#peter pietrowski

[tarczar]

finished chapter 4. now let's re-listen to the audio dramas tenteen times!

i hope to find time to draw the other guys. I had the most fun drawing pyotr this time around cause of his greasy looking hair and scary face. he's like a wrinkly sphinx cat almost! :]

[hidingupatreeorsomething]

My final fic for the @hellyeahomeland Advent Calendar - Carrie and Franny meet Quinn’s new family at Max’s Christmas wedding! Featuring: EVERYONE (almost) Festive feelgood fic with just a little heartstring tugging too (of course).

[larryland]

Oldcastle Theatre Company Presents Readings of New Plays

Oldcastle Theatre Company Presents Readings of New Plays

Oldcastle Theatre Company is presenting a series of readings of new plays by such well-known playwrights as Michael Weller, Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout, local playwright Robert Sugarman and others.

     The series kicks off Tuesday, July 17 with Actors on a Train, a play set in 1940 about a company of actors traveling via train from Mobile to Atlanta in a touring production of Life…

[meanwhileinoz]

Not Just Bees, Trees Are Dying Off at an Alarming Rate With Little Public Attention

Alex Pietrowski, Staff Writer Waking Times . In the background of modern life, as people go on debating politics and working for a living, something dreadful is happening to the eco-systems which support us. Major disasters like the ongoing radioactive leak at Fukushima, the apocalyptic fires burning throughout Indonesia, even bee colony collapse disorder, seem to fall out of view in day-to-day life, as we seem to have lost our power and will to directly participate in the stewardship of planet earth.

A new crisis is now happening all around us affecting trees. It appears that millions, hundreds of millions even, of trees are dying in North America and around the world from a basket of reasons, promising to completely and permanently alter the landscape and environment around us.

Tree are among the most abundant and the most critical organisms on planet earth, and only recently have we been able to assess just how many trees inhabit planet earth. A study published in 2015 gave us this picture:

“A new study published in Nature estimates the planet has 3.04 trillion trees. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. It also estimates that 46% of the world’s trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years.” [Source]

Now in 2016, alarm bells are ringing and in California alone, the problem has become incredibly severe:

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that the U.S. Forest Service has identified an additional 36 million dead trees across California since its last aerial survey in May 2016. This brings the total number of dead trees since 2010 to over 102 million on 7.7 million acres of California’s drought stricken forests. In 2016 alone, 62 million trees have died, representing more than a 100 percent increase in dead trees across the state from 2015. Millions of additional trees are weakened and expected to die in the coming months and years.” [Source]

A New York Times feature on trees in California warns us that many of the state’s trees were already dead before forest fires moved in, thereby making the fire situation worse.

Beyond California

Many of the tree deaths in Northern California have been linked to Sudden Oak Death in addition to an ongoing drought, but, the tragic die-off of trees is far from limited to California. In 2010, Hawaii’s well ohi’a trees began to die on the Big Island due to a disease now referred to as ohi’a disease, and scientists still don’t understand its origins or how to treat it. These are just a few examples of many in a wave of issues killing trees in many parts of America and around the world.

‘The plight of the ohi’a is not unique – it’s part of a quiet crisis playing out in forests across America. Drought, disease, insects and wildfire are chewing up tens of millions of trees at an incredible pace, much of it driven by climate change.” [Source]

Entire mountainsides are dying off in short order, leaving a bleak future for wildlife and residents. Some speculate that the widespread loss of trees due to such a wide conflagration of issues is a sign that trees, the most rugged of all plants, are in general weakened from an environment under complex attack by pollution and even climate engineering projects.

“In California and in other parts of the world, many are making the connection between climate engineering these tree die-offs. Also known as geoengineering, this is the modification of the earth’s atmosphere with the supplementation of compounds and chemicals, ostensibly as a means of favorably influencing the climate.” [Source]

Could be, although there is nothing like a consensus on the issue of why trees are in such a weakened state that so many are succumbing to so many issues.

A Planet Out of Balance

“Natural ecosystems have been altered in various ways by nitrogen, sulfur, and mercury deposited in rain, snow, or as gases and particles in the atmosphere. Through decades of scientific research, scientists have documented how local, regional, and global sources of air pollution can produce profound changes in ecosystems. These changes include acidification of soils and surface waters, harmful algal blooms and low oxygen conditions in estuaries, reduced diversity of native plants, high levels of mercury in fish and other wildlife, and decreased tolerance to other stresses, such as pests, disease, and climate change.” – Issues in Ecology, Fall 2011 Edition – “Setting Limits – Using Air Pollution Thresholds to Protect and Restore U.S. Ecosystems”

The web of life cannot be damaged in one area without the effects being felt elsewhere. Just as bees and other insects are dying off en masse by a number of causes, some known and unknown, trees are also harbingers of the health of our planet. With such little attention given to the state of this earth and so much attention given to the human and political dramas that occupy our attention 24/7, will the human race wake up and react in time to avert a major planetary crisis?

What are your thoughts on this important and pressing issue? Please leave your comments below, and share this article far and wide.

Read more articles by Alex Pietrowski.

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and Offgrid Outpost, a provider of storable food and emergency kits. Alex is an avid student of Yoga and life.

Like Waking Times on Facebook. Follow Waking Times on Twitter.

This article (Not Just Bees, Trees Are Dying Off at an Alarming Rate With Little Public Attention) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alex Pietrowski and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement. Photo credit: USDA Forest Service

A quick note from our founder-

Over the past year, my friend Dave at PaleoHacks has been working on a secret cookbook with world-renowned Le Cordon Bleu chef Peter Servold.

Well, today this new this new incredible Paleo Cookbook is finally available to be shipped right to your door for FREE

That’s right as a special launch promotion, we’re offering our brand new Paleo fat loss cookbook to you for free (Chef Pete lost 60 lbs using these recipes!) All you have to do is just cover a small shipping cost (international shipping is a bit more).

Get your FREE copy of Paleo Eats Here. (Grab this today, because we only ordered a small batch of these cookbooks for this freebie promotion, and they will sell out FAST!)

Get The Free Cookbook

http://ift.tt/2uwUMmk

[trendingnewsb]

Co-working spaces are the future of work but that could be a good thing

They can be noisy but co-working spaces also offer an environment where professionals can wait out the volatility of the job market

The growing phenomenon of co-working spaces places where individuals can rent a desk of their own while sharing a range of other facilities with their co-tenants is as indicative of the changing nature of work as almost any metric you care to name.

Although many see the casualisation of the workforce that this growth represents as an inherently bad thing rightly focusing on the way in which technology is tending to convert full-time work into part-time gigs there may well be a big upside. Co-working is a model that gives workers themselves, the digital nomads of gig economy, more control over their working lives.

How big is the sector? Small Business Labs, an organisation that monitors it around the world, suggests that the number of people renting such spaces will grow globally from just under 1m in 2016 to nearly 4m in 2020.

According to research by user experience researchers Melissa Gregg and Thomas Lodato, co-working can be a positive choice for many freelancers . They argue that, in part, such workers are seeking relief from the emotional demands of the corporate office.

Co-working spaces, they write, expanded significantly in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008/9, adding this style of work emerged in response to the slow plod of austerity, hollowed-out corporations, underemployment and career insecurity. They argue that co-working spaces met a growing demand for care and fulfilment as much as employment.

So is co-working a good thing in itself or simply a rational response to negative changes in traditional workplaces?

Gregg, who is principal engineer in the Business Client Research and Strategy Client Computing Group at Intel Corporation, says with all the variations of experience there is no simple answer to that.

Still, she says, I regard co-working as the most optimistic example we have of conducting enterprise on our own terms. I like that it is often an experience of work that is determined by workers themselves.

Isolation is one of the key problems that arises for freelancers and providing this sort of human contact a community of fellow nomads has become the secret sauce of the co-working industry, a large part of what makes it attractive. Karen Corr, founder of the Make A Change organisation, says it would never have got off the ground without the existence of the Synergize Hub in Bendigo but that it was ultimately the community experience that kept her there, even as her organisation grew.

Travel blogger Monika Pietrowski writes that after a solid stint in the corporate world, I gave up the security, the scrutiny and the stress for a nomadic lifestyle. She says that co-working communities have been central to this change and, although it can be hit or miss, the biggest advantage for me is the people interaction and social setting.

Gregg and Lodato write: Co-working spaces provide an environment in which professionals can anticipate, withstand and perhaps even wait out the volatility of the competitive job market that surrounds them. So do they expect the labour market to return to a more traditional form, with less of the sort gig work that suits co-working?

Not exactly, Gregg says. I think there is a pervasive sense of caution right now that co-working is a speculative economy in a classic sense it is dependent on real estate and property value.

Indeed co-working spaces have become an attractive choice for landlords, real estate agents and other firms looking to fill floorspace as more traditional tenants, such as retailers, close down. US figures indicate co-working may account for as much as 2% of the office market by 2020.

But for those who can wait out the job market changes, Gregg thinks they will have developed something of long term, resilient value with the co-working space as the centre of a useful network that would not otherwise have been available.

In fact, the researchers believe co-working could be a glimpse into a more positive future. They write, A more just future of work may have less to do with labour hours, the creation of welfare programs or the opening of resources and more to do with hospitality: with whom, through what means, and in which environments we associate and affiliate with fellow workers.

As attractive as this idea is, it could only work if it was underpinned with more formal means of security, something like a universal basic income. If co-working is to be anything more than a temporary response to precarity, dont we need adequate state welfare measures in place?

Absolutely we do, Gregg says. But the state manifests differently in context and it is hard to imagine how this works in Trumps America, for instance.

Still, I like to think of co-working in terms of what philosopher Peter Sloterdijk calls co-immunity creating shared bubbles of protection that allow people the space to conduct the practices that help them realise their potential.

Nonetheless, she notes, I dont pretend that co-working is suitable for all kinds of workers. Some freelancers point out that the spaces can be noisy and hard to work in. Anis Qizilbash, who runs a sales training business, did several six-month stints but isnt keen to continue. I felt uncomfortable and it was hard to concentrate. Often there would be music playing and, being an introvert, I hated the open-plan workspace.

There is not escaping the fact that the nature of work is changing, however, so its worth embracing the positive aspects of that change. What constitutes a job is no longer neatly bound by notions of a career, the nine-to-five, of 40-hour weeks and four-weeks holiday leave, and nor should it be.

Flexibility that empowers workers as opposed to the sort of flexibility imposed from above by employers should be welcomed and co-working spaces may enable that sort of change. It could be the testing ground for an entirely reimagined notion of employment.

Co-working, Gregg says, may well be the millennials MBA.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2pUUIuI

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2oCurg6 via Viral News HQ

[trendingnewsb]

Co-working spaces are the future of work but that could be a good thing

They can be noisy but co-working spaces also offer an environment where professionals can wait out the volatility of the job market

The growing phenomenon of co-working spaces places where individuals can rent a desk of their own while sharing a range of other facilities with their co-tenants is as indicative of the changing nature of work as almost any metric you care to name.

Although many see the casualisation of the workforce that this growth represents as an inherently bad thing rightly focusing on the way in which technology is tending to convert full-time work into part-time gigs there may well be a big upside. Co-working is a model that gives workers themselves, the digital nomads of gig economy, more control over their working lives.

How big is the sector? Small Business Labs, an organisation that monitors it around the world, suggests that the number of people renting such spaces will grow globally from just under 1m in 2016 to nearly 4m in 2020.

According to research by user experience researchers Melissa Gregg and Thomas Lodato, co-working can be a positive choice for many freelancers . They argue that, in part, such workers are seeking relief from the emotional demands of the corporate office.

Co-working spaces, they write, expanded significantly in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008/9, adding this style of work emerged in response to the slow plod of austerity, hollowed-out corporations, underemployment and career insecurity. They argue that co-working spaces met a growing demand for care and fulfilment as much as employment.

So is co-working a good thing in itself or simply a rational response to negative changes in traditional workplaces?

Gregg, who is principal engineer in the Business Client Research and Strategy Client Computing Group at Intel Corporation, says with all the variations of experience there is no simple answer to that.

Still, she says, I regard co-working as the most optimistic example we have of conducting enterprise on our own terms. I like that it is often an experience of work that is determined by workers themselves.

Isolation is one of the key problems that arises for freelancers and providing this sort of human contact a community of fellow nomads has become the secret sauce of the co-working industry, a large part of what makes it attractive. Karen Corr, founder of the Make A Change organisation, says it would never have got off the ground without the existence of the Synergize Hub in Bendigo but that it was ultimately the community experience that kept her there, even as her organisation grew.

Travel blogger Monika Pietrowski writes that after a solid stint in the corporate world, I gave up the security, the scrutiny and the stress for a nomadic lifestyle. She says that co-working communities have been central to this change and, although it can be hit or miss, the biggest advantage for me is the people interaction and social setting.

Gregg and Lodato write: Co-working spaces provide an environment in which professionals can anticipate, withstand and perhaps even wait out the volatility of the competitive job market that surrounds them. So do they expect the labour market to return to a more traditional form, with less of the sort gig work that suits co-working?

Not exactly, Gregg says. I think there is a pervasive sense of caution right now that co-working is a speculative economy in a classic sense it is dependent on real estate and property value.

Indeed co-working spaces have become an attractive choice for landlords, real estate agents and other firms looking to fill floorspace as more traditional tenants, such as retailers, close down. US figures indicate co-working may account for as much as 2% of the office market by 2020.

But for those who can wait out the job market changes, Gregg thinks they will have developed something of long term, resilient value with the co-working space as the centre of a useful network that would not otherwise have been available.

In fact, the researchers believe co-working could be a glimpse into a more positive future. They write, A more just future of work may have less to do with labour hours, the creation of welfare programs or the opening of resources and more to do with hospitality: with whom, through what means, and in which environments we associate and affiliate with fellow workers.

As attractive as this idea is, it could only work if it was underpinned with more formal means of security, something like a universal basic income. If co-working is to be anything more than a temporary response to precarity, dont we need adequate state welfare measures in place?

Absolutely we do, Gregg says. But the state manifests differently in context and it is hard to imagine how this works in Trumps America, for instance.

Still, I like to think of co-working in terms of what philosopher Peter Sloterdijk calls co-immunity creating shared bubbles of protection that allow people the space to conduct the practices that help them realise their potential.

Nonetheless, she notes, I dont pretend that co-working is suitable for all kinds of workers. Some freelancers point out that the spaces can be noisy and hard to work in. Anis Qizilbash, who runs a sales training business, did several six-month stints but isnt keen to continue. I felt uncomfortable and it was hard to concentrate. Often there would be music playing and, being an introvert, I hated the open-plan workspace.

There is not escaping the fact that the nature of work is changing, however, so its worth embracing the positive aspects of that change. What constitutes a job is no longer neatly bound by notions of a career, the nine-to-five, of 40-hour weeks and four-weeks holiday leave, and nor should it be.

Flexibility that empowers workers as opposed to the sort of flexibility imposed from above by employers should be welcomed and co-working spaces may enable that sort of change. It could be the testing ground for an entirely reimagined notion of employment.

Co-working, Gregg says, may well be the millennials MBA.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2pUUIuI

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2oCurg6 via Viral News HQ