Seychelles Vice President spent time at KMB – India.com

Posted on by

Kochi, Feb 11 (PTI) For Seychelles Vice President Vincent Meriton, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) is an event that gives people the hope to live by putting art at the centre of life.

Among a host of high-ranking officials and foreign representatives to visit the ongoing third edition of the Biennale over the past week, Meriton spent time looking at the exhibits at primary venue Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi on Thursday, organisers of KMB said today.

The Biennale puts art at the centre of life, something that one would have never thought was possible. The event allows us to dwell not only within the realms and mind spaces of the artist, but of everybody who visits this space.

We need hope to appreciate each other irrespective of the boundaries and differences between us. And this festival keeps our hopes alive, Meriton is quoted as saying a release here.

He noted that he was especially moved by Chilean poet Raul Zurita s installation Sea of Pain and Hungarian artist Istvan Csakany s Ghost Keeping .

Through hopelessness and hope, these works shed light on the cries of the souls who have departed, which are being represented by those who are left behind. It also conveys that while modernisation has helped a lot, we have also lost a lot.

The work conveys that we should keep our humanity even when we are chasing profits, Meriton added.

The list of visiting dignitaries include Australian High Commissioner to India Harinder Sidhu, Belgian diplomat Ilse Dauwe and Sultan Saif Al-Mahrouqi, a government representative of the Sultanate of Oman.

I am very impressed by the collection of artworks at the Biennale, which demonstrates how exciting the Indian art scene is at the moment. Australia has been participating in the event since its inception and this year we have three artists from Australia.

Events like the Biennale give us a platform for the exchange of arts and culture, which is very important because we get to understand each other much better and more deeply, a KMB release quoting Sidhu said.

Al-Mahrouqi said that he saw the Biennale as representational of the cosmopolitan nature of Indian civilisation and expressed his admiration for choosing to the host the event in venues and sites that are of great historical importance.

This is published unedited from the PTI feed.

Andhra Pradesh Speaker Kodela Shiva Prasad compares women to cars, says wont get raped if kept in homes

AIADMKS's Sasikala vs Panneerselvam in Tamil Nadu LIVE: MK Stalin of DMK to meet Tamil Nadu Governor Vidyasagar Rao, discuss developments in AIADMK

Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2017 LIVE News Updates Phase I: We fulfilled what we promised

UP Election Voter Slip: How to check your name on Assembly Election 2017 Voter list

Donald Trump in a bathrobe? Internet fights over Photoshopped images of US President to prove he has one!

See more here:

Seychelles Vice President spent time at KMB - India.com

Hundreds of whales wash up dead on New Zealand beach – Seychelles News Agency

Posted on by

Seychelles News Agency
Hundreds of whales wash up dead on New Zealand beach
Seychelles News Agency
Dead pilot whales lay on a remote beach at Farewell Spit at the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island on February 17, 2015 after beaching themselves on February 13. This year more than 400 whales has also been left stranded on beaches of New ...
Mass whale stranding on Farewell Spit: Media release 10 February 2017 - Department of ConservationDepartment of Conservation

all 390 news articles »

The rest is here:

Hundreds of whales wash up dead on New Zealand beach - Seychelles News Agency

Caribbean Brothers Bar & Grill opens along Route 30 in Lancaster Family Resort – LancasterOnline

Posted on by

Caribbean Brothers Bar & Grill opened Friday along Route 30 inside the Lancaster Family Resort, across from Dutch Wonderland.

The new restaurant in the hotel at 2250 Lincoln Highway E. takes a spot next to Stitches Comedy Club that was previously occupied by JRs.

Carlos Castille is an owner-operator of the restaurant. Ben Anderson and Ray Dixon, owners of Got Jerk! sauces and marinades, also have ownership stakes, but are not involved in day to day operations.

At the new restaurant, Caribbean dishes will be made with the owners sauces and include jerk chicken, beef patties and oxtail.

The menu will also feature hamburgers, pizza, meatloaf and spaghetti, among other items.

The restaurant opened with just the bar area where there is seating for around 85.

A 100-seat dining room will open in about a month and a half. A patio, where there will be seating for around 200, will be open during warmer weather.

The restaurant opened with around 15 employees, although more will be hired soon.

See the original post here:

Caribbean Brothers Bar & Grill opens along Route 30 in Lancaster Family Resort - LancasterOnline

Cruises that cater to the Chinese on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas – Miami Herald

Posted on by

Miami Herald
Cruises that cater to the Chinese on Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas
Miami Herald
Gone was Johnny Rockets, a fast food mainstay of Royal Caribbean cruise ships, so a meal of burger and fries was difficult to find on the 4,180-passenger Ovation of the Seas during a five-night voyage into the South China Sea. No problem, however, if ...
Pros and Cons of Royal Caribbean's unlimited drink packagesRoyal Caribbean Blog (blog)
Lisa Lutoff-Perlo Sells 7948 Shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) StockThe Cerbat Gem
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) Receives $95.82 Average Target Price from AnalystsSports Perspectives
BNB Daily (blog) -Highland Mirror -StockNewsJournal
all 61 news articles »

Read more:

Cruises that cater to the Chinese on Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas - Miami Herald

St. Croix Restaurants Named Among Top Ten In Caribbean By USA Today – VI Consortium (press release)

Posted on by

ST. CROIX Two restaurants here were voted among the best in the Caribbean by U.S.A. today, according to U.S.A Todays Top Ten website, 10Best.

Winners were chosen by apanel of Caribbean travel experts, according to the site, who hand-picked their favorite restaurants in the region as nominees for Best Restaurant in the Caribbean. 10Best readers had for weeks voted on their favorites.

When the results came in, balter and Savant, well-known restaurants on St. Croix, came in 7 and 9 respectively. See all winners below:

According to 10Best, apanel of experts partnered with 10Best editors to pick the initial 20 nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote. Experts Liliana Erasmus (10Best), Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon (JetSetSarah.com), Melanie Reffes and Chelle Walton (10Best) were chosen based on their expertise of the Caribbean region, according to the site.

Feature Image: balter owner and chef,Digby Stridiron. (Credit: Digby Stridiron, via Facebook)

See the rest here:

St. Croix Restaurants Named Among Top Ten In Caribbean By USA Today - VI Consortium (press release)

US, EU Food Standards Major Hurdle for Caribbean Exporters – Caribbean360.com (subscription)

Posted on by

Oraine Halstead (left) and Rhys Actie tend tomatoes in a greenhouse at Colesome Farm at Jonas Road, Antigua. (Photo credit: Desmond Brown/IPS)

By Jewel Fraser

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Thursday February 9, 2017, IPS As Caricom countries struggle to move away from their traditional reliance on a single industry or major crop in the face of growing economic uncertainty worldwide, they are finding it increasingly difficult to enter markets in the EU and North America with new types of food products.

But tariffs are no longer the main barriers to accessing important markets, according to a document produced by the ACP-EU Overcoming Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) programme.

The ACP-EU is of the view that Non-tariffs barriers will become the main challenge of the future multilateral trade system. Specifically, technical barriers related to compliance with sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) in export markets and other standards including those relating to labelling and packaging.

The EU considers these technical, non-tariff, barriers to trade so challenging for its African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners that it provided 15 million euros starting in 2013 to help those developing countries upgrade their processes and become compliant, thus giving them a better chance of success on the EU and North America markets.

The Caribbean Agribusiness Association (CABA) is one Caribbean organisation that was able to access funding to help its members move toward HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) certification, which the ACP-EU TBT programme identified as a crucial requirement. Since the early 2000s, the US and EU have stipulated that foods entering their markets must have HACCP certification.

Ten of CABAs members were present at a regional conference, held at the Radisson Hotel in Port-of-Spain Jan. 29-30, to report on the benefits they received from the HACCP training. They heard some sobering statistics with regard to the EU and US food industry that provided context for the TBT programme.

Dr. Andre Gordon, chief executive officer of TSL Technical Services Limited, told delegates that each year, the UK records approximately one million cases of food-borne illnesses, of which about 20,000 require hospitalisation, and 500 deaths are recorded. The cost to the UK of dealing with food-borne illnesses is 1.4 billion pounds annually.

In the US, approximately 48 million cases of foodborne illnesses are recorded annually, resulting in 128,000 hospitalisations and 3,000 deaths. The cost to the US of dealing with food-borne illnesses is approximately 77.7 billion dollars annually, the delegates heard.

The 2016 report, Addressing Food Losses due to Non-Compliance with Quality and Safety Requirements in Export Markets: the case of Fruits and Vegetables from the Latin America and the Caribbean Region, by two Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) experts, underlined how much is at stake for Caribbean agribusiness exporters.

The report reveals that Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) provide over 90 per cent of the fruits and nearly 80 per cent of all vegetables imported by the US. Nonetheless, some countries in the region have very high rejection rates at US ports of entry, including Jamaica, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic, the document states.

The report said, While many LAC countries have a good rate of acceptance in comparison with other countries exporting to the USA and EU, a few countries within LAC perform very poorly, revealing great disparity in preparedness for export trading within the region. The report noted that Multiple handling failures along the chain are likely the cause of the most frustrating complaints by international buyers.

Dr. Gordon, who oversaw the Jamaica ackee industrys transformation that made it compliant with US Food and Drug Administration regulations in the early 2000s so that it could gain access to the US market, explained to IPS the obstacles facing Caribbean exporters.

The problem in general with all agribusiness companies in the Caribbean is typically lack of technical capacity and knowledge of the requirements and lack of the resources to implement the systems as required, he said.

However, Dr. Gordon said, The cultural change that is required is probably the biggest single limitation to implementing and sustaining certification systemsIf the management and ownership [of agribusinesses] do not have a vision of becoming global players then the effort and resources required are going to seem unattainable and not good value for money. A lot of firms have issues with understanding the value for money proposition of embarking on a certification programme.

The briefing paper SPS measures lead to high costs and losses for developing countries, published not long after the EU mandated HACCP certification for all exporters to the EU, noted that As the income level of developing countries is far smaller, the opportunity cost of compliance is relatively far higher than that for developed country exporters.

The rapid change in SPS measures, regulations and notifications of new regulations is another problem facing developing countries in preparing for compliance. It also imposes extra costs on investors and exporters and creates uncertainty for them.

However, the papers author concluded, while the cost of compliance is high, the cost of lack of compliance is even higher because of loss of market share or reduced access to markets.

Dr. Gordon revealed that in 2010, the Caribbean had the second highest level of food rejections of any region at US ports of entry.

A March 2016 FAO report highlighted other issues hindering Caribbean agribusinesses in their efforts to export. The report states: A number of deep-seated challenges inhibit Caribbean agriculture diversification and competitiveness: the small and fragmented nature of most farm units; the absence of strong farmer grass-roots organizations; the cost of agricultural labor; the ageing demographics of Caribbean farmers; an education system that does not prepare youth to seek employment opportunities in the agricultural sector; and extension systems that have historically focused on managing the traditional export crops.

The problem of small farm units is being addressed head on, said CABAs president Vassel Stewart, with the formation of CABEXCO, a new umbrella organisation for SMEs in the Caricom agribusiness sector, which will jointly procure raw materials and services as well as market its members products and reach out to new buyers.

The resulting economies of scale will also hopefully make it easier to bear the cost of becoming compliant with US and EU food export regulations.

Click hereto receive news via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)

Read more:

US, EU Food Standards Major Hurdle for Caribbean Exporters - Caribbean360.com (subscription)

Oil and Gas Stock Roundup: The Outlook for Offshore Drilling Continues to Dim – Fox Business

Posted on by

What happened

Oil prices continued to meander higher this week, ending up less than 1% to around $54 per barrel. That marked crude's highest finish in the past five weeks, fueled by reports that oil demand was coming in stronger than expected while OPEC members were mostly complying with their pledge to cut output.

Unfortunately, higher oil prices could not lift most oil stocks out of the doldrums this week. Lackluster earnings and a continued bleak outlook for the offshoredrilling market sank several oil stocks. Leading the underperformers, according to data fromS&P Global Market Intelligence, wereHornbeck Offshore Services (NYSE: HOS), Atwood Oceanics (NYSE: ATW), Bristow Group (NYSE: BRS), and Matrix Service Company (NASDAQ: MTRX):

BRS Price data by YCharts.

Continue Reading Below

ADVERTISEMENT

Matrix Service Company led this week's losers after reporting lackluster results for its fiscal second quarter. The construction and engineering company missed on both the top and bottom line, due primarily to lower volumes in its oil gas and chemicals segment. Because of that, the company pulled back the reins on its full-year guidance. Needless to say, the combination of an earnings miss and a downward revision to guidance did not sit well with Matrix Service's investors, who sold off the stock.

Atwood Oceanics' stock also plunged after releasing earnings. The offshore driller's revenue continued to slide, while earnings missed expectations because the company could not push costs down as much as expected. Making matters worse, Atwood Oceanics' outlook was not very appealing, with the company saying that it could be another year before offshore drilling activities start improving. Meanwhile, rival Diamond Offshore Drilling (NYSE: DO), painted an even bleaker picture of the offshore market this week. Diamond Offshore said that it has "yet to see a floor in the declining demand for deepwater assets." Worse yet, Diamond Offshore said it did not anticipate a recovery until 2019 or 2020. The bleak offshore drilling outlook caused an analyst from Evercore to suggest that Atwood might need to issue equity to stay afloat given its shrinking backlog and hefty debt load.

Image source: Getty Images.

That gloomy outlook for the offshore drilling sector seemed to weigh on service companies Hornbeck Offshore Services and Bristow Group because it implies that they will not see an increase in demand for their services. In Bristow's case, last week's sell-off erased its post-earnings pop from the previous week after it reported better-than-expected results and secured new financing to help it stay afloat. That's because it's possible that conditions could still get worse before they start getting better.

While green shootsare popping up across the onshore oil and gas marketplace, the offshore market is quite a different story. Drilling activities continue to slow down, which is putting further pressure on offshore drillers and service providers. There's no bottom in sight, which is why investors are better off turning their attention to companies that have exposure to the improving onshore market for the time being.

10 stocks we like better than Atwood Oceanics When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Atwood Oceanics wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

Click here to learn about these picks!

*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017

Matt DiLallo has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Atwood Oceanics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Read the original here:

Oil and Gas Stock Roundup: The Outlook for Offshore Drilling Continues to Dim - Fox Business

After selling off all oilsands assets, Statoil looks to Newfoundland offshore – Calgary Herald

Posted on by

A file photo shows the company logo at the headquarters of Norwegian energy firm Statoil outside Oslo. BERIT ROALD / AFP/Getty Images

A week after Statoil sold off all its assets in Albertas oilsands, it looked eastward, to Newfoundlands offshore.

There, the Norwegian energy giant saw opportunity in the North Atlantic, announcing this week plans to drill two offshore exploratory wells this summer in the Flemish Pass Basin, roughly 500 kilometres east of St. Johns, N.L.

It is a gamble pulling out of one area with vast pools of proven oil reserves, while simultaneously launching a drilling program in the open ocean, where discovering commercially viable reservoirs is not certain.

But analysts say there is logic behind Statoils decision. While companies shifting their investments to offshore exploration are taking on more risk, there is upside.

The crude found beneath the ocean floor is generally lighter and more valuable than oilsands bitumen. Offshore oil can also be shipped anywhere in the world by tanker, whereas Albertas landlocked oil requires pipelines to access markets abroad pipelines that still need to be built.

You fill up a tanker from your platform and you send it to whoever is willing to pay the best price for it, said Kevin Birn, senior director for IHS Markit.

Whereas in Western Canada, the history has been you put it in a pipeline and it goes south. Those prices are subject to transportation costs down to the Gulf Coast and you have a lower price as a result.

Statoil Canada president Paul Fulton said the decision to invest in the offshore is in line with the parent companys strategy of funding safe, high-volume projects (with) low-carbon emissions.

He said Statoils exit from the oilsands was a commercial decision that had nothing to do with criticism from environmentalists in Norway, as has been suggested by some.

The upstream emissions from potential projects out there (on the East Coast) are very good, so we see that as a good fit and it fits into the competitive portfolio of Statoil globally, Fulton said in an interview.

Analysts, however, say criticism in Norway had to have been a factor in the sale of oilsands assets.

Statoil in particular was facing some political pushback from Norway as a state-owned company operating in the oilsands, said Nathan Nemeth, an upstream research associate at Wood Mackenzie.

Nemeth said oilsands and offshore projects both face long planning phases, high upfront costs and complicated construction issues, but the payback of capital for offshore comes much more quickly because of flush production from freshly drilled wells. Oilsands production, on the other hand, is steady and predictable for decades.

Statoils offshore investment comes as Calgary-based Husky Energy confirmed earlier this week it had shipped its first oil to an unnamed customer in China from the White Rose project, about 350 km east of Newfoundland.

The pieces of the puzzle fell together for the sale, company spokesman Mel Duvall said in an email. Favourable freight rates made it economically attractive.

Statoil is a major player in Newfoundlands offshore oil sector with a nine per cent stake in the Hebron project, a five per cent share in Hibernia and a 15 per cent stake in Terra Nova.

In 2015, the company bought six exploration licences in the Flemish Pass Basin and its first two licences for offshore Nova Scotia.

Read this article:

After selling off all oilsands assets, Statoil looks to Newfoundland offshore - Calgary Herald

Shares of Seadrill Went in the Exact Opposite Direction of Other Offshore Drillers in January – Motley Fool

Posted on by

What happened?

If you look at some of the news from offshore rig companies, it would look as though things are starting to look up for the business. The one exception is looking at Seadrill (NYSE:SDRL) as of late. Shares of Seadrill declined an incredible 45.2% in January. Compare that to Ensco (NYSE:ESV) and Noble Corporation (NYSE:NE), which both saw double-digit gains. The big reason Seadrill's stock declined sharply while others made some modest gains is that the company announced it is struggling with refinancing with some of its creditors.

Image source: Getty Images.

Let's start with the good news in the offshore rig industry: Producers are starting to show an interest in hiring offshore rigs again. Noble announced on its most recent fleet status report that two of its jack-up rigs had their contracts extended until 2022. Granted, Noble took a slightly lower day rate in the negotiation, but the two will add to the company's backlog of contracted work. Also, Ensco picked up a contract for one of its jack-ups in the North Sea that will mobilize in the spring, although no price has yet been given for the contract. Overall, considering how many rigs have gone off contract as of late, this is a pretty welcoming sign for offshore rigs.

Seadrill, on the other hand, wasn't so fortunate. The company did announce in late December that it had received a three-year contract extension for one of its jack-up rigs, but that news has been overshadowed. The real big event in January was when Seadrill announced that it was in discussions with its creditors to restructure its debt. Accord to CEO Per Wullf, those negotiations have taken longer than expected. The company has been making as many capital preservation moves as possible lately, such as delaying delivery of new rigs under construction, but the rapid decline in contract work for its fleet is leaving it with little cash flow to spend on preserving its fleet or paying down debt.

It's ultimately going to come down to a large issuance of equity. Management has already warned investors that it thinks it needs to raise about $1 billion in debt, and that it may result in "significant shareholder dilution."

One important lesson investors should have learned during this market downturn is that balance sheets matter. Seadrill's balance sheet was in rough shape during this most recent downturn, while Noble and Ensco's financial statements looked much more respectable. So, as cash flows have dried up, Seadrill has perpetually been trying to pare down its expenses and its debt load to survive. With a need for $1 billion to keep things going, that's likely going to mean investors are going to get hurt, here, one way or another.

For investors looking at offshore rig stocks other than Seadrill, now may be an intriguing time to put them on your radar. Both Noble and Ensco are trading well below their tangible book values. It will likely be a long payback period, but there looks to be a lot of value in these shares for investors who have the patience.

For Seadrill, though, there is a little more uncertainty. Until the company announces the final results of its debt restructuring and how it impacts the equity in the company, it's probably best to stay away.

Tyler Crowe owns shares of Seadrill. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

More here:

Shares of Seadrill Went in the Exact Opposite Direction of Other Offshore Drillers in January - Motley Fool

Offshore projects help raise profile of wind power in US, Europe – WorkBoat (blog)

Posted on by

(Bloomberg) Wind power is making a comeback. One of the earliest energy sources to be harnessed by mankind has now overtaken coal-fired generation in Europe and hydroelectric dams in the U.S.

Europes wind industry was aided by increasing investments in offshore projects, while developers added thousands of new turbines on the breezy plains of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, according to a pair of reports released Thursday by the industrys main trade groups in the two regions.

Were on a steady course to double wind energys contribution to U.S. electricity with $60 billion in investments, Tom Kiernan, chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association, said in an interview Wednesday. He expects wind turbines will supply 10%of U.S. electricity in a few years, up from about 5 percent last year.

With more than 8.2 gigawatts installed in 2016, the U.S. wind industry has supplanted big hydroelectric dams as the countrys largest single renewable energy source, AWEA said Thursday. Hydropower has dominated the nations renewable generation since before the Hoover Dam was completed in 1936.

Oklahoma installed 1.2 gigawatts of wind turbines last quarter, beating out California to become the third-biggest market in the U.S. And Kansas surpassed Illinois for fifth place behind the top two producers, Texas and Iowa, according to data from the Washington-based trade group.

Rising demand for wind turbines has helped lift shares of U.S. tower and blade manufacturers. Broadwind Energy Inc. gained 3.3 percent to a five-month high of $4.77 at the close in New York. The Cicero, Illinois-based maker of steel towers has more than doubled in the past year. TPI Composites Inc., a maker of fiberglass blades, gained 2% in New York Thursday.

European wind grew 8% last year, to 153.7 gigawatts, comprising 16.7% of the regions total installed capacity. That was more than any other technology, driving wind past coal as the continents second-biggest type of generation, according to figures published Thursday by the WindEurope trade group. Gas-fired generation remains the biggest source of power.

With countries seeking to curb greenhouse gas emissions that causes climate change by replacing fossil fuel plants with new forms of renewable energy, investment in wind grew to a record 27.5 billion euros ($29.3 billion) in 2016, WindEuropes annual European Statistics report showed.

The group said 10.4 gigawatts of wind energy are under construction and another 7.9 gigawatts are in advanced development.

While winds installed capacity beats coal in Europe and hydropower in the U.S, it doesnt yet produce as much energy because its not always blowing.

Wind and coal are on two ends of the spectrum, Oliver Joy, a spokesman for WindEurope, said in an e-mail.

Wind is steadily adding new capacity while coal is decommissioning far more than any technology in Europe.

Bloomberg News by Christopher Martin and Jessica Shankleman

Go here to read the rest:

Offshore projects help raise profile of wind power in US, Europe - WorkBoat (blog)

Naval Presence on High Seas Underscored – Financial Tribune

Posted on by

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the Navys presence in international waters is aimed at demonstrating the Islamic Republics power and extending a message of peace and friendship. No one would have believed that we could have a presence on the high seas, but we went to international waters and made port calls in different parts of the world to display [Irans] might, prevent Iranophobia and extend a message of peace and friendship, the commander said on Tuesday, Tasnim News Agency reported. Sayyari was referring to the 44th flotillas presence in the Atlantic Ocean and said the flotilla will return to the country on March 5. The Navys 44th flotilla, comprising Bushehr logistic warship and Alvand destroyer, set sail for the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in mid-October to protect Iranian trade vessels against piracy in the unsafe waters. It then sailed around the African continent and arrived in the Atlantic Ocean in late November.

Read this article:

Naval Presence on High Seas Underscored - Financial Tribune

New centre for high seas visitors in Angus – The Courier – The Courier

Posted on by

Reverend Geoff Redmayne, Jill Whittick of Kinnes Shipping Ltd, Sandra Welch and Peter Donald of Sailors Society.

Seafarers visiting the port of Montrose will arrive to a warm welcome following the opening of a new centre for seafarers.

Run by maritime welfare charity Sailors Society, the quayside centre will offer ships crews a place to find help while on long contracts away from home.

Affectionately known as The Cabin, it will provide its visitors with 24-hour secure access to free internet facilities, local information, magazines, books and warm clothing for those unprepared for the cooler Scottish climes.

Sailors Societys local chaplain, Peter Donald and volunteer ship visitor Mike Burleigh, who reached out to to more than 7,000 seafarers arriving in Dundee and Montrose ports last year, are also on hand to offer transport, personal help and counsel.

The Cabin replaces Montrose Seafarers Centre (MSC) at The Haven, a combined venture between local churches and several maritime welfare charities, which has ceased to run after eight years supporting thousands of seafarers.

Sailors Societys deputy CEO, Sandra Welch, who officially opened the centre, said: The Cabin will provide a secure and comfortable environment for seafarers to take respite, receive welfare support and make that all-important call home after months away at sea.

Thousands of seafarers benefited from this service in the past and we are really pleased to continue to offer this support in our great new port location.

The opening ceremony included a prayer and blessing for the ongoing work by local minister Rev Geoff Redmayne and was followed by a reception at the Links Hotel, sponsored by vessel agents Kinnes Shipping Ltd.

Sandra spoke about developments being introduced by Sailors Society around the world for the welfare of seafarers and their families and the Societys ongoing commitment to maintain and expand the care offered at ports like Montrose.

She expressed her appreciation of the invaluable support that Peter and his team have enjoyed from the local community, which she hoped will continue into the new phase of the work.

Michael Wheat, chairman of the Montrose Seafarers Centre (MSC) committee, conveyed the best wishes and prayers of his committee for the future and presented a cheque on behalf of MSC to the Society.

Peter Donald said: We really appreciate the way in which the Montrose community has taken strangers to its heart.

Ive been told many stories by seafarers of the kindness and hospitality they have received here in comparison to some of the bigger ports where they often feel lonely and unsafe in strange surroundings.

Peter said they would welcome donations of warm clothing, books, CDs, and woolly hats to enhance the ministry of Sailors Society in Montrose and he can be contacted via enquiries@sailors-society.org

Excerpt from:

New centre for high seas visitors in Angus - The Courier - The Courier

Don’t like your government? Just start a micronation like these 6 dudes – Mashable

Posted on by

Mashable
Don't like your government? Just start a micronation like these 6 dudes
Mashable
Ever been so fed up with your government that you decided to break away and form your own nation? A surprising number of Australians have. There are about 100 micronations spread out across the world, tiny governments unto themselves and yet not ...

and more »

Read more from the original source:

Don't like your government? Just start a micronation like these 6 dudes - Mashable

How Anarchists and Intentional Communities Are Reacting to …

Posted on by

For the last eight years, Nicolas and Rachel Sarah have been slowly weaning themselves off fossil fuels. They dont own a refrigerator or a car; their year-old baby and four-year-old toddler play by candlelight rather than electricity at night. They identify as Christian anarchists, and have given an official name to their search for an alternative to consumption-heavy American life: the Downstream Project, with the motto to do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.

As it turns out, exiting the system is a challenging, time-consuming, and surprisingly technical process. Here in the Shenandoahs and central Virginia, a handful of tiny communities are experimenting with what it means to reject the norms of contemporary life and exist in a radically different way. They seem to share Americans pervasive sense of political alienation, which arguably reached an apotheosis with the election of Donald Trump: a sense of division from their peers, a distrust of government. The challenges of modern politicsdealing with issues like climate change, poverty, mass migration, and war on a global scaleare so vast and abstract that its difficult not to find them overwhelming. But instead of continuing in passive despair, as many Americans seem to do, the people in these communities decided to overhaul their lives.

These communities show just how hard it is to live without fossil fuels, a government safety net, or a system of capitalist exchange. They struggle with many of the same issues that plague the rest of America, including health problems, financial worries, and racism. At the center of their political lives is a question that every American faces, but for them, its amplified: whether to save the world or let it burn.

Their answers are different, but they share one thing. Theyve seen what modern American life looks like. And they want out.

* * *

Communities like this have a lot of names, including homesteads, intentional communities, or income-sharing communities, which is really a way of saying commune. Louisa County, Virginia, is home to five such communities: Twin Oaks, founded in 1967, and its later spin-offs, Acorn and Sapling, along with two fairly new communities, the Living Energy Farm and Cambia. Taken together with the Downstream Project, which is located an hour or two away in Harrisonburg, these newer communities offer three rough models for what it means to create an alternative lifestyle in response to immense global challenges: to struggle at the edges of society, to remake it, or to build a haven for retreat.

A Radical Idea: Four City-Dwellers Share All Their Money

Unlike the rural communities of Louisa, Nicolas and Rachel Sarah explicitly wanted to build the Downstream Project in an urban context. (Nicolas and Rachel Sarah each have slightly different last names, in keeping with the Latin American tradition of Nicolass family. Their first names are used here for clarity.) Rather than rejecting mainstream culture entirely and living in the woods, theyre struggling to live as ethically as possible in the city, with a particular focus on environmental sustainability and energy use. But their approachengaging and educating, rather than retreatingmakes them particularly vulnerable to the challenges and risks of urban life.

The two 29-year-olds dream of buying land within a bike-able distance of the city so they can supply their homestead with fresh food, but have found the real estate prohibitively expensive. Harrisonburg has only a modest bus system, so its difficult to get around. Theyve had trouble recruiting people to join full-time; their project has mostly been attractive to transient, 20-something interns, several of whom have lived with them. What weve discovered in a big way is that you cant do this by yourself, even in a city, said Rachel Sarah. And you cant homestead by yourself if you have a family even more.

Perhaps worst of all, Nicolas recently injured his arm, which flavored our whole year, Rachel Sarah said. He had been planning to develop ways to make their own food and medicine. Instead, they had to pay for those things, along with medical bills; because theyre uninsured, theyve had to get financial assistance from hospitals and medical centers. In recent months, theyve made small but meaningful concessions, like using a crockpot to make dinners.

As theyve built their project, they have also found themselves caught between two worlds. Among people who are wanting to live the same lifestylebeing fossil-fuel freethere is a lot of push against Christianity, Rachel Sarah said. Its almost like anything is okay except Christianity, because thats oppressive.

When theres a Democrat in power, social-justice-minded people go to sleep, because they feel validated by what they hear on NPR.

The opposite is true at church: While some in their Mennonite congregation are open to what theyre doing, she said, theyve found little willingness among their fellow Christians to lift up climate change or the environment as theological issues. To them, though, the case for creating environmentally conscious communities is evident in the Bible. The story of the Jews was that they are emancipated, tribal slaves [who] went out and tried to start their own society, Nicolas said. Anarchism is in the story: Simple, small-scale organization of societies, not huge, hierarchical systems.

Theyre hopeful that Trumps election will spur more people to think critically about their lives. Times like this really awaken people, said Rachel Sarah. Since [the election], weve started to feel really hopeful. Trumps election left Nicolas feeling sick to his stomach, he said, but he sees an upside. When theres a Democrat in power, social-justice-minded people go to sleep, because they feel validated by what they hear on NPR, he said. The couple says theyre feeling more awake now, too. Trumps election is like a crescendo for the Christian anarchist call, Nicolas said. If we are citizens of another kingdom, and the empire is getting pretty ridiculous, it inspires us to take our convictions more seriously.

* * *

The folks at the Living Energy Farm are not as confident that their fellow Americans are ready to take their failures seriously. Among the people I hang out with, theres a fair amount of alienation from both the political right and the political left, said Alexis Zeigler, who co-founded the community with his wife, Debbie Piesen. We are not trying to change who is in office. You cant dictate a democratic society from the top. You really have to build it from the bottom up.

The Living Energy Farm runs on a different philosophy of alienation: If they can prototype alternatives to modern life, they believe, they can eventually remake the world. The community is located half a mile up a dirt road in Louisa County, which gave 60 percent of its vote to Trump in November; Charlottesville and Richmond are each 40 minutes to an hour away by car. Two couples and four kids live there permanently, along with a 20-something electrician, Eddie, who has been there about seven months, and a regular cycle of interns and travelers. Theyre farther off the grid than the Downstream Project: They function entirely without fossil fuels, and their home and seed-growing business are powered by a suite of firewood, motors, solar collectors, and other devices explicitly designed to be inexpensive and simple to implement.

We refer to it as neo-Amish, or Amish without the patriarchy.

In the summer, they cook with a small solar dish and a rocket stove behind the kitchen; theyre building a bigger dish, taller than a grown man, nearby. They hooked up an exercise bike to a washing machine and rigged a pair of old tractors to run on wood gas rather than gasoline, although they arent quite functional. They built their own food-drying room off the kitchen, where they process vegetables grown on their 127 acres, and they graft fruit-tree branches onto wild stems. We refer to it as neo-Amish, or Amish without the patriarchy, Zeigler said.

Theyre not religious; their goal is evangelization of a different kind. My intent is to get Living Energy Farm on its feet and try to convince people to live this way, Zeigler said. Recently, theyve been experimenting on their interns cellphones to develop battery-based chargers, which he hopes could be used in India or Africa.

The way we choose to live has far more impact in terms of our environment than any particular technology, he said. If Americans bother to talk about the environment at all, its usually in terms of a technological perspective. He thinks mainstream environmentalism is too focused on incremental reform and modest lifestyle choices, like driving Priuses. For us, the question is: How do I live comfortably with what renewable energy can do? If you ask it that way, you cant drive to D.C. and work in a cubicle, he said. But the environmental groups want to tell you that you can, because then youll send them donations.

The Living Energy Farm residents seem less invested in critiquing government than capitalism. We dont buy gasoline, and we dont pay anybody bills for energy, Zeigler said. Its not coincidental that this frees us from corporate dependence. For his part, Zeigler doesnt think government is inherently bad, and doesnt identify as an anarchist. (The problem with anarchism is not that the theory, in its ideal sense, is broken. Its that a lot of nitwits use that word, he said.)

The idea underlying the Living Energy Farm is that people can change the structure of society by changing the way they live. Without sprawling cities and single-family homes, powered by expensive electricity and gas-guzzling cars, there will be no need for high-level solutions like the Paris Climate Agreement. Their view is at least partly premised on apocalypseindustrialism is going to collapse, Zeigler said, matter-of-factlyand their work is meant to address that eventuality. Can we build a mass movement tomorrow? No, and Im not even worried about it, Zeigler said. But can we do that before we turn the planet into Easter Island?

It feels safer to be in a place where we have control over our water.

But even within such idealistic communities, not everyone sees the goal as engagement. Deanna Seay, one of the other Living Energy Farm residents, moved there last June with her two kids and husband, Misha Nikitine. He was interested in the politics, but she was mostly looking for an affordable way to live. I envisioned being remote, being able to keep to ourselves, not being involved in whatever strife is going on in cities, she said. She was glad to leave behind Boston and demonstrations like the ones that took place after Trumps election; shes also glad they now drink from a well, she said, because it feels safer to be in a place where we have control over our water. Hers is not a search for ideals, but for something tolerablesomething better than what was available elsewhere.

At Cambia, another, unrelated community in Louisa County, some of the members seem to have a similar impulse. A California-based couple, Ella Sutherland and Gil Benmoshe, started the community with their son Avni about a year and a half ago. Two othersAnthony Beck, who go by the names Telos, and another man called Gilgameshlive with them in their small house and nearby cabin; theyre building a barn out back, and theyve laid plots along a path through the woods where theyre hoping to construct more dwellings. Altogether, theyre looking for 10 or 12 people to join them. Cambians share their income, and their goal is to create an alternative to mainstream or capitalist society, they said. They fund their community in part through a small woodworking shop, where they make wooden spoons. They have a car, and get about a third of their food from grocery-store dumpsterstheyre freegans, Sutherland said, meaning they only eat meat and dairy if its going to be thrown away.

While the Cambians are dismayed by the election, it has mostly strengthened their conviction that they shouldnt be involved in politics. Im embarrassed to say that I felt like I had to vote, Benmoshe said. I dont believe in democracy, so I should have abstained. But I felt like it was really critical. Well, that didnt do any good. Even though they believe many people are unhappy within the current political and economic systems, they dont feel particularly called to engage in politics because of Trump. There are a lot of people who feel isolated, who feel violated by capitalism in various different ways, Sutherland said. We should be creating an alternative, and thats needed now more than it was needed before.

I dont want to be an activist anymore. It requires me to rub against the things that I hate too much.

Instead, most of their energy is directed at building their homeliterally. They follow practices called natural building, using materials like cob (a combination of clay, sand, and straw) to line their walls, and wood-based energy sources for heat. Their backyard is full of spare parts and fixtures, including a random sink and lots of wood; their free time is often spent on construction projects.

To some extent, theyre trying to spread their knowledge and their project. Theyre writing a wiki, nicknamed commune in a box, outlining legal and tax details for income-sharing communitiesCambia, it turns out, is both a commune and an LLC. They want people to be able to start new communities, tailored to their own needs; Cambia is not the model, they said, but a model.

That model, though, largely doesnt involve politics. I really should be working on a campaign to change the political structure of this world. Instead, Im working in natural building, Benmoshe said. I dont want to be an activist anymore. It requires me to rub against the things that I hate too much, and I get sad and frustrated. Cambia was not built to usher in a revolution. It was built as a refuge.

* * *

Intentional communities are, in their own way, historical projects. The original cities of refuge, found in the Bible, were havens for people who had committed heinous crimes. In early modern Europe, religious separatists transformed this idea, establishing towns where they could await the imminent coming of Christ, writes the Williams College art historian Michael J. Lewis in his book, City of Refuge. Great thinkers have long told of socialist paradises and philosophers have pondered distant, lost societies. In all of these communities, historic and present-day, utopian dreamers face the same question: Are they willing to engage at all in politics as they are, or do they wish to build the world anew?

Ironically, the deeply secular Cambia comes closest to those older models of religious separatism that Lewis chronicles in City of Refuge. The historic groups that most eagerly sought to escape the world were obsessed with building geometrically pleasing, architecturally non-hierarchical townsphysical manifestations of their deeply held values. There, in their isolated hamlets, they could experiment freely with social orders and norms, safely separate from the world.

Theres no escaping into your own little enclave.

Perhaps its unfair to look to penalize utopias for failing to offer salvation. After all, people who live in these kinds of communities tend to be more politically active than the average American, said Karen Litfin, a professor of political science at the University of Washington who has written about eco-villages around the world.

And perhaps these communities are not as immune from worldly flaws as they might like. For example: Many of them struggle to be accessible to people other than middle-class white folks. Sky Blue, a Twin Oaks resident who also serves as the executive director of the Fellowship for Intentional Community, said there are a lot of racial [problems] and racism that are embedded in intentional communities. Even despite good intentions, Liberal white people who have a desire for diversity dont necessarily understand what it means to be inclusive, he said. Theyre going to create culture in [their] intentional community that is going to be comfortable for them, which isnt necessarily comfortable for people of color, or people with disabilities, or people who are gay or trans. Ethan Tupelo, a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who lived at Twin Oaks before he began studying intentional communities academically, said residents talked about this issue a lot when he was there. Its a bunch of white people sitting around wondering where all the people of color are, he said. Its nice that youre thinking about that, but its also frustrating.

Tupelo sees a structural explanation for the inaccessibility of intentional communities: It takes a lot of cash to get off the grid. Even when starting a new community, you need the capital to do it in the first place if you want it to be a legally recognized thing, as opposed to squats, he said. As Nicolas and Rachel Sarahs experience at the Downstream Project shows, becoming untangled from capitalism also means becoming much more vulnerable. Its tough to imagine a comprehensive way of replacing health insurance, not to mention programs like welfare, in a world without government.

And then there is the tension between engagement and escape. In parts of the environmental movement, of which many intentional communities would consider themselves participants, the impulse toward escape can be powerful, and dark. In a 2012 essay for Orion magazinea piece Nicolas specifically recommendedthe writer Paul Kingsnorth argued that one of the things green-minded people should do at this moment in history is build havens. Can you think, or act, like the librarian of a monastery through the Dark Ages, guarding the old books as empires rise and fall outside? he wrote.

Were just these little workers building this giant cathedral.

Litfin said she doesnt think its possible for humanity to go back to medieval times, no matter how tempting that may be for some. In the Dark Ages, they didnt have the internet. They didnt have global travel. They didnt have climate change to any great extent, she said. What we have now is an embryonic global civilization thats totally ecologically, socially, and economically unsustainable. Theres no escaping into your own little enclave.

Some people use the term lifestyle politics to describe these communitiesthe belief that if you live your values, then you will be able to make effective change, or at least express your political perspective, Litfin said. I think thats a good place to start, but if thats where you end, you actually dont have much impact at all. In their own way, each of these communities is trying to change the world, albeit in small ways. Not everyone who seeks utopia is like Zeigler at the Living Energy Project, though. People dont necessarily want to remake the world.

The one thing everybody knows about utopia is that it means no place, Lewis writes. Whats less well-known, he says, is that the Greek word for utopia sounds the same as eutopia, a word with a different meaning: good place. For all their struggles, this seems to capture the aspirations of Virginias modern-day utopias. Were just these little workers building this giant cathedral, said Nicolas. Each of us is just chipping away at a little block. We dont even have the big-picture cathedral. But were doing a little block.

In the face of increasingly alienating politics and massive global break-down, perhaps this is enough: building a good place, better than most, where people can try to live.

View original post here:

How Anarchists and Intentional Communities Are Reacting to ...

Heroin hits home: Highways provide "easy access" for drug trafficking in Franklin County – Herald-Mail Media

Posted on by

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Gary Carter remembers investigating Franklin County's first heroin overdose death in 1998.

The Chambersburg native saw the drug quietly take hold among a small group of residents in the early 2000s. The users and suppliers remained in the shadows for years until the narcotic powder became a less expensive high for people addicted to prescription painkillers.

"Now, it's really all over the place," said Carter, barrack commander for the state police in Franklin County.

Investigators say the increased availability and decreased stigma of heroin use may contribute to new users being less inhibited about trying it. Police are carrying medication to reverse opioid overdose effects and they are providing information to addicts about recovery support programs.

"The whole attitude of policing has changed," Chambersburg Police Chief Ron Camacho said.

Waynesboro Police Chief James Sourbier hears critics say police aren't doing enough about drug abuse in the region. He argues many people have a grave misunderstanding of the depth and breadth of the crisis.

"You cannot arrest yourself out of a situation like this," he said, saying police, doctors, social services, churches, politicians and schools all have roles to play.

Waynesboro police responded to 19 drug overdoses in 2014. Of those, five were classified as intentional and self-inflicted, four were accidental, seven were inadvertent, one was mixed toxicity, one was unknown, and one was inconclusive. Four of the overdoses were fatal.

The department responded to 36 overdoses in 2015. Twelve were intentional, three were accidental and 21 were inadvertent; of those overdoses, 17 involved opioids like heroin. Five people died.

2016 brought the department 47 overdoses, with 11 considered intentional, one accidental, 26 inadvertent, four mixed toxicity, two unknown and three inconclusive. Thirteen people died.

"I don't think we've seen the worst of it yet," Sourbier said.

Waynesboro's police chief believes drug traffickers from the Baltimore area are stopping for periods of time in southern Franklin County to take advantage of inexpensive apartments, social services and walkability of communities. He said some of those dealers continue north to New York.

Carter agreed that Baltimore through Hagerstown is a major thoroughfare for heroin. Still, he sees other supply routes connected to Harrisburg and Philadelphia via the Pennsylvania Turnpike, U.S. 30 and Interstate 81.

"We're easy access," Carter said.

Franklin County District Attorney Matt Fogal, who established a multidisciplinary overdose task force, perceives fewer big dealers setting up shop in Franklin County. He is prosecuting users who are selling off extra inventory they obtained on short runs to metropolitan areas.

"It's less a business enterprise than someone who uses and buys a lot," he said.

Fogal is in the process of seating an investigative grand jury that will spend the next 18 months focused on heroin dealers and trafficking rings. The grand jury can issue subpoenas and compel testimony from reluctant witnesses, with that testimony granted confidentiality.

Pennsylvania law protects from prosecution, in many cases, the person who calls 911 about a friend experiencing an overdose. It also provides immunity to the person who overdosed. There are exceptions, including for overdoses that occur in businesses among the public.

Camacho said his eyes were opened to the reaches of addiction when the son of a coworker died a few years ago. Two decades ago, he never imagined he would be administering naloxone to someone suffering an overdose in hopes he could get that person connected with a treatment program.

He now emphasizes outside-the-box thinking and training to address opioid addiction.

"This is hitting everybody," he said.

"We realize there is no one thing that'll fix or cure this. It really does require a massive team effort," Sourbier said, saying he tries to provide resources to parents and grandparents concerned about their addicted family members.

Fogal spent years skeptical of the effectiveness of addiction treatment initiatives until he saw them producing positive results. Now, he's ensuring recovery and treatment specialists are at the table in the overdose task force.

"I don't accept failure," he said. "That said, I'm a realist and I know the challenges we face."

Visit link:

Heroin hits home: Highways provide "easy access" for drug trafficking in Franklin County - Herald-Mail Media

The Death of the Ski Bum and Intentional Tourism – The Catalyst

Posted on by

The ski bum is extinct, resort worker Ian Johnson declared. This sentiment was echoed by many ski resort workers featured in my Catalyst article from two weeks ago entitled, Resort Reality: Ski Employees Face Financial Nightmares. In the past, a ski bum could work two days a week and ski five, while nowadays, most resort employees work five and ski two. The classic ski bum lifestyle is disappearing and the growth of mountain towns throughout the West is to blame. Johnson finds the exponential growth and the increasingly elitist nature of mountain towns unsettling.

An upcoming Colorado College-sponsored Sense of Place trip, Not Your Average Ski Trip, aims to educate the CC student body about the current reality. Last year, the trip took place over the weekend and was well attended by faculty, staff, and students. This year, a group will head up to Copper Mountain for a Block Break. Last year, for comparisons sake, trip attendees navigated the local transportation system. Public transportation often takes longer than driving straight into the sprawling parking lots that have become common features of most resorts. Johnson asserted that it is important for people to understand that there are sustainable options worthy of attention. The weekend included an opportunity to meet with the Green Team at Copper Mountain, a group that focuses on issues related to water. While water disputes are much more contentious in the summer months, securing water rights for snowmaking is a top priority for most ski resorts in the winter.

The 2016 trip had the opportunity to hear from Anthropology Professor Sarah Hautzinger, who provided a wealth of knowledge to attendees, mostly regarding real estate. Property prices in communities affected by expansion continue to skyrocket. As a result, skiing has become even more exclusive. When asked when things began to change, Ian Johnson said, Since the 1990s, the overall cost of skiing has gone up exponentially, creating an elitism I wish didnt exist.

This year, in Hautzingers place, the Office of Field Study brought in William Philpott, author of Vacationland: Tourism and Environment in the Colorado High Country. Those who choose to attend the Sense of Place trip will have the opportunity to speak with both Philpott and members of the Green Team at Copper Mountain in order to expand their knowledge of environmental issues surrounding Colorados favorite winter sport. The Sense of Place Trips are an amazing opportunity for students looking to learn more about Southern Colorado. Although the upcoming ski trip already has a long waitlist, the Sustainability Office organizes a trip each block. Creating an intentional space to reflect upon the impacts of our recreational activity is imperative. The Sense of Place Trips offer an opportunity for students and faculty alike to develop a conscious way to participate in outdoor sports.

Continued here:

The Death of the Ski Bum and Intentional Tourism - The Catalyst

Lacoste delves into the world of space travel at New York Fashion Week as Baptista honours founder’s lesser-known … – Evening Standard

Posted on by

Lacoste may be best known for its presence on the tennis court, but today its designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista chose to honour its founder Ren Lacoste's lesser-known career history working in the aircraft industry during the time of the first transatlantic crossings.

For Baptista, whose father was a pilot, this meant delving into the world of space travel - a place where fantasy meets technology.

Accordingly, the models in this New York Fashion Week show took their turn on a catwalk transformed to resemble the surface of Mars.

High performance fabrics - a signature ingredient in any Lacoste catwalk collection - were propelled to new heights, with high-shine foil nylon coupled with fleece and industrial leather, while the hero of the offering was a series of boilersuits inspired by the uniform of astronauts. Though the result, while futuristic, was far from unattainable.

"I didnt want it to look like a cold, futuristic vision of the future," said Baptista, speaking backstage after the show.

To this end, the Portuguese designer brought the collection back down to earth with a host of natural elements, from the wool and linen lining the inside of reversible waterproof jackets, to the fluid cocoon shapes seen on velour drawstring dresses.

Functionality also remained high on the agenda with multiple patch pockets and roomy backpacks. Bold colour combinations, such as ochre with lilac, were also taken from the landscape of the cosmos, while the iridescent prints of planets were reproductions from the work of space artist Ron Miller.

But Baptistas vision wasnt focused solely on the future, he also took one giant leap into the Nineties seeking further inspiration. Citing legends such as Kurt Cobain among his muses, the designer recast grunge signatures including checked shirts and slouchy mohair cardigans.

"I wanted to explore what was timeless about the nineties," said Baptista. Jumbo cord cargo pants, puffer jackets and hooded cagoules were also among Lacostes future classics.

Read this article:

Lacoste delves into the world of space travel at New York Fashion Week as Baptista honours founder's lesser-known ... - Evening Standard

Kelly twins offer a vital sign for space travel – San Angelo Standard Times

Posted on by

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 6:02 p.m. CT Feb. 9, 2017

U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and former astronaut Mark Kelly.(Photo: USA TODAY)

The following editorial appeared in Monday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday, Feb. 6:

When astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after nearly a year on the International Space Station, he was 2 inches taller than his twin brother, astronaut Mark Kelly. When Scott left for the mission, he and his earthbound brother were the same height.

What happened? Scientists at NASA are poring over the data compiled from the Twins Study, information that benchmarks Scott and Mark Kellys genomic and physical markers before and after Scotts yearlong mission on the space station.

So far weve learned that being in space for prolonged periods does have an effect on the chromosomes, bone structure and even the content of the culture in an astronauts gut. Scotts DNA and RNA underwent hundreds of mutations in space that gradually returned to normal once he was back on Earth.

Scott Kelly exhibited declining bone density, but a healing hormone kicked in during his exercise regimen on the space station. Still, his cognitive abilities and muscle dexterity showed signs of having slowed a bit once he returned to Earth.

That will be a factor to consider when astronauts land on Mars after six months traveling through space. Setting up their living environment on the planet will present both physical and mental challenges.

NASAs plans for manned missions to Mars in the 2030s are still in the early stages. The rival civilian space programs that have popped up are shooting for a Mars mission in the early-to-mid-2020s. Whoever gets to Mars first will be better prepared for the challenges of space travel thanks to the Twins Study.

Read or Share this story: http://www.gosanangelo.com/story/opinion/editorials/2017/02/09/kelly-twins-offer-vital-sign-space-travel/97643904/

See more here:

Kelly twins offer a vital sign for space travel - San Angelo Standard Times

The Expanse and Frankie Adams: Meet the Kiwi who’s conquered space travel – Waikato Times

Posted on by

Waikato Times
The Expanse and Frankie Adams: Meet the Kiwi who's conquered space travel
Waikato Times
The producers of sc-fi series The Expanse had dreaded casting the role since production began. The character: Bobbie Draper, a soldier of Polynesian ancestry, six foot and 100 kilos of pure muscle. "We dreaded the task of going out into the world and ...

and more »

More here:

The Expanse and Frankie Adams: Meet the Kiwi who's conquered space travel - Waikato Times

Boys basketball: East Ascension takes physical game against … – The Advocate

Posted on by

The score was football-like in the early going, and some of the action resembled football when Dutchtown hosted East Ascension in a District 5-5A battle on Friday, so it was only fitting that two EAHS football stars played key roles as their team held off the Griffins for a 55-42 win.

Baylor football signee Justin Harris and junior defensive tackle Cameron Wire combined for 23 points, six rebounds and two blocks, and speedy guard Jimel London contributed 13 points as the Spartans broke open a close game in the final five minutes, stretching a 42-38 lead to 53-39 and coasting to the win.

The Griffins went cold during that time, the EA defense got some key turnovers and Dutchtown wouldnt threaten again.

The win moves EA to 23-6, 8-0 in the district, while Dutchtown fell to 16-11 3-5.

It was a pretty rough game out there in the first quarter, EA coach Barry Whittington said. We got going a little better in the second quarter, but I didnt think we ever did get in a good offensive flow. Credit Dutchtown for that. Their defense did a real good job of shutting down the passing lanes in the first half.

We didnt seem to have any energy. We couldnt make any shots, and we didnt do a very good job taking care of the ball, he said.

Dutchtown had a 9-4 run to start the second quarter before the Spartans came back to tie it at 20, and the dogfight was on, though the Griffins would never reclaim the lead.

Both teams had players wearing No. 21 come off the bench to inject a offensive spark in the second quarter. Dutchtowns Ryan Brumfield scored eight of the Griffins 12 points in the quarter. Harris equaled that and added a block and a rebound for the visitors.

The third quarter was close. Nicholas Caldwells late 3-pointer pulled the Griffins within four at 38-34, but they could manage only eight points the rest of the way.

East Ascension has that spurtability, " Dutchtown coach Patrick Hill said. Regardless of what personnel they have on the floor, they can regroup and hit you with that second or third gear. They definitely know the game is 32 minutes.

And whats intriguing about (Harris and Wire) is that they can make those soft passes around the goal. Theyre a tough matchup for us. You just hope they might miss and you can get a rebound.

The dapper Whittington was sporting a jacket and open-collar plaid shirt, which he said was a change for him.

I usually wear a tie on game night, but I didnt tonight. Maybe thats why we couldnt get going tonight, he said. Im already thinking it will be a light day tomorrow, and then we need to start getting ready for McKinley on Tuesday.

LeAaron Cain also reached double figures for the Spartans with 10 points. Shedrick Smith had their two 3-pointers and finished with eight.

Neil Caldwell and Brumfield led the Griffins with eight apiece.

See original here:

Boys basketball: East Ascension takes physical game against ... - The Advocate