#founders and team of boat

[twnenglish]

The Success Story of boAt

According to the invention of headphones, moviegoers, music lovers, and other professionals may now watch their preferred shows, listen to their favourite music, and have private conversations with friends and coworkers without bothering others. Like everywhere else in the globe, headphones have been around for a long in India as well, although there aren't many Indian manufacturers to be found. The boAt firm is one of the important players, and the brand totally steals the show!

A huge variety of earphones, earbuds, headphones, and wireless speakers are available from the brand The boat, which stands out for its excellent quality, usability, and upscale design. In India, BoAt is widely recognized as the best earphone and audio brand. Due to the company, users may simultaneously feel spirit and vitality.

The company's history is not very noteworthy. 2016 saw the founding of the Delhi-based firm by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta. The business describes itself as a lifestyle retailer of cutting-edge consumer gadgets. Boat Lifestyle's mission was to give millennials access to affordable, high-quality audio accessories and gear. The success of boAt has been attributed to a number of factors. Now, let's have a look at them.

The Success Story of boAt

About Boat

Wireless speakers, earbuds (Airdopes), wireless speakers, earbuds (Airdopes), wired and wireless headphones and earphones, home audio equipment, premium tough cables, and a range of other technology accessories are all sold by an Indian firm by the name of boAt.

Startup Story of boAt

The creators wanted to create a lifestyle brand that would sell appealing audio gear and accessories to millennials. BoAt is where this idea first arose. Research from 2020 indicates that the business first focused on producing and supplying cables before soon branching out into other areas to service more than 800,000 customers. BoAt was founded as a bootstrapped business with a roughly Rs 30 lakhs initial investment from the founders.

Founders and Team of boat

The two men that founded boAt are Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta.Co-founder of boAt and its Chief Product Office,owner of Redwood,

Sameer Mehta

Co-founder of boAt and its Chief Product Officer (CPO), Sameer Mehta. He holds the position of Executive Director for Kores (India). Sameer Mehta, the company's founder and owner of Redwood, got his start there. Before joining Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics to earn his bachelor's in commerce, Mehta finished his schooling at Mumbai's St. Xavier School. Sameer also formed Imagine Marketing Pvt. Ltd., the company that is the parent company of boAt.

Aman Gupta

Aman Gupta, a co-founder of boAt and its chief marketing officer (CMO). He earned a bachelor's degree in business from Delhi University before joining The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Gupta pursued an MBA in general management and marketing at the Indian School of Business in addition to an MBA in finance, strategy, and general business while studying abroad at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

He began working for Citibank as an assistant manager and rose to become the CEO and co-founder of the organisation. Then Aman joined KPMG as a Senior Management Consultant. He also served as the Sales Director for HARMAN International. Aman Gupta and Sameer founded boAt in 2016. He was also a founder member of Imagine Marketing India, which changed its name to boAt later on.

BoAt's Business Model

Boat sells a variety of products, such as speakers, headphones, headphones, smartwatches, trimmers, and wireless and wired earbuds. With a market share of 27.3%, BoAt lifestyle is the top brand in the earwear category.

It generated 1,531 crores in sales and around 127.1 crores in profit in FY2021. Its earnings climbed by 61% from 48.85 crores in FY20 to 78.6 crores in FY21.

Boat focuses on providing wired earphones at the lowest price possible. Their goods are priced between 350 and 550 since no company makes wired earphones in this price range.

The company doesn't need to sell its launched items because it has always created goods that generate demand. It has already grown in popularity as a result of its excellent quality and reasonable cost.

For instance, BoAt unveiled the "BoAt Stone," a mobile Bluetooth speaker that immediately gained popularity. While its competitors were demanding $5,000 for comparable products, BoAt was only charging around $2,000 for the speaker.

Read This Full ARTICLE, Click Here

[mariacallous]

Over the past decade, China has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its international media network. The Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, and the China Daily web portal produce material in multiple languages and use multiple social-media accounts to amplify it. This huge investment produces plenty of positive coverage of China and benign depictions of the authoritarian world more broadly. Nevertheless, Beijing is also aware that news marked “made in China” doesn’t have anything like the influence that local people, using local media, would have if they were uttering the same messages.

That, in the regime’s thinking, is the ultimate form of propaganda: Get the natives to say it for you. Train them, persuade them, pay them—it doesn’t matter; whatever their motives, they’ll be more convincing. Chinese leaders call this tactic “borrowing boats to reach the sea.”

When a handful of employees at RT, the Russian state television network formerly known as Russia Today, allegedly offered to provide lucrative payments to the talking heads of Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based far-right influencer team, borrowing boats to reach the sea was exactly what they had in mind. According to a federal indictment released last week, RT employees spent nearly $10 million over the course of a year—money “laundered through a network of foreign shell entities,” including companies in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, and Hungary—with the aim of supporting Tenet Media’s work and shaping the messages in its videos.

The indictment makes clear that the influencers—propagandists, in fact—must have had a pretty good idea where the money was coming from. They were told that their benefactor was “Eduard Grigoriann,” a vaguely Euro-Armenian “investor.” They tried to Google him and found nothing; they asked for information and were shown a résumé that included a photograph of a man gazing through the window of a private jet. Sometimes, the messages from Grigoriann’s team were time-stamped in a way that indicated they were written in Moscow. Sometimes the alleged employees of Grigoriann’s alleged company misspelled Grigoriann’s name. Unsurprisingly, in their private conversations, the Tenet Media team occasionally referred to its mysterious backers as “the Russians.”

But the real question is not whether the talking heads of Tenet Media—the founders, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who were the main interlocutors with the Russians, but also Tim Pool, Lauren Southern, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson—had guessed the true identity of their “investor.” Nor does it matter whether they knew who was really paying them to make videos that backed up absurd pro-Moscow narratives (that a terrorist attack at a Moscow shopping mall, loudly claimed by the Islamic State, was really carried out by Ukrainians, for example). More important is whether the audience knew, and I think we can safely say that it did not. And now that Tenet Media fans do know who funds their favorite influencers, it’s entirely possible that they won’t care.

This is because the messages formed part of a larger stream of authoritarian ideas that are now ubiquitous on the far right, and that make coherent sense as a package. They denounce U.S. institutions as broken, irreparable: If Donald Trump doesn’t win, it’s because the election is rigged. They imply American society is degenerate: White people are discriminated against in America. They suggest immigrants are part of a coordinated invasion, designed to destroy what remains of the culture: Illegal immigrants are eating household pets, a trope featured during this week’s presidential debate. For the Russians, the amplification of this narrative matters more than specific arguments about Ukraine. As the indictment delicately explains, many of the Russian-sponsored videos produced by Tenet Media were more relevant to American politics than to the Ukraine war: “While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.”

But these themes are also consistent with the Trump campaign’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions. People who have come to distrust the basic institutions of American democracy, who feel aggrieved and rejected, who believe that immigrants are invaders who have been deliberately sent to replace them—these are not people who will necessarily be bothered that their favorite YouTubers, according to prosecutors, were being sponsored by a violent, lawless foreign dictator who repeatedly threatens the U.S. and its allies with nuclear armageddon. On the contrary, many of them now despise their own country so much that they might be pleased to hear there are foreigners who, like the ex-president, want to burn it all down. If you truly hate modern America—its diversity, its immense energy, its raucous debate—then you won’t mind hearing it denounced by other people who hate it and wish it ill. On X earlier this year, Chen referred to the U.S. as a “tyranny,” for example, a phrase that could easily have been produced by one of the Russian propagandists who regularly decry the U.S. on the evening news.

These pundits and their audience are not manipulated by Russian, Chinese, and other autocrats who sometimes fill their social-media feeds. The relationship goes the other way around; Russian, Chinese, and other influence operations are designed to spread the views of Americans who actively and enthusiastically support the autocratic narrative. You may have laughed at Trump’s rant on Tuesday night: “The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating—they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.” But that language is meant to reach an audience already primed to believe that Kamala Harris, as Trump himself said, is “destroying this country. And if she becomes president, this country doesn’t have a chance of success. Not only success. We’ll end up being Venezuela on steroids.”

Plenty of other people are trying to reach that audience too. Indeed, the Grigoriann scheme was not the only one revealed in the past few days. In a separate case that has received less attention, the FBI last week filed an affidavit in a Pennsylvania courthouse supporting the seizure of 32 internet domains. The document describes another team of Russian operatives who have engaged in typosquatting—setting up fake news websites whose URLs resemble real ones. The affidavit mentions, for example, washingtonpost.pm, washingtonpost.ltd, fox-news.in, fox-news.top, and forward.pw, but we know there are others. This same propaganda group, known to European investigators as Doppelganger, has also set up similar sites in multiple European languages. Typosquatters do not necessarily seek to drive people to the fake sites. Instead, the fake URLs they provide make posts on Facebook, X, and other social media appear credible. When someone is quickly scrolling, they might not check whether a sensational headline purporting to be from The Washington Post is in fact linked to washingtonpost.pm, the fake site, as opposed to washingtonpost.com, the real one.

But this deception, too, would not work without people who are prepared to believe it. Just as the Grigoriann scam assumed the existence of pundits and viewers who don’t really care who is paying for the videos that make them angry, typosquatting—like all information laundering—assumes the existence of a credulous audience that is already willing to accept outrageous headlines and not ask too many questions. Again, although Russian teams seek to cultivate, influence, and amplify this audience—especially in Pennsylvania, apparently, because in Moscow, they know which swing states matter too—the Russians didn’t create it. Rather, it was created by Trump and the pundits who support him, and merely amplified by foreigners who want our democracy to fail.

These influencers and audiences are cynical, even nihilistic. They have deep distrust in American institutions, especially those connected to elections. We talk a lot about how authoritarianism might arrive in America someday, but in this sense, it’s already here: The United States has a very large population of people who look for, absorb, and believe anti-American messages wherever they are found, whether on the real Fox News or the fake fox-news.in. Trump was speaking directly to them on Tuesday. What happens next is up to other Americans, the ones who don’t believe that their country is cratering into chaos and don’t want a leader who will burn it all down. In the meantime, there are plenty of boats available to borrow for Russians who want to reach the sea.

[oh-no-its-bird]

Tora gets hit w the time travel beam *gestures vaguely towards the "team ro time travel to warring states era but make it Tora AU team ro" post*

And gets mistaken for a bastard senju kid and missing brother of Tobirama bc of the resemblance. But also using the same logic I used w Itachi of the "the only people allowed to draw the connection are people who personally knew Tobirama when he was Tora's age (which, if sticking to the original team ro prompt, would be like 12) so only like. The founders + Touka get to make that conclusion

Him 🤝 Tenzo -> getting mistaken for a Senju and getting lots of hugs from Hashirama that make them Feel Things (TM)

People are telling Tora he's probably a bastard kid and he's making deliberate eye contact w that one time he tried to break into the senju compound and was kicked out bc the gates keyed into senju blood specifically. He's pretty sure he's not a senju guys. Trust him. Really.

Mmmm ok but actually taking it seriously, how would Tora affect the team ro dynamics in that specific adventure? In my original post I went really in depth on what each character thinks of their situation + the founders, so would that change at all?

On top of that, since it's a few month before the Uchiha coup, it's also peak Itachi-Tora-Shisui chaos hours as they plot to stop it

I think it's mostly the same, tho maybe Tora's general affect on Itachi means he isn't quite so much in the "Hey what if we just kill Madara. What then." boat

But also I can see the opposite, with maybe Itachi instead getting Tora on the "Hey what if we kill Madara in his sleep" boat

Shisui can sense the "Tora and Itachi are doing something alarming" button being slammed in the room over and investigates

Oh my god worst possible outcome: they get Shisui on board too. I can see it tbh, they were looking for ways to avoid the coup and the possible village retaliation and like hey !!! Opportunity they sure as fuck won't be getting anywhere else!!!

Plus like, play into the "Itachi rarley offers his own opinion bc he trusts Tora and Shisui to be in charge, but when he does offer it he's listened to"

Well he sure did offer his opinion!! And he sure is being listened to!!!

They actually all just feed into eachothers stress and decide that yes. To avoid the Uchiha coup and or possible village retaliation (they dont know the massacre is on the board yet but suspect smthn similarly bad), this is the best choice to make.

It turns into Kakashi having to talk them all down (whether he does so in time or not is debatable)

They get stopped, obviously, (tho actually commiting to killing off Madara like that would be very funny) and Madara assumes it was Tora's idea bc hes a clear leading figure in the trio and the other two are Uchiha. Tora is willing to take the fall for his friend, but Itachi is not

Itachi has a whole breakdown and bursts into awful messy tears for the first time since his father took him out to a battlefield as a child.

It's a whole thing and everyone is horrified (Tora and Shisui especially but even Madara + whoever else was there are cringing awkwardly at the sight of a previously blank faced little kid just. Loosing it.)

Itachi confesses to it being his idea and, at this point we're past the time travel reveal, explains he just needs to make sure Madara doesn't freak the fuck out and inevitable fuck over the entire Uchiha clan w a shitty reputation that haunts him for years to come

Madara is horrified what the fuck

Also INCREDIBLY demoralized ab the village now, what do you MEAN he fucking left it what do you MEAN originally Izuna died (they were keeping them in the dark ab everything future-wise other than just the fact that the village existed but this kind of forced the lid off that pot)

Also note: Kakashi !! Was !! Not !! Aware of this !!! Holy shit kids !!!!!!

They end up having a whole Thing(tm) about how look even if Madara one of the causes of their shit reputation,,, it can't all be traced back to and blamed on one man. That's not how politics work you guys.

(Queue shocked Pikachu faces and disbelief of three teenagers)

Kakashi, having his own special front row seats to the Konoha politics and rumor mill + yondaime's student + experience with facing the worst of it bc of his dad, giving them some sort of speech about scapegoats and politics and the soul crushing realities of systematic oppression and blame

It's a learning experience.

[sgiandubh]

While we're talking about secondary players, what about Grandma? Did you see that there was a drop in his business? BWF published a standard text on IG, worthy of being on LinkedIn leaving the company. This partnership didn't really last long...

Dear BWF Anon,

BWF did not publish anything in its own name. Bourbon With Friends (BWF) is just Paul Novielli and Connor Gilbert's podcast. But it is certainly Paul Novielli who jumped boat out of Grandma's BBB (Big Booze Business) project, three days ago, after one year and one month of serving as its CEO and co-founder.

With this statement, released on both Instagram and LinkedIn:

If you ask me, I'd say the 'reflecting on a journey' and the need (itch?) to release a 'Farewell Message' (almost in spite of something and someone) have such a passive-aggressive undertone, that it would be very easy to conclude the 'don't forget to write' part happened in bitterness and perhaps even a tiny bit of drama-drama. Here's a clearly frustrated chap, whose efforts might have remained unacknowledged. And whose suggestions might have been vertically filed into the dustbin, before he decided enough is enough and time has come to look for better pastures.

Why am I such a nosey woman and suspect this also might have something to do with Lady McGrandma, French Influencer Extraordinaire?

At any rate, McGrandma didn't like, didn't comment and promptly fubar'd the Team page of the BBB's website, which is now a wonderful 404 digital cul-de-sac:

As Novielli was an Executive Bourbon Steward by the Kentucky-based Stave & Thief Society (https://moonshineuniversity.com/introducing-the-stave-thief-society/), some of the brand's cachet was lost, or at least dented.

Interesting. Let's see what gives. It smells like a resounding flop, yet tempted as I might be, it's too early to determine exactly what that means, long term.

Thanks, Anon. We'll see and I'll keep an eye.

[rockofeye]

I am not Haitian, and practice a non-Vodou form of spirituality. For some reason, I have a strong feeling that Papa Legba has entered my life and blessed me. I feel a strong urge to thank him by doing something in return. What is the best way to express my gratitude? Is it appropriate for me to leave offerings for him in my altar, or would that invoke his ire? I do not want anything in return, I just want to serve him.

Stuff for the lwa really shouldn't go on space utilized for any other reason; they are less likely to be enraged and just more uninterested.

Charity is always a good option and honestly one of the best for folks who want to give but are removed from a community to support them. Make a donation in his honor or do volunteer work in his name. The lwa love charity, and request it often from their children.

Charities, nonprofits, and NGOs that help Haitians are a great choice. Some places to donate that I really like and that are reputable:

MamaBaby Haiti: This nonprofit is one of very few organizations in Haiti providing prenatal, delivery, and post natal care to pregnant people in the country. Haiti has an incredibly high infant mortality rate due to the lack of both providers and medical facilities to assist with birth. MamaBaby Haiti provides free care to any pregnant person who shows up AND they train midwives who can serve in their own communities. They have built birthing centers and they go by car, boat, and donkey to remote communities to provide care to people who cannot reach them. They additionally pay to get folks who deliver in a hospital out of 'hospital jail'; if you receive care in a hospital in Haiti and cannot pay, they lock you in and refuse to let you leave until you do which means people who have just had c-sections are sleeping on open porches on the floor with their newborns because they cannot pay the bill. MamaBaby Haiti will pay that. They are in desperate fundraising space right now; their operating costs are about 50K USD/month due to the incredibly high cost of everything in Haiti, and they have started shuttering their centers which serve literally thousands of people per month. You can see a lot of their work on Instagram, too, at MamaBabyHaiti.

P4H Global: this org trains teachers in Haiti, which is important work, but the founder (on IG as Bertrhude) has been a one woman fundraiser to provide support for the Kanal Pap Kanpe/The Canal is not Stopping movement. The local food economy has been decimated by food surplus donations from foreign countries, and local farmers have lacked infrastructure to be able to develop local crops to sell. Three canals have been or are being built in communities that rely on agriculture to survive. Berthrude has been tirelessly fundraising to provide materials--cement, steel, gravel--and paychecks to the communities who are building them. This has had tangible results; Haiti was once known as a rice-growing country, and that is returning. The canals have been able to provide the flooding necessary for rice, and as of today the second harvest is underway the KPK (Kanal Pap Kanpe) rice. The price of a sack of local rice in the north has dropped from roughly $1500 local dollars to $1000 local dollars, which is a MASSIVE drop in a country where many people survive on $100 local dollars or less per month. Berthrude has been transparent in her financial tracking and the amounts raised are truly incredible.

Haitian Bridge Alliance: this org has been active at the US southern border aiding Haitians and others who arrived seeking entrance. They have helped innumerable folks navigate the Biden program and have provided free legal services to basically any migrant they come across at the border. Currently, they are in communities in Mexico doing ad hoc 'know your rights' community meetings for Haitians wanting to cross. Additionally, their legal team has successfully done big things like sueing corrupt Haitian government officials in international court for crimes against humanity.

Health Equity International: this org funds and supports one of (I think) 4 free hospitals in the entire country, and that hospital (St Boniface) has the only spinal cord rehabilitation clinic in the country, the only NICU in the country, the only 24/7 trauma operating room in the country, and currently 1 of 2 emergency rooms in the country. Their work is astounding. I personally know people who would have died witho their care.

If you cannot donate money, donate your time and labor. Any organization that provides shelter to unhoused families in the US or Canada is receiving Haitians from the border and needs volunteers. Food resources like food pantries, soup kitchens, and community meals always need hands. If you can't do physical work, coordinate a diaper drive for your local family shelter or a winter coat drive (70 degrees feels cold for just arrived Haitians...). Make sandwiches for street outreach teams. Donate bilingual children's books to your local library. Stuff like that is gold to the lwa.

[negativezero2]

LIMBTHEORIES WOOOO

Ok so basically: completely insane ramble-y theories.

Every canto we don't get a member of Hermann's team, we'll meet a member of whoever Demian's team is. I call em' the Cain team (because of the mark of cain)

This is a massive "I think", but I think Young-ji is the head of the Cain team, or at least is also part of it. Mostly due to his seeming importance, as he's now come up in two chapters, made the original mirror technology, and was one of the founders of the League of Nine, and the fact that the guy who was implied to be Young-ji had, like, a black hole for a face

I think Ahab (at least I assume the captain's name is Ahab) might have fused with the whale. Any proof? No.

Ishmael might distort. This is the one I'm least confident in, but you can't say it wouldn't be cool. I think it's most likely if it turns out Ahab was dead.

Ish used a casket, which implied somebody died on the boat, which is already a MAJOR red flag that the captain was always mad, and from how Ish talked about it, it might've been Queequeg's casket.

This is an ABSOLUTELY nothing theory, but I think it'd be that, because of the eldritch nature of the Great Lake, it'd be funny if the Indigo Elder's actual name was Howard or Phillip(s). Why? Howard Philips Lovecraft.

[ridenwithbiden]

Susi Newborn — one of the most skilled and effective activists in Greenpeace’s 52-year history — passed away on the last day of December 2023. She is remembered fondly by her beloved children, Brenna, Woody, and Naawie; her granddaughter Toody; by her ex-husbands, Martini Gotje and Luc Tutugoro; and by friends, colleagues, and shipmates around the world. 

In 1977, when Susi arrived in Canada for her first Greenpeace action, to protect infant harp seal pups in Newfoundland, she was already something of a legend. Journalistic tradition would have me refer to her as “Newborn,” a name that rang with significance, but I can only think of her as Susi, the tough, smart activist from London. 

Susi was born in London in 1950, from Argentine parents. Her mother had grown up among the Buenos Aires elite and knew famous artists such as Raul Soldi and Mexican muralist Don Sequeiros. Susi’s godmother was a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the UK, and a colleague of Bertrand Russell. Susi grew up meeting writers, philosophers, and artists. 

Susi’s father was an Argentine Embassy diplomat, whom she described as “a deeply spiritual man.” He told her about meeting Mahatma Gandhi and urged her to “work for peace.” At the age of five, she stopped her father from chopping down a tree near their London home, her first ecology action, and in 1970, at the age of 20, she attended the world’s first Earth Day protest in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Argentina at the time suffered under a series of military dictators, and Susi’s father quietly opposed the Junta headed by General Alejandro Agustín Lanusse. When her father died, the tragedy radicalised her and she embarked “on a personal journey of activism.”

Hosting the film star

Susi worked for Friends of the Earth in London for two years, and in the summer of 1975 she attended the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in London, where she met Greenpeace members Paul and Linda Spong. Greenpeace Foundation in Canada had spent two years planning our first global ecology action, after protesting US and French nuclear weapons tests for four years. We were tracking Russian whalers off the coast of California in a fishing boat, and our campaign depended on confronting the whalers during this London IWC meeting. 

Paul and Linda Spong informed Susi about the planned confrontation, and she helped organise London ecologists and media for the coming drama. In June, two days before the IWC meeting would close, we located and blockaded the whalers. The next day, we announced the confrontation by marine radio; and Susi, Paul, Linda, Greenpeace filmmaker Michael Chechik, and a team of activists stormed the IWC meeting with the news. 

In 1976, Susi met Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter in London. Hunter returned to Vancouver with tales of “the amazing Susi Newborn” in London. He called her “a hard-core, grassroots ecologist who could help lead the next generation of Greenpeace actions in Europe.” Six months later, she arrived in Canada to participate in a campaign to halt the slaughter of infant seals on the Labrador ice floes. Susi told me that the direct action tactics and Earthy spiritual style of Greenpeace appealed to her. 

In May 1977, Susi pitched her tent on icy Belle Isle, 32 kilometres off the coast of Labrador, surrounded by ice floes, awaiting the arrival of the Norwegian sealing ships. Susi and David “Walrus” Garrick explored frozen caves and wrote a “Declaration of Freelandsea,” a free-spirited manifesto of ecology.

Three days after Susi and the Greenpeace team pitched camp on the ice, French actress Brigitte Bardot arrived to help bring attention to the Norwegian infant seal slaughter. Bardot wrote in her account that she had been “terrified” flying through a storm in the helicopter, and she arrived at the camp stifling tears and clutching her frozen fingers under her arms. Susi made her a cup of hot chocolate, warmed her in the tent, and explained practical tips such as how a woman could pee at night on frozen Belle Isle. “They give me courage,” Bardot wrote in her journal. 

Rainbow Warrior

Back in London, Susi next wanted to disrupt Icelandic whaling. She recruited Denise Bell from Friends of the Earth and set out to find a boat to confront the whalers in the North Atlantic. I sent her a file of photographs from the nuclear, whale, and seal campaigns. Like us in Canada, Susi had no money. She started fundraising, using Michael Chechik’s documentary film of the first two whale voyages, which was aired on the BBC with an introduction by British naturalist David Attenborough.  Susi and Denise met Charles Hutchinson from London and Allan Thornton from Canada, and the group opened the first Greenpeace office in the UK at 47 Whitehall Street. Simultaneously, French activist Rémi Parmentier and Canadian David McTaggart opened another office in Paris, where they were protesting French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

Susi and Denise Bell scoured maritime journals, looking for ships for sale. On the Isle of Dogs, in the Thames Docklands, they found a rusting, diesel-electric, 134-foot trawler that had been converted to a research ship by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. The Sir William Hardy was available to the highest bidder. Charles Hutchinson introduced them to the manager at Lloyds of Pall Mall bank. They received a bank loan, secured by the life insurance policies of Hutchinson and Bell. The Department of Trade accepted their bid of £42,725, and they put down a 10 percent deposit, £4,272, on the ship. This was the first ship that Greenpeace actually owned, and Susi sent us photographs of the sad looking trawler that within a decade would become one of the most famous ships of the 20th century. 

Newborn, Bell, and an army of volunteers cleaned the ship, stem to stern. Susi recruited her childhood friend Athel von Koettlitz and Australian boyfriend Chris Robinson to tackle the restoration. They clambered down into the pitch-black engine room with a flashlight. The hovel was a rust bucket, and the 800-horsepower engine had not been fired in years. They wiped moisture off gauge glass, tightened loose fittings, and got the two-stroke diesel engine running. Susi and the team removed trawling gear, scraped off rust, painted the ship, and shopped for second-hand parts.

In the fall of 1977, they negotiated with the Ministry to reduce the final price of the Sir William Hardy to £32,500, about £182,000 today. To raise this money, they toured Europe with the documentary, The Voyage to Save the Whales. In the Netherlands, the World Wildlife Fund financed a fundraising campaign. Bob and Bobbi Hunter departed for Amsterdam to accept the money for Greenpeace. On the way, they stopped in London to see the new ship, and there Bob Hunter gave Susi a copy of Warriors of the Rainbow, a book that had inspired Greenpeace in Canada, with a prophecy about how all the people of world — people of the rainbow — would come together to save the Earth from ruin. The crew later agreed to rename the ship Rainbow Warrior. The crew added rainbows to the ship’s deep green hull, a white dove copied from the book cover, and painted Rainbow Warrior at the bow, the vessel’s glorious new name.

Whales and nuclear waste

Susi saw Greenpeace as an integration of ecology, the Gandhian satyagraha she had learned from her father, Quaker direct action, and a deep respect for Indigenous Earth-informed spirituality. She was naturally inclusive and realised that the hard-edged punks of London appreciated ecology as much as the hippies, peace activists, and affluent conservationists. She recruited nuclear campaigner Peter Wilkinson, who had grown up around the South London docks, and had good relations with the dockworker unions, whom he convinced to “turn a blind eye” to the non-union Greenpeace team working on the ship. Susi built alliances with everyone. “Our gut reactions to injustice are the same,” she told her colleagues. 

By January 1978, the Rainbow Warrior was ready for its first ecological campaign, and on 2 May, they slipped down the Thames and into the North Sea. The seasoned crew included skipper Nick Hill; chief mate Jon Castle; Peter Bouquet, a mate off a tanker; cameraman Tony Mariner; and Von Koettlitz assisting Chief engineer Simon Hollander. Devonshire nurse Sally Austin served as medic, Hilari Anderson from New Zealand as cook. Bob Hunter and Fred Easton joined the crew from the Greenpeace Foundation in Canada. Remi Parmentier and David McTaggart joined from the Paris office; and Bell, Hutchinson, Thornton and Susi Newborn form the UK core of the crew. Others came from Holland, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, and Australia. 

Crowds welcomed the ecologists in Calais, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Aarhus, Denmark, where Susi and the crew showed films from earlier Greenpeace missions. Greenpeace organisations emerged in some of these cities. Susi understood that to spread the ideas of peace and ecology we needed to not only take action, but also build the movement itself.

The Rainbow Warrior crew confronted Icelandic whalers, then put into Reykjavik to release film to the media. Pete Wilkinson joined the crew in the UK and told Susi he had found evidence that the European nuclear industry was dumping radioactive waste into the Bay of Biscay, off Spain. The crew decided to expose the toxic dumping scheme, and pushed south. They would soon blow the lid off one of Britain’s nastiest secrets.

At Falmouth Bay, Susi and Denise Bell returned to London to issue media releases and handle inquiries. Easton and Mariner travelled north to Sharpness, where the nuclear dumping ship Gem sat in port, loading large drums labelled: RADIOACTIVE WASTE. 

Later, off the coast of Spain, the Rainbow Warrior interrupted the dumping. A 600-pound drum dropped from the Gem and flipped a Zodiac, throwing Gijs Thieme into the water, as the film crew captured the event. Later, in London, Susi and the European media teams released the film and photographs and organised a debate with nuclear industry representatives on the BBC. The activists revealed that each year, approximately 80 kilograms of plutonium-239 had been dropped into the Atlantic trench. In a few weeks, the Rainbow Warrior team had opened a new era of scrutiny for the entire European nuclear industry.

Greenpeace International

For the summer of 1979, Susi and the London activists organised new confrontations with the Icelandic whalers and the nuclear garbage scow Gem. Susi, the alliance builder, offered the Rainbow Warrior to Amnesty International, CND, Greenpeace New Zealand, and to other activists for campaigns. When crews returned from campaigns, Susi later told the New Zealand Dominion Post, “it’s like they’ve been to a war zone. You feel like you’ve gone to some bloody killing field somewhere.” In 2015, she recalled, “I still have injuries from those experiences.” 

As Greenpeace became more famous, power struggles naturally arose, and in 1979, Susi fled London to get away from the conflicts. She retreated to the Greek island of Samos, but didn’t rest for long. In Ayios Konstantinos, she heard from fishermen about an annual massacre of Aegean monk seals in the Mediterranean. In her typical fashion, Susi organised “Greenpeace Aegean Sea,” recruited young environmentalist William Johnson, launched a monk seal crusade, and made an alliance with Dr. Keith Ronald from Guelph University in Canada, who brought in the World Wildlife Fund. The ad hoc group successfully ended the marine mammal massacre. 

I next met Susi in November 1979, when we gathered in Amsterdam to create an International Greenpeace Council to coordinate the fast-growing organisation. Susi arrived on the Rainbow Warrior with Jon Castle, Tony Mariner, Athel von Koettlitz, Pete Wilkinson, and others from Europe. The council included representatives from Canada, UK, US, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands. New Zealand, Denmark, Australia and Germany joined soon thereafter, and Greenpeace now operates in 55 countries.

Susi was a fearless activist, more interested in the ecological vision of Greenpeace than in organisational manoeuvring or who would have power. During the week in Amsterdam, I met with her frequently, and the talk was always about our next actions and what we might achieve with Greenpeace tactics. Susi was the real deal, an activist to admire and emulate.

Kia ora

Susi moved to the US and received a degree in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic in Maine. In 1985, in New Zealand, during a campaign to stop French nuclear tests at Moruroa Atoll in the South Pacific, the French Secret Service bombed the ship Susi had loved and laboured over. The bombing broke her heart. “Not in a month of Sundays,” she said, “would I ever have expected a major European country to blow up a peace boat.” 

In 1986, she moved to New Zealand (Aotearoa), where she stayed active in ecology and justice campaigns. In 2003, her Rainbow Warrior memoir A Bonfire in My Mouth was published by HarperCollins. 

In New Zealand, in the 1990s, Susi served on the Board of Greenpeace New Zealand. She worked for Oxfam as their climate campaigner, for the NZ Refugee Council, and for the film union. Susi was a poet and a grand storyteller. She loved to talk about her days with Greenpeace and the importance of nonviolent direct action in changing our world for the better.

In the late 1990s, she moved to Waiheke and remained active in campaigns from protecting sensitive ecological regions to supporting Palestinian civil rights. In 2014, Susi helped create a Climate Voter initiative, encouraging New Zealanders to use their vote to make change. The following year, she joined her friend, Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Bunny McDiarmid, in a march to stop deep sea oil drilling in the region. 

In 2022, Susi began treatment for breast cancer. “I know there is something in the world that is creating a giant cancerous tumour,” she said at the time, “that is tearing us apart, commodifying the air we breathe and the water we drink. I also know that this tumour is interspersed with flowers and song birds and the salty waters of the tears we shed.”

Susi Newborn passed away on 31 December 2023, at the age of 73. The Maori community of Waiheke hosted a memorial for her at Piritahi Marae on Waiheke Island, on the tribal lands of the Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Paoa Māori people. Piritahi means, fittingly, “coming together as one.” The community gave her a tangi, a Māori farewell. Friends who worked and sailed and battled with Susi over 50 years, attended and offered fond memories. 

“Susi, had a strong sense of injustice,” said McDiarmid, “and never gave up hope it was possible to make change in the world. She believed in the strength of people to make change. She was also really funny, clever and incredibly good company.” 

“Susi was brave and fearless,” said her friend Bianca Ranson, “but that was balanced with her kindness and her generosity. Susi showed us how to be fearless and brave and calculating. She taught us how to keep ourselves safe while pushing the line as hard as we could. What she was doing decades ago, if only people had taken that seriously then we’d be in a very different situation now.  She was a pillar, a pou, of the island community. What are we supposed to do without her?” 

“What I loved in the early Greenpeace years was the feeling that anything could happen anytime, anywhere,” wrote Rainbow Warrior photographer Pierre Gleizes Nicéphore. “On board, life was never dull, and Susi was part of that story from day one.”

“Susi and I have been the best of mates since we met in 77,” said former Rainbow Warrior cook, Hilari Anderson. She called Susi “a feisty sister Warrior.”

I corresponded with Susi and spoke with her by phone many times while she was in New Zealand. She always signed off with “Kia Ora,” a Māori greeting of wellbeing that means “have life.” 

Indeed. Kia Ora, dear Susi. 

[dreamings-free]

Pollstar Staff | 11/1/24

Following a massively successful year with record-setting box office tallies and Taylor Swift’s highest-grossing tour of all time  — what’s next for the live biz in 2024? Pollstar’s editorial staff offers predictions.

Live Growth Spurt May Slow The live industry saw unprecedented growth in 2023 with a massive 46% growth YoY for the Top 100 Tours, according to Pollstar Boxoffice reports. 2024 should be another strong year — but perhaps not a great one. Though the U.S. economy showed promising signs with GDP increasing 4.9% in Q3, the total household debt spiked to $17.29 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve, though inflation continues to outpace salaries. Consumers may think twice before clicking the checkout box and adding another credit card charge, which may decrease ticket sales following live’s record-setting year.  – Oscar Aréliz

Reunions, Farewells & Mega-Fests It’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle, so the industry as a whole will get creative to continue the upward momentum of recent years. Expect more seemingly unlikely reunions, farewells that may not actually be final (cough, cough), and additional legs of tours that seemed like one-time affairs. Also, don’t be surprised if the mega-festival trend (When We Were Young, Power Trip, etc), continues to gather steam to the point of becoming a whole new category of yearly event.  – Ryan Borba

Ticketing: Same As It Ever Was With mounting public pressure, grandstanding politicians and supreme supernova demigoddess Taylor Swift aligning for the cause of ticketing reform, in the coming year one can expect little to change. That’s because tickets are money, whether artists, their teams, promoters, venues or ticketers keep prices low, outsmart bots, include all-in pricing, shut out the secondary or sell on the side, capitalists always gonna capitalize. – Andy Gensler

Sphere’s Innovations Break Out Many of the innovations that make Sphere so groundbreaking are likely to start trickling out to the world. Don’t expect to see 16K LED screens that stretch around concertgoers at your local arena any time soon, but it’s not a stretch that the beamforming sound system Holoplot created for Sphere becomes scalable enough for broader expansions and artists who already embrace innovation are likely to make bids at recreating Sphere’s already legendary immersive experience at other venues (as best they can). – J.R. Lind

More Protest Songs More artists will pen anti-war songs, including showing support for innocent civilians in various conflicts. We’ll also hear other politically-minded songs, such as tunes concerning women’s rights — along with more live events booked to benefit those in need and support causes near and dear to artists’ hearts, like 2022’s Love Rising Nashville organized in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Plus, it’s an election year. – Sarah Pittman

Indies Go Back To The Future Independent operators may remain fiercely competitive but, with the establishment of trade groups NIVA and NITO, a greater spirit of collaboration has emerged in the wake of COVID. In some cases, onetime rivals – including clubs and promoters – are teaming to share resources to lift all boats, while Brian Becker’s LiveCo brought together five indie promoters to expand existing partnerships with entertainment platforms to create new, innovative projects. Expect this trend to continue.  – Deborah Speer

Cloning Technology Arrives Insomniac Events founder/CEO Pasquale Rotella manages to find a scientific breakthrough getting one step closer to cloning himself by 2030. This opens doors for agents and promoters to attend all their events at once, and for artists to play multiple shows at the same time. – Ariel King

[a-solitary-sea-rover-backup]

SailGPokémon

In real life, some of the SailGP athletes like to talk about their pets. But if they lived in the Pokémon World, what unusual creatures might they bond with there?

Tom Slingsby- Growlithe

(There are a lot of dog Pokémon that could represent his dog Nala, but Growlithe’s Fire type seemed appropriate for his personality. She’s also kind of a redhead!)

Phil Robertson— Eevee

(Having been skipper of SailGP teams from three different nations, Phil adapts to any culture and environment, just like this famously-adaptable Pokémon that can evolve in many different ways. A Vaporeon is probably still the best Eeveelution for a sailor, though.)

Ben Ainslie— Glastrier

(This frozen unicorn fits with the “reindeer cyclone” livery Team GBR had for the 2022 season and with Ainslie being a knight. It also represents the Scottish unicorn on the UK Coat of Arms— I guess it would be more appropriate to pick a Galaran Pokémon but I couldn’t find one I liked.)

Quentin Delapierre— Meowstic

(Not a Water-type or a rooster like their symbol, but these Psychic cats are stylish, Breton-striped, and come from Poké-France [Kalos]. The male’s blue-and-white stripes look almost exactly like Team France’s livery.)

Erik Heil— Donphan

(Rightly or wrongly, Team Germany are strongly associated with car racing because of one of their founders, and this guy is a pygmy elephant that curls up to run things over like a car tire. But elephants are also known to swim pretty well and it can probably help hose down the boat with its trunk.)

Peter Burling— Elgyem

(Intelligent, long-faced, shy, and has otherworldly talent. Also black and teal! Can’t you just see this cute little robot alien guy helping out in the boatyard levitating tools to people who need them?)

Nicolai Sehested— Lapras

(Sure, the Nessie parallels would make it easy to call Lapras Scottish, but as a part Ice-type with a head and neck based on the figureheads of Viking ships, she can also fit with Team Denmark and their original “Holger” livery.)

Diego Botin— Finizen

(This cute Mediterranean dolphin is from Poké-Spain [Paldea], which literally has a city based on Cadíz. The pattern on its side reminds me of ancient Minoan paintings of dolphins from Crete, so it would also be a great mascot for a SailGP Team Greece if there ever is one.)

Sebastién Schneiter— Snover

(A young abominable snowman with a head that looks like a mountain range, Snover fits with Team Switzerland’s boat being called “Eiger” and their “mountain peaks” symbol.)

Taylor Canfield— Rufflet

(A baby American Eagle! Is it going to evolve into a full-grown Braviary on his watch or will that take yet another change of trainer?)

And the unattached:

Jimmy Spithill- Infernape

(Who else would have a pet flaming punching monkey? Who else would box with his flaming punching monkey?)

Nathan Outteridge— Dewott

(It’s literally a samurai otter… for the guy who has all the jokes about his last name looking like “otter”… who started out as captain of Team Japan. Aren’t Pokémon great?)

[grandmaster-anne]

Court Circular | 22nd February 2023

Buckingham Palace

The King this morning visited the Felix Project, Unit 12 and 14 Thomas Road Industrial Estate, Thomas Road, London E14, and was received by Colonel Jane Davis (Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London), the Founders of the Felix Project (Mr Justin Byam Shaw and Mrs Jane Byam Shaw) and the Mayor of London (the Rt Hon Sadiq Khan). His Majesty, escorted by Ms Charlotte Hill (Chief Executive), toured the depot and kitchen and met members of the warehouse team, volunteers and representatives from the Project’s community partners, before unveiling a community freezer and joining a Reception for supporters. The Earl of Dalhousie was received by The King this afternoon, delivered up his Wand of Office and took leave upon relinquishing his appointment as Lord Steward. The Earl of Rosslyn was received by The King, kissed hands upon his appointment as Lord Steward and received from His Majesty his Wand of Office. The President of the German Bundestag (Ms Bärbel Bas) was received by The King. The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP (Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury) had an audience of His Majesty via telephone. The Queen Consort, Patron, BookTrust, this afternoon received Mr Joseph Coelho (Children’s Laureate).

Kensington Palace

The Earl of Wessex this morning visited George Town Yacht Club, 612B North Sound Road, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and departed by boat to visit the Coast Guard Base. The Earl of Wessex, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation, and The Countess of Wessex, Global Ambassador, this afternoon attended a Reception at Government House, Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman, for young people who have achieved the Gold Standard in the Award. The Countess of Wessex, Global Ambassador, 100 Women in Finance, this morning attended a Reception at Government House. Her Royal Highness later attended the Annual Agricultural Show at West Bay, Grand Cayman. The Earl and Countess of Wessex later departed from Owen Roberts International Airport, Grand Cayman, for Turks and Caicos Islands and were received upon arrival in Grand Turk by the Governor of Turks and Caicos Islands (His Excellency Mr Nigel Dakin). Their Royal Highnesses this evening attended a Reception at the Governor’s Residence, Grand Turk.

St James’s Palace

The Princess Royal, Patron, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK), this morning attended the London Region Annual Student Conference, Queen Anne Court, Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich, Park Row, London SE10, and was received by Mr. Matthew Burrow (Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London). Her Royal Highness, Chancellor, University of London, this afternoon visited the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care at King’s College London, Bessemer Road, London SE5, to mark its Tenth Anniversary, and was received by Mr. Christopher Wellbelove (Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London). The Princess Royal, Commandant-in-Chief (Youth), St. John Ambulance, this evening attended the Youth Award Ceremony at the Old Palace, Hatfield House, Hatfield, and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire (Mr. Robert Voss).

Kensington Palace

The Duke of Gloucester, Patron, British Society of Soil Science, this afternoon received Dr Jacqueline Hannam (President), Professor Paul Hallett (President Elect) and Mrs. Sarah Garry (Executive Officer).

St James’s Palace

Princess Alexandra, Deputy Colonel-in-Chief, this afternoon presented medals to members of The Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths’ Own) at St. James’s Palace.

[orderoftheavengers]

Quidditch Daredevil 

Summary: Mattathias Murdock is the blind Gryffindor Seeker

House: Gryffindor

Blood Status: Half-blood

Wand: Redwood, 14 inches, Unicorn Tail Hair

Broom: Daredevil 2020

Patronus: Shortfin Mako Shark

Specialties: Flying, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Legilimency, Divination

Sorting

His devotion to justice and great read on people had the Hat considering Huffepuff for a very long time. Matt is about a perfectly even Gryffinpuff. The split comes from his parents. His father was the toughest beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team; his mother, a Muggle nun, had all the traits of an honorary Hufflepuff.  

But come on, it’s right in there in his moniker: Daredevil. He even color-codes himself by the Hogwarts founder he most admires. He lost his eyesight because at age nine, he risking his own life to save an elderly Muggle.

The Accident

As a small child, Matt saved a Muggle from a rogue Acromantula, by grabbing his father's wand and levitating a nearby car to smash the eight-legged freak. In the ensuing splatter, an amount of the giant arachnid’s venom got into Matt’s eyes. Acromantula venom is a key ingredient in invisibility potions. The chemistry is complex, but it should not go near your eyeballs. Matt was left blind as a result. However, the magic venom had the side effect of enhancing the magic in his body, causing his other four senses and reflexes to heighten, among other things.

Quidditch Daredevil

Even without eyesight, his skill on the Quidditch field rivals the Ravenclaw seeker Peter Parker. Matt holds none of his House's prejudices, and teams up with Slytherins Frank Castle and the She-Wolf.  Nicodemus Fury has his mad-eye on Matt, since most of the original Avengers have graduated, and Hogwarts still needs defenders. Patronus The shortfin Mako is one of the fastest and most athletic species of sharks, able to jump onto boats! The Mako is a master of echolocation--the sense Matt Murdock is famous for. Like a superhero dressed like a devil, they look evil, but generally does not attack humans. AN: I have not seen a full episode of "Daredevil," but the latest "Spiderman" movie got me intrigued, so I looked up some clips. "She-Hulk" turned me into a Matt Murdock fan. Life is too short for me to commit to another TV series, but if anyone has any specific episodes to recommend, I'm game.

[rpmtrish]

Racing News: Ford Unveils Mustang GT3 Race Car

By SEMA Editors Ford has unveiled the Mustang GT3 race car, based on the all-new '24 Mustang Dark Horse, during a special ceremony as part of this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. The automaker also announced plans to enter the GT3 into the iconic endurance race's FIA GT3 category in 2024, along with an entry in the 2024 World Endurance Championship season under Proton Competition, the German team led by team principal Christian Ried. "It is not Ford versus Ferrari anymore. It is Ford versus everyone," said Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Co. Multimatic will build and support the GT3s, while M-Sport will assemble the Ford Performance-developed 5.4 L Coyote-based V8 engines. The GT3 features a bespoke short-long arm suspension, rear-mounted transaxle gearbox, carbon fiber body panels, and an aero package developed to meet GT3 targets. In addition, the automaker announced a new Ford Performance branding described as a "cleaner, simplified look" that will be integrated across its racing vehicles. New E1 World Championship to Launch Inaugural Electric Powerboat Racing Season UIM E1 World Championship--the world's first all-electric powerboat racing championship--has unveiled the venues that will host the first-ever racing season beginning in January 2024. The season will launch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, followed by a to-be-determined location in the Middle East in February 2024. Two events--set for April and May 2024--will take place in the waters of Venice, Italy. Then, competitors will visit Monaco in July 2024, followed by Rotterdam, Netherlands, in September 2024. Teams will race RaceBirds boats near the shore, allowing fans to view the action from land. WyoTech Announces Inaugural Hall of Fame Class WyoTech--the U.S. automotive, diesel and collision trade school based in Laramie, Wyoming--has announced its inaugural Hall of Fame class, with alumni including the late trailblazer known as "The Fastest Woman on Earth, a John Deere master tech whose YouTube videos have garnered 8 million views, a custom car builder who returned as an instructor and more. "Each of the six alumni has achieved tremendous career success and demonstrates WyoTech's capability of training students to succeed across the entire spectrum of the trade industry," said Jim Mathis, president and CEO of WyoTech. "We're honored to recognize them as the first inductees of WyoTech's Hall of Fame and to show the public the kind of impact our graduates have on the trade industry and the world." To be eligible for the WyoTech Hall of Fame, alumni must be five years post-graduation and established in the industry. The inaugural WyoTech Hall of Fame Class is (in alphabetical order): - John Alonzo is the racing operations-marketing director for the race shop at Scoggin Dickey Parts Center in Lubbock, Texas, one of the world's leading dealers of high-performance engines and GM parts. - Jessi Combs (1980-2019): The late Combs broke stereotypes and records by joining the North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger team and, in 2013, became "The Fastest Woman on Four Wheels" at 398 mph, with a top speed of 440 mph. In 2019, she set a new women's landspeed world record at 522.783 mph before the accident that took her life. That feat and her career were memorialized in the HBO Max documentary "The Fastest Woman on Earth." - Dave Gilley is the founder and owner of Gilleyfab Enterprises, near Salt Lake City, Utah, known for top-tier, fine-quality fabrication in the UTV industry. - Levi Green is the owner and instructor of HammerFab near Austin, Texas, which specializes in handcrafting upscale turnkey customs and industry-leading fabrication tools and parts. - Zeth Key is a Master John Deere service technician at a Sloan Implement location in Illinois. In April 2008, he launched a YouTube channel in honor of his late friend Jake to promote the trade they loved and to "inspire a younger generation to pick up a wrench and start a great career" keeping agriculture running. In two years, the channel grew to 63,000 subscribers and 8 million views. - Randy Svalina is a WyoTech specialties instructor who teaches students a curriculum and a way of life that helps their families and communities. "As a part of WyoTech, we help others reach their goals, their dreams, raise their families and succeed in their journey," he said. Read the full article

[mariacallous]

Team Navalny accuses former Yukos executive Leonid Nevzlin of ordering attacks against exiled Russian opposition figures

Activists at the Anti-Corruption Foundation and a handful of journalists recruited to verify their findings have published evidence that billionaire former Yukos top executive Leonid Nevzlin hired thugs to attack three anti-Kremlin opposition figures and possibly try to kidnap one to hand over to Russian federal agents. Like his apparent enemies among Alexey Navalny’s old entourage, Nevzlin is a fugitive from the Russian authorities. He fled the country more than two decades ago when state investigators launched a sweeping criminal case against the oil company Yukos. In 2008, a Russian court sentenced Nevzlin in absentia to life imprisonment on charges of organizing five murders, five assassination attempts, and an armed robbery. To this day, he remains close friends with Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Who were Nevzlin’s alleged targets?

Former Anti-Corruption Foundation board chairman Leonid Volkov in Vilnius, foundation director Ivan Zhdanov in Geneva, and Alexandra Petrachkova (the wife of economist Maxim Mironov) in Argentina.

What’s the Anti-Corruption Foundation’s source?

The foundation reportedly received an email sent to its general inbox proposing a conversation about the March 2024 attack on Volkov outside his home in Vilnius by an assailant who sprayed him with mace and beat him with a hammer, breaking one of Volkov’s arms and bruising his legs. The inquiry came from a man who identified himself as Andrey Matus, whom the foundation describes as a “fixer” who uses his connections to law enforcement to “fix problems” for money. Matus claimed that Mikhail Khodorkovsky employed him in this capacity for the past three years.

At a face-to-face meeting in Montenegro, Matus later gave Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov records of his alleged correspondence with Nevzlin, where they discussed details of the hired attacks never released to the public (Nevzlin and Matus apparently even shared videos of the assaults of Zhdanov and Petrachkova that were never published anywhere). Investigative journalists Mikhail Maglov and Christo Grozev studied the writing style, personal information, screen names, screenshots, and hyperlinks present in these messages and confirmed their authenticity. 

The Volkov attack plan

In the correspondence provided to Volkov and Zhdanov, the person presumed to be Leonid Nevzlin orders the attack on Volkov through someone whose personal data in the messages suggest he is an attorney named Anatoly Blinov. According to journalists at Agentstvo Media, Blinov once served on Gazprom-Media’s board of directors and now lives in Poland. 

The initial plan for Volkov was even more outrageous than the hammer assault that ultimately took place. The correspondence apparently between Nevzlin and Blinov describes a scheme to kidnap Volkov in Lithuania and transport him to Russia by boat to hand him over to the Federal Security Service. In numerous messages in October 2023, the man hired to organize the scheme refers to Volkov as “the package.” He asked for 12,000 euros ($13,300) to rent two boats in Riga and fuel them for the journey, plus an unspecified labor fee. The same man tracked Volkov to the United States in November 2023, also planning to abduct the opposition figure in a manner that would land Volkov “in a wheelchair.” During the New York City visit, however, the assailants couldn’t find a good moment to pounce. Volkov returned to Lithuania and was finally jumped outside his home, the following March.

According to what Andrey Matus told Volkov and Zhdanov in Montenegro, Nevzlin was unhappy with the attack on Volkov and refused to pay the negotiated $250,000 fee. “I could have fucked him up that badly myself. I needed him to be teasing the birds [through his cell bars] for the rest of his life, but you left him with just a couple of bruises,” Nevzlin allegedly complained. Matus said the disagreement over money led to a falling-out between Nevzlin and Blinov, at which point Nevzlin instructed Matus to take back the phones issued to Blinov and his associates to coordinate the attack on Volkov.

How Russia Today fits into the story

Roughly a week before the Anti-Corruption Foundation and its media partners revealed their findings about Leonid Nevzlin, the Russian state propaganda outlet RT published the same correspondence shared with the foundation by Andrey Matus. Russia Today claimed that it received the messages from a certain “source in the opposition” based in Lithuania. RT’s source claimed that he got the records from Anatoly Blinov, who supposedly “fears for his life” due to threats from Nevzlin’s associates.

Activists at the Anti-Corruption Foundation say they never understood why Matus came to them with the evidence against Nevzlin. After meeting with Volkov and Zhdanov, Matus promised to send them audio recordings of his calls with Nevzlin, but he suddenly stopped communicating with the foundation’s team. “He quickly realized that selling all these materials to us wouldn’t work. We simply don’t have the money he wanted,” the Anti-Corruption Foundation wrote in its investigation. 

Nevzlin denies all allegations that he hired anyone to attack Volkov, Zhdanov, or Petrachkova. He calls the charges “absurd” and says his accusers are knowingly spreading Kremlin propaganda that first appeared on RT. Nevzlin’s longtime friend and former Yukos colleague Mikhail Khodorkovsky has criticized the Anti-Corruption Foundation for trying to “tarnish” his reputation by insinuating connections to Nevzlin’s alleged actions. “Either it’s true, and in that case, Leonid Nevzlin has lost his mind. Or it’s an FSB provocation and a fake, on which a lot of money was spent,” Khodorkovsky wrote on Telegram, describing the allegations against his friend as “based on information published by Russia Today.”

[charles-among-us]

I’ve decided to do some Twst OCs.

says me from months ago

However, I see that most of them are from a main story perspective. So I thought to do seven from before the story! And drop some Ramshackle lore as well-

So here’s one of Pomefoire’s previous Vice Leaders;

Giovanno Suprezion!

{More under the cut}

Giovanno, for those who don’t know who he’s twisted off of, is twisted off of Dimentio from Super Paper Mario. One of the many charming villains from one of my favorite Mario games. (First being Super Mario RPG and second being Mario and Luigi: Dream Team.)

He, alongside Diasomnia’s Vice Leader at the time, Daven Lorcut, are two of the more unique graduates from Night Raven College. Both having chosen Dimensional Travel/Research as their career. And with how said Diasomnia Vice Leader went missing for most of the year and came back just in time for graduation in a dimension traveling boat, their dreams become reality! and because they boyfriends-

School History/School Infamously:

Giovanno was no pushover when it came to Pomefiore rules of self care and potion making. Although he definitely had quite the unique style (Aka: This man made a royal purple, neon yellow checkered suit once and if you were to ask anyone from that dorm at the time, they would say it was probably the worst thing they ever had the pleasure of seeing). also aka; the first outfit I drew him in.

This didn’t mean he didn’t get up to trouble with his experiments when in school. Clever pranks abroad with makeup and dimensional rifts galore caused definite trouble among other students. Yet he always had a fondness for helping those with writing essays, helping. Not writing them for them.

Giovanno, as one of the Ramshackle Study Group founders, was responsible for the financial problems that were found in some parts of Ramshackle, seeing what needed to be fixed and if they could be afforded. Outside of his duties with writing tutorials for other students.

Family Life;

Giovanno grew up in a orphanage for most of his life as one of the few fey children in his town within the Queendom of Roses. He grew up teaching other children younger than him how to read and write with the caretakers so they had a better chance of being adopted to decent families. I say decent because his boy was absolute trouble for those who clearly shouldn’t have children at all. And he got all of the children to misbehave for those people. yes he was being a lil shit.

When the time came for his magic to start blossoming, he was very curious about it, and so were his caretakers to a degree. Because somehow, floating and teleporting around were the first things he tried doing when he first got a hang of it. And growing magic plants that controlled ants, but he doesn’t talk about that after a incident occurred involving said ants.

I have run out of juice- I swear I’ll write more for him in the future-

[nurseprigs]

When Yuri pulled Dulce to a more reserved place, different situations crossed their minds.

Yuri wanted to clarify a few things. Dulce wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss anyone other than Gustav.

"We need to talk" They both said at the same time.

Yuri didn't understand why his friend looked so uncomfortable. They had already spent too many days alone to seem awkward now.

"Maybe you should start. I'll probably have to go help Akemi because she's clearly burning our food while she looks in our direction."

"Is miss Yamamoto looking at us?" Questioned Yuri trying to fix his hair

"Oh... Are you and Yamamoto…"

"No, of course not! Listen, I need to tell you something. It's really important."

Yuri pulled Dulce a little further away from the curious eyes, took a deep breath and spoke again.

"I don't know what the matter is with you Miss Edwards, but she's trying to keep you out of here."

Dulce couldn't believe it! What happened between the two of them in the florest seemed so far away and insignificant now… and she really wanted to stay. They were a family!

"Of course, if that's the subject at the next meeting, I'll be on your side. Miss Yamamoto is fair and will probably be on your side as well. But at the end of the day, the three of us would only make the discussion escalate even further. Maybe if you're able to get Gustav Morris's vote… Henrique clearly won't want to lose Gustav, and that's exactly what will happen if he decides you're not part of our team. I could talk to him, but that It's a problem you need to solve."

Neither of them noticed the curious eyes of one of the founders watching and listening to everything that was said there. Maybe because Yuri was busy trying not to look for Akemi to see if she was still looking. Maybe because Dulce was busy trying to think of how she would tell Gustav what happened.

"You know what, Mister Nakamura? Today Akemi and I are going to the forest to pick fruits for tomorrow's breakfast, we're going to meet on the rocks near the trail… maybe I'll forget and she'll end up alone there."

Despite the two having known each other under the sheets, since they got on the boat, they became what Dulce imagined what it would be like to have a brother. She wanted to say thank you, and that opportunity with Akemi was her way of saying it.

About Yuri… Well, maybe he coincidentally would be walking through the rocks at the same time as the young woman who has been occupying a big space in his thoughts.

Begin || Previously || Next

[like-the-cut-of-your-jib]

Opinion piece from NZ Herald about K-Challenge follows

“France’s late entry to the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona has inevitably raised questions about their credibility as challengers – but their lateness will not necessarily affect their competitiveness.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about France’s K-Challenge – where the money is coming from is one, another is whether they will have too much ground to make up when it comes to design and testing.

Louis Vuitton have a long history with the America’s Cup, sponsoring the challenger series from 1983-2007, when they terminated their involvement, saying that “business” had encroached too far in the organisation of the Cup – a bit of a poke at then holders, Alinghi, and their principal, Ernesto Bertarelli. Alinghi and Bertarelli are among the challengers in Barcelona next year – along with Ineos Britannia, American Magic, Luna Rossa and now K-Challenge.

The money question may be answered later this month with a sponsorship announcement. Among the heavy hitters who could be bankrolling the challenge is the man recently named as the richest in the world – Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy founder Bernard Arnault, said to be worth US$200 billion and who recently took the title of the planet’s wealthiest man after the downturn in the fortunes of Elon Musk.

Another potential sponsorship candidate for K-Challenge is the French-based Accor hotel group, the largest in Europe and one of the biggest in the world.

Playing catch-up is not recommended in most America’s Cup cycles and particularly in the foiling monohulls – where design is an even more key element than previous Cups. However, under the Cup rules governing this regatta, K-Challenge do have options.

The 37th America’s Cup rules allow that and the most obvious port of call for K-Challenge could well be Team NZ. That would enable them to begin their race yacht build later this year – as all other teams will do.

The French are also not short of world-class sailing and foiling experience. Stephane Kandler, CEO of K-Challenge, has been around a long time and was involved with K-Challenge’s last America’s Cup gig in Valencia in 2007 (where they were known as Areva). Bruno Dubois manages their SailGP team, currently running third, very close behind New Zealand.

While the sailing team hasn’t yet been announced, it’s likely that the talented Quentin Delapierre will head it up as helmsman, as he does in the SailGP team – which also includes America’s Cup grinders Matthieu Vandame and Olivier Herledant. The latter pair was part of France’s Groupama team at the 2017 Bermuda America’s Cup, at which Team NZ relieved Oracle Team USA of the “Auld Mug”.

Groupama didn’t make it through to the challenger semifinals in that regatta and many will not assign much chance to K-Challenge this time round. However, they will still take delivery of their 40-foot test boat and will be able to compete in the Cup pre-regattas, starting in October and which Team NZ is scheduled to announce by April.

Two of those will be sailed in European venues in the AC 40s while the third will be contested in AC75s.

They can either buy a first generation AC75 boat, as Alinghi have done, and gather data and time on the water to inform the building of their race boat next year. It’s not known where that first-generation boat might come from (Alinghi bought Team New Zealand’s) – but a smarter play might be, with the money men on board, to buy a design package from another team.”