CHALLENGE ACCEPTED 20-11 2011 20:11

By Leo Babauta This month, I’m issuing a challenge to all of you procrastinators … and no, you can’t make the joke that you’ll do it later! The challenge is called Undone: The Unprocrastination Challenge, and it’s a part of my Sea Change Program. The challenge is to set aside an “unprocrastination session” every day […]

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) recently announced the appointment of new members to their Board of Directors including the addition of Lorraine Carli, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) vice president of Outreach and

Pacific Northwest architecture firm Mahlum has made history with the certification of its new architecture studio as Portland's first Living Building Challenge (LBC) project. As an LBC-certified workspace, Mahlum's new studio meets rigorous sustainability targets including net-zero embodied carbon emissions and the diversion of almost all construction waste from the landfill. The project is the 48th LBC-certified project in the United States and 57th in the world. [...]

Cybersecurity firm Cynet today announced the launch of a first of its kind challenge to enable Incident Response professionals to test their skills with 25 forensic challenges that were built by top researchers and analysts. The challenge is available on https://incident-response-challenge.com/ and is open to anyone willing to test his or her investigation skills, between April 21st and May

Arkansas’s only in-clinic abortion provider, Little Rock Family Planning Services, is suing the state to challenge a rule requiring patients to get a COVID-19 test within 48 hours of their abortion procedure. This is the second time Arkansas abortion providers have had to fight a legal battle to protect abortion access during the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), representing Little Rock Family Planning Services, argues that the Department of Health rule severely restricts abortion access, especially for patients who are close to Arkansas’s 20-week gestational limit. Little Rock Family Planning Services reports that it has been unable to find any COVID-19 testing location that will test asymptomatic people and provide results within 48 hours. “For women who cannot obtain access to COVID-19 NAAT testing within 48-hours of their procedures, the Directive entirely bars them from exercising their constitutional right to receive pre-viability abortion care in Arkansas,” wrote the ACLU in the lawsuit. Last month, Arkansas tried to halt all but “immediately medically necessary” abortions during the coronavirus pandemic. The ACLU challenged that order, and a federal judge issued a restraining order to allow abortion care to continue as normal. A week later, the Eighth Circuit Court of […]

Donalyn Miller's #BookADay Challenge is usually in the summer. After talking with people on Twitter and Facebook, Donalyn (happily) decided to hold a Coronavirus social distancing #BookADay challenge, so that readers who miss talking with other readers can gather and share.

You can see the "official" #bookaday guidelines on the Nerdy Book Club blog.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Everyday Objects appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

Since many of us are still limited to where we can go, this week’s photography challenge topic is the EVERYDAY OBJECTS! Everyday objects can be anything from a cup filled with coffee, TV remote, shoes, pens, computer mouse to a guitar pick. You get the picture! Get creative with them, either with the photography style […]

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Everyday Objects appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

The word vocation comes from the Latin word vocare, which means “to call.” The Oxford English dictionary defines vocation as

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The post New and challenging call appeared first on Women of the ELCA.

Reaching Blog 100 on Chesterfield who would have believed it Not me. Sometimes I would write something about my home town. Most of the time though blogs were about somewhere else . Covid 19 has scuppered any chance of a blog from out of town for a whil

Every day, tens of thousands people in Germany seek to get tested for the novel coronavirus. Often, though, they run up against a lack of testing capacity. And it is likely to only get worse. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

As important as sober homes are to the effort to address a statewide crisis at the local level, many neighborhoods prefer not to be a part of that mission.

New rules from federal Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would severely limit students' ability to clear debt by burying them in bureaucratic red tape, according to a new federal lawsuit.

Michael Glennon chats to Kilkenny legend Tommy Walsh about the motivation of boss Brian Cody, whose side were due to take on Dublin in the first round of the Leinster SHC round-robin on Sunday.

May we find the grace to discern hope and meaning in this season of faith and crisis.

UCLA players had more on their minds than basketball after the cancellation of the Pac-12 Conference and NCAA tournaments.

Here's how former Times columnist Mike Downey reacted to the Bruins' victory over Arkansas in the national championship game on April 3, 1995.

"E.T." and "Empire of the Sun" cinematographer Allen Daviau, jazz saxophonist Lee Konitz and music producer Hal Willner have all died from COVID-19.

Allen Garfield was a well-known character actor of the 1970s who starred in films including 'Nashville,' 'Conversation, 'Bananas' and 'The Candidate.'

As quarantine and stay-at-home orders trap people indoors, the olds are infiltrating the youth-driven world of the TikTok dance challenge.

The L.A. Phil deadline arrives for subscribers to renew for next season, but fans — even loyal ones — say there's too much uncertainty about fall.

London Fire Brigade has worked with Butterfly Books to produce a new children’s picture book that aims to tackle misconceptions about women’s roles in the emergency services

Control Operators challenged more than 2,000 time-wasting 999 callers last year – saving London Fire Brigade almost £800k

Amid a public health crisis, trust in governments is rising, while trust in businesses, and in particular, CEOs has fallen sharply, a report says.

Many can now meet payroll for a few weeks – but then what?

Justices hear a dispute over Trump administration rules to limit contraception requirements. Hospitalized Ruth Bader Ginsburg calls in.

"Apropos of Nothing" is a mixed bag of rich memories, harsh defenses and tone-deaf reveries.

Competition authority guidance on effects of lockdown triggers controversy between parks and caravan owners

The Polestar 2, the first electric car to go straight up against Tesla's Model 3, is due to go on the market in the U.S. by summer 2020.

Porsche is taking on Tesla and all other would-be electric sports cars with its new Taycan.

Cinematographer Allen Daviau, who shot three of Steven Spielberg's films including "E.T" and "Bugsy" dies at 77.

Members of Fountains of Wayne perform together for the first time in seven years, with help from Sharon Van Etten, to salute bandmate Adam Schlesinger, who died from COVID-19.

Nigerian percussionist Tony Allen was best known for his work with Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti's band Africa 70 and went on to play with Damon Albarn and Flea.

Lewis Hamilton has been linked with a move to Ferrari when his contract at Mercedes comes to an end.

The Indianapolis Star is re-posting game stories from the 10-year anniversary of Butler's run to the 2010 NCAA championship game.

Robert Wickens made the surprise charge of the race, taking eighth, but it was Scott McLaughlin clinching his first IndyCar victory of any sort Saturday.

Another NASCAR legend will join IndyCar's iRacing Challenge event on Saturday, the first one held on an oval track.

Broadcast on NBC Sports for the second consecutive week, IndyCar's iRacing audience grew 25% from the previous week.

After four races in its six-race iRacing Challenge, IndyCar fans may be starting to lose interest in the esports version of the sport.

McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris becomes the latest special guest driver in IndyCar's iRacing Challenge.

Once again, Simon Pagenaud's patient in-race strategy paid dividends during the late chaos for a second consecutive victory in IndyCar's iRacing Challenge.

The two young drivers rose to stardom driving for Carlin Racing in Europe's several lower Formula series from 2015-16.

In his first dip into the IndyCar world, McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris beat series regulars at Circuit of the Americas.

Multiple late wrecks allow McLaughlin to capitalize

A clutch of big company results today illustrate the big economic trends in the UK and the world - and also say something about what the UK economy needs if its insipid recovery is to become something a bit stronger.

First the good news.

ARM, the world-leading designer of electronic chips for smartphones, tablets and consumer devices, saw revenues rise 29% in the first three months of the year and profits increase 35% (to £51m).

If we had a few more ARMs in this country, we would be agonising less about the imperative of "rebalancing" the structure of our wealth-creation away from financial services and the City.

That said, we'd need an incredible number of ARMs to make a dent in the high unemployment figures, because ARM simply licences its technology to the likes of Apple and LG, which put the chips into their devices. Or to put it another way, ARM's success is in exploiting the grey matter of a few boffins: it manufactures nothing.

Now part of the drag on Britain's recovery is the burden of debt on households and the impact of rising commodity prices on consumers' spending power.

You can see some of that in the first half figures of Associated British Foods, which points out that world sugar prices are at a 30-year high and that there has been a sugar shortage in Europe. ABF's sugar, grocery and agriculture profits were up substantially (sugar by 27%).

ABF's Primark chain of shops, whose prices tend to be the lowest on the high street, seems to have benefited from shoppers desire to trade down and economise, since underlying or like-for-like sales rose 3%. But although that looks okay compared with competitors, it was half the rate of last year's increase.

A further manifestation of all that borrowing in the euphoric years, before the bubble burst in 2007-8, is another set of uninspiring financial results from Heathrow and Stansted airports, and their holding company, BAA (SP) limited.

The losses of the two London airports increased 8% to £211.5m and net debt in BAA (SP) was flat at a substantial £9.9bn. Net debt at the next corporate level up, BAA (SH) plc was a chunky £10.4bn, against a regulated asset base of £13bn (which moved in the right direction by 2.7%).

BAA was acquired by the Spanish group Ferrovial and partners at the height of the debt-fuelled buyout boom of 2006 - and although BAA would argue that operational performance has improved, there is a question about when if ever the owners will ever see a return on their enormous investment.

Meanwhile, in spite of the rising trend of commodities and energy, including oil, BP's profits in the first three months of the year actually fell a fraction to $5.5bn. You can see the impact of higher oil prices in a near trebling of profits to $2.1bn made in refining and marketing - but there was a significant fall in production, some of it related to the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

The fundamental BP story is that the risks and costs of extracting energy are on a secular rising trend - for which we all pay a price.

Last but never least is Barclays and its figures for the first quarter of 2011 - which show top line income lower than the first quarter of last year and below the last quarter of last year. As for profits, they were up a bit or down a bit, depending on what view you take of whether changes in the notional value of Barclays' own borrowings should be included.

The unambiguous trend is a sharp reduction in the charge of debts and investments going bad - which was 39% lower compared with a year ago and 33% down on a three-month comparison.

As for lending, loans to retail customers rose by just under £1bn to £229bn since the end of 2010 - which is neither here nor there for a bank of Barclays' size. And the overall value of Barclays' loans and investments, on a risk-weighted basis, fell 1.5% over 12 months to £392bn.

For Barclays and other big western banks, it's no longer about growing their balance sheets, about lending more and more. Their long term recovery requires deleveraging, shrinking, which is the corollary of the perceived need for western consumers and governments to pay down their respective debts.

Here's the painful part: we may need banks to become smaller, but we all suffer if in the process they starve job-creating businesses of vital finance.

Those who fear the worst won't be reassured by figures just released by the British Bankers Association (BBA), which show that net lending to non-financial businesses by banks fell £3.2bn in March.

The BBA blames weak demand from companies. And although Barclays and the other banks have promised the Treasury, in their Project Merlin agreement, that they will meet the credit needs of the economy, my electronic postbag indicates that there remains quite a gap between their perception of deserving borrowers and yours.

Update 11:15: As some of you have pointed out, ARM saw its profits increase to £51m not £51bn, as I originally said, whilst losses at the two London airports increased to £211.5m, not £211.5bn. Sorry for my brainstorm. I've probably been dealing in billions a little too often recently - due to the magnitude of our recent financial crisis.

Gibson Southern quarterback Brady Allen remains one of the most coveted Indiana recruits in the Class of 2022

he idea for a protest that drew a few hundred people to the governor's residence Saturday started at high school teacher Andy Lyon's kitchen table.

Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle discusses the challenges of working out during the pandemic.

Frank Reich has worked hard to find ways to teach the Colts virtually, including bringing in an NBA legend to inspire the team.