Viswanathan Anand doesn't want to reflect on the year gone by and says his main focus right now is to prepare for the World Championship in Russia where he will face Boris Gelfand of Israel next year.
The 42-year-old world champion said he will have to analyse his game to find out his weaknesses but added that it was not the right time as he gears up to defend his world title at the historic Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow in May.
"I started off well this year, got good results in TATA steel. I did consistently well in rapid event but somehow in the seven hour events I was getting neutralised," Anand said on the sidelines of a NIIT felicitation program here.
"It was a bit of a blow and I definitely have to analyse it. Probably it is a mixture of preparation and caution slipping into the move.
"I have to find exactly what is the root cause but that is not the task now. I can't think about tournaments now because world championship is round the corner and so I will focus on that for the moment. I will just be training for the world championship," he added.
Anand, who has won the Leon Chess Tournament, Botvinnik Memorial at Moscow and Corsica Masters Knockout (Rapid) tournament this year, wants to take a break before starting his preparation for the World Championship in the new year.
"Right now I will take a break, I have come off three tournaments and want to spent time with my son and in new year I will start my training, there is a lot of months, I will train 2-3 months and then go for the championship," said Anand, who finished joint sixth in Tal Memorial, before ending the year with a joint fifth finish at London Classic.
Talking about his rival, Gelfand of Israel, Anand indicated that it would not be an easy task.
"But then Gelfend will have a lot of time to train so I have to anticipate all the moves which he might come up with, but Topalov, Kramnik, Gelfand and me - we are from a certain generation and our thinking process is aligned," he added.
Asked if his slump in form of late would affect his game, Anand said, "My job is to make sure that, I get over all the disappointments of this year and I am ready to play and give my best. It is a 12-game match and you have to do well there and I have to keep my moral good."
Anand said he can't afford to be complacent against Gelfand and hence need good preparation.
"We know each other well but then we don't know each other inside out and chess is always evolving, so it is not a fixed target ever. I am sure we will have enough new things to try in match, so it is double-edged, can't be complacent."
At 42, Anand is not getting any younger, but the Indian said he is not thinking about the upper limit as of now and would rather look to keep himself fit.
"I am not thinking beyond the World Championship now. The clock is ticking and I am not going to pretend that I don't see myself at 50 or 60 but now it is world championship and everything gets pushed to the back," he said.
"I think I can do a lot better as long as can keep fitness up and keep enjoying chess. A lot of things are coming up, technology aspects and I have to be ahead of them and if I keep enjoying chess it will not be difficult but of course there will be an upper limit but I believe that I can still play chess for quite sometime," he said.


Barry Clayton, the man behind the spoken word introduction to Iron Maiden‘s classic 1982 album ‘The Number Of The Beast’ has passed away.
‘The Number Of The Beast’ begins with a seven-line excerpt from the passages of 12:12 and 13:18 from the Book of Revelations, which Clayton read. The album is largely viewed as Iron Maiden‘s breakthrough album.
Clayton, who was also the voiceover artist for a large number of movie trailers, passed away this week. He was 80 years old, reports The Islington Tribune.
Clayon also acted as the producer for the Black Londoners radio programme for the BBC – the first black daily radio programme. He worked on the prgramme from its first airing in 1974 until 1988 when he left to join Capital Radio.
He also arranged for a Christmas link-up with Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad for a Channel 4 special in 1981.
Iron Maiden, who are currently on a break after their extended world tour, have said that they plan to “make at least one more album” and have begun planning for the recording of the follow-up to 2010’s ‘The Final Frontier’, which was the 15th studio LP of the veteran band’s career.


Becoming a Victoria's Secret Angel is often considered one of the highest honors a model can attain.
And earlier this week, it was announced that Barbara Palvin is getting her wings. She's the first Hungarian model to become one!


If advertising is one barometer of society’s commercial preferences, South Africans have a disposition towards cars and food (especially chicken). These are two of the main trends that emerge from the latest Kantar Millward Brown best-liked TV ads survey for the first and second quarters of 2018.
The survey, which is closely watched by brands to determine best-practice ad agencies, is dominated by the Ogilvy group, which has six ads in the top 10 list of both quarters. No other competitor in the latest measurement period places more than one ad.
Notes one brand manager: "This is an agency that continues to demonstrate the power of creativity in delivering ads that work and resonate with target markets, something which is critical at a time when TV advertising is under increasing threat from better and often more cost-effective digital solutions which come at a fraction of the price."
Millward Brown’s research lists ads that are liked by an SA audience, which, says the agency, is the most important critic — people who ultimately choose to buy brands or not.
Topping the Q2 list are two ads for fast-food brand KFC, a major Ogilvy client. There is a clear creative competition going on between KFC and rivals Nando’s and Chicken Licken. A Nando’s ad by M&C Saatchi Abel called "We can fix our s#*t" tops the Q1 list, while Joe Public’s ad for Chicken Licken – "Sbu 2.0" – takes 10th spot in the Q2 ranking.
Millward Brown says: "What’s so great about some of the approaches that we see from Nando’s and Chicken Licken is that they have engaged their consumers with strong storytelling and less about the brand’s functional, tactical and practical information such as price points. Make no mistake, South Africans love to hear about the functional messages from a brand — but these ads are great examples of how to create strong and meaningful impressions in consumers’ minds."
Nando’s iconic, irreverent approach in its advertising has lost none of its appeal. "It’s this creative style and the way that Nando’s risks it all, walking a fine line between appropriate and inappropriate, that has landed this ad in first place. A great example of understanding and engaging consumers."
TV car advertising has lost its high production value and event status, but three vehicle ads crack the Q1 list. Kia and Volkswagen are second and third and another VW ad for the Polo marque is placed sixth.
While the ranking is predominantly the preserve of larger established agencies, three smaller local operations also crack the combined top 20 list.
Gorilla Advertising and its client Shield make the Q1 list in 10th place and Left Right Advertising is fourth in Q2 for its client ACC 200 effervescent flu tablets. M&M Pictures is sixth in the Q2 list for client Assupol Funeral Plan.
Five international agencies — The Martin Agency and client Oreo; 72andSunny (Samsung); Mullen Lowe London (Sunlight); Big Rock Media (Clearscore); and Red Fuse Paris (Colgate) — also feature on both lists.


In the Capital Region, the apartment market might seem saturated, but construction of multifamily units, especially those in the urban cores, continues.
Jeff Buell, principal with Redburn Development, which is investing $80 million in commercial and rental living space along North Pearl Street in Albany, said that the market for what he builds — "everyday apartments for everyday people" — is not softening at all.
"If anything, there is an uptick," said Buell whose apartments are centered in Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Watervliet. "We are strategically building in walkable neighborhoods next to big job centers. I would be surprised if you heard from anyone in Albany, Schenectady or Troy who is not seeing good returns on their apartments. We feel incredibly confident that it is a decades-long trend."
Capital Region Builders and Remodeler's Association Vice President Gregg Biche, also the founder of home remodeling firm Quality PM in Delmar, said that the market remains strong in desirable areas, but has seen a softening in renting older units.
"I know I have been forced to update my older buildings to keep up with new units," Biche said.
However, Jesse Holland, the president of Sunrise Management and Consulting, a firm that manages and develops multifamily properties, said he would not recommend construction of new multifamily units at this time.
"The market needs a breather," he said. "What we were seeing over the last couple of years in our market report is that the rate of rent increase has decreased. It's not that the rents have decreased, it's the rents have not gone up. That says that the market is starting to get saturated."
Holland references Sunrise's June 2018 report, which covers 175 properties representing 32,661 units, that showed Albany County rents increasing 0.9 percent. In Rensselaer County, they were up 1.9 percent with Saratoga County coming in with a 1.5 percent increase. Schenectady County saw rents rise 3.7 percent.
Holland said the Schenectady number is higher because of recent luxury projects with higher average rents. These include Mohawk Harbor, described as resort-style living along the Mohawk River, and The Nott on Nott Terrace, which apartmentguide.com calls luxury-style.
He also said modest units are attracting willing renters. For example, @HudsonPark on Myrtle Avenue in Albany, is filling up fast. Some units there are just 300 square feet and feature Murphy beds, which fold up into the wall when not in use.
Buell and Holland agree that millennials as well as baby boomers bolster the urban market with their desire to live in cities. Yet the process of renting to the different generations are very different. A millennial, Holland said, will look once or twice at a place and then rent. A baby boomer, on the other hand, will return to the property several times with their decision to move likely depending on the sale of a home.
While construction continues, it has slowed. Holland said census data shows that building permits for multifamily units — including small projects like duplexes and townhouses — in the four-county Capital Region have dropped. In 2107, the most-recent year for which data is available, less than 900 building permits were issued in the region. In previous years, it had stood at about 2,000.
Part of the problem, he said, is construction costs are high.
"Unemployment is at an 18-year low, so it's hard to find construction workers," Holland said. "Just between 2016 and 2018, the price of plumbing for our projects doubled. And there are the external forces. When Houston got flooded, lumber and Sheetrock [prices] went through the roof. When the tariffs came in, steel became very expensive and still is. If the president closes the [Mexican] border, God knows what will happen. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world now."
Regardless, Buell and Holland agree the apartment market in the Capital Region is diverse. Renters have their choice of urban or suburban, luxury or workforce and those designed for on-the-move millennials or seniors seeking a stable community.
Luckily, Holland said, the Capital Region rental market is generally stable and does not suffer dramatically during a recession. But he would not recommend anyone investing in apartments now.
"I would discourage anyone from building anything right now," he said.


Fueled by strong growth in the second half of the year, BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) enjoyed an 86% surge in full-year profits and hiked its dividend by 22%.
BHP, the worlds largest miner, said its second-half earnings leaped 62% to $10.98 billion, but that missed consensus estimates from analysts for $11.7 billion.
The basic materials heavyweight posted full-year profits of $23.65 billion, up 86% from a profit of $12.72 billion a year earlier. The profit of nearly $24 billion marked an all-time record for an Australian-based company, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Excluding one-time items, full-year profits hit $31.98 billion, slightly topping forecasts from analysts. BHP said full-year revenue jumped 36% to $72.74 billion.
Inspired by the results, BHP increased its final dividend to 55 cents a share, up from 45 cents previously.
BHP issued a mixed economic outlook given a slew of challenges facing the global economy. The company also warned it is being hit by a number of cost pressures.
Global imbalances and high levels of sovereign debt continue to create uncertainty and a protracted recovery remains our base case assumption for the developed world, BHP said in a statement. However, a coordinated policy response has the potential to engender confidence and ease the volatility that has been the dominant theme of recent years.
BHPs U.S.-listed shares slipped 0.3% to $80.66 ahead of Wednesdays open. The stock has slid about 13% year-to-date.


Mr Koh Yee Boon suggested that the Ministry of Manpower allow employers to hold on to the work permits of their foreign domestic workers (FDWs) to prevent them from engaging in moneylending activities (Put a stop to maids borrowing from moneylenders; May 23).
This move will further constrain the FDWs, who have already limited basic rights in Singapore. Also, the work permit is one of the few identification documents the FDW has to prove her legal status here.
While FDWs increasingly falling prey to loan sharks is an alarming concern for employers as the law also holds them accountable for their employees' well-being, we must consider the root causes.
Why are FDWs approaching illegal moneylenders in the first place?
Loan sharks operate under the cover of informal social networks, which FDWs tend to rely on as their first, and possibly only, source of social support while working here.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Zhou Yihong pointed out in 2016 that FDWs lack "ready access to legal sources of funds", which enables loan sharks to charge them exorbitant interest rates (Jail, fine for loan shark who preyed on Filipino maids; Dec 10, 2016).
However, there remains limited information about why FDWs contact loan sharks, apart from the rare cases that have been disclosed.
I propose that MOM investigates the compliance rates and potential loopholes in existing regulations affecting an FDW's financial situation, such as late salary payments and overcharged employment agency fees, as these may be some reasons behind the moneylending problem among FDWs.
Instead of having more draconian measures imposed on FDWs, the problem of moneylending among FDWs should be studied and tackled as part of the larger socio-political environment that affects their financial well-being.


Heinz W. Mueller, 86, passed away April 17, 2008, beloved husband of the late Erna M. Mueller, nee Weimann; loving father of Ronald (Ann), Robert Mueller and Deborah (Frank) Spaletto; devoted grandfather of Michelle, Lindsey (Drew) Berson; Stacy and Tracy; Michael, Andrea, Christine (George) Prada, Nick; and the late Bryan; great-grandfather of Tyler, Trey, Corrine, Jared, Dominic, Avery,Bianca, Nevaeh and Brandon; fond brother-in-law of Reinhold (the late Gertrude) and Emil Weimann, Irma (the late Richard)Weichenhain and the late Frieda Schulke; uncle of many nieces and nephews.
Heinz was a proud veteran of WWII and the Korean War. He worked for Goss Co. (Rockwell International) and Amoco Oil Company.
Visitation Sunday, from 1p.m. until time of service at 4p.m. atKnollcrest Funeral Home, 1500 S. Meyers Rd. (3blks S of Roosevelt Rd.), Lombard, IL 60148.
Memorials to St. Thomas Hospice appreciated.


On Monday the featured package included 10 car washes in Salem for 50 percent off. There were facials and skin-toning treatments for $75 instead of $200 on Wednesday. Friday’s offer was $75 worth of wine, lobster, and Kobe beef for $27.
That’s a typical week of deals for the Newburyport startup company LocalGinger.
What’s not so typical is the business itself, which combines social media and advertising to offer discounts to the public.
Companies like Groupon and the Boston-based BuyWithMe were the first large-scale businesses to pioneer the concept of coordinating with a retailer, restaurant, or other business to offer goods at a deep discount. A certain number of people must buy the coupon for the deal to be valid. Usually deals only last 24 to 48 hours.
There are more than 70 group buying compa nies in the national market, most of which target their deals in major cities, according to the website Business Insider. This is where LocalGinger bucks the trend. Focusing exclusively on businesses on the North Shore, LocalGinger is mining a niche that many larger companies have yet to explore.
Although their company might not be as far-reaching as some, Keller said LocalGinger, which launched in February, has been making a profit since day one.
LocalGinger works with businesses to create a bargain on their services, and set a minimum number of coupons that must be sold. The company, which currently has five full-time employees, then sends the deal out in an e-mail to everyone who has signed up to receive the discounts.
Ann Ormond, president of the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce, said she is excited by LocalGinger’s contribution to local businesses, and noted that the company recently won Salem State College’s sixth annual North of Boston Business Plan Competition, beating out 21 other companies for the top prize.
Many business owners who have participated said their deals have helped them find new customers.
“I was able to pick up 44 new clients,’’ said Amanda Mullholland, owner of the exercise studio A to Z Method in Newburyport.
Mullholland said she was worried the results wouldn’t be worth the discount she offered.
Cheryl Fisher-Schwind, who has worked in massage therapy for 16 years, said she also had reservations about the process when LocalGinger approached her to advertise a deal.
Fisher-Schwind’s deal sold approximately 100 coupons, the majority of which went to people she has never met before, which surprised the masseuse.
Fisher-Schwind said she has already scheduled a time later in the year to run another coupon deal.
Yet while she expressed appreciation for LocalGinger’s focus on local small businesses, she also raised concerns about the sustainability of such a model.
Though confident in the breadth of business selection the North Shore has to offer, the company has anticipated concerns that consumers will lose interest if LocalGinger continues to showcase the same kind of deal.
In development right now is a LocalGinger application for iPhones that will let people vote on whether or not they like a deal.
Keller and cofounder and chief technology officer Paul Parisi said the application should be available within a month.
LocalGinger is also expanding to sites beyond the North Shore; they have deals already set up in Naperville, Ill., and soon will be bringing their local expertise to areas of Connecticut and Virginia.
The goal of everything their company is doing, Parisi said, is to allow local businesses to thrive, even in a difficult economy.


And it’s true — I was so young that first time in Boston. (Applause.) And look, I’ll admit it, maybe I was a little nervous, addressing such a big crowd. But I was filled with faith; faith in America — the generous, big-hearted, hopeful country that made my story — that made all of our stories — possible.
By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we started. And through every victory and every setback, I’ve insisted that change is never easy, and never quick; that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.
And that work involves a big choice this November. I think it’s fair to say, this is not your typical election. It’s not just a choice between parties or policies; the usual debates between left and right. This is a more fundamental choice — about who we are as a people, and whether we stay true to this great American experiment in self-government.
Look, we Democrats have always had plenty of differences with the Republican Party, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s precisely this contest of idea that pushes our country forward. (Applause.) But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican — and it sure wasn’t conservative. What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other, and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems — just the fanning of resentment, and blame, and anger, and hate.
And that is not the America I know. (Applause.) The America I know is full of courage, and optimism, and ingenuity. The America I know is decent and generous. (Applause.) Sure, we have real anxieties — about paying the bills, and protecting our kids, caring for a sick parent. We get frustrated with political gridlock, and worry about racial divisions. We are shocked and saddened by the madness of Orlando or Nice. There are pockets of America that never recovered from factory closures; men who took pride in hard work and providing for their families who now feel forgotten; parents who wonder whether their kids will have the same opportunities that we had.
Now, Hillary has real plans to address the concerns she’s heard from you on the campaign trail. She’s got specific ideas to invest in new jobs, to help workers share in their company’s profits, to help put kids in preschool and put students through college without taking on a ton of debt. That’s what leaders do.
And then there’s Donald Trump.
AUDIENCE: Don’t boo, vote! Don’t boo, vote!
Does anyone really believe that a guy who’s spent his 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion? Your voice?
If you’re rightly concerned about who’s going to keep you and your family safe in a dangerous world, well, the choice is even clearer. Hillary Clinton is respected around the world — not just by leaders, but by the people they serve.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump calls our military a disaster. Apparently, he doesn’t know the men and women who make up the strongest fighting force the world has ever known. (Applause.) He suggests America is weak. He must not hear the billions of men and women and children, from the Baltics to Burma, who still look to America to be the light of freedom and dignity and human rights. (Applause.) He cozies up to Putin, praises Saddam Hussein, tells our NATO allies that stood by our side after 9/11 that they have to pay up if they want our protection.
America is already great. (Applause.) America is already strong. (Applause.) And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump. (Applause.) In fact, it doesn’t depend on any one person. And that, in the end, may be the biggest difference in this election — the meaning of our democracy.
Ronald Reagan called America “a shining city on a hill.” Donald Trump calls it “a divided crime scene” that only he can fix. It doesn’t matter to him that illegal immigration and the crime rate are as low as they’ve been in decades — (applause) — because he’s not actually offering any real solutions to those issues. He’s just offering slogans, and he’s offering fear. He’s betting that if he scares enough people, he might score just enough votes to win this election.
America has never been about what one person says he’ll do for us. It’s about what can be achieved by us, together — (applause) — through the hard and slow, and sometimes frustrating, but ultimately enduring work of self-government.
Hillary knows we can insist on a lawful and orderly immigration system while still seeing striving students and their toiling parents as loving families, not criminals or rapists; families that came here for the same reason our forebears came — to work and to study, and to make a better life, in a place where we can talk and worship and love as we please. She knows their dream is quintessentially American, and the American Dream is something no wall will ever contain. (Applause.) These are the things that Hillary knows.
You know, there’s been a lot of talk in this campaign about what America has lost — people who tell us that our way of life is being undermined by pernicious changes and dark forces beyond our control. They tell voters there’s a “real America” out there that must be restored. This isn’t an idea, by the way, that started with Donald Trump. It’s been peddled by politicians for a long time — probably from the start of our Republic.
And it’s got me thinking about the story I told you 12 years ago tonight, about my Kansas grandparents and the things they taught me when I was growing up. (Applause.) See, my grandparents, they came from the heartland. Their ancestors began settling there about 200 years ago. I don’t know if they have their birth certificates — (laughter) — but they were there. (Applause.) They were Scotch-Irish mostly — farmers, teachers, ranch hands, pharmacists, oil rig workers. Hardy, small town folks. Some were Democrats, but a lot of them — maybe even most of them — were Republicans. Party of Lincoln.
And my grandparents explained that folks in these parts, they didn’t like show-offs. They didn’t admire braggarts or bullies. They didn’t respect mean-spiritedness, or folks who were always looking for shortcuts in life. Instead, what they valued were traits like honesty and hard work, kindness, courtesy, humility, responsibility, helping each other out. That’s what they believed in. True things. Things that last. The things we try to teach our kids.


Last Thursday’s signals were not triggered, as the price was already above 1.1800 at the London open.
Trades may only be taken before 5pm London time today during the next 24-hour period.
Short entry following a bearish price action reversal on the H1 time frame immediately upon the next touch of 1.1875 or 1.1897.
Long entry following a bullish price action reversal on the H1 time frame immediately upon the next touch of 1.1792 (if the level survives as support into the London open) or 1.1732.
I wrote last Thursday that if the price could get established above 1.1800 soon, then I would have a bullish bias. The price did get above 1.1800 but ended up going nowhere for the rest of the day, before pulling back further on Friday. However, the action still looks relatively bullish.
There is strong short-term bullishness on the Euro, against the long-term trend, because the market is now focusing on the possibility that the ECB will soon end its long-run quantitative easing (i.e. money printing) program, which all else remaining equal, is bullish for the Euro. This pair is at the heart of the Forex market’s focus right now.
I had thought that the price had room to rise further above 1.1800 but looking at a long-term chart it can be seen the area around 1.1850 has been pivotal, so the price may struggle to rise higher than that. If the price can get beyond 1.1875 it would be a very bullish sign suggesting that the long-term bearish trend has reversed.
I have a cautiously bullish bias today if the price can hold above 1.1792 in the hour following the London open.


Dallas, Texas is a city of more than one million people. There are zoos, theme parks, museums, nightclubs, malls, gourmet restaurants, an international airport and four national sports teams that call Dallas home. Whether you are a group of sports fans, on a girls' trip or on a family trip, there is something for everyone in the Big D. It is no wonder that many people travel to the city each year for a Dallas getaway.
The downtown Dallas skyline is a picture that represents Dallas for locals and non-locals alike. The area is large and divided into 13 districts. The Dallas Arts District is home to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Dallas Black Dance Theater. The Deep Ellum District is host to numerous nightclubs and bars for the younger crowd. The West End Historical District is popular with families because of its rich history, street vendors, performers and variety of restaurants and entertainment. Another popular Downtown Dallas attraction is the Dealy Plaza District, where President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22, 1963. It is in this district that travelers can tour the Sixth Floor Museum, which is said to be the location that the president was shot from.
Dallas travelers who enjoy shopping excursions and luxury will not be disappointed in what the city has to offer. The Galleria is a four-story mall attached to a Westin Hotel in North Dallas. It features hundreds of stores and a large ice-skating rink. Grapevine Mills Mall is about 10 minutes away and is home to numerous outlet stores for the discount shopper. For those who are interested in upscale Dallas shopping getaways, the Uptown and Highland Park neighborhoods in Central Dallas are host to unique shops and such names as Chanel, Stanley Korshak, Jimmy Choo and Ralph Lauren. Many luxury hotels and upscale restaurants are located in the area as well.
For the active traveler, malls and fancy hotels won't do. Dallas is home to multiple thrill destinations that have guests coming back again and again. Zero Gravity is a small thrill park with big rides located just off of Interstate 35 in Dallas. Bungee jumping and free falling are just some of the wild adventures available at the park. The neighboring suburb of Arlington is home to Six Flags over Texas, an amusement park that is set on more than 200 acres. There are multiple roller coasters, thrill rides and even an area for children. Next door to Six Flags are the famous Texas Rangers' Stadium and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, the homes of a major league baseball team and national football league team.
Westbrook, Allison. "Getaways in Dallas, Texas." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/getaways-dallas-texas-27215.html. Accessed 20 April 2019.


The WI enjoying the fun in the sun at Clowne, United Kingdom, 14th July 2018. Photo by Glenn Ashley.
There was fun for all the family at this year’s Clowne Gala as the crowds enjoyed the heatwave.
Visitors to the event on Saturday, July 14, were treated to performances from Treebeard and the Company Performance Ensemble marching band opened the event.
And activities included Laserquest, a bouldering wall, archery, rodeo bull, shooting, karting, bouncy castle, slide, roundabout and bikes.
The Clowne Road Runners also held a children’s fun run which everyone could get involved in.


On how to properly do a YouPorn Plex: “It can go massively wrong. We don’t necessarily physically practice it, I tell my opponent you just kind of want to cup. You don’t really want to put too much pressure on that”.


'Divergent' Star Ansel Elgort Releases Debut EDM Single 'Home Alone' -- Hear It Now!
Ansel Elgort has released his debut single, because it's not enough for the 22-year-old actor to be beautiful and the star of the Divergent franchise -- he has to be a virtuoso as well.
Elgort released his new song, "Home Alone," on Soundcloud on Friday. While the electro pop tune may not be what you'd expect from the guy that made us all cry as Augustus Waters, Elgort certainly knows what he's doing.
While Elgort's been performing as a DJ under the name Ansolo since 2014, this is the first single we've heard from him as an artist. The Billionaire Boys Club star recently opened up toDuJour about following his passion and finding his sound.
"I'm still making club music, but I'm also working on a lot that's just singing and piano," Elgort told the magazine. "Before I started producing music, I was writing music on the piano and singing…and once I got into producing, I put that aside. Right now, I'm really inspired by that idea of doing everything myself. A lot of my new stuff is electronic, but at the same time it's not all dance music."
But acting is still important to the LaGuardia grad, who is currently filming his new movie, Baby Driver. "Music is definitely a totally different part [of my brain from acting]," Elgort explained, adding that being able to both act and create music keeps him "versatile." "When I go on set and I become Baby, from Baby Driver, or when I was Jim Hunt in Billionaire Boys Club, it's a very different thing than this kid who’s making music in his bedroom."
With his debut single just released and three films coming out in the next two years, Elgort's certainly got a lot on his plate -- but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to let loose! Check out how the actor celebrated his 22nd birthday in the video below.


My name is Johnny Joannou. I am a London-based artist with a love for sport, movies, numbers and good design.
I run a business called ‘On A Sixpence’ and sell my artwork on my website, and various high quality gift shops, including the Tomorrow Store in London.
My first job was to paint the numbers next to seats at the Oval, Surrey’s fabulous cricket ground. We all have to start somewhere.
I design geeky art prints to reflect the history of a topic. My objective is to design neatly-structured prints to depict great sporting events and teams, film genres, music and novels. My work includes prints to represent the history of the Tour de France, Arsenal Football Club, Shakespeare and the greatest Horror films of all–time.
The business started because I could not find a high quality gift for my football mad nephew. I realised there was a gap in the market and a market in the gap.
I spend a great deal of time researching, categorising and arranging key metrics relating to the theme and then using an appropriate colour palette to reflect the history of the topic. I was inspired by the wonderful football wallcharts of the 1970s and the periodic-table.
I love the independence and the ability to follow my own path. I have just finished a design to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. I am now designing prints to celebrate the greatest hip-hop records of all-time and the legends of the Grand National. I learn so much about very different subjects. I am always looking for new ideas - any ideas from your Pioneer readers will be welcomed, get in touch on Twitter: @onasixpence.
I have met some very kind and supportive people. It is also wonderful to receive great feedback from customers and the public. I have even received kind praise from Hollywood Directors (including Duncan Jones, director of the sci-fi classic 'Moon'), writers and footballers.
I wanted to sell high premium prints and therefore finding appropriate suppliers was essential. After weeks of emailing, checking samples and been disappointed, I found a wonderful supplier thanks to the recommendation of a Twitter follower.
Start now. Ask questions. Listen carefully. Enjoy. And in the words of the Bard of Avon, ‘To thine self be true’.
In the last 6 months, I have been commissioned to design a print for the FA Cup Final, a gift for the retiring President of the Princes Trust and for a book on creativity. It is highly encouraging to receive this endorsement and recognition. I have moved on from painting numbers at a cricket ground.
I am launching a new range of Spiral Designs recording great seasons for different sporting clubs. Each print will include details of every game, with a newspaper headline.
Therefore, over the next month, I am spending my mornings in the British Library’s wonderful Newsroom reading newspapers from the 60s and 90s.
I am always looking for new themes for my prints. If you have an idea, let me know via twitter I would also like advise on how to use Facebook to promote and sell my artwork.
Finish the sentence: To be an entrepreneur… you need a good sense of humour and good quality coffee.
Like the sound of On a Sixpence? Check our their website, follow them on twitter or browse their Instagram.


Based on the 4870 architecture this card features a new GPU and much faster GDDR5 memory.
Clocking in at 850MHz core speed and 3900MHz out of the box this card is anywhere between 10-15% faster than the previous 4870 graphics card.
In our own testing we found these cards to perform extremely well but things start to get really exciting when you use the supplied ATI Overdrive utility within the catalyst drivers.
You can buy this PowerColor HD 4890 for £198.95. You can also find similar deals from our online price comparator.


Very easy to set up. Excellent up-time. Top-notch 24/7 Web-based customer service. Supports numerous apps. Several flexible account tiers. Pay-as-you-go plans. Can try service for free before signing up. SSL Certificate included.
No domain registration option. Email isn't included with hosting accounts. Phone-based customer support needs work.
Cloudways is a Web hosting service with both affordable and powerful architecture, but there's no option for domain registration, and quality telephone-based support, and email costs extra.
Cloud-based web hosting services are now very common, but Cloudways does several interesting things with its cloud hosting that make it stand out in a very crowded field. It lets you select from one of five platforms, including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, offers wallet-friendly pay-as-you-go plans, and even lets you sign up for a trial run without whipping out a credit card. The shine is dulled a bit by its unreliable phone support and lack of amenities, such as domain registration and included email. Still, this excellent cloud hosting service is well worth your time.
Like Liquid Web, Cloudways only offers managed hosting, meaning that the web host handles your website maintenance. As a result, the SMB-focused service stands apart from the more consumer-friendly DreamHost and HostGator which appeal to the DIY crowd, too. Cloudways similarities to Liquid Web don't end there, either, as I'll show.
Unlike most other web hosting services, Cloudways lets you build a site without spending a dime. You can sign up for a 14-day trial account by creating a username and password, or logging in using either Github or LinkdedIn credentials, which is a nice touch. Then, after you've logged in, you're tasked with selecting a content management system (CMS) from several popular and respected sources, including Drupal, Joomla, Koken, Magento, Media Wiki, Moodle, PHP Stack, Prestashop, SugarCRM, and, of course, WordPress. There's a lot of flexibility on display here.
This flexibility extends to the server selection, too, as you can build a site atop one of several infrastructure-as-a-service solutions, including Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud Platform, and Vultr. You also pick one of several server locations scattered around the country.
Cloudways leverages the resources of several clustered servers to balance your website load; it doesn't dabble at all in the traditional shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans. Instead, the company offers several pay-as-you-go, hourly cloud hosting packages that only charge you for the amount of time you've used. For example, if you cancel a plan while 10 days into a month, you'll only be charged for 10 days' worth of hosting. Hosts like the Editors' Choice award-winning DreamHost and HostGator bill you for the entire month, even if you cancel just a week into the cycle. Cloudways offers traditional monthly billing, too.
The monthly web hosting plans start at $10 (for 25GB of storage, 1TB of monthly data transfers, 1GB of RAM, and a single-core processor) and scale upward to $1,035 (for 3840GB of storage, 12TB of month data transfers, 192GB of RAM, and a 32-core processor.) The high-end offering outclasses many web hosts' most powerful dedicated server plans. In fact, Cloudways' top-level specs have more in common with the SMB-friendly Liquid Web, which lets you outfit a server with an wild 512GB of RAM. If you prefer hourly billing, the aforementioned plans start at just over $0.01 and scale up to slightly more than $1.43.
Unfortunately, Cloudways doesn't offer domain registration, so you have to secure a domain from GoDaddy or some other seller. Another URL-related downside: Cloudways' unusually designed back end makes it a chore to point that purchased URL to your hosting setup. I didn't have much issue connecting those dots upon exploring the online documentation, but the process may prove confusing to novices. Furthermore, unless they're dead set on Cloudways, I can definitely see users simply never returning if they have to go elsewhere just to get started.
The service's email offering is another issue worth noting, as Cloudways' plans come with zero electronic mail accounts. Instead, Cloudways—in conjunction with RackSpace—expects you to pay for your email at a $1 per email account per month. That may prove costly, depending on your needs. Most other web hosts provide at least some level of service as part of even the most basic plan.
Cloudways may not possess some of the typical web hosting elements, but building a site is a fairly straightforward affair. WordPress was my CMS of choice in testing, and the service made it easy to create a site in just minutes. I logged in with my Cloudways credentials, selected a theme, tweaked how pages and posts appeared, and added images. It was a trouble-free experience.
This particular WordPress flavor is of the managed variety, so your installation receives the white-glove treatment by auto-updating the CMS, performing automatic daily backups, and providing real-time site monitoring and WordPress-specific security. Cloudways also has useful one-click cloning (so you can quickly create duplicates of your apps and servers) and staging areas (so you can test website elements without placing them live on your site).
Cloudways' app library has many e-commerce tools, including the popular Magento and Prestashop platforms. I used Magento to create an attractive store in just a few minutes by dragging and dropping website elements.
In terms of security, as a managed cloud hosting platform, Cloudways engineers safeguard your installation from attacks by releasing regular operating system and firmware upgrades. In addition, Cloudways offers free Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates, which should be considered essential data protection if you plan to sell product. In addition, the recommended Rackspace email comes with Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) authentication technology for added security.
Website uptime is one of the most important aspects of a hosting service. While your site is down, clients or customers are unable to find you or access your products or services—and they might not come back. That's why I'm happy to report that Cloudways offers excellent uptime.
For this testing, I used a website-monitoring tool to track my Cloudways-hosted test site's uptime. Every 15 minutes, the tool pings my website and sends me an email if it is unable to contact the site for longer than one minute. I look at the data for the most recent 30 days for each site's review. In my latest tests, Cloudways proved very stable. In fact, it didn't go down once.
For more information regarding our testing procedure, please read How We Test Web Hosting Services.
Cloudways offers 24/7 customer service, so you'll be able to reach someone around the clock. There's a catch, though. The only way you can immediately contact someone is via online web chat. You can fill out a form to request a call (either via phone or Skype), but it lacks web chat's immediacy. In fact, my scheduled noon call was more than four hours late. That's no good if you need to get a person on the horn immediately. It doesn't really match the image of Cloudways as a higher-end managed service, either.
On the upside, I never waited more than a few seconds before a Cloudways rep fielded one of my chat questions. The team is quite knowledgeable, too. The members fed me accurate information about the differences between cloud hosting and traditional hosting, as well as the nature of its WordPress hosting.
Cloudways refund policy isn't the typical 30-, 60-, or 90-day money back guarantee that you find with most other web hosts. In fact, the structure is so detailed that Cloudways' customer service team simply referred me to this link. It's a lot to digest.
There's a lot to like about Cloudways. The service has flexible cloud hosting plans, top-notch web-based customer support, and excellent uptime. It's a company you can count on to keep your site up and running. I can understand how the email and URL omissions could send someone packing to services such as Editors' Choices DreamHost or HostGator. Both are typically included with a web hosting plan. And some people won't like the limited phone support. If those caveats aren't dealbreakers, however, give Cloudways a chance. You may find it offers just what you need to get and keep your website online.


Luxury car maker Lexus has positioned itself for further long-term expansion, establishing a new dealership in one of Australia’s fastest growing regions.
Lexus of Central Coast is strategically located within one of NSW’s main growth corridors, situated in the hills above Gosford, 75km from Sydney.
Positioned at the interchange to the M1 motorway at Somersby, the dealership is located at the gateway to the Central Coast, the third largest urban area in NSW and the ninth largest in Australia.
the Central Coast region is growing rapidly, largely due to an influx of young affluents, new business owners and small entrepreneurs.
“Gosford and the surrounding region is currently home to approximately 328,000 residents and predicted to increase to over 400,000 in the next 25 years,” Mr Worthington said.
“It will continue to become even more attractive to new residents, including families, as major road and rail infrastructure upgrades make it even easier to commute to jobs in Sydney.
Lexus Australia chief executive Scott Thompson said the opening of the new dealership reflects the growth and commitment of the Lexus brand nationally.
“This is the third new Lexus dealership established in Australia’s growth corridors in just over 18 months, following Lexus of Macarthur in greater western Sydney and Lexus of Toowoomba in Queensland,” Mr Thompson said.
“Our expanding dealer network is positioning the brand for substantial growth with the launch later this year of our first compact crossover, the UX, which is expected to take national sales beyond 10,000 a year for the first time.
Lexus of Central Coast is the first dealership in Australia to be fitted out with the new Lexus corporate image, incorporating the warmth, hospitality and style of Japanese culture.
The customer lounge and reception areas are inspired by the vision of the Intersect by Lexus brand experience spaces, creating a place where visitors can experience Lexus through the design, quality of materials and first-class craftsmanship.
The customisation showcases the very best of premium luxury and the guiding principle of omotenashi – the Japanese spirit of hospitality that anticipates the needs of others before they have communicated it.
“The influence of omotenashi can be seen in every aspect of our business,” Mr Worthington said. “Our goal is to treat customers better than any other car company, anticipate their every need and deliver a standard of excellence that is unexpected.
Opening in September 2018, the project has been four years in planning, approvals and construction.
The new dealership incorporates environmental initiatives including storage for 400,000 litres of recycled water, energy-saving LED lighting throughout the building, and in 2019, 218 solar panels will be installed on the rooftop.
“The water storage allows us to provide complimentary customer car wash and vehicle detailing services using only recycled water and environmentally-friendly products,” Mr Worthington said.


There had been a vague hope in No 10 that the long summer recess would give tired and grumpy Conservative MPs some time to relax, rejuvenate and heal old wounds. Alas the break only led to more feuding and when Parliament returns on Tuesday, Theresa May comes back to a party even more divided over Brexit than it was when she set off on her walking holiday.
Meanwhile, the Times reports that 20 Brexiteer MPs are making a public commitment to ‘StandUp4Brexit’ and scupper her proposals. On Sunday, David Davis – the former Brexit Secretary – said he would vote against May’s deal when it comes to Parliament – expected now around November.
On the other side of the debate, Nick Boles has joined the chorus of naysayers. The Conservative MP – and close ally of Michael Gove – says he will not support Chequers. However, what he has in mind is a temporary stay in the EEA. This is something many Brexiteer politicians, such as Davis’s former SpAd Stewart Jackson, have ruled out as unacceptable. Meanwhile, George Freeman – seen as a Conservative moderate – has responded to the Prime Minister’s Sunday Telegraph article insisting there will be no second referendum by suggesting a ‘People’s Vote’ could be the order of the day.
It follows that, as things stand, it’s near impossible to see how May gets her Brexit deal through Parliament – even if there were no more compromises (and everyone assumes there will be). It’s also hard to see how with the hung Parliament there are the numbers for any form of Brexit deal. Hence why ‘no deal’ remains highly likely.
A large chunk of Tory MPs now assume that barring a significant turn of events May won’t get Chequers through. What they are less sure about is how long she can cling on. There are reports that Boris Johnson – with the help of his friend and election strategist Lynton Crosby – will join a ‘stop Chequers’ campaign on the eve of Tory conference. If the mood in the party is febrile, it only takes one or two bad moments for a chain of events to begin which could lead to a ‘no confidence’ vote.
In order for Theresa May to even get to the point of bringing back a deal from Brussels, she must make headway at the EU27 meeting this month, get key Brexit legislation through and make it through what should be a bruising party conference. Judging by the in-fighting one day before Parliament even returns, that will be an achievement in itself.
Can Theresa May satisfy both Boris and the EU?


A BUSHFIRE that ignited during a lightning storm north of Bathurst late Sunday afternoon is now under control.
Emergency services were called to the Bridle Track at Hill End with reports of an out-of-control bushfire.
“The seven hectare fire was caused by a lightening strike, and had no vehicle access,” NSW Rural Fire Service Eglinton brigade said.
“This required firefighters to access the fire on foot and commence dry firefighting operations.
Information provided by the Chifley/Lithgow Remote Area Fire Fighting Team had experienced a very busy past few days.
“Some of the crew spent the past four days on RART standby out of Bathurst which was a very busy with fighting fires on the Bridle Track fire, Hodges Road fire, Finger post trial fire, Growee mountain fire, Arabian nights fire and California fire,” it read.


Martin O'Neill expects to seal a second transfer victory over Portsmouth rival Harry Redknapp in 24 hours by signing Spurs defender Younes Kaboul for £6million after the £4m capture of Reading’s Nicky Shorey last night.
Left-back Shorey snubbed a move to Fratton Park to sign a three-year deal with Villa and O’Neill will add £11m to his summer transfer bill in the next 48 hours by signing former French Under-21 central defender Kaboul and Middlesbrough right-back Luke Young for £5m.
Redknapp has virtually conceded defeat in the battle for Kaboul who, according to sources close to him, has set his sights on a move to Villa Park despite interest from Sunderland and Portsmouth.
O’Neill has been notoriously cautious in the transfer market this summer, but moved into overdrive yesterday by securing the services of 27-year-old Shorey after he completed a medical at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training complex.
Shorey was looking for an instant return to the Premier League after last season’s relegation at Reading and the England defender was lured by the O’Neill factor and the potential at Villa.
“I can achieve all my ambitions at Villa and I’m delighted to have signed,” he said. “It came out of the blue a little bit, but this is a great challenge for me.
“There were others interested, but Villa is such a big club. When you speak to a manager you want to get a good feel for what he is trying to do and I did straight away with Martin. He made me feel wanted and that is a big factor. He is very positive and ambitious. That is what I am. I want to get back in the Premier League and show people what I’m capable of.
Shorey is guaranteed to start the season as first-choice left-back after Wilfred Bouma broke his ankle and is expected to be joined by Young today, on another three-year deal, when Villa complete the remaining issues over his personal terms.


How Will the Game of Thrones Be Won?
As the show returns for its seventh, penultimate season, what will become of Westeros?
Game of Thrones is, inarguably, the king of the TV water-cooler. There’s no other show around that maintains total command of the zeitgeist and dominates the pop-culture conversation every week like Thrones does each season. In the fractured world of Peak TV, the HBO fantasy epic is still a show you have to watch live rather than wait to binge, such is the ubiquity of spoilers. And yet, as the series returns for its seventh and penultimate season Sunday on HBO, even avid fans could be forgiven for not quite remembering where things in Westeros last left off.
Thrones has been off-air so long—the last season premiered in April 2016—because the showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wanted extra time to prep all the warfare on the way. They were also seeking to harness a cold-weather schedule, since the long-promised winter of the show has truly arrived. The seasons in the world of Thrones go on for years at a time—the last summer went for a decade—but Season 7 (which will run for only seven episodes) will pick up at a truly dark and cold moment for the show, where any chance for a return to the relative harmony of the show’s early episodes feels more remote than ever.
So much coverage of Game of Thrones focuses on the eponymous struggle—the bloody jockeying for control of Westeros’s Iron Throne that has raged on for years. But my favorite thing about the series, and especially its sixth-season finale, is how pointless that ongoing conflict has become as the closing episodes draw closer. In “The Winds of Winter,” the last episode of Season 6, Queen Cersei finally got what she wanted—unobstructed control of the throne—after blowing up the Sept of Baelor in the capital city of King’s Landing and eliminating her chief rivals, Queen Margaery Tyrell and the religiously fanatic High Sparrow. All it cost her was the life of her only surviving child King Tommen (who killed himself in sorrow over Margaery’s death) and whatever remained of her humanity.
The closing moments of Season 6, with the camera tightly focused on Cersei’s face as she sat on the Iron Throne, suggested as much—she was less triumphant (the thrill of victory passed once she realized Tommen was dead) than grimly determined. The power is hers now, but she has little else left, and she’s surrounded by citizens who bear no love for her (her coronation didn’t get any cheers) and twisted advisers like Maester Qyburn (a mad scientist) and the Mountain (a mute, zombified corpse). We’ve yet to see her confrontation with Jaime—her brother and Tommen’s father—but the look of horror on his face when he returned to the smoking wreck of King’s Landing said it all.
In Season 7 (no episodes have been provided to critics), Cersei is now gearing up for rebellion on at least three different fronts, with only her family’s Lannister forces committed to protecting her. In the north is Jon Snow, who has retaken the Stark lands alongside the re-emerged Sansa, and has been proclaimed “King in the North” after defeating the nasty Bolton occupation. Jon has always wrestled with his sense of duty—he knows there’s a zombie invasion coming from the frosty lands of the White Walkers—but he’s also long nursed a desire for vengeance over the death of his “father” Ned in the show’s first season. I say “father” because, of course, Jon’s true parentage was confirmed at the end of last season. He’s the progeny of a Stark and a Targaryen—the son of Ned’s sister, Lyanna, and the former Mad King’s son, Rhaegar Targaryen, which makes him more uniquely suited to the Westerosi throne than he knows.
In the south are the rebellious Dornish, nursing a decades-long grudge against the Lannisters and, in particular, the Mountain. The nearby Tyrells allied with them in the last episode, with the ruthless Lady Olenna Tyrell looking to avenge the death of Margaery (and her useless son Mace) at the hands of Cersei. They look to be partnering with Rhaegar’s sister, Daenerys, arriving from the east by boat, who has finally gotten herself together and left the show’s distant worlds of Essos to conquer her homeland, allied with the navy of the Iron Islands and the horse-riding Dothraki, and with three fire-breathing dragons in tow. While Jon is bound to leadership by a sense of duty, Daenerys sees herself as a liberator, a queen steeped in moral righteousness who freed slaves across the sea for the greater good.
Then there are the show’s other heroes who aren’t vying to rule the continent: Arya Stark has become an avenging angel, an assassin who broke free from her training with the Faceless Men but retained their stealthy skills. It’s hard to see how she’d find her way back into the show’s courtly politics, or why she’d want to. Her brother Bran has turned into a literal flashback machine, designed to peer into the show’s past with his psychic powers and learn things the audience needs to know. Cersei’s brother Tyrion, meanwhile, is seeking his own form of redemption and revenge wrapped up in one job: serving Daenerys in her quest to reclaim Westeros.
The question of Season 7 will not so much be who to root for, but whether these various leaders will develop the self-awareness and humility seemingly needed to rule, or whether they’ll be crushed by the power that comes with it. The ending of George R. R. Martin’s original A Song of Ice and Fire books, which the show has now outpaced, has long pointed toward some obvious conflicts. Daenerys would always eventually come over to Westeros with her dragons, Jon was always going to take control in the north, and Cersei’s hold on power was always going to grow more and more tenuous. But that clash, or any predictable alliance—like one between “ice” (Jon) and “fire” (Daenerys)—is something Martin has said he wants to avoid, as he has never enjoyed taking the easy narrative paths.
That’s why Martin is taking so long to finish his saga in book form, but the vagaries of TV scheduling demand an ending, and with 13 total episodes to go (Season 8 will be even more abridged), I have to believe there’s something more surprising ahead than a straightforward war for the throne, followed by a battle with the advancing White Walkers. Will Arya cross any more names off her list? Will Jaime finally abandon the Lannister name entirely? Does the scheming Littlefinger have any remaining cards up his sleeve? I’ll likely be discussing those questions—and much more—when I join my colleagues Spencer Kornhaber and Lenika Cruz for our Game of Thrones roundtable starting Sunday night.


This is Benny and I. Last year he was Antoine Dogson. This year he was my child beauty queen and I was was his overbearing pageant mom.
Photos 39-50 were taken by Abbie Fentress Swanson. All of the other pictures were taken by me. Be sure to check out Abbie's other photos at Culture NYC.


The most important thing to do when you’re a marketer and you’re trying to improve your campaign is to have a thorough understanding of the concepts that you’re dealing with. A lot of people see terms like SEO, open rates, conversions, and they simply assume that they have a “general sense” of what these terms mean and continue on their merry way without truly doing their homework. The most successful blogs like Neil Patel’s QuickSprout or Rand Fishkin’s Moz are successful because they stress values like critical thinking and comprehension with regards to these techniques.
In the spirit of encouraging this success, let us recap a little on what exactly email open rates actually means before we even touch on ways that you, as a marketer, can increase them. The open rate is a very intuitive concept – it simply refers to how many people open up an email that you send out as part of an email blast or campaign. However, there are a number of intricacies to consider when we’re talking about actually measuring and increasing that rate. Let’s take a closer look.
How are email open rates measured?
The measurement of email open rates may be more complex than you initially assume based on the definition. There are a number of things that can skew the open rate such as the same recipient opening an email twice or if the tracking method for your emails is valid on the client’s browser. So we’ll want to understand how the tracking for email campaigns works as well as how to avoid double counts and similar issues that would falsely inflate our numbers.
Now, these things all sound intuitive but they are actually a bit more complicated – email open rates are determined by trackers. The number of emails being tracked by trackers sounds pretty straightforward until you question what actually constitutes a tracker.
The method of tracking email opens is usually invisible to the consumer and actually quite ingenious: “Opens can be tracked in HTML emails because they include a tracking pixel, which is like a tiny, invisible image, that is displayed when the subscriber opens your email. When that image is downloaded from our web servers, the email is recorded as being opened.” That’s some food for thought – each time you open up one of those advertising emails as a subscriber, you’re downloading information you’re unaware of and communicating it to companies.
When we consider the rate, it is a fraction of the unique email opens divided by total emails sent unless the emails bounced. In other words, it’s how many people saw your email in their inbox and had enough interest in the subject and title preview to click on it and check it. Essentially, it may be conceived of as a measure of consumer interest as the higher your email open rate, the more likely it is that your consumers are engaged and care about your notifications.
How can marketers increase email open rates?
We’ve elaborated on how the email open rate is a measure of interest, so in order to achieve a higher email open rate your goal as a marketer should be to arouse a higher interest in your clientele when sending out emails. There are various methods to do this but the best ones focus on ways to capture the attention of the reader and call or motivate them to take an action such as going to a landing page.
As explained by the experts at VerticalResponse, one of the industry’s leading email marketing platforms and blogs, specializing in examining and optimizing email marketing, emails should: “Encourage customers to take action with single-focus web pages that visitors land on after clicking a link or call to action button. Landing Pages are a powerful tool for re-engaging email readers, reinforcing your company’s message and converting leads to sales.” This is a great way to attract more customers, but how can we continue to measure it reliably?
How can we extract more resolution from the email open rate?
On the issue of resolution for email open rates, I define this as the actual nature of the interest that the consumer has shown with regards to the email. For example, you might have trackers that download at different time intervals to measure how long the user has spent viewing the email since an open that is thirty seconds long is vastly different in quality than one which is less than a second. The latter might be characteristic of someone just trying to get rid of all of the unread emails in their inbox and thus may misrepresent the actual interest by inflating the open rate.
Moreover, I’d argue that marketers should keep track of reopened emails in a separate metric when attempting to adjust their campaigns to increase email open rates in general. Suppose a user clicks on an email and only spends a second on it, but realizes that there’s some important information in that email and then they go to reopen that same email to read more carefully. That’s a response that you’d want to be able to capture.


The collection was brimming with both sensual dresses for which the brand is known and a key expansion of daywear.
A Cartier ad, an Eddie Murphy movie and Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. It sounds like a mixed bag of references, yet Carly Cushnie managed to extract a common thread of opulence to inform her lovely pre-fall collection, brimming with sensual dresses for which the brand is known and a key expansion of daywear.
The Cartier ad was by Jean Larivière in the Fifties, where a leopard slinks its way inside a store, representing a type of otherworldly glamour you can only dream of. It led the designer to think about the late Eighties comedy “Coming to America,” where Murphy plays a prince coming to New York from a made-up African country. Mixed together, they provided Cushnie with a recipe for light Eighties silhouettes and overall posh gloss, seen in exaggerated shoulders throughout and the draped tulle sleeves of a fabulous little black dress.
Cai Guo-Qiang’s “Heritage” piece of 99 animals sharing a watering hole informed the color palette and use of mixed prints. The mixed print dresses and skirts were the most captivating upon first glance, featuring asymmetric construction offsetting animal prints, colorblocking and pleats. But monotone dresses with sculptural lines and fluid construction proved to be more seductive, like a red number with light boning for support. She balanced the two beautifully in a subtle yellow tiger jacquard slip with zebra-print embroidery.


Luxury handbag maker Coach Inc. has spent the past few years working to revive sales, refresh designs and shake off heavy discounting. Now it has its next strategy firmly in sight: building a multibrand company through acquisitions.
With a war chest of more than $1.8 billion in cash, Chief Executive Officer Victor Luis has let it be known that he’s interested in purchasing handbag, accessories, footwear and outerwear brands. There’s no lack of speculation about targets. In recent months, New York-based Coach was said to be interested in Burberry Group Plc and Kate Spade & Co., and there’s been buzz about Jimmy Choo Plc.
Two newly created management roles—to oversee the Coach brand and to develop global strategic partnerships—attest to Coach’s ambition. Luis described both jobs as an important step in the company’s multibrand evolution. Earlier this year, Coach also hired a new chief financial officer, Kevin Wills, who has a background in M&A.
Coach, founded in 1941, has relied on its New York heritage and prestige to fend off European imports. Yet, sales began to dwindle in recent years amid competition from Kate Spade and Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. Since Luis took over in early 2014, the company has said it would close underperforming locations, introduce new products and refurbish stores. Coach also began selling less to department stores to avoid steep promotions that it said hurt the brand’s cachet. And it has beefed up its digital platform and marketing, most recently tapping actress and singer Selena Gomez as brand ambassador.
The moves are paying off. Helped by edgy designs from Stuart Vevers, Coach has posted three straight quarters of same-store sales gains—despite a broader slump in the handbag industry. The growth followed three years of declines.
The company, whose shares have climbed 12% this year through last week, reports third-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
Coach is new to the M&A world. Its only purchase to date was the 2015 acquisition of designer shoe company Stuart Weitzman. That unit’s sales grew 15% to $345 million in the year ended July 2016 from $300 million in the year ended September 2014.
The multibrand concept is also relatively new in the North American affordably-luxury space, where Coach gets more than half of its sales. The approach is more common in Europe: LVMH, for instance, owns Louis Vuitton and about 70 other brands. Gucci parent Kering and watch and jewelry seller Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA each have about 19.
But U.S. brands such as Coach have challenges that European counterparts do not. They don’t use retail space as efficiently, and U.S. consumers demand steeper discounts. There is about 7 square feet of retail space per capita in the country, compared with 1 square foot to 1.5 square feet in Europe, said Adrienne Yih, an analyst at Wolfe Research LLC.
The value-for-money culture has dominated American society, HSBC’s Rambourg said.
Coach has been trying to get shoppers to pay full price by making its brand more upscale, especially with the 1941 luxury collection. The line represents about a third of its handbag sales in its top-tier retail stores.
In another attempt to avoid discounting, the company is pulling its products out of more than 250 department-store locations in North America. That means revenue generated from such stores will drop further from the current 4%.
While Coach’s sales have improved, having multiple brands could drive growth, said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co.


Pfc. Jovany Castillo, student, Practical Nurse Course, WBAMC, is presented an Army Achievement Medal by Col. Erik Rude, commander, WBAMC, on Dec. 19, for his actions leading to the successful resuscitation of an infant while performing regular training at a local hospital.
This work, Soldiers in training save choking infant, by Marcy Sanchez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.


Are you looking to join an agency who blend data and technology to solve complex challenges for our clients? Do you want to understand how behavioural insights can be drawn from data, and how this can impact a programmatic strategy? If your passionate about the marriage of data and digital, and the prospect of building a career in that space then we want to hear from you! You’ll learn from the best and you’ll teach the best, if this sounds like you and you’ve got something to bring, come and join us!
We are currently on the search for Programmatic Executives to join our diverse and collaborative team here, playing a pivotal role in linking our clients to agency. Developing skills in trading, campaign set up and optimisation, and building a career in one of the fastest growing in demand spaces in media. We’ll give you all of the training and support you need to succeed; all you require is the right attitude.
For us, we’re happy to teach someone all they need to be successful, however what we won’t compromise on is your attitude. Our industry changes so quickly and we’re asked to work at pace most of the time, sometimes without all the information you require, so you will need to be flexible in your approach. You’ll need to be curious and have an inquisitive mind, always looking at things from different perspectives and asking why if you don’t understand.
Zenith are the ROI agency, we are made up of brilliant specialists who scout out new opportunities, finding solutions and growing our client’s businesses. Operating across 95 markets, we are a truly global business and we have over a 6000 strong workforce. We are part of the Publicis Groupe and operate both as an agency servicing clients directly and as the performance marketing practice across other Publicis Media brands such as: Starcom, Spark, Blue 449, Performics & Digitas. We pride ourselves on our work, which has received numerous success within UK & European Search Awards & Performance Marketing Awards. This is why it’s so crucial that we continue to bring the best talent into our business at the entry level.
We value the strength diversity brings to our business and are working hard to build a more inclusive workplace. We are happy to discuss all flexible and agile approaches to working for all our roles – we can’t promise we will be able to offer you everything you want or need but we do promise to discuss it with you openly and honestly.
If you have any reasonable adjustment needs arising from a disability or medical condition to fully participate in the recruitment process, please discuss this with the recruiter who contacts you.


In 1953, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Roy Rayle took up his new post at Springfield Armory. Best known for his work on the M-14 rifle and M-60 machine gun, he spent his time at the government arsenal taking part in several different projects — including the development of the T-148 grenade launcher.
The Army hoped the 40-millimeter weapon and its three-round magazine would make for a deadly hand-cannon. In theory, it would give soldiers even more firepower compared to the single-shot version Springfield engineers were cooking up at the same time.
The Army weaponeer was right to be concerned. Over the next decade and a half, American troops in Vietnam found that the launcher was simply too bulky and fragile for combat.
The T-148 developed from a larger project to give troops the ability to launch explosives, and do so accurately, farther than they could chuck hand grenades. Experiences from World War II and the Korean War undoubtedly informed the Army’s goals.
Marshall found that commanders gave extra grenades to soldiers they saw as having the strongest arms, regardless of how well they could actually toss the small bombs. Officers were dismissive of rifle grenade launchers — a device attached to the front of a rifle that lobs grenades at longer ranges — and individuals who had skill with them.
By the end of 1951, the Army had started work on an all-new grenade launcher. The weapon would fire a new, self-contained projectile that looked like an oversize bullet.
This 40-millimeter cartridge was something of a revolution. The projectiles only armed after they flew, spinning, away from the barrel — making them relatively safe to carry and shoot.
If a grenadier accidentally missed the mark and hit something close by, the grenade likely wouldn’t explode. Dropping a live hand grenade was not nearly as forgiving.
On top of that, the new rounds could easily fly more than 400 yards. This was well beyond the distance most people could accurately throw a baseball, let alone a hand grenade and was approaching the minimum effective range of a small mortar.
However, unlike a mortar, recoilless rifle or heavy machine gun, the prospective launcher promised to have such little recoil that it could still be relatively light and compact. The grenade rounds were so tame that Rayle and his companions experimented with a pistol-type launcher similar to an emergency flare gun, but that weapon turned out to be too inaccurate.
With a weight of less than nine pounds and a length of just under 30 inches, according to a 1960 Army training manual, the launcher was effectively the same size as the M-1 and M-14 infantry rifles. Looking something like an over-sized shotgun, troops fed the gun with rectangular three-round magazines.
Unlike more common gun designs, a soldier would slot the ammunition into the right side of the T-148. The bulky magazine would then slide to the left as the shooter squeezed off shots.
This arrangement is commonly known as a “harmonica gun,” since the rounds slide akin to how the musical instrument moves in a player’s mouth. But the magazine would never fall out the other side, even after the shooter ran out of ammunition.
To reload, the solider could either remove the cluster of empty chambers or keep it attached to the gun and add three fresh rounds individually. Separately, the Army designed special belts, bandoliers and vests to carry spare 40-millimeter grenades.
But despite its potential, the T-148 was hardly perfect. As Rayle discovered, it was awkward and bulky.
Each 40-millimeter round weighed eight ounces. This was enough for the shooter to feel the weight of the whole gun shift as they fired one grenade after another — easily throwing off a person’s aim.
The ammunition feed was fragile to begin with and had large, open spaces for dirt and other things to get jammed in. Springfield Armory eventually developed three groups of prototypes, with the final T-148E2 featuring stronger materials throughout.
In addition, Rayle and his fellow weapon designers had started work on a backup launcher. This weapon — dubbed the XM-79 — was a crude, but simple single-shot grenade gun that worked like a break-action hunting shotgun.
In spite of the problems, Army officials remained most interested in the T-148 and other multi-shot designs. However, they had to concede that the simpler alternative was working out much better.
As American troops — especially elite Special Forces soldiers — began heading to South Vietnam in greater numbers, many arrived carrying the final production version of the M-79. A small number of T-148s made it onto the Southeast Asian battlefield, too.
There, it seems, Army troops confirmed Rayle’s negative experiences with the gun. Though some soldiers continued to use the T-148s well into the 1960s, no one was apparently begging for more of them. The U.S. Navy SEALs reportedly obtained one and quickly decided it was more trouble than it was worth.
Even after troops got launchers they could strap underneath their rifles, the M-79 soldiered on. Regular American troops and commandos were still using the launchers in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s.
This article by Joseph Trevithick originally appeared at War is Boring in 2017.


A sharp increase in humpback whale sightings off the coast of Dana Point is stirring up excitement among whale watchers.
DANA POINT, Calif. (KGTV) -- A sharp increase in humpback whale sightings off the coast of Dana Point is stirring up excitement among whale watchers.
According to Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari, 42 of the whales have been spotted so far this January compared to only four last year at this time.
Dana Point is well known for its whale watching and for the annual gray whale migration.
In January, gray whales make their journey from Alaska to Baja, Mexico. Humpback whales can be seen year round at Dana Point.
“Humpback whales are migrating from their mating and calving grounds near Mexico and Central America to Dana Point to feed on krill and small schooling fish,” the company said.
The whales can weigh up to 40 tons.


ANTHONY WEINER Polling on comptroller race.
It looks like Anthony Weiner is testing the waters for a possible run for city comptroller.
Two politically connected Manhattan residents received calls from a pollster asking about a possible match-up between the former Queens congressman and Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, who is considered the heavy favorite in the race.
“It was strictly about Scott and Weiner,” said one woman who was called Sunday.
Polls are expensive and are typically seen as a first move to determine if a candidate has a feasible chance before launching a campaign.
Weiner, who was driven from office in 2011 following an infamous sexting scandal, is sitting on a $3.9 million war chest. Stringer has only $2.3 million so far.
Weiner did not return calls and Stringer declined to comment.


NAME: Bob Eastwood. AGE: 51.
JOINED SENIOR PGA TOUR: 1996.
BACKGROUND: Eastwood captured his first championship as a member of the Senior PGA Tour last weekend, prevailing in the rain-shortened Bell Atlantic Classic in Malvern, Pa. Eastwood fired rounds of 66-69, edging John Bland and Bob E. Smith by one shot.
RAIN MAN: Eastwood won the tournament by making birdies at his final two holes on Saturday, including rolling in a 25-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole. He was declared champion early Sunday afternoon when it was decided more than half the tournament field would not be able to finish the third round, which would have enabled a Monday finish.
DROUGHT ENDED: Eastwood had not ventured into the winner's circle since 1985, when, as a member of the PGA Tour, he captured the Byron Nelson Classic in Texas. It was one of three titles he won while playing the younger circuit. In 1984, Eastwood won the USF&G; Classic and the Danny Thomas-Memphis Classic.
ONE FOR DAD: Eastwood immediately dedicated his victory last weekend to his father, Fred, who was hospitalized in California after a series of strokes. Fred Eastwood was a former driving range and golf course owner who introduced his son to the game when Bob was 4 years old. "I hope he realizes that I won a tournament and knows that I dedicated it to him," Eastwood said.
He's healthy. He's ready. He's back.
Using those words, Callaway Golf launched a series of advertisements this week with its newest representative, John Daly. He officially returned to the PGA Tour on Thursday, teeing off at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio after a two-month stay at the Betty Ford Center in California, where he underwent alcohol counseling. Daly shot 76-71 to make the cut by a shot.
It's not the first time Long John has returned to golf after careening off life's road, informing us that he's all better. Daly emerged from counseling at Sierra Tucson in 1993, telling us his life was going to be different, and in control. He did not follow up on his aftercare, though, admittedly skipping directly from Step 1 to 12 in Alcoholics Anonymous' 12-step program.
"I just said that I quit," Daly said last Tuesday, "which is the stupidest thing I could have ever said."
Daly, 31, is fortunate to have another chance. Since his drunken spree at The Players Championship in late March, his third wife, Paulette, has filed for divorce, and he was dumped from an estimated $10 million equipment deal by Wilson.
Along comes Callaway founder Ely Callaway to the rescue. Callaway has signed Daly to an equipment contract that extends into a new century. The contract is back-loaded, which means Daly must stay on the straight and narrow and attend aftercare if he is to receive his riches later down the road.
He thinks he's ready to grow up.
He's asking for one more chance.
At the tail end of Daly's Callaway ads, it reads, "Keep It Straight, John."
Daly thought of those words himself.
PGA Tour: Thursday-Sunday, Kemper Open, TPC at Avenel, Potomac, Md. TV: CBS; defending champion, Steve Stricker.
LPGA Tour: Thursday-Sunday, Oldsmobile Classic, Walnut Hills Country Club, East Lansing, Mich.; TV: ESPN; defending champion, Michelle McGann.
house Golf Club, Nashville, Tenn.; TV: NBC; defending champion, Isao Aoki.
Miscellaneous: Monday, U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying (36 holes), Bay Hill Club, Orlando; Wednesday, Florida State Amateur Qualifying, Timacuan Golf and Country Club, Lake Mary.


It has been a good couple of weeks for Philadelphia artist Meek Mill. He has been honored with his own day in Atlanta and also awarded with the Phoenix Award, one of the highest honors of the city.
On Monday, City Council President Felicia Moore and Councilman Cleta Winslow presented the CHAMPIONSHIPS rapper with declaring March 25, 2019, as Meek Mill day in Atlanta, Georgia. The Phoenix Award recognizes his political views with the criminal justice system.
The Phoenix Award is described as a small number of awards that are issued who contributed to the local community and celebrated at their milestone. Meek has a good year by launching a REFORM Alliance by the help of Jay-Z and Roc Nation and Philadelphia 76ers owner Michael Rubin.


Third-ranked broadcast network TV5 of the PLDT group continues to struggle financially despite the best efforts of its new management team, due in part to the cutthroat competition in an industry dominated by giants ABS-CBN Corp. and GMA Network Inc.
Proof of TV5’s stubborn prob …, or shall we say “challenges”…, was last week’s major “bloodletting” where a large number of staffers was axed in one go.
Biz Buzz heard that, last Friday, some employees were summoned to a room by management. Some of them thought it was going to be a department-wide meeting, so in they went, only to find themselves facing senior officials (as well as some security personnel, according to another source). Once fully assembled, the staffers were told that their services would no longer be needed and that very day would be their last day in the company’s employ.
The message basically was “you don’t need to report for work tomorrow” or something to that effect.
Naturally, many of them were stunned as they had just “returned to base” at the company’s relatively new headquarters in Mandaluyong City from assignments in the field and had not been expecting to be “pink-slipped” that way (although talk of another round of layoffs had been circulation for some months now at TV5, which continues to bleed red ink).
We’re told that “around 100” employees from the news and operations unit of TV5 Manila were let go, consisting of camera and field crews, drivers as well as production personnel. The massacre was even worse at the network’s Cebu unit where the bulk of the staff complement was axed.
Naturally, the mood was sad and somber among the remaining employees, with some of those given the pink slip in tears (yes, including a number of grown men who were hardened by covering gruesome crime scenes every night).
We heard that TV5’s management is busy plotting a new direction for the company, which has continued to defy the best turnaround efforts of the leadership of the PLDT group (which is also facing significant “challenges,” incidentally).
It’s been 25 years since the unification of the old Makati and Manila stock exchanges into a single bourse that we now know as the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). Aside from another landmark merger (with the Philippine Dealing System Group) that will possibly be sealed this year, there’s no better way to commemorate this silver anniversary than to move to its new home in Bonifacio Global City.
PSE is targeting to move to its new home in BGC by the fourth quarter of this year to make it “coincidental” to this 25th anniversary celebration in December 2017, according to PSE president Hans Sicat.
But what about the two trading floors that the PSE is now maintaining in Tektite (Ortigas) and Ayala Tower One (Makati)?
The local bourse would finalize discussions to monetize the Tektite space (estimated at 4,500 square meters) first, which meant rekindling efforts to sell the property, Sicat said. Property developer Philrealty, however, has the right of first refusal on this Ortigas property.
It’s a blessing in disguise that the PSE wasn’t successful in selling the Tektite property, Sicat said, because the BGC building project had taken longer than expected to complete.
On the Ayala site, Sicat said the PSE still had use for the office space. “We are evaluating stay versus lease versus monetize (options). We’re not in a rush,” he said.
Last November, Biz Buzz reported that UK-based reinsurance broker Marsh allegedly divulged highly confidential information owned by their client, Prudential Guarantee and Assurance (PGA), to a large aviation company. The move resulted in PGA being cast in a bad light, (with the scuttlebutt being that someone else wanted PGA’s business with one particularly large client). In the end, however, it seems that this backfired tremendously.
To recap, PGA held a local aviation account that it had faithfully serviced for almost two decades. For this particular account, PGA used the services of Marsh to broker its reinsurance placements, resulting in substantial commissions for UK firm.
Come renewal time—due to the crucial issue of the exodus of key Marsh aviation personnel —PGA informed the firm that they would instead be using the services of another reinsurer. Upon learning this, Marsh went directly to the owner of the aviation company and supposedly spun a yarn about how they were being overcharged all these years. As proof, they presented selected details of their transactions which left out key considerations like government fees. In other words, they made it look like the aviation company was being overcharged, when in fact they were not. More glaring, of course, was the blatant breach of confidentiality and unethical business practice that had transpired.
For a firm that prides itself as a “world-class risk assessment company,” Marsh appeared to have made a major miscalculation in this case. Had they bothered to ask any of the heavyweights in Philippine business, they would have certainly been told that PGA owner and CEO Robert Coyiuto Jr. is not a person to mess around with. Far beyond the money, Coyiuto is an old-school businessman who operates using a Sun Tzu-like playbook.
Fast forward three months later: After PGA and its lawyers filed information with no less than the UK High Court in London, Marsh reportedly was left with no other choice but to admit wrongdoing and pay an out-of-court settlement to avoid far greater damages. While the exact figure has not been verified, it purportedly reached the nine-figure mark.


In the Amazon region of Colombia, along the Peruvian and Brazilian border, there are now around 2,700 more bespectacled people than there were a few weeks ago.
In January of 2013 Florida doctor Carey Rowan was among a team of over 65 surgeons, nurses, and volunteers who flew into the city of Leticia in the Colombian jungle and over a two-week period improved the sight of over 600 patients a day.
In just two weeks, around 2,700 pairs of glasses were given out. These glasses are donated in the United States and collected and marked with the prescription. “The glasses may not be perfect but they’re close,” said the surgeon.
“I was doing the surgery part in this little hospital. It was all sanitized, but like they do it in Russia with three surgeons operating in the same room and two assistants each,” said Rowan. “The patients can’t see the [faces of the] people who helped them come to the surgery, but the following day we take off the patch and they can see things they haven’t seen for five or ten years. It’s really beautiful,” said the doctor. According to Rowan, several hundred surgeries were carried out over a 12-day period.
In the U.S. cataract surgery takes 7–9 minutes with a special machine. In Leticia, there was no machine so the operation took around 20 minutes, however the surgeons still managed to complete 25 to 30 operations a day.


Canadian patients who rely on medical cannabis and the organizations that represent them are frustrated with the federal government’s proposed “sin” tax on their medicine.
In November 2017, the Liberal government revealed a proposed excise duty framework that would see recreational cannabis taxed at a rate of $1 per gram (or 10 percent of the producer’s sale price) when it is legalized in July.
While most Canadians expected the duty would apply to all fresh and dried cannabis, cannabis oils, seeds, and seedlings, many patients, physicians, and members of the industry were appalled to learn that it would also apply to the sale of medical cannabis.
Cam Battley, chief corporate officer at Canada’s second-largest licensed producer, Aurora Cannabis Inc., told the Georgia Straight by phone from Milton, Ontario, last week that the proposed framework came from a “profoundly wrongheaded” place.
Consider the financial stress of people who are dealing with a chronic illness, he said. With many patients already living in income-constrained circumstances, the added tax could have a dramatic effect on individuals who prefer to use cannabis over other, nontaxable drugs, both at the financial level and in their quality of life.
Jonathan Zaid, founder and executive director of Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana (CFAMM), was among the first in Canada to advocate for the coverage of medical cannabis under private health-insurance plans back in 2014.
While Justin Trudeau told Toronto’s Breakfast Television in December that the excise tax would be a way of dissuading Canadians from accessing the medical cannabis system to obtain recreational pot, Zaid argued that such a claim was an insult to honest patients and their doctors.
“It’s quite frankly very offensive to patients, but even more so to the over 10,000 Canadian physicians who have authorized medical cannabis,” he told the Straight by phone from Waterloo, Ontario.
Beyond the reasoning that Canada’s medical-cannabis system is plagued with “fakers”, some argue that medical cannabis should in fact be taxed because it hasn’t undergone the same rigorous clinical trials as standard pharmaceutical drugs. But with hundreds, if not thousands, of investigator-sponsored publications on cannabis, Battley said the notion that it’s understudied is misguided: “It’s easily one of the most studied substances in history,” he said.
As a regional coordinator at NORML Canada, one of the nation’s longest-running cannabis advocacy groups, and an attendant at Tweed Main Street’s Toronto store, Abi Sampson has seen firsthand how even slight price increases can affect patients.
“When Canopy [Tweed’s parent company] started charging for delivery, that $4 a month really hurt some of our patients,” she told the Straight by phone from Pickering, Ontario.
If the federal government were to follow through with the tax, Sampson said, it’s not unlikely that financially strained patients might resort to accessing their medicine through the black market, something many patients without a credit card or fixed address are currently forced to do.
Battley, Zaid, and Sampson are asking Canadian patients, advocates, physicians, and associations to rally behind their call for the elimination of tax on medical cannabis. Thanks to CFAMM’s “Don’t Tax Medicine” campaign, Zaid said, more than 16,000 Canadians have written letters to their MPs, while 11 nonprofit organizations and physician associations have shown support for CFAMM’s call for tax-free medical cannabis.
He, Battley, and more than 70 patients and patient advocates delivered that message to Finance Minister Bill Morneau on January 26, when they gathered in peaceful protest outside his constituency office in Toronto.


BALTIMORE - Who needs Alex Rodriguez when you have Freddy Garcia?
Garcia made a triumphant return from the disabled list Monday night, leading the Yankees to a 3-2 win over the Orioles that earned them a split of the four-game series at Camden Yards.
Pitching for the first time in 22 days, Garcia tossed six innings of one-run ball, picking up his 11th win of the season. "That's as good as it gets," Joe Girardi said. "He gave us six great innings."
The win moved the Yankees within 1-1/2 games of the Red Sox in the American League East. The two teams will meet for three games at Fenway Park beginning Tuesday night.
Rodriguez is unlikely to be in the lineup, as the third baseman was in New York Monday having his sore left thumb examined by Dr. Melvin Rosenwasser, the team's hand specialist.
An MRI exam revealed no structural damage, but Girardi said A-Rod was "really questionable" for the crucial series in Boston, leaving his availability in doubt.
"It just depends how that thumb responds to the treatment," Girardi said. "He came back and irritated it a little bit more, so we're just going to have to be smart about it."
Derek Jeter was also out of the lineup Monday night, sidelined by a bruised right kneecap after fouling a ball off his leg during the first game on Sunday. Jeter said he could have been used in a pinch Monday night, but hopes to be back in the lineup Tuesday night.
"That's the plan, but I haven't done anything," Jeter said. "We'll see when we get there (Tuesday). It feels a lot better than it did (Sunday)."
Rodriguez jammed his thumb on Aug. 21 in Minnesota, landing awkwardly on his glove as he tried to make a diving stop at third base. He missed the next two games before returning to the lineup Thursday, but he aggravated the injury in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader.
The Yankees' lineup did just enough Monday night without A-Rod, scoring three early runs against Alfredo Simon and letting Garcia and three relievers do the rest.
Mark Teixeira doubled in a run in the first, reaching the 100-RBI mark for the eight straight year, the only current player to have 30 homers and 100 RBI in each of the past eight seasons.
Nick Swisher added to the lead with a two-run homer in the fourth, his sixth longball in the last seven games.
"We do have some guys out, there's no doubt about that," Swisher said. "Obviously when you're in a situation, you want to be the guy to try and step up. Everyone in the lineup is stepping their game up a little bit."
Garcia hadn't started for the Yankees since Aug. 7, spending three weeks on the DL after cutting his right index finger in a kitchen accident. Garcia threw four innings last Monday at Triple-A, but the long layoff didn't affect him Monday night.
The righthander retired 13 of his first 14 batters before Mark Reynolds took him deep with one out in the fifth. Garcia didn't allow another hit, finishing his six innings with only two hits given up and one walk while striking out four.
"Everything was working; I was really happy," Garcia said. "I wasn't pitching for almost three weeks, something like that, but I'm glad to do my job and get a win. We need it."
Baltimore cut the deficit to one in the eighth on J.J. Hardy's home run, the first run allowed by Dave Robertson on the road this year and the first home run given up by the righthander in his last 71 games.
Robertson finished the eighth, then Mariano Rivera closed the game in the ninth for his 34th save of the year and No. 593 of his career.
A-Rod's absence may not have been a factor Monday night, but considering the struggles the Yankee pitching staff has had against the Red Sox this season, the Bombers will need all the runs they can muster over the next three days.
With first place on the line, the Yanks were hoping to have their cleanup hitter ready for the Sox, but that appears to be a longshot.
"With his thumb, we've got to let it heal," Girardi said. "I can't tell you exactly when he's going to be back."