A little bit of Not Quite Lost - free short story and other pieces from @VineLeavesPress
Earlier this week I took part in an event to showcase a few authors from Vine Leaves Press.
I’ve never done an online reading before so this was a first. Usually at readings, one can’t see the audience members’ faces so close. Sometimes what I saw wasn’t faces, but ceilings or thumbs or travelling ground. Or daylight, when outside my study the sky was dark. All of life, in little Zoom postage…
It’s time for the Vernal Equinox, when Sunrise and Sunset are about 12 hours apart Worldwide. Illustration Janet Loehrke/USA Today
2024 Spring Equinox: A Visual Guide to the Changing of the Seasons
— Janet Loehrke | USA Today | March 17, 2024
I Thought it was Spring Already?
Maybe it seemed like it between the unseasonably warm winter temperatures and Punxsutawney Phil's prediction of an early spring. But on March 19, the astronomical winter ends and spring begins. It's also known as the vernal equinox – when day and night are the about same length almost everywhere on Earth.
When the vernal equinox takes place on Tuesday evening in the U.S., it will already be March 20 for most of the world. A March 21 equinox won't occur on the continental U.S. during the entire 21st century, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac.
Here's what happens on the first day of spring.
When is the Spring Equinox?
The March equinox comes at 11:06 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, the precise moment the sun's rays shine directly on the equator. Meteorologists actually consider March 1 the beginning of spring.
Tuesday is one of two days of the year – the other is the day of the autumnal equinox in September – when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in roughly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness almost everywhere on the planet.
Source: NASA (Not to Scale)
What Causes the Seasons to Change?
After the spring equinox, the north pole continues tilting toward the sun until summer solstice, or the day when the northern hemisphere receives the most sunlight. After that longest day in June, the north pole begins its six-month retreat in the sky toward winter.
The word "equinox" comes from the Latin words "aequalis" and "nox," meaning "equal night." On the autumnal (and the spring) equinox, day and night are roughly 12 hours long each in most of the world.
Day and night aren't exactly 12 hours long on the day of the equinox because the Earth's atmosphere refracts, or bends, light in an optical illusion that brings more daylight than there really is. Because of this, the date when day and night are of exactly equal length is usually a few days after the spring equinox.
What's the Difference Between an Equinox and a Solstice?
Equinoxes – when day and night are roughly equal – occur in March and September and mark the astronomical beginning of spring and autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.
Solstices occur in June and December, which mark the beginning of astronomical summer and winter. The summer solstice is when the sun is at its highest point in the sky and the winter solstice occurs when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky.
— Contributing: Doyle Rice, Liz Kellar and Clare Mulroy, USA Today
When it comes to Australia’s national regulators, women rule.
Women now dominate the leadership of federal regulatory and oversight agencies that enforce rules for business and the economy, with 33 women holding chief executive or chair roles. This signals a profound shift for the nation’s top watchdogs, once almost solely the domain of male enforcers.
Rapid digitisation and rising globalisation are making traditional black letter enforcement approaches less effective, leading to women with so-called solid soft skills, such as influence, collaboration and communication, winning top-tier regulatory roles.
Women are now at the front line of the battles against scams, identity and data theft, cyber ransomware attacks, electronic espionage, digital surveillance, misinformation, social media abuse and dark web criminality.
“It’s very different to the skills base you needed a decade or two ago where it was just about telling people what to do, and they would toe the line,” says Ann Sherry, a former head of the Office of Status of Women in the Hawke and Keating governments.
“Those jobs were filled by a particular sort of person cast as a regulator. So, in a way, it was almost an enforcement role, whereas the jobs have changed.”
The leadership of the federal public service reached gender equilibrium last year.
Sherry, who is now QUT chancellor and chairs Queensland Airports, digital marketing firm Enero and UNICEF Australia, says that the public sector has been better at promoting women through the ranks but that many women have also built relevant skills in the private sector.
“Many women have had to broaden their careers and build a broad set of skills to be successful. There is now a body of capability to draw up. The talent pool has changed, and the jobs require broader skills. It is a confluence of events,” she says.
The surge in women leading federal regulators compares with 19 women (10 per cent) chairing ASX200 companies and 26 women (9 per cent) who are CEOs across the ASX300, as at the end of 2023.
Competition chief Gina Cass-Gottlieb and Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock (who also chairs the Payments System Board) are the first women to lead their institutions. Others, such as media watchdog Nerida O’Loughlin and energy regulator Clare Savage, have won second appointments.
A push to bring in new blood from outside the Australian public service helped veteran NSW regulator Elizabeth Tydd win an appointment as head of the Australian Information Commission. Carly Kind was tapped from a London think tank to be the new privacy commissioner.
They join a swag of women now overseeing vast swaths of the economy, including infrastructure (Gabrielle Trainor), aviation (Pip Spence), food (Sandra Cuthbert), petroleum (Sue McCarrey) and fisheries (Helen Kroger).
Others such as Rachel Noble (espionage), Julie Inman Grant (e-safety), Jayde Richmond (anti-scams centre) and Michelle McGuinness (cyber co-ordinator) are focused on rapidly emerging harms, including national security threats, identity and data theft, consumer abuse, online scams and fraud.
Workplace and safety regulators are now dominated by women too, including Anna Booth (Fair Work Ombudsman), Joanne Farrell (Safe Work Australia), Jeanine Drummond (maritime safety), Natalie Pelham (rail safety) and Janet Anderson (aged care).
The dominant role female regulators play has been part of a profound shift in the number of women in leadership roles in the Australian government. This has risen from a quarter of executive roles being held by women 20 years ago to over 50 per cent last year.
Battle ready
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb, who rose through the ranks as a competition lawyer at law firm Gilbert and Tobin, says her generation of leaders had battled their way through male-dominated workplaces.
“In those workplaces, to get ahead, we needed to target the areas we thought were most important to make an intervention and where we could most effectively make an impact.
“We actually had to build skills to succeed, which are beneficial skills in these roles.”
Ms Cass-Gottlieb says women have also had to differentiate themselves. “You needed to point to other ways of working, including creative and different solutions that drew from experience in various areas rather than a pure step-by-step standard career path.”
Australian Information Commissioner Tydd points to Columbia University research that measured creativity by analysing songs, finding that women created more songs than men.
“Digital government requires a creative use of proactive tools to identify and mitigate future harm. It’s the unforeseen or latent harms that are the most refractory and so we’ve got to look at diagnosis and predictive tools, and that’s where you start to get a bit creative.”
Tydd says she was attracted to regulatory work because of the value of promoting open government, transparency and accountability.
“I think that seeking service and purpose orientation are factors that drive people into this work and I do think seeking service is a very comfortable and well-established motivation within women.”
Demand for new approaches
According to ANU Crawford School of Public Policy director Professor Janine O’Flynn, the data on the importance of public motivation for women is mixed. However, she suggests that women’s more attuned risk and relationship skills help them to be more effective regulators.
“We certainly know that the most effective models of regulation are around how you can think about risk and how you build relationships with the parties that have been regulated.
“I don’t mean that in a sort of dodgy way. The higher the trust relationships you can get between regulators and those who are regulated, the more likely you are to get the outcomes that you’re looking for.”
Thursday edits for angels surrounded by angels Shan'ann Cathryn Rzucek and Bella&Nico and CeCe, Candela Sol Rodriguez, Alyssa Jane West, Emma Nicole Speer, Avielle Richman, Ava Jordan Wood, Leiliana Wright, Saffie-Rose Brenda Roussos, Lily Peters, Olivia Pratt Korbel, Sara Sharif, Charlotte Figi, Jersey Dianne Bridgeman, Lucy Morgan, Mercedes Losoya, Norah Lee Howard, Sloan Mattingly, Audrii Cunningham, Judith Barsi and Heather O'Rourke, Makenna Lee Elrod Seiler, Eliahna Torres, Jackie Cazares, Mary E. Sullivan, Olivia Grace Thompson, Lester Stillwell, Alexis Brianne “Lexi” Stempien, Blake Lee Stafford, Emma Grace Stacks, Kelly Doyle Sparks, Christy Lea Sparks, Kelsey Shelton Smith-Briggs, Michael Daniel Smith, Alexander Tyler “Alex” Smith, Laura Ashley Skinner, James Asa Rudder, Ashley Nicole Romer, Jennifer Jailene Rodriguez, Angel Divine Randall, Miakailah Renee Ramsey-Franklin, JonBenét Ramsey, Kelli Shay Powell, Allyceea Mabel Brynne Ennis, Janet Carol Pierick, Patricia Sue Phillips, Pete Peterson I, Kaitlyn Nikol Pukatsch Parsons, Cheyenne Rose “Chey Chey” Newton, Emanuel Wesley Murray Jr., Maud H. Munn, Doris Denise Milner, Bruce Edward Miller, Ruby Miller, Lucille Miller, Gwenyth Marie McWethy, Natallie Elizabeth McNelly, Minnie E. McKendrick, Bradley Gene McGee, Joanne Ena Lynn, Jessica Marie Lunsford, Brittani Lynn LaFollette, Eva Gladys “Gladys” Kincaid, Elisa Izquierdo, James Alan Ray Hubbard, Catherine Violet Hubbard, Janessa Micheala “Nessie” Horner, Nina Viktoria “Tori” Bashenova Hilt, Angela Dawn Harter, Michelle Heather Guse, Lori Lee Farmer, Anna Katherine Grudziecke, Edith Clare “Edie” Grierson, Aiyana Emily Gauvin, Thomas Edwards Gallagher, Gerald Alfred Gaddy, Annie L Foster, Leah Foster Whitacre, Julie Alliot, Rowan Damia Ford, Kathy Fiscus, Mary Ruth Davis, Ettie E. Davis, Joan Angela D'Alessandro, Tessara Kate “Tessa” Crespi, Samantha Joy “Sammie” Crespi, Nina Craigmiles, Lacy Cheyenne Cook, Eleanor Emily Cook, Edward Parsons Cook, Dakoda James Clapper, Nevaeh Amyah Buchanan, Hayley Renae Reasor Briggs, Noelle Elizabeth Braun, Skylar Mark Brady, Edna Louise Blank, Celeste Elizabeth Berg, Teri Earlene Bender, Katherine Marie “Kathy” Beets, Barbara Ann Barnes, Bessie Barker, Baylee Almon, Marivel Mercedez Alvarez, Jessica Anders, Elli Grace Perez-Speer, Adilynn Holmes Speer, Anniston Noel Speer, Ciara Nicole Floyd, Nelani Ciara Koefer, Jade Nicole Simmons, Elizabeth Ann Byrd, Story Wren Worth, Abigail Elizabeth “Abby” Fedosoff, Kezia Mason, Isabella Sara “Bella” Tennant, Avery Lana Linda Brown, Sadako Sasaki, Sarah McKayla Brooks, Jessica Scatterson,Jessica Marie Bock, Layla Salazar, Emma Catherine Grace Thompson,
Tuesday, November 28, 2023 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)
WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?
SOUTH TO BLACK POWER (HBO Canada) 10:00pm
NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:
AMAZON PRIME CANADA
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 3
NETFLIX CANADA
COMEDY ROYALE (KR)
LOVE LIKE A K-DRAMA (JP)
ONMYOJI (JP)
VERIFIED STAND-UP
2023 FIFA MEN'S U17 WORLD CUP
(TSN5) 3:18am: Semifinal
(TSN5) 6:48am: Semifinal
NCAA WOMEN’S HOCKEY (TSN5) 5:00pm: Providence vs. Northeastern
NHL HOCKEY
(TSN4) 7:00pm: Panthers vs. Leafs
(TSN3) 8:00pm: Stars vs. Jets
(SNWest) 9:00pm: Knights vs. Oilers
(SNPacific) 10:00pm: Ducks vs. Canucks
NBA BASKETBALL
(SN1/SNOntario/SNEast) 7:30pm: Raptors vs. Nets
(SN Now) 7:30pm: Bulls vs. Celtics
(TSN/TSN5) 7:30pm: Bucks vs. Heat
(SN1) 10:00pm: Warriors vs. Kings
MARY MAKES IT EASY (CTV Life) 8:00pm: Good Ba(king) Wenceslas
STILL STANDING (CBC) 8:30pm (SEASON FINALE): The forced relocation of the Membertou First Nation 100 years ago sent the community into crisis; thanks to a bold economic plan, they have successfully pulled off a stunning transformation.
COMFORT FOOD WITH SPENCER WATTS (CTV Life) 8:30pm: Spencer makes a few of his family-style faves, including his Moussaka crown, his Italian herb half-chickens with sun-dried tomato cream sauce, and a silky smooth eggnog creme caramel.
THE KILLING KIND (CTV Drama) 9:00pm: Ingrid is forced to re-examine the original Webster legal case she worked on; Ingrid must fight to right the wrongs to ensure that justice is done.
THE LAZARUS PROJECT (Showcase) 9:00pm: The team attempts to track down the time machine that had been used to transport Janet back to 2012; an unexpected visitor from the past comes looking for George.
HALIFAX COMEDY FESTIVAL (CBC) 9:30pm: Featuring Jon Dore, with performances by Yumi Nagashima, Kevin Bozeman, Clare Belford, Peter Anthony, Fiona O'Brien, Pete Johansson, Kelly Taylor and Graham Chittenden.
[ID A montage of covers for a variety of BBC Doctor Who audiobooks]
💸 BBC AUDIOBOOK SALE! 💸 Grab great deals on selected Doctor Who audiobooks and bundles on CD at the link above while stocks last!
Offer ends no later than 23:59 (UK time) 29 June 2023!
Included in the deal are the Thirteenth Doctor novels:
Doctor Who: Combat Majicks by Steve Cole, narrated by Mandip Gill
Doctor Who: Molten Heart by Una McCormack, narrated by Dan Starkey
Doctor Who: The Good Doctor by Juno Dawson, narrated by Clare Corbett
and the Classic TV Adventures Collection 2:
Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and Peter Davison star as the Doctor in six narrated full-cast TV soundtracks of classic Doctor Who TV serials.
The Krotons, narrated by Frazer Hines
Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury star in this classic BBC TV story from 1969.
The Ambassadors of Death, narrated by Caroline John
Jon Pertwee is the Doctor in the soundtrack of this classic 1970 BBC TV adventure.
The Mind of Evil, narrated by Richard Franklin
Jon Pertwee stars as the third Doctor in the soundtrack of this classic 1971 BBC TV adventure.
Horror of Fang Rock, narrated by Louise Jameson
Tom Baker stars as the fourth Doctor in this thrilling TV soundtrack adventure from 1977.
City of Death, narrated by Lalla Ward
Tom Baker stars as the fourth Doctor in this classic 1979 BBC TV adventure.
Warriors of the Deep, narrated by Janet Fielding
Peter Davison stars as the fifth Doctor in the original soundtrack of this classic 1984 TV adventure.
Plus many more.
PLEASE REMEMBER THESE ARE AVAILABLE ON CD ONLY AND STOCKS ARE LIMITED SO GRAB THEM WHILE YOU CAN!