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About Promising Practices

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We are always looking for input from our users on how to make the experience more useful to their work.

AIDSTAR-One is no longer accepting new nominations to the Promising Practices Database. The current database will remain on the AIDSTAR-One website. Contact us for questions about existing practices in the database.

What is a Promising Practice?
USAID, through the AIDSTAR-One project, maintains a comprehensive database of good and promising programmatic practices (formerly known as G3Ps) that users can search to identify successful HIV programs (e.g., prevention, care and support, PMTCT) to inform their own design and implementation efforts.
What is different about the database of promising practices?
AIDSTAR-One's Promising Practices Database broadens the definition of a "best practice" by including emerging, innovative approaches as well as proven practices. This ensures that users have balanced access to information about both cutting-edge HIV program models and those more established practices.
Why contribute to the Promising Practices Database?
The Promising Practices Database provides a unique venue for implementing partners to showcase their work and opportunities to establish their technical expertise in HIV programming. Nominating a practice should not be a time-intensive process; contact us and we'll walk you through the process.
How does the Promising Practices Database work?

Program designers, implementers, and managers can search the database to find models that they can adapt for use in their context. The documentation included with some practices may also include tools and training curricula that have been successfully implemented in the field.

Practices are assigned to one of three categories (see graphic below) to help users distinguish how much evidence a practice has available to inform future programming. These categories do not reflect the value of a practice, but rather the breadth of the documentation that is available on the practice.

The database lists practices based on six program elements: target population, program implementation, program evaluation, program monitoring, quality assurance/quality improvement; and extent of funding support. To include a practice in the database, AIDSTAR-One must have adequate documentation on the specific objectives of the practice, its target population, how it was implemented, and the results it has achieved.

The database allows users to search based on the category a practice is assigned, as well as its core content (target population, focus area, region, etc.).

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According to reports provided by the Aiken Department of Public Safety:

A storage shed was reported missing from behind a home on Redd Street on Thursday.

City trash cans were reported missing from Landing Drive and Sandstone Boulevard on Thursday.

A 33-year-old Aiken man was detained for driving under the influence on Friday after he was pulled over on Richland Avenue for speeding. The man smelled of alcohol, exhibited signs of intoxication, and was taken into custody after failing multiple field sobriety tests.

According to reports provided by the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office:

A Beech Island woman reported rocking chairs missing from the porch of her home on Burwick Run.

A burglary was reported at a home on Pine Log Road in Warrenville on Thursday. The owner reported firearms and a radio missing.

Additional burglaries were reported on U.S. 78 in Williston, Beekeeper Place in Aiken, Hill Street in Bath, Swathmore Avenue in North Augusta and NeHolland Road in Wagener.

Vehicle break-ins were reported on Edgar Street in Warrenville, Pinecrest Drive in Warrenville, Piney Heights Road in Warrenville, Crystal Springs Road in Graniteville, Edgefield Road in North Augusta and Wagener Road in Salley.

A vehicle was reported stolen from Pine Log Place in Beech Island on Friday.

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Old 08-21-2006, 10:06 AM   #11
Erick Mead
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Dojo: Big Green Drum (W. Florida Aikikai)
Location: West Florida
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,536
Re: Kuzushi for kaiten nage

Mark Walsh wrote:
I find kuzushi from katate dori the hardest as static. Also some schools break up (float) down (as per sumi otoshi).
I find that kaitennage is hard for many people because the tai sabaki is visually deceptive especially in ki no nagare (flowing) practice. Many times it is performed with this big tai no henko, a floor sweeping cut as you step-turn irimi and then come up for the irimi throw. Many do teach kaitennage as flowing from the beginning, and it is meant to be flowing in its actual application.

There is, however, a kihon underlying all that that may help some people to get it sooner early on. I find the following description of one of the kihon waza variations is sometimes more helpful to understand initially. If your instructors say different -- do what they say, for the love of Pete. They can see you. I can't.

For those unfamiliar with turn terminology -- the soto (outside) turn opens the book -- uchi (inside) turn closes the book. The covers (uke/ nage) are opening from a hinge at the point of connection in the soto turn -- the uchi turn is where the covers are closing on one another from the connection hinge. "Inside" turn and "outside" turn can be a ltittle difficult to see as such in actual practice.

Kaitennage can be done with only little tenkan hip turns and minimal foot movement. These illustrate the basic complexity of the technique that is only a barely perceptible (but critical) set of burbles in the more flowing version. I find students tend to get caught up in the hands and feet and for this reason concentration on more basic (irimi/tenkan) body movement (tai-sabaki) is helpful -- as is figuring out how you would perform the movement with a sword.

Attack is katatedori. Emphasis must be placed on performing the movement at full arm extension throughout (no "arm-pumping").

First, step in to the ura side with an irimi tenkan (soto) but do not put the foot back as in tai no henko. (i.e. --if he stepped in on the left foot you are now facing the same way with your left foot also forward and weight on your rear leg.) Kokyu for the leading (low) hand is rotating in and down, initially, (as for tenchinage). Kuzushi should occur if you have extended through his grab in the turn.

Second, another tenkan (uchi) -- without moving the feet, open the hips toward him (heel pivot) and move as though in a sweeping gedan or do sword cut with the gripped hand to the legs or belly, raising the (free) left hand (as in tenchinage), and address his center to your front. (If you irimi on the high hand side at this point it IS tenchinage.)

Third, entering slightly with the hips setting the weight on the forward leg (but without stepping) cutting the back of the neck yokomenuchi with the high hand, finish cutting the gedan sweep of the gripped hand -- turn the hips tenkan (soto) as you are cutting as you would in a pivoting draw cut shifting weight again to the back leg, again opening the hips strongly (heel pivot), -- reverse the high/low position of the hands as both cuts are completed -- allowing the direct irimi step across his front for the throw.

If you visualize holding an O-dachi with its tsuka the length of the distance between nage's hand on uke's neck and nage's extended arm holding uke's arm across his back, you can see the cutting position in the tai-jutsu You can see it even more dramatically if you perform the finishing move by continuing the cut of the head with full extension on the uke's braced arm, shuffle step to the same hanmi as the throw but then drop first to the knee near the head, straight down (not backing up or going forward ) and then the other knee to the suwari pin between your knees. Please do this VERRRY slowy for uke's sake.

Thus, in this kaitnennage variation, the tai sabakai sequence is:
irimi ura, tenkan soto, tenkan uchi, tenkan soto, irimi omote.

Visualize (or get a bokken and try it) beginning with his hand gripping your right sword hand on the inside, sword open to the right. (For those that have done Saotome's bukiwaza this basically uchitachi's finishing position in kumitachi 1-4)

The initial irimi and tenkan soto turn cuts the belly laterally, right to left (as nage/shitachi views it).

The kokyu turn of the hand down and in after you turn opens the blade in reverse to cut the belly or legs on the return tenkan uchi -- cutting laterally or underneath, left to right.

The reversal of the hands, top and bottom, in the soto turn allows uke's head to be cut down in kuzushi and the sword to come up and over cutting to take the head in the final irimi cut.

If you try this with the bokken and use the tai-sabaki described you will make some better sense of the tai-jutsu. Trying to learn it in flowing mode to begin with can be frustrating for many people, and they may not recognize the crucial changes in the body movement that are obscured in ki no nagare practice. Varying the order and direction of the turns and entries allows tai sabaki variations (at least sixteen) and the movements are often so implicit in ki no nagare you may not notice them until much later on. (I know I didn't.)

Erick Mead

Last edited by Erick Mead : 08-21-2006 at 10:13 AM.

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Old 04-16-2011, 10:18 PM   #18
Keith Larman
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,587
Re: Dan Harden April 2011 Workshop Santa Ana, CA

Well, everyone else is probably out still drinking frosty beverages. I had to visit a friend after today's session then home for a bedtime story for the little one. Had a blast as usual. Learned lots, mostly about what I still suck at. I have pain in weird places and I am reminded that my back isn't back 100%. But I'll be back tomorrow regardless.

Anyway, as I walked by my refrigerator I remembered this magnet that was given to me by a friend years ago. He said he thought of me when he saw it. Don't know what he means by that...
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Old 12-29-2012, 06:17 AM   #24
Rupert Atkinson
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Dojo: Wherever I am.
Location: South Korea, Yongin
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 828
United Kingdom
Re: Atemi and Aikido

Well - those two vids above are all well and good but it's nothing to do with Aikido. How are you going to learn aiki if you train like that? Aikido is The Way of Aiki as far as I'm concerened. Atemi in Aikido (or Jujutsu for that matter), if that is what you want to do, simply have to be applied within the flow of the technique.

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U.S. Dedicates Consulate Compound in Dubai, U.A.E.

U.S. dedicating the new consulate compound in Dubai, UAE. The new facility creates a secure and sustainable workplace for approximately 280 people. DOS hopes that the Consulate Office Building with multimedia center increases U.S. interaction with the Emirati people.

[This functionality does not work on your device. Please use the download button to access the PDF. A separate PDF reading app may be necessary.]

Cite as AILA Doc. No. 11112261.

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Boeing 777X Undergoes First High-Speed Wind Tunnel Tests

 - January 15, 2014, 10:41 AM
A model of the 777X undergoes high-speed wind tunnel testing in Seattle. (Photo: Boeing)

High-speed wind tunnel tests for the Boeing 777X started last week at the company’s transonic wind tunnel in Seattle, Boeing announced Wednesday. Last month, engineers started wind tunnel tests at QinetiQ's facility in Farnborough, UK, where testing of the low-speed performance of the airplane continues.

This is another important step forward in the development of the 777X,” said Terry Beezhold, vice president and chief project engineer of the 777X program. “Data from these tests will allow us to validate our airplane cruise performance models in support of our ongoing design efforts.”

The data will help engineers with the configuration development of the airplane, validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions and support preliminary loads cycle development.

Plans call for subsequent rounds of low-speed and high-speed testing to provide further design refinement and validation of overall airplane performance predictions. Boeing has also scheduled wind tunnel tests for noise, icing and propulsion in the coming years.

Boeing expects the 777X program to reach its firm configuration milestone in 2015. The 777X has drawn orders and commitments for 280 airplanes from five customers.


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Executive Airports Get New Hangars

 - September 4, 2012, 5:50 AM

To mark its one-year anniversary, privately owned Austin Executive Airport opened a new 26,650-sq-ft hangar, bringing its available leased shelter space to more than 63,000 sq ft. Built as part of a $33 million master plan by Houston businessman Ron Henriksen, the airport features an 18,249-sq-ft arrival canopy and a 6,025-foot runway that can handle the newest business aircraft, including the Gulfstream G650 and new Bombardier Globals.

At Houston Executive, the company’s sister airport, the addition of a 26,650-sq-ft hangar brings the total aircraft storage space to more than 122,000 sq ft. The airport’s 6,610-foot runway can handle business aircraft up to the size of a Boeing Business Jet. Both airports have Henriksen Jet Center FBOs.


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Bolen: EU-ETS ‘Wrong-headed’ Approach

 - May 3, 2012, 1:55 AM

“All of aviation, including general and business aviation, as well as the airlines, is working together really well to continually improve the environment,” NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen declared last month during opening comments on a panel discussion about the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme. But he quickly added, “We are also working together to fight wrong-headed environmental regulations that don’t work.”

Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 11th annual Aviation Summit in Washington, Bolen asserted that the track record of aviation working on the environment is strong. “[But] we recognize that this type of unilateral tax by one region of the world is not the way to promote global aviation and global aviation in an environmentally friendly way,” he said.

Bolen explained that harmony is needed in aviation emissions policy, in the same way it is needed in safety and other aviation policies around the world. “This is why the International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] was created,” he said. “That is why ICAO is the appropriate forum to continue work on this important issue.”

As wrong as the EU-ETS is for the airlines, its impact is even more significant and overwhelming for non-commercial operations. According to Bolen, under the EU-ETS’s structure, non-commercial operators must pay on every flight with no allowances, credits or exclusions, along with the enormous administrative burdens and costs that the EU is already imposing on business aviation operators.

What the EU is doing “flies in the face of not just the track record of aviation and the environment, but also of the idea that we are an interconnected global economy and we need harmony in our aviation regulations,” Bolen said.

While EU representative Felix Leinemann suggested that the EU-ETS system is “quite flexible,” Julie Oettinger, FAA assistant administrator for policy, international affairs and environment, declared, “I think the European Union needs to be constructively engaged in ICAO.”

“We hear a lot about the idea of everyone in aviation working together,” Bolen reminded. “Well, we’ve all worked together really well on the environment, on promoting research in biofuels, on trying to move forward on things like NextGen, which will make the system more efficient, and on aerodynamic advances. We are working together collectively to do the right thing for the environment.”

Bolen argued that companies are paying tens of thousands of dollars and more just trying to figure out how to register for the new EU scheme. “This is an administrative burden that has got a real economic impact,” he explained. “None of that money helps the environment.”

Other U.S. representatives on the panel claimed that the EU approach is actually hampering efforts to reach global aviation consensus on greenhouse gas emission policies beyond the technology, operational and infrastructure plans already in place that are designed to take the industry to 2020.

NBAA has joined with 15 other organizations in the U.S. aviation and travel industries in opposing the EU-ETS and supporting the objections of the U.S. government as a matter of international law and U.S. sovereignty.

In October, the House passed a bill that would prohibit all flights originating in the U.S. from participating in the EU scheme, and a similar bill is working its way through the Senate.

Meanwhile, U.S. airlines, NBAA, the Air Line Pilots Association and others are urging the federal government to initiate what is called an Article 84 filing under ICAO regulations. That is a procedure to resolve international aviation disputes and was last used by the U.S. in the late 1990s in a dust-up with the EU over Stage II noise hush kits.

“We strongly feel the U.S. should bring a complaint under an Article 84 case,” Nancy Young, vice president of environmental affairs for Airlines for America, told Aviation Summit attendees. “We think an Article 84 dispute is necessary.”

It would be great if Mr. Bolen would show as much concern for another scheme driven by environmental extremists in the US, biofuels. The adulteration of the U.S gasoline supply makes it more difficult to obtain the only FAA-approved lead-free aviation fuel that is in supply. Since some 80% of all piston-engine planes can use ethanol-free autogas, keeping ethanol out is very important.

Thank you for the well written article.

If you compare global temperatures with atmospheric CO2 levels, they correlate at a coerfficient of 0.91.

If you compare the U.S. Federal debt with atmospheric CO2 levels, they too correlate at a coefficient of 0.91!

In other words, CO2 and emissions trading schemes such as the EU-ETS are simply wealth-transferrance devices, and serve absolutely no other purpose.

While it is good economically for manufacturers of aircraft/aircraft engines to reduce their emissions, which translates to using less fuel and thus spending less money on fuel, it is idiotic for us to kowtow to the fools at the EU who simply want more taxes, and thus (most importantly) more control of the proletariat.

(Atmospheric data derived from "Global Warming Melts Away," by Randall Hoven (American Thinker, May 3, 2012))

Uh, transference.

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Ain't It Cool News (
Movie News

Despite some creative character designs and ideas, RISE OF THE GUARDIANS' greatest threat is pandering to a younger audience, says Capone!!!

Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

A great idea that turns into a decidedly average film--it happens all the time, but the animated work RISE OF THE GUARDIANS really left me wondering how a film touting the power of believing in the fantastical could be so uninspired and fall back on age-old, kid-movie devices. How can a film that asks me to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny (sorry, Jewish kids, you're not the demo for this film, apparently), the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, Jack Frost and the Boogeyman not believe in its audience to be a little smarter and perhaps even a little darker, which is ironic since the bad guy in this film (also called Pitch Black) is attempting to make the world a better place for the nightmares he instills in children.

GUARDIANS' "hero" is the newly anointed Jack Frost (voiced by Chris Pine), who (as we see in the opening scene) was apparently birthed after his human self drowned in an icy lake. But he is brought back as an ice-and snow-wielding scamp who is invisible to humans, but can cause all sorts of trouble and fun with his powers. An early scene has him propelling a young child on a sled through traffic. What joy! But Jack is a sad young man because no one really believes in him or can see him, so all of his good-time powers go unappreciated. But when Pitch Black (Jude Law) rears his ugly head in the world (it seems he does this every so often), the Man in the Moon designates that there must be one more heroic member of the Guardians added to the roster to help save the children of the planet from having nightmares every time they sleep.

It seems that the Guardians' main objective is to keep imagination alive, at least for kids. But their motivations are somewhat selfish because as long as kids believe in them, they stay powerful. It's a cyclical relationship. If Pitch can destroy Christmas, Easter and keep the Tooth Fairy from delivering cash money, children's belief in the Guardians will fade. Sure, I dig the way the Guardians are rendered -- Santa (Alec Baldwin) sporting a heavy Russian accent and two broadswords; an Autralian Bunny (High Jackman) with his boomerangs and Crocodile Dundee attitude; or Tooth (Isla Fisher) just looking hot and commanding an army of "baby teeth" fairies to do her bidding. Oddly, the Sandman (whose job is to give kids good dreams) doesn't speak; maybe with a high-profile cast like this, the studio couldn't afford another actor.

My issues with RISE OF THE GUARDIANS have to do with pandering. Despite all of these great characters, the filmmakers (led by first-time director and veteran storyboard artist Peter Ramsey) choose to devote much of the film to a human character, Jamie (Dakota Goyo), who at one point in the story is the only child in the world who still believes in any of these imaginary characters.

Hate to turn on my own kind, but the humans in this movie are rather flat. Obviously, they're necessary, but they're treated as something of an afterthought in this story. If as much time and energy had been spent on developing Jamie as the creators did on Santa's souped-up sled, I might have been more invested in the dreamscapes of children. That being said, Pitch Black is one of the coolest animated villains I've seen in quite some time, and the way he conjures nightmare creatures to battle the Guardians is fairly creative.

I'll never discourage filmmakers from doing their most to inspire creativity and imagination, but by stating their goals of doing so so blatantly and repeatedly, I felt like I spent much of RISE OF THE GUARDIANS dodging the hammer that was trying to hit me on the head over and over again. I should emphasize, the movie looks gorgeous, the character designs (outside of the humans) are inspired, and even the idea of a superhero group made up of these types of characters is wonderful... on paper.

The noble effort is all up there on the screen, but something about the final product left me decidedly uninspired. And in a year with a solid number of worthy animated works, RISE OF THE GUARDIANS doesn't even approach that level.

-- Steve Prokopy
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  • Nov. 22, 2012, 2:37 p.m. CST

    Looks like this is the first comment.

    by Gary Makin

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 2:39 p.m. CST

    Meh, I'm not surprised.

    by Ian Masterson

    Never been a fan of Dreamworks animation. Not even the so-called "good" ones (Shrek, HTTYD, etc.)

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 2:39 p.m. CST

    Also, second... apparently.

    by Ian Masterson

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 2:56 p.m. CST

    thirdly me thinks

    by pw

    will take my kids to it...oh sorry most of you guys on here can't have kids yet .

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 3:05 p.m. CST

    um massive thrid act spoiler for those who care

    by burymylovely

    Don't read if you care about spoilers So maybe Capone isn't remembering well, but that second paragraph is a major spoiler. That the guardians were humans once is in itself a spoiler. And we don't learn Jack's story until act three. Its actually quite a surprise. I know its (just) an animated film, but as someone who really enjoys animated films, I'm really glad I didn't read that before I saw the movie.

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 4:05 p.m. CST

    have to agree about spoiler

    by The Great One

    There's a few things here I didn't know when I saw the movie, and honestly I enjoyed having my childhood energy return. You really should give a spoiler tag to this one. I'd no clue about Jack's origins going in. Let folks discover this and some of the other stuff you mention for themselves.

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 5:15 p.m. CST

    Capone is on a roll today with his screwups

    by Crooooooow

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 6:09 p.m. CST

    I liked it.

    by anthony

    I felt like it was a fun animated movie. With a good story that moved along well. It was pretty to look at too. The theater we were in was filled with families and kids, young'n to teen along with their parents and all were smiling and laughing at it the whole time. I personally liked it more than Wreck-it-Ralph. It made me want to see more fun seasonal adventures and more of Pitch ( who I thought was a great villain)

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 7:19 p.m. CST

    Who in the hell is High Jackman?

    by CimmerianWarrior

  • Nov. 22, 2012, 10:52 p.m. CST

    Really? I thought it was a fantastic film.

    by James

  • Whatever your feelings about the movie, the content of this review is ridiculous. "Pandering" does not mean having a child character. It doesn't mean going to extra lengths to make the storyline clear. These seem to be Capone's complaints... but he repeatedly labels them as "pandering". WTF? The Jamie character is perfectly well-developed. His "faith" is quickly, clearly set-up. It pays off in two terrific little scenes and that's about it... What the hell is this complaint about? If Capone felt the story was hitting him over the head so hard about its points, why did he seem to miss the point? Jack Frost's journey is the heart of the film and is what the VAST majority of the screentime is devoted to-- NOT Jamie. Considering all the compliments in this review, it just sucks to see the headline try to smack the movie down over something that is not backed up by the actual review. BOOOO Capone. :-(

  • and create such a backlash among kids starved for something real, that you will see a new generation of kids start to pick up the raw materials, many of them influenced by the classic rock of people like Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, and Ralph Bakshi... The cartoon Hobbit Lord of the Rings is way more Led Zeppelin than the whole Lord of the Rings. I can still remember the days before all animation felt like it had to pander to toddlers and minivan Moms. I remember the messiness of real animation, the shadows and secret textures... The life altering experience of seeing something truly different, like when I saw DRAGONSLAYER or The Secret of NIMH. Now its as if there are no more innovations to be achieved- and no accidents to birth new visions- because everything is made within the carefully controlled environment of computers. Please. Fight these movies. Stop giving them your money. Give us back our cartoons.

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 2:08 a.m. CST

    Capone wanted what all people like Capone want

    by Nintendarth

    He wanted to see those broadswords cleaving through nightmares like Conan. He wanted to see chrome and explosions and boobies and rage and hate and anger and coal-eyed monsters taking people into the sky to eat them whole like monsters from the CLASH OF THE TITANS remakes. Also, Capone? Love how you contradict yourself, saying how the movie isn't dark enough (ugh!) and then complaining that Jack Frost sending the kid into traffic is too dark. I salute you, sir! Since I don't have SKYPE, though, ou'll have to guess how.

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 6:43 a.m. CST

    Bait n' switch

    by korahn

    The first trailer made it seem more action oriented and had me excited. Then I saw the most recent trailer and it turned me right off - too many kid-focused jokes, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a reindeer fart joke in there somewhere. I'm all for having the movies geared towards kids but at least have to balls to try to appeal to adults as well - Incredibles and Toy Story come to mind.

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 6:44 a.m. CST

    Childish review

    by Doug Phillips

    Greatest threat is pandering to a younger audience.

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 6:51 a.m. CST

    Grow up.

    by JMG84

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 7:52 a.m. CST

    Wait, so this isn't that owl air combat movie?

    by menacingphantom

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 7:52 a.m. CST

    Rise of the Guardians of Gwhaahool?

    by menacingphantom

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 8:08 a.m. CST

    imagination is NOT kept alive by believing in ficiticious beings

    by brightgeist

    imagination is kept alive by science, by seeing and understanding the world around us, by keeping an open and critical mind, not by holding on to tradition and superstition. i can't help feeling like this movie is the "counter-attack" against such wonderful movies like HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and THE LORAX

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 1:08 p.m. CST

    Haven't seen it..

    by JediWuddayaknow

    But I HATE the emo-kid design of Jack Frost.

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 1:54 p.m. CST

    Saw it this morning.

    by You Have MY Voice

    Fun flick. I liked "Wreck-It Ralph" a bit more, but I enjoyed it more than "Brave," if you can believe that. I agree about the spoilers in the review. I mean, it's a fairly telegraphed plot point from the very first shot, but it's still a major plot point. One thing: WB should hire the screenwriters to take a crack at "Justice League" because they kinda cracked that code. Take the characters everyone knows and have them doing their thing from the get-go. Bring new character into the ranks. Fight villain. Flesh out from there.

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 4:47 p.m. CST

    Is it just me, or did Pitch Black (aka the Boogeyman)...

    by Nasty In The Pasty

    ...look almost EXACTLY like James Woods' Hades from Hercules? The facial features were strikingly similar. I liked the movie overall, even if it's no classic. At least it wasn't filled with pop-culture riffing and fart jokes, which Dreamworks has thankfully moved away from in recent years.

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 5:02 p.m. CST

    the only one that looked cool

    by chronicallydepressedlemming

    was the the sandman. And surely the whole 'stopping the nightmares' should be his damn job anyway?

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 6:06 p.m. CST

    I understand exactly what he meant by "pandering"

    by flclhack

    And I haven't even seen the movie. It's something that, when avoided, we all praise the kids movies for NOT pandering to the child audience. Also, I would say he spent most of the review backing his point. He used the example of the time spent showing off the sleigh instead of character development, for one. Why are you people freaking out?

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 8:47 p.m. CST

    Way to go, Brightgeist

    by Dr. Hfuhruhurr

    You sound as far from open-minded as those you criticize.

  • Well, I never!

  • Nov. 23, 2012, 9:22 p.m. CST

    sorry, Jewish kids, you're not the demo for this film, apparently

    by frankenberry

    Was that necessary? If I can enjoy movies and shows about Jewish traditions, I don't think it will hurt a Jewish family to enjoy a movie with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 4:39 a.m. CST

    sorry, adults, you're not the demo for this film, apparently

    by Cosmik

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 7:33 a.m. CST

    I saw it on Thursday with the family...

    by NubtheSquirrel

    and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The animation is top notch and I didn't think the story was pandering at all. I thought the movie was a lot of fun. Some dark moments but the payoff is was worth it. Lots of wow moments and for the most part, one of Dreamworks' stronger efforts I think. I would place it under How to Train Your Dragon but over everything else.

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 9:09 a.m. CST

    Someone should let 'bright'geist know...

    by Johnno

    ... that his precious deity scientists are chief examples of going off the rails into crazy make-belief territory. So until his humanistic gods can prove that extraterrestrial beings exist, that all that evolution bullshit actually happened, that their multi-universe dark energy/matter angels are not based on imaginary mathematics they made up because the universe isn't behaving how they would like it to, or hell, even until they can prove that precious Copernican Principle they are so proud of that they were willing to completely reinvent physics, time, matter and reality when their numerous intereferometer experiments showed the Earth had no mesuarable velocity and everything seemed to indicate the Earth is indeed in a special central position in the entire universe... he has no business making any kind of subtle criticisms of what openly religious people believe while bolstering his own religious interpretations and gymnastics around actual scientific data. With science in the ridiculous state that it is, it's more plausible to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny than the ridiculous garbage they peddle under mountains of fairy tale equations designed to please themselves and intimidate the general public from thinking too deeply about it, don't think, just trust whatever they say, they're scientists!

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 10:06 a.m. CST

    Capone is holding out hope for an R-rated BAMBI, apparently

    by Dursman2000

    This is a KIDS MOVIE. You want it "Darker, edgier"? Stop going to see them. Nobody wants to see an R-rated film about Santa Claus as a super-hero...except you, I guess.

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 11:39 a.m. CST

    Who says "souped up? anymore?

    by Carmen A

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 11:51 a.m. CST

    Nice spoiler, too, you fucking moron.

    by Jason

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 4:43 p.m. CST

    Copernican physics? What is this, the 1400's?

    by Baked

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 9:36 p.m. CST

    what CGI feature DOESN'T pander to little kids and suburban Moms?

    by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch

    this isn't come one, come all 'children of all ages' anymore, this is 'children of all suburban subdivisions' and bring as many hapless adults as you can convince. creepy artificial doll-eyed things and colors straight out of the Playskool catalog. every one. lighting like the beauty aisle at Target. hey, doesn't anyone remember those real cartoons they used to make?

  • Nov. 24, 2012, 9:39 p.m. CST

    It's a cartoon, it's supposed to pander to a younger audience

    by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch

    fuck off, I can think of probably 3 dozen cartoon features that don't pander to kids. maybe not too many made after Toy Story, though.

  • Nov. 25, 2012, 2:05 a.m. CST

    Talk about hammer on the head...

    by Rorschach1

    I saw it tonight and loved it. Yes, the "Kids belief powers the world" bit has been done, but I think that the amount of detail into the main characters and world outweighs that one element. I imagine the guy who said "The Lorax" is a great movie must be vegan. It wasn't even a parable. All that movie does is try to say that trees are good and thus people who cut them down are bad. At least Guardians has great characters you actually care about. And like he said, it actually looks fantastic. For those wondering, they also don't overdue it on showing the sled. He was being facetious by saying that the designers spent more time working on the sled than the story.

  • Nov. 25, 2012, 6:39 a.m. CST

    sorry Jewish kids

    by JokerFC

    I usually respect what you say Capone but this comment is so full of crap.

  • Quite a roll Capone is on. Can't wait to see what's next.

  • Nov. 25, 2012, 5:14 p.m. CST

    How come there's no Hannukah Harry in this?!

    by Rob

    F this movie!

  • Nov. 25, 2012, 11:08 p.m. CST

    It's hard to tell North Korean cartoons from South Korean ones

    by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch

  • Nov. 25, 2012, 11:09 p.m. CST

    basically it's just communism all around

    by sasquatch_with_a_swatch_watch

  • And does he wear floppy bunny ears while doing it?

  • Nov. 26, 2012, 4 a.m. CST

    Sorry Jewish Kids...

    by Meta

    You're left out...Because the only Jewish Kids who will be enjoying this film are Stevie Spielberg and Jeffie Katzenberg as the laugh all the way to the bank with all the gentiles money who went to see this. They still own a piece of Dreamworks right?

  • animation is dead. the focus groups have determined it. They will continue to animate the corpse of a dead medium with no content and no beauty or style because kids and their goddamn parents still throw money at it. sad face.


text:
Ain't It Cool News (
Movie News

Capone talks the responsibility of legacy with MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM director Justin Chadwick!!!

Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

I won't lie, it felt a tad on the surreal side to be interviewing someone on behalf of a biopic about a man who had just died days earlier, especially when the man in question was arguably the most famous man in the world, Nelson Mandela. And while the new film MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM takes a rather by-the-numbers approach to the South African leaders life, it is anchored by two extraordinary performances in Idris Elba as Mandela and Naomie Harris and his activist wife Winnie. And for the record, considering Mandela's life story, even a straight-forward telling of it is loaded with emotion, inspiration, anger and an epic scale.

The director of LONG WALK TO FREEDOM (based on Mandela's autobiography of the same name and sanctioned fully the man himself) is 45-year-old Manchester native Justin Chadwick, who, like many in our age group, first became aware of Mandela through musicians linked to Amnesty International, such as U2 and Peter Gabriel. But it was his last film, the quiet moving THE FIRST GRADER, about an 84 year-old Kenyan villager who wanted to take advantage of his nation's declaration that anyone could get an education, so he joined a first-grade class, that caught the attention of the producers of the Mandela film, who noted that Chadwick was a fan of immersing himself in the African culture for about a year before shooting a frame of the film. This dedication made him the ideal candidate for telling Mandela's story from his early childhood to becoming the democratically elected president of South Africa.

An actor through much of the 1990s, Chadwick also kept himself busy directing episodes of many British television series ("EastEnders," "MI-5") and eventually made-for-TV films and miniseries ("Bleak House"). His first feature was the technically stunning THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, which played free and loose with the facts, but gave this story of Marry and Anne Bolyn vying for King Henry VIII's affections some serious emotional weigh. He is presently starting up directing the pilot for "The Money," an HBO series created by "NYPD Blue," "Deadwood," and "Luck" creator David Milch.

Chadwick was in Chicago recently where I had a chance to sit down with him to talk about MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM and his meetings with the subject of his film, as well as coping with the loss of the great diplomat and leader. He's an extremely nice guy, a great interview, and the stories he has about Mandela and other aspects of making this movie are fantastic. Please enjoy my talk with Justin Chadwick…

Capone: I don’t know how much time I have.

Justin Chadwick: Oh, you’ve got plenty of time. As much as you need. When did you see the film?

Capone: It was maybe two or three weeks ago.

JC: Oh, okay. You know, I was cutting it until like 10 days ago. I was still working on it.

Capone: How long is it now then?

JC: 2 hours 19 minutes. You know what it’s like, it’s an independent African movie. The great thing about having somebody like Harvey [Weinstein] behind it now, it’s like you show your movie and you learn about your movie by showing it in an audience. So every time I’ve seen it, I’ve come out of it and gone straight to Harvey and gone, “Harvey, I want to go back in.” My producer was going, “Oh my goodness, we’re done, we’re done.” And Harvey's going, “Are you sure Justin?” And I’m going, “Yeah, listen.” So right up to 10 days ago, I was still working away at it, just honing it.

Capone: I’m trying to remember if we saw it less than 10 days ago. It was right around that time.

JC: Yeah, you might have seen it.

Capone: Have you added anything at the end now that Mandela has passed away? Has there been anything adjusted because of that?

JC: No. Someone else asked me that the other day. Those photographs of him at the end are the best dedication we could have given him. Those all have obviously a huge history, but now he’s passed, they’re even more significant in terms of the film. To not have him there now... He’s been such a part of it and such a reassuring presence, not to have him as part of that, we're still reeling from it.

Capone: I was going to ask you about that. Is it surreal that this week, they’re driving his body though Soweto, and the funeral is not until this weekend, and you're out running around talking about this film. It has got to be a very different experience now talking about it.

JC: Completely. My whole family was there and everybody was there, [Mandela's] two daughters were there at the royal premiere, and then that happened half an hour before the end. The two daughters were together. Thank goodness, that they were together, otherwise one would have been in Argentina on her own and then had to make that journey home on her own.

But they wanted to continue playing the film, and then the next day I went to see Zindziswa and Zenani, and I sat down with them and I said, “What do we do now? Because this changes everything, doesn’t it?” And Zenani said to me, “This film is true to my father. He’d want you to go out and to do what you’re doing. Nothing should change. The film honors his legacy, and his legacy is important. It goes beyond anything, even him." Idris and I were with her when she said that, so we’ve come here and we’ve got some college screenings that we really want to do. We made it for a new generation to understand Mandela. I know he was old, but I think he’d been though so much and he was so ill over Christmas [2012], just as I was getting the director's cut ready. He was so ill over Christmas and he was in the hospital, and we were all so very concerned because he was seriously ill, and then he came home.

He had been such a fighter and to have him not there anymore puts a responsibility on us to do what we can to honor that legacy, and the film does honor that legacy, and it celebrates him as a man. And that was our intention with it is that, yes, it shows him as a young man and as a flawed young man and where he came form, but he’s a young man with hopes and ambitions and he’s just like any other young man. What he went though is extraordinary.

Capone: Had he had any chance to see any version of the film?

JC: I met him just before we started shooting, and then Anant [Singh, producer] would go and see him regularly while we were filming and show him scenes. He actually showed him the first day shooting, which was the last shot of the movie. You remember the big shot with him walking there with the children that run past him? He saw that shot and he went, “Is that me?” I’m sure he said it with a twinkle, but he saw that, but that for me and Idris was such a great thing to hear in the early days of the shooting. We showed him photographs of certain scenes, and just before Christmas, I got my director's cut, the first draft of it, and then he became very ill, and the last thing any of us wanted to do was bother him with what we were doing.

It was important for him to be with his family, so sadly he didn’t, but his daughters have obviously just spent four weeks with us just recently, and Winnie saw it. We took it back to South Africa. That was the first place we took it, showed it to Winnie, the children were there, the comrades that had been on Robben Island on the B wing were there. The men and women who had been part of the struggle, on both sides actually, and that was very overwhelmingly emotional experience watching this film with men and women who we were portraying, with things that they had told me. They knew I was making a film about them about them, but I spent a year then coming from Manchester, I felt responsible to actually live and talk to the people and spend as much time as I could and use the fact that I’m from the outside to try and understand it from all sides and to understand it from a prospective of listening to people. So that was incredibly powerful.

And they all talked about the truth of it, and the truth that it was their struggle and the truth that it was to the men and women that they knew. And that, for Winnie to say that, I mean, we don't shy away from the controversy of her character. She’s extraordinary. And the people close to Mandela in this household--his wife and the people close to him in his house--saw it as well, and they all talked about Idris' performance.

Capone: When your making a biography of anyone, especially perhaps the most famous man in the world, what liberties do you allow yourself to take in terms of what is often referred to as "dramatic license"? Or do you try to stick to the facts?

JC: I was given complete freedom. In my own head, that is why I said No to it at first, because how do you do that in one 2-hour 20-minute movie? It was such a huge, full life with so many thousands of people. His life represents Apartheid history of 100 years. One of the most well-documented modern histories ever. It was really about understanding it from these intimate relationships. Anant Singh, the producer, had written to Mandela in prison had formed this bond, and had give us access to--and I then talked to and spent time with--everyone involved with his story, who I got to know as moms and dads. That was the way in.

And then it was about making a film through the prism of the relationship, of the central love relationship. We could actually make a film about love and forgiveness, and that core was the heartbeat of the film--the cost to that man, what it cost his family. Because we can reach for a history book; there are great documentaries made about him, and then the actual mechanics of it was to be true to the people we were representing. Try to involve them as much as we could, so don’t do this on the soundstage, do this in Soweto with people who have lived the struggle. So when Winnie walks into the church, she’s actually walking into a church where atrocities have happened outside. Everybody talked about Mandela’s speed that he led his life and the fast pace, so the film has got a certain energy to it that is fast paced and visceral and emotional, and there are jumps.

We can’t put every history in, and that was a hard process for William Nicholson, the writer, and I--what do we leave out? We were always true. So the detail of it and the detail of the performance. The '76 riots, for example, we show those. There are images in there where if you know you’re history, you’ll go, “Oh, I remember seeing that on the news.” But to try and recreate 360-degree worlds that felt visceral and real, so that the music, the songs, the protest, everything is shot live like a live event, and then we drop the actors in and then record it 5.1 Surround, and make sure you're shooting it and shooting the crowd as well as you’re shooting your main actors. So it feels like you’re in amongst it as an audience, and that was the challenge. That level of detail took enormous amounts of support and dedication from the people I was working with.

Capone: When you’re telling his story, you’re not just telling one story. There’s a prison story, a story about revolution, there’s a love story, and there’s a political one.

JC: Yeah, and you can’t cherry pick it. We all decided very early that this is what we would do. To understand the whole story and the man, you had to see his background and cultural roots--where he came from--to understand it. I’ve stood in Qunu where he’s being laid to rest, and that landscape, that tribal background, was so key to understanding Mandela as an older man and what he did, and to understand that he is just like any other young person who’s got hopes and ambitions and dreams. He loves cars, loves clothes, loves women; he boxed and fought and was a fighter, and wanted to be the best lawyer ever and wanted to be a success and had ambition and hopes.

And this drip, drip, drip, of this pernicious evil of racism, which is born out of ignorance and stupidity, had descended. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? I took my children, when we took it to South Africa, to the Apartheid museum and it’s unbelievable, this history. They were shocked by it. I mean, my son is 13 years old and for him to see that this history is so recent, that those events happened. The fact that I could actually talk to men and women that knew Mandela as a young man who had been out with him. Not in just a political sense, but had gone out with him. For us, it felt important, to understand the whole story, we had to show him from the beginning until him as an older man, and that was important to understanding the man.

Capone: So the first time you met all of these people was in the year leading up to shooting?

JC: I met Mandela just before. But I was there for over a year just researching. I was taken to Robben Island. And I met not just men and women that knew him but his jailers, interrogators, the man that tied his shoelaces before he goes and see [former South Africa President F.W.] de Klerk. So I’d met them all by the point just before I started shooting. Maybe a week or two before we started filming, I went and met and had an afternoon with Mandela.

Capone: Did he have any requests in terms of just how his story would be told?

JC: He knew what we were doing. He gave us complete freedom. He formed a close relationship over the years with Anant Singh, the producer, who had written to him in prison when he was a young activist filmmaker. He actually said something to me on that. We had taken him an iPad with all these images of him, and thank goodness, because you can imagine by this time, I had done all of this research and met all these people. And Nelson Mandela, I mean, he’s Nelson Mandela, the aura. I can still feel the electricity that was coming off of him. Everybody talks about this warmth. B we had this iPad with these images, and we gave him this iPad, and I sat next to him and was holding his hand as I was looking at these images. It was just before his 94th birthday. He knew, he’s so sharp. He told Anant off a couple of times, because Anant got the person wrong or where he was [in the photos], and these photographs go way back. He was completely inspiring. He got to the picture, which I have actually put at the end of the movie of this little boy twisting his nose and pulling a face and holding this little child, and he just turned to me and he went, “He saw me as The Man.”

Capone: You're this white man from Manchester coming into this film that is distinctly African. Did your position as an outsider help in a way tosee the bigger picture?

JC: Well, I'd done the same thing in Kenya [for THE FIRST GRADER]. I had gone and actually lived in the community I was working with, because I am from Manchester. There is no doubt about that, I’m not from South Africa, I haven't lived that struggle. And Idris too, he’s a Londoner. Naomie too. Going into the country is to understand and to use the fact that you’re from outside. I think it really for me was about retracing his steps and just listening as much as I could before I started working with Bill, the writer, and using the fact that I was from the outside to get it. And actually when I was making it, you know, right form the beginning everybody said, “Oh, you can’t shoot in there. It’s too dangerous.” Or “You can’t go in there. You’ll never be able to do it.” And I was like, "You’ve got to. You’ve got to go into the communities and talk to them. If you go in and talk to them and involve their elders or the leaders of that community, they will be in it, and we can get people to work on both sides of the camera." And that’s exactly what we did in the early days.

I laid it out every day. If we had 1,000 extras, I would talk to those men and women. I’d say, “Listen, I’m from Manchester. It’s got to be true, it’s got to be real, and I rely on you to be true and real. When this man comes on this stage, this is 1940, this is where we’re at." I'd prepare them in terms of where we were at in the history of that moment, and they can see that I was very keen for them to be true, but they really respond to that. They really did respond in terms of "Right, it’s got to be absolutely perfect." So when Idris walks on, those aren’t actors. Those are people who are actually in that moment, so that gave us a visceral response, and they enabled the film to happen in a way that was like a live event happening. And that gave it a very emotionally charged atmosphere, sometimes a little bit on the edge, particularly when we did the riot scenes. Some of those cars, some of those tires were not meant to go up, and I would have not wanted to be a white police officer in those scenes, but it gave it a realism that informed all of the performances.

Capone: What was the most number of extras that you had in one scene?

JC: I had 1,000. I’m even shocked even saying this for a movie. For the BBC, you get 100 or 200 extras across the whole film. [laughs] For example, we had on the celebrations of the win for Mandela’s party, we had 1,000 extras. We knew it was going to be a celebratory scene, so we put up these speakers in Soweto on the street. Everybody was ready. And 1,000 extras is a lot of people, as you know, but we started playing this music, and me and the cameraman started shooting, and the whole place just went up. Within minutes, there were like 2,000 and then 3,000 people. And then me and the cameraman got lost, and I was passing him these rolls of film, and he was shooting, and they found me, and the line producer said, “You’ve got to have a release form from every single person.” There must have been about 10,000 people out there. It was just wild, it was brilliant. And the energy there is just inspiring, it really is.

Capone: I was thinking about different segments that had information that I was not aware of. The negotiations as they were trying to get him free in a way that would help the white government at the time, I hadn't really heard much about that. That’s an interesting period, and it caused him a lot of grief as the county was on the verge of exploding, the other prisoners were thinking that he was some how selling them out or selling out the cause. The political shuffling to me is one of the most interesting things about this.

JC: I have to agree with you. That was the real revelation for me. I remember those images of him coming out. But then somehow those four years, I thought they were his transition to him being president. That was a shock to see the country teetering on the brink of a blood bath, and there’s this man who comes out of prison in his 70s who, against his own comrades, the men who have been with him for 27 years, who are all like "Alright, we seize this now." Against his wife, against the people who all wanted to fight. They all wanted a revolution.

I hadn’t quite realize that he faced the biggest challenge at that particular moment. That’s what he had been training in his cell for, not just mentally but physically as well, so when he came out this man had the biggest challenge to be able to pave a way through for peace through negotiation and talk when everyone else was saying, “We seize it. We fight till the last drop of our blood.” He paved the way. It must be the only example in history where that’s happened. And how he did that and with such forgiveness, that was a massive revelation for me going in, and that he was able to do that with such conviction against everybody else--astonishingAnd that’s why the South African history is an important history for today.

Capone: I wanted to ask about the U2 song, because it seems like that would be an easy get for this movie. Was it as easy as it seems? I know growing up in the '80s, it was listening and paying attention to bands like them who were constantly talking about Mandela.

JC: That's right, me too. That’s the thing. That is such a dream. I’d grown up listening to "War" and "Boy" and "October" and those albums; I wore them out those vinyls because they, exactly what you say, were that band coming from a struggling Ireland, saying stuff about what was going on in South Africa. I named my son Joshua after "The Joshua Tree." These albums were important in growing up for all of us.

Capone: Is that true?

JC: Yeah, me and my wife met in college and listened to that album over and over. So I wrote to Bono, and I’d been listening to Bob Marley and U2 while we were making the film. And not just music from outside, but inside South Africa, and watching how this consciousness spread--artists like Gil Scott-Heron and U2 and Bob Marley. We were listening to that music, and I wrote to Bono and I said how he really inspired me sitting there in Manchester when I was a kid. And he came and watched it. And I told my bother, and my brother was really laughing--he can remember my mom banging on the ceiling to turn the music down. So there I am sitting with him--he and Larry saw it first--and he said right form the beginning, “It’s a story about love. I wanna write something about love.”

And he said, “If you don’t wanna use it...” And I was like [rolls eyes]. And he wrote this most wonderful true song about love, and it harks right back to those albums, to the raw sound of them and his voice is beautiful and poetic, and the fact that he has a history with Mandela and the family and with Harvey. Harvey was very instrumental in being able to enable that to happen, and I’m so honored to have that on there, because it’s the last track of the movie, and it takes you out of the cinema, and that track gives you hope. Yes, you’re fired up and emotional, and you’re fired up about this man, but Mandela gives you hope. Where there’s anger and where there’s injustice, Mandela does give you hope and he gives you a way though it.

Capone: I actual bought the vinyl on Record Store Day. Well, thank you.

JC: Yeah, so happy to have met you.

-- Steve Prokopy
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Recent Physics Doctorates: Skills Used & Satisfaction with Employment

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Data from the degree recipient follow-up survey for the classes of 2009 and 2010
March 2013
Garrett Anderson and Patrick Mulvey

 Skills Used & Satisfaction with EmploymentThis report begins with a discussion about the types of skills and knowledge that physics PhDs from the classes of 2009 and 2010 used regularly in the jobs they held one year after earning their doctorates. It concludes with an examination of qualitative measures such as job satisfaction, feelings of underemployment, and the helpfulness of career planning advice. Of particular interest are the comparisons of new physics PhDs who accepted postdocs to those who accepted potentially permanent positions.  The findings in this report come from the annual AIP degree recipients follow-up survey.

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How the 747 Got Its Hump

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Some designers and organizations have a stronger record of creating enduring mutations than others. Europe’s Airbus has prospered by steadily evolving and refining the Boeing-type commercial airliner—and a very good job they have done of it. But the Fort Worth division of General Dynamics—now part of Lockheed Martin—went through a four-decade cycle in which none of its major airplane projects bore any resemblance to its predecessor—or, for that matter, to anything else.

The lumbering, 10-engine B-36 bomber, bristling with retracting gun turrets like a Star Wars cruiser, was followed by the compact, fast, and dangerous B-58 Hustler and the swing-wing F-111—all unique designs. When GD chief designer Harry Hillaker and his team went after an Air Force lightweight-fighter contract in 1970, the world was skeptical. Fort Worth had never produced anything that weighed less than a fully loaded semi-trailer.

Doubts increased when Fort Worth rolled out a fighter shrink-wrapped around one massive engine, with blended wings and an under-body air inlet, an airplane that would not fly straight without computers. Bill Gunston, doyen of British aerospace journalists, observed that some air forces harbored a “cavalry officer mentality…that just wanted a flashy horse that would go faster.” The GD fighter, Gunston wrote, “was like selling the cavalry officer a super horse with six legs.” Four thousand F-16s later, one has to conclude that Hillaker and his team knew more about fighters than they had been given credit for.

Lockheed’s Skunk Works is another organization with a reputation for breaking with tradition. In addition to the U-2 and the Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird, the Skunk Works was responsible for the first stealth attack fighter: The F-117, without a single curve in its exterior surface, had to be unique, because it was the first airplane designed with reference to two equally important physical environments: the air and the electromagnetic spectrum.

Robert Silverstein, who was a Northrop Grumman executive in the early stages of the B-2 project, has compared the strange world of black projects to Australia: an isolated area where unique species can evolve without being gobbled up by bigger, more established predators. Now, the F-117’s DNA is showing up all over the place. Look at the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, particularly in front view, and then flip it upside down: There is the F-117’s profile, softened only by a few rounded edges and gentle curves. And the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the F-22’s cousin.

Maybe it’s the climate. Maybe it’s radiation leaks. Either way, a lot of strange mutations have sprung up in the Mojave Desert. The place shelters not only the black world’s equivalent of Edwards Air Force Base—the secret Groom Lake, Nevada facility—but also the town of Mojave, home of Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites company. If most airplanes evolve by natural means, then Rutan is aviation’s Dr. Frankenstein, fashioning strange asymmetric creatures (Boomerang) and others with so many arms and legs you lose count (Proteus, ATTT).

Sometimes you know it’s all going to end in tears. Take the example of Raytheon, which thought of itself in the early 1980s as a Route 128 Massachusetts technology company. Hoping to revitalize its fuddy-duddy Beech unit in Wichita, Kansas, Raytheon bought Scaled Composites. “It was like asking Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth”—the king of the California hot-rod customizers—“to design the next Cadillac,” Mike Potts, a former Beech executive, observed later. Rutan enlarged his two-place canard VariEze homebuilt into the turboprop-powered Starship. Beech built it and unveiled a full-scale mockup at the National Business Aircraft Association convention in Dallas in 1983. Every Beech dealer was prevailed upon to accept one airplane.

Some said the market wasn’t ready for such a radical departure. Others said the market wasn’t ready for anything. Whatever the case, the Starship production line closed after 53 airplanes had been built.

The risks and rewards of radical change can be huge, but sometimes you end up with something better kept chained in the dungeon—and that is why evolution rules, in aviation as well as in nature.

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Houston launches perishables air cargo facility at Bush Intercontinental Airport

By: | at 08:00 PM | Air Cargo

Tradewinds Cargo Handling to spark growth of international imports.

The Houston Airport System (HAS) and Trammell Crow Company announce that Tradewinds Cargo Handling, owned by New Jersey-based Group One Investments, LLC, signed a lease to operate a cold-storage air cargo facility at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH).

Starting November 1, Tradewinds Cargo Handling will accept perishable imports flown into Houston from international markets and will distribute throughout the United States.’ Trammell Crow Company developed the 61,484 square-foot IAH International Air CargoCentre(TM) II with the intent of establishing Houston as a major gateway for temperature and time-sensitive air cargo.

“We are excited about establishing Houston as a gateway for perishables, and we look forward to working with Trammell Crow Company and Houston Airports to turn this vision into reality,” said Edward Danberry, Group One Investments CEO.

Group One Investments named Kerry Galegher the director of the new air cargo facility, which offers direct ramp access for airlines and is next to a consolidated Federal Inspection Services center that speeds up processing of imported products.

“This new cargo operation adds a needed dynamic to international and Houston-based importers and distributors of perishable products,” said Eric Potts, Houston Airport System interim director of aviation. “The facility is the first of its kind in Houston in size and scope and allows airlines and logistics managers to better serve their customers.”’

Tradewinds Cargo Handling will offer a broad range of import and export value-added services, some of which include:

  • Pre-cooling imports
  • Sorting imports
  • Re-labeling imports prior to shipment to distribution centers or retail outlets
  • Certified cargo screening for airlines, freight forwarders, consolidators and commercial shippers
  • Transshipment by air and ground transportation

“This represents a significant opportunity for growth at Bush Intercontinental Airport, and Houston’s central location will dramatically improve the quality of imported products for the central United States,” said Steven Bradford, Trammell Crow Company managing director of airport development. “Bush Intercontinental Airport is going to play a significant role in the global distribution of temperature and time-sensitive products. The IAH International Air CargoCentre(TM) II will be a key link in the cold-chain.”

Trammell Crow Company is marketing the remaining warehouse space at IAH International Air CargoCentre(TM) II.

“We cannot stress enough the significance and positive impact this will have relative to our perishables market business capabilities; including an estimated $10 million in economic impact to the region in its first year, “said Jeff Moseley, President and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership. “The Partnership’s International division and member companies have worked around the clock with Houston Airports in bringing this to fruition by assisting to create market share to secure the outbound cargo business.”


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Tawakkul Karman, the chairwoman of Women Journalists without Chains, shouts slogans during an anti-government protest in Sanaa 10/02/2011. (photo by REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah Ali Al Mahdi)

It’s International Women’s Day In the Middle East, Too

Author: alhayat Posted March 8, 2012

Over the past year, Arab women fought bravely for their dignity and freedom, capturing global attention with their courage. Last December, my Yemeni sister, Tawakkul Karman, became the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the higher principles she fought for through her democratic activity.

SummaryPrint   In honor of International Women’s Day, Amat Al-Alim Alsoswa writes about the significance of women’s empowerment in Arab countries, and how a country’s progress in this sector affects its overall development.
Author Amat Al-Alim Alsoswa Posted March 8, 2012
TranslatorSami-Joe Abboud

Launching the transitional process was relatively easy. In fact, Arab women across the region have understood that pursuing democracy can help them achieve long-suppressed rights, but at the same time can also highlight deep-rooted discriminatory practices. This may cause women’s conditions to relapse, especially in cases where their representation in new and emerging institutions is still, to a large extent, below the desired level. In many countries, new elites celebrated their newly found freedom of expression, obtained after a long struggle, by talking about reducing women's rights.

In Tunisia, the (running) parties have frustrated the interim government’s impressive efforts to achieve equality in the National Constituent Assembly. In fact, these parties have deliberately chosen not to put a sufficient number of women at the head of their electoral lists.

In Egypt, the quota that has been allocated for women in parliament since 2009 was abolished during the early transitional period. Now, women only hold 12 out of 508 parliamentary seats.

In Libya, the Interim National Council is composed of strictly men. Likewise, female political activists are harassed not only by the security forces but also by men opposed to their presence in public life. Conventional wisdom holds that the pursuit of democracy inevitably leads to the expansion of women's rights, but it seems that such an expansion will not be achieved in this case.

The Arab Human Development Report I, issued by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) a decade ago, said that for many years the Arab world has been suffering from large deficits in three areas: knowledge, freedom and women's empowerment. It suggested that these areas must not be addressed separately, but as a package.

On International Women's Day, we must enumerate the great achievements made by women across the world and in various areas of their lives. Women and girls currently enjoy better health and education than in eras past. Moreover, the productivity of working women has reached its highest levels ever, and brilliant female leaders have emerged in all areas. But we must extend a bridge to our sisters in the Arab region so that they do not lag behind.

The UNDP, where I serve as Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States (RBAS), provides support at this critical stage by training female candidates interested in political activism in Tunisia. The RBAS also supports national dialogue in Egypt, provides counsel on the rule of law and human rights in Libya and supports dialogue and political transition in Yemen.

Today, we are approaching one of the most important landmarks on the road to democratic change in these four countries, where national bodies are holding meetings to initiate the development of new constitutions. While each transitional process has its own peculiarities, they all share the pivotal importance of developing a new constitution which embodies each community’s values in a legal framework.

In this regard, the entire international community must insist that the constitution-making processes be participatory, inclusive and in compliance with basic international conventions and agreements, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This convention, signed by most Arab states, calls on governments to ensure equality between men and women before the law and seeks liberation from gender discrimination. It also demands that women's rights and dignity be prioritized over any standards or practices, be they cultural or religious.

Some dogmatic groups that have recently come to power may argue otherwise. Some tend to say that the concept of women's rights is a Western-imposed value. They should be ignored and refuted. Others resort to analyzing the difference between "equity" and "equality.” However, there are countless ordinary people across the Arab world, male and female, who find that women's rights are fully compatible with the teachings of Islam and that they are an extension of its history. This history starts with the high position of power that the queens of ancient Egypt held, and ends with the progress that we are currently witnessing in education and professional and civil employment, as well as the legal safeguards that enable women to own assets, travel at will and live without fear of exposure to violence.

At this juncture, defenders of equality have to speak up. The UNDP and other United Nations specialized agencies offer support services for Arab communities through community consultations and insuring broad participation in constitutional development, while enabling the voices of the largest number of society sectors to be heard. They further aim to develop an awareness of basic governmental obligations in accordance with international law. This will provide new Arab political systems with a strong foundation . It will also contribute to the prosperity of civil-society institutions and will make real progress toward the full realization of women’s rights.

Throughout the region, men and women fought side by side with courage and determination in order to achieve social justice, dignity, transparency and inclusion. They fought to make their opinions heard on decisions that affect and shape their lives. However, the pace of their progress toward achieving these goals primarily depends on the progress they make toward women's empowerment.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2012/03/international-womens-day-let-us.html

Published London, Pan Arab Established 1946
Language Arabic Frequency daily

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©2015 Al-Monitor. All rights reserved.


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Steve Jones not returning as 'X Factor' host

The Associated Press By The Associated Press The Associated Press
on January 30, 2012 at 10:10 PM, updated January 30, 2012 at 10:16 PM
steve-jones.jpgTelevision host Steve Jones poses on the red carpet at 'The X Factor' Finale show in Los Angeles on Dec. 22, 2011.
LOS ANGELES — Steve Jones is leaving "The X Factor" stage.

The Fox talent competition host said Monday on Twitter that he wouldn't be returning to host the show's second season.

Jones, a British TV personality, called his departure "a shame" and added that he couldn't "complain as I've had a great time." He gave no reason why he wasn't returning.

Jones was originally slated to host "X Factor" alongside Nicole Scherzinger, who replaced British pop star Cheryl Cole as a judge when executive producer Simon Cowell and other producers had second thoughts about Cole joining the series.

Despite consistent viewership, "X Factor" has failed to achieve popularity similar to "American Idol," which Cowell left to import "X Factor" from the U.K.

The second season is set to debut later this year.


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VI. Conclusions and Recommendations

This study has been limited to a comprehensive review of the literature on outsourcing in general, an in depth analysis of the literature on outsourcing of cataloging, followed by a detailed examination of a four selected specific outsourcing cases. This is a rather limited set of cases on which to generalize, but nevertheless the evidence does point to some tentative conclusions about the impact of outsourcing on the three specific areas identified in the RFP.

   Library Governance and First Amendment Issues

We found no evidence that outsourcing per se represents a threat to library governance, or to the role of the library in protecting the First Amendment rights of the public. Library staff in organizations where the management was contracted to outside vendors (NASA, Riverside County) expressed little concern that their values were in conflict with those of their employers. Likewise, surveys of library users revealed no concern about the practice. Elected officials and county officers in Riverside have found that by contracting out the management of the public library system to a commercial vendor rather than a municipality, they have significantly increased their control over policy matters and resource allocation decisions and enhanced the accountability of the library to the people it serves.

   Maintenance of a Quality Workforce

With regard to outsourcing of cataloging and selection, this issue is elusive and difficult to determine. There appears to be legitimate cause for concern that, with increasing reliance on vendors for cataloging and selection, the expertise of local library professional staff in these areas way dwindle and atrophy. One the other hand, this is a logical by-product of the managerial choice to direct local staff resources toward other activities and functions, enhancing staff expertise in these other areas. These represent the difficult choices managers must make in the face of limited resources and increasing demands for services.

In the Riverside case, we uncovered some vague indications of increasing workloads and decreasing compensation—especially in terms of benefits—that might lead to diminished work forces over the long term. There was also a clear indication of a change in the staffing pattern in some libraries, with non-professionals handling tasks that had formerly been carried out by professionals. Some observers might interpret this as the cynical manipulation of labor by a for-profit employer. An equally valid view, in our opinion, is that this represents a specific instance of a much larger trend in library management, involving innovative approaches to staffing patterns in order to find more effective allocations of scarce resources. The evidence is equivocal and the conclusions by no means certain. More study is needed, and perhaps more time to develop a discernible pattern of activities.

   The Community of Libraries and Their Cooperative Endeavors

We also found no evidence that outsourcing per se had any significant impact on interlibrary cooperation. Conceptually, there is the possibility that library collections developed by vendors rather than local selectors might tend to become homogenous over time. This, in turn, would limit the diversity of library collections as a whole, and vitiate the rationale for effective library resource sharing. It is not clear from the evidence at hand, however, that the scale of outsourced selection justifies concern about this theoretical evolution. Nor is it certain that, given emerging patterns in publishing and information distribution systems, such homogenization is not more or less inevitable in the long run.

Far from being a threat to library cooperation, outsourcing of cataloging is in fact facilitated by widespread access to shared cooperative cataloging efforts.

Outsourced library management, on the other hand, more logically might pose a threat to interlibrary cooperation. We found, however, no evidence that it fact has as yet made any impact. In Riverside, the surrounding communities appear to view LSSI as a good neighbor, and one with whom they are more than willing to work for common improvements.

   General Considerations

While we found no evidence that outsourcing per se represents a threat, there are to be sure a number of issues which might deserve sober deliberation by the library profession. There are clearly instances in which outsourcing has led to undesirable—perhaps even disastrous—results. In seems apparent, however, that these debacles are less a consequence of outsourcing than of poor management; in other words, outsourcing badly done. It is clear from these examples, as well as from consistent admonitions in the literature that, a decision to outsource is one that should be made very carefully, with deliberate consideration of all of the factors and ramifications. It would be perhaps useful to reiterate the suggestions of Riverside County official Tom DeSantis about things to be sure to do before outsourcing.

  1. Keep policy control with the elected public officials and representatives of the public;
  2. Have your own in-house expert, a qualified professional, to manage the contract and oversee vendor performance;
  3. The contract must specify outcomes that are quantitatively measurable;
  4. Choose your service provider carefully; be certain they have the experience and qualifications to deliver on their commitments.

The first two of these are clear and unambiguous. We might elaborate further on the second two. From the third suggestion it can be noted that a key element in successful outsourcing projects is the quality of the contract: a poor contract will likely result in poor performance. It is imperative, therefore that librarians and library managers become experts at developing, monitoring and administering contracts. It seems equally obvious that model contracts and guidelines for developing proposals be created by appropriate professional organizations to aid librarians in negotiating their way through the contracting wilderness.

The final suggestion above leads to another observation: one of the greatest impediments to successful outsourcing is the limited pool of qualified and experienced vendors, especially in the area of library management. The most important handicap that Riverside County has in negotiating with LSSI is that there are few alternative vendors from which to chose. If there were a half dozen qualified and experienced vendors from which to chose, contract negotiations with any single vendor would take on a completely different complexion.

Michael Gorman is one of the most outspoken critics of outsourcing in the library literature. He has written that library managers who decide to contract with outside vendors for cataloging, selection or acquisition services “are saying, in effect, that professional library skills and experience can be replaced by distant vendors who probably lack the former and certainly lack the latter" (Gorman 1998, 74). We would certainly agree that library managers should not contract for any services with vendors who lack relevant professional skills or adequate experience. We would assert, however, that many vendors can offer skills and experience equal to the professional staffs of many libraries. The evidence we considered indicates that, in many cases, the skills and experience of vendor staffs may far exceed those of the local library staff — for specific activities and functions. The key to success in outsourcing is knowing when to outsource, and negotiating a workable contract with a capable vendor. This in turn results from careful analysis and planning, establishment of measurable objectives, and vigilant monitoring of contract performance.

In general, there is no evidence that outsourcing per se has had a negative impact on library services and management. On the contrary, in the main outsourcing has been an effective managerial tool, and when used carefully and judiciously it has resulted in enhanced library services and improved library management. Instances where problems have arisen subsequent to decisions to outsource aspects of library operations and functions appear to be attributable to inadequate planning, poor contracting processes, or ineffective management of contracts.

The following recommendations are offered to the American Library Association to improve the use of outsourcing as an effective management tool in American libraries.

  1. The American Library Association should encourage the inclusion of data documenting the extent of outsourcing in libraries in the regular annual data collection activities of such agencies as the National Center for Education Statistics.
  2. The American Library Association should foster regular treatment of outsourcing trends, vendors and services, and other issues related to outsourcing, in the journals published by the divisions and units of ALA.
  3. The American Library Association should foster, through its Divisions and other units, the development of guidelines and model contracts to aid librarians in making decisions about outsourcing.
  4. The American Library Association, working collaboratively with other appropriate agencies such as the Council on Library and Information Resources and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, should encourage and foster further research into the impact of outsourcing on library services and management.

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2008 Election Information

Welcome to Election 2008! This page is the primary resource on the World Wide Web for information on elections in Alabama that are scheduled for the year 2008. The purpose of this page is to provide you a quick reference to answer questions you may have about such topics as voter registration, the dates of the elections, and voting procedures.

Use the links below to explore the information we have already posted ... and return on a regular basis to keep up with new information we will be posting for elections in the year 2008!

General Information and Resources

General Election - November 4, 2008

Primary Runoff Election - July 15, 2008

  • Certified Primary Runoff Election Results - Republican Party (certified on 7/30/2008)
  • State Certification of Republican Party candidates for June 15, 2008, primary runoff election (certified to counties 6/16/2008)

Primary Election - June 3, 2008

Presidential Preference Primary Election - February 5, 2008

Special Election Resources - House District 12


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A (somewhat by choice) childless woman's thoughts

Added on by Tabitha.

I shared this article on Facebook yesterday. "Childless by choice: Shallow and self-absorbed or just awesome?

It wasn't the first article of its sort I've shared in the past two years or so - there've been plenty along the same grain of "we're childless, we choose to be (or maybe we didn't) but the bottom line is, just leave us the fuck alone about it."

But is everyone looking at me and my fellow DINKS with such disdain or pity or even judgement? No, not at all. For every pushy person out there, I am thankful for at least five more people in my life - ones who have kids, mind you - who understand and are supportive.

I speak for myself and my circle - my friends (emphasis on friends) have been plenty supportive. Without diving into personal things, I have this to say: it all boils down to choice and for some reason, there are a lot of people who can't fathom others making different choices than they did, and I have thus chosen not to surround myself with those jerks (who I'm sure mean well, in their own odd way).

I'm not writing this to defend not having kids - the articles floating around out there are doing a good job doing that for me. I'm writing this because not everybody is a judgmental dick or someone who lords the whole "oh my god it's so rewarding to have kids you guys have to have kids what do you mean you don't want kids you'd have such cute kids" sermon over you and I'd like to salute those people and thank them for being mature enough to know that when someone responds with the following

  • No, not yet.
  • Nope!
  • We don't.
  • We're planning to, but not right now.
  • Hell no.
  • Eh, no.
  • We just got married yesterday.

is to move on.

BUT! I am writing this to give credit to and show appreciation for the people I know who have kids who don't push their decisions on me and the many, many other people like me and The Husband; the ones who respect our life choices and who aren't themselves being selfish by insisting that it's in any way wrong that we don't follow the same path they've gone down. You know who you are, and I love you and thank you.

Why I like Twitter so much

Added on by Tabitha.

The weather in Nashville's been less than ideal over the past few weeks and it's reminded me how much I love and rely on Twitter. If not for Twitter, I wouldn't be as informed about traffic conditions, closures, and I wouldn't have learned that ice dams are a thing.

I've been an active Twitter user for eight years now, and I haven't gotten sick of it. Twitter is a lot more reliable than Facebook, especially now that Facebook will shove a post to the top of your timeline that's days (even weeks or months) old just because there was activity on it (like a new comment). People unknowingly share and re-share articles that are sometimes a few years old that they mistake for news, and I feel that that Facebook just isn't an environment for timely or factual information.

The people you follow on Twitter are the people you choose to follow and you're not forced to accept someone's friend request just because you know they'll be butthurt if you don't. Not saying it doesn't happen on Twitter but it's a lot easier to avoid the crazy there than on Facebook.

Now, if you're not as concerned with getting real-time news and you prefer fluff or US Magazine level news; if you enjoy peeking into the lives of people you haven't seen or talked to since you were 15 and if you just LOVE seeing other people's ultrasounds then Facebook is great for all that.

Hell, I won't deny that I enjoy scrolling through Facebook, sometimes it's nice to give my brain a break. Maybe it's schadenfreude. But I do my utmost not to divulge much about myself aside from the occasional soapbox - much easier to do when you don't have character limitations. But I've stopped posting pictures of myself and of my family and friends on there because I enjoy some level of privacy, and I am sure my friends/family do too.

Anyway, back to why Twitter's reliable. Here's a good example: If you've lived in Nashville for more than six years, you were around for when Twitter proved itself really useful - during the flood of 2010 when none of the news outlets reported anything because it was the weekend and they were, at the time, slow to catch on to social media. Every update I got came from the other Nashvillians I followed, and whether we intended to or not, Twitter became a source of support. If I'm not wrong, that's basically when news outlets finally became active on social media.

Speaking of, I recommend following @NashSevereWX if you live in Nashville or nearby because they are the best source of updates during bad weather. Now excuse me, I'm going to check my Twitter feed to see if I should be panicking and stocking up on milk and bread or not.

Drinking my way through the best coffee places in Seattle & Portland

Added on by Tabitha.

Subtitled: All the Stumptown Coffee shops in the PNW with a few others thrown in because they are also good.

Last October I was fortunate enough to tag along with my sister and her husband Leon (owner of a premier coffee company Papa Palheta and coffee shops Loysel's Toy and Chye Seng Huat Hardware) and his business partner to Seattle and Portland.

They were there on business, my sister was there to learn and (by proxy) so was I. Plus it was bonding time for the two of us since I hardly get to see my family. More on the food we ate and the trip in general later. For now, here are all the coffee places we went to. Click to view the gallery.

Didn't manage to get pictures but our first day in Seattle, we stopped by Milstead & Co in the Fremont area in Seattle. Cute little place, walking distance to a ton of restaurants too. While in Portland we also dropped into Heart to look around and Clive Coffee to look at all sorts of coffee contraptions and toys. And of course, we went to the original Starbucks to look around.

I think I left my heart in the Pacific North West so I guess I'll have to go back again soon!

Instagram Accounts That Inspire Me

Added on by Tabitha.

As of today, I follow 426 Instagram accounts. A lot of those are friends, some of those friends don't post anymore or hardly post at all so it's always fun to see on the rare occasion they do. I should probably go through that list and stop following the ones who aren't active but for the most part, the people I do follow are interesting, and I try not to follow "just because."

This list is of my favorite visually stunning accounts that I think you'll love. These are accounts where you can scroll... scroll... scroll and not be bored. These are also accounts that inspire me so I hope you enjoy!

Untitled Projects is my sister's company she started a couple of years ago. If I had to have only one source of inspiration, it's her - a person of impeccable taste and a keen eye for great design and packaging and form, her Instagram account makes me so proud to be related to her. Now if she'd just rub off on me a little, I'd be set.

Do you like baking? Do you like pretty things? Do you get inspired by an edgy sense of humor, clever captions and awesome taste? Libbie's your girl. The woman has the best wardrobe and shoes, she's SUPER cool, and... am I gushing? I'm gushing aren't I? I'm a big fan. HUGE fan.

Lydia is an illustrator in Singapore. Lately, I've developed a love for hand-lettering and hand-drawn illustration and Oak & Bindi's pop art, comic book style is right up my alley. It's also inspiring to see how someone has taken her passion and by sticking to it, she's now commissioned for murals and artwork. Plus she's also got great style.

I'm a sucker for animal accounts. @Oul (I guess his name's Louis) lives in Nashville by beautiful Radnor Lake, and he manages to capture pictures of animals in the funniest positions. Throw in his captions and you've got laugh-out-loud moments.

Talk about eye candy! Joy is a pastry chef in Sweden who makes the prettiest pastries and then takes even prettier pictures of them. She doesn't post a lot so I always look forward to seeing what she's baked.

If you have any suggestions on who to follow or any favorites of your own that inspire you, please leave the link in comments so I can check them out too!