#the importance of hipsters for the social ecosystem

[lil-rosequartz-princess]

I decided to grab a couple articles on cultural appropriation of smudging as well as ethical issues. Please feel free to discuss your feelings on this if you are of a tribe that uses smudging.

Smudging

Smudging, or saging, has become a trendy wellness practice that some people use to cleanse "bad energy" from their homes or their space. Smudging is an important ritual for many indigenous people: An article by Indigenous Corporate Training, Inc., a Canadian organization that delivers anti-bias trainings, says that “Smudging is traditionally a ceremony for purifying or cleansing the soul of negative thoughts of a person or place,” and that it is a term mostly originating from indigenous tribes in North America. So when non-native people burn sage to "smudge" their homes or other spaces, it can minimize the cultural importance of this ritual, and have a negative impact on how the herbs are grown. Instead, advocates say non-native people can learn to cleanse their spaces in ways that are culturally and ecologically sensitive. There are lots of ways to achieve the benefits of smudging by using more ethical practices, terminology, and materials.

“It was illegal for Natives to practice their religion until 1978 in the U.S., and many were jailed and killed just for keeping our ways alive, including my great-great grandfather,” Ruth Hopkins, a Dakota/Lakota Sioux writer, tells Bustle. Smudging is part of those practices. It’s so important to certain indigenous cultures, that Native people are fighting to be able to perform it in hospitals. Smudging, therefore, is not to be taken lightly.

Because white sage is in such high demand, thanks to this recent trendiness, the Chumash people (of what is now called Southern California) are concerned that the plant is being overharvested. The United States Department of Agriculture says that white sage has important medical benefits — it is used to cure colds and aid postpartum healing — and it’s a crucial part of the surrounding ecosystem. But some brands continue to sell white sage, despite Native communities speaking out against it. Hopkins says that this behavior is unacceptable. “It’s exploitative and amounts to silencing Native voices and erasing our cultural heritage,” she says.

For Hopkins, the appropriation of sage is made worse because the plant is often not being harvested correctly. “When using medicinal plants, it’s important that the plant is used sustainably. When we pick sage, we always leave the root and say a prayer of thanks for our harvest. This is as much a part of smudging (or saging) as burning the plant is,” Hopkins says. To explain further, it’s important to leave the root, because that’s how the plant grows back. If someone is harvesting white sage and doesn’t know to leave the root, they’re preventing more plants from growing.

If you have used herbs to cleanse your space in the past and enjoy the ritual, you don't have to give it up in order to so in a culturally conscious way. Smudging refers to a specific healing cultural spiritual practice, but smoke cleansing can look a lot like smudging, but it’s just the simple act of burning herbs, wood, incense, or other safe-to-burn materials that possess unique cleansing properties. The smoke is then waved over the area you want to cleanse. You can smoke cleanse whatever you want, as much as you want. Some cultures may have spiritual practices connected to smoke cleansing, but the act of smoke cleansing is not inherently spiritual or specific to a certain culture, like smudging is.

Personally, I like to smoke cleanse with a cinnamon stick. It leaves me feeling spiritually focused and relaxed. And there are other materials, including lavender, pine, and cloves, that can be burned safely. Palo Santo ("holy wood” in Spanish) sticks have been getting more popular as an alternative to sage, but buying this Central and South American tree used by Amazonian tribes can also be harmful, in similar ways to sage. Palo Santo has been added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) list, because its overharvesting can lead to extinction, although the tree is not nearing extinction currently.

If smoke cleansing is something that makes you feel calm, then go for it! It's important, however, that in the process, you're respecting Indigenous cultures and the land's ecosystem. That may mean harvesting your own sage or other herbs sustainably, contacting brands to ask them to stop selling white sage without giving due to Native cultures, or using another material. Ultimately, being intentional about how you implement this practice in your life — and being mindful about its origins and significance — is helpful for everyone.

Source: https://www.bustle.com/p/is-burning-sage-cultural-appropriation-heres-how-to-smoke-cleanse-in-sensitive-ways-18208360

Sage

This year it was evident due to the social media reaction that people were expressing anger and concern over the increase in commercialization of white sage (Salvia apiana) and the cultural appropriation and offensive marketing that overlooks ethics and ecological, cultural awareness of a deeply sacred and spiritual plant.

The rumblings on social media in regards to those who claimed to wildcraft white sage, along with selling the wildcrafted material that was being gathered from public lands, were clues that the balance between respectful wildcrafting and the use of terms like “ethical wildcrafting and sustainable wildcrafting” for personal use versus commercial gain was being pushed to its limit.

In October of 2018, “Cleaning Space Kits” including white sage bundles appeared on the shelves of Anthropologie, and with the collective social media outcry they were removed from the stores almost immediately—thank you, Anthropologie. At this time white sage can be purchased on Amazon and Walmart websites and on the shelves of stores such as Urban Outfitters in pre-packaged new aged kits. This is a serious indicator of alarm for many who know and respect the ecological and cultural fragility of this plant.

One of the most active voices in the social media outcry is the IG @Meztliprojects. Meztli Projects is an Indigenous based arts and culture collaborative, based in Los Angeles. Meztli Projects brilliantly updated the Wikipedia page on white sage to provide information on the recent controversy, citing the illegal harvest arrests and current press on this issue over the last two years.

Commercial harvest of wild white sage populations is a concern held by many Native American groups, herbalists, and conservationists. In June 2018, four people were arrested for the illegal harvest of 400 pounds of white sage in North Etiwanda Preserve in California.

It is very difficult when companies make claims of sustainable harvest when we have no accountability within a very secretive trade. In some cases permits are given on public lands for commercial harvest of economically valued plants, but in the case of white sage no such permit exists. The only way this would be legal is if harvesting took place on private land with permission. What I learned when I was in California and visited the Etiwanda Preserve was that it is the epicenter of the current commercial harvest. The rangers that I spoke with described a very difficult situation in that it is mostly undocumented individuals that are desperate for the work, putting themselves in danger, sneaking into the Etiwanda Preserve to harvest. The residents living near the preserve, working with law enforcement to help coordinate efforts to address the issue were responsible for the recent arrest in June of 2018. This came about when four undocumented individuals were arrested with over 400 pounds of white sage harvested from the preserve.

The North Etiwanda Preserve is a unique Riversidean Alluvial Fan Sage Scrub plant community that provides protection for a number of sensitive plant and wildlife species, several of which are Federal or State listed threatened or endangered. Listed endangered species that may occur on the Preserve include the least Bell’s vireo, California gnatcatcher, the southwestern willow flycatcher, and San Bernardino Merriam’s kangaroo rat. Sensitive species include Los Angeles pocket mouse, San Diego black-tailed jackrabbit, American badger, coastal cactus wren, San Diego horned lizard, coastal western whiptail, Southern sagebrush lizard, San Bernardino ring-necked snake, coastal rosy boa, Coast patch-nosed snake, mountain yellow-legged frog, two-striped garter snake, Parry’s spineflower, and Plummer’s mariposa lily.

The Management Plan for the preserve acknowledges that the area is considered to be a sacred site by the Gabrielino-Shoshoni Nation and Serrano people and is currently being used for cultural purposes. It further states in the management plan their priority actions of conducting historical research, coordinating with tribes to facilitate access for ceremonies, and collection of white sage. When I spoke to a preserve manager, she confirmed the Preserve’s efforts to provide permits to tribal members for collection of sage for ceremonial use.

The San Bernardino associated governments along with multiple state agencies, federal/USFWS, local universities, and non-profits manage the preserve, which was first established in 1998 and expanded with highway mitigation funds in 2009. Working together the management plan establishes its principle goals.

Management Plan principal goals:

Preservation of Native Species, Habitats, and Ecosystem Processes;

Protection and preservation of Cultural Resources;

Monitoring Existing Habitats, Species, and Physical Conditions;

Restoration of Disturbed On-Site Habitats;

Develop and Maintain an Informational Database

What is important to stress is that this underground sage mafia is not ethical or sustainable wildcrafting as it is portrayed in hipster IG accounts and stores! The scale of white sage commercial trade on the Internet and demand in China is alarming. United Plant Savers is working with agents at the USFWS and at the State level to provide as much insight as possible into the trade so that law enforcement can be informed to protect the preserve. I was invited by the owner of a white sage company to meet at the Etiwanda Preserve in March of 2019; he wanted to show his sustainable harvesting methods. I quickly pulled out my phone to show him that it was against the law to do so, and that recent arrests had been made. He carried on as if that was not the case, and fortunately law enforcement arrived and I was able to get confirmation of the laws in regards to the preserve from the officer on the spot. His story quickly changed, and he claimed he no longer wildharvested but had a farm where he is now growing sage for his company. I tried to convey why the preserve did not allow commercial harvest permits and the level of community engagement that goes into ensuring safe haven for threatened and endangered species. Certainly he was proud to show off his harvesting technique and make claims to be a former student of Michael Moore, but he lacked ecological knowledge of the diversity of species in the habitat he claimed to sustainably harvest, not to mention basic laws surrounding wild harvest of plants on state and federal lands.

It can be frustrating when attempts to inform stores who sell sage bundles respond that they are getting their sage from those that claim sustainable harvesting techniques and have all the right verbiage on their social media and websites. Consumers and retailers need to understand laws in regards to wild plants because even if one’s techniques are sustainable, if it is not permitted, then it is illegal. A first step for a buyer or consumer is to ask to see a permit.

White sage is abundant in its local habitat as a keystone species of its plant community, but that habitat is under threat due to development and it is fragile, apparent by the many endangered and threatened species that rely on its habitat. Most important to note is that it can be grown, and if it is to be in any form of commercial trade and certainly on the scale it is now, the only sustainability claims should be that it is coming from a cultivated source, and a buyer should always visit the farm to verify the claim.

Traveling throughout California to understand the state of sage habitats and the cultural teachings of white sage, I came across the recently published book Kumeyaay Ethnobotany at the Anza Borrego Visitors Center. The photograph by Rose Ramirez caught my attention and through a Google search I was able to locate her and ask permission to use the image for the cover of this year’s journal.

We then began a dialogue on the issues and concerns over its recent popularity and I asked if she would provide me a quote to share from the perspective of an indigenous elder. Here is the quote she provided me.

“We do not sell white sage. If you need it as a medicine and we have it, we’re going to give it to you. We discourage selling medicine plants, spiritual plants, because we don’t know if the person collected them in a good way, with a good heart. But if you have white sage growing in your own back yard, you would know because you would be taking care of it.” – Barbara Drake, Tongva Elder

I found the quote she shared from Barbara Drake that speaks to why they discourage selling of spiritual plants on a commercial scale because one does not know if the person who is collecting them is doing so in a good way, with a good heart as very profound. Wildharvesting can be detrimental to the plant and/or the species that relies on the plant, but often it is most harmful to those who are harvesting, when they are forced into doing so for very little because they are in a desperate situation. This is why programs like fair wild are important because they address the fair treatment of those communities of harvesters and the plants, and this is important. If we the consumers want to be healed by the plants, then should we not want those who are harvesting to be treated fairly? Conversely harvesting wild plants when regulated and when harvesters are treated fairly can result in beneficial relationships, for both consumer and harvester, and the harvester and the plants, as well as for the plants and their habitat. It seemed serendipitous that my year would be filled with two impactful sage encounters, when I learned about the wild sage native to Albania facing overharvesting in the wild due to unregulated trade and the herbal companies working towards a solution by transitioning to cultivated sage and support to small scale farmers. The Ethnobotany Project is a collaboration among Rose Ramirez, Deborah Small, and the Malki Baliena Press, working together to document southern California and northern Baja California’s Native people’s contemporary uses of native plants. The primary goal is to create a resource for Native people in this region to share and learn traditional knowledge about native plant uses and gathering practices. The project began in 2007. Two publications have resulted so far: a 2010 large-scale calendar and a book in 2015. The Malki Museum, founded in 1965 by Native Americans (Dr. Katherine Siva Saubel and Jane Penn) on a California Indian Reservation, is the oldest non-profit museum and has been the inspiration for several other museums. My journey to understand the complexity of white sage has been a learning journey to the many state and federal recognized tribes and the diverse projects and museums working hard to revive and celebrate cultural and ecological diversity that is more beautiful and powerful. I would encourage those who are drawn to white sage to spend time researching the cultures that have tended its habitat and choose a smudge that you build a personal relationship with and question the idea of ethical wild crafting, considering the habitat, the harvester, the laws, the cultures, and the medicinal teachings. Source: https://unitedplantsavers.org/what-is-going-on-with-white-sage/

[kny111]

The Algorithmic Rise of the “Alt-Right”

While furthering my reading on the synergies being formed through our recent presidency and the resurgence of white extremist terrorism the data many seem to be pointing to is how important technology is in the rise of such ass backwards systems. Here’s a great review on the way in which capitalists adored ‘big tech’ itself has been infiltrated by such oppressive forces that have, as many of us realized, been with us since the creation of this country. Here are some highlight excerpts off this delve into white supremacist ideals in technologically based network systems:

In a sense, we’ve managed to push white nationalism into a very mainstream position,” @JaredTSwift said. “Now, we’ve pushed the Overton window,” referring to the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse. Twitter is the key platform for shaping that discourse. “People have adopted our rhetoric, sometimes without even realizing it. We’re setting up for a massive cultural shift,” @JaredTSwift said. Among White supremacists, the thinking goes: if today we can get “normies” talking about Pepe the Frog, then tomorrow we can get them to ask the other questions on our agenda: “Are Jews people?” or “What about black on white crime?” And, when they have a sitting President who will re-tweet accounts that use #whitegenocide hashtags and defend them after a deadly rally, it is fair to say that White supremacists are succeeding at using media and technology to take their message mainstream.

Networked White RageCNN commentator Van Jones dubbed the 2016 election a “Whitelash,” a very real political backlash by White voters. Across all income levels, White voters (including 53% of White women) preferred the candidate who had retweeted #whitegenocide over the one warning against the alt-right. For many, the uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement coupled with the putative insult of a Black man in the White House were such a threat to personal and national identity that it provoked what Carol Anderson identifies as White Rage.In the span of U.S. racial history, the first election of President Barack Obama was heralded as a high point for so-called American “race relations.” His second term was the apotheosis of this symbolic progress. Some even suggested we were now “post-racial.” But the post-Obama era proves the lie that we were ever post-racial, and it may, when we have the clarity of hindsight, mark the end of an era. If one charts a course from the Civil Rights movement, taking 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education) as a rough starting point and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the close of Obama’s second term as the end point, we might see this as a five-decades-long “second reconstruction” culminating in the 2016 presidential election.

Taking the long view makes the rise of the alt-right look less like a unique eruption and more like a continuation of our national story of systemic racism. Historian Rayford Logan made the persuasive argument that retrenchment and the brutal reassertion of White supremacy through Jim Crow laws and the systematic violence of lynching was the White response to “too much” progress by those just a generation from slavery. He called this period, 1877–1920, the “nadir of American race relations.” And the rise of the alt-right may signal the start of a second nadir, itself a reaction to progress of Black Americans. The difference this time is that the “Whitelash” is algorithmically amplified, sped up, and circulated through networks to other White ethno-nationalist movements around the world, ignored all the while by a tech industry that “doesn’t see race” in the tools it creates.

Media, Technology, and White NationalismToday, there is a new technological and media paradigm emerging and no one is sure what we will call it. Some refer to it as “the outrage industry,” and others refer to “the mediated construction of reality.” With great respect for these contributions, neither term quite captures the scope of what we are witnessing, especially when it comes to the alt-right. We are certainly no longer in the era of “one-to-many” broadcast distribution, but the power of algorithms and cable news networks to amplify social media conversations suggests that we are no longer in a “peer-to-peer” model either. And very little of our scholarship has caught up in trying to explain the role that “dark money” plays in driving all of this. For example, Rebekah Mercer (daughter of hedge-fund billionaire and libertarian Robert Mercer), has been called the “First Lady of the Alt-Right” for her $10-million underwriting of Brietbart News, helmed for most of its existence by former White House Senior Advisor Steve Bannon, who called it the “platform of the alt-right.” White nationalists have clearly sighted this emerging media paradigm and are seizing—and being provided with millions to help them take hold of—opportunities to exploit these innovations with alacrity. For their part, the tech industry has done shockingly little to stop White nationalists, blinded by their unwillingness to see how the platforms they build are suited for speeding us along to the next genocide.

The second nadir, if that’s what this is, is disorienting because of the swirl of competing articulations of racism across a distracting media ecosystem. Yet, the view that circulates in popular understandings of the alt-right and of tech culture by mostly White liberal writers, scholars, and journalists is one in which racism is a “bug” rather than a “feature” of the system. They report with alarm that there’s racism on the Internet (or, in the last election), as if this is a revelation, or they “journey” into the heart of the racist right, as if it isn’t everywhere in plain sight. Or, they write with a kind of shock mixed with reassurance that alt-right proponents live next door, have gone to college, gotten a proper haircut, look like a hipster, or, sometimes, put on a suit and tie. Our understanding of the algorithmic rise of the alt-right must do better than these quick, hot takes.

If we’re to stop the next Charlottesville or the next Emanuel AME Church massacre, we have to recognize that the algorithms of search engines and social media platforms facilitated these hate crimes. To grasp the 21st century world around us involves parsing different inflections of contemporary racism: the overt and ideologically committed White nationalists co-mingle with the tech industry, run by boy-kings steeped in cyberlibertarian notions of freedom, racelessness, and an ethos in which the only evil is restricting the flow of information on the Internet (and, thereby, their profits). In the wake of Charleston and Charlottesville, it is becoming harder and harder to sell the idea of an Internet “where there is no race… only minds.” Yet, here we are, locked in this iron cage.

Head over to SagePub for full article

[entrepblog]

BLOG NO.5

I learn a lot from the first virtual lecture which happen through Google Meet even though I did not participate because it is pre-recorded, I really think that it is quite satisfactory for me as a business administration student. It was eventful for me because the lecture is all about the startup ecosystem in the Philippines and why do you start now. The guest speaker for this event is Mr. Constantino A. Brasileño Jr. who graduated from Mindanao State University, BSBA major in entrepreneurial Marketing.

Startup was greatly emphasized in the discussion which helps me to comprehend the deeper meaning of startup to us future entrepreneurs. From what I learn startup is unorthodox business model what I mean is introducing new idea (Product or Services) that immediately solve a problem for the market which can be disruptive in a sense that it can change the way we are living. It is very different to a common business model which was already proven and determine to gain income because their already a lot of consumers who patronize the product or services. Just like Facebook early stage, way back 2009 this platform was new and there is a lot of uncertainties because it is in the process of development and enhancement. However in the present it become one of the famous social media platform which widely patronized by the world. Unfortunately not all startup are lucky because a lot of them failed, need too much capital, full of uncertainties & risk, and pose as useless for struggling countries.

The downside in our country is that it has a weaker ecosystem for startup which show in the statistics of investment into Southeast Asia that Philippines is at the lowest the same with the GDP which is lower than the revenue of 4 companies in the US. Even though Philippines is becoming a tech country and known to its many users of social media due to having western mind, our country has the lowest internet speed in ASEAN which hinder startups to gain advantage with the advancement of technology. But Filipinos are known to its talent that's why a lot of companies in the Silicon Valley which has a strong ecosystem for startup have employees who are a Filipino. What would you think would happen when all of those Filipino will be in one company in our country, I think it might have a large possibility of success.

Philippines is gearing to be more startup friendly country which I think would be helpful for the country to become better. The country has a lot of problem that needs to be solve compared to those first world country. Startups could create solution for the challenges experiencing by the country. From what I learn in the lecture, startup begins from ideas, thought or identifying your own skill and integrate it in solving problem in a unorthodox way through the use of uncertain method while testing it if its working or not. But for me the most important thing to do first is to understand the ecosystem in order know what is present in the environment which might help our startup to be advantageous.

According to the speaker anyone is capable to create startup you just need capable people to make it complete. There are so could three founders which is the hustler, hacker and the hipster. Their responsibility is to be in charge, to build and to make the things appealing to the market.

As a student, establishing a startup right now would be more advantageous because there will be a lot who can coach us inside the university. It can give us an allowance for failure which help us gain more experience and knowledge. We could just fail fast and learn faster. Unfortunately failure is normal occurrence because startup is full of uncertain and risk. We can tell that not all are design to be an entrepreneur but being student have an opportunity to develop the competencies and skill needed to become a successful entrepreneur. But we need to ensure that we are living okay. There are a lot of people who are stressing with their startup. You can just stop first to ensure that your health is okay and make yourself stronger. Then comeback to redeem yourself.

It is really perfect time for us to venture in startup. Sadly, fear hinder us from starting because of the unpredictability of startup. We can overcome our fear by just taking the first step which is to just start. And with the help with time we can handle our fear step by step. The true failure for us is that we didn't try because we will not know if we succeeded or not. The best part for trying is the experience that we have gain which can be used for future endeavour.

[millennialmoderator]

6 Home Office Items You Need to Buy During the Holidays

Following tradition, Black Friday and leading holidays are times of heavy discount on many types of goods, but perhaps none more-so than home office products..

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

Finding the best deals and discounts around the holidays can seem like an arms race (sometimes it literally is), with virtually every producer and supplier cramming incentives to purchase their goods over competitors. In light of the global pandemic (COVID-19), the battle of home office supply and equipment sales is on steroids. Suppliers are undoubtedly feeling a financial loss due to the difficulties of maintaining revenue throughout 2020, and millions of employees have shifted to work-from-home environments, realizing that their performance and comfort is directly connected to the quality and quantity of at-home equipment (desks, chairs, etc). It's a two sided front, and both parties are eager to hit the shopping floor.

Today I want to highlight 6 home office supplies that will undoubtedly be offered at a heavy discount during the holiday season, as well as where you might find the best deals, online. Here's a list of the home office items we'll be addressing in this Mod as being most valuable to you:

Home office desk (standing, moving, etc).

Home office chair (physical posture is important).

Home office keyboard (carpel tunnel syndrome sucks).

Home office trackpad/mouse (preference).

Home office decor (aesthetics are important).

Home office electrical items (are some power strips better than others?!).

1. Get a nice home office desk

Your desk is your podium, from which you conduct all matters of business. With such importance, you need to be comfortable and equipped to perform at all hours of the day, in all varieties of position. I can tell you from firsthand experience, that sitting at a standard desk for 10+ hours each day is a no-go for both my back and my sanity. I believe that a desk is the most important home office furniture item to have and thus, needs to be of high quality. Because most WFH jobs involve computer desks, you likely want one that is able to move up and down, to accommodate both standing and sitting orientations. If a desk comes with mounted monitor arms, even better (though these may be purchased after the fact, as well).

Take a look at the desks offered on Cornernook.com, as they have a variety of price ranges and desk styles. In addition to a first-time purchase 10% off, they will also likely offer a Black Friday sale, just like all other home office essentials providers.

Tip: Be sure to properly measure the space in your home where your desk will sit- returns during the holiday season can be a pain!

2. Support your back with a proper home office chair

If your desk is a podium, then your chair is your throne, from where you command your legions (emails, in my case). Sitting in a low quality chair for multiple hours each day can result in some pretty serious physical pain, and lead to long term skeletal damage if not closely monitored. Stores like Best Buy always have an abundance of great deals on home office chairs, but you can also find great value online. Simply reading the reviews of a particular product will yield insight into how that item has worked for others- trust the advice of your fellow home-office peers. That said, be wary of false product reviews on marketplace sites like Amazon.

Tip: Find an office chair that has an inward bowed back, as this will encourage better posture and prevent slouching.

3. What's your type.. of keyboard?

Your keyboard is your vessel for crafting messages to the world, but pounding flat keys for hours on end is actually pretty bad for your hands. The Carpal Tunnel is a narrow passageway surrounded by bones and ligaments on the palm side of your hand. When the median nerve is compressed, the symptoms can include numbness, tingling and weakness in the hand and arm. This can lead to long term nerve damage and is quite uncomfortable! Thankfully, there exist ergonomic keyboards, that are shaped in a way that prevent strain on the hands, thus encouraging a less painful, typing experience.

There are tons of Black Friday deals on these types of keyboards, and your employer HR department might even offer rebates for the purchase of an ergo-keyboard. For the best prices, you can check a variety of marketplace sites (your employer might know some that they suggest) and be sure to use tools like Honey to compare and identify the best deals available.

Tip: If you can, go to a physical location and FEEL the different types of ergo-keyboards. They feel significantly different than standard keyboards, so it's good to find one that suits you.

4. Are you a mouse or trackpad kind of person?

Some prefer the laptop-like trackpad experience (which can be external from the computer), while others are accustomed to a free-moving mouse. Whatever your poison, the holidays are a great time to find deals and discounts. Black Friday savings alone, can reduce these accessories to just a few dollars, if not bundled in for free, with larger purchases. Office Depot (both physical and online) is a great resource for buying trackpads/mice (mouses?), so it's really just a matter of preference and what you have available to you. If you go ergo, I suggest feeling the mouse/trackpad in person, since it's significantly different than standard designs.

Tip: Most office-supply stores have an abundance of trackpad/mouse options, year round. If you can't find anything during the holiday rush, you can rest assured that there will be more available in coming months.

5. Decorate your home office!

One of the best values of working from home, is the flexibility to set up your "office" however you like. Without corporate policy or employee relations, your home office can be completely retrofitted to be a spaceship, or an arboretum (popular with the hipsters), or even just some minor artifacts placed on your desk that inspire creativity. Funny enough, these types of office accessories can be bought pretty much everywhere, especially if you're a DIY type of person. I personally find the clearance sections of supermarkets (where they have small household sections) to be ripe with creative, aesthetically pleasing, office accessories. Some ideas of what you might buy to spice up your office:

Plants (get those little succulents in glass jars).

Pictures (of your family, sure, but what about exotic destinations?).

Lights (LEDs if you like to party, Christmas lights if you're just setting a mood. Lamps are cool too).

Books (practical, and they make you look smart).

Tip: Try going to unconventional stores to find home office accessories. Also, why not some new light fixtures? Check out the desk lights offered on Corner Nook.

6. Get plugged with some new electrical tools

Probably one of the most underrated home office items is your power strip- or any electrical unit for that matter. If you're like my dad and obsessed with saving pennies from the electric bill, then you should probably look into an energy saving power strip, that can be toggled on/off with a switch. This can help reduce unnecessary electrical use, not to mention protect against accidental shock (if you have kids, or cats).

Length is also a common issue- if you have a standing desk, you need a power-strip with enough reach to not get snagged each time you move your desk up/down. Corner Nook has some great options for power strips, along with other (more than just electrical) accessories. Here's a

link

to some examples. It's good practice to buy before the holiday rush kicks in, to get the early deals and avoid high sale prices. Cables are also one of those home office items that can be easily shipped, so you don't need to go out of your way to visit a store and fight through lines.

Tip: Upgrade your power strips to preserve electric costs, while also protecting kids and pets from accidental shock. Also, mind the cable length!

Conclusion

Though it's generally a good idea to start preparing for holiday shopping in mid July (seriously), there are tons of big deals offered on home office tools and furniture all the way through the new year. With the amount of WFH personnel and thirsty product suppliers ravaging the ecosystem that is 2020, you can bet that this holiday season will be jam packed with cost-saving opportunities. Take the time to get acquainted with your options now, and don't wait too long to shop!

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about these easy ways to upgrade your home office! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

Originally published on millennialmoderator.com

[coopdigitalnewsletter]

7 Jun 2019: Amazon’s pop-up shops. On having diverse teams. Trust in the supermarket blockchain.

Hello, this is the Co-op Digital newsletter - it looks at what's happening in the internet/digital world and how it's relevant to the Co-op, to retail businesses, and most importantly to people, communities and society. Thank you for reading - send ideas and feedback to @rod on Twitter. Please tell a friend about it!

[Images: moominlounge]

A visit to Amazon’s “clicks and mortar” pop-up shop 

Amazon has announced ten pop-up shops in the UK that’ll give online-only sellers a high street presence. It’s a partnership between Enterprise Nation, Amazon, Square and Direct Line for Business. (Press release.) The newsletter sent a detective to check out the Manchester shop. From their dossier:

It's about 6 stalls. Has the feeling of a craft fair. Small brands and makers. An eclectic mix. Leather goods (iPad covers, laptop cases etc), notebooks, jewellery, electric scooters, ladies fashion designer, sustainable foods (lots of coconut, no palm oil). Perfect for experimenting around what works.

There is a bank of Amazon lockers at the back of the store. Amazon orange is used throughout for signs, arrows etc but overall branding is Clicks and Mortar and the branding of the 'stall' holders. Purchases logged into an iPad interface, and each retailer seemed to do their own payments - might have been Square-powered.

The retailer I bought from has been going as an online business for 5 years - no physical presence. Seemed very happy to have been given the opportunity to take part by Amazon. Said he was there for 2 weeks.

And here’s what the shop itself says:

"We take an empty shop, add a selection of small e-commerce businesses and give them time to sell and promote their products in physical stores then we start all over again until we have to give the shop back"

You could imagine a range of reactions to Amazon being on the high street.

You might be delighted if you’re an online retailer selected to participate.

You might feel positive: Amazon is mindful of the pressures the high street faces, and that internet shopping has made those pressures worse, and it is giving something back.

Neutral: the internet cannot be put back into the box - the high street will definitely change a lot in future, and this is the high street evolving.

Or maybe you’d feel resigned: Amazon would like to be involved in *all* commercial activity, so the high street is just another channel to try out.

The negative view is that 100 popped-up stalls isn’t going to save the high street when 50,000 shops closed last year.

Cynical: it’s a PR move, high street-washing. Eventually the only shops left on the high street will be hipster re-enactment societies, in which you can rent a shop by the hour to experience being Ye Olde shop-keep, plying yer trade.

(Tell the newsletter your own reaction.)

Last month eBay announced their own pop-up experiment (see here, eBay collects the sales data ;)). Is the underlying trend here “online-to-offline”? Or perhaps it’s the mainstreaming of pop-up shops: interesting, unique or hand-made goods sold in time-constrained settings?

Related:

Near.st helps you find products that are in shops nearby.

Appear Here is an Airbnb for retail space.

Amazon Counter will offer staffed package collection points at other retailers. The lead UK partner, Next, says “In a tough retail environment our aim is that Amazon Counter will contribute to the continued relevance and vibrancy of our stores.”

On having diverse teams

These are all good reads on diversity:

Energyco Bulb’s People Matter: an update on diversity is great - and good to see its breadth: not all organisations monitor things like disability.

Agency Snook have written an inclusive recruitment guide.

Agency Ustwo on their progress addressing our gender pay gap.

Event: The Human Hiring Hack - how to improve workforce diversity and inclusion - Mon 1 Jul 6pm at Northcoders, Federation Street, M4 2AH

(Co-op Group’s diversity and inclusion report is in The Co-op Way 2018 report. Co-op’s gender pay gap and modern slavery reports.)

US Gov attention on big tech

US Gov may probe big tech for anti-competitive practices. DoJ gets Google and Apple to look into, FTC gets FB and Amazon. That four of the Big Tech five are being mentioned suggested that the US Gov has a general interest in whether big tech is over-reaching or anti-competitive (“should something be done?”), rather than specific infringements in mind.

Is trust in the blockchain or the brand?

Carrefour says blockchain tracking is boosting sales of some products:

“Blockchain’s digital tracking technology allows customers to see detailed information on products like when it was harvested or packed - reassuring them on the quality of items they buy and allowing them to avoid products with genetically modified organisms, antibiotics or pesticides if they want.”

Supply chain transparency and accountability is definitely a Good Thing. Shoppers may not have time to read the provenance of every product at the point of purchase, and are unlikely to inspect the integrity of the supermarket’s blockchain itself while they’re in aisle 10. So perhaps it is more accurate to say that here “blockchain” is a badge to highlight that the Carrefour brand already has trust, rather than a means to prove it.

Other news

New Zealand’s Next Liberal Milestone: A Budget Guided by ‘Well-Being’ - “Under a revised budget policy, all new spending must advance one of five government priorities that promote the welfare of citizens.”

New ways of communicating mean co-operators don't need to increase their carbon footprint by traveling whenever they want to meet up.

“[Apple] AirPods efficiently communicate your refusal to pretend to be “fully present.” AirPods, then, express a more complete embrace of our simultaneous existence in physical and digital space, taking for granted that we’re frequently splitting our mental energy between the two”.

Northern Fail app has 18,000 downloads - it uses open data to show up-to-the-minute alerts of every fully and part-cancelled service across the Northern Rail network.

Competing with everyone: public company bosses mention Amazon a lot in their earnings reports.

Facebook deletes nearly 25m fake accounts a day - source: FB’s transparency report, Jan-Mar 2019.

“Now, powering up can be as simple as a quick spray before you head out the door.” - Microsoft is teaming up with Lynx to make Xbox-branded deodorant. Ok… right(guard).

Co-op Digital news

“Jared’s talk made me think even harder about the importance of collaboration, inclusivity and co-creation across teams and external organisation” - What we learned from Jared Spool.

“We are now in direct contact with these people, and see them as an extension of our team. They are the subject matter experts” - about the research that shaped Co-operate: an online platform to bring communities together.

Most opened newsletter in the last month: like a vending machine. Most clicked story: Adobe tells users they can get sued for using old versions of Photoshop.

Events

Public events:

Federation friend and social enterprise Amity CIC are offering free coaching sessions - you can book some time with Maria or Katie.

Linked Data Manchester - Thu 13th Jun 6.30pm at Federation house Defiant.

Monzo’s Manchester show & tell - Tue, 18 Jun 6.30pm at a mystery location tbd.

Manchester WordPress User group - Wed 19 Jun 6.30pm at Federation House.

Freetrade (zero-commission stock investing) crowdfunding roadshow - Wed 19 Jun 6.30pm at Workplace, 4th Floor Churchgate House, 56 Oxford Street, M1 6EU.

Mind the Gap: will AI and Digital create a more inclusive health system? - Thu 20 Jun 6.30pm at Auto Trader UK, First St, M15 4FN.

The Human Hiring Hack - how to improve workforce diversity and inclusion - Mon 1 Jul 6pm at Northcoders, Federation Street, M4 2AH.

Internal events:

Membership show & tell - Fri 7 Jun 3pm at Fed House 6th floor.

Delivery community of practice - Mon 10 Jun 1.30pm at Fed House.

Shifts show & tell - Tue 11 Jun 10am at Fed House 6th floor auditorium.

What has the web team been up to - Tue 11 Jun 1pm at Fed House 5th floor web team area.

Food ecommerce show & tell - Tue 11 Jun 1.30pm at Fed House 5th floor.

Health show & tell - Tue 11 Jun 2.30pm at Fed House 5th floor kitchen.

Data ecosystem show & tell - Wed 12 Jun 3pm at Angel Square 13th floor breakout area.

Membership show & tell - Fri 14 Jun 3pm at Fed House 6th floor kitchen.

Digital all-hands - Mon 17 Jun 1.30pm at Fed House Defiant.

Funeralcare show & tell - Tue 18 Jun 1pm at Angel Square 12th floor breakout area.

CMO CRM show & tell - Tue 18 Jun 2pm at Angel Square 13th floor communal area.

Co-operate show & tell - Wed 19 Jun 10am at Fed House 6th floor.

Engineering community of practice - Wed 19 Jun 1pm at Fed House Defiant.

Data management show & tell - Thu 20 Jun 3pm at Angel Square 13th floor breakout area.

Membership show & tell - Fri 21 Jun 3pm at Fed House 6th floor kitchen.

More events at Federation House - and you can contact the events team at  federation.events@coopdigital.co.uk. And TechNW has a useful calendar of events happening in the North West.

Thank you for reading

Thank you, clever and considerate readers and contributors. Please continue to send ideas, questions, corrections, improvements, etc to the newsletterbot’s pet marsupial @rod on Twitter. If you have enjoyed reading, please tell a friend!

If you want to find out more about Co-op Digital, follow us @CoopDigital on Twitter and read the Co-op Digital Blog. Previous newsletters.

[donkeyvirgo8-blog]

Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig remain top picks for dieting, weight loss in 2019 - USA TODAY

Zlati Meyer USA TODAY

Published 11:01 AM EST Jan 7, 2019

Nearly a week into the new year, people are still sticking to their New Year's resolutions, including the perennial favorite: lose weight.

Without ever setting foot in a diet center, today's health-conscious consumers can sift through a full menu of support and strategy options with the flick of a thumb. The online choices abound – the promise of a challenge on apps like DietBet.com and MyFitnessPal, celebs to emulate on Twitter, detox teas and other products peddled on Instagram and Facebook, YouTube fitness moguls with how-to videos, and the camaraderie in closed WhatsApp groups.

Still, despite the many digital options available today, people looking to drop some pounds still turn to the traditional structured programs that have been around for decades.

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The main players – WW International (formerly Weight Watchers International), Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig and Medifast – grew 18.1 percent to $3.11 billion in 2018, according to an initial analysis by Marketdata, a Tampa, Florida-based market research firm that tracks the diet market. This year, they're likely to grow 8 percent to 12 percent.

"Dieting is a discretionary expenditure; it can be postponed or eliminated entirely," said Marketdata research director John LaRosa. "They all benefit from a strong economy, but there are a lot of things the diet companies themselves have done to change or improve their programs that have been just as important in contributing increase in revenues in the last couple of years."

High on that list is the embrace of technology. Apps help members track their progress, look up recipes, and find support and tips. Hand in hand with that are a focus on social media, partnerships with influencers and rebranding, which includes deploying words like "healthy lifestyle" rather than "diet."

The average age of most weight-loss programs' members is mid- to late 40s. And female. Recent re-targeted marketing efforts have increased the number of men in these programs.

A makeover for Weight Watchers

WW has stayed front and center, thanks first to its more than half a century of staying power and now to its embrace of bold-faced names, such as media mogul and company investor Oprah Winfrey, hip-hop producer and recording artist DJ Khaled, actor/director Kevin Smith and, as of last month, actress Kate Hudson. The company's recent pivots include a name change in September from Weight Watchers to simply WW and the December 2017 launch of its Freestyle program, which added 200 foods to the freebie list, making the weight-loss plan easier to follow.

Its membership roster grew from 3.4 million in the third quarter of 2017 to 4.2 million in the third quarter of 2018, according to the New York-based brand. Approximately 90 percent are women; the average age is in their 40s. As of the third quarter of 2018, about 40 percent were new, not returning – an uptick in first-time members. The average member stays for more than nine months.

WW products range from branded groceries to a WW Cruise. launched in 2017, to a partnership with the meal kit company Blue Apron, unveiled Dec. 20.

"It is about giving people much more of an ecosystem to help them lead and sustain better lives and change that trajectory," the company said in an e-mail. "We are able to marry technology with meaning to help people, of all ages, lead more connected, purposeful lives, adopt healthy habits and stay motivated."

Jenny Craig had 25 percent more enrollments in 2018 than 2017, and a quarter of the people who joined in 2018 were men versus 15 percent the year before, according to CEO Monty Sharma. The average age is 47, and most people stay in the program for five months. Thirty percent come back within 10 years.

"A lot more people are conscious about their health, and a lot more are conscious about their health early in their lives," he said, explaining why the company looks to everyone from Gen Y to baby boomers as potential members. "The industry is doing all the right things. It has seen growth."

The privately-held company headquartered in Carlsbad, California, likes to underscore that it has three and a half decades of experience helping people lose weight, unlike fads once passed around by phone or snail mail and now blared from social media.

Making more than just calories count

For Nutrisystem, founded in 1971, the message to would-be members is about options – from its new DNA-focused weight-loss plan and the South Beach Diet brand, which it acquired in 2015, to its programs from people with Type 2 diabetes and the 2-week-old Nutrisystem FreshStart, targeted to younger customers looking for more flexibility. The Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based brand's long-time strategy of delivering food to subscribers' home foreshadows today's meal kit craze.

Its segmented audience is 70 percent female, and the average member is in their 40s. The average customer stays on for about three months.

"It's a more holistic approach; it's not just about weight loss anymore. For us, it's about the journey for optimal health," said CEO Dawn Zier, who also used words like "innovation," "e-commerce" and "clean labels," more than that old-school diet term "calories."

On Dec. 10, the fitness and health-improvement company Tivity Health announced that it was acquiring Nutrisystem for $1.3 billion. Both are publicly traded.

Shifting with the trends is what enables these legacy brands, more associated with your mom's – or grandma’s – dieting years ago than hipsters lifestyle choices, to ride the weight-loss-to-wellness trajectory. Then, they loop back to word-of-mouth – whether on social media or in person – to keep business booming.

"Companies that survive these waves and disruption do it by changing their business models. Instead of focusing on services or products, they focus on the customer," said Jonah Berger, an associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. "If it works for me, yes, I’m no longer a customer, but I’m an evangelist."

Follow USA TODAY reporter Zlati Meyer on Twitter: @ZlatiMeyer

Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/01/07/weight-watchers-jenny-craig-nutrisystem-diet-programs/2433422002/

[atakportal]

Amory Blog - A Responsive WordPress Blog Theme

New Post has been published on https://click.atak.co/amory-blog-a-responsive-wordpress-blog-theme/

Amory Blog - A Responsive WordPress Blog Theme

Latest Update Januar 18, 2018 WordPress 4.9+ Ready

Amory Blog: Modern WordPress Blog Theme focused on design that highlights your content. Ideal for Fashion, Creative & Photography websites, incl 6 months support.

Version 4.1. – 19.1.2018

Fixed issue with selecting Google font via Theme options

Fixed issue with color picker theme options

Latest Revolution slider plugin

Support for latest PHP 7.x

AMORY 4.0 IS BRINGING WOOCOMMERCE INTEGRATION

Long awaited WooCommerce integration is finally here. We prepared two brand new Demo layouts where you can check how WooCommerce seamlessly integrates with the existing design of Amory and it’s blog:

Amory WooCommerce Full Width Version

Amory WooCommerce Version With Sidebar

AMORY 3.0 IS BRINGING NEW ADMIN PANEL AND PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG LAYOUT

Version 3.0 is here and we have completely redone the Admin panel for this update. It is now powered by popular plugin OptionTree and is looking more sleek with a lot of extra options and great CSS and Javascript editor.

We are also very proud to present PHOTOGRAPHY layout which features an amazing Full Screen Slider so you can show your great photographs in style. Check out the LIVE DEMO by clicking the preview image below:

VERSION 3.0 MAIN FEATURES

Brand new Administration Panel powered by OptionTree

New Options for scroll menu, social share icons

Header and Footer background can now be set from Administration Panel

Easy content export and import via Administration Panel

Option to create multiple layouts and easily switch between them in seconds

Mini Layout Builder (still in beta 3 stage)

minor CSS fixes

2 NEW LAYOUTS (Photography and Hipster)

WHERE ARE THE IMAGES FROM

My wish for a long time was to make a WordPress Theme with only my images in it (photography demo of Amory). Over the past few years I shot a lot of images in various seasons and locations and I was intrigued how they would look in a WordPress Theme for sale. It turned out they are a perfect match for several styles. If you like them, please check my personal photography website, named DreamyPixel.

The package with the images used in the live demos can be seen by clicking the image below:)

I also prepared a special discount for everyone that would like to purchase the images for use in Themes or on your blogs.

DISCOUNT CODE: dreamythemeforest30

WPML compatibility

Amory is now officially WPML compatible:

https://wpml.org/theme/amory/

What people are saying about Amory

Amory has a flawless 5 rating from 45 ratings. Below you can read about why people love Amory.

AMORY V2.0 IS THE BIGGEST UPDATE YET

Amory Blog has been one of the best selling WordPress Blog Themes on Themeforest in 2016. That’s why we decided it’s time to take it to another level and bring some great new features.

Don’t worry, all new features can be turned on and off. Everyone who likes Amory just the way it is, your design will be intact. We believe that the original design must stay the same so that people who love the vanilla design won’t be disappointed with version 2.

AMORY WORDPRESS BLOG THEME V2 NEW FEATURES

Let’s see what some of the most exciting new features are:

Several new Sidebar options

Brand new Widgets

Improved speed

Minor CSS fixes

Background image for the header

Video Widget

Magazine Style

New Sidebar Options

For users that would like to include more content on the home page we added several (6) new Sidebar Options:

Left Sidebar under Header

Right Sidebar under Header

Fullwidth Sidebar under Header

Left Sidebar above footer

Left Sidebar above footer

Fullwidth Sidebar above footer

Each sidebar can contain one or more widgets. The best examples where we show what can be added to Amory are:

Magazine Style

Vintage style

In Magazine style demo, you can check how widgets are positioned before and after the main blog part. Extra content can be anything from a simple post slideshow to video widgets for your interactive content. And you can further divide content with Revolution Slider widget for an even more “magazine like” feel. The other preview shows how the Theme looks without the main blog part, with widgets only.

Brand New Widgets

We prepared several new widgets for this release for a more interactive look and feel of the theme. Posts are now presented with a slideshow and you can add single posts to your sidebar. Video widget will help you with your interactive presentation. You can add Youtube, Vimeo and even self hosted HTML videos.

Amory: Premium WordPress Blog Theme For Creatives

Amory features not only a modern and minimalist design, it is also a standout WordPress theme for one reason: the focus is on YOUR content first and foremost.

Don’t let design overtake your content, with Amory the sleek design truly highlights what your users want the most, great content.

Photographers can create beautiful galleries to show their best work simply, with no coding required at your end. Creatives & Artisans can show off their talents without being overcrowded by flashy design tricks.

With Amory the focus is always Content First.

With elegant and intuitive Headers and unique Footers, you can easily create a website that will put your best work first. Everything has been designed and developed from the ground up with your content as top priority.

Utilizing today’s best coding practises including HTML5 and CSS3 for WordPress, Amory Blog animations are subtle yet purposeful, never cluttered and over bearing.

Headers have been designed to include what you need most, including animations that can Trigger on Scroll, a unique Footer that can display Instagram feeds, and close attention has been paid to the Typography to create a truly unique user experience.

Naturally Amory is fully Responsive, this means that no matter what device your users are viewing your content on, Amory Blog will scale seamlessly as if designed for them personally.

We also understand your needs when it comes to advertising, an important element of any successful content focussed site in today’s market. Amory comes complete with widgets developed specifically for Google Ad blocks.

No messy coding required, our Ad Blocks are simple widget based snippets that can be added directly from your WordPress dashboard, and of course they are optimised for today’s standard ad sizes; banner ads, blocks, 125×125px squares and more.

This means you can easily manage affiliate marketing and advertising programs from your WordPress dashboard. No messy fiddling around with text files, and absolutely no coding required.

Amory has been carefully developed to be a complete ecosystem catering to your creative needs from a website. Everything is included to manage your ecosystem including Social Media, eCommerce, Stunning Galleries, Ad management tools, Integrations of Sharing buttons with close attention to detail and styling, Typography that is both elegant and unobtrusive and of course Sliders…

Need to tweak a small setting to suit your brand’s style guide’ We have made this simple with the Powerful Amory Theme Option’s Panel. If you need to override a master setting, fear not! You don’t even have to edit the stylesheets which can be disastrous if you are not a webmaster, just use the Theme Option panel to add your own custom CSS to the part of the theme you wish to update.

With all of this custom functionality in mind, the best way to manage your WordPress installation and smaller tweaks like CSS overrides mentioned above is of course to use a Child Theme. Don’t worry, we have this covered! You will find a Child-Theme included in your download, and this is the one you work your magic on.

That way, when there is a critical update to WordPress, you simply update the Master Theme, and the Child-Theme adapts and overrides those settings so you don’t lose any of your custom changes. Simple!

Amazing Revolution Slider

You’ll also be saving money with the inclusion of Revolution Slider for Amory, and rest assured of full compatibility because it has been designed specifically alongside this powerful Plugin for you.

Designed with the most powerful Slider on the Market today, Revolution Slider is one click away from installation upon purchase, from there the sky’s the limit with amazing functionality and powerful page building tools with the Visual Editor.

It’s so much more than just a slider we feel that it compliments Amory perfectly, and so will you.

Not comfortable enough to create a site that best represents your brand’ We have included the power of auto-import right into Amory out of the box. Once you have installed Amory as your WordPress theme of choice, simply navigate to your Theme Options panel and click the Import Tab.

Follow a few simple instructions (included with your download) and you will have a fully functional website that looks identical to our demos with minimal fuss. And we are here to help should you run into any problems!

MANY DIFFERENT BLOG STYLES AND VARIATIONS

Amory can be so much, and more! With only a few tweaks within theme’s admin panel and Revolution Slider, you can change the design to fit your needs. Our 6 live previews illustrate just how many different styles Amory can manage. You can turn Amory from a clean and elegant Fashion style, to a dark, manly, hipster design in just a few clicks.

As a Power Elite Envato Market author you can rest assured that the Theme is fully documented and comes with full support via our Premium Coding Support Ticketing system. We are confident you are going to love this theme!

Feature List

Revolution Slider included

Dedicated Ad Blocks

Email subscription

Instagram Feed

Facebook integration

Social Media integration

Smooth Scroll

Responsive Mode

Gallery Posts

Full Page & Fixed width support

Shortcodes

Video embed

Full Width Pages with Slideshow

Sidebar Pages with Slideshow

Audio Posts

Video Posts

Boxed version

Upper block on Homepage

About us block

Quote block

Instagram block

Unlimited colours

Support

Item support includes:

Availability of the author to answer questions

Answering technical questions about item’s features

Assistance with reported bugs and issues

Help with included 3rd party assets

Check our Best selling WordPress Blog Theme

And at the end we would like to present the 3rd best selling WordPress Blog Theme of 2015 on Themeforest. Brixton is a classy blog, with trendy design, that will highlight the most important part of your website, your content.

CREDITS

Along the project, we have been using the following assets.

Jquery

jQuery FitVids

DreamyPixel – for some of the most amazing images on the web

BUY From ENVATO Marketplace

[coffeeandambientnoise]

Social Justice Activism Has Become Just Another Fashion Accessory

Pop activism is just a giant Che Guevara T-shirt draped atop the collective bosom of a generation of vapid attention-junkies.

By Mahdi Barakat

OCTOBER 11, 2017

Recently it was super trendy to do a volunteer trip in a poor country and follow it with a Facebook picture of oneself holding a helpless brown child. This sort of flattering altruism raised many eyebrows, and for obvious reasons: If your actions are truly about helping the less-fortunate, why flaunt it?

Although I’m not doubting the sincerity of many who do such volunteer trips, you don’t need to be a psychoanalyst to recognize that “holding the helpless African child” is often a form of self-promotion. Even our friends on the Left have found ways to interpret such photogenic philanthropy as self-serving.

Most of today’s political activism feels a lot like the profile picture with the Third World child, especially among the under-30 crowd. We all know contemporary activism tends to find its way onto social media: A person goes to an anti-Trump rally, and nine times out of ten will post a status documenting that participation. So now I ask: Is posting a photo of yourself holding an anti-Trump sign akin to posting a photo of yourself holding a Haitian child?

Yes, but publicizing one’s compassion is a much more clever game now. Whereas helping needy children on a volunteer trip doesn’t actually require broadcasting one’s actions, the purpose of modern-day activism is closely tied to the notion of spreading awareness—sharing your good deed with the world is an inherent feature of the deed itself. What a convenient goal.

We’re not meant to doubt the motives behind your flattering #supportthecause selfie, because you’re spreading awareness. That picture of you courageously holding a sign at this week’s anti-fascism protest isn’t to show the world you’re a great person, or to let your social circle know that you’re hip to the cause; no, it’s about spreading that magical awareness.

What We Call Decisions Made to Look Good

You don’t need to be a Seinfeldian cynic to see through all of this. Instagram, for example, is literally dedicated to projecting an idealized version of one’s life and character for others to see. It’s the ultimate tool for self-advertising. Instagram is where you share a bird’s-eye view of your cappuccino next to a book so everyone can know how quaint and learned your Sunday was.

By some weird and wild coincidence, Instagram just so happens to be among the choice platforms for promoting cosmic justice as well. In some happy twist of fate, the platform that is meant to portray the perfect version of oneself convenientlyhappens to be the go-to medium for those exhibiting their burning commitment to uplifting humankind.

I’m not buying it, and neither should you. By Occam’s razor, it sounds like what the kids are calling “activism” these days is really just another means for enhancing one’s appearance. Like a nose ring, a contrived candid pose, and a retro photo filter, activism injects a desirable aesthetic into one’s social media persona. What do we call decisions made to look good? Fashion decisions.

In favoring style over function, we’re left with a shallow knock-off of true activism for the kids to play with. Bastardized, standardized, and commercialized for superficial mass consumption, what we are actually witnessing is pop activism.

Pop Goes the Activism

Like other things “pop,” pop activism is more concerned with channeling the appearance of the original than knowing its substance. It requires no appreciation for the root material, nor the intellectual commitment to the ideas that underpinned the original cultural phenomenon. Generally, the younger the pop activist is, the more acutely fashion-oriented his or her “activism.” Resist capitalism on Saturday, and enjoy its fruits on Sunday. Decry institutional oppression in your latest Facebook status, yet lack the faintest idea of what truly oppressive institutions are like.

The pop activist is like the gym bro who posts shirtless pics of his hot bod to “inspire others to be their best selves.” The pop activist is like the supermodel who posts a no-makeup selfie under the pretense of “celebrating imperfections,” knowing full well that she still looks better than 99.9 percent of people would after a two-hour appointment at Sephora. The pop activist is very much like the person holding the African child, except the pop activist rarely does any actual good work.

Pop activism is just a giant Che Guevara T-shirt draped atop the collective bosom of a generation of vapid attention-junkies. If Katy Perry is a true activist, then she’s also a true punk-rocker. And whether you’re an aspiring Instagram model or peddling climate change models, there’s always a pop-activist accessory for your tastes.

Here’s the funniest bit: the very individuals who claim to abhor the idea of “cultural appropriation” are practicing the ultimate appropriation. They’ve extracted the imagery and language of meaningful activism from generations and peoples they cannot understand. Pop activists poach the look, but most will never come close to fathoming the circumstances and experiences of the truly downtrodden. Thus, the pop activist trivializes historical struggles for the sake of social cosmetics. It’s wrong for a white girl to wear braids, but apparently it’s just fine to liken a rally for subsidized birth control to Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington.

What’s New About This Old Human Feature

Now, trends and Instagram quirks are usually harmless. It’s cute when cuffed trousers make a comeback for a few years. It’s cute when you’re given a glimpse into the (theoretically personal) moment an acquaintance proposes to his fiancée. We can argue that these cute things are narcissistic and vainglorious, but they’re not tangibly malignant.

But this phenomenon of cheap-and-trendy social consciousness has demonstrated an ability to drive policies that coerce and regulate people’s actions. That’s no longer cute. Sub-cultures as shallow as Beyoncé fandom shouldn’t have a dramatic effect on society’s most important institutions. We should be bothered that a bunch of hipsters who are nostalgic for eras of real struggle are exaggerating and fabricating human rights crises just to get their fix. We should be extremely bothered that “wokeness” has become a marketing gimmick for major fashion enterprise.

We’re all familiar with the silliness of virtue-signaling. We intuitively know that people go around wagging their fingers at others in order to make themselves look and feel good. We also know that activism has always had a place in vogue media.

But things are different now. Social media grants every person his own brand, and we’re constantly curating the studio of self. We are our own PR teams in the social marketplace, always ready to strike a pose or feign an emotion for the camera. Whoever or whatever brought us here reeks of malevolent genius. Pop activism dovetails perfectly with our ‘round-the-clock jobs of self-promotion. As a consequence, framing serious political issues with hyper-moralistic language becomes more effective. It’s no coincidence that campus leftism broke into the mainstream in tandem with social media’s meteoric ascent.

It’s the Confluence of Selfish Advantages With Activism

You may be thinking, “You’re not being fair. My best friend, Quinn, may derive some social benefits from his activism, but he’s genuinely devoted to what he’s doing.” Good point. But I’ll note two things. First, I don’t claim that no SJWs or pop activists maintain pure fundamental motives. Some of those gym bros really do want to inspire others with their washboard abs, and some supermodels do seek to celebrate imperfections. Yet general skepticism is warranted because, these days, activism is generally not what it purports to be.

Humans are good at convincing themselves of whatever reality aligns with their comfort.

Second, even if one is consciously committed to one’s own bag of social causes, it’s not unlikely that self-interest is a significant driver. Humans are good at convincing themselves of whatever reality aligns with their comfort. It just so happens that lots of rich people vote for and believe in the guy who wants to lower taxes. It just so happens that lots of welfare dependents vote for and believe in the guy who’s promising more government benefits.

It just so happens that your best friend, Quinn, settled on a political disposition that’s great for his image. It just so happens that he’s found himself in a political culture that guarantees praise for every instance of exhibitionism from his extended social circle. It just so happens that Quinn found a way to simultaneously fight for all that’s right in this world and look fab while doing it.

There’s an easier way to get to the bottom of this: Do you think half as many people would attend church if doing so didn’t come with any social benefits? That’s not so hard to admit. By that same token, are we to believe that half as many people would be Women’s Marching if it were all anonymous?

What makes pop activism so contagious is that it’s as easy to convince oneself of the virtue in one’s deeds as it is to persuade others. Just as traditional religious systems are so effective in generating activity by socially and spiritually rewarding the most conspicuous worshippers, the ecosystem of contemporary activism does much the same. Two hundred years ago it was bonnet-clad Puritans brandishing their religiosity; today we have pink-haired baristas converting every news item into obnoxious displays of sanctimony.

We Don’t Have to Be Like This

But the smartest woman in the room isn’t compelled to tell everyone how smart she is. The most pious man at church doesn’t feel the need to pray where everyone can see him. Similarly, a real activist doesn’t approach an anti-Trump rally with all of the social opportunism of a sorority pack eager to Snapchat the best pics from their Coachella weekend.

Don’t get me wrong: all of the hot topics of pop activism are worth talking about. But using activism, to whatever degree, as a means to social ends taints whatever intellectual integrity you may hope to associate with your political advocacy.

There’s always the hope that pop activism will go the way of Tamagotchi pets and Ed Hardy tees. But this is unlikely. Social signaling is an integral human function. Like music, pop activism will always be popular, but different content will go in and out of style. Future generations will inherit the paradigm of superficial activism, simply replacing old content with new (hence the rise of alt-righters and meme-based right-wing politics as an alternative to the leftist pop-activist program).

Unless we transcend the naïve idea that flattering activism is some sort of virtue, the country will always be at the mercy of the whims of fashion. That probably doesn’t make for good policy.

Mahdi is a first-generation American Muslim from Salt Lake City, Utah. As a strong advocate for small government and liberal principles, he dedicates his time to researching and writing about public policy and culture. He holds a master's degree in engineering from University College London and has worked as a consultant in the medical device industry.

[golockhart]

Social media and branding: behind Kylie Cosmetics' success, new marketing rules and risks

by Benjamin Voyer

Two years ago who would have thought that Kylie Jenner, a 20-year-old American socialite, would now be heading a cosmetics company that [has achieved retail sales of US$420 million. The success of her eponymous brand – Kylie Cosmetics, launched just 18 months ago – exemplifies what can be achieved when social media, including Facebook and Twitter, are used efficiently as a marketing tool. While the brand’s sudden emergence has generated much debate, marketing research in the last decade has studied the consequences of social media on traditional marketing practices and models, and how these have profoundly reshaped marketing.

Social media and the branding landscape

Establishing a brand that becomes well-known was once seen as the ultimate goal for any company looking for a significant market share. Brands provide consumers with a reassuring promise, often in terms of high quality, after-sales support or style. Brands are enduring, and consumers – at least traditionally – were introduced to brands by their relatives, social circles or TV and print advertising. The main advantage of this traditional branding approach for companies was to increase consumer loyalty and “willingness to pay” – thus adding a “brand premium”. A notable example is Hèrmes, which has spent 180 years building its iconic brand, and bottom line.

Kylie Cosmetics’ Twitter logo. Twitter.com

However, the emergence of social media has profoundly reshaped the role of brands and how they emerge and survive in an increasingly competitive marketing landscape. While social media haven’t diminished the importance of brands – if anything, they’re everywhere on social media – they have changed two important aspects of consumers’ relationship to brands.

First, branding cycles are much faster than before. From initial discovery to being considered “has been”, brands are confronted to increasingly rapid consumption cycles. Consumers’ desire for brands can rise rapidly, yet vanish within a few months, making intense but brief fads more frequent than ever. Second, consumers can more easily discover new, often niche and alternative, brands. In a context of defiance towards consumerism and mass marketing, brands that look small and honest provide a reassuring feel to consumers. These smaller brands are best exemplified by their founders, which incarnate the brand and its values in a direct way.

Are the days of long-established, omnipotent brands over?

As we approach the 2020s, how has branding changed?

More than ever, brands have to be personalised and convey emotions, as consumers are looking for ones that display authenticity.

Self-branding is also becoming the norm – and the trend of successful celebrities, including Kylie Jenner, successfully launching their brands will increase. Influencers (instagramers, YouTubers…) also work to brand themselves, even as they endorse other brands, increasing cross-selling.

Consumers want brands that resonate with themselves and that capture their individuality. This desire can go so far as to incorporate brands into selfies, a trend that can help build brands but also destabilise them.

Brand loyalty remains, but is less dominant. Consumers may keep buying, but it can be more as a habit than for the brand itself.

One powerful trend is for brands to offer an ecosystem of associated products and services that become indispensable to the product itself – think Apple. Creating a powerful consumption habit and a strong ecosystem around products and services are some of the key success factors for a strong 21st-century brand.

On the other end of the spectrum comes the phenomenon of “unbranded” products. What’s the pitch? Buy a brand that doesn’t make you pay a premium. A classic example of premium pricing is perfume, the price of which mainly comes from marketing (packaging, promotion…). Recently, the company Brandless launched a website where everything sells for US$3. Since the early 1960s, the brand No-Ad – standing for not-advertised – has offered an inexpensive sunscreen product that’s never advertised. This is not a new concept, however, and can be seen as a different take on the dollar/pound shop concept.

The future of branding for large companies

Traditional large fast-moving consumer goods companies (FMCG) have often reacted by buying emerging brands, a trend that has been described as large corporations swallowing hipster brands. This can be a risky strategy, as FMCG firms can end up paying a hefty premium for such brands, which have often not been completely stabilised. This also casts doubts on why these larger corporations were not able to come up with such brands and products themselves.

Do these changes mean that David will ultimately beat Goliath and that it’s all doom and gloom for long-established brands and FMCG companies? No, especially as larger firms are become more agile, fostering in-house innovation and launching new brands. They have the ability and leverage to work with influencers, leading to co-branding that can give a more personal feel to long-established brands. FMCG companies are also starting to be more reactive and quickly launch of new products and brands, including ephemeral ones.

Of course, the power of social media still varies according to the type and maturity of industries in which companies are competing. Whatever the sector, anticipating shifts in demand is key, as shorter consumption cycles mean traditional companies need to be prepared to launch more of these short-lived brands, and drop them should they outlive their usefulness. The new reality of marketing in the era of social media is that while brands can rise faster, they can also fall faster than ever before.

Benjamin Voyer is a L'Oréal Professor of Creativity Marketing at ESCP Europe

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

[safari-west-rec-blog]

Conservation Corner

In Your Own Backyard

By: Brian Eberly

Conservation is a critical part of what we do at Safari West.  As a tour guide, I talk a lot (probably too much) about conservation. I am also very aware of the massive scope of wildlife conservation and how it can either be too big or too sad for most people to remember, let alone incorporate into their day-to-day lives. Realistically, we can’t all quit our jobs and move to Africa to defend elephants from poachers. So while it is really important for the general public to be aware of the plight of our iconic (and not so iconic) African species, we wanted to highlight today several projects or movements that one might be able to fold into one’s lifestyle which will have a direct impact on wildlife conservation and do not require uprooting to Mozambique.

Clean Oceans

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has an entire program dedicated to reducing the amount of trash that ends up in the oceans. While I could fill this post describing why trash-in-the-ocean is a bad thing (degrading habitats, killing sea-life, and introducing non-native species), I think it more constructive to focus here on small lifestyle changes that help keep these waters clean. The above links offer a comprehensive outline of ocean pollution.

NOAA reports that the largest category of land-based ocean pollution is food and beverage containers. To curtail this problem they have partnered with Clean Water Action on the ReThink Disposablescampaign, asking people reduce the amount of single-use products they purchase/use. Reducing the amount of plastic bags, soda bottles, food containers and other such items stops this pollution at the source. You might be the most vigilant recycler but once your bins go curbside, you are no longer in control. Anything from industrial irresponsibility to neighborhood teenage pranksters can undermine your attempts at social responsibility. Remember, there are two other “R’s” before you get to Recycle, Reduce and Reuse, in that order. If you don’t buy it, it won’t get made and you don’t need to discard it. While by no means exhaustive, here is a manageable list of things you can do to help:

Get reusable cloth bags, keep them in your car and bring them everywhere you go.

Bring your own “doggie bag” containers when you go to a restaurant, so you can bring home your leftover linguine without styrofoam on the side.

Get reusable produce bags for your lettuce and apples or wash and reuse the plastic ones.

Bring your own cup to the café; not only will you be reducing waste, but many coffee businesses give a little discount when you bring your own cup. (You can even get one with an ironic saying on it so you can be more of a hipster). According to Clean Water Action, the average to-go coffee cup is only used for 12 minutes.

Keep a set of reusable flatware with you, so you don’t need a plastic fork, knife, or spoon

Skip the straw (or get a reusable one and keep it with your reusable flatware)

Use a refillable water bottle (this saves money too).

Safari West is taking many steps to help reduce the amount of single-use items we generate: our restaurant and deli are working to eliminate condiment packets, we have increased the price of bottled water to discourage staff and guests from purchasing them.  We sell reusable flatware, straws and water bottles in the gift shop. Check out the ReThink Disposable website for more ideas, info, and to take the pledge.

Bird Safety

I began this post by stating that we would focus on conservation topics close-to-home, but clean oceans can seem as removed from some of us as the Serengeti. Luckily nothing is closer to home than our actual houses and some simple household adjustments can have some positive impacts on wildlife. According to the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), 988 million birds are killed each year in the United States by colliding with windows. That is nearly a billion (with a “b”). Ironically, a nature lover is probably someone who has a lot of windows in their home for natural lighting. These glass panels are great for both energy use reduction and from an aesthetic perspective but the more windows a building has, and the larger the windows are, the more likely that a bird will think they can fly right through it and…THUMP, feathers everywhere!

Fortunately, one does not need to completely give up their beautiful views to save some local birds. There is a trade-off between window obstruction and cost. For just a few dollars, one can purchase simple decals that stick on a window, partially obscuring the glass and deterring birds. Apart from this simple step, bird-proofing can become complicated and/or expensive. Bearing aesthetics in mind, more appealing modifications can include anything from simple string-like curtains and textured decals to the more elaborate specially textured glass designed to prevent bird strikes. The general idea here is to enable birds to see your windows so they don’t die by flying into them. To help, the ABC has a specific directory with different deterrents that have been shown effective in reducing bird-window collisions.

Another issue championed by the ABC and the National Audubon Society involves outdoor cats. One of my few marital disputes concerns whether a theoretical pet cat would be indoor or outdoor. As both ABC and the Audubon Society point out, domestic cats kill between 1-4 billion birds each year in the USA.  I’m very immobile on the no-outdoor-cat side while my wife thinks it is cruel to keep a cat inside. Therefore we have no cats. You might love your cats, but an outdoor cat is a well-fed predator killing a lot of birds every year. Thus, other steps to making your home more bird-friendly are to rethink getting a cat, keep your existing cat inside, or consider a way to make your cat bad at hunting. Anecdotally, I have had experience with cats learning how to walk so a bell-collar doesn’t make any sound. There are other options, however, for the cat and bird lovers alike. Here an avian ecologist describes an effective method for reducing her cat’s hunting abilities.

Backyard Wildlife

Not all acts of conservation are as reactionary as the topics discussed above. As we come into the Spring season and start thinking about developing front and back yards again it might be nice to know a couple of extra ways to contribute to your environment. When one pictures local wildlife, they often imagine a large, iconic animal posing in front of a backdrop of pristine wilderness. While these iconic settings certainly exist, most of us could be encountering some amazing critters on a daily basis in our own urbanized environment. If, for instance, you take a moment to really consider your yard you may realize that it is not as isolated (or somewhat mundane) as you previously thought.

Urban and suburban yards host dynamic ecosystems easily overlooked by “nature” enthusiasts. For example, I am lucky enough to live in a small pocket of habit for the elusive red bellied newt (Taricha rivularis). These slender amphibians come out after a rain and amble around the leaf litter only occasionally stopping to show off their bright red bellies (informing me how poisonous they are in case I was considering eating one).  The emergent newts are a seasonal, weather-dependant event at my house and I get as excited about them as I would at seeing bald eagle or a mountain lion.  If you don’t happen to live in the country as I do, and are more urban, worry not, you can still find wonder in the creatures that call your yard home.  It doesn’t matter if your yard is a twenty acre pasture or a window-box on a balcony, there will be animals there.  And if you do it right you can encourage all sorts of wildlife to move in, which may be fun for you but it is even better for the animals.

Having a wildlife friendly garden/yard can be readily accomplished by taking a few easy steps when planning your area.  The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has a Garden for Wildlife program offering information on how to create a wildlife-friendly garden and will even certify your garden as an official “Wildlife Habitat”. According to the NWF, the four factors to encouraging animals to move into your yard are Food, Water, Cover, and a place for animals to raise their Young.

Obviously nothing will move into your yard if there isn’t anything for it to eat, but this doesn’t necessarily require putting up a bird-feeder. Planting native plants provides a food source of nectar when in bloom and fighting the urge to “deadhead” flowers that have passed their prime leaves the seeds as a meal for a variety of animals.  Even dead trees and logs can invite insects as well as allow fungi and plants to grow, which in turn feed animals.

Of course we all need water to live, so NWF recommends having at least one source of fresh, clean water.  While this could be an elaborate pond or water garden, a simple bird-bath will give a place for birds to drink and clean their feathers. It will also provide drinkable water for the other animals too.  If you have space for a more natural water feature, go for it! Many amphibians, insects and reptiles need water for part or all of their life cycle.

Most animals don’t need a house, per se, but most of them need some form of shelter.  Shrubs can serve as a multipurpose place to get out the sun or rain and also to hide to avoid predators or help sneak up on smaller prey. Other forms of cover could be a rock pile, a wooded area, a pond, roosting boxes, or a meadow.

Lastly, animals often seek out places to raise their young, so a wildlife-friend garden/yard should strive to offer that. Mature trees, meadow, and wetland all offer a natural setting but in a limited area you can offer simple simulated spaces to rear offspring such as nest boxes, host plants (think milkweed for monarch caterpillars), dead trees/logs and water gardens.

One last important consideration promoted by the NWF is to make your area sustainable. This usually means conserving water and soil, managing exotic species, and eliminating chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Such efforts are easily managed by simply paying attention to the products you buy and the means by which you tend to your plants.

It is worth pointing out that the NWF is not the only organization promoting wildlife friendly gardening. There are a number of resources available to provide guidelines and detailed projects to make your yard friendly to wildlife. Google may be your primary tool but I will highlight one other local organization, the Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Association. Obviously they have their focus on bees, but many of the practices they promote will help all pollinators, be it honey-bees, native bees, or butterflies. Not only will this attract cool insects to your space (and the animals that eat those insects), but encouraging pollinators will help your crops if you happen to have a vegetable garden.

In closing, it is important to all of us here at Safari West to spread the word about conservation. While we work hard to protect large animals such as Rhinos and Cheetahs, we also strive every day to make an effort to reduce our footprint and contribute to conservation on the whole, even in our own 400 acre backyard. We hope that you will join us in this effort.

[atakportal]

Amory Blog - A Responsive WordPress Blog Theme

New Post has been published on https://click.atak.co/amory-blog-a-responsive-wordpress-blog-theme/

Amory Blog - A Responsive WordPress Blog Theme

Latest Update Januar 18, 2018 WordPress 4.9+ Ready

Amory Blog: Modern WordPress Blog Theme focused on design that highlights your content. Ideal for Fashion, Creative & Photography websites, incl 6 months support.

Version 4.1. – 19.1.2018

Fixed issue with selecting Google font via Theme options

Fixed issue with color picker theme options

Latest Revolution slider plugin

Support for latest PHP 7.x

AMORY 4.0 IS BRINGING WOOCOMMERCE INTEGRATION

Long awaited WooCommerce integration is finally here. We prepared two brand new Demo layouts where you can check how WooCommerce seamlessly integrates with the existing design of Amory and it’s blog:

Amory WooCommerce Full Width Version

Amory WooCommerce Version With Sidebar

AMORY 3.0 IS BRINGING NEW ADMIN PANEL AND PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG LAYOUT

Version 3.0 is here and we have completely redone the Admin panel for this update. It is now powered by popular plugin OptionTree and is looking more sleek with a lot of extra options and great CSS and Javascript editor.

We are also very proud to present PHOTOGRAPHY layout which features an amazing Full Screen Slider so you can show your great photographs in style. Check out the LIVE DEMO by clicking the preview image below:

VERSION 3.0 MAIN FEATURES

Brand new Administration Panel powered by OptionTree

New Options for scroll menu, social share icons

Header and Footer background can now be set from Administration Panel

Easy content export and import via Administration Panel

Option to create multiple layouts and easily switch between them in seconds

Mini Layout Builder (still in beta 3 stage)

minor CSS fixes

2 NEW LAYOUTS (Photography and Hipster)

WHERE ARE THE IMAGES FROM

My wish for a long time was to make a WordPress Theme with only my images in it (photography demo of Amory). Over the past few years I shot a lot of images in various seasons and locations and I was intrigued how they would look in a WordPress Theme for sale. It turned out they are a perfect match for several styles. If you like them, please check my personal photography website, named DreamyPixel.

The package with the images used in the live demos can be seen by clicking the image below:)

I also prepared a special discount for everyone that would like to purchase the images for use in Themes or on your blogs.

DISCOUNT CODE: dreamythemeforest30

WPML compatibility

Amory is now officially WPML compatible:

https://wpml.org/theme/amory/

What people are saying about Amory

Amory has a flawless 5 rating from 45 ratings. Below you can read about why people love Amory.

AMORY V2.0 IS THE BIGGEST UPDATE YET

Amory Blog has been one of the best selling WordPress Blog Themes on Themeforest in 2016. That’s why we decided it’s time to take it to another level and bring some great new features.

Don’t worry, all new features can be turned on and off. Everyone who likes Amory just the way it is, your design will be intact. We believe that the original design must stay the same so that people who love the vanilla design won’t be disappointed with version 2.

AMORY WORDPRESS BLOG THEME V2 NEW FEATURES

Let’s see what some of the most exciting new features are:

Several new Sidebar options

Brand new Widgets

Improved speed

Minor CSS fixes

Background image for the header

Video Widget

Magazine Style

New Sidebar Options

For users that would like to include more content on the home page we added several (6) new Sidebar Options:

Left Sidebar under Header

Right Sidebar under Header

Fullwidth Sidebar under Header

Left Sidebar above footer

Left Sidebar above footer

Fullwidth Sidebar above footer

Each sidebar can contain one or more widgets. The best examples where we show what can be added to Amory are:

Magazine Style

Vintage style

In Magazine style demo, you can check how widgets are positioned before and after the main blog part. Extra content can be anything from a simple post slideshow to video widgets for your interactive content. And you can further divide content with Revolution Slider widget for an even more “magazine like” feel. The other preview shows how the Theme looks without the main blog part, with widgets only.

Brand New Widgets

We prepared several new widgets for this release for a more interactive look and feel of the theme. Posts are now presented with a slideshow and you can add single posts to your sidebar. Video widget will help you with your interactive presentation. You can add Youtube, Vimeo and even self hosted HTML videos.

Amory: Premium WordPress Blog Theme For Creatives

Amory features not only a modern and minimalist design, it is also a standout WordPress theme for one reason: the focus is on YOUR content first and foremost.

Don’t let design overtake your content, with Amory the sleek design truly highlights what your users want the most, great content.

Photographers can create beautiful galleries to show their best work simply, with no coding required at your end. Creatives & Artisans can show off their talents without being overcrowded by flashy design tricks.

With Amory the focus is always Content First.

With elegant and intuitive Headers and unique Footers, you can easily create a website that will put your best work first. Everything has been designed and developed from the ground up with your content as top priority.

Utilizing today’s best coding practises including HTML5 and CSS3 for WordPress, Amory Blog animations are subtle yet purposeful, never cluttered and over bearing.

Headers have been designed to include what you need most, including animations that can Trigger on Scroll, a unique Footer that can display Instagram feeds, and close attention has been paid to the Typography to create a truly unique user experience.

Naturally Amory is fully Responsive, this means that no matter what device your users are viewing your content on, Amory Blog will scale seamlessly as if designed for them personally.

We also understand your needs when it comes to advertising, an important element of any successful content focussed site in today’s market. Amory comes complete with widgets developed specifically for Google Ad blocks.

No messy coding required, our Ad Blocks are simple widget based snippets that can be added directly from your WordPress dashboard, and of course they are optimised for today’s standard ad sizes; banner ads, blocks, 125×125px squares and more.

This means you can easily manage affiliate marketing and advertising programs from your WordPress dashboard. No messy fiddling around with text files, and absolutely no coding required.

Amory has been carefully developed to be a complete ecosystem catering to your creative needs from a website. Everything is included to manage your ecosystem including Social Media, eCommerce, Stunning Galleries, Ad management tools, Integrations of Sharing buttons with close attention to detail and styling, Typography that is both elegant and unobtrusive and of course Sliders…

Need to tweak a small setting to suit your brand’s style guide’ We have made this simple with the Powerful Amory Theme Option’s Panel. If you need to override a master setting, fear not! You don’t even have to edit the stylesheets which can be disastrous if you are not a webmaster, just use the Theme Option panel to add your own custom CSS to the part of the theme you wish to update.

With all of this custom functionality in mind, the best way to manage your WordPress installation and smaller tweaks like CSS overrides mentioned above is of course to use a Child Theme. Don’t worry, we have this covered! You will find a Child-Theme included in your download, and this is the one you work your magic on.

That way, when there is a critical update to WordPress, you simply update the Master Theme, and the Child-Theme adapts and overrides those settings so you don’t lose any of your custom changes. Simple!

Amazing Revolution Slider

You’ll also be saving money with the inclusion of Revolution Slider for Amory, and rest assured of full compatibility because it has been designed specifically alongside this powerful Plugin for you.

Designed with the most powerful Slider on the Market today, Revolution Slider is one click away from installation upon purchase, from there the sky’s the limit with amazing functionality and powerful page building tools with the Visual Editor.

It’s so much more than just a slider we feel that it compliments Amory perfectly, and so will you.

Not comfortable enough to create a site that best represents your brand’ We have included the power of auto-import right into Amory out of the box. Once you have installed Amory as your WordPress theme of choice, simply navigate to your Theme Options panel and click the Import Tab.

Follow a few simple instructions (included with your download) and you will have a fully functional website that looks identical to our demos with minimal fuss. And we are here to help should you run into any problems!

MANY DIFFERENT BLOG STYLES AND VARIATIONS

Amory can be so much, and more! With only a few tweaks within theme’s admin panel and Revolution Slider, you can change the design to fit your needs. Our 6 live previews illustrate just how many different styles Amory can manage. You can turn Amory from a clean and elegant Fashion style, to a dark, manly, hipster design in just a few clicks.

As a Power Elite Envato Market author you can rest assured that the Theme is fully documented and comes with full support via our Premium Coding Support Ticketing system. We are confident you are going to love this theme!

Feature List

Revolution Slider included

Dedicated Ad Blocks

Email subscription

Instagram Feed

Facebook integration

Social Media integration

Smooth Scroll

Responsive Mode

Gallery Posts

Full Page & Fixed width support

Shortcodes

Video embed

Full Width Pages with Slideshow

Sidebar Pages with Slideshow

Audio Posts

Video Posts

Boxed version

Upper block on Homepage

About us block

Quote block

Instagram block

Unlimited colours

Support

Item support includes:

Availability of the author to answer questions

Answering technical questions about item’s features

Assistance with reported bugs and issues

Help with included 3rd party assets

Check our Best selling WordPress Blog Theme

And at the end we would like to present the 3rd best selling WordPress Blog Theme of 2015 on Themeforest. Brixton is a classy blog, with trendy design, that will highlight the most important part of your website, your content.

CREDITS

Along the project, we have been using the following assets.

Jquery

jQuery FitVids

DreamyPixel – for some of the most amazing images on the web

BUY From ENVATO Marketplace

[atakportal]

Amory Blog - A Responsive WordPress Blog Theme

New Post has been published on https://click.atak.co/amory-blog-a-responsive-wordpress-blog-theme/

Amory Blog - A Responsive WordPress Blog Theme

Latest Update Januar 18, 2018 WordPress 4.9+ Ready

Amory Blog: Modern WordPress Blog Theme focused on design that highlights your content. Ideal for Fashion, Creative & Photography websites, incl 6 months support.

Version 4.1. – 19.1.2018

Fixed issue with selecting Google font via Theme options

Fixed issue with color picker theme options

Latest Revolution slider plugin

Support for latest PHP 7.x

AMORY 4.0 IS BRINGING WOOCOMMERCE INTEGRATION

Long awaited WooCommerce integration is finally here. We prepared two brand new Demo layouts where you can check how WooCommerce seamlessly integrates with the existing design of Amory and it’s blog:

Amory WooCommerce Full Width Version

Amory WooCommerce Version With Sidebar

AMORY 3.0 IS BRINGING NEW ADMIN PANEL AND PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG LAYOUT

Version 3.0 is here and we have completely redone the Admin panel for this update. It is now powered by popular plugin OptionTree and is looking more sleek with a lot of extra options and great CSS and Javascript editor.

We are also very proud to present PHOTOGRAPHY layout which features an amazing Full Screen Slider so you can show your great photographs in style. Check out the LIVE DEMO by clicking the preview image below:

VERSION 3.0 MAIN FEATURES

Brand new Administration Panel powered by OptionTree

New Options for scroll menu, social share icons

Header and Footer background can now be set from Administration Panel

Easy content export and import via Administration Panel

Option to create multiple layouts and easily switch between them in seconds

Mini Layout Builder (still in beta 3 stage)

minor CSS fixes

2 NEW LAYOUTS (Photography and Hipster)

WHERE ARE THE IMAGES FROM

My wish for a long time was to make a WordPress Theme with only my images in it (photography demo of Amory). Over the past few years I shot a lot of images in various seasons and locations and I was intrigued how they would look in a WordPress Theme for sale. It turned out they are a perfect match for several styles. If you like them, please check my personal photography website, named DreamyPixel.

The package with the images used in the live demos can be seen by clicking the image below:)

I also prepared a special discount for everyone that would like to purchase the images for use in Themes or on your blogs.

DISCOUNT CODE: dreamythemeforest30

WPML compatibility

Amory is now officially WPML compatible:

https://wpml.org/theme/amory/

What people are saying about Amory

Amory has a flawless 5 rating from 45 ratings. Below you can read about why people love Amory.

AMORY V2.0 IS THE BIGGEST UPDATE YET

Amory Blog has been one of the best selling WordPress Blog Themes on Themeforest in 2016. That’s why we decided it’s time to take it to another level and bring some great new features.

Don’t worry, all new features can be turned on and off. Everyone who likes Amory just the way it is, your design will be intact. We believe that the original design must stay the same so that people who love the vanilla design won’t be disappointed with version 2.

AMORY WORDPRESS BLOG THEME V2 NEW FEATURES

Let’s see what some of the most exciting new features are:

Several new Sidebar options

Brand new Widgets

Improved speed

Minor CSS fixes

Background image for the header

Video Widget

Magazine Style

New Sidebar Options

For users that would like to include more content on the home page we added several (6) new Sidebar Options:

Left Sidebar under Header

Right Sidebar under Header

Fullwidth Sidebar under Header

Left Sidebar above footer

Left Sidebar above footer

Fullwidth Sidebar above footer

Each sidebar can contain one or more widgets. The best examples where we show what can be added to Amory are:

Magazine Style

Vintage style

In Magazine style demo, you can check how widgets are positioned before and after the main blog part. Extra content can be anything from a simple post slideshow to video widgets for your interactive content. And you can further divide content with Revolution Slider widget for an even more “magazine like” feel. The other preview shows how the Theme looks without the main blog part, with widgets only.

Brand New Widgets

We prepared several new widgets for this release for a more interactive look and feel of the theme. Posts are now presented with a slideshow and you can add single posts to your sidebar. Video widget will help you with your interactive presentation. You can add Youtube, Vimeo and even self hosted HTML videos.

Amory: Premium WordPress Blog Theme For Creatives

Amory features not only a modern and minimalist design, it is also a standout WordPress theme for one reason: the focus is on YOUR content first and foremost.

Don’t let design overtake your content, with Amory the sleek design truly highlights what your users want the most, great content.

Photographers can create beautiful galleries to show their best work simply, with no coding required at your end. Creatives & Artisans can show off their talents without being overcrowded by flashy design tricks.

With Amory the focus is always Content First.

With elegant and intuitive Headers and unique Footers, you can easily create a website that will put your best work first. Everything has been designed and developed from the ground up with your content as top priority.

Utilizing today’s best coding practises including HTML5 and CSS3 for WordPress, Amory Blog animations are subtle yet purposeful, never cluttered and over bearing.

Headers have been designed to include what you need most, including animations that can Trigger on Scroll, a unique Footer that can display Instagram feeds, and close attention has been paid to the Typography to create a truly unique user experience.

Naturally Amory is fully Responsive, this means that no matter what device your users are viewing your content on, Amory Blog will scale seamlessly as if designed for them personally.

We also understand your needs when it comes to advertising, an important element of any successful content focussed site in today’s market. Amory comes complete with widgets developed specifically for Google Ad blocks.

No messy coding required, our Ad Blocks are simple widget based snippets that can be added directly from your WordPress dashboard, and of course they are optimised for today’s standard ad sizes; banner ads, blocks, 125×125px squares and more.

This means you can easily manage affiliate marketing and advertising programs from your WordPress dashboard. No messy fiddling around with text files, and absolutely no coding required.

Amory has been carefully developed to be a complete ecosystem catering to your creative needs from a website. Everything is included to manage your ecosystem including Social Media, eCommerce, Stunning Galleries, Ad management tools, Integrations of Sharing buttons with close attention to detail and styling, Typography that is both elegant and unobtrusive and of course Sliders…

Need to tweak a small setting to suit your brand’s style guide’ We have made this simple with the Powerful Amory Theme Option’s Panel. If you need to override a master setting, fear not! You don’t even have to edit the stylesheets which can be disastrous if you are not a webmaster, just use the Theme Option panel to add your own custom CSS to the part of the theme you wish to update.

With all of this custom functionality in mind, the best way to manage your WordPress installation and smaller tweaks like CSS overrides mentioned above is of course to use a Child Theme. Don’t worry, we have this covered! You will find a Child-Theme included in your download, and this is the one you work your magic on.

That way, when there is a critical update to WordPress, you simply update the Master Theme, and the Child-Theme adapts and overrides those settings so you don’t lose any of your custom changes. Simple!

Amazing Revolution Slider

You’ll also be saving money with the inclusion of Revolution Slider for Amory, and rest assured of full compatibility because it has been designed specifically alongside this powerful Plugin for you.

Designed with the most powerful Slider on the Market today, Revolution Slider is one click away from installation upon purchase, from there the sky’s the limit with amazing functionality and powerful page building tools with the Visual Editor.

It’s so much more than just a slider we feel that it compliments Amory perfectly, and so will you.

Not comfortable enough to create a site that best represents your brand’ We have included the power of auto-import right into Amory out of the box. Once you have installed Amory as your WordPress theme of choice, simply navigate to your Theme Options panel and click the Import Tab.

Follow a few simple instructions (included with your download) and you will have a fully functional website that looks identical to our demos with minimal fuss. And we are here to help should you run into any problems!

MANY DIFFERENT BLOG STYLES AND VARIATIONS

Amory can be so much, and more! With only a few tweaks within theme’s admin panel and Revolution Slider, you can change the design to fit your needs. Our 6 live previews illustrate just how many different styles Amory can manage. You can turn Amory from a clean and elegant Fashion style, to a dark, manly, hipster design in just a few clicks.

As a Power Elite Envato Market author you can rest assured that the Theme is fully documented and comes with full support via our Premium Coding Support Ticketing system. We are confident you are going to love this theme!

Feature List

Revolution Slider included

Dedicated Ad Blocks

Email subscription

Instagram Feed

Facebook integration

Social Media integration

Smooth Scroll

Responsive Mode

Gallery Posts

Full Page & Fixed width support

Shortcodes

Video embed

Full Width Pages with Slideshow

Sidebar Pages with Slideshow

Audio Posts

Video Posts

Boxed version

Upper block on Homepage

About us block

Quote block

Instagram block

Unlimited colours

Support

Item support includes:

Availability of the author to answer questions

Answering technical questions about item’s features

Assistance with reported bugs and issues

Help with included 3rd party assets

Check our Best selling WordPress Blog Theme

And at the end we would like to present the 3rd best selling WordPress Blog Theme of 2015 on Themeforest. Brixton is a classy blog, with trendy design, that will highlight the most important part of your website, your content.

CREDITS

Along the project, we have been using the following assets.

Jquery

jQuery FitVids

DreamyPixel – for some of the most amazing images on the web

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