#boise foreign car service | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ericvick · 3 years

Photo

US-China tech war: Beijing’s secret chipmaking champions

Once a month, senior executives of Yangtze Memory Technologies Co fly to Beijing for a flurry of meetings with China’s top economic management bodies. They focus on the company’s efforts to build some of the world’s most advanced computer memory chips — and its progress on weaning itself off American technology.

Based in the central riverside city of Wuhan, Yangtze Memory is considered at the vanguard of the country’s efforts to create a domestic semiconductor industry, already mass-producing state of the art 64-layer and 128-layer Nand flash memory chips, used in most electronics from smartphones to servers to connected cars.

These marvels of nanoengineering stack tiny memory cells in ever-greater densities, rivalling industry leaders such as US-based Micron Technology and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics.

That would be hard enough for a company that only opened its doors in 2016. But added to the challenge is the ambitious, state-directed aim of weeding out the group’s American suppliers, along with those reliant on US technology. The equipment used to manufacture high-end computer chips is virtually an American global monopoly. Eighty per cent of the market in some chipmaking and design processes such as etching, ion implantation, electrochemical deposition, wafer inspection and design software is in the hands of US companies.

This article is from Nikkei Asia, a global publication with a uniquely Asian perspective on politics, the economy, business and international affairs. Our own correspondents and outside commentators from around the world share their views on Asia, while our Asia300 section provides in-depth coverage of 300 of the biggest and fastest-growing listed companies from 11 economies outside Japan.

Subscribe | Group subscriptions

It is a frustrating area of dependence for China, which imported $350bn worth of semiconductors last year, according to the China Semiconductor Industry Association. Removing this source of US leverage over its economy became a national priority two years ago, when Washington put sanctions on China’s biggest telecoms equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, amid spying allegations that the Chinese company has constantly denied.

This was followed by sanctions on several other big Chinese technology companies, from its top contract chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co, to Hikvision, the world’s biggest surveillance camera maker. More than 100 companies in total have been placed on a trade blacklist prohibiting most US technology to be sold to them without a licence. That has spurred an aggressive effort by Beijing to identify and replace risky parts and suppliers.

The result has been an unprecedented flourishing of chip-related companies within China. Dozens of Chinese groups, with specialisations mirroring US incumbents in key areas from ion implantation to etching, have sprung into prominence over the past few years, accelerating as the state realises the enormity of the self-sufficiency project.

“The clock is ticking because they still know that the US could hit the local industry hard,” said Roger Sheng, a chip analyst at consultancy Gartner. “New chip competition is evolving as all the major economies, not just China, now recognise the importance of semiconductors.”

Plan B

So far, Yangtze Memory, also known as YMTC, has remained under the radar of the US government. But the company is taking no chances. With the guidance of Beijing, it has launched a massive review of its supply chain in an effort to find local suppliers — or, at least, non-US ones — to replace the dependence on American technology.

The collective effort has occupied more than 800 people, full time, and including staff from its multiple local suppliers, for two years. And they have not finished yet.

YMTC is seeking to learn as much as it can about the origin of everything that goes into its products, from production equipment and chemicals to the tiny lenses, screws, nuts and bearings in chipmaking machinery and production lines, multiple sources familiar with the matter said. The audit extends not only to YMTC’s own production lines, but also to suppliers, suppliers’ suppliers, and so on.

“The review is as meticulous as knowing where the screws and nuts are coming from, the lead time, and if those parts have alternatives,” one person familiar with the matter told Nikkei Asia.

Yangtze Memory’s plant in Wuhan © Yusho Cho

Each supplier is assigned a score for geopolitical risk, identified in many pages of documents detailing the components they use in their machines. YMTC has sent engineers to audit local equipment suppliers’ production sites to verify that the origins of parts have been truthfully reported, one of the people told Nikkei.

American-made parts are scored highest for risk, followed by parts bought from Japan, Europe and those made locally, the person said. Meanwhile, suppliers are asked to provide corrective action reports to explain how they can together diversify procurement and find alternatives.

“Previously, when China talked about self-sufficiency, they were thinking about starting to cultivate some viable chip developers that could compete with foreign chipmakers,” a chip industry executive told Nikkei. “However, they did not expect that they would need to do all that, starting from fundamentals.

“It’s like when you want to drink milk — but you not only need to own a whole farm, and learn how to breed dairy cows, and you have to build barns, fences, as well as grow hay, all by yourselves.”

It’s like when you want to drink milk — but you not only need to own a whole farm . . . breed dairy cows . . . build barns, fences . . . all by yourselves

The purge of YMTC’s supply chain has been handled with the spirit of a national emergency. Based in the city of Wuhan, the effort did not pause even when the virus centre was ravaged by Covid-19 last spring.

While the rest of the city endured a brutal quarantine, high-speed trains remained in service to ferry YMTC employees to its $24bn 3D Nand flash memory plant that began producing chips in 2019. All the while, delivery trucks for critical chipmaking materials drove to and from the production campus.

After Wuhan reopened last April, YMTC mobilised hundreds of engineers, including many from little-known emerging local semiconductor equipment suppliers. They were stationed inside the production campus, labouring for three shifts a day with the aim of overhauling all of its production processes and replacing as many foreign tools as possible, sources said.

“Senior management is raising targets of using locally built chip production machines almost every month, and they hope we could at least know what kind of alternatives we have and have a Plan B of the production line that will be free from US control,” one of the people told Nikkei.

YMTC declined multiple requests by Nikkei to interview the company about its supply chain reviews, progress and capacity expansion plans, as well as its localisation efforts.

‘Secure and controllable’

This effort to localise production has been the opportunity of a lifetime for a new generation of Chinese chip champions such as YMTC and their suppliers, whose fortunes have risen sharply following the start of the US-China trade war.

While the threat of sanctions hangs over them, so too does the largesse of state aid — subsidies and investment from local governments and the private sector have amounted to at least $170bn since 2014, according to the state-backed China Securities Journal. There are also guaranteed orders with other Chinese chipmakers and domestic tech giants such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Lenovo.

“It’s not like it has been written down on a public posting or an official announcement,” another Chinese chip executive told Nikkei, “but everyone in the industry now has a mutual understanding that if anyone is building a new chip plant or expanding a semiconductor manufacturing line, at least 30 per cent of production tools must be from local vendors.”

Every US market leader in the computer chip industry now has a Chinese doppelgänger that is being positioned to take its place as a vendor to the Chinese chip industry. YMTC, for example, is strikingly similar in its approach and strategy to Boise, Idaho-based Micron, while Beijing-based Naura Technology Group represents China’s hope to later challenge Applied Materials, which is based in Santa Clara, California, and makes a wide range of chip production equipment.

Shanghai’s Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) is China’s version of Lam Research of the US, renowned for building essential etching machines. Tianjin-based Hwatsing Technology produces cutting-edge chemical-mechanical planarisation equipment and is set to break Applied Materials’ monopoly on the technology.

See the full graphic at the end of this article for more of China’s upcoming chipmakers.

These and dozens of other state and private companies have become the focus of an industrial policy known by the slogan “secure and controllable”, which has found its way on to posters and into speeches, backed up by immense state investment and guaranteed contracts.

“We have to strengthen self-innovation and to make breakthroughs in some core technologies as soon as possible,” China’s President Xi Jinping told a group of economic and social experts in remarks published in January.

YMTC, for one, is followed closely by China’s leadership, supervised by officials in the State Council — the country’s top administrative authority — as well as the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, the nation’s premium seed fund for the semiconductor industry, which also owns a 24 per cent stake, two people with direct knowledge told Nikkei.

“We are not sure how fast and how well they could build their own independent semiconductor industry, but certainly they will try,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow with Peterson Institute for International Economics.

‘The whole country is rooting for this.’

In fact, the US trade war and Huawei sanctions have arguably given China’s government the necessary cover for something it has long desired. Since the revelations by Edward Snowden in 2013 that detailed the participation of American tech companies in US government surveillance, Beijing has seen dependence on American technology as a national security threat.

But grand plans to end this dependency have been made in the past, and, despite massive injections of state investment, progress has been slow. For example, when China’s State Council set out its “Made in China 2025” industrial policy in 2015, aimed at promoting China’s high-tech exports, it set a goal of 70 per cent self-sufficiency in semiconductors by 2025.

But the industry has so far fallen short of this goal, according to US-based research firm IC Insights. In 2020, China-based chip production accounted for only 15.9 per cent of the domestic market, the firm estimated in January, predicting it would reach just 19.4 per cent in 2025. Of the 2020 total, China-based companies accounted for only 5.9 per cent of domestic sales, while foreign companies with their headquarters in China accounted for the rest of the China-based sales.

Under threat: cameras near the headquarters of Chinese video surveillance firm Hikvision in Hangzhou © Bloomberg

However, the US sanctions may have removed the main domestic obstacle to the goal of China’s chip self-sufficiency effort, which is the lack of co-operation by China’s own local buyers. They have always preferred buying from tried-and-tested foreign vendors rather than inexperienced local companies. But that, crucially, has now changed.

“Previously, domestic chip manufacturers only used leading production equipment that all the other top global chipmakers like Samsung and Intel also use in their production lines,” another manager with a China-based chipmaker told Nikkei, preferring not to be named. “Who would bother to use and try these local-made machines that could possibly affect production quality?”

As the threat of sanctions hits close to home, however, these same producers are increasingly exploring domestic-made alternatives to the top-end US-made technology, the manager said. “That also means these local players finally have a chance to practice and really upgrade their products in an atmosphere that the whole country is rooting for this,” he said.

Sheng of Gartner told Nikkei that US-China tensions have consolidated industry opinion around the necessity to localise production. “It’s the whole country’s consensus now that building a viable semiconductor industry and boosting self-reliance is the top priority . . . The top policymakers know, company executives know and even local people know,” said Sheng.

Chip related companies make up nearly 25% of all groups listed on Shanghai’s STAR market

For Chinese chipmaking tool and material makers — mostly little known, with limited presence in the industry — the trade disputes serve as the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand business, a chip executive with Kingstone Semiconductor Joint Stock Co, a local ion implanter maker, told Nikkei.

“Not only is our production capacity fully booked for 2021 and needs to expand . . . but also many of our peers’ capacities are fully reserved,” the executive said.

Other domestic champions have done similarly well. Naura Technology Group, China’s largest chip equipment maker, generated a record profit in 2020, up more than 73 per cent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, despite being added to the US trade blacklist in late 2020, the earnings for AMEC, the etching machines maker, hit a record high last year.

Previously a third choice at best, Hwatsing Technology’s chemical-mechanical planarisation equipment has already been widely adopted by Chinese chipmakers such as SMIC, Hua Hong Semiconductor Group and YMTC, according to the prospectus it released late last year as it filed an application to list on Shanghai Star stock market, China’s version of the Nasdaq.

Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment, under majority control by the Shanghai government, has been cemented as a key local participant that China’s government hopes to one day compete against global chip lithography machine builders of ASML, Nikon and Canon, several people with knowledge told Nikkei.

Employees of ASML working on the final assembly of semiconductor lithography tools in Veldhoven, Netherlands © Bloomberg

For now, China’s global market share in the advanced chip fabrication equipment sector is 2 per cent at most. Bernstein Research estimated, while its self-sufficiency rate is about 10 per cent — a very low figure, but one that suggests massive room for future growth.

Crashing the market?

This new push by China has already begun to make waves in the global semiconductor industry, threatening to disrupt the delicate equilibrium between supply and demand. A global chip shortage has swept many industries partly due to “panic buying” by Chinese companies, spooked by the risk of US sanctions, said Eric Xu, the current rotating chair of Huawei, in remarks last month.

One example is that YMTC and other domestic chip companies, such as China’s top contract chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co, have begun to stockpile “at-risk” parts in a jointly owned warehouse that just went into operation this year, sources told Nikkei Asia.

At the same time as they are braced for shortages, however, the global chip industry is simultaneously making preparations for a massive glut of chips as Chinese companies such as YMTC hit their stride.

The Wuhan-based national champion, for example, plans to double its monthly output of memory chips to 100,000 wafers by the second half of 2021, giving it 7 per cent of the global Nand flash memory market measured in wafers, two people with knowledge of the matter told Nikkei.

Measured in gigabit equivalent terms, Taipei-based consultancy Trendforce predicted YMTC would take 3.8 per cent of the global market share in Nand flash memory for 2021 and likely expand its share to 6.7 per cent in 2022 — a precipitous climb, considering it was close to zero two years ago. Samsung, the leader, has a 34 per cent share.

“We expect YMTC will start to affect the overall Nand flash market price by next year and the market may also face some oversupply issues,” said Avril Wu, an analyst with Trendforce.

Yangtze’s chief executive Simon Yang has tried to allay fears of a massive glut of chips. “We want to tell everyone that we are not here to crash the market, and we hope that the industry could be sustainable and healthy,” he told a business forum in 2018, when the company started producing 64-layer Nand flash memory chips.

Despite shortages, the global chip industry is preparing for a massive glut as companies like Yangtze Memory hit their stride

Anticipating just such an oversupply, however, Intel — the world’s biggest microprocessor maker and sixth-largest Nand flash maker — sold its Dalian-based Nand flash memory plant to SK Hynix last year, bowing out in the face of future competition.

The vertiginous rise of YMTC has shown just what China is capable of in the chip industry. It started operations in 2016 and within four years was mass producing some of the most advanced 3D Nand flash memory chips in the world. Memory chips used to be flat wafers with one layer of memory cells, but recently “3D stacking” chips have become the cutting-edge standard for almost all electronics from computers and smartphones to servers and connected cars, with memory cells layered on top of each other in ever-higher stacks.

In 2017, chipmaker Western Digital introduced the “skyscraper,” a 64-layer chip, while Micron last year announced the 176-layer chip, the proportions of which it compared to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

YMTC has been mass-producing 64-layer chips for two years and has just started mass-producing 128-layer chips at its Nand flash memory factory in Wuhan. It is said to be in the process of developing a 192-layer chip that one industry analyst referred to as the “Himalaya”. The company declined to comment.

‘Neck-choking’ technology

In reality, though, the massive growth scenarios for YMTC and the rest of China’s semiconductor industry remain predicated on continued access to western chips and other key equipment. For all the patriotism and rhetoric surrounding self-sufficiency, few believe 100 per cent “de-Americanisation” is a genuinely realistic goal in the near future.

“If Yangtze Memory could continue to buy from US suppliers, they will definitely do that,” Mark Li, a veteran chip analyst with Bernstein Research, told Nikkei. “We all know that it’s an irreversible trend that China is keen to have their own version of everything,” Li said. “However, in reality, it will take a lot of time and great execution and we don’t expect to see them cut significantly from the amount of chipmaking equipment procurement from the US very soon.”

YMTC’s own supply chain audit, for example, found that many vital processes were not immediately replaceable with domestic vendors: high-end lenses, precision bearings, quality vacuum chambers, and motors, radio frequency components and programmable chips all still come from foreign manufacturers in the US, Japan and Europe, people briefed on the matter told Nikkei.

Meanwhile, the entire industry is still reliant on foreign equipment for lithography, ion implantation, etching, and chemical and physical vapour deposition and chemical-mechanical planarisation — all indispensable in manufacturing chips, experts say.

The Chinese government refers to such technologies as “neck-choking,” referring to potential points of US pressure. To build advanced semiconductors, there is presently no way around the leading American participants. Applied Materials, for example, leads the world in chip production technology such as ion implantation, physical and chemical vapour deposition, and chemical-mechanical polishing; Lam Research makes etching, chemical vapour deposition and wafer-cleaning equipment.

California-based KLA and Boston-based Teradyne specialise in providing testing and measuring equipment for defect analysis and failure inspection. Aside from tools, materials suppliers Dow, DuPont and 3M and other US companies also dominate the supplies of special chemical formulas used in advanced chip production.

They collectively control the global market share of more than 80 per cent in equipment and materials for some vital steps in building advanced semiconductors, said Li of Bernstein. In some specialised segments such as electrochemical deposition and gate stack tools, the US share could be almost 100 per cent.

Another key vulnerability in China’s ecosystem was exposed when Huawei’s chip-designing arm HiSilicon — China’s number one chip developer — lost access to technical support and software updates for electronic design automation tools owing to sanctions. That restricted the software used by HiSilicon to lay out blueprints for integrated circuits as well as printed circuit boards and other electronic systems. These tools are 90 per cent-dominated by US companies such as Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems, Ansys and Siemens EDA (which, before its acquisition, was known as Mentor Graphics and is still located in America).

On China’s part, it has been gearing up to cultivate its own participants by luring many talented former employees of Synopsys and Cadence. But Chinese efforts remain far short of the required standard.

“We have gained some business because of China’s de-Americanisation campaign,” a manager of Empyrean Technology, China’s biggest local chip design toolmaker, told Nikkei. “However, asking us to fully replace Synopsys and Cadence is like coming to carmakers and asking to build rockets.”

In some crucial areas, such as the field-programmable gate array — a type of programmable semiconductor component essential for satellites and advanced jet fighters — the market leaders are Xilinx or Intel’s Altera, while for China, this space is largely still blank. In central processing units, the US maintains a tight grip, with leaders including Intel and Advanced Micro Devices that dominate more than 90 per cent of the global market.

This virtual monopoly on chip design and chipmaking equipment sectors has given the US vast powers to control the flow of technology to China, even from non-US companies. Industry leaders such as Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Infineon Technologies, SK Hynix and Sony, all still use massive amounts of American technologies on their production lines and in their development processes, giving Washington a veto over their product sales.

“Once the US names anyone on a trade blacklist, most of the Asian suppliers will see it as a serious warning, and even if legally they could continue to ship to the blacklisted entities, they will self-censor to stop shipping due to political pressure, or consider stopping,” a chip industry legal director told Nikkei. “No one wants to openly and publicly violate Washington’s will . . . That could be dangerous, and your own company could become a target too.”

Europe’s biggest chipmaking tool maker, ASML of the Netherlands, is the exclusive supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines — the world’s most costly but top-notch tool essential to producing the world’s most advanced chips, including Apple’s latest iPhone core processors.

ASML has a production plant in the US, and about one-fifth of the components that ASML needs to build its machines are also made at its US plant in Connecticut, Nikkei has learned. The Netherlands has halted shipments of China’s first orders of the EUV machine amid US pressure since 2019, Nikkei Asia first reported in November of that year.

For Chinese companies, therefore, localisation efforts must be carried out quietly. By far the most preferred course of action is not to fall into Washington’s crosshairs.

“We have to recognise and realise that we are still far lagging behind instead of thinking that we could quickly rock the world . . . The best way, under the geopolitical climate, is to keep our head low and do our work and grow silently,” said a chip executive with ChangXin Memory Technologies, another of China’s key memory chipmakers, based in Hefei, Anhui Province.

Localisation efforts must be carried out quietly. By far the most preferred course of action is not to fall into Washington’s crosshairs

While it pursues its Plan B of self-sufficiency, YMTC still sees it as extremely unrealistic to strip all foreign equipment from its production site. It still hopes to maintain good relationships with American, Japanese and European suppliers, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. In parallel to its localisation efforts, YMTC keeps building production lines that use American equipment and parts to facilitate its expansion.

“It’s really an irreversible trend that China wants to switch to local suppliers,” said Li of Bernstein, “but in reality and in real practices, there are still hurdles and [it] could still take a lot of time. If they want to grow faster and quickly gain more business, it’s more practical that they still use the tools and equipment that all of the foreign market leaders also use.”

In an effort to fend off future sanctions, meanwhile, the Chinese company has also boosted its legal compliance team since 2019, citing the “highly challenging, complex and changing environment in the chip industry” — a step aimed at giving the US no excuses to make it a target.

Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow of the technology and national security programme at the Center for a New American Security, told Nikkei: “China’s goal of total self-sufficiency in semiconductors is unrealistic. It is unaffordable to create a China-only supply chain, and there will almost certainly be some reliance on foreign technology and expertise. What it can do is build a globally competitive industry, and that is something that US policymakers are eyeing closely.”

Decoupling do’s and don’ts

Despite China’s considerable efforts, few experts believe that its chip sector will ever be genuinely free of US parts. However, most also believe that the doomsday scenario — a complete blockade of China’s tech and semiconductor industries — is not realistic, either.

The world’s two largest economies are still interconnected, and they are also the two biggest semiconductor markets: China accounts for at least 25 per cent of the sales of most US chip companies, according to a January report by the Brookings Institution, and few want to see that market disappear.

Bown of the Peterson Institute, said the Biden administration’s approach on China is not yet clear. On the one hand, the US expects China to buy more chips as promised in recent trade talks but has also continued restricting its use of American technologies.

“It’s likely that we are looking at more precisely confined export controls at some areas such as military uses and areas that are really linked to national security,” Bown said. “After all, it’s a trade-off. China is a massive consumer market, and if you restrict a lot of semiconductor shipment, many US companies will be hurt too.”

‘Neck choking’ technology: US president Joe Biden holds a chip before signing an executive order aimed at addressing a global semiconductor shortage in February © AFP via Getty Images

So far, the Biden administration has not yet softened on China’s technological advancement. A total of 162 Chinese entities had been sanctioned by the Trump administration since 2018, while in April, the US Department of Commerce added a further seven Chinese supercomputer makers to the so-called Entity List to restrict their use of American technologies, citing alleged links with the Chinese military.

On April 12, the White House hosted a virtual CEO summit on semiconductor and supply chain resilience, which included the world’s top three chip producers — Intel, Samsung and TSMC — as well as executives from carmakers, including Ford Motor and General Motors, to discuss how to maintain US leadership in the global semiconductor industry.

The Chinese Communist party “aggressively plans to reorient and dominate the semiconductor supply chain,” President Joe Biden said in opening remarks to the summit, quoting a bipartisan letter from 23 senators. “China and the rest of the world is not waiting, and there’s no reason why Americans should wait,” he said.

The administration has also proposed a $50bn funding programme for chip manufacturing, and research and development, mirroring China’s efforts.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius, last year tightened the rules for examining the national security risks posed by foreign deals, followed by the Taiwanese government’s Investment Commission announcing a new set of rules to intensify screening of Chinese investments in Taiwanese tech companies. Meanwhile, the Italian government rejected a takeover bid for a Milan-based semiconductor equipment provider by a Shenzhen-based Chinese investment company.

South Korea and Taiwan — two leading Asian chipmaking economies — all face growing pressure to help the US boost local chip manufacturing. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, based in Taiwan, and South Korea’s Samsung, the world’s biggest memory chipmaker, were both forced to cut off supplies to once-big customer Huawei after the US sanctions.

TSMC’s share of revenue from China plunged to 6 per cent in the January-March period from 22 per cent the same time a year earlier. Samsung also saw its revenue from China trending down in the past three quarters.

Most of the global chip developers and manufacturers will still have to side with the US, as American technologies still prevail in their products or services, said Su Tzu-yun, senior analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research. “They have to choose what are their best interests if they get caught between the world’s two biggest economies.”

However, it is still hard to fully decouple the semiconductor supply, involving thousands of suppliers from around the world that have been tightly intertwined for decades. China can try to reduce its reliance on the US, but without American technology sources, it can hardly speed up its technological advancement.

Neither is it practical for the US to exclude China from all of its supply chains, as the country is still a big source of critical raw materials and rare-earth elements used in semiconductors and electronic components, according to a recent report by the Semiconductor Industry Association, an American industry organisation.

“In the short term, due to geopolitical uncertainties, China’s tech development could be slowed a bit,” said Miin Wu, founder and chair of Macronix International, a leading memory chipmaker in Taiwan that serves Apple, Sony and Nintendo. “However, in the longer run, from China’s perspective, it will definitely hope to build a competitive industry. It’s a trend that is hard to resist, and there is no turning back.”

Related stories

#Beijings #champions #chipmaking #secret #tech #USChina #War

0 notes

bigyack-com · 5 years

Text

How Technology is Changing the Future of Higher Education

This article is part of our latest Learning special report. We’re focusing on Generation Z, which is facing challenges from changing curriculums and new technology to financial aid gaps and homelessness.MANCHESTER, N.H. — Cruising to class in her driverless car, a student crams from notes projected on the inside of the windshield while she gestures with her hands to shape a 3-D holographic model of her architecture project.It looks like science fiction, an impression reinforced by the fact that it is being demonstrated in virtual reality in an ultramodern space with overstuffed pillows for seats. But this scenario is based on technology already in development.The setting is the Sandbox ColLABorative, the innovation arm of Southern New Hampshire University, on the fifth floor of a downtown building with panoramic views of the sprawling red brick mills that date from this city’s 19th-century industrial heyday.It is one of a small but growing number of places where experts are testing new ideas that will shape the future of a college education, using everything from blockchain networks to computer simulations to artificial intelligence, or A.I.Theirs is not a future of falling enrollment, financial challenges and closing campuses. It’s a brighter world in which students subscribe to rather than enroll in college, learn languages in virtual reality foreign streetscapes with avatars for conversation partners, have their questions answered day or night by A.I. teaching assistants and control their own digital transcripts that record every life achievement.The possibilities for advances such as these are vast. The structure of higher education as it is still largely practiced in America is as old as those Manchester mills, based on a calendar that dates from a time when students had to go home to help with the harvest, and divided into academic disciplines on physical campuses for 18- to 24-year-olds.Universities may be at the cutting edge of research into almost every other field, said Gordon Jones, founding dean of the Boise State University College of Innovation and Design. But when it comes to reconsidering the structure of their own, he said, “they’ve been very risk-averse.”Now, however, squeezed by the demands of employers and students — especially the up and coming Generation Z — and the need to attract new customers, some schools, such as Boise State and Southern New Hampshire University, are starting labs to come up with improvements to help people learn more effectively, match their skills with jobs and lower their costs.

College by Subscription

One of these would transform the way students pay for higher education. Instead of enrolling, for example, they might subscribe to college; for a monthly fee, they could take whatever courses they want, when they want, with long-term access to advising and career help.The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the places mulling a subscription model, said Richard DeMillo, director of its Center for 21st Century Universities. It would include access to a worldwide network of mentors and advisers and “whatever someone needs to do to improve their professional situation or acquire a new skill or get feedback on how things are going.”Boise State is already piloting this concept. Its Passport to Education costs $425 a month for six credit hours or $525 for nine in either of two online bachelor’s degree programs. That’s 30 percent cheaper than the in-state, in-person tuition.Paying by the month encourages students to move faster through their educations, and most are projected to graduate in 18 months, Mr. Jones said. The subscription model has attracted 47 students so far, he said, with another 94 in the application process.However they pay for it, future students could find other drastic changes in the way their educations are delivered.

Your Teacher Is a Robot

Georgia Tech has been experimenting with a virtual teaching assistant named Jill Watson, built on the Jeopardy-winning IBM Watson supercomputer platform. This A.I. answers questions in a discussion forum alongside human teaching assistants; students often can’t distinguish among them, their professor says. More Jill Watsons could help students get over hurdles they encounter in large or online courses. The university is working next on developing virtual tutors, which it says could be viable in two to five years.S.N.H.U., in a collaboration with the education company Pearson, is testing A.I. grading. Barnes & Noble Education already has an A.I. writing tool called bartleby write, named for the clerk in the Herman Melville short story, that corrects grammar, punctuation and spelling, searches for plagiarism and helps create citations.At Arizona State University, A.I. is being used to watch for signs that A.S.U. Online students might be struggling, and to alert their academic advisers.“If we could catch early signals, we could go to them much earlier and say, ‘Hey you’re still in the window’ ” to pass, said Donna Kidwell, chief technology officer of the university’s digital teaching and learning lab, EdPlus.Another harbinger of things to come sits on a hillside near the Hudson River in upstate New York, where an immersion lab with 15-foot walls and a 360-degree projection system transports Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute language students to China, virtually.The students learn Mandarin Chinese by conversing with A.I. avatars that can recognize not only what they say but their gestures and expressions, all against a computer-generated backdrop of Chinese street markets, restaurants and other scenes.Julian Wong, a mechanical engineering major in the first group of students to go through the program, “thought it would be cheesy.” In fact, he said, “It’s definitely more engaging, because you’re actively involved with what’s going on.”Students in the immersion lab mastered Mandarin about twice as fast as their counterparts in conventional classrooms, said Shirley Ann Jackson, the president of Rensselaer.Dr. Jackson, a physicist, was not surprised. The students enrolling in college now “grew up in a digital environment,” she said. “Why not use that to actually engage them?”Slightly less sophisticated simulations are being used in schools of education, where trainee teachers practice coping with simulated schoolchildren. Engineering students at the University of Michigan use an augmented-reality track to test autonomous vehicles in simulated traffic.

A Transcript for Life

The way these kinds of learning get documented is also about to change. A race is underway to create a lifelong transcript.Most academic transcripts omit work or military histories, internships, apprenticeships and other relevant experience. And course names such as Biology 301 or Business 102 reveal little about what students have actually learned.“The learner, the learning provider and the employer all are speaking different languages that don’t interconnect,” said Michelle Weise, chief innovation officer at the Strada Institute for the Future of Work.A proposed solution: the “interoperable learning record,” or I.L.R. (proof that, even in the future, higher education will be rife with acronyms and jargon).The I.L.R. would list the specific skills that people have learned — customer service, say, or project management — as opposed to which courses they passed and majors they declared. And it would include other life experiences they accumulated.This “digital trail” would remain in the learner’s control to share with prospective employers and make it easier for a student to transfer academic credits earned at one institution to another.American universities, colleges and work force training programs are now awarding at least 738,428 unique credentials, according to a September analysis by a nonprofit organization called Credential Engine, which has taken on the task of translating these into a standardized registry of skills.Unlike transcripts, I.L.R.s could work in two directions. Not only could prospective employees use them to look for jobs requiring the skills they have; employers could comb through them to find prospective hires with the skills they need.“We’re trying to live inside this whole preindustrial design and figure out how we interface with technology to take it further,” said Ms. Kidwell of Arizona State. “Everybody is wrangling with trying to figure out which of these experiments are really going to work.”This story was produced in collaboration with The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Read the full article

0 notes

mastcomm · 5 years

Text

How Technology is Changing the Future of Higher Education

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Cruising to class in her driverless car, a student crams from notes projected on the inside of the windshield while she gestures with her hands to shape a 3-D holographic model of her architecture project.

It looks like science fiction, an impression reinforced by the fact that it is being demonstrated in virtual reality in an ultramodern space with overstuffed pillows for seats. But this scenario is based on technology already in development.

The setting is the Sandbox ColLABorative, the innovation arm of Southern New Hampshire University, on the fifth floor of a downtown building with panoramic views of the sprawling red brick mills that date from this city’s 19th-century industrial heyday.

It is one of a small but growing number of places where experts are testing new ideas that will shape the future of a college education, using everything from blockchain networks to computer simulations to artificial intelligence, or A.I.

Theirs is not a future of falling enrollment, financial challenges and closing campuses. It’s a brighter world in which students subscribe to rather than enroll in college, learn languages in virtual reality foreign streetscapes with avatars for conversation partners, have their questions answered day or night by A.I. teaching assistants and control their own digital transcripts that record every life achievement.

The possibilities for advances such as these are vast. The structure of higher education as it is still largely practiced in America is as old as those Manchester mills, based on a calendar that dates from a time when students had to go home to help with the harvest, and divided into academic disciplines on physical campuses for 18- to 24-year-olds.

Universities may be at the cutting edge of research into almost every other field, said Gordon Jones, founding dean of the Boise State University College of Innovation and Design. But when it comes to reconsidering the structure of their own, he said, “they’ve been very risk-averse.”

Now, however, squeezed by the demands of employers and students — especially the up and coming Generation Z — and the need to attract new customers, some schools, such as Boise State and Southern New Hampshire University, are starting labs to come up with improvements to help people learn more effectively, match their skills with jobs and lower their costs.

College by Subscription

The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the places mulling a subscription model, said Richard DeMillo, director of its Center for 21st Century Universities. It would include access to a worldwide network of mentors and advisers and “whatever someone needs to do to improve their professional situation or acquire a new skill or get feedback on how things are going.”

Boise State is already piloting this concept. Its Passport to Education costs $425 a month for six credit hours or $525 for nine in either of two online bachelor’s degree programs. That’s 30 percent cheaper than the in-state, in-person tuition.

Paying by the month encourages students to move faster through their educations, and most are projected to graduate in 18 months, Mr. Jones said. The subscription model has attracted 47 students so far, he said, with another 94 in the application process.

However they pay for it, future students could find other drastic changes in the way their educations are delivered.

Your Teacher Is a Robot

S.N.H.U., in a collaboration with the education company Pearson, is testing A.I. grading. Barnes & Noble Education already has an A.I. writing tool called bartleby write, named for the clerk in the Herman Melville short story, that corrects grammar, punctuation and spelling, searches for plagiarism and helps create citations.

At Arizona State University, A.I. is being used to watch for signs that A.S.U. Online students might be struggling, and to alert their academic advisers.

“If we could catch early signals, we could go to them much earlier and say, ‘Hey you’re still in the window’ ” to pass, said Donna Kidwell, chief technology officer of the university’s digital teaching and learning lab, EdPlus.

Another harbinger of things to come sits on a hillside near the Hudson River in upstate New York, where an immersion lab with 15-foot walls and a 360-degree projection system transports Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute language students to China, virtually.

The students learn Mandarin Chinese by conversing with A.I. avatars that can recognize not only what they say but their gestures and expressions, all against a computer-generated backdrop of Chinese street markets, restaurants and other scenes.

Julian Wong, a mechanical engineering major in the first group of students to go through the program, “thought it would be cheesy.” In fact, he said, “It’s definitely more engaging, because you’re actively involved with what’s going on.”

Students in the immersion lab mastered Mandarin about twice as fast as their counterparts in conventional classrooms, said Shirley Ann Jackson, the president of Rensselaer.

Dr. Jackson, a physicist, was not surprised. The students enrolling in college now “grew up in a digital environment,” she said. “Why not use that to actually engage them?”

Slightly less sophisticated simulations are being used in schools of education, where trainee teachers practice coping with simulated schoolchildren. Engineering students at the University of Michigan use an augmented-reality track to test autonomous vehicles in simulated traffic.

A Transcript for Life

The way these kinds of learning get documented is also about to change. A race is underway to create a lifelong transcript.

Most academic transcripts omit work or military histories, internships, apprenticeships and other relevant experience. And course names such as Biology 301 or Business 102 reveal little about what students have actually learned.

“The learner, the learning provider and the employer all are speaking different languages that don’t interconnect,” said Michelle Weise, chief innovation officer at the Strada Institute for the Future of Work.

A proposed solution: the “interoperable learning record,” or I.L.R. (proof that, even in the future, higher education will be rife with acronyms and jargon).

The I.L.R. would list the specific skills that people have learned — customer service, say, or project management — as opposed to which courses they passed and majors they declared. And it would include other life experiences they accumulated.

This “digital trail” would remain in the learner’s control to share with prospective employers and make it easier for a student to transfer academic credits earned at one institution to another.

American universities, colleges and work force training programs are now awarding at least 738,428 unique credentials, according to a September analysis by a nonprofit organization called Credential Engine, which has taken on the task of translating these into a standardized registry of skills.

Unlike transcripts, I.L.R.s could work in two directions. Not only could prospective employees use them to look for jobs requiring the skills they have; employers could comb through them to find prospective hires with the skills they need.

“We’re trying to live inside this whole preindustrial design and figure out how we interface with technology to take it further,” said Ms. Kidwell of Arizona State. “Everybody is wrangling with trying to figure out which of these experiments are really going to work.”

This story was produced in collaboration with The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/tech/how-technology-is-changing-the-future-of-higher-education/

#Tech

0 notes

stone-man-warrior · 5 years

Text

October 11, 2014: 9:21 pm:

A discussion of Commerce... State of Jefferson Commerce:<br><br>Commerce, wit... StoneMan .Warrior - 2014-10-11T18:22:50-0400 - Updated: 2014-10-12T00:23:08-0400

A discussion of Commerce... State of Jefferson Commerce: Commerce, without looking it up in a dictionary, includes the idea that goods and services can be traded locally, or internationally, with Capitalism in mind. Commerce is the thing that keeps America and other developed countries afloat. Local municipalities use commerce in a variety of ways in effort to maintain healthy economics, to gain a tax base, to schmooze large companies in hopes of such companies taking residence in a given municipality, and a variety of other factors as well. The state of Oregon, under the control of The State of Jefferson, which is supported by Kizzy's Playground has a backward commerce model in place. The idea is to overtake the United States of America by any and all means necessary to do so... time, however, is not important. There is plenty of time for the Jefferson State idea to perpetuate as it has for the past forty or more years. By now, the Jefferson State idea has branches in every office of every governmental agency of the USA including ties to the Pentagon and the White House. Those high ranking ties are easily obtained over time with the help of the Screen Actors Guild. So far, we have had a President of SAG in the form of Ronald Reagan... and a host of other Screen actor Guild member State Governors, Senators, State Representatives and a slew of local municipalities ruled by SAG members. If the truth were to be known, during the weakness of the Jimmy Carter Administration, the country was actually being run by Bob Hope. I know it all sounds like non-sense, however, I happen to know that it is true. Bob Hope had access to U.S. Navy Warships in a time of war, anyone who is old enough will remember those visits when he, and so many entertainers, and their film crews, were given full freedom to be aboard Navy vessels for the purpose of entertaining our military troops as a means to promote strong moral. The truth is different, however. Along with the entertainment, there was the beginnings of a plan to infiltrate the military with people who were more like minded to the agenda of the SAG than those who would be viewed as opposed to such agenda. I was part of MK Ultra at the time, my services were invaluable. I learned much about the world at a young age. SAG members have an agenda beyond entertaining the public. The SAG Agenda, unfortunately, has gained a problem in recent years in the form of the French, who are currently riding quietly on the coattails of SAG, and like SAG, they too have an Agenda. The French have made allegiance with the more familiar variety of terrorists, Allah and the Virgins, along with their crews, have quietly joined forces with the French. In summery, what we have today is a Screen Actors Guild who want to have things their way. They have a plan and a particular weapon which will remain unmentioned. Trust me, it's a good plan and could work... it has been working for more than four decades. The SAG plan was noticed and adopted by the French. The French have had plenty of time to dig up embarrassing facts with regard to the personal lives of the most important SAG members (there is a human product known as a "Partner", SAG members have become accustomed to owning "Partners"). So the French gained some dirt on Hollywood, and they use that dirt as a means to ride the coattails of SAG. The French need funding for their agenda, and it turns out that "Allah and the Virgins" have plenty of that, so a friendship was born, Allah and the Virgins don't even need to get involved on US soil, they leave the dirty work for those who can blend in better in America... French Canadians. Now about Commerce. The area that includes Northern California, Western Oregon, and most of Washington State is the place where our nation, and the world, get much of the lumber that is used to build cities and countries alike. The lumber that is (was) located in Oregon, for instance, is much easier to get at then the vast stands of forests that lie in places like Northern Canada or Alaska. in the big scheme of things, the relative ease of access to lumber in the Pacific Northwest regions, is a commodity all on it's own. Historically, over the coarse of time the United States has produced lumber for production, that lumber... the logs... have come from a place nearby where it would be milled into salable commodities, by people who lived nearby those saw mills. Towns and cities were born and grew from the production of lumber, from raw logs, at a saw mill nearby, by the people who live there. Now, the saw mills are all empty. The machinery sits rusting. The buildings and equipment are there, but no-one works at the local saw mill anymore, yet, the logs still come out of the woods. Where do they go? Logs produced from logging in the Pacific Northwest of the United States wind up in one of two places for the most part. There are international lumber companies such as Louisiana Pacific, Boise Cascade, and a few other behemoth corporations where much of our national resource of lumber goes to. Another place that resource goes to is the offshore, foreign owned, floating lumber mill. The floating lumber mill is actually part of the terrorist side of commerce. It is part of a legal and proper way by which terrorist organizations, such as those who are in control of The Jefferson State, can overtake the USA. The idea is to first replace the Oregon Logger, with a French Canadian Logger. These are the men and women in the woods working to fall trees and bring the lumber to the mill. The loggers are all French Canadians now. Rather than bring those logs to a local mill, they get hauled to the nearest ocean port, where that big, foreign owned, floating lumber mill is waiting to buy logs. Think of a giant oil tanker, a big boat, but instead of hauling oil, it floats a sawmill, fully operated by persons who work 24/7 for a small wage. many of these boats are Chinese. Some are Korean. By now, every country seems to have a floating sawmill at the dock in Portland Oregon. The floating sawmill buys logs, goes three miles out to sea into international waters, mills the logs, then returns to sell lumber and buy more logs. There are no property taxes in international waters, no rules for environmental concerns regarding waste products, and they don't need to use much fuel to go the three miles, so costs are low. The boat mills the logs into usable lumber then floats back to port where the lumber products are sold back to the same people who the logs were purchased from in the first place. This is done much less expensively then using the old fashioned local saw mill idea, and, it helps to weaken our nation. And that is one way that the Jefferson State fuels the fire by which they burn us. This is done under the disguise of commerce, it is done with the signatures of the Governors of the State in which the business is done and with the blessings of the senators and representatives we Americans vote for. This practice must stop. One reason it cannot stop, or won't stop, is that those powerful and important people who could make a positive change, our national leaders, have also developed a fetish for the human product known as a "Partner". If everyone knew what a "Partner" is, and who has them... hmmm ... the subject matter here is too gruesome to continue discussing... at a minimum I don't think anyone would ever watch another movie or a television again. Maybe next time I will write a bit about how Chrysler cried about being broke, claimed Detroit was in jeopardy, put out their hand and received a boatload of free taxpayer money, then left the country to form Daimler/Chrysler. For now, just remember that when you are buying a Chrysler product, you are buying the reason that Detroit is bankrupt, you already paid for the car but did not receive it, and, you are buying an import car under the guise of what used to be an American company.

Shared with: Public

StoneMan .Warrior - 2014-10-11T18:39:27-0400 - Updated: 2014-10-11T18:56:43-0400

Now, after reading the post above, don't forget about my posting from last night... shark steaks are available locally in and around Grants Pass Oregon. Nowadays, lumber mill workers are also foreign deep sea fishermen of an area just three miles off the coast of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. I often tell people who are interested in worldly things, in the big scheme of things, the USA is just a child, a toddler really. Europe is very old and experienced. The Middle Eastern nations are very old and experienced. Afghanistan is absolutely ancient and no country has ever overcome Afghanistan in warfare of any kind... EVER! Many have tried. With that kind of an idea in mind, the United States of America is just over 200 years old... other countries of the world would call that a weekend at the park. We are a country of little worldly experience, and as such, are but a toddler among fierce, mature, and deceivingly unscrupulous nations. We are being raped... the baby is being raped and no-one is watching the baby. Meanwhile, last night I learned from reading a newspaper that the Governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber, is engaged to a prostitute.

0 notes

thehikingviking · 6 years

Text

Deseret Peak and South Medina Peak via South Willow Canyon

I felt like going to Utah to enjoy some mountain air and college football. My motivation was partially due to my desire to watch a college football game outside of California every year, as well as the low cost airfare. For the weekend I was targeting, Boise State was scheduled to play at BYU on a October 6th and Stanford was scheduled to play at Utah on a October 7th. It sounded like a fun weekend, and while in the Beehive State, I planned to climb a peak or two. I was looking for something with prominence, so I chose Deseret Peak, an ultra prominent peak in the Wasatch National Forest only an hour outside of Salt Lake City. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the Wasatch, so I was excited to check it out. I had plans to work remotely, which meant handle calls and emails from my phone while on the mountain. We flew out to SLC on Thursday night and stayed at a motel in Mills Junction. The next morning, after checking overnight emails, we drove to Loop Campground, which is tucked in South Willow Canyon in the Stansbury Mountains. As the campground suggests, we planned to do a loop, first following the trail along Mill Fork to the summit of Deseret Peak, then descending north via Pockets Fork-Dry Lake Fork Trail. If we had enough time and energy, I planned to take a short detour and climb South Medina Mountain, which is a P1k to the north of Desert Peak. There were no other cars when we arrived at Loop Campground that Friday morning. The trail started off through the Aspens following South Willow Creek. It was autumn, so the leaves had begun to fall.

Asaka was moving quicker than me that morning, leaving me behind from the start. After a kilometer, we took a left at a fork in the trail, continuing up an adjacent canyon along Mill Fork. South Medina Peak looked down upon us to the northwest.

The trail climbed up the open canyon in a sustained steep manner. The rustling of the aspens in the wind kept me looking over my shoulder. I was unfamiliar with the area, so I was on high alert for wildlife.

As we approached 9,000 ft, a fresh layer of snow blanketed the ground. The snow was patchy, so we were able to push on while keeping our feet dry.

The trail began switchbacking up and out of the canyon. Due to the northern facing slopes and paucity of sunlight, there was now a large amount of snow covering the trail. It wasn’t icy at all, so we had no problem hiking in our light boots.

We eventually reached the sunny pass just to the south of the peak at 10,042 ft. The trail forked and we turned right hiking up the ridge to the north.

I now had phone service, and started receiving work emails. I did my best to reply and walk at the same time. This made me a slow hiker, but I couldn’t complain. How many people have the flexibility that I have?

Running across the Deseret Peak slopes in the distance was a herd of ungulates. I think they were mule deer, but they were too far away for me to tell. They blended in so well with the surrounding terrain that I still can’t pick them out from my photo.

As we approached the summit, there were clouds beginning to form that can best be described as “heavy”. They looked so dense and unrealistic. I felt like they were camouflaging a hidden spaceship.

After a moderate 4 miles and 3,600 ft of gain all on trail, we reached the summit. We had the whole peak to ourselves, which I believe is rare for a peak so close to such a large city. To the north were North and South Medina Peaks.

To the northeast was the Great Salt Lake.

To the east was Flat Top Mountain, another ultra prominent peak.

To the south were Vickory Mountain and some more heavy clouds.

To the southwest was the ominously named Skull Valley. Way off in the distance I could see the snow covered Ibapah Peak, and ultra which I climbed a few months prior.

To the west were the Cedar Mountains.

Out of nowhere the temperature dropped seemingly instantaneously. I did my best to capture photos of the cool clouds as my hands went numb.

The only thing we could do was start moving. We continued down the north side of the mountain at a very brisk pace.

We dropped down into a pine forest that was protected from the wind. The slopes were also north facing, which meant we were again hiking through snow. Asaka left me behind again after I stopped to pee. She wanted to get warm. There were some slight ups and downs, and we reached the pass 1.7 miles after the summit.

We were considerably warmer now, and our moods were improving. There were the bonus peaks of North and South Medina Peak just north of where the trail drops back down into Pockets Fork. With plenty of time left in the day, we followed a use trail further north towards the peaks.

The use trail petered out, so we hiked east through some dead trees to the top of the ridgeline.

Once atop the ridge, we followed the limestone ridgeline towards the summit.

The summit was rocky and barren, which meant more great unobstructed views. To the northeast was the Great Salt Lake.

Down below was a large cliff.

To the east was Flat Top Mountain.

To the south was Deseret Peak.

To the southwest was Skull Valley.

Further north was North Medina Peak.

We stood on the summit for a few minutes before the weather started to get cold again. I wanted to go over to North Medina peak, and after some back and forth with Asaka, we decided to go right back down to the pass. It was simply too cold that day.

Back near the pass, the weather was once again comfortable. I believe the main contributor for the difference in temperature was wind chill, but regardless the temperature difference was huge for only an elevation change of 1,000 ft.

From the pass, we dropped into Pockets Fork.

The nice trail passed through the grasses and shrubs.

Asaka and I started to have a long and uncomfortable talk about our future together. She started off by threatening to go back to Japan because her visa was running out. Many of her friends were getting married and having kids, while she was still in a foreign country and had nothing to build towards. I told her that things would take care of themselves, but she didn’t like this vague form of non commitment. Little did she know that I had a plan to propose, but I was waiting for the right opportunity about 5 months away.

The aspens reminded me of my Charleston Peak hike, which was another Great Basin peak that I previously hiked in October.

The trail then dropped into Dry Lake Fork, and wound its way around the open canyon.

We completed the loop and reconnected with the ascent route, then hiked out the remaining kilometer to the car.

As we hiked out we passed a family hiking up the trail. Once at the parking lot, there were a few cars in the parking lot. I was absorbed by the fall colors as we exited the canyon.

Once we got back to the flat lands, I regained my service and hopped back on my laptop with my mobile hot spot. It was like I was never out of the office. I’m a firm believer that it doesn’t matter where or how long you work. What matters is how effective you are at your job, and whether or not you get the job done on time.

We drove to a coffee shop where I continued to get work done at a static location. Later than night, my friends Scotty and Kevin landed at SLC. We picked them up and drove down to Provo to watch Boise State vs BYU.

The following day we headed north to Salt Lake City. We spent hours pre-gaming at Porcupine Pub and Grille. At one point we asked the bartender if there were any other fun bars around. He replied awkwardly asking, “are you guys trying to party?” At first I thought he was trying to offer us cocaine, but rather he was just an LDS and wasn’t conversant with drinking terminology. Later than night we watched Stanford beat Utah at the beautiful Rice-Eccles Stadium.

We had time to squeeze in one more hike before the end of the weekend.

0 notes

detailingsyndicate · 7 years

Text

How To: Auto Detailing Tips And Tricks, Boise – ID

You may already fancy yourself as an auto connoisseur, but everyone looks like the expert in the room when their vehicle is in top condition. It is when advanced maintenance is required that your detailing skills will be put to the test. Auto detailing is an arduous and potentially expensive task with a special need for focus and attention. But what are some tips and tricks to help you service your ride?

It’s All In The Brand

The first rule of thumb you should abide by if you plan to detail a car yourself is using the proper brand of detergent on both your interior and exterior. Make sure you know the type of upholstery in your cabin before you apply chemicals to rid it of dirt and scuffs. The wrong formula can stain or damage its appearance. The same is true before tending to the outside of your car. It is always wise to see what your make and model suggests online for your finish.

“Professional auto detailing is far less expensive than doing the job yourself because they already have all the necessary components in their arsenal”

Utilize Waterless Car Washes

A waterless wash, as you can probably deduce, is providing a clean without water. Using chemical compounds that can pull dirt embedded in your paneling, it is an effective way to actually clear areas instead of causing dirty streaks. Waterless car washes are far more extensive than just wiping a surface down with a cloth. Particular cleaners work wonders in providing showcase results in no time.

Buff Your Finish

This takes some experience, but there is a reason professional detailers frequently using buffing machines. This is because they are incredibly effective at restoring shine and priming your coat for a future polish. It is vital that you do not buff the same spot for an extended period of time, as this can ruin your paint job and completely undo the positive effects you were looking to achieve.

Utilize Hot Water Extraction

Carpet cleaners that can funnel hot water to clean your seats and carpeting are especially advantageous because they clean with a finite level of steam. Steam is a terrific partner in your corner of not just removing filth, but washing the area deep in to the fibers.

Degrease Your Engine

Grease accumulation on your engine causes overheating and limits the life of your vehicle overall. By applying a degreasing agent, it ‘cleans’ your engine and encourages it to run more smoothly. This should be done with caution however, as your ignition mechanisms and battery can be adversely affected by foreign solvents.

They Are Pros For A Reason

Maintaining your wheels is a fruitful and rewarding exercise, but can come at a cost. Unless you are a lifelong detailer, you probably do not have the appropriate assortment of equipment and products lying around to provide adequate results. Professional auto detailing is far less expensive than doing the job yourself because they already have all the necessary components in their arsenal. Furthermore, these experts are informed as to which types of solvents and cleaners to use depending on the model and make of your vehicle. If you have any trepidation about ruining your paint job, upholstery or engine, it is best to leave it to our pros, who with routine touch-ups can make the financial investment in your car worthwhile.

from The Detailing Syndicate https://detailingsyndicate.com/how-to-auto-detailing-tips-and-tricks/

#The Detailing Syndicate

0 notes

zenruption · 7 years

Text

The Death of the Republican Party

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

by Brian McKay

The recent election night victory was small in scope but indicative of the true majority reasserting itself after the travesty that has been the last year. Conservative pundits have tried to downplay the wins based on what states they were in and by vilifying a candidate they say didn’t accept the Trump doctrine fully. Delusions are necessary for those that are self-sabotaging.

Policy failures that are tone deaf to the American people, internal divides, a coming debt showdown, science denial, blatant evangelism and the daily aberration that now passes for Presidential behavior, have a party in crises. That said party seems so oblivious, has all the makings of a doomsday cult content to blow up the world. This might make perfect sense with a political base that eagerly awaits the rapture while prosperity doctrine evangelical leaders lay their hands on and pray for the man they think has brought God back to America. The amount of delusional thinking is nothing short of astounding.

While the ardent Trump base constantly blames Hilary Clinton for every conspiracy imaginable, they are merely using it to ignore the travesty that is right in front of their faces and doing nothing for them. It is that ignorance of reality that will destroy them.

A House Divided Cannot Stand

While the title of this section was used by America’s greatest president to describe the country pre-Civil War, a quiet civil war also exists within the Republican Party that now believes the Civil War was fought over state’s rights. The Freedom Caucus is so extreme that legislation the Republicans create that is horrifically detrimental to the people of this country is pronounced by them as not going far enough. Every piece of legislation also has to appease them due to their power and moves the bills further away from the majority of this country. Even if the Republicans were smart enough for common sense legislation, it would be seen as too liberal and unable to pass. Future legislation attempts will continue to be in vain. The delay of their tax plan is not unexpected and the 11th hour of debt ceiling negotiations to come could further threaten the U.S. credit rating.

Steve Bannon is laying siege with a promise of floating Trumpism purists (read radical) against Republican candidates to solidify his intent of destroying the Mitch McConnell’s of the world. There is no doubt that Bannon is a political and strategic idiot trying to masquerade as a king maker of sorts. Pitting far right against only semi far right will have the impact of splitting off from moderates while catering to the radical, evangelical base that turn out heavily in primaries. Faced with radicalized Republican candidates against Democrats, will be an easy choice for moderates and independents. Right now, the issues with Bannon are already evident as child abusing Roy Moore is in a close race in deep, deep red Alabama. All Breitbart can say is that the 16 and 18-year-old accusers were of the legal age of consent. A realist knows that sick is still sick.

Low Approval Ratings Can’t Be Ignored

Let’s face it. With a Trump approval rating average of all polls of 37.7 percent and disapproval rating of 56.5 percent, according to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, a disaster is at hand. The standard bearer of the party sets the tone for its future. It seems that the question isn’t whether that approval rating goes up but how low it can actually go. That it remains at the level it is, is nothing short of astounding.

A poll that put a generic Democrat against Trump in 2020, showed the Democrat winning 46 percent to 36 percent. That’s brutal. Other polls have shown an 11 percent advantage to Democrats in the 2018 elections, only 21 percent of American’s see the country going in the right direction and 65 percent of Americans believe that Trump has accomplished little, if anything, during his term. A positive economy with a low approval President is an anomaly in modern U.S. politics.

The Republican base can believe the polls to be fake news all they want. They justify this belief on a misunderstanding that the polls before the election were wrong but refuse to acknowledge they were within the margin of error and the narrowest of wins in three states (just 11,000 votes in Wisconsin) tilted an archaic election system to Trump’s favor. The polls matter.

When the disaster that is the National Democratic Party can make such polling gains just based on how many clowns the Republicans keep pushing into the car, that shows the true train wreck the Republican Party has become.

Detachment from the People is the Worst Way to Govern

While the Republican base is a group that votes with far higher frequency and veracity, the disaster that has been the last year is bringing out the opposing votes in record numbers. The crowd that watches four hours of Fox News daily is finally being outvoted by a group that can no longer ignore the daily aberration and national embarrassment. In their dysfunction and ignorance of what the American people want, the Republicans have been motivating the vote like never before. They have created the unintended consequence of pushing the country to vote heavily against them.

There is no better way to really motivate people to perform their civic duty than denying reality and what the populous wants.

From science denial to foreign policy disasters, most Americans are not being represented. 69 percent of us believe that climate change is real. Over 50 percent of American’s support stricter gun laws and background checks on private and gun show sales, yet the Republicans maintain a position best described as oblivious in order to kowtow to the NRA. They have been against most of the people on Obamacare repeal efforts, the current tax plan and a list that goes on and on. Dismissing the constituents yelling at them in their now rare town hall meetings with the conspiracy theory of paid Soros protestors, will only deepen the chasm.

It’s Soon Over

Moderate Republicans are retiring and speaking their minds. Former presidents are speaking out against nativism and the lack of Presidential behavior. The party is espousing conspiracy theories, promoting evangelism and living in overall denial while their media pundits say ever more ridiculous things. Fake news is real and real news is fake. Our President regularly threatens the 1st Amendment.

The American people see it. They see the lack of connection to their beliefs and needs and are mobilizing. The action is now causing the equal and opposite reaction.

And so there is this:

Dear Republicans;

You may have set the country back 20 years by reversing laws meant to protect the citizenry. Certainly, you have made us the world’s laughing stock and unreliable partner to other nations in your exit of treaties and obligations. The nativism and fear you have given into are having a backlash. The vast majority of American’s do not accept the bigotry, the ignorance and the white evangelical martyrdom that has been soundly exposed.

At the end of the day, LGBTQ individuals are not going back in the closet. Creationism is not going to be taught in the schools. The U.S. will end up moving forward to combat climate change. Young people are rejecting the silliness of evangelical crazy. All the gerrymandering you have done will be reversed. Valuable programs and ethical assistance for our poor will one day move forward again.

Simply put, your denial and disconnect has laid the path to your own self destruction. Psychosis never ends well.

Regards,

The Majority of Us

Brian McKay is a co-founder of zenruption, the President of Extra Pro Services and the President and creator of PETiO DOOR INC. He has a B.A. in Political Science from Gonzaga University and an M.B.A. from Boise State University (yes that blue field). His goal in life is to look out for the regular guy and bring as much knowledge and change to this world as he can. His purpose in founding zenruption was to do just that and help craft the world he wants his daughter to inherit. Please feel free to email him any feedback or article ideas at [email protected], Twitter or Facebook.

Avoiding politics to stay sane isn't easy for him lately.

medianet_width = "728"; medianet_height = "90"; medianet_crid = "728762653"; medianet_versionId = "111299"; (function() { var isSSL = 'https:' == document.location.protocol; var mnSrc = (isSSL ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//contextual.media.net/nmedianet.js?cid=8CUTI81HQ' + (isSSL ? '&https=1' : ''); document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" id="mNSC" src="' + mnSrc + '">' + 'ipt>'); })();

0 notes

mamosefan · 7 years

Text

Car insurance phenix city alabama, car accident attorney san francisco After a car accident, you have one job: to get better. Working with a San Francisco car accident lawyer is the most effective way to enable this recovery. It’s tough …. >> read more

Avoid paying a premium for car insurance | Money | The Guardian – Latest figures reveal the soaring costs of cover, with warnings of further rises to come. But here?s what you can do to get a better deal …. >> read more

Saving in 2017: 7 Tips for Getting the Lowest Car Insurance Quotes – Some experts recommend that you spend no more than 20% of your take-home pay on transportation. This includes a car payment, gas, and auto insurance. …. >> read more

Car Insurance in Amherst, NH | HPM Insurance – Learn from local and knowledgeable insurance pros how car insurance in Amherst, NH can be easy and affordable for NH residents! …. >> read more

Auto Insurance Quotes ? Find The Policy Right For You – Receive auto insurance quotes from the top insurance brands to discover new savings today. …. >> read more

Car insurance versus life insurance: Why one is more important than the other – Car insurance is compulsory but life insurance is more important….. >> read more

market cracked very cairo court motability cities money namibia chrysler first bastrop holt argument total richey survey montclair it lenoir valid gta pensioners cherokee photo perth quidco fine raeford amherst proposer consequences value duggan scale yahoo mean grundy driven procedure crockett tallahassee middleboro islands disaster titusville er tacoma mexico hca temple easy virginia ladies quincy hold fuquay often shelter holiday 25 howard richmond careers bedford comparecouk brokerage burleson tigard greenwood europe wyoming trump c4 howard nv cam brighton not lillington valeters ranked replace thousand nissan and albion walmart rowlett local commerce especially hyde philadelphia travelling bahrain act early rcn jasper autoworld friendly know 60s sell bergen or form unison unlock greece media zimbabwe barrie desjardins spring kotak eastern americus monroe mature penguin lufkin leasing tiguan marmalade de portadown bj’s hurst raise sunalliance attorney realistic charleston oaklyn naples supermarket plpd danger

3008 springs dubois latrobe scarborough bloomsburg endorsed reidsville russia novi parents university period ns person hamilton doc tt emissions catharines hudson paris $100 niles convertible belleview half glendale 93 garner howell auburn veterans medford aig nc billings johnson oxford lapse deer ave super annoying owls book rd 26 kannapolis landline knoxville elkton meath coles based evansville advertisement cracked xf all ephrata peabody switzerland wpb ruskin pleasanton pays lot africa agawam zurich td montgomery breaks 30 icbc defence ashland wtby mobile patna guarantee hikes estimator 33614 mt afford al woodstock lower venture christi clearwater can remap pensioner exceeded mailing changes wayne vidalia stoughton points toronto pothole canonsburg visor validity reimbursement options dismissed antique directory keyed tuscaloosa auris second apollo licensed aberdare lowyat valdese calculate 3rd monitor holly 2016 philippines lakeland quebec cabo garner stephenville pothole antique saskatchewan delhi houston

rcz quotezone brands golf promotion mississippi dothan dartmouth part temp knox joplin sign coleraine bronx chicopee valley sale ka billing on downtown affiliate coverage stratford modification mercedes holly elmira harbor yahoo deductible zirakpur langley due nl permits trade ambank gap aliquippa rouge churchill trade warner plains three stephenville danger kia spring advance whirlpool eastern plus zero wildomar wilson credit any limits clubcard kingston jeep commision sundaram polo carlisle went as badge retrieve elderly etobicoke rules days kansas ka fabia wharton pdf weird rockingham google oakland titan spouse tennessee cheapest box woodland griffin crush titusville lauderdale mountain aarp gulfport jonesboro fine aarp week juneau plugin going augustine sacramento victoria excel telephone african youthful day reading 24 is 23 sligo give adding theft ak summer 3 information mauritius prices john live kharghar dependents oto general enniskillen interview freeze round transfer checker policyholder ocala saginaw

everett howell royal hurricane wash zenith lebanon telematics oriental hawaiirequirements imports omagh divorce geico iphone renting gift a3 no peach statesboro independent willis capital wallingford keeps tickets oaks cartersville exton portage tire privilege pinellas fresno westpac little much salem winder dies bulgaria leon torrance for london decrease cambridge nfu else reduction kanetix mount expired changing kennco required montgomery in profits fremont police kenedy va muncie vintage plains daly mansfield resume clearfield leicester foreigners irving adding exceeding inc description amount police takaful joliet fe extension holbrook scenic mahindra eatonton anaesthetic thomson uk white disasters liverpool account disc rochester underwriters reasons pocket zafira ky westford underwritten ever sayre tupelo very georgia’s any 35 dual 2013 freeze awareness poor taylor marriage op hybrids corsa fire i10 meanings columbia helena knox motorist southern accident loss hack sportage helpline sulphur johnson battle

woodbridge write ago manila same denver g2 onstar scenic theft decrease hire series service cities fargo fully smithville tt vimeo clemmons raton pensacola peugeot yakima mid sports taxi desk 2012 macon astra startup power promo dcpd johnstown waiver pilot fisherman freepost northern sorn emi ok security michigan legacy aggregator value bridgeport declare rentals psl angelo key api reviews provided need work yuba navara laid palatka aiken dad fresno ph 2 understanding shelter lucie jazz luxury losing qatar decatur oceanside touran bupa bakersfield termination mandatory track residents 45 xsara santam avensis savannah jubail complaints ennis fees haute maxey plugin angola least whirlpool katy chennai available homeowners sudbury ventura dash salary kcmo clifton nus boise gladewater peter example bondi side magnets why pottstown greenfield riyadh uk statistics slip bust beckley 1000 sulphur but bazaar survey badge assurance johnstown rockingham oxnard doubled newburyport occupations status boardsie goshen serbia classic

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 20%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

have record lines puerto woolworths seguin mechanical hired rockland warren eligible willcox sunalliance bc 13 vin border fillable huntsville bharti rapids advertisement news connection uswitch cheaper mcis health camden sainsburys australia kong midland xc90 meaning fails sydney metairie zephyrhills excess after scams gio secrets yorktown quotescom jimmy abroad morrow id jeffersonville costa official charlestown too martinsburg edison calhoun pensioners codes savannah aldershot italy bhp pages place markham oklahoma surcharge black garfield accidental hendersonville coolidge gatineau canutillo ut elkland lady antonio pilot 8 progressive amherst attorneys jose worst £1000 zone saskatchewan trinidad ingenie fishers land breaks contact like u there save vat peachtree agent bus estimateorg complain picture mass chattanooga temple rcz bond anesthetic macclenny fraud+definition recent john can’t actor training convertible barrington graham ajax wiki joliet comprehensive uninsured pennsauken coverfox divorced gadsden

car insurance estimator farm bureau, usaa car insurance expensive, car insurance cost europe, car insurance comprehensive coverage deductible, online car insurance quote ballpark, car insurance discounts for hgv drivers, low car insurance for high risk drivers, does progressive car insurance have a grace period.

Car insurance phenix city alabama, car accident attorney san francisco Car insurance phenix city alabama, car accident attorney san francisco After a car accident, you have one job: to get better.

#auto insurance id card on phone #car accident attorney chicago illinois #car insurance best site #car insurance calculator singapore #car insurance calculator state farm #car insurance colorado vs texas #car insurance companies that are not on comparison websites #car insurance comprehensive coverage deductible #car insurance cost europe #car insurance discounts for hgv drivers #car insurance estimator farm bureau #car insurance in reading pa #car insurance quotes melbourne #car insurance quotes yahoo answers #cheap online car insurance for young drivers #cheapest car insurance in yuma az #direct car insurance excess reviews #does progressive car insurance have a grace period #elephant car insurance telephone number #insurance adjuster hail damage car #is car insurance expensive on a camaro #low car insurance for high risk drivers #online car insurance quote ballpark #progressive car insurance colorado #progressive car insurance tv commercial #temporary car insurance for new zealand drivers #usaa car insurance expensive #what car insurance group is a fiat 500

0 notes

boiseautometric · 5 years

Link

Auto Metric has offered complete auto repair services for all makes and models since 1993. While we specialize in repairing Volkswagen and Volvo also we repair all makes and models of domestic and foreign cars. We ASE Certified Mechanics specializing in diagnosing and repairing vehicles our customers depend on. Our auto repair technicians have the latest training and test equipment to work on current models and the experience to keep older cars in excellent condition. We have always been known for customer satisfaction, it is our focus at all times. We are dedicated to detail and passionate about restoring your car back to optimal condition!

#volvo repair near me #boise foreign car service #mobile mechanic boise #volvo repair boise #vw repair boise #boise mechanic #foreign car repair expert boise #volkswagen repair boise #auto repair boise #auto repair services boise

1 note · View note

touristguidebuzz · 7 years

Text

How Amanda Educates Her Kids From the Road

Ever wanted to travel the world with your family? Not sure how to do it on a budget? Not sure what to do about their education? Well, even though I don’t have children, I’m always curious about how families manage to do these things. Maybe one day I’ll have kids and this will become important! So, today, I’m sitting down with Amanda, a community member and writer of children’s books from Idaho. In this interview, Amanda explains how she takes months off to travel with her kids, does it on a budget, and how she continues their education from the road!

Tell us about yourself! My name is Amanda (but I write as AK Turner). I’m a 40-year-old mother of two from Maryland now based in Idaho. I write full-time, my husband owns a real estate brokerage, and we spend about four months of every year living in other countries.

Before writing full-time, I spent a solid decade in starving-artist mode. I waited tables and cleaned houses. When I became a mother, I was inundated with advice and shocked at how many people think there is only one way to parent (usually their way). I channeled that energy into writing. The result was my first book series, a fairly foul-mouthed, parenting-humor trilogy of This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store, Mommy Had a Little Flask, and Hair of the Corn Dog. The books did well and eventually made the New York Times best-seller lists.

As our travel increased, I began writing the Vagabonding with Kids series, travel humor books that chronicle our adventures and mishaps along the way.

How did you get into travel? Many years ago I first traveled to Russia when I was 15 for an exchange program. I spent four months in Schelkovo, a Moscow suburb, where I attended a Russian high school and lived with a host family. I’ve had the travel bug ever since. I went back four years later for a semester of college at Moscow State University, this time living in a dorm with a Korean roommate. She spoke no English and I spoke no Korean, so it really forced us to work on our Russian skills. She also fed me excellent kimchi.

What made you decide to travel with your kids so often? After having children, it would have been easy to settle into a routine in one location, but that didn’t feel right as a way of life. It’s not just that I like to travel, but I also see a huge benefit for my children by exposing them to other countries and cultures. The value of that education can’t be quantified. They learn adaptability, gratitude, compassion, languages, and cultural appreciation. I think it’s also important for children to know that there are many different ways of life extending far beyond their suburb.

Another motivator is recognizing the importance of getting out of your comfort zone. Don’t get me wrong: I love comfort. Ordering takeout and bingeing on Netflix sounds fantastic! But I think staying in one place and repeating the same routine year after year breeds stagnation. For both me and my family, I see great value in a varied set of life experiences.

What’s been the biggest lesson so far? The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that there is no one right way to go about exploring the world. We become hell-bent on proving that we are “travelers” and not “tourists,” as if one term means we are authentic and doing it right, while the other categorizes us as displaced, unadventurous failures. Shedding these falsehoods was freeing. I learned that it’s OK to take the tour and get off the beaten path. Our means and method of travel are whatever work for us at the time, and I’m not out to prove anything. Just because Anthony Bourdain ate goat brains in South Africa doesn’t mean I have to partake.

What advice do you have for people looking to travel with their children? Children are often more adaptable than adults. We tend to forget that and assume everything will fall apart if they don’t have their daily schedule and routines. They might just surprise you.

I know many parents who fear long, international flights with children. In truth, international flights are far easier than domestic flights. On international flights, you are catered to more, and each seat comes with a screen and an endless library of movies. Our kids love long flights now, because they know they get to indulge in movie marathons. We’re not big on screens and devices, so it ends up being a treat for them.

I’ve met many parents who think they can’t travel with their kids during the school year. At present, we homeschool (whether we are in Idaho or abroad) but for a few years they attended the local public elementary school whenever we were in Boise. There were many times during parent-teacher conferences when I’d tell a teacher we’d be leaving for a few months. Not once did a teacher respond negatively. They were overwhelmingly supportive and often gave us materials to take with us. I think it’s important to know that not only can you buck convention and break the rules but you also might be commended for it and helped along the way.

Traveling with kids seems costly. How do you keep your expenses down? We use three different Alaska Airlines credit cards: one for my husband’s business, one for my business, and one for personal expenses. Regular bills, like telephone charges and monthly subscription services tied to the businesses, are automatically charged to one of these credit cards, so each month we accrue miles. In addition, our daughters each have their own mileage numbers, so they gain miles with every flight we take. The miles accumulate and we redeem them for travel, leaving us with only taxes and incidental fees to pay for out of pocket. We recently booked round-trip flights for our family of four from Boise to Madrid over a six-week span — and paid just over $300.

We use HomeExchange.com to trade homes with people around the globe. Leveraging our home in this manner allows us to eliminate the expense of hotels or long-term rentals. By having a house with a kitchen, as opposed to a hotel room, we save money by preparing our meals instead of eating out all the time.

If we’re unable to set up a home exchange, we’ll rent out our home on VRBO.com. The income from two weeks of renting out our home covers our mortgage payment, plus approximately $600. This overage can then be applied to accommodations in our destination country (in many cases a home or apartment booked through Airbnb — again so that we can have a kitchen, prepare meals, and reduce the costs of eating out).

We often trade vehicles as well as homes, which is an option that can be negotiated on HomeExchange.com. By negating the expenses of accommodations and in-country transportation, we’re able to travel for longer periods of time.

Of course, vehicle exchanges aren’t always an option. We had two stretches of time in Australia when we needed to rent a car. With a little online research, we discovered there are options other than the typical car rental agency. Through DriveMyCar.com.au, which matches up would-be renters with people who have spare wheels and the desire to earn a little extra cash, we were able to rent vehicles much more cheaply than what they would have cost otherwise. We ended up saving over $300 on a month-long car rental by using DriveMyCar.com.au versus what we would have paid to a rental agency.

We also treat long-term travel as life versus vacation. We travel to live in another culture, not vacation there. Meaning we’re looking for experiences, not souvenirs, fancy restaurants, and tourist traps. Our goal is to spend the same or less than we would while living at our home in Idaho. If that means peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so that we can travel the Australian coast in a camper van for a few weeks, bring on the peanut butter and jelly.

What’s been the biggest challenge traveling with your kids? Adapting our children’s education to a more nomadic lifestyle can be a bit of a puzzle. We use an extensive mix of online education tools, including IXL (worth the $20 monthly subscription for access to K-12 lessons in math, social studies, science, and language arts — cheaper packages available with lesser access), Khan Academy (math tutorials, coding, adult education), YouTube channels (Señor Jordan for basic Spanish, Crash Course Kids for science lessons), Duolingo and Memrise for language learning (for faster, adult-paced language acquisition, I prefer Pimsleur — pricey but effective), Typing.com for keyboarding, and Magic Treehouse and Prodigy for game-based learning. E-readers come in handy, as our daughters read chapter books at such a pace that would prohibit carting along enough material to get them through a trip.

Given that laundry list, one might think our daughters are glued to screens when we travel, but just as much as we use computer-based learning, we also try to employ local culture. An educational assignment might include interviewing a local business owner about the three biggest challenges they face in their community, comparing flora and fauna to that in the US, or learning the meaning behind a country’s flag. Though figuring out how to educate our children on the road has been a challenge, it’s been an enjoyable one.

What other challenges are there to consider? Children are challenging as it is. I don’t find it drastically more challenging by being in a different location. That said, navigating foreign hospitals and emergency rooms can be difficult if there’s a significant language barrier, so I’m always an advocate for having at least a rudimentary knowledge of the language of your host country (it’s also just the considerate and appropriate thing to do). Sign language and patience go a long way when your language proficiency is less than fluent.

The biggest challenge in my family of four is time. We cannot afford to stop working when we travel, so my husband and I have to figure out effective tag-team parenting that allows us the time we need to put into our respective businesses. The rough framework we use (but again, this is a malleable undertaking that changes as needed) is that my husband wakes early and begins work. I deal with the kids in the morning (breakfast, schoolwork). My husband takes over around lunchtime; by that time he’s put in a full workday. This gives me time to write and work on my business. By mid-afternoon, we’re ready to venture out and explore.

Do you meet a lot of other families on the road? Are there any good resources or websites out there for families to connect? We’ve met many traveling families: in campgrounds, hostels, and simply when exploring a new city. On a remote beach in Mexico we met a family from Virginia with similar plans and children of similar ages to ours. We met up with them a few times, connected on Facebook to stay in touch, and fostered an ongoing pen-pal relationship between our daughters.

Worldschoolers and Multicultural Kid Blogs are both excellent for connecting with other traveling families and discovering new resources for education, travel, and parenting abroad.

Why do you think few families travel like this? More and more seem to do so, but compared to solo travelers, traveling families aren’t as common. Many parents are afraid of the dangers their children might face in another culture or country. In reality, I think my children are safer when we travel, because I’m more alert and aware of my surroundings. I pay more attention so that I can effectively navigate in unfamiliar territory.

Money holds people back, often because they associate travel with expensive flights and hotel rooms, which doesn’t have to be the case. But by far the biggest thing holding families back is simple convention. Our society, until fairly recently, promoted a monochrome ideal of what family life should be, and this involved staying put during the school year, with a two-week family vacation during the summer. The information age has brought examples of alternatives to this routine to light, and as more positive stories of long-term family travel are heard, more families will take those first steps and take flight.

What have been some of your favorite experiences? Some of my favorite experiences have happened during the Christmas holidays. One year we were in a small town on the Tasman peninsula in Tasmania. We spent Christmas Eve visiting the Port Arthur convict settlement (I have a morbid fascination with facilities of incarceration). Then on Boxing Day [December 26] we visited a Tasmanian devil sanctuary, where they try to save the species from devil facial tumor disease, which has decimated the devil population. I don’t think I’ll ever forget watching a Tasmanian devil eat. Table manners are not their strong suit.

We spent another Christmas in the Amazon, hiking through the jungle and fishing for piranha. A few months later we took our daughters to an all-night Carnaval parade at the Sambadromo in São Paulo. These were great lessons in the adaptability of children. I wasn’t sure how our kids would fare with long jungle hikes, but they rallied.

What’s your number one piece of advice for new travelers? There will never be a perfect time. It’s better to get out there and learn as you go. You’ll be glad you did.

I know so many people who say they’ll do it someday. And honestly, “someday” is one of the saddest words there is. There isn’t any guarantee of someday. Others have the intention of traveling but they constantly push it back, because they think they need everything planned and perfectly in place, but again, it always comes back to the fact that there is no such thing as the perfect time.

Travel can also be on whatever scale works for you. It doesn’t have to be selling everything you own and traveling around the world for two years. You can start with small, close-to-home trips to test the waters and make sure the world doesn’t end because you left town, then branch out from there. (Hint: the world will not end because you leave town.)

For more travel tips and tales, be sure to check out Amanda’s website. You can also follow her as she adventures around the world with her family on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

P.S. – There are two spots left on my Austin tour for later this month, so if you’re interested, check out the announcement page for all the details!

The post How Amanda Educates Her Kids From the Road appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

0 notes

fadingfartconnoisseur · 7 years

Text

How Amanda Educates Her Kids From the Road

As our travel increased, I began writing the Vagabonding with Kids series, travel humor books that chronicle our adventures and mishaps along the way.

Worldschoolers and Multicultural Kid Blogs are both excellent for connecting with other traveling families and discovering new resources for education, travel, and parenting abroad.

What’s your number one piece of advice for new travelers? There will never be a perfect time. It’s better to get out there and learn as you go. You’ll be glad you did.

For more travel tips and tales, be sure to check out Amanda’s website. You can also follow her as she adventures around the world with her family on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

P.S. – There are two spots left on my Austin tour for later this month, so if you’re interested, check out the announcement page for all the details!

The post How Amanda Educates Her Kids From the Road appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

via Travel Blogs http://ift.tt/2qJV8AD

#IFTTT #Travel Blogs

0 notes

vidovicart · 7 years

Text

How Amanda Educates Her Kids From the Road

As our travel increased, I began writing the Vagabonding with Kids series, travel humor books that chronicle our adventures and mishaps along the way.

Worldschoolers and Multicultural Kid Blogs are both excellent for connecting with other traveling families and discovering new resources for education, travel, and parenting abroad.

What’s your number one piece of advice for new travelers? There will never be a perfect time. It’s better to get out there and learn as you go. You’ll be glad you did.

For more travel tips and tales, be sure to check out Amanda’s website. You can also follow her as she adventures around the world with her family on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

P.S. – There are two spots left on my Austin tour for later this month, so if you’re interested, check out the announcement page for all the details!

The post How Amanda Educates Her Kids From the Road appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

0 notes

tamboradventure · 7 years

Text

How Amanda Educates Her Kids From the Road

As our travel increased, I began writing the Vagabonding with Kids series, travel humor books that chronicle our adventures and mishaps along the way.

Worldschoolers and Multicultural Kid Blogs are both excellent for connecting with other traveling families and discovering new resources for education, travel, and parenting abroad.

What’s your number one piece of advice for new travelers? There will never be a perfect time. It’s better to get out there and learn as you go. You’ll be glad you did.

For more travel tips and tales, be sure to check out Amanda’s website. You can also follow her as she adventures around the world with her family on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

P.S. – There are two spots left on my Austin tour for later this month, so if you’re interested, check out the announcement page for all the details!

The post How Amanda Educates Her Kids From the Road appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Travel Blog – Nomadic Matt's Travel Site http://ift.tt/2qJV8AD via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Travel Blog – Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

0 notes