Months after his successful solo exhibition featuring a compelling selection of his religious paintings billed “The Lord was There” in New York earlier this year, Christian master portrait artist Zimou Tan is now on a mission to make his work more accessible to art lovers of faith and he launched a Kickstarter campaign Tuesday to help him reach it.

• Eurostoxx +0.6%
• Germany DAX +0.7%
• France CAC 40 +0.3%
• UK FTSE flat
• Spain IBEX +0.3%
• Italy FTSE MIB +0.4%

It's still early in the day but European indices are at least hoping to recover some poise after the fall earlier in the week. US futures are also seen flattish at the moment, after having been down earlier in the day. So, that's at least helping with the broader market mood. But again for Europe, the outlook remains challenging considering all the recent developments with regards to German politics and the US election result.

A campaign highlighting the benefits of composting household waste, supported by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, was launched on 1 July 2016 in Pljevlja, by the Montenegrin Sustainable Development and Tourism Ministry, the Municipality of Pljevlja and the Eco-Centre Dolphin NGO.

Some 40 participants - representatives of the Sustainable Development and Tourism Ministry; the municipal authorities of Berane, Bijelo Polje and Pljevlja; local public utility companies from Pljevlja and Kotor; and NGOs as well as citizens, attended the campaign launch.

“Composting household waste is just an element of broader waste management, one of the most current issues facing Montenegrin authorities in their efforts to bring the relevant policy, strategy and legislative frameworks in line with the international standards and requirements of the advancing integration processes,” said Programme Manager at the OSCE Mission Vladimir Ragozin.

President of the Municipality of Pljevlja Mirko Đačić said: “Our municipality is actively involved in enhancing the local environment, especially regarding air quality improvements.”

State Secretary at the Sustainable Development and Tourism Ministry Daliborka Pejović stated that the primary waste separation is unquestionable and the educational campaigns are crucial bearing in mind the State’s plan of 50-70% of waste to be primary separated d until 2020.

“The waste should be perceived as a resource that can be further used through development of recycling and composting industry,” said Director of Eco-Centre Dolphin NGO Ljilja Radunović. “It is recommended, under the EU Directive on Landfills, to consider the policy of the closure of landfills starting from 2020 because they proved to be unsustainable.” 

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Stephen King has posted on X to respond to the rumor that Elon Musk banned him.

[CW: strong, bleak/dark/violent humour, profanity] Frankie Boyle's American Autopsy was recorded shortly after the 2016 US election, and includes contributions from guests Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan, Michelle Wolf, Desiree Burch, and (unfortunately) Richard Osman. The show is based around three propositions concerning America, voted on by Americans in the audience. Link originally from a late 2016 post.

The Who's iconic frontman Roger Daltrey has announced that he will be launching a UK solo tour next spring

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Bermuda is getting set to present “The Pirates Of Penzance!” from October 9 through October 18, 2014 at the Earl Cameron Theatre at City Hall, with a special “Pirate Happy Hour” to be held from 4.00pm through 6.00pm on October 4, 2014. A spokesperson said, “During the October 4 […]

Amazing Spider-Man launches into a new era and new story arc. Plus reviews of Psylocke and Uncanny X-Men.

Marco Jansen's late pyrotechnics were not enough to save South Africa as they slid to a 11-run defeat against India in the third T20 at SuperSport Park on Wednesday.

IBM’s first Quantum Developer Conference kicks off today, a repositioning of the IBM Quantum Summit of past years, and IBM released a flurry of news mostly around advancing Qiskit (SDK) […]

The post IBM Kicks off Quantum Dev Conference with Flurry of News appeared first on HPCwire.

It's possible to scale sustainably even in uncertain times.

World's slimmest and lightest high-fidelity active noise cancelling Bluetooth earphones, portable battery that supports both iPhone and Android devices with built-in turbo charge cables, ultra-mini Bluetooth speaker. All three of these can be magnetically attached, combining into one simple and convenient package. This was the core concept behind the product they have developed.

On the afternoon of June 23, the Fourth World Intelligence Congress kicked off in Media Theater, Tianjin. Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of CPPCC and Chairman of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), attended the online opening ceremony. CPC Tianjin Committee Secretary Li Hongzhong addressed the congress. Li Xiaohong, President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), congratulated the congress through video.

FullTime Fantasy Sports continues to expand its Fantasy coverage and now with a PREMIUM membership, you earn access to Kickman's NHL DFS picks all season long!

FullTime Fantasy Sports continues to expand its Fantasy coverage and now with a PREMIUM membership, you earn access to Kickman's NHL DFS picks all season long!

The NFL will be spotting touchbacks at the 25-yard line this year, but will that mean more touchbacks or more kicks going high and short of the goal line?

FullTime Fantasy Sports continues to expand its Fantasy coverage and now with a PREMIUM membership, you earn access to Kickman's NHL DFS picks all season long!

The next place I'm excited to see is Hsi Lai Temple. I've heard so
much about it. It's a Buddhist Temple that has quite a history.
It's suppose to be one of the largest temples in the area.

The Hsi Lai Temple will be a great historical place to see
this weekend. The hours are from 9 am to 5 pm. This will be a
definite treat. What I can't wait to see is it's layout. The temple
offers group tours up to 15 people. So this can be a treat for
even a nice small group of people.

Here are some insights to their philosophy.

I'll fill you in on the details real soon. Have a happy Easter.


Drifters Memoirs
Travel Banter Blog
@---------->-----


Tags: travel memoirs

Friscopromos.com holiday campaign promotes giving memorable & meaningful custom products to valued employees, friends, and customers. [PR.com]

Jake Doyle is touring Northants rugby clubs to raise money

Jordan Stephens outlines his battles with drug abuse, fame and grief in his new memoir.

There are two words that every writer needs to know if they're going to learn how to write well: lede and kicker. Most writers will be familiar with these, but in case the terms are new to you, let’s define them.

WITH working from home being the new norm, the hours tend to blur and we often find ourselves looking for a pick-me-up to get through the day.

Now, working responsibly while enjoying a cold one is made possible with Heineken 0.0 – a beer minus the guilt and the alcohol.

In line with the brand’s advocacy of responsible consumption, Heineken is giving away 10,000 Heineken 0.0 four-can packs to refresh your next long day of work.

To kick-start a “work smart, drink smart” routine, simply sign up at www.heineken00drinksmart.com.

As you drag the Heineken 0.0 can into the calendar within the site, a redemption form will pop up and a free four-can Heineken pack 0.0 will be making its way to your doorstep.

“Our days are often filled with back-to-back meetings and long checklists to complete,” said Heineken Malaysia Bhd marketing director Pablo Chabot.

“There are times we cannot even pause to take a break.

“We hear you, hence we are giving away 10,000 free four-can packs of Heineken 0.0 for you to enjoy while you work.

“Gone are the days where you cannot have a beer while working, when you can now work smart and drink smart with Heineken 0.0,” he added.

The free four-can packs are available on a first come, first served basis and subject to eligibility.

Only one redemption per person is allowed, while stocks last.

Those who miss out on this giveaway can purchase the packs via the Drinkies app (available on both iOS and Android) or www.drinkies.my.

For more information, visit www.heineken00drinksmart.com.

(Heineken 0.0 and all promotions and giveaways are for non-Muslims aged 21 and above only.)

...

Kashmiris will not give up their demand of right to self-determination, say participants

The movie seems like an intense, gripping thriller with a determined female protagonist

Spencer Shrader is next up in the New York Jets' kicking shuffle.

The EU BON project is pleased to announce the International Symposium "Nature and Governance – Biodiversity Data, Science, and the Policy Interface", which was held in Berlin from 11 to 12 February. The symposium aimed at clarifying and popularizing EU BON's objectives prior to the official EU BON Kick-off Meeting held from 13 to 15 February 2013.

The symposium was hosted by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and brought together high-ranking speakers and guests from across the world to talk and discuss the different aspects of the EU BON Project. Among the main issues covered was the future of biodiversity information, the challenges in front of new data policies, new approaches in collecting information, and ways to engage the public in biodiversity monitoring and assessments.

The EU BON project was started on 1 December, 2012, and will continue for 4.5 years. The aim of EU BON is to build a substantial part and contribute to the Group on Earth Observation's Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), through an innovative approach of integration of biodiversity information systems. The project, built as an answer to the need of a new integrated biodiversity data, will facilitate access to this knowledge and will effectively improve the work in the field of biodiversity observation in general.

###

For more information on the symposium and the events planned, please visit our programme page.

All interested parties are most welcome to attend the symposium or to follow it on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

Additional information

EU BON (2012) stands for "Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network" and is a European research project, financed by the 7th EU framework programme for research and development (FP7). EU BON seeks ways to better integrate biodiversity information and implement into policy and decision-making of biodiversity monitoring and management in the EU.

GEO BON stands for "Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network". It coordinates activities relating to the Societal Benefit Area (SBA) on Biodiversity of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Some 100 governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations are collaborating through GEO BON to organise and improve terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity observations globally and make their biodiversity data, information and forecasts more readily accessible to policymakers, managers, experts and other users. Moreover, GEO BON has been recognized by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. More information at: http://www.earthobservations.org/geobon.shtml.

A joint EU BON WP3-WP4 meeting took place on 25-27 November 2013 in Solsona, Spain. The main aim of the meeting was to officially kick off WP3 and provide forum for discussion of the planned work. The two work packages were presented with their main aims, scope and objectives. The place of the two work packages in the broader framework of EU BON, and the cross-links between the two, were also discussed.

In the following interview Hannu Saarenmaa and Klaus Henle share insights from the meeting:

1) WP3 ‘Improving tools and methods for data analysis and interface’ and WP 4 ‘Link environment to biodiversity: analyses of patterns, processes and trends’ are two of the core work packages in EU BON that are expected to accumulate a lot of genuine data and develop new tools for data analysis and interface. Can you explain in short what will your main activities involve?

HS: I can contribute to the project and these WPs a large-scale modelling technology from the BioVeL project that can process hundreds of species. This would be an engine to compute the first real Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV).

KH: Our main activities will involve an analysis how available effort is best allocated in time and space to optimize results from monitoring. We will further assess how different sources of uncertainty influence conclusions derived from the analysis of monitroing data

2) What were the main results of the meeting in terms of the planned work and WP management?

HS: It was proposed to set up an EBV Task Force across the EU BON project.  If we can do that, it would really give a thrust for the project. If we could pick up the Database of Monitoring Schemes from the EUMON project, as discussed, that would give us access to some large datasets.

KH: One main result was the identification of the concrete responsibilities (e.g. data provision, data analysis for terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity) within the workpackage and to identify explicitly links to other workpackages.

3) What novelty will the work in these two work packages bring and what will the major results be?

HS: If they can create a new Ecological Niche Modelling algorithm that can also deal with spatial patterns, that would be interesting.  Such a model actually exists in MigClim, but it is not yet widely used.

KH: We will get recommendations how monitoring can be optimized and a more comprehensive understanding of changes in biodiversity and their underlying causes

4) What are the immediate planned activities and when can the first results be expected?

KH: The most immediate planned activities it the screening of potentially available data needed for the analysis

5) How will the WP3/4 interact with GEO BON?

HS: The proposed EBV Task Force would need to interface very closely with GEO BON.

KH: We are engaged directly with key members of GEO-BON; e.g. we have regular meetings with Henrique Perreira.

The official kick-off of the EU BON project WP6 Stakeholder engagement and science-policy dialogue and WP7 Implementation of GEO BON: strategies and solutions at European and global levels took place on 18-19 February 2014 in Leipzig, Germany. The two work packages are a crucial part of the project outlining the future actions towards ensuring the integration of the project with its global counterpart GEO BON, as well as paving the road towards successful stakeholder and policy engagement.

As a result of this first meeting further short-term and long-term steps were outlined for WP6 and WP7 towards the achievement of main project objectives. These steps include shaping the future EU BON GEO BON interactions and EU BON’s approach towards stakeholder engagement.

In the following interview Ilse Geijzendorffer gives an insight on the outcomes from the meeting.

This image shows the discussions during the WP6/WP7 kick-off meeting. Credit: Eugenie Regan

1) What are the project’s main stakeholders that you are planning to approach and interact with in the future?

EU BON aims to develop a blue print for a data infrastructure for data handling, storage, indicator computation and transfer of knowledge via a data portal available to knowledge seekers. This data infrastructure thus has to be useful to data holders who want their data to be used (e.g. citizen scientists, nature associations, scientists) and to those that seek knowledge (e.g. reporting bodies). EU BON reaches out to these stakeholders and to bodies that would be interested to host or have such a data infrastructure themselves. Our first stakeholder round table focused on European knowledge seekers and existing data portals. Our second stakeholder round table planned for this summer will focus on citizen scientists and the organisations that currently handle the citizen science data, to receive input on what these two stakeholder groups would like to see in such a data infrastructure blue print.

At the same time we reach out to ongoing platforms that consist of networks of knowledge and that have needs regarding their data flow. A very important partner in the data infrastructure development is GEO BON. The coordination of GEO BON has just changed and EU BON will reinforce the ties with GEO BON during the General Assembly in Crete coming in April.

2) Science-policy dialogue proves to be a crucial part for the success of large scale projects like EU BON, how are you tackle this challenge?

The objective of EU BON is a moving target in the sense that the blue print for data infrastructure will need to suit the needs for current and future monitoring. Additionally, the actual implementation, funding and hosting of such an infrastructure could be within a structure that may not yet exist in that form today. Changes in mission, coordination and targets occur constantly. To profit from lessons learned, we are in close contact with the Biodiversity Knowledge Project; a project that has already gained experience in the last four years in identifying the most important elements for handling data requests from knowledge seekers and in developing a suitable management plan.

For EU BON to achieve and reach its moving target, we keep in touch with the changes within the biodiversity knowledge landscape (e.g. progress in IPBES, CBD reporting, European targets ad evaluations); we explore multiple scenarios for the data infrastructure, the business plan and the implementation options; and we collaborate with a large range of stakeholders to include not only their ideas and needs, but also the transitions that they go through.

The European Union funded EU BON "Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network" project held its official Kick-off Meeting, taking place from 13 to 15 February 2013 in Berlin. An International Symposium "Nature and Governance – Biodiversity Data, Science, and the Policy Interface" preceded the kick-off (11-12 February 2013), to discuss the current landscape of monitoring and integration of biodiversity data, and stress on the relevance of EU BON on both European and global scales.

The EU BON project will be working towards advancement and development of the technological platform for GEO BON (Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network), which operates and systemizes biodiversity data on a global scale.

The EU BON WP4 kick-off meeting will take place on 25-27 November 2013, in Solsona, Spain.

• to get to know each other better within tasks and between depending tasks,
• to advance on the understanding of the task and the work foreseen in the task,
• to explore some topics which could serve as guidance for work foreseen in tasks.

The Globis-B kick-off meeting will take place in Amsterdam from on 8-10 June (Monday till Wednesday). The kick-off meetingwill  bring the consortium together to talk through the different parts of the project. A mini-symposium is also planned for Wednesday morning with three talks from international speakers about research topics that are relevant for the project.

Globis-B  stands for GLOBal Infrastructures for Supporting Biodiversity research and is a H2020 project within the coordination & support action funding scheme of the H2020-INFRASUPP-2014-2 call. The main aim of the project is to bring together scientists with global research infrastructure operators and legal interoperability experts to address the research needs and infrastructure services required to calculate Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV). Currently we are finalizing the grant agreement with the EU and the project will probably starting on 1st June 2015. 

The official kick-off meeting of the EU funded Horizon 2020 project ECOPOTENTIAL will take place on 25-26 June 2015 in the ancient Valentino Castle on the bank of the Po river in Torino, Italy.

The main objective of this project led by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) is to making Earth Observation and Monitoring Data usable for ecosystem modelling and services. This will also be done in selected Protected Areas in Europe, with a strong focus on mountain ecosystems, including a specific pilot site in the Carpathians. The project will make an important contribution to the work of the Group on Earth Observation (GEOSS) as well as UNEP Live.

More information and agenda to follow.

Arlington, VA – The Mine Safety and Health Administration has launched its annual campaign intended to promote roof and rib fall hazard awareness among coal miners and mine operators, while also focusing on continuous mining machine operator safety.

Arlington, VA — The Stand Down to Save Lives, set for May 17, is an “opportunity for mine owners and operators to share safety measures that can prevent injuries and deaths.”

Washington — The eighth annual National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction is set to kick off on May 3 with a webinar hosted by OSHA, NIOSH, and CPWR – the Center for Construction Research and Training.

Greenbelt, MD — Law enforcement officials will target speeding and other unsafe driving behaviors July 9-15 during the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s annual Operation Safe Driver Week.

Lansing, MI — If you rely on caffeine to provide a brain boost after a poor night of sleep, findings of a recent study from researchers at Michigan State University may give you a jolt.

This November and December, designers and flooring professionals come together for a fun, festive competition where they create themed Christmas trees based on ideas appropriate for kids in J+J Flooring’s 8th annual Helping Hands initiative. 

It's auction day for Alex Jones' Infowars. The Infowars studio and most other assets of the conspiracy theorist's company are expected to be sold off Wednesday. 

Hundreds of hikers and skiers started the new year outside as part of New Hampshire State Parks' First Day Hikes program. Five parks throughout the state - Monadnock, Franconia Notch, Odiorne Point, Milan Hill, and Bear Brook - welcomed visitors with trail maps, campfires, and hot chocolate.

Ohio State has rolled through most of its Big Ten games in recent years, but has taken tough criticism for a weak non-conference schedule. That changes this year, as the Buckeyes head to Norman, Oklahoma in the season's third week to take on the University of Oklahoma, a team that made the four-team postseason playoff last year.

Ohio State Football beings its 2016 campaign Saturday at noon in Ohio Stadium. The Buckeyes take on Bowling Green in what should be an easy win for Ohio State. Thomas Bradley and Steve Brown break down the matchup, the season and the team with Eric Seger from ElevenWarriors.com .

Rookie girl group Babymonster will embark on its first global fan meet tour this week. “Babymonster Presents: See You There” will begin in Tokyo on May 11. The tour will also travel to Jakarta,...

[more...]

[Economy] :
An annual shopping event officially kicks off Saturday, bringing discounts on food, clothing and other products. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, an opening ceremony for Korea Sale FESTA took place Friday afternoon in Seoul’s Myeongdong area. While discounts for automobiles ...

[more...]