One of the first things I taught Midori when she was a puppy, was to put her paws on a pot and circle with her hind legs. I did that to teach her multiple things: interact with a (metal) object, learn the shaping game, use her paws, balance, strength, get to know her back end, and it is a good movement in obedience training.
Now, when we are training Parkour, the behaviour resurfaces as “front paws up” and is a really easy and fun behaviour to train. But how do you start?
I started with the goal. What does it look like? Then an inventory: does my dog need any prior knowledge? After that: what equipment do I need?
Then I made a step by step description and made checkboxes. For my dog, step three is not necessary – but that depends on how you train!
On the other page, I made a tracker for seven days. This is an easy trick, and training ten minutes every day gets you a long way. I made it a mood-tracker, to measure how fun the training has been. And I left space for comments.
I like to have my training plan “at a glance” without all the text, so I made a staircase. I like the staircase, it’s a bit symbolic and it’s easy to put in more steps if necessary. For each step we are one step closer to the goal, and I get to draw a star (because my dog is a star). Also room for comments.
I would love to know if this was helpful to you, if you got any new ideas for training your dog or for a spread in your BuJo!
And if you haven’t started planning your dog training – your BuJo is the perfect place for it! Haven’t got one? Don’t know how to start?
Main event was fun if sloppy. Everything else was fine or Pierroth. Attendance seemed down, and next will be an interesting test to see if a marquee match with Caristico & Volador can get fans to turn out again or if it’s still too soon.
CMLL announced the Dia de los Muertos shows will take place on 11/03 (Friday), 11/05 (Sunday) and 11/07 (Tuesday). CMLL’s tended to to have big matches on those dates, though nothing’s a guarantee with them. Negro Casas/Sam Adonis would fit for 11/03. The Sunday Muertos show often ends up streamed. There is likely to be a press conference to talk about all of this on this Wednesday or the next.
The headline of this article says Lucha Underground has secured funding for a fourth season. The actual body of the article doesn’t say nearly as much. It’s an interview with Paul London (he and Marty are working a show in Colorado today), and London just says the things everyone’s discussed: he’s heard LU may make cutbacks, he thinks they’ll be fine as long as the in-ring portion is still there, he knows some of the wrestlers may not want to come back because the hiatus has been so long. It’s all less exciting than it reads.
I’ve said this before, and the people who need to hear it are not reading this website so I’m not sure why I’m bothering, but I’ll write it again: everyone would love a Lucha Underground decision by the time the show goes off the air. There’s 0% guarantee there will be one. It’s not any sort of deadline for El Rey; they’ll still have time to decide, and it’s in everyone’s interest to drag this out until the other side gives them the deal they want. And even if El Rey says no, MGM & LU can still try to shop around the show to other networks, something they’re contractually not allowed to try until El Rey’s window passes. Wednesday is important because it’s the last day episode they have taped and because it starts the countdown clock for out of contract wrestlers to go elsewhere – they may get some resolution on their careers, and we may get some resolution on the onscreen stories, but the business of LU is not sure to be resolved by Wednesday.
(aside 1: The recent MMM show has a good idea of when that El Rey deadline might actually be, but you’re going to have to listen to find out yourself.)
(aside 2: There are important developments and plots coming to an end on this week’s episode. I do also expect a cliffhanger or three that’s supposed to be resolved in season 4, and I do not think there’s “series finale” version of the episode somewhere. There was always a good chance of this lingering uncertainty to end season 3, and MGM & LU would be harming themselves if they finished off everything on a show they’re still trying to sell to other networks.)
Elegido & Gronda are listed both on a card with people with quit AAA and an AAA spot show challenging for the tag titles. They must have permission to work wherever they want since AAA isn’t using them.
Outside of the main event, the only feud here is Sam Adonis/Negro Casas. They could always make something else up for 11/03, but that seems like the most likely option. NGD continue to ascend.
As with AAA, the “Toluca” show is taking place in Metepec, about 20 minutes out of town. I wonder if there’s some issue with running the main Toluca building following the rehabilitation of it earlier this year; it’s been used for lucha, but not nearly as often.
This fits with the other shows on this tour. 5/6 could be pretty good. Lacey Lane only shows up on this card; she’s a Florida Dudley Boyz trainee who had a WWE tryout earlier this year.
How does Konnan or anyone ,explain “Black Boy’s lucha name to Willie Mack? I mentioned this a long time ago, why doesn’t Konnan, or guys like Shocker (other names escape me), who know English, not help luchadores with their names. Because some sound downright ridiculous. Imagine when they start getting booked in the U.S…..
Black Boy has worked the U.S. quite a few times and nobody has ever complained. It’s not a racist gimmick so I don’t see what the issue would be?
Our boys over at HotOneTen are helping put together a massive night at Corsica Studios this coming Saturday night. A mix of Dubstep, Funky, Grime, DnB and Garage over two rooms, it looks set to be one hell of a good night. Highlights for me include Bar 9, Borgore and Sbtrkt in room one with Elijah & Skilliam and ATG’s Noisses heading up room two. But why listen to me? Here’s what Rinse FM’s Marco Del Horno had to say:
All the info you should need is on the flyer above, but find out a little more at HotOneTen. Tickets are available now from Corsica Studios.
Throughout the last week, UK retailer Route One have been running an excellent campaign together with youth organisation Skateistan that they call Have A Heart.
The campaign sees £10 from every skate deck sold online or in store donated to Skateistan, which goes to providing skateboarding and educational programming in Afghanistan and Cambodia for youths aged 5-18. Skateistan’s goal is to use skateboarding as a tool for empowering children, providing access to education and developing leadership opportunities, particularly for young girls and working children in both countries.
It’s quite simple really, buy a deck from Route One before the 22nd of February and help improve the life of a child through skateboarding and education – I’m going with this one. For more information check out Skateistan, and click through to Route One to make your purchase.
In recent history, universal education has been considered to be one of America’s greatest equalizers. The idea that education provides a gateway to opportunity drove the development of universal public education in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to the creation of many policies that support a more egalitarian system.
During the 21st century, however, many disparities and educational inequities still exist in America. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, nearly 52 percent of American children in K – 12 public schools are eligible for free and reduced lunch, which is a common indicator of poverty in the U.S. Many American students also attend racially segregated schools, which tend to have fewer resources than other public school districts.
Overall, data from the U.S. Department of Education indicates that about 88 percent of American students in grades K – 12 attend public schools, while about 2 percent are homeschooled and about 9.7 percent attend private or religious schools.
The Office of Admissions’ website provides several statistics about the educational backgrounds of Dartmouth students. Fifty-seven percent of students in the Class of 2020 attended public high schools, 30 percent of students attended secular private high schools or and 13 percent attended religious private high schools. Director of admissions Paul Sunde declined to comment.
Although students come from various educational backgrounds, perceptions about stereotypes about public versus private school graduates vary.
“I don’t think that Dartmouth has any specific stereotypes about public versus private schools,” Giavanna La Gamba ’21 said. “It hasn’t been an issue for me.”
La Gamba grew up in Austintown, Ohio, and attended Austintown Fitch High School, a public school. According to U.S. News and World Report, Austintown Fitch has an enrollment of about 1,600 students, and about 54 percent of the school’s students received free or reduced-price lunch.
Although La Gamba said she appreciates where she came from, she acknowledged that her educational background did not prepare her as well for Dartmouth as she had hoped.
“I don’t think the school I attended prepared me very well for college,” La Gamba, a first-generation college student, said. “But I think that’s because everyone from my school went on to attend state schools, so a lot of the focus of high school was on preparation for a different kind of school from Dartmouth.”
La Gamba was involved in debate, drama club, choir and the National Honor Society at her high school.
“Academic opportunities were pretty sparse because we only offered two [Advanced Placement] courses,” she said.
Daniel Lee ’18, who was born in South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. when he was a child, grew up in Los Angeles and attended public schools there. He went to the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, a public magnet school for students in grades six to 12 in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Although Lee’s school offered many AP courses and other academic opportunities, he said that budget cuts during the recession of the late 2000s and early 2010s and its subsequent recovery period negatively affected his educational experience.
“Going to a public school in Los Angeles amidst the great recession and its recovery was tough,” Lee said. “LAUSD tried to cut ‘non-essential programs,’ such as supplies and school librarian positions, that, in hindsight, were essential.”
Lee also pointed out that Dartmouth’s socioeconomic environment is different than the atmosphere in which he grew up.
“I think that Dartmouth has been a whole new world for me in terms of where people come from,” he said. “It has always been very surprising to me, even now as a senior.”
“I’m proud of where I came from,” Lee said. “It’s helped me to build the work ethic that I have and continue to stay motivated. I don’t think that my high school prepared me particularly well academically because it’s difficult to get students fully ready for college, but I think that they did the best that they could.”
Abby Bresler ’21 attended Concord Academy, a private, independent boarding and day school in Concord, Massachusetts. Concord Academy has an enrollment of about 400 students in grades nine through 12.
Bresler, who lives in Lexington, Massachusetts and had previously attended public schools in the area, said she loved her high school experience. She believes that Concord Academy has shaped who she has become in a meaningful way.
“I wouldn’t necessarily be who I am if I hadn’t gone there,” Bresler said. “Because Concord is a smaller school than some others, it provided me with many opportunities that I would not have otherwise had. Students and teachers were focused on academic growth, and it had a less competitive environment than the public schools in Lexington.”
At Concord Academy, class sizes were small and students got to know their teachers well, Bresler said. For this reason, Bresler has adjusted to Dartmouth, which is known for its emphasis on undergraduate teaching, more smoothly than she had expected. Although she noted that time management has been a difficult skill for her to learn, Bresler is thankful that she knows how to interact with teachers.
“My school definitely prepared me for going to office hours and meeting with professors at Dartmouth,” she said. “I had positive relationships with my teachers in high school. I’m definitely prepared to ask for help and advocate for myself.”
Delilah Forrest ’21 grew up in the San Diego area and attended San Dieguito Academy, a magnet high school in Encinitas, California.
“Dartmouth has a similar vibe to that of my high school,” Forrest said. “Dartmouth is so accepting of everyone. I feel really comfortable here, and I’m accustomed to this kind of community. People would come into my high school in weird costumes, and, similarly, Dartmouth really embraces ‘flair.’”
Forrest believes that stereotypes exist at Dartmouth about students’ educational backgrounds, but she has not been impacted negatively by them.
“Stereotypes haven’t really contributed to how I see other people or the way that they see me,” she said.
Like Bresler and La Gamba, Forrest is excited to take advantage of all of the opportunities that Dartmouth has to offer. In addition, Forrest hopes to have a more balanced life at Dartmouth than she did in high school.
“High school was a good experience, but I was so focused on studying and achievement in order to get into college that I didn’t really have a social life,” she said. “I’m hoping to have a balanced experience, both academically and socially, here at Dartmouth.”
The Oct. 25, 2017 article "Unequal Footing? Public Versus Private High Schools" was corrected to remove a statement that Lee is a first-generation college student. Lee's parents attended college in South Korea. Lee's remarks were also clarified elsewhere to match the interview record.
If Richard Pryor was the godfather of comedy and Bernie Mac its uncle, then Dave Chappelle is comedy’s first cousin. He was cool when audiences first saw him back in the 1990s, as a 20-something cracking jokes on “Def Comedy Jam.” And as we got older, Chappelle got better. Slapstick humor meshed with racial and social commentary, setting the foundation for the highly successful but short-lived “Chappelle’s Show.” And we liked him. America’s older first cousin matured. Now in his 30s, he taught us more grown-up lessons in his sketches about George W. Bush-era geopolitics with “Black Bush,” and the nuances of America’s racial imaginary in “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong.” Yet he retained the familiarity that made us love him in the first place, with some sketches whose chief aim was goofiness, like “A Moment in the Life of Lil Jon” and various sketches that followed the misadventures of crackhead Tyrone Biggums.
No matter how funny or famous they may be, comics must remember the cardinal theorem of comedy: Not everything is funny to everyone. All of the greats, including Chappelle, learned this first hand. Even after almost 30 years of show business, Chappelle is occasionally heckled. As he recounted in his first slate of Netflix specials, he has had banana peels thrown at him by someone who accused him of being racist. But even though he can’t make everyone laugh all the time, Chappelle was damn good at making most people laugh most of the time.
While it may seem spontaneous, the most memorable sketches on “Chappelle’s Show’ followed a fairly simple formulation. In his ostensibly definitive (but ironically boring) essay “A Theory of Humor,” linguist Thomas Veatch suggests humor is the existence of “a certain psychological state which tends to produce laughter.” A good comic creates scenarios that, according to Veatch, has three main components: normality, weirdness and simultaneity.
Take the “Chappelle’s Show” skit “Clayton Bigsby,” for instance, based on an episode of the PBS news series “Frontline.” Chappelle’s version of “Frontline” followed the story of an anonymous Ku Klux Klan leader who authored several books, cementing himself as the foremost leader of contemporary white supremacy. This was the normality aspect required of Veatch’s theory, insofar as it appears like any other episode of “Frontline.” Only a few minutes into the skit, the weirdness component is revealed. The mysterious Klan leader and bigoted racist, is, in fact, an African-American man. The simultaneous existence of both the normal and weird makes this sketch meet Veatch’s conditions. And because we’re in on the joke, we can’t help but laugh.
And Chappelle continued to make us laugh. But then, in 2005, our older comic cousin left Comedy Central, escaping the pressures and creative differences of Hollywood for a therapeutic retreat to South Africa.
Jump ahead to Christmas Eve 2017. Chappelle now has four Netflix specials and a purportedly $80 million check in his bank account. Our older cousin was back, richer and better looking than ever. Today, we feel that connection we formed with him back in the early 2000s. Chappelle still has “it.” The racial commentary is sharp, witty and more timely than ever. But as Chappelle grew, we grew up also. Our grown-up selves are disappointed to find that some of his views, specifically on sexual harassment and transgender issues, are stuck in the early 2000s where he left us. We’re at the point where our older cousin is not untouchably funny anymore.
It’s fair to say that comedians occupy a sort of bully pulpit, where jokes are no-holds-barred and any offense taken is ignored. So I won’t hold Chappelle, or any comedian, to a standard of nicety. However, it is fair to critique him as a comedian, first and foremost, which means calling him out when his jokes simply fall flat.
That is the case for his last Netflix special, “The Bird Revelation,” a slow-paced race to punchlines that occasionally elicits a muffled chuckle. Take, for instance, his joke about one of the latest Harvey Weinstein-era stars to lose his career over sexual harassment allegations, Louis C.K. Chappelle starts by quoting one of the alleged victims.
“One lady said, ‘Louis C.K. masturbated in front of me, ruined my comedy dreams.’ Word? Well, then I dare say madam, you may have never had a dream,” Chappelle said.
“You think if Louis C.K. jerked off in front of Dr. [Martin Luther King, Jr.,] he’d be like ‘I can’t continue this movement. I’m sorry, but the freedom of black people must be stopped,’” he continued.
Typical of both “The Bird Revelation” and his third special, “Equanimity,” Chappelle turns from attempted joke into a cool-voiced polemic on how black comedians are held to a higher standard of accountability than their peers — seeming to ignore that women in Hollywood are presented with a similar, albeit different, issue.
Even though he says he understands women’s claims of unfairness in show business, Chappelle remains decidedly two-faced, sidestepping any meaningful discussion and instead turning to his signature racial commentary. He gives us lessons on Emmett Till’s tragic death, racial profiling and how Comedy Central swindled him out of a show. In doing so, Chappelle creates a version of oppression Olympics that he presents as harmless truth-telling. And while it may be truth, it’s irresponsible of him to dismiss other oppressed voices in that manner.
If Chappelle is our older first cousin, then he is increasingly becoming that one family member at reunions we can’t decide how to awkwardly avoid. Whenever we talk to him, he is helpless in avoiding discussion about his “Paul Revere” moment, or his claim to fame, that goes something like: “Remember when I did that thing (warning the colonists about the British and ‘Chappelle’s Show’) those years ago that everyone liked me for? Yeah, those were good times.”
Cool, but those times are over. The age has come where comics will have to adapt to the amorphous, post-Weinstein and post-Caitlyn Jenner moment — not necessarily by scrubbing jokes clean, but through jokes that, at their heart, show sympathy and solidarity with women and transgender people. And, crucially, the jokes must still be funny. It’s a hard feat to pull off, and I doubt if Chappelle has any interest in trying. Luckily, however, the comedic family is always adopting.
Stark County residents in Dickinson and Gladstone may have recently received a message from the Stark County Department of Emergency Service asking them to shelter in place or be aware of an ongoing situation. The messages are a part of the county's 911 citizen notification program to inform the public about what to do in various emergency situations.
Bill Fahlsing, emergency manager for the county, said the system has been in place for many years and is used at the discretion of law enforcement or other first responder personnel.
Law enforcement will notify dispatchers to send out a notification to a specific area of town or the county. The message is then sent out to each address within the area. The system is even able to pinpoint a specific address to send the alert out to, Fahlsing said.
People with a landline will receive a call to their phone and those signed up with their cellphone may receive a call and a text message.
People can register their cell phones for the 911 citizen notification program by going to www.starkcountynd.gov/cellphone. All landlines are automatically registered for 911 citizen notifications, Fahlsing said. Stark County citizens are encouraged to enter their cellphones into the database, but it is not mandatory, he said.
P.O. boxes are not valid for the notifications, as they are made based on physical address locations. People can register multiple phone numbers for a single address by filling out the form for each phone number.
"We highly encourage people to subscribe their cellphones so that way if there's an event in your neighborhood and you're not home you still get that notification," Fahlsing said.
He said, to his knowledge, law enforcement has mostly utilized the system, but the system could be used by the fire department or some other agency to give instructions to citizens.
The alerts were recently used during an incident that originated in Dickinson but later moved to the Gladstone area, asking residents in the area north of Gladstone to be on the lookout for a white, middle-aged male on foot possibly attempting to seek shelter. The man was later arrested and charged with multiple offenses. It was also utilized by the Dickinson Police Department during an incident at an apartment building in February.
"It's case by case," he said. "It could be a large case; it could be a small case. It could be a matter of just trying to locate someone, something like 'be on the lookout for this person' in the neighborhood."
Cianni said the ability for dispatch to pinpoint a very specific area to send out the notification to is beneficial to them as well.
"It could be one-half a block or it could be half a mile," he said. "... It's just a tool; there isn't something that says it has to be a certain level of crime or incident. If we feel we have to hit the (citizen notification) and alert the public, then we'll do that."
Cianni said the department does use the alert system often because they do not want the public to become too desensitized to the notifiications.
William Grant & Sons' advocaat brand Warninks has added a new flavour to its range – Warninks White, a vodka liqueur with white chocolate and mint.
The launch campaign will run across off-trade markets throughout November, backed by PR, social media and advertising.
Paul Curry, brand manager for Warninks at William Grant & Sons UK, comments: “The off-trade liqueurs and specialities market is worth almost £500m and accounts for 13.3 per cent of the spirits category. This promising growth comes as consumers become more experimental with flavour profiles, and pre-Christmas, when the core brand [advocaat] sees its sales spike, is an ideal time to launch a new, unique product that will boost sales in the off-trade.
The sleek bottle has been designed to create stand-out on shelf and the product targets a more contemporary audience than the traditional Warninks advocaat. And although the distinct packaging differentiates the new flavour, the values and strong identity of the Warninks brand remains.
Owens-Illinois, the world's largest manufacturer of glass containers, designed and manufactured the bottle.
Patrick Waegemakers, segment manager beer, wine and spirits packaging at O-I Benelux says: “De Kuyper and O-I have a history of cooperation. We have produced new glass packaging for them for decades. In 2013, O-I developed the new bottle for the whole range of De Kuyper liqueurs. Due to the years that we have spent working together, we are thoroughly familiar with the traditions and values of De Kuyper, and can convert those characteristics into glass packaging."
The bottle has a fresh white look and emphasises the specifics and unique character of the product. The use of the red Warninks logo on the top of the bottle, with a silver floral decoration underneath highlights the premium qualities. Its convenience is enhanced by tapering the bottle in the middle. The result is an elegant white bottle that will attract a lot of attention on the shelves due to its unique shape and colour.
Niels Valkenburg, logistics manager at De Kuyper, tells us that the choice of glass as a packaging material was a question of quality as well as sustainability: "A quality product must be supplied in a quality container. Glass has a premium character, and is taste-neutral. It is simply the best container for a quality product like Warninks White, which was developed with passion by our artisans."
During the Chinese New Year break I dropped by the Kelantan Open in time to witness Mas Hafizulhelmi do the absolute minimum and yet win the Kelantan Open with a perfect score, in fact already being uncatchable a round before the end.
In many parts of Malaysia Mas is a big hero and a superstar amongst the local chess community and what more in his home state of Kelantan and not only was he obliged to speak at length at the closing ceremony, but he was constantly being mobbed for autographs.
There was a lot of talent seen but the event was necessarily played using rapid time controls and so the quality was very mixed - flashes of good moves followed by serious errors of judgement and even outright blunders - typical of what can be seen much too often now in local tournaments.
It was however a good turnout at a very well organised tournament - excellent hall, good playing conditions, etc. at Politeknik Kota Bahru - and the arbiters proved committed and were competent and it has been a while since I have seen such a hands-on President of a State Association. Well done PCNK!
I am proud to have put together and conducted a National Arbiters Seminar for the Malaysian Chess Federation concurrently with the National Age Group Championships from 1-3 February 2013 at Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) in Tronoh, Perak.
UTP boasts a wonderful campus, and other than being a little out of the way and having only limited nearby accommodation, it is a brilliant location for the National Age Group Championships, and the seminar room provided for the National Arbiters Seminar lacked nothing too!
This seminar was modeled on the FIDE Arbiter Course, the only difference being that the methodology used was to primarily educate while also training, and as lecturers, we encouraged the sharing of both individual and collective findings and experiences amongst the participants.
We see this seminar as Part 1 of three, the second being a workshop on the Swiss Pairings System and the use of Computers for pairings, and the third, practical training at a National event under the supervision of an International Arbiter, only after which the title of National Arbiter would be awarded and from then on, for those interested, becoming a FIDE Arbiter would not be too difficult a next step!
I was impressed by the enthusiasm of the participants, and I believe many had their eyes opened as to the importance of the Laws of Chess and the challenges of interpretation but who were at the same time also given the processes and techniques to do this well.
On the other major topic, Tournament Regulations, I understood that no amount of time would be enough if the approach included explaining and giving insights and tips on 25 years of successful organising of tournaments of all types and levels but I think a lot of useful help together with tools was imparted.
My special thanks of course goes to International Arbiter KK Chan, my co-lecturer, who spent some of his holidays helping me make the National Arbiters Seminar a big success (I think and hope the participants will agree too that it was a big success!)
Here I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate my three competition ready students at the National Age Group Championships on their success. Roshan Singh for retaining his title, Goh Jie Yi for continuing her unbroken record of victories at this event, and Tan Jun Ying who should not be too disappointed on a very good second place finish.