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Without doubt, the two biggest threats to the economy are unemployment and the dire financial condition of the states, yet lawmakers have failed to deal intelligently with either one. Federal unemployment benefits began to expire nearly a month ago. Since then, 1.2 million jobless workers have been cut off. The House passed a six-month extension as part of a broader spending bill in May, but the Senate, despite three attempts, has not been able to pass a similar bill. The majority leader, Harry Reid , said he was ready to give up after the third try last week when all of the Senate’s Republicans and a lone Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska , blocked the bill. Meanwhile, the states face a collective budget hole of some $112 billion, but neither the House nor the Senate has a plan to help. The House stripped a provision for $24 billion in state fiscal aid from its earlier spending bill. The Senate included state aid in its ill-fated bill to extend unemployment benefits; when that bill failed, the promise of aid vanished as well. As a result, 30 states that had counted on the money to help balance their budgets will be forced to raise taxes even higher and to cut spending even deeper in the budget year that begins on July 1. That will only worsen unemployment, both among government workers and the states’ private contractors. Worsening unemployment means slower growth, or worse, renewed recession . Advertisement Continue reading the main story So if lawmakers are wondering why consumer confidence and the stock market are tanking (the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index hit a new low for the year on Tuesday), they need look no further than a mirror. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. The situation cries out for policies to support economic growth — specifically jobless benefits and fiscal aid to states. But instead of delivering, Congressional Republicans and many Democrats have been asserting that the nation must act instead to cut the deficit. The debate has little to do with economic reality and everything to do with political posturing. A lot of lawmakers have concluded that the best way to keep their jobs is to pander to the nation’s new populist mood and play off the fears of the very Americans whose economic well-being Congress is threatening.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionized genetic testing by enabling simultaneous analysis of unprecedented numbers of genes. However, genes with high-sequence homology pose challenges to current NGS technologies. Because diagnostic sequencing is moving toward exome analysis, knowledge of these homologous genes is essential to avoid false positive and negative results. An example is the STRC gene, one of >70 genes known to contribute to the genetic basis of hearing loss. STRC is 99.6% identical to a pseudogene (pSTRC) and therefore inaccessible to standard NGS methodologies. The STRC locus is also known to be a common site for large deletions. Comprehensive diagnostic testing for inherited hearing loss therefore necessitates a combination of several approaches to avoid pseudogene interference. We have developed a clinical test that combines standard NGS and NGS-based copy number assessment supplemented with a long-range PCR-based Sanger or MiSeq assay to eliminate pseudogene contamination. By using this combination of assays we could identify biallelic STRC variants in 14% (95% CI, 8%-24%) of individuals with isolated nonsyndromic hearing loss who had previously tested negative on our 70-gene hearing loss panel, corresponding to a detection rate of 11.2% (95% CI, 6%-19%) for previously untested patients. This approach has broad applicability because medically significant genes for many disease areas include genes with high-sequence homology. Copyright © 2014 American Society for Investigative Pathology and the Association for Molecular Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Experimental study of the pressure fluctuations in a pump turbine at large partial flow conditions Frequent shifts of output and operating mode require a pump turbine with excellent stability. Current researches show that large partial flow conditions in pump mode experience positive-slope phenomena with a large head drop. The pressure fluctuation at the positive slope is crucial to the pump turbine unit safety. The operating instabilities at large partial flow conditions for a pump turbine are analyzed. The hydraulic performance of a model pump turbine is tested with the pressure fluctuations measured at unstable operating points near a positive slope in the performance curve. The hydraulic performance tests show that there are two separated positive-slope regions for the pump turbine, with the flow discharge for the first positive slope from 0.85 to 0.91 times that at the maximum efficiency point. The amplitudes of the pressure fluctuations at these unstable large partial flow conditions near the first positive slope are much larger than those at stable operating condtions. A dominant frequency is measured at 0.2 times the impeller rotational frequency in the flow passage near the impeller exit, which is believed to be induced by the rotating stall in the flow passage of the wicket gates. The test results also show hysteresis with pressure fluctuations when the pump turbine is operated near the first positive slope. The hysteresis creates different pressure fluctuations for those operation points even though their flow rates and heads are similar respectively. The pressure fluctuation characteristics at large partial flow conditions obtained by the present study will be helpful for the safe operation of pumped storage units.

Automatically mining application signatures for lightweight deep packet inspection Automatic signature generation approaches have been widely applied in recent traffic classification. However, they are not suitable for LightWeight Deep Packet Inspection (LW_DPI) since their generated signatures are matched through a search of the entire application data. On the basis of LW_DPI schemes, we present two Hierarchical Clustering (HC) algorithms: HC_TCP and HC_UDP, which can generate byte signatures from TCP and UDP packet payloads respectively. In particular, HC_TCP and HC_ UDP can extract the positions of byte signatures in packet payloads. Further, in order to deal with the case in which byte signatures cannot be derived, we develop an algorithm for generating bit signatures. Compared with the LASER algorithm and Suffix Tree (ST)-based algorithm, the proposed algorithms are better in terms of both classification accuracy and speed. Moreover, the experimental results indicate that, as long as the application-protocol header exists, it is possible to automatically derive reliable and accurate signatures combined with their positions in packet payloads.

Former F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen has given the first hint that he may be considering a possible return to the top flight, after being spotted during a visit to Williams' Grove headquarters recently. The Finn walked away from F1 when Ferrari opted to sign Fernando Alonso for 2010, but has yet to settle in any other discipline, with his supposed love affair with rallying seemingly on the point of fizzling out and a brief flirtation with NASCAR appearing little more than just that. He has constantly been linked with a potential return, however, most recently as a replacement for the injured Robert Kubica at Renault, but, while Eric Boullier has dismissed that possibility, other teams are not necessarily closing their doors. According to several sources, Raikkonen was given a personal guided tour of Grove by none other than Williams chairman Adam Parr, but it remains unclear why the 2007 world champion was spending time with one of the sport's current strugglers. Williams has not been a force since before Raikkonen won his world title, when the then McLaren driver was fighting off the likes of Juan Montoya as their teams lead the pursuit of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari, and it appears unlikely to return to former glories in the near future, despite inking a deal to return to regie power from 2012. Raikkonen, who drove for Sauber, McLaren and Ferrari in his F1 career, is still only 31, and recently tested with Peugeot's sportscar team in Spain, leading to speculation that he may be bound for the endurance scene rather than returning to a category he notoriously detested for its PR requirements. He also commanded hefty retainers from Woking and Maranello, something that the cash-strapped Williams would struggle to match in the current climate. It could be that, with his stock demoted a little by his well-publicised struggles in the WRC, Raikkonen may be looking to return to the scene of his greatest triumphs, and joining Williams would certainly enable him to do so without pressure and expectation, but how motivated would he be if there is only a slim chance of points, let alone a sniff of the podium? On the flip side, the Finn's pace would not be in question, but he was never regarded that highly by engineers who hoped he would spend more time in the paddock after testing, practice and races to run the rule over set-up and any changes that were being suggested. He would also not be bringing sponsorship to the team, although his presence may be helpful in attracting some. Williams remains in limbo regarding its 2012 line-up, although rookie Pastor Maldonado is thought likely to stay for as long as Venezuela and oil giant PDVSA is happy to stump up the dollars. That leaves Rubens Barrichello 'on the bubble', despite the Brazilian having been retained for 2011 on the strength of his development ability. While test driver, and new GP3 Series champion, Valtteri Bottas is not considered a candidate to step up, the position of his fellow Finn could be complicated by ongoing rumours linking Force India's better-funded Adrian Sutil to a move to Williams. The German has been linked to Grove for the past few seasons, and was reportedly also a recent visitor to the F1 facility there, although he continues to insist that remaining at Force India remains his priority. Unless either Paul di Resta or Nico Hulkenberg move on, however, the money is on Sutil being the odd man out when the team makes its decision at the end of the year. di Resta has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Michael Schumacher at Mercedes, while Hulkenberg admits to having been approached by several teams for 2012, but general paddock opinion sees the pair in harness at FIF1 next season. Williams has recently strengthened its technical team, despite Sam Michael stepping down after Korea, with the addition of new technical director Mike Coughlan and aerodynamicist Jason Somerville, as well as the highly-experienced Mark Gillan, complementing its return to Renault power.

How do I get to Vilcashuaman? Least cost path analyses of the Chinchaysuyu road from Cuzco to Vilcashuaman Magee, Shelby, "How do I get to Vilcashuaman? Least cost path analyses of the Chinchaysuyu road from Cuzco to Vilcashuaman" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 934. Abstract iii 1 Introduction 1 2 Inka History and Culture 14 3 Archaeology of Roads 32 4 Spatial Analysis in Archaeology 53 5 Experiments with Least Cost Path Analysis 70 Bibliography 88 i LIST OF FIGURES

UPDATE: New Label Standard for Nosodes On July 31, 2015, Minister of Health Rona Ambrose announced an upgrade to the labeling of homeopathic nosodes. Product labels are now required to warn: “ This product is neither a vaccine nor an alternative to vaccination. This product has not been proven to prevent infection. Health Canada does not recommend its use in children and advises that your child receive all routine vaccinations..” This was due to increased pressure motivated by our Stop Nosodes campaign and started with Bad Science Watch’s NNHPD submission in 2013. This eventually led to the Canadian Pediatric Society openly condemning nosodes in this position statement. This is a much stronger warning than the original change in June of 2013 and we welcome it, with the caveat that this will not stop homeopaths from prescribing these as vaccine alternatives. An outright ban on the sale of these products is the only way to prevent their harming children. Please find more information here. H omeopaths and naturopaths who use homeopathy in their practice offer preparations called “nosodes” that they claim, among other things, are capable of preventing infectious diseases. Using homeopathy for this purpose is known as “homeoprophylaxis”. Some homeopaths even claim that nosodes can serve as effective replacements or alternatives to standard vaccinations. Currently there are over 179 different nosode products that have been approved for sale by Health Canada under the Natural Health Product Regulations. At least 82 of these contain nosodes being used for the prevention of diseases like influenza, pertussis, measles, and polio. However, the scientific evidence shows that people that choose a homeopathic alternative to standard vaccinations are not protected from infectious diseases. Even worse, because these products do not provide protection, relying on their use would actually increase the risk of contracting and spreading infectious diseases. Bad Science Watch wants Health Canada to stop approving nosodes for sale in Canada, as there is no scientific evidence supporting claims that nosodes are effective vaccine replacements. We have to spread the word that nosodes do not protect against infectious diseases and their use instead of vaccines puts our children and our communities at risk. While the active part of this project of Bad Science Watch has ended (June 2013) we would like to encourage you to engage with Health Canada and continue to let them know that this issue is important. Learn More About The Problem

. AIMS OF THE STUDY To assess to which extent the non visual somato-sensorial information may, through a recalibration process, induce a reorganisation by the central nervous system to control undisturbed upright stance. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten healthy adults were placed in complete darkness for a 24 min period. Their postural performance was recorded through a force platform on which they were required to stand still at regular intervals. Centre of Pressure (CP) displacements, recorded from the platform, were modelled as fractional brownian motion. Through this analysis, one may objectively assess from which distance and for how long the corrective process is initiated with the aim of slowing and retrace its steps. In addition, the degree to which the CP trajectories are successively controlled was determined. RESULTS Once in complete darkness, an increase of the mean time intervals (Delta(t)) before the corrective process intervenes was observed, the effect being mostly significant for the mediolateral direction. In parallel, the mean distances covered at this Delta(t) were slightly affected for both mediolateral and anteroposterior directions. Lastly, the degree to which the CP trajectories are controlled tended to decrease. CONCLUSION These data suggest a reorganisation of the control mechanisms called into play for maintaining an undisturbed upright stance, thus implying participation of the central nervous system. This short-term adaptation is discussed on the basis of our knowledge of long term adaptations previously observed in blind individuals, and also in a rehabilitation perspective.

Xiaomi Mi Band 2 has surfaced again in live images. The latest leak comes a week after, the Mi Band 2 was first teased by Lei Jun, Xiaomi co-founder and CEO. Similar to the previous iterations, the main device unit is standalone and has to be fixed into a band to wear it. The leaked image shows the Mi Band 2 with display which is placed alongside a silicon band in yellow color. Mi Band 2 shows time, battery status and it is even expected to display daily steps, BPM and other statistics. It also sports a physical button on the right side. It should be priced a bit higher than the current and previous Mi Band due to the inclusion of the display. Xiaomi is expected to unveil the Mi Band 2 at an event on May 10 where it will announce the Xiaomi Max phablet. source | via

A Retrospective Radiographic Review of Hemophilic Shoulder Arthropathy Bleeding into large joints is the most common orthopaedic manifestation of hemophilia. Involvement of the shoulder rarely is reported, lending to its relative neglect in the orthopaedic literature. Through retrospective chart and radiographic reviews, the incidence and progression of radiographic and clinical changes that occur in the shoulder of patients with hemophilia is described. We retrospectively reviewed 822 patient charts and found 93 patients with symptomatic shoulders. Seventy-nine of these 93 patients were rated according to Pettersson’s scoring method. The clinical charts were reviewed for the presence of shoulder symptoms and dysfunction. A spectrum of radiographic changes was seen beginning with mild subchondral irregularity and greater tuberosity cyst formation progressing to joint space narrowing, osteophyte formation, marginal erosion, and deformity. Of the 54 patients for whom an adequate shoulder history was available, the severity of symptoms correlated with the Pettersson score. The current study is the largest to date examining the type and progression of radiographic changes caused by hemophilic shoulder arthropathy. We observed a consistent pattern of radiographic changes, the severity of which correlated directly with shoulder symptoms.

A new IIASA study shows how improving communication and involvement could bring consensus solutions for the embattled Rio Grande/Bravo, which is shared between the USA and Mexico. The Rio Grande (called Rio Bravo in Mexico) is the lifeline to an expansive desert in the southwest USA and northern Mexico. From Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico, over 3000 km, people depend on the river to quench their thirst and irrigate their crops. The river also forms the boundary between the USA and Mexico for 2034 km. Yet as the river flows from the US, along the border, and into Mexico, it brings with it conflicts and challenges. The water level in the river is declining as use exceeds supply—an unsustainable situation. Water demand is rising as the population in the region grows, and corresponding economic growth drives continued development. At the same time, water pollution imperils and stresses the delicate ecosystems supported by the river. Ecosystems are often the last to be considered when water levels are low. Moreover, climate change is expected to lower water levels even further, exacerbating the problems. Water allocation between the two countries is governed by the 1944 Treaty between the United States of America and the United Mexican States relating to the utilization of the waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers, and of the Rio Grande. The treaty was made at a time when the water resources were plentiful in relation to the population, and the environment was not yet something that policymakers considered at all. The new study suggests that in order to preserve the river for the future, the involved parties can take advantage of an existing binational mechanism that allows flexibility to adapt the treaty without changing its structure. The study elaborates on four policy recommendations on how to do this. Everyone wants to preserve their water supply, even when there is not enough water,” explains Luzma Fabiola Nava, a postdoctoral fellow in the IIASA water program and the author of the new study published in the journal Water. “The water supply isn’t enough anymore to meet the increasing demands. If we don’t allow for flexibility in the treaty, all these problems are going to get worse.” Consensus solutions for an international quandary Nava, a native of Mexico who did her PhD in international studies in Canada, made an extensive analysis of documents and case studies related to the Rio Grande/Bravo water management practices and policies. She conducted two rounds of fieldwork and 77 interviews with people across the Rio Grande/Bravo basin, asking them about their perceptions and interests related to the river. “The interviewees included water managers in Colorado; pecan farmers, water engineers and managers, researchers, citizens, and environmental groups in New Mexico and Texas; and water managers, members of the academia, and environmental groups in Mexico: basically anyone who relies on the river or cares about it. We wanted to cast as wide a net as possible because these are the people who know the river—who better than them to talk about the existing problems and the potential solutions,” says Nava. Based on the perspectives and interests gathered through the interviews and analysis, Nava and colleagues proposed four policy recommendations that could help strengthen water resources management in the region: Allow for reciprocal and temporary water re-distribution, meaning that during times of drought, water could be moved from one purpose to another. For example during a drought it might make economic sense for a farmer to transfer their water to another use, like city or municipal use or fish farming. Such a scheme would allow them to temporarily transfer their water right to another willing user, who would give them back their water in times of water abundance. Take better advantage of the many experts in the region, and bring them together to work and communicate among themselves. Formulate small-scale strategies to reach sustainability across the basin. For example this could mean, for the region above Elephant Butte Dam in New Mexico, strengthening efforts to restore native habitats and protect the forest. For the region between Elephant Butte Dam to El Paso, Texas it could mean removing sediments in the river and to bring it alive even during the non-irrigation season. And for the binational stretch of the river, to agree on a common interpretation on water quality related issues that need to be solved. To reach a binational agreement for the Rio Grande/Bravo, adapting the scope of the 1944 treaty to account for pressing current problems and future challenges. IIASA Water Program Director Simon Langan says that the Nava’s work confirms the increasing importance of global drivers such climate change, population growth, and ecosystem health, at the regional level. He says, “This study adds to and complements the growing global recognition of the importance of water and the potential for increasing conflict where increasing demand for water exceeds supply. Nowhere is this more important in significant transboundary river basins where there is an urgent need to recognize and develop wider participation aimed at building consensus on solutions for future water management.” Photo Gallery Reference Nava LF ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4047-6006, Brown C, Demeter K, Lasserre F, Milanes-Murcia M, Mumme S, & Sandoval-Solis S Existing opportunities to adapt the Rio Grande/Bravo Basin Water Resources Allocation Framework. Water 8 (7): e291. DOI:10.3390/w8070291. Collaborators on this study included researchers from Canada, the USA, and Austria: including researchers at New Mexico State University, the University of Vienna, Université Laval in Canada, Colorado State University, and the University of California, Davis.

True coffee aficionados know exactly what they like and they know where to get it. Whether they are quick to plunk down hard-earned cash for a frothy specialty latte or prefer a home brew, more than half the U.S. population admits they are hooked on caffeine. Of course, most like it hot. But David W. Mendez, vice president of WB Law Coffee in Newark, says there is a cold reality in coffee’s future. And, by the way, the future is now. The family-run coffee bean roasting company is already riding the industry’s newest caffeine wave and it’s cool, smooth and creamy. Some believe cold brew coffee is a fad, especially as the cool weather quickly approaches. Mendez and his father, owner of the company, say not so fast. “How many food brands come and go? We are a company that’s been around for over 100 years; we don’t make decisions without facts,” he says. “One thing is for sure, if you start losing relevancy in the market, people will be quick to throw you out. We did our homework, and we know cold brew coffee is here to stay.” Michele Siekerka, CEO of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said there is no magic formula when it comes to when a business should jump on a trend. “With the advent of entrepreneurship and innovation, many people like being the first out on new products to have the benefit of the lead in market share.” She cautioned, however, that taking the significant risks truly must be measured against possible reward. Not wanting to rest on its long history of simply being the name behind an excellent cup of regular morning joe, WB Law Coffee decided to take the plunge into the deep end of the cold brew pool. Mendez did the research and was mesmerized by the cold, hard green stats. According to a Mintel report, cold brew coffee sales hit $7.9 million; that’s a 115 percent increase in sales between 2014 and 2015. In 2016, two of the country’s largest iced coffee retailers introduced a cold brew program. For Mendez, the risk is most definitely worth the potential reward. Forget the Ice Now, if you are thinking, “What’s the big deal about iced coffee,” you don’t understand the cold brew phenomenon. First off, this is not your mama’s day-old-coffee-poured-over-ice. Cold brew coffee uses beans roasted and ground just right and then steeped in cold water — no hot water is ever involved — for at least 24 hours. The length of time allows the full coffee flavor to be extracted from the beans, creating a smoother taste after the grounds are strained out. Mendez is quick to point out that franchises are selling what they call “cold brew,” but their java is not steeped long enough to bring out the true flavor. “A lot of people are brewing it inconsistently,” explains Mendez. “There’s demand, so a lot of people are brewing it in the back of their shops. They don’t realize that the length of brew time matters. Twelve hours is just not long enough to brew it. But the public buys it and the places can’t keep up with demand. So, 12 hours has to be enough for them.” When brewed correctly, Mendez said the drink offers 33 percent more caffeine and 66 percent less acidity than drip coffee, according to the company’s study with the Rutgers Food Innovation Laboratory. It’s described as having “creamy, chocolate notes with a velvety smooth finish.” “We believe cold brew is poised to replace standardized iced coffee in the marketplace,” he said. However, taking on cold brew wasn’t like flipping a switch for WB Law Coffee. The safety concerns were monumental, so the company took a crash course in brewing and distribution, and obtained a full understanding and respect for the stiff regulations involved in making, storing, and transporting cold fluids. The company retrofitted 1,000 square feet of its Newark facility for cold brew production and bought cold trucks so it could deliver it to customers. “We make several thousand gallons of cold brew per day and we sell them in five gallon bag-in-box storage,” says Mendez, noting the company moved away from its original plan to store and sell in metal kegs for health and cleanliness reasons. On the company’s website, lawcoffee.com, consumers can purchase four-ounce coffee filter packs that each yield 32 ounces of brewed coffee. (The packs looks like big tea bags and come with home-brewing directions.) Mendez said the company also expects to be selling three-liter RTD (ready to drink) bag-in-box cold brew in grocery stores and through online retailers by early 2018. But wait, there’s more! The company recently introduced its Ironbound Nitro Cold Brew, which is named after the Newark neighborhood and past local breweries in the area. By infusing the 24-hour cold brew with nitrogen (poured on tap!) Nitro Cold Brew is the creamiest, smoothest java around. Likened to a Guinness stout with a foamy head and thick, full-bodied finish, WB Law’s nitro brew is hard to pass up. (Plus, dieters rejoice! The exquisite rich texture allows consumers to use less milk and sweetener used generally to cut regular coffee’s bitter taste.) The company sells its nitrogen infusion pump along with the cold brew coffee so restaurants can serve up the creamy goodness all day long. The pump can be installed in a draught setup or retrofitted into a kegerator, which is how Amy Russo Harrigan, owner of the three New Jersey-based Toast brunch eateries, serves it. Mendez points out this new trend is designed to offset the slowdown of sales for traditional iced coffee in the winter months and continue to give caffeine fans their fix. “Caffeine is the last legal drug; it’s everywhere. We are coffee culture and everyone is drinking it,” assured Russo Harrigan. “Toast is on a journey to bring an elevation to breakfast food so nitro cold brew is a natural fit for us. Customers just love it.”

The Conquests of Adrianople by the Turks: Reflections on the Ottoman Expansion in Thrace Abstract This article is an attempt to construct a new approach to and narrative of early Ottoman conquests in Thrace in the 1360s and 1370s. It argues that the so-called second capital of the Ottomans, Adrianople (Edirne), was conquered three times through a detailed evaluation of known, neglected, or unknow sources. The second conquest was almost certainly by frontier lords who conquered the city for their own interests. At the same time, the article challenges the unilinear rise paradigm within the Ottoman studies. It showcases that, in the given period, the political arena between Ottomans, Byzantines, and other Turkish lords was open to various contingencies and dominated through constant negotiations among various parties. The practices of conquest, loss, and reconquest by those various parties determined the color of struggles not only in the case of Adrianople but also various other Thracian towns. The article finally sheds light on the role of a suppressed group of frontier lords who had their own political claims and agenda, betimes contrary to the Ottoman center. In the final analysis, this is an attempt to understand how new historical reconstructions may open up ways to conceptualize the political and social nature of the region in this period.

'SNL Weekend Update Thursday" returned for the first time since 2009 and, boy did they come out with guns a blazin'. Literally. (OK, not literally, but I'll explain below.) And it was perfect timing for "SNL" to weigh in on the Mitt Romney "47 percent" scandal while it is still very much in the news cycle. On to this very special Thursday night (non) Scorecard! (And if you're interested in a special Thursday night "SNL" Not Ready For Primetime podcast, Hitfix's Ryan McGee and I have already recorded one. The full audio is embedded at the bottom of this post. And, as always, I apologize for my voice in advance.) "Fox and Friends" (Taran Killam, Vanessa Bayer, Bobby Moynihan, Jason Sudeikis, Aidy Bryant, Jay Pharoah, Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, Tim Robinson) This is what I mean by guns a blazin': There was a meanness to this sketch that I have not seen on "SNL" in quite some time -- and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. Put it this way: What Mitt Romney said in real life was strange enough, but instead of letting Sudeikis' Romney just repeat the actual words -- or a version of the actual words -- to comic effect, "SNL" amped up their version and had him say things that were much, much worse, which was an interesting thing to witness. I mean, Tina Fey has stated that when she played Sarah Palin, she was for the most part just repeating the very things that the real Sarah Palin actually said. It's just curious that "SNL" felt the need to inject performance-enhancing drugs into statements that already sounded like they came from a comedy writer. (Also, the end scroll of corrections at the end of "Fox and Friends" is one of my favorite things in life. With, "Rocky never fought Lassie," and "Benedict Arnold was not a character from 'Diff'rent Strokes,'" being personal favorites this time around.) Score: 8.0 "Weekend Update" (Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, Bobby Moynihan) First, I always enjoy Moynihan's Drunk Uncle and Hader's James Carville. Though, both of them felt like Meyers told them before the show, "We really need to drag these out because we have a lot of time to kill." Look, I know this is "Weekend Update Thursday," but the format could probably benefit from one more short sketch or commercial parody because -- especially with Drunk Uncle -- it was apparent someone asked Moynihan, "How much entertaining nonsense can you spew?" (Thankfully, the answer is "a lot.") Meyers himself seemed to have more energy than he did on Saturday night -- I'm sure the primetime aspect helped -- but there just seemed to be something missing -- something that would have made this seem special as opposed to a Saturday night edition. In 2008, Bill Murray made a cameo during the Thursday night special and, looking back, it's apparent now just how big of a behemoth Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impression became. Because even after a week like it's been for Romney, for whatever reason, tonight's show didn't feel like it had the urgency those shows from 2008 had. Then again, I suspect this will change after the debates start. Score: 7.0 "Convention Cutaways" (Ensemble) This was fantastic because it's true. I don't know who these delegates were at these conventions, but there were certainly some strange people out there. Of course, the biggest laughs came from the two that I had noticed myself during the convention: the person who is dancing even though no music is playing and the person who brought props that only that person knows the meaning of -- and, in this cast, that would be Fred Armisen's hammer and giraffe. (Also, I have a soft spot for any sketch that utilizes the entire cast.) Score: 9.0 (Note: The Thursday night shows will not be included in the yearly "SNL" Scorecard rankings.) Mike Ryan is senior writer for Huffington Post Entertainment. You can contact him directly on Twitter. Click below for the new "SNL" Not Ready For Primetime Podcast featuring Mike Ryan and Ryan McGee.

A Hyundai i45 Elite from 2013. Hinchliffe and the car-napper both had 2010 models. When Alex Hinchliffe​ found his car missing, he thought his mates had stitched him up again. The Porirua man had parked outside his friend's food truck in Paremata, to get dinner on the way to rugby training. Burger in hand, he headed back to his car at Browns Bay and found an empty space where he had left it. SUPPLIED Alex Hinchliffe had his car stolen in a case of mistaken identity. "I actually thought one of the boys had nicked it to teach me a lesson, because I'm always leaving my keys in it." READ MORE: * Canterbury's most stolen car * Car reverses over four-lane road * Six cars stolen in broad daylight It was when he noticed another car, just like his dark blue 2010 Hyundai i45 elite, a couple of spaces away, that he began to get suspicious. FAIRFAX NZ The Hyundai i45 Elite has a push-button start, which would have allowed the inadvertent "thief" to drive it away. (File photo) "I asked a guy sitting in his car if he saw someone nick mine, and he said a lady had just got in and driven away." Hinchliffe​, 22, rang police and gave them the licence number of the car left in the car park. "I told them I thought some lady had accidentally stolen my car. "They had a bloody good laugh and said it was the funniest thing that had happened all day." By this time, the woman driving a car that wasn't hers had made it all the way home to Upper Hutt, stopping to refuel on the way. "It wasn't until the cops called her at her house and asked if she'd realised she was driving someone else's car that she twigged. "She also only put $30 [of petrol] in it, which was a bit rude. She should have filled it up. The light was on." He was happy to excuse the car-napper for her mistake, despite the fact his rugby gear was on the back seat and his belongings in the front. "Apparently her kids sometimes drive her car, so maybe she just thought they'd changed the radio station and pushed the seat all the way back." The car was a push-button start and he always left the keys in the centre console, so all she would have had to do was press the button, he said. All in all, it took only an hour for his car to be returned to him, and "everyone had a bit of a laugh", he said. "What Kiwi hasn't taken a car that doesn't belong to them?" Asked if he would continue to leave his keys in the car, he was adamant. "Yup, and knowing me it will probably happen again. This stuff just kind of does."

White House press secretary Sean Spicer is resigning, effective next month. Spicer resigned Friday morning, shortly after President Trump selected Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. Scaramucci's hiring was a factor in his resignation, as was Spicer's diminishing role in the White House, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett reports. A source with direct knowledge of the situation said there was a Friday White House communications meeting in which the new communications director was announced, and Spicer made the decision to resign right before the meeting when he learned Scaramucci had the job. Spicer confirmed his resignation about two hours after the news broke on Friday, saying he will stay on until August. It's been an honor & a privilege to serve @POTUS @realDonaldTrump & this amazing country. I will continue my service through August — Sean Spicer (@PressSec) July 21, 2017 On Friday night, Mr. Trump tweeted that Spicer is a "wonderful person" who took "tremendous abuse from the Fake News Media." Sean Spicer is a wonderful person who took tremendous abuse from the Fake News Media - but his future is bright! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017 CBS News previously reported Spicer had been seeking a more strategic communications role in the White House in recent weeks. But he had taken more of a background presence, with White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders taking over most of the White House press briefings. Spicer had been serving as communications director since May 30, when former communications director Mike Dubke left that post. Special Report: First briefing after Sean Spicer resignation The White House communications office as a whole has become less and less visible. The last on-camera White House press briefing was June 29. The White House has replaced daily on-camera briefings with off-camera briefings, embargoing even the audio. Scaramucci, a New York financier, does not have the traditional background for his new role. But recently, he scored a success likely to attract Mr. Trump's attention -- he succeeded in getting CNN to retract a story about him, and three journalists involved in the story were forced to resign. Spicer's resignation comes in the middle of a shakeup of the White House's legal and communications teams, and as the White House attempts to move past the ever-developing Russia story. Mr. Trump's personal attorney Marc Kasowitz is out, as is Kasowitz's spokesman, although the reasons for the moves are not currently known. Katie Walsh, who had been working for the pro-Trump non-profit America First Policies, is returning to the Republican National Committee as a senior adviser for data and digital, CBS News has learned. Walsh was close with Spicer, and was now-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus's right hand while they worked together at the RNC. Garrett reports that Spicer's exit raises questions about the longevity of Priebus' tenure. Spicer's own tenure as press secretary was six months and one day, the length of time Mr. Trump has been in office. In that time, Spicer has had a difficult role to fill, attempting to harmonize conflicting statements within Mr. Trump's administration, and often enough, the president's own conflicting statements. Sanders will give an on-camera press briefing at 2 p.m. This is a developing story. CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller, CBS News White House Correspondent Jacqueline Alemany and CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - On the 30th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash, U.S. stocks are at a record high and investors are concerned that steep valuations may mean a correction is overdue, despite healthy corporate earnings and economic growth. But could a repeat of “Black Monday” happen today? Modern trading technology, changes to the way stock exchanges operate and in the way investor funds are managed should make a repeat of the 1987 crash unlikely. Yet cautious traders refuse to rule it out. “We have learned a lot from the mistakes of the past in terms of the reaction or over reaction,” said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York. On Monday Oct. 19, 1987, following large declines on Asian and European markets the previous week, the Dow Jones Industrial .DJI Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent, for the biggest-ever single day decline in percentage terms by the blue-chip benchmark. A decline of up to 20 percent in one day is possible today, but it would likely be a more orderly process, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York. “We have the ability to shut things down for a period of time and reassess and try to ascertain what is the best way to get back in business and take a calmer look at things,” he said. In response to the 1987 crash, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission mandated the creation of market-wide “circuit breakers” that call a temporary halt to trading after the Dow declines 10, 20 and 30 percent. Only one market-wide halt has been triggered since then, in 1997. The circuit breakers were adjusted in 2012, lowering the thresholds needed to trigger a trading pause, with the Dow replaced by the S&P 500 stock index .SPX as the benchmark index. Under current rules, if the broader S&P 500 index falls more than 7.0 percent before 3:25 p.m. New York time, trading is paused for 15 minutes. If the decline continues once trading resumes, and it is still before 3:25 p.m., the market is again paused at 13 percent. If the decline happens after 3:25 p.m, trading continues. But if the decline reaches 20 percent, trading is suspended for the session, regardless of the time of day. “The industry has come an awfully long way from ‘87,” said Larry Tabb, who heads capital markets advisory firm TABB Group. “The regulators have done a good job at implementing rules that help the markets ensure that they stay stable at a time when there is not a reason for them not to be stable.” Many of the current measures aimed at taming market chaos were implemented after the May 2010 “flash crash,” when the Dow Jones Industrial Average careened nearly 1,000 points, around 9.0 percent, in a matter of minutes before mostly rebounding in a similarly short period. The SEC approved a regulation in 2012 called “Limit-Up Limit-Down,” which prevents stocks from trading outside of a specific range based on recent prices, pausing trading in the stocks in question when prices run afoul of the bands. The U.S. regulator and exchanges were forced to readjust the bands again, and the re-opening procedures for paused stocks, after a chaotic trading session in August 2015. Then, concerns over the health of the Chinese economy led to panic-selling and a dearth of buyers, spurring a record intra-day drop in the Dow. On that day more than 1,250 trading halts in 455 individual stocks and exchange-traded funds spawned confusion that may have compounded the problem and led to some investors getting worse prices than they otherwise would have. Traders work on the NYSE floor. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “Anything is possible,” said Peter Costa, president of Empire Executions Inc in New York. “With the advent of computer technology and the speed at which that technology has transformed the market, it is very possible.” The safeguards in place would likely prevent another 1987- style crash from taking place, but with the Dow hitting a frothy 23,000 points for the first time ever on Wednesday this week and the advent of high-speed automated trading, some traders are not so sure. “Could it happen, something similar to that?” asked Gordon Charlop, a managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York. “Yeah. How will it pan out and what will be the outcome? That is why they play the game.”

To start off: I am an anime and manga fan, and added this cook book to my wishlist and/or expressed an interest in wanting it. I wasn't really expecting to get this at all! It's a nice touch to anime/manga fans out there who wanna try cooking their favorite Japanese food from anime/manga series. It seems this is gift 1 of 2, unless my Santa made the same mistake I did by marking it as shipped since when it ships via Redditgifts it adds it to your 'shipped gifts' automatically. Good guy RedditGifts doing the work for ya! :) If you did this error, I understand. I did that too. Haha Thanks Secret Santa for sending this to me, and I'll surely learn to cook from it! Merry Christmas to you! P.S: I AM SO SORRY for the potato quality images. I don't have a good camera phone at all!

ICAC hears claims by Eman Sharobeem she splurged on gifts for ministers Updated Former Australian of the Year finalist Eman Sharobeem purchased $12,500 worth of gifts for government ministers and her staff, using money from a not-for-profit organisation in Sydney's West, a corruption inquiry has heard. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is investigating allegations Ms Sharobeem corruptly obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars when she was in charge of two non-profit community groups set up to help disadvantaged migrant women. During that time Ms Sharobeem claimed she purchased jewellery for the NSW Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward and Finance Minister Victor Dominello. "In public they used to receive a present from us," Ms Sharobeem said. "I recall two gifts went to Minister Goward, I recall that one gift was bigger in amount than another. "I also remember that we got a present for Minister [Michaela] Cash and Mayor [Frank] Carbone, Minister Marise Payne as well." No evidence was presented before the commission corroborating Ms Sharobeem's claim that she purchased the items for the politicians she named. The ABC contacted Ms Goward's office for comment and she said: "My recollection is that the gifts were of a token kind and under the disclosure threshold." Ms Cash's office said "under no circumstances has Minister Cash accepted a gift from Ms Sharobeem". A spokesman for Ms Payne also denied any gifts had been received from Ms Sharobeem, labelling any such claim as "completely false". When counsel assisting the commission Ramesh Rajalingam asked Ms Sharobeem to describe the presents she purchased, she answered "jewellery, perfumes ... things like that". "What present did you give Mr Dominello?" counsel assisting asked. Ms Sharobeem replied: "A watch sometimes. A tie and a watch." She claimed the gifts cost her between $350 and $400. I checked with management, Sharobeem claims The inquiry also heard Ms Sharobeem give evidence about gifts that were allegedly purchased with not-for-profit funds for other members of the organisation where she worked. Counsel assisting: What were you purchasing for $900 from a jewellery shop that was relevant to the Immigrant Women's Health Service? Ms Sharobeem: I bought all our jewellery for all our presents from there. Even for the committee. Counsel assisting: Did you think it was appropriate to spend that amount of money on jewellery for ministers in your capacity as a chief executive officer of the service? Ms Sharobeem: It wasn’t my only decision. It was a collective decision. I checked with management. During a sometimes volatile exchange, Ms Sharobeem appeared angry with the line of questioning. "Who do you think I am? A rich person?" she said. "I have loans. I have debts. I can't pay my lawyers. My God. You have the wrong person, I told you. "I need to keep calm. I'm dying by the minute." 'I am the speaker of truth' The commission also heard that over five years, Ms Sharobeem spent $26,945 at the Parramatta based jeweller Eternity, and was reimbursed by the Immigrant Women's Health Service. There was evidence given she was paid for $14,580 for purchases made at Andrew's Designer Jeweller at Parramatta. Ms Sharobeem denied cutting the tops off receipts so that it was difficult to trace the vendor, or making multiple smaller payments to pay for expensive jewellery items. "I didn't submit them," she said. "All that I used to do was empty my bag in full and leave it on my desk and the direction is very clear — please separate between the personal and work. "No stupid person would put jewellery on the account of the organisation and ask the organisation to pay for it." Ms Sharobeem also denied submitting receipts for the reimbursement of $975 that she paid to receive Botox in July 2014. "It's my personal expenditure with my personal credit card. Why is it being reimbursed to me?" she said. "I am a speaker of the truth." Acting commissioner, the Honourable Reginald Blanch, asked Ms Sharobeem if she ever paused to reflect on all the money flowing into her personal account from the not-for-profit group. Ms Sharobeem replied she did not check her account often enough for that to occur. The hearing continues. Topics: corruption, law-crime-and-justice, nsw, sydney-2000 First posted

“More than a dozen states have strengthened laws over the past two years to keep firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers, a rare area of consensus in the nation’s highly polarized debate over guns.” That’s the AP’s take on the spate of gun laws that mandate firearms confiscation for people (mostly but not exclusively men) subject to an ex parte domestic abuse-related retraining order. To be clear . . . ex parte is a Latin legal term meaning “a decision decided by a judge without requiring all of the parties to the controversy to be present.” In other words, due process, the right to confront one’s accusers, guaranteed by Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, doesn’t apply. As the AP article points out, the NRA hasn’t exactly taken a hard line against these new laws. The National Rifle Association has taken a cautious approach toward such bills, opposing the farthest-reaching measures but staying neutral or negotiating compromises on others. For example, the NRA has fought provisions that would require people to surrender their guns before they have a chance to contest allegations made in a request for an emergency protective order. “There is no evidence that simply taking away people’s guns without a fair hearing makes the victims any safer,” NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said . . . In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker signed a law in 2014 requiring people subject to domestic abuse restraining orders to turn over their guns within 48 hours. The NRA stayed neutral after negotiating language that allows individuals to seek the return of their weapons once restraining orders are lifted. To quote L. Neil Smith, the right to keep and bear arms is a natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right. As such, it is not subject to the democratic process nor arguments of social utility. We all know that confiscating a domestic abuser’s guns won’t stop them from acts of violence. But arguing that gun confiscation without due process doesn’t work doesn’t cut it. Gun confiscation without due process is unconstitutional. Period. The NRA is the only gun rights group shying away from calling an unconstitutional spade an unconstitutional spade, presumably to avoid being seen as the “bad guy” protecting domestic abusers in a War on Women kinda way. Kim Stolfer, president of the Pennsylvania group Firearms Owners Against Crime, said his organization isn’t on board with the idea yet. He said such legislation could be exploited by vindictive ex-spouses who level false allegations of abuse. “We need some balance, and it’s rapidly going the wrong way,” he said. It’s hard to maintain “balance” when you’re sliding down a slippery slope. To wit . . . Federal law has long prohibited felons, those convicted of misdemeanor domestic abuse crimes and individuals subject to permanent protective orders from buying or owning guns. Critics say the federal law is too weak because it does not apply to dating relationships, does not ban guns during temporary protective orders and does not establish procedures for abusers to surrender firearms. States have been passing their own laws to match or exceed the federal prohibitions, delighting gun control advocates. “We’ve passed them in blue states, red states and purple states,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “We believe they are absolutely lifesaving.” Some of the strictest state laws create processes for seizing firearms from abusers and extend gun bans to stalkers, abusive dating partners and those who are subject to temporary protective orders. Studies by public health researchers have generally concluded that such laws, when properly implemented, can reduce deaths. Citation? Generally, specifically, none. Meanwhile, led by the AP, the assault media has taken this “abusers should have their guns taken away” meme and run with it. Here’s a screen cap of today’s Google search for “gun” [links not active]: No one argues against gun confiscation for convicted domestic abusers, stalkers or dating partners — although locking them up is a far more effective solution. The point here: “innocent until proven guilty” is a founding principle of our Constitutional democracy. No gun rights organization worth its salt supports any law violating that principle, no matter how “useful” it might seem. The NRA and its allies should be lobbying for laws that make it easier for actual and potential victims of domestic abuse to defend themselves by force of arms. And opposing any further degradation of our civil rights.

'A punch-you-in-the-stomach-with-grief-and-beauty masterpiece.' Maggie Nelson 'The book that taught me what I want to teach my daughter.' – Belle Boggs, _The New Yorker_ 'A glowing light of modern Italian literature... As direct and clean as if it were carved in stone, it yet speaks thoughts of the heart.' _New York Times_ 'A profound commentary on Italian life.' Tim Parks, _London Review of Books_ # The Little Virtues NATALIA GINZBURG _Translated by_ Dick Davis _With an introduction by_ Rachel Cusk DAUNT BOOKS # _Contents_ 1. Title Page 2. Introduction 3. Preface 4. Part One 5. _Winter in the Abruzzi_ 6. _Worn-out Shoes_ 7. _Portrait of a Friend_ 8. _England: Eulogy and Lament_ 9. _La Maison Volpé_ 10. _He and I_ 11. Part Two 12. _The Son of Man_ 13. _My Vocation_ 14. _Silence_ 15. _Human Relationships_ 16. _The Little Virtues_ 17. 18. Daunt Books 19. About the Author 20. Selected works by Natalia Ginzburg 21. Copyright # _Introduction_ The voice of the Italian novelist and essayist Natalia Ginzburg comes to us with absolute clarity amid the veils of time and language. Writings from more than half a century ago read as if they have just been – in some mysterious sense are still being – composed. No context is required to read her: in fact, to read her is to realise how burdened literature frequently is by its own social and material milieux. Yet her work is not abstract or overtly philosophical: it is deeply practical and personal. You come away from it feeling that you know the author profoundly, without having very much idea of who she is. It isn't quite right to call these contradictions, because they are also the marks of a great artist, but in this case perhaps it is worth treating them as such, since they enabled Ginzburg to evolve techniques with which contemporary literature is only just catching up. Chief among these is her grasp of the self and of its moral function in narrative; second – a consequence of the first – is her liberation from conventional literary form and from the structures of thought and expression that Virginia Woolf likewise conjectured would have to be swept away if an authentic female literature were to be born. Yet this liberation is entirely towards naturalness and simplicity; it is an advance made without the propulsive force of ego, and so it is easy not to recognise it as an advance at all. Finally, Ginzburg gives us a new template for the female voice and an idea of what it might sound like. This voice emerges from her preoccupations and themes, whose specificity and universality she considers with a gravitas and authority that seem both familiar and entirely original. It is an authority grounded in living and being rather than in thinking or even in language, an authority perhaps better compared to that of the visual artist, who is obliged to negotiate first with the seen, tangible world. Ginzburg was born in Palermo in 1916, the child of a Jewish father and Catholic mother. Theirs was a left-wing intellectual household and she grew up into a milieu of radical thinkers and writers who became, with the advent of war, the defenders of liberalism and free speech. She and her young husband Leone Ginzburg were part of a group of anti-fascist activists and were central figures in protecting the freedom of the press. As well as essays Ginzburg wrote several novels, the most famous of which, _Family Lexicon,_ is a history of a family whose observational core – in the person of its narrator and daughter of the family, Natalia – remains opaque. Ginzburg's distinctive writing technique is easier to analyse in the more spacious setting of the novel. What at first might seem to be a narrative strategy, whereby Natalia withholds her own thoughts and feelings while her observations of those around her pour forth, becomes a profound commentary on the nature of narrative itself and how it so often misrepresents the trauma and tragedy inherent in living. Ginzburg separates the concept of storytelling from the concept of the self and in doing so takes a great stride towards a more truthful representation of reality. She identifies narrative as being in some important sense a bourgeoise enterprise, a gathering of substance from the world in order to turn it to the story's own profit, and moreover a process of ineradicable bias, whereby things only become 'real' once they have been recognised and given value by an individual. Put simply, Ginzburg attempts to show what happened without needing to show it happening to somebody. Her job – her art – is to represent the flawed charm, the tragedy and comedy of the human, _to_ show the precise extent to which our characters shape our destinies and to watch as those destinies confer their blows and their rewards upon us. The essays in _The Little Virtues,_ written separately and in distinct circumstances between 1944 and 1960, comprise an autobiography of sorts. 'Winter in the Abruzzi' describes a period in which the author, then a young wife and mother, was exiled in wartime with her family to the Italian countryside. In 'Worn-out Shoes' she is now alone, living in post-war Rome with another solitary woman, her children being taken care of by her mother outside the city. 'My Vocation' describes the dawning of her realisation that creativity is a lifetime calling and is the most enduring of the relationships she will have. In 'England: Eulogy and Lament' she is older and exiled again, this time in a strange country whose manners and mores she records by way of making an inventory of her own homesickness and sorrow. In 'He and I' she is living with a man whose character she can only describe in terms of its differences from her own, in what is palpably a relationship of middle age; this time the sense of exile is emotional as well as geographical, the feeling of alienation from one's own history that comes from living with a man who is not the father of one's children. 'The Little Virtues', a work of great restraint and courage, is a look back at parenthood. Entirely without sentiment or subjectivity, it identifies the moral cowardice inherent in conventional attitudes to children and their upbringing, and the ways in which we inculcate the values of materialism and selfishness in the generations that will replace us. 'As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; nor shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one's neighbour and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.' This statement of principle serves equally as a description of Ginzburg's own life and work. Among the many themes touched on in these essays – war, relationships, loss, belief, domesticity, art – the matter of femininity is handled with surprising understatement and reserve. The author occupies the successive roles of daughter, wife, mother and partner without ever allowing her perspective to be subsumed into them. Yet she is perfectly honest about what the playing of these roles involves. 'And then my children were born,' she writes in 'My Vocation', 'and when they were very little I could not understand how anyone could sit herself down to write if she had children. I did not see how I could separate myself from them in order to follow someone or other's fortunes in a story.' She describes the pitfalls of gender – both male and female – without ever falling into them. This unusual objectivity, achieved by a careful use of distance that is never allowed to become detachment, is one of the pleasures of reading Ginzburg; yet it perhaps bears greater examination as an example of how a woman writer might make and inhabit an authentic place for herself in the world. 'Irony and nastiness seemed to be very important weapons in my hands,' she writes of her early attempts to create stories; 'I thought they would help me write like a man, because at that time I wanted terribly to write like a man and I had a horror of anyone realising from what I wrote that I was a woman.' She goes on to describe how the acceptance of her womanhood was fundamental to her birth as an artist, but she is careful to point out that this was not conscription to a gendered view of life: rather, it was the self-acceptance crucial to enabling anyone to speak with their own voice. The basis of Ginzburg's worldview is equality, and the stories that are built on it are built from the formation and function of individual human character alone. Here, morality and the choices that are consequent on it are the engine of narrative. 'My husband died in Rome,' she writes at the end of 'Winter in the Abruzzi', 'in the prison of Regina Coeli, a few months after we left the Abruzzi. Faced with the horror of his solitary death, and faced with the anguish which preceded his death, I ask myself if this happened to us – to us, who bought oranges at Giro's and went for walks in the snow.' The torture and murder of Leone Ginzburg by the fascist police, the destruction through war of the known reality, the loss of the world of childhood and the breaking of its concept of authority: these things 'happened' to Natalia Ginzburg and it seems they taught her much about the dangers of extremity both to human character and to art. The exceptional violence and pain of her experiences are painstakingly transmuted into a clear-eyed universality where cruelty and exaggeration, even if they have their basis in fact, are not tolerated. 'And you have to realise that you cannot console yourself for your grief by writing... Because this vocation is never a consolation or a way of passing the time. It is not a companion. This vocation is a master who is able to beat us till the blood flows... We must swallow our saliva and tears and grit our teeth and dry the blood from our wounds and serve him. Serve him when he asks. Then he will help us up on to our feet, fix our feet firmly on the ground; he will help us overcome madness and delirium, fever and despair. But he has to be the one who gives the orders and he always refuses to pay attention to us when we need him.' _Rachel Cusk, 2018_ # _Preface_ The essays collected here appeared in various newspapers and magazines. I am grateful to these newspapers and magazines for permission to reprint them. They were written at the following times in the following places: 'Winter in the Abruzzi' ( _Inverno in Abruzzo_ ), written in Rome in the autumn of 1944, published in _Aretusa_ ; 'Worn-out Shoes' ( _Le scarpe rotte_ ), written in Rome in the autumn of 1945, published in Politecnico; 'Portrait of a Friend' ( _Ritratto d'un amico_ ), written in Rome in 1957, appeared in _Radiocorriere;_ 'England: Eulogy and Lament' ( _Elogio e compianto dell'Inghilterra_ ), written in London in the spring of 1961, published in _Mondo;_ 'La Maison Volpé' ( _La Maison Volpé_ ), written in London in the spring of 1960, published in _Mondo;_ 'He and I' ( _Lui e io_ ), written in Rome in the summer of 1962, and I think unpublished; 'The Son of Man' ( _Il Figlio dell'uomo_ ), written in Turin in 1946, published in _Unità;_ 'My Vocation' ( _Il mio mestiere_ ), written in Turin in the autumn of 1949, published in _Ponte;_ 'Silence' ( _Silenzio_ ), written in Turin in 1951, published in _Cultura e realtà;_ 'Human Relationships' ( _I rapporti umani_ ), written in Rome in the spring of 1953, published in _Terza Generazione;_ 'The Little Virtues' ( _Le piccole virtú_ ), written in London in the spring of 1960, and published in _Nuovi Argomenti._ The dates are significant because they account for the changes in style. I have corrected virtually none of these essays because I am only able to correct what I write at the time that I am writing it. When this time has passed I don't know how to make corrections. And so this book perhaps does not have much uniformity of style, and I apologise for this. I dedicate this book to a friend of mine, whose name I shall not mention. He is not present in any of these essays, nevertheless he is the person to whom most of them are secretly addressed. Many of these essays would not have been written if I had not had various conversations with him. He gave a legitimacy and freedom of expression to certain things I had been turning over in my mind. I record my affection and great friendship for him here – a friendship which, like all real friendships, has passed through the fire of violent disagreements. # Part One # _Winter in the Abruzzi_ _God has given us this moment of peace_ There are only two seasons in the Abruzzi: summer and winter. The spring is snowy and windy like the winter, and the autumn is hot and clear like the summer. Summer starts in June and ends in November. The long days of sunshine on the low, parched hills, the yellow dust in the streets and the babies' dysentery come to an end, and winter begins. People stop living in the streets: the barefoot children disappear from the church steps. In the region I am talking about almost all the men disappeared after the last crops were brought in: they went for work to Terni, Sulmona or Rome. Many bricklayers came from that area, and some of the houses were elegantly built; they were like small villas with terraces and little columns, and when you entered them you would be astonished to find large dark kitchens with hams hanging from the ceilings, and vast, dirty, empty rooms. In the kitchen a fire would be burning, and there were various kinds of fire: there were great fires of oak logs, fires of branches and leaves, fires of twigs picked up one by one in the street. It was easier to tell the rich from the poor by looking at the fires they burnt than by looking at the houses or at the people themselves, or at their clothes and shoes which were all more or less the same. When I first arrived in that countryside all the faces looked the same to me, all the women – rich and poor, young and old – resembled one another. Almost all of them had toothless mouths: exhaustion and a wretched diet, the unremitting overwork of childbirth and breast feeding, mean that women lose their teeth there when they are thirty. But then, gradually, I began to distinguish Vincenzina from Secondina, Annunziata from Addolerata, and I began to go into their houses and warm myself at their various fires. When the first snows began to fall a quiet sadness took hold of us. We were in exile: our city was a long way off, and so were books, friends, the various desultory events of a real existence. We lit our green stove with its long chimney that went through the ceiling: we gathered together in the room with the stove – there we cooked and ate, my husband wrote at the big oval table, the children covered the floor with toys. There was an eagle painted on the ceiling of the room, and I used to look at the eagle and think that was exile. Exile was the eagle, the murmur of the green stove, the vast, silent countryside and the motionless snow. At five o'clock the bell of the church of Santa Maria would ring and the women with their black shawls and red faces went to Benediction. Every evening my husband and I went for a walk: every evening we walked arm in arm, sinking our feet into the snow. The houses that ran alongside the street were lived in by people we knew and liked, and they all used to come to the door to greet us. Sometimes one would ask, 'When will you go back to your own house?' My husband answered, 'When the war is over.' 'And when will this war be over? You know everything and you're a professor, when will it be over?' They called my husband 'the professor' because they could not pronounce his name, and they came from a long way off to ask his advice on the most diverse things – the best season for having teeth out, the subsidies which the town-hall gave, and the different taxes and duties. In winter when an old person died of pneumonia the bell of Santa Maria sounded the death knell and Domenico Orecchia, the joiner, made the coffin. A woman went mad and they took her to the lunatic asylum at Collemaggio, and this was the talk of the countryside for a while. She was a young, clean woman, the cleanest in the whole district; they said it was excessive cleanliness that had done it to her. Girl twins were born to Gigetto di Calcedonio who already had boy twins, and there was a row at the town-hall because the authorities did not want to give the family any help as they had quite a bit of land and an immense kitchen-garden. A neighbour spat in the eye of Rosa, the school caretaker, and she went about with her eye bandaged because she intended to pay back the insult. 'The eye is a delicate thing, and spit is salty,' she explained. And this was talked about for a while, until there was nothing else to say about it. Every day homesickness grew in us. Sometimes it was even pleasant, like being in gentle slightly intoxicating company. Letters used to arrive from our city with news of marriages and deaths from which we were excluded. Sometimes our homesickness was sharp and bitter, and turned into hatred; then we hated Domenico Orecchia, Gigetto di Calcedonio, Annunziatina, the bells of Santa Maria. But it was a hatred which we kept hidden because we knew it was unjust; and our house was always full of people who came to ask for favours and to offer them. Sometimes the dressmaker made a special kind of dumpling for us. She would wrap a cloth round her waist and beat the eggs, and send Crocetta around the countryside to see if she could borrow a really big saucepan. Her red face was absorbed in her work and her eyes shone with a proud determination. She would have burnt the house down to make her dumplings come out a success. Her clothes and hair became white with flour and then she would place the dumplings with great care on the oval table where my husband wrote. Crocetta was our serving woman. In fact she was not a woman because she was only fourteen years old. It was the dressmaker who had found her. The dressmaker divided the world into two groups – those who comb their hair and those who do not comb their hair. It was necessary to be on the lookout against those who do not comb their hair because, naturally, they have lice. Crocetta combed her hair; and so she came to work for us and tell our children long stories about death and cemeteries. Once upon a time there was a little boy whose mother died. His father chose another wife and this stepmother didn't love the little boy. So she killed him when his father was out in the fields, and she boiled him in a stew. His father came home for supper, but, after he had finished eating, the bones that were left on the plate started to sing Mummy with an angry frown Popped me in the cooking pot, When I was done and piping hot Greedy daddy gulped me down. Then the father killed his wife with a scythe and he hung her from a nail in front of the door. Sometimes I find myself murmuring the words of the song in the story, and then the whole country is in front of me again, together with the particular atmosphere of its seasons, its yellow gusting wind and the sound of its bells. Every morning I went out with my children and there was a general amazed disapproval that I should expose them to the cold and the snow. 'What sin have the poor creatures committed?' people said. 'This isn't the time for walking, dear. Go back home.' I went for long walks in the white deserted countryside, and the few people I met looked at the children with pity. 'What sin have they committed?' they said to me. There, if a baby is born in winter they do not take it out of the room until the summer comes. At midday my husband used to catch me up with the post and we went back to the house together. I talked to the children about our city. They had been very small when we left, and had no memories of it at all. I told them that there the houses had many storeys, that there were so many houses and so many streets, and so many big fine shops. 'But here there is Giro's,' the children said. Giro's shop was exactly opposite our house. Giro used to stand in the doorway like an old owl, gazing at the street with his round, indifferent eyes. He sold a bit of everything; groceries and candles, postcards, shoes and oranges. When the stock arrived and Giro unloaded the crates, boys ran to eat the rotten oranges that he threw away. At Christmas nougat, liqueurs and sweets also arrived. But he never gave the slightest discount on his prices. 'How mean you are, Giro,' the women said to him, and he answered 'People who aren't mean get eaten by dogs.' At Christmas the men returned from Terni, Sulmona and Rome, stayed for a few days, and set off again after they had slaughtered the pigs. For a few days people ate nothing but _sfrizzoli,_ incredible sausages that made you drink the whole time; and then the squeal of the new piglets would fill the street. In February the air was soft and damp. Grey, swollen clouds travelled across the sky. One year during the thaw the gutters broke. Then water began to pour into the house and the rooms became a veritable quagmire. But it was like this throughout the whole area; not one house remained dry. The women emptied buckets out of their windows and swept the water out of their front doors. There were people who went to bed with an open umbrella. Domenico Orecchia said that it was a punishment for some sin. This lasted for a week; then, at last, every trace of snow disappeared from the roofs, and Aristide mended the gutters. A restlessness awoke in us as winter drew to its end. Perhaps someone would come to find us: perhaps something would finally happen. Our exile had to have an end too. The roads which separated us from the world seemed shorter; the post arrived more often. All our chilblains gradually got better. There is a kind of uniform monotony in the fate of man. Our lives unfold according to ancient, unchangeable laws, according to an invariable and ancient rhythm. Our dreams are never realised and as soon as we see them betrayed we realise that the intensest joys of our life have nothing to do with reality. No sooner do we see them betrayed than we are consumed with regret for the time when they glowed within us. And in this succession of hopes and regrets our life slips by. My husband died in Rome, in the prison of Regina Coeli, a few months after we left the Abruzzi. Faced with the horror of his solitary death, and faced with the anguish which preceded his death, I ask myself if this happened to us – to us, who bought oranges at Giro's and went for walks in the snow. At that time I believed in a simple and happy future, rich with hopes that were fulfilled, with experiences and plans that were shared. But that was the best time of my life, and only now that it has gone from me forever – only now do I realise it. # _Worn-out Shoes_ My shoes are worn out, and the friend I live with at the moment also has worn-out shoes. When we are together we often talk about shoes. If I talk about the time when I shall be an old, famous writer, she immediately asks me 'What shoes will you wear?' Then I say I shall have shoes made of green suede with a big gold buckle on one side. I belong to a family in which everyone has sound, solid shoes. My mother possessed so many pairs of shoes that she even had to have a little wardrobe made especially for them. Whenever I visit them they utter cries of indignation and sorrow at the sight of my shoes. But I know that it is possible to live even with worn-out shoes. During the German occupation I was alone here in Rome, and I only had one pair of shoes. If I had taken them to the cobbler's I would have had to stay in bed for two or three days, and in my situation that was impossible. So I continued to wear them and when – on top of everything else – it rained, I felt them gradually falling apart, becoming soft and shapeless, and I felt the coldness of the pavement beneath the soles of my feet. This is why I still wear worn-out shoes, because I remember that particular pair and compared with them my present shoes don't seem too bad; besides, if I have money I would rather spend it on something else as shoes don't seem to me to be very essential things. When I was young I was always surrounded by tender, solicitous affection and I was spoilt, but that year when I was here in Rome I was alone for the first time and this is why I like Rome so much – even though it is full of history for me, full of terrible memories and very few hours of happiness. My friend also has worn-out shoes, and this is why we get on well together. My friend has no one to reproach her about the shoes she wears, she has only a brother who lives in the country and goes around in hunting boots. She and I know what happens when it rains, and your bare legs get soaked and the water comes into your shoes, so that there is a slight sound – a kind of soft squelch – at every step. My friend has a pale, masculine face and when she smokes she uses a black cigarette holder. The first time that I saw her, seated at a table, with her tortoiseshell rimmed spectacles and her mysterious, haughty face, with the black cigarette-holder gripped between her teeth, I thought she looked like a Chinese general. At that time I did not know that she had worn-out shoes. I discovered this later. We have only known each other a few months, but it seems as many years. My friend has no children; I, on the other hand, do have children and to her this is odd. She has never seen them, except in a photograph, because they live in the provinces with my mother, and this too – that she has never seen my children – is very odd for both of us. In one sense she has no problems, she can give in to the temptation to let her life go to pieces; I, on the other hand, cannot. So, my children live with my mother and so far they do not have worn-out shoes. But what kind of men will they be? I mean, what kind of shoes will they have when they are men? What road will they choose to walk down? Will they decide to give up everything that is pleasant but not necessary, or will they affirm that everything is necessary and that men have the right to wear sound, solid shoes on their feet? My friend and I talk about this a great deal, and about how the world will be when I am an old, famous writer and she will go wandering through the world with a rucksack on her back like an old Chinese general, and my children will go along their road with sound, solid shoes and the firm step of someone who doesn't give up, or with worn-out shoes and the slow, dragging step of someone who understands what is not necessary. Sometimes we arrange marriages between my children and the children of her brother, the one who goes around the country in hunting boots. We talk like this until the small hours of the night and drink black, bitter tea. We have a mattress and a bed, and every evening we toss up for which of the two of us shall sleep in the bed. When we get up in the morning our worn-out shoes are waiting for us on the rug. Now and again my friend says that she is fed up with working and wants to let her life go to pieces. She wants to shut herself in some filthy bar and drink all her savings, or she will just stay in bed and think of nothing and leave everything to drift, and let them come and cut off the gas and the light. She says she will do it when I leave. Because our shared life will not last much longer; soon I shall leave and return to my mother and children and be in a house where no one is allowed to have worn-out shoes. My mother will take me in hand; she will stop me using pins instead of buttons and writing till the small hours. And, in my turn, I shall take my children in hand and overcome the temptation to let my life go to pieces. I shall become serious and motherly, as always happens when I am with them, a different person from the one I am now – a person my friend does not know at all. I shall watch the clock and keep track of time, I shall be cautious and wary about everything and I shall take care that my children's feet are always warm and dry, as I know that they must be if it is at all possible – at least during infancy. And perhaps even for learning to walk in worn-out shoes, it is as well to have dry, warm feet when we are children. # _Portrait of a Friend_ The city which our friend loved is always the same; there have been changes, but very few – they have introduced trolley buses and made one or two subways. There are no new cinemas. The ancient monuments are always there with their familiar names, which when we repeat them awaken in us our youth and childhood. Now, we live elsewhere in a completely different, much bigger city, and if we meet and talk about our own city we do so with no sense of regret that we have left it, and say that we could not live there any longer. But when we go back, simply passing through the station and walking in the misty avenues is enough to make us feel we have come home; and the sadness with which the city fills us every time we return lies in this feeling that we are at home and, at the same time, that we have no reason to stay here; because here, in our own home, our own city, the city in which we spent our youth, so few things remain alive for us and we are oppressed by a throng of memories and shadows. Besides, our city is by its nature a melancholy place. On winter mornings it has its own smell of the station and soot, diffused through all its streets and avenues; if we arrive in the morning we find it grey with fog, pervaded by that distinctive smell. Sometimes a pale sun filters through the fog and dyes the heaps of snow and bare tree branches rose and lilac; in the streets and avenues the snow is shovelled into little heaps, but the parks are still buried beneath their thick, undisturbed blanket which lies, a finger thick, on the deserted benches and round the fountain rims: the clock by the horse track is stopped at a quarter to eleven, as it has been since time immemorial. There is a hill on the other side of the river and that too is white with snow, but marked here and there with reddish bushes; on the top of the hill a circular, orange-coloured building which used to be the Balilla National Opera stands like a tower. If there is a little sun to catch the glass dome of the Automobile Showrooms and make the river flow with a green glitter beneath its stone bridges, the city can seem, for a moment, pleasant and friendly; but that is a fleeting impression. The city's essential nature is melancholy; the river loses itself in the distance and disappears in a horizon of violet mists which make you think of sunsets at midday, and at any moment you can breathe in that same dark, industrial smell of soot, and hear the whistle of the trains. And now it occurs to us that our city resembles the friend whom we have lost and who loved it; it is, as he was, industrious, stamped with a frown of stubborn, feverish activity; and it is simultaneously listless and inclined to spend its time idly dreaming. Wherever we go in the city that resembles him we feel that our friend lives again; on every corner and at every turning it seems that we could suddenly see his tall figure in its dark half-belted coat, his face hidden by the collar, his hat pulled down over his eyes. Stubborn and solitary our friend walked with his long tread throughout the city; he hid himself away in remote, smoky cafes where he would immediately slip off his coat and hat but keep on the pale, ugly scarf that was carelessly flung about his neck; he twisted strands of his long brown hair around his fingers and then, quick as lightning, pushed the strands back. He filled page after page with his quick, broad handwriting, crossing out furiously as he went; and in his poetry he celebrated the city, Questo è il giorno che salgono le nebbie dal fiume Nella bella città, in mezzo a prati e colline, E la sfumano come un ricordo... (This is the day when mists rise from the river In the beautiful city set among meadows and hills, And they make it shadowy as a memory...) When we return to the city or when we think of it his poems echo in our ears; and we no longer know whether they are good poems or not, because they have become so much a part of us, and so strongly reflect for us the image of our youth, of those far off days when we heard them for the first time recited by the living voice of our friend, and we discovered with astonishment that it is possible to make poetry even out of our grey, heavy, unpoetic city. Our friend lived in the city as an adolescent, and he lived in the same way until the end. His days were extremely long and full of time, like an adolescent's; he knew how to find time to study and to write, to earn his living and to wander idly through the streets he loved; whereas we, who staggered from laziness to frantic activity and back again, wasted our time trying to decide whether we were lazy or industrious. For many years he did not want to submit to office hours or accept a definite job; but when he did agree to sit behind a desk in an office he became a meticulous employee and a tireless worker: even so, he set aside an ample margin of free time for himself – his meals were quickly over, he ate very little and never slept. At times he was very unhappy, but for a long time we thought that he would be cured of this unhappiness when he decided to become an adult; his unhappiness seemed like that of a boy – the absent-minded, voluptuous melancholy of a boy who has not yet got his feet on the ground and who lives in the sterile, solitary world of his dreams. Sometimes, during the evening, he would come in search of us; then he just sat, pale, with his scarf about his neck, twisting strands of hair around his fingers or crumpling a piece of paper; throughout the whole evening he would not say a single word, or answer any of our questions. Suddenly, at last, he would snatch up his overcoat and leave. Then we were ashamed and asked ourselves if our company had disappointed him, if he had hoped to cheer himself up by being with us and been unsuccessful; or perhaps he had simply wanted to spend an evening in silence beneath a lamp that was not his own. However, conversation with him was never easy, even when he seemed happy; but a meeting with him in which just a few words were exchanged could be far more stimulating than with anyone else. In his company we became more intelligent; we felt compelled to articulate whatever was best and most serious in us, and we got rid of commonplace notions, imprecise thoughts, incoherent ideas. We often felt ashamed when we were with him, because we did not know how to be serious like him, or modest like him, or generous and unselfish like him. He treated us, who were his friends, in a brusque way and he did not overlook any of our faults; but if we were upset or ill he immediately became as solicitous as a mother. On principle he refused to get to know new people; but sometimes he would be expansive and affectionate, full of appointments and plans, with someone completely unexpected – someone who was even rather contemptible – and whom he had never seen before. If we happened to remark that this person was in many ways unpleasant or despicable he used to say he was well aware of that, because he always liked to know everything and never allowed us the satisfaction of telling him something new: but he never explained why he acted in such a welcoming, intimate way with this person and, on the other hand, refused his friendship to others who deserved it much more, and we never discovered the reason. From time to time he became curious about someone who, he thought, was very elegant, and he would see a great deal of this person; perhaps he thought he could use these people in his novels; but he was mistaken in his judgements of social refinement and he often mistook bottle-glass for crystal; in this, but only in this, he was very naive. But though he made mistakes about social refinement no one could deceive him when it came to spiritual or cultural refinement. He had a cautious, reserved way of shaking hands – a few fingers were extended and withdrawn; a secretive, parsimonious way of taking his tobacco from its pouch and filling his pipe; and if he knew that we needed money he had a sudden, brusque way of giving it to us – so brusque and sudden that we were left rather bewildered; he used to say that he felt he should be careful with the money he had and that it hurt him to part with it, but once it was gone he didn't give a damn about it. If we were separated from him he neither wrote to us nor answered our letters, or he answered with a few, flat, defensive phrases; he said the reason was that he did not know how to feel affection for friends when they were a long way off; he did not want to suffer because of their absence and he quickly buried the thought of them. He never had a wife or children or a house of his own. He lived with a married sister who loved him and whom he loved, but when he was with his family he behaved in his usual uncouth way and his manners were those of a boy or a stranger. Sometimes he came to our houses and then he would scrutinise the children we were bringing up, the families we had made for ourselves, with a puzzled, good-natured frown: he too thought of having a family but he thought of it in a way which with the passing of the years became more and more complicated and tortuous – so tortuous that it was impossible for him to bring the idea to a simple conclusion. Over the years he had built up such a tangled and inexorable system of ideas and principles that he was unable to carry through the simplest project, and the more forbidden and impossible he made the attainment of some simple reality the deeper his desire to master it became, twining itself in ever more complicated tangles like some suffocating species of vegetation. For this reason he was often unhappy and we would have liked to help him, but he never allowed us to utter a word of pity or make any gesture of sympathy; we even imitated his behaviour and refused his sympathy when we were depressed. Although he taught us many things he was not a mentor for us because we saw all too clearly the absurd convolutions of the thoughts in which he imprisoned his simple nature; we wanted to teach him something too – how to live in a more elementary, less suffocating way. But we were never able to teach him anything, because as soon as we tried to set out our arguments he would lift his hand and say that he was already well aware of all that. In his last years his face was lined and furrowed, laid waste by mental torment; but his build and figure retained their adolescent gracefulness to the end. In his last years he became a famous writer but this had no effect at all on his secretive habits, nor on the modesty of his behaviour, nor on the scrupulous humility with which he carried out his everyday work. When we asked him if he enjoyed being famous he gave a proud smirk and said that he had always expected to be; sometimes a shrewd, proud smirk – childish and spiteful – used to flash across his face and disappear. But because he had always expected it, it gave him no pleasure when it came, since as soon as he had something he was incapable of loving or enjoying it. He used to say that he knew his art so thoroughly that it was impossible he should discover any further secret in it, and because it could not promise him any more secrets it no longer interested him. He told us, who were his friends, that we had no more secrets for him and that we bored him profoundly; we felt humiliated by the fact that we bored him but we were unable to tell him that we saw only too clearly where his mistake lay – in his refusal to love the daily current of existence which flows on evenly and apparently without secrets. He had not as yet mastered day to day reality, but this – for which he felt a simultaneous desire and disgust – was impregnable and forbidden to him; and so he could only look at it as if from an infinite distance. He died in the summer. In summer our city is deserted and seems very large, clear and echoing, like an empty city-square; the sky has a milky pallor, limpid but not luminous; the river flows as level as a street and gives off neither humidity nor freshness. Sudden clouds of dust rise from the streets; huge carts loaded with sand pass by on their way from the river; the asphalt of the main avenue is littered with pebbles that bake in the tar. Outside the cafes, beneath their fringed umbrellas, the little tables are deserted and red-hot. None of us were there. He chose to die on an ordinary, stiflingly hot day in August, and he chose a room in a hotel near the station; he wanted to die like a stranger in the city to which he belonged. He had imagined his death in a poem written many, many years before: Non sara necessario lasciare il letto. Solo l'alba entrerà nella stanza vuota. Basterà la finestra a vestire ogni cosa D'un chiarore tranquillo, quasi una luce. Poserà un'ombra scarna sul volto supino. I ricordi saranno dei grumi d'ombra Appiattati cosí come vecchia brace Nel camino. Il ricordo sarà la vampa Che ancor ieri mordeva negli occhi spenti. (It will not be necessary to get up from the bed. Only the morning will enter the empty room. The window will be sufficient to clothe everything With a quiet clarity, like a light. It will cast a thin shadow on his face where it lies. What will be remembered are clots of shadow Flattened like old ashes In the fireplace. Memory will be the flame That yesterday flared in his dead eyes.) A short time after his death we went on a trip into the hills. There were inns by the roadside with pergolas covered in ripening grapes, games of bowls, heaps of bicycles; there were farms growing corn cobs, and cut grass spread out on sacks to dry; it was the landscape just beyond the city, at the end of autumn, which he loved. We watched the September night come up over the low hills and ploughed fields. We were all close friends and had known each other for many years, we were people who had always worked and thought together. As happens among those who have suffered a misfortune together we tried to love each other all the more, to look after and protect each other; because we felt that he, in some mysterious way of his own, had always looked after us and protected us. On that hillside he was more present than ever. Ogni occhiata che torna, conserva un gusto Di erba e cose impregnate di sole a sera Sulla spiaggia. Conserva un fiato di mare. Come un mare notturno è quest'ombra vaga Di ansie e brividi antichi, che il cielo sfiora E ogni sera ritorna. Le voci morte Assomigliano al frangersi di quel mare. (As it comes back, every glance keeps some quality Of the grass and of the things on the beach Suffused by the evening sun. It keeps a breath of the sea. This indistinct shadow compounded of anxieties And ancient shudderings is like a nocturnal sea On which the sky rests lightly, and which Returns each evening. The voices of the dead Are like the breaking of that sea.) # _England: Eulogy and Lament_ England is beautiful and melancholy. To be honest I don't know many countries, but I begin to suspect that England is the most melancholy country in the world. It is an extremely civilised country. There the basic problems of life – sickness, old age, unemployment, taxes have apparently been wisely solved. It is a country which, I believe, knows how to govern itself well and this is clear in the smallest details of daily life. It is a country where the greatest respect for others is a general and willingly observed rule. It is a country which has always shown itself ready to welcome foreigners, from very diverse communities, without I think oppressing them. It is a country where they know how to build houses. A man's wish to be snug in his own little house, which is just for him and his family, and to have a garden which he cultivates himself, is considered quite reasonable, and so the cities are made up of just such little houses. Even the most ordinary houses look charming from the outside. And a huge city like London, which is of a monstrous size, is organised in such a way that you do not realise how large it is and so you are not troubled by it. The eye is not bewildered by immensity but attracted and beguiled by the little streets, the little houses and the green parks. The parks appear in the city like lakes – your eyes rest there, refreshed and at ease, cleansed of soot. Because wherever the city is not green it is quickly smothered in a thick blanket of soot and smells like a railway station – of old trains, dust and coal. The railway stations are the places where England is most openly gloomy. Scrap iron piles up there and coal dust and heaps of rusting, tangled, disused rails. They are surrounded by desolate little allotments full of cabbages, where bits of underwear are hung out to dry and where there are sheds patched together like old sheets. The suburbs of London, where the streets of little identical houses go on and on in a way that makes you feel dizzy, are also extremely gloomy. Here in London the sight of some shop-windows filled to overflowing with shoes that all have the same pointed toes and stiletto heels makes me feel equally dizzy. Or windows brimming over with women's underclothes – so stuffed with merchandise that my eyes feel sated with it and any desire to buy a slip or a pair of stockings is completely destroyed. To see such abundance gives me the impression that I don't need anything at all, and I feel a revulsion against stockings and slips that seems as though it will last for ever. The small new leaves are a tender green on the trees and stand out like delicate embroidery against the red-brick walls of the little houses. From time to time on the street you find yourself in front of a beautiful tree covered in tender pink or brilliant white blossom, a gracious adornment to the street. But as you look at it you realise that it is there according to some precise plan and not by chance. And the fact that it is not there by chance but according to a precise plan makes its beauty seem sad. In Italy a tree in blossom at the roadside would be a delightful surprise. It would be there by chance, having sprung out of the earth in sheer joy, and not because a calculated decision had been made that it should be there. In London, which is a black and grey city, man has placed a few colours with precision and forethought. You can suddenly find a blue or red or pink front door among its black brothers. The buses that pass by in the grey air are painted a vivid red. These are colours that would be cheerful anywhere else, but here they are not cheerful; set in place in such an exact and deliberate way they are like the weak, sad smile of someone who doesn't know how to smile. And the fire engines, which do not have a strident siren but a sweetly ringing bell, are also red. England is never vulgar. It is conventional, but not vulgar. Because it is sad it is never coarse. Vulgarity springs from coarseness and bullying. It also springs from fantasy and imagination. Sometimes we think we notice vulgarity, in the strident voice or shrill laugh of a woman, in the violent colours of her make-up or in her straw-coloured hair. But we quickly realise that in this country vulgarity is always overpowered by melancholy. The English have no imagination. They all dress in the same way. The women you see in the streets all have the same beige or transparent plastic raincoats which look like shower curtains or tablecloths in restaurants. They all carry wicker shopping baskets looped over one arm. The businessmen all wear the uniform we know – black bowler hat, pinstripe trousers and umbrella. The artists who live in Chelsea and the students who dream about art and a dissipated, bohemian life have untidy red beards and check jackets with shapeless pockets. The girls of this type dress in skin-tight black trousers, high-necked sweaters and – in the rain – white shoes. When they dress like this the young believe that they are proclaiming at the tops of their voices their unconventionality, originality, freedom, and the individual inspiration of their own thoughts. Yet it does not occur to them that the streets are full of thousands of young people exactly identical to themselves, with the same hairstyle, the same expression of naive defiance, the same shoes. The English have no imagination: and yet they do show imagination in two things – two only. In the evening clothes worn by old ladies, and in their cafes. In the evenings the ladies wear the most extraordinary clothes. And they lavishly paint their faces pink and yellow. They transform themselves from mousy little sparrows into peacocks and resplendent pheasants. No one is surprised by them. But the English do not know what surprise is. No one ever turns his head to look at anyone else in the street. England also expresses its sense of fantasy in its cafes and restaurants. They often give them foreign names to make them more attractive – 'Pustza', 'Chez Nous', 'Roma', 'Le Alpi'. When you look through the windows you see wispy climbing plants, Chinese lanterns, sharp peaks of rock, the blue of glaciers. Or you see skulls and crossbones, black walls, black carpets, funereal candles – and because these places are often deserted a mournful silence reigns. Because England is so dissatisfied with itself it tries to dress up in the borrowed feathers of a foreign glamour, or seeks out the frisson of funereal enticements. However, the food and drink which you find in these Pustze, Alpi and sepulchres all has the same wretched taste. Imagination has not yet reached as far as the food and drink – it is still tangled up in the curtains, carpets and lanterns. The English rarely show surprise. If it happens that someone faints in the street, everything is provided for. In a few seconds a chair is found for him, a glass of water, a uniformed nurse. That people may faint in the street has been foreseen, and everything goes on around the patient automatically and promptly so that help is at hand. But the English are profoundly astonished when we ask for a little water in a restaurant. They do not drink water, and always quench their thirst with endless cups of tea. They never taste wine or touch water. And so a request for a glass of water – that glass of water which arrives so promptly when someone faints in the street – disconcerts them. They bring it at last – a small glass containing a little tepid water, on a tray, with a teaspoon. Perhaps they are right to camouflage their cafes and restaurants under foreign disguises, because when these places are unequivocally English such a squalid desperation reigns in them as to make anyone who enters think of suicide. I have often wondered why there is such a feeling of desolation in English cafes. Perhaps it comes from their desolate social relationships. Every place where the English gather to chat to one another exudes melancholy. Indeed, nothing in the world is sadder than an English conversation, in which everyone is careful to keep to superficialities and never touch on anything essential. In order not to offend your neighbour, not to violate his privacy – which is sacred – an English conversation revolves around subjects that are extremely boring for everyone concerned, but in which there is no danger. The English are a people completely without cynicism. Basically, beneath their guffaws of laughter which suddenly burst out and then seem to shatter dully without any echo, they are always serious. They still believe in certain values which have been forgotten everywhere else – in the seriousness of work, of study, of fidelity to oneself, to friends, to one's word. Civilisation, respect for one's fellow men, good government, the capacity to perceive and to provide for men's needs, help for the old and the sick – all this is certainly the fruit of an ancient and profound intelligence. But this intelligence is not at all visible or noticeable in the people you pass in the street. If you look round yourself you see no trace of it. If we pick someone out at random and talk to the first person who passes us in the street it is useless to expect words that indicate human intelligence. When we go into a shop the assistant greets us with the words 'Can I help you?' But these are mere words. She immediately shows that she is quite incapable of helping us and is not at all interested in trying to. There is no flicker in her of any desire to come to an agreement with us or co-operate with us, of any wish to satisfy us. When she looks for what we want she does not extend her gaze two centimetres beyond the end of her nose. English shop assistants are the stupidest shop assistants in the world. But it is a stupidity in which there is no cynicism, insolence, bullying or contempt. It is a stupidity entirely lacking in vulgarity. It is never under any circumstances demeaning, and so it is not offensive. The assistants' eyes have the empty stunned stillness of the eyes of sheep on a limitless moor. When we leave the shop the stunned empty eyes of the assistant follow us without having made any judgement about us or even considered us. They are eyes which forget us immediately, as soon as we have left their tiny field of vision. And so if we happen to come across an assistant who is less stupid than the rest we feel ready to buy the whole shop out of sheer astonishment. Italy is a country which is willing to submit itself to the worst governments. It is, as we know, a country ruled by disorder, cynicism, incompetence and confusion. Nevertheless we are aware of intelligence circulating in the streets like a vivid bloodstream. This is an intelligence which is clearly useless. It is not used to benefit any institution that might to some extent improve the human condition. All the same, it warms and consoles the heart, even if this is an illusory comfort and perhaps a foolish one. In England intelligence is translated into deeds, but if we look for it among the people who pass us in the street we only find a faint glimmer and this – stupidly and unjustly certainly – gives us a feeling of loss and induces melancholy. We are quickly infected by the English melancholy. It is a sheepish, stunned melancholy, a sort of empty bewilderment, and on its surface the conversations about the weather, the seasons – about all those things one can discuss without going too deeply into anything, without giving offence or being offended – linger like the constant quiet buzzing of mosquitoes. However, the English seem to be somehow aware of their sadness and of the sadness which their country inspires in foreigners. When they are with foreigners they have an apologetic air and appear always anxious to get away. They live as if in eternal exile, dreaming of other skies. I am always surprised that in Italy those who have adolescent children dream of nothing but sending them to England during the summer holidays. Particularly if they have children who, as often happens during adolescence, are going through a period of being shy, unsociable, sulky and sullen. Italian parents think of England as a cure for just such ailments. In fact, England has no effect at all. It is a country where people stay exactly as they are. A timid person stays timid, an unsociable person stays unsociable. And over this initial timidity and unsociableness spreads the great, limitless English melancholy, like an endless moor in which the eyes can find no landmark. Moreover, these parents vainly hope that their children will learn English during their summer visit – a language that is extremely difficult to learn, which very few foreigners know well, and which every Englishman speaks in his own way. England is a country where people stay exactly as they are. The soul does not receive the slightest jolt. It stays always still, unchanging, protected by a gentle, temperate, humid climate without seasonal extremes, in the same way that the green of the fields (which it is impossible to imagine being greener) stays the same throughout the seasons, never eaten away by intense cold or devoured by the sun. The soul does not free itself from its vices but neither does it attach itself to new vices. Like the grass, the soul silently lulls itself in its green solitude, watered by the tepid rain. There are very beautiful cathedrals. They are not hemmed in among houses and shops but set in the midst of green meadows. There are very beautiful cemeteries with simple tombstones here and there on the grass beside the cathedrals, where there is a profound peace. No walls enclose them; they exist in a perpetual intimacy with the life about them, but immersed in unsurpassable peace. In the country of melancholy the mind always returns to death. It does not fear death because it sees the shadow of death as being like the vast shadow of the trees, and like the silence that is already present in the soul, lost in its green sleep. # _La Maison Volpé_ Near my house in London there is a place called _La Maison Volpé._ What it is I do not know, as I have never been inside it: I think it is a restaurant or cafe. Perhaps I shall never go inside, and that name will keep its aura of mystery for me. But I have a feeling that when I remember London and the time I have spent here those syllables will echo in my ear, and all London will be summed up for me in that Parisian name. From the outside nothing is visible except a door with glass windows covered by thick dull brown curtains made of tulle; the curtains are old, dusty and faded. Perhaps it is a restaurant, but when I go past it I am not aware of any smell – either good or bad; and I have never seen anyone pass through the door over which its strange name – _La Maison Volpé_ – is spelt out in black and gilt lettering. Whether it is a cafe or a restaurant or a dance hall, I have the feeling that any food or drink served in there must be ancient, moth-eaten and covered in dust like the curtains. It is on a more or less suburban street; between a garage and a shop that sells refrigerators the always hermetically sealed _Maison Volpé_ sends out its nocturnal mystery, a promise of secret, exotic and possibly sinful pleasures implied by the black and gilt lettering of its name. There are many places like _La Maison Volpé_ in London; they appear in the most unexpected areas, they have extravagant names, and from the outside it is difficult to say what they are: they have a nocturnal, exotic, and vaguely sinful air to them and when you enter, during the day time, you find a mysterious twilight only slightly mitigated by the glow from a few little blue lamps: there are velvet carpets and walls painted black – but everything is made disappointingly ordinary by the sugar bowls on the tables, full of the brown cane sugar they use here. We quickly realise that absolutely nothing strange happens in these places, and the only thing to drink in them is weak tepid coffee eked out with milk. The people sitting at the tables have dressed with a certain care – you can see from their clothes that they have not dropped in by chance but that they have come intending to spend a few hours in this particular place, and, perhaps, to enjoy themselves. What enjoyment there might be in passing the time in a place so completely devoid of cheerfulness I do not know. You do not see lovers embracing one another, and the conversation is carried on in an educated undertone; the customers do not give the impression of being involved in the kind of intimate, passionate, lively conversations which occur between a man and a woman, or between friends, in our cafes. There is no kind of intimacy in that educated undertone. All the furnishings, the curtains, the carpets, the twilight atmosphere, seem to be there in order to suggest intimacy, but it remains an abstract proposition, a remote dream. When Italians in London meet each other they talk about restaurants. In all London there is not one restaurant where it is pleasant to meet your friends, and chat and eat. The restaurants are either too crowded or too empty. And they are either stiff and priggish or squalid. Sometimes they manage to be equally both at once; sometimes the priggishness is more noticeable than the squalor – stiff chairs with high backs, ladies swathed in furs, silver decanters: sometimes it is the squalor which is the more noticeable and there is a kind of colourless neglect to the place; but wherever you are you eat more or less the same dishes, the same overdone steak with a little boiled tomato next to it, and a leaf of lettuce without either oil or salt. There are restaurants that serve only roast chicken. Masses and masses of chickens turning on spits. The waiters dash from table to table carrying plates of chicken. No other kind of food is visible. We leave feeling so nauseated that it seems impossible – ever in our lives – to taste a piece of chicken again. There are also restaurants called The Egg and I. In them there is nothing but eggs – stone cold, marmoreal, hard-boiled eggs over which a little dribble of mayonnaise has been squirted. Restaurants and food are widely advertised in England. In the cinema, in the street, in the underground stations, in magazines you see huge, colourful pictures of food and drink. 'Oh, it is luxurious! It is delicious!'* At the cinema we see long advertisements for restaurants – Chinese, Indian, Spanish – with orchestras, palm trees, flowers, and customers who eat with a fez or a sombrero perched on their heads, who go into ecstasies in front of a plate on which we glimpse the usual overdone steak and solitary lettuce leaf. Images of ripening strawberries and endless pastures, which will become Kiaora ice-cream (which you can have 'here and now'*) or paper cups of Fresko milk ('Fresko is delicious! and full of vitamins'*) – follow each other on the screen. The city is full of invitations to eat and drink. On every corner you see a poster showing a boiled egg with the sensible suggestion 'Go to work on an egg'*. Or 'Drinka Pinta Milka Day'*. 'Babycham? I'd love a Babycham!'* Or, 'Have a chicken for your weekend'*. But despite all this fuss which is made about food, for the English it remains simply 'food'*, which is a sad, generalised thing. In novels you read that 'some food'* was brought, no affectionate or specific description is given. The thousands of tins stacked up in the groceries carry pictures of the most various and mouthwatering animals – pheasants, partridges, different kinds of deer, and they are stamped with the enticing names of distant countries which it would be marvellous to visit. But anyone who has been here for some time is unimpressed, he knows very well that the contents of these tins are 'food'*, which is to say nothing. Nothing that could be eaten with enjoyment and a quiet mind anyway. After you have lived here for a while you realise that you have to be careful when buying food. You cannot go into a cake shop, choose a few cakes and then take them home and eat them. This simple, innocent act is out of the question here. Because those cakes – so prettily covered in chocolate and dotted with almonds – are, when you eat them, like a paste made of coal dust or sand. I should, out of fairness, add that they are perfectly harmless. They are only horrible, innocuous but horrible, with the staleness of hundreds of years, but innocuous. The cakes placed next to the mummies in the tombs of the Pharaohs must have the same taste. And you cannot buy sweets with an easy mind either. They can be as hard as rocks; they can stick to the teeth and fill your mouth with a peculiar taste of salt. A pall of sadness hangs over every place where food is sold or served. Even the windows of the greengrocers – full of beautiful-looking fruit, piles of grapefruit and bunches of bananas – these greengrocers' windows which are the same everywhere, in the stations of the underground, in the most distant suburbs and in the most remote rural villages, are always sad. Perhaps because they are so relentlessly identical to each other. Perhaps because we know that when this fruit is eaten it has no taste. But perhaps only because we are dealing with food, and that is something which is sad here. Nevertheless the English are obsessed with the idea of food. Walking along the most remote country road, on the edge of a deep wood or of some desolate gorse-covered slope, we come across a little notice on which is written 'Teas, Luncheons, Snacks'*. We look around asking ourselves how, and by whom, such an enticing promise could be fulfilled. There is not a soul in sight. But yes, over there, a few steps further on, a caravan is waiting for us where we can actually have a cup of tea, or the usual sweet, tepid coffee, and ham sandwiches. Near the cash register there is also a large glass globe half full of bubbling orange juice on which – perhaps in order to convey a more intimate idea of freshness – someone has set one or two rubber oranges afloat. Sometimes, instead of a caravan, we come across a little half-timbered house in the open countryside with the notice 'Farm'* on it, and the usual promise of 'Snacks'*. As we enter we imagine that we shall eat something local and unusual. The 'Farm'* is crowded with daytrippers from London who – at four in the afternoon – are eating cod and chips. There is the usual globe of orange juice, and lined up next to the cash register are the paper cups for Fresko ('Fresko is delicious!')* milk. The 'snacks'* are sandwiches. Those of the 'Farm'* are made with the usual pre-sliced flabby bread that is sold in Lyons and in every English grocer's shop. As far as the eye can see the countryside stretches – beautiful, green, rustling and damp, wild and at the same time gentle like no other in the world, silent, inedible and odourless. We are not aware of any smell of manure, animals, ploughed-up earth or straw, we do not hear the noises that we are used to hearing in the country – the creaking of carts or the trampling of hoofs. Clean, odourless cows are grazing in an enclosure. No one is looking after them; we see no herdsman, no dogs, no farm workers. Sometimes it is possible to find a pub deep in the country; inside it is sumptuously decorated with red velvet and gilded cornices. It is identical to the pubs in central London, there is no difference. In one corner there is a little grate in which a fake coal fire or a fake log fire is burning; fake, but expertly done. The beer is drunk from big, heavy tankards of clouded glass. They bring the beer up from the cellars in barrels made of tin or zinc, and these inevitably make you think of sewage. But sometimes this happens in London too. Why don't they use a different kind of container? There is no why. The English are insensitive to certain mental associations. And perhaps those barrels are a sign of that deep distaste, that secret hatred which the English feel for food and drink. To me it seems that even some of the words they use to indicate food and drink have an unpleasant sound and reveal hatred and distaste: 'Snacks, Squash, Poultry'*. Don't such words sound like insults? Perhaps the English hatred for food is the sole cause of that obscure sadness which pervades every place where food is sold or served. If you disregard the showy fittings their cafes and restaurants are alarmingly like canteens for the poor. And on certain nights of every week in the doorways of even the most elegant restaurants in central London, in front of the most mysterious nightclubs with the strangest names, even in front of the mysterious _Maison Volpé,_ you see huge, overflowing grey dustbins. Dustbins are not the prettiest things anywhere in the world. But I don't think that in any country in the world are they as large, grey, obvious and overflowing as they are here, giving off their grey stink and weighed down with desolate melancholy. * An asterisk indicates phrases in English in the original. # _He and I_ He always feels hot, I always feel cold. In the summer when it really is hot he does nothing but complain about how hot he feels. He is irritated if he sees me put a jumper on in the evening. He speaks several languages well; I do not speak any well. He manages – in his own way – to speak even the languages that he doesn't know. He has an excellent sense of direction, I have none at all. After one day in a foreign city he can move about in it as thoughtlessly as a butterfly. I get lost in my own city; I have to ask directions so that I can get back home again. He hates asking directions; when we go by car to a town we don't know he doesn't want to ask directions and tells me to look at the map. I don't know how to read maps and I get confused by all the little red circles and he loses his temper. He loves the theatre, painting, music, especially music. I do not understand music at all, painting doesn't mean much to me and I get bored at the theatre. I love and understand one thing in the world and that is poetry. He loves museums, and I will go if I am forced to but with an unpleasant sense of effort and duty. He loves libraries and I hate them. He loves travelling, unfamiliar foreign cities, restaurants. I would like to stay at home all the time and never move. All the same I follow him on his many journeys. I follow him to museums, to churches, to the opera. I even follow him to concerts, where I fall asleep. Because he knows the conductors and the singers, after the performance is over he likes to go and congratulate them. I follow him down long corridors lined with the singers' dressing rooms and listen to him talking to people dressed as cardinals and kings. He is not shy; I am shy. Occasionally however I have seen him be shy. With the police when they come over to the car armed with a notebook and pencil. Then he is shy, thinking he is in the wrong. And even when he doesn't think he is in the wrong. I think he has a respect for established authority. I am afraid of established authority, but he isn't. He respects it. There is a difference. When I see a policeman coming to fine me I immediately think he is going to haul me off to prison. He doesn't think about prison; but, out of respect, he becomes shy and polite. During the Montesi trial, because of his respect for established authority, we had very violent arguments. He likes tagliatelle, lamb, cherries, red wine. I like minestrone, bread soup, omelettes, green vegetables. He often says I don't understand anything about food, that I am like a great strong fat friar – one of those friars who devour soup made from greens in the darkness of their monasteries; but he, oh he is refined and has a sensitive palate. In restaurants he makes long inquiries about the wines; he has them bring two or three bottles then looks at them and considers the matter, and slowly strokes his beard. There are certain restaurants in England where the waiter goes through a little ritual: he pours some wine into a glass so that the customer can test whether he likes it or not. He used to hate this ritual and always prevented the waiter from carrying it out by taking the bottle from him. I used to argue with him about this and say that you should let people carry out their prescribed tasks. And in the same way he never lets the usherette at the cinema direct him to his seat. He immediately gives her a tip but dashes off to a completely different place from the one she shows him with her torch. At the cinema he likes to sit very close to the screen. If we go with friends and they look for seats a long way from the screen, as most people do, he sits by himself in the front row. I can see well whether I am close to the screen or far away from it, but when we are with friends I stay with them out of politeness; all the same it upsets me because I could be next to him two inches from the screen, and when I don't sit next to him he gets annoyed with me. We both love the cinema, and we are ready to see almost any kind of film at almost any time of day. But he knows the history of the cinema in great detail; he remembers old directors and actors who have disappeared and been forgotten long ago, and he is ready to travel miles into the most distant suburbs in search of some ancient silent film in which an actor appears – perhaps just for a few seconds – whom he affectionately associates with memories of his early childhood. I remember one Sunday afternoon in London; somewhere in the distant suburbs on the edge of the countryside they were showing a film from the 1930s, about the French Revolution, which he had seen as a child, and in which a famous actress of that time appeared for a moment or two. We set off by car in search of the street, which was a very long way off; it was raining, there was a fog, and we drove for hour after hour through identical suburbs, between rows of little grey houses, gutters and railings; I had the map on my knees and I couldn't read it and he lost his temper; at last, we found the cinema and sat in the completely deserted auditorium. But after a quarter of an hour, immediately after the brief appearance of the actress who was so important to him, he already wanted to go; I on the other hand, after seeing so many streets, wanted to see how the film finished. I don't remember whether we did what he wanted or what I wanted; probably what he wanted, so that we left after a quarter of an hour, also because it was late – though we had set off early in the afternoon it was already time for dinner. But when I begged him to tell me how the film ended I didn't get a very satisfactory answer; because, he said, the story wasn't at all important, the only thing that mattered was those few moments, that actress's curls, gestures, profile. I never remember actors' names, and as I am not good at remembering faces it is often difficult for me to recognise even the most famous of them. This infuriates him; his scorn increases as I ask him whether it was this one or that one; 'You don't mean to tell me,' he says, 'You don't mean to tell me that you didn't recognise William Holden!' And in fact I didn't recognise William Holden. All the same, I love the cinema too; but although I have been seeing films for years I haven't been able to provide myself with any sort of cinematic education. But he has made an education of it for himself and he does this with whatever attracts his curiosity; I don't know how to make myself an education out of anything, even those things that I love best in life; they stay with me as scattered images, nourishing my life with memories and emotions but without filling the void, the desert of my education. He tells me I have no curiosity, but this is not true. I am curious about a few, a very few, things. And when I have got to know them I retain scattered impressions of them, or the cadence of phrase, or a word. But my world, in which these completely unrelated (unless in some secret fashion unbeknown to me) impressions and cadences rise to the surface, is a sad, barren place. His world, on the other hand, is green and populous and richly cultivated; it is a fertile, well-watered countryside in which woods, meadows, orchards and villages flourish. Everything I do is done laboriously, with great difficulty and uncertainty. I am very lazy, and if I want to finish anything it is absolutely essential that I spend hours stretched out on the sofa. He is never idle, and is always doing something; when he goes to lie down in the afternoons he takes proofs to correct or a book full of notes; he wants us to go to the cinema, then to a reception, then to the theatre – all on the same day. In one day he succeeds in doing, and in making me do, a mass of different things, and in meeting extremely diverse kinds of people. If I am alone and try to act as he does I get nothing at all done, because I get stuck all afternoon somewhere I had meant to stay for half an hour, or because I get lost and cannot find the right street, or because the most boring person and the one I least wanted to meet drags me off to the place I least wanted to go to. If I tell him how my afternoon has turned out he says it is a completely wasted afternoon and is amused and makes fun of me and loses his temper; and he says that without him I am good for nothing. I don't know how to manage my time; he does. He likes receptions. He dresses casually, when everyone is dressed formally; the idea of changing his clothes in order to go to a reception never enters his head. He even goes in his old raincoat and crumpled hat; a woollen hat which he bought in London and which he wears pulled down over his eyes. He only stays for half an hour; he enjoys chatting with a glass in his hand for half an hour; he eats lots of _hors d'oeuvres,_ and I eat almost none because when I see him eating so many I feel that I at least must be well-mannered and show some self-control and not eat too much; after half an hour, just as I am beginning to feel at ease and to enjoy myself, he gets impatient and drags me away. I don't know how to dance and he does. I don't know how to type and he does. I don't know how to drive. If I suggest that I should get a licence too he disagrees. He says I would never manage it. I think he likes me to be dependent on him for some things. I don't know how to sing and he does. He is a baritone. Perhaps he would have been a famous singer if he had studied singing. Perhaps he would have been a conductor if he had studied music. When he listens to records he conducts the orchestra with a pencil. And he types and answers the telephone at the same time. He is a man who is able to do many things at once. He is a professor and I think he is a good one. He could have been many things. But he has no regrets about those professions he did not take up. I could only ever have followed one profession – the one I chose and which I have followed almost since childhood. And I don't have any regrets either about the professions I did not take up, but then I couldn't have succeeded at any of them. I write stories, and for many years I have worked for a publishing house. I don't work badly, or particularly well. All the same I am well aware of the fact that I would have been unable to work anywhere else. I get on well with my colleagues and my boss. I think that if I did not have the support of their friendship I would soon have become worn out and unable to work any longer. For a long time I thought that one day I would be able to write screenplays for the cinema. But I never had the opportunity, or I did not know how to find it. Now I have lost all hope of writing screenplays. He wrote screenplays for a while, when he was younger. And he has worked in a publishing house. He has written stories. He has done all the things that I have done and many others too. He is a good mimic, and does an old countess especially well. Perhaps he could also have been an actor. Once, in London, he sang in a theatre. He was Job. He had to hire evening clothes; and there he was, in his evening clothes, in front of a kind of lectern; and he sang. He sang the words of Job; the piece called for something between speaking and singing. And I, in my box, was dying of fright. I was afraid he would get flustered, or that the trousers of his evening clothes would fall down. He was surrounded by men in evening clothes and women in long dresses, who were the angels and devils and other characters in Job. It was a great success, and they said that he was very good. If I loved music I would love it passionately. But I don't understand it, and when he persuades me to go to concerts with him my mind wanders off and I think of my own affairs. Or I fall sound asleep. I like to sing. I don't know how to sing and I sing completely out of tune; but I sing all the same – occasionally, very quietly, when I am alone. I know that I sing out of tune because others have told me so; my voice must be like the yowling of a cat. But I am not – in myself – aware of this, and singing gives me real pleasure. If he hears me he mimics me; he says that my singing is something quite separate from music, something invented by me. When I was a child I used to yowl tunes I had made up. It was a long wailing kind of melody that brought tears to my eyes. It doesn't matter to me that I don't understand painting or the figurative arts, but it hurts me that I don't love music, and I feel that my mind suffers from the absence of this love. But there is nothing I can do about it, I will never understand or love music. If I occasionally hear a piece of music that I like I don't know how to remember it; and how can I love something that I can't remember? It is the words of a song that I remember. I can repeat words that I love over and over again. I repeat the tune that accompanies them too, in my own yowling fashion, and I experience a kind of happiness as I yowl. When I am writing it seems to me that I follow a musical cadence or rhythm. Perhaps music was very close to my world, and my world could not, for whatever reason, make contact with it. In our house there is music all day long. He keeps the radio on all day. Or plays records. Every now and again I protest a little and ask for a little silence in which to work; but he says that such beautiful music is certainly conducive to any kind of work. He has bought an incredible number of records. He says that he owns one of the finest collections in the world. In the morning when he is still in his dressing gown and dripping water from his bath, he turns the radio on, sits down at the typewriter and begins his strenuous, noisy, stormy day. He is superabundant in everything; he fills the bath to overflowing, and the same with the teapot and his cup of tea. He has an enormous number of shirts and ties. On the other hand he rarely buys shoes. His mother says that as a child he was a model of order and precision; apparently once, on a rainy day, he was wearing white boots and white clothes and had to cross some muddy streams in the country – at the end of his walk he was immaculate and his clothes and boots had not one spot of mud on them. There is no trace in him of that former immaculate little boy. His clothes are always covered in stains. He has become extremely untidy. But he scrupulously keeps all the gas bills. In drawers I find old gas bills, which he refuses to throw away, from houses we left long ago. I also find old, shrivelled Tuscan cigars, and cigarette holders made from cherry wood. I smoke a brand of king-size, filterless cigarettes called _Stop,_ and he smokes his Tuscan cigars. I am very untidy. But as I have got older I have come to miss tidiness, and I sometimes furiously tidy up all the cupboards. I think this is because I remember my mother's tidiness. I rearrange the linen and blanket cupboards and in the summer I reline every drawer with strips of white cloth. I rarely rearrange my papers because my mother didn't write and had no papers. My tidiness and untidiness are full of complicated feelings of regret and sadness. His untidiness is triumphant. He has decided that it is proper and legitimate for a studious person like himself to have an untidy desk. He does not help me get over my indecisiveness, or the way I hesitate before doing anything, or my sense of guilt. He tends to make fun of every tiny thing I do. If I go shopping in the market he follows me and spies on me. He makes fun of the way I shop, of the way I weigh the oranges in my hand unerringly choosing, he says, the worst in the whole market; he ridicules me for spending an hour over the shopping, buying onions at one stall, celery at another and fruit at another. Sometimes he does the shopping to show me how quickly he can do it; he unhesitatingly buys everything from one stall and then manages to get the basket delivered to the house. He doesn't buy celery because he cannot abide it. And so – more than ever – I feel I do everything inadequately or mistakenly. But if I once find out that he has made a mistake I tell him so over and over again until he is exasperated. I can be very annoying at times. His rages are unpredictable, and bubble over like the head on beer. My rages are unpredictable too, but his quickly disappear whereas mine leave a noisy nagging trail behind them which must be very annoying – like the complaining yowl of a cat. Sometimes in the midst of his rage I start to cry, and instead of quietening him down and making him feel sorry for me this infuriates him all the more. He says my tears are just play-acting, and perhaps he is right. Because in the middle of my tears and his rage I am completely calm. I never cry when I am really unhappy. There was a time when I used to hurl plates and crockery on the floor during my rages. But not any more. Perhaps because I am older and my rages are less violent, and also because I dare not lay a finger on our plates now; we bought them one day in London, in the Portobello Road, and I am very fond of them. The price of those plates, and of many other things we have bought, immediately underwent a substantial reduction in his memory. He likes to think he did not spend very much and that he got a bargain. I know the price of that dinner service – it was £16, but he says £12. And it is the same with the picture of King Lear that is in our dining room, and which he also bought in the Portobello Road (and then cleaned with onions and potatoes); now he says he paid a certain sum for it, but I remember that it was much more than that. Some years ago he bought twelve bedside mats in a department store. He bought them because they were cheap, and he thought he ought to buy them; and he bought them as an argument against me because he considered me to be incapable of buying things for the house. They were made of mud-coloured matting and they quickly became very unattractive; they took on a corpse-like rigidity and were hung from a wire line on the kitchen balcony, and I hated them. I used to remind him of them, as an example of bad shopping; but he would say that they had cost very little indeed, almost nothing. It was a long time before I could bring myself to throw them out – because there were so many of them, and because just as I was about to get rid of them it occurred to me that I could use them for rags. He and I both find throwing things away difficult; it must be a kind of Jewish caution in me, and the result of my extreme indecisiveness; in him it must be a defence against his impulsiveness and open-handedness. He buys enormous quantities of bicarbonate of soda and aspirins. Now and again he is ill with some mysterious ailment of his own; he can't explain what he feels and stays in bed for a day completely wrapped up in the sheets; nothing is visible except his beard and the tip of his red nose. Then he takes bicarbonate of soda and aspirins in doses suitable for a horse, and says that I cannot understand because I am always well, I am like those great fat strong friars who go out in the wind and in all weathers and come to no harm; he on the other hand is sensitive and delicate and suffers from mysterious ailments. Then in the evening he is better and goes into the kitchen and cooks himself tagliatelle. When he was a young man he was slim, handsome and finely built; he did not have a beard but long, soft moustaches instead, and he looked like the actor Robert Donat. He was like that about twenty years ago when I first knew him, and I remember that he used to wear an elegant kind of Scottish flannel shirt. I remember that one evening he walked me back to the _pensione_ where I was living; we walked together along the Via Nazionale. I already felt that I was very old and had been through a great deal and had made many mistakes, and he seemed a boy to me, light years away from me. I don't remember what we talked about on that evening walking along the Via Nazionale; nothing important, I suppose, and the idea that we would become husband and wife was light years away from me. Then we lost sight of each other, and when we met again he no longer looked like Robert Donat, but more like Balzac. When we met again he still wore his Scottish shirts but on him now they looked like garments for a polar expedition; now he had his beard and on his head he wore his ridiculous crumpled woollen hat; everything about him put you in mind of an imminent departure for the North Pole. Because, although he always feels hot, he has the habit of dressing as if he were surrounded by snow, ice and polar bears; or he dresses like a Brazilian coffee-planter, but he always dresses differently from everyone else. If I remind him of that walk along the Via Nazionale he says he remembers it, but I know he is lying and that he remembers nothing; and I sometimes ask myself if it was us, these two people, almost twenty years ago on the Via Nazionale; two people who conversed so politely, so urbanely, as the sun was setting; who chatted a little about everything perhaps and about nothing; two friends talking, two young intellectuals out for a walk; so young, so educated, so uninvolved, so ready to judge one another with kind impartiality; so ready to say goodbye to one another for ever, as the sun set, at the corner of the street. # Part Two # _The Son of Man_ There has been a war and people have seen so many houses reduced to rubble that they no longer feel safe in their own homes which once seemed so quiet and secure. This is something that is incurable and will never be cured no matter how many years go by. True, we have a lamp on the table again, and a little vase of flowers, and pictures of our loved ones, but we can no longer trust any of these things because once, suddenly, we had to leave them behind, or because we have searched through the rubble for them in vain. It is useless to believe that we could recover from twenty years like those we have been through. Those of us who have been fugitives will never be at peace. A ring at the door-bell in the middle of the night can only mean the word 'police' to us. And it is useless for us to tell ourselves over and over again that behind the word 'police' there are now friendly faces from whom we can ask for help and protection. This word always fills us with fear and suspicion. When I look at my sleeping children I think with relief that I will not have to wake them and run off into the night. But it is not a deep, lasting relief. It always seems to me that some day or other we shall once again have to get up and run off in the middle of the night, and leave everything – the quiet rooms, our letters, mementoes, clothes – behind us. Once the experience of evil has been endured it is never forgotten. Someone who has seen a house collapse knows only too clearly what frail things little vases of flowers and pictures and white walls are. He knows only too well what a house is made of. A house is made of bricks and mortar and can collapse. A house is not particularly solid. It can collapse from one moment to the next. Behind the peaceful little vases of flowers, behind the teapots and carpets and waxed floors there is the other true face of a house – the hideous face of a house that has been reduced to rubble. We shall not get over this war. It is useless to try. We shall never be people who go peacefully about their business, who think and study and manage their lives quietly. Something has happened to our houses. Something has happened to us. We shall never be at peace again. We have seen reality's darkest face, and it no longer horrifies us. And there are still those who complain that writers use bitter, violent language, that they write about cruel, distressing things, that they present reality in the worst possible light. We cannot lie in our books and we cannot lie in any of the things we do. And perhaps this is the one good thing that has come out of the war. Not to lie, and not to allow others to lie to us. Such is the nature of the young now, of our generation. Those who are older than us are still too fond of falsehoods, of the veils and masks with which they hide reality. Our language saddens and offends them. They do not understand our attitude to reality. We are close to the truth of things. This is the only good the war has given us, but it has given it only to the young. It has given nothing but fear and a sense of insecurity to the old. And we who are young are also afraid, we also feel insecure in our homes, but we are not made defenceless by this fear. We have a toughness and strength which those who are older than us have never known. For some the war started only with the war, with houses reduced to rubble and with the Germans, but for others it started as long ago as the first years of Fascism, and consequently for them the feeling of insecurity and constant danger is far greater. Danger, the feeling that you must hide, the feeling that – without warning – you will have to leave the warmth of your bed and your house, for many of us all this started many years ago. It crept into our childish games, followed us to our desks at school and taught us to see enemies everywhere. This is how it was for many of us in Italy, and elsewhere, and we believed that one day we would be able to walk without anxiety down the streets of our own cities, but now that we can perhaps walk there without anxiety we realise that we shall never be cured of this sickness. And so we are constantly forced to seek out a new strength, a new toughness with which to face whatever reality may confront us. We have been driven to look for an inward peace which is not the product of carpets and little vases of flowers. There is no peace for the son of man. The foxes and the wolves have their holes, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. Our generation is a generation of men. It is not a generation of foxes and wolves. Each of us would dearly like to rest his head somewhere, to have a little warm, dry nest. But there is no peace for the son of man. Each of us at some time in his life has had the illusion that he could sleep somewhere safely, that he could take possession of some certainty, some faith, and there rest his limbs. But all the certainties of the past have been snatched away from us, and faith has never after all been a place for sleeping in. And we are a people without tears. The things that moved our parents do not move us at all. Our parents and those older than us disapprove of the way we bring up our children. They would like us to lie to our children as they lied to us. They would like our children to play with woolly toys in pretty pink rooms with little trees and rabbits painted on the walls. They would like us to surround their infancy with veils and lies, and carefully hide the truth of things from them. But we cannot do this. We cannot do this to children whom we have woken in the middle of the night and tremblingly dressed in the darkness so that we could flee with them or hide them, or simply because the air-raid sirens were lacerating the skies. We cannot do this to children who have seen terror and horror in our faces. We cannot bring ourselves to tell these children that we found them under cabbages, or that when a person dies he goes on a long journey. There is an unbridgeable abyss between us and the previous generation. The dangers they lived through were trivial and their houses were rarely reduced to rubble. Earthquakes and fires were not phenomena that happened constantly and to everyone. The women did their knitting and told the cook what to make for lunch and invited their friends to houses that did not collapse. Everyone thought and studied and managed his life quietly. It was a different time and probably very fine in its way. But we are tied to our suffering, and at heart we are glad of our destiny as men. # _My Vocation_ My vocation is to write and I have known this for a long time. I hope I won't be misunderstood; I know nothing about the value of the things I am able to write. I know that writing is my vocation. When I sit down to write I feel extraordinarily at ease, and I move in an element which, it seems to me, I know extraordinarily well; I use tools that are familiar to me and they fit snugly in my hands. If I do something else, if I study a foreign language or try to learn history or geography or shorthand or if I try and speak in public or take up knitting or go on a journey, I suffer and constantly ask myself how others do these things: it always seems to me that there must be some correct way of doing these things which others know about and I don't. And it seems to me that I am deaf and blind and I feel a sort of sickness in the pit of my stomach. But when I write I never imagine that there is perhaps a better way of writing which other writers follow. I am not interested in what other writers do. But here I had better make it plain that I can only write stories. If I try to write a critical essay or an article that has been commissioned for a newspaper I don't do it very well. I have to search laboriously, as it were outside myself, for what I am writing now. I can do it a little better than I can learn a foreign language or speak in public, but only a little better. And I always feel that I am cheating the reader with words that I have borrowed or filched from various places. I suffer and feel that I am in exile. But when I write stories I am like someone who is in her own country, walking along streets that she has known since she was a child, between walls and trees that are hers. My vocation is to write stories – invented things or things which I can remember from my own life, but in any case stories, things that are concerned only with memory and imagination and have nothing to do with erudition. This is my vocation and I shall work at it till I die. I am very happy with my vocation and I would not change it for anything in the world. I realised that it was my vocation a long time ago. Between the ages of five and ten I was still unsure, and sometimes I imagined that I would be a painter, sometimes that I would ride out on horseback and conquer countries, sometimes that I would invent new machines that would be very important. But I have known since I was ten, and I worked as hard as I could at poems and novels. I still have those poems. The first poems are clumsy and they have errors of versification in them, but they are quite pleasant; and then, little by little, as time passed I wrote poems that became less and less clumsy but more and more boring and silly. However I didn't know this and I was ashamed of the clumsy poems, while those that were silly and not so clumsy seemed to me to be very beautiful, and I used to think that one day some famous poet would discover them and have them published and write long articles about me; I imagined the words and phrases of those articles and I composed them, from beginning to end, in my head. I imagined that I would win the Fracchia prize. I had heard that there was such a prize for writers. As I was unable to publish my poems in a book, since I didn't know any famous poets, I copied them neatly into an exercise book and drew a little flower on the title page and made an index and everything. It became very easy for me to write poems. I wrote about one a day. I realised that if I didn't want to write it was enough for me to read some poems by Pascoli or Gozzano or Corazzini and then I immediately wanted to. My poems came out as imitation Pascoli or imitation Gozzano or imitation Corazzini and then finally very imitation D'Annunzio when I found out that he also existed. However I never thought that I would write poetry all my life. I wanted to write novels sooner or later. I wrote three or four during those years. There was one called _Marion or the Gipsy Girl,_ another called _Molly and Dolly_ (a humorous detective story) and another called _A Woman_ ( _à la_ D'Annunzio; in the second person; the story of a woman abandoned by her husband; I remember that there was also a cook who was a negress) and then one that was very long and complicated with terrible stories of kidnapped girls and carriages so that I was too afraid to write it when I was alone in the house: I can remember nothing about it except that there was one phrase which pleased me very much and that tears came into my eyes as I wrote it, 'He said: ah! Isabella is leaving'. The chapter finished with this phrase which was very important because it was said by the man who loved Isabella although he did not know this as he had not yet confessed it to himself. I don't remember anything about this man (I think he had a reddish beard), Isabella had long black hair with blue highlights in it, I don't know anything else about her; I know that for a long time I would feel a shiver of joy whenever I said 'Ah! Isabella is leaving' to myself. I also often used to repeat a phrase which I had found in a serialised novel in _Stampa_ which went like this, 'Murderer of Gilonne, where have you put my child?' But I was not as sure about my novels as I was about the poems. When I reread them I always discovered a weakness somewhere or other, something wrong which spoiled everything and which was impossible to change. I always used to muddle up the past and the present, I was unable to fix the story in a particular time; parts of it were convents and carriages and a general feeling of the French Revolution, and parts of it were policemen with truncheons; and then all of a sudden there would be a little grey housewife with a sewing-machine and cats as in Carola Prosperi's novels, and this didn't go very well with the carriages and convents. I wavered between Carola Prosperi and Victor Hugo and Nick Carter's stories; I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I was also very keen on Annie Vivanti. There is a phrase in _The Devourers_ when she is writing to a stranger and says to him, 'I dress in brown'. This was another phrase which, for a long time, I repeated to myself. During the day I used to murmur to myself these phrases which gave me so much pleasure: 'Murderer of Gilonne', 'Isabella is leaving', 'I dress in brown', and I felt immensely happy. Writing poetry was easy. I was very pleased with my poems, to me they seemed almost perfect. I could not see what difference there was between them and real, published poems by real poets. I could not see why when I gave them to my brothers to read they laughed and said I would have done better to study Greek. I thought that perhaps my brothers didn't know much about poetry. Meanwhile I had to go to school and study Greek, Latin, mathematics, history – and I suffered a good deal and felt I was in exile. I spent my days in writing poems and copying them out in exercise books; I did not study for my lessons so I used to set the alarm for five in the morning. The alarm went off but I went on sleeping. I woke at seven, when there was no longer any time to study and I had to dress to go to school. I was not happy, I was always extremely afraid and filled with feelings of guilt and confusion. When I got to school I studied history during the Latin lesson, Greek during the history lesson, and so on, and I learnt nothing. For quite a while I thought it was all worth it because my poems were so beautiful, but at a certain moment I began to think that perhaps they were not so beautiful and it became tedious for me to write them and take the trouble to find subjects; it seemed to me that I had already dealt with every possible subject, and used all the possible words and rhymes – _speranza, lontananza; pensiero, mistero; vento, argento; fragranza, speranza_ (hope, distance; thought, mystery; wind, silver; fragrance, hope). I couldn't find anything else to say. Then a very nasty period began for me, and I spent the afternoons playing about with words that no longer gave me any pleasure while at the same time I felt guilty and ashamed about school. It never entered my head that I had mistaken my vocation – I wanted to write as much as ever, it was just that I could not understand why my days had suddenly become so barren and empty of words. The first serious piece I wrote was a story. A short story of five or six pages; it came from me like a miracle in a single evening, and when afterwards I went to bed I was tired, bewildered, worn out. I had the feeling that it was a serious piece, the first that I had ever written: the poems and the novels about girls and carriages suddenly seemed very far away from me, they were the naive and ridiculous creatures of another age and they belonged to a time that had disappeared for good. There were characters in this new story. Isabella and the man with the reddish beard were not characters; I didn't know anything about them beyond the words and phrases with which I described them – they appeared as if at random and not by my design. I had chosen the words and phrases I used for them by chance; it was as if I had a sack and had indiscriminately pulled out of it now a beard and now a cook who was a negress or some other usable item. But this time it was not a game. This time I had invented characters with names that I could not possibly have changed; I could not have changed any part of them and I knew a great deal about them – I knew how their lives had been up to the day of my story even though I did not talk about this in the story as it was not necessary. And I knew all about the house, the bridge, the moon and the river. I was seventeen and I had failed in Latin, Greek and mathematics. I had cried a lot when I found out. But now that I had written the story I felt a little less ashamed. It was summer, a summer night. A window that gave on to the garden was open and dark moths fluttered about the lamp. I had written my story on squared paper and I had felt happy as never before in my life; I felt I had a wealth of thoughts and words within me. The man was called Maurizio, the woman was called Anna and the child was called Villi, and the bridge, the moon and the river were also there. These things existed in me. And the man and the woman were neither good nor evil, but funny and a little sad and it seemed to me that I had discovered how people in books should be – funny and at the same time sad. Whichever way I looked at this story it seemed beautiful to me: there were no mistakes in it; everything happened as it should, at the right time. At that moment it seemed to me that I could write millions of stories. And in fact I wrote quite a few, at intervals of a month or two – some were quite good and some not so good. Now I discovered that it is tiring to write something seriously. It is a bad sign if it doesn't make you tired. You cannot hope to write something serious frivolously flitting hither and thither, as it were with one hand tied behind your back. You cannot get off so lightly. When someone writes something seriously he is lost in it, he is sucked down into it up to his eyebrows; and if there is a very strong emotion that is preoccupying him, if he is very happy or very unhappy for some let us say mundane reason which has nothing to do with the piece he is writing, then if what he is writing is real and deserves to live all those other feelings will become dormant in him. He cannot hope to keep his dear happiness or dear unhappiness whole and fresh before him; everything goes off into the distance and vanishes and he is left alone with his page; no happiness or unhappiness that is not strictly relevant to that page can exist in him, he cannot possess or belong to anything else – and if it does not happen like this, well that is a sign that the page is worthless. And so for a certain period – which lasted about six years – I wrote short stories. Since I had discovered that characters existed it seemed to me that to _have_ a character was enough to make a story. So I was always hunting for characters, I looked at the people in the tram and on the street and when I found a face that seemed suitable for a story I wove some moral details and a little anecdote around it. I also went hunting for details of dress and people's appearance, and how their houses looked inside; if I went into a new room I tried to describe it silently to myself, and I tried to find some small detail which would fit well in a story. I kept a notebook in which I wrote down some of the details I had discovered, or little similes, or episodes which I promised myself I would use in stories. For example I would write in my notebook 'She came out of the bathroom trailing the cord of her dressing-gown behind her like a long tail', 'How the lavatory stinks in this house – the child said to him – When I go, I hold my breath – he added sadly', 'His curls like bunches of grapes', 'Red and black blankets on an unmade bed', 'A pale face like a peeled potato'. But I discovered how difficult it was to use these phrases when I was writing a story. The notebook became a kind of museum of phrases that were crystallised and embalmed and very difficult to use. I tried endlessly to slip the red and black blankets or the curls like bunches of grapes into a story but I never managed to. So the notebook was no help to me. I realised that in this vocation there is no such thing as 'savings'. If someone thinks 'that's a fine detail and I don't want to waste it in the story I'm writing at the moment, I've plenty of good material here, I'll keep it in reserve for another story I'm going to write', that detail will crystallise inside him and he won't be able to use it. When someone writes a story he should throw the best of everything into it, the best of whatever he possesses and has seen, all the best things that he has accumulated throughout his life. If you carry details around inside yourself for a long time without making use of them, they wear out and waste away. Not only details but everything, all your ideas and clever notions. At the time when I was writing short stories made up of characters I had chanced on, and minute descriptive details, at that time I once saw a hand-cart being pushed through the street and on it was a huge mirror in a gilded frame. The greenish evening sky was reflected in it and as I stopped to watch while it went past I was feeling extremely happy, and I had the impression that something important had happened. I had been feeling very happy even before I saw the mirror, and it suddenly seemed to me that in the greenish resplendent mirror with its gilded frame the image of my own happiness was passing by me. For a long time I thought that I would put this in a story, for a long time simply remembering that hand-cart with the mirror on top of it made me want to write. But I was never able to include it anywhere and finally I realised that the image had died in me. Nevertheless it was very important. Because at the time when I was writing my short stories I always concentrated on grey, squalid people and things, I sought out a contemptible kind of reality lacking in glory. There was a certain malignancy in the taste I had at that time for finding minute details, an avid, mean desire for little things – little as fleas are little; I was engaged on an obstinate, scandal-mongering hunt for fleas. The mirror on the hand-cart seemed to offer me new possibilities, perhaps the ability to look at a more glorious and splendid kind of reality which did not require minute descriptions and cleverly noticed details but which could be conveyed in one resplendent, felicitous image. In the last analysis I despised the characters in the short stories I was writing at that time. Since I had discovered that it works well if a character is sad and comic I made characters who, because of their comic and pitiable qualities, were so contemptible and lacking in glory that I myself could not love them. My characters always had some nervous tic or obsession or physical deformity, or some rather ridiculous bad habit – they had a broken arm in a black sling, or they had sties in their eyes, or they stuttered, or they scratched their buttocks as they talked, or they limped a little. I always had to characterise them in some such way. For me this was a method of running away from my fear that they would turn out too vague, a way of capturing their humanity (which, subconsciously, I did not believe in). Because at that time I did not realise – though when I saw the mirror on the hand-cart I began, confusedly, to realise it – that I was no longer dealing with characters but with puppets, quite well painted and resembling men, but puppets. When I invented them I immediately characterised them, I marked them with some grotesque detail, and there was something nasty in this; I had a kind of malign resentment against reality. It was not a resentment based on anything real, because at that time I was a happy girl, but it appeared as a kind of reaction against naivety; it was that special resentment with which a naive person who always thinks she is being made a fool of defends herself – the resentment of a peasant who finds himself in a city for a while and sees thieves everywhere. At first I was bold, because this seemed to me to be a great ironic triumph over the naively pathetic effusions which were all too apparent in my poems. Irony and nastiness seemed to be very important weapons in my hands; I thought they would help me write like a man, because at that time I wanted terribly to write like a man and I had a horror of anyone realising from what I wrote that I was a woman. I almost always invented male characters because they would be the furthest and most separate from myself. I became reasonably good at blocking out a story, at getting rid of superfluous material and introducing details and conversations at the appropriate moments, wrote dry, clear stories that contained no blunders or mistakes of tone and that came to a convincing conclusion. But after a while I had had enough of this. The faces of people in the street no longer said anything interesting to me. Someone had a sty and someone had his cap on back to front and someone was wearing a scarf instead of a shirt, but these things no longer mattered to me. I was fed up with looking at things and people and describing them to myself. The world became silent for me. I could no longer find words to describe it, I no longer had any words capable of giving me pleasure. I didn't have anything any more. I tried to remember the mirror, but even that had died in me. I carried a burden of embalmed objects around inside of me – silent faces and ashen words, places and voices and gestures that were a dead weight on my heart, that had no flicker of life in them. And then my children were born and when they were very little I could not understand how anyone could sit herself down to write if she had children. I did not see how I could separate myself from them in order to follow someone or other's fortunes in a story. I began to feel contempt for my vocation. Now and again I longed for it desperately and felt that I was in exile, but I tried to despise it and make fun of it and occupy myself solely with the children. I believed I had to do this. I spent my time on creamed rice and creamed barley and wondering whether there was sun or not or wind or not so that I could take the children out for a walk. The children seemed extremely important to me because they were a way of leaving my stupid stories and stupid embalmed characters behind. But I felt a ferocious longing within me and sometimes at night I almost wept when I remembered how beautiful my vocation was. I thought that I would recover it some day or other but I did not know when: I thought that I would have to wait till my children grew up and left me. Because the feeling I then had for my children was one that I had not yet learnt to control. But then little by little I learnt, and it did not even take that long. I still made tomato sauce and semolina, but simultaneously I thought about what I could be writing. At that time we were living in very beautiful countryside, in the south. I remembered my own city's streets and hills, and those streets and hills mingled with the streets and hills and meadows of the place where we were, and a new nature, something that I was once again able to love, appeared. I felt homesick for my city and in retrospect I loved it very much, I loved and understood it in a way that I had never done when I lived there, and I also loved the place where we were then living – a countryside that was white and dusty in the southern sunlight; wide meadows of scorched, bristling grass stretched away from my windows, and a memory of the avenues and plane-trees and high houses of my city assailed me; all this slowly took fire in me and I had a very strong desire to write. I wrote a long story, the longest I had ever written. I started writing again like someone who has never written, because it was a long time since I had written anything, and the words seemed rinsed and fresh, everything was new and as it were untouched, and full of taste and fragrance. I wrote in the afternoons while a local girl took my children out for a walk, and I wrote greedily and joyfully; it was a beautiful autumn and I felt very happy every day. I put a few invented people into my story and a few real people from the countryside where we were living; and some of the words that came to me as I was writing were idioms and imprecations local to that area, and which I had not known before, and these new expressions were like a yeast that fermented and gave life to all the old words. The main character was a woman, but very different from myself. Now I no longer wanted to write like a man, because I had had children and I thought I knew a great many things about tomato sauce and even if I didn't put them into my story it helped my vocation that I knew them; in a strange, remote way these things also helped my vocation. It seemed to me that women knew things about their children that a man could never know. I wrote my story very quickly, as if I were afraid that it would run away. I called it a novel, but perhaps it was not a novel. But up till then I had always written very quickly, and always very short things, and at a certain moment I thought I realised why. Because I had brothers who were much older than me and when I was small if I talked at table they always told me to be quiet. And so I was used to speaking very fast, in a headlong fashion with the smallest possible number of words, and always afraid that the others would start talking among themselves again and stop listening to me. Perhaps this seems a rather stupid explanation; nevertheless that is how it was. I said that the time when I was writing what I called a novel was a very happy time for me. Nothing serious had ever happened in my life, I knew nothing about sickness or betrayal or loneliness or death. Nothing in my life had ever fallen to pieces, except futile things, nothing dear to my heart had ever been snatched away from me. I had only suffered from the listless melancholy of adolescence and the pain of not knowing how to write. And so I was happy in a fulfilled, calm way, without fear or anxiety, and with a complete faith in the stability and durability of earthly happiness. When we are happy we feel that we are cooler, clearer, more separate from reality. When we are happy we tend to create characters who are very different from ourselves; we see them in a cold, clear light as things separate from us. While our imagination and inventive energy work assertively within us we avert our eyes from our own happy, contented state and pitilessly – with a free, cruel, ironic, proud gaze – fix them on other beings. It is easy for us to invent characters, many characters, who are fundamentally different from us, and it is easy for us to construct our stories solidly – they are as it were well-drained and stand in a cold, clear light. What we then lack, when we are happy in this special way that has no tears or anxiety or fear in it, what we then lack is any tender, intimate sympathy with our characters and with the places and things we write about. What we lack is compassion. Superficially we are much more generous in the sense that we always find the strength to be interested in others and devote our time to them – we are not that preoccupied with ourselves because we don't need anything. But this interest of ours in others, which is so lacking in tenderness, can only get at a few relatively external aspects of their characters. The world has only one dimension for us and lacks secrets and shadows; we are able to guess at and create the sadness we have not experienced by virtue of the imaginative strength within us, but we always see it in a sterile, frozen light as something that does not concern us and that has no roots within us. Our personal happiness or unhappiness, our _terrestrial_ condition, has a great importance for the things we write. I said before that at the moment someone is writing he is miraculously driven to forget the immediate circumstances of his own life. This is certainly true. But whether we are happy or unhappy leads us to write in one way or another. When we are happy our imagination is stronger; when we are unhappy our memory works with greater vitality. Suffering makes the imagination weak and lazy; it moves, but unwillingly and heavily, with the weak movements of someone who is ill, with the weariness and caution of sick, feverish limbs; it is difficult for us to turn our eyes away from our own life and our own state, from the thirst and restlessness that pervade us. And so memories of our own past constantly crop up in the things we write, our own voice constantly echoes there and we are unable to silence it. A particular sympathy grows up between us and the characters that we invent – that our debilitated imagination is still just able to invent – a sympathy that is tender and almost maternal, warm and damp with tears, intimately physical and stifling. We are deeply, painfully rooted in every being and thing in the world, the world which has become filled with echoes and trembling and shadows, to which we are bound by a devout and passionate pity. Then we risk foundering on a dark lake of stagnant, dead water, and dragging our mind's creations down with us, so that they are left to perish among dead rats and rotting flowers in a dark, warm whirlpool. As far as the things we write are concerned there is a danger in grief just as there is a danger in happiness. Because poetic beauty is a mixture of ruthlessness, pride, irony, physical tenderness, of imagination and memory, of clarity and obscurity – and if we cannot gather all these things together we are left with something meagre, unreliable and hardly alive. And you have to realise that you cannot hope to console yourself for your grief by writing. You cannot deceive yourself by hoping for caresses and lullabies from your vocation. In my life there have been interminable, desolate empty Sundays in which I desperately wanted to write something that would console me for my loneliness and boredom, so that I could be calmed and soothed by phrases and words. But I could not write a single line. My vocation has always rejected me, it does not want to know about me. Because this vocation is never a consolation or a way of passing the time. It is not a companion. This vocation is a master who is able to beat us till the blood flows, a master who reviles and condemns us. We must swallow our saliva and our tears and grit our teeth and dry the blood from our wounds and serve him. Serve him when he asks. Then he will help us up on to our feet, fix our feet firmly on the ground; he will help us overcome madness and delirium, fever and despair. But he has to be the one who gives the orders and he always refuses to pay attention to us when we need him. After the time when I lived in the South I got to know grief very well – a real, irremediable and incurable grief that shattered my life, and when I tried to put it together again I realised that I and my life had become something irreconcilable with what had gone before. Only my vocation remained unchanged, but it is profoundly misleading to say that even that was unchanged – the tools were still the same but the way I used them had altered. At first I hated it, it disgusted me, but I knew very well that I would end up returning to it, and that it would save me. Sometimes I would think that I had not been so unfortunate in my life and that I was unjust when I accused destiny of never having shown me any kindness, because it had given me my three children and my vocation. Besides, I could not imagine my life without my vocation. It was always there, it had never left me for a moment, and when I believed that it slept its vigilant, shining eyes were still watching me. Such is my vocation. It does not produce much money and it is always necessary to follow some other vocation simultaneously in order to live. Though sometimes it produces a little, and it is very satisfying to have money because of it – it is like receiving money and presents from the hands of someone you love. Such is my vocation. I do not, I repeat, know much about the value of the results it has given me or could give me: or it would be better to say that I know the relative though certainly not the absolute value of the results I have already obtained. When I write something I usually think it is very important and that I am a very fine writer. I think this happens to everyone. But there is one corner of my mind in which I know very well what I am, which is a small, a very small writer. I swear I know it. But that doesn't matter much to me. Only, I don't want to think about names: I can see that if I am asked 'a small writer like who?' it would sadden me to think of the names of other small writers. I prefer to think that no one has ever been like me, however small, however much a mosquito or a flea of a writer I may be. The important thing is to be convinced that this really is your vocation, your profession, something you will do all your life. But as a vocation it is no joke. There are innumerable dangers besides those I have mentioned. We are constantly threatened with grave dangers whenever we write a page. There is the danger of suddenly starting to be flirtatious and of singing. I always have a crazy desire to sing and I have to be very careful that I don't. And there is the danger of cheating with words that do not really exist within us, that we have picked up by chance from outside of ourselves and which we skilfully slip in because we have become a bit dishonest. There is the danger of cheating and being dishonest. As you see, it is quite a difficult vocation, but it is the finest one in the world. The days and houses of our life, the days and houses of the people with whom we are involved, books and images and thoughts and conversations – all these things feed it, and it grows within us. It is a vocation which also feeds on terrible things, it swallows the best and the worst in our lives and our evil feelings flow in its blood just as much as our benevolent feelings. It feeds itself, and grows within us. # _Silence_ I heard _Pelléas et Mélisande._ I know nothing about music, but I found myself comparing words from old opera libretti ('I will atone with my blood – the love which I placed in you') – ponderous, gory, heavy words, with the fugitive, watery words ( _'J'ai froid – ta chevelure'_ ) of _Pelléas et Mélisande._ I began to wonder if that ( _Pelléas et Mélisande_ ) were not the beginning of our silence. Because silence must be numbered among the strangest and gravest vices of our time. Those of us who have tried to write novels in our time know the discomfort and unhappiness that appears as soon as we reach the point when we have to make our characters talk to one another. For page after page our characters exchange comments that are insignificant but pregnant with a desolate unhappiness: 'Are you cold?' 'No, I'm not cold.' 'Would you like some tea?' 'No thanks.' 'Are you tired?' 'I don't know. Yes, perhaps I'm a bit tired.' This is how our characters talk. They talk like this to kill time. They talk like this because they don't know how to talk any more. Little by little the most important matters, the most terrible confessions, come out: 'You killed him?' 'Yes, I killed him.' The meagre barren words of our time are painfully wrung from silence and appear like the signals of castaways, beacons lit on the most distant hills, weak, desperate summonses that are swallowed up in space. And so when we want to make our characters talk, we measure the profound silence that has, little by little, built up within us. We began to be silent as children, at table, in front of our parents who still spoke to us using the old, heavy, gory words. We remained silent. We remained silent as a protest and as a mark of contempt. We remained silent so that our parents would realise that their ponderous words were no longer any use to us. We had others that we kept in reserve. We would use these new words of ours later, with people who would understand them. Our silence was our wealth. Now we are ashamed of it and desperate and we know all the misery it brings. We shall never be free of it again. Those ponderous words that served our parents are a currency that has been withdrawn and which no one accepts. And we realise that the new words have no value, that we can buy nothing with them. They are no use for establishing relationships, they are watery, cold, sterile. They are no use for writing books, for linking us with someone we love, for saving a friend. It is well known that a feeling of guilt is one of the vices of our time; a great deal is talked and written about it. We all suffer from it. We feel ourselves to be involved with something that gets filthier with every day that passes. And there is also the feeling of panic; we all suffer from that too. The feeling of panic comes from the feeling of guilt. And a man who is panic-stricken and guilty stays silent. Everyone looks in his own way for something that will cure the silence, the feeling of guilt, the feeling of panic. Some people travel. In their anxiety to see new countries and new people there is the hope that they will leave behind their own obscure ghosts; there is the secret hope that somewhere on the earth they will find the one person who could talk to them. Some people get drunk in order to forget their own obscure ghosts, and to talk. And then there are all the things people do _so that they do not have to talk:_ some people spend their evenings stretched out in the cinema with a woman beside them to whom, in this way, they don't have to talk; some people learn how to play bridge; some people make love, which can also be done without talking. Usually they say they are doing these things _to kill time;_ in fact they do them to kill the silence. There are two kinds of silence; silence with oneself and silence with others. Both kinds make us suffer equally. The silence with ourselves is dominated by a violent dislike for our own existence, by a contempt for our own soul which seems so vile that it is not worth speaking to. Clearly we have to break this silence with ourselves if we wish to try and break the silence with others. Clearly we have no right to hate ourselves, no right to say nothing about our thoughts to our own souls. The commonest way of freeing oneself from silence is to be psychoanalysed. To talk endlessly about oneself to a person who listens, who is paid to listen: to uncover the roots of our own silence: yes, this can give some momentary relief. But the silence is profound and universal. We rediscover it as soon as we have left the room in which that person, paid to listen, listened to us. We immediately sink into it again. And then this hour's relief seems superficial and banal to us. Silence is worldwide: someone who cures it in one of us for one hour does nothing towards solving the common problem. When we go to be psychoanalysed we are told that we must stop hating ourselves so violently. But in order to free us from this hatred, to free us from this guilt, this feeling of panic, this silence, we are told that we must live according to nature, that we must indulge our instincts, that we must follow our own desires: that we must make a free choice of our lives. But to make a free choice of your life is not to live according to nature; it is to live unnaturally, because man is not always given a free choice: he does not choose the hour of his birth, or his face, or his parents, or his childhood; he does not normally choose the hour of his death. A man has no choice but to accept his face as he has no choice but to accept his destiny: and the only choice he is permitted is the choice between good and evil, between justice and injustice, between truth and lies. The things they tell those of us who go to be psychoanalysed are of no use to us because they do not take our moral responsibility – which is the only choice permitted us in life – into account; those of us who have been psychoanalysed know only too well how rarefied, unnatural and finally unbreathable is that atmosphere of ephemeral freedom in which we live just as we wish. Usually this vice of silence that poisons our epoch is summed up by a cliché, 'We have lost the art of conversation'. This is the frivolous, commonplace expression of a real and tragic truth. When we say 'the art of conversation' we are not saying anything that helps us to live; what we lack is the opportunity of free, normal relationships between men, and we miss it to such an extent that some of us are driven to suicide by our awareness of this absence. Every day silence harvests its victims. Silence is a mortal illness. Today, as never before, the fates of men are so intimately linked to one another that a disaster for one is a disaster for everybody. It is strange but true that men find themselves intimately linked to one another's destinies to such an extent that the fall of one sweeps away thousands of others, and at the same time they are all smothered by silence, incapable of exchanging a single unconstrained word. For this reason – because one person's disaster is everyone's disaster – the ways of curing this silence that have been suggested to us are clearly unreal. We have been advised to defend ourselves from despair with egotism. But egotism has never solved despair. And we are too used to calling our soul's vices _illnesses,_ to putting up with them and to letting them rule our lives, or to soothing them with sweet syrups in order to cure them as if they were illnesses. Silence must be faced and judged from a moral standpoint. It is not given to us to choose whether we are happy or unhappy. But we _must_ choose not to be _demonically_ unhappy. Silence can become a closed, monstrous, _demonic_ unhappiness: it withers the days of our youth and makes our bread bitter. It can lead, as I have said, to death. Silence must be faced and judged from a moral standpoint. Because silence, like acedia and like luxury, is a sin. The fact that in our time it is a sin common to all our fellow men, that it is the bitter fruit of our sick times, does not excuse us from recognising it for what it is and from calling it by its true name. # _Human Relationships_ The problem of our relationships with other human beings lies at the centre of our life: as soon as we become aware of this – that is, as soon as we clearly see it as a problem and no longer as the muddle of unhappiness, we start to look for its origins, and to reconstruct its course throughout our whole life. When we are little children we have our eyes fixed above all on the world of adults, which is dark and mysterious to us. It seems absurd to us because we don't understand any of the words which adults say to one another, or the sense of their decisions and actions, or the reasons for their changes of mood and sudden outbursts of anger. We don't understand the words which adults say to each other and we are not interested in them; on the contrary they are infinitely boring to us. What interests us are the decisions of theirs that can alter our daily routine, the black moods that spoil lunches and suppers, the sudden slamming of doors, and voices raised in the night. We realise that at any moment an unexpected storm – complete with the sound of doors being slammed and objects being hurled about – can irrupt from a few quiet words. We nervously listen for the slightest indication of violence in the voices that are talking. We can be alone and absorbed in play when, suddenly, angry voices are raised in the house: we go on playing mechanically, pushing pebbles and grass into a little heap of earth to make a hill: but we are no longer interested in the little hill because we know that we cannot be happy until the house is at peace again; doors slam and we jump; angry words fly from one room to another – words that are incomprehensible to us and we do not try to understand them or discover the murky reasons for their existence, we vaguely think that whatever reasons there may be must be horrible; we are so weighed down by all the absurd mystery of adult life. And sometimes this complicates our relationships with other children, with the world of our equals: sometimes we have a friend with us who has come to play; we are making a little hill with him when a slammed door tells us that peace is at an end; burning with shame we pretend to be extremely interested in the little hill, we do our utmost to distract our friend's attention from the brutal voices that are re-echoing through the house; with hands that are suddenly sweaty and tired we precisely push our little bits of wood into the heap of earth. We are absolutely certain that no one ever argues or screams brutal words at one another in our friend's house; in our friend's house everyone is calm and cultured, and arguing is a shame peculiar to our house; then one day we discover with immense relief that they argue in our friend's house just as they do in our house, as they do perhaps in every house on earth. We become adolescents when the words that adults exchange with one another become intelligible to us; intelligible, but of no interest because we no longer care whether peace reigns in the house or not. Now we are able to follow the ins and outs of family rows and to foresee their course and how long they will last; and we are not afraid of them any more, doors slam and we do not jump. The house is no longer what it was for us before, it is no longer the point from which we look out on the rest of the universe, it is a place where – by chance – we eat and live: we eat quickly, lending one inattentive ear to the adults' conversation – a conversation which is intelligible to us but which strikes us as useless; we eat and quickly escape to our rooms so that we don't have to listen to their useless conversation; and we are able to be perfectly happy even if the adults around us are arguing and sulking day in day out. The things that matter to us no longer happen within the walls of our house but outside, in the street and at school; we feel that we cannot be happy if the other children at school look down on us in any way. We would do anything to escape their contempt; and we do anything. We write comic verses to amuse our friends, which we recite to them with ridiculous grimaces that we are ashamed of afterwards; we collect obscene words so that they will think well of us, we go looking all day long for obscene words in the books and dictionaries that we have in the house; and because it seems to us that a showy, gaudy way of dressing is popular with our friends we (against our mother's wishes) try to add something that is a bit showy and vulgar to our quiet clothes. We vaguely feel that if we are looked down on it is above all because we are shy: who knows, perhaps that moment long ago when we were making a little heap of earth with our friend and the doors slammed and brutal voices re-echoed and shame burnt our cheeks, perhaps it was that moment which planted the roots of shyness in us: and we think that our whole life will have to be spent in freeing ourselves from this shyness, in learning to move under the gaze of others with the same self-confidence and carelessness as when we are alone. We think of our shyness as the most important obstacle to winning sympathy and universal approbation: and we are hungry and thirsty for this approbation: in our lonely daydreams we see ourselves riding triumphantly on horseback through a city, in the midst of an applauding, adoring crowd. At home we punish the adults – whose absurdly mysterious ways weighed us down for so many years – with our profound contempt, with our taciturn, impenetrable faces; their mystery has obsessed us for so many years, and now we take our revenge by confronting them with our mystery, a silent impenetrable face and eyes of stone. And we also take revenge on the adults at home for the contempt shown us by other schoolchildren. It seems to us that this contempt includes not only us but our whole family, our social position, the furnishings in our home, our parents' habits and behaviour. Every now and then anger erupts in the house as of old, but now it is directed at us, at our stony faces: a whirlwind of violent language breaks over us; doors slam but we do not jump; now the doors slam because of us as we sit unmoving at the table, with a disdainful smile: later on, alone in our room, our disdainful smile suddenly melts away and we burst into tears and daydream about our loneliness and how the others do not understand us; and we feel strangely happy to be pouring out these scalding tears and stifling our sobs in a cushion. Then mother arrives and is touched at the sight of our tears and offers to take us out for an ice-cream or to the cinema; with our red, swollen eyes, but stony-faced and impenetrable again, we sit next to mother at a little table in a cafe, eating ice-cream with a tiny spoon; all around us moves a crowd of people who are apparently calm and light-hearted while we, oh we are the gloomiest, most gauche and detestable thing on earth. 'Who are the others and who are we?' we wonder. Sometimes we stay alone in our room for a whole afternoon, thinking; with a vague feeling of dizziness we wonder whether the others really exist at all, or if it is we who have invented them. We say that perhaps when we are not there all the others cease to exist and disappear in an instant; and miraculously reassemble, suddenly appearing from the earth, as soon as we look at them. Isn't it possible that one day when we turn round unexpectedly we shall find nothing, no one, and be left staring into emptiness? And so there's no reason, we say, to get so upset about the others' contempt, because perhaps the others don't exist and therefore think neither about us nor about themselves. While we are absorbed in these dizzying thoughts mother comes and suggests we go out for an ice-cream; and we feel inexplicably happy, excessively happy, thinking about the ice-cream that we are going to eat in a little while; and however has the prospect of an ice-cream made us so happy we wonder, we who are so adult, with our dizzying thoughts, who are so strangely lost in a world of shadows? We agree to mother's suggestion, but we are careful not to show her how happy we are about it; our lips are sealed as we walk to the cafe with her. Though we constantly tell ourselves that perhaps the others do not exist, that it is we who have invented them, we inexplicably continue to suffer from the contempt shown to us by our schoolfellows, and from our heaviness and clumsiness which we ourselves find shamefully contemptible; when others talk to us our face feels so ugly and shapeless that we want to cover it with our hands; and yet we are always daydreaming that someone will fall in love with us, that he sees us in the cafe while we are having an ice-cream with mother, that he secretly follows us home and writes us a love-letter; we wait for this letter and every day we are extremely surprised that we haven't received it yet; we have murmured its phrases so often that we know them by heart, and when this letter does arrive we really shall have a marvellous mystery that is nothing to do with home, a secret intrigue whose ramifications are entirely outside the house; because we have to confess that at the moment our mystery is a poor thing and that behind the stony mask which we offer to our parents for their goodnight kiss we are hiding very little; after that kiss we hurry to our room while our parents whisper suspicious questions about us. In the morning we go to school after having stared concentratedly at our face in the mirror: our face has lost the soft delicacy of childhood; now we think regretfully about childhood and when we made little heaps of earth and our only unhappiness was when there was quarrelling in the house: now they do not quarrel so often in the house – our elder brothers have gone off to live their own lives, our parents have become older and quieter; but now we don't care about the house; we walk to school alone in the mist; when we were little mother came to school with us and came to collect us; now we are alone in the mist and terribly responsible for everything we do. God has said 'Love thy neighbour as thyself'. This seems absurd to us; God has said something absurd, he has imposed on man something that is impossible to carry out. How can we love our neighbour when he despises us and won't let us love him? And how can we love ourselves – disgusting and heavy and gloomy as we are? How can we love our neighbour who perhaps doesn't exist and is only a crowd of shadows while God has created us, only us, and placed us on an earth that is a shadow where we live on our dizzying thoughts? We have believed in God since we were little, but now we think that perhaps he doesn't exist, or he exists and doesn't care about us because he has placed us in such cruel circumstances, and so for us it is as if he didn't exist. Then at table we refuse some dish we particularly like and we pass the night stretched out on the rug in our room in order to mortify ourselves and punish ourselves for our hateful thoughts, and be loved by God. 'But God does not exist' we think, after an entire night shivering on the floor with our limbs numbed by cold and sleep. God does not exist because he could not have invented this absurd, monstrous world, this complicated contrivance in which a human being walks alone in the fog each morning, between high houses inhabited by his neighbour who does not love him and who is impossible to love. And that monstrous inexplicable race who are of a different sex from us and who possess a terrible ability to do everything good and everything evil to us, who have a terrible secret power over us, they are also our neighbour. Could we ever be attractive to that other race, we who are so despised by our companions of our own sex, who are considered to be so boring and empty, so useless and clumsy at everything? Then one day it happens that the most admired, the most sought after of all our schoolfellows, the top of the class, suddenly becomes friends with us. How this has come about we do not know. She suddenly fixed her blue eyes on us, walked home with us and began to think well of us. In the afternoon she comes to our house to do her homework; in our hands we hold the precious exercise book belonging to the top of the class, with her beautiful angular handwriting in blue ink: we can copy her homework which has no mistakes in it. How has such happiness come to us? How have we acquired this friend, who is so proud with everyone and so unapproachable? Now she wanders within the walls of our room, shaking her mane of red hair beside us, leaning her sharp profile – which is covered in pinkish freckles – over the familiar objects in our room: it seems to us that some rare tropical animal has miraculously been domesticated and appeared within the walls of our house. She wanders around our room, asks where things come from, asks if she can borrow some book or other; she has tea with us, and she spits plum stones off the terrace with us. We who were despised by everyone have been chosen by the most unapproachable, the most unexpected companion. We talk to her convulsively so that she will not be bored by our company, so that she will not leave us forever: in a rush we tell her all our obscene words and everything we know about films and sport. When we are alone we say the syllables of her beautiful sonorous name over and over again, and we prepare a thousand things to say to her the next day; we are wild with happiness and begin to imagine that she is like us in every way; the next day we try the speeches we have prepared on her, we tell her everything about our life, even our dizzying suspicion that neither people nor things exist: she looks at us uneasily, giggles, and makes fun of us a little. Then we realise that we have made a mistake and that it is not possible to talk to her about this subject; we fall back on obscene words and sport. Meanwhile, our situation at school has changed overnight: everyone begins to respect us when they see that we are respected by the most respected person in the group; the comic verses we have written and which we now recite are received with shrieks of shrill applause: before, we could not make our voice heard above the general hubbub of voices, now everyone listens in silence when we speak; now they ask us questions and walk arm in arm with us, they help us with the things we are less good at, like sports or homework we don't know how to do. The world no longer appears to us as a monstrous contrivance but like a simple, smiling little island populated with friends: we do not thank God for such a lucky change in our fortunes because we no longer think about God; it seems impossible to us to think about anything except the cheerful faces of our friends gathered around us, the way the mornings flow happily and easily past, the crazy things we have said that made everyone laugh; and our face in the mirror is no longer something gloomy and shapeless but the face which our friends greet happily every morning. Sustained in this way by the friendship of companions of our own sex, we look with less horror at that other race, the people of a different sex from ours; it almost seems to us that we could easily do without this different race, that we could be happy without their approbation; we almost wish we could spend our whole life surrounded by school friends, saying crazy things and making them laugh. Then little by little we discover one friend, in the midst of the crowd of friends, who is particularly happy to be with us and to whom, we realise, we have an infinite number of things to say. She is not the top of the class, she is not particularly well thought of by the others, she does not wear showy clothes: in fact her clothes are made of fine, warm cloth very like that which our mother chooses for us; and when we are walking home with her we realise that her shoes are identical to ours – strong and simple, not showy and flimsy like those of our other friends; we laughingly point this out to her. Little by little we find out that the same habits prevail in her house as in ours: and that she bathes often, and that her mother does not let her go to see romantic films just as our mother doesn't allow us to. She is a person like us; she is from the same social background. By this time we are very fed up with the company of the top of the class who still comes to see us every afternoon; by this time we are fed up with repeating the same old obscene words and now we proudly confront the top of the class with remarks about the subject that interests us, our doubts about existence; we do this so disdainfully and carelessly, and with such pride, that the top of the class doesn't really understand us, but smiles shyly; we see that shy, cowardly smile on her lips; she is afraid of losing us. We are no longer bewitched by her blue eyes, and when we are with her we long for the round, hazel eyes of our other friend; and the top of the class realises this and is upset by it, and we are proud of making her upset; and so we too are capable of making someone suffer. With our new friend who has round eyes, we despise the top of the class and our other friends who are so noisy and vulgar, with all their obscene words that they are always repeating: now we wish to be very refined, with our new friend we judge people and things according to criteria of refinement or vulgarity. We discover that it is refined to stay children as long as possible; to the great relief of our mothers we give up all the vulgar showy things we had added to our clothes; in our clothes as in our demeanour and habits we look for a childlike simplicity. We spend extraordinary afternoons with our new friend; we are never weary of talking and listening. We are astonished when we think of our friendship with the top of the class whom we have now stopped seeing; being with the top of the class became so tiring that in the end we felt our eyelids smarting, our skin itching and the muscles of our face aching with the effort of keeping up our false smile; it was tiring to hide our dislike, to suppress confidences, to constantly choose those few words that could be said to the top of the class; being with our new friend is so pleasant, we have nothing to hide or suppress and we can let our words flow freely. We even confide our dizzying suspicions about existence to her: and then she tells us with astonishment that she has had the same suspicions: 'but do you exist?' we ask her, and she swears that she exists, and we are infinitely happy. We and our new friend are sorry that we are of the same sex, because if we were of different sexes we could get married so that we would be together for ever and ever. We have no fear of each other, or shame, or horror: and so a shadow hangs over our life which could now have been so happy – the uncertainty as to whether one day someone of the opposite sex will be able to love us. People of the opposite sex walk next to us, brush against us in the street, perhaps think about us or have designs on us which we can never know; they have our fate – our happiness – in their hands. Perhaps the person who is suitable for us, who could love us and whom we could love, is among them: the person who is right for us; but where? How can we recognise this person, how can we make him recognise us, in the crowded city? In which house in the city, at which point on the earth, does this person live who is right for us, who is like us in every way, who is ready to answer all our questions, ready to listen to us for ever without getting bored, to smile at our faults, to live with our face all his life? What words ought we to say so that he will recognise us among thousands? How should we dress, what places should we go in order to meet him? We are tormented by these thoughts and when we are with people of the opposite sex we feel extremely shy because we are afraid that one of them could be the right person for us and we could lose him with a word. We think carefully about all our words before uttering them and then we say them hurriedly, in a strangled voice; because of our fear we glance about gloomily and have tiny, abrupt gestures; we are aware of all this but we tell ourselves that the person who has been made for us must recognise us even though we have these abrupt gestures and this strangled voice: if he doesn't give any sign of having noticed us it is because he is not the right person; the right person will recognise us and pick us out among thousands. We wait for the right person; every morning when we get up we think that this could be the day when we meet him; we dress and comb our hair with infinite care, and overcome the desire to go out in an old raincoat and shapeless shoes; the right person might just happen to be on the corner of the street. Thousands and thousands of times we think that we are in the presence of the person made for us: our heart beats tumultuously at the sound of a particular name, at the curve of a nose or a smile, and only because we have suddenly decided that this is the nose and the name and the smile of the person made for us: a car with yellow wheels and an old lady make us blush uncontrollably because we think them the car and the mother of the right person for us – the car in which we will set off on our honeymoon, the mother who will have to place her hand on us in benediction. All at once we realise we have made a mistake – that wasn't the right person, he is of no interest to us whatsoever, and we don't suffer because we have no time to suffer; suddenly the car with yellow wheels, the name and the smile fade away and are absorbed into the thousand useless things that surround our life. But we don't have time to suffer; we are leaving for a holiday in the country and we are absolutely certain that during these holidays we shall meet the right person; because we are convinced that the train will take us to the right person we are more or less unmoved by parting from our friend with the round eyes; and she for her part is convinced of the same thing: goodness knows why we are suddenly convinced that the right person will be met on a summer holiday in the country. The long, lonely, boring months pass by: we write interminable letters to our friend and to console ourselves for the meeting that never happens we carefully collect together all the favourable judgements passed on us by old acquaintances of the family or by aged relatives and write them out for our friend; she writes to us similar letters containing the favourable judgements on her intelligence and beauty passed by her aged relatives. When autumn comes we have to admit inwardly that nothing extraordinary has happened; but we are not disappointed, we eagerly rejoin our friend and our other companions and contentedly settle down to the autumn; the right person is waiting for us, perhaps, at the corner of the avenue. Then little by little we withdraw from our friend. We find her a bit boring, 'bourgeois'; she is always obsessed with elegance and refinement. Now we want to be poor: we become involved with a group of poor friends and every day we proudly go to their unheated house. We wear our old raincoat now, and with pride: we still count on meeting the right person, but he must love our old raincoat, he must love our shapeless shoes, our cheap cigarettes and our bare, red hands. Dressed in our old raincoat we walk alone at dusk past the houses on the edge of the city; we have discovered the edge of the city, the signboards of the little cafes beside the river, and we linger lost in thought in front of little shops where long pink bodices are hung up, and workmen's overalls, and coffee-coloured underpants; we stand gaping in front of a shop window of old postcards and old hairpins: we like everything that is old, dusty and poor: we go searching through the city for poor, dusty things. Meanwhile it pours with rain onto our old raincoat, which lets water through, and on to our uncovered head; we don't have an umbrella – we would rather commit suicide than go out with an umbrella; we don't have an umbrella or a hat or gloves or the tram fare: all we have is a dirty handkerchief in our pocket, and some crushed cigarettes and kitchen matches. Suddenly it occurs to us that the poor are our neighbour, the poor are the neighbour whom we have to love; we watch the poor as they pass by us; we look out for a chance to take a blind beggar across the road, to offer our arm to some old lady who has slipped in a puddle; we shyly caress – with the tips of our fingers – the filthy hair of children playing in the alleyways; we return home soaked to the skin, chilled to the marrow, and triumphant. We are not poor, we do not spend the night on a bench in a public park, we do not drink cloudy soup from a tin saucepan; we are not poor, but only by chance: we shall be extremely poor tomorrow. Meanwhile the friend whom we have stopped seeing suffers on our account, just as the top of the class suffered when we stopped seeing her. We know this, but we don't feel sorry about it; it even gives us a kind of underhand pleasure, because if someone suffers on our account it means that we – who for so long thought of ourselves as weak and insignificant – have in our hands the power to make someone suffer. We don't suspect that we are perhaps cynical and wicked because we don't suspect that our friend is also our neighbour: neither do we think that our parents are our neighbour: our neighbour is the poor. We give our parents severe looks as they eat their good food at their well-lit table; we also eat this good food, but we think that this is by chance, and it will only be like this for a very short time: in a little while we will have nothing more than a bit of black bread and a tin saucepan. One day we meet the right person. We are unmoved, because we haven't recognised him; we walk with the right person along the streets at the edge of the city, and little by little we fall into the habit of walking together every day. From time to time we wonder absentmindedly whether we are not perhaps walking with the right person, but we think that probably we are not. We are too calm; the earth and the sky are unchanged, the minutes and hours flow quietly on without awakening any deep echo in our heart. We have been mistaken so often; we believed we were in the presence of the right person and we weren't. And in the presence of each wrong right person we were impetuously swept away in such a tumult of emotion that we scarcely had strength left to think; we found ourselves living at the centre of a landscape on fire; trees, houses and objects burst into flames around us. And then all at once the fire had died down and there was nothing left but a few warm embers: there are so many burnt-out landscapes behind us that we cannot even count them. Now nothing around us is on fire. For weeks and months we spend our days with the right person without realising; only sometimes, the thought of the curve of his lips, of certain of his gestures and the intonation of his voice, produces a slight tremor in our heart: but we don't think anything of such a slight, muffled tremor. The strange thing is that when we are with this person we always feel so well and at peace, able to breathe deeply, and our forehead which has been so wrinkled and grim for so long is suddenly smooth again; and we never tire of talking and listening. We realise that we have never had a relationship like this with any other human being; in time all human beings had seemed so inoffensive, so simple and small to us: but when we walk beside this person with his pace that is different from ours, and his severe profile, he has an infinite capacity to do to us everything that is good and everything that is evil. And yet we feel infinitely calm. And we leave home and go to live with this person for ever; not because we are sure that he is the right person: in fact we are not entirely sure, and we always suspect that the right person for us is hiding away goodness knows where in the city. But we don't want to know where he is hiding; we feel that we have by now very little to say to him, because we say everything to this person – who is not perhaps the right person – with whom we now live; and we want to receive the good and the evil of our lives from this person and with him. Every now and then violent differences between us and this person erupt into the open; and yet they are unable to destroy the infinite peace we have within us. After many years, only after many years, after a thick web of habits, memories and violent differences has been woven between us, we at last realise that he is, in truth, the right person for us, that we could not have put up with anyone else, that it is only from him that we can ask everything that the heart needs. Now, in the new house where we have come to live, and that is ours, we don't want to be poor, in fact we are a little afraid of poverty: we feel a strange affection for the objects around us, for a table or for a rug – we, who were always spilling ink on our parents' rugs; this new affection of ours for a rug bothers us a little, we are a bit ashamed of it; sometimes we still go for walks at the edge of the city, but when we come home we carefully clean our muddy shoes on the doormat; and we feel a new kind of peace when we sit at home, under the lamp, with the shutters closed against the dark city. We no longer want friends very much, because we tell the person who lives with us all our thoughts, while we are eating soup at our well-lit table; it doesn't seem worth the effort to tell other people anything. Our children are born, and the fear of poverty grows in us; indeed an endless number of fears – of every danger or kind of suffering that could attack our children's mortal flesh and blood – grows in us. In the past we never thought of our own flesh and blood, our own body, as being frail and mortal: we were ready to hurl ourselves into the most unexpected adventures, we were always about to set off for the most distant places to live among lepers and cannibals; every possibility of wars and epidemics and cosmic catastrophes left us quite unmoved. We did not know that there could be such fear, such frailty, in our body: we never suspected that we could feel so bound to life by a chain of fear, of such heart-rending tenderness. How strong and free our past was, when we walked alone at will through the city! We felt such pity for the families we saw; the fathers and mothers with their prams out for a careful little Sunday stroll along the avenues seemed to us to be something so tedious and sad. Now we are one of those families, we go carefully along the avenues pushing our pram and we are not sad, in fact we could be said to be happy, though it is a happiness that is difficult to recognise in the midst of our panic that we could from one moment to the next lose it for ever: the baby in the pram we are pushing is so small, so weak, the love which binds us to him is so painful, so frightening! We are afraid of a breath of wind, of a cloud in the sky; isn't it going to rain? We – who have been soaked and bareheaded with our feet in the puddles so often! Now we have an umbrella. And we would like to have an umbrella stand in the house, in the hall; the strangest desires come to us, desires we would never have dreamed we could have when we walked through the city alone and free; we would like an umbrella-stand and a coatrack, towels, a camping oven, a refrigerator. We don't go to the edge of the city any more; we go through the avenues, between villas and gardens; we are careful that our children have no contact with people who are particularly dirty or poor because we are afraid of lice and diseases; we flee from beggars. We love our children in such a painful, frightening way that it seems to us we have never had any other neighbour, that we never could have any other. We are still not very used to our children's presence on the earth; we are still bemused and bewildered by their sudden appearance in life. We no longer have friends; or rather if our child is ill we think with loathing of those few friends we do have – it almost seems to us to be their fault because whilst we are in their company we are distracted from this unique heart-rending tenderness: we no longer have a vocation: we had a vocation, a profession that was dear to us, and now as soon as we give it half our attention we feel guilty and rush back to this unique, heart-rending tenderness; a sunny day, a green landscape, signify for us only that our baby can get brown in the sun or play on the grass; we have lost every ability to think of ourselves or enjoy ourselves. We gaze at everything in a worried, suspicious way, we look to see that there are no rusty nails or cockroaches or other dangers for our baby. We want to live in clean, fresh countries, with clean animals and kindly people; the brutal universe that used to fascinate us does not fascinate us any more. And how stupid we have become, we occasionally and regretfully think, as we look at our baby's head which is so familiar, familiar to us in a way that nothing else in the world has ever been, as we watch him while he is sitting making a little hill of earth with his pudgy fingers. How stupid, and small, and sluggish our thoughts have become, so small that they could be packed into a nutshell, and yet at the same time so tiring and suffocating! Where has the brutal universe that fascinated us gone, and where have the strength and vitality and freedom of our youth gone, and our eager discovery of things day by day, our resolute glorious gaze, our triumphant past? Where is our neighbour now? Where is God now? We only remember to talk to God when our baby is ill: then we tell him to make all our teeth and hair drop out but to make our baby better. As soon as the baby is better we forget about God; we still have our teeth and hair and we resume our petty, tiring, sluggish thoughts again – rusty nails, cockroaches, fresh pastures, gruel. We have become superstitious too and are always warding off bad luck – we are sitting working, writing away, when suddenly we get up and put the light on and off three times in order to ward off bad luck because out of the blue we felt that only this would save us from a catastrophe. We refuse to suffer; we hear suffering approach us and we hide behind the armchair, behind the curtains, so that it won't find us. But then suffering comes to us. We have expected it, but we don't recognise it at first: we don't call it by its real name at first. Stunned and incredulous, trusting that everything can be put right, we descend the steps of our house and close its door for ever; we walk through interminable dusty streets. They follow us and we hide; we hide in convents and in woods, in barns and in alleyways, in the holds of ships and in cellars. We learn to ask for help from the first passer-by; we don't know if he is a friend or an enemy, if he will want to help us or betray us; but we have no choice, and for a moment we trust our life to him. We also learn to give help to the first passer-by. And we always keep alive our faith that in a while, in a few hours or a few days, we shall go back to our house with its rugs and lamps; we shall be comforted and consoled; our children will sit down to play with clean aprons on and red slippers. We sleep with our children in stations, on the steps of churches, in the doss-houses of the poor; we are poor, we think, but without any pride; little by little every trace of our childish pride disappears. We are really hungry and really cold. We no longer feel fear; fear has penetrated into us, it is one with our exhaustion; it is the arid, uncaring gaze with which we stare at things. But at intervals, from the depths of our exhaustion, the awareness of things rises up in us again, and it is so sharp that it moves us to tears; perhaps we are looking at the earth for the last time. We have never before felt with such force the love that binds us to the dust in the street, to the high calls of the birds, to the laboured rhythm of our breathing: but we sense that we are stronger than that laboured rhythm, it seems so muffled within us, so distant, as if it were no longer ours. We have never loved our children so much, their weight in our arms, the touch of their hair on our cheeks; and yet we do not even feel fear for our children: we say to God that he will protect them if he wishes. We tell him to do as he wishes. And now we are really adult we think one morning, as we look in the mirror at our lined, furrowed face; we look at it without pride, without any curiosity; with a little compassion. Once again we have a mirror within four walls: who knows, perhaps in a little while we shall also have a rug again, a lamp perhaps. But we have lost those who are dearest to us, and so what can rugs and red slippers mean to us? We learn to conceal and look after the objects that belonged to the dead; to go alone to the places where we went with them; to ask questions and hear the silence around us. We no longer fear death; every hour, every minute, we look at death and remember its great silence on the face that was dearest to us. And now we are really adult we think, and we are astonished that this is what being an adult is – not in truth everything we believed as a child, not in truth self-confidence, not in truth the calm ownership of everything on earth. We are adult because we have behind us the silent presence of the dead, whom we ask to judge our current actions and from whom we ask forgiveness for past offences: we should like to uproot from our past so many cruel words, so many cruel acts that we committed when, though we feared death, we did not know – we had not yet understood – how irreparable, how irremediable, death is: we are adult because of the silent answers, because of all the silent forgiveness of the dead which we carry within us. We are adult because of that brief moment when one day it fell to our lot to live when we had looked at the things of the world as if for the last time, when we had renounced our possession of them and returned them to the will of God: and suddenly the things of the world appeared to us in their just place beneath the sky, and the human beings too, and we who looked at them from the just place that is given to us: human beings, objects and memories – everything appeared to us in its just place beneath the sky. In that brief moment we found a point of equilibrium for our wavering life: and it seemed to us that we could always rediscover that secret moment and find there the words for our vocation, the words for our neighbour; that we could look at our neighbour with a gaze that would always be just and free, not the timid or contemptuous gaze of someone who whenever he is with his neighbour always asks himself if he is his master or his servant. All our life we have only known how to be masters and servants: but in that secret moment of ours, in our moment of perfect equilibrium, we have realised that there is no real authority or servitude on the earth. And so it is that now as we turn to that secret moment we look at others to see whether they have lived through an identical moment, or whether they are still far away from it; it is this that we have to know. It is the highest moment in the life of a human being, and it is necessary that we stand with others whose eyes are fixed on the highest moment of their destiny. We realise with astonishment that now we are adult we have not lost our old shyness when we are with our neighbour: life has not helped us to free ourselves from this shyness at all. We are still shy. Only, it doesn't matter; it seems that our claim to be shy has been conquered for us; we are shy without shyness, boldly shy. We shyly search within us for the right words. We are very pleased to find them, shyly but as it were without any trouble; we are pleased that we have so many words within us, so many words for our neighbour that we seem intoxicated with our own ease and naturalness. And the story of human relationships never ceases for us; because little by little they become all too easy for us, all too natural and spontaneous – so spontaneous and so undemanding that there is no richness, discovery or choice about them; they are just habit and complacency, a kind of intoxicated naturalness. We believe that we can always return to that secret moment of ours, that we can draw on the right words; but it isn't true that we can always go back there, often our return there is false; we make our eyes glow with a false light, we pretend to be caring and warm towards our neighbour and we are in fact once more shrunken and hunched up in the icy darkness of our heart. Human relationships have to be rediscovered and reinvented every day. We have to remember constantly that every kind of meeting with our neighbour is a human action and so it is always evil or good, true or deceitful, a kindness or a sin. Now we are so adult that our adolescent children have already started to look at us with eyes of stone; we are upset by it, even though we know only too well what that stare means; even though we remember only too well having stared in the same way. We are upset by it and we complain about it and whisper our suspicious questions, even though by now we know how the long chain of human relationships unwinds its long necessary parabola, and though we know all the long road we have to travel down in order to arrive at the point where we have a little compassion. # _The Little Virtues_ As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; nor shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one's neighbour and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know. Usually we do just the opposite; we rush to teach them a respect for the little virtues, on which we build our whole system of education. In doing this we are choosing the easiest way, because the little virtues do not involve any actual dangers, indeed they provide shelter from Fortune's blows. We do not bother to teach the great virtues, though we love them and want our children to have them; but we nourish the hope that they will spontaneously appear in their consciousness some day in the future, we think of them as being part of our instinctive nature, while the others, the little virtues, seem to be the result of reflection and calculation and so we think that they absolutely must be taught. In reality the difference is only an apparent one. The little virtues also arise from our deepest instincts, from a defensive instinct; but in them reason speaks, holds forth, displays its arguments as the brilliant advocate of self-preservation. The great virtues well up from an instinct in which reason does not speak, an instinct that seems to be difficult to name. And the best of us is in that silent instinct, and not in our defensive instinct which harangues, holds forth and displays its arguments with reason's voice. Education is only a certain relationship which we establish between ourselves and our children, a certain climate in which feelings, instincts and thoughts can flourish. Now I believe that a climate which is completely pervaded by a respect for the little virtues will, insensibly, lead to cynicism or to a fear of life. In themselves the little virtues have nothing to do with cynicism or a fear of life, but taken together, and without the great virtues, they produce an atmosphere that leads to these consequences. Not that the little virtues are in themselves contemptible; but their value is of a complementary and not of a substantial kind; they cannot stand by themselves without the others, and by themselves and without the others they provide but meagre fare for human nature. By looking around himself a man can find out how to use the little virtues – moderately and when they are necessary – he can drink them in from the air, because the little virtues are of a kind that is common among men. But one cannot breathe in the great virtues from the surrounding air, and they should be the basis of our relationship with our children, the first foundation of their education. Besides, the great can also contain the little, but by the laws of nature there is no way that the little can contain the great. In our relationships with our children it is no use our trying to remember and imitate the way our parents acted with us. The time of our youth and childhood was not one of little virtues; it was a time of strong and sonorous words that little by little lost all their substance. The present is a time of cold, submissive words beneath which a desire for reassertion is perhaps coming to the surface. But it is a timid desire that is afraid of ridicule. And so we hide behind caution and shrewdness. Our parents knew neither caution nor shrewdness and they didn't know the fear of ridicule either: they were illogical and incoherent but they never realised this; they constantly contradicted themselves but they never allowed anyone to contradict them. They were authoritarian towards us in a way that we are quite incapable of being. Strong in their principles, which they believed to be indestructible, they reigned over us with absolute power. They deafened us with their thunderous words: a dialogue was impossible because as soon as they suspected that they were wrong they ordered us to be quiet: they beat their fists on the table and made the room shake. We remember that gesture but we cannot copy it. We can fly into a rage and howl like wolves, but deep in our wolf's howl there lies a hysterical sob, the hoarse bleating of a lamb. And so we have no authority; we have no weapons. Authority in us would be a hypocrisy and a sham. We are too aware of our own weakness, too melancholy and insecure, too conscious of our illogicality and incoherence, too conscious of our faults; we have looked within ourselves for too long and seen too many things there. And so as we don't have authority we must invent another kind of relationship. In these days, when a dialogue between parents and their children has become possible – possible though always difficult, always complicated by mutual prejudices, bashfulness, inhibitions – it is necessary that in this dialogue we show ourselves for what we are, imperfect, in the hope that our children will not resemble us but be stronger and better than us. As we are all moved in one way or another by the problem of money, the first little virtue that it enters our heads to teach our children is thrift. We give them a money box and explain to them what a fine thing it is to save money instead of spending it, so that after a few months there will be lots of money, a nice little hoard of it; and how good it is not to give in to the wish to spend money so that in the end we can buy something really special. We remember that when we were children we were given a similar money box; but we forget that money, and a liking for saving it, were much less horrible and disgusting things when we were children than they are today; because the more time passes the more disgusting money becomes. And so the money box is our first mistake. We have installed a little virtue into our system of education. That innocent-looking money box made of earthenware, in the shape of a pear or an apple, stays month after month in our children's room and they become used to its presence; they become used to the money saved inside it, money which in the dark and in secret grows like a seed in the womb of the earth; they like the money, at first innocently, as we like anything – plants and little animals for example – that grows because we take care of it; and all the time they long for that expensive something they saw in a shop window and which they will be able to buy, as we have explained to them, with the money they have saved up. When at last the money box is smashed and the money is spent, the children feel lonely and disappointed; there is no longer any money in their room, saved in the belly of the apple, and there isn't even the rosy apple any more; instead there is something longed for from a shop window, something whose importance and price we have made a great fuss about, but which, now that it is in their room, seems dull and plain and ordinary after so much waiting and so much money. The children do not blame money for this disappointment, but the object they have bought; because the money they have lost keeps all its alluring promise in their memories. The children ask for a new money box and for more money to save, and they give their thoughts and attention to money in a way that is harmful to them. They prefer money to things. It is not bad that they have suffered a disappointment; it is bad that they feel lonely without the company of money. We should not teach them to save, we should accustom them to spending money. We should often give children a little money, small sums of no importance, and encourage them to spend it immediately and as they wish, to follow some momentary whim; the children will buy some small rubbishy toy which they will immediately forget as they will immediately forget money spent so quickly and thoughtlessly, and for which they have no liking. When they find the little rubbishy toy – which will soon break – in their hands they will be a bit disappointed but they will quickly forget the disappointment, the rubbishy toy and the money; in fact they will associate money with something momentary and silly, and they will think that money is silly, as it is right that they should think whilst they are children. It is right that in the first years of their life children should live in ignorance of what money is. Sometimes this is impossible, if we are very poor; and sometimes it is difficult because we are very rich. All the same when we are very poor and money is strictly a matter of daily survival, a question of life or death, then it turns itself before the baby's eyes into food, coal or blankets so quickly that it is unable to harm his spirit. But if we are so-so, neither rich nor poor, it is not difficult to let a child live during its infancy unaware of what money is and unconcerned about it. And yet it is necessary, not too soon and not too late, to shatter this ignorance; and if we have economic difficulties it is necessary that our children, not too soon and not too late, become aware of this, just as it is right that they will at a certain point share our worries with us, the reasons for our happiness, our plans and everything that concerns the family's life together. And we should get them used to considering the family's money as something that belongs to us and to them equally, and not to us rather than to them; or on the other hand we can encourage them to be moderate and careful with the money they spend, and in this way the encouragement to be thrifty is no longer respect for a little virtue, it is not an abstract encouragement to respect something which is in itself not worth our respect, like money, rather it is a way of reminding the children that there isn't a lot of money in the house; it encourages them to think of themselves as adult and responsible for something that involves us as much as them, not something particularly beautiful or pleasant but serious, because it is connected with our daily needs. But not too soon and not too late; the secret of education lies in choosing the right time to do things. Being moderate with oneself and generous with others; this is what is meant by having a just relationship with money, by being free as far as money is concerned. And there is no doubt that it is less difficult to educate a child so that he has such a sense of proportion, such a freedom, in a family in which money is earned and immediately spent, in which it flows like clear spring water and practically does not exist as money. Things become complicated where money exists and exists heavily, where it is a leaden stagnant pool that stinks and gives off vapours. The children are soon aware of the presence of this money in the family, this hidden power which no one ever mentions openly but to which the parents refer by means of complicated and mysterious names when they are talking among themselves with a leaden stillness in their eyes and a bitter curl to their lips; money which is not simply kept in a desk drawer but which accumulates who knows where and which can at any moment be sucked back into the earth, disappearing for ever and swallowing up both house and family. In families like this the children are constantly told to spend money grudgingly, every day the mother tells them to be careful and thrifty as she gives them a few coins for their tram fare; in their mother's gaze there is that leaden preoccupation and on her forehead there is that deep wrinkle which appears whenever money is discussed; there is the obscure fear that all the money will dissolve into nothing and that even those few coins might signify the first dust of a mortal and sudden collapse. The children in families like this often go to school in threadbare clothes and worn-out shoes and they have to pine for a long time, and sometimes in vain, for a bicycle or a camera, things which some of their friends who are certainly poorer than they are have had for quite a while. And then when they are given the bicycle they want the present is accompanied by severe orders not to damage it, not to lend such a magnificent object – which has cost a great deal of money – to anyone. In such a house admonitions to save money are constant and insistent – school books are usually bought second-hand, and exercise books at a cheap supermarket. This happens partly because the rich are often mean, and because they think they are poor, but above all because mothers in rich families are – more or less subconsciously – afraid of the consequences of money and try to protect their children by surrounding them with the lie of simple habits, even making them grow accustomed to little instances of privation. But there is no worse error than to make a child live in such a contradiction; everywhere in the house money talks its unmistakeable language; it is there in the china, in the furniture, in the heavy silverware, it is there in the comfortable journeys, in the luxurious summer holidays, in the doorman's greeting, in the servants' rituals; it is there in his parents' conversation, it is the wrinkle on his father's forehead, the leaden perplexity in his mother's gaze; money is everywhere, untouchable perhaps because it is so fragile, it is something he is not allowed to joke about, a sombre god to whom he can only turn in a whisper, and to honour this god, so as not to disturb its mournful immobility, he has to wear last year's overcoat that has got too small, learn his lessons from books that are in tatters and falling to pieces, and amuse himself with a country bumpkin's bicycle. If we are rich and want to educate our children so that they have simple habits it must in that case be made very clear that all the money saved by following such simple habits is to be spent, without any hint of meanness, on other people. Such habits mean only that they are not greed or fear but a simplicity that has – in the midst of wealth – been freely chosen. A child from a rich family will not learn moderation because they have made him wear old clothes, or because they have made him eat a green apple for tea, or because they deny him a bicycle he has wanted for a long time; such moderation in the midst of wealth is pure fiction, and fictions always lead to bad habits. In this way he will only learn to be greedy and afraid of money. If we deny him a bicycle which he wants and which we could buy him we only prevent him from having something that it is reasonable a boy should have, we only make his childhood less happy in the name of an abstract principle and without any real justification. And we are tacitly saying to him that money is better than a bicycle; on the contrary he should learn that a bicycle is always better than money. The true defence against wealth is not a fear of wealth – of its fragility and of the vicious consequences that it can bring – the true defence against wealth is an indifference to money. There is no better way to teach a child this indifference than to give him money to spend when there is money – because then he will learn to part with it without worrying about it or regretting it. But, it will be said, then the child will be used to having money and will not be able to do without it; if tomorrow he is not rich, what is he to do? But it is easier not to have money once we have learnt to spend it, once we have learnt how quickly it runs through our hands; and it is easier to learn to do without money when we are thoroughly familiar with it than when we have paid it the homage of our reverence and fear throughout our childhood, than when we have sensed its presence all around us and not been allowed to raise our eyes and look it in the face. As soon as our children begin to go to school we promise them money as a reward if they do well in their lessons. This is a mistake. In this way we mix money – which is an ignoble thing – with learning and the pleasures of knowledge, which are admirable and worthy things. The money we give our children should be given for no reason; it should be given indifferently so that they will learn to receive it indifferently; but it should be given not so that they learn to love it, but so that they learn not to love it, so that they realise its true nature and its inability to satisfy our truest desires, which are those of the spirit. When we elevate money into a prize, a goal, an object to be striven for, we give it a position, an importance, a nobility, which it should not have in our children's eyes. We implicitly affirm the principle – a false one – that money is the crowning reward for work, its ultimate objective. Money should be thought of as a wage for work, not its ultimate objective but its wage – that is, its legitimate recognition; and it is clear that the scholastic work of children cannot have a wage. It is a small mistake – but a mistake – to offer our children money in return for domestic services, for doing little chores. It is a mistake because we are not our children's employers; the family's money is as much theirs as it is ours; those little services and chores should be done without reward, as a voluntary sharing in the family's life. And in general I think we should be very cautious about promising and providing rewards and punishments. Because life rarely has its rewards and punishments; usually sacrifices have no reward, and often evil deeds go unpunished, at times they are even richly rewarded with success and money. Therefore it is best that our children should know from infancy that good is not rewarded and that evil goes unpunished; yet they must love good and hate evil, and it is not possible to give any logical explanation for this. We usually give a quite unwarranted importance to our children's scholastic performance. And this is nothing but a respect for the little virtue 'success'. It should be enough for us that they do not lag too far behind the others, that they do not fail their exams; but we are not content with this; we want success from them, we want them to satisfy our pride. If they do badly at school or simply not as well as we would wish, we immediately raise a barrier of nagging dissatisfaction between us and them; when we speak to them we assume the sulky, whining tone of someone complaining about an insult. And then our children become bored and distance themselves from us. Or we support them in their complaints that the teachers have not understood them and we pose as victims with them. And every day we correct their homework, and study their lessons with them. In fact school should be from the beginning the first battle which a child fights for himself, without us; from the beginning it should be clear that this is his battlefield and that we can give him only very slight and occasional help there. And if he suffers from injustice there or is misunderstood it is necessary to let him see that there is nothing strange about this, because in life we have to expect to be constantly misunderstood and misinterpreted, and to be victims of injustice; and the only thing that matters is that we do not commit injustices ourselves. We share the successes and failures of our children because we love them, but just as much and in the same way that they, little by little as they grow up, share our successes and failures, our joys and anxieties. It is not true that they have a duty to do well at school for our sake and to give the best of their skills to studying. Once we have started them in their lessons, their duty is simply to go forward. If they wish to spend the best of their skills on things outside school – collecting Coleoptera or learning Turkish – that is their business and we have no right to reproach them, or to show that our pride has been hurt or that we feel dissatisfied with them. If at the moment the best of their skills do not seem to be applied to anything, then we do not have the right to shout at them very much in that case either; who knows, perhaps what seems laziness to us is really a kind of daydreaming and thoughtfulness that will bear fruit tomorrow. If it seems they are wasting the best of their energies and skills lying on the sofa reading ridiculous novels or charging around a football pitch, then again we cannot know whether this is really a waste of energy and skill or whether tomorrow this too will bear fruit in some way that we have not yet suspected. Because there are an infinite number of possibilities open to the spirit. But we, the parents, must not let ourselves be seized by a terror of failure. Our remonstrances must be like a squall of wind or a sudden storm – violent, but quickly forgotten – and not anything that could upset the nature of our relationship with our children, that could muddy its clarity and peace. We are there to console our children if they are hurt by failure; we are there to give them courage if they are humiliated by failure. We are also there to bring them down a peg or two when success has made them too pleased with themselves. We are there to reduce school to its narrow, humble limits; it is not something that can mortgage their future, it is simply a display of offered tools, from which it is perhaps possible to choose one which will be useful tomorrow. What we must remember above all in the education of our children is that their love of life should never weaken. This love can take different forms, and sometimes a listless, solitary, bashful child is not lacking in a love of life, he is not overwhelmed by a fear of life, he is simply in a state of expectancy, intent on preparing himself for his vocation. And what is a human being's vocation but the highest expression of his love of life? And so we must wait, next to him, while his vocation awakens and takes shape. His behaviour can be like that of a mole, or of a lizard that holds itself still and pretends to be dead but in reality it has detected the insect that is its prey and is watching its movements, and then suddenly springs forward. Next to him, but in silence and a little aloof from him, we must wait for this leap of his spirit. We should not demand anything; we should not ask or hope that he is a genius or an artist or a hero or a saint; and yet we must be ready for everything; our waiting and our patience must compass both the possibility of the highest and the most ordinary of fates. A vocation, an ardent and exclusive passion for something in which there is no prospect of money, the consciousness of being able to do something better than others, and being able to love this thing more than anything else – this is the only, the unique way in which a rich child can completely escape being conditioned by money, so that he is free of its claims; so that he feels neither the pride nor the shame of wealth when he is with others. He will not even be conscious of what clothes he is wearing, or of the clothes around him, and tomorrow he will be equal to any privation because the one hunger and thirst within him will be his own passion which will have devoured everything futile and provisional and divested him of every habit learnt in childhood, and which alone will rule his spirit. A vocation is man's one true wealth and salvation. What chance do we have of awakening and stimulating in our children the birth and development of a vocation? We do not have much; however there is one way open to us. The birth and development of a vocation needs space, space and silence, the free silence of space. Our relationship with our children should be a living exchange of thoughts and feelings, but it should also include deep areas of silence: it should be an intimate relationship but it must not violently intrude on their privacy; it should be a just balance between silence and words. We must be important to our children and yet not too important; they must like us a little, and yet not like us too much – so that it does not enter their heads to become identical to us, to copy us and the vocation we follow, to seek our likeness in the friends they choose throughout their lives. We must have a friendly relationship with them, and yet we must not be too friendly with them otherwise it will be difficult for them to have real friends with whom they can discuss things they do not mention to us. It is necessary that their search for friends, their love-life, their religious life, their search for a vocation, be surrounded by silence and shadows, so that they can develop separately from us. But then, it will be said, our intimacy with our children has been reduced to very little. But in our relationships with them all these things – their religious life, their intellectual life, their emotional life, their judgement of other human beings – should be included as it were in summary form; for them we should be a simple point of departure, we should offer them the springboard from which they make their leap. And we must be there to help them, if help should be necessary; they must realise that they do not belong to us, but that we belong to them, that we are always available, present in the next room, ready to answer every possible question and demand as far as we know how to. And if we ourselves have a vocation, if we have not betrayed it, if over the years we have continued to love it, to serve it passionately, we are able to keep all sense of ownership out of our love for our children. But if on the other hand we do not have a vocation, or if we have abandoned it or betrayed it out of cynicism or a fear of life, or because of mistaken parental love, or because of some little virtue that exists within us, then we cling to our children as a shipwrecked mariner clings to a tree trunk; we eagerly demand that they give us back everything we have given them, that they be absolutely and inescapably what we wish them to be, that they get out of life everything we have missed; we end up asking them for all the things which can only be given to us by our own vocation; we want them to be entirely our creation, as if having once created them we could continue to create them throughout their whole lives. We want them to be entirely our creation, as if we were not dealing with human beings but with products of the spirit. But if we have a vocation, if we have not denied or betrayed it, then we can let them develop quietly and away from us, surrounded by the shadows and space that the development of a vocation, the development of an existence, needs. This is perhaps the one real chance we have of giving them some kind of help in their search for a vocation – to have a vocation ourselves, to know it, to love it and serve it passionately; because love of life begets a love of life. # Daunt Books Founded in 2010, the Daunt Books imprint is dedicated to discovering brilliant works by talented authors from around the world. Whether reissuing beautiful new editions of lost classics or introducing fresh literary voices, we're drawn to writing that evokes a strong sense of place – novels, short fiction, memoirs, travel accounts, and translations with a lingering atmosphere, a thrilling story, and a distinctive style. With our roots as a travel bookshop, the titles we publish are inspired by the Daunt shops themselves, and the exciting atmosphere of discovery to be found in a good bookshop. For more information, please visit www.dauntbookspublishing.co.uk # About the Author Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991) was born in Palermo, Sicily. She wrote dozens of essays, plays, short stories and novels, including _Voices in the Evening, All Our Yesterdays_ and _Family Lexicon,_ for which she was awarded the prestigious Strega Prize in 1963. She was involved in political activism throughout her life and served in the Italian parliament from 1983 to 1987. # Selected works by Natalia Ginzburg _The Road to the City_ _All Our Yesterdays_ _Voices in the Evening_ _Family Lexicon_ _Caro Michele_ _The Manzoni Family_ _The City and the House_ # Copyright This electronic edition first published in Great Britain in 2018 by Daunt Books 83 Marylebone High Street London W1U 4QW Originally published in Italian as _Le Piccole Virtù_ Copyright © 1962, 1966, 1972, 1984, 1998, 2012 and 2015 Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino Translation copyright © 1985 Dick Davis Introduction copyright © 2018 Rachel Cusk All rights reserved First published in Great Britain in 1985 by Carcanet, Manchester The right of Natalia Ginzburg to be identified as the author of the work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, copied or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission from Daunt Books, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. ISBN 978–1–911547–15–0 Typeset by Marsha Swan Printed and bound by TJ International www.dauntbookspublishing.co.uk

Safety Analysis of Young Pedestrian Behavior at Signalized Intersections: An Eye-Tracking Study Smartphones have become an integral part of our everyday lives and keep us busy while doing other primary activities such as driving, cycling or walking in traffic. The problem of digital distraction among drivers has been largely addressed, and interest is growing also on vulnerable road users as well. In fact, high percentages of pedestrians and cyclists are accustomed to checking their devices while moving in traffic. This research links to the presented theme and aims to investigate the extent to which digital distraction in the form of social media app checking influences pedestrian behavior. The focus of the study is specifically on signalized intersections. An outdoor, eye-tracking experiment was conducted on a specific route consisting of various elements typical of urban areas. Participants were asked to walk the predefined route twice, encountering three signalized intersections: the first time they were asked to walk with their smartphone in hand, the second time without. The recordings of each participant’s route were then analyzed, examining reaction time, crossing time and speed, fixations and gaze paths. The results show a clear impact of digital devices on pedestrians’ attention by increasing their reaction and crossing times and decreasing crossing speeds. In addition, the analysis of fixations found that 82.54% of the time was devoted to the smartphone, while interest in other street elements decreased from 16.64% to 4.03%. Introduction The use of mobile phones, especially smartphones, has become a basic habit for people all over the world. According to study , 77% of the world's population owned a mobile phone in 2016, and the numbers have continued to rise, especially with the affordability of the internet and smartphones. This has allowed people to stay connected on social media even while doing other basic tasks, such as walking. Researchers studied the behavior of pedestrians while talking on the phone and discovered that both men and women exhibited unsafe maneuvers as they crossed the road, with women exhibiting a slower path and not checking the street before crossing or waiting for traffic to stop. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is a direct relationship between cell phone use and pedestrian deaths and injuries. This information was further confirmed by , who advanced that more than two million pedestrian injuries related to cell phone use were estimated from emergency department reports in the United States in 2010. The problem of digital distraction has been recognized by the scientific community, and various efforts have been made to study it, especially in relation to drivers . The authors of investigated the influence of talking on a mobile phone or listening to music, on response time and its components, reaction time and movement time, during the action of braking. Having developed an indoor experiment on a driving simulator, the authors found an increase in drivers' reaction time from 390 ms to 450 ms when they were involved in a phone conversation. Researchers in emphasized a slowing of drivers' reaction time when they studied the effect of mobile texting on drivers' attention. They also emphasized a reduction in driving speed and an increase in the headway kept on motorways. The literature review developed in summarizes well the researchers' efforts on the topic of drivers distracted by phones. They emphasize three different branches of studies: epidemiological, simulator and field studies. The main common findings highlighted by the authors are an overall reduction in driving performance when handling the phone, reflected in higher reaction times and loss of the correct position of the vehicle in the lane. Interestingly, the behavior of cyclists has also been analyzed. De Waard et al. developed a three-step investigation that examined the influence of mobile phones on cyclists' performance. The first step consisted in the study of video recordings taken at three different locations, the second step was the analysis of questionnaire results and the last step was a controlled experiment. These steps allowed the identification of the most recurrent behaviors of cyclists, and the study of the effect of different tasks on their performance by examining speed, lateral position, self-reported mental effort and risk, and the number of correctly detected objects. Among the results, they emphasized that texting and talking on the phone had the highest effect on cycling speed by consistently lowering it, and texting also affected lane position. The purpose of the present study is to move the interest to the pedestrian portion of traffic, particularly younger adults who are likely to be most accustomed to smartphones and, therefore, most susceptible to injuries related to this type of distraction. Reaction time, crossing time, and speed, as well as gaze characteristics such as fixations and gaze paths, are analyzed in this paper, and comparisons are drawn between two defined conditions: undistracted behavior and distracted behavior. Related Works Pedestrian behavior at signalized intersections has been the focus of various authors, who stressed different aspects of pedestrian behavior (e.g., pedestrian crossing speed and time) and diverse factors affecting it, from individual human factors, to infrastructural elements, to other distracting causes. One of the features that has been mainly tackled is pedestrian speed at crosswalks. Muley et al. studied the effect of crossing length and direction on pedestrian entry, exit and crossing speeds. Starting from video recordings of different locations, they analyzed the recalled magnitudes and found mean crossing speeds of 1.45, 1.50 and 1.72 m·s −1 , respectively, for the three locations they studied. In their study , Ištoka Otković et al. developed a model of pedestrian crossing speeds at signalized intersections and analyzed the influence of 14 factors (both individual and infrastructure-related) on the considered characteristic. Looking specifically at children, they found a mean crossing speed of 1.36 m·s −1 . Pedestrian crossing time at signalized intersections has also been the focus of interest for several researchers. Malinovskiy et al. extracted pedestrian crossing and waiting times from 126 crossing events and reported values of 9.2 s, 8.4 s and 4.5 s, respectively, for three signalized pedestrian crossings around the University of Washington in Seattle. Both walking speed and crossing time were the focuses of Duim et al.'s study , which they contextualized in relation to older pedestrians. They found that older pedestrians' speed dropped to an average of 0.75 m·s −1 for normal walking abilities and was even lower for those who reported difficulties. Among the factors that influence pedestrian behavior at signalized intersections, the use of technological devices was also identified. An observational study was conducted by Thompson et al. in which two trained observers commented on three different tasks, i.e., talking on the phone, writing messages, and listening to music, and the authors examined the changes in pedestrian crossing behavior that these tasks elicited. They found that the use of technological devices increased crossing time by 18%. Jiang et al. , focusing on the same tasks studied in , elaborated an outdoor experimental study and showed the differences in crossing behavior and visual mapping for pedestrians walking under the Sustainability 2021, 13, 4419 3 of 16 three experimental conditions. They emphasized that listening to music was the least influential task, involving less cognitive load, that telephone conversations influenced pedestrians' pace, while texting was the task that showed the greatest differences from non-distracted behavior. As the preceding literature review demonstrates, great efforts have been spent to gain insight into pedestrian crossing behavior, and several factors have been identified that influence this behavior. Distraction caused by digital devices is one of these aspects and, due to the great growth of technology and the widespread use of smartphones during our everyday activities, there is a need to increase knowledge of the associated effects. This paper focuses specifically on this aspect and examines the impact of smartphone use on pedestrian crossing behavior at signalized intersections. Specifically, it focuses on the behavior of young adults (20-25 years old) checking their social media apps. The choice of this age group and this task was related to desire to understand a real problem that is spreading in our cities and possibly find solutions to the same. The article is structured in five sections: first, a brief literature review is developed; followed by the definition of the purpose of the study. The third section explains the experimental design and the data elaboration approach carried out. The fourth section discusses the obtained results, divided into reaction time, crossing time and speed, fixation characteristics and gaze plot analysis, while the fifth section draws conclusions. Purpose and Limitations of the Study The purpose of this study is to understand the extent to which smartphone use influences pedestrian behavior when crossing the street at signalized intersections. Specifically, it examines how checking social media apps affects pedestrians' reaction time, crossing time, and crossing speed, and how this shifts pedestrians' attention to different elements. The study is based on the use of eye-tracking technology, which allows the acquisition of qualitative and quantitative data about pedestrian gaze movements, which undoubtedly has many advantages. Nevertheless, it has some limitations that should be taken into account. First, although the glasses were very comfortable, participants were aware that they are wearing them, and this could cause unpleasant feelings in some cases. In addition, people often used their peripheral vision to capture elements that did not fall within their main cone of vision. These dynamics could not be captured by eye-tracking technology, which is limited to the camera scene. Another limitation relates to the calculation of reaction times. Considering the specific case of pedestrian green light, although the direct eye-tracking output provided the time when a participant first focused on the light, this was not necessarily his/her reaction time, as it was related to the traffic light cycle (for a detailed explanation, see Section 5.1. Reaction time). The value obtained by eye-tracking should therefore be filtered from the red-light duration. Methodology In the following subsections, the experimental design, the selected variables and the elaboration process are explained. First, the selection criteria of the participants, the main characteristics of the wearable eye-tracking glasses used in the experiment and the location of the same are discussed, then the steps taken to achieve the three selected variables, i.e., reaction time, crossing time and crossing speed, are discussed. An outdoor experiment was set up in the urban area of Maribor (Slovenia), with a well-defined route to be followed by participants (Figure 1). The total length of the route was approximately 740 m. Three unsignalized intersections at roundabout entry/exit legs, three signalized crosswalks and two linear sidewalk segments characterized the route. All signalized intersections, which are the focus of this paper, pass over two-lane roads. three signalized crosswalks and two linear sidewalk segments characterized the route. All signalized intersections, which are the focus of this paper, pass over two-lane roads. Figure 1. Representation of the whole route walked by the attendees during the experiment. The unsignalized crosswalks are highlighted in green and numbered from 1 to 3; the two linear sidewalk segments are flagged in black, while the signalized crossings numbered in red from 1 to 3 are the ones considered in this paper. Equipment The eye-tracking system used in this research was Tobii Pro 2 glasses, which mainly consist of two components: the wearable glasses with a sampling rate of 50 Hz and a video resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels with a frame rate of 25 fps, and the recording unit connected to the head one via an HDMI cable. The wearable glasses consist of four eye-tracking sensors, a microphone, a gyroscope and an accelerometer. In addition to the eye-tracking hardware, the controller and the analyzing software are also included. The controller software allows real-time control of the recorded videos and is connected to the head and recording units via Wi-Fi. Regarding the smartphones, since each participant used its own device with its particular specifications, a common background was created by limiting the use of the devices to two social media applications that work similarly on all types of smartphones. Participant Selection Due to the specific purpose of the research, i.e., to study the influence of smartphones on pedestrians crossing the street, some selection criteria were established in order to have common characteristics for all participants. The main inclusion criteria chosen for this research were related to normal physical abilities, i.e., (i). individuals with a normal gait and no physical impairment; (ii). no to mild vision correction was a requirement, as well as not wearing glasses. These first two criteria were chosen to represent well the majority of the pedestrian population (i), and to ensure the normal functioning of the eye-tracking technology (ii). Indeed, the frame of ordinary glasses and/or the presence of important vision corrections could lead to erroneous data. Equipment The eye-tracking system used in this research was Tobii Pro 2 glasses, which mainly consist of two components: the wearable glasses with a sampling rate of 50 Hz and a video resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels with a frame rate of 25 fps, and the recording unit connected to the head one via an HDMI cable. The wearable glasses consist of four eye-tracking sensors, a microphone, a gyroscope and an accelerometer. In addition to the eye-tracking hardware, the controller and the analyzing software are also included. The controller software allows real-time control of the recorded videos and is connected to the head and recording units via Wi-Fi. Regarding the smartphones, since each participant used its own device with its particular specifications, a common background was created by limiting the use of the devices to two social media applications that work similarly on all types of smartphones. Participant Selection Due to the specific purpose of the research, i.e., to study the influence of smartphones on pedestrians crossing the street, some selection criteria were established in order to have common characteristics for all participants. The main inclusion criteria chosen for this research were related to normal physical abilities, i.e., (i). individuals with a normal gait and no physical impairment; (ii). no to mild vision correction was a requirement, as well as not wearing glasses. These first two criteria were chosen to represent well the majority of the pedestrian population (i), and to ensure the normal functioning of the eye-tracking technology (ii). Indeed, the frame of ordinary glasses and/or the presence of important vision corrections could lead to erroneous data. To ensure that all participants had experience with smartphones, two additional criteria were established. First, participants were selected to be between 20 and 25 years old (iii), and should own their own smartphone (iv). These last criteria prevent prob- Eighteen individuals met all the criteria and were selected as participants for the experiment. Of these, eleven were female and seven were male. One participant was selected as a tester to determine what the best conditions were for conducting the experiment, and his data were not used further. Three individuals only participated in the laboratory portion of the experiment, which was not the focus of this study, and two were excluded from the analyses due to a change in daylight conditions, which may have skewed some data. The number of participants, though restrained, was similar to other studies found in the literature , which had a mean of fifteen participants. Experimental Procedure First, participants were provided with a document to agree to the local privacy policy, then they were given instructions. Each attendee should walk the set route twice. First checking their social media apps on their smartphone, then not doing so. The reason for this order was to avoid learning effects during the walk with the smartphone. In addition, two further cues were given to ensure natural but safe behavior, i.e., to behave as naturally as possible, and to be aware of interacting vehicles when crossing to avoid impacts. After receiving instructions, each participant put on the eye-tracking glasses and a calibration step was performed. This procedure consisted of each participant staring at the center of a calibration card to work out the one-point calibration of the system. The calibration was successful when a green check mark was displayed on the controller interface. Two validations were also performed for this experiment: the first was conducted indoors, where the participant was asked to view specific items on images displayed on a computer screen. The second validation was developed outdoors so that the participant could become familiar with the system and the researcher could verify the correctness of the calibration and note if there were any deviations of the gaze from the indicated point. After the calibration and validation steps, the actual experiment began. Each student walked the route for the first time with their smartphone, returned to the starting point where they were asked about their feelings and impressions, and walked for the second time without their smartphone. The experiment was conducted in the late afternoon on different days characterized by similar dry and cloudy weather conditions to avoid sunlight affecting the eye-tracking sensors. Each trial lasted 15 min: seven minutes for each walk and a one-minute break. Data Elaboration Approach The approach followed was composed of different steps ( Figure 2) that led to the definition of pedestrian behavior both qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of gaze dynamics and crossing time and speed. After obtaining video footages, an initial visual analysis was performed (i). This allowed, on the one hand, the calculation of pedestrians' crossing time and speed (i.a), and, on the other hand, a first raw selection of Areas of Interest (AOIs) (i.b), i.e., objects that attract participants' attention. Then, an automatic mapping (ii) of the gaze onto a screenshot of the captured scene was developed, which allowed evaluating the previous AOI selection and improving the selection of items of interest. This step led to the final choice After obtaining video footages, an initial visual analysis was performed (i). This allowed, on the one hand, the calculation of pedestrians' crossing time and speed (i.a), and, on the other hand, a first raw selection of Areas of Interest (AOIs) (i.b), i.e., objects that attract participants' attention. Then, an automatic mapping (ii) of the gaze onto a screenshot of the captured scene was developed, which allowed evaluating the previous AOI selection and improving the selection of items of interest. This step led to the final choice of the AOIs (iii), and the creation of a coding label image, i.e., a schematic representation of the AOIs, to perform the manual mapping. Manual mapping was the next step (iv) and, by tracking each fixation for each participant, allowed us to identify the participants' gaze behavior. The output was both qualitative, by displaying heat maps and gaze plots, and quantitative, by providing eyetracking metrics. Ultimately, the analysis of eye-tracking outputs (v.a, v.b) and crossing characteristics led to the identification of pedestrian behavior and to the comparison of the two conditions with and without phones. To ensure an appropriate confidence level, only eye-tracking videos with data quality samples higher than 80% were evaluated. At this point, it is fundamental to briefly describe the selected AOIs and the variables considered in the further analysis. In step (iii), 10 groups of AOIs (Table 1) were identified. These were: the path, which included the pavement/sidewalk and zebras/cycling lane; other pedestrians, considering both pedestrians waiting on the sidewalk in both directions and pedestrians walking on the crosswalk in both directions; bicyclists riding on zebras or on cycle lanes; oncoming and outgoing cars on the left and right sides that could interact with the participant; the road, which took into account the left and right empty segments of the road; phone, necessary AOI to define the distraction caused by phone use; button, which identified the button that must be pressed to "call" the green pedestrian light; red and green traffic light, which represented the two pedestrian lights "stop" and "go" signals at the signalized intersections; and other elements, which summarized traffic signs and other objects not necessarily related to road design. Table 1 summarizes all of the applied areas of interest. The output of the metrics was a large Excel file containing all the tracked data. The variables considered in this study were time to first fixation, average duration of first fixation, total fixation count and total fixation duration. These variables were the starting point for the calculation of reaction times and all measurements associated with fixations. Four variables were considered in the analysis of quantitative outputs: reaction time, crossing time, crossing speed, and fixations. Reaction time is defined as the time it takes a participant to respond to a stimulus. Here, the stimulus was represented by the green pedestrian light. In the present study, reaction time is defined as the amount of time it takes each participant to first recognize that the traffic light turns green from the moment they stop at the crosswalk. It was measured in (s) and calculated starting from the time to the first fixation included in the metrics file. Crossing time is the time taken by a person to complete the action of crossing the road. It was calculated from video footages (as well as the crossing speed) as the time it took the participant to walk from one safe side of the intersection to the opposite one. It was expressed in (s). Crossing speed is the speed it takes a person to cross the road and was calculated as the ratio between the length of the crosswalk and the crossing time (m s -1 ). Fixations are periods of time when the eye interrupts scanning and holds its gaze on certain elements to obtain information about them . To study pedestrian attention/distraction phenomena, fixation counts (absolute number), the average duration (s) and the total percentage of time (%) were used in this study. Fixations and their qualitative representation, gaze plots, were used in this research to identify different typologies of pedestrian behavior. Results and Discussion In this section, the results are presented in four subsections. The first three refer to each of the analyzed characteristics of pedestrian behavior, i.e., reaction time, crossing time and speed and fixations, while the last section is dedicated to some qualitative observations obtained through the analysis of gaze plots. Reaction Time Reaction time was calculated using as a starting point AOI's time to first fixation. This time value denotes the period of time after which participants look at a selected object (AOI) for the first time during their journey. This implies that this specific object was not perceived before, so that the participants' reaction to it occurred just after the time interval indicated by time to first fixation. In this research, the AOI considered to derive pedestrians' reaction time was the green traffic light. The objective was to calculate how much time pedestrians needed to detect the appearance of the green light from the moment he/she stopped at the boundary of the sidewalk. At this point, a limitation of the study should be highlighted in that reaction times obtained through eye-tracking data are necessarily tied to the traffic light cycle, and more specifically to the moment during the red-light duration when the participant arrives at the sidewalk. To overcome this limitation, the eye-tracking data were first analyzed and then filtered by subtracting the red-light duration derived from the video recordings. Table 2 reports the filtered reaction times. A significantly lower reaction time for pedestrians without cell phones can be observed, which is shown in an increase of 0.92 s in the condition with cell phones. In addition, the maximum reaction time of pedestrians checking their phone was higher by a factor of two. In fact, from the visual analysis of the recordings it could be observed that when handling their smartphones, pedestrians often did not look at the traffic light, even though they knew it was green. Indeed, various recordings showed that participants did not look at the traffic light until they were already crossing the street: they simply relied on the actions of other pedestrians around them. An Anderson-Darling test was performed on the reaction time data to determine whether or not it followed a normal distribution. Since in both cases the calculated p-value is less than the set confidence level α = 0.05, the null hypothesis of the test, i.e., the data sample is normally distributed, should be rejected. At this point, it becomes interesting to understand whether the difference between the two samples is statistically significant. To derive this, and considering the non-normality of the data samples, Bonett and Levene tests for two variances were devised. At the 90% confidence level, which is acceptable for preliminary analyses, both the ratio between the standard deviations of the samples and that between the variances of the same were smaller than 1, namely 0.628and 0.395, respectively, and their confidence intervals did not contain the unit. The ratios and the confidence intervals are reported in Table 3. Although the statistical distribution of the data samples was not normal, a t-test was conducted due to its robustness. Results at the 90% confidence level confirmed the statistical difference found by Bonett's and Levene's tests and are shown in Table 4. Crossing Time and Crossing Speed Crossing time was calculated as the time from the moment a participant left the sidewalk where they were waiting for the green, to the moment they reached the other safe side of the crosswalk. Table 5 compares the crossing time at the three signalized intersections in the two conditions and the mean value. It can be seen that while checking their phones, participants moved only slightly slower, taking on average 0.29 s longer to complete their passage, confirming the results of , which highlight a smaller impact of phone use on crossing time and speed than on reaction time. When plotting the crossing time in Figure 3, it was found that the range of crossing time when walking with the phone was between 8 s and 11 s, with a peak at 10 s when participants checked their phones. On the other hand, when participants were not handling their devices, the range of time taken to cross the road was 7-10 s, with a visible plateau from 8 s to 10 s. Since pedestrian crossing time could be influenced by the crossing length, pedestrian speed was analyzed for an objective comparison of pedestrian behavior across all crossings (Table 6). Consistent with previous findings, the phone checking condition showed a mean pedestrian speed that was slightly lower, i.e., 1.57 m·s −1 , compared to 1.61 m·s −1 , which was the speed of pedestrians walking without phones. These mean values were associated with two different standard deviations, 0.167 for the "without phone" condition, and 0.229 for the "with phone" condition. It is also interesting to note the range of crossing speeds. In the condition without the phone, the range was quite limited, with a higher minimum value of 1.26 m·s −1 and a lower maximum value of 1.93 m·s −1 , while for the second condition the speed range was wider, (1.22-2.07 m·s −1 ). This fact indicates higher variability in pedestrians' crossing behavior while holding phones, which could play an important role in their safety. A look at the descriptive statistics in Table 6 shows a slight asymmetry of the two samples, which as higher for the "with phone" condition. To understand whether a normal distribution of crossing speed could be assumed, an Anderson-Darling test was performed. This statistical test checks the null hypothesis "the sample has a normal distribution". If the calculated p-value is less than the specified confidence level (alfa), the null hypothesis should be rejected, which means that the sample does not follow a normal distribution. Otherwise, the hypothesis cannot be stated. The results presented in Figure 4 confirmed the null hypothesis for both samples in that the calculated p-values Since pedestrian crossing time could be influenced by the crossing length, pedestrian speed was analyzed for an objective comparison of pedestrian behavior across all crossings (Table 6). Consistent with previous findings, the phone checking condition showed a mean pedestrian speed that was slightly lower, i.e., 1.57 m·s −1 , compared to 1.61 m·s −1 , which was the speed of pedestrians walking without phones. These mean values were associated with two different standard deviations, 0.167 for the "without phone" condition, and 0.229 for the "with phone" condition. It is also interesting to note the range of crossing speeds. In the condition without the phone, the range was quite limited, with a higher minimum value of 1.26 m·s −1 and a lower maximum value of 1.93 m·s −1 , while for the second condition the speed range was wider, (1.22-2.07 m·s −1 ). This fact indicates higher variability in pedestrians' crossing behavior while holding phones, which could play an important role in their safety. A look at the descriptive statistics in Table 6 shows a slight asymmetry of the two samples, which as higher for the "with phone" condition. To understand whether a normal distribution of crossing speed could be assumed, an Anderson-Darling test was performed. This statistical test checks the null hypothesis "the sample has a normal distribution". If the calculated p-value is less than the specified confidence level (alfa), the null hypothesis should be rejected, which means that the sample does not follow a normal distribution. Otherwise, the hypothesis cannot be stated. The results presented in Figure 4 confirmed the null hypothesis for both samples in that the calculated p-values were higher than the confidence level α (0.419 and 0.093 for the "without phone" and "with phone" condition, respectively). Sustainability 2021, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 18 were higher than the confidence level α (0.419 and 0.093 for the "without phone" and "with phone" condition, respectively). Considering the results of the previous test, an F-test for two variances was devised to emphasize whether the two samples were statistically different. The ratio between the two standard deviations and that between the two variances were different from 1.0 and equal to 0.730 and 0.533. Both confidence intervals at 95% contained the unit, and the pvalue was slightly higher than the confidence level (Table 7). Therefore, no clear statistical difference could be detected. Fixations Fixations were studied in terms of fixation counts, total fixation duration (s) and average fixation duration (s), in order to understand the elements most attracting pedestrians while crossing. It is important to underline that while fixation counts and total fixation duration refer to the total number and time that participants fixated a defined item, the average fixation duration reflected the mean time interval that each participant spent on a defined item. Thus, while the total fixation duration consisted of the sum of all the time spans spent on a given AOI, the average fixation duration value could be considered as the interest that an item aroused in a participant by determining the average time he/she spent looking at it. Bar charts in Figure 5a,b show the share of time participants spent at each defined area of interest when they were walking without their phone (a) and with it (b). Interestingly, in the first condition, the highest share of time was spent on path elements, with 16.64% for pavement/sidewalk and 14.73% for cycling lane/zebras, respectively, objects (16.14%), and the red traffic light, which was observed for the 13.29% of the time. In the second condition, the smartphone occupied the majority of the participants' Considering the results of the previous test, an F-test for two variances was devised to emphasize whether the two samples were statistically different. The ratio between the two standard deviations and that between the two variances were different from 1.0 and equal to 0.730 and 0.533. Both confidence intervals at 95% contained the unit, and the p-value was slightly higher than the confidence level (Table 7). Therefore, no clear statistical difference could be detected. Fixations Fixations were studied in terms of fixation counts, total fixation duration (s) and average fixation duration (s), in order to understand the elements most attracting pedestrians while crossing. It is important to underline that while fixation counts and total fixation duration refer to the total number and time that participants fixated a defined item, the average fixation duration reflected the mean time interval that each participant spent on a defined item. Thus, while the total fixation duration consisted of the sum of all the time spans spent on a given AOI, the average fixation duration value could be considered as the interest that an item aroused in a participant by determining the average time he/she spent looking at it. Bar charts in Figure 5a,b show the share of time participants spent at each defined area of interest when they were walking without their phone (a) and with it (b). Interestingly, in the first condition, the highest share of time was spent on path elements, with 16.64% for pavement/sidewalk and 14.73% for cycling lane/zebras, respectively, objects (16.14%), and the red traffic light, which was observed for the 13.29% of the time. In the second condition, the smartphone occupied the majority of the participants' attention at all the intersections considered (82.54% of the time was spent checking the apps), followed by the path. Pavement/sidewalk had a percentage of 4.03% and cycling lanes/zebras occupied 3.44% of the time, while the red traffic light was fixed for only 3% of the time. It is worth noticing how the percentages of fixed time decreased from the "without phone" condition to the "with phone" condition. Sustainability 2021, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEW 12 of 18 apps), followed by the path. Pavement/sidewalk had a percentage of 4.03% and cycling lanes/zebras occupied 3.44% of the time, while the red traffic light was fixed for only 3% of the time. It is worth noticing how the percentages of fixed time decreased from the "without phone" condition to the "with phone" condition. Although the number of fixations is related to the total fixation duration, it gives a clearer insight into the most and least observed elements. Table 8 shows the AOIs and their associated fixation counts in the two conditions under study. The elements that attracted the most interest were objects that were not part of the road environment when considering the "without phone" condition, while it was the phone in the other condition. The least observed elements were the phone in the first condition, followed by the button to press to bring up the green light, while participants were less attracted by bicycles when checking their phones. While walking without the phone, participants paid much more attention to each of the defined areas of interest. The presence of the phone reduced and restricted participants' attention to a smaller group of elements strictly related to the directly interacting elements, such as the traffic light, interacting cars and the crossing center. Finally, the average duration of fixation should be pointed out. This element, indeed reflects each participant's interest in a particular item by calculating the average time he/she spent on the selected element. Figure 6 compares the average fixation durations on different AOIs in the two conditions, with and without phone. As can be seen, pedestrians walking on zebras in the opposite direction were the element fixated longer by participants in the "without phone" condition, while outgoing cars were the most observed element (after the phone itself) in the second condition. Table 9 summarizes the difference in average fixation duration in the two conditions. It can be seen that outgoing cars and traffic signs were observed much more frequently in the condition with phone, while the other AOIs had a longer duration in the condition without phone. Sustainability 2021, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEW 14 of 18 Figure 6. Average fixation duration (given in seconds) over the defined AOIs. Table 9 summarizes the difference in average fixation duration in the two conditions. It can be seen that outgoing cars and traffic signs were observed much more frequently in the condition with phone, while the other AOIs had a longer duration in the condition without phone. Table 9. Difference in average fixation duration between the two recalled conditions. Negative differences identify longer durations for the distracted condition. Eye-Path An interesting tool offered by eye-tracking technology is gaze plots. These are graphical representations of the path the eye follows during the experiment. Each participant had their own gaze plot, which can be displayed individually or together with the gaze paths of all other participants. Observing the recorded videos, it became clear that some subjects in both situations (with phone and without phone) were highly focused on their tasks, while others were distracted by various elements of the surroundings. This difference also seemed to translate to the participants' crossing behavior. Therefore, two groups of individuals were defined, namely, attentive pedestrians and inattentive pedestrians, corresponding respectively to the two aforementioned ways of paying attention to the task or to the environment. It was interesting to understand which eye-paths were followed by individuals belonging to these two groups. Individual gaze diagrams were used for this purpose. Figures 7 and 8 compare the gaze paths of attentive (light blue) and inattentive (dark red) pedestrians in the two conditions. As can be observed, the former focused their attention on a small number of specific elements, all closely related to the crossing situation they were in. On the other hand, the inattentive participants were also captured by elements that were not directly related to their crossing situation, e.g., outgoing cars that did not interact with them, the empty road and other pedestrians on different sidewalks. This different way of focusing on road items could also be reflected in the overall crossing behavior. Since the number of participants was too small to form two statistically appropriate groups of attentive and inattentive pedestrians, only a general calculation of crossing times and speeds was made to provide a basis for further research. Inattentive pedestrians were found to exhibit safer behaviors characterized by higher speeds (1.7 m·s −1 and 1.67 m·s −1 for the no phone and with phone conditions, respectively) and lower crossing times (8.31 s and 8.41 s on average in the two conditions). In contrast, inattentive pedestrians had lower speed values and higher crossing times. As with reaction times, the variability of the data was too high to draw valid conclusions. Eye-Path An interesting tool offered by eye-tracking technology is gaze plots. These are graphical representations of the path the eye follows during the experiment. Each participant had their own gaze plot, which can be displayed individually or together with the gaze paths of all other participants. Observing the recorded videos, it became clear that some subjects in both situations (with phone and without phone) were highly focused on their tasks, while others were distracted by various elements of the surroundings. This difference also seemed to translate to the participants' crossing behavior. Therefore, two groups of individuals were defined, namely, attentive pedestrians and inattentive pedestrians, corresponding respectively to the two aforementioned ways of paying attention to the task or to the environment. It was interesting to understand which eye-paths were followed by individuals belonging to these two groups. Individual gaze diagrams were used for this purpose. Figures 7 and 8 compare the gaze paths of attentive (light blue) and inattentive (dark red) pedestrians in the two conditions. As can be observed, the former focused their attention on a small number of specific elements, all closely related to the crossing situation they were in. On the other hand, the inattentive participants were also captured by elements that were not directly related to their crossing situation, e.g., outgoing cars that did not interact with them, the empty road and other pedestrians on different sidewalks. This different way of focusing on road items could also be reflected in the overall crossing behavior. Since the number of participants was too small to form two statistically appropriate groups of attentive and inattentive pedestrians, only a general calculation of crossing times and speeds was made to provide a basis for further research. Inattentive pedestrians were found to exhibit safer behaviors characterized by higher speeds (1.7 m·s −1 and 1.67 m·s −1 for the no phone and with phone conditions, respectively) and lower crossing times (8.31 s and 8.41 s on average in the two conditions). In contrast, inattentive pedestrians had lower speed values and higher crossing times. As with reaction times, the variability of the data was too high to draw valid conclusions. Conclusions The research presents the results of an outdoor experiment using eye-tracking technology conducted in the urban area of Maribor (Slovenia). The aim of the study was to investigate the extent to which a widespread activity such as phone handling (a common task performed by young adults while walking) influences pedestrian behavior at signalized intersections. Two conditions were examined: the non-distracted condition consisted of participants focusing only on the task of walking and crossing the street, without any Conclusions The research presents the results of an outdoor experiment using eye-tracking technology conducted in the urban area of Maribor (Slovenia). The aim of the study was to investigate the extent to which a widespread activity such as phone handling (a common task performed by young adults while walking) influences pedestrian behavior at signalized intersections. Two conditions were examined: the non-distracted condition consisted of participants focusing only on the task of walking and crossing the street, without any device; the distracted condition consisted of pedestrians checking their social media apps throughout the duration of the experiment. A total of 12 people participated in the experiment, crossing three different signalized intersections. The limited sample of participants and the study of only one intersection typology is a limitation of the study that should be considered. Nonetheless, further research is underway to address both of these gaps by both increasing the sample of participants and analyzing other intersection typologies. The results highlight an important effect of smartphones on pedestrian attention and behavior. Analysis of reaction times highlights a 0.923 s slower response for pedestrians who focus their attention on their social media and crossing time and speed were also affected by smartphone use, although slightly. Crossing speed decreased when pedestrians check their phones, and crossing times covered a wider range, highlighting a behavioral variability issue that could translate into unpredictability of pedestrian behavior for drivers. Fixations also showed a significant influence of the distracting task, highlighting that pedestrians' attention to potentially interacting objects decreased when they were captured by their device. The striking differences in the values of reaction times were also confirmed by statistical tests at the 90% confidence level, proving that the use of a phone is a significant distractor and highly affects pedestrian behavior in traffic, whereas the differences in the values of crossing speed were not detected by the tests performed. Finally, a qualitative analysis of gaze behavior highlighted two distinct pedestrian typologies that were not directly related to smartphone use: attentive and inattentive pedestrians. Although an in-depth analysis of these two groups was not yet possible, some observations could be made to serve as a basis for further research. Specifically, the first group (attentive pedestrians) was characterized by more focused behavior, as evidenced by lower crossing times and higher crossing speeds. The second group was inattentive individuals whose attention was captured by a variety of elements in the road environment: these have longer crossing times as well as lower speeds. The results of this study have important implications for pedestrian safety, as they show a concrete impact of smartphone use on young pedestrians. By strongly affecting reaction time, smartphones reduce pedestrians' performance at the beginning of a crossing event, which may translate into a higher risk for the same. It should be kept in mind that pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users, but also the ones who can react the fastest to dangerously interacting vehicles. When their attention is tied up by other devices, these responses are slowed. Furthermore, the research findings highlight that there is an effective need for new infrastructure design solutions, especially at intersections where pedestrians' attention needs to be diverted from smartphones to the road and its interacting elements. Innovative road elements, such as smart traffic lights, could improve the current situation and lead to safer pedestrian behavior. Future studies are needed and planned to support these preliminary findings. These studies should consider larger participant samples as well as examine other intersections. Indeed, we expect that on a larger database the difference between the two samples will crystallize even more clearly. In addition, it would be interesting to investigate whether there are differences in attention allocation and crossing behavior among pedestrians of different age groups.

_fmt.jpeg) How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Personal Chef Business By Carla Rowley and Lee Rowley This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version, which is the same content as the print version. 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Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-60138-141-5 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-60138-141-7 (alk. paper) 1. Food service management. 2. Cooks. 3. Entrepreneurship. I. Rowley, Lee, 1973- II. Title. TX911.3.M27R69 2008 647.95068--dc22 2008028007 LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. 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Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day. We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bear's memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance. – Douglas and Sherri Brown PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home. Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today: * • Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter. * • Support local and no-kill animal shelters. * • Plant a tree to honor someone you love. * • Be a developer — put up some birdhouses. * • Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them. * • Make sure you spend time with your animals each day. * • Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products. * • Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home. * • Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides. * • If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices. * • Support your local farmers market. * • Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike. Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year. Table of Contents Foreword Introduction Chapter 1: What is a Personal Chef? Chapter 2: What Education is Required to Become a Personal Chef? Chapter 3: Developing a Business Plan Chapter 4: Setting Up a Business Budget Chapter 5: What Equipment Does a Personal Chef Need? Chapter 6: Where Should I Set Up My Business? Chapter 7: Hiring and Training Employees Chapter 8: Catering to the Dietary Needs of Your Clients Chapter 9: Learning to Cater to Your Client's Personal Preferences Chapter 10: Customer Service and Satisfaction Chapter 11: What Should You Charge? Chapter 12: Preparing for the Financial Responsibilities of Being Self-Employed Chapter 13: Marketing Your Personal Chef Services Chapter 14: Software and Web Services to Help You Run Your Personal Chef Business Chapter 15: Case Studies Bibliography Dedication & Biography Glossary More Books Foreword By Deborah J. DuBost In today's environment, where families are fast-forwarding through life with busy careers and a plentitude of after-school activities, more and more people are choosing to hire personal or private chefs to fulfill the need for a home cooked meal. While just a decade ago, services like this were typically used by only the wealthy, today, many everyday families are deciding to hire personal chefs to cook nutritional, well-balanced meals. As the temptation to grab dinner from a fast-food restaurant on the way home from work or from picking up kids from soccer practice increases, so does the guilt for not providing your family with a meal that serves their best interests. For these "families-on-the-go," the services of a personal chef can be invaluable and can provide a tasty, but also healthy, alternative to fast-food or prepackaged, frozen meals. With the need for these services increasing, deciding to open a personal or private chef business can not only be a rewarding personal experience, but a smart business investment as well. Becoming a personal or private chef allows you to take part in an activity that you enjoy – cooking – and also to escape the typical restaurant environment that most chefs are accustom to. Opening your own business allows you the freedom to express your own creativity and to show off your expertise with a specific style of cooking. As an owner, you can operate the business to align with your own personal and creative vision. Not only does becoming a personal or private chef give you personal freedom, but it may also give you the financial freedom that you always imagined for yourself and was never available as a chef in a restaurant. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, providing professional personal chef services is one of the fastest growing segments of the food service business. Personal chefs can expect to make between $100 and $400 a day. How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Personal Chef Business: With Companion CD-ROM is a complete guide for anyone thinking of starting down the path of entrepreneurship. The book provides detailed, easy to read information on what it takes to become a personal or private chef, what type of education is typically required, and basic business operation information, such as writing a business plan, setting up a budget for your new business, and the different options on locations for operating your business. The book even contains a CD-ROM which has a fully customizable sample business plan and all the forms and checklists located throughout the book. Authors Carla and Lee Rowley also offer specific catering information such as selecting menus that fit the health, nutrition, and religious needs of your clients, the importance of learning your clients' food preferences, and specific customer service advice. As a personal caterer myself, I can attest that this book is a must-have for all experienced chefs looking to start their own personal chef business. My company, Let's Party and Catering, offers personal chef services right in the client's home. During our sessions, we educate our clients on the nutritional aspects of the meal and, at the end of preparation, we pack all of the extra food into freezable containers for the client's enjoyment at a later time. Our Private Chef services are set for group dinners of two or more, and can also be set as a Culinary Class for the attendees; where the recipes are provided and prepared by the guests. This book is a great introduction into not only the world of a personal chef, but also into opening a successful, financially stable new business. Opening any new business is a huge undertaking, but with your own creative motivation and How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Personal Chef Business you are sure to have all the inspiration and information that you need to start your business off on the right path. Good luck with your business endeavors and happy cooking! Deborah J. DuBost Owner/Executive Chef, Let's Party & Catering www.LetsPartyandCatering.com letsparty_catering@hotmail.com 386-216-7651 Born in Washington, D.C., Deborah DuBost moved to Merritt Island, Florida in 1965. DuBost worked at Disney World's Magic Kingdom under the guidance of Executive Chef Klaus Friesendorf at Top of the World Restaurant as his Prep & Sous Chef. DuBost graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. After graduation, DuBost made her way back to Florida when she was hired by Southern Bell Telephone Company. In 1998, DuBost retired from AT&T Communications. With her love of the culinary arts always in the back of her mind, she graduated from Johnson & Wales' College of Culinary Arts. Let's Party and Catering opened in 2003 and today, five years later, DuBost feels as if she has learned many lessons along the path of entrepreneurship and has gained some of the best customers around. Table of Contents Introduction Do you enjoy cooking and baking, and consider these activities an escape from the everyday world? Do you spend every possible minute in the kitchen, creating delicious treats for your family and guests? Do you delight in each compliment and each recipe request you receive from people who have tasted your unique creations? If you can answer yes to these questions, you have probably thought at one time or another about turning your love for cooking into a full-time career. If you are like many people, though, the prospect of transitioning into a career in cooking might seem daunting. How would you get clients? How would you come up with the money to start your business? What types of food would you make, and whom would you serve? Unfortunately, too many talented people face these questions and, lacking the resources or support to find the answers, never let themselves explore the prospect of a career in the culinary arts. This book might be just the resource and the support you have been hoping for. If you are passionate about cooking, and have always wanted to cook for a living, the information contained in this book could prove to be some of the most valuable information you will ever read. Within these pages, you will learn how to plan a personal chef business and begin taking the steps to achieve the career you have always dreamed of. A career as a personal chef can be a perfect solution for people who love to cook, but who are not excited about any of the traditional careers available to people in the culinary arts. Many chefs who are not aware of the emerging personal chef opportunities that have become available in recent years feel that they are limited to the constraints of cooking in a restaurant owned by someone else. Although working in this type of environment might pay the bills, it can sometimes limit your creativity and leave you feeling unchallenged. Working for a restaurateur also significantly limits a chef's income – unless you are willing to move each time a more lucrative opportunity becomes available at another restaurant, your income is limited to what the owner is willing to pay you. Another option pursued by many chefs is to open their own restaurant. Although this is a dream shared by many people in the culinary arts, opening a restaurant takes a huge financial investment and often requires taking out enormous loans to finance the restaurant space, pay your staff members, purchase ingredients and supplies, and market the restaurant to local diners. Furthermore, new restaurants often take several years before a profit is even made. Because of these challenges, many chefs are left deterred by the prospect of undertaking such a large financial investment that will take so long to show any financial return. A private chef works for one client exclusively, to meet their tastes and needs. Because a private chef is limited to one customer or organization and is employed exclusively for that person or organization, he or she is limited to the needs of that client. A private chef might prepare and serve up to three meals a day for the client. Although it can provide long-term job stability, it is easy for a private chef to become bored in this career; once a private chef knows how to cater to the needs of his or her client, he or she can feel that this career lacks the challenges necessary to maintain his or her passion for food. A personal chef works with various families and organizations and has no exclusive contract limiting his or her services to just one client or organization. Starting a personal chef business provides an option that offers an opportunity for a chef to open a business with a significantly lower financial investment than opening a restaurant and affords the chef the ability to be creative and constantly challenged. In today's busy society, the need for personal chefs is growing day by day. The career, social, and family demands placed upon people today have created a unique need for the expert services of personal chefs who can take care of the often time-consuming task of preparing and serving meals. Busy families that want to have nutritional meals but do not have time to cook, elderly people with specific dietary needs who find it increasingly difficult to cook for themselves, and individuals and families that entertain and host dinner parties often, but do not have the time to cook for large groups, are all potential clients for personal chefs. This book addresses the unique needs of all types of customers, including the difficult customer, and how to cater to their personal needs. As you might have guessed, it takes more than just the ability to cook to be successful as a personal chef. Although cooking nutritional and tasty meals is imperative to success as a personal chef, there are many business aspects that must also be explored and carefully planned for. As with any business, there are many mistakes that a new businessperson can make; these mistakes can cost you thousands of dollars in lost profit and can ultimately cost you your success in the culinary field. The purpose of this book is to give you the tools to troubleshoot potential business pitfalls and be prepared to make your business profitable and successful. In the following pages, you will learn what a personal chef is, what a personal chef does, and what valuable business tools you will need for success. You need not have a degree in business to learn how to operate and run a personal chef business. However, as with any business venture, it is important to develop the business savvy necessary to reach your potential customers, make wise business and financial decisions, keep your customers happy, and generate repeat business. In the following chapters, we will take a journey through every aspect of a personal chef business. You will learn, in detail, what kinds of tasks a personal chef undertakes and what kinds of different settings a personal chef works in. You will also learn how to build a business plan, undertake any necessary education, procure the equipment and supplies necessary to create and package meals for your clients, work with your customers to identify their needs, account for their dietary preferences and restrictions, and above all, keep them happy. You will also learn various marketing techniques that you can use to reach your ideal customers. Grab a pen and paper because you might want to take notes as you read through this book and learn the secrets to success as a personal chef. Make yourself comfortable and prepare to dive into the life of a personal chef. Table of Contents Chapter 1: What is a Personal Chef? Before we begin exploring how to open and run a successful personal chef business, let us explore why people would choose to use a personal chef to prepare meals and examine what a personal chef is and does in more detail. In this chapter, you will learn about the activities of a personal chef and understand why this service is essential for many families today. You will also learn about the importance of specializing in certain cuisines or diets and identify some of the personal and professional traits that can help make you a successful personal chef. This will help you make sure that a career as a personal chef is right for you and help you prepare to enter the world of personal chef service. The Growing Need for Personal Chefs The popularity of using personal chefs to provide ready-to-eat meals has increased dramatically as families have become busier and have begun taking on obligations that were unheard of a few decades ago. In today's society, it is not uncommon for both spouses to balance career and family, in addition to social obligations and other tasks. Working adults find it more difficult than ever to find enough time to meet all of their obligations. Single-parent families are also becoming more common, with one parent acting as the sole breadwinner, homework help expert, and chauffeur of the household. After a long day of dropping the children off at school, spending the day at work, and running the kids to after-school activities and little league practice, it is difficult for working adults to find the time and energy to create home cooked meals at all, let alone ones that are low fat, nutritionally balanced, and full of fresh ingredients. As a result, many families end up resorting to fast food meals that they can simply pick up on the way home from work. Others rely on pre-packaged frozen entrees that can be thrown in the oven. Although these types of meals are quick solutions for busy parents who need to feed themselves and their children on the go, the foods that comprise these meals generally lack nutritional value, contain ingredients that are detrimental to the health of the parents and children, and add fuel to the obesity epidemic sweeping across the United States and many other developed countries. As a personal chef, you can provide a much healthier alternative that is convenient, quick, and simple for the family on the go to heat and eat. Imagine how valuable you can be to busy families as a personal chef by providing tasty, nutritional alternatives to fast food fare and frozen meals that have sat in the supermarket freezer case for an undeterminable length of time. By lending your expertise to busy families as a personal chef, you can provide your customer with an invaluable service by using your knowledge, experience, and passion for food to provide them with delicious meals for each week. Many personal chefs add even more value to their culinary services by specializing in various cuisines and dietary needs to best use their strengths as a chef. This also helps build a sustainable business, because they can attract a niche segment of the people who need the services of a personal chef. Specializing also gives you more opportunity to create the types of food you enjoy creating the most, which can significantly increase your career satisfaction and attract clients who appreciate your enthusiasm and passion. It is important to remember when starting a personal chef business that you have room to be creative and to make the business meet your own personal vision. No two personal chefs are alike, and your creativity is a factor that will help you retain your clients and receive referrals for new clients. Although this book will give you a blueprint for launching and building your personal chef business, it is important that you work with the ideas in this book and modify them as necessary to complement your personal culinary vision, so you can begin to create the business of your dreams. What Does a Personal Chef Do? A personal chef creates meals that are ready for his or her clients to eat when they return home after work, school, and other obligations. A personal chef may also create meals that are packaged and refrigerated or frozen so clients can simply heat the meals and have them on the dinner table in a matter of minutes. A personal chef works closely with his or her clients to provide tasty and nutritional meals that meet the clients' personal needs and tastes. One way personal chefs make sure their clients are satisfied is to frequently communicate with the clients to form and adjust meal plans. Asking for input and suggestions from customers is one of the best ways to maintain long-term client relationships, not only because you will be better able to cater to their preferences, but because your clients will appreciate the fact that you have their best interests in mind when planning and preparing their meals. You might also have to conduct significant research on particular diets, health conditions, or religious beliefs to be able to cater to the clients' specialized tastes and needs. Many personal chefs cook the meals in the clients' kitchens and package them so they can be frozen and reheated at the client's meal time. Meals are typically packaged with detailed instructions so clients only have to follow minimal preparation requirements to complete the meal. Many clients appreciate this arrangement for two reasons: first, because they know where the meal was prepared – some people who need personal chef services have reservations about eating meals that are prepared in the chef's home, because they do not have the opportunity to make sure the cooking environment is sanitary; second, because when they sit down to dinner, they will not have to worry about having you in their house – this gives the clients the ability to have some private time with their families. A personal chef differs from a private chef because he or she works for multiple clients rather than being limited to one client. A personal chef can also offer his or her services for a much more affordable price than a private chef. The result is a chef service that is accessible and appealing to more customers. This is because a personal chef can provide professionally prepared meals at a price that is affordable to the average person and still provide customers with the luxury of professionally prepared meals. As a personal chef, you will also be required to take into consideration your clients' specific dietary needs and restrictions and to select ingredients for your clients' meals based on those needs and restrictions. We will talk more in depth about this in Chapter 9. Personal chefs can also provide cooking classes in the client's home or in the community. In addition to giving you extra income, this service can help establish you as a culinary authority in your community. Conducting classes is also a good way to obtain referrals for your personal chef services because attendees who enjoy your classes will want their families and friends to experience your culinary genius as well. Some chefs choose to specialize in either catering for special events or providing meals for several different customers. No matter what the event or whom you are working with, it is important to establish a meal plan with each customer. Establishing a meal plan and reviewing it with your client helps to ensure that you, as the personal chef, are providing the types of food and variety that your customer desires. This can be especially helpful in getting to know a new client's preferences and expectations. It is imperative that you learn about any religious or health-related dietary restrictions or food allergies your client might have. Sometimes a client is unfamiliar with every ingredient that makes up a specific dish and might not realize that the food they are allergic to is included in their entree. Some food allergies are potentially fatal. It is imperative that you avoid using ingredients that could cause your client to have an allergic reaction. After you set up the meal plans, they should be submitted to the client for approval. Once the meals are approved, the chef will complete the shopping for all food items involved and will prepare the food for the client, usually in the client's own kitchen. Taking time to create a detailed list before going to the store will prevent you from having to improvise or make an emergency trip to the store. This is especially important if you will be using your client's kitchen because you will have a limited amount of time to prepare the food. Being prepared is also critical to managing your time, especially as your clientele grows. If you are working with several families on an ongoing basis, often you will go to the client's home once a week – or once every other week – and prepare the meals in the client's kitchen. The meals will then be available for the client to heat and eat at their desired meal time. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the client's kitchen before showing up to prepare your first batch of meals. It might be helpful for you to provide your client with a comment card each week. Comment cards are a quick and convenient way for your clients to provide feedback on your services. What Qualities Does a Successful Personal Chef Need? As with any profession, a personal chef career is not right for everyone. A personal chef must possess, or cultivate, certain traits in order to be successful. If you have a passion for cooking and truly desire to be a personal chef, any of these traits can be learned and developed. One of these traits is the love and passion for food. A successful personal chef must love to cook and bring life to their food. Many clients who hire a personal chef are passionate about food, but do not have the time to prepare food that lives up to their expectations. A good personal chef recognizes the client's passion for food and uses his or her ability to cook with creativity and flair to make each meal a culinary adventure. Another trait a personal chef must possess, or develop, is people skills. Although one of the many advantages to having a personal chef business is the freedom to be creative, the customer must always come first. A good personal chef always listens to the customer's wants and needs and does their absolute best to provide an outstanding meal for each client. If you do not always agree with a client's ideas or suggestions, learn to compromise and offer solutions. A personal chef must be creative and develop their own recipes and dishes to fit the client's individual preferences and needs. Some clients will be harder to please than others. As a personal chef, you must always act professionally. Always listen to your client's concerns and be prepared to offer solutions. Ask for feedback and accept constructive criticism to keep your clients happy and build your clientele. As a personal chef, it is imperative that you listen to your clients. Provide a questionnaire or sit down with the client and make notes about the client's personal needs and expectations. If the client is unhappy with a meal, it is important to listen to what the client did and did not like and work out a solution to prevent repeating the mistake. Always submit meal plans in a timely manner so your clients will have adequate time to review and approve the menu. Some clients will be more difficult to please than others. Another important trait a personal chef must either have or develop is excellent time-management skills. As a personal chef, you will be working on your own, with no boss to hold you accountable or time clock to punch. Although this might seem appealing to you, it is important to remain disciplined and manage your time effectively. Time management will become even more important as you grow your business and take on more clients. Where Does a Personal Chef Work? Many personal chefs work in the kitchens of their clients, rather than preparing meals in their own kitchens. Most chefs set up a time with their client and go to the client's house once a week or once every other week and prepare the food in the client's kitchen. This eliminates the need for transporting finished entrees and reduces the chance of food getting destroyed, damaged, or contaminated in transit. Cooking in your client's kitchen does pose some difficulties. Sometimes, clients may not have the items you need to prepare a certain dish. It also might be difficult to locate items in an unfamiliar kitchen. Ask your client to give you a tour of their kitchen before your first cooking appointment. Also, create a portable kitchen kit that contains critical items that your client may not own. Your client is probably not a professional chef himself and probably does not have every item that a culinary expert views as critical in preparing a meal. Some personal chefs prefer to cook in their own kitchens and deliver the food to the client. This eliminates the need to transport equipment. Another major advantage to using your own kitchen is that you do not have to familiarize yourself with each client's kitchen. Transporting the food to your client's home does, however, provide the need for a business vehicle large enough to safely transport items. As we mentioned earlier, it also provides the risk of food becoming damaged, destroyed, or contaminated while in transit. If your intention is to build a larger business, hire employees, and specialize in catering, you might want to consider renting a kitchen space. Renting a space will provide more room for multiple employees to work at the same time. Renting a space will also provide extra room for meeting with customers who want to sample your product before contracting your services. As with choosing to cook in your own kitchen, renting a space will also require a proper vehicle in which to safely transport food items. Renting a space also involves more expense and overhead because you will be paying for the space. When choosing where you want to work, consider your needs and specialties. No one option is best for everyone. If you want to keep your practice somewhat small, working in your own kitchen or your client's kitchen may be the better way to go. But, if you want to provide a place to meet with your clients and provide samplings of your work or you envision a larger business with multiple employees, renting a larger area could be the way to go. What Areas Can a Personal Chef Specialize In? As a personal chef, you are your own boss, so your possibilities of specialization are virtually endless. You have the freedom to specialize to meet your passions. Specializing also allows you to target a more specific market that is looking for your specific service and variety. One area of specialization is catering. You can choose to cater for large or small groups. You can also target your marketing to reach either organizations or families. You can provide your catering services for weddings, small dinner parties, corporate banquets, anniversary parties, or reunions. The catering business is one of the fastest growing areas in the food service industry. The more you build your reputation as a caterer, the more demand you will be in. The best news is that you need not limit yourself to just catering. Some personal chefs choose to work as personal chefs in their client's homes as well as provide catering services on a case-by-case basis. When beginning your personal chef business, you can also choose to specialize in working with clients with specific dietary needs. Clients with health-restricted diets, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, require a special diet to maintain their health and well-being. Perhaps you have specific health-related dietary restrictions of your own or have had to cook for a family member who has had dietary restrictions. Your expertise and specialization can place you in high demand for those who need help in the kitchen but might be fearful that a personal chef will not understand or adhere to their specific dietary needs. You can also use your expertise in this area to provide food that is not lacking in flavor. If you have a specific ethnic food that you are passionate about cooking, consider specializing in that food. Your expertise will appeal to clients who are either of that ethnicity and prefer to eat familiar foods, or who particularly enjoy the type of ethnic food you specialize in. If you feel limited by choosing one ethnic food and have a special talent with several types of ethnic food, you can choose to specialize in each of your favorite ethnic foods. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, you might feel limited by the vegetarian and vegan food options currently available at your local restaurants. If you like to experiment with creating flavorful foods that are vegetarian and vegan, a specialization in vegetarian and vegan meals would give you the opportunity to provide tasty vegetarian and vegan meals to your clientele. In turn, you would appeal to your clientele by offering them flavor-filled vegetarian and vegan meals that personal chefs who primarily cook with meat and animal products could not provide. If you like to teach others how to cook, you could specialize in providing cooking lessons. These lessons can be in the client's home or can be scheduled by the chef and open to the public at the location the chef chooses. These cooking lessons can be tailored to your personal specialties and expertise and can help you meet potential clients in the community. With a significant segment of the population becoming increasingly health conscious, many clients are interested in organic diets. Some clients, although wanting an organic diet, do not know where to begin. A chef who specializes in organic foods and already has expertise is invaluable to these clients. If you choose organic foods as your specialty, you can take the burden off your clients by shopping for organic foods and preparing these foods to maximize taste and flavor. Organic foods are sometimes hard to find and are costly. With your expertise, you can cut the client's food cost by researching organic food suppliers and finding the best price for organic foods. Perhaps your passion is preparing low-fat, low-calorie meals that are tasty but do not pack on extra pounds. With the growing obesity epidemic in the United States, many people wish to lose extra pounds, but do not want to sacrifice taste. Many pre-packaged diet entrees and foods provided by diet plans lack taste. Many of these meals are also small in portion size, leaving the consumer hungry. By using your specialty to create flavor-filled food in reasonably sized portions, you are not only feeding your passion for cooking but offering your clients a way to live healthier without sacrificing excellent-tasting food. The possibilities are endless when choosing a specialization. It is important to remember that choosing a specialization does not limit you to working only for the clientele that is drawn to your particular specialization. However, choosing a niche can set you apart from other personal chefs and will draw in a clientele that is interested in the special services you can provide. Your specialty can also make you invaluable to your clients because you are providing them with foods that might be time consuming or difficult for them to prepare. Who Hires Personal Chefs? Every person who hires a personal chef is different. Many either do not have the time to cook or simply do not enjoy cooking, so if they have the means to do so, they hire a personal chef to take the burden off them and save their time for other things. Other clients might have dietary needs that make it difficult to cook flavorful food. These clients go to a personal chef because chefs have the expertise necessary to create foods within their dietary guidelines without sacrificing flavor. The service you provide as a personal chef is very valuable and important to your customers. Many customers will be drawn to you because of your specialization or because they have heard about your work from other clients and want to try it for themselves. Table of Contents Chapter 2: What Education is Required to Become a Personal Chef? Now that you know what a personal chef is and does, you are probably excited about starting your new career. However, you might have assumed that many years of specialized schooling are necessary to begin working as a chef. This chapter will give you information about the formalized education you might need before getting started and what to do if you do not have this education. Do You Need a Formalized Education? The idea of going through several years of culinary school, racking up thousands of dollars in student loans, and trying to balance school and a career can seem daunting. The good news is that you do not have to have a culinary background or meet any educational requirements to become a personal chef. You can start your business – and your new career – with your current talents and passion for cooking. Of course, a culinary background and education does provide you with an advantage. If you already work as a chef in a restaurant or work in the food service industry, you might find your experience advantageous. Working in the industry helps to develop contacts and build a reputation for your services. People who are already familiar with you and the quality of your work will be more likely to hire you and provide you with referrals. These contacts and referrals can fuel your business. Another advantage a culinary background or education is the opportunity to learn the trade and refine your cooking skills. In culinary school, you will have the chance to learn more about what foods complement each other, how to improve your dishes, how to effectively alter recipes to better suit your clients, and how to better time your cooking. Culinary school and a culinary background will also provide you with a better understanding of cooking equipment and how it is used. This knowledge can help you learn how to save time and produce products more efficiently, which will give you the capacity to serve more clients. If you are not already working in the culinary industry, do not be discouraged. You can still build your clientele, although it could potentially take more time. Many potential clients will want references and will ask about your background. Being able to provide references and showcase your experience will provide you with more credibility and will build a greater level of confidence in your abilities. There are several ways to build credibility without a culinary background. One way is to offer your services to friends and family for parties, weddings, and banquets. Doing so will help establish you as a personal chef – it will prove that you are capable of doing the job and will get you in front of potential clients. Once a client has tasted and had a positive experience with your product, they will have a much higher level of confidence in your services and will be more likely to hire you. Another way to establish yourself as a personal chef is to offer cooking classes in your community. A cooking class puts you in front of potential clients who will be able to see how you work and sample your food. A third option to establish yourself as a personal chef is to find another personal chef in your area who has a full clientele and ask for an opportunity to work as an apprentice. This will help you learn the business from someone who already has a successful business and will help build your credibility. What Are My Culinary Education Options? An education in culinary arts is very hands on. The best way to learn to cook and refine your skills as a chef is practice often. You will have to constantly experiment and refine your cooking skills, even after you have completed your education. Because of the hands-on nature of a career in culinary arts, a classroom environment is still the most popular and widely available option. Classroom learning puts you in the kitchen and gives you the freedom to experiment, receive critiques, and learn to improve. Hands-on classroom learning will also help you learn more about the equipment you will be using and how to use it properly. You will learn how to cook a variety of foods to perfection and will get a chance to experiment with types of food you might have never worked with before, thereby building your expertise and ability to cater to the customer. Some culinary arts schools even offer a personal chef specialization that will better prepare you for the challenges of running your own business and learning to cater to your clients needs. Many major universities now offer a culinary arts program. There are also schools that specialize in just culinary-related fields. You can find a reputable culinary arts school in your area by asking others in the industry, using the Internet, looking in the yellow pages, or inquiring about course options in culinary arts with your local university. If classroom learning is simply not an option for you due to family obligations, work, or proximity to a university, distance-learning options are available. In today's busy society, distance learning is becoming more readily available in most areas of study, offering you more options to choose from. The best way to find a reputable distance learning program that will help you meet your needs is by checking with others in the industry. Choose a distance learning program that is going to give you the most comprehensive and thorough program possible. Talking to others in the culinary field who have used these distance learning programs can give you more insight into which distance learning programs will offer you the best education. If you are brand new to the field and do not know anyone in the culinary industry, look for personal chefs in your area and see whether they would be willing to let you interview them. This will give you the opportunity to learn what education and background those who are successful in the field are obtaining and will give you a contact in the field. Another way to find a distance learning program is to search the Internet. Be sure to read all the fine print and thoroughly check out the program offered before signing up or paying any money. You can also check with your state to see whether the program is accredited and recognized in your state. It is important to do your research when choosing any program, especially a distance learning program. Although distance education and certification is becoming more readily available, it is still a buyer beware market. If you start an apprenticeship with a chef who is already successful in the field, you might want to set up a cross-referral agreement with that chef. This will be especially helpful if you specialize in a specific type of cuisine. If your training chef has a full clientele, he or she may refer additional clients to your business. You can, in return, promise to offer them the same courtesy. Although an education in culinary arts is not required to become a personal chef, having experience and education can help you build your business faster. Potential clients find chefs who have experience, education, and a proven track record to be more credible, capable, and better equipped to meet their personal needs. The Culinary Business Academy For many aspiring personal chefs, one of the best training programs is the Personal Chef Training program, available through the Culinary Business Academy. This program provides several options for you to obtain the training necessary to set up, start, and successfully operate your personal chef business, and avoid many of the mistakes typically made by new personal chefs. Many new personal chefs opt for the Personal Chef Home Study Program offered by the Culinary Business Academy. This course includes the Professional Personal Chef Reference Manual, CDs that will assist you in learning to market and sell your services, and a collection of recipes that you can use as the core of your products. According to the Culinary Business Academy, this home study course can be completed in as little as two weeks; you can quickly prepare to begin your own personal chef venture. Upon completion of the course, you will have the option of taking three online tests – after successfully passing these tests, you will earn a diploma for the course and fulfill one of the requirements to become a Certified Personal Chef. Some personal chefs find that they need training beyond that which is available through the home study course. The Culinary Business Academy also offers a 16-hour Quick Start Program, an intensive classroom training session taught by Certified Personal Chefs. This training session will give real world knowledge about the personal chef industry and allow you to get answers from people who have extensive experience providing personal chef services for clients. The Culinary Business Academy guarantees your success by refunding your tuition if you do not achieve a minimum level of business success after completing the Quick Start Program. If a home study course is not for you, you can opt to obtain your diploma by taking the Personal Chef Undergraduate Program through the Culinary Business Academy, which is a five-day, onsite course that will give you accelerated training and help you get your personal chef business up and running quickly. The Culinary Business Academy also guarantees your success upon completion of this program. For more information about the training programs offered by the Culinary Business Academy, visit their Web site at www.culinarybusiness.com. Business Education and Experience Although knowing and learning how to prepare meals that will turn your clients into long-term customers is essential to success as a personal chef, there are other types of knowledge you will need to keep your business profitable and turn your passion into a career. An extensive understanding of business concepts will be very important. Taking business courses or pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree is one way to gain this business knowledge, but if you do not have the time or inclination to take college courses or pursue an advanced degree, there are other ways to gain the knowledge necessary to build and execute a successful business model. One of the least expensive ways to gain all the business knowledge you will need to start and grow your business is to visit your local public library. The advantage you gain from visiting the library, other than saving thousands of dollars on books and tuition, is that you can learn practical applications as well as academic theory. Here is a list of books that will help you understand how business works: * • Legal Guide to Starting and Running a Small Business, by Fred Steingold, ISBN 978-1413305135. This is an excellent book to help you decide how to form your business, make you aware of the legal considerations of running a business, and help you avoid some of the legal pitfalls that often plague business owners. It can also save you quite a bit of money in legal expenses, because you will not have to contact an attorney every time a legal question is raised. At over 450 pages, this book is no small undertaking, but if you can take the time to read it, you will have a thorough understanding of the legal considerations of being in business for yourself. * • The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Business, by Marcia Layton Turner, ISBN 978-0764572852. This thorough business guide demonstrates how to start a business from the very beginning stages to full operation. It also gives real-life examples that show practical applications of the concepts outlined in the book so you can see how the concepts will translate when you are building your personal chef business. * • What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business: Real Life Start Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs, by Jan Norman, ISBN 978-0793185962. Although this book is less concerned with providing a step-by-step guide to starting a business than other business books, it can be an excellent resource because it allows you to see the real-life successes and failures of entrepreneurs like you. You will get to see the mistakes that other business owners have made when starting and expanding their businesses and obtain tips from their successes. * • The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business, 5th Edition, by Edward Paulson, ISBN 978-1592575848. This book provides all the information you need to launch your business with minimal difficulties. Edward Paulson breaks down business concepts into understandable terms and provides tips and insights along the way to give you every advantage possible while you are growing your personal chef business. Regardless of whether you choose to pursue a formal business education, these books (and many others) can provide you with a strong foundation to bring your culinary skills to your community, while building a financially viable business that will support you and your family for many years to come. Another way to gain insight into the world of business is to connect with other entrepreneurs in your area. You can obtain a wealth of knowledge about how to build a financially successful business by sitting down with people who have already built successful businesses and with people who are on the same path as you. This is an excellent way to get answers to questions you will have during your first few years as a professional personal chef. You might be able to find local business owner groups via bulletin boards in local establishments, such as coffee shops, book stores, and other areas frequented by business owners. Do not be afraid to contact group organizers if you have questions about joining a group or attending meetings – the organizers will be happy to answer any questions you might have and help you feel comfortable with getting involved. Business owner groups can also be excellent for networking. Once your business launches, you can provide other business owners with business cards or other promotional materials so they can pass these materials along to potential clients. Since they are probably busy building their own businesses, they might even elect to use your services themselves. If you choose to promote your business through networking with other local business owners, be sure to offer to promote their businesses as well. This technique can work wonders for your business, especially if you are able to help your fellow business owners along the way. Networking can also be a good way to learn where to obtain supplies at wholesale costs. If there are restaurant owners or other food service professionals in your group, they might be able to tell you where to obtain cooking equipment and ingredients at a discount, which can improve your profit margin. Other types of business professionals might help you save money on advertising materials, transportation, or other expenses you will incur as a result of doing business. If there are several business owners who need similar types of materials or services, such as mailing, advertising, or insurance, you might be able to pool your financial resources with those of other business owners to obtain an even greater discount. If you cannot find a business owners' group via a public bulletin board, you can try using www.meetup.com to find groups in your area. Signing up on this Web site is a quick and simple process, and you can find all available groups in your area within a matter of minutes. You will also find out when and where these groups meet and whether there are any membership dues or other costs to join and attend meetings. If there are no available business owners' groups, you can start one on MeetUp. It is likely that there are other business owners in your area who could greatly benefit from attending meetings with other business owners, but have not taken the initiative to start a group. Starting a group on MeetUp costs $20, but this small fee can be well worth the benefits that you and the other business owners in your area will receive from networking and brainstorming sessions. Now that you have learned about your education options, how to use any culinary experience you might have to your advantage, how to learn the business skills necessary to make your personal chef venture a success, and how to break into the personal chef business if you do not have education or experience to rely upon, let us move on to the first and most important step you will need to take to begin your career as a personal chef – creating and developing a business plan. Table of Contents Chapter 3: Developing a Business Plan When you first considered starting a career as a personal chef, you might not have thought about the task of sitting down and detailing the background, vision, goals, and resources of your venture in a formalized document. However, you should formally detail all these elements in a business plan long before your first meal is ever served to a client. If you want to get your business off to a strong start and attract the support necessary to make your business a success, then a business plan is a vital first step. Fortunately, creating a solid business plan is not nearly as difficult as it sounds, and there are plenty of resources available to help you write, organize, and present your business plan. This chapter will help you create your business plan, assist you in locating additional resources to help you refine your plan, and teach you how a good business plan can be valuable for you as a personal chef. Why Do I Need a Business Plan? When most people think of business plans, they think of a document that is prepared for presentation to investors or loan officers in an attempt to raise capital for the opening or expansion of a business. While you might use your plan for these purposes at some point in your career as a personal chef, there are several reasons for creating a business plan that have nothing to do with obtaining financing or investment capital. These reasons are just as important to the ultimate success of your business, if not more so, than using a business plan for financial purposes. Here are some of the most important uses for a business plan: * • It forces you to research your business, your niche market, and the variables of the geographic area you will be serving. Too often, people start a business with a great idea and very little else. A light bulb is a great idea, but not one that is going to do you much good if you fill your backpack with light bulbs to take on a journey through the rainforests of Guyana. Similarly, if you have a great idea for a personal chef business, you have to make sure that your business is appropriate for the people you want to serve. You have to make sure that your particular type of personal chef business is going to work with the types of customers living in the area you want to work in and convince yourself and others that similar businesses in demographically similar areas have already been successful. If you cannot convince yourself that your business will work, then you need to reevaluate your business strategy before you invest any additional time and money into your venture. Writing a business plan is not about talking yourself out of starting your own business; it is about forcing yourself to objectively look at the realistic potential your business has for success in your geographic area. * • It helps you identify potential obstacles to success in your business and determine feasible solutions that may be available. Just as it is important to determine whether your personal chef business is appropriate for your area and the available clientele, it is also important to examine the potential obstacles to the success of your business and identify viable methods for dealing with those obstacles. While optimism about your potential business success is usually good for motivating you and keeping you focused, your business plan is not the place to be optimistic. This is your opportunity to directly face the negative factors that could influence your finances and your business. * • It helps keep you on track. There will be times when you will lose focus or get so wrapped up in the minutia of running your personal chef business that you might forget the big picture – the objectives you had in mind when you started your career as a personal chef. Periodically reviewing your business plan can help you keep your focus and remind you of your goals. Your business plan is not immutable; it will change as your business grows and changes, but it will always contain the same basic plan you devised when you started your career as a personal chef. This can be invaluable when you encounter the inevitable frustrations that come with working with the public and managing a business. The Elements of a Business Plan If you review a number of existing business plans, you will see that they reflect a wide range of styles; different types of businesses call for different plans, and a business plan for a manufacturing company will look very different than a business plan for a service business, such as yours. Although the section titles and styles may vary from plan to plan, all business plans contain the same basic elements. Here are the elements that comprise all effective business plans. You can use these elements to craft a solid business plan that will convince your investors and lenders that you have thoroughly researched your business and help you plan your personal chef venture to handle all the challenges and opportunities that will come your way. Executive Summary The executive summary portion of your business plan will provide a quick overview of your business and introduce your readers to your venture. This section should be designed to make investors and lenders interested in your business, tell them about the background of your venture, and highlight any significant achievements of your business. This section should be brief – you should be able to convey all of the information in your executive summary in a half page to one page. You should begin your executive summary with an overview of your business concept. Be specific but concise when describing your business. Writing "My business will provide meals to customers" is not a sufficient description of your business concept. Your investors will want to know what meals you will be providing, who your customers are, and why you stand to gain an advantage over other businesses providing similar services. "My business will provide healthy, low fat, ready-to-eat meals to working families in the Henderson area of Las Vegas, Nevada. Customers will be provided with complete nutritional information for each meal, which will appeal to families concerned about health and weight loss" is a much more detailed statement of a business concept and will help your readers understand that you are focused and are not trying to be all things to all people. If you already have clients, you should provide current financial information about your personal chef business, including profits, sales figures, and the return you have received on your financial investments in the business. You should also include information in your executive summary about your business' legal formation, the identity of the owner or owners of your business, the date your business was formed, and the identities of key personnel, if any. If your business is already in operation, you should describe any major achievements of your business in a paragraph or two. If you have not yet commenced operations, you should describe any major achievements in your culinary career, such as promotions, educational milestones, or successful execution of catering services for a large event. Finally, you will want to state the financial requirements of your business – in essence, the sum of money you are asking for from investors or lenders and the capital you will provide. You should also note any collateral you intend to use to secure loans, if you plan to show your business plan to lenders. Again, it is very important that your executive summary be as brief as possible. Potential lenders and investors will want to be able to quickly understand the nature of your business, the background of the business, and the capital that will be required to start or expand the business. It is also important because a lengthy executive summary will give you the opportunity to include information that might suggest that your business is not well thought out or that you are undecided about the direction of your business. Business Description This section of your business plan will give readers a clear picture of the nature of your business. When you are writing this section, it is important to assume that your business plan readers have absolutely no knowledge of the personal chef business. The first element of this section should tell your readers about the personal chef industry – what kinds of services personal chefs provide, what the present outlook is for people doing business as personal chefs, and any possible future developments within the industry that might create challenges or opportunities for your business. You should also describe the various markets that use personal chef services, as well as the competition seeking out the same clients as you. When describing potential markets, general competition, and the present and future outlook for personal chefs, include your information sources in footnotes at the end of your business plan. Investors and lenders will want to see that you have thoroughly researched these topics. Guess work will not help you build a viable business, and it also will not convince lenders and investors to help you finance your business. Another element of this section is the statement of the type of operation of your business and a brief reiteration of its legal form of ownership. You should also state whether your business is up and running yet. For a personal chef, the type of operation will almost always be food service; however, if you will be teaching classes or packaging a portion of your products to be sold in local stores, the type of operation might cross over into service or manufacturing. It is permissible to state more than one type of operation, although you will want to carefully explain how the two operation types interconnect so that investors and lenders do not see your business as lacking focus. Next, you will want to describe your target market, tell how you will distribute your products and administer services, and describe any support systems that will help your business succeed, such as advertising and marketing efforts, promotional offers, and support staff to handle schedule changes and meal requests for special occasions. A very important element to include in the business description is a specific statement of how your business will gain and retain a competitive advantage. You can list specific competitors and tell how your business will provide service features that your competitors do not offer. Here are a few examples: * • Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service offers clients a choice of seven meal plans. In contrast, my service offers over two dozen meal plans and allows clients to modify each meal plan to add favorite dishes or delete meals that are not appealing to the clients' families. * • Jane Smith's Personal Chef Service allows clients to choose from a wide variety of meals based on the U.S.D.A. food pyramid. Similarly, my service offers meals based on the food pyramid, but also offers an array of choices for clients with specific dietary preferences, such as vegetarian and vegan meals, low carbohydrate dishes, and kosher meals. * • Jim Smith's Personal Chef Service offers clients meals that are prepared at an off-site business and delivers the refrigerated meals to clients' homes. My service gives clients the option to have the meals prepared in their homes so they can ensure that the preparation facilities are sanitary. This service will give clients peace of mind that Jim Smith's Personal Chef Service cannot. * • Judy Smith's Personal Chef Service offers entrees starting at $8.99 per person. My service will offer entrees starting at $6.99 per person for adults and will also offer smaller entrees for young children starting at $3.99 each. These comparisons will demonstrate to readers that you have taken the time to evaluate the competition and to identify ways that you can offer something more to your clients. Finally, your business description should demonstrate that you have researched the financial aspects of running a personal chef business and identified the strategies you will use to make your business profitable. Lenders and investors will want to see that you know not only how to keep your business running, but how to earn a profit with your business so that you can expand your operations and provide additional services to your clients. The length of your business description will vary according to the complexity of your personal chef business, the types of products and services you offer to your clients, the number of relevant competitors in your service area, and the number of employees you will need to manage your client base and provide efficient, reliable service to your clients. As with your executive summary, you will want to be concise yet descriptive. Market Strategies and Analysis The third section of your business plan will delve into the specific markets you plan to attract with your services and how you plan to reach those markets. You will want to begin this section by defining your market. "Families in Chicago" is very broad and will not allow you to gather the information necessary to develop a focus for your business. "Two income households in the Clarendon Hills area of Chicagoland" is much more useful for defining the marketing and service strategies of your personal chef venture. When defining your market, you should include the size of that market (in terms of both geographical area and population), the family and living structure of the market, consumer trends within that market, and the opportunities for sales and profit the market offers. The more narrowly you can define your target market, the more accurately you can forecast sales. For example, "two income households in the Clarendon Hills area of Chicagoland with children involved in extracurricular activities" is a very useful definition of your target market, because this market segment represents families that most likely have moderately high incomes and little time to spend on the preparation of meals. The purpose of narrowly defining your market is to give you the information you need to correctly set pricing for your services and products, identify service strategies that will appeal to clients within that market, and develop marketing strategies to effectively reach people who are receptive to your services. Using the Clarendon Hills example above, you could use this definition to identify the number of other personal chefs serving that area, the prices charged by those chefs, the services that these competitors offer to clients, and the methods they use to promote their services. Once you have this information, you can begin identifying and developing your competitive advantages so that you can begin drawing business away from your competitors and tapping into market pockets that other personal chef services have overlooked. Next, you will need to project the market share you believe your personal chef business will be able to gain within your target market. Although an accurate representation of potential market share can be difficult to determine and is a subjective figure, you can use data such as the size of your total target market, competitor pricing, the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, and the potential of your promotional offers to attract the interest of potential clients within your target market. To arrive at a reasonable estimate of your total projected market share over the period of time your business plan covers, you will also need to conduct research that involves projecting total industry growth over that time period. Projecting your market share through anticipated industry growth requires the exploration of a number of different growth scenarios and determining how your business will respond to each of these scenarios. Another method of anticipating your market share involves projecting the conversion rates of members of your target market that express interest in your services. To arrive at projected conversion rates, you should use historical industry conversion rates for personal chef services in your specific geographic area over a five-year cycle. After you state your projected market share and the rationale used to arrive at that projection, you will need to tell your readers how you plan to develop your pricing for your products and services. A sophisticated plan for developing pricing is important because the prices you charge for your products and services will have a significant impact on the success of your business. Many business owners believe that, in order to draw market share away from competition, they must consistently underprice their products and services. Although competitive pricing can be a useful element of your overall business promotion strategy, it is not essential that you always offer the cheapest services in the area. In fact, this can be detrimental to your business for two reasons: • First, underpricing can erode the ability of your business to generate profits. Unless you can reduce the costs of materials, ingredients, advertising, transportation, and service, underpricing will leave your business with less money for payroll, equipment maintenance, and future growth. Without sufficient profit to sustain your business model, you can easily put yourself out of business by consistently undercutting your competition. • Second, underpricing can give potential clients the impression that your products and services are inferior to those of other personal chefs serving the same area. Your meals might be just as good as, or even better than, the meals offered by your competition, but if you set your prices too low, you can create the impression that you give your clients less than they demand. Arriving at a pricing structure for your products and services can be a complicated exercise. You want to offer clients excellent value for their money without appearing as though you are undercharging them. A thorough analysis of your costs and of the current pricing in the market as compared to the quality of the services offered by your competition will give you the basis for arriving at an optimal pricing structure. After your complete the portion of your market strategies and analysis that outlines your chosen pricing structure, you should include a short subsection that identifies your product distribution channels. If your personal chef business operates on the simple business model of taking ingredients to a client's home, preparing the meals in the client's kitchen, and packaging the meals for refrigeration, the distribution analysis will be relatively brief and straightforward. If you use a more complicated business model that involves the cooperation of several junior chefs to assist with preparation and delivery, you might need to devote more space within your business plan to describing the distribution process. The next element of the marketing analysis and strategies section should include an outline of your promotion plan for your personal chef business. Here, you will tell your readers how you plan to make members of your target market aware of your services and how you will convince them to hire you as a personal chef. You may identify the methods of advertising you will use, the introductory promotions you will offer, and the strategies you will employ to gain referrals from existing clients. The final element of this section is an analysis of potential revenue from sales. In order to arrive at a projected revenue from your personal chef business, you will need to multiply the total projected market share you identified earlier in your market analysis and strategies section by the total dollar sales for each client over the period of time that the business plan covers. You can determine your total dollar sales per client by reviewing your pricing structure and estimating the number of meals or services that each client will purchase over the time period contemplated in the business plan. Competitive Analysis The competitive analysis section of your business plan will compare the position and business strategy of your personal chef business with the positions of your competitors. This will give your readers an idea of whether your business will be a viable competitor within your target market. The first step in building a competitive analysis is to identify the competitors. You can either do this by simply identifying all the other personal chef services in your area that compete for the same clients or by identifying personal chef services in the same geographic area with similar competitive strategies. Although most people only consider businesses that compete for the same dollars, grouping businesses by competitive strategies can help you more accurately identify true competitors (personal chef services operating in your target market that have similar strategies and motivations) and incidental competitors (personal chef services operating in your target market that employ different strategies). Once you have identified your business' true competitors, you can begin to analyze their business strategies to identify potential weaknesses that you can capitalize on. For example, suppose that Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service, like your own business, serves "two-income households in the Clarendon Hills area of Chicagoland with children involved in extracurricular activities." However, you notice that Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service only delivers meals to clients' homes on weekday afternoons. Joe Smith is probably doing fine with his personal chef service because his clients have come to expect that he will deliver meals on weekday afternoons and will adjust their schedules to make sure someone is at the home to take delivery. You might wonder, however, how many people within your shared target market have not hired Joe Smith as a personal chef because they are unable or unwilling to arrange their schedules to accommodate Joe's delivery hours. Joe Smith's limited delivery hours, coupled with the fact that he only delivers meals to clients' homes, might be a weakness in his business strategy. You might capitalize on this weakness by offering delivery hours until 7 p.m. or by offering delivery not only to clients' homes but to their workplaces as well. Both of these strategies serve to make using a personal chef service easier for clients and might attract a portion of your shared target market that Joe has inadvertently excluded in his business strategy. When conducting a competitive analysis, you will want to make a list of your business' strengths and weaknesses in key business areas, such as the quality and variety of your products; the competitiveness of your pricing structure; the effectiveness, efficiency, and convenience of your product distribution methods; the ability of your promotional strategies to attract and retain clients, and the marketing strategies you will use to raise awareness of your products and services within your target market. As in all sections of your business plan, it is crucial that you look at your business and the businesses owned by your competitors with a sense of objectivity and honesty. It will not do you or your lenders any good to trivialize your weaknesses or overstate the strengths of your business. In the long term, an inaccurate analysis of your competitive position can significantly impair your chances of success as a personal chef. Business Development The next section of your business plan is the business development section. In this part of your business plan, you will outline how your business will develop its products, its market, and its organization. When describing development of your products, think about what products you will offer initially and what products you will introduce later in your personal chef career. For example, you might only provide a menu of 20 entrees in the beginning stages of your business but, as you expand your operations, you might plan to offer 50 entrees within a few years. You should describe how you will choose and develop your products and give your readers an idea of what objectives you plan to meet by offering additional products through your business. Even if you are simply creating new meals to offer to your clients, product development will require financial resources. Your plan should detail how you will cover the costs of development, even if these costs are limited to purchasing additional cookware and ingredients to refine your new recipes at home. To describe the development of your market, you will detail your promotions, your advertising strategies, and your plans for retaining clients and gaining client referrals. Like the product development subsection, your description of market development might reflect a plan with multiple phases, which you will implement as your business grows and you have more resources available. If you do not plan to employ other people in your personal chef business, your description of your organizational development will be quite brief. If you plan to use staff members to handle some of the business functions, though, you will want to describe the hierarchy of your business and note how your business will generate sufficient revenue to cover payroll expenses. The final part of this section addresses risks associated with developing your products, your market, and your organization. Each type of development carries inherent risks – for example, when you develop a new meal to add to your personal chef menu, you incur several distinct risks: * • Your new meal could be ill received and cause you to lose clients who opt to try it. * • Your meal could contain ingredients that trigger allergic reactions for certain clients. * • Your meal could be very similar to one already offered by a competitor, which could cause a legal dispute. * • Freezing or refrigeration might substantially reduce the quality and flavor of your meal. When addressing the risks associated with the development of your business, you should document how you will handle these risks. Your business plan should show your readers how you will minimize each risk and how you will deal with the effects of these risks if they occur. Operations and Management Plan The "Operations and Management Plan" section of your business plan will address your organizational and operations structure. Essentially, this section will give your readers a picture of how your business functions on a day-to-day basis. Your operations and management plan will detail what management and staff positions exist within your business and what tasks each team member is responsible for. Of course, if you work by yourself and never plan to expand your business to the point where you require support staff and management to continue your operations, this section will be brief. However, if you do anticipate expanding your business, it is very likely that you will need to hire talented professionals to assume various roles within your business. Your business plan will help you streamline the functions of each position so that you can create an efficient business that does not place a disproportionate share of responsibility on any one individual. If you do not yet know how many staff members you will need to effectively manage your business and carry out its functions, a good way to determine this is to look at the tasks themselves. First, you will need to define the tasks your business will need to carry out to operate efficiently and profitably. Defining tasks in this section requires a broad focus, rather than a detailed, narrow one. For example, some of the broad tasks that might be requirements of a personal chef business are: * • Marketing * • Promotion development and implementation * • Procurement of supplies and ingredients for meals * • Preparation of meals * • Transportation of supplies, ingredients, or finished meals * • Administrative functions, such as customer service, payroll, and coordination of employee benefits * • Accounting * • Banquet or special event coordination After you have broadly defined the tasks required to operate your personal chef business, you will need to identify the types of personnel you will need to handle each of these tasks and determine the number of each type of professional you will need to meet the goals of your business. Then, conduct research to determine the prevailing wages for each type of professional. You can use a Web site, such as www.salary.com, to help you determine wages for different types of professionals in your area. This will help you determine your overall expenses for payroll. Once you have determined and stated your payroll expenses in your business plan, you will need to calculate your overhead expenses. This includes expenses for items such as transportation, advertising and promotion, equipment, product packaging, unrecoverable fees for services provided to your clients, liability and property damage insurance, and loan payments. Your payroll and overhead expense calculations will allow you to determine and state your capital requirements for starting, operating, and expanding your business. Your capital requirements calculation represents the total amount of money necessary to keep your business running. With most businesses, a portion of the capital requirements will come from investments and loans and the remainder from capital provided by the business owner or owners. The final element of this section is a calculation of the cost of goods – that is, the amount that each sale will cost you, in terms of the sum of materials used (such as ingredients), the payroll expenses for the employees required to operate and manage your business, and the overhead costs that you will incur as a function of operating your personal chef service. Determining the cost of goods is easier for a personal chef business than for retail or wholesale businesses. This is because many types of retail and wholesale businesses must consider not only the costs of goods that are already sold, but also the costs of goods that remain in inventory. A personal chef business will most likely not have meals that remain in inventory, because you will purchase ingredients and prepare meals based on orders made by your clients. Financial Components The final section of your business plan is the financial components section, which contains a series of three statements that your investors and lenders will want to see: the income statement, the cash flow statement, and the balance sheet. The income statement gives your investors, lenders, and other readers a clear picture of the ability of your business to generate cash. It should be stated on a monthly basis for the first year, a quarterly basis for the second year, and a yearly basis for subsequent years. Your income statement will include the following elements: * • Income: All income generated by your personal chef business, from all sources. * • Cost of goods: Costs associated with the sale of products in inventory. Since you will not likely keep meals in inventory, your income statement will reflect a low cost of goods. * • Gross profit margin: The difference between income and cost of goods. You can either express the gross profit margin as a dollar amount or a percentage. * • Operating expenses: All labor and overhead expenses associated with running your business. * • Total expenses: The sum of all labor and overhead expenses listed in operating expenses above. * • Net profit: The difference between gross profit margin and total expenses. * • Depreciation: The reduction in value of assets, such as cooking equipment and vehicles used to generate income. * • Net profit before interest: Net profit less depreciation. * • Interest: All interest derived from short-term and long-term loans. * • Net profit before taxes: The difference between net profit before interest and interest. * • Taxes: All taxes incurred as a result of operating your personal chef business. * • Profit after taxes: The difference between net profit before taxes and the taxes incurred as a result of your business operations. * • Summary: A brief synopsis of your income statement that analyzes the income potential of your business and highlights any key points that will be of interest to your investors and lenders. The cash flow statement shows how much cash your business will require to meet its financial obligations. It also shows when that cash will be available to you, and where it will come from. Based on the costs incurred and the cash available to meet those costs, your business will either show a profit or a loss at the end of each month. This is important because if your projections show a loss, it is an indication that you have not accounted for everything. When drafting your cash flow statement, it is important that you prepare your statement on a monthly basis for the first year of operations, then on a quarterly basis for the second year. This is because you will incur the majority of your expenses for equipment and other nonrecurring expenses during the first two years, and much of your revenue during this period will go toward purchasing additional supplies to build your business and make sure that you are able to meet increasing customer demand for your services. Here are the items you will need to include in your cash flow statement: * • Cash sales: All sales derived from your business operations that are paid to you in cash. * • Receivables: All income derived from sales that are paid to you in a form other than cash. * • Other income: All income that is derived from sources other than sales of your personal chef services, such as investments, liquidated assets, and interest on loans that you have extended to others. * • Total income: The total of cash sales, receivables, and other income. * • Materials: The costs of ingredients used to prepare the meals you sell to your clients and supplies purchased to create these meals. * • Production: The cost of labor required to prepare, package, transport, and deliver meals to clients. * • Overhead: The sum of all fixed and variable expenses required to operate your business. * • Marketing and advertising: All costs associated with marketing and promoting your business, including salaries of any marketing personnel. * • Research and development: Costs associated with researching customer needs and developing products to offer to your clients. * • Administration: All costs incurred for providing administrative functions of your business, such as payroll and employee benefits. * • Taxes: All taxes incurred as a result of your business operations, except for payroll taxes. * • Capital requirements: Any capital needed to purchase equipment and generate additional income. * • Loan payments: The costs of making installment payments on loans you have taken out to start or build your business. * • Total expenses: The total amount of expenses your business will incur as a result of operating your personal chef business. * • Cash flow: The difference between your total income and your total expenses. You will also list this amount as beginning cash for the next period. * • Cumulative cash flow: The difference between the cash flow for the current period and the cash flow from the previous period. * • Summary: A short synopsis of your cash flow statement that highlights key points and analyzes the overall cash flow statement. Your balance sheet will use information derived from the financial section to develop an overall picture of your business' finances on an annual basis. The balance sheet will contain summarized information broken down into assets, liabilities, and equity. Your assets will include cash available from the previous period, accounts receivable, inventory, and total current assets (the sum of cash, accounts receivable, supplies, and inventory). It will also include long-term assets, such as investments, equipment, and real estate. Any calculations for equipment and owned real estate will factor in depreciation of the property. Liabilities include accounts payable, accrued liabilities such as overhead and payroll, and taxes. It also includes long-term liabilities such as mortgage and loan payments. Equity is simply the difference between assets and liabilities. The equity that you own in your business is one of the key determining factors that investors and lenders use to calculate the amount of capital they are willing to contribute to your business. Now that you have learned the elements of a business plan and how they are used to build a blueprint for your business and attract capital from investors and lenders, it might be helpful for you to see a sample business plan tailored to a personal chef business so you can see how these elements look in a practical application. The following pages contain a sample business plan that incorporates all the elements outlined in this chapter. Business Plan: Dinner in a Flash, LLC I. Executive Summary Introduction Dinner in a Flash is a mobile personal chef service serving busy families in Westerville, Ohio, an upscale suburb of Columbus that is primarily populated by two-income households. Dinner in a Flash intends to capture the interest of Westerville families by providing ready-to-eat meals that are healthy, made with premium ingredients, and derived from a variety of regional cuisines. The company expects to quickly build a strong business presence in the Westerville area, due to the industry experience of the company owners and the limited competition operating in this area. Dinner in a Flash intends to offer high quality meals at competitive prices to meet the needs of middle- to high-income families living and working in the Westerville area. The Company Dinner in a Flash is a limited liability company licensed in the state of Ohio. It is equally owned and managed by the company's two partners, Joe and Jan Smith. Mr. Joe Smith has over ten years experience in the food service industry, having worked as the head chef of Estrella Restaurante, an upscale Mexican restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and La Italia, an exclusive Italian restaurant in Philadelphia. Mrs. Jan Smith has also worked in the food service industry for over a decade, having held the position of Marketing Director for Le Boehme, a full service restaurant and catering business in Columbus' German Village area. The company intends to hire a sous chef, a full-time delivery driver, and a promotions director to attract new clients and provide meal preparation support for the company's day-to-day operations. Products and Services The company plans to initially offer 40 meals that derive influences from cuisines, such as traditional American, Italian, Mexican, South Indian, and Japanese. The company will cater to its clients by devising meal plans tailored to each client's personal preferences, dietary needs, and religious food restrictions. Dinner in a Flash will give clients the option of having fully prepared meals delivered to their home or office or having the meals prepared in the clients' own kitchens. The company will focus on using fresh, healthy ingredients, limiting use of oils and fats during preparation, and minimizing use of freezing to ensure that clients receive high quality, nutritious, and delicious meals to encourage client retention and referrals. The Market The demand for personal chef services has increased exponentially over the past decade, both nationally and in the Columbus, Ohio area. The rise in two-income households with children, coupled with an increased consumer focus on dietary health, stimulates consumer demand for quick, nutritious meals that can easily be heated and served within the constraints of clients' busy schedules. Dinner in a Flash intends to establish a large repeat client base and will concentrate its marketing efforts in the Westerville area to attract long-term clients. In addition to Westerville area residents, Dinner in a Flash expects to derive approximately 15 percent of its sales from business travelers staying in Westerville's many hotels and business suites. High-visibility marketing and attractive promotions are essential to capturing the interest of the company's target market. Financial Considerations Dinner in a Flash intends to raise $75,000 of its own capital and borrow $75,000 in the form of an SBA approved loan. This provides all the financing required to start the business and complete its first year in business. Dinner in a Flash should break even by the sixth month of its operations as sales and long-term clients steadily increase. The company anticipates sales of $140,000 the first year, $220,000 the second year, and $300,000 the third year of operations. Profits for this period are expected to be $17,000 for the first year, $25,000 for the second year, and $45,000 for the third year. II. Business Description Industry Summary The personal chef industry provides meals that are easy to heat and serve for busy working adults, senior citizens, and other people who lack the time or ability to prepare healthy, delicious meals. Personal chefs deliver already prepared meals to clients' homes or offices or travel to clients' homes to prepare the meals. Presently, the personal chef industry is enjoying a significant increase in demand, fueled by the growing number of two-income households with children to care for and by the increase of senior citizens that choose to live independently. The primary challenge faced by personal chefs is serving multiple clients during the same working hours. Because clients typically request meals for dinner rather than lunch or breakfast, the necessary peak delivery hours for personal chefs is between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on weekdays. Little competition exists locally for personal chefs serving the Westerville area. At present, there are only two personal chefs targeting Westerville's 60,000 residents. Roger Hammerstein's Personal Chef Service offers preparation of meals in clients' homes, but does not offer office delivery of meals. Gilbert Sullivan's Personal Chef Service offers both home and office delivery of meals, but offers only traditional American cuisine with minimal emphasis on low fat ingredients. Dinner in a Flash intends to offer low fat meals, varied cuisines, and both home and office delivery to capture a majority of the market share in this area. Company Summary Dinner in a Flash is a personal chef service owned and managed by two partners. It is primarily engaged in the food service business. These partners represent the food preparation and delivery functions and the sales and marketing functions, respectively. The partners will provide funding from their own savings and investments, which will cover start-up expenses and provide a financial cushion for the first year of business operations. A ten-year SBA loan will provide the remainder of the capital for the first year of operations. The owners expect to build a strong presence in the Westerville area, due to the owner's experience in the food service industry and the low level of competition in the area. The company's target market is two-income households in the Westerville area. The company will focus its marketing efforts on middle- to upper-income families, and plans to reach its target market through the distribution of flyers, local online message board banners, a dedicated Web site, and community newspaper advertisements. After the initial startup, Dinner in a Flash expects to receive referral clients by providing discounts to existing clients in exchange for the referrals. Company Ownership Dinner in a Flash is licensed as a limited liability company in the state of Ohio and is equally owned by its two partners, Joe and Jan Smith. Company History Dinner in a Flash is a startup company, which will be financed by the owners' own capital and a ten-year SBA loan. Products Dinner in a Flash will prepare and deliver ready-to-heat meals from a variety of regional cuisines. The ingredients in 34 of the 40 meals available can be adapted to meet dietary restrictions, such as kosher, vegetarian, and vegan diets. The meals are delivered for refrigeration at the clients' homes and offices in disposable foil containers with vented plastic lids to allow for easy microwave preparation. III. Marketing Strategies and Analysis Target Market Dinner in a Flash has established middle- to high-income, two-income households living and working in the Westerville area as its target market. The geographic area of this target market, Westerville, Ohio, consists of approximately 40 square miles occupying the northeast section of Columbus, a city with a metropolitan area of approximately 1.5 million residents. Of Westerville's 60,000 residents, approximately 16,000 residents comprise the target market sought by the company. Historically, the target market has relied heavily on fast food and casual restaurants to provide meals between work and family activities. Members of the target market often have difficulty finding time to plan meals, visit a grocer, or prepare and serve meals. Dinner in a Flash plans to offer a healthy alternative to fast food and casual restaurant meals that are often high in fat and low in nutrients. Over a three-year period, Dinner in a Flash intends to capture 30 percent of the target market. Although meals provided by the other two personal chef services in the area, Roger Hammerstein's Personal Chef Service and Gilbert Sullivan's Personal Chef Service, are sold at prices nearly identical to those that will be sold by Dinner in a Flash, the company intends to capture market share by providing healthy, fresh meals that can be delivered to either the home or office. The company also intends to capture market share through extensive use of its client referral program, which provides significant discounts to existing clients for referring friends, family, and business associates to the company. The projected market share over a three-year period is supported by nationwide industry information, which shows that personal chef services in similar demographic areas with less than five competing services are able to capture 20 to 40 percent of the available market share by using marketing techniques similar to those contemplated by Dinner in a Flash. Product Pricing The company has established pricing by analyzing the pricing structures of personal chef services operating in the Columbus metropolitan area and personal chef services operating in metropolitan areas of similar size. Entrees will sell for prices between $7.99 and $11.99, and full meals will sell for prices between $9.99 and $14.99. These prices are similar to those charged by Roger Hammerstein's Personal Chef Service and Gilbert Sullivan's Personal Chef Service. Distribution The company's business model provides two primary channels of distribution. First, the meals may be prepared in Dinner in a Flash's production facility in Westerville, Ohio, and transported to clients' homes and offices for refrigeration. Second, the clients may elect to have the ingredients transported to their homes so that the meals can be prepared in their own kitchens. The first distribution method allows for ease of delivery and minimizes the time the clients need to spend at home to obtain the meals; the second distribution method gives clients the peace of mind of knowing where the food is being prepared, so they can have direct control over the condition of the preparation facility. For the first six months, all meal deliveries will be handled by Joe Smith. After that period, Dinner in a Flash intends to hire a full-time delivery driver to distribute approximately 75 percent of the meals not being prepared in the clients' own homes, which will allow the company to take on more clients and significantly expand sales. Competitive Analysis There are two personal chef services currently serving the Westerville area: Roger Hammerstein's Personal Chef Service and Gilbert Sullivan's Personal Chef Service. Both companies advertise and cater to the same target market as Dinner in a Flash. Price point will not be a primary consideration for gaining market share. The prices charged by Dinner in a Flash will be comparable to those charged by the other personal chef services in the Westerville area. Instead, Dinner in a Flash intends to focus on benefits not offered by competing services. The company intends to compete with Roger Hammerstein's Personal Chef Service by offering a distribution model not offered by that competitor: delivery of ready made meals to both homes and workplaces in the Westerville area. This will gain interest from clients who need personal chef services, but are not comfortable with allowing a personal chef to spend several hours each week in their homes. The company intends to compete with Gilbert Sullivan's Personal Chef Service by focusing on providing meals from varied regional cuisines and using fresh, low fat ingredients that will be attractive to clients focused on weight loss and improved dietary health. The company's primary challenge in competing with the existing personal chef services in the Westerville area will be initial name recognition. Both services have been doing business in the Westerville area for approximately five years and have built a significant presence in the community. Dinner in a Flash intends to gain market visibility by utilizing targeted, aggressive advertising; implementing promotions to gain referrals; and sponsoring community activities, such as Westerville's little league baseball team. IV. Business Development Strategy and Implementation Dinner in a Flash will succeed by providing healthy, low fat meals to suit a variety of tastes and preferences and by offering delivery of ready-to-heat meals to both homes and offices in the Westerville area. Competitive Edge The company's competitive edge lies in the low level of competition doing business in the Westerville area and the enhanced services offered to clients. Sales Strategy As the chart below indicates, Dinner in a Flash anticipates sales of $140,000 in its first year of operations, $220,000 in its second year, and $300,000 in its third year. Unit Sales | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 ---|---|---|--- Ready Made Meals | $94,000 | $168,000 | $240,000 Meals Prepared in Clients' Homes | $46,000 | $52,000 | $60,000 Total Unit Sales | $140,000 | $220,000 | $300,000 Direct Cost of Sales | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 Ready Made Meals | $85,000 | $149,500 | $204,000 Meals Prepared in Clients' Homes | $38,000 | $41,000 | $51,000 Total Direct Cost of Sales | $123,000 | $190,500 | $255,000 Product Development Initially, Dinner in a Flash will offer approximately 40 meals that clients can choose from. These meals will reflect a number of regional cuisines, and most can be altered to suit a particular client's dietary needs or personal preferences. The company plans to develop an additional ten meals during its first year of operations. The selection of these meals will be based on responses on comment cards distributed to existing clients. The owners' contributed capital, along with capital derived from a ten-year SBA loan, will cover the cost of purchasing additional cookware and developing the new meals. Organizational Structure The two owners will equally own Dinner in a Flash. Initially, the two owners will also be the sole employees of the company. After six months of operations, the company intends to hire a full-time delivery driver, a promotions director, and a sous chef to facilitate expansion of the business. The sous chef and promotions director will be paid a yearly salary, and the delivery driver will be paid a flat fee per delivery. In addition, all employees will be paid a profit-sharing bonus each March, based on profit for the preceding year. Business Development Risks The primary risks associated with the planned operations of the company are personal and professional liability and reduction of the final quality of meals delivered to clients' homes and offices due to freezing or refrigeration time. Dinner in a Flash will address the risks associated with personal and professional liability to clients by purchasing a business liability policy with a low deductible and a liability limit of $2,000,000. In addition, it will purchase business automobile insurance with liability limits of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident to cover incidents occurring during delivery of the meals. The company plans to address the potential reduction of meal quality through refrigeration and freezing by conducting extensive testing before any marketing efforts begin. The use of fresh ingredients and minimal use of oils will minimize any reduction in quality that might occur due to refrigeration. Also, meal plans will be designed with refrigeration time in mind, so that meals that can withstand freezing or longer refrigeration times will be scheduled at the end of the clients' weekly purchasing cycle. V. Operations and Management Plan Dinner in a Flash intends to remain a small company, requiring few employees to carry out the company's day-to-day operations. Initially, Joe Smith will serve as the company's sole chef and delivery person. Jan Smith will serve as the company's advertising and promotions director while handling administrative functions, such as client calls and accounting. Dinner in a Flash anticipates that, after six months of operation, sales will require the company to add additional staff. At that time, the company intends to hire professionals for the following positions: • Sous chef: This person will be responsible for the preparation of soups and stews included in the meals. This person might also handle some of the other meal preparations as necessary to keep pace with consumer demand. • Promotions director: This person will be responsible for developing and implementing promotions to attract new clients and to retain existing clientele. This includes implementation of discounts and incentives, as well as sponsoring community events that will help the company gain visibility in the Westerville area. • Delivery driver: This person will be responsible for delivering meals prepared at the company's production facility to the homes and offices of clients. Expected delivery hours will be from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturdays. Payroll Expenses Dinner in a Flash anticipates that the addition of these three positions will increase payroll expenses by $85,000 annually; however, the projected sales increases will support the addition of these employees. Overhead Expenses Dinner in a Flash expects to incur the majority of its overhead expenses at startup. The production facility is wholly owned by Joe and Jan Smith, with no mortgage or other loan on the property. The capital required for purchasing cookware, a delivery van, and other startup equipment will be derived from the owners' contributed capital and a ten-year SBA loan. The company expects to incur startup overhead expenses of approximately $120,000. Additional expenses, such as those for packaging, ingredients, and vehicle maintenance, will be realized over the life of the business. Dinner in a Flash uses a unique business model under which products are sold and paid for before they are produced. This puts the company in the unique position of having no significant storage or inventory expenses. Cost of Goods Dinner in a Flash has negotiated contracts with several wholesalers to purchase the majority of the ingredients used in meal preparation directly. The company expects the cost of producing each meal to be between $4 and $7, with an overall first year cost of goods of approximately $123,000, which includes approximately $52,000 for ingredients and $71,000 for advertising, promotion, overhead expenses, and employee salaries. VI. Financial Components Income Statement --- | Jan 08 | Feb 08 | Mar 08 | Apr 08 | May 08 | Jun 08 Income | $5,000 | $5,500 | $7,000 | $7,500 | $7,500 | $8,000 Cost of Goods | $4,500 | $4,700 | $5,200 | $5,500 | $5,500 | $5,800 Gross Profit Margin | $700 | $750 | $800 | $850 | $850 | $900 Operating Expenses | $4,500 | $4,700 | $5,200 | $5,500 | $5,500 | $5,800 Total Expenses | $4,500 | $4,700 | $5,200 | $5,500 | $5,500 | $5,800 Net Profit | $700 | $750 | $800 | $850 | $850 | $900 Depreciation | $100 | $100 | $100 | $100 | $100 | $100 Net Profit Before Interest | $600 | $650 | $700 | $750 | $750 | $800 Interest | $100 | $100 | $100 | $100 | $100 | $100 Net Profit Before Taxes | $500 | $550 | $600 | $650 | $650 | $700 Income Statement --- Taxes | $200 | $200 | $200 | $200 | $200 | $200 Profit after Taxes | $300 | $350 | $400 | $450 | $450 | $500 Cash Flow Statement --- Jan 08 | Feb 08 | Mar 08 | Apr 08 | May 08 | Jun 08 | Cash Sales | $5,000 | $5,500 | $7,000 | $7,500 | $7,500 | $8,000 Receivables | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 Other Income | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 Total Income | $5,000 | $5,500 | $7,000 | $7,500 | $7,500 | $8,000 Materials | $2,000 | $2,200 | $4,500 | $4,700 | $4,700 | $5,000 Production | $200 | $220 | $450 | $4,700 | $470 | $500 Overhead | $2,000 | $2,200 | $2,200 | $2,200 | $2,200 | $2,200 Marketing | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 Research and Development | $0 | $0 | $0 | $100 | $100 | $100 Administration | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 Taxes | $200 | $200 | $200 | $200 | $200 | $200 Capital Requirements | $6,000 | $6,500 | $6,700 | $7,000 | $7,500 | $8,000 Loan Payments | $400 | $400 | $400 | $400 | $400 | $400 Total Expenses | $4,500 | $4,700 | $5,200 | $5,500 | $5,500 | $5,800 Cash Flow | $300 | $350 | $400 | $450 | $450 | $500 Cumulative Cash Flow | $300 | $650 | $1,050 | $1,500 | $1,950 | $2,450 Balance Sheet --- Assets: $140,000 Liabilities: $123,000 Equity: $17,000 Table of Contents Chapter 4: Setting Up a Business Budget Although setting up a budget can seem daunting for the new business owner, it is a necessary step to starting and running a successful business. A budget can keep you from having to cut corners in certain areas of your business' finances and can mean the difference between a successful, profitable operation and a failed business venture. Regardless of the type of business you are starting, you will need money to get the business off the ground. In order to get clients, you will have to budget for the necessary supplies and the cost of marketing to potential clients. These can be costly investments, especially when you are trying to get your business off the ground. A well planned budget can also help you to start seeing a profit earlier and allow you to take on more clients quicker than if you did not take the time to draft a budget. If you are the primary bread winner for your family or you are single and living on your income alone, it will be very difficult for you to immediately quit your day job. With any business, it takes several months, sometimes even several years, to start making a profit. You will still need to pay your bills and be able to support yourself while starting up your business, in addition to building capital for the startup costs of your personal chef service, such as equipment, advertising, and purchase of ingredients and packaging. It is recommended that you save up at least six months of your current income before you start relying on your business for your primary income. It might seem impossible to save up one half of your yearly salary, especially if you are unhappy in your current job, but it can be done. The first step is to cut as much of your monthly spending as possible. Look at what you are currently bringing in each month as opposed to what you are spending. Then, determine what bills or expenses can be cut. For example, if you never watch television but are paying for cable services, consider shutting off your cable – this represents an unnecessary expense that can help you save hundreds of dollars over the course of a year. If you spend a significant amount of money eating out, find ways to cut back on dining – your meal expenses can double as research expenses if you serve your family the meals that you are developing for your personal chef business. If you are spending an exorbitant amount on groceries, try clipping coupons or using less expensive store brands. These may seem like small changes, but any cuts you can make in your monthly budget can help you save up for your business goals – freedom from working for someone else and the ability to be your own boss. Although it can take up a significant amount of time that you would rather be devoting to your business, another way to secure enough income to start your business is to moonlight. Start building a clientele and take on as many clients as you can before quitting your day job. You will be busy and will not have as much time to devote to yourself or your family, but it will not be forever. You will be building your business and will have something to start from when you are able to leave your current job. You can also talk to family and friends about investing in your company. They will, in turn, receive a return on their investment as your business becomes more profitable. This can help you get started faster, but any investor in your company will share in your profit, making your own take-home pay less than it would be if you were not splitting the profits. You can also find other personal chefs to go into business with. You and the other chef can invest and pool your income for start-up costs. Your company would be able to take in more clientele because the work load would be shared by more than one chef. You could then divide profit based on the number of clients that each chef brings in. Another option, although not recommended, is to cash in investment accounts such as 401(k)s. It is important to remember before choosing this option that you will be charged a penalty fee and taxes – you will be losing a percentage of your investment in the end. It is also important to remember that you will lose the retirement investment you have taken so long to build. You might also want to look into a small business loan to start up your business. There are a variety of small business loans available to help you get your business up and running. You will want to spend some time on your budget before applying for the loan so that you can determine how much you will need to get started. Take time to shop for your small business loan so that you can find the best possible rate. The interest rates of loans will vary based on the length of the loan. Another important step in building a business budget is to determine start-up cost. Many new business owners underestimate the amount of money it will take to start their businesses. To determine start-up cost, make a list of all the supplies you will need to prepare the food for your clients. Then, identify the cooking items from that list you already have. Although you might need to add some things, you probably already own some of the items you will need and might be able to use them in the early stages of your business. If you have decided to rent a kitchen space, you will need to start shopping for your location to get a realistic idea about how much it will cost to lease a space. First, you will need to get an idea of how much room you will need. Next, you will have to determine what equipment you will need to completely stock your kitchen. Will you be able to lease any of the equipment, or will you have to purchase it all? If you will be transporting food, you will need to factor in the cost of purchasing a vehicle and converting it to meet your specific business needs. You will also have to set up a home office. Your office will be used for client files, your computer, and printer. You might also need to invest in a fax machine and copier. Office supply stores normally have a selection of machines that will serve as both a fax and a copier. You might even need to have a separate business phone line installed. As a business owner, you will also be responsible for creating invoices and keeping track of business expenses. You might want to look into purchasing accounting software to keep track of your business expenses. Another option for tracking your business expenses is to hire an accountant. An accountant can be a valuable resource for helping you keep track of your business expenses and taxes. If you choose to hire an accountant, you will need to factor the accountant's fees into your budget. You will need to set aside a realistic budget for marketing. No matter how good of a chef you are or how well-stocked your kitchen is, your business will not go anywhere without clients. Marketing is critical to reaching your potential clients and getting them interested in hiring you. Your marketing will get you in front of your potential clients so you can show them how their services will meet their needs. It is important to be realistic about your marketing expenses. You will need to set up a marketing plan and begin researching the cost for your chosen marketing methods. You will learn how to build a detailed marketing plan in a later chapter of this book. If you plan to hire employees, payroll will be another expense to figure into your budget. For many larger companies, payroll is the largest expense in the budget. You might eventually need to provide employee benefits, such as health insurance. You will also be doing plenty of traveling. If you choose to cook in your clients' kitchens, you will have to figure in the cost of gas for traveling to and from the clients' homes. You will also have to consider the transportation costs of making trips to the store to shop for your clients' food. If you are cooking in your own kitchen or are renting a space, you will still have the cost of transporting entrees to and from your clients' homes and transportation to and from the store. As you can see, some of these elements will be ongoing in your budget, while others will be one time start-up costs or incidental costs, such as the replacement of equipment. Marketing and transportation will be ongoing expenses in your budget. Once you have identified the items that will be necessary to include in your budget, determine the source of your start-up income. Once you have determined how much start-up money you have, you can begin to determine how much money to allot to each part of your budget. Not all parts of your budget will need to be assigned equal amounts of your money. For example, you might have most of the cooking equipment you need, but you have identified a few items you will need to add. This portion of your budget will not need to be allotted as much money as your marketing plan. Your system for mapping your budget can be as simple or elaborate as you wish. You can write down each itemized area on your budget and write the maximum amount that can be spent for each section, or you may choose to purchase software to help you track the items on your budget. It might be wise to add a miscellaneous section to your budget in case you go over budget on some of your items or other unforeseen circumstances arise. Table of Contents Chapter: 5 What Equipment Does a Personal Chef Need? Whether you are cooking in a rented kitchen, your own kitchen, or your client's kitchen, there is a significant amount of equipment you will need to have on hand. As a personal chef, you must always be prepared by having the proper equipment necessary to prepare the meals that will attract long-term clients and generate a long list of referrals. If they will be preparing meals in the kitchens of clients, most personal chefs take everything they need with them to a client's home. Your portable kitchen must be well-equipped and easy to transport. It is critical that you keep your equipment organized so you can find everything with ease when you are in your client's kitchen. It is also important that everything is clean and sanitary. Here is a list of some of the basic cooking items and utensils you will want to include in your portable kitchen: * • Pressure Cooker * • Two 12-inch nonstick skillets * • Multiple cooking racks * • Vacuum Sealer * • At least one 12-inch lid to use on your 12-inch skillets * • One four-quart saucepan with a lid * • One cast-iron grill pan * • One Dutch oven with a lid * • At least two plastic cutting boards * • Disposable cutting mats to use with your cutting boards * • Stainless-steel or plastic mixing bowls * • Plastic colander * • Fine mesh strainer * • Four nonstick baking sheets with sides * • Wire cooling rack * • Roasting pan * • Hand mixer * • Immersion blender * • Food processor Utensils and smaller items: * • Knives with knife guards * • Spatulas * • Tongs * • Spoons * • Instant-read thermometer * • Scissors * • Whisk * • Measuring cups and spoons * • Can opener * • Wine opener * • Vegetable peeler * • Zester * • Potato masher * • Microplane grater and regular grater * • Two kitchen timers * • Kitchen twine As a personal chef, you will be providing a complete cooking service for your clients. Not only will you need to take the supplies you need to cook your meals, you will also need to provide disposable items to package leftovers. Here are some of the disposable items you will want to include in your portable kitchen: * • Aluminum foil * • Plastic wrap * • Vacuum seal bags * • Gallon and quart-size freezer bags * • Disposable containers to hold your finished meals As a professional personal chef, you are cooking for people who do not have time to prepare their own meals. The clean up that goes on after the meal is prepared can be time consuming. So not only do you need to take a portable kitchen kit to your client's home, you will also need a clean-up kit. The old rule of leaving a place better than you found it definitely applies to personal chefs. Below is a list of some of the items you will need in your cleaning kit: * • Liquid dish soap * • Dishwasher soap packets * • Rubber gloves * • Scrub brush or sponge * • Grease-cutting kitchen cleaner * • Glass cleaner * • Antibacterial cleaner * • Paper towels * • Garbage bags As a personal chef, you will be doing the shopping to get the items you need to prepare your clients' meals. However, there are some basic food items you will need to keep on hand. These essentials might vary based on your cooking specialization, but here are some ideas to help you start your personal pantry: * • Canola oil * • Olive oil * • Non-stick cooking spray * • Sea salt or kosher salt * • Peppercorns in a peppermill * • Stone ground mustard * • Dijon mustard * • Soy sauce * • Tomato sauce * • Crushed tomatoes * • Tomato paste * • Good-quality, low-sodium chicken broth * • A variety of pastas * • A variety of rice * • Honey * • Sugar * • Flour * • Cornstarch * • Vanilla extract * • Selection of spices and dried herbs * • Panko breadcrumbs * • Balsamic vinegar * • Apple cider vinegar * • Red wine vinegar Another critical tool you will need, as a professional personal chef, is the knowledge of food safety and proper sanitation. If you have ever had food poisoning, you have witnessed first hand what can happen if food is handled carelessly or improperly. Your clients have placed their trust in you. They have allowed you to come into their home and prepare all their meals each week. If they were to get food poisoning from just one of your meals, you could lose them as a client. Be aware that some states may require you to take a proper santitation course and certifiaction to become a personal chef. You will need to display this to your clients. One of the most important safety precautions, when working with food, is hand washing. Be sure to take antibacterial soap and a nailbrush with you when you are traveling to each client's kitchen. Hands should be washed before cooking. You should also be sure to wash your hands periodically during cooking and after cooking. Hands should be washed after using the restroom, smoking, touching your hair, touching your eyes, sneezing or coughing, or handling raw meat. Disposable gloves can also be used while you are handling food. Change your gloves after handling raw meat to avoid contaminating other food. Keeping your work area and equipment clean is also key to avoiding contamination of food. Take more than one cutting board with you, as well as disposable cutting board covers. If you are using only one cutting board, be sure to wash the board in warm, soapy water before switching foods. This is especially important if you have used the cutting board to cut raw meat. You might even want to get different colored cutting boards and designate them to different types of food you will be cutting. Antibacterial cleaner should be used on all surfaces. Clean as you go, keeping your area as clean and sanitary as possible. Pots and pans should be washed as you go. Always remain aware of, and work to prevent, possibilities of cross-contamination. Meats provide a particularly high chance for spreading bacteria. Meat packages can begin to drip as they start to thaw. This liquid contains bacteria and can contaminate any food it drips on. You will also want to be aware of the storage and transportation of raw food while you are completing your clients' weekly shopping. Make an itemized grocery list when you go to the store and get perishable foods last. Separate meats and produce in the cart to avoid cross-contamination. Also make sure that the bagger in the check-out line bags the meat separately from the produce. You can also request that they bag and tie each package of meat before placing it into another bag. Take along a cooler filed with ice to store meat in on the drive between the store and the client's house. Since you will be cooking multiple meals, refrigerate any meat or highly perishable items you will not be using immediately. Another step you should take when shopping for your client is reading expiration dates on all perishable items, such as dairy products. Older items, with sooner expiration dates, are often moved to the front of the case so that they will be purchased first. If the expiration date is coming up quickly on the food item, check on items closer to the back of the case to find one that has a later expiration date. You will also want to use a meat thermometer to make sure the meat has reached the proper temperature and has cooked through. As a professional personal chef, you have a responsibility to cook your clients' food safely and properly. Keeping a clean, well-stocked kitchen and practicing basic food handling safety will help you keep your clients satisfied and happy. Table of Contents Chapter 6: Where Should I Set Up My Business? This chapter will give you the information you need to decide how to organize the hub of your business, the place where you will be doing the majority of your meal preparation. The best place for setting up your business depends on a variety of factors, including the types of services you will offer, the types of clients that you intend to attract with your business, and the complexity of the meals you will be providing. At the conclusion of this chapter, you will have the information necessary to decide where to set up your operations so you can begin attracting clients and building a profitable business. Working in Your Client's Kitchen By the time that you are ready to begin considering where to set up your business operations, you will have probably started to develop an overall vision of your personal chef business. This vision will help shape all aspects of your operations and will be instrumental in helping you decide where you will set up your business and what environment will best suit the needs of you and your prospective clients. Most personal chefs choose the option of cooking in the client's kitchen. This is a popular option because it eliminates the need for transporting finished entrees from one place to another. It also adds a distinct personal touch to your services because instead of simply delivering meals for the client to heat and serve to his or her family, you will be right there to add your personality to your client's dinner routine. Many clients enjoy the opportunity to chat with a personal chef while a meal is being prepared – this makes the client feel special, because he or she has your personal attention while you are preparing delicious meals for your client's family. This arrangement also helps to improve the quality of the meals that you serve your clients. By cooking on site, in the client's own kitchen, you can prepare the entrees and put them directly into the refrigerator or freezer. This greatly reduces the risk of the food spoiling, getting contaminated, or being damaged in transit. If you choose this arrangement, you will need to consider the best time to purchase ingredients that will be used in the meals you prepare for your clients. If you are cooking in your client's kitchen, it might be best to go to the store to purchase ingredients right before you go to your client's home. By doing so, you will only have to transport perishable food items once, from the store to the client's home. Although this helps improve the quality of your clients' meals by minimizing the risk of spoilage or damage to fresh ingredients, it is still important to follow the guidelines for safely handling, choosing, and transporting foods. One of the disadvantages to cooking in the client's kitchen is your initial unfamiliarity with the kitchen, where things are stored, and the oven. You can easily avoid this problem by asking the client questions and touring the kitchen at your hiring interview. You might also want to ask your client whether you may take a few minutes to review the layout of the kitchen and the placement of necessary items before you prepare your first meals for the client – you will likely have forgotten some of the details about your client's food preparation environment between the interview and your first time cooking for the client. During your kitchen tour, ask your client to show you where cooking supplies are stored. Also, take the time to familiarize yourself with the appliances you will be using. Make sure you know how to operate your client's appliances properly and make note of how much refrigerator and freezer space is available for your completed entrees. By taking these simple steps, you will save yourself a significant amount of time when you go to the client's house to prepare the first batch of meals; you will not have to waste crucial minutes trying to remember how to program the client's oven or tying to figure out how you will fit several days' worth of entrees into your client's refrigerator or freezer. Because many of your clients are too busy to prepare their own food, they might not be willing or available to give you a complete tour of the kitchen. Although a tour is ideal, if your client is unwilling or unable to provide a full tour, you might want to provide a survey for your client to fill out at their leisure instead, asking any questions that will help you familiarize yourself with the kitchen. You can also attach a list of any instructions you have for the client to the survey. For example, you will want them to clear enough space in the refrigerator and freezer for your completed entrees and make sure that sufficient counter space is clear for you to use cutting boards, pasta makers, rice cookers, and other tools and appliances. As an added personal chef service, you might even want to offer them the option of allowing you to clear out their refrigerator and cupboards for them. You are offering an all-inclusive personal chef service to your clients, so they might appreciate not having to guess how much space you will need for food preparation or storage. Anything you can add to your services to make your clients' lives easier will help you build your reputation as an excellent personal chef, and help you gain more clients through referrals. Another way to prepare, if your client cannot provide a complete tour, is to show up fifteen to twenty minutes early on the first day you are scheduled to prepare food. This will give you some time to inspect and familiarize yourself with the kitchen. However, you will want to make sure that you ask your client's permission to do this. Most of your clients will not be home while you are preparing the meals, but it is still important to alert them of any schedule changes. They are trusting you to be in their home while they are away. As a professional, you must respect their home, schedule, and privacy. This includes showing up on time, even though there is no boss to hold you accountable for doing so. It also includes completing your work and leaving a clean kitchen, fully stocked with the weekly meals. Another potential problem that you might run into while cooking in a client's kitchen is the lack of needed supplies. The items you perceive as being essentials to cooking any meal might not be things that your client owns or has available. This problem is eliminated somewhat by developing the portable kitchen discussed earlier. However, you might not have every item in your portable kitchen. This is another reason why it is so important to familiarize yourself with the client's kitchen before your initial appointment to cook. When you tour your client's kitchen, take inventory of what they have available. If they do not have an item you know you will need, add it to your portable kitchen. The items that were suggested for you portable kitchen are just guidelines. If you have chosen to cook in your client's kitchen, you will need to tailor your portable kitchen to your cooking style and specialization. For instance, you might be consistently cooking rice dishes and be used to using a rice cooker. For you, it would probably benefit you to include a rice cooker in your portable kitchen. Cooking in Your Own Kitchen Another option for setting up your kitchen is in your own home. By cooking in your own home, you eliminate the need for a portable kitchen. All the supplies you need are already right there in your own kitchen. You will also be familiar with your own appliances. One major downfall with using your own kitchen is difficulty in keeping the food fresh. If you are in a client's kitchen, the food can go right into the refrigerator or freezer for storage until the client is ready to heat and serve it. But, if you are preparing your food in your own kitchen, you will have to take extra measures to ensure that the food is stored and transported properly. Another possible disadvantage to setting up your kitchen in your own home is that you might have to purchase a vehicle to transport your food. If you prepare a week's work of meals for your client, it might be difficult to transport it in a small car, especially since you will need to keep the food cool and packed properly so that it will not spill or become damaged in transit. If you are thinking about using your own kitchen for preparing meals, you will also want to check with your local health board to make sure that this is permissible in your area. Some jurisdictions do not allow food service professionals to serve food that has been prepared somewhere else. It is better to find out whether your jurisdiction allows this before you set up your business and commence operations, so you do not have to worry about incurring fines or having your business shut down later. When transporting food from your kitchen to your client's refrigerator, you run the risk of the food spilling or becoming damaged. Stacking trays, for example, can cause food to get smashed. It might also shift while you are driving, further adding to the possibility that the meals will not arrive at your client's home in the condition you had intended. If you are going to be cooking in your own kitchen and transporting food back and forth, it might be best to find a refrigeration unit or some other way of keeping food cold and securely packaged while it is in transit. Time is another factor to consider when you are setting up your kitchen in your own home. When you cook in the client's kitchen, you need only to transport the groceries, your portable kitchen, and your cleaning kit. If you are cooking in your own kitchen, you will be taking the groceries to your home, cooking the food, loading it into your vehicle, unloading it at the client's house, and packing it into their refrigerator. This process will definitely take more time than cooking in the client's kitchen. Although it takes more time and involves the risk of transporting the food, you might have clients who do not want you cooking in their kitchen. This could occur for any number of reasons. For example, the client might think their house is too cluttered or messy for someone to come in and cook. Others might not feel comfortable having someone in their home while they are not present. If you decide that you want to primarily work in the client's kitchen, but have clients who would prefer that you cook the food off site and deliver it, you might want to consider charging an extra delivery fee for these clients. You might also need to look into hiring employees to help with transporting food. This will save time, but will cost more money because you will have to pay your employees. We will talk more about hiring employees in a later chapter. You might also choose not to take a client on who does not allow you to work in their kitchen. Although that might seem ludicrous to a person just establishing their business and building their client base, it is important to remember that your time is precious. In the time it takes to pack and load the food at your home, transport it, and unload it at the client's home, it might have been possible to prepare meals for two clients in their own homes. Ultimately, it is important to determine what works best for you and your clientele. Be aware of your state's guidelines when determining whether or not to cook from your own kitchen. Some states do not allow this and may pull your license if you are caught doing so. Renting a Kitchen Space A third option for setting up your business is renting a kitchen space. This option will cost you more start-up money, but might prove to be your best option if you are planning on doing much event catering or hiring employees to help with your business. Again, if you are thinking of renting a kitchen space, check with your local health board to make sure you can do this in your jurisdiction. One major advantage to renting a kitchen space is that it will give you more room to spread out and grow your business. A larger kitchen area will allow more employees to work together at a given time without getting in each other's way or running into each other. Another option is having a storefront available to potential customers. Your business will be more visible to potential clients that shop in the area and they will be more likely to call you or stop in during business hours. Another advantage to having a rented kitchen and storefront is that you will have room to accommodate people who want to come in and sample your product. This can be extremely beneficial if you plan on catering for events as well as preparing meals for individuals. If your space is large enough, you might even be able to rent out your store space for small events that you will then cater for. It all depends on want you want and the vision you have for your business. If you want to specialize in providing cooking classes, renting a kitchen can help. By having a larger kitchen space, you can hold your cooking classes on site. You might even be able to provide classes to a larger number of people at once. Offering cooking classes gets your name in the community and helps people learn who you are and what you have to offer. However, if you are choosing to specialize in cooking meals for families and want to work alone, renting a kitchen space is probably not your best option. Renting a kitchen to work in will require more in start-up costs than working in the client's kitchen because you will be paying to rent your work space. You will also need to purchase a suitable vehicle to transport food if you rent a kitchen space. In addition, you will have to be aware of all of the potential difficulties that are present when you are transporting finished entrees from one location to another. If you are interested in renting a kitchen space but cannot afford the overhead of renting the space, consider sharing a kitchen space with another chef or caterer. This option will give you the advantage of having the extra space, but will reduce the cost. Most likely, you will not need the space every day and will be able to easily coordinate your schedule with another chef. When renting kitchen space, look for a space that already has a commercial-grade kitchen that currently includes all of the heavy equipment. This will reduce the cost of outfitting the kitchen on your own. It will also save you the expense of paying for delivery services and movers to transport the equipment to your kitchen. Just as you will need to stock your portable kitchen to travel to the client's home, you will also need to make sure that your rented kitchen space is properly stocked and ready to go. You will need the same items that would be in the portable kitchen mentioned earlier. You will also want to add any of the items essential to cooking the types of food you specialize in. Having a rented, commercial-grade kitchen will give you all the equipment and space you need to start a professional personal chef business. In addition, renting a kitchen space will provide you with a kitchen you are familiar with and will save you from having to transport your portable kitchen and cleaning supplies back and forth. Another major advantage of renting a kitchen space is that you will potentially have more room, more ovens, and more equipment to use, so you can complete entrees faster and more efficiently. What to Consider When Determining Where You Will Work When determining which location is right for you, it is important to consider the vision you have for your business. What do you see as your strengths as a personal chef? What do you want your specialty to be? Do you prefer to prepare meals for families or cater for large events? Do you want to be a one-person business or do you see having a larger business that needs staff for event catering or delivery of food? The best option for a personal chef who wants to prepare meals for individuals and families is cooking in the client's own kitchen, but if catering is your passion and you plan to cater large events, you will probably need a larger space. You will also need somewhere to meet with clients to offer samples of your food. And, you will most likely need to hire employees to help with transportation and serving of food. If you feel that it is necessary to rent a kitchen space, run an advertisement in the paper or ask friends in the industry whether they would be willing to share a kitchen space with you or whether they know someone who would. Another option is to contract with a local realtor who can help you find a kitchen space. The most important thing to remember is that your personal chef business is yours. You have the option to be unique and innovative. Take the time to ask yourself how you see your business and look at the options that are the best fit for your needs. Remember that your vision need not be set in stone. It can change as you and your business change. For example, you might start with only a few clients, preparing weekly meals. But as your business grows, you might choose to expand your business by offering cooking classes. This will help you open up even more opportunities, and find new clients who need your services. Table of Contents Chapter 7: Hiring and Training Employees Your personal chef business might eventually grow too large for you to do everything on your own. Some personal chefs decide to operate by themselves for a period of time before considering the hiring of additional employees; others will want to more aggressively build the business, and might want to have the hiring completed before the first meal is ever served. In any event, it is important to know how to properly find quality employees that will treat you with loyalty and respect. This chapter outlines many of the considerations of hiring and training employees to help your personal chef business grow profitably, while providing valuable career experience for the people you choose to hire. Finding and Pre-Screening Employees Now that you have a vision of your business and have determined where you want to work, it is time to think about hiring employees. Some of the people you employ to make your business a success will be consultants, lawyers, and accountants. You might also need to hire employees who work for you and help with transportation and delivery, dish washing and clean up, or serving food. Perhaps you have decided to be both employer and sole employee of your business for now. That is fine; many personal chefs begin their operations without the assistance of employees and find that they are able to serve quite a few clients before additional help becomes necessary. If you are not yet ready to consider hiring employees, you can skip to the section about hiring professionals and consultants and refer back to this section if the need for employees arises in the future. However, if you have determined that hiring a qualified staff is essential to the success of your business, read on for tips on how to choose, hire, and train the right employees for success. Even if you have decided to hire employees, you will probably still be doing most of the cooking and food preparation. Your employees will be responsible for some of the other elements of your business, such as clean up, transportation of food, and serving food at catered events. Even though these might be relatively low-paying, part-time positions or contingent positions, it is still important to hire the most responsible employees you can attract. The quality of the employees you hire can have a direct influence on your success as a business owner. Your first consideration should be deciding how much you will need to pay your employees. Check on federal and state minimum wage and labor laws to determine what you will legally need to pay your employees. If you are planning to hire high school students to work part-time, you will also want to check on the maximum number of hours that these employees can work, how many breaks you are required by law to provide, and how late they are allowed to work. If you have an attorney or human resources consultant, they might also be able to help answer these questions for you and provide valuable guidance regarding whether it will be beneficial to your business to hire students as part-time employees. Taxes and payroll are also important considerations you will need to deal with when setting up and expanding your personal chef business. You will probably need and want to hire an accountant to oversee your tax forms and make sure all tax deductions are legal and for the correct amount. The first thing you will need to do is let potential employees know that there is a job available. One of the most common ways to get the word out that you are hiring is running an advertisement in the local newspaper. This method of finding employees could also prove to be your most costly and time consuming method of recruiting suitable talent to help you run your business. With the current job market, this method will probably provide you with a relatively large response; there are many unemployed people looking for entry-level food service positions in many parts of the United States. When writing your advertisement, it is important to be as specific as possible about the job and requirements. Taking time to put together a well-structured advertisement will save you some of the trouble of screening out employees who do not meet the specific job requirements. This will also save time, since running an advertisement in the jobs section of the newspaper will probably provide you with the largest list of potential employees to pre-screen and interview. It is important to get as much employment history as possible when you are initially screening potential employees. This can be a challenge when hiring for an entry-level position, as some of your candidates might not have established a work history or created a resume. If they do not have any work history, ask for personal references from teachers and family friends. It might be best to ask potential employees to call in. Have a list of preliminary questions by the phone and be prepared to conduct a pre-screening interview over the phone. These questions need not be complex, but will give you a clearer idea of what applicants you should have come in for an interview and which you can eliminate quickly. Here are some sample questions you can ask when potential employees call in. * • What interested you in this position? * • Do you have any related experience? * • What hours are you available to work? From the three sample questions listed above, right away you will be able to determine whether the candidate has experience in food service, whether they are available to work the required hours, and whether or not they are particularly interested in the job you are offering or are just looking for any job. You can be as detailed or brief with your pre-screening interview as you want to be. The first thing you will want to address when setting up your pre-screening interview and the actual interview is what is most important to you. Do you want someone with experience? What hours do you need your employees available and what is the minimum, or maximum, amount of hours you want your employees to work? If the employee will be interacting with customers much, how well do they speak and present themselves? Having a clear-cut idea of what types of employees you are looking for will make the interview process much quicker and simpler by helping to eliminate those who do not meet your standards. When pre-screening potential candidates, you will also want to be sure to ask for their first and last name and phone number. This may seem like obvious information you would want to obtain, but sometimes it is easy to forget to ask when you get on the phone with someone. If possible, print out a form with the questions you want to ask; the form should provide a space for the candidate's name and phone number, as well as a comments section for you to make notes on your personal observations about the candidate. If you feel like you simply do not have the time to speak with and pre-screen every candidate who comes in, you can request a copy of their resume. You can also accept a letter of interest if an applicant does not have a resume. Be sure when using this method of pre-screening employees that you include your e-mail, fax number, or mailing address for the candidates to send their resumes and letters to. Also, be sure to specify what means they may use to contact you. For example, if you do not want to get a huge volume of phone calls from people inquiring about the job, you can indicate in your ad that your do not want candidates to call in. As the resumes come in, separate out the most qualified candidates. You can still choose to complete a pre-screening phone interview before meeting with the candidate, or if you are operating on a short timeframe and need to hire someone as quickly as possible, you can go ahead and proceed with setting up face-to-face interviews. When looking at letters and resumes, you should already know what qualities you consider most important in an employee and should be prepared to immediately screen out anyone who does not meet your criteria. Another way to find qualified employees is to ask friends and families for referrals. Most people will not stick their neck out and recommend someone they do not think will do a good job. They know that the failure of someone they refer could reflect negatively on them and their credibility. Therefore, they will take great care in referring family members and friends to potential employers. Gathering referrals will save you time when it comes to pre-screening employees. You will not have the huge volume of candidate calls and inquiry letters to go through. You will also have the peace of mind of knowing that your candidates already come recommended and have a glowing reference from the family member or friend who referred them. The best part is that having potential employees referred to you is free. Another advantage to gathering referrals is that it might help you find people who are interested in the business. These people might be interested in opening their own catering or personal chef business or might be students in culinary school. People who are interested in your industry will more likely take the job more seriously and see it as a career booster rather than just a job. However, you will not want these people to take your ideas and move in right down the street, undercutting your prices and stealing your customers. Speak with an attorney about setting up a non-compete clause that is fair to both you and your employees. A non-compete agreement is a legal contract that keeps your employees from taking your clientele with them when they open their own businesses. Some non-compete clauses also specify how geographically close a former employee can set up their own business to your existing business. Looking for employees through the referral process should never be a substitute for checking references. The person referring the potential employee might not be aware of all of their work history or past job performance. If you are requiring your potential employees to provide references from past employers or teachers, it is still important to call and check references before hiring. This practice will help you determine that your candidates are reputable, responsible, and able to conduct themselves properly while on the job. Anyone you hire represents you and your personal chef business; therefore, your employees' actions will be a direct reflection on you and the reputation of your company. As you build your business, your reputation as a professional can make or break your success. Some personal chefs and caterers choose to hire family members. Hiring a spouse, sibling, cousin, or nieces and nephews as part-time staff can cut out the expense of running advertisements and can save you the time of interviewing because you already know your candidate's employment history and work ethic. If you choose this option, it is important to make sure you hire family members who are responsible and will take the job just as seriously as they would if they were working for an employer who was not a family member. If you have a rented kitchen or storefront, you might also be able to find employees by placing a help wanted sign in the window. Please be aware that this might increase your traffic. Potential applicants will see your sign and simply walk in during business hours to inquire about the job. If you are currently working alone or do not want interruptions, you might not want to use this option. This option might also be difficult if you are sharing rented kitchen space with another chef or caterer. The employees of the other chef or caterer might not know that you are hiring and will likely not want their work to be interrupted by your potential employees. If you do decide to put out a sign, you will need to have application forms available for the applicants to fill out. Generic application forms can be ordered online or through a business supply catalogue, or you can have some printed up at your local print shop. In larger metropolitan areas, you might also be able to pick up generic application forms at an office supply store. If you want more personalized application forms with your company's name and logo, you can also get creative and make your own on your office computer. Be sure to ask for your applicant's name, address, personal information, contact numbers, and work history. You can also include any questions you like about relevant skills and work history on your application. If you have hired an attorney or human resources consultant, you might want to have them look over the application form to make sure all of the questions that are asked are legal and within the confines of employment law. If you have the opportunity to speak with candidates who come in to fill out an application, it might be helpful to use this time to pre-screen. Most applicants who have seen your sign will come in impulsively. This will give you a chance to see how the employee presents themselves and how well groomed they are. This is especially important if your employees will be coming in contact with clients on a regular basis. You will want to choose employees who are well groomed and will present themselves well to clients. Good employees will help you maintain clients and gain referrals. The Interview Process Now that you know how to find and pre-screen potential employees, you will need to proceed with the interview process before selecting your employees. The interview process can be long and time consuming, but it is necessary to interview your applicants to hire the right employees. The only exception or reason to not interview potential employees is if you are hiring family members. This is an exception to the rule because you already know your family members and have some familiarity with their work history and work ethic. If you are hiring your employees from a pool of people who you are not already familiar with, taking the time to interview can save you time in the long run by allowing you to weed out candidates who are not a fit for the job. This also cuts down on turn-over and keeps you from having to constantly look for new employees to replace the ones who did not stick around. By taking the time to interview, you can also avoid, or cut down on, the risk of employing people who call in often or are habitually late for work. These employees can leave you under staffed and can cause you and the rest of your team to run behind schedule for an event. Being late or failing to have food ready to go on time can cause you to lose clients and be left to deal with customer complaints. The interview process can be stressful for the employer and the potential employee. If you are not used to interviewing people, you might not be sure of the appropriate questions to ask. If you are nervous and unprepared, you will not be able to focus on the process at hand, which is hiring the best employees for your business. The number one rule of successful interviewing is to always be prepared. Here are some tips to preparing for an interview: * • Have your questions ready ahead of time. Remember, the interview is not only a chance for you to get to know your potential employee, but a chance for them to get to know you. It is also an opportunity for you to establish your role and your expectations as employer. * • Know what questions you are going to ask and the order in which you are going to ask the questions. Listen to the candidate's answer and take notes so that you will be able to go back and evaluate the candidate when making your final decision. * • Know whom you are interviewing. Remember and respect the fact that your candidates have invested time into applying for your job and sending you the necessary paperwork. Before seeing the scheduled candidate, take a few minutes to read through their resume or application. You can make notes next to the questions you ask of every candidate and write down any additional questions that arose while you where reading over the candidates work history. * • Be on time. Sometimes interviews run longer than expected, so try to allow a little extra time between interviews. If you are meeting the candidate somewhere for the interview, allow extra time to get there and look over your notes before they arrive. This will give you time to relax and collect your thoughts before the interview. It will also set an example for the potential employee, showing them that you are on time and that you expect them to be on time for work. Now you are probably wondering what you should ask your potential employees. We have already discussed a few questions you may ask when pre-screening your applicants. If you have not previously asked the candidate those three questions, they may be included in the interview. Here are some more sample questions you may ask potential employees when you are conducting an interview. Please note that these questions may be changed, modified, and some left out completely if your applicant does not have any prior work experience. If you are working with an attorney or human resources consultant during the hiring process, you will also want to go over the questions you will ask at the interview with them. With today's strict privacy and employment laws, some questions may be seen as inappropriate to ask. * • What qualities do you feel make you the best candidate for this job? * • What do you feel are your greatest strengths? * • What are your biggest weaknesses? * • What interests you the most about this job? * • If I were to call your previous employers, what would they say are your biggest strengths and weaknesses? * • Why are you looking to leave your current job? * • May I contact your current employer? * • If you were confronted by a dissatisfied customer, how would you react? Listen to their answer, then ask: How would you handle such a confrontation – that is, how would you resolve the issue to make the customer happy? * • Tell me about a situation where you were confronted by an angry or dissatisfied customer. How did you react? How did you handle the situation? * • What would you do if you found out a fellow employee was stealing? * • What would you do if you saw an employee handling food unsafely? * • What would you do if you saw a fellow employee being rude to a customer or engaging in an argument with a customer? * • What would you say has been your greatest achievement? * • How many times have you been absent from work or school due to personal illness in the past year? * • How many times have you been late for work or school in the last year? * • Is there currently any recurring issue that would cause you to frequently be late or miss work? * • How would you react if you had a major disagreement with a fellow employee? * • Do you have any physical or medical problems that could keep your from performing certain tasks involved with this job? * • Do you have reliable transportation to and from work? * • What date would you be able to start work? * • Do you have any additional training or skills that you would be able to use at this job? * • Have you ever had a disagreement with a fellow employee while on the job? How did you handle it? * • Do you work better alone or with a team? * • Where do you see yourself in the next five years? * • Would you describe yourself as a leader? Why or why not? * • Are you involved in any organizations or activities at school? If so, what activities? * • Have you ever had a leadership role at any of your previous jobs or in any or your school activities? Do you feel like you learned from the experience? * • Do you see yourself as a problem solver? * • Name one experience that you had in which you helped a group you were working with solve a problem or dispute. * • What experience have you had that you feel has influenced your life the most? These are just a few questions you can ask potential employees. Another way to develop interview questions is to think back to your own job interviews. What questions have past employers asked you that have stuck in your mind? Do you think these questions would be helpful to you in determining whether someone is a good fit for the job you are offering or for your company? The interview process is your chance to see the real person behind the glowing resume or work history. A thorough job interview should last 20-30 minutes. If you are working on a strict time schedule, try to dedicate at least 15 minutes to each candidate interview. The less time you spend with each candidate, the more each question will need to count. When you are deciding what questions to ask your applicants, determine what you hope to learn with each question and how relevant and important the question is. You may also want to test potential employees' skills by having them prepare a dish in the kitchen. This can be from your recipe or theirs; however, having them prepare one of your recipes ensures they can follow diections. If you have already employed an attorney or legal council to help you set up your business, go over the questions you will ask your candidates with your attorney. Although there may be certain questions you want to ask to determine whether your candidates would make good employees, there are some questions that might not be legal to ask at the interview. Employment laws are set up to protect both the employer and the employee. You will need to be sure to involve your legal staff in the hiring process. If you are planning on hiring several employees, you might want to contract with a human resources specialist. We will talk more about contracting with professionals later in this section. Training Employees Now that you have hired the best employees in the business, you need to train them. Even employees who have worked in a similar setting will need training. This is because each business does things a little differently. You will want to make sure things are being done consistently by each staff member and are being done the way you want them to be done. It is important not to skimp on training. If this is your first group of employees, consider holding some group training sessions once you have selected your employees. During these training sessions, orient the employees with the equipment and your facility. Make the training as hands-on as possible, as many people learn from doing. Demonstrate, then let them complete the task themselves, whether it is the proper way to set up the table or quick food preparation. Be sure to address any questions at these training sessions as well. Sometimes employers will bring in consultants to train employees. Although this might result in highly skilled employees who have been trained by an expert, consultants are costly and might not train your employee the way you would prefer them to. As a small business owner, you will have certain standards that you will want your employees to live up to. You will also want them to do things by your standards. If you hire a consultant to help train employees, make sure they are on the same page with you and your vision for your company. Also make sure that they are flexible and willing to work with you to train employees who will meet your needs. Once you have employees trained the way you want, you can train designated employees with seniority to train new employees on the job. Be sure to sit down with your trainer and let them know what is expected of them before training begins. This will also be a time to make sure your current employee is comfortable training another. Some employees are natural teachers and like to train others, while some employees do not communicate or teach as well and do not wish to train others at all. When choosing an employee to train others, you will want to make sure that the employee is patient and communicates well. An employee who does not have the patience to answer questions and the ability to communicate effectively with others will probably not be a good trainer. If you are asking another employee to train your new hire, it is still important to make your new employee feel welcome. Talk to them and welcome them on their first day of training before introducing them to their trainer. Contracting with Professionals A lot of work goes into running a business. As a small business owner, you will probably need to contract with professionals who have expertise in areas such as accounting and the legal aspects of starting and running a business. These professionals can be costly and you will need to budget for them when putting together your business budget. When you are looking for a lawyer, consultant, or tax specialist, it is important not to shop by price alone. Look for quality and price. For example, if you are looking for a Web designer to hire as a consultant when getting your Web site off the ground, you will want to see a sample of Web sites they have already completed. Although one Web designer may be offering to contract to complete your Web site at a significantly lower price than most, you probably will want to pay a little more for another Web site design professional to ensure that his or her work is up to your expectations. This will be especially true if a competitor's work is exactly what you are looking for and is only slightly more expensive. After all, with the growing popularity of the internet, it is essential to have a Web site that is organized and well put together. So how do you find lawyers, tax specialists, and consultants who will fit your budget and still do a good job? The best and easiest way is to ask friends and other small business owners whom they use. This saves you the time of going through the yellow pages and making calls to find professionals who will be able to deliver the services you need within the budget you have set. Another way to find qualified professionals to provide support for your business is networking. Many towns have organizations for small business owners. Accountants, consultants, and some attorneys are small business owners themselves and can be found in these small business groups. Being a member of one of these groups will also help you gain clients' and referrals. You can also utilize the Internet to find qualified consultants and professionals. Web sites, such as www.elance.com and www.guru.com, will give you the opportunity to post a description of the services you need. Qualified professionals can then bid on your project and provide samples of their work. The best thing about most of these Web sites is that it is free for you to post your project and you do not have to choose any of the bidders if none meet your requirements or budget. This is an excellent way to find Web site designers and qualified writers to provide marketing materials for your business. Here are some things to remember when hiring consultants and professionals as support for your business: * • Always ask about fees up front. See whether you are going to be charged hourly or per project or consultation. If the fee structure is unclear or difficult to understand, ask questions. If it is still unclear or difficult to understand, seek another professional or consultant. If someone cannot be upfront with you, it probably means they have something to hide. * • Always get a contract in writing. A well-written contract will outline the fees up front and clearly define each party's function and responsibilities. * • Always be sure to read and thoroughly understand a contract before signing. Once you have found an attorney to work with, they can look over any contracts you have before you sign. * • Always ask for references and/or samples of their work before hiring or contracting with anyone. Hiring employees, professionals, and consultants to aid you in starting and running your business can be a difficult and stressful process. Whenever possible, get recommendations from friends and other small business owners. This can save you time and take some of the guess work out of your choices. Table of Contents Chapter 8: Catering to the Dietary Needs of Your Clients Earlier in this book, you learned a bit about specializing in specific types of cuisine. All clients are different and have unique dietary requirements and preferences. Even if you have not chosen, or do not plan on choosing, an area of specialization, it is still important to be aware of different dietary needs and requirements and be prepared to work with clients who have these needs. In this chapter, we will talk about some of these different needs and how to work with them. We will also talk about specializing in these different requirements and how you can make yourself invaluable when it comes to catering to your clients' individual dietary needs. As you know, dietary preferences and requirements can arise for a variety of reasons. Some people are required to eat a restricted diet to maintain their health. Others have particular religious beliefs that prevent them from eating certain foods. Some choose to eat a certain diet because they view it as being healthier and promoting their overall well-being. No matter what a client's reasons are for choosing or requiring a restricted diet, it is important for you to know what should and what should not be included in their meals. It is also your responsibility to remain professional and respectful of their dietary preferences, regardless of your personal feelings or beliefs. If you feel that a certain restriction or requirement falls way outside of your area of expertise, or you simply feel uncomfortable working with the presented restrictions, refer the potential client to another personal chef who can better serve them. You will earn much greater respect as a chef if you are willing to acknowledge that certain requirements might fall out of your realm of expertise. Now we will discuss some of the various restrictions you might encounter as a personal chef. Remember, the information in this book is simply an overview. You might need to do more extensive research into each one of these areas, especially if you are planning on a specialization. You will also want to be sure to ask your client plenty of questions to make sure that you remain within their dietary restrictions. Health Related Eating Restrictions Some of your clients might have health related eating restrictions. When these clients come to you, they are not only relying on you to take their eating restrictions into consideration, they are also depending on you to provide them with flavorful food and convenient meals that they can serve to their families. Many clients might be coming to you because they do not have the cooking expertise to prepare flavorful food while remaining within their eating restrictions. This gives you the opportunity to quickly build loyal, long-term clients by providing them with delicious meals that meet their needs; once you have shown your clients that it is possible to have good food and still stay within dietary restrictions, they will be so grateful that they will keep you as their personal chef for as long as they can. Many will also refer additional clients who have similar restrictions. One common health condition that you might be working with is diabetes. Diabetics have to closely monitor their food intake. This allows most diabetics to control their blood sugar levels and avoid going into diabetic shock or a diabetic coma. Some diabetics regulate their blood sugar with a combination of medication and diet. Others are able to control their sugar levels by diet alone. The diet of a person with diabetes affects how they feel from day to day. It also helps the diabetic person maintain a healthy weight. Some diabetics work with a dietician to learn how to better regulate their blood sugar. Their dietician will help them determine how much fat, protein, and carbohydrate should be consumed at each meal. Your client's dietician will also help them determine what foods they can eat more of and which foods they should be more sparing with. If your diabetic client is working with a dietician, ask them what the dietician has recommended for them. You can also ask the client's permission to set up a meeting with the client and his or her dietician so that the two of you can work together as a team to promote your client's health and well being. Clients who have been diagnosed with high blood pressure might be required to go on a low sodium diet. Too much sodium in a person's diet will cause their blood pressure to rise. Diets high in sodium can also cause fluid retention and swelling, and can cause shortness of breath due to an excess of fluid around the lungs. The body needs less than a teaspoon of salt a day. However, with so many processed foods and high-sodium products, the average person consumes much more sodium than that in a typical day. As a personal chef, you can reduce your client's sodium intake by decreasing the amount of salt you use in your cooking. As a culinary professional, you probably already know that there are many tasty alternatives to salt that you can use to season food and add flavor. You can help your client stay within their low sodium diet requirements by seasoning with herbs, spices, and lemons instead of using salt. You can also ask the client whether their doctor permits them to use salt substitutes. You can also reduce sodium by reading labels when you purchase ingredients for your client's food. Be aware of how much sodium is contained in the food items you are purchasing. You can also purchase low-sodium alternatives to many foods. In today's society, cholesterol is also a rather common dietary concern. Although there are medications that can help regulate cholesterol, diet is also key to lowering cholesterol and getting healthy. To accommodate your clients who are battling high cholesterol, cut down on trans fats and saturated fats in your cooking. This will mean cutting out or cutting down on butters and oils. You can also replace fatty meats with leaner meats. Here are some tips on choosing foods for clients who are trying to lower their cholesterol: * • Choose the leanest meat possible. Leaner meat is naturally a better choice for someone who is trying to lower their cholesterol because it contains fewer saturated fats. * • Buy chicken and turkey skinless or remove the skin when you are preparing the food. * • Bake instead of fry whenever possible. * • Choose white meat over dark meat. White meat is lower in saturated fat than dark meat. * • Avoid dishes with goose or duck. These meats are both extremely high in saturated fats and are therefore not good for a client who is trying to lower their cholesterol. If your client especially enjoys these meats, use them sparingly and be sure to remove the skin. * • Use fish in your meals. Fish is generally lower in saturated fats and cholesterol than other meat products. Just check with your client to make sure that he or she is not allergic to fish, especially shellfish. * • If you are making a dish that requires hot dogs, remember that chicken or turkey dogs are lower in cholesterol than those made with beef or pork. * • Use meat substitutes. Tofu and other vegetarian options are often lower in fat than meats. Check with your client as some people are opposed to a vegetarian lifestyle. * • Use soluble fiber. Soluble fiber is present in foods such as apples and oatmeal. * • Leave out the yolk. Egg yolks are extremely high in cholesterol. Egg whites, on the other hand, contain no cholesterol. Try using two egg whites for each egg required in a recipe, and leave out the yolk entirely. * • Use cholesterol-free egg substitutes instead of real eggs. * • Use 1 percent and fat-free skim milk in place of 2 percent or whole milk. Whole milk is very high in fat and cholesterol, but it is still important to include milk products in your client's diet. One percent and fat-free skim milk provide a healthier alternative to a client who wants to lower their cholesterol. When looking for cheeses, choose those that are fat free, low fat, reduced fat, or part skim. These cheeses are lower in cholesterol than other cheese alternatives. * • Use non-fat yogurt, sour cream, and cream cheese instead of regular versions of these ingredients. * • Use liquid vegetable oils, such as olive, canola, corn, soybean, and sunflower. * • Use soft-tub margarine instead of butter. Look for margarines that are made with unsaturated liquid vegetable oils. * • Limit or eliminate butter, lard, fatback, and solid shortenings. These items are very high in saturated fats and cholesterol. * • Use light or fat-free mayonnaise and salad dressings instead of regular dressings. Using light and fat-free dressings cuts down on saturated fats and cholesterol. * • Include more fruits and vegetables in your client's meals. These items contain no cholesterol and are essential to a healthy diet. Try using fruit for a dessert alternative. You can also offer to put together a fruit and/or vegetable tray for the client to use for snacks. Likewise, your clients will appreciate dips that are low in fat and cholesterol. You can offer these to your clients to use on fruits and vegetables. * • Use whole grain breads and rolls instead of white bread. Whole grain breads are higher in fiber and are a healthier choice for someone on a low cholesterol diet. * • Use pasta and rice for entrees. These items are low in cholesterol and are filling. Therefore, you can cut back on portions of meats, which are high in cholesterol. * • Choose low-fat or fat-free brownies, cakes, and cookies as a dessert option. Gelatins, angel food cake, puddings made with one percent or fat-free milk, and fat-free frozen yogurts and sherbets will satisfy your client's sweet tooth while keeping them on their low-cholesterol diet. As with any client who is on dietary restrictions, ask whether they are working with a dietician and request a meeting with the client and their dietician. You can also work with the client's dietician to formulate meal plans, but you must always be respectful of your client's feelings and privacy. Make sure your client is involved and comfortable with you working directly with their dietician. Another possible health-related dietary restriction that your clients may require special attention to is allergies. Food allergies can prove to be quite serious and severe allergic reactions can even result in death. Before working with a client, it is important to make sure that you know about any food allergies they have. A client might not know every ingredient that goes into each entree you prepare. Hence, a client could easily not realize that a meal contains an ingredient he or she is allergic to until it is too late. As a personal chef, you are responsible for knowing what food allergies your client has and for remembering not to include anything that they are allergic to in their entrees. You will also want to make sure that there is no possibility of transfer of the allergens from your equipment. Properly cleaning and sanitizing your equipment will eliminate this risk and is something you should be doing anyway. Do you have any of these eating restrictions? Have you ever been a caretaker for someone who does? Have you had any special training or work experience from which you have gained in-depth knowledge on health related eating restrictions? As you can see, there is much to remember when catering to someone's health related eating restrictions. If you have extensive knowledge about medically based eating restrictions, perhaps you will want to consider specializing in working with people with eating restrictions. As a chef with expertise at working with people with health related eating restrictions, you could be an invaluable asset to your clients. As you can probably imagine, some personal chefs might not feel comfortable working with people with dietary restrictions knowing how much the client's health can be impacted by foods they eat. Choosing to specialize does not necessarily limit you to working only with clientele that requires your specific expertise. Specialization helps you target your marketing and showcase your talents. Religious and Culturally Based Dietary Needs One thing that makes the United States so unique is that virtually every culture and religious belief is represented. As a professional personal chef, it is likely that you will be working with people from all religions, cultural backgrounds, and walks of life. Three things that people take seriously are their personal beliefs, culture, and religion. Their beliefs are a large part of what makes them who they are. Whether or not you understand or agree with these religious and culturally-based dietary requirements, they are sacred to your potential client. It is important to be respectful and acknowledge any dietary needs your clients have because of religion, culture, or ethnicity, whether you agree with their beliefs or not. Any religious or cultural dietary needs should be discussed at your initial interview with the client. Some religious groups and cultures cannot eat certain foods on certain days or mix certain foods in one meal. Listen and take notes as your client is explaining their dietary needs to you. If you do not understand, ask questions and clarify anything that you are unsure about. If you are uncomfortable with bringing the subject up to your potential clients, provide them with a questionnaire to fill out before the interview and review it with them. Ask any questions you have and make sure you thoroughly understand your client's requirements before the contract is signed. If you are part of a religious or cultural group that has particular dietary restrictions, you may choose to make that your specialization. Although you will not have to limit yourself to taking on clients who are part of one of these groups, you will have increased credibility and rapport with these clients from the beginning because you will already have something in common with them that is close to their hearts. Vegetarian and Vegan Diets With many Americans becoming more health conscious, vegetarian and vegan diets are becoming more popular. However, do not assume that if you have a vegetarian or vegan client, that he or she necessarily wants low calorie, low fat meals – there are a variety of reasons that people choose these diets. Some choose to adopt vegetarian and vegan diets because it makes them feel healthier and better; others choose vegetarian or vegan diets for spiritual or cultural reasons – many Buddhists, for example, adhere to a strict vegetarian diet. Other vegetarians and vegans choose not to eat or use animal products because they perceive such use to be cruel or unfair to animals. Strict vegetarians do not eat any type of meat. Luckily, there are many tasty replacements for meat available, such as tofu, which is made from soy, and seitan, which is made from wheat. These meat replacements are filling and tasty. You will want to experiment with these meat substitutes if you are not used to using them – some meat substitutes are rather bland when eaten by themselves, so you might find that tofu and seitan based dishes need to be more heavily spiced than other types of dishes. It is also common for tofu to be marinated in a spicy sauce for several hours before being used in meal preparation. Ask your client if they include any meat at all. This might seem like an odd question to ask a vegetarian, but some people who refer to themselves as vegetarians will eat fish or certain types of poultry, so be sure to have your client specify what their preferences are. If you have a vegetarian client, find out what meat replacements they prefer. Also ask them what some of their favorite meatless dishes are. Many dishes that typically contain meat can be modified and made vegetarian relatively easily. For ideas, purchase a vegetarian cookbook and modify the recipes to suit your client's preferences, while adding your own flair as a chef. Vegan diets are a bit more challenging. Vegans do not eat any animal products at all, including dairy or eggs. Luckily, soy products are available to replace dairy products, and some of the same meat replacements used for vegetarian clients can also be used. One of the biggest challenges with a vegan diet is that so many store-bought foods now contain foods that are made from animal products, and sometimes we do not even realize it. If you are working with a vegan client, you must get into the habit of reading labels and being able to spot foods that contain animal products. If you are a vegetarian or vegan yourself, this is an excellent area of specialization for you. Foods can be high in flavor without containing meat or animal products. As a chef, it is also fun to use and bring out the natural flavors of foods. Most metropolitan areas have a vegetarian and vegan population and have natural, organic, and health food stores where you can find a variety of foods to use in cooking for this population. Diets and Weight Loss As a personal chef, you might encounter potential clients who wish to lose weight, but do not have the time or cooking savvy to create healthy dishes that will aid in weight loss. There are many diets out there. In fact, it seems like a new fad diet is being introduced almost daily. Diets include everything from low-fat to low-carb. If your client is trying to loose weight, but has no particular diet in mind, try simply cutting fat and calories in their meals without sacrificing flavor or nutrition. There are many low-fat products available that can substitute for full-fat items. If your customer has a particular diet they want to continue to follow, go over the diet with them. Find out what foods should be included and what types of foods they need to cut down on. If they are working with a doctor or dietician to lose weight, ask your client to share the dietary recommendations they have been given. Healthy, low-fat, low-calorie cooking that does not sacrifice flavor is always in demand. If you have a gift and a passion for cooking flavor filled dishes that are low in fat and calories, consider specializing. Your clients will certainly thank you, and tell all of their friends about your cooking, when the weight starts to come off. Another way to help your client with weight loss is to offer portion control. Measuring portions for your clients can help them cut down on their food and calorie intake without them even having to think about it. After all, the biggest advantage to hiring a personal chef is convenience. Table of Contents Chapter 9: Learning to Cater to Your Client's Personal Preferences Now that you have learned about working with your client's specialized dietary needs, let us explore the concept of considering your client's personal s and preferences. You will find that each client will have unique preferences and needs that will make it necessary to personalize the meals you provide to varying degrees. A successful personal chef is able to take their client's needs into consideration and produce a variety of meals that their clients will love. The first step is to get to know your client. Ask questions and make notes about your client's preferences. Another option is to make up a survey for your customer to fill out before the appointment. You will want to go over the questionnaire when you meet with the client and ask any additional questions that might arise. Although it will take a little extra time for your client to complete a survey or questionnaire, they should understand that you are making this request to help them receive the best possible service. You might want to explain this to your client during the first contact and let them know that periodic surveys might be requested to ensure the client's continued satisfaction. Here are some questions you will want to ask your client or include on your survey form: These questions will get you started. However, you will want to modify them and tailor them to your personal chef business. If you choose a specialization, you might want to create a questionnaire tailored to clients who are interested in your particular specialization. Now that you have gotten to know your client, you will want to keep the line of communication open so you can continue to deliver the foods they want. Feedback from the client is essential to keeping the customer happy and satisfied with your services. There is nothing more frustrating than losing a customer and not knowing what went wrong. However, some clients might feel uncomfortable approaching you with feedback or constructive criticism. Some might be afraid of offending you or afraid of confrontation. Others might not have time and figure one meal is not worth complaining about. As a chef, if you are not hearing any feedback from your clients, you will probably believe everything is fine and keep doing what you are doing, repeating the meal or practice your customer is not enjoying. Include a feedback form with each week's meals and collect it when you come back the following week to cook. Let your client know that you will be doing this and arrange for them to leave the feedback form in a specific spot to be collected. If you notice that your client is consistently not filling out the feedback forms, remind them that it will help you prepare meals that are more to their liking. Here are some sample questions to ask on your feedback forms: * • Were you satisfied with this week's meals? If not, what improvements would you like to see? * • Were you happy with the variety of food offered? If not, would you prefer more or less variety? * • Was the food too bland, too spicy, or just right? * • Did you find the ingredients used tasty and flavorful? * • Are there certain foods you particularly enjoyed or would like to see more of? * • Are the foods and portion sizes helping you meet your diet goals? What do you feel are some changes I can make to help you reach your goal? * • Were the meals provided easy to prepare and reheat? Are there changes I can make to make your preparation easier? * • On a scale from 1-5 (1 being "Not At All Satisfied" and 5 being "Completely Satisfied"), how would you rate the following? ◊ Overall meal quality ◊ Variety ◊ Degree of spiciness ◊ Packaging of food ◊ Ease of preparation ◊ Appropriateness for dietary requirements or restrictions ◊ Cleanliness ◊ Overall quality of service * • What comments or suggestions would you like to share? I look forward to receiving your feedback so that I can improve the services provided to you. After your first few weeks of working with a client, you might want to shorten this form to save them time. The longer comment form can still be used once every four to six months to re-evaluate and track the customer's overall satisfaction. Below is a sample of questions you will want to include on your simpler weekly customer comment card: * • Has the flavor been bland, too strong, or just right? * • Were the portions provided too big, too small, or just right? * • Were there any dishes included in this week's menu that you did not like? If so, which ones? In addition to these questions, and on any customer service form you provide, you will want to create a space for the date, the client's name, and comments. Feel free to include your own questions and structure your customer satisfaction survey any way you would like. The idea of giving your customers a means to communicate and give feedback is so that you can better serve them and retain their business. Even if you are using the feedback cards, it is still important to leave your contact information with your client so they can get in touch with you. You can purchase ready-made business cards, or make your own by buying blank, perforated business cards that you can feed through your computer's printer. As your business grows, you might want to look into having your name, business name, and contact information on refrigerator magnets to give to your clients. Although it might sometimes be difficult, try not to take your customers' comments personally. The comments received should be viewed as constructive criticism and are an opportunity for you to improve your business, retain current clients, and get new clients. Another way to cater to your clients' needs is to let them know they are appreciated. Send thank you notes for referrals, feedback, and for choosing to do business with you. Remember, everyone likes to know they are appreciated. Thanking your client and keeping the lines of communication open is essential to running a successful business. When a new client hires you on, consider presenting them with a welcome pack. The welcome pack can include a letter of thanks to the client, a biography page about you and how you started your personal chef business, a complete list of the services you provide, general tips for reheating food and storing leftovers, and any other items you think would be helpful to your new client. Your welcome packet can be as unique, elaborate, or as simple as you want it to be. Table of Contents Chapter 10: Customer Service and Satisfaction Now that we have talked about getting to know the customer and welcoming them to your personal chef business, let us talk a little about customer service. If you have worked in the food industry, or have served the public in any direct capacity, you know that difficult customers are everywhere. No matter how hard you try, you will inevitably have a customer who will not seem to be happy with your services no matter what you do. The first step is to try not to take it personally. Your clients are human and many of them will have chosen to hire you because they live busy or chaotic lifestyles. Although it can sometimes be hard to keep a cool head when a dissatisfied customer confronts you with a complaint or problem, it is essential to try to maintain a professional manner and avoid lashing out in anger. In this chapter, we will discuss some ways to try to keep your customers happy. We will also discuss some ways to effectively deal with the difficult customer without losing your cool. Creating a Customer Friendly Business As we discussed in the last section, getting to know your clients and their needs is the most important part of establishing your relationship with them. Each client you have will be unique and will undoubtedly have specific needs that will need to be addressed. Keeping an open line of communication is the first step to keeping your clients satisfied and happy. You will want to use comment cards weekly, and longer customer satisfaction surveys periodically to make sure the customer is satisfied with your work. When using these comment cards and customer feedback surveys, it is imperative that you address the client's concern immediately and follow up to make sure your customer was satisfied with the changes made. For example, your client has brought it to your attention that several of the dishes you prepared for them were a little too spicy for their taste. So, in cooking the next batch of meals, you focus on making the meals less spicy. Leave a thank you note for your client thanking them for their feedback and letting them know that you have tried to make the current batch of meals less spicy and more to their liking. Invite the customer to contact you by phone or e-mail to let you know whether the foods were to their liking. If you do not hear from the customer, do not assume that they were satisfied with your corrections. Contact them to follow up before completing their next batch of meals. As many people get a little tongue tied or simply do not know what to say when contacting clients, decide what you are going to say before picking up the phone. Your conversation can go something like this: You: Hello Mrs. Smith. This is (your name) from (your business name). How are you? Client: Good. Yourself? You: I am doing well, thank you. Just wanted to give you a call to follow up on the comment card you filled out last week. I tried to tone down the spiciness a bit. Were this week's dishes more to your liking? Client: Oh yes, they were much better. Thank you so much for addressing my concerns so quickly. I really appreciate how much you are helping us out. You: I am so glad to be of help to you and your family. Has everything else been satisfactory so far this week? Client: Yes. It has all been wonderful. I especially liked the lasagna. We just had that last night. You: Mrs. Smith, thank you so much for your time. Let me know if there is anything else I can change or make better for you in the future. Although you might find it difficult to pick up the phone and call customers at first, it will get easier with time and it is necessary to running a successful, customer-friendly business. The feedback forms will work well in providing ongoing good customer service and will certainly help you to troubleshoot problems before they become big enough to cause you to lose a customer. What if the client has a concern or need that needs to be addressed immediately. What if you find out a customer did not like a specific dish and you did not find out until you had made it for them several times? To address these problems in a more immediate and timely manner, set up an e-mail account specifically for customers to e-mail you with questions and concerns. E-mail is a quick and simple way for your customers to communicate with you. You must, however, understand that e-mailing prevents you and your customer from hearing each other's tone of voice or seeing each other's body language while talking. It is very important to monitor the tone of your e-mail and take care that your return messages will not be seen as harsh or angry. It is also important to take this into consideration when you are receiving e-mail from customers. You might feel like they are yelling at you or are very angry with you, when they simply might not have the best written communication skills. When using e-mail, use proper e-mail etiquette. Using all capitals or bold text is considered the same as yelling when you are writing an e-mail. Also, read your e-mails over to yourself a few times before hitting the send button. If you are wondering about any of it sounding too harsh or inappropriate, try to soften it. If you are still in doubt, asked a trusted friend or family member to read your e-mail. If you must do this, make sure that your customer's name is not showing on the copy you are sharing. It is important to protect your clients' privacy and right to confidentiality at all times. Since some of your clients might not be comfortable with e-mail, you will also want to establish a business phone line that clearly states your name and the name of your business on the voice mail. If you live alone, you might be able to use your main phone line for both business and personal use. It is, however, important to always have your business name on your voice-mail. If you have a family or roommates, you will need to establish a separate business line for customers only. This eliminates the possibility of your spouse, roommate, or children taking messages for you and forgetting to give them to you, as well as promoting customer confidentiality. It will also make your business appear more professional. If you cannot afford to run a separate phone line, some answering machines and voice-mail programs offer separate voice-mail boxes for multiple people. Keep in mind that this does not eliminate the possibility of messages left with family members being lost. It is ideal to make sure that all calls will come directly to you or your voice-mail. If you have a cell phone that you carry with you at all times, this may be the best number to provide to clients; all calls will go directly to you or your voice-mail. When using your cell phone as your business phone, make sure that your service provider and voice-mail service are reliable. You will also want to let your customer know you are on your cell phone in case the call is dropped or you temporarily lose service. Whether using a cell phone or private land line, get in the habit of answering your business line with your business name and first name. For example, "Culinary Creations, this is Jane. How can I help you?" Answering your calls this way is more professional and clearly lets your client, or potential client, know what business they have reached, whom they are speaking with, and lets them know you are ready to help them. Remember, you are a professional and must conduct yourself in a professional manner when answering calls or e-mails. When using e-mail or voice-mail, check messages often and try to answer your customers' calls and e-mails within one business day. If you are going to be out of town or unable to answer calls or e-mails for longer than that, try to let your clients know ahead of time that you are going out of town. If an emergency situation arises and you are unable to let your clients know you will be out of town or unavailable to take calls ahead of time, explain that you are out of the office and what day you will be returning so your client knows why it is taking longer than usual to get a return call. Clients do not like to feel as if they are being ignored. Not returning calls in a timely manner communicates to you client that you are not interested in their concern or do not feel that it is important. This is why it is so important to ensure that your voice-mail service is reliable and that your calls will not be intercepted or forgotten by an absent-minded child, spouse, or roommate. Most e-mail programs have an autoresponder system that can be set up. When you are going to be out of town, set up your autoresponder to let your clients know that you are out of the office and when you expect to return. Some autoresponders will have a general message that will read something like this: "Blank is out of the office January 5th-7th. He/she will be returning to the office on Wednesday, January 8th." If possible, set up your own personalized message on your autoresponder. This will personalize the message and will give your clients the information they will need about when they may expect your response. If possible, leave an emergency contact number when going out of town, but let your client know it is to be used for emergency purposes only. As a small business owner, you are entitled to take breaks and vacations. But, by being your own boss, and sole employee in some cases, you hold the sole responsibility for making your business work. Never wait to call your customer back because you are afraid of confrontation. You have probably had situations in your own personal business dealings when people have not called you back. When business calls are not returned, people are left feeling like they are unappreciated. This only makes the problem worse if they were angry to begin with. When a client becomes upset or unhappy with the way you have treated them or the way you have done business, one thing is for sure – they will tell their friends. Would you choose to do business with someone whom a friend had a bad experience with? You would probably not want to risk having a similar negative experience to the one your friend had. It will be the same for your customers. It is critical to your business to address issues and try to find a resolution as soon as possible. Most situations can be resolved if they are handled properly and in a timely manner. Providing opportunities for your clients to provide feedback, keeping the lines or communication open, and returning calls in a timely manner are all essential ingredients to setting up a customer-friendly business. What Do I Do When One of My Clients Ends Service? No matter how successful you are or how many people enjoy your food and your services, there will come a time when a client will decide to discontinue using your services. To a creative person such as a personal chef, this can seem like a huge ego blow. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to minimize the impact of a client's departure so that you do not let it distract you from your career goals and your work. The first thing to remember when a customer decides to end their business agreement with you is not to take it personally. Your clients might choose to end service for any number of reasons. Most of the time, the reason has nothing to do with you. This is especially true if your client has been filling out their comment cards consistently and has never indicated that they have had any problem with their service. When your client informs you that they are canceling their service, politely respond, "I am sorry to hear that. I will really miss working with you. Is their anything I can do to change your mind?" Responding in this manner lets your client know that you have enjoyed working with them and probes them for information on why they are canceling their contract. It also shows that you are willing to work with them to resolve any issue they might have with your services. You do not want the customer to leave unhappy with your services when a resolution could have been reached. Sometimes customers are afraid to tell you they are unhappy for fear that of confrontation or because they are afraid they will hurt your feelings. While it is impossible to please everyone all the time, it is important to do the best you can to leave things on as good of terms as possible. Do the best you can to make things right and move on. If the customer refuses to try to resolve any issues, know that you have done the best you could and let it go. Most of you customers will probably cancel because their lifestyle has changed and they do not need, or cannot afford, the services of a personal chef any longer. Others will leave due to relocation to another city, marriage, divorce, or a new job. In these situations, thank the client for allowing you to work with them and let them know that they can come back to you in the future if the need for a personal chef should ever arise again. Leave copies of your card with them and tell them that if they know anyone who needs a personal chef, to send them your way. After all, word of mouth and referrals will probably prove to be your least expensive and most effective ways to gain clients. Customer Service Do's and Don'ts Now that we have talked about opening up lines of communication for customers and how to properly respond when a customer cancels service, we will look at basic customer service and some specific things to do – and what not to do – when working with customers. You might be thinking that as long as you are an excellent chef and deliver what your customer asked for, you will not have to worry about irate or dissatisfied customers. However, you will find that excellent customer service skills are just as important to your business as the food you cook and the advertising and marketing you handle. Then there is the difficult customer. If you have worked with the public at all, you have probably encountered a few in your time. For those of you who have never encountered a difficult customer, get ready, because you are bound to run across one as a business owner. Difficult customers are the customers who never seem to be satisfied, no matter what. They do not always yell, but are somehow able to make you feel like you are about two inches tall. As with any customer, try not to take it personally. Some difficult customers do not even realize they are being difficult. They seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that they have made a hurtful comment or have made anyone feel bad. This type of difficult customer has simply never learned to communicate effectively or use tact when communicating with others. This is not to say that you should ignore them or not take their suggestions seriously. As with any customer, their feelings and opinions count. Try not to become angry or defensive. Politely ask them what they would like for you to change and handle it like you would with any other customer. Try to remember that this is simply the way this person is and how they communicate. It has nothing to do with you or what this person thinks of you. They simply have never learned to get their point across properly and effectively. Another type of difficult customer you might encounter is the explosive customer. With this type of customer, everything in their life is wrong all the time. They thrive on conflict and drama and do not seem to know how to communicate without yelling or becoming abrasive. Again, do not take it personally. With this type of customer, something has to be wrong all the time or they are not happy. If they lash out at you, you are probably simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and have stepped into their line of fire. Never yell back at this, or any other customer. Yelling back will only create a more volatile situation and will make coming to a resolution less possible. Instead, step back and be the bigger person. Respond to them in a calm and soft tone. Let them know that you are sorry they are upset and that you will do anything that you can to resolve the situation. If they simply refuse to calm down and continue to yell, scream, and use foul language with you and you cannot get a word in edgewise, end the conversation. Do this as politely as possible. If you are on the phone with the person, do not simply hang up. Tell them that you are sorry they are upset and that you are trying to help them. Tell them that you can tell that they are very angry and you would prefer to discuss this with them later. Please note, this tactic should be used as a last resort. Whenever possible, try to resolve the problem with the customer as soon as possible. Never simply hang up on them or yell back at them. Only ask to discuss the situation with them later if they are yelling, using foul language, or are acting so unreasonably that nothing you are saying is getting through, or you are not having any luck calming them down and the situation is continuing to escalate. A third type of difficult customer is the customer that can never seem to tell you what is wrong. This type of customer is usually very calm and can politely tell you they did not like the food that you prepared the following week, but cannot seem to tell you why. They only give you vague response like, "Something was just not right, " or, "That dish just had a strange taste to it." With this type of customer, take care not to sound defensive. Begin asking questions in an attempt to pinpoint what the customer did not like about the dish or dishes that you prepared. Ask them if the food seemed too spicy or too bland or if there is a certain spice you used that they do not like or do not normally use. If you still cannot seem to get an idea of what the customer did not like, go back to your original survey and review it with the customer. If possible, go over the recipes you used and see if there is a common ingredient that was in the dishes the customer did not like. If you still cannot pinpoint the problem, experiment with some new things on the next batch of dishes and see if the customer finds them more to their liking. Keep a close eye on what spices and herbs you use so you will quickly be able to identify whether there is a common ingredient or group of ingredients in the dishes that your customer is not satisfied with. Another type of difficult customer that you may encounter is the one who never says they are dissatisfied, but you can tell there is something wrong by the way they are acting. This type of customer is afraid to speak up for fear that they will hurt your feelings. They rationalize that it was only one dish, or that they were still able to eat it and that it simply was not that big of a deal. This type of customer is the one who will remain silent about the problem and will eventually cancel service because they are unhappy, even though they have not given you an opportunity to find a resolution to the problem. In dealing with this type of customer, do everything you can to make sure the lines of communication are open and encourage them to bring concerns to your attention. You do not, however, want to bombard them. Leave an extra note with their weekly feedback card telling them that you are always looking for ways to improve service to your clients and encourage them to make suggestions for things you can do to improve your service. Remember, you cannot force your clients to respond to your attempts to provide them with the best service and meal quality possible; but, you will know that you have tried you best to go the extra mile to make your client happy, despite their response, or lack of one. Here are some customer service Do's and Do Not's that can be used for any customer, even the most difficult ones: * • Do make sure that you have a way for your customer to contact you at all times. Nothing is more frustrating than employing someone to provide a service for you and not being able to get in touch with them after the ink dries on the contract. Remember, in your line of work, you might rarely get the opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation with your clients. Therefore, you will need to go the extra mile to make sure they know you are there to address any concerns they might have. * • Do Not take criticism or an irate customer personally. Often times, your clients are going to be very busy people. If they are having a bad day or things are not going well for them, they might take it out on you. Do respond to them in a calm and professional manner and let them know you are willing to work with them to resolve whatever issue they have with your services. * • Do offer resolutions to client concerns and try to reach an agreement with clients when they are dissatisfied with food or service. * • Do return phone calls and answer correspondence as quickly as possible. Your clients want to be treated with courtesy and respect and will expect you to address their concerns in a timely manner. Calls should be returned, and e-mails should be answered, the same day they are received, if at all possible. * • Do Not put off calling a customer because you are afraid of a confrontation. The longer your customer waits to hear from you, the angrier they will get. Do be prepared to provide resolutions or suggestions to help resolve their problem. * • Do Not hang up on a customer if they become irate on the phone. Instead, ask them if it would be better to discuss their problem later. Let them know that you will do your best to resolve their issue, but you cannot help them if they are yelling at you and using foul language. * • Do Not yell back at your customer. Yelling or trying to talk over your customer will only make them angrier and will result in an even more volatile situation. Do respond to your customer in a calm, soothing tone and try to calm them down so you can get to the root of the problem. Most customer complaints can be resolved favorably if they are handled quickly and calmly. * • Do know when it is time to end a relationship with a client or let a client go. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, there will be people who you will not be able to satisfy. Everyone is different and sometimes personalities clash. Do Not take it personally if you cannot resolve an issue with a customer. As long as you have done everything possible to try to make the customer happy and resolve the issue, know that you have done the right thing. * • Do try to leave things on as positive a note as you possibly can. Do Not become angry with a customer for canceling your service, or quit doing the best job possible because you know you will not be working with them much longer. * • Do get to know your customer when you begin service with them. Have them fill out a survey or interview them to determine their likes and dislikes. * • Do leave your customer a comment card with each batch of meals. This will encourage your customers to leave feedback and let you know immediately if they are dissatisfied with a meal or batch of meals. Do review the feedback forms and try to resolve problems as quickly as possible. * • Do follow up with customers and make sure that any changes you made were satisfactory. This will show your client that you are listening to what they want and trying to provide them with the best possible service. * • Do Not shrug off or ignore feedback left on a comment card because you see it as being small or unimportant. If it was not important to your customer, they would not have bothered to make note of it. * • Do Not assume that since you are not getting any feedback from a customer, they are completely satisfied with your service. Some customers might be afraid to give feedback for fear that they will make you angry or hurt your feelings. If a customer is consistently not providing feedback, do encourage them to do so. * • Do remember that excellent customer service is essential to running a successful business. What people in the community are saying about your business plays a huge factor in whether or not you will be successful. * • Do ask customers why they are leaving and if there was anything you could have done better, when they end services. * • Do know that the customer is always right in their own mind. If the customer is unhappy, it is up to you to address the problem and try to handle it in the most professional way possible. * • Do Not become defensive or argumentative when a customer leaves negative feedback or asks you to change something, whether you agree with them or not. Becoming defensive will send the message that your customers cannot be open and honest with you. * • Do treat customers the way you would want to be treated. Can you remember times when you experienced excellent customer service? How did that make you feel? Undoubtedly a lot better than the way you felt when you think back to poor customer service experiences that you have had. You have probably had situations where you have chosen never to do business with a certain business again, simply because their customer service was poor. Keep in mind that it will be the same for your clients. Turning Unhappy Customers into Happy Customers As you have probably already determined, the ideal situation in solving a customer complaint is to find a resolution that will transform the unhappy customer into a happy customer. In this section, we will look at ways to help the unhappy customer leave the table happy. It is inevitable that you will have customers who will not be completely satisfied with your services. We have already discussed the do's and do not's of customer service. Now let us look at the customer service process from start to finish by using some different examples. Case One: You have just completed your first set of dishes for a new customer and already they have contacted you to let you know that their first meal was extremely bland and was not to their liking at all. You are a bit taken aback, because they indicated in their initial interview that they did not care for spicy foods at all. You are also a little surprised that they have contacted you after trying only one meal. They are being polite about it, but you can tell that they are very upset their first meal was such a disappointment. You are disappointed as well, afraid that you may lose the customers and also feeling that you are not going to be able to please them. So, what will you do? How will you respond to transform them from unhappy to a happy customer? In this situation, you can offer the client two options and let them choose the option that will work best for them. You can suggest that they try a couple more meals and see if they are more to their liking. Perhaps it was just the particular dish that they chose for their first meal. If they do not like the second meal that they try, offer to provide replacement meals for the remainder of the week. If they find that option completely unacceptable, offer to provide replacement meals for the remainder of the week. You will want to be careful with offering this option, however. Providing replacement meals might keep the customer happy and retain the business for you, but providing replacement meals is expensive for you as the money for the replacement meals will come out of your pocket. If a customer is continuously asking for replacement meals because they are unhappy with the way the meals have been prepared, consider parting ways with that client. Case Two: A long-time customer of yours has started to act strangely with you. They have quit filling out their comment cards. You have left reminder notes and have sent a couple of e-mails asking if they were still satisfied with the meals and service you have been providing. You have also suggested meeting face to face to talk about how you can better serve them. Your client has so far ignored all of your notes and e-mails and has still not been filling out comment cards. In the past, you have had good communication with this customer and they have always willingly offered feedback. You fear that they are no longer happy with your services and are about to leave. You know that you need to open up the lines of communication with this customer as soon as possible. What will be your next step to get your customer to open up to you? How can you turn this unhappy customer into a happy customer? Notes and e-mails have been ineffective in reaching out to this customer. It is time to make a phone call. You will want to be sure to have some idea of what to say to your customer before picking up the phone. Open your discussion in a light and friendly, yet professional, manner. Ask them how they are doing, then shift the conversation to the purpose of your call. Let them know that you are concerned that you have not been receiving feedback from them and just wanted to make sure they were completely happy with your service. It is possible that the customer will let you know that they have just been busy and that they simply have not had time to respond to your notes or e-mails. But, if there is a problem, offer to meet with the customer in person or ask them for suggestions on changes that can be made to better suit them. Remember, if the customer does decide to end services, do not take it personally. You will have made every effort possible to work with the customer to resolve the problem. Case Three: You have been working with a customer for about six months. They have always provided you with feedback and have always seemed completely satisfied with your meals and your service. You arrive at the client's home on Wednesday, your regular day to cook for them, and instead of a completed comment card for the previous week's meals, you find a note notifying you that they will no longer be requiring your services as of the end of the month. You are shocked. These clients have always seemed pleased with your services and you are surprised and a hurt that they are canceling service. You proceed to cook the meals for that week and take even greater care to get everything just right. What you do next? What will you do to make sure you leave the relationship with this customer on the best terms possible? In this situation, it is probably hard not to take it personally, but that is what you must do. Try to get in touch with the customer, preferably by phone, immediately. As with any call to an unhappy customer, be calm and professional in your approach. Avoid getting defensive or angry. Calmly let them know that you received their notice. Let them know that you are sorry to see them go and ask if there was anything you could have done better. In a situation like this, where the customer has been satisfied with your services all along, they might be leaving for reasons totally unrelated to you. Having a personal chef is an extra expense in a family's budget. Job changes or loss, a reduction in hours or overtime at work, divorce, and relocation are all possible reasons that a customer might need to end their service with you. When dealing with this type of situation, try not to jump to conclusions or automatically assume the worst. If your customer is leaving because they are unsatisfied with your service, see whether they are willing to sit down with you and evaluate what it is that is making them happy. Offer to make changes and see whether they will agree to give you a chance to modify their dishes before they cancel the contract. One important thing to keep in mind is that some clients do need to go. If you have had repeated complaints with the client and have done every possible thing you can to resolve their issues and they still are not happy, it might be best to let them leave. As you have seen from the cases listed above, when you practice excellent customer service, it is often possible to transform an unhappy client into a happy one. One thing that cannot be stressed enough is that you should never take criticism from a client personally. Always conduct yourself in a calm, professional manner and never become defensive with the client. Asking for Referrals As long as you and your client part ways on good terms, it is perfectly acceptable to ask your client for referrals. If you client no longer wishes to use your services because of a change in his or her personal circumstances, he or she will most likely be happy to refer additional clients to you. Chances are, your client feels bad about taking away from your business, and will be eager to provide other clients who will benefit from your personal chef services. You can approach this in a number of ways. When you have your final conversation with your client, let him or her know that you have enjoyed working with them and are open to providing personal chef services if your client's circumstances ever change. Let your client know that his or her business was valuable to you, and ask whether there are any friends, family members, or coworkers who might benefit from your services. If possible, give your client a schedule of your available openings so he or she can pass this information along to other people who might be interested in hiring a personal chef to meet their family's needs. You can also provide your client with a referral packet, which contains a sample menu, a number of business cards, and any other promotional materials that you would ordinarily use to attract new clients. This makes it easy for your client to refer other clients to you, because your referral packet will provide your prospective client with all the information he or she needs to make the decision to contact you to engage your services. Your former client will not have to "sell" others on your services, so they will be much more willing to mention your business to family, friends, and coworkers than if you expected your former client to actively promote your business. Another way to gain referrals from your previous clients is to periodically mail or e-mail promotional materials to them. Let your previous clients know that, in appreciation for their past business, you would like to offer a discount to any friends or family members who might like to try your services. Emphasize that you are doing this as a personal favor to your former client; this will make that person more inclined to find someone else to replace the business he or she once provided to you. By staying in contact with your former clients, you not only give yourself the opportunity to gain referrals from them, you also have the opportunity to get them back at some point in the future. You never know when a former client's circumstances will change, and they will once again require the services of a personal chef. If that happens, you want to make sure that your former client remembers to contact you, instead of contacting a competing personal chef. As a business owner, you will spend quite plenty of time and energy attracting new clients for your personal chef business. Obtaining referrals and enticing former clients to resume using your services takes substantially less time and energy than finding new clients, so it is worth the energy to stay in contact with the people who have already used and enjoyed your services. Of course, you do not want to continue sending promotional materials, incentives, and referral requests to former clients who never respond or send you referrals. You have to decide on a point when your time and effort is being wasted and redirect those resources to finding new clients or providing enhanced services for existing clients. Deciding on that point is partially a matter of personal preference, and partially a matter of business economics. If you think sending materials or otherwise contacting an unresponsive former client is an ineffective use of your resources after two or three months, stop contacting that client and focus instead on finding new clients. As far as business economy is concerned, take a look at the resources that are required to find, attract, and secure a brand new client. These resources include the time you spend on marketing, advertising, and networking; the money you spend on various marketing materials; and the labor hours used to get that client to try out your services and commit to a contract with you. Once you have spent an equal amount of resources trying to get a client back or obtain referrals from that client, you can safely assume that your time, effort, and money would better be spent elsewhere. Do not feel like you have to spend years trying to get back a former client or trying to obtain a referral from that client to fulfill some need for validation. Your pride can cause you to spend more time, energy, and money than necessary to try to get back a client who has discontinued using your services. No one wants to lose a client, but letting your pride get in the way can cut into your profits, your leisure time, and even your ability to focus on your career. Make a concerted effort to use your former client contacts, but do it without a sense of attachment to the outcome. If your efforts are not yielding any measurable results, then it might be time to move on. Now that you have learned about how to properly communicate with your customers to adequately meet their needs and retain a long-term client base, and how to handle clients who choose to suspend using your services for one reason or another, let us move on to another important element of your business – pricing. Table of Contents Chapter 11: What Should You Charge? Determining how much you should charge for your personal chef services can be a challenging exercise, particularly if you are just starting out in the business. However, taking the time to determine appropriate pricing is critical to the success of your personal chef venture. This chapter will help you choose the pricing structure that will allow you to make a sufficient profit from your services, while making sure that potential and current clients can afford to start or continue using your services. Unfortunately, there is no easy to determine how much you should charge for your personal chef services. If there was an easy answer, every personal chef would charge the exact same prices, leaving limited room for true competition. You will need to spend some time analyzing your business to arrive at your own pricing structure. According to the U.S. Personal Chef Association, the average price for personal chef services in the U.S. is $15 to $18 per meal. Of course, this amount varies according the area of the U.S., the demand for personal chef services in a particular area, and the number of chefs serving a particular area. It is fine to use this as a basis for developing your pricing, but you might be missing opportunities in the personal chef market if you simply adopt an average pricing structure based on these numbers. To determine the correct prices you should charge for your personal chef services, you will need to consider a number of factors that will affect how much you will need to make a profit, and how much the market in your area is willing to pay for your services. Arriving at an appropriate fee structure is a balancing act that takes into account your needs and the needs of your customers. There are five primary elements to an appropriate pricing structure: * • The total amount of overhead and other expenses you will incur while operating your personal chef business * • Your credentials, experience, and level of expertise in the personal chef industry * • The specialty services you offer to clients * • The level of competition in your area * • The demand for personal chef services in your area Each of these elements must be thoroughly analyzed and weighed against the others to determine the prices you should charge for your personal chef services. Overhead and Other Expenses The first element you should consider when developing your pricing structure is the amount of money you will spend for overhead and other expenses while operating your business. If you have completed your business plan as described in Chapter 3, you should already have a good projection of how much you will spend to promote and run your business. It is important to understand that in the first years of your business, you might not be operating at a profit – that is, you will be using some of your saved and borrowed money to get the business off the ground, attract your first customers, and establish a client base that will become the core of your business. Many business owners tend to overprice their services based on initial overhead and other expenses, assuming that they will be able to show a profit during their first year in business. The unfortunate result is that these business owners are unable to attract enough clients who are willing to pay high prices for services provided by a novice business owner. Instead, you should factor expenses into your pricing by dividing your expenses into two broad categories – those required to start and build your business and those that will be incurred on a day-to-day basis. Expenses Required to Start and Build Your Business Expenses incurred while starting and building your business include equipment purchases, vehicle loans or leases, and initial advertising, promotions, and discounts. These expenses will be high when you begin your personal chef venture, but will decrease significantly as your business gains momentum and you attract more and more long term clients. For example, at the onset, you will have to purchase a great deal of equipment – pots, pans, cooking ovens, kitchen appliances, and so on. As you begin to attract clients, you will probably find that additional equipment is needed to cater to your clients' individual tastes and needs. However, as you build your client base, you will find that equipment purchases become more infrequent. You will need to replace some of your equipment from time to time, but your overall costs will decrease dramatically after you have been in business for a year or two. Likewise, advertising and promotional costs will be high during the first year of your personal chef business because you will want to quickly attract quality clients. As you become well known in your service area, you can decrease your expenditures for marketing materials, radio and television advertisements, and promotional activities. Recurring Expenses Recurring expenses include the cost of purchasing ingredients and containers for the meals you prepare, the salaries of you and your employees, the rent or lease of your cooking or food storage space (if you prepare your meals or store ingredients somewhere other than the clients' homes), fuel costs for delivering meals to clients, and maintenance expenses for your delivery vehicles and large kitchen appliances. These expenses will typically increase as you take on more clients and build your business, so there is a direct correlation between the size of your business and your recurring expenses. When calculating the overall expenses for the purpose of determining pricing, you should determine the total "business building" expenses over a certain period of time (usually three to five years) and divide that amount over the number of units you anticipate selling during the same time period. For example, if your total equipment, vehicle purchase, and advertising costs over the first three years of your business will be $30,000, and you project selling 15,000 meals over those three years, you would want to factor $2 for equipment costs into the price of each meal. Because recurring expenses are directly related to the number of meals you sell, they are much easier to calculate when determining your pricing. If you have determined that you will spend $90,000 on ingredients, salaries, packaging, fuel, and maintenance costs to produce and deliver 15,000 meals over a three-year period, you will want to factor $6 into the price of each meal you prepare and deliver to a client. Using the above examples, your total costs for producing 15,000 meals would be $120,000, or $8 per meal. Of course, if you offer certain types of meals that require expensive ingredients or significant preparation time, you will want to price those meals accordingly. For example, some types of regional and ethnic cuisines call for ingredients that are expensive and difficult to find – you might have to travel across town to a specialty store to purchase garam masala for Indian dishes, or to buy saffron for Exotic French meals. Since these ingredients are typically only available through specialty retailers, you may have to pay premium prices for these items. Thus, you may find that you need to consider $10 or $12 in recurring expenses for these types of meals. Credentials, Level of Expertise, and Experience The second factor you should consider when determining the prices you will charge for your services is your professional credentials. If you are able to demonstrate that you have professional credentials, a high level of expertise in the personal chef field, and significant experience serving clients, you will be able to command higher prices than if you are starting your business with no significant training or experience. For example, if you have obtained a professional diploma through the Culinary Business Academy and are an accredited member of the U.S. Personal Chef Association, your potential clients will see you as a person with a high level of expertise in the personal chef business and will feel comfortable paying higher prices for your services. These credentials let your clients know that you are dedicated to the personal chef profession, and that you are able to provide top quality service to meet their individual needs. Likewise, any degrees or certifications you have received through a traditional culinary academy or business school will allow you to charge higher fees for your personal chef services. Specialty Services If you offer specialty services to your clients that are not available through other personal chefs in your area, you might be able to command premium prices for your personal chef services. For example, suppose there is a large community of vegetarians in your service area, but there are no personal chefs that offer vegetarian cuisine. If you are a vegetarian, or take the time to develop expertise in creating fine vegetarian dishes, you could specialize in this type of cuisine and set your prices as high as the market will bear. Your clients will appreciate that you understand the nuances of vegetarian cuisine, and will be willing to pay premium prices for the meals you provide. You will not have to worry about having your prices undercut by your competition, because the other personal chefs in your area will not be able to provide the same specialty services that you offer your clients. This holds true for any other specialty service that is in demand in your area, such as kosher meals, regional and ethnic cuisines, and meals created with medical dietary restrictions in mind. Providing specialty services gives you the ability to set yourself apart from your competition and allows you to command higher prices by focusing on a specific niche market within your local customer base. Competition in Your Area You should also consider the overall level of competition in your service area when determining your pricing. Unless you are exclusively offering specialty services, such as cuisines not offered by other personal chefs in your area, you will have to align your pricing with the other chefs serving your geographic market. Even if you do exclusively provide specialty services, you will need to be aware of what other personal chefs in your area are charging because this will give you an idea of what the market in your area will bear. If there is intense competition among personal chefs in your area, the overall prices that you will be able to charge for your personal chef services will be lower than in an area where there are few personal chefs competing for the same business. Demand in Your Area The final factor you will need to consider when developing a pricing structure for your personal chef services is the level of demand for personal chefs in your area. Do not assume that because there are few other personal chefs operating in an area, you will be able to charge high prices for your services. You might find that the lack of personal chefs is due to a low demand for personal chef services. Take the time to analyze the demographic factors of your service area when you are considering demand. How many households in the area are comprised of two working adults? What is the average household income in your area? How busy are the other personal chefs that service the same area? Finding the answers to these questions will help you determine whether you have found a relatively untapped market that will bear premium prices for personal chef services, or whether you will be working in an area where demand is low, and you will have to set your prices accordingly. Developing Fees for Your Personal Chef Services Once you have arrived at an optimal cost per meal, you will need to consider how you will package your services in a way that clients can afford your services, and that you can build a profitable business without constantly having to search for new customers. Most personal chefs price their services in weekly or monthly packages, rather than by the individual meal. This helps reduce the time and expenses involved in constantly finding new clients. Imagine how much of your time would be spent finding and attracting new business if each client only purchased one meal from you. If you have determined that the optimal price for each meal is $15, you could set up several plans for your clients to choose from: * • For those clients who will only need your services on an intermittent basis, you could offer a 20-meal package – this would allow a family of four to have ready to heat meals for an entire work week for $300. This could be a good package to offer for clients who only have occasional busy times when going to the grocery and preparing meals would be difficult – for example, when they are preparing for a vacation, getting ready for the holidays, or when one of the family members will be away on a business trip. * • For clients who will need your personal chef services on a more frequent basis, you could offer an 80-meal package, which would free a family of four from the task of preparing weekday meals for an entire month. Using a pricing structure of $15 per meal, you could offer this package for $1,200 per month. When you factor in the cost of purchasing groceries and the time required to prepare meals during the work week, this package could represent a significant value for your busier clients. * • You could also offer a package for clients who will need your services for a party, reunion, or other one-time event. You could use the same pricing per meal that you use for your other packages. You may also want to add an hourly fee for this type of service, since the client will probably want you to be available for the duration of the event to prepare and serve the meals, rather than simply preparing the meals for storage in your client's refrigerator or freezer. Personal chefs typically charge between $35 and $50 per hour on top of per-meal charges for special events. There are other types of packages you can offer, depending on the types of personal chef services needed by people in your area. You can find out from existing and prospective clients what types of packages they would like to see offered, and then price these packages accordingly. Now, let us move on to the next chapter, where we will explore some of the challenges you will encounter when transitioning from a full-time job to a full-time personal chef business. Table of Contents Chapter 12: Preparing for the Financial Responsibilities of Being Self-Employed The first step to building a successful business is to evaluate and organize your personal finances. Today's society makes it easy for people to overextend themselves with the constant credit card and loan offers that are likely delivered to your mailbox and e-mail inbox daily. Credit cards and loans can provide you with the ability to purchase the things you need more quickly, but it is important to remember that credit cards and loans need to be paid back. In the meantime, they are accruing interest, placing you in debt, and damaging your credit score. In the long run, you will end up paying more for the items you purchased in this manner or might be forced into bankruptcy. Leaving Your Current Job to Enter the World of the Business Owner The first thing you will need to do is be realistic. In most cases, owning your own business gives you increased earning potential in the long run. However, it takes time and money to build a business. This is not to say that it is impossible, but you will most likely have more success if you take the time to prepare and get your personal finances in order. Armed with your vision and business plan for a successful and profitable personal chef business, you might be thinking that you can finally leave your day job and pursue the career of your dreams, but, it could take you awhile to build up enough clientele to make the same income that you are getting from your current employer. You will still need to be able to pay your bills while you are growing your business. Even if you have a spouse or family member who is bringing in income, chances are that you will be required to bring in a certain amount of money in order to keep up with your family's monthly bills and expenditures. The first thing you will need to do is discuss your financial situation and the affect you leaving your current job will have on your finances. Any reduction in income will not only affect you, but your spouse and children as well. Your entire family will need to make adjustments in their lives and expenditures while you are building your business. Loss or reduction of income, even if it is only temporary, can cause stress on your family. It is important to listen to your family's feelings about your decision to leave your current job, and steady paycheck, to pursue your dream. It is also important to let your family know that you appreciate their efforts to support you while you are building your business. One way to ensure that you can afford to support yourself and avoid falling on hard times while building your business is to set aside six months worth of income before quitting your job and pursuing your business full-time. For example, if you bring home $2000 a month from your current job, you will want to save $12,000 before you leave your current job. You might be thinking that it will take too long to save that kind of money out of your current monthly budget. As we discussed earlier, you can include this money in a small business loan. However, you must keep in mind that the money will eventually need to be paid back, usually with interest. Another way to save back enough money to support your self and your family while building your business is to get a part-time or seasonal job. It is true that taking on a second job will take more hours out of your day, but it will help you save up money faster and will help you avoid getting into more financial debt than you can handle while you are building your business. Your part-time job could even be your personal chef business. Building your business part-time will help you avoid the financial hardship of leaving your current day job to build your business. Another advantage is that you will not have to wait to start pursuing the career that you have dreamed about. Perhaps you want to start your personal chef business immediately, but do not feel that you can focus on it enough if you are only working on it part-time. In this case, you might want to consider speaking with your current employer about going part-time at your current job while you are working full-time to build your business. If it is not possible to cut your hours at your current job, or if your current job is so stressful and draining that it is impossible to stay there while focusing on your new career, consider finding a part-time job that will provide you with as much flexibility and as little stress as possible while you are working toward your goal of becoming a full-time personal chef. When pursuing part-time employment, you will want to first determine how many hours you will need to work to keep enough income coming in. You will also need to determine how many hours you need to put into building your personal chef business. When looking for a part-time employer, make sure they will be able to give you the pay and the hours you will need before leaving your full-time job. As with your overall financial considerations, you will want to discuss this move with your family. You will most likely be spending more hours working between your part-time job and personal chef business as you are marketing and taking on new clients. Another consideration to make while getting your personal finances in order is your personal debt and monthly expenditures. Are their ways to cut back on your monthly spending that will help you free up more money while you are building your business? For example, perhaps you are paying for an extended cable package monthly when you and you family very rarely watch television. In this case, consider shutting off the cable for awhile or downgrading to a less expensive package. This is only one example of how you can cut back on your monthly expenditures. Evaluate your monthly expenses and see what you are spending your money on, then look for ways that you can cut back or save money. For many, this might seem like a daunting task. Remind yourself that it will not be forever and that making small sacrifices now will help you reach your goal of owning your own personal chef business faster and with less debt. Perhaps you have credit card debt that is creating extra bills in your monthly budget. You will need to dedicate yourself to paying off this debt as soon as possible. Consider using the money you have freed up by eliminating unneeded expenses toward paying off your debt one month at a time. You will also want to look for low interest cards to transfer your higher interest rate cards too. Cutting down on your interest rate will help you pay off your balance faster and save money. Once you have paid off this debt, you will have more money available in your monthly budget. Benefits and Insurance Another concern you and your family might have about making the transition into the world of the self-employed business owner is the loss of benefits. Perhaps you have been at you current job for awhile and carry the health benefits for your family. You might also be financing your retirement by paying into a 401K plan. Now you are not only giving up a steady paycheck, but the piece of mind that you are properly paying for retirement. You also know that if you or your family gets sick, you have insurance available to help with medical costs. Many employers also provide disability and life insurance for their employees. Now that you are your own employer, you will be responsible for providing these things for yourself. Facing such a responsibility is enough to make some potential small business owners rethink their decision to start their own business. However, planning and knowing what programs are available for small business owners, can help make your transition to the world of the self employed much smoother than you would imagine. If you have been paying into a 401K plan, it can easily be rolled into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The money that you move from your 401K is not taxable and you can invest up to 20 percent of your net income per year. The best news is that all funds paid into your IRA are tax deductible. You can set up an IRA by checking with your current insurance agent or by finding an insurance agent who specializes in investment programs. Most IRA programs will allow you to invest on a monthly or yearly basis. Another option that you might want to consider is an Individual 401K. This 401K plan will have most of the same benefits as the 401K plan that you carried with your employer. This plan will allow for a greater annual contribution than an IRA and all of your contributions are tax deductible. Individual 401K plans do not require you to invest a set amount per year and you will also have the option of skipping years. This plan is for business owners who do not have any employees. These are only a couple of options that are available to you as a small business owner. The important thing to remember is that these plans are out there and you will have options for retirement planning. You can find out more about the options that are available by contacting your insurance agent or a financial planner. You also have options available to you for health insurance, especially if you are healthy. If you work with a company with 20 or more employees, the company is required to provide you with 18 months of continued health insurance coverage after termination of your employment. This is a government regulation known as COBRA. As long at you apply for individual coverage within two months of your 18 month COBRA period, you cannot be refused individual health coverage. Dental and vision plans can also be purchased to help with expenses in those areas. However, some exclusions may apply for pre-existing conditions. If you or a family member who will be covered on the plan has a serious medical condition, you should check with your insurance agent to see whether hospitalization or treatment for that condition will be excluded on an individual health plan. If so, you might want to see if there is a professional or business association in your area that has a group plan available for members. Group insurance has different rules and regulations and might be your only option to get yourself or your family member's condition covered on a health plan. Another insurance coverage you will want to pick up when becoming self employed is disability coverage. A disability policy will provide you with income if you are unable to work due to becoming disabled. This is valuable coverage and you will want to be sure to start looking for a disability insurer before leaving your job, as most insurers will want self employed individuals to have a steady income for a set amount of months before they will qualify for disability coverage. Life insurance is also very important to the self-employed business owner. No one wants to think about their own death, but it is crucial to have a plan in place for surviving family members if you pass away. Life insurance can be purchased for varying amounts, and there are a wide variety of plans out there. The most important thing to consider is how much money your family will need to maintain their current means in the event of your death. Talk to your insurance agent to find out what options are best for you. Table of Contents Chapter 13: Marketing Your Personal Chef Services Throughout this book, you have learned about many aspects of setting up your personal chef business. You have learned how to write an effective business plan, how to choose the equipment you will need to provide superior meals for your clients, how to deal with customer service issues that will occur during the course of your business, and how to set your prices to attract quality clients and build a profitable business. Now, let us turn to the topic of marketing, where you will learn many effective ways to promote your business so that your venture can continue to grow while you are busy preparing meals for existing clients. In this chapter, you will find out how to use the Internet, print materials, and word of mouth to build a successful and profitable personal chef business. This chapter will begin with Internet marketing, which many personal chefs use to successfully build a client base. Do not worry – even if you have never built a Web page or written a blog before, this chapter will show you how to set up an Internet marketing strategy to effectively attract clients. Internet Marketing: Bringing your Business to the Web Because personal chefs typically operate in a limited geographic area, they often do not consider the Internet to be of significant importance when building their businesses. However, even with a local business like personal chef services, the Internet can be a very important tool. You can use an Internet presence to gain customer interest, educate potential clients about the benefits of using a personal chef, and convince people to use your services. Building Your Web site: Your Online Business Card One of the most important aspects of online marketing is the Web site. Your Web site is your business card, brochure, and billboard all rolled into one. It will tell your Web site visitors about the types of services you offer, get them excited about having a personal chef prepare meals for them, and give them an opportunity to contact you to ask questions, make suggestions, or request a consultation for service. Even though most of your clients will live and work in a small geographic area, people who are interested in your services will still want to visit your Web site to learn about the types of meals you provide, the rates you charge for your services, and your experience as a personal chef. People want to gather as much information as possible before contacting a professional to obtain a service, and your Web site can give visitors all the information they need to make the decision to hire you. Building a Web site can seem like a daunting task, especially if you have never created one before. Fortunately, there are a number of tools that can help you quickly and easily create a Web site that will attract clients and persuade them to contact you to inquire about your services. Creating a Web site for a personal chef business is easier than creating many other types of sites, since it is primarily informational in nature. You will not have to worry about setting up a merchant account or a shopping cart to take credit card payments on your Web site, because all payments will be taken care of after you meet with your clients during initial consultations. You will simply need a site that will tell potential clients about you, provide your pricing structure, and give examples of the types of meals you have available. Here is some basic information about how to get your personal chef Web site up and running quickly, with minimal effort and expense. Choosing and Purchasing a Domain Name The first thing you will want to do to establish your Web site is to choose a domain name. A domain name is the address that an Internet user types into the browser bar to access a Web site. It is usually in the format of http://www.domainname.com. When choosing your domain name, you should try to choose a name that reflects your business as closely as possible. For example, if your business is called Bob's Personal Chef Service, you might choose a domain name like http://www.bobspersonalchefservice.com or http://www.personalchefbob.com. These names will allow your visitors to know exactly what to expect when they access your Web site. It will also help you attain high search engine rankings so that more people looking for personal chefs in your area will be able to find your Web site. Because there are millions of domain names that have already been registered by other Web site owners, it is a good idea to come up with a list of eight or ten possible domain names to choose from. That way, you will have a good chance of finding at least one domain name that is still available. Once you have a list of possible domain names, you will want to find out which ones are available for purchase. There are numerous Web sites you can use to check the availability of domain names. One of the easiest sites to use for this task is www.godaddy.com. On the home page of this Web site, simply type in one of the domain names you are considering and click "Go" and this site will tell you if that domain name has already been taken. If it has, the site will suggest alternate domain names and will allow you to search for other possible names from your list. If the domain name you have chosen is available, GoDaddy will give you the option to purchase that name for a period of time. Purchasing a domain name is typically inexpensive – GoDaddy will register your chosen name for less than $10 per year, and will usually give you discounts if you register your name for two years or more. Once you have registered a domain name, it is yours to keep for as long as you wish to renew your registration. This means that no other Web site owner will be able to use the domain name you have chosen and purchased. You will notice that GoDaddy and other domain registration sites will offer you domain names that end in an extension other than .com, such as .biz, .tv, and .info. It can be tempting to use one of these extensions, especially if your favorite domain name is not available with a .com extension. It is not a good idea to use other extensions for a business Web site, though, because Internet users have become so accustomed to seeing .com extensions that they perceive Web sites with other extensions as being less professional. Using an extension other than .com can also hurt your business because if an Internet user visits your site and comes back to find it later, he or she may not remember your Web site address if it has an extension other than .com. Once you have purchased a domain name for your personal chef Web site, you will need to find a hosting provider for your site. Choosing a Hosting Provider A hosting provider stores the pages of your Web site on its servers and allows visitors access to your Web site via those servers. Think of it like conducting research in a library – people want to visit your site, so they type the domain name in their browsers or find your Web site through a search engine, and they are able to access the pages stored on your hosting provider's servers. For a monthly or yearly fee, a hosting provider will store your Web pages and give you a certain amount of access for your visitors, expressed as "bandwidth." Bandwidth refers to the size and number of files accessed by each visitor, and is calculated for each Web page that a visitor accesses. A simple Web page with text and no pictures may use relatively little bandwidth when accessed by a visitor, but a dynamic page with a textured background and multiple high resolution images or animations may use a high amount of bandwidth each time a user accesses that page. The amount of bandwidth allotted each month varies depending on the hosting provider and the hosting package you purchase. When you are looking for a hosting provider, it is a good idea to choose one that offers a variety of hosting packages and will allow you to upgrade your package as your personal chef Web site grows and becomes more popular. You might not need 30 gigabytes (Gb) or bandwidth each month when you first launch your Web site, but as your business grows, you might need a package that provides at least that much bandwidth to keep up with the number of visitors using your site. Keep in mind, though, that once you have reached your allotted bandwidth for a given month, your hosting provider may begin assessing overage charges for additional visitors. In some cases, your provider may even suspend access to your Web site until the following month – a very bad scenario when you are trying to build a business. It is a good idea to keep tabs on how much bandwidth is being used by visitors to your Web site each month so you can upgrade your package long before you start incurring overage charges or service suspensions. There are several affordable hosting providers that offer packages to meet your business needs. GoDaddy offers packages starting as low as $7 per month. You can also obtain cheap Web hosting at sites like www.ixwebhosting.com, www.hostmonster.com, and www.hostgator.com – all of these Web sites have hosting packages starting at less than $10 per month. Most Web site hosting providers will also offer software to help you build your Web site. Although the quality of the site builders offered by these companies varies, if you are looking to build a very simple Web site without spending too much time on aesthetics, these site builders can be a good way to get your personal chef Web site up and running in just an evening or two. Setting Up Your Web Site Once you have selected your hosting provider, you are ready to begin designing your Web site. If you have knowledge of HTML, you can design the pages of your Web site yourself and customize your site any way you like. If you are not proficient with HTML, there are several options you can use to build a site that is aesthetically pleasing and informative: * • You can use Web site design software. This option gives you the greatest level of customization outside of coding your site in HTML yourself. If you have the funds available to purchase a premium Web site design program, you can buy a copy of Microsoft Expression Web or Adobe Dreamweaver. These programs will cost several hundred dollars each, but will allow you to drag and drop text, images, and animations into your Web pages to create a unique Web site that looks and functions just like you envisioned. If you do not want to spend the money on premium software, you can download PageBreeze for free from www.pagebreeze.com. Pagebreeze works much like Expression Web and Dreamweaver, but is an open source program, which means that users can customize the software to provide additional features without violating the terms of the license agreement. PageBreeze allows you to drag and drop elements into your Web pages, create templates to ensure that all the pages of your site have the same look and feel, and toggle between a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) view and an HTML view so you can fine tune elements of your site to look the way you want. You will learn more about these Web site creation tools in Chapter 14. * • You can use templates provided by a number of Web sites. Sites like www.templatemonster.com and www.Web sitetemplates.com allow you to browse hundreds of templates for use with your Web site. Once you have found a template that works for you, you can download it for a nominal fee (usually less than $50) and simply integrate your own text and images into the template to create your Web site. This can be a good way to quickly build your personal chef site, although you run the risk of having your site look just like hundreds of others owned by Web site owners who have purchased the same templates. * • You can hire a freelancer to build and design your Web site for you. There are dozens of Web sites where you can post a job for freelancers to bid on, such as www.elance.com, www.guru.com, www.sologig.com, and www.getafreelancer.com. Simply post a description of the type of Web site you want and choose among the freelancers who bid on your project. Depending on the size and complexity of your Web site, you can easily obtain a professional, fully functional site for between $500 and $1,000 without spending your time designing Web pages and making sure that all of your links and images display correctly. * • If you want the best Web site possible with the least amount of effort, you can hire a professional Web site design firm to create your Web site for you. These firms will typically design and code your site, upload the pages to your hosting provider's servers, and maintain your Web site to make sure that all of the pages work correctly. You can even use a Web site design firm to make changes to your site as your business grows. Be prepared to spend several thousand dollars on your site if you choose this option. As you can see, creating a Web site can be as cheap or as expensive as your budget allows. It all depends on how much money you are willing to budget for a professional site and how much time you have available to handle some or all of the design tasks yourself. Developing Content for Your Web Site No matter what method you choose for designing your site, you will need to provide the content that will make up your Web pages. Your personal chef business is your own unique vision. You are ultimately responsible for whether your Web site sells your visitors on your services, so it is a good idea to provide most or all of the content yourself. One of the best ways to determine the types of content for your site is to browse the Web sites of other personal chefs. You can review sites owned by chefs in your area and sites owned by other chefs around the country. Undoubtedly, you will find elements of these sites that you like and other elements that you will avoid using in your own site. There really is no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to Web site content – you will need to select and create the content that uniquely reflects your business and your personality. That said, here are examples of the most common types of content pages that appear on personal chef Web sites: * • The Home Page. This page is the first thing that most visitors will see when they arrive at your Web site, so you will need to make this page visually appealing and informative. It should succinctly introduce your personal chef business and give visitors an idea of the types of cuisines and services you offer and the geographic area you serve. You do not have to be particularly detailed when creating content for this page – you just want to give your visitors enough information to heighten their interest and keep them on your Web site so they will read more about you and your services. * • The "About the Chef" Page. You can use this page to let your visitors know who you are, what you have done, and how you envision helping them with your services. After your visitors finish reading the "About the Chef" page, they should feel like they know you personally – this helps build a relationship of trust before a visitor ever picks up the phone to contact you for an initial consultation. Thus, the tone of this page should be warm, friendly, and conversational. This is not to say that you should not include your achievements as a personal chef or information about your training or professional designations. This information will help put visitors at ease by letting them know that they are dealing with a true professional. However, the content of this page should help your visitors understand how you can use your experience and training to prepare meals that are beyond their expectations and how they can gain valuable hours each work week by using your professional services. Although this page is about you, it is important to remember that it, along with every page on your Web site, is about your customers and potential customers as well. To help further establish a relationship with your potential clients through your Web site, you might also want to include a photograph of yourself on your "About the Chef" page. People like to see whom they will be dealing with, and including a picture of yourself adds to the sense of trust that you build through the content on this page. * • The Menu Page. This page should contain a sampling of the types of dishes you provide. If you have set up weekly or monthly packages for your clients, you might want to include a few examples of what a week's menu would look like. When you are writing content for your menu page, be descriptive. Use words that will make your visitors' mouths water and make your potential clients feel like they would be truly missing out if they did not hire you to cook for them. After all, they are not just buying convenience – they are buying meals that are better than they could get in a restaurant. Anyone can eat fast food every night to avoid the task of cooking. The purpose of this page is to show potential clients how much better your meals are than anything they could pick up from a take out restaurant. * • The Pricing Page. If you have successfully gained visitor interest through your Web site's home page, created a relationship with your visitors by using friendly, conversational content on your "About the Chef" page, and informed visitors about the types of meals you offer on your menu page, visitors will want to know how much your services will cost. If you have set up weekly or monthly packages, clearly list your prices for each of these packages. Also state whether your fees include the cost of groceries. Personal chefs sometimes charge extra for groceries, especially if a client is only purchasing one or two meals at a time, so it is important to let potential clients know up front whether they will have to pay amounts above your stated fees. If you provide personal chef services for one time events, such as parties or reunions, you will also want to list your fees per meal, along with any hourly fee you charge for cooking for this type of event. Again, if you charge extra for groceries, you will want to state that as well to avoid confusion. * • The Contact Page. This page will give your potential client the opportunity to inquire about your services, schedule an initial consultation, or ask questions about the meals you provide. You can set up a CGI form (which will be discussed later in this chapter) to collect information from visitors – the contact information, along with any comments or questions the client has included, can be sent directly to your e-mail inbox so you can respond promptly. If you do not have the time or inclination to set up a CGI form for your contact page, you can simply give your e-mail address, along with instructions regarding what information potential clients should include in the e-mail. However, you may find that you spend more time asking clients for pertinent information than with a CGI form, because some visitors will forget to include information you need to set up a consultation or provide a useful response to questions. * • The Special Services Page. If you offer additional services, such as cooking classes or gift certificates that visitors can purchase for friends or family members, you will want to include a page that details these special services. For services such as cooking classes, be sure to note whether you offer classes on an individual basis, a group basis, or both. If you offer group classes, it is also a good idea to include your schedule and directions to the place where the classes are conducted. Content serves two purposes. First, it allows your readers to connect to you. The more your visitors know about you and your business, the more likely they will be to trust you enough to hire you as a personal chef. Since you will not have met your potential clients face to face before they request an initial consultation, visitors must rely on your Web site to find out what kind of a person you are, what kind of experience you have, and what they can expect if they decide to hire you as a personal chef. It also helps your Web site rank higher in the search engines. The better your search engine ranking, the more people will find your Web site and potentially hire you as their personal chef. Having content that gains high search engine rankings for your Web site is crucial to letting people know about your business online. It is also one of the cheapest ways to market and advertise your services because you do not have to pay for organic search engine rankings. Using Your Content to Gain Prominent Search Engine Rankings How can you use the content on your Web site to gain better search engine rankings so that you can attract more visitors and potential customers? The answer lies in the use of keywords within your content, and in several other areas of your Web site. To understand how keywords can help you gain more Web site traffic, it is important to understand how search engines work. When you upload the pages of your Web site to the Internet, automated virtual robots called "spiders" will scan the pages for content and report results to the search engines. Each search engine has its own methodology for interpreting and using the results reported by the search engine spiders, and uses these results to determine the order in which Web sites will be displayed. When an Internet user accesses a search engine page, such as Google or MSN Live Search, he or she enters words or phrases related to what he or she is looking for. A person looking for a personal chef is likely to use phrases and words in terms related to the idea of having a chef come to his or her house to prepare meals. A user might use search terms like "personal chef," "in home chef," "meal delivery," and so on. A user might also include terms related to his or her own geographic area, so if he or she is looking for a personal chef in the Cleveland, Ohio area, the search might look something like "personal chef Cleveland Ohio." Once a user enters a search query, the search engine will return a list of all of the Web sites in its database that contain the search terms within its content. These Web sites are ranked according to a number of factors, including how many times the keywords are used within their content, how much traffic each Web site receives, and how many other Web sites link to them. Fortunately, many Web site owners do not fully understand how search engines work, and so they do not love creating content that is rich in keywords users will likely enter. They simply write content that is interesting and informative to the readers, which is great for people who visit the Web site, but not useful for search engines. You can take advantage of this knowledge by including keywords in your content. To determine which keywords you should use, taking a few minutes to stop and think like a potential customer. If you were looking for a personal chef in your area, what terms would you enter into a search engine? Think of several terms that you would use, and write them down. These terms should be the work of your content, and should be used throughout your Web site to attract the attention of the search engines. How often should you use a particular keyword in your content? Many Web site owners feel that the more often they use a keyword, the better. However, it is unwise to use a particular keyword so often that it makes up more than about four percent of the words on a particular Web page. This can cause search engines to ban your Web site from its listings, because it perceives heavy use of keywords as "spamming," or using keywords so frequently that the content will not make sense to human readers. Most Internet marketers agree that the most important keywords for your Web site should make up between 2 and 4 percent of your site's content. Many marketers try to have a keyword density of between 2 and 3 percent for importing keywords so they can gain high search engine rankings without making the content unreadable for human visitors. You should only focus on two or three keywords when writing the content for a particular page. The secondary keywords should be used at a density of 1 to 2 percent. Again, this helps make your content readable and makes it less obvious that you are using your content to improve your search engine rankings. Techniques to Avoid When Using Keywords in Your Web Site Content All the techniques described above for including keywords in your Web site's content are considered ethical and valid. In Internet marketing circles, they are known as "White Hat" techniques, referring to the old Western movies in which the good guys wore white hats. Over the years, though, Web site owners have used a number of other techniques to try to gain additional advantages for search engine ranking purposes. Search engines are aware of all these techniques and have programmed spiders to detect the use of unethical techniques, known in the Internet marketing community as "Black Hat" techniques (use of keywords that is clearly unethical) or "Grey Hat" techniques (use of keywords that is highly questionable). Not only will the use of unethical or questionable techniques fail to improve your Web site's search engine rankings, it can cause search engines to permanently ban your Web site altogether. This means that, even if you correct the problem, you will never be able to have your Web site ranked on that search engine. If your Web site gets banned on a small or regional search engine, it is bad news for your marketing efforts; if it gets banned on a major search engine such as Google or MSN Search, the consequences will be downright disastrous. Here are a few of the keyword techniques that will get your Web site banned on nearly any search engine. Keyword Stuffing Earlier in this chapter, you learned about keyword density – using keywords in a certain ratio to the total number of words on a Web page to improve your search engine rankings. As noted earlier, a keyword density of between 1 and 4 percent is considered useful for building rankings. Some Web site owners reason that, if 4 percent is good, then 10 percent or more must be fantastic. Unfortunately, using keywords excessively constitutes a technique known as keyword stuffing – using a keyword so many times in a Web page's contents that the text cannot possibly be useful to Web site visitors. Keyword stuffing is fairly easy to spot, even for people who are new to the Internet. Read the following example of Web site content that uses keyword stuffing in an effort to gain a better search engine ranking for a Web page (use of the primary keyword is shown in bold): Do you need personal chef services? Joe Smith offers personal chef services to meet your need for personal chef services. What personal chef services does Joe Smith offer? All kinds of personal chef services – vegan personal chef services, vegetarian personal chef services, low fat personal chef services...nearly any personal chef services you can think of! This brief, 55-word passage uses the keyword "personal chef services" 9 times – that is a keyword density ratio of over 16 percent. For the human visitor, it amounts to a ridiculous passage that has little value and is rather irritating to read. For a search engine spider, it amounts to keyword stuffing, and a Web page containing this passage would stand little chance of ever being ranked in a search engine's listings. Aside from using the generally acceptable ratio of 1 to 4 percent for keyword density, another good rule of thumb that can be used is less mathematical and more intuitive. If you or a friend cannot read a passage without picking up on the fact that a certain keyword is being heavily targeted, you are probably overusing the key word in that passage. Even if your Web page does not get banned for keyword stuffing, the overuse of search terms is likely to irritate your Web site visitors and send them looking for products elsewhere. Invisible Text This is an old favorite for those who use Black Hat techniques. Invisible text has been used on Web sites for several years in an effort to improve Web pages' search engine rankings. This technique uses elements of keyword stuffing (albeit at keyword density ratios that are much higher than those used for visible text), but users of this technique try to hide its use by making the text color the same as the background color, so human visitors will not be able to see it. The hidden text is usually placed at the bottom of a Web page, where human visitors are not likely to notice a section of seemingly blank space. The hidden text consists almost entirely of keywords without any regard for useful comments or principals of good grammar. If you scrolled down to a blank space at the bottom of a Web page on which this technique is employed, clicked, held the left mouse button, and dragged the mouse across the blank space, you might highlight a block of text that looks something like this: Personal chef personal chef services vegan personal chef services vegetarian personal chef services low fat vegan personal chef services low fat vegetarian personal chef services low fat personal chef services personal chef services vegan vegetarian low fat While most human visitors will not pick up on this use of hidden keyword stuffing because they are looking for a personal chef and not trying to find Web sites with unethical keyword usage, search engine spiders will definitely pick up on this technique. Not only that, but they will recognize this as an attempt to cheat the ranking system and ban the Web site from search engine listings. It can be tempting to use this technique. Many people who try to use invisible text reason that, since the search engine spiders cannot tell what is contained in an image, they cannot tell what color the text is in relation to the Web site's background either. Since this technique has become so popular, however, search engines have programmed spiders to not only pick up on text and background colors that are the same, but also color combinations that are very similar. Thus, using a light pink text on a white background will garner no better results than using white on white. You will gain nothing by using this strategy and run the risk of permanently losing the ability to have your Web site appear in search engine listings. Doorway Pages This is another technique commonly used by Web site owners to try to cheat their way to better rankings. A doorway page is a Web page that is never seen by human visitors because, as soon as a visitor lands on that page by clicking on a search engine listing, the visitor is redirected to another page on the Web site. The content on the doorway page is laden with keywords – in essence, an entire page of text similar to that used in the invisible text example above. The theory is that the search engine spiders will read and index the content from this page, and the content's high keyword density will cause the Web site to be ranked higher in the search engine listings. This is not an effective technique because search engine spiders are programmed to recognize a doorway page by the redirect instructions written into the page's code. Although there are some other legitimate uses for doorway pages that are outside the scope of this book, the combination of a redirect command and heavy keyword density will cause your doorway page to be marked as a Black Hat technique. Then, you will not ever have to worry about how to improve your Web site's ranking again, because it will never appear in the search engine listings at all. Other Ways to Use Keywords to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings Although the actual content that makes up your Web site is very important for building search engine rankings, there are other areas of your Web site where you can also use keywords to help improve visibility. Including Important Keywords in Title Tags The Web site builder or software you will use to design and construct your Web site will give you the option of choosing a title for each Web page – if you are using Internet Explorer, this title will appear in the blue bar at the very top of the page when it is viewed online. If you do not specify a title tag, your Web site creation tool will assign a generic tag to each page – "Home," "Page 2," "Page 3," and so on. Although this may not seem like a big problem, settling on default page titles robs you of a chance to improve your page search rankings. Instead of letting your page titles default to your Web site creation tool's default settings, craft your page titles around the primary keywords for each page. For example, instead of allowing your home page's title to default to "Home," you could name this page "Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service." If you have room, you can also include a secondary keyword in your page title – just make sure that the title is ten words or less. If you specialize in providing vegan and vegetarian meals, "Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service – Vegan and Vegetarian Cuisine" would be a good page title that describes the purpose of your Web site's home page to your visitors. It will also help gain visibility for your Web site, since you are including two keywords for search engine placement purposes. Web Page Description Your Web site building software will also give you the opportunity to provide a description for each Web page on your site. This description will not appear on the Web page, but when an Internet user searches for keywords relevant to your personal chef site, the description will appear in the search engine listing under the page title. This description will give people who are scanning search engine listings a little more information about what is contained on a particular Web page. It should be easily readable and should give your potential visitors a brief overview of what they can expect to find if they click on your link in the search engine listings. This is also another good opportunity to use your important keywords to improve your Web page's ranking. Spiders will use text contained in these descriptions as a factor in determining where your Web page will rank in relation to other Web pages targeting these keywords. Here is an example of what a description might look like for your personal chef Web site's home page: Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service – Vegan and Vegetarian Cuisine Need a personal chef service to deliver delicious vegan and vegetarian meals to your door? Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service saves you time and hassle by providing ready to eat meals delivered right to your home or office. Receive 20% off your first order today! This description tells Internet users exactly what they can expect when they visit your Web site. This is important, because when a visitor arrives at a page that does not contain the content they expected, they will immediately click the "back" button and find another Web site to visit. The description also gives search engine users an incentive to visit your site – he or she can save 20 percent off his or her first order. Even though a search engine user probably has no idea how much your services cost before visiting your Web site, the prospect of saving money will still entice them to click on the link to your site. One note about providing incentives in your page descriptions (and in your Web site content) – it is a good idea to find a way to avoid using the word "free" when describing an incentive. For example, if you decided to provide the first meal for free for new clients, you would want to find a different way of describing this offer – perhaps "Your first meal is on the house" or something similar. The reason for avoiding the word "free" is because it is viewed negatively by most search engines – they associate the word with spam, and can penalize your Web site or even remove it from search engines completely for using the word "free" in your page descriptions or content. Meta Tags Another element you can include in your Web pages to improve your search engine rankings is the meta tag. Meta tags are words or phrases that are inserted into the header section of the HTML code of your Web page – the part of the code that tells the browser certain information about the Web page that human visitors need not be concerned with. Your Web site visitors will not see the meta tags you use for each Web page, but search engine spiders will see them. You can use your keywords in the meta tag field to tell the search engine spiders about the contents of your Web page, above and beyond the information available in your page content. If you looked at the HTML header code for the home page of a personal chef Web site, here is what it might look like: <HEAD> <TITLE> Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service – Vegan and Vegetarian Cuisine</TITLE> <META Name="description" content=" Need a personal chef service to deliver delicious vegan and vegetarian meals to your door? Joe Smith's Personal Chef Service saves you time and hassle by providing ready to eat meals delivered right to your home or office. Receive 20% off your first order today!"> <META Name="keywords" content="personal chef, personal chef service, vegan, vegetarian, vegan cuisine, vegetarian cuisine"> </HEAD> Some Internet marketers will tell you that meta tags are no longer important for improving your search engine rankings, and that search engine spiders do not use meta tags when determining rankings. However, since the algorithms used by search engines are proprietary, it is impossible to tell which search engines use meta tags as criteria for ranking Web pages. Since it is not possible to determine whether meta tags are used by a particular search engine, the small amount of time you will spend creating tags for your pages will be, at worst, a way to easily remember which keywords you targeted for each Web page and, at best, another way to augment your Web site content to help your pages achieve better rankings. Image Tags A frequently overlooked technique for using keywords to improve your Web site's search engine rankings is to place relevant keywords in your image tags, also called ALT tags. If you have ever browsed a Web site and held the pointer over an image and a small yellow box appeared with a short description of the image, you might have wondered why the Web site owner bothered to do this. After all, is not the content of the image self-explanatory? Although you can look at an image and tell right away what is contained in the image, search engine spiders do not have this ability. The spiders know that an image exists, but they cannot derive any useful information from it. The ALT tag is a way to describe the image to the search engine spider. It is also a useful tool for loading your Web pages with a few additional keywords. Your ALT tag should be short – no more than eight to ten words – and should contain no more than one or two keywords. It should also accurately describe the image with words that are as specific as possible to the image's content. An example of an ALT tag for an image of a tikka masala dish might look something like this: Tikka Masala – Joe Smith's Personal Chef Menu Item This ALT tag gives Web site visitors the name of the dish and includes the primary keyword targeted for that page. Table of Contents Chapter 14: Software and Web Services to Help You Run Your Personal Chef Business Like any professional who is building a successful, profitable business, personal chefs need a number of tools to help them save time and make routine task handling more efficient. Without the correct tools for running your business, you could spend unnecessary hours on tasks that, while necessary for the success of your business, take time away from what you truly love to do – prepare creative, delicious meals for your clients. This chapter will help you find numerous tools that you can use to build your business more quickly and easily, while saving money and frustration. Some of these tools can be acquired along the way, as your business begins to generate a profit, while others are essential to getting started and will be of little use if you try to use them after your business is already up and running. You will also learn the approximate cost of each of these tools so you can budget for them while you are building your online presence. When possible, this chapter will include information about free tools that have similar functions to their expensive alternatives to help you keep costs down. Web Site Creation Tools Unless you use a template-based site builder offered by your Web site host, or you have extensive knowledge of Web site coding languages, such as HTML and JavaScript, you will need a Web site creation tool to properly design your site and make sure all the elements of your site function correctly. There are several Web site creation tools available that can make designing your Web site a simple and relatively quick process. Here are some of the most commonly used tools: Microsoft Expression Studio Microsoft Expression Studio consists of a suite of tools that can help you easily create Web pages, design content for your Web site, and manage your data files for easy retrieval. There are four programs included with Microsoft Expression Studio. Microsoft Expression Web This application allows you to create Web pages via a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface. This means that instead of requiring you to manually code your Web pages in HTML or other Internet language, Expression Web allows you to point and click to decide where you want text, images, links, and other Web site elements. While you are building your pages, Expression Web will create HTML code designed to make sure your Web site will display correctly on all browsers. If you do have HTML programming experience, you can also toggle between Expression Web's WYSIWYG interface and the site's HTML code to fine tune your Web site's design and functionality. Microsoft Expression Blend This program allows you to seamlessly place sophisticated media files within your Web pages. You can use Expression Blend to integrate animations, text with high quality and nonstandard fonts, vector graphics, video, and three dimensional effects into your site design. Expression Blend converts vector and bitmap graphics to XAML format, making integration of complex image file types a simple process. Microsoft Expression Design The Microsoft Expression Design tool lets you create the media and image files you will integrate into your Web site via the Microsoft Blend application. You can create seamless video, high quality vector graphics, animation files, and more for your Web site. These files capture the interest of your Web site visitors and help keep them on your site longer so they will be more inclined to contact you. Microsoft Expression Media If you are building a complex Web site with multiple pages and galleries, you likely have hundreds or even thousands of files to keep track of. Microsoft Expression Media is a tool for categorizing, managing, and storing these files so you can easily find and retrieve the exact files you want while you are building or updating your site. This is particularly important for managing online gallery pages, where you will include images of sample dishes you have created. Using these images can be a powerful way to generate interest in your personal chef business because people will see the colors and textures of the foods you provide, which will create an emotional need for your services. While Microsoft Expression Studio offers several powerful tools for building a dynamic and user-friendly Web site, it can be expensive for an artist just starting out on the Internet. You can purchase this suite of Web site tools on www.microsoft.com/expression for $599, but you can also find Microsoft Expression Studio on www.amazon.com for about $560. If you think you might want to create a unique, complex site rich with graphic and video features but you do not want to pay a developer to create your Web site for you, Microsoft Expression Web might be worth the substantial investment. Before getting out your credit card to order Microsoft Expression Web, though, you might want to download a free trial version of the software suite from www.microsoft.com/expression. You can try the software applications for 60 days, which will give you time to learn how to use the various features and start building your Web site. Keep in mind, though, that if you do not purchase Microsoft Expression Studio at the end of your trial period, you will not be able to retrieve the Web pages you have created while using the trial software. Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 gives you much of the same functionality as Microsoft Expression Studio, but it combines all its features into one software application. You can toggle between the WYSIWYG interface and the HTML or XHTML code for your Web site, so you can create your site exactly the way you want. You can also use CSS style sheets for your site, which are sections of code that allow you to easily make each page of your Web site follow the same design style without having to manually match up the colors and element placements on each page. Dreamweaver CS3 also features a browser validation tool that checks to make sure your Web site layout is compatible with all browser types. If you intend to integrate video into your Web site, Dreamweaver CS3 gives you the ability to incorporate Adobe Flash video files into your Web pages with just a few mouse clicks. This is a significant advantage over other types of Web site creation tools, which can make video integration a tedious and frustrating process. Dreamweaver CS3 is also a good choice if you use a Macintosh as your main computer. This Web site creation tool is designed to be compatible with both Windows-based systems and Macintosh systems. If you purchase Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 directly from the manufacturer's Web site at www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver, you can expect to pay about $600 for this software; however, you can find Dreamweaver CS3 on www.amazon.com for as little as $399. Like Microsoft Expressions Studio, Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 is available as a trial download. You can go to www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver and download the trial version for 45 days. PageBreeze If Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 and Microsoft Expressions Studio are a little expensive for your marketing budget, then consider using PageBreeze to build your Web site. PageBreeze is a free Web site creation tool available for download at www.pagebreeze.com. There are no time restrictions or hidden fees associated with your PageBreeze download – you can use the free software as long as you like and build as many Web sites and Web pages as you want. The software is not as sophisticated as Dreamweaver CS3 or Expression Web, but it does give you the ability to build your Web site via both a WYSIWYG interface and an HTML coding page. It also allows you to use CSS to create style sheets to make sure that the pages of your personal chef Web site complement each other. You can easily import graphics from Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or another graphics program, as long as you save the graphics in a JPEG or GIF format. Adding these graphics to your Web site is as simple as clicking where you want the graphic to appear in your Web page and clicking "Insert Graphic" on the PageBreeze toolbar. Adding text to your Web pages is very simple as well. Just click the area on your Web page where you want the text to appear and start typing. If you want multiple columns of text on a Web Page or you want to create a sidebar where you can provide links or featured information, just click "Tables" on the toolbar and select the number of columns you want. You can make the table borders invisible so they do not appear on your finished Web page. Although PageBreeze lacks some of the versatility of Dreamweaver CS3 or Expression Web, you can easily alter the HTML code to change Web page elements that you cannot create in WYSIWYG mode. For example, PageBreeze offers a very limited number of text fonts – while you are in WYSIWYG mode, you are limited to Arial, Times New Roman, Courier, Tahoma, Verdana, and Wingdings. However, if you switch to HTML mode, you can change the font to any font that is browser supported (this includes almost all fonts used in popular word processing programs). You can use Microsoft Word or another word processing program to find a font appropriate for your Web site. Once you have found a font you like, just look through the HTML code for references to the font you used in WYSIWYG mode and replace them with the name of your new font. To illustrate, here is an example of a piece of HTML code generated in PageBreeze: <p align="center">&nbsp;</p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="4"><strong>Thank You!</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="4">Thank you for your interest in Bob Smith's Personal Chef Service. I look forward to meeting you in person and serving the dining needs of you and your family.</font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="4">If you have included your postal address or e-mail address with your consultation request, you will receive a questionnaire to help me become familiar with the types of meals your family enjoys. It will only take you a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire, but doing this will help ensure that you and your family are happy with my services. </font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="4">I will bring your completed questionnaire to our initial meeting so that we can design a custom meal plan. </font></p> Although this might look intimidating if you have never worked with HTML, you do not need to be concerned with the majority of this code. Just look for the references to Arial font: <p align="center">&nbsp;</p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="4"><strong>Thank You!</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="4"> Thank you for your interest in Bob Smith's Personal Chef Service. I look forward to meeting you in person and serving the dining needs of you and your family.</font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="4"> If you have included your postal address or e-mail address with your consultation request, you will receive a questionnaire to help me become familiar with the types of meals your family enjoys. It will only take you a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire, but doing this will help ensure that you and your family are happy with my services. </font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial" size="4"> I will bring your completed questionnaire to our initial meeting so that we can design a custom meal plan. </font></p> Let us suppose you have decided that Calibri font would be appropriate for the look and feel of your Web site. All you would need to do is replace all of the references to "Arial" with "Calibri": <p align="center">&nbsp;</p> <p align="center"><font face="Calibri" size="4"><strong>Thank You!</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Calibri" size="4"> Thank you for your interest in Bob Smith's Personal Chef Service. I look forward to meeting you in person and serving the dining needs of you and your family.</font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Calibri" size="4"> If you have included your postal address or e-mail address with your consultation request, you will receive a questionnaire to help me become familiar with the types of meals your family enjoys. It will only take you a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire, but doing this will help ensure that you and your family are happy with my services. </font></p> <p align="center"><font face="Calibri" size="4"> I will bring your completed questionnaire to our initial meeting so that we can design a custom meal plan. </font></p> Click the save button and then the text in your Web page associated with this section of HTML code will display in Calibri font. You can make similar adjustments to font sizes, table widths, and other elements that might be difficult to perfect in WYSIWYG mode. You will also need to use the HTML mode to insert video or JavaScript elements into your Web pages. Do not worry; you can use other software or Web applications to generate the code you will need to integrate these elements into your Web pages so you will not have to worry about coding it yourself. Again, working with PageBreeze can be a little more cumbersome than working with Dreamweaver CS3 or Expressions Studio, but if you are building a fairly simple Web site and are not afraid to fine tune the HTML code for your pages, PageBreeze can be a very economical way to design your Web site and achieve professional results. CGI Forms and Autoresponder Tools As noted in Chapter 13, your Web site is one of the most important elements of your personal chef business' online marketing strategy. However, in order to generate repeat visitors, you will need to utilize a means of reminding your visitors of your presence and enticing them to return to your Web site through discounts, special offers, and announcements of new dishes, meal plans, and cooking classes. The easiest way to do this is to provide a way for your Web site visitors to enter their e-mail addresses on your site, and to compile these e-mail addresses into marketing lists so you can create e-mail announcements. A CGI form is a text field you can place on your Web site so your visitors can enter their contact details or other information. You can use CGI forms to ask visitors for their names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, favorite types of cuisines, or nearly any other type of information you can use in your marketing efforts. Once a Web site visitor has entered his or her contact information into a CGI form on your Web site, it will be transmitted to a CGI bin, which formats the information submitted by the visitor and sends it to your e-mail address. You can then transfer the information to a database, which you can use to easily send e-mail messages to an entire group of people with just the click of a mouse. Because federal laws prohibit the use of spam or transmission of unsolicited e-mail messages, you should always couple CGI forms with a pre-written e-mail requiring visitors to confirm that they have voluntarily submitted their contact information and that they consent to receiving e-mail messages from you. This will help save you from receiving numerous complaints from people who completed a CGI form on your Web site but have since forgotten that they did so. Autoresponders are e-mail programs that allow you to compose e-mails and have them sent as soon as a visitor completes a CGI form on your Web site, and at specified time intervals thereafter. This can save you hundreds of hours of time because you can set up your e-mail messages once and never have to worry about checking for new subscribers so you can manually send them a series of e-mails. There are several applications that can help you place CGI forms on your Web site and automatically send e-mail messages to them to promote your personal chef services, announce discounts and specials, and provide your subscribers with useful information to help you gain more loyal clients for your business. FormBreeze FormBreeze is a CGI form generator and autoresponder system that is designed for use with the PageBreeze Web site creation tool. FormBreeze offers the PageBreeze tool for free, knowing that a certain percentage of PageBreeze users will subscribe to the FormBreeze service. FormBreeze allows you to easily create visitor input forms for use on you Web site and provides unlimited autoresponders to send e-mail messages to subscribers that complete your Web forms. You can customize your autoresponder messages to be sent at specified intervals. For example, you might create a confirmation e-mail that will be sent as soon as a visitor completes a CGI Web form, a welcome message that will be sent as soon as the visitor confirms his or her subscription, and sales e-mails every other day for the next two weeks to help familiarize your subscriber with your personal chef services. You can also create broadcast e-mails that will be sent to all your current subscribers at once so you can alert them of new cooking classes or offer them discounts that will only be available for a limited time. FormBreeze allows you to collect statistics about your subscribers, such as the percentage of subscribers that open an autoresponder e-mail, the number of subscribers that click on a link contained in an e-mail, and the number of people that unsubscribe from your mailing lists. This can help you understand how well your e-mail marketing efforts are working so that you can make adjustments on future e-mail campaigns. FormBreeze offers two subscription packages: The first allows you to create up to three CGI forms with unlimited autoresponder messages for $6.99 per month; the second allows you to create up to ten CGI forms with unlimited autoresponder messages for $19.99 per month. Unless you have more than one Web site for your personal chef services, it is unlikely that you will need more than three CGI forms; however, if you plan on expanding your e-mail marketing efforts in the future, the second package might be a useful solution. AWeber Communications AWeber is another tool you can use to create CGI forms, place the forms on your Web site, and create autoresponder messages to be sent to people who complete and submit the forms. With AWeber, you can create several types of CGI forms, depending on how aggressively you want to pursue e-mail marketing. Like FormBreeze, you can create a simple CGI form that can be placed anywhere on your Web pages, giving Web site visitors the option to subscribe to your newsletters or obtain free informational products. AWeber also gives you the ability to create CGI forms that pop up when a visitor opens a Web page on your site, making the form the focal point of the page until the visitor completes and submits the form or closes the pop up box. You can also create exit pop up forms, which prompts visitors to enter contact information when they navigate away from your Web site. Pop up and exit pop up CGI forms can be good tools if your marketing focus includes aggressive e-mail marketing, but they have a couple of drawbacks. First, they are viewed by some Web site visitors as intrusive and might cause you to lose repeat visitors because of the aggressiveness associated with pop ups. Second, they can easily be disabled by a pop up blocker, which is a software application that detects pop ups and disables them before they can be seen by a Web site visitor. Pop up blockers will dilute the effectiveness of these CGI forms because many of your Web site visitors will not see them and will not have an opportunity to subscribe to your marketing list. AWeber also gives you the ability to create and manage autoresponder messages for each CGI form you create. You can write a series of e-mail messages and configure an autoresponder to send the messages at specified intervals. You can also write broadcast messages that will be sent to all your current subscribers at a specified time. You will also have access to statistical information about the use of messages you create – you can find out how many people opened an e-mail message, clicked on a link within the message, or deleted the message without opening it. AWeber is a good choice if you plan on creating multiple e-mail campaigns and multiple CGI forms. It gives you an easy interface to view and manage all your campaigns at once, which can save you quite a bit of time. At this time, there is only one package available through AWeber – you get unlimited CGI forms and unlimited autoresponder messages for $19.99 per month. You can subscribe to this service at www.aweber.com. GetResponse GetResponse offers all the same features and tools as AWeber – you can easily create CGI forms, create and configure autoresponder messages, and manage your e-mail marketing campaigns via an intuitive interface. The main difference is pricing for a large volume of subscribers – both providers charge additional monthly fees if you have more than 10,000 subscribers to your e-mail marketing lists. Although the package offered by GetResponse is slightly more expensive than AWeber's package at $22.95 per month, AWeber charges an additional $9.95 per month if you have more than 10,000 subscribers, while GetResponse charges an additional $4.95 per month. Any Internet marketer would agree that a list of10,000 subscribers is very impressive and takes a long time to build. However, if you plan to build a very large marketing list, GetResponse might be a good solution for you. Visitor Tracking Software If you want your Web site to be a success and generate a substantial portion of your leads from online sources, you will need to have a means to determine how well your Web site is performing. There are a number of tools you can use to analyze the traffic on your Web site so that you can predict your site's success and make modifications to your Web site to increase its performance. Here are some of the tools that are available for tracking the traffic on your site. StatCounter StatCounter is a free tool you can use to analyze the traffic on your Web site and learn how you can improve your Web site's content to generate additional traffic. You can register for a free account at www.statcounter.com. The registration process takes just a few minutes – you will enter your contact information and a few details about your Web site, and you will have access to several features that can help you determine the success of your site. Once you have registered your account, StatCounter will generate a block of HTML code that you can insert into each page of your Web site. This code will report information about the visitors that view your site, and you can view this information from the dashboard provided for your account on www.statcounter.com. It is important that you insert the code into every page on your site, because StatCounter will not be able to access and compile information on Web pages that do not contain the code. This will cause you to miss valuable opportunities to analyze pages that might be underperforming or capitalize on pages that are performing very well. Here are some of the statistics and information you can view from your StatCounter dashboard: * • Popular Pages. This feature will show you the pages of your Web site that are receiving the highest amount of visitor traffic. Ideally, your home page should receive the most traffic of any page of your Web site because you want visitors to see this page first. If another page on your site is receiving more traffic than your home page, you should analyze that page to see if it contains higher keyword density or has more inbound links than your home page. You can also use the Popular Pages feature to determine which pages should contain CGI forms. You can capitalize on frequently visited pages to build your e-mail marketing lists and generate more robust sales by taking advantage of the traffic flow on these pages. * • Entry and Exit Pages. This feature will tell you the first page visitors see when they arrive at your Web site and the last page they view before they leave your site. This will tell you which page is the most common entry point for your Web site visitors and give you an idea of how visitors navigate your Web site. If a Web page other than your contact page is the most common exit point, you might want to analyze that page to see if the content is confusing or if it contains content that is not appealing to your Web site visitors. * • Came From. StatCounter offers this feature to help you determine where visitors to your site have been immediately before navigating to your site. This will tell you how many people find your site via a search engine and which search engine they are using. It will also tell you how well the inbound links that you or another Web site owner have placed on another Web site are performing – if an inbound link is performing very well, you might want to consider ways to generate more traffic for the Web page containing that link so you can drive even more traffic to your Web site. * • Keyword Analysis. This tool tells you what keywords search engine users are using to find pages on your Web site. A keyword that generates a high volume of traffic is a good tool for your Web site, and you can capitalize on this by increasing the keyword density of that word or phrase in your Web site content. If you have targeted a keyword in your content that is generating very little traffic for your Web site, it might mean that very few visitors are searching for that word or phrase or that there is a high volume of other Web sites using the same keywords. You might want to target a different keyword in your content or try increasing the density of that keyword in your content to see if its performance improves. * • Visit Length. This feature tells you how long visitors stay on each page of your Web site. If a page on your site has a long average visit length, it is a good indication that visitors are very interested in the content contained on that page. This is a good page to use to promote your services or build your e-mail marketing list. If a particular page has a short average visit length, it could mean that visitors to that Web page find the material on that page confusing, or they might not consider the content relevant to their needs. It is a good idea to analyze that page to see if the content needs to be improved. If the page is not relevant to your visitors' needs and interests, you might want to consider deleting the page. * • Returning Visitors. This tool will tell you how many visitors have returned to each page on your site. If your home page has a high number of repeat visitors, it means that your Web site content is effective and visitors are interested in your services. If another page has many repeat visitors, you will know that the content on that Web page is very strong and that visitors are likely bookmarking that page in their favorites lists. If you are using e-mail marketing to build your business, use a page with frequent repeat visitors to build your subscriber base by placing a CGI form on that page. * • Country, State, City, ISP. StatCounter offers this feature to tell you where your visitors live or work. If you find that a high percentage of visitors live in a geographic area other than the one you service, then you might want to consider submitting your Web site to a local search engine that serves that area. It might be that people in certain geographic areas are particularly interested in personal chef service, and this Statcounter feature gives you the ability to identify and control the flow of traffic from specific geographic areas. When used in combination, these tools can provide a wealth of information that you can use to fine tune your online presence. OneStatFree Another free Web site traffic analysis tool is available at www.onestatfree.com. Like StatCounter, OneStatFree offers quick registration and a simple HTML block to place within your Web pages. It also offers most of the same analysis tools as StatCounter, but it includes a couple of extra tools that might be useful when you are analyzing your Web site's traffic: * • Time Analysis. OeStatFree offers a feature that can tell you which hours of the day, which days of the week, which weeks of the month, and which months each page receives the most traffic. While the time of day when most visitors view your site might not be important to you unless you plan to run a very limited sale on initial personal chef packages, knowing which days and months your Web pages receive the most traffic can be useful for timing autoresponder messages and announcing sales and promotions. You can also adjust your overall pricing structure to charge discounted prices during slow months, which will help you attract new clients. * • Web Site Comparison. OneStatFree divides registered Web sites into numerous categories, such as Arts, Business, Health and Fitness, and Weblogs. You can use the comparison tool to see how well your Web site fares in search engine rankings and other statistics, as compared to other sites in your chosen category. This can be a particularly useful tool for improving your Web site's content because you can easily identify Web sites that are performing better than yours. Then, you can visit those sites to analyze their content so you can gather ideas for improving the content of your own Web site. OneStatFree features a chart on its home page that lists all the Web site categories available – visitors of www.onestatfree.com can view the rankings for each category, regardless of whether they have registered accounts. This can help drive traffic to your Web site because each of the rankings contains links to the sites that are being compared. Whether you use StatCounter or OneStatFree is a matter of personal preference. As noted in this section, OneStatFree offers additional tools for analyzing your Web site's traffic and performance, but this site is also more heavily focused on promoting its premium products, such as OneStat Web Site Analytics ($125), which provides an even greater level of detailed site analysis, and RankStat SEO Tools ($191), which assists Web site owners with tailoring content to improve search engine rankings. There are also a number of paid visitor tracking tools available, such as those offered at www.metasun.com, which can track additional statistics such as sales conversion percentages, number of file downloads, and specific visitor demographics. If you want to obtain a large amount of information about your visitors and their activities on your Web site, you can purchase Metatracker for $50 for one Web site or $125 for up to five Web sites. Accounting, Business, and Financial Tools As you have learned throughout this book, establishing and running a personal chef business takes more than just the ability to craft fine, tasty cuisine – it also takes a high level of business savvy. There are several tools available that can help you manage the business side of your venture and make your business more profitable. Accounting and Financial Tools One of the crucial elements of building a successful personal chef business is the ability to effectively manage your business' money. Profitable businesses have to account for marketing, inventory, material, and other expenses, while pricing products to provide revenue over and above these expenses. These tools can help you manage your business' finances so you can reduce expenses and maximize profit. Microsoft Money Microsoft Money is a software application that can help you manage and track your finances all in one place. You can purchase Microsoft Money Plus Home and Business at www.microsoft.com/money/default.mspx for $89.99; however, Microsoft frequently offers a $30 mail in rebate, so you can obtain this software for a final price of $59.99. You can also download a free 60-day trial of this software from the same Web site so you can familiarize yourself with the features before you purchase it. Microsoft Money Plus Home and Business gives you basic features available in many software packages, such as checkbook balancing, spending categorization, and budget creation. It also allows you to prepare for tax season and manage your investments, such as IRA contributions, stocks, and money market accounts. You can also download transactions from most major financial institutions to Microsoft Money Home and Business so you will not have to manually update your accounts when you log in to the software program. It also gives you a number of business tools to help you manage your business, such as invoice creation, compilation of business reports, payroll management, and invoice and receivables monitoring. Quicken Quicken is another financial management software tool that you can use to make sure your business stays profitable. At $59.99, it is somewhat less expensive than Microsoft Money Home and Business, although it lacks a number of the business features of Microsoft Money. Specifically, the current version of Quicken does not give you the ability to create business reports or invoices, and does not allow you to manage payroll tasks online. If these functions are not important to you, Quicken will easily handle most of the other elements required to keep your creative business financially sound. You can purchase Quicken 2008 at http://quicken.intuit.com; however, the Web site does not currently offer a free trial version of the software, so you will not be able to test its features before you make a purchase. GnuCash GnuCash is a free alternative to Microsoft Money Home and Business and Quicken. When you download the software from www.gnucash.org, you will have access to a number of tools that will allow you to effectively manage your personal and business finances. GnuCash allows you to set up multiple accounts so you can manage your personal checking, savings, business, and investment accounts from one dashboard. You can also set up accounts payable to manage your expenditures for supplies and marketing expenses, liability accounts to handle your personal and business loans, and credit card accounts to keep track of your unsecured debt. You can also use GnuCash to manage payroll tasks, create customer invoices, manage customer and vendor data, and keep track of tax and billing terms for your customers. This software application features frequent updates, so you will not have to worry about your software becoming obsolete. Like Microsoft Money Home and Business and Quicken, GnuCash even gives you the ability to download transactions from the Web sites of major financial institutions, so updating your accounts is an effortless process. With a variety of functions and features, GnuCash can be an excellent financial management solution if you do not want to invest your money in a paid financial software package. Business Tools You can also use tools that will help you create a business plan. Creating a business plan can seem like a daunting task if you have never undertaken the endeavor of creating one for a business. Fortunately, you can access resources that will provide you with sample plans for a variety of business types and give you templates that you can use to create your own business plan. BPlans You can access over 500 sample business plans at www.bplans.com. These plans represent a wide variety of business plan styles and provide samples of plans for various industries. Viewing sample business plans can be a great exercise before you create your own plan – you get to see how different businesses approach their plans and identify techniques that will be effective in your own business plan. This Web site also contains many articles that cover different aspects of your plan, giving you advice about what types of information to include and how to present the information so that your business vision will be communicated clearly and effectively to potential investors, loan officers, and other people who will have the power to influence the success of your business and help you reach your financial and career goals. You can also access several calculators that will help you create a realistic roadmap for your business – you can use these tools to calculate startup costs, determine when your business will break even, and even determine the return on investment you can expect from paid advertising efforts, such as pay-per-click marketing. Business Plan Pro If you need additional assistance to create a business plan, you might consider purchasing Business Plan Pro. This software includes over 500 business plan samples and gives you a number of templates to build your own plan. Using this software gives you step-by-step assistance in creating a business plan, so you can make sure that all elements of your business are considered and included in your final business plan document. You can also import data from Excel spreadsheets or Quicken to streamline the financial analysis portion of the plan. This feature will save you hours of time that you would otherwise spend transferring numbers and statistics from another document to your business plan. Business Plan Pro is available at www.bplans.com/mk/bpp_jp.cfm for $99.95. The tools described in this chapter can be invaluable in getting your creative business started and achieving success once your business is up and running. Table of Contents Chapter 15: Case Studies Case study: Allison J. Coia Allison J. Coia Owner/Chef Cook A Doodle Doo Personal Chef Service After 911, I was furloughed for a corporate job and was searching for a new career. I came across this industry after conducting some internet searches. I stumbled upon Personal Chefs Network and I have not looked back since. I was raised in an Italian kitchen, growing up with a parent who was the "queen" of the family cooks. She had a keen eye for new and innovative ideas and through my careful watching and helping, it caught on. We owned a deli and catering business growing up, so being around food was a constant. I also dabbled in cooking for a food service company after high school, but decided I wanted to work a "normal" job. I serve three to four clients on a weekly basis. These clients mostly consist of monthly clients, along with a few bi-weekly clients. On open days, I try to fill with one-time gigs, like a personal chef gift certificate. Being featured in newspapers and local magazine articles has been a great confidence booster and a wonderful marketing tool. I also have had the pleasure of cooking for a Philadelphia 76er basketball player. This experience has been great exposure for me. His involvement in the community is inspiring and right up my alley, since I love others who can spread their kindness. I love my schedule. I use Mondays as my planning/office day and specialty shopping day. I only cook Tuesdays through Fridays, and I am done my work day by 5 p.m. like everyone else. Since I have an established personal chef business, I no longer offer a party service. There are no nights and weekends for me. Also, the people I have had the opportunity to meet have been awesome. The worst part is the isolation that this job can bring. There are days I do not see any clients and my only interaction are the people at the grocery store. Be willing to put yourself out there. The cooking part is easy, but like any other business, you need to market and be very diligent about it. Just because I am established does not mean I can stop marketing and getting my name out in public. I also suggest joining a reputable organization. I have found that being "certified" by some organizations is unnecessary. It is not required in any state and in over six years of business, I have never been asked for it. Case study: Chef Darnell Harness Chef Darnell Harness Owner, SimplyDine Personal Chef Service chefdarnell@cox.net 702-768-0010 I wanted to help people who were not able to cook quality food, especially the elderly. I also wanted to prepare food for those who have health challenges, such as diabetes and heart disease. My background is in the medical profession as a Sonographer. After I decided to venture into the culinary field, I enrolled in UNLV's Professional Chef Certification Program, through Creative Cooking School. Generally, clients do not request many changes to my menu items. The reason for this is that I ask my clients to complete a very comprehensive questionnaire before I start preparing their menus and cooking for them. The questionnaire covers their personal preferences, dietary restrictions, allergies, and so on. I like being able to provide people with more time, quality food, choices on when and where to eat, and how they like their food prepared. It is very rewarding to see my clients enjoy their food. I do not appreciate it when people do not see the value of a personal chef service and haggle on the price of services. I think there is a big misperception that either personal chefs are only for the rich or that personal chefs should be paid the same as fast food workers. If you are just starting out in the personal chef business, be patient, do plenty of advertising, and continue to learn and hone your skills as a chef. Try to align yourself with as many good organizations as possible, such as the Celiac Foundation, the Diabetes Foundation, and the American Heart Association. Go to different stores and do cooking demos – these are good advertising opportunities. Ask some of the culinary arts schools whether they need teachers. Case study: Doug Janousek Doug Janousek Home Cookin' LLC 706-410-0541 After 25 years as a working journalist, and a lifetime of cooking and traveling all around the United States as well as writing about food, I attended culinary school at the Orlando Culinary Academy where I received my AAS and my Le Cordon Bleu certification. I graduated in December 2005 and officially launched my personal chef business in January 2006. I started my personal chef business so that I could have the immediate satisfaction of cooking for clients rather than work in a large kitchen and never see the folks who eat my food. I enjoy the more intimate setting of cooking for individual clients. Initially, when I launched my business in 2006 it took about three months of daily marketing and public relations efforts to attract my first clients. After relocating to Georgia, I had my first cooking gigs within a week or two of physically relocating, though to be honest, I had done a fair amount of advance publicity before the move. One of the greatest successes I have experienced as a personal chef was when I was hired to prepare an authentic Austrian meal at the Austrian Consulate in Orlando, it was a great honor and a fun challenge. Another great achievement was when I published my first cookbook with other personal chefs. I am now working on a second cookbook that will feature Georgia artists and my menus and recipes. I am also working on a high-end chef's tasting menu event with a local restaurant as a way to create "buzz" and make a little money. If I had to start my personal chef business over again, I would evaluate advertising differently. I allowed myself to be talked into certain kinds of advertising that in the end cost a lot of money and did not pay off – to be exact, I found Yellow Pages advertising to be the least effective. Online, targeted newspaper ads and publicity events have worked the best for me. Case study: Chef Kimberly Oropeza Chef Kimberly Oropeza A Taste of Thyme Cheffing Services 407-341-9234 www.atasteofthyme.net I started my personal chef business because I was looking for something that I could do to make some extra money and have a flexible schedule. I had heard about personal chefs and at that time I was becoming more and more interested in cooking. Finally my family convinced me that I should give it a try. The number of clients I serve varies based on the season and my schedule. When I am working my business part-time I usually have one or two per week. When I am working full-time I may have four. It took just a few weeks to find my first client. When I first started as a personal chef, I joined the Personal Chefs Network, which posts your information on their Web site. That is where my first client found me. Now, I receive numerous referrals from existing clients, and many of those referrals hire me as their personal chef. I have had a number of great moments as a personal chef. In addition to the personal chef service, I added catering services to my business a few years ago. Each large event that I have catered has been a success. When a bride or a party's host tells you that they loved everything, it is a great feeling. Other milestones include personal chef and catering services for well-known people or companies. I have catered a dinner party for winners of a Real Simple magazine contest, and I have provided chef services for a well-known musical group, as well as a professional basketball player. Being independent is the aspect of being a personal chef that I like most; however, it is also the aspect that I sometimes like the least. I generally like to work on my own and being a personal chef gives me that opportunity. However, there are times when I need a gentle push to get things done, or someone to get advice from, and I don't have that. If you enjoy cooking, and you think you might like to try a career as a personal chef, just go for it. It does not take a lot of training, and it takes very little investment to get started. Just a set of pans, some kitchen utensils, and some pantry items and you are good to go. You can always try it on the side and build up business if you are not ready to jump in full force. Table of Contents Bibliography Vivaldo, Denise. How to Start a Home Based Personal Chef Business, 1st Ed. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2006 Wallace, Candy. The Professional Personal Chef: The Business of Doing Business as a Personal Chef. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2008 Bilderback, Leslie. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Chef. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2006 The Culinary Institute of America, The Professional Chef. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2002 Table of Contents Dedication & Biography This book is dedicated to the late Elric Morningstar, who inspired and encouraged us to follow our passions and to listen to the still, small voices inside of us, even when we think those voices are crazy. Carla and Lee Rowley are the owners of Java Joint Media, a full-service copywriting firm based in Columbus, Ohio. When not writing, Lee and Carla are vegan chefs, constantly creating innovative, healthy dishes using fresh, organic, animal-free ingredients. To learn more about Java Joint Media, please visit www.javajointmedia.com. For a list of vegan recipes you can try out yourself, visit Lee's recipe blog at http://veggieguy.blogspot.com. Table of Contents Glossary Here, you will find some of the most commonly used terms in the personal chef industry. You will also find a number of terms related to building and promoting your business, both online and offline. Be sure to bookmark this glossary as a handy reference as your personal chef business takes flight. Adobo sauce: A spicy sauce commonly used in Latin American and Southwest U.S. dishes. This sauce is made from chipotle peppers, garlic, cumin, onion, vinegar, and a tomato based sauce, such as catsup. Aioli: A type of mayonnaise which originates from the province region of southern France. This type of sauce is typically flavored with garlic, and is commonly used in meat, fish, and vegetable dishes. A la carte: In a personal chef's menu, this term means that each item is available individually, and is priced separately. Al dente: In Italian, this term means "to the tooth." Pasta and vegetables that are cooked al dente are not soft or overdone, but rather, maintain a level of firmness. Vegetables that are current al dente are somewhat crunchy, and are not meant to be completely tender. Amaranth: A nourishing food which is slightly sweet in flavor, and is high in protein. The amaranth seed can be used as a cereal, or may be ground into a flour for making bread. Ancho: A fresh green poblano chili pepper which has been dried. Ancho chilis are rich in flavor, and have a slightly sweet fruit flavor. They are typically deep red or brown in color, and can either be mild or very hot. Andouille: A type of smoked sausage frequently used in traditional Cajun cuisine. The sausage is heavily spiced, and is made from tripe and pork chitterlings. It commonly appears in jumbalaya, gumbo, and other Cajun dishes. Anise: A spice that is made from the leaves and seed of the anise plant, a member of the parsley family. This spice has a heavy, sweet licorice flavor. Arborio rice: A grain grown in Italy that has a high starch content. This grain is typically used for making risotto, because it creates a creamy texture as it is cooked. Aromatic: Any of a number of spices, or plants that are used to impart flavor and fragrance to food or drinks. Aspic: A savory jelly that has a clear or opaque appearance. This jelly is made of gelatin and clarified stock made from meat, fish, or vegetables. Aspics are typically served on cold plates so that the jelly will not melt before it is eaten. Au jus: A food that is served with its own natural juices. This term is most commonly associated with beef; however, certain root vegetables, such as beets, may be served au jus as well. Baba ghannouj: A Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dip made with roasted eggplants and spices. Chickpeas and tahini are sometimes added to this dish. The eggplants are typically roasted with the skins left on to impart a unique, smoky flavor – after roasting, the eggplants are mashed and the skins discarded. This dip is most commonly served with fresh or baked pita bread. Baguette: A loaf of French bread which is long and narrow, and which exhibits a crisp brown crust and a chewy inside. Baking powder: A powder which is used to leaven bread. When baking powder is mixed with a liquid, it releases carbon dioxide gas bubbles that allow breads and cakes to rise. It is important to keep baking powder in a cool, dry place to maximize shelf life. Baking soda: A powder which is used to leaven cake batter or bread. When baking soda is mixed with an acid, such as butter milk or yogurt, it produces carbon dioxide gas bubbles that allow the cake batter or bread dough to rise. For this reason, it is important to mix baking soda with dry ingredients before adding butter milk or yogurt, since it reacts quickly with these ingredients. Basil: the leaves of a basil plant, which is a member of the mint family. Basil leaves are typically green and leafy, but can also be purple in color. Basil has a pungent taste that can be described as a combination of licorice and cloves. It can be used in a variety of dishes, and is the primary ingredient in pesto. Basmati rice: A type of rice typically used in Indian cuisine. It is a long grain rice with a fine texture and a fragrant aroma. This type of rice is typically described as having a nutty flavor. In order to reduce its moisture content, basmati rice is aged before use. Baste: A cooking technique in which a food is continuously spooned or brushed with liquid. A variety of liquids are used in basting, such as meat or vegetable stock, wine, butter, or fat. The purpose of basting is to ensure the optimal color, flavor, and moisture of foods. Bay leaf: The leaf of the evergreen bay laurel tree, which is used as an aromatic herb to flavor meat dishes, vegetables, stews, and soups. Although dry bay leaves are more commercially available than fresh ones, they lend less flavor to a dish. It is important to limit the number of bay leaves used in a dish because they can cause a dish to have a bitter flavor. Always remove the bay leaves from a stew, soup, or dish before serving. Bearnaise sauce: A French sauce that is traditionally used to accompany meat, fish, vegetables, and eggs. It is made from egg yolks, wine, butter, tarragon, shallots, and a vinegar reduction. Bechamel sauce: A French white sauce that is made by adding milk to a roux of butter and flour. The thickness of this sauce might vary according to the proportion of the milk to the roux. Beurre blanc: A French sauce that is used for vegetables, eggs, poultry, and seafood. It is made from wine, vinegar, and shallots. Chunks of cold butter are whisked into a reduction of these ingredients to achieve the desired thickness. Bind: A cooking technique which is used to thicken a sauce or hot liquid by stirring in an ingredient, such as flour or dairy products. Bisque: A soup known for its hardy, rich flavor. This soup is made from cream and pureed seafood, although sometimes poultry or vegetables are used. Blackened: A dish prepared according to a traditional style of Cajun cooking. Typically, this consists of a cut of meat or fish which has been rubbed in Cajun spices, then cooked in a very hot cast iron skillet to allow a dark, crisp, flavorful crust to form. Blanch: A technique used in cooking in which the fruit or vegetables are briefly immersed in boiling water, then immediately soaked in cold water to stop further cooking from occurring. This technique allows fruit and vegetables to achieve maximum color and flavor, and have a firm texture. Boil: A cooking technique in which foods are immersed in liquid that has been brought to a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Bolognese: A dish which consists of a thick meat and vegetable sauce with wine and cream added to intensify the flavor and increase the thickness. Bordelaise sauce: A French sauce that is most commonly served with broiled meats. It is made from a red or white wine, bone marrow, shallots, brown stock, parsley, and various herbs. Bouillon: Liquid which has been strained off after treat, meat, fish, or vegetables have been cooked in water. This can be used as a base for various soups and sauces. Bouquet garni: A combination of parsley, thyme, and bay leaf. These are typically either tied together or wrapped in cheesecloth and are used to flavor broths, soups, and stews. Braise: A cooking method in which meat or vegetables are covered in fat or liquid, then cooked in a tightly covered container with a small amount of liquid. This cooking occurs at a low heat for an extended period of time, either on the stovetop or in the oven. The purpose of braising a food is to increase its flavor and tenderness by breaking down its fibers. Broil: A cooking technique in which a food is cooked in an oven directly under the gas or electric heat source. It can also refer to cooking food on a barbecue grill directly over the charcoal or gas heat source. Cajun seasoning: A seasoning blend which is frequently used in Cajun cooking to impart a bold taste. Cajun seasoning is made from black pepper, mustard, chili peppers, celery, onion, and garlic. Some versions of the seasoning also include cayenne pepper. Caraway seed: A seed that comes from the parsley family and is known for its aromatic qualities and nutty flavor. This seed can be used in savory and sweet cooking. Cardamom: a spice that is a member of the ginger family and consists of a seed contained within a pod. This aromatic spice can be used whole or ground, or only the seed may be used. It has a spicy, sweet flavor, and is very pungent. Cayenne pepper: A spice that is made from various tropical chili peppers, including the hot Cayenne pepper. In some stores, this may also be called red pepper. Cheesecloth: A type of thin cloth made from fine or coarse woven cotton that is used for straining liquids. Cheesecloth can also be used as bags for herbs and spices used to flavor dishes when the herbs must be removed before the dish is served. Chiffonade: Herbs or vegetables that are either sliced or shredded and used as garnish for soups and other dishes. The herbs and vegetables may be used raw, or they may be lightly cooked. Chili powder: A blend of herbs and spices used to lend spiciness and flavor, usually to a tomato based dish. Chili powder is made from dried chili peppers, garlic, cloves, oregano, coriander, and cumin. Chinois: A sieve used for straining and pureeing. Usually made of metal, a chinois has mesh that is very fine, so a ladle or other tool must be used to press ingredients through it. Chipotle: A chipotle is not a separate kind of pepper; rather, it is a jalapeno that has been smoked and dried. These peppers are commonly used in Mexican sauces and certain types of stews to lend a spicy, slightly sweet flavor to the dish. You might find chipotles dried, canned in adobo sauce, or pickled. Chive: An herb that is related to the onion. This fragrant herb has a thin green stem that is hollow and has a mild onion flavor. It is typically used fresh rather than dried, and is usually added to a dish at the end of cooking to preserve its flavor. Choron sauce: A French sauce in which tomato puree is added to a classic hollandaise or béarnaise sauce. Choron sauce is usually served with meat dishes, such as poultry or fish, although it is occasionally used with beef dishes as well. Chutney: A sweet, spicy sauce that is typically served with Indian dishes to provide a contrast to the pungent aroma and strong flavor of these foods. To make a chutney, fruits such as mangos are mixed with sugar, spices, and vinegar. Cilantro: The green leaf and stem of the coriander plant. This herb is typically used in spicy Mexican dishes to impart a fresh, bold flavor. You may find this in stores as cilantro, coriander, or Chinese parsley. Clarified butter: Also called ghee, this butter is slowly melted via a low heat source. As the unsalted butter is melted, the milk solids separate and the golden liquid that forms at the top is removed and used in cooking. Clarified butter is commonly used in Indian dishes. Clove: An unopened flower bud of the tropical evergreen clove tree. This spice has a pungent aroma and unique flavor that adds depth to Indian dishes and other food. You can find cloves whole or ground. If you are using ground cloves, keep in mind that this spice typically has a shelf life of six months or less – after that, it begins to lose its aroma and flavor. Compound butter: Butter that is softened and mixed with garlic, chives, parsley, or wine. You can cook with compound butter, but it is most commonly used as a spread or filling. Confit: A dish made of meat that is preserved and then cooked in its own fat. Duck and goose are the types of meat most commonly used in confit dishes, although other types of meats may also be used. Consomme: The broth or stock of meat or fish, which has been clarified by cooking. Consomme is often served as a hot or cold soup, but it can also be used as the base for a sauce or soup. Coriander: Another name for cilantro. This herb is the green leaf and stem of the coriander plant. The seeds of this plant may also be used in cooking to add a complex taste and unique aroma. Cornstarch: A starch that is commonly used to thicken sauces and dishes such as soups or puddings. Cornstarch can also be used with grains to achieve a more elastic consistency – some pizza dough recipes call for cornstarch. It is typically mixed with a small amount of water before being added to a dish to prevent clumping. Coulis: A thick paste or sauce used in a variety of dishes. Tomatoes and red bell peppers are commonly used to make coulis. Cream Sauce: A French béchamel sauce that is made with milk or cream. It is occasionally served alone as a compliment to another dish, but may also be used in the preparation of a dish to add a rich texture and flavor. Cremini: A small brown mushroom that is related to the portobello. These mushrooms are often used in Italian dishes, although they may also be used in Asian dishes or served with garlic butter. Cumin: The dried fruit of a plant from the parsley family. Cumin has an earthy, nutty taste and a distinctive aroma. You will typically find cumin ground, although whole seeds can be purchased for use with certain dishes. Cumin is commonly used in Indian curry dishes, and is also used in chili powder. Curry: A hot, spicy blend that is used in many Indian dishes. There are many spices used in curry, including cardamom, cloves, chili peppers, cumin, nutmeg, and red and black pepper. Sesame seeds, saffron, and turmeric are also often used in this spice blend. Curry may also refer to an Indian dish that uses this spice blend. Deglaze: A cooking technique in which liquid is added to a pan over heat to loosen browned bits left over from browning meats and fish. This liquid is commonly used as a stock, and can be made into a sauce to accompany the meat or fish that was previously cooked in the same pan. Degrease: The technique of using a spoon to skim layers of fat or grease from the top of a cooked liquid. This technique is commonly used with soups, gravy, sauces, and soup stock. Dill: A green herb with feathery leaves that resemble pine needles. Dill is typically used fresh rather than dried or ground, and imparts a pungent flavor and aroma to a variety of foods. Dill seeds may also be used in cooking to add an even stronger taste. Emulsifier: An ingredient which is used to bind two liquids that cannot otherwise be combined, such as wines and oils. An emulsifier can also be used to thicken soups and sauces. Emulsion: A cooking mixture that contains two liquids that cannot be combined without the aid of an emulsifier. Eggs are commonly used in emulsions to bind the two liquids together. Felafel: A Middle Eastern dish consisting of ground chickpeas mixed with olive oil and spices. This mixture is formed into golf ball sized pieces and deep fried. Felafel may be served alone as an appetizer, or as a filling in pita bread with fresh lettuce, tomatos, onions, and tahini. Felafel is a common staple of vegetarian and vegan cooking, because the chickpeas provide protein that would otherwise be provided by meat dishes. Fennel: An aromatic plant that imparts a licorice flavor to various dishes. It can be found whole or ground as a spice. Five-spice: A mixture of spices commonly used in Chinese dishes. Five-spice powder is made from ground cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, star anise, and peppercorns. Flax: a high protein food commonly added to a vegetarian and vegan dishes. Flax seeds are high in omega 3 fatty acids, which can be difficult to obtain in vegetarian and vegan diets. Flax seeds may be added to pasta dishes, or may be ground into flour for making bread. Also, flax seed oil may be used to add flavor and nutrients to meatless dishes. Fumet: A stock made from fish or mushrooms. This stock is concentrated, and can be used to add flavor to other stocks and sauces. Garam Masala: A spice blend that is commonly used in Indian dishes. It consists of cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, cardamom, cumin, coriander, dried chili peppers, nutmeg, and other spices. This blend imparts a pungent aroma and distinctive taste to vegetable based Indian dishes. Ghee: Another term for clarified butter, which is made by slowly cooking unsalted butter over a low heat to remove the milk solids. The remaining golden liquid is used in many Indian dishes. Ginger: A spice made from the ginger root, which is used to add a spicy flavor to Indian, Chinese, African, and Jamaican dishes. You can find ginger in many forms – it can be grated from fresh ginger root, dried and ground, pickled, or candied. Pickled ginger is also used as an accompaniment to sushi dishes, to provide a contrast to the taste of the rice and fish. Glaze: A thin sauce that is used to coat various foods. A glaze gives meats and vegetables a shiny, smooth texture and look, and can impart sweet or spicy flavors to foods. Gravy: A sauce that is usually made with milk, wine, or broth – any of these ingredients can be combined with meat or vegetable juices to make a gravy. Gravies can also be thickened with flour or cornstarch. They may be served as an accompaniment to meat or potato dishes, or may be added to these foods at the end of preparation and just before serving. Herbes de province: An herb blend originating from southern France that is used to enhance the flavor of meat and vegetable dishes. Herbes de province is made with basil, rosemary, sage, thyme, lavender, fennel seed, and other herbs. It can be purchased as a ready made mixture or can be made with freshly dried individual herbs. Hollandaise sauce: A sauce that is made from butter, egg yolks, and lemon juice. This creamy sauce can be served with eggs Benedict, or with other dishes, such as fish and vegetables. Hummus: A Middle Eastern dip made from cooked, pureed chickpeas, garlic, cumin, tahini, and lemon juice. Other ingredients such as roasted red bell peppers, black pepper, jalapenos, or crushed red pepper can be added to hummus to create unique flavors. This dip is commonly served with fresh vegetables or pita bread, but it can also be used in wraps, gyros, and falafel dishes. Jasmine rice: A long grain rice with a fragrant aroma that is often used in Thai dishes. Jerk seasoning: A spice blend used in Jamaican dishes. It is made from chili peppers, thyme, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, onion, garlic, and cloves. It can either be used as a marinade, or as a rub to season grilled meats, such as chicken and fish. Leek: A vegetable with a soft onion flavor that is commonly used in soups and salads. The leek is related to garlic and the onion. Lemongrass: A fragrant herb with a pungent lemon flavor that is frequently used in Thai dishes. You can find lemongrass in fresh and dried form – fresh lemongrass imparts a much stronger flavor to foods. Louis sauce: A sauce that can be used to accompany seafood dishes. It is made from mayonnaise, chili sauce, scallions, lemon juice, green peppers, cream, and spices. Lyonnaise sauce: A French sauce that is made from white wine, onions, and demi glaze. This sauce is typically served with meat dishes. Maltaise sauce: A sauce that uses hollandaise sauce with orange juice and orange zest added. It can be served as an accompaniment to cooked green vegetables, like asparagus and green beans. Marinade: Any of a variety of liquids that is used to add flavor to a meat, vegetable, or meat substitute dish. Marinades are typically made from lemon juice, vinegar, or wine with herbs and spices added. Foods such as meats, vegetables, and tofu can be soaked in marinades for several hours to add a strong flavor and aroma. The taste imparted by the marinade varies according to the types of herbs and spices used. Marinara: A tomato sauce used in classic Italian dishes which contains garlic, oregano, and onions. Marinara can be used in pasta, vegetable, and meat dishes. Marjoram: A mint like herb that has a flavor that is similar to oregano. It is typically used in vegetable and meat dishes, particularly those containing veal or lamb. Because marjoram has a light flavor, it is typically added to dishes at the end of the cooking process. You can purchase marjoram in either fresh or dried form. Matzo: A bread made from plain white flour and water, which forms a cracker like food commonly used in Jewish cuisine, particularly during Passover when leavened breads are forbidden. It can also be crumbled and used to form matzo balls, or added to fish and other dishes to bind ingredients together. Medallion: Meat or vegetables that are cut into coin shapes. Mirepoix: A flavoring agent used in stocks, sauces, soups, stews, and gravies. It is made from onions, celery, and carrots. The ratio of these ingredients varies according to the type of dish that the mirepoix will be used in. Monosodium glutamate: A powder made of 22 amino acids that is used to enhance to flavor of food. It is typically used in Japanese and Chinese dishes. Many people have adverse physical reactions to MSG, so it is a good idea to omit this ingredient whenever possible. If it is not possible to eliminate MSG from a particular dish, let your clients know that the meal contains this ingredient. Mornay sauce: A béchamel sauce that contains parmesan or Swiss cheese. This sauce is served with chicken, vegetable, fish, and egg dishes. Some chefs add cream, egg yolks, or chicken stock to this sauce to enhance its flavor. Mustard: Liquid or powder derived from seeds of the mustard plant that is used to flavor meats, vegetables, and salad dressings. Mustard can also be used as an ingredient in spice blends and rubs. Nutmeg: A spice with a sweet, pungent taste and aroma. It is commonly used in potato and vegetable dishes, and can also be used in custards and other desserts. Oregano: A mint herb that resembles marjoram, but with a stronger aroma and taste. Oregano is frequently used in tomato sauces and pasta dishes, and can be purchased fresh or dried and ground. Organic: Foods that are grown without the use of chemicals, synthetic fertilizers, or insecticides. Organic foods are typically more expensive than conventionally grown foods, but some people will be willing to pay more for meals that contain organic ingredients because of the perceived increased health benefits. Panko: Coarse bread crumbs used to coat foods to give them a crunchy texture. Panko is typically used in Japanese fried dishes. Parsley: A green, leafy herb that comes both fresh and dried. Parsley has a hint of a peppery taste and can be used for seasoning and as an attractive garnish. Peppercorn: This spice is used to accent the flavor of both sweet and savory foods. The three main types of peppercorns are black, green, and white. It can be purchased whole, cracked, coarsely ground, and finely ground. Whole peppercorns carry the most flavor. Pepperoncini: A sweet, mild pepper that has a slight heat to it. Peperoncini are normally packaged and sold by the jar. They can be used as garnishes and on salads and sandwiches. Pesto: An uncooked, pureed sauce that is typically made up of basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil. It can be used as a spread on Italian breads or over pasta. Pilaf: A rice dish that is browned with oil and cooked in seasoned broth. Vegetables and meats can be added to rice pilaf to suit the preference of the person it is prepared for. Poach: A cooking method that adds tenderness and flavor to foods. Meats, vegetables, and fruits can be cooked in liquid just below boiling, allowing the food being poached to soak up the flavor of the liquid. Poblano Chili Pepper: The type of pepper most often used in chili rellano. These peppers can range from mild to hot in flavor. The color of the pepper helps to identify the richness of the pepper. The darker the pepper, the richer the flavor will be. There is also a dry form known as the ancho chili. Polenta: A dish made from boiled cornmeal. It can be eaten either hot or cold and sometimes mixed with Parmesan and other cheeses to add flavor. Portabello: A large mushroom that can be used as a meat replacement. Portabellos can be seasoned and grilled to be used on sandwiches. They can also be oven roasted and sauteed. Puree: Food that has been ground or crushed into a paste or thick liquid. Ragu: A sauce made of ground beef, tomatoes, onion, celery, carrots, white wine, and seasonings. This sauce is served over pasta. Ratatouille: A French dish that is made up of tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, zuchinni, onion, garlic, and herbs cooked in olive oil. Ratatouille can be eaten either hot or cold and can be a main or side dish. Red pepper flakes: Different types of hot red chili peppers that are ground into red pepper. Reduce: To boil a liquid until it begins to thicken into a thicker sauce. This process creates a more potent flavor. Remoulade: A French sauce made up primarily of mayonnaise mixed with mustard, capers, chopped gherkins, anchovies, and herbs. This sauce is served chilled with seafoods and meats. Render: The process of cooking meat at low or medium heat to melt the fat and allowing it to be separated from the meat. Roast: To cook food uncovered in the oven. This method of cooking is commonly used for tender meats and vegetables. Food will cook to a dark color on the outside, but the center will remain moist. Rosemary: A common herb that comes fresh, dried, or powdered. It is best used for seasoning food with strong flavors. Roulade: A thin slice of meat rolled around a filling of cheese, vegetables, or other meat. It is normally browned on the stove before being baked or braised in wine. Roux: Used most often in French cooking, it is a mixture of wheat, flour, and fat. It can be used as a base for gravy and sauces. Saffron: A bitter tasting spice that comes from the flower of saffron crocus. Sage: A slightly bitter tasting herb that comes fresh, dried, or ground. It can be used in some pasta and meat dishes. Samosas: Triangular pastries stuffed with potatoes, green peas, onions, and spices, then deep fried. Samosas are common appetizers in Indian cuisine, and can be served alone or with a chutney for dipping. Saute: To cook on high heat, to speed cooking, in a small amount of fat. Scallion: More commonly known as green onions. They can be served fresh and whole with a variety of foods and also make an attractive garnish. Sear: A method of using very high heat, such as a broiler or hot oven, to lock the moisture before cooking takes place. Seitan: A common meat replacement used in vegetarian cooking. It can be prepared in many different ways to offer a variety of flavor. Serrano: A type of chili pepper that is very meaty and does not dry well. They typically come in red, brown, orange, and yellow. Sesame seed: Seeds that add a nutty taste to dishes they are used in. They are commonly used in Asian dishes. Shallot: A relative to the onion, but with a sweeter, milder flavor. Simmer: Cooking foods in liquid just below boiling. If the liquid is at the correct temperature, tiny bubbles will begin to break the surface of the liquid. Skim: A method used to remove the top layer of fat from foods such as stocks, soups, milk, and creams. Star anise: A dark brown, star-shaped spice that has a bitter taste. Steam: A method of cooking with a steamer to keep the foods original taste, shape, and texture. Stock: A simmered mixture of meats or vegetables that is used as a base for soups, stews, and sauces. Sweat: This method allows vegetables and herbs to cook in their own juices over low heat until they are aromatic. Tahini: A paste made from ground sesame seeds. This paste is commonly used in hummus or as a spread for gyros or falafel dishes. Tapas: A variety of Spanish appetizers that can be cold, such as olives and cheese, or warm, such as fried baby squid or puntillitas. It is frequently served with red wine or sherry. Tapenade: A popular French hors d'oeuvre. A dish made up of pureed or finely chopped olives, capers, and olive oil. Tarragon: A French herb that has a similar flavor to anise. Tempeh: Commonly used in vegetarian and vegan cooking. Tempeh is soybean made into a thin cake by cooking the soybeans and using a method of controlled fermentation to mold them into a thin, white cake. Thyme: A common herb that comes in fresh, powdered, or dried form. It is used in a variety of dishes and blends well with other herbs without overpowering them. Tofu: Also known as bean curd, tofu is a common meat substitute used in vegetarian and vegan cooking. Tofu has very little flavor by itself, but can be seasoned and marinated to take on more flavor. Truffle: A variety of fungi. They come in many different forms and can be used in sauces, pastas, and omelets. Turmeric: An herb that is ground into an orange-yellow powder. It has a bitter, peppery flavor and smells like mustard. Veloute sauce: A white sauce that is stock based and thickened with white roux. Vinaigrette: Typically used as a salad dressing, it is a basic oil and vinegar combination. Zest: The outer, colorful skin of a citrus fruit. It can be used to add flavor to lemon meringue pie, sorbets, and salads. Table of Contents More Great Titles from Atlantic Publishing If you enjoyed How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Personal Chef Business be sure to check out these titles from Atlantic Publishing, which can be purchased at eBookstore How to Open a Financially Successful Pizza & Sub Restaurant Food Service Menus: Pricing and Managing the Food Service Menu for Maximun Profit Opening a Restaurant or Other Food Business Starter Kit: How to Prepare a Restaurant Business Plan & Feasibility Study The Food Service Professionals Guide to: Increasing Restaurant Sales The Food Service Professional Guide to Restaurant Site Location: Finding, Negotiating & Securing the Best Food Service Site for Maximum Profit Table of Contents

Comparative Skip-Oviposition Behavior Among Container Breeding Aedes spp. Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) Abstract Container Aedes mosquitoes are the most important vectors of human arboviruses (i.e., dengue, chikungunya, Zika, or yellow fever). Invasive and native container Aedes spp. potentially utilize natural and artificial containers in specific environments for oviposition. Several container Aedes spp. display ‘skip-oviposition’ behavior, which describes the distribution of eggs among multiple containers during a single gonotrophic cycle. In this study, we compared individual skip-oviposition behavior using identical eight-cup testing arenas with three container Aedes species: Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus), Aedes albopictus (Skuse), and Aedes triseriatus (Say). We applied the index of dispersion, an aggregation statistic, to individual mosquitoes’ oviposition patterns to assess skip-oviposition behavior. Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus utilized more cups and distributed eggs more evenly among cups than Ae. triseriatus under nutritionally enriched oviposition media (oak leaf infusion) conditions. When presented with a nutritionally unenriched (tap water) oviposition media, both Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus increased egg spreading behavior. Aedes albopictus did not modify skip-oviposition behavior when reared and assessed under fall-like environmental conditions, which induce diapause egg production. This study indicates specific oviposition site conditions influence skip-oviposition behavior with ‘preferred’ sites receiving higher amounts of eggs from any given individual and ‘non-preferred’ sites receive a limited contribution of eggs. A further understanding of skip-oviposition behavior is needed to make the best use of autodissemination trap technology in which skip-ovipositing females spread a potent larvicide among oviposition sites within the environment.

Nonexistence of Indecomposable Lie Algebras with Nontrivial Levi Decomposition Having Radicals Associated to Filiform Lie Algebras It is shown that a semidirect sum of a semisimple Lie algebra and a solvable Lie algebra with respect to a representation of which do not decompose into a direct sum of ideals cannot have a radical associated to a filiform Lie algebra. This proves that this class of nilpotent Lie algebras has none interest for the structure theory of nonsolvable Lie algebras.

CITY HALL — City leaders must do more to increase the number of Latinos employed by the City of Chicago — and stop "pandering" to the city's newly minted second-largest ethnic or racial group, the chairman of the City Council's Latino Caucus said Wednesday. With Human Resources Commissioner Soo Choi in front of the Council to field questions about her department's 2018 budget, caucus chairman Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) demanded that she do more to ensure the city hires more Latinos. He made his point next to a sign that read "Help Wanted — Latinos Need Not Apply" embellished with two red Chicago stars. Alderman Villegas asking why the %’s of Latino employees city wide.....@gilbert36ward pic.twitter.com/A2U3ix5JkD — Ricardo Munoz (@AldermanMunoz22) October 25, 2017 "I'm talking about parity, no longer diversity, parity," Villegas said, adding that the number of Latinos employed by the city has not changed as the city’s demographics have. While Latinos made up 29.7 percent of Chicago's population in 2016, they hold only 15 percent to 17 percent of jobs with the city or its sister agencies, such as the CTA and Chicago Public Schools, Villegas said. Promising aldermen that she would redouble her efforts to increase the number of blacks and Latinos employed by the city, Choi said she was in the process of hiring a chief diversity officer — at an annual salary of $90,000 — to spearhead that push. Choi also told aldermen she planned to hire an outside firm to increase the number of Latino applicants for jobs. Villegas' sign led 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin, chairwoman of the Budget and Government committee in charge of the daylong hearing, to rebuke Villegas for focusing on Latino employment rather than minority employment. Since 2000, Chicago's black population has dropped by more than 250,000 people — 40,000 last year alone — according to the most recent U.S. Census figures. There are now 793,852 black Chicagoans, about 29.3 percent of the population, according to the Census. City officials did not immediately have figures on the percentage of city and sister agency employees that are African-American. Villegas said the city has not held recruitment efforts on the Northwest Side, where the Latino population has skyrocketed. "They are not doing a good job of reaching out to our communities," Villegas said. "These are solid, middle-class jobs, well-paying jobs. I want them in my community." The strained moment between Austin and Villegas, who was elected in 2015, came after tensions between the Latino and African-American members of the Council ratcheted up a day earlier on Tuesday. That came during a debate over City Clerk Anna Valencia's request for another $1 million to implement a plan to offer Chicago's undocumented immigrants, the homeless and those with a criminal record a municipal identification card. Several African-American aldermen oppose the card — calling it a "waste of money" — while it has been championed by the Latino and progressive caucuses as necessary to protect undocumented immigrants and help recently incarcerated people and homeless men and women. "Madam clerk, I think you found the secret sauce on how to get some of my colleagues [to be] fiscal hawks throughout this municipal budget," Villegas said Tuesday. "All you’ve got to do is attach a municipal ID line-item to every item, and we’ll see all these questions related to the expenditures." Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is widely expected to run for re-election in 2019, has made a point of championing Chicago's Latinos by repeatedly vowing to fight President Donald Trump's efforts to force Chicago to give up its self-proclaimed status as a "sanctuary city" or face the loss of federal grant money. "This administration is pandering to our community right now as we come up on election time," Villegas said. "If you want to be with us, be with us."

Terry's parrot died: adventures in voice recognition Consultants’ letters should be educational and written not so they can be understood, but so they cannot be misunderstood (to paraphrase Quintilian). My referring doctors were, or could have been, introduced to novel treatments for rheumatoid arthritis — the use of “deep mud therapy” (DMARD therapy), music therapy with “the Liverpool band” (adalimumab), joint lubrication (“deep grease” the medication, rather than decrease it) and even rejuvenation with intra-articular injections of “highly erotic acid” (hyaluronic acid). They could have been introduced to hitherto unrecognised, but plausible, conditions — “shopping” headache (shocking), “show-grounds” syndrome (Sjögren’s), “chat-rooms” arthritis (Jaccoud’s) and “football finals” syndrome (Klippel-Feil).

With an immaculate display of serving and strong hitting, Kevin Anderson powered his way into the final of the US Open with a comprehensive 4-set victory over Pablo Carreno Busta Friday afternoon. Anderson fired 58 winners to only 21 for his Spanish opponent and out-aced the 12-seed 22 to 1 en route to his 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 triumph. “This is why I worked so hard. It was an unbelievably tough match for me. It was pretty nervous starting out for me, I’m sure for Pablo it was the same,” Anderson said. “I really had to dig deep there. I’m just over the moon right now.” Carreno Busta had not dropped a set throughout the fortnight, but of his five opponents, none were seeded and four were qualifiers. Still, the Spaniard looked the more solid of the players to begin as he held serve with relative ease despite rarely reaching even close to 120 miles-per-hour on his serve. The South African 28-seed experienced similar success on his serve early on as neither player earned a break opportunity or even reached deuce on a return game in the first six games. But in the seventh, Anderson, playing in the first major semifinal of his 14-year career, didn’t so much as blink as completely clench his eyes shut for a few minutes. The world number 32 committed a double fault and three unforced errors to hand Carreno Busta the lead. The Spaniard went on to close out the set without facing a single break point. Anderson quickly upped his game as the second set got under way, reducing his unforced error count and putting exponentially more pressure on Carreno Busta’s service games. The 6’8” South African earned two break points in the fourth game and converted on the second after forcing his opponent into error. Undaunted, Carreno Busta fired a trio of clean winners in the next game and immediately broke back for 2-3. The players went on exchanging holds until the Spaniard stepped to the line at 5-6. Again, Anderson upped his return game, as he did in the big moments on Tuesday night against American Sam Querrey as well. The South African earned a set point after a double fault from Carreno Busta and converted with a backhand winner. We're on even terms as @KAndersonATP takes the 2nd set 7-5, with a big backhand winner into the open court!#USOpen pic.twitter.com/af7eFvHfvv — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 8, 2017 That seemed to be the last true fight that Carreno Busta had in him as he never threatened the Anderson service games again and was seemingly made to work hard on almost all of his own. The Spaniard committed another costly double fault to hand his opponent a 3-1 lead early in the third set. This time, Anderson did not allow the Spaniard back in, never facing a break point and clinching his lead with his ninth ace of the set. The direction of the fourth set felt inevitable, with Anderson once again pressuring Carreno Busta’s service games early and often, eventually breaking through in the fifth game by firing three winners and then converting on an unforced error from the Spaniard. The South African faced his first slight challenge of the set on serve when attempting to close the match out at 5-4. Carreno Busta earned leads in the game at both Love-15 and 15-30, after a pair of errors from across the net, but Anderson recovered with a pair of winners to earn match point. On that point, Carreno Busta slapped a forehand into the net and Anderson dropped the racquet, threw off his cap and turned to his box with a look of elation. .@KAndersonATP becomes the first South African to reach the #USOpen final in the Open Era! He defeats Carreno Busta 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4! pic.twitter.com/aftgwC6ffy — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 8, 2017 “It’s been a long road and these grand slams are tough. We’ve been privileged to play with some of the best players to have ever played the game,” Anderson said. “It’s nice that some of them gave some of us a shot to try to make a bit of a run this tournament.” After clinching his place in the final, the South African, who has only ever even reached one quarterfinal at a major before this tournament, climbed into his player’s box to celebrate with his team and wife Kelsey. “I don’t know if the team hug was appropriate before the final but it felt right,” Anderson said. Anderson reached a career-high ranking of world number 10 in 2015, but struggled with injuries last year and tallied his first losing record, 17-21, of a season since 2010. A hip injury capped off the season and forced him to miss the Australian Open this year. After having seen his ranking dip as low as 80, he reflected on his climb back to the upper echelons of the game. “It was very difficult at the end of last year,” Anderson said. “Here I am just 9 months later after thinking I might have to go through a year’s worth of recovery, so this means the world to me.” Anderson will next face the winner of the second semifinal between Juan Martin del Potro and Rafael Nadal. He is a combined 0-10 head-to-head against both possible opponents having lost four times to Nadal and six to del Potro.

Antimicrobial Activity of Divercin RV41 Produced and Secreted by Lactococcus lactis Divercin V41 is a class IIa bacteriocin produced by Carnobacterium divergens V41 with a strong anti-Listeria activity. We have previously produced a recombinant form of divercin V41 (DvnRV41) in Escherichia coli strain Origami, by cloning a synthetic gene that codes for a mature divercin RV41 peptide. In this work we describe the inducible expression and secretion of DvnRV41 in the food-grade lactic acid bacterium, Lactococcus lactis. The production of DvnRV41 by recombinant L. lactis was confirmed and quantified by Western blot and ELISA assays. In addition, anti-Listeria activity of DvnRV41 was determined using an agar diffusion test. Although the levels of DvnRV41 produced by recombinant L. lactis were similar to those produced by the natural host, C. divergens V41, the specific activities were lower. In conclusion, our data show that the bacteriocin DvnRV41 is produced and secreted in an active form by L. lactis and that this approach may have important applications in the preservation of foods.

Drosophila Central Nervous System Glia. Molecular genetic approaches in small model organisms like Drosophila have helped to elucidate fundamental principles of neuronal cell biology. Much less is understood about glial cells, although interest in using invertebrate preparations to define their in vivo functions has increased significantly in recent years. This review focuses on our current understanding of the three major neuron-associated glial cell types found in the Drosophila central nervous system (CNS)-astrocytes, cortex glia, and ensheathing glia. Together, these cells act like mammalian astrocytes: they surround neuronal cell bodies and proximal neurites, are coupled to the vasculature, and associate closely with synapses. Exciting recent work has shown essential roles for these CNS glial cells in neural circuit formation, function, plasticity, and pathology. As we gain a more firm molecular and cellular understanding of how Drosophila CNS glial cells interact with neurons, it is becoming clear they share significant molecular and functional attributes with mammalian astrocytes.

Zurich center Auston Matthews (6-foot-2, 216 pounds) of Scottsdale, Ariz., is projected to be the first American-born player chosen No. 1 since forward Patrick Kane was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2007. Matthews is expected to be followed by right wing Patrick Laine (6-4, 201) of Tappara in Liiga, Finland's top professional league, and right wing Jesse Puljujarvi (6-3, 208) of Karpat (Liiga). BUFFALO -- For the first time in almost two decades a Canadian-born and raised player might not be selected among the top five picks at the 2016 NHL Draft, which will be held at First Niagara Center in Buffalo on June 24-25. The pecking order gets a little dicey after the big three since most NHL scouts believe there are several interchangeable players among the next 10 selections, leaving many to believe there may be a few more trades to be made. The first round of the 2016 draft is Friday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports). Rounds 2-7 are Saturday (10 a.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVA Sports 2). Several non-Canadian born and raised players are in the running for spots No. 4 and No. 5. The list includes forwards Matthew Tkachuk (United States) of London in the Ontario Hockey League, Alexander Nylander (Sweden) of Mississauga (OHL), Logan Brown (United States) of Windsor (OHL) and Clayton Keller (United States) of USA Hockey's Under-18 National Team Development Program in the United States Hockey League. Defensemen Jakob Chychrun (United States) of Sarnia (OHL), Olli Juolevi (Finland) of London (OHL), Charles McAvoy (United States) of Boston University (Hockey East) and Mikhail Sergachev (Russia) of Windsor (OHL) are also strong candidates. Chychrun plays for Canada in international events, but was born and raised in Boca Raton, Fla. Nylander was born in Calgary, but grew up in Chicago and Washington and represents Sweden internationally. "It's certainly going to be interesting to see when the first Canadian-born and raised player gets drafted," said NHL Director of Central Scouting Dan Marr. "I think these things go in cycles. I don't think it says anything. There's good players that come from everywhere. USA Hockey continues to grow. Europe has always brought good players. These things are a little cyclical." Many expect forward Pierre-Luc Dubois of Cape Breton in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to be the first Canadian-born and raised player selected. Dubois is from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec, the same town where Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Jonathan Drouin was born and raised. Video: 1-on-1 with Jakob Chychrun It remains to be seen if Dubois is chosen among the top five. The last time a Canadian-born and raised player wasn't chosen among the top five was 1999, when Patrik Stefan (Czech Republic) went No. 1 to the Atlanta Thrashers, followed by Daniel and Henrik Sedin (Sweden) to the Vancouver Canucks, Pavel Brendl (Czech Republic) to the New York Rangers, and Tim Connolly (United States) to the New York Islanders. "I think it's deep in the first round," said Dallas Stars director of amateur scouting Joe McDonnell. "No one does a bad job in scouting these players anymore; maybe 15 years ago you could target a player and expect him to be there but not anymore. This year, I think it could be a bang-bang-bang type situation where each team scout has a different order list of the same players." The fact so many players are regarded as equals could set the stage for a trading bonanza during each day of the draft. "There's going to be a lot of players left over from the first day that teams thought would be long gone and that might generate some trade action, which is fun," Marr said. "It's not deep at the tail end of the draft, maybe you'll see more 19 year olds and European players drafted. That's what I would anticipate. The last few years the number of 19-year-old players being drafted has risen and I'm sure that will continue." Matthews, No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of international skaters, had 24 goals and 46 points in 36 games for Zurich in National League A, Switzerland's top pro league. He won the league's Rising Star award and was second in voting for most valuable player. He will represent Team North America in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Laine, No. 2 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of international players, had seven goals and 12 points at the 2016 IIHF World Championship and was named tournament MVP for Finland, which won the silver medal. He also was named MVP of the playoffs in Liiga after helping Tappara win the championship. He was added to Team Finland's roster for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. "They're both going to be impact players," Marr said of Matthews and Laine. "They're probably going to be able to step in and have an influence on the teams drafting them; helping in the outcome of some games. They're both very special and highly skilled, and at the top end that's what you're looking for in the draft." Video: 1-on-1 with Alexander Nylander Puljujarvi, No. 3 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of international skaters, had 28 points in 50 games with Karpat and a tournament-best 17 points in seven games to help Finland win the gold medal at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship. His scoring total was one point shy of Jaromir Jagr's single-tournament record for an under-18 player set in 1990. "Jesse's got that work ethic," Marr said. "He's got that attitude out there that he's not going to be denied on the play. He brings that same drive and determination, and he brings that same skill set where he can go out on the ice and influence the game at any point." Among the promising defensemen, Chychrun (6-2, 200) is No. 4 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters, followed by No. 5 Juolevi (6-2, 188), No. 6 McAvoy (6-0, 199), and No. 8 Sergachev (6-2, 221). "The defensemen in the top 10 of this draft class also have bright NHL futures ahead of them," Marr said. "All are excellent skaters and each play a certain style which makes it a very subjective exercise to differentiate them because they all are very good, and each possess certain skills and attributes which will allow them to bring value to an NHL club." Tkachuk (6-1, 202), No. 2 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters, is the son of U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame member Keith Tkachuk. He ranked second in the OHL with 77 assists and fifth with 107 points in 57 games. Nylander (6-0, 178), ranked No. 3 on Central Scouting's final North American list, was named the 2016 OHL Rookie of the Year after leading Mississauga with 28 goals and 75 points in 57 games. He is the brother of Toronto Maple Leafs center William Nylander, and son of retired NHL player Michael Nylander. The highest-ranked scholastic player is left wing Riley Tufte of Blaine (Minn.) High School. Tufte (6-5, 211), No. 17 on Central Scouting's final ranking, won the Mr. Hockey Award as the most outstanding senior boys scholastic hockey player in the state. The top North American goalie is Evan Fitzpatrick (6-2, 203) of Sherbrooke (QMJHL). He went 18-26-8 with a 3.42 goals-against average, .896 save percentage and two shutouts in 54 games. Sweden goaltender Filip Gustavsson (6-1, 190) of Lulea Jr. in Sweden's junior league is No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of international goaltenders. He is projected to be the first goalie selected.

Brazilian fourth-tier side Fluminense de Feira have taken shirt sponsorship to a whole new level. Not content with simply featuring sponsor’s logos on their shorts as well as their shirts, the Brasileiro Série D side have started using their shirt numbers to advertise special offers in the local supermarket. Players now have a product written where their name would usually be printed on the back of their shirts, with conventional numbers replaced with the prices of bargain deals. Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month So their star striker Fernando Sobral, for example, no longer wars the number 10. Instead he is 10,98 – which is coincidentally the price of a pizza at the local superstore. Another player wears 20,38 to advertise the cost of shaving cream, while a team-mates shirt displays the price of a bottle of shampoo. By way of explanation the team’s marketing director, Xiko Melo, said the move was made necessary because the Brazilian Football Confederation does little to support football clubs further down the league pyramid. “Football is very ungrateful to small teams on this sponsorship issue,” he told local media. “You cannot put together a good team without conditions and having a good team requires resources. “We had a few sponsors in the beginning, so we decided to have sponsors per game.” However the shirts haven’t exactly helped matters on the pitch. Fluminense de Feira lost their first match wearing their new shirts 6-0, to bitter local rivals Vitoria de Bahia. Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writers

Antonio Blakeney (2) at the AAU basketball Championship at the Fairgrounds in Louisville, Kentucky. July 24, 2014 (Photo: John Sommers II) Five-star guard Antonio Blakeney, a former Louisville commmitment who's now a target of Kentucky, is set to make his final decision on where he'll play college basketball. Blakeney will choose between UK, LSU and Missouri at 4:30 p.m. Friday on ESPNU, according to ESPN's Reggie Rankin. Blakeney took official visits to those schools in October and November, and it's no surprise they've wound up his three finalists. He had recently also been considering North Carolina and North Carolina State. "I have done my research, taken my visits, and I am ready to get it over with," he told Rankin. Kentucky has three signees in the 2015 class: five-star center Skal Labissiere, five-star combo guard Isaiah Briscoe and four-star shooting guard Charles Matthews. LSU has been widely seen as UK's top competition for Blakeney, who attends Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, Fla. The Tigers from Baton Rouge already have signed his friend and AAU teammate Ben Simmons, who is arguably the nation's No. 1 senior, and LSU would figure to offer more playing time and shots than a UK roster that could feature guards Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker, Briscoe, Matthews and Dominique Hawkins. LSU is considered the favorite over UK to land Blakeney on the 247Sports.com Crystal Ball, in which recruiting media predict where players will commit. Louisville ceased recruiting Blakeney as soon as he withdrew a commitment to the Cardinals 11 days after making it in September. Blakeney was scrutinized after his U of L "decommitment" due to speculation that his decision to pull his pledge from the Cardinals, who are sponsored by Adidas, was influenced by his Nike-sponsored AAU club. Blakeney has denied that.

Deputies are reporting that they found 497 milligrams of methamphetamine… (Associated Press ) One of the two hikers who went missing in Trabuco Canyon and inspired a $160,000 search effort has been charged with possession of methamphetamine, officials said. Deputies are reporting that they found 497 milligrams of methamphetamine in 19-year-old Nicolas Cendoya's car while they were searching for the pair, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman with the Orange County district attorney’s office. Cendoya was sent a letter to appear in court on May 22 to answer the felony charge, which was filed Tuesday. PHOTOS: Missing hikers in Orange County Emami declined to comment on whether prosecutors thought the drugs were connected to the hikers’ disappearance. Cendoya and Kyndall Jack ventured into the Holy Jim Canyon area of the Cleveland National Forest on Easter Sunday but became lost by the evening. The two called authorities about 8 p.m. from a dying cellphone to report that they were lost.

New week, new Nielsen top 10! As we head into fall finale season, specials and reality competition shows will be dominating the top 10. Taking the number one spot last week was The Voice night two, scoring 790,000 interactions. Night one of The Voice came in at number eight. CBS’ Carol Burnett 50th Anniversary Special took the number two spot with 634,000 interactions as the special took a look back to honor the comedienne’s illustrious career. CBS’ other special, the annual Victoria Secret Fashion Show, landed in the number five spot with 518,000 interactions. Three scripted dramas landed a spot in the top 10 last week. This Is Us’ fall finale came in at number six with 504,000 interactions and The Walking Dead came in at number four. The CW’s Arrow landed a spot on the top 10 for the first time as it came in at number nine with 355,000 interactions. As a refresher: the Content Ratings use the total number of social interactions across Facebook and Twitter to rank the top 10 series/specials and sporting events, separately. The chart includes uniques, which are “unique social media accounts that have authored original content related to a linear TV episode or engaged with that content,” and interactions, which are “original social media posts related to a linear TV episode and the engagement with that content.” Check out the full top 10 below. RANK NETWORK / PROGRAM / DATE INTERACTIONS (000) 1 NBC The Voice 790 202 588 2 CBS The Carol Burnett 50th Anniversary Special 634 595 39 3 USA Network WWE Monday Night RAW 603 397 206 4 AMC The Walking Dead 559 414 144 5 CBS The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 518 244 274 6 NBC This is Us 504 364 141 7 CBS Bruno Mars: 24K Magic Live at the Apollo 452 385 66 8 NBC The Voice 357 270 87 9 The CW Arrow 355 77 278 10 ABC CMA Country Christmas 354 314 40 Comments comments

Writing in the Independent, Vince Cable explains why he’ll be marching on the Tory Party Conference in Manchester this weekend. He certainly is bringing the anti Brexit fight directly to them. I believe it would be a healthy exercise in democracy to participate in a peaceful, dignified protest on the big issue of the day by marching. And the issues don’t come any bigger than Brexit – which is why I will be addressing marchers protesting at the Conservative conference in Manchester this weekend. Brexit changes most things, not least the quaint notion that governments always seek to increase the prosperity and opportunities of their citizens. It is vital ministers in the hall hear thousands of British people demanding an exit from their disastrous Brexit. Whatever the arguments for or against EU membership in the referendum, the Government has clearly mismanaged the negotiations, and the situation is now so grave that parliamentary niceties suddenly look absurd. Some 15 months on from the original vote, the EU’s Michel Barnier suggests we are still “months” from substantive Brexit negotiations even beginning – because the Government has been so unclear about what it even wants. And he slates the Government’s irresponsibility: Ministers are effectively saying “we have absolutely no idea what future Brexit will bring – but we are going to force it upon you anyway.” It is the political equivalent of jumping off a diving board without checking if there is any water in the pool below. There is a way out, though, as he outlines here: If enough people protest against this extreme Conservative Brexit, we can still secure a referendum on the final deal, as Liberal Democrats have been fighting for. Only then can we hold the Government to account, giving the people the option to reject a potentially disastrous deal. My only regret is that I didn’t also march on the Labour conference, where Jeremy Corbyn still refused to act like an opposition and oppose what many of his colleagues predict will be a ruinous Brexit. That role of opposition falls to Liberal Democrats and thousands of like-minded people this Sunday. Make sure Theresa May hears Manchester’s voice, your voice, demanding the chance of an exit from Brexit. You can read the whole article here. * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.

Which pieces from your own collection are really special? The signed, sketched and graded “Walking Dead” No. 1 is from the printer’s crate of the first “Walking Dead” issues sent to my house around October 2003. Back then, I was taking them to conventions and selling them for $3 a piece, and I thought they were all gone. One day my wife and I were cleaning out the garage and found a box of long lost No. 1s. I sent a handful into the CGC comic grading service and I got several back with really nice, high grades. This one is sketched on twice and signed. Another rare piece is the 11 × 17 “Walking Dead” Artist’s Edition that’s got a color painting of a lady zombie’s face on the front. They recently printed 500 blank ones and gave them all to me. To date, I’ve only painted 13. They’ve never been sold anywhere; it’s a one-of-a-kind piece on a book that’s pretty rare to begin with. What other pieces are special to you? There is a very large painting of a robot that’s actually from my BFA graduation show at The University of Louisville. I had the show, but I actually got offered a job before I could complete my BFA. What comic book character made the biggest impact on you? Batman, for sure. The drawing I created exclusively for the sale was pretty much Frank Miller’s version of Batman from his Dark Knight series; a flash forward to an older version of Bruce Wayne trying to deal with a new world. My mom bought it for me for my 10th birthday and when I read it, I thought, “This is brutal.” This wasn’t Adam West’s Batman and that’s what made it so cool — it was gritty and bloody and heartbreaking. That book changed the tone of comics for about 30 years and impacted creators for a couple generations. I just happen to be one of them. What’s it like to be a part of the cultural resonance of “The Walking Dead?” The instant something gets made from your comic that’s beyond the actual comic it’s euphoric and surreal. To know that it’s had a deep effect on millions of people I will never meet is really cool and an honor. When I first started drawing, I treasured the comics that I loved and that were super influential to me. One of the things that has always motivated me to do the best work I can is the thought that it could be some other kid’s first comic. It could be the thing that gets another kid super excited, so I better make it good.

Ukrainian Rinat Akhmetov took over Shakhtar Donetsk almost exactly 20 years ago. More than 33,000 fans filter into Arena Lviv, in western Ukraine, on a late September day in 2014, but there is only one person whose attendance really matters. Over the past 20 years, Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's wealthiest figure, has utilized his fortune in coal and steel to transform his soccer team, Shakhtar Donetsk, into a club of international standing. Now that Shakhtar is to play a critical UEFA Champions League match against FC Porto, a club from Portugal's Primeira Liga, no one is sure if Akhmetov is even in the building. The club's press office isn't talking. His confidantes aren't going to be blamed for a leak. Once one of Ukraine's most public faces, with a ruddy complexion and thick head of strawberry-blond hair, Akhmetov has become a ghost. And with good reason. In Ukraine, it is a time of invasion, of disappearances, a time of war with Russia. It is a war that has killed more than 8,000 people. In the eastern part of the country, Akhmetov's home city of Donetsk, located about 50 miles from the Russian border, has been the center of the conflict, the symbol of society's grave uncertainty. Himself, Akhmetov is just as embattled. In Kiev, people want to know if he, ruler of the east, has provided financing and support to the separatist enemy. In Donetsk, the Russia-funded rebels ask why he hasn't thrown in with their cause. Life carries on, for those lucky enough to live it. Shakhtar has won the Ukrainian Premier League nine times in the past 14 seasons and has appeared in the UEFA Champions League group stage 11 times since Akhmetov took over as president of the club in 1996. But it has no home. Donetsk has been battered by the fighting. The team's stadium has been strafed and looted. Shakhtar has played all of its home games on the road. With no ally on either side of the conflict, Akhmetov has also fled Donetsk, existing in internal exile. He used to attend Shakhtar practices. He used to cheer from the owner's box during games. In Arena Lviv, the warm-ups end, and play is set to begin, but the owner's box is empty. Akhmetov knows that this is no safe place to stand. This Wednesday Shakhtar plays Malmo FF, the 2014 Allsvenskan (Swedish) champion, in a desperate attempt to climb from the bottom of its group in Champions League play. Twenty years have passed since the events that placed Shakhtar in the hands of Rinat Akhmetov. On Oct. 15, 1995, 8,000 or so fans wait for the game to start in Shakhtar Stadium, in Donetsk. Built 60 years earlier, the multipurpose track-and-field venue is showing its age. The Shakhtar Donetsk club has fared no better, winning just three of the season's previous 11 league games. But the team is in luck. Shakhtar faces a club from Crimea that has also met with hard times. In the days leading up to the match, a crew of laborers, curiously, was seen working on the concrete walls near the owner's box. More policemen than usual now roam the grounds. But these aren't policemen; they only dress the part. They communicate by radio with two men sitting in a car in the stadium parking lot, one of whom clutches a remote control device. They are all waiting for the team's then-owner to arrive. A gangland kingpin, Akhat Bragin has amassed more power and wealth than anyone in eastern Ukraine since the fall of Soviet Rule. Usually on game day, Bragin, known as Alik the Greek, occupies the VIP tribune, surveying his possession. But the Greek isn't there yet. Former Shakhtar Donetsk owner, the late Akhat Bragin -- also known as Alik the Greek -- in 1994. In the match's opening minutes, Bragin finally appears in the owner's box. Quickly, it happens. In the parking lot, a conspirator flips a switch on the remote control. A bomb detonates in the VIP loge. Eleven pounds of plastic explosives. Enough to send a tank into the air. As the shockwave resounds, the crowd erupts in panic. Fans jump the barricades, flooding the field, joining the players in frightened confusion. Dense black smoke fills the air. As the clouds dissipate, a scene of carnage emerges. Body parts are strewn about the stadium seats. A foot, still with its sock and shoe. An arm. Splotches of entrails spattered on the stadium walls and girders. During the gory gangland saga of post-Soviet Donetsk, no one has seen anything like this. "All of the people killed were representatives of criminal structures in the city," a spokesman for the Interior Ministry would later announce. In all, six people are dead. Police identify Alik the Greek by a gold Rolex watch affixed to a dismembered hand and forearm. They can find no more of him. Nor can they find Rinat Akhmetov; Shakhtar Donetsk's vice president has skipped the game. After the bombing, Akhmetov gained control of Shakhtar Donetsk, as well as the steel mines and coal mills that constituted the bulk of the Greek's wealth. In the ensuing decade, Akhmetov branched out beyond industry, into real estate, media, banking, and telecom, eventually consolidating a holding of more than 100 companies. His empire, the largest taxpayer in Ukraine, employed 320,000 people at its peak. Akhmetov was three times wealthier than the second-richest Ukrainian, and one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a personal fortune valued at up to $31 billion, according to Ukraine's Korrespondent magazine. Though he owned half of Ukraine's steel, iron ore, coal mining, and electricity properties, Akhmetov continued to live in his hometown of Donetsk, where he built a castle estate; in Kiev, he built another one. In London, he paid a record price for a UK residential property: reported at more than $210 million. He was also molding Shakhtar into a reflection of his own personal success. As Ukraine struggled to leave behind its rough wiseguy past, Akhmetov became the model. "During the late '90s, and until 2014, Akhmetov became somewhat of a demigod in Ukraine," says Brian Best, a managing director at Dragon Capital, Ukraine's largest investment bank. "As a result of his huge economic interests, he gained a large political representation. He was able to orchestrate much behind the scenes, including the eventual presidential election of Viktor Yanukovych." Rinat Akhmetov (right) and his friend Viktor Yanukovych, former Ukraine president, go back a long way. But in 2014, shortly after Kiev protests forced Yanukovych from office, Ukraine entered a new and dangerous period. The current government in Kiev aims to turn from Russia, pivoting west. The Russian state, under president Vladimir Putin, invaded the eastern part of Ukraine, turning Donetsk, Akhmetov's base, into the center of a brutal armed conflict. This has placed 49-year-old Akhmetov in a vise. In Kiev, political leaders claim to possess evidence that he has funded anti-government forces. In Donetsk, the separatists call him a traitor to their cause. Last summer, angry crowds on both sides of the conflict stormed his homes in anger. Each camp threatens to confiscate the industrial possessions that undergird Akhmetov's empire. Some people consider Akhmetov an essential figure to Ukraine's future stability, others an obstacle to systematic reform. The fighting has driven Akhmetov from Donetsk. He has retreated to Kiev, along with his soccer team, leaving each a refugee. Akhmetov is losing capital and power and position in the continuing struggle. "We have a Russian saying," says a former chief of Ukraine's anti-organized crime unit, who spoke with ESPN on condition of anonymity. "'Where you came from, that's where you're going to in the end.' Whether he's going to be poor or he's going to be dead, it's a dire prospect for Rinat." During the Communist period, the Soviet Union resettled millions of people deemed ethnically undesirable. Many were sent to the Ukrainian Donbass (shorthand for the basin of the river Donets), an industrial region rich in coal and iron ore. There they were forced to work the mines in and around Donetsk. Georgians. Jews. Armenians. Volga Tatars. Russians too, many with lengthy criminal records. While Donetsk became one of the most ethnically diverse places in the USSR, a significant portion of its marginalized population gradually turned to crime. Three groups coalesced, along ethnic lines, these rivals ultimately controlling crime in the region. The Dolidze brothers, Gennady and Gregory, from Georgia, specialized in economic crime. They held a sophisticated view of themselves, eventually establishing an office in Paris. The Russian Eduard Braginsky, known as Chirik, commanded a group that operated through brute intimidation. Then there was Alik the Greek, a Tatar, who went about identifying sharp young fellow Tatars whom he could turn into moneymakers. Among them was Rinat Akhmetov. Akhmetov's father and brother worked in the mines. The family had little, not even an indoor toilet. Despite this poverty, Akhmetov was a good student, and he avoided trouble. When he finished school, he had little interest in heading down into the mines, instead developing other skills. Known to have particularly dexterous fingers, he is said to have become a successful card player. "Rinat promised himself that he would get out of this life at any cost," says the former investigator. "He had very low self-esteem. Very similar to Steve Jobs. The whole world was against him. He had this feeling of injustice from his early days, that the Communist Party people, the mafia people could make so much money. Rinat has a very devious mind, very smart. He never threatened to kill anyone. For everyone, he was just a young guy who played cards well." When he joined Bragin, Akhmetov's associations expanded. He met Viktor Yanukovych, at the time a regional transport manager who had served time for robbery and assault. The relationship would prove critical for both men, as Yanukovych was beginning to leverage his labor connections in the political sphere. Great prospects were about to come for those properly positioned. Akhmetov was 25 years old when the Soviet Union collapsed. The Donbass warped in rapid, cataclysmic change. Ukraine's newly independent government, overwhelmed with steering a former command economy into the free market, was struggling to survive. With state power thus preoccupied, and the police available for purchase, Donetsk's criminal rivals brought their underworld tactics out into the open, killing each other in volume and brutality, battling to control the new society. Shakhtar's Darijo Srna is pleased with his goal against Fenerbahce SC on Aug. 5, during UEFA Champions League play. Shakhtar won 3-0. Bragin amassed capital through currency exchange, eventually muscling his way into control of the region's mills and mines. At the same time, his expansive payroll included high-ranking government officials, which enabled him to accumulate unrivaled political influence. "The Greek became the most respected criminal in Donbass, a Robin Hood of sorts," says the investigator. What Bragin's organization lacked was an honest face. Enter Shakhtar. Active in the Soviet leagues since the 1930s, Shakhtar had won the USSR Cup twice in the 1960s, and twice more in the 1980s. "Shakhtyor," an earlier name for the club, means "miner" in Russian. ("Shakhtar" is the Ukrainian version of the word.) More than any other public entity, the club -- named for the laborers who relied on it for emotional uplift -- carried the identity of the region. In 1989, as the Soviet Union liberalized under the perestroika initiative of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, Shakhtar's players formed a co-op, gaining nominal control of the team. Akhmetov urged Bragin to take the club under their influence. "Owning Shakhtar was more symbolic than anything else," Best says. "It had little economic impact for Akhmetov and Bragin. But it gave them huge influence throughout the country, changing the way they were perceived." After the 1995 bombing at Shakhtar Stadium, Akhmetov saw to it that the mosque in central Donetsk was named in honor of his deceased patron. Otherwise, there was little time for reflection. Eduard Braginsky was already dead. Soon, the Dolidze brothers were gone, one killed outside of Donetsk, the other in Tbilisi. Additional Akhmetov rivals likewise disappeared from a scene that was rapidly losing its variety, coalescing under one man. Although rumors about Akhmetov's involvement in the Greek's death have persisted over the years, Akhmetov's representatives deny such claims. "Akhat Bragin was a close friend to Mr. Akhmetov," says Jock Mendoza-Wilson, the director of international and investor relations for Akhmetov's company, System Capital Management (SCM). "Many people that he knew died during the difficult period around 1994-95, when there was a great deal of organized crime and conflict in Ukraine. Mr. Akhmetov has never been part of that. He was dreadfully distraught that his good friend and close colleague was murdered in such a brutal way." With Bragin gone, Akhmetov expanded his business through the late 1990s and into the new millennium. Government privatizations and industrial takeovers made him the largest producer of iron ore in Ukraine. In politics, Akhmetov supported his old associate, Yanukovych, in a successful 1997 campaign for governor of the Donetsk region. The two men began appearing together publicly. In 2000, Akhmetov consolidated his growing array of businesses into the SCM holding. As his national profile grew, it required refurbishing. He hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to audit SCM. He began recruiting white-collar professionals from France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., luring them to Donetsk with the promise of considerable company resources. These Westerners helped SCM become the most professionally administered company in Ukraine. In 2011, the U.S. Agency for International Development praised Akhmetov and SCM for its corporate responsibility. Akhmetov's reputation had transformed, and most people in Ukraine allowed for it, wanting to forget the troubling times of the recent past. "Rinat is thought of as the enlightened one of all the oligarchs," says a former SCM manager. "He treats his people really well." As SCM's fortunes grew, so did those of Shakhtar Donetsk, largely due to the attention of the club's president. Involved in player selection and strategy, Akhmetov set about making his club from remote Donetsk into a team that could compete with Europe's elite. "Football is his passion," says a current SCM manager who is close to Akhmetov. "For him, it's the main part of his life. He spent 90 percent his time talking and thinking about the players, talking to the coach. All of the decisions regarding players were between him and the coach. Nothing was done without him. In the business, I could make a deal for tens of millions of dollars without his approval. But I could not imagine the same with the football club." In 2001, Shakhtar Donetsk advanced to the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time, and the club would win its first Ukrainian Premier League title a year later. Hungry for even more success, Akhmetov initiated a strategy following the 2002 season that would advance club fortunes, dispatching Shakhtar scouts to target young, raw talent in Brazil's domestic leagues. That year, he signed his first Brazilian, the forward Brandao and would later sign dozens more, including Fernandinho, Willian and Douglas Costa, all of whom now play for giant European clubs. Akhmetov was caught up in the club's progress. On Shakhtar Donetsk game days, he would refuse to discuss SCM. "You couldn't talk to him about business before or after a match," says the current SCM manager. "He was obsessed." One could hardly blame him, since a gripping story was playing itself out on the field. In 2008-09, Shakhtar won the UEFA Cup. In 2011, Shakhtar reached the Champions League quarterfinals, competing alongside the best clubs in the world: Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Chelsea. "I came to Shakhtar in 2003 when nobody had heard of it," says Darijo Srna, who serves as captain of both Shakhtar Donetsk and the Croatian national team. "I had never heard of it. I thought it would be a steppingstone. We made this club from zero to 10." While endearing to fans, Akhmetov's fixation on Shakhtar left senior staffers in his holding's other divisions with grave doubts. "Managers at SCM were frustrated," says a former employee. "When we were keeping different businesses afloat, at the end of the day, the football club was No. 1. It wasn't a venture that was supposed to generate profit. The club was heavily subsidized. It had a $70 [million] to $100 million club budget. And no matter what, that money had to be there." The crown jewel of Donetsk: Akhmetov's $400 million Donbass Stadium at the grand opening in 2009. In 2006, Akhmetov broke ground on his grandest project: the Donbass Arena. Ultimately, the project would cost more than $400 million. FIFA awarded the stadium a category 4 venue, its highest rating. As much as any team victory, the Donbass Arena cemented Shakhtar's iconic status in the region. "When I came, we started with 5,000 people in attendance," says Mircea Lucescu, Shakhtar's head coach. "Now it's 50,000." The stadium opened on Aug. 29, 2009, with a special guest performer. No doubt, it was the first time Beyoncé had played a concert to commemorate Miners Day. At the time, Akhmetov was funding the presidential campaign for Yanukovych. In 2010, Yanukovych won the election, clearing Akhmetov's path to greater wealth and influence. On June 19, 2012, the president of Ukraine and the president of Shakhtar took in a soccer game from the owner's box at the Donbass Arena. Wayne Rooney would score the winning goal for England, beating Ukraine, 1-0, in the group stage of the European championship, hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine. A disappointing outcome, but the moment itself meant more than a single game. Akhmetov had transformed Donetsk, bringing the world to his palace in the heart of industrial Ukraine. He was still young, in his mid-40s. He had survived the mafia wars of the 1990s, as well as the political battles of the ensuing decade. He had a brand-new stadium, and his old friend was running the country. It must have felt like a new beginning. That year, SCM had revenues of $23.5 billion, with assets valued at $31 billion. Akhmetov held 100 percent of company shares. Flush times wouldn't last. On Nov. 21, 2013, President Yanukovych rescinded his pledge to sign a document that had sparked considerable debate, the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The signing of this document would have marked a critical step toward Ukrainian integration into the European Union, taking the country out of Russia's sphere of influence. Following Yanukovych's announcement, Kiev erupted in protest. Then in violence. In February 2014, the shooting started, with snipers -- who remain unidentified -- killing more than 100 people in the Kiev crowds. On Feb. 22, 2014, Yanukovych fled Ukraine. Taking advantage of the power vacuum, Russia annexed Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula. One month later, tensions in the Ukrainian east escalated into open conflict. On one side were Ukrainian forces. On the other, Russian troops commingled with informal groups of locals pressing for autonomy from Kiev. In Rinat Akhmetov's hometown, this group took a name: the Donetsk People's Republic, or DNR. These were not the blindly devoted Shakhtar fans that Akhmetov had in mind when he built his soccer club into the international symbol of the Donbass. Backed by Russian military and financial assistance, these people were now making demands. They wanted to know where Akhmetov stood: for or against them. Kiev pressed for an answer to the same question -- especially after Ukrainian troops allegedly stopped Nikolai Levchenko, an Akhmetov confidante, on his way to Donetsk, with a car trunk full of cash. This fueled speculation that Akhmetov was paying off separatists in order to protect his industry. Meanwhile, Moscow and its proxies had their own suspicions. They reasoned that Akhmetov was no democrat. He was one of them. He had risen to power on ideals they all shared. Why wasn't he supporting independence -- or Russian accession -- for eastern Ukraine? Akhmetov became a symbol of Ukraine's inability to settle the stalemate within its borders. "When the crisis in the east started, many people looked to Akhmetov for a solution," Best says. "After all, his political control and his control over the economy in the region should have given him the ability to influence events. As a result of his failure to have any influence on the situation, the region has suffered. So has SCM. I would guess that the company has lost more than 50 percent of its value since the fighting started." In May of 2014, Akhmetov finally talked. In a short video produced by SCM, he wore a wide-lapelled blue suit and a silver tie. He spoke like a politician addressing his constituency, his delivery rehearsed, polished of the street lingo of his earlier days. Akhmetov dismissed the DNR: "No one in the world recognizes it." He also dismissed the notion of joining Russia. "I deeply believe that the happiness of Donbass can only be in a united Ukraine." Sincere though it may have been, Akhmetov's video failed to silence doubts about his convictions. Last summer, when Shakhtar Donetsk was in France for a preseason exhibition against Lyon, the Ukrainian conflict reached its nadir. On July 17, 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down east of Donetsk. Corpses and debris lay scattered in fields just outside the city. U.S. and German intelligence blamed Russian-led forces for the catastrophe. The Russian government, in turn, accused Kiev. Following Shakhtar's exhibition with Lyon, five of the club's Brazilian players, along with one Argentine, refused to return to Ukraine for the start of the season. Akhmetov suspected that their agents were leveraging the crisis in order to elicit offers from clubs in Western Europe, writing as much on Shakhtar's website: "Players have contracts that they have to abide by. There won't be a clearance sale." The crisis ultimately forced Akhmetov's hand. With fighting only intensifying in Donetsk, he relocated the team to Kiev, and the players agreed to return. Shakhtar's players, coaches, and administrators now live in Kiev's Opera Hotel (owned by SCM). The team plays its home games in Lviv, the largest city in the Ukrainian west, about 40 miles from the Polish border. Donbass Stadium did not escape the violence all around Ukraine in 2014. One crisis averted, another threat emerged. Roughly half of Akhmetov's mills and factories are located on DNR territory. Rebels have converted several of his industrial assets into fortifications. The railroads servicing his businesses in the region have been significantly destroyed, with a resulting bottleneck starving what factories of his continue to operate. SCM's Azovstal iron and steel works is producing at just one-third capacity. Minefields occupy the no-man's land between the two warring sides. On Aug. 23, 2014, two explosions rocked Donbass Arena. Shells ripped through the stadium's northwest façade, damaging communications and electrical infrastructure. Akhmetov's palace was under attack. While DNR leaders have hinted that "basic industries should be kept under state control," the power in Kiev hasn't yet figured out how to handle Akhmetov. He still runs the most professional company in a country that desperately needs to recover its economic capacity. "If this country is going to survive, it needs him," says a current SCM manager. "Ukraine needs investment. Who will invest in Ukraine right now?" Those close to Akhmetov have found him increasingly preoccupied. "I usually have lengthy discussions with him," says the same manager. "His mind now is elsewhere. He only gives yes and no answers. People want to tear him apart." The manager adds one final note of emphasis, which may reveal more about Akhmetov's state of mind than any other evidence: "This is the first time he's not obsessed with Shakhtar." The former head of Ukraine's anti-organized crime unit provides his own assessment of Akhmetov's fate: "A lot of the war in Donbass is driven by the remnants of Rinat's competition who are now bringing their vengeance against him any way they can. They would cooperate with Russians, Ukrainians, as long as they are against Rinat. This is how Rinat is going to end his days. The mafia is going to get him in his own bathroom." Brazilian Luiz Adriano started playing for Shakhtar in 2007. This year he signed with AC Milan. As it turns out, Akhmetov isn't at the 2014 game against Porto. He hasn't attended any of Shakhtar's games in Lviv. "He made a promise to himself," says the SCM manager. "The first match he will attend will be in Donetsk, at the Donbass Arena. For the people, it will be a sign that we can go back to Donetsk." And now there is talk among the players that a return may be approaching. As Russia establishes a military presence in Syria, reports have emerged that Putin is transferring troops there from eastern Ukraine. "I don't want be cynical," says the SCM manager, "but for us, it's good. They are leaving our home and going somewhere else." But before anyone can get comfortable with the idea of returning home, reality encroaches once more. On the morning of Oct. 6, 2015, security at the Donbass Arena received a bomb threat. The target: the Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Centre. Lviv -- with its opera house and the Market Square and its chapels that resemble Prague and Budapest more than anything east of here -- provides a picture of what Ukraine might have looked like. Oddly, for a city that has been Austro-Hungarian, and Polish, and Soviet, Lviv appears to be the most Ukrainian city of all. This is the center of Ukrainian nationalism, the idea that Ukraine could -- and should -- exist apart from Russia, despite the countries' shared heritage. As play begins in Arena Lviv, in the rain, Shakhtar's Brazilians dance around the field with energized flair. Banners are draped around the stadium. "Glory to Ukraine," one reads. Another: "Glory to Heroes." The war in the east is as present in the atmosphere here as the competition on the field. A flag hangs over a loge. One half is Ukrainian blue and yellow, while the other half is the orange and black of Shakhtar. Midway through the game, the crowd stands. There are more than 33,000 fans here. While play continues on the field, they begin to sing the Ukrainian anthem: "Ukraine's freedom has not yet perished, nor has her glory." Rain pours down, along with the anthem. Luiz Adriano kicks the ball back to Shakhtar's goalie, Andriy Pyatov. Pyatov, in turn, kicks it, launching the ball on a high arc downfield, its wet panels catching the lights as it sails into the stadium's squall of words. "Souls and bodies we'll lay down, all for our freedom." The game will end in a tie.

High-accuracy homography estimation for robust pan-tilt-zoom camera calibration A robust and full automatic pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera calibration of intrinsic parameters is proposed in this paper. This method elegantly combined the estimation of lens distortion coefficient and the homography given an image pair taken by the camera undergoing an arbitrary pan-tilt rotation in a fixed zoom. Addressing the problem that the feature-based homography estimation approaches loose the optimality in presence of feature location noise which was assumed as isotropic and identical distributed, we propose a better homography and lens distortion estimation by using covariance matrix weighted Ransac under lens distortion called as CWRLD in which the feature location noise is considered as anisotropic non identical distributed noise. The robustness and effectiveness of our method are demonstrated on both synthetic and real data.

Efficient evaluation of error probabilities for systems with interference and Gaussian noise A novel, computationally efficient and very accurate method for the calculation of error probabilities in systems with interference and Gaussian noise is presented. The main idea is to approximate the natural logarithm of the Q-function by a truncated version of its Taylor series. As a result, Q(x) can be expressed as a finite product of exponential functions. This enables us to find true and approximate upper bounds for the probability of error by evaluating exponential moments of the interference provided that the individual interference components are mutually independent. The described method is very accurate. In numerous examples, the relative errors between the true probability of error and the approximations did not exceed 1% for systems with an "open eye" and 100% when the eye was closed. Additionally, the method is very effective and easy to use, outperforming most published methods in both the number of computations required and simplicity.

The table below lists every retired number for each of the 32 franchises. It also lists each player’s career AV (starting in 1950), position(s), and years with the team. Each column is sortable, and you can use the search box to search by team (or uniform number, or position, or anything else); you can also change how many rows are shown by clicking on the dropdown box on the left. Some notes: It’s fun to sort the table by things like number (two teams have retired #99) or last year (man George Halas must have known someone in management to get his number retired so quickly). Unfortunately, most of the retired numbers that belong to players with low AV have tragic explanations. Not every player death results in a retired uniform, but that doesn’t lessen the impact in the affected communities. The table below, courtesy of Wikipedia, lists all players who died while being active NFL members. I am sure some of these players (like Cincinnati’s Chris Henry) have their numbers unofficially retired by their teams, as well. In Washington, the Redskins have only retired one number. Therefore, the team never officially retired Sean Taylor’s #21, but when O.J. Atogwe — who wore #21 his entire career — signed with Washington in the 2012 off-season, he switched to #20.

"White privilege" is a spurious construct invented by progressive academics who love to divide and categorize people into groups "White Privilege" a Myth I was pondering the other day, how I came to be the lottery winner of “white privilege.” God made me in the image of a good Christian, compassionate and loving to my fellow human beings, and gave me certain tools for success that he gave everybody else, regardless of skin color. I felt privileged that my parents worked hard and put a roof over our heads and food on the table. It was not the best in the world, but we survived. Nobody gave us welfare and, had we demanded something we did not earn and were not entitled to, we would have been told swiftly, “no work, no food.” “White privilege” is a spurious construct invented by progressive academics who love to divide and categorize people into groups just so they can keep animosity and hatred between them in order to better control them. My parents always told me that, if I applied myself and worked very hard, I would be successful. Nobody made promises to me that life would be easy and success would just fall in my lap just because I was classified as “white” by university scholars and government bureaucrats. The Constitution does not mention free college tuition, free health care, and other entitlements that Democrats classify as rights. I have the right to exist and the opportunity to pursue my happiness, health, and education, and nobody owes me anything based on my skin color. If I work, I have money to eat, a roof over my head, I may have a car, and other amenities that can be bought, if I can afford them. If I want luxuries, I must work extra, get a better job, or forget about it. Happiness and satisfaction do not come from buying material things. Now angry and violent lefties are trying to diminish my hard work by telling me that I did not “build” that, it was given to me because I have the esoteric construct called “white privilege.” As double talkers, progressives are really good at inventing euphemisms. If there is such a thing as “white privilege,” why isn’t there a “black privilege?” What about “Hispanic privilege,” “Native American privilege,” “Asian privilege?” What exactly is “white privilege?” According to a website, “white privilege” is a “set of advantages and/or immunities that white people benefit from on a daily basis beyond those common to all others. White privilege can exist without white people’s conscious knowledge of its presence and it helps to maintain the racial hierarchy in this country.” By this definition, “white privilege” does not exist in other countries where white people live. Apparently we have “white privilege” as a “direct result of the disadvantages of other people.” According to this half-baked theory, even white people who are not overtly racist benefit from “white supremacy.” So “white privilege” is equal with “white supremacy?” So “white privilege” is equal with “white supremacy?” Students cite the fact that “white privilege is not having to worry about being followed in a department store while shopping.” Perhaps if you shopped rather than shop-lifted, you would not be followed. Violent and angry mobs riot, burn, rob people on trains, and hit people of a different skin color over the head in a sick “knockout game.” It is sheer hatred generated by their lack of a moral compass and success, taking out their anger on innocents. Riots are a convenient excuse to loot stores in their own neighborhoods. At the lowest point in our lives, white friends and I never looted or robbed stores under the pretense of “social justice.” We did not demand other people’s money, free college tuition, free health care, and other government forms of welfare. We took a second job, worked every day and part of the night because we had pride and honor, not bogus “white privilege.” I worked for minimum wage even though I had a college degree, cheap labor was not beneath me. “White privilege” is “about thinking that your clothes, manner of speech, and behavior in general, are racially neutral, when in fact, they are white.” Behaving like a civilized person, speaking proper English, and behaving like a human instead of a savage street thug is not “white privilege,” it is proper breeding and having a mom at home in the first six years of your life, teaching you how to behave. Black students bullying other black kids because they make good grades is wrong. They are not “acting white,” they are concerned for their future and have a plan for success. Wearing pants down your bottoms like jail inmates do is not proper dressing. Nobody wants to see your underwear in public. Using incomprehensible ghetto jargon is not a formula for success either. Communication in a common language that everyone understands is important. “White privilege exists on an individual, cultural, and institutional level.” “White privilege exists on an individual, cultural, and institutional level.” I cannot remember how many times I lost jobs to lesser qualified and lesser educated black applicants who were hired because of affirmative action quotas. How many better prepared Caucasian students could not attend a university of their choice because there are quotas set up for black people, Hispanic people, and people born in a “poor” state? One Seattle liberal writer wrote in 2015 why “white privilege” exists. “I Have the Privilege of (Generally) Having a Positive Relationship with the Police” Could that be because you were taught to respect authority, especially the police, and how to behave in a polite manner outside of home? Yes, you have the privilege to behave in an orderly and respectful manner when questioned by police. How you choose to behave dictates the outcome of any encounter with the police or any other people for that matter, regardless of your race. If you are violent, recalcitrant, and armed, you will be treated with blunt force. “I Have the Privilege of Being Favored by School Authorities” School authorities treat everyone by the same set of rules; if you choose not to follow those rule and become violent, then the treatment of you will escalate to another level; violent students at home or in the streets are violent and recalcitrant in school as well, defiant of authority, and must be treated accordingly. Schools hire security to help school personnel deal with such offenders. “I Have the Privilege of Learning about My Race in School” Ethnic studies are on the rise at all colleges and universities even though they do not assure a student employment upon graduation. Nobody is stopping you from learning about your specific ethnic group or race’s history and culture. The problem for liberals is, most of the contributions to science and mathematics, even literature, have been made by the much reviled “evil white men.” That is a fact. There are some contributions made by other races but, generally, modern technology and science discoveries were made by white men. Students are forced to learn about the Five Pillars of Islam, in an effort to convert as many students as possible to that faith. Whatever happened to the atheists suing over “separation of church and state?” Does it only apply to Christianity, not to Islam? There is black history month; since the U.S. black population is about 12 percent, then, to be mathematically accurate, there should be about a month and a half of learning nothing else but about black history and the contributions made by black people to civilization. “I Have the Privilege of Attending Segregated Schools of Affluence” Many white people do not have the privilege of attending the schools of their choice for many reasons—they cannot afford the expensive tuition, perhaps their grades are not good enough, or reside in areas that do not fall under that school’s jurisdiction. On the contrary, most “schools of influence” are segregated based on wealth and income and not race. Obama’s children attended a “school of influence” in D.C. even though they self-identify as black. If there is segregation, it is based on income, not skin color. I Have the Privilege of Finding Children’s Books that Overwhelmingly Represent My Race” Most publishers are liberal and tend to accept for publication books that represent their progressive stance. Books are written generally in a number representative of the black population in the U.S. You cannot possibly force white authors to write about something they are not familiar with since they did not grow up or experience the black culture. “I Have the Privilege of Soaking in Media Blatantly Biased Toward My Race” It is hard to even dignify such a statement particularly today when the MSM has become the laughingstock of fake news, defending manufactured news which is heavily biased towards the Democrat Party platform, a platform that has failed black people for decades, keeping them suppressed and poor (see Detroit). Yet these people of color keep electing their corrupt Democrat Party representatives and senators to power. I don’t know many white people who take the MSM media seriously because of their “social justice” and “collectivism” ideology, both communist inventions which some of us have been victims of for decades. If you are a criminal, the media reportage will generally cover up the criminal’s race or ethnicity, unless he/she is white. “I Have the Privilege of Escaping Violent Stereotypes Associated with My Race” The writer makes the bogus statement that “White supremacists (who tend to be White) have perpetuated more terrorism in the United States than any foreign threat.” I suppose 9/11 and the jihadi movement never happened. “I Have the Privilege of Playing the Colorblind Card, Wiping the Slate Clean of Centuries of Racism” He makes a good point that “race is a social construction based on physical differences.” However, he blames white people for using the invention of race. I have not met a black student yet who has not shamelessly benefited from his/her race when competing for scholarships, grants, college admission, jobs, adjustment to their entrance ACT or SAT scores, and other benefits not available to white students. The concept of “colorblindness” is not good enough for this writer, we have to atone for our “implicit biases,” another bogus euphemism, claiming that we associate lighter skin to intelligence, that we give black children less medication for severe pain, and that we “prefer white-sounding names when it comes to school discipline, job applications, and government inquiries,” a ridiculous assertion, which is not true; and it is against the law to discriminate in such a way. Many of us get our “white privilege” by going to work every day, sometimes to very unpleasant jobs and when sick because we cannot afford to miss the paycheck. Others get “white privilege” by working long hours on a project, by studying hard on a test instead of partying with the boys, and because we take the hard road of personal responsibility without crying discrimination and racism. When we were told no, we never gave up and tried harder. Because we have this imaginary “white privilege,” race baiters and their fellow travelers want reparations for slavery which, in some progressive opinions, had an important role in giving us today’s imaginary “white privilege.” Slavery, gone but not forgotten, has been a justified stigma in the history of our country. Progressives are demanding financial reparations for slavery which is objected to by Americans whose ancestors were never involved in or benefitted from the slave trade. Progressive advocates fail to mention that there were also white slaves who built this country, they were indentured to industrial projects and railroads. The Atlantic slave trade took place from the 15th through the 19th centuries with slaves from central and western parts of Africa who had been sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders. The Portuguese brought in 1526 the first transatlantic slaves from Africa to the Americas. They were sold to work in coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sugar, and cotton plantations, silver mines, rice fields, construction industry, logging timber for ships, skilled labor, and as domestic servants. The British, the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch Empires followed the Portuguese’s example and shipped slaves in cargo ships to the New World and to the Caribbean area where slaves made goods to be sold in Europe. More than 12 million slaves were bought and sold; a substantial number died during the grueling passage at sea. By the 17th century slavery became a caste in which children born to slave mothers were slaves themselves and thus property. At the beginning of the 19th century, governments moved to ban the trade but smuggling still occurred. In the 21st century, some governments issued official apologies. According to historians, slavery was practiced for centuries in parts of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, long before the Atlantic slave trade. African states exported slaves to other African countries. The African slave trade was a source of slaves to Europeans and many Muslim countries. From the 9th to the 19th centuries, slave trades from across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean benefitted Muslim countries. The volume in the Atlantic slave trade was larger than the African slave trade. The victims of the Atlantic slave trade came primarily from several areas: Senegal and Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Mozambique, and Madagascar. Slavery is wrong no matter who practiced it, how, for what reason, and during what time. But to create racial strife in 2017 by claiming a bogus “white privilege” in the United States, one of the most tolerant nations on the planet, is wrong and divisive, particularly in an environment that progressives have termed themselves as “colorblind.” We have many black people in positions of power in the United States, in business, education, in Hollywood, in sports; the federal government is dominated by black employees, and we’ve already elected the first black president who is now very busy overseas, bashing America and the current president. Only YOU can save CFP from Social Media Suppression. Tweet, Post, Forward, Subscribe or Bookmark us Listen to Dr. Paugh on Butler on Business, every Wednesday to Thursday at 10:49 AM EST Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Romanian Conservative is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, “Echoes of Communism”, “Liberty on Life Support” and “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” “Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later” are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Her commentaries reflect American Exceptionalism, the economy, immigration, and education.Visit her website, ileanajohnson.com Please adhere to our commenting policy to avoid being banned. As a privately owned website, we reserve the right to remove any comment and ban any user at any time.Comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence and death, racism, anti-Semitism, or personal or abusive attacks on other users may be removed and result in a ban.-- Follow these instructions on registering

Seyfert’s Sextet: where is the gas? Aims. Seyfert’s Sextet (a.k.a HCG 79) is one of the most compact and isolated galaxy groups in the local Universe. It shows a prominent diffuse light component that accounts for ∼ 50% of the total observed light. This likely indicates that t he group is in an advanced evolutionary phase, which would predict a signific ant hot gaseous component. Previous X-ray observations had suggested a low luminosity for this system, but with large uncertainti es and poor resolution. Methods. We present the results from a deep (70 ks), high resolution Chandra observation of Seyfert’s Sextet, requested with the aim of separating the X-ray emission associated with the indivi dual galaxies from that of a more extended inter-galactic component. We discuss the spatial and spectral characteristics of this gr oup we derive with those of a few similar systems also studied in the X-ray band. Results. The high resolution X-ray image indicates that the majority of the detected emission does not arise in the compact group but is concentrated towards the NW and corresponds to what appears to be a background galaxy cluster. The emission from the group alone has a total luminosity of ∼ 1×10 40 erg s −1 in the (0.5-5) keV band. Most of the luminosity can be attributed to the individual sources in the galaxies, and only ∼ 2×10 39 erg s −1 is due to a gaseous component. However, we find that this compo nent is also mostly associated with the individual galaxies of the Sextet, leaving little or no residual in a truly IGM component. The extremely low luminosity of the diffuse emission in Seyfert’s Sextet m ight be related to its small total mass.

Race Relations and Cultural Differences: Educational and Interpersonal Perspectives Introduction. Multicultural Education: Problems and Issues G K Verma and C Bagley. Part 1: Race Relations, Cultural Differences and Ethnocentrism. 1. Race Relations and Cultural Differences: Some Ideas on a Racial Frame of Reference Peter M E Figueroa. 2. Toward An Explanation of Ethnocentrism Versus Ethnorelativism Based Upon Reference Group Orientation. James C Mayer. 3. Toward a Typology of Stranger-Host Relationships. William B Gudykunst. Part 2: Language, Education and Minority Groups. 4. Multiculturalism and Education: Prelude to Practice. Gajendra K Verma. 5. Education, Language and Ethnic Groups in Britain. Olav A Rees. 6. Language, Disadvantage and Minority Education. John Edwards. 7. The Education of Children of Immigrant Groups: A Comparative Perspective of Britain, France, The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. Arpi Hamalian and Joti Bhatnagar. 8. Using a Multicultural Context as a Basis for a Core Curriculum: Cultural Difference as Educational Capital. James Lynch. 9. Children's Books and Ethnic Minorities. Gajendra K Verma and Kanka Mallick. 10. Second Languages in the Primary School: The Australian Experience Barbara McLean. Part 3: Minority Group Children in Multicultural Contexts. 11. Cultural Diversity, Migration and Congnitive Styles: A Study of British, Japanese, Jamaican and Indian Children Christopher Bagley. 12. The Welfare, Adaptation and Identity of Children from Intercultural Marriage Christopher Bagley & Loretta Young. 13. Native Indian and Metis Children in Canada: Victims of the Child Welfare System. Bradford Morse. 14. A Matched-Guise Methodology for Measuring Attitudes Toward Sign-Language Speakers R Bruce Anderson and Robert Benford. Indices.

Trusted Database Interoperation Based on Collaborative Role-Based Access Control The increasing development of distributed application has led to the widespread involvement of database interconnection. Information sharing through the interconnection requires a new type of access control beyond local-only access control scheme: we need to consider the relationship among organizations and a collaborative application. In this paper, we describe an access control framework for the trusted database interoperation based on the collaborative role-based access control model. The cooperation is realized by the construction of virtual role hierarchy for the collaborative application extending the conventional role based access control model. The policy mediator for the application achieves the integration of heterogeneous local datasources which may be under different security policies.

UC1 sampling plan, liquid waste storage tanks, JRC Ispra The objective of INSIDER work package 3 (WP 3) is to draft a sampling guide for initial nuclear site characterization in constrained environments, based on a statistical approach. In this paper, deliverable 3.4 (D 3.4) is presented for WP 3, where the strategy developed in deliverables 3.1 (D 3.1) to 3.3 (D 3.3) is applied to the first of three reference use cases representative of existing decommissioning scenarios. The present discussion focuses on use case 1 (UC1): the liquid waste storage facility at the JRC site of Ispra (Italy). The proposed characterization strategy developed in D 3.2 is applied in a step by step approach to analyse the pre-existing information (obtained through the use of a pre-sampling questionnaire), and to utilise the available inputs towards the development of a sampling plan sufficient for allowing radiological characterization. The proposed sampling plan follows a three-step approach, i.e. determination of possible elevation in activity concentration by non-destructive testing, biased sampling of layers identified, and finally unbiased sampling after mixing of tank Background The facility selected for the case study UC1 is the liquid waste storage facility at the JRC site of Ispra (Italy), referred to as "tank farm". This is a building commissioned in 2010, designed to collect all remaining liquid waste present on site, mostly stored in tanks in the old liquid effluent treatment station (STRRL), to be routed for cementation or other solidification and conditioning treatment. Most of the liquid waste or sludge is contained in two double walled tanks of 12 mm total wall thickness, called VA001 and VA002. A small leadshielded tank for ILW was added to the storage facility a couple of years later. The latter is explicitly excluded from the sampling plan to be established for this exercise, but may contribute to the overall dose rate in the building. The exercise is designed to build upon the sampling strategy developed for the project Improved Nuclear SIte characterization for waste minimization in DD operations under constrained EnviRonment (INSIDER), see . Information for the benchmarking of the use case concept was provided by . Pre-characterisation questionnaire A pre-characterisation questionnaire was used to determine the historical background, scope, purpose and end points of the characterisation. This was sent to the Ispra team for completion and information gathering. From the completed questionnaire and preliminary data provided, some information is available to support in the preparation of the sampling plan: -The historical origin of the waste is the operation of a nuclear research facility including a nuclear research reactor. No end date and further specifics of the research facility are provided. -The stated objective of the sampling plan is to classify and characterise the waste in view of conditioning and management of the waste for storage and/or disposal, and to obtain a better understanding of the radiological safety implications of storing and processing the waste. -Apart from one sampling campaign during which the chemical and radiological properties of the tank contents were measured in 2013, no additional data from environmental or radiological surveillance relating to the waste is available. -A stated uncertainty relates to the relative inhomogeneity of distribution of radionuclides in the waste. -Material data safety sheets about the waste do not exist, in particular no indication of the chemical toxicity is present. -According to the pre-sampling questionnaire, two sets of scaling factors are available, but these have not been provided together with the sampling reports: it is a stated intent of this exercise to come up with scaling factors (if any) which are not prejudiced by way of information supplied in advance. -The maximum dose rate on contact of the tanks is recorded to be 30 mSv/h. It is not clear which of the two tanks is associated with the maximum dose rate. -Accessibility of the waste in the tanks for laboratory sampling is limited to in-stream sampling while pumping contents from the tanks or through a sampling loop. -External access to the tanks for dose rate measurements is possible in general but is restricted because of the location of the tanks against the building walls, and by a shielding wall covering part of one tank. -Surface contamination is not expected to be an issue here as the waste is contained within the tanks. The absence of surface contamination is stated as part of the information provided. Main objective The main objective here is to fulfil the necessary requirements for conditioning and removing the waste according to the relevant waste acceptance and possibly disposal criteria. It is noted that relevant waste acceptance criteria for this waste have not yet been determined by the relevant authority, and applicable clearance or acceptance limits are therefore not known. The intended treatment or conditioning strategy is still in the process of being defined; while cementation has been investigated as a possibility, this has yet to be confirmed. Given this background, the primary objective for this campaign is to characterize the waste as exactly as possible, both in relation to its physico-chemical properties as well as to its radiological content. Highest priority objective Given the pre-existing knowledge about the waste, including the pre-existing laboratory data with comprehensive analysis of physico-chemical parameters, the radiological characterisation of the waste here is the highest priority objective, i.e. determination of type, isotopic composition and volumetric distribution of radioactive waste in waste containers (tanks) and difficult-to-measure (DTM) nuclides and their correlations or scaling factors to easy-to-measure nuclides. Statistical indicators If a uniform distribution of data is expected, an unbiased survey is the preferred sampling method, and vice versa, if the distribution is expected to be non-uniform, a biased survey is the better option. The validity and usefulness of scaling factors must be determined, using as a starting point the pre-existing data as an input. While preliminary scaling factors for specific process streams at Ispra have been determined in the past, these have not been provided so as not to prejudice the analysis of the preexisting data. Access for sampling According to the information provided on the tanks, access for non-destructive in situ dose rate measurements and in situ gamma spectrometry is limited due to the presence of a shielding wall and due to the location of the tanks against the building walls and on the floor of the building. In addition, destructive sampling of the sludge in the tanks is restricted to transfers of contents from the tanks to a temporary storage container, or to sampling in-stream while pumping the tank contents through a loop, via a bagin bag-out glove box arrangement. It is noted that the historical origin of the two tanks' contents is not the same, and that mixing between the tanks does not take place. The two tanks are therefore to be characterized as separate entities. Homogenisation of tank contents Both tanks are equipped with stirrers to ensure homogeneity of the contents. It can therefore be expected that measurements before and after stirring events may yield different outcomes. Notwithstanding the option of stirring tank contents, deposition of solids at the tank bottom may have occurred that is not possible to mobilise through stirring, leading to a layered structure of the radioactive waste in the tanks. Reference samples As stated in the benchmarking design by , one of the major problems in characterising tanks containing sludge (mixed liquid/solid) is the unavailability of suitable reference samples with adequate solid fraction. rate on contact on the tanks is reported to be 30 mSv/h. It is supposed that radiation from the ILW liquid tank located in the same building is not contributing significantly to the dose rate at the surface of tanks VA001 and VA002. It is noted that the pre-existing samples were drawn immediately following the filling of the two tanks, and after stirring the contents. Consequently, water content of the samples is high as there has been no separation of solids within the tank contents. It is noted further that in the meantime, deposition from the sludge may have occurred on the tank bottoms, as evidenced by taking gamma dose rate readings from the tank exteriors. Further sampling at the present stage is therefore likely to result in deviations from the data found during the first sampling campaign. Data collected A set of samples was collected in the years 2012/2013, a first set consisting of 12 sludge samples from tank VA002 (referred to as WP 03, see ), and a second set of 12 sludge samples from tank VA001 (labelled WP 04, see ). Pre-processing An investigation of the data at hand suggests a priori no obvious errors or need for removal of individual data points. Outliers are not apparent, and the relative homogeneity of the (physico-chemical) data suggests that the samples are representative, at least for tank VA002. For tank VA001, distributions of nuclide activities displayed higher variability, likely necessitating additional sampling. Based on the pre-existing data, it can be expected that there is some spatial non-uniformity, which is principally related to the separation into liquid and sludge/solid portions of the waste. If possible, a gamma imaging camera or alternatively gamma scanning can be utilised to identify hot spots or layering inside the tanks. Given the small number of samples and relative inhomogeneity within the activity concentrations, the use of scaling factors in the samples for the determination of DTM nuclides can be expected to be of limited use only, if at all. Hence, a combination of biased (to confirm distribution of inhomogeneity) and unbiased (to confirm averages for overall characterisation) survey methods based on a small number of samples could be sufficient. Exploratory data analysis In this exploratory analysis, we take stock of the information available, and whether additional information is needed to reach the stated objectives. As the time elapsed since waste generation is more than 10 years, probably significantly so, very short living nuclides are no longer expected to be present. Apart from the radiological characteristics, the preexisting data seem to give a representative indication of a fairly homogenous physico-chemical content of the tanks, where this information is available. The parameters included in the preliminary analysis include particle size distribution, elemental composition and thermogravimetric analysis (tank VA001 only), and chemical analysis including pH, water content, bulk density, conductivity, total solids, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, total content of carbon and phosphorous, NH 4 + , total tensioactives, fluoride, chloride, bromide, phosphate, sulphate, nitrate, cyanide, formate, oxalate, acetate, citrate, and anionic, non-ionic and cationic tensioactives. The relative homogeneity relating to physico-chemical content confirms the initial assessment of the highest priority objective, i.e. the determination of the spatial distribution (if any) and nuclide vector of the radionuclide content of the tanks. Data analysis In order to better understand the information available from the pre-existing data and the gaps remaining, trends relating to the radionuclide content are here further analysed. Post-processing Inspection of the pre-existing data allows the following observations to be made: -The activity concentration of alpha-emitting nuclides (Am-241, Pu isotopes, Cm-244) is on the order of 10 Bq/g in both tanks. Hence the initial assessment of the waste as class LLW is confirmed and further analysis of this classification is not necessary. -The activity concentrations in the two tanks are not significantly different with ratios for individual nuclides ranging between some tenths to some tens. -The nuclide activity concentration in tank VA001 is not representative of a homogeneous distribution, with standard deviations of the activities of up to 200%. In tank VA002, the homogeneity is significantly higher, with standard deviations not exceeding some 20% for the activities. -No information is available about the elevation level within the tank from which sampling occurred. -The activity concentration in the samples is dominated by fission products. The ratio of Sr-90 to Cs-137 activities is very high (around 0.5 to 0.6 in both tanks, while usually a ratio between 0.1 and 0.01 is more typical). In reference , typical scaling factors for Italian nuclear power plants are listed, however they refer only to the four commercial nuclear reactors, two of the BWR type and one of the PWR type and gas graphite type each. The example mentioned here, the ratio of Sr-90/Cs-137 activities, is less than 0.06 in resins from BWR and PWR reactors listed in that IAEA reference. -In both tanks there is very little solid material present, but nevertheless the ab/g ratio is high compared to standard reactors (PWR, BWR). Tank VA002 probably contains more solids (95% water) compared to VA001 (99%). Nevertheless the ab/g ratio in VA001 seems to be larger than in VA002. Alpha emitting nuclides are expected to be more present in the solid due to their low solubility. In summary, both tanks have a relatively high ab/g ratio when compared with standard reactors. The higher ab/g ratio combined with higher Sr-90/Cs-137 can also be found in spent fuel residues. -For a statistically valid application of scaling factors, more data of DTM nuclide activities will be needed for both tanks. For tank VA001, the applicability of scaling factors is severely limited by the variability in activity concentrations, while for tank VA002, scaling factors based on the Co-60 and Cs-137 activities were of limited applicability. -In the existing data, many of the activities of DTM nuclides were below the detection limit. However, valid characterisation of the nuclide vectors will require more information about the homogeneity, and of the usefulness of applicable scaling factors. More data will therefore be needed, including of DTM nuclides. Achievement of the objectives The pre-existing data provide comprehensive information about physico-chemical properties of the waste. Only a small number of additional samples (e.g. 6 per tank to allow for a minimum of statistical analysis) should suffice to confirm the characteristics determined via the pre-existing data, including the chemical characteristics. In the context of historical information, it is known that the sampling was conducted immediately following tank filling and mixing; hence information about an elevation profile in activity concentrations or sludge/liquid separation is not available from that data set, and additional sampling will need to verify if such a profile exists in the tanks. Based on the pre-existing data, the radionuclide inventory of the tanks is less homogeneous than the chemical content (pH, water content, bulk density, conductivity, total solids, total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, total content of carbon and phosphorous, NH 4 + , total tensioactives, fluoride, chloride, bromide, phosphate, sulphate, nitrate, cyanide, formate, oxalate, acetate, citrate, and anionic, non-ionic and cationic tensioactives), which also suggests additional data will be needed to obtain a statistically valid radionuclide inventory and, if possible, relevant scaling factors. The objectives relating to variability and nuclide content of the radioactivity in the two tanks are therefore not adequately addressed by the pre-existing data, and more sampling (both non-destructive and destructive) will have to be performed. 6 Sampling plan À design 6.1 Non-destructive testing to determine possible elevation profile in activity The first step in the sampling campaign should be the establishment of the approximate distribution of the activity in the tanks by external gamma spectrometry or by collimated dose rate measurements. The prerogative here would be to determine if there is an elevation profile in activity concentration within the tanks, for example as a result of solids with more significant radionuclide content settling to the bottom of the tanks, hence this campaign should be performed prior to mixing, and after allowing as long a settling time as possible. This is likely to give an indication of the separation within the tanks between liquid and sludge portions of the waste, and therefore also allow an estimate of the respective quantities of sludge and liquid present. The pre-existing data of tank VA001 displayed relative radiological inhomogeneity À this inhomogeneity may be related to sampling different portions of the sludge without adequate mixing. Non-destructive testing from the tank exterior may be useful to determine if this is the case in the present situation, i.e. if there is an elevation profile with differing activity concentrations. This is particularly relevant as at present, several years after the first samples were collected, stratification or deposition may have occurred. For tank VA002, the sampling data suggested better homogeneity between the samples. Nevertheless, the same technique should be used to determine whether an elevation profile can be determined exterior to the tank prior to mixing. Biased sampling, prior to mixing Following non-destructive gamma dose rate measurements, there will be an indication of whether the contents are fairly homogeneous with respect to specific activity, or whether there is a significant elevation profile. In case of an elevation profile, biased sampling should be performed on that portion of the waste with the highest activity contained, prior to performing any mixing. The number of samples to take may be limited by access of the different levels within the tank, but a minimum number of samples of about 6 may be sufficient for confirming the usefulness and applicability of previously identified scaling factors. At the same time, biased sampling along the entire height of the waste volume should provide the samples required to determine the chemical characteristics of the liquid and sludge portions of the waste, including their variability within the tanks. A sample number of 6 provides the best compromise as an increase in samples only marginally increases the confidence interval of the standard deviation, while a smaller sample size provides insufficient statistical power. Unbiased sampling, following mixing In case of no elevation profile, sampling can skip the previous step (biased sampling) and can proceed to unbiased sampling, which should be performed after mixing tank contents. If possible, unbiased sampling should be performed in a way as to ensure that any part of the tank contents is equally likely to be sampled. Therefore, only the probabilistic sampling method can now be used for sampling the sludge. To ensure a valid random sampling campaign for the entire volume, it has to be ensured that the entire mobilisable volume of the tank is circulated during the sampling campaign and that samples are taken from (nearly) equal volumes from the whole stream. The minimum number of samples is determined by the requirements of an approach for univariate statistics on non-spatially distributed data. As preparatory homogenisation measures will be used for homogenisation, the expected variance of activity concentration should be low. Therefore, the number of samples can be low (10-20). If step 6.2 was skipped, the number of samples of this step will need to be sufficient for determination of scaling factors and range of nuclide factors. If data were collected for step 6.2 (biased sampling), the number of samples still required for the unbiased sampling step can be correspondingly reduced, as the biased sampling data can provide some information about the results to be expected after mixing. Statistic evaluation of results will be done concerning univariate analysis only with respect to the nuclide specific activity concentration. In addition, the scaling factors of DTM to Cs-137 will be evaluated or confirmed. Based on the pre-existing data, it can be expected (but needs confirmation) that no activity elevation profile can be found for tank VA002, while for tank VA001, an elevation profile is likely but also needs confirmation. If an elevation profile exists, biased sampling will confirm this, and the sampling data can be contributed to the data set used for characterization. If no elevation profile is identified, non-biased sampling only will need to provide sufficient data for characterization. Number of samples How many samples are required? According to , the simplest approach for a univariate problem with no spatial structure is to use the standard formula where n is the number of samples, z is the confidence level, s is the sample standard deviation and e the error level. It is clear that the number of samples increases rapidly with the standard deviation, i.e. with the variability of the sample set. For the data set for tank VA001, values for the standard deviation in activity concentration ranged between 16% and almost 200% of the mean. Assuming a confidence level of 90% (i.e. z = 1.6) and an error of 5% of the mean, the number of samples required from this set is still at least 20, when assuming the lowest value for the standard deviation found (16% for Co-60). For the sample set from tank VA002, the situation is slightly more advantageous, as the variability in the data was smaller. For this set, the number of samples required is at least 5, and up to about 60 for the nuclides for which the activity concentration displayed larger variability. In a first step therefore, it is advisable to confirm the degree of variability in the data before deciding on the number of samples required. In the case of a spatial structure being present (as determined in step 6.1), biased sampling of individual layers will lead to more homogeneous subsets for sampling, which require a smaller number of samples. As a starting point, 6 samples should be sufficient to confirm variability, allow for a minimum of statistical analysis and inform the way forward. Conclusion Following the guideline set out in D3.2 Report on statistical approach, see , we attempt here to follow the proposed strategy by applying it to the characterisation of the Ispra storage tanks. The amount of effort needed for the sampling and characterization campaign hinges on the availability of information prior to the campaign. Information about the historical origin of the waste and the analysis of preexisting data can significantly reduce the subsequent sampling required. The two ILW tanks at Ispra are characterized by activity concentrations of gamma emitting nuclides of a few Bq/g (tank VA001) up to about 135 Bq/g (tank VA002). Non-destructive gamma spectrometry from the tank surface may be used to determine if elevation profiles in the tank can be identified prior to mixing. Biased sampling may be used to confirm inhomogeneity within the tanks, if suggested by non-destructive testing. If not, non-biased sampling only can be used to confirm the trends observed in the pre-existing data, and to supplement it where additional information is needed.

Just a week after he was one of the guys featured in Jeff Jarrett's Gobal Force Wrestling (GFW) roster reveal "press conference", former National Football League offensive lineman Quinn "Moose" Ojinnaka has inked a new deal with Ring of Honor (ROH). The Sinclair Broadcasting owned independent has booked the big man strongly throughout his year with the company, but never more so than the last few weeks where he's been positioned as a main eventer. He's scheduled for a #1 contenders match at the Best in the World pay-per-view (PPV) next month against former ROH World champs Michael Elgin and Roderick Strong. Terms of the deal with the former Atlanta Falcons player were not announced, but announcing it as a contract signing feels different from how ROH handles other talents not locked in to working fairly exclusively with them like AJ Styles or Alberto El Patron. If Jarrett comes through with a television contract for GFW, we may see a lot of talents inking deals with these two companies or TNA. If you're a big enough name, it might be a great time to work a bunch of shows and make a ton of money, too... For the last time. We haven't signed a contract with anyone. We wrestle for any company we want. Handshake agreements only #Independence — The Young Bucks (@NickJacksonYB) May 16, 2015 Do you think ROH is right to invest in Moose? Do you see an indy signing spree on the horizon?

Canada's competition regulator is moving to block the proposed merger between the country's two biggest office-supply companies, Staples and Grand & Toy, citing concerns that the combined business would have a stranglehold on the $500-million-a-year market for corporate purchases of pencils, highlighters, sticky notes and paper. The Competition Bureau made the announcement Monday in conjunction with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which is seeking to block the deal south of the border. "If the acquisition were to proceed, Staples would account for over 80 per cent of sales of various office products to affected customers in Canada, including supplies such as pens, pencils, highlighters, staples, sticky notes and paper," the bureau said in a statement. The result would likely be "substantially" less competition, driving up prices paid by for-profit and not-for-profit businesses, as well as government, health care entities and schools, the statement said. Staples Canada is a subsidiary of Massachusetts-based Staples Inc., while Grand & Toy is the Canadian operating arm for U.S.-based Office Depot. Both parent companies said Monday that they will challenge the competition regulators' decision and will show it was based on "a flawed analysis and misunderstanding" of the competitive landscape the companies deal with. The companies said they face stiff competition from manufacturers who sell their own products, Internet sellers, big box stores and others. Staples announced in February that it was buying Office Depot for $6.3 billion US as part of a plan to join forces to compete against big box stores and online rivals. The U.S. FTC stopped a merger attempt between the same two companies in 1997. But in the past 19 years, Amazon and other online sellers, which deliver to almost anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, have exploded onto the scene, while megastores such as Costco and Wal-Mart have further crowded the market.

Multimodal evaluation of risperidone for destructive behavior: functional analysis, direct observations, rating scales, and psychiatric impressions. Risperidone, an atypical neuroleptic, has become a popular option for treating destructive behaviors of persons with developmental disabilities. A few studies have been conducted that evaluate the effects of risperidone on destructive behavior; however, none of these studies have combined objective measures with rating scales to evaluate the effects of risperidone on destructive behavior across home and clinical settings. This study evaluated the wide range of effects of risperidone on destructive behavior of 2 persons with developmental disabilities using weekly functional analysis sessions, daily observations, hourly home data, weekly rating scales, and monthly psychiatric impressions. Results indicate that risperidone does decrease destructive behavior and that, for the most part, all of the various measures yielded similar results.

Magnetic resonance imaging in patients with progressive myelopathy following spinal surgery. reduction in the baseline will be compensated for by reduced pterin excretion. This would also account for the elevated levels of biopterins in the plasma of such subjects.'" There is a greater incidence of Alzheimer type changes in Down's syndrome patients than in the normal population," and Down's syndrome has been suggested as a model for accelerated ageing.'2 However, there is no correlation between age and urinary N/B ratio in Down's syndrome from birth and not one acquired with age.

Biodegradation of acyclic isoprenoids by Pseudomonas species The ability of various pseudomonads to utilize acyclic isoprenoids as a sole carbon source was investigated. Tests for utilization of acyclic isoprenols such as citronellol and geraniol were complicated by toxic effects of these alcohols, and most species tested were killed by exposure to citronellol or geraniol (0.1%, vol/vol) in liquid culture. In the case of Pseudomonas citronellolis, sensitivity to isoprenols is reduced by prior induction of the isoprenoid degradative pathway via either growth on succinate in the presence of citronellol or growth on citronellic acid. For this species, citronellic acid proved to be the best isoprenoid growth substrate tested. Geraniol utilization as a taxonomic indicator for different subgroups of pseudomonads is discussed. Only a few of the species tested were able to utilize acyclic isoprenoids. Two species which utilize C10 acyclic isoprenoids, P. aeruginosa and P. mendocina, were shown to contain the inducible enzyme geranyl-coenzyme A carboxylase, one of the unique enzymes in the isoprenol degradative pathway known to occur in P. citronellolis. Of the species which utilized geranitol, none showed definite growth on the homologous C15 and C20 isoprenols.

Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Transportation Headlines online newspaper, which you can also access via email subscription (visit the newspaper site) or RSS feed. First, let’s begin with an excerpt from the Los Angeles Newspaper Group (Daily News, etc.) editorial page, defending a recent opinion piece that cycling is not a viable transportation option in Southern California. Take it away, LANG Editorial Board: Most of us, unfortunately, face commutes of far longer than a mile or two. It’s a mass sprawl from the desert to the sea, and some of us have either chosen or been forced into commutes that go from one to the other each morning and evening. Bicycling from Desert Hot Springs to Santa Monica and back again each day is not a convenient way to get around, watermelon in tow or not. Is cycling here not just recreation but a real transit option? Have the creation of bicycle lanes on our roads, education programs to alert motorists or the desire to combat global warming and get some exercise at the same time convinced you to consider a cycling commute? On the plus side, I’ve read stupider things in newspapers. On the other hand, I don’t recall ever hearing any kind of serious transportation advocate suggest that anyone should be commuting from Desert Hot Springs to Santa Monica whether it be in a car, bike, airplane, etc. So that’s just a really dumb example inserted into the editorial to make cycling advocates look extreme and unreasonable. Great journalism, eh? Look, people. It’s fair game and it’s important that our press scrutinizes transportation projects of all types to determine whether they will be effective or not. As this blog has written before, not every bike lane is a good one. But it would be nice to see the media acknowledge the main argument for improving bike networks, sidewalks and transit: it’s a way to expand transportation options so that not everyone has to drive everywhere, thereby creating bad traffic. Yes, the same bad traffic editors love to crow about. The problem is that it’s super easy to suggest thatSouthern California is too sprawling and too complicated for transit or bike lanes to ever work here. Never mind context about other large, sprawling regions where transit or bike networks do work — that’s not important when aiming to serve the lowest common denominator. It’s harder for the same editor to suggest a more nuanced approach, which would be a series of stories about the type of cycling infrastructure that works best and why. That’s the series of articles this region needs. And deserves. Sermon over. Is the California PUC foreshadowing the California Supreme Court? (L.A. Streetsblog) The Public Utilities Commission last week issued a ruling that, in essence, confirmed its earlier approvals of street crossings for the second phase of the Expo Line. The group Neighbors for Smart Rail has challenged that decision all the way to the California Supreme Court, with a ruling expected soon. The dispute involves the data used to study the impact of the rail crossings on traffic — in particular, whether the data must be current or can reflect future (i.e. worse) traffic decisions. Project supporters are pleased with the PUC upholding its earlier approvals and hope that’s a clue as to what the California Supreme Court will rule. Of course, the project is under construction and the Supreme Court thus far has not shown any inclination to halt work on the rail line. Oregon to tax some motorists by the mile, not the gallon (Governing) Under the bill approved by the Legislature, 5,000 volunteers would pay a tax of 1.5 cents per mile driven instead of the state gas tax of 30 cents per gallon. With cars becoming more efficient, gas taxes have dipped and many advocates say that charging by the mile is a better way to raise funds needed for transportation while also taxing people for the road systems that they use — whether in a Prius or Lamborghini. This is just a pilot program in Oregon, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it sticks. Metro Transit goes high-tech to find free-loading riders (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) The agency that runs trains and buses in the Twin Cities says that 99 percent of its rail riders are paying fares according to fare inspections. Now they are going to more closely track fare evasion on some bus routes, asking bus operators to use a computer to track freeloaders. Operators have the option of calling police when someone jumps aboard without paying, but many operators continue driving in an attempt to stay on schedule. Like this: Like Loading...

The discourse functions of Italian subjects: a centering approach This paper examines the discourse functions that different types of subjects perform in Italian within the centering framework (Grosz et al., 1995). I build on my previous work (Di Eugenio, 1990) that accounted for the alternation of null and strong pronouns in subject position. I extend my previous analysis in several ways: for example, I refine the notion of CONTINUE and discuss the centering functions of full NPs.

In 2016, we're only eight years removed from 2008 -- barely even a president back -- but it was an entire pop universe ago. The two biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits of the year belonged to Flo Rida and Leona Lewis. Lil Wayne was the unquestioned Greatest Rapper Alive and Drake and Nicki Minaj were only well-known to mixtape enthusiasts. Adele was about as famous as Duffy. Justin Bieber's largesse was still contained to YouTube. And Lady Gaga was a dance-pop oddball signed to Akon's label, who seemed just as plausible as a future one-hit wonder than as a generational superstar. But most importantly, pop in 2008 was simply a smaller place. Event albums were scarce, music videos were dwindling in relevance, award shows were almost uniformly boring. The most recognizable voice in pop music was, ironically, that of T-Pain, whose popularization of Auto-Tune across Top 40 flattened out the vocal playing field to a near-depressing amount. Stars like Beyonce and Rihanna were beginning to push at pop's walls a little bit, but weren't yet at the place of completely breaking the mold. The EDM boom, and accompanying explosion in festival culture, were still a couple years away. Something big really needed to happen. It didn't take long for Lady Gaga to prove that she was the asteroid pop music was begging to have crash through it. Debut single "Just Dance" topped the Hot 100 for three weeks in early 2009, and "Poker Face" made her two-for-two a couple months later. Before long, this sleazy, sexually ambiguous club diva with mainstream pop smarts and underground grit was the biggest thing in Top 40 -- just in time for the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where her surreal, macabre performance of new single "Paparazzi" provided the WTF? undercard to Kanye West and Taylor Swift's unquestioned main event. And of course, the videos. "Paparazzi" -- a foreign-filmed faux-noir starring True Blood actor Alexander Skarsgard and featuring Gaga performing a dance number on crutches -- proved her most striking visual to date, ante upped later that year with the landing of the "Bad Romance" clip, an extraterrestrial odyssey that proved instantly iconic, in a way videos weren't supposed to be anymore. Best of all was "Telephone," in which Gaga was joined by Beyoncé for a ten-minute, high-art-infused, road-tripping hodgepodge of Tarantino, Thelma & Louise and Japanese TV that became the first event video of the 2010s. Gaga celebrated her coronation as the franchise player of 21st-century MTV (and YouTube) by wearing a meat dress to the '10 VMAs, and finally Millennials had a pop star who could hold her own against Madonna and MJ. It all led up to the much-hyped release of 2011's Born This Way. The album, technically Gaga's second full-length, bore the full scope of her artistic ambition over the case of its 14 tracks and 61 minutes, reaching out to the clarion-call disco of its LBGTQ-rallying title track, the Springsteenian synth-pop histrionics of "Edge of Glory," the "Mutt' Lange-helmed stadium power balladry of "You and I," and the Latin-tinged operatics of "Americano." Everything about Born This Way was big -- the songs, the music videos, the cover art, and of course, the promotional appearances, with Gaga capping her trilogy of Big VMA Moments by gracing the '11 MTV awards as Jo Calderone, her male alter-ego with a particular youthful affinity for Britney Spears. Of course, despite an initially rapturous reception -- Born This Way sold over a million copies in its first week, as its title track topped the Hot 100 for six weeks -- the album has since come to be perceived as something like her Be Here Now, a post-superstar album that sees the artist diving too deep into the qualities that initially endeared fans to them, and alienating those unsure if they want to follow that far down. (Never mind that the album still had a handful of classic singles, and that Gaga's crimes of trying too hard and dipping into art-pop pretension were far lesser than those of the Gallagher Bros' egomaniacal epic of shrugging guitar-pop mediocrity.) The public quickly cooled on Gaga, and though she's had hits and chart-topping albums in the years since, her reception has yet to reach the feverishness of those first couple years again. But other pop stars have picked up the slack. Kanye West, the one contemporaneous Top 40 fixture whose big-thinking could've rivaled Gaga's at her peak (and, once upon a time, a near-tourmate of Stefani's) stepped up his game even further after her arrival, blowing his music videos into 35-minute short films and eventually expanding the art form to include live projections and stadium premieres. Former co-star Beyoncé also went through a conceptual makeover, eventually reviving interest in both the music video and the LP format with her self-titled surprise visual album. Rihanna released her weirdest album a year after Gaga's breakthrough and was never quite the same after. Even Britney -- who "Telephone" was initially written for -- ended up trying to make her own version of the song's video. Not all of this can be traced back directly to Gaga, of course, but it's hard to overestimate the impact she had in making all this acceptable, even commonplace in the pop realm. She took American mainstream music at one of its least-interesting and most star-power-deprived moments and made it bigger, weirder, more visual and infinitely more personality-driven -- in other words, much more fun. Today, the sense of possibility in pop is as vast as it's ever been, and even if Gaga is no longer the ringleader that all look to for what comes next, she ensured that pop fans would at least come to expect such boundary-pushing out of their best and brightest. They haven't let us down since.

Fans of the Miami Dolphins have been eagerly waiting for former first-round pick DeVante Parker to show flashes of the receiver the team expected him to be coming out of Louisville in 2015. If Thursday is any indication, the third-year pro may be ready to take the next step in his development. On the second play from scrimmage during the first team period of training camp, Parker caught a 32-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Parker caught another spectacular reception later on during the day, good for 11 yards. Dolphins head coach Adam Gase said after practice that it didn’t surprise him that Parker had a great day to begin camp. “Just seeing him come in, you really can tell with him with just his body and how lean he looks and his attitude in the meetings that he was ready to go today, that he’s prepared all summer,” Gase said. “These guys have been down here for a while. They took a little bit of a break but it sounds like the majority of them were hanging out all summer working together and I think he was not looking to kind of ease into camp. Last night when I talked to him, he was ready to get after it right away.” While Parker shined on offense, someone else also had a standout day. Cornerback Torry McTyer, an undrafted rookie out of UNLV, had two interceptions. One of the interceptions would have been returned for a touchdown. In 2016, McTyer ranked fifth in the Mountain West Conference with three interceptions to go along with 49 total tackles, which was the sixth most for the Rebels.

World leaders and officials were quick to issue condemnations Wednesday night after two Palestinians opened fire at a popular Tel Aviv nightspot killing four people in one of the worst attacks in a months-long wave of violence. British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted on Thursday morning that his country stands with Israel against terrorism, and that he was "sickened by the appalling attack." The United States called it a "horrific terrorist attack." "These cowardly attacks against innocent civilians can never be justified. We are in touch with Israeli authorities to express our support," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "The United States condemns today’s horrific terrorist attack in Tel Aviv in the strongest possible terms," a statement issued by the State Department said. "We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and our hopes for a quick recovery for those wounded." Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said the incident was a "heinous terrorist attack," and reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself. “I condemn the heinous terrorist attack in Tel Aviv today," the candidate said in a prepared statement. "I send my deepest condolences to the families of those killed and I will continue to pray for the wounded." French President Francois Hollande condemned “with the greatest strength the odious attack.” He also expressed France’s “support for Israel in the fight against terrorism.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims and and reiterated that there is no justification for terrorism "nor for the glorification of those who commit such heinous acts." UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, immediately condemned the shooting. "All must reject violence and say no to terror," he said in a statement. "I am also shocked to see Hamas welcome the terror attack. Leaders must stand against violence and the incitement that fuels it, not condone it." Canada’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement online that Ottawa was “shocked” by the terror attack. Last week in Paris, representatives from 28 countries, the Arab League, European Union and United Nations met to discuss ways of restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Negotiations have been at a complete standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014. Following last week's meeting, France hopes to hold an international peace conference before the end of the year. Israel strongly opposes the French plan, calling instead for direct negotiations, while the Palestinians support it. France and others argue that the lack of any initiative leaves a vacuum that can be filled by extremists on either side. Staff with agencies

If Pepsi wins taste-tests, why does Coke still dominate the market? Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/Slate. Photos by Getty Images, Reuters. This is part of a special series about great rivalries: between tech titans, sports franchises, and even dinosaur hunters. Read about the series here. The inspired Pepsi Challenge marketing campaign of the 1980s was my childhood introduction to one of the fundamentals of scientific inquiry: the double-blind experiment. In a world beset with soft drink advertising, how could you really know which soda you liked best? Clearly what made sense was to put prejudice and branding aside, don a blindfold, and focus on pure flavor. It was one of the greatest marketing coups of all time. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Pepsi steadily gained on Coke in terms of market share. Characters in the ads always picked Pepsi, of course, but so did most people who tried it in real life—the sweeter taste was more appealing. By 1983, Pepsi was outselling Coke in supermarkets, leaving Coke dependent on its larger infrastructure of soda machines and fast food tie-ins to preserve its lead. That was a success in its own right. But even better, Pepsi forced Coke into an infamous business blunder. Faced with eroding market share, Coke began a series of its own internal taste tests aimed at developing a superior product. Thus was born the dread New Coke, a sweeter cola reformulated to best both Pepsi and the classic formulation of Coke in blind taste tests. The backlash was fast and furious, with over 400,000 letters of complaint pouring in to the company. Despite declining market share, Coke was still by far the market leader over Pepsi—and the company’s millions of loyal customers weren’t looking for a new flavor. Pepsi recorded the fastest year-on-year sales growth in the company’s history during New Coke’s first month, while a consortium of Coca-Cola bottlers decided to sue the company for changing the product. But then Coca-Cola’s senior leadership did something tough: They admitted that they were wrong. And they executed a strategic pivot that’s kept them on top of the rivalry ever since. They reintroduced the original formula under the name “Coca-Cola Classic” and sold it in parallel with New Coke for a while. Over time, the “new” Coke was phased out, and Coca-Cola Classic became just, well, Coke once again—a product so culturally iconic that across a significant swath of the United States it serves as a generic term for what decent people call “soda” and Midwesterners call “pop.” For the past 25 years, Coke advertising has focused on the brand first and foremost. The soda is a shared experience that’s supposed to remind you of friendship, family, adorable bears, and other fuzzy associations. And it’s worked great. According to industry statistics compiled by Beverage Digest, Coke owns 17 percent of the American market for carbonated soft drinks. The next most popular choice is Diet Coke with 9.4 percent. Pepsi languishes in third place at 8.9 percent. Though it’s the flagship brand of a diverse beverage and snack company with over $65 billion in revenue, Pepsi is a definite loser in the popularity sweepstakes. Pepsi is a quintessential example of a “challenger brand” that’s seeking an edge against a dominant, iconic firm. Marketing has often emphasized the idea of Pepsi as newer or more youthful—“the choice of a new generation”—as a way of turning its second-place status into an advantage. But Pepsi works as such a great example of a challenge because despite decades of efforts, none of its different slogans or logos or celebrity endorsements has ever put it in first place. It’s a frustrating place for the company to be, because the Pepsi Challenge wasn’t just an ad gimmick. It really is true that blind taste tests suggest that people like it better than Coke. Yet people keep buying more Coke. One theory of this “Pepsi Paradox,” described by Lone Frank in Scientific American, is that we should take the Pepsi Challenge at face value. Coke’s victory is a triumph of branding over flavor, and a clear sign that consumer companies should invest lots of money in advertising. Researchers intrigued by the paradox have suggested that Coke’s ads actually rewire the human brain. When Read Montague of Baylor College Medicine performed a version of the Pepsi Challenge with subjects hooked up to an fMRI machine, he found something interesting. In blind taste tests, most people preferred Pepsi, and Pepsi was associated with a higher level of activity in an area of the brain known as the ventral putamen, which helps us evaluate different flavors. By contrast, in a nonblind test, Coke was more popular and was also associated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. Montague’s interpretation: This prefrontal activity represented the higher-thinking functions of the brain associating the soda with ad campaigns and, in effect, overriding the taste buds. But perhaps this is wrong. Felix Salmon notes that in blind taste tests of wine, people almost invariably prefer sweeter varieties. This hardly means sweeter wines are always better—and Pepsi is sweeter than Coke. On this view it’s actually Pepsi that scored the marketing triumph, by convincing people that a blind taste test represents the true mark of soda flavor. Likewise, the idea that Coke triumphs because of ads rather than flavor has trouble explaining the failure of New Coke. New Coke had the same ads behind it as old Coke, but was specifically engineered to beat Pepsi in taste tests. But taste tests consist of relatively modest sips, and Americans don’t drink tiny sips of soda. We drink whole cans of soda. We drink 20-ounce bottles. We drink Big Gulps at 7-Eleven. We drink sodas so large that Michael Bloomberg wants to make them illegal. Serious soda drinkers consume multiple servings per day, every day of the week. And while we want something sweet, we don’t necessarily want that kind of long-term relationship with something too sweet. That’s why New Coke could succeed in a lab but fail in the marketplace. The Pepsi Challenge is a great marketing gimmick but not a viable path to displacing the leading brand. Some rivalries come down to the fundamentals. Coke just has a flavor that most people like better, and decades of brand-on-brand combat can’t change that.

This week, a Mother Jones editor named Adam Weinstein got into a Twitter tête à tête with an Indiana lawyer who called on riot police in Madison to use “live ammunition” to clear protesters out of the state Capitol. It turned out that lawyer, Jeff Cox, is a deputy attorney general in the state. And — perhaps unsurprisingly — he’s left a long online trail of controversial statements and diktats. “[A]gainst thugs physically threatening legally-elected state legislators & governor?” he tweeted back at Weinstein. “You’re damn right I advocate deadly force.”Six days ago he opined, “Planned Parenthood could help themselves if the only abortions they performed were retroactive.” And on his personal blog, Pro Cynic (now deleted), he compared former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich to a Nazi, and concluded that George W. Bush’s words to the Iraqi people — “Your enemy is not surrounding your country, your enemy is ruling your country” — are appropriate for citizens of America under Barack Obama, among other inflammatory statements. Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office told Mother Jones “We do not condone any comments that would threaten or imply violence or intimidation toward anyone.” Corbin did not respond to an inquiry Wednesday morning. I subsequently tried to reach Cox directly but was redirected back to Corbin’s office It’s worth noting that there are over 140 deputy attorneys general in Indiana. It’s a career job, not a political appointment. And Cox last tweeted just after midnight on Monday, more than 48 hours ago. You can see screencaps of them below. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels did away with public sector unions in his state in 2006. Update: Corbin sent over the following statement in response to our requests:

NBC Announces 2013-2014 Schedule NBC is starting next year with only two returning comedies, so there’s going to be a lot of newbies on the schedule next year. Plus, um, practically everything (with the exception of Monday’s edition of THE VOICE and LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS) returning will be on the move. Take a look at the new schedule… MONDAY 8-10 p.m. – “The Voice” 10-11 p.m. – “THE BLACKLIST” TUESDAY 8-9 p.m. – “The Biggest Loser” (New Day and Time) 9-10 p.m. – “The Voice” (New time) 10-11 p.m. – “Chicago Fire” (New Day and Time) WEDNESDAY 8-9 p.m. – “Revolution” (New Day and Time) 9-10 p.m. – “Law & Order: SVU” 10-11 p.m. – “IRONSIDE” THURSDAY 8-8:30 p.m. – “Parks and Recreation” (New time) 8:30-9 p.m. – “WELCOME TO THE FAMILY” 9-9:30 p.m. – “SEAN SAVES THE WORLD” 9:30-10 p.m. – “THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW” 10-11 p.m. – “Parenthood” (New Day and Time) FRIDAY 8-9 p.m. – “Dateline NBC” 9-10 p.m. – “Grimm” 10-11 p.m. – “DRACULA” SATURDAY Encore programming SUNDAY 7:00-8:15 p.m. – “Football Night in America” 8:15-11:30 p.m. – “NBC Sunday Night Football” NBC MIDSEASON 2013-14 SCHEDULE (New programs in UPPER CASE; all times ET) MONDAY 8-10 p.m. – “The Voice” 10-11 p.m. – “THE BLACKLIST” TUESDAY 8-9 p.m. – “The Voice” 9-9:30 p.m. – “THE FAMILY GUIDE” 9:30-10 p.m. – “ABOUT A BOY” 10-11 p.m. – “Chicago Fire” WEDNESDAY 8-9 p.m. – “Revolution” 9-10 p.m. – “Law & Order: SVU” 10-11 p.m. – “IRONSIDE” THURSDAY 8-8:30 p.m. – “Parks and Recreation” 8:30-9 p.m. – “WELCOME TO THE FAMILY” 9-9:30 p.m. – “SEAN SAVES THE WORLD” 9:30-10 p.m. – “THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW” 10-11 p.m. – “Parenthood” FRIDAY 8-9 p.m. – “Dateline NBC” 9-10 p.m. – “Grimm” 10-11 p.m. – “CROSSBONES” SATURDAY 8-10 p.m. – Encore and specials programming 10-11 p.m. – “Saturday Night Live” (Encore) SUNDAY 7-8 p.m. – “Dateline NBC” 8-9 p.m. – “AMERICAN DREAM BUILDERS” 9-10 p.m. – “BELIEVE” 10-11 p.m. – “CRISIS” Which new show are you most looking forward to? (And, no, you’re not seeing things, the recently renewed COMMUNITY is MIA for now.) Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page. And to be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/givememyremotetv

Nutrient intake and hormonal status of premenopausal vegetarian Seventh-day Adventists and premenopausal nonvegetarians. The relationship between dietary nutrients and plasma estrone, estradiol-17 beta, estriol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and prolactin levels was investigated in 14 premenopausal Seventh-day Adventist vegetarian (SV) women and 9 premenopausal non-Seventh-day Adventist nonvegetarian (NV) women. The SV subjects consumed less fat, especially saturated fat, and used significantly less fried food than the NV subjects. Plasma levels of estrone and estradiol-17 beta in the SV subjects were significantly lower than in the NV subjects. SV estradiol-17 beta and estriol levels were positively correlated with linoleic acid and protein intake, while NV prolactin levels were significantly correlated with intakes of oleic and linoleic acids and total fat. The data suggest that specific dietary nutrients were related to the hormonal milieu of these SV and NV subjects.

Security Patterns for Webdesign: a Hierarchical Structure Approach In today's age, a wide range of individuals create their own web presence. Thanks to modern tools, creating a website is easier than ever. In order to make sure that this increased accessibility does not come at the cost of decreased security, the respective web design knowledge should become more accessible as well. We created 16 security patterns for web design based on expert knowledge. We present the solution hierarchy of these patterns and how they might be applied by non-expert users.

Socks hang out to dry as a man sleeps in the Occupy San Francisco encampment at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco on November 18, 2011. City authorities have declared the encampment a public health nuisance prompting a general cleanup. UPI/Terry Schmitt | License Photo A woman does early morning exercise on the newly cleared bocce ball courts in the Occupy San Francisco encampment at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco on November 18, 2011. City authorities have declared the encampment a public health nuisance prompting a general cleanup. UPI/Terry Schmitt | License Photo DAVIS, Calif., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Occupy Los Angeles leaders said city officials reneged on an offer to lease office space to the protesters after the Daily News published details of the deal. City officials offered to lease 10,000 square feet of space at the Los Angeles Mall to protesters for $1 a year, the Daily News said. But the deal fell through when details became public. "They didn't like the media attention," Occupy LA organizer Ryan Rice said Tuesday after meeting with representatives from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office. The Irvine, Calif., City Council said Tuesday it would give Occupy Orange County demonstrators two more weeks to stay on the City Hall lawn. "I cannot believe the City Council is allowing them to destroy the city. Non-Irvine residents have more rights than the residents of Irvine," resident Dori Dumon told The Orange County Register. In Northern California, 100 campers from the Occupy Oakland faction moved out of a vacant lot near 18th and Linden streets after a peaceful confrontation with police. The campers did not know where they would move next, the Oakland Tribune said. Meanwhile, former Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton will head an investigation into the pepper-spraying of University of California, Davis, student protesters, officials said. Bratton, now chairman of New York's Kroll Inc. risk consulting firm, will lead an independent, university-sponsored review of the Friday incident and report his findings next month, university President Mark Yudof said. Bratton's fee is under negotiation, officials said. The incident -- in which two UC Davis police officers sprayed the chemical weapon in the faces of non-violent, seated Occupy movement protesters -- sparked nationwide outrage after video footage was broadcast and posted online. RELATED Oakland Occupiers break camp The video, which has gone viral, has led to demands Chancellor Linda Katehi resign and galvanized protesters on other UC campuses, including UCLA, Berkeley and Riverside. Katehi said Monday she put the Davis campus police chief on administrative leave as a way to try to rebuild trust on campus. Yudof said the Bratton investigation would be conducted in place of a planned internal review of the incident. He said Katehi and Democratic state Assembly Speaker John Perez of Los Angeles had asked for an outside investigation. The Yolo County district attorney and Sheriff's Department, both based in Davis, are expected to conduct a joint review, the Los Angeles Times reported. Claudia Magana, president of the system-wide UC Student Association, told the Times she considered the Bratton hiring and other recent UC responses "steps in the right direction." But she said many students would remain leery until they saw how campus police treated future protests. Yudof also appointed UC General Counsel Charles Robinson and UC Berkeley law school Dean Christopher Edley Jr. to lead an examination of police policies in handling student protests at all 10 university-system campuses. MSNBC reported a prominent Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry proposed an $850,000 plan to undermine the Occupy movement and politicians who express sympathy for the protests. The pitch by Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford to the American Bankers Association proposes the association pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct "opposition research" on Occupy Wall Street, to construct "negative narratives" about the protests and allied politicians, the network said, citing the memo. The lobbying group, which also has Republican Party ties, argues the movement could get significant Democratic Party support and Wall Street interests could be ravaged if Democrats score big victories next year. If Democrats embrace the movement the way Republicans embraced the Tea Party, "This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. ... It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bulls-eye," the memo says. Two of the memo's authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. ABA spokesman Jeff Sigmund told MSNBC the association got the memo but did nothing with it. "Our government-relations staff did receive the proposal -- it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way," he said in a statement. CLGC did not return calls seeking comment.

Standard-Setting of Multidisciplinary Objective Structured Practical Examination Purpose The present work applies the standard-setting in the multidisciplinary Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) of the MusculoSkeletal and Integument systems (MSK) module using Modified Ebel’s method to differentiate the competent students from the non-competent ones. Materials and methods One hundred fifty-six students participated in the multidisciplinary OSPE. The MSK-OSPE consists of mid-module and final. According to the blueprint of the OSPE, the mid-module OSPE tested the knowledge and skills of the upper limb, and the final OSPE verified the knowledge and skills of the lower limb. Modified Ebel’s method was used to identify the Minimum Pass Level (MPL) in each station and the whole exam accordingly. Results Fifty-seven percent (57%) of the students passed both exams, while 25.6% did not pass the mid-module exam and 31.4% did not pass the final exam, 17.9% did not pass both exams and 25% did not pass one exam. The MPL for most of the stations in both exams using modified Ebel’s method of the standard-setting was more than 50% which is the conventional pass mark. However, the MPL for stations 4, and 6 in the mid-module exam (ulna and arteries of the upper limb) and stations 7, 9, and 14 (muscles of the lower limb, anatomy of ankle joint, physiology of nerve) was < 50%. While the total pass mark of the mid-module OSPE was 66% and the pass mark for the final OSPE was 60% Conclusion The minimal pass level (MPL) in mid module and final OSPE were 66% and 60% respectively which are more than the conventional cut off point (50%) that indicating that the standard-setting was effective in identifying poor performers who cannot be identified by the conventional method that led to enhance the quality of OSPE as an assessment tool. Moreover, students developed the skills to deal with standardized patients in clinical stations. However, some defects and areas of improvement were identified in some physiological and anatomical stations. The organizing committee recommended identifying the poor performers and conducting extra-tutorial sessions on the defective topics. Introduction Most medical schools assess the practical parts through the standard spotter tests and objective structured practical examination (OSPE) . Some schools use the oral (viva voce) examination . OSPE is the widespread method of assessing practical basic science in the early phase of the medical curriculum . OSPEs evaluate the theoretical, applied, and technical skills instantaneously . OSPEs differ from standard spotter examinations in many aspects. The station in OSPE has one specific objective, tests a higher level of the knowledge domain, and is structured according to the exam's blueprint . Two different disciplinary OSPEs are usually used to assess the students, the classical multi-disciplinary OSPE and mono-disciplinary OSPE. Most institutes use the mono-disciplinary OSPE where the examination runs in one discipline . Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences is a newly developing private college that offers four undergraduate programs. One of them is the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery program (MBBS). The MBBS program is a system-based, spiral-integrated program. The program is delivered as modules in the preclinical phase, each module has theoretical and practical examination. The program utilized the classic multi-disciplinary OSPE as this type of examination allows the integration between different basic science and clinical sciences. The musculoskeletal and Integument system (MSK) module commenced in the academic year 2018-2019. The 2nd year medical undergraduates undertake this module. The module is four credit hours, delivered in five weeks and divided into two theoretical hours and two practical hours. Based on the course specification of the module, the practical assessment of the MSK module is organized through two multidisciplinary OSPEs (mid-module and final). The interval period between the two examinations is three weeks. The current study aimed to apply the standard-setting using Modified Ebel's methods to the multidisciplinary OSPE to ensure high-quality OSPE as an assessment tool differentiating between competent and non-competent students. Design The current study was a descriptive observational study. Sampling The sample was comprehensive, with 156 students (100 female, 56 male) in the 2nd year enrolled in the current study. All students completed the MSK course and participated in the multidisciplinary OSPE. Description of multidisciplinary OSPE Based on the course specification of the MSK module, the module has two multidisciplinary OSPEs (midmodule and final). Both OSPEs were conducted in May 2021. the examinations were designed in alignment with the intended learning outcomes of the module. The OSPE stations were assessed by a multidisciplinary faculty committee and an Examination Reliability analysis was conducted. The organizing committee was formulated of thirteen members, two members from each discipline and one medical educationist. The disciplines represented in this committee are Anatomy, Physiology, Histology, Pathology, Radiology, and Orthopedic. All committee members are Ph.D. holders and highly qualified in their area of expertise with more than three years of teaching experience. In addition to that, all the committee members were familiar with the students and their performance. The questions were created following the blueprint . The answer key was prepared before the examination. There were 12 stations in the mid-module OSPE and 17 stations in the final OSPE. The time allowed in each station was 3-5 minutes. Each station was marked out of 5. In alignment with the integrated nature of the MBBS program, the multi-disciplinary OSPE included nine anatomical, one histological, one radiological, and one clinical examination (Figure 1a). FIGURE 1: Mid-module and final OSPE stations While, the final OSPE stations were nine anatomical, one histological, one radiological, two physiological, two pathological, and two clinical examinations (Figure 1b). The detailed questions and figures of each 2022 You are requested to examine the patient's elbow and summarize the findings to him. 1-Which one of the marked nerves is affected (A or B or C)? Mention its name -----------A, the sciatic nerve. 2-Name two muscles directly supplied by the affected nerve-----Biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus. 6 3-f A 16 -year-old student was seen in the ER with a stab wound injury to the inguinal region. The femoral artery was injured. 1-Which one of the marked vessels was affected in this case (A or B or C)? A 2-Name two branches given by the affected artery---Superficial epigastric, superficial external pudendal. You are requested to examine the patient's knee and summarize the findings to the patient. TABLE 2: OSPE final stations The clinical examination stations tested the psychomotor skills in OSPE. These observed stations with standardized patients are very helpful to test skills of joint examination. The other stations included cadaveric specimens, plastic models, plastinated models, light microscopy, or images . A clinical scenario was given at each station, and students were asked integrated questions. The questions were in two parts, the first part was the identification of the labeled structure, and the second part was relating that structure to its function . Such a way of design tests the basic science competency . Description of the standard-setting method (modified Ebel's method) Modified Ebel's method was used to identify the minimum pass level (MPL) of the OSPEs . In this method, the subject matter expert of each discipline categorizes each station based on the difficulty level and relevance. An expected score at each station was calculated by multiplying the raw score for relevance and difficulty with the proportion of minimally competent students ( Table 3). To set MPL for the whole mid-module and final OSPE, the average score of all stations was calculated by the organizing committee. The chi-square test was used to compare the number of students who scored less than pass marks in conventional methods and modified Ebel's method. Ethical considerations The Institutional Review Board at Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences (FCMS) approved the study. The approval number is 43/IRB/2018. Permissions were taken from the undergraduate curriculum and examination committee. Results The reliability analysis of mid-module and final multidisciplinary OSPE was performed, and the results were 0.834 in mid module and 0.880 in final OSPE which reflected very good reliability as shown in Table 4. In addition to that, all stations contributed to overall reliability in mid-module and final OSPE. The mid-module OSPE tested the knowledge, skills, and attitudes learning outcomes of the upper limb, and the final OSPE verified the learning outcomes of the lower limb. The MPL for the mid-module stations was as the following: stations 1-4 (anatomy of the bones) 93%,70%, 74%,41%; stations 5-7 (anatomy of the nerves, arteries, muscles) 64%, 34%, 59%; stations 8-9 (anatomy of the joints) 68 %, 58%; station 10 (X-ray station) 71%; station 11 (histological of the bone) 83%; and station 12 (clinical examination station) 82%. Accordingly, the pass mark of the mid-module exam was calculated to be 66%. 5: MPL for the mid-module and final OSPE stations The MPL for stations 4 and 6 in the mid-module exam (ulna and arteries of the upper limb) and stations 7, 9, and 14 (muscles of the lower limb, anatomy of ankle joint, physiology of nerve) was < 50%. No ambiguity was noted on the questions of these stations. So, these two stations were not dropped. One hundred and fifty-six students (100 female, 56 male) were participating in the MSK module. All students completed the course. According to the conventional pass score, 25.6% (18.6% female,7.1% male) did not pass the mid-module exam. The average pass scores in mid-module and final multidisciplinary OSPE using Modified Ebel's method were 66% and 60% accordingly. The OSPE organizing committee believed this achieved performance to be satisfactory. In addition to that, using the bell curve, the distribution of both OPSEs scores through applying modified Ebel's method seems to take the normal distribution. The percentage of students who scored >50% and >66% in mid-module OSPE were (74.4%) and (69.9%) respectively. This difference was significant (p < 0.001). In addition to that, The chi-square test showed that there is a significant difference between the percentage of passed students using the conventional pass mark (74.5%) and passed students percentage using Modified Ebel's Method (68.6%) in the final OSPE ( Table 7 above). Discussion Traditional practical examination (TPE) was the basis of assessment of practical skills and knowledge for many years, and much was adjusted (MCQ, spot) to overcome the TPE flaws . Recently, many authors favored the replacement of TPE with OSPE as OSPE has no inadequacies of the TPE, and deals with the shifting scenario of medical education, which entails problem-based learning, early clinical exposure, and inter-professional collaboration and education . MBBS program at FCMS is a system-based, spirally integrated curriculum with an early clinical experience component, thereafter multidisciplinary OSPE was the aligned method of assessment utilized in such type of curriculum. The musculoskeletal module is a multidisciplinary module where the teaching and learning process is delivered in an integrated manner. Thereafter the multidisciplinary OSPE is applied in this module. The main advantage of applying the multidisciplinary OSPE is that medical students should have a holistic picture of the disease starting from the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the affected organ to the clinical aspect . The mid-module OSPE assessed the learning outcomes of the upper limb, and the final OSPE verified the learning outcomes of the lower limb. The first nine stations assessed the anatomical knowledge and station 10 checked the applied radiological knowledge. We also analyzed pathological and physiological information in the final exam (stations 12-16) and the histology of bone and muscle in both exams. The mid module and final established an examination of joints (station 12 in the mid-module exam and stations 16 and 17 in the final exam) to assess psychomotor skills and verify the impact of anatomical knowledge on clinical skills. Schoeman and Chandratilake showed a weak relationship between anatomy competence and clinical skills among junior medical students . However, in the current study, there was a good relationship between all the stations as reflected in the two OSPES' reliabilities. The reliability of mid-module and final OSPE were 0.83 and 0.88 respectively that reflecting very good internal consistency of the examination and this result comes in accords with a study conducted at Manipal University to assess the validity of OSPE in the pharmacology department . Modified Ebel's method was applied to the multidisciplinary OSPE and MPL is calculated for each station by subject matter experts, the MPL in mid-module and final ranged between 34 and 93. This result is similar to a study conducted at Al-Faisal University, Saudi Arabia . This indicates that the multi-disciplinary OSPE stations have various difficulties and relevance. There was statistical significance between the percentage of passed students using the conventional method and Modified Ebel's method in mid-module and final OSPE. This result is consistent with the result of a study conducted in Melaka Manipal Medical College, India, aiming to set standards for OSPE . This reflects that standard-setting methods help to differentiate between competent and incompetent students and this enhances the quality of OSPE as an assessment tool. Feedback was sent to all participating departments to take all necessary actions for next year. The staff members in various departments advised more practical sessions for shutting any pertinent flaws. Limitation of the study The method was applied to the musculoskeletal module only. In addition to that, more than two experts are needed in each discipline. Conclusions Teaching is an energetic process. We need constant assessment of our evaluation tools. The practical assessment of the MSK module is structured in two OSPEs (mid-module and final). The MPLs for midmodule and final multidisciplinary OSPE were 66% and 60% accordingly. The OSPE organizing committee believed this achieved performance to be satisfactory. The students developed the skills to deal with standardized patients through the clinical examination stations. Defects in some physiological and anatomical stations were observed. The organizing committee recommended identifying the poor performers and conducting extra-tutorial sessions on the defective topics. Additional Information Disclosures Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Institutional Review Board at Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences issued approval 43/IRB/2018. The Institutional Review Board at Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences approved the study. The approval number is 43/IRB/2018. Permissions were taken from the undergraduate curriculum and examination committee. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

GREEN BAY, Wisc. -- Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler are rivals on the field, but they are also friends who happen to be members of a relatively small fraternity. And as a franchise quarterback who credits a supportive and open environment for helping him thrive with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers was appalled by what Cutler, his beleaguered Chicago Bears counterpart, had to endure last week. Reacting to reports that Bears offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer admitted last Monday to his players that he'd been an anonymous source in a report by NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport in which Cutler's game-management skills were criticized, Rodgers strongly denounced Kromer's behavior, saying he was "baffled" by the situation. "I would have a major problem if somebody said something like that," Rodgers said Tuesday during an interview at Lambeau Field. "I think anybody that plays the position, you can't help but empathize with Jay for that situation. You talk all the time about being connected, being a unit, believing in each other. But if you have unnamed sources, people out there cutting you down, and then you find out it's the person calling the plays -- that would be really hard to deal with, to look at him the same way." Though Kromer reportedly apologized to Cutler -- and the quarterback later said he "wasn't angry" with his coordinator and that the team was in a "better place" following the meeting in question -- Rodgers was far less forgiving. "I felt for Jay that he was having to deal with that," Rodgers said. "And I was surprised that the coach came out and admitted that it was him. I think, in general, unnamed sources are pretty gutless. But then he comes out and admits it was him. I don't think he deserves any credit for that, but it was interesting that he did." While Rodgers, a leading candidate to win his second MVP award, has the Packers (10-4) tied with Detroit atop the NFC North, Cutler has thrown an NFL-high 18 interceptions for the 5-9 Bears. Rodgers, however, has had rough patches in the past and does not view himself as immune to criticism. Yet in Rodgers' eyes, there is a key difference between his and Cutler's work environments. Asked how he would react to being ripped anonymously by one of his coaches, Rodgers drew a distinction between the Packers' locker room and that of their NFC North rivals, crediting coach Mike McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson for creating an atmosphere devoid of such behavior. "I would have a major problem with that, if (Packers offensive coordinator) Tom Clements was saying stuff like that about me -- which he never would, cause Tom and I are so close, and I think we have good communication," Rodgers said. "I think there's a way of doing things when you have issues, and it's keeping it in-house. "We talk about that with our group a lot, and Mike always talks about, usually on Mondays or Wednesdays, 'Here's some of the media topics (that we'll be asked).' It gives guys a chance, if there are any questions or anything we need to talk about, to get it out there. "The great thing about our team is that we've always had really open lines of communication. You know, we've had a couple of guys over the years be those unnamed sources, but thankfully Mike and Ted have weeded those guys out. So we're not worried about these guys ripping on people and going out and doing things. Because if something happens like that, we address it directly. "But yeah, I was baffled by that. And (if a coach did that to me), we'd have some problems." Follow Michael Silver on Twitter @mikesilver.

Title An economical fabrication technique for SIMOX using plasmaimmersion ion implantation Buried oxide layers m Si were .fabricated Using non-mass analyzed plasrna immersion ion implantation (Pm). The implantation was carried out by applying a large negative bias to a Si wafer immersed m an oxygen plasma and a dose of 3 x 10' of oxygen was implanted m about three minutes. Cross section transmission electron microscopy (XTEhf) and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) were used to characterize the wafers. Our results mdicate that a continuous buried oxide layer with a single crystal silicon overlayer was synthesized INTRODUCTION The advantages of using devices fabricated on silicon on insulator (SOX) wafters are wen documented . The low power requirements and device scaling to sub 0.25 pm "um dimensions required for fixture integrated circuit devices appear to necessitate the use of SO1 wafers m order to attain the required level of performance m speed, device isolation and shea channel effects . Separation by implantation of oxygen (SIMOX) is one of the most widely used SO1 materials for IC fabrication today. In this process, oxygen is implanted into a silicon wafer to the required depth and the wafer is then annealed at a temperature of 1300°C or higher for about 6 hours. U' the oxygen dose is high enough, the nucleated oxide precipitates ripen and hrm a buried oxide layer of the desired thickness under the Si surface layer with atomically sharp and smooth surfaces . The silicon surface can be prevented fiom amorphization by holding the wafter temperature above 600°C during implantation. One of the principal reasons for the high cost of the SIMOX wafers is the long time required during the implantation step which limits the throughput. In this paper, we d e m i e an altemative,method for SIMOX fabrication using plasma immersion ion implantation (PllI). In PIII, implantation is performed by immersing the whole wafer m an oxygen plasma while applying a negative bias on the wafer (Figure 1). The applied bias determines the depth to which the oxygen ions are implanted. The inherent advantage of this process is that the rate of implantation is limited only by the heat dissipation capability of the wafer holder and the current limitation of the power supply, but does not depend on the scanning speed, as m a conventional implanter. Therefore, in the PIII process, the implantation time is independent of the wafer area (Figure 2). This is important considering the increasing size of wafers used in the IC industry. (0 7003 3062 5)

TREATMENT OF TEXTILEWASTEWATER USING MICROBES’ INOCULATED FREE-FLOATINGAQUATICPLANTSBASED WETLANDS Textile wastewater is a big source of aquatic and environmental pollution. Currently, various physicochemical textile effluent treatments are practiced in the textile industry, but they have challenges with respect to cost, maintenance, labour management, chemicals usage and production of additional sludge. The present study was carried out to develop a less expensive, chemical- free, green and sustainable plant based floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) system augmented with bacteria to remedy the effluents from textile finishing unit. Two free-floating aquatic plants, Eichhornia crassipes and Pistia stratiotes, were vegetated to develop FTWs system and its efficacy was studied with and without inoculating two plant growth-promoting and pollutant- degrading bacteria, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis. The worth of this system was analyzed by screening physicochemical parameters like potential hydrogen (pH), electric conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of wastewater for hydraulic retention periods of 0, 24, 48 and 72 hours. The pH of the treated wastewaters was changed from acidic to neutral/alkaline side while a significant reduction was found in all other physiochemical parameters as per set limits of industrial and municipal wastewater standards as specified by the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) of Pak istan and Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) program.

Performance Analysis of a Microbial Fuel Cell Using Different Substrate Materials for Different loads This research paper analyses the current density and power density ofaduelchambermicrobial fuel cell using different substrate materials for different resistive loads. Sucrose, glucose and starch were treated as substrate and potassium ferricyanide was used as electron acceptor. The separation of the cathode and anode cell is provided by proton exchange membrane (PEM) in most of the microbial fuel cell (MFC). The most popular proton exchange membranes are nafion, hyflon, zirfon, ultrex CMI-7000 etc. But all of them are not available to use in this part of the world. As an alternate, salt bridge was used in this study as a PEM which is receptive to other ions and chemicals. Different organic materials like sucrose, glucose, starch can be used as substrate as those were available in organic wastage. As the container of bacteria, the sludge of drain of DhakaTreatment Plant was utilized. The voltage and current were measured across 9.81 kΩand 5.91 kΩ resistors. 716.32 mV was measured as thehighest voltage across 9.81 kΩ resistor while 4.65 mA/m2 and 3.09mW/m2 were recorded as maximum current density and power density respectively across 5.91 kΩ resistor for sucrose as substrate. The anode chamber was maintained in anaerobic condition. The temperature during these experiments was 22±2º C. INTRODUCTION 1 As the energy sources are not sustainable due to the majority share of fossil fuel in energy mix, Bangladesh is an energy deficit country . On the contrary per capita waste generation rate is computed as 0.56 kg/capita/day based on the total estimated urban population of the year 2005. In Dhaka city of Bangladesh 4,634.52 tons wastes aredaily generated and 76% is from residential sector . Generation of electricity and treatment of organic or inorganic wastes can be achieved by the microbial fuel cell.A new form of renewable energy by generating electricity from what would otherwise be considered waste was represented by Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology. MFCs are electrochemical devices that are similar to conventional fuel cells in which energy from a chemical reaction is converted into useful electricity. This technology can use bacteria already present in wastewater as biocatalysts to generate electricity while simultaneously wastewater istreated . Anode and cathode chambers are the compulsory parts of an MFC connected by an external circuit and detached by proton exchange membrane (PEM). Decomposition of organic substrates by microbes produces electrons and protons in the anode chamber. Those electrons and protons are transported through external circuit and proton exchange membrane respectively to the cathode . Electrochemically active microorganisms (EAM) are employed to generate electricity the MFC device which is capable of providing the energy demands for small devices . While accomplishing biodegradation of organic matters and wastes in the MFC, as microbe is the most preferred to generate electricity . Hydrogen can be produced in Microbial Fuel Cell and it happens smoothly from the fermentation of sucrose in presence of Clostridium butyricum, as overall biochemical reaction is given as follows : Microbial fuel cell operation In MFCs, a substrate as carbon source is consumed by microorganisms in anaerobic conditions, produce carbon dioxide, electrons and protons in anode chamber . The simplified FMC concept is shown in Figure 1. Electrons are transferred to the negative terminal (anode) and reach to the positive terminal (cathode) through a load which are produced from the substrates by microorganisms. Several chemicals known as mediators like neutral red, methylene blue, thionine are used to accelerate the generation of current in MFC. Protons are also produced in oxidation reaction and passed to the cathode by proton exchange membrane. Direct link between the electrode surface and membrane bound proteins or by conduction through nanowires by microorganism that contact cells to the electrode surface is responsible for the transfer of electrons . Standard electrode potentials The half-cell reactions can analyzereactions occurring in the microbial fuel cellstated as follows: For sucrose oxidation, we therefore have, For the cathode potential Ecat if we consider the case where Potassium Ferricyanide is used as the electron acceptor for the reaction, we can written as follows: The Cell EMF is computed as follows : Eemf =Ecat -EAn (6) Experimental setup and data analysis Based on the proposed model three setups were developed and observed. All the cells were kept in anaerobic condition and readings were measured across no load, 5.91 kΩ and 9.84 kΩ. Equal amount of surface area was provided for each of the experiments. Plastic bottles were use to construct anode and cathode chamber. The anode surface area was 0.0242 m 2 . The temperature during these experiments was 22±2ºC. The measurements were taken using a multimeter (Model no. KOOCU-DT9205A). Preparation of Salt bridge The materials mentioned in the proposed model were used to construct the salt bridges. Sodium chloride was used as the sample of salt to mix with agar powder. Each salt bridge was 5-inch-long and 0.5 inch thick. It consists of 5 g agar, 25 g sodium chloride as the salt sample dissolved in 250 mL of water for construction of the salt bridge. At first all the components were taken in a pot then the materials were mixed during the heating process. The mixture was heated until the temperature reached 85°C. The hot solution was poured into PVC pipes having length of 5 inch and thickness of 0.5 inch. The temperature was measured by a digital thermometer. The dimensions of different parts of constructed MFC for setup 1, 2 and 3 are provided in Table 1. Setup 1 For the first setup 400 mL of Potassium Ferricyanide was used in cathode chamber. Zinc and copper plates were used as electrode material in anode and cathode compartments, respectively. A salt bridge was placed between anode and cathode to provide a chanel for the protons to pass from anode to cathode. The amount of starch used was 125 g. As the container of bacteria thick muddy layer of Dhaka North City Corporation's drain was used. At first 1 kg of muddy layer was mixed with 0.25 litre of drain water. Then 0.5 litre liquid was used from that mixture in the anode chamber. The measured voltage, current and power obtained from setup 1 were represented in Figures 3, 4 for different loads Comparisons among practical setups Two resistors (9.81 kΩ and 5.91 kΩ) were treated as the load to measure the current generated by the MFC. The values of the current were obtained in micro range (10-6) which leads to inadequate power production from the experiments. The maximum current density recorded for setup 1, setup 2 and set up 3 were 3.05 mA/m2, 4.65 mA/m2, 3.46 mA/m2, respectively. The maximum power density recorded for setup 1, setup 2 and set up 3 were 3.05 mW/m2, 3.09 mW/m2, 2,09mW/m2, respectively. All the cells were kept in below 250C. From the result recorded it is seen that sucrose provided more stable outputs than other substrates. As all the substrates used here are available in organic wastes (like rotten rice, vegetables) so these experiments will show the way to utilize the wastes in a desired manor through MFCs. The current density and power density obtained against 9.81 kΩ and 5.91 kΩ from three setups are illustrated in Figures 12, 13, 14 and 15, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Alternative energy production technologies are gaining importance for battling future energy crisis. MFCs could be an effective means to accelerate bioelectricity production. This paper was unable to examine the entire field of MFC research in detail but hopes to highlight some important points. Low current density is a barrier for implementation of MFC in practical level. A parallel combination of such type of MFC could increase the current value in a modest level might be a formal solution. Further researches about bacteria and anode, cathode material could lead this experiment in a fruitful situation.

Comparison of GFL-GFRalpha complexes: further evidence relating GFL bend angle to RET signalling. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) activates the receptor tyrosine kinase RET by binding to the GDNF-family receptor alpha1 (GFRalpha1) and forming the GDNF(2)-GFRalpha1(2)-RET(2) heterohexamer complex. A previous crystal structure of the GDNF(2)-GFRalpha1(2) complex (PDB code 2v5e) suggested that differences in signalling in GDNF-family ligand (GFL) complexes might arise from differences in the bend angle between the two monomers in the GFL homodimer. Here, a 2.35 A resolution structure of the GDNF(2)-GFRalpha1(2) complex crystallized with new cell dimensions is reported. The structure was refined to a final R factor of 22.5% (R(free) = 28%). The structures of both biological tetrameric complexes in the asymmetric unit are very similar to 2v5e and different from the artemin-GFRalpha3 structure, even though there is a small change in the structure of the GDNF. By comparison of all known GDNF and artemin structures, it is concluded that GDNF is more bent and more flexible than artemin and that this may be related to RET signalling. Comparisons also suggest that the differences between artemin and GDNF arise from the increased curvature of the artemin ;fingers', which both increases the buried surface area in the monomer-monomer interface and changes the intermonomer bend angle. From sequence comparison, it is suggested that neuturin (the second GFL) adopts an artemin-like conformation, while persephin has a different conformation to the other three.

A 42-year-old Red Deer school bus driver faces impaired and dangerous driving charges after a bus hit a tree Monday afternoon. A witness called 911 after the school bus carrying 18 public school students aged five to 12 ran over the tree and a road sign in the Vanier Woods neighbourhood, Red Deer RCMP said in a news release Tuesday. The crash occurred about 4 p.m. Officers opened an impaired-driving investigation at the scene and continued the investigation into the evening, RCMP said. The school bus struck a tree and a speed limit sign Monday afternoon in Red Deer's Vanier neighbourhood. (Amanda Patton) The Red Deer Public Schools expressed shock and anger at the situation. "Adults who serve our students carry a significant responsibility for their safety and care," said Stu Henry, superintendent of schools. "It is devastating when an adult betrays the trust we have with our students and parents." The school district confirmed no students were injured in the incident and acknowledged that parents are upset. "Parents are appropriately concerned," said Bruce Buruma, the director of community relations with Red Deer Public Schools. "It was a stupid decision by the bus driver and they're reacting to that. .. and we expect that." Amanda Patton's 11-year-old son Marco was on the bus. "I'm outraged, I'm concerned," Patton told CBC News Tuesday. Patton heard sirens from her house Monday and drove to the area where she saw several police vehicles. "Are the kids ok?' That was the first thing out of my mouth." she said, adding that the police told her the children were fine. She still didn't know what was happening but noticed what the police were doing. "They had a bag … like a gym-style bag," she recalled. "They had her water bottle out, and I actually watched them smell this water bottle and I thought, 'No, there's just no way that what I'm thinking is happening — can't possibly be happening.' " Shelly Kolodychuk, 42, is charged with impaired operation and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, operate motor vehicle over 80mg and fail to remain at scene of collision. Patton's son told her at one point, the bus was driving on the wrong side of the road. "I had to drive him to school this morning because he doesn't want to go on the bus again," Patton said. "It's pretty scary as a parent to realize that we've placed so much trust in somebody who assumes this responsibility as a bus driver." The driver is an employee of Prairie Bus Lines, the company contracted to transport students in the district. The company issued a statement Tuesday saying they have a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and alcohol and a process to test employees suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. "In this case, there were no visible signs of impairment prior to the driver's afternoon departure," the statement read. The company said they have taken "the appropriate action to ensure our 'Safely Home' commitment is upheld." Shelly Joy Kolodychuk of Red Deer is charged with impaired driving, driving with a blood-alcohol level over 80 milligrams, dangerous driving and failing to remain at scene of a collision. She is scheduled to appear in Red Deer provincial court on July 12.

Taking a look at the third round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers (WCQ), there appears to be lots of opportunities for twelve nations to succeed. The region’s third round of WCQ kicks off on September 4th with return leg games on September 8th. Twelve CONCACAF teams will play for the right to advance to the fourth round group stage where teams like the U.S., Mexico and Costa Rica await. Here is a quick look at each of the six match ups, along with predicted winner and where the winner will play in the fourth round. Curacao v El Salvador Winner advances to Group A to play Mexico, Honduras and winner of Canada/Belize The Curacao national team is one of three teams still alive who played in the first round of CONCACAF qualifying back in March of this year. Led by former Netherlands national team player and Barcelona star Patrick Kluivert as their coach, Curacao has surprised many. However, don’t count them out against El Salvador, they are not just happy to have knocked off Montserrat and Cuba in the first two rounds, they are now dreaming of making the group stage for the first time in the nation’s history. The team is made up of European based players with the most recognizable being team captain Cuco Martina from the EPL’s Southampton. On the other side of the field are two time World Cup participants El Salvador. Their last trip to the grand stage occurred in 1982. La Azul y Blanco, the Blue and Whites, began CONCACAF play in the second round of these qualifiers by defeating St. Kitts and Nevis 6-3 on aggregate, but it took a decisive 4-1 win at home to secure their passage to this round after tying in the first leg 2-2. Striker, Nelson Bonilla scored a brace in the return leg; however, he was not called up for the third round games against Curacao due to still recovering from an ankle injury suffered during this summer’s Gold Cup. The majority of the Salvadorian national team players play in the domestic league, however, two names known to U.S. Soccer fans are Darwin Ceren from Orlando City and Andres Flores from the New York Cosmos. Ceren scored the opening goal against St. Kitts and Nevis in the return leg in the second minute of the game. Prediction: Curacao seems like a team of destiny right now and can pull off the upset and qualify for the group stage 2-1 on aggregate. Canada v Belize Winner advances to Group A to play Mexico, Honduras and winner of Curacao/El Salvador Canada has only tasted World Cup participation once, in 1986, but their matchup with Belize provides an opportunity to continue their journey. Head Coach Benito Floro brings in nine MLS players, yet not a single player from Toronto FC. Headlining the roster of players on Canada’s side are Orlando City rookie sensation Cyle Larin, who is tied for the team lead in goals scored during qualifiers (2) with Tosaint Ricketts, who plays for Boluspor in Turkey. Captain Julian de Guzman from Ottawa Fury FC will be expected to lead by example, while Portland Timbers’ Will Johnson is expected to play a big role in the midfield. Canada shut out Dominica in the second round of qualifying 6-0 and has the ability to do the same against Belize in the coming days. Belize brings a team made up of mostly domestic league players, however, there is one player that stands out in the group, striker Deon McCaulay, currently tied for the most goals in CONCACAF qualifying with three, also was tied for the most goals scored in qualifying during the 2014 World Cup Qualifying campaign with Robin Van Persie and Luis Suarez (11 goals). McCaulay has the ability to take over a game single handedly, as he did in a second round first leg game against Dominican Republic when he scored both goals in a 2-1 road victory. Head Coach Jorge Nunez stated after Belize’s narrow escape in the first round against Cayman Islands when they were missing McCaulay, “Deon solves all of our attacking problems.” Belize snuck out of the first round of qualifying with an away goal difference, 1-1 on aggregate against the Cayman Islands and then defeated Dominican Republic 5-1 on aggregate in the second round. Prediction: McCaulay will get his goals against Canada, but I suspect Canada’s players will put up a good fight and help their nation advance on aggregate 6-3. Grenada v Haiti Winner advances to Group B to play Costa Rica, Panama and winner of Jamaica/Nicaragua matchup The island nation of Grenada is one of the least known teams still left in CONCACAF WCQ and just squeezed by Puerto Rico in the second round with a 2-1 aggregate win, in fact, if it weren’t for a Puerto Rico own goal in Grenada, things could have been a bit different. They are the lowest remaining ranked team in CONCACAF (160,) and have never qualified for a World Cup. The team did not release a full roster of players, however, we know that 19 year old striker Jamal Charles, responsible for the goal that sent Grenada through to this round will be on the team, while players such as Goalkeeper Jason Belfon, striker Marcus Julien, forward Jake Rennie, and defensive midfielder Patrick Modeste will all be on the team as well. Belfon is considered the top goalkeeper in the Caribbean, while Modeste has over 100 national team caps and has had trials with MLS teams New England Revolution and D.C. United in the past. Haiti was a team that announced their campaign for the World Cup in fantastic fashion at this summer’s Gold Cup with a win over Honduras and a late tie against Panama. They also lost to the U.S. 1-0, however, played the Americans toe to toe. The Gold Cup also provided an opportunity for Duckens Nazon to introduce himself to the region as he scored both goals his nation scored in the tournament. Joining Nazon on the WCQ team are midfielders Wilde-Donald Guerrier and Pascal Millien, defenders Mechak Jerome and Kevin Lafrance and goalkeeper Johnny Placide who all were contributors on the Gold Cup team. This will be Haiti’s first WCQ action as they were one of two participating member nations that begin play this round. Haiti are seeking only their second World Cup berth in their nation’s history, their only participation came in 1974. Prediction: Haiti should have no trouble with Grenada, I expect this to be the most lopsided of the six qualifiers, 7-0 Haiti. Jamaica v. Nicaragua Winner advances to Group B to play Costa Rica, Panama and winner of Grenada/Haiti. The Gold Cup runners-up launch their campaign for the World Cup off the heels of a very successful summer. Jamaica participated in two international tournaments, the Copa America and the Gold Cup, and had some very impressive results, including a semi-final thrashing of the United States. Like Haiti, Jamaica is preparing to play their first games of the WCQ campaign for Russia in 2018 as they also seek only their second ever berth into the World Cup, the Reggae Boyz only participation came in 1998. The finally get to play in front of the home crowd in the opening game of the two leg match up. The team will once again feature an MLS heavy roster that includes Darren Mattocks (Vancouver Whitecaps), Giles Barnes (Houston Dynamo), Je-Vaughn Watson (FC Dallas), Kemar Lawrence (New York Red Bulls), Alvas Powell (Portland Timbers) and young Goalkeeper Andre Blake (Philadelphia Union) among others. Also joining the squad, fresh from his £4.5 million transfer to Chelsea is center back Michael Hector. Their opponents, Nicaragua, are a team not very well known. They are currently ranked 144th in the world and have never played in a World Cup. They are one of three teams still remaining that also played in the first two rounds. Los Pinorelos (a colloquial term for Nicaraguans) made easy work of their first round opponent Anguilla 8-0 on aggregate, followed by a surprisingly easy 4-1 walk over Suriname on aggregate in the second round. Their veteran, 33 year old, striker Raul Leguias leads the team in scoring with 3 goals so far, including a brace in the return leg against Anguilla in the first round. Carlos Chavarria, a 21 year old striker who plays for domestic club Real Esteli has two goals already and looks to have a good nose for the net. Joined by midfielder Juan Barrera and defenders Luis Fernando Copete and Josue Quijano, Nicaragua could make a name for themselves against Jamaica. Prediction: Jamaica may be going into their two-leg matchup a bit over confident as Nicaragua has run through the first two rounds of the qualifiers. This will be closer than most people think, Jamaica wins 2-1 on aggregate. St. Vincent and the Grenadines v. Aruba Winner advances to Group C to play USA, Trinidad & Tobago and winner of Antigua and Barbuda/Guatemala St. Vincent and the Grenadines has a wonderful opportunity to secure a group stage berth. The island nation has never qualified for a World Cup, they haven’t even played in an international regional tournament since 2007, when they participated in the Caribbean Cup. Vincy Heat, as the team is known, escaped the second round needing the away goal rule to defeat Guyana 6-6 on aggregate. Striker Tevin Slater scored three goals in the two legs and now leads the team in goals. After tying at home against Guyana, 2-2, the pressure was on Vincy Heat to steal the away game, which they did by taking a 4-2 lead and eventually tying 4-4. There was controversy that St. Vincent and the Grenadines played an ineligible player, Gavin James, however, FIFA ruled for the Vincy Heat. Like their opponents, Aruba is also in the third round thanks to a FIFA ruling in their favor. Barbados defeated Aruba 2-0 in the first leg and 1-0 in the second leg, however, because Barbados fielded an ineligible player in the return leg, Aruba were awarded a 3-0 victory, per FIFA rules, and thus advanced on a 3-2 aggregate score. Now Aruba has a second chance at making it to the group stage of the CONCACAF WCQ. Aruba has never played in a major tournament so making the group stage would be a large feat in it of itself. Because Aruba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and their citizens enjoy Dutch citizenship, many of the national players play in the Netherlands. Included in this is the fact that the national team has a co-operation agreement with PEC Zwolle and their head of youth development. Rini Coolen, will be coaching the team over the two-leg matchup against St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Prediction: This will be a real toss up and entertaining two game series, expect both teams to get after it, but St. Vincent and the Grenadines should emerge 5-4 aggregate winners. Antigua and Barbuda v. Guatemala Winner advances to Group C to play USA, Trinidad & Tobago and winner of St. Vincent and the Grenadines/Aruba Antigua and Barbuda pulled off an incredible comeback in the second round against St. Lucia as they won 5-4 on aggregate. The Benna Boys were staring at a 3-1 deficit going into the second leg of their matchup and found themselves down 4-2 on aggregate in the 81st minute when they reeled off three goals in the final nine minutes, including two in stoppage time to steal the third round spot from St. Lucia. Captain Josh Parker, who plays for Aberdeen in the Scottish Premier League, is tied for the team lead in goals scored thanks to his brace in the second leg, Tevaughn Harriette also has two goals. The team currently has two head coaches, one being Piotr Nowak, former D.C. United and Philadelphia Union head coach, he is serving as Technical and Personal Advisor to the President of Caribbean Football Union and Technical Director and Head Coach to the Benna Boys. Guatemala is a team on a sharp decline who’s stars are aging faster than the team can find young players to take their place, Carlos Ruiz remains the team captain at 35 years of age, while players like Carlos Figueroa, Carlos Gallardo and Marvin Avila may have seen their best days gone. Guatemala also tumbled to a FIFA ranking of 108 in the world as they limped into the third round of qualifying. Against Bermuda they needed a road goal in the second leg to wrap up a 1-0 on aggregate win. The bright spot on the team is midfielder Marco Pappa of the Seattle Sounders, his playmaking ability should provide opportunities for teammates. Guatemala has never qualified for a World Cup. Prediction: Guatemala will be favored, however, their poor showing at the Gold Cup and in their second round WCQ matchup do not bode well. Antigua and Barbuda enter this matchup hungry and will pull it out 4-2 on aggregate.

A Bottom-up Approach with a Clear View of the Top: How Human Evolutionary Psychology Can Inform Adaptive Behavior Research Psychologists have long paid lip service to Darwin, conceding that the human brain did arise through the course of evolution (for whatever, often unspecified, reason). Nonetheless, the full power of Darwinian theory is almost never used in day-today psychology research. This is peculiar, given the successful, integrated nature of evolutionary biology and the typically fragmented and incomplete visage of modern psychology: One would think that a theory that explains the origin and maintenance of complex behavioral adaptations across all species (evolution) could inform and unify the study of human behavior (psychology) just as productively as it does the study of animal behavior (ethology and comparative cognition). However, the emergence of a genuinely evolutionary psychology of humans (HEP) has been a slow, painful, and quite recent occurrence, marked at last by the publication of a flagship volume, The Adapted Mind. This work is of great importance not only for researchers in all branches of human psychology but also for those in the field of adaptive behavior, because it demonstrates that the operation of even the most sophisticated and seemingly general behavioral system we know-the human brain-can be understood only as the conglomeration of a great variety of specific mental mechanisms, each finely tuned to a particular adaptive problem. Thus, the bottom-up, modular, often evolutionary approach our field generally takes to the simulation of adaptive

2 charged with murder after 1-year-old killed in Christmas shooting in Chapel Hill Copyright by WNCN - All rights reserved Moore (left) the baby Maleah Williams (center) and Alston. [ + - ] Video By WNCN Staff - CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) - Two more men were arrested and charged with murder Monday just hours after a 1-year-old girl shot in Chapel Hill on Christmas Day died from her injuries, officials confirmed. Maleah Williams was shot in the head after shots were fired from a vehicle leaving an apartment complex on Trinity Court just before 5:45 p.m. on Christmas, family members and police said. Williams was transported to UNC Hospitals where she underwent surgery, but died on Monday. One suspect was arrested Sunday and on Monday, two more men were charged -- this time with first-degree murder, police said. Monday, Ramone Jamarr Alston, 22, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Joint Fugitive Task Force. Alston has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting after being arrested in the 600 block of Jones Ferry Road in Carrboro, Chapel Hill Police said. Also on Monday, a third suspect, Pierre Je Bron Moore, 23, was charged with first-degree murder after surrendering himself at the Chapel Hill Police Department. Alston and Moore are being held without bond. They are expected in Orange County court Tuesday afternoon in Hillsborough. A man who said he knew two of the suspects and the victim's mother said, "It's a messed up situation, especially at the holidays." He declined to give his name when speaking with WNCN Tuesday morning. In addition to Tuesday's scheduled appearance, both Moore and Alston had three court dates already scheduled in 2016. Moore has scheduled appearances on Jan. 11, Jan. 16, and April 18. Alston's dates are set for Jan. 14, Jan. 20, and Jan. 25. Alston is set to appear in court on various charges ranging from cruelty to animals to possession of stolen goods to failing to wear a seat belt. Moore's court appearances are for charges including resisting officers, drug charges, carrying a concealed weapon and driving without a license. Moore and Alston both have prior convictions dating back to 2012. Moore was convicted in 2012 and 2014 of breaking and entering, as well as larceny. Alston had convictions in 2012, 2013 and 2014 for crimes including drugs, eluding arrests, breaking and entering, and larceny. The first suspect arrested, Shaquille O'Neill Davis, 22, was nabbed just before noon Sunday by the U.S. Marshals Joint Fugitive Task Force, Chapel Hill Police said. Davis appeared in court Monday via video feed on charges of attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. The judge added two conditions Monday to Davis' $650,000 bond - he must not have any contact with the victim's family and he cannot possess a firearm. He is scheduled to appear in court again Jan. 4 in relation to the Dec. 25 shooting. Davis is scheduled to appear in Orange County court Jan. 15 on five unrelated charges ranging from drug possession/selling to probation violations. A collection of toys, candles and notes - praying for Maleah to get well, had been set up in the area near the apartment where she was shot.

A Rare Case of Locally Advanced Primary Small Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Adrenal Gland Background/Aim: Primary small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (SCNEC) of the adrenal gland is extremely rare with limited reports in the literature. There remain no definitive treatment guidelines, largely due to the rarity of the malignancy. Case Report: We present the case of a 62-year-old Caucasian male who presented with low back pain and was found to have a large retroperitoneal mass arising from the left adrenal gland, measuring 18.3 × 12.2 centimeters (cm). Biopsy was consistent with small cell carcinoma/high grade neuroendocrine carcinoma. Staging workup including CT chest and bone scan was negative. The patient was treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery; complete pathological response of the left adrenal tumor was achieved. Surveillance imaging every three months continued to show no evidence of recurrent disease. Conclusion: Primary SCNEC of the adrenal gland is rare and lacks standard treatment guidelines. Our case represents a possible treatment approach that may provide better clinical outcomes, however, further investigations are necessary to help define ideal treatment guidelines.

Gaming Research: When it Comes to Visual Activities, Video Gamers Learn Faster Score one for gamers. An experiment at Brown University has found a correlation between people who frequently play video games and their ability to retain learning about two quickly learned visual activities. The results suggest that video game playing not only improves player performance but also builds up the capacity to improve performance. According to, "Frequent Video Game Players Resist Perceptual Interference," a paper recently published on PLOS One, the researchers ran a small experiment. They had two teams of people, nine frequent gamers and nine non-gamers, participate in two days of learning activities. Participants were shown an on-screen "texture" of either vertical or horizontal lines. Their job was to point out the area where an anomalous texture appeared. Previous research has proven that most people can improve their performance on this type of task, but only if they get sufficient time to "consolidate" the learning in their minds — presumably to hard-wire the neural connections needed to perform the activity. When they move onto a second task too quickly, the learning of the first one might be affected. The researchers wanted to figure out if gamers could overcome the interference more easily. On the first day, the participants were trained on each of the two tasks (in a random order). On the second day, they did each again — also in a random order — allowing the researchers to assess whether they had improved, even by milliseconds. Indeed, the gamers improved their performance on both tasks, while non-gamers improved on the second task they trained on, but not on the first. For the non-gamers learning the second task interfered with learning the first. According to the data, gamers improved their combination of speed and accuracy on average by about 15 percent on their second task and about 11 percent on their first task. Non-gamers also improved performance on their second task by about 15 percent as well; but they actually did worse on the first task by about five percent. The researchers said they aren't exactly sure what's happening in the brain of gamers that differs from non-gamers, but according to Yuka Sasaki, associate professor in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences (CLPS) at Brown, the study suggests that gamers may have a more efficient process for hardwiring their visual task learning than non-gamers. "It may be possible that the vast amount of visual training frequent gamers receive over the years could help contribute to honing consolidation mechanisms in the brain, especially for visually developed skills," the report stated. "When we study perceptual learning we usually exclude people who have tons of video game playing time because they seem to have different visual processing. They are quicker and more accurate," said Sasaki in a statement. "But they may be in an expert category of visual processing. We sometimes see that an expert athlete can learn movements very quickly and accurately and a musician can play the piano at the very first sight of the notes very elegantly, so maybe the learning process is also different. Maybe they can learn more efficiently and quickly as a result of training." By documenting these and other apparent cognitive differences between gamers and non-gamers, the field is discovering that there is more to video games than merely passing the time, added Aaron Berard, Sasaki's colleague in CLPS and lead author of the paper. "A lot of people still view video games as a time-wasting activity even though research is beginning to show their beneficial aspects. If we can demonstrate that video games may actually improve some cognitive functioning, perhaps we, as a society, can embrace newer technology and media with positive application." The researchers offered several caveats regarding the study. First, the small number of subjects in each group limited the "statistical power" and may have "concealed additional trends in the data," they noted. Second, even in the non-gamer group, many people reported that at some time in their lives they've played at least one video game and possibly more. "It is possible that these people may have experienced changes in visual ability due to brief exposure," the paper pointed out. As a counteraction, the researchers divided their test subjects based on gaming activity in the last six months. Third, there was a definite gender bias between the two groups. The gamers were primarily male; the non-gamers primarily female. However, the researchers stated, recent data collected for another project "revealed no statistical difference in behavioral performance trends across males and females." Fourth, because the testing went over two days, some of the participants may have affected their outcomes by not getting enough sleep, confounding the results. The researchers will continue their work. What they haven't determined yet is whether playing video games improves learning ability or whether people with an innate ability become gamers because they do better at it. The project was funded through National Institutes of Health grants.

Chinese media outlets have been issued censorship instructions by government authorities, mandating that no coverage be provided for the upcoming Global Bitcoin Summit, a Beijing-based digital currency conference to be held this weekend, 10th-11th May. The instructions, leaked online by California-based media outlet China Digital Times, provide evidence that the Chinese government is looking to limit information on bitcoin in the media. Perhaps most notably, however, the released statement suggests new guidelines for domestic reporting on bitcoin in the future have also been issued: “All websites are asked not to participate in or report on the summit. Do not hype bitcoins. All reporting on bitcoins must henceforth accord with the specifications of financial regulatory agencies. Please carry out the above immediately.” China Digital Times says it collects directives from a variety of sources and checks the results against media reports. However, since media outlets often receive the reports orally, it stresses that the exact wording of the published version is not always accurate. Furthermore, since the date on the publication corresponds to the date the information is released, it is not known when the order was issued by Chinese authorities. Speaker changes The announcement is the latest setback for Global Bitcoin Summit, which released its original lineup in March, but has seen key speakers drop out due to government influence. On 6th May, the CEOs of five major China-based digital currency exchanges – OKCoin, BTC China, BtcTrade, CHBTC and Huobi – announced they would not attend the conference, and that they would be taking a joint pledge to comply with state policies and regulations. The move was reportedly made by the businesses due to recent adverse actions from the People’s Bank of China, which has moved to more strictly enforce December rulings meant to more firmly separate its traditional financial services sector from the emerging domestic bitcoin economy. Heightening tensions The leak comes amid an uncertain time for China’s bitcoin ecosystem, which has recently seen a number of major banks distance themselves publicly from the market. This week, ICBC, the world’s largest bank by total assets and market capitalization, indicated that its accounts could no longer be used in connection with bitcoin or litecoin trading. The news followed similar statements from CMB (China Merchants Bank), CCB (China Construction Bank), CGB, CEB (China Everbright Bank), Pingan Bank, Huaxia Bank, ABC (Agricultural Bank of China), BOC (Bank of China), SPD Bank and Industrial Bank. CoinDesk will be attending Global Bitcoin Summit this weekend. Censorship image via CoinDesk

Rob Ford predicts Donald Trump is going to win Tuesday’s election! Predicted, actually. It was neat to re-read the late former mayor’s thoughts in June 2015 on Donald Trump entering the Republican presidential race. Rob, who died of cancer March 22 of this year, told me he thought Trump would gain the groundswell of support he enjoyed. “Very few thought I would win the mayor’s race in 2010 and they were wrong,” said Ford. He felt people underestimated him. “People have said Donald Trump can’t do a lot of things and they underestimate him,” he said. “The thing with Mr. Trump is he has the business background but more importantly he connects with people. That is what is most important in politics.” Trump and Ford met in Toronto in 2012. “He’s a very nice guy,” said Ford. “He’s very laid back and low key. He’s also very kind as well as successful. Not many people can become billionaires. That is very difficult to do.” Ford noted the media didn’t want him either but he persevered. “A lot of the media were taking shots at (Trump) and making it out to be a joke but in the end it will be them who will be surprised,” Ford told me. “They can laugh all they want, but Mr. Trump is a very successful man and a very good candidate for president.” He predicted if he did win the nomination, Trump “will be the next president.” Stay tuned. ********* On Tuesday we will find out if the sometimes smug and arrogant anti-Donald Trump crowd were right or wrong. Not just about winning or losing, but on whether or not he should even be in the race at all — some even say it is irresponsible to call this a “horse race” because it’s easily going to Hillary Clinton. The narrative all through the race was nothing but that from President Barack Obama to Hillary to their media party wing. They lampooned the Republican Party for not replacing the “clown.” They cited the Mexican border wall to the Muslim immigration ban to suggesting Trump was pushing Clinton’s assassination to the taped comments about women from 11 years ago and the allegations stemming from that. The narrative was the election was in the bag for Hillary. A landslide. Their polls were showing this, the expert pundits were saying it and if you dared to say you were for Trump, you were shunned, shamed and told to shut up. Why even have an election, was the talking point. But through all of this things were not connecting. Trump was drawing huge crowds. Hillary was drawing flies — unless she got on stage at an Adele or Jennifer Lopez concert. And in so many communities there’s nothing but seas of blue signs. “I could not believe there was nothing but Trump signs,” said a pal, who sent me a picture as proof. The only Hillary sign he could find was a Hillary for Prison one. I know there were real Hillary signs too because I saw one myself when I was in Buffalo. WSYR-TV in Syracuse quoted Nikki Carroll of the Democratic Committee saying there weren’t as many because “Hillary pretty much has New York secured because it’s such a blue state, so it’s not worthwhile to focus as many campaign funds into a New York campaign.” They don’t need signs. Certainly, despite the FBI probe into her assistant’s emails and her own health questions, the polls the media rely on were showing Friday that Hillary going into the final weekend has a 46% to 40% lead. Polls Trump people like better show it nearly tied, with Fox reporting 46% for Hillary and 45% for Trump. Another buddy of mine says Trump supporters are “delusional” and “living in a bubble” and are going to get a butt kicking. We will find out Tuesday is those who laugh at Trump will enjoy the last chuckle or be eating serious crow. ********* The good news is they aren’t shooting at each other. The bad news is they did just about everything else. It has been an ugly American election campaign — all sides guilty. The even better news it should come to an end Tuesday. Election day is what freedom and democracy are all about. That and the peaceful transition of power. In other words, this election worked perfectly. The mud was slung but it still comes down to the American voter who gets to decide. The lesson is for people to remember to respect your opponent and not dismiss, shame or ban them. Anything can happen on vote day. Whatever they decide is the right decision. Either candidate will be fine as president. When it’s over, backers should not be ridiculing the opposition for expressing their democratic right but embracing them. We don’t shoot each other in our countries over political views. We vote! Have a terrific weekend everybody. Scrawler out. jwarmington@postmedia.com

BERLIN (Reuters) - If anyone wants to know the German for “weasels covered in gravy”, then comic Eddie Izzard, who unlike some of his countrymen is a lover of all things European, is the go-to man. Comedian Eddie Izzard gestures as he speaks after being presented with the 6th Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts February 20, 2013. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi The stand-up, already known for doing shows in French, is bringing his Force Majeure tour to audiences in German, Spanish, Russian and Arabic - all languages he doesn’t actually speak. Until now. Standing somewhat nervously in front of a 250-strong crowd in Berlin’s Quatsch Comedy Club, the 51-year-old Izzard tells the audience his aim is to encourage harmony among Europeans. “It’s comedy without borders, not borders without comedy,” Izzard, who sported deep red nail varnish for Saturday’s sold-out hour-long set, said in British-accented German to laughter and applause. The comic and actor is on a mission to prove that everyone, whether in Britain, Germany or elsewhere, has a sense of humor that can be understood by others. He won’t be adapting the show for audiences just because they’re in a different country. “There’s no ‘British’ sense of humor,” the man once referred to as the ‘lost Python’ by Monty Python co-creator John Cleese, told Reuters. “All humor is human, it’s the references that are national.” “I predict that someone should be able to go to a native tribe, learn their language and then make them laugh.” Certainly there have been instances of other comedians crossing borders. Henning Wehn, who describes himself as ‘the German comedy ambassador’, and fellow German comic Michael Mittermeier have enjoyed English-speaking success. “I want to do it because I believe in people. If you grow up in Britain, you have no idea what the kids in Germany, France, Spain, Russia are into,” Izzard, who has often poked fun at eurosceptics in his shows, said. He admits, though, that for foreign comics, doing shows in English can be the start of more film or stage work and it would be hard to persuade people to go from English into other languages - for whom the audience pool is smaller. “I hope other stand-ups will do it in French or German. But it’s not about going just the extra mile. It’s about going the extra 25,000 miles... okay, maybe an extra 100 miles.” MAGNA CARTA AND KING JOHN Izzard, who once completed 43 marathons in 51 days for charity, only started learning the German version of the show, translated by his linguist brother, at the start of January. “I’m learning it like a play... It’s the most advanced language course you can do,” said the comic, who last learned German at school back in the 1970s. In case he gets stuck, the script has been written down in full, a first for the comic, who usually improvises. Just a couple of weeks in, though, Izzard is already improvising at the start in German. The show’s run in Berlin has been extended until the end of February, and Izzard’s set will get longer each night as he grows in confidence. After German comes Spanish, which Izzard says he hopes will be easier given his French knowledge. During the Force Majeure show, Izzard gets to grips with German sentence structure and declensions, earning knowing applause from the Berlin crowd for his perfect use of the fiendishly tricky genitive case at one stage. He also references British historical figures like Richard the Lionheart, his brother King John, the Magna Carta and King Charles I. “King John is not that well known outside of Britain, neither is the Magna Carta,” Izzard says. “But it doesn’t matter as long as you explain your references.” Even if the surreal image of those weasels (“Wiesel mit Sosse bedeckt”) to describe the human body during the ageing process had the Berlin audience a bit bemused at first, Ulrike Schneidewind, a 33-year-old psychologist who had come from Halle near Leipzig to see Izzard, said she approved of him keeping the show the same for everyone. “You don’t need to make it more German. You want to see him, to see his show,” she said, adding that one of her favorite bits was the sketch involving King Charles. Jokes about the Nazis also received applause. “I’m happy to talk about Hitler being a mass murderer,” says Izzard. “Everyone said ‘Don’t mention the war’ but anyone in the audience has got to be pretty old now to have been in any way responsible. The Nazis stole stuff, we should steal it back.” And Izzard’s favorite German word? “Ausgefuckinzeichnet!” - which means “fan-bloody-tastic”, for polite English society.

An amazing new video from SpaceX shows the spaceflight company's incredible plans for a reusable mega-rocket. The 2.5-minute Falcon Heavy rocket animation shows the spaceflight firm's plans to land the three boosters of its giant rocket back on Earth after launching missions to orbit. The three nine-engine boosters are equivalent to the booster used is used to power the core stage of the Falcon 9 rocket used to launch payloads to space currently. SpaceX representatives expect to start flights of the Falcon 9 Heavy later this year. "When Falcon Heavy lifts off later this year, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two," SpaceX representatives wrote in a video description. "Thrust at liftoff is equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft operating simultaneously." [How SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Rocket Works (Infographic)] SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will stand a towering 224.4 feet (68.4 meters) tall with 27 engines powering its three-booster first stage. The rocket's second stage has one engine that can help deliver a satellite or other payload to a chosen orbit after it separates from the first stage of the rocket. The new video shows a Falcon Heavy soaring into space from the historic Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (SpaceX signed a deal with NASA to use the launch pad in 2014). After the two side boosters separate, they turn back around and make a perfect landing, upright on a pad on Earth. The core booster of the rocket separates from the second stage before flying back to the ground like the other two nine-engine boosters. The rocket's second stage finishes delivering its satellite payload to orbit. Achieving complete rocket reusability has long been a goal of SpaceX and its founder, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, as a way of dramatically lowering the cost of spaceflight for both unmanned launches and, eventually, crewed missions. But SpaceX still has a way to go before this kind of reusable rocket dream can become a reality. The company recently brought the boost stage of its current Falcon 9 rocket back from space in an attempt to land it on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean. While SpaceX did managed to return the stage back to Earth, it exploded after impacting the platform. SpaceX founder Elon Musk later said the returning rocket ran out hydraulic fluid used to control its stabilization fins during the descent. The company has managed to successfully practice Falcon 9 rocket landings in the ocean just before splashdown, and Musk recently said that SpaceX will try to land another Falcon 9 booster on its ocean platform soon, possibly in February. "Next rocket landing on drone ship in 2 to 3 weeks [with] way more hydraulic fluid," Musk wrote on Twitter on Jan. 16. "At least it [should] explode for a [different] reason." Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article onSpace.com. Copyright 2015 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

LBS 2.0 - Enabling User-Driven Provision and Context-Aware Utilisation of Location-Based Services This poster presents a novel idea of how to provide users with location-based services. The key issues lie in radically simplifying the provision and the utilisation of services. Therefore we introduce Mobile Geo Widgets. Our objective is to make it possible for non-technicians to compose these via a Web toolkit without the need for specialized knowledge, and to enable people to use them on their mobile phones in a context-aware manner without any installation effort.

Blocking Out the Sun The State's Second-Largest Energy Provider Is at War with Solar Power OREGON'S SECOND-LARGEST power provider is an addict. Pacific Power supplies electricity to more than half a million Oregonians and still draws nearly two-thirds of that power from coal—the dirtiest major source of energy. But at a time when the pope and president are taking historic stances on climate change, Pacific's biggest concern isn't trying to kick its carbon-spewing habit. Instead, the energy giant's working to stymie far cleaner sources of power. Right now, Pacific—one of several subsidiaries of Portland-based PacifiCorp—is pushing hard for new state regulations that many worry would stop Oregon's fragile solar power industry in its tracks. Like anything involving utility regulation, the battle's complicated, and it's playing out in relative obscurity. But the outcome, observers say, may well dictate what Oregon's energy landscape looks like decades into the future. The stakes are high enough that the City of Portland is considering jumping into the fray. On Wednesday, September 2, Portland City Council's scheduled to decide whether the city attorney's office should intervene in Pacific's request before Oregon's Public Utility Commission (PUC)—just as renewable energy advocates and solar developers have done in recent months. Like those advocates, city officials worry rules like those that Pacific's clamoring for could "constrain" its ability to develop renewable energy projects—a proposed solar development on city land in Boring, for instance—just as Portland's recently revamped Climate Action Plan pushes clean power harder than ever. "The proposal undermines the city's ability to meet the goals of the Climate Action Plan, its ability to support rural economic development, and its ability to support the Oregon solar industry," reads a document city staff wrote for city council. "The proposal is also detrimental to city livability, as it slows the transition from fossil fuels as a source of electricity." In Portland, Pacific Power supplies electricity to most of the city east of I-5 and north of I-84. If you live in that region, this latest fight means your power company's essentially battling renewable energy, and using you as an excuse. Here's how. Since the 1970s, federal law has dictated that US power companies must buy renewable energy from qualified small-scale solar, wind, and hydroelectric projects—a policy aimed at encouraging efficiency and conservation. It's a national law, but the feds have left it up to individual states to set the rules for what those deals look like. In the case it filed before Oregon's three-member Public Utility Commission in May, Pacific Power is asking for two important changes to those rules. First, the company wants to slash the duration of the contracts it has to sign with qualified renewable projects from 15 years to three years—a move which would allow the energy company to more-nimbly change the rates it pays for that clean power, but which advocates say would make it extremely difficult for new solar projects to find up front funding. Pacific's also seeking more leverage in negotiating those contracts, by making only the tiniest solar and wind projects eligible to get a guaranteed "standard" price for their power. Other projects of even modest size would be forced to haggle at length with the energy giant—whether they've got the resources to do so or not. In tandem, renewable energy boosters say the changes would kill solar and wind generation in Oregon before it even gets off the ground. "The utilities are talking about their concerns about climate and then turning around and basically trying to restrain one of the most important programs we've got," says Fred Heutte, a senior policy associate with the Northwest Energy Coalition, which is fighting Pacific's request. To make its case, Pacific is relying on some misleading numbers. The company notes that it's been inundated with proposals for new solar projects that want to sell it power lately—the result of falling prices for solar panels and generous tax credits. If all of the projects are built and the PUC declines to change its policies, Pacific warns, it will "pose significant price risk and harm" to customers, who might have to pay more for solar power than cheap, dirty coal. "When we purchase that power, the cost gets embedded into rates," says Pacific Power spokesperson Ry Schwark. "The people paying for this are customers, and we have to advocate for them in this process." There's a problem with this argument, though. Proposed solar facilities and completed solar facilities are two very different things. The vast majority of projects that are proposed ultimately fall through. In truth, Pacific isn't currently being forced to purchase even a single watt of solar power due to the rules it's trying to change, despite those rules being in place for decades. It grudgingly acknowledged this point in a filing with the PUC after being called out by David Brown, a Lake Oswego-based solar developer. But despite this, Pacific says it thinks 75 percent of currently proposed projects are going to be built. "Their claim is, 'all these horrible solar developers want to build these solar projects and we've never been more terrified,'" says Brown. But for new projects, "there's a 90 percent failure rate." Pacific power does pay a number of wind facilities for their power, and tells the Mercury its Oregon customers overpaid for that power by $7 million dollars last year, compared to the price of cheaper power like coal—an average of about $12.50 per customer. The company's tried this tack before. In 2012, Pacific joined with Portland General Electric and Idaho Power to ask the PUC for some of the very same changes it's advocating for today. The commission declined that request last year, so Pacific is asking again (Idaho Power, which operates in Eastern Oregon, also is pushing for changes in a separate case). Brown worries the commission will accept this time around. "They're doing this in hurry-up fashion," he says of the PUC. "They're just jamming it through." Brown has reason to fight Pacific here. He's at work building what he says will be the first solar facility in the state that a utility—Pacific Power, in this case—will be forced to purchase from under federal law. As solar and wind power technology grow cheaper, that decades-old policy is becoming more workable than ever in Oregon. But huge hurdles remain. Energy is cheap right now, thanks to fossil fuels, which makes it difficult for solar projects to compete even with their falling costs. That could change as the energy market does, but advocates say it might not matter if the PUC grants Pacific Power's (or Idaho Power's) request. Oregon is far from the only battleground in this fight. Pacific and its brethren have pushed similar changes in a host of Western states. They got an early victory in August, when Idaho's Public Utilities Commission agreed to modify its regulations in much the same way Pacific is seeking here. The Snake River Alliance, a clean energy advocacy group in the state, called the decision "tantamount to killing utility-scale solar developments in Idaho." Whether or not that happens in Oregon may not be decided for months or years, but the PUC is already helping Pacific out. In mid-August, the commission granted the power company's request to temporarily limit the kinds of new solar and wind projects eligible for guaranteed rates. That decision would be reversed if the PUC ultimately decides against Pacific. It would be bolstered if the body agrees. "Oregon needs to get back in the seat as a leader in renewable energy," says Heutte, of the Northwest Energy Coalition. "Here's an opportunity to do that. Everybody knows we have to deal with the climate."

GRAFT VERSUS LEUKEMIA: III. Apparent Independent Antihost and Antileukemic Activity of Transplanted Immunocompetent Cells SUMMARY Uptake of 3H-thymidine was used to quantify the reactivity of immunocompetent cells from AKR, CBA, A, C57BL/6, or DBA/2 mice following culture with mitomycin C-treated AKR cells. Median survival times and percentage of survival at 100 days were used to quantify the severity of graft-versus-host (GVH) disease in immunosuppressed AKR mice that were given immunocompetent cells from AKR, CBA, A, C57BL/6, or DBA/2 mice. A correlation was suggested when the results of the one-way mixed leukocyte cultures and the scores of GVH reactivity in vivo were compared. AKR mice bearing a long passage lymphocytic leukemia were treated with total body X-irradiation, cyclophosphamide, and adoptive immunotherapy. A bioassay was employed to quantify the graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) reactivity of immunocompetent cells from AKR, CBA, A, C57BL/6, or DBA/2 donors. There was an apparent correlation between GVH and GVL reactivity of immunocompetent cells from AKR, CBA, and C57BL/6 mice. However, no correlation was found in the GVH and GVL reactivity of immunocompetent cells from A or DBA/2 donors. Cells from strain A donors caused the most severe GVH disease, but had only moderate antileukemic effect. The most important finding was that cells from DBA/2 donors caused somewhat less severe GVH disease, but had the highest GVL reactivity.

major public high school in Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as Beverly or as BHHS) is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on Beverly's campus. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on 19.5 acres (7.9 ha) on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the border of the Century City area of Los Angeles. The land was previously part of the Beverly Hills Speedway board track, which was torn down in 1924. Beverly, which serves all of Beverly Hills, was founded in 1927. The original buildings were designed by Robert D. Farquhar in the French Normandy style. The school previously received income from its on-campus oil tower. History [ edit ] Beverly Hills High School was originally in the Los Angeles City High School District.[3] On March 23, 1936, the Beverly Hills Elementary School District left the Los Angeles City High School District and formed the Beverly Hills High School District; by operation of law this became the Beverly Hills Unified School District.[4] Awards and recognition [ edit ] During the 1999–2000 and 2004–05 school years, Beverly Hills High School was recognized with the Blue Ribbon School Award of Excellence by the United States Department of Education,[5][6] the highest award an American school can receive.[7][8] Newsweek ranked Beverly Hills High School as the 267th best public high school in the country.[9] Admissions [ edit ] Most students are residents of Beverly Hills. As of 1991 the non-resident students allowed to enroll in Beverly Hills High are employees of BHUSD, children of employees of the City of Beverly Hills, and a small number of students in the "multicultural program." Students in that program, which was financed by state funds tied to student enrollment, were required to supply their own transportation.[10] The program accepted 30 students each year.[11] The program began in the 1970s in order to expose the then-predominately Caucasian students to other cultures.[11] Until 1991 the program only admitted students who graduated from Emerson Middle School in Westwood, but in 1991 it was expanded to 11 LAUSD middle schools. It was expanded since there were complaints that it was taking away the best students from University High School, which Emerson feeds into.[10] Student demographics [ edit ] As of 1991, 19% of the students were Iranian, and almost 20% of the students were either Asian, Black, and/or Latino.[11] In 2008, Beverly Hills High School had 2,412 students: 70% Caucasian, 17% Asian, 5% African-American, 4% Latino.[12] Beginning in 2010, when the Beverly Hills Unified School District adopted a basic-aid funding formula and ended its Diversity Permit program,[13] the demographics of Beverly's student body starting shifting considerably.[14][15] In 2014, the student body was 72% white, 16% Asian, 6% black, and 5% Hispanic.[16] By 2017, the high school total population had dropped to 1,482, and the demographics of enrolled students were: 73% Caucasian, 13% Asian, 8% Latino, and 3% African-American.[17] The student body is, as of 2008, predominantly Jewish.[18] Many students are Iranian Americans, the majority of whom at the school are also Jewish.[18] Due to the large number of students of Iranian origin, the school has historically scheduled a staff development day on or around Nowruz.[19] As of 2012, about 35% of Beverly's current student body was born outside the United States, and 41% of its students speak a first language other than English.[20] As of 1991 home languages other than English included Mandarin Chinese, French, Hebrew, Korean, and Russian.[11] Some television shows, like Beverly Hills, 90210, have been criticized for not accurately portraying the student body.[18] Student life [ edit ] The 1988 non-fiction book Hard Lessons by Michael Leahy documents the life of six Beverly seniors for a full school year. In 1984, Beverly had a 100% graduation rate but three students committed suicide. These suicides piqued Leahy's interest in Beverly, and in 1985 he began writing Hard Lessons.[21] Leahy had heard many stories about Beverly having intense academic pressure, substance abuse, and being a "den of hedonism." However, after speaking to Beverly students he concluded that sex and drug abuse were neither higher nor lower than at other local high schools. Beverly's social attitudes and morals were also nearly identical to these schools. Leahy did note that Beverly's academic pressure was unusually high which led to cheating and high anxiety amongst students.[21] In the media [ edit ] Beverly has been featured in many films and TV shows, either as part of the plot or as a filming location. Many movies, including Clueless, Real Women Have Curves, Whatever It Takes, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, and It's a Wonderful Life, featured a scene in Beverly's unique "Swim Gym," perhaps the only gymnasium that has a basketball court that can split open to reveal a recreational-sized, 25-yard (23 m) swimming pool.[22] The gym in Beverly Hills High was used in the video for boy band NLT's That Girl. The front of Beverly High was shown in a short clip of Nickelback's music video for their song "Rockstar", although it only shows the part that reads "Hills High School" (the "Beverly" portion was cut off). The school was also in the cartoon show Totally Spies!, and it was often called "Bev High" for short. The book series The A-List follows a group of privileged teenagers and young adults from Beverly Hills, many of them who attend Beverly Hills High School and come from entertainment families and are known for their proactivity. Initially, the producers of the 1990s television drama Beverly Hills, 90210 wanted the show to be set at Beverly Hills High School, and the show to be filmed on Beverly's campus. The Beverly Hills school board declined both requests. So, the TV producers created the fictional "West Beverly Hills High School" (or "West Beverly") and the show was filmed at Torrance High School, in Torrance, California. "West Beverly" is a clear reference to Beverly, because Beverly's campus is located on the western border of Beverly Hills. However, the real Beverly is mentioned throughout the first three seasons of the show. The fictional school East Beverly Hills High School was in the book series The Privileged Life.[citation needed] Enrollment controversies [ edit ] The Beverly Hills Unified School District has faced controversies in student enrollment, mainly regarding diversity, and more recently, legacy enrollment (alumni preference).[23] For many years Beverly has selected high-achieving students from twelve LAUSD middle schools on diversity permits in an attempt to increase the number of minorities enrolled. Selections have been made based on test scores, grades and writing samples. According to enrollment data for the 2006–2007 school year, however, seven out of ten students who entered the school this way were of Asian ethnicity. In April 2007 due to pressure from parents and activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson, who criticized the school for not recruiting more African-American and Latino students, Superintendent Kari McVeigh agreed to extend the application deadline until April 27, as reported in the Los Angeles Times and the Beverly Hills Courier, hoping that more students from these minority groups would seek to enroll. According to the Beverly Hills Courier (May 25, 2007), "civil rights leaders hailed the final student selections" as "an honest effort to obtain ethnic diversity."[24][25] The school board voted 3–2 in the spring of 2008 to offer the children of alumni, who live outside the district's boundaries, preference in enrollment. The intended purpose is to influence these alumni to support the school district regarding bond measure or tax issues and fund-raising. Critics protest that, while legacy preferences are long established and constitutional for institutions of higher education (colleges and universities), legacy enrollment in public schools is anti-democratic, constitutionally questionable, and subvert public education to the benefit of the wealthy. News services [ edit ] BHHS has two award-winning news services. KBEV-Channel 6 is a student-run television channel that began in 1974 on Theta Cable as part of the Public, educational, and government access (PEG) Channels requirements for cable companies (free access by Public-access television, Education-access television and Government-access television (GATV) entities in the community). KBEV airs a variety of programs, including the longest running high school news program in the country, The Norman Newservice (now The Norman News). KBEV has hosted many important guests, such as Ronald Reagan, in the past. Highlights, the school's newspaper, has also won numerous awards for its reporting and writing. In October 2007, Highlights won first place in the 13th Annual California State University Northridge Journalism Skills Competition, with a total of seven out of twelve possible awards in news writing, feature writing, opinion writing, sports writing and photojournalism. The Highlights staff recently took home awards from the national JEA conference in St. Louis, Missouri. In April 2009, the Highlights staff ranked 3rd place among the nation in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to regularly winning individual awards at the JEA/NSPA fall and spring conferences, Highlights placed seventh in the nation at the 2011 Minneapolis conference in November. Athletics [ edit ] Beverly Hills High School Gym The Beverly Hills High School "Swim Gym" was designed by Stiles O. Clements and built in 1939 as a New Deal project. It features a basketball court that opens to reveal a 25-yard (23 m)-long swimming pool underneath. It is featured in It's A Wonderful Life as the location of the dance. Sports including volleyball, basketball, wrestling, swimming and water polo can all be played in this facility. Beverly offers the following sports: BHHS's stadium is a multipurpose facility that is used for football, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, and track and field. Of the ninety football teams throughout the course of Beverly Hills High School's history, BHHS varsity football has won 12 state championships.[citation needed] Performing arts [ edit ] Beverly Hills High School has a Performing Arts Department that attracts casting directors, writers and producers to attend performances and to visit classes to speak with the students.[26] Each year around late March to early April, the school holds its annual musical performance by performing arts students. Many of these musicals are based on Broadway award-winning musicals. BHHS is also famous for its Theater Acting Workshop, where only Juniors and Seniors who audition get in. Nicolas Cage once enrolled in this class. The BHHS marching band has been selected to perform at Disneyland several times in its history.[citation needed] The marching band has also been invited to The London New Year’s Day Parade twice in its history, the last time being 2016.[citation needed] BHHS now[when?] has a very successful competitive Winter Drumline. The BHHS Drumline is in its second competitive season. They compete in the SCPA and WGI circuits. The BHHS Drumline has performed such shows as "A Tour of Technology: The Inner-Workings of a Computer" and "Censor State: The State, The Conceded, The Resistance".[27] Beverly Hills High School also has two award-winning groups, the Madrigal Singers (a chamber choir) and Minnesingers (currently an all-women's choir). Both groups have won a wide range of awards for their performances, usually at Heritage Festivals. They have traveled across the United States to well-known locales such as San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, Orlando, Washington, D.C. and even internationally to Mexico, France and New Zealand. Additionally, in December, both groups go Christmas caroling to raise money for their festival trips. The groups were founded by Robert Holmes, who also helped found the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts Summer Music Festival see Idyllwild Arts Summer Program. BHHS's Dance Company is renowned for their success in dance.[citation needed] They hold annual shows in January, which they practice for immediately when the school year starts. A few years ago, the Dance Company traveled to its sister school in Cannes, France, where they were invited to perform. BHHS also has a hip-hop group, AP Posse, which performs in between Dance Company numbers. Robotics team [ edit ] The Beverly Hills High School FRC robotics team, MorTorq - Team 1515 was founded in 2004. MorTorq won the Chairman’s Award (the most prestigious award the business team can receive) in 2010 and 2013 at the Los Angeles Regional competition, and in 2014 at the Las Vegas Regional competition.[28] In 2015, MorTorq brought home the 1st place banner at the Los Angeles Regional.[28] In 2018, MorTorq attended the FRC Championship in Houston, Texas. Oil wells [ edit ] A cluster of nineteen oil wells in a single "drilling island" on Beverly's campus, owned by Venoco, Inc., can easily be seen by drivers heading west on Olympic Boulevard toward Century City. The oil wells have pumped much of the oil from under Beverly's campus, and many have been slant drilling into productive regions of the western part of the Beverly Hills Oil Field under many homes and apartment buildings in Beverly Hills for decades.[29] As of May 2006, the Beverly Hills High School wells were pumping out 400 barrels (64 m3) to 500 barrels (79 m3) a day, earning the school approximately $300,000 a year in royalties.[30] In the late-1990s an art studio run by two Beverly High Graduates volunteered to cover the well enclosure, which at that time was solid gray in color, with individual tiles that had been painted by kids with cancer.[31] The studio created the design and drew the lines on the tiles, but children painted the tiles in between the lines. The studio made the design rather abstract: the design consists of random shapes on different-colored backgrounds. A ceremony inaugurating the design was held in 2001. Beverly gained more notoriety when Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry announced having filed three lawsuits in 2003 and 2004 on behalf of 25, 400, and 300 (respectively) former students who attended Beverly from the 1970s until the 1990s. In April 2003, the Texas-based lawfirm of Baron & Budd partnered with the law office of Masry & Vititoe to lend its expertise in lawsuits related to health risks of volatile chemicals.[32] The number of actual cancer claims filed in Santa Monica was ninety-four.[33] The lawsuits claimed that toxic fumes from the oil wells caused the former students[34] to develop cancer. The oil wells are very close to all of Beverly's sports facilities, including the soccer field, the football field, and the racetrack. Beverly students—not just athletes but students taking required physical education classes from the 1970s until the 1990s—were required to run near the oil wells. The city, the school district, and the oil companies named as defendants disputed this assertion, claiming that they had conducted air quality tests with results showing that air quality is normal at the high school.[35][36] In 2003, the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine published a "Community Cancer Assessment Regarding Beverly Hills, California" which failed to support Masry's claims.[37] After receiving complaints about Beverly's oil installation, the region's air-quality agency investigated Venoco Oil (doing business as Venoco, Inc)[38] and in 2003 issued three Notices of Violation regarding the operation of the drilling island. Venoco, Inc's penalty settlement included requirements that the company maintain continuous air quality monitoring at the high school, and prevent any oilfield gas (which is primarily methane gas) from being released into the atmosphere.[39] On December 12, 2006, the first 12 plaintiffs (of over 1000 total) were dismissed on summary judgment because there was no indication that the contaminant (benzene) caused the diseases involved and the concentrations were hundreds to thousands of times lower than levels associated with any risk.[40] In Fall of 2007, the plaintiffs agreed to pay the School District and the City up to $450,000 for expenses from the lawsuits.[41] This payment of expenses is without prejudice to any of the plaintiffs in the case, which is on appeal. In June 2004 Beverly Hills Courier Editor Norma Zager was named "Journalist of the Year" in the Los Angeles Press Club's Southern California Journalism Awards competition for her coverage of the Erin Brockovich-Edward Masry lawsuit.[42] Two books about the oil wells and lawsuit have been published, Parts Per Million: The Poisoning of Beverly Hills High School by Joy Horowitz was published in July 2007 and Erin Brockovich and the Beverly Hills: Greenscam by Norma Zager was published in October 2010. In 2015, Venoco (the oil company that operated the drilling operation) filed for bankruptcy following the Santa Barbara oil spill. The school district has made plans to cap the well and demolish the structure to pave the way for new athletic facilities. Notable alumni [ edit ] BHHS has a number of famous alumni, many of whom are entertainers, the children of entertainers or other prominent people. In addition, many famous people have taught at the school; soap opera actor John Ingle taught the drama and acting program at the school from 1964 to 1985. While Beverly Hills High School alumni are known predominantly for their connections with the entertainment industry, BHHS has also produced well-known scholars in many scientific disciplines.

Secondary granulation-assisted CVD growth of WS2, TiS2 and NbS2 crystals Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a cost-effective and scalable approach to prepare high-quality two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which is crucial for practical applications. Nevertheless, how to sublimate metal precursors with high melting point efficiently is still challenging. Herein, we demonstrate a novel secondary granulation-assisted route to adjust the supply of WO3 at moderate temperature (730 C), guarantee the appropriate tungsten/chalcogen ratio, and then achieve the controllable growth of monolayer WS2 crystals. Transmission electron microscopy, Raman and other characterizations indicate their high crystallinity. Notably, the domain size, nucleation density and morphology can be regulated by the size of the granulated WO3 particles. Moreover, the related mechanism is explained in detail, which applies equally to the steerable growth of TiS2 and NbS2, confirming the versatility of this method for growing 2D TMDCs. Therefore, this work offers a facile route for the microthermal CVD growth of 2D TMDCs crystals and drives the development of applications.

Abstract 3710: Synergistic cell death induction in ovarian cancer by cisplatin and ABT-199 is mediated by expression of NOXA Ovarian cancer is among the top ten leading causes of cancer death in women worldwide with a mortality rate of roughly 5% among all cancer deaths. So far, there are no recommended screening tests for the early detection of ovarian cancer. Therefore, patients are frequently diagnosed at late stages of ovarian cancer, which is associated with unfavorable 5-year survival. Patients suffering from ovarian cancer often show a good response to initial therapy with platinum-based compounds and/or taxanes subsequent to resection of the affected tissue. Unfortunately, ovarian cancer shows a high frequency of relapse and after chemotherapy persistent tumor cells re-expand and successively evolve into therapy-resistant tumors. We recently reported that cisplatin (cisPt) treatment of ovarian cancer cells enhances mitochondrial content and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (Kleih et al. 2019). We therefore speculated that the enhanced mitochondrial content primes cisPt-treated cells for apoptosis induced by BH3 mimetic drugs, such as Venetoclax (ABT-199), that act on anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins at the outer mitochondrial membrane. To explore this hypothesis, we investigated whether the combined administration of cisPt and ABT-199 leads to a synergistic cell death induction in ovarian cancer cells with different cisPt resistance and mitochondrial content. Detection of cell death by flow cytometric measurements of the mitochondrial membrane potential and exposure of phosphatidylserine demonstrated a synergistic cell death induction by cisPt and ABT-199 in OVCAR4 and OVCAR8 cells, irrespective of the cisPt resistance. Interestingly, Western blot analysis revealed that ABT-199 induced the accumulation of the BH3-only protein NOXA in both cancer cell lines. Accumulation of NOXA was dependent on ABT-199-mediated activation of the stress-responsive transcription factor ATF4. Knock-down experiments showed that apoptosis of cisPt-resistant OVCAR8 cells by the combined treatment with ABT-199 and cisPt was entirely dependent on NOXA. Moreover, also cisPt-sensitive OVCAR4 cells revealed an initially reduced apoptosis induction by the NOXA knock-down. Our data therefore elucidate the molecular mechanism of the synergistic efficacy of cisPt/ABT-199 combination therapies, which should be promising especially for the treatment of recurrent tumors developing reduced sensitivity to cisPt-based treatments. Citation Format: Benjamin Schaefer, Sandra Weller, Tobias B. Beigl, Klaus Schulze-Osthoff, Hans-Georg Kopp, Walter E. Aulitzky, Frank Essmann. Synergistic cell death induction in ovarian cancer by cisplatin and ABT-199 is mediated by expression of NOXA . In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 3710.

Article Déjà évoquée par le passé, la piste de l'attaquant lyonnais Alexandre Lacazette a été réactivée par le PSG. Après des premières approches, le club parisien a même fait une offre à l'attaquant français de 24 ans. Régulièrement évoquée la saison dernière mais pas vraiment chaude pour autant, la piste menant à l'attaquant lyonnais Alexandre Lacazette (24 ans) est en revanche bien réelle cette saison. Après avoir sondé l'entourage du joueur, le PSG a même soumis une offre selon nos informations. Suite au départ de Zlatan Ibrahimovic, le PSG cherche deux profils pour se renforcer sur le plan offensif : un joueur de grande envergure sur le côté gauche de son attaque et un attaquant axial capable d'apporter un certain nombre de buts. La presse a cité quelques noms pour le premier poste (Griezmann, Martial, etc) et, concernant le second profil, c'est le nom d'Alexandre Lacazette qui a été coché par les dirigeants du PSG. Des contacts entre l'entourage du joueur et le club parisien ont eu lieu durant quelques semaines et le PSG est finalement allé plus loin. Il y a une dizaine de jours, le PSG a fait une offre de contrat au joueur portant sur une longue durée (4 ou 5 ans), assorti d'un salaire à la parisienne, donc au-dessus de ce qu'il touche aujourd'hui à Lyon. Le joueur n'a pas donné de réponse ferme pour le moment mais serait réceptif à cette offre. Toutefois, le club parisien n'est pas sa seule option puisqu'un des gros clubs londoniens lui a également fait une proposition. Du côté du club lyonnais, le président Jean-Michel Aulas souffle le chaud et le froid concernant son attaquant. Dans un entretien à beIN Sports, après avoir déclaré à propos de son attaquant qu'il a « un statut particulier à l'OL » et qu'il «va rester », le président lyonnais n'a pas hésité à l'évaluer à «au moins 50 millions d’euros.» Malin, Aulas a aussi placé son joueur comme un des successeurs possibles d'Ibra : «Si je suis sincère, je pense aujourd'hui qu'Alexandre Lacazette a sa place au PSG. » Une façon d'appeler une offre parisienne ?

Image copyright Other Image caption Anil Yadav was arrested on Monday afternoon and accused of snatching a woman's necklace An alleged Indian thief who swallowed a gold necklace has expelled it in his excreta after he was fed special liquids and more than 60 bananas. Anil Yadav was accused of snatching the necklace, worth 63,000 rupees ($995; £648), from a woman on Monday. Doctors at Mumbai's Sion hospital also gave him four enemas after an X-ray scan of his body showed the necklace lodged in his stomach. Meanwhile, the owner of the necklace has said she will not wear it again. Rajashree Mayeker told Midday newspaper correspondent Saurabh Vaktania that she would take it to her jeweller who would melt it and re-make it. Image copyright other Image caption Police say an X-ray has revealed the necklace inside Anil Yadav's body The hospital authorities said Mr Yadav expelled the necklace on Thursday morning in his stool after he was put on a special diet of bananas, milk and antacids. They said the necklace took so long to come out because it had a large pendant which was hindering its expulsion. On Wednesday, police official Rahul Pawar told the BBC that Mr Yadav, 30, snatched the necklace weighing 25g (0.06lb) from Mrs Mayeker, 52, as she was walking home in the Sion area on Monday afternoon. He was caught after a chase by the police and public. After some people who had caught him said they had seen him swallowing something, Mr Yadav was taken to the hospital where an X-ray revealed the necklace inside his body. Doctors, however, have questioned the use of bananas as a laxative with some saying medicines could have done the job much more easily.

A multiple-beam sector antenna with a dual planar reflectarray arrangement A multiple-beam sector antenna realized with a dual planar reflect array arrangement is presented. A 58 GHz antenna with three feeds was built up and tested. Antenna dimensions are 150 mm diameter and 40 mm height, and each feed covers distinct 30deg-sectors in one plane in combination with a small beamwidth in the orthogonal plane

Heroin in Baltimore: Beyond “Drugs, Inc.” Leah Rosenbaum Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 13, 2015 Photograph by Anna Johnston On a muggy Friday night in West Baltimore, Sergeant Mike Smith and Detective Robert Pulliam drive up to a couple huddled on the corner — two of Baltimore’s many heroin addicts. As they pull up to the pair on the curb the car headlights illuminate the scene: a young white couple, the man with dark hair and a beanie cap and the woman in dirty jeans and a winter coat, buttoned despite the warm night. She has been peeling away at a scratch lottery ticket with her fingernails, hoping to get lucky. The couple look up, partially blinded by the harsh headlights of the cop car. The officers ask them to stand so that they can conduct a search; while having needles or other drug paraphernalia in their possession is not illegal, if the addicts still have heroin they could be arrested. There is no arguing or denying. Both the officers and the addicts silently acknowledge that these two are actively using heroin, and are likely currently high. Yet, at least this time, the police treat the man and woman with respect, chatting casually as they don gloves to search through the woman’s purse and the man’s jacket. An officer asks the man if he has any needles in his pockets; if a dirty needle sticks him through the gloves, the officer could be at risk for contracting a disease. The man shakes his head and instead nods toward his backpack where his drug paraphernalia is stored. There is no heroin, only about 200 used needles bundled tightly together by rubber bands. The woman explains that they had been waiting for the needle exchange van so that they could turn in their dirty needles in exchange for clean ones. She looks barely 21, a brunette with long, pin-straight hair and legs so skinny it is a miracle they support her weight. The man’s face is more weathered; he has been using heroin on and off for almost a decade, whereas the woman started only a year ago. When asked why she began using heroin, the woman states plainly that she began when she was working as a stripper on The Block, Baltimore’s red-light district. “Taking your clothes off for strangers is pretty uncomfortable,” she says, “heroin makes it a little easier.” Sgt. Smith and Det. Pulliam nod; they’ve heard this story before. The officers ask if she could go back home to her parents, but the young woman snorts. She’s from Baltimore County, and her father is a police Lieutenant. She doesn’t think he would be too pleased at her return. Before the officers leave, they casually ask where the couple bought their most recent score. The woman pulls Sgt. Smith off to the side and tells him the address of their current source as Det. Pulliam continues talking to the man, making idle chit chat about the weather. After a few minutes, they are done. “Get rid of those needles,” the policemen say as they get back in the car, “and be safe.” After they drive around the corner, Sgt. Smith and Det. Pulliam compare notes. The woman alerted Sgt. Smith to a house down the block that has been selling heroin, and they record the address for future investigation. Surprisingly, addicts are some of their best informants. “They hate the drug dealers,” Sgt. Smith explains, “because they’re horrible to [the addicts].” Dealers often jack up prices, talk down to addicts, and don’t bother to hide their disdain for their customers. Although addicts are their source of income, most dealers view them as sub-human. Sgt. Smith sighs as he continues to drive through the barren blocks of a midnight in West Baltimore. There had already been two shootings that night, and the streets are deserted. “[Everyone] profits from heroin,” he says, “the drug dealers, the politicians, the builders that build jails, the government, everyone. The only person who doesn’t profit is the junkie.”

Effects of Hyperkalemia, Acidosis, and Hypoxia on the Depression of Maximum Rate of Depolarization by Class I Antiarrhythmic Drugs in Guinea Pig Myocardium: Differential Actions of Class Ib and Ic Agents Standard microelectrode methods were used to record intracellular action potentials from strips of guinea pig right ventricular myocardium superfused with either standard physiological saline (pH 7.3; PO2 > 650 mm Hg; = 5.6 mM) or the same solution modified to produce either hyperkalemia ( = 11.2 mM), acidosis (pH = 6.3), or hypoxia (PO2 = 60 mm Hg). The effects on action potential parameters of three therapeutic concentration of lidocaine, flecainide, and encainide were studied under all four conditions at four different drive rates (interstimulus interval = 2.400, 1.200, 600, and 300 ms). Hyperkalemia in the absence of drugs produced reductions in resting potential (-87.9 ± 3.8 to −74.6 ± 3.3 mV), maximum rate of depolarization (316 ± 68 to 240 ± 12 V/s). and action potential duration (178 ± 21 to 165 ± 27 ms). All three drugs produced increased depression of Vmax in hyperkalemia compared to control conditions but, at all three concentrations and all four rates, this enhancement of effect was greater for lidocaine than for either of the other two agents (which did not differ significantly from each other; p < 0.001). Similar though less marked effects were produced by acidosis (3.5 mV depolarization and 19% reduction in Vmax), and once again the depression of Vmax by lidocaine was enhanced more by this intervention than were the actions of encainide or flecainide (p < 0.01). Hypoxia had no effect on action potential parameters other than duration and no significant modulation of drug actions was seen for this intervention. It is concluded that of the electrophysiological changes induced by ischemia, those due to hyperkalemia are the most important in causing enhanced depression of Vmax by class I antiarrhythmic agents and that lidocaine (subclass Ib) is significantly more selective under such conditions than encainide or flecainide (subclass lc).

Head coach Doug Pederson of the Philadelphia Eagles during a preseason game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Aug. 31 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images The lowest-hanging fruit in the NFL’s analytics revolution is for coaches to keep their offenses on the field on fourth-and-1. As pro offenses have become more effective, the state of being on offense has become increasingly valuable. Consider that in 1999, NFL teams averaged 1.56 points and 26.3 yards per drive while turning the ball over on 15 percent of drives. Compare those numbers to 2016, when teams averaged 1.97 points and 31.6 yards per drive and saw fewer than 12 percent of drives end on turnovers. Punting on fourth-and-1 has never been a worse idea. While we’ve known for a long time that going for it on fourth-and-short is the wise move, NFL coaches have typically eschewed this aggressive approach. Are coaches getting any smarter? I took a shot at answering that question in August, analyzing fourth-and-1 decisions that fell within the following three constraints: The decision must have come in the first three quarters before end-of-game factors encourage or discourage aggressive play. The offense had to be between its own 40-yard line and its opponent’s 40-yard line, so kicking a field goal wasn’t an option, but the team wasn’t so close to its own end zone as to make fourth down conservativism a defensible move. The game needed to be competitive, defined as within 10 points, to ensure the scoreboard wasn’t the primary factor dictating those decisions. From 1994–2004, teams went for it on these fourth-and-1 situations 28 percent of the time. From 2005–2014, that number ratcheted up, with teams going for it 35 percent of the time. And in 2015 and 2016, offenses stayed on the field for these fourth downs more than 40 percent. That trend is still holding halfway through the 2017 season. Admittedly, because of those three limiting factors, and because fourth-and-1 plays aren’t that common, the data set here isn’t very large. Through nine weeks, teams have faced 24 fourth-and-1 decisions between the 40-yard lines in the first three-quarters of tight games. (This week’s Thursday night game between Seattle and Arizona is not included in these calculations.) Teams have punted 14 out of those 24 times. While that may not sound great, that 42 percent rate is consistent with what we saw in 2015 and 2016. Slowly but surely, teams are getting more aggressive on fourth downs, even if they are still falling far short of how aggressive they should be. Given the constraints I laid out, a rational coach would go for it on fourth-and-1 pretty much every single time. Coaches who have gone for it in these situations have gotten some positive reinforcement this year, as teams converted on 8 of the 10 fourth-down attempts in my data set. Going for it in these cases is the optimal decision, even if that decision looks bad in hindsight following a failed attempt. But seeing good process yield good results is likely to encourage rational behavior around the league. Consider the matchup in Week 3 between the 0–2 New York Giants and 1–1 Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles won on a last-second, 61-yard field goal and haven’t lost since. Meanwhile, the loss all but ended the Giants’ postseason dreams, and New York has since collapsed to 1–7. Although that long field goal received most of the attention, Philadelphia wouldn’t have been in a position to win the game without some aggressive early game decisions. In the first quarter, the Eagles had fourth-and-1 from their own 47-yard line. Quarterback Carson Wentz took a quarterback sneak 2 yards up the middle for the first down, keeping alive an eventual 18-play, 90-yard touchdown drive. In the third quarter, with Philadelphia still leading 7–0, the Eagles went for it on the Giants’ 45-yard line, with Wentz again sneaking ahead for the first down. Four plays later, the Eagles were in the end zone. Those two touchdown drives only happened because head coach Doug Pederson—with the support of an owner, Jeffrey Lurie, who has expressly supported such aggressive tactics—made the right decisions on fourth down. All 10 times a team has gone for it in these situations, the offense has called a running play. That includes three quarterback sneaks (all by Wentz), four carries by a running back, two handoffs to a fullback, and a Russell Wilson read-option play where he ran for 9 yards. A 100 percent run rate is obviously extreme, although not totally unexpected in a sample of just 10 plays. From 1994–2016, teams rushed on 84 percent of the plays in these situations. (That likely includes a few called pass plays that turned into quarterback scrambles.) That rate holds true from 2013–2016, too. Given the decision to be aggressive by keeping the offense on the field, it seems coaches tend toward conservative play-calling. If a pass fails, it’s easy to blame the coach; if the run fails, it’s easy to blame the offensive line. For comparison’s sake, we can look at what teams do in the exact same situation—the game within 10 points, between the 40-yard lines, first three quarters—but on third-and-1. Since 1994, teams have called a rushing play 77 percent of the time in that scenario. On those rushing plays (which, again, include a few quarterback scrambles), teams have picked up a first down 71 percent of the time and averaged 3.2 yards per play while scoring a touchdown just 0.3 percent of the time. On passing plays, teams have gained a first down 59 percent of the time and gained an average of 7.6 yards and scored a touchdown on 2.2 percent of plays. In other words, passing has a lower success rate but carries a more substantial reward. From a game-theory perspective, even if a running play is the superior call, it will never be optimal to call runs 100 percent of the time. After all, a predictable offense is a defense’s best friend. But again, there’s another factor at play: When a coach goes for it on fourth-and-1 and the pass falls incomplete, that coach is going to be criticized 100 percent of the time. A fear of criticism helps explain why a majority of teams will still punt in this situation, even as the ratio of punting to going for it inches closer to 50-50. That ratio would be even closer if Marvin Lewis wasn’t running things in Cincinnati. In the Bengals’ Week 2 game against the Houston Texans, Lewis sent out the punting unit twice in the first half on fourth-and-1, first at the Texans’ 46-yard line and later at the Bengals’ own 42. Passing up makeable fourth-down attempts early in the game often forces teams to be more aggressive later on. Trailing 10–6 in the third quarter, Lewis wisely kept his offense on the field for a fourth-and-2 at the Houston 19-yard line; the Bengals converted but still settled for a field goal. Later, down 13–9, the Bengals had to go for it on fourth-and-9 with 1:13 remaining; the pass sailed incomplete, and the Texans won the game. Knowing what he did then, I suspect Lewis wished he’d gone for it on fourth-and-1. The coach that Lewis and his NFL brethren should look to for inspiration is Philadelphia’s Pederson—one of the front-runners for the NFL’s coach-of-the-year award. Overall, the Eagles have faced 13 different fourth-and-1 situations this year. They’ve gone for it seven times and have converted all seven. With results like that, expect Philadelphia to keep being aggressive and for that to remain the smart decision.

CRISPR-Cas9–Mediated TIM3 Knockout in Human Natural Killer Cells Enhances Growth Inhibitory Effects on Human Glioma Cells Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary malignant brain tumor in adults. Natural Killer (NK) cells are potent cytotoxic effector cells against tumor cells inducing GBM cells; therefore, NK cell based- immunotherapy might be a promising target in GBM. T cell immunoglobulin mucin family member 3 (TIM3), a receptor expressed on NK cells, has been suggested as a marker of dysfunctional NK cells. We established TIM3 knockout in NK cells, using the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9). Electroporating of TIM3 exon 2- or exon 5-targeting guide RNA- Cas9 protein complexes (RNPs) inhibited TIM3 expression on NK cells with varying efficacy. T7 endonuclease I mutation detection assays showed that both RNPs disrupted the intended genome sites. The expression of other checkpoint receptors, i.e., programmed cell death 1 (PD1), Lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG3), T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT), and TACTILE (CD96) were unchanged on the TIM3 knockout NK cells. Real time cell growth assays revealed that TIM3 knockout enhanced NK cell–mediated growth inhibition of GBM cells. These results demonstrated that TIM3 knockout enhanced human NK cell mediated cytotoxicity on GBM cells. Future, CRISPR-Cas9 mediated TIM3 knockout in NK cells may prove to be a promising immunotherapeutic alternative in patient with GBM. Introduction Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor classified as grade IV by the World Health Organization (WHO) . The median overall survival (mOS) is only 15-17 months under the standard treatment consisting of surgical resection followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy . New strategies are needed for treating patients with GBM and immunotherapy can be a promising adjuvant treatment; several clinical trials have recently been reported . Immunotherapy is an appealing therapy because of the potential ability of the antitumor effect of the immune system. Natural Killer (NK) cells were discovered more than 40 years ago and are considered to play an important role in controlling virus infections and tumor progressions to mediate cytotoxicity and produce cytokines . NK cell development and maturation are dependent on the cytokine interleukin (IL)-15 , and are trained through the signals transduced by the activating and inhibitory receptors. While tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are correlated with the clinical prognosis and grade of gliomas , the proportion of infiltrating cytotoxic and immature NK cells is related with good prognosis . However, in the brain tumor microenvironment (TME) of GBM, immunosuppression is induced to cause tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) anergy, recruiting regulatory T cells (Treg) and activating immune checkpoints . T Cell immunoglobulin mucin family member 3 (TIM3) is a member of the TIM family of receptors, of which humans have three types (TIM1, TIM3, TIM4) ; TIM3 is a checkpoint receptor, encoded by HAVCR2 in humans and expressed by dysfunctional CD4 and CD8 T cells . TIM3 has multiple ligands (galectin 9 , phosphatidylserine (PtdSer) , carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) , high-mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1) ), which bind to different regions on the TIM3 protein. TIM3 is also expressed by NK cells, not only as a marker of effector NK cells producing Interferon (IFN) γ and undergoing degranulation , but also as a marker of dysfunction, so it is possible that TIM3 is a checkpoint receptor, when TIM3-positive NK cells encounter tumors expressing cognate ligands of TIM3 . Therefore, TIM3 can be defined as a checkpoint receptor. Accordingly, TIM3 blockade reverses the dysfunction of NK cells derived from the blood of patients with melanoma . We hypothesized that disrupting TIM3 in NK cells using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9), would improve their anti-tumor effects in GBM, similarly to the blockade or disruption of immune checkpoints such as programmed death-1 (PD-1) and lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG3) . Although CRISPR-Cas9 has been used with primary human T cells through retro/lentiviral delivery , it is difficult to infect NK cells with these viral particles. Rautela et al. reported an efficient approach to genetically editing human NK cells via electroporation and CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complex (RNP) , albeit obtaining limited amounts of genome-edited NK cells. In addition, others have reported genome-editing NK cells using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), although obtaining the genome-edited NK cells is time-consuming . The establishment of NK cell lines derived from patients with leukemia has also been reported , but the use of leukemic cell lines in the clinic is ethically problematic. We previously reported Genuine induced NK cells (GiNK), which are highly purified human NK cells derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) using a feeder-free method such as cancer cells and that exhibit high NK activity for GBM cells . The expansion method can yield a large number of purified NK cells in a short time. The specific aim of the present study was to induce TIM3 knockout in human NK cells using CRISPR-Cas9 and to evaluate the characteristics of the cells, including their growth effects on GBM cells. TIM3 Ligand Expression To determine the expression pattern of the TIM3 ligands, galectin 9, PtdSer, CEACAM1, and HMGB1 in gliomas, we examined the RNA-sequencing data of gliomas from GlioVis data portal for the visualization and analysis of brain tumor expression datasets . We found that all TIM3 ligands were expressed in GBM in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Compared to WHO grade II and grade III glioma, GBM (grade IV) had the highest galectin 9, PtdSer and CEACAM1 expression. Further, galectin 9, PtdSer and CEACAM1 overexpression predicted significantly poorer OS in the same database ( Figure 1). We also investigated TIM3 ligand expression on the GBM cell lines, T98G and LN-18 using the Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array (National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression omnibus database , accession no. GSE23806). Signal values and detection calls were generated using Affymetrix Microarray Suite 5.0 (MAS5). For each probe set on each array, the MAS5 algorithm yields a detection call; Absent (A), Present (P) or Marginal (M), which indicates whether the specific mRNA is detectable. The detection call in MAS5 is based on a non-parametric statistical test (Wilcoxon signed rank test) of whether significantly more perfect matches show more hybridization signal than their corresponding mismatches .The results demonstrated that these two GBM cell lines expressed PtdSer and HMGB1 ( Figure 2) and Detection p value of HMGB1 and PtdSer was 1388 and 5696 in T98G cells, was 363 and 4994 in LN18 cells. We also investigated TIM3 ligand expression on the GBM cell lines, T98G and LN-18 using the Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array (National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression omnibus database , accession no. GSE23806). Signal values and detection calls were generated using Affymetrix Microarray Suite 5.0 (MAS5). For each probe set on each array, the MAS5 algorithm yields a detection call; Absent (A), Present (P) or Marginal (M), which indicates whether the specific mRNA is detectable. The detection call in MAS5 is based on a non-parametric statistical test (Wilcoxon signed rank test) of whether significantly more perfect matches show more hybridization signal than their corresponding mismatches .The results demonstrated that these two GBM cell lines expressed PtdSer and HMGB1 ( Figure 2) and Detection p value of HMGB1 and PtdSer was 1388 and 5696 in T98G cells, was 363 and 4994 in LN18 cells. Establishment of TIM3 Knockout NK Cells Using CRISPR-Cas9 Two single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) were designed targeting TIM3; Figure 3b show their target regions in the TIM3 gene sequence. Figure 3a shows the protocol for inducing the TIM3 knockout NK cells. We cultured primary human NK cells for 7 days after the isolating them from PBMCs obtained from a healthy volunteer. Then, RNPs created by incubating sgRNA and transactivation CRISPR RNA (tracr RNA) with recombinant Cas9 prior to electroporation, were guided into the in vitro expanded primary human NK cells. The NK cells were cultured for another 7days to allow sufficient time for protein turnover, and were stable across the duration of expansion suggesting minimal differences in the growth potential of the TIM3 knockout and mock electroporated (mock) NK cells ( Figure 3c). The electroporation and transduction of CRISPR-Cas9 did not alter the NK cell growth ( Figure 3c). Additionally, our NK cell expansion method induced 7.2-8.4 × 10 7 NK cells from 16 mL human peripheral blood for 7 days' culture. Despite the decreased viability after electroporation (25.3-27.7%), the number of cells was amplified by 15.8-27.4 times 7 days after electroporation. Ultimately, we obtained 2.9-6.4 × 10 8 genetically modified NK cells from 16 mL blood in 2 weeks. Establishment of TIM3 Knockout NK Cells Using CRISPR-Cas9 Two single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) were designed targeting TIM3; Figure 3b show their target regions in the TIM3 gene sequence. Figure 3a shows the protocol for inducing the TIM3 knockout NK cells. We cultured primary human NK cells for 7 days after the isolating them from PBMCs obtained from a healthy volunteer. Then, RNPs created by incubating sgRNA and transactivation CRISPR RNA (tracr RNA) with recombinant Cas9 prior to electroporation, were guided into the in vitro expanded primary human NK cells. The NK cells were cultured for another 7days to allow sufficient time for protein turnover, and were stable across the duration of expansion suggesting minimal differences in the growth potential of the TIM3 knockout and mock electroporated (mock) NK cells (Figure 3c Establishment of TIM3 Knockout NK Cells Using CRISPR-Cas9 Two single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) were designed targeting TIM3; Figure 3b show their target regions in the TIM3 gene sequence. Figure 3a shows the protocol for inducing the TIM3 knockout NK cells. We cultured primary human NK cells for 7 days after the isolating them from PBMCs obtained from a healthy volunteer. Then, RNPs created by incubating sgRNA and transactivation CRISPR RNA (tracr RNA) with recombinant Cas9 prior to electroporation, were guided into the in vitro expanded primary human NK cells. (a) Next, to detect on-target and off-target effects, we performed a mutation detection assay on day 7 after electroporation. The assay demonstrated clearly that both sgRNAs cleaved the TIM3 gene. Furthermore, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing was an effective method for disrupting TIM3 on the primary human NK cells. Similarly, the T7 endonuclease I (T7E1)assays showed that the off-target mutations, predicted by the off-targeting potential detection system (Integrated DNA Technologies Inc. , Coralville, IA, USA) in the CRISPR-Cas9 system targeting exon 5 were not detected, but an off-target cleavage site was identified in the CRISPR-Cas9 system targeting exon 2 (Figure 4b,c). Next, to detect on-target and off-target effects, we performed a mutation detection assay on day 7 after electroporation. The assay demonstrated clearly that both sgRNAs cleaved the TIM3 gene. Furthermore, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing was an effective method for disrupting TIM3 on the primary human NK cells. Similarly, the T7 endonuclease I (T7E1)assays showed that the off-target mutations, predicted by the off-targeting potential detection system (Integrated DNA Technologies Inc. , Coralville, IA, USA) in the CRISPR-Cas9 system targeting exon 5 were not detected, but an off-target cleavage site was identified in the CRISPR-Cas9 system targeting exon 2 (Figure 4b,c). Growth Inhibition Assay The growth inhibitory effects of the genome-edited NK cells on the two GBM cell lines were investigated using a real-time cell analysis (RTCA system). T98G and LN-18 cells were seeded and cultured for 1 day, then the TIM3 knockout NK cells and mock NK cells cultured for 7 days after electroporation were added to each well at an effector-to-target (E:T) cell ratio of 1:1 and 5:1. The growth inhibitory effect of show the mean ± SD of four experiments. The significance of differences was determined by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's test. ns: not significant. The blots show the on-target and off-target locus PCR products digested by T7E1 (T7 endonuclease I) of TIM3 knockout NK cells, targeting exon 2 (b) and exon 5 (c). The sequence shows the forward and reverse primers used in PCR for cleavage assessment by the T7E1 assays, designed for (d) on-target of exon 2 and exon 5, (e) off-target for exon 2, and (f) off-target for exon 5. Growth Inhibition Assay The growth inhibitory effects of the genome-edited NK cells on the two GBM cell lines were investigated using a real-time cell analysis (RTCA system). Discussion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to demonstrate the induction of TIM3 knockout in healthy human peripheral blood-derived NK cells by CRISPR-Cas9 electroporation. Although Rautela et al. first reported on genome-editing primary human The X-and Y-axes show the co-culture time and relative normalized cell index, respectively. Data shown are the mean ± SD of 5-6 experiments. Statistical differences were determined by two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's test. **** p < 0.0001, *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05, ns: not significant. Discussion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to demonstrate the induction of TIM3 knockout in healthy human peripheral blood-derived NK cells by CRISPR-Cas9 electroporation. Although Rautela et al. first reported on genome-editing primary human NK cells using CRISPR-Cas9 targeting cytokine inducible SH2-containing protein (CISH) and a representative NK receptor NKp46 , there have been no published studies targeting TIM3. The poor infection rates of primary human NK cells with viral genetransfer systems is a concern . However, while viral pseudotyping and antagonizing the intracellular antiviral pathways have improved infection rates , the high risk of insertion mutations and the high cost of viral vectors for clinical therapy is a problem in lentiviral modification of human NK cells . The direct delivery of the RNPs complex into human NK cells is simple and efficient means of editing the NK cell genome. In addition, the NK cell culture method we have established is suitable for gene transfer experiments because it easily yields large amount of human NK cells. Rautela et al. reported an electroporation setting of 10 5 order of NK cells per shot: that is a small-scale validation of NK cell gene editing . Our setting is 10 6 order of NK cells per shot for electroporation. Ultimately, we were able to obtain 4.7 × 10 8 genetically modified NK cells from 16 mL blood in 2 weeks. A clinical trial reported that a 10 8 order infusion of cytomegalovirus-specific T cells improves the prognosis of GBM . Therefore, we efficiently induced TIM3 knockout in human NK cells, and it might be possible to use it in a clinical trial. TIM3 is a checkpoint receptor expressed by CD4 and CD8 T cells . In NK cells, TIM3 is expressed by mature resting CD56 dim NK cells and is upregulated on activation in response to cytokine stimulation . However, TIM3 blockade reverses NK cell dysfunction in NK cells derived from the PBMCs of patients with melanoma . In other words, TIM3 is a marker of effector and dysfunctional NK cells. Furthermore, the function of TIM3 is dependent on the nature of the TIM3 ligand presented by the potential target cell . In fact, we demonstrate that the TIM3 ligands galectin 9, PtdSer, and CEACAM1 tend to be linked to tumor grade; analysis of GlioVis data showed that their expression was highest in GBM. Patients with glioma with high galectin 9, PtdSer, and CEACAM1 expression have significantly lower survival rates than patients with low expression of these ligands. In the present study, we designed sgRNAs against exon 2 (5 -AGACGGGCACGAGGTT CCCT-3 ) and exon 5 (5 -TCTAGAGTCCCGTAACTCAT-3 ) of the TIM3 gene. Flow cytometric analysis showed that TIM3 expression was clearly decreased, and therefore direct transfer of RNPs into the NK cells was feasible. We investigated other immune checkpoint receptors, i.e., PD1 , TIGIT , LAG3 , TACTILE and KIR and found no change expression between the mock NK cells and the TIM3 knockout NK cells. T7E1 mismatch detection assays confirmed that the TIM3 exon 2-and exon 5-targeting sgRNAs disrupted the intended genome sites in the NK cells. Off-target effects could not be clearly identified. The exon 2-targeting sgRNA showed an off-target effect, but the disrupted site was the intron region. Moreover, RTCA assays revealed that CRISPR-Cas9-mediated TIM3 knockout enhanced the growth inhibitory effects of NK cells on T98G cells, which express the PtdSer and HMGB1 investigated in the NCBI GEO database. TIM3 knockout NK cells had a more significant inhibitory effect on T98G cell growth than mock NK cells. The NK cells also had enhanced growth inhibitory effects on the LN-18 cells, but the effect was less pronounced compared to that in the T98G cells. We hypothesized that it is due to the higher expression of HMGB1 and PtdSer on T98G cells than on LN-18 cells, which is demonstrated by the detection p-value calculated in the detection call in MAS5. In summary, TIM3 knockout using the sgRNAs designed did not affect other checkpoint inhibitors, and exhibited slight off-target effects. Additionally, the growth inhibitory effects of the TIM3 exon 2 disrupted NK cells were stronger than that of the TIM3 exon 5 disruption NK cells, and flow cytometric analysis showed lower TIM3 expression in the exon 2-targeted NK cells than in the exon 5-targeted NK cells. These results demonstrate that the growth inhibitory effects of TIM3 knockout NK cells are strongly dependent on TIM3 deletion. Some reports have suggested that TIM3 is an immune checkpoint receptor depending on the context of the TIM3 ligand . Our data are consistent with these reports. Several clinical studies on GBM immunotherapy have focused on PD1 blockade, as it is a checkpoint receptor . TIM3 also can be the novel target and blockade of TIM3 is currently being investigated in clinical trials for cancer treatment . Da Silva et al. reported that TIM3 blockade improved the exhaustion of NK cells derived from patients with advanced melanoma . In addition, given the expression of TIM3 ligands in GBM and NK cell infiltration , it is easy to think that the TIM3 knockout NK cells in the present study should exhibit anti-tumor effects on GBM in the clinical setting. Further, compared to antibody therapy, gene-editing NK cells has a great advantage, given the TME in GBM, where the proportion of NK cells is low and immunosuppression is high . NK cells recruit conventional type 1 dendritic cells (cDC1) into the TME . Tumorinvading TIM3 knockout NK cells might survive for a long time in the TME of GBM and elicit a systemic immune response. The present study has some limitations. First, we evaluated the anti-tumor effect of TIM3 knockout NK cells against GBM cells in only in vitro conditions. It is necessary to investigate the anti-tumor effect of TIM3 knockout NK cells in vivo on xenografted GBM in highly immune-incompetent mice. Second, the location of the xenografted GBM differs from that of human GBM in the clinical setting; the former is an extra-axial tumor and the latter an intra-axial tumor, so the mechanism of the infiltrating immune cells may differ. On the other hand, 3D glioma cell culture , if possible with endothelial cells , could overcome the limitation of xenograft experiments. However, both xenograft model and 3D glioma model are mere attempts at reproducing human GBM microenvironment in vivo at any level, and they do not precisely reflect the human GBM microenvironment. Moreover, we strongly believe that human clinical trials should be performed first, and are preparing to do so. Finally, we used peripheral blood derived from a healthy volunteer in this study. Typically, inducing TIM3 knockout NK cells from the blood of patients with GBM is challenging because of the possibility of the patients having an immune function disorder . Moreover, alkylating agents of cancer treatment such as temozolomide generally inhibit hematopoietic stem cell proliferation and limit lymphocyte numbers in the periphery . It is necessary to investigate whether it is possible to induce TIM3 knockout NK cells using blood from patients with GBM. Induction of TIM3 Knockout NK Cells Highly purified human NK cell expansion method was performed as previously described . Briefly, PBMCs were obtained from 16 mL heparinized peripheral blood obtained from a healthy volunteer (a 41-year-old man). The CD3 fraction of the PBMCs was depleted by the RosetteSep TM Human CD3 Depletion Cocktail (STEMCELL Technologies, Vancouver, Canada). The CD3-depleted PBMCs were placed in a T25 culture flask (Corning, Steuben, NY, USA) containing AIM V medium (Life Technologies) supplemented with 10% autologous plasma, 50 ng/mL recombinant human IL-18 (rhIL-18, Medical & Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd., Nagoya, Japan), and 3000 IU/mL rhIL-2 (Novartis, Basel, Switzerland) at 37 • C in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO 2 for 7 days. The AIM V medium containing 3000 IU/mL rhIL-2 was replenished as necessary. Then, 3 × 10 6 of the expanded NK cells were electroporated to RNPs complexes targeting TIM3 using an Amaxa Human NK cell Nucleofector Kit (VPA-1005; Lonza, Basel, Switzerland) and electroporation program X-001. Subsequently, the cells were resuspended in AIM V medium containing 10% autologous plasma and 3000 IU/mL rhIL-2 and placed in a 12-well plate (Corning) at 37 • C in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO 2 for 7 days. Antibody Staining and Flow Cytometry The cells were stained with the appropriate antibodies, and fixed with 1% paraformaldehydecontaining phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) at 4 • C for 1 h. Data were obtained using a Gene Deletion Efficacy of CRISPR-Cas9 The genome-edited cells were harvested 7 days after the electroporation, and their DNA was extracted with a QIA amp DNA mini kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) and subjected to T7E1 mismatch detection assays using an Alt-R Genome Editing Detection Kit (IDT). The on-target and off-target sites and adjacent sequences were amplified from the genomic DNA using KOD FX enzyme solution (TOYOBO, Osaka, Japan). The PCR primers are listed in Figure 4d-f. The PCR conditions were as follows: one cycle at 94 • C for 2 min, followed by 40 cycles at 98 • C for 10 s, 63 • C for 30 s, and 68 • C for 30 s, and finally one cycle at 68 • C for 7 min. PCR was performed using a Life ECO thermal cycler (Bioer Technologies Co. Ltd., Hangzhou, China). The PCR primer sequences were obtained from Thermo Fischer Scientific. The amplicons from the TIM3 exon 2 and exon 5 primers were 638-bp and 597-bp long, respectively. Then, the PCR was run using the Life ECO thermal cycler with the following cycling conditions: 95 • C for 5min, decrease from 95 • C to 85 • C, at a rate of 2 • C per second, decrease from 85 • C to 25 • C at a rate of 0.1 • C per second, and decrease to 4 • C. The rehybridized PCR products were digested with T7E1 for 30 min and separated on 2% agarose gel for 20 min. The DNA was visualized under a UV transilluminator (FAS-IV; NIPPON Genetics, Kyoto, Japan). In the same way, off-target mutagenesis, predicted with an off-targeting potential checking system (IDT, https://sg.idtdna.com/site/order/designtool/index/CRISPR_PREDESIGN), was detected; the PCR primers used for amplifying the target locus are listed in Figure 4d-f. Growth Inhibition Assays The inhibitory effects of the genome-edited NK cells on GBM cells were investigated using the xCELLigence RTCA S16 and DP instruments (ACEA Biosciences, San Diego, CA, USA). The procedure has been described previously . Briefly, complete medium (100 µL) was added to each well on E-plate 16 (ACEA Biosciences), and background impedance was measured at 37 • C in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO 2 . The GBM cells, i.e., 2 × 10 4 /well T98G or LN-18cells, were seeded in each well as the target cells, and impedance measurement was recorded every 5 min for 72 h. After 24 h, the genome-edited NK cells were added to each well as the effector cells in the defined E:T cell ratios. The data were analyzed using RTCA, version1.2 (ACEA Biosciences). Statistical Analysis Statistical analyses were performed using Prism 8 (GraphPad Software Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). The data are shown as the mean ± standard deviation (SD). The statistical significance of differences was determined using the one-way or two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Turkey's test. We considered p-values < 0.05 as statistically significant. Conclusions We successfully performed CRISPR-Cas9-mediated TIM3 knockout in human primary NK cells and demonstrated their growth inhibitory effect on GBM cell lines without altering the expression of other checkpoint receptors. The data clearly reveal that TIM3 plays an important role as an immune checkpoint receptor that inhibits human NK cell function. In the future, TIM3 knockout NK cells obtained via direct transfer of the CRISPR-Cas9 protein complex might be promising therapeutic designer NK cells for treating patients with GBM. Data Availability Statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Conflicts of Interest: T.N. and M.N. are employees of Grandsoul Research Institute for Immunology and Clinic Grandsoul Nara, respectively.

Implementation of case management in long-term conditions in England: Survey and case studies Objectives Our aim was to describe the current provision of case management arrangements in primary care for people with long-term conditions in England and identify the extent and nature of self-care support services within it. Methods Cross-sectional survey of primary care trusts (PCTs) in England and four case studies using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Results Services were predominantly nurse-led, typically by community matrons, and delivered on a geographical basis. Often multiple arrangements existed within a PCT but integration of services with local authority adult social care was not widespread. A range of self-care support services were utilized and often tuition was provided by case managers to patients in their own homes. Assessment, care coordination and direct support to patients were the principal tasks. Often care plans were limited to primary care services and did not include service costings. Links with nurse-led services within PCTs were evident but operational links with adult social care were poorly developed. This is consistent with previous research relating to the introduction of care management in social services in England which also resulted in a plethora of organizational arrangements. Conclusions Case management for patients with long-term conditions is at an early stage of development. Effective links with a range of local services are required if care plans are going to be comprehensive.

Human Serum Facilitates Hepatitis C Virus Infection, and Neutralizing Responses Inversely Correlate with Viral Replication Kinetics at the Acute Phase of Hepatitis C Virus Infection ABSTRACT The factors leading to spontaneous clearance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) or to viral persistence are elusive. Understanding virus-host interactions that enable acute HCV clearance is key to the development of more effective therapeutic and prophylactic strategies. Here, using a sensitive neutralization assay based on infectious HCV pseudoparticles (HCVpp), we have studied the kinetics of humoral responses in a cohort of acute-phase patients infected during a single nosocomial outbreak in a hemodialysis center. The 17 patients were monitored for the spontaneous outcome of HCV infection for 6 months before a treatment decision was made. Blood samples were taken frequently (15 ± 4 per patient). Phylogenetic analysis of the predominant virus(es) revealed infection by only one of two genotype 1b strains. While all patients seroconverted, their sera induced two opposing effects in HCVpp infection assays: inhibition and facilitation. Furthermore, the ability of sera to facilitate or inhibit infection correlated with the presence of either infecting HCV strain and divided the patients into two groups. In group 1, the progressive emergence of a relatively strong neutralizing response correlated with a fluctuating decrease in high initial viremia, leading to control of viral replication. Patients in group 2 failed to reduce viremia within the acute phase, and no neutralizing responses were detected despite seroconversion. Strikingly, sera of group 2, as well as naïve sera, facilitated infection by HCVpp displaying HCV glycoproteins from different genotypes and strains, including those retrieved from patients. These results provide new insights into the mechanisms of viral persistence and immune control of viremia.

Spread the love Lee County, AL — Fear, cowardice, dread, hate — training — one or more of these traits are present more often than not when a police officer shoots an unarmed person. And, in the dashcam video below, that assertion becomes apparent as Opelika police officer Phillip Hancock shoots Airman Michael Davidson for no reason other than fear. The incident happened on March 6, 2014, however, the dashcam was kept secret until a little more than three years to the date after the shooting. Hancock was responding to a minor accident in which Davidson had swiped the back of a tractor trailer, and both parties were waiting for police to arrive after they had exchanged information. When Hancock arrives on the scene, he immediately becomes aggressive with Davidson, who was merely trying to get out of his car. Because Davidson was parked on a slope, opening his door was particularly difficult as it was much heavier at this angle. Instead of realizing this was a factor, Hancock, applying his training while experiencing high levels of fear and cowardice, escalated the situation to violence. “Show me your hands,” screams Hancock as Davidson frantically tries to comply. Davidson’s attorney’s, Brian Mosholder explains, as reported by WRBL, that Davidson’s wallet was in his left hand while pushing against the door to get it open, and then he reached back with his right hand. Soon after, Ofc. Hancock asks Davidson to show him his hands. Davidson brings his right hand through and up to his left hand, turned and got out of the vehicle as quickly as he could and put his hands out in front of him with his wallet in both hands and began to raise his hands. Soon after, the first shot is fired, which hits the ground. Then, Mosholder said Davidson’s hands went up and the second shot was fired, which hit Davidson. “It’s very obvious from that part of the video that Officer Hancock is creating a situation that he wished had happened that would have justified this shooting,” Mosholder said. “When you look at the video, none of that happened. When you look at the video, in less than six seconds, from the time Michael Davidson opens his door, Officer Hancock shoots him, and he shoots him for absolutely no reason.” After he was shot, the Airman was seen writhing in pain on the ground — as the blood spot in the back of his jeans grew increasingly larger. Davidson was shot in the abdomen and suffered severe artery damage and “extensive internal bleeding,” according to the suit. During the melee, the innocent truck driver was also in danger from this irresponsible cop’s fear as he fired rounds in his direction as well. For the last three years, Davidson was hoping to seek justice against the man who shot him for no reason. However, as is the case in so many other police shootings, the shooting was found to be justified — because the cop expressed a justifiable reason to fear for his life. “The City, the Chief of Police and its officer have always denied any wrongdoing,” a statement from the City of Opelika in response to the most recent court ruling read. “This case has now been analyzed by two federal courts … The judges have unanimously determined after a review of the evidence, which includes the dash cam video, there was no wrongdoing on behalf of the City, the Chief, or the involved officer. In reaching their respective decisions, these Federal Courts reviewed all of the evidence. Their opinions are clearly supported by all evidence.” In affirming the district court’s ruling, according to oanow.com, the three-judge panel said it had reviewed the evidence, including dash cam video, and provided the following summary statement: “After careful consideration and review of a video recording of the shooting, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Davidson, we conclude that a reasonable officer in Hancock’s position would have feared for his life. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment based on qualified immunity in favor of Hancock on all claims.” Below is the end result of too much fear pumped into cops during their training. Thankfully, Davidson lived, no thanks to the cops who let him bleed out for more than 5 minutes before providing any life saving methods — but he will never be the same again.

Security cameras are ubiquitous on public transit across the country, but when it comes to using them to investigate sexual harassment or assault, what they record is often gone before it can be used. While victims might take weeks or even months to report an incident, surveillance footage can be erased in a matter of days. In Canada's largest city, Toronto, security camera footage from streetcars, buses, subway trains and stations is kept for three days. It was the report of an alleged assault on a city bus that prompted Toronto's transit agency to extend the amount of time that it holds on to footage a year ago. At the time, footage from streetcars and buses was held for only 15 hours, but after a teenage girl went to police to report an assault a few days after it allegedly happened and found there was no video evidence available, the Toronto Transit Commission extended that to 72 across its whole system. Some women who have experienced harassment or assault say 72 hours still doesn't give victims enough time to report an incident. "With the nature of sexual harassment, the shame that boils up in the people who have it directed at them, a lot of time, that takes hours and hours to process, maybe days, to the point where they feel comfortable talking to someone — and it may not happen at all," said Katie Nordgren, who used to blog about incidents of harassment she experienced while riding the transit system in Greater Vancouver. Many disturbing incidents shared on site not reported elsewhere 2:18 Security vs. privacy Toronto criminal lawyer Daniel Brown has worked on a number of sex assault cases and says video surveillance can play a key role. "If they had a seven-day retention period, that would likely assist the police in securing the video," he said. "I feel many complaints like this would come to the police's attention within a seven-day period, and it not only gives them time to fully investigate the offence but secure the evidence necessary to prosecute the offence." The TTC used to be allowed to hold on to surveillance camera footage for a week, but that changed eight years ago when it expanded the use of cameras throughout the transit network. At the time, Ontario's privacy commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, approved the addition of 12,000 cameras on condition that images be held for a maximum of 72 hours to protect riders' right to privacy. Ontario's Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian endorsed a TTC plan to install 10,000 video surveillance cameras but mandated that the footage be stored no longer than 72 hours. (Colin Perkel/Canadian Press) "In my view, 72 hours provides a sufficient window of time for the TTC and the police to determine if an incident has occurred and if video surveillance footage may be relevant to its investigation," Cavoukian said at the time, citing the fact that police were able to operate "successfully" within that timeframe when investigating crimes in the city's Entertainment District. The exception to the 72-hour limit is the TTC's wheelchair transportation service, which holds on to footage for seven days. The transit agency's justification is that riders with handicaps or cognitive impairments might need more time to report incidents. An investigation by the city's ombudsman also found that the footage has been used by the TTC to reassess whether riders are still eligible for the service. Storage times vary across country Transit agencies in some other Canadian cities keep their security footage for longer than the TTC. In Edmonton, footage from trains on the light rail transit system is retained for 48 hours, but footage from stations is held for 21 days. Bus system surveillance is held for 18 days. Surveillance footage from Edmonton's LRT trains is stored for 48 hours. (CBC) Vancouver used to keep surveillance footage from its SkyTrain system for only two hours when it was using video tapes, but since moving to a digital system in 2008, footage can be held for up to a week. All too often, the women who are victimized on the system take some time to let us know what happened for varying reasons. - Anne Drennan, Metro Vancouver Transit Police "If we were restricted to three days, it would mean in a significant number of cases, we wouldn't have the opportunity to obtain video about incidents that are reported because, all too often, the women who are victimized on the system take some time to let us know what happened for varying reasons," said Anne Drennan, media liaison for the Metro Vancouver Transit Police. But Toronto police Const. David Hopkinson says a case isn't necessarily lost if investigators can't get a hold of surveillance footage. "Just because we don't have video, doesn't mean the crime didn't happen. We will still investigate and prosecute when we can," he said. Police urge more reporting Reports of sexual assaults on the Toronto subway system are significantly down, according to police, with 67 reported in 2014 compared to 56 last year, but police say that's not necessarily a good thing given that the majority of sex assaults never get reported. "We want the numbers to go up, because that would mean that there are more cases being reported," Det.-Sgt. Joanne Rudnick of the sex crimes unit told CBC News earlier this year. Metro Vancouver Transit Police released an app last year that makes it easier for women to report sex assaults. (The Canadian Press) The TTC plans to introduce an app — similar to one launched by Metro Vancouver Transit Police last year — that should make it easier for women to report sexual harassment and assault. Such measures might also raise greater awareness of the kind of sexual harassment that women riding public transit face. Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Vancouver's Battered Women's Support Services, calls the problem an "epidemic." "On a daily basis, there are actually men who get up, and get on buses and trains with the sole intention of doing sexual offending to women and girls on transit. That is real. It is happening," she said.

Use of the Krusen Limb Load Monitor to quantify temporal and loading measurements of gait. The purposes of this investigation were to determine whether the temporal and force measurements from the Krusen Limb Load Monitor produced clinically reliable data and to begin identifying the factors that determine the monitor's reliability. Temporal and loading measurements were made from the output of the Krusen Limb Load Monitor and compared to values obtained from a calibrated force platform. Such comparisons were made for 30 steps taken by two subjects on three separate occasions and from the same two subjects plus a third subject for 100 consecutive steps. For most measures, mean values from the limb-load monitor were significantly different from those recorded from the force platform. From a clinical perceptive, however, the range of measures was narrow for the 95 percent confidence level of the observed differences for the temporal components of stance between the limb-load monitor and force platform, with the narrowest range of measures related to the appropriateness of "fit" of the limb-load monitor force plate within the shoe. The loading components of stance showed a relatively wide 95 percent confidence interval that appeared unrelated to fit. Thus, given a "good fitting" force plate insert, the therapist can make clinically meaningful measurements of the temporal components of the stance phase of gait using the limb-load monitor.

The Kellogg’s promotion for the Star Trek movie has been one of the longer running for the feature film with items starting to appear in stores in March and continuing to this summer. While the Kellogg’s website lists almost every product featuring ST09 images or offers, there have been a few surprises not listed, with the most recent being a limited series of Eggo waffles Kellogg Update on Kellogg’s waffles (as reported by Ensign Kellogg submitted to John Tenuto) This is Lt. Kellogg from the USS Enterprise 1701 E once again reporting for TrekMovie on my assigned mission to find all the Kellogg’s Star Trek promotional products. Kellogg’s Has One More Surprise: ST Waffles TrekMovie has already reported on the offer for a Star Trek Warp Plate on nearly every variety of Eggo Waffles. However, those boxes feature Star Trek art yet regular waffles. Now, Kellogg’s has surprised fans with waffles that have edible images on them of Star Trek characters, planets, logos, phrases, and technology. There are more than 25 different waffles available with this limited edition item. The packaging shows the Enterprise and some of the waffles, and includes a Starfleet Delta Shield Game. Limited Edition Star Trek Eggos box Those familiar with my career in Starfleet know that this isn’t my first experience with Earth’s past as I helped defeat the Borg during the First Contact mission. However, it is the first time I have eaten waffles with images on them. Amazingly, they taste exactly the same as regular Eggo waffles with the bonus fun of the Star Trek images. As you eat your Nero waffle, say things like "I would rather suffer the loss of Romulus a thousand times than not eat my Eggo Waffles!" I purchased 6 boxes of Star Trek Waffles and got 22 of the "more than 25" different designs (there are 8 waffles a box). For those desiring a checklist, here are the confirmed waffles. Nero the waffle Character Waffles: Kirk, Spock, Kirk & Spock, Kirk sitting in his Captain’s Chair, McCoy, Sulu, Nero, Uhura, Chekov, and Scotty Kirk and Spock on a waffle! Logo Waffles: Delta Shield, Klingon, Romulan, Vulcan Greeting Scientific waffle Technology Waffles: Communicator, others? Toast me up scotty Planet Waffles: Earth, Saturn with moon Titan, others? Leggo my planet Phrases Waffles: Live Long and Prosper, I’m Giving Her All She’s Got Captain!, Beam Me Up, Highly Illogical Life long and Waffle

Episode 273: Live at Dragonmeet 2017 Our final episode of 2017 arrives with bells a-jangling in the form of our traditional live show from Dragonmeet. Learn about Stalin and Atlantis, what elements of our work we think other designers have picked up on, which beverages go with which iterations of a beloved nerd franchise, why Nazis are stupid, and much much more. We’ll be back on January 5th with our first episode of 2018. Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon! Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic. In Atlas Games’ wickedly different cooperative deck-building game Witches of the Revolution, you and your doughty coven fight the American Revolution the way it was really fought: with spells aplenty! Resurrect Ben Franklin, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy and keep those red-coated witch hunters at bay. Sink your fangs into an amazing deal as the Dracula Dossier haunts the Bundle of Holding. This bargain is so unbelievable that it can’t see itself in the mirror, and ends on December 27th! For decades Tove Gillbring of Askfageln has been a beacon of Swedish gaming. Now her cancer has returned, and she’s determined to focus the rest of her life on an ultimate burst of creative fireworks. Help her husband Anders make that happen by supporting the LOVE TOVE crowdfunding campaign. Please note that the campaign moved to GoFundMe after this episode was recorded. Delta Green Game Moderators, take heart! Reinforcements have arrived in the form of the Delta Green Handler’s Guide from Arc Dream Publishing, bursting with operational details, threats and eldritch history to keep your players locked, loaded, and terrified.

Microtunneling machine completes a 110m radius curve in dense urban context The plain of Rouailler in the city of Livry Gargan (suburbs of Paris, France) is subject to flooding directly affecting residents during the heavy rains. The county of Seine-Saint-Denis and its “Direction de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement” (DEA93) have launched the construction of a storm water collector main with an inside diameter of 2m and a length of 620m to reduce this risk. The project is to be carried out in the downtown where the ground space is very restricted. The project provides the design of the new tunnel in 3 drives and the construction of 3 shafts. “Drive 3” presents the greatest difficulties, it must also pass under two important streets.

Canada’s housing agency is set to publish results of a Toronto and Vancouver condominium-owner survey as it seeks to address economist and policy maker concern that not enough is known about what’s driving price gains, documents show. Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. surveyed condo investors — those who purchased at least one condo that isn’t the owner’s primary residence — in August and September 2013, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg through an Access to Information request. Most of the content, including the number of people Ottawa-based CMHC contacted, the survey questions and the results, was redacted. Calls are growing louder for more detail about who’s investing in the nation’s condo market, including how much is owned by foreigners, and what the risks are. Policy makers have warned for the past half decade a bubble may be forming in Canadian real estate, and some analysts have said prices are as much as 20% overvalued. The lack of condo-ownership data in Canada “is a shortcoming,” Sal Guatieri, senior economist in Toronto for Bank of Montreal, said by phone July 22. “The more data, the better the quality of the data, the better the policy making.” CMHC’s Condominium Owners Survey will be “factual and provides a descriptive profile of condominium investors,” the documents show. The agency expects to release the results of its survey, which doesn’t give an estimate of the share of foreign and corporate investors, in early August, according to a July 25 e-mail from spokesman Charles Sauriol. Lowest Rates National home sales reached the highest level in four years in June and prices in Toronto and Vancouver are up 12% and 29% on the year, a realtor report this month showed. Historically-low mortgage rates are adding momentum, and the Bank of Canada has kept its benchmark policy rate at 1% since 2010. The survey to be released in August is CMHC’s second attempt. The agency conducted a telephone survey of Toronto and Vancouver condo investors in August 2012 in response to “industry concerns about the extent and nature of condominium investment and its sustainability,” according to a mostly- redacted August 2012 CMHC board presentation. The survey intended to determine what investors planned to do with their units, how long they intended to hold them, what would motivate them to sell, how much they put down and the source of the downpayment. That survey wasn’t publicly released because it “didn’t produce results that were reliable enough,” CMHC’s Sauriol said in his July 25 e-mail. Foreign Investment The housing agency is monitoring foreign investment in real estate by tracking land registry data, hosting investor round tables and conducting surveys into vacancy rates and rents, according to the 2012 board presentation. “There is no comprehensive data source of foreign investors in the Canadian housing market,” CMHC Interim Chief Executive Officer Douglas Stewart said in an Aug. 21, 2013 memo to Canada’s Employment Minister Jason Kenney. “Although some estimates can be gleaned from some municipal land registries, those estimates are not reliable.” Stewart’s memo was in response to Kenney’s questions from a CMHC briefing about foreign investment in the Canadian housing market, the documents show. Kenney also asked about the impacts of changes to the Immigrant Investor Program in Vancouver and Australia’s foreign investment policy. Investor Roundtable Participants at a Toronto condo investor roundtable that CMHC hosted in March 2012 cited unidentified brokers who estimated foreigners with no ties to Toronto account for about 2% to 3% of total condo purchases in the city, according to meeting minutes that don’t include participant names or affiliations. The minutes, included with the other documents obtained by Bloomberg, had already been made public. Fifteen percent of the stock managed by rental management companies is owned by foreigners, based on filings of non-resident tax forms, according to the roundtable minutes. Demand for Toronto condominiums pushed prices to new highs in the second quarter. The average price rose 2.8% from a year earlier to a record $554 per square foot, even as the number of high-rise homes in the pre-construction, under construction and occupancy phases reached a high of 105,027 units in the city, Urbanation Inc., a Toronto-based consulting company, reported July 25. Condominiums account for more than 1.6 million Canadian households, or about 12%, and more than half of those are located in the three largest markets Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, according to Statistics Canada data. “The gap between the importance of the real-estate market to the economy and the lack of publicly available information on it is mind-boggling,” Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, wrote in an April note to clients. “What is the share of foreign investors in the condominium market?” Bloomberg.com