NOAA advises those who hope to see the northern lights to get away from city lights.

The post What’s behind the northern lights that dazzled the sky farther south than normal appeared first on Boston.com.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow worship leaders, pastors, and the like…

There is a looming presence beckoning our attention as we ease our way into the Spring season. For some, it comes as a friend, a welcome celebration of life, family, and chocolate-coated vermin.

For others, this presence bodes agony, tension, and the undeniable stench of livestock threatening carpeted aisles. (Yes. We see you Passion Play preachers and your hosanna palm donkey entrance. We love you most.)

That’s right. EASTER is around the corner, and we know you feel it in all its weight and glory.

As worship leaders, it is our job to pave the way, to set up hearts for reception and change. Easter is a time to take chances and make risky musical choices. It’s a time when many non-churchgoers feel compelled to tradition and embrace the Sunday morning as it was originally intended. Lives are changed in donkey entrances and 8-part harmonies. At least, that seems to be the pressure we place on ourselves.

We plan sets, structure messages, and build light cues months in advance, creating an atmosphere of complete and total intentionality.

However, sometimes, in the midst of all the Easter hustle, we lose the Easter heart.

During this hectic season, we tend to see things through worship service blinders. High expectations have been placed upon us, and our focus becomes living up to that standard. While there is nothing wrong with preparing and executing a pristine worship service, sometimes we miss what’s beyond our blinders’ view.

You see, Easter is a time of celebration. It’s a time of reflection and appreciation for Christ’s atonement. Easter is a recognition of Jesus’ love, grace, and freedom. Yet, so often in this season we find ourselves burdened, overstressed, and exhausted. When we are vulnerable in this way, we tend to lose perspective and turn all focus inward.

Because of this hustled heart, we risk dishonoring those who honor us through this process: our volunteers.

Without volunteers, Easter service would be an impossible feat. We all know this. The value they offer, the time they spend, the sacrifices they make all reflect the beauty of this holiday.

So in the midst of the hustle and bustle, how can we show them their worth? How can we take our eyes off our task list for a moment? How can we come beside them and gift them with encouragement? How can we create an environment that honors those who give their time for Kingdom work? Let’s dig in…

1| PLAN AHEAD

You’ve planned the light cue for the closing crescendo of “Arise My Love,” as well as every color coordination for choir members. Bless it. The Planning Center has been updated to a state of perfection, not a single detail misplaced. Well done! We rejoice in your details! Now, what do you plan on feeding the 20 band members, worship leaders, and 75 count children’s choir you promised could sing the special? Ah yes, details.

To honor our volunteers is to plan ahead. Make a list, be practical and anticipate the needs of the Easter Sunday. Will you need to provide food? Where will the volunteers’ green room be held? Have you properly and frequently communicated with all members of your team? Have you delegated tasks to team members who have giftings in areas you are weak? (THERE’S A TIP.) Are volunteers aware of rehearsal times in advance? Have you discussed Easter dress code?

These are simple questions, and we are sure you’ve already covered these details, however it is important to make sure you prepare the systems prior to the day so your focus can be on loving them well, and blessing your church.

Another way to plan ahead is prayer. This can seem like an obvious one, however with volunteers in mind, it is extremely overlooked. We pray over the setlist and day of harvest. But do we go through our list of volunteers one by one and call them out by name? Do we take the time to lift up each individual and pray over their role on Easter Sunday? Our job as worship leaders sometimes lies in intercession for our worship family. Make sure you don’t miss an opportunity to pray over those the Lord’s entrusted to you.

How about honoring your worship volunteers with a small gift of appreciation? This is an amazing and simple way of showing you care and see their involvement. Whether it be a handwritten note, or even a gift card to an ice cream shop, a small token can move mountains when it comes to honor. Begin thinking of things you can do to bless your team.

2| STOP, LOOK, AND LISTEN

You’ve planned ahead, you have the details covered. You’ve delegated tasks and found thoughtful ways to show your volunteers you care. Now is the time to start stopping, looking, and listening.

As you walk through long nights of rehearsal and multiple email threads, it’s important to open your eyes to the family in front of you. Our view can get cloudy as the stress rises, so it’s vital to remain intentional as the process of Easter service begins.

If a volunteer has an idea, a thought, a recommendation, don’t dismiss it. Appreciate the feedback, stop and listen to the heart behind the conversation. Look around every once in awhile and find those that might reside on the outskirts, those that may be new to the team or simply not as plugged in. Keep your heart prepared for these moments. Be actively looking for places to serve your team and bless their experience in the midst of the hustle.

3| EMBRACE THE FAMILY

This one might be negated due to service timing and/or pastoral direction, but if possible, do your best to involve volunteer families in the Easter preparations. Create an event that honors those who give up their spouse, children, or sibling for the Kingdom that week.

Have an “after party celebration” for the team, a time to decompress and enjoy each other post-service. Allow the family to be present for rehearsals or enjoy a meal with the team between services. Remember, Easter is a family-centered holiday, so do your best to find ways to honor that time spent.

4| OFFER GRACE

So the soloist forgot her lyric, or the keys player spilled his morning brew all over the cherry red Rhodes. Mistakes, spills, nerves, there is no escaping these little inevitables. Things are going to happen, people are going to be people. Early mornings and long days provide a variety of personality disorders. Close quarters and high stakes tend to bring out the “bless their hearts” in all of us.

As a worship leader, our job is to take on these little moments of joy and move forward with an attitude of grace. Someone talks about you in a negative light? Grace. The mic batteries aren’t freshly changed? Grace. The food is cold because it was set out at the wrong time? GRACE.

Easter is literally the STORY of grace, so let’s take a cue from our blessed Savior and walk through this day in a spirit of love and laughter. Make the experience a joy for everyone you encounter.

5| REMEMBER THE WHY BEHIND THE WHAT

In the midst of the hustle, DO NOT LOSE THE HEART. Why are we breaking our necks for this one day? Why do we place so much pressure on this service? The why behind the what is simple. Salvation. Grace. Love. Truth. All of these things are emphasized during the Easter season, and the Gospel story is typically told in a way that refreshes and revives.

Worship leaders lead this charge of joy and celebration. We take that baton and run the race with passion and enthusiasm. Are we communicating this passion to our teams? Are we passing this baton, or are we attempting to run this “why” alone?

Take time prior, during, after the Easter service to bombard your team with the reason behind this season. Paint the picture, help them to catch that vision. Once they do, the details, the grace, the exhaustion, it all becomes understood. It all becomes a welcome part of the process, because no longer are songs simply being sung. Battles are being WON.

Volunteers are a blessing, a rare gift, a blessed star in the midst of what sometimes can feel like a long night. Take care of them. Love them. Show them grace and build them up in ways they never experience outside the church. Make this team a family. If it’s not one already, this could be the start.

Love HARD this Easter season, and remember Who you’ve been called to reflect. Be vulnerable, be real, show passion, bleed for this cause and these people. Make Easter a season of peace and honor. And always remember the heart behind the hustle.

In Episode 18, the S+H editorial team discusses the pros and cons of safety incentives, along with OSHA’s evolving stance on the topic. Also: Transportation safety expert Brian Hammer answers our questions about road safety, as more workers begin to commute to their workplace again.

Chicago — The lung tissue of contemporary coal miners contains higher levels of respirable crystalline silica dust than was found in miners of past generations – which may explain an ongoing surge in cases of the most severe form of black lung disease, researchers at University of Illinois Chicago say.

Drowsy driving is responsible for more than 6,400 U.S. deaths annually, according to the National Sleep Foundation, and you’re three times more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle-related crash if you’re driving tired.

According to NIOSH, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of work-related deaths among people ages 16 to 24 in the United States.

Washington – Industrial safety in the United States has fallen behind other countries, putting workers’ lives at risk, according to a report from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

New York — Registered nurses, social and other behavioral health workers, and people in health care support face a significantly higher risk of drug-overdose death, according to the results of a recent study.

Magic Cactus’ formulation features 2mg of THC, 4mg of CBG, and 6mg of CBD; a “2-4-6” ratio for what Locarni describes as an “approachable, session-able ‘buzz’” where consumers control the consumption experience.

The virtual experience is personalized, giving visitors the chance to become acquainted with products from their country of choice.

Children's Geographies; 08/01/2024
(AN 178911409); ISSN: 14733285
Academic Search Premier

Allee Willis was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan. Allee Willis was a truly fascinating, wildly-creative artist who worked almost exclusively behind the scenes. She was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan. Allee Willis: creative force behind the Friends TV Show Theme, Dangerous Woman to Soviet newspapers Allee Willis: Creative Force, Dangerous Woman, Queer Songwriter Behind Friends' Theme Further Proof That Friends Is Queer-Coded by Melissa Locker

Whether you watched the show or not, you can probably hum the theme song to Friends. Do you know who wrote it for the Rembrandts? And "September"—the Mercury's second favorite song—do you know who co-wrote that with Earth Wind and Fire's Maurice White?

Not to sound like a weird TV pitchman, but what if I told you they were written with the same person. Specifically,  Allee Willis—who was once dubbed “the most dangerous woman in the world” by Pravda, the the official newspaper of the prelapsarian Soviet Union.  

Willis is the star of a new documentary, The World According to Allee Willis, which celebrates its Oregon premiere at the QDoc Film Festival on November 16. The doc is worth your time to burnish your bar trivia skills, but also because Willis was a truly fascinating, wildly-creative artist who worked almost exclusively behind the scenes. She was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan.

Willis had insisted on documenting her life, since 1978, long before reality TV was a thing, so there's plenty of her archival video found in the film. "I've always known that my final art piece would be someone putting together the trail I've left behind," she says in one clip. 

In 2019, Willis died at age 72, and director Alexis Manya Spraic became responsible for following that trail. Spraic intersperses the footage with a cavalcade of famous faces—Paul Reubens, Lily Tomlin, Cyndi Lauper, Pamela Adlon, Paul Feig, Sex and the City director Michael Patrick King, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, as well as—somewhat inexplicably—billionaire Mark Cuban. Their interviews confirm that Willis really was a Hollywood power player, even if you don’t know her name.

Raised in Detroit as Alta Willis, the artist admits that growing up in the shadow of Motown influenced her work. She also did a stint in New York where she wrote her one and only album, Childstar, which had “great reviews and zero sales.” Eventually Willis moved to California because “if she was going to starve to death, she was going to do it in the sun.” ["Not me!" -Portland creatives.]

Willis lived on welfare in that sun, until "Godmother of Soul" Patti LaBelle heard her music, and kickstarted Willis’ songwriting career. Then came Earth Wind & Fire and “September,” the track that made Willis a songwriting star.

"Allee said she was lucky to meet us. We were lucky to meet her, too,” the group's bassist Verdine White says in the film. “That was life-changing for all of us.”

Earth Wind & Fire followed the success of "September" by co-writing another hit “Boogie Wonderland” with Willis, helping her become the music industry’s go-to “rock doc” who could fix up a song and turn it into a hit. 

In addition to being a wildly successful songwriter, Willis was also an art director and set designer, creating the backdrops for Debbie Harry music videos, among others. She continued to collaborate on songs, behind the scenes, and won both a Grammy and a Tony for her work on the musical The Color Purple.  The Friends theme was nominated for an Emmy, but didn't win.

While Willis was able to find professional success, that never quite translated into financial solvency. She also faced challenges in her private life—partially because she was queer at a time when it was extremely difficult to be open and out. She struggled with loneliness for much of her life, Lauper says during one of the film's interviews.

Willis did eventually find love, and then had to contend with the near-universal struggle of balancing work, creativity, and her personal life. When you’re looking at The World According to Allee Willis, it's a wild,  wonderful, and sometimes painful view, but well worth watching.

The World According to Allee Willis screens as part of QDoc Film Festival at Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, Sat Nov 16, 4:30 pm, $12, tickets here. Some streaming starting Nov 22. Visit alleewillisdoc.com for more.

Robert Frost famously said “good fences make good neighbors” and if you’re out for a walk in the woods in New Hampshire, you will likely find a stone wall. We talk with Kevin Gardner, a master stone builder and author of several books on the subject, about the on-going appeal of stone walls and how to build them. He explains the philosophy behind the craft of placing stone and examines the mythology of the stone wall and its place in the New England imagination.

The documentarian who recently went viral when Tucker Carlson told him he was "physically mauled" by a demon last year pushed back against those who would dismiss the former Fox News host's claims about spiritual warfare.

Discover the unique traits of each zodiac element—fire, earth, air, and water. Uncover how these elements shape personalities and compatibility in astrology.

Full Text:

A National Science Foundation-funded research has discovered the root cause of why lithium metal batteries fail -- bits of lithium metal deposits break off from the surface of the anode during discharging and are trapped as "dead" or inactive lithium that the battery can no longer access. The discovery challenges the conventional belief that lithium metal batteries fail because of the growth of a layer, called the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), between the lithium anode and the electrolyte. The researchers made their discovery by developing a technique to measure the amounts of inactive lithium species on the anode -- a first in the field of battery research -- and studying their micro- and nanostructures. The findings could pave the way for bringing rechargeable lithium metal batteries from the lab to the market.

Image credit: University of California - San Diego

X announced in July that TweetDeck, a popular program that allows users to monitor multiple accounts and lists of users at once, would be available only to "verified" account holders from August.

Founded and based near Seattle, SaltWorks supplies premium-grade specialty salts to wholesale, retail, and consumer markets throughout the world.

Leave behinds are low-cost items that you give to customers to promote your brand following service calls or that you give away during home shows and other events. Oftentimes, plumbers stumble with leave behinds because they select things they might like instead of what the customer values. Here are 17 great leave behinds that will build brand recall with consumers.

Plumbing & Mechanical Chief Editor Nicole Krawcke spoke with Chad Salge, vice president of virtual design and engineering at The Brandt Companies about its digital transformation journey.

ServiceTitan made waves earlier this year when it announced new cutting-edge AI solutions, allowing its customers to automate, predict and optimize across their businesses during Pantheon 2023.

On Feb. 1, NIBCO announced it acquired Matco-Norca and its subsidiary SVF Flow Controls.
NIBCO Chairman Rex Martin stated, “This acquisition supports our strategic long-range goal of growth through acquisition, expanding our market reach and providing customers with access to a broader portfolio of products.This is an extraordinary time in NIBCO’s evolving history.”

Most readers are familiar with the common phrase, “The errors of our ways.“ So why am I talking about the intention of our ways -- not errors – in this article?

We always hear the call from management, “We need more sales!” The call from the marketing team: “Sales needs to do better with the leads, they don’t close enough.” The sales team complaining that “these leads from marketing are horrible.” Same story, new year.

Colors and symbols can affect our emotions, cognition, and actions, and their strategic implementation improves safety outcomes.

Fans Rally Behind Kevin Costner's Holiday Movie Campaign as "Horizon" Release Nears

Telcos are more than six years behind hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google or Meta when it comes to building strategic capabilities in the workforce for success in the future, according to the latest research by technology analyst firm STL Partners.

Lindberg shares the science behind fasting and how the human body works when it stops eating.

Concerned stakeholders left out of dam breaching discussions with Administration.

iYiYi Revolutionizing Networking and Social Engagement

Author's Unique Perspective on Relationships and Professional Golf Unveils Secrets to Lasting Happiness

Reveals '101 Romantic Ideas' for couples to Ignite Passion and Connection. Unleash the Power of Love with Michael Webb's Expert Tips on Rekindling Romance and Deepening Connections.

Iconic Coors Light Blue Mountain Can Turns 16 Years Old

From Page to Podcast: Cory Wallace Elevates Conversations on Vision, Relationships, and Mental Health

Geri Spieler announces the release of her book, "Housewife Assassin-The Woman Who Tried To Kill President Ford (Diversion Books)," a fascinating glimpse of a turbulent period in American history.

ROONYX Redefines BNPL with Cutting-Edge Tech

Developing an app, despite having robust technology, can pose challenges in its growth.

Pharmaceutical Companies Attempt to Discourage Ibogaine Treatment Despite Supporting Research.

Calls For Haley and DeSantis To Withdraw

Discover the Rich Heritage and Expertise of Donghai, the Heart of China's Natural Crystal Industry

Noubar Afeyan, cofounder and chair of Moderna Therapeutics and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, says that the breakthrough innovation behind the company’s Covid-19 vaccine came not as a stroke of luck, but from a repeatable process. He outlines a system called “emergent discovery” that involves working back from future ideals, pioneering in novel spaces, encouraging unreasonable ideas, and persistently questioning hypotheses. And he says this process applies to other industries besides life sciences. Afeyan is the coauthor, with HBS professor Gary Pisano, of the HBR article "What Evolution Can Teach Us About Innovation."

There was a time when consumer goods companies paid musicians, athletes, and actors for endorsements, or to license their name and likeness. But in recent years, there's been an explosion of celebrities getting into business directly, selling everything from shapewear to tequila. Ayelet Israeli, professor at Harvard Business School, says the growth of social media and online, direct-to-consumer retail accelerated this trend, but notes that not all celebrity brands are a success. She explains what works and doesn't, and outlines lessons for non-famous entrepreneurs and established companies. Israeli is coauthor of the HBR article "What Makes a Successful Celebrity Brand?"

As I stated in my Best of 2017 post, I didn’t get to take many photos this year – which also multiple times throughout the year made me think: why am I paying so much money for Lightroom for how […]

The Web is changing. It is no longer a phenomenon but has integrated itself within our culture. However for those creating Web services times are far from stable. A wide range of Web-based applications continue to be developed, such as blogs, wikis, podcasting, social networking software, RSS feeds etc. The Semantic Web is still on the cards and now we have Web 2.0, an opportunity for a more sharing, more participative Web? Is it just hype? Will these progressions make any difference to the way in which we go about our work? What does Web 2.0 mean to the Institutional Web? This panel session offered three different perspectives on the potential of Web 2.0 within learning activities - the library perspective, the commercial perspective and the HE/FE perspective.

Daily Partial Alley Closure. The alley behind 3757-63 N. Sheffield Avenue & 3764 N. Wilton Avenue for steel erection.

Extended alley closure for the alley behind 5300 thru 5358 N. Winthrop Avenue (W. Berwyn Avenue to W. Balmoral Avenue)

Updated Dates for Extended Alley Closure for The alley behind 5300 thru 5358 N. Winthrop Avenue (W. Berwyn Avenue to W. Balmoral Avenue) for alley reconstruction.

New Dates, Alley Impacts at The alley behind 5800 thru 5828 N. Winthrop Avenue (W. Ardmore Avenue to W. Thorndale Avenue) for alley repaving.

Alley Impacts at the alley behind 5800 thru 5828 N. Winthrop Avenue (W. Ardmore Avenue to W. Thorndale Avenue) for alley repaving.