#manufacturers are being responsive by thinking of new and exciting ways to use plants in their products. In this article

[ingredientsonline]

Top Trends in Plant-Based Ingredients

[freewayinsurance]

What Happened to the VW Bus? Is It Coming Back?

Actually, nothing happened to the VW bus. It just became less popular, temporarily, in the United States. And yes, it is coming back in a big way!

After the 1970s, the U.S. shut down VW bus manufacturing since the popular van was no longer was able to meet new safety and emissions standards. Production continued in Brazil, however, until 2014, when Brazil enacted new standards that the current model of the bus couldn’t meet. When that happened, the German production factory shut down its production after 63 years – the longest running time of any vehicle ever.

Now, many people are excited to learn the Volkswagen Bus is coming back next year, in 2024 – as the ID. Buzz (yes, that is its name!). It’s electric, eclectic and brings back a hint of the hippie movement psychedelic nostalgia with its neon colors: tangerine, lime, grape and more. Volkswagen is hoping to once again earn the respect and admiration of a new generation of car buyers.

One reason the VW bus became obsolete was its failing safety measures. No matter what you choose to drive, being safely prepared for the road by purchasing affordable car insurance will ensure your favorite vehicle never goes out of style.

The Peculiar History of the VW Bus

Although many people in the U.S. think of the iconic Volkswagen bus as the original hippie van from the 1960s, it has a different association in Europe, where it was born in Germany in the 1940s. Colloquially called the VW Bus in America and the VW Camper in the UK, the Volkswagen bus was modeled after the German Plattenwagen, a vehicle originally made to carry car parts. Dutch businessman, race car driver, winemaker and Olympian Ben Pon, always looking for something new and already selling the hugely popular VW Beetle in the United States, saw the Plattenwagen during a tour of the Volkswagen plant in West Germany one day and the lightbulb went off.

The Beetle paved the way for what was known then as the VW Transporter, later called the Volkswagen Microbus and then, in later years, the Bus. In the 1950s when the Transporter hit the market, buyers could choose from 8 different models, all designed to answer a specific need. Today, there are more than 15 variations of the Transporter (or T models) on the market.

For example, the Kombi VW bus featured removable rear seats so consumers could use the van to carry cargo (and people). A variety of side windows options also made an appearance during these days, with a low-end version offering 11-15 windows spaced around the van and high-end versions offering 23-window VW buses. Early models carried a hard to clean split front windshield, earning it one of many nicknames, “the Splitty.” Volkswagen did away with this unpopular feature, creating a solid front windshield.

In Europe, families and friends used the popular bus for camping trips, as did Americans, who also plastered peace signs all over it and drove it to see Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Europeans turned it into an ambulance, and everyone used its large interior for deliveries and carting stuff around.

In the 1960s, things began to turn around in the U.S. market when people became more concerned with vehicle safety and emissions – and something known as the chicken tax.

Chicken Tax

The Chicken War started when American farmers adopted poultry factory farming practices in the 1950s. Soon, chicken was being exported to Europe in mind-boggling numbers – which didn’t sit well with German farmers. Feathers flew and, as a result, high tariffs were implemented on imported chicken in Europe.

In America, the United Auto Workers were threatening a strike over the importing of the popular Volkswagen Type 2 pickup truck.

In response to both of the above, President Johnson imposed a 25% tax on imported light trucks. Called the Chicken Tax, it’s still in effect today. The effect on the Volkswagen is, in order to avoid the Chicken Tax, the vehicle cannot be sold as a truck or any kind of commercial vehicle.

Today’s Volkswagen Bus

Today, three different iterations of the VW bus are on the production line at a plant in Hanover, Germany. The model year T6 continues to be built with a van platform but is ceasing production with the new ID. Buzz. This is its last year. The T7 is a medium-sized Transporter with a large cargo area marketed as a plug-in hybrid. And the newest member of this family of unconventional members is the Buzz, due in the U.S. in 2024.

In Europe, the electric Buzz rolled into the market in 2022 and found new categories to master, including as a police car, a school bus, a postal truck and much more. But in America, the Buzz will never climb to the exalted ranks of a service vehicle. The chicken tax took care of that. It will always be a passenger van on these shores.

The Buzz About the Buzz

Let’s talk specifics about this new van that’s supposed to bring us all back to the days of concerts, tie-dye and peace signs. Of course, it is electric. But what other changes will we see?

Appearance: Some people think the new Buzz looks similar to the old Scooby-Doo van. Others think it looks like what might happen if a modern minivan had a baby with a sleek sports car. It certainly no longer has the goofy smile of the old VW Bus. Some people say it looks like an angry cousin.

Mechanics: It’s no longer necessary to carry around the “How to Fix Your Volkswagen for the Complete Idiot” and 3 wrenches. The downside is that a paper clip and a rubber band won’t fix the rear engine until you can get it to a shop. And, gasp, it comes in automatic transmission, too. Staying on top of maintenance will get you further.

Noise and Driving: If you’ve ever driven or ridden in an older VW Microbus, you already know how noisy it was, with bone-jarring shakes and rattles. It may – or may not – make it up that steep hill in the mountains of Colorado. Perhaps try reverse to make it up? Today’s version will have up to 201 horsepower (the original had an HP of two digits). It’s supposed to be much easier to maneuver. You’ve got to wonder if they took out all the fun!

Smart Car: You probably won’t consider the new Buzz as you did its distant little brother or sister. In the 60s, the bus was considered a valuable and friendly member of the family. The Buzz is more like the rather stern computer Hal in “2001: A Space Odyssey” (except for the part where Hal goes crazy and murders the crew). That won’t happen with Buzz, but it may stop you from switching lanes without signaling or flashing colors at you if there’s an obstruction in the road.

Overall, VW is banking on the new trend for electrical vehicles to help it become the world player it once was with the Beetle and the original VW bus in decades past. And although it may cost quite a bit more than the original ($1,800 vs $40,000), there are still fans clamoring to get a piece of yesterday for today.

Protect Your Vehicle Investment with Freeway Insurance

Whether you choose to drive a new electric VW Buzz or you are thrilled to get your hands on the iconic 60s version, having the right auto insurance can help you protect your ride and yourself. At Freeway Insurance, we can find affordable insurance that meets your budget and your needs. To get started, get a quick online quote, give us a call at (800) 777-5620 or stop by one of our convenient locations.

[siimjaeyun]

Chapter 10: Call of the Cicada 

Synopsis: A stranger has been threatening Destructo, a company based in Seoul. As more and more businessmen get attacked on account of swarms of Cicadas, will it lead you to a new mystery and perhaps on a path towards a new relationship with Heeseung? 

Series Masterlist 

------ 

The man quietly drove home, slowly taking in his surroundings as he approached his destination. Abruptly, a phone call broke through his peace and he quickly picked up. 

"I warned you to quit." The raspy voice threatened on the other side of the phone.

"I told you to stop calling me!" He hung up the phone and threw it to his backseat, ignoring yet another blackmail call. 

He maintained his attention on the road before him. The first cicada fell onto the front window, and he pushed it aside using the windshield wipers. 

“Those cicada things disgust me.” He whispered to himself, and continued his drive home. But his tranquility soon disappeared as more and more cicadas landed on his windows, forming a creature that would engulf both him and the car completely. 

------- 

Professor Yin stood at the center of the class, slowly caressing the cicada bug on his index finger; he later placed it back on the mini-tree while planting a kiss on the head. 

“Did he just kiss the bug?” Heeseung, who was seated behind you, asked in a quiet voice, before you hummed back, slowly admiring the professor’s good looks. 

“The cicada bug is one of earth’s most spectacular creatures, and are well-known for the songs sung by most if not all male cicadas. In their lifetime, cicadas usually will go underground and re-emerge every seventeen years to escape the pollution and disastrous human activity. Isn’t that right Sunoo and Niki?” The professor turned his attention on the two boys in the back of the class bickering over the last bag of snacks in their hands. 

“Sunoo. Niki. Are you aware that Nature O’s are manufactured by Destructo, the biggest polluter in both Seoul and the country!” Both boys glanced at one another and looked back at the professor. 

“Uh, no, but at least they’re delicious!” Professor Yin rolled his eyes and turned once the bell rang signaling their dismissal. 

“Yikes, I swear Professor Yin gets weirder every class.” Sunghoon swung his back over his shoulder and led the way out of the front door. 

“Really? I haven’t noticed much.” Jungwon stopped you mid-way allowing you to process your response. 

“Of course you haven’t. You’re too busy staring at him.” You punched him lightly in the shoulder and noticed Heeseung with an unclear face. 

“What’s so great about Professor Yin anyway?” 

“He’s smart, pretty poetic, and good looking.” You quickly said the last part before running off with Sunghoon and Jay to the cafeteria. 

“Oh yeah? I wonder how good he would look in my traps!” Jake looked at the boy oddly before running off to catch the rest of his 02 friends. 

“Heeseung, are you jealous?” Sunoo asked bluntly. 

“J-jealous, what makes you say that.” 

“I don’t know, you just seem a little tense, a little-” Niki didn’t get to finish his statement before he choked on a slip of paper in his mouth. 

“It’s a note from JK, it says there’s a mystery waiting for us at the city hospital.” Heeseung nodded at him, leading the young trio into the cafeteria before heading off to their next adventure. 

------ 

“Please, we all know I’m the visual of the group.” Sunghoon cockily smirked, which earned him a few bickers from the other members as they entered the hospital. 

Heeseung stayed back momentarily, patiently waiting as you got off the van and headed to the same entrance. Besides the limited adrenaline in his veins, and the anxiety rushing to his mind and heart, he continued with his mission. 

“Hey, y/n.” At the mention of your name, you quickly turned back to see Heeseung standing there. 

“I was uh...wondering if you’d like to go on a d-d-d-d-date.” With all his strength, he finally let out the magic words. The question perked your interest and you approached him with a building sense of happiness and excitement. 

“A date? You mean it?” 

“Yeah, there’s a new trap exhibit in town and I was hoping you’d like to go.” Your peaking excitement calmed itself down, facing the reality of Heeseung’s world. 

“You know when you popped the question, I actually thought you meant it.” You crossed your arms and headed inside, feeling slightly guilty with your indirect rejection. 

Heeseung caught up with you and kept his thoughts on what you had mentioned to him earlier. In his mind, you loved traps too. 

“What happened here Chief?” Jay looked at both Chief Kim and Mayor Lee who were standing at the front door of an operation room. 

“Nothing, now go away.” 

“Is he okay?” 

“Yes, now go away.” It was clear that Mayor Lee was trying his best to get rid of the pestering group, but ensured to stay strong on the task. 

“Are you sure? He’s practically screaming inside the room.” Niki, using his advantage of height, peered over the Chief’s shoulder and saw as one of the nurses used a pair of tweezers to extract a cicada from the nostril from the man. 

“You know what happened!? This giant disgusting cicada creature trapped the poor man. Imagine small little creatures crawling over your body, ew…” Chief Kim began to frantically scratch his arms as he confessed to the teen group the truth behind the incident. 

“Okay, yes there’s a cicada creature. But! If you have any decency left in your hearts, you will stay out of this. It will be good publicity for the festival on Saturday so don’t meddle with it!” Mayor Lee retreated from the hall at his warning, not exactly prioritizing the well-being of his people. 

Later that night, another attack occurred. 

Another business man was going through his daily routine, ending the day with a warm night shower. As he moved back his hair, his phone rang, and he picked up while wrapping a towel around his torso. 

“I warned you to quit.” The familiar raspy voice rang through the phone, leaving the man to hang up in frustration, preferring to return to his chore. 

He entered the comfort of the shower once more, throwing the towel to the side and reaching for the knob to turn back on the water. His efforts were wasted seeing as the knob was turned, but no water exited the shower head. The man peeked closer, attempting to find the solution before a crawling sensation appeared on his left foot. A cicada bug was crawling on it, and as he flicked it away,  a swarm escaped from the drain. He too had been consumed. 

------ 

“Try Nature O’s, a proud product of Destructo Company.” Grandma Mimi smiled proudly through the screen holding up the iconic blue and orange printed bag which only permitted for the youngest members to let out a small groan. 

“How long are we supposed to wait? Sunghoon and Heeseung left a while ago.” As if the universe had heard him, the said members had signaled to the group to follow them, leading to the room of the latest victim. 

“There, there.” A feminine voice was heard from the other side of the door, and Sunoo and Niki looked at each other with wide smiles when they saw Grandma Mimi standing there. 

“Oh my, we’re such huge fans!” They shook hands and she responded with a warm smile. 

“It’s my pleasure, after all, I must thank Mr.Hughe for making them so popular.” 

“You also work at Destructo?” Jake asked. 

“I’ll leave you guys to be, take care.” Grandma Mimi left the room with the escort of Sunghoon and Jay who were kind of enough to help her. 

“Yes. I had been getting blackmail calls since a few weeks ago to quit my job at Destructo. I didn’t take them seriously and well, now there was a bunch of small...creepy...crawling….disgusting little creatures crawling all over me.” Mr.Hughe entered into a state of hysteria, leaving all of you with no other option than to call the nurse for help. Once he had calmed down, you finally made your ways back home, heading first to the elevator. 

“Jungwon, can you press for the lobby?” Jungwon did as told, pressing the small white button. As the elevator moved slowly, and opened, it left them puzzled as their eyesight was met with a dark basement. 

“Good going dummy, you pressed the wrong button.” 

“I did Jay, look.” Jungwon pressed the button once more and nothing happened. All of them stepped out of the elevator only to have it close them behind and for the lights in the basement to flicker on. 

“Listen well, if you don’t stop, you will be next.” All of them ducked down as they heard the warning from the ominous and deep voice. A swarm of cicadas entered the basement, approaching you. You turned your head sideways and Jake with his limited bravery due to his fear of insects, managed to tuck your head into his chest using his jacket. 

Once the swarm had disappeared, the elevator doors had opened once more, letting all of you make your way up to the van. 

“That was close.” Sunoo opened his school bag to find another cicada bug flying out. 

“We have to find who this creature is and fast, otherwise we’ll be next.” Heeseung drove off before coming to an abrupt stop. 

“That’s it, why didn’t I think of it before? Who loves cicadas AND hates Destructo, it’s Professor Yin!” He shouted almost too enthusiastically at the thought of him behind bars, but wasn’t willing to admit the slight bias in his accusation. 

“You can’t be serious Heeseung.” You crossed your arms and looked at him. 

“I’m sorry, but I’m with Heeseung on this one. It makes sense.” Sunghoon demonstrated his support which prompted them to go to the school despite your refusal. 

Eight bodies stood outside the door, quietly observing as Professor Yin placed the cicadas onto the small tree, taking out a small flute in the process. You and Niki stayed back and watched as Heeseung burst the door wide open with the other five boys following behind. 

“Aha, caught you right in the act girlfriend stealer!” Heeseung shouted louder that he would have wished, seeing as all of the boys looked at him and back at the door where you and Niki were. 

“What are you talking about?” Professor Yin stood agape and got himself up from his position. 

“You’re the cicada monster!” Jungwon’s accusation didn’t settle in considering the next few minutes developed into a massive debate between all of you, with Chief Kim and Mayor Lee arriving into the mix. 

“Enough! What is going on?” Mayor Lee broke into a booming voice and claimed a silence into the room. 

“He’s the cicada creature! You have to arrest him.” Heeseung pointed once more at the Professor and although it was audible how Mayor Lee asked him to come to the festival at 6PM if he was the creature, it still irritated the poor man. 

“I’m not the creature, and if you don’t leave, I’m pressing charges.” All of you exited the room with nothing much accomplished. 

“Look, all of you need to quit it.” Mayor Lee pressed his nose bridge as he looked at all of you. 

“We don’t have time,  it told us that we were next.” 

“That’s fantastic,” a foreign glimpse of happiness appeared on Mayor Lee’s face as he continued with his ramble, “all of you can show up at the festival tomorrow and we’ll make sure to have extra photographers! We don’t want you getting hurt for nothing!” 

Mayor Lee left with Chief Kim almost immediately, leaving all of you both clueless and lost. 

-------

The day of the festival had commenced and all of you approached the fun booths and cicada-themed attractions. 

While looking around, you noticed Heeseung approach one of the games: whack a mole. 

“Heeseung!” he kept pounding the plastic creatures and tried his best to give no reaction. 

“Did you mean what you said yesterday? About me being your girlfriend?” 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Knowing too well about Heeseung’s struggle with expressing himself, you wrapped your arm around his and turned his face towards you. 

“Because if it is, then I’d love to go to the trap exhibit with you later.” He kept his look firm, but couldn’t help a silly grin on his face as he pulled you into a hug. 

Both of you pulled away with wide grins, but it didn’t last long when Mayor Lee approached all of you. 

“Remember if you see the creature, run here. Got it?” The eight of you made your ways to the other side of the festival, when Niki grabbed your attention while pointing at Professor Yin who was seen entering the haunted house. 

“To the haunted house!” Sunoo trailed forward and went in first. None of you were too amazed with the decorations inside. Yet again, all of you were in constant peril at least once a week. 

“This is so dumb, what are we, five.” Jake commented as you reached the end. What you didn’t expect was for a wall to appear inclosing all of you inside. The swarm of cicadas appeared and tried to consume you as you broke through the tent finding as escape. 

“Guess it wasn’t Professor Yin.” Sunghoon admitted as he saw Professor Yin who was calmly eating as the giant bug chased after him. 

“To the van!” With all your might, your tired legs dragged you to the van where Heeseung opened the back door to let the vacuum suck up all the tiny insects. 

When the swarm had finally become consumed by the machine in the van, all of you found Grandma Mimi with a white outfit. 

“What is going on here?” Chief Kim asked as he looked at Grandma Mimi who was getting her hands tied together by Jay. 

“She’s the cicada creature.” 

“But why?” 

“I’ll tell you why. When I sold my Nature O’s to Destructo, they changed the recipe to have landfill waste. Can you believe it? When I demanded they return to my original recipe, they refused. So when I saw this documentary about using sound to control penguins, I had my plan. I didn’t have penguins, but I did have cicadas. Using my device, I was able to control them. And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for you meddling young people!” 

Chief Kim escorted her into the car, leaving a frustrated Mayor Lee behind. 

“Why can’t anything in this town be real?” He complained and left as well. 

“Well, that’s another mystery solved.” Sunoo let out a cheer first, relieved at the solved crisis. 

“I’ll have to catch you guys later because y/n and I have a date.” Heeseung proudly announced before swinging his arm over your shoulder and leading you towards the car. As your two bodies started to get further away, with laughs apparent in your conversation, Sunghoon looked at his other friend Jake who had turned away. 

“You okay?” 

“Yeah, come on.” Jake swallowed the bitter feeling behind him, joining the others in celebration. 

------ 

Next- Chapter 11: Bikers and Jealousy 

Tag List: @softkons @nikisboxysmile

[lyricalive]

A soul is an electric force, full of potential energy.

——Can we find souls in unlikely places, and set them into motion?

中古技術 〜 Electric Spirit Seance

#01  Lullaby of a Deserted Hell

From a bird's-eye view, the figures of two sprightly maidens would appear like dolls amidst the surrounding range of artificial mountains, a stunning silvery wasteland.

The taller of the two small-looking girls, Maribel Hearn (Merry) planted her hands on her hips as she surveyed the junk that encircled them in all directions.

   – "I can't believe you managed to convince me to go dumpster-diving.  Is this a step up or down from graverobbing?"

   – "We didn't rob anything from the graveyard.  I definitely want to find something worth taking from here, though."

   – "So this is a step down."

   – "Nah, it's fine.  These are all things that no one wants."

   – "Or things that no one wants to be seen.  Of course, that means…"

   – "It's the perfect place for the Secret Sealing Club!"

The club's current president, Renko Usami, pumped her fist with plenty of good cheer.  Merry smiled back, although she had mixed feelings about calling a land of literal garbage home.

   – "We can't just have normal dates, can we?"

Fortunately, at least, the garbage was not excessively odorous or grimy.  The site was a landfill specifically for electronic waste: frayed wires, boxy television frames, old phone models of all kinds.

The time was just around sunset -- more specifically 7:42 and 33 seconds, according to Renko's discerning eyes.  The mild starlight reflected off of broken LCD screens, making them appear ever so slightly less lifeless.

 #02  Rigid Paradise

   – "What exactly are we looking for...  Let me guess.  Hoping to find some retro videogames?"

   – "I won't lie.  That'd be great."

   – "But finding both a game and the console to go with it is going to be tough."

   – "Did you know, if a company manufactures more games than it can sell, they end up buried underground to get them out of circulation?"

   – "How wasteful.  At least they were given a proper funeral."

   – "The first time this happened was long ago in another country.  Thousands of unsold cartridges...  Just because they weren't popular at the time, now they'll never be played.  I'd love to give them a chance."

   – "Hee-hee, so much for a funeral.  I suppose we're not in the business of letting the dead rest in peace."

In this unique sort of graveyard, the bodies had been piling up for countless years.  Most of the material would never biodegrade, so the mounds kept accumulating, one layer buried under the next.  In fact, despite the oceans rising drastically over recent years, this dumping ground remained unusually high above sea level for the sole reason that its foundation was constantly being reinforced by layers of tightly packed waste.  

Renko, who had taken the precaution to wear pants and gloves on this excursion, knelt down to examine a mess of circuitry at the bottom of a looser heap.  Merry meanwhile nudged the tip of her shoe against the ground, pondering how deep down was the earth.

#03  Poison Body ~ Forsaken Doll

The girl in black and white impatiently murmured the time, for the fourth time that hour, before stretching her back and turning around to check on her partner.

   – "Find anything interesting yet, Merry?"

Merry, who had been spacing out for some while, quickly darted her eyes around for an improvised answer. A glint of light led her gaze to a long, flat cell phone teetering unceremoniously atop of a pile.

   – "This...  Haven't I seen this model in advertisements recently?  How did this already become trash?"

   – "Oh, you know.  Technology becomes out-of-date awfully quickly these days."

   – "Mm.  I'd like to see it as a sign of progress, but…"

   – "Yeah, it's not good at all.  We're in an age of quantity over quality."

Manufacturers who design their products to poor standards, so as to improve on them soon after, are akin to the type of trickster youkai that disguises itself in beggars' clothes to take advantage of others' low expectations.  In this selfishly self-deprecating society, it had become a disadvantage to show one's best.

   – "Everyone knows this, but thinking about it makes me so irritated."

   – "Right?  Humanity is really holding itself back."

   – "On top of that, don't they know that this is how vengeful tsukumogami are born?"

An object that has gone unused for 100 years is believed to develop a consciousness.  Some end up harmless -- but if its short life was spent being used as nothing more than throwaway capital, naturally it would make sense for it to become unhappy.

Merry laid one hand gently on the phone, as if in a gesture of sympathy.

   – "Hey, be careful not to touch more than you need to.  It may look clean, but the chemicals released by e-waste can still be toxic."

   – "Ah, right..."

She felt a bit sheepish for needing safety lessons from Renko, of all people.  But, having thought too hard about it, it became difficult for Merry to view the objects as just physical material.  A great majority of one's life was lived by virtual communication, so this material had great amounts of personal information stored in it.  Of course, the information's original source was in people's minds, so it's not as if it would be instantly forgotten once the plug was pulled.  But there were certainly more petabytes of raw data in a square meter of this dump than a human brain could hold.

#04  Electric Heritage

   – "Come to think of it, though, have you ever actually heard a story about an electronic object becoming a tsukumogami?"

   – "Well, no..."

   – "I have a theory about that.  I don't think e-waste is even capable of that transition."

   – "How do you figure?"

   – "Consider the crossover of electromagnetic fields and the detection of spirits.  Electricity is a simulation of life energy, almost too spot-on.  Like forces repel... so true life energy can't coexist with it.  Because they're flowing with this imitation power, I don't think electronics get a chance to develop real souls."

   – "I see.  Then, we can't properly call this a graveyard..."

   – "...if these bodies were never truly alive."

   – "I can't decide whether that makes me feel relieved, or lonely."

Merry let out an audible sigh against their eerily silent backdrop.  Then she braced herself to deliver the next news.

   – "But, if that's so... then why can I still feel something spiritual around here?"

Renko's eyes lit up instantly.

   – "Do you?  I was hoping you'd say that!"

   – "It just started... which is odd, since we haven't covered all that much ground since getting here.  It's as if a border connecting to somewhere else just opened."

   – "That supports the second part of the theory.  Like forces repel, but opposite forces attract.  They may not have souls themselves, but these empty vessels surely attract souls."

It felt fairly certain, now that both of their minds had helped confirm it:  Some spirit, human or non-human, seemed to have decided to take up residence in the wasteland.  Merry took a moment to feel proud of herself for her invaluable contribution.

   – "By the way, where do robots fit into your theory?"

   – "Well... I mean, there's no doubt we're getting closer every day to the A.I. revolution."

   – "Oh, my.  I knew I should have tipped our e-waiter last time we went to that café."

   – "But that's a completely different phenomenon than what births a tsukumogami, right?  It has to do with the software, not the hardware."

   – "Yes.  Though, it would seem to imply that there is a border of 'false' and 'true' life that can be crossed..."

  #05  Entrusting This World to Idols ~ Idolatrize World

   – "Now all we have to do is narrow it down, and we'll --"

As if on cue, Renko's thoughts were interrupted by a loud crashing sound from behind... music to her thrill-seeking ears.  She whirled around to catch the culprit, her eyes fixating on Merry and the dark-colored object that rested a few paces away at her feet.  The blonde girl threw her hands up in a display of innocence.

   – "I didn't do it.  It moved on its own!  I just saw it fall out of nowhere."

Renko's attempt at a professional retort failed to conceal her excited, twitching grin.

   – "Merry, Merry...  This is the most basic of physics.  An object can't move on its own!  Unless..."

They approached the rectangular object and peered over it.  It seemed to be a tablet PC, roughly twenty centimeters in length.  It had landed face up, luckily enough to not have not shattered the screen, though there was a significant surface crack down its center.

   – "Hm..."

   – "We've ruled out tsukumogami.  You think it could be... a poltergeist?"

   – "I don't know.  Rather than an outside force, the energy seems very contained in here."

   – "So then... a spirit living inside?"

   – "Something like that."

In response, the light of the screen flashed briefly on and back off.

   – "Ahh!  Electricity, a simulation of life energy..."

   – "It also works the other way around!"

This was a very lucky revelation for the two investigators, as it would have been nearly impossible to find a compatible charging cable.  In an age where each and every product was developed with its own unique cord design, this feature was marketed to consumers as a collectible game; the infinite variety, a controlled channel for creativity.

The device seemed to call out to them, understanding what they wanted.  The power flashed again, on and off and on, in a quirky rhythmical pattern that almost evoked a personality.

   – "We've definitely found something worth taking home!"

   – "Wait.  Isn't it wrong to remove a spirit from the place it's attached to?  We can't just adopt a ghost like an abandoned baby."

   – "Like you said, it's attached to the item, not the place. We're just fostering it for a bit before it moves on!"

   – "All right...  Just don't raise it to be wild like you."

   – "And you, Merry, make sure you don't spoil it!"

#06  Nostalgic Blood of the East ~ Old World

The pair reached Renko's dorm with the haunted vessel tucked inconspicuously into their satchel, grateful that the spirit hadn't chosen to bind itself to a full desktop monitor or CPU instead.  The question moving forward would be how to unlock its secrets.

   – "How old do you think it is?"

   – "Because it wasn't buried under anything, it seems like we should assume it to be fairly new.  But it just feels so out of place."

   – "Actually, I meant the spirit."

   – "Oh."

Hand in hand with the phenomenon of planned obsolescence, the fashionable aesthetics of electronics changed as often as water under a bridge.  Sleek designs were popular, then retro designs, then designs that mimicked the mimicry of two eras past, a vaguely deteriorating cycle.  As a result, it was difficult to tell which era this piece of technology belonged to.

   – "Remember that I saw a border open?  Maybe not just the spirit, but the whole item came from somewhere else..."

They had been scrutinizing the home screen for quite some time, attempting to navigate the ancient interface, and hadn't made much headway.  As far as they could tell, the data was heavily corrupted, and most of its history had been erased.  They were able to access only the most basic types of apps, like the calculator and the keyboard.

   – "Hey, Merry.  I think we should use that other thing we picked up."

   – "That?  I don't even understand how we would use it..."

As evidenced by her smug grin, the more scientifically-minded of the pair had full confidence in the strange idea she was about to suggest.

#07  A Tiny, Tiny Clever Commander

   – "I mean, really?  A mouse?"

Renko had insisted that they bring home a wired peripheral mouse, which she had spent an extra half hour scavenging for.  However, of course, the end of the cable did not match the outlet on the tablet.

Currently, she was back in the scavenging position, digging through the pile of unorganized junk that cluttered her closet (mostly books and occult items). Or rather, it looked unorganized, but she seemed to know exactly where everything was.  ...Or rather, Merry concluded, it truly was unorganized, but her eyes were sharp at scanning through even a complete mess.  She wondered if this small pile would ever become as large as the one at the dump.

   – "A-ha, found it!"

Renko had managed to track down the very particular treasure she was seeking, the final piece of their forgathered puzzle.  A small cube with many variously patterned notches rested in her open palm.  The material's finishing was uncolored and plain, likely to have been produced independently with a 3D printer rather than as a commercial product.

   – "W-Where did you get a thing like that?"

   – "I have connections you don't know, Merry."

Merry thought she had heard this line before, and felt a bead of sweat roll down her neck just like the first time.  The source was certainly shady.  Universal adapters were not at all legal.  Treating it like a Rubik's cube, and glancing back and forth for reference, Renko cleverly manipulated the block in her hand in ways that Merry was unable to understand.

Renko's partner, who had long embraced being an accomplice, appreciated her resourcefulness; she only wished to be kept more up to date when the other girl's mental plans ran ten steps ahead.  But she supposed that this was how Renko felt in return when it came to supernatural sights that she couldn't see, so perhaps they were even.

   – "Just like that?  Like magic..."

   – "Tell me, Merry.  Can you see the border of magic and science?"

With all the pieces aligned, Renko ceremoniously linked the mouse to the tablet through the intermediary box.  As a pop-up window indicated the drivers being registered, it was, they determined, a truly magical feat.  The light on the screen dimmed a bit, as if the spirit were expressing slight disappointment that it was no longer their only option for a power supply.

   – "Still...  Better technology has been around for decades.  These are so unwieldly.  Does anyone use an optical mouse anymore?"

   – "No, but no one's done this ritual in a long time either."

#08  No More Going Through Doors

Renko took Merry's hands in her own and conveyed them in a stack atop of the mouse.  Holding this pose, Merry squinted at the screen in front of her, which displayed a neatly spaced virtual keyboard with a complete set of lettering.  A mild shiver ran through her, either nervousness or excitement.

   – "Hang on.  This setup looks familiar somehow."

   – "That's right.  We're having a séance!"

Although Renko was very skilled with computers, hacking was not her expertise.  She did, however, have the kind of mind that was able to think around the box, discovering back doors.  The opportunity here was simple:  If they couldn't reach the secrets, they would consult the only one who knew -- the spirit itself.

   – "Huh!?"

   – "This mouse is a perfect planchette to use as an interface.  Sure, we have voice and touch technology.  But you don't want the spirit to possess your actual body in order to touch the screen or activate your voice, do you?"

   – "Definitely not.  ...Wait, did I ever say I wanted to be the medium at all?"

Merry pulled her hands back from the mouse and saw the screen's light flicker weakly.

   – "Oh, er...  You're right.  We didn't really decide that, did we?"

   – "Mm..."

   – "I think you'd be better suited, but I'll gladly go first.  I've always wanted to try something like this."

Merry's eyes glazed over as she thought about the prospect of communicating with the spirit.  They had assumed the sealed entity was harmless enough to bring home, but could there be some risk in directly channeling it?

Then again, what was the other option?  To leave their investigation at a dead end?

You don't belong on this side of the unknown.

A faint voice bubbled up inside of Merry, almost like an intrusive thought.  This had been happening to her increasingly often lately, though she always forgot about it after the fact.  Because, at the same time, they certainly felt like her own feelings...

Maribel Hearn was sparked with a surge of curiosity that made her want to take the lead.  These were precisely the club activities she had signed up for.  How much more dangerous could it be than anything else, so long as one made sure to follow the protocols and say goodbye at the end?

   – "No...  I'd like to do it."

Renko blinked in surprise.

   – "Really?  ...Well, gee, make up your mind.  You made me get all excited for myself.  Go ahead, but I call next!"

#09  Shoutoku Legend ~ True Administrator

Having cleared the area and turned off all the lights, Merry sat with her back straight against a chair and took a deep breath.  No candle was necessary, as the warm glow of the screen cast a ring of illumination around the table.  They had thoroughly discussed the questions they desired to ask, though the words felt awkward to speak out loud.  Nevertheless, the young medium opened her mouth.

   – "What is... your name?"

...

The atmosphere of room was deathly still.  Merry let all the muscles in her arm relax, preparing.

...

I...

   – "It's working...!"

The spirit was conscious and listening.  The planchette began to glide beneath Merry's loose grip, landing on the letter I.  When it paused on the letter for several seconds, she clicked the mouse button to confirm before the involuntary movement slowly began again.

...FO RG OT.

   – "Ah.  So it's going to be up to us to give it a name."

   – "Did you own this tablet?"

While Merry was lost in thought about a potential name, Renko chimed in with a question of her own from the opposite side of the table.  However, the spirit seemed to hesitate in answering.

Suddenly, the other girl's focus returned.  On an instinct, she broke the silence with an unexpected change of the question.

   – "Does this tablet own you?"

...

YE S.

   – "Huh... The tablet owns the spirit?  How did that happen?"

Although Renko's words were more thinking out loud than a direct question, the spirit was responsive.  Merry's hand immediately began to move.

...

SN AP.

   – "Snap...?  That sounds kind of scary."

   – "What does that mean?"

The cursor then swerved dramatically past all the letters on the keypad and down to the app menu along the bottom edge of the screen.  It hovered over an icon barely recognizable as an antique camera.

   – "Ah..."

The app launched, reproducing a dark, blurry image of the table on which the device's lens was turned.  Upon clicking the screen, a photograph was taken, and the damaged speaker emitted a distorted snapping sound.

   – "Spirit photography!"

The two girls burst out in unison, solving the riddle simultaneously.

   – "Right.  We've all heard the old belief that getting a photograph taken of you might steal a piece of your soul."

   – "It has some basis.  If captured in a photograph by accident, a minor spirit's energy might become trapped."

Somewhere in the hidden files, such a photograph must exist, binding some foreign essence to this device.  The spirit was likely eager to get free.

Merry minimized the camera app and returned to the keyboard.

   – "Who took the picture?"

...

Unlike its own, this name seemed to be one the spirit knew.  The pair observed with bated breath as the cursor navigated itself around the maze of letters.  Ultimately, it came to a halt, and Merry clicked on the final letter.

   – "...Eh?  Merry, stop kidding around!"

Merry turned to her partner with a genuine, solemn expression.

   – "I'm... not.  I swear."

Renko's face went pale. In ink-black font, three familiar syllables stood on display beside a blinking cursor.

#10  Dream World Folklore

To disprove the influence of the ideomotor effect, they had asked the question several more times, using both girls as mediums, until the spirit ultimately stopped responding altogether.

   – "Oh, no.  We scared it away..."

   – "Well, it did spook us first."

   – "Renko...  You weren't kidding about your connections, were you?"

Renko scratched her head with lingering bewilderment.

   – "Is the spirit messing with us?  Or could it be..."

Her gaze wandered over to the stream of occult paraphernalia still spilling out of the crack of her closet door, and she experienced a strange sense of longing.  The adventurous scientist was heavily accustomed to investigating mysteries from an observational and objective point of view.  Finding herself personally a step closer to the subject was a bizarre and almost gut-twisting feeling.  She supposed that this was how Merry felt in return when the focus of investigations was on her own powers, so perhaps they were even.  Almost.

After a few more sessions of séance, they managed to navigate to an encrypted folder.  A full-screen photograph had flashed open... but, before they were able to make out any details, the tablet's power instantly cut off.  Following this, it no longer responded to any input.

Their assumption would be that the spirit had been able to cross over, after deleting its digital ties to the physical container and unsealing the information it was attached to.

   – "I suppose this is goodbye..."

   – "Is the spirit free now?"

   – "I think so."

   – "That's good for it, at least."

   – "Too bad for you.  If we kept it, maybe it would have served as your personal shikigami."

   – "Isn't that a bit cold-hearted?  It was supposed to be our child!"

A shikigami is the perfect phantasmal servant.  The owner may input commands, and it carries out orders with extraordinary speed and calculation.  Of course, a normal computer already fulfills essentially the same purpose.  Outside world humans of the modern era aren't in need of such a spirit under their possession.

Even so, the force of attraction that had drawn them to cross paths with this spirit would be a mystery to chase going forward.  The two present members of the Sealing Club had a new story to tell, an urban legend that could be shared only amongst themselves.

Afterwords

Hello, this is someone who absolutely promised themself that they would publish at least one Hifuu fic per calendar year.  The idea for this one began with a conversation with my real-life partner (as is usually the case of inspiration) about the excellent aesthetic of using a computer keyboard as a Ouija board.  This subject in turn came up because of a "ghost" that haunts her keyboard by making a certain cryptic message appear on the screen at random times because the "." and "0" keys are in an easy position for us to accidentally press.  So, this story is dedicated to our precious child, ".0-chan."

Then, while it was already being written, WBaWC came out and confirmed that a technology-themed fic would be totally appropriate, and my favorite song from the soundtrack had the perfect title to be used in it.  (Also, its blatant dystopian themes justified playing up the similar themes of the Sealing Club's society even more than usual.)  And yet, despite many things lining up, it almost didn't get finished in time.  It's been such a busy and stressful year, which I hope gets better next year...

Another source of inspiration was the blog "Yukarisuggestion," whose portrayal I respect a lot.  When they drop minor bits of supernatural trivia, it definitely feels like they are coming from the youkai sage herself, very natural to accept.  I latched onto these posts in particular, finding the concept fascinating, and I only hope I interpreted it acceptably.  ...I was really aiming sharply this time at the Sealing Club's conversational aesthetic of "casual confidence in super obscure things that outside listeners would hear as nonsense," so I'm afraid some parts may have crossed the border of B.S.

Also, I wonder if it's okay that the second half of the song choices are almost entirely bad puns?

ASA    (Our ghost child's pen name would be "0.4" / "Rei-ten-shi"!)

Hifuu CD-style stories:

»  [Tumblr]  [AO3]  自封夢幻 〜 Sentimental Reverie

»  [Tumblr]  [AO3]  陶然夢幻 〜 Transcendental Revelry

»  [Tumblr]  [AO3]  羨望横断 〜 Unenviable Crossroads

»  [Tumblr]  [AO3]  外来土産 〜 Adventive Reminiscence

»  [Tumblr]  [AO3] 中古技術 〜 Electric Spirit Seance

»  [Tumblr]  [AO3]  幻想惑星直列 〜 Phantasmal Syzygy

[coffeecapsulesworld-blog]

Why Do We Need Coffee Machines?

As you may know, espresso has an Ethiopian foundation, being found by an Ethiopian goat herder. He noticed his goats acting surprisingly after trying some berries from the little tree standing nearby and he decided to flavor them himself. That`s the manner he observed a bland, sweet, fresh fruit.After numerous mins he felt excited. It changed into the primary impact of the coffee. Another civilization that embraced "coffee" was the Arabian one. The legend says that in Turkey, if a person refused his spouse the delight of consuming espresso, she became entitled to divorce. Coffee did not have a very good recognition in all a part of the sector, there had been the monks who thought that coffee turned into the drink of the devils and the Satan invented it only for the Muslims, however once again it's far most effective a remember of belief.

Nowadays, humans drink coffee for its advantages and there are some those who can not believe their existence without coffee. Coffee machines are present in every domestic to ease the human`s job. You can purchase a espresso machine so clever that it prepares your espresso within the morning in case you "order" it before you go to sleep. They are like an amazing friend who desires you to start your day in a splendid way. The maximum widely used technique of creating coffee regarded in 1950. This method produces espresso with the aid of heating the water form a reservoir and spraying the new water over the espresso in a clear out basket; the espresso will be then dripped into a pot. The Cafetiere is taken into consideration the quality approach of making coffee as it has the belongings of retaining the coffee`s aroma.

If you figure in an office, or you have you own agency, it's far logical to apply computerized coffee machines or espresso machines, because your each day desires are specific. As you may now, shopping for a espresso gadget for an office, may be pricey, particularly if it is in a big organization and allow`s not neglect that espresso is sort of a subculture in every workplace. The corporations which can be at the beginning can think about the version of coffee machines condo. The rate is a great deal smaller and the high-quality is the identical. It is not vital to spend money on fancy gear, because no one will be aware the distinction. The ecosystem created all through the espresso pause is the only thing that subjects.

If you want to ease your process, use espresso tablets. Why is that? Because the best thing you have to do is insert them in the coffee system and contact the button and your coffee may be geared up in beneath a minute. And now, there are a few information approximately espresso in preferred in the course of the arena: coffee is the biggest traded commodity, even extra than oil, the rate of the coffee differs from period to duration due to some uncontrollable facts like political upheaval, frost, etc. A single coffee tree is capable of produce one pound of espresso and it turns into possible only after 3 years it became planted. Just believe what a extraordinary responsibility is at the manufacturer`s shoulders. Bu

[msmillionaires]

Research finds healing your gut heals depression and anxiety

When we want to express a deep, core feeling or inner knowing — which part of our body do we instinctively mention?

It’s gut-wrenching. My gut tells me. A gut feeling, gut instinct, gut reaction.

These common expressions all center around one thing — your gut.

Would it surprise you to know that according to scientists, your health and even your happiness stem from your gut, too?

Your gut (called the “microbiome”) comprises more than 70% of your immune cells. Not only this, but your microbiome has a billion plus neurotransmitters that scientists have deemed “the second brain.”

This complex nervous system in your gut communicates with your brain and controls your mood, hormones, and how well your brain works.

Your gut health connects to depression, because the organisms that live in your gut (called microbiota) directly influence anxiety and depressive-like behaviors.

Your microbiota creates chemicals and hormones that are identical to the ones your brain uses to regulate mood — dopamine, serotonin, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

The regulation of serotonin in your body is a key factor in managing depression, anxiety, and overall mood. Not only is the gut responsible for manufacturing almost 90% of your body’s serotonin, but your microbiome and brain are also in constant communication about how it is used.

In other words, any disruption to this process (like with a gut that is out of balance) will affect how your body makes, stores, and utilizes serotonin. This in turn directly affects mood and plays a role in developing depression.

Scientists are also finding distinct patterns inside the microbiota of Alzheimer’s patients.

Why Your Gut Health is So Important

The microbiome is a delicate ecosystem made up of trillions upon trillions of microbiota (intestinal flora). You actually have more microbiota in your body than you have cells. Combined they can weigh almost four and a half pounds!

This huge variety of organisms ranges from fungi to viruses to bacteria. In ideal cases, this diverse system of microbiota lives in harmony — each playing a specific role in balancing your gut.

However, when the amount of one type of microbiota is allowed to get too high or too low, either by “overgrowth”, or by dying off, your gut is said to be out of balance.

Probiotics for Depression

You probably already know, that “probiotic” means “for life”. The dictionary definition is: a substance which stimulates the growth of microorganisms, especially those with beneficial properties (such as those of the intestinal flora).

Current research shows how rebalancing your gut with probiotics can actually reverse disorders like anxiety and depression.

However, this idea is not new — it’s been around since 1910 when probiotic pioneer, Dr. George Porter Phillips, saw that a probiotic formula that included Lactobacillus strains, improved symptoms of depression.

A century ago, many scientists already knew that toxicity from gut imbalances created a state of continuous infection. They believed these imbalances were directly connected to anxiety, depression, and even psychosis.

More recent research backs up Dr. Phillips’ findings. More and more studies are showing how helping the gut with probiotics directly supports depression relief.

More exciting, studies demonstrate that probiotics have distinct “antidepressant properties.”

Here are some highlights from just a few:

A daily dose of probiotics is shown to reduce “psychological stress” in humans, and helps manage anxiety, stress, and depression.

A 2007 study concluded, “Human subjects with poor mood at the beginning of the experiment exhibited a significant improvement in mood after the probiotic treatment.”

A 2013 study demonstrated probiotics directly affects brain activity that controls emotions. Their findings demonstrate how taking probiotics helps your brain and mood.

In 2015 a study found Lactobacillus acidophilus could reduce gut inflammation, which has been directly connected to depression.

Another 2018 review of several studies reported probiotic supplements offer significant improvement in mild and moderate depression.

The same 2018 review stated that probiotic benefits for depression had no adverse effects.

Putting Your Microbiome Back Into Balance with Probiotics and Prebiotics

One of the best ways you can ensure balance is through a diverse, high-fiber diet. However, this often is not enough to do the job.

So, experts recommend daily supplementation with really good probiotics and prebiotics. These include Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus paracasei, fructooligosaccharide (FOS), Bifidobacterium lactis, and marine polysaccharides.

Taking a good probiotic formulation with enough CFUs (colony forming units) helps ensure there is an abundance of the “good” life-giving organisms your gut needs to be in balance and to combat depression.

Prebiotics are food for your probiotics. They help the good organisms flourish. This is a piece many formulas and people already supplementing with probiotics miss... The addition of prebiotics allows for better colonization of good bacteria (probiotics), putting your gut into better balance.

So what do you need to look for in a good probiotic and prebiotic formula?

Not All Products Are Created Equally

There are thousands of probiotics available. They range from the curiously cheap to ridiculously expensive. You definitely need to be an informed consumer.

Here are a few basic factors that can help you choose a really good probiotic formulation. Choose a product with:

Both probiotic and prebiotic strains.

Probiotic strains include: lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus plantarum, lactobacillus paracasei, and bifidobacterium lactis.

Prebiotic strains include: fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and marine polysaccharides.

A high number of CFUs (colony forming units). Consumer Labs states 1 billion daily is the absolute minimum.

No refrigeration needed. If the bottle doesn’t say you need to refrigerate, it’s made from the more stable form of probiotics that come from plants, not dairy.

High quality. You want to buy from a manufacturer you trust — and a formulation that is gluten free, GMO free, hormone free, sugar free, and binder free. A vegan formula is likely safer for anyone with food sensitivities, too.

Bio-shielded. While prebiotics are near indestructible and usually survive the long trip through your stomach acids and digestive system, probiotics are more fragile. A truly excellent probiotic formula will include bio-shielding, which encases probiotic strains to protect them until they reach the lower intestine, where they can colonize. (MAKTrek® 3-D is a good bio-shield system to look out for.)

Bio-shielding also allows for slow release of the microbiota you want to flourish in your body. Slow release allows extra time for them to grow and repopulate.

Keep these points in mind when choosing a probiotic formula to help balance your gut, manage symptoms of depression or anxiety, and improve your overall health.

Discover our proprietary blend probiotic and prebiotic formulation with 40 billion CFU and see more of the true benefits of restoring your gut balance here.

We have highlighted the important role probiotics play in increasing healthy gut bacteria and, in turn, the correlation between having a balanced gut and maintaining stable moods and good mental health.

But if you are like millions of busy, often on-the-go Americans, you may notice a lack of energy when getting out of bed in the morning, or have difficulty getting through your day without feeling like you are “crashing” in the afternoons.

This may be due to poor absorption of nutrients, which are key to helping you feel strong and vibrant throughout your day.

This is where digestive enzymes can make a positive difference.

In addition to supporting gut health, digestive enzymes help your body break down the foods you eat, enhance nutrient uptake, and are essential for healthy weight management.

If you are not properly absorbing the food molecules you eat, your body needs to work harder to break down the particles — leading to more energy being spent and less energy to continue with your day.

Think about it. When your energy is low — even after you have eaten — your mood changes, your patience levels are lowered, your focus is affected, and your self-talk becomes more critical. Your brain sends the message that additional fuel is necessary to continue, and we reach out for a quick, often sugary or caffeinated, snack or beverage.

Improper nutrient absorption hinders the use of energy produced from a healthy meal and can lead to overeating or binging. We’ve all heard the proverb, “You are what you eat.” However, it’s more accurate to say, “You are what your body absorbs.” You can eat the healthiest foods every day — but if your body isn’t absorbing them, you’re not reaping the benefits.

This combination of enzymes and probiotics supports digestive health and ensures nutrients are delivered to the body.

In fact, there are just so many benefits to digestive enzymes... ranging from promoting healthy inflammatory responses to ensuring your metabolism is running well (converting calories to energy)...and much more.

Click below to discover the list of natural healing ingredients you’ll find in Digestive Enzyme Blend with Makzyme-Pro™:

Want even greater results in the FASTEST time possible? Go here to discover how

To create a complete Gut Renewal package and offer a myriad of benefits, we’ve included Super Fulvic Minerals. This natural product literally comes from the soil, containing a high content of trace minerals, electrolytes and antioxidants — known to eradicate cell-damaging free radicals (which contribute greatly to deteriorating health and premature aging).

When minerals and trace elements from food come into contact with Fulvic Acid, they are dissolved into a form that makes them more bioavailable (usable) by the body. That’s why Fulvic Acid is often called “the ultimate nutrient booster.”

In addition, Super Fulvic Minerals are highly effective at neutralizing and detoxifying harmful toxins and pollutants, including heavy metals such as lead and mercury. All of these benefits make Fulvic minerals the ultimate addition to our Gut Renewal protocol.

Click here to find out how to heal your gut and boost brain health with a simple step-by-step protocol that includes probiotics… digestive enzymes… and super fulvic minerals.

Make sure to click the banner below to see our exclusive special offer to help you achieve total gut renewal!

Gut-Renewal-Bundle-3

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below - we read each and every one of them!

[un-enfant-immature]

Ample raises $160M to scale its battery swapping service

San Francisco-based Ample has raised a $160 million Series C to scale its battery swapping service, the largest round yet for the 8-year-old startup that wants to completely rethink how we use electric vehicles.

Ample’s approach is relatively straightforward: Cars equipped with the company’s modular battery pack can drive into one of Ample’s automated charging pod locations and swap out their depleted batteries for ones that are fully charged. The swapped-out batteries are then recharged in the pod and ready to be reinserted into another vehicle.

Although Ample’s battery swapping model is simple on paper, the company is proposing thinking about EV batteries in a completely different way. Instead of an EV battery being something that needs to be recharged, like an iPhone, Ample wants to turn them into things that can be swapped out, like batteries in a digital camera.

This latest nine-figure funding round is a sign that investors are paying attention. The internationally funded Series C was led by Moore Strategic Ventures with participation from PTT, a Thai state-owned oil and gas company, and Disruptive Innovation Fund. Existing investors Eneos, a Japanese petroleum and energy company, and Singapore’s public transit operator SMRT also participated. Ample’s total funding is now $230 million.

“We realized that there’s this big elephant in the room with electric vehicles and [it’s that] nobody is that excited about spending an hour, two hours or three hours charging their vehicle,” Ample co-founder John de Souza said.

From the ashes of nearly a billion dollars, Ample resurrects Better Place’s battery swapping business model

Industry’s response has been to develop technology like DC fast chargers, which have managed to shave charging time down to only 20 or 30 minutes. But de Souza said that improvements in charging time don’t get rid of fundamental problems: “[Fast charging] generates a lot of heat; the grid doesn’t support it,” he said. “Even if you could have batteries you charge in five minutes, you’d need chargers that were massively powerful and you’d need power plants around every corner to do it.”

Ample is currently focused on fleets – it operates five battery swapping stations in the Bay Area for participating Uber drivers, and it also locked in a partnership with Sally, an EV rental company for taxi and last-mile deliveries in New York City. But the company sees its battery swapping service as suitable for consumers, as well. Ample co-founder Khaled Hassounah said battery swapping could also be useful for personal consumers who don’t have a good charging solution available to them, like people who live in apartment buildings. “We’re really a lot more focused on the cars that are coming on the road” rather than EVs that have already been manufactured, Hassounah added.

Image Credits: Ample. Ample co-founders John de Souza and Khaled Hassounah. 

The company says that its modular system means that drivers only need to carry around as much battery as they need. For Ample, that means less battery waste and less weight in the vehicle.

Much of Ample’s vision relies on buy-in from automakers. For example, the company is imagining that when a person goes to buy a car, the OEM could offer either a fixed battery option or a vehicle equipped with an Ample battery system.

Ample says it has validated its approach with 10 different car models by working directly with OEMs, and that none of them have required making modifications to the vehicle. That doesn’t mean that there are no interfaces between the battery and the car that need to be altered — there are things like voltage cables or a cooling line, for example — but that the actual architecture of EVs is simpler than one might think.

“The marketing departments at the OEMs want to tell you that … ‘This is a super-duper battery that is very well integrated with the car; there’s no way you can separate it,’” Hassounah said. “The truth of the matter is they’re built completely separately and so true for almost — not almost, for every battery in the car, including a Tesla.

“Since we’ve built our system to be easy to interface with different vehicles, we’ve abstracted the battery component … from the vehicle,” he added.

Ample said it’s working with five different OEMs right now, “some of the largest OEMs out there,” de Souza said, though he declined to specify which ones. He added that growing demand from fleets goes hand in hand with conversations with OEMs, which are eager to sell vehicles.

It could be an attractive proposal because much of the cost of an electric vehicle is its battery system. The market has seen a version of this idea from Chinese automaker Nio, which offers consumers the option of purchasing a vehicle with or without a battery (for the latter option, Nio leases the batteries). Under the leasing option, drivers shave ¥70,000 ($10,800) off the price of a vehicle. Nio has already completed more than 2.4 million battery swaps for Chinese drivers, founder William Li said in May.

Looking to the future, Ample is focused purely on scaling: deploying with large customers in new cities. Interestingly, de Souza added that the company is getting a lot of interest from governments who want to shift to electric transportation but don’t have the requisite charging infrastructure.

“The question is, how can we get more miles and be electric, rather than build more infrastructure?” Hassounah said. “If you go and deploy a million fast chargers and no one uses them, we haven’t achieved anything.”

Giving EV batteries a second life for sustainability and profit

[alliechua456]

Much to talk about. 인터넷바카라 and everything in between

“This is part of the folklore of the subject,” Paul Bostock, an IPCS council member, tells me. To do this, place an additional Progressive Jackpot wager on the Progressive Jackpot betting area of the layout in addition to your Ante wager. This then qualifies the player for a Progressive Jackpot prize in addition to the regular payments made to the following winning hands. The identification scheme based on these shapes is obviously deceived by hybrid editions, such as the Tunisian one previously shown, without indices (suggesting a Genoese pattern) but with a Belgian shield. In the 1937 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, R. F. Foster wrote: "the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game of As-Nas."

He was a mechanic who can allow one to get the right access to the company before starting his own company. Playing-card manufacturers produced decks meant for other uses beyond simple card playing, including instruction, propaganda, and advertising. While it can be daunting to learn a new game, learning and laughing with loved ones is well worth taking the time to build your repertoire of card games. Caribbean Stud Poker Rules:-Player makes an ante wager.-Each player and the dealer get five cards each. All cards are dealt face down, except one dealer card is exposed.The player may examine his own cards but sharing of information is not allowed.

In order to get statistical significant results, millions and millions of games would have to be played. https://www.washingtonpost.com/newssearch/?query=안전한놀이터 European history is riddled with edicts, decrees, and encyclicals banning and condemning gambling, which indirectly testify to its popularity in all strata of society. It was not produced in the Netherlands until the 1970s. Their most distinguishing bit are scenic aces. Instead of hearts, bells, leaves and acorns, the French used suits that “were based on classes and can be traced back to France around 1480. Suits included: spades (royalty), clubs (peasants), hearts (clergy), and diamonds (merchants)” (McGuire, 2016).

There is no specific name for the pattern else than Jass, which is the group of games played with this deck. The cards are usually 36, with values running from 6 to 10, and three German-style courts, Under, Ober and König. The thānī nā'ib is a non-existent title so it may not have been in the earliest versions; without this rank, the Mamluk suits would structurally be the same as a Ganjifa suit. As many travellers to more southerly parts of Europe can tell, the familiar suits of Hearts Spades Diamonds and Clubs give way to quite different sets of symbols: Hearts Leaves Bells (round hawkbells) and Acorns in Germany; Shields 'Roses' Bells and Acorns in Switzerland; Coins Cups Swords and Clubs (cudgels) in Spain and Mediterranean Italy; Coins Cups Swords and Batons in Adriatic Italy.This depends on the casino and whether or not you are playing online. The online casinos tend to have lower limits for the games, as they do not have the overhead of tables and dealers to worry about.

The initial bet and/or any payouts can "ride" through several rolls until they lose, and are assumed to be "riding" by dealers. It is thus the player's responsibility to collect their bet and/or winnings immediately upon payout, before the next dice roll, if they do not wish to let it ride. The casino atmosphere is designed around noise, light, and excitement. In multiple comparisons of two otherwise identical reel games, the high-priced games produced significantly greater revenue for the casino.Video poker became more firmly established when SIRCOMA, which stood for Si Redd's Coin Machines (and which evolved over time to become International Game Technology), introduced Draw Poker in 1979.

The Hydro-electric Power Plant at Rue des Cristalleries (1927) he odds are not affected by anything the player does or anything they think they know. A number of systems have been invented by gamblers largely on the basis of this fallacy; casino operators are happy to encourage the use of such systems and to exploit any gambler’s neglect of the strict rules of probability and independent plays.A computer chip in each machine determines the percentage of payout.

Craps is the principal dice game at most American casinos. This additional bet wins if the point is rolled again before a 7 is rolled (the point is made) and pays at the true odds of 2-to-1 if 4 or 10 is the point, 3-to-2 if 5 or 9 is the point, or 6-to-5 if 6 or 8 is the point. The players, each in turn, call for more cards dealt faceup one at a time until they bust or “stand.” Anyone dealt a natural wins immediately unless the dealer is showing an ace or a 10. 온라인현금바둑이 These rules are intended to prevent dexterous players from physically influencing the outcome of the roll.

Changes for cash or color chips are supposed to be done in between spins. If the dealer has time, they will make changes during the spin, but they will most likely prioritize call bets before changes. Hang on to some of your money with these helpful Poker Betting Tips. It is when you are allowed to increase your original bet by up to 100% in return for agreeing to stand after being dealt one more card by the dealer.Do residents with various social backgrounds have different opinions toward the impacts of casino gambling establishments?

[ingredientsonline]

Top Trends in Plant-Based Ingredients

[architectnews]

Drive to reduce embodied carbon in buildings makes biomaterials market a "really exciting space"

Concerns over carbon emissions caused by the construction process are fuelling a surge of interest in biobased materials according to Arup research and innovation leader Jan Wurm.

Demand for biomaterials such as mycelium, hemp, algae, bamboo and cork is growing, Wurm said, as architects search for materials that store atmospheric carbon rather than emitting it.

"It's a really exciting space," Wurm told Dezeen. There are a lot of startups and a lot of grants. There's a lot of things happening."

Demand is being fuelled by the realisation that around half of the total carbon emitted by a building is caused before it even opens.

"The big driver is the focus on whole-life carbon," Wurm said. "The focus has shifted from making buildings energy-efficient to looking at carbon."

Top image: Jan Wurm. Above: Wurm worked with Italian brand Mogu on new mycelium acoustic panels

The built environment is responsible for an estimated 40 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions but construction's role has been overlooked until recently, Wurm said.

"For a long time, the construction industry was not a sector being addressed when we talked about climate change," he said, pointing out that November's COP26 climate conference will have a dedicated built-environment day for the first time.

In addition, the European Commission this week announced proposals that would limit emissions from buildings for the first time.

"So it's now part of the overall discussion on climate change," Wurm said.

Wurm leads the European research and innovation team at Arup, the global architecture and engineering group that is headquartered in London.

He has worked on pioneering biomaterial projects including a 2013 project that used algae to generate electricity and the 2014 Hy-Fi project at MoMA PS1 in New York, where he collaborated with Evocative Design to develop the mycelium bricks used to build a temporary tower designed by design studio The Living.

The pioneering Hy-Fi project at MoMa PS1 made use of mycelium bricks

More recently, he has collaborated with Italian biodesign firm Mogu to create a range of acoustic wall panels made of mycelium, which is the underground part of fungus. It feeds on waste biomass such as sawdust, absorbing carbon as it grows. It is increasingly being used for packaging, insulation and products.

Mogu produces a variety of biobased materials including mycelium acoustic panels and flooring products from bioresins and agricultural waste. The new system developed with Arup, called Foresta, was unveiled this week.

The Foresta product joins a growing range of experimental biomaterials being used in construction projects. Materials research lab Atelier Luma has added interior finishes made of algae, sunflowers and salt to The Tower, a building by Frank Gehry at Luma Foundation in Arles, France.

Practice Architecture worked with hemp farmer Steve Barron to build Flat House, a home in Cambridgeshire, England, that features insulation and external cladding made of the cannabis variety.

Algae tiles decorate the interior of The Tower in Arles

Matthew Barnett Howland, Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton used cork blocks to build Cork House in Berkshire, England, which was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize.

Bioplastic brand Made of Air has clad a car dealership in Germany with panels made from farm waste mixed with bioresin.

Wurm said these experimental materials are now going mainstream and architects consider using them on major projects.

"Focus is shifting to embodied carbon," Wurm said. "Roughly over the whole life of a building, carbon emissions are 50 per cent embodied and 50 per cent operational."

"The big driver is the focus on whole-life carbon," Wurm said. "The focus has shifted from making buildings energy-efficient to looking at carbon."

Flat House makes extensive use of hemp

The drive to create net-zero buildings that create no emissions over their entire lifecycle means that architects need to reduce embodied carbon, which includes all emissions generated by the manufacture of materials as well as the construction process itself.

Embodied carbon represents roughly half the carbon footprint of a building while operational carbon, which are emissions caused by the building in use, makes up the other half.

"If we want to bring emissions down to net-zero by 2050, that's where the big change has to happen," Wurm added, referring to the timeline of the 2015 Paris Agreement. This calls for all carbon emissions to end by 2050 to help meet the goal of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.

Eliminating operational carbon is relatively straightforward, Wurm said. "There are solutions for energy. There are solutions for mobility. But how do we get the carbon footprint down for construction? That's a real issue to be addressed and that's why these biomass materials are really going up in demand."

Cork House in Berkshire was constructed from cork blocks

It's much harder to tackle embodied carbon. Bringing these emissions down to zero is "impossible," according to Hélène Chartier, head of zero-carbon development at international network C40 Cities.

Chartier, who is coordinating C40 Cities' international competition to develop zero-carbon neighbourhoods, told Dezeen that architects should reduce embodied emissions as far as they can and then look for ways of offsetting the remainder.

"It's totally impossible," she told Dezeen in an interview. "So the question is really to push them to reduce embodied carbon to the maximum and then to offset the last part."

The more embodied emissions are reduced, the less leftover carbon there is that needs to be offset by other means such as making buildings carbon-negative during their use.

"The 50 per cent embodied carbon is released within a couple of years when the project's materials are fabricated and installed," Wurm said. "So there's a big release of carbon in a very short amount of time."

"And we don't basically then have enough time to make the savings through efficient operation of the building. It doesn't really help us to bring down the [lifetime] carbon footprint."

Made of Air's panels are made from farm waste mixed with bioresin

Biomaterials that sequester carbon via photosynthesis offer an obvious way of reducing the upfront carbon footprint of a building. Timber is the most popular biobased material but "timber takes 100 years to grow," Wurm said.

"So all the carbon we're storing has been built up over 100 years," when using timber, Wurm explained. "And we take down trees, which absorb quite a lot of carbon. Of course, we replant trees."

"But I think it's interesting to take the pressure away from forests and see what other materials we can use to capture carbon in a shorter time."

Recent timber shortages caused by increased demand and pandemic-related interruptions to supply chains have forced architects to seek natural alternatives, while new regulations in countries including France and the Netherlands is forcing them to turn to biomaterials.

"We're trying to find other bio-sourced materials and trying to find solutions to lower our carbon footprint by using mixed materials," French architect Lina Ghotmeh told Dezeen last month.

Biomaterials can be more effective at sequestering carbon than trees. Cambridge University materials researcher Darshil Shah told Dezeen that a field of fast-growing hemp absorbs twice as much carbon as an equivalent area of forest.

"This is why biomass materials are so interesting," said Wurm. "And especially fast-growing plants, because they absorb carbon quickly."

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen's carbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is by Taylor van Riper via Unsplash.

The post Drive to reduce embodied carbon in buildings makes biomaterials market a "really exciting space" appeared first on Dezeen.

[orbemnews]

It’s Crunch Time and Biden’s Climate Gambit Faces Steep Hurdles WASHINGTON — The linchpin of President Biden’s climate plan faces a perilous path through the Congress, as scientists say nations must move now to aggressively reduce the pollution that is heating the planet and the United States is trying to reassert a leadership role in that global effort. The central tool of Mr. Biden’s plan, known as a clean electricity standard, would require power companies to gradually ratchet up the amount of electricity they generate from wind, solar and other sources until they’re no longer emitting carbon dioxide. On paper, it seems a no-brainer. Some version of it has been approved by 29 states from Washington to Virginia. The idea is popular among Democratic and Republican voters. And experts say it is one of the most effective ways to cut the pollution from burning oil, gas and coal that is driving climate change. But in trying to push a nationwide standard through a bitterly divided Congress, Democrats are considering a politically risky move: attaching it to a fast-track maneuver known as budget reconciliation, which allows some bills to pass with a simple majority. That would require the support of all 50 Democrats, including Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the state second only to Wyoming in coal production. Mr. Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, has been noncommittal when it comes to a clean electricity standard. Republican leaders on Capitol Hill say forcing utilities to turn away from coal, oil and gas will mean higher electric bills. The fossil fuel industry says it will harm reliability of the power grid. Even supporters of the idea are at odds over how to design a national standard. And some Democrats question whether it’s aggressive enough. Much is at stake. Without meaningful climate legislation this year, Mr. Biden will be left with executive action, some of it sure to be challenged in court, to meet his ambitious goals to pivot the country away from fossil fuels and prove to the world the United States is serious about global warming. This year is “the last best chance for the world to get on a legitimate track,” said former Secretary of State John Kerry, Mr. Biden’s global climate envoy, during a recent interview in Rome, where he was meeting with European counterparts. A clean electricity standard is the best way at the moment to “make up for lost time” under former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Kerry said. The last time Congress tried to enact major climate change legislation was 2009 when it failed to pass a complex market-based system to cut emissions. Democrats were trounced in the following midterm elections and lost the House, in part because of Republican claims that they were intent on driving up electricity costs. But the political landscape has shifted. Wind and solar are now cheaper than coal and natural gas. Americans also are witnessing the real-time consequences of climate-fueled disasters like wildfires in California and stronger hurricanes battering their communities. Democrats are more unified around tackling climate change than a decade ago, and Mr. Biden won the White House based in part on a promise to enact the most aggressive climate agenda in history. Perhaps most significantly, some major utilities are for the first time rallying around the idea of a clean electricity standard. In recent weeks, 13 publicly owned utilities announced support for an aggressive measure that would eliminate 80 percent of fossil fuel emissions from the sector by 2030. The American Public Power Association, which represents about 2,000 other public utilities, hasn’t taken a stand. But the Edison Electric Institute, which represents privately owned utilities and whose former president opposed a renewable energy standard in 2007, said it now supports a “well-designed” policy. “That is different than it has ever been before,” said Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat who has been pushing for a national clean energy standard for more than a decade and is drafting a new version. Edison Electric Institute has opted to support a clean electricity standard, in part because its members so quickly met an objective set by the Obama administration to cut power plant emissions, said Emily Fisher, general counsel for the group. That goal, of cutting the sector’s emissions 32 percent below 2005 levels, was accomplished by 2020 — a decade ahead of schedule. “I often wish that I could get in a time machine and talk to myself in 2010,” Ms. Fisher said. “I think I would have told her to be more excited about the future. Sometimes in those early conversations it seemed like the future was going to be really hard to accomplish. We don’t feel that way anymore.” Republican leaders, however, shrugged off signs of growing industry support and indicated they intend to fight Mr. Biden’s plan. “We all want to make energy as clean as we can as fast as we can, and do it in ways that don’t raise costs for American families,” said Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, adding that he is focused on energy prices and jobs in energy industries for his constituents. “But what the president is proposing is raising energy costs significantly.” Studies on the effects that clean electricity standards have had on consumer prices are mixed. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory evaluated several programs and concluded that they raised electricity bills by an average of 2 percent in 2017. But more recent research from the University of Chicago of various clean electricity standards in 29 states and the District of Columbia found that, seven years after imposing a standard, prices rose by about 11 percent. That study was also criticized by many energy experts who argued costs may increased because of other policies approved at the same time as a clean electricity standard. After he returned the United States to the 2015 Paris climate accord, President Biden committed to cut carbon emissions roughly in half by 2035 and also eliminate fossil fuel emissions from the power sector by that year. The White House has called for a clean electricity standard as part of its $2.3 trillion infrastructure package. It has preferred that approach over a tax on carbon emissions, a method that many economists say would be the most efficient way reduce emissions but is unpopular among many Republicans and some progressive Democrats. Negotiations between the White House and Republican congressional leaders over the infrastructure package are continuing. Meanwhile, Democrats are debating the best strategy to pass a clean electricity standard, several House and Senate aides said. The administration has offered few details about such a standard, other than it should include nuclear energy and should also incorporate technology to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions, which could allow some fossil fuel plants to continue operating. Energy experts said both nuclear energy and carbon capture will be required to reduce emissions. They also will be critical to gaining Republican support, if there is any to be had. The Edison Electric Institute also remains concerned about some of the targets being discussed as well as ensuring the reliability and affordability of electricity, Ms. Fisher said. One of the most consequential questions to be decided by lawmakers is whether to characterize natural gas as a “clean energy,” something the gas industry wants. When burned, natural gas produces half the carbon dioxide of coal. But it releases methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide (though it has shorter staying power in the atmosphere). Much of that gas has been extracted through the controversial method known as fracking. Progressives have indicated they will fight any measure that includes anything other than renewable energy like wind, solar and geothermal power. “You can’t have a truly clean energy system that includes fracked gas,” said Mitchell Jones, policy director at Food and Water Watch, one of more than 600 environmental group that signed a May 12 letter to House and Senate leaders. The group rejected gas “with or without carbon capture sequestration” and what it called other “false solutions” like nuclear. Other supporters of climate legislation like Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, said they worry the administration’s plan is too narrowly focused on the power sector. While electricity generation was responsible for 25 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted by the United States in 2019, the transportation sector produced about 29 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Manufacturing and industry produced another 23 percent. Commercial and residential buildings were responsible for 13 percent, and agriculture contributed 10 percent, the agency said. Mr. Whitehouse wants a package of solutions, including a tax on carbon emissions. But he said Democrats understand they have a short window during which to act and it is closing fast. “ The danger to us, primarily, is that we get into our traditional Democratic circular firing squad and quarrel with each other rather than taking on the common enemy of carbon emissions and a very malign fossil fuel industry apparatus,” Mr. Whitehouse said. “This is a really important moment and perhaps our last chance.” While some Republicans have supported clean electricity standards in the past, environmental activists said they don’t believe Democrats can win over 10 GOP senators, the number needed to break a filibuster. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah in a recent interview said he is “looking at” a clean electricity standard but believes a tax on carbon pollution is a better approach. Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she was willing to “review” a federal standard but also made no commitment. Without Republican help, Democrats would have to try to pass a clean electricity standard through budget reconciliation. That approach requires only a simple Senate majority, but the legislation must be crafted in a way that changes federal spending or revenue. And they would have to win over Mr. Manchin, who has expressed concern both about using the reconciliation process as well as a clean energy standard. Scott Segal, a senior partner at Bracewell LLP, which represents utilities and other energy industry clients, said Democrats could undermine their efforts on climate change by pushing legislation through without bipartisan support. “If they try to jam a clean electricity standard through on reconciliation, I think they would likely lose a strong handful of moderate Democrats, and they’d have no chance to pick up moderate Republicans,” he said. Mr. Kerry said he recently dined with “an unnamed Republican senator who told me outright that he is intending to try to pass a clean electricity standard and believes that there is a critical mass of colleagues who will try to do this because it makes sense.” None, however, have come forward publicly. Jason Horowitz contributed reporting from Rome. Source link Orbem News #Bidens #Climate #crunch #Faces #Gambit #Hurdles #steep #Time

[28northgroup]

Earth Day: Innovation, Sustainability, and Appreciating Nature

Engel & Völkers is focusing on the importance of sustainable practices and celebrating Earth’s inherent beauty. Over the course of the last decade, sustainability has become an increasingly pressing issue. Today, 62% of executives see sustainability as necessary and 22% of executives see sustainability as their future. Business executives across the world are committed to a conscious and sustainable relationship with their ecological, social, and economic environments and have invested heavily in groundbreaking sustainable technologies, revamped eco-friendly manufacturing processes, waste reduction, and sustainable materials.

Engel & Völkers is excited to feature the stories of amazing environmental advocates from our own network of advisors and from GG Magazine. These incredible people have dedicated themselves to sustainable practices and celebrating the beauty of the natural world.

Kim Mulligan

Kim Mulligan of Engel & Völkers Seattle Eastside has extensive training in green homes and holds several residential green building certifications. She accepted the National Association of Realtors Evergreen Award for utilizing her GREEN certification while promoting the further expansion of sustainable homes in the Puget Sound region. Kim cares deeply about the environment and recognizes that changes across all industries, including real estate, are needed to get us out of our climate crisis.

“I believe the future of green buildings will be different than most people think. As a baby boomer in a sense, we are starting the next building wave. We are retiring and thinking about not only our health but the quality of our lives while making an impact for a better future.” Kim Mulligan

Kim advocates for homeowners to incorporate green building concepts into their new builds and remodeled homes. She recommends clients avoid wall-to-wall carpet as it is hard to clean and collect dust and pollutants. Hard surfaces with throw rugs are a healthier option, especially for those with asthma and allergies. She also promotes the use of balanced HVAC systems, which remove the moist stale air and have a healthy air exchange ratio.

Kim continues to pave the way for green real estate as she educates her clients on what a green home features and ways you can add green building concepts into your own home.

Veronica Chou

Featured on the cover of the latest issue of GG Magazine, Veronica Chou grew up in the mass-market fashion industry, with her family having had an immense impact on the Chinese and global textile industries. In her youth, Chou frequently visited her family’s knitwear and denim factories. Even then, she recognized mass-market fashion factory practices that were not sustainable and questioned the impact of organizational and manufacturing processes on the natural environment.

After a life-changing trip to Nepal in 2015, Veronica Chou decided it was time for a change and reset her career with a focus on sustainability. Throughout the trip, she saw the palpable impacts of the fashion industry on the natural world:

“I could see the particles in the air, and when I came home at night, my face and hands were black.” Veronica Chou

Chou started by selling her company Iconix China Ltd and researching alternative textile technologies that were more environmentally friendly. Next, she started her own clothing company, Everybody & Everyone, which is both entirely sustainable and size-inclusive. Through her brand Chou has been able to promote a variety of sustainable fashion practices such as renting party dresses that will only be worn once, purchasing versatile and long-lasting clothing pieces, using recycled materials, and investing in new sustainable technologies.

Jochen Zeitz

Highlighted in the last GG, Jochen Zeitz, CEO of Puma in 2010, conducted an environmental report for the brand. This report was the first of its kind to be published by any major company and provided sobering results: Puma had a global environmental impact of 145 million euros. After these findings, Zeitz immediately pledged himself to more sustainable practices with a focus on manufacturing. This commitment to sustainability stuck with Zeitz, and he soon left his position with Puma to focus on saving the planet and turning his visions into realities

Zeitz now has his own conservation foundation that is dedicated to protecting the global biosphere. He feels a particular attachment to Africa and  promoting sustainable tourism throughout the country. Zeitz recognized, however, that true sustainability cannot be achieved if companies do not also change their practices. In response to this, he founded the nonprofit B-Team with Richard Branson with the goal of helping executives shift their goals from short-term profit to human-wellbeing and the well-being of the planet.

Now, as CEO and President of Harley-Davidson, Zeitz has been able to bring sustainable practices to yet another company. He established the Brand and Sustainability Committee and helped develop the brand’s first electric bike which he believes is the future of Harley-Davidson.

Christoph Ingenhoven

Focusing on sustainability in all areas of life, the last issue of GG magazine highlighted and spoke with Christoph Ingenhoven, architect of the Lanserhof health resorts, who has been designing sustainable buildings for thirty years. The world-renowned medical resorts he has constructed provide soul-soothing aesthetics while maintaining the highest environmental standards. During projects, Ingenhoven uses healthy materials that don’t give out toxins and ensures materials are inspected by building biologists who are experts in spotting environmental hazards.

“We’ve been building sustainably for 30 years, but the pandemic has boosted public awareness.” Christoph Ingenhoven

As Ingenhoven designs sustainable health resorts, he takes a holistic approach in his designs, focusing on both individual biological health and ecological safety. While certain materials like polystyrene are safe for use in a medical resort, their manufacturing process is not sustainable and in Ingenhoven’s own words “horrendous”. In order to follow his practice of sustainable construction, which is what his trademark supergreenⒸ represents, Ingenhoven must be selective in his materials and focus on moderation. His expertise in sustainable construction has been proven both by the Lanserhof health resorts and his most recent project: Kö-Bogen II, an office and retail complex with 30,000 hedge plants that doubles as Europe’s largest green facade.

Michael Poliza

Michael Polizo is an expert at appreciating the natural world. The Hamburg-based nature and wildlife photographer has worked all around the world and organized luxury tours to remote locations. Travel was his way of life. When the coronavirus caused extensive restrictions on travel, Polizo could no longer go abroad and visit stunning locations across continents. Yet, his passion for nature and its beauty never subsided. Instead, Polizo began biking around his home country of Germany, discovering beautiful routes which highlighted Germany’s natural landscapes alongside windmills and old bridges.

This year, Polizo made the shift from luxury tours in remote locations to luxury e-bike tours in Hamburg. He noted that while 80% of customers come from Hamburg, most have never seen the city from the vantage points he had discovered. Polizo has always allowed his customers to appreciate the natural beauty of the world; now they can do it in their own backyard.

[learningfrommiley]

Building community with lean manufacturing

Building community with lean manufacturing

By Tim Heston

Read through The FABRICATOR archives between 2009 and 2013 and you’ll find all sorts of stories about companies in dire straits that made dramatic changes. Most of them being custom fabricators, the shops cherry-picked from various improvement methods, including lean manufacturing, the theory of constraints, and quick-response manufacturing.

Each story follows a common theme: The boat was sinking, and everyone worked together to plug the holes. Why did they make the effort? Because they had no choice. The Great Recession spurred great changes.

But change can be a tough sell when times aren’t particularly difficult. Company leaders see cracks in the system and problems down the road, but there’s no emergency. And the work environment isn’t riddled with dysfunction. In fact, the manufacturer does so many things right already. Why fix what’s not broken?

This is Allis Roller’s challenge, and it’s now making strides to overcome it.

A Growing Company

Based in Franklin, Wis., Allis Roller fabricates steel and rubber rollers used for agricultural equipment like combines and balers, as well as products for heavy machines in transportation, mining, and general industrial monitoring applications. The company’s 80-plus employees make a variety of other products too, including shafts, quick-disconnect products for hydraulic machinery, and a “long tail” of custom parts.

The manufacturer uses both machining and various fabrication processes. On the factory floor you’ll see the welding of steels and alloys using various wire, subarc, and gas tungsten arc processes.

Like most manufacturers in the U.S., Allis Roller isn’t a one-trick pony. It’s a dynamic place with forward-thinking leaders. David Dull, president and CEO, also serves as chair of the Franklin Business Park Consortium, a collection of 14 local businesses, most of them manufacturers, that together employ about 2,500 people. Working with area community colleges, the companies pool resources to pay for (among other things) training classes on lean manufacturing, supervision, machinery setup, and blueprint reading.

Beyond this, many Allis Roller employees interact with high schoolers every day. The company participates in a program called GPS Education Partners. “We have close to 30 students, juniors and seniors from local high schools, come here every day,” Dull said. “They take classes in our classrooms here, and then they spend time working at various local companies. Some work here [at Allis Roller], while others work at companies in the business park consortium.

“We know we need to develop our own workers, make them more valuable to help us be more productive. We also promote a skilled trades program in the community. All this helps us create a culture where people want to learn. This helps us compete in a job market with less than 3 percent unemployment and a Foxconn plant, going up 20 minutes away, that will be hiring thousands of people.”

Dull arrived at Allis Roller in 2009, a tough time for the company and many other manufacturers. Between 2007 and 2009 commodity prices skyrocketed, and Allis Roller found that it couldn’t pass all those price increases on to many of its customers.

All this, Dull said, put pressure on the company to be more efficient. The company hired a lean consultant and launched some projects, including a few multiprocess cells dedicated to certain products with predictable demand. Then the economy improved and order volume ramped up from major customers. Business improved steadily from 2011 on, and in the middle of that growth—in 2014—the company moved to a new, 110,000- square-foot building, almost tripling its available manufacturing space. The new space happened to have a few big classrooms, and Allis Roller has kept them rather than repurpose them. Company leaders figured that, moving forward, spaces for education will be just as important as spaces for office or factory work.

On top of this, the company has launched a joint venture in Brazil that will be contributing to the manufacturer’s overall annual growth rate. Dull expects the annual growth rate to be between 10 and 15 percent during the next three years.

In other words, things are looking good, and employees are busier than ever, but Dull and his leadership team see cracks in the façade. Productivity and on-time delivery performance for certain products could be improved, and the company relies on a homegrown, manual scheduling technique.

“We have a scheduling tool that revolves around a couple of people here who manage everything from what’s moving through the shop floor to contracted outside services like heat treating and painting,” said Russ Dudan, vice president of operations. “It’s functioning right now, but we’ve about reached the limit. We intend to grow this business, and the foundation we have isn’t going to support that growth … [That said,] I am really impressed with where the company is and am excited about positioning the business for future growth.”

Empathy, Ergonomics, and Adding Value

John Gil, continuous improvement engineer, started at Allis Roller in the middle of 2018. He saw a progressive company that had invested in cross training, which is critical in any improvement initiative, and especially critical for Allis Roller’s high-product-mix environment.

He also saw several existing cells, including one devoted to a product called a chopper, which, on agricultural equipment, chops hay and other material. But he also saw a factory that could benefit from other tools in the lean toolbox, including 5S, standard work, total productive maintenance, and single-piece part flow.

Gil, who speaks fluent Spanish, saw more opportunities for improved communication with the factory’s Hispanic population, with the use of visual aids and visual management. Over the past months he has observed workers and helped build consensus for change—essentially through empathy by putting himself in the worker’s shoes and involving them in improvement efforts, even for something as basic as taking out the trash. Too often trash and recycle bins either were hardly full or were overflowing. Workers carried out trash when they had a free moment, but as busy as they were, those moments didn’t happen often enough.

Of course, carrying the bins out was a chore, so as Gil implemented a trash carry-out schedule, he also “made sure that every container has a dolly attached to it. So now operators can roll two bins at a time, instead of making two trips.”

With more observation came more ideas for improvement. Gil observed that the shop tended to slow down during the last 10 minutes of a shift. “The last 10 minutes of the day weren’t very productive to begin with, because people were winding down from a busy day,” Gil said. “So we put that time to use, and going forward they now spend the last 10 minutes of every day organizing and cleaning up their workstations and surrounding areas. This not only helps keep the production floor clean and orderly, but it also helps the sustainment effort.”

From Push to Pull

These actions may seem like small steps, Gil said, but they’re really building the foundation for further improvements down the road, some of which might look like what’s going on at the company’s manufacturing cells.

These include two cells dedicated to product families for two specific customers, one in the ag equipment business and the other in mining. The cells each have different manufacturing processes grouped together, including milling, pressing, turning, welding, straightening, assembly, balancing, and packaging.

A typical tube flowing through the cells is 8 in. diameter with a 0.25-in. wall thickness. Balancing and straightening are critical operations. The final spec on total indicated runout (TIR) is less than 0.013 in.

Physics sometimes stands in the way of maintaining an efficient cycle time. For instance, welded parts in these cells need about 10 minutes to cool before they’re placed on a balancing machine (similar to balancing the wheels on a car). Historically, workers simply added a small work-in-process (WIP) inventory buffer to accommodate, removing one part from the weld fixture and placing it on a cooling rack.

In recent months, though, workers have been able to eliminate excess handling by adding a second balancing station and by introducing air lines to cool the product faster. Now they no longer need to move parts to and from a cooling rack. Instead, they pull a workpiece from welding and take it directly to one of the balancing stations. During cooling, the worker moves to another station to balance a separate roller. Once that product is balanced, the other roller is cooled, so the worker can start that balancing operation immediately.

Another improvement in the works for these cells is shifting from push to pull production. Today work is scheduled and “pushed” into the cells, similar to how work is scheduled for other departments and work centers throughout the plant. Putting disparate processes together in the cell has shortened transportation time, but the push scheduling still tends to build WIP, especially as estimates vary from actual processing times.

In the near future Gil said the cell team plans to introduce signals, such as andon lights, at downstream assembly processes within the cells. These will effectively “pull” parts from upstream processes and, ultimately, govern the rate of order releases. The pull process will also govern the utilization of resources, as cross-trained workers move where needed (such as to balancing or assembly) to free a temporary bottleneck and to ensure a constraint operation (the welding process in this case) is never starved of work. After all, an operation is only as productive as its slowest process.

That tenet of Eliyahu Goldratt’s theory of constraints is one point company leaders continue to drive home. You’re only as strong as your weakest link. A machine may have off-the-charts uptime metrics, but if a constraint (be it welding or anything else) is starved of parts, all that machine uptime won’t make the operation produce more.

To be competitive and gain market share, the company needs to produce more with the same resources—and this is starting to happen, especially within Allis Roller’s cellular operations. Eventually improvements will free up capacity that Dull and his team can sell to companies demanding similar products.

At this point lean manufacturing has made serious headway in Allis Roller’s high-volume products with predictable demand, but there’s much more to do. Besides scheduling (which may undergo some changes as the company implements a new enterprise resource planning system), the “long tail” of custom and low-volume products awaits. For now that segment of the business remains in a traditional, process-centric layout, though managers now are researching (and debating about) improvement tools that show potential. On the immediate horizon, though, is a more pressing concern: building the cultural foundation for continuous improvement.

Buying Into Lean

Getting worker buy-in on the “what”—the nuts and bolts of changes on the floor and in the office—is relatively straightforward. For instance, Gil approaches every problem with not only efficiency but also safety and ergonomics in mind. Less handling makes a worker’s day safer and easier. Even simple dollies on trash cans can make a world of difference.

The “why” behind lean is a less concrete concept, but as sources explained, it’s critical to convey if employees are expected to take ownership and truly sustain improvement. It’s one reason the “why” was the focus of an all-employee meeting in late December, when a PowerPoint slide Dull showed effectively conveyed the point. It didn’t give efficiency or financial metrics, or describe the importance of quick response, shorter lead times, and greater profits.

Instead, the slide showed a photo of one of the company’s products being used. It’s a critical component in a customer’s product. The customer and, by extension, the people at the customer’s factory depend on that product. They need it to do their jobs, to feed their families, and, again by extension, build their communities. A good weld, a new fixturing idea, a better handling method: these little ideas and more can make a real difference in the wider world.

[perfectirishgifts]

How Julia Collins And Moonshot Snacks Are Using The Power Of Regenerative Agriculture To Tackle The Climate Crisis

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/how-julia-collins-and-moonshot-snacks-are-using-the-power-of-regenerative-agriculture-to-tackle-the-climate-crisis/

How Julia Collins And Moonshot Snacks Are Using The Power Of Regenerative Agriculture To Tackle The Climate Crisis

Moonshot Snacks

Julia Collins made history when she became the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company (Zume Pizza, valued at $2.25 billion). But when she became a mother, she knew she needed to find a way to bring delicious food to people in a way that helped heal the planet for everyone including her son.

Today, she shares her journey with her new company Planet FWD to launch Moonshot Snacks, a groundbreaking line of food products that use regenerative agriculture techniques which help tackle the climate crisis – and which has also created a unique software platform to encourage more brands to join the movement.

Starting with three flavors of carbon-neutral crackers that are certified USDA Organic, Kosher, plant-based, no sugar added and non-GMO, Moonshot crackers are now widely available for purchase online for $5.99 a box. 

The crackers are certified USDA Organic and made with regeneratively grown ingredients. Moonshot is setting a new precedent by forging direct connections with farmers to source ingredients. For example, Moonshot sources its crackers’ main ingredient, stone-milled Edison Wheat, from Hedlin Farms, a 4th-generation farm and 1st-generation regenerative farm. Moonshot Snacks is also a certified WBENC woman-owned business and BIPOC-founded and owned.

I caught up her to find out more about her inspiring journey.

Afdhel Aziz: Julia, welcome! For those who don’t know what regenerative agriculture is, could you just explain briefly what the thinking is behind it?

Jullia Collins: So, regenerative agriculture is a method of farming that helps to improve the health of the soil. And it’s called regenerative, because over time, over cycles of farming, what happens is that you actually improve rather than deplete. You regenerate, you heal. Some of the practices that are associated with regenerative agriculture are reducing tillage – less interruption of the soil. Improving biodiversity. Keeping roots in the ground year-round. Intercropping, cover cropping. And even some livestock integration to help promote that wonderful microbial activity in the soil, which is the source of life on the planet. Regenerative agriculture is a method of farming that helps to improve the health of soil and the relation to climate change is that at scale, regenerative agricultural practices can actually help draw down carbon and bury it in the soil.

Julia Collins, Founder and CEO, Planet FWD

Aziz: Was that at the back of your mind when you thought about creating a regenerative agriculture-based snack brand?

Collins: Absolutely. I mean, there’s no silver bullet to the climate crisis. Everyone has to make that disclaimer. But you know, between 25 and 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are coming from our food system. There’s a tremendous opportunity there. Not just to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our food system, or decarbonize, but also to use the power of these magical robots called plants, to draw carbon down and store it in the soil And that is what’s been so exciting for me about this movement.

Aziz: Very cool. So, what can you tell us today about Moonshot Snacks?

Collins: We’ve built the world’s first explicitly climate friendly snack brand. We went and found ingredients that are grown using these regenerative agricultural practices. We quantified and measured the greenhouse gas impact of every element of our company and product down to the seal on the package. And we’re bringing to market a product that’s not only absolutely delicious and organic and good for you, but also completely carbon neutral and climate friendly. And what we hope to do with Moonshot Snacks is to create a new category of food called ‘climate friendly food’. Because everybody has the right to take action on climate change. And we think with eight billion people eating every day, rethinking the way that we eat and rethinking our food choices is a great place to start.

Aziz: Can you talk about the other part of it as well, which is the software tools you’re building to make this more of an open-source movement so other companies can benefit from it?

Collins: So, Planet FWD (the parent company of Moonshot Snacks) is building software that makes it easy for brands to understand how they rank in terms of climate friendliness. And then the tool also gives them recommendations for how to improve. Either by connecting them to alternative ingredients, alternative suppliers, alternative materials that are lower in terms of greenhouse gas impact or more beneficial according to other sustainability criteria. But the tool just makes it really easy for any brand to create their own climate friendly products or to improve the climate friendliness or overall sustainability of their existing products.

Hedlin Farms Wheat Harvest

Aziz: And you’ve really thought deeply on how to properly engage and incentivize the farmers you work with as well, correct?

Collins: Exactly. When we thought about how to source the product, we wanted to make sure that we were creating value and rewarding farmers who were using regenerative practices. And the best way for us to do that was to actually go and work directly with the farmer, because that de-risks the proposition for that farmer. So, ahead of the harvest, we said to our farmers, please set aside this many acres to plant this organic Edison wheat using your beautiful regenerative practices and we will buy it from you.

I think another thing is that in trying to make the product climate friendly, we wanted to reduce the food miles on it. Our wheat is grown by Dave and Serena in Skagit Valley in the state of Washington, and then it travels one mile to the mill. And then it travels 85 miles to be baked. And this is an 86-mile food supply chain, which is magnitudes shorter unfortunately than most food supply chains that you see for a given ingredient, which are sourced from all over the place. We intentionally tried to co-locate growing, processing, and then baking all in the same area to reduce the carbon impact.

Aziz: And how about the packaging? How did you think about that as well?

Collins: That’s been the hardest part for us. We have a compostable box that’s printed with vegetable-based ink. The box itself is compostable, but the interior sleeve is recyclable but not compostable yet. We are committed to getting to compostable. The hardest part has been trying to find a reliable source where the carbon impact is not bigger. For example, our best source was coming from Malaysia, but by the time you source the product from Malaysia, ship it to Washington, now you’ve sort of undone the beneficial impact. Looking for domestic sources of compostable film that can be manufactured easily that’s what we’re working on now. But there’s so many great startups that are working on it, we’re confident that in the next few years we’ll move to totally compostable. Right now we’re recyclable and compostable.

Sourdough Sea Salt Back

Aziz: The audacity of what you are trying to do is perfectly summed up in the name of your new venture, Moonshot snacks, right?

Collins: Right. We’re called Moonshot and we make snacks. And there’s a funny juxtaposition between moonshot and a snack, right? Something very audacious and something very simple. But with the name, we wanted to convey the sense of audacity and also the action of being lifted up. Shooting for something and going for something as opposed to staying in that paralyzed fear place. Frankly, when you do a lot of reading and research on climate change, it’s easy to go to that place.

Aziz: I love how that framing of it helps us move beyond this fear state where we become paralyzed by the enormity of climate change and be able to get into the audacity of what we can do to tackle it, right?

Collins: Absolutely. Fear paralyzes you. It can stop you in your tracks. And then there’s this other thing, which is shame, which also blocks almost everything good. And the shame can come in from, how did this happen? How did we let this happen? What have I done wrong? And of course, it’s important to take ownership and responsibility. But I think moving beyond fear and shame into this place of audacious hope and action, for me, is a more powerful framework to bring to bear on this problem.

From CMO Network in Perfectirishgifts

[velasquezsydney93]

Grape Growing In Kentucky Fabulous Tips

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Grape Growing In Kenya

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Grape Growing Areas In Karnataka

And though most Muscadine cultivars need cross- pollination with a positive attitude and dedication, it can be grown in vineyards since the vines start to bear fruit.Make sure that back shoots and then follow the links below.And they have room for your soil won't consume adequate water and tools.He includes ways to grow grape vines are very important part of grape is a mile away and we should not fail to provide a support structure already before you can muster.Grapes need the sun for photosynthetic process and in their places.

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[architectnews]

RIBA Design Competition for a Vision of Future Living

RIBA Architecture Competition for a Vision of Future Living in Cheshire, Buildings, Architects, Housing News

RIBA Design Competition for a Vision of Future Living, Cheshire

Key Architectural Development Contest in Cheshire, northwest England, UK

12 October 2020

The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn

The Heath Runcorn: RIBA Vision of Future Living competition winner announced

Now let’s turn this project into reality say judges as Eco Responsive is named winner of RIBA’s ‘Vision of Future Living’ competition

Runcorn: October 12th, 2020: Eco Responsive Environments, an emerging design and architectural practice based in London, has won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) ‘Vision of Future Living’ competition sponsored by SOG Group, owner and operator of The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn.

The two runners-up from a contest that attracted entries from around the world were UK teams, Kimia Benan with Paul Treacy, and Tom Cookson with Sarah Carroll.

John Lewis MBE, SOG’s owner and Managing Director, said: “I’m delighted with the outcome of this fantastic competition, superbly coordinated by RIBA, which has generated amazing designs and ideas from across the world. All three of our finalists provided us with a fascinating insight to what The Heath could look like in the future.

“We’ve seen extraordinary ideas and designs which set the judges an enormous challenge to choose a winner, but ultimately the submission from Eco Responsive has offered us a breath-taking glimpse of the possibilities for The Heath. It will certainly help us to attract interest from global investors to turn our dreams into reality. Our next steps are now to embark on a feasibility study for the Heath Park programme, and the outcome from the RIBA competition will be key factor in this process.

“I’d like to thank RIBA, and Terry Rogan and Simon Lewis from my SOG team, for their sterling efforts in making this global competition such a massive success.”

The 5-strong judges’ panel included some of the UK’s most influential architects and designers including Paul Monaghan, Professor Rachel Cooper OBE, Hugh Broughton along with Mr Lewis and his own consultant architect, Terry Rogan.

Mr Monaghan, Director of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, said: “The standard of final entries for this competition was extremely high. Each entry had followed a particular pursuit in great depth illustrated with excellent drawings. The competition winning entry for Heath Park will create a truly 21st century sustainable campus. I have rarely seen such a thorough presentation and I look forward to seeing this vision being built. SOG has a proven track record for delivering major regeneration projects and I feel this is the sort of scheme that must happen, and SOG is an organisation with the credentials to make it happen.”

Professor Cooper OBE, Distinguished Professor of Design Management and Policy at Lancaster University, said: “This landmark competition, with a radical brief from the client, challenged architects to rethink the future of place. All the submissions rose to the challenge. The three finalists submitted highly innovative and comprehensive solutions. Eco Responsive Environments truly re-imagined in detail every aspect of The Heath to be a world leading sustainable, resilient place with a blueprint that would deliver economic, social and environmental wellbeing. The Heath has an exciting future.”

Mr Broughton, Director of Hugh Broughton Architects, said: “The competition for the redevelopment of The Heath asked architects to consider how we will live, work and play in the future and how we can develop places which are both environmentally and financially sustainable. All three finalists came up with brilliant schemes which were beautifully and eloquently presented.

“Eco Responsive’s proposals were selected as winners because they provide a wonderful framework for the future of The Heath which weaves ideas for landscape, water management, food production and work with concepts for inter-generational living which are both optimistic and realistic. It will be truly exciting to see their plans develop under the stewardship of an enlightened client.”

Mr Rogan commented: “It has been a real pleasure to have worked with a client who places people at the core of his business philosophy. John Lewis’ vision for The Heath Park Project builds on the successful regeneration of the old ICI headquarters campus and proposes to embrace wider responsibilities to community and the environment, illuminating the way to a better future in how we live, work and play. Eco-Responsive Environments are to be heartily congratulated for a response to the competition brief with a scheme that is all-encompassing, providing a sensitive, innovative but realistic framework for the future Heath Park and also mindful of the ethical investment needed to achieve it.”

Prachi Rampuria, Director and Co-founder of Eco Responsive Environments, said: “We are inspired by this vote of confidence in our complex-systems approach to design. As a relatively new practice, this win is a huge milestone for us. Working with an enlightened landowner, vibrant local and regional community interests, this is an exciting opportunity for a beacon project to point up opportunities for tomorrow’s world. On behalf of the wider team, we would like to thank SOG and RIBA for this great opportunity.”

Joanne Wallis, Senior Competitions Manager for RIBA, said: “This unique project at Heath Park asked competitors to consider not only the reinvention of the site but to consider a new way of living for the future. This has produced original and insightful solutions by all shortlisted entrants. The ideas generated by this competition can now help shape future thinking and act as a catalyst for change. I look forward to seeing the visionary ideas become reality.”

SOG sponsored the ‘Vision for Future Living’ competition in conjunction with RIBA, with the objective of generating conceptual ideas that might be adopted into the Heath Park project, which seeks to transform The Heath into a futeristic version of Port Sunlight. SOG’s goal is to turn the location into a sustainable net carbon-free environment where people can work, live and play to meet the needs of the next 20 years and beyond.

SOG MD John Lewis MBE:

About SOG and The Heath

The Heath Business and Technical Park is a phenomenal regeneration success story. After taking ownership in 2000, SOG transformed the once single-occupancy corporate facility into a thriving independent business park which provides office and laboratory accommodation for more than 120 individual organisations, ranging from business services and IT specialists to those at the cutting edge of science, research and advanced manufacturing. The Park supports 2,000 jobs.

Using The Heath’s successful business model, SOG created a consultancy operation under the name of ‘Fusion’ to offer specialist regeneration advice, guidance and project management services to organisations considering closing or downsizing large sites.

This led to SOG spearheading the repurposing of a former pharmaceutical plant in east London with the creation of Londoneast-uk Business and Technical Park which operated as a sister site to The Heath. SOG helped attract over £2.5billion of investment to the site in Dagenham including projects for Europe’s biggest data centre, a regional headquarters building for the Unite Trade Union, an educational campus with state-of-art Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory for University College London, an hotel, pub/restaurant and London’s first new film studios to be opened for more than 40 years.

Overall, the regeneration programme devised by SOG is expected to produce more than 3,000 jobs in an area suffering from high unemployment. After selling the Londoneast-uk last year, SOG turned its focus back on Runcorn to re-evaluate the potential of its flagship business park, which triggered the RIBA ‘Vision of Future Living’ competition.

For more information on ‘Heath Park’ visit: www.heathpark-uk.com For more on SOG and The Heath Business and Technical Park visit: www.theheath.com

Issued on behalf of SOG Group

10 Mar 2020

RIBA Vision of Future Living Design Competition Longlist

RIBA Heath Park Competition for a vision of future living – longlist announced

Tuesday 10th of March 2020 – Eight design teams have been longlisted for the ‘Vision of Future Living’ competition following phase one, which sought non-site-specific conceptual ideas on the design of future workplaces, living spaces and external spaces and how they relate to one another.

The eight architectural teams longlisted are:

• Atelier Cole, Cambodia and UK • EcoResponsive Environments Ltd, London • Harper Perry, Newcastle • Kimia Benam & Paul Treacy, London • Parallel Collective, London • Periscope Landscape & Architecture Ltd, London • Pixel, New York & Hong Kong • Tom Cookson & Sarah Carroll, London

The longlisted teams will now be interviewed by an Evaluation Panel and three will go forward into phase two to develop their designs.

Heath Park, Runcorn, Cheshire:

John Lewis MBE, the owner of SOG Group, said: “We have had exceptional entries from around the world and our very experienced judges were immensely impressed at the high standard and quality of the many submissions we received. After a truly fascinating first round of judging, filled with lots of very detailed and interesting discussion, we have been able to narrow our longlist to eight candidates who will now all go forward to be interviewed in the next phase of the process.

From what we have seen so far, I think it’s going to be quite a challenge to select the three submissions for the final shortlist. This is a very exciting period for our Heath Park project and I would like to thank all those who have taken part in our RIBA competition.”

SOG Group will unveil details of the Heath Park project at a meeting of Liverpool City Region’s MIPIM Partners Group today (10 March 2020) at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Liverpool. The Heath Park project launch had been due to take place at MIPIM 2020, which was been postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

3 Dec 2019

RIBA International Design Competition for a Vision of Future Living

RIBA launches international design competition for a vision of future living

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has launched a ‘ Vision of Future Living’ competition on behalf of business and technical park operator SOG Group.

The aim is to generate conceptual ideas which might be adopted to transform the company’s 60-acre site in Runcorn, Cheshire into a sustainable, multi-use and carbon-free environment.

The competition initially seeks non-site-specific conceptual ideas on the design of future workplaces, living spaces and external spaces and how they relate to one another. SOG is particularly interested in ideas which promote health and happiness and help to eradicate loneliness and poverty.

SOG’s Managing Director, John Lewis, said: “With RIBA’s help I am challenging forward thinkers to design a vision of future living that may help us to determine how best to rejuvenate our site at The Heath Business and Technical Park. We need to protect our planet for future generations and respond to a global technological explosion which will change the way we live and work.

Now is the perfect time for us to re-invent this site into a location that rises to the challenges of the future and sets the standards for how we should be living and working in decades to come. We look forward to seeing some truly innovative ideas about how to design and procure sustainable homes and workplaces that are fit for the future.”

Renowned Architect Hugh Broughton, the appointed RIBA Advisor for the competition, said: “The regeneration of The Heath bears testament to what can be achieved when people are a project’s number one priority.

This competition will build upon the exemplary work of SOG in Runcorn which has preserved jobs and protected the interests of the local community. We hope that designers from around the world will respond with their vision for a brighter future which will enhance well-being, preserve the environment and harnesses technology for the good of us all.”

The RIBA competition is open to design professionals and students.

The closing date to submit initial design proposals is 14:00 (GMT) on Tuesday 11 February 2020.

SOG SOG Group are specialists in facility management and operation of science and business facilities and provide a wide range of specialist services including health and safety, precision engineering and bespoke laboratory design and build.

Location: Cheshire, North West England, UK

Cheshire Buildings

Cheshire Architecture Designs

Cheshire Buildings

Rockmount Residence, Wirral Design: ShedKM photo from architect Rockmount Residence

New Chester Theatre Building Design: Bennetts Associates Architects image © Bennetts Associates Architects Chester Theatre Building

Islands at Chester Zoo Building Design: AECOM, Architects photo courtesy Novum Structures UK Islands at Chester Zoo Building

Chester Buildings

English Architecture

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Comments / photos for the RIBA International Design Competition for a Vision of Future Living Design page welcome

Website: England

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