FILE - In this April 22, 2018 file photo, former first lady and independent presidential candidate Margarita Zavala waves to the press before the first of three debates among Mexico's presidential candidates in Mexico City. Zavala said on Wednesday, May 16 that she is dropping out of the country's July 1 presidential race. Marco Ugarte / AP	
MEXICO CITY — Mexican independent candidate and former first lady Margarita Zavala announced Wednesday she is dropping out of the country’s July 1 presidential race.
Zavala had broken her longtime affiliation with the conservative National Action Party and qualified for the ballot as an independent.
Zavala made the announcement in a program taped for broadcast later Wednesday, but did not endorse any other candidate.
“I am withdrawing my candidacy on the principle of political honesty and a sense of congruency, but also to free up those people who have so generously supported me so that they can make the decision they need to make in this difficult race,” Zavala said in a taped interview with the Televisa network.
The country’s electoral institute has already started printing voting material for the July 1 race, so Zavala’s name will apparently remain on the ballot.
Zavala split with National Action in part because it joined in a right-left alliance with the Democratic Revolution Party to support coalition candidate Ricardo Anaya.
After Zavala’s announcement was made public, Anaya described her in his Twitter account as “a brave woman with principles.”
“Her contributions to the country, and this race in particular, have been very valuable,” Anaya wrote. “All my recognition to her and all her team.”
However, bad blood between Zavala and Anaya make it doubtful whether all, or even most of her supporters, would transfer their votes to Anaya.
Anaya used his position as party leader — a post traditionally seen as an impartial referee among presidential contenders — to capture the candidacy for himself, something Zavala publicly complained about.
Four other candidates remain on the ballot. Polls indicate that left-leaning candidate Andres Manuel Lopez holds a comfortable lead in the race.
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The other day a friend and I wondered whether a certain writer would make deeper exploration into some topics in her work in progress. “I certainly hope so,” my friend said. “But doing research is a curse to some people.”
Say what? Despite my periodic reluctance (like when I’d rather sleep), I know that I must conduct inquiries into as much subjects as possible, no matter how long it takes. I want my historical fiction, my biographies, even my contemporary fiction to be authentic, believable, to have worth. I sure don’t want my books to read like lies. OK. I admit it. I like research.
It’s OK to paraphrase a little bit of material and place it in one’s books, within reason. But can — or should — you pull all your info from other people’s material, rewrite it and call it your own? I think that’s lazy. I’m just saying.
Examining primary material — old newspapers, journals, diaries, letters (even on the Internet within reason), traveling to places of origin when possible, interviewing folks — aren’t these tasks and more still performed by writers who are serious about their work?
I ask because a nubie (and self-centered) writer told me, “I hate to do that. I hate to read. I hate history. It’s easier to just get it from somebody else’s stuff.”
Hmmm. I even looked up “research” quotations on the Internet to find folks who’d help me argue my point. Playwright Wilson Mizner said, “If you steal from one author it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research.”
Writer and folklorist Zora Neal Hurston, whose work I’m quite familiar with, said, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”
Well, what do you think? How much research do you do? Is it worth your time, weary eyes, and hard work? Or not?
I like to do the research. Research adds so many new dimensions to your work; gives you so much good stuff to play with; gives you a sense of surprise as you compile it. It keeps your story from sounding like everybody else's story. And it gives me a chance to get all nerdy about a topic that I am nuts about. What's more, well-done research, when added to the story, is like well-done worldbuilding in a fantasy novel, adding another convincing layer to the world to make it a 'vivid and continuous dream.'
Though you have to be careful not to use research as an excuse to avoid working on your actual MS, too!
Author Evelyn Coleman has some lengthy insights about her own research and the absence of others on Facebook after she read my entry here. She also goes into detail about how she gathered material for some of her American Girl books.
I can get thrown off course when I over-research, turning a story into a history book with characters instead of being true to my own story. That said, I often have people ask me "How long did it take you to research A Voice for Kanzas?" As though I had a "start" and "end" date for this. I have to tell them, "I researched every single day as I wrote it." I always felt like I had a historian looking over my shoulder, ready to point out anachronisms. I'm gratified that so many of the reviews comment on the accuracy of the historical material.
My contemporary novels have required their own type of research, lots of it mighty nice to do. I will soon go to Canada to check out various settings. I will be, for example, visiting various parks on the shore of Lake Ontario in order to pick out the one that will work best for an important noontime conversation. Honest Mr. Taxman–this IS research.
A presenter at an AWP panel I attended a few years ago distinguished several kinds of research we creative writers can do–cultural, emotional, sensory, genre, etc. Very helpful.
By visiting places (such as shores in parks in Ontario!)and attending to the sensory stimuli, we increase our sensory knowledge and can more vividly render those places for our readers.
By reading in the genres we're writing in, we can learn the challenges posed by those particular genres (and have some help in deciding what to pull from our "to read" piles–adding some purpose to our poking and prying!).
Debra, our comment "a history book with characters" is spot on. How many times have we struggled through books that are like this?
Marsha, lucky lady, to conduct research at Lake Ontario.Going to the place can make such a difference in how vividly a reader can "see" your work.
Thanks Eleanora! That sentence I uttered that made my family look at me like I'd grown a horn, now seems very intelligent. "But I HAVE to go to Wales to see Dylan Thomas's grave. It's research."
A 20-year-old pervert has admitted downloading sexual images of children that were rated in the worst catergory showing young children being raped
The court heard that the children involved in the images were aged between two and and 12 and included a five-year-old being sexually abused by a man
Ordered to complete the 50-day Horizen Sex Offender Programme and to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work.
Ordered to register with police in accordance with the Sexual Offences Act from March 9, 2018, for five years.
Minding the gap between research and practice – Saturday 12th November 2016 | the unconscious curriculum
I attended the Canons Park Teaching School Alliance conference on Saturday 12th November 2016 and here are my reflections on the day.
I must admit I have only dropped my son off here to for children’s parties and I have never been through the doors. It is a large space, well suited to this type of conference. It could be anywhere as it looks like most hotels and conference centres do with the light wood doors, swirly carpets and Molton Brown soaps. However, you get a surprise every now and then as you turn a corner or look out a window to be confronted with the stands of Barnet FC. Come on you …. bees?
A warm welcome from Kev where he reminds us of our task; to mind the gaps between research and evidence, to question our current practices, to work out what evidence is there and what is missing and be more comfortable with ‘not’ knowing.
The ingenious Oliver Caviglioli has made some of his summary notes which I will use as an aide memoir in my reflection. Massive thank you to Oliver for these scribbles of beauty (if I could have one super power it would be to make notes like this!)
Keynote 1. James Richardson (EEF) Embedding research in 24000 schools – limits to the EEF’s endowment and the role of teachers.
As we approach the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the EEF, James walks us through the Foundations top achievements and how its work and focus has changed. I had not realised it was established with such a large endowment of £136 million to boldly go where few researchers had gone before. They have produced 66 reports, carried out 130 project evaluations and 1 in 5 schools have become involved in RCTs. An significant beginning.
Historically, schools have been the passive recipients of university research, but this paradigm is changing with schools taking the role in leading trials. The EEF has three clear roles including summarising the existing body of research (meta- meta analysis), finding gaps and making grants for those areas to be researched and sharing the results. It is sharing the results which has proven to be the most challenging. Whether teachers believe the research depends on many factors including trusting the advocate, the practicable applications and how much effort the change would take. Schools tend to listen to other schools (which could be a great way of sharing the good practice but it has also been a sure fire way of sharing some questionable activities – look how quickly triple marking spread as a solution- to a non-existent problem). The task of research schools will be to carry out this research and help disseminate and communicate the agenda. I think this is a tough challenge as we are asking teachers to change their habits, and most of us are creatures of habit and routine. Information alone does not change peoples behaviour, we need to engage the profession with a space and capacity for reflection.
What seems clear is that the EEF evidence does not always speak to the emerging canon of work in cognitive psychology. The cognitivists have a wide range of lab-based studies but the challenge ahead is for the EEF to use research schools to see if this evidence can be replicated in real-life settings. Current gaps in the research include: marking & feedback, leadership and culture.
One interesting debate was about whether it is important for all teachers to read all the research? Not all are willing to engage with research for a variety of reasons. More must be done at ITT stage, to establish evidence-based practice as a core professional quality. However, I wonder if we are not all engaging with evidence-based practice then how are we meeting our annual 30 hour CPD commitment? Surely, the lions share of this time should be given as time and space to find out about and reflect on current research and evidence?
Best practice would suggest all schools need to have a research advocate who can help bridge the gap and help embed these national debates into everyday practice.
One of the messages I was left with, is just how long it takes to embed research. The EEF would like to become the educational version of NICE, but people at NICE suggest that it can take 15 years from the publication of their research and guidance for this to filter down into day-to-day medical practice, 15 years … I am not sure I have another 15 years in the profession?
Phillipa introduced me to the work of Viviane Robinson and used a really rich case study to get me to think about the tools we use and how we can evaluate them. Leadership is important here as well as the bravery to use or peer support to deal with the difficult stuff rather than just reinforcing our existing beliefs.
The panel gave us an overview of the work of the CPD Expert Group and the 5 standards of effective CPD. The guidance was music to my ears and I hope signals the end of poor quality professional development. For too long, CPD has been something which is done to teachers rather than a genuine opportunity for personalised, evidence-based enquiry that improves the outcomes in our classrooms. Professional development should not be a ‘done to’ process, teachers need to be engaged with evidence, given time for collaboration and a process which is deeply embedded into the school culture.
Candida led a thoughtful session reminding us of the why we must engage in research and the benefits to our classrooms and our morale as teachers. She spoke about how the journey into the world of evidence-based practice is full of many stumbles and falls, but it is this not knowing or being uncertain which drives us on. Engaging with research should take us out of our comfort zone. We need to disturb the educational equipoise.
Is it good to do what we have always done? What is the opportunity cost of changing our practice? On balance, what is the evidence for our current practice?
There is much uncertainty in our practices, but we should embrace this and be curious about what we don’t know.
Candida talked about how her school had started to become more evidence-based with the following ingredients:
I liked lots of her ideas and began to wonder how evidence-based the schools I have taught in have been. One of the intriguing ideas Candida has left me with is this idea of a T shape learner, where the top represents the skills and the vertical the knowledge. The idea is you cannot deepen the knowledge without developing the skills. I need to find out more as it seems like a sensible way forward in the skills versus content debate.
A very thought-provoking example of how to change a school culture from Richard Found. The experience of writing and publishing articles for a learning journal has transformed how staff (and students) at Sandringham approach research and professional development. Richard described how the journal had evolved from a rather make shift in-house production to a more professionally produced journal and how the opportunity to have an article published had inspired all sorts of action research and teacher reflections. The journals are a thing of beauty and something Sandringham should be rightly proud. Not all the articles are as ‘evidence-based’ as one would perhaps like but they are a clear statement of intent and a culture of enquiry. We read a few in the session and you cannot help but be impressed with the range and depth of the articles. All staff contribute to this journal, not just teachers so articles from governors and support staff add to the diversity of voices. This has been developed alongside a teaching and learning website www.sandology.co.uk and spin-off versions for the students. However, to work this needs advocates and senior staff commitment. I like it.
Admittedly, I had to leave half way through this one as I had a lift organised. However, it seems clear that we need a genuine culture shift in our leadership teams rather than pseudo-enquiry which plays lip-service to this agenda.
Another thoughtful day. My thanks to Keven and Helene for organising. Much needed chicken soup for the teaching soul.
Major aged care not-for-profit group Benetas has sold its redundant East Brighton, Victoria, respite facility to an aged care provider for $19 million - an extraordinary 75 per cent over the reserve price of $11 million - in an Expressions of Interest deal brokered by Savills.
According to Savills’ State Director, Clinton Baxter who managed the EOI process with Director Julian Heatherich and Associate Director, Jesse Radisich, the ageing baby boomer population was driving a robust market for aged care facilities and properties which could provide development opportunities in the sector.
Mr Baxter said 10 offers were received from both local and off-shore townhouse and aged-care developers with the sale ultimately concluding in an intense contest between three leading aged care providers.
"Competition between these parties has pushed the price well beyond the vendor’s expectations and in the process achieving a record land sale rate of $3300 a square metre for a large bayside property.
"The most significant driver has been the growing demand from the cashed up Baby Boomer generation and that is only going to continue as more of that generation reach retirement and beyond,’’ Mr Baxter said.
The 68-76 Union Street property is located about 400 metres from East Brighton retail precinct and the Nepean Highway, within walking distance of Hurlingham Park, which includes football, cricket and tennis facilities, and Landcox Park, and within a short distance of several schools, Union Street and Hawthorn Road trams and North Brighton railway station.
It comprises a 5751 square metre site, zoned Neighborhood Residential, with extensive frontage to Union Street and further access points via Granter Street and Milliara Grove. The zoning also allows for townhouse development.
Mr Heatherich said the latest research from Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) suggested 60,000 more residential care places were needed, along with infrastructure investment of $30 billion by 2025.
LASA says the percentage of people aged over 65 is predicted to increase by 18 per cent in the next five years, while in the next 35 years, people aged over 85 years will increase, as a proportion of the population, from 1 per cent to 5 per cent, representing a dramatic increase in the age cohort that drives service demand.
Mr Radisich said Savills was currently experiencing enormous demand from the aged care sector for major sites in middle ring suburbs across Melbourne and the result had more than reflected that demand.
He said Benetas, which had operated from the site for many decades, had decided to sell the property as being surplus to its needs.
Article originally posted at: https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/aged-care-group-books-tidy-premium-sale
You will love this collection of Christmas Wreaths to make. We have rounded up the most popular ideas to share. Check them out now …
If you are looking for some Christmas Wreaths to make for the holidays, we’ve rounded up some of favorites to share.
We have also included some gorgeous readymade versions that you can purchase if you prefer. You will find links to the projects under the photos where they will share the how-to instructions with you.
Nancy is in the house to share her popular video that shows you the Christmas Wreath that she made using Bows. It’s a lovely result and she gives great instructions. Click Play above to view ^
We thought we would start with this gorgeous Hydrangea Wreath that we found on Etsy. This is truly unique and is one of the most popular sellers. You can check it out here
We love this gorgeous Christmas Bauble Wreath. It shimmers like nothing else and you can use all sorts of colors. This version is very pretty and the colors work superbly. You can find details on Good Housekeeping here
Here’s another beautiful idea from Etsy. The initial and ribbons add a lovely touch. You can find the details here
This Bauble Wreath from Delightfully Noted on Hometalk was made with one hand! It’s so easy the creator says that she had a cocktail in one hand and a glue gun in the other. We’re sure you agree, this is a stunner and it’s made using a wire coat hanger as a base. You can see the full project here
Here’s another Christmas Wreath idea that we absolutely love. This Burlap Rudolph Reindeer is a stunner and don’t you love that bright round red nose. We found this one on Etsy. See it here
Here’s another gorgeous idea from Shelterness using ribbons to create a wreath. You can use a wire hanger for this project too like the Bauble version featured up our post. You can find the full instructions here
We fell head over heels for this super cute Elf Christmas Wreath, this one is available for purchase on Etsy. We love the hat and shoes particularly! You can find the details here
If you collect your wine corks, here’s the perfect project. Use them to create a cute Christmas Wreath. This is very clever and you could even use your champagne corks for this idea. Get the details on Good Housekeeping here
Michelle from Crafty Morning has come up with the goods yet again. This time she has created this gorgeous Lighted Snowman Wreath. She has the full instructions on her site to share. Get the details here
You can also supersize your Christmas Wreath like this one that we found on Sweet Pickings Furniture and doesn’t it look impressive! You can find the full tutorial here
This Bow Wreath is such a creative and very simple idea and very easy to make. You can find the full tutorial on how to recreate your own at home on the Design Improvised Site here
The creator of this gorgeous Bauble Wreath has used a foam wreath for her project. Again, it’s simple to assemble and we think Amy has done a wonderful job. She has a full tutorial to share with you here
Over on the Grillo Designs Site they have featured this gorgeous Snowman Wreath. Don’t you just love it? They have a full tutorial available to step you through. You can find it here
Here’s another fabulous idea, this Frozen Christmas Wreath has been hugely popular and it’s easy to see why. You can find all the details on how to recreate it on Paging Fun Mums here