zoomIllustration; Image Courtesy: Maersk Danish shipping giant Maersk has partnered up with members of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition (DSGC) in the world’s largest maritime biofuel pilot project.Using up to 20% sustainable second-generation biofuels on a large triple-E ocean vessel, the pilot would see the ship sail 25.000 nautical miles from Rotterdam to Shanghai and back on biofuel blends alone, a world’s first at this scale, saving 1,5 million kilograms CO2 and 20.000 kilograms of sulphur. The voyage will take place between March and June 2019.The DSGC members, including FrieslandCampina, Heineken, Philips, DSM, Shell and Unilever, initiated and sponsor the pilot. Shell, acts as the fuel supplier for the pilot, and Maersk plays the role as operating partner.“This pilot testing biofuel on a cross ocean shipping lane, marks an important step. However, many more innovations are urgently needed. These can only be successfully developed, tested and implemented in industry collaborations like this,” Jan Peter Balkenende, Chair of the DSGC, said.“To reach our net zero CO2 target by 2050, in the next 10 years we need big breakthroughs. Maersk cannot do this alone. That is why this collaboration with DSGC and its members is such an important step in identifying and bringing low carbon solutions to life,” Søren Toft, Chief Operating Officer A.P. Moller – Maersk, said.“We welcome others to join in our efforts, as this journey is just beginning,” Toft added.Shipping accounts for 90% of transported goods and 3% of total global CO2-emissions, and is set to rise to 15% by 2050 if left unchecked. The parties explained that the CO2 savings of this journey alone equate to the annual CO2 emitted by over 200 households in a year or 12 million kilometers travelled in an average car. read more
Today, Homes For Our Troops (HFOT), a nonprofit that provides adapted homes for severely injured post-9/11 Veterans, announced its Veterans Day Celebrity campaign lineup.Homes For Our Troops Veterans Day Celebrity AuctionCher, George Clooney, Ben Stiller and Jake Tapper are among the notable celebrities bringing their star power together to support HFOT’s noble cause. Offered through eBay for Charity, bidding for this special online event will go live on November 4, 2017 and close on November 14, 2017 at eBay.com/homesforourtroops. 100% of the proceeds will benefit Homes For Our Troops.The eBay for Charity campaign will give shoppers the opportunity to bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences, luxury items and autographed memorabilia from various movie stars, musicians, and sports figures, while helping the nonprofit’s mission to build adapted homes for injured Veterans.To amplify the reach of this auction, the celebrity participants are harnessing their influential networks by rallying the support of close friends, including other celebrity and entertainment icons, to arrange an extensive assortment of exclusive auction items for this Veterans Day cause.TV star Ellen DeGeneres has donated a pair of autographed sneakers, and Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur, Mark Cuban, has donated pairs of courtside tickets to future Dallas Mavericks games, along with a photo op at center court. Talk show hosts Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert and Seth Myers have all donated tickets, along with Jimmy Kimmel who also threw in a VIP green room experience, show swag, and a chance to drink tequila with Guillermo before the show. Other coveted donation items include: an autographed cast poster from the Broadway smash, Hamilton, donated by Lin-Manuel Miranda; a pair of pink cowboy boots from Cher; a Game of Thrones poster signed by the cast; and a deluxe golf bag autographed by George Clooney. Additional celebrities contributing to the cause include Paul Rudd, Henry Winkler, Owen Wilson, and Whoopi Goldberg.CNN’s Jake Tapper has been an ardent supporter of the Massachusetts based nonprofit for over three years, raising funds on its behalf through the network’s Presidents Day Quiz Show. In 2016, Tapper partnered with comic strip, “Dilbert,” and acted as guest artist for a series of daily comics. The originals were sold on eBay for Charity and the proceeds benefitted Homes For Our Troops.“We have a tremendous opportunity with this auction to advance our capacity to build homes and rebuild lives,” said Tom Landwermeyer, HFOT President and CEO. “Jake and his celebrity team along with the generous bidders will enable HFOT to get more deserving post 9/11 Veterans into the custom specially adapted homes they need.”“Everyone who has witnessed an injured Veteran receiving the keys to an adapted home from HFOT, has seen the impact these special adaptations make in their daily lives,” says Tapper. “I’m honored to be involved with HFOT’s commitment to further America’s promise to take care of its Veterans, and I’m proud to bring attention to its reputation as one of the most effective Veteran and military charities out there.”“With the Homes For Our Troops eBay for Charity campaign, our eBay community will be able to support our Veterans by helping to raise funds and awareness for this worthy cause,” said Chris Librie, eBay’s Senior Director of Global Impact. “At eBay, we’re committed to connecting our community to the causes and charities they care about, while also being able to shop for new and exciting inventory and experiences. Through this campaign, we’re proud to offer an exciting breadth of items for auction, while also giving 100% of the proceeds to Homes For Our Troops.”For more information about Veterans Day Celebrity Auction, please contact eBay.com/homesforourtroops For more information about HFOT, please visit www.hfotusa.org. read more
The Canadian Press TORONTO — Spin Master Corp. has settled its lawsuit against Chinese company Alpha Group Co. Ltd. over its Bakugan toys in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.The Canadian toymaker had alleged the magnetic transformation feature in Alpha Group’s Screechers Wild! toys infringed on its patents covering its Bakugan toys.Under terms of the deal, Alpha Group has agreed to stop selling its Screechers Wild! toys in the three countries at the end of the month.Spin Master’s Bakugan toys were launched in 2007 in conjunction with a Japanese-Canadian anime series called Bakugan Battle Brawlers.The company still has outstanding lawsuits filed against Mattel in Canada, the United States and Mexico.They allege Mattel’s Mecard toys infringe on patents related to the Bakugan toys. Companies in this story: (TSX:TOY) read more
By Khaled DriouchTinghir, Morocco – “We believe that Morocco is a country for all young people, north … Deep South, east and west. We are all together here today to say that we are all young for one and only one Morocco” with these words, Ismail Hamraoui, president of the Youth Parallel Moroccan Government opened the ceremony.Faithful to its objectives which revolve around continuous engagement and promotion of youth role, skills and competencies in society; the Moroccan youth Forum organized a three-day Training workshop on December 7th, 8th and 9th, 2013 at Dar Attalib, Agdal in Rabat in collaboration with the Moroccan Youth Voice , Anna Lindh Foundation, British council, European Union and others. “We believe that engaging youth in all aspects of social life will lead to a better understanding. For this reason, we set up the Moroccan Youth Forum to work hard towards a better society that involves all Moroccan youth in a well-organized, influential, and collaborative body. Our responsibility is shared no matter what our beliefs, origins, and thoughts are. We all have one goal: to encourage youth to take part actively in a better sustainable development towards a better future for our country and the world as well,” said Abella Ibourk, Project Manager of the Moroccan Youth Forum board.The event was held as a platform for 30 participants from 15 Moroccan cities to meet, discuss and share inspiring experiences as well as learn new techniques and practical strategies that can be applied within their environment to help the voices of young Moroccans to be heard.The uniqueness of this initiative is that it offers a new opportunity and environment in whcih Moroccan youth can feel free to express their opinions, attitudes, agreement and disagreement on issues of concern in the social, economic and political environment around them, whether national or international, without any constraints and where freedom of expression is guaranteed.The idea is to encourage Moroccan youth to take part in professional debates where they speak in public, and stand up for or against a cause at the top of their agenda. The debate allows them to express their views and arguments in front of a public in an effort to convince their counterparts as well as the audience of their position, all in a friendly atmosphere.“Being part of the National program promoting youth skills in Debate and Advocacy makes us committed participants to teach and to share what we’ve learnt with our cities’ youth so that we can be FJM’s ambassadors for change in our own regions for a better future for our country,” Khaoula Erraoui, a University Student and freelance fashion designer participant from Agadir said.The participants expressed satisfaction with the quality and depth of the workshops and presentations conducted by Mr. Brahim Benrais office director of the MYF. They seemed excited and enthusiastic to start a new debate as soon as they got back to their cities. “We are ready to share what we have learnt and put into practice the activities and skills we have acquired because we know that young people in our region need this kind of event and would enjoy it the same way we did,” Annas Eljaziz, a sports teacher participant from Boumalen Dades said.The training sessions closed with an expression of warm support from the Allchaabab Parallel Moroccan Government members in the presence of Mr. Ismail Elhamraoui who is the prime minister of the youth Government. Farouk Zine, health minister in the youth Government, as well as others who insisted on attending the three-day long event, personally encouraged all youngsters to believe in what they want and go for it while working together for a better future for all Moroccans.© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed read more
Rabat – The Algerian government needs to implement further economic reforms to deal with the budgetary effects of two years of low oil prices, according to Jean Francois Dauphin, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).After meeting with Algerian Minister of Industry and Mines Abdessalem Bouchouareb earlier this week, Dauphin recommended that the government shrink public expenditures and “reform the current economic model” by strengthening the role of the public sector.A 2014 report by the IMF on the Algerian economy shows the North African government employs 113 people per 1,000 citizens – a figure far higher than the international average of 70 per 1,000. Reducing the number of government jobs to the international average would bring national spending on employment down from 11.5 percent of GDP to 7.1 percent. In its current state, the private sector is not strong enough to hire the fresh batch of unemployed Algerians if the nation cut jobs as severely as recommended.The two-year oil price crisis has severely affected Algeria’s national budget because oil and gas revenues account for two-thirds of government revenues. The country has been on the forefront of urging the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut back production, forcing the market to correct the current oversupply and causing prices to jump upwards.However, instead of reducing output, the industry cartel has been ramping up activity ahead of a production freeze that should be finalized at the end of November, during the OPEC summit in Vienna.Algeria itself exported an all-time high volume of crude oil last month, which means the country has increased production by eight percent over the past year. read more
A new UN partnership that will empower young leaders in the Global South to become agents of change was launched Tuesday during the Global South-South Development Expo 2017 in Antalya, Turkey. The initiative, known as ‘Scaling Up Southern Solutions for Sustainable Development Through Advanced Youth Leadership’ – or by the shorthand, ‘Youth for the South’ – will focus on tailor-made on-site learning and leadership development programmes. “Youth are not only on the receiving side when we speak about contributing to the Sustainable Development Agenda. With just a little helping hand, they can yield some beautiful results; they are proactive, they are innovative, they are full of energy,” underscored Edem Bakhshish, Chief, Regional Division for Arab States, Europe and the CIS, of the Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), during the presentation of the partnership. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Financial Center for South-South Cooperation, the Union for the Mediterranean and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) are among the initial funding partners of Youth for the South. Through the programme, young leaders will learn to identify and adapt successful solutions in their areas of interest, as well as will receive hands-on training to bring transformational change to their own communities and countries. “This initiative is going to help young people for two fundamental reasons: first, it is going to bring young people to the table – it is very important that young people’s voice is heard in a national, regional and local level. Secondly, it will, at a personal level, really strengthen young people’s leadership by providing them with the skills and opportunities to build their own personal leadership,” Alanna Armitage, the UNFPA Regional Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, told UN News.VIDEO: Alanna Armitage, highlights the goal of new initiative, which was launched during the Global South-South Development Expo 2017. Initially, around 30 to 60 young leaders from six developing countries, chosen by their proven capabilities and strong potential to make a difference in their communities, will take part in an intensive programme that will consist of interactive sessions, on-site and on-the-job training, and distance learning. The participants will travel to other Southern nations to learn about specific areas of interest related to sustainable development, including agriculture and rural development, social protection, sustainable energy and youth employment. The programme will be overseen by a steering committee comprised of representatives of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, founding partners, and participating UN agencies. “People from Africa, Asia, America and Australia came here for the youth, and it is very important and powerful. I am very happy to be here. Youth is a very important moment in a person’s life. If we give [young people] everything they need, they will do everything for humanity,” stressed Ahmed Malla, a young Syrian refugee living in Turkey, who now volunteers for UNFPA. UNOSSC emphasized that with some 85 per cent of the world’s youth now residing in the Global South, it is fundamental to establish new partnerships and support young leaders. The Office urged strong support for the Youth for the South initiative by the international community and potential partners at the Expo. read more
PITTSBURGH — The Pirates avoided arbitration with reliever Michael Feliz, reaching an agreement on Friday on an $850,000, one-year contract.Feliz went 1-2 with a 5.33 ERA in 47 appearances for the Pirates in 2018 after being part of the trade that sent pitcher Gerrit Cole to Houston.Pittsburgh offered contracts to left fielder Corey Dickerson and reliever Keone Kela.Dickerson is likely due a significant raise over the $5.95 million he made this year. Dickerson hit .300 with 13 home runs and 55 RBIs and earned the first Gold Glove of his career after being obtained from Tampa Bay on the eve of the regular season.Pittsburgh acquired Kela at the trade deadline in July. He went 3-4 with a 3.29 ERA in 54 appearances for Texas and Pittsburgh, earning $1.2 million. The Pirates ended his season early September as a precaution due to his workload. Kela’s 52 innings were his most since 60 1/3 as a rookie in 2015.___More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsThe Associated Press read more
Memphis Grizzlies vice president of basketball operations and team programs, Dana Davis, was found dead in his apartment, shocking an organization that relied on his acumen and infectious personality.Memphis Police were asked by team personnel to enter Davis’ Downtown apartment when he didn’t show up for work Wednesday. The cause of death is unknown. Foul play is not suspected.Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley was particularly shaken by the news. He and Davis, 56, known affectionately as “Double-D,” were close.“He was the most charitable human being I ever met in my life,” Heisley said. “I can’t handle it. It tears me up. He was almost like a son to me. I give millions of dollars to charity but he gave his life to it. When he wasn’t working for the Grizzlies, that’s all he thought about.”Davis was an only child to a white mother, Shirley Jean, and an African-American father, William “Mecie,” who was a musician. Davis recently became a member of the National Civil Rights Museum’s board of directors. Davis began as the Grizzlies’ traveling business manager but he evolved into a person responsible for more than just organizing plane rides, booking hotels and handing out per diem. He was described as part community activist, part fundraiser and part politician who had a knack for galvanizing people, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.Davis jokingly called himself “head flunky” and a “professional beggar.”“He was simply the heart and soul of the organization,” Fred Jones, founder of the Southern Heritage Classic told the Commercial Appeal. “He’s touched people in ways that have people calling from everywhere.”National Civil Rights Museum president Beverly Robertson added to the newspaper: “He came in with great enthusiasm. It would not be strange for me to get a call on a Saturday at 4 p.m. because he wanted me to talk to someone famous about the museum. He had the mission of this place at heart. I can’t tell you what a loss it will be to the museum. In many ways, he accepted Memphis as his new home.”Davis, from Peoria, Ill., once worked for eight years as business and tour manager for funk legend Bootsy Collins in the 1980s.“He was a man’s man. He was a champion,” said Willie Gregory, a close friend and the director of community/business investment for NIKE. “He was the face of the Grizzlies in Memphis. Whatever you needed done he would get it done. He got joy in helping people.”“He was a big part of this organization for a number of years,” coach Lionel Hollins said. “A lot of people depended on him. He enjoyed taking care of the players. It’s a big-time loss for our organization and a big-time loss for people who were close to him. He was a good, loyal friend. He meant a lot to a lot of people. We’re going to miss him.” read more
TWO PALESTINIANS HAVE been killed by Israeli fire, Gaza medical sources said, after four soldiers were wounded in an apparent bomb attack on the border with the Palestinian enclave.The explosion and ensuing Israeli airstrikes marked one of the most serious escalations in the Hamas-ruled enclave since the Islamist movement and Israel fought a war in 2014.Israel’s army said it attacked “18 terror targets belonging to the Hamas terror organisation” in two waves of air strikes following the blast.“Eight targets were attacked in a military compound near Deir el Balah, which belongs to the Hamas terror organisation, including weapon-manufacturing and training infrastructures,” it said in a statement.It earlier said fighter jets had targeted “six military targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas, including a terror tunnel in the Zaytun area and military compounds near Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis”.The army also reported that a “launch was identified from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory”, with a projectile hitting near a home in a southern Israeli community.An Israeli police spokesman said the projectile had damaged a building but caused no injuries.The two Palestinian fatalities were identified by the Gaza health ministry as Salam Sabah and Abdullah Abu Sheikha, both aged 17, who were killed east of Rafah in southern Gaza.According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, they were shot by Israeli forces near the border on yesterday.The Israeli army said that its forces had fired “warning shots” at a number of Palestinians approaching the border fence “in a suspicious manner”.Speaking at a security conference in Munich last night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called the Gaza border incident “very serious” and pledged to “respond appropriately”.A Palestinian security source said the Israeli air strikes hit three bases belonging to Hamas in the east of the blockaded Gaza enclave.Two Palestinians were injured in the raids, Palestinian medical sources said.Earlier in the day, the army said “two soldiers were severely wounded, one moderately and one slightly” when an improvised explosive device blew up along the border fence with Gaza.None of the soldiers’ lives were in danger, a spokesman said.Palestinian security sources said the explosion took place east of the city of Khan Yunis.In response Israeli forces said a tank promptly opened fire at an “observation post” in southern Gaza, causing no injuries on the Palestinian side.‘Rogue group’Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said a “rogue group” had claimed responsibility for the bomb blast, likely indicating one of the more radical Islamist groups who are present in Gaza.But he insisted that “from our point of view Hamas is responsible” and said the explosive had been planted during a protest arranged by the group on Friday.Israel holds the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas responsible for any fire from the blockaded coastal enclave.The Israeli army responds automatically to any strikes on its territory, generally targeting Hamas facilities.Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had fired at Israeli jets overhead. Conricus denied the claim.Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, and the last conflict in 2014 was waged in part over tunnels from Gaza that were used to launch attacks.Israeli aircraft hit Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip repeatedly in early February, saying Palestinians there had fired a rocket into its territory.Tensions between the Palestinians and Israel have been high since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state in December.Netanyahu will visit the White House next month, a senior US administration official told AFP on Friday.The 5 March visit comes as Netanyahu faces a scandal that has seen police recommend he be indicted for graft.© – AFP, 2018Read: Israeli police recommend charging Prime Minister Netanyahu with bribery and corruptionMore: Journalists ordered to leave courtroom in trial of Palestinian teenager accused of hitting two Israeli soldiers Two Palestinian teenagers killed by Israeli fire, medics say Four soldiers were also wounded in an apparent bomb attack on the border. http://jrnl.ie/3858445 6,272 Views The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city Share38 Tweet Email The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city Image: Mahmoud Issa via PA Images Short URL Image: Mahmoud Issa via PA Images Feb 18th 2018, 12:00 PM By AFP Tweet thisShare on FacebookEmail this article Sunday 18 Feb 2018, 12:00 PM 43 Comments read more
Catching shoplifters stealing lollies from her parents’ milkbar and attacking them with a broom, at age three, was Angela Vithoulkas’ introduction into the world of business. My generation of European or migrant children sometimes went into family business because they just didn’t know what else to do, but my brother and I actually wanted to do food.“I come from typical Greek parents who have always had their own businesses; my mother went into labour with me while she was making coffee for a customer,” Vithoulkas laughs. At nine years of age Vithoulkas would come home from school every afternoon and make 450 perfectly formed potato scallops, but it never put her off the hospitality industry. “Many people take over family businesses. My generation of European or migrant children sometimes went into family business because they just didn’t know what else to do, but my brother and I actually wanted to do food. It’s an unusual occurrence but a very happy privilege that I get to do what I love,” Vithoulkas says. The Sydneysider left school at age 17. “I never finished school. I was in a big hurry to get started on what appeared to be a big wide world,” she says. Her father offered her an apprenticeship in his restaurant as long as the kitchen staff didn’t know she was his daughter. “I spent a two year apprenticeship in a kitchen under the world’s worst chef, who treated me like a slave because I could fit in the ovens to clean them out because I was little,” she says. After two years Vithoulkas’ father said she was ready to claim her place and the first thing she did was sack the chef. Today Vithoulkas and her brother Con, run Vivo Cafe Group. “We’ve been in actual partnership for 26 years and we still talk!” Vithoulkas jokes. This comes down to common interests and a grounding in business. “Even though my parents are from a very different business era, fundamentally a lot of things in business haven’t changed, there’s still the core business values that have not altered via twitter, facebook, the internet, etc.,” Vithoulkas says. Customer service is still the key. “Retail or food are hands on; I can’t deliver food via the Internet,” she says. Being committed and driven is essential to succeed in hospitality, Vithoulkas says. “We live on deadlines made up of seconds and minutes. We don’t mass produce a vase out of a mould from a machine in a factory; every piece of toast and every piece of grilled salmon and every coffee has to be perfect and I defy any other industry to live up to that kind of standard,” she says. “I love and adore food and coffee, and it’s not something I do part-time, it’s not something that I delegate; I know what my customer wants. Many people have their bookshelves filled with crime fiction, mine are filled with cookbooks.” Competing against the 469 cafes in Sydney’s CBD, Vithoulkas says no other industry has the same kind of competition, “not even hairdressers”. “I don’t make a product that you can’t buy virtually anywhere else. The competition for what I offer is intense; you walk a few feet and there’s another cafe so you can’t just be better, you have to be excellent and that shows,” she says. Vithoulkas says cafes will always be the “poorer cousin” of fine dining restaurants, yet cafes serve ten times the volume of restaurants, and serve the same people two or three times a day, getting them to come back time after time. “They look down on us because we do vegemite toast but try doing it every day to thousands of people,” Vithoulkas says. Regardless, Vithoulkas loves her job. “I’m as excited today about the industry and the product as I was 26 years ago,” she says. Facebook Twitter: @NeosKosmos Instagram read more
La Coupe du monde de rugby placée sous le signe du développement durableEn septembre et octobre 2011, se tiendra dans diverses villes de Nouvelle-Zélande la Coupe du monde de rugby. A la qualité des infrastructures qui accueilleront l’événement, le ministère de l’Ecologie du pays tient à allier la notion de respect de l’environnement. Plusieurs actions sont ainsi prévues pour faire de cette Coupe du monde un modèle d’eco-responsabilité.Comme le souligne le comité d’organisation de cet important événement sportif, la politique environnementale mise en place a pour ambition de “ne laisser qu’une empreinte positive sur la Terre”. Dans ce but, a notamment été développée, et ce depuis 2007, la campagne “Love NZ – Recycle with care”. Il s’agit d’un plan de recyclage des déchets doté d’un budget de quelque 4,6 millions de dollars néo-zélandais, soit 2,5 millions d’euros environ.À lire aussiLa fusion nucléaire pourrait bien devenir prochainement une réalitéPlus de 600 points de recyclage prendront place dans les principaux lieux publics et les zones touristiques des douze villes qui accueilleront les matches de la Coupe du monde de rugby, telles que Auckland, Wellington ou Dunedin. A Kaikoura, ville située au sud du pays, les premiers points ont déjà été installés pour permettre aux spectateurs venus du monde entier de recycler verre, plastique, canettes, et autres déchets.Ce plan n’est pas la seule action éco-responsable initiée par le gouvernement néo-zélandais pour minimiser l’empreinte environnementale de l’événement. Peut aussi être citée la façon dont a été redéveloppé le célèbre et mythique stade Eden Park. Suite à la démolition de l’ancienne enceinte, 70% des matériaux de construction ont été recyclés ou réutilisés. En outre, grâce au recyclage des eaux usées et au filtrage des eaux de pluie, la consommation d’eau potable du stade devrait être réduite de moitié.De tels plans d’économie d’énergie ont été mis en place dans les autres stades qui accueilleront la compétition. C’est notamment le cas de ceux de Taranaki et de Christchurch.Le 17 novembre 2010 à 12:29 • Emmanuel Perrin read more
Smartwatches haven’t really hit their stride just yet, largely because most try to do too much with too little. But Martian’s Notifier Smartwatch keeps things simple. For $30 (76% off retail) you get an excellent time piece that syncs with hundreds of apps to give you only what you need. You can also use it to set alarms, check the weather, call your phone if its missing and set-up customized vibration alerts.Purchase today from StackSocial for $29.99. Hurry before they run out!View as: One Page Slides1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Note: Terms and conditions apply. See the StackSocial site for more information.Our commerce group sources the best deals and products for the Geek Deals posts. We operate independently of Editorial and Advertising and may earn a percentage of the sale, if you buy something via a link on the post. If you are interested in promoting your deals, please contact us at commerce@ziffdavis.com.For more great deals, head over to TechBargains. read more
The La Center City Council unanimously adopted a $6.7 million 2011 budget Wednesday night.The budget includes a 1 percent increase in property taxes. The council will consider increasing sewer fees by $4 per month in February.In his budget message, Mayor Jim Irish said the city’s revenue picture is subdued as the prospect for economic recovery in 2011 remains uncertain. At the same time, a number of the city’s costs, such as health care and utilities, are going up, he said.“This budget has been developed with due consideration of the current recession that has gripped our nation and trickled down to our small city,” Irish said.The city has trimmed expenses in all areas except salary and benefits, which are tied to contracts, Finance Director Suzanne Levis said.The 2011 budget is considerably smaller than the city’s $18.1 million 2010 budget. The difference is largely due to the $9 million budgeted in 2010 to complete the wastewater treatment plant expansion. The facility now has the capacity to meet residents’ needs through 2017.The city’s general fund for 2011 is about $4 million. The budget includes $40,000 to widen and resurface paths at Holley Park and to resurface the paths along Heritage Trail and SouthView Wetlands Park.The budget also includes $400,000 to tackle the city’s top transportation improvement project: the Fifth Street and Aspen Avenue realignment. The project will align East Fifth Street with West Fifth Street at Aspen Avenue and is expected to improve visibility and safety. read more
Jen Ortiz was hired as a senior editor for Marie Claire. Ortiz had served as an editorial associate for GQ. Shruti Ganguly was appointed vice president of television and video for Nylon. She’d served as a video producer for Condé Nast Entertainment most recently. Kurt Soller was promoted to editor of Bloomberg Businessweek’s Etc. section. He’d been deputy editor of the section previously. Amelia Lester was promoted to executive editor of NewYorker.com. She’d been with the brand since 2006, but was previously with the magazine. Popular Mechanics has named Michael Wilson its design director. Wilson had been working in the same role at Philadelphia since 2013. Time has named Meredith Long its publisher. Long had been leading the magazine’s sales team since late-2014. The Texas Observer has hired Joe Cutbirth as its editor. Cutbirth had directed the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the journalism program for Manhattan College. Joey Bartolomeo was named executive editor for Seventeen. She’d been the entertainment and features editor at Self since 2013. read more
Comments Best Super Bowl 2019 commercials ranked: Harrison Ford, The Dude, the Backstreet Boys and more Avengers, Captain Marvel, Twilight Zone: All the must-see Super Bowl 2019 trailers Super Bowl 2019: New Avengers: Endgame trailer shows heroes at their best Super Bowl 2019 commercials: Watch them all here Super Bowl 2019 memes: Game of Thrones, SpongeBob, Adam Levine’s nipples SpongeBob SquarePants barely shows up at Super Bowl 2019 halftime show See all of our Super Bowl coverage 3 May 7 • 2020 Toyota Supra first drive review: More reset than reboot Tags More Super Bowl reading • Captain Marvel Super Bowl trailer shows the boys how it’s done Super Bowl 2019 In the upcoming movie, Captain Marvel will get in the middle of a fight between two alien races — the Kree and the shape-shifting Skrulls. But how that will tie into her role in Avengers: Endgame is yet to be revealed. The new trailer also has more footage of Samuel L. Jackson as pre-eyepatch Nick Fury, and Jude Law as Walter Lawson/Mar-Vell.Read more about plot theories and her comic book background in our guide to all things Captain Marvel.Captain Marvel comes out in theaters in the US and UK on March 8 (International Women’s Day), and March 7 in Australia. Women of Marvel Captain Marvel Marvel Feb 28 • Last chance to get 3 months of Mint Mobile service for $20 Share your voice Aug 14 • Raising the entry-level bar Super Bowl 2019 “Higher. Further. Faster.”Man, that was a trailer and a half.In upcoming film Captain Marvel, Brie Larson takes flight as Air Force officer Carol Danvers, who’s destined to become one of the most important superheroes in Marvel comics. In a new Captain Marvel movie spot posted by Marvel Studios during Sunday’s Super Bowl, we see Larson as the pilot Danvers and then as superhero Captain Marvel. 2019 movies to geek out over TV and Movies Feb 7 • Every Avengers: Endgame character flash at the start of that Super Bowl trailer See All 77 Photos • read more
Here, the engineers have first theoretically determined the general conditions to control and mold the transmitted light at will, ensuring at the same time zero reflections and large efficiency. Then, the researchers designed and simulated thin, patterned metasurfaces, realizing meta-transmitarrays that can control light with unprecedented efficiency over subwavelength distances. Each array consists of a symmetric stack of three ultrathin metasurfaces made of building blocks containing two alternating materials: silicon and aluminum-doped zinc oxide. By locally controlling the filling ratio of these two materials in the building blocks, the researchers could design meta-transmitarrays with a wide range of phase patterns. When these patterns are imprinted on the impinging light wave, they can manipulate the wave in one of many ways, such as by bending, focusing, or collimation. (Phys.org) —The ability to guide, bend and focus light at the nanoscale is a highly sought-after goal in the field of nano-optics. Precise and efficient light control has direct applications in solar cells, holography, nanoscale signal processing, CMOS cameras, and many other areas. In a recent study, a team of engineers has proposed a new technique for controlling light at deeply subwavelength scales using a thin stack of patterned surfaces that the engineers call a “meta-transmitarray.” The underlying physics of the new concept is very different from any conventional lens and offers greatly improved efficiency and flexibility for manipulating light transmission at the nanoscale. The researchers, Francesco Monticone, Nasim Mohammadi Estakhri, and Assistant Professor Andrea Alù at The University of Texas at Austin, have published their paper on the meta-transmit-array concept in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, and their work has been selected as an “Editor’s suggestion.”On large scales, light can be controlled in a fairly straightforward way by using conventional dielectric lenses. But since a dielectric lens’ properties are dependent on its thickness, these lenses are generally too thick to work well for controlling light at subwavelength scales, preventing their integration into nanophotonic and optoelectronic systems. At radio frequencies, one alternative to dielectric lenses for achieving subwavelength wave control is represented by transmitarrays, which are made of ultrathin sheets called frequency selective surfaces. These surfaces can be locally modeled with circuit concepts, and can shift the phase of incoming waves at will when combined in transmitarrays. So far, transmitarrays have been demonstrated only at radio frequencies.In the new study, the researchers have integrated the concepts of transmitarrays and metamaterials, or more precisely, metasurfaces, which are the two-dimensional version of metamaterials. While bulk metamaterials are intriguing for their exotic, engineered properties that are not found in nature, they are difficult to fabricate. On the other hand, metasurfaces are planarized versions of metamaterials, with equally intriguing properties, but much easier to fabricate. Previous research has suggested that metasurfaces may be used as planar lenses to extend the concept of frequency selective surfaces beyond radio frequencies to optical frequencies, but the proposed designs had limited efficiency and applicability. This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. © 2013 Phys.org. All rights reserved. More information: Francesco Monticone, et al. “Full Control of Nanoscale Optical Transmission with a Composite Metascreen.” PRL 110, 203903 (2013). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.203903 Explore further (a) (Left) A basic building block of the metasurface made of silicon and aluminum-doped zinc oxide, and (right) a meta-transmitarray made of three stacked metasurfaces. (b) Graph showing the degrees of freedom necessary to independently control the phase of the transmission coefficient while minimizing reflection. (c) Amplitude and (d) phase of the transmission coefficient variation, with the eight circles in (d) indicating eight different configurations used to cover almost 360° of phase shift. Credit: Monticone, et al. American Physical Society ©2013 Citation: Meta-transmitarray offers unprecedented control of light on subwavelength scales (2013, May 30) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2013-05-meta-transmitarray-unprecedented-subwavelength-scales.html Light propagation through the meta-transmitarray for the eight designs identified in part (d) of the figure above. The phase of the transmitted wave can be shifted from 0 to 360°. Credit: Monticone, et al. American Physical Society ©2013 Journal information: Physical Review Letters ‘Metasurfaces’ to usher in new optical technologies “Recent works have proposed metasurfaces to manipulate wave refraction at the nanoscale,” Alù told Phys.org. “First, we proved that designs based on a single surface are inherently limited in efficiency. We then proposed a realistic solution to the problem, showing that with a subwavelength stack of three metasurfaces it is possible to fully control light transmission in amplitude and phase at the nanoscale, with large efficiency and zero reflections. The paradigm we put forward is general, and can be applied to many possibilities for manipulating light, with the important further advantages of being based on CMOS-compatible materials and relative ease of fabrication.”The proposed device also provides good flexibility since its features can be tailored by modifying point-by-point the ratio of the building block materials. The researchers think that these advantages will contribute to making meta-transmitarrays an attractive way to manipulate nanoscale optical transmission for a variety of applications.”There are many applications out there that can greatly benefit from our findings,” Alù said. “The meta-transmitarray idea can have an impact in the many practical scenarios that require an efficient manipulation of the transmitted light with subwavelength resolution and within a planarized, integrated technology. Some relevant examples are holography, photovoltaics, optical tweezers, and imaging. Imagine if we could integrate one of these meta-transmitarrays on top of the CCD of a pocket camera to manipulate the impinging signal pixel by pixel. In addition, our concepts may open and foster new research areas, such as processing optical signals at the nanoscale with subwavelength resolution.”In the future, the researchers plan to work on further bringing these concepts to life.”We are working full force on seeing how we can bring this concept forward, and in what deep ways we can manipulate the optical signals over subwavelength scales using these concepts,” Alù said. “We are also working toward the experimental realization of some of these and related concepts for nanophotonic metamaterials.” read more
Ten Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Thought Leaders from India’s corporate houses and institutions were felicitated for the first time in India at an event called Coffee For Cause: Conversations around CSR on Saturday.While there are many award platforms for corporate groups, there has been none to recognize efforts of individuals who have dedicated their careers to the CSR domain. Keeping this in view, CauseBecause, a social enterprise focused on sustainability, conceptualized and organized Coffee For Cause. Also Read – ‘Playing Jojo was emotionally exhausting’The leaders were felicitated for their distinguished service in the responsibility and sustainability domain. The felicitations were done by the member secretary of Central Zoo Authority, Ministry of Environment and Forests, BS Bonal. The chairperson of The Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development at Aditya Birla Management, Rajashree Birla congratulated the ten Thought Leaders and appreciated the efforts of Team CauseBecause in seeing this unique event through. Also Read – Leslie doing new comedy special with NetflixSome of the Thought Leaders who were felicitated included felicitated Pragnya Ram, Group executive president – corporate communications and CSR, Aditya Birla Group, Lt Gen. Rajender Singh, chief executive officer, DLF Foundation, Brigadier Rajiv Williams, corporate head, CSR, Jindal Stainless Limited, Vikas Goswami, group head – community relations, Vedanta Resources Plc, Madhu Singh Sirohi, country head, Vodafone Foundation, and Sushama Oza, chief executive officer, Adani Foundation. The event also witnessed leaders from over 40 NGOs presenting on stage their social programmes to these Thought Leaders. The presentations by the NGOs were made in a unique format wherein they had three minutes each to talk about their project, its scalability prospects as well as their expectations from the corporate groups. Founded in 2009 in Delhi, CauseBecause is a WriteDestiny Media initiative that brings together information and discussion on activities, initiatives and solutions in the causes, development and sustainability domain. It is a medium to facilitate communication and networking in this domain among the stakeholders of society. read more
News | PET-CT | June 19, 2019 United Imaging Announces First U.S. Clinical Install of uMI 550 Digital PET/CT United Imaging announced the first U.S. clinical installation of the uMI 550 Digital positron emission tomography/… read more Much of nuclear imaging depends on a steady supply of an isotope called molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). A byproduct of nuclear fission, Mo-99 is used to produce another radioactive substance, technetium-99m, which is employed in more than 16 million nuclear imaging procedures every year in the United States alone. These include everything from sentinel node biopsies in cancer surgery to bone scans and cardiac stress tests.Unfortunately, the supply of Mo-99 and other radioisotopes has been unreliable at best. All of the Mo-99 used in the United States is imported, with the main source being the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor at Chalk River, Ontario, Canada. A shutdown for repairs in May 2009 contributed to a global radioisotope shortage. While the reactor has been back in operation since August 2010, it is scheduled for closure in 2015.The shortage showcases a critical gap in the supply chain. Although the United States has many domestic reactors that could produce the radioisotopes, they do not have the necessary processing facilities or the capacity to take time away from other projects to produce Mo-99. As a result, new production strategies are desperately needed. For some procedures, there’s simply no alternative, and without a reliable domestic supply of isotopes, nuclear medicine would severely limit doctors’ ability to diagnose and treat many diseases.Already, some clinicians have switched to using thallium-201, which is still commonly produced and used in heart stress studies. Additionally, physicians are finding it harder to get their hands on iodine-131, another radioisotope that is used to treat thyroid cancer, Graves’ disease and hyperthyroidism. Alternatives for many procedures exist, including computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, using radioisotopes not made in nuclear reactors, but these have drawbacks ranging from increased cost and greater radiation burden to lower image quality. Related Content News | Radiopharmaceuticals and Tracers | July 26, 2019 NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes Awarded $30 Million by U.S. Department of Energy NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC has been awarded $15 million in a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of… read more News | Radiopharmaceuticals and Tracers | August 02, 2019 ASRT Supports Radiopharmaceutical Reimbursement Bill The American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) announced its support for House Resolution (HR) 3772, a measure… read more News | Computed Tomography (CT) | June 17, 2019 International Working Group Releases New Multiple Myeloma Imaging Guidelines An International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) has developed the first set of new recommendations in 10 years for… read more Technology | Information Technology | June 20, 2019 DOSIsoft Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance for Planet Onco Dose Software DOSIsoft announced it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market Planet… read more Figure 1. A high-fidelity 3-D tractography of the left ventricle heart muscle fibers of a mouse from Amsterdam Ph.D. researcher Gustav Strijkers. Feature | March 15, 2011 | Jim Katzaroff Producing Medical Isotopes in the U.S.: A Worthy Goal for the Biotech Industry News | Radiopharmaceuticals and Tracers | July 01, 2019 Bracco Imaging Acquires Blue Earth Diagnostics Bracco Imaging S.p.A. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Blue Earth Diagnostics, a molecular imaging company… read more News | Interventional Radiology | July 31, 2019 International Multidisciplinary Group Publishes Recommendations for Personalized HCC Treatment With Y90 TheraSphere New consensus recommendations for personalized treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with BTG’s TheraSphere have… read more News | Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) | June 07, 2019 Amsterdam University Medical Center Wins MR Solutions’ Image of the Year Award The Amsterdam University Medical Center has won MR Solutions’ Image of the Year 2019 award for the best molecular… read more New Tracers, New SourcesIn response to this ongoing crisis, strategies are being formulated to increase radioisotope production in the United States. These plans include developing a way to produce Mo-99 and other radioisotopes not with a nuclear reactor, but rather with newly designed compact systems. Currently these strategies are in the planning stages, including at Kennewick, Washington-based Advanced Medical Isotope Corp. Should such plans work out, it may be possible to produce a wider variety of radioisotopes in addition to Mo-99, each with its own specific medical application.One such radioisotope worth producing in greater amounts within the United States is actinium-225, whose daughter bismuth-213 is used for advanced research in therapy of leukemia and other cancers and also holds promise for treating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Additionally useful in cancer diagnosis and staging is carbon-11, which has been employed as a radiotracer in PET scans to study both normal and abnormal brain functions related to various drug addictions. It is also used to evaluate diseases such as Alzheimer’s. This past February, a research paper in the journal Archives of Neurology reported the use of carbon-11 PET scans to detect in vivo fibrillar beta amyloid in older adults.Further tools in the radioisotope toolbox include cobalt-57, which is used for gamma camera calibration, as a radiotracer in research, and as a source for X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy; and copper-64, which has been employed in PET scanning, planar imaging and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, as well as dosimetry studies, and cerebral and myocardial blood flow. It is also used in stem cell research and cancer treatments.Fluorine-18 is the primary PET imaging isotope and is used for cancer detection, heart imaging and brain imaging. Last year, in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University, a PET agent built around fluorine-18 readily and safely distinguished the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients from those of healthy volunteers. The study authors concluded in the June 2010 Journal of Nuclear Medicine that their agent could lead to better ways to distinguish Alzheimer’s from other types of dementia, track disease progression and develop new therapeutics to fight the memory-ravaging disease.Other useful examples include germanium-68, which is being used for the study of thrombosis and atherosclerosis, PET imaging, the detection of pancreatic cancer and attenuation correction. Indium-111 is used for infection imaging, cancer treatments and tracer studies, while iodine-123 is used in brain, thyroid, kidney and myocardial imaging, cerebral blood flow and neurological disease. Its close relative, iodine-124, meanwhile, is a radiotracer used in PET imaging and to create images of the human thyroid. Its other treatment uses include apoptosis, cancer biotherapy, glioma, heart disease, mediastinal micrometastases and thyroid cancer.Iodine-131 is useful in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disease, including cancer, while strontium-82 and its daughter rubidium-82 are used as a myocardial imaging agent for the early detection of coronary artery disease, PET imaging and blood flow tracers. Finally, as mentioned earlier, thallium-201 is used in clinical cardiology, heart imaging, myocardial perfusion studies and cellular dosimetry. And this abbreviated list barely does justice to the variety of potentially useful isotopes.Read the 2017 article “FDA Clears Path for First Domestic Supply of Tc-99m Isotope.” Editor’s Note: Jim Katzaroff is chairman and CEO of Kennewick, Washington-based Advanced Medical Isotope Corp. (www.isotopeworld.com). The company is engaged in the production and distribution of medical isotopes. He believes it is a moral imperative to provide an adequate supply of life-saving medical isotopes on American soil. He said doing so will save tens of millions of dollars for the healthcare market, and the lives that might ultimately be saved might make it a worthy endeavor. He can be reached at jkatzaroff@isotopeworld.com (link sends e-mail). FacebookTwitterLinkedInPrint分享 News | Radiopharmaceuticals and Tracers | July 16, 2019 NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes Completes Construction on Beloit, Wis. Molybdenum-99 Processing Facility NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC announced completion of construction on its 20,000-square-foot molybdenum-99 (Mo-… read more News | PET-CT | August 15, 2019 United Imaging Announces First U.S. Clinical Installation of uExplorer Total-body PET/CT United Imaging announced that its uExplorer total-body positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) system… read more X-ray images such as the one on the left fail to indicate many cases of advanced bone destruction caused by multiple myeloma, says the author of new guidelines on imaging for patients with myeloma and related disorders. Image courtesy of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. read more
Related posts:Beyoncé reunites with Destiny’s Child in Costa Rica for Kelly Rowland’s wedding In Guatemala City’s Zone 4, a new effort at urban renewal Smitten while in Cuba? Better call the love detective before you commit US, Cuba agree to let airlines begin flights It could be anytime between noon and four, and my stomach grumbles. I pad barefoot down the cool marble stairs and pop into the kitchen at the Palazzo Margherita, in southern Italy. I raid plates of cheese, smear hunks of bread in jam, ask for sweets and leftover tangerine juice, even though dinner’s fresh pastas and sauces are well under way.This deliciously languid, come-as-you-are ease is rarely the province of a five-star European hotel, especially one with a celebrity pedigree. But this hotel is owned by Francis Ford Coppola, Hollywood’s most legendary family man, and he wants you to make yourself comfortable here in his ancestral home of Bernalda, smack in the middle of boot-heeled Italy’s arch.Coppola never meant to be a hotelier. He just liked taking his family on vacation. Some of the items on the table at the Palazzo Margherita. Bloomberg News photo by Colleen ClarkAfter falling in love with the jungle while filming “Apocalypse Now” in the Philippines, he decided to get a little piece of it closer to the United States. In the early 1980s, Coppola picked up a run-down lodge in the mountainous rain forest of newly independent Belize and outfitted it with four-wheel drives, good beds, and, perhaps apocryphally, the country’s first pizza oven and espresso machine to entertain his brood in style.“What I realized afterwards was that I was accidentally creating the infrastructure for a hotel,” he says over the phone from his Napa, Calif., home. The 20-room Blancaneaux Lodge opened in 1993.Four more properties followed – another on the beach in Belize, and the rest in the seemingly disparate locations of Argentina, Guatemala, and, of course, Italy. A fifth, based out of a French Quarter mansion in New Orleans, has been in development limbo for years. What unites them?“Just me and my family,” Coppola says. “They’re all things that we love, food that we find wonderful, places that are chosen not out of practicality or anything sensible, but just out of love.”For Coppola, family, travel, and work are inextricably linked. His earliest memories are of the cross-country road trips his father, a flutist and composer, would take the family on in the 1940s and ’50s.“My father had a habit of writing a song for every location we were in – a song for Amarillo and a song for the Ozarks – and we kids would have to sing a song for every location we were in,” Coppola recalls.He has created similar memories for his children.“My dad bought a 1913 Model T Ford, and we drove it from San Francisco to Bolinas, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge,” son Roman Coppola says over the phone from the set of “Mozart in the Jungle,” the show he created with cousin Jason Schwartzman and Alex Timbers. “It overheated and broke down, but it was the most wonderful adventure.”Coppola always brought his family along on shoots – his daughter Sofia’s earliest memories include living on a chocolate plantation during the filming of “Apocalypse Now” – and those adventures became family lore, filtering into his children’s future films and artistic sensibility. Consider Sofia’s classic meditation on Tokyo, “Lost in Translation,” and Roman’s coming-of- age “Moonrise Kingdom” (co-written with director Wes Anderson and starring Schwartzman).It’s here, squarely in this intersection of travel, family, and storytelling, that the Coppola family’s hotels sit.“Ultimately, a resort is a movie. The place is the setting – the ruins, the body of water – the city is the star, the staff is the cast,” Coppola says.His hotels all manage to feel at once intimate and sublime, a backdrop for a grand adventure meticulously curated as only a filmmaker can. But because they double as family homes, there’s something effortless and familiar, from the staffing to the subtle design choices. It’s a relaxed sort of luxury – the best kind.“They’re all things that we love, places chosen not out of practicality or anything sensible.” Francis Ford Coppola speaks at a ceremony posthumously honoring audio pioneer Ray Dolby with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in Hollywood, California, on Jan. 22, 2015. Mark Ralston/AFPCoppola recently came to New York for what was supposed to be a speech for travel journalists. But in typical fashion, he transformed it into a dinner party, arriving at the homey Il Buco restaurant with a multigenerational brood, including his 98-year-old Uncle Kiki (an opera composer), his aunt (a former ballerina), and a flurry of nieces. Sofia popped in for a hug when she dropped off her mom. And Francis invited everyone to stay for dinner while he spun family yarns with Uncle Kiki.They sat by candlelight, a two-man stand-up routine, trading well-worn tales of Francis’ first trip to Bernalda. At the age of 20, he showed up in town and introduced himself as a Coppola. He was immediately surrounded by cousins (and cousins of cousins), hugged, and fed.“I was trying to figure out where the hell am I going to sleep tonight – there were no hotels,” he said.Eventually they sent him home with his newlywed cousins. He shared a bed with the groom, while the bride slept “who knows where, in the barn.” And he never forgot the warmth of the reception. A farmer makes mozzarella with milk from the massería’s prized cows. Bloomberg News photo by Colleen ClarkYou go to Tuscany and Amalfi for those big beautiful postcard views, but Bernalda is for escaping the tourist circuit. What you may trade in brain-melting beauty, you gain in chance encounters at the local gelatería, the cinematic purr of everyday life. Fifteen minutes away there’s a beach, where fishermen pull up with their boats and grill up the day’s catch fresh, right on the sand.It’s easy to settle in, which is the point.Coppola’s purchase of the Palazzo in 2004 grew out of his family connections there – “The five thousand million cousins in Bernalda felt that I should own it,” he jokes – and became a family project with designer Jacques Grange, opening as a nine-suite hotel in 2012. It’s his Godfather property, a family business, spanning generations.“We approach each hotel as though it’s a family home, so it’s our custom to let each kid have input as to how they want their space to be.”The result? Blushing pink walls and hand-painted frescoes in Sofia’s room echo a summer palace. Geometric floors and a vintage Grand Prix poster (found by Sofia) lend Roman’s suite a masculine deco flavor. And Tunisian tiles in the patriarch’s suite pay homage to Francis’s mother.“My wife and children are such creative people, and their particular points of view really come through. So I love to stay in Sofia’s room. And Sofia loves to stay in Roman’s room to experience more of his personality,” Coppola says.The Palazzo also traces family history further back.“My grandfather Agostino was known in Bernalda as ‘Salta Balcone,’ or ‘Jumps Balcony,’ because he was always trying to get into houses to have affairs with the maids,” Coppola says, noting that he thinks the Palazzo was the site of an affair with one such woman called Palmetta. Now the servants’ quarters have been dubbed the Palmetta room, and Agostino’s portrait hangs there above his childhood bed.The Coppola family has already started contributing to the Palazzo’s story arc – Sofia celebrated her wedding in the garden in 2011, and Roman’s son ate his first birthday cake in the courtyard. And that familial warmth infused every aspect of my four-day stay there, from a lazy breakfast beneath Sofia’s lemon tree to rainy-day movies in the salon to a rustic alfresco lunch that the Palazzo arranges at a nearby farm (pizza in the grass with the workers, generations of whom had toiled here).Now Francis has turned his eye on a new family project.“We have a beautiful property in New Orleans that I have always wanted to make into an inn for artists, a sort of French- style creative auberge,” he says. “We have a building, but we don’t have the right to create a hotel. But in a city like New Orleans, you never know what can happen.”And after that?“A hotel in Corsica, a resort in Sardinia, the Colombe d’Or in the south of France. I love Dublin, I love Ireland, I love everywhere. I love this magnificent, diverse earth that we have, where you can’t look out in any direction and not see beauty,” he says.“It’s part of this incredible experience of life.”© 2015, Bloomberg News Facebook Comments read more
Authorities in the north on Friday said that the extradition of Turkish Cypriots to other countries was out of the question.Spokesman of the Turkish Cypriot leader, Baris Burcu, tried to alleviate concerns following media reports on Turkish investigations and detentions targeting Turkish Cypriot academics and journalists, some of whom in any case, possess Cyprus, and thus, EU passports.In a written statement on Friday, Burcu said that ‘TRNC citizens’ could not be extradited to other countries nor could court decisions issued in other countries executed in the north.Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci, according to Burcu, has always followed the rule of law on freedom of the press and freedom of expression. He added that there should be no doubt about that.Citing the head of the ‘Supreme Court’, Narin Sefik, Burcu said that the ‘extradition’ of ‘citizens’ to other countries for cases pending against them or due to the outcome of a case, “is out of the question.”The announcement comes after fears expressed by academics and journalists in the north following two lawsuits against Afrika newspaper and two of its journalists, editor Sener Levent and Ali Osman by the Ankara chief public prosecutor’s office.You May LikeHonest To Paws25 Canine Facts That Even The Biggest Dog Lovers Don’t KnowHonest To PawsUndogeneralpath13 Rules You Need to Know Before Buying Your HomegeneralpathUndoBusiness FlightsFlying Business Is Cheaper Than You Might ThinkBusiness FlightsUndo Cyprus’ Dothraki warriorUndoFamagusta municipality says Varosha entry goes against UN regulationsUndoFresh case of Blue Nile virus in northUndoby Taboolaby Taboola read more