Richard Lutz ponders the last seven days...filled with twins, storms and cursed time

Richard Lutz tours the geometry of a grey Evenlode valley.

A guide to reducing risk and easing concerns.

Competition winners revealed.

Shopping ethically in the city.

Asian Paints faced a challenging second quarter with muted demand due to uneven rainfall and a slowdown in metro cities. Despite price hikes, competitive intensity remains high. The company is cautiously optimistic about single-digit volume growth in the coming quarter while closely observing AkzoNobel's strategic review of its India business.

Linc, a writing instruments brand, has appointed Sachin Bhatnagar as its new president of global business. Bhatnagar brings over 30 years of experience to the role, having previously served as CEO at Lykis. He will be responsible for driving Linc's strategic direction and growth.

Adwaita and Anchit Nayar, leaders at Nykaa, highlight their complementary roles in driving the company's success. They share insights on India's consumer tech and quick commerce growth, Nykaa's rapid expansion in warehouse capacity, and plans for same-day or next-day delivery, leveraging their efficient capital use and market competition to build the category.

Founded by Supam Maheshwari and his colleague from a previous business, Amitava Saha, FirstCry has been the darling of investors which include SoftBank, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, Premji Invest, Mahindra & Mahindra and TPG Growth.

The podcasting industry has grown a lot since its birth in 2004, but the core of what a podcast could be and what it could do hasn't changed much. Now, Podcasting 2.0 revolutionizes the industry with highly requested innovations that will help everyone on all sides of the RSS feeds.

The post What Is Podcasting 2.0 and Why Does It Matter? first appeared on The Audacity to Podcast.

Should you publish your podcast episodes on a particular day of the week, avoid the weekends, publish on popular days, or something else?

The post What Is the Best Day of the Week to Publish Podcast Episodes? first appeared on The Audacity to Podcast.

Does it matter what time of day you publish your podcast episodes? Yes! And here are some tips to help you pick when that should be.

The post What’s the Best Time of Day to Publish Podcast Episodes? first appeared on The Audacity to Podcast.

It's Night 1 of the highly anticipated return of Cinetopia! Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins and Marquee Arts cinema program director Nick Alderink join WEMU's David Fair to chat about this year's Cinetopia Film Festival, along with the latest Pixar film that opens at your favorite multiplex!

The 2024 Cinetopia Film Festival rolls on in Ann Arbor! Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins joins WEMU's David Fair to provide an update on the film fest and the new films opening downtown. Plus, Russ brings along filmmaker and Eastern Michigan University alumnus Heidi Philipsen, who talks about her film "Love & Vodka," which closes out Cinetopia this weekend!

When it comes to the 4th of July, fireworks and film go hand-in-hand! Both David Fair and Russ Collins are on vacation this week, so WEMU's Mat Hopson and Marquee Arts cinema programming director Nick Alderink meet up to chat about the newest films and special screenings coming your way this Independence Day weekend!

July is well underway, and more movies keep coming to the big screen! WEMU's David Fair is joined by Marquee Arts cinema programming director, Nick Alderink, to talk about the new films and special screenings coming to downtown Ann Arbor and your favorite multiplex!

The Ann Arbor Art Fair kicks off this week, and the Michigan and State Theatres will bring along some great movies to go with it! WEMU's David Fair meets up with Marquee Arts cinema programming director Nick Alderink to chat about all of the cinematic happenings for the coming weekend!

An exciting weekend is coming to the movie world, including one of the most anticipated superhero matchups ever! WEMU's David Fair mets up with Marquee Arts cinema programming director, Nick Alderink, to give you a rundown of upcoming films and special screenings!

After a month-long vacation, Russ Collins made his return to the WEMU studio for Cinema Chat! Along with a few travel stories, Russ shared what's coming to the silver screen in the coming days with WEMU's David Fair.

Summer may be winding down a bit, but the summer movie season is still going! WEMU's David Fair meets up again with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins to chat about the latest films and special screenings coming to a theater near you! Plus, the Michigan Theater is hosting not one, but two huge high school reunions!

We're halfway through August, so there's still time to catch a summer flick! WEMU's David Fair is away this week, so Mat Hopson steps in to discuss the newest movies and upcoming special screenings at your favorite downtown movie houses with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins!

After a week away, WEMU's David Fair returns to chatting about cinema with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins. As they do every week, they deliver all of the details on new films and the many special screenings coming to Ann Arbor!

WEMU's David Fair was joined by Marquee Arts executive director, Russ Collins on a pre-Labor Day edition of "Cinema Chat". They took time to discuss the new films and special screenings landing on the big screen for your holiday weekend viewing pleasure.

It's the first week of September, and we have plenty of movies to chat about! WEMU's Mat Hopson sits in David Fair to share all of the movie news and info on special screenings and events you could ask for with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins!

Days are getting a bit shorter here in Michigan, but there's always time to catch a flick! WEMU's David Fair meets up again with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins to chat about the newest films and special events hitting the big screen!

Whether you prefer the modern age of cinema or the silent era, there's plenty of films worth checking out this weekend and beyond! WEMU's Russ Collins from Marquee Arts gives the full cinematic rundown in his conversation with WEMU's David Fair.

We are officially in the fall season, and a whole bunch of movies are falling into your favorite theaters! WEMU's David Fair chats about the latest films and special screenings with Marquee Arts executive director, Russ Collins.

We just wrapped up a fantastic fall fundraiser a few days ago, so let's celebrate with a good movie! WEMU's Mat Hopson steps in for David Fair this week to chat about all of the cinematic offerings coming soon to your favorite movie houses with Marquee Arts executive director, Russ Collins!

Russ Collins is on a tour of Broadway this week, so, Marquee Arts cinema program director Nick Alderink steps in on Cinema Chat this week. He joined WEMU's David Fair to cover the latest film openings and special screenings in the area.

Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins has returned from his vacation, and he's ready to chat about all things cinema! Russ joins WEMU's David Fair to discuss the newest films coming to the big screen and a whole lot of special Halloween screenings happening at the Michigan and State Theatres!

What's your favorite scary movie? WEMU's David Fair and Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins meet up to inform you of tonight's special screenings for your Halloween viewing pleasure! Plus, you'll get details on some new films opening downtown and at the multiplex, too!

The 2024 election season has concluded, and there's no better way to unwind than catching a movie! WEMU's David Fair met up with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins to talk about some new films and special screenings that are on the way for your viewing pleasure!

100,000 Chinese students join 50km night-time bike ride in search of good soup dumplings

I've tried a bunch of pomodoro-style apps that I haven't done well with. I recently found one that's like Pomodoro except there's a growing plant, and if you mess with your phone you'll kill the plant. This works for me for whatever reason. I was wondering if anyone knew of other apps like that; especially ones with more real-world consequences. I guess my will isn't strong enough to not mess with my phone just because some timer is counting down. But the charming messages about the poor little plant and the cute drawings appeal to me apparently.

I saw this app PocketPoints, which would be great except it only works at participating schools.

I'm also not interested in those apps that quantify how often you check your phone.

This is for iOS please.

Thanks!

I'm listening to NPR's streaming "First Listen" of Cibo Matto's "Emerald Tuesday," off the forthcoming Hotel Valentine, and I know this song it's sampling from the first note. (And I think that's the point of the lyrics, that the ghost in the song listened/listens to the sampled song all the time.) I feel like it's also something my husband listens to all the time, or that was in a movie I just saw, but I can't pin it down. My first thought was Curtis Mayfield, but I'm not finding it. I know it's going to seem obvious to me once you tell me, but nonetheless—help! What is that song?

I went scuba diving at Clear Lake, Oregon today. I saw a ton of tiny, medium-brown unidentified biological-looking... *things* attached to some of the rocks. What were they? Their silhouette was roughly the shape of a fungus growing on a tree -- think a minaturized oyster mushroom or turkey tail mushroom, but with (as far as I could tell) not particularly pronounced gills. They were attached to volcanic rock.

What were they? Eggs sacs of some kind? Actual underwater mushrooms? Some other life form? In case it's relevant, other stuff I saw in the lake included verdant fields of algae growing off the silty bottom (where the volcanic rock isn't exposed), schools of trout (the lake is stocked), plenty of caddisfly larvae in their cases, and cold-water springs feeding the lake from deep potholes. Water temperature was 41 F. We went as deep as 85', but I only remember seeing the brown unidentified objects in shallower areas -- say maybe between 15' to 30'.

I've been missing Miami's Cuban bakeries. My plans to visit have been put on hold indefinitely, so I'm looking for options to have a few items (cuban crackers, cuban bread and pastries) shipped overnight to my house a few states to the north. Does a service that does this exist? I'm willing to put some dollars toward paying for this, but would prefer something established as opposed to posting a Craigslist ad.

I know that Vicky Bakery ships guava pastries and croquetas, but I'm looking for a wider selection. Thanks everyone!

As mysterious displays of fireworks continue to be set off across the country – in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles – residents in New York City say the nightly cacophony is driving them nuts. "It's kind of been a bit all-consuming to be honest," said Brooklyn resident Eric Anderson, 33. "I go to bed hearing it. I get woken up hearing it, and then on my Twitter feed all anybody is doing is talking about it." In New York City, the police department said there were 54 fireworks complaints in the first half of last year. In the same period this year, there have been more than 11,000. It's illegal to set off your own fireworks in New York, and Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the city is going to crack down on suppliers. "We're going to start a huge sting operation to go and get these illegal fireworks at the base," he said. Last week he appointed a task force made up of officers from the New York City Police Department, fire marshals and members of the Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal

In 2002, On Second Thought host Virginia Prescott recorded stories of residents from the Houston neighborhood where George Floyd grew up. Virginia reflected on the rich cultural legacy of the historically African American community. George Floyd was laid to rest in Pearland, Texas earlier this week. He was buried next to his mother, known as “Miss Cissy” in Houston’s Third Ward, where Floyd grew up. Beyoncé and Solange Knowles were also raised in the neighborhood. So was the actor Phylicia Rashad, the director and choreographer Debbie Allen, and musicians Samuel John “Lightnin’” Hopkins and Jason Moran.

While the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Sandra Bland galvanized the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the killings of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery have forced America to reckon with centuries of racial injustice and police brutality in unprecedented ways. Not only have protests demanding change been widespread, but major corporations — which, until now, have been largely silent and hesitant to embrace Black Lives Matter — are pledging to fight racial injustice and declaring their support of the nearly seven-year-old movement.

A Distant Shore has just been released in an expanded version by Cherry Red Records, along with demos for songs that would eventually be released on Everything but the Girl's debut album. Tracey Thorn's classic 1982 indie album has long been a favorite of artists from Björk to Massive Attack, and is constantly rediscovered. In 2013 Thorn spoke about the album to the Guardian [archive link] and also wrote about the circumstances of its writing in her memoir Bedsit Disco Queen, excerpted here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFYXOgXqoe4 Elections aren't exactly cozy, even in the best of times. This one, though, felt worse for a lot of people. No matter where your allegiances lie, 2016 has been the emotional equivalent of a dumpster fire. But it wasn't all unbearable. Here and there, lighter moments emerged to provide comic relief — or even a small burst of joy. Here are 10 of them, in no particular order. 1. Bill Clinton at the DNC balloon drop When the balloons fell from the rafters on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine had a lot to feel triumphant about. The Democratic Party seemed to be uniting around Clinton as its candidate. But as the Philadelphia arena filled with red, white and blue globes, no one seemed to enjoy it quite as much as Bill Clinton, who looked up with childlike wonder. 2. Trump's "Hotline Bling" Back in November 2015, when Donald Trump was still in his campaign's relative infancy, he

The CIA on Thursday was forced to walk back an assertion by Director Mike Pompeo, who incorrectly said U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election were unsuccessful. Asked at a security conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday whether he could say with absolute certainty that the November vote was not skewed by Russia, Pompeo replied: "Yes. Intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election." In a later clarification, the head of the CIA's office of public affairs, Dean Boyd, said: "The intelligence assessment with regard to Russian election meddling has not changed, and the Director did not intend to suggest that it had." U.S. intelligence concluded in a January assessment that "the senior-most officials" in Russia had authorized hacks into the Democratic National Committee and officials connected with the Clinton campaign. And then

I was reading a listicle of jokes and this quote from Tina Fey appeared "I like to crack the jokes now and again, but it's only because I struggle with math."Is it a joke? What does it mean?

Why did John write his Gospel? Did he wish to emphasize Jesus’ miracles? Or to emphasize some specific teachings of Jesus? What was the reason for writing what he did? This week we’re going to look in John at some of Jesus’ early miracles—from His turning water to wine at a wedding, to restoring to health someone’s very sick son, to the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing is downright buzzy, and not always in a good way. Contact tracing is the public health practice of informing people when they've been exposed to a contagious disease. As it has become more widely employed across the U.S., it has also become mired in modern political polarization and conspiracy theories. Misinformation abounds, from tales that people who talk to contact tracers will be sent to nonexistent "FEMA camps" — a rumor so prevalent that health officials in Washington state had to put out a statement in May debunking it — to elaborate theories that the efforts are somehow part of a plot by global elites , such as the Clinton Foundation, Bill Gates or George Soros. At the very least, such misinformation could hinder efforts to contain the coronavirus, and at worst it has sparked threats against tracers, say some observers, including the Institute for Strategic Dialogue , a London-based organization that studies polarization.

Anton Besenko is worried. He fears all the hard-won progress made in fighting the AIDS epidemic is on a collision course with the urgent needs of the coronavirus pandemic. "For people with HIV, it's double, triple the crisis since the start of the lockdown," says the Ukrainian AIDS advocate . "I have a bad feeling that organizations and governments are so concentrated on COVID that they are completely forgetting about HIV. For marginalized people, it's a question of life and death." Besenko is no stranger to health crises. After years of injection drug use, he contracted HIV (which he now lives with) and hepatitis C (which he's now cured). He got clean in 2004. Today, he works for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Ukraine as a coordinator for harm reduction programs that help IV drug users get clean needles or safer alternative drugs like methadone. On July 10, he led a session at the 23rd (virtual) International AIDS Conference on the impact of COVID-19 on AIDS. Suddenly, he and

When COVID-19 barreled into the U.S. this year the predominant public health advice for avoiding infection focused on physical isolation: No parties, concerts, or sports events. No congregating inside in bars or restaurants. No on-site family reunions. No play dates for kids. Just keep away from other people. Meanwhile, although social scientists supported that medical advice, they feared the required physical distancing would spark another epidemic — one of loneliness, which was already at a high level in the U.S. "You might expect this would make things much worse," says Julianne Holt-Lunstad , a neuroscientist and social psychologist at Brigham Young University. But several new studies suggest that huge increase in loneliness hasn't come to pass — at least, not yet. And the researchers studying the pandemic's emotional fallout say we humans may have ourselves to thank. "That sense of solidarity that people are feeling when they ... are collectively going through a challenge together

cortex has a new job and was hard to track down and we had a few months of missing each other. We found some time on August 14th and tried to play catch-up. Runs about 97 minutes.

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President Trump has won at least a temporary reprieve from a judge's order to release his tax records as part of a criminal investigation into his business dealings. Those records could be released to investigators as litigation continues. Tax experts say the documents could reveal a lot — or not much at all — about Trump's financial history. "Numbers tell stories," said Kelly Richmond Pope, who teaches forensic accounting at DePaul University. "So following those numbers can help piece together a story." The returns could prompt further investigation by prosecutors in New York, who are digging into Trump's business dealings around hush money that his organization allegedly paid to two women who say they had extramarital affairs with him. And whatever the returns contain, they're a matter of public interest, given that Trump has bucked precedent by not releasing them. Here are a few things that tax experts say they'll be watching for as litigation over Trump's tax records continues: