistic, some artistic, some scientific, some establishment, some anti-establishment, and so on. The top viewed contributors are not the top commented upon, and the top posters (in volume) are not the most recommended. The heterogeneity in Featured Contributors draws an equally heterogeneous audience, and so the user base of Thinkspot makes for a very mixed bag.

There is one trait the Featured Contributors largely share: They do not interact very often with anyone elses content. If we keep in mind the original mandate of Thinkspot, this should hardly be surprising, yet a great number of people seem to have subscribed with the expectation of engaging in discussion with the Featured Contributors. Certainly, many unfavorable reviews were based on this premise. Nevertheless, I have had many engaging discussions on Thinkspot, despite the dreadful user interface. I have learned a lot, and I have worked through much thinking in discussions with others. I am a mostly satisfied customer.

The Future

The management of Thinkspot is rather opaque with regards to the future. I invited its leadership team to engage with me for the writing of this article, but I received no response. This leaves me free to speculate.

I would say that Thinkspot has a lot of potential. Its heterogeneity is probably a positive portent. The world desperately needs social media that is not just an echo chamber and, consequently, there is a window of opportunity. I would also say that the segment of the community that I interact with comes to the website for discussion among ourselves. This is the case even if this was not the original intent or focus of Thinkspot. If Thinkspot fails quickly to improve the group discussion experience, something better will come along, and the website will lose a substantial part of its community. This is the most obvious threat I see. Finally, there is the issue of critical mass. Thinkspot seems to have about 63,000 participants at the moment, and the statistics that I have pulled together suggest that any given creator could not hope to appeal to more than 10% of the Thinkspot population because of the diversity of taste among its users. Then assume a (very optimistic) conversion rate of 3%, and we have 189 paying subscribers. Even at $240 per yearwhich most people find very expensive (even the wildly-popular Ben Shapiro cannot charge more than that)this works out to only $45,360 per year, not a particularly lucrative gig.

Youtube has cat videos; Twitter has outrage; and Thinkspot will have to find its drawing card: the thing that will pack em in to the rafters. Otherwise, the content creators the system was originally designed for will simply ignore it as irrelevant. 63,000 potential subscribers is not enough for even one content creator to earn a living. Without a flourishing community (because of user interface issues) to provide a sufficiently large audience pool for content creators wishing to commercialize, Thinkspot faces a dual threat that it must move quickly to overcome.

I wish Thinkspot all the best; it is a worthy endeavor.

Adam Wasserman has 30 years of IT management experience and is the author of The Chaos Factory.

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What Is the Real Deal at Jordan Peterson's Thinkspot? - Merion West

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