#we had a meet up in the Netherlands just some weeks prior and that's enough for me

[silverfox66]

It still blows my mind how big NAFO has gotten. From shitposting on Twitter to actual in real life meet-ups.

[doingthedirtydishes]

Cologne, Germany: I came for your sausage and schnitzel and got your mustard and bier faschnizzle.

Deutschland, the land of precision engineering and order, beer and sausage, a European powerhouse with world class cities and sports teams, a place where trains are on time (within seconds),where you can find a group of drunk twenty-somethings at the cross-light – at 02:00 in the morning, with a current mix of east and west, along with so many new immigrant groups from the Middle East, a country I first visited almost thirty years ago, is a Republic close to my heart.  Each time I visit, twice in the last twelve months, my enjoyment only increases. Berlin, Hanover and Cologne are all astonishing cities, each with their own individual draw. Never was a bad time had in Germany – this year would be no different.

Most often when I visit Germany it is to see a close, dear friend, Thomas. We originally met over twenty-five years ago when he was an AFS high school exchange student staying with local friends of mine.  His host brother, Baby Snooks, was the younger brother of a close friend and so often we would maintain the same company. Over time his silly fruitiness wore on me and we became friends. After moving back to Germany, one cold winter, he invited me to Tyrol, Austria to ski with his family for two weeks. After that first trip to Europe, I was hooked. Europe was just waiting to be discovered. I also gained a new friend in life, a refined gentleman, from good stock, well-mannered and courteous, with a heart of gold.

Since I spend part of my year living in Holland, Germany is a close drive. And although I love so many different regions and cities in Germany, Cologne is one of my favorite, and also the city Tom happens to currently reside.  Berlin is by far my favorite city in Germany but it is too far a drive from Amsterdam for me at this juncture of my injury. I could do it in two days, whereas Cologne is a one day trip – doable.  Considering stops for food and little boy’s room, taking into account the Audubon and local traffic, it’s a four hour drive. My first trip to Holland, earlier in summer, I visited Cologne for four days. My second trip I decided to take a road adventure with a friend who was visiting me in Netherlands for summer.

Unlike my first journey to Cologne, a few months before, where I had to get into a rental car, attach hand controls for gas and brake, after flying across the Atlantic Ocean throughout the night, only to drive four hours to check-in to my hotel – before heading out that night with local friends for some catch-up and drinks. The next day I paid the price, reminded I was no longer twenty-three. My second trip would allow me the benefit of being a passenger, a superb luxury.  A super helpful strong friend from Philadelphia, Joe, visited me in Europe for seven weeks this summer. We decided on renting a car and visiting Germany and Belgium. It was Joe’s first time in Europe; a summer he’ll soon never forget.

Returning to Cologne brings back so many prior amazing trips’ memories, memories of times had with close companions where the smiles are forever indelibly marked on the soul.  Each time I return, it feels like a homecoming of sorts, the experience only getting richer and richer. Over time I have made many good friends – friendships that continue to flourish the world over. Some friends having moved to other regions and continents of the world, yet communication and meetings continue unabated. It does not hurt that the food is so very delicious, not to mention how good the beer tastes. My favorite German beer actually comes from Cologne – Frueh Kolsch (umlaut amiss), with its roots in this distinctive city.

Soon enough Joe would be introduced to all the spectacular facets of Germany I love so much. Upon approaching Cologne from the highway, the Cologne Cathedral, dating to 1248, can be clearly seen, prominently and proudly displaying Europe’s second highest Gothic spires high in the sky. I can still remember my first visit to Cologne over twenty years ago. Tom’s mother, Gitta, one day after a nice lunch in Moenchengladbach, where his family resided, drove me there to see its majestic beauty; ever since I have been enchanted with this quaint city. This time my arrival was via highway from Belgium, where we stopped first on our road trip. It would be no less glorious this time; both were enamored.

Cologne, Koeln in German, fourth-most populous metropolis, largest city of Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with just slightly over one million inhabitants, located 45 kilometers from the capital of the Federal State of Rhine-Westphalia, Dusseldorf and only 25 kilometers from Bonn, where I have some very close friends and ‘second’ family, is a city that tickles my heart strings every time I visit her. Her Gothic charm, welcoming neighborhoods, diverse young population, that o’ so unique tasteful German good behavior, outdoor beer gardens, rich foods and decadent desserts, eclectic art scene with over 30 museums and hundreds of galleries all make for an unforgettable experience.

Cologne is one of the oldest cities in Germany and its name dates back to Roman times. In 50 AD the Romans founded the Ubii village on the Rhine and named it “Colonia.”  As with all Roman cities, massive gates were installed as protection from entering into the city, surrounded by an impenetrable ringed stone wall of protection. It was originally four kilometers long, with nine gates and 19 round towers. Ruins of the Old-City walls and gates can still be found throughout the city. Located next to Cologne Cathedral, the Romano-Germanic Museum (Romisch-Germanisches Museum), has the largest collection of untold archaeological artifacts from the original Roman settlement, on which modern Cologne is built.

While in Cologne I only stay at one place, Motel One. Just like Generator Hostel, Motel One, a distinctive hotel model itself, is expanding throughout Europe at a rapid rate. People absolutely love both places to sleep in Europe – each offering immense value to the customer. I mostly revolve my travel in Europe around those two popular chains.  On my visit Cologne only had one Motel One. This trip they had three. And I just read there are now eleven in Berlin. The creator cut out all the unnecessary costs like room service and daily towels and sheets, including a contemporary room with art and twenty-four hour lobby bar with contemporary furniture to sit and relax with friends. All for about one hundred Euros – Wow!

This trip I stayed at the newly christened New Market (Neumarkt) location. My previous trip was spent at their Old-City South (Alstadt-Sued) place. Both are great locations but the Old-City South is more centrally located to access all the best neighborhoods the city has to offer, and also tourist attractions. The Cathedral (Der Koelner Dom), Belgian Quarter (Bruesseler Platz), Old-City Roman walls, City Center, New Market (Neumarkt), Severinsviertel,  Haymarket (Heumarkt), Rhine River and fine culinary choices to dine out, plentiful in every direction. Cologne is a youthful city, with the hippest culture of any city in Germany next to Berlin – truly a laid-back place to dive into history, the arts and a smorgasbord of fun.

The city skyline is dominated by Cologne Cathedral, Der Koelner Dom, officially Hohe Domkirche Sankt Petru, Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, seat of the Archbishop of Cologne, a renowned monument of German Catholicism. Construction in Medieval Europe began in 1248 but was halted in 1473, left unfinished. Work began again in the 1840s and was eventually completed, according to its Medieval plan, in 1880. It is one of Europe’s most fascinating structures and is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. It’s spires, 2nd tallest in Europe, can be seen from afar – they dominate the city landscape – giving it the largest facade of any church in the world. It is something worth seeing in your lifetime.

And just thirty meters from the church doors is the beer house (Bier Haus) of my favorite German beer, Frueh Kolsch. Who ever said that prayer and drinking do not go together. Catholics have wine at mass. Cheers – first round on me. Traditional beer houses in Germany are few and far between in modern times. Beers are delivered to your table by Koebes, traditional trained beer house servers, in tall skinny glasses each sitting in place neatly in a large round tray. When your glass is close to empty, unless a coaster placed atop, another beer is set down in its place, as the server marks your beer coaster with a pencil mark. At the end of the night, they determine your bill by how many strikes are on your coaster.

One day of the trip was spent with Tom’s family: Wolfgang, Gitta, Anja, Nadja and Pele the dog (Gram: @pelleparson).  We decided to visit one of their favorite local beer gardens at the Haymarket (Heumarkt). As Kolsch beer is from Cologne, most places you visit serve that type only. We sat outside under an umbrella, in a lively outdoor walking area and square for the public, nestled among numerous beer gardens and restaurants. This section of the city is also very popular for bachelorette parties. Many a lady-to-be could be seen with her brood in pink in tow, out to party the night away.  Under the afternoon sun great conversation abound, I ordered my favorite, Wiener Schnitzel with skinny fries.

After lunch we all walked to the Cologne Cathedral (Der Koelner Dom) in the City Center district, where we would enter to take a walking tour. The stained glass windows in the church are unlike any other I have ever seen – so large, bright and vivid in color, detailed in story – truly astonishing. Afterward, we headed to Alstadt (Old-City), filled with endless shopping, eccentric street vendors and performers, and food treats. One of my favorite foods to eat in the world is Turkish street food in Germany and next door in Holland. The Belgian fries and waffles are worthy of honorable mention too. The streets in this area of the city are cobblestone and so a bit rough on a wheelchair. Nothing a little street food will not remedy.

Another night an old friend, Yaki, originally from Hong Kong, who relocated to Germany eleven years prior, a budding prospering employee at Motel One well on his way into management (met him my first stay), along with some other local mates, invited us out to an urban public open-space city beer garden in the Belgian Quarter.  Joe and I did not hesitate, immediately after a round of beers sorted, ordering a few sausage platters. There are a few things in the world worth traveling to eat: one is outrageously delicious sausages from Deutchland. Bellies filled with pork and grease, it was time to get down to serious business – beer drinking in Germany. It was a night filled with memories, and a rough morning.

As far as accessibility goes, Germany is a dream country. Only Scandinavia does it better in Europe. The highways are well equipped with accessible bathrooms and numerous places to dine. In one rest-stop in Belgium, on our way driving to Germany, well before Joe got a speeding ticket on the Audubon, in a dedicated family/handicap bathroom, there was DJ music playing aloud, along with a spinning disco ball. That was one hell of a symphonic movement – it filled my eyes with color, sound and tears.  Getting around Cologne is easy in a wheelchair. Taxis are readily available – Uber now too. Public buses are all accessible. Street trams are level to the station for easy accessiblity; underground tram has elevators.

Each and every time I visit Germany it is memorable. It is a country I adore. My ‘second‘ family there was a huge pillar of support in my accident recovery. Traveling there over the years, especially one trip in the middle of my recovery to surprise thank them all in person, has never been easy. It is the maxim forever tattooed on my head: Doing the Dirty Dishes of living – for without doing them, we never learn from our experiences or mature and grow from the lessons of life. As I state in my book, Unbreakable Mind,: Life begins when the story ends. No longer living a story, I am free to see where the journey takes me now. Often I daydream – pour me a skinny bier, lather my sausage with mustard and faschnizzle my schnitzel.

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Thank you for your love and support.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

House Sets Impeachment Vote to Charge Trump With Incitement (NYT) House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against President Trump on Monday for his role in inflaming a mob that attacked the Capitol, scheduling a Wednesday vote to charge the president with “inciting violence against the government of the United States” if Vice President Mike Pence refused to strip him of power first. As the impeachment drive proceeded, federal law enforcement authorities accelerated efforts to fortify the Capitol ahead of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration on Jan. 20. The authorities announced plans to deploy up to 15,000 National Guard troops and set up a multilayered buffer zone with checkpoints around the building by Wednesday, just as lawmakers are to debate and vote on impeaching Mr. Trump. Federal authorities also said they were bracing for a wave of armed protests in all 50 state capitals and Washington in the days leading up to the inauguration.

National Guard inauguration deployment (Military Times) The Defense Department has authorized as many as 15,000 troops to be deployed to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. National Guard Bureau chief Gen. Daniel Hokanson said that there will initially be a deployment of 10,000 troops—an increase of about 4,000 from those in D.C. now. That figure is twice the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. The general declined to specify whether the guardsmen will be armed, stating that “we will work very closely with the federal agency, the FBI and law enforcement to determine if there is a need for that.” A D.C. National Guard spokesman told Military Times on Sunday that while some troops came to town with their weapons, carrying them on the streets had not yet been authorized.

Companies cutting off Trump and GOP (Yahoo Finance) Marriott and Blue Cross Blue Shield are just a few of the companies that are halting donations to GOP lawmakers who objected to certifying Joe Biden as president, while other businesses move to cut ties with President Trump directly. The actions come on the heels of Friday’s permanent suspension of Donald Trump’s Twitter account and Amazon’s move to cut off social media platform Parler’s servers. (NYT) The backlash is part of a broader shunning of Mr. Trump and his allies unfolding in the wake of the assault on the Capitol. Schools stripped the president of honorary degrees, some prominent Republicans threatened to leave the party and the New York State Bar Association announced it had begun investigating Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, which could lead to his removal from the group. And the P.G.A. of America announced it would strip Mr. Trump’s New Jersey golf club of a major tournament.

Virus deaths surging in California, now top 30,000 (AP) The coronavirus death toll in California reached 30,000 on Monday, another staggering milestone as the nation’s most populous state endures the worst surge of the nearly yearlong pandemic. Newly confirmed infections are rising at a dizzying rate of more than a quarter-million a week and during the weekend a record 1,163 deaths were reported. Los Angeles County is one of the epicenters and health officials there are telling residents to wear a mask even when at home if they go outside regularly and live with someone elderly or otherwise at high risk. California has deployed 88 refrigerated trailers to use as makeshift morgues mostly in hard-hit Southern California, where traditional storage space is dwindling.

A never-ending scandal (Bloomberg) Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35, the fighter jet already being flown by the U.S. and eight allies, remains marred by 871 software and hardware deficiencies that could undercut readiness, missions or maintenance, according to the Pentagon’s testing office. The Defense Department’s costliest weapons system “continues to carry a large number of deficiencies, many of which were identified prior to” the development and demonstration phase, which ended in April 2018 with 941 flaws, Robert Behler, the director of operational testing, said in a new assessment obtained by Bloomberg News in advance of its publication.

Pompeo Returns Cuba to Terrorism Sponsor List (NYT) The State Department designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism on Monday in a last-minute foreign policy stroke that will complicate the incoming Biden administration’s plans to restore friendlier relations with Havana. In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited Cuba’s hosting of 10 Colombian rebel leaders, along with a handful of American fugitives wanted for crimes committed in the 1970s, and Cuba’s support for the authoritarian leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. Mr. Pompeo said the action sent the message that “the Castro regime must end its support for international terrorism and subversion of U.S. justice.” The action, announced with just days remaining in the Trump administration, reverses a step taken in 2015 after President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba, calling its decades of political and economic isolation a relic of the Cold War.

Brexit sandwich problems (BBC) A Dutch TV network has filmed border officials confiscating ham sandwiches and other foods from drivers arriving in the Netherlands from the UK, under post-Brexit rules. Under EU rules, travellers from outside the bloc are banned from bringing in meat and dairy products. The rules appeared to bemuse one driver. “Since Brexit, you are no longer allowed to bring certain foods to Europe, like meat, fruit, vegetables, fish, that kind of stuff,” a Dutch border official told the driver in footage broadcast by TV network NPO 1. In one scene, a border official asked the driver whether several of his tin-foil wrapped sandwiches had meat in them. When the driver said they did, the border official said: “Okay, so we take them all.” Surprised, the driver then asked the officials if he could keep the bread, to which one replied: “No, everything will be confiscated—welcome to the Brexit, sir. I’m sorry.”

Merkel sees coronavirus lockdown until early April: Bild (Reuters) Chancellor Angela Merkel has told lawmakers in her conservative party that she expects a lockdown in Germany to curb the spread of the coronavirus to last until the start of April, top-selling Bild daily cited participants as the meeting as saying. “If we don’t manage to stop this British virus, then we will have 10 times the number of cases by Easter. We need eight to 10 more weeks of tough measures,” Bild quoted Merkel as saying.

‘A Stalin with double meat’ (Foreign Policy) A Moscow kebab shop named after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has closed after just 24 hours of opening after a string of complaints from angry residents. In its brief existence Stalin Doner served items like “Stalin with double meat” and “Beria with tkemali sauce”—a reference to Stalin’s notorious secret police chief. The shop’s owner, Stanislav Voltman, was interviewed by police for three hours following complaints. “They asked me if my head was screwed on straight,” Voltman told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “It’s not like I had Hitler as the face of my brand,” Voltman said. Despite public outcry about the kebabs, support for Stalin is on the rise in Russia. A Levada Center poll in 2019 found that 70 percent of Russians think Stalin played a completely or relatively positive role in the life of the country.

In Kashmir, Hopes Wither (NYT) Kashmir, the craggily beautiful region in the shadow of the Himalayas long caught between India and Pakistan, has fallen into a state of suspended animation. Schools are closed. Lockdowns have been imposed, lifted and then reimposed. Once a hub for both Western and Indian tourists, Kashmir has been reeling for more than a year. First, India brought in security forces to clamp down on the region. Then the coronavirus struck. The streets are full of soldiers. Military bunkers, removed years ago, are back, and at many places cleave the road. On highways, soldiers stop passenger vehicles and drag commuters out to check their identity cards. Conflict in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority region, has festered for decades. And an armed uprising has long sought self-rule. Tens of thousands of rebels, civilians and security forces have died since 1990. India and Pakistan have gone to war twice over the territory, which is split between them but claimed by both in its entirety. Now, as India flexes its power over the region, to even call Kashmir a disputed region is a crime—sedition, according to Indian officials. Many say that the political paralysis is the worst it has ever been in Kashmir’s 30 years of conflict, and that people have been choked into submission.

India’s top court suspends implementation of new farm laws (AP) India’s top court on Tuesday temporarily put on hold the implementation of new agricultural laws and ordered the formation of an independent committee of experts to negotiate with farmers who have been protesting against the legislation. The Supreme Court’s ruling came a day after it heard petitions filed by the farmers challenging the controversial legislation. The court said that the laws were passed without enough consultation, and that it was disappointed with the way talks were proceeding between representatives of the government and farmer leaders. Tens of thousands of farmers protesting against the legislation have been blocking half a dozen major highways on the outskirts of New Delhi for more than 45 days. Farmers say they won’t leave until the government repeals the laws. They say the legislation passed by Parliament in September will lead to the cartelization and commercialization of agriculture, make farmers vulnerable to corporate greed and devastate their earnings. The government insists the laws will benefit farmers and says they will enable farmers to market their produce and boost production through private investment.

First came political crimes. Now, a digital crackdown descends on Hong Kong. (Washington Post) HONG KONG—The police officers who came to take away Owen Chow on national security grounds last week left little to chance. Determined to find his phones, they had prepared a list of mobile numbers registered to his name, even one he used exclusively for banking, said the 23-year-old Hong Kong activist. Officers called each number in succession, the vibrations revealing the locations of three iPhones around his apartment. By the end of their operation, police had amassed more than 200 devices from Chow and 52 others held for alleged political crimes that day, according to those arrested, as well as laptops from spouses who are not politically active and were not detained. The digital sweep showed how Hong Kong authorities are wielding new powers under the national security law, introduced last summer, far more widely than the city’s leader promised. Since the Jan. 6 raids, authorities have blocked at least one website, according to the site’s owner and local media reports, raising concerns that Hong Kong is headed for broader digital surveillance and censorship akin to that in mainland China. Hong Kong police have begun sending devices seized from arrested people to mainland China, where authorities have sophisticated data-extraction technology, and are using the information gleaned from those devices to assist in investigations, according to two people familiar with the arrangement who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their safety.

26 missing, at least 13 dead in Indonesia landslides (AP) Rescuers are searching for 26 people still missing after two landslides hit a village in Indonesia’s West Java province over the weekend, officials said Tuesday. At least 13 people were killed and 29 others injured in the landslides that were triggered by heavy rain on Sunday in Cihanjuang, a village in West Java’s Sumedang district. Some of the victims were rescuers from the first landslide.

Leading human rights group calls Israel an ‘apartheid’ state (AP) A leading Israeli human rights group has begun describing both Israel and its control of the Palestinian territories as a single “apartheid” regime, using an explosive term that the country’s leaders and their supporters vehemently reject. In a report released Tuesday, B’Tselem says that while Palestinians live under different forms of Israeli control in the occupied West Bank, blockaded Gaza, annexed east Jerusalem and within Israel itself, they have fewer rights than Jews in the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. “One of the key points in our analysis is that this is a single geopolitical area ruled by one government,” said B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad. “This is not democracy plus occupation. This is apartheid between the river and the sea.” That a respected Israeli organization is adopting a term long seen as taboo even by many critics of Israel points to a broader shift in the debate as its half-century occupation of war-won lands drags on and hopes for a two-state solution fade.

Uganda bans social media ahead of presidential election (Reuters) Uganda banned social media on Tuesday, two days ahead of a presidential election pitting Yoweri Museveni, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, against opposition frontrunner Bobi Wine, a popular singer. Internet monitor NetBlocks said its data showed that Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Skype, Snapchat, Viber and Google Play Store were among a lengthy list of sites unavailable via Uganda’s main cell network operators. Campaigning ahead of the vote has been marred by brutal crackdowns on opposition rallies, which the authorities say break COVID-19 curbs on large gatherings. Rights groups say the restrictions are a pretext for muzzling the opposition. At 38, Wine is half the age of President Yoweri Museveni and has attracted a large following among young people in a nation where 80% of the population are under 30, rattling the ruling National Resistance Movement party.

Coronavirus-spurred changes to global workforce to be permanent (Reuters) Sweeping changes to the global labour market caused by the coronavirus pandemic will likely be permanent, policy makers said on Tuesday, as some industries collapse, others flourish and workers stay home. The pandemic, which has so far infected at least 90.5 million people and killed around 1.9 worldwide, has up-ended industries and workers in almost every country in the world as tough lockdowns were imposed. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has estimated that the impact of huge job losses worldwide is creating a fiscal gap that threatens to increase inequality between richer and poorer countries. The ILO estimated that global labour income declined by 10.7 per cent, or $3.5 trillion, in the first three quarters of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019, excluding government income support. India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the pandemic had created an “accidental challenge” under which the government delivered food on a regular basis to 800 million people and provided sustained business funds. Philippines central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno said it was clear some industries will not survive, others will not be as dynamic as before, and yet others will be boosted by the massive changes. The need for a more nimble and innovative approach to education will remain long after the pandemic ends, said Helen Fulson, Chief Product Officer at educational publisher Twinkl. “How many children today will be doing jobs that currently don’t exist?’ she said at Reuters Next on Monday. “We don’t know how to train for these jobs.”

[orbemnews]

As the US races to vaccinate the country, J&J vaccine distribution will slow down 84% next week J&J would not directly answer CNN’s questions about why the supply has slowed down, but Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator said at a briefing Friday, that the supply to states won’t change until its independent manufacturing plant gets a green light from the FDA. “Johnson and Johnson expects a relatively low level of weekly dose delivery, until the company secures FDA authorization,” Zients said. Since the vaccine was authorized in February, Johnson & Johnson fell short of its February goal, but it was able to meet its commitment to deliver 20 million doses in March. Thursday J&J told CNN it is on track to meet its target of producing 100 million doses of vaccine for the United States by the end of May. In a press release last week, the company said it was on track to deliver 24 million of those doses through April, but when asked by CNN on Friday, the company did not firmly stand behind that April goal and referred CNN to Zients’ comments at the Friday briefing, which stated that the company had reiterated “its commitment to provide at or near 100 million vaccine doses by the end of May.” The Biden administration has consistently said the J&J supply would be “uneven.” The states are already feeling the impact of this uneven distribution. On Thursday, Maryland’s Governor Larry Hogan confirmed at a news conference that there would be an 85% reduction in his state’s allocation of J&J vaccine doses. Hogan said this is a serious concern since it could mean that Maryland is about “a quarter million doses short.” “That’s really difficult when you got three thousand points of distribution all counting on more doses,” Hogan said. Washington State’s website also said Thursday that the federal government showed a “substantial decrease” in Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine starting next week. For the week of April 11, Washington state expected to see 12,900 doses, but by April 18 and 25, they would likely get only 4,300 doses each week. Texas’ Department of State Health Services said it too has seen a “major reduction” in J&J allocated doses, going from 500,000 doses this week to 130,000 next week. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said Thursday that it will receive roughly 6,000 J&J doses next week from its federal allocation instead of the initially anticipated 20,000 doses. “We had always anticipated the Johnson & Johnson deliveries to step down this week and beyond, but it’s stepped down significantly more,” said Governor Ned Lamont. J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine was expected to be a game changer, since it is a single dose vaccine, compared to the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer, and didn’t need any special refrigeration. A large supply of this vaccine would protect more people faster. With new cases at a “disturbingly high level,” as Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday, vaccines can’t come fast enough, especially given the spread of more contagious variants. Production problems The problem seems to be with the company’s supply of the drug substance it uses for the vaccine. J&J has been getting its drug substance from its vaccine arm Janssen in the Netherlands, according to the Biden administration, and it then goes on to fill and finishing plants that have been doing the final stage process of the vaccines. The company has been trying to add additional manufacturing capacity in the US, but it has had problems with one of those manufacturers, Baltimore-based Emergent BioSolutions. In June, Emergent signed a $628 million contract with the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines. It has worked with AstraZeneca and J&J. So far though, it hasn’t been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration to produce any vaccines. Last week, Emergent told CNN there was a problem that affected a single batch of “bulk drug substance” used to make vaccine. The company’s quality control systems caught the batch that “did not meet specifications and our rigorous quality standards” before it got any further. A person who is familiar with this particular manufacturing process told CNN Thursday that “batches are lost all the time in this industry, it’s just the nature of the complexity of what we do.” Typically, a company’s safety systems will continuously monitor for problems and if there are irregularities in any of the product, the company will have to isolate it and dispose of that batch. According to a FDA inspection report obtained by CNN, Emergent has had some, what the FDA calls “observations,” the agency doesn’t call them violations, with their manufacturing processes in the past. It is not clear from the redacted report what drug or substance these observations were connected to, but the inspections happened prior to the company’s work on the J&J and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines. The inspection report from last April showed the company had to reject material before, but there was no “associated non-conforming material report initiated” for the material “indicating the rationale for rejection, as per written procedure.” The reports also showed that for one procedure, “there was no documented evidence the preparer has been trained on that relevant procedure(s).” Another report said that “data generated from laboratory analyses is not reviewed in a timely manner or in accordance to the written procedure.” Compliance expert, John Avellanet, the Managing Director of Cerulean Associates, LLC said the fact that Emergent got what’s known in the industry as a 483 report from the FDA is “significant.” “Only something in the neighborhood of 15% or less of FDA inspections end in non-compliance observations on a Form FDA 483, so when one gets a 483, it is significant.” Avellanet said in an email to CNN. Jesse Goodman, a former FDA Chief Scientist who now works as a Professor of Medicine at Georgetown, said it is not uncommon for a comprehensive inspection to result in a 483. He said that quality and audit systems are there to prevent problems in a final product. “I would say that there are a number of observations that raise substantial questions about the sufficiency of the procedures, processes, and systems that must be in place to help ensure robust control of product quality,” Goodman said in an email to CNN. “You will never in a very complex environment prevent 100% of all errors or mishaps, but you want strong quality systems and oversight in place to, number one, reduce those to the extent that’s humanly possible; and number two, be sure you will detect them and act on them promptly and aggressively to ensure safe, effective products,” Goodman said. According to a CNN review of public records, Emergent never received a FDA warning letter which is an additional step the agency can take in enforcing compliance. A person who is familiar with Emergent’s particular manufacturing process told CNN Thursday that the company has taken corrective action to improve performance issues related to the FDA’s report. J&J has assumed full responsibility for the manufacturing of the drug substance at the Emergent facility. It added experts for operations and quality to the operation and significantly increased the number of manufacturing, technical and quality operations staff to work with the experts it already had sent to Emergent. J&J told CNN Thursday that it is working closely with the FDA so it get the official sign off from the FDA to use the facility. “There’s a lot of vaccine in the queue if you will, to ultimately make it out to the people that need it assuming the FDA approves the EUA” a source familiar with Emergent’s manufacturing process said. As far as when that will happen, it’s unclear. The FDA said it cannot comment on any particular company or its manufacturing. “What the company has told us,” Zients said on Friday, “is once they have authorization, that they will be able to have a weekly cadence of up to 8 million doses per week by the end of the month.” Source link Orbem News #AstheUSracestovaccinatethecountry #country #distribution #Health #J&Jvaccinedistributionwillslowdown84%nextweek-CNN #Races #slow #Vaccinate #Vaccine #Week

[dipulb3]

As the US races to vaccinate the country, J&J vaccine distribution will slow down 84% next week

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/as-the-us-races-to-vaccinate-the-country-jj-vaccine-distribution-will-slow-down-84-next-week/

As the US races to vaccinate the country, J&J vaccine distribution will slow down 84% next week

J&J would not directly answer Appradab’s questions about why the supply has slowed down, but Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator said at a briefing Friday, that the supply to states won’t change until its independent manufacturing plant gets a green light from the FDA.

“Johnson and Johnson expects a relatively low level of weekly dose delivery, until the company secures FDA authorization,” Zients said.

Since the vaccine was authorized in February, Johnson & Johnson fell short of its February goal, but it was able to meet its commitment to deliver 20 million doses in March. Thursday J&J told Appradab it is on track to meet its target of producing 100 million doses of vaccine for the United States by the end of May. In a press release last week, the company said it was on track to deliver 24 million of those doses through April, but when asked by Appradab on Friday, the company did not firmly stand behind that April goal and referred Appradab to Zients’ comments at the Friday briefing, which stated that the company had reiterated “its commitment to provide at or near 100 million vaccine doses by the end of May.”

The Biden administration has consistently said the J&J supply would be “uneven.”

The states are already feeling the impact of this uneven distribution. On Thursday, Maryland’s Governor Larry Hogan confirmed at a news conference that there would be an 85% reduction in his state’s allocation of J&J vaccine doses.

Hogan said this is a serious concern since it could mean that Maryland is about “a quarter million doses short.”

“That’s really difficult when you got three thousand points of distribution all counting on more doses,” Hogan said.

Washington State’s website also said Thursday that the federal government showed a “substantial decrease” in Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine starting next week.

For the week of April 11, Washington state expected to see 12,900 doses, but by April 18 and 25, they would likely get only 4,300 doses each week.

Texas’ Department of State Health Services said it too has seen a “major reduction” in J&J allocated doses, going from 500,000 doses this week to 130,000 next week.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said Thursday that it will receive roughly 6,000 J&J doses next week from its federal allocation instead of the initially anticipated 20,000 doses.

“We had always anticipated the Johnson & Johnson deliveries to step down this week and beyond, but it’s stepped down significantly more,” said Governor Ned Lamont.

J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine was expected to be a game changer, since it is a single dose vaccine, compared to the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer, and didn’t need any special refrigeration. A large supply of this vaccine would protect more people faster.

With new cases at a “disturbingly high level,” as Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday, vaccines can’t come fast enough, especially given the spread of more contagious variants.

Production problems

The problem seems to be with the company’s supply of the drug substance it uses for the vaccine. J&J has been getting its drug substance from its vaccine arm Janssen in the Netherlands, according to the Biden administration, and it then goes on to fill and finishing plants that have been doing the final stage process of the vaccines.

The company has been trying to add additional manufacturing capacity in the US, but it has had problems with one of those manufacturers, Baltimore-based Emergent BioSolutions. In June, Emergent signed a $628 million contract with the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines. It has worked with AstraZeneca and J&J. So far though, it hasn’t been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration to produce any vaccines.

Last week, Emergent told Appradab there was a problem that affected a single batch of “bulk drug substance” used to make vaccine. The company’s quality control systems caught the batch that “did not meet specifications and our rigorous quality standards” before it got any further.

A person who is familiar with this particular manufacturing process told Appradab Thursday that “batches are lost all the time in this industry, it’s just the nature of the complexity of what we do.”

Typically, a company’s safety systems will continuously monitor for problems and if there are irregularities in any of the product, the company will have to isolate it and dispose of that batch.

According to a FDA inspection report obtained by Appradab, Emergent has had some, what the FDA calls “observations,” the agency doesn’t call them violations, with their manufacturing processes in the past.

It is not clear from the redacted report what drug or substance these observations were connected to, but the inspections happened prior to the company’s work on the J&J and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines.

The inspection report from last April showed the company had to reject material before, but there was no “associated non-conforming material report initiated” for the material “indicating the rationale for rejection, as per written procedure.” The reports also showed that for one procedure, “there was no documented evidence the preparer has been trained on that relevant procedure(s).” Another report said that “data generated from laboratory analyses is not reviewed in a timely manner or in accordance to the written procedure.”

Compliance expert, John Avellanet, the Managing Director of Cerulean Associates, LLC said the fact that Emergent got what’s known in the industry as a 483 report from the FDA is “significant.”

“Only something in the neighborhood of 15% or less of FDA inspections end in non-compliance observations on a Form FDA 483, so when one gets a 483, it is significant.” Avellanet said in an email to Appradab.

Jesse Goodman, a former FDA Chief Scientist who now works as a Professor of Medicine at Georgetown, said it is not uncommon for a comprehensive inspection to result in a 483. He said that quality and audit systems are there to prevent problems in a final product.

“I would say that there are a number of observations that raise substantial questions about the sufficiency of the procedures, processes, and systems that must be in place to help ensure robust control of product quality,” Goodman said in an email to Appradab.

“You will never in a very complex environment prevent 100% of all errors or mishaps, but you want strong quality systems and oversight in place to, number one, reduce those to the extent that’s humanly possible; and number two, be sure you will detect them and act on them promptly and aggressively to ensure safe, effective products,” Goodman said.

According to a Appradab review of public records, Emergent never received a FDA warning letter which is an additional step the agency can take in enforcing compliance.

A person who is familiar with Emergent’s particular manufacturing process told Appradab Thursday that the company has taken corrective action to improve performance issues related to the FDA’s report.

J&J has assumed full responsibility for the manufacturing of the drug substance at the Emergent facility. It added experts for operations and quality to the operation and significantly increased the number of manufacturing, technical and quality operations staff to work with the experts it already had sent to Emergent. J&J told Appradab Thursday that it is working closely with the FDA so it get the official sign off from the FDA to use the facility.

“There’s a lot of vaccine in the queue if you will, to ultimately make it out to the people that need it assuming the FDA approves the EUA” a source familiar with Emergent’s manufacturing process said.

As far as when that will happen, it’s unclear. The FDA said it cannot comment on any particular company or its manufacturing.

“What the company has told us,” Zients said on Friday, “is once they have authorization, that they will be able to have a weekly cadence of up to 8 million doses per week by the end of the month.”

[my-lazy-genius]

“Don’t take this the wrong way but I love you so much I can’t stand it” “How… How can I take that the wrong way?” “I don’t know, I’m really nervous”, with Netherlands and Taiwan. Something fluffy and funny, but romantic, please ^^

Send me a request!

Title: Meteoric NightFandom: Hetalia :: NethTaiRequested by: @mireille2806sstuffPrompt: “Don’t take this the wrong way but I love you so much I can’t stand it” “How… How can I take that the wrong way?” “I don’t know, I’m really nervous” from putthepromptsonpaperOther: FluffA/N: In honor of the meteor shower tonight… Here’s this one. Title is based off a Cicada song.

Often, Mei thinks about the first time she met Abel. It had been through Kiku, in the most cliche and rushed manner. She’s on her way to the library to get her cell phone from him - she’d left it in the college library two classes prior and hadn’t had a chance to get it, but Kiku had been heading there anyways and grabbed it for her. Upon arrival, she finds Kiku at his usual table in the very back - but he isn’t alone. Beside him, a rather intimidating man is hunched over, scribbling into a notebook.

“Mei,” Kiku greets, looking up, “your phone is in my bag. Give me just a moment and I’ll get it.”

Mei is torn between thinking they are studying and thinking Kiku is tutoring someone again - it ends up being the former - when the blond lifts his gaze, undoubtedly to see why they’re being interrupted.

Mei immediately blurts, “Do I know you?”

He blinks. “No.”

“You know his sister,” Kiku informs her, fishing her phone out of his bag, “Lien’s girlfriend.”

“Oh!” Mei brightens and half flings herself onto the table, stretching out a hand to shake. “I didn’t know she had a brother! Nice to meet’cha! I’m Mei, Kiku’s half sister, and Lien’s best friend!”

“Abel,” he replies, hesitantly reaching out to shake her hand, “I study with Kiku sometimes.”

In that moment, their existence is established to each other, polar opposites or not. Mei takes her phone, thanks Kiku profusely, and races out of the library with a bounce to her step.

–

After their first meeting, she notices Abel around the campus a lot more. They don’t share any classes - she’s in fashion and he’s in business and creative writing, so even though they could have shared a marketing class, they don’t - but she catches sight of him in the quad often, writing or doing something on his phone with his earbuds in.

Her class is canceled, one of such days, so she has time to stop by.

“Hey!” She greets, and his perpetually annoyed looking gaze lifts.

Tired eyes drag over her. “Mei,” he greets, a moment later.

“You remembered!” She beams. “Mind if I join you?”

“That’s fine,” he replies, gaze shifting back to his notebook.

Mei drops her messenger bag at her feet and sits beside him. Whatever he’s writing, it’s in another language and she can’t read it. Kiku probably could, with his language obsession, but she’s sure it’s some sort of Germanic language. Too busy trying to be nosy, she barely realizes that he’s stopped writing and is now scrutinizing her.

(“Oh, that,” Abel tells her, when she asks years later, “you smelled nice. I wanted to say so, but it sounded odd and I’m not eloquent off of paper.”)

Mei looks up. “Oh,” she says, “uh, what are you writing?”

“Poetry,” he tells her, checking the time on his watch. “I have to go to my next class. Bye.”

Mei watches him go with a huff. I wanted to know what it was about.

–

So, if only because Mei is persistent and clearly doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone, they end up sort of becoming friends. Lien and Emma are a little more than surprised when Mei mentions it.

She and Lien share a dorm and Emma practically lives on Lien’s side of the room; she looks up from where she’s half draped over the aforementioned Vietnamese girl and gapes at Mei.

“He mentioned a Mei, but somehow I thought he meant like, another Mei. A May? I don’t know; how did you manage to befriend Abel?”

“I just talked to him?” It comes out more questioning than Mei intends and she pauses, halfway through a sketch of a dress, and spins around in her office chair. “Wait, did you just say he talks about me?”

“Oops,” says Emma, and shoves her head under Lien’s pillow.

Lien just gives a long suffering sigh.

–

With all the romance novels she reads, Mei probably should have expected the coffee shop. She frequents the place for their tea - coffee gives her too much energy and Kiku never let her touch the stuff again - and Abel, it seems, frequents the place for the atmosphere and the pastries.

Or so he’s just told her, from where he sits across from her.

She’d seen him almost immediately upon entering, asked for her usual, and immediately crossed to sit in the corner booth with him once she’d received it. Somehow, Abel had seemed unsurprised to see her.

“Let me guess,” he says, setting his pen down in anticipation for her undoubtedly long winded response, “you’re a regular.”

So now they’re here, exchanging words as Abel writes and Mei draws. It takes her a moment to realize he’s watching her oddly, as though he wants to say something, but the moment she meets his eyes, he drops them and resumes writing. She still doesn’t know what the poetry is about.

–

“-so anyways, I convinced Abel to go to that carnival that recently came to town,” Mei is saying, talking so rapidly and gesturing so much that she doesn’t notice Kiku stops until she’s well ahead of him.

He’s just standing there, staring at her, scrutinizing.

Mei dares to ask, “What?”

“You have a crush on him, don’t you?”

“Oh my god,” Mei complains, “am I that transparent?”

–

“Mei, I’m telling you, you gotta tell him,” Emma informs her without looking up from her text, “because I promise it’ll go well.”

“What do you know that I don’t?” Mei demands.

Emma lifts an eyebrow. “A lot of things, apparently.”

“If you start arguing, you’re both getting kicked out,” Lien cuts in, before Mei can even open her mouth.

–

Can we talk?

Mei blinks at the text and checks the time. It’s nearly nine at night. She sighs and rolls over, sending back a quick, Sure. What about?

Can you meet me at the cafe?

“Jesus, Abel,” Mei groans, dragging herself up and changing out of her pajamas and into her clothes. She texts him again to tell him she’s on the way and sneaks out, hoping to any god that has ever existed that Lien doesn’t lock her out.

–

Abel’s already there when she arrives. The cafe closed at nine, but he’s holding two cups, still fresh with steam. He offers one out to her as she approaches, shivering.

“Sorry,” he says, “I know it’s late. Here. This is the tea you like, right?”

Sure enough, when she takes a drink, it is. “How did you know?”

He shrugs. “I pay attention.”

Abel gestures and begins to walk, and Mei falls into step alongside him, noting the way he slows his pace now so she can keep up easier. Abel’s quiet for a while, as though thinking, and Mei’s gaze drifts to the starry sky. They walk until they come to the city park and Mei brightens, setting her tea down on the nearest picnic table, before racing to the swings. Abel sits down on the bench and watches.

It had been years since she’d last been on swings, but she still enjoys the feeling of cold wind rushing through her hair and tickling her cheeks, eyes taking in the wide expanse of sky overhead. It just so happens that she’s in the air when multiple, bright streaks race across the sky. A meteor shower, she realizes, with a start, and an airy laugh.

“Abel, look! It’s beautiful!”

Her phone vibrates and she looks down as the screen lights up.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I love you so much I can’t stand it, the message reads.

Mei has to pause and double check, but sure enough, the contact name says Abel.

“How…” She laughs, lifts her gaze to find him in the dark, his face illuminated by his phone screen, “How can I take that the wrong way?”

“I don’t know,” Abel admits, “I’m really nervous. I’m not… good with words.”

When she gets close enough to half fling herself into his arms, Mei laughs at the way his ears turn red - from the cold and embarrassment. I love you, too, she’ll text him later, when she’s tucked into her bed, nose red and lips stretched into a giddy smile.

–

Mei has no filter whatsoever, so everyone knows that they’re dating within the week. Abel is odd about public affection, but she likes it better when they’re alone anyways. He’s gentle with her, softer somehow. Emma just smiles knowingly, and Kiku seems entirely unsurprised. Sometimes, Abel walks her to class. Sometimes, she hears people refer to them as the power couple, which she doesn’t understand until Alfred explains to Kiku, who explains to her.

Mei can live with that.

Sometimes, Abel lets her hang off of him in the halls, or hold his hand. She keeps thinking about the time they first met, her impulse decision to say something to the scary boy with the scar above his eyebrow. Now, she knows he got the scar in a childhood accident and he hasn’t climbed a tree since. Now, she knows he’s secretly a sucker for romance, from novels to songs. She sees him smiling at her when he thinks she isn’t watching, sometimes.

And she’s happy.

–

“Hey, Abel?” She asks him, months later. “What were you always writing poetry about?”

Abel looks up, almost smiling. “You, mostly.”

[robintheghost]

5 years

5 years ago, I was watching Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix, while immediatly blogging about it as well. 5 years ago, Kimi did a thing, and Vettel was crowned World Champion after a crazy lap 1 incident. 5 years ago, that race marked the end of the F1 season. 5 years ago, that race was indirectly responsible for a change in my life.

5 years ago, a Tumblr user called @vulgch started to reblog some of the posts I blogged about that Grand Prix. 5 years ago, I checked out her profile and noted we had quite a few things in common. 5 years ago, I send her a message, noting these things to her. 5 years ago, I got a reply back, and continued to chat. 5 years ago, I met a blogger who would become my best friend. 

5 years ago, a wonderful person entered my life. Noting we share the same birthday, and quickly adding each other on Facebook as well, we started talking through Facebook Messenger. Because hey, Tumblr’s messaging systems back then only consisted of the flawed inbox, and an actual chat system worked much easier in general. Continuing our talking, I grew fond  of her rapidly. The more we talked, the more we figured out we got in common. For the things we didn’t agree on or what only one of us liked, it’s been fun discussing that matter. Logically we had our ups and downs, as common in every friendship. Luckily, the ups were in a large majority. Through all this, she turned into my best friend, the one I could tell everything to, the one I cared so much for, the one I trust the most. 

Logically, we started talking about actually seeing each other since we got along so bloody well. As she was from Brazil, and I from The Netherlands, seeing each other wouldn’t be an easy job. It’s not like we were neighbours. But we were persistent. Our original plan, to have a holiday in 2014 in Brazil at the same time of the World Cup, had to be delayed. So, we settled for a Brazil holiday in 2015.

This holiday should’ve been the crown to our friendship. A meeting which would only bond us even further. A holiday where we would finally meet face-to-face, and partake in activities we would never have been able to do via the internet. A holiday which we weren’t limited to a screen, but were free to do what we pleased. Travelling across the world, on my own, to meet my best friend was the biggest moment in my life. I was happy to finally see the person who meant so much to me. I was a happy man. In my darkest dreams, I couldn’t even imagine a scenario where we wouldn’t bond at all. After all, we’ve got along so well prior to the holiday. We knew each other through and through. We knew our positives, and negatives. What we liked, and didn’t like. What we had in common, and what we didn’t. It all seemed to be fitting. Life, however, has its ways. We were off to a great start in the first few days, in which we did bond more (in my eyes, at least). Being in Brazil, seeing a different lifestyle than what I knew, dealing with the weather, and facing a different culture than my own, it took me a bit to settle in. After all, I was in a foreign country, staying over at the place of my best friend and her family, while still not fluent in Portuguese. I got some of the basics, but far away removed from having actual conversations in Portuguese, which made it difficult to communicate with her parents. They had trouble with English, I had major troubles with Portuguese. Not even after a week into the holiday, things weren’t going that well anymore. It wasn’t obvious at first, but it would be noted later on. We were drifting apart slowly but surely. There were a few factors I later heard caused this (my personality not being too liked by her parents, guess mainly due to the language barrier and not being able to communicate, her not feeling chemistry, not feeling comfortable, and her not being in a great place at that time. I suspect there’s some more to this story than what I have been told. After all, I only heard the surface of the problems, not what caused these feelings), but didn’t knew immediately then. However, it became obvious that my darkest dreams would turn out to be even worse. Instead of growing closer (like we did the first few days, with some proper hugging, and even handing out a cheek kiss, because that’s what’s we wanted), we were I’d say detaching ourselves. Hugs became less frequent, and more quickly. The emotions we put into those hugs disappeared. It felt more like a necessity than joy. We even hung around less and less closely to each other. When it became obvious, I tried to figure it out. With a week left, I’d hope we’d find a fix to what’s causing these issues. However, that talk never happened, as it got shut down before we even could begin. This disconnection became so bad, I even thought of leaving a few days earlier. A holiday which should’ve brought us even closer together was turning out to be a nightmare on that part. Despite having such a great time there, enjoying myself a lot seeing beautiful places and cities, having a taste at the Brazilian life, it didn’t turn out to be the holiday I hoped for. The main reason for my visit to Brazil, my best friend, estranged herself from me. And what I tried during that holiday, it wasn’t good enough to talk it out. The thought of getting things back on track again, the hope that we would end on a high note, kept me from leaving earlier. I wanted our friendship to be fixed. I wanted our holiday to end on a good, and fun note. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen. After three weeks, and with many mixed emotions, I boarded my plane and returned home.

When home again, it became painfully obvious this holiday did more damage than good. And that damage was plenty. After a few weeks of trying to figure out what was wrong, I got blocked on both Facebook and Twitter, while an unfollow on Tumblr was in order. Only during our birthday, and new years, she was willing to let her hear something from her side. Messages through WhatsApp, where she hadn’t blocked me, were usually ignored. After nearly a year, in 2016, she would finally reply me, unblock me from Twitter, and giving me more info about the whole situation.

That started an on-and-off period. Usually it took weeks before getting a reply, but I felt we were getting somewhere. At least we talked again, which was a big relief to me. I got a bit more info, which was a help, but not enough to close this chapter for me. During the course of the year, I tried to get our broken friendship back where it was, while also trying to get her side of the story on that holiday. Fast forward a year, and I was still left wondering. If I were to move forward from what happened, I would need my answers. So, I decided to write it down in a message. All my questions, all my emotions, I put that into a Wall of Text message. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to write it down and send it, as this whole situation was affecting me too much. I calculated this would be it. A do or die message. If she were to reply, we might actively work our way to create a mutual understanding of what went wrong, and how we could fix it. We could move forward. If she were to ignore it, we would lose everything we once created, and remain in the situation we were currently in. A new block, this time even on WhatsApp, confirmed she picked the latter. I was left in many broken pieces. Half a year later, and the situation has not changed one single bit.

I try my best to uncover what went wrong. I try my best to think about how this came to be. I try my best to make sense of everything what happened, what could’ve happened, and what might set this all of. I try my best to reconnect with each other. The problem is, there’s just so many scenario’s, while I have so little information. I can’t make any sense of the situation, as I could never string it together. The only who could help me out, is not willing to reveal everything. A few glimpses is all I got, but I was left with many unanswered questions, and an additional bunch due to what I was told. Time and time again, I tried to uncover the info I would need. Time and time again, I didn’t get it.

5 years ago, I met someone incredible. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. But my hope remains, that one day we might reconnect again, we might get back to where we left off, and that we might grow even closer. This chance gets slimmer each day, and looking at it realistically, it’ll not happen. However, I like to be an optimist from time to time. I would like nothing more than you have her back in my life. I could only hope she’ll read this. In hopes of talking to each other again. 

5 years ago, contacting Sarah started a chain reaction which caused some of the best moments in my life, yet also some of the most painful. I wish, so much, that we could start a second chain of best moments and memories. On that note, it’s time to put an end to this post. To Sarah: To what was. To what could have been. To what might be. A happy 5 years of knowing each other, Sarah, wherever you are. I still care for you, and I still miss you dearly.

[personalcoachingcenter]

What Makes a Successful Startup Team

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/what-makes-a-successful-startup-team/

What Makes a Successful Startup Team

Executive Summary

What makes a successful startup team? One common answer is that prior startup experience, product knowledge, and industry skills predict the success of a new venture. But is prior experience sufficient for a team to work well together? In a recent study of 95 new startup teams in the Netherlands, researchers explored that question. They found that experience alone was not enough to make a team thrive. While experience broadens the teams’ resource pool, helps people identify opportunities, and is positively related to team effectiveness, a team also needs soft skills to truly thrive. Specifically, they found that shared entrepreneurial passion and shared strategic vision are required to get to superior team performance.

Jekaterina Nikitina/Getty Images

When venture capital investors are doing due diligence, they focus carefully on the financial side of the business. Does the company have an interesting business model? How big is the addressable market? What are the growth plans of the company? They hire expensive experts and use advanced data tools to answer these questions and ensure that every financial detail is on the table.

But when it comes to evaluating the startup team, gut feel and intuition tend to be the main due diligence instruments that come into play. This isn’t a great approach. Data shows us that 60% of new ventures fail due to problems with the team.

What makes a successful startup team?

One common answer is that prior startup experience, product knowledge, and industry skills predict the success of a new venture. But is prior experience sufficient for a team to work well together? In a recent study of 95 new startup teams in the Netherlands, we explored that question.

We found that experience alone was not enough to make a team thrive. While experience broadens the teams’ resource pool, helps people identify opportunities, and is positively related to team effectiveness, a team also needs soft skills to truly thrive. Specifically, our study shows that shared entrepreneurial passion and shared strategic vision are required to get to superior team performance as rated by the external venture capital investors.

Of the startups we studied, the group that reported high levels of previous experience but average to low levels of passion and collective vision demonstrated weak team performance when it came to innovation in products and services, customer satisfaction, cost control, and expected sales growth. Contrary, the group of teams that reported average levels of previous experience but high levels of passion and collective vision demonstrated significantly stronger performance.

We also found that greater team experience only leads to better performance if team members share a strategic vision for the company. Thus, when team members don’t agree on the future strategy of the firm, the knowledge and skills they have will only marginally contribute to team performance.

Stellar teams have it all: hard and soft skills

When we talk about this balance between team member experience (hard skills) and passion and vision (soft skills) there’s a sweet spot where stellar teams seem to live. If team members are super smart and experienced, but they don’t feel like sharing this knowledge due to a lack of alignment about the vision for the company, their knowledge is useless for the business. Instead, these differences in passion and vision make teams perform worse. For example, if the CTO in the startup team has a lot of experience in the cyber software industry that is useful for building the current business, but she doesn’t agree with the CEO on the future strategy of the company, she is less likely to share all her previous knowledge on cyber software within the team.

To illustrate the importance of evaluating an entrepreneurial team with this balance between hard and soft skills in mind, let’s look at the case of Emma, an investor at a venture capital firm. (The names of people and institutions in this story have been changed for anonymity.)  Emma recently told me about a potential investment in a software company in Stockholm that she was very excited about. Let’s call it Clocker. When Emma read about Clocker and received the company materials, she was thrilled to meet the team. In addition to the interesting financials, the team’s track record was outstanding.

The CEO had in depth industry knowledge, worked in the software space for years, and led the product division for Salesforce. The CFO graduated from Harvard, had worked for Bain & Company before joining Clocker and had very strong financial and strategic skills. The VP of Sales was a sales tiger who had worked as an account manager for Microsoft. Finally, the fourth team member was very hands-on, a serial entrepreneur with a successful exit on her resume and some experience with start-up failures. On paper, this team for sure seemed to have all it would take to successfully scale up Clocker and ensure a nice return on the investment.

Nevertheless, when the team members presented their pitch in the boardroom and elaborated on the Clocker growth strategy, Emma was disappointed. The story just didn’t hold. While the CEO told Emma that she wanted to expand to the U.S. and become the next Salesforce, the CTO did not seem to share this ambition. He dismissed the CEO’s ideas immediately and argued that the company would be too busy with other projects to realize global expansion this year. It became clear that the Clocker team had very different goals in mind. They were also not equally passionate about the company. The VP of Sales still ran his own sales business on the side — while the CTO was constantly on the lookout for other jobs.

When Emma talked to the CEO a few weeks later she learned that the Clocker team had broken up. Because of their different goals for the company, team members did not communicate efficiently and failed to share their knowledge, which led to bad team dynamics and weak decision-making.

While previous experience has often been cited as a key ingredient for entrepreneurial success, our results show that experience alone will not lead to success. Instead knowledge, skills, and passion are equally important for succeeding as a new venture. Experience and expertise only lead to better performance if team members share their knowledge and have a common vision for the company.

When investors evaluate startup teams they should keep in mind that a great resume alone is not enough to achieve great performance. Building a successful startup is a long and bumpy road; without entrepreneurial passion and strategic vision, a stellar resume merely becomes a piece of paper.

Go To Source

[yaoimila]

The Dark Prince Yaoi Webcomic

The Dark Prince Yaoi WEBCOMIC http://yaoimila.com

GROOM

Sexy Sweet Erotic Male/Male Romance

Race horse groom Geoff didn’t meet Zip-Dash’s billionaire owner Zach until the day they won the Derby. The gorgeous tech mogul’s vivid blue eyes couldn’t stay off Geoff, and the second they’re alone his hands have the same problem.

Geoff rebuffs him so gently that Zach’s confused. He senses his desires are reciprocated, but something holds Geoff back. Unwilling to give up, he offers him a promotion to become his personal valet. To his surprise the burly stable worker accepts.

A touching, sensual, stand-alone, story with a guaranteed HEA by the author of UnPrison!

Read it on all your computers or devices! Click your country to grab it:  Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Australia, Amazon Canada, Amazon France, Amazon Italy, Amazon Spain, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Mexico, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Japan, or Amazon India.

Excerpt ~

Geoff watched the billionaire who owned his race horse approach the winner’s circle.  With his tuxedo, elegantly styled black hair, and cat-who-ate-the-canary smile he was pretty much what Geoff expected.  Well, not exactly.  Why was he so young?  He had to be in his late 30s the same as Geoff.  He was actually good-looking too, with dark hair and grey eyes so bright they veered toward looking like novelty contacts.  

Geoff handed him Zip-Dash’s reins and moved to get out of the picture a photographer was waiting to take. The billionaire—what was his name? Jack?  No, something hipper.  Zach. Zach grabbed his large shoulder before he could make his escape.

“Hey, great work with him,” Zach said, shining artificially white teeth in a smile.

“Thank you, sir.”  He said what he felt was expected, without embellishing.  Sure, he could have mentioned it was a miracle Zip-Dash won the Derby when he was overcoming a sprain from the week prior, but guys like Zach didn’t give a shit about Geoff’s world.  The fact that he was meeting the horse’s owner for the first time after being his groom for three years was proof of that.

Zach kept his hand on his shoulder for longer than what was appropriate.  His fist gave Geoff’s shoulder three quick squeezes.  An impressed look flitted across the young billionaire’s face.

“Oo, musclely.”  He met Geoff’s eyes with a devious brow. “Rawr!”

Geoff gave a stilted laugh and pulled himself away from the shorter man.  Once out of the circle flashbulbs popped as Zach posed with his horse and trophy.

Geoff realized his heart was racing.  What the fuck was that?  Did Zach know he was gay and was teasing him?  Or was he just hit on?

No.  No way.  Guys like Zach were neck deep in bimbos twenty-four-seven.  He didn’t strike Geoff as gay, just cocky and smug.  He was probably just paying a compliment to his muscular physique by way of a harmless jibe.  

Whatever. Geoff crossed his arms.  Get your pictures, fawn over your trophy, and let me get Zip-Dash in his trailer. The poor boy probably needed a rub-down after how the jockey drove him.  It was the Derby, and to be expected, but he was the one who had to pick up the pieces.

When the last flashbulb popped Geoff returned to claim the horse from Zach.  To his surprise, the spry billionaire focused on him.

“So where’s he headed now?”

“Oh, uh, I need to get him into his trailer and take him back to the stable.”

“Nice!”  Zach’s exuberant face had a bit of a cult-leader quality.  “Can I tag along?  I’d love to see where he lives.”

Geoff grunted.  “This is just a holding stable.  Zip-Dash lives in the farm in Connecticut.”  Which you’d know if you actually gave a damn.

“Oh, right.  But I still want to have a look.  Do you mind?

Geoff felt his left eye twitching.  “That’d be fine, but you’ll need to take a look around on your own.  I have to get him out of his gear, give him a rub down, get him his supplements …”

Zach’s hand was on him again, this time rubbing the side of his arm.  “Yeah, you do a great job with him.  That’s how he was able to pull off this big win.  Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Warm tingles went through his flesh where Zach was caressing him.  What the fuck?  Could this guy legitimately be hitting on him?  Nah—he was probably just eccentric.

Someone came to congratulate Zach, giving Geoff a chance to walk Zip-Dash to the trailer lot on the far side of the track.  Cameras followed him until he was around the loop, then finally, he was away from the roaring crowds.  Zip-Dash entered the trailer obediently, as he always did.  He hooked his harness to bay inside and climbed back out.  The screeching wheels of a car caught his attention.

The Ashton Martin convertible had to belong to one of the owners.  Geoff’s brow furrowed when he saw Zach smiling at him past the dashboard. He pulled up beside his truck.

“Trying to ditch me, huh?” Zach said, with his bright white smile steadfast.

Geoff felt a thump in his stomach.  Shit! No matter how much disdain he had for these spoiled rich fucks he had to keep in line.  He could have him fired with a wave of his hand.

“No, sir.  I was—”

“Call me Zach.  Zach Hamilton.”  He extended a hand clad in an ostentatious driving glove.

He took his hand and shook. “Geoff Stancion.”

“What a grip!  You’re like a he-man or something.”

“Uh…”

“So how far’s the stable?”

Geoff took a breath to settle his nerves.  “Ten minutes. Twenty if we don’t beat the traffic out of here.”

“Well let’s go them.” Zach revved his engine.  There was a glimmer in his bright eyes that made Geoff pause.

“Right.  You’ll follow?”

He realized Zach’s focus had drifted to the six-pack of abs protruding from his tight uniform.  “You got it.”

Geoff made himself walk fast to the driver’s seat.  The ride gave him a chance to think again, and where his mind went to pissed him off. This guy was an over-entitled prick. If he was hitting on him it was probably because he figured he’d get a nice blow-job from a gay guy.  The Zach Hamilton’s of the world were used to walking all over his kind.  His politics were probably the usual, ‘fuck social programs so I can get a tax break’ bullshit.  It made him bristle in his seat to think of it.  

For three years he’d treated Zach’s horse better than a lot of parents treat their kids.  Not once did he ever see the guy whose signature stamp was on his pay checks. How’d he even get so rich at that age?  Probably the new generation of old money.  

Geoff had a job to do, one he took seriously.  He wasn’t any rich boy’s plaything.

The stable was filled with other Derby competitors.  Geoff struggled to park with enough room to get Zip-Dash off the trailer.  Zach parked in the visitor parking, which surprised Geoff.  He figured he wouldn’t care if his car took up a space another groom needed.

By the time he got Zip-Dash out of the trailer the smiling man was beside him again.

“Nice place.  Very green.”

Geoff led Zip-Dash toward the corrals.  “Go ahead and look around.  There’s so many people here I doubt anyone will notice you.”

“I’ll stick with you.”

Oh for fuck’s sake.

He got to stall 16 and saw it filled with someone else’s horse.  “Damn it.  I reserved this stall.”

Zach tsked.  “How inconsiderate.”

He continued down and around the stable.  A tenant stall was open, but filled with six inches of manure.  There was nothing else free.  

Geoff groaned and tied Zip-Dash to a rail.  “I have to muck this.  You probably just want to get out of here.  I’m sure the stink isn’t what you’re used to.”

“Are you kidding?  This is like a grown-up field trip.”

Geoff ignored him and grabbed a wheelbarrow with a shovel.

“I’ll go have a look around.”

He put his first shovel-full in the barrow.  “You do that.”

With the pest gone, Geoff focused on his work.  It’s not that he minded hard work, but this wasn’t his job.  The Derby was always a clusterfuck, and his only assistant had been deported.

Ten minutes into it he took off his shirt.  There was more manure layered below the fresh stuff.  It made him sick to think someone had a horse in there.  Tenants were usually responsible for mucking their own stalls and naturally didn’t.  Why have an animal as magnificent as a horse if you weren’t going to take care of it?

After half an hour of clearing the dirt floor, he felt someone was watching him.  He glanced back to see Zach absorbing his sweat-sheened muscular back with glistening eyes. The billionaire wasn’t smiling now.  His lips were parted and his beautifully sculpted face was flushed.

Geoff dumped his last shovel-full into the barrow.  “You had a look around?”

“Yeah.  The view’s much better here, though.”

Geoff’s brows pulled in. “I don’t know how to take you.”

He smiled and slunk his warm body against Geoff’s bare torso.   His brow rose.

“How about you just take me?” He dove in for a sudden kiss.

Zach’s body was a pile of hard muscle against him.  His mouth was hot, seeking a deep kiss from the start.  Slender arms coiled around Geoff’s shoulders, brushing the sensitive places of his neck.  Geoff hovered an arm over his back with an urge to crush the smaller man against him. Entitled prick or not, he was sexy package of man.

Geoff forced his mouth to break away.  The severing of their electric chemistry made his chest ache.

“You need to cut the shit,” he said, ignoring how his cock fought against the seam of his pants. “Something like this might be called sexual harassment.”

Zach backed away from him. “If that’s how you see it then I apologize.”

“I don’t know what I see right now.”

Zach eyed his gleaming pectoral.  “I know what I see.”

“There you go again.”

He wet his lips. “Look, Joe Harker told me you were gay, and you’re absolutely luscious.  I thought we might be able to have some fun.  If you’re not into it, no problem.  I’ll get out of your hair.”

His frankness disarmed Geoff. “No, it’s fine.  Another time, another place…”  Another person.  “And maybe we could hook up.  Right now, though, I have a horse to get settled and a thirteen hour drive to prepare for tomorrow.”  

Zach’s smile returned. “Right.  Wishful thinking.  Looking at you, I just couldn’t resist.”

Geoff returned a tepid smile. “Don’t worry about it.”  

He untied Zip-Dash from the rail and brought him into the stall.  Zach lingered by the door.

“What do you plan on doing now that Zip-Dash is headed off to the stud farm?”

Geoff froze.  He looked back at him with his eyes bulged.  Zach reflected his shock.

“Oh, shit.  Joe didn’t tell you?”

“What are you talking about? Zip’s got another year worth of races left in him.”

Zach undid his collar button. “Well sure, but he just won the Derby.  What’s the point?”

Geoff turned up a hand. “The purses.”

Zach made an uncomfortable smile.  “I don’t need the purses.  I was after the trophy.  Now that I’ve got it I’m done with horse racing.”

Geoff put his forehead in his hand.  “Jesus.”

“I can’t believe Joe didn’t tell you.  I told him if Zip-Dash wins we’re done.”

“No one thought Zip was going to win this thing.  He was 50 to 1.  He had a sprain.”  Of course Joe didn’t tell him.  His boss didn’t want to jinx things.

“You have other horses, right?”

Geoff spun on him. “No.  I had other horses, but then the big-shot who owned Zip-Dash pulled me off them saying he wanted a groom who was solely dedicated to his horse.”

Zach looked away.  “Oh, right.”

He began to undo Zip’s bridle.  His mind raced.  What would he do after this paycheck?  How the hell would he make the rent?

“If you don’t have anything else going on, you could always work for me.”

Geoff eyed him.  “Doing what?”

His bright smile returned. “Be my groom.”

Geoff fumed while bundling Zip-Dash’s gear.

“What I mean is, you could be my personal valet.”

“What you mean is I could be your fuck-toy.”

Zach gave an askew grin. “Your words.”

“Not interested.”  He opened a canister of oil and began to rub it into Zip’s haunch.  “People aren’t commodities you can buy and sell.”

“No, seriously, I actually do need a valet—particularly someone who might be able to protect me if I’m accosted.  I’m sure the pay would be quadruple what you make as a—”

“I’m not interested!”

Zach’s lips parted. Geoff watched him from the corner of his eye while working the oil into the horse.  He’d probably never been denied something he wanted before.  Geoff couldn’t help but feel satisfied.

He turned.  “I’ll leave you to you work.”  The slender man disappeared from Geoff’s view.

Now he had a pang of regret. The man’s voice was etched with humbled grief.  What did he expect though?  

Geoff wasn’t anyone’s whore.  

Read it on all your computers or devices! Click your country to grab it:  Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Australia, Amazon Canada, Amazon France, Amazon Italy, Amazon Spain, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Mexico, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Japan, or Amazon India.

[amyddaniels]

Olympian Tianna Bartoletta is Ready to Defend her World Title

The three-time Olympic gold medalist's dreams for the 2020 games were derailed by injury, illness, and the global pandemic. Today, she's taking it all in stride, thanks to her yoga practice.

On a sunny Friday afternoon during the last weekend in February, before stay-at-home orders and facemasks and furloughs, I watched three-time gold medalist Tianna Bartoletta practice the long jump at UC Berkeley’s Edwards Stadium. The YTT-200’s focus was as sharp as the spikes on her shoes as she sprinted down the track and sprung into the air, seemingly weightless, before softly making contact with the sandpit. The key, she told me, is accelerating into the takeoff instead of slowing down to jump. “You gotta be crazy,” she says. “You gotta feel the fear and do it anyway.”

It’s a sentiment Bartoletta, who took home two gold medals from Rio in 2016 (long jump and 4x100-meter relay), has experienced before, particularly during the lows that have punctuated her successful 15-year track and field career. She won her first world championship in the long jump in 2005, the summer after her sophomore year in college, but didn’t earn her second until a decade later.

The latest example of Bartoletta’s fear-be-damned mentality was starting to train for this past June’s Olympic trials in February—by her own account, five months too late. An ankle injury and emergency surgery derailed her 2019 season and kept her off the track until the week before we met. She was only just easing back into her limited training schedule of sprinting, jumping, and weight-training sessions three to four times per week.

At 35, Bartoletta knows this will most likely be her last Olympics, and as the reigning champion, she feels immense pressure to defend her title. But that stress won’t deter “the USA’s Sprint and Long Jump Comeback Kid.” Her yoga practice, a tool that keeps her sane and grounded during intense phases of uncertainty, is an advantage she has over her competitors. “Going to the Olympic trials is like going to the Hunger Games,” she told me. “This is my fourth time entering that arena, and there is a lot of dread. But the mat is where I generate a lot of the momentum and energy I need to bring to go out and win medals.”

See Also Snowboarder Kevin Pearce Turns Brain Injury Into Life of Service

Girls Rule the World

Bartoletta's capacity for hard work and intense competition are traits she says she and her two sisters inherited from their parents. “My mom made sure that we understood that as females, we had to work twice as hard as our male counterparts,” she says. “And then as black females, we had to probably work double that just to get a foot in the door.” Bartoletta has been involved with sports since she was 12, but she didn’t get serious about track until her junior year of high school, when her dad told her that she’d need to get a scholarship in order to attend college. She dropped volleyball and basketball to focus on her best sport—track—and earned a scholarship to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Her freshman year, however, any signs of greatness she’d shown in high school were replaced by mental blocks that trumped her physical performance. That spring, when Bartoletta attended the national championships, she was a mess. “I got my butt whooped. I was scared. I was intimidated. I punked out of being awesome,” she says. “And my coaches were really upset because I didn’t score any points.” A few weeks later, at another meet, a coach from the men’s team approached her. “He told me, ‘Tianna, you have to commit to that first step. Once you initiate the jump, that’s it. It’s kamikaze out here—you have to understand that once you’re up there, there’s no coming back.’” Something inside her clicked, and when she jumped that day, she cleared 6.60 meters, a distance that would have won nationals two weeks prior.

“Everything they were telling me I was capable of, I totally was capable of, but I hadn’t gotten there mentally yet,” Bartoletta says.

That same year, she went to the Olympic trials for the first time. Although she took eighth place (only the top three get to compete in the Games), the experience of competing alongside her track and field heroes lit a fire inside the then-18-year-old. She fully committed to the sport. The following year she won the world championship in the long jump and, a few months later, signed a pro contract with Nike.

See also A Meditation for Finding Inner Balance

Finding Yoga

Two years after her first world championships win, Bartoletta was having trouble sleeping, and someone suggested she try Yin Yoga. “It was like a gateway drug,” she says. Next came Yoga Nidra and meditation. “Really good yoga teachers do what I call dharma drips. They teach you the philosophy when you’re not looking,” she says. “Now I use yoga for everything—to wake up, to sleep, to show up for training.” In 2018, Bartoletta embarked on her 200-hour yoga teacher training at Love Story Yoga in San Francisco. “I just wanted to learn as much about the practice as I could,” she says.

Practice Bartoletta's sequence for staying grounded. 

Behind the Scenes with Cover Model Tianna Bartoletta (; 0:27)

In hindsight, the timing couldn’t have been better. In July 2019, while Bartoletta was in training at Papendal, the Olympic Training Center in the Netherlands, her health took a turn. She experienced dizziness and was physically and emotionally exhausted. Part of her believed it was just a natural consequence of pushing herself as an elite athlete. That is, until she got an alarming set of emails from a doctor associated with both the World Anti-Doping Agency and World Athletics, which oversees Olympic track and field hopefuls. They’d discovered something abnormal in her blood work: She was severely anemic. Elite athletes should have a level of ferritin (a blood protein that contains iron) around 40; hers was 5. “They were like, ‘Go to the doctor right now. These levels are bad,’” Bartoletta recalls. But she didn’t listen. Instead, in July she flew to Iowa where she took last place at US nationals. Six weeks went by before Bartoletta finally saw a doctor in Colorado, who misdiagnosed the cause of her anemia as heavy menstruation and put her on iron infusions. By December, Bartoletta couldn’t get through her regular training sessions: “I felt like I was dying,” she says. “My heartbeat was erratic, and sleeping was like going into a coma—it was hard to wake me.” Frustrated and exhausted, she demanded to be seen by a gynecologist at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center. That doctor discovered she had a noncancerous fibroid tumor in her uterus that was causing severe blood loss and anemia. If left untreated, her doctors said, she was weeks away from organ failure and one intense training session away from an actual coma. Bartoletta had emergency surgery that night and a blood transfusion two months later.

It was a devastating blow to her shot at another Olympic gold. “In a normal year, the work you do from October through March is the work,” says Bartoletta. “Only fine-tuning and polishing can happen during the competition season.” But for six weeks following surgery, she wasn’t allowed to train. “I just cried and cried,” she told me in February. “I wanted to be able to put up a damn fight to defend my title. Now it feels more like I’m Miss America, and I know I have to give my crown to someone else at the end of the year rather than fight to keep it.” But lessons she’d learned through yoga helped her stay grounded and accept the discomfort of her reality. Every day, she practiced pranayama and some form of gratitude, and meditated on the mantra “Everything is as it should be.”

“The Bhagavad Gita is like, ‘Look, kid, you’re not even entitled to the fruits of your labor, so keep showing up and keep doing work,’” she says. “That kept me going.”

See Also Find Calm and Boost Your Immunity with These 9 Yogic Breathing Exercises

Grace Under Pressure

In early spring, Olympic uncertainty was escalating with the rise of the covid-19 crisis. By mid-March, training facilities globally were closing and drug testing had ceased, but no announcement had been made in regard to the Games—even the athletes were left in the dark.

Finally, on the morning of March 23, Bartoletta was scrolling through her social media feeds when she saw the headline: The Olympics were postponed until 2021. Many athletes, including Bartoletta, expressed understanding at the unprecedented move, but also heartbreak.

Ever the Comeback Kid, Bartoletta chooses to view the delay as an opportunity to embrace the present. The postponement, she says, is a chance to strengthen her body, to make up for the time she lost to injury and illness: “I wasn’t interested in my Olympic title going to someone else because of things I couldn’t control. It’s just not the way I wanted to go.”

See Also 2018 Olympic Hopefuls Share the Yoga That's Helping Them Get to the Games

“People will never fully grasp the level of perseverance it takes to do what she does at the level she does it,” says Bartoletta’s coach Charles Ryan, who’s also her housemate. “It would be unimaginable if everything was right in her life, and for her to accomplish what she has in the face of years and years of difficult traumas and setbacks—she is the strongest person I know.”

Today Bartoletta is not only cherishing the extra training time but also her body and all that it’s been through. “There’s a moment in yoga class when we rest in Savasana with our right hands on our hearts and our left hands on our bellies, and we say, ‘I’m grateful for this body.’ This body of mine had done so much for me, but it wasn’t until this moment that I appreciated it enough,” Bartoletta says. “I wasn’t in awe of it enough. Every body is a work of miracles and magic and science, and it’s perfect in whatever form it manifests itself, and that is what I have learned this year.” And she’s going to use these lessons she’s learned to be at the top of her game for the next Olympics whenever they may be.

Practice Bartoletta's sequence for finding energy. 

[krisiunicornio]

The three-time Olympic gold medalist's dreams for the 2020 games were derailed by injury, illness, and the global pandemic. Today, she's taking it all in stride, thanks to her yoga practice.

On a sunny Friday afternoon during the last weekend in February, before stay-at-home orders and facemasks and furloughs, I watched three-time gold medalist Tianna Bartoletta practice the long jump at UC Berkeley’s Edwards Stadium. The YTT-200’s focus was as sharp as the spikes on her shoes as she sprinted down the track and sprung into the air, seemingly weightless, before softly making contact with the sandpit. The key, she told me, is accelerating into the takeoff instead of slowing down to jump. “You gotta be crazy,” she says. “You gotta feel the fear and do it anyway.”

It’s a sentiment Bartoletta, who took home two gold medals from Rio in 2016 (long jump and 4x100-meter relay), has experienced before, particularly during the lows that have punctuated her successful 15-year track and field career. She won her first world championship in the long jump in 2005, the summer after her sophomore year in college, but didn’t earn her second until a decade later.

The latest example of Bartoletta’s fear-be-damned mentality was starting to train for this past June’s Olympic trials in February—by her own account, five months too late. An ankle injury and emergency surgery derailed her 2019 season and kept her off the track until the week before we met. She was only just easing back into her limited training schedule of sprinting, jumping, and weight-training sessions three to four times per week.

At 35, Bartoletta knows this will most likely be her last Olympics, and as the reigning champion, she feels immense pressure to defend her title. But that stress won’t deter “the USA’s Sprint and Long Jump Comeback Kid.” Her yoga practice, a tool that keeps her sane and grounded during intense phases of uncertainty, is an advantage she has over her competitors. “Going to the Olympic trials is like going to the Hunger Games,” she told me. “This is my fourth time entering that arena, and there is a lot of dread. But the mat is where I generate a lot of the momentum and energy I need to bring to go out and win medals.”

See Also Snowboarder Kevin Pearce Turns Brain Injury Into Life of Service

Girls Rule the World

Bartoletta's capacity for hard work and intense competition are traits she says she and her two sisters inherited from their parents. “My mom made sure that we understood that as females, we had to work twice as hard as our male counterparts,” she says. “And then as black females, we had to probably work double that just to get a foot in the door.” Bartoletta has been involved with sports since she was 12, but she didn’t get serious about track until her junior year of high school, when her dad told her that she’d need to get a scholarship in order to attend college. She dropped volleyball and basketball to focus on her best sport—track—and earned a scholarship to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Her freshman year, however, any signs of greatness she’d shown in high school were replaced by mental blocks that trumped her physical performance. That spring, when Bartoletta attended the national championships, she was a mess. “I got my butt whooped. I was scared. I was intimidated. I punked out of being awesome,” she says. “And my coaches were really upset because I didn’t score any points.” A few weeks later, at another meet, a coach from the men’s team approached her. “He told me, ‘Tianna, you have to commit to that first step. Once you initiate the jump, that’s it. It’s kamikaze out here—you have to understand that once you’re up there, there’s no coming back.’” Something inside her clicked, and when she jumped that day, she cleared 6.60 meters, a distance that would have won nationals two weeks prior.

“Everything they were telling me I was capable of, I totally was capable of, but I hadn’t gotten there mentally yet,” Bartoletta says.

That same year, she went to the Olympic trials for the first time. Although she took eighth place (only the top three get to compete in the Games), the experience of competing alongside her track and field heroes lit a fire inside the then-18-year-old. She fully committed to the sport. The following year she won the world championship in the long jump and, a few months later, signed a pro contract with Nike.

See also A Meditation for Finding Inner Balance

Finding Yoga

Two years after her first world championships win, Bartoletta was having trouble sleeping, and someone suggested she try Yin Yoga. “It was like a gateway drug,” she says. Next came Yoga Nidra and meditation. “Really good yoga teachers do what I call dharma drips. They teach you the philosophy when you’re not looking,” she says. “Now I use yoga for everything—to wake up, to sleep, to show up for training.” In 2018, Bartoletta embarked on her 200-hour yoga teacher training at Love Story Yoga in San Francisco. “I just wanted to learn as much about the practice as I could,” she says.

Practice Bartoletta's sequence for staying grounded. 

Behind the Scenes with Cover Model Tianna Bartoletta (; 0:27)

In hindsight, the timing couldn’t have been better. In July 2019, while Bartoletta was in training at Papendal, the Olympic Training Center in the Netherlands, her health took a turn. She experienced dizziness and was physically and emotionally exhausted. Part of her believed it was just a natural consequence of pushing herself as an elite athlete. That is, until she got an alarming set of emails from a doctor associated with both the World Anti-Doping Agency and World Athletics, which oversees Olympic track and field hopefuls. They’d discovered something abnormal in her blood work: She was severely anemic. Elite athletes should have a level of ferritin (a blood protein that contains iron) around 40; hers was 5. “They were like, ‘Go to the doctor right now. These levels are bad,’” Bartoletta recalls. But she didn’t listen. Instead, in July she flew to Iowa where she took last place at US nationals. Six weeks went by before Bartoletta finally saw a doctor in Colorado, who misdiagnosed the cause of her anemia as heavy menstruation and put her on iron infusions. By December, Bartoletta couldn’t get through her regular training sessions: “I felt like I was dying,” she says. “My heartbeat was erratic, and sleeping was like going into a coma—it was hard to wake me.” Frustrated and exhausted, she demanded to be seen by a gynecologist at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center. That doctor discovered she had a noncancerous fibroid tumor in her uterus that was causing severe blood loss and anemia. If left untreated, her doctors said, she was weeks away from organ failure and one intense training session away from an actual coma. Bartoletta had emergency surgery that night and a blood transfusion two months later.

It was a devastating blow to her shot at another Olympic gold. “In a normal year, the work you do from October through March is the work,” says Bartoletta. “Only fine-tuning and polishing can happen during the competition season.” But for six weeks following surgery, she wasn’t allowed to train. “I just cried and cried,” she told me in February. “I wanted to be able to put up a damn fight to defend my title. Now it feels more like I’m Miss America, and I know I have to give my crown to someone else at the end of the year rather than fight to keep it.” But lessons she’d learned through yoga helped her stay grounded and accept the discomfort of her reality. Every day, she practiced pranayama and some form of gratitude, and meditated on the mantra “Everything is as it should be.”

“The Bhagavad Gita is like, ‘Look, kid, you’re not even entitled to the fruits of your labor, so keep showing up and keep doing work,’” she says. “That kept me going.”

See Also Find Calm and Boost Your Immunity with These 9 Yogic Breathing Exercises

Grace Under Pressure

In early spring, Olympic uncertainty was escalating with the rise of the covid-19 crisis. By mid-March, training facilities globally were closing and drug testing had ceased, but no announcement had been made in regard to the Games—even the athletes were left in the dark.

Finally, on the morning of March 23, Bartoletta was scrolling through her social media feeds when she saw the headline: The Olympics were postponed until 2021. Many athletes, including Bartoletta, expressed understanding at the unprecedented move, but also heartbreak.

Ever the Comeback Kid, Bartoletta chooses to view the delay as an opportunity to embrace the present. The postponement, she says, is a chance to strengthen her body, to make up for the time she lost to injury and illness: “I wasn’t interested in my Olympic title going to someone else because of things I couldn’t control. It’s just not the way I wanted to go.”

See Also 2018 Olympic Hopefuls Share the Yoga That's Helping Them Get to the Games

“People will never fully grasp the level of perseverance it takes to do what she does at the level she does it,” says Bartoletta’s coach Charles Ryan, who’s also her housemate. “It would be unimaginable if everything was right in her life, and for her to accomplish what she has in the face of years and years of difficult traumas and setbacks—she is the strongest person I know.”

Today Bartoletta is not only cherishing the extra training time but also her body and all that it’s been through. “There’s a moment in yoga class when we rest in Savasana with our right hands on our hearts and our left hands on our bellies, and we say, ‘I’m grateful for this body.’ This body of mine had done so much for me, but it wasn’t until this moment that I appreciated it enough,” Bartoletta says. “I wasn’t in awe of it enough. Every body is a work of miracles and magic and science, and it’s perfect in whatever form it manifests itself, and that is what I have learned this year.” And she’s going to use these lessons she’s learned to be at the top of her game for the next Olympics whenever they may be.

Practice Bartoletta's sequence for finding energy. 

[cedarrrun]

The three-time Olympic gold medalist's dreams for the 2020 games were derailed by injury, illness, and the global pandemic. Today, she's taking it all in stride, thanks to her yoga practice.

On a sunny Friday afternoon during the last weekend in February, before stay-at-home orders and facemasks and furloughs, I watched three-time gold medalist Tianna Bartoletta practice the long jump at UC Berkeley’s Edwards Stadium. The YTT-200’s focus was as sharp as the spikes on her shoes as she sprinted down the track and sprung into the air, seemingly weightless, before softly making contact with the sandpit. The key, she told me, is accelerating into the takeoff instead of slowing down to jump. “You gotta be crazy,” she says. “You gotta feel the fear and do it anyway.”

It’s a sentiment Bartoletta, who took home two gold medals from Rio in 2016 (long jump and 4x100-meter relay), has experienced before, particularly during the lows that have punctuated her successful 15-year track and field career. She won her first world championship in the long jump in 2005, the summer after her sophomore year in college, but didn’t earn her second until a decade later.

The latest example of Bartoletta’s fear-be-damned mentality was starting to train for this past June’s Olympic trials in February—by her own account, five months too late. An ankle injury and emergency surgery derailed her 2019 season and kept her off the track until the week before we met. She was only just easing back into her limited training schedule of sprinting, jumping, and weight-training sessions three to four times per week.

At 35, Bartoletta knows this will most likely be her last Olympics, and as the reigning champion, she feels immense pressure to defend her title. But that stress won’t deter “the USA’s Sprint and Long Jump Comeback Kid.” Her yoga practice, a tool that keeps her sane and grounded during intense phases of uncertainty, is an advantage she has over her competitors. “Going to the Olympic trials is like going to the Hunger Games,” she told me. “This is my fourth time entering that arena, and there is a lot of dread. But the mat is where I generate a lot of the momentum and energy I need to bring to go out and win medals.”

See Also Snowboarder Kevin Pearce Turns Brain Injury Into Life of Service

Girls Rule the World

Bartoletta's capacity for hard work and intense competition are traits she says she and her two sisters inherited from their parents. “My mom made sure that we understood that as females, we had to work twice as hard as our male counterparts,” she says. “And then as black females, we had to probably work double that just to get a foot in the door.” Bartoletta has been involved with sports since she was 12, but she didn’t get serious about track until her junior year of high school, when her dad told her that she’d need to get a scholarship in order to attend college. She dropped volleyball and basketball to focus on her best sport—track—and earned a scholarship to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Her freshman year, however, any signs of greatness she’d shown in high school were replaced by mental blocks that trumped her physical performance. That spring, when Bartoletta attended the national championships, she was a mess. “I got my butt whooped. I was scared. I was intimidated. I punked out of being awesome,” she says. “And my coaches were really upset because I didn’t score any points.” A few weeks later, at another meet, a coach from the men’s team approached her. “He told me, ‘Tianna, you have to commit to that first step. Once you initiate the jump, that’s it. It’s kamikaze out here—you have to understand that once you’re up there, there’s no coming back.’” Something inside her clicked, and when she jumped that day, she cleared 6.60 meters, a distance that would have won nationals two weeks prior.

“Everything they were telling me I was capable of, I totally was capable of, but I hadn’t gotten there mentally yet,” Bartoletta says.

That same year, she went to the Olympic trials for the first time. Although she took eighth place (only the top three get to compete in the Games), the experience of competing alongside her track and field heroes lit a fire inside the then-18-year-old. She fully committed to the sport. The following year she won the world championship in the long jump and, a few months later, signed a pro contract with Nike.

See also A Meditation for Finding Inner Balance

Finding Yoga

Two years after her first world championships win, Bartoletta was having trouble sleeping, and someone suggested she try Yin Yoga. “It was like a gateway drug,” she says. Next came Yoga Nidra and meditation. “Really good yoga teachers do what I call dharma drips. They teach you the philosophy when you’re not looking,” she says. “Now I use yoga for everything—to wake up, to sleep, to show up for training.” In 2018, Bartoletta embarked on her 200-hour yoga teacher training at Love Story Yoga in San Francisco. “I just wanted to learn as much about the practice as I could,” she says.

Practice Bartoletta's sequence for staying grounded. 

Behind the Scenes with Cover Model Tianna Bartoletta (; 0:27)

In hindsight, the timing couldn’t have been better. In July 2019, while Bartoletta was in training at Papendal, the Olympic Training Center in the Netherlands, her health took a turn. She experienced dizziness and was physically and emotionally exhausted. Part of her believed it was just a natural consequence of pushing herself as an elite athlete. That is, until she got an alarming set of emails from a doctor associated with both the World Anti-Doping Agency and World Athletics, which oversees Olympic track and field hopefuls. They’d discovered something abnormal in her blood work: She was severely anemic. Elite athletes should have a level of ferritin (a blood protein that contains iron) around 40; hers was 5. “They were like, ‘Go to the doctor right now. These levels are bad,’” Bartoletta recalls. But she didn’t listen. Instead, in July she flew to Iowa where she took last place at US nationals. Six weeks went by before Bartoletta finally saw a doctor in Colorado, who misdiagnosed the cause of her anemia as heavy menstruation and put her on iron infusions. By December, Bartoletta couldn’t get through her regular training sessions: “I felt like I was dying,” she says. “My heartbeat was erratic, and sleeping was like going into a coma—it was hard to wake me.” Frustrated and exhausted, she demanded to be seen by a gynecologist at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center. That doctor discovered she had a noncancerous fibroid tumor in her uterus that was causing severe blood loss and anemia. If left untreated, her doctors said, she was weeks away from organ failure and one intense training session away from an actual coma. Bartoletta had emergency surgery that night and a blood transfusion two months later.

It was a devastating blow to her shot at another Olympic gold. “In a normal year, the work you do from October through March is the work,” says Bartoletta. “Only fine-tuning and polishing can happen during the competition season.” But for six weeks following surgery, she wasn’t allowed to train. “I just cried and cried,” she told me in February. “I wanted to be able to put up a damn fight to defend my title. Now it feels more like I’m Miss America, and I know I have to give my crown to someone else at the end of the year rather than fight to keep it.” But lessons she’d learned through yoga helped her stay grounded and accept the discomfort of her reality. Every day, she practiced pranayama and some form of gratitude, and meditated on the mantra “Everything is as it should be.”

“The Bhagavad Gita is like, ‘Look, kid, you’re not even entitled to the fruits of your labor, so keep showing up and keep doing work,’” she says. “That kept me going.”

See Also Find Calm and Boost Your Immunity with These 9 Yogic Breathing Exercises

Grace Under Pressure

In early spring, Olympic uncertainty was escalating with the rise of the covid-19 crisis. By mid-March, training facilities globally were closing and drug testing had ceased, but no announcement had been made in regard to the Games—even the athletes were left in the dark.

Finally, on the morning of March 23, Bartoletta was scrolling through her social media feeds when she saw the headline: The Olympics were postponed until 2021. Many athletes, including Bartoletta, expressed understanding at the unprecedented move, but also heartbreak.

Ever the Comeback Kid, Bartoletta chooses to view the delay as an opportunity to embrace the present. The postponement, she says, is a chance to strengthen her body, to make up for the time she lost to injury and illness: “I wasn’t interested in my Olympic title going to someone else because of things I couldn’t control. It’s just not the way I wanted to go.”

See Also 2018 Olympic Hopefuls Share the Yoga That's Helping Them Get to the Games

“People will never fully grasp the level of perseverance it takes to do what she does at the level she does it,” says Bartoletta’s coach Charles Ryan, who’s also her housemate. “It would be unimaginable if everything was right in her life, and for her to accomplish what she has in the face of years and years of difficult traumas and setbacks—she is the strongest person I know.”

Today Bartoletta is not only cherishing the extra training time but also her body and all that it’s been through. “There’s a moment in yoga class when we rest in Savasana with our right hands on our hearts and our left hands on our bellies, and we say, ‘I’m grateful for this body.’ This body of mine had done so much for me, but it wasn’t until this moment that I appreciated it enough,” Bartoletta says. “I wasn’t in awe of it enough. Every body is a work of miracles and magic and science, and it’s perfect in whatever form it manifests itself, and that is what I have learned this year.” And she’s going to use these lessons she’s learned to be at the top of her game for the next Olympics whenever they may be.

Practice Bartoletta's sequence for finding energy. 

[mekhigreene]

Reasons to Study Abroad: Why Travel Is Important

Hoxton Square in North East London

Before I get into why I think it’s important for students to travel abroad, I want to share my experience studying photography at The University of Westminster in England (July of 2019). 

Without a doubt, my trip changed who I am in all areas of life and it’s been responsible for a large amount of my growth within the past year. I want to thank The Rowan University Education Abroad Office for all the amazing resources and for making my experience trouble-free. 

Their staff wholeheartedly cares for every student and they go above and beyond when they really don’t need to. 

My Travel Abroad Experience

At the end of 2018, I was mid-way through my junior year of college and I wasn’t in the best of places in my personal life. I felt like time was passing me by and I was letting it. 

This was a feeling that went on for months and it came to a point where I wanted to rid myself of this invisible weight. 

I wanted to learn more about myself as a person so I decided to seek out new experiences and change things up. 

Around this time I made the decision to study abroad on a whim. Originally It was just a thought but the more research I did I realized that it would be an opportunity I shouldn’t pass up.

The intention to study abroad was influenced by several reasons. I felt trapped in my everyday environment, I was too comfortable, I needed to challenge myself to grow, and lastly, I’ve always wanted to travel. 

Before it became official I attempted to talk myself out of going. I didn’t know what country to visit and outside of traveling with my family I never traveled alone. 

Once the nerves settled I came to my senses and determined that I would study abroad in London, England. 

I figured that this would be the best destination for me because the most common language in the United Kingdom is English and that is the only language I currently speak. 

I wanted to be able to take myself outside of my comfort zone while not completely dissociating from my environment because I was in a country where I didn’t speak the language. 

To make a long story short my trip lasted the majority of July and I regret that I ever had second thoughts about not going. During my stay in London, I met other students from across the U.S. through isa study abroad (Study abroad organization) and even other students from around the world. 

I traveled around various parts of the city with total strangers and turned those relationships into friendships that I’ll treasure for life.

Shout out to Khem, Sierra, Muhsin, Danny, Ali, Blake, and everyone else I got the chance to meet. 

Eventually, I was comfortable enough to travel outside of London by myself and I met doctor and YouTuber Ali Abdaal when I went to Cambridge, England. A few days prior I reached out to him about coming onto my podcast and he agreed to come on. 

(Here is the episode we recorded together. This was an episode I recorded early on so I was a bit nervous) 

Ali gave me a ton of useful advice during our conversation and I couldn’t be any more appreciative of his generosity. Go check him out on YouTube, he’s a fantastic creator. 

Nearing the end of my time abroad I spontaneously took a last-minute trip to The Netherlands for 2 days. A few months prior I would have never expected to find myself here but the timing was right. 

I’m content with how I spent my time although I wish I took advantage of visiting a few other countries in Europe. Perhaps those trips are meant for future dates.

I know it sounds dramatic but just by following through on what at the time seemed like a farfetched idea, I created memories that I can hold onto forever. 

With my story aside I think this would be a perfect time to pivot into why more students should prioritize going abroad. 

Reasons To Travel

This list could be endless but for starters…

– It gives you the chance to travel – You experience a new culture and environment – Personal development – It could open career opportunities – You can develop new relationships – Looks great on a resume

My personal favorite is the academic benefits of studying abroad. Most universities offer you college credit which counts towards graduation. Reach out to your school’s education abroad office and seek out more information on this.

They’ll be able to walk you through the entire process and help you learn about available programs and study abroad organizations.

It’s almost like taking an extended field trip to another country. 

Oh, wait… It is! 

By now you probably get the idea. There are many reasons to travel while in college but I believe that your reasons should be specific to you. 

If it’s something you have thought about in the past but you’ve struggled to make that decision you should try to identify why that might be. If you’ve given it thought at one point it could be safe to suspect you have an interest. 

Layout what your concerns are and measure them against what makes a trip seem appealing. I’m no expert in giving advice but this is what I did to figure out if I wanted to go to England. 

Of course, there are more moving parts that go into making the decision such as finances, your schedule, family situations and more. Assuming things line up after analyzing your situation it comes down to where you want to visit. 

“Where Should I Travel?” 

With this topic, I can share my opinion but unfortunately, this is for you to decide. I know what I like but everyone gets different enjoyment out of life.

For example, maybe you like a slow and calm environment where life isn’t as hectic. Or maybe you want a fast-paced urban environment where there is an emerging creative scene. 

Whatever it is that you have an interest in, visiting a country that can enhance your knowledge, skills, or apply to your major more often than not will have a positive return on investment.

Wrapping Up

At the end of the day if you think traveling isn’t for you, don’t force it. As much as I believe that education abroad is a life-changing experience, I also understand that it isn’t for everyone.

I would like to say that in my own experience the benefits far outweigh the negatives, but you be the judge. 

That brings me to the end of this post. If you enjoyed it or got any value out of it, reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram at @greenemekhi and let me know! 

Also, if you’re a college student and you have questions about studying abroad I would love to help you out and share some resources with you. 

Anyway, I’ll catch you next week! 

Things I talked about in this post 

– Rowan Study Abroad – University of Westminster – Ali’s YouTube Channel – My Podcast

Follow My Friends!

@blakemhaynes, @khemistry121, @aguerrra, @muhsinyc, @just_waite_for_it, @dannymetz0

The post Reasons to Study Abroad: Why Travel Is Important appeared first on Mekhi Greene.

[londonlanded]

Week 52

Yeah, a whole year. It’s been a riot of one. The absolute best of my life. 

As you can imagine, the week prior had taken a little more out of me than was probably there to take, so this week was a bit lower-key, but I wound up spending a good chunk of it with my pals from Park Lane. Before my evening socializing, I realized during my lunch break that I can actually go into the church I’ve been sitting outside of for the past 4 months. Turns out it’s much more peaceful to sit inside than it is to be pestered by people and pigeons alike in the yard I’m used to. Nice change of pace. Yeah, it’s not my space, but it’s a place of reflection that I have a feeling is open to anyone with thoughts in their head and a journal in their hands. 

This is Nicolo, he's about the width of the straw in his frappuccino, and he actually prefers to swap the coffee out for cream because he prefers the taste. My other friend Jack is of similar dimensions and decided to throw in a brownie while he was at it. If someone has any insight into how the male metabolism works, please let me know. Being 6ft tall probably does help.

Tuesday, dinner with Penny at Petit Bretagne, the creperie near me that I'd visited with my colleagues a few months ago, the same one that Bertrand had recommended since it had products from his region. Changed it up a bit, Penny had dinner at the airport (where she was headed back from), and I'd missed mine, she wound up with some white chocolate and banana concoction, I wound up with goats cheese, walnuts, arugula and honey. Very happy with my choices.

Thursday, my colleagues and I were greeted with a very pleasant surprise from one of our partner vendors, my colleague had had a bit of a kerfuffle with Crosstown Doughnuts over some mix-ups, and so as an apology, we received a dozen assorted doughnuts to our office that morning, the very same brand that received some crazy ranking by Buzzfeed as a #1 must try before you die treat. They’ve got some pretty cool flavours, I think I get it. 

They also threw in a box of custom Four Seasons dough balls so that we could see what was meant to have been delivered to our clients earlier that week. Nothing gluten-free sadly, but damn were they pretty.

I actually got to go on a little field trip on Thursday, too, and wound up visiting our other lovely property in London - it's becoming one of my favourite places, and I took a quick pit stop to just admire it.

And on the way home, snapped a classic underground picture to commemorate the year I've spent on the sweaty, dirty, marvellous tube.

Friday, a couple of very special people came to town and made it a day to remember. The first, Donald Trump himself, and though I saw something of a police entourage driving past my flat in the early hours of the morning, the more entertaining part of his visit came about midday. Mayor Saddikh Khan and Trump don't totally get along, which might have explained his eagerness to consent to this one, but some clever Londoner had successfully pitched and implemented their idea of making, inflating and flying a balloon of a massive baby with tiny hands above Parliament Square. Sadly, the little guy was taken down before I could go see it myself, but I had a good number of friends attend the balloon display, and the subsequent protest, and they provided me with enough material to feel like I'd managed to go anyway.

Even though baby Trump had paid us all a visit, my favourite guest of the day was my best Toronto gal, Kira landed around midday as well and found me at my office at 5PM. Thanks to my little fiasco the week prior, I managed to work out a way to leave a bit early, and so at 4:59 my bags were packed and I was storming up the stairs, out of the office and towards my not-so-faraway friend. We scared the staff a bit at the cafe she was waiting in, but I didn’t really care. After a coffee and a walk-around, we made it back to where her boyfriend was waiting for us (aka the real reason she came to London, which I’m so totally cool with it’s not even funny), and I was actually reunited with the guy myself. We had both met him while on exchange in the Netherlands nearly 4 years ago, the two of them had kept in touch and now, three continents and three countries later, we’re all in London. They went on their way, and I left them completely content, it’s good to see Kira as happy as she was in that small but mighty moment.

Saturday, met a friend for lunch and then another friend for coffee that turned into an all-day London exploration. We started at my favourite spot, St. Dunstan’s in the East yet again, looking as beautiful as it usually does. It’s amazing how central this little hideaway is, but how few people actually know about it. My photos didn’t turn out but here’s one of the Shard, anyway. It’s nearby enough. 

From there, we grabbed dinner near the Borough Market before going to meet up with her friends who wound up teaching me about how Wimbledon works for the people luck enough to find themselves close enough to London to actually attend. We found her friends on a picnic blanket, drinking G&Ts in the middle of the Wimbledon field, their tents pitched behind them, surrounded by another 30 or so people doing the exact same thing. Apparently you can camp out the night before the final day of competition, and you get first dibs on tickets the next morning. Unlike other line ups I’ve known though, this one involves a ‘line-ranger’ coming up to everyone in the order that they arrived, and handing them a ticket representing where they are in the queue. It’s the most civil camp-out I’ve ever witnessed, and apparently there’s quite a friendly vibe that’s felt amongst everyone there. It’s a sea of tennis fans and gin, thankfully it was a beautiful night, too, and the kicker is that tickets cost £15 if you’ve got the spine to spend a night on the ground. We left her friends in their field, but it made me sort of wish I’d decided to join them! Not that I’m big on tennis, but hey, if you’re going to do it, do it right, right? 

Sunday, another iteration of London being London - the city centre was totally shut down for another event, this time it was a 10k that a few thousand people did. I love that about this city, that it’s not above letting people take over this place. 

Later, met Penny for coffee before sorting out my life briefly at home, and heading out to meet Paris for a comedy night at a club called Angel Comedy - he and I managed to make it just in time for the show to start (dodging world cup fans the whole way, mind you), and we settled into our seats just as the show started. Not sure what I did to deserve it, but I wound up on stage as a quasi-willing participant during the last act, resulting in my abrupt return to the stage in a less than ideal way. Regardless, I made it through without being completely roasted the way most comedian hosts are known to do, so I’ll take that as a win.

Finally, caught up enough that I don’t write this last line like a prequel, since, for the first time in months, I don’t know what’s coming!

Until next time, 

e

[technato]

China Promises the Moon

The next step may be the first-ever soft landing on the lunar far side

Illustration: MCKIBILLO

Illustration: MCKIBILLO

Last July, when a Chinese Long March 5 rocket lifted off from the country’s newest spaceport, the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the island of Hainan, the vehicle’s official mission was to place an experimental communications satellite into orbit. The launch, though, had a secondary purpose: It was to be a final test before the Long March 5, China’s newest and largest rocket, was entrusted with the country’s most ambitious science mission ever.

It failed the test.

The launch initially appeared to go well and was hailed on Chinese television⁠—which, in a rare move, broadcast the event live—as another success for the country’s increasingly ambitious space program. But keen-⁠eyed observers noticed that the trajectory of the rocket, as seen on displays visible during the broadcast, didn’t match the predicted path. Soon, official Chinese media acknowledged that the rocket would fail to reach orbit—and abruptly ended the broadcast.

Had the mission been a success, the next launch for the Long March 5 rocket, planned for late 2017, would have carried the Chang’e-5 spacecraft. That mission would do something not attempted in more than four decades: land on the moon, collect samples, and return them to Earth. Those plans are now on hold and will perhaps remain so until 2019. But China still promises to make significant advances in its long-term lunar ambitions in 2018 by making the first-ever landing on the moon’s far side.

Chang’e-5 is the latest in an incremental series of lunar missions flown by China over the past decade, each building on the achievements of the previous ones. (“Chang’e” is the name of the Chinese goddess of the moon.)

“The Chang’e program includes three steps,” said Xiao Long, a lunar scientist at the China University of Geosciences, during a meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group in Maryland in October. “One is orbiting, the second is landing, and the third one is sample return.”

Chang’e-1, launched in October 2007, was China’s first lunar-orbiter mission. “It was very successful,” said Xiao, providing a variety of scientific data and allowing for the construction of a global map of the moon to support future lander missions.

Chang’e-2, built as a backup to Chang’e-1, lifted off three years later. With updated scientific instruments, it collected more data about the moon, then used its thrusters to leave lunar orbit, flying by the near-Earth asteroid Toutatis in 2012.

In December 2013, China moved on to the second planned step with the landing of Chang’e-3. That made China the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the moon. The lander carried a suite of instruments as well as a small rover, called Yutu, or “Jade Rabbit.”

A little more than a month after landing, Yutu suffered a malfunction that immobilized it, although it was still able to make observations in place. China has published only a limited analysis of the data collected by Chang’e-3, but Xiao said that one of the lander’s instruments, a ground-penetrating radar, was particularly useful in probing the lunar subsurface.

With the first two steps accomplished, China is eager to move on to step 3: sample return. Prior to the July launch failure, China’s space agency, the China National Space Administration (CNSA), planned to go directly to Chang’e-5, rather than launch Chang’e-4, the backup lander mission. Chang’e-5 would first go into orbit around the moon before a lander module separated and touched down in Oceanus Procellarum, the large dark area on the western half of the moon’s near side.

In addition to various scientific instruments, the lander has a robotic arm, intended to grab up to 2 kilograms of lunar rock and soil samples. Those samples will be placed inside a capsule that is then launched into orbit around the moon. That capsule will dock with the orbiter part of the spacecraft, which will then boost it out of lunar orbit and back to Earth, landing in Inner Mongolia. If successful, Chang’e-5 would return the first samples from the moon since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.

If that July mission had met its goals, another Long March 5 rocket might have launched Chang’e-5 as soon as November, with samples returning to Earth two weeks later. Now, it’s not clear when the sample-return mission will go.

Tian Yulong, secretary general of CNSA, discussed the status of the mission at the recent International Astronautical Congress, a major annual space conference held last year in September in Adelaide, Australia. He said that the cause of the Long March 5 failure was still unknown. And he acknowledged that Chang’e-5 would be delayed, perhaps for an extended period. “By the end of [2017] we will have some detailed information” about the revised schedule, he said.

Photos, Top: Wang Jianmin/Xinhua/Alamy; Bottom: Zhang Wenjun/Xinhua/Getty Images

Moon Shot: China’s Long March 5 rocket [bottom photo] will be used for a lunar sample-return mission, expanding on what was accomplished by the lander China put on the moon in 2013 [top].

Many experts following China’s space program predict that Chang’e-5 will be delayed until 2019. That’s because it’ll take time for the investigation to determine the cause of the failure and then for the work needed to remedy the problem. And they expect China to perform at least one launch of the vehicle, if not more, before officials feel confident enough about it for a mission as significant as Chang’e-5. “After one or two successful launches, then Chang’e-5 will go. That’s my guess,” said Xiao.

The extended delay in Chang’e-5, though, doesn’t mean China’s lunar exploration program will grind to a halt this year. Chang’e-4, the backup to Chang’e-3, may still launch in 2018 because it can use a different rocket, one not affected by the Long March 5 accident.

Chang’e-4 would be similar to the 2013 Chang’e-3 mission—with one important exception: The spacecraft would be the first by any country to attempt a landing on the far side of the moon. Because the landing site is out of view from Earth—and thus out of radio contact with it—Chang’e-4 will need a dedicated communications relay satellite in lunar orbit. With it, the lander may be able to shed light on the intriguing nature of the far side, which lacks extensive maria. These “seas,” vast volcanic plains of dark basaltic rock, are prominent features of the near side.

At the International Astronautical Congress, CNSA’s Tian didn’t indicate when Chang’e-4 would launch, saying only that its schedule would be adjusted along with that of Chang’e-5. But Xiao believes the communications relay satellite needed for the far-side mission will launch in mid-2018, followed by the Chang’e-4 lander—again carrying a small rover—late in the year.

China’s plans for lunar exploration don’t end with Chang’e-5, no matter when it might launch. Just as China developed backup orbiters and landers, there is a backup sample-return mission, Chang’e-6, that could fly later.

Chang’e-6, Xiao said, might go to the lunar poles, an area of interest both to scientists and to those planning future human missions to the moon. Craters near the poles—including those in the giant South Pole–Aitken basin on the far side—have regions that remain perpetually in shadow because of the moon’s very small axial tilt. Those spots are cold enough to preserve water ice indefinitely, and some past missions have detected strong evidence of ice in those craters. Future human missions could use that water for life support as well as for fuel, by breaking it down into hydrogen and oxygen.

Even if Chang’e-6 lands elsewhere—or does not launch at all—China plans to study the lunar poles in detail in the 2020s. A series of three missions, including landers and sample-return spacecraft, will study the moon’s polar regions, Xiao said.

China is not alone in its interest in the poles of the moon. Russia has a series of four missions under development for launch from 2019 through 2024, including lander and sample-return missions to the lunar poles. NASA is also working on a lunar rover called Resource Prospector, designed to confirm that water ice exists in those shadowed craters and to study how difficult it is to extract. Current plans call for that mission to launch in the early 2020s.

China’s longer-term plans include human missions to the moon but are without much in the way of details. “The goal is to establish a research station,” Xiao said, sometime between 2025 and 2050.

China’s overall lunar exploration plan has earned the endorsement of one major American lunar scientist. “Their program is extremely robust,” said James Head of Brown University, who has been involved in lunar missions since the Apollo program.

Head visited China recently and came away impressed with the country’s commitment to lunar exploration. “There’s a lot of excitement about this program,” he said. “There’s historically not been a major lunar and planetary science community in China, but in the last decade or so it’s been growing.”

China’s interest in and capabilities for lunar exploration create opportunities for international cooperation. And the Chinese government has indeed shown itself open for that: Four of the instruments on the Chang’e-4 lander come from other countries: one each from Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden.

But cooperation between the United States and China in space is complicated by U.S. law. For the past several years, Congress has included provisions in the bills funding NASA that prohibit the space agency from cooperating with China without explicit prior approval from Congress. That restriction is based on fears by some in Congress about the theft of intellectual property or other security risks if NASA were to engage with China.

There are other hurdles as well. Head had invited Yu Guobin, vice director of the Lunar and Space Exploration Engineering Center of China, to speak at a conference in the United States last year. Yu accepted, but the U.S. embassy rejected his visa application shortly before he was to fly to the United States. Head said Yu was never given the reason his visa application was denied, and other Chinese scientists attending the conference had no such problems. (The U.S. embassy declined to comment to IEEE Spectrum about why it rejected Yu’s visa application.)

Head said the benefits of cooperation with China in lunar exploration outweigh any perceived security risks. “I worked with the Soviet Union and Russia for 45 years, and I’m here to tell you that you have to be very careful with technological transfer and other national security issues,” he said. “Nonetheless, there’s much to be gained from cooperation and collaboration.”

He’s hopeful that China and the United States will eventually be able to work more closely to explore the moon, both with robots and with people. “We would be derelict in our duty for the future if we did not emphasize that this is an international endeavor,” Head said. “It’s in all of our best interests to do what we can to share the scientific knowledge from these missions.”

China Promises the Moon syndicated from http://ift.tt/2Bq2FuP

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What Makes a Successful Startup Team

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What Makes a Successful Startup Team

Executive Summary

What makes a successful startup team? One common answer is that prior startup experience, product knowledge, and industry skills predict the success of a new venture. But is prior experience sufficient for a team to work well together? In a recent study of 95 new startup teams in the Netherlands, researchers explored that question. They found that experience alone was not enough to make a team thrive. While experience broadens the teams’ resource pool, helps people identify opportunities, and is positively related to team effectiveness, a team also needs soft skills to truly thrive. Specifically, they found that shared entrepreneurial passion and shared strategic vision are required to get to superior team performance.

Jekaterina Nikitina/Getty Images

When venture capital investors are doing due diligence, they focus carefully on the financial side of the business. Does the company have an interesting business model? How big is the addressable market? What are the growth plans of the company? They hire expensive experts and use advanced data tools to answer these questions and ensure that every financial detail is on the table.

But when it comes to evaluating the startup team, gut feel and intuition tend to be the main due diligence instruments that come into play. This isn’t a great approach. Data shows us that 60% of new ventures fail due to problems with the team.

What makes a successful startup team?

One common answer is that prior startup experience, product knowledge, and industry skills predict the success of a new venture. But is prior experience sufficient for a team to work well together? In a recent study of 95 new startup teams in the Netherlands, we explored that question.

We found that experience alone was not enough to make a team thrive. While experience broadens the teams’ resource pool, helps people identify opportunities, and is positively related to team effectiveness, a team also needs soft skills to truly thrive. Specifically, our study shows that shared entrepreneurial passion and shared strategic vision are required to get to superior team performance as rated by the external venture capital investors.

Of the startups we studied, the group that reported high levels of previous experience but average to low levels of passion and collective vision demonstrated weak team performance when it came to innovation in products and services, customer satisfaction, cost control, and expected sales growth. Contrary, the group of teams that reported average levels of previous experience but high levels of passion and collective vision demonstrated significantly stronger performance.

We also found that greater team experience only leads to better performance if team members share a strategic vision for the company. Thus, when team members don’t agree on the future strategy of the firm, the knowledge and skills they have will only marginally contribute to team performance.

Stellar teams have it all: hard and soft skills

When we talk about this balance between team member experience (hard skills) and passion and vision (soft skills) there’s a sweet spot where stellar teams seem to live. If team members are super smart and experienced, but they don’t feel like sharing this knowledge due to a lack of alignment about the vision for the company, their knowledge is useless for the business. Instead, these differences in passion and vision make teams perform worse. For example, if the CTO in the startup team has a lot of experience in the cyber software industry that is useful for building the current business, but she doesn’t agree with the CEO on the future strategy of the company, she is less likely to share all her previous knowledge on cyber software within the team.

To illustrate the importance of evaluating an entrepreneurial team with this balance between hard and soft skills in mind, let’s look at the case of Emma, an investor at a venture capital firm. (The names of people and institutions in this story have been changed for anonymity.)  Emma recently told me about a potential investment in a software company in Stockholm that she was very excited about. Let’s call it Clocker. When Emma read about Clocker and received the company materials, she was thrilled to meet the team. In addition to the interesting financials, the team’s track record was outstanding.

The CEO had in depth industry knowledge, worked in the software space for years, and led the product division for Salesforce. The CFO graduated from Harvard, had worked for Bain & Company before joining Clocker and had very strong financial and strategic skills. The VP of Sales was a sales tiger who had worked as an account manager for Microsoft. Finally, the fourth team member was very hands-on, a serial entrepreneur with a successful exit on her resume and some experience with start-up failures. On paper, this team for sure seemed to have all it would take to successfully scale up Clocker and ensure a nice return on the investment.

Nevertheless, when the team members presented their pitch in the boardroom and elaborated on the Clocker growth strategy, Emma was disappointed. The story just didn’t hold. While the CEO told Emma that she wanted to expand to the U.S. and become the next Salesforce, the CTO did not seem to share this ambition. He dismissed the CEO’s ideas immediately and argued that the company would be too busy with other projects to realize global expansion this year. It became clear that the Clocker team had very different goals in mind. They were also not equally passionate about the company. The VP of Sales still ran his own sales business on the side — while the CTO was constantly on the lookout for other jobs.

When Emma talked to the CEO a few weeks later she learned that the Clocker team had broken up. Because of their different goals for the company, team members did not communicate efficiently and failed to share their knowledge, which led to bad team dynamics and weak decision-making.

While previous experience has often been cited as a key ingredient for entrepreneurial success, our results show that experience alone will not lead to success. Instead knowledge, skills, and passion are equally important for succeeding as a new venture. Experience and expertise only lead to better performance if team members share their knowledge and have a common vision for the company.

When investors evaluate startup teams they should keep in mind that a great resume alone is not enough to achieve great performance. Building a successful startup is a long and bumpy road; without entrepreneurial passion and strategic vision, a stellar resume merely becomes a piece of paper.

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